A/N: It's mentioned later in the chapter, but I thought I'd give a heads up now that there is a one month time skip from the last chapter to this one.
Here's chapter 13. Enjoy!
Arcee kneeled on top of the shuttle while holding Jaune above the left engine. "How does it look?"
"Um..." Jaune used his scroll as a flashlight as he looked closely and carefully at the gears and wires. "Everything looks to be in place. I don't see anything loose or hanging out."
"Alright," she brought him back up and set him down. "Are you sure you'll be ok up here?"
"Don't worry, I'll keep my distance," Jaune reassured her. "Worst case scenario, I jump in the ocean for safety. I can swim and my scroll's water proof."
"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that, otherwise we'd be in big trouble," Arcee then hopped back down onto the ramp and walked to the front terminal. "Jaune, can you hear me?" She asked with two fingers on her audio receptor.
"I hear you loud and clear," he responded. "I'm ready to record whenever you're ready."
"Alright, I'm starting it in a few seconds. Stand by." Arcee tapped the console a few time and her finger hovered over the engine activation button for a moment. "Please work… Primus, please work," she prayed, hoping all of the hard work she did over the past month wasn't in vain before pressing the button. The sound of the engines, while muffled, were now audible and she felt small vibrations through the ship.
"Alright. Engines on at 5%," she said to herself. After a few seconds, she increased the power to the engines. "10%." She waited before increasing it again. "15%. 20%. 25%." With each increase of power, the sound and vibrating increased slightly in intensity. "30%." At this, she felt the ship started tilting slightly. The engine was lifting up the side of the ship. It was a good sign, more than good, but the ship was still stuck in the cliffside. She immediately turned off the power before any damage could be done.
"Jaune, you ok?" Arcee asked through his scroll with concern.
"I'm ok Arcee. Got a little wobbly but I'm good," Jaune responded. "The engine's off now. Was that you?"
"Yeah, we started lifting so I turned it off," she replied.
"Isn't getting this thing to fly our objective?"
"Just the one engine won't lift it. If anything, it would get the ship out of the cliff and have it sink to the bottom of the ocean." 'And strand me here, dooming me to a slow death once the energon runs out.'
"Oh… yeah, that would be bad," Jaune got the picture now.
"Indeed. How does the engine look?
"Uh… it doesn't look any different, but it's a little too hot for me to get close right now."
"Just give it a little time to cool off. Actually never mind, I'm coming back up now. Did you get the recording?"
"Yeah, I got a good shot of the engine. It's a little shaky at the end though."
"Don't worry about it." Arcee made her way back to the ramp and climbed up to the top of the ship. Jaune gave her a friendly wave, she waved back and crouched by the engine. Nothing looked out of place, but she'll give it a more detailed look over when it cooled down. "Jaune, may I see your scroll?" she asked as she turned to him.
"Oh right, here" he held his scroll up with a smile. Arcee brought one finger up and connected to the scroll.
She closed her optics as she concentrated on it. Jaune kept a steady hand through most of the recording, it was shaky near then end but not by much. Arcee watched the recording a few times, eyeing a different part of the engine with each viewing. To her relief, nothing came apart, vibrated violently, or seemed to be loose during the entire test.
"Jaune," she opened her optics and smiled at him, "we did it."
"Really? Everything looks good?" He asked, catching her contagious smile.
"Yes, everything looks ok. Congrats Jaune, you just helped fix an alien spaceship," she said. Jaune then seemed to fully comprehend that fact and got just as giddy and excited as when he first saw the ship.
Her smile only grew when she saw that. He was like a young sparkling back on Cybertron.
Arcee resisted the urge to hug him and looked up at the sky, thinking about their current success. One engine was now fully repaired, but there were many other parts and systems of the ship that needed work before the shuttle was space-worthy again. The biggest concern with that was time.
Just fixing one engine took a month to do. She figured the other engine would take another month at most, maybe shorter now that she knew what to do. But what about the other systems? Stabilizers? Power stability? Navigation? What about the hull integrity? Would the shuttle still be strong enough to hold itself together and not fall apart?
