I've been feeling really in the zone with this story lately, so here's another upload for you all. Hope you enjoy it!
Team Prime sat beside the fire as they grilled another piece of meat from who knows which animal at this point. Raf tossed another piece of raw meat to Knockout, whom the group had decided deserved a night inside to heal from his wounds. He caught the slab of meat with his mouth before curling back beside the fire to rest.
Miko and Jack were less focused on eating their shares, and more concerned with watching the usually timid and well mannered Raf wolf down his 4th steak like a he hadn't eaten in days.
"Sooooo, looks like meeting a caveman once gave you the metabolism of one, huh?" teased Miko.
The yellow vested teen just shrugged as he munched on the 4th steak that night. "You're not the one who spent an hour and a half running and hiding in the woods."
Jack just nodded. "So, are we going to address the T. Rex in the room properly?"
The tech teen wiped his mouth with his sleeve as he finished his last steak. "What's there to talk about? There's another human out there, even if he is a Neanderthal. He's got his own pet T. Rex, and he's built like a human Wheeljack, so I'd say he's doing just fine." Raf then stroked his chin. "Although that Rex looked way different than what the dossiers showed."
"What I mean is we have a chance to make some really strong friends. Why not bring him here so they can join us?" Jack clarified.
Raf shook his head. "I don't think so Jack. He seemed like the nomadic type of caveman. If we had him join the team, we'd be forcing technology on him thousands of years ahead of his time. That's not going to go over well, especially when it comes to guns." He then took a gulp of water from his waterskin before addressing the older boy again. "I think as long as he and his T. Rex are healthy, we should let them be and help out wherever we can."
Jack respected the mature decision. He just couldn't see the three of them successfully teaching this Spear person how to speak English or wield a gun. The fact he barely understood a bow meant maybe it was best to let the Neanderthal do his thing. After all, he sounded grizzled enough to have learned how to survive the prehistoric world in his own way. They'd help him whenever they could, but it seemed he had a handle on things already.
Miko shifted in her seat, drawing their attention. "I have something else I wanna ask," she said, shifting the topic. "While you were out in the Redwoods, Jack and I found your goodies stored inside Roxanne." She then went into her inventory and pulled out the apprentice pickaxe and Jack grabbed the journeyman crossbow. "How'd you get your hands on these?"
"Ohh, those were inside of the Alpha Raptor's inventory after we killed it. Don't ask how though, I'm not sure what they were doing there either. Along with these." Raf then pulled out his flak gauntlets to show the teens.
"Wow, we should try Alpha hunting sometime once we get more dinosaurs!" she suggested.
"YOU can tussle with the Alpha Raptors all you want. I'd be happy to never see red again besides this beautiful animal right here," Jack said as he petted Knockout on the head.
"Heh, wuss," she joked.
Raf yawned, causing the others to yawn as well. "Well, I think we know what hour it is," he said. Team Prime then retired back to their rooms, although Jack was the last to fall asleep, having gone around the house to gather the chitin to make the last Pteranodon saddle. He had other plans for the next day though.
The next day, the three of them rose at around the same time, just in time for the new day to rise.
"Alright, what's on the to-do list for today?" Raf asked his friends.
"You know, I was actually thinking we should do a little bit of exploring today," Jack said to Miko's surprise.
"Are you sure you're the same Jack?" she humored, getting an eyeroll from the older teen.
"Very funny," he deadpanned. "But listen. I've had the raft engram for a while now, and thanks to that Alpha Raptor we're way higher level. Now that we have better tools, we should try navigating the island since we have a sturdy shelter. We've only ever seen our beach, the green obelisks, the Redwoods, and the swamp. What else is out there?"
Miko was surprised at the sudden boldness from her friend. She hadn't expected it from him after the death of Rockefeller and Raf's near death experience. "Whatever floats your boat dude, I just thought you'd take today to rest after, you know," she said.
Jack gave a solemn expression. "Yeah, I'm still shaken up after yesterday. But I also want to find a way home, and sitting here mourning isn't going to bring us any closer to that," he declared, thinking of his mom.
Miko nodded, agreeing with his steadfast resolve. "Raf and I can grab the materials. What do you need?"
