[Location: The Dauntless]
Returning Autobots rushed through the Ground Bridge, Optimus flying in first still carrying Kup and Smokescreen followed by Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, Jazz, and Wheeljack with Elita in his arms. Ratchet was standing at the controls, mouth agape as his optics focused on Elita with the blade sticking out of her torso that he barely caught Optimus ordering him to quickly shut down the portal before the explosion reach them. With the brilliant light now gone everyone quickly moved out of Wheeljack's way as he rushed to the infirmary, Ratchet rushing after him with the others following. Bulkhead had paused to pick up the children from the console before following Kup and Smokescreen, who were promptly set on their feet as soon as Optimus had landed.
"What happened?" the medic asked as his eyes darted down to the ground to take in the trail of Energon the pair were leaving behind them, gauging how much of it she had most likely loss.
"What do you think happened?" Elita snapped, but it ended on a pained groan as she held on with her good arm.
Once on the repair berth that Optimus had occupied not hours before, Elita kept trying to sit up and move away from Ratchet as he attempted to put her in stasis. Naturally this annoyed the medic, but he backed away quickly when she pointed her sniper rifle point blank in his face.
"You're losing too much Energon," Ratchet snapped at her.
"You take it out and I'll either bleed to death or lose my arm," she snapped back.
At that he scoffed. "It's no where near your arm … oh." It was the tilt of her head and the almost sardonic look to her face that made him realize that there was possibly more severe damage that she knew he couldn't fix. Quickly turning to the others in the room he focused on Jack, who was still on Bulkhead's shoulder with Miko and Raphael. "We need your mother."
"Jack," Elita said as she grabbed her wounded side, "take Bulkhead with you. Tell your mother it's a Code Purple and that she needs to bring Slash with her."
"Code Purple and bring slash. Got it," the young man replied.
Optimus spoke up next. "It might be wise to take Miko and Raphael with you so that they could be reunited with their families."
"Awwww," Miko pouted, "but we haven't heard all the good stuff yet."
"Time enough for that after we have had a chance to conduct repairs," Prime told her. "Right now your families are needing the reassurance that you are unharmed."
Even Miko couldn't argue further on that point, so Arcee and Bulkhead left the room after Raphael and Miko said their good-byes and headed for the Ground Bridge chamber. With all the kids situated on the ground, the green Wrecker transformed into his vehicular mode. Arcee waited until all the kids were safely inside their friend before opening the portal to the Army base that Agent Fowler called home and shut it promptly after they left.
[Location: Alden Military Base]
With the Ground Bridge opening a few miles outside of the base, it only took a couple of minutes for Bulkhead to pull through the gate and into Hanger E. Having been notified by the soldiers at the entry gate, Agent Fowler was rushing down the metal stairs that led from his office to greet Bulkhead, with June at his side since she was in his office when he received the call. Jack got out of the driver's seat and rushed for his mother. June wrapped her arms around her son, weeping for joy as she held onto him for several minutes. Miko and Raphael were soon brought into the hug when the mother noticed them standing nearby. Agent Fowler watched it all with a pleased smile. He had already been receiving reports about the destruction of Darkmount and the weapon that Megatron had utilized in the destruction of the Autobot's base. When Jack pulled away from his mother, both adults could tell that there was something seriously wrong by the look on his face.
"Mom, you're needed with the bots," he told her.
"Yeah, E's hurt pretty bad," Miko added.
"She said something about a Code Purple and to bring slash with you," Raphael added as he adjusted his glasses back onto his face.
June sombered quickly. Turning to Agent Fowler she gently pushed Miko and Raph towards him. "Would you see to it that they're reunited with their families. You can tell them that the evacuated with Jack and that he had kept them safe until they reached here."
Agent Fowler nodded, "Will do."
June turned back to Jack and in turn Bulkhead behind him. "Drive around to the medical bay. Everything that I need is there."
"Got it," Jack replied and rushed back to the driver's seat as his mother took the passenger one.
Bulkhead quickly, but carefully, drove from Hanger E to Hanger G. What was once a vehicular storage bay had become a makeshift emergency medical facility, complete with operating rooms and beds that had housed the soldiers that were recovering from the attack on Darkmount. By this point all of the wounded had been relocated to the hospitals or sent home to recover in the care of their families. There was a handful of medical staff still on hand, but there was one particular one that was helping with the clean up that June had rushed toward as soon as Bulkhead had stopped and let them out.
