A/N: Sorry I'm updating so late but I finished my nanowrimo. 50124 words in thirty days, alright deep breath and back to the fanfiction.
TC and the Freeze
Part 2
The snick of his interface panel being manually retracted was a far to familiar wake up call than he cared to admit. The dark claws roughly groping at his cords and ports were even more familiar.
"Go away 'Warp, not in the mood." Thundercracker grumbled giving a half-hearted shove at the other mech that was still pawing at him like they didn't share a frame type.
"Just one, just a quickie, get so charged just looking at you." Skywarp mumbled covering his wing mate's lips with his own to take care of anymore of those pesky protests. Heat made his motions desperate, frantic as he plugged into Thundercracker and plugged Thundercracker into him. The rush of energy the black jet expected as the connection clicked into place…wasn't there.
"Not in the mood." Thundercracker repeated with a more direct shove but the other jet still didn't budge. Skywarp's engine gave a painful whine before a swamp of energy flooded through the hard-line.
"Damn it Warp, what part of I'm not in the mood don't you compute." Thundercracker snapped yanking their cords out when he violently sat up on his berth, finally knocking Skywarp to the ground. The flood of electricity had burned across his aching wires and there had been no echoing charge to soothe it.
"But…you…we're seekers. You can't not be in the mood. We're constantly in Heat. If we aren't in Heat then that would mean…oh slag." Skywarp's frenzied confusion cleared into a single point of horrified comprehension.
Before he could ask what his wing mate was thinking, Skywarp lunged, grabbing him in a full body hug before warping them to another dark room. The blue jet's processes were still trying to play catch up while Skywarp abandoned him and scrambled up onto the berth that they had appeared beside.
"Starscream, wake up, wake up." Skywarp was saying, saving Thundercracker's jumbled processor from trying to figure out just where they had warped too.
"I swear to Primus 'Warp, if either of us is late for duty shift, I'm going to lock you in the brig and delete the code." Starscream cursed though it looked like he had both servos pawing at the other jet.
"Wait, I think TC's pregnant." Skywarp managed to say, remembering the real reason he had warped into their commander's room in the middle of the night.
"Well slag," Starscream finally said looking down at their third wing mate who seemed indifferent to the whole situation.
*Scene Change*
Starscream's lab was strangely quiet. Worse though was that Thundercracker could notice it without feeling the need to do anything about it. The blue jet was plugged into a diagnostic machine that Starscream was using to check his self-repair activity. Behind their wing leader was Skywarp who was fidgeting something awful as if it were his systems that were being checked.
The fact that there was no cut and dry way of checking would likely have tossed his nerves as well if Thundercracker didn't feel like laying down and starting his recharge cycle all over again. Starscream had to check over each line of code from his self-repair log for any activity that only a sparked carrier would show. Any repairs on the interior of the gestation chamber flagged high priority? Was energon being crystallized at an unusual rate? Were nanites coring out metal from his frame and moving it to any of the systems involved with carrying? And probably a dozen more factors that Thundercracker didn't know and couldn't care less about, even if it did turn out that he was carrying.
At least his trine mates seemed to be taking this seriously.
"You're not sparked," Starscream answered and Thundercracker could all but hear that unspoken "but" hanging in the air.
"Thank Primus," Skywarp yelled far too loudly for the small room and launched himself at the blue jet. If one ignored the grinding it was probably the closest to a platonic hug that the black jet was capable of.
"You're in Freeze," Starscream finished.
"What?" The two jets on the berth asked at the same time.
"As the name implies it's the opposite of Heat. Your systems have been running hot for so long that they need to repair and reset. For the next metacycle the only thing you're going to have on your data stacks will be recharging and refueling." Starscream answered as he fiddled around on a shelf before pulling out an injector and five cartridges. "Lift up your arm."
"No!" Skywarp suddenly wailed. "Don't put him down. So what if he doesn't want to interface."
"Skywarp," Starscream was trying to be patient but with his trine mate it was hard.
"So what if he doesn't want to do anything but recharge."
"Skywarp."
"He's our wing mate and we can't just shut him down like a defective drone."
"Skywarp!"
"We can hook him up to that Autobot's interface drive. You said it wouldn't work without a spark and since TC's isn't working…" Skywarp's hysterics were finally shut down by a swift hit to the helm.
"I'm not euthanizing him. These are mixes of cybertronian metals designed to supplement his self-repair systems. Hopefully it will speed this whole ordeal up. I don't fancy a metacycle with one side exposed to Autobot fire." Starscream answered as he raised the blue jets arm and set it on his shoulder. The first injection went in just below the shoulder joint. After ejecting the cartridge and replacing it, the second injection went in a hand's length lower against the transformation seam.
"Doesn't that hurt?" Skywarp winced in sympathy because it looked like it hurt to him.
