JMJ

TEN: MONSTER IN DARK RECESSES

"Forget it, we lost them," grumbled Swindle slumping wearily behind his steady-eyed companion. "We gotta get back to the pod, and see if we can't find them on satellite again."

Dead End did not seem to be listening. His optics held fast to a small gadget in his hands as he stood overlooking the quarry, almost deathly silent save for the crickets chirping behind them in the brush. The sky was dotted with clouds and the sun was setting scarlet and orange quickly in between them. Dusk was fast approaching and it would not be long before the half moon would be the only thing lighting the quarry below.

"There's heat coming from directly below us," muttered Dead End thoughtfully as he glanced briefly from his screen to the quarry. He used his optics now to follow the movements up close of a rodent scurrying from one rock to another on the other side of the flat bowl, but that was too far away and too small to have caused the heat. He shook his head.

Following his vision briefly, Swindle crossed his arms. "Dead End, c'mon! It's probably just some dumb animal. This planet is swamped with dumb animals."

"But we should make sure," said Dead End; he possessed a rather hissy sort of voice at times and this was one of them; it meant he was dead serious.

"Agh!" groaned Swindle beginning to pace like some animal himself caught in a cage.

"You want to be the one that tells the boss that you talked me out of not following a lead however faint it might be if we don't find them?" asked Dead End innocently.

The pacing stopped, and Swindle glowered at Dead End for a moment. Then quite abruptly he swiped the gadget away from his companion.

"Hey!" cried Dead End.

"I'll go check it out!" Swindle sniffed haughtily.

Dead End snorted. "Well, you better be thorough or I'm telling you, you'll be the next one left for scrap, not me."

Swindle did not answer with more than another haughty huff and he slipped down the slope of the quarry to follow the traces from the heat seeker. After all, there was one that was especially large, larger than Swindle thought would be on a planet like this unless it was not native. Although it was a faint signal beneath the rocks of the quarry, he knew that the best heat seeker in the universe could not fail to lead him to something unusual even if it wasn't an Autobot. Maybe it would be something else his boss would be interested in for later. They had never explored Earth before.

#

While the humans had their dinner, Knock Out left to find out if there was any leftover raw energon. If the field trip lasted much longer, he would like some refueling too. It was not like he had had time to refuel before he left to fetch the humans. Sure, raw energon was not the best on one's system, but in emergencies it was better than nothing. All this running around and stress made it difficult to conserve energon, anyway. The only problem was that it was highly likely that Starscream had checked all the abandoned mines before this when he had been basically self-exiled for months, but no harm in checking.

He was not going to be broken up if he couldn't find any. He was just a bit parched. Leisurely he went about his business, but it seemed that the mine was completely dried up. Not a speck of dust remained as far as he could see, and he could see signs of scratching in places too small and claw-like to have come from a mining machine.

Starscream for certain, scraping about like some primitive rat not so long ago.

Knock Out shrugged and decided to go back to the humans. Idly he made his way, but he would have moved much faster had he known about the conversation going on above his head or the Cybertronian sliding down into the quarry just then.

But just before he reached the humans he heard the boom.

He gasped, and hurrying to the entrance he saw to his relief that the humans were running away, having dropped their flashlight in their surprise. He saw enough of them to see three pairs of legs still able to run. The cause of the boom was brushing himself off a bit as he skulked through the hole he had made to make the smaller overgrown entrance more to his size instead of using vehicle mode to get in.

At first his optics swiveled to follow the source of the scampering feet, but he was soon quite distracted by the arrival of Knock Out. He wasted no time in attacking with his sniper gun. At least he was not stupid enough to fire too carelessly in a cavern, for after he missed and some rubble fell beneath where it had hit instead, he made a lunge for Knock Out that was unexpected enough that Knock Out, despite knowing of his presence, did not prepare enough to block or get out of the way. As he collided into the floor, despite his rage, he felt satisfied that at close range he could do some damage with a drill or buzz saw.

The first sight of it surprised Swindle slightly, and he soon sneered at it. "Oh, so you don't have any guns, huh?"

"Makes it all the better for me down here, doesn't it," remarked Knock Out, but Swindle was not afraid.

He had a pike as his secondary weapon, and he was almost as good with it, Knock Out had to admit, as he had been with his electro staff. For a short while they fought, and both held their own well, but neither really hurt the other much. Knock Out was doing a fairly decent job of keeping the fight away from where he was sure the humans were hiding, but after a time Swindle became impatient, and trusting to his aim to tried to fire at Knock Out's head.

He missed.

The time Swindle had used to aim and fire had left him open for Knock Out to shove him into an unstable-looking wall too, but his satisfaction was gone before Swindle struck the rock, because he knew into which direction the shot had fired, and he heard the cries of the humans and the cave-in in the little nook where they were.

