//------------------------------// // Rescue // Story: We Need A Medic // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// Rescue “Ratchet to base, this is an Omega level emergency,” Ratchet said over the communication channels while he tore across the highway towards the Autobot base, sirens blaring loudly so that people would get out of his way. “Holy Diver is under Con assault right now and one of the girls that we are here to protect is in danger. I want all teams to mobilize as quickly as they can. Ground bridge permission granted!” “Copy Ratchet, strike team one is about to leave for Holy Diver’s last known location!” one of the Autobot’s said over the channel. “What’s your ETA?” “I’m still a good hour out, but don’t worry about me. Use the ground bridge to send as many reinforcements to Holy Diver as we can spare,” Ratchet ordered before taking a sharp swerve to avoid someone that hadn’t been paying attention. “Open your optics, buddy! Fliers, go next and get a full aerial scan of where Holy Diver was last located. If we get there and the Cons have already terminated her, then they will be trying to escape with Rainbow Dash. Livewire, do you have the jammer ready?” “Affirmative Ratchet, ground bridge jammer is fully functional and in affect,” Livewire replied. “If the Cons want to get out of there, they’re going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, with wheels and wings.” “Good work. Keep me informed of what’s going on at all times and make sure to constantly be checking in with the teams that are watching over the other girls. The last thing I want is to lose any more of the girls or Autobots to the Cons,” Ratchet instructed. He switched off his comms and floored it, driving even faster towards the Autobot base. As all he could do at the moment was drive towards the base while waiting for an update from his teammates, Ratchet turned his full attention to the girl that was sitting in the driver’s seat with both sad and angry eyes. “We’re going to save Rainbow Dash. I want you to know that.” “That’s great. Save her so I can ruin my friendship with her too when she asks me what’s going on,” Fluttershy whispered with venom in every word. “Fluttershy, I am sorry that damaging your friendship with Twilight is what it took to get her off of our trail, but believe me when I say she is safer for it. Out of all of your friends she is the only one without the magic that Ultracon seeks, meaning that she is the only one that the Cons have no interest in. But if she starts snooping around and accidentally runs into a Con, then they won’t capture her. They will kill her. What you did probably saved her life.” “Tell me that doesn’t make me feel any better about what I did,” Fluttershy muttered sadly. “No, it doesn’t. I’ve been told plenty of times that what I did was the right thing or that my actions saved so many at the cost of a few, but it doesn’t make the pain any softer. Sometimes doing the right thing Fluttershy can hurt worse than doing the wrong thing ever could. But if we don’t do what’s right, then others will suffer.” Fluttershy wanted to argue his point, but the fact that Rainbow Dash, one of her oldest and closest friends, was under attack was starting to sink in and Fluttershy felt her stomach tying itself into knots. She found herself constantly glancing at Ratchet’s radio, that where the other Autobot’s voices came from, while constantly waiting from an update from them. Eventually something came over the radio, but it wasn’t what she expected to hear. “All drivers, we have a five-car pileup on the highway at Robinson and Ark. Be advised that there are numerous reported injuries. All drivers in the area please head there now.” “What was that?” Fluttershy asked Ratchet. “Since I am an ambulance, I have access to the emergency centers communications,” Ratchet explained, but made no motion to change his course. “Occasionally it provides useful information, such as when the Cons attack a place where we couldn’t sense them on our scanners. One time the emergency system alerted us to an attack in the middle of the night in a part of the world well outside of our scanners.” “So then, why aren’t we going to help?” Fluttershy asked Ratchet. “Fluttershy, use your head. The Cons are attacking Holy Diver and Rainbow Dash as we speak. I am needed in the command center to order instructions to the Autobots as they engage the Deceptacons,” Ratchet replied with a chuckle. “We don’t have time to go out there and get back to the base. That is what the human ambulances are for, situations like this.” “Yes, but I’m looking at your map and can’t help but notice that we are the closest to the crash by far,” Fluttershy pointed out as she looked at the map Ratchet had on display inside the vehicle. He quickly shut the map off but already the damage was done. “If we turn up ahead we can make it there in a matter