Chapter 3: The Test?
It has been a few minutes since my explanation, and everyone is still deathly quiet. Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee all stared at me with wide eyes, Optimus was going about his business as if everything was normal and from a rough guess, Ratchet was simply using his work as an escape to not think about the fact that the Primes had sent a human to help them.
It was then that the computer beeped with an alert, Ratchet swiftly walked over tapping a few buttons here and there, before he went wide-eyed,
"Preposterous…that's impossible…" He gasped, this broke the three soon to be partnered bots from their trance-like state,
"What's impossible Ratchet?" questioned Arcee,
"Cliffjumpers life sign just came back online…" he replied in a hollow tone. Once again the three bots stared wide-eyed, this time at Ratchet before they settled on me. I rose my eyebrow at them,
"What?" I asked before the realisation hit me "oh, yeah this happened before. And before you even ask, no, I'm not going to blab on what happens. Certain events must stay the way they are or else you won't evolve from your current personalities" I added.
Arcee growled, staring at me with anger in her eyes,
"And why not?!" she demanded, I opened my mouth to answer but was quickly overtaken,
"It's common "time traveller" rules, there are certain "fixed" events that they can't interfere in, otherwise they might screw up the entire timeline more than they already have by just being there," Raf said, I turned to him with an impressed expression,
"Very well said, Raf. I couldn't have explained it better myself" I said giving him a small thumbs up. He smiled at this and shuffled his feet a little.
"So then what CAN you tell us or help with? Or can you be of ANY help AT ALL?!" Arcee yelled I looked at her with lowered eyelids,
"Of course I can help, and of course I can tell you things, but the experiences that will help this team bond and grow to be a better, more sentimental and much more functional team, I cannot interfere with, and even if I told you about this one, you wouldn't believe me till you saw with your own eyes. You have no reason to, but trust me on this," I replied, "On top of that, I don't even know what I'm capable of yet, I don't know all the tricks and triggers to this exoskeleton. I don't even know how many weapons and modifications are built into this thing" I added looking over the Exo.
Optimus then stepped in,
"Arcee, I believe that now is a good time to focus, Ratchet open a bridge to where Cliffjumper is located, Ratchet you will stay here and initiate a diagnostic on our new human friend's exo-skeleton, to see what it is capable of" his voice was calm but at the same time, bellowed like an order. All of the bots nodded and without so much as a second word Ratchet moved over to the ground bridge control panel. He input the co-ordinates and pulled down the lever.
The ground bridge whirred to life, glowing with its signature green and yellow energy. Optimus turned to the three bots that were to follow him in, "Autobots, transform and roll out" he bellowed as he shifted into his semi-truck alt mode and sped through the portal. Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee quickly followed suit.
After another second or so, Ratchet pulled the lever back up, shutting down the ground bridge. He then turned to me,
"Alright, let's get this examination over with," he said, "Follow me to the med bay" he added before walking off. I started to follow him, as did the two teens and pre-teen. After a few moments, we were in a pretty large room with two large metal berths and a surplus of Cybertronian medical equipment. "Alright, get up on this berth and have your back facing me," Ratchet said, tapping his hand onto the berth closest to him.
"Why are you saying that so casually Ratch? That thing looks impossible to climb and it's physically impossible for humans to jump that high" Miko said, but after she did, the helmet/mask combo re-deployed around my head before a text message appeared on it reading, "Super jump and Boost jump enabled" before disappearing and a small set of instructions appeared with pictures and small descriptions on how to work both. Working the Exo seemed to involve a lot of mental commands, so as I crouched down and sprung up in a jump, I sent a mental command to the Exo to do a super jump and I leapt around fifteen feet into the air just above the threshold for the berth and landed on it.
"WOAH! How did you DO that?!" Miko yelled I turned to her,
"The suit told me, seems like if I let it, the suit will tell me how to work it properly" I replied, Ratchet looked at me and then looked at the suit,
"Then it would seem that the suit has some form of an A.I. to help you during battles and to teach you its functions," Ratchet said. He then held up his left arm, opening a panel on it and pressing a few buttons on a touch screen and a red scanning beam made its way across my body and the suit.
