Let me do a shout out to the people in the reviews. It's kinda funny how half of yall want Laserbeak to make it, and the other half enjoys Soundwave's suffering. Really, you guys are great and beautiful and let no one tell you otherwise.
Sorry it took so long. School and College related stuff and ESSAYS ARE THE DEATH OF ME. So… happy late Christmas present. (And Happy New Years!)
Wheeljack crossed into the base, taking the injured techno organics into the med bay as instructed by Ratchet, setting the bodies on the berths. When Ratchet's optics fell first on the unconscious Jazz, blood soaked his clothes were with a large cut underneath. The true horror in Ratchet's optics didn't show until he unwrapped the jacket around Laserbeak…
This is bad. This is very bad. The boy's vitals are unsettlingly low without showing signs of response. He's barely alive. In a glance this boy doesn't have much time on him. After the patients were laid upon the med berths, Ratchet commands, "Go wake up Jack to call June, now," to Wheeljack as the medic was in desperate need of additional help.
… … … … … … …. … .. ...
"Your mom is at the base already?"
"Not anymore, I think. But something really bad happen if Wheeljack had to wake me up in the middle of the night to call her." The teen still remembers being half dazed from being woken by Wheeljack, being asked- no told, to call June Darby.
At this, Miko leans closer. "Who's hurt?"
"It can't be Smokescreen and Eject had only a bruise."
"I haven't seen Jazz yet."
"Come to think of it, wasn't Jazz with Wheeljack yesterday? What if he's back there?"
"That curtain will not stop me from looking at what's behind it."
"Miko, it's up there for a reason." Arcee interjected, having Bulkhead aside her.
"Aren't you guys wondering who's behind there?" Miko tried. She could foresee a lecture coming on, wanting to divert attention somewhere else. It didn't work.
Arcee continues. "What we're focused on is what you two did last night."
"We didn't do anything wrong," The usually laid back teen, Jack, responded to his guardian, "We just went to a party like normal teenagers."
The biker femme crosses her arms in a displeased manner. "Without letting any of us know?"
"It wasn't a big deal. And it's not like you guys didn't know we were in town."
"We did say we were in Jasper." Finding loopholes… crafty, but not in the eyes of protective Autobot guardians who can double as parents when the real parents aren't there.
"Then why," Arcee resumes, "did you lie about where you were at when we called?"
"Because we were at the house of the bully who sketches kittens."
"Are we still talking about Vince?" Bulkhead said after a brief pause.
"Yeah, look." Miko had snagged a page of a really well illustrated kitten amongst other pictures from her pocket which was folded up nicely.
"Why did you- that's not a bad drawing." Who knew Vince had art skills.
"The bully drew that? Are you sure he drew that?"
"Yeah, it was in basically hidden in his room. It's pretty good though. I think these are also cool too. Look, he drew you guys, well as vehicles. I bet he's jealous that you have sweeter rides than him, Jack." It is true that most of the times Vince seen Jack, it was either the back of the motorcycle.
Jack then recalls Miko saying she had found dirt on Vince… Is this what she'd meant? "Is that the blackmail?"
"No, this isn't it. I found other things like a dairy, embarrassing photos, all the works," The Asian teen list it's off as if it were trifling information, then gleams up about the pictures again. "But when I found this, I had to take it. The kittens are cute and it reminds me of my cats."
Bulkhead was incredulous. "You didn't take the diary?" The Wrecker was surprised, almost disappointed.
"No. I didn't want to cause a total alarm. I snapped pics of important entries." So apparently missing art wouldn't raise any red flags that someone was snooping in their room?
"Getting back on track," The moral lesson of blackmail and stealing will come later. Arcee did mentally admit her alt mode did not look bad on paper. "We don't mind you guys going out of the base and have fun, but lying about where you were to us is an issue."
"We're not trying to restrict you two for having a life outside the base, but it is our job to know where you guys are at in case of an emergency. We don't want anything bad to happen to you guys."