There was a landslide on Knock Out's side too, and he had no time to cry out to the humans before he was yelling about his own welfare and trying to shield himself from the oncoming stones. He crouched down with his arms over his head.

The mine had been a bad idea, and he hated Swindle for his stupidity now.

However had he managed to find them in the first place? Luck?

The cavern had been hidden enough that no one would have seen it from the top of the quarry. But it did not matter now. He had found them, and Knock Out was buried in stone.

After a few moments of silence, Knock Out stirred, and found that he was not as deeply buried as he might have been. In fact it did not take much effort to pull himself out of the rubble. He moaned. He did not even want to think about the damage to his finish, but even if he had, it would not have stayed long. Quickly he remembered the children.

There was no sign of them, and the dust was still clearing as he penetrated the darkness around him with his headlights.

"Humans!" he called scrambling to his feet. He tripped on a large stone, and cried out, but caught himself, pausing and listening to the stillness.

"Jack!" he called, and turned his head about frantically. "Raf!" he called a little weaker. He took a few steps forward and called out doubtfully and in a very small voice that they might not have been able to hear even if they were okay and close by: "…Miko?"

He blinked wide-eyed.

No answer.

No answer from any of the children, and for a few moments he stood in shock and dismay, frozen in a nightmare.

The children were dead?

Knock Out had failed?

When he actually wanted them to live then they were killed and his reputation too with the Autobots was ruined? The grief of the other Autobots when they would learn of what had happened struck him to the spark. Somehow he did not believe any of it. The irony was too much. He could not believe, and yet the full realization of the reality of his nightmare broke through the stillness at the rumbling of stone behind him and the groaning of his adversary as he tried to pull himself from the wreckage.

The lost and painful expression on Knock Out's face twisted into a strange sardonic leer even before he turned. A dark sneer appeared on his face as he saw that Swindle was trapped at the chest and could not pull himself out further without causing serious damage to himself or causing more rubble to fall.

Slowly, leisurely, Knock Out made his way towards his pitiful struggles.

"What's the matter, Swindle? Things didn't go how you planned?"

"What do you want, Autobot!?" hissed Swindle. "Can't you see I'm in agony as it is? What are you gunna do, help me out?"

"Oh, is that what you want? You need maintenance too, I see," said Knock Out holding up his buzz saw, and turning it on, he leaned down disturbingly close to the other. "I'm a medic, you know, and I was just saying that there was only room for one red hood around here. How about we try for an energon-blue?"

The fear narrowed in Swindle's optics as he widened them upon Knock Out's worsening sneer, for Swindle's fear brought Knock Out a very sick satisfaction.

"What are you going to do?" squeaked Swindle shivering so that his metal shook. "You're an Autobot. I mean…" he tittered, and Knock Out was close enough to hear his insides quicken in anxiety in a sort of buzz as Swindle began to pant to cool it. "You consider yourself a good guy, right? An Autobot? Right? A nice guy?"

"Who said anything about me being nice?" asked Knock Out, and he paused as he glanced at his buzz saw musingly. "Hmm. Maybe the drill would be better, what do you think?"

The drill replaced the saw in an instant.

Swindle gasped. "What? No, no you're crazy!?"

"It's only what's coming to you," said Knock Out with a lazy smile. "You destroyed my chance at a good second life, and now I'm destroying what's left of your miserable life. You understand that kind of tit for tat as the kind of scrap heap you are, don't you?"

Squirming and whimpering, Swindle even tried to grab him, but he was much too lodged underneath the rubble to truly be a danger to Knock Out who easily avoided his swiping grasp.

Knock Out chuckled. "Oh, calm down, Swindle. This won't hurt a bit...at least not for very—"

"Knock Out, wait!"

Rage vanished like a flame thrust into a freezer, and just as from a freezer a great chill ran through him. His drill was still on when he looked up and saw Raf with Jack and Miko coming up just behind. He knew they had seen enough, and he knew they would not have liked what they had seen. Actually, after a moment, he realized that he did not like it himself, but he quickly brushed the whole incident out of his mind. After all, the children were alive, and he had to at least give himself the chance to sigh in relief for that.

"How did you survive?" Knock Out asked, and he turned off the drill at last as he swung his body fully around. "Why didn't you answer me? I thought you were, well, offline."

