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Characters:Ratchet, @wheeljack, Soundwave Location: The Amazon Basin Content Warnings: N/A Plot Summary: In the (rather wet) Amazon rainforest, Ratchet and Wheeljack work together to try to recover the Resonance Blaster before Soundwave.
It hadn’t been so long ago that the Wrecker had chafed at the very idea of taking orders from Optimus Prime, but like anything in the War, the tides had rapidly changed. Wheeljack didn’t quite know all the details about what was going on, but as far as he understood it, there were some important toys recovered from some database that had to be retrieved before the ‘Cons claimed them. As much as he hated having to obey (no offense to Prime, of course), the situation qualified as ‘extenuating circumstances’, and so he’d signed on to help out. Besides, it wasn’t like Wheeljack to miss out on a chance to join in a good old-fashioned brawl.
At least he’d recovered from his near-death experience… no thanks to the gentle mercies and bedside manner of Ratchet, who was seated next to him in the cockpit of The Jackhammer as he flew over what the humans called The Amazon Rainforest. Somewhere down in the thick green forest below, there was a relic to fetch, and Wheeljack had indeed been called in to provide backup. The ship now tracked the signal, but soon enough they’d have to land and continue on on foot due to the thickness of the tree cover.
With his characteristic nonchalance, he looked over to his new partner and drawled, “What’s so special about these things, anyways? They must be pretty important if you’ve got all hands on deck for this one.”
Ratchet had by no means been prepared for this spontaneous excursion to seek out Iacon Relics. Their numbers were few, but they had enough to find the relics that had been identified by the Iacon Database. It'd been a lot of hard work, but now that they had the coordinates they could find the relics.. and hopefully before the Decepticons. He'd been prepared to head out, only to be stopped by Pharma so they could have a proper good-bye. Honestly he'd been thankful for it, especially when he'd never gotten a chance to say good-bye before leaving Cybertron, before he had lost contact with him all together until recently. Just as he continued on his way, he had been stopped once more. Optimus didn't want him to go alone, and had wanted Wheeljack of all bots to be the one to find the relic with him.
Primus.. It wasn't that he hated Wheeljack. Quite the opposite. It was the fact he was so confused about his feelings for the mech and didn't know what to even make of it. Was he a friend? Yes. Did he like him more than a friend? ...Maybe? Did he love him? Oh Primus no! Not.. that he knew anyway. Ugh, why did feelings have to be so complicated?!
"If you must know, Optimus feels strongly that you require supervision." No way was he gonna admit that he was forced into having back-up! Not.. that he wouldn't have considered asking the Wrecker if he'd been interested.. As a medic, it wasn't like he had much fighting skill of his own, and if Decepticons were involved, then maybe going alone wasn't such a great idea. Primus, now he just was confusing himself!
The medic quickly boarded the ship, sitting in the co-pilot seat as he looked around. It was so much nicer now that he didn't have to babysit an injured Wrecker, nursing him back to health after nearly dying.
He kept his optics trained on the windows, watching as the Earth passed right under them, only for them to reach the coordinates of where the relic had been, the.. Resonance Blaster as it were. It was in this place.. with so many thick trees!? Primus they were going to have a hard time with this one.. So much for a smooth ride. Ratchet glanced over to Wheeljack as he spoke up. That.. had actually been a good question. Just what was so important about these relics? He knew they were of significant importance, but he just couldn't pinpoint why.
"If they are anything like the Star Saber and the Phase Shifter that Optimus and Smokescreen got their hands on, we cannot allow the Decepticons to get their servos on them. Who knows what they can do, or how dangerous some of these artifacts can be in the wrong hands. I'd rather not chance it." Once more he looked out the window, staring down at the trees beneath them. "I can only hope that we find this one quickly.. without any Decepticon interference."
Groundbridge Several Thousand Feet Above Sea Level
The green portal exploded into life behind the mech that summoned it as he stood at a computer. There was no time to gather his forces and instead opted to go right for it. He was a capable enough fighter that having an escort would slow him down. He unplugged from his computer terminal before stalking his way to the portal.
