42- Triage.

Dathomir

Deep inside a forest (not the sinister ones, one located on the normal places of the planet), Wheeljack was waiting next to his ship, tossing a grenade up and down. Then a ground bridge appeared in front of him, and Ratchet came through it.

"The boss thought you needed backup, huh?" Wheeljack deduced.

"If you must know, Optimus feel strongly that you require supervision." Ratchet corrected.

"I'll be sure to be on my best behavior, Doc."

"Please, don't call me Doc."

"Whatever you say, Sunshine."

Ratchet groaned in frustration; this was going to be a long trip. After the two Autobots entered the ship, it took off and flew toward the coordinates indicated by the relic's location.

"So, all Team Prime is busy chasing down these 4 Iacon relics?" Wheeljack asked.

"The 4 which are currently in play." Ratchet specified.

"There's more?"

"Megatron maintains possession of the entire Iacon database. We have yet to learn how many more relics or Decepticon weapons of mass destruction it contains."

"No worries, Doc. I got your back."

That made Ratchet mad again. "My name is not Doc! And I do not require anyone watching my back. I proved my metal during the War for Cybertron."

"Then I'm lucky you're along for the ride, Champ." Wheeljack said as he saw his scanner detecting something. "Cause we got a bogey on our tail."

Right behind Wheeljack's ship, Soundwave was following it in his alt form.

"Soundwave." Ratchet recognized.

Wheeljack saw him on one screen that acted like a rearview. "Megatron's communications chief?"

"He must be tracking the same coordinates."

The ship trembled when it received a hit from Soundwave's laser shots.

"You might wanna grab onto something." Wheeljack said as he began to perform evasive maneuvers, a steep loop.

"Are you trying to send us to the scrapyard?!" Ratchet asked nervous.

The ship put right behind Soundwave, pulled out its weapons and started firing at him. Soundwave continued dodging the shots, until he took the chance and deployed Laserbeak, which passed very near to the ship and now was behind it.

"What's that?" Wheeljack asked.

"Soundwave's surveillance drone: Laserbeak." Ratchet identified.

The Minicon started fire at them, and Soundwave took the chance to continue his way. Ratchet saw him.

"Wheeljack, maintain pursuit. Soundwave's merely using the drone to distract us." Ratchet advised.

"I welcome a good distraction." Wheeljack smirked.

Laserbeak chased them with constant fire until the ship performed another maneuver and ended behind it. Now it was Wheeljack who was firing at his opponent.

"The hunter becomes the hunted." Wheeljack said.

"This is no time to be hot-dogging!" Ratchet shouted.

The Jackhammer continued firing until it lost sight of Laserbeak.

"He's gone. Now we can go find Soundwave…" Ratchet said until he screamed when the ship moved suddenly when Laserbeak reappeared.

The chase continued through the clouds, until they followed the Minicon and headed right to a cliff. Wheeljack simply speeded up, making Ratchet scream at his loudest, but the ship evaded the cliff. Back to the sky, Wheeljack spotted Laserbeak coming at them, so he fired his ship's weapons, the same as the Minicon.

"What are you doing?!" Ratchet asked as both flyers got closer and closer. "Wheeljack?!" But the Wrecker simply shouted in excitement. "WHEELJACK!"

Laserbeak passed above them, so Wheeljack turned around, and with the Minicon on his target site, he fired, and managed to shoot it down.

"Choke on that, Con." Wheeljack said victorious.

"You did it." Ratchet added surprised, and glad.

But during its falling, Laserbeak continued firing, and one of the shots hit the Jackhammer's engines. That caused the ship to fall back to the surface. It crash-landed on another part of the forest.

"Bah, right thrusters fried." Wheeljack said after checking the ship's damage.

"If you had pursued Soundwave as I instructed…" Ratchet started.

"His little birdie would still be pecking at our tailpipes." Wheeljack interrupted.

"Well, we need to resume our search for the relic immediately. Soundwave may already have reached it."