"Don't look now, but here comes 'something bad that happened to us'." Miko scowls at Rosanna with Blaster and Eject walking aside her into the main room of the base.
Rosanna returns the look, her face visibly contorts in a look of disgust. "And you're an earsore."
Blaster nudges the femme in pink on the shoulder. "Wrong words. Try again."
Holding back a roll of the eyes, Rosanna had to be more genuine, a very difficult task and asking a lot. "I'm sorry for eavesdropping and not minding my own business."
"How did you overhear us in the first place?" It should have been impossible for Miko and Jack to be overheard since they weren't anywhere near Rosanna, let alone, in earshot of any of the Autobots.
"Rosanna has ultra sensitive hearing, a valuable trait for gathering intelligence, but even then there are curses inside a blessing. To a pin dropping from the outside of the base to the sound of a butterfly flapping it's wings, she can hear it all."
"I wear these headphones so I don't overhear anything I'm not suppose to hear." The purpose of her headphones serves to deafen her hearing more than a style accessory. "I heard you whispering about a party when I was scratching my ear. Total mistake."
"Me?"
"If you two wanna keep a secret, you're better off texting." Blaster explains. Wouldn't want another conversation being overheard by the wrong ears again.
"As the saying goes, 'Rosy is nosey'." Eject feels every bit of clever every time he says that.
"Not funny Eject! And you know full well you can't be talking; you have the same job that I do." huffed Rosanna. She's used to Eject teasing as long as it isn't hypocritical.
"I know, but it rhymes."
"I think I'll feel better with the headphones glued shut over her ears." Don't know if Miko meant to mutter that or not, but everyone heard her.
"Same with your mouth." Rosanna hissed, knowing she'd be relieved never having to have headaches from listening to Miko speak. From that, Miko was so very close to jumping on the other teenager until Blaster stepped in front.
"Okay, okay. That's enough. From this point, if you two say anything disrespectful to the other, I'm gonna make the both of ya swap clothes."
The girls groaned in disgust when taking a glance at their future outfits, response going between, "Eww, that's too much pink," and "Eww, that's not enough pink." Rosanna went on about how much Miko's colors would clash with her complexion, and Miko would need to drown Rosanna's clothes in dark colors in order for her to bear wearing it. Nonetheless, hopefully that tactic will prevent any more arguments, at least for a while.
"Eject, you alright?" Jack asked, seeing a bandage on the cheek where Vince had punched Eject.
"Oh, you mean about this," he points to the bandage covering the bruise. "I'm fine. It still stings, but it's not bad."
"Proximity sensors. Are we expecting Fowler today?" Bulkhead asked after Blaster reached the terminals.
When the screen displayed the imagine of what triggered the sensors, it was June's car heading towards the base. "That's my mom's car."
Miko turns back at the Autobots, frowning. "Dudes, did you tell his mom what we did?" The Asian doesn't fear any adults unless they are her actual parents, and then there's June who is mom over all the kids in the base and will enforce punishment better than the Autobots would do.
"Wouldn't be a terrible idea." Miko then received a sarcastic 'way to go' expression from Jack's face. "I think other humans can deliver punishment better than Autobots."
When the car of Nurse Darby enters the base, it parks near the entrance with June stepping out after the vehicle parked. Before she arrived to the area where the Autobots at with the human kids, she had to take out a small cardboard box from the trunk of her car.
"Morning everyone," June had greeted, smiling her best despite how tired she was. Jack haven't seen June this exhausted since she had to work overtime at the hospital for an entire week.
"Mom, are you alright?" The son said to his mother.
"It was a really long night, honey. Nothing your tough mom isn't used to doing." Came another weary reply.
From the corner of his eye, Eject got a glimpse of what was inside of the partially opened box in June's hold. The corner of his mouth formed a confused frown spotting white fabric of some kind of clothing. "Is that Jazz's jacket?"
Rudely, without asking for permission otherwise, Rosanna completely opens the top of the box. "Why do you have Jazz's clothes? Where is he?"
