Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any of the characters mentioned in the story. They are trademarks of Hasbro and the other companies responsible for their creation. So pleeez don't sue me.
When We Were YoungChapter –17 Wake Up Call
Sharp teeth….
Five faces….
Has the imperial magistrate reached a verdict?
I have…….
"Negative!" Soundwave shouted upon awakening.
***********************************************
"Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback!" The Headmaster addressed the three standing before him. "You have been charged with to attempts of sabotage of Decepticon victory in the public eye. Your first charge is your sending of information of War Ball game plays and information to the Autobot War Ball team, the second charge is the attempted slaying of the War Ball team's goalkeeper."
The Headmaster stood up. Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, his optics a mixture of anger disappointment and pity. " I have spoken to Lord Straxus about both charges. He has deemed that during these dangerous times, any threats against Decepticon victory must be eliminated. In other words, what you have is the equivalent of treason and assassination, and that your punishments must be the same as such."
The three accused drew back slightly in terror. Everyone knew that treason equaled death.
"Lord Straxus has left it up to me to deliver your sentence. Do to your young age I am hesitant to have destroyed, as he would wish. I will give you a choice. You may chose a traitor's death or a life exiled completely from Cybertron. I do warn you though. If you chose exile you shall have your ability to form a gestalt taken from you."
The three turned to each other.
" I don't want to die, I say we choose exile." Kickback whimpered slightly.
"And just how long do you think we would last without our gestalt powers?" Bombshell hissed.
"At least there's a chance, chance." Shrapnel snarled back.
Bombshell had to agree with that. They turned back to the Headmaster.
"We chose life in exile, exile."
"Very well. I leave you in the hands of Primus."
*********************************************
"This is so slaggin pathetic!" Blitzwing growled, kicking one of the five practice War Balls through the goal ring. "We've tried out the whole slaggin school and we can't find one decent goalkeeper.
"At least decent by our standards." Dirge sighed.
"Indeed, too bad combiners are so unstable or one of them might make a pretty good goal keeper." Thrust looked over to the other end of the practice field where the Combaticon named Brawl and the Constructicon named Bonecrusher were entangled in a vicious wrestling type match, while Longhaul and the other Combaticons watched cheering them on.
"Slag!" Blitzwing growled again and booted another practice ball, this time with no direction in mind. Unfortunately the direction it was going was straight towards Soundwave and Shockwave who happened to be walking by at that moment.
Soundwave seemed to be deeply engrossed in conversation with Shockwave, see as how he didn't seem to notice a huge War Ball flying toward him. However, when the ball was mere inches from his cranium, Soundwave raised his arm and whacked the ball away without even turning his head to look.
The War Ball team looked at each other then looked back at Soundwave and Shockwave. The two robots walked on as if nothing had happened.
A smirk crept across Megatron's face.
"I think we found ourselves a goalkeeper."
**********************************************
"I'm…I'm alive?" Thundercracker croaked as his optic sensors cleared. Primus, his voice sounded terrible, but that's what you get when someone holds you by the throat and brutalizes you.
"Yup. Alive and fully functioning…well…at least your vitals are." The one named Hook answered. The other medics were working on putting the right half of Thundercracker's torso back together.
"So that means Astrotrain's alive too. That's good." Thundercracker stared up from his place on the med table at Hook and Astrotrain.
"His feeling sensors have been shut off so he won't feel the work being done to him. However, he will be a little….umm…spacey." Hook stated.
"Ah, ha." Astrotrain turned back to Thundercracker.
"So, how was your day?" Astrotrain smirked, knowing perfectly well what Thundercracker had been through.
"Swell." Thundercracker chuckled slightly. "So are you back for good?"
"Afraid not. I'm due at Polyhex Central in 22 hours." Astrotrain sighed.
"Wait a minute! Where's Skywarp?!" Thundercracker tried to lift his body to look around the room, but the head medic, whose name was Tourniquet, pushed him back down.
"Don't move or you'll tear open your recovering wounds," Tourniquet talked as if he were a field commander giving orders to a soldier for battle.
"But I have to find him! I have to know if he is ok!"
"Don't worry your twin suffered a system crash after he finding you in your condition after you'd been assaulted. However, he suffered nothing more than that, in fact he's probably awoken by now since you have." Hook stated.
