Human Companionship
Transformers Prime
After 'Triage'/ 'Toxicity'
Chapter 9

Days had gone by without a sign of Decepticon activity, and those days added up to weeks, and those weeks added up to a month. A month without a sign from the Decepticons was rare, and usually would have put the Autobots on edge, but nobody seemed to notice. It was as if they had all forgotten the war all together. As if there was no war. All because of Jamie and Smokescreen - Jamie was finally herself again.

Smokescreen was exactly what Jamie needed to forget what happened when Wheeljack left. He was a mech who knew how to have a good time, and most days after school, Jamie would walk out the main doors to see Smokey waiting for her.
"Ready to go on an adventure with your ol' pal Smokey?" he would most often say. That was all it took for Jamie to put aside her homework for a while and just ride out into the Nevada desert. As each day passed, all the Autobots could see that Jamie didn't feel so depressed anymore, and for the most part, if their human friends were happy, so were the Autobots.

Smokescreen felt like going for a drive before the humans were dismissed from their learning sessions, so he headed to the northeast area of the state. About half an hour into his drive, the scenery began to change. Instead of so much sand, vegetation began to infest the landscape. It was an interesting change for the Autobot, considering that he had never bothered to see what anything other than Jasper looked like on the humans' world. Suddenly, he detected an energy spike in the area - just what a rookie needed to cause trouble. Smokescreen called into base.

"Smokescreen to base - found an energy spike. Gonna follow it. Smokescreen out," he reported in before chasing the trail of the energy signal. The signature was indentified as Energon, but when Smokey reached the signature's location, all he found was a hole. A big hole. A big hole about 30 feet deep. He had no choice but to climb into it.
"What the..? Energon... already boxed for transport?" He said as he reached the bottom of the hole, which he concluded was anything but naturally created. About 80 crates of Energon rested in the bottom of the hole, and Smokescreen knew something was fishy.

"Smokescreen to base, come in base... Anyone copy? Frag. Signal's scrapped from down here," the mech said. As soon as he did, the light of the sun vanished, causing the mech to look up. The Nemisis sat, lingering, directly above Smokescreen. In attempt to escape the scene, the mech tried to climb back out of the hole. That plan backfired. A loose rock in the soil wall of the deep pit gave way when Smokey grasped it, causing him to lose his grip and fall face-first onto the crates of Energon below him, knocking him out. Little did he know that the Decepticons had sent down a cargo pick-up tube down as he fell.

Jamie, Jack, Miko, and Raf walked out of class together as the bell rang. With their lockers all right nest to each other, they all threw in their algebra books into their backpacks - except Raf since he finished in class - and headed for the door. The sun shone on the four of them as they walked out in a line together. And just like always, their rides were waiting for them in front of the school... Except Smokescreen. Jamie looked up and down the street, thinking that maybe Smokey just didn't park behind 'Bee like he usually did, but he was nowhere nearby.

"Hey, 'Bee, where's Smokescreen? I don't see him anywhere on this street," Jamie asked as she approached the Autobot Scout. She was met with beeps and whirrs that were indecipherable to her.
"Raf, translate," she demanded once Bumblebee finshed speaking.
"He said that nobody's heard from him since about noon today. He seems to have just dropped off the face of the planet," he explained. "Come on, hop in. Maybe Ratchet's pinpointed him by now."

Smokescreen woke up with a slight headache. The fall had knocked him out cold, and he knew that hours had probably passed since then. Blinking a few times to focus his vision, Smokey looked around to see where he was. His optics widened when he spotted the large purple Decepticon symbol on the wall to his left. That was when he also realized that the Decepticons had found him and taken him prisoner.

"Frag... How am I gonna get out of this one?" he asked himself out loud, trying to yank his arms free from the shackles unsuccessfully. It was the same story with his legs - chained tight as a dog's choke collar. Finally, he tried to comm link base.
"Smokescreen to Autobot base... anyone copy?" He was met with static. "Great... Now I'm really stuck now," he stated, looking at his chest. Each Autobot's insignias were enabled to activate a distress signal when they were pressed in for five seconds, and at that point, it was the only thing that Smokescreen had to save his chassis while he was helplessly chained up by his wrists and ankles. He arked his neck and pushed his chin into his chest as he looked for the insignia. After a few tries, he finally found it. With all his strenght, the mech pushed his chin into the insignia button for as long as he could until it began to flash in a timed pattern.

