Hi you guys! Sorry about the late update, FF was being weird and was not allowing me to access the Doc Manager.
But thank you all for the reviews! 7 reviews on one chapter? Craziness! Thanks so much. Reviews make me so happy. :)
Disclaimer: None of this is mine. Shoot.
The next time the two met was during another battle. When it got around that it was Perceptor who fired that shot, Optimus himself came down to formally request his assistance in the next battle. Tell me, how could he say no to that?
So, here he was, in his least favorite place in the world. Although, it did make it a little easier on his nerves that he was confined to the medical team. The Decepticons left the medical team alone. Somehow, word of Ratchet's… well, Ratchet-ness had spread across factions and no one wanted to tangle with such a scary, angry medic. Not if they wanted to return to the Nemesis with their limbs attached.
Skywarp seemed to have forgotten the well-known legends of the Autobot CMO. While Perceptor was down below, helping Ratchet set up a field hospital, Skywarp was far above him, prowling the skies for a sign of red and teal plating. When he found it, he teleported off with a quick shout of glee.
Perceptor was just organizing a few parts necessary to surgery when he heard the pop of teleportation and was grabbed from behind. He screamed wordlessly, his spark nearly beating out of its chamber. The arms wrapped around his waist and flipped him around, bringing him face-to-face with Skywarp.
The Seeker smirked at him, his hand playing across Perceptor's back. "Hey there, sexy." He drawled seductively, bringing one of Perceptor's hands to his lips and pressing a lingering kiss to his fingers. "Wanna frag?"
Perceptor let out a strangled noise of surprise and stared at the Seeker. A ferocious blush spread across his cheeks despite his greatest efforts to quell it. "W-w-well, I…" The microscope stuttered.
The smirking Seeker was about to say something else, but the noise of an arm transforming into a roaring chainsaw interrupted him.
Skywarp whipped around fast enough to dodge a chainsaw to the face. Not fast enough, however, to avoid the horror of seeing a furious Ratchet lurking behind him. He immediately dropped Perceptor, nearly tripping over his own peds trying to run away. "AHH! No, not the demon medic!" He cried, running as Ratchet swiftly pursued him.
Later on, Thundercracker had to carry Skywarp back to the base again. At least this time, his load was a little bit lighter, you know, with Skywarp missing an arm and most of a wing. As Skywarp learned, there was a reason they called him the demon medic.
Skywarp fretted anxiously, paying very little attention as the meeting he attended wrapped itself up. Instead, he focused on his target, Soundwave, who was currently making his way out of the meeting room.
He desperately needed to talk to the mech. Soundwave made just about anyone nervous, so it was perfectly acceptable for Skywarp to be nervous. Especially about the matter he was about to approach the Decepticon TIC with. Skywarp figured he had about a 50% chance of being put in the brig for this.
The Seeker steeled himself and followed the cassette player, reminding himself that there was no other way for him to get what he wanted.
Skywarp followed his target for a while, making sure that no one was around to hear this. He was sure that, by now, the telepath had noticed him. He just hoped that the reason the TIC hadn't stopped him yet was because of his willingness to hear him out.
Finally Skywarp decided that they were in a secluded enough spot and teleported off. He reappeared in front of Soundwave, who looked entirely unsurprised to see him.
Soundwave cut him off before he could speak. "Request: denied." The telepath droned, attempting to get past the Seeker.
"What?" Skywarp cried, dismayed. "Oh, come on! You haven't even heard it yet!"
Soundwave gave him an entirely unamused face, much like the one he often gave to the cassettes after they misbehaved. "Request for the Autobot base blueprints: denied." He repeated patiently. "Reason: classified."
"Oh, come on. I'm sure you can bend a few of those rule for little old me, right?" Skywarp pleaded, desperate for those blueprints.
Soundwave did not respond, pinning Skywarp with a look that made his plating crawl. Skywarp had the feeling that if he didn't drop the subject soon, he could regret it.
