Chapter 6: Milk Run
POV: June Darby
" " Normal talking
": :" Bumblebee talking
"Hi" over the comm talking
(Note: this chapter takes place during season 3 ep 6 "Plus one" Of TFP. I own none of the characters only Twinwave and Rainjet)
I pulled up to the newly located Autobot base, it was in one of the hangars on the military base Agent Fowler and I had been working at during the time of Dark Mount. I was here because Fowler had offered to donate medical supplies but my son kept forgetting to bring them home with him, which left me to run the errand. I walked in, past the window into Fowler's office, by Ratchet who seemed to be grumpy working on an equation to Jack and Raf who were sitting on the couch on the yellow deck provided in the hanger so none of us got under-foot and squashed.
"Nice shooting, Tex." I said walking up behind Jack, he was playing a video game. Clearly waiting for Arcee to get back or to go out on a mission with one of the Autobots but none of them seemed to be back from their separate missions yet. "Hey mom, what's up?" he asked when he glanced over his shoulder to acknowledge I was here, "Nurse Darby, what brings you here?" Agent Fowler's voice asked suddenly. He must have seen me pull up and park and came out to greet me. "The medical supplies you so graciously offered to donate, that Jack keeps forgetting to bring home. The hospital appreciates your generosity, Agent Fowler." I said guestering to Jack when I mentioned his name.
We could really use some of those supplies soon, ever since Dark Mount lots of people seemed to have flocked to the hospital for just about everything so supplies were getting a little low. "Pease, call me Willam." Willam replied before Raf called us over to his computer. "Guys, I found a predacon talion, in a museum." he'd said, so naturally the three of us flocked over to see what he was talking about. I'd known the Autobots were hunting for fossils I just hadn't really known why, but from the bits Jack told me over dinner it had something to do with Megatron wanting to clone an army of them. I'd never seen a predacon but I pictured them sort of like our dinosaurs, only with wings and they could apparently breath fire as Miko had mentioned.
"Scientists were totally stumped when they excavated it in nineteen twenty two, so it's been in storage." Raf continued, he displayed a picture of the talion on his computer. It looked similar to a dinosaur claw at any other natural history museum but metal and rusted rather than fossilized. "But we're fresh out of beast hunters." my son replied, Ratchet let out a rather disgruntled sigh. When we looked up he was turned from his computer and talking to us, which from Jack's surprise told me it wasn't a regular event. " I didn't choose emergency as my vehicle mode for laughs." he said, I had no idea what he ment but I assumed he was offended by Jack saying we were fresh out of Autobots to go get this thing. "Not sure you need a Bot." Willam said.
"Maybe you should all just, wait for Optimus." I suggested, it was their business to go collect these fossils and they knew more about how to transport them back than we did, besides Ratchet would be going alone to the mission. What if Decpeticons showed up? "I'll have you know, Nuse Darby, I was an Army Ranger and Federal Agent for unit 'E' three decades before I ever heard the name 'Optimus Prime'. I'm more than equipped to handle a… milk run." Willam said he was bragging a little about all of his achievements but he did seem to know what to do in these kinds of situations so I trusted him.
"In fact, why don't you tag along?" he offered, which was unexpected but I was a little hesitant as I needed the medical supplies more than anything right now. They needed to get to the hospital sooner rather than later, "Ohhh, I don't know about that." I said. "Oh a-absolutely not. Mom, I don't want you anywhere near anything Con it's not-" Jack tried to interject but I cut him off. He wasn't the best person to advise me not to go, I worried about him running into danger constantly out there and he was going to tell me it wasn't "Safe? Is my teenage son seriously trying to tell me it's fine for him to travel all the way to Cybertron but his mother can't be trusted to go on a…" I tried off looking to Willam for the word he'd used to describe the mission we were going on. "Milk run." he whispered, "A milk run?" I said turning back to him.
He seemed to understand that my logic trumped his and he put his arms up as if to say 'back down'. "No I- it's just you're lactose intolerant and I-" Jack tried to say but he cut himself off when he realized he wasn't getting thrown to me, "Come on, Agent Fowler." I said turning around and walking back to his office. Once the door was shut behind us and Jack couldn't hear anything else I spoke again, "If you have where it's being kept we can take my car." I said. He nodded and did a reverse image search on the picture Raf had been displaying on his computer before we headed out to my car and left.
