I should be working on a new chapter for Everything is Possible, sequel to the first story I ever wrote, which I always add a new chapter to on June 26, my writing anniversary, but I sat down to write and Lockdown had to be a pain in the aft and take over my brain. So here's another chapter, hopefully he'll leave me alone to work on the other story now.
Despite the long day before Joy had set her alarm so she would be up extra early, just so she could sneak out to the barn. As she had expected the scene was the same as the morning before, the fierce bounty hunter was lovingly petting the steeljaws. Nova even stood up, placing her paws on Lockdown's chest, pressing her forehead against his while he pet her head and scratched behind her ears for a minute before the others pushed her aside to gain Lockdown's attention.
Just like the day before, as soon as Sunfire showed signs of waking, the steeljaws swiftly moved to sit stiffly at Lockdown's sides. Joy slipped back outside for a few minutes until Lockdown started complaining about her being lazy then she walked into the barn.
"Do you just wake up and start complaining immediately?" Joy asked.
"Only when I'm dealing with lazy, worthless humans," Lockdown replied.
"Well if I'm so worthless to you, then maybe I should quit. I do have a life and plenty of other things I could be doing instead of repairing you," Joy told him.
"Sunfire, when will you be able to take over the repairs?" Lockdown asked.
"At least a few more days," Sunfire said, holding up his arms, the one that had been severed part way up his arm had been restored to his wrist, while the one that had been severed at the wrist seemed to have been restored to the point of being a fingerless hand, "We just need to let her get your support system and spark stabilized and then if you prefer we can let you heal on your own until my hands finish healing."
Lockdown let out a frustrated noise, somewhere between a sigh and a growl then glared down at Joy, "Get to work," he ordered.
"Aye aye Captain Cuddles," Joy said as she started to get the welding gear ready.
"Stop calling me that!" Lockdown demanded angrily.
"Make me," Joy said defiantly, then grinned up at him, "Just remember I'm the one working on your face, we wouldn't want anything- accidentally getting welded on there that's not supposed to be there, now would we?"
"Just get to work, now!" he snapped.
Joy smiled sweetly at him then said, "Could you set the welding supplies up on that second floor loft? It'll be faster than if I try to carry them up there myself and I think if you move over a little I should be able to reach to weld the top of your head from there."
Lockdown glared at her, but did as she asked.
"Before you weld up the top of his head I'm going to have you poke around in his brain a little," Sunfire told Joy as she climbed up to the loft.
"You want me to poke around in his brain? Are you sure that's a good idea? There are so many wires and who knows what else in there, what if I mess something up?" Joy asked.
"Don't worry, what you're looking should stand out and will be easy to fix," Sunfire assured her.
"Alright, I guess," Joy replied uncertainly as she looked down into the top of Lockdown's head.
"You're looking for a round piece of metal with several different colored lights and colors of wires coming out of it."
"Okay, I see it," Joy replied after spotting it.
"Just twist the wires together to reattach it, you'll know which ones connect to it because their the only wires that will match the ones on the round piece."
"Okay," Joy replied as she started attaching the wires, "Why do I need to do this, but you said not to worry about the rest of the wires?"
"They'll all eventually reattach on their own because of the self repair systems, but reattaching these by hand will speed up the healing and this particular device should help speed up the repairs," Sunfire explained.
By noon Joy was working on welding Lockdown's face back together, still perched on the loft with him turned enough to face her. Joy looked over the work she had done after getting as far down his face as she could reach from the loft, she just had to finish with his chin and his face would be fully back together. It wasn't pretty, but at least there wasn't a gapping hole down the center of his face and really, who would care about the welded line down the center of his face with those stunning green eyes to draw their attention. Such amazing eyes, an intricate array of moving metal and light, so mechanical, yet at the same time seeming so alive and full of emotion, pain and despair hidden behind determination and detachment. How could he deny that he was alive?
