The Winding Road

Here is the full installment or second part of the Full Ark series. This will be an actual chapter story, and hopefully questions will be answered, though not all in one chapter. I hope you readers will enjoy this. Happy readers make a happy author. Guessing readers makes this certain author super happy.

Summary: The war has been going on for three years on Earth, and things are still escalating as more people are being brought into the heat of it. More funny bits, plotting, and a human who has to deal with all the crap.

Tranformers characters belong to Hasbro. Unrecognizable characters belong to yours truly.

The war on Earth has been going on for three years.

Time at Ark: Two and a half years.

Jen: 18 years old

Astoria Carlton-Ritz was bored. What ever happened to the days of lavish parties, and just being plain careless? Three years of a war she barely knew thrown that down the drain.

Her father, being the genius that he is, knew there was going to be displaced people. Together, he and Astoria found a little town for those people to live as much normal lives as possible. It was far away from the big cities, and the natural landscape of distant mountains and nearby forest provided good protection.

Astoria looked down from her balcony. She thought the place was a total drag at first, but this town was active with stores, parks, and whatnot. There were the occasional people who came in from God-knows-where, and bought clothes and supplies to bring back to their area. It proved to be a very good hub town.

"Your order came in Astoria," a brunette with the most charming black frame glasses walked in hunched back with a big box.

Astoria waltzed over to help put the package on a nearby table. "Why didn't you ask anyone to give you a hand?"

"It's not so much heavy, just bulky," she said. "What is this suppose to be?"

Astoria rubbed her hands in anticipation. "It's going to be our latest defense," she told her aide. "It's a machine that lets out a high frequency shrill that should halt any attacks from those robo-creatures on the Hub."

Being such the creative person that Astoria is, she named the town the Hub.

The brunette raised a brow at her superior. "A machine? You, as in you Astoria bought a mechanical device that just so happens to run on electricity?"

Astoria crossed her arms. "Just what are you getting at Mahry?"

"Well," Mahry started. "You so much as look, let alone touch any machine, it breaks down like it just saw Medusa or something like that."

Mahry fidgeted when Astoria gave one of those cheeky smiles. "That is why I'm giving you the honor to open the box, Mahry, and get a mechanic to set this baby up."

"Hey! Why can't you get the mechanic?"

Astoria held both of her hands out into the light, and gave them an admiring look. "Because I just did my nails."

As with any scrimmage with the Decepticons, there was rarely any 'bot unscathed. It would concern Ratchet when a mech didn't so much have their paint chipped off. Even the glamour hound Sunstreaker would always be scuffed up with enemy energon dripping off his arms, after any battle.

The medic looked over to see Jenifer finishing some cosmetic work on Prowl's chevron. Normally Prowl didn't worry about cosmetic stuff, but the tactician knew that Jen wanted to show him how well of a job she did.

Ratchet was happy for her that she was almost a pro with small and some basic repairs. The CMO was really proud of her. The human herself was also elated to find something she could actually do in the medbay. Ratchet figured she must be doing a good job when Sunstreaker gave a small compliment of her work. Even Tracks gave her a half compliment as well.

Ratchet looked around in the med-bay. All the injured mechs were accounted for except for one. Cliffjumper got into a really bad scrap up with Soundwave. The cassette holder is notorious for entering trojans into mechs that he physically attacked. Ratchet always injected anti-viral fluids into those who went up against the Decepticon third-in-command. It wasn't a pleasant experience, but it had to be done.

Ratchet sighed. As tough as Cliffjumper liked to act, the minibot was terrified of needles. The red warrior wasn't going to come easy should the CMO stomp around searching for him.

"Jenifer," She was too engrossed in her work to hear.

"Hey kid! Docbot called ya!" Ironhide yelled from his berth.

Snapped out of her trance, Jen looked at the veteran. "I'm not a kid. I'm eighteen now."

"As long as y'er younger 'en me, ya'll always be a kid scraplet."

"Everyone's younger than you," she mumbled. She noticed Prowl pursing his lips together.

"What was that?" Ironhide demanded.

She looked up again, and gave him an overly friendly smile. "So does that make you Kup's little boy then?"

"Jenifer..." Prowl warned.

If Ironhide wasn't missing a leg, he would have stomped over to the tactician to size the human up. Ratchet was enjoying this too much to interfer.

"If yer so 'adult' now, ya wouldn't be mouthing off to yer elders now, would ya?"

"Wait," Jen looked confused now. "So, you're acknowledging the fact that you're old? Even Kup doesn't call himself that!"

"Why I outta come over thar an' shake some respect inta ya! Guardian be damned!" Ironhide did love to joke around, but that was after he had his energon. And the Decepticons interrupted his 'me' time.

"She wouldn't want you to pull a hip strut now, old man," Sideswipe came to her aid.

Distracted, Ironhide was yelling back and forth with Sideswipe.

