Chapter 1 a lone survivor
A city on Cybertron had been attacked. Optimus had gathered a group of Autobots to look for survivors. Kup was one of the Autobots who was helping with the search. Seeing all the destroyed builds made Kup feel sad. It made him think about all the lives that had been lost. He saw many dead bots especially in war but never like this.
Kup had continued his search. He looked into a small opening in some wreckage and there laid a small sparkling is was cover with dust and soot. It looked dead. Kup felt his spark break no one that young should die. Then he saw the sparkling move and then cough. The child was alive!
The youngster feeling he was being watched turned and saw Kup and became fearful. Backing into a corner and shaking. Kup decided to calm down the young survivor. "It's okay I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help." Kup said.
The child crawled up and looked up to the sky. Kup followed the child's gaze. He was looking for Decepticons! This young child saw that as those cons destroyed his city. What else had the poor kid seen. Finally the child came out to Kup and Kup picked him.
"You're okay now." Kup told the child. He put his hand to his comm link. "Kup to Optimus I found a survivor." He said.
"Good Kup, I will send Jazz and Prowl to meet you." Optimus told him.
"Will do Optimus," Kup said.
Soon Jazz and Prowl had arrived. They saw the dirty shaking sparkling. "Oh poor little guy." Jazz said.
"Has the child talked to you yet?" Prowl asked Kup.
'No he has not, he seems pretty shaken up." Kup answered shaking his head.
Once at the base Kup was in the Medical bay with the child. The youngster was kind of scared. He was holding on tight to Kup. Kup was stroking the child's head to calm him down. Ratchet came in. "Okay little fella let's take a look at you." Ratchet said.
Hot rod tried to hide behind Kup. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Ratchet said softly to the child.
"It's okay Ratchet won't hurt you. He's a medic which means if you are hurt or sick he'll help you feel better. So you're safe." Kup told him.
The child came out hiding and sat down and held Kup's hand. Ratchet pulled out his scanner. "What's your name?" Ratchet asked.
"He doesn't talk." Kup said.
"He looks old enough to talk." Ratchet said.
"I think maybe his voice box got damaged." Kup told Ratchet.
Ratchet scanned the child. "No everything is fine except he needs a band aid for this fresh cut." Ratchet explained. "It's possible the reason for the silence is he must be rather traumatized." Ratchet said and handed the child a data pad. "Write down your name and whatever else you have to say." Ratchet told the child.
The youngster typed in his name. He handed it to Kup. Kup read it. "Hot Rod?" Kup asked. The child nodded. "Well that's a fine name." Kup told him.
"Yes sounds strong." Ratchet said.
Hot rod smiled then took the pad and typed something else. Then handed it back to Kup who read. "Okay he just wrote down that he's hungry and wants to get clean." Kup said.
"Okay I have supplies you need to give him a bath and I will get some sparkling grade energon for him when you are done cleaning him." Ratchet told Kup.
"How old are you?' Kup asked Hot rod as handed him the pad.
Hot rod type a number in. "Four years old." Kup said.
"Poor little fella too young to lose everything." Ratchet said. "So has he got comfortable around anyone besides you and me?" Ratchet asked.
"He seems pretty comfy around Jazz and the youngster Bumblebee who we rescued last month." Kup said.
"Jazz makes sense he has plenty of charisma and Bumblebee makes since he's around Hot rod's age." Ratchet said.
Kup went over the area Ratchet told him about and began to bath the child. Hot rod sighed contently as Kup scrubbed his body. As Kup scrubbed it revealed a red and orange sparkling with yellow flames on his chest. "Boy you're brightly colored." Kup said with laugh.
After drying the child off he met up with Ratchet again who had lined up some toys along with some blankets. Ratchet explained to Kup the Hot rod might want some comfort. Hot rod wasn't interested in the blankets but he found interest in a plush Cyber-dragon. Hot rod grabbed it and snuggled it. Hot rod loved and let out a happy sigh. "Looks like we have a winner." Kup said.
"What are you going to call him?' Ratchet asked.
Hot rod typed something in and handed it to Ratchet. "Oh it's a girl named Spitfire." Ratchet said. "Such nice name for a girl dragon." Ratchet said.
Kup patted Hot rod's head. Hot rod yawned after finishing the energon Ratchet gave him. He could barely keep his optics open. "Looks like someone is ready for bed." Kup said.
"I'm not surprised he had quite day." Ratchet said as he watched Hot rod fall asleep in Kup's arms.
Kup took Hot Rod into his room.
Kup got out a cot and place Hot Rod on it put a pillow under his head and a blanket over his body. The little guy was pretty tired.
Kup went to bed himself. Hot rod woke up and saw Kup in his bed. He got out of the cot and climbed into bed with Kup. He curled up against his chest fell asleep. Holding his plush dragon close. Kup opened his Optics and saw Hot rod fast asleep against his chest.
He thought about put Hot rod back in the cot. Thinking how that might be an endless cycle through the night. So he just put his arm around the child and fell asleep.