Arcee paced back and forth, her processors trying to figure this out. Raf had called Jack's mother, June, who had rushed right over after her shift at the hospital. Being a nurse, Bulkhead suggested that she might be able to help them find a cure. Arcee thought that was ridiculous, but kept that thought to herself. June was stroking Jack's hair, "It will be alright," she said softly.
"Ok, um..." Miko said, pacing as well, "Does Ratchet like hook you guys up to some machine?" Bulkhead looked at her, as he was cleaning up Starscream's gash. The Seeker had regained consicousness, but he was obviously in pain.
"No," Bulkhead said, "Why can't we contact them? This isn't like Ratchet, or Optimus for that matter," Bumblebee nodded. Arcee stopped, rubbing what the humans called temples.
"I'm thinking," she said, closing her optics. June looked at Jack's arm, examining the black skin.
"You said it turned black when you touched the energon?" she asked. Jack nodded, "That's interesting," She ran her fingers over the black skin.
"Mom, don't!" He pulled his arm away, "I don't want you to get infected too!" June held up her hand. It was still the same color.
"I think it's only by direct contact. That stuff is in your blood. If I was to touch your blood, yes, I would get infected, but I only touched your skin," she said. Miko looked over. Raf was on his computer, typing furiously on his keyboard. He frowned, and Bumblebee leaned down, looking at the screen as well.
"I'm trying to find another to contact Ratchet and Optimus," Raf explained to Bumblebee, "Their com links aren't working, so either something is jamming it or..." He trailed off, but Bumblebee knew what he was talking about, "I can't...seem to...got it!" he shouted, surprising everyone, "I can contact them!" Arcee walked over.
"Quick. Tell them Starscream is in critical condition and Jack is now infected as well."
"Should we tell them we don't know what we're doing?" Miko asked, hands on her hips. Everyone looked at her, "What?"
"And say we don't know what to do," Arcee said, rolling her optics. Raf typed quickly on the keyboard, and hit the enter button. He sat back, and breathed out, "So now we wait?" Raf nodded, and looked at Starscream.
"We should check his spark beat," Bulkhead looked at all of Ratchet's tools.
"Uh..." Raf got up.
"Spark beat? Like, heart beat?" June asked. Arcee nodded. June walked over to the tools, and looked at them. She grabbed a stethescope, and walked over to Starscream. She placed the ear parts in her ears, and placed the part that she could hear the heart through, "Breathe for me Starscream," He breathed in, then out, "Again," He repeated the same thing, and she grabbed a piece of paper. June began writing stuff down, and took the stethescope out of her ears, "It's irregular," The three Autobots stared at her, confused, "It's beating on a weird pattern," She tapped her hand on the desk, demonstrating the pattern.
Thump...thumpthumpthump...thump...thumpthumpthump...
"That's weird," Miko said, not looking up from her game. June tapped her fingers on the desk, "Has Ratchet answered yet?" Raf looked at the computer screen.
"No," he said sadly. Arcee leaned against the wall, her optics closed.
"I'm going to go patrol a bit," she said, and transformed, driving out. June walked over to Jack, and checked his heart beat as well.
Optimus looked up, trying to find a way out of this hole. Ratchet was trying to communicate with the base, but he was having the same trouble as Bulkhead, "Nothing," Ratchet said. He turned to face Optimus, "Well, what do we do?"
"I don't know. I don't see any way out of here," Optimus said, "We can't climb the walls, and if my calculations are correct, the oil will be lit on fire soon," Ratchet leaned against the wall. The wall behind him began to crumble, and gave away completely.
"GAH!" Ratchet yelled, falling on his back. Optimus rushed over, and bent down.
"Ratchet, are you alright?"
"Of course I'm alright!" he huffed, pulling himself up. Optimus looked past him. Ratchet looked over his shoulder, "It looks like a tunnel."
"Where do you think it leads?"
"Anywhere is better than here," Ratchet stood up, and brushed himself off, "Come on. If we're lucky it will lead us to the cure."
Arcee came to a stop, and transformed. She walked into the forest, then finally fell to her knees. She felt helpless. She didn''t know what to do. Arcee hung her helm, holding back tears but they came anyways. She couldn't help Jack, and now he was going to die because of them.
"Crying again, are we Arcee?" Arcee froze, and slowly stood up. She turned around, and saw Airachnid behind her.
"What do you want?" Airachnid crossed her arms.
"You seem to have something on your mind."
"Like I would tell you anything," Arcee snapped, and began to walk away. Airachnid caught up with here, "Please, just leave me alone."
"I know about the tainted energon, and I know Megatron is going to use the distributor," Arcee stopped, "He knows what it does now, and he doesn't care if he gets infected, he just wants you and your little friends dead," Airachnid walked in front of her, "So that means I'll get infected too."
"And your point?" Arcee asked, crossing her arms.
"Let me help you find this cure," Arcee narrowed her optics.
"Funny, Knock Out said the same thing to Ratchet, and now we can't contact them. How do I know you won't do the same?" Arcee asked.
"You are right to be suspicious of me, considering our past, but I'm being honest with you Arcee. I've seen what that stuff has done to Starscream, and I don't want that to happen to me. How close are you to finding the cure?"
"Ratchet and Optimus are in Poland, tracking the location of the cure as we speak. But, we can't communicate with them. Something is jamming our systems," Airachnid nodded.
"You can use my ship to get a message across. Follow me."
Is Arcee making a good decision after what happened with Knock Out and Ratchet?