With the scene over, Ratchet went to Jen. "I need you to go find Cliffjumper and bring him here. Slagger needs an injection."

"Alright," She said as soon as her guardian sat her down. "Just don't yell at him when he comes in. It's not very encouraging."

"I have all the encouragement I need right here," Ratchet shook his wrench.

"When you are finished you need to report to my office," Prowl stated.

"Ya better be giving her an audio full," The weapon specialist muttered.

The strategist barely flicked his doorwing. "No. I'm giving her a 'Congratulations: You did it!' sticker."

Ironhide glowered. "You watch yer mouth too."

Out in the hallway, Jen stood in front of Cliffjumper's door. "Cliffjumper!" She knocked. "It's me, open up."

There was no response. Her chest heaved in a sigh. Jen hopped on top of Noshe and, with the override card Ratchet gave her, swipe the card through the slit. There was a distinct 'cling' to confirm the door has been unlocked.

"You stay," she told the fox with her hand in the air, and headed inside. She walked a couple meters in before tripping forward with her arms outstretched on something.

Wiping off the non-existing dust, Jen stood and picked up the offending object. It was a muted silver color cylinder with weird etches all over it. Observing it from all areas by turning it, Jen realized that it wasn't a gun. Then what was it doing in Cliffjumper's room? Looking at another side, she found more etchings, but this time it was in the form of a name; K-I-T-A.

Jen then saw a slide button on it. Moving the cylinder so that one end was against her stomach, she was able to grasp the button.

There was a sudden swoosh and something hard covered her front while another thing engulfed her one hand and forcefully turned it as the two ends of the cylinder shot out like darts.

Jenifer felt her blood drain from her face at the realization that she nearly impaled herself on a double ended spear.

"Are you," started a familiar voice that sounded nearly as scared as she felt. "Trying to kill yourself?"

From Cliffjumper's protective grasp, she turned and looked at him. "N-no. I came here looking for you."

"Congratulations, you found me," He gruffly putted in.

The minibot hit another button and sheathed the weapon. "What do you have that thing for anyway?"

"We're in a war," he grunted. "Remember? What the slag were you doing trying to impale yourself? Do you even have the faintest idea the kind of carnage I could do with this?" He was visibly shaking now.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have left it on the ground where someone could get to it!" Jen gave her index finger a forceful shove on his chassis.

"This is my room!"

They stood in silence, trying to compose themselves. Jenifer looked at her friend. "I thought you liked your guns?"

Cliffjumper gave her a calm steady look. "I do. These are for wetwork."

"You have more of them?"

The minibot knelt down and showed his back to her. Sure enough, there were five other spears in his back compartment.

"So," Jen took in a small breath. "Who's Kita?" She saw Cliffjumper's features sadden a little before turning his head away. "Sorry, forget I asked."

"She was a friend," he said. "A good friend." He traced the engraving with his thumb. "In a way, you remind me of her."

"Oh."

Cliffjumper cringed when he moved his left arm. Jen saw the wound where his back and left shoulder met. It was a small opening, but very deep.

Gingerly, Jen scooted up and put her hand on it. "Ratchet wants you to come to the medbay to get that fix."

"I'm not going," the red warrior said a bit too sternly.

Jen sighed. "Cliffjumper, nobody likes shots."

"I'm still not going."

With an exasperated look, Jen glanced up at the ceiling. "God, you are such a typical male."

He frowned. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"As in men are such big babies when it comes down to pain."

"I ain't no baby!" He stood up.

Jen cocked a brow. "Prove it."

"Fine," he grumbled. "I'll go get my stinkin' shot." Cliffjumper looked down and gave a smirk. "Do I get anything afterward?"

She smiled. "You'll get a 'Congratulations: You did it!' sticker.

The minibot banged his head on the door panel.

"What's on your mind Jenifer?" Perceptor noticed her distant look.

"I've just been thinking about this for awhile now and," she looked over to where Ratchet and First Aid were. "Even with all our help, it takes a long time to tend to a large group of mechs. And…well, I was thinking that maybe we could make some kind of device that can heal some of the wounds of a mech hooked up to it, while Ratchet or First Aid could tend to someone else."

Perceptor rubbed his chin plates while casting a glance at the human with high interest. "What made you come up with that idea?"

The one thing with Perceptor that Jen just loved about him was that no matter how ridiculous her thoughts were, the scientist never made her out like an idiot.

"I was thinking about Walt Disney in a cryogenic tube when that idea hit me," She shrugged on the sheepish side.

"Interesting you said that," he hummed. "As a matter of fact we do have something like that."

Jen looked at him, eyes wide. "You do?"

"Well, not here exactly," Perceptor said. "But we have made a Cryonic Regeneration chambers, or CR chamber for short." His fingers glided across the keyboard until a picture of a tube came into view.

"Oh," she took a closer look. "So does it do all of the work that Ratchet does?"