Most importantly, would her energon supply last that long? Her efforts at rationing her energon supply were marginally successful, but it was still an important concern to treat with caution. They could try to come down here more than once a week, but that drew the risk of drawing attention from his family and other townsfolk.
Arcee shook her head. She'll worry bout that later. She was far from being close to in trouble anyway. "We still have a few hours of daylight left. Do you want to get a little bit of training in before we head back?"
"Yeah, I'm down for that," Jaune nodded.
Arcee carried him back down from the ship and across the cliffs to the field. They each drew out their swords and shields and Arcee lead the training. In order to keep getting Crocea Mors every week, Jaune told his family that he and Arcee always meet near the outskirts and she felt safe and protected with him when he carried it. His dad seemed extremely proud while his mother rolled her eyes.
They trained for a little over an hour.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Doing good," he replied before inhaling a bottle of water. "Little sweaty, but not as out of breath as I usually am."
"That's a sign of improvement, your endurance is building up." Jaune looked away at the praise, but she could see his smile. "Alright, how about we do a reaction and memory test. You do moves as I call them out?"
"That sounds good," he nodded.
"Alright," she took a few steps back and crossed her arms, thinking back to the list of moves she picked up and was teaching him. "Mid-thrust!" Jaune paused before performing the strike. "Good. Now, back to hanging right!" Jaune performed the move. "Short left to backhand!" Jaune cut the sword forward before backhanding the shield to hit a nonexistent foe as he turned around. "Excellent," Arcee praised, impressed with how much more fluid he performed those moves.
She continued to call out moves for the next few minutes. "Inside right! Hanging left! Bash left! Behind flank! Roll counter right! Left to right long! Roll counter forward! Clockwise 360! Counter-clockwise 180! Double left-right dodge!"
That last one combined with the earlier twirling was Jaune's end. After the first roll, he was disoriented and couldn't get a decent footing and ended up falling face-first in the grass. He lifted himself up and spit out a few shades of grass. "Ow."
"Did that really hurt?" She asked skeptically.
"No, just let me mope at my failure."
"Quit being dramatic."
"You can't understand my pain!" He dragged out the last work
"Jaune... you're my friend and I respect you, but if you quote another one of those bad teen dramas, or even show me another one, I'm going to step on you like a bug."
Jaune laughed and Arcee let a smile slip. "Yeah, they're pretty bad," he said as he got back up.
"Why did we watch them again? Besides to laugh at them?"
"I have to deal with that stuff all the time thanks to my sisters. If I have to suffer, so do you."
"I never signed up for that."
"It was in the fine print, read the contract next time."
Arcee rolled her optics, the smile never leaving her face as she walked up to him. "Getting back on track, you are improving. A month ago you could barely do half of the stuff you just did as effectively, if at all, as you just did. You're improving immensely. If we keep this up, you'll-"
They both paused and turned as they heard growling and rustling leaves. A single Grimm stood in the opening by the forest, staring at them.
"A Beowolf? How did it get here?" Jaune asked taking a step back.
"Got lost and wandered here most likely," Arcee said as her arm morphed into a blade. "Best to kill it now before it can alert the rest of its pack."
"Wait!" Jaune shouted.
Arcee froze in her first step. "What's wrong Jaune? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine. I just…" Jaune looked at Crocea Mors and then back at the Grimm. He didn't know what he was feeling. Seeing the Grimm eyeing him made Jaune shiver, bringing him back to Rorke's Drift and thinking about the fate he could have shared with all of those other people.
But on the other hand, he tightened his grip on the sword as he stared it down. It wasn't fear he was feeling. It was…
"I… I think I got this," Jaune said softly.
"What?" Arcee asked in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You've been training me so I can defend myself against the Grimm, right? Well… there's a Grimm..."
Arcee looked back at the Beowolf. It was a small thing compared to her. She could easily dispatch the monster with little effort. But Jaune was smaller, young, and inexperienced. Someone who was almost killed, scared so much of them that he almost took his own life. Yet when she looked back to Jaune, she saw courage, determination in spite of fear.
