Author's note. Sorry for the delay, hope everyone enjoys this chapter. Written by me and annpar2009.
Enjoy and please review.
Sometime passed and he continued to do some desk work while Spike slept on but eventually, he received a call from his trine mate.
"Starscream, I've been sent outside to assist the Constructicons."
"So?" Starscream responded impatiently.
"Ricochet is going to need some fuel," Thundercracker explained and Starscream's optics widened in horror.
"You want me to feed him?" he demanded, utterly outraged.
"Yes," Thundercracker retorted firmly. "It's not that difficult, he normally feeds well. Just make sure he doesn't have any air trapped in his intakes and you'll be fine."
"You cannot be serious," the trine leader groaned, sending the sleeping sparkling a glare.
"I showed you where the Energon is earlier," Thundercracker reminded him. "Ricochet didn't finish his fuel earlier so he'll probably be hungry. And if you ignore him, he'll probably start screaming. Do you want to explain to Megatron why that is?"
Starscream growled, he hadn't thought he'd actually need to feed the wingless brat. However, Thundercracker's pointed statement reminded him that their leader would not react well if the sparkling started screaming from hunger. So with great reluctance, he bit out. "Fine, I'll feed him."
"Thank you," his trine mate said gratefully. "I've gotta go, I'll see you both later."
"Hmph," Starscream huffed, now annoyed all over again. He got up and made his way over to where Spike was, the sparkling was still sleeping. He supposed he should wake him up and give him the fuel. Reaching down, he lightly poked the sparkling until sleepy blue optics blinked up at him.
"It's time for your fuel," Starscream declared brusquely.
"Already?" Spike squeaked with a yawn. "Dunno if I feel like it..."
"I don't have all day," his watcher informed him, reaching down and lifting him up. Spike didn't protest, he still felt exceedingly tired. Starscream reached for the bottle of Energon and shoved it at Spike who stared at it for a moment before leaning forward to take some of it. He would have liked it a bit warmer but it wasn't that bad. However, after a few gulps, he started to feel a little nauseous and shoved the bottle away.
"Come on," Starscream ordered, pushing it at him again. "You're supposed to drink it."
"I don't feel good," Spike chirped unhappily.
Looking down at the bottle, spike really didn't want to drink more, all he wanted to do was get away for it.
"You're not leaving this table until that bottle is empty," commanded Starscream firmly, but once again he saw the sparkling shoved the bottle away and looked away from the seeker as he was hugging himself.
"Ungrateful Sparkling, Do you even know what trouble we go through to get that Energon in the first place!" demanded the seeker in a bit higher tone with made spike look at his bottle again, he knew the con's stole energy to create Energon but so fair he never thought of it.
"Of course you don't, you're still a brat," complained Starscream, the brat should be grateful of getting free Energon since he is still too young to be a warrior. "To young to understand that I had to fight the Autobot's just to get a few cubes as my fuel for the week!"
Spike did feel a bit sad about that and reached for his bottle, he really didn't want to but chirped. "A few sips won't hurt will it?"
"That's better," nodded Starscream, watching spike drink a few more skips then without warning puked all over the bottle and table.
Spike started crying right after that and now had one shocked but angry seeker looking down at him, but spike couldn't care less he as he did feel just awful of not just what happen but for forcing himself to drink more Energon then he should have, he chirped I should have listened to my stomach."
"Unbelievable," started Starscream in surprise and forced himself to grab a towel walk over the sparkling cleaning the puked Energon, there was no way he would carry him in this state "BE Quiet Brat!"
Spike just stared at the seeker for a moment before continuing crying, this was hardly his fault, he did shoved away his bottle at the start as a sign that he couldn't take more and now he get blamed on because his watcher made him drink too much? Hardly fair.
"This will do," muttered the seeker, at least now Spike was cleaner than before and throw away the towel, but the screaming was not getting a bit to annoying.
Picking up Spike, Starscream went straight to the med-bay, muttering "He better have some solution."
On this way there the mech's avoided eye contact with the seeker knowing well what to come if they did, at last at the med-bay Starscream stormed inside yelling "HOOK!"
"What? What do you want?!" The medic retorted, yelling right back at the seeker's face. "I'm busy, can't you see?"
Indeed he was busy repairing a mechs knee which Starscream just ignored. "I don't care! The brat won't shut up."
