It was Friday. The day of the mission. And unlike other missions, Jack was nervous about it because he would be fighting. And with Eliza. He had realized it on Thursday. He realized while she was helping a freshman girl with one arm missing around the school that he liked her. He realized that he had a crush on tough, hard-core, focused, messed-up Eliza Clarkson.
At the base, Optimus went over the mission again. "Two Cons have two half's of a hard drive with valuable information. Our mission is to retrieve the two halves at any cost." "That will be a miracle considering they're coming along," Eliza muttered under her breath, loud enough for Raf, Miko, and Jack to hear. "We will leave in two hours," Optimism said. Eliza went to her invention desk, where a high-tech gun was waiting to be finished.
Before she started, Jack saw her take out a single contact. "Why does she need only one contact?" Miko whispered as Eliza put it on her right eye. "I can hear you," Eliza said, blinking quickly. "How?" Raf asked. Eiiza rolled her eyes as she got a pair of small tweezers and put them in her right ear, coming out with a very tiny microchip. "Cybertronic Hearing Aid. Even with a perfect sense of hearing, whoever's wearing it could hear a pen drop in even the loudest noises. It also has a commlink built into it."
"Uh-huh," Jack said. "And is that eye contact some kind of Cybertronic Eye Piece?" "Yes, actually," Eliza said. Jack stared as she started to explain again. "The Cybertronic Eye Piece basically is a computer on your eye. It can also see through walls, has a thermo-sensor, can download info, and, it has a tiny camera built into it. I have both of them on almost all the time." "Cool," Miko said. "How can you make something like that?" "Using some of the Autobot's technology," she replied.
But that wasn't the only question Miko had. "Wow, have you eve been on Cybertron before?" "Yes," Eliza said as she started to work on her gadget. "Were you able to understand Bumblebee when he had lost his voice box?" "Yes." "Have you ever been captured by the Con's?" "No." "Have you ever wanted to join a band?" "No." "How about-" "Miko!" Eliza stood up and slammed her desk. "Stop asking me questions. In case you didn't hear, we have a mission in a few hours. And I don't want to be unprepared."
Miko just closed her mouth as she walked away, but Jack heard her mumble "buzz kill" a few times. "I heard that," Eliza said. As she continued her work, muttering something Jack couldn't hear, Bumblebee walked towards Digit and Wrench. "What was that about?" Jack asked. "Ellie's had a hard past," Digit said to him. "We would tell you," Wrench said, "but she has to. In her own time." Jack looked at Bee hopefully. "Not gonna happen," he said. Jack walked away, lost in thought.
Eliza was glad it was almost time for her to leave. The civilians were getting on her last few nerves. Especially Jack. He always has to smile at her to be nice, thinking it would break her probably. And whenever she sees him, a warm, fluttery, bubbly, and goopy feeling entered the pit of her stomach and sped her heart up a bit. But Eliza just pushed the feelings away. She knew deep down in all of them that they didn't trust her. Fine with me.
After thirty minuets of working on the gun, Eliza had finished it and went to her room to change. She put on a thin strap version of her faded purple shirt, her jacket was wrapped around her waist, and she had on black exercise pants. She walked out of her room and towards a punching bag she had placed. She picked up the strap-on fingerless boxing gloves she had on the floor next to it, put her headphones on and tapped a starting song on her phone, and stood in an attack stance, both fist up.
She started with a few punches, then sped up. She kicked it once, did a roundhouse kick, jabbed it with her elbow, then her knee, then pushed it away with her left foot. Her CEP had a digital aiming circle pinned onto the bag, telling her the right time to hit it. Even though she didn't need it to, she always found it helpful. She stopped for a moment, bouncing on the balls of her feet. With her CHA she could hear past her music to Miko and Raf playing a video game, and footsteps coming towards her, but the last one she didn't notice.
A tap on her shoulder and a "Hey" startled her. Her reflexes acting first, she quickly turned around and punched her attacker. Her fist made contact with something soft and a loud groan came to her ears. When she saw what she hit, a small smirk came onto her face. "Fun Fact, Jack: Never walk up to a girl that's training." Jack stood in front of her, bent down, one hand on his knee and another clutching his stomach. "Noted," he wheezed.
Just as he was starting to breath normal again, Eliza heard a car horn. A white car entered the base and a woman with black hair wearing a nurses outfit stepped out. She watched as the woman walked towards Jack and gave him a hug. "Hey, Mom," he said. "Are you sure you want to go on this mission?" the woman asked. "June Darby, I presume?" Eliza said as she walked towards them, pausing her music and putting her headphones around her neck.
"Yes," the woman, June, said. "And you must be Eliza Clarkson, Jack has told me so much about you." "Oh, really?" Eliza smirked and raised an eyebrow at this information. "Well then you must know that I have experience of being out on the field," Eliza said. "Yes, and I hope you and Arcee will take care of him." "MOM!" Eliza giggled as she went back to her training, putting her black and neon purple headphones back over her ears.
June had told Jack that she would stay at the base till the mission was done, that way if any of the humans got hurt a medic would be waiting for them. Before they had to leave, she had ordered them all to have themselves checked. "I'm fine, Mrs, Darby," Eliza said as she continued to punch her bag. "You might need it," June said in return. "According to my CEP, my body is functioning just fine," she said as she kicked the bag again.
June looked at Jack for an explanation. He explained what it was. "Oh. Well then, I guess it's just you three." After their eye sights, hearing, and reflexes were checked, June gave them the all clear. The time went by fast. Soon it was time to go. As the Autobots transformed, Eliza had just gotten out of her room wearing her normal clothes and was looking at something on her phone. When she was done she placed it on a utility belt Digit said she wore on all her missions.
