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keelywolfeTitle: Interlude #7: Jolt; Age Discrepancy
Author: Keelywolfe
Fandom: Transformers
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Jolt/Arcee
Notes: Um, yeah. This. I have no excuses. The next chapter is being stubbornly coaxed along and I got tired of fighting with it, and this was just clamoring to be written. It's all secondary characters and resolves nothing, but Jolt was demanding a slice of time, and Arcee got dragged along for the ride, so to speak.
~~*~~
It wasn't that he hadn't been to other planets before. Not before leaving Cybertron, of course, fresh from combat training and unceremoniously assigned to Ark-14. But Jolt had seen plenty of the galaxy during that search for the Allspark, thank you very much. During a few thousands of human years of travel, they'd stopped around for supplies and intel; he wasn't naive or anything. He wasn't a kid.
Yeah, yeah, he'd been in stasis for much of that time but that did not negate the fact that he'd seen those planets. On the ship's view screen. Whatever. He'd still seen them. Dustball planets that were close enough to a primary star that they could harvest solar energy to continue the journey. Ice planets and the occasional comet, even, for water supplies. Necessary minerals. Not that he had been allowed to harvest any himself...okay, just because he was excited to venture into the human city didn't mean that he hadn't been around. Because he had. He'd been in battle, he'd earned his rank. Jolt was a warrior and he could handle any assignment necessary.
Besides, how hard could it be to get this 'pizza'? It was a human food product, not like he was transporting live explosives.
But that didn't mean he shouldn't be thorough. A mission was a mission, no matter the details, and by Primus, he knew the details. He'd searched on the internet for coordinates to the closest pizza-making facility, he had his human interaction lexicon and the small plastic card that contained human funds. And he had his objectives.
Primary Mission: Jolt would enter the facility in his chosen holoform; he would request two large pizzas, one with pepperoni and mushrooms, one with 'everything', and a two-liter of beverage. Coca-Cola, preferred, Pepsi as an acceptable substitute, nothing diet or caffeine-free. No breadsticks.
Secondary Mission: Return to base with provisions. Condition of pizza should be 'hot' and the imprecision in that term was bothersome, particularly from Prowl, but sometimes a 'bot had to work with what he had.
He was ready, he was so ready, to hit the road by himself. Prowl himself had ordered him on this mission and Jolt would not fail him. He would complete his objective and return with the item in optimal condition.
...maybe he should double check his interaction lexicon one last time. The pizza with 'everything' was concerning him, his holoform could only carry 450 kilograms at a time, though surely Prowl was aware of that--
"Ready to travel, baby bot?"
The sudden voice startled Jolt so much that he jerked on his shocks, his struts giving a high groan of protest. At his left Arcee's main unit rolled up, the brilliant blue of her armor, a deeper shade than his own, gleamed in the late afternoon sun.
"Don't call me that," Jolt scowled after the microsecond it took to translate her English to Cybertronian. He was slowly incorporating the language module on his off-duty hours, but he didn't much like it. The planet seemed interesting enough but that languages were so devoid of logic that they made his processors crawl. Still, he did have to talk to the humans and it made the movies a lot more entertaining. Besides, Prime had ordered everyone to stick with their language as much as possible. It was good practice, or so he said.
Arcee didn't transform but it was amazing how a motorcycle could radiate smug humor, like she'd just spent the past cycle invented the idea of joking about his age. Hil-arious. About as funny as Sunstreaker was right off a battlefield when he was still in his 'murder the hell out of all the crap that moves' mode. Jolt couldn't glare at her from his vehicle form so he settled for sending a blat of static at her. It was about as mature as a human sticking out his tongue but whatever. She'd started it.
Arcee didn't lower herself to sending the static back but her not-well-hidden smirk was evident in her vocal transmission. "Just asking a question. One that you didn't answer."
"I was just leaving," Jolt informed her loftily, even as he ran one last quick check over the mission specs. Pizza, payment, back to the city. Easy.
"Good. Let's hurry up and get this done, I don't have all day to play delivery 'bot for the humans."
It was probably telling at how wound up Jolt actually was that it took a second for her meaning to filter through. "What do you mean, delivery bot? Prowl asked me to go!"
"Yeah, and he asked me to go along with you, so let's go," she said impatiently, already rolling forward and Jolt stared at the cloud of dust she'd kicked up for too long before speeding after her in a squeal of tires. He caught up with her at the security checkpoint, fuming silently as the guard checked them both over before waving them through the gate. Arcee didn't wait for him and Jolt had to put on an extra burst of speed to tailgate her back wheel. Yeah, there was an alt-mode, nothing said tough like a little two-wheeled mini-bike with a human holoform clinging to her handlebars like a bad afterthought.
