Author's Notes: Welcome to a new Constructicon fanfic! I've written for Scavenger, and I've written for Long Haul. I guess it's about time I wrote one for Hook. It's weird I waited this long since Hook is arguably the most popular Constructicon (well, him and Scrapper). This chapter is mostly to establish the premise of the story. I like this chapter though. I had to rewrite it a couple times to get things just right. Anyway, enough rambling. Thank you for checking out my story, and I hope you will follow, favorite, and review :)

Chapter 1

Green With Envy

It all started when the Decepticons had led the Autobots into a trap by holding a few important human leaders hostage out in the desert. Jazz and Mirage had managed to rescue the humans thanks to their skills as saboteurs, but the rest of the Autobots were fighting for their lives as the Decepticons rained unholy fury down on them.

The combiners were locked in combat as well, with Superion fighting Menasor and Bruticus in an unfair two-on-one match. Devastator was out of commission because Scavenger had drank motor oil mixed with rust and had to spend the day in the medbay. Hook wished he could be there to repair his gestalt brother, but he along with the other Constructicons were needed on the battlefield.

Defensor would have tipped the scales for Superion, but they couldn't combine because First Aid was needed with Ratchet to tend to the Autobots that had been injured thus far in the fight. Superion was a strong Autobot gestalt, and First Aid just hoped he would be able to handle himself on his own. To be fair though, out of the 5 gestalt members that made up Defensor 2 of them were technically pacifists; Groove and First Aid. How much help would they be really?

"First Aid, over here!" Ratchet called out to First Aid, who was currently bandaging Trailbreaker, "Windcharger is bleeding out. I need more energon and a filter!"

First Aid did as he was told and ran to Ratchet's side. Windcharger was in terrible shape, yet somehow he was still conscious. His chassis was blown open and his spark was exposed; the casing had been broken. First Aid was still young and seeing a mech suffer like that still bothered him, but he knew Ratchet needed him to be strong, so he did his best to hide his disgust and sorrow. He took a cube of medical grade energon out of his subspace and watched as Ratchet attached it to Windcharger's chassis near the spark.

"Hold his head steady," Ratchet ordered First Aid, "I'm going to weld as much of this back together as I can and he'll feel less pain if the energon flow to his processor is reduced."

"Can't we just use painkillers?" First Aid asked.

"No," Ratchet replied hurriedly as he began to weld fuel lines together, "If he blacks out now he might not wake back up. Keep him conscious."

"Raaaa," Windcharger rasped, but energon clogged his vocalizer and prevented him from speaking.

"I know, I'll be careful," Ratchet assured the ailing minibot.

With those words Ratchet and First Aid began the arduous task of repairing their fallen friend. Unbeknownst to Ratchet and First Aid however, their exploits were being watched. Amid the chaos of the battlefield Hook, the Decepticon medic, watched the two Autobot medics working from up above them behind a cliff facing. He observed as they stabilized the minibot and worked in perfect sync with one another. Ratchet would give an order and First Aid would obey without pause. Sometimes First Aid would simply do what was needed because he already knew how. They worked with the grace and coordination of dancers, and soon they moved on to the next patient.

"I should shoot that minibot," Hook said to himself, "But it isn't worth the ammo."

Hook was used to that level of cooperation he saw in the duo of medics, but he was only used to it in battle. He was the head (literally) of Devastator, and when he and his 5 gestalt brothers combined they became a single cohesive unit. To be fair, Devastator was much stupider than the 6 geniuses it took to combine into him, but the fact that they worked so well together at all was rare. Menasor fought within himself, and Bruticus was made up of mechs that couldn't even trust each other. Devastator was an accomplishment like no other in the Decepticon ranks.

Still, it wasn't the same. Once the Constructicons separated they each went back to doing their own thing. Hook was the only one in Megatron's base with actual training as a medic. Scrapper was an architect and construction worker, Bonecrusher was a laborer, Mixmaster was a chemist, Scavenger was an archaeologist, and Long Haul was...well, he could carry things.

Hook watched as Ratchet and First Aid repaired yet another mech; this time it was Tracks. He sighed and then glared at them, unable to believe himself for feeling jealous of Ratchet's apprentice. He wanted his own medic in training. He wanted someone to boss around, to teach the fundamentals of medicine and repair, to be an extra pair of servos in the medbay, or just to talk shop with and actually be understood. He loved his gestalt brothers, but they were no help to him in a medbay and had no interest in becoming medics.

"Decepticons, retreat!" Megatron called out, and Hook saw his leader had a wound from Optimus Prime's rifle on his leg.

