Chapter 2: Sticky Situation
The Sun's light started to rise over the thick clouds, with its light slowly illuminating Jasper, Nevada. Breaking through the clouds, the streetlights shut off as they detected sunlight. As this brought about a new tomorrow, the light of a bright and early morning was felt by half of the planet.
Soaring throughout the day broken skies, a trio of planes flew silently overhead, their engines barely emitting a purr of ignition.
In the lead was a silver F/A-18F Super Hornet, the form that Ultimus had decided to assume after the race. Gearshift steadily followed behind, remaining in his F - 35 Lightning II mode. Finally, Windburst took up the rear in her preferred F - 117 stealth fighter form.
While these planes continued to soar, they still remained invisible. Fortunately, such an application of their Cybertronian or human forms prevented them from being detected by any means, excluding the sight of their fellow Adaptors.
Such a practice was considered to be Adaptor protocol, instructing them to remain invisible while in their vehicle or robot forms together, so they could evade Human eyes and avoid the leering gaze of the Deceptions.
Now, this rule would not apply in completely isolated areas or when enemy escape was made impossible, so a modicum of leeway was beneficial for the team.
Eventually, Gearshift raised his concerns about returning back to base, trying to predict what their mothers would say in regard to their recent night - time excursion.
"Hey Ultimus, Windburst? Do you think that our mothers will be mad that we got into a fight without them?" Gearshift pondered.
"Nah, I doubt it." Windburst responded. "Besides, if you think about it, this makes us even for them not taking us to the Energon Mines!"
At least the group could always count on Windburst to lighten the mood.
Several hours later.
Eventually, the three Adaptors were only a few miles away from their mountainous facility, with Ultimus decide ding that he would adjust his current vehicular form before entering.
"Windburst, Gearshift, want to drive in instead of flying onto the runway?" Ultimus asked his fellow Adaptors.
"Sure!" Gearshift said.
"I suppose a change in gears wouldn't hurt, my tires do need some more exercise." Windburst followed.
With this verbal confirmation, the three Adaptors adjusted their fins, quickly dropping downwards past the thin vapor held within the monumental clouds.
Noticing that no cars were on the roadways, Ultimus deployed his landing gear, preparing for the transformation.
Minor sounds of servos shifting places and other parts changing shape could be heard, as the telltale sign of a Cybertronian transformation could be heard emitting from Ultimus's airborne form.
First, the size of his wings folded into each other with his underwing missiles being retraced back inside his vehicle form, with the wings following soon after. His tail fins would also follow the same pattern, rapidly retracting inside his vehicular form.
During this process, the nose of his jet form retracted back in, before 2 curved pieces of metal emerged to become the front of the car, with headlights and car hood included.
During this, the frontal landing gear wheel split into two, expanding to become car tires with the gear that connected the tires shifted sideways to better accommodate for his new form's closer proximity to the ground.
Eventually, replacing the nose was a completed front section of the car.
As for the midsection of his vehicle form, the cockpit windows widened and their overall length decreased, as the metal frame realigned itself to suit a car's front window as the side windows formed soon after.
Metal shifted to become car doors and windows, helping to establish the midsection section of Ultimus's eventual new disguise.
Meanwhile, the rest of Ultimus's vehicle form shrank to a car's length, with metal folding and shrinking as a portion of his midsection angled up and curved to meet the changing frontal and side car window frames.
Finally, his VTOL engine broke apart into tiny muzzle exhausts, before the metal held upon it shifted outwards and flattened as a spoiler emerged and rose in height, with the back wheels following the same pattern as the front wheel, becoming Ultimus's rear wheels.
With his shifted pieces of metal fusing back together, the entirety of his new form was finalized. Completing his vehicular shift in only a mere two seconds, Ultimus decided to change the color of his vehicular form back from silver to his default colors.
Copying Ultimus's actions, Windburst descended and changed from her F - 117 stealth fighter form to her Porsche 911 GT3 RS form, with Gearshift collapsing from his F - 35 Lightning II form to his Kawasaki 400 Motorcycle form.
Adaptor Base, Jasper, Nevada
Even if it took longer to drive back to base than flying ever would, no Adaptor could say that driving was an unpleasant experience.
As Ultimus, Windburst and Gearshift reached their mountain base, they entered a hidden elevator that would take them to the base's lower levels. Perfectly parking their vehicle forms, Ultimus, Windburst and Gearshift soon expanded back into their Cybertronian forms, with their excess metal and parts seamlessly disappearing into their bodies.
