"stop what? you punch just fine. Although..." he glanced at her out of the corner of his optic.
"You do hit like a girl."
HT dodged her as she tried to whap his head.
"I'm gonna get some sleep."Beacon laid down on the floor, and Gunlock settled down on the berth.
Driveby rolled over. "Aren't you going to sleep, Ty?" she asked.
"Later. I don't want Klutch to sneak in here and take you while I'm asleep." the femme responded. Driveby smiled at the loyalty.
Alpha smirked as she finally managed to wap him. She then smiled softly and leaned against the wall, looking at the mech. "I don't know how long I can last in this place..."
"Hiya sis!" Omega appeard, but then disappeared.
"Idiot."
Klutch woke up, groggy and dizzy... he tried to move, but realized the recharge berth had been magetized.
"what did you..." suddenly he was hit with an overwhelming warm fuzzy feeling. Ratchet walked up, smirking.
Ratchet smiled. "Awake, finally."
"ugh. I think i'm gonna be sick. what did eu do ta me? hey! let me go!" Klutch struggled against the magnetism holding him in place.
Ratchet grinned. "Nothing, nothing at all."
klutch twisted, trying to get loose. "let me go! I'm awake now. I don't feel like I have any damage. Eu're holding me without reason!" he said.
Ratchet shook his head. "Nope. I'm the medic and what I say goes and I say you're still injured so si'down and relax!" He grinned.
It was midnight when Jazz pulled up to the ark. "Oh no, what're they doing here." he groaned. The channel 40 news van was parked about 20 feet from the ark, and a woman of about 30, in a dark suit-dress was standing in front of the barracade the soldiers had made, with a miscrophone and a camera.
"I'm Candace Lane, here outside of the ark, where yet another round of controversy has erupted, not even a year and a half after the renegade jet, Jade, created her last fiasco with the human government in Great Britain."
she looked up.
"Here comes one of the Autobots now! let's see if we can get a word with him about what's going on inside." the news womman hurried up as fast as her heels would let her go.
"Oh no." Jazz groaned.
Kit jumped up to the window and smiled at the woman. "Hiya!" She smiled. "I'm Kit...who're you?"
Jazz rolled up the window. "Don't talk to her." he whispered. "she's a reporter."
he slowly moved on. The newswoman darted in front of him, and he had to slam on the brakes not to run her over. "Jazz ta base. There's a news crew out here. Get them offa me, will ya?" The porsche radioed.
"Excuse me sir, can I have an update on what's going on inside?" the reporter shoved her microphone at him. Jazz was almost tempted to turn on his speakers at full blast. Or reroute his horn through them. But it would be rude to wake up all of Portland, now wouldn't it?
"Excuse me, I'm late for a meeting." Jazz rolled forward a couple inches, but the lady backstepped with him, holding onto his front bumper. "please, can you make a comment? anything you'd like the world to know?" She said, pointing the mike at him. He almost considered running over the mad-reporter, but decided against it. He snickered at the thought, though.
Kit jumped out and picked the reporter up and looked at Jazz.
"Now you can go, Uncle Jazz." She smiled, holding the reporter gently. As Jazz started to move, the femme blinked and looked the human over. "What kinda human are you? I've never seen anyone other than that other two before..." She muttered, touching the cameraman behind her with her tail. Her optics sparkled innocently, but she was loving this.
The reporters eyes turned as round as dinnerplates at the talking tiger-former. She almost dropped her microphone.
"uh..um..."
Jazz chuckled and drove away towards the Ark's entrance.
Finally, Wheeljack appeared from around the side of the Ark where the workshop was, and the reporter scurried off to chase him down.
"Thank, 'Jack, I owe ya one." he radioed.
"No problem." the inventor/scientist radioed back.
Jazz rolled up to the checkpoint, and rolled down his window, changing the tint back to normal. "Hi guys. Havin' fun keepin the madwoman out?" he joked.
The soldier's face was serious, though.
"I was just sayin... look, i'm kinda late, so could we make this quick?" the soldier radioed Prime. "There's a black and white Porsche out ehre that says he's late for a meeting with you, sir. Should we let him through?"
"By all means." Prime replied. "I have been waiting on him for the last fifteen minutes."
"Allright." The soldier stepped back and nodded. Jazz zoomed through.
