Hey everyone, I'm back! I can't believe Christmas is almost here. Yay! Not a lot going on for this chapter. I hope you like it anyway.
Transformers Prime: The Medic's Assistant
Chapter 13: Convoy
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Prime
(Autobot Base)
Stormracer listened to her radio as she tidied up the medbay area, lightly bobbing her head to one of the songs. Looking over her shoulder, she turned the volume up a bit more and started humming as she worked. Soon she started swaying to the music as she cleaned a beaker. Immediately she found herself lost in the music and started dancing in place, even swinging her rag around. It wasn't until she spun around that she froze... seeing Ratchet standing there with his arms crossed.
Busted, she sheepishly turned off the music and immediately resumed cleaning, trying to ignore the look Ratchet was giving her. Shaking his head grumbling, the medic walked away as she continued her work. Stormracer glanced over her shoulder to make sure he was gone before snickering to herself.
All was quiet for a while afterwards, until...
"Prime! Prime!"
Getting everyone's attention, the bots and humans made their way over to the computer, seeing an angry Fowler on one of the screens.
"Special Agent Fowler," Optimus greeted, "to what do we owe-"
"What else," Agent Fowler interrupted, "Cons! I chased them off with some hard ordnance, but not before they blew me out of the sky."
"Again?" Miko asked with a chuckle.
"They tried a smash-and-grab for the Dingus."
"The whatsit?" Arcee asked.
"Dynamic Nuclear Generation System," Fowler said, "aka Dingus."
Finding the name funny, Stormracer let out a snort. "Dingus," she said with a light laugh. It wasn't until she noticed everyone giving her a look that her smile disappeared. Clearing her throat, she looked back at the agent on the screen. "Sorry, you were saying?"
Agent Fowler rolled his eyes. "It's a prototype energy source I'm porting to the coast for testing."
"That's absurd," Ratchet said, "why would Starscream bother with such primitive technology?"
"I'm guessing to make a big fat primitive weapon of mass destruction," the human said, "if this baby were to meltdown, it would irradiate this state and the four next door."
"Uh, did Agent Fowler say what state he was currently in?" Raf asked nervously.
"I'm a sitting duck here, Prime. I need you to spin up your bridge and send the Dingus to it's destination before the cons come back for it."
"I'm afraid that sending such a volatile device through a groundbridge is out of the question," Optimus said, "if there were to be an accident during its transmission, the radiation of which you speak could propagate through the ground bridge vortex and harm all fifty states and beyond."
"You got any better ideas?" Fowler asked.
(Time skip)
Bridging themselves to Fowler's location, the bots, minus Ratchet and Stormracer, loaded the Dingus into Optimus's trailer before transforming into vehicle mode, ready for their road trip.
"We are locked onto your coordinates, Optimus," Ratchet said as he, Stormracer, and the kids stood at the computer, "barring any complications, you should reach the drop-off point by sundown."
"Autobots," Optimus said to his team on the other end, "roll out."
With the commlink open for them to hear, the six waited… and waited.
Miko let out a yawn. "Are they there yet?"
"Not even close," Sierra said as she filed her nails.
Miko groaned as she folded her arms.
The sound of Sierra's nail file scraping against her nails was beginning to irritate Ratchet as he frowned at her. "Must you do that?" he asked her gruffly.
She looked up and frowned at him. "What do you want me to do, bite them?"
"Will it be quieter?" he asked.
Letting out a breath of frustration, Sierra just put her nail file away and folded her arms like Miko.
Stormracer released a yawn as she unconsciously started tapping her finger on her arm. It wasn't until she noticed her boss giving her an irritated look that her finger stopped mid air. Letting out a vent, she stuck both her servos under her arms, keeping herself from tapping her finger again.
"That's the one!" Agent Fowler's voice exclaimed from the commlink, gaining everyone's attention. "the con who shot me down! Who is he? Wingnut? Dingbat? Skyguy?"
"Watch your rear views," they heard Bulkhead say.
The six looked at the screen in confusion, only seeing the bots' signatures.
"Shouldn't there be con signatures popping up?" Jack asked.
"A whole team of cons," Agent Fowler said.
"What? We're not picking up anything," Ratchet told him.
"Maybe they're cloaking their signatures?" Stormracer guessed.
They waited for a while before the Prime spoke.
"Our assailants are not decepticons," Optimus said, "they are human."
"Human?" everyone in the room said in surprise.
"Taking on our bots?" Miko said with a grin, "they're roadkill!"
"Autobots," Optimus said, "maintain your cover and apply minimal force. Disarmament only."
While the bots were busy dealing with the humans, the others listened in as they heard tires screeching and impact sounds.
"Argh, I wanna see what's happening!" Miko groaned.
"Unbelievable," Sierra said to her with a frown, "you're not the least bit concerned that the bots are up against a group of humans, and have to maintain cover the entire time?"
"Oh come on," the exchanged student said to her, "what's the worse those humans can do?"
