I don't have very much to say up here, but I want to thank Sailor Shinzo for reviewing again, and Crystal Prime for starting to beta-read this story. She caught a number of mistakes I made in this chapter.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro, not me. I only own my O.C
June 15, 2012 11:42 A.M
Australian Outback
More than two mega-cycles had passed since Wheeljack visited and Prowl and Moonracer permanently joined us on Earth. The Decepticons had been much more active since then. We've already had two skirmishes with them just this mega-cycle. Jack, Raf and Miko also were out of school for the summer and were spending more time at base than they had before.
About ten klicks ago, Ratchet and Moonracer detected an unusual energy reading in this area, so Optimus ordered Prowl and I to investigate the reading.
After Prowl and I cleared the ground bridge that had taken us to Australia, I asked, "Did Ratchet say where this reading was?"
Prowl looked at a data pad in his servo. "Yes, the reading originated two kilometers to the west of our location, but it has since disappeared from our sensors," the stoic mech said, and sub-spaced the data pad. Prowl transformed into his alt mode, which was the law enforcement edition of a 2012 Dodge Charger, and started driving toward a ridge in direction we were already facing.
I soon followed in my MRAP alt mode. As we got closer to the ridge, it became apparent that heavy machinery was in use nearby. Prowl and I changed into our true forms and crept to the top of the ridge.
I immediately saw what was making the noise - Cybertronian mining equipment... with dozens of Decepticons guarding the equipment. Prowl and I were laying prone at the ridge of a Decepticon mine, and it was massive. It was at least a kilometer to the side of the mine opposite Prowl and I, and over twice as wide. Strangely, I didn't see any energon being moved in any part of the mine.
"They are not mining for energon, they are searching for artifacts," Prowl said, seeming to read my processor.
I gave the smaller mech a sideways glance, and looked back down at the Decepticons. There were far too many for just Prowl and I to fight. I counted no less than thirty, and most of them were carrying Neutron Assault Rifles or Scrapmakers, but I saw a few with EMP Shotguns.
"We need to call for reinforcements," I said, the black and white mech next to me nodded and opened a channel to base.
"Prowl to base. Shadowstreaker and I have discovered a Decepticon mine. We are requesting reinforcements."
Ratchet responded quickly, "That's not going to be possible. As soon as the two of you left, Agent Fowler requested our help in transporting a prototype human energy source he believes the Decepticons are trying to steal," he said, sounding a bit more angry than usual. "Only Moonracer and I at base, and we are needed here..." Ratchet was cut off by Moonracer.
"Actually Raf could do my job. You are the only one truly needed at base right now. I could go help them out. I just need to grab my sniper rifle from my quarters," she said with a casual tone.
I didn't hear if Ratchet said anything else, but a klick later Moonracer arrived through a ground bridge that opened near Prowl and I. She walked over and went prone on the ridge next to Prowl.
"So what's the plan?" she asked Prowl.
Before the black and white mech could respond, a Decepticon we failed to notice called out "Autobots!" and opened fire at the three of us. Prowl nonchalantly transformed his servo into a Photon Burst Rifle and shot the con between the optics. That was what started it, the other Decepticons opened fire at our position simultaneously.
One of the Decepticons had a missile launcher, and he sent a pair of missiles our way. Prowl and Moonracer got out of the way to avoid the missiles, but I wasn't fast enough.
Luckily, the cons aim was off, but unfortunately they hit the ridge beneath me, and the ground gave out under my pedes. I tumbled into the Decepticon mine, and landed on my wings painfully.
I bit back a yell and got behind a large boulder just before the cons shifted their fire toward me. As the shots from Decepticon weapons passed over and around my cover, I inspected the damage to my wings. The fall luckily hadn't broken my wings, but I couldn't move them, which meant I wouldn't be able to fly anytime soon.
Over the sounds of the Decepticon weapons, I heard the sharp crack of a sniper rifle, and saw the smoke trails of two missiles from the ridge. Prowl and Moonracer must be trying to thin their ranks.