Kit laughed and hurried after Jazz.
HT eyed the air. "what was that? I thought I just saw your brother." he said.
"You did." Alpha nodded. She looked up. "heyas!"
"Heyas, sis!" Omega's voice said from nowhere. He laughed. "You got the worse!"
"Hey! At least I ain't stuck with someone I don't know very well. Or alone."
"True, true."
"So whatcha want?"
"well...Jazz got back. He has someone that'll help."
"Cool, bro! How's kitty?"
"Kit's good."
Alpha smirked.
THe disembodied voice laughed. "So...should I go now?"
"I don't care."
Two of the twenty soldiers watching them walked over. "Hey, it's night itme. So qwuit yer yappin or I'm gonna shoot ya." he said.
HT stomped over to the bars. "You and what mega-army, shrimp?" he grinned.
The soldier looked scared, then cocked his weapon in reply.
"Cromwell!" someone barked. "Get your aft back ova hea an quit rilin da prisonas. We've got a poka game goin anyway." The soldier mimed shooting him, and the tank grinned.
"You wish." he snorted as the human walked away.
Alpha smirked and walked over to the bars. Her hand glowed a bit as she touched someone else's hand.
"You okay?" Omega whispered.
"Oh yeah." Alhpa nodded. She held her brother's hand and her optics went red while Omega's visor went green, though it was unseen.
She smiled. "Yer righ'!" She said, sounding like Omega.
"of course I am." omega's voice said, an Alpha quality to it.
"But I'm fine!" Klutch protested, struggling again. "Don't make me call Prime or Prowl!" he threatened.
Ratchet snickered. "sorry, but they'd agree with me." He turned away to re-organize some stuff on the counter nearby.
"Really, call them for me then, won't you?" klutch looked suspiciously at him. And I mean to come heah. They can't give theah upinion on my well-being witout seeing me, now con they?"
Ratchet called Prime in. "He won't listen to me, Prime." He growled.
Prime sighed. "I have to meet with Jazz. I'll call Prowl and have him head over."
"Fine." Ratchet growled.
klutch tried to wait patiently for the tactician, but his patience finally ran out after about 20 seconds.
"What's taking him so long!?" he growled.
"Give him a minute!" Ratchet growled.
Jade looked through the bars at the men playing poker and 'secretly' taking swigs of whiskey from their flasks as they lit their cigars.
"Hey, no smoking. You'll set off the fire alarm." she said.
"Oh yeah, and what are you gonna do about it, ey? He cocked his rifle and aimed at her.
"I'm just saying."
"Yeah, that's right." another piped. "Keep your yap shut bloody no-good dame." he muttered and walked away. Jade glared after him, but went back to sitting with her knees pulled up and her arms wrapped around them.
"Hey!" Alpha growled, "Don't you dare insult my friend! D'ya know how many times we've saved your afts?" She asked, growling.
Omega smirked as Alpha's optics went back to normal. "so..."
"Watch out for Kit...and keep me from killing them..." Alpha muttered as her brother walked off. She glared at the humans.
Jade finally settled down and drifted off to sleep, facing the wall with her wings hanging over the edge of the bunk.
"Well, I'm gonna get some sleep. Goodnight." Hammertread flopped down on the bunk, making it creak loudly, and took up the entire narrow thing laying on his back counting ceiling tiles.
out loud.
"one, two, three..."
Jade rolled her eyes and shifted slightly.
Alpha sighed and then leaned against the wall. She wasn't going to let everyone fall asleep. SOMEONE need to be awake incase something happened.
the medbay doors opened and Prowl casually walked in. "You wanted to see me?" He asked Ratchet.
"It's about bloody-good time you got heah." klutch grumbled loudly.
HT continued counting ceiling tiles.
loudly.
"twenty one, twenty two, twenty three..."
"one hundred and fourty seven, one hundred and fourty.."
"Oh for the lova.. lemme shoot him commanda, please!" one of the soldiers yelled.
He counted louder. "One hundred and fouty eight, one hundred and forty nine..."
"SHUT UP!" Cap yelled from down the row. HT snickered. "Aww, you made me lose count! looks like I'm gonna have to start over."
"One, two, three."
"THAT'S IT!" one of the soldiers jumped up. The guy next to him grabbed his arm.
