Disclaimer: I don't own Ghost in the Shell or Transformers, just my OC's and the plot.
SPARK IN THE SHELL
CHAPTER 36: HOT WAX AND SMALL TALK
"Now...you all know what to do, you've got the soap, you've got the hose, you've got the buckets and you've all got sponges, squeegee's and towels, and when we get back tonight I expect to see my reflection his aft plates! The Major has assured me that unless there's a state of national emergency, you four twits are staying here for the rest of the day to think about what you did! You have permission to stop for lunch and bathroom breaks, but otherwise, I suggest you get scrubbing!" Morri reprimanded sternly as she strode off towards Bumblebee and climbed in next to Mikaela and Hailey.
"Why the hell am I being punished here? I didn't even throw a single a punch!" Sam retorted in a mild panic
"Because Witwicky, It'll teach you to think better about letting mister Terminator over there talk you into it!...honestly Sam, you are SUCH a little girl!" the 22 year old gestured over to Batou, who simply stood on the spot with a mock hurt expression on his face.
"I don't get it why the hell did the Major let you pick this out?" Miles asked
"Kid, would YOU rather let the Major deal the punishment?" Batou asked with a deadpan look, at that Miles and the others winced at the thought of the Major handing down some iron fisted punishment for them. Various nasty little thoughts tugged at their minds as they imagined fates far worse than this.
The day before was supposed to have been a day for section 9 to assess just what the kids could do out in the field, the Major's assessment of Morri and Mikaela had passed with flying colours, and Togusa's assessment of Tom and the Waineright sisters had been a success, even Danny, Darren and Glen had proven to be class A hackers by Ishikawa and Boma's account.
Batou's assessment however, had proven to be quite...interesting to say the least.
After they managed to obtain the necessary Intel and make a quick and (somewhat less than) discreet getaway before the local police showed up, Batou, Ashley, Sam and Miles returned to section 9 HQ looking like they had just been through the battle of the Somme in one quick go. Both the Major and Morri were stunned, speechless (at first) and puzzled. The four of them were a mess, covered in cuts, scrapes, blood stains (most of which were not theirs), gun powder residue (from when the yakuza thugs brought out their fully automatics loaded with heavy armour-piercing rounds, fortunately Ashley's force field saved them from being turned into Swiss cheese), soot (from when, as a last resort, they threw a grenade at them and blew them clear out of the building, they were on the 8th floor of an apartment block), and torn pieces of laundry (from the dry-cleaners they crashed into on the ground floor, the rest of their injuries were from the beatings they got courtesy of the ladies washing their undergarments who thought they were a bunch of perverts). Needless to say, even the Major couldn't believe their explanation, even when Batou had to share his external memory of the whole event; the others fell over one another as they watched it on the main monitor in the debriefing room. Glen nearly choked when a piece of doughnut got stuck in his throat whilst laughing, prompting one the Tachikoma's to attempt the Heimlich manoeuvre on him, Ishikawa laughed so hard he had to lie down for over 20 minutes and Frenzy giggled so fast his CPU nearly fried and had to be put in the canteen refrigerator to cool down (literally) for over an hour. Everyone else just fell over one another in a fit of paralyzing laughter, even the other Autobots (who were parked in the HQ parking lot) accidently set off their own car alarms as they laughed so hard too. After the whole section had calmed down the Major decided to let Morri deal the punishment, saying:
"At this point its better you then me, I'm just going to be too cruel..."
No-one said anything, and the boys and ex-ranger certainly didn't argue.
Which had lead to this current situation, it was the following day and Batou had been ordered the day before to report to the underground safe house first thing in the morning. He, along with Sam, Ashley and Miles were giving the task of giving Deathshot a thorough wash and wax from nose cone to tail fin. Standing in a line with buckets and sponges in hand, looking up at the 30 foot Autobot sniper, the four of them gawked as they realised just how mush armour there was on him to wash, Deathshot merely smirked down at them with a distinct 'it's your own fault you got into this' look with his arms folded.
"D, you're in charge, and don't let them sweet-talk you into slacking off!" Morri called up to him as Bumblebee rode alongside his foot.
"Don't worry, they're not going anywhere" he grinned
"And if they do escape, we'll go an' drag 'em back!" Sideswipe piped up from behind the sniper's broad wings, to which the sniper's grin dropped and was replaced with a deadpan look, the red twin never failed to get on his nerves.
"See you guys later!" Morri simply said as Bumblebee followed Jazz and the others up the ramp and out of safe house, when the ramp finally closed up, the four guys looked up back up at Deathshot and sighed.
"Well, I recommend that if you want to be finished by tonight, you better get scrubbing..." Deathshot said as he took a step back and transformed back into his alt mode and situated himself into the centre of the underground garage. Near the computer terminals Jetfire was still recharging in his alt mode and the Lambo twins had both sat down by the wall, each with an energon cube in hand, ready to keep an optic on the four humans whilst Scorponok sat curled up in the corner under some tarpaulins, his only means of retreating 'underground' on account he didn't like to burrow through concrete, he found it was too hard on his claws. Batou looked down at the assortment of buckets, cleaning solutions, sponges, squeegee's, mops and the long hose that was hooked up to the safe houses water supply, and passed a deep sigh.
