When she tried to board the truck, Miko pulled her by the arm down back to the ground;
"You're coming with ME! Spill it, and spare NO juicy details!" The human girl demanded.
"We're all going to the same place anyway..." Zucky shrugged.
"But I missed out, and you're the one you saw it all!" Miko whined.
"Fine, I'll tell you..." The dragon replied, which made Miko's face light up and start a victory Air-guitar Solo.
"But, only once we made it back home. That way the others can hear it too." Zucky gave her condition, which earned a loud long groan from the girl.
"After all; sharing is caring, Miko!" Zucky smiled and waved before the door closed. "See you on the other side!"
Miko harrumphed and stomped back to Bulkhead, who was secretly sniggering at her reaction. "Very funny..."
Once at the base, the kids climbed onto the platform, to give the bots room to move, as Ratchet prepared to give the bots a quick once over, just in case trackers were planted. Once that was done, he tended to Prime to check for damages.
Zucky meanwhile, shared the action with the three humans, with a bit of help from Bee as well. -The bots listened in as Ratchet did his once over on Prime.
.:"You should have seen it: Breakdown was all; "PRIME!" and charged him to the ground! So there was this huge tussle on the ground, but Prime tossed him off and started hammering away like; 'BANG, CLANK, KTANG!' And that sent the Con running for cover!":. Bee excitedly explained.
"You were pretty cool yourself, Bee! This bot's a one-punch-Knock-out Machine!" Zucky added. "He went; 'POW!' and Frankenstein was out like a light!"
.:"Oh, yeah!":. Bumblebee showed off his jabs.
"And was pretty much when you guys arrived." Zucky pointed out when Bulk and Cee showed up.
"Hmmm, Sounds like an eventful day out." Arcee said.
"What do you mean, eventful? The fight wasn't even that long to begin with." As colorful and complete with sound effects as the tale was, Miko was still disappointed. "Who even plays hide-and-go-seek anymore? What are we? five?!"
Bulkhead nudged Miko and scowled. "Miko, That's not nice."
Miko's words had made Zucky upset. "Well, Sorry I'm not eager to get myself killed, Miko...but no matter where I go, trouble always seems to follow me. I'm like a living magnet for it. And because of that, I could never have a normal childhood growing up...Can't I at least have these moments please?"
Miko felt horrible for her selfish act, and started rubbing her arm. "Sorry... I forgot. But why didn't you tell me?"
"One, you were at school. Two, I don't have a means to do so, and three: Do you seriously expect Prime to put you in danger that way?" Zucky replied. "Also; I still don't understand why Knockout was covered in barnacles, seaweed and smelled of rotten fish."
"Hmmm...that is a good observation indeed Zucky, because he prides himself over his well-kept Armor." Prime answered.
"Uhh, Maybe he was trying to disguise his looks?" Bulkhead suggested.
"Isn't that what his vehicle mode is for?" Arcee answered.
"I mean, disguise from us? We would know it's him, so he decided to change his looks a little you know?" Bulkhead continued.
.:"I don't think so, he could have just scanned another vehicle instead.":. Bumblebee answered. .:Something must have happened...Hey Zucky, didn't you just say he got kicked off the Nemesis?":.
"Yeah, and he was very upset at me for making that happen...*Gasp* I must have accidentally made him do something that made Megatron upset!" The dragon finally came to her senses. "Then Megatron in turn tossed him in the ocean?"
Raf was meanwhile checking for sightings of the bots online, so he could take them down, when he came across several news articles of a strange car that mysteriously rolled onto the beach from between the waves and transformed into a "seamonster", and sightings of a Vehicle covered in seaweed and barnacles, trying to get into various car washes.
"I think you might be right about that theory, Zucky... Check this out." The boy turned his laptop over so everyone can see. The images made everyone laugh.
Zucky chuckles now that she's had a chance to really see it, but she still remains upset.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Jack asked her.
"Knockout ruins everything! He's been ruining my life from the moment we met!" Zucky blurted out. "He even managed to ruin a perfectly good game of Hide and seek, and I didn't even get a chance to try my claws at Cube..."
At the sound of the word, Bumblebee's Antennae's perked up straight!
.:"Did you say Cube?":. He Beeped.
