Stuck at Work
"Hey Blaster, where's Huffer? He should be back on shift by now." Prime asked, a little worried about the small Mech.
Blaster shrugged, he was at the end of his shift at the Ark. His optics gleaming at the thought of pulling his shift at the Luxor, nothing but solid music! Truly his dream job if there ever was one! "Fed Ex left a message, but I didn't understand much of it. Real scientific lingo; but Perceptor will be back from work any minute now, so I figure he can decipher it for us."
Prime sat down in front of their main console, relieving Blaster. "Ok, guess I'll find out then. Have fun at work."
"Oh, the MC Blaster always rocks the house man!" the Mech joked as he transformed and caught his ride.
Watching Jazz spin rubber and zoom out of the Ark, Optimus chuckled. At least those two were really enjoying their second jobs!
Hound came in, barely avoiding a collision with the excited Jazz. Chuckling, the laid back jeep pulled up to Prime as Perceptor transformed and leaped out.
"Thanks for the ride home, Hound." The scientist said, happy that he'd had a quiet shift – with no slips.
Transforming, Hound grinned and slapped the thin red Mech on his shoulder. "No problem. Maybe you'd like to come on the tour some time? The humans would love your explanations of the native wildlife."
Perceptor nodded thoughtfully as Hound strolled away, looking for Beechcomber.
"Perceptor, I need you to read this and tell me what it's about." Optimus said, throwing the printout to the scientist.
Sitting across from his Commander, Perceptor read the printout. His expression becoming one of intense concern; "Well, this isn't good, isn't good at all.." he muttered to himself.
Curious, Prime leaned forward. "What's not good?" he asked.
Perceptor had forgotten he was sitting there, and he looked up with a start. "Oh, well, it'll be quite a while before Huffer is out of decontamination procedures."
"Decontamination procedures? For what?" Prime asked, his optics getting larger.
"Um, you see, there seems to have been some kind of white powder that was shipped to a City leader in Vegas. They suspect it's possibly a dormant form of Anthrax spore, which if true could cause the entire city hall to be…" Perceptor began to ramble.
Cutting him off, Prime asked; "So what does this have to do with Huffer?"
Perceptor looked at him, mildly confused why he couldn't see the clear connection between this and Huffer. "Well, it seems they shipped this package via Fed Ex, and after going through all of the shipping records, the authorities have deduced that Huffer was one of the trucks which carried the package."
Eyeing him, Prime shrugged, still not understanding just why Huffer couldn't come back yet. "But we're not affected by this spore are we?"
"Well, no; but if we are carrying it on our metal surfaces, then we can conceivably become vectors of infection for large numbers of humans. So the authorities have to decontaminate every possible piece of equipment that the package came in contact with."
"So I guess I've got to pull a double shift here, then." Prime grumbled slightly, knowing Huffer would most likely miss his shift at the Ark.
Perceptor shrugged, "that appears to be the case."
--
"Can I go now?" the small semi whined.
The HAZMAT crews around him shook their heads, as they began to spray him with the sanitization foam. Swiftly, he was coated; both inside his cab and out.
"This stings! It's going to eat through my seat covers. I knew this job was a bad idea, I just knew it." Huffer continued to whine.
Then the humans began to power spray him off. This just served to further add to the Mech's misery.
"You're going to strip my paint off! Then I'm going to rust, I just know I am." The Mech shuddered with self-pity. He moaned again, not believing his luck. But then, he always did have luck like this, didn't he?
As the humans finally let him leave the decontamination facility, he grumbled as he drove back to the Ark. His interior was now sopping wet, and it'd take him days – yes days! Of driving sixty with his windows down; to get his interior dry again. And it'd probably start rusting before then anyways.
Continuing to silently grumble, Huffer didn't notice the gaping pothole before – BAM! – hit it full on with his right front tire. Cussing now, the unhappy Mech restarted and began to drive again. But he couldn't, he had just broke a tie rod. Now, very unhappy, he radioed to the Ark for a tow.
This just wasn't his day, just wasn't! And it was all because of that stupid job he'd had to take. He'd told them all that it was pointless, and now it had caused him all this trouble.
Huffer continued to silently grumble as he waited for Hoist.
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