Chapter 54: Exhaustion

Moonracer was a relatively new teacher. She'd been a teaching assistant for snipping with Bluestreak at the Autobot Academy in Praxis up until 3 ano-cycles ago, when she'd been transferred to the Iacon branch to strengthen their snipers, as well as teach a few classes for guerilla-warfare, raiding, discipline and a special ops class on energon detonation. Despite this, she didn't feel as though the other professors took her seriously, thinking her too young or impetuous to teach. And it was times like these that she really thought they were right. A minibot in one of her classes looked extremely out of sorts and she didn't know what to do. He'd walked into class like a droid and hadn't moved from his seat since, even after the clock chimed and class ended.

"Cliffjumper?—Cliffjumper are you all right?" she asked nervously, shaking the small bot lightly by the shoulder. He looked like he was in a trance, his optics were dim, but his helm was warm and he was shaking slightly. The classroom had emptied out of all the other students, but Cliffjumper hadn't given them any heed as he continued to stare into space. "Can you hear me Cliffjumper? Finals were looming, but surely the bot couldn't be stressing over that! Cliffjumper did just fine in class and they were reviewing everything they needed to know.

"Huh?" Cliffjumper asked, snapping out of his trance. "What?"

"Are you all right?" Moonracer asked again, growing more concerned. Cliffjumper wasn't her best student, or her most active, but he paid attention in class and performed well on tests. He was diligent if nothing else and this was very out of character for the mini. He usually took his seat, took notes and listened silently to her lectures, but he never just sat there staring off into the distance!

"Oh, yes" Cliffjumper said simply, nodding once and gripping his helm sharply. That little move made his processor throb. It'd been pretty bad that morning, he had had a lot of trouble getting out of bed and his breakfast cube had made him queasy. He'd walked to class like a zombie and had sat as still as he could in his seat. His head ached and he felt heavy, tired and short of breath. He'd ended up zoning out of class completely! "Sorry about that" he mumbled quickly. "I have to go." He added, packing up his blank note pad.

"I think you should go to medical." Moonracer said softly, trying to make it sound like an order, though it didn't even come close. "I'll help you get there." She added, a bit more strongly, holding out her servo to help Cliffjumper out of his seat. She was just a little taller than him.

"No, I'm fine. Thank you" Cliffjumper replied simply, standing up on his own and moving for the door. After a few wobbly steps his vision suddenly started to blurr. He refused to let that stop him though, and continued for the door, even as the room started spinning. Suddenly a heavy jolt fritzed his systems. He just managed to grip the doorframe before everything went black and he collapsed against the wall.

"Scrap!" Moonracer yelled, moving to the minibot's side. She had no experience with medical besides basic first aid and gun related injuries, and Cliffjumper didn't look like he was bleeding so it had to be something with his spark or code! She had to get the mini to medical!

Before she could lug him up however, a voice yelled, "Don't jog him!" Looking up, she saw a medic, and thanked Primus above as he came over to examine Cliffjumper. "What happened?" he asked her.

"He just collapsed!" she said quickly.

"Does he have any previously existing medical conditions?" the medic asked, transforming into his vehicle mode and magnetizing Cliffjumper into him.

"Not that I know of, but I'm not that close to him." she said quickly.

"Alright, I'll take him to medical. Go back to your class." He said briskly before taking off, leaving a concerned and brushed off Moonracer in his wake. I really need to take some medical classes she thought to herself.

The medic on the other hand was cursing up a storm as he rushed past some idle students. Figured he'd get himself caught into something stupid on what was supposed to be a break! He just came to get some maintenance on his ship and visit a friend, not to worry about some mini. Speaking of the mini though, his scans had to be glitching. The mini's spark energy was acting in a way he'd only seen a handful of times before. It was running faster than normal and reaching out to his other systems, forcing them to try and keep up. There could only be one explanation for this kind of reaction…

Cliffjumper woke up to the familiar beeping of a medical monitor. Quickly onlining his optics he groaned and rolled over on his side as the bright lights blinded him. "Ugh Primus why me?" he muttered under his breath.