"Alright, were would you like us to start?" he huffed
"Anywhere you please, I'm not particularly bothered...although, my top side guns could do with a good wash" Deathshot recommended via his loud speakers on the side compartments of his canopy. "Alright, forward plasma lazars or rear anti-aircraft guns?" Ashley asked, "Start with the front most one's, that way you can work your way to my rear quarters" the sniper replied. Batou propped a ladder against the side of his nose cone and climbed up onto the top of the sniper's canopy and wings, from where he stood he could see just how big Deathshot's alt mode really was, as the sniper swung his main wings out the ex-ranger estimated the wingspan to be 50 to 55 feet across whilst his fore-wings were about 25 feet across, it was certainly impressive. Behind him Sam, Miles and Ashley climbed up with a couple of buckets, sponges and mops in hand and placed them behind the base of the cockpit. After a few minutes filling up the buckets with both ordinary and soapy water, the four humans rolled up their sleeves and got to work; Deathshot popped open a pair of small elongated compartments on either side of the front of his cockpit and two long black gun barrels slid out with a whir and locked in place with a thunk. Further back along the fuselage at the base of his vertical tail fin, Deathshot opened another two compartments and produced two larger and slightly more stocky looking guns that clanked into place, the four humans spit up into pairs, Batou and Ashley took the frontal guns whilst Sam and Miles took the rear ones and together they got started. By this time the sounds of creaking rusted metal and squeaky unoiled joints alerted them to Jetfire, who had woken up and transformed back into mech mode, as he stretched his wings and arms upwards various flakes of rusted metal fell off him, even his vents and air-intakes clanked and whirred like an old broken down engine as he passed the Autobot equivalent of a big yawn of air out of his after burners. Looking around the garage area, he noticed the four humans perched on top of Deathshot's fuselage.
"Hmmm, so this is your punishment for your little escapades yesterday eh?" he smirked as he grabbed his walking stick and ambled over. Ashley blinked in surprise.
"You knew she had this in mind?" the 12 year old exclaimed in disbelief.
"Well of course, your femme cousin was rather ticked off last night, and her recharge bunk is right next to my recharge space, I could hear her entire rant through the air vent in the wall" the old seeker replied
"Yeah! She made Sunny look like a turbo-mouse the way she was about to blow a few fuses!" Sideswipe peeped up, which quickly got him a smack around the back of his helm from his brother. Ashley dropped his head for a brief second before looking back up at the seeker with a slight look of regret on his face.
"She was really that angry? I know we kinda got a little carried away yesterday but it's not like we totally screwed it up" he said
"Yeah dude, I mean, we got the Intel and managed to get away?" Miles concurred
"Yeah? Only AFTER we got blown outta the apartment and landed in that dry cleaners full of 40-something year old house-wives who beat the crap outta us because they thought we were there to sniff their g-strings and y-fronts! Not to mention we couldn't use our BSHB's because we could've blown our cover right there and then!" Sam retorted in annoyance. Ashley looked at him with a deadpan face.
"If you're still sore about that fat lady nearly slicing your nuts off I've already said I'm sorry! How was I supposed to know she had a set of straight razors in her purse?" Ashley argued
"At least you didn't get bitten by that little old lady!" Miles piped in
"The one with the walking stick and the glasses that were several sizes too big? I thought she had false teeth? I found' em on the floor" said Sam
"That was after she spat them at me from across the room and they bit me on the neck! Dude, I swear she was like Dracula's Grandma or some' thin!" the blond teen replied as he rubbed the sore bite mark on the side of his neck
"Oh, so that's where you got the love bite?..." Batou teased with a grin.
"I don't know why you're looking so pleased; didn't that lady in the pink overcoat try to land you one in the nuts with that bra loaded with a pair of watermelons?" Ashley smirked
"He nearly did, I barely got outta the way before he went flying out the front door and into that lamp-post" the ex-ranger sniggered
"But you-Wait a minute HE? She was a HE? How did you-" Sam squeaked in surprise
"I grabbed his overcoat to try and stop him, but part of the skirt ripped and I uh, accidently got a peek between his legs" Batou winced with a painful looking grin, secretly wishing he'd have let the guy fall and never know. They all stopped and looked between one another in surprise, then broke out into laughter. Jetfire merely rolled optics as he strode over to the portable mini energon processor and poured himself a small cube of the pink stuff.
"Well, even if the girls gave us a right royal chewing out, at least it was fun!" Ashley chuckled
"Yeah if your idea of a fun day out is beating up a load of yakuza punks" Sam replied in a deadpan tone.
"Aw come on Witwicky!...look, the important thing is that we got out alive and with all our extremities intact" Ashley reassured
"And considering how well those pricks were armed, compared to us with our bare fists, it shows just how well we had it covered" Batou concurred, Sam simply glared at him but said nothing, he wasn't in the mood to argue today and simply returned to scrubbing down the rear guns.
"I have to admit Ashley, I was somewhat worried from where I was hovering, but from the BSHB bio readings I could see you were doing fairly well in terms of your hand to hand combat, I guess Ravage's teachings really paid off" Deathshot said via his loudspeakers.
"I have to say, his high level melee skills certainly got the job done, though it was hard to learn them on account I don't have a tail" Ashley grinned
"Hey that's something I've been meaning to ask you, how did Ravage become your combat teacher in the first place?" Batou asked curiously
"Well, after I first learnt how to master the BSHB Jazz and D agreed he could be my combat teacher, he made a good point of saying that it was better that I learn how to use it responsibly rather then not know and inadvertently cause an accident" Ashley replied
"Makes sense, but what if you weren't allowed to use it? Could it easily be removed?" Batou asked
"Of course it can be removed, but suffice to say the machine to do that is back in our world, the BSHB isn't just stuck to the top layer of skin, its physically bonded to the human body's major systems, if it were to be simply ripped out you'd run the risk of sending the nervous system into shock, or worse" Deathshot replied, at that, Batou quirked an eyebrow. "So, you guys were first freaked out at the fact I'm a cyborg yet you had an alien device strapped into your bodies this whole time?" he continued, Sam and Miles looked at one another in bemusement as they both suddenly realized the irony of the ex-ranger's observation.