"Yeah, I went exploring this morning...found a cube in one of the back rooms, hidden away in a crate." Zucky replied.
.:"Zucky, Didn't you feel anything special when you held it?":. Bumblebee continued.
"I was kinda busy trying to hold on for dear life, Bee." Zucky chuckled.
.:"I mean, something that makes you wanna jump up and down with joy?":. Bee tried again.
"What are you trying to tell me?" Zucky asked."Well, I did feel like an overwhelming urge to want to catch it for some reason...what's that supposed to mean? Am I in love?" She teasingly fluttered her eyes.
"Love doesn't even begin to cover it." Arcee chimed in.
The three kids just looked at each other and shrugged.
"You kidding? Cube is my everything!" Bulkhead added.
"Bulkhead, we don't really know what cube is..." Jack explained.
"No way...it's like the greatest thing ever!" Bulkhead answered.
"So the cube is full of energon, right? And it's got AI, so it's smart, and the point of the game is for your team to hold onto the cube, long enough to absorb the energon." Arcee explained.
"But since I made such a mess of the place, we had to put it away again." Zucky said.
"Not completely true..." Prime chimed in as he pulled out the titular cube from his storage compartment. The other bots could not believe their optics.
"Who would like to see a demonstration?" Prime asked. The bots excitedly agreed and the children tagged along to the Gym to see it.
For their safety, a barrier was created to keep the kids safe, and the game was started. After 5 minutes or so, Ratchet, who struggled to hold back a grin from memories about the golden years of Cybertronian History and "the good ol' days", decided to take a break from his work and at least watch from the sidelines.
["Heh, I remember when I was a Young bot... I used to play almost every day. Then after I became a medicbot, I could only sneak in watch sessions whenever I get the chance. *Sigh* Those were to good old days..."] He thought.
"A few minutes off, won't hurt much, Ratch... At least for old time's sake." The medic decided.
Ratchet made his way over to the barrier and sat down next to the children, who were surprised to even see him there to begin with, given how rambunctious the activity was.
"You guys sure, this is a game? It looks like a car crash chain reaction that just keeps on happening..." Zucky asked.
"Well...at least they're having fun." Raf shrugged, and he was right.
"Heh heh...You think this is rough? You should have seen the teams back in my day...THAT was Cube." Ratchet said as he took a seat next to the rest of the crowd.
"Oh, wow...Ratchet. Didn't expect to see you here, with all the racket the others are making.?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, you're the one who's always telling us to keep it down..." Miko added.
"There are a select few things in this universe that even this old bot can enjoy." The medic replied.
Optimus having seen Ratchet join the children on the sidelines then asked the medic if he wanted to join: "Wish to join in, old friend?"
"Sure, why not?" Ratchet answered as he stood up and walked over to the field.
.:"Wait a minute, won't that make the teams unbalanced?":. Bumblebee asked.
"Then would any of you wish to sit this one out?" Prime asked.
"You kidding?! I'm just getting started!" Bulkhead announced.
"Don't worry Ratchet, we're all rusty here." Arcee teased.
"I promise to go easy on your Back Strut, Ratchet...don't worry." Bee assured.
"Are you sure?" the prime asked one last time.
"Yes, Sir!" The bots answered.
"Very well...I'll sit this round out." Optimus decided. "Whip them back into shape, Doctor..."
"It will be my pleasure, Sir." Ratchet mumbled as he nodded to Prime.
.:"Wait, what?":. Bumblebee whirred.
"Viewer discretion is advised." Is all that Optimus said before Ratchet inexplicably started mopping the floor with the younger bots. The Children were all blown away as things just got 10 times more intense than it was moments ago.
Arcee teamed up with Ratchet in his vehicle mode, vs Bulkhead in his alt and Bumblebee in bot mode.
Arcee did her very best to keep the cube away from Bee which was easier said than done due to the scout's speed, but doable with her agility as well as small stature.
Most of the trouble came from Bulkhead being a great big moving wall of metal, but Ratchet being the faster one and not afraid to roughhouse (despite what they initially thought), took a page out of Prime's own book and calculatingly threw his weight around at the young whippersnappers!
He may have not been as big and strong as Bulkhead, but still still managed to send the Big bot careening into the young scout and buying Arcee enough time to score the point!
"Hoo-aah! And that's how you play cube!" The Medic announced triumphantly.
