Hello my lovely lads! It's been some time. I finally have finished all exams and am in my next semester so I'm hoping that I'll be updating more frequently now :) I honestly hope you guys enjoyed this because I love - LOVE - writing this story. I could do it for hours upon hours and days upon days. This story is my favourite so far, by far.
I hope you guys enjoy it, and please don't forget to review!
DISCLAIMER: I can not believe I forgot this in the last chapter, I don't know what is with me. Mythic (the new femme character introduced in the last chapter and will be in chapters from here on out) is MY own character. I cam up with her, her plot, and her name. She is 100% mine.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Laceburner groaned as she woke up, her joints feeling unoiled, her armor feeling infinitely heavier, and her head pounding so loudly you would think Grimlock had stomped on it, laid down on it, then kicked it as he ran off. She - with much effort - pushed herself over on to her back, taking a deep breath in before opening her eyes. Everything looked fine.
Until she stood up.
Then, the world around her spun like a bowling ball barreling down the lane. She lost her balance and stumbled back, tripping over her own feet, her back slamming against the side of the bed as she fell to the ground, her stomach churning furiously.
"Oh god." she groaned, grabbing hold of her head.
*(* Ratchet! *)* she sent over the public comm links, the only thing she could pull up without a scream-splitting pain searing through her brain.
There was an almost stunned silence for a second, obviously everybody being surprised she'd used it; all that did was make things worse. It made her more anxious, and ten times more nervous. She began panicking as she lost her peripheral vision, making it look like a tunnel. Where was the voice?
{:: Laceburner?! Laceburner, what's wrong? ::}
She groaned, unable to respond or do anything else, as her head pounded again, then the comm link seemed to... explode as it disappeared; she groaned as the pain pulsed through her head once again.
She finally managed to shove herself off the ground again, but the world around her gyrated again and she placed her hand on the wall to steady herself, which ended up not working. But she needed to get off the wall and over to the door, so she used the limited strength she could muster up to push herself off the wall, in the direction of the couch. Her feet stumbled, one in front of the other, and just before she could reach the couch, she rolled her right ankle and her left foot got caught around it, causing her to go tumbling forward. She lost her balance and center of gravity, spinning in a circle before the back of her hips hit the back of the couch, her momentum sending her over the large piece of furniture. She landed on her back, then folded over herself and landed on the ground, her legs landing on the coffee table. The sound of wood cracking resonated throughout the room as the weight of her frame, as well as the force of her momentum, caused the robot-sized oak coffee table to snap practically in half, leaving Laceburner laying there in a folded over mess on the floor, writhing in pain.
The door banged open, the lock snapping in half, the latch breaking off and landing on the floor with a 'clang' that made her audios ring louder.
Jazz walked in, his visor it's normal Autobot blue mixed with black as he looked around the room. His optics ran over the empty berth, the four pillows thrown all over the bed, the blanket strewn half on the bed, half hanging off. There was a hole in the wall from where Laceburner's servo had slammed into the wall to balance herself, before his optics finally landed on the folded up, shaking mess of black armor, her legs bent over her torso, covered in splinters of wood.
"I got 'er." he said aloud, obviously over a comm link.
She felt a hand on her shoulder as the other began pulling the remains of the coffee table off of her.
"Hey Lacey, i's me, Jazz. I'm gonna get ya to the Med Bay." he said, throwing the pieces of wood off of her, not watching them as they landed in front of the doorway to the bathroom.
He slipped his arms underneath her, picking her up off the ground. "I got ya, Lacey."
She groaned at his touch; it was hot, like someone set his hand on fire then made him touch her, and it made her head pound even more. If that was possible.
"We're comin' Ratch." Jazz said aloud as he walked out of the room.
Laceburner groaned again, feeling like she was about to throw up everything she'd ever digested.
"It's okay Lacey, it's probably justa bug." he said lowly. His chest vibrated in an attempt to help her, but it didn't help her. If anything, it worked in the opposite way, and her head pounded again. A tear escaped her eye, and rolled down her cheek and onto the floor.
The doors of the Med Bay slid open, and Jazz placed her on a bed carefully.
"Couldn't figure it out." he said lightly.
