Chapter 14 Friendly Frustration
click
zzzzzzzzzzap
BAM
"Slaggin' idiot..."
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zzzzzzzzzap
BAM
"Outdated pile of scrap..."
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"They're my own sisters!"
zzzzzzzzzzap
BAM
"But nooo," Arcee grinded as she let her pulse rifle reset with a faint click. She eyed the demolished cardboard target with distaste as whirred along the long rail about half a football field away. At the end of the rail, it swished away, going back underground and being replaced instantly with a identical cardboard cutout. "Apparently Ironhide is so old now that he can't comprehend the notion of sisterly love and concern!"
"I very much doubt he would," murmured Sophie, sitting on top of a small grassy slope behind Arcee. She fiddled with a screen-like machine, her face creasing in concentration. "Unless he himself is a sister..."
Arcee's weapon recharged with a long zzzzzzzap, before she let it loose.
Swish
"Screw you!" Arcee shouted at the intact target, fuming and eyes flashing.
A little ways behind them was the two Hangars, which appeared to be the Autobot's favorite haunt. The shooting range near it was cleverly constructed; safely out of the way of the daily routines of the base and only a few trees and the ocean in front of them if somebody happened to miss.
Sophie slowly tweaked a dial on her thin machine, watching the static warble over the screen closely and searching for any sign of an image. It was her third day on the tropical paradise of Diego Garcia and she had already managed to accomplish quite a few things. On her second day, Sophie had woken up earlier than any of the other soldiers and was the politest and most mild person you've ever seen, aiming to lull them into a sense of security about her person. However, Alice turned out to be a permanent thorn in her side and had further refused to show her around the Base. Fortunately, Private Daniel caught them as they left the cafeteria and offered her a tour despite Sophie getting him into trouble (less food rations, more laps around the base and a warning finger wagging by dear Director Galloway, threatening to divest him of his rank. Sophie thought it was a bit much). Alice grumbled at this, shooting Sophie dirty looks while she beamed at Daniel as he led the way to show her the Medical Bay.
The Med Bay was suitable for her needs, yet lacking the information she wanted. Sophie had not been discouraged; she hadn't been able to investigate effectively with two military vultures hovering vigilantly over her shoulder.
Scratch that, Sophie corrected while she quickly scanned behind her, checking for Alice before returning her attention to the screen and hearing Arcee blow her next target to smithereens. One vulture and one soft hearted teddy bear.
That morning, however, Sophie had already gotten tired of being the harmless idiot and decided to ditch Alice by going to the rest-room and never returning. Alice seemed to have this weird phobia about bodily functions, such as going to the toilet and throwing up, so she refused to go inside with her. Sophie found this beneficial, sneaking through the window and sprinting to the courtyard, inconspicuous in her borrowed khaki fatigues and her own old work-boots. She met up with the frustrated Arcee, pilfered a handheld monitor from Wheeljack's workshop and headed out to the shooting range. Arcee needed to blow off some steam.
click
zzzzzzzzzzap
Swish
Arcee's back plates were terse and she looked like she wanted to throw the rifle to the ground. Instead, she rested the tip of the weapon on the grass and leaned on it, blowing out a long vent of air.
"Elita-One would know what to do..." she trailed off, staring at the unharmed target.
Sophie's heart leapt as an image flickered briefly on her screen, but it was gone as soon as it came. Disappointed, she paused her search and glanced up at the back of Arcee's head. "She is the oldest, right?"
Arcee nodded, an affectionate smirk in her voice. "And Chromia's the baby."
"Are they as small as you are?"
She whisked around, blue eyes narrowing and looking extremely irritated. "Excuse me?"
Sophie blinked. "Ah. Um. Nevermind," she quickly amended as Arcee rolled closer, still looking contemptuously down at Sophie even from her place at the bottom of the slope.
Sophie's head resonated with familiar pain at the Cybertronian's closeness. There was, of course, no way that Arcee could've been aware of this effect, therefore her simple action was certainly not an implication of cruelty. Just intimidation. Attempted intimidation.
"You think I'm small?" Arcee hummed low and dangerous.
"No, of course not," Sophie said firmly. She cleared her throat. "Actually, I was wondering why Ironhide-" (Arcee scowled) "- referred to all of you as the 'Arcee sisters'."
To be completely honest, Sophie hadn't dwelt on it that much, considering the million other things she had to think about. However, it seemed an appropriate question for sidetracking Arcee, as Sophie really did not feel like bearing the weight of her wrath that day.
