This is my longest update by quite a bit, around 7k words. You've probably noticed that each chapter has it's own name now, something I should have done awhile ago.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro, not me. I only own my OC.
May 26, 2012 5:18 A.M
Autobot base, outside Jasper, Nevada
Three jours and a mega-cycle - that was how long it had been since I came to be in this reality, but it felt much longer. The Decepticons have been completely inactive since Optimus and Bumblebee offlined Skyquake.
My training was finally completed a few solar-cycles ago. I was now a full-fledged member of the Autobots. The last stage of training was simply learning how to drive and fly in my alt modes. I found driving my ground mode easier than flying in jet form, but the flying was getting easier. I had the slowest ground-based alt form of all the Autobots.
That really couldn't be helped since an MRAP Cougar HE was designed to move at slower speeds. I still could top out at one hundred and fifty mph. I picked the MRAP because I could deploy my Plasma Chaingun and a few smaller weapons while still in vehicle form, which is something I wouldn't have been able to do if I picked the Knight XV. On a off-note, if I had still been human this would be my eighteenth birthday. Cybertronians called birthdays creation days, but I think birthday sounded better.
A few klicks ago, Optimus commed me in my quarters and said to report to the ops center, which I was about to do. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet and Optimus were all looking at the main screen as I walked into the ops center. Optimus turned toward me when he noticed my presence.
"Shadowstreaker, Ratchet has detected an anomaly on the continent of Antarctica. I want you, Bulkhead and Bumblebee to investigate this. Bulkhead will lead the mission" he said, in his usual neutral tone.
"Antarctica huh? That should be interesting, it's winter down there" I said with crossed servos, dreading that my first official mission was going to be on the freezing continent.
"Can we get this over with?" Bumblebee asked, sounding as if he was also dreading this mission. Bulkhead sighed, "Yeah, let's get going." He grabbed a scanner from Ratchet's workstation and turned toward the now activated ground bridge. The three of us were stopped by Ratchet before we could take three steps.
"Remember, no going into vehicle form while in the Antarctic. Transforming would drop your energy levels at much higher rates" he said gruffly, as if he was annoyed that he had to say this. I learned when Ratchet was actually mad and when he was concerned. Right now he was making sure we didn't become icicles. We acknowledged Ratchet's words and stepped through the ground bridge.
The Antarctic was obviously unbelievably cold, and very dark too. My optics adjusted for the low amount of light, and the Antarctic went from night to day. Snow was blowing at a good rate but thankfully it wasn't a whiteout. We had good visibility for about a half-kilometer."Now which way do we go?" I heard Bulkhead say to himself.
"You're the one with the scanner Bulkhead, you tell us" I said, not turning to look at the Wrecker.
Bulkhead held the scanner in front of his optics. "The scanner's reading says the anomaly is that way, south" he said, pointing a digit to his right. We started in the direction Bulkhead pointed.
Ten klicks past before one of us spoke. "Am I the only one that's freezing his aft off?" Bumblebee asked, shivering slightly. "You're not alone in that Bee. This place sucks the life out of you" Bulkhead said.
"I'm not freezing my aft off yet, but we've only just arrived here, so..." a blaster shot hit the ground next to Bumblebee, cutting me off.
"Sniper! Get down!" Bumblebee yelled, as he took cover behind an icy boulder. Bulkhead and I found cover next to a large snow bank about twenty meters from Bumblebee.
"Hey! You alright?" I called over to Bee. "Yeah I'm good, you see where that came from?" Bumblebee answered my question, and asked Bulkhead one his of own."I didn't see the shot but I saw a ridge not far from here. My guess is that's where he is" was Bulkhead's reply.
Looking to my right I saw that the snow bank we were hiding behind was the begining of a small canyon that continued in the direction of the sniper.
"Hey Bulkhead, you think we could use this to flank him?" I asked, moving so he could see what I did. He nodded his helm, "This could work, Bee! Keep his attention on you" he said toward the scout.
"Got it, and good hunting." Bumblebee ran out from the cover of the boulder, and dodged another shot from the sniper. "Let's move." Bulkhead stayed close to the snow bank as we started running toward the sniper.
