KABOOM!
"Wheeljack you better be in one piece when I get in there! I swear to Primus I will-"
Ratchet stopped short, surprised to see not just one Wheeljack in tact, but two, though one of them was slightly unfamiliar to him.
The Wheeljack that he recognized raised his servos defensively. "Ratchet, I can explain-"
The other Mech butted in.
"Yeah, easy there, Doc bot! Don't get your transistors in a twist."
Rachet put his hand up to stop the two from rambling further.
"I'm going to turn around and count to five, and when I turn back around, there better be only one wheeljack, with all his limbs still intact"
Ratchet turned, closed his optics, and counted to five very, very slowly. When he turned back, he saw that now zero Wheeljacks remained.
He sighed, counted to ten, and went off to inform Prime of the incident.
Wheeljack had no idea what he did to tick off Rachet this time, nor did he know where his new 'twin' had come from, so he decided to find Bulkhead and get his opinion on the matter.
However, after walking out of medbay, he realized that this was not the Autobot base that he was familiar with. For one, it was much bigger and ship like than he was accustomed to. Secondly, there were a lot more bots around than he could remember the names of.
Finally, and most worrisome, he could not find Bulkhead anywhere, not even on the comm unit.
Out of options, he transformed and rolled out to the Wrecker meetup coordinates and would make a plan if he got there and there was still no Bulkhead.
A few kliks later, the Wheeljack originally in the lab stepped out from his hiding place behind his latest project after he heard Rachet and his doppelganger leave the room. Cycling a vent in relief, he went back to working on his project when he noticed that it had, though not as violently as usual, exploded.
"Oh well", Wheeljack thought. "You win some, you lose some, though seeing as I haven't lost any limbs yet today, I'd say I broke even."
He then commed the Dinobots.
::Hey Swoop, I didn't blow up today, so I'll be over sooner than planned::
::Me Swoop know. Can see you Wheeljack right now. You Wheeljack close now. Me Swoop hang up::
::Wait, Swoop, that isn't- ::
The comm link went dead.
"-me."
He sighed.
"Scrap"
Rachet found Prime outside of his office talking to Ironhide.
"-and said to them that I ain't got no Southern accent! I ain't even from the Southern half of Cybertron, let alone Earth!"
Optimus nodded politely, not mentioning that the southern accent he was accused of also came from the northern half of Earth.
"Prime, have you seen-"
Wheeljack came rushing down the hall, knocking the three bots down in the process, in a mad hurry.
"My babies! Wheeljack's coming to save you, don't worry!", his fins flashing with panic. He then continued springing until he was out of the Arc, where he transformed and sped off.
"-Wheeljack." Ratchet finished.
Optimus picked himself up and dusted himself off before offering a hand to help Ironhide and Ratchet up.
"How odd" Prime said. "That's the second time I've been knocked over by Wheeljack today, though the first time he was looking for someone called 'Bulkhead'"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about, Optimus. There are now TWO Wheeljacks, of at least, one more than we were previously aware of."
"Babies?" Ironhide asked suspiciously.
"He keeps insisting that the Dinobots are his-"
Ratchet's optics grew wide. "Sweet Primus, I need to leave right now."
Not even waiting until he got outside, Ratchet transformed and sped away in the same direction as Wheeljack.
Swoop, with the rest of his Dinobot brothers, was fishing in the Transformer made lake that was full of robotic fish when he saw Wheeljack approaching.
Screeching happily, he transformed to robot mode and started running towards his creator.
Wheeljack, in response, transformed to robot mode as well and was about to bring out his katanas when he noticed the Autobot symbol on the approaching bot's chest.
"Didn't expect to see any other Wreckers around these parts", Wheeljack said. "They call me Wheeljack"
He held out his hand and retracted his battle mask.
"What's your-"
That's when Swoop started screaming.
"Your face! You Wheeljack face fell off! AAAHHHH!"
