Chapter Ten

Up in Flames

He tried not to look. He didn't really didn't want to look. He had witnessed many things that organics did. Save for things that they did in the bathroom. Sari always said that was a private thing for humans. He very rarely got to see what humans did to repair one another. If there were any injured humans at the site of an emergency, they were rushed off by medics and out of sight. Optimus had always been a bit curious about what happens in the back of an ambulance. Sari only said that it could get pretty ugly. He could only imagine what she meant by that.

"I can't watch," Sari hid her eyes, but still peered through her fingers.

"Oh brother," Pyrus sighed as she plunged the needle into her exposed belly.

Sari let out a yelp as she closed her eyes. Optimus understood that things piercing organics' skin would cause pain, but it didn't bother Pyrus at all. She seemed to be used to doing this 'insulin shot'. She said that it would bring her sugar down. It was strange to Optimus because she was having the opposite problem but it would have the same effect. Organics were very complex.

"I'm done kid," Pyrus put the syringe in a plastic container, "You didn't have to watch if you were so squeamish."

"I just don't know how you can do that to yourself," Sari shuttered.

"Because I want to live," Pyrus shrugged her shoulders, "Not sure why though…," she mumbled the last part.

"Are you sure you don't need a medic?" Optimus offered.

Pyrus snorted, "Your concern is noted. I've seen enough doctors to last me three lifetimes. All of them have only given me bad news," she started to put away her medical items.

"If you need to rest…," Prowl started to offer.

"I'll rest when I'm dead…," Pyrus ignored his kindness as she headed back to Medbay, "Besides, Ratchet and I have data to review."

"Wait for me," Sari ran after her.

"No," Pyrus growled, "What Ratchet and I have to do is going to be boring for someone like you. That," she added with a snort, "and I highly doubt that you'll add anything to the analysis."

"Why you!" Sari tried to charge at her, but Optimus picked her.

Optimus looked down at Pyrus, "Did you really have to say that?"

Pyrus crossed her arms, "Yes."

With that short and blunt response, Pyrus turned on her heels and headed to the medbay. Sari struggled for a minute and yelled a few things, but Pyrus obviously didn't care to answer her back. Sari just grumbled and mumbled as Pyrus disappeared. Even though he didn't agree with how the hacker handled the situation, Optimus did agree that it was probably better that Sari stay out of the medbay for now. From what Pyrus had explained, she and Ratchet were going to have to through the data to see what it was they were dealing with, how the scan taxed Ratchet's systems and why he wasn't as affected. It would take some time before they knew anything.

"I don't know why you contacted her!" Sari yelled at the Key, "She's the worst! You need to find someone else!"

The Key didn't seem to agree with her as it just laid in her palm.

"Stupid Key," Sari huffed.

"It will be okay Sari," Optimus set her back down, "Pyrus is… doing the best she can… considering the circumstances."

"You're on her side too!?" Sari turned her back to him.

Optimus sighed, "I'm not on anyone's side. I'm just trying… to… hold… everyone together…"

Sari must have realized that she shouldn't have snapped at him. Of course he was just as worried as she was. Maybe even more considering he was responsible for their well being. There was a lot on his shoulders. She thought maybe she shouldn't add to it.

"I'm sorry Optimus," she apologized, "Miss Grouchy Pants just gets under my skin so bad," she stomped her foot, "I just wished she could be nicer. Especially with all that we're going through. I mean," she started to pace back and forth, "it's our friends who are in danger."

"And I also brought her here against her will," Prowl brought up, "We're asking her to save our comrades where she is having to learn Cybertronian physiology and coding in a very short amount of time. Her… attitude towards us is understandable."

Prowl had a point.

"Well maybe if she was nicer, I would be nicer," Sari still was not convinced, "I even gave her juice."

There was no point in trying to argue with her. She was always a stubborn one. Optimus thought it was best to leave it be for now. Ratchet and Pyrus had a lot of work ahead of them. And there was really nothing that he or Prowl or Sari could do. All they could do was wait. No matter how agonizing it was. They would just have to occupy themselves until there was news.

Prowl meditated.

Optimus fiddled with the systems.

Sari paced back and forth while grumbling.

She would stop on the occasion and mumble something in the direction of the medbay. Optimus knew that she was just worried. So was he. He only wished that there was something he could say that would make her feel better. Although he just wanted to hear something that would alleviate his concerns. His thoughts were interrupted by the furious footsteps running down the hall. He was surprised to see Pyrus running towards her bags that Prowl had brought. She quickly rummaged through them until she seemed to find what she needed. She had grabbed several canishers and ran back towards the medbay.

"Pyrus! What's happening!?" Optimus called after her.

"MEDICAL EMERGENCY!" was all that she yelled.

"Ratchet!" Optimus called the meday, "What's going on!?"

"We've got a medical emergency in here Prime!" Ratchet appeared on the screen, "Bumblebee's and Bulkhead's core temperature are rising to dangerous levels. If they get any higher, there will be permanent damage!"

