The Strangest of Places Chapter 12

Owed

Transformers Prime/Rescue Bots Crossover

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It was early Sunday morning when Cody detected the Cybertronian life signal on the mainland.

Chase and Boulder had added the scanner to the command center's tech after their return from Moropolis, a case of paranoia in one and tactfully hidden caution in the other. The sensor's range extended all the way to the next state, just in case any other Autobots came near or happened to intercept Optimus Prime's message. In truth, they all knew it was a countermeasure against Decepticon attack.

Cody had been alone in the command center when the scanner chimed, and the boy had nearly leapt out of his seat at the unfamiliar sound. The Rescue Bots were down in the bunker, recharging or watching television, Kade and Graham were still asleep, and Dani in her pajamas and Charlie had yet to drink his morning coffee.

All Sunday morning plans were torn asunder by the boy's panicked announcement at 0800 hours. The boy's sibling scrambled to get into their vehicles, while Charlie dealt with his youngest who stubbornly refused to remain in the firehouse. Even with a few well-meaning warnings on part of the Autobots and a direct refusal from Kade, Cody remained unmoving on the matter. It was only after some more pleading and his promise to run if the meeting went sour did Chase grudgingly unlock his passenger side door and the chief allowed him in.

The four robots left the firehouse in a flurry of tires and smoke, communicating via their inner com lines as they reached the shoreline and drove straight into the ocean. Driving across the seabed would be faster than taking the ferry. Though, throughout the entire journey not a single soul could keep their thoughts surrounding the mysterious signal to themselves, so much that their coms were clogged with chatter.

"I wonder if it'll be another warrior to join Optimus' team!" Blades opined brightly. No one commented on the fact that the Prime's weekly check-ins had stopped for some time now.

"Or a scientist," Graham said, with encouragement from Boulder.

"Does it matter?" Kade demanded sourly as Heatwave drove past coral reefs and schools of fish.

"Whoever it is they had better adhere to standard Earth law and police protocol," Chase said huffily.

"Or maybe another flyer?" Dani pointed out hopefully, despite Blades' morose whimper.

Chief Burns cleared his throat to quiet the babble. "Or this Cybertronian could be a hostile force." All rescue personnel were silent, and Charlie continued. "Now it's most likely not one of Optimus' teammates, seeing as how they usually contact us when one of them is in the area. So I want everyone on their guard—even if it is a new Autobot, they may not distinguish us from the enemy."

A chorus of "yes sirs" went across the channel and conversations continued in private for the remainder of their drive. Not much later, however, they were emerging on the mainland's shore by the docks, and Chief Burns swiftly disembarked to explain to the dockworkers why three emergency vehicles had just driven out of the ocean and one helicopter above.

Upon his return Charlie ordered his team to split up, Blades and Dani sticking to the sky while the others spread out around the docks. The Com Tab in Cody's lap, synced with the command center computer, helpfully displayed that the Cybertronian signal was coming from nearby.

"Look for anything strange or out of place," Charlie advised before they separated. "Even if they have chosen a vehicular mode, it may not be a standard one."

Blades hadn't even been hovering over the docks for five minutes before he found something decidedly odd in the shipping yard very near to the Griffin Rock ferry. He called it in before Dani had fully spotted it.

"Um…does an ambulance in a shipping yard qualify as 'strange or out of place'?"

In an instant the other Rescue Bots had swooped in on Blades' location, cautiously approaching the parked vehicle.

"This is too weird," Kade murmured over the com line and Heatwave rumbled an agreement as the group inched forward. "I mean…look at it. It's almost like it's waiting for us."

Once more his siblings and colleagues agreed as they approached. The ambulance was parked snugly between two stacks of shipping containers, hidden from the view unless they were in air. It did not move, and not even a single light flickered.

"Could it be asleep?" Cody offered. "Or…recharging?"

"Maybe we shouldn't bother him," Blades offered meekly.

"No," Heatwave decided, straightening in the shadows cast by yet another row of shipping containers. "We have to find out if it's hostile." Kade's tightened grip on his steering wheel demonstrated his consent.

The garnet-colored leader stepped out into the ambulance's 'line of sight', lifting his servos in a placating gesture belied by his large, intimidating form. "My designation is Heatwave, leader of Rescue Force Sigma-17. We mean you no harm."

There was a beat of silence, and the only sound heard could be the steady rushing of nearby ocean waves, before the ambulance shuddered on its axles. Its surface rippled once more before splitting apart and reforming in the shape of an orange and white Cybertronian about as tall as Chase with a thin chevron across his brow. He eyed Heatwave with a critical and unimpressed cerulean optic before scoffing openly.

