"No, the Robertson." Diana said, pointing to the largest screwdriver on her improvised workbench in the Autobot's base.
Wheeljack scowled a bit, inspecting the tiny tools. "I'm supposed to know what that is?"
Diana smirked, both of her hands occupied with the engine she was working on. "The one with the square head."
"Ah." the Wrecked plucked up the correct tool, the thing looking ridiculous pinched between his massive fingers, and handed it to the little blonde.
"Thanks." she smiled, taking the thing and turning her attention back to the machinery before her.
Wheeljack resumed his earlier pose, squatting next to the human with his arms resting across his legs, watching what she was doing. The mech's love for explosions and chaos made it easy to forget that he was a rather talented mechanic himself, he and Bulkhead having been the Cybertronian equivalent of a construction worker after all. He'd been rather intrigued to find out that Diana was a mechanic and had asked to tag along whenever she was working, though only when working on human things, not tinkering with the projects Ratched pushed her way.
That was Diana's request though, if she dared to pull apart a Cybertronian device in Wheeljack's presence the mech made a point of bothering her with facts and trivia until she was thoroughly annoyed with him, banishing him from her work area as their conversation usually drifted to the "Hey, do YOU want to do this work? No, then shut it!"
As it was, she was just reassembling the engine she'd pulled out of a salvaged Mustang, a 1970 mustang to be exact. Wheeljack would muse to himself occasionally, noting the similarities and differences between her tech and his. He was usually caught between being amused and amazed by the simplicity of Earth's mechanical devices.
"So, how did you and the Doc meet?"
Diana groaned, tossing an annoyed look over her shoulder. "I should've known that question was coming, huh?"
He just flashed her a grin, shrugging slightly.
"We were racing and he lost, he got mad and tried to run me over." she had replied so nonchalantly that Wheeljack's laughter made her jump, the mech making no move to hide his amusement.
"Sounds like him, but how'd you go from racing to loving huh?"
"I, don't really know, it just happened okay." she said, flailing a hand at him to try and get him to stop snickering.
"You should make a movie about it, humans like that sort of thing right?"
"About a girl loving a robot..?" Diana glanced to him again, a brow lifting out of disbelief. "Sure, that'll go over well."
"Hey, there's a movie about a girl loving a monster that glitters, why not this?" he shrugged lightly.
"What, Twilight, you know about Twilight?" it was her turn to laugh, and she did so, setting her work aside and falling back onto her heels as she did. "WHY does a Wrecker know about that?"
He was grinning again at her laughter. "Internet and Miko."
"Ah, of course." Diana snickered, deciding to leave her project for a while and stretch her legs. "I didn't think that was Miko's sort of thing though."
"She brought it up because she was asking Bulk and I how we'd kill a vampire." Wheeljack stood up as Diana moved, falling into pace beside her as she wandered out of her little area, out into the common area of the base.
"Oh, now that makes sense." she nodded, shrugging out of the top half of her coveralls and tying the sleeves around her waist to keep the lower half from sliding down her legs.
Wheeljack chuckled, the pair of them heading out of the main entrance to the base and halting as they walked into the late afternoon sun. "She's a good kid, noisy, but good."
Diana smiled, nodding her agreement as she stretched, enjoying the fresh air. "Yeah, we're a hell of a group but somehow we all get along huh?"
"Yeah, never thought I'd run into something like this after the war, with another species especially."
"Are you and Bulk the only Wreckers left?" Diana asked quietly, frowning a little as she continued her stretching.
"Naw I doubt it, we're hard to kill, just scattered like all the Bots." he waved a dismissive hand at her, sounding sure of himself as he replied, his tone enough to reassure Diana.
"I wish I could meet everyone you guys talk about, I wish you had your own home again..." she frowned again, staring at the sun that was low in the sky. "You're all so, so advanced. I mean, you're old, you know far more than humanity could ever hope to know, but you're all banished to a muddy little place like Earth." she glanced down to her hands, knowing she wasn't making much sense.
