Livewire: Chapter 3
Perceptor dropped his laser scalpel on the table and turned around with restraint. "For the last time, please don't put anything on top of the energon converter. That equipment is sensitive and easily contaminated."
Wheeljack still had his hands around the gutted arm piece he had just placed on the machine and picked it back up. Livewire watched him throw his head back in silent exasperation and move over to the corner he was quickly making a mess of. Perceptor went back to the telescope in front of him to construct a delicate microchip he had been fiddling with for the last few hours. According to Wheeljack they were trying to find a way to strengthen the armor the Autobots wore to protect them against a machine the Decepticons built that somehow sent out a signal that could shatter plating. Perceptor tried to explain a theoretical treatment in more chemically oriented terms that Livewire didn't have a prayer of understanding.
At that point in time Livewire barley registered the two mechs bustling about Perceptor's lab. A blue hue glowed against her dark armor and her optics were scanning the data pad lying on the floor between her paws. There was something morbidly fascinating about being possibly the first person to ever read their own obituary. She lightly touched her nose to the device and registered a new search, bringing up her parent's social page. Livewire always badgered her parents to wipe their account and close it. It bothered her they were so willing to put their entire lives on the internet, but now it was the only link she had to them. It crossed her mind to try calling them or see if it was possible to meet them in private, but the further she scrolled down their wall, the more she realized that would do more harm than good.
A year ago their posts had slowed to almost nothing as they grieved, then in the last three months they had been updating their status regularly and their tone was happier. Apparently they had discovered hiking in remote places according to their boastful pictures of waterfalls and mountain ranges. In several pictures a young retriever sporting a red backpack sat at her parent's feet that hadn't been around when she was alive. Her parents used to go white water rafting and skydiving before she was born. After having her, they went camping and canoeing as a family, but slowly stopped going as Livewire got older. She was happy for them.
Despite her dislike for the site, Livewire made a quick account and left an anonymous reply on their wall. Don't stop dreaming. It was a phrase her mother used to recite when she was little and being teased for acting out her desire to be an astronaut. It was a short phase in her life, but the words had stuck to her subconscious like ghost.
Clicking through the site Livewire found her old friends had also moved on with their lives. The news of her death had been nothing more than a tragic accident they briefly mentioned. Again, not so surprising, though her ears flattened. She quit looking at the personal lives of the people she grew up around and went through the world news. Other than a few possible innovations, not much had changed that she would call shocking. Real life and recent politics quickly became uninteresting and she soon found herself playing an online game. Livewire spent most of the time trying to figure out how to use her nose and paws to manipulate the character on screen around maddeningly hard obstacles. She was just starting to form a technique that involved her claws when someone tapped on the long, swept back tips of her shoulders.
"I asked if you wanted to come." Wheeljack's head fins blinked rapidly into her ogling optics.
"Huh? Go where?" she asked intelligibly.
"To the Dinobot den to help me with maintenance."
Anything was better than sitting around Perceptor's lab brooding about her past life or playing flash games so she gave him a nod.
Perceptor stayed behind as she followed Wheeljack who cradled a large metal toolbox overflowing with parts. Some pieces kept falling out that Livewire would scoop up in her mouth and deposit in the box Wheeljack would lower just enough for her to drop parts in without stopping.
Livewire had just finished retrieving a coiled shock absorber when she asked, "What are the Dinobots?"
Wheeljack's optics brightened. "You'll love them. I created them to resemble earth's physically powerful ancient creatures."
There was only one conclusion she could come to. "You made Dinosaur robots?" She felt a little jealous and wondered why he hadn't made her a dinosaur. It would have been so much cooler than a wolf.
"Of course I did. Your planet has exceptionally interesting biological designs. They're minimalistic yet still magnificently functional and versatile."
She canted her head, wondering if he had seen other planets with different kinds of life. She would have asked if she hadn't been blinded by sunlight. Livewire froze at the entrance of the Ark as a cool autumn breeze brushed across her armor. Her sensors told her the direction of the wind, but she couldn't feel it with the same sensitivity as human skin. Grass crunched under her paws and the dirt caved unnaturally at her new weight; her soul ached with the remembrance of what the world should feel like outside of her new shell. Livewire's frame rattled with a chill that traveled down her spine and a soft whine escaped her vocals.
