pullmeoutalive | log > what is wrong with us THE SEQUEL

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log > what is wrong with us THE SEQUEL

It was hard to believe that only three hours ago, she and Jolt had been bar-hopping (with the best of intentions, of course) and now Naomi was soaring over a dense forest, zipping out of the way of a few directed lightning strikes, courtesy of one of Black Phantom's puppets.

She had bigger things to worry about, though. More specifically, she had one big thing who had somehow disappeared from the battle. It had been only a few minutes of leaving him to take down the other side's psychokinetic, but when she'd returned, Jolt had vanished. Hatsune and Akira were fighting on the ground, both too distracted to take the time to sniff him out. Sakaki was on hand in a nearby helicopter, but it had been made to land out of concern that the lightning would strike it. The Children could have helped, but they needed to stay together for Kaoru's cleansing ability to function properly.

That left a very frantic Naomi flying about in the hopes of locating one errant Autobot. The one controlling the other espers hadn't been very comforting, having glanced in the girl's direction earlier.

"Worried about your friend? You should thank me. I've taken good care of him."

She'd hardly been reassured-- if anything, Naomi's ire and worry had only tripled, until she'd not only knocked out the esper manipulating the lightning but picked up her speed. The fight was nearly over; she could see the bright light from The Children's area now, but she wouldn't be relieved until she knew her Autobot friend was safe.

"Jolt-san!!" She called now, skimming the tops of the trees and then flying a little lower. "Please, answer me!"

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He held up his hands- human hands- making it clear he intended to do no harm. "Naomi, it's me." A pause, where he clearly seemed to be struggling with the fact himself, but he said it anyway. "Jolt."

An esper would have struck by now... unless this was a very elaborate trap, but Naomi wasn't the one Black Phantom wanted. But admitting this was Jolt... meant admitting that somehow, either his hologram had activated, or he was actually...

With a small hand movement, she lifted him out of the crater, setting him back on his feet in front of her. It was probably a mistake, but she'd be ready to retaliate if this was a trap.

"And how do I know you're who you say you are?"

Oh this was new. It was one thing to be lifted when he had been in his alt, but this was new on so many levels- not to mention he was a little bit shaky on his feet when she finally set him down.

"How-" Of course. She was only being cautious and he couldn't fault her for that. "How can I prove it? Do you want me to start with the zombie shopping mall or can I just skip to holding hands outside the bar?"

"That was," Naomi started to snap, but then she stopped. And stared. And then proceeded to stare some more, hands slowly rising to cover her mouth. She shook her head just as slowly, as if in total disbelief, but her next actions belied it entirely.

The next minute, she'd taken a step forward, then another, and then launched herself at him (taking care not to knock them both back into the crater). "Y-you're alive!"

He would have liked his first human contact to be a little less... jarring, but once he'd taken a step back to steady himself and very awkwardly wrapped his arms around Naomi, he found it wasn't so bad. "Good to see you too," he remarked, smiling slightly.

"I couldn't find you..." Naomi's voice had a faint tremor to it, which surely had nothing to do with the fact that she was getting wet spots on his shirt. "I k-kept looking, and I couldn't-- I thought--"

Her voice broke completely and she buried her face in his shirt, holding on for dear life. Weird as this was, Jolt was still Jolt-- and he was alive. They could go into technicalities later.

Holding Naomi while she was crying was something he was all too familiar with, but this was yet another in was would likely be a long list of new experiences. He just wrapped his arms around her as best he could, burying his face in her hair. "I'm not going anywhere," he murmured.

There was that safe feeling again-- the one she'd always had when he was holding her, either up to his level, or when he was bowed down to hers. But now he was warm and solid, and she couldn't help but stand there for a few minutes longer than was strictly necessary. High-level esper or not, there were times when even Naomi just needed that sense of security and comfort.

"You'd better not." Her voice was low as she looked up, moving one hand to impatiently whisk away a few tears. "If you do that... without at least telling me good-bye first... I'm never speaking to you again."

There were a few thoughts flitting around in the back of his mind - he should probably call Optimus. How were they going to change him back? Could they change him back? - but they seemed unimportant when faced with a crying Naomi.

"Hey," he said, catching her chin in his fingers as he had before with his hologram. "I don't plan on having to say goodbye for a long, long time."

The esper made a tiny, startled noise, widening eyes locked on his. For all that she should have expected him to do that, there was always an unusual-- for lack of a better word-- jolt she experienced whenever he touched her. And...

... Okay, looking into his eyes hadn't been the brightest of ideas.

"Neither do I," she finally managed.

Human contact, he decided suddenly, was not bad at all. This was the same and yet so different from the moment they'd had outside of the bar- the feelings were still there, even if he didn't have a name for them specifically, but the sensations were alien.

And he'd be damned if he didn't turn a little red when their eyes met. "Good."

Anyone else would have teased him mercilessly about the sudden color in his face, but Naomi was in no position to do so. She wouldn't have, anyway.

But there were other things she did want to try. If he was actually human now, and not just a hologram, he should be able to feel things more acutely.