"The Jackhammer's not going anywhere. You wanna catch that Con, we need to roll." Wheeljack said before he looked like he spotted something.

"Make up your mind! Are we walking or are we driving?!"

Ratchet saw the reason why Wheeljack pulled out his swords: Laserbeak also crash-landed, and it was right in front of them. Wheeljack advanced with his swords in combat position.

"Wheeljack, keep your distance. Laserbeak is the eyes and ears of Soundwave." Ratchet warned.

He used one of his swords to flip Laserbeak like a toy. "Not anymore, it isn't?"

Far from there, Soundwave transformed and landed as he reached his destination: on top of a mountain. He scanned the floor around him until he found where the relic was buried. At the same time, Ratchet was checking Laserbeak with his device.

"Operating system appears functional, but offline. However, the crash clearly damaged its optic and audio receptors." Ratchet saw.

"Guess someone's gonna need a new snitch." Wheeljack said.

"A minor victory, and not the one we are here to achieve." Ratchet said turning around.

But Wheeljack smiled as an idea came to his mind. "Hang on there, Doc." He called, making Ratchet groan. "Situation is right for an old Wrecker trick."

"I'm…not sure I follow."

"Sooner or later, Soundwave's gonna come looking for his pet. We let them reunite and return to base, packing a live grenade. The first time Wave reaches inside, he trips the pin and Kaboom." He explained as he showed a grenade.

That made Ratchet think about a better chance. "Why plant a mere incendiary device, when we could plant a more devastating bomb?" Ratchet walked back to Laserbeak, changed his hand for a torch and opened the Minicon's upper part, revealing its inside. "A virus, engineered to pass from Laserbeak to Soundwave. Then, directly into the Decepticon warship's mainframe, where it will transmit the contents of the entire Iacon database to us."

"Sounds complicated. Thought we were in a hurry."

"Optimus would agree: risking the loss of one relic to gain the rest is a worthwhile gamble."

"You really have the chops to pull off that kind of programming?"

"Hmm, not alone. I will require backup." Ratchet said, thinking on someone.

Back at base, BB-8 was commanding the ground bridge controls while agent Kallus was busy with a terminal. Meanwhile, Aris was working on her laptop.

"Aris, we have a situation." Ratchet called by com-link through her laptop.

At the same time, Soundwave stood above where the relic was buried, so he used his tentacles to dig in. Meanwhile, back with Aris…

"If you can ride a source code for the virus, my scanner will translate it to cybertronian script as it uploads." Ratchet finished explaining.

"I can do it. But if we want to keep the virus hidden from the Cons, we'll need a decoy. You know, like a second virus." Aris said.

"Or something less complicated." Ratchet said looking at Wheeljack's grenade.

He realized what he was referring to. "A decoy as in we want them to find it but it doesn't blow?"

"Correct."

"Seems like a waste of a perfectly good grenade." Wheeljack expressed as he passed it to Ratchet, who pulled out its explosive core and planted it into Laserbeak.

"Wait a minute. A grenade inside of Laserbeak inside of Soundwave? Like a turducken." Aris realized.

"I'm sorry?" Ratchet asked.

"It's a turkey stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a… Never mind."

Wheeljack started to walk away.

"And where are you off to?" Ratchet demanded.

"To buy you some time. And who knows? Maybe to pick up a relic." Wheeljack answered before changing to vehicle form and drive away.

Back with Soundwave, he continued digging until his sensors signaled him that he reached the relic, so he pulled out the tentacles from the ground. One of them was holding an object which irradiated sound waves. In that moment, he heard an engine noise getting closer, and saw Wheeljack jumping above him before returning to robot form and letting out a battle cry as he attacked him with his swords. He dodged by jumping backwards.

"You dropped something." Wheeljack said.

Soundwave saw that the object his tentacle had fell to the floor way down. With Wheeljack ready to fight, Soundwave retrieved his tentacles and pulled out sharp extensions on his arms.

