Chapter Twenty-six: Shock and Awe
It has been two months since Jacquelyn came to a world opposite her own. She has adjusted well considering. Today, she and Jack were planning a surprise party for June. Jack had not failed to notice that, for reasons supposedly unknown, June's eyes started to glow Autobot blue around Cybertronians, he, and Raf from a few weeks now. She continued to deny it, but clearly she and Prime had gotten Bonded. Jack was happy for his Mom, but he still tried his best to avoid details. Those were mental images Jack did NOT want in his mind. Jack smiled as he drove home from another uneventful day as Jacquelyn called him on his comm. "Jack, I'm almost ready with the party. I just need to know where to put the banner." She used her holoform for most of the work and had to consume Energon regularly, but it was worth it. She told him with a smile in her voice. Jack sighed and continued driving. "Put it across the entrance." He said with a smile. Over the comm. link, Jack heard paper crinkling as Jacquelyn picked up a package of some sort. "Jack, did you order Mom a gift?" Jack's Spark skipped a beat as he pushed his accelerator to the floor. "I didn't. Don't open it!" Jack cut the connection and broke a few speed records getting to the house.
As he jumped out of his alt mode, Jack sprinted to the door and almost flew to the table where the parcel lay, undisturbed. Jack glared at it and slowly approached. When he put his right hand on it, he felt a jolt and heard a familiar, sadistic cackle in his adios. "Airacnid…" Jack growled. The way Jack said her guardian's name sent a shiver down Jacquelyn's back. "It's me, Jack." She said in a grand tone that reminded Jack of an actor who was trying to put too much drama into their character. It was really annoying. Jack shook his head with a glare. She seemed to smile wider over his hacked comm. "Tell me, Jack. Where are your mother and daughter?" Jack's ire rose to new levels. "You lay a digit on either of them, and I'll…" Airacnid cut him off with light laughter. "You know how much how much I enjoy sport? Don't you Jack?" Jack fought a barf as he listened to her almost flirtatious tone. He saw a location, coordinates, and a timer appear on his visual. "The clock is ticking, Jack. Good hunting." The way she said it made his stomach roll. It was as if the spiderbot though she was dating him.
Jack shook those thoughts from his mind and ran to his alt mode. He then gunned his engine and went down to the factory. What Jack saw made his Spark and heart stop for a beat or two. On two silos were his Mom on the left of him and two hundred yards away attached to another silo was Crystal. When Crystal saw her dad, she started yelling. "Daddy, save me, please!" Airacnid smiled at him and hissed. "Yes, Jack, choose." She said as she smiled at him with a demented sweetness. Arcee, I need you! Jack yelled at her through their Bond. Jack expected Arcee to jump to his rescue any second. "Aw…Such a shame when you have performance issues." Jack felt Arcee's rage pile on his own and tackled the spiderbot with a yell as he activated his battle suit. "I will rip out your beating Spark!" Trickshot yelled. Airacnid groaned seductively. "How'd you know I like it r-"
The creak of metal brought Trickshot away from his target as he saw the catwalks that held the two cocoons start to give. Damn it! ARCEE! Jack all but screamed through the Bond. His desperate plea was answered by the sound of a Groundbridge and a back tire burning across Airacnid's face. "Go for your Mom. I'll get Crystal." She said as she sped toward their daughter and Trickshot toward his Mom. Airacnid smiled and shot Arcee's alt mode. As Arcee transformed with a scream of pain and slammed into a building, Crystal became frantic. "No!" As Crystal glared at Airacnid, the Sparkling femme felt a pressure grow on her back. When the pain got to the point where the girl almost screamed, the webbing snapped, and Crystal saw the culprit of her pain out of the corner of her optics. Two lightly armored wings spouted out of her back in a "V". The femme glared harder at the target of her rage and poured more Energon into her thrusters which she realized kept her aloft when her cocoon broke. The new Flier shot off like a bullet and slammed into Airacnid with all her strength. The black femme was hit so hard, she fell to the dirt, in a mild stasis lock. "Stay down!" Crystal growled as she started to feel dizzy.
Arcee shook her helm in shock as she sat up and stared at Airacnid's motionless chassis with something hovering over it. When its thrusters started to waver, Arcee realized in a slight panic that the Flier was Crystal and lunged to catch her in a waiting servo. With a tired sigh, Crystal's thrusters shut down, and the femme landed in her mother's servo in a deep recharge. Trickshot looked at his mother with a smile. "Hang on, Mom." He said with a smile. "This could be interesting." Trickshot mumbled as he raised his arm blade to cut the woman free. Trickshot blinked his optics as he calmed down enough to actually think and cut the cocoon's mooring with one arm. June screamed until she realized her restrained body was safe in her son's other servo. Trickshot set June down safely on the ground before he cut her free. Airacnid roused and lunged at the reunited family. Trickshot smirked and cut open the black femme's Spark chamber and glared at it with anger and disgust. Arcee, block Crystal's optics. He thought to her, unaware of his daughter's current state. Regardless, he did not want his daughter to see what he was about to do. Trickshot gripped the Spark, ripped it out of Airacnid, watched her optics dim out, and crushed the still beating Spark.
