Hey everyone! I'm back with chapter 23! I want to thank you guys again for sharing your ideas with me for Rock Bottom, they really helped me write this chapter. I hope you like it.
Transformers Prime: The Medic's Assistant
Chapter 23: Rock Bottom
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime
"Thanks again for letting Sierra and I tag along," Stormracer said as she, Bulkhead, and Arcee scouted around inside an old decepticon mine.
"No problem," Arcee said.
"I'm surprised you asked to come," Bulkhead said, "you know, after the whole cave-in thing with Knock Out."
"Meh, not like it's going to happen again anytime soon," the teal femme said, "besides, there could be samples down here I can study."
Outside the cave entrance, Jack, Sierra, and Miko waited on a large rock for their guardians to return. Sierra was trying to get a signal on her phone, Jack was lounging, and Miko was impatiently pacing back and forth.
"We're suppose to be at a rock concert," Miko said, "but all I see is... rock."
"Relax, Miko," Jack said, "the show doesn't start for two hours."
Miko frowned at him. "Do you know how long I've waited to see Slash Monkey? Forever! And it's their only U.S. date."
"Well there's a shock," the boy said sarcastically, "I mean who doesn't love Bulgarian shriek metal?"
Waving her phone around in the air, Sierra let out a groan. "It be nice to at least get a signal out here," she said before sitting down beside Jack. "I thought we were actually going to be doing something. Not just sit around on a rock."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad," Jack said, "I mean, the weather's nice, everything's quiet and peaceful..."
"You're bored too, aren't you?" Sierra asked him.
"Big time," he immediately answered.
Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, the three humans looked over to see their guardians walking out the mine entrance.
"By all appearances, the mine's been stripped," Arcee said.
"But I'm getting a signal," Bulkhead said, looking at the scanner, "its faint, but its definitely energon."
"But why would there still be energon here?" Stormracer asked, "wouldn't the cons have taken it all?"
"This doesn't make sense," Arcee said, "this mine's been abandoned four maybe five years, and decepticons never leave energon behind."
"Uh, guys?" Jack said.
The three bots looked down at Jack and Sierra who were pointing. Looking at where they were pointing, they saw Miko running into the mine.
"Cool!" she shouted as she disappeared through the tunnel.
"She went in," Arcee said in disbelief, "unbelievable."
"Actually, we should have seen it coming," Stormracer said.
Bulkhead groaned. "Miko, get back here!" he said as he rushed in to find his human charge.
Jack looked at Arcee. "It would be nice to see," he said, "you know, if it were-"
"Safe?" Arcee finished, "a strip mind can be structurally unstable, Jack."
"Oh come on," Sierra said, "let us check it out."
"We promise to step lightly," Jack said.
Both femmes looked at each other. Stormracer gave Arcee a shrug before the two-wheeler vented.
"Just don't tell your mom," Arcee told the boy.
Both humans grinned as they followed their guardians into the mine.
"So, what else is in here?" Sierra asked.
"Oh, nothing much," Stormracer said, "just a lot of bats."
"What?!" the girl exclaimed fearfully.
Her guardian laughed. "Kidding!"
Sierra frowned at her. Hearing Jack snickering beside her, she shot him a look, making the boy look away whistling.
As they walked, Arcee's commlink went off. "Bulkhead? Bulkhead, do you read?" she asked, only to receive static. "Scrap. Mineral composition down here must be causing interference."
"We'll probably end up running into them," Stormracer said.
It wasn't long until they came to a stop, seeing two tunnels in front of them.
"Well, they're down one of these tunnels," Arcee said.
"Let's split up," Stormracer said, "Sierra and I will take the left and you and Jack can take the right."
"This mine is full of tunnels and our commlinks don't work in here," the blue femme told her, "what if you get lost?"
"I know," Sierra said. Picking up a sharp rock, she walked over to the wall. "I saw this in a movie," she said as she scratched an arrow into the rock. "We'll just mark our trail with arrows and then follow them back here."
"Good thinking," Jack said.
Stormracer looked at Arcee. "We'll meet you back at this spot," she said.
"Alright," Arcee said before looking at her human charge, "let's go, Jack."
The group split up as they went down the tunnels. Stormracer and Sierra walked deeper into the mine as the girl kept marking each turn they made. While Sierra was scratching in another arrow, Stormracer looked down the tunnel and decided to have some fun.
"ECHO!" Stormracer shouted, hearing her echo against the rocks. "ECHOOO! EEEEYO EYO EYO EEEEYO!"