She quickly looked back at the Grimm and then back to him. "Go. I got your back," she said. Jaune walked forward as she knelt and aimed her arm turned blaster at the beast. Part of her screamed that this was a bad idea, that he could get hurt or worse. On the other hand, this is what she's been training him for, to be able to defend himself from the Grimm and anyone else. This would be a test, a dangerous test but one she could intervene in at a moments notice
Jaune arms shook as the Grimm tilted its head at him before licking its teeth and charging. When it got close, it leaped forward with its claws open ready to tear him apart. Jaune rolled to the left just in time and managed to slash his sword at the beast as it passed.
The Grimm roared in slight pain and looked at the cut for just a moment. It was a long cut but not deep, however it was just enough to make it angry. The Grimm rushed and brought down blow after blow with its claws. Jaune blocked each strike with his shield, taking steps back as necessary and making sure to keep his stance strong and firm, just like Arcee taught him.
When he saw the opportunity, in between the Beowolf's strikes, he did an upward slash and cut one of its paws off. The Beowolf recoiled back with a screech and Jaune rushed forward to deal a finishing blow. In the adrenaline rush, Jaune was caught off guard when the Beowolf snapped it's jaw on his shield and started thrashing its whole body. The force from it detached the shield from the gauntlet and Jaune was sent flying and tumbling on the ground.
Jaune quickly sat back up and realized he still had the sword in his hand. He managed to get to his knees before he heard a loud bang and saw half of the charging Beowolf get vaporized in a bright blue blast. The other half fell with a heavy thud and disintegrated.
"Jaune!" Arcee ran up and helped him to his feet. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," he said as he scraped the dirt off his clothes and hair, "I'm ok." She handed him the shield back and he folded it and sheathed his sword. "Thanks."
"Don't mention it," she said as she gently swiped some dirt and grass from his shoulder. "You know, you did good back there."
"Good?" Jaune questioned as he looked around. "Arcee, I got my butt kicked and you had to save me."
"The latter is true, the former not so much," she said, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "Yeah you lost to it, but it wasn't a one-sided fight. You didn't give in once, not even when it tossed you thirty feet away. You even got in a good hit and cut it's hand off."
"Yeah… I guess I did do that," he looked back at where the Grimm once lay dead.
"Also, think about this: You just decided to stand up and fight a Grimm. Could you say you would have decided to do something like that last week? Two weeks ago? A month ago?"
Jaune took a few moments to think long and hard about that. "No… I wouldn't have."
"I know you still have some fear of the Grimm, but are you as scared of them now as you were before?"
"No… I… honestly feel like I can do that again. Not anytime soon but..." he paused as he thought more about it. In what seemed like yesterday he was so horrified of the Grimm, he still got nightmares about them. Yet, just like Arcee said, he held it down and outright fought a Grimm head-on. Was he really that afraid of them now?
No, he wasn't. He can fight them now. He won't go through what he did at Rorke's Drift again. He wouldn't make his family worry or cry again. He looked up at the person responsible for this. "Arcee, thank you. This means alot to me."
"Don't mention it," she said as she gave his shoulder a friendly tap. "I'm proud of you, Jaune. You've come along way since I first met you." She would never admit that she enjoyed how flushed he became.
Patients was a virtue. While the Decepticons didn't like sitting around when they knew where their enemy was, they learned not to charge in like a bunch of petro-rabbits. It was a lesson they learned the hard way. The humans and faunus of this world were mostly primitive compared to them, but they weren't powerless.
Some of their number had been lost when they tried stealing resources from the northern settlements of Atlas. Though they got the resources they needed, the dust weaponry of their ships and the power of the 'huntsmen' drove them back and thinned their numbers. Direct attacks were no longer applied, replaced with the occasional hit-and-run over the long cycles they were there.
The foreign world had only one thing the Decepticons saw of value: a resource the natives called 'dust'. Shockwave had experimented with turning other resources into energon in the past. His studies were thankfully able to be applied here, turning this resource into the life-sustaining substance. Without it, they would have died off long ago.
Raids were extremely far and few between one another. They were careful in how they did them, striking at lightly guarded and vulnerable convoys, leaving no witnesses as they took what they needed. But even then, they only gained the means to stay alive.