Wheeljack was several paces ahead when she stepped the rest of the way out from the shadow of the Ark's open mouthed entrance. The sun beat down on her armor and her optics dimmed to accommodate for the harsh light. It didn't feel warm and inviting like it used to, she felt like an alien to her own planet. Livewire kicked up dirt and with a few long strides was back by Wheeljack's side, her head hung low and taking how her metal paws crushed the earth under them.
"Here we are." Wheeljack put his box of parts down in front of a massive cave entrance and put his hands on his hips.
Livewire took a cautious step inside to take a look and all she could see was darkness - until several pairs of brilliant blue optics ignited. A feral roar reverberated from the cave and she leapt out of the way of a column of fire so hot it could have singed her armor if it were a few degrees closer. That she felt. The heat was so intense that her natural reaction was to get away as fast as possible even though another part of her suggested she would have been fine.
"What is that?!" She ducked behind Wheeljack and bared her fangs as a large gray mass exited the cave. The first thing that emerged was a mouth full of teeth big enough to bite her clean in two followed by the unmistakable mass of a robotic tyrannosaurus rex.
"Good morning Grimlock." Wheeljack said cheerfully.
Grimlock lowered his massive upper girth and nudged his snout into Wheeljack's hand. "You bring energon treats? Grimlock love energon treats."
"Of course. A well behaved Dinobot like you deserves them."
"Grimlock been a good Dinobot, keep others from eating small animals and setting forest on fire."
Wheeljack bent over the toolbox to pull out a handful of energon sticks and used his free hand to pry the behemoth's mouth open. He dropped the acrid-sweet smelling energon into Grimlock's mouth and snap his hand away before the dinosaur could add his body parts to the meal. Grimlock made loud snapping noises, gobbling the treats up like an alligator.
"Energon treats delicious," he said happily and slapped his tail against the cave wall, sending loose boulders at the entrance crashing to the ground. "Grimlock says get out here or Grimlock eat all the energon treats." His thunderous shout echoed into the cave and there was a click of silence before a triceratops emerged from the darkness. Behind it a stegosaurus and a diplodocus lumbered slowly out. All four of them towered over Wheeljack and Livewire.
"Wheeljack bring energon treats for Slag?" The triceratops nudged his nose towards Wheeljack's hand full of another batch of energon.
"No, he brought treats for Sludge." Sludge's long neck reached over Slag and plucked a stick from Wheeljack's fist.
"No fair." Slag slammed his horned head into Sludge's side, sending the Dinobot toppling sideways with a snarl.
"I'll show you fair." Sludge opened his mouth wide and sent a jet of fire at Slag's face.
Livewire tried to step around Wheeljack to better see what was going on, but he pushed her back several feet and moved with her to avoid being kicked by a giant foot as the Dinobots turned on each other.
Grimlock roared and swung around to smash his tail on the backs of Sludge and Snarl. "Grimlock order you to stop. Wheeljack here to bring treats and make us fight better. He no can do that when you fight. Save anger for Decepticons."
The quarreling Dinobots released each other from their fangs and bowed their heads silently in submission.
Grimlock's arms were just long enough that he could cross them as he glowered. "That better."
"What is that tiny thing?" the stegosaurus that hadn't joined the short brawl hissed. It stretched around Wheeljack to get a better look and Livewire met the dinosaur with an entranced gaze.
"Ah, this. Snarl, Grimlock, Sludge, Slag." The large 'bots gave their full attention to Wheeljack. "Meet Livewire. Livewire, meet the Dinobots."
Grimlock's snout came within inches of her optics and sniffed around her body like a bloodhound looking for a scent.
"What this Livewire for?" Sludge groused and slapped his tail on the ground unhappily.
"It look like that tiny Decepticon." Slag pawed at the ground, lowered his head, and shook it aggressively.
Wheeljack put his outstretched arm between her and the Dinobots. "She's not a Decepticon, she's an Autobot I built like you, but not."
"Like us, but not? Sludge not know what that mean. Either Livewire is or is not a Dinobot."
"That tiny thing no Dinobot. Looks more like a snack." Slag turned his massive frilled head up and to the side, critically gauging her defensive stance.
Wheeljack held a palm full of energon treats out to them like a peace offering. "Livewire isn't a Dinobot in the physical sense." Slag tried to snap away the energon, but Wheeljack pulled them just out of reach. "But she's new and not fully antiquated with the Autobots like you are."
Livewire wasn't sure what he was getting at, but something about what he said had Grimlock's cognitive gears turning.
