More reactions and getting used to the new 'Normal'. Also, Raf may be careful, but it's not careful enough.

Jack started awake. He wasn't really sure how much time had passed, given he kept falling asleep, but he felt more awake this time. Ratchet was working on the computer, and Miko was busy beating Raf at a video game. Bumblebee was cheering Raf on.

'Watch out for the shell!' Bee warned, only for Raf to groan as Miko cheered. 'Told you.'

Jack shifted on the berth. He wanted to get up to see the screen, he wanted to move around.

"You're awake." Ratchet typed something in a new screen before coming over. "Let's see if you can walk a bit."

"Ratch-" his voice was still staticky.

"Ep, ep, no talking yet. Try walking." Ratchet instructed as he disconnected the various cables.

Despite having leapt off the berth to keep Wheeljack from taking Miko, Jack almost fell off the berth this time, his legs were unsteady.

Ratchet placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him. "One step at a time, Roadhauler."

Jack gave a slight nod, and took a small step forward. It was a little awkward at first, having four legs instead of two was still new, and he still overthought the steps and which leg went next.

"You're going to have to walk around a bit everyday, last thing we need is you loosing your mobility." Ratchet decided. Jack sat down, the walk hadn't been too bad, he wasn't tired or feeling like he needed to lay down, but his legs ached.

'We can take turns helping!' Bumblebee offered.

"I'll go over what I've been able to decode and scan from your new body later, but you do have a t-cog that is functional, you might be able to transform." Ratchet frowned as he spoke, going over whatever data he'd obtained from the short walk. "Unless the use of Synthetic Energon caused some sort of block."

Transform. Jack stared at Ratchet for a moment. It honestly hadn't occurred to him that he could transform as well. Not even after Predaking had done so.

'Just think about changing, it'll feel like stretching.' Bumblebee encouraged when he saw Jack's confusion, 'You can do it Jack!'

Jack growled slightly, trying to think back to the desert... he'd wanted to transform then, but hadn't. That odd sense of other and the instincts he'd been ignoring... he tapped into that.

Everything suddenly shifted, and while Bumblebee was right about it feeling like stretching after being in one position for too long, it also hurt.

Especially as he hit the ground face-first, having lost balance mid-transformation. The sensation of his 'head' moving was dizzying and he hadn't been prepared for it.

"Whoa." Miko and Raf were watching.

'Easy there Jack,' Bumblebee helped him up, Ratchet helping from the other side.

"Supposed to hur-hurt?" Jack asked. Less static but his voice was still not clear.

"It hurt?" Ratchet's frown deepened. "Describe the pain."

"Like I was pulling something out of joint." Jack ended up sitting on the the berth as Ratchet scanned him again. Bumblebee distracted Miko and Raf so Jack could have some privacy.

Jack was getting sick of being scanned. He growled, but stayed still.

Ratchet scoffed. "Don't start, you may not like it, but I have to figure out how the synthetic energon has affected this transformation of yours."

"I know. Tired of being a science project." He glared at his claw like hands or servos, he guessed.

"You're not a project, you're a patient." Ratchet briefly rested his hand on Jack's shoulder. "Besides, this is the last set of scans before I can have the computer compile the information- unless you do something and injure yourself. Lay back." Ratchet got the last set of scans, and then urged Jack to sit up again. "Most likely, the pain was due to your t-cog being so new- it'll take a few transformations for it to get used to activity, you should probably transform once a day as well." Ratchet noted.

Jack nodded, and looked at his clawed servoes.

"Ratch? What do I look like?" Jack asked as Ratchet helped him stand. Ratchet paused, and looked around.

"Need a mirror?!" Miko called and held up a handheld mirror. Why she had it was a mystery until Jack noticed Raf's glare at the mirror. Miko must've used it to prank Raf.

He couldn't see his entire face, but it was good enough.

'You don't look too bad.' Bumblebee offered.

"Thanks Bee, but this is going to take some getting used to." At least his optics were blue. And he didn't have fangs.

"Wait, you can understand Bumblebee now?" Raf asked, stepping closer.

