Once again, a billion thanks to my Betas, whom I absolutely adore.
Chapter 31 - Mausoleum
(OPOV)
"Let's get this show on the road."
Optimus watched Mikaela as she got out of his cab and strutted toward the soldiers, straight backed and showing absolutely none of the sadness he'd seen in her eyes. He watched her rib the soldiers just before Chromia ran toward her, trailing everyone's holoforms behind her. Mikaela was quickly covered in ecstatic auto-bots. Optimus smiled to see her laughter become truly genuine, he waved a few soldiers over and handed the shopping bags down to them to load onto the plane for safe keeping.
"Oh dude!" Will laughed, eyeing the auto-parts bags. "little side trip?"
"At Mikaela's insistence," Optimus rumbled with a small smile, "just don't tell her I re-programmed the strip on her card to read as mine."
"Girl's got priorities," Epps laughed. "I picked up some books, this one looked good," he grinned. Optimus nodded.
"I believe she would be more interested in mechanics manuals," he rumbled mildly.
"She already knows everything," Lennox protested. "Or at least, she knows more than any three of us put together." he gestured around at the soldiers.
"Give her a manual for a plane then, perhaps an F-18," Optimus shrugged.
"Oh shit, can you imagine if she could service one of those!? Ain't nobody could mess with her then!" Epps said in awe, he ran and clapped one of the mechanics on the shoulder, making his request. A thick manual was placed in the man's hand with a grin. Epps and Jacobs squeezed themselves into Bee's backseat while Mikaela protested that one should sit in the front. The radios clicked in.
"No, I'm calling you all butt-heads who just lost viable claim to shotgun!" Mikaela laughed, Optimus could still see her push her seat forward a bit. Dear little femme.
"Oh god, you remember that show?" Epps grinned, elbowing Jacobs. Mikaela groaned, rolling her eyes.
::. Auto-bots, Roll out!.:: Optimus sent the signal silently as Lennox buckled himself in.
"Message from Starfleet Captain, Let's get to it," Bee played the soundbyte cheerfully, Optimus resisted rolling his optics as he drove out onto the highway. He kept his radio on, listening to the light banter between the soldiers and Auto-bots. He heard Epps' voice offer Mikaela a book.
"You did not just buy me girl porn!" Mikaela laughed.
"Whaat!?" Lennox called out in his cab.
"Yep, Harlequin!" Mikaela said cheerfully, and began to explain the concept of Harlequin romances.
"You're having us on!" Andrev rasped from Sideswipe's position.
Mikaela promptly began reading a few paragraphs aloud in a mockingly sultry tone. Optimus couldn't help but wonder what that voice could do if she were reading the manual aloud. He concealed a shudder at the thought and focused on the road again as the men, bots and femmes howled with laughter, listening to Mikaela's summary of a sex scene.
"And let's see, a full page dedicated to undressing her, and now that she's not completely devoid of oxygen thanks to ablessed lack of corset she's watching with lust glazed eyes as he slowly strips out of his five layers of royal naval uniform – ooh! Not a fop! Girl's got taste after all!" Optimus perked up ever so slightly at that. " – aaand, yep, three pages of painless sack dancing despite her current deflowering and his ginormous cock. Finished with the coup-de-grace: 'Gasping, she could feel his essence burning into her womb as it poured into her, William roared as he finished, the muscles standing out in his neck – blue balls! – collapsing on top of her and catching her lips in a Fierce! Passionate kiss! He rolled to the side and held her close as she drifted into an exquisitely sated slumber!' No doubt written at a time when... Sophia Jasper hadn't got laid in two years. Minimum." Mikaela finished as her gleefully captive audience howled with laughter. At the very edge of the merriment, Optimus could feel Bumblebee feeling ever so slightly left out, being unable to find and cue up a soundbyte quite fast enough to match the rapid fire banter.
Her voice suddenly raised amid the cacophony again.
"Bee! Soundbyte me! Admiral Akbar!" she laughed, Optimus listened in puzzlement for a second. Akbar?
"Its a trap!" Bee played the byte gleefully over the radios. The men howled with laughter again. Optimus couldn't help but join in the laughter.
::. It's an incredible thing to have the limelight shifted onto you so easily.:: Bee added with private glee to Optimus, he sent a rapid flash of an image, Mikaela laughing. Her expression suddenly morphed from a mocking turn to truly joyful and exultant. ::. When you began to laugh, Sir.:: Bee grinned.
"Okay but seriously, looks like the big man was right after-all, here." Epps laughed, anyone could hear the laughing tears in the men's voices.
