-1Drone

Chapter Six

Medical Emergency

Bumblebee did the only thing he could still do: he retracted the seatbelts, with assist from Sam and Mikaela who had, only seconds after him, realised that Bumblebee was transforming. Bumblebee was thankful that one of the earliest stages of his transformation involved the doors opening and his roof folding back. Pushing against his friends as hard as he could he ejected them from his interior as it reconfigured. He was just in time: had he taken much longer, they would have been crushed as his interior twisted and rearranged as he assumed robot form.

Sam and Mikaela landed on opposite sides of the road, Sam landing on a grass verge and Mikaela rolling against a dividing barrier, both letting out pained grunts as they landed. Traffic swerved and horns blared as the traffic found it's way blocked both ways by Bumblebee's legs. Curses and exclamations were let out, and Sam took advantage of the confusion to zigzag between the halted cars

and rush to assist Mikaela. Like him, her face and hands were a mess of scrapes and spots of blood.

"What the Hell? What's he playing at, Sam? He could have killed us!" Mikaela said, half in shock, half in anger.

"Mikaela, you know Bumblebee. He would never endanger us like that willingly! Something's wrong!" Sam looked up at his yellow Autobot friend, who had moved over to the same side of the road and was staring at them both, pain and fear visible in his blue optics.

"Bumblebee, Mikaela, we can still walk to the base, but I think we'd better do so behind those trees." Sam said, pointing to the shrubbery planted the other side of the fence. The land beyond appeared to be farmland, and this field, at least, had a border Bumblebee could walk in, so he shouldn't destroy too much of the crop in the field.

Bumblebee swiftly slipped behind the cover of the trees, although he had to crouch to not be seen above them, and after climbing over the fence, Sam and Mikaela joined him.

"I'm calling Ratchet to let him know to expect us." Sam said, doing just that on his phone, for the Autobots had arranged this facility in case the humans needed their assist.

"Sam, it's Ratchet. What is it?" he asked.

"It's Bumblebee. He can't speak, his radio's down, and he transformed without warning to robot form, only just managing to throw us clear." Sam explained. "You know Bumblebee, he wouldn't do that if he could help it, and he looks scared if you ask me."

Sam explained.

"We've got him out of sight and we're heading towards base. We can ask him yes/no questions, getting him to respond by nodding his head." Bumblebee nodded at Sam upon hearing this, to confirm.

"Can he transform back into his disguise?" Ratchet asked. Sam repeated the question to Bumblebee, who obviously tried, optics dimming, but after a moment, he shook his head.

"No." Sam told Ratchet.

"Head for base but keep out of sight. I'll get my diagnostic instruments and repair area ready to receive him, then I'll come out to meet you. This sounds serious, and your mobile signal isn't too far." Ratchet signed off, and Sam repeated what Ratchet had said to Bumblebee and Mikaela.

Bumblebee shifted until he was on his hands and knees. Sam and Mikaela went, one either side of him, resting hands on the hide of their friend, who although he tried to put a brave face on it, still occasionally shook a little.

Wanting to reassure him, but not knowing what to say, they walked beside him, occasionally patting or stroking the smooth metal arm they were touching.

The drone moved quickly now, the need for stealth abandoned, scrabbling down inside Bumblebee's body cavity, having turned his transformation circuitry into nothing more than twisted wires, shorted chips and melted blobs of plastic and metal. It skittered downwards now, heading for his torso/hip juncture, where many wires and sensors came together and linked up. As it went, it used it's micro laser to shoot at a few more structures as it passed, not destroying them completely, but damaging them badly enough to ensure it was painful.

Upon reaching the junction, it located the sensory and locomotor cables, severing the latter and slowly damaging the former. It would destroy them eventually, but would do so slowly and painfully.

It had been specifically designed by Starscream to torture its victim while slowly destroying him.

Bumblebee came to an abrupt halt as two things happened-he felt himself losing control, over his legs, as his hip area and thighs erupted in white-hot pain. As he fell, he shoved Sam - who was under him - to one side, and again, had he been able to scream, he would have.

Sam was dialling Ratchet as he got back to his feet.

"Sam?" Ratchet answered.

"It's Bumblebee! He's got worse, he's just fallen over, his legs are jerking, it doesn't look like he has any control over them, and he's writhing. If he were a human, I'd say he's in agony, but I don't know."

"We're not so different, Sam, he probably is. Don't get close enough that he accidentally harm you, but try and tell him that I'm on my way, and so, now, is Optimus, to transport him back to the base." Sam heard Ratchet's sirens start up on the phone, but realised he could hear them over the distance too, getting closer. Mikaela climbed back over the fence, waving as the greenish-yellow S&R vehicle came into sight.

Ratchet barely slowed, transforming into robot form and stepping over the tree line, kneeling by Bumblebee and initiating a scan. He caught Bumblebee's shoulders, trying to soothe him, murmuring comfortingly in what must have been Cybertronian. Bumblebee stilled a little, looking up pleadingly at Ratchet, who burst into another string of Cybertronian as his scan results came back. It sounded angry rather than comforting this time, and Sam had an idea that whatever Ratchet was saying wasn't likely to be very polite.

"There is something untranslatable in there actively destroying his untranslatable systems!" he said. "Bumblebee, there is little I can do here, I need to get you to base, Optimus will transport you. I can't repair your systems out here, nor permanently shut this thing down while it's in you. I can do some damage limitation, but I'll have to offline you." Bumblebee nodded, then writhed again, and Ratchet winced.

"Judging by that, offlining you will be a mercy." he said. Reaching under one of Bumblebee's back plates, he fiddled with something, and Bumblebee's optics dimmed and went out as his body stopped writhing, although his legs still twitched.

Grasping Bumblebee's leg in one hand and laying his other hand on Bumblebee's torso, he instructed Sam and Mikaela to stand back. They did so, and Ratchet sent an electro-magnetic pulse through Bumblebee's systems.

The drone had almost finished destroying the cluster of wires and circuitry that moved Bumblebee's legs, and was continuing to slowly and painfully sever the sensory cables when the electro-magnetic pulse discharged through the host washed over it.

Starscream had been thinking forward when he designed it, for it had EMP shielding armour, but this didn't stop the effects of the pulse entirely, just lessened the effects. The drone jerked as it was hit, and rolled up, tail-over-head, temporarily deactivated. The other addition Starscream had built in - auto-repair circuitry of its own - activated.

It would soon be back to carrying out it's pre-programmed orders.

"I hope to Primus that slows down whatever is causing this." Ratchet said. "I sent an electromagnetic pulse through him, it shouldn't be strong enough to destroy Bumblebee, but hopefully will knock out for a bit whatever the frag is causing this!" He looked up.

"Could somebody go out and watch for Prime? The quicker we get Bumblebee back to the base, the quicker I can get treating him."

"I'll go." said Mikaela. She climbed over the fence and was gone.

"Is Bumblebee going to be all right, Ratchet?" asked Sam, tears in his eyes.

"I hope so, Sam, I really do, but until I get him back to base and my operating area, I really don't know." Ratchet told him. Still crouching, he gathered the inert form of Bumblebee tenderly into his arms.

"Come on, Prime, move your aft, we need you here now!" he muttered, almost to himself.