"Uh, yeah ... wait, how can I understand you? I know you're not saying English..." Jack blinked. "Ratch?" He looked at the medic, confused.

"Hmm, all I can do is speculate that whatever the nanites used, it had basic cybertronian language skills encrypted in it. Without a sample, I can't be sure." Ratchet turned back to the computers. "Now keep it down, I need to concentrate."

The two humans, one former human and the autobot scout shared a look of semi-fond amusement.

In a jungle miles from the base, Arcee was quickly loosing patience with her mission.

"Anything, Bulk?" Arcee wanted to finish the search for energon quickly. Jack was starting to stay awake for longer periods of time, and she wanted to be there to at least talk to him.

"Take it easy Cee, Roadhauler is still going to be there when we get back." Bulkhead assured her.

"I know, I know." The two met up at a narrow gorge, Arcee transformed to get a better reading. "I just..."

A part of her hadn't expected to get Jack back at all. She'd hoped and prayed but inside, she was so sure he would be killed. After the others she had lost, she was so scared that Jack would be another casualty of those she had let in.

Especially since she had let him in a lot closer than Cliff and Tailgate, he was more like a little brother to her than anything else.

Grant it, being captured and turned into a science experiment really wasn't a good thing, but the fact he survived was more important at the moment.

(What she could never, ever, say was that some part of her was actually glad he was cybertronian now, his previous human lifespan had been somewhat of crushing reminder that she would lose him someday, even though it wasn't to war. How horrible was that?)

"I know, I'd be the same if we had lost Miko." Bulkhead joined her. Arcee had been relieved to see them when she and the commander had rescued them from Predaking, but Miko asking where Jack was had her pulling away just like she had after Cliffjumper's death.

Arcee had been nothing but professional, had kept Mrs. Darby from leaving, but the more time had passed, the less she reached out to them, and the more single-minded she became in fights.

Getting Jack back was a great boost for morale, for everyone, but it definitely kept Arcee from doing something she would have regretted.

"I ever get Knockout in my sights..." Arcee trailed off, servoes clenching into fists.

"I'll hold him down for you." Bulkhead promised. "Now, let's go make our reports."

Driving back through the ground bridge, Bulkhead almost slammed into Arcee when she suddenly stopped and transformed. He swerved around her, transformed and saw what had surprised her.

The mech sitting on the medical berth had a tail that was tucked close and was holding an empty energon cube that was actually impaled on a claw. Ratchet was working on getting it off, and was clearly exasperated.

Bumblebee cheerfully greeted them as he shut down the bridge, ignoring the odd scene behind him in favor of escorting Miko and Raf to dinner at the mess. Bulkhead decided to join them.

"How'd you even manage this?" Ratchet grumbled as he got the box off.

"Dunno." Jack flexed his claws once the cube was off. Arcee studied the new form, not sure what to think about it.

He was tall now, definitely close to Optimus' height, his root mode was slightly more beastly compared to Predaking's, the upper part of the beast mode's head formed a cowl with head fins, but his armor was less angular.

Arcee had an odd feeling that Jack's root form was unfinished or missing something, but shoved that thought aside. "Do I want to know?" She asked instead. She ignored the way Jack's tail briefly wagged as he looked at her, especially as he glared down at his tail.

"Probably not." His voice still had static, but it wasn't nearly as bad as previous times he was speaking. "I'm going to have to learn how to hold things without puncturing them." He briefly looked at the screens and their keyboards.

Arcee could see where that would be an issue, but they could work on that later. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore. T-Transforming was weird." Jack looked at her. "Being this tall is weird." He growled a little at that.

"It's weird for all of us, partner, but we'll get through it together." Arcee assured him, gently resting her hand on his arm. "I promise."

"I believe that." Jack smiled at her.

"Also, I need to apologize... I didn't believe it was you and I almost left you in that desert ... almost..." Arcee felt her vocalizer seize at the memory. She'd been so upset at the thought of the cons using Jack's voice to taunt them, she'd almost let him be recaptured.

