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“Do any of you happen to know where Bumblebee is?” Optimus’s low voice rang throughout the abandoned missile silo, stirring Ratchet from his work by his medical station and making the medic turn his optics toward the unfolding scene nearby. He as well had been curious about the yellow scout's whereabouts since he hadn’t reported back from his scheduled recon mission yesterday.
“Uhh…We have no idea” Bulkhead's attempt at lying was a poor one and this was only backed up by his spiking EMP field which alerted Ratchet’s medical sensors. Arcee on the other servo seemed externally as collected and calm as ever which wasn’t exactly surprising.
“Oh, don’t play stupid!” Ratchet decided to join in on the conversation. He took a step back from his station and strutted next to Optimus with his optics narrowed at the two warriors and his servos resting on his hips.
The larger of the two warriors seemed to physically waver under his hard gaze whereas Arcee remained still. Either the motorcycle didn’t honestly know about the whole ordeal or she was better at being under pressure, more so than Ratchet had originally thought.
“Do I need to remind all of you how-” Beside him, Optimus raised his servo as a subtle sign for Ratchet to halt his rising rampage, which he did, but not without a loud ex-vent of hot air from his intake as a retaliation. The prime ignored this with experience before he took a calmer approach.
“This is a matter of safety and protocol. I have understood that Bumblebee’s signal is still hidden from our sensors.”
Bulkhead and Arcee glanced at each other, weighing out their options and most likely exchanging some words via private comm-links. That lasted only for a few seconds before Bulkhead eased up and Arcee crossed her arms as both of them seemed to have gotten into an agreement about whether they should talk or not.
“He went after the signal Ratchet detected yesterday.” The femme started the explaining.
“The meteorite?” Ratchet recalled with disbelief as Optimus beside him remained stoic.
“Bee told us he wanted to go check it out since it landed near Griffin Rock and he never got to meet the rescue bots that live there,” Bulkhead hurried his explanation while strictly avoiding meeting the medics or the prime’s optics like he would’ve been afraid of getting blamed for the scout’s actions.
Ratchet and Optimus glanced at each other in a wordless communication and Ratchet ex-vented, again, before he turned around and walked back to his station. It was better he left the conversation before he could say or throw something.
Following the medics' leave, the prime nodded to the two and said a few words about continuing the conversation once Bumblebee made his return before he walked up to the medical workstation, beside Ratchet.
“This is not the first instance something like this has occurred,” Ratchet noted dryly once the other two bots had wordlessly left the base to fetch the kids from school.
“He is young and inexperienced, Ratchet.”
Of course Ratchet knew that, but what he couldn’t comprehend was: How in the name of Primus didn’t the scout learn from his last sneaking-out-without-permission adventure when Optimus had by just mere luck found out about the whole thing and had to interfere when an innocent human had been endangered thanks to Knock Out.
Besides, Optimus had given the whole team a strict order to not make any contact with the rescue force or the people of Griffin Rock -for everyone's safety-, back when the rescue bots had been placed on that far island.
Before Ratchet could give any form of a reply, the main computer led out an alarm with lights flaring up, catching both of them off guard.
“Don’t tell me it’s Fowler calling in about Bumblebee being discovered”
His sarcastic comment only received a disapproving look from the Prime as the larger mech walked up to the computer to see what the alarm had been about. Ratchet stayed behind, standing at the station but still keeping his sound receptors perked up and optics glancing towards the Prime and the screen, occasionally.
After a few kliks passed, the medic heard the comm-link open and a very familiar beeping voice coming through.
“ <Rescue Force Sigma-17 to Autobot Outpost omega one> .”
“This is Optimus Prime, Autobot outpost omega one.”
Ratchet gave up pretending not to care once he heard Bumblebee and decided to blatantly turn himself upright and stare at the computer's screen which was partially covered by Optimuse’s frame. On the screen, there was a live video of Bumblebee and four other bots standing behind him which Ratchet made out as the rescue force.
