The Human Prime

Chapter 6: The Message

Artemis lay on the couch, her head stuck in a book. However, she was not reading, but thinking. Her mind stuck on the incomplete armor that lay on the coffee table beside her. If only she had spare metal to make her chest piece. Then Ratchet accidently dropped a repair piece on the ground which made her brain spark into action. She shot up and looked at him.

He was shaking his head at the dented piece in her servo, but began to use it for repairs anyways. She got closer to his work and found him constructing a claw like device from scratch. Most likely it was a piece that had been broken a while ago that could not be salvaged, but reconstructed. Artemis thought about waiting instead of interrupting him, but it would not lay to rest.

"Ratchet." He huffed in response which made her believe he heard her. "Do you have any spare metal lying around that I can use?" He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her with a questioning look. "Like, heavy metal, not the light stuff I used for the railings."

"For what?" Ratchet didn't wait for the answer before returning to his work. She looked back at her armor then at Ratchet.

"I need it for my armor. I have one final piece to make." He hummed in response again and continued his steady work. Artemis waited patiently for his answer knowing that he wouldn't answer right away. When he remained silent for more time then she would have liked, she went in for the kill. "There are some things that Optimus cannot protect me from.

Ratchet stopped, but did not look at her. He put down his tools and sighed heavily. She knew he didn't have a reason to believe her. They have only been living there for a few days and didn't have a chance to really talk about anything. To her surprise, Ratchet extended his hand towards her.

"Come on, I'm sure we have something."

Artemis POV

When Ratchet brought me to the back where they kept most of the supplies, I didn't expect to find a metallic paradise. I stood open jawed at the stacks of parts and sheets of titanium and iron. I had to stop myself from drooling it was so beautiful.

"Will this suffice?" Ratchet extended his hand towards the room and I nodded dumbly. He began to walk away, but paused and turned his head towards me. "Just don't use it all and don't play around."

"You have my word Ratchet." I said to him and watched him nod then leave. With him away I began testing metals for perfection, looking at wires with exact or extra length, boards for quality. I was a girl on a mission; not even Ratchet's screaming could make me stop.

Now and again I did stop and hear a whispering. I attempted to ignore it because I was busy with important work, but when I did it would seem to get louder. Hearing voices wasn't good. It meant that a memory was slowly beginning to show itself, and slow occurring ones were never happy, or Primus needed to tell me something, urgently. Under normal circumstances, I would stop what I was doing and attempt to dream so I could talk to him, but this was an opportunity that I could pass up; at least gathering the materials.

For the rest of the time I ignored the whispers and gathered what I needed. I would cringe now and then when the whispered turned into loud rumbling. Even during my walk back to the main room, I attempted to keep perfectly normal and pretend everything was fine. Though, when I got back and sat on the couch to try and attempt contact, the whispers were gone.

Many Hours Later

Artemis worked tediously on the new armor piece in complete silence. Ratchet, not used to such silence from a human, even checked up on her to make sure she was still alive time and again. Sometimes on such a checkup, she would smile at him and hold up her welder or clamp.

When she was finished with the outer shell, she began on the technological enhancements which she would reference to some notes she took on Primus' teachings when she had trouble remembering. Though, Artemis had found herself looking less and less in the books and becoming more reliant on plain memory. When she would stop to give her hands and concentration a rest, she pulled out her deceased Autobots book and began thinking of the emblems she would put on the back. The front, she decided, would be dedicated to the Autobot logo.

During the time she was finishing her work, she heard loud buzzes and laughter. Artemis raised her head to find Rafael and Bumblebee in the base. Looking at her watch, she found it wasn't time for school to end and stood up. Raf was not the type to skip school for any reason.

"Rafael, what are you doing here so early?" Artemis looked almost worried. She wasn't his mother, but she couldn't help but feel responsible for him.

"Oh, my mom had an eye doctor's appointment for me today. We got done late so she let me stay home for the rest of the school day. I had Bumblebee pick me up. I'm sorry, was I too loud?" He frowned knowing that he was laughing rather loudly upon entering the base.

"No, no, it's fine. I was just curious, that's all." She smiled at him. Such a young boy being so polite and responsible, her hopes were that he would never lose that as innocence lessens with age.

"Your hands are burnt, are you working on something?" He pointed to her hands which had a few red marks, but nothing serious.

"Well, yes. Come here, let me show you." Artemis never had the joy of showing off her work to anyone, but Sam, who wasn't great company some times. "This is a chest plate for my armor. It'll protect my chest and back from blaster fire and any other aggressive advance."

"You have armor?" He looked at the chest plate which seemed to be incomplete, but almost finished. She had forgotten that he had never seen her fully clothed in her armor.

"Yes, it's for battle against the Decepticons and… other dangerous beings." Artemis hesitated to tell him anything about what she had to go up against.

