2. Good Day To Go Bug Hunting

Story Start: Artic Circle/Six Days After Chapter One

Bulkhead and Bumblebee were currently trudging their way through a 'minor' snowstorm, the smaller scout keeping a hand in front of his face as he called to Bulkhead "We there yet?!"

Bulkhead tapped at his scanner and shook his head as he said "No, we're not there yet, but it should be just past this ridge, Bumblebee." The two kept walking for a minute before they reached a ridge that had a steep but slide-able incline and the two skid their way down. Looking at his scanner again, Bulkhead said "I don't get it. These readings are off the meter."

Bumblebee noticed something and said "Bulk, take a look at this." 'This' turned out to be what looked like a giant hunk of metal buried about ten feet into some relatively clear ice.

Scene Change: Back At Omega 1

Bulkhead sighed as he began pulling a clear tube with blue, warm energon in it off his chest and stood up as he said "I told you, doc, we're fine."

Ratchet pushed him pack down into a seating position and said "The only way to be certain you're fine, Bulkhead, is to endure standard defrosting procedure. You know prolonged exposure to sub-zero conditions can cause permanent system damage."

He turned as Optimus and Arcee approached and the Prime asked "Ratchet, have you learned anything more about our arctic find?"

"Not yet." Ratchet said as he walked over to a monitor showing a video feed of said find and continued "The pod can't be opened while it's frozen solid."

In the room holding said pod, a large puddle of water was forming as the ice surrounding the pod melted. As some of the metal was exposed, there was suddenly a scraping sound before the metal cracked, then a hole was ripped open, a small metal digit thrusting out…

Thirty minutes later, Ratchet finished setting the coordinates for the ground bridge and pulled the lever. As Optimus and Arcee walked over to the now open portal, Optimus said "Arcee and I will search for any clue which might explain the origin of our artic find."

"Only until your sensors sound." Ratchet said sternly as he tapped at one of his tools before pointing it at the two's Autobot insignias which flashed blue as he continued "Remember, once your core temperature drops into the blue zone, system failures aren't likely—They're imminent."

Anything else that might be said was cut off by the sound of Bumblebee and Bulkhead's engines revving as they pulled in. As the three children inside opened car doors, Miko happily called out "Miss us, Doc Bot?"

Ratchet groaned and said "Shouldn't they be in school?"

Miko scoffed and said "On Saturday? We have the whole weekend off, to spend with you." Miko's grin was matched by Ratchet's look of 'Why me?' causing her to giggle as she walked past.

As he followed her, Jack glanced at Arcee and said "I wasn't expecting to carpool. What gives, Arcee?"

"Tag team, Jack. It's my turn for exploration duty." Arcee said as she nudged her head towards Optimus.

Jack tried to guilt trip her as he smiled and said "Oh, too bad. It's a beautiful day for a ride. Would hate for you to feel guilty for leaving me indoors."

Arcee smirked and said "Artic exploration duty."

Aaand there goes the blackmail attempt as Jack seamlessly said "Indoors where it's warm." Before continuing on after Miko to the entertainment section of the common area causing Arcee to snicker a little.

Raf though had an excited look on his face as he came up and said "The Arctic? I've always wanted to see snow!"

"I would invite you to join, Rafael, but the conditions are much too extreme, even for we Autobots."

"Oh, I understand." Rafael said trying to hide his disappointment.

Smiling, Optimus turned towards the portal as he said over his shoulder "But, I will bring you back a snowball."

"That would be awesome!" Raf said with a grin and the two Bots began walking through the portal.

Once they were through, Ratchet said "Transport complete." He turned to shut off the Ground Bridge only for sparks to erect from the control device and the bridge spun down with a sound like someone had stuck a shovel full of gravel in a drying machine earning an alarmed "By the Allspark!"

As the kids and the two remaining Front Line Autobots headed for the entertainment center, Miko said "So, what do you guys think we should do today?"

"Video game tournament?" Bumblebee suggested and Jack nodded as he said "Sounds good to me." Jack turned on their Ring begotten Switch and put in Super Smash Bros Ultimate before heading back over.

But just before Bumblebee and Bulkhead were going to wirelessly link up with the system so that they could join the humans in playing, Ratchet called out "Bulkhead, Bumblebee! Here! Now!"