So it was that her fingers tentatively made contact with the side of his face.

He flushed deeper, though unaware of what the heat in his face actually meant. His eyes flicked to her hand, only daring to stray from hers for a second, and, on impulse (because he never did anything any other way), he brought his hand up to cover hers.

That earned him a smile from an equally-pink esper as her fingers flexed lightly against his cheek before turning and sliding in between his. Like before, it was a perfect fit.

"I really am yours," she murmured, mostly to herself. She'd been wary about using that kind of possessive phrase, in reference to her or to him, but nothing felt wrong about it. Like the teams belonged to each other, they were friends, partners, and nearly everything in between. There was no way that Naomi could have denied that.

He couldn't help but echo her smile. Still unsure of what his new human body was guiding him to do, but still willing to roll with it, he gave her hand a little squeeze and- very gently- kissed the tips of her fingers.

He was figuring out, bit by bit, what this was, and part of him was almost glad that he'd somehow been turned human. He knew he was in no hurry to change back- not while he could hold her.

Like she needed to get any redder.

Her fingers trembled in reaction, just for a second, and then curled a little more firmly around his. Whatever this was, it wasn't anything like the sexual harassment she'd been enduring since she was twelve. This felt... much different. Not bad, though. Definitely not bad.

"We'll have to get you to Sakaki-san soon," she said quietly, almost regretfully. "If anyone can figure out what happened and how to fix it, it'll be him and Shiho-chan. They might place you in the medical ward for awhile, though."

"Suppose we'd better get going, then," he said, though there was no real conviction there. He didn't want to let go- the feeling from just hours earlier had doubled, now that it was actually, physically him with Naomi in his arms. "I need to let Optimus know anyway- oh, frag. Ratchet's gonna be asking me questions for the next week." No doubt the Autobot medic's curiosity would get the better of him if he caught wind of this, and he inevitably would.

Naomi gave his hand a small squeeze, then took a step back and floated into the air. Jolt came with her; he was much easier to lift this way, and she still had more than enough energy left to fly and bring along a passenger or two.

"I think you'll be dealing with a lot of questioning-- and probably not just from Ratchet-san." She glanced over her shoulder at him, flashing him a tired smile. "But let's see if we can get some answers first. And a place for you to stay in the meantime, since the parking lot is out of the question!"

There was a brief pang of loss when Naomi pulled away, but to his credit, he managed not to pout. Besides, it was a little hard to focus on pouting when you found you were suddenly floating anyway.

He didn't reply for a moment, simply because it took him a moment to get used to the sensation of flying, but he eventually manged to quip, "Yeah. I'd like to not sleep outside like this."

"Luckily, that's only for the intense training." She tried to keep the amusement out of her voice, for his sake, but it was cute to watch him adjust to the sudden altitude and sensation. Jolt had been especially expressive, even as a robot. As a human, his range seemed to have increased tenfold. "You might be able to stay with Supervisor Tanizaki, or in Minamoto-san's apartment, but The Children would probably keep you up all night."

((okay I swear I'm going now sob))

"You want me to rech-- sleep in the same building as your supervisor?" Jolt suddenly had vivid images of Naomi's supervisor plotting to kill him in his sleep, and was looking properly horrified. "No way."

Naomi regarded him with the patient look that she usually reserved for humoring the supervisor in question. "The worse he can do is harass you, and I'll make sure he knows better than to even consider trying. Otherwise, we might be able to get you into one of the male dorms, or headquarters itself."

"Let's just keep him as a last resort. A way last resort." He didn't like the man any more than the man liked him, and sharing living quarters was not exactly something he was keen on trying. Besides, he didn't want to have to zap--

Oh.

Oh.

Could he even still do that?

The girl in flight remained oblivious to Jolt's current train of thought, although she'd briefly considered that problem herself. There would be no way to tell what their options were until she got him looked at.

And there was Sakaki now, peering up at the two humans until Naomi landed.

"Doctor, there's been--"

"It's not Hypno." As calm as ever, Shiho had shown up, touching Jolt's hand to get a grasp of the situation. "This is an actual human body, but it's Jolt's. It has to be a synthetic power-- psychokinesis or psychometry would never be able to do something like this. A brand of teleporting, maybe, but it would just be his mind in someone else's body."

Sakaki sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Three casualties and now we've got a fourth. We can't afford time to figure things out here. We'll just have to get him examined back at B.A.B.E.L. Naomi-chan, would you prefer to stay with him?"

Naomi hesitated, looking from the older psychometer to the robot-turned-human. Jolt might prefer someone more familiar while he was put through procedure, but she didn't want to get in the way.

He really hoped it wasn't his mind in someone else's body. Then there was a human walking around in the body of a giant robot, and he could think of a certain National Security Adviser that would have a field day with that one.

But, he recalled, Naomi had recognized him enough not to slag him on sight, so what Shiho was saying was likely true. The body was his, as weird as that sounded.

He cast a glance at Naomi, noting her hesitation, and gave her his best "please come with me" face.

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