The other Dinobots, already on their way, transformed to robot mode and ran the rest of the way to find out what made their youngest brother so upset.
Then they started screaming as well.
"You Wheeljack face!"
"Oh no!"
"Where it go?!"
"AAAHHH!"
Wheeljack, quickly figuring out that the bots in front of him were NOT Wreckers, but really big sparklings with low object permanency knowledge, put his battle mask back on.
Fortunately, that did the trick to calming the group down.
"You Wheeljack play with us Dinobots now?" Swoop asked, after he calmed down.
"Sure, kid. Why not. What did you have in mind?"
When Wheeljack arrived, he was met with the sight of his doppelganger and his Dinobots running around haphazardly. Or, more accurately, the Dinobots running around while his counterpart looked like he was trying just not to be trampled.
"Oh, thank Primus, they're OK." Wheeljack said quietly to himself. "Grimlock! Slag! Sludge! Snarl! Swoop! I'm back! It's time for your checkup!"
"Me Slag no want check up. Me Slag want play!" Slag said to the just arrived Wheeljack, ignoring the one that was already there.
"Me too!" said Snarl.
"Me three!" agreed Sludge.
"Come on, now, you guys aren't afraid of a little check up, are you?"
"Me Grimlock fear nothing! Me Grimlock king!"
"Then you'll sit still for your checkup?"
Grimlock hesitated.
"Optimus doesn't sit still for checkups?" Wheeljack tried cautiously. Saying that Prime wouldn't do something was one way to get the Dinobots to do it, but it only worked some of the time.
While Grimlock was thinking, Ratchet arrived, followed by Optimus Prime and Ironhide. The three transformed and walked over to the Wheeljack near Grimlock, not noticing the other slowly scooching in the other direction.
"OK, me Grimlock sit still for checkup. For now."
He transformed into his robot mode and sat cross legged on the ground in front of Wheeljack. Wheeljack pulled a scanner from his subspace and started the examination on Grimlock as the rest of the Dinobot's sat in a line and waited for their turn. If Grimlock did something, it didn't take much convincing to get the other Dinobots to do it as well.
"How are they looking so far?" Ratchet asked, pulling out a scanner of his own and starting on Slag.
"Not too bad. Reverse psychology worked like a charm this time around"
"Me Grimlock MOST charming Dinobot!"
"You sure are, big guy" Ironhide agreed. "You sure are"
"Any sign of your double?" Ratchet asked.
Ironhide and Optimus looked at each other.
"Double?!" they both asked confused.
"Ain't one of you blowing up enough?" Ironhide asked.
"He's over there" Wheeljack said, gesturing with his head to where his doppleganger was sneaking away. "He's not going to get very far, though, if you're worried"
"And why is that?" Optimus asked.
They then looked up to the sound of a scream, and saw flashes of swords connecting with a hoard of Insecticons.
"Ah. I … see." Optimus looked to Ironhide. "If you would be so kind?"
"On it, boss bot!" Ironhide transformed and drove towards the wayward Autobot. Upon approaching, he transformed and started firing. "I got your back, Jack!"
"Thanks, pal. Now lets smoke these cons!"
"My pleasure."
They fought the Insecticons together, though it didn't last long.
"Insecticons, retreat! retreat," Shrapnel ordered.
Shrapnel, Bombshell, Kickback, and their remaining swarm retreated into the sky.
"Not bad shooting out there, partner," Wheeljack said, retracting his battle mask and holding out his hand. "You?
"Ironhide," Ironhide replied, shaking the offered hand. "And I already know who you are, on account of you looking like our mad- i mean top- scientist over there" he said with a nod towards the group.
"Don't worry, it's not the first time I've been called mad. Scientist is a new one to me, but mad? Nah. I'm a Wrecker in my … well, I guess I'll have to figure that one out"
"Why don't you come back with me, and we'll sort things out with Prime."
Ironhide transformed and drove back to the group.
"Do I have a choice?"
Wheeljack transformed and followed after.
