disclaimer: me: muwahahaha -- i own everything!
sister's e-mailed response: that's as stupid as the time you tried to convince me the christmas decorations were hallucinations.
me: ...spoil my fun will you.
warnings: battle violence
Replacement: Roads -- Turning Point part one
Never before had Scorponok actually been glad to see Ironhide. Not unhappy by his presence -- sure -- more than happy to torment him if he was there -- most definitely. But happy to see him because it meant the Autobot weapon specialist was here and not somewhere else -- this was a first.
Not that Scorponok had a lot of time to ponder it. Ironhide came and wedged himself into the scant cover provided by a small dip in the landscape and some rocks. He provided cover for the injured Prime and sniped at the three Decepticons overhead -- what Scorponok had been doing, but Ironhide was better suited for it.
One of the jets brought himself to a transforming landing just outside Ironhide's range and immediately collapsed into a tank form -- a triplechanger. Scorponok thought it was probably Blitzwing -- one of his former masters had served with that 'changer a long time ago -- but he couldn't be sure past the unfamiliar angles of his new alt forms. Scorponok burrowed, using his sonar to map what parts of the ground he could dig through, and left to confront the sniper-tank, leaving his master's safety-from-the-seekers with Ironhide.
He may not trust Ironhide not to hurt him without Prime there to stop him, but Ironhide's loyalty was to Prime. He could trust the black mech would do all he could to protect his master. And someone had to at least distract Blitzwing.
His sensors registered the arrival of two ground vehicles and he surfaced out of the sand just long enough to identify the newcomers. Autobots -- Ratchet and Bumblebee -- moving to engage Blitzwing. Good.
Back beneath the sand, he heard Blitzwing leave off trying to play sniper-tank with Ironhide to engage the other two Autobots.
Now that he knew them, Scorponok's seismic and vibro sensors kept track of them effortlessly. Neatly Scorponok approached under Blitzwing. Busy, the triplechanger didn't realize his danger.
Just as he was transforming from tank to primary form, Scorponok leapt from the sand and latched onto a part in the process of becoming a leg, jamming his tail into his target. Caught mid-tranforamation, the strike did a lot more damage to the heavily armored mech than little Scorponok otherwise could have.
Jet engines screaming in rage, Blitzwing smashed his fist into the drone, sending the smaller 'bot flying
He hit the desert floor hard and in that moment of recovering from the blow and righting himself, Scorponok saw a seeker start to angle in low to get a good shot at his master and Ironhide.
No. No. No. Scorponok burrowed -- he needed to get in front of the seeker. He was not going to let this happen.
In his element, under the sand, it was hard to keep targeting on the seeker. Scorponok was not designed to attack flyers. The difficulty was compounded by the overwhelming vibrations of the jet engines working as close to the ground without touching it as this seeker's were distorting the input he was getting from his vibro sensors.
Thrust. This had to be Thrust -- he was the only seeker Scorponok knew of who had been modified to hover and crawl through the air in his alt form the way this one was doing.
Didn't matter, but if this was Thrust...
Scorponok leapt. The seeker lurched in the air under the sudden added weight. He scrambled, trying to latch on to the mech. When he thought he had the best possible grip, the best angle, he struck with his tail, aiming for Thrust's VTOL engines.
Close, but a miss. Thrust started to pull up, to the sky and Scorponok pushed away, allowing gravity to take him back to his element.
From beneath the sand, he could tell that only the Autobots were on the ground. He shivered back to the surface near his master to get a look at the Decepticons in the air.
Blitzwing was gone. The two seekers were circling. Without the triplechanger's support, there were unwilling to come back into weapons' range of the Autobots. But they were also less willing to retreat and face Starscream.
Ratchet moved to begin treating Prime's injuries while Bumblebee, Ironhide and the now arrived Cliffjumper kept their stand off with the seekers. Finally the Decepticons got bored of circling and flew off, leaving the Autobots alone in the desert.
Dimly he heard the Autobots takling around him and sensed transmissions as they contacted various humans, trying to arrange for a place to finish repairs and allow Prime to recover. Ratchet yelled at them that he was trying to concentrate, Primus fraggit. Scorponok didn't care. He had optics only for his injured master.
He crept closer until he could press himself against Prime's less injured side. Ratchet paused to give him a wary look -- of all of them Ratchet had the best reason for wariness; he'd managed to see what Scorponok had always kept hidden and to this day the scorpion drone didn't know why the medic kept it secret -- but allowed his presence.
