Pulling Teeth
Chapter 2
I told you I take my time updating.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers; I'm just prostituting it for my amusement.
Summary: Ratchet's lost one too many patients. He isn't losing this one.
Warning: Gratuitous violence, torture, m/m/m robot alien smut. That should cover it.
Pairings: Jazz/ Prowl. Eventual Twins/ Ratchet
"Ratchet!" Sunstreaker yelled. "Come back!"
The crotchety slagger didn't even look back. Panic lanced through Sunstreaker. He couldn't leave Sideswipe. Even if he wanted to they were totally pinned down. The slow outmoded bot was actually drawing some of the fire but it was obvious that the Seekers had gathered some back up of their own. Primus damn it! There was no way Ratchet could get away from flyers.
"Ratchet!" Sunstreaker yelled again even as the medic disappeared from view. Over the sound of the battle, Sunstreaker first heard then felt the explosion. No. No.
He couldn't hear his own scream over the laser fire and cries of his fellow Autobots. Prowl shot out from behind him. They were all warriors. No one needed to speak the plan. Sunstreaker fired intentionally over Prowl. As he looked up, Sunstreaker saw half a dozen Decepticons pop up from behind their positions above the gorge. The Seekers shot into the sky. Sunstreaker's optics narrowed, a snarl reverberated in his voice box. He would slag them. Slag Starscream. Rage heightened his focus and he took aim.
Shots rained down from all around them. Sunstreaker ducked low behind the outcrop. Firing up at the cliff top, his chance to slag the Seekers was lost.
"Prowl!" Jazz yelled.
The black and white mech was smoking from a hit to his side. Sunstreaker's hand reached out and grabbed Jazz's shoulder before the black and white mech could jump into the line of fire. Sunstreaker didn't know what to say, or what to do. He met Jazz's optics, the prankster looked crazed.
"He's still functioning," Sunstreaker said after a few seconds and let go of Jazz. "We need to draw their fire."
"Check," Jazz said in a low voice. He fired mirthlessly over his mate.
Sunstreaker felt like a hypocrite. He would have thrown off Jazz's hand and raced to Sideswipe, to hell with the consequences. Nothing would have stopped him. Thank Primus, Jazz was smarted them him. They were outnumbered badly enough without Jazz getting offlined. And Prowl was functioning, rolled on his good side and shooting up at the Cons.
Where the Cons had numbers, at least they had no skills. The surprise battle seemed to have become a stalemate. Too much time was wasting away as they traded laser fire. Prowl wasn't taking as many shots, the ground beneath him was slowly staining with energon. Sunstreaker felt Sideswipe's pain echoing in his spark. They were stuck, and Primus only knew what state Ratchet was in.
Then the Cons seemed to retreat. It only took Sunstreaker a second to realize that a barrage of fire was coming from behind him and up at the Cons. Obviously, the cavalry was here. As the battle grew quiet, the Cons skittered off like the vermin they were. The only sound in the gorge was the stampede of wheels as the others finally arrived.
Saying nothing, Jazz ran from the outcrop and knelt next to Prowl, helping him up. Sunstreaker finally allowed himself to actually look at Sideswipe. His brother was in stasis but he was no longer bleeding out.
"What happened?" Optimus asked no one in particular.
"We were ambushed," Sunstreaker said. "Slagging Seekers buried explosives in the ground and hid on cliff."
"Where's Ratchet?" Optimus asked, quickly realizing that the old medic was nowhere in sight.
"He ran off with the box," Jazz said as he slowly joined the group, supporting most of Prowl's weight. "There was another explosion, after the Seekers went after him. I think the box went off."
Optimus took it all in. He was silent as his optics scanned the mechs in front of him. Wearily, he ordered:
"We're returning to the Ark. Sideswipe and Prowl can't wait for repairs. We'll launch a rescue operation once we've regrouped."
"This doesn't feel right," Sunstreaker said, not meaning to speak aloud.
"You're right, Sunstreaker," Optimus said. "But we cannot risk any other Autobots getting damaged because we went in blind."
Sunstreaker obeyed, probably more out of concern for Sideswipe than for loyalty to Optimus. He would be on a frayed wire's edge until Sideswipe was back online. But in the back of his mind, Sunstreaker was haunted with fear for the Hatchet. What in Primus name were they doing do him?
"Get repaired before Hook is otherwise occupied," Megatron ordered the Seekers. All three were missing panels, but Starscream was in the worst state; he was missing part of his leg.
"I'd rather have Skywarp repair me than Hook," Starscream replied with a sniff. "As it is, I will repair myself. Well, come on, help me to my lab."
The feral smirk that Starscream gave him as he left made Ratchet's energon run cold. He would have liked to struggle and fight but with the two Constructicons hold his arms and the fact that his left leg was of no use to him, Ratchet knew well enough that it was a lost cause. The best thing he could do for himself and for the Autobots was to buy himself time and just stay alive until Optimus organized a rescue.
"Well Hook," Megatron chuckled. "It would appear that your schedule is completely clear."
The Decepticon commander looked directly into Ratchet's optics, sneered and said:
"This is an unexpected pleasure. As an officer of the Autobots, you most definitely have all the access and security codes of the Ark. Of course you aren't going to just tell me them. You would never just betray your friends so easily. So Hook is not going to make it easy."
Ratchet looked to Hook who smiled broadly. Unconsciously, Ratchet swallowed hard. His processors flared with terror and panic. Experience and age had taught him to regain control quickly. Puffing himself up, Ratchet looked directly into Megatron's face and glared defiantly at the 'Con.