Wheeljack smirked, having folded his arms as he listened to her mumble. "We're not so different, us and you. Your species squabbles the same as us, it takes a long time for a race to learn to work together, if ever."
Diana nodded lightly. "I suppose, but still... I wish you guys hadn't lost everything."
"We might have lost a lot, but I think we've gained enough to balance that out. New experiences, friends. You fleshy guys almost pass for family."
She grinned at that, kicking a bit of dirt at him. "Har dee har metal head."
"But, tell me one thing yeah?"
"Hmm?"
"If we get Cybertron back, somehow, will you let Knock Out go?"
Diana balked at the query, blinking her eyes a few times. She mused about the Bot's and Con's home quite often, but the idea of Knock Out leaving to go back had never crossed her mind. "I, I guess. I don't really know, if he wanted to..." she trailed off, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she fell quiet.
"Awe don't worry about it Di, it's not going to be happening anytime soon, don't worry yourself. Besides, I don't think the Doc would ever leave ya." he smiled, bending enough to poke at her with a finger.
"Yeah..." she smiled, nodding gently. "But if he wanted to, I wouldn't stop him."
"Ratchet, we require immediate transport back to base." Arcee's voice came from the console in the center of the bunker, though anyone able to answer her was passed out on the floor. Well, everyone but Diana, but she wasn't exactly within arms reach of the computer.
"Fowler!" she called down to the others on the floor, cursing her spot on the roof. "Bulkhead, Smokes, Knock Out! Wake your asses up!" she found herself wishing she hadn't thrown both her shoes at Soundwave, she could've tossed one of those at the boys on the floor now. "Will somebody wake up?!"
To her relief, Fowler jolted upright, confusion on his face. "Stewardess! There's a man on the wing of this plane."
Fantastic.
Diana resisted the urge to roll her eyes, the man had just been knocked about by a Decepticon after all. "Fowler, can you hear me?"
He continued to look about the bunker. "Wha?"
"Up here!"
His gaze finally tilted skywards. "How?"
"Explain later, radio!" she flung a hand out, pointing to the console that was still relaying Arcee's calls.
"Ratchet, do you read?"
Bulkhead and Smokescreen twitched now, groaning and trying to shake the daze from their heads.
"Arcee..?" Bulkhead was the first to respond to her, looking around for the source of her voice.
Knock Out was the last to wake, and he did so with a flail, jerking upright with his arms waving about. He took a second to remember where he was, then went still as he recalled his little lover. "Di?"
"Up here." she smirked as he spotted her, laughing at the confusion on his face. "Soundwave thinks he's funny." she offered as an explanation, relived when he finally moved to retrieve her from her perch.
"Bulkhead? Is everything alright? Where's Ratchet?"
Ratchet...
Diana flinched, turning towards the console. "He's gone."
"What do you mean gone?" Bulkhead asked, even as the once over he and the other males did of the area confirmed Diana's words, the Medic was not present.
"Soundwave, he took him. Through the groundbridge." she found her gaze on her toes, the nails a pale painted pink. "I tried to stop him but..."
Knock Out bent down, gently running a finger along her back. "Then there's only one thing to do huh? Go get him back."
Diana tossed a scowl to Wheeljack, unable to hide her annoyance as he hovered over her, yet again, as she tinkered with the little machine that would carry Laserbeak's transponder back to the Nemesis. Their only hope to find the ship and rescue Ratchet.
They had all conversed the matter and decided that Megatron had needed Ratchet, likely for the Synthetic Energon formula, another ingredient for the Omega Lock. If that keeping Megatron from obtaining the Lock as well as rescuing Ratchet weren't enough to prod the Autobots into action, Starscream's raid against the fake base was enough to warrant at least a little revenge. It was one thing to come after the Bots, but it was still a human base, and violence against humanity was never tolerated by Optimus or his comrades.
Knock Out and Rafael were near Diana as Wheeljack was, watching as she created the hodge-podge aircraft from bits and pieces scattered around the base. The other Autobots were fairly impressed that she could create something from the junk in such a short time. Raf was busy syncing the thing to his laptop, so he could control it while Knock Out insisted she paint it red, something about red things going faster...
