—Official—
Ratchet
Prowl
Brawn
Iornhide
Wind Charger
Huffer
Wheeljack
Blue Streak
—Speculated—
Grapple
Hound
Sunstreaker
Sideswipe
Tracks
Red Alert
Inferno
—Update to Speculated—
Mirage
Not so Dead
Alive?
—Flashback—
Cromia walked through the thick alien forest, she and the femmes had split up to look for some energon, when she heard a familiar voice, she couldn't make out the words, but it suddenly occurred to her that that voice belonged to the Autobot tactician, Prowl.
She rushed toward the voice, seeing Prowl, far below her, shooting himself in the face, but nothing happened, and Prowl's fist pummeled through some rock. A chuckle caught both Prowl and Cromia's attention, "Oh so now you're attempting it too? Oh how low the mighty have fallen."
"Shut it Brawn." Prowl growled, turning around to see the mini-bot staring at him, "It doesn't matter, this is pointless. We're not supposed to be here. I just want to die without harming them…"
A whiny, complaining voice that could only belong to Huffer arose, "This is hopeless, we're doomed, why me, er, why us!"
Prowl picked Huffer up by his neck and slammed him against a large nearby wall, "Shut the pit up. You died in an instant! I was completely immobilized, my audios worked for hours before the last of my systems gave out! I envied Iornhide for being able to move, to try to stop them, at least he was put out semi-quickly!" He angrily dropped the bot, shaking above him in anger.
"Now, now, calm down, we'll find it." Wheeljack mumbled sadly, trying to fake hope, though not very well.
Wind Charger, Grapple, Hound and Blue Streak drove up and transformed, "Well?" Prowl muttered, voice hopeless.
They shook their heads and Blue Streak sighed, "I'm sorry Prowl, we couldn't find anything."
"Where's the others?" Prowl hissed, just as Ratchet, Red Alert, Tracks, Mirage and Inferno drove up, transforming, "Well? Any luck?"
"Yes Prowl." Ratchet snapped, "We found it, that's why we have it and we're all jumping for fragging joy!"
Blue Streak shook his head, "You don't have to yell and be sarcastic Ratchet."
"The hell I don't! I just want to lay down and die again, but look how that's turned out so far, I've been resurrected on babysitting duty! I even have to baby-sit some damned cons! I don't even have anyone to fix, so shut the slag up you damned gunner!"
Prowl looked around tiredly, "Where in Primus' name are those ignorant twins?"
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's voices could be heard, and they tumbled below, laughing hysterically, Sideswipe saying, "Oh come on you guys! You gotta admit not being hurt is fun!"
Sunstreaker continued, "Yeah, and my paint is never scratched!"
"Well, I must admit, it is nice not to have to put your aft's back together." Ratchet hissed, rubbing his head, "We're wasting our time. We know the only place we'll find it. Then we can die in peace."
"I still don't get why we can't go to earth and show our new selves off to Jazz and the gang." Sideswipe perked, not noticing Prowl wince at Jazz's name.
Red Alert's optics narrowed and shoved his finger it the Lamborghini's face, "No! I have never endangered my comrades before, and you know how much danger we could put them in!"
He groaned, "Oh okay! But we've got to do something soon!"
Ratchet rubbed his head, and Hound whispered, "How do we know for sure they haven't gotten rid of it?"
Ratchet nodded while Wheeljack answered, "We were the only ones to know about it besides First Aid, and he never would have…"
Jet engines could be heard, and Skywarp and Thundercracker transformed and landed amongst the Autobots, Thundercracker looked up and shook his head, "Nothing."
"Damn it." Prowl growled, looking at Ratchet, "I guess we have no choice then."
"Hey! Where's Iornhide?" Sideswipe interrupted, looking around, his words sending chills trough Cromia's systems.
Cromia heard footsteps behind her, and a familiar voice, "Cromia…"
She began to turn, "Iornhide!"
"I'm sorry." His voice whispered, then a strike on the back of her head, followed by darkness.
—End Flashback—
"… When I came to, Moonracer had found me and taken me back to the ship. We went back and found this…" Cromia pulled a piece of metal out of her subspace, "A piece of Prowl's gun, it ripped off the end of the gun when it hit the rock."
Jazz pulled it out of her hand, "This is from Prowl's gun. I'd recognize it anywhere." Jazz shook his head, "I… I don't believe this… And why were they conversing with dead Decepticons?"
Cromia shook her head, "I don't know, but it didn't seem a happy partnership." She looked at First Aid, "Do you know what thing Ratchet was talking about?"
First Aid's optics flickered, "…Something only Ratchet, Wheeljack and I knew abou-… Oh slag!" First Aid bolted for the med bay, everyone following him curiously, entering after him to see him with his feet against the wall, back against a shelf of med tools, barely moving the huge shelf, but when he did get it to move he went tumbling to the ground, crashing to the newly exposed floor, that had a lighter colored panel over it, "Slag slag slag!" First Aid shouted, moving the panel aside.
"What you want?" Slag asked, receiving glares for his stupidity.
Grimlock shook his head, "Him no mean you Slag, him mean something not good, right you First Aid?"
First Aid began to climb down, "Slaggit! This tunnel had nothing marking it, Ratchet and I made sure of it, they must've put the panel there so I wouldn't notice…" He looked frantically around in the knee-deep hole, shaking his head, "No, no, no, it's not here!"
"What isn't here?" Optimus asked.
"This serum Wheeljack accidentally created… it can break down nearly any substance, it's… its like nuclear waist, and with everything it touches it gets bigger! We started out with a gram and ended up with half a ton before we found a substance that could hold it without breaking down. We agreed to keep it a secret because if we used it to stop the Decepticons… it would destroy everything in its path for… for eons! It would completely destroy whatever planet it was unleashed on, eventually get to that planet's sun, and it would explode outward, absorbing everything around! Then going further an-"
Optimus out a hand on the medic's shoulder, "Calm down, don't tell us about impending doom, tell us about what they'd do with it."
"I… I don't know… somewhere where it'd cause the least amount off damage… I… I don't… I just don't know!" he kicked the ground and heard a piece of metal scrape along the ground. He knelt down and picked it up; it was a data pad.
He pushed the button, and Ratchet's head floated up as a hologram, "First Aid… I knew you'd find this eventually… especially with the femmes having spotted us. Don't worry, we have a plan, we just want to help. By the way, did you learn nothing from me? Read those med books I left you!"
A shiver went through all there systems; that was their medic, "Ratchet…"
"I know you're babbling by now so shut up and listen; please get all Autobots in the vicinity off Charr, we just want to help, and keep you all safe, we don't want Upsilon to harm all of you, through us. Goodbye."
Cromia spun around to look at Elita, "Upsilon? Didn't you say something about that after you returned from that one mission?"
"Elita?" Optimus whispered, looking at her.
She looked away for a moment, then cleared her throat, "All you need to know right now is: if the Upsilon I know is involved, we need to contact them right this instant."
—To Be Continued—
