We Need A Medic

by Onomonopia

Robots In Disguise (3)

Robots in Disguise (3)

Silence. That was the only way Fluttershy could respond to the information that Ratchet had dropped on her. The Autobot looked down at the girl with pity in his eyes, daring not to say anything else. The twins kept their mouths shut as well, though it was written plain as day on Curbcheck’s face that he had some things to add. Even the other bots in the underground base had stopped what they were doing and turned their optics to Ratchet and Fluttershy, keeping a hushed silence as they awaited further developments.

“How?” was all Fluttershy could spit out when she found the strength to talk again.

“Taillight’s vehicle form was a pickup truck, something that wouldn’t stand out all that much amongst a bunch of campers,” Ratchet explained. “He was supposed to keep an eye on Sunset Shimmer while she was away at camp. We had hoped since she was further away from where the rest of you were that the Cons might take longer in finding her. We were wrong.”

“The Cons attacked Taillight an Sunset five days ago, when Sunset was hiking on her own through the forest. Taillight rushed to her aid thinking that the Cons were trying to kill her, but instead rushed into a trap that had been set for him,” Ratchet spat venomously. “The Cons knew that we were watching you girls, so they attacked Sunset to draw out her protector first. Taillight was ambushed by seven Cons, all of who were some of the most dangerous criminals to ever walk Cybertron. Poor kid didn’t stand a chance.”

“I found what remained of Taillight a few hours after we got his distress beacon,” Jetfire said from the side. “There…wasn’t much left of him to identify, aside from the Autobot symbol left on his remains. That was also where Sunset’s trail of magic went cold.”

“They…took her, right? They didn’t kill Sunset?” Fluttershy asked in a whisper, almost too afraid to find out the answer.

“No. If our intelligence is correct, Ultracon either needs or wants all of you alive to harness your magical powers,” Ratchet replied before pressing a button on his wrist. A giant image of a map sprung up in front of his optics and for a moment he stared at the image. “But after that incident, we have tripled our efforts on keeping the rest of you safe, to the point that even Optimus himself is in the field. And so far it seems to have dissuaded the Cons, save for their attack on you.”

“So when are you going to go get Sunset back?” Fluttershy asked.

“I beg your pardon?”

“When are you going to get her back? Mount a rescue operation and save her from the Deceptacons!” Fluttershy said in a raised voice, though it wasn’t much louder than her usual tone. Ratchet shared a look with the other Autobots that had gathered around, a look that caused most of them to shake their heads. “You’re not going to rescue her?”

“Fluttershy, at the moment we are doing everything in our power to find your friend so that we can bring her back safe and sound. But we can’t just rush around blindly in a vain hope that we will find her! Not only would that be the most inefficient way of finding your friend, but it would leave us completely open to attack from the Deceptacons.”

“B-but you’ve beaten the Deceptacons before! You won the war against them!” Fluttershy yelled in reply, barely registering what Ratchet had said. “And I watched you and your friend bring down over ten of them just earlier today! What is stopping you from doing that again?!”

“Fluttershy, you are clearly tired from a long and stressful day,” Ratchet said in a calm voice as his optics scanned her emotional state. “My recommendation to you is to go home and get some sleep. Come on, I’ll drive you there-“

“I am not leaving here until you tell me why we aren’t going out to save my friend!” Fluttershy replied in a shout, but from the way tears were forming in her eyes Ratchet could tell that she the fear within her was causing her to act this way. “She could be being subjected to heaven knows what and the giant, laser shooting robots that are supposed to be on our side are sitting around doing nothing!”

“Listen here fleshy,” Curbcheck began, crouching down so that he could glare at Fluttershy. “You better keep that temper of yours in check, or else things are not going to go well for you. Losing control is the last thing you want to do.”

“Pot meet kettle,” Stickshift muttered so that his brother couldn’t hear.

“Enough, Curbcheck,” Ratchet cut in and the younger bot backed away from Fluttershy. Ratchet knelt down and placed a fist on the ground so that he could lean his face in close to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, in the short time you have known us you have only seen us succeed. You do not see us as living beings, but giant, unstoppable beast of metal that can’t be bested. That is why you do not heed my warnings when I tell you an open search is too risky.”

Then Ratchet narrowed his optics and Fluttershy was bathed in the blue light generated from his eyes. “But allow me to say this so clearly that there is no chance of you misinterpreting it. We are not invincible fighting machines. We are much like you humans. At our best, we seem unstoppable. But we still hurt. We still bleed. And we can still very much die. And as painful as it is to admit, I will not risk the lives of everyone here on a fool’s mission to find a girl that has been taken by the deadliest foes know to Cybertron. Are we clear?”

Fluttershy wanted to argue. She wanted to say something smart like her friends would that would get the Autobots to start searching for her missing friend right away. But she wasn’t as gifted with speech like Twilight or Sunset and she couldn’t be fierce like Applejack or Rainbow Dash. So all Fluttershy could do was stare at the ground and hope that her long hair was covering up the hot tears that were dripping from her eyes.

“I bet Optimus would send out a search party,” Curbcheck muttered just loudly enough so that the bots and human closest to him could hear. His muttered words got him two kinds of responses. The first was a look of disbelief from Fluttershy, who stared up at the giant bot who had kept mocking her yet now seemed to be speaking on her behalf. The other look, however, was from Ratchet.

“Maybe if he was desperate, but Optimus is ten times the leader I ever will be and even he would admit that there is nothing more we can do at the moment,” Ratchet scolded Curbcheck in a low voice. “Even if we could get past all of the Cons I am sure are waiting for us at their base, we still have no idea where their base is. It could be anywhere on this planet and that is if it isn’t a mobile base. Optimus wouldn’t send us out against those kind of odds.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it’s times like these I miss Megatron,” Stickshift muttered with a shake of his head. “Yes he was ruthless and vile, but he was far too proud to hide, which made tracking him and his flying battleship much easier to track and break into.”