Sierra looked up at her and laughed. "You are such a child."
"Hey, just because I'm a full-grown femme doesn't mean I can't have fun," the femme said, "come on, try it."
"No thanks," the redhead said.
"Oh come on. No one's going to think you're weird." Stormracer looked back towards the tunnel and shouted, "SIERRAAAAA!"
Sierra listened as her name echoed, making her chuckle a little.
"Go on, answer it," the femme said.
Finally giving in, Sierra faced the tunnel. "HELLOOOO!" she shouted.
"WAAAAASSUUUUUUP?!" Stormracer shouted.
The two laughed as they continued hollering. But it didn't last long when the tunnel started shaking.
"Uh, what's happening?" Sierra asked.
Rocks were then falling around them as the mine started to cave-in.
Stormracer's optics fearfully widened. "Sierra, get under me!" she shouted as she knelt down. The girl rushed over and took cover under her guardian. Feeling the rocks falling on top of her, Stormracer shut her optics as she shielded her friend.
(Aftermath)
Soon after everything was calm, Stormracer groaned from the weight now on her back. Opening her optics, she looked underneath her. "Sierra?" she asked.
The redhead lifted her head up. "I'm okay," she said, "you?"
"I think so," the femme said, "hang on, let me try and get these rocks off."
Pushing herself up, the rocks rolled off of Stormracer as she stood up with Sierra in her servos. Both were covered head to toe in dirt as Sierra coughed from all the dust in the air.
Looking around, Stormracer vented. "Well, at least I'm not pinned down this time."
"What caused the cave-in?" the redhead asked.
"Either we were too loud, or something bad happened," Stormracer said as she set Sierra down on the ground. Both looked around at the mess around them, even seeing the one end of the tunnel completely caved in.
"I don't think my arrows are going to help us out of this," the girl said.
Stormracer vented. "It looks like we'll have to dig our way out and try to find the others."
As the two made their way through, both were shouting their friends' names, hoping anyone will respond.
"I hope they're okay," Sierra said.
"Me too," Stormracer said as she moved more rocks away. "I can't believe I'm stuck in another cave-in. This is twice in a row."
"Next time I ask if I can check out a mine, just tell me no," the girl said. Just then she stopped. "Wait, do you hear that?"
Stormracer stopped as they both listened to a sound far away. "Sounds like drilling," the autobot said.
Hearing it coming from the side, Sierra pointed. "It's coming from that way," she said, "its gotta be one of the others."
They started walking towards the sound. As they made their way over the rocks, they soon heard another noise coming from a different direction.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"What's that?" Sierra asked as the sound continued.
Stormracer looked around. "It's coming from down there," she said, pointing at the direction.
"Sounds closer," the girl said.
Looking towards the direction of the drilling sound, Stormracer looked back at the mostly collapsed tunnel. "We should follow it," she said, "whoever it is could be in trouble."
The two followed the sound as Stormracer shoved more rocks away. It wasn't until the sound stopped that they stopped in their tracks.
"Now where are they?" Sierra asked.
Just then they heard someone trying to break through the rocks from around the corner, making the two think they found their friends.
"Bulkhead? Arcee?" Stormracer asked as she made her way over. However she soon froze when she saw who it was.
Starscream laughed as he revealed himself. "Put any doubts of my allegiance to rest!" he said. His grin soon disappeared when he saw Stormracer and Sierra standing there, looking at him in shock.
"Sierra, get behind me!" Stormracer said urgently.
"No problem," the girl said as she did what she was told.
Stormracer activated her EMP generator and aimed it at the Decepticon SIC.
Stepping out from the rocks, Starscream evilly grinned at her. "Well, well," he said, "if it isn't Stormracer and her human pet. I was not expecting to find you here."
"What are you doing here, Starscream?" Stormracer asked.
"I could ask you the same thing, autobot."
"I asked you first."
The con stepped forward, making the autobot hold her EMP up higher.
"Stay back!" she warned.
Starscream chuckled at her. "You think I'm intimidated by you?" he asked as he took a step closer, "you? The weakest of them all. What makes you think that-"
Stormracer didn't let him finish as she fired her EMP at him. It missed the con, but it still startled him as he shrieked and fell back. Growling at the femme, he quickly got back up and attacked her. She tried to hit him with her EMP again, but Starscream dodged and tried to slice her with his knife like digits. She dodged him as he swiped at her a few times. Just then she felt his digits slicing deep into her shoulder, making her yelp as he kicked her back against the wall. Stormracer fell on her front and groaned from the pain.
