Disclaimer: Me no own and you no sue!
A/N: So, I have the perfect reason for being late this week: a wedding, the preparations FOR the wedding and the crash after the wedding. I seriously took a nap yesterday and slept from around two or three until six something. Yeah. Tired. But I saw Transformers 2 again today with my new, extended family! T'was fun, and my muse has a fresh jump-start.
IMPORTANT! So, here's the deal, there's probably only one chapter left in this baby, but your reviews still count, because IF YOU ARE INTERESTED I might be persuaded to write a sequel of sorts. There's a lot more I could do in the area of messing around with the complications of Mirage's and Astrid's relationship, and there are several other OCs I've been toying with in my head. So, if you want to see more of this after the next update, let me know. Thanks a million!
Chapter Twenty: Of Puny Organics and Blood Donors
Riding around the corridors of a secret base via Autobot was fun. Riding around the corridors of a secret base via Autobot in the middle of a battle was not. There was a lot of jostling involved when held in the swinging grip of a fifteen foot plus robot, and each running step jarred Mirage's squishy human passenger enough to make her slip a little against the smooth metal. Although she knew they could be graceful as anything when they wanted to be, she assumed that worry for his charge was serving as a little bit of a distraction. As it was, Jenna clung on in the constant fear that with the next jolt she would be sent sliding to her doom and her teeth rattled against each other at every bounce. And that wasn't the even the half of it.
With Mirage's cloaking ability he could sneak ahead and scout for Decepticon activity blocking the hostages' route, but every time he activated his freaky invisibility thingy Jenna felt like she was going to puke. Apparently being on the outside of a robot when it turned invisible had a different effect on her systems than being on the inside of a robot when it turned invisible. There was a weird, tingly, Jell-o-like sensation as the field rose up around her and it made her hair lie perfectly flat against her head, like it had been gelled. As the electrified Jell-o ensconced her, her skin tried to shrink inwards and her guts tried to go outwards, resulting in a terrible inside-out feeling that made her turn green with repressed bile. Mirage, being too swept up in the all-consuming importance of his mission, didn't notice that the squishy in his grip was changing colors, and Jenna began to wonder just how many seconds she would have left to live after she barfed all over him.
But Ratchet had mercy on her - before she threw-up - and volunteered to take on a second passenger to free up Mirage for sneaking. Just as the bizarre medic had taken care of her broken arm by offering his assistance, he now took care of her aching stomach by offering her a lift. At least this time there were no bones to set. If there were she might have opted for the gut-curling sensations of turning invisible as the preferable option.
She couldn't help casting glances over at her fellow passenger as she rocked back and forth in Ratchet's sure grasp. Over the past several minutes of playing hanger-on with the giant robot medic, Jenna had been trying to convince herself that Astrid had always been that pale, and that all those bandages were probably the result of a bored medic going treatment-happy on his patient. On that note, the reason she was so still and lifeless was because the robot had shot her up on some whacked-out alien tranquilizer. Yes, of course, that must be it. Now if only she could force herself to believe it.
Another explosion (all of which had been growing steadily louder and nearer as time passed by) rocked the hallway, and a spider dropped loose of its webby mooring to the ceiling. The hairy arachnid landed on the flattened surface of Jenna's hair and wobbled there for a minute to catch its balance. Once it had, it tethered itself to the top of her ear and began sliding down a thread of its silk. As it passed the corner of her eye Jenna noticed it - and screamed.
"Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, OHMIGOSH!" Flailing and shrieking she managed to swat it away, but its sticky silk snagged on her finger. The spider hung in midair, torn from its solid anchorage on the ear and swinging from Jenna's quivering finger. The bug seemed to decide that the ground was too distant a goal to reach in this precarious position, and began to climb towards the nearest safe harbor - which happened to be the finger it was attached to. When it began its rapid ascent in search of solid ground the shrieking and swatting began anew. But once Jenna had finally managed to get rid of the spider once and for all, she found herself facing another problem, and a much bigger and more menacing one at that.
This was not the day to be arachnaphobic.
Ratchet raised her to optic-level and gave the squealing youngling a hearty shake. As a medic he knew exactly how hard he could squeeze and exactly how fast he could move the organic without injuring her, and while he was careful not to overstep those boundaries, he did come close.