It was too loud for a vocal transmission but that didn't mean Jolt had to be silent. He sent a quick wireless transmission, let his irritation seep into it. I can handle this, I don't need a babysitter just to pick up supplies!
Talk to Prowl, not me, she sent back with laconic amusement. He seemed to think you needed a little backup for your supply run. Baby bot.
That time her little insult stung and Jolt swerved to the left, trying to speed around her. Arcee only veered with him, as neatly as if they'd planned it, and it quickly turned into a race, Jolt darting from side to side, trying to get past her and Arcee weaving along the empty road with the same easy skill as she went into battle. Frustration was burning through him like fire in his energon lines and finally, he surged forward, clipping her back wheel with his bumper.
He regretted it the instant she skittered out, sparks screaming out of her armor as it scraped along the pavement but before he could do anything, she'd transformed, using the inertia to launch herself briefly airborne before she transformed back, both wheels firmly on the asphalt and very much still in front of him.
Jolt didn't much care for English but profanity was satisfying in any language and he sent a voice file of every profane word he could conceive of at Arcee. She only laughed back at him, her amusement a brilliant wash over his sensors.
You didn’t think I was a baby last night, he sent, sullenly.
Oh, no? She was still amused, and it was as bright as sunshine over the com line. That's what you think. When you're a little older, I'll show you how the big 'bots do it, baby.
Unaccountably hurt, Jolt fell silent, drawing back a little to follow her from a proper distance. It wasn't that he didn't know she was interfacing with him out of a lack of options; the only other 'bot without any attachments was Ironhide and…ew, no. He was old and grumpy, and he'd played mentor to almost all of them. Jolt would resort to a microwave oven before he opened his circuits to Ironhide. A 700-watt microwave. Primus, he'd use a hand crank. Arcee, on the other hand, was three different kinds of sexy-pretty, to 'bots and humans alike, and if there'd been another tasty Autobot on base, Jolt doubted she'd notice him more than she would an old oil spot. But the humans had a saying for that, any port in a storm, not that they seemed to have any ports to plug in to...
Arcee didn't seem to notice his unhappy silence. Or she didn't care. Either option was highly plausible. I heard that you met Bumblebee's human.
Sam? Yeah. He seems okay. Nice enough that Jolt didn't mind doing a supply run for him. Not exactly his flavor of poison; Jolt was a little dismayed to see that his own tastes seemed to run in the direction of a little evil and a lot bitchy, but at least a human was a decent step up from a hand crank.
Okay for a human? Guess so, if Bumblebee likes him. Never took him for one of those, though. How anyone can want to touch an organic creature like that... Arcee gave a visible shudder, even in her motorcycle form.
That was a side of Arcee he hadn't expected. You don't like humans? he asked, neutrally, even as an uncomfortable wariness settled in his processors. He thought the humans were cool enough, he liked their movies, anyway.
Apparently not neutral enough because she sent him an emotional parcel of mingled amusement and soothing. Relax, kid. I like them as allies, not as lovers. Then, unexpectedly, I like you as a lover and you're more than enough. Any more and I'd need to go on double energon rations.
He barely had the time to bask in the rush of gloating delight that comment had given him when it hit him. An uncontrollable rush of pure emotion slammed through his communications firewalls, his sensors overloading with a gush of pain/pain/pain that wasn't his own. Braking was instinctive, his tires shrieking, and he felt it when Arcee banged into him, felt the superficial damage as they transformed before they'd even come to a stop, tangled together as they twitched helplessly.
Overwhelmed past any logic, Jolt only realized he was whimpering in pained fright when he felt Arcee's emotions slide gently over his own. They'd interfaced recently, he remembered dimly, and she still had his keycodes. Her emotional touch was gentle, soothing, mentally hushing his instinctive fear and he should have been angry, embarrassed that he was behaving just like the baby she'd teased him about being. Instead, he surged into her touch, his own larger hands scrabbling over her armor to cling, ashamed but still needing it. He'd never felt pain like that, never.
She gave him just long enough to gather his equilibrium before she pulled away and said with brisk command, "We need to get back to base, now."
Jolt only nodded, not trusting his vocalizer and reluctant to let down even the lightest of his firewalls to send a transmission. His sensors were still throbbing with remembered pain, right alongside his real pain from their crash. That something was wrong was obvious and if the base were under attack...Jolt shut down that thought ruthlessly, compressed any lingering fear into the back of his processors as he transformed again and turned back towards the base, tires smoking as they tore down the deserted road.
tbc
Next Chapter
Author: Keelywolfe
Fandom: Transformers
Rating: R
Pairing(s): Jolt/Arcee
Notes: Um, yeah. This. I have no excuses. The next chapter is being stubbornly coaxed along and I got tired of fighting with it, and this was just clamoring to be written. It's all secondary characters and resolves nothing, but Jolt was demanding a slice of time, and Arcee got dragged along for the ride, so to speak.
