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The bodies lay scattered, as far as the optic could see. Prime shook his head, sighing. "Red Alert, Inferno, have you spotted any survivors?"
"Nah, not yet." Infernos voice was strangely muted. "But this city didn't go down very easy. Lots of bodies of decepticons scattered around here also."
Prime waited for Red Alerts report for a breem before sighing, "Red Alert?"
"I'm busy. Blow up a camera if you need to talk to me later." Red Alert snapped.
An optic ridge rose as Prime rocked back onto his heels. Red Alert really must not being paying attention and thought that he was either one of the twins, or another mech that wanted his attention. Not that many did, but…
"Red Alert, this is Prime. Please report."
"Sparklings, younglings. As far as I can see they're all dead, but I'm scanning each one separately." Red Alert said softly.
Primes spark twisted, as he asked, "How long until your done?"
"It'll take a couple of breems, but I'm just about finished. How's it going in your sector?"
Prime grimaced. Usually it was Red Alert and Inferno who were sent into the cities to check for survivors, them being the most able to handle it. However this city had been so large, that they had pulled Prime and Ratchet into this.
Ratchet paused in his shifting of a few boxes, his power scanners picking up a life form. "Prime, I got something."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Red Alert and Inferno came back wearily onto the Ark. Both were swaying in exhaustion, having checked the entire city, after Ratchet had rushed off with Prime in tow for the mysterious somebody. Jazz waited inside, grinning. "Hey, how'd it go?"
Red Alert cast an irritated glance at Jazz, optics burning. Jazz too a step back, hands coming up to ward off the evil glare. "Ahh, sorry, sorry. Just thought you'd both like to know what Prime and Ratchet found."
Red Alert thought about shrugging it off and going to get some recharge, when Inferno grabbed him by the arm, following after Jazz. He thought about protesting for a moment, then gave up, deciding that it wasn't worth it. Inferno would still do it anyways.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Red Alert and Inferno stared down at the little sparkling in awe. They had seen many younglings and sparkling, but usually they were dead before the two could get to them, but this, right here in front of him…
Inferno reached out carefully, afraid to touch, yet desperately wanting to make sure the sparkling was alive. That it wasn't his optics playing tricks on him. Ratchet saw this, for he quickly soothed, "Just be careful."
Prime looked at Ratchet, muttering, "You wouldn't let anyone else touch him."
"That's because they wouldn't know gentle if their life depended on it. These two however were trained in how to lift damaged younglings, sparklings, or even full-grown mechs without causing further damage like I was. Besides, they were the ones who entered the cities and saw all of the sparklings dead."
Prime winced at the reminder. "Yes, but still-"
"Prime," came Prowls soft voice, "Allow them just a little bit of time to make sure that the sparkling is alive."
The sparkling suddenly woke up, and took one look at the huge face above him, and began wailing his auditory receptors off. Inferno winced, as Red Alert flinched violently at the amount of noise their poor auditory receptors were getting after the quiet of the destroyed city.
Then, it was Red Alert who snatched the sparkling out of Infernos arms, and began making these curious rubbing motions along the back plate. The wails quickly died down into a contented clicking and whirling. Ratchet moved foreword, gesturing to the booth, and Red Alert placed the sparkling down, shaking his head.
Prime asked softly, "Where did you learn that?"
"I grew up in a sparkling home, so I often saw the nurses and femmes do that whenever the sparklings began to scream. Prime, what are we going to do with him?"
Primes spark clenched at the though of giving him up, and he said quickly. "We're going to keep him."
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Red Alert turned to the twins, feeling too tired, too exhausted, too cranky to deal with whatever prank they had done. "Twins, you have two nanoclicks to dismantle whatever trick you have put up or I swear that all of the blackmail material I have gathered on you two will be released into general public. From the time we were in the same base to yesterday when you spiked Ratchets energon with the substance that turned it purple."
The twins gulped, and sidled away quickly. Red Alert in this type of mood was not one to cross, especially not when he had all of that material.
Red Alert watched them go, and wearily turned back to safety regulations that would have to be imposed if Bumblebee was to stay aboard the Ark. "lets see, locked room, insulated wire, safety lock on cannons, guns, or any other weapons…"
Prime peeked around the corner, wondering what Red Alert was doing. Red Alert finished up, sighing in relief. He wasn't the type to talk aloud to empty air saying inane things, but he was tired enough to do so now. "Just have to give this to Prime, and then I'm going into recharge."
"Give what to me?"
Red Alert jumped slightly, but handed the disk to Prime, and escaped to his recharge bunk.
0o0o0o0o0
"And the biggest problem" Ironhide said softly, "Is getting Red Alert to agree, especially since he has the ability to make our lives miserable."
Prime skidded the pad that Red Alert had given him out onto the table. "Red Alert is apparently agreeing to allow the sparkling on the Ark, for in there is a list of items needed to protect the Ark from the sparkling, and vice-versa."
They looked through the pad. Red Alert, in his tiredness, had made many grammatical errors, but it was still readable. "This… is a lot. But, I think we can scrape it all together."
Ratchet tapped a couple of the items. "Wheeljack should be able to make several of these."
"And the construction crew should be able to erect a barrier around the reactors that power the Ark to make sure the youngling doesn't get too close." Prowl said softly. "However, a lot of this will have to be handled by Red Alert personally, seeming how only he knows most of the wires that are around the Ark."
"That… is going to take some convincing, isn't it?"
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Red Alert got off his weary, aching knees as he finished up with the Ark. Everything was ready for the sparkling to be moved in and taken care of. The entire Ark had been told of course, and were currently fighting each other for a slot.
He stumbled slightly, his knees joints slowly realigning themselves into a more stable position, and slowly made his way to his own recharge bunk. So what if the sparkling was going to be shown around the Ark today? He wanted a recharge, and he wanted it now.
0o0o0o0o0o0
Prime glanced around the crew, and frowned slightly. "Red Alert is missing."
"Probably still setting up everything. Either that or off for a recharge." Inferno said, breaking off his conversation with Hound and Jazz. "It's ok Prime, he'll look at the sparkling later and introduce himself, as for now, I think the poor guy might be over whelmed by how many we got here."
Prime nodded, shoving the thoughts of the glitchy security director out of his CPU. After all, I doubt Bumblebee will even be slightly interested in him. Came the wry thought. Except for when he gets into trouble.
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Couldn't resist… But, Bumblebee really doesn't, despite the fact that Red's my usual main character, which is why I write him a lot… But I had a little fun writing this.