More Than Meets the Optics - Part 6

“Hold still. I’m almost done.”

“It tickles.”

Ratchet readjusted the position of his hand on Drill Boy’s chin. The medic was almost finished repairing the softer alloy surrounding Drill Boy’s optic. The other repairs had gone smoothly mostly thanks to the fact McCrane, still somewhat unwilling to let his youngest brother out of his sight, had gone with Drill Boy to the med-bay. The eldest brother was currently sitting next to Drill Boy, opposite of where Ratchet was standing, a hand on the younger mech’s shoulder.

After a few more seconds Ratchet finished and then took a step back to examine his work. Satisfied, he grabbed a piece of polished metal that worked as an improvised mirror and held it up so Drill Boy could see his reflection. “Good as new.”

Drill Boy examined his reflection carefully, his grin never faltering. “Thanks, Doc!” he called as he jumped down and darted out the door, no doubt to go look for his two new-found friends.

Ratchet smiled. “He’s a good kid.”

McCrane returned the smile, “I’m just glad he’s okay. Talk to you later, Ratchet.”

The combat detecive was just about to leave when another Autobot walked in. He was a lean red and blue mech with what looked like a telescope barrel pointing over his right shoulder.

“Ratchet, you won’t believe what I just discovered.” He yipped. McCrane was surprised that the bot’s  voice carried an accent similar to Duke’s.

Ratchet gave a tired sigh. “What is it now Perceptor?”

“I just finished analyzing that odd circuit board that Seaspray found and I … well, this is really quite strange but it was giving off an almost Cybertronian energy signature.”

The interest still eluded Ratchet, “Perceptor, there’s probably a truck load of Cybertronian debris  scattered all over the planet. It might just be a piece from when the Ark crashed four million years ago or a bit from one of the Decepticons’ ships.”

“I said it was similar but it is not Cybertronian in origin … and it seems to be alive.”

Suddenly Ratchet was very interested. “What?”

“See for yourself.” Perceptor held out the chip in question for Ratchet to examine. As the medic took the chip McCrane noticed something familiar about it but he couldn’t quite place it.

It wasn’t until Ratchet held the chip up to better examine it that McCrane spotted something.

An identification number: BP-500X.

“What in the…” McCrane exclaimed, “That’s Kagero’s!”

Ratchet turned to look at McCrane, “Excuse me?”

“There were originaly nine of us built.” McCrane quickly explained, “About two and a half years ago his AI core was lost at sea when the submarine it was linked to sunk. It was accepted that it had been destroyed when the sub imploded.”

“Well, Seaspray did say that he found it on the edge of an underwater trench in the Pacific.” Commented Perceptor, “ And I can assure you, it’s perfectly intact.”

Ratchetquickly darted over to a work station and placed the chip on a small platform on the desk. The medic typed a command into the terminal near-by.

Ratchet watched the readout screen for a moment, Cybertronian glyphs flashing by. “I don’t know how but, if my readings are correct … he’s still alive.”

***

“My … My brother is alive?” Shadowmaru asked cautiously, hardly daring to believe that what he had just heard.

“That’s what Ratchet told me. After I explained what had happened he agreed to help revive Kagero when we return to base.”

A smile broke over Shadowmaru’s face. “I owe you one, McCrane.” The ninja stood and left, presumably to head to the med-lab.

Unnoticed by Shadowmaru, Deckerd was watching from his seat at one of the tables in the rec-room. He wondered what was going on but chose to let it slide, he’d probably hear about anything significant in fairly short order, especialy since one of the Build Team was involved.

Around him the usual daily routine of the Ark went on.

Most of the team was in the room. He heard Power Joe and Dumpson talking (bragging was more like it, though) about their victory.

“We came! We saw!...”

“We kicked their afts!”

“Did you see the look on their faces when we hit ‘em with the Tiger Cannon? Priceless!”

The bragging stopped for a brief moment when the duo walked by a group of Autobots and caught a part of a conversation.

“… Ah just don’ think any of them could handle a ‘Con on their own…”

Deckerd could only stifle a laugh as he watched Dumpson walk up behind Ironhide as the those words left the warrior’s mouth.

“Wanna turn around and say that again?”

Ironhide did just that and the expression on his face sent the whole rec room into fits of laughter.

Deckerd turned when Duke approached him, the look on the knight detective’s face telling him that there was something up.

“Something on your mind, Duke?”

“It’s just … well… for the longest time we believed that we were the only ones and …” Duke went quiet again.

Deckerd gave a knowing smile. “Bit of shock isn’t it?”

Duke nodded. “Indeed. Though … I’m still trying to piece together why we were never told about any of this. I mean, the Autobots have been here for a number of years, well before we were built.”

“I was wondering the same thing.” Commented a voice. Deckerd and Duke both turned as Prowl approached and took a seat next to them. “The last time I asked about your team I was told very firmly that the project had only created a drone with advanced behaviourial programming … and that it was none of my business. At the time I didn’t follow up since I had other matters that needed my attention.”

Deckerd narrowed his optics, “I’m guessing you weren’t talking to Comissioner Saejima.”
“No. His second, Vice-Comissioner Azuma.”