"You made this all by yourself? That's so cool!" Raf beamed at the glistening armor as if it were a holy grail. She smiled and believed him to be great company.

"Yeah, and I got something else too." She went to a pile of boxes and pulled out from behind them a metal board, complex in nature with no wheels.

"What's that?" He took the board as she handed it to him.

"You know those hover boards from science fiction movies? Those, accept better." She smiled as he began to shout in hyped up excitement.

"Can I ride it sometime?" He asked in a polite manner, but she frowned a little.

"Well, my boots magnetize to the board so you don't get jerked off. It wouldn't be safe for you to ride on it by yourself, but I would be happy to give you a ride sometime. It's easy to fit two people on it at once, just the matter of foot position." She saw that his joy did not change when he heard he could not ride alone, but an expression of complete acceptance. It seems he wasn't much for excitement or danger, but was more into the mellow situations. Though, a scientific device like this one was an exception to the rule. "Maybe tomorrow, when you get home from school, okay?"

"Okay." He nodded then looked at the TV. Artemis immediately noticed his attraction to the device and moved the coffee table away so that he could have free use of it. "Um, would you mind playing a game with me?"

"A game?" She saw him hold up a controller when she realized he meant video games. He must not have a lot in common for he was younger than the others, but for the most part was left alone. He must be crazing some interaction from someone other than his trust friend Bumblebee. Looking at her work she figured she could spare a few moments. "Sure, why not."

Artemis sat down next to Rafael and listened as he explained the button uses for the particular game. She nodded occasionally to express that she was with him. Then they began their video game battle royal.

Night Time

Sam got out of the race car and jumped up as Wheeljack transformed. She was obsessively loud despite Jack and Rafael trying to hush her down. She had been driving around with Wheeljack the entire day and the drive did not affect her jolt of energy. In fact, it put it into overdrive.

"Artemis, Artemis, you wouldn't believe it! Wheeljack must have hit two hundred miles per hour!" Sam ran up the stairs, but instead of seeing her Artemis' smiling face and rolling eyes, she found her fast asleep on the couch, screw driver in her lap. Sam immediately covered her mouth with her hands.

"She fell asleep around the third round between Miko and me." Jack whispered half way up the stairs. Sam nodded and backed away slowly, but unfortunately she stepped on a stray wrench which caused a lot of clatter. Artemis groaned and shifted her head up slowly.

"Sam, that you?" She rubbed her neck and looked right at Sam. "Where you run off to?"

"Wheeljack took me for a joy ride. It was great!" Sam almost screamed then Artemis waved her to settle down. Sam covered her mouth again and lowered to a whisper. "Sorry."

"Thanks for entertaining her Wheeljack." She gave a genuine smile to the Wrecker who was preparing to head to his ship for the night.

"No problem, see ya tomorrow." He smirked then transformed and drove out the entrance. Artemis waved at him as he left then rubbed her eyes.

"Artemis, don't you want to hear about my day?" Sam watched her wobble towards the elevator. "Or help me with my homework?" She coughed indiscreetly.

"When you're done with your homework and no, try it and then ask me for help." Artemis noticed Optimus come in from his scouting and her curiosity peeked. She bypassed Sam and made her way straight to Optimus, leaning against the railing. "You've been out all day."

"I'm afraid in vain. I did not locate any knew Energon deposits." He sounded almost depressed and who could blame him. He had the others to take care of, a whole unit to supply Energon to. Even if the unit was rather small.

"I'm sure one will turn up sooner or later. One must simply look for it. If you want, I can help you look for one tomorrow." She saw his face turn a little puzzled, as if he was thinking whether to accept or decline the offer. "Optimus, please, let me help."

"Alright, I suppose I could use some assistance." He finally said while sighing from exhaustion.

"Thank you." Artemis smiled at him before noticing the others beginning to leave. She looked at Rafael in which she promised a ride to. "Just as long as I can keep my promise too."

Tomorrow Afternoon

Artemis slipped on her armor after taking a short break from Energon scouting. Optimus was about to head out as Bumblebee drove in from school. Rafael jumped out from the car and saw her standing with the board under her arm.

"Optimus, I'll see you later, okay? Don't push yourself to hard." She smiled as he gave her a nod and left through the ground bridge. He knew of the promise she had made Raf yesterday. "Okay, ready Rafael?"

"How do you ride that thing with no wheels for balance?" He watched her come down the stairs and toss the board onto the ground.

"Well, a few safety procedures to go over first." She pointed to her boots. "My boots can magnetize to the board, but you won't be able to stay on if we jerk or turn. I'm going to have my arm across your chest, you hold onto that arm."

"Okay." He nodded and watched her point to the points on the boards.

"Now, when I get on, I'm going to help you on. I want you to put your right foot to the left of mine where your toe matches up with the back of my heel. Your left foot she line up with mine to the right of it. Understand so far?" She saw him nod and she nodded back. "And relax; it's just like hacking a computer."

