Chapter One
Rubbing Rover's head, Supersonic sat on the ground as she waited for the Autobots to arrive at her landing site. Optimus had commed her saying that they would be there shortly. She couldn't wait to see Ironhide and Bumblebee again and be reunited with her Autobot family. Hopefully First Aid would already be there too since she had sustained a good bit of damage on her way to the planet
Trying to sooth and awkwardly bent plate, she massaged it carefully with her palm, avoiding scratching herself with her own pointed fingers. The pain was more prominent for her than for a normal mech or femme as she had extremely sensitive cabling embedded in her plates to tell her more accurately how badly she was damaged. The only mechs to know this were Soundwave, Barricade, and First Aid.
The roar of three engines reached her sensor array, letting her know that the Autobots weren't far off. She turned her different colored optics in that direction and waited patiently. A blue Peterbilt with flames crested the hill closely followed by a Search and Rescue Hummer and a GMC Topkick. Optimus transformed as he came to a stop and crouched in front of her.
"How is it so far, youngling?" he asked.
"Ran into a few bumps and bruises along the way, Boss Mech. Is First Aid here to help me fix them? Rover and I haven't truly done much, but I will need my shop and some supplies soon. I found a lot of information on the Web and I have an idea for a new companion."
"First Aid is not here, but we do have our Chief Medical Officer with us."
"That doesn't help me. Just get me to base and I'll deal with my dents and other injuries then." Supersonic saluted him as she stood, wincing with many of her movements.
"You won't let the medic look at you?" Optimus asked the sixteen foot femme.
"He won't understand my armor. First Aid barely does. Only my brother and I really know it the best. Another of my friends knows it pretty well. Nobody else has ever worked with it actually. Me and my brother designed and created it."
"I take offense to that. You will go to the med bay first thing."
Supersonic leveled a glare on him. "I don't care who you are, what you do, or what you take offense to. Right now, I'm just making sure that I don't have to be in more pain than I have to." Turning her back on the medic, she turned her attention back to Prime and Ironhide.
"So, Big Mech and Boss Mech, where do I get my alt form? Loving the GMC, 'Hide. Is my brother here? I need to talk to him. And my adoptive brother."
"There's a highway not far from here that a lot of cars are on," Ironhide answered her. "There's some nice ones too."
"You guys willing to wait on my armor to change? Or do we need to be back on base ASAP?"
"We'll wait for the color to change. Don't want you changing shades on the highway."
She nodded and then winced. Feeling around on the back of her neck, she located a small dent. Muttering "slag," she hunched her shoulders, refusing to wince again, and beckoned for Rover to jump into her subspace. Creeping close, she was finally able to see the highway and peeked over the edge. A truck caught her eye right off the bat and she quickly scanned it.
Transforming into the vehicle, she felt her dents and injuries even more. Supersonic drove back to the three Autobots silently wishing for Soundwave. She hadn't been able to see him in what felt like forever even if they had communicated through their bond.
"I need to see my brother, Optimus," she said softly. "It's been too long."
"We'll see, Supersonic," he answered. "Your friend, too?"
"If possible. I could get my dents out much better. Too bad First Aid isn't here. Could get it done much sooner." She turned to the Chief Medical Officer as he was about to speak. "I'm not spending the time to train you. Try having the sensitivity of your digits over your entire frame and how much that would hurt."
"I can be gentle," he grumbled.
"Heading back to base?"
"We are. Your color hasn't changed for a bit. Navy blue?"
"Yeah, 'Hide. Pretty ain't it?"
"It is, sweetspark."
The drive to the base was rather uneventful. Supersonic just couldn't wait to be able to transform and begin fixing herself. The CMO was still grumbling to himself, barely in her audio range, as they pulled into the base. Supersonic waited until the three mechs transformed before she did and allowed Rover out of her subspace.
"Come with me, sweetspark," Ironhide said, lightly laying a guiding hand on her shoulder. "We have a small place for you to fix yourself and recharge. Right now we have Jazz, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Optimus, and me here. Can you sense anyone within audio distance?" At her negative answer, he continued, "We haven't been in contact with Soundwave since you haven't been here and we're having problems with Barricade. Nothing's come from Ravage. Since you're here, we'll open that comm link again."
"I'm probably going straight into recharge, 'Hide. That entrance was killer and I'm going to need energon soon. Does that mean I have to see the medic?"
"You need to anyway, 'Sonic. I know you fix yourself, but Ratchet is really good at what he does. You could train him easier than First Aid."