Sighing and shrugging his shoulder guards, Hook flew up in the air and retreated with the rest of the Decepticons. He looked down at the Autobots as they left, and he noted they were all alive.

Of course they're all alive. Hook thought bitterly. They have several medics to repair them, including Ratchet and his little stooge. Why doesn't Megatron kill the medics first?

It was annoying for Hook to see just how many repair mechs were available to the Autobots. There was of course Ratchet and First Aid, but there was also Wheeljack, Perceptor, Hoist, and even their human pet with the fat gut was able to perform repairs! It just wasn't fair. Hook sometimes wished he could just rip them all to pieces, but then they'd probably just manifest another medic out of Optimus Prime's subspace pocket.

Back aboard their underwater spaceship otherwise known as the Nemesis, Hook was busy performing repairs on the Decepticons that were injured during the fight. Hook raced around the medbay trying to figure out how best to triage his patients. He had to repair Megatron first since he was leader, but fortunately his leg repair only took a few breems. Unfortunately for Hook Starscream was the most heavily wounded, so Hook had to repair him next. He hated giving Starscream any sort of special treatment because it made the underhanded second in command even more arrogant and entitled than usual.

Hook added protoform metal to Starscream's wings to fix the open wounds and repaired fuel lines around Starscream's face and chassis. It looked pretty bad, and Hook could tell from the charred areas that most of the damage was done by Megatron himself; both by fusion cannon and by fist. It was most likely a result of Starscream trying to shoot Megatron during the confusion of the battle, but then again the two had fought for so long that it didn't seem like Megatron even needed a reason anymore.

"Hey Hook, get over here!" Astrotrain called out amid the controlled chaos of the medbay, "Blitzwing's turning a weird shade of lavender around his purple parts. Is he dying?"

"Probably," Hook replied casually as he finished up on Starscream, "I'll be there in a moment."

"Well hurry up!" Astrotrain demanded, "He won't last much longer!"

Hook growled under his vocalizer and sped up his work on Starscream. He hated repairing Blitzwing ever since that traitor had commissioned the Constructicons to build a maze for him and then refused to give them what they were owed. To be fair they had gone against Megatron to work with Blitzwing, so part of it was on them. Still, Hook had felt bitterly about the triple changer ever since.

He managed to stabilize Starscream enough that he could quit and come back later. He then ran over to where Astrotrain was trying to scoop Blitzwing's energon back into his body with a bucket. A bucket! Hook couldn't believe how stupid some of his teammates were. Energon had to introduced to the fuel lines slowly, and getting it anywhere else could cause clogging in the gears and circuits.

"Get out of my way!" Hook ordered, "I'll tend to him now."

"Is he gonna live, Doc?" Astrotrain asked worriedly.

"Unfortunately, yes," Hook replied drolly as he began to clean up the areas Astrotrain had messed up, "Just give me some space to work."

Hook continued his work on Blitzwing as Astrotrain left the medbay. Blitzwing was in pretty bad shape, though a lot of his problems stemmed from Astrotrain trying to fix him. Hook hated it when the most moronic members of the group tried to play doctor on his patients. Once again he was reminded of how First Aid helped Ratchet and it made him wish for a competent assistant even more.

"Hey Hook!" Long Haul shouted from the entrance, "We got another one coming in! This time it's Swindle!"

"Tell him to wait!" Hook exploded as he threw his scalpel on the ground, "I'm busy! Can't you see all these mechs in my medbay!? If Swindle isn't dying then tell him to get lost!"

"Sorry Hook, you gotta help him," Long Haul shrugged; unconcerned by the outburst, "He's got an exposed spark chamber."

"Just my luck," Hook ground out through his denta, "Set him on the berth next to Blitzwing. I'll tend to him as soon as I can."

"Is there anything I can do?" Long Haul asked.

"Yes," Hook replied with a weary sigh, "Get me a stiff cube of high grade."

Long Haul nodded and did as instructed. By the time the dump truck Constructicon came back with the high grade Hook was already elbow deep in Swindle's chassis rebuilding the spark chamber from what little bit was left of it. Judging from the wound it was caused by Ironhide. At this point in his career Hook could pretty much tell which weapon belonged to which mech, no matter which side they were fighting for.

"Ohhhh! Owwww!" Hook heard moaning coming from across the room behind a curtain, and could tell it was Scavenger, "Is that you, carrier?"

"That's an IV pole," Hook replied, already aware of what Scavenger was looking at even though he couldn't see him, "Scavenger, your anti-rust medicine is on the nightstand next to your berth. Drink it now while you're still awake."