But then, by luck of chance, they found an anomaly and discovered a lone Autobot. The lone fembot seemed to have also remained hidden from Remnant's authorities and has become friends with a human sparkling. An oddity, but that wasn't what interested them. The probe they had following her revealed a crashed ship. Given the Autobot's recent discovery it was only right to assume she crash-landed here recently as well. Her shuttle was heavily damaged, but it was mostly intact and it was repairable, as evident by the now functioning engine. The Autobot also had energon still stored on the ship and hidden in the forest by the human's home.
A cybertronian ship and pure energon, it was too good of a target to pass up. After careful scouting and analysis, they finally had enough information to make a move.
They just hoped they could corner the Autobot before someone else does.
The school bell rang and Jaune came out a few minutes later. "Sorry to keep you waiting," he spoke into his scroll, to keep the illusion he was talking to someone else and not to his bike like a weirdo.
"No problem," her voice emitted from the scroll. "How was your day?"
"Hey Arcee, about the same as usual," he replied as he sat on her and they took off.
"What was that thing your class was doing outside? With the red balls?" Arcee asked.
"Oh, that was dodgeball," he answered.
"Huh, thought it would have a more creative name, but it's ok I guess. Though, watching that game made me realize we need to work on your reflexes."
"Hey, my reflexes are fine."
"The six balls hitting your face say otherwise." Jaune could practically hear her smirking.
"I was the only one left on my team. Who else were they supposed to throw them at?"
"True, but I'd expected you to at least dodge one of them. Every single one of them peppered you."
"Dodging an object is easier when they're smaller than your head."
"... you have a good point, but I'm still going to drill dodging into you. Hope your mom likes grass stains."
Jaune groaned and she chuckled. His mother, for a fact, did not like grass stains. The only reason she wasn't as mad was that she thought it was because he was getting romantic with his girlfriend. If only she knew the truth… but despite how much he wanted to, he was in no hurry to correct her so he just took her and his sisters jokes on the matter.
They stopped at a red light and waited patiently for it to change. A silver tow truck with teal highlights drove slowly in front of them. Jaune looked at the oddly slow truck wondering why it was going so slow on a main road like this. Arcee let out a small gasp. Half a second later, he realized why.
On the front door was a red symbol that looked like a face, the same symbol that Arcee had on her. He had to look down at her for a quick moment to double-check if it was the same symbol.
"Arcee, is that a-" he asked but Arcee cut him off.
"Follow him," Arcee commanded.
"Well, you have more control over me so, but yeah let's do it." The light turned and the duo went in pursuit of the tow truck. It was traveling at normal speeds now and didn't seem to be trying to lose them. Instead, it seemed to be wanting to lead them somewhere, which only piqued their curiosity. Did it know who Arcee was already? How?
They soon got to the edge of town and followed the truck into the forest. It drove for over a mile before stopping. Jaune and Arcee stopped at a reasonable distance behind him. "What do you want to do Arcee?" Jaune asked.
"Be blunt and to the point," she said. "Get off me." Jaune got off her and she transformed into her bipedal mode. While she was thinking of what to say, the truck turned around.
"For the longest time I thought I was the only one here," the tow truck said in a surprised but welcoming voice before transforming as well.
The Autobot was at least shoulders height taller than Arcee. He was much bulkier too, Jaune wondered how much more he weighed. The Autobot's head was rectangular, featuring a red orb in his large forehead and what Jaune thought looked like a rebreather on his chin.
Jaune had his jaw dropped in aw. Here standing before him was another alien robot. It was just as unbelievable as when he first met Arcee's true form. That also brought another thought to his mind. He was an alien, he had to have gotten here somehow. Did he have a ship like Arcee?
"Oh thank Primus, I thought I was the only one here as well," Arcee said, full of relief as she gave Autobot a salute. "Special Operative, Arcee, at your service."
"Iacon security officer, Longarm," he said with a salute and a smile. "It's nice to see a friendly face around here."
A/N: If you didn't get it from the description, this is Longarm from the Animated series (2007-09). Anyone who knows that character knows what's up.
Also I'm going to increase the pacing of the story just by a little bit. With how often I'm able to update this fic, I want to focus more on plot and character development and cut out any unnecessary filler as I can.
Let me know what you guys think in the reviews. I want to know what I did right and what I did wrong.
Thanks for reading, have a good day.