Jack referred back to the crafting tab, finding what was needed to craft their little boat. "Bring me 250 wood, and I'll take care of the rest," he directed. Thus, Team Prime went out into the woods to gather the large amount of wood needed. Raf gave Roxanne's gathering a test on the trees, but found she was better at gathering thatch than wood. Nevertheless, Raf still used her to fetch some flint and berries while he knocked down some trees.
After an hour of gathering, an exhausted Raf and Miko came trudging back to the house with Roxanne following behind. The Ankylosaur had no problem walking behind them with her 510 weight, but the humans were left panting as they each lugged their 100+ pound wood load.
Jack emerged from the house, surprised to find his friends so out of breath. "Got the wood I'm guessing?"
"Here," Miko simply said before she and Raf unceremoniously tossed the packages of wood at Jack.
"Looks like some people need to put more points in weight," Jack joked, Miko sticking her tongue out at him in reply. "Classy."
As soon as he picked up the packages, Jack felt like the gravity had increased three fold. He barely kept himself from falling to his knees from the sudden weight addition.
"Okay, maybe I need to also!" he strained as he went to his crafting tab. He mentally cursed himself for only putting 6 points in weight, and noted to dump the next few levels into it. He quickly tapped the raft icon that now lit up and felt the weight on his body drop in intensity. He breathed a sigh of relief as he stood back to full height before being forced down again by the 95 lbs structure he had just created.
He hobbled his way to the nearby shoreline as his friends laughed at his expense before opening his implant again and plopping the raft down on the water's surface.
"There! Much better," he breathed.
"Hmm, impressive," Miko admired as she hopped on the boat's flooring, understanding why it needed so much wood. A plain white sail sat atop the wooden structure, blowing in the wind and ready to set sail. In the center of the structure was a wooden rudder, enabling them to control the boat's movements. And though they were optional, the raft came equipped with a pair of paddles should the wind and the seas prove unfavorable. Thankfully, there was a steady breeze flowing past and the waves weren't of the choppy variety.
"So, are we ready to set sail?" Raf inquisitively asked.
Jack shook his head. "Not yet. We might be gone for a little bit. Let's get the animals food first, and I'm going to make us some supplies."
Team Prime set about to do their various tasks before their big expedition. As Miko and Raf set out to grab berries and meat for the dinosaurs, Jack had gone back inside to make some necessities. Using the excess wood his friend had harvested, he created the new essentials, fashioning a smithy, forge, big storage box, and mortar and pestle to be placed on the boat. He also fashioned at least a dozen bolas, figuring they'd be useful for any ambushes.
He had just finished making some extra pistol bullets when he heard the sound of dinosaur footsteps outside followed by a knocking on the door. Confused at the knocking, he walked outside to greet his friends, assuming he'd heard Knockout, only to meet the steel gaze of a... Raptor? It was certainly no Raptor he had ever seen before. After all, what Raptor had metal skin?
"WHOA!" he reacted, immediately stumbling backwards and pulling put his bola.
The metallic Raptor roared at the ape-thing that lay before her. She had been watching this strange pack go about its business for a few days now, watching them bring more and more members into its fold, including one of her kind. She had been intrigued, so she waited for them to all separate once again, leaving only the Spitter and the Spikey one in the stone cage. She had observed one of the other mammals hit the retracting cave entrance with their hands to let each other in, so she had tried to replicate it in order to get the tasty tidbits inside. She licked her organic tongue against her steel teeth. She couldn't wait to taste this one.
"Easy there, you don't need to eat me! I taste like rancid dodo!" Jack panicked as he was backed up against the wall, bola gripped tightly in one hand with the crossbow hanging in the other.
The Robo-Raptor didn't understand any of the gibberish noises coming from the creature, probably some kind of defense mechanism against larger predators like her gorgeous self. She dismissed it though, because no matter how much begging the ape-thing did, she still needed to eat. Being a lone Raptor was a hard knock life, and she was famished, so she crouched, ready to pounce on the animal and satisfy her day's meal.
