Fic: A Shocking Discovery
Title: A Shocking Discovery
Author: Merisel
Characters: Jolt, Ratchet, Leo, Ironhide, Sam, Mikaela
Summary: Jolt knows who he wants, and sets out to get him.
This ficlet is for the Strange Cybertronian Mating Rituals Challenge at flesh_and_steel [and for mmouse15 ;) ]
It began with a look.
It was fleeting, barely more than a glance, but that was still enough for Leo Spitz. "A-ha!" He dug his elbow into Sam's side. "Did you see that?"
"Ow! Quit it!"
"Did you see that?" Leo repeated, looking from Sam to Mikaela.
"No, we didn't see whatever it is you're talking about now." She rolled her eyes. At first Leo was nervous around their giant robotic friends, but now it seemed he couldn't get enough of them. Whenever she and Sam visited the Autobots, he'd insist on tagging along, and then he'd just watch, and constantly type away on his phone, claiming he was just 'taking notes' and e-mailing them to himself. Lately he'd taken to following them around their base, everywhere they went.
For the most part the Autobots indulged their visitor, although Ironhide did get a little pissy when Leo wanted to film him at target practice. That put a stop to the stalking. How long that might last, though, was anyone's guess.
"How could you miss it?" Leo nattered on. "That blue Autobot has a thing for the lime one."
"You mean Jolt and Ratchet," Sam corrected him. "Don't be dumb. They're just good friends."
"I'm telling you, Jolt's totally hot for him!"
"You're imagining things," Mikaela informed Sam's spastic roommate. "And would you stop staring at them!"
Leo huffed as they walked away. Those two just didn't possess his skill at observation! Jolt was definitely into Ratchet -- all the evidence was there! -- and he was gonna prove it. It'd make a great addition to the movie he was making, too.
Unaware of the scrutiny, Jolt tried to think of the best way to approach Ratchet. The medical officer had an austere, no-nonsense air about him. There was also the fact that he was one of the oldest living Autobots. What if he wasn't interested in forming a new personal relationships? If anyone might know, it would be his constant companion, Ironhide. Who was even more intimidating than the medic.
Jolt mentally braced himself before sidling up to the weapons specialist, who was standing in a corner away from everyone else. "This is a pleasant planet," he remarked, starting off with some small talk.
Ironhide shrugged noncommitedly. "If you say so."
"---Humans are interesting, too, with all their different customs. Take bovines, for example. In one land they're sacred animals, while in the rest of the world they're a source of food."
He knew he was rambling, but he just couldn't help being nervous!
"What do you want?" Ironhide asked, point-blank, certain that Jolt hadn't come over to talk about cows.
Here goes nothing... Jolt faced him squarely. "I was wondering - since you've interfaced with Ratchet, does he---"
"I what?" It was an effort to keep from shouting. "What the slag gave you that idea?!"
Jolt took a step back. Ironhide looked either furious or astonished; he couldn't quite tell which. "You two are so close. I thought--"
"Well, you thought wrong," Ironhide huffily interrupted him again. "Primus, he's like a spark-brother to me!"
"Sorry," a chagrined Jolt apologized. "Do you happen to know if he is...uh...involved with anyone?"
Ironhide blinked twice, then his optics widened. "I don't believe it.. You've got an itch for Ratchet?!"
"So what if I do?" Jolt snapped back in his own defense. "He has several attractive qualities. You should know that."
"Yeah, I do, but most everyone else sees him as a cranky ancient."
Ironhide glanced at the group clustered together at the other end of the huge room. The other Autobots were engrossed in whatever Sam was saying and paying no mind to him and Jolt. That strange dark-haired boy, though, kept looking over at them for some reason. Even if he could hear them, Leo Spitz couldn't possibly understand Cybertronian, but still... Something about him rubbed Ironhide the wrong way. "Let's talk about this outside."
"All right," he cheerfully agreed. Ironhide didn't threaten to shoot him - that was a very good sign.
Ironhide led him away from the base into a nearby woodsy area, then spun around to confront him. "Is this some kind of joke?" he demanded in his most menacing voice.
"Of course not!" Jolt glared up at the larger Autobot, offended. "Don't confuse me with Skids!"
"Hmph.." He studied Jolt thoughtfully. Ratchet hid it well, but Ironhide knew he'd been in a funk, with so few Autobots surviving the war, and being unable to interact with the majority of the human race. Jolt was a likeable mech, not to mention very easy on the optics. Everyone, Ratchet included, was well aware of that. This could go a long way toward making Ratchet happy again. "You're serious, then? You're not just messing around?"
That was apparently the wrong thing to say; Jolt looked ready to explode now.
"I would never--"
"Good," he interrupted the imminent tirade. "Now listen up. First thing you need to know is Ratchet can't stand timid mechs any more than I can."