"Oh, thank Primus..." Smokey said, sighing in relief. "Now, for someone to rescue me..."

Jamie rode back to base with Bumblebee and Raf, the whole time freaking out in her mind. Smokescreen was never late to pick her up, and if he wasn't at the base, she had no idea where he would be. In the back of her mind, the thought that he had taken off like Wheeljack had... it lingered back there, but she knew in her heart that he wouldn't ever leave her. She had faith in Smokescreen, and somehow, she still had faith in Wheeljack, too, but she didn't know why he deserved it.

"Ratchet! Where's Smokescreen?" she asked as she flung her backpack violently into the nearby wall, which put a crack in it, but nobody noticed.

"I'm not sure... he didn't pick you up from school today?' he asked, taken aback. Jamie shook her head worriedly.

"He's never late... I don't know why he didn't show up," she replied. Ratchet thought to himself for a few seconds before he activated the distress signal frequency channel.

"If he needs assistance, he would have activated his distress signal by now," the medi-bot explained without looking at Jamie.

"Wait, you guys have built-in Life Alert systems?"

Ratchet turned around.

"... We have WHAT built in?"

Wheeljack was basically burying himself in intergalactic television and high grade Energon. After his place in the Wreckers' ranks was in jeopardy before the Great War broke out, Wheeljack had dropped his high grade addiction. Now that there were only two of them left, and that he didn't know what else to do, he picked up the habit again. He almost never actually flew himself anywhere anymore - he knew he was too drunk to do so - so Autopilot just flew him around in space, but never actually went anywhere. Wheeljack had nowhere to go.

The Wrecker was sitting in a spare, tattered chair in front of his monitor. There was an interesting soap opera on, and he had grown to enjoy it. It actually became his favorite program after the first half hour of watching it. He didn't quite understand it all the time - no thanks to the high grade - but it was addicting. He sat watching a marathon of this show with a cube of high grade in his left hand and his right hand just hung off the side of his chair. Wheeljack was just downright pathetic.

The mech went to have a swig of his Energon during a dramatic scene; the humans were idly fretting over a plane crash.

"Heh... pathetic. I could... totally... save them humans..." he said, hiccuping. Out of nowhere, a loud and annoying beeping went off in the ship. A beep that never went off - a distress call. Wheeljack spilled half of his cube of Energon when he jumped in surprise of the alarm, screaming briefly like a little girl. Quickly, he gathered himself together to see where the distress call was originating from, wiping the spilled liquid off of his chest.

"SHUT UP!" he commanded the Jackhammer, but it just kept beeping, so he got up in annoyance and manually shut it off. Once the incesant beeping stopped, Wheeljack looked at the tracking monitor, and the mech dropped his Enegon cube. Jasper... Nevada... Jamie!

"Arcee, you and Bumblebee will rendezvous to Smokescreen's last known location. Ratchet, you and I shall search east of here in the next few cities. Bulkhead, stay here and man the Ground Bridge, understood?" Optimus's voice thundered. Each of the Autobots nodded in understandment. Jamie butted in.

"And me, Optimus? If you're all looking for Smokey, I want to help, too," she explained with a serious look on her face.

"Jamie, you need to remain here with Miko, Jack, Raf, and Bulkhead. I understand you want to help, but it is safer for you to remain here where Bulkhead can keep you protected," he replied, just as serious as Jamie.

"Bu-,"

"Stay here, Jamie..."

"But I-!"

"Jamie..." Optimus said, giving her a look that she knew so well - the look of 'don't question me, just do it'. Jamie sighed, giving in to the fight.

"Fine... I'll stay here, Optimus." And Jamie did. She stayed in her room until she was sure the four Autobots left.

It hadn't been long since Optimus and the others had gone looking for Smokescreen. Jamie sat right by the large computer systems in the silo, waiting. She waited for something she wasn't even sure of what it was. As far as she knew, Ratchet had left the distress frequency channel up, and if Smokescreen was calling for help, something - Jamie didn't know what - was supposed to happen. About 15 minutes had passed when she found out.

The computer started beeping so obnoxiously and loud that it made Jamie jump. It got everyone else's attention, too. Bulkhead, followed by the other humans, ran as fast as they could to the entrance room of the silo. When they got there, Bulkhead caught sight of a Ground Bridge closing, and he saw no Jamie.