"Ratchet! I've got the coolant!" Pyrus entered.

"I'll get back to you," Ratchet rushed over to Pyrus and took the canishers.

Optimus watched as Ratchet and Pyrus began to spray the contents of the canishers into Bumblebee's and Bulkhead's open chest plates. Ratchet concentrated on Bulkhead, while Pyrus worked on Bumblebee. They yelled back and forth to one another on their patients' stats. Bulkhead's systems began to stabilize as his core temperature dropped. Soon his stats were no longer flashing red. However, Bumblebee wasn't in the clear. Ratchet and Pyrus furiously sprayed him down everywhere they could. Pyrus took care of the small places while Ratchet sprayed the more general areas and kept Bumblebee's spark stable.

"Last one!" Pyrus grabbed the last canisher, "We need to stop his processors from running! They're over working!"

"If we do that, they may not come back on!" Ratchet warned.

"Can we switch some of those processes over to something else?" Pyrus asked.

Ratchet had an idea, "If we can work through the processes manually we might get his processors to settle down!"

"What choice do we have?" she nervously laughed, "Let's do it."

Ratchet nodded his head. What else could they do? Whatever was causing this didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon. Ratchet and Pyrus connected to Bumblebee's processors. They were really overworking for some odd reason. The pair worked in tandem as they worked through the processes that were trying to run. They both were beginning to slow down. Ratchet's hands were beginning to shake. Pyrus' breaths were growing heavy.

"Looks like you're slowing down, old timer" Pyrus weakly laughed over her shoulder.

"Look who's talking," Ratchet shook his hands, "Looks like you can barely stand."

"Don't you worry about me," Pyrus smirked, "Worry about you."

This small exchange seemed to give them both a burst of energy. Silently they went back to the numerous processes that were trying to execute. Sometimes they would have to switch up what each other were doing. Pyrus gave anything regarding Bumblebee's primary functions to Ratchet and he gave anything pertaining to secondary and non essential systems to her. It was almost like they could read each other's minds. It was a long and tedious process, but they slowly worked through it all. They both breathed a sigh of relief as Bumblebee's core temperature began to drop to safer levels.

Optimus had as well. He had been watching the pair work over the monitor. Ratchet had forgotten to turn it off. Turning back to Prowl, Optimus noticed that Sari was sitting in his hands with tears flowing down her cheeks. He wanted to say everything would be alright, but he wasn't sure if he believed it himself.

"I don't think their systems can take another temperature spike like that," Ratchet began to run a diagnostic scan on both of the patients, "There's already some damage to their systems. We have to keep their temperature from rising in the future as we work through this."

"...," Pyrus thought for a moment, "... It's a bit old school, but it may work. Back in the day, computers would run hot," she began to explain, "To mitigate it, various forms of cooling and venting were designed. One of the most popular ways was water cooling. The water runs through tubes and pulls the heat away from the hardware, like a CPU, that is producing the heat. That's just a simple example."

"We do something similar with equipment that produces a lot of heat," Ratchet could confirm, "You want to do that with Bulkhead and Bumblebee?"

"If we can arrange some tubing running around the areas that are producing the most amount of heat, it may keep their systems in a more acceptable temperature range," Pyrus paced back and forth, "I believe that I saw some tubing… and I assume that there is a water connection."

They started to talk about how they would run the tubing through Bumblebee's and Bulkhead's bodies. It would be a tight fit, but doable. Using a mix of silicone and copper tubing, they came up with a plan for each.

"Better let the others know what's going on…," Pyrus let out a heavy sigh, "They probably are wondering what's going on."

"I'm sure," Ratchet turned back to the monitor, "... oh… I forgot to turn off the comm… I assume that you all heard and saw everything…"

Before Optimus could say anything, Sari's meek little voice cut through the silence, "Are… Are they okay? Are they… are they…," she began to cry.

"They're out of danger at the moment," Pyrus answered, "They don't have long though. Even if we can keep them cool and do the processes manually, their processors running like that will eventually wear out the hardware. From my understanding of your biology," she looked down to her feet, "That is not a good thing."

"It's not," Ratchet confirmed.

"Please tell me that you have some sort of a plan. The scan you ran on Ratchet," Optimus was trying his best to remain calm, "Please tell me that it gave you some clues to what is going on."

"Throttle down big blue," Pyrus spoke calmly, "We do have some findings that are pointing us to answers. Give Ratchet and I some time to compile it into something understandable. It will also give me time to confirm some suspicions I have," she grew quiet.

"We'll… get back to you Prime," the screen went dark.

That was it. There was nothing more that could be done. Not until Ratchet and Pyrus were done with their analysis. They would just have to be patient. No matter how agonizing it was. Optimus looked back at Prowl and Sari. Prowl was stoic as ever. Sari was wiping away tears.

"It will be okay Sari," was all he could say.

She looked up at him. She obviously didn't believe him. He didn't believe himself either.