Oh, lookit! I'm not dead! :D
Reviews:
transformerspup246: THEY CAN INDEED BE PROSTHETIC BUDDIES.
CatGirlFireflare: (My teacher is concerned for me. :) ) (Another comment I've made is when, in Agriculture class, we were discussing going out into the woodshop. Our teacher proceeds to ask: 'What burns in a fire?' There were the usual answers of wood, sawdust, and paper. What I said: 'People.')) Joseph will be able to put his knife to good use, just wait. c: And that's actually a good suggestion, the optic. I'll keep it in mind.
Stormhawk: I was wondering when you'd appear in my reviews. And why should I go through the trouble of reading chapters again when I have you? C: (And I did edit some mistakes, so thank you for alerting me to them.)
T'Reilani: The idea of these two originally came from two other characters of mine. I drastically changed some personalities and quirks. Their background came from my respect of the Army branches, and putting them into the Marines (or any of the branches) made it much easier for them to come into contact with the Autobots. :3
**Speaking of edits, I changed the brothers' back tattoos in chapter two.
And a little note: I noticed (Upon rereading) that OP's and Joseph's little talk was a bit awkward. That's mainly because OP doesn't really understand how Joseph could have willingly been captured for a group of extra terrestrials he literally just met and be okay with it afterword. c:
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Joseph silently sat on top of the base, his legs almost dangling off the edge of the plateau. He casually inspected his prosthetic, activating the blade every now and then as he wondered how sharp it was. However, he had yet to have any chance to use the blade. He sighed silently and looked back to the rising sun, reveling in the silence before anyone else arrived.
"You're here early," he turned as he spotted a familiar blue two-wheeler.
"I'm enjoying the silence while I can," he shrugged as Arcee settled behind him.
"Ah, good idea," she crossed her legs, silently thinking for a bit. "… how are you doing?"
"Fine, I guess. I'm kind of missing an arm and an eye, but I'm alive," Joseph shrugged once more.
"True," she mused. "How do you think Drake is?"
Joseph shrugged a third time, "We haven't gotten any calls saying he's died, yet."
"You're rather optimistic," she responded sarcastically.
"You're rather sarcastic," he grunted. "And I'm only being honestly blunt."
"Yeah, whatever," She rolled her optics and then watched him fiddle with his prosthetic. "Your knife is kind of like my wrist blades," she activated the blade from her armor. "See?"
"Kind of similar," he nodded and inspected his own blade before pulling out a pocket knife to sharpen it.
"You have a built in blade on your arm, yet you carry a second one?"
"You can never know when you'd need a second one," the Marine shrugged.
"Well, that's a pretty big 'second one'. Compared to you, I mean," the femme shrugged. He inspected his six-inch pocket, shrugged for probably the tenth time, and flexed the digits of his prosthetic, bored. The two sat in silence before the femme spoke again. "I honestly don't know how you could have done it,"
"Done what?"
"Gone to save a Decepticon you barely knew with an Autobot you barely knew. And to have your brother so injured, and then for you yourself to be captured and held as a hostage, but then you still came back to help," she looked to Joseph. "And I'll be honest; if I were you, I'm not sure I would've been able to do the same. But I'm just curious; why?"
Joseph thought silently and looked back over the plains. "It's kind of my job to do those sorts of things. Even if you don't know a fellow soldier well, don't you still work with them? And Drake and I knew that it'd be dangerous; we took that risk ourselves by coming along. Did I expect things to go as they did? No, but you can't predict the exact outcome of an action; you can try, but there's always a chance it can go unexpected."
"But why did you come back? You could have felt that you'd been through enough and gone back to your normal life," Arcee added.
"Like I said; it's my job. I want to make sure that, if Drake does end up dying, what we did wasn't for nothing. And I'd rather it be me to take the risks if something similar were to happen again, instead of one of the kids," Joseph glanced at his prosthetic.
The femme watched him quietly before nodding, "Understandable-" she paused as something in the distance caught her gaze. "Scrap," she cursed and stood.
"Something wrong?" Joseph stood as well.
"It's a M.E.C.H. vehicle." She stated, looking off to the edge of the horizon, where Joseph could faintly see a dark sports car racing along.
"Well, why don't we do something about it?" He stuck his pocket knife in his pocket.
"'We'?" She raised an optic ridge at him. "Remember the last time you encountered M.E.C.H.?"
"You make it sound like I could forget," he crossed his arms.
"Whatever," she rolled her optics. "Prime says we aren't allowed to harm humans, anyways."
"But he says you aren't allowed to harm humans. He said nothing about me." Joseph shrugged.
"And what are you suggesting? We just go and chase them down?" She crossed her arms, optics narrowing.
"Why not?" Joseph blinked his eye. "It'd cause less of a scene if it were just the two of us."
"… fine. But you're taking the blame if anything happens." she turned away. "I'll have to COMM Bulkhead to tell him to pick up Jack for me." Joseph waited silently while the femme COMMEd her comrade before she turned to him. "Let's go," both of them headed back into base. "We'll have to avoid Ratchet, who's probably already at the monitors."
"He might not ask where we're going." Joseph stated.
"Or he might ask where we're going," the blue femme walked into the main hanger of the base. Fortunately, Ratchet was speaking with Optimus, and both mechs' attention wasn't focused on the two-wheeler and human. The pair walked through the tunnel through to the outside, where the femme shifted into her alt mode. "Get on." Joseph quietly gripped the handle bars and put on a pair of sunglasses. "You ready?" And Joseph's nod, she sped off down the highway in the direction the M.E.C.H. vehicle had been seen driving.
