Author's note. Hope everyone is doing well. Written by me and annpar2009.
Enjoy and please review.
Continued from last chapter.
"Then it's settled, I'll be on my way to visit Wheeljack," Said Oprimus and started to walk the corridor, but he could hear Ironhide trying to explain the basic knowledge about sparkling care.
At the doors Wheeljacks lab Optimus stepped inside and he greeted. "Hello Wheeljack."
"Hi there Optimus, anything you need help with?" asked the scientist looking at him.
"In the matter of fact yes, your sparkling invention, how far have you come with it?" asked Optimus curious and hoping for good news.
"Well a good way for sure been working on it long hours, I think ... I haven't tested it our yet so I can't say," the other Mech answered, this was complicated matter, not very easy to explain.
"Sparkplug mentioned an accident one time when he got change for a brief time," asked Optimus, wanting to hear Wheeljacks part of the story.
"Am sorry Optimus, yes that happened but he changed back to normal later on and seems fine ... he isn't ill is he?" asked the scientist, worried if sparkplug was hit with after effects.
"No he is fine, but he mention a way to get spike back with we will need your help with that," stated the Prime, this was a risk Sparkplug was willing to take.
Wheeljack he tried to figure out what that was. "Okay with what exactly?"
"He wishes to become one of us," Optimus said simply causing Wheeljack to stare at him.
"What? He wants me to use my invention on him? On purpose!?" he exclaimed, fins flashing furiously.
"He does," the Prime confirmed. "He is aware of the risks but he believes it is worth it to be with his son. And after our failure to rescue Spike, it is beginning to look like this may be our only option."
"Hmm," Wheeljack murmured, rubbing his masked chin in thought. "Well, I caused all this trouble, maybe this will help fix it."
"It wasn't your fault," Optimus said sternly. "I know you were trying to find a non-lethal way to end this war, it's not something you should be ashamed about. Spike has been treated kindly by Thundercracker from what I've observed, perhaps the presence of a sparkling will remind some of the Decepticons what we once had."
"Yeah, you're right" he said and thought of a way to make his invention show results, normally one would need a test subject something alive.
"I guess I would need some living fish to try on my invention, it could be finished or need some work," Said Wheeljack talking about his machine, trying to find bowl and a net. "Nearest lake is nearby if am not mistaken."
"Would you like some help?" asked Optimus, if anything Wheeljack almost looked stressed.
"If you're not busy then yes, I need to catch a lot of fishes, plants won't do me any good at this point," he stated and grabbed a few things more before starting to walk outside "The more the better, you never know if any of them might die or the one that survives always have a meaning and …and I don't want to put Sparkplugs life in danger."
"Wheeljack calm down, Sparkplug believes in you, no need to over stress," said Optimus and followed him.
"Sorry I just need more data and this is the only way to do it and it will keep him safer later on when we do change Sparkplug," explained Wheeljack who stood outside the ark with all his stuff in the arms, now how to travel when begin so stuff of stuff.
"Wheeljack, perhaps I could take your things?" Optimus offered, the poor inventor was so frazzled, he was barely thinking. The Autobot engineer loved Earth and it's inhabitants, he desperately did not want to harm their human friends.
"Huh...oh yeah, that would be great," Wheeljack said sheepishly as Optimus called for his trailer to come before transforming. Now there was plenty of space for him to load up his materials.
"I'm just gonna get a couple more things," he called and he ran off to do just that. Optimus waited patiently until Prowl came out.
"Sir," his Second said respectfully. "Are you off somewhere?"
"Yes, I'm assisting Wheeljack with his experiments," Optimus's replied, still in his truck form. "But when I get back, I'm going to call Megatron about Jazz. It's too early to do so now."
"Oh yes, Megatron likes his sleep, doesn't he?" Prowl said wryly.
Then Wheeljack came back running roll of plastic bags and put that in the trailer to.
"Hello Prowl, love to talk but we really need to get going before dark," greeted Wheeljack in a rush then transformed and rived away.
"We be back in a few hours, until then you are in charge," ordered Optimus and followed behind Wheeljack, Prowl nodded then returned to his post.
Wheeljack drove a bit too fast, but he eventually found his way to a near small river by to a forest, getting closer he then transformed and looked in the water. There was fishes in there swimming around, Optimus soon after arrived.
"This will do nicely," approved Wheeljack, the water seemed clean and fresh with hopefully meant the fishes where in perfect health.
Getting his net, bowl and plastic bags from the trailer, Wheeljack started to get to work and catch some of them, Optimus transformed and watch the invention struggle and rushing in as he did.
