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Post by ratchet on Jan 31, 2013 14:27:34 GMT -5
How did it ever come to this? Never once did Ratchet think he would see the day when Autobots were merely the leftovers of a faction to be hunted and eliminated. His thoughts swirled in his processor like a raging storm as he drove at high speeds on the strip of road he’d been dumped on by the ground bridge. His sirens wailed loudly and people moved out of his way as best they could as he tried to follow close to his young comrade, Smokescreen, but he himself barely noticed. It was all white noise to him. His thoughts were fixed on Cybertron, now lost forever, and his team-mates. How were they taking the situation and their new coordinates? Who would lead them with Optimus- Optimus… His spark seemed to wither painfully at the thought of his old friend. Was Optimus even alive? Did he make it out of the base in time?
He shuddered to think of how their base of operations had ended up. Surely the Decepticons had destroyed it into nothing more than a pile of rubble. His thoughts paused momentarily as he sped up once again to keep up with the bot in front of him. For now Ratchet was content to let the youngling lead the way. Again his processor flickered on to the topic of his team-mates. Wheeljack.. As much as the bot annoyed him, he had ended up being a true autobot when it counted. His mind flashed back to how he and Fowler fought to buy them even a small bit of time, and now, he had no idea what had become of them.
He gave an inward groan full of grief at the situation. He needed to stop thinking on this and focus on finding some kind of shelter. He couldn't just keep driving on and on forever. Ratchet turned off his sirens as he found himself in the middle of nowhere, the business of the previous suburbs long behind him. There was hardly anyone around apart from Smokescreen and himself, so his sirens weren't exactly needed here. The autobot found he missed the noise though, as the silence of the urban roads was all too loud for his tastes.
The medic gave a small growl, trying to steel his resolve to stop pondering on things he couldn't fix. What good were questions if there were no answers readily available? Ratchet ex-vented noisily in a sigh of defeat. Still… the pain of not knowing tended to outweigh the logical course of action. At least he knew how one of his team was doing though, and that was enough to occupy him for now.
“Will you slow down already?!” he commed grumpily to his young companion. “Not all of us are race-cars in disguise, you know...” Oh it was going to be a long drive… a long drive indeed.
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Post by Crossfire on Feb 2, 2013 18:41:03 GMT -5
This was quickly adding up to Crossfire’s list of worse days of his life. He’d had a blessed few, but nonetheless this was up there. Cybertron was potentially lost for all eternity; the base was reduced to rubble, the Autobots were scattered, and the Decepticons were winning with that impossible fort of New Kaon. The Groundbridge had been set to random, so every bot that passed through was always sent to a different location than the next, but still confined to the continental US. Optimus had demanded he go last, and was practically tossing mechs out the Groundbridge. Crossfire was unfortunately one of the first to get ejected, as he had been replacing a light bulb near the bridge when everything happened. He had ended up in some rural town on the outskirts of an urban area, behind a strip mall. Transforming into vehicle mode the second he realized he was in a populated area, he sat there with his engine running. He was shocked. Shocked at what had transpired. He became anxious and nervous thinking about the fate of his comrades, and of the humans. He had never particularly like being so alone, and the fact he didn’t know how long he’d be alone for. With his luck, he was probably farthest from everyone else. Slowly driving into the parking lot of the strip mall and choosing a slot, he parked himself and sat there. Taking several deep vents to calm himself down, he shut off his engine. To take his mind off of it, he started counting how many humans walked in and out of certain stores, how many wore red, which ones actually purchased goods. After a good while he got incredibly bored with it.
With the setting sun, most of the humans began departing for their homes. It made him wish for a home to return to. Just as he was about to return to a pit of self pity, the sounds of ambulance sirens drew his attention. A familiar sports car streaked by, followed by an equally familiar ambulance. It took him a klik to realize who they were, and in a flurry of ecstatic field bursts to get their attentions he rocketed out of the strip mall. They had quite the distance away from him, but his Ferrari altmode had no trouble catching up. Luckily there weren’t many humans out on the road or he would’ve probably crashed into something trying to avoid them. With the two ‘bots within sight near the horizon, Crossfire opened a personal comm directed at them
“Smokescreen! Ratchet! Wait! It’s me!”