For a moment or two all was silent. Not even Swindle spoke, and Knock Out felt very low. There was more Decepticon in him still than he would have liked to admit. Actually, there was more Decepticon in him than he ever noticed when he was one. Not that he never had denied that he was a Decepticon when he was one, but he had never considered himself part of the Cause and never considered himself so bound to them as he could not escape it had he wanted. But his behavior had truly become part of him and not something he could just throw off like a dark cloak now that he was an Autobot. He knew too from the ashen faces of the children that it had not been so much his action that made them wary of him as he stepped towards them, it was how much he had been enjoying it with that same sarcastic glee he had shown them when they were at his mercy when he had been a Decepticon.

"Sorry, Knock Out," said Raf clearing his throat, "we were recovering behind the wall of rubble."

"There was a hole at the top and we had to climb out," said Miko.

Jack nodded.

"And then…" Raf started to say.

Jack looked about to finish it but changed his mind.

Knock Out let out a huff.

"So much for being a hero," remarked Swindle.

"So much for being a henchman getting yourself stuck in a cave-in in an abandoned mine," remarked Knock Out lightly, and to the children he said, "We should go before this whole place collapses or his buddy shows up."

Swindle's eyes widened again. "Oh, yeah! I coulda—Oh!" He growled and immediately set to work calling for Dead End.

This moved along the others quickly now. With everyone climbing into the transformed Knock Out they left the mine and the quarry as quickly as Knock Out could go. He carried them in robot-mode on the edge of the slope on the far side. Then they were out on the road again before long and traveling in utter silence.

"I'm sorry about that, you know," said Knock Out at last and as lightly as ever back as his lovely automobile. "I got carried away. I'm Cybertronian enough to admit that."

"We understand, Knock Out," said Jack, but he spoke pretty gravely. "It's hard to change."

Miko rolled her eyes and crossed her arms with a shake of her head.

"Well, that's good to know we all have an understanding," said Knock Out, and he might have grinned had he been out of vehicle-mode. "Let's put it behind us. How 'bout some music."

He put it on, but the tension did not settle for a time still. Not until the humans began to drift off to sleep. Knock Out hoped he could reach the new base before they woke up. He had gone out of their way to keep Swindle and Dead End as far away from it as possible, but he thought he could reach it now before dawn.

#

It was about dawn, and Knock Out was only a few miles from his destination. The children still slept soundly, and Knock Out knew he could make it there before they awoke. He was already there in his mind, already ready for a good refueling and a good earful from Ratchet reminiscent of his scientist superior in the old days on Cybertron before he would be able to explain why they were delayed. Maybe Ratchet had something that could buff out his nasty gash, and he would certainly be able to fix those unsightly dents caused by raining rubble. Now that they had left the desert lands behind them, it even looked like it might rain, which would just make a dented finish dirty too, especially as some of the roads were not the best kept in these parts. He was confident he would outrun the clouds breaking.

There was a town not far away from where he drove, and he glanced at it sloping down into a valley. This new hideout would not be too much different from being at the old one except geographically, because it would still be a hideout not far from some little town. Not a bad thing, no, just amusing, but amusement did not last long as he heard a blaring siren suddenly from behind.

"Huh?" he said. "I'm not speeding, am I?"

It did not take long before the children woke up in a sudden rush from the sound of the wailing police car. At first impulse, Jack thought it might be another Cybertronian adversary, but his face fell more when he saw that the pair of humans inside it were probably not holograms. It was a real police car, alright, and a real pair of officers.

"Knock Out!" he hissed. "Slow down. Now."

"Are you sure?" asked Knock Out. "We're almost there."

Quickly and keeping as low as he could, Jack pushed past the others and scrambled into the front seat.

"C'mon, you gotta know enough about Earth to know that you can't just keep going when a police car is after you without getting into more trouble."

"Hmm, well, you're the boss," said Knock Out doubtfully, and he slowed and came to a gentle stop at the side of the road.

He did not like the look of that man and that woman coming out of the car stopping just behind them. They looked like delayers if he ever saw them, and even if Swindle remained in the mine, he had no doubt that at least Dead End was still on the trail, and possibly a certain bounty hunter eventually or Megatron and his remaining goons. He had been lately on the lookout for any familiar pairs of wings overhead, honestly. He knew if Dead End and Swindle bunked their mission too long, others would soon take their place. Even now he glanced briefly at the sky, but they were alone for now with the police on the road and on the whole circumference above and around them, but their bubble could be penetrated any minute, and Knock Out was very impatient to get to the base.

As the officers approached and Jack tried not to look too nervous in the front seat, Knock Out nonchalantly rolled down the window.

"Is something wrong?" asked Jack as politely as he could.

"Excuse me, sir," said the first officer. "Are you Jack Darby?"

Knock Out did not even need to look at Jack to feel his tenseness nor to know how the other two in the back stiffened in alarm.

For a few seconds, Jack hesitated, deciding whether he could get away with lying, or even if he should.

