pullmeoutalive | log > how are these two so darn cute?

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log > how are these two so darn cute?

It had been an admittedly strange situation they had all been in - shopping mall, zombies, black outs - it was like a horror film gone wrong.

No one had any explanation for their sudden appearance in the mall, nor did anyone have an explanation for their sudden disappearance from the mall. Just as no one had an explanation for the blue Chevrolet Volt currently parked outside of B.A.B.E.L. headquarters.

For his own part, Jolt was doing what Autobots did best (aside from kicking Decepticon skidplate), and that was hiding in plain sight. Asphalt and sunshine, he decided, were preferable to zombie-laden carpet and the near-darkness of a mall without power. He just didn't like having to wait while Naomi was inside - no doubt trying to explain where the frag she'd been all this time. Jolt'd had a similar problem relaying his whereabouts to - of all mechs - Ratchet. (No doubt the medic thought he was glitched for insisting he'd been fighting off zombies all this time.) But, after much instance, and pleading for Optimus' permission, Jolt was allowed to stay with Naomi for the time being.

The Autobot sighed inwardly. He was still waiting, and he still hated it.

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She was turning red-- she could tell it just by the way her cheeks were heating up, but she couldn't help it. When she'd been a little girl, she'd been called a great variety of things, differing from "cute" to "weird" to "that poor girl Tanizaki's got his eye on" (although it took her a few years to understand that one). Now that she was older, she received more compliments, but she'd never actually been called amazing before.

It took some more tiny bouts of stammering before she could actually form a sentence, but by the time she could manage such a feat, a warm smile had formed.

"Well, you're the most amazing Autobot I've ever met-- and even if I meet more, I know that won't change."

At least cars don't blush, he told himself. Because if he'd been able to, he would be. Idly, he wondered when this girl's opinion had come to mean so much to him. The hologram, however, merely flashed Naomi a grin, flickering into hard light just long enough to reach over and muss her hair. "I know," he quipped, "I'm awesome."

The ruffle was met with a barely-controlled yelp, and she gave her head a shake, fixing the hologram with an indignant glare that might have been called a pout, but she was an esper, dammit, and the only thing she might ever pout about was how she just couldn't win against curry udon.

"You made yourself solid just for that?" She couldn't resist asking, swatting at his hand.

"It was totally worth it!" There was that laugh again, reverberating through the whole vehicle, and the hologram made itself un-solid just in time for Naomi's hand to go slipping through its own. Maybe it was cheating, and maybe one day, for the sake of her pride, Jolt might let Naomi whack him. Today, however, was not that day.

As much as she liked his laugh, did it really have to be at her expense? Naomi might have tried another glare, but her phone ruined the plan, buzzing urgently in her pocket until she slid it out from a pocket to answer it. From there, her expression went from disgruntled to confused to worried and, finally, to a grim sort of determination.

"I don't have a lot of time to explain," she said quietly, pocketing the phone, "but there's a mission I have to get to. The Children are out reversing a prediction, and they need a high-level psychokinetic on the scene as soon as possible, so I'll have to fly."

Jolt arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Can you seriously fly faster than I can dive?" Certainly, he was no Sideswipe - who's altmode could go from 0-60 in about .2 seconds, and topped out at 400mph - but he liked to think he was fast enough.

Besides, he wanted to see what it was she and the others did. He would do his damnedest to stay out of the way - even though it went against every impulse in him - but this was Naomi's turf. Naomi's mission. He wouldn't interfere unless there was a Decepticon to deal with. (Or maybe if Naomi got in over her head, but after seeing her deal with those zombies, he thought that day would be a long time in coming.)

"I..." She could have answered affirmatively, but honestly, Naomi wasn't sure. Jolt had proved himself ten times over that he wasn't to be underestimated and, while she could fly at speeds where tracking her with the human eye was impossible, it was better to conserve her energy for the mission.

That decided, she sighed. "Why don't we try that out now, and then I can answer your question later?"

"Fair enough," came the reply. The engine gave an excited little rev. Oh, this was going to be fun. So his alt wasn't the fastest around, but he had a degree of maneuverability that a normal car just didn't. "Where to?"

She provided the directions easily enough, a route to a large bridge. Normally nothing too bad, but predictions came quickly these days, and things could change in the blink of an eye. As for the details the briefing had given her... well, there was no point in worrying her friend. It would have been easy with another psychokinetic, but the newest member of her team was still undergoing training, and Kaoru wouldn't be there.

Jolt whipped around, and shot off to their destination without further comment. Thankfully, the traffic was minimal, and the Volt pushed his speedometer to the limit. (It was good fortune that there weren't any cops around - or perhaps the Autobot had a few more tricks up his proverbial sleeve, but for the moment, he'd just let Naomi wonder.)

He skidded to a stop at the scene, turning sharply to give Naomi a straight shot to where she needed to be.

She'd meant it when she'd called him amazing; he was practically flying, driving so smoothly that it almost took her breath away. The fact that there didn't seem to be cops in his vicinity was unusual, but not something she particularly wanted to question.

The instant the car stopped, Naomi was on the move. The door opened and she took off, one second hovering there to flash him a grateful smile, and the next already a tiny speck in the sky intent on locating her objective.

He decided one of the first things he would do was find some way to communicate with Naomi when she was out of sight - because if waiting outside of B.A.B.E.L. had been annoying, this was downright torture.

I will not get involved, he told himself. I will not get involved. I will not get involved. I will not-- Naomi was fine. He needed to chill. And he was never, ever going to tease Bumblebee for worrying about Sam ever again.

