Hang On, Brother

Chapter 1

Clank, clank, clank…

The corridor seemed endless. Running as fast as he could, he didn't seem to get any closer to the exit. Maybe it was just his imagination or his own injuries starting to get to him finally. He had tried to ignore the fact that he was badly damage from the fight, for his brother was far, FAR worse off than he was.

'It all my fault…', was what Jetfire was thinking to himself.

Clank, clank, clank…clank…clank…clank…

The strength he thought he had was slipping. Every part of him was telling him to stop, but he couldn't.

Jetfire needed to find help.

…clank…

Jetfire found himself dropping to the ground, his knees hitting the metal floor. Struggling to get up, he found himself dropping his brother to the ground.

Jetfire froze from the shock of seeing Jetstorm was so still, fluid and sparks flying from an arm and leg completely missing from him.

"Brother…"

Jetfire cradled his brother in his arm, guilt and fear consuming him.

"Sorry, brother, so sorry."

Jetfire pulled his brother up and tried to get him onto his back again. To his surprise, he felt his brother suddenly start to stir, his visor flickering on.

"Brother?"

His twin did not reply. Jetfire pulled his brother on his back and Jetstorm helped with his only remaining arm to pull himself there. Jetstorm then went limp, his head resting on Jetfire's shoulder, whatever energy he had was gone now.

"Still with me, brother?" Jetfire asked to get some reassurance that his brother was online and had not gone into stasis lock.

"For now, yes."

Jetfire made a sound similar to a sigh, relieved. "Keep it that way, okay?"

Jetfire placed his arms under his brother and lifted up as he stood. He started to run again, careful not to slip on the puddle of fluids he and Jetstorm had left in the spot they stopped at.

"Hello!" cried out Jetfire as he got out of the corridor. "Any bots here? Assistants, please!"

Jetfire smiled a little when he saw three Autobot Medics coming their way. "Wow. assistants be coming fast!"

Jetstorm lifted his head a little. "Of course. The Chemmmm...chemmm-ca-ca-caical weapon…" Jetstorm cringed and laid his head back down on Jetfire's shoulder, his voice full of static and pain.

Jetfire frowned, "Oh, right. Brother, your voice is off. Is you damaged there too?"

Jetstorm didn't answer, so Jetfire turned his attention to the medics showing up.

"Aren't we glad to see you!" Jetfire said with enthusiasm when he realized who it was that showed up. Red Alert, the female medic that helped create Jetfire and Jetstorm in the first place.

But those with her, he didn't recognize any of them. But he didn't know many of the Autobots Medics to begin with, seeing as how he and Jetstorm had been kept a secret from them. They were helping move a stretcher that hovered above them ground.

Red Alert did not like she had heard Jetfire acknowledge him. "Let's quickly get them into quarantine."

Jetfire took a step back. "Quarantine?"

One of the medics came up to the front of Jetfire as the other one came from behind to pull Jetstorm off his back. Jetfire was too confused to stop them.

The small red and white medic in front of Jetfire spoke. "Besides the damage you received, are you feeling pain where you shouldn't or any strange feeling in your chest compartment?"

"What?" Jetfire hadn't been paying attention, watching his brother he taken away. "Wait, what's going on? Where are you taking my brother?"

Red Alert continued to ignore Jetfire's questions and helped the other medric carry Jetstorm into the stretcher. She then turned to the medic met to Jetfire.

"First Aid, take Jetfire to a separate Quarantined Chamber. We'll handle Jetstorm."

First Aid nodded "Yes Ma'am."

Red Alert turned to Jetstorm. "I need you to stay with me, alright Jetstorm? Do not go into stasis lock. I'm going to ask you some questions, answer them as best as you can. Do you understand?"

Jetstorm slowly nodded. "Y-y-yessssss...Ma-ma-ma'am…"

Red Alert and the other medic leave with Jetstorm. Before Jetfire can follow them, First Aid steps in his way and stops him.

"Alright, Jetfire, please come with me."

Jetfire frowned. "I am not understanding. What is happening?"

"You are to be placed in a Quarantined Chamber until we determined if you are infected or not."

"And my brother?"

"The same will be done with Jetstorm."

Jetfire didn't like the sound of this, getting frustrated. "Why separated? I need to be there!"

"If your brother is infected and you aren't we can't risk exposure to both of you."

