Hmmm...I'm not so proud about the first half of this chapter, but the second half I love. I hope you enjoy!

11 – Hard Knocks – 11

I sat in my McLaren X-1 form down the street from Jack's house. My holoform was off as was my engine so that I looked like a parked car. My audios were tuned into the conversation that was going on in the Darby garage. My spark pulsed heavily as I listened to Jack talk to Arcee.

"Arcee? You seem gloomy," Jack said.

There was the sound of Arcee shifting. "There's a reason I look preoccupied, Jack. I had a run-in with a new Decepticon last night."

There was a small silence. "Who was he?"

"It wasn't a he, it was a she."

There was a pause before Arcee continued. "Her name was Wavelength. She's one of the Decepticons' medics, and a good one too. She…was in a strange mood when I fought her last night…"

"How strange of a mood?" Jack asked. "Do Decepticons even have strange moods? I thought any mood they expressed was rather relative?"

"No, Jack, she was acting strange for a Decepticon. She said she hated being a Decepticon, she expressed that she wanted to change sides, but voiced that she knew that she could be rejected. We fought a bit, but she managed to paralyse me for a bit. She had the biggest chance to finish me off, but instead she didn't."

"That's weird."

"Yeah, it's weird. She used to be one of Megatron's most loyal followers, or known as one. She was known to hold a lot of things to herself. She could have slowly been loathing her choice of becoming a Decepticon the whole time."

"Maybe you should talk to her again sometime," Jack suggested like the good friend he was.

"Yeah, maybe…"

I tuned out the rest of the conversation and turned over my engine. I quietly pulled out onto the road and drove away, mulling over the subject Arcee and Jack had been talking about: me. Would they even talk to me? How would they even find me? I drove to the edge of town, where I transformed up into my bipedal form and looked around. There wasn't much to scout out down in Jasper, but I knew where Jack lived. And I had a feeling Megatron knew where Raf had lived prior to the incident with Cylas.

My friendship with Jack kept me from telling Megatron where he lived, and unless he used a cortical psychic patch on me, he'd never know. But that didn't make me any less afraid for my friend's safety.

I crossed my arms and took in the bright blue sky and felt the cool breeze brush up against my armor. Jasper might have sat right smack-dab in the middle of the Nevada dessert, but that didn't mean that it didn't have trees or a cool breeze. I liked it here, and it kept reminding me how much I had begun to appreciate what I had here when I was on Cybertron, even though when the sand got under my armor, it hurt.

But…I had to consider telling Jack sometime what I really was. I was his friend, yes, but I'm not human anymore…

::Wavelength, I'm going on a little mission and I would like to take you along…:: Knock Out suddenly said over the comm.

I sighed. ::Where are you?::

::I'll send you the coordinants.::

::Thanks.::

XXX

"Annnd…why are we doing this?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Why not grab the relic and run?"

Knock Out carefully placed the relic on top of a large boulder where the Autobots would be able to see it. It stood up in its canister, looking an awful lot like a key. "Megatron expects me to do some Autobot smashing," he replied. That's when I noticed that the Resonance Blaster was strapped to his right arm. "He won't know that I comm'ed you, at least I don't think so, so in case the Blaster doesn't work, I have you." He turned around and winked at me.

I crossed my arms and rested all my weight on my right leg. "I'd prefer if we'd just take the relic and return to the ship, but…am I sensing a plot to give the Autobots a chance to get the relic?"

"Not a chance," Knock Out said, but his optics said differently.

"Are you sure?" I asked, stepping closer to him. He couldn't see my optics, so I frowned. "I know just as much as you that you'd rather be a neutral than a Decepticon. But you know that I hold the Autobots in high regard. I want them to win!"

He sighed and nodded, but froze when the sound of a GroundBridge opening caught our attention. He grabbed my servo and we hid behind the boulder.

I heard two engines pull up before twin sounds of transforming filled the air. For a second, my spark lurched before reaching out to one of the Cybertronians that had arrived on the scene.

"Over there," I heard a familiar voice say, making my spark still. Arcee.

"Well, well," Knock Out said as he stepped out from behind the boulder. "Just the Autobots I wanted to see!"

"I'll handle the mad doctor, you go for the key," I heard her say to her companion. I heard her companion speak in Cybertronian in response, and my spark nearly squealed. Bumblebee!

"I've been waiting to thank you both for all the memories," Knock Out said, before a sub-sonic blast rang out.

Arcee cried out, motivating me to peek around the boulder to see what was going on. I watched as Bumblebee ran towards the boulder, but then turned, looking for Knock Out with his weapons out. Knock Out suddenly appeared and blasted him with the Resonance Blaster. And he kept the trigger pulled, causing the sub-sonic waves to pin him to the boulder and crack his armor. My bond with the yellow and black mech suddenly opened and the pain the Blaster was causing him rushed into me.