Three more shots sounded in a row and Bumblebee comm-linked us. "There are at least two snipers, one with a semi-automatic and the other with a single shot rifle." He closed the link before we responded.
Bulkhead and I slowed as one of the snipers fired again, this time they sounded as if they were right above us. Bulkhead put a digit to his lips and pointed up, his meaning was clear - 'Climb.' I started climbing as quietly as I could, with Bulkhead to the left and below me. I reached the top of the canyon and cautiously looked over the ledge.
Four Decepticon drones were on the top of the ridge Bulkhead talked about. Two of them seemed to be the spotters and the other two held large scoped rifles. Bulkhead stopped next to me, and he too looked over the ledge.
After a micro-klick he looked at me and pointed two digits toward me, then at himself, 'Two for you, and two for me.' I gave a slight nod and crept over the ledge. I saw Bulkhead doing the same out of the corner of my optic.
We deployed our weapons at the same time. Bulkhead went with his clubs, and I used my Scatter-Blaster and Plasma Chaingun. The cons turned their helms at the sound of our deployed weapons.
The spotters tried to grab some kind of pistol off the ground next to them. One got his helm blown apart by my Scatter-Blaster, and the other was knocked offline by Bulkhead's club.
One of the snipers got up and leapt at Bulkhead. That fight didn't last long as Bulkhead quickly caved in the con's helm. The other sniper tried to shoot me with his rifle but I riddled his chassis with my chaingun.
It was over in less than three micro-klicks, but I found myself looking at the sniper's offlined chassis far longer. Did he volunteer to become a Decepticon? Or was he forced to become one? Did he wish the war on Cybertron never happened? Or did he wish that it never ended? I asked myself these questions until Bulkhead brought me out of my thoughts.
"He would have done the same to you kid" I glanced at Bulkhead. He was standing to my left and giving me a knowing look. "I know... but it doesn't make it any easier" I said in a quiet voice. Bulkhead nodded "I know it may sound cold, but you get used to it. Tell Bee we dealt with the snipers." He walked back to the ledge after that. I opened a comm-link to Bumblbee, "The snipers are offline Bee." I closed the link, and with a last look at the sniper's chassis, followed Bulkhead down the ledge. 'Happy birthday to me.'
We didn't encounter any more Decepticons after that. Those four were probably here looking for energon and we intercepted them as we seached for the anomaly. It had been forty klicks since we left base, and we had spent the last ten walking in a circle.
"Come on Bulkhead, there's nothing here. Let's call for a bridge and get back to base." Bumblebee obviously was fed up with the Antarctic. "I know it's here somewhere, the scanner's reading is off the meter" Bulkhead said, tapping the scanner like that was the problem. Bulkhead's words sent a small wave of pain through my CPU and I saw a vision of him and Bee standing at the bottom of a hill. I grabbed my helm with a servo and winced.
I noticed that we were standing on the top of a steep hill the whole time. In another vision, this one a bit longer, I saw Bulkhead and Bumblebee standing over a dark object in a frozen lake. Seeing a lake at the bottom. I slid down the hill. I deployed one of my swords and used it as a rudder to control my speed.
"Come on, back me up on this Shadow... Shadowstreaker?" I heard Bee ask from the top of the hill. "I'm down here! And I think I found it!" I yelled, crouching next the dark object in the lake. Soon, I heard both of them sliding down the hill. "Watch out for that last part it's..." *CRASH* "...Tricky" I finished saying with a wince and turned around.
The sight that greeted my vision had me struggling not to laugh, which was more than I could say about Bumblebee. The scout was rolling on the ground laughing so hard that he couldn't even speak. Bulkhead was the reason for Bee's laughter. The Wrecker had tripped on the last part of the hill, and now was laying faceplate down on the ice. A spider web of cracks was visible in the ice around his chassis.
"Uhhh... just help me up" Bulkhead said weakly. I grabbed his shoulder-joints and pulled him up off the ice. "Now, where is it?" the Wrecker asked me, giving the still-laughing Bumblebee a sour look as he got to his pedes. "It's over here, in the frozen lake." I pointed at the object under the ice. Bulkhead looked back to the top of the hill. "How the pit did you see that?" he asked me with raised optic ridges.