The two grumbled as they left and Jack grinned at Miko as he said "Prepare to get SMASHED."

"Gee, real witty." Miko said with rolled eyes. Seeing that Raf hadn't picked up his controller, she said "Raf, you joining in?"

"Nah, I have stuff to do." Raf said as he slipped off the couch and walked away. Jack and Miko traded a simultaneous glance before Miko shrugged and they turned towards the tv. Soon the sound of rapid buttons being pushed were heard as the two engaged in a furious duel.

As Bumblebee and Bulkhead reached Ratchet, Bulkhead frowned and said "You can't boss us around just because the boss is out."

Ratchet was nonplussed as he said "I need some heavy lifting, the ground bridge is down."

Bumblebee looked alarmed as he asked "Did Arcee and Optimus make it?!"

"Optimus and Arcee made it through just fine. It's bringing them back that concerns me. Now, remove those panels – Chop-chop."

As the two began to do as instructed, Bumblebee said "Think we should have Jack come help? His Ring's Computer DID super charge this thing. Maybe it could figure out what happened."

"We can't just go relying on some shiny new toy at the first sign of trouble. That just leads to laziness." Ratchet said in a lecturing tone even as he began looking through the Ground Bridge's innards.

"Guess you've got a point there." Bumblebee said with a shrug.

Scene Change: With Raf

Raf was 'struggling' against an imaginary wind, hands up in front of his face as he made gusting wind sounds and said "Temperatures sub-zero and dropping. Got to…get back…to base!" Hearing metal clatter to the ground, Raf straightened up and looked around. Spotting a bolt roll into the open, he walked over and picked it up. Scrabbling was heard and he looked around again as he called out "Hello?" He kept looking around, getting nervous, and his right hand began sparking. But on one of his turns, he mis stepped and fell to the ground with a surprised yell. Groaning, he rolled off his back only to let out a surprised shout as he saw a small metallic figure right in front of him, causing him to jump back a little.

As the strange creature cocked its head much like a dog and scuttled over, Ratchet let out a relieved chuckle and said "Where did you come from? The Autobots never said anything about pets." Holding up the bolt, Raf continued "You want to play fetch?" Seeing the creature hop around and run in circles excitedly, Raf laughed and tossed the bolt causing it to scamper after it and called out "Good boy. Go get it!" But when the creature leapt at the bolt in midair and whirring sounds came from it along with sparks he panicked and said "No! Don't eat that! You're gonna choke!" Finishing its snack, the creature turned around and ran happily back to Raf as he said "Or…Not."

The strange creature began nuzzling his leg letting out happy beeping sounds and Raf began to smile and head back to show the others, the creature moving ahead and back like an excitable dog. What Raf never noticed was that further down the hall there was a shredded panel that had sparks coming out of it.

Scene Change: Back In The Common Room

Jack and Miko were both leaning forwards slightly as they dueled, their Smash characters following their commands and trying to cause as much harm to the other as they could. All of a sudden, the power fluctuated and the TV and Switch both stuttered just as Jack got the last killing move in.

"Oh come on!" Jack complained.

"Heck of a time for a power failure." Miko agreed before she smirked and continued in a mock sad tone "And it wiped out our battle scores too."

"And I was finally winning." Jack moaned causing Miko to snicker even as she gave Jack's back a consoling pat.

As they went to join the Bots, Ratchet pulled out a charred circuit from the sparking Ground Bridge and said "We most definitely have a problem. But what could have caused this?"

The lights temporarily shut off before coming back on with a loud thud sound and Bulkhead asked "Or that?"

"Might be the main grid. Hopefully, it isn't a substation malfunction." Ratchet said before he looked back at the charred circuit.

Jack frowned as he looked at the damage to the Ground Bridge and pointed his ring at it. But just before he could use it to scan the set of circuit boards and see what was wrong, everyone heard Raf call out "Hey, guys, look what I found!"

Narrowing his eyes, Ratchet called out "We're busy!" And then he looked up and saw the creature sleeping in Raf's arms and let out a scream of fear. As he and the other two bots quickly stood up and backed away, Bumblebee and Bulkhead formed their guns and pointed it at Raf and his passenger while the Wrecker called out "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"

Miko and Jack quickly put themselves in front of Raf with their hands up as Miko called out "Hey, hey! What's with you guys?"

