Real and fake jacks
The Autobot base received a signal from the alien spaceship. After communicating with the spaceship, the partition confirmed that it was the Autobot Jack—his teammate, comrade-in-arms, and friend of many years in the Thunder Rescue Team.
Now, enemy aircraft signals have appeared around Jack's spaceship, and the Autobots decide to provide immediate support. Fork follows closely behind Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee across the land bridge.
The corpses of the Decepticon minions were scattered on the ground. In the middle of the pile of corpses stood a Cybertronian painted in white. The white chest armor on the front of his machine was printed with the red Autobot symbol. When he saw the Autobots appearing from the land bridge, he turned around, swung his sword, and walked towards the partition while retracting the silver twin swords he was holding tightly to his back.
Steel Fork looked at the unfamiliar Cybertronian with its white paint job, realizing it must be Jack. He then glanced around at the scattered corpses of the miscellaneous soldiers and decided: Since things have come to this, let's get some food first.
"Old swindler!!!" The big green guy, Block, rushed excitedly toward his old comrade-in-arms, whom he hadn't seen for many cycles and who had been through life and death with him. He wrapped his arms around Jack and hugged him tightly—Block was so happy that he lifted him into the air.
The jack seemed happy too, though his smile was faint. The machine swayed with the bulkhead's movement. He turned his head, his gaze fixed to the side, his arm unconsciously reaching back, his fingers gripping the hilt of his sword. He said, "Bushead, are you guys that short of energy? Who is she?"
"What?" the partition asked in confusion, following the jack's gaze to look to the side.
The breastplates of the corpses of the henchmen shattered, revealing dim and bright sparks that detached from the mechs. A few henchmen, not yet completely dead, convulsed in their unconscious state like drowning people, their stabilizers bending and straightening, their hands reaching towards the spark chambers to try and smother the sparks and prevent them from detaching. As the energy fluid, like a shimmering blue snake, burst through the energy lines and emerged from the spark chambers, the convulsions ceased, and the last vestiges of color began to peel away from the mechs, the glossy dark purple fading into a dull, lifeless blackish-gray. With the sparks as their heads and the energy fluid as their bodies, the shimmering blue energy snakes rose from the bodies of the lying henchmen into the air, swimming towards the steel forks, resembling a cult scene of a necromancer casting a spell.
"Steel Fork, what are you doing?!" Even though he had been part of the Thunder Rescue Team, seeing this scene happening to his comrade was still too terrifying for Block. He dropped the jack and ran towards Steel Fork, but stopped abruptly when he encountered the energy snake.
Arcee reached out and blocked Bumblebee's optics. Her brow furrowed, and she re-examined the Cybertronian standing amidst the corpses with a serious gaze. The steel fork reminded her of the Decepticons' cruelty. Bumblebee, whether startled or surprised, momentarily lowered its wings.
The energy snakes stopped moving the moment the partition made a sound. Steel Fork explained, "I'm collecting energy, and energy is a very precious thing. The energy fluid and fire within their bodies are highly pure energy."
"We Autobots don't want this Cybertronian energy! Aaaaaaah!" the partition screamed.
"It seems none of you are willing..." Grimfork was disappointed. She had survived on Cybertron for so long by extracting energy from other living beings, so why did everyone now disapprove of her doing so? Shockwave was unwilling, and neither were the Autobots.
With its wings drooping low behind it, Steel Fork asked dejectedly, looking regretful, about the energy source:
What to do with this energy?
"Throw it away! Throw it all away!"
The energy snakes suspended in the air fell back into the chest cavities of the minions. The energy fluid, now freed from the pull of the supernatural power, fell and splashed out droplets; some liquid seeped from the seams of the armor, dripping down the body and forming a small puddle.
Grimfork flew to the partition and landed on the ground. After opening his mouth several times, he finally couldn't help but say, "It's not really appropriate to say this, they are Decepticons, but I still want to say it. Grimfork, you know they are all Cybertronians, right?"
