Second Chances: Part 2
"Hey come on," Some one told him, "Come on wake up."
He winced and waited. The last thing he wanted to do right then was wake up. He didn't want to wake up; he didn't even want to move. He had a head ache and the weird sense that something strange had happened to him.
The person who was trying to get him conscious wasn't taking no for an answer however.
"Wake up or I'm going to light a fire under your skid plate," The person paused for a second, "Literally."
He finally gave in and powered up his optics. The big white and red blur over his head resolved into a face and the person grinned down at him.
"Welcome back, I was starting to wonder if I had left something out."
He sat up and put his hand in his face and then looked around, "What happened? Where the heck am I?"
"Well, what happened I can't answer that one for you friend," The white robot continued, "But I can tell you where you are. This is the ark, aka autobot head quarters."
He blinked at him, and suddenly a lot of things came smashing back into focus. A lot but not all, some real gaps still remained. But who he was, how he got there, and what had caused him to be trapped were very clear.
"The Ark?" He stared at the white bot he now realized could be none other than Ratchet him self.
Again how he knew this person escaped him, but he knew that they were a medic and had been or were important for some reason.
"Did I stutter?" The medic asked slightly irritated.
"No… it's just…" He looked around.
He had memories of this place, but this wasn't how he knew it. He had seen it as a ghost ship. Lifeless and full of lifeless passengers just waiting to be found, much the same as he had been. Now though, it was full of people, noise and light. There seemed to be some one every where and they were all very much alive now.
Ratchet shook his head at him, realizing that he'd snapped him off.
"I'm sorry man. You have a right to be a little bit disoriented. You've been off line a very, very long time."
He looked around again in almost complete awe and then turned back to the medic. "How long?"
The doctor shrugged, "I'm still not sure, a lot of the data in your memory was scrambled, but if I had to make a guess, I'd say about oh… three or four million years. Seems like you crashed here not long after us."
"No kidding, s'not like I meant to."
"Dose any one ever really mean to crash?" Ratchet asked him. "So any how, can you remember any thing?"
He did in fact remember several things. There was that anger again, wanting to come to the surface for some reason. The reason how ever remained as elusive as ever. There were some brief flashes of fighting of some kind, but those were hard to place as well. Finally there was the memory of how he got there. That was the most vibrant and the one closest to the surface of his mind.
"I … I remember an explosion… but other than that…just flashes that don't really make much sense."
"I see," ratchet nodded, "Well some amnesia is to be expected. Once you get more accustomed to your new form, hopefully your data tracks will restore themselves."
"New form?" He questioned.
Ratchet grinned at him and nodded. That's when he looked down. He'd changed, completely. Gone was the streamlined form he remembered, and in place of it was something slightly boxier but much larger and more powerful. He couldn't tell now what he transformed into but it had to be some kind of vehicle.
"In case you're wondering," The medic told him, "Dodge ram."
"I see," he blinked, "Well it's not what I'm used to but, it's nice."
Ratchet grinned at him and then walked over to the com. "Hey Upsilon, could you come in here for a second. He's awake."
"Of course," a very pleasant voice answered from the other end.
Then the doctor turned back to him, "So we have a few seconds, can I ask you one more thing?"
"Sure," he nodded.
"You remember your name son?"
He thought about that for a second. He did actually, but it no longer seemed really appropriate. After all, considering his new body the chances of him being any where near the water were pretty slim, his old name no longer really fit. He thought about it a few more second and then looked back to the doctor.
"I guess for now you can just call me DC." He answered.
"Works for me," He patted him on the arm as the door opened and another transformer stepped through.
This one was a bit taller than Ratchet; he had a sleeker design that hinted at his alt mode being some kind of sports car or such. He had a pleasant enough face and bright green optics that set off the red and black of his coloring nicely.
"Hi there," he held out his hand to DC, "Nice to see you finally awake."
The former manta ray took his hand and shook it back, "Nice to be awake."
"Well then, I'll let Ups' here show you around the ark and you can pick out some where to stay if you like. When you get a bit more settled, Prime's most likely going to want to speak to you some."
"Prime?" DC blinked at a loss.
"You know," Upsilon grinned, "big guy, Red and blue, in charge around here?"
"Oh…" That one managed to catch him off guard, "Yeah I guess it just hadn't clicked."
Ratchet laughed at him, "Don't worry about it kid, your data tracks are bound to patch them selves up eventually. Just give it some time."
He nodded and slid down off the table to follow the other guy. Upsilon grinned at him and motioned for him to follow.
"You have a while yet before your back to normal I suppose?"
DC nodded at him, "That's what he told me."
"I see," he nodded to him self for some strange reason, "Well in the mean time,how about I give you the ten cent tour?"
"Lead on."
The blue and sliver truck spent a good hour being shown around, and he got a very good idea of the lay of the land. Eventually they made it to the area of the ship that was sectioned of for private quarters.
"So ahh… where do I…?" DC looked around trying to guess which rooms were empty and which weren't.
"Well these are all full, but there are some back here that are empty." Upsilon led him down the hallway, "Truth is, they really have them, rooms I mean, all over the place. Every one has just set up where they feel the most comfortable."
He touched a panel on the wall and the door slid aside revealing a nice but some what Spartan place. "This is my room, I don't really have that much in here for the time being. Just the model I'm working on."
DC Spotted a table that was covered with a very intricately detailed cityscape. It was very well done, and some one had put a lot of time in to it.
"Its great," DC told him, "Did you make all of this?"
"Yes," He nodded and walked over to it, "It's a model of my first home you might say."
"Well it's really wonderful."
"Thanks," He motioned back to the door, "Come on lets see if we can find you a spot."
He followed Upsilon back out into the hall and they found an empty one just across the hall.
"I like this one," DC nodded, "I think I'll take it for now."
"That works," Upsilon turned and headed out, "Hey you need any thing; I'm across the hall okay?"
"Thanks," DC told him.
"Welcome to the autobots man," the door swooshed shut be hind upsilon and left DC alone in there.
He sat there for a while, just getting used to all of this. A new body, a new life, and all that anger he remembered seemed to be gone for the most part. He made up his mind to not try and pry into his past for now. He had a second chance and hoped that he could use it. The Autobots had been unbelievably kind to him from the moment he'd come back on line. He was determined to make the best of it that he could. There was just one thing that bothered him as he got comfortable, some thing that niggled at the back of his mind but he couldn't quiet place. He couldn't put his finger on it but there was something that he had to remember.
