The base was buzzing with excitement as Bumblebee and Bulkhead returned from the Arctic with a frozen metal pod. Ratchet was fuzzing, yelling and making threats at the Wrecker and the Scout as they tried to make up excuses from getting a medical check-up. Optimus walked over to the overdramatic medic, though he dared not to say that out loud.
"Ratchet, have you learned anything more about our arctic find?"
"Not yet," Ratchet gruffed, still fuzzing, "The pod can't be opened while it's frozen solid," Foliage groaned and rolled her eyes. She was sitting on the couch with her sister. The Autobots haven't dared question about why did Maple breakdown or why did they go racing. They didn't want to provoke the girls more.
"Arcee and I will search for any clue which might explain the origin of our arctic find,"
"Can we go?" Maple asked, standing up and stretching.
"No," Optimus said sternly, giving them a look, "You two are grounded,"
"What! What did we do?"
"You gave us a spark attack when you went racing," Jazz said sternly. He gave Maple a don't-even-think about it look. Cliffjumper joined, looking at Foliage right in the eyes. Foliage stared back, lifting her chin up in a challenging way. Foliage crossed her arms over her chest and glared right back.
Both girls were wearing a hoodie, zipped with grey sweatpants. Their hoodie was down and their hair was tied up in a ponytail. If it weren't for their eye color and their hair color, those two would be indistinguishable.
"Miss us, doc bot?" Miko piped up as she got her guitar out from inside Bulkhead. Ratchet grumbled.
"Shouldn't they be in school?"
"On Saturday?" Foliage snorted. Ratchet shot her an evil glare.
"We have the whole weekend off to spend with you!" Ratchet grumbled some incoherent words and got back to his medic work.
"I wasn't expecting to carpool,"
"What gives, Arcee?"
"Tag team, Jack," Arcee said, "It's my turn for exploration duty,"
"Oh, too bad," Jack replied, "It's a beautiful day for a ride. Would hate for you to feel guilty for leaving me indoors,"
"Arctic exploration duty,"
"Indoors where it's warm," The girls snickered at their roundabout convo. Foliage whispered something to Maple and she widen her eyes. Foliage gave her the thumbs up.
"Why don't you two get a room!" Maple shouted. Jack stared at her with wide eyes while Arcee gave them the look. Miko covered her mouth with her hands and giggled. Bumblebee and Bulkhead looked confused. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker snorted and hooted. Jazz and Cliffjumper smiled. Widely. Optimus Prime showed no emotions. Ratchet rolled his optics.
"Really?"
"The arctic? I've always wanted to see snow!"
"I would invite you to join, Rafael," Optimus said kindly, "But the conditions are much too extreme, even for we Autobots,"
"I understand," Raf said sadly.
"But I will bring you back a snowball,"
"That would be awesome!" Optimus Prime looked at him with kind optics.
"Transport complete," Ratchet said before widening his optics, "By the allspark!"
"So, what do you guys think we should do today?" Foliage asked, standing up.
"Video game tournament!" Miko shouted excitingly, "Last one standing wins!"
"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker! Here!" Ratchet called the Terror Twins, "Now!"
"Prepare to be destroyed," Miko said to Jack.
"Yeah, not really my thing, Miko,"
"Oh?" Miko taunted, "Scared of losing? To a girl?"
"Bring it!"
"No mercy," Jack noticed how sad Raf looked, "Hey, Raf You want to take on Miko for me?"
"Nah," Raf replied sadly, "I have stuff to do,"
"Hoo-yeah!" Miko yelled excitedly as the videogame started.
"You can't boss us around just because the boss is out," Sunstreaker complained.
"I need some heavy lifting," Ratchet said, ignoring him, "The ground bridge is down," Cliffjumper looked up in concern.
