Chapter Four: Unexpected Similarities
When Annabeth walked out of the SAFE, the entire weight of her situation hit her like one of Doctor Thorn's spines. At the thought of the Manticore, Annabeth shivered, "So," the daughter of Athena said nervously. "Are you absolutely certain you aren't built by Lord Hephestus?" Oddly, Annabeth felt a glare from behind land on her back. Wise Girl shook her head and looked straight ahead at Arcee. So many questions rattled around in Annabeth's mind. The girl looked back toward Jack for help and found none. Jack seemed as angry as Arcee with respect to the suggestion the two-wheeler my have been built by The Greek Smithy.
"Who built you?" Arcee asked with venom in her tone. "I doubt you know."
Annabeth shrugged, "It depends on who you ask." The blonde girl said. "Some say Prometheus formed mortals from clay with Mom giving us life." After a few strides, Annabeth shook her head. "Others say The Lord of the Sky gave us life instead of Mom." A glint formed in her eyes, a hunger to know. "What about you?"
Arcee vented and shook her helm. "That would be a question for Optimus if you want details." The two-wheeler said calmly. "All I know is the story most of us know when we emerge from The Well." Arcee looked down to see if the girl still listened. After all, her only experience with Human femmes lay in brief interactions with Miko. When Arcee's processor also offered Sierra as another example of a Human femme, Arcee quickly terminated the idea. Instead of seeing Annabeth off somewhere else, the femme looked down to see she still had Annabeth's attention. "In the beginning, there was The One. After an unknown amount of time, this entity split in two. Primus: God of Light, Order, and Creation formed his body into Cybertron. Then, from his body Primus brought The Thirteen online."
Annabeth blinked, "Wait…why would Primus need thirteen specifically?"
Arcee shrugged as they entered the main area. "Unicron: The Chaos Bringer wanted to return the universe to a lifeless void." Arcee explained. "The Thirteen were intended to beat him. Of course, The Primes were victorious and sent The Chaos Bringer into stasis far away from Cybertron. Later, two Primes fell in love. After one was deceived by his brother, this mech killed Solus Prime. Her chassis is said to have formed the physical Well of Alsparks back on Cybertron with her spark acting as a catalyst to ignite The Well originally and allow Cybertronians to populate our world."
Annabeth just stared, her mind working overtime to digest what she'd just been told. The girl had enough sense to suspect a different god lay at the core of Cybertronian society but to know the god controlled the domains of Light and Order made her nervous. If Jack gained a proper grasp of his power, the young man would be untouchable by the gods. The young girl's face drained of color at the thought. "How are The Primes viewed as a whole?" Annabeth felt as if she'd just locked eyes with Zeus when she realized Optimus heard her and turned with surprising agility to face her. With as much courage as she could muster, Annabeth entered the room with Arcee slightly ahead of her and Jack behind. "I mean that question with the utmost respect, Lord Optimus."
Optimus turned and looked at Annabeth with a neutral expression on his faceplate. He suppressed the shock in his Spark when he saw the young Human bowed and terrified before him. With a flare of pain slightly visible on Optimus' face, he looked at Jack. Jack bent down and gently brought the demigoddess back to her feet with a slight shake of his head. Annabeth could only stare as Jack smiled and motioned for her to look at Optimus. Shock visibly ran through the girl for a moment. Then, the daughter of Athena gave The Last Prime an apologetic smile that still seemed on the verge of panic. On instinct, Annabeth went for her knife. The girl held it tightly to keep from screaming. The bots not out on patrol looked at the broken girl's tears in shock. A wave of sympathy passed through them. The idea that any dirty would treat their children like disposable toys or foot soldiers gave rise to rage, especially for Bee as he looked down in worry towards Raf and imagined him serving these corrupt immortals.
"The legends do not agree. Some say Primes are prophets: a link between The Creator and the people of Cybertron," Optimus spoke and knelt to try and be less intimidating. "Others go as far as to claim Primus gave fractions of his power to each Prime and made my forebears lesser gods under him." Optimus gave her a look that almost seemed to jest. "I believe you know a little of the soundness in the Human saying, 'Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction.' I leave you to make your own conclusions. Do not bow or call me 'Lord', young one. Such are the marks of tyrants."
Miko shook her head at Annabeth. "You really shouldn't be scared of Boss Bot," Miko said with a smile. "He's nothing like the gods you know. For one: he's mortal. Another thing: he's not an aftplate."
"Miko, how do you know so much?" Bulkhead asked his charge in confusion at her interest in something other than Shriek Metal.
Miko laughed nervously and blushed. "Remember the Energon Harvester? I found Greek Mythology rocks!" The Japanese exchange student said as she threw up devil horns. "The gods are a total drag most of the time, but there are exceptions like Lady Hestia, Greek Goddess of The Hearth, Home, and Family."