I'll spare you the details of how we got the tallion and simmer it down to this, for the most part there was a lot of driving then we got to the medium, bargained with a curator, got the tallion and now we were in the parking lot headed back to my car. "What did I tell you, milk run." Willam said as he carried the crate in his hands, "With one cranky cow." I replied. "The curator? Acted like he was guarding the Mona Lisa and not some prehistoric lug nut that's been gathering dust since Harding was president." he said, it was true. The curator had been overly defensive about us trying to pick up the talon, even after Willam had shown him his badge. "I have to say, Agent Fowler, you handled him well. I was quite impressed." I replied, I glanced over to him for a moment before moving my eyes back ahead of us when I heard the sound of a car coming our way.
"Nurse Darby, I'd say that puts you one step ahead of my ex." he said, interestingly. Willam didn't really talk much about his life so I'd never really known much about him, even if he knew everything about me and Jack. "Hmm, divorced huh?" I asked, he might not reply thinking he'd slipped up but I had to admit I was a little surprised when he did. "Uhhh, yeah. What about you? What's the story with ' '?" he asked me in return, it hit a bit of a nerve. I didn't really like talking about Jack's father, mostly because he left the both of us without even saying goodbye first. "Oh more like a saga but I'm sure you've heard before." I replied just as the car I'd heard before got really close, in fact it was right in front of us now. It had it's headlights shining right in our eyes.
"I have a bone to pick with both of you." he said, it took me a moment to process that it was a he before a blinding flash of light and Agent Fowler telling me to run. The car was a Decepticon, one of the very things Jack had told me not to get involved with and I'd told him not to worry about. It was a little late for all that now because when Willam and I finally stirred awake after being knocked unconscious by whatever that flash was we'd been tied up, thrown into his trunk. "Kick back, relax and enjoy the scenery." he said before slamming his trunk shut and speeding off.
We drifted in and out of consciousness for most of the drive, or until whatever that flash had done wore off. I couldn't tell where we were, what time it was or how far we'd traveled from the museum. I had no phone, I couldn't feel it in my pocket, no concept of time and no window to see where we were. We were completely trapped in the trunk of a Decpeticons vehicle mode. "Knockout to Lord Megatron, I have secured one vintage predacon talion plus two of the Autobots human pets to employ as hostages, lab experiments. Well any way you see fit. So go one big M, tell m you love me more than Starscream." 'Knockout' said, all he got on the other line was a whole lot of static from what I could tell because there didn't seem to be any booming reply from the other end of their comm link. Which meant he might be as isolated as we were right now, "My liege? Too familiar?" he asked with no response yet again.
This sort of confirmed my theory that the Decpeticons communications server was down right now but Fowler and I still didn't have a plan or any form of communication, in fact Willam was barely awake right now. Even with all of his military training the flash was still affecting him harder than it had me. The Decepticons speed picked up as I felt the car lurch forward when it did, the anger had been setting in duing the drive but now it was getting to the point where I needed to say something. "I told you we should have waited for Optimus!" I yelled, well kind of the confined space made my raised voice sound more like a yell than normal. "There it is, the 'I told you so'. Well no sales sister, the Con was at the museum, if we had've waited he would have snagged the talon before Prime got there." Agent Fowler shot back at me.
I let out a fustrated sigh, we were both right but it had been his stupid idea to do this so called 'milk run' and his dumb thinking that had brought me along for the ride. "And given our current situation, WHAT DIFFERENCE WOULD THAT HAVE MADE!?" I yelled, raised my head and rose just a little, this time I was yelling. I was angry, he was taking the blame that was so rightfully is and throwing it back at me with whatever logic he could. "Hello, how long have you two been dating? Because you bicker like an old married couple." Knockout asked us, his voice boomed in the trunk. "What?" Agent Fowler said not caring to give an explanation, "We're not dating." I explained briefly. "Frankly, I find it repulsive the whole idea of you fleshies interfacing." Knockout said shuttering, we seemed villy uncomfortable by the subject which raised the whole point of how he felt about them 'interfacing' to my mind.
"Knockout to base, requesting pickup again. Alright, is anyone up there receiving me!?" he yelled, he'd quickly changed the subject as soon as he'd brought it up and no one on their warship was clearly on the other end of the line so it gave us a little more time. "Nurse Darby, June." Fowler whispered raing his head to talk to me, he had to be quiet enough that Knockout wouldn't hear us or take it as angry muttering. "If this Con gets us to Megatron's warship the chances of the Bots finding us decrease a thousand fold." Fowler whispered, I shifted my body so we could talk face to face. Trying to make as little noise and movement so our driver wouldn't notice it, "Never let a Decpeticon take you to a second location." I whispered back and Willam nodded.
