A Pet Squishy
Chapter 11: "Discovery"
Back on the Nemesis that same night…
Thundercracker swooped into the massive landing bay of the Nemesis as it closed its violet metal "jaws" behind him and plunged back beneath the ocean surface. Lana watched his cockpit glass darken around her and felt him land on his feet. The sway of his walk halted after a moment.
A very mechanical voice spoke from outside, vibrating the cockpit glass with its harmonic resonance, "Report."
….
Thundercracker stopped upon bumping into Soundwave at the end of the landing bay. He knew the communications specialist was fritzing silently about his late arrival to the Nemesis. Promptness and punctuality were Soundwave's sole codes of ethics and he didn't like late arrivals.
"I already told you Soundwave, I was polishing my combat maneuvers. Didn't Starscream rant and rave when he came back about how much of screw-up I was today?"
"Affirmative."the communications specialist confirmed, "Radio reports from the human Coast Guard confirming Decepticon attack on Ship 708."
"I thought I destroyed their radio capability." Thundercracker frowned.
"Negative. Reports made through satellite feeds."
Thundercracker tried to keep his mind blank, knowing the slightest hint of a lie would prompt the telepath to scan his mainframe. "Yeah. I messed up a couple of their ships. I needed to spice up my training."
"Also there are reports of an abduction of human female from Ship 708." he stated.
The blue jet Con shrugged his vented shoulders taking on all the casualness of Skywarp in his response, "Yeah I grabbed one. I just wanted to see its reaction to a little stunt flying—didn't go so well. They don't do well at high altitudes."
Before Soundwave could question further, Megatron's voice rang out over the communicator, "Soundwave, report to the control room immediately."
"As you command." the blue and white telepath turned slowly, marching to aid his leader. As an afterthought, he looked back at the Seeker, "Thundercracker, you will report to Cargo Bay 3 to perform Energon production on fossil fuels obtained."
A quiet groan issued from the blue Decepticon. Converting fossil fuels into Energon while on the Nemesis was so boring. It was far more thrilling to do it on site.
"All right just let me…"
"Now." Soundwave hummed intensely.
Thundercracker's internal systems relaxed with a low groan. That was too close. But now he had another problem. He had to work and there was no time to take Lana back to his quarters.
…
After listening to the conversation Lana was just baffled by Thundercracker's lying ability. But…was he truly lying? He obviously cared about her well-being, but was he truly that callous toward other members of her species? It was pretty clear the other giant robots saw humans the same way humans viewed rats or cockroaches—but was Thundercracker just "blowing smoke" or was he expressing how he truly felt?
"What was that all about?" she asked.
There was a pause and then Thundercracker explained, "I have to report to Cargo Bay 3."
"You can drop me off on the way."
"I can't. My quarters are two decks below Cargo Bay 3 and if I don't go right now then I'll really get it." he explained in a hissing tone. "Just stay quiet, ok?"
Lana felt somewhat nervous as her master walked, until he finally stopped. The glass of his cockpit cleared a bit and Lana found herself staring at gigantic door, scrolled with alien characters. She guessed it was Cargo Bay 3. The door hissed open with a mighty bang and her master entered. Inside Lana's eyes widened with wonder at the large stacks of glowing pink cubes and the tower of 55 gallon oil drums against the far wall of the gigantic room. The Cargo Bay even made Thundercracker seem small. Oddly, there weren't too many of the glowing cubes.
Thundercracker cast suspicious eyes around the cargo bay, but soon realized no one else was there.
Pressing her hands to the cockpit glass Lana looked around some more, "What are you going to do?"
With no amount of enthusiasm he grabbed four barrels of oil, "Convert fossil fuels into Energon."
"Can I watch?"
Thundercracker glanced around again, assuring himself no one else was present or watching. With a quick adjustment he reversed the polarity of his cockpit glass so Lana could see out, but any prying eyes could not see inside.
"All right."
