"I told you," Bulkhead said as he grabbed one of the diagnostic cables attached to his chest and pulled it off, "we're fine." He then began to stand up as Ratchet attempted to get him to sit back down.
"The only way to be certain you're fine, Bulkhead," Ratchet told him for the fifth time as he pushed Bulk back down to sit, "is to endure standard defrosting procedure! You know prolonged exposure to subzero conditions can cause permanent system damage!"
"You just want an excuse to teach Prime Jr. over there the procedures," Bulkhead responded as he pointed in my direction.
I was currently checking over Bumblebee for any of the signs Ratchet had explained for frosting in his systems. "Hey!" I say from Bumblebee's shoulder. "At least you got to go. I would have frozen solid before you're core temperature even began to drop. So, suck it up."
"Ratchet," my dad asked as he and Arcee approached us, "Have you learned anything more about our Artic find?"
I jerked my head up from the diagnostic cable attached to Bumblebee's chest I had been checking. "What Artic find?"
Ratchet looked to me and explained, "Bulkhead and Bumblebee brought back a pod that had been buried in the ice earlier this morning. You would know that if you hadn't spent so much time getting ready this morning."
As Ratchet moved to walk away to his computer screen, I stuck my tongue out at him. I know the move was a bit childish, but I happened to like my outfit. I was in my favorite loose fit tank top, which was covered in old comic book pictures of the Avengers, and blue jean shorts, and I had taken the time to braid a Catniss braid in my hair. My makeup was more natural today, though I did have on a heavy liquid black liner.
Looking back to Optimus, Ratchet continued with a shrug. "Not yet. The pod can't be opened while it's frozen solid."
Bulkhead began to stand, "Well, Bee and I need to go. Ev, you wanna come with?"
I had turned towards some data on the machine Bee was hooked up to, and I responded without really looking back at him. "Sorry, Bulk. I need to go over this."
"Oh…uh… okay." Noticing the glum sound in his voice, I look back at him to see his attempt of hiding his disappointment.
Internally, I sigh. I hadn't rode with the Autobots much as of late. Normally, if I do, it's after I had already ground bridged myself to either school or Jack's house. Now that I had my bike, I didn't even need to ground bridge. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything, but I used to ride everywhere with Cliff and riding alone with one of the Autobots just made me think of him for some reason.
Trying to make some damage control, I tell him, "I'll ride with you to Miko's and back tonight. How's that?"
Bulk immediately brightened and chuckled. "I'm gonna hold you to it, kid."
"I take it that you two are ready to go?"
"Wait," I ask as Ratchet from his shoulder goes over to the ground bridge controls. "You guys are going on another scouting mission? Bee and Bulk already got the pod."
As my dad and Arcee stand in front of the opening ground, my dad explains, "Arcee and I will go and scout for the origin of our Artic find."
While staring at his hand held device, Ratchet warns them, "Only until your sensors sound." After hitting a button or two, he looks up. "Remember, if you're core temperatures drop into the blue zone," as he said this, their respective Autobot insignias lit up and beeped, "system failures are not likely, they're eminent."
Just as Ratchet finished explaining to them, we could hear the sounds of approaching vehicles from the entrance tunnel. "Bulk and Bee are back!" I announce excitedly as I jump from Ratchet's shoulder to the nearby platform and then to the ground below.
'I really wish you wouldn't do that," Ratchet tells me. "You're bones may be organic metal, but you could still hurt yourself." I ignore him since this is an argument I had had with him plenty of times, and I stroll over to greet my human friends as they stepped out of their vehicles.
"Miss us, Doc Bot?" Miko asks Ratchet as she sticks her head out of Bulk's car door.
Ratchet groans to himself. "Shouldn't they be in school?" he asks Optimus.
"On Saturday?" Miko replies. "We have the whole weekend off. To spend with you."
I look up at my mentor and place my hand on my hip. "Did you forget that I was here?"
"Like I care if you go to school. That primitive place is a complete waste of time for you. You have no challenge there and should be here learning instead." I roll my eyes at him and ignore this mini rant as well. Yet another topic he and I have repeatedly debated.
Jack chose this moment to walk up to Arcee. "I wasn't expecting to carpool. What gives Arcee?"
"Tag team, Jack," Arcee responds. "It's my turn for exploration duty."
"Well, too bad. It's a beautiful day for a ride…" He crossed his arms and looked at her. "Would hate for you to feel guilty for leaving me indoors…"
I walk up to Jack and throw arm over his shoulder. "Did they mention that it's Artic exploration duty?"
