Chapter 10:
My stomach grumbled angrily, and I cringed. Here we were, trying to quietly get back to the main hangar, and my stomach took the worst opportunity to be loud. Damn it though! I'm starving here. Cut a gal some slack.
I held my stomach as I walked besides Jack. Behind us was Ratchet, which felt strange considering it was me and Jack who were protecting the huge Bot instead of the other way around. Bee, Raf, Miko and Bulkhead had headed out to check the rest of the base.
I severely doubted that any of us could help the Bots much if the Scraplets had their optics set on eating one of the huge walking metal robots. There were too many of the little shredders. If there was a swarm of them, there'd be no chance in saving the Bots. They'd be eaten alive. Which brings me back to the main reason I choose to go with Ratchet and Jack.
"Hey, so, I was thinking. Why were the Scraplets in stasis while in the Arctic?" I said over my shoulder to Ratchet, trying not to be too loud. We were almost to the hangar.
He focused his constantly shifting gaze from his surroundings to me, taking a moment to process that I had said something, and then a moment more to process the words that had come from my mouth.
"The sub-zero temperatures must have frozen them into stasis," he explained, "And with their small bodies they would... almost immediately freeze in such temperatures." His optics widened in realization. He totally knew where I was going with that train of thought. Score one for Rachel in helping the AutoBots!
"So, what? Can we send the Scraplets on a one-way trip to the Arctic for stasis?" Jack asked.
Ratchet nodded quickening his pace, passing me and Jack.
"Yes, yes that might well do, but that makes it all the more imperative we get the groundbridge back online and running."
We turned the final corner to see the opening to the hangar, and I for one was a bit relieved. Despite the hallways size, it felt uncomfortably confining. Maybe that's just what metal eating demon robots do to my sense of safety.
In more positive news, I think I've gotten the hang of using my crutch.
The ache in my stomach reminded me of my hunger.
"Hey, Jack… this is kind of embarrassing to ask, and probably not the best time either, now I think about it, but uh- would you happen to have any food?" I asked hesitantly.
Apparently out of all the things I could ask, he hadn't expected that one, but he quickly nodded.
"Yeah, that bag I brought from my house earlier? I packed two lunches in it." He rubbed the back of his head. "I thought, you know, the Bots probably didn't have any human food, so I was worried you'd go hungry."
I beamed at Jack. I had a new favorite character. I mean, before I'd always thought Jack was a boring character, but now I was just so thankful. Food! I wonder what he packed? Who cares? Not me, sustenance please!
Priorities Rachel, focus! We needed to get this whole thing done, so then I can eat.
We entered the hangar.
"What can we help you with Ratchet?" I asked immediately. The faster this went, the faster I could get to eating. Well, maybe hold off on the word "eating" for now, as the image of those whirring maws still sent shivers down my spine. Ratchet shook his head.
"You can keep quiet while I work," Ratchet said as he bent down to go through the open circuit board panel.
"We'll be on the lookout Ratchet," Jack nodded, holding out the metal pole he'd been carrying in front of him.
You know, it just occurred to me that I'd completely forgotten about my glowy alien stick. If it wasn't for Ratchet saying it might affect my health, I would have run (or hobble quickly?) to grab it right now. As things stood though, having something like it might be worth the risks. If not by me, maybe one of the Bots could use the weapon. It'd probably be safer too.
How good was a crutch at being a bat? Cause I had nothing else to use as a weapon on me.
I looked around and saw nothing of use either, just a fire extinguisher near the stairs that led to the second floor. Ratchet on the other hand was very busy. He flitted to and fro from the groundbridge controls to the circuit panel, back and forth. This went on for awhile.
"How's it going over there?" Jack finally asked, clearly worried about getting bad news.
Ratchet grunted as he stood up from his crouched position above the ground bridge circuit boards.
