I don't Own Transformers, only the OC in this.
Chapter Three: Rising Darkness Part Three and Four
The next day, Optimus ordered everyone's guardians to get to know them better, and that's what Prime and I are doing, out in the desert, sitting on some rocks and just enjoying the sun and some peace. I was so happy to get away from crazy-house that I bolted out the door when he pulled up.
He's been telling me some stories about what Cybertron was like before the war. But no stories about the war. I listen, completely absorbed in this. It sounds amazing.
He starts to tell me about his favorite place.
"I loved going to a city called Crystal City. The buildings looked like glass. They glimmered when the sun shone, and glowed when the moon and stars took its place in the sky. In the center of the town, similar to a town square, there was a fountain, which instead of water, steam flowed from that glowed." He said, before getting really quiet.
"I am needed back at base." He said in a disappointed tone.
"It's fine." I shrug. "I get it, duties. We could keep talking on the drive there instead."
A ghost of a smile forms on his face. "You are a very easy-going person. I could not say the same for Agent Fowler."
"Thanks. Does that guy bug you that much?"
Optimus transformed. "He does not bug me. He simply is concerned for your planet."
"Oh. He isn't very pleasant company, though."
"Wren, you are not wrong." A slight laugh barely graced his voice that I almost missed it.
When we get back to the base, I hop out of the cab. Optimus picks me up and sets me on his shoulder. I grin.
"I feel like a pirate's parrot." I giggle and take a selfie for Miko and send it to her. She replies with a laughing emoji.
Optimus walks down the hall. I hear little metal clinging. Like tiny feet almost.
"Optimus?" Ratchet calls. "Is that you?"
I can hear him gasp down the hall and exclaim.
"Hold on, Wren." Optimus warns. I waste no time grabbing onto one of the metal components in his shoulders.
He bolts forward. Once he's out of the hall, I can see a metal spider thing jumping at Ratchet, who's pinned himself against the wall. Optimus whips out an integrated blaster and hits the spider in one shot.
"Nice." I give him a thumbs up. Not that I really minded if the thing had landed on Ratchet. We might've gotten to hear him scream like a girl.
The thing gets back up and Optimus stomps on it, giving it the same treatment I give spiders when I find them in my room.
"And stay broken." Ratchet growls. "Now what could have caused that?"
"I have a grave suspicion, Ratchet." Optimus says in a foreboding tone. "Dark Energon."
Ratchet scoops up the pieces and he put it in a cylinder. While he did that, Optimus explained what Dark Energon was to me, and it doesn't sound like good news. Optimus closes it and locks it.
"If the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment to life, it would stand to reason the very same substance brought Cliffjumper back from the dead."
"Cliffjumper is the guy that died, right? That you guys went to go rescue."
"Yes, yes." Ratchet said dismissively. "That would explain his life signal inexplicably coming back online, but Dark Energon? It's so scarce to be virtually non-existent. What would it be doing on Earth?"
"It was transported by Megatron."
"For what purpose?"
"To conquer this planet by raising an army of the undead." Optimus says intensely, and it sends chills down my shine. He notices my fidgeting and soothingly says. "It is ok, Wren."
I nod. Normally I'd be all about hearing the adult talk that my parents always turned me and my younger brother away from. But this isn't the kind of adult talk that I want to hear.
Ratchet made a mocking laugh. "Well, Megatron would have to bring to life quite a few toaster ovens. Where on this planet would he find that many Cybertronian dead?"
"Maybe on Cybertron?" I ask quietly. Arcee vrooms into the base, Jack riding her vehicle form. Bumblebee and Bulkhead follow from behind. Everyone's laughing. It almost makes me jealous, but I shove those thoughts to the back of my mind; my guardian is Optimus Prime. If anything, I know Miko's jealous.
"Hey Jack!" I wave at my friend.
"Hey Wren!" He got off to allow Arcee to transform. "You got the prime spot up there."
I cringe. "Jack, that was such a dad joke, I think you hurt my brain."
"Sorry." He shrugged, laughing. Out of the corner of my eye I watch Bulkhead hand Miko her guitar.