"A manual?" Mikaela asked with a grin. "F-18 Hornet!? SWEET!" she crowed, "Oh shit look at that engine configuration... ooh! And it's got the modifications on the blue angels too...!" she moaned, there was the sound of pages being rapidly flipped.
"There ain't no way she's reading that fast!" Chance said with a laugh.
"No she totally is! Look at her eyes!" Jacobs called out, "Shut up a bit, and get ready to record what she says!"
Bumblebee sent the image of what she was doing, flipping the pages. The scout's sensors picked up the energon tracing symbols across her skin. Weapons information. Scrap.
Kae slammed the cover shut and sat back, looking out the window.
"Mikaela?" Chance asked worriedly. She held up the manual.
"I fucking want one!" she exclaimed in a bright tone. Optimus burst out laughing again.
"I don't believe it! Lennox! We got ourselves a bloody maggot!" Jacobs shouted.
"Oh shut up Jacobs!" Mikaela shouted, laughing in spite of herself. "Here! Look at those specifications and tell me you don't want to go that bloody fast! That engine is a direct derivative of the Blackbird's jets, and he's still the fastest airbreather. Shit, if I can't fly in a blackbird I want one of these!"
"She's a speed daemon too!" Arcee crowed as Chromia and Flareup laughed brightly.
Epps gave her a final book.
"Bomb detection and disposal," she said in a wry tone. "Thank you Epps, brilliant, confirmation that I'm going to be playing with explosives. Shit."
"Hey! You made that stump explode!" Jacobs stated with a grin.
"That was sheer force of personality and doesn't count," Kae snorted.
"Said what?" Epps asked curiously.
"See?" Kae grinned, Optimus watched Bee's feed curiously as Kae rubbed her fingers together in front of the curious soldiers and separated them, a little spark of energon snapping between her fingers as she did.
"That is so cool!" Chance howled.
"What'd she do!?" Lennox called out, Optimus snorted.
"Auto-bots, for the soldiers sanity, bring up inter-cab holoforms." he stated with a low chuckle, playing the clip of Kae's fingers snapping with energon.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Lennox demanded as he watched the clip.
"Same as an electric shock, mild, about the same as sticking your tongue on a nine volt," Kae called back with a snort.
"Pass!" Jacobs rumbled with a snort, Bumblebee's passengers began laughing again.
She flipped through the book a bit more slowly, but the symbols danced beneath her skin none-the-less.
Optimus listened to the banter as it started up again, finally pulling into the Smithsonian's extensive parking lot. Soldiers and holoforms got out of the vehicles, continuing the ribbing conversation. Optimus made a beeline for Mikaela, draping a friendly arm across her shoulders.
"Thank you for suggesting the manual," she murmured softly, cuddling into him. He couldn't help the small smile that crossed his face. It just felt so... perfect.
"No problem, thank you for not blurting out all the weapons information," Optimus rumbled just as softly.
"What weapons information?" she asked blandly, looking up at him with a wink. He couldn't help but smile down at her. The dear little femme.
"C'mon sis! You can play with your boyfriend later!" Chance grinned, grabbing her hand and leading her along the planes. They began animatedly discussing aerodynamics, Chance interjecting the occasional 'you should recruit' line as they went. Finally, Mikaela turned to her 'brother' with a final interjection.
"Oh come off it bro, I don't know why you're still trying to get me into the army, you know I'd never pass the eye exam to be a pilot," she said in exasperation.
"Oh come on Kaelie!" Chance laughed. "You haven't worn glasses in years!"
"I don't know if you've heard of this awesome new technology," she said wryly as they walked into the building, "we low little civilians call them contact lenses!"
"You know, any minute now she's going to realize that she's not actually wearing them today," Ratchet murmured to Optimus gleefully.
"She actually wore them?" Optimus asked curiously.
"Hard lenses," Ratchet nodded, "A good choice for her, for all that they'd irritate her eyes to no end she could wear them almost constantly with far less damage."
"Isn't she still wearing them then?" Optimus asked in amusement.
"I took them out while she had her eyes open," Ratchet grinned. "The nanites repaired her eyes along with her nerves last night."
Soldiers and Holoforms sat outside the museum, relaxed and chatting for another ten minutes. An alarm began blaring.
"What? That's not supposed to happen for another..." Lennox looked at his watch, "hour." He opened his phone as it began ringing. Optimus watched the Major's face dissolve into shock.
"Genuine bomb threat," the major shouted, "Boys! Vacation's over! Evacuate the building!"