Joy was pulled from her thoughts when Sunfire started to snicker, causing both Joy and Lockdown to jump slightly and look at him.
"What's so amusing?" Lockdown demanded.
"Just your little staring contest was rather entertaining," Sunfire replied.
"We were not having a staring contest," Lockdown told him.
Sunfire grinned, "Then why were you two staring at each other for the last four minutes?"
"I was checking the welding to make sure I had gotten everything done I could do from up here before moving the equipment," Joy told him, busying herself with straightening up the supplies before leaving the loft.
"What's with the green slime?" Joy ask as she was about to start welding Lockdown's chin back together.
"It's transformation fluid, keeps everything moving smoothly, run out and transforming gets very painful. Lockdown had a weapon modification that had lots of moving parts and a transformation fluid reserve that seems to have been badly damaged. You'll need to clean it off of anywhere you'll need to weld," Sunfire told her.
"Why me? Can't he clean himself up?" Joy asked.
"That would be preferable, but with the damage it'll be easier for your smaller hands to get it out of the wounds without causing more damage," Lockdown told her.
"Fine," Joy said before heading into the house to get a pile of old rags.
An hour later Joy threw another rag onto the pile used rags and climbed down from Lockdown's chest, "I think that's the last of it," she said heading towards the barn door.
"Where do you think you're going?" Lockdown demanded.
"I'm covered in slime, I'm going to go take a shower and if I ever manage to get this stuff off of me I'll be back," Joy replied as she headed out of the barn.
Joy had barely gotten half way to the house when she saw Tim's truck pulling up the driveway, "Can't you ever call before coming over?" asked as Tim got out of his truck.
"I did call, you just haven't been answering your phone. What are you doing and what are you covered in?" Tim asked.
"I'm trying to teach myself how to do vehicle repairs with one of the old tractors and something leaked out of the tractor," Joy told him.
"Since when do you want to learn to repair vehicles?" Tim asked.
"Since before I could drive, remember I use to say I wanted to know how to do my own repairs before I got a car, so I wouldn't have to pay someone else to fix it. I just decided this summer I'm actually going to try it. So why are you here?" Joy asked, hoping to change the subject.
"You still living like some type of prehistoric freak with no cable?" Tim asked.
"Of course, as much as it costs I have no intention of ever messing with it, why?
"Because you're going to miss some pretty amazing footage of the robots fighting," Tim told her.
"How amazing can a bunch of bots shooting at each other be? I've seen lots of videos like that," Joy pointed out.
"It's only a few bots and it's more hand to hand and blades than shooting," Tim held up a flash drive then said, "But if you don't want to see it-"
"Okay, you've got my attention," Joy said grabbing the flash dive out of his hand and heading into the house, "So who was crazy enough to stick around to record fighting bots?"
"Some reporter in China, they found him and his camera crushed under a brick wall, there was a major explosion and apparently he fell on top of the camera and the wall fell on him. The camera was damaged by the heat, but by some miracle the SD card survived. He gave his life getting some really amazing footage, so in his honor it's been distributed to all the major news networks around the world," Tim explained.
"I am so glad you just manage things backstage, I'd worry myself sick if you were actually out reporting the news," Joy said as she plugged in the flash drive.
"Sure would be more exciting though," Tim said as he opened the file.
Any reply Joy would have made died away as soon as the video started to play. It was shaky at first, apparently being shot from the window of a car as it followed Optimus. It steadied just in time to catch Lockdown jumping off of his ship to make a flaming entrance to the fight.
"He sure knows how to make an entrance," Joy commented as they continued to watch the video.
Both bots fought well, but Lockdown's speed and agility were beyond anything she had ever seen before. She was totally engrossed in the fight until it was suddenly paused.
"Why'd you stop it?" Joy asked.
"I know you like watching a good fight, but your totally drooling over a couple robots," Tim said.
"I am not," Joy insisted.
"You don't even sound like you believe that," Tim said.
