Ripjaw finally began to wake after a while, groaning a bit as she rubbed her head. Her optics popped open when she noticed her limb was different, more extended and moveable compared to her beast mode. She looked down her body and saw she was in bot form now, tilting head then looking up as she heard Predaking chuckle.
"Good morning, little Ripjaw." The king greeted.
The sparkling stayed silent for a bit, unsure she could even fathom out some words. "…morning." She replied in a small child voice, obviously female from her vocals.
Predaking smiled and patted her head. "How are you feeling?"
"…..different." she managed, still trying to figure out words and whether she was using them correctly or not. Her evolution had only gone so far at the moment.
"Shall we go for another flying lesson?" Predaking inquired.
Ripjaw looked to her hands, unsure of herself but nodding. Predaking took her into his hold and walked down the corridors, seeing Megatron in the next hall. The lord glanced over to them.
"Ah, there you are, Predaking." Megatron said as he looked to Ripjaw. "I see she's evolving."
"Yes, my master." He said somewhat proudly. "I was just taking her for another flight lesson."
"No time for that I'm afraid, it would seem the Autobots are attacking another one of our energon mines and I need you to go take care of that." The leader informed.
Ripjaw seemed disappointed but looked up at her sire. "I'll come with."
"Absolutely not." Predaking said with a frown. "You're too small for battle."
Predaking stopped his words when he realized he just hurt her feelings as her optics saddened at being underestimated by her own sire. Megatron smirked a bit.
"Why not take her? She's obviously getting stronger and vicious, even took out Starscreams face." He chuckled. "I think she should accompany you."
"But Master, she's just a sparkling." Predaking protested, quieting as Megatron held his hand up for silence.
"She's going." He stated. "That's final."
The large predacon sighed but complied. "Yes, my master."
"Good, now go." The leader ordered, waving him away.
Predaking bowed then left for the landing bay with an awaiting ground bridge, nervous to take his sparkling. Ripjaw on the other hand was excited for this new experience, to finally see her sire battle again. As they went through the portal, they walked right into a battle as Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Arcee were shooting at Vehicon workers.
"Stay here." The king ordered, placing her behind a large boulder before running off into battle.
Ripjaw pouted a bit at having to stay on the sidelines. She thought he believed she could be powerful, but didn't realize he was meaning when she got older. Her claws clenched as she knew she could help, managing to transform into her beast mode and going closer to the battle. She hid behind a cart of energon, practically tasting the warfare as the bots went back and forth with blasts and hits. Remembering the explosion, she looked up at the cart and with her forearms began pushing to knock it over. Once accomplished she examined the energon, trying to figure out how to make it detonate without a bomb.
Her neck frills twitched as she had an idea then ran off to a safe distance behind another boulder, concentrating on making electricity run through her system and waiting for a moment for an Autobot to get close to the cart. As Bulkhead neared the energon, her optics flashed and she released the strongest bolt she could, hitting the energon and causing powerful explosion right on the bot.
"GAAAH!" Bulkhead yelled as he was engulfed in the explosion before being blown away by it.
"Bulkhead!" Arcee yelled, quickly going to him and gasping as his backside was entirely damaged, able to see all the circuitry in him and energon bleeding out.
Ripjaw trilled at her satisfaction of helping Predaking but froze in her place as Arcee heard and saw her.
"Another predacon?!" the two wheeler exclaimed, unsure of whether to shoot as it was just a sparkling.
Predaking overheard Arcee's yelling, growling loudly as he was in hand to hand combat with Optimus. His actions became more vicious as he wanted to end the battle to make sure his sparkling was safe. Ripjaw quickly hissed and assumed a ready stance to fight Arcee, quickly rushing to her with a weak sounding roar and dodging her shots on instinct. Her speed had increased from when she first came into Predakings life, surprising Arcee as she kept missing her.
"Scrap!" The femme yelled as the small predacon sped past her and jumped onto Bulkheads exposed back before leaping towards her.
Ripjaw screeched as she was hit with a shot by Bumblebee who was running to help Arcee, quickly joining her side as the small predacon stood back up and growled at them.
"We have to get Bulkhead out of here, Bee." Arcee said with her gun aimed at Ripjaw.
With a few beeps in reply, Bumblebee contacted Ratched to open a ground bridge, soon seeing it and blasting at Ripjaw so she would get further away from them. Although she was a predacon, neither of them had the spark to actually go for kill on a youngling. Ripjaw started to growl then suddenly released a large soundwave shriek to them, watching as they flew back and tumbled over Bulkheads body by the force of it.
"Nnh, shut it up!" Arcee yelled as she tried to cover her audios with one hand and shoot with the other.