"I can't watch!" Raf covered his eyes and Zucky curled her wing over his shoulder to try and at least shield his ears from the sounds as her own ears drooped and her jaw hung open from what she was witnessing.
"Remind me NEVER to make this guy angry...like ever..." Zucky whispered to the other two humans.
"Got it..." They answered.
"So...this keeps going until it's completely depleted of its energon, right?" Jack asked.
"That is correct." Prime answered. "Or the opposing team forfeits the game, or are unable to play anymore altogether."
"Man, he's serving Bulkhead's skid plates back to him on a plate, out there! Come on, Bulkhead, Step up your game already!" Miko was getting impatient.
"Well, Arcee's gonna be fine...She's not on the receiving end, at least." Zucky added. "Wish I could say the same for Bumblebee, though."
Next round, they switched up modes. Bulkhead quickly got his servos on the cube, but Arcee spotted the opportunity and zipped over to get him to drop it.
Bumblebee retaliated by blocking her path and even though Arcee could pull off some sick moves in her alt mode, Bee wasn't a slacker either!
Ratchet charged Bulkhead for the cube, but the big green bot learnt his lesson from the last round and managed to send the medic flying over his head to the other side of the room! The scuffle did manage to knock the cube out Bulk's servo's though.
This time Zucky was the one who ended up covering her eyes with her ears as she saw Ratchet crash into the wall!
"*Gasp* Oh my gosh, Ratchet!" She squealed.
The medic wheezed and started laughing?
"FINALLY! I was wondering when you'd come back out of stasis mode!" He roared.
"I'm sorry, what?" ^^; The dragon was thoroughly confused now.
When she looked over to the others, they couldn't do anything else, but shrug.
Prime beaming from audial to audial as he clapped and cheered? She's never seen him so cut loose before, and by the looks of the other's faces, neither did they.
["There really is something to this cube game, isn't there? Maybe it's the excess energon?"] She thought.
"C'mon Bulkhead, is that all you got?!" Ratchet stood up like nothing just happened.
"Okay Doc, you've asked for it!" Bulkhead answered before they went right back at the demolition derby.
It took quite a while, but eventually the cube did get completely drained. After that round, the medic decided to continue his work: "Aaaah...Just what the doctor ordered..." Ratchet adjusted his joints. "If anyone needs me, I'll be at my work table." He smiled.
.:"Don't let us keep you, heh ^^;":. Bumblebee beeped.
"Are you okay buddy?" Raf ran over to his friend's side and asked Bee, who looked like he got pummeled real good.
.:"You kidding me? That didn't even scratch my paint job!" *Painful pang hits him for flexing* "OW!...Okay, so Ratchet did leave a mark...Don't tell him though...Else he will NEVER let me live this down.":. The poor scout whirred painfully.
"What was that?! You got served! What happened?" Miko raged.
"Aren't you even going to ask if I'm still functioning first?" Bulkhead asked.
"That was intense! Why didn't you tell us, Prime?" Arcee asked. Or wait... lemme guess; Synth-En?"
"Negative; that was just Ratchet as is...and no one asked me..." The Prime answered with a shadow of a smirk.
"Quit being such a Baby, Bulk! Walk it off, you're a big bot!" Miko whined. "I can't believe you lost back there...against Ratchet?!"
"Oh yeah?! I wanna see you last a klik with Ratchet, then we'll talk!" Bulkhead whined.
"Okay, I'll show how easy you could have nailed it!" Miko said as she marched over to the cube.
"You can't be serious, Miko. He'll squish you like a bug! Zucky warned. "Plus, I'm not gonna be the one scraping you off the floor...and I'm keeping to 'not making him angry' he's probably working, and doesn't wanna be disturbed."
"Oh, come on...how hard can this be?" Miko asked as she tried to pick up the titular cube, but found she couldn't. "Hey, what the?"
She tried again and sure enough, the cube stayed put.
"Yeah, I guess I should've told ya...it doesn't look it, but it's pretty heavy." Zucky sheepishly added. "Plus, it won't fly without energon."
Prime picked the cube up with one servo, filled it with what was left from a small cube they were using to replenish the device with and reset it to start a new game.
"Rock on, Prime!" The girl cheered.
"However, you're not going to play against Ratchet." Optimus said.
