Fire of Youth
One-Shot: Ghostbusters
*In response to Alexandria's request: here's one with Bulkhead! And hey – Miko's with him! Blue will come later. I'd like to get the "main" members of Team Prime outta the way first before letting the new guys have their turns – and yes, I consider Wheeljack one of the "main" team even if he acts like a lone wolf. Again, ambiguously timed like the others. I may find a way to slip these into the main FoY timeline later, or I may not. The one with Ratchet definitely, because there's a plot point there I'd like to incorporate.
In the time-line of these one-shots, takes place after Ratchet's.
Heart heavy, Miko stepped out of the groundbridge with Bulkhead at her side. In her hands she had a drawing she'd been working on for a month or so of the mech that now lay in a grave, signed by Jack, Raf, June, and even Fowler – Mark had even signed it in a kind of last-minute thing when he'd driven by before they'd left for El Capitan. It sucked she couldn't leave it somehow. Slung across her back was the case of her electric guitar. Even if she couldn't leave anything, she could still play. Amps and speakers weren't needed; she intended to play something quiet. Guy had never been a huge fan of her rock music.
She'd wanted to come not only to pay a visit to him but to also see if she might get a glimpse of what had caused the doc bot to keel over and die for half an hour, then come back like nothing had happened. He'd spoken to Infernus about it but the guy hadn't said anything to anyone else other than saying "something had happened but it's okay now." She'd tried to ask them both about it but each had avoided her questions. She'd gotten the sense what had happened was part of a taboo subject or at least they weren't comfortable discussing it, but she really wanted to know what had happened here. What if it happened to Bulk?
Even if she didn't like the doc bot very much, that had scared her. Everyone had thought he'd been attacked, that the 'Cons had found the grave. Only when Infernus had reported no injuries on him had everyone realized something weird had gone on at the grave site.
Ahead of them the sole mountain rose. There was almost no sign of a grave being anywhere, but she did spot a slight disturbance in the ground. Infernus had said there was a mark somewhere on one of the smaller stones, but she couldn't see it right away. He'd said it was a spiral-looking thingy or something. Where was it? She looked around, unable to spot it.
"There." Bulkhead pointed.
Her eyes followed his digit until she spotted a small boulder nearby. Carved into it was the weird spiral Infernus had mentioned. She wasn't much for academics but she had to wonder what it meant, if it even meant anything at all. It was kinda pretty to look at.
"What's it mean?" she asked. "Does it mean anything?"
Her partner shook his head. He didn't recognize it for the life of him. Kinda made him wonder how the kid knew it, and if he knew the translation. Had the Matrix coughed up the info – had it come from another Prime? Or had he seen it during his guard days in the Hall? Kid could pick up stuff pretty fast, he knew that. Heck, maybe Trion had taken to teaching him some different languages while he'd been there. He wouldn't put it past the old book worm.
"Can't say I've seen it before. Doesn't look like a regular modern glyph though. I may not be an egghead but I recognize our own language when I see it. That's not a glyph that rings any bells. Style's all wrong."
Miko jogged over to it and stared at the odd spiral with new fascination. Huh. A different language than the one Bulk knew? Actually, why hadn't anyone in the park spotted it or reported it? Someone was bound to have seen the thing. Weird symbols didn't pop up out of nowhere in national parks, and she was enough of a rebel to guess that graffiti on government property would probably get you into big trouble with the management. So why had no one reported it yet? Regulars would definitely spot something that hadn't been there before.
Her hand stopped just as tracing the carved symbol with her finger. She jerked back on feeling...something. Almost like a static shock. Miko jumped back, startled, and slung her guitar off her back to brandish it like a club. It felt like someone was watching her, too. Bulkhead reacted in an instant, one big hand morphing into a heavy blaster.
"Who's there?" he demanded. The blaster moved around nervously. "Show yourself!"
A cool mountain breeze fluttered past. Unless his optics were playing tricks on him he swore he saw some kind of movement if he turned his helm at a particular angle and looked sideways out of his optics. It looked like one of those strange shadows humans were supposed to see out of the corner of their eyes every now and again. They called it a trick of the light and their brain trying to imagine something there when there wasn't, but...he wasn't so sure. He got the real distinct sense they were both being watched closely by someone nearby. Most importantly, it wasn't mean watching like the kind he always felt around Soundwave or Starscream. This to him was more curious, and it felt like the air warmed – warmed by a smile no one could see.