I bit my bottom lip-pate in ire before I transformed my right servo into my sonic blaster. I'm sorry Knock Out, but I have to do this. I rushed out from behind the boulder and shot Knock Out in the side. He cried out as he was flung away. "You. Are. An. IDIOT!" I screamed at my partner. I stalked towards him, my visor bright with my anger. "I…I… I didn't come all the way here to watch you try to kill them! The Resonance Blaster is too strong!"

"Sorry…dear…" the red medic mumbled before the paralysation took over his systems.

I turned to look at Bumblebee, who was slowly stumbling forwards. I ran over to him, transforming my blaster back to a servo and braced him. "Bumblebee… 'Bee… It's me…" I said quietly, retracting my visor and looking up to meet his optics.

"D-Danni?" he asked.

I nodded. "C'mon, sit down. Let me take a look at those cracks so I can go beat Knock Out's faceplates into the dirt." I smiled reassuringly at him as I helped him sit down. Once he was at rest, I scanned the cracks in his chestplates before I began to apply crack sealant to them. Through our bond, I monitored how much pain he was feeling, and was glad as I felt it slowly ebb away. I sat on my knees and watched him once I was finished. "You'll have to paint over that later," I said fingering the now-sealed cracks.

He whistled sadly before he reached out and lightly touched the side of my faceplates. "You still haven't switched sides…are you still scared?" he asked.

I nodded. I looked down, no longer able to look into his optics. They were still as big as they had been when he was a sparkling.

A few seconds passed before I felt him cup my chin. He slowly brought it up so that I was forced to look into his optics, which still made him look so young. "You don't have to be worried. I'll be there to protect you," he said, trying to reassure me.

I blinked a few times. "There are some things that I have to finish up first, sweetspark," I told him before I glanced over at Knock Out as he stood up.

XXX

I decided that a visit to Jack's would ease the sudden anxiety I now felt. After I left Bumblebee, Knock Out, and Arcee, my spark started wobbling crazily. It wanted Bumblebee, and it didn't want me to leave him. We had been apart for so long that I had forgotten what it was like to be with my adopted creation. I had only been with him for such a short time—he had spent more time with the Autobots than with me. Yet he still viewed me as his danni, and not Elita-1 or Arcee.

I was overdue for a visit with Jack anyway. And after that good time at the arcade, I was ready to have fun with him, and possibly his friends.

And no, I do not mean the Decepticon type of fun, which consists of killing, maiming, or other horrible things. Human fun was what I was meaning, which was playing with your friends and doing stuff together.

My alt pulled up in front of Jack's home, and I stepped out in my holoform. My holoform's blue eyes dancing in excitement as I all but skipped up to his front door. My index finger hit the doorbell, and I heard its ring bounce off into the depths of the house. I only had to wait a few seconds before the door was thrown open. I smiled up at the ebony-haired boy who instantly ushered me into the house. "Glad you came over, Mikaela! Miko and Raf are here, and we thought we could do something together," he told me.

I smiled as satisfaction flowed through me. I loved being called by my old name. Sure my designation was cool, but I loved being called by my human name. I had grown to love my holoform because of it. "Cool!" I said. "I love hanging out with you guys. Feels cool."

Once we made it to the living room, I sat down on the loveseat as I watched Raf type away on his laptop. It was connected to another laptop, which sat on the couch next to him. "Fixing someone's laptop, Raf?" I asked.

He looked up at me and smiled, adjusting his red glasses. "Hey, Mikaela. Yep, Jack's laptop kept crash-dumping on him, so I'm fixing it."

"Okay," I said before Miko came running into the room.

"I brought my Wii!" she exclaimed. "We can play all sorts of games on it! This'll be grea—oh! Hey, Mikaela!"

"Hey, Miko," I said, returning the greeting. "What games have you got?"

"I brought Call of Duty 3, Mario Kart Wii, Mass Effect something or other,and Halo 3!" she listed off.

"Wow," I said, surprised. "Most of those games are war games. Don't you get that enough with the 'Bots?"

Miko stared at me, mouth hanging open. "How does she know about the Autobots?!" Raf squeaked.

"Don't worry, guys, I told her about them when she came to visit me after I thought she was dead. Turns out she was shot by a Vehicon, per Megatron's orders. But a commander from the military came across her and took her back to base, where she healed. Now she's in the witness protection program."

"But…how is she allowed to leave the place where she is confined to?" Raf asked. I had heard from Jack that he was the technical one of the trio.

Silence settled over the room for a few seconds before Jack broke the silence with a shrug. "I dunno. Maybe the rumors we have heard about the WPP is wrong?"

"Maybe," Miko said, putting her fists on her hips. I glanced at her nervously as she squinted at me.

"So…" I said. "How about we play some video games?"

