Chapter 7: Walk This Way prt 1
Jack walked into the command center of the silo where the Autobots were and he noticed Miko and Raf talking to that redhead on the catwalk above. He felt Sephie's arm tighten around him as every eye turned toward them and he wanted nothing more than to return to the storage room he'd holed himself up in. "Uh...hi." he said nervously, like he was just meeting them for the first time.
Though in a way, that was true; they were meeting the 'real' him.
"Jack." Arcee said neutrally. "Is there any other secret you'd like to share?"
Jack winced. "Uh, no." he replied and gulped. "Look, I'm sorry for lying to you all about what I am, but I promised my mom."
"You seem pretty okay with doing it though." Bulkhead pointed out.
"Because my mom drilled into me about what the government might do to us if they found out, and I couldn't tell her anything because she'd freak if she knew." Jack replied. "And no, I didn't know about any of you having a connection with Krypton before all this."
No one said anything at first as they still seemed to trying to digest that he'd kept this from them, but surprisingly, after sitting up a little on the berth to get a better look at him, Skyfire spoke at last. "Hmm, you do look a lot like your father."
"Yes! He really does!" Heath added helpfully. "So much it's actually, like, kinda scary."
"How old is she supposed to be?" Jack whispered to his aunt.
Sephie slapped Jack upside the head. "That's my girlfriend you're making fun of."
Jack blushed. "Sorry." He mumbled.
"I for one," Ratchet said to gain their attention, "would like to see what the boy is capable of."
Jack raised a brow, nervousness fading and excitement starting to win out. He would finally be able to show off his powers? "I can't do much at my age," he said lightly and walked over to a metal device that didn't look important, "but I can still do enough." He added before bending the metal.
"Jack! I needed that!"
"I don't like this, why couldn't I just make Starscream give us the coordinates to the ship before we left?" Miles groused after he ran back to California with Override to find Knock Out once again.
"Because doing that wouldn't have helped our situation and then there's the fact your sister is already on their ship." Override retorted.
Miles grimaced. "Still, I wish we could just skip this whole thing and Knock Out would just want to go back to the ship."
"True, but this is reality, and things work differently here." Override pointed out and she pulled into the abandoned lot that that Knock Out had taken them to previously. "Can you take a quick look around?"
"Sure thing." Miles said sullenly and got out of the car, using his speed to look around the lot, the whole process taking a matter of seconds to the human eye and when he got back he nodded in the direction of where the old building was. "He's with some other mech just on the other side."
"Right, let's go." Override replied and she started driving over to the building while Miles jogged beside her until they came to the other side and saw Knock Out with a hummer-type of vehicle with him.
Knock Out smirked as soon as he saw them but the mech with him looked suspicious. "So you've come back Blondie, and you've brought the pretty femme with you."
Miles scowled at him as he put his hand on Override's hood. "Back off Red or I'll fry you."
The blue and orange mech looked incredulously at Knock Out. "This is one of the Kryptonians you were talking about? He looks so…scrawny."
"I can hear you!" Miles shot back looking offended, he might have been tall but he wasn't scrawny!
"Miles, remember what Starscream said." Override reminded him and Miles' shoulder sagged.
The blue mech and Knock Out immediately looked on alert by this information. "That seeker is here and he sent you to come and get us?" The red mech questioned with disbelief.
"You know, for a good guy you sure do like to rile me up." Miles groused and the mech merely smirked back at him.
"You make it too easy to resist."
"See Miles, it's not just Lori saying you're too hotheaded." Override added and Miles sent her a wounded look before he gazed back at Knock Out with a look of determination on his face. "What'll it take for you to go to the ship yourself?"
"You still haven't told me what the big emergency is." Knock Out retorted.
"Starscream just said to get you to go back to the Nemesis, he wouldn't tell us why though, but he did say he'd be waiting for your comm. call." Override replied.
Knock Out exchanged a brief glance with the blue mech beside him before he dramatically rolled his optics and put one digit to his helm. "Commander Starscream-" he winced slightly and this time his optic roll seemed more annoyed-"right, Lord Starscream, my mistake; you've sent your Blondie," the smirk directed at Miles seemed malicious, "I mean Kryptonian lackey to me why?"
Miles had clenched his fists but he went completely slack-jawed as Knock Out suddenly started laughing. He saw Override jerk in surprise but the blue mech had no reaction to this rather abrupt change in the red mech's attitude.
"Sorry Lord Starscream," Knock Out retorted mockingly, "but I only take orders from Lord Megatron, and last I checked, you're not him." he said before pulling his servo away from his helm.
Miles furrowed his brow. "Uh, Starscream told us that Megatron was dead, so shouldn't he be the leader then?"
Knock Out raised an optic ridge at this information but had no other reaction. "Starscream told you that did he?" he questioned and Miles nodded. The mech snorted in response. "Well he's lying; he's nothing but the second-in-command who fancies himself a leader."