"Good." Thundercracker sighed and relaxed.
"Well done Hook," Tourniquet commended him. " You seem to have a knack for calming patients down without treating them like children."
Hook smiled proudly as Tourniquet went back to patching up Thundercracker's injuries.
"Astrotrain," Thundercracker spoke up. "Could you go check on Skywarp and tell him I okay?"
"No problem 'Cracker, I was heading to the Aerial House anyway."
"Thundercracker it's time we shut you down to recharge in any case. You need your rest if you want to be well enough to play in the Championship tournament."
Thundercracker nodded, then turned his head to Astrotrain again. "Thanks."
Astrotrain nodded and smiled before heading for the door.
"Astrotrain, wait a moment," the Triple Changer heard Hook call after him.
"What's up?"
"I noticed that throughout this whole period of talk, you keep twisting and stretching the left side of your back, are you in pain? Is something broken?" The Constructicon inquired.
"Actually, come to think of my left wing could use a look." Astrotrain sighed stretching the left side of his back again.
"All right then," Hook motioned to a med table. "Let's have a look."
"Wait a second. You're gonna look at it?" Astrotrain had slightly nervous look on his face. After all Hook didn't look much older than himself. A picture of Blitzwing and Octane playing "doctor" ran through his head.
"All have you know that though I'm technically not certified to be a surgeon yet, I have patched up many of my comrades when they were in critical condition. Had it not been for me, they might not be alive. The reason I'm down here in the med bay and taking classes about this is to rack up hours to get certified." Hook said trying to keep his temper down from having his skills questioned.
Astrotrain shut his mouth and sat down on the table. 'My back hurts like functioning metal in a smelting pit, what have I got to lose?'
No sooner had that thought passed through Astrotrain's head, than he heard Hook's voice again. "Ah, ha here's the problem. Your left wing is slightly out of alignment, you see it puts strain on the left side of your back, which is why----"
"Yeah, yeah thanks for the diagnosis, could you just fix it please?!" Astrotrain spoke through clenched teeth.
Hook shrugged. "All right. Brace yourself, I'll have to realign it manually and it's going to hurt………..a lot."
Hook placed one foot on Astrotrain's back to steady both himself and the triple-changer. Nobody noticed Thundercracker's optics widen as Hook took hold of one of Astrotrain's wings.
"NO! NO! Not his wings!!!! NOT HIS WINGS!!!!!" Thundercracker screamed, feebly trying to move to help Astrotrain.
Suddenly, blue seeker's optics went dark and he fell limp back onto the med table.
"Thundercracker!!!" Astrotrain moved to his friend's side, but was stopped by Tourniquet.
"It's all right I just shut him down so that he wouldn't cause further injury to himself. Now why don't you sit back down and tend to your own."
Astrotrain nodded and sat back down in front of Hook, repeated what he had started before Thundercracker's outburst.
Hook took hold of Astrotrain's wing again. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah." Astrotrain sighed.
"Ok."
CRUNCH!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU SLAGGING BASTARD!!"
"Yeah I get that a lot." Hook smirked.
*************************************
Skywarp walked toward the to the beam of light.
There was something lying there in the beam of light, something that was so familiar.
He drew closer.
It was blue. It was wounded, cords spilled out of where it's arm should have been. The leakage formed a small pool around it.
It turned its head to the black seeker. Its face was a look of sorrow and pain.
It spoke.
………Skywarp.
*********************************
Skywarp's optics flickered back online.
"Th…Th…Thundercracker?" Skywarp, wearily and painfully raised his upper body to see if his last memories had actually happened.
He did a slow pan of his environment, which he quickly recognized as his room. His optics fell on the empty recharge bed at the room's other end.
It was true! It had happened! Skywarp shudder of terror rush through his body. Was Thundercracker dead? He had to find out.
Skywarp unplugged himself from the recharge bed swung his legs over the side and slowly stood up on his feet. His whole body creaked and yearned to lie back down on the bed, but he managed to force himself out the door. He slowly staggered down the hallway and into the entertainment room.
