Terrible chapter is terrible . Sorry to anyone who dies of boredem from this one. I promise they'll get moving eventually. And for those interested, Jak's hologram at the end (later becomes a holoform [why yes, I have only uploaded about 10% of what I've written]) looks like this - (shove sheppard56 . deviantart [no spaces] in front to complete the address, FF apparenly hates linking :D) .com/art/Human-Hijack-142974771 AND .com/art/Human-Jak-Expressions-2-143618156 - pictures courtesy of myself :P (And if you're interested, browse the rest of my dA for the rest of Recon/my other OCs, both 'bot and human :D
On to boredem!
Less than a minute later, a couple of cars sped past, the drivers and their passengers all peering out their windows to rubberneck at Alex and Jak. It seemed pretty darn lucky that all innocent passers by hadn't stumbled upon the Decepticons. Alex had no doubt in his mind that Sidelight and Roulette wouldn't have given a damn if they'd accidentally taken out a handful of humans.
Irritatingly, one of the passing cars pulled up behind where Jak had limped off the road, and the driver, a middle aged man, got out looking concerned. He took one glance at Jak, his eyes widening at the damage, before hurrying over to Alex who was still sitting on the ground, his head propped up on the heel of his palm. He pretended not to notice the man at first, but eventually couldn't avoid him any longer when the man crouched down and virtually shoved his face into Alex's.
"Are you alright, son?" the man frowned.
Alex shrugged, looking up, casually folding his arms across his chest to hide the majority of the bruising, "Yeah, fine."
"Your car? What happened?" he pressed.
"Oh, uh," Alex glanced at the claw-like markings over Jak's hood and roof, "Bear attack."
The man's frown deepened, "Are you sure you're ok? There aren't any bears in these parts."
"Oh, ok, I might have been mistaken. It may have been a rather vengeful ground squirrel. It was a bit of a blur when it attacked; fur and claws everywhere," Alex shrugged.
The man eyed him up, still looking concerned, "Whatever it was, it's left some lovely marks in your car. Do you need me to call a tow truck for you?"
"Nah, I'm fine, don't worry," Alex shook his head, "You get on your way, I'm waiting for some friends to come pick me up and sort things."
"I think I'd better wait with you until they turn up," the man was watching Alex closely, "You look like you've hit your head recently, so maybe that's why you're in this state."
Alex put his hand to his head with a frown then paused. Of course. It seemed so long ago, when he'd first met Drag and cracked his head open. He'd forgotten it would still look fairly fresh, and while it wasn't bleeding, it felt like the gauze had peeled off.
"I'm fine," Alex eventually insisted, "Really I am. There's no need for you to take any time out of your busy schedule. I'll be picked up and my car will be running in no time."
The man eyed Jak up, "I don't think you realise the damage your car has sustained, son. It's not a simple matter of replacing a wheel."
"Yeah, I gathered," Alex rolled his eyes, "Well my friends are dab hands when it comes to cars."
"Your front axel is twisted."
"I know."
"Then you'll know that your car won't be fixed for a long time."
Alex sighed dramatically, just wishing the man would get on his way and quit being so noisy, "I'm sure."
"Are you sure you don't want me to call someone?" the man asked again.
"Oh for…" Alex ran a hand over his face, "I'm very grateful that you're trying to help, but honestly, my car and I are perfectly fine, despite outward appearances. Please, don't let me hold you up."
The man looked slightly affronted but nodded and straightened up, "Well, if you insist."
"He does insist," Jak muttered quietly, "Take a hint."
"What was that?" he frowned, looking towards Jak.
Alex just coughed loudly, "I said, I do insist," he covered quickly.
"Oh, ok, I could have sworn that came for over by your car," the man glanced at Jak again.
"Nonsense," Alex stood up too and began to casually herd him towards his car, keeping his arms over his bare chest.
The man frowned as he was forced back towards his car, however stopped suddenly, looking into the distance, "Oh, look, I'm sure they can help you."
Alex glanced over his shoulder and grimaced, "They can help me all right."
