Ultra Magnus knelt next to the unconscious Roadhauler.
Optimus left with Arcee, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead to rescue Nurse Darby and Smokescreen from the Predacon. Ratchet was grumbling as Roadhauler received several energon injections, but remained unresponsive.
"Agent Fowler!" General Bryce and several soldiers were at the door. "What happened?"
"General Bryce!" Agent Fowler acknowledged. "Nurse Darby and Smokescreen have been attacked and possibly captured by the Decepticons. Hauler was distressed by the news."
"Want to explain what just happened with the power and communications?"
"As Agent Fowler just said, Roadhauler became distressed. I believe the howl was an attempt to send a distress signal." Ultra Magnus left Roadhauler to Ratchet. "We're still cataloging the forced changes made to Roadhauler, but I can assure you that he is no danger to the operations of this base." Ultra Magnus had been skeptical, at first, but time spent watching Roadhauler had proved that, despite struggling with synth en affecting his temper, Roadhauler was loyal to their side. He was also fairly eager to learn anything, and had listened to Ultra Magnus lecture of the autobot chain of command.
"And who was he trying to signal?"
"Given his difficulty speaking, I believe he was trying to signal us." Ultra Magnus had watched as Roadhauler had gotten trapped in his own panic, unable to articulate what was wrong. "I believe you humans call it PTSD, when past trauma encroaches on the present?"
Roadhauler finally came online with a rumbling growl. "Rratchet? Smokezscreen and M-mom…"
"Rescue is underway, and 'Mom' is not Nurse Darby's designation regardless of what you were told." Ultra Magnus cut across what could have been a messy conversation.
Ultra Magnus had realized it was inevitable that Roadhauler would slip regarding his mother, especially given their family unit was much smaller and tighter than Raf's or Miko's. So Ultra Magnus had come up with a simple contingency plan.
They had already claimed that Roadhauler and Jack had possibly met, it wasn't a stretch that Jack might've spoken to a fellow captive and mentioned his mother… but not her proper designation. Translation could be difficult even with fully functional language protocols and an injured Autobot would not be able to understand the nuances of a new language. Cybertronian's did not have an exact word for the human concept of 'Mother'. The closest they had was a very archaic term of 'carrier' that had fallen out of use during the early days of war. Most of the younger bots had never used it, the closest they would ever come to is 'mentor guardian'. Which was also technically the roles that the autobot guardians of the children were.
The simple cover was the best they could do right now, and General Bryce accepted it, having the soldiers stand down.
Which is when the rescue team radioed for a bridge for an emergency med evac.
Bulkhead was going to be sick. The bridge had exited on top of a mesa, which meant Smokescreen couldn't just drive off with June.
Actually seeing what Predaking had done in such a short amount of time was rather chilling, especially as the spilled energon helped light the scene. Smokescreen was still transformed, and June was still inside, but Predaking had clearly tried to tear Smokescreen apart … one of the rookie's doors was at least twenty feet away.
(Bulkhead was going to convince Miko not to watch the Jurassic movies for a while, the human cars might not have energon, but watching dinosaurs rip apart cars was a little too close for comfort.)
"Predaking, release Smokescreen and Nurse Darby." Optimus's voice rumbled through the air.
"I demand to see Ripclaw!" Predaking snarled in his robot form. "You have no right to keep him from me!!"
"I already told him no!" June yelled out.
Smokescreen wasn't saying anything. That wasn't a good sign. The rookie's engine was still running.
Predaking didn't even look at the two hostages.
"I'm Jack's cybertronian guardian, I won't let you near him." Arcee hissed. "I won't fail him again."
"Then I will kill you, avenging my murdered brethren and take him!" Predaking's transformation was quick, and his focus was on Wheeljack, Arcee, and Optimus.
Bumblebee grabbed up any spare parts, while Bulkhead crouched down.
"Nurse Darby, you-"
"Smokescreen's sensors went offline, I can drive him." The woman was bruised and wheezing slightly with each breath.
Smokescreen's engine was making an odd noise. Like a cylinder misfire.
