Chapter Seven: Two Glitches in the System

As Jack and Arcee slept in the Hermes Cabin, Airachnid's extra limbs made almost no sound as walked in the forests, not far from where her ship originally crashed a few decacycles ago the night she met the very intriguing Human named Jack. The young organic male provided no end of sport. The demented femme stalked a different prey this night though. Human juveniles clad in silver of all things! Even more bizarre, study of the group showed the strangers only ever armed themselves with knives and primitive projectile weapons. The demented Con sadist shoo her helm as she retreated back into the safety of thick foliage. As Airachnid slipped away, she thought she heard on of the girls growl about "a difference in the air" which was utter nonsense! Airachnid stifled a hiss of irritation and turned back to see the silver-clad females look around nervously with the exception of the last girl. This one looked around slowly and scanned the trees which hid her in such a way that told of at least a centri-vorn of experience in hunting. She'd definitely not Human and… Airachnid felt her cooling fans activate as she watched Artemis. …knows how to cause so much agony.

Jack sighed and couldn't get the dream to leave him alone even as he walked to the pavilion for breakfast. When the scent of delicious food caressed his nose, Jack looked at Arcee in unsure trepidation as she sat down next to him. Can she process food into Energon? The young man walked up to the spread and collected a myriad of food. Then, he turned back to Arcee and blinked when a cube of Energon appeared before her. Jack watched Arcee look down at the table closest to the edge of the pavilion and saw Dionysus nod at her with the slightest smile on his face.

With the acceptance of Arcee by the god, Jack could feel eyes on him. A quick look out of the sides of his optics found children Jack could only say were children of Ares. The burning eyes they gave him made the son of Primus hold back a laugh. No one mortal could match the optics of Megatron or Airachnid. Jack stood before he turned and gestured to the burning fire in the middle of the camp away from the other demigods. Arcee nodded and smiled at Jack before she picked up the cube and followed Jack to the stone hearth. Together, the pair smiled at Lady Hestia as the goddess continued to tend the flames.

Jack cut off a piece of his food and put it in the flames. "Thank you for hosting us, Lady Hestia."

The goddess smiled and nodded at Jack. "It's my pleasure. I-"

"Hey, punk!"

Jack facepalmed as Arcee activated her blasters. The young man shook his head and motioned for the two-wheeler to stand down. Then, Jack slowly stood to his feet. Then, the young demigod closed his optics and walked over to meet the gruff, angry girl face-to-face. Jack felt a tickle of memory. A guy in a letterman jacket with a grudge thew him against the wall. Jack just took it. Again, in the halls, Jack got punched in the face. He just took it. Again and again, Jack took the punishment without giving any back. All the anger and held fury bubbled to the surface. Power rolled through the young man, but he held on again. "What is it?" The techno-organic took a deep breath and turned to the daughter of Ares. "I do not think you want to pick a fight with me."

Clarisse smirked and punched her palm a few times. "It's nothing but a new camper initiation that's a bit of a tradition for The Ares Cabin."

Jack thought about trying to talk her out of it, but she and her half-siblings where not likely to listen to reasoned debate about fighting and why it was a bad idea to pick a fight with him in particular. However, these goons seemed to have the same mentality as M808 Scorpion operators: Tank beats everything. Jack nodded slowly, his optics and processor working overtime to analyze the leader of The Ares Cabin and, to a lesser extent, her friends. "Arena, now." Jack finally said after a moment. "If you want to properly humiliate me, why not have everyone watch while you do?"

The girl blinked, "You're volunteering for a beating?" Clarisse nodded slowly with begrudging respect. Then, she noticed Arcee and smirked. "Oh, I see. You're trying to impress your automaton," The girl's eyes glittered with glee when she saw she struck a nerve. "Maybe you're so pathetic as a child of Hephaestus, you had to build your own girlfriend."

"Arcee," Jack said through gritted teeth. "Mom would kill me if she found out I hit a girl." He said calmly. "Would you…?"

The femme nodded. These Greeks are annoying, Arcee thought. If I have to beat the slag out of someone to get it across that I'm not a machine, so be it! The femme smiled at Jack and added an addendum to the previous thought. It's not because she thinks Jack is weak.

"I choose Arcee, Daughter of Solus Prime to fight in my stead."

Clarisse stared in horror as Arcee stood. "You're…you're a demigod?!"

Arcee nodded, "I don't like being called automaton, robot, or machine;" Arcee said with ice in her voice as she and Clarisse walked into the arena. "I've been fighting longer than most of your gods have lived, girl." The femme said in an almost conversational tone. "You like fighting and war?" Arcee nodded as if to herself. "Innocent as a Sparkling, you haven't had to watch your friends get slaughtered right in front of you or fight a friend turned crazed monster until you killed him to put him out of his misery."

Clarisse shivered. The girl bit her lip and glared to hold herself together as she assumed a fighting stance. The daughter of Ares locked eyes on optics as the two fighters squared up. "Why isn't that wimp fighting me?"

Arcee dodged a punch, "Sloppy, you're telegraphing like a first cycle cadet," Arcee said before she countered. "Jack respects you enough not to fight." The femme shook her head. There's no form or technique, she thought. As Arcee kept dodging, she saw her opponent gain in frustration. "Stop trying to hit me; hit me!"

With a yell, Clarisse leapt forward to try and tackle Arcee. The femme plucked her by the arm from the air and spun. Then, Arcee let go and sent the girl flying into a wall. The two-wheeler shook her helm and quickly walked down from the arena with irritation still flowing freely through her Energon tubes. Then, she looked up to see Jack smiling at her. Her Spark seemed to jump time at that smile before it settled back into its normal. What was that?