"What is the matter with you?" he demanded. "Do you have any idea where we are? This is the Decepticon base - or at least a temporary one - and those slaggers love nothing more than torturing puny organics such as yourself. The condition of your friend should be evidence enough of that."
"If it's not, then I will be more than happy to demonstrate."
Jenna gawked at the new player on the stage - a massive black and white mech with slanted red optics and shoulders a football player would envy. His physique didn't hold her attention long, though. At the sight of the new human clutched in Ratchet's hand, the mech clicked his long, sword-like claws together, and suddenly that portion of his anatomy had Jenna's undivided attention.
"Barricade," Ratchet said, "don't you have other places to be? Like the battle outside, perhaps?"
"The Decepticons are losing the battle," said Barricade. "I thought it would help our cause if we had a pair of incentives for the Autobots to back down. Now I find we have three incentives."
"You always were a coward."
"By your definition. But, then, by mine you've always been a fool. Now hand me the organics."
"If you would've been here a little earlier I would've been happy to give you the spider that I found," said Jenna. "Spiders are organic, though I bet they taste like crap."
Barricade turned to look at her and flexed his long claws. They gathered up into a fist - one which could so easily crush her - and then loosened gradually in a long, languorous stretch. "I will have fun playing with this one, especially if she screams as much as she talks."
From where she was clasped firmly against Ratchet's chest, Astrid shifted and moaned, perhaps at the sound of her tormentor's voice. Whether or not this was true, Barricade seemed to believe it was, and the look that came into his optics was purely predatory. "Give me the organics."
"No." Ratchet tucked Jenna and Astrid closer to himself. A shudder ran down Jenna's entire frame, and he gave her the gentlest squeeze he could. As annoying as Astrid's 'roommate' seemed to be there were some things that no youngling - no matter how obnoxious - deserved to suffer.
Barricade advanced a step, and Ratchet matched him, taking a step back. The monster took another step forward, and the medic set his two charges gingerly on the floor. "Watch over her," he ordered Jenna, in reference to his weaker patient. Then he turned to meet Barricade. It was not a fair fight - nowhere near, in fact - but Ratchet would do what was necessary to do his sworn duty as an Autobot. Regardless of his lack of weapons and the fact that he had already had many of his motor functions crippled by Soundwave, he charged the Decepticon and managed to land the first hit.
As the two giants battled behind her, Jenna fluttered over Astrid, trying to take her pulse or check for fever when she knew that such gestures were useless at best. If her heart stalled, Ratchet would be the first to know, not Jenna, and even if it did stop beating there was nothing Jenna could do to get it started again. She solemnly swore to learn CPR the first chance she got. Until then, Astrid just wasn't allowed to go into de-fib. As for the fever... well, desperate times call for desperately far-out ideas, and Jenna couldn't think of anything else to do in her quest to alleviate her own fears. There was no fever. That was a good thing, right? Even if she did have a fever, though, would her skin feel hot in this cold weather? Maybe she should check again.
A yowl sounded down the hall and Jenna's eyes popped up from her ghostly-pale friend to the mechanical cat-thing standing at the end of the hall. Ratchet let out some very unhappy dial-up tones behind her, and Jenna staggered up from her knees to her feet. She had no idea what she was going to do once she got to her feet, but she figured it was better to face off against evil, one-eyed cat beasts while standing upright.
"Um, Mr. Ratchet, sir? I think we have a problem over here."
More angry dial-up. "Slag it! Move, you little idiot! Get Astrid and move!"
"I can't move her!" Jenna shouted, her eyes riveted the kitty cat from her nightmares. "She's too heavy. I am not a forklift! And go where? Under your feet or to Hello Kitty? There's nowhere to go!"
"Just move!"
Frantically, Jenna grabbed Astrid under the shoulders and tried hauling her towards the medic. Of the two options she figured a Decepticon and an Autobot was a better deal than a Decepticon and no Autobot at all.
The cat seemed to disagree.
It snarled and snapped at her. For about five seconds all Jenna's brain could compute as she continued to tug at Astrid along was, 'Holy crap! It's a robot with teeth!'
