That's Right, I'm Back
Title: Upgrade
Chapter: Chapter 1: Maggie
Author: Luki_Dimension
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Transformers Movie
Pairing: None
Summary: Work-in-Progress
Notes: Unbetaed for now
Normally, this would be up on fanfiction.net, but I don't want to put it there until Dreams of All has a chance to beta it. This said, its officially been a year since Format was first posted online, and I've been wanting to put the first chapter up today for a while.
So why'd it take so long? Several reasons all smushed together to make things complicated. First off, University. From roundabout March till May my brain wasn't allowed to think about anything that wasn't coursework, so any ideas were immediately quashed until that was out of the way.
Secondly, plot. And the fact that up until 2 months ago, there wasn't one. I had little snippets but no way of putting them together. My biggest issue was that, since I was loving the fic Intersection, I wanted to do the solo character chapters again. However, it became painfully obvious that, outside of maybe a few characters and chapters, this trick wasn't going to work twice. If a sequel was going to work at all, it had to have a plotline. So in theory, 'Upgrade' should have a tighter plot than Format's (which I more or less stumbled into thanks to review comments), and also means slower updates. I also had to bring in non-movie characters out of sheer necessity - there was no way to write it without at least some Decepticon backup and at least one new Autobot.
(and yes, it does have a plot, I'm just having trouble summarising it ^_^)
Finally, because of uni, I have had the most intense writers block ever for the past few months. I've been writing a couple hundred words on my commute just to drag this out.
But regardless, its finally here, so enjoy the semi-final draft of the first chapter of Format's sequel, 'Upgrade'
* * *
Chapter 1: Maggie
The meteor lit up everything in its radius, the noise of its impact sending dozens of small animals that lived in the area fleeing for their lives. Every creature fled in the opposite direction, save for one Lamborghini Reventon, which shuddered in relief before revving its engine.
“Finally…” Starscream hissed, rolling away from the wreckage he had caused earlier and rolled back onto the road, heading straight for the impact zone.
The last few months had been a nightmare. Lying low, hiding from Autobots, having to keep his wings clipped…He had plans but no resources with which to begin them. But then, like a beacon from Primus, signals. Glorious, wonderful, Decepticon signals. The majority would still take a few earth months to arrive, but this arrival could start things off perfectly.
The Decepticon was just climbing out of the crater when he swerved to a stop. He transformed quickly, but not fast enough for the new arrival to get a good look at the car, and sniggered.
“What in the pit is that?”
Starscream glared at him. “Necessity Hook. Those slaggers are keeping an eye on every meteor heading to this planet. I head towards any with wings and they’ll be on me faster than I can process. Speaking of which, they’ll be here soon enough so lets move it! I ran a vehicle off the road nearby, so scan it and lets get out of here. You can pick something else later.
Hook rolled his optics. “Mute it Starscream, you may officially be in power now, but the only reason any Decepticons other than your Seekers are going to show up is to get revenge for Megatron. You’ll have to do something pretty impressive to get them to follow you permanently.”
Starscream smirked. “And you?”
Hook walked past him, heading for the road. “I’m here to avenge Bonecrusher. That’s all.”
A hand grabbed his neck, and Hook quickly shut up to save any damage to his vocal processors, and braced himself and Starscream yanked him back, crashing him to the ground. A foot stamped onto his chest, and the former jet sneered down at him.
“Listen up Hook. You may not like me, and I’m not all that fond of you, but right now, I AM the superior force, and we can both benefit from each other’s cooperation. But if you wont acknowledge my leadership, I’m willing to wait for someone who will.”
The pressure on Hook’s chest increased.
“I’ve already waited a vorn, what’s a few more cycles…”
Hook winced.
“Wait, wait Starscream! I’ve information from Soundwave.”
The foot stilled, not abandoning its position but not increasing pressure. “What information?”
“One of his spies intercepted an Autobot spy. He sent me some schematics before the news of Megatron’s demise. Could be exactly what you’re looking for.”
The foot finally left his chest, and Starscream chuckled.
“Schematics from an Autobot spy? If that means what it better mean, then perhaps we can work something out.”
A few minutes later, two vehicles roared off into the twilight.
* * *
Maggie Madsen stepped into the airport with no little trepidation. Even with the money and knowledge she would get from this six-month contract, she was starting to have second thoughts.
Still, the smiling face of Robert Epps did ease her nerves.