Reaching the 7th floor, the three Adaptors then reverted back into Jack, Miko and Raf so that they could find their mothers.
Deciding to search the training center first, the three were surprised to see that the door to the room was suddenly non-existent.
While the table and spare chair were there, the door was oddly absent.
"Uhm, isn't this supposed to be where the training room is?" Jack said in confusion. "Did we take the wrong floor?"
"I'm not sure, let me take a look." Raf responded.
Feeling the texture of the wall, Raf could tell that the wall where the door should have been felt to be quite rough and coarse, just like the other base walls.
However, before the three Adaptors could contemplate on whether or not they went the wrong way, a voice appeared in their heads.
"Hey! Look over here you three!" The seemingly disembodied voice said.
Following the instructions of the voice, the three Adaptors saw that the color of the wall shifted into a liquid silver, revealing the door to the training room behind it.
As the liquid metal on the wall moved to the floor as a silver puddle, a large blob quickly arose from its mass. Upon reaching a height of 5'10, the puddle beneath the blob disappeared, before taking on very defined feminine features such as a rather amplified chest mass and relatively thin arms and legs.
Soon, the silver metal changed colors into a light African - American skin tone, with a green nurse's outfit with a beige overtop formed from the liquid metal. Finally, the form of June Darby settled into place with an amused smile on her lips.
"Mom!" Jack exclaimed, happy to see her. "Where are Rosa and Sofia?"
Laughing in response, June said to her son: "See for yourself!"
Pointing to the desk and chair in the hallway, both objects shimmered before turning a liquid metallic silver.
Collapsing into puddles, they eventually took on featureless humanoid female forms, before their features emerged to resemble both Rosa and Sofia.
As Sofia held an amused expression, she perfectly mimicked her daughter's voice as she said: "Yes Mom, I promise that we'll be okay and that we'll return as soon as our patrol is done."
"While we're all glad that your three are home and safe, I didn't know that street racing with humans became part of your patrols?" June remarked sarcastically.
As Miko blushed from not keeping her promise, Jack quickly stepped in and defended her.
"Mom, nobody saw us, so we're fine! Wait… how did you know that we were street racing, we never said anything?" Jack said.
"You really don't know?" June said to Jack telepathically. "I just peeked through your optics when I felt something was off, and I was right!"
As a side effect of being Cybertronian, Jack, Miko and Raf shared telepathic bonds with their mothers, enabling limitless silent communication. This came in handy when they needed to share information while in disguise.
"Oh yeah, the bond. Are you upset that we got into a fight?" Jack telepathically asked his mother.
"The fight? Absolutely not!" June said. "We're just sad that we couldn't race with you, it seemed like a lot of fun, like Miko said!"
Upon hearing this, Miko turned to Jack and Raf smugly, knowing that at least one of her fellow Adaptors agreed with her.
"June, did you need us for something, I'm not sure you'd be here otherwise?" Raf asked.
With her expression turning serious, June stated: "That would be correct. We've recently been tracking two signals. First, a metallic sphere that landed in the Artic. The other, a small ship recently entered the atmosphere. It's equipped for a single Cybertronian, but as we scanned it, it seems to hold many kinds of deceased lifeforms inside."
"We're willing to bet this con is a trophy collector, so we need you to com…" Rosa stated before being interrupted by Miko.
"We get to come on this mission?" Miko interrupted, eyes gleaming in anticipation.
"Yes Miko, like I promised earlier, as well as Jack and Raf." June confirmed, much to Miko's excitement.
"Awesome! Where are we going, when do we leave?" Miko asked.
Responding to her daughter's question, Sophia answered: "We're going to Colorado right now, so it's going to be a bit of a flight. Then, we need to take smaller forms to blend in with the forest, probably animals."
"Anything else we should know?" Jack said to his mother.
"I'm not sure, even if it's only one Cybertronian, they are still dangerous, we need to be highly cautious. However, I advise telepathic communication only, just to stay silent." June said.
"Right, well at least staying disguised and undetected is our speciality, so that part should be easy." Jack remarked.
As the six Adaptors moved back to the hangar that connected to the runway, they instantly shifted into their Cybertronian forms.
Knowing that they had to travel a large distance to defeat, Windburst presented an idea to the team.
"If we're flying to Colorado, won't it be easier to land somewhere as 1 vehicle instead of 6?" Windburst suggested. "Why don't we all combine into the plane that Athena, Aurora and Mom used earlier so that we draw less attention?"