"Finally awake kid?" a gruff voice suddenly asked him. Onlining his optics slowly this time, he looked up to find a red and white 256-OZU-004 mold bot, obviously with some ano-cycles on him. He was a medic according to the signs on his shoulder plates, with a broken crest and a missing piece on his arm plate where he could see the wiring underneath.

Cliffjumper blinked back at him in surprise. He had gotten so used to Percy or Wheeljack that he really wasn't expecting this new bot. "uh, yeah…who are you?" He asked simply.

"Ratchet." The bot said gruffly.

"What happened?"

"Well, you're about to tell me." Ratchet replied, propping himself against the neighboring berth. "What is it? Syk? Simultronics? Crysmag?"

"What?" Cliffjumper asked, way beyond confused.

Ratchet, figuring the bot was just playing innocent, angry asked, "What are you using!?"

Cliffjumper stared at the bot in shock, torn between laughing and screaming. The latter won out. "I'M NOT ON DRUGS!"

"Your spark showed very unusual activity during the scan, it's running too fast and it throwing all of your other systems out of sync. Now tell me!" Ratchet said with the growl. He couldn't stand these messed up glitchheads that fragged up their own processors with junk for a few micro-cycles of whatever the frag they wanted. Arcee, a femme he'd met during the Great War, was basically an empty husk, processor wiped clean. If anyone deserved a working processor, she did, but here these fraggers were throwing them away! It pissed him off!

"I'm not on drugs you Glitchhead!" Cliffjumper yelled back, "It's a medical condition!" He suddenly noticed the spark monitor spike up. Inside his chassis the sparkling was trying to wrap itself around his frantic spark, trying to calm him down. He was stressing out and it was freaking out the sparkling!

"What's the condition? Stupidity?" Ratchet growled back. Glaring at the old bot, Cliffjumper bit his glossa, trying to take deep breaths and trying to get his systems flowing smoothly, like Yoketron had taught him. The sparkling was more important than this old cog! Stepping off the berth, he reached to pull himself out of the medical monitors, only to have his servo gripped in a magnetic field. "And where the frag do you think you're going?!" Ratchet asked with aggravated disbelief. This little punk actually had the nerve to just pick up and leave!?

"There's nothing wrong with me." Cliffjumper said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, because it's completely normal to faint in the middle of hallways!" Ratchet replied sarcastically, before lifting the bot entirely with his magnetism and dropping him back on the berth.

Cliffjumper sat up with a growl! "Primus Mech! Let me go!"

"You aren't going anywhere till I know what's wrong with you!"

Rolling his optics with a frown, Cliffjumper reached for his comm. link, only to hear static. He tried again, but got the same result. "You shut off my comm. link?!" Cliffjumper asked in disbelief. No medic had ever shut off his comm. link!

"I had to shut down every system to see what your spark was doing!" Ratchet explained quickly. "who are you trying to call, your fake medic buddy?

"Call Perceptor and Wheeljack." Cliffumper replied, trying to keep the growl in his voice to a minimum.

"What?" Ratchet asked, surprised. Why in the name of Primus would the kid ask for the two top scientists on Cybertron? How did he even know them!? "Why?"

"They're my doctors, call them and they'll explain the situation."

"How the frag do you know them?"

"My medical condition."

"And that would be?"

"Would you please just call them!?" Cliffjumper begged angrily, clutching his helm. He could already feel his processor heating up for another headache, making him feel dizzy.

Sparing a glance at the medical monitors, Ratchet noticed the red mini's spark rate. It was spiking erratically. "Alright." He said gruffly, tapping his comm. link to call Wheeljack. Better not to risk it if the kid was telling the truth.

:Ratchet!: Wheeljack greeted, :You're back!:

:How'd you know?: Ratchet asked, a bit surprised. He'd just pulled into the base that morning. He had been on his way to see Perceptor and Wheeljack when he'd found the kid.

