A/N: Alas, Sunstorm's troubles are not over. He is a seeker after all, and you badgered me so much I thought I'd dredge my poor brain for a sequel. This may ruin the story entirely, which is why I'm keeping it separate from the original, but you asked for it.
Without further ado, I give you Refuge…
Sunstorm had come to the conclusion that Primus himself had made this planet for him. He had quickly grown accustomed to the organic nature of the world, and with the demise of Megatron he was no longer tied to the Decepticons by Shockwave's programming (and they were all too scared of him to hunt him down anyway).
So he was free to live out the remainder of his vorns on a planet that he could not harm. A planet where he could touch and be touched with no fear of pain, no Autobots shooting at him, no people running and hiding as soon as they saw him. Okay, that last one still happened, but it was getting less frequent.
When Ratchet had found him deep in recharge with the human younglings on his abdominal plating he had taken a few image captures, then left them to it as the humans were obviously coming to no harm. The analysis of Sunstorm's energy provided by the banks of computers sustaining the forcefield proved his hypothesis correct – Earth creatures' sparks were so intricately tied to their bodies and such a strange energy format that Sunstorm's unique power core did not affect them. The only noticeable difference between him and another cybertronian to a human was the warmth of his plating.
When he awoke Sunstorm had felt better than he could ever remember feeling, and looked down with a smile to the little organics recharging on his abdominal plates once he remembered that they were there. He had never known how comfortable the touch of another could be.
Ratchet was standing outside the forcefield still, and took another image capture of Sunstorm's expression – he looked like a creator with his first sparklings – before tapping on the forcefield, the waves of light getting Sunstorm's attention easily.
"You've been fully repaired, and I brought energon," Ratchet placed a glowing pink cube next to the forcefield, and an ingenious system similar to an airlock pushed it inside without breaking containment. "However, we need to discuss what will become of you. Are you aware of the loss of the Allspark, and Megatron's demise?"
"… No, I was not." As he said the words, Sunstorm could feel the programming loosen its hold on his processor, no longer bound to obey every order to destroy Primus's creations given by that – and now he could think it – insane mech. "There is no reason for me to fight, so what is to become of me?"
"Well, you can't stay here. I know how you seekers get after a few days without flying." Ratchet pondered the dilemma, how could Sunstorm be kept far enough away that they would be unharmed but close enough to keep an eye on? "You could always go back into space, back to Cybertron…"
Sunstorm unconsciously tightened his body around the recharging humans. "Mightn't I stay on this planet? I swear on the spark Primus gave me that I will do no harm to you and your factionmates. The destruction of any of Primus's children is a terrible loss…"
"..And yet you had no trouble incinerating legions of us before now. Why is this?" Ratchet was sceptical.
"I was built by Shockwave, and he in his undying loyalty to Megatron-" The name was hissed as if Sunstorm were referring to the unmaker himself, "set programming in place so that I must obey any of his orders. He is deactivated, so I am free." The words felt good on his glossa. Finally, free from the endless cycle of death and destruction.
"I see. I'll want to do a full scan of your processor to make sure, and check for any booby traps Shockwave might have sent you with." This would require Sunstorm to be in stasis for Ratchet to get close enough to perform the scan.
"Of course. Is there anything you could do to keep other Cybertronians away? I do not wish to be melting innocent bystanders." Sunstorm, nudged Sam and Mikaela, but they just rolled over and snuggled in closer.
"I suppose a signal field wouldn't be hard to rig up to your systems, I could do it while you're still out after that processor scan, if you like?" Ratchet offered, quickly expanding on the idea "It would give anyone within, say, a kilometre of you a ping so that they could get out of your way."
"Yes, that is a good idea, but I was thinking of the barriers like this one." Sunstorm tapped the field between himself and Ratchet. "I have seen shuttles equipped with them."
"Shuttles, yes! Those fields aren't suitable for anyone smaller to use, the sheer drain in power would collapse anyone else before the converters could kick in to power them with starlight." Ratchet paused, looking sidelong at Sunstorm as an idea occurred to him.
"Power drain is not much of a problem, medic, as long as it is temporary." Sunstorm's energy field flared as he grinned smugly at Ratchet.
"Yes, of course. The field would be much smaller though, about a hundred metres in radius, and I bet I could rig it so you could control the edges – wouldn't want you to accidentally crush your new friends." Ratchet gestured to the drowsing Sam and Mikaela as Mikaela was finally roused by the sound of voices and muzzily prodded Sam awake.
"Ratchet!" Sam nearly fell off Sunstorm's plating. "Uh, we have an explanation, um, because we have a perfectly good reason to be in your medbay on the wrong side of the field containing a dangerous mech… Okay, we have no excuse. Please don't kill us?"