A particularly brave Decepticon came around to my side of the boulder while aiming a servo-blaster at me. He didn't have time to shoot before I introduced his faceplate to my Chaingun. As the Con's chassis fell to the ground, Moonracer comm-linked me.
"I recommend getting out of there. We don't have the element of surprise anymore," she said, and I heard another loud report of her sniper rifle from the ridge.
"That's going to be a problem. I can't move my wings so I won't be able to fly out, and it doesn't look like the cons made any kind of ramp," I said, and fired my Chaingun blindly around the boulder.
"So you can't get out?" Moonracer asked, a hint of concern was creeping into her voice.
"It appears to be that way," I responded, and started running to get behind another boulder as the one I had been behind was crumbling from all the Decepticon fire.
While I was running between boulders, I deployed the missile launchers from my shoulder-joints and sent a pair of my own missiles in the direction of the Decepticons. One missed completely, but the other hit a con in the center of his chestplates, directly over his spark. He was offline by the time I got behind my new cover.
I tried speaking through the comm-link again. "So do you have any..." that was as far as I got before the boulder I just took cover behind exploded. The resulting shockwave sent me into the wall of the mine, and my vision was momentarily out of focus.
I soon became aware of a searing pain in my left shoulder-joint. My optics refocused, and I looked up from where I was laying on the ground. The Decepticons had their own Nucleon Shock Cannon on a turret, and they were aiming it at me.
Before the Decepticon operating the turret had the chance to fire again, his helm was blown apart by Moonracer's sniper rifle, and three bursts from Prowl's rifle offlined another pair of cons. The Decepticons turned their attention to the ridge, which gave me an opportunity to stand up and take aim with my missiles again.
I had time to target five Decepticons and launch missiles at each of them before they realized their mistake, and looked back at me. Two were hit in the chestplates, one had both of his pedes blown off, and the other two instantly offlined from the missiles hitting their helms. I ignored the pain that flared up in my shoulder-joint as I deployed my own Shock Cannon, and took aim.
One of the few Decepticons carrying an EMP Shotgun shot my shoulder-joint. At the same time I fired at the group of Decepticons and my shot went wide. The con with the shotgun hit me again in the same shoulder-joint, I felt my left servo go limp and I dropped my Shock Cannon. As the Decepticon reloaded his shotgun, I deployed my Scatter-Blaster and sent three shots his way. He was offlined before he finished reloading.
I shot another Decepticon holding a Scrapmaker before a missile hit my right pede. I ground my denta's as I fell down to a kneeling position, and looked over at the con who shot me.
He was an unusual looking Decepticon. He was shorter than Bumblebee, but taller than Arcee, and was colored red with purple flames covering his chestplates, which was a very strange color scheme, if you asked me. He raised a small missile launcher toward me
"Say goodbye Autobot" he said in an arrogant tone, and fired a second missile at me.
This second missile hit me in the thickest part of my chestplate armor and caused no real damage. The Decepticon shot a third missile that hit me in my already-damaged shoulder-joint. I couldn't help but yell in pain as the missile hit. The con smiled at this, and sent the final missile my direction, only for it to miss completely. The Decepticon got an annoyed look on his faceplate and dropped the missile launcher.
"You're a lucky Autobot. You get to be personally offlined by the servos of... Dead End!" the con said, as if his name would strike terror into my spark.
"Arrogance gets you nowhere" I said calmly, and deployed my right missile launcher.
Dead End's optics widened just before two of my missiles hit him in the chestplates. What remained of his chassis was sent flying in several directions, but his pedes stayed in the same spot.
With a pained groan, I got back up on my own pedes. I was going to be limping from now on, and my right pede would require extensive repairs when we got back to base.
I shot two more cons with my Scatter-Blaster and missile launcher before deploying my Ion Displacer from my backplates. Since we had already thinned the Decepticon numbers to less than a dozen, it became a one-sided battle after that. Moonracer and Prowl continued to pick off Decepticons from the ridge, while I mowed down what was left my favorite weapon.