"I've repaired the damaged conductors and rerouted the central conduits," Ratchet said increasingly frustrated and irate. "But the ground bridge still won't receive power!" Ratchet punched the floor in frustration and rubbed his face with his other hand. We were on the clock, and the longer Optimus and Arcee were stuck in the Arctic, the higher chance they'd perish. Think Rachel, what needed to be done? What was the problem? I racked my brain, but no answer came apparent. A detail like that didn't make it into my memories apparently.
There was the sound of clinking metal and I froze. Jack stood ready, searching his surroundings with a metal pole in hand, ready to smash the Scraplets when they appeared. His attention snapped to a wall above him, and I followed his gaze.
There, surrounding and coming out of the circular vent on the wall, was Scraplets. About maybe a hundred of them were hanging onto the wall, like a swarm of flies ready to devour a decaying corpse. In sync with each other, the Scraplets looked up and focused.
Focused onto Ratchets form.
There mouths gaped open into horrid grins, and they one by one jumped off of the wall, flying towards us.
"Whoa!" Jack jumped bringing the metal pole closer to himself. "They fly!? You never said they could fly!"
"Ratchet watch out!" I cried towards the medic, as I dropped to a crouch when the Scraplets flew over my head. I heard the thunk and whirring of their mouths as they reach Ratchet and began feasting. I was scared. I was scared, I was scared, I was scared, I was scared. He was screaming, and it sounded horrid, and painful.
"Ratchet!" Jack called out. He desperately tried hitting the Scraplets, the ones still flying towards Ratchet, the ones on him, but it wasn't enough.
I was scared. I shouldn't be, come on body, move! There! To the left, next to the stairs. The fire extinguisher. Where were my crutches? I'd… I'd dropped them, there's no time, I couldn't carry the thing and use my crutches anyway.
"Jack! Use the fire extinguisher!" I called out pointing to it. His head snapped towards me and then towards the extinguisher, quickly putting two and two together. He dropped the metal pole and ran to grab the cannister, one hand holding the nozzle, the other on the trigger. He began spraying the Scraplets on Ratchet, while the Medic writhed on the ground in pain. After a moment, the Scraplets began falling off of the Bot, frozen husks too cold to move. StilI, I held my breath for above us, a swarm of the flies swam in circles, waiting to strike.
What could I do? What could I do to help?
I heard the soft clang of metal on concrete besides me and I flinched, scared a Scraplet had changed its mind and wanted my flesh and bones instead of metal, I slowly looked besides me. It wasn't a Scraplet though.
It was the glowing cyan rod. It had fallen from my pocket.
How- It doesn't matter.
I heard the heavy clunks of footfalls and looked behind me to see Bulkhead and Bee, along with Miko and Raf. The two Bots were worse for wear, strips of paint gone, and an oozing blue substance leaked from the wounds, clearly the result of a Scraplet attack.
"Ratchet get the patch fix, we're leaking energon like- WHOA!" Bulkhead exclaimed, cutting himself off after noticing the swarm of Scraplets above us. They all looked up, surprised to see the large amount of Scraplets.
Oh no.
The swarm dived down towards Bee and Bulkhead. Bee tried to fire blast after blast at them, but to no avail, they were just too tiny, Scraplets attached to Bee and began eating. Bulkhead let out a cry, "Eat this!" transforming his right hand into a sort of mace, swinging it around to hit the bitty bugs. But, realizing they were also eating what was supposed to be his weapon, Bulkhead instead screamed. Miko and Raf jumped in to start swinging their crowbars, attempting to smash the bugs they could. Jack began spraying the Scraplets frozen.
And I… I…
My hand gripped the small rod that had fallen from my pocket. I took my crutch and stood up, holding the rod out.
Please work, please work.
The rod grew in length, extending out in front of me, with the opposite end growing thick with thorny ends.
It was a bat with spikes.
Huh.
