FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Ah, there you are." Arcee's human-size body stood in the doorway and smiled.

"Oh, hey, Arcee." Jack took a deep breath, moved his head around to work the cramp out of his neck, and waved his tablet at the crate beside the one he sat on. "I was just catching up on some of the schoolwork I've been slacking off on. After the things we saw this morning, I needed something completely mundane."

She walked into the storage room, placed the small box she'd been carrying on a nearby crate, and hopped up on the one beside Jack.

"And now I could use a break from the homework." Jack chuckled and set the tablet aside. "After seeing how far behind I've gotten, it seems almost as daunting as the thought of stopping Unicron."

"I wasn't planning on getting in the way of your school stuff, but you do look a little frazzled."

"Yeah, like I said, I needed a distraction, at least for a few minutes." He smiled and leaned over to kiss her. "How're things going out there?"

"Optimus is at Groom Lake, meeting with Fowler and General Sanchez. Before he left, he mentioned a few possibilities to us. The fabricator is almost finished - they've been working on it around the clock - and he's thinking we can use it to make parts for a second fabricator, then use the second to make another while the first starts making the parts Bulkhead, Knockout, Breakdown, and I need. Then, once the second one is assembled, they can use those two to build parts for two more. It'd speed things up a lot if we could get several fabricators built right away. After that, they can be used to build new 'blank' Pretender bodies, weapons and other gear, and even parts for a new ship."

"Ah. Is that one of the possibilities Optimus mentioned? Building a ship so we can go after Unicron?"

"I think that's one of the long-term plans. Don't know how else we can find Unicron and stop him. I certainly don't want to just sit here and wait for him to reach Earth."

Jack nodded and patted the back of her hand. "Well, whatever they end up doing eventually, I'll certainly be relieved when you're able to walk again." He slipped his arm around her waist and smiled at the sensation of her warm metal skin under his palm. "As much as I like this remote-controlled body of yours, you can kick a lot more ass with your real body."

"Well, this mini-me is no slouch." She grinned and nudged his shoulder. "And it's got a few features my real body doesn't have yet."

"Oh, I've noticed."

"Hah. Yeah, I've spotted you taking a peek every chance you could get." She winked.

His face heated up. "Well, uh, yeah. Teenage hormones. Can't stop myself."

She grinned again and nodded at the box she'd brought with her. "I was planning to find a private place around here and try out Miko's 'present' before another crisis hits. I'd do it right here, but that might be a bit ... distracting."

His heart pounded suddenly. "Well, like I said, I needed a distraction. Something to get off - uh, I mean, get my mind off, um, recent events."

Arcee chuckled and glanced at the tablet. "As long as it doesn't hurt your grades ...."

"The homework will still be there later." He made a farting sound with his lips. "That's kind of the problem, actually - it never goes away. But the assignments aren't due for a while yet, and if I'm late, I can always use saving the world as an excuse to get an extension."

"In that case ..." She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. "The only thing that might be problematic is, there's no door on this room. Imagine the scene if Miko walked in without knocking and caught me going to town on myself with that dildo she bought me?"

Jack burst out laughing. "Yeah, I can imagine that quite easily." He caught his breath, pondered his next move, and took a few more long breaths to keep his pulse under control. "If you'd like guaranteed privacy you could ... uh, you could ... stop by my quarters at Groom Lake tonight."

She cocked her head, nodded, and smiled. "Tell ya what. I don't want to be the reason your grades slip, so if you'll catch up on that stuff as much as you can today, then I'll see you there tonight. Say, nineteen hundred?"

"You've got yourself a date." Jack grinned and gave her another peck on the lips.

"Cool." She glanced at the box and her smile turned saucy. "We can masturbate together, then."

He sucked in a quick breath and choked on his own saliva. He managed to regain his composure a moment later.

"Uh, well, um, I - I - I ..."

Arcee shrugged, but still had that grin. "I just figured it'd be a logical progression for our relationship. First we can watch. Then we can masturbate each other. Seems like a good way to get comfortable with each other and learn what feels good for each of us. We can take our time and really get to know one another, so when we're ready to take that last step, it'll - Jesus Christ, the shades of red a human face can turn never cease to amaze me."

"W - well, it's a ... I dunno if it's a human thing or just an American thing. I know there are some cultures here and there that are a lot less uptight about sex, but most of us are taught to be embarrassed about it from childhood on." He shook his head and sighed suddenly. "Roz was right when she said humans are kind of fucked-up. So many of us can murder each other without giving it a second thought, but somehow sex - something that feels good and can create life - is considered embarrassing or dirty or just wrong."