"And what do you expect me to do?" snapped Hook focusing on his patient.
"You're a medic, the brat is obviously sick, we both know it," argued Starscream who had put Spike on one of the tables.
With a load sign Hook walked over to the seeker and looked at Spike "Hmm, what happened to him?"
"Piff as if I know, he puked after refuelling," answered Starscream and Spike just whimpered.
"Was he refusing the Energon?" asked Hook and did a scan of the poor sparkling.
"Not at the start," stated Starscream and continued "But he did leave half of the bottle which I found unacceptable."
"You didn't?" Hook gasped as his optics meet now SIC and yelled "You forced him to drink more Energon than necessary while he is sick?!"
"I don't see the issue in that, he was supposed to drink the bottle wasn't he?" sneered the seeker.
Hook just wanted to slap the seeker so hard. "I may have not worked with sparkling since back on Cybertron, but its well-known that sick sparklings should not be forced to drink too much Energon while sick!"
"At this stage, it's better to feed them often but small amounts than to throw them a large bottle," explained Hood and had to get some of his recipe and started to mix a small cube which looked to be blue medicine "and now thanks to you, his systems are in shock after that which will give the virus a perfect opportunity to strike again."
At that Starscream just piffed it away, how was he supposed to know that? But at least now he did.
"There it's done," said the medic and hold it up for Spike to drink.
Spike looked at it and pulled a face. Starscream gave him a scowl, why was he such a defiant sparkling? Hook however smiled wryly and said. "Come on kid, it doesn't taste bad."
"Yeah right," Spike scoffed, that's what doctors and nurses always said when they wanted you to take some yucky medicine.
"It'll help settle your tanks," Hook cajoled. "I know they feel like slag right about now."
"Hmph," Starscream huffed.
Spike grimaced but he supposed he should make the effort. So as Hook pressed the cube to his lips, he obligingly took a sip and surprisingly, found it wasn't that bad. So he took a larger sip, feeling the cool liquid sliding down his throat and soothing it. Maybe it wasn't so bad.
"There we go, take your time," Hook encouraged, he wasn't fool enough to force this stuff down the sparklings throat only for it to be spewed out again. Really, the commander could be far too impatient.
"You'll need to inform his guardian what happened," he said conversationally, causing Starscream to look sharply at him. "He should know that his charge might have problems tonight."
"What?" Starscream half screeched in outrage. "You mean he might wake us all up again?"
Spike winced at the sound and Hook quickly soothed him while shrugging. "It's a good possibility."
"Urgh!" the Seeker growled in exasperation before pointing a finger straight at Spike. "He is far more trouble than he's worth."
Hook just shrugged again, he had nothing to do with the decision to keep the Autobot sparkling. If Starscream wanted to complain, then he needed to talk to their leader. Which, Hook thought with a slight smirk, he knew would not go over well.
"It is your fault that he might act up tonight," stated Hook, sure this is a bad idea talking to the commander like this but this was his doing. "If you were a bit more patient or called Thundercaker when Ricochet refused drinking the rest of his bottle, we wouldn't have this problem."
Spike found himself surprisingly drinking more than the half of the cube and watched the conversation and got surprised how childish Starscream really acted at his own faults.
"This wasn't my fault," yelled Starscream started walking to the exit. I shouldn't bothered refuelling the brat to begin with!"
"Where do you think you're going?" Asked Hook, he couldn't just leave the sparkling here.
"Where do you think? Back to my station" snapped the Seeker angrily, at this point he didn't care about any of it.
As Starscream stormed out from the med-bay, Hook wasn't sure what to do with Ricochet and his own patient really needed his knee fixed.
"Urgh," he sighed heavily, rubbing his face with one hand before looking at Ricochet. No point in taking out his annoyance on the kid, he couldn't help this.
"Well kid, looks like it's you and me for a bit," he sighed as Spike sucked a bit more at the cube. "Not really in a position to entertain you."
The sparkling just looked at him so he sighed again and glanced around, he needed to put Ricochet in something so he couldn't wander off. Of course, his Med Bay was not designed to hold a sparkling and he stared rather hopelessly at the room at large. And he needed to get back to that patient.
"Alright...uh...how about you watch me fix a bot up?" he finally offered. "How's that sound, eh?"