It closed behind him once he stepped through. On the other side, he fell from a great height while calculating his trajectory. A free fall of 3 seconds, a quick transformation of a second and soon course correction. He was slicing the air with his long, straight wings. Able to keep him aloft at slow speeds and high altitudes. The scans from this height allowed him to observe a great area at the costs of accuracy.
The tiny cross high up in the air scanned and scanned till it located a Cybertronian signature. A camera underneath the UAV styled aircraft pivoted to look. The unblinking eye stared from high above, finding The Jackhammer. A quick survey of his memory banks revealed it's ownership to belong to a Wrecker named Wheeljack.
Enemy En Route
Suggestion Of Plans
Distraction While Laserbeak Continues Scanning
Remove Engines Of The Jackhammer To Further Slow The Autobots
His lengthy wings were the only thing that transformed, which were his arms... They hugged his slender body to change his flying body into what resembled a missile! His tailfins shifted and pointed the nose of his body downwards. From there he fell, and fell, and fell with increasing speed.
4
3
Laserbeak detached from the fuselage and split off, using his wings to slow his body down so much while his master flew onwards.
2
Soundwave zipped by infront of The Jackhammer before transforming his arms back into wings to use as an emergency brake while he moved his entire body parallel with the world below. This caused strain on those wings while his jets kicked off with great force. At this point he was hugging the treetops and doing his best to blaze his way. Laserbeak stayed above and used his less superior scanning tools from so far above to find any trace cybertronian signals before waiting for The Jackhammer to give chase.
“I’ll be sure to be on my best, behaviour, Sunshine,” he drawled good-naturedly, and then was immediately hit by the odd feeling of deja vu - and yet it wasn’t quite deja vu exactly. Deja vu implied that one had already experienced a situation, but this… Wheeljack was certain that he and Ratchet had gone on a mission like this before, searching for something in a forest, but now as they chugged along over the Amazon in search of the relic, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. It was almost as if the order of things had been shaken up, that there were both old and new elements, but every time he tried to think about it, the thought faded away like smoke in the air.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be just him. Ratchet didn’t look too bothered by anything but his characteristic teasing, and even then, he had a feeling the medic wasn’t too worked up about it. Things certainly had changed between them since Ratchet had prevented him from bleeding to death, though exactly what proved to be a difficult thing to pin down; Wheeljack’s best definition was ‘I have a stupid schoolmech crush that I ain’t acknowledging’, and ignoring it was especially important now that it had become apparent that this infatuation hadn’t faded in the slightest as he’d hoped it would.
(He wasn’t going to admit it either, but he was also secretly glad that he had Ratchet as back-up.)
Almost as if Ratchet had invoked some sort of magic that had inadvertently summoned their enemy just by uttering the name alone, an alarm started beeping on-screen. Not a split-second later, a dark shape zipped across the viewscreen. “Guess I’m lucky you’re along for the ride, Doc, ‘cause we’ve got a bogey on our tail,” The Wrecker’s optics narrowed - and then he grinned. “You might wanna grab onto somethin’,” With that, Wheeljack put metal to the pedal and gunned the throttle, sending The Jackhammer shooting after the Decepticon in a steep and swift nosedive. He started firing, too, in hopes that he might land a lucky hit.
The feeling of not-quite-deja-vu still stuck with him, but the reckless abandon of an honest chase took over temporarily. With a delighted crow, the Wrecker shouted, “Choke on that, ‘Con!”
Last Edit: Jun 16, 2016 16:40:09 GMT by Counterklock
It'd been as the medic had approached the Jackhammer that he stopped, pausing to listen as Wheeljack solemnly swore that he would be up to no good. His optics glanced back in his direction, groaning at the nickname. He wasn't sure at one point that he finally gave in and became accepting of the pet names, but perhaps that had all come from spending several days with him as he recovered from near death.