"Well, humans aren't exactly unique when it comes to killing each other. Most Cybertronians didn't even have a concept of sex until we learned it from humans." She waved a hand over her body's below-the-waist area. "None of us even had the necessary parts for it until we started remote-piloting empty Pretender shells. But we've been slaughtering each other for so long, hardly any of us can even remember when it started."

Well, that took a dark turn. He raised his hand to her shoulder. "Maybe it won't be that way much longer. So many of the Vehicons have come over to our side, we've got a bunch of Pretenders who have gone native and are willing to fight alongside us, Knockout and Breakdown are joining us, even Starscream is working with us." Jack chuckled. "Though we should still keep an eye on the weaselly bastard."

Arcee laughed. "Yeah. He's even more nuts than the rest of the 'Cons, but we'll take whatever help we can get for however long we can get it." She glanced at the doorway and smiled. "We've got Tomoko, too. Hard to believe a clone of Airachnid could be such a sweet kid."

"How's she holding up, anyway? The feed from that surveillance drone traumatized the hell out of her."

"She's calmed down, now. I finally managed to convince her that what Unicron did to those Insecticons she immobilized wasn't her fault." Arcee grinned. "Right now, Bumblebee, Raf, and Miko are keeping her occupied."

"Got her playing GTA V again?"

"Yep. And Miko's thrilling her with descriptions of the wonders of self-administered orgasms."

Jack snorted. "I always knew Miko was kind of a delinquent, but I had no idea it went this far."

"Hah. Another thing the fabricator might need to crank out right away is a new Pretender shell so Tomoko can take her own 'solo flight.'" She glanced at Jack as he tugged on his collar. She chuckled, kissed him one more time, and stood. "I should let you get back to work. I'll see you tonight."

"See you then." His breath caught in his throat as she walked out of the room, her hips swaying the exact right amount.

Whoa. She's learning fast. He took a few slow breaths and hoped he could concentrate with the anticipation of what awaited him flitting around in his head. He picked up the tablet and opened the next assignment. Better hop to it, before something comes out of nowhere and derails our plans.

---

"Wow, kiddo." June pointed her fork at Jack's tray and grinned. "I hope you left some food for everyone else."

"A growing boy needs his lunch." He took his usual seat at the picnic table and Arcee sat across from him.

She glanced around at the others seated nearby - June, Miko, Sierra at the end of the table, with Smokescreen sitting on the ground beside her, and Ashanti at the far end, munching distractedly on a taco and staring at a tablet. The early-afternoon sunshine bathed them and the empty seats around them, and Arcee found herself smiling at the brightness and color of it all. Even after the war back home had started to take its toll on the environment, Cybertron had still retained some of its beauty, but the colors had been provided by sunlight reflecting off endless metal surfaces and a sea of glowing lights on the night side.

She'd been "born" after the war was at full throttle, so she'd never seen Cybertron when it was pristine, except in archive videos and stills. She thought it must have been a hell of a sight, though.

Still, it was nothing compared to what she'd seen in the three years she'd spent on Earth. The sheer variety of colors, textures, the blue sky and fluffy clouds - and everything except the buildings and vehicles were_organic_.

How could something so completely alien be so beautiful?

Her optics returned to Jack and she wondered if he'd had similar thoughts about her. Having seen how machine life was usually depicted in popular media - either cold and emotionless or instantly hostile to humans - it must've been bizarre to suddenly meet "robots" who could feel pain and joy and sorrow and friendship.

And even love. Once I finally figured out what was going on in my own head, at least._The thought made her chuckle. _My brain is so advanced it'd make a human-designed quantum computer look like an abacus, and I still_couldn't see what was right in front of me. Had to have a human spell it out to me, and even then it took me a while to get my head around the concept._

"Something on your mind?" Jack smiled and raised an eyebrow.

"Just thinking about all the changes that have happened in such a short time."

He nodded. "We're on one hell of a ride, that's for sure."

She nodded and glanced at June. "What's new?" She picked up her spoon, took a bite of her pork fried rice, and marveled at yet another never-before-experienced flavor. I'm starting to wonder if eating might be even more delightful than masturbating. Guess I'll find out tonight. She grinned as she scooped up another spoonful. It's kind of a shame none of us tried linking up with Pretender bodies a long time ago. We've been missing out on so many things.

June nodded at Ashanti. "The Colonel is going over a list of people to join her team. Temporary replacement for Jensen while his broken leg heals, and permanent ones for Case and Dawson." Her smile faded a bit. "That second one must be a depressing duty."