Jack points over to the couch and TV station we had set up on one a of the platforms and says, "Indoors where it's warm!" before walking away.
Raf however walks up to me and the two Bots who are about to leave and says excitedly, "The Artic? I've always wanted to see snow!"
"I would invite you to join, Rafael," my dad says, "but the conditions are much too extreme, even for we Autobots."
"I… understand," the young boy responds sadly. I place my hand on his shoulder and offer him a small smile. "Trust me, Raf. If there was a way for us to go safely, I would have taken you."
As the two Bots turn to head out, Optimus stops and looks back to the boy. "But, I will bring you back a snowball."
"That would be awesome!" Raf tells him, though you could tell from his tone that he is still a little disappointed that he couldn't go. With that said, the two Bots leave through the ground bridge.
"Transport complete," Ratchet announced, but as he turned to shut off the ground bridge, sparks began to fly. He jumped to cover his face, then looked at the terminal as it began to smoke. "By the Allspark."
"Oh, scrap," I say as I jog over to stand next to my mentor.
Though I can hear the two other Bots talking to our human friends, Ratchet yells, "Bulkhead, Bumblebee! Here! Now!" Looking to me as he hovered around the ground bridge terminal, he said, "I'm going to need your assistance too, Everon." He then scoops me up quickly and drops me on his shoulder as he continues to try and diagnose the problem.
The two large Bots approach as Ratchet fiddles with the ground bridge controls. Bulk says, "You can't just boss us around because the boss is out!"
Without acknowledging his comment, Ratchet tells the two, "I need some heavy lifting: the ground bridge is down!"
That's… bad. What about Optimus and Arcee?
"Optimus and Arcee made it through just fine," I tell them.
Ratchet continues, "It's bringing them back that concerns me." Pointing to the floor in front of the ground bridge, he says, "Now remove those panels, chop, chop!" The two look at each other, but they do as they're told and begin to remove the panels.
Lifting me from his shoulder, Ratchet held me in his palm in front of his face. "Everon, you need to listen to me very carefully. Normally, I would take apart the ground bridge in order to reach the key components, but we simply don't have time for that. So, you're going to have to do most of the checking for me.'
"Wait, so I get to work on the ground bridge? Alone? Are you sure that's such a good idea?"
"We don't really have a choice," he tells me as Bulkhead and Bumblebee finish removing the panels. "Also, if I had to trust anyone with this job, it would be you, Everon. I couldn't ask for a better apprentice. Besides, I will be right here, helping you through the procedures."
I give him a small smile as he lowered me to the open panel below. "Alright," I say as I peer into the circuit box below the ground bridge. "What do you need me to do first?"
I wasn't sure how long we had been working, but I had finally been able to reroute the power cords and disconnect all circuit boards so Ratchet could pull them out to examine them. "Just…one…more…" I say to myself as I carefully stretch into the small crevice in front of me.
Can someone explain to me how she is flexible enough to reach in there?
"The wonders of taking martial arts classes as a kid," I tell him.
"Be careful, Everon," Ratchet says. "This one might have a residual…"
"OUCH!"
"…shock."
I slowly pull back out of the crevice, holding the wire I had just detached, and I glare at my mentor while sarcastically saying, "Thank you so much for the warning." Though I had shocked myself with my left hand, my right hand now had a nasty cut from where I had jumped and hit it against a protruding piece of metal. I sigh, then mumble, "That is going to need stitches…"
"In. Your. Face!" Jack yelled as he did some ridiculous victory dance on the platform where we had the couch and TV set up, completely unaware that I had almost electrocuted myself to death. What a caring best friend. I shook my head at him as Ratchet lifted me from the circuit box. Just then, the lights began to flicker, and the game Jack had been winning went offline. "Wait, what the… Great, power failure."
"Aww… It wiped out our game," Miko said sarcastically before getting up to walk away and casually throw the controller over her shoulder onto the couch.
"But…" Jack starts. "I was winning!" he yells as he follows her.
"Bummer."
Shaking my head again, I look at Ratchet as I wrap a bandage Bee had grabbed around my hand. I could stitch it later. "So, it should be safe for you to pull out those circuit boards now, right?"
"Yes… Let me see…" he says as he pulls out one of the many circuit boards in the floor of the ground bridge. He then pulls out a piece that looks like something had been chewing on it. "We most definitely have a problem."
