WTF Drabbles 10 - TF and OC

Ryuko sighed softly as she drove down the highway, finally hitting the outskirts of the city and heading home.  She’d really prefer to go straight to the Autobot base, but because of the new rules Prowl put into place, that was out of the question  She would have to drive home, roughly five miles away from the base, and call Blurr to have him come and pick her up.

Beside her, in the cup holder of her Jeep, her cell phone began to vibrate and Ryuko picked it up, flipping up the cover and pressing it to her ear before her eyes widened in realization.  The phone still vibrated in her hand and that clued her off to one thing.

There was a Decepticon near by.

Cussing in at least three languages, Ryuko looked at the screen display before snapping the phone shut and placed it under the left shoulder strap of her bodice where she could feel the vibration, continuing to drive at a normal pace.  If she saw correctly, the Decepticon was roughly two miles behind her and so it might or might not have been following her.

She didn’t take the chances though.  Soon, the turn off for the Autobot base came up and went by, Ryuko only glancing at the road before driving on.  The same went for the driveway to her house and after ten minutes of her cell phone continuously vibrating, she knew she was in trouble.  She sped up her driving as much as she dared, trying to lose the Decepticon tailing her, but nothing would work after thirty minutes.

Ryuko was coming close to panicking, her hands nervously gripping the steering wheel as she looked around the wilderness she drove past for anything that would help.  Five minutes later, she came upon a scenic cliffside and decided that was the best she was going to get outside of Autobot assistance.

The young woman stopped her SUV in a parking spot and grabbed her computer bag from the passenger seat before get out of the vehicle, locking it, and jumped over the railing that was supposed to keep people in the safe area.  It took about half a mile of jumping over rocks in the fading light and keeping a hand on the cell phone before she found a small cave that faced out towards the desert in the area.

Ryuko scrambled to get further back into the cave as she swung her backpack in front of her and pulled out her computer, feeling the beginnings of panic take over.  Placing the cell phone on the ground beside her, she kept an eye on the small dot on the screen, watching it get closer as her computer started up.  Shaky hands brought up a program and typed in a few lines of command.

After a few moments, the computer appeared to shut down, but the screen flashed “TOTAL BLACKOUT” before falling dark.  The wireless icon still glowed blue and the screen of her cell phone showed a “no signal” message.  The panic ebbed but only a small bit.  After all, if the Decepticon actually looked in her hiding spot, she could still be found.  She only hoped that it would leave before her computer loses power in twelve hours.

Grimacing and rubbing her sore arms, Ryuko pressed herself back against the rocky wall of the cave and watched the entrance, knowing that her only glitter bomb device won’t help her situation at all.

oOo

Blurr jerked up, optics wide, in the middle of his target practice.  “Something’swrong!” he said urgently to no one in particular.  His processors froze as he stretched his scanners as far as they could do but received the same information back.  Tracker not found.  “Something’swrongsomething’swrongsomething’swrong!”

Wheeljack lower his weapon before he could test fire it, looking over at the blue Autobot.  “What’s wrong?”

“Ryuko’sgone!  Hersignalisgone!  Ryuko’ssignalisgone!  Itcan’tbegone!  Itcan’tbeturnedoff!”

“Whoa!  Slow down!  You need to explain!”

“I put a transmitter in Ryuko’s cell phone so I can track her if she gets lost and the signal can’t be turned off no matter what but I can’t find it!  It’s gone now!”

Wheeljack looked at him in surprise.  Blurr must be really worried if he obeyed something without questioning.  “What’s her last known location?”

“Fifty two point seven miles south east.  She drove for a half hour after passing her house.”  Bright blue optics flickered and the order to slow down was promptly forgotten.  “It’sgoingtorain!  Shedoesn’tliketherain!  Thisisbadbadbad!”

“C’mon Blurr.  Let’s get to Prowl and get a few ‘Bots to go with us,” Wheeljack said, subspacing his weapon and grabbing the speedster by his arm.  The time that Becka got caught and injured raced through his processors and he refused to see that happen ever again.  “We’ll need to tell him we’re leaving if anything.”

oOo

Thunder rumbled in the sky and Ryuko’s breath left her in a soundless gasp but no other sound escaped her.  The rain had started fifteen minutes ago, the thunder and lightning ten, and she was thoroughly soaked, her hair sticking to her cheeks and her clothing clinging to her body, allowing the cold to penetrate her skin and chilling her to the bones.  She had removed her bodice and arm warmers, using the clothing to help elevate her computer off of the wet cave floor but she didn’t dare remove anything else.

“Stay calm.  Don’t do anything,” she murmured quietly.  “You can’t do anything.  Decepticons are at least four times your size.  Stay calm.”

Something slammed onto the ground outside the entrance of the cave, blocking the wind and the sound of the rain, and Ryuko stifled a cry of terror, curling up to make her form smaller and hopefully less noticeable.

“I know you’re here fleshing,” a rough, electronic voice growled, the words punctuated by a crack of lightning.  “I might not be able to pick up on your signal but I know it’s in this area…”

Lightning struck close by and the femme screamed as it illuminated the entire cave and revealing it to the red optics staring into it.  Sharp teeth flashed as the Decepticon smiled, malice coloring his words.  “Found you!”

Ryuko scrambled to her feet, but not quick enough.  A sharp claw shot out, catching her arms and tearing the sleeves of white blouse to shreds.  The force threw her back against the cave wall and she slid down to the floor, her vision graying as something warm ran down her arms and hands.