"I didn't" was my simple response. I was thinking about the visit I had with the Primes three jours ago. I hadn't talked to them since then but I knew they gave me some kind of knowledge, was this part of it? "You think it has something to do with that knowledge you said the Primes gave you?" Bulkhead asked, having reached the same conclusion. "Likely, but it's not important right now" I said as Bumblebee finally joined us. "Um... how are we going to get this back to base?" Bumblebee said, looking down at the dark object. He raised a good point, how were we going to this to base?
We had spent another ten klicks figuring that out. In the end, Bulkhead just had me shoot the middle of the frozen lake with my Shock Cannon to crack the ice. We called for a ground bridge immediately after we got the pod-like object out of the lake.
The moment Bulkhead, Bumblebee and I rolled the pod into a storage hanger to thaw out, Ratchet pulled us to his med-bay for what he called 'Standard Defrosting Procedure.' Bulkhead was fed up after five klicks.
"I told you, doc, we're fine." The Wrecker pulled out a medical cable Ratchet hooked up to his chestplates as he tried to stand. The medic made him sit back down before he could fully stand. "The way to be certain you're fine, Bulkhead, is to endure standard defrosting procedure. You know prolonged exposure to sub-zero conditions can cause permanent system damage" Ratchet said, reattaching the cable.
I rolled my optics at Ratchet's words but didn't say anything. Optimus and Arcee entered the med bay and walked toward us. "Ratchet, have you learned anything more about our Antarctic find?" Optimus asked. The medic shook his helm, "No, and we won't know anything more until it's thawed."
Optimus looked at the image of the pod on the main screen for a moment. "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, bring our human charges to base" he said, much to the relief of Bulkhead and Bee. He then turned to me.
"Shadowstreaker, you will accompany Arcee and I in the Antarctic for clues about our find" I nodded and started getting up, but Ratchet grabbed my shoulder-joint. "Ohhh no you don't, Optimus, as your chief medical officer I can't allow Shadowstreaker to go back to out there until he finishes the defrosting procedure," Ratchet said to Optimus in a 'Don't make me pull medical rank on you' voice. Optimus nodded in understanding and I gave a slight sigh.
It was another twenty klicks before the defrosting procedure was complete, and Ratchet activated the ground bridge. The medic turned from his workstation "Only search until your sensors sound, remember..." Ratchet held a data pad toward us "...Once your core temperature drops into the blue zone..." He pressed a button on the data pad and a beeping sound came from Optimus and Arcee's shoulder-joints and my wings. "...System failures aren't likely, they're imminent" Ratchet concluded, and put the data pad back on his workstation. I heard the sound of Bulkhead and Bumblebee's engines from the entrance tunnel. They both stopped next to Ratchet and Miko, Jack and Raf climbed out.
"Miss us doc bot!" Miko asked jokingly. Ratchet sighed, "Can't they just go to school?" He looked at Optimus with a tinge of hope. Miko gave him an annoyed look, "It's Saturday. Duh, we have the whole weekend off to spend with you."
This was basically what would happen every Saturday. Ratchet would ask why they couldn't be in school, and then Miko would tease Ratchet. He would then grumble and stand at his workstation. This would repeat the following weekend.
Jack walked by Ratchet and gave the medic a slight wave "I wasn't expecting a car-pool, what gives Arcee?" he asked his guardian. "Sorry, it's my turn for exploration duty Jack" Arcee gave him an apologic shrug. "Can I come? I heard the weather's going to be great today." Jack wouldn't have asked that if he knew where we were going. "We're exploring Antarctica, Jack" I said matter of factly. Jack widened his eyes "I think I'll stay here where it's warm." He walked over to where Miko was booting up the Xbox on the catwalk.