June lets the rude action slide, and answers, "Jazz is fine right now. He's recovering in the med bay." she paused. "His clothes needed to be washed."
"What kind of mess was Jazz in?" Bulkhead questioned June.
"I don't know all the details. I had to stay up last night helping Ratchet and I'm back to check on them." Then June excuses herself, heading for the curtains that hide the inside of the med bay.
"What is going on back there?" when Arcee questioned no one in particular, Jack looked at her.
"Even you guys are all out it?"
"We were busy dealing with you three," Bulkhead started. "And we were all kinda asleep at the time." sleep first then everything else comes later. "'side, Ratchet does a really good job keeping us away from the med bay. If curtains are up, it means he's serious."
"Well, you guys aren't giant robots. Sneaking over there quietly wouldn't be that hard." Miko said as if it were that easy. Well, for her it could be.
"No thank you," Arcee shoots the idea down in a heartbeat. "Ratchet may care for our safety, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't throw a wrench at our heads."
Rosanna partially slide her headphones off her ear, raising a red flag to Blaster. "Rosanna, didn't we just have a talk about eavesdropping?"
The pink minicon faces up at her boss, her expression quite serious. "Aren't you worried about Jazz?"
"Mrs. Darby," Ratchet greets June with a nod, permitting her to stay inside the med bay. Inside, laying on the right berth was Jazz, while on the left was Laserbeak- the Autobots, Optimus and Ratchet who were in the room, didn't know this currently.
"Hello, Ratchet," June sets the box down on a nearby table. "I've washed Jazz's clothes and brought something for the child to wear."
"Did you give Smokescreen the medicine I've gave to you before you left?" Ratchet, before having to work on the surgery, was working on an antidote to accelerate Smokescreen's recovery.
"Yes. He's resting right now after he took some. And how are they today?" June glances over the body of Jazz and Laserbeak. By all appearance, they look like they were sleeping like babies.
Ratchet looks down at the worried nurse and puts her mind at ease. "Thanks to your help, stable and recovering."
June couldn't be anymore relieved to hear good news. With that being said, she needed to know something else. "What happened to them?"
"With all due respect, Mrs. Darby," Optimus speaks to the nurse, "While I am grateful for what you are done, these are matters that shouldn't concern you.
"Optimus, this matters when there's a child involved. When I was called, I thought something happened to the kids again and it scared me to death to see a young boy barely clinging to life."
The Prime doesn't have a choice to deny the knowledge to the human seeing how truly concern she is. "Very well. As I've was told, Wheeljack and Jazz had infiltrated MECH's hideout last night."
"A very foolish move without contacting the base for back up." Ratchet added with a hint of annoyance in his tone, for very good reason.
"MECH? The ones who kidnapped me to get to Arcee?" June haven't forgotten the night she was ambushed by the notorious group.
Optimus nods. "The very same. Our current state right now as techno-organics made Jazz and the other target of interest for MECH."
"But at least we don't have to worry about those scavengers hunting us again. Their head honcho is ten feet until ground right now. Problem solved and happy ending." Wheeljack dismissed the grave atmosphere the Prime was setting up.
And June didn't like how quickly and carelessly Wheeljack tried to mention the bright side of the matter. "A happy ending doesn't end with two people in critical condition in the med bay." she straight up tells the Wrecker Autobot.
"Look, June was it?" Wheeljack's face was know closer to June after kneeling down to the displeased nurse. " Jazz and I knew the risk of doing what we did back there. It was suppose to be a quick get-in-get-out type of situation, sabotage at most, but things turned south. It happens."
"And you didn't think that would have been the time to call for an assist?"
"Assist for what? We handled it."
"Two lives that nearly perished overnight is not what I call handling it!" June stepped forward, giving the Wrecker a closer look of her very unhappy expression.
"There's always a chance for causalities in missions. Like the kid we just rescued. If we didn't show up at all, he would have been dead without anyone of us knowing. Heck, if everything went as originally planned, the kid would have still died, so don't blame me for what happened to him."
