Chapter 15

I awoke to the shrieking of metal being split. Who?! What?! When, Where, Why?!

My head snapped to the source of the ear bleeding sound, which turned out to be from none other than the Hatchet Ratchet himself. He was welding something onto Bumblebee, who was sitting on top of a berth (see, I'm learning!). I rubbed my eyes and yawned. Guess I was up, no point in going back to sleep now.

I reached over to the table and opened my new flip phone. It read that it was 12 o'clock noon. Wow, I'd slept for a long while. What do I have on my to do list today? Oh? A text? I opened my messenger and saw it was from Fowler. It was a detailed list of housing options in or near Jasper. The cheapest rooms were at the top, and the more expensive ones on the bottom. In total, there were 4 choices: A motel that offered yearly room leases (it came with a bed, sink, bathroom, and mini fridge) located right in Jasper, an apartment available in a bigger town near Jasper, another apartment located near Jasper, and finally, a guest room a homeowner was renting out.

I want a place in Jasper, so the two apartments in other towns are a no go. The last one seems promising. In the description Fowler informed me the owner of the home was an Area 51 worker who was currently away for some long term assignment, leaving only his elderly mother living in the home. Seemed promising, and if the old lady turned out to be crabby, I could choose the motel option later on. Decided, I texted Fowler I was interested in the last option at the house and flipped the phone closed.

I started stretching my right foot, moving it in circles and massaging the sole carefully. It'd gotten better very quickly. Guess the doc was wrong about how long it'd take. I twisted around and felt the sweet cracking of my bones. I swooped down to grab my crutch and got up, grabbing a pair of jeans and a white short sleeved t-shirt. I began walking down the stairs.

"Afternoon! Whatcha' doin'?" I yelled over the sounds of Ratchet's tools. He waved his unoccupied hand, whether in a shooing motion or lazy greeting, I couldn't tell. Bee looked animatedly at me, buzzed and beeped, miming a car with his left servos along with a vrooming sound, when a sudden "Errrrk" sounded and jostling of his hand left the "car" at a standstill. Then he pointed to the tire behind his right shoulder, which was a bit different from the other three he had on him. It wasn't very noticeable though.

"What caused it?" I asked.

"Just a blown tire," Ratchet sighed. "Some idiot thought it would be funny to spike the road. Nothing that can't be fixed, thankfully. Only reason it blew out in the first place was due to me having to use a human tire temporarily until I finish fixing Bumblebee's original one," he explained.

"Why can't you just replace it?" I asked. Ratchet scoffed.

"Please. Do you see anywhere I could get quality Cybertronian parts on this rock? We have to make do with the primitive parts here, and save the quality parts if we can," Ratchet bitterly responded. I help up my hands in a placating gesture. I was just asking, yesh.

"If you have nothing better to do, there are quite a number of items that still need to be fixed." Ratchet walked over to a table and came back with a bucket, a mop, and a box of trash bags.

"Check all of the small rooms for any damage the Scraplets may have caused, record it, and clean it up," he handed the items to me. I looked woefully down at the cleaning supplies. Then I smiled.

"You know, I suddenly seem to have my schedule filled up," I looked up, only to find Ratchet glaring at me so intensely a panicked self preservation quickly filled me. "Looks great! Can't wait to clean up! It'll be spick and span!" I quickly adjusted the items into my arms and booked it down the hall towards the bathroom.

10

There are so. Many. Freaking. Rooms in this god damn base! I wasn't even half of the way through when Miko, Jack and Raf came back from school, that's four hours! I decided I needed a well deserved break. And a shower. And food.

While I was taking my shower, the three kids had chores apparently too. By the time I'd finished and was enjoying a turkey sandwich with some chips for a late lunch, Jack and Raf were done.

"What'd you guys get strung up doing?" I asked as Jack fell onto the couch and Raf sat on a chair.

"Finished welding, Arcee helped me so it went faster, it's what we started yesterday," Jack explained. I offered chips to the two boys and they both partook in the glorious baked potato crisps.

"I finished helping Ratchet with some of the wiring on the groundbridge! It was a lot of fun!" Raf excitedly then started going into the technicals of what he learned, all of which went right over my head. I occasionally inserted commentary to pretend I understood. Mostly though, I just nodded and ate my chips.

I looked around the room, seeing Prime speaking to Arcee and Bee buzzing at Ratchet who was focusing on the monitor in front of him.

"Hey, where's Bulky?" I asked in a brief lapse in Raf's explanation.

"With Miko, she dragged him into helping her," Jack answered. I nodded. That sounded like Miko.

I heard the telltale heavy footfalls of said large green giant.

"All right! Chores are done. Now can we do some dune-bashing?" Miko said on Bulkhead's shoulder as they entered the hangar. Speak her name and she shall appear. I smiled at Jack who looked like he was thinking the same thing.