"Livewire was built by Wheeljack like us Dinobots." The aforementioned engineer nodded at the contemplative T-rex. "That make her one of us even if she tiny like that one annoying Decepticon. She look weak, but we Dinobots can make her tough."
Livewire wasn't sure if she liked the idea of giant dinosaurs with brutish tendencies trying to make her tougher. She was beginning to wonder about Wheeljack's sanity for bringing her out here.
A shadow raced over their heads and a giant metal bird shape landed gracefully on the cave's entrance with its wings extended and its elongated head tilted sideways to look at the group below. It folded its enormous wingspan against its body like a bat and opened its serrated beak. "Tiny Livewire is a weird Dinobot and not Dinobot."
Wheeljack made a sound akin to clearing his throat. "That would be the last of the group, Swoop."
The pterodactyl briefly opened his wings and let out a bellowing screech of, "Me Swoop!" before deflating like a ruffled bird.
"Slag no care what Livewire is. Slag hungry." The triceratops knocked over Wheeljack's toolbox, scattering tools and parts across the grass. He pierced a metal container with the tip of his beak, revealing a glow of pink.
"Be patient, let me get that." Wheeljack pushed against the Dinobot's head and Slag stepped back so Wheeljack could press a button on the side of the container, popping the top off for easy access to the energon inside. He turned it upside down and dumped a pile larger than what could physically fit inside of a container the size of his hand.
"How did you do that?" Livewire asked, still shocked that she hadn't been disemboweled.
"Oh, this? I designed it to have a subspace capability that-"
"Not that," she interrupted. "How did you get them to change their mind so easily?"
Wheeljack was picking up parts off the ground, cradling them in one arm. "Easy, just talk to them in simple terms - and don't make any sudden movements."
"Wheeljack!" She huffed and the engineer shoved a wrench in her direction which she automatically took in her mouth.
"Just teasing. Talk plainly and make sure Grimlock is the one to understand what you're trying to say and things usually turn out alright." He stood and walked over to Snarl who had his head buried in the pile of energon that was encircled by the Dinobots. "Bring that over here, would you?"
Livewire trotted cautiously to Wheeljack's side, mindful of the giant spiked tail only a few feet away. He dropped his burden on the ground and pulled off Snarl's shoulder plate. The inside was caked with dirt and detritus, and to Livewire's untrained eye, a few of the components looked well worn.
Wheeljack took the wrench from her jaws and tapped it against Snarl's side. "I'm going to show you how to care for a Dinobot."
The two of them worked methodically on each Dinobot, clearing away dirt with special solvents and replacing stripped parts that, according to Wheeljack, had to be replaced every six months because of the immense amount of stress the Dinobots put on their bodies from throwing their weight around. Grimlock was the worst off with a partially busted knee joint, it had taken them several hours to fix that alone. Eventually, they made it to the last Dinobot who was mercifully the cleanest and in need of the least amount of repairs, Swoop.
Livewire had just finished scraping some dirt out of a crevice of armor with her claws when she wondered aloud, "How come I've never seen the Dinobots on the news?"
Wheeljack strained to tighten the last thread of a bolt into Swoop's wing joint. "The human government said something about them being a necessary evil, but bad press so they don't let the media shoot any footage of them. It's ridiculous if you ask me."
Swoop flapped his wings, dislodging Wheeljack and ignoring the engineer's unhappy squawk. "The humans no like us Dinobots. They think we dumb and break too much of their stuff."
Harsh words, even if they were directed at robotic dinosaurs with a speech impediment. Livewire could understand the concern, but didn't know why they were treated so poorly. "I don't think you're dumb."
Swoop chirped and nudged her with the tip of his beak. "Me Swoop like Livewire. You not mean like other Autobots and humans."
She wondered if he would be singing a different tune if he knew she used to be human, but she welcomed the complement.
Wheeljack threw the worn bolt from Swoop's wing into his toolbox and attempted to wipe away some of the grime on his hands. "That should do it. They're good to go until the next battle."
Livewire was pawing at a stray wire she found half impounded into the dirt when his comment struck a chord. "Have you been fighting the Decepticons a lot lately?" She hadn't had the chance to catch up on recent news.
Wheeljack's demeanor darkened and his shoulders slumped forwards. "There's been a slight spike in their activity, but nothing significant. Their latest targets have been abandoned mines and the occasional human energon factory."
