Rescue Bots: The Other Sister

Tic-Tac-Toe

Claire's P.O.V.

It had been about an hour since the team had entered the power plant. A very long hour.

"Hey Claire! You want to play a game with me? I know it can be boring waiting for the team to get back and I don't want to help Dad with inventory." Russell came up to where I was sitting, legs hanging loosely over the edge of the platform over looking the command center.

"I guess. What game should we play?"

"What about tic-tac-toe? We can draw a board anywhere really." With that Russell started walking away from me, expecting me to follow, which I did.

After about fourteen games (8 ties; 3 for me; 4 for Russell), we decided to get more creative with how we were playing. While I traced out a larger board, Russell ran to grab some paper from the scrap drawer, most of them old orders his dad had written down.

The papers soon became small paper airplanes, some with crisp edges and perfect tips, others were a little less perfect, uneven folds and strange shapes. Some had drawings on them while others just had numbers or letters. Most of mine had half drawn flowers and messy stars from before Russell took the pen from my hand and started labeling his own systematically.

"You first!" Russell has such a kind heart, always considering those around him and showing his love with little gestures. He is still young, but there was no doubt that Russell would grow up to be a good-natured person who could express himself in a kind way.

We continued on with our game, laughing every time the planes went the wrong way, nose divided or simply didn't fly. This version of tic-tac-toe was much harder and much more fun. 

"Wait! It's my turn!" 

"You were so close!"

"Beat that!"

"You were over the line!"

"What line?"

"That plane looks like UFO."

"Maybe try throwing it harder next time."

"I'm so close to wining!"

"Not on my watch!"

"YES!"

"NO!"

We were both so entranced in the game, we didn't hear Fix-It role back into the command center and check up on the team. The pending victory was much more important than the possible information that we could learn. 

"I WIN!" Russell's last plane lands just inside the lines that marked the box he needed to create a three-in-a-row diagonal, winning him our game.

"Congratulations. Nice shot." We high-fived each other before hearing something distressing coming through the command center's com system. 

"We have Void in our custody, the rest escaped, but we are going to need some clean up when we get back. Can you have Claire prepare one of the med kits?" Bee's voice sounded tired, worried about the events that had happened, but also about who ever was injured. 

"What should I prep for Bee? Is it just a few cuts or do I need to prep for something more complex?" Anyone could hear the worry in my voice, having seen the injuries that can happen out in battle.

"Most of them are cuts, but I need you to clean some deeper ones that might need stitches."

"What are stitches?" The voice sounded like Sideswipe, being young and mischievously curious. 

"Later. We'll be back in about 35 minutes, driving through the city might be tricky, but we can manage. Fix-It,  please show Claire where the med kits are. Signing off." Static filled the otherwise silent air. 

"Well, the med kits are just over here." I followed the mini-con in a daze. My brain was still processing everything that I had just heard: someone was injured, nothing bad, and they had won, kinda. 

When we got there, I simply nodded, still lost in my head. Fix-It didn't seem concerned about me, probably not understanding human emotions like Bee or Knock did. Bee's team was still new to Earth and they were working with only a few humans, something different from Team Prime and the team back on Griffin Rock. 

"Do you want any help?" The voice caused me to jump, not expecting someone else to be close by, but Russell must have followed us to the med kits.

"Sure." I started dissembling one of the large kits, pulling out what I would need for the described injuries. Russell helped move everything into piles so everything was organized for when I, or Knock, would need it. 

Once, the last item was out, I sent Russell to grab his dad and his truck so we could move the supplies over towards the main area of the base. I was used to everything being within reach because Racket had all his equipment easily accessible. Then again, he needed to be able to grab what he needed quickly considering there was almost always an injury from someone doing something stupid or the Decepticons actually landed a good hit. 

Hopefully nothing too bad happened this time, and Knockout kept out of trouble. Knowing him, he likely was the trouble or a least the reason there was more difficulty with the mission. At lease the mission wasn't a complete failure. They captured a dangerous Decepticon and were able to keep the Decepticons other from meeting whatever their goal was. 

Maybe this was our mission. Was this what Optimus was talking about, or is there still a larger threat waiting out there?