She groaned, tossing around as her joints creaked, feeling rusted through and old.
A tingle ran through her, and when she shivered her head felt like it was being slammed against a wall.
Where was the voice? It was never gone for this long at a time, especially when she was looking for it.
Something broke a vein in her arm, sending pain throughout her nervous system, and she cried out in pain.
"It's alright, Lacey. It was justa needle. Pain relievers." Jazz said.
She groaned again, and a blanket was placed over her. She tossed around in an attempt to get it off.
"Laceburner, it's either this or more armor. So lay there under the blanket and don't throw it- no don't!"
He sighed soon after as the black femme tossed around again, then grabbed the blanket-cover and literally threw it off of her with a cry of obvious pain.
"What's wrong with 'er, Ratchet?" Jazz asked.
"I should've seen it before." Ratchet mumbled angrily, cussing himself out for his lack of attention to detail. "Laceburner had no advanced firewalls. She had the basics that kept her safe back home, but on Earth the viruses e can contract are much, much more complicated. Her firewalls were able to hold them off long enough that had I been paying attention I could've upgraded her internal defense systems in time."
"So it's a virus? Is it bad?" Jazz sat down on the berth beside her, watching as she tossed around again.
Ratchet walked back over, picking up the blanket from the floor.
"Femme, lay down under the blanket or I will magnetize you to the berth." Ratchet grumbled, covering
her with the blanket again.
She groaned.
"Femme, you need it to keep your vents from over-chilling your joints. If that happens you won't be able to move." Ratchet said a little louder.
The incoherent Laceburner, thinking of nothing other than the pain she was in, moaned in pain and turned over as well as she could.
Ratchet tucked the blanket underneath her to keep her in there, and he heard her cooling vents stutter, before turning off. At least now her own frame wouldn't kill her by freezing itself.
"Will she be okay?" Jazz asked as he stood up.
"For the next day and a half, two days, no. She'll be in pain and incoherent, more or less, but I'll be administering antivirals into her system. That'll help diminish the virus, and she'll be back to her normal, shy self in three to four days." Ratchet assured.
He nodded. "Okay. I gotta head, Ironhide's scarin' the scrap out of the new recruits and who do we send to fix that? Me, that's who." he sighed as he left the Med Bay and the door closed behind him.
Ratchet walked over and closed the blinds of the window, dimming the lights to the point where if he dimmed them any lower he wouldn't be able to see his work, but Laceburner needed recharge so that her frame, along with the anti-virals he'd administered, could begin fighting, and lights and noise wouldn't help that. The sedative would help knock her out soon too.
He returned to his spot in front of the table, his tools sitting where they left him. Laceburner let out one final groan before he heard her oxygen intakes cycle and she finally fell into recharge.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Red and black armor scattered around the cement floor of the training room as one of Optimus Prime's best frontliners went scattered across the floor, in the opposite direction of where his Weapon's Specialist stood defensively, waiting for the young mech to get back up and charge him.
A large servo punched into the ground as the red mech stood up and his blades slid out from their secure compartments.
A few of the on-looking humans drew in a sharp breath, a few others gasped loudly, the majority of them just widened their eyes in fear. Who wouldn't? An eighteen foot metal robot-like being just slid two massive swords from his wrists, a sneer upon his face as his engine quite literally made a snarling sound.
He tightened his hands into fists as he ran at Ironhide, who managed to dodge his initial attack. Sideswipe swung his sword around, only for it to be met with a defensive block. Ironhide knocked his arm away, his fist moving to connect with Sideswipe's face. The red mech leaned back and the black just barely missed his face. Sideswipe was much more balanced, and he jumped in the air, kicking Ironhide in the face.
The massive mech stepped back to catch his balance, leaving Sideswipe able to kick one of his blasters off his arm. The Weapons Specialist growled at him, his protective nature over the massive cannons peeking through.
"Ironhide, enough." Optimus's voice rang throughout the training room.
The large black mech faltered for a second, his fist raising up to punch Sideswipe, but just before the blow could be dealt, Sideswipe lifted a hand to grab his fist and keep it away from his face.
Then Ironhide registered Optimus's word and pulled his arm free as he backed away.
"My paint." Sideswipe groaned under his breath.
