Yaaay, we're in Season 2 now lol! I got a lot in store for this season and I can't wait to write it all. Here is chapter 31. Bit of a short chapter, but I hope you like it anyway.
Transformers Prime: The Medic's Assistant
Chapter 31: Orion Pax part 1 (part 1)
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime
(Autobot Base)
"In hindsight, we accomplished what was required," Ratchet said, "with Unicron's awakening, extreme measures needed to be taken. Enemies became allies. Allies became confidants. And with the Matrix of Leadership, the planet Earth was saved, though at an immeasurable personal cost. When Optimus surrendered the Matrix, he lost more than the collective wisdom of the Primes. He lost himself."
"That doesn't follow," Arcee said, "Optimus knew Megatron."
"They were like BFFs," Bulkhead said.
"If Optimus did not know his own name, perhaps it is because the title of Prime hasn't yet been granted to him," Ratchet said.
"Huh?" Fowler asked.
"What?" Jack asked.
"Say again?" Miko asked.
"With the power of the Matrix no longer within him, it would stand to reason that Optimus has reverted to his pre-Prime state, the historical archivist, Orion Pax," the medic explained.
"You mean in his mind?" June asked.
"Are you telling me Prime thinks he's some kind of librarian, and a decepticon?!" Fowler exclaimed.
"Being a decepticon is a choice, Agent Fowler," Ratchet said, "one that I have a hard time believing Optimus would make at any point in his life."
"So if he's riding with the cons..." Bulkhead went to say.
"It's because Megatron's working some kind of voodoo," Arcee finished.
"Orion Pax may not currently be an autobot up here," Ratchet said, pointing at his head, "but I must believe he will never stop being one in here," he said as he placed his servo over where his spark is. He looked at the others. "We must locate him to know for certain."
"Hold up," Agent Fowler said, "I have a chip lodged in my behind that let's Uncle Sam know when I stop for donuts. Are you telling me you can't just track Prime?"
"Optimus' signal has not reappeared since he embarked from Earth's core," the medic said, "but we must get to work finding him if we have any hope of initiating his contingency plan."
"Contingency plan?" Arcee asked.
"What contingency?" Bulkhead asked.
"Is that even a word?" Miko asked.
"The key card," Jack said as he pulled the key out from his pocket, "so, what's it do?"
"It grants access to Vector Sigma, the repository of the wisdom of the Primes," Ratchet told him.
"Is that some sort of super computer?" Raf asked.
"So, we can just download Optimus' memories back into him?" Jack asked, "Great! Which one's the big V? Over here? Somewhere in back?"
"Vector Sigma is more than just a super computer, Jack," Ratchet said, "it is an ancient source of mystical power... on Cybertron."
"Cybertron?" Sierra asked, "as in your home planet?"
"The one and only," Stormracer told her.
June frowned as she looked at her son. "Jackson Darby, you will not be traveling to another planet!"
"I'm in!" Miko volunteered.
"You're not going either, Miko," the nurse said before looking at the bots, "not when one of you can."
"June's right," Fowler agreed, "why send a boy to do a bot's job?"
"Because only a Prime can access Vector Sigma, or one chosen by a Prime," Ratchet answered, "Optimus gave the key card to Jack. It is now imprinted with his unique biosignature."
"So, you mean Jacks like some honorary Prime?" Miko asked.
"Let's just say Jack is the only one who can return Optimus to the autobot we knew," the medic said.
"But why would Optimus willfully endanger a human?" June asked, "a child?!"
"I'm not a child, mom!" Jack argued.
"Maybe Optimus believes there's more to Jack than meets the eye," Arcee said.
"All of which is moot," Ratchet said, "the key card is useless to us without a means of reaching Cybertron, which we at present do not possess."
"Dude, what about that?" Miko asked as she gestured towards the groundbridge.
"Miko, the groundbridge barely got them into Earth's orbit, remember?" Raf said.
"Yeah, but Ratchet built it," she said, "can't he just turbo charge the thing?"
Ratchet looked at the groundbridge as Miko's words echoed in his head. He didn't say a word as he started thinking.
(Time skip)
Working at his part time job at K.O. Burger Drive In, Jack handed the customer his meal. "Two body slam burger specials," he said, "enjoy." He watched as the car drove off before noticing Sierra standing there.