Mikaela facepalmed.
Sunstorm cupped his hands around the humans and glared at Ratchet, flaring his wings and shoulder plating to appear bigger. "You will not harm them."
Ratchet's vocal processors spat static as he tried to find words.
Sam saved the day, by scrambling up on Sunstorm's hands and pushing at his fingers until he paid attention, "Whoa, whoa! Figure of speech, he won't actually kill us, he'll just be very angry."
Sunstorm deflated. "Your planet is confusing." He directed at the diminuitive organic.
Sam laughed "We know, we have to live here." He patted Sunstorm's wrist. "Now how about letting us down so Ratchet can stop giving us that glare of doom?"
Sunstorm carefully cupped the two humans in his hands before lowering them to the floor, leaving him free to stand up, stretch, and pick up his energon cube. He did so, wings flaring and plating rattling as he shook off debris and sand that had accumulated from the area.
Sam and Mikaela laughed at Sunstorm's impression of a dusty cat, but Ratchet pressed a button and they were shunted through the forcefield unexpectedly in a pile of tangled limbs.
"And what have we learned?" Ratchet asked, hands on hips.
"Don't mess with the medic," Sam said, raising an arm and trying to sit up from his sprawled position half under Mikaela. "And Sunstorm makes an excellent mattress."
Ratchet grumbled before shooing the pair of them out of the medbay, glad it was their Easter break.
He turned back to the seeker, who was demurely sipping his energon. "Right then. I'll get a forcefield installed along with a locator beacon. Where will you stay? We can't keep you on base - forcefield or not you'd melt the place within a week, and none of the tech from Cybertron works properly around you."
"…May I stay near the humans? They do not seem to live here with you, they must live somewhere. And I would not disrupt their machinery." Sunstorm swirled his energon, not looking at Ratchet, and was startled when another organic bustled into the room.
"What's this I hear about a refugee, Ratchet?" Judy Witwicky, who had apparently caught the tail of the conversation, prodded the giant robot in the ankle joint whilst Sunstorm looked on in confusion.
"He's not a refugee, he's a former decepticon." Ratchet pointed out, "And stop doing that!" He moved his ankle out of the way of the woman's nimble fingers.
"He's got nowhere to go, sounds like a refugee to me." Judy retorted, scooting forwards to attack sensory cables again "And I'm not giving up now that I've found an exploitable weakness. Who knew giant alien robots were ticklish?"
"I give in!" Ratchet plucked Judy up off the floor. "Accursed organic female," he grumbled.
Judy gave him a winning smile.
Ratchet held Judy in an open palmed hand and pointed at the seeker behind the forcefield with the other hand. "Judy Witwicky, meet Sunstorm. He was apparently under the control of Shockwave but is now free, and has a spark mutation which means that he can't go near other Cybertronians or our equipment without causing malfunctions and death. Sunstorm, this is Judy Witwicky, female co-creator of the male human that was recharging on your abdominal plating."
"It is an honour." Sunstorm inclined his head over his energon.
Judy giggled. "Well aren't you the gentleman! It's nice to meet you too." She turned back to Ratchet, "He let Sam sleep on top of him, and didn't squish him?"
Ratchet nodded.
Judy nodded sharply. "Then it's settled, you're coming home with us!"
"I'm what?"
"He's what?!"
Ratchet was the first to recover, "Judy, where do you propose to house him? He can't live in your garage with Bumblebee. Poor 'Bee would melt!"
Judy clapped her hands together "There's an abandoned barn, at least I think it's a barn, about a mile and a half from our house – you know we're right on the outskirts of the town we moved to so Sam and Mikaela could set up shop with you guys."
Ratchet stared at Judy incredulously, "You know, that might actually work. I'll have to install a more precise locator chip in Sunstorm so that he and Bumblebee don't keep setting off proximity alerts, if you don't mind, Sunstorm?"
"I am amenable." Sunstorm finished his cube and dispersed it. "Perhaps we should get the procedures over with now, before any more interruptions occur?"
Ratchet laughed and agreed. He shooed Judy out of the door, promising to tell her when he was finished, then sent a stasis command code to Sunstorm.
Sunstorm acknowledged the line of code from Ratchet and allowed the remote activation of his stasis sequence, the most logical choice since Ratchet could not use the more common manual method. The last thing he saw as his optics powered down was the behemoth Ironhide entering the room as the forcefield dissipated, leaving him at the mercy of the autobots.
A/N: To be continued, hopefully soon! This chapter was mostly explanations and setting up for the rest of the big sequel, it'll get more interesting from here on out!
R+R if you please, and don't forget to answer the poll in my profile. Remember, the more reviews I get, the more ideas for the story I get! People are inspiring!
And can someone tell me how to put line breaks in here?