"I'll push. Let's go. Hang in there Smokescreen, Ratchet will patch you up!" Bulkhead and Bumblebee helped guide Smokescreen back to base.
In hindsight, Arcee probably should have attempted a more diplomatic approach. Or helped Bulkhead and Bumblebee. But this was the one who had used Synthetic Energon to speed up Jack's transformation and had left her partner ill, so Arcee was within her rights to shoot him.
Predaking's tail hit her midsection, and knocked her off the Mesa.
She looked up in time to see that all fighting had stopped for a moment, and she had a second to realize that they weren't looking at her.
Claws wrapped around Arcee as her descent was halted, and then she was lifted up and deposited back on the Mesa.
Her first thought was Swoop of the Dinobots, but despite the red and white body, the wings were blue and bio lights were yellow.
Her rescuer screeched, before attacking Predaking who was too stunned to fight back against the smaller Predacon.
"Rafael, we require a ground bridge. Wheeljack, retreat!" Optimus's voice cut across their surprise.
Wheeljack was limping, so Optimus grabbed him to carry him through.
Arcee vented in relief once they were in the base. A relief that was unfortunately short lived.
"What in Sam Hill is that?!" Agent Fowler roared.
Arcee turned to see what was wrong- The unknown Predacon had followed them through the bridge.
Ratchet was patching up Smokescreen, June was missing, so she had probably been taken to the human medical bay, but everyone else had their weapons out as soon as it registered.
It was completely unconcerned by their reaction, using its wings as forelegs it was instead chirping at Jack (in wolf mode and lying down against a wall) who was quick to make odd noises back.
The Predacon bounced slightly while making a clicking noise, and Jack's tail wagged in response.
"Roadhauler, are you communicating with that Predacon?" Ultra Magnus asked.
Jack blinked at him in surprise, and made an odd huffing sound before looking frustrated and growling.
The Predacon chirped and transformed. Compared to Predaking and Jack, the transformation was simpler. (Primitive, Arcee thought.) The head and talons had a simple change to helm and pedes, while hands emerged from the wings.
"Hi!" The Predacon greeted cheerfully. "I heard the signal and I'm here to help fight!"
"I think we're more confused as to where you came from …" Arcee managed, lowering her weapon despite herself. Optimus just put away his weapons, prompting the others to do so.
"Oh, a few of us were able to break the glass before everything blew up. The others left me behind, though." The Predacon shrugged. "I couldn't keep up."
"And you're okay with that?"
"No, it was rude of them to leave me behind, but I figured I'd find a better pack eventually." The Predacon looked around. "Ooh, you've got humans! Hey, what's the point of visiting abandoned habitations?"
There was a pause.
"You mean a ghost town?" Raf asked, baffled. "Some people go looking for ghosts."
"We were asking if you were okay with us nearly blowing you up." Wheeljack managed to interrupt.
"You were protecting your pack." The Predacon looked at where Ratchet was working on Smokescreen. "That's important."
"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. If you wish to help us, you are more than welcome to stay. Arcee and Roadhauler can fill you in on our situation. Do you have a designation?"
"Divebomb." The Predacon bowed. "I promise I'll help protect the pack."
That was apparently that. Though Agent Fowler wasn't going to let it go that easily.
"Prime, a word?" Agent Fowler and Optimus stepped outside.
"Thanks for saving me." Arcee stepped forward.
"You don't have wings, I couldn't just let you fall." Divebomb looked confused by her gratitude.
There was going to be a bit of a learning curve, Arcee could already tell. Divebomb asked questions but didn't really wait for answers before asking more questions.
Eventually he got tired, transforming back to beast mode and curling up next to Jack, who gave a low growl but didn't push the other away.
Divebomb had a smaller body than Jack and Predaking, but the wings seemed make up the difference in mass.
Ratchet took a step back. Smokescreen was finally out of danger- it had been close, and the forced transformation once June was extracted had widened one of the wounds- and the cosmetic repairs could wait until after everyone else was checked.
