44- Hurt.

Taris

It was getting dark as the two Autobots and the children went through the ground bridge back to base. During the drive, Han was listening some of his favorite music on Bee's radio. Until he decided to turn it off.

"Hey!" Han objected.

"(I think you have listened enough cantina music.)"

"Let me guess. You, the twins and BB-8 spend all your drive-time listening techno music, the droids' favorite."

"(What? No, we listened different kinds of music. You would be surprised about BB-8 preferences.)"

"Well, it's been fun. And I really hope my next encounter with Chewie will be as soon as possible. But I'm ready to get back to my regularly scheduled partner, Bulkhead…AAAAAHHHHH!" Han suddenly screamed as he saw Bulkhead lying on the floor.

Immediately, Bumblebee stopped and allowed Han to get out. As the Autobots changed to robot form, they saw Ratchet using some defibrillators on Bulkhead.

"Bulkhead, respond!" Ratchet begged as he tried again alongside his arm's scanner.

"Bulkhead? Bulkhead?!" Han said before Kallus grabbed him. "What happened?"

"Tox-En exposure, among other things. Bulkhead has suffered a complete systems failure."

"Hold on. Tox-En?" Arcee asked worried.

Ratchet saw Bulkhead's life signal on his arm terminal, and it wasn't looking good. "Help me get him into the medical bay, now!"

Immediately, Arcee and Bumblebee carried Bulkhead by the arms. As they did it, Han could see the hole of the shot on his back.

"No!" Han yelled getting free. "If I haven't gone to Taris."

"There's nothing you could have done. Bombshock sucker punched the big lug while he was down." Kallus said.

"Who?" Han asked interested.

"Some Insecticon, it doesn't matter. Point is it's not your fault, you got that?"

"Got it." Han answered as his friends went to support him, watching the Autobots continued helping the injured Wrecker.

Meanwhile, inside the Nemesis, someone was really mad.

"How is this possible?! Four relics, each within our grasp, and yet only Soundwave has returned with something other than an excuse." Megatron said as he walked next to all the Decepticons who went to relic hunting, until he stopped right at Bombshock. "Tell me, Bombshock, what is yours?"

"I have none, my lord. We failed to retrieve the Tox-En, but the green Autobot has been terminated."

By hearing that, Megatron calmed down. "Then perhaps this day is not lost after all."

"If that is true. It has been a while since anyone has extinguished an Autobot spark." Knock Out stated.

"Because it has been a while since an Insecticon warrior has been provided to the opportunity to do so." Bombshock defended.

"Really now? Because the bug under my recent command was utterly useless, and this was way bigger than you." Knock Out reminded, making Bombshock snarl out of anger.

"Enough!" Megatron yelled. "Bombshock, are you certain the one called Bulkhead was exterminated?"

"By my very own hand, Lord Megatron."

Back to the Autobot base, Ratchet hooked Bulkhead to a life support machine while the rest of the team waited for news. At the same time, agent Kallus was talking with someone else by his com unit.

"Yes, sir." He said before he hung up. "It seems your little incursion on Taris was caught by a security camera. The senate needs me to run interference with the planet's governor." He sighed as he looked Bulkhead. "I…tried to stall but…"

"Go where you are needed, agent Kallus. There is nothing more you can do for Bulkhead at this time." Optimus answered.

"Keep me posted, Prime. I mean it." Kallus said before he entered the elevator.

"Wheeljack is on his way." Arcee reported, not realizing Han heard it.

"I can't believe you're giving up on Bulkhead already!" He shouted.

"All I meant was Wheeljack and Bulkhead are close, I thought he wanna be here."

"I know what you meant!"

"Han, where are you going?" Cliffjumper asked.

"Home! While agent Kallus can still give me a lift." He answered entering the elevator.

Arcee was about to do something, but Optimus stopped her. "He needs time."

Time later, Ratchet finally gave them the news.

"Bulkhead is stable, for the moment. But I had to induce stasis."

In that moment, they heard an engine noise coming from the entrance: it was Wheeljack in vehicle form, who entered the main room before changing to robot form.

"What's the damage, doc?" He asked.

"Bulkhead have suffered massive trauma to his central neural conduits." Ratchet reported.

"I've watched your work: you're a maestro."

"The Tox-En exposure has caused system wide-shut down on a sub-micronic level. I can't even begin to operate until Bulkhead regain some strength."

Then Wheeljack's face changed to a mad one as he looked to Optimus. "You're gonna tell me who did this to him?"