Said robot-with-teeth was not happy about having its query moved (even by so little as Jenna was moving) and tensed for a lunge. Jenna screamed for the medic and pulled so hard that she nearly popped her shoulder out of its socket as the cat 'Con dipped, sank, and sprung.
Then - it stopped. Nothing too astonishing about that, but what was astonishing was that it stopped in midair, and it seemed just as confused as the on looking human was. It tensed suddenly, and tried to swat out at something, but the invisible something it was swatting at was faster and slammed the viscous 'Con against the wall until it stopped twitching.
Jenna gawked, then a light came on behind her eyes. And she smiled. "Huzzah, Mirage! Show the demon cat who's boss."
Too absorbed in his attack on Ravage to even register Jenna's cheers, Mirage pounded the unholy monstrosity to within an inch of the Pit. Only when Ravage's optic was cracked and flickering did he slow his assault enough to hiss, "Astrid Fenner is my charge, you glitch-ridden slagger, and no one harms. My. Charge. If you ever come within a fifty mile radius of her ever again I promise you, you will regret the day you were sparked."
Spinning, he hurled the symbiote's half-wrecked body against the opposite wall, satisfaction filling his spark at the sound of metal snapping and warping on impact. The Decepticon slid to the floor, and Mirage turned to assist Ratchet and slag the other glitch that had tortured his human. Soundwave was out of his reach for the moment, but his time would come. As for Barricade, well, his time had run out ever since he slashed Mirage's charge to within an inch of her life.
He fought ruthlessly, and so did Ratchet. Both mechs went for every weak point in the armor and sensitive bundle of wiring they could lay their servos on. While it was usually Mirage's approach to dispose of his enemies cleanly and carefully - as a spy - he let the burning fury that blurred his processor take complete control as he laid into the black and white Decepticon. A quick shot to the spark chamber or processor was too good for this mech.
Very soon, the outnumbered 'Con seemed to realize that he would not be winning against the two furious Autobots, and shortly after that it appeared to dawn on him that he would be lucky to escape this encounter in one piece. So, like the true Decepticon he was, he decided to fall back, wait for the tide to turn in his favor, and lie low in dark corners until he was summoned forth once again. He tore off down the halls in his vehicle mode, vanishing from sight in under five seconds.
"Slagger!" Ratchet shouted after him. "Come back here so I can finish tearing you a new exhaust port!"
Although his optics were still fiercely lit and his processor was running on battle mode, Mirage still possessed the deep, inner control that it took to survive centuries of life as a spy. He burned to race after Barricade and reduce him to a pile of debris and oil, but there were other, more important things to be accomplished first. He placed a hand on Ratchet's shoulder and pulled him around to see the two organics waiting for them a few yards away. Ratchet immediately cooled. In a single step, the medic had reached Astrid. His optics and scanners passed over his patient, and judging by his expression they gave him no good news.
Jenna, however, kept a sharp eye on their surroundings. No way was she being snuck up on by a creepy robo-dog or whatever next. "The kitty's gone," she said. And he was. During the battle between Barricade and the two Autobots, Ravage had taken the chance to slip away and lick his wounds closer to his master. A spotty trail of leaked energon and lubricant showed where he had limped off.
"Who gives a slag?" said Mirage. Turning to Ratchet he asked, "How is Astrid?"
"She's dying, that's how she's doing," said Ratchet. "I trust Prime's grand plan involved human paramedics?"
"Yes."
"Good. Then we need to get her to them. Now. Earlier would be better, but now is all we have. Let's move out."
Once again, Ratchet scooped up his little cell-mate and Mirage bent to pick up Jenna, who was eternally grateful that the spy did not try turning invisible again. Then they were off. The corridors blew by, and the two Autobots loped through the Decepticon headquarters so quickly that a breeze ruffled Jenna's hair.
The first team they ran into was Lennox's. Jeremy was not present. Taking into consideration all that had happened, the captain had thought it best to leave Jeremy with the soldiers - Autobot and human - that had been left to guard the base and the college students. When he saw Astrid's condition he was glad he had made that decision.
"Call in a paramedic team, now!" he ordered Epps. The order was hardly needed, though, as Epps had whipped out his radio the second he saw the massive forms of Ratchet and Mirage appear down the hall.