"I'll happily give you a silicon supplement if you want to find out. It might even plug up that hole in your processor." Starscream suggested waving the injector threatening before reloading it again.
"I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to my favorite wing mate. So TC, does it hurt?"
"Not really," the blue jet answered after he realized that Skywarp was talking to him.
"Hey TC, how do you feel?" Starscream asked though it sounded like there was a sneer on the nickname.
"Lethargic, like I'm on power saver mode even though my fuel gauge and energy levels say I'm full up." His arm fell to his side when Starscream moved away. He hadn't even noticed the final few injections.
"Exactly how it's going to be until you're ready to return to duty. Open up your subspace." Starscream pulled a few cubes of energon from his stash and what looked like a solar panel connected to a lump of scrap.
"What's that?" Skywarp asked though he seemed to be having trouble concentrating on the situation when he was grinding against the berth.
"This is one of many reasons why our glorious leader is incompetent. This is a solar converter, set a few of these in the middle of that forsaken Sahara desert where not even the insects would bother them and we would never have to ration our armies again. Pit, cover that mars planet with them and we could fuel all of Cybertron." Starscream handed the cubes to Thundercracker before he set the solar converter on the table to show it off better. "If you're in the northern hemisphere set it facing south. If you're in the south have it facing north. I know you can find a place in full sunlight. Flip this switch to turn it on, this screen tells you how much its converted, push this button and a cube comes out right here. Got it?"
"Seems easy enough," Thundercracker said tucking the device into his subspace.
"Of course it is, it was meant to be run by the grunts of this army. Find yourself someplace on this dirt ball out of sight and don't come back until you're in a mood." Starscream pulled Skywarp against him and pushed the blue jet towards the door. They had their wires crossed before Thundercracker had left.
*Scene Change*
"Thomas, Justin," First Aid called as he kept his scanners tuned for any signs of human life.
It was sad to think that there might not be any signs to find. Humans were such delicate creatures and their young were frightfully so. The Protectobots had been asked to aid in the search of two children who had been separated from their group during a boy's scout camping/hiking trip. It seemed as if the buddy system only worked when one of the two parties knew where they were going. After two nights alone in the wilderness, the boys may very well have succumbed to exposure, an accidental fall, illness, predators, or any number of other deaths.
"Hey Aid, I found one of them." Groove called, close enough to decide against using comms. But far enough that he wasn't in immediate visual range.
"Is he all right?" First Aid asked desperately as he stumbled over a jut of rock that had blocked his brother from view.
"Looks okay to me but you're the one with the medical scanner." Groove answered.
The boy, Justin, certainly looked all right. He was standing on his own, grinning up at the two Autobots. Visually the only thing apparent was that he was grubby. With a quick scan it was revealed that the boy had an empty fuel tank and a strained muscle in his left deltoid that the youth probably hadn't even noticed.
"Justin, do you know where Thomas is?" Grooved asked after getting the nod from First Aid regarding his health.
"Course I do, he's still sleeping. He doesn't like waking up before noon. Come on, I'll show you." Justin said scampering away before either of them could say anything else. He took ten steps for every one of theirs but with the energy of youth he didn't seem to mind.
"Well it looks like you had nothing to worry about. The boys are fine and we didn't even need the week Prowl gave us." Groove said to his brother.
"I guess…or maybe I spoke too soon." First Aid suddenly stopped and looked over the information his automatic scanners had just sent him.
"What's the matter?" Groove asked when he noticed his brother had stopped.
"I'm picking up a Decepticon signature. It's coming from over there." First Aid pointed to the same cave that Justin was heading towards.
"Justin, Justin!" Groove called trying to be loud enough for the boy to hear without being loud enough for any nearby Decepticon to hear.
"Come on, he's right over here with the other robot." Justin said disappearing into the cave without looking back at the Autobots.
"We need to contact base." Groove said holding First Aid from rushing into the cave after the boy.
"If the Decepticon catches the signal the boys could be killed. We need to know who it is and what they're doing before we contact base. Better yet we can have the boys half-way down the mountain before we do." First Aid argued.
"Hey what's the matter? Are you guys afraid of the dark?" Justin asked once again appearing at the mouth of the cave when he realized that the Autobots weren't following.
"Justin, where is the other robot?" First Aid asked cautiously as he made his way up the final vertical feet to the cave but not quite looking in yet. If this was a trap, than it was a rather brilliant one because he couldn't see how it had been set up.
"Thomas is sleeping on him. We both did because he's so warm and it's cold at night. Come on, the other robot doesn't wake up unless you're really loud." That had First Aid around the corner.
"He hasn't woken up since you discovered him?" The medic asked as he cautiously scanned the cave for the Decepticon. If the Decepticon was injured he couldn't just leave him like that, could he?
"He wakes up, especially when we walk on his wings and sometimes he'll tell us to be quiet but he always goes back to sleep real quick, like my grandpa."