(CdPOV)
Chance looked at the young woman laughing on his arm. She looked at the planes in an entirely different way than his own siblings had. There was genuine longing there.
"You know, you should join the army with me," he nudged her with a grin, actually meaning it now. "Go in for a pilots licence."
"Oh come off it bro, I don't know why you're still trying to get me into the army, you know I'd never pass the eye exam to be a pilot," she said in exasperation.
"Oh come on Kaelie!" Chance laughed, probing. "You haven't worn glasses in years!"
"I don't know if you've heard of this awesome new technology," she said wryly as they walked into the building, "we low little civilians call them contact lenses!"
"You seriously wear contact lenses now!" Chance asked in shock.
"Hard ones, less maintenance," Mikaela shrugged, "and don't you dare start calling me the family's latest maggot, F-22 Pilot needs near perfect eyesight and you know it."
"What about commercial?" Chance asked curiously. The girl beside him seemed to morph into an entirely different person. Far beyond the simple cosmetics that had made her look like a genetic sister, her posture was her own, prowling stride and her eyes had taken on a cast that could only be... ancient... she looked like Mikaela again. Just... older.
"You remember when mum and dad took us to the air show?" she asked softly, "when the blue-angels came to Sydney that year? Perfect sky. I was six, you were running around, cheerfully looking at the guns and just how proudly the men wore their uniforms. But I saw the hornets doing their maneuvers and it was nothing, nothing like watching the commercial jets take off and land. It wasn't just being able to hear the roar of the engines, it was feeling it. I didn't say anything because I didn't want to take your thunder, you know me, no glory on the wings of another, had to do it myself. I mean, I know that the blue angels have separate modifications, an inverted fuel pump so that they can stay upside down longer but... I can't see well enough."
"But my baby sister still wants to fly," Chance said kindly, wrapping an arm across the young woman's shoulders. They walked through the planes, space probes and Mikaela stopped at one standing in solitary glory.
"The Lockheed SR-71," she murmured with a small smile.
"Blackbird!" Chance said in surprise, looking at the sign. Retired 13 years ago after being off and on in service.
"Habu," Mikaela smiled, "the pit viper. The faster he went the more efficient he was."
"How do you figure that?" Chance laughed, a few tourists came and stood close by to listen to the pretty girl's theory.
"Well, the RS-71A was developed from the Lockheed A-12 and designed for reconnaissance during the cold war-"
"RS? It says SR!" a woman said indignantly.
"When the RS went public, the airforce chief of staff, General Curtis LeMay lobbied for it to be called the SR, Strategic Reconnaissance instead, and with that command sent down several thousand manuals and blueprints were re-printed." Mikaela laughed. "For a while, people thought that President Lyndon Johnson had made a mistake in his speech, calling the plane something else entirely. Anyway, they were built during the Cold War in response to the rapid technology race, and ironically the majority of the titanium that was used to build them came from the USSR. A new one, before that the vast majority of planes had been constructed of steel. Titanium was expensive, but far lighter.
"The strategy was to be able to run from land to air missiles, rather than being hit. But the problem with running at Mach 3 is the amount of heat that the air pressure around you causes, so..." Mikaela walked around to the wing. "If you look carefully at the skin of his wing, it's corrugated. It gave the plates room to grow and shrink several inches without overly stressing it. But because of that, and the fact that at the time they didn't have a fuel system that would be able to handle that heat and stress, the Blackbird would leak fuel on the runway before taking off. Do a fast sprint to heat everything up and refuel in the air. Because once he was running hot everything expanded, aligned and fit perfectly. The faster he went, the less fuel was used in terms of pounds burned per nautical mile because the engines didn't have to work as hard to get air in. And the titanium skin actually grew stronger as it was used, the heat and cooling cycles of flying actually tempered it."
"How on earth do you know all this?" the nosy lady asked curiously.
"Curiosity," Mikaela laughed, looking at the plane with respect. "You must realize, this plane still holds the record of fastest manned air breathing jet aircraft, and he's held it from nineteen seventy six to today, tomorrow." She smiled. "The only aircraft of his day that came even remotely close was the MiG-25 built by the Soviet Union uhh... that one over there, but at Mach 3.2 at high altitude the engines would burn out all together. All this guy had to do? Accelerate. The only thing that took them down were accidents. Not one was ever shot down."
"That's so cool mom!" a little boy squealed brightly. The group of tourists wandered away, cameras flashing as they took pictures of the blackbird and the lovely girl beside the soldier, both of them looking at the plane, one with old respect, one with new.
"So that's him then?" Chance asked quietly.
