Chapter 8
A/N: Chapter 9 is in the process of being written now, but I hope you all enjoy today's chapter!
For those leaving reviews, I can't thank you all enough! I know I'm terrible at replying, but if you ever have any sort of question be sure to ask me, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible
And, as always, all reviews are greatly appreciated!
Transformers Prime & Rescue Bots (c) Hasbro
"Decepticon patrols have increased throughout the northern hemisphere."
"Weren't they stickin' to North America jus' yesterday, Magnus?"
"They have expanded their search for us," Ultra Magnus responded gravely, optics never straying from the information on the data pad in his servos. "They will have moved on to begin the southern hemisphere within the week."
"New intel from the humans' deep space monitoring network," Jazz commented from a work station. "Nearly a dozen extraterrestrial bodies enterin' Earth's atmosphere in th' last three weeks."
"Megatron's forces are gathering," Optimus intoned somberly as he surveyed the bustling command center his team constructed beneath Doctor Greene's laboratory. Monitors lined one far wall of the bunker, displaying key locations of the island with the aid of video cameras. On the other side of the spacious room were stations receiving a steady stream of information from human news sources, government briefing and irregularities, and intelligence gathered by the Autobots themselves.
"Gathering for what, Earth's final ultimatum?" Ratchet scoffed by Optimus' elbow. "We're as inconspicuous as a piston in a scrapheap. They couldn't hope to find us with all the precautions we've taken."
"Perhaps it is not about directly locating us, Doctor," Ultra Magnus said. "I began monitoring the atmosphere and surrounding space of this planet solar cycles before landing. Earth is within Megatron's grasp and, mimicking you, Optimus, he sent a message to the Decepticons still scattered throughout space."
Optimus' countenance was grim as he answered, "And did you intercept this message, Commander?"
Ultra Magnus nodded. "Affirmative, sir. Unfortunately it was encrypted, but its purpose was clear."
The former leader of the Wreckers pulled up a map on the screen beside him. "This is the pattern of recent Decepticon activity over the Northern Hemisphere. Notice that they are purposely staying near to the heavily populated sectors of the planet."
"They mean to draw us out with a massacre?" Ratchet ex-vented in horror.
Ironhide growled; his plating bristling. "Some'bot better tell me why we can't just catch the fraggers and blow 'em outta the sky before they get the chance?"
"Cool it, 'Hide," Jazz murmured, and Optimus stepped forward, his presence silencing them almost instantly.
"Attacking now would put the humans at risk," the Prime began, with a gentle but pointed look in his weapon specialist's direction. "If Megatron does plan to bait us, as I am certain he will, we must act with care. The United States government has always remained distrustful of us, and we do not need a battle in one of their major cities to prove their fears."
"What's the plan then, Chief?" Ironhide grunted, crossing his servos over his chassis.
"We will execute a planned attack on Megatron's citadel in Jasper," Optimus responded, "though, only once our forces fully prepared."
"The Rescue Bots are doin' alright, OP," Jazz opined.
Optimus shook his cranial unit briefly. "I was not referring to the Rescue Bots."
Instantly knowing what the Prime meant, Ironhide raised his servos as if to talk him out of it. "Take it from me, Optimus, the Dinobots aren't ever gonna follow orders that ain't comin' from Grimlock or maybe Primus himself."
"We have yet to even gain their trust," Ratchet added.
"A difficulty in itself," Ultra Magnus muttered from his station, recollecting his less than stellar encounter with the former Lightning Strike Coalition Force.
Optimus was immersed in thought as his command team debated. The Dinobots could be their wild card if Grimlock deigned to obey his decisions or get along with the other Autobots. Without them they were sixteen Autobots strong to be certain, but Megatron's own principle forces would soon number in the dozens, not including his army of Vehicons and Insecticons. If the Dinobots would truly join them, the war on Earth could have a chance of ending for good.
Amid his pondering, Optimus' gaze was drawn to surveillance monitors on the wall.