And so it was. Arcee frowned at her. "How can you remember this stuff?" she asked with a tone of resigned incredulity. "It was, what, mentioned once? Three days ago?"
Sophie shrugged.
"...Well," said Arcee, hesitating. "We don't really have last names like you humans do. So..."
"But why are your sisters grouped under your name?" Sophie prompted, "Shouldn't it have been the oldest instead?"
This seemed to stump the alien for a moment. "It- It's ah, we have... a bond? No that's not... It's, um...different," she finished lamely. "It's different for us...yeah. Complicated."
Sophie watched her, feeling the skepticism on her face.
Arcee hunched her shoulders defensively. "Hey! Don't look at me like that. It's really hard to explain, especially to a human."
"Fine, fine," Sophie said mildly, returning most of her attention to the monitor while she turned the dial. "And anyway, don't you think it's a little weird that they send the entire platoon to go pick them up?"
"Why shouldn't they?" asked Arcee, swiveling back around to reconsider her cardboard opponent once more. Thankfully, she sounded relatively more calm than before. "I was attacked, wasn't I?"
Sophie shook her head, frowning. "But that's what's so weird about it. You'd think your Autobot friends would have a method of predicting when and where new arrivals will be so they don't get hurt-"
BOOM
The earth beneath them shook and Sophie jumped, surprised by the colossal noise. That certainly wasn't Arcee.
Sophie twisted around to look at the two aircraft hangars where she could hear a slow hiss. A worrying amount of smoke drifted up into the sky and an instant later a shrilly alarm sounded, echoing across the stretch of grass.
Sophie stood and turned to Arcee, but she had already transformed and a 2006 Buell firebolt rolled up beside her, tucking one last component underneath her scarlet casing. "Come on," she said grimly, and Sophie sat on her leather seat.
She gripped the handlebars for support, but let Arcee do the driving despite her uneasiness of not being in control of the vehicle she was on. They had silently come to the agreement to take turns driving, hopefully avoiding future arguments about the issue, but Sophie doubted it.
Arcee sped over the slope and across the flat expanse of grass, swerving around the closed end of the building to the open entrance facing the rest of the concrete courtyard. The choking taint of smoke and fumes increased as they drew closer, causing Sophie to scrunch up her healing nose in disgust.
Clouds of dark vapor wafted from the Hanger and Sophie leaned one leg against the ground as Arcee stopped before the threshold, peering inside. Numerous suit-wearing NEST employees poured from the offices in the middle, scurrying from the building with their hands clamped over their faces to ward off the stench. The alarm was loud, jabbing into Sophie's mind painfully.
The smoke clung to the high ceiling, leaving Sophie to spot the vague impression of the large body stumbling around in the mist, arms flapping in a futile attempt to clear the fog.
"What is going..." Sophie started, but stopped in surprise as an electric green car and a maroon orange one zoomed from the Hangar and sped past them, orientating between bursts of laughter and vociferous coughing. They were gone before Sophie could determine their model.
She stared after them and felt Arcee rumble a sigh beneath her.
"Okay. Off." she ordered and Sophie slipped from her seat.
Arcee whirred as she flexed into her humanoid form before rolling into the Hangar, nearly disappearing into the gloom. Sophie followed her with caution, carefully breathing through her mouth and resisting the urge to cough as the smoke tickled her throat.
"Wheeljack!" she heard Arcee call over the alarm. "What is going - ah!" There was a clash and a curse as Arcee bumped into something, presumably one of the platforms.
"Ah! Arcee!" said Wheeljack in the delighted tone of someone popping over for a visit. Sophie saw him pause through the vapor. "Just a minute, lass, and I'll get this cleaned up,"
He resumed his flapping. Arcee sighed, a tinged of frustration in her voice. "Just get the smoke out of here Wheeljack-" Another bang sounded along with the patter of human feet, and Arcee shouted over the squealing alarm with growing impatience. "-and will somebody turn that slaggin' thing off!?"
Sophie spotted a promising panel to the right of the entrance and jogged over to it, mindful of any obstructions in front of her. Studying it for a moment, she switched the alarm off, and as it warbled out she flicked a button labeled VENTILATION. An instant later, grates on the roof peeled back to reveal barred shafts and a hum sounded as the smoke was vented through them and out of the Hangar.
Slowly the gloom cleared, revealing a scorched floor and several dazed technicians along with Arcee and Wheeljack. The old blue Autobot was covered with black smudges and his wavy blue hair was frizzed and chaotic on either side of his skull. He swayed slightly as he returned to his bench.