In a flash, Miko gained an almost evil look in her eyes. Annabeth couldn't be sure, but for a moment or two, Miko appeared with fox ears and two tails. The Greek continued to lock eyes with the Japanese girl. Something tickled the back of Annabeth's mind about the Japanese and Apollo for a moment, but thought quickly left her mind, replaced with training. Annabeth pulled her knife. Jack quickly grabbed the blade of the knife and felt liquid ooze from his hand on contact with the blade. If Jack paid any mind to the wound rather than push it to the edge of awareness, he would have seen a dull bronze-colored blood run down his hand and drip on the floor. Instead, Jack turned his gaze on Annabeth, a glare in place of the obvious question, Jack flipped the knife and placed it in Bulkhead's massive right servo before his body relaxed and pain began to throb from the wound in his palm.
"Explain now," Jack growled. However, no one bothered to hear his words, all optics and eyes on his hand. When the teen noticed, he froze. "Start with your weapon and why it cut me."
Annabeth shook her head. "Don't you know anything? My knife and all the weapons demigods wield use a metal called Celestial Bronze." She said with an irritated tone as if he should already know this. "The metal harms anything that is even passively related to the gods while it doesn't touch mortals at all."
Jack took a deep breath and nodded. "When Solus Prime herself calls you 'Little Brother', you tend to start believing you're more than Human."
Annabeth expected Bulkhead and Ratchet to stare at him and start trying to refute the young Son of Primus. Instead, they looked at the massive golden hammer next to Jack's bodysuit as if that filled in all the blanks the massive automatons needed for some strange reason. Annabeth never expected acceptance so quickly, nor did she expect the aliens to be so accepting of a monster. As Annabeth glanced back through the shimmer of The Mist at Miko, a stab of ice ran though her. Perhaps just to spite her, Annabeth watched as Miko backflipped over the railing that separated the Human area from the ground floor and landed with barely a sound next to her Wrecker guardian. Why don't you see what she is, Jack?!
Jack raised an eyebrow at Miko's sudden spurt of agility. When Miko subtly indicated Annabeth with slight tilt of her head, the young man glared at Annabeth as if he could read her thoughts, but before he could lay into her, the comm hub came alive with strange almost worried warbles and beeps. Concerned expressions spread through the team. When Optimus spoke, peace seemed to push away the worry on all faces.
"We understand, Bumblebee," Optimus spoke in soothing baritone. "Remain hidden. Reinforcements are en route." The leader of the Autobots turned to Team Prime. "Intel gathered while Jackson…" The demigod felt a tingle crawl up his back at his full first name, akin to when he got in trouble with his mom but less intense. "…explained the situation to our guest, Bumblebee found an Energon mine occupied by MECH."
Jack's mind flashed back to when the terrorists kidnapped his mother and almost dissected Arcee. The monsters had much to answer for, and Jack wanted to collect. "Optimus," the young man said as his eyes began to glow. "Human versus apparent Humans would be the best way to go at this." The bodysuit walked over to the Prime and put a servo on his shoulder. "We know the risk of our lives." Jack spared a look at Annabeth and Miko. The young Prime didn't fail to notice the tension between the two girls. "Consider it a live audition for Annabeth to join Team Prime and an opportunity for Miko, Annabeth, and me to learn our unique combat skills."
"I do not intend to put you in danger," Optimus moved to continue speaking, but Jack cut him off.
"Scrap, Optimus, look at yourself!" Jack's eyes glowed. He mimed a walk to give the bots a good look at the bodysuit which followed his motion until it stood front and center before the team. "Slow, ungainly, and multiple exploitable weaknesses for physically small sentients like Humans; Prime an assault on a mine held by MECH spells out chaos and massacre for you, all of you." The bodysuit looked at Arcee, but Jack remained focused on the Autobot leader, even as his techno-organic optics shown with agony. "Let us do this, sir," he said softly. "Annabeth is proficient in close quarter combat. I can surprise them with my blade and blaster. Miko…" The young man stopped and winked at her in a brotherly way. Miko just stared in shock when it hit her that he knew her secret. "…there's more to her than meets the eye. She wants the fight. Give her the chance."
Optimus vented, "Arcee, you will stay in communication with this strike team at all times," the Prime ordered. "You will evacuate Bumblebee while Jackson…" The shiver ran up the young techno-organic's back again. "…Miko, and Annabeth clear the mine." He looked at each individual named in turn before Optimus' optics fell on Jack. For a moment, Jack thought he saw Primus in Human form back when Jack was younger in Optimus' place, the same kneeling posture and kind but firm and serious tone. "Protect them. Understood?"
