Authors Notes- Here I am finally back again with an update to The Art Of Loving You. Sorry it took me forever to get back to this story, life you know? Anyway enough rambling. As you can gather by now I don't own Transformers, that belongs to Hasbro. Everything else belongs to me.
Chapter Five: Getting To The Bottom Of Things.
"Are you certain?" Optimus asked, as both Arcee and Bumblebee reported their findings to him. A hand on his chin as he looked down at them.
"Certain, no." Arcee said with a shrug. "But that's what we were told by that Vehicon." She finished.
*If you ask me, Optimus.* Bumblebee spoke, catching the Autobot leaders attention. *I think they're trying to mislead us. For all we know it's just the typical run of the mill infighting in the Decepticon ranks.*
Arcee looked to Bumblebee, and while she had to agree with Bumblebee she couldn't help but think otherwise.
"Arcee?" Optimus asked, jerking the femme from her thoughts.
"Sir?" she said, meeting Optimus' gaze.
"I asked if if you had anything to add?" Optimus asked.
Arcee thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No sir, I think we got it all covered."
Optimus was silent as he looked from Arcee to Bumblebee before dismissing the two. Arcee had to admit this mission had been a complete waste of time. Not that she had been expecting anything really, but to find all those Vehicons being slaughtered, laying in drying pools of energon with their attacker nowhere to be seen. On the plus side, though because of this Arcee and Bumblebee didn't return empty handed as now, thanks to their discovery they had returned with several cubes of energon. Which they so desperately needed. And now, she was at a loss for what to do now.
She had only gone on this mission in hopes of burning off some access energy by kicking some tailpipe, and that turned out to be a complete waste of time. And to top it off her thoughts constantly went back to the mine. The words of the surviving Vehicon echoing in her mind. About how the one who had attacked them had been an Autobot. She wanted nothing more than to brush it off as nothing, but something told her otherwise, was there another Autobot roaming around Earth causing havoc for the Decepticons? Or could it be one of the Autobots here?
Giving her head a shake Arcee sighed, she was being silly wasting her time on things like this. Heaving a sigh she looked to where Jack and the kids were, noting that Miko was nowhere to be seen. Arching an optic brow she looked around the mezzanine where the kids actually stayed. Noting that Raf was at his laptop as always, while Jack was focused on the videogame he was playing. Looking to where Bulkhead was limping around the base, a look of pain etched on his faceplate.
And yet no Miko.
"Hey, Bulkhead." Arcee called out, getting the green wrecker's attention. "Where's Miko?"
"With Wheeljack in the Jackhammer up top. Apparently he needed up cleaning up in there, and Miko volunteered." He told her.
At the mention of Wheeljack she frowned as she moved towards the elevator, leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chestplate.
Things were weird lately, first with Wheeljack with him acting odd, and now with someone on their side attacking Decepticon owned mines unprovoked? Now as much as Arcee hated pointing fingers she couldn't help but think that these two things were connected somehow. Giving her head a shake she watched as the doors slid open, sun light spilling into the elevator as she stepped out. Her optics settling on where the Jackhammer was. Taking a deep breath Arcee moved closer and closer to the small starship, at first she saw no signs of either Miko or Wheeljack. When as she continued on her audios picked up their voices.
Moving around the starship she saw them. Wheeljack seated beside the girl in the dirt, a smile on his faceplate as he listened as Miko told him some story of what happened at school. Arcee watched for a moment, her optics glued on the wrecker as he threw back his head and laughed at something Miko said. And at that moment as her optics remained glued on him she could have swore she felt her spark skip a beat. Blinking a few times she placed a hand on her chest. Soon, however the odd feeling disappeared as quickly as it came.
"You know I can see you lurking around back there." Wheeljack called out, jerking her from her thoughts.
Looking up she saw the two of them looking in her direction. Feeling sheepish Arcee moved out from behind the ship, and out into the open.
"Something you need, 'Cee?" Wheeljack asked, it was then she saw it clutched in his hands, was a cube of what Arcee could only guess was high grade energon.
She then looked to Miko, noticing that the girl was sipping on a soda, and was covered head to toe in grime. No doubt from helping Wheeljack clean the interior of the ship. And that wasn't all she noticed specks on something blue staining the girls black and purple leggings, narrowing her optics as she moved towards Miko. The girls honey colored eyes watching Arcee's every move, as the blue femme crouched down beside her.
"What's this?" Arcee asked, looking up at the girl with narrowed optics. Miko looked down at her leggings at the odd blue stains, before looking up at Arcee.