"At the moment I believe it is best to focus our attention on Bulkhead's recovery, rather than revenge."

"You do that." Wheeljack simply said before he transformed and drove out of the base.

"Wheeljack will most likely do something rash, you know." Ratchet told to Optimus.

"And I am not sure we could stop him if we wanted too."

Wheeljack's ship blasted off and flew away from the base into the space. He set the coordinates to his destiny and put the ship on autopilot. Then, he heard a noise behind him, so he turned his hand into a blaster weapon and looked for the intruder. But he only found Han when he looked down.

"What are you doing here?" Wheeljack asked.

"Going after the Con who hurt Bulkhead. You're in?" Han said.

"I'm taking you back." The Wrecker said as he retrieved the gun and went back to the pilot seat.

"No, wait!"

"Kid, I get it. You want payback, you and me both."

"Bulkhead is my partner too!"

"Trust me, when I find out which one of Megatron's goons jumped our boy I'll take care of him. My way." Wheeljack reassured pointing his grenade.

"I know who did it."

"Who?"

"Take me and I'll tell you."

Meanwhile, on the Nemesis…

"You should have seen the Wrecker's face as his spark expired, knowing that he perished at the hands of a true warrior. Lord Megatron now understands that the difficult tasks are best assigned to an Insecticon." Bombshock retold to other two Insecticons as they passed two Vehicons, who didn't look happy to see them.

"Pit-bound scavengers." The first said.

"Scrap-eaters." The other added.

But Bombshock stopped and turned at them, probably because he heard them. "What did you say?"

At the same time, Knock Out was fixing the scratches on his paint job with his buffer. Although he had a hard time to reach his backside.

"Detailing was so much easier when Breakdown was around." Knock Out expressed, just before he heard gunfire and noticed a shake coming from out of the room. "What is going on out there?" He went out to check it out. "How am I supposed to concentrate-AAAHHH!"

He had to close the door immediately, just before one of the Vehicons from before clashed against it. When he opened the door, he saw the Vehicon firing at Bombshock, who felt nothing from the shots and charged against him. But he dodged and Bombshock ended hitting Knock Out instead, who was sent against the wall. He looked fine, until he saw a new scratch on his chest.

"I…just…buffed…that!" Knock Out said mad.

D'Qar, Ileenium system

Somewhere outside a forest, a Decepticon soldier was guarding the entrance of a cave, not aware that he was been observed by Wheeljack and Han, hidden between the trees.

"You know where to find Decepticon mines?" Han asked surprised.

"You didn't think I've just been sitting on my can since I've been on this galaxy." Wheeljack replied.

"But shouldn't we be at an Insecticon hive?"

"The bugs are bound by a single mind. Trying to draw just one of them out is nearly impossible. So we're gonna make some noise."

"And get the Cons to hand over Bombshock."

"Now you can sneak in there and scope things out a lot easier than I can." Wheeljack suggested.

Now Han was inside the mine, using his device as a camera to show the inside.

"We got five, maybe six troopers in the main cavern. And two more keeping an eye on things from the second floor." Han reported as Wheeljack saw the images from inside his ship.

"Good job, kid. Keep going."

"Huh, there's another chamber." Han informed as he zoomed to a chamber full of energon boxes. "Looks like they're just using it for storage."

Then he heard only static.

"Wheeljack, you're there?"

Suddenly, he heard an explosion as a Decepticon almost fell upon him, but he dodged. He started to heard shots, and saw Wheeljack jumping inside the mine with his swords ready. He kicked down a Con before finishing with him and threw one of his swords to a sniper that was about to fire above him. He recovered his sword just as another Con charged at him, but he sent him flying above Han, who ran to hid between the energon cubes while Wheeljack continued fighting. From the inside, he decided to give Wheeljack a little extra help by shooting at the snipers' eyes, to give him the advantage. It worked, until a leaper spotted him and walked at him. Fortunately, Wheeljack pushed him against the ground before finishing him.

"Thanks for the cover, kid. Didn't know you had quite the shooter skills." Wheeljack thanked.

"Thanks. Now what?" Han asked.

"We give Megatron a shout."

Speaking of Megatron, he was on the Nemesis's bridge, listening to Knock Out about the recent incident. Bombshock was present there too.

"Just look what they've done!" Knock Out said pointing the scratch.

"Spare me the dramatics, Knock Out. It's merely a scratch."