“Maggie, good to meet you. Properly this time.”
She smiled, shaking his hand and stepping in line with him as he took her suitcase and headed for the door. “Likewise. So what’s the plan? New accommodation or orientation first?”
Epps smirked. “Orientation. We figured you’d need time to settle in afterwards.”
As he headed for the military truck, he noticed Maggie stopped, her hesitation obvious, and the grin widened.
“Don’t worry - this one’s for personal use. Completely inanimate without keys.”
Maggie sighed. “I’m going to be completely in over my head with this right?”
“Oh you’ll get used to it.”
* * *
After signing a stack of forms half the width of a phone book, Maggie hadn’t expected to hear about the Cybertronian events ever again. Both her and Glen had been warned about interfering, and though it was driving her friend nuts, she’d found comfort in going back to the understandable.
So when she was summoned back to the Secretary of Defence’s Office almost a year later, she was in for a shock.
“You want me to what?” she asked, disbelief dissolving any manners.
“Work as a governmental liaison to the Autobots” Keller repeated, clearly expecting this.
Maggie shook her head. “To…help develop a programme that can block Decepticon hackers”
Keller nodded. “So far, all of our attempts have failed, and we cannot risk another communications blackout like the one before the events of Mission City.
…Which meant more of the bad guys were arriving or were already here. So much for her ‘comfort’ safety.
“We need someone to actually work at their base full time. Analyse their own securities and modify them for our own systems. Your name was at the top of the list of choices.
He hesitated for a moment, and sighed.
“There is another reason.”
Her eyebrows narrowed.
“I can’t tell you the full story, its surrounded by enough red tape to wallpaper this building three times over, but I can give you the general gist. The Autobots have received a…Youngling, a child of their race, since arriving. Probably the last since the destruction of their All Spark.”
“If you tell me you’re sending me there to be a babysitter…” She started
“Let me finish. How this Youngling came into being is Top Secret. Only a select few know, and only a portion of them has the right to explain it. A month ago, Reginald Simmons kidnapped him, and, well, the reports weren’t pretty. The kid was pretty traumatised by it all.”
Keller sighed, sounding ten years older. “Can’t say I blame him. Damn Simmons to hell for crossing that line.”
“But what does this have to do with me?” Maggie asked.
“It’s been a month,” Keller explained. “And the Autobots have noticed that this Youngling, Deuce is his name, is still fairly nervous around humans. He’s tolerating a few, but anyone he doesn’t know, he just vanishes until they leave. They want a more permanent stranger to be around regularly, to help regain his trust in people, but they’re refusing anyone who had anything to do with Sector 7.”
And if you removed them, the pool of people who knew about the Autobots suddenly became a lot smaller. “I see…” Maggie replied, mind running over this information, trying to fill in the blanks she was left with.
* * *
She’d been given a few days to think it over, but at the end of the day, there had been no real choice at all. America’s computer systems (and the rest of the worlds in reality) needed to be upgraded, and she would never forgive herself if she didn’t take this opportunity.
Not to mention what Glen would have done to her if she’d refused. She hadn’t been allowed to tell him what she was being assigned to, but the hacker probably had enough data to guess where the Autobots were hiding out to figure that is wasn’t run-of-the-mill analysis she would be doing.
But still, she bit her lip as the Autobots base came into view. How did you make a good impression on a race of machines that were probably alive when the dinosaurs were just a possibility? And weren’t too impressed with your race right now? Especially when all you had to familiarise yourself with them was a collection of papers that you couldn’t keep naming and identifying each?
As they got closer, the doors opened and Epps nodded.
“Thought it would be Optimus that greeted you. You’ll probably be working with Jazz most of the time, but meeting the big guy himself should help ease your nerves.”
She took her eyes of the mountain of machine they were heading towards to stare at Epps incredulously. “Seriously?”
Epps laughed as the car stopped. “Seriously. Optimus Prime’s huge, but I’ve never met someone who can make you feel more at ease than him.”
He shrugged as he opened his door, prompting Maggie to follow suit.
“You know, so long as you’re not trying to kill him or his own.”
Optimus hid a smile as he knelt down by the car, watching Maggie stumble and curse about the uneven footing.
“While you work here Ms Madsen, you may want to consider alternative footwear. That does not appear to be the most stable or efficient design.”
Maggie winced as Epps quickly turned a snigger into a snort. He might have a point, heels were great for the city, and for gaining a couple of inches to intimidate the men that swamped her field, but they would be worthless here.