"Crazy scientist..." Arcee muttered and coughed. "And why is this even effecting us?"
"Oh!" said Wheeljack, as if surprised by her interest. "I was just developing a little something of a smoke grenade, I suppose you could say, that would impair the Decepticons,"
Arcee and Sophie moved over to his cubicle where he was fiddling with some sort of chamber. His workshop was divided from the rest of the hangar by three platforms which served as benches. They were about as high as Sophie was tall, but like all the platforms, a set of foldable stairs was attach to each one. Sophie stepped up these and onto the bench, carefully avoiding the unorganized clutter scattered on them while Arcee shooed away the little squad of human soldiers that had assembled in response to the alarm.
"Yes, it's fine now. You don't need to worry, this is pretty normal. Go." she said, making little waving motions with her hands, as if getting rid of a group of overcurious children. Sophie frowned at her disapprovingly and Arcee shrugged. "What?"
Sighing, Sophie turned back to Wheeljack, whom was leaning over the opposite bench with his back to her. She slowly picked her way over to him. "You know, testing the grenade in a closed environment first would have been a lot more... safe,"
"Considerate too," Arcee added, standing next to Wheeljack and peering at what he was working on.
"I know, I know, I did!" He said, gesturing to the glass chamber in front of him. The glass was thick and strong, but one of the yellow seals on the side had been noticeably loosened. Sophie stood near it and saw that it was where the scorch marks were the most concentrated. Wheeljack rested a hand on his head, sweeping it through his light blue hair with a hint of frustration. An unexpectedly human gesture. "I don't understand how this happened! It was fine when I last checked it."
"Were Skids and Mudflap helping you out?" Arcee asked immediately.
"Yes, but I-"
"Then there you go," Arcee interrupted, satisfied.
Sophie tuned out as Wheeljack began asking why on earth the twins would want to disturb his experiment and what happened to the weapon Arcee was practicing with (it was presumably still out on the shooting range), as she examined the other objects resting innocently on the benches. Sophie had only been on the base for three days but she had already begun to love Wheeljack's workshop. It reminded her a lot of The Work's back home. The benches were always filled with a any number of things; large tools, weird experiments, interesting designs, and remarkable blueprints which Wheeljack knew that she could understand but didn't bother to put away.
A contraption made of silky smooth metal grabbed her interest and Sophie bent down to pick it up. Suddenly, her headache spiked and a jolt of blue flew from her hand to the metal with a sharp crack.
"Ow!" Sophie yelped, flinching away.
"OW!" The two Autobots chorused as the flash of blue arched over from the machine and zapped them as fast as lightening.
Sophie backed away quickly, nearly tripping on another machine behind her while Arcee and Wheeljack touched their sore locations in surprise.
"I'm sorry!" Sophie apologized rapidly, "I'm sorry! I was just looking around."
Wheeljack winced and rubbed where a ribcage would have been underneath that blue plating, but he didn't look at all offended. "It's alright, lass," he said, "I've got things in here that even I don't know what they do,"
"That's reassuring," muttered Arcee, patting her red head and checking for injuries. Then she turned to Sophie, looking her over. "You okay?"
Not really. Sophie clasped her hands behind her back to hide her shaking and tried to keep her shoulders from shuddering. In that instant when the blue energy touched both Arcee and Wheeljack, Sophie had felt some sort of...connection. It was like a part of her was inside them, and that she could take that part away from them at any time. It felt wrong, and disturbingly unnatural. Even now, as the band around her head contracted, she could feel her skin crawling from the sensation, like filing against the grain of a piece of wood.
"Yes," she lied and then plastered a sheepish smile on her face. "Sorry,"
It was night, and Sophie was laying on top of the standard navy colored covers of her bed, listening to the hazel-eyed-twilight-reading-woman snoring loudly to her right and the deathly silent Alice to her left. She had changed down into her freshly washed white singlet and her short pants from Dululu. She had her hands clasped over her stomach as she pretended to sleep, hearing the faint swishing of the fans overhead and ignoring the uncomfortable hardness of her handheld monitor resting beneath the small part of her back.
Another hour later, Sophie slowly sat up and let her bare toes quietly touch the timber floor. She carefully leaned her weight onto her feet and picked up her monitor as she stood up. Avoiding the squeaky parts of the ground, Sophie cautiously made her way to the door. Opening the fly screen entrance just enough for her to fit, she slipped outside.