"Is she…"
"Optimus and Arcee made it through just fine," Ratchet said reassuringly, "It's bringing them back that concerns me. Now, remove those panels! Chop-chop!" The Terror Twins groaned but they got to work anyways. They definitely didn't want to face the infamous wrath of Hatchet. Foliage and Maple left the command room and ran after Raf.
"Temperatures sub-zero and dropping," Raf fake grunted, pushing against the air like he was in the Arctic.
"The wind is too strong," Foliage joined him, pretending to push against the wind beside him. Maple was right next to her. Raf smiled at them before looking steady ahead.
"Got to-get back. Too base!" he said in a commanding voice.
"Yes sir!" Maple said in a strained voice. Suddenly, a roundish robot with big cute eyes stepped out from the shadows.
"Hello? Where did you come from?" Raf asked, surprised. The autobots never said anything about pets. Foliage ran over and grabbed a big pipe.
"You want to play fetch?" she asked in a cuddly voice. The little round thing jumped up and down excitingly, "Good boy!" she threw it not so far away and the round thing ran after it, bringing it back to her.
"No! Don't eat that! You're gonna choke!" Maple said, panicking as the round thing started to chew and digest the metal pipe, "Or not," Raf went over and picked it up, cradling it in his arms.
"Let's go show this to the bots!" Raf said, his eyes shining as he looked down at his new discovery.
"Sure thing!" Foliage said, petting the round thing's head. Maple cooed and started making silly faces at the round thing as they made their way back to the control room.
"Hey, guys!" Raf called out. Miko and Jack turned around on the couch and looked at the kids. "Look at what we found!" Sunstreaker and Sideswipe took one look at and they drew their guns out, an angry and petrified look was on their face. Jazz and Cliffjumper stopped laughing at whatever they were laughing and their face turned serious, also drawing their guns out. Bulkhead jumped and Bumblebee's optics widen as he too drew his guns out.
"We're busy!" Ratchet said and he turned around, "Aah! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"
"Hey, hey!" Maple said mockingly, "What's with you guys?"
"Scraplet! Scraplet!" Bulkhead screamed.
"What's a Scraplet?" Foliage asked. Sunstreaker gave her a are-you-dumb look. Maple glared back at him.
"The most dangerous vermin ever to crawl upon the face of Cybertron," Ratchet said dramatically.
"This?" Raf asked in disbelieve.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Maple exclaimed.
"You're fucking giant robots," Foliage said gesturing to the round thing, "Scrappy here is Teeny!"
"You have no idea of the damage that teeny thing can do!" Bulkhead exclaimed, backing away from Raf.
"Aw, he wouldn't hurt anything," Raf said. The scraplet turned and saw Bumblebee. His sharp teeth showed through as he jumped out of Raf's arms and crawled on Bumblebee, chewing through his metal. Bumblebee frantically shook the scraplet off and Raf started to smash it with a pipe and he took back with him. Foliage ran up next to Raf and placed her hand shakingly on his shoulder, fidgeting her hand.
"Whoa, easy there, killer," she said. Raf stopped and took a deep breath.
"You'll make a fine gangster," Maple said jokingly. Foliage glared at her.
"Whoa," Miko gasped, running down from the hangar, "I did not see that coming,"
"I'm sorry, Bumblebee," Raf said sadly, dropping the pipe. He turned and looked at Ratchet, "Is he gonna be okay?"
"Only a mesh wound," Ratchet said, examining the wound, "He'll live,"
"Now do you believe me?" Sunstreaker said sarcastically.
"All Scraplets do is dismantle machinery and eat anything metal," Jazz explained to the humans.
"Especially living metal," Sideswipe said.
"Well, bug squashed, game over," Maple said, crossing her ars across her chest.
"No," Ratchet said gravely, "When it comes to Scraplets, there's never just one,"
"I think I know how they got in here," Cliffjumper said and motioned everyone to follow him.
"It's a trap," Sideswipe said, amazed.
"A Scraplet trap," Sunstreaker growled.
"Uh, an empty Scraplet trap," Bulkhead said nervously.
