Okay! I slightly revised this chapter because I don't really like it that much. Its short though, and is kinda just a connecting chapter. Chapter 8 is almost done and I promise its a good one. ^_^
Anyway, thank you again to all my reviewers! You all rock. :)
A week later, Artemis was finally allowed out of the medbay by a reluctant Ratchet. He wanted to keep her there longer, but after a long argument, Artemis surprisingly won. As she walked out of the medbay with Ironhide, she was greeted by Optimus, Jazz, and Bumblebee congratulating her on being the first to win a big argument against him. But Ratchet's glares soon put their words to a stop.
"It feels wonderful to be able to walk again!" Artemis exclaimed, breaking the tense silence.
"I know that feeling," Jazz replied, chuckling.
Optimus suddenly signaled for everyone to be quiet and pressed his finger to his audio receptor.
"What is it, Optimus?" Ratchet asked when he lowered his hand.
"Good news, everyone," Optimus said. "More Autobots are on their way to Earth!"
A flurry of questions hit Optimus like a tidal wave.
"Who's coming?"
"How many are there?"
"When will they be here?"
"Is Wheeljack coming?"
"Do you want the base to explode?!?"
"What about Sunny and Sides?"
"Who cares about them? What about Perceptor?"
"Will Prowl be here?"
"Calm down, everyone!" Optimus yelled. "A total of eight Autobots are arriving in three groups." He waited until everyone settled down again before continuing. "The first group is Prowl, Red Alert, and Jolt. They are arriving tonight."
Jazz smirked. Prowl and Red Alert were pretty paranoid, therefore fun to mess with.
"The second group is Jetfire, Wheeljack, and Perceptor. They will be here in two days time."
Ironhide rolled his optics. "Wonderful. I'll miss having a place to stay."
Ratchet sighed in relief while everyone else agreed with Ironhide, even Optimus. "Good! I can use all the help I can get in the medbay. I have a hard enough time keeping up with everyone now!" Ratchet said, glaring particularly at Ironhide, Jazz, and Artemis.
"The third group will be arriving in five days time," Optimus continued. He tried to keep from smiling when he said, "and they are Sunstreaker and Sideswipe."
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"
Ratchet had actually dropped to his knees and continued wailing with his hands over his face.
"Hahaha…poor Ratchet. I've heard a lot of stories about their pranks on him," Artemis said, laughing.
"It's not funny! They are the two most annoying bots I've ever had the displeasure to know!" he yelled indignantly. Everyone tried to suppress their smiles as Ratchet glared at them.
"Aw, it'll be okay, Ratch! Maybe they've changed!" Jazz said brightly.
"And maybe you'll stop getting your limbs ripped off," Ratchet glowered.
Optimus interrupted the soon-to-be argument. "We need to prepare for the first group coming tonight. They'll be here in just a few hours."
The Autobots and Artemis waited just outside their base in a large, open field that was to be the landing area for incoming bots. They had dug out a big area and refilled it with softer dirt instead of the hard, rocky ground that used to be there. This would help with the impact.
"I think I see them!" Ironhide yelled, pointing up at the starry night sky.
"But…why are there only two?" Ratchet asked.
Optimus narrowed his optics. "This can't be a good sign. I'm picking up signals from Jolt and Red Alert, but not from Prowl."
"Primus…Optimus! They're not in their entry protoforms!" Ratchet yelled, watching the two mechs plummet towards the ground with fear.
Two earth-shuddering impacts later, the Autobots raced towards the craters formed by Jolt and Red Alert. Both mechs had survived the impact, but were dazed from the sudden shock. Ratchet had run forward to check on the two of them.
"We have a situation, Optimus," Ratchet said gravely after scanning both of them. "Many of these injuries were not caused by their crash landing. They were attacked in earth's upper atmosphere."
"But who could do such…" Optimus started, but then realized who it was. "Soundwave," he said angrily.
"Ratchet? Is that you?" Red Alert asked weakly.
"Yes, its me. You crash landed here. Give me a minute to fix you up some," Ratchet replied, already doing preliminary repairs on him. Luckily none of his injuries were life-threatening.
"We…were ambushed. We had to come out of our entry protoforms…to defend ourselves. Prowl stayed back…to give us a chance to make it."
Jolt managed to sit upright, holding the side of his head in his hand. The younger mech took the landing easier than Red Alert did. "It was horrible, Optimus. Soundwave came out of nowhere. Prowl stuck back to take him head on. We lost contact with him and can't pick up his energy signal."
Suddenly another bright light appeared in the sky. Everyone's scanners picked up Prowl's signal instantly, albeit a very weak signal. Without a second thought everyone but Ratchet and Red Alert raced towards Prowl's landing site, which was a few miles north.
"Prowl!" Jazz yelled, reaching the place where he had crash landed. "Can you hear me?" The mech leaned over the edge of the crater that Prowl formed on impact. What he saw was disturbing. Prowl was sprawled out at the bottom, various circuits sparking and energon lines leaking into a pool around him. He had obviously had a hard time fighting Soundwave.