"Alright, let's see what we have here…hmmm….uh-huh, yes…yes…w-what…how many modifications are crammed into this?…." Ratchet muttered, causing me to chuckle slightly,
"I DID say that Solus went overboard with it," I said, causing him to grumble. His optics scanned over the information on his arm scanner.
"So, tell us Ratch, what kinda heat is he packin'?" Miko asked. Ratchet groaned,
"Don't call me that, and as for the "heat" he is "packing" I presume that you mean weapons, and he has a number of them; dual Energon pistol blasters, a high powered focus beam sniper, an Energon scattergun, very odd amongst even the oldest of bots, an Energon pulse grenade, which renews itself over time, he also has two Energon charged blades that can potentially cut through Cybertronian metal like an Energon blast through concrete. And he also has a built-in shield so that he could wield one sword like a gladiator or knight" he replies listing them from the data on his arm.
"You're lucky that you own that thing y'know. I would be a total powerhouse with one of those things" Miko grumbled, quite obviously jealous. I chuckled and thought to myself,
'Just wait till you get the Apex Armour' shaking my head softly in an exasperated manner.
"That might be true Miko, but what exactly would you DO with it?" Raf asked her, adjusting his glasses slightly. Miko thought for a moment,
"Take over the town and make a giant fort for the bots?" Miko replied, causing Jack to roll his eyes, Raf to facepalm, and Ratchet and myself to groan, "What?" she questioned,
"Miko, the bots motto on earth here, is "Robots in disguise" and that means being subtle, what part of taking over a town to make a giant fort is subtle?" I inquired.
"Oh, well it's not like I had enough time for them to explain that to me" Miko replied, Ratchet raised an "eyebrow" at her,
"We explained that to you when you were brought here," Ratchet said,
"Then I wasn't listening because of the obvious fact that I was too excited with finding out that giant alien robots are roaming the planet!" she replied waving off his stare.
Ratchet and I gave a soft sigh. I looked to him,
"Alright, anyways, Ratchet, would there be any rooms empty and big enough to test out the capabilities of the weapons systems safely?" I asked, he thought for a quiet moment,
"There should be one or two empty storage rooms in the lower levels, they are fairly large and should suffice as an adequate shooting range and exercise room for your close-quarters combat abilities" he replied, I gave a curt nod,
"Well, if you'd kindly show me the way we can see how these weapons work when put into use," I said, he nodded softly,
"Indeed, then, if you'll just follow me" he replied as he started walking towards the door.
I quickly jumped from the table and to the ground, landing a few feet away from the children as we all followed. As expected, Miko's face was lit up with excitement, Rafs was curious, and Jack's was partially intrigued.
On our way there, however, Ratchet was beeped. He raised his servo to his head, pressing a small plate in where an ear would be on a human,
"Hello?" He asked into the comm, he got a quick answer, and I could tell what it was as he ran to the main room with urgency. Seeing his panic, the four of us humans followed.
'He got called to bridge them back, Arcee should be covered in dark Energon and helped through by Bumblebee, so let's see how much they'll get annoyed with me that I didn't warn them' I thought to myself as we walked into the room, seeing the bridge shut down just as we entered. Miko and Raf stood back in slight shock at seeing them limp, favouring their injured limbs, Jack, however, stood forward with concern. He walked closer to Arcee, but he backed up a little as the toxic dark Energon started to affect him in the slightest.
"What happened down there?" Ratchet asked Optimus, who had looked down in thought
"We are unsure at this time, however, I believe if you wish to know more you should direct your query to Arcee" he answered. Ratchet nodded and turned to her,
"Arcee, What happened? Did you see Cliffjumper?" he asked, concerned for the former ally,
"Y-yeah...I saw him...but whatever that was...isn't Cliff anymore" She replied, she was visibly distraught, her eyes roaming the room trying to find something to take the images that she saw out of her train of thought.