Diana glanced to Raf, then to Miko and Jack who were seated nearby. She was torn between being glad to see them and unhappy that they were once again pulled into the middle of things, but Fowler had insisted and the others knew it to be true: Rafael was the only one with the technical expertise needed to control the transponder and it's improvised body.
"It's trying to communicate with the warship." the smaller teen said, pointing to his laptop screen.
Miko leaned forwards, trying to see what he was gesturing to. "How do you know?"
"It's telling us." Rafael replied, as if it were the most obvious thing.
"Uh, Raf? That's Cybertronian code." Jack intervened, peering at the markings on the laptop.
"Wait, first Raf understands Bumblebee, now he reads Cybertronian?" Miko asked, turning a confused look between Jack and Rafael. "Are we sure he's not some kind of alien?"
Diana smirked, looking back to her work. "He's a genius, it's not surprising. Knock Out's been teaching me bits and pieces, if I can learn it, you can bet Raf's learnt it in a fortnight."
The brunette smiled, doing his best to hide his embarrassment. "I've been learning for a while, in between stuff when..." he trailed off, pausing his typing. "... Ratchet had time to teach me."
"Hey, Raf, we'll bring him back." Jack reassured him, stepping forwards and setting his hands on Raf's shoulders.
Miko nodded. "If it's the last thing we do."
In no time at all, Diana had deemed the device airworthy, stepping back to watch as Wheeljack and Rafael completed the final steps.
"The frequency modulator keeps shorting out." Raf grumbled, pecking away at his laptop.
Miko was perched atop the oversize workbench beside Diana, watching as Wheeljack poked at the tiny flier.
"Easy champ, let me try uncrossing some wires." Wheeljack winked.
Diana huffed softly, a tad annoyed that despite her best efforts there were some things that Wheeljack was better at than her, but mostly glad that he was better at her, they needed this plan to work.
"Now there's something you don't see everyday..." Smokescreen mumbled, he and Bulkhead approaching the bench. He gestured to Wheeljack, more than surprised to see the Wrecker building something instead of blowing it up... and willingly working with the others, instead of being ordered to play nice.
"Jackie wasn't always a loner y'know, being a Wrecker was all about the team." Bulkhead replied to the young mech.
The sound of something being knocked to the floor, by Miko, drew everyone's attention.
"Miko, I needed that!" Rafael scolded, glowering at the young girl.
"I was just trying to tighten up that thing-a-majig." she responded."
Raf huffed at her. "Please."
Diana and Knock Out exchanged a grin at the teen's very Ratchet-like outburst.
A minute later, the flier was airborne, skimming around the base and nearly clipping Fowler and Jack.
"Custer's mustache!" the oldest human exclaimed, glaring after the thing.
"Sorry Agent Fowler..." Rafael said, hiding his face behind the controller he was using to direct the flier and ignoring Fowler's complaint about needing to change his shorts. "I'm still fine tuning Chip's remote."
"Chip?" Arcee asked, approaching the group.
"It needed a name." Diana winked at the femme.
"I voted for Scrambles." Knock Out shrugged.
"And that's why you're not allowed to name things." Diana sighed.
"So, we're gonna let this doo-hickey fly back to Con Central..." Smokescreen interrupted, looking to Chip.
"... and lead us right to Ratchet." Jack finished.
Diana was pacing, an annoying habit she'd started since meeting the Cybertronians, something she'd taken to doing whenever she was worrying about Knock Out and the Autobots while they were off on a mission.
And really, that's all that this was. Another mission, she shouldn't be so worried. But, then again, this was a rescue mission... to the Nemesis.
Diana quickened her pacing.
The Autobots had left an open channel back to the base, so that their human friends could hear everything that was going on. Diana was immensely grateful for that but at the same time, it was rather nail biting to be able to hear each and every thing happening but be unable to do anything.