The hand was lowered, the weapon dismissed. Still confused, Miko's guitar case remained brandished.
"What?" Miko wondered, eyes wandering but mostly stayed focused on the zap-happy rock.
She didn't trust that rock anymore. Rocks didn't go zapping people.
"...We're not alone here." he said.
The girl snorted. "You're not gonna go all philosophical on me, are you?"
Bulkhead didn't look down at her as he said: "No, I mean we're not alone here. Look out the corner of your eye at that spot right there."
He pointed to a location just at the base of the mountain, near at hand to the grave. Not quite getting where he was going with this, Miko did as told – but she didn't put the guitar case down. There was something funny going on here, and she wasn't totally sure whether or not she'd need to bash someone over the head with it. But when her eye landed on the spot in question, the instrument, case and all, almost dropped from her grip. It wasn't an actual shape she saw, more like a heavy blur. Her jaw dropped.
"Oh my gosh. No way. There's something there. There is actually something there! D'ya think...?" she looked up at him.
"Maybe." Bulkhead admitted. "Guess talking to empty air wouldn't be as awkward as I thought."
He grinned at the spot and said: "And you always scolded Miko for being reckless you big plaster saint. You're really pushing your luck here, boss. Er, ex-boss."
There was no voice to answer back. But another breeze swept by after a moment, this one warm and sweetened with the smell of mountain flowers. He didn't even need to see him to know there was a smile on the Prime's lip-plates. He hadn't totally believed Arcee's story but now he was a hundred percent sold. Optimus was there, right there with them even if no one could see him and he couldn't talk as he had before...before all this. He still couldn't really process that Optimus freaking Prime was now lying in a grave in front of him and his ghost was potentially right next to the grave and trying to talk to them both.
"No way!" Miko gushed. "Ghosts are real! Can you pass through walls? Can you possess people? Can you make stuff float? Oh! Oh! Are there evil ghosts you have to fight?! Are you being hunted by them?! Does the place look normal or, like, is there a whole Murdered: Soul Suspect thing going on with you?"
Bulkheads grin became far more genuine. "I'm...not sure how in the heck he's supposed to answer, but okay."
Again a warm breeze fluttered by. A few leaves were picked up by it and swirled around her.
"How the heck are you even doing that?!" Miko demanded, arms flailing wildly. "Like seriously? You some kinda air bender now or what?"
Again the breeze. Miko rolled her eyes and laughed. "Do I need to get a Ouija board for you or something? No, you know what? I'mma head back and go ask around. Maybe someone on site has one for Halloween pranks n' stuff." Her phone was whipped out. "Raf? Bridge porfa please. I need to go snitch a Ouija board from one of the troops. Like right now. Screw the guitar. I got a ghost to interrogate."
Very distinctly they swore they heard a faint chuckle on the next gentle breeze. Even if it wasn't Optimus someone here was definitely entertained.
As asked a groundbridge swirled open. Miko darted towards it but then did a u-turn and darted back towards the grave. Pulling the drawing out, she quickly placed it beside the grave and plonked a few small stones at certain points to keep any gusts from blowing it away. Then she ran back towards the portal, and she was swallowed by it in the shutter of an optic. It closed just after that.
Bulkhead looked at the grave, then where the groundbridge had just been, then back at the grave. He blinked.
"What the heck is a Ouija board?" he wondered aloud.
The chuckle on the wind grew to faint, soft laughter.
Later...
"Okay. Let's see if this works. Otherwise I owe Adrian ten bucks."
"You made a bet with him?"
"Shut up. He issued a challenge, I accepted."
Bulkhead rolled his optics. "Miko..."
Miko had been fortunate enough that the Gonzalez twins at the auto-shop hangar owned a Ouija board. Adrian had issued a challenge to her over it: if the board didn't work or if she got possessed by the ghost, she owed him ten dollars for an exorcism. She'd accepted – mostly because she felt pretty certain it would work and the ghost they were dealing with was totally harmless. Librarian robots didn't go possessing people, did they? Nah. 'Course, he'd have to sorta do that for this to work if the wiki page about the boards was right. Maybe he'd just use the wind to move the dial. Hopefully. If Optimus possessed her she'd lose the bet.