of minutes.” “Fluttershy, what good would our being there even do? You are not a trained EMT and I am not a real ambulance. If there are injured people there we would be driving them to the nearest hospital, which happens to be far away from where the base is. And then there is the fact that once we get there, there will be questions asked about the sixteen-year-old girl without a medical license picking up wound patients and bringing them to a hospital in an ambulance.” “I thought you got me this I.D. specifically to make sure no one asked questions?” “The I.D. is to make sure no on asks questions when they see you driving me, not for actually picking up patients and dropping them off at a hospital!” Ratchet snarled in reply. “Besides, this could be a trap by the Cons, one to lure us out while the rest of the Autobots are busy dealing with Holy Diver and Rainbow Dash. The risks are too high!” The turn was coming up and Fluttershy knew that she would need to say something to get Ratchet to turn. So for the second time in that day, she said something that she knew might hurt the other person. “The risks were high when Optimus dragged you off the battlefield. But he did it anyway.” “…to the scrapyard with you girl, you’re going to be the death of me,” Ratchet snarled before he yanked the steering wheel hard to the right and turned in the direction of the pileup. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. But before we get there I’m dropping you off so that if it is a trap the Cons won’t get you as well as me.” “Wouldn’t it be safer if I stayed with you instead of being off on my own by myself?” “You get one out of me, Fluttershy. Push too hard for two and I will turn right back towards the Autobot base.” “Fine. Don’t need to be a grump about it.” “You teenagers make me grumpy. I’m starting to think I’m allergic to you.” Within minutes the pair were upon the area of the crash, using Ratchet’s scanning system to home in on where it took place. Before they got too close, Ratchet came to a stop near a large pile of bushes and opened the door for Fluttershy to get out. She did so hesitantly, not sure she wanted to leave Ratchet by himself to deal with the pile-up. “I hope you realize that if this pile-up is real, you will need an actual person with you to load the people into the back,” Fluttershy told him. “Then keep your communicator on so that if I need you, I can call you over. And not a moment before,” Ratchet warned her before he turned on his siren and drove up onto the highway. His optics narrowed when he saw five cars all smashed into one another, confirming that part of the story. But what sent thoughts of confusion racing through his circuits was the way the cars were smashed together. They looked like they had been thrown into one another, not like they had crashed into each other. “Hello? Can anyone hear me? My name is Ratchet and I’m here to help you,” Ratchet said to the piled-up cars, hoping to see a person walk out from somewhere at any moment. “We received your call about the crash and how there were injured involved. If you are there, we need to get them to a medical facility quickly.” Then Ratchet’s headlights shone across a human, a human that was face down in the ground with arms extended. Ratchet slowly drove over to the human’s body and began to scan it, finding out a moment later that the human was dead. A sigh of regret escaped his lips as he moved on and started to scan around, only to find more humans, eight of them, who were also dead. “This isn’t right,” he muttered to himself. “What’s going on, Ratchet?” Fluttershy asked over the comms. “I’ve found the scene of the crash. I’ve also found the people who called in the crash. None of them made it,” Ratchet said to Fluttershy, who gasped in horror on the other end of the line. “But something isn’t adding up here. The call said that people were injured, but there were no reports of fatalities. Also, the way the cars have been smashed together. It’s almost like…by the All Spark I knew it!” The moment those words left his mouth a horde of Deceptacons appeared out of the shadows. Some of the Cons were small and nimble while most of them were large and armored heavily. They had barely begun to approach Ratchet before the both transformed into his robot mode, his left wrist extending a scalpel while his right arms transformed into a rifle. “Ratchet, what’s going on?” Fluttershy asked over the comms as Ratchet began to back away from the Deceptacon attackers, realizing how heavily outnumbered he was. “It was a trap Fluttershy, a Deceptacon trap,” Ratchet informed her as the Cons closed in around him. “The Cons crashed these cars, killed the humans and sent in the fake call to lure us out here. If I get out of this still functioning, Fluttershy, I hope you’re ready to hear I told you so for the rest of your life. Ratchet to base…I need help.”