"How ya' feeling 'Warp?" Thrust was sitting next to Blitzwing in one of the many armchairs and couches that adorned the entertainment room. The whole War Ball team was there, Megatron was showing videos of some of teams they would be going up against in the Championship to Soundwave and Starscream. Skywarp also took notice that the Constructicons Longhaul and Bonecrusher occupied the room as well.
"Where's Thundercracker?"
"Well, Well look who's up." Octane half slammed his hands down onto Skywarp's shoulders. The seeker shuddered slightly, uncertain if his stiff lower body would support him.
"Stiff and sore and take your hands off me right now." Skywarp's voice sounded tired and angry. "Where's Thundercracker?"
"He's in med bay," Blitzwing watched Skywarp stagger towards the Aerial House door. " But he's ok."
Skywarp stopped and turned back to the others, his face a mixture of relief and worry. "He's…..He's ok?
"Yeah, but in the meantime Soundwave over there is gonna replace him."
"What?!" Skywarp whirled his head around to face the cassette bearer. "If you think you're gonna replace Thun----"
"Substitution, not replace." The blue transformer stood. "Position temporary. Held until Thundercracker returns."
"Yeah, he's not half bad either. It's like he can tell what you're gonna do before you do it. Too bad he's not as quick as 'Cracker." Dirge spoke up.
"Y'know we better get back to our House it's, almost required study time." Megatron gathered up the video discs and made his way to the door. Soundwave quickly followed.
"Come on Starscream, time to go. Starscream?"
Megatron looked back and found the aforementioned seeker lying deep in recharge on one of the couches.
"Aw. Let 'em sleep." Longhaul spoke up from his seat along the wall next to Bonecrusher. "Octane had way too much fun 'conditioning' him today. Believe me I was there."
**************************Flashback**************************
"COME ON! FASTER! DON'T TELL ME I'M BEATING YOU!" Octane yelled.
"Tell me again, just what is the point of this?" Starscream gasped between air intakes.
Starscream was currently running, not flying, running up a very steep hill not far from the War Ball practice field. Octane meanwhile was sitting in the back of Longhaul in vehicle mode, stopwatch in hand taunting the young seeker as they drove up beside him.
"The point is to build up your endurance. To get you used to fatigue and pain. Plus, it's just damn fun to watch you suffer, science boy."
"You're mean." Starscream growled
"I'm not mean, I'm just sadistic." Octane smirked.
*************************Flashback****************************
"And that was just the warm-up." Longhaul concluded. "I'm surprised the little fly boy is still in one piece. I'll give him credit for that."
"You're a slagging piece of slag Octane." Starscream murmured, his optics flickering online.
"Of the highest degree." Octane smiled.
Suddenly the Aerial House door burst open and an unexpected visitor stomped into the entertainment. "Ok, who's the dipstick who didn't plan a welcome home party for me?"
Everyone turned to the speaker in shock, for it was the last voice they ever expected to hear. Sure enough, standing in the entryway of the entertainment room was Astrotrain.
"Well? Is anyone gonna answer me, or are all just gonna stand there like-----oof!" Astrotrain hit the floor hard. He had failed to notice a certain gold and purple transformer performing his infamous "flying leap tackle."
"Where in the smelting pits have you been?!"
"Gimme a break Blitz. It's the hardest thing to get a ticket home from the frontlines, and you gotta watch it with those enthusiastic greetings, I'm a war veteren now."
Blitzwing smirked and helped his fellow triple-changer to his feet. "Good ta' have ya' home."
Astrotrain's smile faded. "Don't get too happy, I've only got 19 hours left."
However Blitzwing's grin remained. "Well that'll give us plenty of time to talk. There's some things I wanna discuss with ya'."
"Sure. I'd-----What's the matter with him?"
Everyone turned to see Soundwave buckled over, gripping his head.
"Soundwave?!" Megatron ran over to him.
"They…..are…..here." The azure robot choked out.
"What?! Who?!------"
BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"What the hell was that?!" Blitzwing shouted.
Suddenly the house communicator turned on and they could hear the Headmaster's voice.
"Students remain in your houses. What you just heard was the crash landing of a Quintesson space craft…"
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Sorry, for the long wait folks. I just started college and it took me a while to adjust, which left little time for writing.
Don't worry, I'll update this story very soon I promise.
Till next time.
-Vega Sailor