"Well I certainly hope that you mean me no harm. It would not end well for you or your teammates, I assure you." He waved a lazy servo in the direction of the shipping containers behind which the other Rescue Bots were hiding. "They can come out, if they'd like."

Backstrut rigid, Heatwave jerked his helm to the side, signaling for the others to step out from their coverts. The four collectively observed the clearly older Cybertronian in silence for many seconds, who in turn rifled through a medical kit at his hip.

"You're an Autobot," Heatwave said, stating a fact. The medic harrumphed in the back of his throat; a human gesture, as the Rescue Bots had learned.

"Give the kid a prize," he muttered, before turning and giving Heatwave his full attention. "Ratchet, chief medical officer to Optimus Prime." There was no tremor to his voice when he mentioned his as-of-late absent leader, but he didn't mask the bitterness that crept into his tone instead. The tension of the situation did not waver much, and under the reproachful optic of the aged medic the four young Autobots felt like children being reprimanded for impoliteness toward an elder.

"Well?" Ratchet began irritably, waving a servo in their direction. "Aren't the rest of you going to introduce yourselves?"

They would later think it odd, how at that moment under the steady ribbing of a Cybertronian none of them had met before that the heavy tension abruptly faded. The Rescue Bots were quick to say their names.

Ratchet nodded once, mumbling something indistinguishable under his breath, before looking back up at them again. "You are all accounted for then," he said.

Chase was quick to interrupt, after prompting from one of the humans still within him. "Actually, sir, that is not entirely true." At the strange look and furrowed optical ridges he was sent, the police-bot opened his windshield and held out a servo for Chief Burns to climb onto.

Ratchet watched at first with a neutral expression as the gray-haired police man stood on Chase's palm, optics carefully hopping from Rescue Bot to Rescue Bot, most likely deducing that there were adult humans within each of them, as he'd most likely been informed previously. But then Cody followed his father onto Chase's servo, and the medic's features became truly frightening.

For many quick seconds Ratchet looked torn between terribly wanting to chew someone out and snatch the child from their inadequate protection, sporting an expression so akin to a sneer that it would not look ill-suited on a Decepticon. There was a slight tremor to his limbs that only the Rescue Bots and Chief Burns noticed as Cody carefully climbed onto the police-bots appendage. Though the moment was brief, the hollow, fiery look in Ratchet's optics, which were once filled with a cool indifference, showed just how difficult it was to contain himself from resorting to action that he would inevitably regret. Although it was clear that the boy's presence had unsettled him in some way.

Ratchet inhaled deeply through his intake manifolds, though it sounded more like a human sigh than anything else, the trembling stopped, and he tore his gaze away from the boy and in that instant looked indescribably weak. When he'd turned back to the Rescue Bots his optics were cooler, and there was no hint that his near-episode had ever happened. He nodded toward the perturbed police officer still in Chase's palm.

"First of all, Ratchet," Charlie began, a note of uncertainty in his voice. "My team can take very good care of themselves, with or without the Rescue Bots help. Though we do appreciate the concern." The medic nodded stiffly, and while his optics were miles away, it still looked like he had to bite his glossa to contain a scathing retort. "Anyway, I'm Chief Charlie Burns of Griffin Rock. My eldest children are partnered with the Rescue Bots—Kade, Graham, and Dani." Each of them waved from within their designated partner. Charlie levelly met the medic's cool gaze. "Why have you come, Ratchet? You obviously knew that you would be detected this close to Griffin Rock."

Ratchet half shrugged with one rotator cup. "I was in the general area and low on energon. Optimus informed me of your location and I decided to drop by for a…visit, of sorts. To check on your progress and such." He tilted his helm slightly to the side in question. "I hope that this is not a problem?"

Charlie shook his head. "Of course not. We welcome any of Optimus' team. Are you ready to go to the island now?"

Ratchet nodded, transforming quickly back to vehicle mode. The Rescue Bots followed suite, leading the way for the ambulance.

"So we're just letting him came back home with us?" Kade demanded irately over the com line. "This 'bot who says he's Prime's medic?"

"Optimus has mentioned him before," Boulder said. "Even though Bumblebee was the only one of his Autobots who ever visited."

"You know, I always wondered about that," Dani inputted. "Why didn't Optimus ever let any of his team come down?"

