Transformers Prime: The Medic's Assistant
Chapter 4: Darkness Rising Part 3
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime
(The next day)
Soon as morning came, Stormracer released a vent as she waited for Sierra. Realizing she should have been back at base ten minutes earlier; the car made her way towards the house. She looked around the street, making sure there was no sign of any humans that could possibly see her. Quickly, she transformed and knelt down to peek inside the windows, trying to find Sierra's room. Unable to find it in the front, she tiptoed to the backyard, accidently bumping into the garbage can. She flinched, though vented in relief that no one noticed. Soon as she made it around, she peaked through the windows until she came across one with pink curtains on the inside.
There she saw Sierra sleeping in the room with her pink sheets and blankets kicked off her bed, revealing her pink flannel pajamas and her hair a complete rat's nest. She had her arms in a funny position as she drooled on her pillow.
Humans recharge rather strangely, Stormracer thought to herself as she gently knocked on the side of the house next to the window. It took a moment for Sierra to slowly open her eyes to see her. She was about to close them again until they opened wide in alarm. Immediately she stood up, wiped the drool of her cheek, and ran over to the window. Opening it, she frowned as she stuck her head out.
"What are you doing?!" Sierra exclaimed in a loud whisper.
"We have to head back to base now," Stormracer told her.
"Wha... now?!" the human looked at the alarm clock on her dresser and gave her an angry face. "It's five in the morning!"
"I have to get back to base and help Ratchet."
Sierra grumbled as she kept frowning at her guardian. "Alright fine! I'll get ready! Just transform before somebody sees you! Like right now!"
Shrugging, Stormracer did so.
Sierra could only stare at her in disbelief. "Not in my backyard!"
"But you said-"
"I meant go back to the street and then transform!" she clarified.
"Aah."
Stormracer transformed back into bot mode and went back around to the front of the house. Once there, she transformed back into vehicle mode and waited.
It took a while, but eventually the teenager made her way out of the house and towards the teal car, dressed in her usual outfit with her hair up in a messy pony tail. Yawning, the human walked to the driver's side and hopped in.
"Why does your boss want you there so early?" Sierra asked, putting on her seatbelt.
"He always says, 'the sooner things are taken care of, the better," the assistant said as she drove off down the street.
"Greeeeat," the girl drawled as she yawned again.
"Hey, that other voice from inside your home last night... who was that?"
"That was my mom," the girl said, "she was not too happy about me being late."
"Mom..." Stormracer said, trying to think, "that's another word for 'mother', right?"
"Yep."
"Oh! So she was the one who kept you in her womb from when you-"
Sierra immediately stopped her from finishing. "Storm, there are some things one should never bring up... This is one of them!"
"... Sorry," the femme apologized.
Sierra sighed as she leaned back in her seat. "She's really been on my case about my grades."
"Oh?"
"I can't help it if I'm not interested in science. I mean, who has time to memorize all those elements? Not to mention all those equations they make you learn?"
"But that's what makes it fun," Stormracer said, "challenges are what helps us learn more. And you won't believe what different elements can do, especially when combined together. Chemistry has always been a favourite of mine."
"Right, I forgot who I was talking to," the girl commented with a groan.
"Oh come on, you wouldn't believe some of the stuff I've put together," the science student said as she told Sierra about her old experimentations back at the academy she studied at on Cybertron. This only resulted in Sierra yawning from boredom.
Soon as they arrived at base, Stormracer was immediately put to work. Sierra sat on the stairs, looking tired and bored as she watched Stormracer move stuff around.
"So... this is what you do all day?" she asked.
"Sorry," Stormracer apologized, "I promise as soon as I finish this up, we will go do something."
"When?"
They were interrupted by Ratchet as he walked up to the femme with boxes in his arms.
"Stormracer, I need you to do a count of supplies we have left in the back after you're done here," Ratchet said, setting the boxes down in front of her.
She looked back at her human charge with a weak smile. "Uh... a while?"
Sierra groaned, wishing she could get at least one bar on her cellphone.
The other Autobots soon arrived with their human charges. Once they hopped out/off the vehicles, the three kids walked over to Sierra, noticing how tired she looked.
"How early did you get here?" Raf asked her.
"Too early," she said with a yawn, "I didn't even have time to fix my hair."
"Really? I didn't notice," Jack said, trying to compliment her.
She only gave him a look.
"Uh, n-not that its always bad!" Jack stuttered, now in a corner, "Uh, what I mean is, uh..."