She looked up at him trustingly. "We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I will admit that its hard for me to work on my plating when I'm not feeling great. There's too much room for error with my claws. That's why 'Cade's not the best all the time. That and his temper. He likes to hit stuff."
"Here you are," he said, stopping in front of a comparatively smaller place. "Recharge well, sweetspark. I'll see you tomorrow."
She hugged him as best she could. "Thanks 'Hide. For everything."
Rover gently nosed her awake in the morning. She absentmindedly rubbed her head as she stood.
"We need energon, don't we girl?" Supersonic asked the cat-like being, slowly standing and moving toward the door, trying to keep from causing herself more pain.
The door slid open just before she reached it.
"'Bee! I missed you!" she exclaimed, launching herself onto him. He took a bracing step back as he took her weight. The yellow bot whistled happily at her before letting out a concerned whine when he felt a couple of dents on her door wings.
"Yes, it hurts. They're mainly from my entry through the atmosphere." She burrowed as comfortably against his armor as possible. "A few are from before, of course, since I got split up from First Aid and Red Alert a while ago. Low on energon too. Where can I get some?"
Bumblebee set her back on her pedes and motioned for her to follow him. She did so, reaching for his hand and holding it rather tightly. It had been too long since she had last seen here adoptive brother too. They stopped after a short walk by a door labeled 'Med Bay'. He pulled her in front of him before he knocked on the door.
"You're scared of the CMO, 'Bee? That sucks. I don't have any back up," she grumbled jokingly at him.
The doors slid open, admitting the two bots. The yellow mech moved over to the energon dispenser and gave her some. In the meantime, Supersonic had taken a seat on one of the berths and begun to find where more dents were. She also found a few torn cables that she quickly hid under her armor plating to keep from concerning Bumblebee more than her battered frame already did.
He whirred softly at her, concerned about the number of dents she had gotten. After sipping her energon cube, she decided to give him an abbreviated version of what had happened.
"I met up with Thundercracker and Scorponok at different times. Thundercracker being a Flier and all, I had to use long-range – something I'm not really equipped for. So he got in a lot of hits. Rover jumped on him on one pass and he was damaged enough to send him on his way. Scorponok got in one lucky shot before fleeing when I surprised him – and myself, for that matter. Some of the small ones were from space travel and my landing, of course."
She grinned at him before shooing him off. "Go talk to 'Hide, 'Bee." He did so after admonishing her with whirrs, clicks, and a lot of motioning with his hands.
"Ratchet!" she called. "I know you're in here, Med Mech, so get your aft over here!"
The Search and Rescue mech walked over to her from where he had been in his office, eyeing her critically before he spoke. "Femme, why in the Pit have you not repaired yourself, or at least gotten some nanites to start repairing you?"
"Mine only create replacement parts. They don't repair anything. It's too complicated for them. Help me get my shoulder plate off." She belatedly added, "Please?"
"Femmes," he muttered as he moved to gather a few tools.
"I heard that," she commented, feeling underneath the plate to find the switch that lifted it so it could be unhooked from her frame. Letting out a quiet 'yes', she flipped the switch, wincing as pinched wires and cables stretched. "Detach the cables and wires. All of them," she instructed when he was standing in front of her again.
Ironhide barged into the Med Bay.
"We have the link up and running with your brother, Supersonic. He's asking to speak with you."
"That quick, 'Hide?"
"We mentioned that you had landed. He was concerned about that."
"I need to get these dents out and I have to be repaired. He knows my frame just as well as I do and I'm sure he's in better shape right now. Can we let the Med Mech in on the secret?"
"Com Optimus."
Citing the CMO's trustworthiness, Optimus gave his permission for her to share her story with the medic. Ironhide had left the room in that time.
"I've got permission to tell you about my life. The only relevant things are that I was raised in the Decepticon camp on Cybertron, my friend there was Barricade, and my brother is Soundwave. We three built my frame and I went with the Autobots to be safely transferred into it by First Aid. I'm opening the secure link to my brother now."
An image of a white mech filled the screen of the wall-sized computer.
"'Sonic, what'd you do to yourself?"
She laughed. "I really hope that I wouldn't do this to myself, 'Wave. Be a bit uncomfortable."
"Your optic get hit too?"
"No. I just forgot about reactivating it. Most mechs are still uncomfortable with a femme having two different optic colors. Especially with one being red."