"Then what about Jazz? He almost died."
"Keyword: Almost. And I got to him before MECH could do more than cut his side open."
"And we are not faulting what you have done for the rescue," Optimus begins, stopping the argument before it could escalate anymore, it was foolish to go after MECH alone."
Wheeljack shrugs. "They were just tiny humans."
"Humans that were successful of capturing Arcee. Humans that were okay tearing apart Breakdown. Humans that stole Bumblebee's t-cog are not to be taken lightly!" Ratchet cuts in, stressing this out. "This is not the first time you went on a irresponsible mission that nearly cost the lives of one of our own! Bulkhead, Miko, and now you dragged Jazz along in this."
"Wait," June interrupts after hearing Miko was mentioned, "what did he do to put Miko in danger?"
"She stowed along with me to hunt an insecticon."
"And you allowed this?!" June fumed. That was the tipping point. "She's a child, not a Decepticon Hunter!"
"If you're going to give me a lecture about this, then save it. I've already heard it. Twice." Wheeljack made a move to leave the medbay since he antsy told him side if the story.
Although, June wasn't going to let him off the hook so easily, stepping on front of him, dating him to step or walk past her."And you're going to hear it from me again when I say I don't tolerate these kids getting involved in anything risky! "
"I had everything handled and she came back in one piece."
"That's not the point I'm making. I have to trust you and every Autobot here with their lives when I'm not around, and I will not stand you or anyone else putting them danger. I do not want to worry about them getting hurt by Decepticons again!"
"Did I wake up at a bad time?" a low voice rids the tension in the air. It was Jazz. Without his glasses, his milky white eyes were visible. "I can go back to sleep and wait until all of whatever is going on out there to sort out."
"Jazz? Don't get up, you're still recovering." Ratchet warmed.
"I've been through worse…" Jazz reclined on his back after the pain returned from his side.
June advises Jazz to stay put and listen to Ratchet. "Don't move. Those stitches will become undone, and you won't like having stitches fine again."
Even though Jazz couldn't see June, he didn't recognize the new voice. "I'm sorry, but have we met?"
"No. And I wished we could have in better circumstances."
"Well, better now than ever before I black out again."
"June Darby."
"Nice to meetcha. Jazz is the name, although I guess you already knew that. Sorry if I can't give ya a more proper welcome. As you can see, i can't do much here."
"But you did just enough to save all of our hides back there." Wheeljack smiled happily as he gave the compliment.
Jazz returned the smile up to the Wrecker Giant, Able To Pinpoint the position of him by voice. "I wish it was in better style and in less pain."
"Maybe if you two weren't being so reckless this wouldn't had happened." The Autobot Medic, still very annoyed, his spark soften at Jazz awakening up.
"Recklessness isn't the word I'd use. Improvisation is more like it, ain't that right, Wheeljack?" Not even being on a med berth with stitches is going to keep him from joking.
"Good to see you function, shades."
"It may haven't been the best move of what we did," Jazz a dressed this as he could feel the stares of disappointment. "but I know how to make it up with inside MECH information."
"And thanks to Jazz, we don't have to worry about MECH for a long time."
"Jazz, do you have reconciliation of the events before you blacked out?" Optimus asked the special op.
"I remember. Wheeljack and I were infiltrating MECH's hideout. They captured me underground and starting to seest me like nothing after I'd slipped up and got caught. Before i was found out they were…" he just recalls the small child, "where Is the lil guy?!"
"The worst is over. He's alive." Once June told Jazz, he gave a breath of relief.
"Best news I've heard."
"Do you know him?"
"Nope. But I know it's a youngling that didn't deserve to be on a lab table."
Optimus agrees to the statement, later adding, "And that brings us to our next mystery of determining his origins."
"Your guess is as good as mine," The Autobot medic replies, prepared to speak his part. "His systems shows that he's techno-organic, much like you and Jazz, but that doesn't answer where he came from.