"Hey, Hotshot," she said with a wave.
Jack smiled at her. "Hey, Sierra. How was practice?"
"Okay," she said as she walked over to the window, "the routine still needs work before next week's game. How's your shift going?"
"Same old," he said, "but, I did get a pretty good tip from Mr. Cullen today."
"Nice!" The girl's smile then faded. "You hear anything yet about Optimus?"
Jack shook his head. "The bots are still looking."
She sadly sighed. "I hope he's okay. How're you doing with all of this?"
"Alright, I guess," he said, "still trying to convince my mom on me going to Cybertron."
"I still can't believe you get to go to another planet," the red head said with a grin, "I won't lie, I'm pretty jealous."
"Question is, how am I suppose to get to Cybertron?" he asked, "by rocket ship?"
"I don't think a rocket ship would be fast enough," she said, "Stormracer says Cybertron is pretty far away from our solar system. Best bet for you to get there is..."
"By spacebridging," Jack finished as he glanced away, "problem is, how?"
"We'll figure it out," Sierra said, "whatever it takes to get Optimus back."
Jack looked back at her and smiled. Just then a buzzing sound interrupted their conversation, alerting Jack of a customer. "Uh, don't go anywhere," he said to Sierra before speaking into the microphone. ""Welcome to K.O. drive in, may I t-"
"5 pm, Jack," Arcee's voice said through the speaker, "your shift is over. Let's go."
Sierra chuckled. "Better not keep your ride waiting. I should get going anyway. I told Em I'd hang out with her."
"You want a ride?" Jack offered.
"No thanks. She lives pretty close to here. I'll see you later." Sierra walked away as Arcee drove up with her hologram on. "Hey, Arcee," she said as she made her way to the sidewalk.
"Later," Jack said as he watched her walk away.
"Didn't mean to interrupt your social life," Arcee said to the boy.
Jack sighed before looking at his guardian. "Any sign of Optimus?"
"Not today," she said sadly.
"...Not yet," he said, trying to sound optimistic. Soon as he clocked out, him and Arcee drove off to base.
(Autobot Base)
Stormracer walked into the main hangar, looking around for her boss. "Ratchet?!"
"Over here!"
Looking over, she saw him working on the groundbridge. "What are you doing?" she asked as she walked over to him.
"Tinkering," he said.
"... You're trying to turbo charge the groundbridge, aren't you?" she asked.
"Like I said, tinkering," he said, "no need to get anyone's hopes up just yet. I could use an assist."
The teal femme smiled and gave him a salute. "Medical assistant Stormracer reporting for duty."
Ratchet continued as the assistant handed him the tools he needed while she watched. Thinking back on what the medic said, Stormracer asked, "you said you've known Optimus for a long time. He'd know you if he saw you right now, wouldn't he?"
"As Orion, yes," Ratchet said, "but, Optimus thinks he and Megatron are still friends. For all we know, Megatron has convinced him that we are the enemy, and not to be trusted."
"And yet he trusts the leader of the decepticons?" the femme asked.
"Megatron may be a master of deception," the medic said, "but it won't take Orion long to find out the truth. We must find him before then... if it isn't already too late."
"We'll find him," Stormracer said optimistically, "so lets get this baby turbo charged so we can get Jack to Cybertron."
Ratchet nodded as he continued.
(Time skip)
Stormracer was still helping Ratchet when Agent Fowler popped up on the computer screen.
"Ratchet!" the liaison said, "You awake?! This is an emergency!"
"Agent Fowler," Ratchet said, looking at the screen, "is it Optimus?"
"It's cons," Fowler said, "and they're busting into the same military research lab they hit two months ago."
"To get the power source for..." Bumblebee bleeped.
"Another spacebridge?" Bulkhead finished.
"Before all we know Optimus is riding with them," Arcee said.
Ratchet looked at the three. "Roll out."
The groundbridge activated, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead rushed through. After a while, Bulkhead called for a bridge back, but only he and Bumblebee returned.
"Where's Arcee?" Ratchet asked.
"She followed after Knock Out and Breakdown through their groundbridge," Bumblebee said.
"What?!" Stormracer exclaimed.
Everyone was at the computer, trying to find any sign of the two wheeler. Finally, her signal popped up in the Arctic, making Ratchet quickly activate the groundbridge to get her out of there. Soon as she returned, the medic checked to make sure she was okay as she explained what happened.