"NOOO!" a feminine sounding voice echoed in her brain/processing unit, causing her to perk her head up in curiosity. No? Why no? Why would this new voice turn down a full belly and a dispatched threat?
"JACK!" it shouted again, bouncing around like the roar of a larger predator in her mind. Jack? What is a Jack? And why does that sound so familiar to her?
The hunter shook its head, the primitive mind and advanced technology ceasing their clashing. The Raptor's original instincts returning, it took a step forward, resolving to just slash the creature's neck and carry the kill away, her head now hurting from the strange voice in its mind.
However, it found that it couldn't step forward. Looking down, it found that the strange stone contraption that the creature had been holding was wrapped around its legs, leaving them immobile. The mechanized Raptor growled at the strange object as she attempted to remove it, but as she lifted her head back up, she felt a puncturing pain pierce her cheek.
SCREEEEEE!
The Raptor roared at the direction that the pain was coming from, only to receive another shot square in the nose, eliciting a hiss. It soon found however, that the pain receded almost immediately, replaced by the unyielding urge to sleep. Panic began to grip the predator as she realized what it could mean for her should she fall asleep here, and she struggled even harder to escape the stone contraption as she felt the call of unconsciousness.
Jack fired tranq arrow after tranq arrow into the metallic animal's head and body, when on the 5th head shot the carnivore finally toppled to the floor, fast asleep.
Relieved, Jack panted wildly, "That fills my heart attack quota for the day." He
Once he had calmed down, he cautiously approach the sleeping creature and examined it with his implant.
"Female TEK Raptor Lvl 168? No wonder you were so feisty," he muttered to himself, slightly curious about what TEK could be.
Now that he wasn't being eaten by said Raptor, Jack finally got to look over the creature in detail. He pressed his hand on the cool metallic plating of the animal, feeling the chest rise and fall with each breath it took. Even if the engram list managed to catch up with current times, he doubted any science from their time, not even MECH, could create such a perfect union of nature and machine. It boggled his mind.
Only after Jack stopped spacing out about the implications did he take notice of the metal Raptor's color scheme. A shiny azure coated the dinosaur across its body from head to tail as well as its appendages, save for a its midnight black underbelly. Where the feathers were on a normal Raptor, bright pink lights ran across its forearm and elbow gyro and head.
Jack grinned. "Looks like the universe keeps bringing us together, huh Arcee?" he half joked.
This creature looked so much like his old Autobot partner, but he remembered she was gone. Back to Cybertron. Even so, he felt a kinship to the biotechnical marvel, as if part of her was here with him.
"Don't worry partner, I'll watch your back," he nostalgically said.
Aboard the vast station, a slender and tall figure thrashed in her holding unit before finally easing up, slipping back into stasis alongside her three companions. Her strange visions coming to an end, she hoped that, if it had truly been Jack, she managed to protect her old partner, wherever he was.
Nearly half an hour had passed since Jack had put the metallic Raptor under, and now he sat crouched beside it after having prepared everything else for their voyage.
"I like the new alt form Arcee, very retro. Now if only you hadn't tried eating me with it," Jack chuckled as he applied another narcotic to the dinosaur.
Just then, he heard dinosaur footsteps again. Determined not to be surprised again, Jack picked up his crossbow and loaded it before walking outside. After a 3 count, he shoved the dinosaur gate open and pointed his crossbow at the source of the noise.
"Whoa whoa! Cool it there hotshot, it's us!" Miko yelped in surprised, not expecting the older boy to be so on edge. Raf also was taken aback by the defensive action
Jack lowered his crossbow with a sigh of relief. "Sorry, I'm just jumpy is all. Had an uninvited guest while you were away. By the way, did you get any prime meat from that run?"
Confused, Raf nodded. "Yeah, we saw this big fight between a Therizino and a Carno. The Carno lost, so we had Knockout eat up the corpse. We ran into a Raptor pack attacking some Stegos too, so we gathered the bodies and ran."
"Alright, awesome. Can you two give me that prime meat before it spoils? I need it for something," he hurriedly said before rushing back in the house.
"Does this something happen to explain why you almost sho-" Miko started, but she stopped mid sentence as she and Raf entered the house and saw what was on the floor. "What is THAT?" she yelped.