It was but a few seconds before her eyes found purchase, on me. Her eyes narrowed, and her face disgruntled "Y-you...why didn't you warn us?" She growled taking a step towards me but faltering and going down to one knee. Ratchet then stepped forward finally noticing that she was covered in splotches of what I knew to be dark Energon.
"Arcee, what is all this?" He asked taking a sample from her arm with a scalpel, Arcee just shook her head,
"I don't know, but whatever it was..." She shuddered "Cliff was leaking it everywhere" her voice wavered with the utterance of his name. Ratchet nodded softly and looked over to Bumblebee,
"Get her into a decontamination bath, and take care to not get any of that substance on you, it's affecting her equilibrium" he ordered. Bumblebee nodded and moved to help his teammate. At hearing this, the three children looked to each-other all coming to the same realisation,
"Robots who get dizzy?" Miko started,
"Robots that feel?" Raf added,
"Robots...that can die" Jack finished.
Just a few moments later Arcee and Bumblebee had left the room. I stood starring towards the exit and gave a soft sigh before turning away and walking back up the steps, the clink of the shoe casings following each step to the top. The other children soon followed, Jack and Raf however were looking at me, I glanced back and looked into their eyes and taking a wild guess at their unspoken question,
"as I said earlier, fixed event, I couldn't interfere even if I wanted to, which believe me, I did" I spoke in a soft tone, I then looked towards Optimus knowing what had to happen next, "Optimus, I believe it's time to send the children back home". Miko decided to voice her displeasure at this,
"HEY! I am living in Botswana, I'm not letting some reality hopping future man take it away from me" letting out a soft growl at the end of her complaint. I turned back to her and looked her in the eye,
"So, you're gonna stay in here while Jack's mother, Rafs parents, and your host family start filing missing person reports with the police?" I retorted. Jack then realised that it was certainly a few hours after he had left school and had not called his mother, with a quick hand he grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and flipped it open, and seeing he had no signal,
"He's right with that one, and we've got no signal. And if I don't get home soon, I'm gonna get in trouble" Jack stated facing his phone towards the towering Prime.
"Our base is constructed with materials in the walls that reduce radio signals to protect our location from being found or tracked, and to what do you mean trouble, Jackson? Your local police force?" The Prime asked Jack shook his head softly,
"Worse, curfew, if I'm not home in the next half hour, my mom is gonna ground me till I'm thirty" Jack replied, Raf then looked at his digital watch noticing the time,
"Are you kidding, if I'm not back home in the next ten, I'm grounded till I'm in my forties" he voiced in a panic.
"Ah, your earth customs, I had forgotten about those, very well, Bumblebee, you shall escort young Rafael home, Bulkhead, you shall escort Miko home and keep watch over her" the Prime stated just as Bumblebee and Arcee walked into the main room,
"Yes, just wait till my host parents get a load of you" Miko stated excitedly, Optimus then made an addendum on to his request,
"In-vehicle mode"
"Curb-side duty. Got it," Bulkhead said transforming into the large SUV that was his alt form, Miko voiced her displeasure but entered regardless. Bumblebee spoke a few words to Raf as he approached, but as my visor was down I didn't get a translation for it. Bee then transformed into his alt mode and opened the door for Raf to hop in.
Optimus then turned to his medical officer,
"Ratchet, you shall escort-" he started,
"Busy" Ratchet said cutting him off as he held up a dish holding his sample of dark Energon, Optimus then turned to Arcee.
"Arcee, you shall escort young Jackson home" he stated. Arcee's eyes widened before she quickly narrowed them putting a hand to her head and feigning dizziness,
"Oh, I'm still feeling a little light-headed" she excused,
"You're fine, so says your physician," Ratchet said, reducing her excuse to nothing more than a passing comment. She grunted in displeasure at losing the small battle but changed into her alt none-the-less.