"John," she said, a bit breathless from the short run. "I have a situation and you've been requested to come along."
Frowning as he focused up from mopping the floor, the bald man nodded at them. "Alright. Grab what you need from storage and I'll grab my tools. We riding in that?" he asked, motioning with his left hand towards the green truck that they had rushed into the building with.
"Yeah, that's our ride," Jack replied.
Slash nodded, "Got it." With a quick walk he set the mop against the wall as he headed into a curtained off area.
Jack followed his mother into the storage area and helped her load the three crates there that had reflective purple tape wrapped around the sides of them into the back of Bulkhead. He had no idea what they were, but apparently it was something that Elita, his mother, and Fowler had planned in advance. Slash only eyed the crates for a moment as he put his bags in the back as well and settled into the passenger seat. With June in the driver's seat, to help keep up the ruse, and Jack settled in the back, Bulkhead took off out of the hanger and through the gates once more.
After traveling down the road for a little while, John heard Jack speaking. Glancing back he saw that the young man was on his phone and whomever he was speaking to he was telling them that they were 'almost there' and were 'ready'. For what, the medic didn't know. The green shimmering light that danced over everything in the car made him turn forward in time to see that they were about ready to hit whatever that light was. He couldn't help it. He panicked. With eyes wide, one hand went to brace himself in the dash as his right foot slammed on the floorboard as if he was trying to stomp on the brake petal to stop their movement. It, of course, was of no use. They continued forward and entered the vortex.
[Location: Dauntless]
As soon as the vehicle stopped, Slash was quick to get out. He was hunched over, holding himself up by one hand against the side of the truck as he tried to take deep breaths to sooth both the nausea and his sore bones. June quickly joined him, gently patting his back. It was as she did so that he turned a bit to look up at her.
"I forgot how bad that feels the first few times," Jack had said as he came up beside his mother. "Sorry that I didn't warn you."
Slash was about to respond when he caught the gigantic robot that was staring at them over some sort of huge counter. He knew his mouth was hanging open as he stood up straight, but the sight was an amazing one. It looked feminine with his facial design and when it stepped around he couldn't help but stare.
"What did you put in those cookies you gave me, Nurse Darby?" Slash asked weakly.
Before June had a chance to answer, they all turned their attention to the yelling coming from the massive doorway. Several voices were shouting, but there was one particular one that tugged at a part of his brain that made it sound familiar.
"Touch me again, Ratchet, and I'll rip your arm off and beat you with it!"
"Ellan?" John asked weakly, unable to believe his own ears.
"Get in," Bulkhead said as he revved his engine. "It sounds like she really means it this time."
Slash looked back at the green vehicle they had just gotten out of, still in shock and now having to deal with the fact that it had just spoken to them. As the shouting grew worse he climbed back in with the other two and held on as the vehicle squealed its tires on the metal floor and took off down the hall. It stopped in a room that held even more gigantic robots, even larger that the first one, and he exited. Some were standing around, others were seeming to struggle with one that was resting on a repair table. The one that seemed to be leaking a brightly glowing pinkish-purple fluid. It was the one that seemed to have the voice that was a ghost from his past. He was brought out of his shock as Jack exited the door behind him and he and his mother rushed to the back of the vehicle to retrieve the totes. He joined them, helping lift the heavy crates out as Jack grabbed his bags. With the cargo now removed, Slash paused once again as the vehicle that they had just ridden in shifted before his very eyes into another one of the robots in the room.
"Did you retrieve everything that you need for the procedure, Nurse Darby?"
John looked over at the robot that had spoken, the one that towered over all of the others. It's voice was warm, kind, and held a deep concern to it as it spoke to June.
"We have everything that we had planned for in case something like this ever happened," June replied as she began to open the crates. "Tell Ratchet that we'll need his gurney."
John watched as the huge red and blue robot spoke to the red and white one as it struggled with the pinkish one on the table, and that one turn into and ambulance before it ejected the gurney from the back and shifted back into its robotic form. His attention was focused one more as June shoved a heavy outfit into his arms. Looking down at items now resting there, his eyes went wide again.
