Chapter 122 – Patrolling With Humans
(MPOV)
I quickly summoned my armour to my frame and turned around. Optimus was standing in the doorway, watching me with a smirk.
"What?" I laughed, walking forward and wrapping my arms carefully around his waist.
"Be careful?" he rumbled softly, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to my lips.
"For you?" I murmured, "always."
He held me for a long moment, and I could feel his spark pulsing worry.
~No matter where we are~ I whispered directly into his spark. He held me tighter for a second and pulled back gently, smiling at me.
"Always," he rumbled softly, cupping my cheek. We traded places and he summoned his armour, shrugging into it with the ease of long habit. I stayed to watch his movements with a smile.
"God's fuck that's sexy," I murmured, smirking at my bonded spark-mate.
"The armour?" he rumbled curiously, holding up a gauntleted hand.
"No, watching you move," I murmured, turning and striding down the corridor.
::. I would be grieved to watch you walk away.:: he rumbled over our private comm ::. Except that that is an exquisite view.::
"Flatterer," I called over my shoulder, turning to wink at him and grinning as my wings settled into place. I looked down at Chance as he hovered outside the Med-bay doors. "No, in the med bay, you know how long it takes me to get dressed," I grinned down at him, walking into the bay.
"Kae!" Ratchet called out, "It's over there! Now you thread it into here," he continued his narrative to a fascinated pair of twins.
"Why is there a g-suit in the med-bay?" Chance asked curiously.
"Because it's a new suit," I stated calmly, sitting down on my bench and onlining my holoform beside him. "Autobot technology. We could always hunt down one of the old-school suits if you aren't up for it, but I figured if you want to beat the air breather record you should be wearing up to date equipment."
"Just so we're clear, nothing getting drilled into my skull." Chance stated firmly.
"What is it with drilling into skulls?" Ratchet asked offhandedly. "If I drilled into your skull Chance, you would never notice it."
"I don't need any more holes in my head," Chance stated defensively.
"Agreed," Ratchet snorted. "The five you have already should suffice."
"FIVE!?" Chance shouted. I began laughing.
"Eyes, ears nose," I said consolingly. Chance stared at me for a second before laughing weakly. "Anyway, no holes, I promise, it's not even going to break skin."
"Deal," Chance murmured with obvious relief. "I have absolutely no idea how you put up with those wires and things going into your skin while you were still human, Kae."
I laughed and picked up the suit.
"What bugs you about it?" I asked with a grin.
"Just... stuff attaching to your nerves, and going through your skin," he muttered. I laughed at him.
"Arms up, Mr. Squeamish," I snorted, lightly strapping the nanite canister to his chest as he watched me warily. "Relax your muscles." I added before poking the activation. The suit grew over him, rapidly expanding into a second skin, leaving only his face showing.
"I'm gonna need a mask, aren't I?" Chance asked curiously, he jumped about a foot as a mask extended lightly over his face.
"Psychic link," I told him with a smirk. "What you want it to do, it will do, just like my pack did."
"That's why you put up with that thing!" Chance grinned, playing with the settings.
"The only reason I had wires going through my skin-"
"Was because Kae would have fried that teleconnector," Ratchet snorted.
"How?" Chance asked with a grin, configuring the suit to be capable of hooking up to me. I grinned at him as he bounced around excitedly, obviously loving the feeling of the suit.
"Well, that suit is configured to pick up your neural pulses," Ratchet grinned as the twins onlined holoforms to poke curiously at Chance. "Think of yourself as the triple-A battery that's running it, it's using the minute amounts of energon you've absorbed from us. In relation? Kae was a nuclear reactor."
"So you needed a higher gauge of wire to connect!" Chance stated with a broad grin, looking at me.
"Good man," I grinned at him. "Shall we?"
"YES!" Chance howled excitedly, sprinting into the entrance bay ahead of me. I laughed and offlined the holoform.
"Catch you later ∂Father∂," I smiled at Ratchet. He waved cheerfully and turned back to the remarkably attentive twins. I walked to the entrance bay and laughed to see Chance surrounded by NEST soldiers.
"New suit!" Chance was grinning. "It's our version of Kae's pack!"
"No holes?" Jacobs asked in fascination.
"No holes dude, not even breaking skin!" Chance grinned.
"What are it's capabilities?" Graham asked intently.