Even now he wasn't sure how he felt, and it hadn't helped any that Pharma had been teasing him a little about the whole thing. It only made the Autobot wonder that much more just what Wheeljack was to him. Maybe he was a bit more than a friend, or rather.. he hoped he had been. But honestly.. would the Wrecker really be interested in someone like him? Part of him had contemplated pulling the younger mech aside and talking to him about it, but then there was the part of him that had been screaming at him to not do it to save face in case there had been a chance of rejection. If he'd been that concerned about being shot down, then maybe Pharma had been onto something after all..
Ratchet attempted to distract himself from these thoughts as they flew over the treetops, only to be pulled back into the conversation when Wheeljack had asked just what the Iacon Relics were all about. He explained as best he could, hoping that they could keep these things out of Decepticon hands. If they could just find the Resonance Blaster before the Decepticons, the grump would be quite happy.
But naturally, the universe was apparently out to prove Ratchet wrong today.
Now they had a said Decepticon on their tail, and they'd just flown directly in of them. Ratchet's optics narrowed, identifying the mech right off the bat. "Soundwave.. He must be tracking the same coordinates!" Just what they needed, and of course it couldn't have been Starscream or someone else. It just had to be one of the most terrifying Decepticons of them all, though nowhere near Shockwave or Megatron levels of terrifying.. or even the DJD from the stories he had heard.
Before he had much time to react, the Wrecker had told him to hold onto something. Ratchet did as told without much argument, only praying mentally that Wheeljack wasn't about to do something stupid. Once again, fate had it out for him. He shrieked as the Jackhammer suddenly took a nose dive, Wheeljack tailing right after Soundwave. "Are you trying to send us to the scrapyard?!" Holding tightly to his seat, he could only flail and shriek as the Wrecker piloted the ship in every which direction, all to shoot down the communications chief.
"Wheeljaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!" Please make this crazy ride stop!
Soundwave wavered around above the treetops, trying to lazily miss any reticule set upon him. At this point he rotated his camera underneath him to see what was behind him. At times he could see the Jackhammer slipping into view when it was low enough. When a blast was coming, he twitched towards the trajectory before adjusting his dodge. Left was right and right was left now. He did an aileron roll or more commonly known a barrel roll.
The roll had his thin wings slicing the trees below, creating a plethora of branches and leaves to spurt up into view and create a smokescreen effect. Those poor trees were so weak and easily able to be cut up. The greenery sprayed up behind before bursting into fire before vanishing due to blaster shots.
At this point the Wrecker didn't surprise Soundwave as he did his best to dodge the onslaught of shots. Some of which seared his paint. Yet he needed to give enough time for Laserbeak to do his general area search before his tail end was struck. He lost speed suddenly and further control before his wing clipped a burly branch. The impact forced it into arm mode before he was sent spiraling into the woods below.
Falling through the canopy had the Decepticon spinning and hurtling downwards. Yet the vines, branches, and general canopy slowed his descent painfully before he whammed into the ground in robot form. He laid motionless while a beam of light fell upon his body, created from the hole he made above. That mask of his lit up as new information was brought to him from Laserbeak.
New Plans For Wreckers Should Exercise More Caution
Aligning The Jackhammer Into The High Armored Class For The Time Being
...New Information From Laserbeak
He rose to his hands and knees while Laserbeak told him more and more of the location for the relic. He commanded the drone to return to him, which was swift. His chest once more covered as he looked around his surroundings. Just enough space for him to stalk through the foilage and make his way towards the general area of the relic. He dared not send Laserbeak skyward incase the Jackhammer was circling above. Yet if one looked to his back, it was charred from the impact of the blaster round.
((OOC: Episode 1.3: The One With Amazon Trailguide Wheeljack))
“Megatron’s communications chief?” Well, wasn’t that just peachy? Unlike Ratchet, however, Wheeljack wasn’t so easily spooked or intimidated. He knew of Soundwave’s reputation, of course, and he’d be stupid to underestimate him, but every bot had a weakness.