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Post by ratchet on Feb 5, 2013 19:11:29 GMT -5
“Smokescreen! I said slow down!” Ratchet grumped again through his comm. The rookie never seemed to listen. He did finally slow to the speed limit however and apologized sullenly in a voice that barely seemed like the lively young bot’s at all. Clearly the recent turn of events had taken its toll on him as well.
Vaguely Ratchet noted the sound of squealing tires and logged it away as background noise in his processor. That is, until he heard someone calling his name quite loudly and frantically through his comm. Before he could grumble and gripe about a processor ache, however, his spark leapt in its casing as he realized just who had called to him.
Without a moment’s notice, the ambulance slammed on his breaks, his own tires screeching as he came to a halt so that their comrade could catch up to them. Crossfire?!
A moment later, he heard Smokescreen suddenly hit his breaks as well, and it probably took every fiber of control for both of them not to transform and pull their team-mate into a relieved embrace. The poor scout had probably been horrified to have been sent off alone, and now Ratchet regretted not sending someone with Crossfire initially, though clearly Optimus had thought ahead.
“Crossfire! Thank Primus, you’re a sight for sore optics…” Ratchet said, his relief and other emotions breaking through his normally gruff attitude for just a moment.
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Post by Crossfire on Feb 7, 2013 18:31:55 GMT -5
Relief flooded Crossfire as he spotted the ambulance and sports car grind to a halt. Had they not been in blatant public view he would’ve run to greet them. Instead he opted to floor it and catch up with them. He had achieved such a velocity that when he finally drew near, instead of slamming the breaks he had to swerve into a donut and circled them before stopping. The sheer inertia of coming out of a fast spin lifted his left side tires off the ground slightly before slamming back down to earth. Ratchet’s momentary lapse in grump was a clear sign the day’s events had a serious toll on everyone. He expanded his field, wrapping his friends in with waves of relief-happy-friends. Smokescreen began revving his engines in excitement
“Cross! What hole did you crawl out from?” He joked nervously, as if trying to alleviate the overhanging depression with humor. Crossfire didn’t blame him at all.
“More of a parking lot, really. You don’t really get to pick where the bridge spits you out. Especially since Prime practically tossed me in.” Crossfire chuckled halfheartedly. He tried not to think about the fates of the others. Or Prime for that matter. Crossfire was about to start up some more conversation, and ask about what had fully happened when car horns began honking. The trio of bots had failed to notice the stream of humans driving home from work had begun to pile up. After all, an ambulance and two sport cars were sitting idly in the middle of a highway blocking any way around them. One human drove up close and it appeared he was about to step out and investigate. That wouldn’t do. Crossfire couldn’t imagine how a human would react to three empty vehicles driving around like they were possessed.
“Um…perhaps we should drive off road for a bit. You know, before the humans call the tow trucks in..”
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Post by ratchet on Feb 13, 2013 19:08:19 GMT -5
Ratchet smiled inwardly as the young bot caught up to them and his own field flickered with relief and joy at seeing the scout safe and sound. At his suggestion, however, he came to himself and used his mirrors to glance about, noting that indeed they had created quite a traffic jam.
“Indeed… There’s a dirt road up ahead we can turn off on. It looks fairly deserted,” came Ratchet’s gruff reply, and with that he turned his lights on sans siren, and started driving. “And do stick to the speed limit for now. My wheels are sore from speeding thus far already.”
“Aww!” Smokescreen whined, but followed at a steady pace with a small amount of grumbling. “Speed limits are such a drag…” With that the old bot drove in thoughtful silence toward said street, and turned down it. The medic continued a ways before turning his emergency lights off, and looked for a place that they could possibly transform and rest for the night. He hated being in vehicle mode for long periods of time; it made his joints ache.
After a while of driving down the dusty path, Ratchet gave a pleased hum upon finding it lead to a wooded area with practically no one around for miles. It was good enough of an excuse for him, and he drove off road for a small bit before he transformed into his root mode. With a luxurious stretch he began walking deeper into the woods that were dark with the shadows of the late afternoon before he stopped and turned around to wait for the other two.
Smokescreen barely drove away from the road before transforming and sprinting over to where Ratchet stood, as hyper as ever despite the circumstances.
“Finally a chance to stretch!” he cheered, walking around to get feeling back in his limbs.
The Autobot medic ignored the young speedster with ease, and looked at Crossfire with his hands on his hips. “So tell us what happened after you were bridged out… How long were you in that parking lot?” he asked. In truth he just wanted to hear the scout speak, and distract them all from reality for the moment.
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