"For the most part, yes, if not more," Perceptor stated. "It's only been around for a couple million years, but it's proven to be quite efficient. The CR chamber can reverse stasis lock and other worse injuries."

Jen nodded slowly, pretending that a couple million years was no big deal. "But won't it take away the job that Ratchet and First Aid do?"

A sharp laugh sounded off a listening medic from across the other side.

With a few short clicks, the picture zoomed out and glyphic descriptions of the mechanism showed.

"Technically no," the microscope said. "It does the same job as a medic would, but it uses up a lot more energy. So because of that, there are only a couple of them around. The CR chamber is also an effective way to make protoforms, or new Cybertronians. It is also useful for new projects, such as aiding Pretender development."

"What's a Pretender?"

"It's a relatively new product. Though when giving someone a Pretender shell, you must take extra precautions."

"But what's a Pretender?" Jen asked.

He looked at her, trying to think of the best way explaining it. "You are aware of our transformation cog, yes?"

"Yeah…"

"Pretender shells work along side with the transformation cog. When installed correctly and carefully, the relationship between the two is mutual. The Pretender shell can be a super strong exo-armor," Perceptor said. "There have been some advances on the technology, or improvement, but it's still a very touchy process.

"It's been proven that a Pretender shell can heal and regenerate the wearer, much like a CR chamber. The Kimia Facility has been working on the development to allow Cybertronians to get biological disguises."

"You mean, disguise themselves as humans?"

"And other biological species," Perceptor added.

Jen looked back at the picture. "So there are transformers who only have a human disguise instead of a vehicle?"

"No. Perhaps I said it in a wrong way. There has yet to be a case where a Cybertronian life form only has a biological disguise. Instead, the biological disguise is in addition to the vehicular form," He spread out his arms. "For example: Let's say we give a Pretender shell to Jazz. He still has his vehicular mode, but at the same time he has a separate ability to disguise himself as a human."

The microscope saw her blank look. "It's not the simplest thing to explain, I know."

She gave her dark blond hair a rub. "I think I got the jist of it. So does that mean that a Pretender shell is pretty much the same thing as this…holoform I've been hearing about?"

A hand on the back of his neck indicated that the scientist was almost at a stump. "No, a holomatter form is a mere illusion that can be solidified. A punch to a holoform doesn't entirely hurt a mech as badly as it would to a Pretender."

There was a noticeable twitch in the girl's right eye. "Right…Amazing how we started talking about ER chambers,"

"CR," he corrected.

"Yeah, CR chambers to Pretender shells that can be either super strong armor or life forms."

"Technically it's both."

Jen shook her head. "You know what? I'm just going to see what Wheeljack's up to."

"Don't forget to put on your arm braces then," Perceptor chuckled after her fleeting form.

Prowl knew that Kup's unite wasn't a permanent stay to the Ark. The Wreckers have never been the bunch to stay around for too long of a time. Despite the Decepticons advances, the rough and tough group was getting restless.

Prime needed more mechs to fight. Hot Rod, Blurr, and Drift are not Wreckers, so they would most likely remain while the others eventually leave.

Blurr would make a good asset to them. And the ex-con Drift has proven to be very sufficient in battle. With the exception of a certain few, Drift has gained the trust of the other Autobots, including Prowl himself.

Hot Rod on the other hand was too green for the SICs liking. Optimus saw great potential in the younger mech, but Prowl just saw the flamboyant mech irresponsible. Perhaps under Ultra Magnus's control, he would greatly improve. But not here on Earth. Too much was going on already. At least Sunstreaker and Sideswipe didn't get in the way in battle.

There was a creak that Prowl's chair gave as he leaned back. There was still time left to get things done before the Wreckers go. The wait can't be too long. Shockwave has been getting more powerful back on Cybertron. Elita-One and her femmes have had better times.

Another thing has been bothering the tactician for quite some while. The disappearance of Scorponok never left his processor. The Decepticon was not to be taken lightly.

Prowl took a glance at his window. Soft sunlight was entering his room and leaving a soft shimmer. Air left his vents as Prowl gave a near human sigh. There were too many similarities of Skywatch's technology to their Cybertronian one to be a pure coincidence. And Prowl had calculated many times over that there is an 85.7% chance that Scorponok was the reason.

But he needed proof before he can go to Prime with his idea.

Prowl's optics dimmed to a near frown. Oh he will get that proof. Prowl was not afraid to get his hands dirty. But he would be working on his own record. He cannot let Optimus Prime get involved.

He would need help though. The danger in it would be great. Prowl had two people in mind for the job. One would have to know the risk, but the other… Prowl picked up the soft green glowing datapad. It would take more careful and critical planning before anything was set. He had to make sure everything was fool proof and that there would be no critical danger should the other be involve.

Prowl prayed to Primus that it wouldn't come to this last resort. Had it been any other, his care wouldn't be so great. It was the honor bound programming that was yelling at his war program.

Should it come to the last resort, Prowl would make sure safety was ensured.

The long and winding road…