"Most likely ejected into space eons ago, only to wind up in the arctic, where the temperature kept them in stasis," Ratchet said as he inspected the empty trap and it's surroundings.
"Until we brought the thaw," Jazz said, pounding his fists together.
"Now they're wide awake and ready to brunch," Cliffjumper finished with a serious look on his face.
"So..How many are we talking about?" Miko asked, her eyes shining.
"Thousands," Ratchet said dramatically, "And the power malfunctions and ground bridge damage are sure signs that their infestation is well underway," the group made their way back to the control room, jumpy and aware for any scraplets that might be lurking around the base.
In the Arctic
"Arcee, what's your status?" Optimus asked the two wheeler, "My sensor's going off,"
"Guess we should call for pickup before things get chilly," Arcee said, hugging herself tightly. Optimus nodded.
Back at the Base
"Optimus to base, core temperature readings have reached the blue zone," Optimus's voice rang out clearly through the comm, "Prepare to activate ground bridge,"
"Ratchet to Optimus, do you read me?" Ratchet asked, "We have a situation!" when he got no answer back from any of the Autobots in the Arctic, he grumbled and furiously type on his computer. Cliffjumper's face fell.
"The Scraplets have gotten into the com-link system!" Ratchet said, furious, "If we don't eradicate these creatures immediately, they will reduce the entire base to a scrap heap!"
"I say we bug out of here and let them keep it!" Bulkhead said quickly, transforming into his alt mode.
"Evacuation is not an option," Cliffjumper said harshly, "If we don't get the ground bridge back online stat, Optimus and Arcee will perish!"
"They will?" Foliage asked, her eyes widening.
"Bulkhead, you never run!" Miko said, throwing her hands in the air.
"Miko, you haven't seen a swarm of these things devour a bot!" Bulkhead vented, "I have! They pick you apart from the inside out, going for the small, juicy bits first! Fuse by fuse, circuit by circuit, till there's nothing left, and I mean nothing! Not even your optics!"
"You have to let us help," Maple piped up.
"We're not made of metal," Foliage said, putting her hands on her hips. The Lambo Twins gave her a look.
"Yeah!" Miko said enthusiastically, "The Scraplets can't hurt us!"
"Typically, I find your fleshiness to be your least engaging quality," Sunstreaker said snarkily.
"But it would appear to provide an advantage under these extremes," Ratchet said, glaring at Sunstreaker and he placed his hand on his wrench.
"You're also cybertronians," Sideswipe said looking at the girls.
"Yeah! How come they didn't attack you?" Sunstreaker asked, crossing his arms. Foliage looked lazily at him.
"But the scraplet didn't attack us, didn't it?"
"Maybe their human forms shields them from the scraplet's radar," Jazz said, defending Foliage.
"He has a point," Ratchet said rushly, "But now we pair off, one bot, one human," The bots that had a charge paired off. Jack looked at the Terror Twins.
"I'll go with you?" Sunstreaker huffed.
"We don't need a bodyguard, squishy"
"Jack will be paired off with you," Ratchet said sternly. Sunstreaker grumbled something about not being helpless squishies.
"We'll watch your back while you repair the ground bridge," Foliage offered. She and her sister pulled out their guns from inside their hoodie.
"What about us?" Cliffjumper asked. Ratchet looked at them.
"Go pair yourself with Bumblebee and Bulkhead," they looked at the girls wielding their guns and did what they were asked to do.
"Woah!" Miko said, running over to the girls, "Where did you get those sick guns!"
"We always carry one around," Maple said, smirking.
"For emergencies,"
"Now is not the time for chit chat!" Ratchet yelled. Miko rolled her eyes but ran back to Bulkhead anyways.
"And we go on a bug hunt!" Miko said.
"Oh, boy,"
In the Arctic
"Optimus to base," Optimus said, stopping in the blizzard, "Do you read?"