"He disarmed me back at the museum, do you have anything we could use as a weapon?" he asked me, I struggled for a moment to get my hand down to my pocket and pulled out the pepper spray I kept in there. "Pepper spray?" I asked, I had no idea what would and wouldn't work on a Decpeticon but I hoped this would do. "On a Bot?" Willam said, apparently his enthusiasm wasn't as good as mine. "Alright, here's the plan. We pull down the back seat the folds out of here and crawl out, you grab the box with the talon in it and I get a hold of the steering wheel. Then we run." Willam said, it was a fairly solid plan for him coming up with it quickly but I nodded. "What if he catches us?" I asked, "Let's hope he grabs me and not you." he replied. I nodded. I handed my pepper spray to Willam in case the Decpeticon did catch him and then readied myself Fowler pushed down the seat and we silently slipped out, he seemed to be pretty preoccupied anyways recalling the Decpeticon's warship. "Knockout to base, requesting pick-up for umpteenth time, come in base." he radioed, still static on the other end.
I grabbed the box and grabbed a hold of the door handle, which accidentally set off the 'door ajar' light and beep on his front dash. Which made Fowler recently grab a hold of the steering wheel and slowly crawl into the front seat as he drove us towards a train yard. "WATCH THE RIMS!" Knockout yelled and Willam out us to a screeching stop, "Now!" he yelled and opposite car doors opened and I went running with the talon. I spinited towards the nearest train car to quickly catch my breath while I heard him untransform, "Well, isn't that just grand? Did I say grand? I ment totally rude" he seethed. I heard grunting and assumed he'd grabbed Willam, then screaming "MY OPTICS!" Knockout yelled. So, Willan had used the paper stay on the Decepticon, which probably angered him more. I got up again and started moving down the line of cars making sure to check that 'Knockout' wasn't nearby when I crossed between cars or an open section.
"Oh, are we playing a human game now?" Knockout asked followed by several hard foot steps as he looked behind nearby train cars for us. "Because I'd be happy to teach you the Decepticon version, 'hide and go shriek'." he continued changing places. I heard his footsteps walk in the other direction from me and I continued to hear away for him. I had no idea where Willam was and I hoped neither did the Decepticon. I saw him check behind the car next to me before walking away and I spinted behind it, clinging closely to the box I had in my hands. I followed the line of cars down until I got to another gap, from where I stood now I could see a coal car and a complete train. Apparently they were moving great out of here which meant we had less places to hide, I paused behind the car to catch my breath for a moment because I'd been running for a while.
"AH HA, alright little lady. Show yourself or I turn the snappy dresser here into a sloppy stain on the tarmac." Knockout yelled, I held my breath a little. I was shaking and absolutely terrified of what he was going to do to us, I had no idea what to do. Was I going to save Willam and let Megatron get one step closer to cloning his predacons or was I going to stay there and let Fowler become a blood splatter between train cars. Then it dawned on me, maybe I could save both of them, the freight train in front of me was clearly leaving soon. All I had to do was hide the talon there and give myself up, let it drive away and bribe him with its location. "But where?" I thought looking around, then I caught sight of the coal car I'd seen a moment ago. I quickly went over to it and climbed on top, carefully opening the box and placing the talon on the edge of it. "Last chance she human, if you're not out here with my prize in two point three seicnds your boyfriend here-" the Decpeticon was about to finish just as I climbed down from the car and the train pulled away leaving me without any cover. I shut the boxes opening as quickly and silently as I could before he caught full sight of me.
"Okay first off, not my boyfriend. And second, you're not laying a metal digit on him." I said smashing the wooden box apart in front of me. Willam was in Knockout's grasp already, I just needed to get him down and get out of here and back to base. "Not if you ever want to see your precious talon again." I finished, I saw him swoop down to grab me and I tried to run but it didn't really matter much because he changed how far he was racing and ended up grabbing me instead. "Where is it!" he demanded once he'd brought me up near his face, "Leave her alone!" Willam said as I struggled to get out of his grasp with no avail.