"It doesn't matter, team," Charlie interrupted. "Ratchet's here and we don't know how long he's going to stay. I'm sure he'll tell us in due time why he's come now."

As the com lines once again dwindled into general conversation, Cody turned to his father.

"Dad, do you know why Ratchet's here?" he asked worriedly as they reached the dock, and Ratchet somehow tapped into their com links and informed them succinctly that by no means would he travel to Griffin Rock underwater and demanded to take the ferry.

Charlie exhaled heavily. "Son, I really have no idea."


Ratchet began joining the team on missions not even a week after his arrival.

His choice to accompany them went unvoiced, though the few that had tried to question it had swiftly given up upon the deadpanned or cantankerous look the aged medic would grace them with. Ratchet acted not only as a human medic, delivering necessary information to Dani and Blades or driving the injured humans to the hospital himself despite any complaints on his part, but he was also as a Cybertronian one, repairing any dents or more damaging wounds the Rescue Bots acquired. He hardly spoke of his team, and when he did it would be a mumbled criticism; like when Heatwave leapt into a ravine to catch a falling car and bled bright blue energon from a tear in his side, and Ratchet knocked a few more dents into his helm with whatever tool was in reach of his servo as he repaired him, muttering "dense as dirt…One of the most idiotic ideas I've ever heard of…Bulkhead wasn't even this reckless…".

Ratchet's presence on missions acted as a calming agent. The other Autobots knew that they had a seasoned medic among them, one who, admittedly, swore at them and batted them around with his trusty wrench more often than he gave helpful counsel. He wasn't social, however. After a job well-done he would scuttle back to his personal quarters in the bunker, which had become more of a lab than somewhere fit for recharge. Doc Greene had been more than happy to donate whatever tech he no longer needed or utilized, and had even offered to help the Cybertronian scientist with any projects of his. And while it was safe to say that while Ratchet was nearly always polite with the humans and performed as a mindless robot flawlessly, he could be insulting and criticizing just as easily, doing so with hardly raising his voice. Greene was quickly ejected from the bunker, but still followed Ratchet in a lost, hopeful fashion whenever either came around.

And furthermore, not even a week later, Chief Burns also received a call from the Pentagon.

Charlie had excused himself from the table during breakfast to speak in private, and returned drawn and pale.

"Dad?" Cody asked, and his siblings waited in silence, allowing him to question his father. "What happened? Who called?"

Charlie cleared his throat, falling back into his seat. He picked up his mug of coffee but didn't drink from it. "That was Special Agent Fowler," he began, looking down at his drink as if hoping it would provide him an answer or the words to continue. "And um…he said…" His children sat on the edge of their seats, worriedly confounded by their father's inability to speak.

"What did he say, Dad?" Kade demanded, and was shushed by Dani and Graham. Charlie inhaled sharply.

"Turn on the news, Cody. Please."

Cody blinked but did as he was told, passing over Huxley's daily report and pausing at the Worldwide News Network. On the screen, described by one of the news anchors, was a massive, metal structure hundreds of feet high amid an otherwise barren dessert. It was clearly not man-made and the headline beneath it read 'Alien's among us? Unearthly fortress created in Jasper, Nevada—hidden by government'.

The table was utterly silent, and Cody hardly felt his thumb press against the volume button to make the anchor heard.

"—apparently built a little over a week ago, this 'alien fortress' reportedly appeared in Jasper, Nevada after the town's population had been evacuated. Witnesses say that a beam of light descended from the clouds and shook the ground, this tremor extending for many miles. When it had gone the building was in its place. The President has yet to make a formal address of the matter, and the Pentagon is also keeping quiet. The question on everyone's mind, however, is are there really aliens, and if so, how long have they been here in—"

The television powered down with a cheerful whir, courtesy of Kade, who had taken the remote from Cody's limp fingers. The five of them were quiet for many minutes after, their breakfasts untouched. Finally, Dani cleared her throat and reached for her father's hand across the table.

"Dad…the bots?"

Charlie had not looked up from his mug, though the coffee had long since cooled, and he did not answer.

"Optimus and the others," Graham tried, consternation flickering behind his glasses. "What happened to them?"

Unable to contain himself, Kade slammed a hand onto the table, startling all but his father. "Darn it, Dad, what's happened?!"

Charlie finally looked up to meet his son's burning gaze. "I don't know," he said honestly. "Fowler said that their base was destroyed. They haven't been able to complete a full search with the Decepticons over their heads, but they have verified that there are…no survivors. Human or Autobot."

