For The Race – Seeker Shenanigans
Chapter Eight.
A/N: Ironhide and Ratchet are their movie colours, the rest unless otherwise mentioned are in their G1 colours, because, let's face it, the G1 patterns and colours are pretty!
When the black and purple Seeker grabbed Sam and took her into the sky, Mikaela could do little more than shake her fist and yell "Let her go!" Whether he did not hear her or chose to ignore her she was uncertain, but whichever it was, the Seeker did not comply.
As she watched, unarmed and helpless to interfere in what was going on, she saw the other two Seekers approaching. As Starscream took possession of Sam from the first Seeker, Mikaela remembered she had her cell on her. Pulling it from her pocket, she watched as Starscream spiralled up into the air with Sam, then called Ratchet, who had adapted himself to receive cell signals, having wired a sim card holder into his communications system, bought a pay as you go sim, and installed it. He did admit the unsolicited texts from the network provider, and the odd wrong number could be irritating, but nothing he couldn't cope with.
"Mikaela?" the medic answered immediately.
"It's the Seekers, they've grabbed hold of Sam and are flying around the sky with her," she said.
"Where are you?" asked Ratchet.
"I'm at the Lookout," she said.
"Look, Mikaela, I'm going to ring off and call you back, the Army agreed to get me a contract, and I have unlimited calls in my package. When I call you back, stay on the line, I'm just going to call Ironhide." With that, he rang off.
As promised, five minutes later, he rang back.
"I'm on my way with Ironhide and the Lamborghini Twins, who have brought their jet packs. What's happening now?" he asked.
"One of them is holding Sam, two of them are doing some sort of aerial dance or performance. Oh, hang on, it looks like they're switching over, the two holding and one performing." A few moments later she said "The one is going off-" and then the rest of her words were drowned out by the twin bangs of a sonic boom. "Oh hold on, he's coming bac-" and then the sonic boom sounded again.
By now, Ratchet had tied the others into the conversation.
"That'll be Starscream, he loves to show how fast he is," Ironhide said, and Mikaela could hear the barely-suppressed anger in his voice.
"Well, if Sides and I get hold of him, we'll slow him down some," said the voice of the yellow Twin.
"There's another transfer going on, she's being held by one of the two, the other is – oh! He's disappearing – and reappearing – no, disappearing – oh he's back – no, gone again."
"Skywarp," Ratchet said. "That teleportation of his is unique,"
"It also makes him near impossible to catch," said the other Twin. "It's a right pain in the af-"
"Watch your mouth, Sides, there's a femme listenin'!" said the first Twin.
"Okay, afterburners then, though it's the Seekers that possess them, not us," replied the second.
For a while, Mikeala had nothing much to report, until she was nearly struck by a large clump of wet seaweed from above, much to her disgust. "I think he's showing off," she said "bringing her stuff from afar." Five minutes later she yelled "Oy! Cut that out!"
"What's happening, Mikaela?" asked Ratchet in concern.
"Apart from nearly getting brained by a fresh coconut, nothing!" she said. "It looks like they're just dropping the stuff, I guess it's how far he's travelled that matters, not the stuff itself." A few moments later she said "They're transferring again, the one who was bringing stuff is switching places, and one of the others is doing tricks now, and - Hey! Up there! Stop chucking rocks around!"
"By a process of elimination, I'd say that was Thundercracker, and Skywarp's holding her," Ironhide growled. "When I catch them, I'll rip them limb from limb!"
A few moments of silence followed, and then it was followed by a cry of alarm from Mikaela.
"What's wrong, Mikaela? We're nearly there," Ratchet said.
"It's the one who was holding Sam! He's dropped her!" she cried. "He just straightened up and dropped her!"
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
As Sam began to fall, she began to wish the AllSpark had given her wings. Her arms pinwheeled and her legs cycled uselessly as she plummeted towards the ground below. She opened her mouth in a scream, wondering what she had done or said to upset the dark Seeker.
There was a popping sound, and suddenly arms caught her from below and she was borne up. She clung to the dark figure, terrified of falling again. He spoke, and she recognised it as the same one who had dropped her.
"There, you see? I can go from place to place instantaneously. If something happens, if you need me, you need only call me and I will be there. My name is Skywarp, and here is my com code." Sam clung to him tightly, as his wide broadcast was registered by her communication system and his code was automatically logged by her memory.
"Skywarp, that was stupid!" Thundercracker said. "Look, she's frightened! You should have told one of us to drop, she could have watched safely in the arms of the other as you caught whoever volunteered to fall!"
"I'm sorry, Sam," Skywarp said contritely. "I promise never to drop you again, I got carried away."
"Er, can we deal with that next time, maybe?" Starscream asked, pointing down. "We're about to have company."
Skywarp and Thundercracker looked down, although Sam still had her face buried in Skywarp's shoulder vent and had nothing more on her mind except holding tight.
Below they could see a green form, a black form and a red and yellow form unfolding.
Backup had arrived.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
When Mikaela saw the Search and Rescue Hummer, the Topkick and the two sports cars arriving, she was sweating and ran over to greet them.
"The black one caught her again, but I don't know what they're planning next!" she said.
"Well, how's about we go up and have a little word with him about how to treat femmes, shall we?" asked Sunstreaker. Sideswipe nodded as they unsubspaced their jet packs and began to strap them on.
Ironhide growled and powered up his cannons. "You rescue Sam, then I'll blast the Seekers into the Pit, where they belong!" he growled.
"Cool it, Ironhide, they haven't hurt her, we should try negotiating first." Ratchet said. Ironhide raised his cannons.
"They can negotiate with my plasma bolts. I've had enough of them, bothering Sam. I warned them, and now they'll have to face the consequences!"
Ratchet watched on helplessly as the Twins launched off up into the sky, hoping that there was some peaceful solution to all this.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
"Look, let's put her back down and scram, we've made some progress, we can build on that later," Starscream suggested.
"If Ironhide lets us have a later," Skywarp said, "And if I can get Sam to let go of me, neither of which seems very likely at the moment. Whoever can get Sam to let me go can also take her down and give her back!"
"And get blown into atoms on the return trip?" Starscream asked sarcastically. "I volunteer not to do that! With your warping ability, it's far more likely you'll be able to succeed than either of us"
"Quit bickering, you two, we've got company incoming!" Thundercracker said, indicating the growing red and yellow motes that were the Twins approaching.
"No time to pry her off or drop her off, and too much progress made to lose," Skywarp said. "Grab hold of me and hang on, we've outstayed our welcome and it's time to leave!"
It was unusual for Skywarp to give orders to his two older trine mates, even more unusual for them not to challenge him about doing so, but this was one of those times. Both Starscream and Thundercracker moved over to Skywarp, who had his arms tightly around Sam, and they wrapped their arms around the black and purple Seeker and his small femme passenger and hung on tightly. Starscream stole a glance at the Twins, who were nearly there but must have realised the Trine's intention. He couldn't resist a sarcastic smile at the alarmed looks on their faces.
"Goodbye, Autobot nuisances," he said mockingly, and then with a pop of displaced air, Sam and the three Seekers were all gone.
On the ground, Ironhide watched the Seekers warp off with his frightened ward. He snarled, discharged his cannons into an empty bit of sky, then howled impotently in frustration and rage.
