Notes: Again, some dialogue is borrowed from the show.

Chapter 4

Okay, he could deal with this. Hopefully without blatantly using his powers, but if it came down to it, he could drag this Makeshift into an Illusion Barrier and hope for the best. He could go underground with Gnome while Salamander went after Makeshift with Sylph's assistance, pop back up behind the imposter, and target his joints.

He came out of his thoughts just in time to notice Miko wandering into the interior of the base with not-Wheeljack trailing behind her. He considered going after her when Bulkhead spoke up.

"Something's just not right about Wheeljack."

Seeing an opportunity, Jack spoke up, "Do the 'Cons have anyone who specialize in infiltration? Who could impersonate your friend?"

"Maybe."

"Bulkhead, aren't you being a little paranoid? People do change, you know?" Arcee cut in.

"Not Jackie. Besides, the Decepticons have at least one shifter that we know is alive and a couple more whose deaths we couldn't confirm. If any of them made it to earth…"

"Shifter?"

Bulkhead turned to Jack, "Most Cybertronians only have two forms, our root mode and vehicle mode. There are some people who can have a third form, but they're rare. Six changers are practically unheard of. Shifters are legendary. They can take on as many forms as they can scan, including ones that are way bigger or smaller than their original form, including the forms of other 'bots."

"Well, at least there's an easy way to find out? You and Wheeljack go way back, so you can just ask him about something that wouldn't appear on any records. Uh, it's not possible to scan other people's memories, right?"

"No. Well, yes, but the Decepticons maybe had enough time to grab Wheeljack and run. There wasn't enough time for them to capture him, do a cortical psychic patch, and send out an imposter before we got there."

"What's a—"

Arcee cut him off, "They're coming back."

While Bulkhead started questioning Makeshift about the Battle of Darkmount Pass, Jack approached Miko.

"Hey, could I get you to help me with the sound equipment? It's acting kind of weird."

"Wait, I wanna hear this."

"No! You need to—I mean, I see, you won't work for free, huh?" Jack checked how much cash he had in his wallet. "Miko, I will pay you thirty-seven dollars to come check out the sound stuff now."

"What? Seri—" Miko's reply was cut off with a scream when the shifter snatched her up. Jack backpedaled to avoid being grabbed too and cursed himself for being too slow to draw Miko away.

When the ground bridge opened, Jack steeled himself to fight alongside the Autobots and damn the consequences. He almost sagged in relief when, instead of a wave of Vehicons, a familiar figure burst through. The imposter was forced to drop Miko and Bulkhead dove to catch her.

Jack retreated to where Arcee, Bulkhead, Miko, and Bumblebee were standing. Arcee's gaze snapped from one combatant to the other. "Which one's the real Wheeljack?"

"I lost track." Bulkhead admitted.

"Left one's the imposter." Jack said, just before the right Cybertronian triumphed.

"That's my Jackie!"

When Jack saw sparks beginning to fly from the roof of the train car, he moved to the other side so that anyone coming through would be between him and the open door. Miko ran to the back to grab an axe off the wall.

Actually, wait, these men were standing on top of a moving train, and accidents did happen… Jack called up his wind elemental, Sylph.

There were two types of summoning. One type let him give spirits a physical form, so they could use their elemental powers and physical attacks independently of him. For the second type, he called up a spirit and borrowed its power. He could mentally command it to do things, and since he didn't give it a physical form, no one could see it but him. This what Jack used to call Sylph into the train.

There should be people above us, trying to cut into this car. Knock them off the train.

The spirit darted out the side of the car, and the wind became a roar. Over the sound of rushing air, Jack heard a trio of screams.

Master, what should I do about the big machine on the roof?

Sylph sent him the image of a helicopter.

If they try to leave, let them, but if anyone comes out, blow them off too.

"They stopped; why'd they stop?" Miko wondered.

"I don't know, maybe—" Jack was cut off by the sound of an explosion. "What the hell?"

Sylph, what happened?

I let the machine leave, but then it attacked the tracks!

Damn, he should have killed them all.

He leaned out the side of the train to confirm that, yes, the tracks were a smoking ruin and called Ratchet.

"Ratchet, MECH blew the train tracks! You need to bridge us and the soldiers out of here!"

