39- Triage.
Right near a forest of the Grand Spectrala Islet of the Decolore Islands, in a beach, Seaspray was waiting next to his ship, admiring the view of the ocean. Then a ground bridge appeared in front of him, and Ratchet came through it.
"Optimus and Elita contacted me. So you are the one I'm supposed to be your backup." Seaspray deduced.
"If you must know, Optimus feel strongly that you require supervision if you are similar to Wheeljack." Ratchet corrected.
"Fear nothing, I'm not like Jackie. I will give the best of myself, Doc."
"Please, don't call me Doc."
"As you wish, Sunshine. I was just trying to cheer you up."
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, everyone is busy chasing down these 4 Iacon relics?" Seaspray asked.
"The 4 which are currently in play." Ratchet specified.
"There's more?"
"Galvatron maintains possession of the entire Iacon database. We have yet to learn how many more relics or Decepticon weapons of mass destruction it contains."
"Don't worry, Doc. You are in good hands."
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 should be lucky to have you with me, veteran." Seaspray said as he saw his scanner detecting something. "Because something is following us."
Right behind Seaspray's ship, Soundblaster was following it in his alt form.
"Soundblaster." Ratchet recognized.
Seaspray saw him on one screen that acted like a rearview. "Soundblaster? Is he related to Soundwave: Galvatron's communications chief?"
"He is the same one upgraded. He must be tracking the same coordinates."
The ship trembled when it received a hit from Soundblaster's laser shots.
"I suggest you grab onto something." Seaspray 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 Soundblaster, pulled out its weapons and started firing at him. Soundblaster continued dodging the shots, until he took the chance and deployed Buzzsaw, which passed very near to the ship and now was behind it.
"What was that?" Seaspray asked.
"Soundblaster's surveillance drone: Buzzsaw." Ratchet identified.
"And let me guess, he's Laserbeak's replacement."
The Minicon started fire at them, and Soundblaster took the chance to continue his way. Ratchet saw him.
"Seaspray, maintain pursuit. Soundblaster's merely using the drone to distract us." Ratchet advised.
"Then it won't take that long." Seaspray smirked.
Buzzsaw chased them with constant fire until the ship performed another maneuver and ended behind it. Now it was Seaspray who was firing at his opponent.
"Who is hunting who now?" Seaspray mocked.
"This is no time to be hot-dogging!" Ratchet shouted.
Seaspray's ship continued firing until it lost sight of Buzzsaw.
"He's gone. Now we can go find Soundblaster…" Ratchet said until he screamed when the ship moved suddenly when Buzzsaw reappeared.
The chase continued through the clouds, way down, until they followed the Minicon and headed right to a big rock island in middle of the ocean. Seaspray simply speeded up, making Ratchet scream at his loudest, but the ship evaded the rock. Back to the sky, Seaspray spotted Buzzsaw 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. "Seaspray?!" But the Wrecker simply laughed in excitement. "SEASPRAY!"
Buzzsaw passed above them, so Seaspray turned around, and with the Minicon on his target site, he fired, and managed to shoot it down.
"Take that, Con." Seaspray celebrated victorious.
"You did it." Ratchet added surprised, and glad.
But during its falling, Buzzsaw continued firing, and one of the shots hit the engines of Seaspray's ship. That caused the ship to fall back to the surface. It crash-landed in the forest of a nameless island.
"Bad news Doc, that shot took out the right thrusters." Seaspray announced after checking the ship's damage.
"If you had pursued Soundblaster as I instructed…" Ratchet started.
"With all due respect, doctor, that little drone was not only a distraction, he clearly sent it to shoot us off the sky. If we were still after its master, it would still be after our tailpipes now." Seaspray interrupted.
"Well, that makes lot of sense. But despite that, we need to resume our search for the relic immediately. Soundblaster may already have reached it, and it could be on an island far from here."
"Relax, the ship's scanners indicate that our mysterious relic is right on this island, so that Minicon actually did us a favor. But my ship's not going anywhere. If we wanna catch that Con, we need to roll." Seaspray said before he looked like he spotted something.
"Make up your mind! Are we walking or are we driving?!"
Ratchet saw the reason why Seaspray pulled out his harpoons: Buzzsaw also crash-landed, and it was right in front of them. Seaspray advanced with his harpoons in combat position.
"Seaspray, keep your distance. Buzzsaw is the eyes and ears of Soundblaster." Ratchet warned.
He used one of his harpoons to flip Buzzsaw like a toy. "It seems this one is now blind and deaf."
Not far from there, Soundblaster transformed and landed as he reached his destination: on top of a cliff next to the sea, at the other side of the island. He scanned the floor around him until he found where the relic was buried. At the same time, Ratchet was checking Buzzsaw with his device.
"Operating system appears functional, but offline. However, the crash clearly damaged its optic and audio receptors." Ratchet saw.
"Someone is going to need another replacement." Seaspray celebrated.
"A minor victory, and not the one we are here to achieve." Ratchet said turning around.