Miles grimaced as he was starting to see where Knock Out's answers were going. "So you're not going back to the Nemesis then?" he asked and the red mech shook his helm. The blond looked worriedly at Override. "Well I just hope Lori doesn't freak out about us not showing up for a while then since I doubt Starscream's going to let us in the ship if we try to find them ourselves."
Not that he knew where the ship was as he was betting the co-ordinates were something Starscream was going to give to Knock Out.
"Lori can handle herself," Override said firmly, "and I'm sure she'll be too distracted with Alexis to notice anything else."
When Alexis' sobs had slowly lessened, Lori lifted herself the other girl from the floor, pulling Alexis forward enough to close the hatch on the pod. Alexis had a strong grip on Lori's arm and rested her head on her shoulder, the fourteen year old not pushing the other girl back because this was just a natural reaction she herself had gone through. She'd rarely let Miles or Override out of her sight when she found them.
Alexis glanced up at Lori hazily through red, puffy eyes. "Where's your brother?" she asked in Kryptonian.
"He's with Override." Lori answered slowly and Alexis nodded. "You tired?"
"Already slept for longer than I cared too," Alexis muttered and finally took notice of where they were, "what is this place?"
"It's a Cybertronian ship, our host Starscream is allowing us to stay here." Lori replied. "Miles and Override are only allowed to come back when they find this mech we met before."
"Then I'm glad it's you and not him that stayed behind." Alexis said darkly and absently reached up to touch the shoulder-length strands of her hair. "What's been going on then?"
Lori looked anxiously down at Alexis, wondering if it was for the best to relay to her what had happened. "Why don't we go explore the ship first? Being in here brings back memories of Skyfire."
"Granted those moments were not pleasant memories." Alexis added and Lori had the decency to look ashamed of this reminder.
"He still has our stuff." She said in realization. "I hope he and Aunt Mags are alright."
Alexis' eyes lit up with interest. "Are they awake?" she asked and Lori nodded. Alexis' eyes dimmed as she looked down at the ground, glancing over the white material of her slippers. On Krypton it was mostly an unwritten tradition that women wore white while men wore silver, though looking over Lori's black and red outfit it seemed on Earth that wasn't the case. "Is anyone else awake?"
"I'm not sure." Lori said honestly. "But I do not envy the reactions they are going to have."
Alexis blushed and she glowered indignantly at Lori. "I'll throw you off the ship if you say that again."
Lori blinked and belatedly realized just how insensitive her remark was; just because her own sorrow had been repressed until after finding Miles didn't mean she had to rub it in to those whose feelings of horror and despair were upfront about it. She'd never seen Miles cry, but she could still hear things through the thin walls of their house. "I'm sorry, um, let's keep going."
Alexis nodded sharply and they walked down the purple lit hall, both of them looking overhead and Lori had to wonder if they were being avoided on purpose or if they were simply in a spot that didn't get much traffic.
She just figured a ship would be a bit more crowded.
The smile on Maggie's face when she set Ironhide down faded as she saw debris on the ground and rushed inside the warehouse and saw that Skyfire was nowhere to be found. The tarps were strewn across the floor and Maggie felt something bubbling up in her chest and she let out a disparaging scream before she slammed her foot down on the floor in anger. She heard the cracking around her and went ridged as the building collapsed on her.
Outside, Ironhide saw the destruction after feeling the ground shake beneath his wheels and transformed, rushing toward the fallen building to pull the debris away. "Mag-Gi? Where are you? Skyfire?"
He pulled a part of the roof back to see Maggie standing there covered in dust, a defeated expression on her face. "Skyfire's not here, someone must have taken him. I knew I shouldn't have left, I could have protected him if I had only stayed."
"It's not your fault." Ironhide replied somewhat uncomfortable as he wasn't good with dealing with emotional women. "Even if ya stayed it probably couldn't have been helped."
Maggie snorted but could still see the effort put into the words. "I should have said 'screw the discretion' and just taken Skyfire with us; who knows where he is now."
Ironhide's expression went serious as he thought about what might have happened. "If it was humans or other aliens, then why don't I call him?"
Maggie's eyes lit up briefly before they dimmed. "That's a great idea, but I don't know if Skyfire's communication will work." She said and shook her head. "I'm going to send out another distress signal."
"Are you sure that's safe?" Ironhide questioned.
Maggie smiled in self-deprecation. "I would suggest we let you try to call Skyfire and we could track it, but I don't know how to do that; all I've had time to work on was distress signals because that's what I've been waiting for all these years, my expertise was language, not technology."
Ironhide stared down at the woman incredulously. "Your species is as advanced as my own, and you don't know how to use it?"
Maggie flushed and rose from the ground to be at optic level, her face twisting up in anger. "You were military, so don't bring not knowing how things work up to me. All you probably know is how to shoot things."