Jack got onto Arcee the same time Eliza got onto Digit, Raf got into Bumblebee, and Miko got into Bulkhead. When Jack and Eliza had put on their helmets, Optimus had them roll out.
They drove till they reached the part of town that was closest to the woods. Arcee rode into an alley on one side of the street while Digit rolled into one across from them. Bulkhead was at a gas station, where Miko placed the pump in him to make it look realistic. Bee waited at the same station, except in the parking lot, and Wrench was parked next to him. The plan was set.
Soon two cars that were the targets showed up driving side-by-side at a steady pace, and after a moment Arcee said the word. "Lets go." They came out of the alley, along with Digit and Eliza, and followed the cars. They knew they were spotted as soon as the cars sped up. As the two-wheelers sped up, Bulkhead appeared on the left side of the cars and Wrench appeared on the right. Bumblebee took front, where Jack could see Raf in the back seat.
The cars didn't speak, but they each rammed into Bulkhead and Bee. "Time to speed it up, Digit," Jack heard Eliza say. "Now? Are you sure?" "Absolutely. Look, we just got out of the sight of other civilians, we'll be fine," she said. Jack watched as Digit sped up till she was almost touching the tailpipe of one of the cars. As it was still ramming itself into Wrench, Eliza stood up onto the bikes seat. "Eliza what are you doing?!" Jack said. "My job."
Eliza had done this before. She remembers the first time she did it. She was nine, and she was on her one of her missions. She had to jump onto Wrench because Digit had to go into bot mode. She was scared, but she jumped anyway. She barely made it. Ever since, she practices switching vehicles while on the go. It's saved her and the Bots more than once.
As she pulled herself to a stand, she felt Jack's eyes were following her movements. She crouched, the wind trying to knock her off. As the car recoiled from ramming into Wrench, she jumped onto its hood. Landing on her stomach, Eliza gave a thumbs up and crawled to the right, wind howling in her ears and whipping her ponytail and bangs out of her face.
When she felt the open windowsill, she swung her legs through it, then the rest of her. When she was fully in the passenger seat, she looked around for the first half of the hard drive. She checked every place it could be, but found it under the back seat. When she did she tried to get out of the car, but the door was locked. Eliza pressed where her CHA was, causing her commlink to activate.
"Digit, Wrench, I'm locked in. Need you to get me out." Wrench replied. "Do you have the drive?" "Yes." "Get you in a sec." There was suddenly a shift and Eliza was almost crushed as things flipped and moved around, showing that the Con had transformed. There was a sudden force that caused her to hit her head. "Hey, watch it!" "Sorry," Wrench said as another hard force hit the Con. Not waiting anymore for help, Eliza crawled through a space that led out. When she did she saw that they were near the woods.
When she was safely back on the ground, she ran out of the battle zone. When she was a good distance away with the other humans, she tried to catch her breath. As she did so, she gave Jack the piece of the hard drive she had gotten. "Just stay here and keep it safe," she ordered him. "But-" She cut him off by yelling a command. "Mission Suit activate!" There was a sudden purple-ish/blue-ish light coming from her phone, and all her visible skin was covered in computer chip wires.
A metal suit took over her body. Most of it was silver but the chest plate, forearms, streaks of the helmet, and the waist to the knees were a neon purple while there were a few streaks of blue. In the center of her chest was a blue/neon purple colored Autobot symbol. With her mind, she made the screen of the helmet appear and ran into the battle, holding up her hands into fist as they turned into blasters.
Jack couldn't believe his eyes. Right now his new crush had just activated some kind of super-suit and was blasting the Cons with Autobot-like blasters. Even though she was a mice compared to the giant robots, she packed quite a punch. Jack watched as she blasted a Con in the face. "Yeah! Take 'em out, girl!"
Jack would've made a motion to slap Miko quiet, but the almost dead body of a drone landed just a few feet away. They stood still, Jack clutching the first half of the hard drive and using himself as a sheild for Raf and Miko. The drone turned his head. And stared at Jack deade. In. The. Eye. "Scrap."
They turned and ran, trying hard to get as far away as the bot got back up. They shouldn't have ran in that exact direction. Why? There's a giant cliff in the way. "Double scrap."
They turn around and see a line of 'Cons coming at them. "Stand back!" Eliza stood in front of them as she pulled out a small gun. Too bad it was pointed at the 'Cons.
Eliza made sure no one was directly behind her, then pulled the trigger. Her body jerked as a bright beam of light came out of the gun, burning a hole in all of the 'Cons. Right where their sparks should be.
One by one, the dead bodies tumbled to the floor, and Eliza placed her gun in a holster and deactivated her suit. She glared at them, then stomped towards them and snatched the piece of the drive out of Jack's hands. "I told you to stay safe. Yelling and giving away your location is not staying safe!" The three flinched as she got louder.
"I don't know why I agreed to come here! I knew that you weren't ready to be in the field. And I was right." She turned away and walked towards her Bots, who were a moment ago happy about finding the other half. "Let's go!" They didn't question it. As she prepared to ride the way back to base in Wrench, she glared at Optimus, who watched silently.
"And I thought you'd actually try and attempt to apologize while I was here." Optimus stayed blanked faced as she slammed the door and drove off, Jack following with his eyes, wanting to understand why she was like this. They heard Optimus sigh, and they looked at him as he spoke. "I believe I owe you all an explanation."