"Hey, it's okay... I mean, I was hurt and scared then, but I wouldn't have believed me either... sometimes I still don't quite believe this is real." Jack moved to pat her hand, and his claw-like servoes scratched the back of it. "Scrap, sorry Arcee!"

"It's okay, not even a mesh wound." She assured him, tamping down her guilt that her disbelief had hurt him. A scratch on her paint job was a small thing compared to the relief she felt that Jack wouldn't hold her near-abandonment against her.

That said, Arcee wasn't going to fail him again.

"So, where's everybody else?" Jack asked.

"Optimus is checking out an old decepticon mine, Ultra Magnus is recovering on his ship, Smokescreen and Wheeljack are scouting in the country you call Italy." Arcee explained. "Decepticons have gone pretty quiet, any ideas?"

"... Knockout didn't tell me much. He got in trouble for something though. He moved me to an old room, rather than hand me over to Shockwave." Jack scowled, optics tinged green.

"Trouble in the decepticon ranks?" Arcee frowned.

"Dunno, Predaking ... Predaking wasn't supposed to do this to me. He was really upset about the death of the other predacons..." Jack scowled. "Him and Knockout both need to learn the word 'no'."

Arcee didn't ask for anymore details. If she did, she might actually try to kill most of the decepticon high command. (Though she was definitely keeping that option on the table.) "Want to learn more cybertronian words?"

Jack perked up. Arcee had taught him the cybertronian keyboard and how to turn machines on and off back at the old base, and during their time spent wandering she had begun teaching him to read basic cybertronian- speaking was a little outside the ability of human vocal chords, and had left him feeling like he'd swallowed glass.

"Can we try speaking it now?" Maybe Jack could speak it now, that would be fun- just because he could understand Bee didn't mean he shouldn't try to learn.

"Sure thing." Arcee agreed. "I have to type our report for this scout mission, we can use that."

Jack nodded, tail once again thumping on the berth despite himself- that was getting old fast.

In Italy, Smokescreen was enjoying the winding roads. And for some reason, even the humans treated the speed limit signs as suggestions, so far no one gave them a second look for speeding past them, they'd even been passed by some humans.

That said the scenery didn't do much for the guilt that was eating away at him.

"You're awfully quiet Rookie, what's eating you?" Wheeljack asked, swerving past a slow moving car that was making an odd noise.

"... I think I'm in trouble. I keep getting sent out on back to back scouting missions."

"You think it's because of you leaving Jack on the Nemesis, and the situation Roadhauler's in?"

"Well, that's the most logical reason, isn't it?" Smokescreen admitted. A part of it was definitely justified cowardice, Arcee was almost always by her partner's side, he didn't want to get yelled at by her again.

Smokescreen liked Jack, he was like a mech his own age (or maybe Smokescreen was the equivalent of Jack's human maturity) and he hadn't wanted to leave Jack there.

But Jack had been so convincing and Optimus had been dying that Smokescreen had obeyed despite himself... and Jack had been right, to add injury to insult, if he had taken Jack then, Smokescreen might not have made it in time to save Optimus.

"I didn't want to leave him." Smokescreen explained softly. "But I couldn't save both of them."

Optimus or Jack. That was what it had come down to... and both Jack and Smokescreen picked Optimus.

"No one's upset about you saving Optimus, kid. If you hadn't used the forge on him, we'd all have been scrapped." Wheeljack was sure of that.

To tell the truth, Wheeljack didn't know Jack as well as he did Miko- most of what he knew was second hand. Pit, He knew Raf better than he did Jack.

Miko complained about Jack ruining her fun, but also called him 'kinda cool'. He'd caught her looking sadly at some photos of the boy one night.

Raf wouldn't play a game because it was something he'd been doing with Jack.

Wheeljack's audials still echoed with the yell June Darby had let out when Knockout escaped- it had echoed Arcee's, and Wheeljack was pretty sure that her hit to his dashboard had left a dent.

He'd left that mission with the realization that the only things keeping Arcee from going solo were her bonds with the rest of Team Prime, and despite her words about sticking with their motley team, even that wasn't enough when faced with a chance to rescue her partner- Arcee had lunged for the groundbridge portal, trying to make it before it closed.