“The only reason that you can say that is because you never had to face Megatron, youngster,” Ratchet snapped at Stickshift, who held up his hands defensively. “The reason Megatron never bothered to hide was because he was far too powerful for any Autobot, or army of Autobot’s to stop. Only Optimus can match Megatron’s might and skill.”

“All I am saying Ratchet is that Ultracon seems to not trust his combat skills, as he has chosen to hide unlike the former leader of the Deceptacons,” Stickshift tried to correct, but Ratchet was finished listening to the younger bots. His body shifted and a moment later he was in his vehicle mode, which opened its door for Fluttershy.

“Come on Fluttershy, let me get you home. You’ve had a long day and your parents are probably worried sick about you, if I remember anything of Earth culture,” Ratchet said as he waved his door a few times in a hurrying motion. But Fluttershy stood silently with both of her eyes closed, getting Ratchet to sigh after a few moments. “Fluttershy, as I said we’ve done all we can. Once we learn some knew information-“

“He wouldn’t be anywhere on the planet,” Fluttershy cut Ratchet off. “Not when almost all of his targets are so close together. The two of us with magic that aren’t in town right now are Pinkie and Rainbow Dash, but even Pinkie’s on her way home. If I were Ultracon, I would have my base somewhere close by to where my prey was, so that I wouldn’t have to take them as far and allow for a higher chance of their escape.”

Ratchet stayed silent for a moment before he transformed back into his robot form. “Jetfire, take your team and search in a twenty-mile radius around the town,” Ratchet ordered, but he didn’t seem convinced by Fluttershy’s logic. “If you find anything, and I mean anything, out of the ordinary, you come back to base and report it. Do not engage by yourself.”

“Yes sir!” Jetfire replied before he and his teammates transformed into their flier modes. They spun around and rocketed out of an escape tunnel, leaving Ratchet to transform back into his ambulance form for Fluttershy once more.

“There Fluttershy, we are doing something. Now will you please allow me to take you home?” Ratchet asked. Fluttershy could hear the weariness in his voice and she recalled that despite the horrible day she might have had, at least she hadn’t been blasted by missiles and lasers. With a sigh, she decided that she had taxed Ratchet’s patience enough for that day, so without any further argument she stepped inside of the ambulance. “Twins, you’re both with me. After today I’m not letting any bot carrying one of these girls to go out by themselves and that includes me. Get a move on.”

The twins transformed into their vehicles forms, both of which were the same model of car just painted differently, before they grouped up behind Ratchet as he headed towards the exit of the base. Fluttershy wanted to lean her head against the window and drift off to dreamland, but after what she had seen and heard she figured it would be a while before she ever slept again. Then she recalled what Ratchet had said about seeing anything out of the ordinary.

“Hey Ratchet?”

“What?”

“Remember how you said to be on the lookout for anything strange? Well yesterday, after I was done speaking to my teacher, I thought I saw something that looked like a metal bird watching me from a distance,” Fluttershy said and immediately noticed how quiet Ratchet went. “Do you know anything about metal birds?”

“It must have been your imagination, Fluttershy,” Ratchet said in a soft voice.

“No, I’m fairly certain-“

“Fluttershy, there is only one Con I know of that uses a metal bird. And if Ultracon had managed to free him and had sent him to retrieve you, then you would be in Deceptacons hands right now. Because I would be dead.”

Comments

[badninja]

Well that is not good. It begs the question of why they allowed her to esca... Oh not good. I think that the base will not be there when Ratchet gets back.

[SeventhBrony]

Poor Ratchet, he will learn though.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

I'm getting a very bad feeling about this....

[Seawolf]

Ratchet sounded almost scared of Soundwave and I believe it considering that he gave Wheeljack who is a wrecker the closest thing that the Autobots have to Special Forces a run for his money! This does not bode well.

[Dinode]

And as painful as it is to admit, I will not risk the lives of everyone here on a fool’s mission to find a girl that has been taken by the deadliest foes know to Cybertron. Are we clear?”

Known.

Megatron's ship was cloaked, so it's not like he was out in the open. They could only attack if the cloak broke, they could get through an enemy ground bridge before it closed, or it was docked somewhere.

Looking forward to seeing more of this (especially if there's Soundwave). You seem to be getting better at avoiding grammar mistakes, but would you mind if I offered my proofreading services?

[The Bloon-Man]

There is silence, but not just any kind of silence. This silence knows all, sees all, and hears all. Almost all would tremble at the silence, of Soundwave.

[SeventhBrony]

8534275 Now, now. That isn’t polite or advantageous since he will not be able to watch us slowly peal his body a part and melt what is left from AROUND his optics!

[Daxen123]

Um they are guarding everyone, but what about human twilight? Doesn't she have magic now too.

[Sharp77]

Wasn't there a red car that pinkie saw like a hundred times?

[Blazewing Inferno]

Umm,

“Fluttershy, there is only one Con I know of that uses a metal bird. And if Ultracon had managed to free him and had sent him to retrieve you, then you would be in Deceptacons hands right now. Because I would be dead.”

Why do I think a certain quiet Decepticon is going to be in play soon?

[Acadians6545]

8587912
Wasn't laserbeak captured in prime I could've sworn he didn't get trapped with Soundwave because the Autobots captured him

[Venerable Ro]

Sod it all, the word is Decepticon!

[Nighlocktheawesome00]

8947973
No, Laserbeak wasn't.