Once the last Decepticon fell, I returned the Ion Displacer to my backplates and started limping over to where I dropped my Shock Cannon. Before I got there, something mostly buried in the ground caught my optic.
I limped towards it to get a closer look. The object buried in the ground was white in color, but if I looked down at it from different angles it's color would change to a silver-blue. I turned toward Moonracer and Prowl as they slid down the side of mine and walked toward me. The green and white femme looked at my various injuries and grimaced.
"I didn't bring any medical supplies with me. So we need to get you back to base soon," she said, and looked at the object half buried in the ground.
Moonracer crouched, and dug the object out of the ground.
"What is that?" Prowl asked. His voice held genuine curiosity, which was a rare occurrence for the stoic mech. Moonracer picked the object up in her servos and scanned it.
"What ever it is, it's giving off unusual amounts of energy. In fact it's similar to the energy Ratchet and I..." Moonracer stopped in mid sentence and looked around the mine. "Hold this" she said to Prowl, and put the object in his servos.
Moonracer ran over to a piece of seemingly unimportant machinery.
"What are you doing?" I asked, as Moonracer started scanning whatever she was looking at. She ignored me and continued her scans, when she was finished she walked back over to Prowl and I.
"The cons had a cloaking field," the femme medic and sniper said, while pointing a digit over her shoulder-joint at what she just scanned. "Whatever what we just found is, the energy it's giving off must have caused a glitch in the cloaking field that allowed us to see through the field for a short time before the cons fixed the glitch." Moonracer took the object out of Prowl's servos, and looked at it with new found wonder.
"So then we should probably leave it here, if the energy that thing is giving off can drop a cloaking field. Then it could drop the shielding we have back at base," I said, Moonracer shock her helm in response.
"That is highly unlikely, whoever built that field only knew the basics of the technology. Either Ratchet or I could build a field twice as effective as that one from broken parts," Moonracer said, nodding in the direction of the cloaking device without looking away from what was in her servos.
My injured right pede decided that it wanted a break and gave out on me, I went back to half keeling on the ground. Prowl put my right servo over his shoulder-joints and helped me up.
"That's our cue to return to base," Moonracer said, and opened a channel to Ratchet. "Moonracer to base, we need a bridge. And I'd prepare the med-bay Ratchet, Shadowstreaker is going to need repairs" she closed the channel before Ratchet could respond.
A ground bridge opened up near my Shock Cannon a few micro-klicks later. Moonracer picked up my Nucleon from the ground, and went through the ground bridge just before Prowl helped me through as well.
Only Jack, Miko and Raf were in the ops center when we stepped out of the ground bridge, Ratchet must be preparing the med-bay like Moonracer suggested. "What happened to you?" Miko asked me, from where she stood on the catwalk next to Jack.
"I fell off a curb," I joked, as Ratchet returned to the ops center.
"Get him to the med-bay," he said to Prowl, and started a medical scan of me. "Your injuries are severe enough that you will need to be sedated for them to be fixed properly," Ratchet said with a huff when his scan was finished.
Once we got into the med-bay Prowl helped on to a medical berth. Ratchet transformed his servo into a syringe and inserted the needle into my neck, my world quickly faded to black.
It seemed as if Ratchet had just sedated me when I onlined again. The pain in my shoulder-joint and pede had been reduced to a dull throbbing, and I found that I could move my left servo. I opened my optics and tried to sit up, but Ratchet was suddenly at the side of the medical berth and gave me an irritated look.
"Do you know how hard it is to repair five broken gears in a shoulder-joint? Or two ruptured pistons in a pede?... No? Well let me tell you. It's very hard to repair and I'm not counting that I also had to fix your immobilized wings, your parts require several solar-cycles of rest to fully heal. So I suggest that you lay back down on that berth before I sedate you until your parts are fully healed" as if to make a point, Ratchet transformed his servo into a syringe.