"It's just the fighting I'm drooling over, not the bots," she insisted then glancing at where the video had paused she smirked and added, "Although I have to admit after years of trying to find out everything I can about them, I'd have to say Lockdown has the best looking backside I've ever seen on one of them," taking advantage of the stunned silence from Tim she started the video.
"Wow, talk about mopping the floor with someone," Joy said as Lockdown caught the yellow Autobot by the feet and swung his face into the ground..
"You know the black robot is the bad guy, right?" Tim asked.
"Who cares, look at the way he moves," Joy replied never taking her eyes from the screen.
As the fight came to an end, even though she knew it was coming she still cringed when Lockdown's upper body was sliced in half. Tim pulled the flash drive from the computer and said, "Well I think it's a good thing Mr. Nice Ass got killed."
"Why?" Joy asked.
"Because that way I don't have to worry about my sister chasing after some robot just because he can fight and she thinks he's got a nice ass," Tim replied.
"Oh come on, shouldn't you be able to tell when I'm joking by now?" Joy said.
"Unfortunately, yes. I can also tell when you're trying to sound like you're joking, but actually believe what your saying."
"I-well-I mean, just compared to the others, that doesn't mean I think-" Joy stopped when Tim raised an eyebrow in disbelief. When she had first said it she hadn't even realized how serious she was, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized there was no denying it to herself, she thought Lockdown had a nice backside and the way he moved and fought... She groaned and dropped her head onto the desk, "Do me a favor and don't mention to dad that I have totally lost my mind."
"Don't worry everyone knows your insane, but I guess we can keep your thing for alien bot butts between us," Tim told her laughing, "It's about time I got some good blackmail on you."
As soon as Tim had left Joy shut the front door and leaned back against it, "That's it, I'm losing my mind, I can't be falling for a giant alien robot. He's a jerk, he doesn't like humans, he's demanding, stuborn and acts like he's better than everyone else, he won't even believe he's sentient. But when he thinks no one is watching he's so cute and caring with the dogs and I can see it in his eyes, there's so much more to him than he's willing to let on. Oh his eyes, such amazing intense eyes. Stop it, it would never work, he's a twenty foot tall alien robot, you're a fragile little human, it would never workout, so there's no point even thinking about it, or standing around talking to yourself about it," Joy said as she pushed away from the door and headed upstairs to get cleaned up.
When Joy got out of the shower and started to get dressed she took one look at the t-shirt she had planned on wearing and decided it was too hot and stuffy in the barn for it. She stepped out into her bedroom wearing only her shorts and bra and headed towards her dresser to grab a tank top.
"What's taking you so long?" Lockdown suddenly demanded.
Joy let out a startled yelp and spun around to face the open balcony doors, crossing her arms over her chest as she did, "What do you think you're doing out of the barn? Get out of here!" she demanded.
Lockdown stared at her for a moment then his eyes dimmed and a second later a perfect human sized replica of him appeared standing on the balcony, the only difference being that the replica showed no signs of the damage caused by him being split in half. Then he started to walk across the room towards her.
She should have tried to stop him or figure out what he was up to, but all she could focus on was the way he moved, he just seemed to exude confidence even as he seemed to flicker slightly.
Joy finally took a step back as he got close to her, "What are-" she was cut off as his lips came down on hers. His lips were warm and although metal, they were a soft flexible metal. His one hand slipped to her lower back, pulling her closer to him while the other brushed over her bare shoulder.
When he finally stopped Joy looked into his eyes for a moment, struggling to string together a coherent thought and the first clear thought in her mind was that maybe a relationship with him wasn't as crazy and impossible as she had thought. Surely he couldn't continue to deny having emotions, not after a passionate kiss like that. Finally regaining enough focus to speak Joy asked, "What do you think you're doing?"