"Come on you slippery fish," as he tried again to catch one, but the fish jumped off his hands "This is harder than humans make it to look."
Optimus couldn't help but smile at this and went on to the water to, grabbing the other end of the net. "Together, perhaps it will be easier."
"In that case let's go a bit deeper in" suggested Wheeljack.
They both walked more to the middle, then bent down to the ground holding the net and waited for more fish to arrive, after a few minutes some small and larger fishes did arrive.
"On three ready? One.,…two….three!" said Optimus and they both hold up the net to find many fishes stuck there.
"Wow this is more than I need," Wheeljack smiled as they walked back to the land. "Come on, let's put them on my plastic bags."
"Can you hold on to them for a bit, thanks," the inventor said in a rush as he ran off to get his plastic bags, filling some water to them awhile leaving Optimus with some splashing fishes wetting his amour.
Walking back to Optimus, he steady managed to put three fishes in each plastic bag and put them inside Optimus trailer.
"There's five bags with three fishes inside with makes it fifteen test subjects," mumbled Wheeljack to himself. "I think that's enough and I can tart test my machine once I get back to my lab."
"You want to start working right away?" asked Optimus, not surprised on this Wheejack always was a quick worker.
"Well yes, I know we aren't in a hurry or so, but I can imagine Sparkplug must be somewhat impatient," answered scientist.
"He is, we all want Spike to return" said Optimus a bit sadden that things didn't go as they wished.
"I know and I will do everything I can, but for now let's get back to base and see what results I will get," Wheeljack said excited before transforming and head back to base with his leader behind him.
At the lab, he put the fishes in separate bowls and took out his machine from its secret hide out in his lab, don't want the enemy to fins this invention of his.
"You don't mind if I stay for a bit and watch?" asked Optimus and the inventor who answered. "Not at all, although you might get bored."
"Now let's see what happens," said Wheeljack focused and aimed for the poor fish with had no idea what it was in for, the machine shot a beam of light forward and hit the fish, transforming it as it grew larger and larger then….pop!
"Ahhh Primus!" yelled Wheeljack disgusted, he now had fish guts everywhere including on his amour while he tried to lean away. "What went wrong?"
"Wheeljack?" asked Optimus worried, he was horrified to see that fish explode the way it did, Spike must gotten very lucky with his transformation.
"It shouldn't explode like that...maybe I need to turn down the power?" mumbled Wheeljack to himself thoughtfully and took a screwdriver and looked inside the machines wiring and started to make a few changes.
"There, let's try it again" said the scientist and took another wish to a blow and zapped it with his machine, this one did change slower and not as quickly like the other, but at the end of the transformation it have only half transformed and it's head side remained organic.
"Well ... it survived" said Wheeljack somewhat unpleasant to see the fish like that. "This one changed more steady but stopped half way, with mean it's need more power but it's need to be stabilized power or I need to change the battery and the wires to make this more successful."
"Wheeljack, I'm no scientist but perhaps you are over thinking things?" questioned Optimus.
"I…hmm…maybe I am," Wheeljack admitted, but still did a few changes to his machine once again and zapped another fish, at the end this one just looked the same as it did before.
"Strange, why didn't it change?" asked Wheeljack confused, looking at the fish with Optimus who noticed some metallic at the fish gills. "Wheeljack look at the gills."
"Hmm?" he questioned and saw the metallic shine and took his scanner quickly and scanned the fish, amazed on the results. "This is incredible, it just became a techno organic, mechanical on the inside but organic at the outside."
"Amazing," Optimus said, leaning forward to get a better look.
"Yeah," Wheeljack said, staring at his invention as though he couldn't believe it. "But it's not the result we were looking for, no point in turning Sparkplug into a Techno-Organic."
"Hmm," Optimus murmured in agreement. "But you seem to be making progress."
"Of a sort," Wheeljack murmured, grabbing a data pad and quickly writing some notes down. "This is one fish I'll need to keep."
He looked at his machine, trying to work out what new adjustment he should make. It had changed Spike so easily but now he was having trouble. Of course, it had not been meant to transform a human into a sparkling, that had purely been accidental. Somehow, that blow had configured his invention just right and he needed to recreate that.
"I will leave you to it, I should return to the others," said Optimus.
"Alright, I be working late on this," Wheeljacke waved a goodbye.
The machine got closer and farther away on the transformations and the day was coming to an end as well, but Wheeljack wouldn't give up just yet as he continued with his tests until finally at 04:00 in the morning.
"Test subject number thirteen of fifteen," Wheeljack wrote down and like the others zapped it with his machine to see it transform in a normal pace and what was before organic grey, was shining mechanical breathing fish.
