Ratchet didn’t often take walks along the beach. The sand was irritating, the people were worse, and the sun did awful things to his pale skin. But at night it was different. Sure, the sand was still annoying but with no people and no sun? Ratchet almost understood what Optimus had meant.
It had been a long shift at the hospital, and not a good one. The kind that left Ratchet feeling hollow. He’d bumped into Optimus whilst trying to grab and coffee and continue but the police officer insisted Ratchet leave. He tried arguing, but Optimus was not one to back down easily. So Ratchet sighed, grabbed his things and headed out.
Ratchet didn’t live far from the hospital and thus walked to and from the hospital everyday. He always enjoyed seeing the stars as he walked home. He smiled. There was a light chill in the air and everything along the beach seemed to be covered in a haze of blue, the only sound was the calm splashing of waves against rocks and…
Ratchet started, it sounded like a wounded animal. He glanced about, noticing a flash of bright orange against the jagged rocks a few feet ahead of him. He winced - Ratchet certainly wasn’t a vet, but Sunburst would never forgive him if he let one of her precious marine animals die. He ran over towards the rocks, almost dropping his bag in his rush. Once he reached them he felt the grimy, wet surface of the rocks. It was hard to see but he caught another flash of orange. Ratchet grumbled, he was getting too old for this.
Not one to be easily deterred, Ratchet began carefully scaling the rocks, making sure his footing was stable before moving on. He had to mostly feel with his hands to make sure he wouldn’t step into a shallow tide pool. As Ratchet got closer, he felt one rock that felt particularly slippery - he pulled back and checked. Definitely blood.
His eyes widened, maybe it wasn’t an animal after all.
Seeing the blood steeled the elder man’s resolve, he pressed forward determinedly and within a few seconds he could see what looked to be the silhouette of a person lying on their stomach.
“Hey!” He called out, the figure stirred, “My name is Ratchet, I’m a doctor and I’m going to help you.”
“R...ach…” The voice mumbled. Ratchet recognised it instantly. Sunburst.
He’d known her since she was young. Bright, energetic, always so full of happiness. She’d been working with rehabilitating sea life since she was 13, and was always so passionate about the ocean.
But still, Ratchet had never thought her dumb enough to try something like this.
“Burst.” He said softly, he could see her hair, just a little closer, “It’s me, it’s going to be okay.”
She said something in a language Ratchet couldn’t understand. It almost hurt his ears.
He finally pulled himself up, and what he saw shocked him.
He saw a familiar, ridiculously long and luscious auburn hair. But as he looked down he realised instead of legs, Sunburst had a tail - a fish tail. Ratchet felt like he stopped breathing.
Then Sunburst looked up at him, hair matted around her face - sticky with blood.
Ratchet immediately entered Doctor Mode.
He leaned closer, getting a better look at her injuries. There was bruising and blood on her face, painful, not lethal. What was certainly more lethal was the gash that appeared to start somewhere on her chest and end around her… gills.
Ratchet shook his head, ordering himself to stay focused. Sunburst mumbled something in that strange language again, but Ratchet tried focusing on her injuries.