"Autobots, prepare to.." Optimus takes a few steps forward. I glance at him.
"Roll out?" Arcee asks.
He glances to my friends all the way on the ground. "Remain here." He picks me off his shoulder and sets me on the ground. "That includes you, Wren."
"Awe, ok." I feign disappointment.
"Ratchet, you'll come with me. Arcee, we'll be outside communications range for some time, so I'm putting you in charge."
"Dude, you're biggest, you should be the boss." Miko says to Bulkhead.
"Oh, he never picks me."
"Optimus, with all due respect," Arcee says. "Playing bodyguard is one thing, babysitting is another. Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war."
"My pistons may be rusty but my hearing is as sharp as ever." Ratchet says with a bit of bite to his words.
I see what just happened. Arcee called him old. I snort a laugh.
"For the moment, it's only reconnaissance."
"Then why is there an edge in your voice?" Arcee demands.
"Arcee, much has changed in the last twenty-four hours, and we all need to adapt."
"Ratchet, bridge us out."
Ratchet does what he's told. I take a few steps toward Optimus.
"See you when you get back." I chirp. He turns and offers me a small smile.
"That you will, Wren."
And then they go through the portal. And then the groundbridge turns off. And they're gone.
"Ok, chief, so what's on the activities list?"
"I'm going on patrol."
"But Optimus told us to stay." Bulkhead argues.
"When you're in control, you can call the shots. 'Bee, come with. Bulkhead, you're in charge."
They both transform and leave.
"And they're gone." I say quietly. "Dang, Arcee really hates us."
"I wouldn't call it hate…" Jack argues weakly.
"Then what do you call that? She sure ain't our buddy."
"So, what's on the activities list?" Bulkhead asks.
Miko starts plugging in her guitar, and it makes terrible feedback.
"How about band practice!"
"But we're not a band." Raf says.
"Why so antisocial? Come on, Raf, you play anything?" She asks.
"Keyboard?" He lifts his laptop.
"Laptops and samples, good." She turns to me.
"What about you Wren?"
"I play an acoustic guitar." I give a half-smile.
"Acoustic? That's like, country."
"Yeah, and?" I shrug. But's she's already move on.
"What about you, Jack?"
"I sometimes mess around on the harmonica."
"Do I look like I do country, Jack?" She asks.
"Hey!" Me and Jack exclaim at the say time. And then I ask. "What's wrong with country?"
"Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming." She said. She pointed at Bulkhead. "Bulkhead, percussion. Go for big industrial sound."
"DIY! We're a band!" She exclaims.
"I didn't sign up for this." I shake my head.
"You just gotta learn the songs. This one's a ballad, "My Fist, Your Face"."
She starts strumming her very loud guitar and I instantly cover my ears when static makes its way to them. The proximity alarm goes off.
"Woah, woah, stop that. Proximity sensor, quick hide!"
We all run behind Bulkhead. Miko sets down her guitar.
"Prime!" Fowler exclaims.
"Agent Fowler, he's not here. Nobody's here, expect me, of course."
"Well, where did he go? No, don't tell me, he's out pancaking a mini-mall. Now, I don't know what language you bots speak on your planet, Prime promised he would handle the decepticons. But blowing a crater in the middle of Nebraska is not what handle means in English, so you tell Prime-"
"Hey!" I screech when Raf knocks into the back of my legs and I fall to the floor. "Ouch!"
"Hey, how ya doing?" Jack says amiably.
"Contact with civilians." Fowler hisses. "Team Prime has really gone off focus. Wait, don't tell me, you're running a daycare center."
"We're interns." Jack tells him.
"Student interns." Raf nods, running with the fib.
"Earning extra credit in autoshop." Jack says.
"Robotics." Miko says.
"Ok, let's move." He starts walking down the stairs. "I'm taking all four of you to federal custody for your own protection."
Bulkhead slams his foot in front of us protectively. "We're protecting them."
"Is that so?" Agent Fowler retorts. "Well, maybe you can explain that to my superiors at the Pentagon." He yanks the phone off the hook.
"Don't use that phone!" Bulkhead says, before leaning forward and breaking the receiver with his finger. "It's out of order."
