Static Chapter Five
"Prime! Decepticons within a 5-mile radius! ETA 15 minutes!" yelled Bluestreak from the control room.
'Great,' thought Prime, 'just great. We have a sparkling in our care and now we've got Decepticons coming for yet another battle!' For Optimus, this day just couldn't get any worse. First, Static wouldn't recharge, Teletraan 1 was destroyed by the Dinobots' so-called "finesse" and now they had Decepticons coming to kick Autobot aft! Optimus prime sighed in depression.
"Autobot, prepare for battle. Transform and roll out!" the Autobot leader then turned to his weapons specialist, Ironhide.
"Ironhide, do you think you could look after Static? I mean, you're best suited to look after her because, well, if a Decepticon attacks you then you'll be able to defend Static more easily than anyone else and I realistically need to be fighting Megatron." The Prime asked.
"I think so Optimus. But I'm not sure I'm fit for the job – or that she likes me," Ironhide replied, "but where are we gonna hide if the Decepticons break through?" Optimus gave this a thought.
"Perhaps I could give you the combination to my quarters? And let you hide in there?" Ironhide was in disbelief.
"But Prime, no one is allowed to go in your quarters! Not even me!"
"Yeah? Well now you are! I'll just set you up before I go and join the others." And with that Optimus, Ironhide and Static (Static being carried in Ironhide's arms) ran down the halls until they reached Optimus Prime's quarters. Optimus punched in the code, shoved Ironhide and Static inside, pointed out the toys and Energon supplies and sprinted back to the waiting armies.
'Well this is just great,' thought Ironhide, 'sparkling sitting.' He cast a glance at the snoozing sparkling. To Ironhide, it was almost impossible that such a cute and innocent child could be the little sister to the great and noble Optimus Prime! But true nonetheless.
While Ironhide was looking after Static, the battle had already commenced as soon as Optimus joined his troops.
"Optimus! This is the last day on this puny planet you shall ever see!" cackled Megatron, the warlord of the Decepticons, as he fired his fusion cannon at the Autobot troops.
"Wrong again Megatron! Autobots, ATTACK!" bellowed Optimus Prime over the din. Barely a nanoklik after he yelled there was an almighty roar from both sides of Cybertronians as the two armies clashed, locking, once again, into battle. The cries of the troops could be heard from Optimus' quarters, deep within the Ark, and was causing a processor-ache to form in Static's head, slowly waking her up from a peaceful recharge. Static began to cry softly as Ironhide ran to fetch a bottle of Energon.
"There, there shhh," murmured Ironhide, "come on, Energon. There ya go." The whimpering sparkling latched onto the bottle and was slowly draining the softly glowing liquid. Her cries slowly ceased as her processor-ache was numbed and her fumbling fuel tanks filled with warm Energon.
Outside, three Autobots were badly injured and six Decepticons were unconscious. Just like previous battles Optimus Prime and Megatron battled it out once again, hands locked together in a furious grip; both mechs' immense strength threatening to tear each other's arms out of their sockets. Jazz and Prowl were locked in combat with Skywarp and Thundercracker whilst Bumblebee, Bluestreak and Tracks were battling it out against Starscream, Soundwave and the cassetticons. They all had their roles in each and every battle, Autobots and Decepticons alike, but none of them managed to even catch a glimpse of small silver and blue make its way across the field towards Optimus Prime and Megatron.
"Ironhide! How ya' doin' wiv Static?" yelled Jazz over his comm. Link as he ducked to avoid a shower of cluster bombs from Thundercracker.
"Yeah fine but Static's got a processor-ache and she's immensely hungry!" Ironhide yelled back, "she's already gone through six bottles!"
'Six bottles?' thought Jazz, 'it just simply ain't possible! 'Specially for a sparkling her size!' a violent explosion brought Jazz back from his thoughts.
"Jazz! Prime and Megatron were caught in a blast from one of Wheeljack's bombs!" cried Bluestreak, "we gotta go find Prime!"
"An explosion?" said a bewildered Jazz as he and all the mechs on the battlefield hurried down to inspect the crater the explosion had left.
Ironhide too heard the explosion and immediately commed Optimus… but he couldn't even get a dialling tone. He then commed Ratchet and asked what happened.
"An explosion of some kind happened exactly where Optimus and Megatron were fighting! Now there's so much smoke none of us, Decepticons included, can see whether Prime of Megatron are online!" Ratchet sounded anxious.
"Well can't ya' just scan for em'?"
"No, neither of their spark signatures are showing up on any of our scans!" at this point Ratchet sounded beyond anxious, Ratchet was downright frightened out of his CPU. "Hide I need you down here now! Oh, and bring Static too!" and with that, Ironhide and Ratchet rang off.
'An explosion? This can't be good.' Ironhide thought and quickly gathered the now wide-awake Static and sped down to the battlegrounds.
