Transformers: The Cross

Chapter 10 - Grumps and Gears

     It wasn't long before we found ourselves back inside the humongous hangar. The atmosphere was noticeably a little dimmer than before, but soon I made the connection when I saw that every Autobot had abandoned their designated platform. Where shiny vehicles had been parked before, the overhead lights only brought the skid marks on the ground to light.

     Shanghai must be ground zero, I thought. They left in a hurry.

     I shrugged to myself, then caught up with Miko, who strode purposefully on her long legs toward the right side of the building, the opposite direction of the interrogation room. She headed for a door along the wall and tugged it open. Then we emerged inside a barely lit, narrow hallway. I didn't even need to extend my arms all the way out to touch both walls.

     Humming, Miko marched ahead, and her footsteps abruptly changed from muffled thumping to obnoxious clanging. 

     "Watch your step - rickety stairs ahead." 

     And ricket they did. It seemed like an eternity of patternless noise before we reached the next level and came face to face with another tough-looking door. A flood of light was waiting for us behind it; Miko didn't hesitate to grip and pull. I followed the silhouette of her punk-rock hair inside, squinting in preparation for the view.

     Nothing could've prepared me for what I saw.

     A hulking screen, bigger than any TV that could've fit inside a house was mounted on the west side of the room. It featured various symbols, a mix of numbers, charts, and Cybertronian inscriptions. Leveled with it were shelves along the wall, below it was an array of controls on what seemed to be a countertop that bordered along the whole room, housing all different kinds of monitors, equipment and alien looking instruments. In the very center was a large metal table, meant for supporting beings much bigger than Miko and I.

     "Welcome to Ratchet's Medical Bay," Miko said, looking at me with pride.

     I inched to the edge of the catwalk, my hands gripping the rails to get a better look and to keep myself from falling. It was hard not to feel insignificant compared to the gargantuan things surrounding me, including the twenty-something-foot neon robot directing a salty glare at the two of us. 

     "Hi, Ratch!"

     In his mechanical hand he held what looked like a large, spiraling translucent tube. In the other was a sort of....brush, I guessed; he might've been in the middle of cleaning his supplies. Air vented from the aged Cybertronian, annoyance clear in his voice. "Hello, Miko. May I ask, what is it you are doing in my medical bay?"

     The sunny grin never faltered from her face. She seemed immune to his wish to be left alone, maybe even entertained by it. "Just giving a tour of the base to our newest guest, the usual."

     "Honestly," Ratchet snorted, stalking over to the other side of the room, placing the tube in an empty space on the shelf. "I don't see why you insist on going on these excursions if these so called 'friendships' you are trying to form only last a few solar cycles."

     Her smile dropped into a pout. "Well, what else am I supposed to do? Hang out with Raf and Jack for the rest of my life? Sam and Mikaela only visit in intervals of like....a bajillion months!"

     "Hmm, intervals," the medicinal robot speculated, turning to give Miko a knowing smirk. "Vocabulary improvement. Perhaps spending more time with them would be beneficial." 

     Miko scoffed indignantly, folding her arms and jutting her hip out to the side. "Rude."

     "I don't know what you mean. I'm just observing," Ratchet said innocently, turning his broad shoulders and walking closer to us. "Speaking of observations...."