Agent Fowler slams down the phone. "This isn't over, bigfoot, not by a long shot."
Miko made mocking talking behind his back and I gave him the L sign. He walked back to the lift and left. Bulkhead groaned.
The computer picks up an emergency beacon.
"It's an sos from Fowler!" Bulkhead lifts his massive hands to the keyboard. "uh, um, oh, uhh."
The coordinates are lost.
"Location scan was incomplete. Oh well." Bulkhead brushed off. I don't exactly blame him.
"Oh well?" Jack demands. "Seriously?!"
"Fowler's a jerk!"
"Well, whether you like the guy or not, the decepticons may have him." Jack says matter-of-factly.
"And Agent Fowler knows your location. Our location." Raf gasps nervously.
"You saw how fast he backs down from a bot," I say.
"The cons will totally make him squeal!" Miko adds.
"Yeah, but we lost the transmission, Fowler could be anywhere."
"Maybe I can narrow it down." Raf sits down with his laptop. "About five years ago, the government started microchipping their agents. Ya know, like owners do with pets."
"How do you know this?" I ask. We all kinda look at him like 'What?'
"I saw it on tv."
"Go figure." I rolled my eyes.
"Anyway, if I can hack into the fed's mainframe, maybe I can pinpoint Fowler's coordinates."
"You know how to hack? You're like two years old."
"Twelve," he says, fixing his glasses. "And a quarter.
"Latitude 39.5, longitude 116.9." Raf reports.
"Ok," Bulkhead opens the groundbridge. "Wait here."
"Aw." Miko whines. "Don't break up the band."
"Uh, Jack," Bulkhead turns around. "You're in charge."
He runs into the portal and the groundbridge closes.
"I guess we four have the run of the place." Jack says.
"Where's Miko?" I glance to the side.
"Miko? Miko!" Jack's hesitant voice echoes off the walls.
"She followed him!" I say with eyes wide. "You know how bad she wanted to go the last few times our guardians had to fight!"
"What should we do? Bulkhead might not even realize that she followed him."
"Miko hasn't seen the cons in action like we have." I respond. "She's got no idea what she's walking into!"
"Those are the coordinates." Raf brings it up on the computer. "Their destination's still locked in."
"Uh, Wren, come with me." He glances at my little cousin. "Uh, you're in charge."
"In charge of who?" My nerdy little cousin asks.
"Yourself!" I say over my shoulder.
The ground bridge opens as me and jack walk toward it. Raf runs up beside us.
"Well, this is it." I whisper. And then we're through. There's Bulkhead and Miko!
"Why don't those guys hang out with their own bots? This is our one-on-one time!"
Bulkhead groaned.
"Because my 'bot happens to be miles and miles away." I huff as I trot up to them.
The boys didn't even notice Bulkhead and Miko. Decepticons on top of the warship point guns at them.
"Scrap." Bulkhead, Miko, and I say in unision.
Shots fired by the cons rained down on the boys. Raf falls back after nearly getting hit.
"Raf!" I shout as Jack shields my little cousin. Miko and I hop into Bulkhead's vehicle form, he speeds around and opens a door for them to get in.
"Get in, now!" Bulkhead yells firmly. He spins away once they get in.
"Thanks Bulkhead."
"Thanks."
"What are you doing here?!" Bulkhead demands.
"We were worried about Miko, have you seen her?" Jack asked.
"What's she look like?" Miko asks from beside me.
"Wren!" Raf brightens.
Bulkhead spins around behind the rocks. "Everyone out. And this time, please wait here."
He drives away again, drawing the cons' fire away. Miko's not with us. Again.
We watch Bulkhead completely knock the cons into next week. He grabs one by the foot and flings the drone off the warship. He slams his wrecking ball onto one of their heads. And then he pretty much cannon-balls onto the remaining one.
"Where's Miko?!" He demands from his place on the warship.
He transforms his hold to take out a very ashamed looking Miko.
A drone tackles Bulkhead and he wrestles it off. He beats it pretty hard. The floor lifts up to reveal two more drones. Three others come around the side, leaving Bulkhead sorely outmatched as they fire on him. He rips off a communications array and chucks it at the cons like a frisbee, knocking 'em all down. He ran and jumping into the hatch.