~~*~~
It wasn't that he hadn't been to other planets before. Not before leaving Cybertron, of course, fresh from combat training and unceremoniously assigned to Ark-14. But Jolt had seen plenty of the galaxy during that search for the Allspark, thank you very much. During a few thousands of human years of travel, they'd stopped around for supplies and intel; he wasn't naive or anything. He wasn't a kid.
Yeah, yeah, he'd been in stasis for much of that time but that did not negate the fact that he'd seen those planets. On the ship's view screen. Whatever. He'd still seen them. Dustball planets that were close enough to a primary star that they could harvest solar energy to continue the journey. Ice planets and the occasional comet, even, for water supplies. Necessary minerals. Not that he had been allowed to harvest any himself...okay, just because he was excited to venture into the human city didn't mean that he hadn't been around. Because he had. He'd been in battle, he'd earned his rank. Jolt was a warrior and he could handle any assignment necessary.
Besides, how hard could it be to get this 'pizza'? It was a human food product, not like he was transporting live explosives.
But that didn't mean he shouldn't be thorough. A mission was a mission, no matter the details, and by Primus, he knew the details. He'd searched on the internet for coordinates to the closest pizza-making facility, he had his human interaction lexicon and the small plastic card that contained human funds. And he had his objectives.
Primary Mission: Jolt would enter the facility in his chosen holoform; he would request two large pizzas, one with pepperoni and mushrooms, one with 'everything', and a two-liter of beverage. Coca-Cola, preferred, Pepsi as an acceptable substitute, nothing diet or caffeine-free. No breadsticks.
Secondary Mission: Return to base with provisions. Condition of pizza should be 'hot' and the imprecision in that term was bothersome, particularly from Prowl, but sometimes a 'bot had to work with what he had.
He was ready, he was so ready, to hit the road by himself. Prowl himself had ordered him on this mission and Jolt would not fail him. He would complete his objective and return with the item in optimal condition.
...maybe he should double check his interaction lexicon one last time. The pizza with 'everything' was concerning him, his holoform could only carry 450 kilograms at a time, though surely Prowl was aware of that--
"Ready to travel, baby bot?"
The sudden voice startled Jolt so much that he jerked on his shocks, his struts giving a high groan of protest. At his left Arcee's main unit rolled up, the brilliant blue of her armor, a deeper shade than his own, gleamed in the late afternoon sun.
"Don't call me that," Jolt scowled after the microsecond it took to translate her English to Cybertronian. He was slowly incorporating the language module on his off-duty hours, but he didn't much like it. The planet seemed interesting enough but that languages were so devoid of logic that they made his processors crawl. Still, he did have to talk to the humans and it made the movies a lot more entertaining. Besides, Prime had ordered everyone to stick with their language as much as possible. It was good practice, or so he said.
Arcee didn't transform but it was amazing how a motorcycle could radiate smug humor, like she'd just spent the past cycle invented the idea of joking about his age. Hil-arious. About as funny as Sunstreaker was right off a battlefield when he was still in his 'murder the hell out of all the crap that moves' mode. Jolt couldn't glare at her from his vehicle form so he settled for sending a blat of static at her. It was about as mature as a human sticking out his tongue but whatever. She'd started it.
Arcee didn't lower herself to sending the static back but her not-well-hidden smirk was evident in her vocal transmission. "Just asking a question. One that you didn't answer."
"I was just leaving," Jolt informed her loftily, even as he ran one last quick check over the mission specs. Pizza, payment, back to the city. Easy.
"Good. Let's hurry up and get this done, I don't have all day to play delivery 'bot for the humans."
It was probably telling at how wound up Jolt actually was that it took a second for her meaning to filter through. "What do you mean, delivery bot? Prowl asked me to go!"
"Yeah, and he asked me to go along with you, so let's go," she said impatiently, already rolling forward and Jolt stared at the cloud of dust she'd kicked up for too long before speeding after her in a squeal of tires. He caught up with her at the security checkpoint, fuming silently as the guard checked them both over before waving them through the gate. Arcee didn't wait for him and Jolt had to put on an extra burst of speed to tailgate her back wheel. Yeah, there was an alt-mode, nothing said tough like a little two-wheeled mini-bike with a human holoform clinging to her handlebars like a bad afterthought.
It was too loud for a vocal transmission but that didn't mean Jolt had to be silent. He sent a quick wireless transmission, let his irritation seep into it. I can handle this, I don't need a babysitter just to pick up supplies!
Talk to Prowl, not me, she sent back with laconic amusement. He seemed to think you needed a little backup for your supply run. Baby bot.