Optimus reached the crater and upon seeing Prowl in such a bad condition, he immediately called for Ratchet to come as soon as he could. The medic arrived shortly after Optimus's call.
"We need to get him to the medbay. I need more tools than the ones I have now." He said calmly, despite the scare of seeing yet another bot in such bad condition. Optimus jumped into the crater and carefully picked up the offline Prowl.
"I hope this string of injuries stops soon," Ratchet thought as he raced after Optimus, who was running full speed back to base with black and gold mech in his arms.
Ratchet was definitely overworked. Anyone who glanced at him could tell, either by the way he dragged his feet when he had to walk, or by the tired look in his optics, or even by the lack of his normal snappy attitude. Prowl was improving well through Ratchet's nonstop work though, much to the delight of the other Autobots on base.
In the medbay, Artemis was furiously trying to convince Ratchet to let her help out.
"You still need to recover from that near-death experience," Ratchet said for the hundredth time that day.
"But I'm way better now, and don't deny that you couldn't use my help!" Artemis argued back. She felt a little bad for being this stubborn when Ratchet already had enough to worry about, but she wanted to help!
"And I'm getting help tomorrow. I can hold out one more day. Ironhide," he replied, gesturing towards the large mech. Ironhide got his hint and gently picked Artemis up and took her from the medbay. Artemis glowered up at him, which just caused him to chuckle to himself. "He's right, you know. You do need more rest."
"I don't see you resting so much, and you were in just as bad a condition as I was!" Artemis retorted.
"Because I'm made of metal. You aren't. Well, minus that arm of yours."
A discontented snort came as a reply. Suddenly, Ironhide had an idea. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "I really think you should get a cannon for your arm now. We could go pick one out now if you'd like."
Artemis immediately looked up at him. "Really?" she asked excitedly.
"Sure! I know we'll all feel better if you have at least some way to defend yourself," Ironhide replied, smiling at her enthusiasm. "And what better mech to help you pick the perfect one than the Weapons Specialist of the team?"
Artemis laughed at this. "You're going to love this ego-boost, aren't you?"
"You know I am," he replied contentedly.
"You sure this is the one you want?" Ironhide asked.
"Definitely. I don't want it to be too bulky, but it still had to have some nice firepower. It's perfect," Artemis replied.
"Alright, then. Let's get to it!"
Ironhide had asked Ratchet to help him, since no more work was needed on Prowl. At first the CMO declined, saying he'd like a moment of rest, but soon changed his mind when he heard Ironhide say he was going to do it himself.
"Okay, this might sting a little," Ratchet warned, sticking a nice sized needle into Artemis's metal arm. She yelped when he injected the numbing liquid. "A little? That felt like you just stabbed me!"
Ratchet laughed. "Oh, I love my work…"
A few moments later, the cannon was installed in Artemis's arm and was ready to be tested out.
"This is so cool!" she said excitedly, practicing bringing the cannon out and putting it back. "Can I shoot something? Pleaaaseeee?"
"Well, we do need to make sure it works properly," Ironhide said, smiling to himself.
"Fine, but not in my medbay! Go outside to do that!" Ratchet snapped. His old personality was finally coming back. Which was actually a relief to the Autobots. Things just didn't seem right without Ratchet's grumbling and wrench-throwing antics.
Ironhide held out his hand for Artemis to climb on, and the two headed straight for the door that led outside.
"Okay, I want you to aim for my chest," he said, walking across the small field the Autobots used as a firing range.
"Okay," she replied, warming up the cannon.
"Use your other arm to support it. You don't want to be thrown back from the force," Ironhide suggested. Artemis obeyed without questioning. He was the Weapons Specialist, after all. She looked back. A crowd of bots had come to see her test out her new weapon, which made her nervous all of the sudden. What if she missed and made a fool of herself? What if something went horribly wrong and the cannon exploded, or worse…what if she actually injured Ironhide? Ironhide sensed this doubt and told her, "Don't think too hard about anything. Right now, its you, your cannon, and your target. Nothing else matters."
Artemis swallowed hard and nodded, taking aim. Then she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and fired.
A crowd of cheers and laughs met her as she shyly opened her eyes. Ironhide had quickly jumped out of the way, as her cannon blast would have hit a few feet below his chest, in some very…sensitive armor.
Ironhide laughed with everyone else. "That was great. Just when you shoot at me next time, you might want to keep your eyes open."
Okay! Just a few things I want to point out. You may have noticed I didn't talk much about Red Alert, Prowl, or Jolt. Thats because I'm still working on their personalities and such. Though I've decided I'm going to base Prowl off of the Transformers: Animated Prowl, which you may have noticed from his black and gold colors I gave him. Why? Because Prowl rocked that series. ^_^
I also didn't go into much detail about the attack Soundwave gave because Prowl is still recovering, and I decided he'll be the one to tell everyone about it. But poor Prowlie here is ordered to bedrest by Ratchet, and isn't allowed to strain himself at all. :P