Shattered Shenanigans

16: Petty squabbles

Ratchet was over the moon when Soundwave said he was done.

"You need rest." Soundwave started, clearly tired.

"We all do." Megatron muttered. "I suggest we all retire for the night." He advised. "Erm, you two will have to share." He added, talking to Ratchet and Optimus.

"Hm?" Optimus started.

"There are no other empty Berthrooms." Megatron said, "And there's a second berth in-"

"Got it." Ratchet mumbled and walked off.

Optimus looked between them, "Goodnight." He said and hastened to catch up to Ratchet. "Ratchet-"

"If those goons think I'm going to let my guard down-" Ratchet started grumbling.

"There are locks on the berthrooms." Optimus said and led him to the berthroom.

Ratchet huffed. "We need to get back."

"Agreed." Optimus nodded and opened the berthroom door for him. "But first recharge?" He suggested.

Ratchet grumbled and slumped in, spotting the two berths Optimus slid together to support his size.

"I'll move it-" Optimus started.

"No no, one's too small for you-" Ratchet started.

"I'll be fine-"

"I'll recharge on the floor."

Optimus blinked, so this was how it was going to be, "You have a bad back-"

"I don't mind." Ratchet said as he made his way to a reasonably clean corner.

Optimus pointed at the berth. "You'll recharge on one, I'll recharge on one or you'll recharge on both and I'll recharge on the floor."

"That makes no sense." Ratchet grumbled.

Optimus gave him a good ten seconds of his warning stare before he had enough. It was times like these he was grateful Ratchet wasn't too big.

"Put me down!" Ratchet shrieked as Optimus picked him up before putting him on the berth, "Fine! Fine!" Ratchet grumbled and let Optimus seperate the berths. "Stop smirking."

He was smirking? Whoops, he hadn't realised.

They both laid down (Ratchet triple checked the door was locked) and went to recharge.

-

-

In the morning, Optimus was surprised to find Ratchet's berth empty and it's occupant no where to be found. So Optimus got up and started looking for him, he found him soon enough, fussing over the generator.

Optimus raised a ridge in question.

"What?" Ratchet asked.

"How long have you been working on it?" Optimus asked and a guilty expression was his response. "Did you get any recharge?" He asked.

"A few hours?" Ratchet suggested.

"Two at most." Soundwave chimed in. Ratchet shot him a glare.

"Well, sorry, I just want to get back-"

"Home, yes. We know!" Soundwave shrieked and Ratchet sat on Optimus' favourite crate and cleaned off his wrench. "Are you two courting?" He asked.

Ratchet and Optimus snapped their helms over at him, both appalled.

"Yes? No?" Soundwave.

"No." Ratchet grumbled.

Optimus heard Soundwave mumble "darn it".

"So what are you trying to do-" Optimus started.

"Set up an interdimensional com system." Ratchet said, "If we want to get back safely, we need a transporter to hook onto the destination, which will require some work on their end." Ratchet explained. "What ever good that'll be." He added in a mutter.

Then the monitor went off. "Oh goodie." Soundwave muttered and headed over.

"What is it?" Ratchet asked, not looking up from his wrench.

"Energon signature." He grumbled. "Want to check it out?" He asked Optimus. "The rest are with the humans and the other two are still in recharge." Soundwave added.

Then Dreadwing popped out of no where.

"Oh great! You can go with him!" Soundwave started and pushed both of them towards the Ground bridge.

"Er?" Dreadwing started.

"Chop chop." Soundwave added while Ratchet seemed to be realizing he was going to be stuck with, well, nice Decepticons.

"But-" Optimus started, noticing Ratchet's discomfort.

"No buts." Soundwave said and got the bridge running. "Toodles!" He said and let Optimus and Dreadwing wonder through.

"Sometimes I question who's in charge." Dreadwing mumbled as they arrived in a forest.

"Soundwave by the looks of it." Optimus muttered. "Where are we going?" He asked.

Dreadwing pointed to the scanner in his servos, "He gave it to me." He added and turned it on. "The signal is split." He started.

"Hmm." Optimus hummed, "We could split up." He suggested.

"It might just be interference or deterrents." He said and they started walking. Then they heard drilling, lots of it. "A mining operation." Dreadwing noted as they used bushes for cover.

Once they set optics on it, Dreadwing seemed to be disgusted. "What?" Optimus asked. It was a large mining operation, but that was about it.

"The energon, it's blue." He started.

"Yes-Ohhh." Optimus remembered and could understand why he isn't too happy. "That is Primus's energon yes?" He asked.

"Yes, look." He nodded at the operation, "The vehicons." He added and Optimus knew where to look. The energon was clearly toxic to them, just like dark energon.

"It is the other way round for my dimension." Optimus noted, "Unicron is Earth." He said.

"Then maybe you don't experiance fatigue-" Dreadwing started. "Do you carry Primus'-"

"Yes, everyone does." Optimus said as the ducked behind a large bush.

"Then why-" Dreadwing started, "Do we not experiance fatigue around you?"

"You are not being directly exposed." Optimus noted, ahhh. "Problem." He started and pointed. There he was, evil Optimus.

"You still look like him." Dreadwing started.

"Yes?" Optimus noted, yes he was aware, he was still very bitter about it.

"Maybe you could-" Dreadwing started.

"He is right there!" Optimus started and Dreadwing shut up.

"Well, since the light energon doesn't affect you, go in there, blow it up and I'll cover you." Dreadwing started.

Now there's something Optimus didn't mind, but, "Why do I need to go in there? We can shoot it from here-"

"So we can make sure the job is done thoroughly." Dreadwing said and pushed him out into the spotlight.

'Make sure the job'- No! He just wanted him to offline! Optimus didn't move an inch even when everyone had both optics trained to him. Awkward much.

"Um, hi?" He started.

'Hi' was the wrong thing to say. How did he know when he was terrible at picking up social clues? Well. If 'hi' was the right thing to say, they wouldn't be shooting at him.