She only looked away, letting out a sigh. "I am so bored. All I've been doing is sitting here while Storm works. Even the drive here was boring."
"Hey, Jack," Arcee said, walking by, "feel like a drive?"
Jack looked at Sierra. "You wanna come? That way you don't have to be stuck here." When she looked back at him, he got nervous. "Uh, that is, if you want to."
Looking at her guardian in the middle of cleaning then back at Jack, she decided she wanted to get out of the base as soon as possible.
"Im going with Jack and Arcee, Storm," Sierra said as she and Jack hopped onto Arcee.
Stormracer looked up, seeing her human charge going off with Arcee and Jack as they disappeared out of the room. "Uh, have fun... I guess," she said, feeling a little left out.
The others took off as well, leaving her with Ratchet in the main area. She listened to the medic as he studied the purple substance, scraping some of it onto a slide then placing it under the microscope.
"I need to head to the back for a second," Ratchet told her, walking away from the table.
"Okay," she said, still cleaning. Though once he disappeared, she glanced over at the sample just sitting there.
Ratchet said no, she reminded herself as she continued looking at it. But what is it? And if Arcee's words are accurate, why was Cliffjumper leaking it?
Looking back to make sure Ratchet was fully gone, she made her way over and took a look through the microscope. She was curious at what she saw. Looking at the readings Ratchet gathered on the monitor, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Weird," she said to herself, "it almost resembles energon, only... different."
She looked over at the substance still in the container. Picking it up, she took a look.
"What did the Cons put in you, Cliff?"
She heard a noise, causing her to almost lose her grip on the container as she fumbled it. A drop escaped and fell to the floor, right on the broken claw laying on the floor beside her.
"Scrap!" she said to herself, setting the container back on the table as she looked at the purple substance...
Only to see it absorb into the broken machinery.
She looked at it in shock. "What the...?"
Next thing she knew, the claw started moving, transforming into something else.
Something alive.
She screamed as a small metal creature launched itself at her to attack, making her jump out of the way before it could hurt her. It only turned around and lunged at her again. Quickly grabbing the tray from the counter, she hit the creature as hard as she could, sending it flying backwards onto one of the higher platforms. But it didn't give up. It jumped and landed right in front of her on the counter. She continuously tried to hit it with the tray, only for it to dodge her attacks. Eventually it jumped towards the microscope, slicing it in two.
"Hey!" she exclaimed.
The creature launched itself at her again, making her stumble back as she lost her grip on the tray. Turning around, the tiny monster jumped into the air towards her, ready to attack. But before the creature could reach the assistant, a shot was fired, hitting it out of midair.
Stormracer looked over to see Optimus with his blaster out, Ratchet right beside him.
"Stormracer, are you alright?!" Ratchet asked, rushing over to her.
Calming down, she nodded.
The creature got back up... only for Optimus to immediately stomp on it.
"And stay broken!" Ratchet exclaimed to what was left of it. He looked up at Optimus. "Now what could have caused that?"
"The purple substance," Stormracer said as she confessed, "I... I wanted to take a closer look and a drop fell on the claw. Next thing I knew, it came to life."
Ratchet frowned at her. "I told you not to go near it!"
"I know, and I'm really sorry," she apologized, "but you should have seen it! One drop, and then that happened!" she said as she gestured at the smushed creature.
"I have a grave suspicion of what the substance is," Optimus said, "dark energon."
(Elsewhere)
Right after the three stopped in town to grab Sierra a helmet, Arcee sped down the road with the two humans, even doing a wheelie much to their joy.
"This is awesome!" Sierra said happily.
"What gives Arcee?" Jack asked.
"Thought you would enjoy the ride without any Cons firing at us."
"Oh, bring it!" Jack said with a smile.
"You're so lucky!" Sierra said to the boy, "your guardian is so cool!"
"What about Stormracer?" Jack asked her.
Sierra's smile dropped, trying to find the right thing to say. "She's... okay. I mean, she's just so... brainy. Not to mention she has to stay at the base all day and help Ratchet."
"That's her job," Arcee said, "its her way of helping us."
"How does cleaning tools count as helping?" Sierra asked.
Arcee let out a vent. "Just give her a chance, kid. She might surprise you."
Sierra let out a sigh as the three continued down the road.
(Autobot Base)
As the three bots disposed the creature's remains, Optimus explained the effect of dark energon to the other two.
"If the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment to life, it would stand to reason that the very same substance brought Cliffjumper back from the dead."
"His life signal from the other day," Stormracer said, now understanding the cause of it.