"That won't be a problem, but...he's so much more experienced that I am. What if I bore him?" Jolt fretted.
"Don't worry. I know what gets his engine running, and you're the perfect mech for it.."
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"You glitches!" Ratchet was disgusted. "Damage each other one more time, and you can just go find an automobile repair shop in the city and hope for the best!"
"He started it!" Mudflap declared.
"I did not! All I said was--"
"QUIET!" He brandished a welder threateningly. "One more word and I'll report both of you to Prime."
The twins immediately shut up. Taking advantage of the blessed silence -- which was not likely to last very long -- he began repairing the cracks in their armor as fast as possible.
"At it again, were they?" an amused voice said a few cycles later.
Ratchet looked over his shoulder. Jolt was standing just inside the doorway. "Practically every other day." Scanning his patients to make sure there were no weaknesses in their amor, he waved a dismissive hand. "You may go now."
Skids and Mudflap hurled themselves at the door, eager to escape the medic. Jolt leaped sideways to get out of their way.
"Remember what I said!" Ratchet called after them, then grumbled, "Youngsters."
"Will they ever learn to behave?" wondered Jolt.
"Maybe in a million years." He set aside the welder for cleaning later before turning to his visitor. "So what's wrong with you?"
"Nothing serious, I hope. My aim's been a bit off lately during practice."
"Let me see." Jolt produced his cannon, and Ratchet ran a diagnostic scan on the weapon. "Hmm. I don't detect any rust or other damage to it. It might just need recalibrating."
"All right, but that Leo boy is still lurking about." Jolt grimaced. "I'd rather not answer a few dozen questions from him."
"He is extremely inquisitive," Ratchet agreed in an acerbic tone. "All right, let's go to the practice field. The humans aren't allowed near it, since Ironhide complained."
"Good idea," Jolt readily agreed.
Ratchet locked the medbay door using a special code -- except for Optimus and Ironhide, he never allowed anyone access to his domain when he was away -- then the two Autobots strode down the long hallway to the main entrance.
"Looks like he's finally making his move," Leo spoke in a hushed whisper, peeking around a corner with a dvd camcorder in one hand. "I'm attempting to follow now, hopefully without one of them spotting me."
Looking behind him every couple seconds, Leo tip-toed after the potential couple, dvd camcorder in hand. This was gonna be THE highlight of his movie. He just knew it!
Jolt bided his time, waiting for just the right opportunity to pounce.
After several demonstrations, Ratchet concluded that Jolt's aim was five-twelfths of an inch off. That would not matter when fighting a large Decepticon, but there were some as small as Wheelie, and many much, much smaller than that. A error like that could prove deadly against them, therefore minor adjustment to the targeting system was vital. Jolt's cannon wasn't nearly as complicated as Ironhide's, so the fine-tuning didn't take long at all. "Try again now."
This time Jolt hit the targets perfectly dead-center.
Ratchet nodded to himself. "It could be Earth's atmosphere that affected you. I'll ask other Autobots if they're experience similiar lapses, once Sam and his friends have left," he decided, turning away from Jolt to head back to base.
That was just the moment he'd waited for. Jolt tackled Ratchet from behind.
"What the--!!" Ratchet rolled as he hit the ground, but his surprise assailant anticipated that and pinned the medic under him. His arms were pulled back and bound with a thick chain. He tried to break free, and caught a glimpse of who's jumped him. "Jolt! What the frag do you think you're doing?"
"I've been wanting to make an impression on you, so I decided the best way to go about it is to be aggressive."
"What?" Ratchet went still, anger turning to confusion. "You mean-- But I thought you and Sideswipe...." he trailed off.
"Hardly," Jolt scoffed. "He's not my type, as the humans say."
Was this really happening? He could hardly believe his good fortune. "And I am?"
"Oh, definitely." Jolt moved off him and hauled him to his feet. "You're my captive until sunrise tomorrow, but by then you might not want me to release you."
"Is that so?" he answered back, intrigued despite the impertinence. Jolt had never struck him as the dominant type. Ratchet chose to play along, to see what he was up to. "And just how to you plan to accomplish that feat?"
Jolt grinned at Ratchet's response. "You'll find out when we get there."
"Where are we going?" He tried to sound disinterested, but knew he failed miserably when Jolt laughed.
"No more questions," he teasingly replied, giving the medic a nudge in the direction he wanted him to go. Ratchet made a show of grumbling, but offered no resistance. Success! Elated, Jolt started him off on an eight mile trek.
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Ratchet stared at the long string of electricity pylons before him. It took a moment for his vocals to work again. "Wh--why did you bring me here?" he asked, though he had a pretty good idea what Jolt had in mind now.
"I'm going to make you overload. Then overload again, and again..." Jolt purred to him.
This time there was no possible chance of controlling his reaction. Excitement surged through his very spark, and he shivered. "That's quite a boast."