“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”
For a moment the leader of the Autobots just stared at her, and then smiled before standing up.
“Well then, shall we get acquainted with the base?”
* * *
-I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on you-
-Hax!-
-What?-
-If you don’t stop singing, I’ll rip you out of my processor manually!-
Hax sighed. -Fine. But when is Ratchet going to finish up. He’s been analysing our stupid spark forever!-
Once Deuce had been physical repaired, Ratchet had kept him under watch in fear that his spark would be further mutated, or collapse after the ordeal that brought Hax into existence. He’d been poking and prodding as much as he dared, trying to find any possible weakness in its development.
Not that this hadn’t been informative. Hax certainly had more capabilities than they’d expected. So long as Deuce touched something electronic, the program could transfer into it, and more or less do whatever he wanted, send messages, hack codes, boost signals - although even Hax admitted his success was currently similar to someone mashing buttons on a console hoping to find the ‘on’ button. He wasn’t sure of his limits and over overextended himself by accident. The length and strength of his performance seemed to depend on how much of his spark was filtered out from Deuce, which seemed dependant on how long Deuce held onto the item.
Finally, Ratchet stood back up and allowed the Younglings chest plating to slide back into place.
“Well, it looks as if your time on medical watch is over Deuce” he stated, gesturing that the Youngling could get up from his position on the table. “Both sparks have stabilised around the core.”
Deuce leapt to his feet.
“So I can finally start training?”
Ratchet sighed. He was starting to think he was the only one against Deuce taking up arms just yet. “Possibly. We still have mental issues to work out.”
Although only one could be heard, both Deuce and Hax groaned and slumped back into a sitting position, causing Ratchet to chuckle.
“But I’m fine!” Deuce wailed. “Me and Hax, we’re both perfectly fine.”
Ratchet didn’t look convinced.
“Come along. Optimus wants to see you both.”
* * *
Within minutes, Maggie had to concede that Epps was right. Optimus was large and intimidating, but he had this amazing ability to make her feel 100 feet tall. It was no wonder all that met him spoke with such praise.
They stopped by a locked room, and Maggie noticed a human palm scanner, but could see nothing for the Autobots.
“All the locks in the base can identify us by internal signals” Optimus explained when asked. “But place your hand on the scanner so we can add you to our security banks.”
She did as asked, and her jaw dropped as the door slid open…revealing paradise.
Screens took up the majority of the walls, a plethora of machines attached. Keyboards, cooling systems, touch pads - it was an unbelievable system.
“And I get to play with it!” Maggie’s inner child squealed.
“Jazz was supposed to be here” Optimus began, walking into the room. “But there were several unexpected meteor showers last night. He, Bumblebee and Ironhide have all gone to check them out.”
“Friends of yours?” Maggie asked, drooping when the Autobot shook his head.
“They would have contacted us. At this time, only one of our allies has answered. He will arrive in a few of your earth weeks.”
This was new information, and not just to her judging from the look on Epps’s face.
“Keller never mentioned that.”
“It is a very recent development. We only caught the signal because Ratchet had Hax attempt to boost the communication system. Speaking of which…”
He trailed off as the sound of footsteps echoed through the hall, and a large yellow Autobot came into view.
“You wanted us to meet someone Prime?”
Optimus smiled. “Miss Madsen, this is Ratchet, our Medical Officer, and this…”
Maggie’s eyes dropped to the much-closer-to-eye-level figure.
“…Is Deuce.”
But before she could even begin a greeting, the red and white figured spun on one leg, and bolted back the way he came.
* * *
humaninthebasehumaninthebasehumaninthebasehumaninthebasehumaninthebase
-Deuce!- Hax wailed. -You have to calm down!-
Behind them, they could hear Ratchets feet thundering after them, gaining distance on their short burst of speed.
-He is gonna catch us and then you’ll panic and you’ll be in even more of a mess- the voice in his head squawked. -Reset Deuce!-
The Ducati ignored him, and sure enough, seconds later Ratchet had his hand clamped around the Youngling and lifted him up.
“I think that proves my point on the ‘mental issues’, don’t you think?” he snapped, and headed back towards the communications room.
“Ratchet!” Deuce wailed. “Not yet! Can’t I meet it later?”
-Her, not it- Hax piped up, and Deuce slammed a virtual wall over their link.