The Bots screams snapped me back to reality, and I hobbled over to help smash the bugs. It was difficult with one hand (and on more than one occasion I almost hit Jack), but the Scraplets were surprisingly easy to pulverize. So I smashed, and continued smashing until all of the Scraplets were down and dead. Miko and Raf went around to the frozen Scraplets and beat them further to make sure they stayed down. The Bots groaned. I sat down, tired and drained by the event.
"We get them all?" Jack asked.
Whirring. A loud whirring noise was getting louder from the hallways and vents, along with the chittering of tiny legs. I flinched.
"Hardly," Ratchet huffed out. "These were just scouts."
Bee buzzed exhausted, and let his body fall onto the ground.
"So the - the rest of them know were in here?" Bulkhead stated fearfully propped against a wall on the floor.
"And if we allow ourselves to become their next meal, Optimus and Arcee will never make it home. We must get the groundbridge operational." Ratchet affirmed. This was despite him leaning on the ground bridge controls to keep him from falling to the ground.
"So we can send the Scraplets back to their frozen home," I nodded.
"Back to the Arctic!" Raf said, realizing the plan.
"If we can get the ground-bridge back online," I reminded. That was our whole problem.
"Think Ratchet think!" He muttered to himself. "If the groundbridge is still down…" Ratchet rubbed the back of his head, deep in thought until his optics grew wide, "There must be a breach in the energon fuel line."
Bee buzzed in pain, and Bulkhead groaned. They clearly weren't able to get up, let alone travel to fix the energon fuel lines.
"If we weren't breaching, one of us could get back over there and fix it." Bulkhead relented. He wasn't pushing himself outside of his boundaries, good.
"Where do we find it?" Jack asked immediately. There wasn't any hesitation in his voice or his gaze. He was determined to help. The Bots looked surprised. Why? Did they not expect us to want to help them?
"And how do we fix it?" Raf added. Bee buzzed something and Raf shook his head.
"No Bee, we can do this!" The small boy insisted.
"Yeah! We can save the day!" Miko said, pumped up to kick some small robot chassis.
I couldn't understand it. Were they excited to help, or did they just not have any sense of self-preservation?
Ratchet sighed and weakly pointed towards a locker in the back, right next to the hallway door. Miko jogged over to open it. I couldn't see what she had found until she came closer to the group again. It was a toolbox with some kind of welding tool. Ratchet reached over to grab his own tool box next to him, searching through it until he pulled out a metal sheet. He handed it over to Jack carefully.
"Travel down the energon fuel pipe to check for any sign of leakage. Once you find where it's leaking, patch it with this sheet and weld it to the pipe." Jack nodded. I'm pretty sure he has experience with welding tools, so he should be fine. I took a few deep breaths and got back up again with my crutch, my left hand carrying the glowing bat.
"You don't look so good Rachel," Miko commented. I steeled myself.
"I'm fine. Just a bit shocked is all," I dismissed. I'm fine, just hungry and shocked. I'm fine.
"Miko's right Rachel, you're pale. You should stay here, keep an eye on the Bots, we'll go get that leak fixed," Jack insisted. I wavered. Should I stay or should I go?
I'd slow them down.
"Go." I looked away from their gazes, still frustrated at how absolutely useless I was being. Realistically, I knew it wasn't terribly surprising I was being useless. Just because I was some random girl from an alternate Earth that knew some stuff didn't mean shit. I didn't know where things were, I was injured, the only thing going for me was this glowy stick and I had no idea how it worked or even if I should use it (or if I even can). It was a fluke that it worked when it did, if it hadn't I'd… I'd of just sat there cowering.
Anyway, they didn't need my help. I already knew that.
"Just… be careful. Okay?" I asked softly, looking back towards them. Damn, I had only known these kids for, what? A day? And I already felt obliged to worry about their safety. Miko gave a lazy wave of dismissal, Jack nodded, and Raf gave me a thumbs up.
Miko, Raf and Jack then left, leaving me with the three injured Mechs.
What was this a sick bay, with the injured Bots and the recovering human? I walked over to Ratchet and looked up at him, his eyes were closed and his head hadn't left the spot he'd leaned against.