Raf, having heard what I said, walked over. "You're going to Antarctica? I've always wanted to see snow!" In the time I knew Raf I had rarely seen him so excited about something. Optimus sighed lightly, "I would invite you to join Rafael, but the conditions are much too extreme even for Autobots" he said, gently putting down Raf's hopes. Raf looked saddened by this, but nodded none-the-less. "I... understand." He forced a smile. Optimus, Arcee and I turned to walk into the ground bridge, but the Prime looked back at Raf, stopping us.
"But, I will bring you back a snow ball" he said, smiling slightly at Raf. "And I'll tell you what it's like living around snow most of your life." My offer wasn't much but it might help. Raf seemed overjoyed by this "That would be awesome." His smile was genuine now. Optimus led Arcee and I through the ground bridge after that. As we left I couldn't shake a feeling of dread I suddenly had about the pod.
When we past through the ground bridge, I immediately noticed the wind had picked up since I was here with Bulkhead and Bumblebee. My optics adjusted to the darkness and I saw that visibility was down to about fifty meters.
"How are we going to find anything in this?" Arcee asked, looking at the rather bleak conditions.
"Luck?" I answered, giving her a small shrug."Autobots, split up, we will cover more ground" Optimus said to Arcee and I. We all picked different directions and walked. This was Antarctica after all, it was the closest thing to a wasteland I had seen. I found nothing but snow and rocks in the direction I picked.
It was over a breem before Optimus opened a comm-link to Arcee and I. "Arcee, Shadowstreaker, status updates." Arcee responded first, "Nothing unusual on my end, and my sensor just went off. Guess we should call for a pick-up before things get chilly" she reported evenly.
"I didn't find anything either, my sensor still hasn't gone off, but if Arcee's sensor went off then it's only a matter of time." I looked up at the sky nervously. It was starting to snow, a rarity in Antarctica, and my visibilty was down to twenty meters. The already bad weather was about to become a blizzard. "Understood" was all Optimus said about our updates, and then he opened our comm-link to base.
"Optimus to base. The core temperature readings on Arcee and I have reached the blue zone. We are requesting a ground bridge." Static was the only response from base. "Well, that's not good" Arcee commented. She didn't seem nervous about our lack of a response. "Autobots, regroup at my position." Optimus sent his coordinates through the comm-link. He was only about three kilometers from my own position. I closed my end of the comm-link and walked in his direction.
Arcee and Optimus were standing next to each other by the time I arrived. "We need to seek shelter, the longer we stay out in the open, the lower our core temperatures fall." Optimus said, the moment I joined him and Arcee. "I saw a snow bank large enough for all of us to fit inside if we tunneled into it" I said, pointing in the direction I just walked from. Optimus nodded "Then lead the way, Shadowstreaker."
The weather became even worse as we started toward the snow bank, visibilty was no more than five meters with all the falling snow and wind. It was a true blizzard now. Our progress had slowed to a crawl as Arcee said jokingly, "Are we sure a nice long drive wouldn't help? I hear Miami's beautiful this time of year!" I didn't miss a beat, "I've been to Miami, I didn't like it that much. I recommend Hawaii" I said over my shoulder-joint. Optimus being the ever serious one, didn't pay attention to our conversation, he seemed to be trying to contact base again.
The snow bank I saw had only been about a half-kilometer away, but it took us a breem to finally get to it in the blizzard, and another half-breem before our shelter was large enough for the three of us.
My sensor finally went off after I sat down next to the entrance of our shelter. "It's about time that thing went off, I was begining to think you were made out of ice" Arcee said, as she sat in the back of the shelter, which was only about ten meters from where I sat. "Well, now that it has, let's hope Ratchet sends us a ground bridge soon" I said. Our shelter became quiet as I watched the snow go by. Fifteen klicks later I turned away from looking at the blizzard, "I wonder what Jim and David would say about this situation" I mused out loud. Arcee looked up at me. "Who?" she asked, looking slightly confused.
"My twin older brothers from my original reality" I answered. She nodded. I told the Autobots I had brothers I just hadn't said their names. "Now you have me thinking about what my sisters would say about this" Arcee said, getting a far away look in her optics. I rose an optic ridge. "You have sisters?" I asked, having never heard this until now. "Yeah, Chromia and Elita-One," she smiled as she said her sisters names, likely thinking about some happy memory.