Around them there was arguing and stomping, but none of it mattered. Not until he was yanked away from his injured master by his tail.
He screeched and tried to dig into sand, then twisted up to bite the 'bot who held him. Cliffjumper did not let go. He shook his captive somewhat viciously.
"Stay away from him, Decepticon scum."
Scorponok writhed and struggled and shrieked in the orange 'bot's hold. He shouldn't have. He knew that. He should have submitted and hoped that Cliffjumper would be content to hold him captive or that his docility would earn him some help from Ratchet or Bumblebee. Instead he fought, and no one would aid.
He master was hurt. He needed --
"Put him down, Cliffjumper."
The hands he was fighting with, shrieking and struggling, stilled. "Sir, what?"
"You heard just fine, fragger. I said put the Primus fragged drone down."
Still struggling, Scorponok noticed only another lurch when Ironhide yanked Cliffjumper off balance, then grabbed the smaller mech's hands and forced them open.
"Now -- go guide the humans here."
"But --"
"Scat!"
Back on the ground, Scorponok scrambled back to press himself against his master again. As close as pysically possible, he let out a short burst of navigational sonar and it came back with a picture of Prime's injuries. He wasn't a medic and they were unlike anything he himself could inflict. He couldn't tell --
"Stop that, slagger," Ratchet growled at him, "I can fragging hear you."
Making a series of vibrating clicks, Scorponok obeyed. If the medic decided he was in the way, he wouldn't be allowed to stay. He contented himself to just listening to his master's systems hum with his vibro seensors.
So focused was he that he didn't notice when Ironhide sent Bumblebee on a patrol arc or when he ceased his own pacing. He did notice Ironhide staring at him though and hunkered down closer (if that was possible) to Prime.
The black mech stepped closer, focused on the drone. Scorponok wanted to back away, to burrow, to flee -- without his master's protection, Ironhide was terrifying -- but that would mean moving away from where he could hear Ratchet making repairs, hear his master's systems. Suddenly he regretted harassing the big mech. Maybe if he hadn't, Ironhide would -- but...
Conflicted he huddled there, optics on Ironhide, and shivered.
He didn't see Ratchet look up with a frown. Or notice the buzz of a private transmission before the medic returned to his work.
Ironhide crouched and reached out to Scorponok. He flinched. He couldn't help it. He never expected any gentle treatment from this mech.
"Ain't gonna hurt you." Gentle though is wat he was being, brushing his fingertips so lightly they barely touched Scorponok's armor. "Ya probably saved my life -- just wanted to thank you."
Then without so much as a hint of threat, he pulled away from the confused drone. "I understand you didn't do it for me, but still...thanks." And left, back to keeping watch.
No, he hadn't done it for Ironhide.
In fact, he wasn't really sure how he'd done it at all. Scorponok was not designed to attack seekers. Curled up on Prime's form, he ran the vairables through his processor -- angles, distance, speed, the slight scrambling of his sensors from the jet's engines -- that leap had been impossible. But he hadn't run the calculations at the time, just act.
It was .. very unlike him. For anyone else he would have run the calculations. For his previous masters, occasionally he had, and never worried when they were injured -- they would be repaired or not, and he had never mourned the loss, only the broken link. Never judged their lives worth more than his own.
But for Optimus Prime, who his creator had tried to program him to hate above all others, who hadn't even accepted the command link, Scorponok had attacked a seeker on the wing. Would give everything he'd managed to keep from his other masters, and he didn't understand why.
Even having been designed and programed as a servant, the concept of willingly giving more than was asked of him was foreign. And yet, now he realized that this hadn't even been the first time. They were small things, but he'd done them not out of fear of being punished or because they'd been asked of him, but because they'd make his master happy. He'd stopped transmitting the link request because it upset Prime.
He heard his master's systems move into a more stable pattern. Weak, but stable. He was gently shooed so the Autobots could move Prime onto the flat bed trailer the humans had provided. No one protested when he hopped up to ride with him.
Listening to his master's systems hum, Scorponok set his alarms to go off if they deviated from a stable patten. Driving next to the trailer, Ratchet was obviously watching them both.
fini
notes: part two of "turning points" is finished and in the typing and editing phase. technically they're still two different ficlets, but they only consented to be written if i wrote them simultaneously and then when i tried coming up with titles, they informed me that of course they had the same title, dummy. i think i'm going crazy. it'll be up in a few days.