Like he was opening aluminum cans, Thundercracker tore off the tops of the oil drums and dumped the oil into one of the transparent energy cubes. The viscous black fuel passed through some kind of barrier at the top of the cube and once it did the cube began to hum. Like magic, the oil transformed into the pink glowing liquid.
"How'd you do that?" Lana was mesmerized.
"The chemical process of it is far too complicated to explain."
Thundercracker emptied four more barrels into the cube until it appeared full. Casting the empty barrels aside, Thundercracker placed his hands on the glowing cube and pressed down hard. The glowing cube compressed down and he stacked it with the others.
Lana made a fascinated noise.
"You're easily entertained," he grumbled.
Thundercracker continued his work and Lana's fascination soon paled with the monotony of it. Her mind began to wander to more pressing matters.
What was she going to do? She'd never had anyone "need" her before and quite frankly she wasn't very thrilled with the prospect. The longer she remained with Thundercracker the more ingrained his dependency and attachment would become. He was already more attached than she ever thought possible for a robot. Did that bode well for her? Did that bode well for HIM? What if one of the other Decepticons found out about her?
"How long is this going to last Thundercracker?" she finally asked.
"Bored already huh?" he smirked.
"No. I mean this situation."
He looked down at her.
"I'm not stupid you know. I know you're not allowed to keep me and you're lying your ass off so no one else finds out about me." Lana stared critically at him, "How long do you think you can keep this up?"
He looked away, frowning as he continued his work. Clearly he had been thinking the same thing, but never wanted to bring it up.
Lana drummed her fingers on the console in front of her, "What would happen if your commander figures out you've been keeping me?"
Thundercracker stopped, releasing air from his vents, "He's not going to find out."
"Secrets can only be secrets for so long."
He growled, "He's NOT going to find out."
Lana massaged her right temple, "Great…now he's in denial."
When an uncomfortable silence fell, she decided to strike up a pertinent conversation, "So… were you always a soldier?"
His optics glanced down at her, "Why would you ask that?"
"Just curious."
He continued working and explained, "I was formatted and built for military service, yes. Were YOU always a dancer?" he returned the query.
"No. When I was little I…"
She was interrupted by Thundercracker's ironic laugh.
Rolling her eyes she rephrased, "When I was a CHILD, I wanted to be a nurse and help people."
"Were you formatted to be a 'nurse'?"
Lana tried to translate his techno babble, "Well…I was always good with people if that's what you mean." She watched his hands rip open more oil drums, "Did you always want to be a soldier when you were…a...robot child?"
"When I was a Sparkling I always wanted to be a Seeker."
Lana suppressed a snicker at the cute word. The word sounded funny in his deep rumbling basso.
"Guess you got your wish."
He shrugged.
Without any warning, Skywarp teleported right next to Thundercracker, startling the blue Seeker.
"GEEZ, WARP! Don't DO that!" Thundercracker grated with recovering irritation.
The black and violet Seeker watched his comrade a moment and frowned unpleasantly, "Conversion duty? Did Sound-jerk give you that job?"
Thundercracker stacked another cube and compressed it, "Yeah. I was late coming back."
"Where'd you go anyway? Did ya get your squishy back?"
Tapping his cockpit, Thundercracker nodded.
Skywarp put his hand to his face with reproach, "TC, TC. You REALLY need to get rid of that thing."
"No. I like it." Thundercracker insisted.
"That's my point. That thing is making you soft!" the black Seeker pointed at him.
Thundercracker straightened his posture, "No she isn't."
Suddenly, Skywarp's hand whipped around and struck a panel close to Thundercracker's cockpit, reflexively popping it open. Before the blue Seeker could fend him off, Skywarp snatched Lana right out of his chest and leaped backward. Lana cried out.
"WARP! GIVE HER BACK!" Thundercracker boomed, arching in a pouncing position.
The violet Seeker dangled Lana out in front of him, "Oh! OH! I'm going to drop it!"
"NO! DON'T!" Thundercracker threw up a hand.
Skywarp wrapped his fingers more securely around Lana, shaking his head, "Just LISTEN to yourself TC! You sound like a slaggin' Autobot."