There were sensors allocated outside and within Griffin Rock for the sole purpose of detecting any proximal movement toward them or the presence of unauthorized GroundBridges. The surveillance cameras were only a secondary measure to keep an eye on the island and its inhabitants.
There was a view of the docks, the entrance of the Lab, the town square, and the firehouse, to mention a few. Optimus focused on the final screen displaying the youngest of their human allies playing basketball on the court beside the firehouse. The fiercest competitor, aside from Miko, was young Francine Greene.
You better hope these humans are worth it, Prime.
Optimus turned to his lieutenants. "Jazz, will you and Ultra Magnus be able to refine our strategy by the end of the week?"
"Affirmative, sir," Ultra Magnus replied.
"Let's see if all that time I spent with Prowler paid off," Jazz rejoined with his usual grin.
"Why, where will you be going?" Ratchet asked from behind his work station, proving once again that nothing Optimus did went unnoticed by him.
Optimus allowed a small smile as he walked to the tunnels leading to the surface. "I believe I have found a way to gain the Dinobots' trust."
"Aw, c'mon, that was totally a foul!" Miko defended her dyed hair askew and arms akimbo as she glowered at a triumphant Jack.
"Don't hate the player, Miko," he said casually, tossing the basketball from hand to hand.
The Asian girl growled. "Raf! What do you think?"
Rafael took a moment to answer as he was bent over, hands on his knees as he caught his breath after their grueling game. "I…don't know, Miko," he said at last, dazedly straightening his glasses. "I'm not being biased, but Jack did score fairly."
Miko gaped. "No way! That was a foul!"
"You tripped on your own shoelace, Miko," Frankie snickered, even when the older girl's venomous look zeroed in on her.
"That's it!" Miko declared, wrenching the ball out of Jack's hands. "I call new teams!" she spun around to face Cody with a feral grin that made the boy feel like a small animal being cornered by a much larger predator. "Cody, go get your siblings! This is gonna be a fair fight!"
"B-but you know that Dani will go on your team!" Cody tried to argue.
"And you guys will get Kade," Miko said matter-of-factly, to Frankie's glee and the boys' clear disappointment.
Jack attempted to resolve the issue again, and his hands rose to demonstrate he meant Miko no harm. "Miko, Kade can't play basketball. He's a football player. He was his school's quarterback."
"Yeah!" Cody piped up, despite Rafael warning him not to get involved. "And besides, none of them are here!"
Frankie scoffed. "They're just on patrol. Well, Kade's probably with Haley. They'll be back soon."
"You see?" Miko agreed smugly.
"Miko, if you think the teams are unfair, Cody and I could take turns," Rafael suggested, always one to appease both parties, especially when it came to the habitual arguments between Miko and Jack.
The latter of the two nodded in agreement to the brunet's statement. "Yeah, there you go, Miko. Thanks, Raf."
Miko huffed petulantly, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. Her lack of argument was clear statement of her agreement even before her almost indiscernible mutter of "fine." She was bounding down the court in the next instant, shouting, "girl's shoot first this time!"
"These guys are weird," Frankie said as Jack tried to wrestle the ball away from Miko and Rafael tried to get in the middle as median.
"I don't know, I like them," Cody argued thoughtfully. Before Frankie could point out that Cody liked everyone, the powerful rumble of an approaching engine drew their attention. They watched in varying degrees of surprise as Optimus pulled up onto the driveway beside them, his air brakes hissing.
"Good morning, Cody, Francine," Optimus greeted.
"Hi, Optimus," Cody responded cheerfully, without any of the nervousness that would've filled Frankie's voice. "My family isn't here right now. Is there something we can help you with?"
"Actually, I have come for some assistance on an important matter."
If anything, Cody's smile brightened. Inwardly, Frankie rolled her eyes at her best friend's familiar mannerisms.
"Oh?" he asked. "What do you need?"
"At the moment, Francine."
Frankie blinked in disbelief. Unconsciously, she began searching her memory for all the things she might've done wrong to incur the Prime's attentions. As if sensing her panic (no difficult feat, if she looked as terrified as she felt) Optimus said, "You have nothing to worry about, Francine. I only need to speak with you for a moment, if you will allow it."