"This isn't about me, Lord Megatron. The Insecticons are creating dissention among the ranks. These savages are a threat to this warship and its crew. They should be confined, restrained even!"

Bombshock walked behind Knock Out. "You can not produce restrain strong enough to hold us!"

"Lord Megatron, we're receiving an emergency transmission from mine TVC-15." A Vehicon at the communication board reported.

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Unclear, my liege. The caller will speak only to you."

Megatron went up to the board and pressed the response button. "What is it?"

"Nice operation you got here, Megatron. Although technically, you might say it's under…new management." The caller responded as Megatron saw a picture of who was on the terminal's screen.

"Wheeljack, the one who enjoys explosive devices."

"What can I say, chief? I'm uncouth. And right now I'm sitting on top of one of your big, juicy mining ops."

"The loss of one asset is hardly a blow to the Decepticon cause."

"Maybe, but I'm gonna keep on hitting them, one by one, until you give me what I want."

"And what, pray tell, would that be?"

"The Insecticon scum who tried to frag Bulkhead."

That surprised Megatron. "Tried? Are you saying the Autobot lives?"

"He is bluffing!" Bombshock immediately said.

"Wouldn't bet on it. So, here's the deal, I'm gonna transmit the coordinates of my next target. If Bombshock cares to meet me there, maybe he can save you from another loss. And Megatron, just in case you ever wondered what 3 tons of exploding energon sounds like…" Wheeljack said as he pressed a red button on the control wheel, which Han looked very clear.

That made the Jackhammer launch two missiles that went inside the mine and made it explode while the ship left. Of course, like he said, that was heard on the Nemesis too.

"You allowed the Autobot to live?!" Megatron said very mad turning at Bombshock.

"Hmph! Bugs. Not all they're cracked up to be." Knock Out smirked.

"Lord Megatron, I swear upon the Allspark, the Autobot could not have survived his wounds." Bombshock said as he backed up as Megatron advanced toward him.

"Then you owe me a spark. And if it's not the one belonging to Bulkhead, it had better be Wheeljack's."

As Wheeljack's ship was heading to the meeting location, he saw that Han was dozing off.

"Maybe you ought to power down for a while." Wheeljack suggested.

"I'm good. He's gonna make it, right?"

"No question, kid. Bulkhead's the toughest wrecking ball I've ever known. And Ratchet's a great doc, the best."

"Yeah, there's no way Bulk would miss all the stuff we have planned: walker sledding, worldwide smash-a-thon, vehicle target practice…We've been making a list."

"Like I said: Bulkhead is too stubborn not to pull through. I know it and I bet you do too." Wheeljack said, but he saw Han sleeping already.

Pasaana, Middian system

The ship finally arrived to its destination: inside a canyon. The landing woke up Han.

"I'm up! What's the plan?"

"Kid, if anything happens to me, press this." Wheeljack said pointing to a blue button on the command wheel. "I've preset the autopilot to get you back to Prime's base."

"What? No way! We had a deal. You said I could help!"

"And you did." Wheeljack said getting up. "But it ends here."

"This is my fight too."

"Sorry kid, but Bulkhead's gonna wake up. And he'll file off my rivets if you're not there when he does."

"Wheeljack!"

Too late, Wheeljack exited the ship and it closed its door, so Han had to climb up to the window to see the outside. He saw Wheeljack changing to vehicle form and drive right at the entrance of a close-fitting cave.

"You're in there, bug?!"

Bombshock was already there, but not inside there, above him, on top of the wall. He roared and jumped at him, with intention to smash him, but Wheeljack quickly reversed. Next, he charged at him before changing to robot form, jumped and kicked him hard backwards. Wheeljack was about to throw his grenade, but Bombshock pushed him against a rock before he could. And before he could counter, he tackled him, making him crash through the boulder in the process.

"Thanks to your crippled friend, I am all too familiar with your Wrecker tricks." Bombshock said, before trying to crush Wheeljack again with his fist.

But Wheeljack jumped and dodged the attack in time. Next, he pulled out his swords and charged at Bombshock, hitting him on the face with a great combo. Next, he kicked one of his legs, trying to make his loss his balance before striking again, but Bombshock was now blocking all the attacks with his arms.

"What's the matter, Bombshock? Not used to fighting a Bot who hasn't been doused in Tox-En?" Wheeljack provoked trying to slice him.

He managed to hit him with one of the swords before Bombshock grabbed it with his hand. "Talk during battle is a sign of weakness."