"Alright, hop on Kid," Arcee said, but her tone made it feel like an order, but before Jack left the raised platform, I grabbed him by the shoulder stopping him for a moment just to whisper to him,
"If you decide to empathise with her, be careful, she's grieving, so she might take that as pity and not genuine sorrow, if she gets mad, don't fall for it, but give her something to think about" Jack looked back at me for a small second and nodded before leaving the upper deck and getting on Arcee.
The rumble of her engine flared as they charged down the tunnel towards the exit. "Good luck Jack, I know how it ended before, but it doesn't have to completely be that way now" I muttered to myself before looking over the upper area. It was currently bare, save a counter-top that was likely never deconstructed. I glanced over to the case that previously held the exo-pack that was still attached to my back; I started to wonder, it was made of Cybertronian metal, maybe it could be reconstructed into something else? It was then that the helmet popped over my head once more, the display showing more pictograms, but two sets of them.
One set was labelled "assimilate" showing a few crude pictures of how to assimilate the case into more armour; the second set was labelled as "station" showing more pictograms of the case its-self transforming into a chair like structure with an Energon tank on the back that affixes to the exo-pack directly to inject Energon. "interesting, well I'm not going into the field any time soon, so, for now, let's go with the station" I spoke aloud to myself. The choice of "station" highlighted its-self on my visor before a large checkmark crossed over it, after that the helmet receded into the collar around my neck again. Then, looking towards the suitcase it started to re-arrange all the pieces of its-self; which after about forty seconds it was fully re-assembled into a charging station. "Alright, well, let's see if I can get some sleep" I mumbled as I walked over to the station and sat down, the exo-pack clicking gently into place. I closed my eyes and drifted off, the exhaustion from today's activities finally catching up to me.
-over at Jacks house-
Jack and Arcee slowly pulled into the garage of the house, both of them trying to keep as quiet as possible seeing that Jack's mother's SUV was parked inside. Jack stepped off of Arcee and took a step towards the door, but his conscience bid him otherwise and he turned back to face her,
"I... I'm sorry, that you lost your friend. I know how badly loss can affect a person" he said softly to her. Her headlamp moved slightly to face him,
"Yeah, right, like you could understand how I feel right now" she replied snidely. Jack reeled at this, stepping forward to defend his words.
Everyone has problems" he retorted, Arcee merely scoffed.
"I don't think girl problems count as problems" she barked back. Jack almost threw back another retort, before he caught himself remembering the new strangers warning; Jack took a breath and calmed himself, he turned around and walked to the door, gripping its handle he turned it and pulled it open.
"Do you blame yourself because you weren't there? Or because you were?" He spoke in a neutral tone and closing the door behind him as he entered the house and walked to his bedroom.
Arcee was mutely stunned from his abrupt exit and his words, after a few minutes of stunned silence she thought to herself,
'What the scrap did he mean by that? He's the equivalent of a first frame, what would he know about anything like this? What would he know about death, grief and mourning?' for the next hour or so she silently fumed. Arcee eventually got tired of this and went into a recharge for the night, however, her last thought before power down brought back a fragment of curiosity 'What did he mean by do I blame myself because I was there or not there? Or could it be possible he wasn't talking about me?' and with that, her non-essential systems shut themselves down and self-repair systems kicked in to take care of any minor nicks in her internal frame or armour plating over the next several hours.
A/n: so it's been what? 3/4 years since I even looked at this? while I'm sorry for not putting up any kind of notice, I did edit two of my previous stories to say they were canceled or on an indefinite hiatus due to mental health. I'm not going to fool anyone and say that such a delicate issue is cured or solved, but, am I going to try and actually finish this? Yes. I will try my best to create the story that I once upon a time thought up on a whim of an active imagination. but I also want to make another story, that I believe would have a lot of potential for freedom of creativity, it would follow our human friends of the Bots here in the Prime-verse, just in the cruel and unforgiving expanse of space and the call of the Traveller.