Some form came away from the Decepticon’s dark mass. “A distraction, eh?” Soundwave’s little birdie may have split off from its host, but the Wrecker immediately figured out the trick the ‘Con was trying to pull -- send the drone out to distract them, while he himself went looking for the relic. “Well, I welcome a good distraction,” He uttered, jerking the controls in order to send The Jackhammer shooting after the Decepticon comms. chief. It didn’t occur to him that this wasn’t the distraction at all. Ratchet’s horrified yowling only fueled his delight, and he fired again, urging the ship into overdrive to keep up with the pursuit. “The hunter becomes the hunted!”
A spray of broken vegetation was kicked up into the viewing screen and the Wrecker jerked the controls again in order to avoid it. Soundwave might think fancy flying and an attempt to cover his flightpath would throw them off their trail, but Wheeljack was a clever pilot and an even cleverer warrior. Whenever he could, he fired off rounds of plasma bolts, and took special satisfaction in knowing that he came close to landing quite a few hits.
Suddenly, the Decepticon’s attempts to mask his trail went sour and his wing clipped a particularly sturdy branch, sending him helm over tailpipe before disappearing into the thick lush canopy. “Heh, bet he’ll feel that one later.” But as much as seeing Soundwave crash spectacularly brought him a sense of delight and satisfaction, they now had lost a visual on the fragger, which meant that he could be anywhere down there beneath the treetops. The sensors on the ship being thrown off by the humidity of all the pit-cursed things, meaning they only had a general idea of where they might find the relic.
“We’ll have to find a place to land and go the rest of the way on foot,” There was no way they would be driving down there with the trees so densely packed together as they were. Wheeljack circled once, twice, looking for some sort of clearing to put The Jackhammer down in, before realizing that there were no such convenient spots to land, and so with some dark muttering under his breath he used the cannons to clear a spot. Three well-placed shots was all it took to make a space big enough, and it wasn’t long before the engines were powering down and the Wrecker was standing up and out the door. “C’mon, Sunshine, we got a new toy t’find before the ‘Con does!”
The foliage was even thicker from the ground, but no trees had ever stopped Wheeljack before. With a cocky little grin tossed over his shoulder at Ratchet (As if he were showing off - so much for pretending this was just a crush, eh, Jackie?) he drew his swords and began to cut a path through the underbrush in the vague direction the relic was in.
Ratchet gave Wheeljack credit where it was due for being a 'decent' pilot and all, but the medic was by no means a thrill seeker.. or a seeker in general. He gripped that seat of his extremely tight as the Wrecker did his best to take down Soundwave from the skies. Even now he was admitting that perhaps this was a distraction, and they certainly couldn't afford to waste the time on it. If Soundwave wasn't alone, and he usually wasn't with that Mini-Con of his, the communications chief was likely already a few steps ahead of them.
"This is no time to be hot dogging!"
As the Decepticon tried to smokescreen them with the vegetation, Ratchet could only shriek as Wheeljack pulled up to avoid it. Strange.. for just debris, why had it felt more like they'd been about to crash into a cliff? The medic wasn't quite sure, and knew this wasn't the time to be asking such questions. Right now all he could focus on was trying not to purge his systems after this wild and crazy ride! However, just as he'd been close to closing his optics, that's when Wheeljack had finally struck the 'con. "You did it!"
If Wheeljack had been right about anything, it was the fact that they were going to need to set down in order to find the relic. Too much interference, both technical and physical, was going to be too much for this ship. However, he did have to make a face as Wheeljack created his own landing strip by shooting at the treetops. "Was that really necessary..?" Regardless he followed the Wrecker out of the ship once they'd landed. "We've no time to waste. Soundwave and anyone with him might have already located the relic by now."
Ratchet had certainly hated the trees from up top, but now that he was among them? Oh.. he hated them that much more. As Wheeljack cut their way through, the medic found himself tiptoeing around the place.. avoiding all sorts of vines and roots that had been hanging from the trees or just sticking out of the ground. He'd nearly tripped over one root, but had thankfully caught himself as he let out a surprised gasp.
"Who's bright idea was it to stick a relic out in these parts anyway..?"