She laid the board on the ground and took a seat by it, crossing her legs. Her hands hovered over the board dial just in case.
"Okay. Hello ghost. Are you Optimus Prime?" she asked. She warned for no lying as an afterthought – Adrian had a cross and knew how to use it if any funny business was tried, and Infernus had a Matrix.
She yelped and nearly fell backwards when the dial looked like it was scooched in the same way a finger might push a small object. Quickly she recovered and recorded its movement on her phone. It landed on "Yes."
"HA! I called it!" she shrieked.
"Actually, I kinda called it." Bulkhead argued. "You didn't even see anything till I pointed it out. Figured it was him either way. This just proves it."
Miko gave him a look and went back to the board.
She asked another question: "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be, like, someplace else?"
"And aren't you breaking a slag-ton of rules by being here?" Bulkhead added.
The dial moved around on the board quickly, but not so fast to where she couldn't records the letters it landed on. In about a minute a message had been written out by the letters. A moment later and two symbols followed suit: a colon and a parentheses.
VISIT FAMILY :)
Another message formed:
B: HAVE PERMISSION
Miko smiled. Aw, the big 'bot missed them. And apparently he'd picked up on the use of emoticons, too. That was kinda cute of him. He needed permission to do this? Weird. From the story he'd told during the whole Unicron thing it sounded like Primes were at the top of the power ladder. Couldn't they just do whatever they wanted?
"Oh! Um. You like my picture? I got a bunch of people to sign it."
The dial scooted over to "Yes" making her smile. She admitted she had meant to play a song for him, but seriously – this was way cooler.
"Alright. Let's cut to the real questions now: how are you doing that wind trick?"
Once more the dial scooched around to form a message, this one a bit longer and less clear:
NO LONGER TIED
CAN MANIPULATE
Confused, Miko blinked, frowned, and looked up at Bulkhead for some kind of clarification. When he shrugged cluelessly she looked back down at the board and asked if he could be a little more clear.
ENERGY INTERACTS WITH ALL
AM ENERGY
She nodded a bit uncertainly and decided to leave it at that. Maybe Ratchet or Raf could make more sense of the message he was trying to send, because she was drawing a total blank. He was probably keeping them short to save time so Slendermech wouldn't get a fix on their location, so it wasn't entirely his fault. Guy would write an entire paragraph if he could get away with it, she knew he would. There was a bigger question that needed answering here.
"Why'd you zap me?" she demanded.
"Wait, what?" Bulkhead interrupted. "He zapped you? Is that why you jumped back from the rock?"
Her eyes didn't stray from the board as the dial wiggled around and she answered matter-of-factly: "Duh. There was no spider. Why else would I jump?"
AM SORRY :(
STILL LEARNING
Not entirely satisfied, Miko huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. But she couldn't hide the faintest glimmer of a smile when another warm breeze swept by and around her, like somebody was giving her a hug. Okay, maybe she was being a little too hard on him over that. He obviously hadn't meant to do that. Being a ghost was new to him and so all the bells and whistles would be new to him, too. Come to think of it that was pretty cool he could even do that. Ghosts could zap people? Sweet.
The dial moved again.
WILL NOT ZAP FOR YOU
Apparently mind-reading was a ghost power as well. Frack.
"Aww, come on. Not even a little one to scare Jack or Blue when they come?"
The dial quickly jumped over to "No."
She made a face. "Typical killjoy."
Bulkhead sniggered. In all fairness Optimus had never been one to join in on mischievous shenanigans. It just wasn't his style.
"Were you the one to make the doc keel over, die, and come back?" she continued.
The dial moved. "Yes."
Two pairs of jaws dropped open.
"Why?" Bulkhead demanded in shock. "What was all that for? You nearly gave us all spark-attacks by doing that to him! We can't exactly repair ourselves without a medic!"
The message that ensued was by the longest by far:
WANTED TO SHOW
PROVE POINT
MATRIX IS NOT PRISON
DID NOT MEAN TO SCARE
That one was pretty clear. Optimus had done whatever he'd done to Ratchet to try to prove a point to him, not to scare him or anyone else. She didn't quite understand how he'd gone proving said point (and from the look on Bulk's face it seemed he was in the same boat) but at least he hadn't accidentally hurt him or anything in doing...whatever it was he'd done to the doc 'bot.