"I don't know Miko, last time I spent a week picking sand out of my articulators," Bulkhead said, and Miko looked sad for a moment. "Uh, but, there's a monster truck rally in town." Monster trucks, hm, that's something I'd be interested in seeing.

"Optimus," Ratchet called getting the attention of everyone in the room. The Bots gathered in front of the screen.

"I'm receiving a signal on a restricted band." he looked over his shoulder to the Autobot leader. Raf and Jack looked at each other, seemingly deciding to go see what was up. I took my crutch and followed behind them. "It appears to be coming from a starship inside this solar system."

Me, Jack and Raf looked up at the screen. On the monitors was a map of the Earth along with other readings of the planet. Ratchet typed onto the keyboard and a trajectory appeared around around the Earth with a blue blip following it.

"It's an Autobot identification beacon," the medic said in surprise. Jack turned around to face Ratchet.

"So there are other Bots out there?" Jack asked.

"The masses scattered to the galaxies when Cybertron finally went dark," Arcee explained. She looked down thoughtfully. "But, Cons have been known to bait traps with false beacons," she warned looking up at Ratchet, then to Optimus. Not a beat later the Autobot leader looked towards the screen.

"Unknown vessel, this is Autobot outpost Omega One. Identify yourself," the Prime demanded, eyes focused, yet still cautious.

This. This was the Optimus Prime I hadn't yet been able to see. Strong, confident, and serious about the protection of his allies and friends. A leader through and through, taking charge of the situation. Was it time for this already though? I was on the edge of my seat, though I was standing… forget that metaphor, the excitement was building in me is what I meant.

A old rough voice crackled through. "I've had warmer welcomes from Decepticon combat brigades." OH MY GOD IT REALLY WAS WHEELJACK!

"Wheeljack?!" Bulkhead gasped, leaning forward, optics wide. Miko yelped at the sudden movement. She held on tight, and a good thing too, as Bulkhead quickly walked towards the screen, Bee and Arcee getting out of his way.

"You old Con crusher! What are you doing all the way out here?" Bulkhead jovially called.

"Bulkhead? That you?" Wheeljack asked. "What's with all the security?" He questioned. Bulkhead grew serious.

"The rock we're on is crawling with Cons. How soon can you get here and even the odds?"

"Sometime tomorrow if I put metal to the pedal."

Miko looked up in awe. "Another Bot's coming here. How cool is that!" She looked at Bulkhead with a smile and pounded her fist onto her leg.

"This is so cool!" Raf added.

"Wheeljack - I know of him by reputation only." Optimus turned towards Bulkhead, "Can you verify his voiceprint?" Bulkhead looked at Optimus in the optics and nodded.

"He is 1,000% the real deal Optimus."

"We will send landing coordinates, Wheeljack," Optimus turned towards the monitor. "Safe journey," he said warmly.

"See you soon buddy," Bulkhead beamed. "I'll make sure you get a proper welcome." The screen beeped and the transmission ended.

Wheeljack was coming! He sounded like a cocky old bot. If I had to compare, I'd say his voice and tone reminded me of a deeper, rougher, and older version of Han Solo.

"Well you look excited," Jack snapped me out of my reverie. I grinned.

"Man, you guys will love Wheeljack, he's a Wrecker, which i- should be the same unit Bulkhead was in. Dude, he's so cool. Inventor and engineer. In the, uh, show, he wielded a pair of swords and is a master weapons maker. Guy can make explosives like no tomorrow!" I was jumping on the balls of my feet I was so excited.

This was going to be great! Amazing! Wheeljack was coming to the base! Maybe he could teach me some moves? I could become the greatest swords master on the planet! The stories he could tell, ah.

...

Wait a second...

Shit, it wasn't going to be Wheeljack who came to the base was it?


A/N: Two chapters, One day.

Though really, because I missed posting Chapter 14 Monday, it's just me being early for once. Going to be busy this whole weekend so I needed to get this done. I ended up starting Chapter 14 Monday, and surprise surprise, didn't finish until Wednesday, at which point I decided to just to post it with this weeks chapter. If I have time, I might be able to finish Chapter 16 by Monday.

I hope you like it and where this stories going? What's up with this rod thing? What's Rachel's new living situation going to be like? And the events of Season 1, episode 8 Con Job! Oh no!

Criticism's? Questions? Want to just say Hi? Any and All Comments are appreciated!

Following this story is probably the best way to get notified when new chapters are released, considering I don't follow my own schedule well.

Also Note: I don't own Transformers, nor Prime. If you haven't watched the series, and assume I made this masterpiece of Cybertronian storytelling, I can only say you need to see a metal health professional, because you're crazy.