"Two teams are on their way," he said.
"The base is nearly secured," Lennox said to the two mechs. "We just have a few more hallways and rooms that the Decepticons added deeper in this mess and we'll be finished. It's pretty unlikely that we'll meet any more resistance, though. Most were either out battling our decoys or came out to fight us at the gates."
"Where are they now?" Mirage asked. "Were any prisoners taken?" He was hoping against hope that either Soundwave had been pinned down and kept from leaving or that Barricade had been intercepted.
"Gone. No prisoners. They either went down fighting or took off when things got too hot. The jammer stopped working about a quarter of an hour ago, and all the 'Cons in the decoy battle retreated once their buddies filled them in on the situation out here. Optimus thinks they have a prearranged meeting place, but not even he knows where that is."
"How far away are those paramedics?" Mirage asked.
"Not far, they should be here any - here they are!" The two teams appeared around the corner, carting a rolling stretcher and armed with as many emergency medical supplies as they could tote. Ratchet very grudgingly handed over his patient and made it very clear that once he was repaired himself he would be taking over Astrid's care. He was not so foolish or arrogant, though, that he interfered with the humans as they swarmed around the girl he had so recently tended. As the medics prepared to depart and ship Astrid to the nearest hospital, Ratchet made very sure to make it crystal clear that should his patient not be breathing when he came for her, heads would roll. To their credit, the paramedics barely even batted an eyelash at the large mech's bloody threats.
Having secured the hostages, Lennox's team fell back with the two mechs and the human medical personnel. Lennox forced himself to keep his hands on his weapon and his attention on their surroundings, though his fingers itched to reach out and cover the white hand strapped to the gurney. But there would be time for that later. How many times had he had to stand by, on alert and ready for action, as a teammate or civilian slowly slipped away right beside him?
He blinked twice to clear the sweat from his eyes.
Why did it always have to be the kids that landed in the M.A.S.H. tents and emergency rooms?
.O.O.O.
The gurney wheels rattled over the hospital floor, their racket drawing a steadily increasing number of followers. Most wore the white and pastel scrubs of medical personnel, but there were several others dressed in dusty military uniforms and dirty street clothes padding along beside them. William Lennox hurried along on one side of the patient, and Jenna quick-stepped on the other. Jenna had acted on the urge that Lennox had repressed earlier that day and her hand was wrapped firmly around Astrid's limp one, despite the pestering nurses and doctors trying to chase her off.
Coming towards them down the hall was another pair of soldiers - Bobby Epps and Jeremy Fenner. As always, Epps had been ready with the radios and had rushed ahead of the ambulance in order to pin Jeremy down and get him to his sister. Like Will, he was a family man, and the idea of someone doing this to a part of his family made him sick. Jeremy was one of theirs, and making sure the guy was up to speed was the least he could do.
"Is this the next of kin?" one of the doctors snapped as the two soldiers met the gurney. Every since the caravan of mismatched soldiers, students and Autobots had reached the hospital the poor staff had been trying desperately to find a family member with the authority to take care of Astrid's decisions while she was in this state.
"Yeah, this is the guy, Jeremy Fenner," said Epps. "How's Astrid doing?"
"Mr. Fenner," the doctor said, ignoring Epps for the moment, "we need your permission to operate, and we also need a viable blood donor. We're examining our supply at the moment, but it would be faster to do a direct transfusion if you are of the same blood type. Family is always best, and it would be less likely that her body would reject the blood if it came from you. Do you know if you're compatible?"
"We're both O positive," Jeremy said. He actually began rolling up his sleeve as he walked. By the looks of things he'd willingly slash his arm open right there in the hall if the doctors told him to. Epps tried to reach discreetly for the young man's combat knife when he wasn't looking.
"Excellent," the doctor said. "If you'd please come with us, Mr. Fenner. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask the rest of you to wait out in the lounge until further notice."
Glancing back over his shoulder, Jeremy added, "I'll send word out to you guys, ok?" Then the gurney and it's mob of doctors and nurses vanished behind a pristine white door, and the rest were left standing in the gleaming hallway.
.O.O.O.