"Damn! Why didn't we see THAT before?" Sam said offhand
"You only JUST realized that?" Ashley replied, Batou looked at them and simply grinned, "Dude, at this point, I don't think it really matters anymore, what's one bit of alien tech thrown in with a cyberpunk world?" Miles grinned
"Cyberpunk?" Batou asked
"Never mind, I'll let the twins explain that one, their all into manga and anime" Ashley piped in. After a while the guys finished cleaning the guns, Deathshot folded them away and they got started on the rest of the fuselage and canopy.
"...You know I've been thinking..." Mile said offhand
"Uh oh! Run for cover!" Ashley joked; Mile shot him a sarcastic look.
"Yeah yeah, anyway; I was thinking, when Wheeljack finally gets the DRD working again and he and the others manage to come through to this world, if we're still investigating those four creeps by the time they come, what do we tell them? It's not like we can just the whole thing and just go back" Miles said, the others stopped and looked up at him for a brief second in thought.
"I'm sure Prime will understand when we explain it all, and I'm sure he wouldn't make us abandon our responsibility's, after all, he would do no less that's for sure" Jetfire replied
"But it does beg the question, what will happen when they do eventually come for us? Besides the military presence at the dome to contend with, there's also the fact that they won't have any idea about what technology the humans of this world have. Even though they were primitive, those HAW-206 tanks were much better built and re-enforced than the A1 Abram's tanks back at NEST, and those choppers that came for us at the first safe house were pretty formidable, even I had a little trouble keeping up with their manoeuvrability" Deathshot replied
"YOU had trouble keeping up with the Jigabatchi's? Seriously? You were like an eagle taking on a sparrow the way you were slicing them up with those talon's of yours! I actually felt sorry for the pilots in those choppers that night they came for us" Batou exclaimed in amazement
"Well I have to say; those Jigabatchi's are certainly capable of holding their own against a ground-based opponent, but suffice to say, I was built to take on far bigger machines in airborne battles and compared to a lot of Decepticon's I've put down over the eons they would come close to passing for decent scout drones" the sniper replied casually
"Do you really have to be so modest? It's unbecoming of a sniper like you" Sunstreaker said with an impassive glare
"Wow Sunny, since when did you start paying compliments?" Sam said as he hosed down the topside of Deathshot's right wing; the golden warrior merely glared at the teen with a cold look.
"He never compliments anyone, and when he does, he'll only say it to slag them off" Sideswipe quipped
"Why doesn't he like humans anyway? The rest of you guys are pretty decent but why not him?" Batou whispered to Sam as the thumbed towards Sunstreaker behind him. Sunstreaker heard him but simply folded his arms and huffed through his vents in annoyance (it hadn't been the first time some human had asked one of the other bot that question).
"Because I honestly don't see why the slag we have to bother with such a primitive species that can't go more than 10 years at a time without a war of some kind, the fact you haven't blown yourselves into extinction by now is truly incredible..." Sunstreaker replied curtly, Batou couldn't help but feel a mix of annoyance and guilt as he remembered his days during the fourth world war, back when he ran with the Rangers. The atrocities inflicted on the innocent thanks in part to the CIA's project sunset. Maybe he was right, maybe war was something; that in some twisted and unfathomable way humanity couldn't seem to live without, it made him feel a soft pang of shame somewhere deep inside.
"Oh pay no attention to his slag! You're not the first organic sentient being he's slagged off, and you certainly won't be the last! Some bots just can't appreciate the fact that organic life on some worlds is capable of attaining sentience. Don't forget, there was once a time in our people's history when the idea of organic life becoming sentient was laughed at, no-one would ever take you seriously if you asked!" Jetfire replied as he took another swig from his cube.
"I suppose that makes sense in way, there was a time long ago when humans thought the whole earth was flat" Batou thought aloud.
"You actually thought the earth was flat!-" Sideswiped exclaimed in surprise before he keeled over onto the floor in a fit of laughter, his brother merely rolled his optics and huffed as Jetfire looked on unimpressed.
"Anyway; what was your home planet like before the war?" Batou asked
"Ahh, it was a glorious sight to behold..." Jetfire said as he held up his hand and activated his hologram projector, an enormous ten meter high image of Cybertron materialized in mid-air next to Deathshot's right wing, the four human males stopped scrubbing as they looked up at the image in wonder, Batou was in awe at how intricate the surface of the planet was. It looked as if it were covered by an endless city with tiny pointed spires reaching up into the atmosphere, like rows and rows of pins and needles; on certain areas of the sphere were vast areas of silvery-grey flat ground with pattered lines and cybertronian glyphs embedded in the ground, similar to the Nazca lines of Peru, the whole planet looked more like a vast endless computer-like entity rather than a sphere of rock.
"That's Cybertron?" Batou breathed
"Oh yes, this right here was the planet's capital city state of Iacon, where I got my first upgrade..." Jetfire pointed to a large area on the Northern hemisphere very near the North Pole, Batou noticed a large looking structure right on the North Pole of the planet that seemed to be a pyramid shaped pagoda of some kind with four tall towers on each of its corners.