"I do hope you take better care of the Dingus than you do your captives," a different voice said from Fowler's radio.
"Who's that?" Stormracer asked.
"Special Agent William Fowler here," the liaison responded, "identify yourself!"
"I am Silas. But of greater consequence to you, we are MECH. Fair warning, we will be helping ourselves to your device, even if it means inflicting casualties."
"Is that so," Fowler said, "So tell me, Si, what's the market price for a Dingus these days?"
"What makes you think we intend to sell it, Agent Fowler? There's a war brewing between the new world order and the newest. The victor will be the side armed with the most innovative technology."
"He almost sounds like Megatron," Ratchet said with a frown.
"So Si?" Agent Fowler said smugly, "you think MECH has all the most radical tech?" After a while, they heard the sound tires squealing and an explosion. "Later, Si," the agent said.
"Agent Fowler," Optimus said, "do not take your Silas lightly. Megatron preached the very same ideology before plunging Cybertron into the great war that destroyed our world."
"Optimus," Ratchet said, "prepare to initiate phase 2. Five miles ahead to the south, you will reach the rendezvous point."
Everyone watched the screen as the bots proceeded to phase 2.
"So they're going to transfer the Dingus onto a train?" Sierra asked, "what happens if MECH finds out they no longer have it?"
"Hopefully it will be too late before they do," Stormracer said.
They listened in as the bots continued their mission. All was going well until signatures popped up on the screen, making everyone's optics/eyes fearfully widen.
"No, no, not now!" Stormracer exclaimed worryingly as decepticon signatures headed straight for their friends.
"Optimus, you have company!" Ratchet warned.
They heard everything that was happening on the other end, followed by the sound of another explosion.
"What's happening over there?!" Miko exclaimed.
After a while, Optimus finally spoke. "Agent Fowler," he said, "I'm afraid that if you and we are to survive, it has become absolutely necessary to drop our cover."
The sound of a battle played through the commlink, making everyone anxious as they listened to the fight.
"Ugh, its like listening to a movie with a blank screen," Miko said.
"This isn't a movie, Miko," Jack told her sternly.
"Prime!" Agent Fowler said urgently, "Silas got wise to phase two."
"I understand," the prime said. Just then they heard the sound of an impact, followed by Optimus grunting and the sound of him falling from somewhere. The last thing they hear is him painfully groaning.
"Prime, do you read me?" Fowler asked worryingly, "Prime?!"
"Optimus, do you read?!" Ratchet said urgently, "Optimus, are you still there?!" There was no answer.
"Optimus is down!" Miko said.
"MECH's gonna grab the Dingus," Jack said, "we need to think of something, quick."
"Like a Phase 3?" Raf asked.
Jack tried to think as he turned around. "Okay. Come on, think," he mumbled to himself before turning around again. "All right, if MECH wants the Dingus, they have to get on that train."
"What if we got on board first?" Miko asked, "you know, run some human-on-human interference?"
"Absolutely not!" Ratchet said.
"Yeah, that would be suicide," Jack said.
"Uh hello, the United States of meltdown!" Miko said with a frown, "Lives are at stake!"
"Yes, yours!" Ratchet argued, "you want me to not only bridge you into a confined space, but one travelling at 90 miles per hour? I can't even count the number of ways that can go wrong. Mass-displacement trauma, twisted limbs, metal burn."
Everyone gave him a slight look.
"Well, maybe not the last one," he said, "regardless, it its nearly impossible to fix ground bridge coordinates on something moving that speed."
"Would it help if we had access to the train's coordinates?" Raf asked as he brought it up on his laptop, showing the image on the bigger screen.
Ratchet thought about it. "Well..."
"Look, I can't believe I'm agreeing with Miko on this, but I think we should give it a shot," Sierra said, "plus we're running out of time to come up with anything else."
Stormracer looked at the humans. "You know what you're volunteering to do, right?" she asked, "you sure you want to do this?"
The kids glanced at one another, all agreeing before looking back at the two bots. "We have to try," Jack said.
Ratchet and Stormracer glanced at one another before the medic finally vented. "I'll prepare the groundbridge."
(On the train)
Soon Jack, Sierra, and Miko went through the groundbridge and into the train cart, seeing the Dingus plus an unconscious soldier on the floor.
"What happened to him?" Sierra asked, checking to see if he was okay.
"MECH must have used something to knock the soldiers out," Jack said as he pulled out his phone, "we're in."
"I read you, Jack," Raf said on the other end, "the cellphone-commlink patch works."
Hearing the sound of a helicoptor, the three humans opened the cart door and looked up to see MECH hovering over top.
"Raf," Jack said into his cellphone, "MECH's landing on top of the train."
"In about twenty seconds, you're gonna come to a fork," Raf said, "brace yourselves."
The three held on as the younger human shifted the train tracks, making the train go down the other path and causing the helicopter to miss.
"Hooyah!" Miko cheered.