That sounded like trouble in the electrical systems, perhaps a short in one of the power relays that was draining what power could be charged. It could also be a programming error but that would be more difficult to fix. For that he'd need to get the Decepticon back to the Ark medbay and would need Ratchet's help, programming errors or worse, glitches, were outside the trainee's experience.
First Aid saw the turbined ped first, tucked behind a pocket in the cave itself. The turbine was still connected to the rest of the blue seeker who was lying with his wings flat against the ground. Walking across one wing was Justin making his way tiptoed to where another boy was sleeping wedged in the crevice between the chassi and the wing. If the Decepticon shifted just a little, he could crush half the boy without realizing it.
"Come on Thomas, its time to go home." Justin whispered too loud of the Protectobots comfort.
"Don't wanna," the other boy wriggled deeper into the crevice. The lack of reaction from the seeker was both a good and bad thing. On the one hand it meant that neither boy was in danger of being crushed or discovered. On the other hand it meant that the seeker was suffering from something greater than an electrical problem. From his experience on the winged members of the Autobots, First Aid knew that that crevice should have been extremely sensitive. That it wasn't meant that either the sensors were disabled or off-line.
Justin didn't look to have any problems with dealing with his friend's reluctance at least. He reached in, grabbed something, and began pulling. It was his friend's arm and he was using it to slide Thomas across the face of the wing. First Aid tensed, ready to dash in and grab the boys when he heard a set of systems begin to kick on. The seeker was waking up.
"I've told you germs not to play on me. I'm not here for your slagging amusement." The words were harsh but the tone still sounded like he was mostly off-line. What systems the seeker had managed to get online were already cycling down now that a boy wasn't being dragged across his wing.
"Sorry, but you don't need to worry about us now. Some other robots found us and are going to take us home." Justin explained, casually revealing the presence of the Autobots. First Aid could hear Groove's weapon charging as the medic prepared for an angry outburst against the boys.
"Good riddance," apparently the Decepticon hadn't realized other robots meant Autobots or he was so energy deprived that he didn't care. First Aid could practically feel his systems itch with the need to run a medical scan but the other mech would have to be dead not to realize someone was scanning him. Once Groove and the boys were cleared though, he could do the scan and offer to repair what had gone wrong with the enemy jet.
"Have a nice hibernation," Thomas waved sleepily as he finally stoop up and trudged the rest of the way off the wing. Groove darted forward and grabbed both boys as soon as they cleared the wing before darting out of the cave completely.
First Aid didn't move, didn't follow his brother out of the cave. He stood there starring at the Decepticon, trying to visually come up with a cause for the other mechs symptoms without turning on his scanner. Recharge problems usually pointed to a short but the sensor's lack of sensitivity was either physical damage or a programming error. Any of those problems had the potential to kill a mech if they were left untreated, more so since they were in the middle of a war. Then again the Decepticon could recharge through his own deactivation without ever noticing that his systems were degrading. If First Aid left right now, how long would the jet have?
"First Aid no, we'll call Prowl once we're off the mountain. He'll send Ratchet and a squad of bodyguards to fix him up." Groove whispered from the cave entrance with a boy in each hand.
The medic turned around to plead with his brother but couldn't find the words to explain his compulsion. Instead he let his visor snap back and let his eyes do the pleading for him.
"No, that is not a broken refrigerator. That is a Decepticon." Groove argued against what the human's called the puppy dog eyes. It was a very effective tactic, especially when it was used in tandem with a gesalt bond that let him know just how much his brother wanted this.
"But I can fix him." First Aid actually whimpered.
"That's what I'm afraid of," Groove signed shutting off his optics to see if that gave him the strength to deny his brother. Nope, the bond continued its desperate thrum of wanting to help. Groove knew that he could fight it. All he had to do was contact Hot Shot, tell him what Aid was trying to do, and the rest of his brothers would help him get First Aid away from the Decepticon. All he had to do; pit one brother against the rest because if begging didn't work First Aid wasn't going to give up on helping a mech he probably already thought of as a patient, in spite of faction.
"Ah, Mr. Robots, can we go home now? We're hungry and we really need a bath." Thomas asked tapping on Groove's wrist.
"First Aid, be careful, please. I know you can't leave him without knowing he's in perfect working order but please be careful. He's dangerous." Groove begged wanting to hug his brother but unable because he was still holding the boys.
"I'll leave the bond open, in case I get in over my head." First Aid answered squeezing his brother's shoulder before heading back to his sleeping patient. Groove left, rushing down the mountain as safely as he could so that he could deliver the boys to the human authorities and be available in case First Aid needed him.
First Aid though had found another problem. His medical scanners didn't penetrate through the seeker's dense armor. He would have to do a manual inspection. First thing was first though, everyone would be better off if he just made sure the weapons systems stayed off.
End Part 2 and please review