Ratchet glanced around. Jack and the new Predacon were in power down, Miko was sleeping in Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Raf were talking about something with Ultra Magnus and Arcee, though Raf was obviously struggling to stay awake, while Wheeljack was attempting to patch himself up. Ratchet moved over to the wrecker.
"How's Smokescreen?" Wheeljack let him take over.
"He'll live, but recovery will take time." Ratchet sighed. "Our energon reserves took a hit, Roadhauler nearly burned through his own energon reserves sending the signal and Smokescreen… well, Predaking came close to tearing him apart."
"Then get me patched up and I'll get back to scouting."
"Scouting's all well and good, but Roadhauler needs the synth en formula sooner than later." Ratchet switched tools. "It took me more energon than before to get him conscious."
It honestly hurt Ratchet to see the way the former human kept struggling, and while he knew the blame belonged to the decepticons for being the ones to use it, Ratchet still felt culpable for being the reason the decepticons had that unstable formula to begin with.
Wheeljack fidgeted slightly. "Uh, Doc," the wrecker started.
"Don't call me that and what is it?" Ratchet scowled at the injury he was patching up.
"I don't want to overstep … but I used to study chemical engineering, before the war. I might be able to help, or at least, not make things worse."
Ratchet paused. "Why haven't you said something before?"
"Honestly, I'm out of practice. Wreckers didn't need me to do anything but break stuff…" Wheeljack glanced over at Smokescreen and the two Predacons. "It was easier back then to just let stuff break than try to keep fixing it."
Ratchet understood that … there were times during the darkest moments of the war where he had wondered what the point of putting bots back together when they'd just end up blown apart.
The Wreckers had high casualties… the highest. (Which was why Optimus had set Ultra Magnus as the one to try and get them to stop getting themselves killed.) After a certain point… even the most hardened of medics would have cracked.
"I could use a second opinion." As well as a fully functional lab, but he'd take what he could get.
Optimus Prime and Agent Fowler returned.
"Is there anyway to trace the signal Hauler sent?" Agent Fowler asked.
"Don't have to, we got a copy of it as it happened. We also got multiple pings back. We can't track them now, but we have the general locations. Divebomb said that, counting him, there were seven who escaped."
"Why am I counting nine signals?" Wheeljack asked.
"That's the odd thing. The other two signals are faint, and they could be echoes, but I can't clear it up any better to confirm." Rafael reported.
"We'll go after them in the morning. Right now, we will all rest and recover." Optimus ordered.
General Bryce nodded to Optimus Prime as he headed to Bill's office. The Autobots seemed to have grouped up around their injured for now.
And had apparently picked up a pterodactyl. That was going to be an interesting report.
"Ah! General Bryce, what brings you here?" Bill looked up from what was most likely the report of the day's events.
Generals were not supposed to leave their offices- people were supposed to come to them.
That said, exceptions weren't unheard of and he wanted to have a conversation with Bill without worrying about eavesdropping- the reemergence of MECH was concerning on several levels, the least of which was the discovery of active military among them.
"Bill. This is off the record and I hope you remember that I am not easily fooled." General Bryce watched as Bill winced. "Now, I understand your caution with MECH still loose. But answer me this- how the hell did a kid become a two story wolf?"
"With a lot of stuff I am not going to share. You remember my report that Jack was chosen by Prime to go to Vector Sigma? Well … according to Prime, Vector Sigma collects the sparks of all those that access it after their death, adding to its wisdom. Jack being human, Vector Sigma gave him spark energy so it could collect the boy's knowledge. The cons found out and as with everything else, twisted it." Bill sank back in his chair.
"You think someone will try to copy what was done, regardless of what will happen to a regular human."
"Humanity does have a reputation for bad ideas done with shaky intentions. And we know MECH has some connections to active military." Bill admitted.
"Then this conversation remains off the record, and we will label Jackson Darby as KIA-" General Bryce stopped speaking as Bill shook his head.
"Ju- Nurse Darby requests waiting a little longer. She was talking with Smokescreen and decided to label Jack dead once he comes up with a new designation. She's… still coming to terms with everything as well." Bill admitted.