Crossfire, flanked by the other Autobots in a long line, was rapidly approaching, and before Alex could stop him, the man had stepped into the middle of the road to flag them down.
Alex just groaned quietly and wandered over to Jak, running a hand over his face.
"Helpful human," Jak commented lightly.
"And noisy too, apparently," Alex nodded, watching as Crossfire pulled off the road, the others mirroring him behind, and the man hurried up to the fire truck expectantly, "You ok now?" Alex asked Jak casually.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks. Can you…?"
"Not mention it to the others? Sure," Alex smiled.
Jak bobbed slightly in thanks, falling silent as the man continued to wait for someone to emerge out of Crossfire.
Meanwhile, Bill had jumped out of Freeway and was hurrying towards Alex, her eyes widening in shock when she saw the damage Jak had sustained, oblivious to the other man.
"What the hell happened?" she demanded as she reached Alex, "Why is Jak torn apart? And what happened to your chest?"
"Bill," Alex hissed, indicating the man who turned towards them at the sound of Bill's voice, resigning to the fact that for some reason, firemen weren't pouring out of the fire truck that had just arrived.
"Oh," she muttered quietly as he strode over.
"What's going on?" the man looked confused, "Why is no one leaving their vehicles?"
"Because there's no one in them, perhaps?" Jak spoke up, twisting his wheels pathetically in the gravel.
The man stared at the Mustang, "What?"
"Nothing. I said nothing. I'm silent," Jak said casually.
The man then looked at Alex questioningly, shock clear in his eyes, "What…?"
"Sorry, mate," Alex made a split second decision and suddenly punched the man square in the face, causing him to stumble backwards and collapse to the floor unconscious.
"Nice," Jak commented, sounding impressed.
"Oh you know, it's nothing," Alex grinned, shrugging.
"Alex, you just knocked that man out! I could have talked him into leaving, which you seemed in capable of!" Bill glared at him.
"Talked? You mean, you could have batted your eyelashes at him and lured him back to his car?" Alex huffed.
Bill just shot him another killer look before dropping to the ground at the man's side, checking he was ok.
"What a pest," Drag strode over to them, having returned to his humanoid form as soon as the man was out cold.
Both Jak and Alex nodded at the same time in agreement.
"I'm going to move him and his vehicle further up the road, so if he does come around, it'll look like we've left him and he's alone," Drag went over to the man, waiting for Bill to move out the way before he stooped down and carefully picked the man up, casually slinging him over his shoulder as he was unable to hold him his hand, which was too small. He then went over to the man's car, a BMW, and began to push it, against the parking brake, along the road the way they'd just come.
"Wait a sec, Drag," Alex hurried over to the BMW and opened the door, leaning in to disengage the brake that was making rather a horrendous noise, before jumping out again and slamming the door, "Now go ahead."
"Hmm, better," he nodded briefly and continued pushing the car along the road past the other Autobots as they returned to their natural state.
Pulse was the first to make his way over, dropping to his knees by Jak, shaking his head and rolling his eyes, "Let me guess, Sidelight."
"Good guess," Jak sighed, letting Pulse begin to run his fingers over him gently, inspecting him in the same fashion as a human doctor would check a patient over.
Crossfire, who was standing over to one side with Freeway and Traction, beckoned Alex and Bill over, letting Pulse deal with Jak in private.
"Explain what happened," Crossfire took up his usual kneeling position in order to see Alex better.
Alex shrugged, "We were just driving along, and this green Lotus Elise appeared out of nowhere. He overtook us, then stayed in front. Then the pink Cadillac El Dorado came up behind us, so that we were sandwiched between them. Then they both did their transforming thing, then started on us."
"A green car?" Crossfire frowned.
"His name's Roulette. Little short thing, smaller than Drag, seemed to only be interested in killing us. Sidelight said he was new, suppose he meant in the same way as Freeway?" Alex shrugged again.
"Hmm," Crossfire nodded, "It seems that the Decepticons are trying to recruit more to their cause. They must have definitely found something of importance, besides the Fusion in humans, which requires their attention."
