Ch. 18
Jack woke up to the feeling of cold steel touching his bare skin. He opened his eyes and found himself strapped to a steel operating table that was currently standing in a vertical position that gave him a view of the room he was currently in. He saw several men and women in white coats. 'What the hell is all this about?'
Jack then saw an older man walk up in a sneaking suit similar to his own. The man in question had a scar over his left eye and a smirk on his face. "Ah, Colonel Darby; I trust you had a good rest?" Jack heard this and couldn't help the snide comment that followed. "Yeah, I caught myself a nice little nap on this revolving bed of yours."
Silas seemed to find this amusing as he decided to introduce himself. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Silas, commander of this group; you will come to know us as M.E.C.H." With that, one of the men wearing white lab coats walked up and spoke. "Commander, we're ready to begin the procedure."
Silas seemed to be pleased as his smirk grew all the more sinister. "Very well, sedate him but keep him awake. I wouldn't want him to miss the history that he will soon be a part of." Jack heard this and couldn't help but wonder just what the heck they had planned for him. "Just what are you planning Silas?"
Silas turned to look at Jack with the same smirk he had been wearing this entire time and spoke up with a very sinister tone. "We're going to help you Colonel Darby; you see, we are going to make you invincible; but first we are going to have to destroy the body you have now. You see Colonel; you are going to be the first of a new breed of super soldier, both human and machine. You will be rivaled by no one. Well except for your' large friends."
Jack suddenly began to put the pieces together and the realization began to sink in. 'Oh Primus, they're gonna turn me into a Cybertronian!' With that realization, the steel table he was on began to recline backwards and Jack soon found himself staring up into a bright surgical spot light. He suddenly felt a small prick in his left arm.
He looked up just in time to see a syringe come out of his arm; Jack tried to speak but he suddenly felt as if his entire body was as heavy as lead. He then heard a voice speak up. "Beginning the first stage of Project Jackknife." Jack was only able to watch as surgeons and scientists in surgery scrubs surrounded him.
He suddenly felt another needle plunge into his arm; it burned like hell as Jack suddenly felt as though fire was pouring through his arm. Soon after the injection given to Jack so that his heart wouldn't explode and Jack wouldn't die from the pain he was about to endure, the scientists began to wheel Jack into a large open room.
'If these guys think I'm gonna talk, then they're out of their god damned minds. I've been through worse than water boarding. He suddenly watched as a female nurse came up and began drawing lines on Jack's chest, arms and legs. She seemed to have a conflicted look on her face as she suddenly spoke up.
"Should he really be awake for this? We could have him fully sedated in no time at all." Jack then heard a deep silence before the nurse nodded and walked away. Jack soon found himself watching his surroundings as an array of needles was lowered down to where they were mere inches away from his body.
He could hear the sound of buttons being clicked and dials being turned and was suddenly brought back to his situation when he saw that the needles were actually syringes. 'This is gonna be a total clusterfu-" Jack was unable to complete this thought as the needles then burrowed into Jack's skin; stabbing into skin and bone; into his skull, arms, legs, and chest.
Jack felt as though he was being pumped with lava. Holy hell did it hurt like nothing he had ever experienced. Silas watched from a catwalk above as Jack was injected with a large quantity of calcium, iron, and potassium so that he would survive what Silas had in store. The injections were directly into the bones and lasted for about 3 minutes.
Soon after the needles retracted from Jack's body and to his surprise, very little blood was coming out of the wounds. 'Primus I'm glad that's over…' Jack soon felt as though he was about to eat those words as the doctors began to connect him to a very large machine. Silas watched and gave off commands as the final preparations of Project Jackknife were being handled. Prime the cellular remodeler; prepare for the final stage of the project."
With that, several scientists moved over to monitors and began typing in codes as schematics and signatures came up. "All systems go for transformation sir." Jack suddenly felt a sense of fear overtake him as he looked up at the ceiling. "Prepare yourself Colonel, you're about to go down in unrecorded history as the first of a new species. Commence transformation!"
And with that, the large machine began to hum and vibrate, as energy was shot into Jack's body. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Jack had never felt this kind of pain before in his life. It was worse than the needles by a hell of a ways. Jack suddenly heard a tearing noise as he saw his skin begin to reshape into metal and he began to grow at an alarming rate. Jack's vision suddenly went completely white as he heard himself cry out in bloody fucking agony as the transformation of his body was nearly completed.
Meanwhile, at the Autobot base,
"Optimus, I've picked up a Cybertronian life signature, it's not showing either Autobot or Decepticon though." Optimus looked over to the monitor at the blue life signature that was read out on the screen. "Where did it come from Ratchet?" The medic in question looked at his leader with a perplexed look on his face plates.
"I can't be certain Optimus, it just appeared out of nowhere." With that, the entire team began to file into the room as they had all heard the commotion. "Optimus, what's going on?" Arcee spoke up in a confused tone much like the one Ratchet was previously speaking in. "A Cybertronian life signature has appeared and we are going to find out who it is. Ratchet, activate the ground bridge and prep the med bay. We may need it when we return."