"Chirp," Spike spoke and saw the sleeping Decepticon on the bed.
"Alright then," Hook went over his med-bay and took a large clean blanket and put it on the floor, it would be too dangerous to keep the sparkling on the table where he could fall off accidentally. "There, you should be fine here."
Spike just looked at Hook who grabbed him and put him down and with a few small empty cubes to play with as.
"I guess that works," thought Spike who grabbed one of the cubes, but just as he was going to play with one of them, he heard a sparking sound and looked up to see the Decepticon medic work on his patient. Then again another bright sparkle appeared with Spike found himself just fascinated by it.
Hood notice the Sparkling looking at him with bright optics "Aren't you a curious one"
"That looks cool," Spike stated, he'd always been fascinated seeing the bots getting fixed. Of course, after a battle, Ratchet didn't want anyone around who didn't need to be there but sometimes there had been a minor accident and Spike was allowed to watch the medic or one of his assistants work.
Now that he was currently inhabiting a transformer body, he was even more interested in their mechanics.
"You can watch," Hook now told him. "But don't come over alright?"
Spike chirped in reply and Hook shook his head with a slight smile, making a mental note to keep checking the sparkling was staying put. Once he was done, he'd probably give him a check over, see how that virus was progressing. As he'd told Starscream, making him drink too much Energon had probably stressed his systems and sparklings had very delicate internal parts. Speaking of sparklings, how strange that one had turned up on Earth.
His understanding was that it wasn't one of the Earth bound Autobots who'd sparked up, the little one had been brought to this planet to be looked after. Sure, this planet abounded in rich energy, so much so that even the Decepticons were refuelling well even though they didn't have the same supply as the Autobots did. But this was still the battleground for the two main armies of both sides so it was still strange to send a sparkling here, especially one on it's own.
He glanced back at Ricochet but the sparkling was staying put which put him more at ease. He had no desire to deal with an angry Thundercracker if anything happened to the little fellow.
"Hey, what's going on?" a voice suddenly said and Hook looked up.
"Scavenger," he greeted with a nod before turning back to his patient.
"Huh, what's that doing here?" his team mate asked, staring down at Ricochet.
"Oh, Screamer dumped him on me," Hook said with a dramatic roll of his optics. "He's meant to be babysitting him for his trine mate but couldn't handle it."
"Tch, typical Screamer," Scavenger scoffed.
"You're not busy after that mech, are you?"
"I have the sparkling to look after, but otherwise no," answered Hook and started to finish his work on his patient. "I be done in a few moments."
"Great, then you can help me get these weapons functional," Scavenger sub spaced up a few weapons. "I did my part and cleaned them to, but I think these four may have some dirt inside that blocks the trigger."
"Hmmm, that is a common issue on this planet and why can't that solder fix it themselves since they were the one who dropped their own weapon?" asked Hook, it was getting on is nerve on this.
"It was seven in the start," said Scavenger and holding a magnifying glass trying to find the small rock. "But these four are really jammed."
Finished with his patient Hook looked again at Ricochet then walked over to his brother and took a weapon and looked at it. With the magnifying glass, he quickly spotted the problem. "There, three rocks at the trigger and it looks to be tangled in the wire to."
"Pass me that hook," he muttered, gesturing towards his toolbox. Scavenger went over and rummaged around before drawing out a long thin metal tool with a small hook on the end.
"Thanks," Hook said, accepting it and working on those small chunks of rock.
"Hey, better than one of the Seekers moan they've got grit in their thrusters," Scavenger chuckled, giving him a nudge.
"Urgh, don't remind me," Hook groaned, niggling a rock out from the trigger. "Fussiest bots in the universe I tell you."
"Yeah and...huh?" Scavenger suddenly exclaimed, glancing down as he felt something grab his foot.
"Chirp chirp," started spike looking up at a very surprised Scavenger.
"Hehe, hi there," now putting down his tools and bow down to the sparkling height and gently trying to make Ricochet let go. "Come on little one, let go of me so I can work."
"Nooo, Am all alone," Complained Spike with his works come out like chip, he still had a strong hug around Scavenger's leg, he had been playing all alone all day and some company would be nice. After all since Thundercacker was not here yet to keep him happy.