"Yes, I know, but they are enemies. So?"
He took a deep breath and pressed down hard on Grimpus's shoulder armor. "Just incapacitate them, and that should be enough. Although they are the enemy, many of them were forced to fight. Grimpus, I know it's not the right thing to say, but I still want to say, could you please not do this next time? It's too cruel. Some of those grunts on the ground are still alive! We're not like the Decepticons!"
The minions' energy fluid flowed to their feet, and Steel Fork tried to use her powers to gather the liquid together. The somber tone of the partition still lingered beside the audio receiver; his serious expression was reflected in the optical lens. Steel Fork gave up, letting the energy fluid soak into the stabilizer.
"I understand. I won't do it again."
"Are you sure she really is an Autobot?" Jack spoke up, his voice trembling as he tried to sound calm.
But no one answered him.
"Um...aren't we going back to base?"
As she left, Steel Fork glanced back at the scene of devastation: splattered energy fluid and the haphazardly scattered corpses of soldiers lying on the ground. For some reason, she suddenly remembered a TV series she'd seen on the base's small television. Human corpses were either cremated or buried in square boxes called "coffins." What about the Cybertronian corpses? Everyone said that after they died, their sparks would return to the source. So where did machines that lost their sparks go?
"Should we dig a hole and bury them? By the way, do Cybertronians need death rituals?"
Arcee sighed and replied, "The Cybertronians need it, but the Decepticons don't. Their reinforcements will arrive in a few minutes, and they'll handle it."
...
"Hey! Ambulance!"
The sound of a steel fork suddenly rang out beside the audio receiver, sending a shiver down Ambulance's spine as he focused on controlling the Land Bridge. The sticky, shadowy feel of the antenna enveloped him once more, and Ambulance nearly leaped away from the Cybertronian who had suddenly appeared beside him.
"—Steel Fork! What are you doing here all of a sudden?!"
As if pondering for a moment, the steel fork, with its wings bobbing up and down behind it, said:
"have no idea."
"What do you mean you don't know!"
“I just don’t know. I followed behind the partition and crossed the land bridge and suddenly appeared next to you. Normally, I should still be behind the partition when I reach the base,” Steel Fork said, expressing his doubts and the fact he had noticed.
“Perhaps the land bridge malfunctioned last time due to the iron-eating bugs.” The ambulance, switching instantly to a serious discussion about an emergency and fully demonstrating its qualities as a researcher, opened its self-written program and continued, “I will check the overall operation of the land bridge again.”
A sound erupted from the other side of the base:
Let's start the party!
After Wheeljack and the Autobots arrived at the base, Optimus Prime welcomed them. Then, the sound of the partition colliding with Wheeljack's chest armor signaled the start of the welcome party. Maggie strummed her guitar, Laffey and Bumblebee danced a robotic dance to the music, Jake and Arcee stood by watching them play, while Optimus Prime quietly went for a drive without disturbing anyone.
The ambulance driver said to the silent steel fork beside it, "Aren't you going to join them at the party?"
"I just find them noisy. I want to inspect the land bridge with you."
"Really?" The ambulance noticed the pair of drooping wings behind the steel fork, and slammed a large wrench on her head sculpture. "Tell the truth."
“I… uh, I’ve never been to a party before.” Steel Fork covered the head sculpture, his gaze falling on Miki, then shifting to Laffey and Bumblebee. “I can’t play music, and I can’t dance.”
“Look at Jack and Arcee, they haven’t done anything either. Go stand next to them and support Meiqi and the others.” Ambulance Heart sighed wearily. “What are you worried about? The audience is important too!”
"Okay, okay, I'll go." Despite his reluctant expression, Steel Fork was pushed forward by the ambulance when suddenly a large iron ball came hurtling towards him with tremendous force.
