"Under Weathered"—A TFP Story
Summary: When Optimus Prime falls sick with a common human virus, Arcee, Lily and Bumblebee head out on a mission of their own to stop Starscream and half the Decepticon armada from sinking an oil rig. But things go awry when Optimus disobeys Ratchet's orders and gets captured, but he may not need the team to rescue him.
Transformers © Hasbro
Lily and Kylie © Me
It probably doesn't need saying, but the Decepticons were at it again. They were after one of the few largest untapped Energon deposits—sitting at the bottom of a frozen sea in the bitter Arctic. Starscream led his Seekers towards its location, and Team Prime was racing right behind them with Optimus Prime leading them through the blizzard.
"Ugh, this snow is so thick I can't see past my own bumper!" exclaimed Bulkhead.
"You're complaining?! At least you can transform!" Lily shouted over the wind. "And this icy wind is throwing off my hover-board!"
"They have a right to complain, Optimus," Ratchet said via the COM-link. "Your core temperatures are approaching the blue zone at a casual rate. You know to retreat once your alarms go off?"
"Understood, Ratchet. Hang in there, everyone," Optimus said. "We almost have them in our sights!"
A blaster suddenly struck Lily from behind, knocking her over and skidding across the ice. "No! We have you in our sights!" The Autobots all stopped and transformed to see Starscream and a few Seekers fly over their heads then transform only a few yards in front of them. Optimus helped Lily get to her feet and they all pointed their blasters at the Decepticons blocking their path to the Energon deposit.
"I believe the human term is, 'You want it? You will have to go through us'," Starscream sneered.
"Not a problem with me!" Lily glared and snapped hatefully, but Optimus held her back.
"Surrender, Starscream, hand over the Energon, and you will be spared," he ordered.
The Decepticon's 1st Lieutenant laughed. "You must be joking! I'll never surrender to you, Optimus Prime! Seekers, destroy them!" At Starscream's order, the Seekers beside him charged up their blasters and fired while Starscream headed off where the rest of the Seekers were excavating the frozen Energon deposit.
Lily was about to go after him herself but Optimus told her to stay. "I will handle Starscream! You and the others keep the Seekers off of me!" Lily reluctantly agreed to his terms and watched her father take off after the lean, heeled Decepticon.
While Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Lily handled the Seekers, Optimus charged after Starscream, transforming into his vehicle mode. He managed to ram the nose of the truck into him, but it didn't run him down. Starscream quickly jumped off and transformed into his jet-form, taking off into the snowy wind. The snow was too thick; Optimus transformed back into his biped form, unable to see where he had gone.
Then blasters suddenly appeared from the snow blizzard, directly at Optimus. The Prime managed to barely avoid them and looked up to see Starscream flying low and continuing to fire. He circled above Prime's head, blasting numerous shots near him, but not directly at him. While Optimus pondered, he suddenly felt the ice beneath his feet starting to give, and water began to trickle through the cracks. Before he could move, the ice broke, and Optimus plunged into the icy sea.
Starscream laughed. "Have a nice swim, Prime!"
Lily glanced over and saw Starscream hovering over the ice, and Optimus was nowhere to be seen. "Father!" she cried, and the others followed her gaze to see their leader missing. Lily angrily fired at Starscream, striking one of his wings, causing him to spiral out of control and crash into the ice.
Starscream groaned angrily and wearily looked up to see Team Prime charging straight for him. "Decepticons! Scavenge what Energon you have and retreat!" He then contacted the warship for an emergency ground-bridge; once one appeared, he and his Seekers jumped through it with whatever amount of Energon they managed to take.
Once the bridge closed, the team raced over to the watering hole in the ice. "Optimus!" they cried, yet neither heard nor saw a response.
Then they felt heavy pounding under the ice, coming from the shore. As they followed the vibrations, the shallow ice shattered as a massive fist broke through it, and out popped a violently shivering Prime—toting a large amount of the Energon Starscream and his Seekers tried to pillage.
"Father!" Lily exclaimed as she and Bumblebee and ran to him; while she scanned him to see if any internal damage had already been done, Bumblebee took the Energon into his own hands so Prime wouldn't have to carry it.
"Arcee to base. Ratchet, we need a bridge to Jasper's desert," Arcee explained as calmly as she could. "And fast! Optimus is in danger of freezing up completely!"
"Understood!" Ratchet replied, and within seconds a bridge appeared for them.
"Come on!" Bulkhead yelled over the wind as they helped the quickly-frosting Prime through the bridge out of the deadly blizzard and into the blaring heat of the sun.
"Lay him down!" Arcee said, and they slowly laid him down so his body could thaw. After a while, the sun's heat melted away the nearly-frozen Prime, but his core temperature was still freezing, causing him to continue shivering. "Easy, Optimus," Arcee said, placing a hand on his shoulder. He was thawed, but still cold to the touch.
"I-I-I...am alr-r-right," Optimus stuttered, his speech being affected from the shivers. They stayed out in the baking heat for another 5 minutes, waiting for Optimus to cease shivering, before requesting a bridge to base. They all couldn't help but crack a smile when they heard their leader sigh of relief as the Earth's sun warmed up his body. Once they arrived, Ratchet immediately began connecting tubes to his body, trying to thaw out the rest of his systems.
"You took a major risk trying to salvage that Energon, Prime," the medic said, looking to the massive fragment Optimus carried out of the frozen water. "You nearly froze every system in your chassis. I am surprised you didn't freeze up when you were underwater that long."
"That's why he's Prime," said Lily, smiling as she held one of her father's hands. "He can take on just about anything!"
"Yes, but it doesn't mean he's invulnerable."
"Ratchet, I am fine," Optimus assured him, trying to stand up, but Ratchet stopped him and forced him back onto the medical berth.
"You say so, now, but for all we know, the bits of your body that the sun's heat couldn't reach could still be consumed in ice," Ratchet informed him.
"Is his core temperature stabilized?" asked Bulkhead.
Ratchet checked the monitor that revealed Prime's vitals. "Yes, but—"
"Then he should be fine, right?"
"Yes, but—"
"But, what?"
"There could be things wrong that we haven't checked yet, that's what, Bulkhead!" Ratchet exclaimed.
Optimus sighed and stood up, disconnecting the tubes attached to his body. "I feel fine, Ratchet. You need not worry. I will report to you the second I feel something isn't right."
Ratchet grumbled to himself before replying, "Very well. But you need to get some rest. Doc's orders."
Optimus gave a nod and headed off towards his quarters, unaware of the worried looks on his teammates' faces, laying down on his berth and instantly slipping into recharge.
End of part 1...