There was the sound of blaster fire but Ryuko’s brain didn’t acknowledge it.  All she knew was the flash of light brightening the cave for a few moments and then another hand was reaching in trying to grab her again.

Instinct took over at that moment and Ryuko only knew she had to get away from that hand.  She dodged the hand and ducked out of the cave, jumping from the nearest ledge and aiming for another one a short length down, knowing that a mech would have a harder time following and that aiming would be difficult with the current weather.

She never made it past the jump as a hand caught her up, knocking her head rather painfully against the metal that gripped.  Rain fell on her face and streaked down her cheeks as she lay weakly on the hand.  Everything began to fade as she distantly heard, “She’s losing fluids quickly.  Get her back to the medbay as quick as you can!” and then Ryuko lost the tentative grip on reality.

oOo

Blurr sat in the medbay, nervously twisting a bit of wire between his fingers and staring at the small, pale form lying on the large berth, bundled up in many blankets, bandaged arms resting on top of the fabric.  He had never known Ryuko to sleep for so long.  She had always gotten up around dawn to do her training, even if she went back to sleep shortly after that.  Now it was nearing noon and she had yet to stir.

Blood loss, deep gashes on both arms, concussion, and hypothermia.  Blurr wasn’t sure what hypothermia and concussion meant exactly, but he knew enough that it was dangerous for her unless she was properly monitored.  And that was the reason why she was still in the medbay under Ratchet’s watchful optics and not in his room where Blurr knew she would be more comfortable.

“You might as well get some recharge Blurr,” Ratchet said, stepping up behind him and startling the speedster.  “It might be a while before she comes online.”

“I’mnotleavingforanything!”

The words were said with such venom that Ratchet raised his hands in surprise and surrender, not willing to contest Blurr  The blue mech actually didn’t relax until the medic took a few steps back and turned to go into his office.

It was noon on the dot when Ryuko woke with a gasp, immediately struggling to get herself out of the blanket cocoon, her movements uncoordinated.  Without thinking, Blurr caught her in his hands and held her.  He could see something clicked in Ryuko’s mind the moment one hand touched his chassis and her eyes cleared.

“It’sallright.  You’resafehere.  Barricadecan’tgettoyou.  You’resafe.”

Ryuko did something Blurr had never seen her do.  Curling up against the warm metal of his chassis, pressing over the area of his Spark, she broke down and cried.

oOo

When she was released from the medbay, the thing the Ryuko did was less surprising.  Blurr wasn’t sure how Ryuko was able to hide a bottle of some liquid called vodka in his room, but she pulled it out and proceeded to mix it with her sodas.  What started out with a full sealed bottle of liquid was half finished within a few hours.  When he was sure Ryuko wasn’t looking, Blurr took away the bottle and hid it somewhere.

Ryuko looked up curiously from Blurr’s hands when a white mech walked over to them in the rec room and Blurr cringed internally.  This was the wrong time for Prowl to decide to question Ryuko as to what happened.

It took one sentence from the femme for Prowl to stop her with a simple, “You’re overcharged.”

“And be glad of it!” she said in slow English.  It proved how far gone she was if she had trouble speaking in the widely used language.  “’Cause if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be speaking with you, I’d be hiding in the darkest corner of Blurr’s room, and I’d be crying myself into unconsciousness.  You see this!”  She raised an arm and took off the arm warmer hiding the bandages, waving the appendage in front of Prowl’s face while using her other hand to steady her perch on Blurr’s shoulder.  “This is the result of trying to hide from Barricade, not going home, and not coming here because of rules you’re enforcing.”

Prowl leaned back, somewhat surprised by her actions.  No human had acted like that with before.  “Why didn’t—”

“If I head back towards the city, I would have possibly involved other, innocent people who didn’t need the troubles and horrors of seeing giant, alien, sentient machines.  The best possibility I had was to hide and hope that Blurr would save me.  Besides, other than the severe blood loss and emotional scarring, I don’t mind the physical scars.  I hid the ones I already have so what’s a few more?”

Prowl just gaped at her and Ryuko nodded.  “Now, if you’d excuse me, I believe I’ve earned my drunken overcharged-ness…  Oi!  Baduka wa doko?”

Blurr shook his head and Prowl looked confused.  Ryuko had fallen back into speaking Japanese.  “Youdon’tneedanymore.  You’llmakeyourselfsickandRatchetwillhavemyservosforthat.”

”Hai hai.  Wakatta yo.”  Ryuko’s grumbling tapered off as she settled back against Blurr helm and pulled the arm warmer back on.

“UnlessyouneedsomeintelthatcanonlycomefrommeorRyukoIsuggestyouleave,” Blurr said quietly.

“Very well,” Prowl murmured.  He looked between the blue mech and the femme who began to doze off on the speedster shoulder.  “I wish Ryuko a quick recovery.”

Blurr watched the second in command leave the rec room, not even stopping to get some energon or talk to any of the other ‘Bots.

“Ne, Blurr?”

“YesRyuko?”

“D’you know what happened to my stuff in the cave?” she asked sleepily in Japanese.

“Wheeljackgotitbeforecomingbackhereafewnightsago.”

“What ‘bout my Jeep?”

Blurr braced himself for Ryuko's reaction to the answer.  “Beckadroveitbacktoyourhouse.”

“Ah.  Good.  He likes Becka…”  Her voice trailed off as she dozed off again.

Not wishing to question Ryuko on if the “he” she referred to was her car or someone in her family, Blurr carefully got to his feet and began to walk to his room, his hand cupped around the femme in case she slipped, and the mech prepared himself for a night of waking Ryuko up from the nightmares she was guarantee to have.