"Eehh he won't let go, what should I do?" asked Scavenger looking at his brother.
"Just pick him up and keep him entertained, he probably is just clingy for attention after all most sparklings are at his age," stated Hook and managed to clean one weapon and three more to go for.
"But this would be unfair for you," Said Scavenger thinking of Hooks busy day as a medic. "I know you have a lot to do all the time and I can't leave you to fix the weapons all by yourself"
"Just play with Ricochet, if you don't, he might get upset and beside I can handle theses," ordered Hook and took next weapon up and did the same work on it.
"Uh...well, if you're sure," Scavenger said a little uncertainly. He'd never really interacted with sparklings before and wasn't sure he'd be any good at it.
"Look, just talk to him or something," Hook recommended, focused on his work.
"Okay," Scavenger mumbled, still a bit uncertain but he would give it a go. At least Hook was here with him in case he messed up.
"Alright little guy, you let go and I'll pick you up," he told the little sparkling who beamed at him before releasing his grip enough for the larger Mech to pick him up.
Now that Ricochet was in his arms, he examined him. Seemed cute enough, a little odd to see blue optics and have to look after the owner rather than fighting them or locking them up. Although in a way, Ricochet was their prisoner, he was just too young to realise that these caregivers were deliberately keeping him from his original ones.
"So old Screamer couldn't handle looking after you?" he finally said. "You probably didn't want to listen to him moan anyway."
"Skee Baahhh," agreed Spike, the seeker just wanted to get rid of him and why would he play nice to that.
"Hahaha I agree," laughed Scavenger with Ricochet's response, but he needed to play with the sparkling somewhat until his Guardian could come and get him.
Walking back to the blanket he sat down and looked at the empty cubes with gave him an idea.
"Hey kid want to see me build a cube city for you?" he asked and those bright optics looking back at him yelled just yes and spike answered. "Chirp chirp"
"Alright," smiled Scavenger and took his one free hand and started to build up slowly a large building with the cubes, the larger ones where placed on the bottom as the more medium small cubes where placed higher up.
The building looked strange to spike, it was like nothing he have seen on Earth and this got the most curiosity on him, but as he watched Scavenger put the last cube on it was done a medium bulky building.
"There, it is close enough our old work space on Cybertron don't you think Hook?" asked Scavenger, he did do this all by memory and cube where cubes not the best materials, but this was just to entertain Ricochet after all.
"Hmm?" Hook mumbled, looking over to them and seeing the structure Scavenger had built. "Oh yeah, it does."
The sitting Constructicon beamed with pride, it was really nice to do something like this again. Construction was what he and his team was all about after all. Turning back to his building, he thought about what else he could build. After a moment's thought, he decided on a museum that had been quite prominent back in the old days.
"Look at this," he told Ricochet who watched with great interest, pleasing him even more.
Grabbing the right cubes, he started to construct a very low and wide building, rectangle in shape. It wasn't as high as the first building he'd done but it was still respectable. But once he had the shape, he started building columns in front of it using very small cubes and then reaching over to a stray box of parts, he took a sheet of metal and placed it on the columns, giving it a roof.
"What do you think of this?" he asked proudly.
"That looks amazing," chirped Spike excitedly trying to grab the construction with his tiny hands, just imagine what it most look like in real life even so the models now where very incredible.
"Hey Hook, look," smiled Scavenger and refereed to Spike. "I think he likes my models."
"What?" asked the medic again and looked over and could clearly see Ricochet excited. "He is a sparkling, they get excited over everything."
"I suppose, when does Thundercracker return?" asked Scavenger, tickling Spike a bit on his sides with made a cute giggle laughter. "I know he did help me and the others before."
"Hmm, he should been here by now," stated Hook it was also getting late. "I think a call is in order."
Hook waited a bit until the com-link connected to Thundercracker.
"Hello? Hook is that you?" asked the Seeker.
"Yes, where have you been?" demanded the medic.
"I'm sorry, I've been busy but I just finished my….. wait why are you calling?" asked Thundercracker a bit confused in his tone.
Surprised with that answer Hook just blinked, Wait hadn't Starscream took him about Ricochet?
"You haven't talked to Starscream?" he asked, slightly in disbelief.
"No," Thundercracker replied, suddenly sounding panicked. "What happened, is Ricochet alright?"