"Think they forgot about us?" Raf asks.
Footsteps echo behind us. I look over my shoulder to see two cons. "Oh no."
They grab us, and in a very long feeling trip, they bring us into the ship and carry us down the hall. I liked riding with Optimus way better.
"Bring them to the brig. Commander Starscream is keeping the other human there." The con holding me says.
Bumblebee and Arcee speed down the hall. Bumblebee spins out into the two cons legs. They let go of us and Arcee catches all three of us and sets us down.
:Raf! Wren! Jack! You guys are ok!:
"Appreciate you clearing the front door for us but storming the decepticon base was not on the activities list." Arcee smiles slightly.
"Tell me about it." Jack shrugs.
"So gonna kick Miko's rear for this," I hiss.
Arcee and Bumblebee decide its best to go find Bulkhead, so we all start running down the hall.
Arcee takes out her gun and she turns to have Bulkhead at gunpoint.
"Friendly!" She gasps.
"Hello!" Bulkhead says and they both lower their weapons.
"Brought the humans?"
"You tried getting them to stay behind." Bulkhead says exasperated.
"We need to find Fowler and get this kids outta here."
"He's in the brig." I pipe up. The others' guardians keep us behind them as the skillfully take down the guards. We nearly get crushed like five times. They find a room and start taking down more cons. Once it's clear, they glance down at us.
"Clear." Arcee says.
"So, we're staying here?" I ask.
"Yes. And for your own sakes, stay here." Arcee says before they go to find Fowler.
"That was intense." Miko says.
"What were you thinking?!" I snarl.
"Did I ask you to follow me?" She says in a smart-aleck tone.
"We were worried about you!" I snap. "We didn't want you to be hurt!"
"Well is your name Optimus? You can leave my protection to Bulkhead."
"Aren't we supposed to be a band?" Jack fires back. "Doesn't that mean playing together?"
"What if I wanted to go solo?" She snaps.
"You could've been hurt!" Jack responds.
"LOOK! STOP IT YOU THREE!" Raf shouts and runs a few feet away and sits down, head against his forearms.
"I didn't know you could talk that loud." I mutter as Jack, Miko and I wince.
I walk over to him and sit beside him. The others join me.
"Hey, its ok." I pull my little cousin into my arms.
"We're gonna be fine." Miko says.
"Our 'bots will come back for us." Jack adds.
"Yeah, they're gonna take us home." I murmur in his ear.
"How do you know?" He meets my gaze with a sorrow and fear in his eyes that feels like a punch in the stomach.
"Hey, hey Raf, what do you make of that?" Jack points to some mathematical mumbo-jumbo on the screen.
He stands up and jumps off the ledge onto the floor and walks up to it. "It's important, real important. We gotta get this to Optimus."
"How do you know it isn't just a recipe for space nachos?" Miko asks.
"I know math when I see it. That's one serious equation." He says with conviction.
"Can you download it?" Jack asks.
"I gotta a flash drive, but I don't see anywhere to plug it in." he says.
"There probably isn't a place." I mumble. "This tech is way different than ours."
Another con lumbers into the room. We all run for cover, but Raf leaves his backpack and tries to run back for it.
The con turns his cannon on Raf but before he can take the shot, thankfully Jack tackles Raf out of the way.
"Miko! Get a picture!" I shout.
"Great idea!" she jumps up and down. "Hey you!"
I face palm as she takes a picture of the con.
"Not of that," I point to the screen. "Of that!"
"Oh!" She snaps the pic. I grab by her wrist as we all run away from the con.
Bulkhead transforms as he careens down the hall and then punches the 'con's head. He slams the con down. Bumblebee and Arcee pull up beside us. Raf, Miko and I get into Bumblebee, while Jack gets onto Arcee's bike mode.
"I told you to stay put!" Arcee chews us out before speeding away.
"I like pie!" Fowler says from Bumblebee's back seat. "Can we stop for pie?"
Poor guy is like, totally out of it.
"You guys got Fowler! Rock on!" Miko says.
When we get back to the base through the groundbridge safe, I think I could collapse with relief.