"I-" Lockdown hesitated, looking nearly as shocked by what he had done as Joy was, but it didn't take him long to recover, his face returning to the familiar emotionless mask, "The creators wanted to know about humans, this is an action they seem to do quite often, it's easier to describe it to them having experienced it," he told her as he released her from his arms and took a step back.
"So you're just using me to experiment on?" Joy demanded, she didn't fully believe his excuse, but it was enough to shake the hope she had felt.
"Of course," Lockdown replied calmly.
"Get out, now!" Joy told him angrily shoving him away from her, "If you ever try that again I'll-" she was cut off as he suddenly pinned her back against the wall.
"No weak little human tells me what to do," he growled at her before kissing her again.
Joy wasn't sure what was harder resisting the urge to kick him and probably break a foot or resist the desire to return the kiss. Luckily for her he seemed to flicker again, lost his grip on her and she slipped away, glaring at him warily.
He flickered again then completely disappeared, "Hurry up and get back to work," he demanded, now seemingly back to his normal body at the window.
Before anything else could be said Joy heard Sunfire outside, "I go to the ship for five minutes and you're running around? I told you you're not stable enough to be up yet, what do you think you're doing?"
"She was taking too long," Lockdown replied, his voice fading as he walked away.
Deciding she had had quite enough of putting up with Lockdown for the day Joy changed her clothes, grabbed her bow and arrows and got into her truck. As soon as she started the truck the miniature version of Lockdown appeared standing outside of the driver's door.
"Where do you think you're going?" he demanded.
"I had things I was planning on doing before you showed up and made a mess of my life. I'm going to go do one of those things and get back to repairing you tomorrow. If you don't like it, too bad, you can accept that I'll help you when I darn well feel like it or I can call my dad and he'll be dissecting you so fast you won't know what hit you," Joy told him before tearing off down a dirt path that ran through the fields to the forest.
A few hours later Joy pulled the truck into the side of the barn where there was an area that had been set up to butcher meat in the past. She got the deer she had caught hung up so she could clean it then started getting out the knives she would need.
"What are you doing?" Lockdown asked from the other end of the barn where he was sitting within sight of her.
"Making dinner," Joy replied before slitting the deer's throat to drain the blood.
"You're going to eat that?" Sunfire asked, looking a little disgusted.
"Yep, eat the meat, make moccasins out of the hide, rattles out of the toes, string out of the sinew, carve various things out of the bone, nothing goes to waste. Well almost nothing," she said as she rather violently sliced the deer's stomach open and pulled the guts out, dropping them with a loud plop onto the ground, "but even the guts will be eaten by scavengers by morning." she felt a little bad for clearly grossing Sunfire out, but she was still annoyed with Lockdown and had been hoping to get a similar reaction out of him, no such luck, but she could have sworn he looked almost impressed, although that didn't last long.
"How long is this going to take you? You should be working on my repairs," Lockdown said.
"It'll be a while, I have to get this taken care of before the meat goes bad, so unless you want to help you'll just have to sit and wait," she replied then jumped back as the human sized version of him appeared next to her, "How the heck do you do that?" she asked.
"It's called a holoform," Sunfire replied, "sort of like a hologram but we can transfer our full consciousness into it, see, hear, feel, everything as if it were our real body, it can also be altered to look like any other species we come in contact with. That thing I had you fix in his head this morning was his holoform projector, once it's fully healed and stopped flickering he'll be able to help with his own repairs."
"What about you, do you have one too?" Joy asked.
"I use to, had a run in with a Decepticon who thought he needed it more than I did, ripped it right out of my head. Not that he needed it much after Lockdown got through with him, but there are two types of connections for it, to transfer our consciousness to it, it has to be connected to our brains and our sparks. Brain connections are easy to make, that's why you were able to repair Lockdown's. The spark connections are more difficult and can make you go offline if done wrong, so you have to have a well trained medic to do that part, which is why mine has never been reinstalled," Sunfire explained.
"Enough talk, what needs done here so you can get back to my repairs?" Lockdown asked.