A/N: Boy oh boy, plague time sure is stressful, isn't it? Here's a semi-feelgood chapter that took too long to write.
The next day came, and after his usual morning routines, Megatron made his way down to the medical bay. What surprised him, however, was the distinct lack of medical staff, the only people there being Sammy and Gary, who was sat on one of the medical berths, dents and burn marks across his lower half.
"What happened here then?" Megatron asked.
"Accident during training. Flyboy here tried doing a bunch of tricks in the canyons, and one of his thrusters burnt out. Luckily, I was around to carry his sorry aft back here," Sammy said, throwing a side glance to her fellow Vehicon.
"Yes, and again, thanks. But we've been here for not too long, and Hook was here, but went off to get something to help repair me, and never came back. Won't answer his comms, either," Gary said.
"Hmm, I think I might know where the doctor slipped off to," Megatron said as he walked over to the very back of the medbay, and pressed the panel that opens up the now not-so-secret backroom. The lights flickered on as he entered, and he saw at the desk in the far corner Hook, with his face planted on a stack of datapads, fast asleep. Stepping over, Megatron gently jostled him awake.
"Huh, what?" Hook said groggily, rubbing his helm.
"I understand you are under a lot of stress, but please, do get some real rest so you don't fall asleep on the job."
"Oh, right. I was getting…" Hook reached across his desk, and grabbed the handheld scanner that he had misplaced. "This, for Gary's repairs. Unless you need it for anything?" he asked jokingly.
"No, go ahead, I shall wait here until you are done." Megatron said. As Hook went back to work, Megatron stepped towards the three medical-tanks, and input the code to defog the glass. It was funny, really, how the only thing that just might save them could only be found on the planet they had just so happened to be using all this time.
After some time, Hook returned to the back room, and took a hint from how Megatron was acting.
"You want me to prep them for their wakeup call?"
"Ideally, yes. However, only you know how much light energon we have. Do you think it will be enough for all three?"
"Well, lets see." Hook said, pulling up something on his datapad. "Slipstream should be fine with a similar amount to Skywarp, given they are roughly the same size and physiology. For Blitzwing, I think doubling the amount should work just fine. And Lugnut, well, pumping that massive mech full of the stuff should do the trick. So yes, we should be good on our reserves."
"Excellent. Then I shall get out of your circuits and let you get to work." Megatron said, as he left to occupy himself for the time being.
. . . . .
Given that there were about to be three thought to be dead Decepticons at Trypticon Base, Megatron went ahead and sent out a memo about them, and how they came to be onboard. Of course, he wasn't expecting them to integrate instantly, but he hoped that sooner rather than later they would get used to the much more restrictive guidelines they operated under whilst on Earth.
The three still-comatose bodies had been laid out on berths in the main medbay, all hooked up to energon drips infused with whatever amounts Hook had determined to be needed.
"How long do you estimate it will be until they wake up?" Megatron asked.
"Just like with Skywarp's case, it's hard to say. Could be minutes, hours, maybe even days. As good a job Knockout did patching them up, we just aren't sure if any of it will work."
"Even if only one of them wakes up, it still would have been worth the effort," Starscream said from where he stood over Slipstream, closely examining his cousin for any signs of activity.
"Well geez, thanks for your resounding confidence in my work, herr kommandant," Knockout jested, as he began to do basic checks on their patients.
. . . . .
"...my work, herr kommandant..."
[Language; unfounded. Searching…]
. . . . .
Joints creaking and cracking, Blitzwing bolted upright from his berth. "Was zee Frag ist los?"
"Oh scrap," Knockout said, facepalming.
"What did you do to him?" Starsrceam asked frantically.
"Hallo? Can you nicht verstehen?" The dark gray and red mech continued.
"During bootup, he must have picked up on what I was saying, and he must have sought it out." Knockout continued.
"Well fix him!"
"Warte eine minute, were sind we?"
"Uh," Knockout quickly scanned through his subspace, before finding what he was after. "Aha! Here, just take this." He said, tossing a data slug to Blitzwing, who promptly caught it.
"Well, at least his reflexis are still sharp." Hook commented.
"Ugh, would you shut up?"
The group turned to see as Slipstream sat up, rubbing her helm. "Your shouting is enough to wake the dead and give them a helmache."
"Oh, Slipstream, I'm so happy you're still alive!" Starsrceam said, pulling her into a hug.
"Yeah, good to see you again too, 'Screamer."
"That do you any good, Blitz?" Knockout said, taking back the drive.
"Ja, zank you freund. Ach schrap, my voice." Blitzwing said, grabbing at his neck.
"Thankfully, we can understand you. You are back with us now, and that's what truly matters." Megatron said, helping Blitzwing to his pedes.
"Az much az I appreziate you for ze rescue, how did you even manage to find uns?"
"LORD MEGATRON!" Lugnut proclaimed, the dark blue and green bomber pouncing on his leader, picking them up into a very too-tight hug. "OH, WONDEROUS DAYS! YOU RECEIVED MY MESSAGE!"
"Yes, that's how we found you all," Megatron said through gritted denta. "Now please, could you set me down, Lugnut?"
Lugnut promptly released him, and managed to stabilize himself as his pedes thudded against the floor.
"Hook, Knockout. How are our patients looking?" Megatron asked.
"Well, their vital signs are stable. But considering our baseline is you and Skywarp, take that analysis as you will." Hook said, as he started putting away all the scanners and equipment into the back room. "Seeing as they are good enough to walk, I'll let them off the hook for further testing until later. But any signs of strange happenings, you bring them right back here."