"Yes, but, dark energon?" Ratchet asked questionably, "it's so scarce as to be virtually nonexistent. What is it doing on Earth?"
"It was transported" Optimus said, a grim look on his face, "by Megatron."
"He's back?" Stormracer asked, now very worried, "but, why would he need dark energon?"
"To conquer this planet by raising an army of the undead."
Ratchet just chuckled, "well, Megatron will need to break quite a few toaster ovens. I mean, where on this world would he find that many cybertronian dead?"
Just then they heard the sound of engines approaching, looking to see the others returning. The humans were very happy as they hopped out/off the bots before they could transform into bot mode. Stormracer took notice of how happy Sierra looked.
There was a rumble coming from Bulkhead, making him open his chest compartment and pull out a guitar in its case.
"Sorry," Miko said as she took it from him, "must have left it in the backseat."
Optimus approached his team, "Autobots, prepare to..." he then stopped halfway.
"Roll out?" Arcee asked, trying to finish his sentence.
"... Remain here," the prime ordered instead. He looked at the medic. "Ratchet, you'll come with me," he said before looking back at the two wheeler, "Arcee, we'll be outside of communication range for some time, so I'm putting you in charge."
Miko looked up at Bulkhead, "Dude, you're the biggest. You should be the boss."
"Um, he never picks me," Bulkhead said.
"Optimus," Arcee said, "with all due respect, playing body guard is one thing. Babysitting is another. Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war."
"My pistons may be rusty," Ratchet said with a frown, "but my hearing is sharp as ever."
"For the moment, it's only reconnaissance," Optimus told the blue femme.
"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice?" Arcee questioned suspiciously.
"Arcee, much has changed in the last 24 hours, and we all need to adapt," Optimus explained. He looked at Ratchet, "Ratchet, bridge us out."
Ratchet started up the ground bridge before turning to Stormracer right beside him. "For the time being, don't tell the others about our conversation," he said quietly, giving her a stern look, "and we'll talk later about you disobeying my order."
Stormracer sadly nodded, knowing she was still in trouble.
Both Ratchet and Optimus walked through the ground bridge and disappeared.
"Okay, chief," Jack said to his guardian after the two bots left, "uh, what's on the activities list?"
Arcee, not wanting to babysit, had a different idea. "I'm going on patrol."
"But Optimus told us to stay," Bulkhead reminded her.
"When you're in charge, you can call the shots," she argued. She turned to the autobot scout, "Bee, with me."
Bumblebee let out a buzz as he moped over towards her.
"Bulkhead, you're in charge," the two wheeler said before she and Bumblebee transformed and took off towards the exit.
Both Bulkhead and Stormracer watched as they disappeared out of sight.
"And then there were six," Stormracer commented.
Both her and Bulkhead glance at one another before looking back at the humans. "So, uh, what's on the activities list?" Bulkhead asked them.
Both bots winced at the sound of feedback coming from Miko's electric guitar as she plugged it into a speaker. Even the humans flinched as they covered their ears.
"How about... band practice?" she said with her guitar ready.
"But we're not a band," Sierra told her.
"I thought you were the social one, Miss Head of the Cheerleading Squad," Miko commented, "Come on, you play anything?"
"Uh... I took piano lessons for a few years," she said.
"Hmmm, maybe you can think about getting a keytar," the exchange student said before looking at the youngest. "What about you, Raf?"
Um... keyboard?" Raf said, holding up his laptop.
"Laptops and samples. Good," she said. She then turned to the oldest boy, "Jack?"
"I sometimes mess around on the harmonica," Jack said.
Miko frowned, "Do I look like I do country? Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming."
"Uh..." Jack went to say something, only for Miko to already turn her attention to her guardian.
"Bulkhead, percussion," she said, "We'll go for a big industrial sound."
"What about me?" Stormracer asked.
Miko thought for a moment. "You're good at sciency stuff, right? You can do special effects like smoke and fireworks. D.I.Y., we're a band. You just got to learn the songs. This one's a ballad. "My fist, Your face."
Next thing everyone knew, she started playing hard rock on her instrument, getting into it immediately. Everyone flinched as they covered their ears/audio receptors as she played.
Its not until Bulkhead and Stormracer noticed the proximity alarm that they tried to stop her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!"
Miko stopped and looked at them, "Come on. You can't handle raw power?"
"Proximity sensor," Stormracer said.
"Quick, hide!" Bulkhead told the humans.
Immediately they hid behind the big green bot, Miko bringing her guitar with her. Both Bulkhead and Stormracer stood there as Agent Fowler made his way out of the elevator.