"But…"

First Aid grabs Jetfire's arm and pulls on him to get him to follow. "Do not worry. Red Alert will take care of him. Come on. This whole area needs to be sealed off."

Jetfire slowly nodded and gave into First Aid.

"Now I need to ask you some questions. Are you feeling like your voice is about to crack?"

"No."

"I know you've suffered damage, But are you feeling any strange pain? It wouldn't feel like normal damage pain."

"No."

"Did any of the fluids of the chemical weapon get onto or into your body?"

"Onto? Yes. Into? That I am not sure."

Jetfire started fidgeting around on the medical table while First Aid and another Autobot Medic, he found was named Medi-cate, were doing who knew what.

Jetfire never did know anything about his own workings and wasn't that interested. They hadn't done any repairs to the damage he had received during the fight, the pain still very much there.

But that wasn't what was bothering Jetfire. He wanted out of this Quarantined Chamber and to see how his brother was doing right away.

A thought came to Jetfire as he watched the two medics work. "Can I be asking you a question now?"

First Aid looked up from his data pad. "Hm? Oh, sure, Jetfire."

"If this can infect other bots, are you in danger?"

First Aid wasn't expecting that question and stops working for moment, handing the data pad to Medi-cate. "Thank you for your concern, but we are fine. We have a vaccine that will protect us for another several cycles. But I'm feeling pretty good about this. I think you've avoided infection."

Upon hearing that, Jetfire sat up from the table. "Can I see my brother?"

First Aid shook his head. "No, we still need to keep you here longer, just incase. But Medi-cate can find out how he's doing."

Madi-cate nodded. "I have to hand this report to Wheeljack. I'll ask while I'm out."First Aid starts to get some tolls from the side of the Quarantined Chamber. "I can now start repairing your damage."

Jetfire was just getting more confused and frustrated, wanting so badly to see his brother's condition himself. "Can't you use that, vaccine thing... on myself and my brother? Would it not save us trouble?"

"It doesn't work that way." said First Aid, shooting down anymore hope of getting out anytime soon. "It protects us from getting infected, it won't destroy the infection itself. It doesn't last very long and the medics were the only ones that got the vaccine. Now with the weapon on the loose, it'll be harder to re-create it, so any Autobot is in danger."

Jetfire slumped his shoulders. "I hope I get out of here soon…"

BANG, BANG, BANG!

Jetfire jumped, startled by the loud banging on the glass walls of the Quarantined Chamber and turned to see a huge chin pressed against the see-through walls. It was Sentinel Prime and he looked about ready to strangle Jetfire.

Jetfire turned to First Aid, who looked very annoyed to see someone pounding on the walls. "Um, you be taking as much time as you want, okay?"

Jazz was trying to keep his own annoyance with his leader to himself. "Sentinel, he's in quarantine. He can't hear you yelling at him for disobeying orders."

Sentinel turned to Jazz. "Oh, he can hear me."

"Please step back, Sentinel Prime." Wheeljack was standing near a console, going over the data that First Aid and Medi-cate. "So what brings the Elite Guard here? Did you find the weapon?"

Sentinel snorted. "Don't you mean, 'weapons'?"

Wheeljack, turned to the two Primes. "Weapons?"

Jazz nodded, backing up Sentinel's statement, if rudely delivered. "Yeah, man. From what Rodimus has told us, after they had recaptured the thing, it split! He sounded rightfully freaked out."

Wheeljack looked thoughtful. "Huh...You know, Perceptor and I did wonder if it could do that. Two Sparks were definitely there."

"That information would have been nice to have sooner." Sentinel scoffed.

Wheeljack looked offended. "Hey, I wasn't going to tell you anything I wasn't 100% sure on. Who knows what Oil Slick did to them. For all we knew he welded them together. It's not like Perceptor and I could get very close to it, even with it contained. So we decided to study the fluids It was producing first."

"Well, They got half of it and are looking for the other half." said Jazz, trying say something positive. "What's weird, they can't get a signal. But then, this thing has been freaky from the beginning. Ultra Magnus sent us here to find out how the Twins were doin' and anymore Intel on this Weapon you can share with us."

Wheeljack went silent for a moment, thinking over what he could tell the two. He nodded to himself and then spoke again. "What I can tell you about the weapon is the fluids it produces seeps in and tries to over heat everything. From what we've gathered from the other infected, it tries to shut down the security systems. Virus protections, everything."