"I hid it on a train car, let us go and I'll tell you which one." I said looking him right in the optics, he scowled and glaced to the field of freight cars to the left of us and I quickly moved my head to the right to see how far away the train had gotten. I was hoping it had bought us enough time to get out of here so he wouldn't be able to catch us again if he came back. He scowled again at me and saw where I was looking and followed my gaze, a toothy smile crossed his face and he seemed satisfied with his answer. "Try as you might, you can't Con and Con." he said and transformed, throwing us into the front seat.
The seat belts strapped onto us so tight I couldn't move around much or at all, then he stepped on the gas and bolted for the train to catch up. "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Oh wait you can't unfasten your belts, my bad." Knockout said as he watched us struggle to get them unclipp so we could get out of here. "Knockout to Lord Megatron, please come in!" he asked comming his warship again, "Knockout, do you have the predacon bone?" a gruff voice that come over their comm link asked. I had to assume it was Megatron because it sounded similar to the one I'd heard through the phone and in person during his time as the Autobots ally to stop Unicron from rising.
"In my sights my liege, as are a pair of Autobots riding my rear." Knockout replied, I moved my head around as much as I could. Relieved to see Arcee's familiar headlight coming our way as well as another I couldn't really recognize. "Willam, look." I whispered and he turned his head too, I felt a little more relieved that we had help coming, I had no idea how they were going to get to us however. "Understood, just make sure you secure the specimen." Megatron said before the line ended, Willam and I watched on the mirrors to the front and either side of us to stay updated on how Arcee and her friend was doing. Right now she was making fairground but a ground bridge opened above her letting a bunch of those insecticon things through, I saw the car untransform and Wheeljack jumped into the air and cut down two of the insecticons before transforming and speeding up after us.
I heard the thuds as the two insecticons fell to the ground, then more blaster shots. These aimed at Arcee as two come up on her tail. Now fire and an explosion later Arcee was back to her wheels and increasing speed to get to us, as was Knockout who has changed gear to keep a constant pace with the train we were now beside. "Now, in which train car would a deceptive little human choose to bury a bone?" Knockout asked and I glanced to the coal car ahead of us. I didn't know if he'd seen where I was looking again but he sped up a little more. "My money's on the convertible." he said, changing gear anagin and adding more speed. I felt my back press up against the seat as he spread up to keep in line with the coal car. At this point everything was flying past us at amazing speeds, I could barely keep my eyes on anything for too long.
"He's where you get out." the Decpticon said and I had no idea what he meant until he used the elevation on the side of the tracks as a ramp to launch the three of us up in the air and untransformed. I scream, the seat belts come undone and the chairs disappeared and we free fell thirty or so meters. Personally I thought we were doing to hit the ground and either get run over or die from the impact, which I braced myself for. But it never came. Instead a pair of hands caught us mid flight and transformed once again putting us in the trunk, I stopped screaming and caught my breath a little as Wheeljack swerved before keeping a slower pace. "You okay?" I asked Willam, he gave an exasperated thumbs up between breaths and I sighed with relief happy that it was over.
Wheeljack screeched to a halt and I heard Arcee untransform, "Where are they?" she asked him seemingly perring through the windows. "In back." Wheejack replied by popping the trunk to reveal the two of us crouched together, we stood up and took a breath of fresh air and smiled at her. She seemed to sigh before radioing back to Ratchet to open us a ground bridge home. It came quickly but Willam and I had enough time to get out of Wheeljack's trunk and let him untransform before the ground bridge opened in front of the four of us and we walked though.
The second we walked back into base Jack took a running start at me and knocked me back a little with a tight hug. "Are you alright?" he asked quickly letting me go and then holding my hands, "The milk run turned a little sour, but Bill and I are just fine." I said looking over to Bill. I think I felt my cheeks flushed warm a little when I looked at him, he'd been so kind and helpful tonight despite the outcome of our milk run. "Come on June, sit down." Bill said pulling arn arm around my waist, I let go of Jack's hands and did the same and he led me over to the small sitting area Jack and Raf had been in when I;d gotten there hours and hours before.
On our way we passed Miko and Watched Bulkhead and Wheeljack make up. I was just happy, and relieved. Most relieved, it was good to be out of danger and have a bit of a calm though I still needed to get my car back from the museum which I'd workout with Ratchet later but for now I wanted to rest a little. So Bill and I sat down on the couch and watched a little T.V while the rest of the base went back to the normal hustle and bustle of their everyday lives.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave some feedback for me so I can make it a better reading experience for you guys!
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