There was a giggle and he looked up with a smirk, connecting optics with a light blue painted Mythic who stood beside Sunstreaker. The larger twin had his arms crossed, doing his best to not grimace. Whether they were fragging her or not, Mythic was close enough to scuff his paint, and Sunstreaker was making it painfully obvious he was worried that she'd ruin his finish.
He winked as she giggled again.
"Thank you, you two." Prowl nodded at both of them.
Ironhide went to stand beside Optimus and Chromia, and Sideswipe abandonned the training mat to stand beside his twin.
{:: Good job, Hot Stuff. ::} Mythic sent over a private comm.
Sideswipe smirked, but didn't respond as the training room doors opened and Ratchet walked in, dragging Mudflap and Skids by the audios behind him.
He dropped them in front of Optimus. "I caught them tampering with my equipment while I was working in my office."
Optimus sighed. "Ratchet, was that really so bad that they're taking an interest in the medical fi-"
"The equipment was in use. They had pulled it out of my patient's main energon line, where it had to be connected, and were attempting to put it back in, hoping I wouldn't notice. They injured my patient further than her previous state. Deal with it."
Optimus raised an eyebrow, glaring holes into their helms, which were lowered in embarrassment.
"Who did they injure?" he acquired.
"Lacey." Jazz said from his spot between Chromia and Arcee. "Ratchet had me bring 'er in."
"Yes. Laceburner caught a minor virus, so I was keeping her in my Bay until she healed. I now have to keep her there for an extra two to three days to repair her energon lines, which are practically in ruins. She lost ten percent of her energon from the leakings. They are a nuissance and will not be allowed into my Med Bay without injury soon." Ratchet snapped, turning and storming out.
"Who's Laceburner?" Mythic asked.
"Another femme. She has been here for about eight or nine months." Optimus answered monotonely.
"Really, another femme? The number is starting to even." Mythic smiled.
Arcee laughed. "Exactly."
"Alright, next we're doing hand to hand combat between a human and one of us. Robert Epps, you will be helping us." Prowl ordered.
The bald headed male human sighed. "Always me, why always me?"
Jazz snorted as he stood up. The two were always paired together in training. When he was first brought back, Jazz had been assigned guardian duty over Robert Epps and his wife and children for about three and a half weeks after Starscream had been spotted in the area. Since then, the two had gotten close. Not nearly as close as Ironhide was to the Lennoxs, but Robert's children were starting to recognize his alt mode whenever he pulled in to drop the soldier off at home. Shaleeka and Mozambiqua were the least fond of him, and both still refused to got near him, but Shareeka and Shaniqua had no problem getting close to him. His only son, Fred, was the only one willing and comfortable crawling inside and go for a ride however. His wife, Monique, was still wary, but not completely uncomfortable anymore. Plus, the man was comfortable working with him because he was the shortest mech fo the group; as he joked often, if he did fall from Jazz's shoulders, at least the fall to his death would be short.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
"Morning Laceburner."
The black painted femme groaned in response to whoever adressed her. She had an arm thrown over her head to block the light out, as well as keep her head warm. Her legs and her head had been colder than she ever thought possible, while her torso was hotter than a steam train on fire. This meant she couldn't have a blanket pulled all the way up. Her improvision seemed to be working fine however, with the blanket covering her legs up to her hips, while her torso remained bare, covered in nothing but her armor. Her arm was busy keeping her head warm.
"Can I look at your patching?"
It must have been Ratchet, especially when she heard the rough undertone in his voice, so she moved her other arm out from under her helm.
Yesterday, she'd been taking a nap and woke up to the feeling of.. dying, practically. It wasn't until she opened her eyes to see those twins there... Mud.. something and his twin. She was covered in what looked like energon, and there was an immense amount of pain originating from her arms. Once it registered with her that they were stabbing her, she screamed. Screamed like she never had before.
It scared the two of them, and Ratchet came from his office, only to lock eyes with them. Then, he magnetized the both of them down to a bed and patched her up. She wound up passing out again, he says due to the loss of energon in her systems. When she woke back up she felt like she'd been thrown against two walls, and laid there while they got closer and closer before squishing her; soon after, she was slingshotted over into a volcano and stomped on by Grimlock and Slug's feet.