"Scraplet! Scraplet!" Bulkhead shouted in absolute fear.

"What's a Scraplet?" Raf asked in confusion.

"The most dangerous vermin ever to crawl upon the face of Cybertron." Ratchet said and Jack and Miko traded confused glances before Jack gestured at the creature and said "This? Are you kidding me?"

"You're giant robots. Scrappy here is…Teeny." Miko said in agreement.

"You have no idea of the damage that teeny thing can do!" Bulkhead said, taking yet another panicked step back.

"Aw, he wouldn't hurt anything." Raf said and Murphy chose that moment to prove that he had a sick sense of humor. The scraplet woke up, and upon seeing the three Cybertronians in its optics, jumped out of Raf's arms with mouth open wide revealing massive teeth and the mother of all garbage disposal mechanisms behind said teeth. As it ran towards the bots, Bulkhead and Bumblebee shot at it. They missed and the scraplet jumped at Bumblebee's leg where it proceeded to eat a curving trail along his leg. Bumblebee stumbled back and hit the floor and when it reached the spike on his knee tried to grab it only for the scraplet to eat through his hand and up his arm. Bumblebee swatted the thing and it flew back to the ground skidding to a stop.

Just as it started stepping back towards Bumblebee Raf shot it with a bolt of lightning stopping it cold. Raf didn't stop though, and fired a second, continuous bolt of lightning, keeping it up until the scraplet was nothing but a hunk of slag metal. Raf took several deep breaths as he stared at his handy work with wide eyes and sparking hands before he flinched as Jack put a hand on his shoulder and said "Whoa, easy there, killer, I think you got him."

"Whoa, I did not see that coming." Miko said with wide eyes of her own.

Raf gasped at her words before he darted over to the Autobots and said "I'm sorry, Bumblebee!"

"It's alright Raf." Bumblebee said with a reassuring smile.

Raf though didn't calm down quite yet as he looked at Ratchet who was kneeling next to the Scout and asked "Is he gonna be okay?!"

"Only a mesh wound, he'll live." Ratchet said causing Raf to let out an explosive sigh of relief.

"Now do you believe me? All Scraplets do is dismantle machinery and eat anything metal - Especially living metal." Bulkhead demanded.

"Well, bug slagged, game over, right?" Jack said as he and Miko came over again.

"No, when it comes to Scraplets, there's never just one." Ratchet said as he looked over his shoulder and continued "And I fear I know how they got in here."

Ratchet stood up and lead the way to the room where they had left their Artic find to defrost. Once there, Ratchet shone the light of his mini welding tool into the jagged hole in the metal object and said "It's a trap - A Scraplet trap."

"Uh, an empty Scraplet trap." Bulkhead said nervously.

"Most likely ejected into space eons ago, only to wind up in the arctic, where the temperature kept them in stasis." Ratchet theorized.

"Until we brought the thaw." Jack said with a frown and Miko nodded as she added "Now they're wide awake and ready to brunch."

"So…How many are we talking about?" Raf asked nervously.

"Thousands." Ratchet said as his welding tool transformed back into his hand and continued "And the power malfunctions and ground bridge damage are sure signs that their infestation is well underway."

Scene Change: The Artic

Optimus was climbing down a cliff when he noticed his sigil flashing blue. Putting a finger to his com he said "Arcee, what's your status?" "My sensor's going off. Guess we should call for pickup before things get chilly." Was his response and Optimus switched channels and said "Optimus to base, core temperature readings have reached the blue zone. Prepare to activate ground bridge." Worryingly, only static was his answer.

Scene Change: Omega One

"Ratchet to Optimus, do you read me? We have a situation." Ratchet said before he scowled as his screens flickered then turned to static. Turning to the others, he said "The Scraplets have gotten into the com-link system! If we don't eradicate these creatures immediately, they will reduce the entire base to a scrap heap!"

"Well I say we bug out of here and let them keep it!" Bulkhead said and Bumblebee eagerly nodded his agreement.

"Evacuation is not an option." Ratchet said before he gestured to the Ground Bridge and said "If we don't get the ground bridge back online stat, Optimus and Arcee will perish."

"They…Will?" Jack asked in concern. Miko turned and stalked over to Bulkhead and said "Bulkhead, you never run!"