She wondered what mines had to do with anything. If they were old they probably didn't have many precious minerals left behind. Then again, the Decepticons had a habit of going after the strangest and seemingly most useless things and turning them into death machines. They were resourceful if nothing else.
Wheeljack hefted up his toolbox. "Let's head back to the Ark."
The sun had almost set by the time they made back to the mouth of the ship that had crashed into the side of Mount St. Hilary over a millennia ago. At the entrance a mostly blue Autobot was leaning against the exterior wall, his attention engaged with a data pad as a slimmer and distinctly feminine 'bot fumed next to him.
"Are you even listening to me?"
The mech noncommittally nodded his head. "I hear you Arcee, but I'm not going to stop any time soon. There's just too much the Autobots could gain, that I could uncover."
"You're going to get yourself killed! What if you get sucked in and can never come back? What good would you be to the Autobots then?"
"Evening Skids, Arcee," Wheeljack greeted.
Arcee, the light blue femme with pink accents crossed her arms and turned angrily towards Wheeljack. "Help me knock some sense into this guy. Everything I say goes in one audio receptor and out the other." She tugged her optics in Skid's direction several times. The mech was still reading his data pad as if she had said nothing at all.
Wheeljack managed to shrug despite the tool box taking up both his hands. "What do you want me to do about it? If you and Prime can't change his mind, no one can."
Arcee rolled her optics and dropped her arms to her sides. "I'm not giving up."
"Arcee, please. I came out here to get some peace and quiet." Skids said in the least condescending way possible. He finally looked up and his optics brightened upon seeing Livewire. "Taking your new invention out for a test run?"
"No." Wheeljack said brusquely. "Just doing some routine repairs on the Dinobots."
Skids slumped further into the wall. "I still don't understand why you keep them around. They led to an important discovery, but the possibilities of their ability on the battle field have fallen into a repeating rut of wonton destruction."
For the first time Livewire witnessed Wheeljack's faux wings twitch. "The Dinobots aren't something you can just throw away. They're sentient," he said evenly.
"About as sentient as a drone hell bent on destroying its creator. Wheeljack, they aren't real Cybertronians. Their sparks aren't the real thing and it shows," Arcee cut in somberly.
Wheeljack looked between the two Autobots quietly and hefted his load to get a better grip on it. "I need to finish repairing Ironhide's favorite blaster. You know how he gets when he doesn't have Maybelline in working order. If you'll excuse me."
"Ironhide trusts you with that?" Skids asked offhandedly.
Livewire followed Wheeljack inside and glanced back to Arcee holding one of the arms at her side, a frown on her face, and Skids already with his head buried in his data pad.
She slowed her steps as Wheeljack zeroed in on the hall ahead of them until she eventually stopped to watch him disappear around a corner. She had the distinct feeling he needed to be alone, a feeling she was all too familiar with. Her ears flattened and straightened repeatedly and she looked around the hallway, feeling at a loss. She was beginning to hate how dependent she was on Wheeljack and Perceptor for direction. Without them around she didn't know where to go or what to do. She didn't have an apartment to hole up in or a data pad with internet to drown herself in. In the Ark she felt like a guest who needed permission to go anywhere despite the free reign she was given to wonder its halls. No one seemed to outright object to her presence, anyway.
Her ears shot up and she and she took off at a casual run.
The mental map she had been forming in her head allowed her to trace her footsteps back to the surveillance room and its solidly closed door. She scratched at it with and a moment later it swished open.
"Who-oh. What's Wheeljack's thing doing here?" Sideswipe looked down at her with unabashed disappointment.
"Nice to see you too," she greeted flatly. "Can I come in?"
"Whatever." Sideswipe slinked back into the room, leaving the door open.
Inside Red Alert was plugged into the surveillance computer, typing away at the touch sensitive board, while a familiar black and white Autobot was lounging in an adjacent char, one leg swung over his knee and his foot bobbing to a beat only he could hear. Jazz stopped tapping the back of his seat as Sideswipe took up a third chair to resume his post in the cramped room.
"Well hello there. I didn't expect to be seeing you again so soon." Jazz uncrossed his legs and smiled down at Livewire, but remained sitting back in his chair. "What brings you here?"
"I was wondering if I could see footage from Decepticon attacks during the last six months," Livewire stated.
Jazz's welcoming smile waivered. "What do you need to see those for?"
"I heard the Decepticons were attacking abandoned mines and no one knew why. I wanted to run through the footage to see if there was anything that might have been overlooked."