"We've lost access to the train data! I can't bridge you back without your coordinates!"

Jack felt a wave of calmroll over him. Now he could be clearheaded for his impending death. Thank you, Gamer's Mind. He turned to address Miko when a flash of red caught his eye. Maybe he wouldn't die today after all.

He collapsed on the ground and pulled a bottle of water out of his inventory. He'd had another encounter with Soundwave the other night, and the Decepticon remembered him. Jack had been slammed into a nearby display with enough force to knock off a good chunk of his HP. If he were a baseline human, his ribs would probably be cracked if not broken. Raf, on the other hand had been comparatively gently pushed aside when Soundwave went for the energon harvester.

Losing so much health at once had inspired Jack to improve his vitality, which was why he was running in an empty dungeon instead of hanging out with the Autobots. He checked his stats, vitality was at forty-seven. His goal was fifty. He could keep running for a few more hours to get those last three points, or he could allocate the points he'd saved up now. After a moment's thought, he brought his vitality and wisdom up to fifty, and dumped his remaining points into intelligence.

[Physical Affinity] has been created as VIT increased to 50.

[Sage's Wisdom] has been created as WIS increased to 50.

As INT increases to 100, a random skill related to the brain will be created.

[Telekinesis] has been created.

[Medium Mana Capacity] has been created as INT increased to 100.

[Mana Regeneration] has been created as INT increased to 100.

Jack read through the descriptions then fell back laughing. This was excellent. The vitality skill increased his health, defense, and stamina recovery rate in addition to making training physical skills thirty percent more efficient. The wisdom skill boosted MP recovery and magic resistance. The two INT skills cumulatively increased his magic attack power, decreased the amount of MP he had to use for each attack, and increased mana regeneration by one hundred percent.

Jack watched Arcee disappear into the trees, concerned. She'd been panicking ever since they'd found that downed ship. She must have recognized it as belonging to a Decepticon. Who could it be? He hadn't seen any of the Autobots worrying over their enemies since they learned that Megatron was on planet. Was this person on Megatron's level? Or could this be personal?

He glanced around, suddenly feeling exposed. He called up Gnome and Sylph. He had Gnome take him underground while Sylph followed Arcee invisibly. Jack stopped short when Sylph relayed that Arcee was fighting someone, sending images of a purple and black femme. He stayed still, focusing all his attention on the two combatants. At first, Arcee had the upper hand, but the other Cybertronian managed to turn the tables and bind Arcee with some sort of webbing.

Jack reacted before he could consider secrecy.

Drop a tree on the purple one.

There was a crack and a loud groan followed by a crash. The unfamiliar Decepticon leapt back and started scanning the woods for her attacker.

Okay, the new femme was distracted, but who knew how long that would last. He needed the Decepticon to leave, to free Arcee, and to get him and his guardian out of these woods. He took a moment to plan before turning to Gnome.

You said that you took a human form because you liked the way it looked. Does that mean you can look like whatever you want?

Yes.

Can the other spirits do that too?

I think so.

He actualized the other two elementals.

I need both of you to look and sound like me. Can you do that?

In response, there was a shifting of water and a flash of flame and suddenly Jack was staring at two copies of himself.

"Okay, Nymph, take my phone. Go back through the tunnel and run away until the phone has a signal. When it does, contact me and I'll tell you what to say. Salamander, your part's trickier…"

Arcee struggled until she broke one arm free. At the sound, Airachnid stopped examining her surroundings and focused on her again. There was a moment of tense silence that was broken by a rustling sound behind the Decepticon. Arcee's optics widened.

"Jack, what are you doing?"

Jack stumbled out of the underbrush, waved—waved, as though he wasn't in imminent danger— and took off running into the woods.

"Oh, you know that human?" Airachnid's voice was tinged with cruel delight, "I don't have one in my collection yet because of you. I think I'll come back for you after I've mounted his head on my wall."

Arcee cursed and kept pulling at her restraints. She shouldn't have come back. She should have kept Jack with her and kept driving until she could call for backup. Why didn't she just keep driving? Inspired, she thrashed until she could transform and drove until the webbing snapped. She freed herself just in time for an explosion to sound through the woods.

Primus, what was—

"Jaaaaaaaack!"

