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Chapter Sixteen – Surprises
The sound of thick plastic and resin smashing together got drowned out by the sound of the MMA boxing match the TVs were broadcasting in unison throughout the room, and Jess stood at full height as she watched a solid dark red ball sink into one of the side pockets, then looked up and smiled at Andrew as he laughed.
"Checkmate, bitch." He high fived Jess enthusiastically, and she laughed.
"Fuck." Romeo groaned aloud as he watched Jess round the table and inspect the solid black ball that was sitting in the far corner.
"God damn it, I'm not gonna make this." Jess groaned, dropping her head for a second. "Ok, um," she trailed off for a second, "bottom right."
"Bottom right called." Jordan said as she reached up and fixed something that was wrong with her hair.
Jess bent at the waist, setting the pool que up below herself. She played with the pool que a bit, then let it smash against the white ball in front of her. The white ball rolled across the table and smashed into the black ball, and sent it into the edge of the table. It rebounded and rolled across the table, and they watched as it approached the bottom pocket Jess had called out, but fell short and didn't fall in to the net.
Jess groaned as Romeo and Jordan cheered.
"Its fine, I got us Jay." Andrew reassured her.
She stepped back, and they watched as Romeo took his turn and managed to sink three of the five balls they had left, the Andrew took his turn and set himself up.
"Top left." He called.
"Top left called." Jordan confirmed.
Andrew hit the white ball, and watched as the white ball hit the black ball, and sunk it into the top left pocket.
"Yes!" Jess cheered, pumping her fist once, then rounded the table and met Andrew halfway to high five each other.
"You guys suck." Romeo grumbled.
"That's two." Andrew teased him, sticking two fingers up in the air.
"Wanna go again?" Jordan asked as Jess approached her side.
"Yeah, if you guys are down." Romeo nodded.
"I'm good. Jay?"
She nodded. "Same teams or change it up?"
"I want J.J." Romeo spoke quickly, then pointed at her and curled his finger a couple of times in a 'come here' gesture.
She giggled at him, but Andrew piped up.
"Hey, hey, she's mine! I found her!" he reasoned. "Besides, she likes me more."
"You guys team up every time, its my turn."
Jess watched alongside Jordan as the two men argued with one another, but the sight of Lennox walking in caught her eye. He looked around the room, then spotted her presence and walked over to her side.
"Hey Mr Lennox." She smiled as he approached.
Both men went quiet upon him getting close and tensed.
"Major Lennox."
"Major Lennox." They greeted in unison.
"Gentlemen." He nodded. "Ricer."
Jordan nodded at him. "Lennox."
"I'm glad you guys are having a good time, but I need to borrow your mechanic friend for a bit."
Jess tilted her head, a curious look on her face. "Whats up?"
"We need you." Was all he said.
She nodded. "Okay. I'll be back in a bit, guys."
She leaned her pool que against the wall, and stepped away form the table. Behind her, as she and Lennox walked away, she heard Jordan bow out of the game and opt to watch them instead, putting the boys up against each other in the next game.
"Whats going on, Mr Lennox?" she asked.
"We have something to show you."
"Did I do something?" she asked nervously.
He furrowed his brows together, looking down at her, but didn't stop walking. "Why would you think you did anything wrong at all?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, you don't normally pull me away or come talk to me any time after work hours."
He shook his head. "Nah, you're fine. We just got something for ya."
Confused and slightly worried, she followed him silently into the Humvee he was driving, closing the door behind herself as she buckled in. He stomped on it, taking off across the tar mac until they pulled up to her garage.
What were they doing here?
He got out wordlessly, turning the vehicle off, and headed to the door, holding it open for her.
"What's going on?" she asked as she stepped inside, turning to watch him as he entered the garage.
"Why don't you take a look?" he asked.
They stepped through the second doorway and into the actual garage, and Jess came face to face with her Jeep, parked in the closest bay and staring down the garage door. Her jaw dropped – the four-by-four had been washed and polished, sparkled to perfection; the tires looked like they'd been replaced and were brand new, the rims had been cleaned and polished, and sparkled under the LED lights of the garage.
"Oh my god." She said through a laughed, the turned and looked at William. "Seriously?"