"Are you sure a nice long drive wouldn't help?" Arcee asked, hugging herself tightly as she took every step against the raging blizzard, "I hear Miami's beautiful this time of year,"
"The nearest temperate climate is too distant, Arcee," Optimus said gently, "Attempting to reach it would expend too much energy and hasten the freezing process," Arcee shivered, "Until Ratchet sends for us, and he will, our best option would be to seek shelter and insulate ourselves," Arcee slipped and fell one the snowy ice. Optimus stepped back and helped Arcee up on her feet.
"Just a few more steps," he said encouragingly, "I see a cave ahead,"
Back at the Base
Ratchet leaned down as he pulled out the groundbridge part by part, examining the damage.
"You're not just a medic ya know," Foliage said, watching him repair the parts one by one.
"Hmm?"
"You fix people, make repairs, taking over in the dark times," Maple told him. Ratchet paused and looked at the girls questionly.
"Just saying," he turned back and continued with his work.
"Don't these things ever stop eating?" Foliage asked as she saw how much damage the scraplets made. There were big holes in each of the parts and layers he pulled out. They went after all of the important bits and pieces.
"How's it going over there?"
"I've repaired the damaged conductors and rerouted the central conduits, but the ground bridge still won't receive power!" Ratchet said frustrated. They heard a scream from the halls.
"Woah!" Foliage said, smiling widely, "I wonder who that was?" Maple snickered as Ratchet rolled his eyes. They didn't even need to guess. They knew alright who that scream belonged to.
Suddenly, scratchy noises were heard as scraplets poured over from the top of the walls. Their razor sharp teeth showed and some of them took off.
"They fly?!" Foliage said as she rapidly shot down the swarm of scraplets.
"You never said they could fly!" Maple said as she sniped those that were getting too close to Ratchet for her liking. One sneakily got pass her vision and started to chew on Ratchet's leg.
"Ratchet!" Maple exclaimed as she tried to shoot down the scraplet. Ratchet started to jump up and down, trying to shake off the scraplet as more attached themselves onto various places on his frame.
"The fire extinguisher!" Foliage suddenly shouted.
"What!"
"Just fucking get it!" Maple hastily grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it on Ratchet and the area surrounding him. The scraplets froze up and they dropped onto the floor like rocks. The rest of the bots returned to the control room with their respective humans.
"Ratchet, get the patch kit," Jazz said before he looked up, "We're leaking energon like...Whoa!" The scraplets took a look at the new arrivals and bared their teeth, attacking them in swarms. Foliage and Maple hastily shot at the scraplets.
"Ug!" Foliage said as she quickly examined her gun, "I ran out of bullets!"
"Me too!" The girls frantically picked up a pipe and started to squat the air. Bumblebee and the rest of the bots frantically shot at the swarm, not really caring if they hit or not because there was too many to aim.
"Eat this!" Bulkhead yelled as he punched the air with his wrecking sphere but when he saw that the scraplets had attached themselves to his sphere and his other hand, he started screaming like a girl," AHHHHH!"
In the Arctic
"Arcee, wake up," Optimus said as he shook Arcee's shoulders gently. Her blue optics flashed online.
"Just resting my eyes," she fibbed.
"The longer we remain alert, the longer we remain alive," Optimus said realistitly.
"What do you suggest?"
"Wait," Arcee nodded as she pushed her legs closer to her chasis.
"How about a game?" Arcee said sarcastically, "Let's play "who screwed things up back at base?" Optimus has a ghost of a smile on his face.
"Our predicament could be the result of a simple malfunction,"
"Caused by Bulkhead," she snorted, her eyes shining playfully, "Let's see. No com-link. Maybe even no power," she pretended to think for a moment, "The big lug probably tripped over a cord! He's never been too graceful," Optimus mentally laughed. Arcee may seem to be a distant bot be she has a sense of sarcastic humor.
"Remember when we first arrived on earth and Bulkhead walked into those power lines?" Arcee mused, "Who knew he could dance like that?"