That was Airachnid. Arcee transformed back to root mode and rushed towards the sound. She found her nemesis crashing through the trees, looking for something—looking for Jack, she realized. She put on a burst of speed and leapt for Airachnid's back. At the last second, Airachnid dodged, swiping at Arcee as she went. They exchanged a flurry of blows until Airachnid landed a hit that knocked Arcee back. She moved to re-engage but found her left hand stuck to a tree. She turned her other hand into a blaster just in time to shoot the second mass of webbing Airachnid sent her way.

The impasse that followed was broken by more blaster fire. Bumblebee came darting through the trees while Optimus and Bulkhead picked their way through the foliage. Airachnid faded into the trees, and soon Arcee heard the sound of drilling.

"No! Bee, don't let her escape!"

The scout ran forwards, but returned moments later, unsuccessful.

"Thanks, Optimus," she said as the Autobot leader freed her hand. "Why are you here?"

"Jack called us."

"Jack! Where is he? Did you see him?"

"Relax," Bulkhead offered, "We left hi—"

"Right here." The human strolled into the clearing and waved up at her. He looked disheveled but none the worse for wear.

"I thought I told you to stay put!"

He shifted guiltily, "Yes, but you looked like you needed backup, and I couldn't fight directly, so I had to call for help."

Arcee relented slightly, "Things worked out this time, but you have no idea what Airachnid's capable of. If she had gotten her hands on you…"

"Arcee, I swear, she was never anywhere near me."

She wanted to keep arguing, to impress upon him the danger he had been in, but she just couldn't find the energy to continue. It hadn't been a bad plan, she thought grudgingly. He destroyed Airachnid's ship, and with it the signal jammer, and called for help. If she had been thinking clearly, she might have done the same when her first calls were blocked.

"Fine, let's just get back to base."

"Soul Recovery. Again."

Gnome slammed the club she had formed from earth into his side.

The level of Physical Endurance has increased.

"Soul Recovery. Again."

They had been repeating this for hours, ever since Jack returned from the base.

Earlier that day, Optimus had contracted a virus. It had taken Jack a while, but he managed to get close to the Prime while Ratchet and Bulkhead were distracted by Arcee and Bumblebee. He tried his healing technique, but it barely did anything. Maybe it was because Optimus was so much stronger than him and had much more health. Maybe it was the alien or robot thing. Maybe it had to do with the nature of the virus. Maybe leveling up his healing skill wouldn't allow him to do anything if this happened a second time, but he needed to do something to feel better. He hadn't even waited for Arcee and Bumblebee to return, he just left as soon as Ratchet started to synthesize a cure.

The alarm on his phone went off, and he dismissed Gnome and left the Instant Dungeon. Mom wouldn't appreciate it if he missed dinner. There just wasn't enough time in the day. Maybe he should work on ID Create for a while, see if he could get a time dilation dungeon like his mom mentioned. He'd skip school tomorrow and work on it. He'd tell Arcee he wasn't feeling well and have her leave without him. With Optimus better, there hopefully wouldn't be any more excitement for a while.

Of course he missed the grand return of Megatron. To be fair, all the excitement had happened during school time, so he would have missed it anyway. He wondered if he might have seen or been able to do something if he had stayed longer the day before. Oh well, there was nothing left to do but to move forward.

Speaking of moving… Jack spotted Miko running for the ground bridge, and he moved to intercept. He grabbed her arm, and managed to pull her back long enough for the portal to close.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I should be asking you that! I missed out on seeing them last time. Now I've lost my chance to get pics of zombiecons!"

"Are you kidding me? Megatron himself could be there, and you want to run in and distract the 'Bots while they fight him?"

"Tch, can you not relax for like three seconds?"

"Can you n—"

"Hey, you two need to move away from the ground bridge so if the others need to come back in a hurry…"

Jack and Miko glared at each other and stalked back to the couches. Eventually, the away team returned. Apparently, it had been Starscream, not Megatron, who was the source of dark energon. The Autobots drove him off, then dealt with the undead Skyquake.

Notes: Up next: Crisscross. Torn between "I wanna write the other two humans" and "but they won't get clued in until waaay later," I have started a spinoff where all three of the kids have powers. Thanks to everyone who read, favorited, alerted and reviewed.