The Children Chapter 14

Stasis Lock

"He's a dinobot Penny" Ratchet said in response. He said it as if it was supposed to mean something to her, she knew he was a dinobot already what was he trying to get at?

"They burn through energon faster then normal autobots" He said with a sigh. He must have noticed the look on her face because this information was entirely new to her.

"Wait a minute, does that mean the rest of you are going to start acting like this as well?" She asked leaning into the car and lightly tracing her hand along Grimlock's body. He was nearly unresponsive, so he probably wouldn't be of much help to them today.

"It is a possibility, there isn't anyway to tell until I can examine everyone. Our current bodies operate…." He paused looking at his hands.

"…differently then what we are used to. They need different levels of energon our internal sensors can't comprehend the change" He finished shaking his head. Penny just looked at him in silence only interrupted by Grimlock's quite mumbling. She didn't know what to say in response, where was she supposed to get energon? Its not like the substance grew on trees, in the TV series they had to harvest it from the Earths resources.

"Sorry to interrupt your obviously important conversation but I do believe we are here for a reason" It was Sky Linx he must have returned from the junkyard when he noticed they hadn't followed him in.

"Were coming" Penny responded. She let Ratchet jump down from the car himself then shut the door.

"But Grimlock won't be"

"Clear the way!" Sparkplug yelled as he backed the trailer into Penny's driveway.

"What is this like the third trip? How many Jeep parts can you find in one junk yard?" Penny replied laughing slightly. If her garage wasn't full of junk before it was now, parts of old vehicles had been put in not so neat piles. There were so many car parts that it had started to spread out onto her lawn. Sparkplug had only taken her out on the first excursion giving her some time to do some of her missed homework. However it was now forgotten sitting half done on her kitchen table. Instead she was banging a dent out of a door that Ratchet had deemed high enough quality to use on his fellow Transformer.

"Who ever said I was only going to one?" He responded with a twinkle in his eye. Penny didn't even want to know how he had managed to swindle his way into the first one let alone three. It's not like he was rich and could buy off the owners, or he didn't seem it if he was.

"Can you two stop your chatting and just unload the trailer" Ratchet butted in, he had been the one deciding on the piles. Which mostly consisted of 'not good enough' at this point in time.

"Now, now, Ratchet there is no need to rush us" Sky Linx said jumping out of the passenger side of the car.

"It's not like you've been the one doing most of the heavy lifting" He said stretching in much the same way a dog would. Ratchet just shook his head and went on to survey a hood with a major dent in the center that had been placed on the grass during the previous 'shipment'.

"I'm all one for taking it easy, but Ratchet ya may wanna get in here" Jazz had exited the house and he had a grim look on his face. It may have been Penny's imagination but she felt like it didn't suit him at all.

Grimlock was still curled up on the couch where Penny had left him after the first shipment. His mumbling had stop and he was venting air so slowly you couldn't even hear the slight whistle he used to make. Ratchet was sitting beside him analyzing him closely.

"Stasis lock" He stated patting the dinobot's rump. Normally this would of caused Grimlock to go on a bit of a rampage but his body didn't even flinch.

"Jazz, I knew this was going to happen. Why couldn't you tell me outside?" He said sounding slightly annoyed that Jazz had made him stop his other task. He would've preferred to of just been informed of the occurrence instead. Every Cybertronian knew what stasis lock looked like after all.

"That's because he wasn't the one I was worryin'bout" Jazz responded, he was standing at the foot of the couch leaning against Penny's coffee table.

"Not my fault you were looking at the wrong guy" he finished pointing towards the kitchen with his thumb. Ratchet's head turned and Blaster stumbled out from behind the counter using it to support himself his optics were slowly flashing.

"I told ya not to tell them man, not cool" He said forcing a smile and slumping down to the floor, Penny's eyes widened as she scooped him up into her arms. Sparkplug had opted to stay outside so he and Sky Linx could empty the trailer, and even if they were there she would have still picked her boy up.