"Bulkhead may be too large for this world," Optimus said, choosing his words carefully, "But his inner strength is without bounds. One should not be measured by size alone," Arcee nodded at his wise words. You could always count on the Prime to turn a bad situation into a good one.
Back at the Base
"We get them all?" Foliage said as she sprayed the fire extinguisher.
"Hardly," Ratchet groaned, "These were just scouts,"
"So, the rest of them know we're in here?" Maple asked as she stretched. Ratchet nodded.
"And if we allow ourselves to become their next meal, Optimus and Arcee will never make it home," Ratchet said as he forcefully pushed himself up, "We must get the ground bridge operational," Cliffjumper optics widen and he too pushed himself up.
"Then we can use it to send the Scraplets anywhere on earth," Cliffjumper said.
"Why not back to the arctic?" Jack said, "We already know they don't do cold,"
"Sweet!" Miko exclaimed, "One-stop shopping,"
"They're small," Jazz grunted as he pushed himself up and leaned against the monitor, "So they should freeze right away,"
"Think, Ratchet," Ratchet said to himself, "Think! If the ground bridge is still down, there must be a breach in the energon fuel line!"
"If we weren't breaching, one of us could get back over there and fix it," Ratchet said as he surveyed the damage the scraplets did on the Autobots. All of them were leaking energon.
"Where do we find it?" Foliage asked, putting on a brave face.
"And how do we fix it?" Maple said, putting on a stance.
"There's a piece of metal over there," Ratchet pointed, "And a fixing kit," Jack, Miko, Maple, and Foliage ran over and grabbed both ends of the piece of metal.
"Raf!" Jack called, "Get under and lift the piece up!" Raf ran over and got under the piece of metal and put both of his hands on the base and pushed upwards.
"Move towards me," Foliage directed as she and Maple started to walk backwards. The humans moved slowly but steady, moving into the hallway.
"Good luck!" Cliffjumper yelled out. Foliage nodded. Not far into the hallways, they hit the swarm of passive scraplets walking in the other direction. They all instinctively tip toed around the scraplets.
"Remember, we're okay," Jack reassured the humans, "We're not metal,"
"We are," Foliage playfully retorted. Jack sighed.
"Whatever,"
"There's the breach!" Miko shouted as soon as she saw the blue energon leaking from the long pipe.
"Come on," Jack said as they all gently lowered the piece of metal onto the ground, "We have to work fast," The humans got out their equipments and started to fire the metal piece to the breach.
"So, if we get," Sideswipe said before rephrasing, "When we get the ground bridge open, do we send the creepy-crawlies out or bring our bots in?"
"Optimus and Arcee will be fresh meat," Jazz said, "If we bring them in first, the Scraplets will have no reason to leave,"
"We'll need bait," Ratchet confirmed.
"Where are we gonna get bait?!" Sunstreaker said throwing his hands up, "The Scraplets already helped themselves to everything in here!" scratching sounds were heard as a swarm of scraplets broke out of the vents.
"They're getting ready to feed!"
In the Arctic
"You know the worst part?" Arcee said after a while, "After battling 'cons all these years, getting smacked down, shot at, blown up and this is how our lights go out?"
"Arcee, this may not be the finish that we had planned, but if this is indeed the end, if we are to become one with the allspark," Optimus left that line unfinished. Arcee filled in the blanks in her head.
"It's been an honor serving with you, Optimus Prime," Optimus acknowledged her statement with a nod.
Back at the Base
"Ratchet, all systems go!" Foliage said as she and the rest of the humans ran back. The scraplet swarms were swirling above their heads.
"Fire it up!" Maple yelled. Ratchet grunted as he painfully sat up again.
"Ground bridge... Activated," he slumped back down to the ground. The groundbridge was left open. Foliage looked and Maple and nodded at her. She nodded back. The both transformed into their bipedal modes and started t wave their arms.