"Oh frag... I am so dead!" Bulkhead exclaimed, turning off the beeping. He looked at Jack, Miko, and Raf, seeing that they all knew where Jamie was as well. "What now?"

"Oh, I don't know... CALL OPTIMUS AND LET HIM KNOW, BULK!" Miko yelled.

"Right, tell Optimus... Bulkhead to Optimus Prime, do you copy?"

"Bulkhead, this is Optimus. What's your status?"

"Jamie... She managed to open a Ground Bridge on Smokescreen's location. We only had it for a few seconds, so they could be anywhere now."

Jamie walked through the portal to the other side. She was going to find Smokescreen, one way or another. As she reached the other side of the bridge, she was instantly filled with fear, though. She had walked right into the hallway of the Decepticon warship.

"Oh frag... I'm gonna freaking die today," she said to herself in a whisper. Gulping, she started down the hall in search of Smokescreen.

Wheeljack had traced the signal to the Nemisis, and he decided to find the source. If there was any chance at all that it was Jamie, he was going to find out. He was going to set things right with Jamie. He steathily snuck past guard after guard, following the distress signal while silently praying it was Jamie on the other end.

The four Autobots immediately returned to base when Bulkhead informed them that Jamie escaped. They needed a plan, and they needed one quickly. They all knew both Smokescreen and Jamie's lives were in the balance, and even though Smokey was cocky, not even Arcee wanted Smokescreen to stay out of the Autobot picture.

Jamie had been down so many halls that she wasn't even sure which halls she had been down before. Each corridor looked completely identical to the one before it, so Jamie just decided to start walking down each one and peeking into each doorway she came across - if she could, that was.

After about eight corridors, Jamie was getting frusturated with herself. She was getting absolutely nowhere in her search for Smokescreen, and it was making her a bit angry. She reached a door and tried to open it, but it was stuck. Her stubborness got the better of her, and so Jamie tugged and yanked and pulled on the door. No matter what she did, though, the door wouldn't budge.

"Stupid... door!" she whispered loudly to herself as she tried to pry the door open. When it didn't work, she stood staring at the door for a few moments before she violently kicked it. Surprisingly, the kick was all the door needed to open.

"Oh... awesome!" she said, walking into the doorway. The room was so big, and because Jamie was an observer by nature, she couldn't help but look all around the room.

"Jamie? Is that you?" a voice called from the darkness, startling Jamie a bit. Out of the darkness Jamie could see a pair of bright blue optics.

"Smokey?" she inquired in reply.

"Jamie? What are you doing here? Can ya help me out of these restraints?" Smokey's voice called out from the dark again. At the sound of his voice, Jamie felt a wave of relief.

"Thank God I found you, Smokescreen! I was all freaking out when you weren't there to pick me up today. Let's see what I can do about your shackles," she replied, running toward him.

"Great. There should be a ring of keys over to my left. The last guard that came by left them by accident," he said, tilting his helm toward the keys. Jamie ran over to the key ring, feeling the extreme heaviness of a giant robot's ring of keys.

"Which one?" she asked, dragging them towards Smokescreen.

Wheeljack was nearing the signal quickly, and he was about 50 feet away when he saw distant motion in front of him. The Wrecker took cover and drew his swords just in case it was a squad of nasties, which he really didn't feel like dealing with. Carefully peeking around the corner, at first he didn't see anything, but then he recognized a very familiar sweatshirt.

"Jamie?" he called out from the darkness. The human instantly turned around at the sound of her name, and so did her guardian.

"Jamie, it's me - Wheeljack," he called out again, quickly walking toward her, but as he did, he saw the same eyes that met him when he left her alone.

"W-wheeljack? Is that you?" was the reply he got. The Wrecker nodded.

"It's me, Jamie. It's Wheeljack. I'm so sorry for everything I did to you, but I-"

Wheeljack stopped speaking as soon as he saw Smokescreen. He looked from him to Jamie, and then back. By the look on her face, Wheeljack knew that she had pushed him out of her life and replaced him with the fresh fish behind her. He should have known that Jamie would have moved on after what he had done.

Cliffhanger! Sorry that I haven't updated recently. I just couldn't figure out where I wanted to go next. Thanks a lot to Ninja School Dropout for giving me a push in the right direction! :)