Rafael laughed and waited as she mounted the board and got it warmed up. In only a few seconds the board began floating off the ground with Artemis on top. She took a minute to balance herself before reaching out for Rafael's hand. Rafael took her hand reluctantly, but did just as he was instructed. Amazingly, it wasn't bad; in fact it felt like he was light as a feather.

"You ready?" Artemis asked which he nodded and squeezed her arm tightly. "Ratchet, we'll be back later. Make sure everyone knows I didn't spontaneously combust. Okay?" Ratchet waved his head towards her in signal that he got it. She slipped on her visor so that she could test out a few modifications as they rode. "Hold tight."

With that, she leaned forward on the board and it zoomed past Bumblebee, who followed them in vehicle mode. She couldn't help, but smile at the young boy clinging to her arm who was grinning in deep delight as well. It was times like these that she was happy to have a visor for the wind whipped around her and she wasn't sure if she could take the full force of it blowing in her eyes. Rafael luckily had his body tucked in towards hers so his exposure to the wind was minimal.

"Faster?" He asked which shocked her completely. However, she nodded and shouted above the raging wind.

"This will be my version of a 'maximum overdrive.'" Quoting her Autobot friends amused not on her, but Raf. She stepped her left foot off the board for a second then placed it about an inch lower than her last position. On cue, the board shifted into an entirely new gear. Bumblebee was left in her dust since he had no clue that she was going into overdrive, but he immediately change his speed to keep up.

"This is so cool!" He screamed as loud as his tiny voice could go. When Rafael was completely preoccupied with the speed, she began to check out her features.

"Hey Ratchet, you there?" She said into the headset's new com-link feature. There was a long pause then finally she got a response.

"Artemis? You found a way to get a communications link to our base?" His voice came in a little buzzy, but she managed to get it all.

"Just a few tweaks to my headset and it were ready to go, though it was hard to match its channel and frequency. Can you find my position?" Again she waited for him to confirm the life signal she programed into her chest plate and the computers back at base. If all when well, he could be able to read her vitals and find her location from where he stood at the computer's keys.

"Yes, I can. I also can see your heart rate is beating quickly, Are you in trouble?" He sounded so worried, how sweet of Ratchet.

"No, just been awhile since I felt the rush of hover boarding. I'll be back later; you know how to reach me now if you need me." With that she hung up. Rafael seemed to have enough with going straight. Now, it was time for some real fun.

At Canyon

Sam was sitting in the driver's side of the radical car. She smiled and looked out the window as were getting close to where Wheeljack had got beaten by Artemis. They were going to where he hid the Jackhammer for safe keeping not too far from that point. It would give them something to do until Jack got out of work and Miko got out of detention. Suddenly, Wheeljack stopped which alarmed her.

"Why'd you stop Jacky?" Sam unbuckled and got out, him immediately transforming.

"Look." Wheeljack pointed to a huge black box of metal at least a third of the size as he was. She ran up to it without thinking and he was unsuccessful to stop her. "Looks like it has Cybertronian markings on it." He drew his blade from where it mounted behind him and poked the box.

"Hey, these are the kind of things Artemis draws on her books and stuff. She must have made it." She traced her fingers over the purple markings. "Not to mention it's too small for a bot or a bot invention, isn't it?"

"If you insist that smarty pants friend of yours made it, it shouldn't be dangerous, but why put something like that way out here." He put his blade back behind him.

"Maybe it was supposed to be a surprise gift or something. Come on let's bring it back to base!" She pushed it, but wasn't surprised when it didn't budge.

"Wait, if it's a surprise, wouldn't doing that ruin the surprise?" Wheeljack raised his metal brow which she only waved him off.

"That's the point. She's like my sister; I ruin my like-sisters surprises and make it not a surprise anymore. Come on let's haul this thing back to base." As instructed, Wheeljack picked up the giant cube and contacted Ratchet to bridge them to base.

At Base Soon After

Sam, Jack, and Miko all stood in front of the block pondering the contents. Ratchet, after seeing what Wheeljack brought in, was eager to examine it. As he put it, it seemed different than something Artemis would make. When Miko and Jack got back from their previous engagements, Optimus too returned from his scouting bring back little result.

"Maybe it's like a helper, to clean stuff and stuff." Sam knocked on it and only heard a slight echo as if there were spaces inside.

"Does this look anything you use on Cybertron? I mean if Artemis knows a lot about it, she could make something of that nature right?" Jack asked, but Arcee shook her head.

"Nothing like this, it doesn't ring a bell." She looked over at Ratchet and Optimus who admitted they have never seen such a device.

"Man Jacky, it's never a dull moment with you around." Bulkhead slammed his servo against Wheeljack's back which he took as a compliment.