Naomi felt guilty about just leaving Jolt there, but he needed to keep his identity a secret, and she'd handled missions on her own. Her top priority was protecting the innocent from a threat she wasn't quite sure of yet--

Then the bridge cables snapped, just as a large truck barreling down the hallway lost control and came hurtling in her direction.

"Oh no, you don't," she whispered under her breath, reaching one glowing palm to the truck and aiming the other at the bridge to keep it supporting the weight of several smaller cars.

This was going to be fun.

The bridge was falling down. The slagging bridge was falling down. And Jolt just had to sit there. And watch.

This was going to drive him crazy! Maybe if he just- no. No, he trusted Naomi. He had faith in her. He was just going to have to sit there. And watch. While the bridge fell down.

Frag it all, that girl had better know what she's doing.

There was no time to know what you were doing in a crisis, even if Naomi had undergone training for all sorts of emergencies for six hard years. Still, there was no preparing for this, and she gritted her teeth as she fought to keep control of her powers. Momentum and weight were against her for the most part, which required more force on her end, but too much would destroy what she was trying to protect. She just had to gently move the truck to safer ground, and then she could focus on stabilizing the bridge.

And if the out-of-control esper causing this whole mess hadn't just decided to hurl a crane at her, things would have been so much easier.

Frag that.

There was a moment where the crane just stopped- but it was only for a split second, then it was jerked violently back, the force of the movement making the machine buckle in the middle. Jolt gave the crane and angry glare as it slammed into the asphalt with a shower of sparks, and came to an abrupt halt under the Autobot's foot. His whip uncoiled itself from where it had caught and crippled the crane, and slid back into its rightful place.

So much for not making a scene.

He couldn't have-- he wouldn't have-- he had. And all Naomi could do was stare as the crane lay helplessly beneath Jolt's giant foot, wondering just how he'd gotten there that quickly, and hoping that she was just imagining that he was here at all.

Hypno, she thought desperately. She could claim it was the other esper's influence, and that there wasn't really a humongous alien robot there, and--

Right, the mission. Sparing Jolt only the briefest of glances that gave away absolutely nothing, Naomi gathered up all of her psychokinetic power, exercising enough restraint to move the truck to a safer location, and then using the rest to yank the bridge up long enough for the cars to move. She held it there, the red glow around her intensifying, and then finally released it once she'd been given the okay from her supervisor that everyone was safe.

Satisfied that no one else was going to be tossing construction equipment around, Jolt quickly changed back into his alt, and made himself scarce. That was a stupid stunt - but stupid stunt was Jolt's middle name- names? In any case, he knew it would be unwise to just be caught standing there any longer than he already had been. It looked like Naomi had everything under control now, anyway.

The blue Volt simply became part of the traffic exiting the bridge, looking perfectly innocent and normal.

An hour later, after the esper had been (forcefully) taken care of, Naomi waved off her supervisor's attempts to do what he called looking her over, and what she called not-so-subtle sexual harassment, and took to the air in search of the Volt. Unfortunately, the mission had drained her a little too much, and she couldn't proceed very far before she had to land by the river to catch her breath.

All right, so maybe hunting him down would be harder than she thought, but it was just as well. Because when she did find Jolt, she had some questions for him.

To be fair, Jolt felt bad about stepping in like he had. Maybe he'd overreacted. Naomi probably had the whole thing under control and then a giant alien robot just came barging in--

And so it was with the air of a kicked puppy that the Volt approached the girl at the riverbank, engine humming softly.

Naomi didn't speak at first-- mostly because she didn't even know where to begin. It was sweet that Jolt had been concerned for her, if that was the reason behind his actions, but he'd just put his own identity into jeopardy, and so many people could have seen that.

"... Why did you do that?" She asked softly, deciding that it was the safest question to start off with.

The car drooped a little - just a slight dipping of its nose, not unlike a dog who knew full well that he had done something bad. "I don't know--" he began softly, but that was a lie. He knew. "I didn't want you to get hurt. I jumped in without thinking, and I'm sorry." It wasn't the first time Jolt had charged headlong into a situation without thinking, and it likely wasn't the last, but he knew he couldn't afford that kind of behavior here.

That was unfair. She had been gearing up for a long lecture, and here he was, acting like a kicked puppy. It should have been impossible for a car to even give off that impression, but Jolt was doing it admirably.

"It's my job." Naomi drew her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on top of them. "It's dangerous, and it would have hurt, but I could have taken it, and your identity wouldn't have been put at risk. If it still seems like I need to be protected, then that's my fault, not yours. I should be the one apologizing."

He had perfected the kicked puppy look - not that it did much when faced with the likes of Optimus Prime, Ironhide, and Major Lennox, but it was a nice thing to have in his arsenal. However, unlike most of the times he had to apologize to any of the aforementioned, he really did mean it this time.

"No. Nonono, don't apologize! You have nothing to apologize for. I know you're capable, I do! It's my fault entirely." There was a long pause where Jolt seemed to be thinking. When he did speak, his voice was quiet. "Maybe I should just go back to Diego Garcia."

In one swift, fluid movement, Naomi was up. She might have wobbled for a split second, but she grounded herself by planting her hands on the car's hood, and raised her head to stare at him. There was anger in that gaze, blazing fury-- and just a trace of panic.

"You're going back, just like that? You make one mistake-- one-- and that's it? It took me four years to realize my own mistakes, and it might have been easier to ask for another supervisor, but I kept going! I was scared I'd be hated if I kept standing up for myself, but I didn't give up! Jolt-san, I trust you, and there are worse mistakes to make than diving in to help a friend! I'm just fine with believing in you, even if you aren't! If you really want to go back, then fine, but then why did you come here in the first place??"

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