ENTRY:11/5/2021
A/N: It's going to be a long chapter so hang on tight!
The kids were still gushing over the new and improved Energon when Ioa spoke, cutting into their conversation.
"Sorry to interrupt, but... my sensors are ringing. I fear Op- I mean the team needs backup. If you guys don't mind, I'll go lend a servo." Ioa said as she was typing in the coordinates for the groundbridge only to be halted by Ratchet.
"How about I go? I'm pretty pumped up if I do say so myself! Besides, I believe your senses are quite on peak sweetspark, just in time for me to get into action!" Ratchet said uncharacteristically. Was he flirting with Ioa?
'Did he just-'
"That's a great idea! Go kick some afts Ratchet!" Miko cheered making Ratchet flashed her a smile before he went off. "Ratchet smiled! How cool is that? I'm sure he's going to be so badass!" Miko said, the two humans nodding along, though Ioa didn't feel the same.
"I'll prepare sickbay."
"For who? The cons?" Miko said sassily. "They're fine Ioa! Don't worry! Didn't you see Ratchet's vitals? It's all fine!" she said, as Raf and Jack agreed with her.
Ioa said nothing as she looked at them blankly before preparing sickbay, ignoring their advices.
"I feel a storm brewing Light, be careful." Shadowglyde whispered in her mind. Lightblade only nodded mindlessly as she was clouded with pain, disappointment, anger and most of all, worry.
The groundbridge was activated by Ratchet as he came in looking smug and proud, laughing loudly as he walks through the groundbridge, his teammates behind looking dumbfounded.
Optimus set his optics on Ioa and softened, he wanted to say sorry but somehow he didn't have the time and she was blatantly ignoring him, still in resentment. He made a mental note to talk to Ioa personally later, he had some apologies to do.
"Spill it Doc! What got ya so rilled up! You were like a beast, kicking them Cons' afts like tin cans!" Bulkhead said excitedly, as Bumblebee and Arcee agreed along, all curious to what has cause Ratchet to be so powerful.
"Well, I have to give thanks to you Bulkhead for the Synthetic Energon! And with my calculations, I've made some sample test of it on myself! And it seems like the results are nothing but positive!" Ratchet said proudly, making Ioa fight the urge to optic roll.
"Ratchet, that was very unwise of you. Such risk for you to experiment on yourself is too high. I question the wisdom of using yourself as a test object." Optimus said, but his team didn't seem to agree with his idea.
"Optimus! You didn't see Ratchet, but he was in overdrive! I think we should give this a try!" Arcee said. "Or even better, let Ratchet use it so we could all catch a break!" Bulkhead said, chuckling.
"I agree that the initial test results seem promising, but I recommend that further testing be confined into machines, not Autobots. Outnumbered although we may though old friend, we need a warrior in the laboratory right now, more than we need another in the field." Optimus said, making Ratchet disappointed but didn't say anything.
Ioa saw the whole commotion and said nothing as she was silently communicating with Shadowglyde through the bonds, trying to think up of something to advice Ratchet against using the Synth-En, for it is far from ready.
---
Ratchet was gloating about his win on sparring with Bulkhead and gave Arcee a wink before walking off.
"Did he just-"
"Stronger, faster, studlier." Bulkhead replied, grabbing his helm as he walks to join his friends. They all looked at Ratchet's direction, surprised at the way he acted.
Meanwhile, Ratchet injects himself with more energon, hoping to be in the top of his game for the sake of the Autobot. Ioa saw this and spoke up, obviously annoyed and concerned with his reckless act.
"Ratchet! What have you done? No more Synth-En testing on yourself! Haven't Optimus said so himself?" Lightblade nagged as he rolled his optics and snapped back, words laced with venom as he spoke.
"Well well well, the moody femme decides to speak. Last I saw you were being a glitch in the main hangar, why talk now? As for Optimus, he doesn't need to know. Got it?" He said, making Ioa gasped as tears started to pool up but she forced it down. She knew it was the Synth-En causing him to be such a crude mech but his words stung. Turning away, she left without a word.
Scoffing, Ratchet made his way to the main computers. The sensors blared, signalling energon was found. He volunteered to follow along much to everyone's surprise. Ioa said nothing as she quietly opened the groundbridge, watching them go, but not before receiving another snide remark from the crazy medic.
"Bye-bye Ioa. Soon it'll be just you as the medic, while I get to go out and have fun." Ratchet taunted.
Ioa could only watch as they disappeared through the groundbridge, leaving her alone with the kids. The kids heard what Ratchet said and felt bad for her. They tried to assure her Ratchet was just kidding but she brushed them off, faking a smile and went off to the hallways to cool herself.
"Don't take it personally Light, he's under the influence of the Synth-En." Shadowglyde comforted her as Lightblade nodded. "I know Shadow. It's not that I'm bothered about, it's the safety of the team. If the synthetic energon influences him to make rash decision, our team is going to be in danger!" Lightblade said angrily, angry at herself for being useless.
"Indeed Light, and that's why we need to step in. the consequences of facing another argument with Optimus is smaller compared to the loss of our teammate. We have to help them." Shadowglyde said as she sent comforting emotions through the bond, easing Lightblade's nerve a tad bit.
