Wheeljack stared at the screens. The Synthetic Energon was unstable, so it needed a stabilizer.
It was based on regular energon, so he was comparing the chemical structures of the samples they had to what Ratchet had left of the written formula.
Which quite frankly looked like something he could use for a grenade to make a bigger explosion. Like an accelerant.
"Hey Doc, you got chemical additives, right? Help online bots for last words or keep them stable for a bit?"
"Yes, Wheeljack, why?"
"You also use chemicals for inducing stasis, right?" Wheeljack pulled up the chemical maps for things he was asking about.
"If necessary." Ratchet moved closer. "Where are you going with this?"
"Different chemicals have different reactions. You wait between doses for some of these, but I know a couple of these can also be mixed for explosives."
"You think there's a reaction happening between the chemicals being used."
"Might also be timing or temperature." Wheeljack started running the numbers. "How's Hauler holding up?"
"… The extended activity getting the Predacons caused some damage he still hasn't recovered from." Ratchet looked at the screen in front of him. "We're running out of time, it's no longer a question of if he'll deteriorate, but when."
"We'll find a cure before then." Wheeljack stepped back from the screen. The computer needed time to run. "He's not half bad at wrangling the new recruits."
"Some things remain second nature." Ratchet actually smiled a bit. "Miko once got Raf into what humans call a 'sugar high', an over energized state. The two could not stay still. Jack spent several hours keeping them in one piece."
"What Unit did we put the kid in?"
"Officially for us, he's a civilian friend of Smokescreen who worked his way up through the autobot ranks to warrior. A bit of a loner that works well with any unit. Most likely, he'll be one of Jazz's units."
"You've put him under Jazz?" Wheeljack asked. "I've heard of him." The bot's reputation was almost as legendary as Optimus Prime's.
"Jazz won't question having an unknown, in fact, in a couple moments he'll convince you that he's known the kid longer than you have." Ratchet glanced up at the warning rev of an engine. "Trouble."
Fig had been told his new mission parameters fifteen minutes before he had to meet the General and Agent Fowler.
He was not comfortable. He was a loyal agent of MECH, and a loyal soldier of the US of A, but this … well, he understood that Silas' actions had the higher ups disavowing the name and were in the process of renaming the organization.
The General was not happy. Fig could feel that Aura well before he entered the room.
Still the feeling of being in trouble didn't stop as he was taken to meet Optimus Prime.
The meeting was held in the giant alien's cab. Climbing into a living thing was terrifying.
"Like I said before, Prime, we had no idea of this happening."
"I understand Agent Fowler, I am aware that splinter factions can appear in governing bodies and their troops. It happened on Cybertron. I had rather hoped your species would not have that vice." The voice was an almost soothing baritone.
"Unfortunately, our species are starting to sound more similar than they are different. Anyway, this is Corporal Figeroua, an agent of that faction we told you about. He's going to be observing your unit for the foreseeable future."
"As long as he does not approach the Predacon den unattended, I have no objection." Optimus allowed. "I will also request he have Ultra Magnus act as his guardian should he wish to approach them."
"That's fine." Fig had watched the giant robot animals wreck havoc. "Ultra Magnus is the big guy with the ship, right? I met him."
"With your permission, General, I would like you there to help inform my team."
"Of course, I'm sorry we couldn't give you better warning."
It is decidedly not comfortable being driven by a truck into a hangar. Agent Fowler isn't bothered, though, and Fig tries to follow his example as much as possible.
The news that Fig is going to be assigned to them does not go over well, especially by the girl, Miko.
"Ugh, great, another killjoy." She groaned. "Can I hang out with the preds?"
"No, Miko." The one named Ratchet sighed. "So long as this one stays out from underfoot, I don't care."
"Ultra Magnus will be his guardian for when the Predacons are around."
"Understood." Ultra Magnus said and the wolf nodded.
"We'll start staying in the den more, then."
"We have no interest in the humans." The griffin like one flared its wings.
"Yes." Prime nodded, and Ultra Magnus walked out.
The meeting breaks up, and Optimus takes the General back to the office. Fig was now left with nothing to do. He was being ignored by everyone as the girl was making a racket on her guitar.
"At ease, soldier, it's pretty boring around here. The kids have some video games, though you might want to bring any hobby you have to work on." Miko hit a discordant note. "And headphones." Agent Fowler added.
Somehow, Fig hadn't imagined that being in the room with the Giant Robots would be more boring than being outside the room.
Raf was almost always on the computer, even operating some of the alien tech. He could also understand the beeps from Bumblebee (seriously, the two story killer robot was named Bumblebee. No one was going to believe that report.) Miko apparently spent most of her time either explaining pop culture things to the bots or listening to war stories with wide eyes- when she wasn't trying to sneak out on missions. Wheeljack apparently let her while Bulkhead was the far more responsible one.
Fig stopped her exactly once.
"Are you kidding me? They're going to the Sahara! Ultimate Dune Bashing!" Miko complained.
"Not like there's any decepticon signals there." Wheeljack shrugged.
"Right, but aren't you down a kid?" Fig had said.
He was not expecting the punch to the gut as Miko hit him hard and ran.
"Miko! I'll get her." Nurse Darby took off after the girl.