"We could give that a try, alright, let's do that!" Athena responded.
Turning their armor and Cybertronian body colors identically silver, Athena and Ultimus took the front, Aurora and Gearshift taking the missile while Artemis and Windburst took up the rear.
In unity, the 6 Adaptors started to change their bodies together, the entirety of their shapes reformed themselves as their limbs expanded and allowed more metal to form, while circuits and gears combined with one another, and metal fused together or became entirely different parts.
During this process, Athena and Ultimus became the nose and cockpit of the plane, Windburst and Gearshift becoming the midsection and the wings and engines while Artemis and Aurora became the plane's rear section. Aurora however would stay within the cargo bay of the plane; in case she was needed to transform into a defensive system.
Once the team had completed their 3 second unity transformation, they formed a perfect replica of a KC - 46 A Boeing transport.
Starting their engines and plotting course, they shifted their united form to be invisible, as they exited the hangar bay and took off from the runway.
With the team flying to Colorado, Ultimus decided to telepathically ask Athena about the con they might be facing.
"Hey mom, did your scans happen to pick up anything such as weapons or vehicle forms?
"Yes, and no. It appears this femme doesn't have any Cybertronian vehicle forms so far as we can tell, but she is packing a pair of light Energon blasters." Athena telepathically responded.
"Light blasters?" Ultimus remarked in surprise. "Well, at least the Con isn't packing as much firepower, that's a relief."
"Also, my earlier scans never indicated that the area in Colorado that the ship crash - landed in still has one energy signature, so I'm guessing they probably sustained an injury in the crash." Athena said telepathically.
"So, they're only packing light blasters and might be wounded from the crash. This actually might be pretty easy!" Ultimus said, only to be given a stern reminder from Athena.
"Perhaps, but you know better than to drop your guard. As team leader, I do feel compelled to remind you Ultimus!" Athena responded telepathically.
Agreeing with his mother's statement, Ultimus remained silent for the rest of the flight as the Adaptors traveled to Colorado.
Eventually, the Adaptors' combined form landed in an empty grassland in Colorado, where they prepared to separate and head off towards the forests.
After Aurora in her invisible drone form confirmed that there were no human signatures around for 7 miles, the aircraft broke apart, bodies reforming into the Adaptors Cybertronian and adjusted their color schemes back to normal.
Standing in front of her fellow Adaptors, Athena gave out her orders on how to proceed with their mission ahead.
"Alright team, the crash - landed ship is approximately 10 miles away from us in the Colorado Forest and they are still around its general area." The femme stated. "Aurora, take to the skies and sweep the forests. Make sure to divert any humans away who might be wandering through there."
"Yes Athena!" Both femmes responded, before Aurora transformed into her AH - 64 Apache Helicopter vehicle mode while Artemis transformed into her Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 vehicle mode. Soona after, they both shifted their plates and colors to be invisible, waiting for their team leader to finish her plan.
"Ultimus, Windburst, Gearshift, I need you three to stay in your liquid metal forms. Since we're going into the forest against an unknown enemy, concealment is paramount!" Athena ordered.
Quickly obeying Athena's commands, the three Adaptors transformed back into Jack, Miko and Raf, before assuming their featureless liquid metal forms and turned invisible.
"As for me? I'll be responsible for actually getting you to the forest!" Athena happily finished, quickly transforming her body into a Chrysler 200. In her new vehicular mode, the femme changed her standard cyan - green and yellow exterior into pastry white, so that she could better blend in when entering populated towns.
Opening her car doors, Jack, Raf and Miko poured their liquid forms in, before Athena closed the doors and shot off towards the forest, Aurora and Artemis not far behind.
With Raf and Jack in their seats, their liquid metal forms enveloped the back car seats, copying their color and texture until they remained invisible.
As Athena drove down the lone street, she realized that somebody needed to act as a driver so that her team wouldn't be compromised when driving in town.
"Miko, can you please turn yourself into my human form and act as the 'driver'?" Athena said.
"Sure, I can easily do that!" Miko eagerly responded.
Melting her way into the driver's seat, Miko's liquid metal form in a puddle situated her liquid mass in Athena's driver seat.