But Seaspray smiled as an idea came to his mind. "Hang on there, Doc." He called, making Ratchet groan. "This situation is right for an old Wrecker trick which I learned from Wheeljack."
"I'm…not sure I follow."
"Sooner or later, Soundblaster will come back, looking for his minion. We let them reunite and return to base, packing a live grenade. Then the first time he takes a look inside, he trips the pin and Boom, goodbye Buckethead's communication chief. A hard blast for the Cons." 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 Buzzsaw, changed his hand for a torch and opened the Minicon's upper part, revealing its inside. "A virus, engineered to pass from Buzzsaw to Soundblaster. Then, directly into the Decepticon warship's mainframe, where it will transmit the contents of the entire Iacon database to us."
"I don't know, sounds complicated. And I thought we were in a hurry."
"Optimus would agree: risking the loss of one relic to gain the rest is a worthwhile gamble."
"Wheeljack is a good scientist, but informatic is not his specialty. Do you know how to work out that plan?"
"Hmm, not alone. I will require backup." Ratchet said, thinking on someone.
Back at base, while Bonnie and May were with Ranger Lunick on a terminal, Clemont was working on his laptop.
"Clemont, we have a situation." Ratchet called by com-link through her laptop.
At the same time, Soundblaster stood above where the relic was buried, so he used his tentacles to dig in. Meanwhile, back with Clemont…
"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." Clemont added.
"Or something less complicated." Ratchet said looking at Seaspray's grenade.
He realized what he was referring to. "A decoy that we want them to find but it doesn't explode?"
"Correct."
"I know what Jackie would say in this situation: seems like a waste of a perfectly good grenade." Seaspray expressed imitating Wheeljack's tone as he passed it to Ratchet, who pulled out its explosive core and planted it into Buzzsaw.
"Wait a minute. A grenade inside of Buzzsaw inside of Soundblaster? Like the thing Bonnie told me about a Shellder grabbing a Slowpoke in the moment the poke ball catches them both." Clemont realized.
"I'm sorry?" Ratchet asked.
"Huh… Never mind. It's one of Bonnie's crazy things."
Seaspray started to walk away.
"And where are you off to?" Ratchet demanded.
"I'm going to buy you some time. And who knows? Maybe to recover that relic from Soundblaster's hands." Seaspray answered before changing to vehicle form and drive away.
Back with Soundblaster, 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 Seaspray jumping above him before returning to robot form and letting out a battle cry as he attacked him with his harpoons. He dodged by jumping backwards.
"Missing something?" Seaspray signaled.
Soundblaster saw that the object his tentacle had fell to the sandy shore. With Seaspray ready to fight, Soundblaster retrieved his tentacles and pulled out sharp extensions on his arms.
"This will be fun." Seaspray said before charging.
Seaspray tried to hit Soundblaster with his harpoons, but the Con revealed to be quite fast dodging the strikes very close, especially one that almost hit his visor. Seaspray continued attacking with his harpoons, which Soundblaster continued to evade and block with his arms, until he managed to hook one of them, took it from the Autobot, cut it off and use one of his tentacles to hit him. Seaspray was close to lost balance and fall, but he recovered and saw that Soundblaster had now one of his harpoons, but he actually didn't bother, because he pulled out another in the same place, replacing it and charged again. Soundblaster threw him the harpoon, Seaspray pushed it away and jumped at him, but Soundblaster took the chance to grab him by the head with his tentacle and throw him against the ground two times. With Seaspray on the ground, Soundblaster used his tentacles to hold him with one and prepared the other to drill into his head. Seaspray activated a scuba helmet which protected his face as he grabbed the drilling tentacle while it continued approaching his face, until he managed to made it hit the one which was holding him. That caused Soundblaster to fall back a few steps, and Seaspray took the chance to head-butt him. That made a serious crack on his visor.
"Oh sorry, I hope that visor is not covering a very ugly face." Seaspray mocked.
Meanwhile, back with Ratchet…
"Clemont, I've hacked into Buzzsaw's uplink transmitter. When you're ready, I will bring his operating systems back online in order to receive the transfer." Ratchet instructed.
Back with Seaspray, he fired his harpoons at Soundblaster's arms, hitting them in a place of his articulators that difficulted him to move them, and next he changed his harpoons shooters for his laser guns and fired as he charged at his opponent. Soundblaster received the shots before Seaspray kicked him out of the cliff. Both landed on the beach below, but Soundblaster landed worst, but he saw the relic a few steps from him before he turned to see Seaspray in front of him, aiming at him with his weapon.
"Any last words?" Seaspray asked, but of course, Soundblaster didn't answer. "As you wish, noiseless Con."
But as he charged his weapon, Seaspray did not realize that Soundblaster grabbed the relic with one of his tentacles and manipulated it, making it emit sound waves that caused pain to Seaspray, making him scream. After a long exposure, Seaspray collapsed on the floor and retrieved his scuba helmet. Back with the two hackers…
"Ratchet, the virus is coded. Commencing upload." Clemont reported as he started the process.