"Bullet resistant, it's going to serve the same function as flight suits, providing cardiovascular support, and in a dire emergency, Optimus, Ratchet, Ironhide, Sideswipe, Bumblebee and I have an emergency override code in it's programming that once activated will allow you to create weapons from it." I stated calmly.
"Bullet resistant?" Graham asked interestedly.
"An armour piercing round will go through it, but the nanites that form the suit are programmed to go into the hole and seal up the damages caused by the bullet, removing it in the process if it doesn't go straight through you." I replied calmly. "Unfortunately it's not going to do anything against a headshot."
"I'll take a thousand of them!" Graham shouted gleefully.
"Well let me get it out of it's prototype phase before you say that!" I laughed. "Chance unfortunately is my guinea pig. We're starting out in a semi-safe environment, and if it doesn't work I can easily slow down and provide medical aid while we're still in the air."
"Me next me next!" Jacobs howled amidst several raised hands and bouncing soldiers.
"Unfortunate nothing!" Chance grinned cheerfully. "This thing is damned comfortable."
"Well that's good," I laughed, "except I have no idea how we're going to get in the air for two reasons."
"One, we're standing around gossiping." Jacobs snorted.
"Two we have no proper runway," I stated calmly. "So while you lot are gossiping I'm going to practice my transform... No!" I grinned, "Sorted! 'Mon Chance, let's fly!"
I folded into myself as Jacobs helpfully opened the bay door.
"You want a tow?" he called up to me.
"Nah, I got it," I grinned, rolling out the door with my wings folded back. I opened the cockpit and waited patiently for Chance to scramble in. I extended a binder cable to his chest, which he cheerfully hooked up as the canopy closed around him.
"Airflow check!" he called out, I slowly brought my engines online, pumping cool, fresh air to his suit. "Oh gods I don't think I ever want to leave!" he moaned, running through system checks with me. "I love you Kae! You used the F-22 setup in your cockpit!"
"Ready for liftoff?" I grinned. He nodded enthusiastically. I brought a forcefield online and slowly lifted straight off the ground as Chance ran through the communication's stuff.
"General Moreshower!" he called out gleefully. "This is Lieutenant Daniels flying with Archangel, requesting clear airspace!"
"Airspace is clear Lieutenant, proceed south by southwest," Moreshower called out with a laugh. "Where's Jetfire?"
"He's recharging," I replied cheerfully. "I'm taking air-scout duty for the next couple of days."
"I feel safer already," Chris stated with a grin. "Have a good flight you two."
I grinned and fired up my engines, doing a final systems check before onlining my holoform to sit behind Chance.
"Ready?" I asked with a grin.
"Let's do this!" Chance shouted gleefully. I released my brakes and fired my boosters, launching into the air as the Lieutenant cheered. We got well away from the civilian zones and I blasted to a good coasting speed.
"You wanna drive?" I asked him with a grin.
"You're sure!?" he demanded with a broad grin, lightly running his hands over the controls.
"Well I'm not going to let you crash us," I laughed, "but rather than burning up extra processors it'd be easier if you guys took care of the vectors when I'm scanning."
Chance gripped the controls with a moan.
"Handing over flight control in five, four, three, two, one," I counted down placidly. I had to give the man credit, Chance flew with a light, steady hand.
We circled back around DC eight hours later. Chance shook his legs slightly and stood.
"How the hell am I not falling out!?" he asked cheerfully.
"You have no toxin build up in your system," Ratchet reeled off calmly, scanning the man. "Oxygen saturation in your blood is optimal, there is no cell damage beyond the normal day to day replacement in your systems. Which of course means that I, am a genius." Ratchet smirked.
"I am never, ever going to doubt that," Chance grinned as the medic's holoform deactivated the suit and helped him out of the pack.
"Now go catch a nap," Ratchet grinned at the man.
"I think I might just, zzzz," Ratchet quickly caught the man from falling on the floor, lifting him carefully and settling him onto one of the human sized berths.
"He okay?" Jacobs asked in a shocked tone.
"Lieutenant Chance Daniels..." Ratchet murmured, scanning the man. "Is down for the count, sound asleep," the medic chortled. "I have no doubt he's going to sleep through the night now." He covered the man with a blanket and pulled the curtains around him somewhat.
"Suit cures insomnia?" Jacobs laughed quietly.