Then, a blob out of Miko's puddle-like form emerged. As this happened, she quickly grew much taller than her standard human form, with Miko's new form changing to be more curved and possessing more feminine features akin to a woman in her early 30's than a 15 - year old. Upon Miko finishing her new form's outline, her silver metal colors changed as she replicated June's somewhat pale African - American skin tone, while also forming her white shoes, green pants and shirt, covered by a tan nurse's jacket. She then perfectly mimicked her fingerprints, weight and body density.
During this process, her featureless liquid metal head formed dark brown hair, reaching down to her neck while creating her exquisite brown eyes, eyebrows, nose and pink lips. Upon wearing June Darby's form for herself, she also perfectly copied her memories, mannerisms, voice and now teasing personality.
Putting her hands on Athena's steering wheel while securing her seatbelt, Miko - now 'June' joked in June's voice: "Jack, put on your seatbelt properly! It's my job to make you follow road safety!"
"Really Miko? You do realize that Raf and I have copied the appearance of this back seat right? That means nothing can see us apart from ourselves." Jack said.
"I know, it just feels more fun to tease you in this form, sorry!" 'June' sheepishly apologized.
"Besides, you're not his mother Miko, so you don't have any jurisdiction over his actions." Raf said, mimicking Sofia's voice.
"No, but I do!" Athena remarked with amusement, her voice coming out of her vehicle forms speakers. "Normally, Jack should have his seatbelt on, but we're out on a mission, so I'm going to grant him some leeway."
"Thanks for the support Mom." Jack responded.
Eventually, as Athena arrived at the forest, the femme turned her vehicle form invisible, yet soon heard Raf speaking up about the upcoming mission.
"Athena, Mom just contacted me, she says that she turned any humans away and that the Con has now moved back inside of the spaceship."
"Excellent, we need to keep eyes on that con at all times." Athena said. "Jack, Raf, you don't need to mimic the backseats anymore, since I need you two in your base liquid forms. The same goes for you Miko, you don't need to use my human form anymore.
With Athena giving her order, the backseats of her vehicle form turned metallic silver, as the featureless liquid metal forms of Jack and Raf appeared, quickly turned invisible for the upcoming mission.
As for Miko in June Darby's human form, liquid metal enveloped her mature body, losing all clothing and humanoid appearances before shrinking down to her featureless liquid metal form. Afterwards, Miko then turned invisible to keep hidden.
Athena then opened her car doors, Jack, Raf and Miko pooled out, before reforming just ahead of the femme.
Once all her fellow Adaptors had left her invisible vehicle form, Athena transformed into her Cybertronian mode, before reverting back into June Darby. However, she soon turned into her liquid metal form, losing all of her defining humanoid features as she turned into a smooth silver, featureless humanoid appearing blob.
Looking ahead to the forest while still invisible, she quickly morphed her body into that of a silver metallic doe for extra maneuverability.
Copying Athena's actions while remaining invisible, Jack, Raf and Miko's liquid metal forms instantly shifted, before three smaller silver metallic doe's had taken their places.
With their forms secured, the Adaptors silently rushed into the forest. Since their forms were not truly solid, they didn't need to worry about stepping on branches and making loud noises.
Traversing through the dense forests in their metallic doe forms, June gave out a telepathic warning: "Adaptors, were only 2 Kilometers from the enemy vessel, stay alert. While I've already jammed communications, this doesn't make this enemy any easier."
Raf then changed out of his metallic doe form and shifted to an eagle form, taking to the skies for a better vantage point.
With this information in mind, the doe forms of Jack and Miko melted back into liquid metal puddles, frequently mimicking the appearances of rocks while following their team leader.
Eventually, the Adaptors arrived at the crashed vessel, with scans showing the Con still inside.
The vessel itself was a scorched wreck, parts having already fallen off making the vessel completely inoperable for flight and transportation.
Observing the wreck, June's doe form shifted back to her humanoid liquid metal form, before reforming back into June Darby. Then, June transformed back into Athena and decloaked herself.
"Jack, Miko, the Con knows I'm here." Athena said telepathically." I want you to make sure that they don't escape."
"Yes Athena." Jack and Miko responded, before their liquid masses turned back into invisible does, taking off towards the perimeter of the forest.
Once Jack and Miko had left the area safely, Athena suddenly heard the rapid clinking of movement on the ship's metal hull.
Turning around to look upward, Athena was surprised to see another femme. However, the femme's arms and legs, with black and gold armor. What was most noticeable about this deception were her pronged headpiece, piercing purple eyes and her 6 pointy and narrow appendages jutting out of her back.
