Chapter Text
Starting Back Up Check…
Spark: ONLINE
Processor: ONLINE
Fuel Levels: LOW
Charge Levels: HIGH
Protocols: ONLINE
Rebooting….
Rebooting….
Rebootin-
The Prime’s optics flickered online. His processor lumbered behind; sensing pain and automatically turning receptors down. Warnings popped up in his vision. Purposefully set in the center so he wouldn’t ignore them. Small beeps that indicated low energon levels filled his mind. Tired of the sound, the Prime shoved them away. His lowered pain receptors still ached. It was bothersome, but he could not lower them any further.
He briefly checked over the damage report he received. He had a few good gashes to his chassis- but nothing life threatening if they were treated. Though, seeing as though he sent his only medic to an island in Maine, he wasn’t getting treated anytime soon.
Optimus tried moving his limbs. Ignoring the flare on his receptors, he attempted to turn his arm. Only, the creak that came from the motion was deafening. It echoed all around him, but that couldn’t drown out the noise of another frame jumping. Oh, so he wasn’t alone.
The other bot stumbled over their feet: clumsily, Optimus noted. He couldn’t muster the effort to transform his servos. After all, who knows how long the bot had been there. Or, Optimus might’ve been captured. At this point, he didn’t care. His bots were safely away, and he didn’t even know their locations. He would be useless for knowledge.
But then his optics picked up a mainly white paint job. No Decepticons he knew of even touched white…
The bot sprinted over. Pedes tripping over rocks (Oh, they were still on the ground?) as they made their way over. Then the bot exclaimed, “You’re awake!”
Optimus recognized that voice…
Why was Smokescreen here with him?!
“What’re you…” The Prime murmured, voice falling short. The speedster crouched down, and gently pushed him back down.
“You’re damaged, just stay there,” Smokescreen urged. The concern was foreign to the mech’s voice.
“Why are you here ?” Optimus hissed through his dentae. Trying to move up again, only to be stopped by the mech’s servo.
The speedster avoided the Prime’s optics. A nervous smile on his face. “I came back,” Optimus gave him a look, “I don’t know why! I just did! But when I came back the base was all destroyed. Fire everywhere. I’m pretty sure some human helicopters were there too…” The speedster hummed for a bit, recollecting his memories. “Oh yeah! You were in the wreckage so I dragged you here. I think you’ve been out for two solar cycles..?”
The Prime let out an exasperated sigh. Two cycles was a long time. Especially since Smokescreen could’ve used that time to go to the rendezvous.
But the mech wasn’t done, “Since I found you there, I was thinking of going out and looking for more? If you survived, who knows what else did!” Smokescreen’s optics glinted in the low light. They showed his hope with an almost childish glimmer.
Optimus let his helm lie back on the wall. Considering, if it had been two cycles the Decepticons were most likely gone. Venting, “If you see anyone, you retreat. Understood?”
Smokescreen grinned with victory.
Retreat, yeah he wasn’t doing that. He stepped over another piece of crumpled metal. Everything here was the Autobot’s. If anyone here was trying to take it, he would make them regret it!
The destroyed remnants of the base around him sent a little shiver through his struts. Not even three solar cycles ago, he and Miko were arguing over what Earth movie had the better cast...
Lifting a giant piece of debris, he could see the destroyed communications array. Huffing, he let it drop again. The crash filled the silence. But then there was a different crash. He whipped around towards the noise. His new battle protocols roaring to life. He made a dive under the crumbled sheet of metal. Just in time to witness another mech drag something out into view.
Smokescreen hissed under his breath. The item seemed to be pretty large. Too large for the mech to carry normally. One side was more outward, like a-
The Forge!
He quickly transformed his servos into blasters. The crumpled material around him would be able to hide him for however long he wanted. In fact, he could just ignore the bot and retreat, like Optimus said.