"June?" General Bryce raised an eyebrow. He would accept the request to wait, but he wasn't going to pass up on that little slip. "Do I need to remind you of what you said after your divorce?"
"I remember what went wrong there, and … well, this time feels different. I don't want to rush anything, and June's got enough on her plate as is."
"Not to mention you're probably going to face the shovel talk from a giant wolf." General Bryce grinned as his friend grimaced. "I almost want to be there, given the shovel talk you gave me when I got married."
His wife had been an only child and had gotten a kick out of Bill acting as a surrogate big brother for her. (And she would be over the moon to learn Bill had fallen for someone like Nurse Darby.)
"That might be a bit more bitter than sweet." Bill pointed out.
"Bill… given all that the kids and you have been through, I've been thinking you all need mandatory visits with our psychologist Dr. Keen. She's professional and has the same security clearance for this Unit as you do. I can brief her about the security concerns regarding MECH, though I won't tell her about Roadhauler, I'll leave that up to you, say two days from now. I think you all need to talk to someone, and you're due for an evaluation soon."
"I'll brief Prime and the rest."
"Alright … and I expect you tomorrow afternoon to report on our new acquaintance. On record this time." Bryce instructed.
Knockout wasn't sure what he had done to deserve multiple near death experiences by Predacon, but he would do whatever it took to have them stop happening.
He had finished maintenance on some vehicons, and was going to type up the necessary reports before reporting to Shockwave when Predaking had stormed in.
"Predaking, what a surprise! How can I-?"
"Heal me or I'll rip you apart."
"Right. What happened?" Knockout asked as he started scanning. It looked like he had been clawed up by Jack again.
"The Autobots have captured another of my brethren. This one attacked me in defense of them!" Predaking growled.
"Wait, Ja- Ripclaw didn't do this?!" Knockout asked, startled. This could be a problem. "I thought you two were the only ones left!"
Predaking growled.
"You'd better notify Megatron." Knockout could only imagine the reaction their lord would have.
Thankfully, once Predaking was patched up, he didn't kill Knockout as he left, and Knockout survived another encounter. He didn't make it to the lab, though, as he was called to the bridge.
Apparently the extra Predacon wasn't the only news.
Nine unknown signals that answered a Tenth signal that was proving hard to trace. Soundwave was still looking into it, but it had bounced off multiple satellites and had even doubled back a few times.
"Analysis of the signal metadata indicates a distress signal." Shockwave reported. "There are some similarities to Predacon signals I recorded from my original experiments, but this is more complex."
"Then why didn't Predaking hear it?" Starscream asked.
"I had to alter his natural Predacon signal system to accept Decepticon communications, it may be that as a result, I limited his natural frequencies."
"Why didn't you just combine them?" Knockout asked. "We did the same for the insecticons, back in the day." Maintenance for that had been a nightmare. Prolonged stasis had done a number on those systems. And Airachnid had been able to use the natural insecticon signal system to control them, hopefully the Predacons didn't have the same problem.
"At the time, I worked under the assumption that I was not going to be found." Shockwave explained. "It would not have been logical to assume otherwise."
"Can you repair it?" Predaking asked.
"As long as no components were removed, it's an easy fix. You're basically patching the system instead of altering the hardware." Knockout shrugged.
"Then after Predaking has his communications fixed, we will track down the signals." Megatron decided.
"I will have Knockout assist me with the procedure."
"While I understand Shockwave's concern. I think Knockout is fully capable of performing the necessary procedure alone. We still have to work on the Omega lock." Starscream objected. "Not too mention Soundwave can handle further signal analysis."
"Indeed. Shockwave, brief Knockout on anything you think he should know, but it would be better for you to collect information on which Predacons might have escaped their fiery fate." Megatron agreed readily.
Knockout had a very bad feeling about this.
"Very well." Shockwave agreed.
Knockout glanced up to see a glaring Predaking.
He just knew his paint job was on the line if he wasn't able to fix the problem to the Predacon's standards.
Poor Knockout... his life would have been easier if he hadn't kidnapped Jack.
I'm bringing some characters from around the multiverse... mostly toy line inspired.
Guess who's all showing up!