"Ratchet!"
Ratchet slammed his wrench down on the berth beside his most serious patient's helm, but she didn't so much as twitch.
"Ratchet!"
"What the frag do you want, Bumblebee?" Ratchet scowled as he exited the private room into the main area of his medical bay.
"I twisted my wing…." Bumblebee muttered, looking both ashamed and nervous. Ratchet grumbled as he yanked the yellow bot towards him and pushed the sensory panel back into place before tossing the younger bot out of the door.
Ratchet was still grumbling as he returned to his work on the comatose black femme in his private work room.
Moonracer poked her head out of her office, curiosity in her blue optics.
"Bee?" She asked. Ratchet nodded and his sparkmate returned to her office.
The CMO sighed and pushed his wrench aside as he entered the private area, pulling a torch from subspace. He gazed fondly at the femme below his hands and his mouth plates set into a determined look.
Ratchet, Ironhide and Optimus had rescued this femme over a month ago, on a top secret mission into the Peruvian Andes.
The black femme was half a foot shorter than Bumblebee's sixteen and half, and was normally covered in black armor. However all the armor on her arms, legs and shoulders had been taken off to give Ratchet better access to all her vitals. Her chassis armor was ripped at the abdomen, just below where a human femme would have breasts.
She was different from the other femmes, both in size and appearance.
Soundwave had gotten hold of her at a young age, and had fooled around with some of her programming and her armor. She'd been recoded with part of a cyber-panther's programming.
She'd been reformatted with a pair of triangular feline ears, and a long tail, which was currently lying lax beside her right leg.
Ratchet had known her creators, Razorshadow and Laserblade, both mechs. Razorshadow was a carrier mech and Laserblade was a General in the Cybertron's Defense Force. She was the youngest of their creations and the only femme; Gallium, Mercury and Xenon were all Autobots.
However, Razorshadow and Laserblade were killed in the Battle of Tarn, Mercury was assassinated a vorn into the war, Gallium was tortured for information in Kaon, and Xenon was hit by a stray shot while doing his job as field medic. He, luckily, was still alive but he had a pronounced limp.
The black femme had been placed into Ratchet's care when Megatron ordered the femmes and sparklings killed. She was sent out with the Allspark and they'd lost contact with her until a month ago.
Ratchet growled as a heavy knock sounded on the door. "What?!"
"It's me." Ratchet sent a vicious glare at the door but opened it any way. Ironhide stood on the other side, a large crate held in his arms and his foot raised to 'knock ' on the door.
"About time. Put her armor over there. I'll reattach it when I'm done."
"Did you move her?" Ironhide asked as he put the crate of black armor in the corner.
"No, she's still there." Ratchet scoffed, turning around. He froze, shuttering his optics twice before he frowned deeply. "Or she was….Fraggit."
Ironhide peered around the room, arms crossed over his chassis. His blue optics swept the room and then lifted to the half-exposed rafters above.
"Ratchet-"
"Don't interrupt me." Ratchet snarled.
"Were you ranting?" Ironhide asked. Ratchet glared. "I found her."
The black mech lifted a servo and pointed to the half-exposed helm in the rafters, peering down at the two mechs with a slight curiosity. The gold shade shuttered slowly, and quiet scraping noises could be heard from the pointed digits on her servos.
"Get your aft back on that bed, youngling." Ratchet jabbed a finger down at the empty berth. She hissed at him.
Ironhide muffled a snicker, and avoided looking at Ratchet.
"You're not completely repaired yet! Get your aft on the berth!"
Moonracer poked her helm in the door and sighed as her optics dimmed.
Optimus was seated in his office, going over several different official data pads when his communications link alerted him to message.
::Prime? You are going to want to see this. Please come to the Med-Bay.:: -Moonracer
Optimus frowned in confusion, but stood, leaving his data pads on the table, unattended.
He made his way to the Med-Bay, the long strides eating the ground. The doors slid open and Optimus ducked a little to enter.
Moonracer was standing at the entry of Ratchet's private workroom, an amused smile on her face plates. She gestured the Prime towards the door with a hand, and placed a finger to her lip components. He nodded.
"No! Stop moving!" Ratchet's frustrated voice growled from the room. Ironhide's muffled laughter followed briefly afterwards, before there was the sharp sound of wrench hitting his helm. "And you! Be quiet!"
Optimus stepped inside standing against the back wall, and almost immediately broke into a fond smile.
Ratchet was holding a piece of black shoulder armor, still outdated and blocky, and attempting to reattach it to a black femme who always twisted out of his way at the last second. She had her armor on the right side of her body, where Ironhide was struggling to contain his laughter.
The femme shuttered her optics and a smirk spread across her lip components when she noticed Optimus, and the black armor flew to her body, correctly attaching themselves with little effort in the correct places.
Ratchet threw his servos in the air, grumbling. The femme was suddenly in front of the Prime, smiling slightly up at him, her feline-like ears tipped forward.
"Autobot Freefall reporting for duty, Optimus Prime, sir." She gave a lazy salute and her tail swished back and forth.
"No!" Ratchet yelled. "You get your aft back on that berth before I weld it there! You still have repairs that I haven't-"
"If they haven't opened by now, then there is no point looking at them." Freefall murmured. "And you'd have to catch me first."
"I forgot how much of a pain in the aft you were." Ratchet muttered as he began angrily cleaning up.
Freefall turned her attention back to Optimus.
"It's good to see you back online, youngling." He smiled, placing a large servo on her shoulder to lead her out.