"Yes," said Jack at last. "Can I help you?"

"Jack Darby," said the second officer, her hair as tight as her tone. "You are under arrest. You, Miko Nakadai and Rafael Esquivel are to come with us in for questioning on the matter of illegal releasing of delicate national information. Are those two with you Miko and Rafael."

"Yes," said Jack.

"We didn't release anything!" Miko suddenly snapped. "We're not going anywhere until you contact Agent Fowler! We're with him! We want to see the warrant."

"Miko!" whispered Raf.

Neither of the officers, of course, knew Agent Fowler. They were willing to be reasonable about it once they got back to the station, but first there was no question about whether or not they were to go to the station.

"But we've been framed!" cried Miko.

"There's also a matter of this vehicle too," said the first officer.

"What?" asked Raf in alarm.

Now it was Knock Out's turn to tense up. The humans felt it too, for they all stared immediately at his steering wheel as if fearing he would speak for himself about the matter. This only made Knock Out annoyed, because of course, he was not so stupid as to speak to human officials, especially when the lives of his passengers were at risk.

"What about it?" asked Jack trying to keep his cool.

"Where did you get it?" asked the second officer.

"I bought it," said Jack, quick showing the officers his license. "Just last week."

"We have reason to believe that this is a stolen vehicle. Whoever sold it to you, if you're telling the truth, sold it without its proper credentials. Do you have them with you?"

"Uh—" Jack started.

More suddenly than a car door could open by the hand of a human thrusting it, Knock Out shoved the officer over with it, and without once looking back he started forward faster than any car could accelerate.

"Knock Out!" cried Jack.

"What? I knocked him out of the way so he wouldn't get hurt," muttered Knock Out as if that would clear him of his offense. "And there's no way this is a coincidence!"

"But Fowler could have helped us!" gasped Raf.

"No, Knock Out's right!" said Miko. "There was something too funny about that whole thing! Maybe those people were mind controlled by Lockdown!"

"Mind controlled?" scoffed Knock Out. "I doubt he has anything like that! But he did do something. Messed with data on human servers maybe."

"But now we really did do something illegal!" said Jack. "Don't you get that? You assaulted an officer and now we're running away from the police! Even if someone did mess with the computers, now they really have something on us!"

"Oh, right," said Knock Out feeling very stupid, but they could not backtrack now.

The sirens were beginning to blare again behind them.

"Then what are we gunna do!?" Miko exclaimed. "Wait! I know! We can cut across that field over there! You can drive faster than them off road even in a car like this, right!?"

"Well, I could," admitted Knock Out, "but I don't do off road stunts like—"

"We should just stop and let them take us in!" said Jack.

"It's too late for that now," said Raf. "This isn't just some mistake. It'll be harder to convince anyone of our innocence now, and I doubt someone like Lockdown's gunna care about secrecy once he finds us. I doubt any of them are anymore. Megatron already just tried to take over Earth in front of everyone on the planet a few years ago."

"Well," said Knock Out as it began to sprinkle on them overhead, and thoughts of wet weeds and mud filled his head, "Jack still has a valid point. Can't any of you call Fowler right now? Maybe he can send a helicopter or a jet to help us."

"Do it!" cried Miko.

And with a growl, Knock Out did. Diving off the road he plunged into the fields. They were still dry, but they would not remain that way long, especially as the rain began pouring down.

"Okay," said Raf, trying to keep his voice steady over the rumbling of the ground beneath them. "Now when we get to the other side, grab the first car we run into that's an okay size and transform into it."

"What!?" snapped Knock Out already highly irritated by a bug that just slapped into his front window. "Ack! I can't believe this! Now that's going too far! I just got this automobile and you expect me to transform into some backwater yokel's ten-year-old piece of scrap!?"

"Yes!" said Jack. "They can't find us!"

"Won't the weeds and mud give me away!" snapped Knock Out.

"We'll use the car wash in town," said Raf. "I brought money. Just go fast."

Knock Out let out another growl as he headed into the direction of the town. Once out of sight of the road behind him, there was a cluster of trees and he transformed back into robot mode to overlook the valley of the town. The overcast sky and the rain should do well to hide him in the trees, and a road leading into town gave him a good row of cars. He moaned. All of them were scrap, but after a brief closing of his eyes, bracing himself for his utter disgust, he scanned one, an old civic hatchback. He allowed himself to transform even with its color in a pale silvery-green into his new awful vehicle mode and leapt out onto the road down towards the town.

"Could this day get any worse!?" he snapped. "No one is to mention this again to me!"

Now he was not just a temporarily damaged beautiful sports car, he was just a downright crummy, old car, and he was dirty, dented, and scratched enough to match it.