Jazz cringed after hearing this. "Dang... Is it... does it try to put bots offline?"

Wheeljack shook her head. "See, that's the weird part. It doesn't. Oil Slick normally tries to destroy his victims, but this one feels like it's setting itself up for something else. I wonder if that's what the second part was for…"

"Here's the report you wanted."

Wheeljack turned to see that Medi-cate had left the Quarantined Chamber and was handing him a data-pad. "Thank you, Medi-cate."

"Jetfire is asking about Jetstorm."

Wheeljack nodded. "I figured he would."

"How is Jetfire?" asked Jazz.

"Jetfire seems to be doing fine." answered Wheeljack. "I don't think he's infected. Let's contact Perceptor and get Jetstorm's condition. He was in bad shape when I saw him."

Perceptor was staring at the equipment in front of him. He did not like what it was telling him, though his lack of showing much emotion, no one could tell.

The medic that helped bring in Jetstorm came up to Perceptor. "Perceptor, sir, the equipment has been moved in."

"Good, start treatment."

The medic nods and runs off.

"Hey! Perceptor!" Wheeljack's face popped up onto a console screen. "I've got some good news. Jetfire should be alright. From the reports I've got it looks like he's not infected."

"That's good to hear, Wheeljack, but I would have preferred you being completely sure of that fact before contacting me."

Wheeljack looked a little sheepish at that reply. Perceptor was always like that. "Yeah, but the Elite Guard really want to know how Jetstorm is doing. I thought I'd let you know while I'm contacting you. So what is Jetstorm's condition?"

Perceptor fell silent, for a second Wheeljack could tell that the news wouldn't be good.

"Jetstorm is showing early signs of the infection. It's moving slower than I expected, so we might be able to try some treatments."

"...I'm not surprised. Jetstorm was badly exposed."

"I had hoped to find out more about his symptoms, since I'm not sure if he'll have a different reaction because of his Decepticon technology. Unfortunately, his voice went out. I don't know if it's the infection or the battle damage he received that caused it."

"Do you think we should tell Jetfire?"

"...No, he needs to worry about himself."

"But Jetfire was asking about-" Medi-cate, in the back ground, was interrupted by Wheeljack.

"Yeah, Medi-cate, I want you to go help Red Alert with Jetstorm. First Aid can finish repairing Jetfire."

"…Yes sir."

Jetstorm looked at his temporary arm that Red Alert had just placed on him, as well as the temp leg, as he sat on the medical table. It didn't feel right, but he had been told they never do. They were just there until they could reconstruct his normal leg and arm again.

Jetstorm clenched his fist tightly, he was unable to speak anymore, his voice-box completely shorting out. He fidgeted a little, a ton of wires connected to his back and it felt very uncomfortable. He wanted them out as soon as possible.

Jetstorm was still damaged on other parts of his body, but the medics only sealed up the bleeding fluid.

Red Alert walked up to Jetstorm, Data Pad in hand. "I know this is tough, Jetstorm, but I need you to try and communicate with me."

Jetstorm looked up at her to see her handing him the data pad.

"Please write down your answers."

Red Alert moved a step latter next to the medical table, climbing up so she can reach Jetstorm's back and remove the wiring. "I'm going to disconnect you from this and we're going to try some treatments."

Jetstorm started writing something down.

Red Alert peered over to what he was writing. "How are you feeling? Any pain? Or are you feeling odd anywhere?"

Jetstorm handed her the pad.

"Oh… You want to know how your brother is doing. That really doesn't answer my question. Also, you should worry more about your health right now."

Jetstorm folded his arms and gave her a stern look, clearly he wanted to know how his twin was feeling.

Red Alert frowned. This behavior was going to get her nowhere. "You're not going to work with me until I find out how Jetfire is doing, are you?"

Jetstorm nodded.

Red Alert looked irritated. "Fine, if it makes you cooperative, I'll send someone out. But help me help you while they find out, okay?"

Jetstorm's mood lighten up and he smiled a little.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'."

Jetfire was getting restless, but he knew he couldn't move while First Aid was repairing his leg. He finally couldn't keep quiet anymore.

"Medi-cate is coming back, yes?"

"I'm sure she is, Jetfire." answered First Aid, not looking up. "Please hold still."

"I am just feeling bad about this…"

"Why?"

Jetfire slumped down, guilt washing over him. "Because if my brother is infected…It's all my fault…"