Title: Boomer

Universe: G1

Characters: Ratchet, Wheeljack, OC

Pairings: none

Warning: Cannon character death

"His name is Boomer!" Wheeljack said happily, patting his newest creation on its domed head while Ratchet and Perceptor looked on warily.

"His?" Ratchet glared sharply at the engineer, his customary scowl getting a little deeper.

"What..? Oh! Oh no, no no, Boomer doesn't have a spark, just a very, very good little A.I. Don't you? You have a wonderful, absolutely amazing top of the line A.I., don't you my precious little trigger happy bodyguard?" The two mechs looked on in a sort of creeping horror as Wheeljack patted Boomer's dome again, causing the heavily armoured mobile mega cannon to wriggle in delight and nuzzle it's main barrel against the inventor's hand.

"And just what are you going to be doing that you'll need a bodyguard?" Ratchet shifted back a few steps not retreating, no, just leaning against the wall as the giant drone pranced on its five legs, doing a remarkable imitation of a spaniel whose owner has just said the magic 'walk' word.

"Oh, come on, Ratch! You've always said that I need a keeper while I'm setting up my latest weapon on the battlefield! Well, Boomer will do just that! He'll keep me as safe as can be, so you won't have to worry about me getting shot up while I work!" Wheeljack rubbed a polishing cloth over one of Boomer's side turrets, and Perceptor could have sworn that the drone leaned into the pressure.

"Well, I guess...Slag!" Ratchet cursed as the base wide Decepticon alert went off. Perceptor wasn't worried; he wasn't on battle duty this week, but Wheeljack practically bounced out the door, calling to Boomer as he went. The huge drone followed the inventor like a puppy, and Ratchet ran out as well, headed for the medbay for his kit.

oOoOoOo

The battle was going well for the Autobots, Wheeljack had been given the go ahead to set up his improvised counter weapon to Megatron's latest doomsday machine, and honestly, Boomer was performing well past his projected abilities. The oversized drone danced around Wheeljack's assigned area, deflecting shots aimed at the inventor and targeting the attackers in turn. His massive cannon boomed out steadily, causing chaos on the field as Boomer targeted nearby Decepticons, defending his creator.

::Prowl, it's done! Megatron's weapon is useless for the next 3 breems!:: Wheeljack sent over the comm lines, grinning under his mask as he double checked his emitter's field strength, making certain it covered the entire battlefield. Nodding to himself, he only looked up when he bumped into one of Boomer's legs by accident. The drone spun to face him for a brief second before turning to fire on the Decepticons once more, but even that second was too long.

Wheeljack froze in shock as he realized that Megatron and Prime were battling not a hundred feet away, and that Prime had just managed to shove Megatron's fusion cannon away from his own head straight at Wheeljack's position. The engineer threw himself to the ground in sudden panic, then looked up as the distinctive sound and light show of the fusion cannon passed overhead. Wheeljack had managed to dodge the blast, but Boomer...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! BOOMER!" Wheeljack lunged to his feet and bolted to the blasted remains of his faithful drone, his wonderful invention, his fantabulous loyal bodyguard, the light of his lab these last few weeks. He dug his arms directly into the melted gaping wound that was all that was left of Boomer's beautiful gleaming dome, searching for leads to the main CPU, trying to crosswire connections that might save the drone's programming... to no avail.

Wheeljack gave up and fell to his knees as Boomer's massive frame crashed to the ground, showering the emitter with sparks and bits of molten metal. He sobbed into his hands, pausing in his tears only to reset and recharge the machine that would allow the Autobots to negate the effects of Megatron's weapon of the week. That was how Ratchet found him after the battle, sitting next to the charred remains of Boomer, sadly petting what was left of the domed head.

"Come on, Wheeljack, let's get you home." Ratchet helped the engineer to his feet and got him walking back to the Ark. Looking back at Boomer, the medic shook his head. "Who knows, maybe Boomer can be repaired... one day." Ratchet hid his wince at the lie, but Wheeljack simply shook his head.

"Nah, it wouldn't do any good if I did fix him up. The shot took out the CPU entirely, it's almost as if Megatron had deliberately aimed right at him. Besides, while Boomer had the firepower, he couldn't dodge well enough.. " Wheeljack took out a datapad with Boomer's blueprints and started fiddling with the designs, adding some things and removing others. "See now, if I halved the armour thickness and adjusted the power source, I could get away with a much smaller main body and might even be able to oh! And I could switch the leg structure and install a jetpack of sorts..."

Ratchet shook his head with a muted chuckle as Wheeljack practically skipped towards the Ark, wanting nothing but to get back to his lab. The medic nudged Sideswipe, who was on battlefield clean up duty, and pointed in Boomer's direction.

"Don't forget Wheeljack's latest toy - he'll be needing it for parts."

A/N: The idea for this popped into my head one day after reading three stories that had, in the header, "Warning: cannon character death". I'm one of those people that gets bugged quite a bit when someone uses the wrong word in a story. It just bugs the heck out of me, I don't know why. But one thing I do know: canon = true to the universe set by the creators; cannon = a big gun that shoots various forms of ammunition. So, since I'd seen stories warning for a cannon character death, and yet no cannons had died, I decided to write one where a cannon DID die. Thus was born the story of Boomer.