"Prime!" Agent Fowler shouted, looking for the autobot leader.
"Agent Fowler!" Stormracer said, an innocent smile on her face, "what a nice surprise."
"Uh, Prime's not here," Bulkhead said, "nobody's here. Except for us of course."
"Yep, just the two of us," Stormracer added, the both of them chuckling.
"Well, where did he go?" Fowler demanded, "wait, don't tell me. He's out pancaking a mini mall. Now, I don't know what language you bots speak on your planet-"
"Cybertronian," Stormracer answered.
"Don't care," Fowler told her.
Bulkhead took a step to the side, accidentally stepping on the cord connected to Miko's guitar and the speaker. Both bots try to remain calm and casual as the speaker started making noises.
"Prime promised he would handle the decepticons," the human liaison continued, "and blowing a crater in the middle of Nebraska, is not what the word "handle" means in English. So you tell Prime..."
The sound now defining, Fowler looked to see the cord from Bulkhead's pede to the speaker down below.
"since when are you bots electric?"
Both Bulkhead and Stormracer clammed up as the humans revealed themselves to the older one.
"Hey," Jack said, "how you doing?"
"Contact with civilians!" Fowler exclaimed angrily, "Team Prime has really gone off the book this time. Wait, don't tell me. You're running a day care centre."
"Uh, actually, funny story," Stormracer said with a nervous chuckle, "well, maybe not "haha" funny but still rather-"
Bulkhead gave her a nudge making her go quiet.
"We're... interns," Sierra fibbed.
"Student interns," Raf added.
"Uh, earning extra credit in auto shop," Jack said as Miko overlapped auto shop with "Robotics."
But Fowler wasn't buying it. "Okay. Let's move. I'm taking all four of you into federal custody. It's for your own protection."
Bulkhead however took a step, blocking the liaison from the kids. "We're protecting them."
Fowler frowned at him. "Is that so? Well, maybe you could explain that to my superiors at the Pentagon," he said, making his way to the phone attached to the wall.
"Don't use that phone," the green bot said, making his way over, "Its..." immediately he knelt down and smushed the tiny phone with his big metal finger. "out of order."
Fowler was furious. "This isn't over, not by a long shot!" He angrily marched up the stairs and back into the elevator, leaving instantly without saying another word.
"... That went well," Stormracer said.
Bulkhead only groaned, shaking his helm.
"Hey, maybe when Prime gets back, he can figure out a way to convince Fowler we can keep the kids here," the teal femme said optimistically.
"Are you kidding?!" Bulkhead said, looking at her, "Fowler probably won't let Optimus say one word about it."
"So, that's it?" Sierra asked, unamused, "we're still going to end up under federal watch because they think its for the best?"
"Look, it's going to take some time until he reaches his destination," Stormracer reminded Bulkhead, "Hopefully Prime and Ratchet get back before then so we can tell them the situation. Prime will know what to do."
The green bot vented as he walked away from her. She couldn't help but let out a worried vent of her own.
After a while, another alarm went off. Puzzled, both bots approached the monitor.
"My ears," Rafael complained, covering his ears.
"Its an SOS," Bulkhead said, looking at the monitor, "from Fowler."
"Let me try and pin point it," Stormracer said, getting in front of him, "Ratchet taught me how to do this."
She tried to work as fast as possible, only for the signal to disappear.
"Not good," she said worryingly.
"What? Couldn't you trace it?" Raf asked.
"The location scan was incomplete," she said, "I can't get a fix on his location."
"Oh well," Bulkhead said, turning around to walk away.
"Oh well?" Stormracer echoed, looking at him in disbelief, "you don't care that he's in trouble?"
"Fowler's a jerk," he argued.
"Whoa!" Jack argued, "whether you like the guy or not, the decepticons may have him."
"And he knows your location," Sierra added.
Rafael gulped, "our location."
"And did you not see how fast he backed down from a bot?" Miko pointed out, "the cons will totally make him squeal."
"But we lost the transmission," Bulkhead said, "Fowler could be anywhere."
"Maybe I can narrow it down," Rafael said, holding onto his laptop as he sat down, "about five years ago, the government started microchipping their agents, You know, like owners do to pets."
Everyone looked at him in surprise.
"What? I saw I thought on TV," he explained, "anyway, if I can hack into the feds' mainframe, maybe I can pinpoint Fowler's location."
"You know how to hack?" Sierra asked him in disbelief.
"But you're like... two years old," Miko said.
