Being Human (Transformers Prime)

Chapter Twenty | The Hunt Begins

"If we act like prey, they'll act like predators."

~Alyxandra Harvey, My Love Lies Bleeding

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The kids, at the moment, were resting alongside of their partners while Ratchet worked diligently at the computers. They felt tired, something they hadn't really thought about before- Cybertronians requiring rest. Their optics remained bright, however, as they watched Optimus help a weak Ultra Magnus to his feet, the metal groaning- as well as the bot himself -as it strained and protested against his new movements.

The commander insisted that he must be functional as soon as possible in order to help with their endeavor: finding Predacon bones before the Decepticons could lay their hands on them. He already claimed that his legs were mobile, but by the looks of his struggle, he used mobile as a general term.

"Easy, commander." Optimus says quietly as Ultra Magnus leaned on his arm heavily. He out one pede in front of the other, but each step was slow and sometimes he even had to use a hand to move the leg. Optimus was basically holding him, and he mimicked walking.

"I think that is enough." Ratchet pried his optics away from the computer, forcing Ultra Magnus to lay back down. "You're barely operable, and most definitely not healed enough to begin walking around."

"The sooner I get on my pedes and walking, the better." Ultra Magnus attempted to sit up again.

"Ep ep ep, don't you even think about it! Putting pressure on your lumbar struts, right where the injury is, could make it worse. Walking was bad enough, but sitting will put even more strain there. So just lie down, and rest." Ratchet shoved the commander's shoulders down, giving him a stern look before returning to the computers.

Wheeljack was leaning against a wall and, despite the doctor's orders, also moving around. His ability to bounce back from certain death was astounding, but Ratchet suspected he was weaker than the Wrecker let on.

But he had already wasted enough time and energon on healing his comrades. With two new additions, and hopefully one more in the near future, he had to find a way to create more energon. The synthetic formula proved promising, but he had very little resources to work with, and not even a sample to test out theories. It added on to the stress that made his spark ache.

His spark. Though it was not top priority, he was researching as best he could on ways to take out the shards of the Decepticons that Jack, Miko, and Rafael possessed, and possibly replacing them with an Autobot, if that was what they needed to survive. It would be a better alternative if they didn't require a spark shard in order for their own engineered ones to work, but there was no room for error. It would be more satisfying and safest just to kill the Decepticon, but terminating Soundwave and Megatron would prove to be difficult; Knock Out could possibly live just with the sheer will of needing to maintain his paint job, but that was unlikely.

"Prime!" Ratchet just about jumped as Agent Fowler yelled, gritting his denta. That human, he swore to Primus- "The 'cons are at it again! Activity has been picked up in both an oil field in Texas and somewhere in Scotland. So be sure to pack your kilts!"

"Agent Fowler, do you really think we have the people to deal with this situation right now??" Ratchet snapped, but Optimus held up a hand in a "quiet" gesture, turning to the Agent.

"We will divide up our resources the best we can." Optimus promised, looking at his functional team. Ratchet, who needed to stay with Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack, his patients, Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, and Shovel. The lattermost, of which, he couldn't bear to put out in the field. Not when-