"We can keep guessing all day or wait until he wakes up and tell us." Wheeljack knew standing out and guessing wouldn't accomplish much. No one argued with that.
"In the meantime, Jazz, can you tell us what you have discovered if you're able."
"No p, OP."
So far, in the main room of the base away from the curtain-closed off medbay, Rosanna repeated the situation that was occurring in the med bay; Jazz and Wheeljack's secret mission dealing with MECH, Jazz along with a child being injured, June and Wheeljack's back-and-forth…
"Are you sure you're hearing this right?" Bulkhead questioned. It was so much to take in.
"Man, if I knew Wheeljack and Jazz were up to something that cool, I would-"
"Give another reason to why my mom constantly worries about us?" Jack stops Miko mid sentence. "You heard how mad she was when she found out what you and Wheeljack did."
"Okay, so are we going to ignore the time that we had to face Knock Out in a tunnel? Or maybe when we went on a Decepticon warship, twice?" Dang, she's right. "Do you want to tell her all of that?" The 'Miko is right' score went up by one, giving her a grand total of 1.
"Shush, enough chattering, I'm trying to hear what Jazz is saying…" With her headphones off, even a side conversation would qualify as excess chatter. "Wait, I hear footsteps coming towards us." Nurse Darby came into view shortly.
"June? Is everything okay?" Arcee inquired, genuinely concerned.
"Yes… Maybe… I don't know." June wearily sighed. They could have sworn she became more exhausted when she exited the med bay.
"You looked like you had a long night."
"Yeah. There's bags with bags under your eyes."
"Eject, Rosy!" Blaster scolded the minicons.
"No no. They're right. I must look like a mess right now." June softly chuckled. "I should get some shut eye before I have to go to work later." Work never ends for the poor nurse. "Jack, can you come home? I'll need someone to help watch over Smokescreen while I rest."
"Sure thing. And maybe I should drive too." Jack suggested. June loved the idea, letting the boy taking the driver seat. The Darby family said their goodbyes, heads into the car and leaves the base.
"I want to see Jazz now…" Rosanna mentions.
"I know he's not going to have any fun being stuck in the med bay." Eject adds, knowing it isn't Jazz's style to stay in one place.
"Maybe after he's done talking with Optimus." Blaster tells them.
"But this child that they found from mech…" Arcee still ponders over the the kid that Jazz and Wheeljack found. "A techno organic child found at MECH's hideout isn't normal."
"Maybe they were making a cyborg!" Miko blurts out rather excited.
"A cyborg child?" Blaster said incredulously.
"Deadly and cute. No would expect a kid to actual be a cyborg in disguise, that's all I'm saying."
"However, Ratchet clearly said the techno-organic was like us, so MUCH couldn't have created it." Bulkhead reminded.
While speculation was tossed in the air, the terminals beep. Blaster goes to it since Ratchet is otherwise engaged In something else. "Hello?"
"Blaster? Where's Prime?"
"Havin' a lil chat. You need him?"
"Yes. This is very important."
"What's with the seriousness? Did someone miss his morning coffee?" Bulkhead joked in front of the screen, intending for Fowler to hear.
"Very funny." This wasn't a visual call, but most definitely Fowler's eyes rolled. "I was called last night by Prime about MECH's whereabouts."
"Greetings, Agent Fowler." Optimus already knew what the conversation is going to be about. "Have you located MECH?"
"Same results as always: gone without a trace. No bodies, no sign of Silas or his crew anywhere."
"Isn't that great news?" Arcee folds her arms frowning.
"It gets better than that. Prime, you better wear something nice because you and I have a debriefing with my Superior."
"Your Superior wishes to speak with me?" This Is the rare moment of surprise found in the Prime's voice.
"Just to set the record straight about a few things." Agent Fowler didn't say that General Bryce frankly didn't believe and questioned Fowler's sanity. "Hearing that you're now more travel sized, he would want to meet you in person."
"When do we depart?"
"As soon as I arrive."