"Yeah. They were so young." Thoughts of humans' fragility and all too brief life spans flitted through her mind again and she pushed them away. "Well, the upgraded armor everyone's getting should offer a lot more protection. And more good news - I'm keeping in touch with Optimus and the others. They set up a secure link in our base so I can be involved in the discussion while still piloting this body here."

"I hope they're coming up with something good."

"After bringing Ultra Magnus up to speed on the situation, they came up with ideas for intensifying the search for Airachnid and taking the fight to Megatron. They'll both have to be dealt with before we can go after Unicron. Especially if Unicron is possessing Megatron's body, somehow. For the long term, they're planning to build a ship, put together a crew, and go after Unicron, but we can't head off into space while those two are still traipsing around on Earth."

June froze for a second and stared at Jack. "I'm guessing you'll want to go, then."

"Absolutely." He reached across the table and interlaced his flesh fingers between Arcee's metal ones. "We're a team."

"You're still a kid, Jack. General Sanchez - or whoever ends up making the decision - might not even allow it."

"We're a team." Jack sighed. "If you felt about someone the way I feel about Arcee, would you be able to stay home and wait years or decades for him to come back without losing your fucking mind?"

June sighed. "I ... suppose not. But the ship will need a medical staff, so if you're signing on, then so am I."

Arcee smiled. "I wouldn't want it any other way. We've all become a family, and it just wouldn't feel right if we weren't all together."

"I've only just stumbled into all this stuff," Sierra said, nudging her food around on her plate. "There's no way my parents would let me go with you, so it'd be a long time before I could see any of you again." She sighed. "I mean, after just meeting most of you ...."

"I'd miss you, too." Smokescreen smiled at her.

Arcee arched a brow plate and exchanged a glance with Jack. Ah, there they go. "Well, we're still not sure how long it'll take to put the mission together and build the ship. After we deal with Airachnid and Megatron, if there are still any Decepticons willing to continue the fight, we'll have to take care of them first, or we'll have to worry about attacks on the ship while it's under construction. By the time everything comes together, you might be over eighteen, then you'd at least have a shot at joining the crew if you still wanted to."

Sierra smiled and glanced at Smokescreen. "I can hope, at least."

Arcee chuckled. "And in more amusing news, the higher-ups have decided to let a reporter and a camera crew interview us and follow us around for a while. Since our cover has been blown and we're public knowledge now, they think the best damage control is to let the public get to know us."

June raised both eyebrows. "Oh, boy. That should be interesting."

Sierra spotted something behind Jack and her eyes opened wider. "Don't look now, but I think that's one of the camera crews."

Arcee leaned to the side to glance past Jack and found two guys carrying cameras and a young woman in a blue tank-top and black cargo pants pausing at the door leading out to the picnic area. They took in their surroundings and the woman's face lit up when she spotted Arcee and the others. They strode straight toward them.

"Oh, here we go," Miko said with a grin. "Looks like our fifteen minutes of fame is about to begin."

---

"So, tell us a bit about yourself," the reporter, Tenesha Hargrove, said as she followed Jack and Arcee. She'd suggested they take a walk around the base to provide a more dynamic shot, so they had agreed to take her crew on a brief tour around the picnic yard, nearby parking lots, and other parts of the Groom Lake base that weren't off-limits.

_Not the walk on the beach we've been wanting for so long, but it'll have to do._Jack slipped his hand into Arcee's as she took a few seconds to figure out an answer.

"Well, I'm not sure where to start. Have you already been briefed about our homeworld, the war, and all that?"

"We've been given the basics. A whole machine planet, basically, populated by sentient robots, devastated in a civil war that's been raging for thousands of years."

"Tens of thousands. Maybe longer. We're not even sure anymore. A lot of our history was lost in the war when many of our archives were destroyed. We know it started as a revolt against the caste system that was in place back then, but everyone learned too late that the rebellion's leader had his own agenda. A lot of the details have been lost since then. The war resulted in our planet's ... not destruction, exactly - it became unable to support us and we had to evacuate, but we hope it can be revived someday. Anyway, very few of us were there when the war started. I was activated afterward, so the war was all I knew until a few of us found Earth." She smiled. "My whole life was just the current battle and then the next, and the next. I had no idea there could be anything else until we landed here."

"Three years ago, right?"

"Yeah. There was one last battle after we arrived, then our remaining enemies went dark. Didn't hear a peep from them for three years, so I finally had some extended downtime. Found out what it was like to just _sit down_for a while. And to cruise around with nothing to do and no worries about being shot at. We still went on patrol and kept our eyes out for enemy activity, but it was pretty mellow for a while."

"But the peace and quiet didn't last?"

