Chapter Three: Forming the Team

After we got Raindown, Coraline and Hot Shot settled into the bunker, Red Alert, Rocket and I left to find some others who wanted to join or needed help. As Red shut the hatch, we heard them crying. Rocket and I wanted to run back in there to tell them everything would be ok. I wanted so badly to hold Raindown and tell her that everything was going to be ok, even if I wasn't sure myself. The thing that stopped us was Red Alert.

"We need help. We can't do this alone." He said taking our arms.

He practically had to push us all the way down the tunnel back to the Medical Bay building.

As was got closer to the door, we saw that the door had been bent inward toward us.

"Be ready for anything." I said as we formed our guns.

Red stepped forward and pried the door open and we stepped inside. When we stepped in we saw his office had been destroyed. There where bullet holes and oil spilled everywhere.

"Help…" Someone called. "Please…anybody there?"

We ran out to the hall to see a young bot bleeding oil and Energon.

"Is…is someone there?" He said in a weak voice.

"Yes, we're here." Red said rushing to his side." What's your name youngling?"

"My…my name is…is Surefire." The bot said. "I can't feel my l…legs sir."

We looked down and saw one leg was missing and the other was broken into pieces.

"Optimus, will you go into my office and find a flat, metal piece. I need to stop the bleeding." Red Alert said to me narrowing his blue optics. I knew that look well. It meant Surefire might not last.

I ran back into his office and looked around. It wasn't hard to find some metal since the whole room was torn to pieces. the only hard part was finding one without too many holes in it.

'Megatron, why the Pit are you doing this?' I though to myself. 'There's no need for this.'

I picked up a piece of metal that that didn't have too many bullet holes in it and ran back to Red Alert.

"Thanks Prime." Red said taking it and heating it so he could bend it in to place.

"AHHHHH!" Surefire screamed when Red put the hot metal on his leg.

"Please hold still. It won't hurt as much if you quit struggling." Red said holding Sure's shoulder.

While Red was repairing Surefire, I heard another cry for help.

"Rocket, Optimus, go find out who it is. I'll be there as soon as I can. I need to get him to the base." Red Shouted.

"Right, will do." Rocket said. He had a far off look on his face, as if his body was an empty shell.

I knew how he felt. We had lived in a place with no war. Now that had all changed in a matter of mega cycles.

"Help!" a fembot screamed. "No, please don't shoot! My brothers done nothing to harm anyone. He's just a sparkling!"

Then the worst sound any bot could hear the sound of a gun and the scream of a femmie who saw it all. We ran guns drawn into the room where we heard the screams. The femmie was crying as the evil bot, known as Bonecrusher, picked her up to carry her away.

"Aww, look," Her said turning to us and turning the girls head. "It's Prime and his pathetic friend."

At that he shot at us. Lucky for us he had bad aim. He shot around us but never hit. On the other hand, we had excellent aim and shoot him right in the processor. He wasn't dead, but at least he was down so we could get the fembot.

She was young, maybe eight or nine. Then we saw here brother. He had been shot multiple times in the body but the shot to the head killed him. He was only three months by the look, for he didn't have any armor around his body to protect him.

Rocket picked up the femmie and asked for her name.

"S…St…Stu…" She tried to say but to shocked at what had happened to talk.

"It's ok," I said putting a hand on her shoulder. "We'll protect you from harm. Rocket," I said as we walked out of the room "Take her to the Autobot base. I'm going to look for some others."

"You got it boss." He said still looking out of it.

As he got further away I couldn't help but think about our unborn bots. What would it be like to grow up in a corrupt world not knowing of peace?

I wiped a tear away and walked into another room. There I found a small young mech hiding under a table. I picked him up and he chirped a little before settling in to my arms.

I patrolled the whole building and found some more bots hiding out. I told them to come with me to a safe place. Out of the five bots I'd found the only one that needed carried was the young mech, who had lost his Sire. One of the bots was a medic named Ratchet. He told me the young bots name was Jetfire. He was only six months old. Another youngling named Jazz told me he was Jetfire's charge if any thing happened to his parents. After some introductions I took them to the door that lead to the bunker.

"What is this Prime?" a mech named Prowl asked. "Some way to get us to Megatron?"
"No," I said taken aback. "This leads to Autobot base, the…safe house or base of the rebellion if you wish."

We entered the tunnel and I lead them to the hatch at the end of it. When we got there we could hear the bots inside talking. I opened the hatch and every thing went quiet. Everyone looked at us. The first to move was Raindown who ran to me and put her arms around my neck.

"Optimus, what happened? What was it like out there?" She said, tears streaming down her face.

I put an arm around her, while beckoning the others inside with the other. When she saw Jetfire she smiled and stroked his helm. He chirped in response as I set him on his feet.

"Prime what happened?" Coraline said as Rocket embraced her.

"As you can see Coraline, it's not good out there." I said as the new recruits sat down.

The only one that didn't was Jetfire, who was hiding behind me. When Rain took his hand and sat down he let out a little yelp, but he settled in her lap and hugged her. She gently rubbed his helm as we talked and he fell in to recharge. Again my mind went to our offspring and what their world was going to be like.