It was definitely a Raptor, but it looked like the equivalent of a dinosaur Robocop. "That is the coolest thing I've seen on this island so far!" she exclaimed.
Bending down, Raf noticed something strikingly familiar. "Jack, doesn't she look a lot like Arcee?" he inquired curiously, leading Miko to the same shocking revalation.
"You noticed it too?" the older boy said. "Trust me, no. As much as I'd love for it to be her, this TEK Raptor, or whatever it is, isn't Arcee. There's Raptor skin under all the metal plating, so she's organic." He decided to leave out that brief moment where it decided to spare him for a few seconds. He wanted to be sure in his assumption first.
"Well, in any case, it's sure to be as much of a fighter as her. 168?! That's higher than Ultra Magnus' shoulder pads!" Miko blinked. Regardless of whether or not this was some kind of Cybertronian dinosaur or science experiment gone awry, Miko wasn't about to say no to adding a Robo-Raptor to their growing dinosaur ranks.
"Yup, and that's exactly why I need as much prime meat as we can get our hands on. So hurry and hand it over here before she wakes up," urged Jack.
Raf and Miko immediately ran back outside to grab Knockout and Sunstreaker before looking in their inventories. Grabbing all 8 pieces of prime meat, they rushed back and handed it to Jack, who started feeding the exquisite cuts to the metallic beauty on the floor.
"Alright, we're at 98.7%. Pass me a raw meat?" Jack requested. Miko handed him a slice and a stack in a package which he put in her inventory. He then fed the last steak to the TEK creature before she suddenly bolted up, eyes alert.
Standing at her full height again, she found the strange ape creature she had tried to eat now in a group. All three of them were tense as she rose, but she just looked at them inquisitively, wondering why they were so wound up. He had fed her and gave her a soothing sleep, and now the strange voice had gone away. As far as she was concerned, she had found her alphas.
Turning her metallic head to Jack, the TEK Raptor decided to gain his trust the only way she knew how. Contracting her throat, she managed to regurgitate the last steak he had fed her on the floor, somehow still whole and covered in saliva.
"Uhhhhh, thanks Arcee," Jack half grinned at the animal. Arcee trilled happily to her new alpha before walking outside, eager to get acquainted with the other of her kind in this pack.
"A real lady's man, aren't you Darby," japed Miko at Jack's expense as he picked up the slobbery steak. He quickly tossed it out the other dinosaur gate, touching it as little as possible before hurling it into the ocean. The giant sharks could have it for all he cared.
"Alright, let me make a saddle and we can set sail," Jack addressed his friends. He wanted to bring Arcee with them. After all, if he saw right, her taming level came out to be 244. She was the best protector they had now, even above Knockout.
Miko and Raf smirked at each other. "It's a good thing we found this in a blue drop then," Raf said before going into his inventory.
Tossing the item to Jack, he found it to be quite light. Curious, he opened his inventory and found an apprentice Raptor saddle blueprint with 38.5 armor.
"Remind me to do a supply drop run when we get back," Jack said, thanking his friends for the find. Luckily, he had enough of the materials laying around to craft one saddle. Knockout would have to wait, but he'd make him the good quality saddle once he had the materials again.
"All set. Let's get sailing," Jack declared, and Miko and Raf obliged as they went to round up the Raptors.
Opening the door back outside, the two of them came across Knockout and Arcee socializing rather calmly despite their different appearances. The mechanical and organic appeared to be having a casual conversation in Raptor-speak.
"Hey! Let's go lovebirds," called Miko towards the two before whistling them over. She shivered at the thought of saying that towards the real Knockout and Arcee.
At once, the two dinosaurs obliged, jumping up onto the Raf as Raf quickly emptied the meat from Knockout into the trough. Roxanne was the only herbivore, so she didn't need to share her berry stash with the others.
Once Jack had landed Razor Wing on the boat and equipped Arcee with the apprentice saddle, he sounded off to make sure they were well equipped with food, water, taming supplies, weaponry, and other essentials before leaving. Once everyone was clear, he pushed the raft out, allowing the sea to push them along as they set about to discover more about the mysterious island.