"Way to state the obvious…" I tell him, but my comment has no sarcasm as my focus was on staring at the messed up piece of circuitry. "What could possibly do that?"
The power flickered again as Miko and Jack approached, and Bulk commented, "Or that?"
"Might be a malfunction in the main power grid…" I offered to Ratchet.
As my mentor turned his attention back to the messed up piece of metal, he says, "Hopefully it isn't a substation malfunction."
"Ugh…" I respond. "I hate recalibrating those."
"Hey guys!" I hear Raf say, though no one seems to really be looking at him. "Look at what I found!"
I look over to Raf as my mentor yells, "We're busy… Ahh!" Raf was holding what looked to be some small metal creature that was sleeping in his arms.
All three of the Bots immediately freaked out and started yelling, Bulk and Bee even pulling out their weapons. Jack, Miko, and I immediately jump in front of Raf yelling at the three to calm down. "Are your circuits fragged?!" I yell at them.
"Scraplet! Scraplet!" Bulk yells, clearly terrified.
"What 's a scraplet?" Raf asks as he tries to jump to see over the protective barrier Jack, Miko, and I had created around him.
"Only the most dangerous vermin to ever crawl upon the face of Cybertron," Ratchet tells us. We all exchange looks of confusion at his concern.
"This?" Jack asks them incredulously while gesturing to the small sleeping scraplet. "Are you kidding me?"
"You're giant robots!" Miko says. "Scrappy her is… teeny."
Weapons still drawn, bulk stutters out, "You… have no idea the damage that teeny thing can do!"
"Awe, c'mon. You got admit, this thing is freaking cute, he seems utterly harmless," I say, completely writing off the Bots fears as overreacting. I reach for the little thing to pet it with my right hand, just as it begins to open it eyes.
Big. Mistake.
Suddenly, wide-eyed and awake, the creature opens its mouth to show rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth. Before I can react, it jumps from Raf's arms and bites my hand right where I had cut it. I shriek in pain and shock, then I fling my arm to the side and send the little devil creature flying.
After regaining its balance, though, the scraplet ran straight for the Bots who began futilely to shoot at it. Soon, it was munching its way up Bumblebee's leg, and when Bee tried to grab it, it began to munch on his arm. Bee then hit it, sending it flying several feet away, but its attempt to attack again when Raf began the scraplet with a crow bar. Repeatedly.
Jack Grabbed the crowbar before Raf could swing again, saying, "Easy there, killer."
"Okay," I say as I clutch my hand futilely to my chest, not feeling the pain due to the shock and adrenaline of the moment. "Not harmless."
"Whoa," Miko said as she guided me towards Ratchet. "I did not see that coming."
"That makes two of us."
Raf ran up to his guardian and said, "I'm sorry, Bumblebee!"
It's okay, Raf.
"Is he going to be okay?" Raf asks Ratchet, still panicking.
"Only a mesh wound. He'll live. I'd be more concerned about Everon's hand right now," he tells us as he turns from examining Bumblebee to me.
"I'm fine," I lie. "Doesn't even hurt."
Ratchet ignores me and looks at my hand. "That is definitely going to need stitches. Now. Miko, walk with her to get the med kit and local anesthetics…"
"I can't use those on my hand, Ratchet! I need it to be able to help…"
"You're not going to be able to use that hand much either way, Everon. This way, at least you won't have a pain shooting up your arm every time you move." I huff in frustration, but I nod my head with no further arguments and walk with Miko to grab the supplies.
"Now do you believe me?" Bulk tells us humans. "All scraplets do is dismantle machinery and eat anything metal. Especially living metal."
"Well," Jack says as Miko and I rejoin the group. "Bug squashed, game over. Right?"
"No," Ratchet snaps as I sit down and begin to apply the local anesthetics. "When it comes to scraplets, there is never just one. And I fear I know how they got in here…"
I look up from my hand as I prepare to start stitching it. "They came in the pod, didn't they?" With a nod, I sigh. "You guys go check it out to be sure. I need to finish my hand." I wince as I hit an area that wasn't all the way numb yet. "This could take a while…"
"Ratchet to Optimus, do you read me. We have a situation." The others had just come back from examining the scraplet trap when I had just finished with my hand, and Ratchet was currently trying in vain to warn Arcee and my dad of what is happening here. "Scraplets have gotten into the comm link system," he says as he pounds a fist onto the computer station. "If we don't eradicate these creatures immediately, they will reduce this entire base to a scrapheap!"