Jack looked over suddenly. He could hear lithe forms leaping from tree to tree around the camp. With his jaw set, Jack moved to investigate, his dream driving him forward. I'll be smelted if I let that glitch find this place! Jack swore before he began running toward the sounds as they moved. His optics began tracking about twelve flashes of silver through the trees. A memory nagged at him, something his mom warned against and part of the reason why she insisted he not hit girls even in self-defense. At the edge of the woods, the flashing silver forms became clearer. Thirteen girls arrayed in silver with bows and quivers on their backs shuffled through the woods silently in front of him. "Hunters of Diana…" Jack breathed in slight fear. Then, the Roman legacy mentally checked himself, Artemis, here, not Diana.

Jack turned to get out of sight of the Hunters, but they dropped around him like smaller vehicons with about as much sympathy or understanding in their eyes. Jack felt an unseen hand push his face to the dirt. The young man sighed. "You see, Lady Artemis?" He asked, raising his voice to be heard through the dirt in his mouth. "This is why good men are a dying breed. Respect begets respect."

A girl walked out of the group and glared at him; her eyes shown with divine fury. "You dare speak to me of respect?! When you-" Three names, spoken with an odd strength as if they might spring from Hades and grab her, froze Artemis' tongue.

"Kalliope, Kallisto, and Siporotes…" Jack shivered at the last because he knew she would likely want to do worse to him. "Two out of the three were raped then hunted. The third simply stumbled on you bathing, my lady." Jack stood as he felt the pressure on his back quiver and vanish. Then, Jack moved his face to line up with Artemis' voice while he kept his optics closed and shook his head. When he opened his optics, The Hunters all stepped back in fear. "Those are just the most famous recorded victims. What kind of Order have you disrupted by unfair punishment of those who offend you, child?"

The goddess squeaked a moment before she regained her pompous dignity. "Who are you to speak to me in such tones, MORTAL?"

Jack shivered violently as a hint of Unicron seeped into the goddess' tone. Dark Energon and Human blood mingled together for millennia as the only nourishment taken would tend to do that. The knowledge of Artemis' compromised mental state made the young Prime change tactics. Jack noticed that none of The Hunters seemed to catch the undertone of a mech in their mistress' last word. "I'm just a kid from Jasper, Nevada."

The girls didn't seem to hear him. They all locked on his optics. The Lieutenant finally gathered the courage to look him in the optics. The girl looked ready to bolt, but the goddess just put a hand on her shoulder and walked up to Jack with an unbreakable neutral expression. In the presence of her mistress, the girl straitened and regained some strength. The second then looked at Artemis and shivered at the look on the goddess' face. With a look toward the other girls, she made a hand signal to withdraw: thumb over palm and four fingers straight up, folded over the thumb, and extended again. The girls all exchanged worried glances between the commander and Lady Artemis. Finally, they nodded to the girl and retreated into the safety of the woods.

Part of Jack wanted to punch the arrogance from the goddess, but he refrained from the impulse and turned his back to her. While the young man looked over towards the rest of the camp and felt a twinge of anger that wasn't his own, something else came to him. The techno-organic didn't know whether to laugh or scream with the connection his processor made. "Now, with the girls gone, we can talk like adults. You claim to love your Hunters like daughters, but no sane mother would abandon her children. Even animals have more maternal sense than that in most cases. I guess I should thank Lady Lupa for raising Mom."

Sweat beaded down Artemis' face at the name of The Wolf Goddess of Rome.

Jack saw a vein throb in the goddess' forehead. However, he just nodded his head and continued talking as if Artemis was unaffected. "That got me thinking. Why would Artemis, Champion of Maidens, not defend her Hunters from her father or any other male who shows unhealthy interest in your 'daughters'?" Jack raised one finger and shook it as if the young man was trying to drive his mind forward with the motions. "Then, I remembered the story of Ganymede. The God of Cheaters, Jupiter for this particular escapade, I think…" Artemis' form flickered as she glared at Jack. A sliver of satisfaction ran through Jack at the sight. "…kidnapped a young boy and had his way with the poor boy…repeatedly from what I understand," Jack's eyes blazed with bright blue fury. "Taking into account history, you don't care for the maidens," Jack hissed. "You just get angry when Dear Daddy breaks in your toys before you can!"

Artemis backhanded Jack.

The boy simply spat a mix of blood and Energon from his mouth and looked back at her with a bloody tint to his teeth. Then, Jack shook his head and started to walk away. With his emotions in a torrent, Jack focused on The Key to bring his mind back into a rational state. The Son of Primus looked back behind him and caught the goddess' fist before it could connect. Then, the young demigod looked into her eyes of bright silver anger and met glare for glare. "I've faced down Megatron multiple times without so much as a twitch, and I've also got one glitch already gunning for my head. A pathetic pedophile doesn't scare me." He knelt. "If you value your immortal life, I will never see you again." Jack jerked the trembling goddess to her feet with a quick motion of one arm. "Do we understand each other?"

Before Artemis could answer, Arcee ran up with her blasters drawn. Behind her, Chiron and a throng of campers came behind him decked for war. An eyebrow climbed up when the young Prime saw a bunch of Hephaestus and Aphrodite kids with them. Then, his eyes settled on a black-haired boy and girl of sixteen, the boy with sea-green eyes and the girl with electric blue orbs. An animosity passed between the pair and the goddess. Jack looked to the pair with a worried expression. Then, everyone but Arcee turned away from his as a blinding flash behind him seared the hair and cloth from his back. In fact, the only evidence anything happened to the femme was a slight dim of her optics before they went back to normal as the heat faded from him.

It seems I struck a nerve. Jack shook his head and walked up to the duo. "I know you don't know me, but we need to talk."

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