Alex just nodded too, glancing at Bill who'd gone over to Freeway and was talking quietly with him. He huffed quietly and folded his arms again, looking away from them, almost, but not quite, jealous.
"Pulse will have Jak sorted out shortly, however I'm concerned about you," Crossfire raised a finger to point at Alex's chest.
"Oh, it's nothing," Alex shrugged dismissively.
"That's not true," Pulse commented from behind him.
Alex glanced over his shoulder at him, "It is, really."
"You have a broken rib, that could be a danger if it shifted and pierced a lung," he replied matter-of-factly.
Alex pulled a face, "Well I can't do anything about it. I'm not going to hospital. They can't even do anything."
"I could attempt to fix it," Pulse offered.
"You still haven't fixed my phone," Alex reminded him.
"Throw it here," Pulse paused in what he was doing, stretching out a hand that looked to be just a little longer than Alex's whole arm. Alex shrugged and pulled his cell from his pocket and threw it to him, it landing easily in the expanse of metal that made up his palm. Pulse then simply turned it over, studied it, then pressed his finger against it for a few seconds before throwing it back to Alex, who only just caught it.
"All done," Pulse shrugged, looking a little smug as Alex stared at his phone in disbelief, the screen now looking perfectly new.
"How…?"
"The advantage of being a medic who deals with patients made of similar parts to human technology," Pulse shrugged.
"What about me though? I'm not technology? And your hands are hardly small and delicate like some hot female doctors," Alex grinned slightly.
"I'm sorry about that, Alex," Pulse smiled at him briefly before turning his attention back to Jak, "I'll take a look in a minute."
"Sure, thanks," Alex nodded, looking back at Crossfire who had once again settled into one of his thoughtful musings that he seemed to dissolve into quite often. He decided to ignore Bill and Freeway with their pal-y chats, so casually wandered over to Traction who was absently fiddling with a few parts on his arm, looking rather bored.
Alex managed to get right up to him without him noticed, and was forced to casually rap his knuckles against his leg to get his attention.
"What?" he looked down, "Oh, Alex, sorry, I was just testing something out," he took a few steps back and crouched down so they could talk briefly.
"Testing something out?" Alex echoed, casually glancing at Bill to see if she was watching him. He could do pal-y too.
Traction followed his gaze but didn't comment on what he saw, instead focused on Alex's question, "Just seeing if I could make a few adjustments to my weapons system so that they don't overheat quickly in battle, allowing me to use the same one for a longer period of time."
"Oh," Alex blinked a few times.
Traction just smiled at him, "Don't worry. Even if you did understand weaponry, Earth's standard is no match to ours."
"I don't think we'd ever match this," Alex tapped Traction's leg, "Even our robots can't match you. You're too organic, while not actually being so."
Traction shrugged, "You're too organic, full stop. You may be able to imitate parts like us, such as your computers and televisions, however we can't imitate organic parts like you. The best we can do is create holograms."
"Detailed ones?" Alex looked interested.
Traction nodded, "If we're really in a tight spot in our vehicle forms, and humans come a knocking, we can project holographic drivers to speak through and bluff our way out of things."
"So you have a human face?" Alex smiled slightly.
"You could say that. I'll show you when we gear back up. I've been working on coming up with improvements for the holograms with Pulse, to make them more believable. Occasionally they flicker, which can give us away instantly."
"Still, that's cool," Alex nodded, "Real interesting."
"Suppose so," Traction shrugged, "We take it for granted."
"All that fancy tech," Alex nodded again, smiling.
"Only to you," Traction shrugged once more, "You're just not up to our level yet. And we can't really give you anything that would help you get to this level; it's just too dangerous. You humans would tear your world apart."
"Like you did?" Alex blurted before he could realise what he'd said.
Traction glanced away briefly, before nodding slowly as he looked back to Alex, "It may have aided in its destruction."
"Sorry," Alex muttered quickly.
