Getting used to everything
It was a surprise to Peaches but Mrs. Darby seemed to take everything well once the former transformed from human to robot mode and back again.
"Nothing surprises me anymore." The single mom explained. "The sofa pulls out into a bed if you want to sleep on that."
"Thanks." The Pretender replied, as she sat down on the said sofa and tried to relax a little bit.
Jack immediately ran to get a t-shirt for Peaches to sleep in, while Mrs. Darby let her use the bathroom and take a shower.
The human woman put Peaches' clothes in the washing machine on a "quick wash" cycle and by the time the Pretender was done with her shower, they were in the dryer. Peaches then put on a bathrobe and was sitting on the sofa again and drinking a glass of water.
"Let me get this straight, you can eat anything that's human food healthy or unhealthy and have it be converted to energon?" Mrs. Darby asked when the Pretender explained it.
"Yes; human junk food doesn't have the horrible effects on me and my human parents never understood that; they always chalked it up to a fast metabolism." Peaches replied. "Although, I did try to drink wine once; it was their wedding anniversary, I was 6 years old and I was mad about not getting to have what they had to drink. So, my dad decided to teach me a lesson; he poured some wine into a cup, gave it to me, I tried to drink it but then a couple of minutes after finishing that, I threw up on the floor. My universe's Ratchet explained that my then-dormant scanners detected that it wasn't something that I should be having and got rid of it before I was actually 'drunk'. I never drank alcohol again as a human and I never will."
"What did your mother have to say about that?" the human woman asked.
"She did object to my dad's 'weird ways' of teaching me things I needed to know about but that time she did agree with him about the way he taught me about the effects of alcohol." The femme sighed, getting nostalgic and sad at the same time.
Jack had put Peaches' clothes in the dryer and walked in to tell her so. "They'll be done in about 40 minutes." He said.
"Thanks." Peaches replied.
"We're going to bed; just make sure to separate your stuff from Jack's and my clothes." Mrs. Darby got up and followed Jack up to their room. "You can sleep in that white t-shirt for tonight."
"Thank you both of you for your hospitality, no pun intended." Peaches said trying not to laugh.
"You're welcome; good night."
"Good night Mrs. Darby, good night Jack." Peaches sighed as they went upstairs. She wouldn't have much of a chance of sleeping tonight since she had to watch for Decepticon threats but at least she would be able to get to know the other Autobots and their human allies better tomorrow…
The next morning, Peaches was dressed again and eating Lucky Charms for breakfast. Mrs. Darby had just left for work and Jack was just coming down.
"Any particular reason why she keeps this around the house?" the Pretender asked, referencing the cereal she was eating.
"She only lets me buy one type of junk food a month and that happened to be what I chose for this month." Jack replied, faking anger.
"Dude, lighten up! I love this stuff too!" Peaches quickly said panicking.
"I'm just kidding." Jack started laughing. "Anyway, Bumblebee's going to be here any minute for us."
The Pretender quickly finished the bowl of cereal, rinsed it out in the sink, and went to brush her teeth. She then saw some dollar bills lying near the sink and a note:
Didn't know if you'd need this but this is for a few more clothes while you're here. Hope that you get home safely ASAP-June.
Peaches picked up the 20, 10 and two 5s and stuff them into her shorts' pocket. She then finished brushing her teeth and went downstairs and out the door. Jack locked it behind them and they then saw Bumblebee pull up, with Raf sitting in the front passenger's seat as usual.
"Bee said he'd take Peaches wherever she needs to go before we get to the base." Raf explained.
"All right; I'm just going to buy a few clothes and some things for lunch later." The Pretender replied, climbing into the backseat, with the 16 year old human close behind…
At the Autobot base, Arcee was awake after a long night's rest and was being given energon by Ratchet.
'Thank goodness Peaches has the unique abilities that she does; we're running low on this again." The medic muttered.
About an hour later, Arcee was released from the medical bay and went to the front hallway just in time to see Bumblebee pull up with the Pretender herself, Raf, and Jack. Peaches got out, put the stuff she had into subspace, and transformed into robot mode.
"Hello again" Peaches said.
"Same to you, Peach." Arcee replied. "You're lucky that Jack's still in one piece and with you."
"Well, I've got a human kid that I'm a guardian to, albeit she's an infant and she's smaller than her younger sister, who is my 'biological child' for lack of a better term." The orange and red femme replied. "I have a thing for wanting to keep kids safe and out of danger; if the war ever ends in my universe, I'd like Sideways and myself to move to a small town, and make our home a foster home for kids, maybe we'll have a daycare center too and I'll foster teenagers so that they can help take care of the younger kids and learn about being responsible and all of that stuff. Yeah, it's a weird dream but it's one that I want to make come true."
Arcee found herself smiling a little bit. It would be interesting getting ot know Peaches further…
(Back in the movie universe)
"Wheeljack, have you found any other clues yet?" Jolt asked.
"As a matter of fact yes; there's one universe that's pretty similar to ours. I have to thank Optimus for helping me find it on this map."
Yes, Optimus Prime had been able to upload a map showing blobs that represented different universes that had Cybertronians in them. Wheeljack had done a search for Peaches' energy signature and had managed to find it; it appeared as a light blue dot flashing amid a dark colored blob.
Optimus himself was also in the room at the time. He then said to the crowd of Autobots and Sideways "I will need a few volunteers; we will not leave until tonight for safety reasons. "
"I volunteer." Sideways said, raising his hand.
"So do I." Arcee added.
Bumblebee and Ratchet also volunteered.
"Very well then; meet back in here later tonight." The Autobot leader ordered. "I will give you more instructions before we leave. Peaches will be brought home safe and sound no matter what we have to face in that world."
Everybody cheered. It's really going to happen, Sideways thought. If anyone dared to harm Peaches, he would see to it that they would be taught a lesson…
(Back in the TF Prime universe)
Silas was awake and smiling an evil smile. Today was the day that he planned to capture that mysterious Transformer. He would do it once he had gotten word that she was outside of the Autobot base, not that he had any idea of where that was. He immediately went to get coffee, this time regular, and thought of what he would do to that machine...
At the base, things were much different. Peaches had taken several movies out of subspace to watch with Jack, Raf, and Miko since it had started raining outside.
"Sleeping Beauty? Do you really still watch that sometimes?" Raf asked.
"Yeah; adittedly though, Maleficent scared me when I was younger." Peaches shuddered at the thought of the Disney villainess.
"Me too." Jack added, a bit embarassed. "How about we watch the Lion King instead?"
"Sounds good to me." Miko took the DVD from Peaches, put the movie in and started it.
The human kids and the Pretender did watch it; just as Optimus Prime walked in, the movie had gotten to the part where Mufasa had died and Peaches started bawling her eyes out.
"Peaches, what is the matter?" Optimus asked.
"This scene is the saddest scene in this movie and moreso since-" Peaches paused then continued-"my human parents died last year and I can't help but think 'now I know how Simba felt'."
The Autobot leader put a hand on the Pretender's right shoulder. He couldn't help but feel concerned for her even though he didn't know her that well. Was this how her universe's Optimus Prime felt? He couldn't say for sure.
The orange and red femme then decided to go out on patrol with Arcee. "I can always watch the movie later and I've seen it who knows how many times." the former stated.
"Very well; just got to warn you though, if you see some spiderlike 'con, leave her to me." Arcee said, with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
Little did they know that Airachnid would be the least of their troubles...
Author's note: Yeah, sorry about the Disney references; I've been watching a lot of Disney's House of Mouse over the last few days and related stuff. I still think it's weird though that in the latest TF: Prime episode, Airachnis looks moreso like Maleficent than she did before.