As June gave Trickshot a thankful smile, he felt panic well up inside him from Arcee and sprinted over to her. The femme jogged over to him and was careful not to drop Crystal in the process. "We need a Bridge, Ratchet." Trickshot yelled over his comm. link. "It's Crystal." The Groundbridge opened and the normally grumpy and solitary Medic took Chrystal gently in his servo and carried her to a waiting medical berth. He gave a slight smile to little femme as he hooked her to an IV drip of Energon with June's help. "So you're a Flier?" He mused aloud as he looked at the worried parents. Jack shed his suit and was now on the berth and gripped Chrystal's right hand as he looked at her worriedly. Ratchet noted the worry on both Jack and Arcee's faces. He looked at them kindly. "She'll be alright. The strain of using her thrusters at full power without practice pushed her Energon reserves to critical. She needs to rest and refuel. Then, she will be 100%." He told them as Jack and Arcee took a collective sigh of relief.
Then, Jack had a question. "Ratchet, how is Crystal a Flier?" The Medic shook his head with a slight smile. "That's a complex subject, but basically, it boils down to genetics, the same way a Sparkling is either a mech or femme." He said with a smile. "She will need larger Energon rations because of her thrusters, but with practice, her body will become more efficient with the Energon." Arcee and Jack nodded in understanding. Jack sighed. "Who's going to teach her?" He asked a little scared for his daughter. Ratchet grinned. "Jack, I was looking over your and Raphael's scans. Both of you have thrusters on your peds, and you can fly if you need to in an emergency." Jack's eyes went wide. "Uh…Ratchet, are you sure about this?" He asked. Ratchet sighed. "Really, all she needs to do is fly around some…like when you were learning to use your blasters." Ratchet told Jack as Crystal began to wake.
She sat up and looked around in confusion. "What happened?" Crystal asked sleepily. "You protected me." Arcee told her daughter with a proud smile. "Really?!" Crystal asked as her eyes glowed with delight. After she slid off the berth with Jack's help, Crystal walked up to Miko and flexed her wings. The movements got Miko's attention and made her head shoot up from her phone. Once Miko saw the wings, she jumped back and yelled, "'CON!" That brought blasters to bear around the room. Bulkhead saw what was going on and sighed as he disengaged his blaster. "Not all Decepticons are Fliers, Miko. Knockout and Breakdown both have cars for vehicle forms." Miko blinked and looked apologetically at the girl as Crystal tried to take her human form but couldn't because of her wings. This caused her to start to cry as she ran to Jack. By the time she plowed into him, she was a fountain of tears. "D-daddy…I d-don't want to be a 'Con!" She said as she heaved down air and cried into Jack's shoulder. Jack shot Miko a deadly glare as Miko mouthed, "I'm sorry." Jack continued to glare at her even as Optimus walked into the Ops area. It was almost unsettling how fast the Prime reacted when Crystal was upset. June wasn't that far ahead of Prime, but she knelt by the trembling femme.
Jack smiled and wiped the tears from Crystal's optics. She looked up at Jack as he opened his mouth to speak. "'Autobot' or 'Decepticon' is a choice." He said as pulled her close. She stopped shaking and smiled. "You can ask Optimus for more, Sweetheart." He told her with a smile. She looked up at Optimus who gave her a nod and a smile. His voice was surprisingly gentle as he picked the femme up in a servo and lifted her to optic level. "The choice is always yours." He said as his smile widened. AS Optimus set Crystal down of the floor, a blue 2014 Mustang came into the base. Optimus chuckled. "I asked Jacquelyn to move the party here." Optimus said to Jack's confused look. Jacquelyn transformed and yelled, "Happy birthday, Mom." The woman's eyes widened and began to glow especially as a certain Prime knelt and pulled a necklace made of a silvery metal out of his subspace compartment and gave it to her. As she put it on, their eyes and optics intensified for a brief second. "Happy birthday, June." The Prime said as he looked at her.
While the festivities were going on, a ship landed on Luna. The ramp from the strange, angular craft landed on the dirt and stirred ancient dust. Light from inside the ship poured out to show a feminine silhouetted figure disembark from the ship. As she stared at the Earth, a frown formed on her lips. She gave an all clear as ten other's followed suit. "Why are we here, Solaris?" The tallest mech asked. "Vector, our old enemy awakens."
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