“I believe the term is ‘she’ Deuce” Ratchet replied, causing Deuce to sigh. “And no, you should meet her now. She is going to be on the base for the foreseeable future, and we want you to at least be able to tolerate her presence. For your own sanity if nothing else.”
When they reached the room, Deuce’s optics scanned anything but the organic life form in front of him. To counter it, Ratchet merely knelt and released the Youngling a few metres from her, frowning at the obvious shaking in the small bots frame.
Realising she had to make the first move, Maggie smiled. “Um…hi there. Your name is Deuce?”
The accent was unlike anything he’d heard from humans yet, and it was enough to bring his optics up to glance at her. For a moment he wondered if it would be easier to pretend that it was Sarah Lennox in front of him, but threw that notion out. Sarah’s hair was not that bright, not that tall, and didn’t have symbols on her neck.
His mouth opened a few times before managing to get words out.
“Yes. Hello…”
-Ask for her name- Hax chided.
Maggie smiled despite herself. It was strange to have what amounted to a young child be taller than her but still shy and nervous. “I’m Maggie, its nice to meet you.”
Taking a chance, Maggie stuck out a hand. Deuce’s optics widened, and he started to take a step back before stopping himself. Slowly, his own hand lifted up, and touched her palm. He let her curl her hand around his, not trusting his own strength right now, and let it be shook slightly before quickly bringing it back to his side. With this ceremony out of the way, he sent pleading optics to Optimus, and understanding the silent request, Optimus sighed and nodded.
“All right Deuce. But stay within the base.”
He’d barely finished the sentence before the Youngling flew underneath Ratchet’s legs and fled into the corridor.
“Well, that went better than I expected it to” Ratchet mused. “We’ll just have to keep going one step at a time.”
“Agreed” Optimus replied. “Perhaps when Jazz and Bumblebee return he’ll be more relaxed. He gets tense when at least one of them is not around.”
Ratchet sighed. “Ah, for the good old days when he was running rings around both of them in an attempt to get away.”
It was a musing held by them all. Shaking off the nostalgia, Optimus turned back to their guest.
“Now Miss Madsen, about your clearance on certain files…”
To be continued...
Chapter: Chapter 1: Maggie
Author: Luki_Dimension
Rating: PG-13
Fandom: Transformers Movie
Pairing: None
Summary: Work-in-Progress
Notes: Unbetaed for now
Normally, this would be up on fanfiction.net, but I don't want to put it there until Dreams of All has a chance to beta it. This said, its officially been a year since Format was first posted online, and I've been wanting to put the first chapter up today for a while.
So why'd it take so long? Several reasons all smushed together to make things complicated. First off, University. From roundabout March till May my brain wasn't allowed to think about anything that wasn't coursework, so any ideas were immediately quashed until that was out of the way.
Secondly, plot. And the fact that up until 2 months ago, there wasn't one. I had little snippets but no way of putting them together. My biggest issue was that, since I was loving the fic Intersection, I wanted to do the solo character chapters again. However, it became painfully obvious that, outside of maybe a few characters and chapters, this trick wasn't going to work twice. If a sequel was going to work at all, it had to have a plotline. So in theory, 'Upgrade' should have a tighter plot than Format's (which I more or less stumbled into thanks to review comments), and also means slower updates. I also had to bring in non-movie characters out of sheer necessity - there was no way to write it without at least some Decepticon backup and at least one new Autobot.
(and yes, it does have a plot, I'm just having trouble summarising it ^_^)
Finally, because of uni, I have had the most intense writers block ever for the past few months. I've been writing a couple hundred words on my commute just to drag this out.
But regardless, its finally here, so enjoy the semi-final draft of the first chapter of Format's sequel, 'Upgrade'
* * *
Chapter 1: Maggie
The meteor lit up everything in its radius, the noise of its impact sending dozens of small animals that lived in the area fleeing for their lives. Every creature fled in the opposite direction, save for one Lamborghini Reventon, which shuddered in relief before revving its engine.
“Finally…” Starscream hissed, rolling away from the wreckage he had caused earlier and rolled back onto the road, heading straight for the impact zone.
The last few months had been a nightmare. Lying low, hiding from Autobots, having to keep his wings clipped…He had plans but no resources with which to begin them. But then, like a beacon from Primus, signals. Glorious, wonderful, Decepticon signals. The majority would still take a few earth months to arrive, but this arrival could start things off perfectly.