"What's that structure right at the top?" he asked
"That? Ah, that was the temple of Primus; and the seat of the Allspark, this was where its power flowed into the whole planet" Jetfire replied, the hologram changed, showing a close-up of the temple itself. The entire complex seemed vast as the main temple seemed to stretch high into the strange blueish-orange sky. The building itself was surreal and unrealistic as it looked more like seven pyramids piled on top of one another, each pyramid getting smaller the further up it went, the entire surface was covered in intricate detailed images depicting various cyberonian scenes, tall bipedal bots interacting with other strange creatures and various star like shapes intertwined with cybertronian writing. The buildings four corner were flanked by tall towers that resembled the Chrysler building with warped arches covering their surfaces. A huge wall surrounded the building in a vast wide circle, its only opening being a tall gate flanked by two hexagon-shaped towers and two huge robot-like statutes either side of the entrance. Within the circular complex was a forest of silver tree-like structures similar to the North American redwoods, tiny pathways snaked in and out and connected to a series of smaller towers whose tops barely reached above the treetops. It was more than just impressive, it seemed to actually have a spiritual essence to it, as though one were gazing at the Taj Mahal or wandering through Vatican City, though it was only a hologram, it seemed to hold a power all of its own, and simply looking at seemed to send a feeling of some sort of spirituality through the mind.
"Wow, you've never told us about THAT place before?" Miles said as he leaned in to have a closer look
"You never bothered to ask!" the seeker replied
"That's the temple of Primus? I heard Perceptor talk about once, said it was kinda like the Vatican, you know, the centre and birthplace of the Order of Primus?" Sam said offhand
"Indeed, this is place where the Allspark breathed life into our world after creating it, and this was where Optimas and Megatron originally resided" Jetfire replied
"Megatron? But I thought you said he was the one who started the war?" Batou asked offhand
"He was, but he was also Prime's brother, they were sparked merely 5 solar cycles apart making Megatron the eldest sibling, of course this fact wasn't well known to the general populous, and most couldn't believe it anyway considering how stark their differences in personality's were" the old seeker replied, Batou eyebrows flew up in surprise.
"Megatron was his brother?" he breathed in amazement
"That's what we said when Ultra Magnas first told us, talk about being the black sheep of the family, it was bad enough Megatron wanted to use the Allspark for universal conquest, the fact he was Prime's own flesh and blood, so to speak, made it all the more personal for him...no wonder he wasn't keen to talk about the subject too much when we asked" said Sam as he mopped a section of Deathshot's wing
"That was just the half of it. It was bad enough Prime had to go up against his own brother, but he had to protect his sister from him too" Jetfire replied, everyone's ear's/audio's pricked up at the last nine words he spoke, the twins leaned in closer while the three human boys stood bolt up in surprise, the metal under their feet jolted slightly as Deathshot too had been taken aback by this revelation.
"What?"
"A sister?"
"Prime had a sister?" asked Sideswipe
"Not just any sister, she was Megatron's TWIN sister..." he replied with a cryptic look in his red optics, the Lambo twins were stunned, for once Sunstreaker didn't know what to say.
"I don't recall ever coming across the mention of Megatron having a sister?" Deathshot mused aloud
"That's because Prime made sure there never was, he went to great lengths to protect her and her daughters from her brother's wrath, which included expunging all the data records of their existence and whereabouts" Jetfire replied
"But...why? What happened? And who was she?" Ashley asked, Jetfire leaned back against the wall, took a long swig of energon from his cube and heaved sigh through his vents.
"Her name was Majestrix Prima and she was the first femme in Cybertronian history to be in line for the title of Prime on account she was a descendant of the first original Primes. When they were younglings she and Megatron used to be fairly close, being twins naturally they shared everything together, but when Optimus was sparked and first came online he so jealous of his little brother getting all the attention, so she used to protect him from his older brother's bullying. As time went on and they grew older their sibling rivalry levelled out and when the time came that they were named the new Primes and guardians of the Allspark they actually got along okay, albeit Optimas had to keep his brother in check on account of his temper. For a long time there was peace upon our world and all was fairly well...but, good things never last long and over time Megatron began change; he became more recluse, more edgy, and more volatile. He and Prime began to argue more over how they should govern the planet as well as other things, but what really alarmed everyone was how he began to shut Majestrix out, even blocking her spark link out..." Jetfire explained; the twins stared in morbid horror at the ancient seeker.
"What's wrong with you two?" Batou asked offhand
"Is that supposed to be a joke? HE BLOCKED OUT THEIR SPARK LINK! That's like, we always knew he was evil, but it proves he was ULTRA EVIL beyond all measure!" Sideswipe shouted in a mix of rage and hurt, the humans jumped back as his voice echoed loudly around the hanger.
"Geez! Do you HAVE to be so loud?" Sam replied as he rubbed his ears, then huffed in annoyance as he suddenly realised he just rubbed his ears with wet soapy hands.
"What he means is...do you remember back at the first safe house Bumblebee explained how twin sparks are formed?" Jetfire asked, "Yeah, he did mention that" Batou replied, "When twin sparks are formed, they're essentially the same spark split down the middle so they pulsate on the exact same wavelength, a wavelength that retains a subtle yet potent link between the sparks so no matter how far apart they are the sparks are always aware of each of other's presence; essentially this make's cybertronian twins empathic, if one is happy the other becomes happy and so on, which is why you never see these twits far away from each other..." Jetfire gestured to the twins "Severing the link requires a powerful will, angry, painful, even hurtful emotions in order to drive the other twin away. The fact Megatron managed to shut out his twin sister's spark link without incurring the usual feelings of loneliness, despair and sorrow that follows the severing, gave everyone involved at the time a real impression into the depth of his mental state" Jetfire sighed
"So that's why it's so terrible for you two, being rejected by your own twin wouldn't just hurt emotionally, it would literally feel like you lost part of your soul" Batou said offhand in a solemn tone as he looked over at the two twins sat close to one another, Sunstreaker hung his head impassively as Sideswipe put his arm around his brothers shoulder with a sympathetic look in his blue optics.
