Chapter 11

As Knock Out had anticipated, Prime and Magnus were not overly amused to discover that the medic had pre-emptively sent Wheeljack and Bumblebee to the Nemesis. Knock Out, on the other hand, was thoroughly amused—the expressions on their faces!—although he hid it well. An extended but fairly routine round of "Very sorry, sir, I didn't think to ask, sir, I do technically outrank them, sir, next time I'll confer with you beforehand, sir," had eventually satisfied his two superiors.

Yes, the whole performance had been a bit tedious, but he'd successfully broken the news of Wheeljack and Bumblebee's absence—which would have been noticed sooner or later anyway—while protecting his position in the Autobot army. Or crew? They called themselves a team, but that sounded so sporty.

"Rah rah, go Autobots!" Knock Out sang out, transforming and speeding through the halls. He left an impressive skid of tar in the common room (as the bots called their makeshift lounge) as he squealed to a halt. Bulkhead and Arcee not only looked up as he transformed, but also shifted together to hide the table behind them; when they saw it was Knock Out, they relaxed and stepped apart again.

Knock Out smelled trouble in progress and was appropriately intrigued. "And what are yooou doing?"

"Nothing! Not anything special. Just fixing some . . . stuff," Bulkhead said, guilt written all over his broad face.

"Someone sat on one of the handheld scanners," Arcee said, a slight quirk of her lips suggesting she wasn't sure whether to be more annoyed or amused.

"It was an accident!" Bulkhead protested.

"Yeah, Arcee, it could've happened to anyone!" came Miko's voice. Knock Out looked around and located her standing near Bulkhead's elbow. Jack was sitting on the table pretending he knew enough about Cybertronian circuitry to help fix the machine. Adorable.

"Well, don't let me stop you." Knock Out moved over to the table, resting his arms on it.

"Hey." Miko elbowed Jack in the ribs. "Did I ever tell you that Knock Out is my arch-nemesis?"

"Only . . . a lot," Jack said. "Like maybe a thousand times or so."

He cast a cautious glance at the shiny red mech. Jack knew that the whole "arch-enemy" thing was just some elaborate game to Miko, but had she ever bothered to explain the rules to Knock Out? A game that involved shouting insults up at a thirty-foot tall ex-Decepticon just seemed kind of chancy, and no, Jack was not a 'Jackrabbit' for saying that, no matter what Miko said! But then again, Raf seemed okay with Knock Out too—not friends with him, but not scared of him either—so maybe the former 'Con really wasn't a danger anymore.

Anyway, Jack thought, it's not like he's gonna do anything with Arcee and Bulkhead around. And as long as Miko doesn't do anything dumb—

"Your time has come, Decepticreep! Prepare to meet your maker!" Miko charged across the table, aiming a roundhouse kick at the red bot.

"Miko!" Jack yelped. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Arcee tense. Bulkhead just looked resigned.

Knock Out shifted to get a better view of the human who had just kicked the silver metal of his elbow joint. "Nice job, fleshie. I almost felt that."

"C'mon, put 'em up!" She feinted and shadowboxed.

"Shoo, fly, don't bother me."

"What? Disengage the enemy? Neveeeer!" She punched him in the arm, then winced and tried to shake the pain out of her hand. "Ow."

"Miko," Arcee started, frowning at Bulkhead, "stop pestering Knock Out."

"Not until he shows some fight! Rawr!"

Did she just ask a Decepticon to show some fight? Jack thought numbly, watching Miko kick at the Cybertronian again. Her foot swung within inches of his shiny red finish but—Jack felt clammy with relief—didn't actually make contact. Knock Out still hadn't moved.

"Shoo," he repeated, his optics half-closed and his voice firm.

The girl stood back, crossing her arms. "What's with you today? Did your fun-tank spring a leak?"

"I'm shocked that you think a reliable, harmless, responsible Autoboticon such as myself would do anything so gauche as to squash a little organic bug." Knock Out leaned forward, smiling a little too sweetly. "I'm sure Commander Magnus has taught me better than that. Well. Fairly sure . . ."

"Hey Miko," Jack said hastily, "can you help me untangle these wires?"

Miko grumbled under her breath, but she walked over to assist. "Well, that was a bummer," she complained to Jack. "Usually he swats back or something."

"He swats back? Miko, that is not a good thing. Have you seen the length of his claws? Have you seen how they're, you know, incredibly sharp?"

"Relax, Jackrabbit, it's no big deal."

"I just don't think Bulkhead would be very happy about it if you got hurt," Jack said, trying a different tack.