He smirked at her. "That ain't it, kid."
He pointed to the back of the of the room, where she mostly kept anything broken and or that she kept for parts, and her head spun to find a spot had been cleared, and in it sat some kind of long, low vehicle that was hidden by a vehicle cover. It was surrounded by her tools – her tools, the ones she'd left at home, in her garage when she moved.
"Is that…"
"The import that you wanted to start working on?" Lennox finished her question for her. "On top of the red toolbox is a laptop we got for you, and we set up a wifi router in here so you can order as many parts as you need – I'll give you what you have to put in for the mailing address. It'll make it easier when you order parts for the base vehicles too. Can't say that Mirage is gonna be very happy to not be the only Ferrari on base once you fix it up, but I'm sure he'll pout for a few days then drop it when he realises no one cares."
Jess left his side in favour for the old, broken down import's, and pulled the vehicle cover up just high enough to see the dull, dirty silver paint that always sat below. Her hands covered her mouth, but she wasn't sure if she was stopping a smile or a cry.
"Oh my god." She whispered. "Holy shit."
"We aren't finished yet, kid." Lennox reminded her.
She gave him a look of disbelief. "You kidding me?"
He simply smirked and motioned for her to follow him out of the building once more. He headed out on to the tar mac once more, and paused once she got to his side.
"So Optimus came to me and said that he was thinking you weren't really happy here, and he wanted to keep you as happy as can be."
"Optimus did this?" she asked.
Lennox confirmed. "He did."
"Okay, so what are we doing out here?"
Lennox smiled to himself, then looked over somewhere and whistled loudly. "Let 'em out, Epps."
About a football field away, there was a Humvee parked in the middle of the tar mac, facing their direction, and when Lennox yelled in that direction the dark skinned Chief Sergeant got out and rounded the hood of the vehicle to the passenger side door. The man popped it open and seemed to gather something inside, then he backed up and something jumped out.
Before she could even process what was going on, Epps walked to the hood of the car with leashes in his hand. Attached at the end of the two leashes, Olly and Atari were trotting beside him, looking all over the tar mac as everything caught their attention, both of their noses moving a million miles an hour as the Greyhounds tried to pinpoint all the new smells they had to learn, their floppy ears almost permanently propped up in curiosity.
This time, Jess didn't stop the tears from flowing over the edge of her eyes and down her cheeks as she clasped a hand over her mouth to quiet any sound that came out.
Epps crouched down to gather Olly's and Atari's attention from everything else, and when the Greyhounds' attention transferred over to Epps, he pointed in Jess's direction. He said a few words, then the Greyhounds' head turned in the direction Epps was encouraging him to look. Olly's tail was propped up in a straight line at first, but when Jess started jogging towards them his tail began wagging like a propellor. Atari screamed in excitement, and Olly barked a couple times, and then Epps let go of their leashes and the big Greyhounds took off in a sprint towards her.
She met them halfway in the run, dropping roughly to her knees to catch the squirrely dogs in her arms. The pair yelped and screamed in excitement as they jumped all over her, trying to lick her face, her neck, her arms, anything they could reach. Atari cried and cried as she spun in circles.
She heard the separate Humvees approach from both sides, but it was only when she heard Lennox and Epps talking to one another, she stood, wiping her eyes clear. She headed over to the men who were standing beside each other, and wrapped one arm around each man.
"Th-ank you." She spoke between sobs, and she heard Atari whine behind her.
"Wasn't our doin' kid, it was the Boss Bot." Epps told her. "When he left last weekend to bring 'Bee home, he was headed to your Moms house right after. 'Bout gave your Mama a heart attack, she thought you got hurt and they were getting ready to hand her a folded up flag or some shit."
She laughed as she wiped her eyes dry. "Yeah, I'll bet."
Olly trotted up and inserted himself under her hand, and she crouched down to wrap her arms around his neck, then slipped Atari under her other arm.
"Some of their stuff is in your place, we got a bunch of bags of their food to keep them good for a bit, its all in the back storage closet of the shop. All of your beds and toys that were your garage are in there too." Lennox explained. "Both of them are allowed all over base, but if they go inside somewhere where there's high ranking officials, or in a room like the one we meet in for the blueprints of your shop they have to be on a leash. If they're just in a hangar or something though, they're allowed off leash."