But, he was Smokescreen . So, he darted out and forward, prepared to send whoever this bot was back to their master. Whatever cover he had was blown by the loud crunch of a metal bar underneath his pede. The mech, startled, turned sharply to look at him. Hesitating for just a second, the speedster raised his blasters.
Only to be met with a scoff, “C’mon kid, this thing won’t lift itself!” The gruff voice of Wheeljack complained. Tugging on the hammer for emphasis. The Forge was digging into the ground and with all of the debris it must be hard to get out. It kept getting caught on small pieces of metal. It must be really frustrating...
Especially with the look on the wrecker’s face. Smokescreen jumped forward with his newly transformed servos. Bending down to take the other end of the hammer. He had to try three times before successfully lifting it. By the time he had it on his shoulder (ow.) almost five kliks had passed. Smokescreen jolted when Wheeljack suddenly started to march forward. Stumbling a little, he followed in silence.
He carefully stepped over more metal as he walked. Depressingly, he could even recognize small bits and pieces of the wreckage. He already missed the berths. He let himself dive into the memories of the base. Of messing around with the kids. Of messing with Bee and Ratchet. Messing around in general.
He was ripped away from these memories when the wrecker in front of him stopped with no warning. The speedster stumbled to make sure the hammer stayed on his shoulder. “You can just drop it here,” The wrecker called out. Smokescreen huffed and shuffled the hammer’s head off of his shoulder. Grunting as it fell into his servos. He and the wrecker bent down to lay it on the ground. After making sure it was stable, the speedster straightened himself and looked around.
He didn’t even notice how far they had walked. They were behind another one of those big rock structures near the base. He could see a little searing from where the bomb must’ve brushed. And right next to that was- OH! How did he not notice that ship?!
It was damaged. There were gashes all over it, and the lifting gear was crumpled. It wouldn’t take off, but if it were fixed they could easily get to the rendezvous point! But how would they fix it?
Optimus would know. Speaking of which…
“Hey! We need to go back,” Smokescreen exclaimed out of the blue. His outburst made the wrecker raise an optic ridge.
“For what?”
“Well, Optimus is-”
“Prime?!”
In hindsight, maybe they should’ve brought the Jackhammer a little closer. It’s not like Optimus couldn’t walk, but carrying him would just be easier on the big lug. But how was he supposed to know the Prime would weigh a ton?!
The two were carrying the Prime with his arms around his shoulders. Lugging him over debris was a look more difficult than they had bargained for. Unfortunately, if the Prime tried to stand on his own two pedes, he would be too high to carry. So to stop the pain, they had to quite literally drag him.
And Wheeljack was tired of it about a klik in.
Though by the time they were in the range of sight of the Jackhammer, they had to take a break. It took everything in his power not to just grab Optimus by his pedes and drag him across the ground to get there.
And considering how impulsive he is, Wheeljack did a very good job at controlling himself.
When they had arrived, Wheeljack unceremoniously let the Prime drop. (The kid gave him a look)
He jogged to his ship, running his servos over the scratches and dents those ‘Cons put in. Oh he’d make them pay… this would take some miracle to fix her.
And in some ways, a miracle is what he got.
The Rescue Team seemed to be all holding their breath. Five days had passed since the Autobot medic Ratchet had arrived and announced that the rest of Team Prime were coming. But since then, nothing had popped up. The energon sensor had been empty. Doc Greene’s invention that sends a signal when a plane flies overhead; it had nothing. And that sent everyone on edge. Especially the Burns family, who had less to find the bots with.
Ratchet didn’t make things any better. The family offered him a spare room in the bunker with the med-berth (which was cleaned thoroughly). The medic didn’t have the best attitude, and seemed to somehow always get on Heatwave’s nerves. Though unlike some others, he shot back insults just as good.
So combined with the tense relations, and nothing on the sensors; they were on the tip of their toes.
One day, the Burns and the bots were over at Doc Greene’s lab checking over the air sensor. When they were looking away, about to leave, the sensor suddenly chirped. Everyone jumped and whipped around to look at the machine. As soon as they saw the red dot, they were already rolling out.