Laserbeak was resourceful enough to map Soundwave's trajectory and flight path from above. His path had him be a bit closer to what Laserbeak suspected to be the relic's location. A temple of sorts and it was large enough to be built around this blaster! This temple would need a trek through this wilderness as it was north by north west of his position.
He crept through the foliage, unaware of the Earth's native vines and roots. Some caught him by surprise and he expected the vines to hold like they did on Cybertron. His blade slid out effortlessly while he twisted to get at the... Snap! He thunked the ground hard and laid there while making a mental note to make a path clear of these accursed vines.
A quick flurry of blades and a large area was cleared of underbrush. His scanners looked around to figure out his location once more before he proceeded towards the temple. Unlucky for him, he was in the path much less traveled as there were more vegetation at foot. This will surely impede his movement speed.
A thought came to him as he was clearing underbrush. He gazed up and couldn't see the sky yet he looked straight ahead to see plenty of trees and bushes. Perhaps Laserbeak could fly through the many gaps between these trees that had competition above for sunlight and left plenty of room in the middle?
Laserbeak ejected and deftly dodged the many obstacles while making his way to the temple to scout it out. This left Soundwave to stalk through the brush by himself while slicing through. He even managed to fell a tree! The cracks and groans of the tree silenced any wildlife nearby before it came booming down.
Unnecessary Noise Levels
Pretend That It Is To Warn The Autobots That I Am Still Alive
With such a sour expression, Ratchet looked about as thrilled as Wheeljack felt about having to go the rest of the way on foot. The Wrecker couldn’t exactly blame him: the local flora was difficult to get through even with his diligent attempts to clear a suitable path, with roots and vines sticking out as if trying to snag upon an unsuspecting bot’s pedes and take them down. That wasn’t even mentioning the ground, which was so saturated with water that it shifted and squelched underfoot, making each step uncertain as the muck was liable to send one slipping sideways at any moment. To cap it all off, the high humidity of the place practically prophesied hours spent checking for rust spots in their future.
Out of the corner of his optic, he saw Ratchet stumble. “Careful!” Immediately, the Wrecker was turning towards him, ready to reach out. His worries, however, were unneeded, as the medic caught himself before he went face first into the dirt. “You alright?” He asked, concerned, and was relieved to be met with cranky complaints. Obviously if Ratchet was well enough to grump, he was absolutely fine. “Whoever launched those relics is t’blame, obviously. He must’ve just aimed randomly.”
(After that, he took more care to make sure no more roots slipped past him. He told himself it was because he didn’t want to hear Ratchet’s complaints, but it was really because he didn’t like the idea of the medic possibly getting hurt… which was ridiculous, considering the older bot had obviously lasted this long in the War without accidentally tripping and snuffing his own spark, so he wasn’t going to be doing it now.)
Wheeljack ceaselessly chopped away at the vegetation, and slowly but surely they carved a path to the north west. Eventually he spotted some sort of stone structure in the distance through the gaps in the treetops, which apparently was in the same direction their half-functioning scanner was leading them in.
The Wrecker suddenly froze, holding up a hand for Ratchet to stop moving, too.“Wait- y’hear that?” he listened hard - and sure enough, there in the distance was the sound of snapping branches and trees falling.“Looks like our ‘Con survived the fall. C’mon, we better hurry, cause I ain’t lettin’ him get this relic first!” It wasn’t long after that that Wheeljack managed to finally break through the thick Amazonian rainforest and out into what must have once been an ancient courtyard for the humans who build this pyramid-shaped structure.
“The relic - The Blaster - s’gotta be in there,” He then listened hard once more, before stiffening. They hadn’t hurried fast enough, it seemed, for Soundwave’s unsubtle crashing through the undergrowth was getting closer and closer still. Wheeljack’s battle mask slid into place, and he moved to put himself between the origin of the noise and Ratchet. “You go on ahead and go grab it, Sunshine. I’ll keep ol’ Wavey busy.”
He settled himself into a warrior’s stance, swords at the ready.
