Chapter 2

The four Autobots trekked through the dense flora of the tropical forest. Fallen twigs snapped underneath their heavy, rushed steps as they made their way to the site of the crashed pod. Optimus Prime led the group, followed by Ratchet to his right. The twins flanked from behind and kept a sharp eye out for anything amiss as they moved along.

"We will reach the pod shortly. Eyes open; we don't know if there are intruders on the island." Optimus ordered sternly.

"Remember that no matter what faction this bot falls under, it is my duty to assist them. I will not tolerate interference with my work," Ratchet uttered over his shoulder to the twins behind him, "Understood?"

"We hear you loud'n clear Ratchet, but you know full and well that if this bot dares to raise even a finger against us, we'll.."

Sideswipe's threat fell silent as the group entered out into the clearing where the pod had crashed. Their eyes were immediately drawn to the grisly scene before them. Shards of shrapnel and sharp metallic pieces were scattered across the ground. The innermost layer of the pod had been exposed, and the bots couldn't dare guess how much damage had been done to the protoform.

Each pod contains three layers, two of which are made of some of the strongest, most impenetrable metals on Cybertron-Cybertronium. The innermost layer is made from the protoform of the Cybertronian itself. It is the equivalent to that of a prone human form. When damage reaches this layer, death is incredibly likely to occur.

Ratchet gazed upon the pod; it's metal layers had been peeled away almost seamlessly, exposing the visibly-damaged protoform. He rushed ahead to inspect the pod and cycled his vents anxiously when he laid his hands on the protoform and saw what he had feared - energon. Energon is the equivalent of human blood. While human blood is red in color, energon is a vibrant blue. Energon is very dangerous to humans as it will cause energon poisoning which slowly and painfully kills the human.

The others watched as Ratchet hastily uncovered the injured Cybertronian. Upon closer inspection, Ratchet noticed that the Cybertronian was a femme. The femme was mostly white with blue trimmings around the ridges of her shoulders and her legs. Her face was sharp but had an elegance to it. It appeared as if she had a face guard that would come down whenever she went into battle. The femme had lost a significant amount of energon, triggering Ratchet's worry that she may never awaken from her stasis lock if he did not hurry. Her legs had been cleanly severed from the knee down, but most of Ratchet's worry stemmed from the large laceration near her open spark. The injury hissed and sparked, and energon leaked profusely from it. Ratchet heard a sharp intake of oxygen from behind him and turned his helm over the right side of his shoulder and peered at the twins. Both twins were tense and cycling oxygen in at an alarming rate, while their optics were going from blue to red coloring, signaling that they were close to their gladiator programming. Ratchet furrowed his optics ridges together in concern.

"What the slag is going on with you two glitch heads?" Ratchet barked out.

"We don't know our gladiator programming kicked in. We are doing an internal scan right now to see what is going on." Sideswipe vented.

Ratchet turned his attention backed to the injured Cybertronian and drew his hands near her chest cavity in hopes to feel around for where the main energon line was leaking. Under his servos, he could feel every rigid and groove of shredded metal as he searched his way for the energon line. His hands made contact with a warm and syrupy liquid. It fluxed from her energon line with such force that he drew his servo back in shock before putting his hand back in there to block the leakage, while his other hand transformed into servo into a wielder to form a temporary wield into the damaged line. Ratchet then turned his attention towards her openly exposed spark as it continuously flickered with life. He on-lined his scanners to do a quick scan on her spark to determine if there was anything else he might need to do before they could get her transported back to the base by Optimus. As the light-red ray from Ratchet's wrist started to go over the femme's spark he heard two brutish growls from behind him. He immediately stopped the scan and turned his helm to stare at the twins in shock. The twin's optics were glowing a dark, deep crimson as they glowered down at Ratchet. Optimus got closer to the twins prepared to fight if it became necessary.

"Ratchet, slowly step away from the femme." Optimus commanded.

Ratchet furrowed his optic ridges, but did as commanded. As he slowly rose from his crouched position near the femme the twins started to edge closer to him. When he had risen to his full height he started to slowly make his way over to Optimus. As Ratchet made his way over to Optimus the twins started to slowly come back to themselves. As the twin's optics blinked back to their vibrant blue Sunstreaker quickly turned to look at Optimus and Ratchet in anger.

"What the slag was that!" Sunstreaker snarled

"I don't slagging know! Sunstreaker and Sideswipe I need you to leave so that way I can get this femme stable. I am not in the position to deal with you two right now. When I get the femme fixed up is when we will broach the subject of what just happened. Now kindly do me the favor of leaving." Ratchet barked out

"Ratchet, right now we are doing everything in our power to not go into our gladiator programming so please do not talk to us like that," Sideswipe strained, "Whoever that femme is, is making our gladiator programming go out of control right now."

"All the more reason for the two of you to leave." Ratchet huffed

Sunstreaker sneered at Ratchet as Sideswipe let out a long sigh as they slowly turned away from the small group to make their way back to the base. As the twins left the area Optimus's optics dwelled on their exit. Ratchet noticed that his optics ridges were incredibly furrowed in deep thought, though he dares not say anything. As soon as Ratchet could no longer see the twins anymore he rushed forward to get back to the femme.

"Optimus, I need you to carefully grab a hold of the femme and help take her back to the base. I will grab her legs and contact Red Alert to prepare the med-bay for our arrival." Ratchet demanded

Optimus swiftly but carefully bent down and scooped up the young femme into his arms and started to lead the way back to the base. Ratchet let out a sigh as he started to hurriedly open a scan to help search for the femme's missing legs, as he was doing this he opened up his com-links to hail Red Alert.

"Red Alert? Can you hear me?" Ratchet questioned

"Yes Ratchet, I can hear you loud and clear. What can I do for you?" Red Alert inquired

"Prepare the med-bay. We have a femme that has been severely damaged by the impact to Earth. The femme lost a large amount of energon, is missing her legs, and has a large laceration on her chest that is showing the femmes spark, and a main energon line leak with a temporary wield to it. This is what I was only able to gather from a quick scan, I do not know as of right now if there are any other problems the femme might have. I will be on my way shortly, I am searching for the femme's legs." Ratchet informed

"Slag. The femme's spark is visible? I will get started on it right away." Red Alert breathed out

Ratchet's optics zoomed in on a large pile of rubble that seemed to be pinging off a large amount of energon. Ratchet made his way over and grasped the crumbling metal with his servos and hoisted the rubble up to find the mangled, and shattered remains of the femme's legs. Ratchet sighed and scooped up the frail remains of the legs and quickly left the sight of the crash to make it back to the med-bay.