Jazz leaned forward. "I'm pretty sure Red Alert has combed through them already, but I suppose it won't hurt to take a second look." He elbowed the mech next to him, snapping Red Alert to the present and receiving a glare that hardly phased Jazz who motioned to Livewire. "Little Wire here wants to wants to take a look at some surveillance footage."
Red Alert pivoted his chair to stare wide-eyed at Livewire and pointed and shot an accusing finger her way. "When did she get in here? I didn't see her on any of the cameras, she wasn't heading this way. Get out! I won't have sneaky abominations in the security room!" Red Alert stood abruptly, startling Sideswipe into finally looking up.
Livewire's hackles rose and her legs spread out into a defensive squat. "I'm just trying to help," she said, guarded.
"No, you can't help because you're a spy against the Autobots, I know it. Get out before I eradicate you right here," Red Alert seethed.
Sideswipe gave Red Alert an incredulous look. "Don't you think you're exaggerating? What makes her so special compared to everyone else that you have to go and blow an extra gasket over?"
Red Alert's hands moved through the air as if he were contemplating grasping something and squeezing the life out of it. "I'm not exaggerating. Livewire is a serious security threat and shouldn't be allowed in here let alone have access to sensitive information."
"That didn't answer my question," Sideswipe mumbled.
Jazz stood and used his arms to motion her backwards. "I'll get her out of your wires, just cool your jets."
Livewire was escorted out of the room and the door closed to the security room with a menacing hiss.
"What did I do?" She asked the saboteur. There wasn't a single thing she could think of that she might have done to offend the security officer so thoroughly. It made her more angry than confused. She hadn't done a darned thing to him.
"It's nothing you did." Jazz patted her between her ears much the same way Bluestreak usually would. "He just hasn't warmed up to the idea of you being previously human."
Her jaw fell open and her chest began to throb. "Wh-how do you know?"
"Optimus told me along with the other officers, including Red back there." Jazz pointed backwards at the door they had just exited. "Don't worry about it too much. He gets his belts in a knot whenever there's something he doesn't understand and can't lock it up in a maximum security vault."
"When did you find out? When did Optimus?" She hadn't approached the Autobot leader yet and to her knowledge neither had Perceptor nor Wheeljack.
"I found out this morning, I don't know about Optimus."
It had to have been Perceptor. She hadn't seen him for most of the day. The next time she saw him she was going to give him a piece of her mind. She had wanted to tell Optimus Prime personally. "You believe I'm human?"
Jazz bent down, put a hand under his chin, and rocked forwards on the balls of his pedes to get a closer look. "Aren't you?"
"Yes, but I didn't think anyone would believe me." She leaned away from his keen optics.
"I wasn't sure what to believe when I heard it," Jazz admitted, "but Optimus is taking your claim seriously so I might as well follow his lead until I decide if you really are human or not for myself. The only one who didn't take it well was Prowl. The poor fellow blew another logic circuit." He grinned with morbid satisfaction at the last part.
Jazz stood back to his normal height. "Livewire, right?"
She nodded slowly, wondering what would happen if he decided she wasn't human, or if she was. Livewire still wasn't sure which scenario would be worse.
"I'll see what I can do about those tapes so don't worry about Red Alert. He's just doing his job and tends to jump the gun a bit."
A bit? She wanted to ask, but instead said, "Are you sure that's alright? If he really doesn't want me to see them I won't push it." She was still trying not to piss off any of the giant robots for her own health.
"It can't hurt. It's not like the Decepticon's activities are a secret and I'll take help where I can get it. You don't seem like the diabolical kind anyhow."
"You barely know me," she said skeptically.
"True," Jazz smirked, "but I'm an excellent judge of character."
A thrumming sound made Livewire's ears twitched and she looked curiously past Jazz who followed her gaze.
"What are you-" Jazz began until a go cart-like contraption veered wildly around the corner.
"Look out!" A high pitch squeal that could only belong to a human reverberated above the buzzing engine the vehicle. It shot under their feet Jazz and Livewire pranced around the rocketing object to avoid having their pedes run over.
Livewire blinked owlishly at the runaway cart wavering back and forth down the opposite hall. "What did I just see?"
"Scrap!" Jazz transformed into his Porsche alt mode to race after the human and Livewire took off to join him.
Author's note: A quick thank you and shout out to gillian of arenal for suggesting the addition of Skids.