Ripjaw jumped out of the way and was forced to stop her attack from the evasion, growling and running at them again but being hit with another blast and tumbled back from it. She groaned as she struggled to rise this time as it had been a charged hit, giving Arcee and Bumblebee time to drag Bulkhead through the ground bridge.
The youngling growled and let out a tiny roar in her frustration at not destroying them like her sire would have, her predacon instincts making her want to go after them. She finally jumped up sped towards the portal, leaping through it right as it closed and disappearing from sight.
"Ripjaw!" Predaking yelled as he saw her go through, grabbing Optimus and flinging him to the side. "NO!"
Optimus saw their retreat as well, contacting for a ground bridge of his own and quickly running through it, leaving Predaking alone. The predacon roared out in absolute rage and immediately transformed and flew to the Nemesis, hoping the Decepticons could find the Autobot base.
"Shoot it already!" Ratchet yelled as the small predacon was wreaking havoc amongst their base with her claws and attacks on them.
"It's a sparkling, we can't kill her!" Arcee shouted back, standing guard over Bulkhead with Bumblebee as they couldn't get him to a medical bay without confronting the predacon.
"It's a predacon kill it already!" The medic howled as he whacked her away with a wrench when she went after him.
Ripjaw shrieked and quickly scrambled to find a place to hide as her attempts seemed futile without means of a bigger weapon. She dove into some crates to hide and poked her beak out some to where she could see them, growling defensively.
"Get Bulkhead to the medbay, Wheeljack, and I will keep this thing busy." Ratchet said carefully as he brought out his blades.
"Why don't you just let me throw a grenade over there? That'll take care of it." Wheeljack retorted.
"And cause damage to the base?! Are you fragged in the head!?" The medic shouted, keeping an eye on the crates as Arcee and Bumblebee struggled in their trek to get Bulkhead to the medical bay.
The standoff was on as they all watched each other, Bulkhead finally on a medical berth and the other bots returning to the scene.
"Ok Ratchet, your turn to go. Take care of Bulkhead, he's got serious damage to his entire backside." Arcee informed, her guns ready.
It was then that Optimus finally arrived through the portal, seeing the tense situation as Ultra Magnus and Smokescreen drove into base. "What has happened?"
"We got ourselves some predacon sparkling in the base." Wheeljack answered, ready to throw a bomb.
"Why has it not been terminated?" Ultra asked firmly as he transformed.
"It's a sparkling, how are we supposed to just kill a little one?" Arcee inquired in a frustrated voice, her morals being torn.
"If it caused that much damage on Bulkhead then there's no telling what it could do to us!" Wheeljack argued.
"Enough!" Optimus cut in, looking towards the crates as he heard a hiss from it and noticing the little fanged beak poking out. The leader was unsure of what to do.
"Sir, we must terminate the predacon, no matter its age. If we let it go, it will only grow into a larger beast and the Decepticons will have another monster in their ranks as dangerous as Predaking." Ultra said, hoping this would say his leader's opinion.
"But it's a sparkling!" Smokescreen butted in, his own sympathy with its age. "That'd be like killing a cybertronian sparkling."
"It is NOT the same, soldier, now stand down from this debate." Ultra spoke as he glared to the young soldiers' argument.
Everyone stayed still as they awaited their leader's order, all guns aimed to the pile of crates. Optimus finally broke the silence.
"We will allow it to live. I cannot in good conscious kill a sparkling, no matter its origin." He spoke, holding a hand up to silence any argument. "We must coax it out and allow it to leave back to its home."
The others looked to each other with unease, wondering how in Primus they'd get it to leave without further attacks.
Predaking nearly rampaged as he stormed to the control room, practically roaring. "We must find the Autobot base immediately!"
Megatron raised a brow ridge at him as everyone else jumped from the outburst. "And why such a sudden interest in that, Predaking?"
"Ripjaw went into their portal and is now in their territory, I must know where she is so I can go save her, my Lord!" he exclaimed.
The leader hid a smirk. "She shouldn't have jumped through then."
Predaking stared at him. "She doesn't know any better, master!"
"And yet she was smart enough to demand to go with you and engage in battle. Seems sentient enough to me to where she should have known not to follow into an enemy ground bridge." Megatron retorted, keeping his gaze firm on the predacon.
"Surely we aren't going to leave her there, my master?!" Predaking asked, feeling a bit frantic as Megatron simply chuckled.
"Let us see how young Ripjaw does out there on her own, see if she comes back in one piece. She is a survivor after all, isn't she?" The leader stated, seeing Predaking starting to look desperate. "You will NOT go looking for the base yourself. Do you understand?"
Predaking stood there for a moment in disbelief that his master was disallowing him from searching for his sparkling. Hanging head some and bowing. "…yes…my master."