"Let it go Styles, He'll be scrap metal soon enough. Why dontchya go get some fresh air, be back in fifteen minutes." he said.
"nine, ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, fifteen..."
"You forgot 13" cable yelled.
"Thank you." he called back. "
Ratchet frowned. "He won't listen to me!" Prowl glanced at Klutch, who gave the tactician a pleading look. Prowl almost smirked.
Alpha busted out laughing. She looked up. "That looks like fun." She snickered, "I'm gonna count the idiots. One, two...three..." She started to count the humans, a smirk on her face.
"How many idiots does it take to gaurd a few Transformers? Let's find out. One idiot, two idiot..."
Cap laughed from a few cells away. "Hey, I wonder if I can count the number of repetitions in the rotating energy bars here." he joined in. The soldiers tried to ignore them, but kept glancing over as they were playing.
"I can't concentrate on my poker game!" one complained.
Cap chuckled "twelve, fourteen."
"Thirteen" Cable corrected.
"Right, thirteen, fifteen.
"Oh for the luva... Can't you count straight? look, it's one... two..."
"twelve idiots..thirteen idiots..fourteen idiots"
"one thousand one hundred and fity one, one thousand one hundred and fifty two.."
"15 bars, 16 bars...17 bars, 18 bars""
"SHADDAAPP!!!!" The commander snapped and stood up abruptly, firing his rifle into the air. It resulted in metal dust raining down on him, but he was too angry to notice.
Jade fell off her bunk she was laughing so hard
Meanwhile, in the rapairbay...
"Prowl, tell 'Im I'm fine!" Klutch protested.
"Well, you do look rather pale." Prowl replied honestly. "Are you dizzy? groggy? maybe, getting warm, fuzzy feelings?" the tactician asked with a straight face.
"Uh..." Klutch looked at Ratchet.
"he may have gotten a head injury when he fell." he reasoned.
Omega fell on the ground, laughing loudly.
Alpha laughed and continued, "15 idiots, 17 idiots, whoops. Missed one. Gotta start over. 1 idiot, 2 idiot, 3 idiots..."
Ratchet smirked. "See? I TOLD you."
"Hey,there's allways the floor tiles." Jade chimed in
"One tile, one and a half tiles, two tiles, two and three quarters tiles.."
The commander hit his comm badge "Prime! You'd better get down here! You warriors are drivin me bannannas!"
"Oh, what are they doing?" Prime asked. He looked up from his computer.
"They're counting..." faint counting could be made out in the background...
"Fifteen idiots, sixteen idiots"
"twenty four bars, twenty five bars.."
"One thousand one hundred and fifty seven
"sixty foor panels, 64 and 8/17ths tiles..."
"THAT ISN"T EVEN A NUMBER!" someone yelled.
Prime stifled a snicker. "I'll be right there." he chuckled.
He looked up at Jazz, Kit and the human standing next to him.
"Well, at least they're makin' the best of it." Jazz grinned.
"If it is a head trauma, I would think you should keep him overnight for observation." Prowl calmly explained. " Ratchet nodded, a completely serious look on his face.
"Sometimes the damage doesn't fully take effect until some time after." he added.
Kit laughed. "Poor Mommy!!"
Alpha laughed at HT and then continued to count.
"20 idiots. Oops...that all of 'em..."
A solider sighed, "Well at least one of 'em-"
"Recount! 1 idiot..."
The solider growled. "Take me now!"
Omega was rolling on the floor, laughing.
"hey," beacon chimed. "there's the wall tiles, too."
"One tile,two tiles, three tiles..."
"Shaddap you're making me lose count!" Cap yelled "One bar, two bars..."
"...three tiles "
"...one thousand five hundred and seventy"
"..four idiots"
twenty four and two tenths...no wait, twenty four and a half..twenty five..."
Alpha smirked as she coninuted to count.
The inivisible Omega knocked a solider over.
"what the!" the soldier looked around frantically to see what hit him. He turned to the one next to him. "hey! what was that for!?"
"what?"
"this!" he shoved him.
"I didn't shove you this is a shove!"The other soldier shoved him back.
The first one puched the secondm thinking he shoved him first.
Alpha grinned at her brother.
Omega smirked. He looked at the two and then started counting.