Jack blinked for a moment, his mind in mild shock. "Yes, sir!" Unconsciously, Jack snapped a quick salute. Then, he turned to Annabeth as the Groundbridge swirled to life in front of them. "Relax," Jack said. "If you go into the vortex tense, you'll come out queasy."
Trust them." Raf encouraged but failed to keep a slight frown of worry for his best friend off his face. "This isn't Miko or Jack's first jump."
Arcee raised an optic ridge at Annabeth. "Are you sure you can keep up, Blondie?"
Annabeth grit her teeth and shook her head as the team walked through the portal, I'llshow you exactly what I can do, automaton!
On the other side, Jack and Arcee looked at each other before they parted, an unspoken wish for each other to be careful. Then, Arcee left the trio to recover Bee. Jack turned his attention to Miko and Annabeth. He could tell the blonde was thinking hard. "Care to share with the class?"
Annabeth shivered as if the question terrified her. Then, the daughter of Athena smiled at Miko. "Go up there and cause a distraction."
Miko glared at Annabeth before she ran off and started hollering to get the guards' attention. Jack shook his head and roared, long and loud. The guards turned and stared at Jack in confusion. When he summoned his sword, the guards stared in stunned shock. Something in Jack twisted in revulsion at sight of the men. As the monsters' mouths opened to show six-inch fangs, Jack ran at the hissing women. Before he could attack either, Annabeth stabbed one in the chest while Miko shimmered into existence with a clawed hand through the chest of the other. Jack closed his eyes and fought not to wretch. Corruption pulsed near the vein of Energon in the mine.
No, Jack thought. Icannotstop now.
The young man pushed deeper into the mine which seemed to be populated by MECH and a detachment of monsters ripped straight from Greek mythology. Corpses littered the ground with MECH soldiers strewn around the dead monsters. Jack noticed offhand the rise and fall as the terrorists' chests as he passed them. Part of him wanted so badly to run his sword through each and every unconscious solder with his blade. Unlike Annabeth's, Jack knew his sword had no such limitation. He could feel the difference between her weapon and his when he handed Wise Girl's blade to Bulkhead. How DID she get the blade back without the massive bot's notice?
Before Jack could think of an answer, he forced himself back to the task at hand and forged on into the mine. With his sword, Jack felt ancient instincts guide his body as he directed the sword to maim rather than kill.
"Jack!" Miko yelled frantic with worry tinged in her voice. "There's strange slag down here!"
Jack felt unease and weakness as he thought about what lay within the bowels of the mine. "Don't drink anything!" Jack said before he sprinted off after the girls. "That slag is like Underworld food or drink!" Jack shook his head. This sudden periodic influx of knowledge began to make his head hurt. I'm not completely Cybertronian! Jack's mind fought tocontrol the flow of information as it fooded into his mind. Primus, damn it!
I am not to blame, my son. The response glided across Jack's mind with ease. Focus and wait until you drift into recharge. It will become easier with enough time.
Jack growled and pushed his systems to close the gap between himself and Miko's voice as quickly as he could without causing permanent damage to his legs. As he walked up to the pair. Jack shivered as a tributary of Dark Energon gushed lazily along the confines of an ancient riverbed. Jack shivered as he watched Annabeth reach for the river. The unfiltered Dark Energon, so pure and close, made Jack start to feel dizzy.
"Nectar!" Annabeth screamed as she clawed her way to the river with Miko's hands wrapped tightly around the demigoddess' ankles.
"No, you don't!" Miko growled as she yanked at the girl and tried to funnel her illusion magic into Annabeth's mind. With no knowledge on the girl whom she currently tried to restrain, Miko drew on her own fears. Big, hairy tarantulas!
Jack raised an eyebrow when Annabeth's heart started to almost visibly beat against her ribcage. Then, the blonde got to her feet and sprinted for the mouth of the mine like Unicron himself, or perhaps The Crooked One, was after her. While she yelled about spiders, Jack only shook his head. "What did you do to her?"
Miko smirked. "I think I taught her a little something about prejudices."
Jack just sighed and shook his head, fighting the Dark Energon effects, and nodded to Miko before he did his best to math her pace. With distance between Jack and the poison, strength gradually returned to the young man, but as he looked back, his optics magnified as much as they could go to view the Dark Energon river from a distance. Close to the river, Jack spotted a pool of bright red blood, likely from Annabeth. As it mingled, the blood and Dark Energon changed each other into a bright gold liquid. That's odd.
Outside of the mine, Jack called for a Groundbridge and gave a final look towards the deadly cave. "Ratchet, the three of us need EVAC, and don't collect any off it." Jack looked around nervously for any Cons in the area. "I'll debrief in person." I definitely don't want Buckethead to know about this!
Please Read and Review.