"Maybe I could do something for you? Clean your quarters or steal something?" He offered.
Soundwave appeared to think about this for a while. "Request: cease questionable pranks with Rumble and Frenzy."
"Deal!" Skywarp agreed, only minutely disappointed that he couldn't prank his fellow Decepticons with the cassette twins anymore.
The telepath stared at him once more, as if attempting to gauge his honesty. Finally, he pinged the files over to Skywarp, who could not have been happier.
Perceptor won't know what hit him, he thought joyfully.
Perceptor woke up blearily, face first onto his lab station. Once again, he'd fallen asleep in the middle of an experiment.
The microscope hoisted himself up, wincing as something in his back protested the horrible way Perceptor had slept on it. His tanks also protested but for a completely different reason. He'd forgotten to drink his second cube for the day. Perceptor sighed and resolved to fix this matter, even if it brought him in contact with horrible glitches like Sunstreaker and Brawn. He intensely disliked those two, though he would not say hate.
With a sigh, Perceptor made his way across the room, palming the door pad to open the door. It slid open with a whoosh, revealing a small purple package placed carefully at his doorstep.
Perceptor blinked, leaning down to pick up the purple package. "What's this?" He wondered aloud, tracing the edges to find the opening latch. As soon as he found it, it opened with a hiss, revealing a tiny glass bottle halfway full with a gold powder. Perceptor frowned at it, carefully uncorking the bottle to sniff at it. As soon as his got a whiff of the substance, he drew back, surprised. He recognized the smell, but it couldn't be. Carefully tipping the bottle so a miniscule amount slid into his palm, Perceptor examined the dust further. After a few seconds, he dipped a finger in it, bringing the dust up to his lips for a taste. As soon as its taste brushed his sensors Perceptor knew exactly what it was. The wonderful taste lit up his taste sensors fantastically. Perceptor stifled a sigh of gratification. It was a powdered crystal additive to energon. An expensive one. Who would give me such an expensive gift, wondered a very puzzled Perceptor.
Over the next couple of weeks, Perceptor received three more gifts besides the crystal additive including a few cubes of finely refined high grade, which Perceptor tucked away for later use, a tiny and slightly smooshed book detailing North American plant species and a masterfully carved crystal model of Cybertron.
Perceptor felt very flattered and slightly overwhelmed at the attention. Someone out there must like him a lot to be giving him such expensive and thoughtful gifts. None of the gifts included a note, so it could be anyone.
He found himself contemplating who it was while visiting the rec room. No one seemed quite right to be his secret admirer. (referring to this mysterious Autbot as his secret admirer never ceased to make him blush.)
Such thoughts were pointless, Perceptor told himself. Until the mech revealed true identity to him, there was no way to tell.
The alarm systems had went off about an hour earlier when Perceptor and the others left on the Ark got an urgent com call for backup. Prime called for speed, so Perceptor and nearly a dozen Autobots including Wheeljack and Smokescreen caught a ride on Skyfire.
The remains of the battlefield were a mess. It was clear that the Decepticons had won this round. The raided oil stockpiling warehouse had burst into uncontrollable flames and Optimus Prime had called for a retreat to find and nurse the wounded.
Ratchet put him and the other scientists to work right away. The Decepticons had resorted to using some sort of modified energy shrapnel, causing heavy damage among the Autobots. Sunstreaker had taken a large piece to the lower face and left optic and Bluestreak had a chunk enlodged in his intter knee joints, losing energon fast.
Ratchet leaned over a heavily injured Cliffjumper, who had a piece of shrapnel embedded in his abdominal plates and an blaster would to the shoulder. The mech's anesthesia hadn't completely set in, so he thrashed against the straps restraining him. Quickly Perceptor restrained the mech, much to Ratchet's relief. Ratchet was incredibly gifted as a medic and was resealing torn energon lines and removing shards of shrapnel with a speed and professional grace that never ceased to impress Perceptor.