Lightblade thought for a moment before sighing, she didn't know how to help Ratchet. "Maybe I can try finishing the formula?" she suggested, only for Shadowglyde to deny her.
"I believe finishing the formula or not is not the main point. We must get the energon out of Ratchet's system before it corrupts him completely. The synthetic energon comes in second." She advised, Ioa nodding along but still troubled.
"You're right Shadow. But the question is how do we get him to flush out the Synth- En from his system?" Lightblade asked.
"That would be the question we have to solve my dear. I'm sorry to say I'm not on the medical spectrum, and thus I have no suggestion on this Light." Shadowglyde said softly.
"It's okay Shadow, we'll figure this out-"
Lightblade was cut off when a sudden feeling of dread pooled in her tanks, warning her something's wrong. Her senses blaring as she looked around frantically, Shadowglyde in her mind ready to shift in case of need.
"Something's wrong!" Ioa cried out as she ran towards the main hangar to see the groundbridge activated and saw Ratchet coming in, only for him to quickly turn his back and transformed into vehicle mode, rushing back into the field. Everyone was shocked and still trying to process what just happened.
Why did he do that? What's going on?
Ioa's felt her energon went cold when the bots came back without the medic. The kids and her had the same question in mind.
'Where's Ratchet?'
She looked at Optimus, demanding answer but he didn't reply. He could not reply. She looked at the other bots as they looked down, none dared to look at her in the optics. Sighing, she went straight to the computers, Shadowglyde in mind to guide her with the Data Download.
"I need some help Shadow!" Lightblade said out loud as she stood in front of the computers.
"On it! Hold your digits on the keyboard and try imagining you're going into the database!" Shadowglyde instructed her, which Lightblade successfully did.
Streams of data flowed into Ioa's digits to her processors as she downloaded Ratchet's life signal. She raised her left servo and download the formula for the Synth-En. She then combined the two data stream into one and after a long tedious moment she pulled out from the computer, getting a track on Ratchet.
"Shadow, if you please."
"It will be my genuine pleasure."
Lightblade shifted into Shadowglyde, the stern female bot sent a look towards her team before stopping at Optimus.
"Explaination will come later from you, Optimus. For now, we have to find Ratchet." She said before opening her own portal for him and the bots. They all did not dare to say anything as they all rushed through the portal, leaving the kids alone at base.
Miko snapped out of it, only to realised she didn't tag along.
"AWWW!"
---
Location: Decepticon energon mine.
Ratchet tossed Breakdown on the floor, optics glaring at Megatron before he charged and landed a punch on the angry warlord, sending the Decepticon leader flying and crashed onto a wall. The Autobot medic was being cocky, which he will soon realise his mistake as he was heavily beaten by Megatron. He was about to land another blow when an energon wave sent him flying again. Knockout was by the side, ready to flee when he saw his precious master getting beaten, but he was ordered to take samples. Megatron's mood now turned sour, he looked over to his opponent only to see a familiar femme...
"LIGHTBLADE IOA?!" He growled, shocked and absolutely pissed that his ex-service bot attacked him with... what did she attacked him with?
"The name is Shadowglyde and I ask that you do not dare to take another step or you'll be taken down." Shadowglyde said, weapons ready. He looked at this familiar-yet-not femme, not understanding why she changed her designation.
"LIES! YOU ARE LIGHTBLADE!" he roared as he charged over to her. Bulkhead got the unconscious bot out of the way as Ioa and Megatron dueled. The Decepticon and Autobots all didn't dare to fight as they stood in a circle, watching the unknown bot fighting against the ex- gladiator.
Surprisingly, Ioa was holding her own just fine. Megatron? Not so fine.
Shadowglyde landed another blow to the Decepticon leader as he tumbled a few meters back before using his blades to stop his momentum, he looked up to his new opponent who seem like she didn't even break a sweat, standing still and watching him. He was panting as he stood up, before offering her a wicked smile.
"Impressive. You are quite the femme aren't ya? It seems you've hold yourself even better than Optimus! You'll make a fine Decepticon Shadowglyde!" he said, as he got into his stance again, but stopped when Ioa changed her blades into Ion Blasters.
"Impossible! How did you possess the Ion Blasters!?" he roared, not believing his optics. Shadowglyde merely demonstrated her weapon as she fired at him, all the shots landing on him causing him to retreat, but not before swearing on his spark for revenge on the femme.
Knockout took this cue and ran, samples broken but not before swiping a drop of energon from the ground with his scapel and left.
Ioa turned around to see the bots stared at her, marvelled and most definitely shocked at how she fought and won over Megatron. She said nothing as she called up the groundbridge before picking the unconscious Ratchet from Bulkhead. He was about to deny when she sent him a dangerous look, which made him wanted to very much cower and possibly sprang into oil leak. She took the medic as the rest of the bots went and seized the energons, taking into the base cart after cart.
A/N: OH YEAAAHHHH ACTION TIME!! How badass Shadowglyde is !? I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you do the same reading! Let me know down in the comments what you guys think!
Also, the next chapter is about to be heatedddddd so be prepared! As always, thank you for reading, commenting, and voting! Stay safe and healthy! Enigma signing out!