"You can't keep me hea all night!" Klutch looked over at Prowl, then Ratchet. Somethin's goin on, and I'm gunna find out whut." he mutterred.
" can eu at least turn off this magnetic field?"
"nope."
Prime walked in and heard the commotion. Off to one side, two soldiers were fighing. And he heard numerous people counting various objects, including the soldiers. He didn't laugh, but his shoulders shook, giving it away. He cleared his vocalizer. The soldiers stopped punching each other and looked up. Everyone else stopped counting.
"One thousand twenty four and one half.." Hammertread ignored him.
"One thousand twenty five..."
"Hammertread." Prime said.
"what, humans count sheep, I count ceiling tiles. Although I don't know why they have a thing for sleeping with animals..." he trailed off...
"Thank heavens! it's about time!" the commander stood up.
Alpha smirked. "AH! 21 idiots!"
She smiled and then looked at HT. "He's got a point, Prime."
Omega stood up and cleared his throat.
meanwhile, in medbay...
"Why? Afraid I'll escape? You can't dew this tew may. The magnetic field with mess up moy circuitry!" Klutch said.
"You should relax and try to get some rest. Good night." Prowl walked out.
Ratchet followed Prowl out of the repairbay, flicking the lights off as he went..
"Yes, well please count quietly to yourself, not loudly." Prime said. "I would not want these soldiers to get angry enough to start a fight of any sort." he said.
He turned to the troups.
"And you, gentlemen, are intoxicated."
"Are not!" one protested, swaying slightly.
"I can detect the odor from here. Commander, I would suggest you not let your soldiers drink while they are on duty. Bad things may happen if they do." he said.
"Is that a threat?" the man previously punching the other demanded.
"no." Prime bent down slightly. "It is merely a...warning. I believe it is against your rules to drink while on duty. I hate to think what would happen if Klutch were to find out." Prime stood to his full height again.
"now, I trust it will be peacefull from here on out?" he glanced down at the soldiers.
"I would dislike very much to call my soldiers to watch over yours and make sure they are doing their job correctly." he turned to the bots in the cells.
"And no more counting. Unless it is silent. Understood?"
"Yes." (Jade)
"I guess." (Cable)
"Yes, sir" (Beacon)
"Aww...but it was so much mffff.."Cable clapped a hand over Cap's mouth
"Yes" he answered.
HT didn't respond. He looked at Alpha.
Prime nodded. "Good night."
Alpha sighed and walked over to HT.
"Well, it was fun while it lasted." She smirked before looking at the drunk soliders. "And we're being gaurded by drunks...great..."
Omega laughed.
Jade settled down to go back to sleep. "Goodnight, Jade."
"Goodnight cap."
"Goodnight Beacon."
said jet mumbled something under his breath. "Good night Cap, Good night Jade."
"Goodnight beacon, goodnight Cap, good night Cable."
Cable grinned. "Good night Jade, good night Cap, Good night Beacon, good night Alpha, good night HT"
"Don't call me that."
"Spoilsport."
the tank got up, smirking. "Good night Cap, Good night Jade, Good night Cable, good night Beacon, good night Alpha."
one of the soldiers stood up. "oh fer the luv ov..."
HT grinned at Alpha.
Alpha grinned at HT. "Good night Cap, Good night Jade, Good night Cable, good night Beacon, Goodnight, Driveby, Goodnight, HT. Goodnight, Omega."
"Goodnight, Alpha. Goodnight Cap, Good night Jade, Good night Cable, good night Beacon, Goodnight, Driveby, Goodnight, HT." Omega's voice laughed.
"someone call Prime!" a voice yelled from across the table.
HT grinned. "Goodnight Dri, goodnight TY, goodnight Gunlock, goodnight Beacon, goodnight Cable, Goodnight Alpha, goodnight Jade. Goodnight Cap..."
"I'll give ya a night cap." one of the soldiers muttered...
"You made me loose my place... Goonight Dri, goonight Ty..goodnight Gunlock, goodnight beacon, goodnight cap, wait did I say cap twice...hmmm better start over..." HT grinned.
It was fun seeing just how far he could push these human creatures.
"Here, lemme try." Jade piped.
"Good night cellmates, good night all, good night people out in the hall; Good night table, good night chairs, I'd say goodnight to the soldiers, but who the frag cares."