Arcee took the safety of the humans very seriously, she had not been happy with June Darby and Agent Fowler going to retrieve the predacon bone without autobot backup. That had been a spectacular argument that ended when June stormed out to her car.

It wasn't just her that had been effected, both Bumblebee and Bulkhead kept their kids closer, and if Miko hadn't gotten the apex armor, Bulkhead probably would have hurt Wheeljack on principle alone.

Jack apparently was just as protective of the other kids as the bots were- that lunge off the table had definitely been more reflex than conscious planning, just to stop him from taking Miko on patrol.

Given Miko's grumbling as he put her back, that reaction was just proof that despite the decepticons best efforts, the kid was very much still himself.

(He'd be lying if he said that he wasn't a little curious about how the decepticons were doing this sort of bio-engineering, but he'd buried that part of him so deep that he was hesitant to offer any help. Besides, Ratchet was more than capable of handling the bio-chemistry, his experience wouldn't add anything.)

"Hey, there's a blip on the radar, could be energon." Smokescreen announced and sped up. Wheeljack fell in behind him, both letting the previous conversation drop. Hopefully this would be good news.

Ultra Magnus was frustrated with being sidelined over his replacement claw, and entering the Unit only increased his frustration.

Arcee was teaching the human turned predacon to read, perfectly at ease as she typed up a report.

Grant it, the closest thing to 'dangerous' that the predacon had done was stopping Wheeljack from taking the honorary wrecker with him. Yet Ultra Magnus could not relax around the other.

"Wasn't Bulkhead supposed to be with you?" Ultra Magnus asked. Both looked at him.

"He decided to escort Miko to the mess. I'm submitting the report now." Arcee looked up at him. "Roadhauler says there was trouble in the decepticon ranks, unknown origin."

"Oh?" Ultra Magnus looked at Roadhauler. The predacon blinked at him, and gave a small nod.

"Knockout was supposed to hand me-n-research to Shockwave, hid me insstead, something had happened." He growled slightly. "Predaking found me, came back upset, not supposed to transform me."

"Do you know why Knockout was supposed to hand you over?"

Roadhauler shook his head. "No sir, he wouldn't tell me anything... said I didn't need to know." He growled a little at that. "Sorry, can't help more ..." He paused, tilting his head.

"What is it?"

"Knockout had other prisoner ... dunno who- heard them in pain." Roadhauler sighed. "Sorry, can't remember anything else."

"It's fine, have you taken the memory test yet?" Ultra Magnus was surprised that he was actually getting answers without Arcee blocking him.

"Memory test?" Roadhauler looked at Arcee.

"To see if you've lost any memories from the transformation, looks like most of the important memories are there since you remember all of us, but you know Ratchet won't do anything by half." Arcee reassured Roadhauler. "June's working on it. Should be ready for tonight." Arcee answered Ultra Magnus.

"Incoming transmission." Ratchet called out, interrupting what was almost a conversation.

"Ratchet? You're not going to believe this..." Smokescreen started.

"We found an abandoned energon mine." Wheeljack added. "The cons didn't even finish stripping it before leaving- and no surprises either."

"We're gonna need help transporting the stuff." Smokescreen added.

"I will-" Ultra Magnus started.

"You are not going." Ratchet informed him, then opened up two other comm lines. "Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Smokescreen and Wheeljack found an energon mine, they require backup."

Ultra Magnus watched in annoyance as Arcee joined the scout and wrecker in going to the mine- most likely to help them with loading the energon.

Everything about this situation screamed trap, but until Ratchet cleared him medically, Ultra Magnus was stuck.

Roadhauler suddenly growled. "Miko!"

"Oh come on! I can help!" Miko was standing by the apex armor, apparently trying to sneak into it.

"You're not supposed to be on the floor while Roadhauler is conscious." Ultra Magnus was beginning to believe Old Kup's stories of bots being reincarnated as organics- it was the most logical reason for Miko's disregard for her physical limitations if she had once been a Wrecker.