"Nope. One day, a few months ago, it flared up again. My best friend was killed in action." Arcee glanced away and her lips quivered for a few seconds. She regained her composure and said, "On the bright side, that was also the day I met Jack." She poked his shoulder. "The very first thing he did was grope me."

"I, uh ... um, he did?" Tenesha gaped at her and one of the camera guys snickered.

"Well, Arcee's people are able to disguise themselves as vehicles." Jack blushed.

"I'm a motorcycle," Arcee added. "Well, my real body is. This one is just a human-size version that I'm remote-operating."

"Since I had no idea her people existed, I thought she was just a bike. An exceptionally_fine_-looking bike, though." Jack winked at her. "I just couldn't resist. Had to lay my hands on you. Then I had to climb on for just a moment. Wanted to get an idea of what it'd feel like to ride a motorcycle I'd never be able to afford."

"Uh-huh." Tenesha seemed to notice their joined hands and motioned at one of the camera guys. He pointed his camera directly at their hands as Tenesha continued. "So, the first thing he did was feel you up, and the very next - he mounted you?"

The other camera guy laughed. Jack aimed a shit-eating grin directly into the camera.

"You said this is a remote-controlled body?" Tenesha waved a hand at Arcee.

"There was a subset of Decepticons called Pretenders who were built to mimic small organic forms. The loss of our homeworld snapped most of them out of it and they bailed out of the whole war. They found Earth a few hundred years ago, tried to blend in, and just live in peace." Arcee shrugged. "A few of them kept working for the enemy, though, and were involved in an attack on Groom Lake a few months ago. A few of them refused to be taken alive. This body was one of them - the damage was repaired, the processor and memory core removed and replaced with our own components, wireless links installed, and I was able to use it while my own body was being repaired."

"Severe damage from a fight with an old enemy," Jack added. "Arcee almost died, but we managed to get our hands on the parts she needed. In the meantime, she linked up to this body so she could stay in the fight."

"And then, right after I was repaired, the first thing I did was go out and get damaged again." She shook her head and pointed at her waist. "Took an armor-piercing blade to the gut. It severed my spine. So now I'm back in our base, just sitting on my ass until my replacement parts can be fabricated and installed. But at least I can still be useful."

"Having a human-size body has other advantages, too." Jack grinned.

"Yeah. Makes it easier to fit through doorways."

"Arcee's actually about sixteen feet tall. With her Pretender shell, it's a lot easier to hold hands, hug, and whatever else."

"So I see." Tenesha waved at their joined hands. "You two are 'together,' then?"

Jack reached over with his free hand, ran his palm slowly across Arcee's chest plate, and aimed a blank look at the nearer camera. "Huh. What gave it away?"

Arcee laughed and nudged his shoulder. He slipped his arm around her waist and glanced back at the camera as they reached the perimeter fence and stopped.

"Since this body was built to blend in with organic life forms, by the way, it's anatomically correct and fully functional." He winked and gave the camera a thumbs-up.

"Don't worry, though," Arcee added with a chuckle, "we're planning to wait until Jack's eighteen before we have sex. My people don't actually have the right parts for that, and it's a completely alien concept for us, so I'm thinking it might take me that long to get comfortable with the idea."

He nodded. "Yeah, we're not rushing it. It'll be the first time for both of us, so we don't want it to be all awkward." He grinned. "But in the meantime, there are other things we can do - cuddling, holding hands, kissing ... um, the Cybertronian equivalent of a sensual massage."

"Ahhhh." Tenesha smirked and arched an eyebrow. "Is that why you smell like car polish?"

Jack blushed and tugged on his collar. "Um. Yeah."

Arcee grinned again, and reached around to squeeze Jack's ass.

"So, how did this come about?" Tenesha motioned at one of the camera guys, who turned to take some stock shots of the parking lot and buildings beyond it. "A giant alien robot and a sixteen-year-old human? Seems ... odd."

Jack shrugged. "When we met, things happened so fast, it took a while for all of it to sink in. At the same time, I had to just keep going to school and working my shitty job at KO Burgers like nothing was going on. But after a while I gradually fell head over heels. Couldn't work up the nerve to say anything about it, though. I assumed Arcee would think it's gross or just weird, or not even understand at all."

"Hah. I'd felt_something_ for quite a while, but since I'd never experienced an emotional state quite like it before, I had no idea what it was. And I never really figured it out - someone else had to spell it out to me before I even began to understand. And I'm still in the process of getting my head around it all, but I know one thing for certain - I don't think I could go on without Jack."

"I feel the same way about Arcee." He gazed into her optics and smiled. "My life would be empty without her in it. She's my soulmate."