"Well I say we bug out of here and let them keep it!" Bulkhead yells as Bee rapidly nods his head in agreement.
"Evacuation is not an option," I tell them.
"If we don't get the ground bridge back online, stat," Ratchet continues, "Optimus and Arcee will perish."
"They… will?" Jack asks sadly.
Miko then marched angrily over to Bulk. "Bulkhead. You never run!'
"Miko," the giant green Bot tried to explain, "You haven't seen a swarm of these things devour a Bot. I have. They pick you apart from the inside out, going for the small, juicy bits first, fuse by fuse, circuit by circuit, till there is nothing left. And I mean nothing! Not even your optics."
"Okay, that is definitely not a mental image I wanted to have," I tell him.
"You have to let us help," Jack says as he steps forward.
Raf continues. "We're not made of metal!"
"Yeah," Miko agrees. "The scraplets can't hurt us… Wait a second. How come the one Raf trashed attacked Ev?"
"Because I am technically made of metal. At least, my bones are made of an organic metal like Cybertronians. That cut on my hand must have been deep enough for the scraplet to sense my metal skeleton, so that's why it bit my hand."
"Normally I find your fleshiness to be your least engaging quality," Ratchet tells us. "But it would appear to provide us an advantage given these extremes. But I'm not sure how Everon will fare against these things should they discover that she is made of metal."
"Note to self," I say sarcastically, "Don't hurt yourself to where you require stitches." I then look at my hand and say, "Again.."
"Okay, good," Jack tells the Bots. "So we pair off, one Bot, one human, and Ev can stay here with whoever is watching Ratchet since she is both hurt and can help with the ground bridge. I can watch your backs as you repair the ground bridge."
"And we go on a bug hunt, " Miko says as she jabs her finger over her shoulder at a nervous looking Bulkhead and Bumblebee.
"Primus, I feel useless right now."
"Ev, you have stitches in your hand. I really don't think that you sitting out for this round is a bad thing."
I stick my tongue out at Jack and the turn my attention back towards my mentor as he mumbled to himself while trying to fix the damaged ground bridge. I wish I could be helping him, but I had only just began to regain any feeling in my hand, and I knew I was going to be in a lot of pain in a few hours. I would take some pain pills, but I hate the weird feeling they give me. Plus, my systems burn through them about three times as fast than a normal human, and they don't work near as well.
Just then, the lights go out, and we instantly hear a loud, girlish scream coming from down the hallway. As the lights slowly came back on, I fumble with our walkie-talkie, which I was put in charge of since Jack got the crowbar, and I say into its speakers, "Hello, Miko? Is that you? Is everything alright?"
"I'm a little insulted that you thought that was me. And we're fine. Bulkhead apparently got scared from the power outage."
"Did he really just scream like a little girl?" I ask incredulously.
"No," he says quickly over his comm link. "Maybe. Can we talk about this later?"
I sigh and respond, "Ten four."
"You need to stop learning military speak from Fowler." I ignore her comment and went back to vaguely looking around for any signs of scraplets.
Soon, I hear blaster fire followed by a loud crash and another similar scream. "Miko, come in! Is everything…"
"We're fine! Bulk freaked and then a bunch of cables fell. I really wish I hadn't seen that freak out though."
I don't even respond. When the third scream came though, Miko quickly said, "Found the scraplets, talk to you later, bye!"
"Well, at least they found something," I tell Jack. "I just wonder how much longer till something finds us." Turning to Ratchet, I ask, "How's it going over there?"
He sighed in frustration. "I've repaired the damaged conductor and rerouted the central conduits, but the ground bridge still won't receive power!" He then punched the ground.
"Hey, easy," I tell him as I place my hand on his leg. "We just need to look back over it again. You'll figure it out."
"Whoa!"
I turn to see what startled Jack, and I am met with the site of hundreds of scraplets flying towards us. "Scrap!"
"They fly!" Jack yells. "You never said they could fly!"
The tiny scraplets began swarming Ratchet as he and Jack try to smash them all. I grab a piece of metal from Ratchet's scrap pile with my good hand and began swinging it through the air in an attempt to help.
Ratchet falls to the ground as they swarm him, instantly being covered. "Ratchet!" I scream, panic overtaking me as these things attack my mentor. I run up to him and begin to knock away as many scraplet as I could, ignoring the pain that was building in my injured hand.
