"You're a pathetic piece of shit, you know that?!"
A slap made contact with Alice's cheek, and she was sent flying into a nearby wall. She barely managed to prevent herself from hurting herself severely, but she still cried out in pain as the one who'd struck her – her father – stomped towards her, grabbing her white hair and picking her up. Her mother stood behind her husband, a scowl on her face. "It's because of you that we're homeless!" Alice's dad scathingly hissed, his eyes blazing with fury as he leaned close to his daughter's face.
Her dad was referring to the fact that, a couple of months ago, Decepticons had blown up half of New York, taking Alice's family's home with it. It had also destroyed whatever sort of drug laboratory her parents had had in their basement. This was the first time, however, that they'd beaten her about it.
The small family was currently staying in a New York hotel. Alice was averse to staying with her parents, but she really had no choice unless she wanted to be tracked down by them later and possibly beaten within an inch of her life. While she knew that she could go to the Autobot base, she didn't want to trouble Ratchet any more than she had, although that was a silly thing to believe considering that Ratchet would do anything for her.
So now, she was stuck in a hotel with her parents, who hated her. She hated them and really wanted to go back to the ones who actually liked her and wouldn't beat her to a pulp. But doing that was currently way out of the question.
Alice's father suddenly dropped her on the ground, and she cried out as a loud snap resonated throughout the air, and she cringed as she put her hand on her ankle, where the pain was emanating from. Then her father turned on his heel and stalked back over to his wife before looking back at his daughter and saying, "Stay put. We'll be back in three hours." Then he and Alice's mother left the building, leaving Alice whimpering and clutching her ankle. She waited for about twenty minutes – to make sure that her parents weren't actually returning for a while – before dragging herself over to her bag. She sifted through it, desperately fighting back tears, and finally wrapped her fingers around her phone. Then she dialled a familiar number and put it to her ear, wondering what she would say when the one she was calling picked up.
Ratchet was tapping away at one of the monitors in the Autobot base when his audio processor started to ring, and he frowned as he pressed one finger to it. "Hello?" he asked, confused. He cast a nervous glance towards the others, who were helping Wheeljack to recover and Vesper to start walking again.
"Ratch? It's me, Alice," his charge's familiar voice said, and while Ratchet was relieved to hear her, he was alarmed by the pained, shaky tone of her voice.
"Something wrong?" he asked immediately, and he began to hear sobbing. His optics widened, and his alarmed shout of, "Alice?!" drew the attention of the others. Vesper frowned as she saw the medic become more and more frantic, and all Ratchet was getting was violent crying on Alice's end. "Alice, please, answer me with something other than sobs!"
"Ratch, please, I need your help… I think they're gonna kill me…," the white haired girl suddenly sobbed, and Ratchet's optics widened even more, if that was even possible. He had no idea what she was talking about but it was enough to alarm him, and he asked where she was, only for her to say, "A hotel somewhere in New York." That wasn't really enough information for the medic, but he didn't say that as he walked over to the Ground Bridge control system and triangulated her cell phone signal. He soon discovered her location, and instantly knew that he wasn't able to bridge there instantly without getting spotted.
"How long are you on your own?" Ratchet asked, guessing that the only reason she'd called was because she was alone. He knew that she was with her parents, and when he thought about her earlier words about someone killing her, fear bloomed within his spark.
"Three hours… Please… hurry," Alice sobbed, then alarmingly cut off the phone call. Ratchet began to shake his head, and he worriedly looked back at everyone else, who was giving him approving looks. They all didn't know what was going on, but it was clear to them all that whatever had happened was urgent and concerned the very one that Ratchet was supposed to protect. He nodded in return and opened a Ground Bridge near New York, then transformed into vehicle mode and drove in. It closed behind him as he found himself driving towards the city that still hadn't been completely rebuilt, and his thoughts were racing. He once thought about turning his lights and sirens on, make his trip a little faster, but he didn't.