"Don'tcha worry about me babe, I'm fine" he said tilting his head up and resting it on her upper arm in order to look at her face. Ratchet beckoned her over and she gently placed him beside Grimlock.

"You're too low on energon, why haven't you entered stasis lock yet to preserve?" Ratchet asked giving him a stern expression. Blaster had been fine moments before hadn't he? Penny thought to herself. When they had been out collecting material he seemed a little out of it and then later he went inside to stay out of Ratchet's way. It wasn't odd behavior, was it? This is when she realized she hadn't really kept track of where he was when they were at the junkyard. She was too focused on Hound and trying to help despite being scolded for lifting even the lightest of objects.

"I jus, didn't want her to worry" Blaster said smirking. Ratchet opened up a panel on the side of Blaster's head fiddled a bit then the red mech's optics went dark and his venting slowed.

"He's in stasis lock now, he should be ok for a bit" Ratchet said resting his hand on Penny's knee, he could easily tell how concerned she was. She just sat there staring, Blaster was the first one who was with her, and he made her entire world feel a lot less lonely. Then when Sideswipe came into the picture she started feeling like herself again. Seeing her little tape deck like this upset her, was she destined to lose them all now?

"Penny, I don't think I can put this off any longer. I think we should try to enter the Ark, we have energon reserves in there." Ratchet continued. With decepticons on the loose having all of the autobots falling into stasis lock could leave them terribly vulnerable.

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Penny asked, a little bit of annoyance rising in her voice. They should've gone there the second Grimlock started showing signs of energon shortage.

"Because we might not be able to get in."

"We're here," Sparkplug said stopping his car along the side of the road by a wooded area. Penny hopped out and opened the back door for Ratchet. She had been here recently and she was still in awe at the fact the Ark was actually there. It had created more questions and more possibilities, though she wasn't sure what they were yet.

"As much as I'd like to see that old thing I think ill stay back and keep an eye on our patients" He said gesturing back to Grimlock and Blaster who were also in the back. They had been brought along so they could get the first of the energon.

"Its your choice" Ratchet responded. Penny wasn't sure why he didn't want to go with them; didn't he want to see the inside of the Ark? Was he not at least curious? Her thoughts were interrupted by a small tug on her pant leg.

"It'll be faster if you carry me" The small medic said looking up at her. This was one of the first times anyone had actually suggested she carried them around Sparkplug. She bent down and lifted him into her arms walking into the forest. She walked until she felt the familiar wave pass over her and the large orange ship appeared in front of them. The hologram projector that she had removed off of Hound was still placed where she had left it. The cosmic rust didn't seem to of eaten away at it, at least not yet.

"So do we just walk in?" Penny asked staring up at the ship. There was a sizable hole in the front so it didn't look like it would be any trouble. Despite what Ratchet had said earlier.

"Lets hope so" Ratchet said quietly gripping onto Penny's shirt, she didn't know whether he realized he was doing this or not. So she just walked towards the spacecraft, feeling a lot more nervous then she thought she would. She got up to a few paces from the severely overgrown ship before there was a loud metal creaking sound and an object shot up from the ground causing Penny to jump.

"Here we go" Ratchet said staring at the object. It was a silver box sitting atop a metal arm, the box had an opening on the side that was facing them. It was slightly hindered by the overgrowth causing it to sit slightly tilted to the right. A beam shot out and went over the two of them, when it was done it folded back into the ground. A robotic voice then boomed from somewhere within the Ark.

"NO VALID AUTOBOT SIGNATURE DETECTED. AUTOMATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS ACTIVATED"

Hmm whats this? A new chapter after all this time?
Sorry about being so terrible about updating this story, it just always seems to take a backseat in my life
But I hope you enjoyed the latest installment ^_^
As always i haven't abandoned this and I will be finishing it if it kills me :P

~Whitestreaker~