Snarling in anger, the Deception asked: "Who are you? How did you find me in this forest?"
"Our scanner's picked your ship up just as it entered the planet's atmosphere. Now, why are you here?" Athena asked.
"Oh, nothing much." Airachnid said smugly. "I travel the galaxy to collect lifeforms for my collection. I was planning to do so for this world but your insidious planet wrecked my ship!"
"Well, now you're definitely not going to leave this forest alive, I can make sure of that!" Athena resolved in anger, as she unveiled her blasters at the deception.
Such a statement only amused the Deception.
"How adorable, thinking you actually have a chance against me." Airachnid snarked, raising her back appendages ominously. "It's been a while since Iv've had Cybertronian competition...How about I give you a small head start?"
"Big mistake! I'm no ordinary Cybertronian!" Athena thought, as she retreated back into the woods.
However, such an act brought a wider smile to Airachnid's lips, thinking that she had this lone Cybertronian on the run.
Back with Jack and Miko.
While the forest was typically quiet, there was a slight rustling of leaves, as two doe suddenly emerged.
However, these does were not ordinary forest creatures, as they were invisible. Yet only visible to one another, these doe lacked features on their liquid metal forms.
Suddenly, the two doe bodies shrunk until the featureless liquid metal forms of Jack and Miko remained.
Deciding silence was the best method of communication, Jack asked Miko telepathically: "Mind bringing out your drones? We could really use some extra surveillance in the forest, the two of us can't comb the whole forest after all."
Agreeing with Jack's statement, Miko telepathically responded.
"Great idea! However, while we're in the woods, why don't you shift to your female form?" Miko said.
"What?" Jack responded back in surprise.
"Yeah! Besides, what better time to practice than now, besides, I'm curious to see what you look like!" Miko clarified.
"Fine! I suppose it couldn't hurt to give it a try." Jack sighed, clearly resigned to his fate.
While both still invisible, Miko watched on as Jack's liquid metal form decreased in height and his body became more curved, adjusting the outline of his form to be far more feminine with his waist slimming and limbs narrowing and chest size rapidly expanding.
Shrinking in height, Jack's form now was 5 '5, similar to Miko's base form's height.
Upon completing the outline of his female form, Jack's skin turned from silver liquid metal to African American in resemblance to June's skin tone, as out of his now smaller, featureless smooth head, brown hair growing past the shoulders. While this happened, dainty facial features appeared such as a nose, ears, brown eyes, brown eyebrows and lips turning bright red.
Finishing his female anatomy now, a dark blue dress emerged out of liquid metal, straps wrapping around Jack's shoulders and hugged his amplified chest mass. Shoes, a necklace and earrings also emerged, making themselves present as accessories on Jack's female form.
With Jack - now 'Jacqueline' in her new form, she twirled around, showing her new body off to Miko.
"Wow! You look even better than last time you used a female form! Honestly, I think you're pretty cute!" Miko said.
"Really? T - thanks Miko." 'Jacqueline' telepathically stuttered back.
"Yeah!" And it seems you made your clothes a lot faster too… have you been practicing?" Miko said with a smirk.
"Maybe, but you insisted I practice, so I used the training room to help me get better!" 'Jacqueline' said.
"Well, It's certainly paid off, now I wonder what Athena would say about this form." Miko mused.
"Oh, she'd be very happy, since she's always wanted a daughter alongside her son." 'Jacqueline' said. "With my powers, she can technically have both at any time."
Nodding in agreement, Miko's liquid metal form suddenly shimmered, before Miko separated her form into 4 metallic liquid puddles.
While Miko returned to her featureless, liquid metal humanoid forms, the other 3 invisible puddles formed into Alica, Emma and Rachel seemingly in an instant. However, unlike last time, they did not turn into human, still being featureless blobs of liquid metal,
"Hello mother, how may we serve you today?" Rachel telepathically asked Miko.
"Sweep the forest's perimeter, make sure that nothing leaves and prevent any humans from entering the forest." Miko telepathically commanded.
"As you wish." Alica, Emma and Rachel said.
Obeying Miko's orders, the liquid metal extensions of Miko changed their shapes, each mimicking a doe before running off in separate directions.
"Do you.. think we should help them out?" 'Jacqueline' asked.
"Sure, why not?" Miko responded in amusement. "I doubt that we're going to be fighting anyone in the woods."