"You weren't able to determine the decepticons' location, or if Optimus was even aboard ship?" Ratchet asked the two wheeler as he finished scanning her.
"I... couldn't confirm," Arcee said.
Angry, Bulkhead smashed his fist down on the table beside him, breaking one of Ratchet's tools.
"Bulkhead!" Ratchet exclaimed angrily.
"What? You needed that?!" Bulkhead asked, "the only thing I need is our head honcho back!"
"Bulkhead, easy," Stormracer said, trying to calm him.
Jack looked at his guardian. "It's not your fault," he told her.
"If any of us needed rescuing, Optimus would have found a way," she argued, "I didn't. Simple as that."
"Ratchet!" Fowler said as he appeared again on the screen, not looking too happy, "what happened out there? Reports indicate at least a dozen wounded. The heats on me to provide some explanation. You bots better get your act together, or the Pentagon will make me shut down your base." With that said, he hung up.
"But, where will you go?" Raf asked the bots.
"Who knows!" Ratchet said in frustration, "maybe they'll ship us out to some island! Or fire us into space, wouldn't that be a welcome relief!"
"I don't blame Fowler," Arcee said, "Optimus would have evacuated all humans from the area before engaging the cons!"
Bumblebee bleeped in agreement.
"We don't actually know what Optimus would have done because he's not here!" Bulkhead said angrily.
Arcee got up and walked over to him. "You're pretty good at stating the obvious, Bulk," she said, "anything else you would like to mention that we already know?!"
"Nothing I can say in front of the children," the green bot said.
"Whoa, whoa, time out!" Stormracer said, getting between the two, "now's not the time to be fighting one another."
"Oh, and what should we be doing?" Bulkhead asked her with a frown, "pretend that everything's okay? Because everything is not okay!"
"Hey!" Jack said, getting their attention, "aren't we overlooking one positive?! Nobody's talking about what the decepticons got their claws on."
"Yes," Ratchet said, "we managed to allow them to finally acquire a power source for their space bridge!"
"And how exactly would that be a positive?" Arcee asked Jack.
"We let them finish building the space bridge," he said.
"Say what now?!" Stormracer asked.
"Why?" Bulkhead asked the boy with a frown, "so they can bring more zombies back from Cybertron?!"
"No," Jack said, "so we can commandeer it, and use it to send me to Cybertron."
"Whoa," Miko said, "that's a pretty good idea."
"Oh ho, well if Miko thinks its a good idea!" Arcee said, unconvinced.
"Do any of you have a better one?" Sierra asked with a frown.
"Nobody's saying it will be easy, but you've seized a space bridge before," Jack said.
"We blew one up," Bulkhead reminded him, "that's a whole lot different than three of us seizing and holding one."
"Besides, we don't even know where it is," Bumblebee bleeped.
"Bee's right," Arcee said, "we'd have to find the thing first."
"Uh hello?!" Miko said, "if it's a space bridge, isn't it..." she pointed upwards.
"The term space refers to its transport range, not its physical location!" Ratchet said, "and we'd been monitoring Earth's orbit since the last one! We'd know if it were there!"
"So the bridge could be somewhere right here on Earth," Jack said.
"Like trying to find a servo in a scrapyard," Bulkhead said.
"Then maybe we better start looking," Arcee said.
"But the fact remains," Ratchet said, "we do not know what the decepticons have in store for Optimus, or if he's truly safe from harm."
Everyone went quiet, hoping they will help their leader in time.
After a while, Stormracer walked away while lost in thought. Jack's plan may have sounded crazy, but even she thought it was a good idea. Still, Arcee was right. They had to find the decepticons' space bridge first. She started wondering if Optimus was okay or not, and what plans Megatron had for him. If only she and the others knew.
She stopped walking as an idea came to her head. A crazy idea. One that she knew Ratchet and the others wouldn't approve of her doing. Still... it was worth a shot.
If she wanted information on Optimus, then maybe a certain red Aston Martin will give it to her.
And that was Orion Pax part 1 (part 1)! And yep, next chapter is a SR/KO chapter! Didn't expect one so soon, did ya? Lol! Hopefully I will update again soon. Until next time! God bless!