Arcee had been out of recharge for hours now. She was up when June left for work 2 hours ago and as she waited for Jack to leave for school. The two did their morning greetings and once Jack had left, Arcee called for a ground bridge back to base.
"I'm sorry Arcee but that's not possible at the moment. I had to shut down the ground bridge again for maintenance. The damage done by those blasted scraplets is still leaving its effects known." Ratchet grumbled.
"It should be operational again later today to complete our scouting missions. For now, you'll have to simply drive back to base."
Arcee huffed in irritation as she covertly transformed, and looked through the windows to make sure that there were no neighbors out who could see her. Once satisfied she lifted the large garage door and discreetly brought it back down, before transforming and racing down the road back to base.
June wasn't even a quarter way through her shift and already she was feeling exhausted. The conversation she had with Jack, and the bruising she saw on his arm, filled her with dread and worry that refused to let her rest the night before. She had stayed up for hours after their talk wondering where it was she had all gone wrong that resulted in Jack turning to that way of life.
She knew that the toll of growing up without a father around may take a toll on Jack, but she thought he had been handling it well. That her parenting was working, even if she wasn't around a lot due to her work hours.
He had grown up and matured far quicker than any boy his age should have. He was always looking for a way to help her, no matter how small. Keeping the house clean, dishes, laundry, meal preps for the two of them for work and school, he did it all. Things that June felt she should've been doing. He'd gotten that job because he wanted to help her with the bills, but she had refused. Unwilling to have his hard work go toward keeping them afloat when that was her job. There'd been an argument but eventually a compromise was made where Jack would help pay for their groceries and keep the rest for himself. June would've preferred he kept all of his money, but he was too stubborn to accept her refusal.
He may not have had many friends growing up, but he'd been responsible. He kept his grades up and never got into any trouble. Until now that is, and for the life of her, June Darby couldn't understand why.
Was she too lenient on him? Too trusting? Or had she simply put too much pressure on a young boy, who finally cracked and was now acting out? These were the thoughts that had been plaguing her mind all through the night before.
'I should just end my shift early today. Make some dinner and talk this over with him.' She thought to herself as she finished aiding her current patient.
Just then, the familiar noise of a motorcycle engine racing down the main road of Jasper brought June's attention through the nearby window, and what she saw made her blood boil. A familiar blue motorcycle with pink highlights had just sped through an intersection, obviously ignoring the speed limit. And on top of the motorcycle appeared to be a woman, clad in an all-leather outfit.
June's gaze hardened, looking through the intersection Jack's motorcycle had just sped through. 'Maybe I should go home early today, and have a nice long chat with him about this.'
It hadn't even been a full day and already Arcee's plan to be home before his mom came home was in the scrapyard. He'd just gotten off the phone with Arcee, explaining how his mom had called him after his shift at work ended, and that she was coming home early to make him dinner. He'd heard the sounds of a battle coming through the other line as he was explaining, but to his relief, his guardian was now on her way back to his house, hopefully, it would be in time.
Now he was racing home, pedaling his old ten-speed as fast as he could to get home quickly. Turning the corner he could already make out the figure of his mother waiting outside their home, in front of the garage. That was not a good sign. Jack slowed down and nervously biked down the street until reaching the driveway.
"One day Jack, one day! I can't believe you disobeyed me! Where is the motorcycle?" His mother fumed while she stepped toward him.
Just then, a flash of green light could be seen through the garage window. 'Perfect timing partner, really couldn't have been better.' Jack sarcastically thought to himself.
"What do you mean Mom? She's right where I left her." he nervously said as he reached into his mom's car, pressing the button to open the garage door.
June turned around, expecting to see an empty space, and instead saw a motorcycle that was definitely not there just a minute ago. She scoffed as she turned back around to face her son. "Seriously Jack? How did you get it back inside? Did you get one of your crew to sneak it in for you while I was waiting outside? Was it that woman I saw on your bike earlier breaking the speed limit down the main road?"
'Oh, scrap.' Arcee thought to herself as she watched her partner shoot a glance back in her direction. Jack seemed to deflate upon himself as he went over his thoughts. He had wanted the lies he was telling her to end, but he hated that it had to be like this.
"Okay, Mom. You really want to know what I've been up to?" Jack asked as he began walking forward. "My motorcycle is a sentient robotic organism from the planet Cybertron. She's part of a team that's stationed here on Earth fighting a secret war, and I spend most of my time hanging out with her crew."
Jack stopped walking and stood next to Arcee as he continued talking, ignoring his mother's confused looks and attempts at getting him to stop talking. "The coolest thing is this bike isn't even her actual form. She's a giant robot that can transform into a vehicle!"