She smiled. "Okay. Um, do you guys know where Optimus is right now?"
Epps shrugged. "Probably in his office; Boss Bot's always working, man."
"Um, where is that?" she asked.
X0X0X0X0X0
Optimus huffed as the door to his office locked behind him, and he transformed down to his alt mode, heading out of the building and towards the tar mac.
The human government would forever be the biggest thing in this universe that confused him to no ends. The hypocrisy, the gaslighting, the constant exaggerations, it was a lot to deal with constantly, and it was really frustrating to deal with on his own.
The tar mac was busy as usual, bustling with people moving, helicopters landing and various planes taking off, cargo ships docking with sea containers full of product, trainings going on, drills happening. A thousand and one things happening at all times.
He watched as a group of newcomer marines training stopped and waited for him to pass, then continued on running, taking slack from their drill sergeant despite the fact that they were debriefed upon learning about the Autobots to stop when they saw one of the Autobots driving along the tar mac.
He pulled himself out of his thoughts just in time to see a vehicle approaching him head on at high speeds. The front of the dark coloured vehicle's grill glared straight him as the engine roared, and he cranked on his horn upon realising they weren't paying attention to where they were going as he slammed on his brakes, yanking himself to the side to narrowly miss hitting the vehicle. The rest of him followed suit, drifting around in a circle as his tires screamed, skidding to a stop, and his engine roared in contrast due to how fast he'd been going moments ago, the two sounds echoing across the tar mac as they clashed with one another; despite how loud it had been two seconds ago, you could now hear a pin drop as everything stopped once the Jeep almost crashed into the Autobot. Two dark black lines planted themselves on the cement below from the friction, and he stopped to catch his breath as he watched the vehicle he now recognized circle around and head back his way.
Wasn't that J.J's vehicle?
The lifted Jeep stopped in front of him and the door popped open, and someone he wasn't expecting to see hopped out – a marine. He'd seen the mech around before, he'd been around for a while and they'd run a few ops with him before.
"Fuck Prime, I'm so sorry. I am so sorry dude, I wasn't paying attention and –"
"What the fuck is going on here?!" Lennox yelled as he pulled up and hopped out of Ironhide's alt mode before the mech even stopped moving.
The Weapons Specialist transformed up once the humans were free of his, what he had dubbed, 'squash zone', and he tossed Optimus a look. "You okay, Prime?"
Optimus made a sound, "I am fine."
"What the fuck do you two idiots think you're doing? Where'd you find this?"
The two men, who had been laughing and joking around and not noticed how fast they were going or the fact that they were heading straight into Optimus's nose just moments prior, and had almost caused the accident, were now silent as they were scolded.
"I'm asking you a damn question." He roared.
"We found it outside Hangar Two. There was a key under above the wheel, so we thought it was for base use and wanted to take it on a ride. We didn't realise how fast we were going, and it wasn't until we heard Optimus's engine when he skidded around us that we got what was happening." The taller one with dark skin mumbled.
"Louder!"
The man repeated himself again, repeated the story he'd just given, at a louder level than before as to make sure Lennox could hear him.
"How? This vehicle was parked in the garage last time I saw it."
"Sir, it was parked outside of Hangar Two."
"And that gives you the right to take it when there's no key in the ignition, and its not military issued?" Ironhide asked.
They remained silent, and both of them looked down again.
Lennox went on disciplining the two men, but Optimus was busy running a diagnostics check – something wasn't quite right, but his HUD couldn't diagnose it. He ran another scan, but again his HUD came up empty. He initiated another one, hoping that eventually his diagnostics would find what was going on.
Lennox walked to the Autobot leader's side after he'd set it up so that there was a drill sergeant bellowing at the two guilty men. "Optimus, you alright?"
Before he could answer, Ratchet came speeding up to the scene.
FIN
Date Started: October 9, 2020
Date Finished: October 9, 2020
Last Edited: October 10, 2020
I hope everybody enjoyed! Sorry that its a little on the shorter side for this one, but next one will be longer, I promise! I hope you had a good day, I'll see you next Tuesday!