With that, the team; including Miko and Wheeljack ran through the bridge and found themselves in what appeared to be a large hallway. Each was wondering where they were when they heard an energon freezing cry come from further inside the base. "What the frag was that!?" Bumblebee had never heard that kind of cry of pain, even during the war.
"I don't know, but something tells me we'll find out sooner or later." Arcee had a neutral tone as she and the team activated their weapons. Miko pulled out her M4 as well when a hail of gunfire erupted from in front of the team, Miko used a few large crates as cover as she saw something that made her blood freeze.
"Optimus, these are the same guys that were at the town where Jack was taken!" Optimus and the team suddenly went wide eyed as they realized that their lost comrade might be in the vicinity. With that, Miko began to snipe the soldiers to thin them out as Arcee ran forward and grabbed a retreating scientist and then ran back to cover with the team.
For a time it was a stale mate as the M.E.C.H forces were able to hold off the Autobots until Miko threw a grenade cluster at the group. With the soldiers now reduced to grease stains on the floor. Optimus walked up to Arcee and looked at the scientist before speaking. "Where is Jackson Darby…?"
Back in the machine room
Jack's vision came back and he brought his hand to his head when his eyes suddenly snapped open. He looked at his hand and found it to look a lot like Optimus' hand. Jack soon sat up and saw that he was now at least 25 feet tall and now outweighed the scientists and troops around him by at least three tons.
Jack suddenly looked at one of the troops and smiled. "This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it's gonna hurt me." And with that, Jack swiped the soldier into a wall before running as gunfire erupted from all around him. Jack didn't stop as he continued to run down one of the large hallways. He soon heard a large speaker go off as a voice came in and rang throughout the base.
"Warning, all units; Project Jackknife is loose. Locate and recapture protocols are in effect; all shoot to kill protocols are restricted." Jack suddenly stopped in a large room to take a break and assess the situation he was currently in. "Looks like the cats out of the bag." Jack suddenly saw something from the corner of his eye.
He looked down to see a data disk that had the words 'Project Jackknife' written on it. "Better take this just in case I need to explain what happened to me." With that, Jack grabbed the disk and looked around on his chest. He had seen Bulkhead open up a storage compartment on his chest to take out Miko's guitar in the past; Jack soon found the compartment and placed the data disk inside, Jack then turned around and found himself at the end of a blade, literally.
Back with the Autobots
The scientist was in a death grip and didn't want to die so he decided to answer Optimus' question. "He's somewhere in the base, Silas was gonna use him for some big experiment, wanted to try and get on a level playing field with you things." With that, Optimus seemed sated with the answer as well as Arcee who then placed the terrified scientist back on the ground as he ran like the devil was on his heels.
"Wheeljack, move further into the base, see if you can find the Cybertronian, we will search for Jack." With that, Wheeljack ran into the base with his twin swords drawn. Wheeljack continued running as he began to think about the situation. "I pity the idiot that hurt Arcee's human; if she finds them, they're gonna wish they had never taken Jack in the first place."
Wheeljack turned a corner as he heard a speaker overhead go off. "Warning, all units; Project Jackknife is loose. Locate and recapture protocols are in effect; all shoot to kill protocols are restricted." Wheeljack heard this as he rounded another corner before hearing another voice around the next bend. "Looks like the cats out of the bag."
Wheeljack drew to a stop at the corner as he peaked around to see a silver trimmed bot that was a little taller than he was. He saw the bot look around when it seemed to see something. 'What are you doing here anyways?' Wheeljack thought to himself as he watched the bot pick up what looked like a data disk.
The bot studied it for a moment before it seemed to come to a decision. Wheeljack slowly and stealthily began to move towards the bot that must have been Jackknife when the bot placed the data disk into the storage compartment on his chest. As Wheeljack was now behind the bot, he placed one of his swords a few inches from Jackknife's head.
As the bot turned to see who was behind him a look of shock appeared on his face plates. "What are you doing here?" Jackknife couldn't find the words as he only seemed to stare at Wheeljack like he had seen him before. 'Primus why does this bot seem so familiar?' With that, blasting could be heard nearby that caught both bots' attention.
Wheeljack looked behind him to realize that the sounds of energon blasters were getting close and that the team was getting close to his position. "Listen, me and some friends are looking for a human named Jack, might've been taken here. Have you seen him anywhere's?" Jackknife began to nod and so Wheeljack decided to try and find out where the lost comrade was when the team came around the corner. "Jackie, you find the bot yet?" Bulkhead got his answer as he looked over to his brother in arms. But when Jackknife saw the rest of the team, his eyes were glued to one bot in particular. And when she looked at him, he froze solid as he looked at her. "Arcee…"
Oh Scrap! Things is about to get interesting as heeeeeck! Well, you know the drill: Read and review and i'll get the next chapter up as quick as I can. ^_^