"Would you be able to do whatever you did to Bulk?" she asked.
The answer came quick and clear:
"?"
"You don't know?"
The dial wiggled on top of the question mark symbol it was on and stayed there. She took that to mean he didn't know himself or didn't have an easy explanation.
"Can I get some questions?" Bulkhead asked.
The dial danced over to "Yes" but a message formed without pause:
TIME SHORT
Bulkhead nodded. He promised to keep it short.
"Any idea what happened to Dreadwing? After he handed us the Forge he kinda of just...vanished."
There was a long pause where the dial didn't do anything, but then it moved slowly and with meaning to form the next message:
IS ONE
Bulkhead's optics went round. "He's dead? What – what killed him?"
Another pause. A series of slow, heavy messages came:
UNKNOWN
AVOIDS
WILL NOT SPEAK
ANGRY
The green Wrecker was forced to shake his helm. He hadn't liked or trusted the mech even after he'd handed the Forge over to them but being another casualty in the War was something only old bucket-head deserved. He had to wonder what had killed him – whatever it was had left him bitter enough to avoid Optimus like the plague apparently. Yet when they'd met in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in China, where he'd delivered the Forge to them, he'd seemed coldly respectful towards the former Prime – not angry.
"Any idea what's makin' him angry?"
"No."
Again his helm shook. That was weird.
"What about Seaspray; the other Wreckers?"
ROWDY AS EVER :)
ONE STUCK KICK SIGN TO BREAKDOWN
He managed a laugh at that. "Oh, man. That was Rotorstorm, wasn't it? Wasn't it? It was totally him."
Miko interrupted with another question of her own:
"Can you possess people?"
The dial moved onto "Yes" but then quickly jumped over to "No." Miko wasn't totally sure what he was trying to say. How could you possess someone and not possess someone? She felt that was like saying the sky was blue but, y'know, it totally wasn't blue.
She was about to ask another question when the dial moved over to "Goodbye" abruptly. Her eyes widened.
"Optimus?"
The dial didn't move.
"Optimus?"
The dial didn't move. A warm breeze sweetened with the smell of wildflowers swept by and around her. Then it faded.
"...Optimus?" she asked. Her voice cracked as a horrible suspicion rose in her mind.
"I don't think he's here any more Miko..." said Bulkhead.
Miko's eyes widened: "No! Come back! I have more questions! I wanna talk to you!"
"Miko..."
She grabbed the the dial and shook the board a few times in the vain hope it was just broken or something. But when she set it back down on the ground and put the dial back in the center, nothing happened. The dial remained inert.
The girl heaved a sigh and hung her head over the board, a few tears welling in her eyes and blurring her vision. One fell onto the wood, then another. Another warm breeze wafted by, drying the tears in her eyes. A flutter of paper made her head lift and eyes wander away from the talking board. Right where she'd left it her drawing fluttered in the wind as if it wanted her attention.
"Miko, your drawing." Bulkhead suggested.
Curious, she rose and walked over to it. At first glance nothing looked out of the ordinary but on kneeling and picking it back up she noticed an odd symbol had been drawn into it somehow by an invisible hand. She didn't know what it was exactly but it definitely wasn't Earth-based. She turned to her towering friend and held the picture up for him to see, pointing out the odd symbol.
"What's that mean?"
Bulkhead knelt and looked it over for a moment. Soon enough a smile formed.
"N'klova laz koph'ola yil." said the green Wrecker.
"Enka...what now?" wondered Miko.
"It's Iaconian for 'Until the wheel of fate rounds once more.' Kinda like your way of saying 'See you next time.'"
Miko looked at the drawing in shock. Smiling, she held the picture close. That smile of hers soon became impish. Her eyes, once misty, gained a sparkling gleam.
"Looks like Adrian owes me ten bucks."
"Miko!"
Author's Note: I just wanted some fun with a Ouija board in all honesty. I know normally they're displayed with just "Yes/No" markers, but some are pretty darned complex and have the entire alphabet plus some symbols and short phrases on them like "Hello" and "Goodbye." I'm not a spiritual person but I think in this fic I can get away with it.