"Sunny is so much more than my brother, in all the time we've been fighting he's ALWAY'S been there to cover my back...when the war first started and our home was attacked we lost everything and the only thing we really had left is each other...Sunny doesn't get ticked off easily because he has sociopathic tendencies like most the humans back at NEST think, it's because he can't stand the idea that if I die, he won't just lose part his spark but he'll lose everything else that he's tried to hold on to, including hope..." Sideswipe said honestly, his brother snapped his head back up in alarm as he realised what he just said, despite his desire to whack him hard over the head, the fact that the others all heard it only filled him with embarrassment. The others however, didn't find it to be a laughing matter; they simply gazed at the two twins with a sense of sympathy. Sam in particular, after having listened to Sideswipes words had suddenly gained a new perspective of them, they weren't simply a pair of trouble makers that delighted in making a mess of things, they were brothers who shared each other's essence, and because of that it made both of them whole. Feeling compelled by a guilt, he stepped over to the very tip of Deathshot's wing, balancing in the tip of the swallow wing appendage, he got as close to the twins as possible and in particular Sunstreaker, this time the golden warrior acknowledged him with a simple impassive sideways glance, neither glairing nor casual.
"Hey, whatever hard feelings there were, I don't think they matter anymore. I just thought you were being a jerk for the sake of it, but...now I know better, and I'm sorry buddy..." he said hesitantly, Sunstreaker simply looked at him, his face still impassive. But rather then scowl this time; he simply averted his gaze back to the opposite wall. "Just don't call me buddy" he replied listlessly, Sam allowed a small smile to cross his lips and went back to cleaning Deathshot as he threw a bucket of water over part of his left wing 'fine by me' the teen thought to himself in satisfaction.
"What just happened?" Batou whispered to Ashley
"Sam was the first human Sunny ever met and they didn't hit it off too well. I think some water just went under the bridge between those two, its okay, I think they'll be fine" Ashley replied.
"So like? Why did Megatron start blocking out his sister's spark link? If that was any indication of him being the universe's biggest evil dude ever then why didn't anyone act on it?" Miles asked.
"On the contrary, it revealed a much darker secret that Megatron had been hiding...he had been absorbing energy from the Allspark; drinking up its power and gaining it's infinite knowledge in an attempt to overthrow Prime and take over cybertron. But what he didn't appreciate was the danger involved; that all that energy would corrupt his spark and warp his mind. The Allspark wasn't just a great source of power; it was a living sentient entity that contained the source of the essence of all life, both living and dead" Jetfire replied
"Living and dead? But dead things aren't alive" Batou said offhand
"Aren't they? If there's one thing I've learnt in my long lifetime is that life and death are intricately woven together in harmony, they define one another and are a part of the great mechanism of how this entire universe functions, one cannot know life unless they know death, ergo, you cannot be truly alive unless you die. Death is merely a phase of this never ending cycle and when the physical body of a life form naturally expires and dies, the life force that powered and gave life to that body shifts to a new level of existence, becoming a part of the life-force of all things. Most beings fundamentally don't understand this and usually meet it with fear and ignorance, only if their willing to meet their end, usually on the battlefield or as a sacrifice to spare the lives of loved ones, do they truly see the greater picture of their place in the cycle of life and death" Jetfire continued in more revering tone
"How do you know that?" Sideswipe asked with a quirked optic ridge, Jetfire looked at him with a sideways glance then dropped his gaze to the floor deep thought.
"...When I was still a sparkling, I was fortunate enough to be taken to the Temple of Primus by my creators, there I was taken before the great cube to be blessed by its vest all knowing power. In the brief instance that I lay my finger upon its surface it unveiled a tiny piece of its infinite wisdom, in that one tiny second I understood why life and death are so, they are not the toying's or whims that gods play with at their own leisure's, but necessary and vital elements to how the universe functions as a whole...and though I can't be sure because it must have been my youthful imagination filling in the gaps from all those long eons ago, I think I felt the presence of Primus himself..." Jetfire said as he stared off into the middle of the hanger, his mind playing back the vague memories of those far and distant days.
"Who's Primus?" Batou asked
"God, as he is to them" Ashley simply replied, a moment of silence passed through the hanger before Batou asked: "So, what happed to Prime's sister?" Jetfire snapped himself from out of his musings and leaned forward slightly.
"...After Prime discovered what Megatron had done he was furious. He fought his brother and threw him out of the temple, telling him never to come back, but not before Majestrix had pleaded with Prime to give him a second chance, being his sister she thought she could help him, heal their spark bond and break him from his dilutions; being of the fairer of the two brothers Prime was reluctant, but allowed her to help him. But what she didn't realize was just how corrupted and twisted her brother's mind had become, no sooner was he allowed back in the temple he attacked her and tried to rip her spark chamber out, but fortunately she took after him too much and she was able to fight him off singlehandedly, but not before he tried to kill her daughters...From what I heard it was a terrible fight, the younglings barley got away with their lives, Majestrix had been badly injured during the fight and Prime had to stop his brother from profaning the temple...Majestrix was left broken and bitter at what her brother had tried to do to her, so hurt in fact that she severed the spark link all together...not long after Megatron came back but this time with great force, it turned out that in all the time he had been accessing the Allspark's energy he had been secretly building an army that numbered in the thousands...that was the day the war begun, when Megatron ordered the genocide of the all the femmes and sparklings...after the first attacks on Iacon Majestrix so wanted to put her brother down again, but she knew she couldn't drag her daughters in the conflict so Prime helped to make arrangements so that they could get clear of the planet, in the process Majestrix made arrangements of her own, after gathering together a company of other bots and femmes seeking sanctuary, she left cybertron and left the war behind" Jetfire said in a more rueful tone
"Where did she go?" Deathshot asked
"No one knows, a whole load of rumours were put out to throw off any spies that might have been trying to pick up her trail, some said she retreated to the Valpax Sii system, other's said she made a quick stop at the Galfrexian out-post before it was attacked, but one rumour that kept reoccurring was that she joined up with some other bots to form a paramilitary outfit, one that fought from behind the Decepticon's front lines. Whether that was true or not is anybody's guess, there so many other stories flying around back then that in the end it didn't seem to matter, it was just all chaos" the old seeker continued as he downed the last of his energon and passed a deep sigh through his vents.