June was having enough of this, trying to get him to stop speaking but he continued.
"Come on Arcee, it's okay. We can trust her." Jack said as nothing out of the ordinary happened. "Really Arcee? No more hiding, no more lies." He said nervously as nothing continued to happen, kicking her front tire out of frustration. "Seriously? Roll out already."
June sighed as she opened the door to her car. "The hospital called before you came home, they need me back in. There's tofu in the microwave waiting for you. We'll talk about your 'science fiction club' when I get back from work." she said while using air-finger quotes to add insult to injury.
Jack watched as she pulled out of the driveway and the garage door came down, shutting him off from saying anything in return.
"Frag me," Jack muttered to himself as he collapsed onto the dusty old couch that had been sitting in his garage for years. "Thanks for the support partner."
"Don't blame me, you remember the rules." said Arcee as she spun around in her alt mode to face him.
"I know, I know. You don't exist." Jack finished for her. "This whole thing would just be a lot easier if she knew."
His mom was definitely going to believe him after tonight, there was no denying that Jack thought to himself. But this isn't how he wanted it to happen. She was kidnapped because of him and his connections with the Autobots, this was his fault. He quickly told Arcee about the next turn she needed to make as he looked down at the device in his hand.
"If anything happens to her because of my connection to all this, I don't know what I'll-"
Arcee interrupted him before he could let his thoughts linger any longer. "Jack, stop that. MECH is only interested in me. Once they get what they want, they'll let your mom go."
"That isn't reassuring, you're family too you know," Jack added as they came upon the pair reached their destination.
This whole day was scrap, it couldn't just be MECH. The Decepticons, more specifically a certain spider-bot had to be involved in the whole thing. Nothing was ever simple, nothing ever easy for Jack once he met the Autobots.
He ran out of the warehouse where Arcee was being held, and quickly called for Agent Fowler using the handheld radio he swiped from MECH's leader. Help was going to be ten minutes away. That was too long, Jack already had less than six before even making the call. He was on his own for now, so he did the only thing he could right now. He ran, frantically as he searched for his mother.
This was a big place though, he knew he had no chance of searching the entire place before time ran out. Suddenly, a large shadow appeared before him in front of his path. A tall feminine figure with three long appendages on each side stood still for a moment before quickly disappearing. Jack kept up the pace, searching until he once again spotted the con. Airachnid smiled at him as she gestured to the large structure behind herself. There, near the top and attached to a walkway was a white cocoon, and inside, barely visible from this distance was a face, but there was only one possibility on who it could be.
"Mom!" Jack called out as he began sprinting toward the ladder he spotted. He repeatedly kept calling after her as he came closer, desperate to hear her say something back, slightly relieved when he heard her call out his name. He reached the foot of the structure and began climbing the ladder as quickly as he could.
June was distraught to wake up and find herself hanging dangerously far from the ground and wrapped in some kind of sticky substance that restricted her movement. She called out to Jack once again as he reached the top of the ladder and ran over to her. "Jack! What are you doing here? Who are these people and how did I get in this stuff?"
"Don't worry about all that Mom. I'm going to get you out of here." Jack tried to reassure her.
It did little to help though when Airachnid leaped onto the silo next to June and hissed; enjoying the look of fear that shone on the boy's mother. She continued climbing to the top as she heard her ask Jack a question as if the answer wasn't already painfully obvious.
"I beat your deadline Airachnid!" Jack yelled.
Airachnid beamed in satisfaction as she hung off the silo loosely. "I'm afraid not Jack. The task wasn't to find your mother before the deadline, it was to rescue her. And I'm afraid time is up."
Jack was quickly immobilized as a string of webbing shot forward, pinning his arm to the ground. He could do nothing as venom dripped from Airachnid's mouth, dripping onto the walkway and the nearby railing, easily melting through. Jack grabbed onto a part of the railing, using its weakened state to his advantage as he ripped a rod from itself.
He tried in vain to free his hand, using the sharpened end of the rod to pierce the webbing. It was hopeless though, only creating enough room to barely move his hand. At this rate, he wouldn't get free in time. This was the end, the consequences of his actions from being selfish enough to want to be a part of something bigger, instead of just accepting the normal, boring life he had before.
"I'm sorry Mom, this is all my fault." Jack despaired as he watched Airachnid inch closer to his mother with those venom-dripped fangs.
For the second time that month though, Arcee came to his rescue. She raced up the inclined conveyor belt and transformed once over the edge, smashing pede first into the con. Filled with newfound strength and hope, Jack used as much strength as he could, to wedge his hand free from the webbing.
"Jack was that your motorcycle?" June asked as he came forward and tugged at the webbing restraining her.
"Don't worry Mom, I'll explain all of this later. Wait a minute, I already did."