"Puh-leeze! The only thing the big softy will do is growl at me and then tattle to the nearest bot!" Miko crossed her arms.

"As much as I appreciate the vote of confidence... I don't think you should take the risk that the synth-en won't override my normal reactions." Roadhauler sighed, rubbing one arm.

"You're shaking." Miko noticed.

Indeed, Roadhauler was trembling slightly.

Ratchet moved over, and guided the predacon into laying down. "Talk to me, what are you feeling?"

"Drained, I guess, tired." Roadhauler watched Ratchet hook up one of the monitoring cables.

"All vitals are coming back within acceptable parameters." Ratchet frowned. "And I didn't have any tremors when I used the synthetic energon... it's possible this was too much activity for one day."

"S-so nap?" The thick static was back.

"That would be advisable." The words had scarcely left Ratchet when the predacon fell into a deep recharging cycle.

"Ratchet? Is he okay?" Miko asked. Apex Armor forgotten due to her concern for her friend. Ultra Magnus awkwardly offered his good hand for her to hop on, he'd much rather have to pick her up than let her try to sit next to the unconscious Predacon. "That wasn't normal."

"No, it wasn't." Ratchet sighed. "I'll keep monitoring him for now. Where's Rafael?"

Raf was still in the mess, and picking at his food. For the most part the soldiers ignored the children when they saw them, the same way they ignored the non-regulation vehicles that turned into giant robots that had a spaceship in the second hangar.

There were a couple exceptions.

"Hey there, why the long face?" A soldier sat close to him, his name tag read FIGUEROA. "You have to go back to school or something?"

"No, I'm just worried."

"About the new bot? Word is there's a new one, but it's damaged or something?"

"Fig, you're not supposed to talk about it man." Another Soldier sat down and proceeded to clean his glasses before eating.

"Off base. We're on base, therefore we can talk about it." Fig looked at Raf. "Sides, you look like you need to talk to someone about something."

"He's nice, but ..." Raf sighed. "He tries to hide it, but every time he doesn't do something just right even though he's recovering he just stops ..."

"Ah!" Glasses blinked. "Sounds like he's frustrated with his own body- buddy of mine had the same issue after getting shot. Though he actually got so frustrated with his physical therapy he occasionally threw things."

"Did he get better?"

"Once he accepted he'd actually have to do things different than before, yes." Glasses turned to chat with another soldier.

Raf sighed and tried to finish his food.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we'll see him driving around soon." Fig offered.

"He's not a vehicle." Raf got up, leaving a very confused corporal behind.

Later that night, Fig made a call.

"Hey Chica, miss me?" He dodged a magazine. "Eres el único para mi, mi corazon."

"Dude, flirt in Spanish somewhere else!" His bunk mate complained, and Fig slipped out to the bathroom.

"Alright, I'm alone. New robot's injured pretty bad, probably permanently, should be an easy capture when it leaves the base. Oh, and it's not a vehicle." Fig heard steps coming down the hall. "I'll let you go, call you when I get a chance, mi corazon!" He spoke a little louder than necessary, and hung up with a grin as Glasses entered the bathroom and stumbled into a stall.

Fig left the bathroom and re-entered the bunk room with a smile on his face just in case anyone was paying attention, and then rolled into his bunk. He made sure the blanket covered his expression before he let the false smile drop.

His superiors may be interested in the tech, but he was more worried about how attached the kids were, treating giant robots like people. This wasn't like the iron giant movie, these things were deadly, one brought down a tunnel on a buddy of his.

He had a really bad feeling about leaving those kids with the robots. Hopefully, he'd be able to keep the kids out of the way when they took out the robots.

There. Having trouble with the lines (still) will go back when They start cooperating.

If Fig sounds familiar, he's one of the soldiers from the first transformers movie- the one that mentioned having the gene of seeing/sensing things before they happened. I liked the character, and was disappointed when the last we saw of him, he was on a stretcher after the battle with Scorpinok ... and that's it. We don't know if he lived or died and he never showed up again.

Of course, I made him a MECH agent... I do weird things to my favorite characters, lol.