"There is nothing you slaggers could ever do that will make me betray the Autobots, Bucket for Brains."
Megatron laughed and his sneer widened. He seized Ratchet's chin and smiled cruelly.
"Hook," he said. "It is time for you to show this out mode just how wrong he is."
"Scavenger, Bonecrusher," Hook said. "Take him to my workshop while I gather some extra... tools."
They didn't really walk Ratchet so much as drag him to the workshop in the bowels of the Decepticon lair. It was nothing like Wheeljack's workshop, which was cluttered but some how inviting. This room was cold, sterile, steel with an array of work tables and one slab with a bright overhead light. There were tools in the room that Wheeljack used but many more weren't even fit for a macabre autopsy theatre.
"Get him onto the slab," Hook ordered. He was assembling a tray of scalpels, cutters, torches, and several other things Ratchet didn't want to think about. Scavenger and Bonecrusher obeyed the arrogant engineer. Ratchet fought them out of reflex but the Constructicons had him pinned momentarily. He swore loudly and scowled at the lime green and purple mechs.
"Too often my subjects escape before I can finish my work," Hook said without looking at Ratchet. "So I devised an ingenious way to keep you put."
Hook turned around with a high powered drilled with a long metal bolt protruding from it. Wordlessly, but no less merrily, Hook pushed Ratchet's torso down on the slab and proceeded to started drilling through his upper chassis, his collar, and into the slab.
Ratchet screamed, his internal alarms screamed with him. The bolt ripped, and tore through the white metal of Ratchet's body slowly. Sizzling and sparking, heating the wound as it bored deeper. Even as Hook disengaged the drill, the burning pain didn't fade. Ratchet tried not to pant, tried to stop screaming. As a medic he knew there were no vital circuits in that part of his chassis but that knowledge did nothing to ease the pain.
Before Ratchet could really fully recover, Hook took the drill and a new bolt and repeated the torture on the other side of Ratchet's chassis. Ratchet was almost proud that he only gasped as the second bolt bore through his body. It was childish, but Ratchet was happy to deprive the sadistic mech of the pleasure of hearing him scream again. Hook only chuckled; the sound made Ratchet's spark seize. A third, than fourth bolt locked his legs to the slab at his thighs. Ratchet clenched his jaw and dimmed his optics, overwhelmed at the moment by the throb of the four wounds.
Time passed and nothing happened. The pain didn't so much dim, as Ratchet slowly adjusted to it. No one said anything. Internally, Ratchet panicked. What was he waiting for? Slowly, the medic opened his optics. Hook was looking at him from the side of the slab an expression of patience and pleasure on his face.
"Megatron always complains that I take too long to finish anything," Hook said after several long moments. "This time, I don't think he'll complain if I taken my time cutting the codes from your broken mind."
"I will never tell you slagging defective pieces of scrap a damn thing," Ratchet said with a raw edge to his voice.
Hook snorted and grinned. He bolted cuffs over Ratchet's ankles and wrists, leaving his inner arms exposed.
"You know," he said. "They always say that."
The engineer hummed to himself for a time, looking at his tools.
"But I'm going to cut and burn your will away until you beg me to let you tell me everything. Sooner or later you will tell me everything... I hope it's later."
And still, Hook did nothing more. As each minute passed, Ratchet wondered if waiting for the torture was worse than the torture itself. In the end though, he really didn't want the answer.
"Let's get started," Hook announced some time later. Ratchet shrank inwardly as Hook showed him the laser scalpel and preceded to cut his way through the armour of his abdomen. Instinctively, Ratchet tried to pull away from Hook.
His shoulders and thighs screamed with agony as the sides of their wounds scraped against the bolts. Ratchet choked back a scream. He couldn't get away from the scalpel that cut along his stomach. He shuddered and moaned but that only made everything hurt so much worse. A strangled gasp escaped Ratchet as Hook tore away a rough square of his armour.
"I know I could have just unscrewed your armour," Hook said, almost cooing at Ratchet. "But where would the fun of that be?"
"Defective..." Ratchet hissed.
Hook seized hold of tubing in Ratchet's abdomen and cruelly pulled them apart. Ratchet was silenced by the horror and pain. Alarms rang in his mind. Coolant bled into him and over him. Hook took a moment to take it all in. Shock had frozen Ratchet's mouth and optics open in an expression of horror and bewilderment that made Hook's circuits hum with delight. The old medics coolant made Hook's fingers slippery as he tore apart the tubing and fused them back together in a tangled mess.
Ratchet burned as his systems overheated and burned still as his systems froze. His body writhed with violent convulsions as coolant rushed through his warming systems and his warming fluid boiled through his coolant systems. He was breathless, speechless. He couldn't think. Energon bled from his thighs and torso as the spasms caused the bolts impaling him to grate against his energon lines.
He didn't even hear Hook's chuckle as the engineer stepped back to bask in his work.
Sunstreaker watched silently as First Aid put his brother back together. The med bay was a buzz. Jazz was trying not to fuss over Prowl as they and Optimus weighed their options. There was no doubt that they would launch a rescue but how was still open to debate. Everyone was giving Sunstreaker a wide berth. As always, they were cautious around him when Sideswipe was damaged.
But Sunstreaker wasn't actually seething over Sideswipe, through their sparks, he knew his brother was out of danger. Instead, his thoughts were off Ratchet. Energon rouse in his throat.
'There's no way you're dead, Hatchet. I'll get you away from those slagging Decepticons and they'll never get a chance to touch you again.'
End Chapter 2
A/N: Reviews feed my muse. You don't want her to go hungry, do you?