Deckerd and Duke exchanged looks. “I’m not surprised.” Duke answered, “The man has a perpetual grudge against us.”

Prowl’s wings twitched upwards a fraction. He glanced over his shoulder at the unfolding scene behind him. Ironhide was still a little skeptical about the Brave’s individual strengths and Dumpson was getting a more than a little bothered by it. Prowl had considered getting up to make sure that things didn’t get out of hand but McCrane swiftly moved in. It haddn’t taken Prowl long to figure out that McCrane was the voice of reason and that he would likely find a solution in short order. The tactician didn’t catch he full conversation but it sounded like McCrane was challenging Ironhide to a shooting competition. Prowl didn’t know enough about McCrane’s skill set to be able to predict who would win but the black and gold certainly looked confident enough.

Prowl was about respond to Duke’s comment when …

“Man, I knew birds of feather flocked together, but who knew it applied to patrol cars?”
Deckerd groaned in annoyance. “Gunmax.”

The green mech was about to drop another annoying comment when he was interupted.
“Yo, Deck, Prowler, this joker sassin’ you?”

“What’s it to you?” Gunmax sniped at Jazz.

“Well, lemme explain somethin’ to ya. You see these two mechs,” Jazz said, pointing at Deckerd and Prowl, “They’re my friends. I gotta rule that I stick to: no one messes with my friends without my okay … An’ you do not have my okay.”

“You’re not my boss.”

“No, I’m not, but I can still make yo’ life interesting.”

While Jazz and Gunmax continued to verbally snipe at each other Deckerd leaned over to Prowl. “Should we do something?”

Prowl shook his head, an amused smile on his face, “No.”

By this point the sniping had degenerated into childish name-calling.

“… Well, funny thing, ‘cause I don’t see a mech. I just see a little femme. I think I’ll call her ‘Maxine’.”

“WHAT!?!?” Gunmax shrieked, optics glowing brightly behind his visor.

“Ya heard me.”

Gunmax lunged, aiming to land a punch right in the center of Jazz’s visor. To his surprise he found himself in the same position that Deckerd often did. Grin never faultering, Jazz went one step further and quickly spun around, twisting Gunmax’s arm as he went. Deckerd had a hard time trying not to laugh as Gunmax attempted to get out of the hold.

“Yo, Deckerd, you got some interesting mechs on your team.” Jazz commented.

Gunmax, still looking like he was going to murder Jazz, simply growled in the longest bit of Engrish Deckerd had ever heard. “I will kill you until you die from it.”

“I’d like to see you try while I’m chicken wingin’ ya.”

***

Meanwhile…

I don’t think Ironhide considered the possibility that I would actually beat him, McCrane thought to himself, a pleased smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Ironhide was still staring slackjawed at the target. After a minute he finaly got his thoughts straight. “All right. Y’er good at the stationary stuff … but how are ya with a movin’ target?”

McCrane’s smile grew a little. “Likely better than you think.”

“Don’t get all cocky on me just yet.” Ironhide growled in a playful tone.
While Ironhide set the next round of targets up McCrane took a look around their surroundings. They were not that far from the Ark’s main entrance, along the rocky mountainside.

Off in the open area he spotted Drill Boy off in the field not that far away. He’d found Bumblebee and Bluestreak and naturally something had led to an impromptu soccer game. Bluestreak stopped for a moment, spotting something up on the mountain side. McCrane tried to follow the gunner’s line of sight as the grey armored bot waved at someone. To McCrane’s surprise a trio of Autobot flyers lept into the air and gracefully landed not that far from Bluestreak. Two were patterned white and red and the other was black and red and all three clearly turned into jets of some kind. It didn’t take much for Bluestreak to convince them to join in the game.

McCrane didn’t have to see Drill Boy to know that he was just about beside himself with glee.

“WHOOOHOOO!”

McCrane spun around, the whoop haddn’t come from Drill Boy. It sounded suspiciously like …
“What the …” McCrane said to himself in total disbeleife at what he was seeing.
It appeared that two of the Decepticon flyers, a dark red jet and a dusky blue-green one, had been brazen enough to try a sneak attack and now … had a lanky red armored Autobot and Power Joe clinging to their backs as they whiped through the sky.

“Great.” Ironhide mumbled as he walked past McCrane, “Just what the universe needs: Sideswipe teaching another bot how to do Jet Judo.”

***
A day later on  the Nemisis …

Saying Megatron was in a foul mood would be an understatement.

Beaten by a witless human created excuse for a mech and then humiliated in front of his mechs. It didn’t help that his rear still smarted and it especially didn’t help that Starscream had the audacity to make himself scarce.

The Autobots would pay and those Brave Police would be right there next to them. Megatron kept running through all the things he planned to do to the Brave Police leader once he finished doing the same to Prime.

“Still sulking, mighty Megatron?” echoed a voice through the comm line.

“What is now, Starscream?” Megatron growled, his tone making it clear that he was in no mood for games.

“I just thought that you might be interested to know that I did a little digging with Soundwave’s help and I think you’ll enjoy this. It turns out the Brave Police had to deal with their own worst nightmare not that long ago.”

“Get to the point.”

Megatron could practically hear the Seeker’s smirk broaden into an all out grin. “That nightmare is still functional.”