:Me and Percy got word that Omega was back, a bit surprised you didn't drop by to see us though:

:That's actually why I called. I got a kid here that says he'd got some medical condition you two know about. He won't tell me what it is.: Ratchet grumbled, glaring at Cliffjumper as he took deep breaths, optics on the spark monitor. From the looks of it, the little hot head was trying to calm himself down.

:…is he a red minibot?: Wheeljack asked with dread.

:Yeah...you actually know him?: Ratchet asked with some surprise, he didn't think the kid was actually telling the truth.

: Where is he?:

: The medical bay:

: We'll be right there: Wheeljack responded, cutting the call.

Rachet ignored the smug look on Cliffjumper face as he rearranged his tools and waited for the two bots to arrive. Luckily, it didn't take very long. Hardly five klicks had passed before Wheeljack and Perceptor entered the Med bay, procured a private room and moved Cliffjumper there.

The mini went along with it without comment, more than used to the secrecy and sat by quietly as Perceptor and Wheeljack scanned and prodded him quickly. Once they were finished, Ratchet couldn't hold back his curiosity. "Well?" he asked gruffly, eyeing the special pad Perceptor had pulled out. It was obviously the mini's medical record and slag if his servos weren't itching to grab it.

"Exhaustion, brought on my stress and his medical condition." Perceptor explained, not even looking up from the pad.

"Which is?"

"Classified."

Ratchet growled at the microscope.

"Come on Percy, we can tell him. If anything he could help us." Wheeljack intoned with a smile. Perceptor seemed to think about it for a moment, before turning to Cliffjumper, leaving the choice up to him. Cliffjumper glared suspiciously at the bot, prompting Wheeljack to intervene again, "Trust me Cliffjumper, Ratchet is as good as they come, even if he is a gruff."

Ratchet folded his arms with a "Humph!"

Cliffjumper wanted to take Wheeljack's word for it, but he was far from convinced. He didn't know slag about this bot and he was supposed to trust him with his secret!? As he continued to stare, the sparkling began to flutter. Looking down at his chassis, he ignored the increased beeping of the monitor to try and feel what the sparkling was doing…it was reaching out to the other bot, sending a flood of warmth through his own spark. The sparkling trusted him…Cliffjumper moodily answered, "fine" while thinking to himself that the sparkling better have a good idea with this.

Perceptor handed over Cliffjumper's medical pad to the medic, who instantly began to scan it. His face grew more and more confused with each downward scroll. "You're carrying?" he asked with awe.

"His gestation period is almost over." Perceptor answered. "The sparkling has grown to the point that it is placing extra strain on his other systems. They are unable to keep up and it is exhausting him. The headaches come from trying to regain control over everything. This is the second time something like this has happened. We are hesitant to remove the sparkling any sooner than planned however."

"I can understand that, but at this point he should be staying in medical permanently, under observation. Even if he's got another few mega-cycles before the planned birth date—"

"No! I don't want to stay in the med bay!' Cliffjumper suddenly interrupted, before quickly adding, "I still have classes and finals! They symptoms don't occur often enough to be a problem, I know I can handle them!"

He didn't want to be stuck in a medical room any longer than he had too! He was still looking for clues of Galvatron's disappearance. After he'd figured out where Galvatron would have had to stay, he was able to narrow down which reports to read. Now he was looking for supply lists and trade details to try and find where materials like sparkling-grade energon and armor upgrades were being sent or bought. He didn't have much free time with finals closing in, but he was slowly but surely working his way through the data reports in the Archives. He also needed to work on a star chart to plot out possible locations. He couldn't be trapped in the med bay!

"I don't know Cliff…" Wheeljack murmured lightly, rubbing his neck, "It might be for the best, I mean, you haven't exactly been playing it safe recently."

"I haven't done anything on purpose!" Cliffjumper barked. "Wheeljack, I'll go crazy if I have to stay in the med bay till the sparkling comes. I'm taking it as easy as I can! The most strenuous thing I do is walk from class to class." He added with a small whine.

After sharing a look with Perceptor, the engineer shrugged in defeat, "Alright…but you're on light duty. No late nights, no matter how much studying you need to do. You sleep as often as you can, you eat regularly."

