I'm Not OKAY || TFP Fanfiction

1.5 || Words As Weapons

PART 1.5
2ND POV
8/6/17
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"As a weapon I'll shed no tears."
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Everyone was in base. Almost everyone, at least. Raf yelled out some scientific gibberish about whatever being stabilized, and Ratchet began shouting words through the comm link to Ultra Magnus. The commander drove through the ground bridge with a small cube on his back that Bee picked up before the larger mech transformed.

"We didn't find much else in the rubble of the former base." He declared. He stepped aside to show Wheeljack, who was walking through at that very moment.

"You call this, not much else?" Jackie questioned him, holding up the lob ball. He threw it straight at Bulkhead. Unfortunately, the other wrecker wasn't at all ready, and failed to catch it as the ball ricocheted, almost crushed Jack and Miko, and blocked the doorway where Fowler was about to enter.

"What were you thinking, soldier?" Magnus growled at Wheeljack. He wasn't thinking, you thought unhappily at the side of the room. Airachnid was with you, trying her best not to spit out insults mercilessly. Arcee was still a bit angry at you about the whole 'friendship with her partner's killer' thing, and avoided you at all costs. You saw her around, but she wouldn't talk to you, and always took the chance to ditch you.

"I was thinking, Bulk could catch that lob." The renegade explained, motioning to his closest pal with a smile.

"Allow me to make myself clear," Ultra Magnus grumbled, "as Optimus Prime's second-in-command, I have no intention of tolerating wrecker behavior." Wheeljack shook his head knowingly.

"Some things never change." He said. Everybody watched the feud go on. Including you. You wanted to stop it, but your shy nature didn't know what to do against a commanding officer. You could only allow your comrades to use their words as weapons.

"Jackie." Bulkhead warned him.

"Need I remind you that it was Optimus Prime himself who assigned me to command your wreckers back on Cybertron, and get you loose cannons under control. An effective combat unit begins with discipline. If you can't except that, feel free to choose the path of least resistance, as you did before." The Autobot SIC told him off.

"If my ship weren't a distant wreck at present, I'd do that." Wheeljack scoffed, looking the lieutenant right in the optics. "Sir." And just like that, the mech stalked off, past the rest of Team Prime. The other Autobots just stared at their commander.

"So, any word from Optimus?" He asked with a sigh.

"He's investigating recent Decepticon activity. Hopefully, an energon mine." Ratchet replied immediately.
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"How rad would it be if you all had jet packs like Optimus?" Miko asked some of the team excitedly.

"Quite rad, Miko. But the Forge has been depleted of its power to do that." The medic said, his voice laced with disappointment.

"Now it's only good for pounding out dings." Bulk commented. Suddenly, the rumble of an engine reached their audio receptors. You walked up just in time to see a race car zoom in.

"Smokescreen?" Arcee said in surprise.

"When he said he had a surprise, this honestly wasn't what I expected." You laughed, watching him transformed into his bipedal mode. This time, the two-wheeler didn't reject your comment. Maybe you were getting somewhere with her?

"Aaaaww, what gave me away?" Smokey questioned you all. You gave him a look. "C'mon! Robots in disguise?" Ultra Magnus walked up on the scene, and you slowly backed away. The tall mech intimidated you. He didn't give off the 'It's okay, I won't hurt you but I can kill you easy' vibe, like Optimus did. His was the sort of atmosphere that would strike fear into the sparks of enemies, and his own soldiers.

"Where have you been, soldier?" Magnus interrogated your best male friend.

"Scanning new war paint. I though it'd be proactive to follow Optimus' lead. And Bumblebee's." Smokescreen replied cockily, motioning to the black and yellow scout.

"Now you can look your best while stacking those empty cubes." The lieutenant stated coldly and sarcastically.

"Yes sir." He answered sadly. As a follow up while walking towards his assigned job, Smokey grumbled, "I was gonna be a Prime, but I'm still just a rookie." Ratchet stopped his work and looked up at the rookie from his table.

"What was that about a Prime?" Smokescreen looked over at the Autobot medic, regretting that he said anything at all.

"Oh! Um, nothing." The bot covered his comment up.

"Smokescreen was the only one who went back. If he didn't, Optimus might not be here." Arcee pointed out, creating a more depressing air around them.

"Arcee, we were under the strictest of orders." Ratchet told her, stopping his work once again. "The three of you had your human partners to protect. Even Airachnid had her own friend to protect." Their gazes switched to you and the ex-Decepticon who were chatting in the far corner, away from any other bot. You had just begun to walk over to Smokescreen, helping him stack the cubes because of your sympathy. "But we are fortunate that Smokescreen is inexperienced enough to have not followed protocol."
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"Optimus, did you find energon?" Ratchet asked as he turned around from his computer.

"No," the Autobot leader replied, "but I did uncover this." He placed what seemed like a fossil onto the table nearby. The team gathered around it, oblivious as to what it really was. Most of them, anyways.

"It cannot be!" The doctor gasped, going in for a closer look.

"Be what?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, what is it anyways?" Airachnid asked as well, resting her arm on your shoulder plating. You could see that, yet again, Arcee was trying her hardest not to rip the spider-femme apart.

"The ancient remains of a Predacon."