Pretender Chronicles

A War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron/Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

Prologue Part 4: Another Brick in the Wall

Optimus shook his helm, "No, you should remain here to assist Ratchet with the preparation of the medical berth, should we find Cliffjumper. We four should be able to recover him without difficulty."

Teal nodded and said, "As you wish, Optimus. Turq, keep an eye on the humans while I assist Ratchet with medical preparation."

She looked around and saw the medical berth and went over to make sure the equipment was ready while Ratchet readied the ground bridge. She heard the exclamations from the kids as the Autobots bridged out and sensed the reason for it; she was annoyed when Ratchet suggested ground bridging the three teens to Tokyo to visit and said, "Ratchet…" Mae also silently made a suggestion, /* If you're concerned about stepping on us, why not do something to minimize the possible damage you and the others could do; Teal and Turq have examples of coding you can borrow that will do the job. */

/* Mae, I will look into that once the current crisis is dealt with, as my own medic subroutines are telling me what Teal did, */ Ratchet replied silently while monitoring Team Prime's progress and waiting to bridge them back when requested. When the system glitched, Raf asked about the computers and offered to fix the problem and Teal was caught up in another memory.

~~~Iacon Hall of Science~~~

Teal was following the little organic, Cypher, in vehicle mode as he walked along the corridor in the Hall of Science. She had handed off care of Defensor to Jazz and Orion, since she was more maneuverable in tight spaces than either of them. Suddenly, Cypher pointed at a spot at the intersection of two corridors and she rolled over to see why he was so excited; she looked closely at the spot and had she been in her robot form, she would have smiled. /* What is it, Teal? */ Orion asked nervously. /* It seems that we may have a way to find where we need to go after all; what have we been told to do if lost in an unfamiliar area? */ she replied. /* Leave some sort of mark that we would recognize as a trail marker. The organics did this? */ he asked with a bit of surprise in his voice as he looked down at Cypher and then over to Jazz, who was holding Defensor. Cypher said something to Teal in a very concerned tone and she told him to climb on her so they could follow the trail. /* Just support yourself; I will handle propulsion and steering, */ she directed when he seemed uncertain about doing so. Slowly they followed the trail of burn marks on the walls of the corridor until they reached the same door that Cypher and Defensor had come through to escape the Mech that had been in the room with them.

As Teal stopped in front of it, Orion reached out to Cypher and the tiny organic willingly climbed into his servo so that Teal could transform. They could all make out the glyphs on the door that said "Space Bridge Research Lab", and they slowly opened the door and entered.

~~~End Flashback~~~

After the teens left with their new guardians to return to their respective dwellings for the night, Mae returned to the quarters that Optimus had shown them earlier in the day; Butch had already picked which room he wanted and was resting, so Mae decided to put what few clothes she had that were clean in the drawers of the built-in dresser and recharge as well. When she awoke the next morning, she decided to take a shower. As she walked to the shower area, she sensed something out of place and spun around and ran down the corridor to the main area. As she reached the corridor entrance, she heard Ratchet's muffled exclamation of "By the AllSpark" and peeked around the corner to see the piece of equipment that had been damaged by Bulkhead earlier in the day attacking him.

She watched as he dodged its attacks and transformed her hand into a smaller version of Teal's blaster, then waited for an opportunity to strike. As the spider-like being jumped at him a second time, she raised her blaster and shot at it, right as Optimus did the same. She watched in amusement as the unfortunate creature fell to the floor, struggled to get up again only to be crushed under Optimus' massive pede, but it was Ratchet's words that made her laugh out loud; "And stay broken."

Optimus turned at her laughter and raised an optic ridge, then turned to listen to what Ratchet was saying. Mae got a chill that had nothing to do with her state of dress when Optimus mentioned his suspicions about what caused the damaged equipment to come to life, and spoke up, "it does stand to reason that's what happened; both with this thing and what Arcee saw in the mine with Cliffjumper. But, what could Megatron's ultimate goal in bringing this stuff to Earth to begin with be?" "To conquer this planet by raising an army of the undead," Optimus stated firmly, as Mae turned to go take her shower.

Later that day, after taking a ride into Jasper with Butch, they returned the Autobot base to find Bulkhead, Miko and Jack gathered around Raf as he attempted to look up some information. Mae got off Teal and ran up the stairs. "What happened?" she asked, noticing that Raf seemed to be trying to hack into a government database of some sort.

Bulkhead managed to look embarrassed as Raf said, "Agent Fowler saw us and tried to take us into custody, but Bulk broke the only working phone here to stop him. Shortly after he left, we received a mayday beacon and I'm trying to hack the Air Force system to get his locator chip data so we can send someone to rescue him."

Mae sighed, then looked over at Bulkhead. "That was a smart move Bulkhead, but your friendly liaison didn't see it that way, from the sound of things. Sounds like a stunt my boss pulled one time, right down to someone having to pull his fat out of the fire." Miko giggled and Mae glared at her; "It's not funny Miko."

