These Paths We Tread (Autobot x OC)

IV. Bad Day

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“Catherine!” Sam shouted, diving forward to catch the redhead as she fell. He managed to get there in time, but had to fall to his knees when his hands couldn’t support the full weight in the position he was in. He made sure she didn’t hit the ground, though, and turned her upwards to look at her. Her face was pained, sweaty, and there was a dribble of blood coming from her nose. Only, the blood wasn’t red—it looked purple; almost black in the dim light.

“What’s wrong with her?” Mikeala gasped, helping to adjust the redhead to a more comfortable position. She touched her forehead carefully. “Jesus! She’s burning up!”

“Help!” Sam shouted, turning back to the mechs. “Help! Something’s wrong!”

The Autobots' Medic didn’t need another word as he rushed forward and flashed a beam down on Catherine, going down her entire frame, his mouth gradually falling into a scowl. A panel on his arm moved and he ran his fingers across it with a displeased hum that did nothing to ease Sam’s worry.

Ratchet balked when he finished, “By the Allspark—it’s Energon poisoning! But how? Could it—Boy! Has she ingested or been exposed any unnatural fluids? Even a simple scratch would be enough.”

“A scratch? Her arm!” the boy shouted and held up her still-wrapped wound, the shirt black and wet from the blood. With a quick word from the medic, he removed the cloth and the two humans winced at the sight. What should have been slightly tanned, freckled skin was instead blackened, reaching almost all the way around her arm. It had moved up towards her shoulder too, branching out into thin, black vines that had to be her veins. The wound itself was oozing a mixture of white puss and blue fluid, and there was a horrid stench not so unlike burning flesh that made them gag.

“That’s Energon poisoning alright. I’ve only seen it once or twice with an organic, but that’s it for sure,” Ratchet nodded grimly, and then glared at Bumblebee. “Why didn’t you tell me one of the humans was infected let alone hurt?!”

The yellow Autobot bowed his head, beeping apologetically, but the medic had already lost interest as he shifted his finger into a needle-like device and then shuffled through an opened space in his chest compartment. From there he brought out a vial of fluid not unlike the ones from the hologram image Optimus had shown them, only white. He inserted the needle-like device into, pulling out some of the liquid, and gently picked up Catherine’s arm where he aiming the needle point at the elbow, right above the wound.

Sam lurched forward, stopping his hand, “Whoa! What do you think you’re doing! Do you even know about human anatomy?”

“I’m injecting a neutralizing agent to the Energon into her systems. It should be able to combine with the Energon in her and stop it from corroding her body further and allow her immune system to deal with the rest. And yes, I made sure to download human physiology when we accessed the World Wide Web, now stand aside before her damage is increased.”

“Wait—‘should’? You mean you this might kill her instead?” Mikeala shouted, and the medic sighed with exasperation.

“Cybertron isn’t exactly full of organics, but our bodily systems run much the same in concept, and the data from my scans provided enough to confirm it should react how I predict. Either way, she will offline, but the neutralizing agent at least has a chance to save her.”

Sam glanced back at the others, specifically at Bumblebee, whom gave an encouraging nod and round of beeps. The other robots were in agreement as well, and he turned to Ratchet and nodded back. While he wasn’t sure himself, the medic was right—Catherine was going to die if they didn’t do anything and if that neutralizer whatever thing could save her, then he would let Ratchet inject it. He couldn’t let Catherine die.