"Dunno." the girl said, shrugging her shoulders before looking to Wheeljack, seeing the frown etched on his faceplate as he looked from Miko to Arcee, obviously none too pleased that Arcee interrupted his down time with Miko. "It was all over the floor in the Jackhammer's cockpit. I helped Wheeljack clean it up, and now we're just chillin'" Miko said, looking up at Wheeljack.
The wrecker shooting the girl a small smile, before looking to Arcee once more, his smile turning into a scowl as the femme glared at him. "Cut myself sharpening my blades." Wheeljack said, with a shrug. "It happens sometimes." He took a sip of his cube. "But let's stop beating around the proverbial bush, Arcee." He sighed, as he turned to watch the sunset. "What really brings you out here?"
"I was concerned for Miko, I haven't heard from her in a while. So, I came to check up on her." Arcee said, with a shrug.
She was lying. Wheeljack thought, a low growl escaping his lips. "Why? You think I would ever hurt her?" he asked, looking to Arcee once more.
Arcee was silent. Okay, he had her there.
"As you can see Miko is more than fine." Wheeljack snapped, making Miko flinch. The girl casting him a questioning look before looking to Arcee then back again.
She could tell that something was up as she got to her feet, and moved to walk away when Wheeljack spoke. "Where you going, Miko? You don't need to leave." He told her.
Miko looked over her shoulder at him, when Arcee spoke, looking down at the girl in question. "Actually Miko could you give me and Wheeljack a moment?"
Nodding Miko glanced between the two of them again before walking off. Once Miko was gone Wheeljack looked to Arcee.
"So? What do you want?" he asked, arms crossed.
"Cut yourself on your sword, huh?" Arcee asked, tilting her head to once side, as she moved towards him.
Wheeljack shrugged his shoulders as he took another sip of his high grade. "What can I say?" he said, turning away from her, gaze fixed on the sunset once more. "Sometimes I'm clumsy, that a problem?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her.
Arcee moved to stand beside him, arms crossed. "I just find it funny." She said, sure, she knew she was fishing. That she had nothing on the Autobot as she turned away.
"Is that all?" Wheeljack asked, as Arcee looked to him once again. She was silent.
"I...sorry." Arcee said, after a while, her gaze fixed on the sunset as well.
A frown was still etched on Wheeljack's faceplate as he watched Arcee from the corner of his optic, looking her up and down, something about her just rubbed him the wrong way. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she seemed to think he was up to something. Like she didn't completely trust him. Then again Wheeljack thought as he looked away from her once more. It wasn't like he did much to make her want to trust him, not after the incident with Miko and so much more.
"So, what's the deal?" He asked, looking to her once more. "Why the questions?" he asked.
Arcee was silent before heaving a sigh. She guess there was no point in hiding it anymore. "You know 'Bee and I had gone on patrol-"
"No in case you haven't noticed I was absent doing...stuff." Wheeljack said, unable to keep the grin from his faceplate as he glared at him.
"ANYWAY." Arcee sighed, sighing. "When we arrived we found Vehicons in a energon mine, torn apart."
"Sounds like typical in fighting among the Decepticons." Wheeljack commented, with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I thought that at first, until one of them said that an Autobot had done it." Arcee said, chewing on her bottom lip.
"And you're not honestly believing that, are you?" Wheeljack asked, sounding skeptical as he arched an optic brow at her as she fell silent once again. Wheeljack's smile disappeared, optics narrowed.
"Wheeljack..." Arcee spoke. "Do you know who might have done it?"
Wheeljack blinked as he continued to look down at her. "Seriously?" he said, turning fully towards her. "You aren't seriously thinking that someone on our side did this, are you?" Arcee looked to him.
"No..." Wheeljack continued on. "You think I had something to do with it?"
"Did you?" Arcee asked.
Wheeljack heaved a sigh as he turned away from her. He had to admit it, she had a knack for sniffing out ones secrets as the wrecker moved towards the Jackhammer. Stopping he looked over his shoulder at her once again, an unreadable look on his faceplate. "And what if I did?" he asked, watching as her optics widened, as she looked up at him. "What would you do? Turn me into Prime? Bulkhead? The Doc?"
Arcee was struck silent at his words, not believing what she was hearing. "What are you saying?" She asked.
Wheeljack sighed, and rolled his optics as he turned to her once more. "Congrats Detective Arcee." Wheeljack said, arms crossed. "You found me out."
Authors Notes- And thus concludes Chapter Six of The Art Of Loving You. I hope you enjoyed it.