"This should be fun." Wheeljack said before charging.

Wheeljack tried to hit Soundwave with his swords, but the Con revealed to be quite fast dodging the strikes very close, especially one that almost hit his visor. Wheeljack continued attacking with his swords, which Soundwave continued to evade and block with his arms, until he managed to hook one of them, took it from the Autobot and use one of his tentacles to hit him. Wheeljack was close to lost balance and fall, but he recovered and saw that Soundwave had now one of his swords, so he charged again. Soundwave threw him the sword, Wheeljack pushed it away and jumped at him, but Soundwave took the chance to grab him by the head with his tentacle and throw him against the ground two times. With Wheeljack on the ground, Soundwave used his tentacles to hold him with one and prepared the other to drill into his head. Wheeljack grabbed the drilling tentacle as it continued approaching his face and managed to made it hit the one which was holding him. That caused Soundwave to fall back a few steps, and Wheeljack took the chance to head-butt him. That made a serious crack on his visor.

"There I go again, shattering expectations." Wheeljack mocked.

Meanwhile, back with Ratchet…

"Aris, I've hacked into Laserbeak's uplink transmitter. When you're ready, I will bring his operating systems back online in order to receive the transfer." Ratchet instructed.

As this happened, Soundwave changed his hands for sonic cannons, which he charged up and fired at Wheeljack. The Autobot managed to see the shots and evaded them in time, as he charged at him with his blaster ready and firing. Soundwave received the shots before Wheeljack kicked him out of the mountain. Both landed on the lower floor, but Soundwave landed worst, but he saw the relic a few steps from him before he turned to see Wheeljack in front of him, aiming at him with his weapon.

"Any last words?" Wheeljack asked, but of course, Soundwave didn't answer. "Right, silent type."

But as he charged his weapon, Wheeljack did not realize that Soundwave grabbed the relic with one of his tentacles and manipulated it, making it emit sound waves that caused pain to Wheeljack, making him scream. After a long exposure, Wheeljack collapsed on the floor and retrieved his battle mask. Back with the two hackers…

"Ratchet, the virus is coded. Commencing upload." Aris reported as she started the process.

Ratchet's device showed the process's progress too. Just at the moment it started, Laserbeak started to move, trying to take flight, so Ratchet grabbed it to pin it down. Meanwhile, Wheeljack saw Soundwave putting the relic, which it appears to be a sonic weapon, on his hand, and aimed it at him and started to charge it, ready to execute him. But before firing, he detected the frequency of Laserbeak, making him look at the direction where it came. Ratchet was still holding the Minicon.

"Aris, what is our progress?"

"50%."

Someone more called by com-link. "Doc…"

"Wheeljack! I told you not to call me that!"

"I'm sorry."

That alarmed Ratchet. "What's wrong? Where are you?"

"I figure you got maybe…two minutes."

By hearing that, Ratchet looked at the direction where Soundwave was on his way toward him.

"Or less. Wheeljack, what is your condition? Wheeljack?" But Ratchet did not received answer. "Aris?"

"We're almost there."

As Soundwave was approaching, Ratchet, still holding Laserbeak, hid behind a boulder. When finally, the progress was complete…

"Done." Aris announced.

Immediately, Ratchet closed Laserbeak's aperture and released it, but it was still badly injured that it did not flew right and dropped a piece of its body. Hidden behind the rock, Ratchet saw Soundwave arriving, transforming and landing. The Decepticon walked to Wheeljack's ship before aiming his new weapon at the rock where Ratchet was hidden.

"Scrap."

Instead of Ratchet, Soundwave saw Laserbeak, still on the ground, unable to move. The Decepticon grabbed his little buddy and placed it back on his chest. Ratchet observed him as he was about to leave and groaned, trying to not slip. That caught Soundwave's attention, who deployed his tentacles and moved them to Ratchet's hiding. Ratchet moved his hand to not touch one of the tentacles while the other moved over him. At the end, the tentacles grabbed the missing piece of Laserbeak, and placed it inside the Minicon. After that, he changed to his vehicle form and took flight.