The massive iron ball, with its high density from being made of solid iron, immense weight, and tremendous speed and inertia, hurtled towards the steel fork like a meteorite, hurtling towards it at breakneck speed. Before Meiqi and the others could react, the barrier fire that had thrown the ball was practically at the height of a loudspeaker. He watched helplessly as the massive iron ball slammed into the steel fork's visor and then abruptly stopped.
The steel fork caught the large iron ball and moved it away, revealing the intact faceplate behind it. It seemed that she had used her superpower to stop the iron ball in time. The partition breathed a sigh of relief, a close call... a close call.
"Is my visor so attractive to the iron ball?" Steel Fork weighed the iron ball in his hand, his voice laced with anger.
The partition said dryly:
"Steel Fork, are you alright?"
"Something's wrong!" The wings behind him flapped, and Steel Fork raised the large iron ball high. "Mickey Lafi, stand back!"
"The partition is fixed! I'm not responsible if it hits your visor!"
The jack who came to catch the ball saw the steel fork throw the ball towards the partition, and then walked over to the ambulance, his eyes inadvertently sweeping over the land bridge control panel.
"Doctor, did you build this entire bridge?"
"Yes." The ambulance faced the control panel, staring at the overview drawing of the land bridge on the screen.
"This project is quite difficult."
Hearing someone praise him, the ambulance couldn't help but feel proud, its tone slightly raised: "Yes!"
"Is there a problem?" The ambulance driver didn't notice that the jack's tone had become even lower.
"I'm not satisfied with the performance during the last teleportation, so I'm turning it off temporarily."
"But what if we need to?"
“If the diagnostic process is stopped now, the damage may be irreparable.”
The jack's optical lens flickered slightly as it stared at the ambulance's retreating figure: "How long will the diagnostic process take?"
"A few hours, if we're lucky. It's hard to say."
The ambulance driver didn't notice the jack and seemed to be asking a bit too many questions.
...
"So... this jack is fake?" Steel Fork said, sitting on the fake jack.
The partition noticed something was wrong with the jack, and after Meiqi showed the jack around the base, the partition's suspicions were confirmed. The fake jack, realizing his identity had been exposed, reached out to grab Meiqi as a hostage, but was stopped by the steel fork and slammed to the ground, unable to move.
"What should we do next? Should I twist his head off and take out the spark?" Steel Fork pressed her knee against the back of the fake jack, her energy field locking his joints like an iron hoop, and she said, holding the fake jack's head sculpture.
No one answered her for a moment, except for Meiqi's excited shout: "Steel Fork, you're so cool!"
Steel Fork snorted coldly, its wings raised high in a smug reply: "Of course!"
She didn't treat the fake Jack like she used to treat prey, nor did she use her powers to extract his spark and energy, leaving him with the same fate as those lowly soldiers. She showed mercy because she listened to the partition's advice. And only Meiqi praised her! Meiqi is so much better.
Jack asked the fake jack, "Does a jack really exist?"
“Of course. I think Lord Starscream is entertaining him right now.” The head sculptor was slammed to the ground, and the fake Wheeljack gave up struggling. Thinking about how to escape, he continued with difficulty, “If you let me go, I’ll tell you where Wheeljack is. And you, Grimlock, don’t even think about hitting me, otherwise, the Autobot Wheeljack will never come back.”
The partition's hands transformed into hammers, and a huge impact echoed throughout the base: "If you won't let go, you have to tell us where the jack is. Steel Fork, you watch him. I'm going to find Old Qian. I trust Old Qian."
As it turned out, we were very lucky today. The diagnostic process finished quickly, and the fake jack was forced to open the land bridge at the coordinates of the Retribution.
The spacetime tunnel belonging to the land bridge opened, the spacetime vortex lit up with a bright green light, the partition rushed towards the land bridge, but a white-painted machine rushed out from the other end of the land bridge.
Everything happened too fast; the partition collided head-on with the jack.
Thus, the fake jack—later identified as Decepticon Thousand Faces—remained at the Autobot base as a prisoner.
———
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