"That's him," Mikaela nodded, smiling. Sirens began to blare.
"If everyone could please remain calm and use the nearest exit," A man's voice called over the speakers. Mikaela frowned, glancing at her watch and looking at him.
"Early," she said quietly, staying on his right shoulder as he walked quickly toward the office.
"Mate! What's going on?" Chance asked with a frown.
"We just had a bomb threat sir," the young man said in a terrified voice. He was rapidly gathering up paperwork and catalogues. He unplugged his master computer and loaded it all on a cart, hightailing it for the exit. Lennox and Optimus' holoform ran toward them.
"It's a genuine one," Lennox growled softly, Optimus grabbed Mikaela's upper arm.
"Evacuate everyone," Mikaela said in a sharp voice, "Gods, what is it with me and bombs? We need to get Grandfather Blackbird out of here!"
She ran back toward the plane and stopped dead, her head canted to the side, she turned, took ten steps and froze. A minute later she took another three paces to her right.
(MPOV)
Amidst the sirens I heard a beep. I froze, frowning and listening for it again.
Beep. I spun and began walking, my head canted to the side. Ten steps I stopped.
Beep. Three paces to the right. Stop.
Beep. One pace to the left. I began looking around the area with narrowed eyes. A blinking light, out of place caught my attention, I walked toward it and slid a hatch carefully open.
Beep.
01:00:59
"For Primus sake!" I shouted. The payload was hefty. The wiring stupid.
"Kae we gotta go!" Chance shouted, running toward me and stopping dead.
"Hazmat isn't going to get here in time," he whispered, "it took us three hours to get out here, and they're coming farther.
01:00:39
"This is absolutely fucking ridiculous," I snarled. I reached out and touched a few of the wires, carefully tracing them. The Cybertronian symbols began to dance in front of my eyes again, clearly labelling the wires. They seemed to mesh with the symbols. I reached back and snatched the radio from Chance's collar.
"Get your ass out of here," I commanded.
"Not without you!" Chance growled, grabbing my arm.
I stood and turned to face him.
"Lieutenant Chance Daniels!" I barked, "Evacuate all personnel including yourself, clear out a two mile radius! Move!"
Chance looked at me in shock before making an about face and scrambling out of the hangar. A few moments later the doors slid shut. I rolled my eyes and clipped the radio on my collar.
"Can you lot hear me?" I said calmly.
"Yeah, give us a second..." Lennox's voice came back. The sirens shut off.
"Tell me when the area is clear, Major," I said firmly. Kneeling down in front of the bomb again.
"I don't know why I'm asking you this, what's the payload?" Lennox demanded.
"Well, it'll destroy anything in the hangar, but it's right in the middle, so about the only thing that's going to hit the walls is shrapnel," I said calmly.
"Alright sir, the last of the civilians are two miles away now," Jacobs barked.
"Hey you guys?" I said with a small smile, "It's been good knowing you." I pulled a wire and watched the timer clear itself out. The bomb powered down. "Well would you look at that, they aren't my last words after all." I said cheerfully, standing and walking toward blackbird. I stood at the rail and heard the tiny electric whine of Wheelie. He parked beside me and transformed, giving a little puff of fire as he did.
"Aw there he is!" Wheelie said beside me. "This guy's a legend! Like, like the chairman of the board!" I looked down at the tiny bot with a smile. "Yo Warrior Goddess! Do that thing you did for me with the energon." he grinned.
I jumped the rail and ran my hand along the underside, a massive surge of icy fire seemed to jump from me into the titanium, an electric blue surge flared along the exoskeleton.
"Oh shit we got life!" I shouted, backing away and hiding beneath a nearby plane with Wheelie right beside me. There was a loud clanking, the screeching of rust as the blackbird arched and stood up, plates sliding onto his back, coughing, hacking and forcing the cockpit battle mask back up onto his head.
"What sort of, hideous mausoleum is this!? Answer me pawns and knaves! Show yourselves! Or suffer my infinite wrath!" he stood up and began walking on bowed legs. I stood up and cautiously walked toward him.
"You little spinal cord based organisms," he said grumpily, batting a space probe away, it swung back and whacked him on the head. "Aw bugger it!" he staggered for a second before standing straight. "Behold! The eternal glory of Jetfire! Prepare for remote systems override!"
"I tell you, this guy did not age well," Wheelie commented.
"I command these doors to open! Fire!"
"JETFIRE!" I shouted as he staggered toward the door. "Hold up! Let me get that!" I sprinted to the hangar doors and undid the latch, shoving them open. He ducked out, barely noticing me and began walking among the fleet of retired aircraft while I sprinted after him.