"Do you think, now that the wars finally she might find her way to earth...and her brother?" Miles asked
"...It's hard to say, no-one has seen her since before the war, and after everything that happened between her and her brothers I'm not sure if she'll be joyous that Megatron is dead or enraged at the fact she wasn't the one who got to deal him the death blow; considering how much she had in common with her twin brother I'm inclined to think the latter...but wherever she is, I hope she's found a measure of peace in her life" Jetfire smirked, Sam shifted uncomfortably, suddenly realizing that a female version of Megatron somewhere back in his universe, and that (heaven forbid she ever found out) she might be wanting to squish him for killing her brother, just so she could kill him herself? 'Man, no wonder Prime doesn't like to talk about his family' he thought as he kept on scrubbing the metal plating on Deathshots canopy, trying not to think too hard about it.
The rest of the morning past by at a slow pace, eventually the four humans completed cleaning Deathshot's entire topside and soon it was time for lunch. Batou went out with Sideswipe to get some pizzas and soon the four humans settled down for a bite to eat, sitting down on some fold out chairs under Deathshots undercarriage.
"So how much have we got left to do D-man?" Miles asked as he stuffed his mouth with a slice of ham and pineapple
"There's the wings, undercarriage, undercarriage doors, air intakes, booster rims and the gun port sensors. Not much really" the Autobot sniper teased
"Oh yeah, not a whole lot there D" Ashley replied sarcastically as he took a bite of his pepperoni
"Hey come we got the whole topside done let's not get the mood down now" said Batou
"So? What's been playing on your processor?" Deathshot asked
"Huh?"
"I may be in alt mode but I know the wavelengths of a busy CPU when I detect them, even if it's organic...so what's been on your CPU?" the sniper replied, Batou looked up at jet and passed a weary smile
"Just little things really, I find it weird yet funny how you guys use different words in comparison to us; like, a brain is a CPU, sleeping is recharging and a fuel tank is a stomach, etc. Considering the physiological differences between our species it's not surprising but it's still surreal to hear it you know" said Batou
"That's one of the many things that sticks out when you first hang with the guys, but I found it's proven to be one of those things that either keep's sticking out or you get used to it, it purely depends with how easily ticked off you get" Miles shrugged as he took a slice of ham and mushroom
"I remember Ratchet and Perceptor's lectures on human biology 101, and how they roped us into helping out by being the 'show and tell' portion of the talks; I'll never forget the looks on their faces when Ratchet lectured on reproduction and digestion..." Miles grinned, the lambo twins however looked like they wanted to purge their tanks as a look of dread crossed their faces.
"Please, that STILL gives me bad memory reruns!" Sideswipe pleaded
"What struck me about that lecture was just how simplistic your fuel tank format is, one long continuous tube that consists of specialized tissues and organic acid and enzyme compounds, really weird, but highly effective at processing organic fuels" Jetfire commented offhand
"Well that is kindda the point, the fundamental rule of evolution is that you adapt to your environment and make the most of what's available, we evolved according to organic standards, you evolved to be mechanical, it's not rocket science" Ashley replied
"But it's still bizarre" Sunstreaker mumbled
"I remember when we taught D how to paddle for the first time; that was a laugh!" Ashley chuckled, Batou quirked an eyebrow as the image of the giant 30 foot sniper paddling on a beach began to play in his mind, a grin spread across his face at just how funny it must have been.
"For you perhaps, but I wasn't sure if that seal wanted to attack me or just leer at me!" the sniper retorted
"A seal?" Sam asked
"Six words; don't piss off a horny seal. Especially if they happen to be a beach master with a harem of females nearby" Ashley smirked
"Dude, you have seals where you live?" Miles asked
"Load's of 'em, we live on the coast so we see them all the time, our garden leads right down to the water front so they sometimes use our beach as a haul out sight during the breeding season" Ashley replied
"You have your own beach? Dude, why've you been holding out on us?" Miles grinned
"It's not a big beach, just somewhere we haul our little boats out during the winter and swim and play on in the summer, and it's big enough for D land on when he comes round" Ashley replied
"Must be nice to live by the sea, living near desert all year round all we ever see is sand, rocks and cacti and spend our summers sweating out the heat" Sam said
"We get sea storms from January through to March so we spend our winters shivering and hiding from the cold, what about you?" Ashley asked Batou
"Well, since New Port is on the south western side of Japan we see a lot of dry summers, a lot of rain between spring and summer and a hell of a lot of snow in winter" the ex-ranger replied
"I remember when we saw snow for the first time last winter; it was so...surreal, everything was covered in pure whiteness. I've been on many worlds but I'd never seen anything like that before" Jetfire said
"But it was fun to play in! That snowball fight was so awesome! The biggest in snow day history!" Miles grinned
"Apart from when Ironhide tried to fire giant snow balls out of his cannons and ended up firing steam, the look on his face plates was priceless!" Sideswipe smiled
"I quite liked the cherry blossoms that bloomed near our hideout, I find it so humble how the humans of Japan put such a sacred value upon such a tiny little flower" Deathshot said in a thoughtful tone
"Yeah, the cherry blossom festival was fun while it lasted...until Anny ran off" Sam said as he dropped his gaze to the floor, Batou passed a deep sigh as he pondered on whether to offer anything on the subject, he was about to say something when Ashley beat him to it: "Batou? The chief said that you guys had been tailing us since that day we first arrived here; if you were tailing us at the park did you know where Anny was the whole time?" he asked frankly, Batou looked at him a brief second and figured in the back of his mind that it didn't really matter if it was secret or not anymore, they were all friends now and the 'honesty is the best policy' approach had been working fine for both the section and Autobot gang since they first met.
