Crimson Dyed

Meeting Wheeljack

Yawning, I stretch as I wake up. I look around and smile when I see Miko watching Bulkhead pace.

"Dude, I've never seen you so stoked!" Miko exclaims.

"Oh, you are going to love Wheeljack. We were like brothers", Bulkhead says as he pauses in front of Miko.

I get up off the couch and quickly go to the bathroom to change into some clothes suitable for the day. They were my usual red, blue, and black clothes. I walk back out to the main room, only to find no one but the humans, Optimus and Ratchet there. However, the ground bridge opened and the other 3 bots came back along with a new bot.

"Jackie, come here. Meet my other best buddy, Miko", Bulkhead says as he walks over to Miko.

"Hiya", Miko says. I grin before walking up and slinging an arm over Miko.

"You keeping Bulkhead out of trouble?" Wheeljack asks Miko.

"I try, but trouble finds us anyway", Miko says.

"You literally go and find trouble Miko. You cause trouble sometimes", I say with a roll of my eyes.

"Who's this?" Wheeljack asks.

"Name's Alexis. We talked yesterday when we first contacted you", I say, looking him square in the eye- optic.

"Ah, I remember you", Wheeljack says kinda creepily. My defenses immediately went up and I backed away. I did not trust this guy one bit. He... he reminded me too much of a con.

"Prove it. What did I say yesterday?"

Wheeljack pauses but Optimus cuts in. I sigh before walking over to my datapad and started reading about transformation again, ignoring everything that happened. I did overhear Wheeljack asking about the ground bridge that Ratchet had put into shut down. It made me trust him even less. I put aside my datapad and watched from afar all that was happening.

Bulkhead tried to get Wheeljack to tell the story of Darkmount Pass but Wheeljack passed, instead getting Miko to give him a tour of the base. It was only after those two left that Bulkhead began to voice his doubts about Wheeljack.

"Something's not right about Wheeljack", he mutters.

"Bulkhead, really? He's travelled galaxies. You haven't seen him for centuries. He could just be rocket lagged or... Well, bots do change, you know?" Arcee tries to convince Bulkhead otherwise but he refused to listen.

"Not Jackie", Bulkhead murmurs.

"I'm going to have to side with Bulkhead. Just from hearing him yesterday, I could tell that he had a very light tone to his voice. The one here... He's creepy and not at all how I envisioned Wheeljack to be. And did you hear how he wanted to know about the ground bridge? It almost seemed like he wanted to use it for his own purposes", I say. Arcee also started to look doubtful but we all hid those looks when Wheeljack and Miko came back in.

"Hey", Wheeljack says. "What are you guys... talking about?"

"I was just telling the guys all about you and me at the battle of Darkmount Pass", Bulkhead lies.

"That's a heck of a story", Wheeljack says.

"Yep. Tell it", Bulkhead says.

Miko tries to cut in but Bulkhead snapped at her to stay out of it. I think that kinda surprised Miko because Bulkhead had never snapped at her before.

Wheeljack tried to get out of it but Bulkhead forced him to.

"Fine. You want to live in the past Bulkhead?" Wheeljack snarled. I immediately knew this was not the real Wheeljack because if Bulkhead and Wheeljack were as close as Bulkhead says they were, Wheeljack would not have said that. "The wreckers were trapped between a Decepticon patrol and a smelting pit. The cons were vicious, bearing down on us with everything they had. Me and bulkhead engaged the enemy, left them for scrap, then I made us a way out using their backsides as stepping-stones to cross the molten metal. Isn't that how it happened?"