I sighed and laid down again. "Good," Ratchet said, and walked over to the med-bay computer. Neither of us said anything for several klicks, Ratchet kept working on something on the computer, and I just laid on the medical berth quietly.
Finally I asked, "How long was I out?"
Ratchet looked over at me, "Just over seven breems," he said, and turned his attention back to the computer.
"Are the others back from helping Agent Fowler?" I asked when we went another few klicks without saying anything.
"Yes, they arrived about three breems ago," Ratchet said, with his focus completely on the computer.
The med-bay door opened, and I looked to see who was entering. It was Moonracer, she walked over to Ratchet and said. "I have the files you asked for," she held out a data pad in her servo.
"Thank you Moonracer," Ratchet said formally, and turned back to the computer as she left the med-bay. In their short exchange, I caught an unreadable look in both of their optics.
This was the third time I had seen that look in Ratchet's optics since Moonracer arrived on Earth. The first time was when Arcee and I brought her to base from the Amazon. The second time was when he was helping her pick out an alt mode, which was something she could have done herself, but specifically asked Ratchet for help, and the third time was just now.
I had a hunch that those two had either been more than friends at one point, or secretly wanted to be more than friends but didn't know if the other felt the same way. I decided to test my theory.
"You like her don't you Ratch?" I asked, and waited for his reaction.
Ratchet jumped slightly, and looked at me. "What is wrong with your CPU to make you think that?" he asked, his usual annoyance was mixed in with caution.
"Oh I don't know" I began. "You seemed really eager to help her find an alt mode."
"She needed help" Ratchet said, before I continued. "No she didn't, she is just as smart as you are, if not more so. She asked you for help, think about if would you have helped Prowl if he asked you to help him find an alt mode?" I asked, knowing I had him there.
"Well no, Prowl is perfectly capable of finding an alt mode on his..." Ratchet realized what I had said earlier about Moonracer's intelligence, and what he just said about Prowl being capable of finding his own alt mode.
He stopped talking for a moment. The white and red medic shook his helm, and threw a wrench at the wall above my medical berth. The wrench ricocheted off the wall and hit me between the optics. I shook my helm and watched as Ratchet stormed toward the med-bay doors while saying something about 'Pit spawned triple-changers' under his breath.
A klick after Ratchet left the med-bay, Optimus stepped through the open door holding the object we found at the Decepticon mine.
"Might I inquire as to what you said to Ratchet?" the Prime asked, as he walked toward my medical berth.
"I had a theory that he liked Moonracer. I tested my theory by asking him if he did, and he hit me with a wrench," I said, in a quick summary of our conversation and held up the wrench Ratchet threw at the wall.
Optimus sighed, "I would not push Ratchet anymore than you have. He is the one treating your injuries," the Prime said, in a cautionary but humorous tone. Optimus became more serious, and looked down at the object in his servos. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, his tone suggested that he already knew, but wanted to see if I knew as well.
"No, we just found it half buried in the ground. All I know about it is that Moonracer said it was giving off an unusual amount of energy" I said, and gave him a small shrug.
Optimus looked at me for a few more micro-klicks, then back at what was in his servos. "What you have found is an internal component of the Apex Armor, one of the many relics of the Thirteen that has been lost to time," Optimus said, holding the armor component in his servos with reverence.
I widened my optics and asked, "If that's an internal component, doesn't that mean the rest of the armor is at the mine?" Optimus shook his helm but didn't look up from the armor piece.
"While you were sedated, all but Ratchet accompanied me to search the Decepticon mine. All that was left to be found was a large amount of scrap metal that we have already brought back to base. It seems that we have the only piece of the Apex Armor on Earth." I sighed in relief at Optimus' words, I didn't know much about the Apex Armor but I knew enough that in the Decepticons possession it was bad news.
The Prime wasn't finished speaking, "Are you aware of who constructed the Apex Armor?" I didn't say anything at my leader's question and gave him a confused look. Optimus spoke again. "The Thirteen each were given different roles by Primus. Prima was the leader, Alpha Trion was the scholar, and your carrier was both the scientist and the inventor" Optimus said, as he shifted his gaze from the piece of armor to me.