The explosion had caught the attention of every Autobot and Decepticon and the battle ceased as quickly as it had started.
"Primus!" muttered Ratchet softly, "WHEELJACK! Where are you?" bellowed the CMO. Meekly, Wheeljack stepped forward.
"Here Ratchet."
"Explain."
"Well, I threw a bomb but I didn't throw it at Prime and Megatron! I threw it at Skywarp and Thundercracker!"
"So why did it land at Prime and Megatron?"
"I don't know! I swear!"
"Perhaps I Can Clear This Mystery Up." Came a monotone voice from the back of the crowd that had assembled around the quarrelling mechs and the smoking crater. It was Soundwave who spoke.
"Oh really?" Ratchet said dismissively as he raised an optic ridge.
"Affirmative." Soundwave stated. Both armies were in total disbelief. The Communications Officer of the Decepticons was willing to help them find Optimus Prime and Megatron? It was simply unbelievable!
Ratchet had no idea what to say except "Well? What is your brilliant idea then Soundwave?" At this, Soundwave paused briefly. It looked to the Autobots that he had no idea what was to be done. Then…
"Problem: Leaders Missing." A loud rustling went through the anxious mechs and quiet murmurs were heard but dismissed.
"Well done Soundwave, you worked out what we couldn't (!)," said Ratchet sarcastically.
"Solution:" another pause, "Wait Until Smoke Has Cleared."
A loud rustling of voices ran through crowd of anticipating mechs. Half of them approved of the proposed solution and half of them didn't.
"And what exactly are we gonna do till then eh Soundwave?" said Starscream, the other warriors then took this question up and started yelling at Soundwave and Ratchet.
"SILENCE!" bellowed Ratchet as the tumultous roar of voices exceeded limits, "we have no choice but to wait because for all we know, our leaders could be in critical conditions and we could harm them further by blowing away the smoke and charging in there all guns blazing!" These were wise words from the CMO and after he finished talking, the quarreling mechs swapped looks and merely sat down on the ground and waited.
Ironhide and Static soon joined the silenced mechs and looked around at the carnage from the battle; rocks were ripped up and gaping holes in the ground surrounded the stunned red warrior. All Ironhide could do was sit quietly next to Ratchet and Wheeljack with Static looking very calm in his arms. Ironhide wondered what kind of damage the explosion had done to Optimus and Megatron and whether they were still online; these thoughts were then pushed aside by new ones, each thinking what both armies would do if their leaders were deactivated or in stasis lock.
'This is just awful,' thought Ironhide,'we have no idea whether Optimus or Megatron are online coz we can't pick up their spark signatures and even if we did, they'd probably be so faint we didn't notice!' The red warrior was furious with himself and with the Decepticon faction: he should've been there to help out his fellow Autobots instead of looking after a sparkling who could probably have been left with a different Autobot like Bumblebee or Gears or Brawn!
Three hours passed and the smoke was still hanging in the air around them. Several arguments and fights had broken out between the Cassetticons and the Minibots so they had to be seperated by the Seekers and half the Autobots and Decepticons. Ratchet and Soundwave were sat almost together as they represented their respected (or not so respected) factions. Two waves of restlessness had swept over the armies and both nearly got up and walked away!
"That's it, I'm blowing this Pit-foresaken smoke away with my thrusters!" said Thundercracker
"No you can't, you might damage our leaders!" said Skywarp
"So? Optimus Prime is a walking scrap heap and deserves to go to the Pit and Megatron can just be repaired as easily as a broken wrench!" countered Thundercracker. At the remark against their leader, the Autobots bristled with fury and twice some Autobots broke ranks and tried to charge the obnoxious Seeker. Pretty soon, both sides of mechs started fighting again; the Autobots defending the crater and the Decepticons attacking it. This proceeded for a few minutes and made Static cry again until Soundwave unleashed a fierce wave of Audio Disruptor Waves on the battling mechs. The fighters then proceeded to collapse to one knee and start clutching at their helms like they might fall off! Once Ratchet had their attention and the ADW were ceased, they smoke had cleared just enough for searchlights to pierce the once thick cloud.
Fright had taken over some of the Cybertronians as none of them knew what lay beyond the smoke and practically ALL the Decepticons and Autobots wouldn't venture closer than three metres to the crater, only Soundwave, Ratchet, Hook, Perceptor and Wheeljack dropped themselves into the pit. Suddenly a loud cry emitted from the crater and all the anxious mechs jumped back in a combination of fear and surprise. What was that noise? Was it Static? Where had it come from? All these questions were now buzzing around their CPUs and five silhouettes could eventually be made out from the screen of smoke.
"Look!" came a voice from the stock-still crowd, "they've found them! They've..." they trailed off as the silhouettes came closer and the front two could be made out clearly. It was Soundwave and Ratchet and they were holding... Sparklings?