Ch. 15
Arcee suddenly froze in place as she saw Jack flying right at the group of Vehicons. 'Jack what the frag are you doing!?' Jack suddenly opened fire on the group, catching them completely by surprise. Jack aimed at the energon being carried by the Decepticon shock troopers. Suddenly, he hit a shard of the blue crystals causing them to erupt in a flash of blue light. "Arcee, I'll distract them, head in to the area they came from and try and find the energon!"
At this, Arcee sprung into action as she ran through the woods to search for the energon in question. Arcee ran for a few minutes, keeping her optics leveled onto the sensor in her hand as it began to alarm, alerting her that the energon was nearby. "Where is it?" Suddenly, Arcee looked up to see her objective. "Holy Primus, this is the fragging jackpot!"
Looking down in a large crater, she saw an enormous energon deposit, easily large enough to power a space bridge. "Jack, we just hit the mother load!" Arcee stood there looking at the energon for a moment. "Jack, come in; can you hear me?" Arcee then heard a large explosion come from behind her. She looked back and then, the realization hit her. "Jack!" She flicked over to another comm. channel and spoke once more.
"Ratchet, we need the team here now! We got Con's and a lot of energon!" At that moment, the ground bridge appeared and out of the green vortex came the rest of the team, led by Optimus. "Optimus, Jack's taking on the Con's that way!" Arcee pointed in the direction of the blaster fire and explosions. Suddenly, two aerial Vehicons flew overhead, followed by an Apache attack chopper with blazing guns.
Arcee and the rest of the Autobots watched as Jack shot down one of the Vehicons and blew the other one into scrap with a pair of missiles. "That should be the last of the Cons Arcee; we should have a clean grab at the energon." Jack began to fly in a circle overhead as Optimus now spoke up through the open comm. channel. "Jack, this is Optimus, we will begin bringing the energon back to base. Can you keep watch from above?"
"Got it covered Prime, the Cons want this energon, they'll have to come through me." The vicious tone in Jack's voice had everyone slightly on edge at his intense anger. But Arcee spoke up now, getting everyone's attention. "Stay safe Jack, watch your' six up there." With that said, the Autobots began carrying the crystallized energon through the ground bridge at a slow but steady rate. Arcee had just brought another pile of energon into the base and was about to go back for another pile when she looked up at Jack's chopper flying overhead. 'Something's wrong…'
"Optimus, I'm gonna climb up to that cliff and keep watch with Jack, something's got him agitated and I need to talk with him." Optimus looked over at Arcee and acknowledged her before returning to the task at hand. Arcee reached the top of the cliff quickly as she was a natural climber with her slim build and opened up her comm. link to the private channel she shared with Jack. "Jack, it's me. You okay?"
Arcee looked outwards at the area as she spoke through the channel. Arcee waited for a few moments hoping for an answer, when she received none, she spoke up once more. "Jack, talk to me. What's wrong?" Arcee looked at the helicopter flying overhead hoping that Jack would answer. A few more tense moments of silence passed by before Jack finally spoke up. "I'm fine… I guess I was just…"
Arcee could hear what amounted to disappointment in Jack's voice as he spoke. "You just what? Talk to me." Arcee waited as she scanned the horizon for any sign of Decepticons. "I guess… I'm just disappointed that it was just foot soldiers out here…" This time, instead of disappointment, Arcee heard a disturbing combination of sadness and rage in Jack's voice. 'He's still out for Megatron's head…'
Arcee began to wonder just how much Jack hated the Decepticon warlord as she spoke up once more. "Jack, even if Megatron was here, what would you have done? He's got an aerial based alt form and he's just as deadly in the air as he is on the ground." Arcee hated that the Decepticons had this affect on her human, but when her thoughts were cut off when Optimus spoke up through a separate channel. "Arcee, Jack; we've finished bringing the energon to the base. We're pulling back to base."
With that said, Arcee was about to speak when Jack answered the Prime. "Copy that Optimus; we'll head back to base." Arcee looked up to see Jack's chopper begin to fly in the direction of the base at a brisk speed. 'He better be ready to talk when we get back to base.' With that thought, Arcee scaled down the cliff and walked through the ground bridge into the Autobot base to wait for Jack.
Boy, Jackson Darby is out for some serious payback for what happened to his dad. Coming up next: Jack and Arcee have a heart to 'spark' talk. ;)