"That's sweet." Tenesha smiled.

Jack slipped his arms around Arcee and drew her closer. She chuckled softly, brushed her fingers through his hair, embraced him, and leaned in. Their lips met and Jack's heartbeat revved up.

Both of them closed their eyes and let the rest of the world fade away for a moment.

"I feel kinda dirty for even thinking this," one of the camera guys muttered, "but that's hot."

Tenesha giggled and then whispered, "Just get a close-up of that and then we'll wrap for now."

---

"That ... was ...incredible!" Tenesha turned to watch her crew walk out of the ground-bridge vortex behind her, followed by Jack and Arcee's mini-body.

"Thought you'd get a kick out of that." Jack grinned. "Also, the Autobot base's location is classified, so this was the best way to get you here without taking a car or aircraft in."

Tenesha nodded, turned to her guys, and waved a hand around the room. "Juan, grab some shots of the base, would you?"

"Sure thing."

"I'm right over there." Arcee pointed her mini-me's hand at her full-size body, seated across the room. "I was in the repair bay for a long time, but I finally asked Ratchet to drag my ass out here so I could be more involved in the daily business."

Over by the main console, Ratchet shut the ground-bridge down, turned, and nodded at the guests. "Ma'am. Gentlemen."

"Nice to meet you."

Arcee nodded over to the sofa, coffee table, and huge TV the kids had set up a while back. "And that's Raf, Miko, Bumblebee, and Tomoko."

They turned, waved, and returned their attention to their video game. Arcee chuckled.

"Tomoko's the new kid. She was just activated a couple of days ago. I'm sure Miko's teaching her how to be a juvenile delinquent."

"Ha-ha." Miko smirked. "I'm actually not. However, once the fabricator is built and starts cranking out new Pretender shells, I do intend to hook Tomoko up to one and show her how to masturbate."

Jack shook his head. Arcee snorted. Ratchet rolled his optics and turned back to the console.

Raf blushed as he glanced over at Tenesha. "That's our Miko. One of a kind. Fortunately."

Miko stuck her tongue out at him and nudged one of the buttons on her controller. On the TV, her character pulled a car door open, yanked Raf's character out, hurled him off to the side, and got into his car.

The other camera guy motioned at the screen. "Hey, kid, your character looks like Carl Sagan."

"Finally! You're the first person who's ever noticed that. It took a lot of work to get him to look right." Raf grinned as his video-game avatar picked himself up and Miko drove away in his car. Raf opened his weapons menu, selected the rocket launcher, locked on, and fired.

Miko's car exploded and she let out a yelp. Tomoko giggled.

Raf deepened his voice and managed a passable Sagan impression. "Billions and billions of body parts."

The camera guy burst into laughter and slumped against the wall.

"Easy there, Eric." Juan grinned. "Remember to breathe."

"C ... can't!" He leaned over and braced his hands on his knees.

An urgent beeping came from Ratchet's console. He tapped a button and stared at several lines of text appearing on the screen.

Arcee glanced up at him. "Another Megatron sighting?"

"No." Ratchet turned slowly and met her gaze. "Airachnid's been spotted again."

The controller slipped from Tomoko's hands and she whirled to stare with wide eyes at him. She trembled and Raf reached up to put his hand on her leg.

"I'm alerting Optimus," Ratchet said as he turned back to the console. "You and Jack are not going after her alone. We'll have all hands on deck this time."

"Jack ..." Arcee stared down at him and he shook his head before she could say another word.

"I'll go grab my armor."

Tomoko pushed herself to her feet and stood, wringing her hands as she glanced back and forth from Arcee to Jack. "I'm going with you."

"You don't have to -"

"If - if I don't face her I - I - I'll never stop being afraid of her." Tomoko seemed to notice her hand-wringing and clenched her fists. "I'm going."

"Alright." Jack glanced up at Arcee. "We could use her help. Her web launchers could make all the difference, like they did in our last fight."

Tenesha held a hand up. "Okay, so, who's Airachnid?"

"That old enemy we mentioned. The one who almost killed Arcee recently."

Tomoko shivered and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "She's insane."

"She used to be a Decepticon, but went rogue a long time ago. Now she hunts sentient species and takes their heads as trophies." Jack managed a brief smirk. "Arcee recently described her as 'fifty tons of fucked-up in a ten-pound bag,' and that fits her perfectly." He turned to one of the tunnels leading out from the hub and glanced over his shoulder at Arcee. "I'll be geared up before the rest of the team arrives."

Well, there goes our plans for tonight. But we can't let this opportunity go._He strode out of the hub. _Time to step on a spider.