"Well, what you have to understand was that we didn't have a single inkling that your friends were aliens back then, we thought they were some new high end tech war machines that someone somewhere had created and had let loose on our turf. The day of the cherry blossom festival we kept pretty close tabs on you guys but we had no idea where Annabelle ran off to, round about the same time Togusa's daughter ran off too and they both met each other somewhere in the park, later they turned up at Togusa's neighbour's apartment and that's how we found her" he explained
"Yeah Anny told us...if things had different, what were you going to do with her?" Mile's asked
"We were hoping to use her to lure the rest of you out into the open and arrest you, at that point we had you kids pegged as vital witnesses and our only possible link to the 'war machines'...She wouldn't have been in any danger I promise you, but when Annabelle was in Togusa's apartment the Major overheard Frenzy sneak into the bathroom and explain your 'escape plan' to her, we thought there and then we could turn the tables and catch you off guard, we already knew at that point you guys weren't natural combatants with any form of military training so we thought it would be a piece of cake nabbing you on the spot..." Batou said with a small smile, as he remembered that night outside Togusa's apartment.
"Boy did you get that wrong!" Ashley chuckled
"Yeah, after that night we knew we were dealing with something that was way out of our usual league, the idea of aliens being on our planet sent everyone involved into a panic, for the first time in god knows when the cabinet really didn't know what to do" Batou continued
"So they let section 9 stay on the case just like that?" Sam asked
"Not necessarily, the military had been itching to jump in and take care of you guys there and then but the prime minister gave the word to let us continue investigating the case. When it comes to dealing with tight situations we're the ones that get called in, purely because we know how to handle it right" Batou replied
"So is it just the prime minister you report to?" Miles asked
"We're the only public security sector to report to the prime minister directly during a crisis or state of emergency, the rest of the time we report to the ministry of home affairs, we may function in much the same way as some specialized branch of the military but at the end of the day we're still only the police"
"Heh, you could have fooled me! The way your HQ is set up and all the fancy high tech computers you have, I'd have thought you could pass for being Special Forces" Ashley smiled
"That's what I thought when I first joined, but the big difference between us and the military is that we get a lot more leeway in what we can do, section 9 is what you might think of as an 'unofficial paramilitary' police unit, because we do a lot of stuff that's 'officially' off the record, we're the guys that get called in when something or someone has to be taken care of and the head honcho's don't want it getting out in the paper's, that way it save's a whole load of trouble later" Batou explained as he wiped his hands on one of the paper napkins, reached for his bucket of fresh water and sponge and started scrubbing the side of Deathshot's nosecone. The other's followed suite and got back to the cleaning of the Autobot sniper.
"So you're not just police but also the prime minister's privet hit squad?" Miles exclaimed in slight alarm
"Ha ha ha! No!...but seriously, there are times when we have to deal with termination orders..." Batou replied, the three human boys stopped scrubbing and looked at one another in concern.
"Termination order?...you mean, like an assassination?" Sam asked cautiously, Batou stopped scrubbing and looked over at them, the subtle yet alarmed look in their eyes told him maybe he'd better change the subject, but not before offering some form of reassurance, however insubstantial it may be."...Unfortunately, yes, but the only people we've ever had to 'take care of' over the years are high end terrorists and the like. When you read some of the files on these kinda guys and what they've done to innocent people, it only makes you want to put them down more" he said with a slight frown.
"...Do you...have you ever regretted anything? About your job?" Ashley asked softly, Batou looked down at him and kneeled down so he was closer to his level.
"Yeah, but what you have to remember kid, is there are very few people who can do this job. There are some real evil and twisted freaks out there who can think of a thousand and one ways to kill innocent people, people who for the most part are just trying to live their lives with the average weight of the world upon their shoulders and live their lives as best they can, the last thing they need is for someone to come along and screw that up for them. You don't just decide one morning to pick up a gun a shoot another human being without hesitation; when it really comes down it, people like me are the only thing that stands between the good people and the ones that want to send it to hell...It's never an easy choice, but if it means innocent people get to keeping on living that little bit longer, then doubt is a small price to pay..." Batou said as he looked into the 12 year olds slate blue eyes, Ashley didn't know what to say as he averted his gaze away in doubt. Though he wasn't a parent Batou knew that look; it was the one stark fact of reality a child of his age should not have to bare, not until he came of the age in his life when would be ready for such truths, but the reality was, he was already in a situation that was in no-one's control of, and one that had already thrown him far from all he knew and tested his mantle and strength. Would it be right to make him bare another cold fact of this world? Or was his world really any different from this one? Either way, this boy, along with his family and friends, had already proven themselves to something more than what they were, passing a deep sigh, Batou laid his hand on Ashley's shoulder and the kid looked back up into the ex-ranger's prosthetic eyes.