He tuned out the sounds of battle occurring between the two Cybertronians as he tried to think of a plan to free his mother. Stray blaster shots brought him out of his thinking as the walkway collapsed and left Jack holding on for dear life as the walkway loosely held and dangerously swayed. He pulled himself up and peered over the edge to check on his mom. Grabbing onto a nearby console for support, he accidentally knocked a lever forward. Jack watched as machinery began turning and concrete poured from a nearby pipe below him.
Close by, he watched as the battle between Airachnid and Arcee raged on. Arcee was dangling over a ledge after being kicked off, but she launched herself into the air, performing a back flip as she kicked the con back. Arcee let gravity do the rest of the work as it accelerated back toward her foe, introducing the con's face plate to the bot's pede once again that day.
Airachnid was knocked down into a bin, and receiving a nod in confirmation from Arcee, Jack pulled the lever again. The sound of machinery signaled the movement of the concrete mix. As this happened, Arcee positioned the pipe right above Airachnid and watched as the concrete poured down over her, quickly drying and cementing her in place.
Arcee knew it wouldn't hold her for long, however, and quickly began scaling the structure to reach Jack's mother. Just as soon as she started, however, webbing struck her back and yanked her down to the Earth. The spider-bot began laughing to herself before the sound of blades loudly chopping through the air brought her attention away.
Jack watched as Fowler and company arrived in choppers, and began firing on Airachnid. He thanked Fowler for the support as the suppressive fire continued.
"If I knew the cons were involved, I would've called in Prime." Fowler stated over the radio.
"I think that might've been too much for Mom in one night." Jack joked.
Machine gun fire continued to pelt Airachnid's armor, destroying the layer of concrete that encased her and creating a cloud of dust. A bright flash of green light pierced through the fog and landed on Fowler's chopper. Soon after the familiar sound of transformation was heard and a sleek helicopter rose from the smog and escaped into the night despite Arcee's yell of anger.
June sat, wrapped in a blanket next to her son as she spotted a man in a suit making his way toward the pair. This whole night was a lot to take in for her. Giant robots like that weren't supposed to exist. The man she spotted earlier began speaking, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Ms. Darby, I'm Special Agent William Fowler. It's time for you to know the truth. For the past few months, Jack has been interning for me at the agency and-"
"Agent Fowler," Jack interrupted. "Mom's not going to buy that."
"Got that right." June chimed in.
Jack watched as a nearby soldier walked up to Fowler, whispering something in his ear. Probably bad news based on Fowler's reaction and subsequent storming off. Light pedefalls brought his attention elsewhere as his guardian stepped closer, relief visible in her eyes.
June watched as the fifteen-foot robot approached and turned toward her son to ask a question. "And she would be?"
"Motorcycle, guardian, Autobot, friend." Jack finished as he stood up.
The robot kneeled to be closer to eye level with her as she spoke. "Call me Arcee."
"Thank you, Arcee." June said in reply as she stood.
"Mom," Jack's words brought her attention back to her son. "I think it's time for that ride you once made me promise."
Ratchet had just come off the comm. link with Arcee, who had explained the situation that just occurred. MECH and Airachnid were working together, and Jack's mother was now involved in their war. He sighed and rubbed his faceplate at the thought of another human running amok the base. Speaking of Jack, he still had his blood sample in storage, untested. No better time than the present the medic thought to himself as he brought it out.
The vial of blood immediately caught his attention. He'd only started studying human medicine and biology in light of him having no clue what he was doing during Jack's check-up, but he was fairly certain that human blood was not supposed to be that color. It was mostly dark red, but in spots throughout the vial were patches of blue, that created patches in the blood that looked to be almost purple.
Ratchet grabbed a syringe, obtained a sample of the near-purple blood, and placed it onto an empty slide. Observing the cells underneath a microscope, his optics widened in fear and realization of what was afflicting their oldest charge.
First things first, I just want to thank you all for the favorites and follows, it brings a smile to my face to see people enjoying what I'm writing.
And special thanks to RockHord for your kind words. Thank you very much, I'm glad you're enjoying the story.
Also to answer your question SunaSuna112, yes I am going to be cross-posting this to AO3. Most likely within the next day. I just wanted to gauge people's reaction to this story here first.
On another note, I've organized my ideas for the next few chapters and what I've planned so I'll begin work on the next chapter soon and get that out hopefully before the end of next week. On a funny note though, I was reading through the first chapter and noticed that no one had picked up on the fact that I misspelled Airachnid's name. I repeatedly wrote Arachnid instead of Airachnid lol. I'm probably going to go through that fix soon.
Anyways, thank you for enjoying my story, and don't forget to leave your reviews!