When he pulled up at the hotel that he'd tracked Alice to, he immediately initiated his human holoform and stepped out of the vehicle. Then he ran into the lobby, asked which room the Darnells were staying in, and as soon as he learned the room number he ran up the stairs towards the room. People who walked past him were surprised at how much energy he had, for in their eyes he was an old man, possibly a war veteran. However, he cared little for their thoughts as he skidded to a stop in front of the room that Alice was staying in, and he pounded his fist on the door.
"Alice?" he asked, trying to make his voice seem calm and even. He didn't see an angry man and woman heading towards him until he was grabbed and yanked away from the door. Stumbling, Ratchet looked up to see Alice's parents, and a scowl appeared on his face. "So, you must be Alice's parents."
"Who the fuck are you?" Alice's father drawled.
Ratchet's eyes flashed. "I could ask you the same question."
This seemed to anger the man. "I'm Gregory Darnell, the father of the girl you're lookin' for."
Then the woman stepped forward. "And I'm Elizabeth, her mother. Now tell us who you are, or we'll call the cops."
Ratchet's eyes flashed yet again. "I'm someone who does a better job of protecting Alice than you do. The name's Ratchet," he said. His eyes narrowed. "In fact, I have every reason to believe that you don't even care about her."
Elizabeth seemed quite taken aback by this. "Excuse me?" she asked, sounding a little breathless. Then she scowled and said, "You have the nerve to fucking accuse us like that? She's our daughter!"
"Really?" a choked voice said, and Ratchet used his peripheral vision to notice that Alice had opened the door to the hotel room. Her eyes were red, the skin around them puffy from crying, and she had already begun to develop many a bruise. Ratchet noticed that she was leaning against the door frame, keeping weight off of her ankle, and the medic couldn't help but wonder why the members of Team Prime had been injuring their feet or legs so much of late. "If you care, then you're doing a crap job of showing that to me," the girl said, her voice strained.
"Get back inside," Gregory said, trying to keep his voice light and kind, but Ratchet wasn't fooled at all. He could see the harsh glare in the human man's eyes, and Ratchet's hand clenched. He wished that he wasn't in human holoform; he would have much preferred to use his Cybertronian servos to crush Alice's parents into the floor.
"And wait for Ratchet to leave so you can beat the shit out of me when you come back in?" she asked, her voice venomous. She shook her head. "No thanks."
"You wretched—" Elizabeth went to say, and even though she got shushed by Gregory, Ratchet had seen their true colours in that instant. His eyes burning with fury, Ratchet stalked over and slammed his fist into Gregory's face, sending him flying backwards with a howl of pain. He crashed to the floor, and Elizabeth ran over to her husband, helping him to his feet. "How dare—"
"Shut up," Ratchet hissed, his voice burning, and Elizabeth fell silent, her eyes widening. Then the medic walked over to Alice and wrapped his arm around her. "C'mon," he said, refusing to look in the direction of his charge's parents, "Let's go somewhere where your ankle can be treated."
"Don't you dare take her away," Gregory hissed as he finally recovered completely, shaking his head. "Or I will report you for kidnapping."
Ratchet actually began to laugh at this. "Are you kidding me right now?" he asked, unable to hold his chuckles back. "If anyone should get reported for anything, it's you two for domestic violence and abuse!" He shook his head. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm taking your daughter to the hospital."
"No, you're not!" Gregory roared, leaping towards the medic. His eyes widened, for he knew that he wouldn't be able to fend Gregory off, not supporting Alice like he was. However, the angry human never actually got to attack Ratchet's human holomatter form, for he was punched away.
Everyone looked over to see a very unfamiliar person; it was a young boy with lightly tanned skin. He was wearing a yellow jacket with black stripes on each side of the chest, and he had the same vibrant blue eyes as Ratchet did. He also had a hard, angry look on his face, and Ratchet instantly recognised who it was even though he'd never seen the boy before.
"Holy crap, is that Bee?" Alice whispered, and Ratchet nodded as the attention of Elizabeth and Gregory focused on the young bot's holoform. Bee seemed to be regarding Alice's parents with anger, and Ratchet understood that it was because they'd attacked him.