Ratchet removed her arm armor and placed it beside her on the bed, and she felt him unwrapping the patch that he'd put on her arm to help stop the bleeding. The protoform underneath was still fairly raw and sensitive from the needle stabbing her so many times, but the pain had worn off and was replaced with a slight sting instead.
"It's still healing. Those fraggers did more damage than I thought they did. More damage than they've ever done to any Decepticon for us." He mumbled that last part under his breath, obviously not meaning for her to hear it, but she did anyways.
She moaned again as something chilled was and gooey was placed on her arm and smeared around over the sensitive area of her arm.
Watch for what he's putting on-
Oh shut up. she yelled in her head.
The virus she'd contracted had put some sort of.. block between her and the voice, which had both her and the voice panicking at the inability to contact each other. All it did was make Ratchet more curious and confused.
However, when she finally returned, so far it had just been annoying and nagging more than helpful. Maybe it was because she still felt sick and ready to throw up; maybe it was because the voice was in pain and just got naggy whenever it was in pain. Was it even possible for the voice to be in pain? Well, if it was simply a figment of her imagination, then yeah it would be logical for the voice to be quote on quote, "in pain".
Maybe she was just finally developing some guts and standing up for herself.
No, that wasn't it. Even with her extended comfort from her original appearance, she was still fairly shy and didn't often do something that required even a trace of bravery. To anybody.
The muscle in her arm twitched.
"Just me. I've got to reapply the bandage and rewrap your arm."
She stayed silent as Ratchet continued working, a pulsing feeling coming from her arm every fifteen or twenty seconds but her eyes stayed shut as she groaned.
What's he doing?
I don't have a care in the world right now, you make my brain hurt, shut up. she groaned in her head.
"The voice?"
It took her a second to realize it was Ratchet talking to her, so she groaned out a yes in response to his question.
"Don't fret about anything, I'm simply applying a cream to help your frame's self-repairing nanites with the healing process. I double wrapped your arm that way the planet's oxygen won't pierce your frame and oxidize the things underneath." he explained.
The voice settled down a little in her head, not saying anything else, but didn't feel totally comfortable.
{:: Hey Lace. ::}
She groaned out at the sudden joint comm that Mirage sent her. {:: What? ::}
Mirage chuckled. {:: Sorry, we didn't mean to bug you Lace. The mechs and I just wanted to say hope you feel better. Hot Rod's thinkin' of you 'cause we're playing video games. ::}
{:: Get better Lace. ::} Hot Rod said, {:: We miss you. ::}
She grunted at them again and the comm disappeared, leaving her alone with Ratchet in the room.
The two of them remained quiet as Ratchet finished working, which took longer than expected when Bluestreak walked in with an injury of some kind.
Everything was fine, and even nice and quiet, until the door opened and Laceburner heard a familiar laugh come barging in.
"For the love of the ever Holy Primus, what do you want Sideswipe?" Ratchet asked.
Sideswipe laughed again. "Come on Hatchet, we-
"Sideswipe! Shut up!
"Wh-"
"Because I said so! We need quiet in here right now."
She heard Sideswipe begin to say something, but a loud clang stopped him.
"She's why, idiot."
Laceburner groaned at the volume she was hearing and the way it made her head pound, like her head was a church bell and it was ringing to remind everyone that it was lunch time.
Can we just cut their vocal cords out? the voice asked.
Shut up before I stab myself in the head to shut you up.
She heard the chair beside her berth scrape against the ground, and almost yelled out in pain at the sound.
"Is this Laceburner? The new femme?" a light voice said.
"Technically, you're the new femme. But yes, this is Laceburner."
"What happened to her?" the femme asked.
"Her firewalls weren't strong enough to last against Earth viruses for a long amount of time, so she contracted something. She'll recover within a few days." Ratchet said.
Laceburner groaned. "Mm, shut up!"
"'Pologies."
After that, Ratchet went silent. Laceburner tossed and turned for a little bit, unable to find a comfortable position on the Med berth.
Something she never managed to find. These berths were the worst.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Voila! I say that a lot at the end of chapters XD I hope you guys liked it and I'll "see" you guys in the next chapter :)