Ratchet's device showed the process's progress too. Just at the moment it started, Buzzsaw started to move, trying to take flight, so Ratchet grabbed it to pin it down. Meanwhile, Seaspray saw Soundblaster 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 Buzzsaw, making him look at the direction where it came. Ratchet was still holding the Minicon.
"Clemont, what is our progress?"
"50%."
Someone more called by com-link. "Doc…"
"Seaspray! I told you not to call me that!"
"I'm sorry."
That alarmed Ratchet. "What's wrong? Where are you?"
"I think you got maybe only…two minutes."
By hearing that, Ratchet looked at the direction where Soundblaster was on his way toward him.
"Or less. Seaspray, what is your condition? Seaspray?" But Ratchet did not received answer. "Clemont?"
"We're almost there."
As Soundblaster was approaching, Ratchet, still holding Buzzsaw, hid behind a boulder. When finally, the progress was complete…
"Done." Clemont announced.
Immediately, Ratchet closed Buzzsaw'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 Soundblaster arriving, transforming and landing. The Decepticon walked to Seaspray's ship before aiming his new weapon at the rock where Ratchet was hidden.
"Scrap."
Instead of Ratchet, Soundblaster saw Buzzsaw, 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 Soundblaster'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 Buzzsaw, and placed it inside the Minicon. After that, he changed to his vehicle form and took flight.
Finally Ratchet could sigh in relief. "Soundblaster has taken the bait. Seaspray." He called again, but without response. "Scrap."
He changed to vehicle form and went to search his companion. Meanwhile, Soundblaster returned to the Nemesis and presented his new discovery to his master.
"Ah, the Resonance Blaster." Galvatron recognized, holding the weapon. "Crafted by Decepticon scientists for maximum sonic devastation. Soundblaster, 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 did to me?!"
"Did you retrieve the relic?!"
"No, master."
"Then I suggest you convince me of your continued usefulness by examining Buzzsaw, doctor."
Meanwhile, Ratchet reached to the place where Soundblaster faced Seaspray, who was still lying on the ground.
"Seaspray."
Ratchet returned to robot form and went to check the Wrecker, who started to wake up.
"Just resting my optics." Seaspray said as he groaned. "And my audio receptors. At least we fought close to the sea."
Back to the Nemesis, Soundblaster was been examined too at the ship's med lab. Knock Out's device detected something when it passed on Buzzsaw.
"What is it?" Galvatron asked.
"An obstruction of some sort." Knock Out reported before Soundblaster deployed Buzzsaw on his hands and opened to see its inside. Knock Out got alarmed at seeing what it was packing. "Grenade!" And jumped to the floor frightened, but not the others.
"Ah, that is clever." Galvatron 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 Soundblaster retrieve Buzzsaw back to his chest.
"Soundblaster, if we are to maintain any advantage over the Autobots…" Galvatron started as he heard an explosion sound. "Decoding the remainder of the Iacon database must remain your top priority."
Soundblaster nodded to his master. At the same time, both Autobots returned back to the crash site in vehicle mode.
"Clemont, send the ground bridge." Ratchet called as he and Seaspray 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. Trust me, my ship is in more need of repair than me. See if you have some replacements which you can share at base."
"Listen, Seaspray. I want to…thank you. For your…backup."
"You're welcome. I have to admit it has been great working with you." Seaspray simply said as he started to fix his ship.
The ground bridge appeared and Ratchet walked to it.
"Until we meet again, Ratchet. And tell Wheeljack, Elita and Prime that I send them memories." Seaspray saluted, making the old Autobot smile.
"I will."
At the same time that Ratchet crossed the portal, Soundblaster 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!" Clemont called as he saw lots of cybertronian words passing through the screens.
"The Iacon database?"
"It's downloading into our mainframe."
Ratchet laughed by happiness. "Clemont, you're a genius."
"What do you know? I have to agree with him, big brother." Bonnie congratulated.
"Yeah, you are the one who turned the tables against the Decepticons now." May added.
That made him smile and get red. Meanwhile, at the Nemesis…
"Oh, believe me. Soundblaster will provide the coordinates to the remaining relics."
"Yes. We are fortunate to have him on our side, lord Galvatron." Knock Out supported.
"And see about repairing his cracked visor, will you?" Galvatron asked before leaving.
Knock Out frowned and growled looking at Soundblaster, jealous of his constantly success. Back to base, May was opening the ground bridge again.
"Warpath and Wheeljack are coming through, Ranger Lunick." May reported.
"I can't wait to share the news." Ratchet said excited.
They waited for their fellow Autobots to return, and when they did, they came through flying so suddenly. Both Wheeljack and Warpath were lying on the ground, with smoke coming from the back side of their bodies.
May gasped in horror. "Warpath!"
"No." Ratchet said as everyone gathered around the two Autobots. Something bad happened to them.