"He's fine, he's fine," Hook instantly soothed, not wanting to give the wrong impression. "Look, Starscream brought him in earlier because the sparkling purged but it's nothing to be worried about."
"Thank Primus," the seeker said in relief. "Because of the virus?"
"Mostly," Hook acknowledged. "The commander was trying to make him consume too much Energon and it backfired. He's pretty happy at the moment though."
"Good," Thundercracker said. "Starscream's playing with him?"
"No," Hook said shortly. "He left shortly after bringing Ricochet in and that was a while ago. I've been watching him with Scavenger."
There was a pause and then the Seeker said in disbelief. "He abandoned Ricochet?"
"Essentially, yes," the medic replied. "Ricochet was sick over him and that frustrated him too much to carry on watching him."
"I don't believe this," Thundercracker muttered to himself in frustration. "Alright, I'll be along shortly, thank you for looking after him."
"I can't believe this, Starscream didn't even inform Thundercracker," stated Hook and cupped both hands at his face as to take away the disbelief, but again he wasn't that surprised about it this was after all their SIC.
"Some bot's just are bad Sparkling sitters and not everyone can look after a Sparkling," tried Scavenger as he made a clap with his hand wand waited for Spike to copy him and clap back with him.
"But you are fine with me, aren't you kid?" Asked Scavenger with Spike giggled and clap back with his tiny hands on this little game.
"Well he does look happy with you," observed Hook, a bit surprised again to see his brother doing so well.
The doors open and Thundercracker shot in like a lighting. "I'm here."
"Hey," Scavenger greeted as Spike squealed "Da!"
The annoyed look on Thundercracker's face vanished as he beamed down at his little charge. With a wide smile, he strode over and picked him up for a cuddle.
"Hello little one," he greeted, nuzzling the happy sparkling. "Have you been a good boy?"
"He's been great," Scavenger said enthusiastically as Hook nodded. "Yeah, he's been fine. But he might be up tonight after his tanks were unsettled."
"Hmm," Thundercracker said in acknowledgement, still tickling Ricochet. "I'm sorry you were put in this position, I had no idea."
"It's alright, that's our commander for you," sighed the medic. "He was pretty well behaved though, didn't cause me any bother."
"Yeah, we've been having fun building," his brother said excitedly, gesturing to their creations.
Looking at the different large buildings on the ground, Thundercracker noticed they looked Cybertronian and couldn't help to ask. "Ricochet didn't build those right?"
"No, I did," answered Scavenger, "But he enjoyed watching me build those, after that we just had a simple clap game."
"I see, well am glad he was doing alright," smiled Thundercracker and kept spike close "Now time you bed time."
"Also if he does start to scream at night, just swing him slowly in your arms until he falls asleep again," said Hook and cleaned up the cubes from the floor with his brother.
"Is there nothing you can do for him," asked the seeker.
"I wish I could, but I gave him the medicine yesterday the rest is up to his anti-virus system," stated Hook and finished cleaning his med-bay. "Too much meddling with medicine can interfere with him at this age, best he take thing one thing at the time."
"If you're sure, I better go Ricochet needs his sleep," as Thuncdercracker waved a good bye.
"If he gets hungry, just give him a little at a time," Hook couldn't help but call out as Scavenger waved. After the debacle with Starscream feeding him, he wanted to make the sparkling didn't have any more problems.
"I will," promised Thundercracker as he departed, Ricochet waving to the two Constructicons.
"He's a nice kid," Scavenger remarked with a smile to his brother who nodded. He had to admit, that had gone far better than he had expected.
Meanwhile, Thundercracker was heading to his quarters to settle Ricochet down in his little crib after some preparations. He'd worked rather late today so there wasn't enough time for playing. But he planned to read Ricochet a story after he'd given him a quick clean while settling him down. It was hard work looking after a sparkling but he was still enjoying himself.
"Thundercracker!" a gruff voice called out and the Seeker halted as he recognised the voice as his leader.
"Lord Megatron," he said respectfully as he observed the warlord heading straight for him. "How may I serve?"
"How did Starscream get on with him?" Megatron demanded, jabbing a finger at Spike who gave him a curious look.
Thundercracker couldn't help but grimace, something immediately noticed by his leader who narrowed his optics.
"What did he do?" he growled.