Suddenly Bee signed something to his two friends, and Alice's eyes widened as she realised that Bee's muteness had carried on to his human form's voice. That saddened her – she would have liked to hear Bee's voice – but that was the least of her concerns. She couldn't understand what Bee had 'said' but Ratchet clearly had, and he nodded before turning to Alice and explaining the situation; the speedster wanted the doctor and the human girl to depart and head back for base.
"But—" Alice started, but she was cut off as Bumblebee suddenly ran over to the two and started to usher them away. He'd already stunned Elizabeth and Gregory, and had dragged them inside of their room; now all that needed to happen was their departure. Ratchet and Bee helped Alice to hobble down the hall and into the foyer of the hotel, then out to Ratchet's actual body, which was sitting in the car park.
Ratchet placed Alice gently in the back of his vehicular form, then his holoform disappeared as his body restarted. He felt better, being back in vehicle form; he disliked his human holomatter form, even if it did come in useful. Then he noticed that Bee's human form was walking away, and he'd recalled never seeing Bee's actual vehicle.
"Bumblebee," he said, driving over and pulling up next to the speedster's human form, "Where's your body?" Bee signed something to him, and Ratchet would have nodded if he'd been able to. "Ah, okay. So where's the Ground Bridge?"
Bee motioned for him to follow, then turned on his heel and walked off. Ratchet followed closely, trying not to run Bee over, and keeping an eye on Alice in the back. He followed Bee to a run-down, hidden location, and immediately he saw the bridge. Bee disappeared – his human holoform had been disengaged – and the medic drove into the bridge, soon finding himself in the Autobot base.
Bulkhead was attempting to aid Vesper walk, but it was obvious that the scarlet femme was finding it incredibly difficult. Optimus was still unconscious, and – as Ratchet noticed the sparkbeat was faint – it was clear that the battery was running low on power. He knew that he'd have to fetch one of the other ones soon, but that didn't matter to him so much at current time. Asking Arcee to remove Alice from the back – which she did with no complaints – he transformed and took his human charge from the femme, then walked over to one of the medical tables that were human sized. He laid her down on it, and she smiled weakly up at him.
"I'm calling June for you," he said, and Alice simply nodded as Ratchet turned on his heel and walked over to the communications hub. As he passed Vesper and Bulkhead, however, he stopped, turned to them, and said, "Perhaps you should ease up," to Vesper. "You don't look too good."
The femme smiled. "I am fine, Doctor," she said, then cried out as – yet again – her leg gave out on her. Bulkhead caught her and helped her back over to the medical berth, and Ratchet sighed as he walked over to the communications hub and typed in Nurse Darby's number. Soon enough she picked up, and Ratchet informed her of the situation. She promised to be there soon, then promptly hung up. Ratchet sighed and then turned back to his human charge.
"Alice, you holding up?" he asked, and the human girl nodded at him and grinned, flashing her teeth.
"Yeah, I am," she said. Then she looked over Optimus and frowned. "How's Optimus holding up?" She cast her gaze over to Vesper, who was now sitting miserably on the edge of one of the medical berths, staring at the floor.
Ratchet shook his head. "Regretfully, he's not getting any better, but thankfully, he's not getting worse."
Vesper suddenly released a heaving sigh, and everyone turned to her. Ultra Magnus, who was attending to Wheeljack, frowned as he stood and walked over to her. "Are you alright?"
The femme shook her head, then reached up and touched her spark. Her fingers brushed her scar, and she remembered with a sad smile how she'd gotten it. A training session with Optimus. "I… I just want him to recover."
Ultra Magnus frowned. "We do not know if he will," he said.
Wheeljack, listening quietly, suddenly recalled something, and struggled to his feet. "Hey, Ultra Magnus," he said, getting the bot's attention.
Ultra Magnus scowled. "Ultra Magnus, sir," he corrected, putting particular emphasis on the 'sir', but Wheeljack simply waved it off.
"Can't you create electricity?" he asked, and Magnus frowned before nodding. Wheeljack grinned.
"Why would you—" Ultra Magnus started, but he was cut off when Wheeljack said:
"How about you use that to charge Optimus up?"