Twist

Chapter 39: Leadership

Reparing her side wasn't as easy as she thought it would be. Knockout always made it look easy, just rerouting wires and pipes, melding metal together, and putting plates over leaking units. Temptest picked up a blowtorch and tried to point it at her side, but it felt rather awkward. If that wasn't an indication of her inadequacy...

After some trial and error, she figured trying to weld the plates together would probably end with her loosing a lot of energon, so Temptest just welded a plate of metal over the open wound. It was rough, but it would have to work for now.

She left the medbay and found out that the Autobots were riding the struggle bus.

"What do you want us to do, glorious leader?" Smokescreen deadpanned.

Bulkhead shuffled awkwardly and looked at Wheeljack, who was ignoring his friend's issue as he worked on scanning for the Autobots.

"Um, scan for the rest of the team..." Bulkhead mumbled. "Talk to Ultra Magnus, and er... what was the other thing?"

"Do a perimeter check!" Wheeljack called out to him.

"Yeah, that," Bulkhead nodded. "You can help Temptest."

Smokescreen scowled. "I can't fly."

Temptest clapped him on the back as she walked past humorously. "You don't need to fly to be a scout. Come along."

He groaned and followed after her grumpily.

"Found anything, Wheeljack?" Temptest questioned.

"Not yet," Wheeljack admitted. "I'm not entirely sure how Ratchet organizes this monitor, but I'll find it."

"Okay," Temptest headed for the exit. "Smokescreen, your comms are working, right?"

"Why wouldn't they be?"

Temptest shrugged. "It's been a hectic month."

She transformed, making sure to stay within sight of Smokescreen, and led him back to where she onlined. From her view in the sky, it was clear that she really had crashed. That wasn't entirely surprising. She crashed fairly often.

Temptest flew around in circles, consistently increasing her diameter to ensure that she'd find anyone and anything relevant nearby. Smokescreen reported in some energon droplets on the ground and the location aligned with her crash site. Other than that, nothing.

Below her, Smokescreen skidded to a stop and transformed. She sighed and flew down, landing next to him with a frown. "What's up?"

"Fowler called in," Smokescreen informed her. "Megatron is attacking a military base in Cuba."

"What?" Temptest demanded. "He was stuck with us!"

Smokescreen groaned. "He came back, but not Optimus?"

Temptest transformed again and quickly flew back to base. Wheeljack was already opening a groundbridge and Bulkhead was missing.

"Where is Bulkhead?"

"Trying to make Ultra Magnus come with us," Wheeljack growled. "Stupid protocols. I ought to rewrite the book."

"We'll have to go without him," Temptest decided. "Smokescreen, comm Bulkhead. We need answers and we need to stop Megatron. Ultra Magnus can wait."

Wheeljack shook his helm. "We can't stop Megatron on our own."

Bulkhead ran into the room. "What's the plan?"

"You're the leader!' Smokescreen exclaimed. "Unless-"

"I'll bait Megatron," Temptest informed them. "Find his target and get it out of range. Finish evacuating the base and keep the humans safe. When everything is clear, rendezvous with me and we'll coordinate a retreat."