"But Ratchet's here," Kade pointed out, brow furrowing. "He may be able to tell us what happened."

"If he'll talk," Graham said. "We'll need to be gentle and give him time—he may have lost his entire team, Kade."

"Guys," Dani whispered, face pale, though the tremor in her tone obtained her family's attention. "Where's Cody?"


"Do you often bother the Rescue Bots in their free time as well?" Ratchet asked aloud as he tightened the final bolt on his test engine. Cody, taking the medic's complaint as consent to enter, let the human-sized door slide closed behind him.

"I just came to check up on you, is all," Cody said innocently as he walked over to Ratchet's side, stopping when he was level with his ankle. "We never see you and you hardly leave your cave."

"It is a laboratory," Ratchet mumbled sourly, stooping down to pick up the boy and drop him on the high counter in a movement so swift and natural that for half a second Cody couldn't believe it had happened. As Cody sat down to watch Ratchet's nimble servos glance over the nooks and crannies of the test engine, the medic said, in a surprisingly conversational tone, "Didn't your family warn you about me and my temperament? Wouldn't want me 'biting your head off', so to speak."

Cody shrugged, sitting down in a cross-legged position. "Heatwave did say you might be in one of your moods, but I know you wouldn't hurt me."

The boy was too busy picking at a loose string on his sleeve to notice Ratchet's servos still over the engine. "And how are you so certain of this?" he inquired grimly, tightening any loose bolts he found.

Cody ran a hand through his hair, brushing it from his eyes. "I don't know," he said honestly. "I just am." He leaned forward and tried to turn his head sideways to meet the medic's lowered optics. "And besides, do you remember when we first met? I saw that you looked perfectly fine with my dad and Kade and the others being partnered with the bots, but then you saw me and you almost lost it." Cody blinked. "Why?"

Ratchet slammed his wrench down onto his worktable, making the boy jump. "If living with giant alien robots isn't danger enough, partaking with 'missions of mercy' certainly is." He wrenched open a cabinet behind him that Cody hadn't noticed before, pulling out a large container of some strange, glowing green liquid. "I mean, look at you!" Ratchet jerked a servo in Cody's general direction as he snapped the container into an injector. "Barely a child." He then inserted it into the fuel tank of the test engine, talking and gesturing wildly with one servo all the while. "And yes, you may have your big, strong Autobots to protect you, but the war front is no place for a child, much less a human child, to—"

"But Ratchet," Cody interrupted softly. "We're not in a war."

Ratchet seemed to freeze, servos completely still as the last drops of the green liquid dripped into the test engine. His optics were very far away, and Cody was quite sure that he was not seeing the plain steel walls of his storage room-turned laboratory.

"N-no, of course not," he said after a good while, pulling the injector out of the engine and setting it aside with unsteady articulators.

"Ratchet," Cody tried, standing up. "Please tell me."

"Tell you what?" the medic snapped, optics like ice. His servos had not stopped trembling.

Cody swallowed as he was held by Ratchet's steely gaze, feeling like a pinned insect up for display. "What-what happened, Ratchet. Please tell me."

Ratchet looked away and began to fiddle with the engine again. As the seconds stretched into minutes Cody feared that the medic would never speak and he began to look for a way down when—

"There were three children in our company."

Cody paused at the edge of the counter, staying silent to ponder if he'd heard right, before whirling back to face the medic. Ratchet stood hunched over his experiment as usual, wrench hovering over his glowing test engine, though his optics were distant once again. The boy swallowed. "What were—"

"Their names were Jack, Miko, and Rafael," Ratchet interrupted, voice so much softer than Cody was used to. "Bright young things, all of them. Annoying as micro-scraplets, yes, but…"Ratchet turned his helm away, his optics tightly shut. "You and Rafael are quite alike. I have no doubt that you would have become friends—oh, why am I telling you this?!" the medic suddenly barked, pounding a fist onto the counter and nearly making Cody lose his balance. "You're only a child, you couldn't possibly understand—"Despite his rage, Ratchet's expression was still very far away and so full of pain. This time, however, it was Cody who interceded.

"I do understand, Ratchet," he pleaded, stepping closer to the seething medic. "Optimus and Bumblebee were my friends—just like they were yours." Cody rested a hand on Ratchet's servo, the larger appendage dwarfing his own so much it was nearly comical. "Please tell me what happened to everyone."

Ratchet only flinched slightly at the contact, and he avoided eye contact for several moments, indescribable emotion swirling behind his glowing optics. When he finally met Cody's gaze he exvented again in a way that sounded similar to sigh.