“ <I have made contact with the Rescue Force and we together discovered the meteorite's location. The meteorite seems to be not harmful to humans or bots>. ”
“While I appreciate your desire to help Bumblebee, I cannot condone you undertaking a mission without my knowledge. I am, however, glad to hear that the meteorite you found appears to be nonthreatening. Thank you, rescue bots, for your help.”
There was a pause.
“Bumblebee, I suggest you spend a few more days with the rescue team. Observe how they work with their human partners and with each other.”
After hearing that Ratchet thought their conversation was over, but was proven wrong when a new voice - which was surprisingly similar to that of Starscream- perked through the comm links.
“Optimus, Sir, If any openings come up on your team…”
“Thank you for your continued interest, Heatwave. Rescue bots, good luck.”
The commlinks went silent and for a while, Ratchet kept staring at the Prime’s back and the now green blank screen. A good few thoughts and opinions ran through the medics' processor. For a moment he had felt compelled to ask about this Heatwave and his interest in joining the team but decided that would be a conversation for later.
“I highly doubt a meteorite would be completely harmless…” Ratchet stated thoughtfully once he had decided what was the most important take on the conversation he had just overheard.
Optimus replied with a simple humm of his systems before he hovered his servos over the keypad and started to write, most likely a report about the recent events. The medic knew that there was nothing more to say of importance for the time being so he turned back to his medical station and continued with his research.
-
As he had suspected: The meteorite was indeed not harmless, at least not to bots.
Less than a cycle had passed after the call from Bumblebee when they received a message from him, with some very bad news. Optimus had been the one to receive the said message and soon forwarded it to the medic, who now had what humans would call a tricky situation on his servos.
“There are hundreds of viruses and plagues with the symptoms described! And, how in the name of Primus, am I supposed to be able to diagnose anything if I can’t even see the patients!” Ratchet barked at Optimus who now stood before him, expecting to hear good news, only to receive the medic's anger but the Prime did not seem to be bothered by it.
“The only knowledge about the meteorite's origins they could provide through the message was its most likely outset being from this solar system.”
Ensuing that statement, with a purposefully loud huff, Ratchet marched to his station and began to cross off different viruses, plagues, and so forth, from his list of possibilities until only a few were left and he was able to make a semi-accurate guess.
“It’s most likely a biological virus that affects only living metal that has the correct type of structure.” He finally could ease some of his systems that had started to overheat due to the high tension. Ratchet turned away from his screen and towards his long-time friend who had patiently waited for him to do his thing, Optimus didn’t seem any less worried but was still visibly tense -like he had begun to be more often as time went on-.
“Taking into consideration the ship they traveled on and their mission before they went into stasis, I believe they should have a cure on their ship somewhere,” Ratchet added slowly while still keeping his optics keen on Optimus.
The Prime was -of course- concerned for everybody's sake, but now that Bumblebee's spark was also possibly on the line, it wasn’t too difficult to imagine that he was extra concerned.
“Thank you Ratchet. I will relay this information to Bumblebee.” With that, Optimus walked over to the control panel and prepared to make another call.
-
“So you rolled around in the sea and got yourself infected from the meteorite!?”
Bumblebee stared at the medic who looked like he would at any moment start listing the things why he should be put out of action for multiple cycles, but he got lucky for he was saved by the Prime who made his way to him and Ratchet.
“I do not think lecturing will benefit any of us at this time.”
Ratchet seemed to flash the Prime a furious look and if the scout himself wasn’t so afraid of the medic, he would have laughed at the casualty of the scene.
“But I do think Bumblebee owes us a long, detailed, report of what he has learned with his time in Griffin Rock.”
Noticeably deflating, Bumblebee nodded and accepted his fate while the ambulance seemed to remain as angry as before the offered compromise. Optimus gave some kind of a look towards Ratchet -which he didn’t quite understand- before the Autobot leader abandoned him to Ratchet's mercy.
“I swear, Optimus plays for your favor way too often.” The scout heard Ratchet growling to himself before walking up to him and starting to shove him in the direction of the medical bay.
“I do not have the whole cycle to spend on listening to your report so, chop chop!”
Bumblebee let out an audible laugh and complied with the older bots' orders.