Lab Rat

Chapter 2

Everyone at the Autobot base was relaxing. All except for Ratchet and Optimus. Chances of getting them to take a break from work was as difficult as finding an embroidery needle in a haystack the size of the world without a magnet. In simpler terms, impossible.

"Would you KNOCK it OFF?" Whined Ratchet, who was busy fixing something that the wreckers had broken when lobbing.

"Knock what off?" Asked Raf, looking up from his computer and up to Ratchet. The field medic shook his helm.

"Not you," he said, grabbing a wrench and pointing it at Bulkhead and Miko, "them." Raf nodded before going back to looking at his computer, attempting to study for a science test coming up.

Bulkhead and Miko were jamming out to some Slash Monkey right off to the edge of the human section. Miko was playing her guitar along with the song, horribly off key.

Jack was busy giving all the bots who accepted baths, so Wheeljack, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Ultra Magnus were all getting cleaned. Smokescreen was on patrol.

"-and then it was like BOOM! And CRASH!" Exclaimed Wheeljack, using his holoform to tell battle stories from Cybertron. "Bulkhead jumped in, wrecking ball swinging, and took out all of the Vehicons at the mine!"

A quick 'zip' came after rather quickly. Wheeljack's holoform was laying on the ground, groaning loudly. A small, plastic wrench lay next to his head.

"Geez, Sunshine, what's that for?" Wheezes Wheeljack, still regaining his breath. A smirk took place on the wrecker's face.

"For not shutting up Wheeljack. Quit being a sparkling and get up," Ratchet said, facing the mangled mess that had once been a servo-held energon scanner.

"You know what? I think this spot's pretty comfy Sunshine. So I think that I'll stay down here for a bit, you know?" Wheeljack's holoform said playfully. The orange and white medic huffed and shook his helm.

"Raf, let me tell you, this younger generation has no respect. None I tell you!" Ratchet said, sighing again.

"Tell me about it!" said Raf, nodding his head as he worked on his math homework. Or tried to at least. It was difficult with of the noise echoing throughout the base.

"Hey Optimus, can I stay the night?" Asked Miko, setting her stringed menace on the old yellow couch.

"I do not see why not as long as it is okay with your carrier units," Optimus said, looking up from decoding coordinates of Cyvertronian relics.

"You hear that Bulk?" Shrieked the young girl. "I'm spending the night!"

"You better recharge with one optic open kid," Wheeljack said.

"Why's that?" Asked Miko, who was now scrambling over Bulkhead like he was a jungle gym.

"Ol' Doc's givin' you the offline glare kid." Miko snorted, waving her hand. "Just warning you."

"Puh-lease!" Exclaimed the girl. "He won't do anything as long as Optimus is here."

"I don't know about that Miko," Bulkhead warned, glancing at the orange and white medic.

"Yeah, I wouldn't put it past Ol' Doc over there." Ratchet threw another wrench at Wheeljack. It clipped his shoulder. The Wrecker's holoform hissed but didn't do anything else. "See? What'd I tell you?"

"Heya DocBot, can you bridge me home so I can get my stuff to spend the night?" Miko asked, strutting toward Ratchet.

"Fine!" He snapped. "And do not call me DocBot!"

"Yay!" Miko squeeled as she ran through the groundbridge with Bulkhead.

The alarm blared. Wheeljack, at last, got up from his 'comfy' spit on the ground and groaned. "Fowler. Why is it always Fowler?" He whinned.

"All done,"'said Jack, patting the hood of Wheeljack's alt-mode. The mech's holoform fizzled out of existence, and he transformed back into his bi-pedal mode.

Agent William Fowler walked into the base, a scowl adorning his face and concern swirling in his eyes.

"Prime," he yelled, "why were we not made aware that M.E.C.H. has a human captive?"

Optimus hummed for a moment. "I am fresh to this news just as you are Agent Fowler."

"We didn't even know that M.E.C.H. had a human!" Bulkhead yelled through the comm link.

"Well, we need to get this person back and fast because the world council is RIGHT up my butt to get her back!" Fowler yelled, looking Optimus dead in the optics. "And I don't know about you guys, but I sure do not want to be fired anytime soon because some science enthusiasts got their little grubbies on one of our humans!"

The Autobots looked at one another with uncertainty. How had a human been stolen by M.E.C.H. right under their noses?

"Agent Fowler," Ratchet spoke up, "how longs have they had this human?"

Fowler frowned deeply. "Two years."

Everyone, aside from Optimus, reeled back in surprise.

"No no, not two years. They haven't been in existence that long!" Arcee exclaimed, shaking her blue helm.

Raf stood up, catching the attention of everyone at the base. "Maybe that's how long we've known about them?" he suggested. "Maybe they could have gotten their hands on some energon or remains of a dead Vehicon?"

"Good point kid." Everyone looked at Wheeljack. "What? The short stack may be onto something here."

After a few minutes of conversing among themselves, their leader finally approached Fowler. "We have an idea, but it may require some human help."

"Pray do tell," the agent said, leaning aginst the railing, listening intently as the Prime explained the Autobots' plan.