It didn't help her confidence any when Miko chanted "oooh!" from across the court, much like the kids at school when someone was called to the office.
Optimus' passenger door swung open before Frankie could debate the success of a dead sprint to the firehouse. Swallowing her fear, Frankie bid goodbye to Cody and the no-longer bickering trio before clambering into Optimus' cabin. Just before the door closed she heard Miko shout, "Yes! Now we have to get new players!"
The silence within Optimus Prime's cabin must have lasted no longer than a minute (fifty-four seconds, to be precise) but to Frankie hours might as well of passed.
Frankie's first and only read meeting with Optimus Prime was during their time traveling fiasco. And even then, there had barely been any time for an introduction, much less a casual exchange of words.
Before Optimus, Frankie thought Bulkhead would be largest Cybertronian she would ever see. She'd even been thankful of the notion. But then she laid eyes on all thirty feet of Optimus Prime and a little piece of her brain shriveled up and fled into a corner of her cranium because nothing on Earth should be that big.
"Francine," Optimus said, utterly derailing her train of thought.
Her alarm was so great she blurted the first thing her guilty conscious could produce. "I'm sorry I watched Cliffjumper's service without permission!"
The Prime's cabin was deathly quiet for several long moments and Frankie felt her face burn in embarrassment. She could only imagine the disappointed lecture she would receive, the kind that, according to Miko, made your insides die due to the guilt they inflicted. What Optimus actually said surprised her as much as her statement must've surprised him.
"What was your opinion of the ceremony, Francine?"
"Uh…" Frankie swallowed, feeling oddly at loss for words. Talking to living machines was weird, especially one that could crush her at a moment's notice. "It was…sad."
"The ceremony upset you?"
Frankie quickly recanted, shaking her head. "No, not the—well, sorta, what they were saying was—I don't mean—"
Optimus gently interrupted before she could make a bigger fool of herself, his velvet timbre ringing with an ancient patience. "Francine, you have no reason to be frightened of me."
She took a deep breath, what she knew to be the only way to still the stream of babble she inherited from her father.
"I know," Frankie said. And she did. It wasn't her fault that thousands of years of culminated instinct told her otherwise. "It's just…" she tried to find a way to describe what she'd felt ever since meeting the Autobots. Frankie slumped in her seat, the seatbelt nearly coming up to her chin as she threw her hands in the air, exasperation and the need to bare her soul reaching their zenith. Optimus continued to allow Frankie her mulling with a serenity that betrayed his age.
"Ever since I was little, my dad would tell me about the possibility of alien life," Frankie began, her brain-mouth filter working piecemeal. She looked at the passing scenery on the other side of the window. "He expected microorganisms and space goo, maybe. I didn't believe any of those movies or conspiracies about aliens coming over to take over the world, or even existing at all. I believed what science allowed me to believe."
"When did this change?" Optimus inquired as they neared the town square.
Frankie fiddled with her sleeve as a more thoughtful look crossed her features.
"After the incident with the SETI dish," she answered. "That's when I first saw the Rescue Bots driving themselves. At first I wasn't sure what to think—my dad hadn't even created a functional self-propelled vehicle yet. After I noticed the same thing a couple more times I decided to do some research. I did find some photos and blog posts about 'ghost cars' but most of them were erased before I could really analyze them."
Frankie paused to smirk awkwardly at the dashboard. "Your handiwork, I'm guessing?"
"Rafael's talents are indispensable," was all Optimus said on the matter, but Frankie had the oddest feeling that he would be smiling, were he able.
"Yeah, well my suspicions weren't confirmed until our little time-traveling escapade—I heard Heatwave mention something about coming to this planet when we were trapped in the tunnels, but I wasn't sure until Cody filled me in." Frankie looked down at her hands for a moment, her expression lost.
"I guess…once I understood what you were I was a little scared of you. All of you. The Rescue Bots told me later about your war, how you lost your planet…I've never been around anything as big as you guys that's sentient, and so I'm not quite sure how to act around you."