"Twelve," the youngest clarified, "and a quarter." It took a while, but the young boy was able to get a fix on the agent's location. "Latitude 39.5, longitude 116.5."
"Okay," Bulkhead said as he went over to the bridge, "you all wait here."
"Bulkhead, wait," Stormracer said, stopping him, "we should contact Arcee and Bumblebee."
"No time," Bulkhead argued as he started up the portal, "You're in charge, Storm."
The green mech then disappeared through the bridge.
Venting, she closed the bridge before looking at the humans with an assuring smile. "Okay, no prob. He's got this. So, who wants to...". she stopped her sentence halfway as she did a quick head count. Her smile disappeared. "Uh... where's Miko?"
All of them turned to look at the ground bridge, dread coming over them.
"She didn't!" Sierra said in disbelief.
Stormracer immediately rushed to the monitor and contacted the green Autobot. "Bulkhead! Miko is missing! Is she with you?!"
There was a loud vent on the other end of the call. "Yep," Bulkhead answered wearily on the commlink, "you have to bridge her-" the sound of shots being fired interrupted him. "Oh scrap!"
The call was cut, leaving Stormracer very worried. Not wanting to lose another friend, she fired up the groundbridge.
"Jack, you're in charge!" she said as she ran through the portal.
What she was going to do... she had no idea.
She made it through to the other side, hopping out of the portal before it disappeared. It's not until she looked up that she gasped at what she saw.
The Decepticon warship!
Hearing the sound of fighting off to the side, she looked to see Bulkhead fighting two guards. As he tried to fight off one of them, the other went around behind him to attack.
Lifting her arm up, Stormracer shot out her grappling hook at the con. The cable wrapped itself around the Con's wrist, stopping him from delivering a blow to the green mech as she pulled him away from her teammate. Irritated, the con grabbed the cable and gave it a hard yank, making the femme shriek as she fell forward onto her front.
The con then transformed his arm into a blaster and fired at her. Seeing it coming, she rolled over to dodged the blast, her cable still connected to his other arm. Thinking fast, she transformed into vehicle mode and drove towards her opponent, the cable compartment on her side.
The con looked at her in confusion as she drove in circles around him, only to realize he still had the cable connected to him. The next thing he knew, the cable was rapidly wrapping around his legs before she took off forward, causing him to yelp as he fell backwards.
She skidded to a halt as the con sat up, painfully holding his helm. He aimed his blaster at her again, only to get shot from the side by Bulkhead.
Stormracer transformed as she made her way over to her teammate. "You okay?" she asked him, quickly reeling in her grappling hook cable back into her arm.
"I thought I left you in charge," Bulkhead said with a frown.
Miko rushed over from behind a rock. "Whoa! Now that was epic!"
Groaning, the green mech picked her up before both he and the femme hid behind a huge rock, out of sight from the Cons on the warship.
Bulkhead then contacted Arcee and Bumblebee. Stormracer watched as the big mech flinched after telling them the situation, Arcee most likely sounding like she was going to bite his head off.
Once the call ended, he looked down at his human charge with a frown.
"Why did you follow me?!" Bulkhead asked Miko sternly.
"I didn't want to be stuck with a nerd in charge," Miko answered, "and besides, you're my partner. I should be hanging out with you more."
"It's not safe," Bulkhead argued, "you don't see Sierra chasing after Storm, do you?"
"That's because Storm's boring."
"I am not boring!" Stormracer said with a frown, only to think for a moment, "Am I?"
"Sierra seems to think so," the human said, folding her arms.
Stormracer hid the sad look on her face as they waited for the other two bots to arrive.
"What's taking them so long?" Bulkhead asked.
"Dude, the Cons could be putting the clamps on Fowler right now," Miko said, "lets just storm the joint, now!"
"We can't just storm in," Stormracer told the human.
They soon heard a warble sound as they looked around the rock to see a ground bridge portal open.
"They're here," Bulkhead said in relief.
However, the mood changed when the three remaining humans hopped out, looking very sick.
"Oh no," Stormracer said.
"Why don't those guys hang out with their own bots?!" Miko pouted.
"Well technically, I'm Sierra's guardian," Stormracer reminded her.
"Not now you two!" Bulkhead exclaimed sternly.
"You there!" a voice shouted.
Stormracer, Bulkhead, and Miko looked up to see that the Cons on the warship had spotted their friends and were now aiming their blasters at them.
"Scrap!"
And that was chapter 4! Hopefully I will get chapter 5 up soon, but no promises. Until next time! God bless!