"Test subject looks transformed, scanning for more information, please let it be successful," prayed the tired Autobot, the scanners then showed the fish was fully changed mechanical from both sides, inside and out.
Wheeljack stared at the results before happy yelling. "I did it…..I DID IT!"
His happy cheering did not go unnoticed, there were soon complaints and angry grumblings coming from various quarters. He did not pay any attention, all he could do was jump up and down in his excitement. His new fully mechanical fish just kept swimming around in it's container, oblivious to his celebrations.
It was only when his comm pinged that he calmed down enough to answer it.
"Yeah?"
"Wheeljack," came the tired voice of his Prime. "What is going on?"
"I did it Prime, I did it!" he said excitedly. "I completely transformed a fish into a mechanical one, inside and out."
"I see," his leader said, not as enthusiastically as he normally would. "That's great Wheeljack but you should get to bed. It's late."
"Sure, sure, I'll go shortly," the engineer said even though he currently felt wide awake. "Sorry if I woke you up."
"That's fine, just go to sleep," Optimus ordered before signing off. In his quarters, the Prime rubbed his face tiredly. He wanted to get back to recharge, he needed his energy for tomorrow. Sometime after leaving Wheeljack, he had called Megatron about his captured solider and it still played on his processor.
...
Earlier that day..
"Teletran One, place a call through to the Nemesis," Optimus commanded the super computer.
"As you command Optimus Prime," the computer replied before doing as asked. Soon enough, he was greeted by the grey visage of his enemy.
"So Prime," Megatron said with an unpleasant smile. "What can I do for you?"
Ignoring the Decepticon leader's mocking smile, Optimus said. "I want to talk about Jazz."
"Ah yes, your little saboteur, come to steal away Thundercracker's little charge," Megatron smirked. "He would have been so devastated if you'd succeeded."
"That's not his sparkling," Optimus reminded him. "He is a good carer but the sparkling must come back with us so when his father returns, they can be reunited."
"So you keep telling me Prime," scoffed Megatron a bit annoyed, this mysterious sire have not been seen by any of his troops on this planet yet. "Yet there is no proof that this sire even` exists."
"This sire is very much alive, I assure you Megatron," answered Optimus, the machine was ready and knowing Sparkplug, he wouldn't waste any time to get back his child and so far he was doing well learning about sparkling care.
"Is that so? Spoken to him, have you?" asked Megatron curiously, of course Prime would have some way to do that, was the sire even aware that the Sparking was no longer under his care?
"That I have and he is not pleased that you are keeping him," spoke Optimus and continued "Megatron you can't keep him, his sire has the right to have his sparkling returned to him."
"I don't think so Prime, he left the sparkling in your care with meant he couldn't handle the pressure," Smirked Megatron mockingly.
"We all get busy in life, we were only supposed to watch the sparkling for a short period of time," replayed Optimus the best way he could put this.
But this call was about Jazz, getting side tracked talking about spike isn't going anywhere at this point.
"I offer Energon for Jazz's release," stated Optimus, hoping at least this will go smoothly.
"What makes you think I will accept it Prime?" Questioned Megatron.
"You haven't had an Energon raid for a while Megatron," said Optimus and continued. "I would imagine your Energon rate is quite low at the Nemesis"
Megatron sneered at him but Optimus was sure it was true. This was an easy way for Megatron to gain Energon and he would not have to keep fuelling his prisoner. He waited patiently as the grey Mech seemed to think it over.
"How much Energon are we talking about?" Megatron finally said idly and Optimus promptly named a suitable amount.
"Hmm, not bad," Megatron said before suddenly asking. "You are so tight lipped about that sparkling's origins, I wonder why?"
"It is his Sire's wish," Optimus said softly. "And we have honoured that. Now, will you release Jazz?"
"I will, in exchange for the Energon" Megatron said and added. "We will trade tomorrow afternoon."
"Very well, there is an abandoned village nearby at the east side from here," suggested Optimus, it was a shame they couldn't trade today, but again this would leave great time to prepare the Energon cubes and so typed in the coordinates. "Sending the location now."
Megatron open the world map and saw the abandoned village, it looked very primitive and mostly made of wood. But if anything it would make a good trading place and it was safely away from any humans with was so predictable of the Prime.
"It will do," agreed Megatron before shutting down the call and leaving a black screen behind.
Optimus sighed, at least Megatron had agreed. Perhaps even though Jazz was a prisoner, he had managed to gain a little Intel. There was nothing else to do but get on with some duties while he waited for news of Wheeljack's progress.