"Understood, doctor." Megatron said, as he guided the trio out of the medbay. "Lugnut, Blitzwing, Slipstream, allow me to officially welcome you to Trypticon Base."
. . . . .
"And just have you and your brothers been, Starscream?" Slipstream asked, as she was practically dragged along by her cousin.
"We have been quite well, especially as of late, given that Skywarp had some strange medical conditions. Although, they seem to have cleared up for the most part."
"Really? No offence to you and T-C, but he always seemed to keep himself the healthiest out of you three. How bad was it?"
"Nearly dying causes many strange effects to happen, especially when one is treated with the blood of Unicron."
"I still don't buy that explanation. I never was one for the whole 'ancient gods of peace and destruction' sort of deal."
"Yet you bonded with the high priest of Vos' temple," Starscream jabbed with a sly grin.
"Hey, don't you bring Sunstorm into this!" Slipstream said, giving him a playful shove.
"But, while we're on the subject, have you heard from a certain shuttle-former recently?" Slipstream said teasingly.
Starscream chuckled at his cousin's remark, but his face remained almost somber. "No, Skyfire and I haven't made contact for quite some time now. Not since I contacted him to inform him of the ceasefire, but given how things turned out, I hate to say I was glad he didn't get planet-side before then."
"So you can't just, ya know, reach through your spark bond to feel him?"
"We weren't technically conjunx yet, you know that." Starscream said. Pulling himself out of memories long past, he stopped, realising that he was going the wrong way.
"Hehe, sorry about that. I suppose I let my mind wander a little too far."
"Where are you taking me to, anyways?" Slipstream asked.
"First I'll have to stop by my room, as I have to grab a datapad to finish off some reports. And then we'll find you suitable living quarters, I'm sure we have spare rooms close by."
After reaching the crew quarters section of the ship, Starscream quickly ducked inside his room, returning with a handful of datapads he began to subspace away. Continuing on down the corridor, they reached an area with plenty of empty living quarters.
"This place sure has a lot of empty space on board. Then again, it is a Titan. I thought you were planning on a mass evacuation?" Slipstream asked, as she poked her head in to inspect the various rooms.
"That was the plan, yes. But much of our forces managed to find other ways off of Cybertron before we took off, so only about three fourths of the space has been taken up." Starscream replied.
"Welp, if there's no objections, I think I'll take one of these rooms for myself. I love my trinemates to death, you know how it is. But sharing one of these rooms with them? Lugnut would take up most of the room alone, and Blitz is claustrophobic anyways, and would just get all jittery and cross-wired being cramped in here."
"I see no reason why not, given how the rate of new arrivals hasn't hindered our available space."
"Thanks, 'Scream. I'll comm the others and let them know."
. . . . .
Once Lugnut and Blitzwing arrived, after having started to try and learn the layout of the ship, they each did what they could to settle into their respective rooms. Slipstream still had some old literature data-pads in her subspace, placing them onto the room's small shelf. Or at least tried to, as Skywarp phasing through her door scared her out of settling in. Blitzwing set up the wall mount for his sword, although he chose to keep it on his person. And Lugnut seemed to hold a small encampment's worth of supplies in his subspace, pulling out thermal blankets for himself and his other two companions. For his own quarters, he hung out a large tattered white banner with the Decepticon emblem in the centre, underlined by Cybertronian text saying "Rise Up", one of the originals from the early Decepticon rallies whener Megatron had time off from fights in the arena, and placed a framed portrait of himself and Strika on the small nightstand.
. . . . .
A short while later, Megatron called the trio onto the bridge, where they were promptly met with the Decepticons' humans companions, and the usual spiel by agent Fowler about how they would have to be robots in disguise so long as they operated on Earth.
"Ooh, I think I found my new alt," Slipstream said after combing through the list that Soundwave had provided. "How about you two?"
"Ja, I zink these two shall be suffizent enough," Blitzwing responded.
"Thankfully, I found one just my size," was all Lugnut said on the matter.
"Then I suggest you head up to the flight-deck for a test flight, and drive in your case Blitzwing. An old friend of yours should be waiting for you." Megatron said, and the three gave each other an odd look, unknowing of who it could possibly be.
Working their way through the hangar bay, maneuvering in and out of Vehicons working on the few shuttlecraft housed there, they reached the flightdeck, and were met with…
"Kommandant?" Blitzwing said, and they all stood at attention, as their ever familiar dark magenta and silver commander turned to face them.
"Well, it seems that the Oddball Trine pulled through after all." Skyquake said, giving them a bow. "At ease you three, I hear you've all been through quite the ordeal."
"You could say that," Slipstream said. "I just can't believe you're here. Any other members of Squadron-X here that we didn't know about?"
"No, not here. I have it on good authority that Dreadwing and Bludgeon are well, but as for the others, I do not know of their whereabouts.
"However, we will have plenty of time to catch up whilst I show you around. C'mon now!" Skyquake shouted back to them, as he took a running start before transforming and taking off. Close behind, the Oddball Trine did the same, Slipstream transforming first into a sleek Su-47 fighter jet. Lugnut just behind, turning into a hulking B-17 bombercraft, slow going at first, but picking up with that rapid speed nobody usually believes a bot of his size could pull off.. Blitzwing jumped up, and hit the ground in his Kaplan MT tank, but modified to account for his double cannons, revving halfway down the flightdeck before boosting up into the air, flipping to his F-4 Phantom mode, and jetting off with his comrades into the desert skies over Nevada.
A/N: WASH YA' FUCKING HANDS, DANGUS.