The Decepticon was just climbing out of the crater when he swerved to a stop. He transformed quickly, but not fast enough for the new arrival to get a good look at the car, and sniggered.
“What in the pit is that?”
Starscream glared at him. “Necessity Hook. Those slaggers are keeping an eye on every meteor heading to this planet. I head towards any with wings and they’ll be on me faster than I can process. Speaking of which, they’ll be here soon enough so lets move it! I ran a vehicle off the road nearby, so scan it and lets get out of here. You can pick something else later.
Hook rolled his optics. “Mute it Starscream, you may officially be in power now, but the only reason any Decepticons other than your Seekers are going to show up is to get revenge for Megatron. You’ll have to do something pretty impressive to get them to follow you permanently.”
Starscream smirked. “And you?”
Hook walked past him, heading for the road. “I’m here to avenge Bonecrusher. That’s all.”
A hand grabbed his neck, and Hook quickly shut up to save any damage to his vocal processors, and braced himself and Starscream yanked him back, crashing him to the ground. A foot stamped onto his chest, and the former jet sneered down at him.
“Listen up Hook. You may not like me, and I’m not all that fond of you, but right now, I AM the superior force, and we can both benefit from each other’s cooperation. But if you wont acknowledge my leadership, I’m willing to wait for someone who will.”
The pressure on Hook’s chest increased.
“I’ve already waited a vorn, what’s a few more cycles…”
Hook winced.
“Wait, wait Starscream! I’ve information from Soundwave.”
The foot stilled, not abandoning its position but not increasing pressure. “What information?”
“One of his spies intercepted an Autobot spy. He sent me some schematics before the news of Megatron’s demise. Could be exactly what you’re looking for.”
The foot finally left his chest, and Starscream chuckled.
“Schematics from an Autobot spy? If that means what it better mean, then perhaps we can work something out.”
A few minutes later, two vehicles roared off into the twilight.
* * *
Maggie Madsen stepped into the airport with no little trepidation. Even with the money and knowledge she would get from this six-month contract, she was starting to have second thoughts.
Still, the smiling face of Robert Epps did ease her nerves.
“Maggie, good to meet you. Properly this time.”
She smiled, shaking his hand and stepping in line with him as he took her suitcase and headed for the door. “Likewise. So what’s the plan? New accommodation or orientation first?”
Epps smirked. “Orientation. We figured you’d need time to settle in afterwards.”
As he headed for the military truck, he noticed Maggie stopped, her hesitation obvious, and the grin widened.
“Don’t worry - this one’s for personal use. Completely inanimate without keys.”
Maggie sighed. “I’m going to be completely in over my head with this right?”
“Oh you’ll get used to it.”
* * *
After signing a stack of forms half the width of a phone book, Maggie hadn’t expected to hear about the Cybertronian events ever again. Both her and Glen had been warned about interfering, and though it was driving her friend nuts, she’d found comfort in going back to the understandable.
So when she was summoned back to the Secretary of Defence’s Office almost a year later, she was in for a shock.
“You want me to what?” she asked, disbelief dissolving any manners.
“Work as a governmental liaison to the Autobots” Keller repeated, clearly expecting this.
Maggie shook her head. “To…help develop a programme that can block Decepticon hackers”
Keller nodded. “So far, all of our attempts have failed, and we cannot risk another communications blackout like the one before the events of Mission City.
…Which meant more of the bad guys were arriving or were already here. So much for her ‘comfort’ safety.
“We need someone to actually work at their base full time. Analyse their own securities and modify them for our own systems. Your name was at the top of the list of choices.
He hesitated for a moment, and sighed.
“There is another reason.”
Her eyebrows narrowed.
“I can’t tell you the full story, its surrounded by enough red tape to wallpaper this building three times over, but I can give you the general gist. The Autobots have received a…Youngling, a child of their race, since arriving. Probably the last since the destruction of their All Spark.”
“If you tell me you’re sending me there to be a babysitter…” She started
“Let me finish. How this Youngling came into being is Top Secret. Only a select few know, and only a portion of them has the right to explain it. A month ago, Reginald Simmons kidnapped him, and, well, the reports weren’t pretty. The kid was pretty traumatised by it all.”
Keller sighed, sounding ten years older. “Can’t say I blame him. Damn Simmons to hell for crossing that line.”
“But what does this have to do with me?” Maggie asked.