"Flying around at mach three cures insomnia, suit pulls man through mach three in excellent shape. Medic Ratchet, for the win," I laughed softly as Ratchet lifted his holoform's hands in victory. "Right, I'm going back up," I added calmly, wandering back toward the entrance bay.
"Can I come?" Jacobs called out with a broad grin.
"I dunno Jacobs, that's between you and your hand," I stated placidly.
The man stared at me for a long second in shock as Ratchet and Ironhide fought desperately to not howl with laughter. Jacobs looked at the medic as he began snorting with laughter.
"I can't believe you just said that!" he laughed.
"That's my niece," Ironhide rumbled gleefully.
"Suit up if you're still coming Jacobs," I grinned.
"With a sense of humour like yours?" the man asked in a deadpan tone. "Dude wild horses couldn't keep me away." He grinned as Ratchet helped him into the suit harness.
Ratchet was smirking, humming cheerfully as he strapped Jacobs in.
"What?" the man laughed at him.
"Data points, I get more daaata points," Ratchet sang cheerfully.
Jacobs looked at him incredulously.
"Just ignore him when he's like that," Ironhide snorted. "Ratch isn't just a medic, he's a medical researcher, anytime he's developing something he starts grinning about just how much information he's going to gather."
"Nerd," Jacobs stated with a snort.
"Uh huh," Ratchet nodded cheerfully. "But if I'm a nerd, what does that make Optimus?"
"An archivist," my Optimus rumbled cheerfully at the doorway.
I smiled at my mate.
"Huh?" Jacobs asked curiously, looking at me.
"Ratchet is a medical geek, but my Optimus? He geeks out over any and every piece of information he can get his servos on." I laughed at him gently, reaching up to press a gentle kiss to his jaw.
"Uh... Ratchet?" Jacobs asked with a frown. The suit wasn't responding, at all, refusing to so much as come out of the canister.
"Hmm," Ratchet was immediately frowning at the suit, scanning and collecting data points. "It would seem that the nanites have chosen Chance as their sole host..."
Jacobs promptly looked confused.
"Which means that I'll need a suit harness dedicated to everyone wearing them," Ratchet murmured thoughtfully, lightly unhooking Jacobs and fetching a new one.
(SPOV)
Sideswipe had seen it coming, he really had, he just hadn't had any idea on how to... you know... nip it in the bud. Sunstreaker was behaving himself, for now, but you just knew he was gonna say something.
And twenty rell said Sides wasn't going to be able to smooth it over.
Especially with the humans. He transformed quickly in the hopes of getting Sunny out of the base, he could feel his brother's patience running thin.
"Hey Sides!?" Jacobs bellowed. "Catch a ride with you?"
Two possibilities. One. He says not today and gets his brother out of the hangar as quickly as possible. Two. He says yes in the hopes of providing a good example.
"You let the humans ride in your alt form!?" Sunstreaker demanded incredulously.
Sideswipe transformed back and looked his brother in the face. There. There it was, the sneer was back.
He loved his brother, he really did. But sometimes that attitude made it scrapping hard to.
"Yes, I do," Sideswipe stated as neutrally as he could.
"Why the scrap would you let those disgusting little squishies in your form!?" Sunstreaker bellowed.
Right in front of the entire hangar. Great.
"Because they're my friends, Sunstreaker," Sideswipe stated in a placating tone.
"I never thought I'd see the day when my own brother would claim friendship with a bunch of pathetic little fleshbags," Sunstreaker sneered at him.
That hurt. That hurt a lot. Prowl was scowling off to the side, right beside Ironhide. Sideswipe didn't know what to do. For scrap sake he claimed kinship to one of the humans. Former human. It wasn't for nothing that he called Kae his little sister!
It was moments like these that he hated being treated as one unit with his brother. They were different. When the Prowler was doling out punishments for their pranks was one thing, but this...
"Nothing to say about that? That's what I thought, brother, now let's get the hell out of this compound, it's infested with the useless squishies," Sunstreaker smirked at him.
"Would you care to state that to my face?" Mikaela's voice stated in the icy warning tone Sideswipe had come to respect as much as he did the Prime's regality. Sunstreaker's attention was caught by the Prime's mate, giving Sideswipe the opportunity to shoot a questioning glance at the Weapons Master. He hadn't pissed 'Hide off lately, maybe the mech had called Kae in?