That time her little insult stung and Jolt swerved to the left, trying to speed around her. Arcee only veered with him, as neatly as if they'd planned it, and it quickly turned into a race, Jolt darting from side to side, trying to get past her and Arcee weaving along the empty road with the same easy skill as she went into battle. Frustration was burning through him like fire in his energon lines and finally, he surged forward, clipping her back wheel with his bumper.
He regretted it the instant she skittered out, sparks screaming out of her armor as it scraped along the pavement but before he could do anything, she'd transformed, using the inertia to launch herself briefly airborne before she transformed back, both wheels firmly on the asphalt and very much still in front of him.
Jolt didn't much care for English but profanity was satisfying in any language and he sent a voice file of every profane word he could conceive of at Arcee. She only laughed back at him, her amusement a brilliant wash over his sensors.
You didn’t think I was a baby last night, he sent, sullenly.
Oh, no? She was still amused, and it was as bright as sunshine over the com line. That's what you think. When you're a little older, I'll show you how the big 'bots do it, baby.
Unaccountably hurt, Jolt fell silent, drawing back a little to follow her from a proper distance. It wasn't that he didn't know she was interfacing with him out of a lack of options; the only other 'bot without any attachments was Ironhide and…ew, no. He was old and grumpy, and he'd played mentor to almost all of them. Jolt would resort to a microwave oven before he opened his circuits to Ironhide. A 700-watt microwave. Primus, he'd use a hand crank. Arcee, on the other hand, was three different kinds of sexy-pretty, to 'bots and humans alike, and if there'd been another tasty Autobot on base, Jolt doubted she'd notice him more than she would an old oil spot. But the humans had a saying for that, any port in a storm, not that they seemed to have any ports to plug in to...
Arcee didn't seem to notice his unhappy silence. Or she didn't care. Either option was highly plausible. I heard that you met Bumblebee's human.
Sam? Yeah. He seems okay. Nice enough that Jolt didn't mind doing a supply run for him. Not exactly his flavor of poison; Jolt was a little dismayed to see that his own tastes seemed to run in the direction of a little evil and a lot bitchy, but at least a human was a decent step up from a hand crank.
Okay for a human? Guess so, if Bumblebee likes him. Never took him for one of those, though. How anyone can want to touch an organic creature like that... Arcee gave a visible shudder, even in her motorcycle form.
That was a side of Arcee he hadn't expected. You don't like humans? he asked, neutrally, even as an uncomfortable wariness settled in his processors. He thought the humans were cool enough, he liked their movies, anyway.
Apparently not neutral enough because she sent him an emotional parcel of mingled amusement and soothing. Relax, kid. I like them as allies, not as lovers. Then, unexpectedly, I like you as a lover and you're more than enough. Any more and I'd need to go on double energon rations.
He barely had the time to bask in the rush of gloating delight that comment had given him when it hit him. An uncontrollable rush of pure emotion slammed through his communications firewalls, his sensors overloading with a gush of pain/pain/pain that wasn't his own. Braking was instinctive, his tires shrieking, and he felt it when Arcee banged into him, felt the superficial damage as they transformed before they'd even come to a stop, tangled together as they twitched helplessly.
Overwhelmed past any logic, Jolt only realized he was whimpering in pained fright when he felt Arcee's emotions slide gently over his own. They'd interfaced recently, he remembered dimly, and she still had his keycodes. Her emotional touch was gentle, soothing, mentally hushing his instinctive fear and he should have been angry, embarrassed that he was behaving just like the baby she'd teased him about being. Instead, he surged into her touch, his own larger hands scrabbling over her armor to cling, ashamed but still needing it. He'd never felt pain like that, never.
She gave him just long enough to gather his equilibrium before she pulled away and said with brisk command, "We need to get back to base, now."
Jolt only nodded, not trusting his vocalizer and reluctant to let down even the lightest of his firewalls to send a transmission. His sensors were still throbbing with remembered pain, right alongside his real pain from their crash. That something was wrong was obvious and if the base were under attack...Jolt shut down that thought ruthlessly, compressed any lingering fear into the back of his processors as he transformed again and turned back towards the base, tires smoking as they tore down the deserted road.
tbc
Next Chapter
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 10:20 pm (UTC)Heeee! Oh, I love those lines. I could almost see him wrinkling his nose up in disgust. <3
no subject
Date: 2011-03-03 11:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 12:59 am (UTC)Intrigue! I haz it! ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 04:36 am (UTC)However, omg I'm with everyone about the cliffhangers! You're endangering Bumblebee, and not just the bot! The cat is getting tired of me squawking and dropping him!
speaking of. at this point, I just need to make an icon of him. /random
no subject
Date: 2011-03-05 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-05 09:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-04 06:30 am (UTC)And then the cliffhanger! So exciting.
ETA - and how could I forget the snark about Ironhide! I adore the ew factor about their elders. Makes me snicker every time.