"Damn these worthless parts! Itchy wretched rust in my arse!" I fell back, avoiding the parts falling off of him as he ranted to himself.
The auto-bots sped toward us.
"Hold up," I murmured into the radio. "Badly damaged, processors not fully online as yet, code two." The roaring of engines quieted somewhat, bots slowing down to provide a non-hostile approach.
"Right! I'm on a mission!" he declared importantly, banging lightly on one wing before swinging about and accidentally taking off the tail on another.
"JETFIRE!" I shouted again, "WAIT! Hold up a minute!"
"What do you want?" he demanded.
"I just want to talk!" I called up to him.
"I've no time to talk! I'm on a mission! I'm a mercenary doom bringer! What planet am I on?" he finished in a disgruntled voice.
"Earth," I called up calmly.
"Earth? Terrible name for a planet," he said, lowering himself down somewhat. "Might as well call it dirt, Planet dirt." I avoided the used oil that spewed from his mouth. "Tell me, is that robot civil war still going on? Oo's winning?"
"The Decepticons," I said sadly.
"Ach," he spat on the ground. "Well I changed sides to the Auto-bots."
"How do you mean changed sides?" I asked in shock.
"It's a choice, it's an intensely personal decision. So much negativity! 'Oo want's to live a life filled with hate?" he asked with the wisdom of age.
"You mean you don't have to work for those miserable freakin' Decepticons?" Wheelie asked incredulously.
"If Decepticons had their way they'd destroy the whole universe," Jetfire said with disdain, waving his hand in emphasis.
"I'm changing sides, I'm changing sides too warrior goddess!" Wheelie said immediately, he climbed up my leg and held on tightly.
"Aaaww you're cute," I looked down at him with a smile, then gently pushed him off. "But I don't really appreciate having my leg humped Wheels."
He nodded cheerfully and stood beside me.
"I'm sorry, you were saying?" I looked up at Jetfire again.
"I told you my name was Jetfire! So stop judging me!" Jetfire roared.
"Whoa somebody shit the bed this morning, look at this guy!" Wheelie said quietly, moving toward the soldiers running toward us.
"I have issues of my own! And it started with my mother! My ancestors have been here for centuries. Why my father, he was a wheel. The first wheel! Do you know what he transformed into?"
"What?" Epps called out curiously.
"Nothing!" Jetfire roared, "But he did so with honour! Dignity damn it!"
Standing beneath him I could see the look of surprise on his face as his innards rumbled. An almighty fart sounded and a braking parachute exploded out behind him. It caught the wind and pulled him backwards, off his feet.
"Aw bollocks," he grumbled as I ran toward him, "My boosters are fried!" he shouted, pounding the ground with a fist.
"Whoa whoa! Hold on!" I shouted, "Primus damn it stay still!" I demanded, clambering up his arm to stand near his chest. I laid my hands over an exposed piece of neural fibres and felt a slow surge of energon escape my palms into the ancient warrior.
His nanites began repairing him finally, dents, scrapes, scars easing away and parts being rejected in favour of creating new ones.
"Oh you're a healer are you?" he asked calmly, slowly sitting up as the auto-bots transformed around us. Optimus walked toward us and stood straight, his hands on his hips.
Jetfire looked up then looked twice.
"A Prime?" he asked in shock. "A living Prime! I – I don't believe it! You can defeat him! You're the only one who can defeat him!"
"Who?" I asked intently.
"The Fallen! Oh I remember him! The first Decepticon! He's the one who left me here to rust! He was terrible to work for, it was always apocalypse, chaos!" he gestured toward me. "These transcriptions! They were part of my mission in the Fallen's search! I remember now! For the dagger's tip! And the key!"
"Hold on hold on! What do you mean dagger's tip and the key!?" I shouted, "What transcriptions!?"
"The ones in your skin fleshling!" he stated excitedly, "no time to explain now! Hold on! Stay still or you'll die!" his hands wrapped around me as a whirlwind of energon surrounded us. A moment of blinding light and I was flying, then falling. I landed in soft sand.
I stood up and looked around.
No Optimus. No Bumblebee. Nowhere to run, not so much as a gods damned rock to hide behind. Nothing but empty desert, and an 'ex' Decepticon groaning softly as he began standing up.
As you can probably tell, I am an aeronautics fanatic. And I got to sit in the cockpit of a WWII B-17 bomber last night. I'm still pumped XD, however I am uncertain if the F-18's engines are in fact a direct derivative of the SR-71, still researching... ~K