Out of the corner of my optic, I saw Optimus stiffen ever so slightly when Arcee meantioned Elita-One, and from the look Arcee gave me she saw it as well. 'Note to self. Talk to Optimus about Elita-One.' Arcee went back to talking about her sisters.
"Elita is the oldest, Chromia is younger than her by three vorns, and I'm the youngest by ten vorns. Our creators offlined when I was still a youngling, so they basically raised me. When the war started Elita tried to keep me out of it, even though she and Chromia had already joined the Autobots she didn't want me involved in the fighting. It was when the Decepticons started attacking unarmed bots that she finally let me join up, Chromia was the one who taught me how to fight. She's slightly obsessed with big guns. Even before she meet her sparkmate Ironhide..." I interrupted her then.
"Wait... Ironhide is your sister's sparkmate?" I asked with raised optic ridges. "Yeah, you should have seen Elita's reaction. I've never seen her optics that size since" she laughed slightly and went silent with a small smile on her faceplate.
I looked to Optimus, "So tell me about Elita-One Optimus." He immediately stiffened. "Elita-One is Arcee's sister, she will know more about her than I do" Optimus said in an unusually guarded voice. I looked at Arcee, who was now paying attention to our conversation. She smiled but didn't say anything.
"I've already talked with Arcee about her sisters, but you seemed to have something to say about Elita-One so I asked you" I gave Optimus an innocent look and waited expectantly. Optimus seemed to find the snow on the ground very interesting as he spoke. "Well, um... Elita-One is... a very dedicated Autobot... and she commands great respect from her fellow soldiers. She was a good friend... back on Cybertron..." he rubbed the back of his neck.
Hold on a klick, is THE Optimus Prime, the mech who could stare down an army and win... flustered? I looked at Arcee, "Arcee, I do believe Optimus Prime has a crush on your sister" I said, stuggling to keep myself from laughing at how awkward Optimus was when talking about Elita-One.
"It certainly looks that way doesn't it?" I could have sworn I heard Optimus' cooling fans kick in at Arcee's words. That would be quite the feat for a Cybertronian to basically blush in Antarctica. Optimus' tone was neutral but slightly uncertain when he said "I am a Prime, and I can not cloud my judgment by having a relationship with a soldier under my command." It seemed as if he was trying to convince himself.
"Don't even try that with me Optimus, both my carrier and my sire are Primes" I said, knowing I just played a trump card. Optimus shook his helm and said almost to himself "I can not cloud my judgment." I glanced at Arcee and she shrugged, and again our shelter became quiet.
We sat in silence for a breem. Like the last time I was the one to break it. "Worst... Birthday... Ever" I hit my helm against the side of the shelter and sighed. "It's your creation day?" Arcee asked, sounding weak from our continued stay in Antarctica. "Yeah... and looks like it's my last one too" I gave a grim laugh and shook my helm.
Arcee had her own grim laugh, "You know, I always thought I'd offline fighting on Cybertron not slowly freezing on a world in a completely different galaxy." She was struggling to keep her optics open. Over the wind I heard the sound of a ground bridge activating. I climbed outside. The blizzard had died down enough that I could see a ground bridge about a hundred meters away. That made me hope my CPU wasn't tricking me.
"Optimus" I said tiredly, starting to feel the weather's affects. The Prime slowly got up from his sitting position and looked at the ground bridge. He widened his optics and shook Arcee's shoulder-joint. "Arcee, Ratchet has sent us a ground bridge. We need to move" he said, and climbed out of the shelter. Arcee didn't say anything, but took my offered servo to help her out of the shelter.
The ground bridge was only about a hundred meters away, but in our condition that might as well have been the other side of the world. We moved painfully slow and I knew it, but there was nothing we could do except walk.
When we were about a quarter of way to the ground bridge, I saw Bulkhead pass through it. He seemed to be limping, and the three of us stopped and looked at him curiously. Bulkhead raised a servo to his mouth and yelled "Down! Get down!" he then fell on to his chestplates and a horde of... things flew over him. I couldn't focus enough to see them clearly, but I got the same feeling of dread I had back at base when I looked at the flying mass.