Jenna was patched up by the military doctors and left in peace to finger her cast and let her stomach settle. All they'd really had to do was slap on a few band-aids and some disinfectant. Jenna imagined that it would take a lot more than that to put Astrid back together. Her stomach had stopped rolling with the jogging Transformer bounce that it had learned from Mirage and Ratchet before she even reached the hospital, but then the stress and fear of whether Astrid would even make it through the surgeries had seized hold of her guts and refused to let go. Now she felt nauseous, cramped and light-headed all at once. She wanted to purge her entire system of all the dark feelings that roiling around in the pit of her stomach, but all she succeeded in doing was purging herself of her last meal.
Eventually she figured out that being alone with her feelings probably wasn't the best idea at present, so she joined up with the military men. Her luck, however, had apparently been used up in the rescue mission, and she found no solace with the grim faces and low conversations filling the waiting room. She reasoned next that fresh air might do her some good.
It was only after she'd been sitting against the wall - between two tastefully placed shrubs - for a good fifteen minutes, sniveling and shivering with the wind in her ears, that she remembered most of the cars she was looking at in the parking lot probably weren't cars at all. She froze for a second and wondered how well they could see in car mode, and whether they'd been 'watching' her this whole time. Or monitoring. Or whatever.
One of the nearest cars, the Pontiac Solstice that she remembered as 'Jazz', seemed to catch on to her train of thought and popped open the passenger side door.
"I wouldn't mind some company," his rumbly car-voice said. "If you'd like to climb on in the two of us could talk for a while. Doesn't seem to be much of anything else to do."
Jenna slid up the wall, dusted off the seat of her pants and adjusted her ponytail. On the way to the car she wondered if Jazz could feel through the cushions of his seats, and if any of the mulch she'd missed would irritate him. When she climbed in he was quiet though, even though Jenna could see bits of dirt and shredded wood clinging to her jeans.
She'd never been a car junkie, and she'd been too stressed when she last met the Autobots to memorize all of their car modes. Heck, she probably hadn't even seen all of them. Time for a lesson."How many of you guys are here?" she asked.
"Five," said Jazz. "There's me, Sunny and Sides, Jolt and Mirage. We're the only flashy cars in this place, so it shouldn't be hard to see 'em. Jolt's the only one without a personal connection to your buddy, but Optimus wanted there to be enough of us here to put up a real fight if any of the 'Cons came back for seconds. Give it twenty four hours and there'll be six, though. I doubt the entire Decepticon army could keep Ratchet away from one of his patients once he's been fixed up. Wheeljack'll have his hands full."
Jenna craned her head back and peered through the rear window. Sure enough, the other transformers weren't hard so spot at all. Most of the Autobots were parked near to Jazz, just scattered enough to be able to keep an eye on the rest of the lot, but one was parked on the far side under a drooping oak. It sat there alone in the dark with all of its lights off, and Jenna could almost taste the waves of depression rolling off of it.
"Who's by the tree?"
"Mirage."
"Why is Mirage over there by himself?"
"Aw, well, 'Rage has some major issues to sort out right now," Jazz said. "Understandable, I guess. He finally managed to free his ward and now she's in emergency surgery. I'd be upset, too. I am."
A devilish little grin spun out across Jenna's face. "Hey, Jazz?" she said.
"Hmm?"
"Does Mirage need a hug?"
For a second the cab went quiet, and Jenna could have sworn she heard the Solstice's electric brain stall. Then he laughed. Hard.
"Yeah. Mirage, he definitely needs a hug, just not from you."
"Astrid will just have to get better so she can give him one, then."
A/N: So? Like, hate, love? Drop a review in the donation box below! This is gonna be a busy week, so unless you want an EXTREMELY delayed update, it would be wise to keep up the encouragement.
Replies to those without accounts:
Chio: Thanks for the review! Thanks for the compliments, I'm trying my darnest on this one. Oh dear, no kicking shall be required, I assure you. Thanks again!
D00dlebug: Thanks for the review! Here's a fresh chapter for ya!
HiddenWithinMyself: Why thank you very much! Here you go!
Broken Shift Key: Thank you very much for the review! That's sort of incorporated into the next chapter, actually, though not to the extreme I don't think. But, yeah, I wouldn't let Ratchet out of my sight, either. Thank you, thank you, and I hope to hear from you again!