Just then Raf gave a triumphant cry and gave Teal the coordinates to input into the ground bridge. Mae and Butch watched as Teal pulled the lever to open the ground bridge then turned to Bulkhead. "Go retrieve Fowler as quickly as possible, Bulkhead; Turq and I will watch the humans while you're gone and if Arcee or the others report back, we will send them to assist," Teal said.

"Got it; Jack, you're in charge of the teens until I get back," Bulkhead said as he lumbered towards the bridge, then vanished from sight.

As Mae turned to climb up onto the communication console to be closer to Teal, she heard Jack calling Miko's name, which made her human looking mesh chitter slightly. Teal muttered "Scrap" as Jack and Raf realized that Miko had followed Bulkhead, and opened the ground bridge again. "Jack, you and Raf go get Miko and try to keep her away from the action; I will see if I can get in touch with Arcee and Bumblebee to help Bulkhead. Turq and Butch, follow them, but do not engage the Decepticons; I need you to keep me apprised of the situation there until I send help."

Mae watched Arcee carefully as Jack walked across the floor toward the ground bridge that Ratchet had opened. Even though it wasn't obvious to the younger humans or Bumblebee, Mae and Teal both could tell that the very thought of Jack leaving was having an effect on Arcee and that she was trying very hard not to crack and beg him not to leave as she said, "Don't make me hunt you down," in response to his well intentioned comment of "I know, you don't exist.

"He wouldn't listen to me," Miko whined as she stood next to the three-wheeler that Mae was sitting on; she had been in the middle of changing clothes to talk to Jack when Bulkhead pulled into the lot and Miko jumped out, stopping long enough to tell him to give them some privacy. "He kept saying he wanted to be ordinary and that an ordinary life suited him just fine. How can he feel that way after meeting the 'Bots? I know you've not known them much longer than we have, but even you seem to like being around them."

"Miko, Jack can't go back to an ordinary life, no matter what he might wish; I think he's realist enough to know that, but the sudden stress of being responsible for more than just his job and school work overwhelmed him. Even you can't go back to what you were, though I know you've been through things that most girls your age wouldn't know how to handle," Mae said and watched as the girl in front of her tensed. "Miko, we met once before, at a B.A.C.A. rally; you were with the twins and I was by myself. I work for the FBI, but as a special investigation officer out of Fairbanks, Alaska, so I don't know your specific case; but if you ever need a sympathetic ear, I'll listen."

Miko looked at her and relaxed some and said, "Don't tell anyone about that, please. The 'Bots especially; they wouldn't understand, and I don't need to lose friends over it."

"I promise I won't tell them, but eventually they will have to know; you can't hide it from them forever. And something tells me that, as different as they may seem to be, the Autobots would understand better than you think," Mae said. "Now, get going; I think Bulkhead is getting impatient to be back at base."

As Miko and Bulkhead drove off, Teal pinged Mae with a question and she slipped her vest on as she answered, /* Not something any girl that isn't in her mid to late teens should be doing, and most certainly not as a source of income for someone that only has the increase in his personal wealth in mind. */ Teal idled silently for a moment then pinged another question and Mae grimaced, /* yes, like those mechs and femmes; it's sad to see that despite our obvious differences, there are some things that are unpleasantly similar. */

As Mae pulls into the driveway at the Darby house, she noticed Jack look up and do a double take as she got off of Teal. She walked over to him and leaned against the table he was working near; after a few minutes, she spoke. "Jack, it may surprise you to hear this, but things don't always go the way we want: had I had my way, I wouldn't be working with the supervisor I do, because when he first met Butch, he didn't have anything nice to say about him. But now that I have worked with him, I've realized that I would have missed out on some interesting experiences, including meeting you and the others."

Jack sighed and said, "Mae, I need to think about this; what happened today is something that could have gone so wrong it's not funny and I don't see how Miko at least doesn't see that."

Mae smiled and spoke gently, "I understand that, Jack, since I've had to deal with situations in my line of work that could have gone horribly wrong if someone's cover got blown at the wrong time. Having time to think is something I can give you credit for wanting, as it is sometimes best to not make hasty decisions and regret things later on."

Jack looked up as Mae moved and blushed slightly, since she had moved to stand in front of him; Mae giggled and reached down to help him stand. "Jeeze Mae, I didn't think you would come here that minimally dressed," he commented as he saw her outfit.

"Jack, if I could do it without offending people, I'd wear even less than I am now, to be honest," Mae said casually. "I grew up in a tribe that was pretty open about things that the White Man tends to want to hide."

Author's note:

Yes, Mae was running around in the nude in the base, but she was only doing so because the kids were not there at the time, and those that were there wouldn't have possibly been offended by it; the Autobots because they don't have the same cultural taboos against nudity that some human cultures do, and Butch simply because she's known him so long. She shows up at the Darby house in her bikini bottom and vest simply to try to get Jack's attention long enough to tell him what she wants to. The references to B.A.C.A. and the twins are hints at the storyline of Foxbear's Dirty Little Secrets and Where the Heart Is Chapter 4.

The song in the chapter title is from Pink Floyd's seminal album The Wall and it's an apt description of the situation the Autobot forces have reached with Jack's departure.