"Primus," he muttered, he needed to relax and put aside Megatron and his Decepticons for the moment so that he could recharge. He had to be there for the exchange, to make sure all was well with Jazz and that he was actually returned. Actually, thinking of Jazz gave him an idea to relax.
Leaning over to his cabinet, he selected some music from a collection Jazz had put together in his console and played it. The relaxing melody filled the room and he sighed with relief, that was much better. Settling on the berth, his body started to relax and soon, so did his mind and recharge found him.
Thankfully, the rest of the night past well and in the morning he woke, a little tired but not too worse for the well. He took his Energon in his room, looked over some reports for a while, receiving a message from Ratchet letting him know that he was working with Sparkplug in the Med Bay. So after he had gotten a few more things done, he decided to see how they were getting on before he organised the trip for Jazz's release.
Walking along the halls and Wheeljack showed up on ahead of him and it appear that he was holding his machine to.
"Wheeljack?" called Optimus out load for him to hear.
The scientist turned around and greeted. "Hi there Optimus, are you also going to the med-bay?"
"Med-bay? Why are you going there?" asked Optimus curious, he know the scientist wouldn't do anything without asking his permission.
"Well I was going to show Ratchet this little fella," smiled Wheeljack and had was also holding a plastic bag with the mechanical fish inside "We were arguing if my invention was ready which it is in my opinion."
"I see, you wouldn't know where Ironhide is and Sparkplug?" questioned the Prime, he wasn't sure himself where to find them nether.
"Think they're with Ratchet, he is giving Sparkplug some tips and lessons what to do if Spike would be sick," answered Wheeljack and continued walking to the med-bay with Optimus behind him "Sparkplug said something about he wanted to be prepared for anything that might come his way."
"That makes sense," agreed Optimus, any parent would do that.
Entering the Med-bay he could see Sparkplug holding what seem to be a doll used for children and beside him, Ratchet guiding him by some back massage on the dolls back.
"Well done, now keep doing that for three more minutes," Said Ratchet pleased on Sparkplugs learning. "This method is to help the sparkling to relax and calm them down, if they had a nightmare or when they are sick it will help them regain some strength back in their anti-virus system."
"I'm here," said Wheeljack getting everyone's attention in the room and holding both his machine and the plastic bag with the fish as he handed it over to Ratchet to examine. "Here it is as I told you, I'm telling you the machine is perfected now to change anything organic to our kind."
"I'll be the Judge of that," stated Ratchet and started to examine the fish with a few different scans which went over quite quickly and getting his results. "It appears you were right, the scans show noting organic and it's health seems to be just fine."
"You bet it is," Wheeljack said excitedly.
"So it works," Sparkplug said softly, still holding the doll.
They all looked down at him. Ratchet now said gently. "You don't have to do this you know. There's no shame in backing out now."
"No," Sparkplug said, fierce determination written all over his face. "I will go through with this. When can I transform?"
"Hmm," Ratchet murmured, glancing back at the fish. "Not just yet, I'd rather monitor this specimen to ensure nothing develops. In the meantime, Ironhide can teach you more about what you need to know, just about sparklings but adult bot bodies. You need to learn all you can now, because once you've transformed, there'll be an adjustment period."
"Alright, where is Ironhide?" questioned Sparkplug, trying to find his friend, he was sure he saw him here a moment before.
"Try looking at the Weaponry room," Suggested Ratchet.
"Thanks, I will try it," Sparkplug said and grabbed his doll and made his way to the Weaponry room with was a few rooms away, Once Sparkplug entered the room he could see his red friend sitting on a table with a few weapons next to him "Ironhide?"
"Yes Sparkplug?" asked Ironhide and looked down at his friend.
"I'm not disturbing you am I?" asked the human.
"No, not at all," answered Ironhide and put some of the weapons aside of the table. "Am not doing anything that important."
"Okay, could you teach me some Cybertrnoian biology?" requested Sparkplug gently.
"Wait you want me to teach you that? Why not ask Wheeljack or Perceptor?" questioned the Weapon specialist and added. "They can explain to you Cybertrnoian biology in a higher level than I can... and more detailed."
"They could yes, but then I wouldn't remember most of what they said," Sparkplug pointed out, like some teachers they could go on forever and one would miss the most important parts of subjects meaning.
"So ya want the simple basics?" questioned Ironhide once again and got a nod from the human.
"Alright then," agreed Ironhide and took his data-pad and started to write and draw up a few things on it to help this study.
"What you doing?" asked Sparkplug curiously wanting to see what his friend have in planned for him.