None of us were in any condition to fight, all I could do was narrow my optics and stand straighter as the horde approached. My feeling of dread left me as the horde reached us and countless little frozen metal spheres bounced off our armor. Arcee, Optimus and I looked at each other confused, then at Bulkhead.
"I'd invite you in... but the place is a mess" Bulkhead said, as he picked himself up off the ground. "It's got to be better than this place" Arcee said, as I helped her walk toward the ground bridge. Bulkhead put one of Optimus' servos over his shoulder-joints to support the Prime and followed us.
"Wait" Optimus said, making Arcee and I share a curious look and turn toward Bulkhead and Optimus. While still being supported my Bulkhead, Optimus reached down and picked up a servo full of snow. "Keeping his promise to Raf" I said quietly, Arcee nodded and we past through the ground bridge.
Thousands more of those metal spheres littered the floor back at base. I looked up and saw Ratchet and Bumblebee slowly getting up from the floor. They had wounds scattered across their frames that looked like bite marks.
"What the hell happened while we were gone?" I asked, following Ratchet and Bumblebee as they started walking toward the med-bay. p"Scraplets... hidden in the pod... took out our power... we need to get to the med-bay" Bumblebee said painfully, he had a far worse limp than Bulkhead and Ratchet was helping him walk.
"So these little things are the reason we were stuck out there?" I stomped on a group of the already offlined scraplets. "Yeah, and as it turns out they eat anything made out of metal" Miko said, as if nothing bad had happened at all.
The med-bay doors opened. It seemed to be untouched compared to the rest of the base. Ratchet set Bumblebee down on the medical berth farthest from the doors, and I set Arcee down on the one right next to the door. I couldn't walk anymore, and I sat on the floor next to the medical berth Arcee was occupying. "I officially hate Antarctica" I said, closing my optics and sighing. I heard rather than saw Arcee raise a servo. "I second that" she said, and then let her servo drop back to the berth. Bulkhead walked into the med-bay while still supporting Optimus.
Since the med-bay only had two berths Optimus sat down against the wall next to Ratchet. Before resting against the wall, Optimus set the massive ball of snow he picked up next to Raf. The look of pure joy that Raf still has on his face made me smile. Jack left the med-bay for a klick, then he returned carrying two laptops. Ratchet linked the computers into the medical equipment, and since he was injured, Raf, Miko and Jack would have to treat our wounds. After Ratchet instructed the three on how to hook up the defrosting cables to Optimus, Arcee and me, they started work on Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Ratchet himself.
"Report on bio-circuitry status" Ratchet said, after Raf hooked him up to the Cybertronian equivalent of an IV. "All levels are rising" Jack said to the medic over his shoulder. Ratchet nodded "Excellent, now Rafael, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro-pulse monitor. Miko, make sure Bulkhead's energon line doesn't reopen." Raf and Miko didn't say anything and went to follow Ratchet's instructions. Optimus and Ratchet started a conversation I couldn't hear, as Arcee spoke from the medical berth."I guess this isn't your last creation day," she sounded more like her usual self now that the defrosting agent was doing it's magic.
"Yeah, and on an interesting note, you and I have discovered that Optimus Prime becomes flustered while talking about your sister" I said, laughing quietly as I recalled how awkward Optimus was when I asked him about Elita-One.
"AHHHHHHHH!" Miko screamed in a loud enough voice that I covered my audio-receptor. "What is it? Is it a scraplet?" Jack asked, looking around urgently and holding a small fire extinguisher in his left hand and a crowbar in his left. Raf also was looking around the med-bay as he held a piece of pipe. "SPIDER! Is it on me!" Miko started running around the med-bay, jumping in the air and randomly grabbing parts of her back like there were things crawling all over her.
Jack dropped both his fire extinguisher and crowbar. He then preceeded to face palm. "Did she just scream like a little girl?" Bulkhead asked, watching as Miko started a very impressive string of curses in both Japanese and English. I looked down at the floor and saw a spider no more than an inch long crawling on the floor.