"I don't need it..." Scavenger moaned feebly, "My tank already feels better."

"Liar," Hook shot back while continuing to repair Swindle, "Take your medicine, and from now on don't drink from old cubes you find lying around your quarters. I swear, you are such a hoarder it's a wonder a rust infection hasn't killed you by now. You should know better than to drink from a cube that's just lying around."

"It wasn't that bad," Scavenger argued, though his voice sounded weak and frail, "I drink rusty fuel all the time, and I'm the- ow! picture of health..."

"Just take your medicine," Hook sighed defeatedly while welding Swindle's chassis shut.

Hook could hear Scavenger shuffle around on his med-berth, and eventually he heard the telltale sound of medicine being swallowed. He hated how stubborn Scavenger could be, but it wasn't like he didn't understand how he came to be this way. Cybertron was a planet ravaged by war and running out of fuel. Starvation was common, even among Decepticons, and prolonged fuel deprivation had made it so Scavenger cherished every bit of energon he had, even if it was too old and contaminated to consume. Frankly, it was no wonder so many Decepticons had mental disorders at this point. Many Cybertronians on both sides had processor damage due to chronic starvation on their home planet.

Hook looked around the medbay to see what work had yet to be done. Every mech was stabilized or discharged, there was a lot of stuff to clean up, and he still had half a cube of high grade to finish. He decided the cleaning could wait and he went to the Constructicons' private break room with his cube.

Hook enjoyed this break room whenever he could get away. Many Decepticons were jealous of this place, but hey, being Megatron's most reliable combiner did have its perks. Hook was only there for a breem before his boss, Scrapper, came into the room with a cube of high grade of his own.

"Hey Hook, how's it goin'?" Scrapper asked as he sat down at the table across from the medic, "You see the new beauty marks Megatron left on Starscream? Heh heh. When will that seeker ever learn?"

"Hopefully someday," Hook replied, "Last time Starscream threw a tantrum he came back with the Combaticons. I get so sick of repairing those ill-equipped gestalt wannabes. Swindle got into it with Ironhide and almost offlined."

"Heh, I'm not surprised. Swindle even frags off his own team," Scrapper commented, "So, Scavenger doin' any better?"

"A little," Hook replied as he stared down into his cube, "He drank rusty energon. What am I supposed to do with that? Even a sparkling can see rust in an energon cube. Honestly, that mech eats like an Insecticon! What are we supposed to do with him?"

"Pretend he's slow if anyone asks?" Scrapper joked, but then noticed Hook wasn't laughing, "Eh, sorry."

"It's not just Scavenger, it's everything," Hook lamented, "I'm so tired of doing all of the repair work myself. I know we are all good builders, but when it comes to fixing our soldiers I'm always on my own. I want an apprentice."

"I'm sure Megatron would allow that," Scrapper replied nonchalantly, "I mean, he does still like us after all."

"Perhaps, but it's such slim pickings here on earth," Hook replied pessimistically, "Yet the best the Decepticons have to offer are already here on this planet. Other than you and the other Constructicons, I just don't know if I could trust anyone else to work with me."

"What about Vortex?" Scrapper suggested, "He knows a thing or two about anatomy and psychology."

"He's a torturer," Hook replied with a flat glare, "I wouldn't trust Vortex with anything other than an interrogation. I might not like most of my patients, but their well being is still important to me."

"Well then, what about Astrotrain?" Scrapper posited.

"That fraghead nearly killed Blitzwing today trying to help him," Hook groused, "I'd sooner trust an Autobot with my toolkit than Astrotrain."

"The Coneheads?" Scrapper tried again.

"Well, Ramjet and Thrust are too stupid," Hook reasoned, "Dirge would almost work, but his fear-inducing sound frequency would make it difficult to keep the patients calm. That could cause further injury. No, not him either."

"What about one of Soundwave's brats?" Scrapper asked with a shrug.

"No," Hook shook his helm in distaste, "Only Rumble and Frenzy could work the tools, and they're too mischievous to be trusted around unconscious mechs."

"So, the real problem is you can't trust anyone?" Scrapper stated rather than asked.

"Exactly," Hook replied as his shoulder guards slumped.

Hook's reasons for wanting an assistant were mostly selfish, but deep down he also understood the significance of what was happening. He was the only Decepticon left with extensive medical knowledge. Most medical professionals were Autobots. The Decepticons planned on eventually exterminating all Autobots. If Hook didn't find a new medic to train in the ways of detailed and professional repair, then the technique could eventually be lost to time, and the Cybertronian species could go extinct. This thought made Hook realize just how important this task truly was. He needed an apprentice, and soon.