"No, that was a promise."
Another, stronger shiver coursed through him. "Why don't you prove it, then?" challenged Ratchet.
"Oh, I will!" He dragged Ratchet over to the closest of the steel latticed towers and shoved him up against it. Just for that he was going to overload Ratchet five times. But first...
Jolt stepped back to looked Ratchet over, admiring his form. The grill in the center of his chest just begged to be stroked. He electrified the tips of his fingers -- to give Ratchet a small taste of what was to come -- then lightly scraped the metal bars.
"Hngh..." he rasped incoherently. That touch sent a near-painful tingle through his sensors. A loud hiss filled the air as his cooling system cycled at a faster pace. Ratchet yanked on his bonds, as much as he could. "Primus, Jolt..."
That was definitely pleasure he heard in the medic's voice. He kept at it, fingers sliding all along the grill, top, bottom and sides. It wasn't long before Ratchet was writhing and
growling at him to stop with the teasing. That was fine with Jolt; he couldn't wait any longer, either.
He raised his right arm and, with a flick of the wrist, activated his electro-whip. It shot high into the air and landed gently, resting across the cables attached to the top of the tower.
Carefully siphoning off a moderate amount to begin with, Jolt channeled the energy
through him and into Ratchet.
Nothing he'd ever felt before could compare to this. What was a mere trickle before became a raging torrent that swept throughout his whole body. A howl of sheer ecstasy broke from Ratchet's vocal processor. Excess tendrils of electricity flew outward in a wide radius.
Jolt took it all in, entranced. The expression on Ratchet's face was beautiful! Thank you, Ironhide, he thought as his audio receptors picked up an odd screeching cry from somewhere to his left. An animal, most likely, though it didn't sound at all like any he'd heard in this past of the country. He let the stream of electricity taper off and retracted his whip, granting Ratchet a few minutes to recover.
Ratchet swayed, optics unfocused, then started to fall against pylon. Jolt caught hold of him and lowered the dizzy medic to the ground.
"Uhhrr.... What's that?" Ratchet dazedly asked when the shriek was repeated.
"Some sort of avian creature, I suppose," Jolt guessed with a shrug. Whatever it is must've been frightened off; the second cry was more distant.
"Oh.." He gazed up at the darkening sky. This was the most relaxed he's been in ten thousand years! "I think my circuits melted."
"They'd better not have," Jolt laughingly replied. "That was just the first overload."
Ratchet's mouth plates lifted in a smile.
"Who the hell calls at--" Sam fumbled for the clock. "--12:40??"
"Your parents," predicted Mikaela, covering her head when he turned the lamp on.
"Ha-ha." He grabbed his cell phone. "Hello?" Sam answered, and had to pull it away from his ear. "Leo?!? Is that you? Jesus, would you stop screaming! I can't understand you."
Mikaela sighed and pushed the blanket down. "Now what?"
"Hold on.." Sam put the call on speaker, instead of trying to decipher Leo's babbling to her. "Slow down, Leo!"
"Ok!"
They heard him take a sobbing breath, and looked at each other in concern.
"He killed Ratchet! He killed him!"
"What?!" Sam bolted upright, ready to jump out of the bed. "The Decepticons are back?!?"
Mikaela put a hand to her mouth, eyes going wide with fear. "Oh, no!"
"No, not them!" Leo yelled. "Jolt! It was Jolt! He totally fried Ratchet!"
Sam face-palmed at that. "That's impossible. You just had a bad dream, that's all."
"It wasn't a dream! It happened about three hours ago! Jolt tied him up and dragged him off! I folllowed them and saw it all!"
"They're Autobots, Leo. They don't go around killing each other," Mikaela scolded him.
"I'm telling you, it happened! Jesus, I was close enough that it burned the hair on my head! I'd show you the video, but my cam got fried, too! I couldn't save any of it! "
"He's really convincing, isn't he?" whispered a still-skeptical Mikaela.
"..tell me about it.."
"You gotta believe me! Ratchet's dead!!"
Sam scrubbed a hand over his face. They might as well try to humor Leo. "Ok, look. Mikaela and I'll visit them today and find out what's going on."
"Don't go there, dude! Jolt might kill you, too!"
Mikaela rolled her eyes. "Would you calm down! We'll stay close to Optimus."
"Ok, good. Good. But the Big Guy needs to know about this!"
"Uh-huh.. Now goodnight, Leo." Sam hung up then and put his cell phone on vibrate.
"Dreaming that Jolt murdered Ratchet...." Mikaela shook her head, bemused. "He is so strange! "
"Totally." Sam turned the lamp off and lay down again. "Well...there is a bright side."
"Really? What is it?"
"That nightmare probably cured him of his Autobot obsession."
"Hallelujah!"
They both laughed over Leo's freakout, then went back to sleep.
The End.