So far, they had infiltrated the Nemesis and split into teams: Arcee had taken Knock Out, Smokescreen and Bumblebee... although Smokescreen had split off from them to take care of something. Ultra Magnus had gone with Bulkhead and Wheeljack to capture the bridge. That left Optimus to tangle with Megatron while Ratchet attempted to seize control of the Omega Lock.
"Say, while we're here, anyone mind if we stop off at my old lab? Could do with some, shopping, as it were." Knock Out hummed across the channel.
Diana groaned, rolling her eyes as Arcee snapped what the human was thinking. "We can get your stupid buffer later, IF, we survive this."
There were a few moments of quiet as the teams moved, then the great flurry of combat echoed throughout the room. The Autobot teams began reporting back, relaying what they were encountering. Magnus and the Wreckers had the most alarming news, Soundwave had bridged them into a room full of Vehicons, leaving the bridge un-captured.
Problematic.
"They need the bridge if they're going to have any hope of winning this..." Diana mused, bringing her thumb to her mouth and nibbling at her thumbnail.
Jack's voice pulled her from her musings. "Raf, can you get me onto the warship's bridge?"
"Sure, now that I have a fix on it..." Rafael replied, giving the older boy a suspicious look. "... but you won't have a chance against Soundwave!"
"I will if I have backup." Jack grinned, turning to look at Miko.
"What? No. That's not happening." Diana intervened, lifting her hands.
"What, I've beat some Con heads in with the Armor before." Miko said, slamming her fist into her opposite palm.
"But this is the warship, I can't let you go onto the Decepticon warship." Diana said, shaking her head at the teenagers. "I know you're always in the middle of things, that you really can handle yourselves, but I won't let you do this."
"Alright, then you go." Miko replied simply.
Diana blinked, quiet for a moment. "There's an idea..."
Jack and Miko had gone through the groundbridge first, Rafael staying behind at the controls.
The Decepticons on the other side of the bridge had no time to try and understand Jack's only word of warning, "Surprise."
Diana came hurtling through the green of the bridge, whooping as she pummeled the four Vehicons that had confronted Jack and Miko.
Miko cheered from behind the Armor clad woman. "Yeah! Pick on someone your own size!"
Diana dispatched the few remaining Vehicons, turning to face Soundwave. "Your turn, and I owe you one." she charged for the Decepticon, counting in her head. She hadn't even made it to three when Soundwave activated the Decepticon ground bridge. Perfect.
The pull from the bridge was immediate and Diana had to really dig her heels in to keep from being tugged into the swirl of light, shuffling backwards as the silent flier advanced on her.
"Raf, showtime!" Jack called into his phone, Raf's voice bouncing back from the speakers.
"Are you sure about this Jack? Last time we crossed the streams..."
"Do it Raf, now." Jack interrupted.
A moment later the Autobot's bridge flickered to life, Soundwave caught between the two bridge portals.
"How do you like that no face!" Miko shouted, watching with the others as Soundwave was yanked about, the glow from the bridges increasing until the three humans had to turn away. Only when the light and bridges faded did they turn back, Miko grinning at the obvious absence of Soundwave. "Enjoy the shadow zone, dude."
"C'mon, we need to figure out how to navigate this thing." Jack said, leading the charge for the ship's helm.
Diana lifted both teenagers onto the console, watching as they set about pushing various buttons. At Jack's insistence, he took the lead.
Both females squeaked as the ship lurched to the right, sending Diana staggering to the side and Miko flopping to the console.
"Dude! Where did you learn to drive?" Miko sputtered, trying to regain her balance.
"Sorry..." Jack muttered, doing his best to figure out what was what.
Diana wedged her borrowed hands between the pair, nudging Jack aside. "Let's let the more talented driver, drive, yeah?" she grinned, even as Jack pouted and Miko chortled. "Time to test it's zero to sixty capability!"
So much for my weekly updating, huh? -_-; My apologies, but I blame being sick. I'm sure they've taken enough blood from me to make a whole 'nother person!
Also... we're nearing the end of this tale! *wiggles eyebrows*