Agreeing with Miko, 'Jacqueline's body was completely enveloped in liquid metal as she returned to her featureless liquid metal form. Shifting her body, she mimicked an invisible silver doe.
Miko, still in her liquid form, also shifted her body to resemble that of a doe. With their transformations complete, the 2 Adaptors continued on their patrol of the forest while in their animal forms.
Back with Athena and Airachnid.
With Airachnid rushing after the Adaptor, she fired her webbing, hoping to ensnare her adversary. Unfortunately for the Deception, this opponent was far more agile than anticipated as Athena responded by dodging the webs and returning fire with her blasters.
As Energon Bolts grazed her polished armor, it only managed to enrage Airachnid, as she resolved to destroy this opponent with a far greater ferocity.
However, as Airachnid turned back to face the Adaptor, she was surprised to see the femme had vanished from her view.
"What! Where did she go, that's impossible! I had the femme in my sights!"
Being distracted by the Energon Bolts ruining her polished armor, she failed to see Athena had turned invisible, now completely undetectable by Arachnid's optics.
As Athena smirked in confidence, she prepared the next phase of her plan, having already assessed this Con's body shape, memories and abilities, preparing to utilize them for what would come next.
"Hey six legs, over here!" Athena said, revealing her location to Arachnid. "So you've got yourself the abilities of a spider, impressive, but watch what I can do!"
As Airachnid turned around to face the now de - cloaked Adaptor, her smug smile vanished as she watched in horror for what was happening in front of her.
Shifting the metal of her body, Athena started to shrink her form, with her limbs being the first to change, separating into 4 separate limbs, where only 2 would realign themselves as Athena's new legs and arms while the others moved up to her back. As her tires quickly disappeared inside of her now smaller limbs, metal and circuits aligned themselves until they matched the exterior image that the femme desired.
For Athena's arms, her lone curved armor piece that enveloped the top of her gray arms flattened and shrunk, becoming more rectangular. While this happened, her digits became much sharper, while her initially curved shoulderplates flattened into rectangles.
Next to change was Athena's waist, metal continuing to fuse together while additional metal overlapped the original pieces. In addition, two large pieces of metal appeared, jutting out from the back of her waist and flowed downward, stopping just after her knees.
As for the femme's upper body and chestplate, her curved armor pieces flattened and tiny pieces of metal folded in on themselves to form a more slimmer build, as a Decepticon insignia replaced her Autobot insignia in the center of her chest.
Finally, Athena's head started to change, with her electric blue eyes turning purple, her side headpieces flattened and moved down to cover more of the sides of her face, while her crown disappeared and was replaced with two pointed pieces of rear facing upwards pointing metal as a headrest.
With the outline of Athena's new form now complete, she changed the colors of her body from cyan-green and yellow, with her limbs turning purple while her armor turned jet black, with hints of gold on her knee joints, wrist, shoulders and headpiece.
In only a few seconds, Athena had perfectly mimicked Airachnid's Cybertronian form, much to her amusement and much to her opponents' fury.
"What? How dare you impersonate me! How is this even possible?" Airachnid shouted in confusion.
Chuckling darkly, Athena responded to Airachnid's confusion.
"It's quite easy actually, now I know more about you than you know about yourself!" Athena said, mimicking Airachnid's voice in her new form.
Enraged at being copied, Airachnid hastily charged at the imposter in an attempt to eliminate Athena.
However, such attempts were merely in vain, for the femme used Airachnid's web - shooting abilities to pin her to a nearby tree, restricting her movement and preventing the deployment of her opponent's weapons.
Once Athena confirmed that her opponent was firmly incapacitated, she strutted up to Airachnid in her new black heels, a mischievous smile now adorning her lips.
"Well Airachnid, I will admit, this form of your's is certainly deadly and elegant." Athena said. "I must thank you for your attempts to defeat me, they were quite entertaining."
However, while this form certainly has a unique sense of beauty, I wonder how deadly it can be." the femme continued, before raising up her new limbs.
Before Airachnid could react, Athena brought her new appendages down on her opponent, severing her spark in an instant.
Upon Athena's webbing now dissolving itself, Airachnid's sparkless body crumpled to the floor.
With the Decepticon now successfully eliminated, Athena decided it was paramount to hide the evidence so that no humans could discover Cybertronian evidence.
Athena, still in Airachnid's body, turned herself invisible and changed back to her human form of June Darby. Next, June changed into her liquid metal form, before walking over and enveloping Airachnid's body with her liquid metal.