Finally Ratchet could sigh in relief. "Soundwave has taken the bait. Wheeljack." He called again, but without response. "Scrap."

He changed to vehicle form and went to search his companion. Meanwhile, Soundwave returned to the Nemesis and presented his new discovery to his master.

"Ah, the Resonance Blaster." Megatron recognized, holding the weapon. "Crafted by Decepticon scientists for maximum sonic devastation. Soundwave, you have performed admirably. Unlike Dreadwing here, who somehow managed to lose the Apex Armor to Starscream! However, two more decrypted coordinates remain in play, and I have every confidence that Knock Out will…"

In that moment, they heard new footsteps and saw Knock Out walking at them, with his new recent look. "Can you believe what the Autobots and their companions did to me?!"

"Did you retrieve the relic?!"

"No, master."

"Then I suggest you convince me of your continued usefulness by examining Laserbeak, doctor."

Meanwhile, Ratchet reached to the place where Soundwave faced Wheeljack, who was still lying on the ground.

"Wheeljack."

Ratchet returned to robot form and went to check the Wrecker, who started to wake up.

"Just resting my optics." Wheeljack said as he groaned. "And my audio receptors."

Back to the Nemesis, Soundwave was been examined too at the ship's med lab. Knock Out's device detected something when it passed on Laserbeak.

"What is it?" Megatron asked.

"An obstruction of some sort." Knock Out reported before Soundwave deployed Laserbeak on his hands and opened to see its inside. Knock Out got alarmed at seeing what its was packing. "Grenade!" And jumped to the floor frightened, but not the others.

"Ah, that is clever." Megatron observed. "Knock Out, prepare to properly dispose of the obstruction."

Knock Out ended carrying the grenade's core very carefully but fast through the ship's corridors, while Soundwave retrieve Laserbeak back to his chest.

"Soundwave, if we are to maintain any advantage over the Autobots…" Megatron started as he heard an explosion sound. "Decoding the remainder of the Iacon database must remain your top priority."

Soundwave nodded to his master. At the same time, both Autobots returned back to the crash site in vehicle mode.

"BB-8, send the ground bridge." Ratchet called as he and Wheeljack changed to robot form. "I still advise that you return to base. You require a thorough examination."

"The only thing I require right now is some hull sealant, see if your friends of the Republic can lead me some. Trust me, the Jackhammer here is in more need of repair than me."

"Listen, Wheeljack. I want to…thank you. For your…backup."

"Yep." Wheeljack simply said as he started to fix his ship.

The ground bridge appeared and Ratchet walked to it.

"See you around, Ratchet." Wheeljack saluted, making the old Autobot smile.

At the same time that Ratchet crossed the portal, Soundwave connected his tentacles to a terminal, starting with his new task, without realizing that he made his hugest mistake. Because when Ratchet returned to base…

"Ratchet, come here!" Aris called as she saw lots of cybertronian words passing through the screens.

"The Iacon database?"

"It's downloading into our mainframe."

Ratchet laughed by happiness. "Aris, you're a genius."

That made her smile. Meanwhile, at the Nemesis…

"Oh, believe me. Soundwave will provide the coordinates to the remaining relics." Megatron reassured.

"Yes. We are fortunate to have him on our side, Lord Megatron." Knock Out supported.

"And see about repairing his cracked visor, will you?" Megatron asked before leaving.

Knock Out frowned and growled looking at Soundwave, jealous of his constantly success. Back to base, BB-8 was opening the ground bridge again.

"Bulkhead is coming through, agent Kallus." Aris reported.

"I can't wait to share the news." Ratchet said excited.

They waited for their fellow Wrecker to return, and when he did, he came through flying so suddenly. Bulkhead was lying on the ground, with a mark of a shot on his back, still leaking smoke.

"No." Ratchet said as everyone gathered around Bulkhead. Something bad happened to him.