His Spark, Her Soul

Chapter 2

"Hey, Ra!" Níki giggled as she jumped onto my back, "I have this awesome place that I need to show you!" I yelled out of surprise and then proceeded to dance round trying to get her off of my back "Get off of me!" I sounded angry and she only laughed harder, "Promise you'll come with me after class and I'll get off." After a few minutes of angry silence, I sighed in defeat, "Alright, alright. I'll go with you." Awesome!" She let go and slid off my back, "Meet me outside at the main doors, bye Grumps!" I rolled my optics at her strange nicknames for me, watching her hurry off down the hallway to her own class, "Hurry Breakdown or we'll be late to class!" An elbow hit my arm followed by, "She's totally into you Ratchet." I glanced over at my classmate, Knockout, "What? No, she just likes to bother me after we made a tutor deal." He turned to face me with an astonished look, "Please tell me you are not that blind." I gave him a look, "Clearly I'm not blind." He rolled his optics at me before shaking his helm "For someone so smart, you are so dumb. If she wasn't into you, why would she continue to hangout with her tutor long after her grades have skyrocketed?" "Her grades went up?" I asked him as we continued our way to class, "She hasn't shown any proof to me that she's done any better in class." "Ratchet, trust me." He stopped in front of the doorway, his servo placed upon his chest, "I know love when I see it and she's crushing very hard." "That's preposterous." I shook my helm and made my way past him, taking my seat in the middle of the classroom. Knockout hurried after me, "If you don't believe me then why don't you ask her yourself?" "And waste her time? I'm not interested, love now would merely get in the way of our studies, besides love formed between classmates never last long enough to bat an optic at." I opened my notes to study, "We have a quiz in a few minutes." Knockout stared at me, I could almost hear that gears turning in his helm before he sat down next to me with a small sigh of defeat.

After class, Knockout decided to tag along to the front doors, clearly ready to play matchmaker. We stood waiting for about ten clicks before Níki showed up, Breakdown in tow, "You made it!" She looked super excited to see me and I scoffed, "I said I'd come didn't I?" She nodded before grabbing my servo, "Let's go!" "Go where?" I asked, "We're going to miss our next class if we leave now." "You'd promise that you'd come." She groaned and gave me a face. "I did not promise and I'm not going to miss class." I took my servo out of hers and crossed my arms. She looked at the ground before she let out this sigh, "Oh." Sounding so rejected by my words, caught me off guard, and actually made me feel bad. I looked back at the school and then back at her, "I'm only skipping class this once, don't make this a habit." "Of course not Ratchet!" The happiness and excitement that returned to her face made me crack a little bit of a smirk. "Follow me!" And she turned, racing off in a direction with Breakdown not far behind her. Knockout elbowed me again and gave me a smirk, "See." I frowned "See what?" As we hurried to catch up, "Her feelings." He replied and I just shook my helm again, "Give it a rest Knockout, I don't return her feelings, if she has any at all."
After walking for a while we made our way to this little cafe that sat near the edge of town. It looked rundown as if everyone had forgotten that this place even existed. "Cool!" Breakdown exclaimed as he hurried to the entrance, excited? I'm not sure why. There's plenty of old buildings that had gone completely out of business after the town grew. I glanced up at the broken sign, it was hard to make out what it had previously said. We followed Níki inside and I couldn't help but feel disgusted by the way this old building was still standing. It was old, broken down and a complete eyesore. "What is this place?" Níki gave a sad smile, "Welcome to my home." Her words cut through the air and we all stopped in shock. "Your home?" Knockout asked first, did we hear her correctly? She nodded before wandering over to an empty booth, "Yup, I live here." I glanced around the building again, this time with a new mindset. I spotted her bed rolled up in a corner, the place actually had been sorta cleaned. "I don't get it. Why do you live here?" Breakdown walked over to her. She glanced up, "This little cafe has been my home for as long as I can remember. Anyways, please sit! I have some food and we can all totally hang out together!" She stood up and disappeared to the back of the cafe. And that's when I made my decision to help Níki.

~time skip~
Graduation came and went.
We all had jobs and our own lives ahead of us. It was strange to think that less than a year went by and everything felt so different. We were putting our schooling to good use joining the local hospitals, I didn't last long before being taken away to the City of Prime's main hospital. Níki made sure to call me every evening and give me an update on how her day went and how our two friends, Knockout and Breakdown, were doing. It was usually the same old story but I didn't mind her calls one bit.
But things were changing faster than we'd ever imagine. Something had happened in the City Council and now we seem to be on the edge of civil war. I was staying overnight at the hospital, practical living there with the amount of bots that came in due to the beginnings of war. It was a brutal sight, most of these bots were determined to get back out into the fight even though the could barely move. Others traumatized beyond belief.
I wandered outside on one of my breaks. The whole city had changed, most of it was in complete ruin. The war had raged from the outsides and slowly made its way into the city, eating everything in sight. I worried for Níki and my other two friends, communication was impossible as lines had been cut and the towers completely destroyed. No where was safe, no anymore, even the hospital was beginning to be treated like a war zone. Doctors and nurses taking one side or other, some down right refusing to care for the injured and I had to pick up the slack. There was no time for mistakes.

It wasn't long until war swallowed our planet and those who were lucky enough to survive escaped to another planet named Earth. Here we gather in secret. Only five of the Autobots, that was knew of, existed. We were outnumbered a thousand to one but we never gave up. Small life forms of this planet, humans, become part of our team; against my better judgement. But even though they were so small and we had to obey their government laws, they did help in the long run.
It was another quiet afternoon in the base, but I knew it wouldn't be that way for too much longer. The kids would arrive from school any minute now and hangout; going to cause ruckus and make it very hard to concentrate on my work. Clearly they had a lot to learn about working hard. I turned and walked over to my computer to continue searching for energon readings when the loud sounds of engines mixes with whooping and hollering, entered the base and I closed my optics in annoyance; right on time. Doors slammed and Miko was the first to shout, "Clearly we won!" Jack took off his helmet and glanced over at Rafael, who shook his head, "No way, besides Bee's totally the fastest car out there!" I typed a little more loudly, trying to ignore the kids shouting over who was faster. "That may be so but Arcee had both of you beat, we made it inside before Bee or Bulk made it to the door." Jack replied and Miko turned to him, "No way, she was clearly way behind!" "That's because you shouted 'go!' without telling anyone we were having a race." Rafael translated for Bumblebee as he shook his helm with disappointment at the young girl. "You're just upset that you lost!" I sucked in a breath, could they be any more annoying? I changed my files out and looked through the diagram to my work, stepping over to it. I just needed to tighten a bolt and we could use it to locate energon readings faster. Bulkhead stomped over towards me as he was headed over to the platform to make his point, "We won fair and square, guys." "No you didn't." Bee argued back as Arcee just headed to me, probably to ask about Prime, completely done with the race. She didn't care who won.
Bulkhead in all his obnoxiously loud yelling decided to push Bee back and they began to push each other back and forth.
"Would you two knock it off!?" I shouted at both of them, Bulkhead stumble backwards after the last shove and landed right on top of my project.