"A skeleton, Cybertronian brain, the tank, spark chamber, jolts, Optics, Ya know the basics," answered the red mech and once he was finished with his sketches he showed the data-pad to Sparkplug and pointed at the Skeleton.
"All living things have a Skeleton, ours is made of Cyber-matter with is the living metal we are made of," explained Ironhide and let's Sparkplug to take a look at the Skeleton sketch with Looked similar, But also different from the human once for a example no ribs where in their from.
"That is pretty amazing and this cyber-matter is why your amour is warm instead of cold like a normal car?" asked Sparkplug as he recalled a memory when he had to drive to their base with his car with was cold metal, but once he shaded hands with one of the bot their metal was warmer and he always wondered why that was.
"So you did pay attention to us," Smirked Ironhide and said "A normal car is just that, it's not alive and so is just a cold shell, but thanks to the cyber-matter, our metal is living metal with temperature and we can feel the cold, pain and so on."
"Fascinating," said Sparkplug as a mechanic this truly was interesting subject, then he pointed to the drawing that looked like a brain?
"So you don't have chips as a brain?" he questioned.
"Well you're not wrong on that one, we have brain modules," said Ironhide and pointed with one finger at his mind and added. "It's a tiny cluster of microchips that works pretty much like a human brain I guess."
"And soon, I will too," Sparkplug said ruefully, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hard to take in."
"You'll do fine," Ironhide assured him, reaching to gently place a hand or more like a couple of fingers, on his shoulders. "I know it's a bit nerve wracking, Pit, if I was going to become human, I'd be shaking like leaf."
Sparkplug smiled a little at the human expression, probably for his benefit.
"But I know you'll do fine," the old red Mech continued. "You've spent a lot of time with us, I bet you've picked up more than you realise about how we act. I'm sure it'll feel alien when it first happens but you'll adapt. In no time at all, even those darned Cons won't know you're not a real bot."
"Thanks," Sparkplug said with a smile.
"No problem," the red Mech said as the human before him mused. "Be interesting to taste High Grade..."
Ironhide grinned.
"Don't you worry, you'll be having some," he chuckled. "We'll make sure you enjoy a toast to your new body, I'll get the good stuff."
"Great," laughed Sparkplug, feeling more relaxed now. "Is it the stuff the twins brew?"
"Nah, that's the strong stuff," the weapon's expert laughed. "Ratchet would have my hide if you got overcharged."
"I can hold my drink," Sparkplug argued but with a grin on his face.
"So you say, then let's talk about the tank," smirked Ironhide and pointed to middle of the body near the hips and it looked alike a box?
"I have heard about the tank around the med-bay, it that your stomach?" questioned Sparkplug.
"See you know more than you think," cheered Ironhide and added. "Yes that is our stomach in your human words, the energon go down there and turns into energy our body use."
"I know, Ratchet did explain energon to be your life blood and fuel of survival," Sparkplug said as he recalled that part of his memory.
"Ha so Ratchet beat me to it, you probably already know about optics and jolts," said Ironhide thoughtfully on what else he could teach.
"Surprisingly, I do," admit Sparkplug and explained. "The optics are like your eyes and you can see much clearer then I do from what I understand and the jolts are what allows your body to bend down and move around."
"Huu not bad, then let's me ask this, do you know what a Spark Chamber is?" questioned Ironhide.
"I have only heard the word, but to be honest not very sure what it does" said the human and looked at the centre of the drawing where he saw a round ball with another round blue circle in it.
"I see… thought you might have known that one, But the Spark chamber is what holds our sparks into our body it's ... well …like... a Spark hold one person's memory's and emotions," Ironhide tried to explain with some struggle.
"Like a soul? We humans may not have spark chambers but we believe our souls hold like you said memories and emotions only the soul is spread all over the body in our case," Sparkplug explain his version of what he understood.
"Ah," Ironhide said, optics brightening. "I didn't know that. Our Spark is also like your human heart, we can't survive without it."
He touched the place where his spark was located. Sparkplug absentmindedly reached up to touch the place where his heart was, not quite as central as a transformer's spark was. And very soon, he would have a Spark too.
It was a rather sobering thought.
"I see," Sparkplug murmured softly.
"We don't have to go over everything all at once," Ironhide said gently. "Don't want to overload your processor."
"Heh, no," the human before him chuckled wryly. "I need all my wits about me for what's coming."
"You'll be fine," Ironhide assured him. "You'll have your boy back."
"Yeah," Sparkplug agreed. Now he just needed to see what kind of transformer parent he made.
Author's note. How is Jazz faring and what mischief does Spike get up to? Find out next time, until then.