“It’s been a month,” Keller explained. “And the Autobots have noticed that this Youngling, Deuce is his name, is still fairly nervous around humans. He’s tolerating a few, but anyone he doesn’t know, he just vanishes until they leave. They want a more permanent stranger to be around regularly, to help regain his trust in people, but they’re refusing anyone who had anything to do with Sector 7.”
And if you removed them, the pool of people who knew about the Autobots suddenly became a lot smaller. “I see…” Maggie replied, mind running over this information, trying to fill in the blanks she was left with.
* * *
She’d been given a few days to think it over, but at the end of the day, there had been no real choice at all. America’s computer systems (and the rest of the worlds in reality) needed to be upgraded, and she would never forgive herself if she didn’t take this opportunity.
Not to mention what Glen would have done to her if she’d refused. She hadn’t been allowed to tell him what she was being assigned to, but the hacker probably had enough data to guess where the Autobots were hiding out to figure that is wasn’t run-of-the-mill analysis she would be doing.
But still, she bit her lip as the Autobots base came into view. How did you make a good impression on a race of machines that were probably alive when the dinosaurs were just a possibility? And weren’t too impressed with your race right now? Especially when all you had to familiarise yourself with them was a collection of papers that you couldn’t keep naming and identifying each?
As they got closer, the doors opened and Epps nodded.
“Thought it would be Optimus that greeted you. You’ll probably be working with Jazz most of the time, but meeting the big guy himself should help ease your nerves.”
She took her eyes of the mountain of machine they were heading towards to stare at Epps incredulously. “Seriously?”
Epps laughed as the car stopped. “Seriously. Optimus Prime’s huge, but I’ve never met someone who can make you feel more at ease than him.”
He shrugged as he opened his door, prompting Maggie to follow suit.
“You know, so long as you’re not trying to kill him or his own.”
Optimus hid a smile as he knelt down by the car, watching Maggie stumble and curse about the uneven footing.
“While you work here Ms Madsen, you may want to consider alternative footwear. That does not appear to be the most stable or efficient design.”
Maggie winced as Epps quickly turned a snigger into a snort. He might have a point, heels were great for the city, and for gaining a couple of inches to intimidate the men that swamped her field, but they would be worthless here.
“I’ll keep that in mind, thank you.”
For a moment the leader of the Autobots just stared at her, and then smiled before standing up.
“Well then, shall we get acquainted with the base?”
* * *
-I know a song that’ll get on your nerves, get on your nerves, get on you-
-Hax!-
-What?-
-If you don’t stop singing, I’ll rip you out of my processor manually!-
Hax sighed. -Fine. But when is Ratchet going to finish up. He’s been analysing our stupid spark forever!-
Once Deuce had been physical repaired, Ratchet had kept him under watch in fear that his spark would be further mutated, or collapse after the ordeal that brought Hax into existence. He’d been poking and prodding as much as he dared, trying to find any possible weakness in its development.
Not that this hadn’t been informative. Hax certainly had more capabilities than they’d expected. So long as Deuce touched something electronic, the program could transfer into it, and more or less do whatever he wanted, send messages, hack codes, boost signals - although even Hax admitted his success was currently similar to someone mashing buttons on a console hoping to find the ‘on’ button. He wasn’t sure of his limits and over overextended himself by accident. The length and strength of his performance seemed to depend on how much of his spark was filtered out from Deuce, which seemed dependant on how long Deuce held onto the item.
Finally, Ratchet stood back up and allowed the Younglings chest plating to slide back into place.
“Well, it looks as if your time on medical watch is over Deuce” he stated, gesturing that the Youngling could get up from his position on the table. “Both sparks have stabilised around the core.”
Deuce leapt to his feet.
“So I can finally start training?”
Ratchet sighed. He was starting to think he was the only one against Deuce taking up arms just yet. “Possibly. We still have mental issues to work out.”
Although only one could be heard, both Deuce and Hax groaned and slumped back into a sitting position, causing Ratchet to chuckle.
“But I’m fine!” Deuce wailed. “Me and Hax, we’re both perfectly fine.”
Ratchet didn’t look convinced.
“Come along. Optimus wants to see you both.”
* * *
Within minutes, Maggie had to concede that Epps was right. Optimus was large and intimidating, but he had this amazing ability to make her feel 100 feet tall. It was no wonder all that met him spoke with such praise.