"F& You!" One soldier stood up. Another grabbed hi arm. "easy, major. I'm trying to get a hold of Prime right now. He's not answering his comm, though."
Alpha grinned. She looked at the humans and then at the others. "Goodnight, moon. Goodnight Kit. Goodnight cells. Goodnight-"
"ENOUGH!!" One growled. "Shut up!"
"Make me." Alpha stuck out her tongue.
around 3am...
Alpha muttered something as she woke up. Someone was poking her leg. She looked over and saw a human poking her.
"Go away." Alpha mumbled, still half asleep. She rolled over on the floor, only to feel the guy poke her foot.
"I'm up, I'm up." She sat up and winced as everyone else snored.
"Who?"
The man smiled and waved silently.
"Sparkplug!"
"Shh!" The human held a finger to his lips.
Jade looked throught the bars at the soldiers, half of them were asleep, then she fell asleep.
HT snored loudly from a few cells away.
Alpha crawled over to Sparkplug. "Well?"
"Good news, bad news."
"Good news."
"Klutch is being held by Ratchet in the med bay."
Alpha laughed, but quickly covered her mouth. "Good. Bad news...?"
"You all are the top news story of the week."
"WHAT?!" Alpha yelled, but then quickly recovered her mouth.
"Wha'?"
"Don't ask. Some people," Sparkplug pointed to the soliders, "Can't keep their mouths shut."
Alpha nodded. "Thanks for the update, Sparkplug."
"no problem." The human said before walking out.
later, around 8am...
Prime's comlink dinged, and he looked up realizing he'd fallen asleep at his computer. "Yes?" he answered. "Klutch has been released from repairbay, and is demanding to speak to the prisoners." Prowl said. "He also said I could accompany him."
"By all means. Do you know what he's got up his shirttail this time?" Prime asked.
Prowl boggled over the human phrase. It was supposed to be up one's sleeve, but he decided no to correct the leader.
"Yes, he did. He said something about Indy being able to read minds. She is going to try to a reading, in order to obtain information. It will then be downloaded to a mobile unit, and both parties will have access to it." he said.
"what are the chances they can tamper with the results?" Prime asked.
"None. Indy is incapable of altering the memories she downloads. So whatever she finds, it will be accurate."
Prime glared at the comm unit. He didn't like this. Not one bit.
"I'll be right there." he said.
"yes sir." Prowl responded. Prime closed the channel.
Alpha sighed. She looked up as Klutch and Prowl entered the rooms with Indy. Her mind instantly went into protection mode and she started to guard her mind carefully. She didn't like that other mind reader. Not one bit.
Indy glanced down the row where Alpha was sitting, and smiled.
"I'm not here to hurt you." she tried to send.
She eyed the group as she walked past. Jade looked away. Cable ignored her, Cap glared.
Ty was still sitting beide Driveby's bunk. Indy stopped, looking thoughtfully at the white car.
Ty stood. "leave her alone." she said, voice defensive.
Indy's gaze flickered between the two. "Don't worry. I wount hurt huh." Indy replied. She nodded to Klutch, who typed in the code. Ty moved between her leader and the group, looking at Prowl.
"Calm down, Ty. It's all right. They're just going to ask her some questions. I will be there the entire time." he said. The black blazer glared at him, and didn't move. Klutch pulled out a weapon and aimed at her.
"Wait..." Prowl started to protest, but there was a click and a bolt of electricity shot from the weapon. "It's jus a stun gun." Klutch shrugged.
Alhpa growled. She stood up and walked over to the bars. "Guess what?" Alpha snarled, "I DON'T CARE!! YOU HURT MY FRIENDS AND YOUR MIND'LL BE MUSH WHEN I'M DONE WITH IT"
The thought came back suprised. "Me? wha'd I do? It was klutch who was persuing you. I'm merely a clairovoyant who lends him my talents. And, if I remember correctly, you were the one who drug me off to your ship and tied me up there. I have done nothing."
Indy went over to Driveby, who was still asleep, and shook her shoulder gently. Startled, the white car reacted by flailing an arm out, smacking Indy in the face. She backed off, holding her mouth where she'd been hit. Klutch started forward, but Indy stopped him. "No. She didn't mean it."
Driveby rolled over. "sorry to wake you so early, but we need to talk with you for a moment." Indy said politely.