While doing this, her opponent's body was turned into liquid metal, before being completely absorbed into June's biomass. Such additions granted the Adaptor a wider possibility of bodily transformation while in her liquid mental form. In addition, she could also form more drones, enabling them to impersonate her human form while she was on a mission, or for them to act independently on a mission by June's command.
After Airachnid was absorbed, June transformed her liquid metal body back into a doe, before rushing over to the Deception's spaceship. Upon arriving, June reformed her body into a featureless humanoid, before absorbing the entirety of the ship in the same manner that she had done to Airachnid.
With their mission complete, the other adaptors reconvened on her location.
First, Jack, Miko and Raf arrived, in their invisible silver metallic doe and eagle forms respectively. As the three arrived, they shifted back into their liquid metal forms before restoring their human forms. However, Jack would still be 'Jacqueline', much to June's surprise.
Afterwards, Aurora and Artemis returned in their invisible jet forms, before transforming back to their Cybertronian forms, remaining cloaked. They then turned back into Rosa and Sofia respectively.
With the team reunited, June recloaked herself, giving her congratulatons to her fellow Adaptors.
"Good work everyone, we handled this situation flawlessly!" June telepathically communicated. "Sofia, Rosa, thank you for patrolling the skies, we really didn't need any unnecessary company."
Grins appeared on Sofia and Rosa's lips, appreciating their team leader's gratitude.
"Jack, Raf, Miko, you three did an excellent job securing the borders, this helped prevent a lot of potential human casualties." June said. "However, I've never seen you in that type of form Jack."
"Well, i - it's something t - that Miko made me try out today, it's a bit unusual." 'Jacqueline' stuttered. "Do I look alright in this form?"
"Of course Jacqueline! I think you look great!" June telepathically responded, with 'Jacqueline' smiling in response.
Seeing that 'Jacqueline' was now satisfied, June opted to continue, but was interrupted by Raf.
"Hey June, what did you do with that Deception and her spaceship?" Raf said telepathically. "I don't think they just vanished, right?"
"You're right, they didn't vanish." June affirmed. "I absorbed them into my liquid mass!"
This statement took the entire team off guard, with various reactions ranging from disbelief to shock.
"Since when could you do that?" Sofia and Rosa asked telepathically in astonishment.
"I didn't know Adaptors could actually have those abilities to even begin with." Raf mused.
Answering her team's questions, June responded: "Apparently we do have that ability, we've just never tried it for some reason.."
"So.. when did you start noticing this?" 'Jacqueline' asked her mother.
" It started happening in the training room while I was disguised as a desk, I accidentally absorbed a stapler." June said. "However, I think I've reached my limit, so I need you all in your liquid metal forms so I can share my excess liquid metal."
Obeying their team leaders instructions, the rest of the team changed from their human forms into their featureless liquid metal forms and patiently observed June.
June, still in her liquid metal form raised her arms, before 5 large pieces of liquid metal emerged from her form. Commanding these extensions, she fused them to her fellow Adaptors, pleased to see a seamless integration. With this additional liquid metal to work with, the possibilities of disguise and combat while in their liquid metal forms were now amplified!
Eventually, June ordered the team to return back to their mountainous base, seeing as there was nothing left for them to retrieve or accomplish while in the woods.
The 5 Adaptors changed out of their Liquid metal forms into their human forms, with Ultimus assumed his Mclaren 675LT vehicle mode. Then, Windburst and Gearshift shifted into her A - 10 Thunderbolt II and Tesla Model S Plaid vehicle modes respectively. Finally, Aurora assumed her Ferrari 458 Italia vehicle mode while Artemis shifted into her Suzuki GSX-S750.
However, June didn't turn back into her base Cybertronian form, as her fellow Adaptor's expected. Rather, after her plates finished shifting around, she mimicked Airachnid's shape, only with Athena's head being where Airachnid's head usually would appear.
Afterwards, the femme also changed the black, gold and purple color scheme to her default cyan - green and yellow paint job. With her imitated form secured, she leapt into the air, quickly transforming into a rah-66 Comanche.
After the six Adaptors had taken to their vehicular modes, they all turned invisible, peeling out of the forest and taking a leisurely drive or flight back to base.
Driving off into the gloomy weathered afternoon, Ultimus silently hoped that maybe on their next mission in the Arctic, things could be a little less stressful than having to secure off an entire forest as they tangled with a sadistic trophy hunting Deception.
END OF CHAPTER 2