Ratchet mentally cursed as he tripped over the root, but was thankful enough that he'd managed to catch himself. What he hadn't expected was for Wheeljack to suddenly turn, as if to try and catch him if he hadn't caught himself. A faint flush crept onto the medic's faceplate for a moment, then blinked it away nearly as fast as it had come. "I'm.. I'm fine, but thank you for asking." At least someone agreed with him that whoever it was that sent these relics here had a terrible sense of humor. One one hand some would have a difficult time getting their servos on it, but when the ones who actually needed it were trying to get through this mess of a rain forest? It wasn't exactly funny anymore.
Following behind Wheeljack, he kept a close optic on his surroundings. If it weren't so humid, filled to the brim with trees, and this muck from all the water.. Ratchet might've actually found this place relaxing. Of course, he wouldn't have had much time to dwell on it given the reason they were here to begin with. Not just that, but they had Soundwave to contend with. Just because he'd been shot out of the sky didn't mean that he was no longer functioning. He could still be out there, or worse.. out there with the Resonance Blaster in hand.
A few steps later, and suddenly the younger mech's hand was thrust back in his direction, Ratchet nearly walking right into it. Before he could even ask him why he'd even done that in a grumpy tone, that's when he'd been asked if he'd heard something. Full of concentration, the medic looked around, allowing all the sounds around him to fill his audio receptors. Perhaps the snapping of branches and falling trees were the sounds he'd been questioning about? No.. make that a most definitely. No Earth creature could possibly be making that sort of racket, save for humans themselves, but with Soundwave out here with them, that could only mean one thing. "Scrap.. Soundwave." Quickly, but cautiously, he followed behind Wheeljack. They absolutely needed to get to the blaster before the Decepticon could!
Ratchet couldn't have been happier once they'd made their way out of the mess of trees and vines, approaching a pyramid that had seemed all too out of place. Humans were weird, but he wouldn't have expected something like this out here. He'd nearly preformed a double take as Wheeljack had told him to go on ahead while he held off Soundwave, the silent communications chief quickly reaching their position. "But what about you?! You can't seriously expect me to leave you here on your own with Soundwave, do you?" He thought on it hard, and no matter what his feelings were in regards to Wheeljack, he had a point yet again. They couldn't lose the relic, and if they had to split up to get it, then that was going to be the course of action. Ratchet grimaced, glancing aside.
"...I don't like this. Not one bit, but.. you had better call me back if anything happens to you! We may have a chance to reclaim the relic should Soundwave get his hands on it, but if something happened to you.. Never mind.. I'll be back."
As if compelled not to let his feelings spill over right this instant, Ratchet ran towards the temple as the Wrecker prepared his defense. He wouldn't be able to handle it if he got hurt over this whole thing, which meant that he needed to grab the blaster and quickly. Ratchet occasionally glanced back over his shoulder as he made his way inside, making sure that Wheeljack was alright. Primus, let him be fine while they were apart for this brief moment.
And now that he was inside, all he needed to do was grab the relic and get the fragging heck outta there.
A continuous feed was in place for Soundwave as Laserbeak dodged his way towards the temple of doom. Soundwave observed the preferred path and made mental notes to follow it. Yet he began to tune out of the world at the same time. All those sounds started to become clearer as he ceased his mindless chopping. His path had him listening to the calls of birds, distant roars of jungle cats, screamer monkeys and a whole slew of liveliness. It wasn't until a solid thunk of his foot kicking a tree root that it was brought to his attention.
Laserbeak ducked, dipped, dived, and dodged his way through the mess before bursting out into the open of the temple's courtyard. Yet fortunately for him he was on the other side of the pyramid before circling around it in a slow manner, scanners at the... Wheeljack. The feed of the sword wielding maniac of explosions and endless nicknames displayed on Soundwave's visor.
A silent order was given to the all seeing eye of Ra. The bird flew high into the sky, knowing that the Jackhammer was more than likely parked somewhere. But this also gave the flighty bird a good distance to observe for cannon fire and move accordingly. Yet the behold of this eye kept the feed going and going. This bird was circling around this pyramid's courtyard while the owner crept to the dense vegetation of the outskirts.