"Hey bitches!" Foliage taunted.
"Come and get the main course!" the scraplets started to swirl down, preparing to attack the girls. They started to run into the groundbridge as fast as they can but the scraplets were faster, some of them started to attach onto their frame. They ran through the groundbridge and Foliage yelled out:
"Down! Down!" Maple came through and charged right into Foliage, causing both of them to crash into the snow. Optimus got out his gun, prepared to defend Arcee but before the scraplets could do any harm, they froze up. For the first time in human history, it rained frozen scraplets.
"I'd invite you in, but the place is a mess," Maple said, helping her sister up. The four bots walked back into the groundbridge and back to base. Cliffjumper and Jazz were up and pacing around the place like caged dogs.
"What were you thinking!" Jazz scolded his charge when he saw her walk in through the groundbridge. Maple gave him a lazy look.
"We weren't" Foliage shivered and took a seat on the crate that was in front of a circular tube. Optimus went and closed the groundbridge. Maple head over and sat next to Foliage, putting an arm around her for extra warmth. Foliage leaned against her sister, shivering as both girls transformed back into their human modes. Cliffjumper saw the nearly frozen Arcee and limped over to her.
"Are you ok?" Arcee gave him a pained smile.
"Better than ever partner," Cliffjumper helped her to one of the medical berths and lay her down. Optimus helped Bulkhead up onto the other medical berth. The Terror Twins were laying on the ground, next to each other.
"Report bio-circuitry status," Ratchet said.
"Levels are rising,"
"Excellent," he nodded, "Rafael, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro-pulse monitor," Raf ran over and took a look, "Miko, check bulkhead's interface patch,"
"It's steady!"
"Looking good!"
"Jack! Check Cliffjumper's servo!"
"Raf! Check Jazz's left leg!" Optimus leaned over.
"Perhaps you should get some rest yourself, old friend," Optimus commented, "You saved quite a few lives today,"
"It wasn't all my doing," Ratchet said, looking at the hard working humans, "We're just fortunate that this infestation happened On a Saturday.
"Our human friends may be small, but they are strong," a shrilling scream was heard from Miko. Foliage and Maple jumped, screaming as well.
"Scraplet?!" Jack said grabbing a wrench.
"Spider!" Miko screamed. Upon hearing that, the girls yelled even louder.
"Spider!" Foliage jumped up, "AHHHH… wait a sec,"
"It's a spider?"
"Is it on me?!" Miko yelled, running away from the scene, "Aah!" Get off!"
"Did she just scream like a little girl?" Maple snorted.
"Because she is one?" Foliage sighed and ben down to pick up the spider.
"May I ask what Miko was so afraid of?" Foliage turned around and showed the spider to Optimus.
"It's called a spider," Sunstreaker turned his head.
"Let me see!" Foliage went around and let everybot take a good look.
"Seriously! That squishy was afraid of a thing tiny as this?" Sunstreaker snorted.
"It's a real fear that some humans have," Foliage said seriously.
"It's called arachnophobia," Maple added, "There are some sever cases of this condition that caused the person to have a heart attack and died just because they saw one,"
"Is it that serious?" Ratchet asked, his medical side turned on.
"It different for every person," Foliage shivered and her eyes glazed over, "I'm gonna to go rest," she hugged herself and started waddling into the hallway. She suddenly felt a tingling feeling throughout her body. She turned around and looked at Ratchet.
"Did you just scan me?" Ratchet nodded, looking at his results.
"My scans shows that your body is at the right temperature, you shouldn't be cold,"
"You scanned me?" Ratchet nodded. Her eyes glazed over even more and she started to noticeably shake and she hugged herself even tighter. Maple rushed over and gave her a firm hug.
"What is wrong with her?" Maple glared at Ratchet.
"Nothing," she said and whispered some things to Foliage. She carefully lead Foliage back into their room with one arm wrapped firmly around her. They closed the door to any questions that might have came their way if they stayed.