Cliffjumper slowly relaxed in his arms, signaling that the anesthesia had kicked in. "He's out, Perceptor." Ratchet grumbled, optics focused on his work. "Go check the rocks to the South of us for any more injured!"
Perceptor nodded, letting go of Cliffjumper and trotting off in the direction Ratchet pointed at.
He wasn't sure if Decepticons were still in the area, so he pulled his blaster out of his subspace and stepped carefully, sensors on high alert for foreign signatures and Autobot flags for help.
He had just cleared the area when jet thrusters screamed overhead. He ducked behind a rock, praying that he hadn't been spotted. The roar of the thrusters only grew closer. Perceptor abandoned his hiding spot as it had been obvious that the Seeker had found him.
His running was entirely pointless as the jet flew overhead, transforming in front of him. The sight of the red and white wings stopped him cold. Starscream had his hand around Perceptor's throat before he could blink.
"So you're the little twit Skywarp been pining after?" The Seeker sniffed disdainfully. "Hmph. As usual, that idiot has no taste."
Perceptor could not speak as Starscream's hand was pressed firmly against his voice box.
Starscream, however, was more than happy to speak for him. "I would kill you, pathetic Autobot, but Skywarp would whine and moan about it for forever." This statement was accompanied by an irritated scowl on Starscream's part.
Perceptor was terrified. He'd had more encounters with Decepticons this week than he'd had in his entire career as an Autobot. He was starting to think that there was some sort of target on his back.
"Look, you fool. Hurry up and frag him already!" The Seeker continued angrily, seemingly more agitated the more he thought of it. "I'm sick of walking into our shared trine quarters and being greeted by Skywarp's spike in his fist! Although the rumors about our trine may say differently, that is one thing I do not want to ever see, let alone three times in the last orn!"
Perceptor blinked, a blush spread across his cheeks. "W-what?" He croaked, barely managing to let that tiny word out of his constrained throat.
"Oh, don't act dumb! I know what you two have been up to!" Starscream scoffed. "It's not like it isn't obvious or anything."
Skywarp, the very Seeker Starscream was talking about that, chose then to teleport into view. He shoved Starscream out of the way with a snarl before turning back to Perceptor.
"Percy!" The Seeker cried, briefly cupping the microscope's face with his hands before fluttering his hands worriedly around Perceptor's body. "Are you alright?"
"W-why yes. Yes I am. Although I am quite sore in the neck." Perceptor rasped, confused but thankful for Skywarp's timely rescue.
Skywarp's optics narrowed seductively. "What me to kiss it better?" He purred, leaning forward to nuzzle against the microscope's neck.
Immediately Perceptor tensed. "Ah! Please, um…. P-please don't!" Perceptor blushed, frantically looking for an escape route. "That is… may I inquire about something? W-were you the mech who has been leaving me gifts?" He stuttered, hoping to distract the Seeker.
"Maybe. Didja like them?" The Seeker replied, breath brushing against a sensitive neck cable and making Perceptor shiver.
"Yes, um, I enjoyed them immensely."
"Really?" Skywarp perked up, excited. "I'm really glad you did-"
A laser shot flew over Skywarp's head. A strangled shriek of "Skywarp!" signaled that Starscream was not amused by the way his trinemate had treated him.
The Decepticon second-in-command strolled into view, null rays trained on Skywarp. "I am your superior in every way, Skywarp!" He screeched. "What makes you think that you can just throw me aside like that, you fool?" He shot again, missing as Skywarp teleported away. The Seeker reappeared behind Starscream, putting him in a chokehold. The two collapsed in a snarling heap, punching and kicking at each other.
Perceptor wasted no time, sprinting back to Ratchet's makeshift hospital, his hands covering the enormous blush that would not recede from his cheeks.
Agh, these two are so flippin' cute. Just warning you, you might explode from cuteness in the next chapter. So cute.
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