Forever Alone: Transformers Prime

Chapter XXXIX

Julie hopped into Smokescreen as he transformed and drove down the highway toward Jasper. Driving at his highest speeds, Smokescreen stopped and transformed around her, not even bothering to let her out as in front of them they saw the Decepticon fortress going up in smoke. Fire everywhere along with it slowly falling apart in the process.

"Aw. I missed it." Smokescreen cried.

"No, you didn't Smokescreen, thanks to you this planet is saved." Julie hovered next to him as he watched in disappointment.

"On behalf of the President and the Joint Chiefs, I thank you all for your selfless heroism in defense of this planet. I'm only sorry that the World can't yet know of your undying dedication, because I for one owe you my life, my liberty, and my future." Agent Fowler spoke as Julie watched him give a salute to the bots. Optimus nodded, before Ultra Magnus spoke up. "Sir, I am honored to relinquish command of the autobots to you."

"Welcome to Earth, Ultra Magnus, and to Team Prime." Optimus replied.

"Okay, someone's gotta say it. Optimus 2.0 is rad. Imagine what the Forge could do for your body." Miko cried.

"Is it true that the Forge has been drained of its power?" Ratchet asked. "Then any hope of rebuilding the Omega Lock has truly been lost." Ratchet approached Julie and Smokescreen.

"I did what I felt was right." Smokescreen replied.

"And your instincts have again proven to be quite sound." Ratchet complimented. Making Julie happy as she looked over at the others in the room.

Julie sat on the rails of a platform in the new base of Team Prime. Sadly the new base wasn't as tall as the old one, not giving Julie the upper level that she enjoyed once before, but there were few beams on the roof along with pipes here and there that she can hang from if she wanted to do full body lifts at that.

"Return trajectory fluctuations have been stabilized." Raf spoke up, distracting Julie from her train of thought from where she sat.

"Ultra Magnus, we are ready to receive." Ratchet spoke into the coms as the groundbridge was powered on and said bot had drove into the base. Bumblebee grabbed hold of something off the back of Ultra Magnus before Ultra himself transformed and walked into the middle of the base. If Julie thought Optimus needed to cool himself down and release emotion, then she didn't know where to start with the commander. She still hadn't seen Optimus hardly at all since they had been getting used to their new base.

"We didn't find much else in the rubble of the former base." Magnus spoke.

"You call this, 'not much else?'" Wheeljack cried as he spun around and tossed a giant metal ball. It bounced off of Bulkhead's chest and Julie quickly took off into flight, catching the ball of metal before it hit Jack and Miko on the platform nearby.

"Wheeljack! You could have caused serious damage." Ratchet cried as Julie struggled to set the ball down on the platform next to Jack and Miko.

"To me." Miko exclaimed.

"What were you thinking, soldier?" Ultra Magnus asked.

"I was thinking Bulk could catch that lob." Wheeljack replied.

"Allow me to make myself clear, as Optimus Prime's second in command I have no intention of tolerating wrecker behavior." Ultra Magnus exclaimed with full irritation in his voice.

"Some things never change." Wheeljack commented. An odd silence filled the room, before Bulkhead intervened. "Jackie."

"Need I remind you that it was Optimus Prime himself who assigned me to command your Wreckers back on Cybertron and get you loose cannons under control? An effective combat unit begins with discipline. If you won't accept that, feel free to choose the path of least resistance as you did before." Magnus spoke, a clear threat in his voice that Julie was growing to hate as she hovered there watching the situation, waiting for the right time to cut in if she would get a chance to argue with the bot who had such a hot head filled with steam.