"Oh for crying out loud" I said, with a shake of my helm. I deployed my Scatter-Blaster and cocked it for no other reason that it sounded cool, and brought the barrel to within a foot of the spider. The Scatter-Blaster was much louder in the confined space of the med-bay than anywhere else I had shot it, and I basically vaporized part of the floor.
"It's dead Miko" I said dryly, returning my servo to normal. It was then that I noticed everyone save Miko, since she still hadn't acknowledged my words, was looking at me in shock. "What?" I asked casually, giving them all a shrug. Miko peaked around from her hiding spot next to Bumblebee's medical berth. "Are you sure it's dead?" she asked, sounding truly terrified of the spider. I gave her a disbelieving look and said sarcastically. "No, I only winged him, it's trying to crawl out of the small crater my Scatter-Blaster just made in the floor."
"I have arachnophobia, okay?" Miko was obviously annoyed as I had just made fun of her. She was also slightly embarrassed at how she handled the situation judging by the faint shade of pink in her cheeks. "And I have getting-shot-at-itis." A wrench hit me in the side of the helm as I said my smart remark. "AND I HAVE A HOLE IN MY FLOOR!"
Ratchet then cursed me out while somehow still being able to tell me that I needed to fix the floor. I had to wait another breem before the third defrosting process for Arcee, Optimus and I ended. I then walked to storage and gathered the spare metal I needed to fix the floor. That took me about ten klicks. Ratchet, Bumblebee and Bulkhead were confined to the med-bay for the rest of the cycle and since Miko and Raf didn't want to leave their guardians it was just Optimus, Arcee, Jack and I in the ops center.
Jack was playing Dark Souls on the Xbox and failing miserably. Arcee was watching him play, and I would occasionally hear her make fun of how bad he was at staying alive. To be fair, though, the game was cheating. Currently, I was leaning against the wall near the base's entrance thinking about the events of the cycle, now that I finally had the time.
No matter what I did, I couldn't stop blaming myself for being responsible for the scraplets getting into base. I was the one who discovered the pod after all. If I hadn't received visions of the pod we wouldn't have found it and the scraplets would still be in Antarctica. Was that all my knowledge from the Primes do - lead us to long forgotten traps that would almost offline us? Another thing that was bothering me was that Decepticon sniper. I know he would have offlined me in a sparkbeat, but I still couldn't get over the fact I ended his life. That wasn't something any amount of training could have prepared me for. Optimus walked over and leaned against the wall next to me.
After a short silence he said quietly "Bulkhead informed me that you encountered a Decepticon patrol before you brought the pod to base." My left optic twitched slightly, he just mentioned both the things bothering me in the same sentence. "Yeah" I said simply, staring at a spot on the floor blankly. "If you and Bulkhead not done what you did, they would have offlined all three of you" Optimus had taken an understanding tone.
"I know, Bulkhead said that... does it really get easier?" I asked, looking over at the Prime. "We are Autobots, we only take life when we have no other choice" Optimus said, it sounded like that came out of a recruiters brochure. I blinked but didn't stop looking at him, and he sighed. "When you have seen the horrors of what the Decepticons do to completely harmless bots with your own optics..." he paused and got a brief far away look in his optics. "...You stop feeling guilt when offlining a Decepticon" he said, with a saddened look on his faceplate.
I really didn't know what to say to that. We stood in silence until I brought up the other issue that was bothering me a few klicks later. "You know it's my fault the scraplets got into base" I said, recalling the visions I had before finding the pod. Optimus looked over at me with curiosity painted on his faceplate. "Just before I discovered the pod, I saw visions of where the pod was located..." Optimus held up a servo.
"Bulkhead also informed me of this. You believe that this is the knowledge the Primes gave you?" he asked, and I nodded. "What were these visions that you had? How many did you receive?" he was back to his neutral tone.
"I received two, the first one was of Bulkhead and Bumblebee standing at the bottom of a hill, and the second was of them looking at a dark object, the pod, in a frozen lake. I saw that the three of us had been standing on a hill with a frozen lake at the bottom of it, and I found the pod there, so it's my fault the scraplets got into base. What is really bothering me, is that if i have more visions in the future they could just lead us to something much worse than a scarplet trap" I finished, looking around the base at all the offlined scraplets.