A single nod confirmed that thought, Sideswipe promptly allowed his gratitude to show in his optics, and received a look of approval from the Weapons Master.
That was a true rarity.
"Or rather," Mikaela stated in that same icy tone. She held up her hand and winked her holoform online. The tiny, human femme they'd all come to love. "Being as this is my original form. Would you care to state your opinion to my face?"
Once again, Sideswipe couldn't help but admire the sheer force of personality the tiny femme had had in her human form, the personality she had carried to her Cybertronian frame.
The ability to bring a being over forty times her own size up short with a few words.
Sunstreaker was mouthing wordlessly at her, Sideswipe was waiting for him to say it. He knew he'd say it, it was Sunstreaker.
"You mean to tell me, that the mate of my Prime began as a worthless fleshbag!?" Sunstreaker finally snarled at her.
Ironhide strode forward, so did Prowl. Scrap, those footsteps ringing down the corridor could only belong to Optimus himself, the Prime obviously sensing the insult to his mate.
But a single, curt gesture had them holding their positions.
"Yes. I began as a human. What have you to say about it?" Mikaela asked sternly.
He had to stop, Sunstreaker wasn't an idiot, Sideswipe knew that. They fought together, pranked together, their twin bond allowed no secrets between them. Sunstreaker wasn't an idiot, Mikaela was not only the Prime's Mate, but a Prime in her own right! He had to realize it!
"If I'd known our Prime had stooped so low as to mate with a squishy, I would have kept going," Sunstreaker snarled. "I didn't know the femme I'm supposed to take my orders from isn't even a full Cybertronian!"
"Which is funny, in it's own way," Mikaela purred.
Oh scrap.
"I did not realize that the twin of my brother is a filthy Decepticon deep in his spark."
Sideswipe fairly scrambled to stand with Ironhide as his twin's programming promptly switched to berserker mode. Kae knew how to push their buttons, and when it was necessary, she did.
Ironhide looked at him curiously as Sideswipe offered his wrists to Prowl.
"Those are the thoughts of my brother, I want no part of this!" Sideswipe blurted out in a panic. Ironhide shot him a look of gentle understanding as Prowl gently bound his wrists with friction cuffs.
They all knew that if Sunstreaker's damage reports flashed too high, Sideswipe would go to his defence, it wasn't choice, it was instinct.
Damn his brother for making him choose between his little sister and his twin!
Sunstreaker was already on his back, Kae using the tactics her human master had trained her with. It was a style Sideswipe rather envied, because without a doubt she had only taught them a facet within her lexicon of hand to hand combat.
But Sunstreaker just kept going, and the more he did, the more it tore at Sideswipe's spark.
The second he loosed a keen of pain Mikaela was snarling. "Your actions hurt your brother, and yet callously you continue. You degrade those smaller and inherently more fragile than yourself, if those are not the actions of a Decepticon, define!"
Sunny froze, immediately staring at him. The click in his processors clearly visible.
Mikaela allowed him his freedom as Sideswipe's twin came to comfort him.
"It is a common statement among us that to understand a man, you must walk a mile in his boots." Mikaela announced flatly. "And that will be your punishment Sunstreaker, you will assume your holoformatic self and train with the human soldiers under Major Lennox's command. You do not have to like the humans, but you will learn to respect them!"
Sunstreaker still shot a resentful look at her, which Kae evidently chose to ignore... mostly.
"Major," she added calmly, looking at the man. "I would suggest the 'recruit with a bad attitude' treatment." she glanced at Sunstreaker, making the message clear.
"Yes ma'am!" the Major barked, snapping to attention and saluting her.
Sideswipe knew immediately that his brother was fragged when Kae's automatic response to being called ma'am didn't rise to her vocal processors.
Sunstreaker, obviously seeing no flex in Kae's position turned to look at Optimus, obviously ready to protest the orders his mate had given.
"You are dismissed, Sunstreaker," Optimus rumbled sternly.
No luck there.
Sunstreaker promptly released him, turning to stalk down the corridor. He didn't make it two steps before Optimus' voice rang out again.
"Sunstreaker," the Prime stated sternly. Sideswipe's twin turned. "Your holoform."
"But-!" Sunstreaker began indignantly.
"I do not recall my mate making it a request, Sunstreaker." Optimus rumbled ominously.