"So what I heard from Thundercracker and Scorponok was true then? Who's working on your armor? I know First Aid isn't there."
"They never liked me in the first place, 'Wave. Optimus decided to let the CMO in on you and my relation to the Decepticons. You know how hard it is for me to take off my shoulder plates. I need some more recharge too, but its not a good idea right now. Anything eventful happen so far? How's Barricade?"
"Barricade is still not back to normal. You should see him at some point. Eventful? Not for me. An intelligence officer isn't really wanted or needed right now." He sighed. "Thundercracker really got you good, didn't he?"
"You have optics. You can see." She winced away from Ratchet. "Try something else, Med Mech. That hurt."
The medic grumbled at her, but tried a thinner tool.
"You do know that her sensor array is the best out there, right, Ratchet? My sister can hear you," Soundwave said. He grinned. "I can hear you loud and clear through her audio feed."
"When you think we could meet, 'Wave? I know I'll have to set something up with 'Cade myself."
"I don't know, sweetspark. It may have to be a bit."
Supersonic sighed. "Okay. As soon as possible though, right?"
"Affirmative." He paused, listening to his surroundings. "My time is up." The feed cut off abruptly.
The navy blue femme cycled her vents in a sigh, sadness filling her blue optic. Considering how close the two siblings were, their separation had made them more irritable and easier to annoy.
She quietly onlined her red optic, watching her diagnostics scroll across the left side of her vision, telling her the exact extent of the damages and how soon replacement parts would be available. At a nod from her, Ratchet looked up from what he was doing and caught sight of her optics. His expression hardened for a klik before he remembered that she had not had the one activated the entire time he had seen here. Supersonic's faceplates stilled into an expressionless mask, having caught his actions.
Getting jerkily to her pedes, she pulled her shoulder plate from his hand and left the med bay with Rover trailing behind long enough to snarl at the medic. Supersonic deactivated her off-colored optic before she came in contact with any other bot. That would cause too much stress on her already stressed systems and force her into stasis lock. Rover's head came up under her free hand, asking for a scratch. She obliged the cat-like casseticon.
Jazz suddenly appeared in her vision, music softly playing from his speakers.
"Hey li'l lady," he greeted her happily. "Ya got beat up."
"Sure did, my man. Walk with me?"
He turned around, following her to the room she had been assigned to. Their friendship was not very well known to any of the mechs on base, but was to some of those coming in soon. She could feel that Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Prowl, and Blurr would reach them somewhat soon. They both took a seat on the floor of the room.
"So ya need a bit o' help detaching plates? Ah can reach some of 'em better."
"Please? I don't like making Prowl worry. I just need a bit of help gettin' them off. Rover can flatten them. My nanites are also making a few pieces to repair wires and such with. I'm thinking about making different nanites to help me repair myself. Have to see the CMO less. Always a good thing."
The silver mech looked at her, hope in his optics – optics revealed by a retracted visor. "If yours work better than mine, can ya upgrade or give meh some?"
Staying as far from the med bay as possible was one of the goals of all mechs on base. With Supersonic now there, it was quite possible that at least two of the mechs would start going to her instead of the CMO. She possessed a much better bedside manner.
She shook her head in the positive. "Yeah, Jazz. I don't mind. After my plating is done, I'm going to start on them. It won't take long. Especially since Wheeljack isn't here to try and blow us up. He's never allowed in my shop again."
The two bots worked in companionable silence, allowing time for each to focus on their own thoughts though still able to tell how the other was doing. The detachment of her armor plating flowed easily and, after Rover pressed them back to the way they were supposed to be, so did the reattachment. Her torn lines and cables had been fixed in the meantime. Rover was a perfectionist.
"Thanks, mech," Supersonic said, helping Jazz to his pedes. "I'll com you when I finish those nanites."
"Thanks, li'l lady."
She waved him off and took out a few of her nanites, instructing them on what to form parts for. Without having them do so, she would have to construct them from scratch. With how large her hands were, it was necessary for them to do the small work, until it came to the details in any case. In just a few Earth hours Supersonic had finished the work and installed them on herself. They had also been tested by self-inflicted damage and were well on their way to finishing the repairs.
/Hey Jazz. You can stop by whenever you have the time and I can upgrade your nanites and give you some new ones./
He quickly commed her back. /I'll be there in a few kliks./
The door to her shop whisked open, admitting the saboteur.
"You ready for this, Jazz-man?" she asked.
"Sure am," he answered.
The worked for a little bit before setting them in his frame.