Bombshock punched Wheeljack and tried to slice him with his sharp bug legs, but now Wheeljack was the one who blocked them.

"Only when you're too primitive to do two things at once."

Suddenly, Bombshock used his fists to use a double uppercut that caught Wheeljack by surprise. Next, he changed to his flying bug form and flung him in the air, sending him again to the ground.

"Go for the grenade!" Han shouted.

Wheeljack thought the same thing, but before reaching it Bombshock tried to hit him. After changing back to normal form, the Insecticon tried to hit Wheeljack with his bug claws. Wheeljack dodged them, but Bombshock kicked him, and before he could recover, he lunged him and while he was in the air Bombshock grabbed him by the head and slammed him into the ground two times.

"Wheeljack!" Han yelled.

Bombshock lifted Wheeljack, still holding him by the head, and gave him three powerful punches before throwing him in the air and punched him as he was coming down, launching him many yards away. The Autobot struggled as he saw Bombshock approaching, ready to finish him.

"No." Han said.

"Go, kid. Get out of here." Wheeljack said weakly.

Han dropped a tear before he walked to the ship's control panel. Once there, he was about to press the blue button, but then he had a feeling.

"Your spark will now belong to Megatron." Bombshock proclaimed as he was about to finish with Wheeljack.

"Keep dreaming, clancker bug!" Han's voice sounded from the ship's speakers. "You're going down!"

As the Jackhammer took off, it fired two missiles that flew right at Bombshock, hitting him and blowing him to pieces. At the end, Han pressed the red button, the one of the missile launcher.

"If I'm going to be the best pilot of the galaxy, no ship has to have secrets for me." Han said to himself.

Wheeljack took a piece of Bombshock off him as he took a look to the bug's remains and his ship landing again.

"Nice work, kid."

Then he heard a lot of footsteps coming from the edge and saw the rest of the Insecticons looking at him, and by the sound of their roars, they didn't look happy.

"Wheeljack, run!" Han yelled.

Wheeljack went to the ship as fast as he could as the Insecticons flew toward him, but he was going slowly because of his injures. Fortunately, the Jackhammer's turrets started to fire at the closest bugs, signal that Han was operating them. Once Wheeljack got inside, Han jumped to his seat.

"I thought I told you to hit autopilot." Wheeljack reminded as he started to pilot the ship.

"Bad things happen to Bots when I leave their side."

The Insecticons fired at the ship, but it immediately took off and started to fly away. Unfortunately, the swarm was not going to allow them to leave so easily.

"Too many to pick off. I'll need something with a wider blast radius." Wheeljack analyzed before pressing the autopilot and opened a canister full with grenades.

"But I thought you…"

"I only carry one at a time."

He opened the hatch from the ceiling as their chasers continued firing at them. Wheeljack was about to throw a grenade, but instead, he came with a better idea: he launched the entire canister and fired one shot at it, making a huge explosion in middle of the swarm that forced it to disperse.

"Welcome to the Wreckers, kid. You did Bulkhead proud." Wheeljack congratulated Han, but he didn't look amazed.

"Then why don't I feel any different?"

Moments later, as everyone was still checking Bulkhead, Han and Wheeljack returned back to the base. The team noticed them at hearing a metal grinding made by Wheeljack, who looked so glum.

"Han, you okay?" Arcee asked worried.

"He's fine. Kid's a pro." Wheeljack reassured.

"She wasn't talking to you." Cliffjumper answered mad.

"How is he?" Han asked.

Bee looked him with sad eyes. "(Not so well.)"

"Bulkhead will survive. He might never be fully functional again." Ratchet informed hardly.

After hearing that, Han ran to his partner.

"Han, I don't think it's wise for you…" Ratchet started, until he was stopped by Optimus.

Everyone looked Han sad, until some of them turned at Wheeljack, some of them angry.

"I…I am not sure I wanna see Bulk right now. Not like this." Wheeljack said sad before he transformed and drove out of the base.

After that, the Autobots turned at Han again, who was now sitting on top of Bulkhead.

"I am never leaving you again."

Meanwhile, the surviving Insecticons brought back the lifeless body of Bombshock to their leader.

"The Autobot did this?" Megatron asked really mad.

"No, my lord. It was…a human boy." One of the Insecticons answered.

That alarmed Megatron truly: maybe not only just the ones called Jedi could be a threat for his forces. But if an ordinary native could eliminate his top Insecticon so easily, how really dangerous could the Autobots' Jedi allies be?