"These are used for dealing with toxic materials," he said, looking back at her to see her putting her own outfit on. Everything but the helmet, he noticed. Assuming at this point that he had fallen asleep after operating on so many for two days straight, that he decided that this must be a dream and that he'll just go along with it. There were worse things to dream about.
With the outfit on and a surgical face shield over his head, he walked over with June to the group. The pinkish robot looked down at him with a tired smile. It looked like it had been through one heck of a fight, and that was beside the point that there was a massive blade sticking out of its torso.
"Alright, guys and gals," it said as it looked back up at the other robots. "Let's get this over with."
Bulkhead had moved over behind Elita and now stood with Bumblebee, Jazz, and Smokescreen to hold onto her from behind. Ratchet and Kup took up their positions on either side of her and held her down from the front. Optimus carefully held onto her right shoulder to help brace himself as his other hand wrapped around the makeshift hilt of a handle that Ratchet managed to make over the end of the blade. With a nod to his crew to brace themselves, Prime pulled with all of his might. It was a sickening metal on metal scrape that was barely heard over Elita's scream of pain, but it was over as quickly as they could manage.
Elita's optics went dark as she slumped backwards onto the repair table, all the hands that held her still now helping ease her down. Ratchet took the opportunity of her power down to unlatch her torso opening and pry the panels open with Kup and Jazz's help. The Autobot medic's optics were wide in shock at the internal damage that greeted them. Her human body looked as if it had been actively participating in the fight as well. Her Energon seemed to free-flow now from her left side as she struggled to even sit up.
Ratchet wasted no time in scooping her up, but he was with the others as they all stared down at the object that splashed back into the Energon that was pooled in the cavity. Elita had even rolled a bit to see it for herself.
"Oh," she said weakly, "I needed that."
The Autobot medic turned and knelt down to carefully place Elita's human form on the gurney where June wasted no time in beginning her examination. Kup stepped up beside him as he gained his feet, carefully handing the male human Elita's detached arm, the object that had fallen away when she had been pulled free. John numbly took the limb in both hands, looking from between it, the robots, and the woman on the table before him. When Elita made eye contact with him she just smiled.
"Hi, John. Long time no see. Just make sure you sew it on straight. It'll do the rest," she told him weakly.
"Yeah, because that's exactly how all this works," he replied sarcastically. "You of all people know better than that."
"Just do it," Elita replied tiredly. "He also sliced through my lung, too."
That snapped Slash into action. Immediately he passed the arm back to the robot that had given it to him in the first place and began to cut away her clothing to get to her chest wound. "If it's just some crazy hallucination due to questionable ingredients in the cookies, I might as well make the best of it. Besides," he said as he leaned closer to examine the wound more carefully before preparing the tools that he would need for the task, "I thought I had recognized them and that explains why I'm picturing saving you."
"Whatever," Elita winced and then went silent.
Jack looked over from where he stood, Arcee having joined him as soon as she could. "Is she..." he didn't want to voice it. Didn't want to think about it. But the way her eyes closed as his mother and apparently Elita's friend worked on her made a seed of fear start to take root.
"She just passed out from the pain, Jack. That's all. She's going to be fine," his mother assured him.
With a nervous scratch of his head, Jack looked around. He saw that all of the Autobots were watching the surgery and recalled that his mother had once told him that when in the ER that the families would watch, it made the staff more prone to messing up because every little thing was under the scrutiny of untrained eyes. That and it seemed that they were not cutting away as much of the fabric that they really needed to to keep everything modest.
"Hey, Arcee, think we could make like a blocking wall or something, ya know?" he asked as he looked up at his guardian.
Arcee just smiled down at him. "Sure, Jack, lets get to work."
Kup still stood by, watching the humans work as he continued to hold onto Elita's smaller arm. Ratchet had turned his attention back to repairing as soon as Jack and Arcee began building their little blocking wall. It might not have hidden everything from everyone in the room, but it seemed that the older humans were able to focus better on their own task. Before he knew it, the human male was requesting the arm back, which the scarred bot happily handed back, and watched as he and June lined everything up so that when they stitched it back on that it would look almost as good as new. A nasty scar, but those usually came with the best stories.
Author's Note: I don't own the show.