"Miko, you haven't seen a swarm of these things devour a bot. I have. They pick you apart from the inside out, going for the small, juicy bits first - Fuse by fuse, circuit by circuit, till there's nothing left, and I mean nothing…not even your optics." Bulkhead defended. And Jack and Raf had no problem admitting that the Wrecker was pretty justified in his fear. Fortunately, there was another option.

Jack's eyes twitched side to side for a moment in thought before he nodded and said "Alright, looks like it's up to us then since we're not made of metal. Raf, you and I will go bug hunting, if it's small and skittish, fry it." His ring formed two scanners that held a rather LARGE collection of dots on their screens and Raf took one with a determined nod. Turning to Miko, Jack continued "Miko, due to your tech being metal based, you're the last line of defense. Keep the bots safe while they work on repairing the bridge. We already know that the Scraplets can't handle cold temperatures, so go with an ice gun or something similar."

Miko grinned and as her smart watch like device folded out a shotgun like weapon with light blue lights along its barrel asked "Did I ever tell you I went as Killer Frost one Halloween?"

As Miko pumped the slide with a satisfying 'ker-chick' sound, Jack and Raf smiled at the joke before all three humans looked towards Ratchet as he said while rubbing his chin "Typically, I find your fleshiness to be your least engaging quality…but it would appear to provide an advantage under these extremes."

Jack nodded and said "Okay, good, then let's get to it. The sooner we've wiped these things out, the sooner we can get Optimus and Arcee back to base."

Scene Changer: The Artic

Optimus and Arcee were walking together as Optimus once more put his finger to his com and said "Optimus to base. Do you read?" Once again static was his only answer.

Arcee fell to the ground and Optimus quickly picked her up. When she was back on her feet, she said "Are you sure a nice long drive wouldn't help? I hear Miami's beautiful this time of year."

"The nearest temperate climate is too distant, Arcee. Attempting to reach it would expend too much energy and hasten the freezing process. Until Ratchet sends for us - And he will - Our best option would be to seek shelter and insulate ourselves." Optimus said before he continued walking, Arcee following after him.

Scene Change: Omega One

Jack was in full Green Lantern mode, flying through the air with multiple Wings of miniature F22 Raptor fighter jets surrounding him. Missiles were constantly being launched by the fighters towards any scraplets he came across and periodically squadrons of four fighters would break off to go into open conduits or air conditioning ducts to hunt down any that were in the walls. At each intersection, a Wing would split off and go down the other hallways to continue the search, another Wing forming to retake their position around Jack. Still, even with multiple constructs making the job go much faster than if he had to destroy the scraplets one at a time, this was taking a while.

But while Jack had gone for the multiple points of attack approach, Raf had taken the singular approach, jumping from scraplet to scraplet in a literally lightning fast stream of electricity that flashed down hallways like Sonic the Hedgehog after drinking a dozen cups of coffee. Every scraplet he touched had smoke come out of its head and dropped to the ground as Raf overloaded their circuits in the split second he was inside of them. Was it as subtle as an ogre with a giant club? Yeah, but it was also extremely effective and quick.

Miko meanwhile had a spinning radar dish on one shoulder and a visor with a heads up display across her eyes as she constantly scanned the common room. Frowning at what she was seeing, she flicked the safety off her shot gun like weapon and called out "How's it going over there?"

Ratchet grunted and said "I've repaired the damaged conductors and rerouted the central conduits, but the ground bridge still won't receive power!" Bulkhead and Bumblebee were both scratching their heads as they tried to figure out what else they could try to do.

"Well you better figure it out fast!" Miko said as she aimed her gun up at a giant air conditioning duct up high on the common room's wall. A moment later, she fired at the massive swarm that was crawling out of it and a bolt of blue light lanced out and slammed into a scraplet, releasing a shockwave of super cold air upon impact that swept out for thirty feet, instantly freezing the scraplets caught in the blast radius. Said victims fell to the floor and shattered upon impact and Miko pumped the slide of her gun chambering the next energy round and as even more scraplets poured out of the duct fired again.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee joined in with their blasters but soon there were whole swarms circling overhead. As another swarm came flying down, Miko snarled and said "Scrap this!" The next instant, her watch spat out multiple blocks of metal which unfolded around her revealing several miniature models of World War II Anti-Aircraft Artillery connected to her by strands of metal. A set of ear protection equipment formed over her ears and there were a few seconds where all of the guns tracked upwards before they began rapidly firing, filling the room with loud thunder as clouds of blue energy bolts soared skyward. It rather quickly began raining scraplets and the Autobots raised their arms over their heads to protect them from the falling debris, Bulkhead quickly placing a hand over Miko to protect her as well.