"I'm not a youngling anymore, sir." She shook her head.
"Of course not. I'll call Elita to take you on a tour of the base."
"I'll do it, Prime." Ironhide strode over. "Chromia told me earlier that she and Elita-One were having a femme's only day."
"I see. I'll return to my office then. Feel free to ask either of us questions should you need them, Freefall."
"Of course, sir." Freefall gave him a lazy salute and she stood beside Ironhide as their Prime strode away.
"Let's go, little cat." Ironhide grinned, punching her lightly in the shoulder.
"Sure thing, old timer." The black femme laughed, dancing around the next punch.
"We're gonna make a pit stop in the main hanger. Will got a car sent in for you two weeks ago."
"Will? What kind of strange name is-? Oh, he's a fleshy." Freefall murmured, nodding slowly. Her tail swished against her legs and she followed after Ironhide on silent pedes.
Major William Lennox stood on one of the many catwalks around the main hanger, his arms held behind his back as he watched the smallest twins pummel each other. They were arguing, yet again, on how ugly the other was. Personally, Will thought they were both pretty ugly.
Heavier foot-steps alerted Will to the presence of another Autobot before the hanger door opened with a mechanical hiss. Ironhide's blue optics swept the hanger and he made his way to the Major, followed closely by another bot.
The Tiny Twins, Skiz and Mudflap's endearing nickname, fell silent and shuffled under the catwalk where the weapons specialist couldn't reach them easily.
"Will," Ironhide gestured to the bot behind him. "This is Freefall."
"She's the one you rescued from the Andes last month." Will nodded. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Freefall."
"Likewise." The feminine tone that came out of the bot's lip components surprised NEST's commander. Her metal lips curled into a soft smile. "And yes, I'm a femme."
"You're a lot bigger than Elita, Chromia and Arcee." Will scratched the back of his head in confusion.
"I am. I'm made for a different type of combat than them." She nodded, her gold optics flickering.
"What is your….function?" The Major glanced at Ironhide for confirmation, and the black mech nodded.
"I'm a saboteur." She chuckled. "And if necessary, I'm good at close combat. I was nearly re-programmed to be a front-liner. Ask Ratchet about it you want the details."
"Will," Ironhide snatched the human's attention. "You ordered her an alt-mode?"
"Yes. I ordered several. There's another two bikes and two cars in the corner. Take your pick, Freefall."
"Thank you." The femme strode to the shielded corner, and ducked behind a screen.
"Yo! Ironh'de!" Skidz jumped out at the mech's foot. Ironhide glared. "Who's she!?"
"You heard the conversation. And if you're still curious, ask her."
The purr of a powerful engine made the four look over. A Jaguar glided up to them, the sleek black paint bold against the grey concrete of the floor.
A mechanical whirl alerted the three bots to her T-cog being activated. When she rose to her sixteen foot height, Freefall gave herself a once over and nodded, obviously satisfied.
"Let's continue with our tour."
Optimus sighed, shaking his head as he observed his office. Every single object he owned was glued to his desk and that included, but was not limited to his important data pads. Luckily, Optimus was quite aware to who had done this, and had been prepared for such an even to happen. He'd made copies of all the documents and placed them on a high memory data pad.
He shook his helm, and tested the seat behind his desk. It was sticky with glue and Optimus was fairly sure it was strong enough to hold the chair to his aft if he'd sat.
But the weather was nice, so Optimus wasn't worried and it was about time he'd gotten some sun on their island base.
The blue and red mech exited his office.
"And this is the Rec Room. Play nice." Ironhide's voice drifted into the Rec Room and Jolt turned from the game he was playing against Bumblebee on the game console. He'd paused the game, and Bee let out a whine.
He smiled. "It's nice to see you awake."
First Aid, who was on his 'lunch break', looked up from his Energon cube.
"Free!" The white and red mech hurried over to the femme, practically bowling her over. "It's so good to see you again! I thought I'd never see you again when Optimus Prime sent you to watch the AllSpark….I'm glad you're okay! When did you get here? No wait. You got here a month ago and Ratchet's been repairing you."
Freefall chuckled, patting the medic's shoulder. "Hello, Aid."
The white and red mech dragged her, gently, over to Jolt.
"This is Jolt! And that's Bumblebee. Do you remember him? He was just a little bot when you left."
Bee waved and kicked childishly at Jolt's leg so he would restart the game. Jolt shoved the yellow mech's pedes away and stood to greet the new femme.
"It's nice to meet you." He gave her a once over. "If anything is paining you….I'd be happy to check it over."
"He's Ratchet's apprentice." First Aid whispered loudly. She nodded, shaking Jolt's outstretched hand.
The wail of a siren permeated the air, and the roar of two powerful engines snarled closer. The four bots in the rec room stared at the open door as a yellow Lambroghini, a silver Corvette and a monochrome police car roared through the hall. However, the two sports cars squealed to a halt, veering to the sides of the hallway and the police car sailed right past them.
Freefall lifted an optic ridge as the two cars transformed and glided in, one of the mechs on wheels and the other on pedes.
"What do we have here?" The gold one leered, eyeing her up and down.
"A new femme, Sunny." The silver one grinned.
"Guys, leave her alone. She's just come out of a vorn-long coma. " Jolt snorted.
The siren was heard again and the two mechs were roared out of the Rec Room at top speed in three seconds flat.
"Do I want to know?" Freefall asked, crossing her arms over her chassis. The three mechs shook their heads.