"He abandoned Ricochet after refuelling him," answered Thundercracker
"He Did What?!" growled Megatron clearly angry at his SIC choice to abandon His orders, someone is forgetting their place with Starscream needs a reminder of. "Then who looked over the child?"
"Hook and Scavenger did, there where the one that informed me of Starscreams doing," said Thundercracker not holding back anything, Starscream should know better than disobey orders.
"That Fool, I will have to deal with him at once," growled Megatron once again and about to leave, Starscream had one simple job and even at that he failed and got bested by two Constructicons.
"Wait my lord, just a heads up, Ricochet may cry out to night," stated the blue seeker.
"What?! Again?" snapped Megatron at the seeker and faced him.
"Starscream forced Ricochet to consume too much Energon in which he puked and upset his tank," said Thundercracker and continued "Because of that he may cry out tonight"
Megatron growled furiously, it was bad enough last night and now that accursed Seeker had guaranteed it was going to happen again. Well, if he was going to have a bad night, he would ensure that Starscream had an absolutely terrible one.
"I see," he rasped out. "Then I believe I will 'encourage' Starscream to be behave more responsibly next time."
"Perhaps I'd be better off watching him tomorrow?" Thundercracker suggested, he'd love to spend some more time with his small charge.
Megatron grunted, meaning he'd consider it before stamping off. The blue Seeker sighed and said. "He had it coming."
Spike felt a little sorry for the screechy Seeker, it hadn't been that bad.
"Now Ricochet time to sleep" smiled Thundercracker and tucked him in with the blanket and then moved to his own berth.
"How about Bed time story Ricochet?" asked Thundercracker.
"Chirp Chirp Chirp!" spoke out Spike all excited.
"Alright, a long time ago there was a young racer and he was the fasted there was on Cybertron," said Thundercracker and continued with his story "This young racer won many trophies and was happy about his life, But one day a new racer come in to his life with changed it all."
"OH no!" cried Spike with make as a "Chirp!"
Thundercracker laughed slightly and continued. "This new racer started to win first place and our young racer didn't like that he wasn't as fast anymore."
"He was determined to become the fastest once more," Thundercracker said to Spike's rapt attention. "So he started to train as hard as he could, repeatedly racing round different tracks, fuelling himself up so he had maximum energy and so many other things. He was focused on nothing else but winning the next big race."
The seeker paused, amused at how engrossed Ricochet was in the story.
"In the meantime, the new racer was also training and our racer really disliked him. It was all his fault that he had to train like this and could not be considered the fastest bot on Cybertron. Soon enough, the big race came around and everyone was ready. Our racer did not care about the other racers, only his rival. The race began and they were off and soon, the two main racers were in the lead, outstripping all the others."
Spike clapped his hands together, he really wanted to know what happened next.
"Our racer pushed himself as hard as he could. But then disaster happened, a loose part from another who was lagging suddenly went flying and hit one of his tyres, sending him spinning out of control!"
"No!" Spike gasped in horror.
"He ended up crashing and transforming, he felt like crying. After all his hard work, he'd been so close to winning but it was all for naught. But as he lay on the hot ground, he suddenly realised someone was next to him. He looked up and saw his rival was bending down."
Thundercracker paused for affect.
"And then his rival said 'don't give up, we're both so close to the finishing line' and he couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'Come on,' his rival said. 'The others are still behind us, there's still a chance if you just transform'. And somehow, he found the strength to transform and then his rival did the same, they revved their engines and were off again, the other racers close behind them."
"What happened then?" Spike eagerly asked but of course, only chirps came out.
"They both crossed the finishing line," Thundercracker concluded. "But the rival racer had crossed it first but surprisingly, the young racer wasn't upset. Thanks to his rival, he had still finished and come second, instead of last which is what would have happened if he hadn't been encouraged. That's when he realised the other racer wasn't a bad mech, he was just another racer who loved what he did and was talented. From then on, they become friends and although still rivals on the track, they celebrated each other's wins instead of despising them."
"Awesome," Spike exclaimed.
"Now time to sleep Ricochet," tried Thundercracker, powered down for his recharge, Spike to lie down with a warm quilt around him and slowly fall into his recharge as well.
Author's note. How does Spike get on? What are the Autobots up to? Find out, next time.