Starscream maliciously chuckled as he knelt down in front of her. "How pathetic," he said. He was about to strike her again until a tiny rock hit him from the side. Unfazed, he looked over to see the human girl holding another rock in her hand as she glared at him.
"Get away from her, you high heeled creep!" Sierra warned, ready to throw the next rock.
Starscream frowned at the girl's insult. Looking back at Stormracer, he smirked as he got up and made his way over to the redhead.
Sierra fearfully stepped away as the con approached, only to realize she backed herself into a corner. Out of desperation, she threw the rock at Starscream. But it hardly did anything as it bounced off his leg.
Starscream only chuckled as he flexed his sharp digits. "My turn."
Just then his optics widened as three EMP pulses hit him in the helm. Seeing him remaining still, Sierra quickly ran around him before he fell to his knees then on his front.
Lowering her EMP, Stormracer released a vent of relief before her injury started sparking, making her arm drop as she winced.
"Storm!" Sierra said as she rushed over to her.
"I'm fine," Stormracer said as she held her arm.
"No you're not," her friend argued.
"It's just a scratch."
"Stormracer!"
"Okay, I know it's bad!" the femme said, "but at least I still have one good arm left."
Hearing Starscream groaning, both looked to see him getting back on his pedes. Stormracer forced her arm back up so she could aim her EMP at him again.
"You… think you got the best of me?!" he slurred as he dizzily tried getting back up. "You... think you're so tough, don't you?!" He tried to take a swipe at the autobot but completely missed. In fact, he only spun around and fell to the ground. He then started laughing. "I fell down."
Both the femme and girl were confused at what they were seeing as he continued laughing like a loony.
"What's wrong with him?" Sierra asked.
"I think we're witnessing what happens when I hit a bot in the head with three EMP pulses," Stormracer said.
Starscream stopped laughing as a sad look came upon his face. "Why must Megatron always have to be so hard on me? So I made a few mistakes in the past. So what?! I've been a good first lieutenant. What did I ever do to deserve such abuse? All I did was try to offline him." He then looked at his servo and waved it in front of his face. "Huh. I have really long digits. How come no one told me I have long digits?" He looked up at Stormracer and held up his servo. "Do they look long to you?"
Stormracer had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. "Um... kinda?" she said, quickly closing her mouth before a laugh could escape.
"Oh you're just saying that!" the con said as he pulled his servo back.
Stormracer looked down to see Sierra with her phone out. "What are you doing?" she asked her.
"No one's going to believe this," the girl said as she continued recording. She snickered as the seeker moved his servo back and forth from his face.
The femme then remembered about the others. "Lets keep moving," she told Sierra, "we have to find the others before this wears off."
Nodding, the girl turned off her phone as they went to continue their mission.
"That's right, run you cowards!" Starscream slurred as he watched them leave, "you are no match for the mighty... whatever my name is! Will someone stop this room from spinning!" He then let out a groan as his helm hit the ground. Looking at a small rock beside him, he frowned. "What are you looking at?" he asked it.
Both the femme and girl hurried down the tunnel, leaving the drunklike con behind as they continued calling out for their friends. After a while, Stormracer was holding her arm as she tried to ignore the pain in her shoulder.
Sierra took notice that her guardian was not okay. "How're you doing?"
"Fine," the femme lied, "barely feel a thing."
Knowing she was lying, the girl gave her a look. "Really? Because the look on your face is saying something completely different."
"My face is lying."
"Was that a lie?"
"... Maybe."
Just then they heard the banging sound again, this time it was much closer.
"Hello?!" Stormracer shouted, "Bulkhead?! Arcee?!"
"Storm?!" she heard Bulkhead's voice shout, "Storm, is that you?!"
Hearing the wrecker's voice made both the femme and girl smile. "Bulkhead, where are you?!" the teal bot asked.
"We're in here!" Miko yelled, not sounding too well.
Following the sound of their voices, Stormracer and Sierra came across a completely blocked entrance way. Forgetting about her injury, the femme immediately started digging. It wasn't long for her to make an opening to see Bulkhead and Miko inside a cavern.
"Stormracer!" Miko said happily, though was out of breath due to lack of oxygen.
"Miko, Bulk- whoa!" Stormracer exclaimed when she saw the huge boulder Bulkhead was holding.
"Think you can help get this weight off of me?" he asked.
"Oh scrap, hang on we're coming in!" she said. Shoving away the last of the rocks, she and Sierra made their way into the cavern.