"You won't last a nano klik, if you did." Arcee chuckled.
"Instead, you can play with Jack, Zucky and Rafael." Prime said
"Oww, fine..." She harrumphed.
"But how can we even catch it, if it flies so high?" Jack asked.
"That's easy, the level of difficulty can always be adjusted." Arcee explained. "Because younglings aren't able to manage the feats that fully developed bots can."
Prime fiddled with the cube for a few seconds and when he released it, it suddenly was floating low enough for the humans to reach.
"Cool!" Zucky tried touching it and it flew away.
"Alright, enough talking! Let's play ball, err...Cube!" Miko called out to the other three.
"It's okay...I'll watch from the sidelines." Raf backed out. "I never really was good with sports."
The boy looked ashamed and was about to turn away to go sit at the side when Zucky approached him.
"And I thought I was alone here..." she gave him a reassuring smile.
"But look at you: you can fly, and those reflexes back there when you tried to save my remote controlled car..." The boy said.
"What if I told you I can't do any of that, if I didn't have all this? I sucked at gym all my life man...but I still tried, no matter what." Zucky said. "How about we team up versus Miko and Jack, huh?"
"But I can't run as fast as you all..." Raf continued.
"That's okay. I'll be the legs, you be the arms and brain." Zucky said. " I mean, we don't transform, so it's only fair we tweak the rules just a bit to fit our limited physiologies, right Prime?
Optimus nodded.
"Won't that make it sort of a handicap match?" Jack asked.
"Sure, but it's teamwork!" The dragon answered. "Or would you rather Bumblebee fill in for Raf?"
Jack looked over to Bee who was up on his feet, took a stance and non-verbally dared him to say yes.
"Erm, Handicap match it is then." Jack sheepishly said.
Zucky got down on all fours. "Climb on, Raf!"
"Wait, you can run on all fours too?" The boy was surprised.
"Oh! yeah, I guess I never told you guys that either." the dragon answered. "Though I'm used to being biped anyway, because of you know...being human first."
"YAWN! YOU talk too much!" Miko yelled.
"Tell ya more about it later, let's kick butt!" Zucky took her place on the field. "...and hold on tight!"
The cube always remained just out of reach as always as the humans struggled to get hold of the darned thing! They tried jumping, climbing on each other's shoulders...Nothing seemed to work, and since Zucky tried to remain as groundbound as possible for a relatively fair match, suffice to say, no one was having any luck. This was much to the amusement of the bots, even though they still rooted for their respective teams to succeed.
"*panting* How's this even supposed to work if we can't even catch it, no matter what we do?!" Miko asked out of breath.
"Good question...*panting*...I dunno." Jack answered.
"You can let me down now, Zucky...you'll have more luck that way." Raf suggested.
"*phew* Nah, I'm just warming up is all...you know? Zucky answered."How about we put aside this competition aside, and take that thing down together, huh?"
"Is that even allowed?" Miko asked.
"You wanna show Bulkhead how to properly catch a cube, don't you?" Zucky asked in a whisper.
"Good point." The girl agreed.
.:"Hey, you guys okay out there?":. Bumblebee asked.
"We're fine, Bee!" Raf answered.
"What do we do?" Jack whispered.
"Teamwork, that's what." Zucky answered. "Let's take down that cube, people!"
"What are they doing?" Arcee asked.
"There's more to them than meets the eye. The human race's determination has always managed to fascinate me." Optimus answered.
"You two, try to create a barrier, me and Raf will take to the skies to force it to fly lower. We'll corral it, and then jump it!" The dragon ran the teens through the plan.
.:"Oh, I get it! They're gonna work together to catch it!":. Bumblebee concluded.
"Now this I wanna see." Bulkhead adjusted his seating position.
Zucky flew up and herded the cube closer to the ground so Jack and Miko could get to it. The cube kept trying to climb higher, but the dragon kept swooping in.
"Alright guys, close in the barrier!" Zucky called as the cube started getting more erratic.
The dragon tried keeping her wings widely stretched to help out, but the sneaky cube managed to slip right by her and over her head! She tried swiping at it, but missed. Raf on the other hand had better luck, the problem was, when he managed to grab it, the cube lifted him right off Zucky's back!