"You can not blame yourself for finding the pod, Shadowstreaker. None of us knew what was waiting to be released inside. If your visions are the knowledge that the Primes gave you then they are for a purpose. I do not believe your own carrier and sire would help give you visions that would lead you to offlining." Optimus made a valid point, I was Solus' and if you want to be technical, Megatronus' creation. They wanted to help increase my chances of staying online, not offline. "Okay, you're probably right" I said, once again looking at the floor. Optimus started walking away. "Optimus," the Prime stopped and glanced back at me. "Thanks for listening." He nodded and went to the med-bay to check on the others.
A few klicks later I walked over to Jack and Arcee at the Xbox. "Finally!" Jack said, relief and frustration in his voice. "How many tries was that?" he didn't mean for his question to be answered and Arcee knew that, but she did anyway. "Twenty-seven... twenty-eight if you count when you walked off the top of the wall before you got stuck on that part" she said matter of factly, making Jack sigh. "What part were you stuck on?" I asked, watching as Jack moved his character along a massive castle wall.
"This boss called a Taurus Demon, the thing just wouldn't die" Jack said, not looking away from the screen. Jack moved character down some stairs, then stopped next to a long bridge. "That's definitely not a trap" Arcee said sarcastically. Jack shook his head as he ran at some enemies "They wouldn't give me another boss to fight this so..." fire suddenly consumed the bridge and when the flames cleared, a dragon perched itself on the other side of the bridge.
Jack didn't say anything as the words "You Died" came up on the screen. He didn't move his character when the game spawned him at the bridge's beginning. He just sat on the couch and stared blankly at the TV. Finally, he calmly stood from the couch, turned off the Xbox, tossed the controller over his shoulder and walked away. Arcee and I looked at each other, then back to where Jack was walking toward the elevator.
"I believe that is the 'I'm too pissed to even speak' reaction." Arcee nodded at my words, Jack then yelled a few curses from near the elevator. "Or not" she said, as Jack's speech became a series of jumbled up words that I couldn't understand. "I think I'll go shoot something down in the safe" I said, starting to walk away after Jack hadn't stopped yelling for a klick. "I'm going to see if Optimus needs help in the med-bay." Arcee followed me until the med-bay, and we went our separate ways.
As I rode the bot-sized elevator down the safe, I said to myself, "I got attacked by a Decepticon patrol, found a scarplet trap in a frozen lake, and got myself trapped along side Arcee and Optimus in Antarctica. I found out that Optimus Prime has a crush on Arcee's sister, and that Miko is terrified of spiders, blew a hole in the med-bay's floor, and got hit the helm by a wrench Ratchet threw at me. All in all it was a very memorable birthday." I leaned against the side of the elevator and closed my optics waiting to get down to the safe.
If you've never played Dark Souls what you need to know is that the game cheats. I changed where the Autobots went to get the pod, from the Arctic, to Antarctica. The difference is in the month of May the Arctic would be in summer and Antarctica would be in winter. Okay, so this chapter isn't very different from the episode but that will in change in future chapters. I'm going to keep the basic plot line from the show in the story, but I'm going to add a number of my own things. I also will be modifying certain episode plot lines at varying degrees. Some episodes will be only slightly modified from the show, and others will be modified to the point that it will be almost unrecognizable. On the subject of reviews, I understand that not everyone reviews, but is it so much to ask for one or two people to review per chapter? I'm a first time author, I have simple needs. I'm not trying to sound like I'm demanding that people review, I'm just saying that it's a bit frustrating to spend a good amount of your free time writing a five or six thousand word chapter and no one says 'Hey I think you wrote this part well' or 'Maybe you could change this.' As I said I'm a first time author & I would be perfectly happy if one or two people reviewed, everyone else would be a bonus. I'm open to any ideas or suggestions you may have to make this story better. Okay I'm done talking about that, thank you for reading and I'll see you soon.
This chapters credit song "Audiomachine - Spirit Within"