A tense silence replaced the previous silence, and I stood there, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights as Miko scrutinized me. I blinked once and sucked in a shuttering breath. Jack and Raf only stared at us. I didn't know what to do. My processor had gone blank.

The black and pink haired Japanese girl suddenly pointed at me with her right index finger. "Hey, Jack? Didn't you tell me that Mikaela's eyes were hazel in colour?" she asked my black haired friend.

"Yeah, why?" Jack was confused. "Miko, what are you saying?"

"If Mikaela's eyes were hazel, then why are they now blue?" she glared at me, as if she knew that I wasn't human.

Jack turned to look at me as I looked at him. His eyes widened. "Um…m-maybe those are contacts…so that no one could recognise her?" he suggested.

Miko glared at Jack before returning the glare to me.

Raf gulped, and I looked at him. He was staring at his laptop's screen with eyes as wide as dinner plates. "J-Jack—! Miko might be on to something—" he turned his laptop around so that we could all see what was on the screen. My spark stuttered. A thermo image was on the screen, and it showed two red blobs, one shaped like Jack, and one shaped like Miko. There was no red blob shaped like me.

"I can see you and Miko on the screen, Jack, but not Mikaela," Raf said to my friend.

Jack turned to me with a look of utter shock on his face. He reached out and touched my shoulder. "B-but…I can feel her—and she's warm!"

Raf put the laptop off to the side and stood up. "It's because she's a holoform—like the holographic driver that rides Arcee when she's alone. Ratchet explained this to me. A holoform is a solid light projection any Cybertronian can project in order to interact with us humans."

I closed my eyes and sighed, bowing my head.

Miko smashed her hands together. "So is she a 'Bot, or a 'Con?"

"Ya have no right ta touch an Autobot Sparklin', Decepticon!"

Silently, I walked over to the front door. "I'll show you," I said with a sad tone touching my voice before I stepped outside. Jack, Miko, and Raf followed me outside and over to my alt. They stopped and looked at me nervously as I opened the driver's side door without using my holoform. "I won't hurt you," I told them as they continued to stand there. "It would go against my programming. And I can't show you here—I have to do it in the desert."

Slowly, they got in, Jack sitting in the front passenger seat, while the other two got in the backseat. I sat my holoform down in the driver's seat and shut the door behind me. I went to shut the doors for the teenagers, but Miko grabbed hers and slammed it hard. My alt jerked at the pain it caused and I saw her smirk. With a huff, I shut the other doors and glared at her through the rear-view mirror. "Don't push your luck, girl," I growled.

"Miko…" Jack warned.

I revved my engine and pulled out onto the street. I remained silent as I drove out into the desert, an angry look on my holoform's face. I thought about how I was going to explain this to them. Would they know it was even me? Or would they figure that I was just some Decepticon femme playing them for fools?

I pulled off the road once we were a kilometer or so from town, and I opened my doors. The kids scrambled out from inside me, and I followed them, but at a much slower pace. My spark was racing. This was going to hurt.

My doors shut with a soft click, and I turned and faced Jack, Miko, and Raf. Nervously, I wrung my holoform's hands. I lowered my eyes; I couldn't look him in the eye. "I…I…never wanted to hide this from you…Jack," I began. "I was just…scared…" I glanced up, seeing that Miko didn't look very impressed, and I couldn't read what emotion was on Jack's face.

"So you're saying that you're still my friend, a girl named Mikaela, even though you are clearly Cybertronian?" Jack said it in a flat tone, not betraying any emotion.

I nodded as tears welled up in my holoform's eyes.

"Well, tell us if you're a 'Bot or 'Con already!" Miko exclaimed.

I blinked and looked straight into Jack's eyes. "Please, Jack…don't hate me for this…" I whimpered before I deactivated my holoform.

With a roar of my engine, I transformed into my robot mode. Once I was done, my wings drooped and I got down on one knee, my visor retracting as I did so. I looked down at the sand, not daring to see Jack's reaction.

The reaction didn't come from Jack, though. It came from Miko. She let out a battle cry before running at my leg, she began beating on it, and I winced. I quickly locked my joints in order to keep myself from striking out. I leaned down to be closer on Jack's level, and I sighed in a defeated manner. "Jack…I don't want what I am to push us apart…"

I felt him press a hand to my left cheekplate. "Just tell us what happened," he said.

zrexheartz: Yep, so close. I'm actually frustrating myself with this story because I want Mikaela/Wavelength to be accepted with the Autobots!

Taboo22: Glad you did :D

Carnomaniac: I'm glad you like this story. I hope this chapter was satisfactory.

Autobot StarRacer: Well, it's gonna be a big shock for poor Raf, and I see Jack as a more level-headed guy, so I didn't think he was going to freak.

KayleeChiara: Interesting stories are fun, and I'm glad you like the twists and turns I put into it.