Going Green

Chapter 30: One-Servoed

Ratchet growled as he leaned over and pulled the level down once more. "These blundering fools."

Smokescreen and Bulkhead walked into the room, leaving only Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack, and Optimus at the sight. The two arrivals didn't have any energon with them.

"I'd wait to get back to your project, Ratchet," Bulkhead advised. "Something blew up right after Smokescreen and I left the mine. Optimus went to check on the commander and Jackie."

"I'll take care of it," Verdant assured the medic, standing up and taking her place next to the groundbridge controls. "It's what I'm here for."

"When you are here, at least," Arcee glared.

Verdant looked away.

Raf ran across the tables and over to her. "Give her some time. Bumblebee told me Arcee dealt with a lot of spies on Cybertron, and she isn't quick to trust anymore."

"Yeah," Verdant glanced at the femme. "Working with intelligence is always like that."

The boy blinked and realization dawned. "You're an intelligence officer."

"Mmhmm."

"You had to deal with spies?"

Verdant looked at the lever. "Not really. I was usually the one exposing them, most never got close enough to me before they were found out."

Raf sat down. "Most?"

"Most," she replied simply. "But that was never my main job. There was a lot of computerized work to go around and I did what was needed."

Raf opened his mouth, but before he could say anything more, the comms erupted with the thunderous roars of an angry predacon. Raf flinched and stumbled back, tripping off the side of the desk. Verdant flicked her tentacle up and caught him.

Between the roar, Verdant could just make out the word "groundbridge" as Optimus's signal skyrocketed after exiting the cave. Quickly, she grabbed the lever, locked onto his signal, and yanked it down. Once more, the groundbridge swirled to life, and less than a nanosecond later, there was a flash of colors as Optimus flew into the room at top speeds.

Verdant saw red burning in the center of the vortex, accompanied with a rageful yell, and she quickly closed the bridge.

"Ratchet!" Optimus barked.

Verdant's helm snapped to the side and she spotted two frames wrapped in Optimus's hefty arms. Wheeljack grumbled and stood up, wobbling unsteadily before Optimus grabbed him again.

Ultra Magnus wasn't moving at all.

"Get them to the med-bay!" Ratchet yelled, rushing up, his project discarded and forgotten. "Verdant, get over here!"

She quickly followed after them, her optics wide, and the rest of Team Prime was left waiting outside. Optimus let Wheeljack tumbled into Ratchet as he laid Ultra Magnus down on a cot.

Ratchet looked ready to blow a gasket as Optimus the Mother Duck fretted over Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack drunkenly sung something about sunshine into the medic's shoulder. Verdant pulled Wheeljack away and led him to a cot.

"My knight in shining armor," Wheeljack smiled up at her. "Again."

Verdant pushed him into a cot and turned her attention to Optimus. "What happened?"

"The predacon had them," Optimus was staring at the commander's arm. "I didn't know until it was too late."

"It's not too late," Ratchet smacked Optimus. "Stop sinking into a black hole of guilt and fetch Verdant the welder."

Ratchet transformed his servo into a welder and began cleaning up Ultra Magnus's servo—or lack of. There wasn't much leakage. The servo had been crushed, and the metal of his wrist was pushed together, staunching the flow of life fluids.

Verdant took the portable welder from Optimus gratefully, but she set it aside to examine a spot of energon leaking down Ultra Magnus's side. There was no obvious gashes, but his armour was dented. She transformed her servo into a knife and carefully cut away his plating, exposing his sensitive protoform. The armour had dug into it and severed an energon line, which was now profusely leaking. She reached forward and pinched it.

Next, she ordered Optimus to hand her the pressurized air dispenser and blew back the energon spillage with her tentacle while prodding the protoform with her extra servo. Another pipe was located, but it only dripped energon and weakly sucked at exposed protoform. Verdant brought the two together, connected them with a conactor, and then welded it together.

She left the armour cut away as she moved to the next issue, and then the next. One-by-one, Verdant managed to repair all the major issues on Ultra Magnus's frame as Ratchet occupied himself with the mangled servo.

Her attention was drawn away eventually, to the now unconscious wrecker on the other cot. Wheeljack didn't look nearly as beaten, some of which she would have to thank Optimus for. The Prime was not only a warrior, but a caretaker, and had been helping Wheeljack while Ultra Magnus was tended too.

Verdant gently nudged Optimus aside and took over, letting him slump back into a chair. Meticulously, she worked her way from Wheeljack's helm, down to his gashed knee. Once everything was in order, she sat on another cot and looked at Ratchet.

The medic was buried in a computer screen, but it didn't take long for him to notice the silence now that Verdant was no longer working on Wheeljack. He turned around and looked at her and Optimus.

"He's not getting his servo back," Ratchet began. "The ability to rebuild a servo is beyond me. I can maybe create some kind of grabber with the rudimentary materials here, but..."

Optimus looked at Verdant. "You wouldn't happen to have schematics for that, would you?"

She shook her helm. "Even if I did, we could never build a servo from Earthen elements."

Ratchet dragged a servo down his face. "I'll get started immediately."

Verdant frowned. "Doctor, I believe your medical expertise is still required."

"Yes?"

She gestured to Optimus discreetly. "I can get started on replacement ideas if you can handle..."

Ratchet sighed. "Yes, yes... Come along, Optimus."

The Prime looked up in surprise. "Huh?"

Verdant watched as the two left the med-bay before turning on the two wreckers.

Frag.