Realization dawned on me, "Solus created the Apex Armor," I stated, looking at the armor in Optimus' servos with interest.
"Indeed, and since you are her heir this rightfully belongs to you," Optimus held the component out toward me.
"What? I can't accept that. It may be useful and all I'm going to do with that is put it on my shelf," I said in protest.
"Without the rest of the Apex Armor this component is useless," Optimus again held the piece of armor toward me. I sighed and grudgingly took it from Prime's servos. "I wish you a quick recovery Shadowstreaker," Optimus said, and left the med-bay.
I spent nearly a breem looking at the armor component, and wondered how long it had been since Solus created it. I was so engrossed with what was in my servos, that I didn't know Arcee was in the room.
"You look like slag," she said, and appeared in the corner of my vision.
"Getting shot by a Nucleon and three missiles will do that to you," I said, and turned my attention to Arcee. "Optimus didn't give me a chance to ask, how did your mission in helping Fowler go?"
Arcee sighed at my question. "We eventually got the device Fowler wanted transported to our destination, but we were attacked by a group we didn't expect," she said and sighed again.
Puzzled, I asked "Decepticons?" I knew that probably wasn't who attacked them, since Ratchet said that Fowler was concerned the cons were after what he was transporting.
Arcee shook her helm, "Humans, they called themselves MECH. Fowler said the technology they were using was some theoretical prototypes he had seen blueprints for. He said he'll find out how they obtained the tech, and search around for anyone who's heard of this MECH group before," she said, and shook her helm again.
"Well this cycle is just getting better and better" I said sarcastically and covered my optics with a servo.
Arcee's next words made me perk up, "This might make you feel a bit better, Ratchet and Moonracer think that with all the scrap metal we gathered from the Decepticon mine will be enough to make washracks," she said with a smile.
I removed the servo from my optics, "You know that actually does make me feel a bit better. Just think, we won't have to clean our armor or protoforms manually, what a concept!" I said jokingly. Arcee laughed and smiled. When she did that, I felt my spark skip a beat... wait what?
"I'll see you later Shadowstreaker," Arcee said, still laughing lightly as she walked away.
I forced an even tone, "See you later Arcee," I said, just as she left the med-bay. She had been oblivious to my slightly panicked look, which I was grateful for.
'Okay, what just happened?' I asked myself. 'Your spark fluttered when Arcee laughed' even though I was answering myself, I felt compelled to argue against that. 'That can't be it, maybe the missile that hit my chestplates caused serious damage to my spark. I could be on the verge of offlining right now.' The logical part of me argued back, 'That's weak and you know it, admit it you've found her attractive since you became a Cybertronian.'
I rubbed the sides of my helm to soothe the quickly developing processor ache I was giving myself. It was true I had found Arcee to be very attractive since I became a Cybertronian. Drop dead gorgeous was closer description, everything down to her faceplate, her pedes, her backplates and her...
I Gibbs slapped myself in the back of the helm. 'Get your CPU out of the gutter!' I scolded myself. I had never been one to ogle or let my thoughts run wild as a human, and I wasn't going to start doing that as a Cybertronian. I respected Arcee way too much to do that.
I could hear Miko's voice saying "You have a crush on Arcee!" in the back of my CPU. No, I liked having her as a friend, nothing more. My spark skipping a beat must be a glitch or something, yeah that's it. I'll just pretend it never happened.
I closed my optics to try and get some early recharge. The words of the argument I had with myself echoing in my helm, 'That's weak and you know it' followed my Miko's 'You have a crush on Arcee!' over and over again until I finally fell into recharge much later than usual instead of earlier.
That last scene took me a good three hours to write. It was a real pain, but I liked how it turned out and I hope you all did as well. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thank you for reading. I'll see you all soon.
Denta, Teeth
This chapter's credit song is "Linkin Park - Valentine's Day"