"Okay, what can I do to help stem the… uh… bleeding?" Was it called bleeding? Probably not. Stem the line break? Cease the flow-jo? Patch the pipes?
Ratchet tiredly opened his eyes, staring down at me. It took him a moment before he pointed towards something in the vicinity of the giant vacuum tube to right.
"There should be stabilizer-patches over on the benches. You should be able to reach them, they're small shiny patches of metal. Can't miss them." I nodded and went over to the direction he pointed.
Actually, I'd never really checked this area out have I? Ratchet was busy at the time, so Miko couldn't give me the tour over here. One thing for sure was that things were a lot bigger compared to looking down at it from the second floor. To the right was a large vat or vacuum of some kind that reached to the ceiling, yellow stairs wrapped around it leading to who knows where. In front of me was two metallic benches or beds, they were big enough for any of the Bots to fit on (even Optimus or Bulkhead) and its height started at my shoulders. This was going to take some maneuvering. I reached over and to place the rod on the bench, then, balancing myself with my free hand, swung the crutch over besides the rod. Now on one foot and both hands free, I managed to pull myself onto the bench. Behind me, I listened as a conversation began.
"So if we get...when we get the groundbridge open. Do we send the creepy crawlies out or bring our Bots back in?" Bulkhead gruff voice managed to huff out.
"Optimus and Arcee will be fresh meat. If we bring them in first, the Scraplets will have no reason to leave." There was a pause in Ratchets words. I found the small patches, it kind of looked like aluminum foil. "We'll need bait." I pocketed the patches into my jeans.
"Where are we gonna get bait?!" Bulkhead said angrily. My attention snapped back to the conversation, yelling tends to do that. "The Scraplets already helped themselves to everything in here!" Don't jinx us Bulkhead. Not that trouble wasn't already going to find them. The hangar was eerily quiet.
I sat at the edge of the bench, reaching my crutch to the ground to use as a pole to stabilize my right leg. Then, I jumped down, trying to focus my weight onto my left leg. It kind of worked, or at least, it kept my right foot from the impact, but it was uncomfortable for my left foot. Finally, I reached up to grab my trusty bat. Siduated, I made my way back over to the Bots.
"I got the patches," I called out.
"Good. Start with Bumblebee, his previous wounds reopened," Ratchet commanded.
"Okay, so what do-" The distant sound of clanging interrupted me. We stayed silent as we listened.
The distant clanging was getting louder, turning into banging, with chittering noises accompanying it. The sounds were echoing within the hangar to the point I couldn't tell where it was coming from other than somewhere above us. I hesitantly brought the bat up, not ready for this at all.
The vents above us flew off as swarms of the Scraplets poured into the hangar, thousands upon thousands of the things to the point they blended into a giant mass of whirling teeth and purple eyes.
"Ahh!" Bulkhead quickly ducked further behind the wall, trying to avoid being seen by the mass of above us.
My stomach dropped and my hands began shaking. I don't think I could kill all of these even if I tried.
"Ratchet! All systems go!" Jack came running into the room. I was so relieved to see him! Thank God!
"Fire it up!" Yelled Miko, pumping her fist in the air. I was so so happy. We'd get out of this, everyone was fine!
Ratchet achingly slow, managed to stand and reach the ground bridge lever. "Ground bridge…" He pulled the lever down, and not being able to hold himself up anymore, he collapsed. "Activated." One by one the rings of the ground bridge glowed until the portal opened.
Bulkhead mumbled something, I could barely hear anything over the sounds chattering and whirring. He barely managed to stand up, yet he began waving his arms to get the swarms attention. "Ready for the main course? Come and get it!" He yelled, as the swarm pierced down towards him in a swirling mass. Bulkhead hobbled down the groundbridge path and entered the portal. The grey swarm followed him. Every single one of them, into the groundbridge portal. I kept my head down as they passed for what seemed like a long time.
There was silence.