"Got it! Uh-oh, whoa! Hey, let me down!" The boy panicked.
"Raf! I'm coming, just hold on tight!" Zucky flew after the cube to try and catch him so he didn't fall.
.:"Raf!":. Bumblebee ran into the field. Arcee, Optimus and Bulkhead followed suit.
The teens gave them room to move and ran to go get Ratchet.
"Zucky, get it to come back down!" Optimus ordered.
Zucky got to it and sure enough the cube was flying downwards again, but always stayed beyond everyone's reach.
"Get me down, please!" Raf yelled. "I'm slipping!"
Zucky suddenly got an idea; it was going to be tricky, but she had to try. She disappeared momentarily and just as the cube was going to resort to ramming the poor boy into a wall as it had done to the dragon before; Zucky reappeared and grabbed hold of both the boy and the cube as she grabbed hold of Rafael by the arms with her feet and hugged the cube tightly trying to restrict its movements as she tried to keep steady in mid-air.
"I got ya, my man...let go of the cube please." She told the boy. "Bee, A little help?"
Raf did as he was told and Zucky carefully (or as best as she could) lowered him in Bumblebee's servo's, before she totally lost control of the cube again!
"Whoa! Oh. no. you. don't!" The dragon tried steadying it again, but failed. "How do I turn this thing off?!"
Ratchet came running in, just as Zucky saved Raf and the cube started going haywire.
"Let go of it! I'll try and neutralise it!" Ratchet had a gadget in his servo's which Zucky didn't know what it was, but explanations could wait.
"Okay!" The dragon was just about to let go of the cube, when she felt the familiar tingling sensation of before, course through her whole body and she suddenly couldn't let go!
"What are you waiting for?! Let go!" The medic repeated himself.
"I can't, I'm stuck and there's this tingling sensation through my whole AAAAAAH!" Zucky cried out panicking before she was struck with what felt like a sudden burst of energy that caused her much pain and left her body feeling like it just got burnt on the inside.
"Zucky!" Ratchet ran over and cought her when she fell out of the air.
The cube landed with an audible thud on the ground, but it was completely empty. Ratchet and Prime looked at each other exchanging silent gazes based on what they've spoken about before.
The humans fell silent as the air was filled with the scent of burnt fur and skin. Miko covered her mouth as she and Jack stared at Ratchet who was holding the dragon in his servos. Rafael had a better view of the situation, still held in Bumblebee's servo's as he ran up and tried to lean in closer to check the damage, only to be held back by bee's digits that made sure the boy didn't fall off.
The medic soon snapped out of it and shoved passed the bots as he hurried to the medbay. "Make way, coming through!"
He stomped passed the humans, who backed out of the way in a hurry. It was all going so fast, but they were just shocked right now. So shocked, they didn't even notice their friends trying to carry them out the door. Soon they were in the common area on the platform.
Prime and Arcee went to see if Ratchet needed help with anything, leaving Bulkhead and Bumblebee with the teens.
"Is she...?" Miko couldn't finish her sentence.
"I dunno, she looked down and out. I think I still saw her breathing..." Raf trailed off.
"That's good. I-I mean that she's breathing. Now we have to wait, alright?" Jack tried reassuring.
"No, that's NOT alright... I don't do 'not doing anything'" Miko growled.
Bumblebee whirred and buzzed a few words.
"He says there's not much we can do but wait...We'll only disrupt Ratchet from doing his job properly, if we rush in like this." Raf translated.
"I know it's hard, Miko; but Bee's right." Bulkhead added.
"Yeah, we have to trust in Ratchet's abilities." Jack said. "He'll let us know when he comes back."
"Sorry... I know, but I wish we could have stopped this from happening." The girl slumped over on the sofa. "I feel like this is all my fault, if I didn't want to prove myself, she'd still be alright."
"But you did prove me wrong, Miko. You lasted several kliks." Bulkhead tried cheering her up.
"*sigh*" Miko didn't have any more words.
"She's pretty strong." Raf said. "I mean, she survived aboard the Decepticon ship all alone, didn't she?"
Bee and Bulk nodded.
The two boys sat down as they all awaited the news.
["Man, what was that?! I was holding onto that crazy cube, I got tingly again and the next thing I know; ZAP! Then I slip into darkness...Am I...?"] Zucky thought.