"It's not your fault, don't worry about it," Traction shook his head, "Things happen."
"But still, sorry," he shrugged, "I know it doesn't really mean that much coming from me, but… Yeah."
Traction smiled, "I appreciate it."
Alex nodded and was about to try and steer the conversation away from the destruction of homes when Pulse appeared next to them, looking down at Alex expectantly.
"You've finished with Jak?" Alex asked, looking rather surprised as he glanced over to where Jak was rolling back and forth, looking once again brand new.
"Of course. It's nothing to deal with when you know what you're doing," Pulse shrugged, "Come over to one side with me."
Alex flicked a hand at Traction lazily in some kind of farewell wave, before following Pulse away from him and back over to Jak.
Alex smiled at Jak as he flashed his lights at him, "Looking good," Alex commented.
"As always," Jak's tone showed that had he been able to, he'd be smirking.
"Sit down on Jak's hood, Alex," Pulse instructed, bending down to them both. He obliged and shifted himself onto Jak's once holey bonnet.
"Don't you go scratching my paintwork with those studs in your jeans," Jak warned.
"I'll try not to," Alex let his arms drop from where he'd kept them folded over his chest to hide the majority of the damage.
"Hmm," Pulse peered at him, forcing Alex to lean back slightly as the Autobot's rather large head got dangerously close to him. As it was, his eyes must have been at least three inches in diameter.
Underneath him, Jak was sniggering quietly, obviously amused at how Alex slowly continued to lean back, eventually pressing himself flat against his hood.
"Do you mind if I just try something?" Pulse asked, looking up to Alex's face.
"Uh, sure, go ahead," he shrugged, trying not to sound too sceptical.
Pulse nodded and touched his leg lightly, closing his eyes in concentration. Alex frowned slightly, not entirely sure if he really should be trusting a medic who usually dealt with mechanical patients. He was going to protest when he suddenly felt a stabbing pain on one side of his chest, causing him to gasp loudly and jerk violently.
"Alex?" Jak asked quickly, "Are you ok?"
"It actually worked," Pulse muttered, removing his finger from Alex's leg, "Interesting."
"Pulse?" Jak turned on him, sounding a little angry as Alex gave a quiet moan, closing his eyes as he lay on Jak's hood.
"The Fusion in his blood," Pulse explained, "I didn't hurt him. It's that which is causing the pain, because it is actually managing to heal him. Obviously traces of the Fusion will be combined with the repairing bone, but otherwise, its managed to kick start his healing, focusing purely on the broken ribs, which are threatening to his life."
"How long is he going to be rolling around on me in pain?" Jak demanded.
"Not long. I think the pain will go straight away, as soon as the Fusion has done its job," Pulse nodded.
"Didn't think Fusion could do anything to humans, hey?"
"Neither did I. I was just trying to see if I could get it to do something," Pulse shrugged.
"Crossfire would so sell your limbs to a scrap yard if he found out you'd basically just experimented on Alex," Jak sounded irritated.
"Jak, listen, this is the only way to see if anything had happened. You know I'd never purposefully hurt anyone, Autobot or human," Pulse insisted.
Jak huffed quietly, "Fine."
"Just wait," Pulse reassured him.
Eventually Bill had noticed something was going on with Alex sprawled across Jak's hood and she came over, frowning in confusion.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Alex is apparently being fixed," Jak shrugged, causing Alex to almost slide off him. He leapt forward quickly to shove him back on more securely, giving a quiet grunt.
"Fixed?" she looked to Pulse.
"I'm helping him, I swear. Don't look at me like that!" Pulse rolled his eyes, looking away from Bill's accusing glare.
"You're as bad as half the men I know," Bill muttered, "Human or not, all men are the same."
"All the more reason to get in with me, yeah?" Jak sidled closer to her, Alex suddenly forgotten.
"Sorry Mustang. I have standards," Bill frowned at him.
"Like Freeway?" Jak snorted.
"Like human standards," she shot back.
"Oh good," Alex groaned quietly from where he was still lying on Jak's hood, "I'm human."