"You two okay?" Sierra asked as she ran over to Miko.
Miko immediately hugged her. "Are we happy to see you two."
"Where's Arcee and Jack?" Bulkhead asked.
"We went separate ways before the cave-in," Stormracer said as she approached him. Lifting her arms up, she was about to help him until her injury started sparking again, making her yelp as she brought her arms back down.
"You're hurt," Bulkhead said.
"I'm fine," she said.
"Stop saying that," Sierra told her, "you are not fine."
Stormracer tried again, only for her shoulder to keep sparking.
"Storm, stop!" Bulkhead said, "you're only going to hurt yourself more."
"We have to get you out of here and find Arcee and Jack," she said, "Starscream is here."
"What?!" Bulkhead and Miko exclaimed.
"It's okay," she said, "he's out of his senses right now and hopefully won't recover anytime soon."
"It's sooner than you think, my dear."
Hearing Starscream's voice, everyone looked at the entrance to see the Decepticon fully recovered.
"Uh oh," Sierra said.
Stormracer activated her EMP generator. She was about to fire it at him, only for her injury to get in the way. She let out a painful yelp as her arm dropped.
"Ouch," Starscream said tauntingly as he approached her, "that looks painful."
Stormracer tried to fight back as she threw a couple punches at him, only for Starscream to dodge and knee her in the torso. Letting out a gasp, she fell to the ground.
"Stormracer!" Sierra exclaimed as she watched Starscream kick her guardian away.
Bulkhead looked down at the girls. "Miko, Sierra, get behind me. Now!"
The humans did so as the con made his way over to Bulkhead. "My, you do have your hands full, don't you, Autobot."
"Do whatever you want to me, Starscream," Bulkhead said, "but let Stormracer and the humans go!"
"No!" Miko said to him, "I'm not leaving you!"
"It appears that the human wishes to remain," the con said as he reached down to grab her.
Sierra immediately pulled Miko away as they hid behind Bulkhead.
Unable to fight off the con, Bulkhead glared at Starscream. "Starscream, don't push me!" he warned.
"You like playing with the big robots, don't you girls?" the con asked menacingly as he circled around Bulkhead and the humans.
Trying to get away from him, Sierra helped Miko who was still out of breath. They looked over and fearfully gasped when they saw Starscream kneeling down behind them. Sierra protectively stood in front of Miko as she glared at the seeker.
Chuckling, Starscream reached over to grab them until he was hit in the helm by an EMP blast. He growled as he staggered back, allowing Bulkhead to kick him into the rocks.
Stormracer groaned as she deactivated her EMP and got back on her pedes. Seeing Bulkhead falling to his knees as he struggled to keep the rock up, she made her way over and forced her arms up to help hold the ceiling.
"Storm, your wound," Bulkhead said, looking at her sparking shoulder.
"This boulder will do a lot worse if we let it drop," she told him before making a grunting sound, "Scrap, this is heavy!"
Bulkhead looked at his human friend. "Miko, you and Sierra have to get out of here."
"No way!" Miko argued.
Bulkhead looked at Stormracer. "You have to take them," he said.
"No, you can barely lift this rock on your own," she argued. She looked at Sierra. "Sierra, take Miko."
"We can't just leave you two here," Sierra said.
"Oh for the love- can't something be done without there being an argument about it?!" Bulkhead asked in frustration.
Shaking off the dizziness, Starscream growled as he looked over at his foes. "That's it autobots! I will-!"
"What?!" Bulkhead asked, "you'll what?! Make us drop the ceiling on top of all of us?!" He looked at the humans. "Run you two!"
Miko shook her head as she huddled close to Bulkhead.
"Yes," Starscream said, "run, fleshbags. I would love to see you try. Really, I would."
Just then a sound filled the room, making the seeker look around in confusion. The next thing he knew, he was knocked backwards as a drill emerged through the wall.
Having found his friends, Jack stepped out from behind the controls, seeing the situation they were in.
"Jack, get the girls out of here!" Bulkhead said, "now!"
Sierra looked at the bots. "What about you two?"
"Do what he says, Sierra!" Stormracer told her.
"Come on, come on!" Jack said, waiting to pull them up.
Miko looked tearfully at her guardian, not wanting to leave him.
"Run, Miko!" Bulkhead said.
Sierra put her hand on Miko's shoulder. "We have to go," she told her.
Tears rolling down her cheeks, Miko followed Sierra as Jack helped the two up. She looked back at her guardian. "We can't leave them," she said.