Optimus helps Ratchet repair the latter's damaged arm.
"What happened to you guys anyway?" Miko asks when he's done.
"We engaged an army of undead cybertronian warriors." Ratchet says, clutching his damaged arm.
"Zombies!? You fought zombies and I missed it?!" Miko exclaimed irritably.
"Bulkhead, you exercised extremely poor judgement in allowing the humans to accompany you."
"It won't happen again Optimus." Bulkhead says. "I promise."
"It wasn't Bulkhead's fault."
"Miko please!"
"No, it was yours." I accuse, glaring at her.
"I just wanted to go see Bulkhead fight."
I take a step back. She whips out her phone. "Plus, we got recon!"
"Hmm, Ratchet." Optimus murmurs. "Have a look to see why it would be of importance to Megatron."
Miko gets a bit smug, shooting me a look. I glare back.
"Woah Megatron's back?" Jack takes a step forward. "that's really bad news, right?"
I'm a little bit more in the loop than they are, but I stay quiet.
Ratchet leans in close and looks at the phone with confusion. "I don't understand."
"Oops," Miko exclaims. "That's the con who tried to blow Raf away. At least that's what he looked like before Bulkhead rearranged his grill."
"Miko, Raf was almost killed! This isn't a game, when are you going to get that through your thick skull!" Jack argues.
"Uh, we were all almost killed Jack, you, me, Wren, Raf, and even them." She points at the bots.
"Well, if this was just an average day with the autobots, then I don't want to be a part of it, not anymore."
"Jack," My guardian says to him gently. "Putting you in harms way was never our intent. However, it is no longer the safety of you four that is at risk, but the safety of all humankind. We will respect your decision to if you wish to leave."
Ratchet opens the groundbridge. "No point in long goodbyes. Here's the door."
"Mr. grumpypants." I hiss under my breath.
"Come on Raf, Wren."
I glance up at Optimus. He gives a look that tells me that he wishes I'd stay. Raf and Bumblebee have a similar exchange.
"We'll be ok, Jack." Raf says.
"We'll see you around." I say hopefully.
"Sure thing." He walks toward the ground bridge.
Arcee takes a few steps toward him.
"I know. You don't exist." He says.
"Don't make me hunt you down." Arcee tells him, a tinge of sadness in her voice.
When it's time to drive home, I ask Optimus to stop by Jack's house to talk to him. I hop out the driver's side door and look into the garage. Jack is fixing his bicycle.
"Hey Jack," I glance around. "Now I see why you had to get home."
"Don't you have something more exciting to do, Wren?"
"What, unpack from moving?" I ask. "So, this is the hang out. Nice."
"Moving?"
"Not voluntarily, that's for sure. Back in Willow Breeze (Another small town, but bigger than Jasper) in South Dakota, I went to a nice school, had good friends, I was on the Girl's Basketball team with a high school scholarship for it. I felt like I had to whole world to run through. I thought that there was nothing bigger than that town. Until me and my family moved here. Jasper, Nevada." I crossed my arms, thinking about Willow Breeze.
"Jasper, Nevada. The entertainment capital of the world?" Jack quipped.
"The internet lied. Trust me, I looked into this place. Willow Breeze, South Dakota was starting to look like a big city when I first got here. But then the last couple of days happened, and I got a big surprise." I smile.
"Do you have a point?"
"I saw what you did. Saving Raf, Miko and Me, even though you were royally ticked off at us."
"I've been raised to be responsible, to my schoolwork, to my mom, to my job." He says, moving the bike tire.
"Just hear me out. I've got a lot of respect for saving us, even though we were about the furthest thing from your good graces. It takes a strong person." I say. "Why settle for less when you could reach for the stars. Stop trying to pretend your normal, Jack, you'll never fit in. You were born to do so much more than that,"
"How can you tell?" He says in a disbelieving tone.
"I just can. You can do so much more than you think. Just get out of your own head. Normal isn't the way you're gonna do that."
"Thanks, Wren, but I think normal suits me fine."
"Ok." I say, and shrug. "I think you'll change your mind."
I get into Optimus's front seat and let him drive away.