Frankie looked up at the dashboard with renewed certainty. "And I cried during Cliffjumper's ceremony. I could tell that Jazz, Arcee, and Sideswipe really miss him."
Optimus' cabin rumbled softly in what Frankie took to be a Cybertronian version of a chuckle.
"What do you know about Cliffjumper?" Optimus asked.
"Not much," Frankie admitted with a small shrug. "Jazz told me that he, Cliffjumper, and Sideswipe we partners during the war. Cliffjumper almost got them caught a bunch of times. He was also Arcee's partner, only much later. He…he died recently, didn't he?"
"Indeed."
Frankie paused before hesitantly placing a hand on the dashboard. "I-I'm sorry, Optimus."
Another rumbling sound emanated from around her, although this one sounded more thoughtful.
"Francine, do you know why I asked to speak with you specifically?"
Startled, Frankie removed her hand from the dashboard. "Not really. Most people think I'm weird."
The following rumble was definitely a chuckle. "That is the same term Jack, Miko, and Rafael used to describe themselves. The fact remains that all of you are alike and dissimilar in many ways, each with your own useful attributes. Yours is your compassion and acute understanding. Your level of intelligence is leagues beyond most children your age and your inner strength is to be admired. That is why I believe you are the one suited to the task I aim to assign."
Frankie's brow knotted in suspicion. "What kind of task?"
"I will not skirt the issue, Francine. The truth is that we must prepare for our final battle against the Decepticons in any way presented to us."
"But what does that have to do with me?" Frankie persisted.
"The other children are aware of their positions. Yours will be very much unlike theirs, however. I have already consulted in depth with your father, and now only your decision remains… what have you heard concerning the Dinobots?"
"I am surprised that you decided to reveal yourself after our…former complications," Megatron admitted with no little curiosity, peering down at the kneeling eight-legged femme at the foot of his throne. "After finding your stasis pod open following the Dark Energon scare we were inclined to believe that you had also been infected."
"The drones expected you to drag them off into the darkest corners of the ship for solar cycles," Starscream chuckled from beside the arm of Megatron's throne.
Airachnid smirked, rising gracefully to her pedes. "As much as I'd like to allow you to relish in your superiority, Starscream, I have not pledged my loyalty thrice out of the goodness of my spark."
Megatron lifted a curious optical ridge, while Starscream squirmed beside him in indignation.
"Oh? Then by all means, Airachnid, feel free to share."
Annoyance twitched briefly over the femme's delicate features. "I possess no resources of any kind, as you well know," Airachnid said in a clipped tone. "And what with the humans constantly searching for stray Decepticons to pick off, I found joining the old team to be the most prudent solution."
Starscream sneered. "Are you certain it has nothing to do with the tech Shockwave implanted in the Insecticons' CPUs to nullify your control over them?"
"I was aware of that before I even returned here!" Airachnid snarled, the six limbs on her back struts curling in preparation for confrontation. "Second-in-command or not, Starscream, I will not stand for your pitiful attempts at bullying me."
"Enough," Megatron growled, hardly raising his voice but Starscream and Airachnid backed down accordingly. He turned to the latter of the two. "Airachnid, your bravery in returning is admirable, especially considering how few allies you possess." He studied the dark femme for a long moment.
"I have not gotten to where I stand today by incompetence. A war is coming, unlike anything we have faced since Cybertron. Soundwave has confirmed that the Autobots live, and their ranks have been bolstered. It will not be long until they launch an attack against us, and in order to be prepared, we too much expand."
Airachnid smirked at the obvious acceptance while Starscream seethed. She made to quit the room with a bow when Megatron leaned forward in his throne, casting his features into demonic shadow.
"But know this," he ground out, "if you dare consider overthrowing me, or attempt to reestablish contact with the Insecticons, you will not survive on this vessel. Do I make myself clear, Airachnid?"
Airachnid bowed humbly. "Transparently, My Lord."