"Hold on," Jack told the two as he started backing the drill up.
Recovering, Starscream got up and backed away when the drill started going. Soon as the humans were gone, he stood to his full height and looked at the two bots.
"And then there were three," he said.
Stormracer felt her shoulder spark even more from the weight, making her slightly whimper. But she refused to give in as she frowned at the con.
Starscream chuckled at the two. "Oh how it brings me joy when my foes are vulnerable."
Bulkhead glared at him. "If you think we're going to beg for mercy Starscream, forget it," he said.
Starscream nervously chuckled. "Uh, yes," he said, "begging for mercy would be quite pathetic now wouldn't it? Well, you two are much more valuable to me alive. Imagine Megatron's appreciation when I not only rescue him, but deliver two autobots? I believe that would restore my stature quite nicely." The sound of a blaster charging up made his grin disappear. Slowly, he turned around to see Arcee standing there with her weapon aimed at his helm.
"Don't move, Starscream," the two wheeler said.
Starscream froze in fear as he stared at the blaster inches away from his face.
Arcee looked over at her friends. "Hey, Bulk. Hey, Storm."
"Hey, Cee," the two bots said in unison.
The blue autobot looked back at the con. "Raise your hands," she told him.
Having no choice, Starscream whined as he did so. The next thing he knew, he was the one holding up the ceiling while the three autobots escaped with the humans.
Finding the exit, the three vehicles immediately sped out of the cave before coming to a halt. Letting the humans out/off, the bots transformed and looked at the mine.
"We could finish them," Arcee said, "here and now."
"A shame we didn't bring any grenades," Bulkhead said as he punched his fist into his servo.
"Would Optimus finish them?" Jack asked.
"No," Stormracer said, "not like this."
"But Optimus wouldn't rescue them either, right?" Miko asked.
"Let's go home," Bulkhead said before everyone turned around and walked away.
(Later)
Soon as they made it back to base, Stormracer was immediately sent to medbay to get her shoulder repaired. While that was going on, Sierra decided to show the others the video she recorded of Starscream. It wasn't long until laughter filled the room as they watched the video.
Arcee and Bulkhead stood off to the side as they watched Ratchet repairing his assistant.
"Did Storm seriously try to fight Starscream?" Arcee asked, "even with that injury he gave her?"
"She's acting more and more like a warrior," Bulkhead said, "especially since after..."
"We lost Cliff," the two wheeler finished.
Bulkhead vented. "She doesn't want to lose anymore friends."
Arcee looked at Stormracer and released a vent of her own. As much as she appreciated the assistant wanting to help them, she knew the teal femme would only end up getting hurt. Or worse.
(The next morning)
Stormracer was still recharging until she heard a loud knock on her door. Waking up with a start, the femme rubbed her optics before tiredly making her way over to the door, opening it to see Arcee standing there.
"Hey, Arcee," she said as she released a yawn, "what's up?"
"Training time," the two wheeler said, "lets go."
Stormracer looked at her in confusion. "Wait, what?" She let out a slight shriek when the smaller femme grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her out of her hangar. "Hey! What's go-"
"Just follow,"Arcee said as she dragged her down the hall. They didn't stop until they reached the training room.
"Why did you take me here?" Stormracer asked once the two wheeler let go of her.
"Listen, Storm," Arcee said, "if you're going to keep helping us, its time you learn how to fight."
"Wh-what?" Stormracer asked in surprise.
"You can't keep relying on your EMP generator or your grappling claw. If something were to happen, you need to know how to defend yourself without your mods. To be honest, you should have been taught self defense a long time ago."
"Arcee, I appreciate you wanting to teach me how to defend myself, but I don't have time with my work and-"
"I already spoke to Ratchet about it and he agreed to give you time so I can train you," she said sternly, "I'm doing this because I don't want to see you get yourself scrapped. If you want to help us, if you want to protect Sierra, then you have to learn to protect yourself."
Stormracer was surprised that Arcee wanted to train her. She thought back on the times she had to fight back. She wanted to still help her friends. And Sierra. She wanted to be able to protect her. She was her guardian after all.
Letting out a vent, Stormracer nodded. "Alright."
Arcee nodded back with a smile. "Then lets begin."
And that was chapter 23! I hope you liked it! I want to give a shout-out to lolistarkiller for sharing the idea to have Stormracer make Starscream loopy with her EMP. Thanks for sharing that and I hope it made you laugh.
Next chapter is Partners. Hopefully I will update again soon. Until next time! God bless!