"I take it Agent Fowler took the liberty of contacting your family?"

Cody nodded. "He called my dad."

The Cybertronian hummed. "Then you know that we are no longer a government secret."

"I saw what the Decepticons did," Cody murmured, gazing down at the hand that Ratchet had not dislodged from his servo despite his clear dislike for human contact. "And I saw the base. Did…did everyone…?"

Ratchet nodded stiffly. "The children left with their Autobot guardians through the Ground Bridge. We scattered all over your world."

Cody knew that something was amiss by the way Ratchet so calmly and smoothly explained matters that were clearly far worse than how he told them. "E-everyone?" he asked, voice wavering with what he knew was to come.

Ratchet tightened his articulators around the edge of the countertop, leaving light gouges in the metal. His admittance would only make what happened reality, one that had been successfully unheeded and denied in a cloud of ignorant bliss for the past week. But by the wide innocent eyes Cody looked up at him with, Ratchet could not deny himself or the boy the truth any longer.

"Optimus stayed behind to ensure that the Decepticons could not follow."


In another week Bulkhead and Miko had joined them.

The girl made fast friends with Dani and Frankie, and would constantly demand that Blades take her on rides over the island. She was a ball of unstoppable energy, and followed each Rescue Bot around like a lost puppy for the first few days of her arrival. Miko hardly saw new Autobots and discovering four more was practically a dream come true. Although, the moment she and Bulkhead pulled into the driveway of the firehouse and Miko spotted Ratchet among the gathered bots she had raced out and made a beeline for him, wrapping her arms as well as she could around the crotchety medic's ankle, babbling about how much she had missed him.

Ratchet feigned annoyance when Miko would not leave his side, though when he thought no one was looking he would watch the energetic girl with warmth and gratitude.

Bulkhead, however, had duties of his own. When he wasn't keeping an eye on Miko he was training the Rescue Bots for battlefield combat. Heatwave took to the lessons like a fish to water and once Bulkhead decided he had learned enough he had the fire-bot teach his teammates. Even Ratchet's medical lessons grew more intense.

It was clear that the pair were readying the untrained Rescue Bots for a war that would arrive all too soon at their front door, and while they were hidden from the Decepticons for now by a signal-masking barrier constructed by Ratchet, Boulder, Doc Greene, and Graham, it was a temporary insurance.

It was another month until Bumblebee and Rafael arrived with an unknown bot named Jazz who set up a boot camp for the Autobots. As Ratchet had guessed, Rafael and Cody got along famously and helped outfit the Command Center computer with a firewall strong enough to keep even Soundwave out.

Arcee, Jack, and Smokescreen were the last, coming to Griffin Rock two and a half months later. The young Praxian and Chase were quick to butt heads, while Arcee joined as another instructor. Jack made it his priority to watch over the children.

Throughout the chaos of the months following Ratchet's initial arrival, Griffin Rock had changed as well.

After Megatron's first televised address to the planet, announcing his presence and his intentions, Mayor Lusky and his wife were some of the first to flee the island. The townsfolk were also quick to connect the dots surrounding their robotic protectors' true origins and many left just as quickly as the mayor. Those that remained, Doc Greene, Professor Baranova, the Pfeiffers, Mrs. Neederlander, Haley, and Huxley Prescott, for example, worked together to keep Griffin Rock running and protected. Others were simply far too stubborn to leave their home, and had no qualms about the Autobots' presence.

The Autobots looked to Ratchet for guidance and leadership yet again, though now their leader was gone for good and not in the thrall of their enemy. It was difficult to decide which would've been worse.

Ratchet doubted himself, as he always did when in command. He was not meant to create battle strategies, even if Jazz had quite a firm grasp on the subject, nor lead troops into battle. They were still few in number, though he did send out another encoded Autobot signal into space, hoping for more recruits. Optimus Prime was gone, however. And Ratchet knew that without their Prime there would be very few Autobots answering to the call.

But with every feeling of self-doubt that grew, he would watch one or all of the children joke with their family, human and Autobot, or Rafael would give him an encouraging word when attempting to help him hack into the Nemesis' mainframe, or Miko would make fun of him again, or Cody would look at him with his bottomless and knowing dark eyes, still so full of innocence despite all he had seen and would see, and Ratchet would know that he couldn't surrender. Until he was under Megatron's heelstrut, plasma cannon to his helm, he would protect any teammates he had left. He owed Optimus, and Cody, that at the very least.