From there his mask displayed a sound wave and twisted, peaked, trough,stretched... All that and he was making bird calls and other odd sounds of this Amazon. He masked his presence with the sound of nature as when something strange occurs the surrounding life falls silent.
Alarm raced across the medic’s face, and for a moment Wheeljack thought it was merely due to the approaching Decepticon, but then Ratchet’s words sunk in properly. Ratchet was… worried for him? If it were any other bot, he might have taken offense at the implication that he wouldn’t be fine on his own, but instead he was left feeling a little stunned. Something in his chest tightened. His gaze softened. “Don’t worry ‘bout me, Sunshine, I can handle myself,” he said, gently. If he were honest with himself, he didn’t quite know what he would do if anything happened to the medic, either… and he wasn’t sure if that was exclusively just a ‘friends’ thing. It was touching, in a way, to think that Ratchet worried for him even knowing of his experience as a warrior.
He had to forcibly remind himself then of the task at hand. Now was not the time to think himself into circles regarding his feelings. “-I’m a Wrecker! Ain’t no ‘Con I can’t take.” He positioned himself between the temple and the direction he figured Soundwave would come from, blades at the ready. “Go get that Blaster, I’ll be fine!”
As the sound of Ratchet’s footsteps upon the cobblestones retreated and disappeared behind him, Wheeljack redirected his focus upon his surroundings, especially upon the general direction he knew Soundwave would likely come from (and thus completely missed Laserbeak’s soaring presence). “The calm before the storm…” He muttered to himself, and then listened.
The racket from the trees being knocked down had stopped, but there were birds and other creatures making noises still, so he figured Soundwave had decided that giving away his position wasn’t such a hot idea after all. Just the sound of the birds and the wind through the trees… But there was something off. Wheeljack was a pretty clever bot, and wasn’t just a pretty face with a penchant for explosions, so it didn’t take him long at all to catch on to the fact that the sounds of birds only seemed to come from one direction. If it were a natural sound, it would have come from everywhere around him.
“Gotcha,” he breathed. Slowly, carefully, he pulled a grenade from subspace, armed it, and then rolled it towards the outskirts of the courtyard he knew Soundwave had to be skulking about.
Tick. Tick.
Boom.
The Wrecker did not wait for the smoke to clear before he launched himself into the fray with a yell, his blades at the ready, hoping to take advantage of the chaos of the explosion.
Wheeljack could handle himself.. He was a Wrecker after all, and he'd been through all sorts of things. That was what Ratchet had to keep in mind as he made his way up to the temple. If he were lucky, the Resonance Blaster would be sitting right there in the entrance, sitting on a pedestal ripe for the taking in a singular room. Racing for the entrance, he quickly made himself inside..
Only to face mild disappointment when the Blaster was not where he'd hoped.
Instead he found himself in a long hallway, just big enough for him, but far too narrow for him to try to speed through this in vehicle mode. Last thing he needed was to cause himself unnecessary injury. Just how would he explain that to Pharma when they got back to base, or anyone else for that matter? The medic sighed, running down the halls before being forced to turn down another hall.
No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't get his processor off of Wheeljack. He really hoped that the younger mech was alright, and that Soundwave hadn't taken him out already. Just hang in there.. keep Soundwave and Lazerbeak away long enough to claim the relic for the Autobots. It most certainly could not fall into their hands, but.. if something happened to Wheeljack in the process, Ratchet wasn't sure what he would do. He frowned at the thought, rushing to get to the Resonance Blaster.
After a few turns, he found himself in a slightly open room, sunlight pouring down over an opened ceiling that beamed down on a small pillar. No blaster here, so he had to keep moving.
Down the next set of hallways he went, forcing him deeper into the temple and down into the ground. It would only make sense now that the relic would likely be displayed on one of the lowest levels of this place, but the further down it was, the more Ratchet began to worry about the Wrecker. He hadn't tried to ping him just yet, which had been a fairly reasonable sign, but what if the silence was just as equally bad? Primus he hated not knowing what was going on outside.
"Wheeljack, I swear.. If you get hurt because of me, I'm not going to forgive you."