A/N- Okay, so this installment took forever. Sorry about that.
Chapter Eight- Flight or Fight
Earlier that day, while Jazz and Emma were sneaking out, the senior members of the team were having a discussion about what to do in relation to Emma's safety. The slightly suspicious nature the two escapees had enacted earlier had gone unnoticed, so no one had bothered to check up on the two trouble makers who the elder members were presently discussing. Not that Sam's unknown distraction was helping in that issue.
"Hey, Optimus," Sam greeted, and he looked upwards at the looming figure that was the leader of the Autobots.
"Hello, Sam," he responded as he waved his hand towards the Autobots around him, which happily departed.
Ratchet was especially eager to leave, since he had to get back to his prisoners … uh … patients. He was worried because Jazz was showing signs of cabin fever. Especially since no one else seemed worried about the trouble making Second in Command to check on them; Optimus was too focused on Sam and Mikaela.
"What can I do for you two?" asked the wise commander.
"We were wondering when Emma would be able to have visitors," Mikaela answered and Sam looked suddenly nervous. Ironhide snorted slightly as if he found this a little impossible to believe given the boy's recent behavior towards his sister.
Chromia gently swatted the angry Ironhide's arm before tightening up. She looked around in confusion before muttering, "Something's off."
Then, as if on cue, Ratchet - in the Hatchet mode - suddenly tore down the hallway in a fury. Nobody was even allowed a confused remark when the medic answered their question in a not-so-indoor-voice.
"Those two brats snuck out and took Trixie with them too," he shouted in a rage.
Chromia answered his mood with a loud swear, ignoring the look that Elita gave her, though both felt that way. Of course, while this melt down was going on with all the older mechs, nobody wondered as to where Arcee was since the youngest femme had a tendency to go scouting without, really, actually reporting. Despite the fact the trio was supposed to be a mobile unit for sabotage and scouting - with a fair amount of fighting thrown in - they rarely acted like they were one outside of a field of battle.
"That means that she's in sight of the Decepticons!" Sam shouted, sounding frightened especially when Prowl suddenly tensed.
"We have worse problems. Barricade is showing on our sensors now," Prowl stated.
"That means he's found his quarry," Bumblebee stated suddenly, having been hunted down by Barricade often enough to know that's what it meant.
"Your orders, Optimus?" Ratchet supplied.
"Elita, Chromia and you get in touch with Arcee. Then start searching for Emma. You might have better luck then we will. Autobots, with the exception of Bumblebee, will mobilize and roll out. Bumblebee, stay here and monitor the frequencies. Keep scanners going and protect the humans here. All right Autobots, roll out," he ordered, and they were gone, Bumblebee feeling the seriousness of the situation too heavily to complain.
It was at this time that Jazz was feeling the strain of his injuries, trying to race down the streets away from Barricade. He knew he wouldn't make it, but the fact Emma was with him and in need of his protection did he keep going despite the pain. Trixie's frightened chatter wasn't calming him down any. Especially when the small bot suddenly launched herself at a window with such intensity that Jazz couldn't help but understood what she wanted. Despite his better judgment, Jazz rolled down the window and watched the miniature, living, cell phone suddenly leap out to attack the Decepticon.
The Second in Command winced internally as he thought about how Trixie went at the 'Con so fearlessly, while Jazz's engines whined louder as he pushed himself past his limits. Not that he got to think about that when he suddenly crashed into a pole, reinjuring himself as well as injuring Emma. There he sat, his shell shivering lightly as the false police car came to a stop near them; Trixie, flying into Jazz's hood, crumpled to the ground. Jazz shuddered at the sight of the phone's still body, and the fact that Barricade was suddenly transforming, standing tall above the injured Jazz.
Emma shivered in the broken Autobot, a spark-attack coming on as she grasped for breath, completely lost to the world around her while Jazz locked down; he was trying to keep Barricade away from them.
"Come, come, Auto-scum…let me have the human," he ordered, and Jazz revved his engine painfully in anger.
Barricade, none to patient, grabbed at the other's door when the sound of an engine came. A pink motorcycle suddenly leapt forward, crashing into Barricade. Transforming in the air, she slid across the cement like a practiced skier before she quickly went after Barricade, shooting rapidly and using her agility to beat him away from Jazz.
"Back off Decepticon!" she shouted, firing rapidly at him.
The flamboyant femme flipped back away from the Decepticon and stood in a defensive position. She flexed her fingers slightly and braced herself for him to come at her when another shot came from the side, blasting into Barricade.
"Stay away from Emma, Decepticon!" Ironhide growled out.
The Decepticon, seeing that he was being ganged up on, retreated quickly. Sighing and thankful for his safety, Jazz opened his door very slowly and painfully for the pair. Ironhide leaned down and growled, glaring at Jazz before slowly collecting Emma into his hands. There were sparks running around her body, fleeting, brief, yet she was thrashing in pain.
"What were you thinking, Jazz?" Ironhide asked, and Jazz let out a weary sigh.
"Trixie too. She was injured. She's near my wheel," Jazz stated, and Arcee only shifted slightly in acknowledgement.
The young femme took Emma while Ironhide transformed. She then placed the Silent Child into his cab before having Trixie join the girl as well. With that over with, Ironhide took off while Arcee glared down at Jazz.
The fury that was across the young femme's frame couldn't be compared, but Jazz ignored it. All he could think about was how hurt Emma was. The guilt gnawed at him, and he settled more onto his wheels with a groan. He would be there for another hour before he was collected by Optimus Prime himself, though Ironhide was none too gentle when basically slamming the smaller bot into the trailer.
Later, when Jazz had finally managed to transform and lay back on his berth, he couldn't help but flinch when he saw Emma. She was still trapped in her worst spark discharge since her very first, which brought him into Ratchet's realm of care in the first place.
When Ratchet forced Jazz into a recharge cycle, he could only mutter, "I'm never going to do that again."
Ratchet only rolled his eyes and shook his head, focusing on the person he could fix at the moment. Emma could only be placed onto machines and monitored closely, which was what Ironhide was taking over right now.
It didn't take Ratchet long to repair Jazz, and he quickly looked over to see Ironhide gently brushing Emma's hair out of her face. It was then that Chromia entered.
"Ironhide, she's going to be fine. Her human body is just adjusting to an alien force in her body. She's not a Transformer, not a femme, she's a young human and not even an adult, but her will is strong," she murmured, gently resting her hands on his arm.
"Why did he take her outside? He knew the orders!" he argued back, and Chromia sighed softly.
"Because they were going crazy stuck in here. They weren't even allowed around the base, Ironhide. Jazz made a choice that wasn't the wisest, but Emma did as well. Come on. Let's go into a recharge cycle. Then we can sit back on her bed tomorrow, or you can hunt down Barricade who nearly killed Trixie. I wonder how Emma is going to handle that?" Chromia stated, her voice fading out of his auditory perimeter.
He shook his head slightly and went over to look at Emma's monitors once again. Ironhide found that she was slowly leveling out. The Weapons Specialist sighed softly and looked over at Jazz, before starting.
Comparing the two monitors and the readouts, his hands shifted slightly. He stared and called to Optimus, though he wasn't surprised when Elita One got there first. She was not happy with Jazz, but the femme seemed to be more accepting of the fact they snuck out than anyone else. Elita also seemed to have a little grin on her face as if she was expecting something when Ratchet brought up the readouts.
She stopped smiling at that.
"That's not possible," she stated, leaning toward the screen.
"Elita, I don't think anything is impossible with Emma," Optimus responded gently, and she looked over at the girl, whose attack had slowly subsided into tiny twitches.
End Chapter Eight