Grinding in his chest, Thundercracker's optics flashed, "What did you SAY?"
The purple and black Decepticon cocked a metal brow and placed Lana on one of the stacks of Energon cubes, "You heard me…Autobot!"
Quite suddenly, Skywarp disappeared and reappeared beside Thundercracker, shoving him away from the cubes into the open part of the cargo bay. Thundercracker retaliated with a powerful left hook to Skywarp's helmet. The two Cons brawled, punching and shoving each other with all the force of two trains colliding.
Lana watched the fight in disbelief and horror. The collisions of the two mechs were so loud she thought her ears drums might rupture. As she stood on the tower of glowing cubes a crackling and flashing caught her attention. Lana moved toward the flashing in the middle of the stack. All the other cubes were passively glowing a light purple color, but this flashing one was swirling and acting like it was boiling. A warning instinct was going off in Lana's brain. Something wasn't right with this cube.
"Hey!" she shouted at the two fighting Cons.
Naturally they didn't hear her.
"HEY! STOP! HEY!" Lana screamed at the top of her lungs and waved her arms.
Thundercracker paused, looking at her while barring off Skywarp's fist.
"Is this supposed to be flashing like that?" she shouted, pointing to the tumultuous cube.
That seemed to stop the Cons. Immediately forgetting their quarrel they marched over to the stack of cubes.
"OH HOLY FRAG!" Skywarp cursed, optics wide.
"What? What's wrong with it?"
Thundercracker quickly snatched her up and placed her in his cockpit.
He tapped the side of his helmet, "Emergency in Cargo Bay 3! Unstable Energon in Cargo Bay 3!"
A deafening klaxon echoed throughout the ship, flashing warning lights flickering. Thundercracker leaned over the stack of Energon, trying to decide how to remove the unstable cube.
"Come on TC! We've gotta get outta here before it blows!" Skywarp urged.
"NO! If we let it blow all the other cubes will explode too and we'll ALL be scrap!" Thundercracker quickly handed Skywarp a cube and reached for another, "We've got to get it off the Nemesis."
Megatron's deep voice all at once shouted over the speakers, "Thundercracker! What's going on down there?"
The blue Con kept passing cubes to Skywarp, trying to get to the malfunctioning one. "Megatron, we've got an unstable Energon cube in the middle of the Cargo Bay 3 stockpile."
"Get it off the ship NOW!" was the urgent reply.
"Working on it." Thundercracker shouted, removing more cubes.
Lana was watching his hands move with horror. If that cube was going to explode and the others with it she didn't want to be anywhere near it. She wasn't sure how much protection Thundercracker's cockpit would provide.
Finally the blue Seeker got to the faulty cube and gingerly lifted it up. The cube thrummed and the unsound Energon boiled violently.
"Megatron I've got it!" he shouted.
"Skywarp! Teleport that cube off the Nemesis!" Megatron shouted the command.
The black and violet Seeker grimaced and took the cube from Thundercracker. He disappeared in a flash of light. Not more than two seconds passed before a muffled explosion accompanied by a loud bang on the ship's hull struck.
Thundercracker immediately touched his helmet com, "Skywarp, come in."
The static that answered made Lana cringe. But then a flash appeared from the far side of the cargo bay and Skywarp slammed into the wall, falling on his back.
"Son of a GLITCH!" he swore, shaking ocean water from his metal.
Thundercracker helped him up, "You all right?"
Skywarp sounded relieved but annoyed, "Cut it a little closer there wouldn't you say?"
"Ah, quit your whining. At least you're functional."
At that moment the bay doors opened and in strode the Decepticon leader, Megatron, followed by Soundwave, Ravage, and Starscream. Lana tensed up upon seeing the gray metal tyrant approaching. She knew he couldn't see her but his overwhelming presence made her draw back in the cockpit seat.
"What is going ON here?" Megatron demanded, surveying the undamaged bay.
The two Seekers saluted and Thundercracker spoke up, "Megatron, sir. One of the Energon cubes was unstable. We managed to remove it before it could do any damage."