They stopped by a locked room, and Maggie noticed a human palm scanner, but could see nothing for the Autobots.
“All the locks in the base can identify us by internal signals” Optimus explained when asked. “But place your hand on the scanner so we can add you to our security banks.”
She did as asked, and her jaw dropped as the door slid open…revealing paradise.
Screens took up the majority of the walls, a plethora of machines attached. Keyboards, cooling systems, touch pads - it was an unbelievable system.
“And I get to play with it!” Maggie’s inner child squealed.
“Jazz was supposed to be here” Optimus began, walking into the room. “But there were several unexpected meteor showers last night. He, Bumblebee and Ironhide have all gone to check them out.”
“Friends of yours?” Maggie asked, drooping when the Autobot shook his head.
“They would have contacted us. At this time, only one of our allies has answered. He will arrive in a few of your earth weeks.”
This was new information, and not just to her judging from the look on Epps’s face.
“Keller never mentioned that.”
“It is a very recent development. We only caught the signal because Ratchet had Hax attempt to boost the communication system. Speaking of which…”
He trailed off as the sound of footsteps echoed through the hall, and a large yellow Autobot came into view.
“You wanted us to meet someone Prime?”
Optimus smiled. “Miss Madsen, this is Ratchet, our Medical Officer, and this…”
Maggie’s eyes dropped to the much-closer-to-eye-level figure.
“…Is Deuce.”
But before she could even begin a greeting, the red and white figured spun on one leg, and bolted back the way he came.
* * *
humaninthebasehumaninthebasehumaninthebasehumaninthebasehumaninthebase
-Deuce!- Hax wailed. -You have to calm down!-
Behind them, they could hear Ratchets feet thundering after them, gaining distance on their short burst of speed.
-He is gonna catch us and then you’ll panic and you’ll be in even more of a mess- the voice in his head squawked. -Reset Deuce!-
The Ducati ignored him, and sure enough, seconds later Ratchet had his hand clamped around the Youngling and lifted him up.
“I think that proves my point on the ‘mental issues’, don’t you think?” he snapped, and headed back towards the communications room.
“Ratchet!” Deuce wailed. “Not yet! Can’t I meet it later?”
-Her, not it- Hax piped up, and Deuce slammed a virtual wall over their link.
“I believe the term is ‘she’ Deuce” Ratchet replied, causing Deuce to sigh. “And no, you should meet her now. She is going to be on the base for the foreseeable future, and we want you to at least be able to tolerate her presence. For your own sanity if nothing else.”
When they reached the room, Deuce’s optics scanned anything but the organic life form in front of him. To counter it, Ratchet merely knelt and released the Youngling a few metres from her, frowning at the obvious shaking in the small bots frame.
Realising she had to make the first move, Maggie smiled. “Um…hi there. Your name is Deuce?”
The accent was unlike anything he’d heard from humans yet, and it was enough to bring his optics up to glance at her. For a moment he wondered if it would be easier to pretend that it was Sarah Lennox in front of him, but threw that notion out. Sarah’s hair was not that bright, not that tall, and didn’t have symbols on her neck.
His mouth opened a few times before managing to get words out.
“Yes. Hello…”
-Ask for her name- Hax chided.
Maggie smiled despite herself. It was strange to have what amounted to a young child be taller than her but still shy and nervous. “I’m Maggie, its nice to meet you.”
Taking a chance, Maggie stuck out a hand. Deuce’s optics widened, and he started to take a step back before stopping himself. Slowly, his own hand lifted up, and touched her palm. He let her curl her hand around his, not trusting his own strength right now, and let it be shook slightly before quickly bringing it back to his side. With this ceremony out of the way, he sent pleading optics to Optimus, and understanding the silent request, Optimus sighed and nodded.
“All right Deuce. But stay within the base.”
He’d barely finished the sentence before the Youngling flew underneath Ratchet’s legs and fled into the corridor.
“Well, that went better than I expected it to” Ratchet mused. “We’ll just have to keep going one step at a time.”
“Agreed” Optimus replied. “Perhaps when Jazz and Bumblebee return he’ll be more relaxed. He gets tense when at least one of them is not around.”
Ratchet sighed. “Ah, for the good old days when he was running rings around both of them in an attempt to get away.”
It was a musing held by them all. Shaking off the nostalgia, Optimus turned back to their guest.
“Now Miss Madsen, about your clearance on certain files…”
To be continued...