"Good job, Raf!" Stormracer cheered.
Just then a picture of a bomb with crossbones popped up on both the big screen and Raf's laptop.
"What?" Raf goes to ask as the bomb exploded, causing his laptop to spark. "Whoa!" he exclaimed as smoke emerged.
"What just happened?" Stormracer asked, waving the smoke away from her.
"They, they just shorted out my laptop," Raf said.
"And what have I been saying all along about earth technology," Ratchet said.
"I can't get back into the system," the boy said, looking worried.
Everyone grimly looked at the laptop and computer screen with the kaboom image on it. They no longer had the train's data, nor could they see the bots' energy signatures.
"This is not good," the medic said.
Having dealt with the hacker, the helicopter was able to land on the train cart. Soon as it did, three masked MECH agents stepped out and immediately started making an entrance for themselves.
The three kids inside looked up to see the roof being sliced, worry now filling them.
"So, what'll that buy us?" Jack asked nervously.
"Raf is losing his touch," Miko said.
"Why did I agree to this plan?" Sierra asked grimly.
As they watched the roof being cut, Miko grabbed the ax from the wall while Jack grabbed the fire extinguisher. Without a weapon, Sierra just balled her fists and got into a fighting position. The square piece fell to the floor before the kids looked up to see the MECH agents looking back down at them.
"You wanna slice of this?" Miko asked in a threatening tone, "well do ya?!"
"What she said," Jack said, holding the fire extinguisher.
"Ditto," Sierra said, holding her fists up.
The MECH agents just stared confusingly at the kids. But before they could do anything, they were given the order to retreat. Immediately they returned to the helicopter, confusing the three kids. Peaking out from the cart door, they watched as the helicopter flew off ahead of the train.
"Uh, why are they leaving?" Sierra asked questionably.
"Maybe we scared them off?" Miko guessed.
"Right, because we're the scariest foes they've ever faced," the red head said sarcastically.
Just then a missile was fired from the helicopter, destroying the tracks way ahead of the train.
"Whoa!" Jack exclaimed as their eyes went big with fear.
"That's not good," Miko said.
Jack immediately pulled out his phone. "Ratchet, MECH blew the track. You have to bridge us out of here. The soldiers too."
"We lost access to the train data!" Ratchet exclaimed worryingly, "I can't bridge you back without your coordinates!"
The three looked at each other, fearing they wouldn't make it out of this one.
"Maybe we should jump," Miko suggested.
"At 90 miles an hour?" Jack asked, not liking that idea.
"It's the impact, or the meltdown, take your pick."
Jack let out a groan. "What were we thinking volunteering for this?" he asked.
"That three teens had a chance to fight off terrorists?" Sierra said with a groan, "yeah, I still can't believe I agreed to this."
"Next time you two need to do a better job at talking us out of these situations," Miko said.
"Next time," Jack said grimly.
"We can buy ourselves a few seconds if we're in the back of the train, right?" the exchanged student asked.
"Does it really matter?" Sierra asked her.
"At least, we're all in this together," Jack said, looking at the two.
Miko made her way over to Jack... snatching his phone from his hand.
"Raf, this is important!" the exchange student said before sadly saying, "make sure Bulkhead gets my guitar."
Hearing the sound of a vehicle approaching, the three looked out to see Optimus speeding passed them in his truck form.
"Don't read the will just yet," Jack said happily.
"Yes!" Sierra cheered.
Soon as Optimus reached the front of the train, he transformed and grabbed hold of it from the side, trying to slow it down as his pedes scraped against the ground. The three humans held on for dear life as the train started slowing down. It was a struggle for the Prime, but he managed to stop the train before it reached the damaged tracks. Once that was taken care of, he looked at the three humans in the train cart.
"Are you three alright?" he asked.
"We are now," Sierra said, "thanks."
Miko chuckled as she looked at the other two. "And you two were worried."
Jack gave her a look. "And you weren't?"
Miko's smirk disappeared as she glanced away, fiddling with her hair. "Mmmaybe a little."
The other two laughed as all three of them exchanged high fives.
Hearing the sound of the helicopter, Optimus looked to see it hovering in the sky before it flew off.
"Optimus," Ratchet said, "are you all intact?"
"Intact, Ratchet," Optimus confirmed, "crisis adverted. But the world in which we live is a different one than previously imagined. One which has spawned its own decepticons in human skin."
(Autobot Base)
Though the three were relieved the others were okay, they still felt troubled by the thought of MECH.
"Do you think the bots will run into MECH again?" Stormracer asked Ratchet.
He let out a vent. "I don't know."
Stormracer vented as well. Soon as the Dingus was in protective custody, the others returned to base, wondering if/when they would see MECH again.
And that was chapter 13! Not my best I know, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Next chapter is Deux Ex Machina! Hopefully I will update it soon... because I already typed it out and just have to do some editing, so expect that one really soon lol! Until next time! God bless!