I then see the fire extinguisher off to the side, and I race over to grab it. Limited motion had returned to my right hand, so I used that hand to aim the nozzle as I began to spray the scraplets who instantly froze from the spray. As I finish spraying the ones who were attacking Ratchet, the others approach us, the Bots obviously in as bad of shape as Ratchet.
"Ratchet, grab the patch kit," Bulk says quickly. "We're leaking energon like…Whoa!"
I turn and look up, only to see a gigantic swarm of scraplets in the air above our heads. They dive towards the Bots to attack, and Bumblebee tries shooting them, though it doesn't work for long. Bulk attempts to smash them, yelling, "Eat this!" but the scraplets just attempt to eat his hand.
Soon, all the Bots are down as the humans and I try desperately to help them, the others smashing while I blasted them with the extinguisher. Once we finally managed to contain this swarm, Jack walked up to me and gently pried the extinguisher from my shaking hands. "You might want to let me handle this before you tear you're stitches."
I simply nod to him as he goes to spray the scraplets which were still twitching, and I then go to check on the Bots. Miko and Raf also smashed some of the twitching scraplets as that Jack might have missed.
My hand is shaking from the pain it's in, but I ignore it. "Alright, who has the worst leaks?" I ask the three Bots who were weakly sitting back against one of the platforms. Ratchet was in just as bad of shape as any of them, so I would have to take over as medic for now. "I can grab the patch kit while you guys figure it out. No one moves." I the turn to run towards the med bay and grab what supplies I can move while they begin to talk.
"Did we get them all?" Jack asked but was met by the sounds of faint grinding within the base.
"Hardly," Ratchet responds. "These were just scouts."
Ugh… Bumblebee bleeps as he drops his head back onto the crate he was leaning against. By this point, I had come back wheeling the patch cart, but before I could ask, Bumblebee bleeped, Bulk, Ratchet, then me. My and Ratchet's energon leaks are only scrapes. Bulk actually has a damaged vein.
Giving a sharp nod, I grab the supplies I need and climb the stairs behind Bulk so I can reach the spot where I see energon leaking before I begin a patch. "So the rest of them know we're in here?" Bulk asks nervously.
"And if we allow ourselves to become their next meal," Ratchet continues, "Optimus and Arcee will never make it home. We must get the ground bridge operational."
"Then we can use it to send the scraplets anywhere on Earth," Raf replied.
"The Artic," I say from where I worked on Bulk's vein. "They are relatively small and should freeze immediately in the subzero temperature as they go through the portal."
"Sweet," Miko says. "One stop shopping."
"So we just need to figure out how to fix the ground bridge."
Ratchet then begins to talk to himself. "Thin, Ratchet, think. If the ground bridge is still down… there must be a breach in the energon fuel line!"
Oh no… bleeps Bumblebee as he drops his head back onto the crate.
'If we weren't breeching," Bulkhead stated, "one of could get back over there and fix it."
"Where do we find it?" Jack asks, extinguisher in hand.
"And how do we fix it?" Raf adds.
"I can show you," I say as I step back from Bulk's back and walk down the stairs. "I just patched his main leak. The rest is stable, so long as we hurry." I grab a towel and made futile attempt to wipe off my hands, though the movement irritated my stitches. "Frag, that hurts. You guys will have to do the main work part though. My hand feels like it's about to fall off."
Miko decides to chime in with, "And you look like you just stepped out of a slasher film," gesturing to my clothes and body which were now covered in both mine and Bulk's blood, "…though the blue and purplish blood doesn't really help the affect. Wait, you're has purple tones to it! That's awesome!" I merely roll my eyes and motion for them to follow me.
As we walk along the fuel line cautiously avoiding all the scraplets walking around, I reassure them by saying, "It's okay, they're not sensing any organic metal. We're okay." Just ahead, I see the bluish color of energon coming from the pipe. "There's the breech! Jack, bring the tool kit over here, we have to work fast," I tell him as I bend over to look at the breech. "A simple patch should do just fine."
I explain to the three what to do and how to apply the sealant and use the soldering tool, and for a while, all is quiet. I should have known the quiet would last only so long. The scraplets out of nowhere took off into the air and through a vent. "They're getting ready to feed!" Raf yelled in a worried tone.
I don't take the time to respond. I just take off done the hallway, my long legs sending me flying faster then I could remember ever running before. Once I make it to the main room, the others somewhere behind me, I yell, "Ratchet, all systems go!"
"Fire it up!" Miko adds as she enters with the others just behind me.