"Yeah well you know me, the exciting follows me like a scraplet." He returned to watching the kids poke at the mysterious cube.

"I wonder what Artemis made this time!" Sam squealed then heard footsteps coming through the tunnel. Rafael and Bumblebee came walking in, Bumblebee breaking off away to sit down. Rafael came by the other kids and looked up at the odd box too.

"What is it that I made this time?" Artemis asked she walked in from the tunnel, taking off her headset. When she got the hair out of her face, she stopped dead in her tracks. The first thing her eyes laid on was the black box covered in purple markings and every alarm in her body went off at once. She dropped her headset and waved her arm. "GET AWAY FROM THAT NOW!"

Artemis POV

Right as I screamed, the box transformed. It was a vicious, skeletal looking beast that reminded me somewhat of a tiger. I stumbled back to get a shot as it leapt forward towards me, the Autobots stunned and still trying to react to what just happened. Before I could ready my blaster for a well enough shot, the beast locked its jaws around my left arm. My gifted arm; it was at the point that I realized it was made to get the Matrix shard away from me and wouldn't activate until I was nearby.

The beasts claws skidded across the floor of the base, unable to get a good enough grip to stop. Due to that fact, it crashed me first into the wall. I could feel my head begin get wet with a sticky liquid. I knew right away that I was bleeding. The bots struggled to attack for if they shot or sliced and missed they could definitely kill me.

"Get off me!" I yelled furiously at the beast who only seemed to shake me harder and this time scraping me against the wall. It growled and snarled and I could feel its teeth sinking into my arm deeper and deeper. Either this thing had to get off my arm or my arm was going to get off me.

"Artemis!" Sam was screaming in the background and I knew in the back of my head that she was going to faint from the puddle of blood that was forming beneath me. I regained my bearings and hoisted myself up on the beast's muzzle.

"I said GET OFF!" I jammed my blaster against its optics, right where it would fry the brain if the blast went through, and let loose. The beast immediately dropped my and stumbled back, it looked walked like a chicken with its head cut off. Optimus put the thing out of its misery, slicing the monster in two. Wheeljack as a sympathetic gesture crushed its head beneath his foot for good measure.

"Are you okay? Dude that's a lot of blood." Miko was the first to run up to me, but I stopped her short so she wouldn't step in my blood. I felt the back of my head with my good hand and it felt like a very minor concussion.

"Jack, call your mom, tell her to bring LOTS of stiches." He nodded, already dialing. "Rafael, go get a mop and bucket please." Rafael complied and ran off to find the mop and bucket. "Miko-" I could see Sam beginning to rock a little. "MIKO CATCH SAM!" Miko just managed to catch Sam before she hit the ground. Everyone was very surprised on how calm I was being about all this. Guess they forgot my sister stabbed me in the chest.

Sam POV

I saw the blood leaking from her. It was everywhere. In my mind, I could see it splattering on me. My brain panicked as if she were already dead. My breathing hitched even after the beast was destroyed and Wheeljack gave the final blow. I was shaking; it was just like my father's incident all over again.

I could hear the screaming of the people around me as my father hit the ground with several gun shots in his torso. Then I could see blood, everywhere. It was like a horror film. It was just everywhere. I thought I stopped breathing as my body tilted back and forth.

"MIKO CATCH SAM!" I could hear in the background, but I didn't know who said it or where they were. The last thing I felt was arms hooking under my own and then everything went black.

Coming to

Artemis noticed Sam begin to stir and put her good arm's hand on top of her forehead. She wasn't scared more than concerned that it would take her very long to wake up. June scolded Artemis about running off and taking her food before tending to the wounds then sat back in surprise as she told her how quickly her body healed.

Optimus and Ratchet were examining the remains of the beast and came to the conclusion that it was human made, but were stumped by the Cybertronian writing. The writing unfortunately had become unreadable after the monsters destruction.

"Artemis, you're okay." Sam groaned and took her hand. "Well for the most part." She looked at the wounded arm and found it bandaged heavily.

"I'll survive." Artemis got off Sam's metal bed and walked over to the damaged beast. "It looks like whoever made it made off of junkyard scraps."

"So?" Wheeljack was kneeling beside Sam's bed, comforting her.

"Meaning it wasn't meant to last to long." She heard Ratchet gasp which made everyone turn towards him.

"This monstrosity was fueled…by dark Energon." He stepped away from it and went to find something to contain the substance. She got closer and touched what was leaking from its severed body. The contact made me feel woozy and my left arm stung.

"Made by a human…fueled by dark Energon." Artemis stood up and placed a hand over her face.

"What's wrong Artemis?" Sam leaned up from where she laid. Artemis folded her arms and turned to Sam.

"This beast was meant to kill me and take the matrix shard. It was made by a human and was fueled by dark Energon with unreadable Cybertronian script." She gritted her teeth and looked back at the beast. "This thing was made by my sister."