Ironhide glared back at the blonde. "Do your second distress message, but if we're going that route, don't mention me. My just 'knowing how to shoot things' can still be an advantage in case any less than savory company shows up."
Maggie raised a brow. "Like humans with guns?"
Ironhide didn't look amused though. "Yes, we need to still be careful."
Maggie sighed and nodded and landed back on the ground. "Let's get back to my outpost, try to keep up." She said before sprinting across the dusty ground, Ironhide transforming and driving after her.
Jack felt the heat of the stares on him shift when Ratchet looked at the main console, his expression vaguely surprised. "Optimus, there's another message being broadcasted."
"Play it, Ratchet." Optimus said and the medic let the message be heard throughout the main room.
"Skyfire...I don't know where you are, but please be able to hear this message. I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to protect you; I should never have left you! I…I just need to know you're alive, so if whoever has you hears this, bring proof it's him. Be at the Arctic in one hour."
On that note the message went dead and Optimus ventilated in a sigh. "She must believe you are in danger." He said to Skyfire.
The shuttle clenched his fists. "She shouldn't blame herself; I was the one who encouraged her to leave."
"Why would she pick the Arctic?" Arcee questioned aloud.
"That's where I was buried, she must mean my tomb." Skyfire replied and reached into subspace to take out a small datapad and handed it over to Optimus. "It's the roster of who was saved from Krypton, she saw me put it into subspace. Use it to prove that I'm safe. Oh, and I think I should give this to you now." he added and pulled out a blue diamond shaped-object and held it out to Sephie, who stood alone by Jack after Heath had fled the base because she had forgotten about a class she had to teach.
Sephie's eyes widened and she floated off the ground toward Skyfire's outstretched hand, behind Jack, Miko and Raf were staring in wonder, though for Jack it was because this was something he was eventually going to be able to do. "You saved this?" she asked and Skyfire nodded.
"I did, and I saved all the other belongings before I crashed." He replied.
Sephie smiled and hugged one of Skyfire's digits. "This is terrific."
"What is that?" Jack asked and Sephie flew down to him.
"This is our Fortress of Solitude, it can only be activated by El DNA, and it holds most kinds of our technology." Sephie answered and her smile widened. "We find someplace to put this and you can see just what our home planet was like."
"A whole fortress is in that little crystal?" Bulkhead questioned dubiously and 'Bee beeped in his own surprise.
Sephie nodded. "It's quite convenient actually. Now Skyfire, take everything else out, I know June packed a picture of Jack's daddy in there and I think she would like him to see it."
Jack flushed as Sephie threw an arm around him and Skyfire complied. Miko and Raf came to stand by them and watched the contents being carefully taken out before Sephie leapt up onto the berth and she started to search through the pile.
While the three children were waiting for Sephie to complete her task, Optimus looked around at his team. "I do not think Mag-Gi will trust us if we all leave."
"What if the Decepticons show up though? They probably heard that message too." Bulkhead pointed out.
Optimus considered this for a moment before he nodded. "Bulkhead, Arcee, you will come with me." He said and Bumblebee let out a buzz of disappointment. "This is for the best Bumblebee." He added and the yellow mech reluctantly nodded.
"Be careful, if Ironhide is with Maggie, he's likely to shoot first and ask questions later if they think you're lying." Skyfire warned ominously.
Optimus glanced over at Skyfire and nodded, the shuttle having no idea he knew that better than anyone how Ironhide acted.
Though he could use some energon and wondered where those Kryptonian girls were and fuming at Knock Out's arrogance, Starscream's previous moods were pushed aside in favor of the message Soundwave had intercepted that held Mag-Gi's plea for Skyfire to be safe. Immediately he thought of how to go about this and use it to his advantage. He couldn't show her that he had Skyfire, but if he had something from Lori Lan then Mag-Gi would follow him without question and then they could plot to get Skyfire back.
Sending out a command to bring Lori Lan to him, Starscream waited and continued to go through the possible scenarios he could initiate. Undoubtedly those accursed Autobots already heard the same broadcast and were going to be the Arctic in the same hour, but even if he showed up late he could still use it to suit his means.
Though he didn't know Mag-Gi very well, at best hearing her referenced by both Skyfire and Jun-El, even he could tell that the woman cared for her kin very much and wanting to keep them safe would take precedence over anything else-even if it meant leaving Skyfire. He hated to admit it, but with Skyfire so out of the loop he probably would be safer with the Autobots for the moment, but he knew Skyfire's loyalty to him was like Mag-Gi's love for her kin, unyielding.
And no matter how much Autobots spiel Skyfire was going to hear would change that.
Starscream heard footsteps on the floor and looked down to see Lori Lan and the Alexis girl holding onto her, both stopping just short of in front of him. He made sure his features were as disarming as possible because this was going to require a delicate touch if he didn't want it backfiring. "I have some good news."
Lori Lan looked up at him with interest. "What is it? Did you find Aunt Mags?"
"You could say that…"