I brought my head back up to look at the portal. A ringing was left in my ear after the cacophony of noise, and the sudden loss of it was jarring.
"Bulkhead!" Miko cried out as she rushed to the entrance of the ground bridge. Jack managed to hold her put, though not without a struggle.
It was fine. He'd be fine, I knew that.
But still.
What if?
We waited.
And then, Bulkhead came back through with Optimus and Arcee behind. Cold, frozen Arcee and Optimus, but alive Arcee and Optimus. A gushing relief filled my heart and a tension left me.
Ratchet managed to stand again by using the groundbridge controls as support. I looked around, the Bots were worn, beaten, but living. Alive. That… was a feat.
I didn't want to stay here.
6
The laptop beeped in sync with the readings it was getting from Bulkhead.
Bee and Arcee laid on top of the beds, Bulkhead on the ground, while Optimus and Ratchet sat on top of boxes. Jack was on laptop duty for Bulkhead, labeling the new data title for organization later per Ratchets instructions. Raf was on the other laptop, Miko watching the screen over his shoulder.
"Report Bio-circuitry status?" Ratchet commanded.
"Levels are rising" Jack assured giving a thumbs up to Ratchet.
"Excellent. Rafael, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro-pulse monitor." Ratchet nodded. "Miko." He called out to get her attention. "Check Bulkheads interface patch."
"It's steady" Raf affirmed.
"Looking good!" Miko called out, giving a thumbs up as well.
"Perhaps you should be getting some rest yourself, old friend." I overheard. They were being quiet, but unlike the others I wasn't that busy, so I could listen in. I pretended to busy myself with opening and inspecting the contents of the lunch Jack had packed. "You saved quite a few lives today." Optimus smiled at Ratchet. He smiled! It was cute! (and a bit dreamy. Stop mind, stop). I got up and walked over to Jack.
"It...wasn't all my doing." the old medic smiled down at us, and I pretended not to notice by taking a bite of the PB & J Jack had packed and by looking at the laptop screen. Raf put a patch onto bee after struggling to get onto the bench, while Miko continued checking the status of the readings on the laptops. I took the opportunity to ask Raf some questions about the readings we were receiving from Bee. Bee buzzed, Raf translated. Ratchet said something else to Optimus, but this time I couldn't hear.
The lunch was a basic PB & J, with an apple, some water and some kind of packaged sweet roll. I quickly finished the sandwich in my hand under no time at all. Next I aimed for the apple.
"AAAAAAAAH!" Miko screamed out.
Jack and Raf stood ready with crowbars, I stood tense, eyes darting to the rod I'd set down behind Optimus. "Scraplet?!" Jack asked.
"No! Spider!" Miko yelled in horror. "Is it on me?" She jumped around trying to swipe the invisible enemy, shrieking all the while everyone else looked on.
"Did she just scream like a little girl?" Bulkhead asked.
"Yes. Yes she did," I replied, as I took another bite of the apple.
Author's Notes: Busy
I managed to get his done, but this will be the last chapter until the second week of May. Finals. Study. Gotta do it.
That undertale one-shot is posted.
I did create a Tumblr, at readertra-unicorns if any one wants to know. Just created it, so not much there yet, but I have a bunch of ideas in my noggin for it.
Link on my profile page, because I don't know how to put links here.
Comment's responses:
Leonaptrix: Rachel still has a lot to learn and to come to terms with before she can help in any meaningful way, unfortunately.
SunnySides: It's been awhile for me too, that's why I'm rewatching the episodes for reference. Chapter 9 and 10 are from Season 1 episode 7 Scrapheap. Don't know if I'll give her a guardian yet, maybe I will, maybe I won't, but it's still up in the air.
Comment's are appreciated!
Also Note: I don't own Transformers, nor Prime. Just Rachel, doubtful, doubtful Rachel.
Announcements are on my profile. I'm going to be busy for a lot of this month, so count on the chapter releases to be choppy and few in number.