"...But listen, no matter what happens on this case, that, is a choice you don't have to make, if things get real dicey and you find yourself backed into a corner, I'll be there to back you up..." Batou continued in soft, father-like tone.
"But...anything could happen, how can you be so sure you'll be there every time?" Ashley asked
"Because I will kid, I may not have the luxury of making promises in my line of work, but after everything that's happened, everything we've been through, I do promise, one way or another I'll help you all get home..." Batou said firmly, he suddenly noticed Jetfire leaned over the snipers wing with a rueful smile upon his withered and rusted face.
"For what it has all been worth, when this is over and before we return to our world, we will repay you in full for everything you have done for us" the old seeker said
"And that is a promise we intend to keep so don't argue" Deathshot said, Batou could practically hear the smile in his voice.
"You know, it'll be a damn shame when you leave...throughout this whole thing there's been a whole load of people that have dying to meet you guys" Batou smiled
"Really? Who?" Miles asked
"Quite a few individuals in the Intelligence department, GSDA and Navy; apparently they were pretty pissed off when they heard someone had ordered the attack on the safe house, the said individuals were also going to be part of the 'welcoming committee' that was supposed to meet you guys the day you were supposed to be transferred to that top secret base" Batou replied
"So, some of 'em in the cabinet actually wanted to meet us?" Ashley blinked in surprise
"Hey even bureaucrats, politicians and military leaders are entitled to bathe in a little awesomeness at least once in their lives, and you gotta admit, the kind of awesomeness we get hang out with isn't something that comes around often" Sam replied
"Still, the looks on everyone's faces sure would have been priceless" Miles grinned
"It's always priceless Miles; you'd think it'd be boring by now but it really isn't, it certainly did wonders for putting my low self esteem at an all time high" Sam replied with a small grin
"Sam your low self esteem has been on an all time high ever since Bee became your guardian. Well, apart from that whole incident with Alice..." said Miles
"Bro, don't even go back there, I STILL have nightmares about that five foot tongue!" Sam winced
"At least she didn't get a chance to get to second base" Miles offered
"That. Only disturbs me even more!" Sam replied with a slight shudder
"HOLY SHIT THAT REMINDS ME!" Ashley exclaimed in shock.
"What! What is it?" Sam jumped, looking around for the emergency
"That leotard the Major was wearing yesterday-"
"Yeah, she always wears that when she's on duty, what about it?" Batou asked, puzzled as to where he was going with this
"She's a police officer right? So if that's how police women in this world dress, Then what the hell do the hookers wear?" the 12 year old exclaimed, everyone fell silent for a moment, completely dumbfounded, then Batou broke into a fit of laughter, nearly falling over as he pitched forward with every hard breath he laughed out, the boys soon fell over one another in giggles. But the atmosphere abruptly screeched to a halt when Batou suddenly punched himself in the face and fell flat on his back.
'She was listening this whole time?' Batou thought in alarm, the boys and other Autobots looked at him as though he had lost his marbles, but he waved them off as he got back up.
Time passed on by as the humans spent the remainder of the day washing down Deathshots armour plating, they whiled away the hours talking various other things; baseball, favourite hobbies, comparisons between different earths. The Autobots threw in their two cents with their views on different likes and dislikes, Jetfire showed a hologram of his ideal femme, another SR-71 Blackbird, the twins described how they would love to try their servos at drift-racing while Deathshot described how he would just love to get out from this underground hanger and go flying high above the city, Jetfire concurred to that also. Before long the four humans had finished their assigned punishment and stood back to admire their handy work. Deathshot transformed back into mech mode and looked himself over with a satisfying smile.
"Not bad at all gentlemen, I think Morri will be most pleased" he said
"She better be, all that waxing was damn hard!" Ashley huffed as he looked down at the pale prune-like wrinkled skin on his hands.
"Well I can certainly see my face in your aft plates!" Sideswipe grinned
Deathshot was about to say something when the huge ramp down began to open up behind him, turning around, he saw the other Autobots roll on in and park in their respective places, after letting their human friends out and transforming back into mech mode they approached the sniper and four human males.
"Whoa! D-man! Lookin good there, I see you four did a fine job!" Jazz grinned; Morri and the Major stepped over looking the sniper up and down with sceptical eyes, but their smiles made the boys breathe a couple of sighs of relief.
"Looks like you didn't bother to slack off after all" Morri smiled
"Oh please, as if we would!" Ashley replied a mock hurt look
"So are we cool now?" Sam asked cautiously, the two women looked them up and down and smiled.
"Yeah, we're cool" Morri reassured
"Besides, Darren and Ishikawa are close to breaking that encryption code on Hidaka's secret ledgers so we might be busy fairly soon so we're going to need everyone at hand ready if need to move at a moment's notice" the Major added
"So, did you boys have a nice time?" Morri asked sweetly
"Eh, not too bad" Miles shrugged as he walked off to the human sleeping quarters. Morri quirked an eyebrow as she glanced sideways at Ashley, who only offered a shrug "We talked a lot" he offered.
"Really? And what did you guys talk about?" Morri smirked
"All kinds of things" he replied
"Really? Nothing at all to do with the standards of how police women dress perhaps?" the Major smirked; Ashley and Batou suddenly broke out into cold sweats and glanced sideways at one another.
'Oh boy...' Batou thought.
Be sure to put a pin in their conversation about Majestrix Prima, naff said! Also, just a quick head up to say me & my folks will be on holiday in France from the 9th through to the 15th this month so the story won't pick up until after then, so take a breather & I'll be typing again after I get back, till then, I'm off to enjoy some red wine and pastries! See Ya! don't forget to R&R please! :)