"I'll make sure she doesn't get to the Predacons." The female sounding bot said.
"Word of advice, tiny, don't bring him up like that." Wheeljack informed him, before going through the portal.
"Corporal, would you like to join me for a minute?" Agent Fowler advised. "What do you know of the decepticons?" The agent asked once they were in the office.
"They're the faction the robots are fighting. That's it."
"I see. What you need to know then, is that the decepticons do not actually care for maintaining the masquerade longer than necessary for their goals. They wish to turn earth into a second cybertron, and view humans as merely above average intelligent animals to be wiped out. That said, what happened to Jack was what the decepticons would consider mercy."
"What happened?"
"To quote Roadhauler, one of them wanted a pet."
"What?!" Fig felt like saying a lot worse. If he could get the words out.
"As of right now, we believe Jack Darby to be alive. But if the decepticons get tired of him …" Agent Fowler sighed.
"Dios mio. They won't give him back, will they?" Fig grimaced. A kid was at the mercy of someone who thought he was a pet, there was no way it would end well.
"He's more useful alive, a potential hostage for leverage, but his death would destroy morale, especially for Arcee. He may already be dead, and his remains being studied. We don't know." Agent Fowler looked somber. "Miko, despite her attitude, is aware of the danger. She may be hoping to be captured so she can rescue her friend, especially if she can gain access to a decepticon ground bridge. Which will only happen if Vehicons are sent out, as most Decepticons can fly."
"And their ship is …"
"Heavily cloaked. We've had luck finding their signal exactly once with the computer doing random frequency scans, but Roadhauler's condition is … deteriorating faster than predicted. He needs the computers computing a stabilizing agent sooner rather than later. Regrettably, the human technology we are using to augment their own is … unable to do both."
"Would Roadhauler-"
"Give his life to get back Jack Darby? Yes. But we need all available Autobots for a rescue mission and Roadhauler is the only one who can keep the Predacons in line. And if Jack Darby is dead, then we will have killed someone for a ghost."
"I see." Finding the kid was a matter a luck either way, but Roadhauler's death was certain. Fig would prefer them find the missing kid, but if they were running the numbers then Roadhauler was more of a priority.
"It's not the answer anyone wants to hear." Something exploded. Both men ran out to see Ratchet growling and waving away smoke.
"Ratchet, what happened?"
"Centrifuge blew." Was the terse answer. "Rafael, did you-?"
"I've got the data. Not sure if it's what you want to see."
"Some of the numbers are what we were looking for, but the mixture became unstable." Ratchet sighed. "I'll have to repair the centrifuge. Take a break Rafael."
"Okay." Raf moved to a different computer and began typing in the alien language.
"You can understand that?" Fig had thought the boy had just been clicking on the symbols the bots had told him to, but this was … this was fluent coding.
"Of course." Raf ignored him, laser focused on his work. "Ratchet's been teaching me."
"He's a smart kid." Agent Fowler offered before he went to ask Ratchet what equipment he needed for repairs.
"This is dumb! Why do we have to pretend Jack is …" Miko kicked at a trash can.
The Predacons are ignoring her hiding in the small hangar office with June. Though that might be because they're all watching earth documentaries, Sky-Byte is apparently really fond of shark documentaries.
Jack is resting in wolf form nearby while Arcee is crouched in the doorway.
"Because Agent Fowler and General Bryce didn't smell like they were happy with the situation, which means we have to keep an eye on this guy." Jack lifted his head. "It sucks, but I trust Agent Fowler- if he doesn't like the situation, we shouldn't either."
"I'm not apologizing for punching him." Miko muttered.
"No one's asking you to. How's Smokescreen?"
"He's starting to recover, he returns to light duty tomorrow." Arcee explained.
"I want the boy." Dr. Arkeville listened to the report given by their agent.
"Any particular reason?" Attinger asked.
"We have yet to decode the signals of these robots, and this child is already fluent? Many of our projects could finally make progress!"
"I'll make the calls."
"Capture robot car assigned to him as well, I suspect the audible signals we have may be scrambled." Dr. Arkeville smiled. "But to have someone fluent …"
"Of course. If that's the case, I want project Grey Ghost back on line first." Attinger glanced at the wall of screens Arkeville was studying. "We'll have much work to do to repair the damage Silas caused."
"Oh, very well." Dr. Arkeville sighed.
So, to those of you unaware, the FanFictionNet twitter account has been silent for a year. While the domain name is registered until 2028, that doesn't mean the servers won't go down earlier. The lack of contact with site moderators is very concerning and a lot of people on Tumblr and some on AO3 are scrambling to download and save fics for when the site goes down. I have all my fics backed up and saved, and am in the process of moving everything to AO3, it's just taking time, especially as I have edited stuff before posting.
Please contact as many authors as you can and be sure to get as many fics saved and downloaded as you can, especially if you can add them to the wayback machine archives.
I will continue to post here until the site goes down, but be assured everything of mine will be transferred to AO3.
Update: so just after posting this I double checked their twitter and they're back! Apparently they noticed the frantic people and hadn't realized they hadn't notified us of anything in a year (Covid apparently)
I would still recommend getting everything backed up and attached to the way back machine, just in case
In story notes, Raf gets kidnapped next chapter, and Fig realizes something about the organization he's working for.