Ratchet, with much effort, manages to stand and pull the lever, only to fall again. "Ground bridge… activated," he said faintly.
I look at my fellow Bots and see that they are in no condition to lure out the scraplets swarming overhead. Making a last minute decision, I grab a scalpel from my med kit that I had left on the ground, and, with a mumbled, "This is gonna hurt…" I split open my stitches. The pain was excruciating, but I had a plan in mind.
Standing in front of the ground, I began to wave my injured had in the air, gaining the swarming scraplets attention. "Come and get it!" Obviously more interested in the different organic metal composition than that of the Bots, they dove towards me as I turned to run through the ground.
As I was hit by a blast of freezing air after exiting through the ground bridge, I fall to my knees, instantly in shock. I look up to see my dad and Arcee looking at me in both shock and confusion. "Get down!" I manage to yell, just as hundreds of little scraplets fly through the vortex.
My dad moves to shield himself and Arcee, but the tiny vermin have already frozen by the time they reach him. They merely plink and clunk against his armor. When the final one falls, my dad looks to me as I lay huddled on the ground. 'I'd… invite you… in…" I stutter, about to lose consciousness. "But the place… is… a mess…"
They slowly make their way towards me, and just as my dad reaches to scoop me up, I pass out.
I woke up not long after we reentered the base, and I immediately began to take over the med lab, save a few bits of advice from Ratchet.
"Report biocircuitry status?" I call out to Jack from Ratchet's shoulder as I patch a leak.
"Levels are rising," he tells me as he gives me a thumbs up.
"Excellent. Raf, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electropulse monitor. Miko, can you check Bulk's interface patch?"
"It's steady," Raf replies.
"Looking good!" Miko says.
"Perhaps you should get some rest, Everon," my dad tells me. "You and Ratchet helped save quite a few lives today."
"It wasn't all our doing," I tell him.
"We're just fortunate," Ratchet continued, "that this infestation happened on a Saturday."
"Our human friend's may be small, but they are strong," my dad comments. "Still, Everon, you need to re-stitch your hand before the wound becomes worse."
I sigh. "Fine, just help me down Ratchet so I can grab my medical kit."
A loud, high pitch scream from Miko gathered our attention. Jack and Raf jumped in front of her, each holding a crowbar. As they looked around, Jack asked, "Scraplet?"
"Spider!" she yelled in response. "Is it on me?!" She then began dancing around before running off as the rest of us just watched her go in confusion.
Bulkhead asked, "Did she just scream like a little girl?" as Miko's screams could be heard in the distance.
Later that night, everyone was asleep or in shut down but me. The humans had asked their parents' for permission to spend the night with me, and they were all asleep next to their respective Bot guardians who they now guarded.
I had just gotten a shower and rinsed off all the blood. The smell had finally begun to get to me, and I just ended up trashing the clothes, knowing that they were ruined. That's what I get for wearing an outfit I like around base.
As I head back to the main room to check on the Bots one last time before crashing, I notice my father attempting to walk towards the main floor of the base. "And where do you think you're going?" I ask quietly so not to wake the others.
He looks to me and seemed relieved. "I was worried when I awakened and you were gone."
"had to grab a shower," I told him as I sauntered up in my clean jersey and shorts with my hair still wet. I carried my blanket and pillow from my room since the others were using all the spares we kept out here. "You should still be in shut down." He simply smiled and sat down against one of the platforms before holding his hand out to me.
With my own small smile, I walk forward and grasp his finger for a moment before moving to sit in his hand as he lifted me to his shoulder.
Once comfortable, I begin to speak again. "I've… been wondering. Next weekend is a long weekend, since we have Monday off. If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to go on a trip…. Alone."
After being silent for a minute, he responds. "May I ask why?"
"I just… need time to clear my head. Everything has been happening so all at once lately, and I think it's only going to continue being that way from now on. I'm not handling well being surrounded by everyone, and I'm afraid that if I don't take this time to get away, I might end up pushing everyone away."
I think back to this morning and Bulk's offer to drive me. Those little things may seem insignificant, but I knew that I had many other examples of my growing apart from the team, and it worried them as much as me. "I think that
Taking some time to adjust might be a good thing, my daughter. Just remember, we will always be here should you need us."
"I know, Daddy." With that, we fell into companionable silence, and sleep soon claimed me.
And that's the end to another chapter! I'm a little excited about tomorrow's chapter, and the one after it is going to be my work, not an episode from the series.
So, please review and give me your feedback of my work so far!