"Barely," Bill muttered, leaning over him, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I feel fine suddenly," he sat up slowly, running a hand through his hair, "What the hell was that all about? It hurt like hell."
"That was Fusion at work," Pulse offered, shifting himself behind Bill.
"I thought it didn't affect humans at all?" Alex frowned.
"Well. Left alone it doesn't," Pulse looked away casually.
"Yeah, Pulse, you explain that," Jak revved his engine.
"Thank you, Hijack," Pulse smiled at him curtly before looking to Alex, "All I did was basically instruct it to mend your ribs. I wanted to know if it worked at all. If it hadn't of, then it would have been fine, nothing would have happened."
"And if had worked, but gone wrong?" Alex raised his eyebrows.
"You wouldn't have died, I swear it," Pulse said quickly, "I swear," he repeated, "I'd never put you in that kind of danger."
"Right," Alex just shrugged and glanced down to see that the bruising on his chest, while still there, had darkened slightly making it look a few days old rather than new, "Snazzy when it works though."
Pulse just nodded, looking a little uncomfortable as he seemed to realise that it could have gone wrong and he'd have got the blame.
Alex slid off Jak, causing him to make a hissing noise as he either felt, or heard, the studs in his jeans scraping across the paintwork.
"Opps, sorry Jak," Alex patted him lightly on the hood.
"You owe me, so much, Al. You owe me your girl, and I'm getting her to buff those scratches out while naked," Jak muttered.
"Excuse me?" Bill looked between Alex and Jak.
"Oh, Al is letting me have you for an hour for lending him a dollar," Jak shrugged, lazily.
"Buff you naked?!" Bill glared at Alex.
"Hey, I didn't say that!" he insisted.
"Nah, that's just me coming up with some good ways to spend the hour," Jak said casually.
"Perverted car," Bill looked at him with disgust.
"That means she likes me," Jak muttered quietly to Alex, but not so that Bill couldn't hear.
"You watch yourself Mustang. I'll get Freeway to beat you up," she scowled.
"That nooblet couldn't even beat me up. And I'm just stuck as a car!" Jak sniggered. Bill slapped him in general on the hood before stalking off, heading for Freeway who seemed to be watching her every move.
"I think she has the hots for me, totally," Jak sounded pleased with himself.
Alex blinked at Jak, "I think you need to work on reading girls, totally."
"Oh, I'm so slick," Jak pretended not to hear him, spinning his rear tires while he stayed stationary, causing smoke to begin to billow out from behind him.
"Quit that," Alex rolled his eyes. He turned away from Jak just in time to see Drag making his way back towards them, using the wheels on his feet to effortlessly glide towards them, much like those on rollerblades.
"Everyone's sorted now," Jak commented, "We'll be on our way now."
"I need to see Tract before we set off, he's going to show me something," Alex glanced across at the large black Autobot who had obviously gone back to fiddling with his weapons system when Pulse had taken Alex away.
"Oh yeah? What?" Jak asked nosily.
"Hologram."
"Man, I can show you that!"
"I'd rather not see you as a human, or at least what you'd like to look like. You'd probably be some busty blonde," Alex shook his head.
"No way, Al, I'll show you!"
Before Alex could protest any more, Jak had wound down his drivers window, and there was a bright flickering light, before a man just seemingly appeared in Jak's seat.
"Cool, huh?" the man grinned at Alex, running a hand through his dark brown and ruddy hair before slipping the orange tinted shades he was wearing down his nose and winking at him with ice blue eyes, which didn't look particularly human. Alex supposed they just mirrored the colour they'd be were he in his natural robotic state. It looked a little creepy too; he couldn't help but note. Alex shook his head in disbelief as he took in the man's slight spattering of facial hair, which consisted of light stubble that didn't look half bad in clean-shaven Alex's eyes. He was also wearing the kind of clothes Alex liked; a plain white t-shirt and jeans, nothing too fancy. He also looked like the kind of guy who could be a complete ass and get away with it by being charming. Jak apparently picked his face well.