It didn’t even take them five minutes. Even Chase, who normally watches his speed, raced with the rest of them. Honestly, it was impressive none of them crashed.
Skidding to a halt, Ratchet transformed just beyond the meadow. According to the coordinates the ship was hovering around here. The others stopped just behind him. The humans were talking over their com or something- he didn’t really care. Right now, he was searching the skies. He knew some ships has cloaking technology- but that didn’t stop the warping of light. If he could just find it-
There it was.
Ratchet tried to see how big the warp was, when the warp was suddenly bigger. He could feel the air from the ship (it must have good venting) getting closer. Hissing over his shoulder, “Get back!”
The others scrambled, backing up behind the hill. The meadow was encased by hills and trees. Thick enough where they wouldn’t be seen by civilians. They only had so much room so if this ship was too big…
The rush of air almost threw them back. Ratchet had to dig his pedes into the ground to stop himself from tumbling. Dust flew everywhere, and he could see the impact from landing gear. The others murmured with concern behind him.
The warp flickered for a moment, dark steel popping up in front of the trees. Then with a hiss, the cloak shut off. Ratchet invented hard. It looked like the Jackhammer… but it was larger. And (don’t tell Wheeljack) better.
When the door hissed, all of them jumped. Ratchet transformed his blades, ready for anything to come out of that ship.
Well what he thought anything .
The door slowly opened to show an injured Prime. His face was determined as he took a shaky step forward. He bent down hard, and quickly took another step. Ratchet’s medic protocols acknowledged a limp. Along with many slashes to the chassis and limbs. After a whole medical scan, Ratchet recognized the very large and obvious tool the Prime was holding. Putting two and two together… they must’ve used The Forge to change the ship. But why would they do that when Optimus was in such poor condition?!
He lunged forward, grabbing the Prime’s arm and throwing it over his shoulder. Optimus didn’t even resist- they’ve done this so many times it was probably integrated into their programming. The two lurched together, the Prime’s knees giving out.
“Hello again old friend-” Optimus began slowly.
“OH NO DON’T YOU ‘old friend’ ME,” Ratchet snapped, “I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU!”
He quickly glanced over his shoulder. Smokescreen and Wheeljack stepped out next and stared at the bots in the meadow. Smokescreen looked fine, but Wheeljack looked scuffed up. A bit of concern lit up his spark. Hopefully it wasn’t anything serious- he and Optimus lurched again.
Venting in sharply, “OUT OF ALL THE SCRAP-BRAIND IDEAS YOU’VE HAD,” the two shakily made it over to the other bots, “DECIDING TO FIGHT A WHOLE WARSHIP HAS TO JUST TAKE IT ALL ,” making sure Optimus gently met the ground, Ratchet turned to glare at the Prime, “OPTIMUS KINDLY TELL ME WHAT THE FRA- ”
A servo slapped over his mouth. Ratchet’s whole frame stiffened with rage. He was going to kill somebot. His helm snapped over to be met with the faceplates of a cheeky wrecker. “Careful Sunshine , there’s humans here,” Wheeljack drawled out. Spluttering, Ratchet grabbed the wreckers arm and tugged it away. Glaring daggers into the grinning Wheeljack’s face.
He turned sharply to other bots, who were looking a little frightened, “This is Optimus Prime the reckless idiot, Smokescreen the not-yet-scrapped-kid, and Wheeljack the soon-to-be-wrecked wrecker!” Ratchet snarled, glaring at the smug Wheeljack.
Boulder took a step forward, smiling nervously, “Let’s not do anything we regret now…”
“Oh I won’t regret it, I’ll enjoy it !”
“You’ll miss me not even a nanoklik after,” Wheeljack hummed sweetly.
“Okay as fun as this is, we might need to get them back before they kill each other,” Kade whispered to his partner, who nodded in agreement.
“Okay… welcome to Griffin Rock!”