Ten seconds later, the guns fell silent though the room continued to echo with the sound of the guns firing. But eventually that too died down and Miko slipped her ear phones down and around her neck to rub at her STILL pounding ears even as she said loudly "And that's why you shouldn't fly in packs!"

Bulkhead chuckled and said "That's my girl."

"Yes, that was certainly rather effective." Ratchet said as he glanced at all of the shattered bits of scraplets strewn across the floor before he looked back towards the circuits of the Ground Bridge and said "Now if only I could figure out why this still won't work!"

Scene Change: The Arctic

Optimus and Arcee were leaning against a cliff that protected them from the wind. As Optimus looked out at the deadly but still beautiful to his optics sight, he said "Arcee, wake up."

"Just resting my eyes." Arcee said as she tiredly blinked said sensory organs.

"The longer we remain alert, the longer we remain alive." Optimus said sternly.

"What do you suggest? Wait. How about a game? Let's play "who screwed things up back at base?"" Arcee said with a joking tone at the end.

"Our predicament could be the result of a simple malfunction." Optimus said, willing to play along in order to keep Arcee alert, pun intended.

"Caused by Bulkhead." Arcee said with a twitch of her lips as she continued "Let's see. No com-link. Maybe even no power. The big lug probably tripped over a cord. He's never been too graceful." Arcee chuckled fondly as she said "Remember when we first arrived on earth and Bulkhead walked into those power lines? Who knew he could dance like that?"

"Bulkhead may be...too large for this world, but his inner strength is without bounds. One should not be measured by size alone." Optimus said as he continued looking out into the storm.

Scene Change: Omega One

Jack and Raf returned to the others at the same time. Besides a raised eyebrow at all of the frozen metal bits strewn around the floor and a nod at Miko, Jack didn't acknowledge the others, instead forming a giant push broom that shoved all of the remains into one corner, the scrap metal that had been floating behind him joining them. Raf though ran over to them and said "We got all of the ones out there, Jack even did some kind of wide range scan that came up empty. What about you guys, did you manage to fix the Ground Bridge?"

"Not yet." Ratchet said with a frown before he began tapping his helm with a finger and said "Come on, Ratchet, think! If the ground bridge is still down… then there must be a breach in the energon fuel line. Jack, think you can find the breach and seal it until I can grab my welding frame and a replacement pipe?"

"On it." Jack said with a nod before he floated a few feet off the ground and shot out of the common room to find the leak, Ratchet quickly following.

Ten minutes later, Ratchet said over the short-range Com frequency "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, the breach has been fixed. Open the Ground Bridge."

Bumblebee was quick to do so and the two Bots quickly ran through the bridge. Jack and Ratchet came back the same time the two helped Optimus and Arcee through the bridge. Ratchet was quick to usher them into the medical bay and began immediate defrosting protocol, disaster of the freezing kind narrowly avoided.

It was half an hour later, with Optimus and Arcee resting against the concrete platform holding the kids' entertainment center, that everyone finally relaxed. The kids were on the other side of the room enjoying the large boulder of frozen water that was Optimus' 'snowball', something he had quickly retrieved once he had ten minutes to warm up a little. Optimus was a Bot of his word after all. Ratchet was sitting next to Optimus with closed eyes ignoring the shouts from the kids as he said "I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but I'm glad that this infestation happened on a Saturday."

Optimus smiled and said "Our human friends may be small, but they are strong."

"Ain't that the truth." Ratchet said with a content sigh. There were still repairs to do to the rest of the base, but that could wait for a bit. After all, it WAS the weekend.

END

Author's Notes: Poll and Update Schedule are on my Profile.

I've had this ready for weeks when I lost the muse for one of my Naruto stories. Just goes to show the downsides of keeping to an update rotation schedule I guess.

Would anyone be interested in doing a TVTropes page for this story? PM if you are.