After a few minutes of silence, Joseph spoke. "Any sign of them?"
"Not yet," was the reply. Only a few minutes later Arcee spoke once more. "There; two miles up ahead, there's a single M.E.C.H. vehicle."
"Pull up beside it," Joseph squinted to see better.
"Why?"
"They shouldn't realize who you are; it'll be fine." Joseph responded, narrowing his eye.
"Fine," the motorcycle sped up considerably until she pulled up to the right of green and black vehicle. Joseph glanced at the tinted windows.
"We don't know where their base of operations is right now, right?" He asked.
"Right."
"Good," Joseph suddenly shifted and placed both feet on the seat, with one handle on the handle bars and the other gripping the handle of his pocket knife.
"The frag are you doing!?" Arcee instantly demanded.
"Nothing," Joseph stated and suddenly jumped from Arcee to the vehicle, slamming the blade of his pocket knife point down against the roof of the car vehicle. The knife dug about four inches into the car's metal roof and stopped him from sliding off and onto the pavement at 65 miles per hour. The vehicle swerved in an attempt to throw him off, almost taking out Arcee, who had dropped back a bit to avoid getting hit. Joseph crawled to the windshield and grabbed his pistol in his prosthetic, slamming the butt of the weapon against the glass, causing a large shattering crack against the glass, but didn't shatter it completely. He slammed the gun against the glass again but turned when he felt something tug his leg.
The Marine turned and spotted a gloved hand trying to yank his leg in an attempt to drag him off; he responded by simply moving and aiming his pistol, shooting the hand and it quickly disappeared with an audible cry of pain from the owner. Joseph turned his attention back to the windshield and slammed the pistol against it one more time, and was rewarded with a shatter and an explosion of glass as the windshield broke under his pistol. This time the car swerved all over the road and nearly threw Joseph off, but he kept his grip on his pocket knife, which was still embedded in the car's roof. He shifted to the front of the car roof and swung down, hooking a leg into the car and slamming the shotgun rider in the face with his foot. He slid the rest of the way in and grabbed the passenger rider before unlatching the door and shoving him out. It would have worked, if the M.E.C.H. soldier hadn't grabbed his collar and dragged Joseph with him. The pair tumbled, Joseph grabbing onto the door to keep him from falling out, while the M.E.C.H. soldier hit the pavement and was yanked away.
Joseph looked up only to stare down the barrel of a gun, held one-handed by the goon who's hand he'd shot. He ducked instantly to avoid being shot at, until he heard a loud thud and part of the car's roof caved in; he looked up to see a very angry Arcee as she glared down at Joseph momentarily before she turned her attention to the M.E.C.H. soldier holding the pistol and yanked him out of the car, tossing him to the ground and then grabbing the driver and Joseph before jumping off the car and onto the ground. The car, now lacking a driver, swerved off the road and flipped after encountering a deep ditch. One Arcee had regained her balance she set Joseph on the ground and glared daggers at him.
"You, Joseph, are by far the stupidest human I've ever met!" She snapped.
"Then you obviously haven't met very many humans. Can you put him down?" Joseph motioned towards the ground. The blue femme growled but set the soldier down, in which the Marine slammed the butt of his pistol against the male's head; the M.E.C.H. soldier slumped over, unconscious. "What about the other two?" He looked around.
"I didn't see them get up," Arcee looked around. "I'll check again," she turned to go inspect. "Oh, by the way; I already COMMed base, and Optimus and Fowler are on their way. You get to explain what went on here." She stalked off. Joseph looked after her, silent, before he planted a foot on the unconscious soldier's back and waited. He looked up as the sound of another engine filled the air, and spotted the familiar red and blue alt mode of Optimus Prime. He straightened as Fowler stepped out of the cab and walked over.
"Alright, what exactly happened here?" He raised an eyebrow at the sight of the unconscious M.E.C.H. soldier.
"I spotted a M.E.C.H. vehicle and decided to follow it." Joseph looked towards Optimus, who remained in truck mode. "I convinced Arcee to help to me."
"Why?" Fowler asked.
"I thought maybe we could find out where M.E.C.H.'s new base is; he might be able to help," Joseph motioned to the soldier underneath his foot.
"That was a very foolish endeavor, Joseph," the Marine looked as Optimus transformed into his bipedal mode and looked sternly down at him. "Not only did you endanger your own life, you endangered the life of one of my soldiers," he motioned with a servo to Arcee, who still glared at Joseph.
"I understand," Joseph nodded quietly.
"And I understand that you wish to find the humans that hurt your brother, but you will not be able to help if you yourself become injured or are killed." Optimus continued.
"You'd think he'd have learned that when he lost his hand," Arcee muttered, and was silenced with a glance from Optimus.
"To prevent this from happening in the future, Arcee, I suggest you keep your distance from Joseph." The Prime slightly raised an optic ridge.
"Gladly." Arcee crossed her arms.
"However, you will be returning him to base. Fowler and I will handle the M.E.C.H. soldier."
Arcee was silent before nodding to her commander and shifting to her alt mode, letting Joseph climb on before racing away. The pair was silent before Arcee spoke. "You're still extremely stupid, and if it weren't for the fact that you and your brother are helping us, I'd probably leave you out here in the desert to walk."
"I know. And I honestly don't really care."
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I'm not too sure about that ending, guys. ;D; I'm sorry. I've been fighting writer's block for so long, and this chapter was very forced. So, if it sucks, I'm sorry. ;-;
But how about a yay for an update? :D