"And I must insist, that if another incident like this occurs, we admit you to the med bay." Perceptor added, leaving no room for argument.

Cringing, Cliffjumper nodded. Unless he wanted to be stuck in a berth, he'd better not push it anymore. He'd have to cut back on his micro-cycles in the Archives, but it was better than having no time there at all. "Alright. Can I go now? I'm kind of missing my classes here…" he asked, easing himself down from the berth.

"We need to check all of your systems again." Percepter intoned, picking up his scanner. The first scans were clear, but he wanted to go deeper just to be sure everything was really alright.

Smothering a groan and rolling his optics, Cliffjumper nonetheless sat back down on the medical berth.

"I'll leave him with you guys then." Ratchet declared, heading for the door, "I'm gonna go visit Arcee…" he added, optics dimming, faceplate softening into a sad affection.

When the bot was gone, Cliffjumper asked "Who's Arcee?" That soft look the bot had gained had surprised him.

After a moment's pause, Wheeljack answered softly. "She's a permanent inmate. She suffered a processor wipe during the Second Great war. Ratchet sort of blames himself for it since it was his EMP generator that caused it."

"Oh…" Cliffjumper said softly, staring at the door the bot vanished behind. "Permanent as in…there isn't a way to cure her?"

"If there is a way, we haven't found it…"Wheeljack mumbled.

Figuring it was a sensitive topic, Cliffjumper opted to ask about something safer. "How do you guys know each other?"

"You know anything about Project Omega?" Wheeljack asked as he inputted some data in a pad.

"Yes, we went over it last quarter. Giant guardians you invented to protect the Great Cities, right? Weren't they all decommissioned?" Cliffjumper replied, brushing off some dust from his chassis.

"Officially, yes." Perceptor explained, joining in the conversation. "Ratchet is the guardian of the last remaining Omega, Omega Supreme. The bot's processor is offline, but his body functions as a transport vessel. Ratchet takes care of it and often stops by for maintenance."

"No crew? What does he do?" Cliffjumper asked, a bit confused.

"He's like a traveling medic. He goes around to the smaller colonies providing medical care, delivering supplies and picking up any civilian bots that want to join up in the main branch."

"Sounds...exciting…?" Cliffjumper questioned. He wasn't really sure how to respond to a job like that.

"It suits him fine." Wheeljack added with a small chuckle. "He's a pretty solitary bot."

"And a very capable medic…He was right. Your body is under too much strain at the moment. Your systems are attempting to adjust to the sparkling's rapidly increasing size while preparing for the birth and maintaining your normal routine. It is too much at once. You are spending the night here." Perceptor declared. Adding, before Cliffjumper could speak, "No arguing. It's one night or the rest of your carrying period. No studying either. Your systems need the opportunity to right themselves. Rest and energon, understood?" he asked with a hard look.

"Yes…"Cliffjumper answered glumly.

"We will admit you to the med bay two cycles before your due date, just to be safe." The microscope added, leaving no room for argument as picked up his equipment and headed out the door. Cliffjumper groaned.

"Come Cliff, you can do this!" Wheeljack cheered, "It's only three mega-cycles now." With a carefree wave, he followed Perceptor, leaving the mini alone with his thoughts.

For a strange moment he wondered about Ratchet. If he loved that femme Arcee, and what it must feel like, to only have an empty shell. It sounded spark-breaking. Cliffjumper could see how he'd become so grumpy if that was how it was. And then his mind went to Galvatron. Was he going to be like that? Insane beyond recognition? A husk of his former self? His spark clenched into itself at the thought. Was it better that then death though? What if Galvatron wouldn't be cured, like Arcee couldn't be cured? What would he do then?

Shaking his head to get rid of the thoughts, Cliffjumper grabbed the remote control on his side table, clicking on the TV hanging on the wall. If he was stuck here, he'd just as well waste his time watching mindless cartoons or soap operas than worrying. He couldn't predict the future or how he'd act when the time came. He just had to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. But he was certain of one thing. He'd find out what happened to Galvatron, good or bad.

End chapter 54