"How did it malfunction? Was it something YOU buffoons did?" Starscream accused.
"No sir. We just happened to notice it while converting the fossil fuels." Thundercracker insisted.
Soundwave and Ravage were meanwhile inspecting the Energon surplus carefully.
"Soundwave, your analysis?" Megatron glanced as his communications specialist.
"Reason for instability unknown. Remaining Energon cubes all stable," came the harmonic analysis.
Megatron nodded briskly, "It seems you two have made yourselves useful." Grabbing a couple of the cubes Megatron handed them to the Seekers, "Deserving of an extra Energon ration for saving the supply."
"Thank you sir." Thundercracker and Skywarp both answered.
The Decepticon leader waved his hand, "Return to your quarters and recharge. You'll need it for the raid tomorrow."
Banging their metal heels together the two Seekers saluted and then left.
As they walked down the corridor Skywarp gave his friend a side-long glance, "Do yourself a favor and get rid of that squishy, Thundercracker. You can't let yourself get weak."
Thundercracker just snorted and diverged off toward his quarters.
…
As Thundercracker and Skywarp left Ravage leaped on the stack of Energon cubes, olfactory sensors scanning the air particles. Perhaps a scent clue would determine the Energon instability? Suddenly he detected the smell, a very familiar smell, one he had briefly encountered. The panther mech sniffed again, hissing when the familiar musky odor hit him more strongly. And it was fresh.
…
With a hiss Thundercracker's cockpit opened up and he cupped his hand near it. Taking the hint, Lana climbed out and sat down in the massive, black hand. Ever so gently, Thundercracker stroked her head and back.
"You did great Lana. Without you we would've lost all that Energon and probably our ship too." he praised.
Lana accepted the familiar treatment.
He then placed her on his work space and opened the door that revealed her enclosure. He brought the whole thing out and set it near her.
"Ok. Where should a put those doors?" he asked, eyeing the cage.
Lana looked up at him with befuddlement, "Doors? You're really going to cut out doors?"
He nodded, "I said I would. Where would you like them?"
The redhead shrugged. Thundercracker gave her a measuring stare and then the tip of his finger shifted apart to reveal a blue flame. In mere seconds the flame cut a small rounded opening just tall enough to let her out. Then he cut one out of the other side.
Thundercracker placed a hand to his chin with thought, "Maybe one in the middle toward the back would be good too."
He proceeded to cut it while Lana shuffled her feet uncomfortably. Improvement though it was, it still didn't change the situation.
"Yeah, that'll do it." the jet Con nodded with satisfaction. "Now you can come out whenever you want."
Lana gripped the side of her right arm, "Thank you, but Thundercracker…"
The Decepticon suddenly interrupted her, "Oh! You need refueling."
"Well, yes but I…" she started.
But Thundercracker quickly curled his fingers around her and sat in his chair. He reached up to a compartment nearby and delicately retrieved a peach. He held the fruit a few inches above her head and she slowly took it. It tasted good and yet bitterness still lingered in the back of her throat. It was yet another long quiet moment.
Lana finished her fruit and said quietly, "Look, Thundercracker, I know you're fond of me, but maybe Skywarp…was right?" she turned and noticed the Decepticon's red optics were dark and his head was tipped forward.
"Thundercracker?" she hit his fingers, "Thundercracker?"
The Decepticon's systems were hissing and clicking quietly with intermitted electrical sounds. He was in recharge. Lana sighed, resting her elbows on the big black digits.
"Well…guess I'm tired anyway." she muttered to herself.
She shifted, trying to find a comfortable position between the large metal fingers. Relaxing, Lana listened to the precise workings of her master gently lulling her to sleep. Eventually, her eyes closed too.
…
The scent was close, Ravage knew it. Slinking down the corridor he followed the scent until he arrived at a door. Thundercracker's quarters. Ravage sniffed again just to be sure and then bounded back to his Master's quarters.
A/N: Sorry I took so long with that chapter…I just wasn't sure how to arrange it. Anyhoo…
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