"Look, you may have the mom-bot for a partner but I landed a Wrecker. And he knows a little danger adds some spice to life!"

"Arcee is not the mom-bot," Jack retorted. He glanced over at the Cybertronian; Knock Out had at last deigned to help fix the datapad and was pointing out something on the main circuit board as Bulkhead handed him a tiny soldering iron. Arcee joined in the conversation from time to time, but mostly she watched the other two bots, and her focus became more intent whenever Knock Out happened to glance towards the two humans.

Okay, she could be a little over-protective. But she was not the mom-bot.

"I'll bet she told you he was a big scary 'Con, didn't she?" Miko said smugly. "That's why you're so scaaared."

"I'm not scared, I'm sensible!"

She crooked her hands into claws and hunched her shoulders. "Oooo, he's going to eeeat you, ooooo—"

"What are you little skinjobs doing over there?" Knock Out set down the soldering iron to gaze at them. "If you're about to purge your tanks, Miko, be kind enough to face away from me."

Miko opened her mouth, and Jack could just picture her telling him exactly what they'd been talking about. So he jumped in first.

"Hey! So!" The red and black optics shifted to him. Jack let his arms swing uncomfortably. "Sooo, how are you liking Team Prime?"

"The atmosphere is very congenial," Knock Out said, looking amused.

"That's good. Cool." Jack had no idea why he felt so embarrassed, but Miko's stifled giggles definitely were not helping. "Must be nice for everyone, having a medic around and, uh . . . um . . ."

He broke off because Knock Out was pointing a very sharp index finger at him, and despite being far from his reach, that fact made Jack very, very uncomfortable.

"I know you from somewhere," Knock Out said, his gun-metal grey finger waving a bit as he took in the human from head to toe.

"Ahem." Arcee raised an eyebrow. "Jack, this is Knock Out. Knock Out, this is Jack. My human partner who has been around for years and whom you've seen many times."

"Yes, yes. But I know him from somewhere else." Knock Out leaned his chin on his hand, contemplating the boy.

"Maybe the time you and your friends kidnapped us and used us as hostages for the Omega Lock," Jack said, crossing his arms.

"No, that's not it. "

"Or when you almost skewered me with a giant drill on the Nemesis."

Knock Out continued to stare at him as though he were a puzzle to be solved. "Nnnnooo . . ."

"Or when you broke into a street race and almost killed me and Bumblebee."

Knock Out looked mildly surprised. "That was you?"

Jack stared at him open-mouthed, offended.

"It beats me how you can watch so much TV and still be so bad at ID-ing humans, Knock," Bulkhead said.

"So much? We can't even get a signal up here," the medic complained. "Anyway, they film them from down here," Knock Out leaned over to hold his hand near the floor, "whereas I'm looking down at the top of their furry little heads from up here." He raised his hand to his own eye level. "The real question is how Optimus and Ultra Magnus manage to tell them apart. Myself, I go by the voices a lot." This seemed to draw Knock Out's attention back to Jack. "I'll remember where I've seen you. Sooner or later."

"Great. Terrific." The medic would realize he was mistaken eventually, Jack hoped. Unless Knock Out was thinking of the time he'd been hit by that train in the subway? Jack had just been along for the ride, though, it wasn't like he'd personally aimed the train at him or anything. Whatever. If Knock Out was really that bad at identifying humans, he was probably thinking of someone else entirely. Jack hoped so. There was just something unnerving about that searching look . . .

Footsteps in the corridor prompted Bulkhead and Arcee to once again close ranks in front of the broken scanner. They exchanged guilty glances as Ultra Magnus entered. To Jack, the strange part was not the appearance of the big blue and white Autobot, but the fact that he was carrying . . .

"Mom?!"

"Jack, Miko." June Darby looked from one to the other from her perch on Ultra Magnus' hand, her lips pressed in a thin line and a grim look in her eyes that Jack knew all too well. "I want the truth and I want it right now. Do you have any idea where Rafael is?"

"Mom . . . I . . . no, he's got the flu, remember?" Jack sputtered.

Miko nodded in agreement. "He had to miss the field trip and everything. I told him I'd take lots of pics for him, though."

"He does not 'got the flu'," June fumed. "He told his mother he was sleeping over at our house, Jack. She came over because he forgot his backpack and I said you were out getting burgers." She sighed in frustration and worry. "He's not at his house, he's not at our place, he's not with Ratchet, and if he's not here . . ." She rubbed her hand down her face. "Where could he BE?"

"Rafael—you mean Raf?" asked Knock Out. "He's with Bumblebee, of course." He looked from June to Commander Magnus. "Why? Is there a problem with that?"