When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

Chapter 37

Azura didn't really know how long she had remained underneath Ratchet. She moved around quietly, sticking close to him as she gazed around the lobby nervously. He worked on fixing the ground bridge as quickly as he could, though Ratchet's expression was far from pleased as Azura didn't know if he was successful in fixing the bridge or not. Time really was against them as far as she knew. She didn't actually know how much time has past at the time moment either. She was hoping it was just a half hour, but she feared it was possible that it was over that time. Everything just had gone by too quickly.

Jack was walking around the lobby, carefully scanning the room for any sign of the scraplets. So far there has not been any. But that did not mean nothing was happening. That pod wouldn't have had such a huge hole in it otherwise if it was only a single scraplet. Even though it was very quiet, he was still on high alert. He was hoping Ratchet would fix the ground bridge quickly as well. His mind was on Arcee, even though he was also worried for Optimus. Jack glanced at Azura few times as he knew that she could potentially die or lose her father today, or both. He didn't like that she was in that predicament.

After ten minutes, Jack looked over to Ratchet and Azura curiously. "How's it going over there?" He asked in a worried, uncertain tone. He had not wished to bother Ratchet, but he was still worried about how things would go today.

Ratchet grumbled in irritation, it was clear her was trying to figure out how to fix the bridge and he narrowed his optics as Azura looked up at him while he responded to Jack. "I've repaired the damaged conductors, and rerouted the central conduits. But the ground bridge still won't receive power!" He punched the ground to the side of the panel, making Azura yelp in surprise and clutch his leg tightly. Ratchet looked down as he realized he had scared. "Oh, sorry, Azura. I didn't mean to startle you." He rubbed the back of her head gently as she looked at him with a smile. "You are being brave, and I am proud of you."

Azura's smile widened, only for it to fade as she turned her head upon hearing the dreaded sound of screwdrivers. She looked around before glancing up, gasping as she saw a swarm of scraplets. And they were flying! Azura held her weapons fearfully as she stared up at the vermin, stepping back as Ratchet stood up, staring up at them in surprise.

"They fly?!" Jack exclaimed in shock as the scraplets made a beeline for Ratchet. "You never said they could fly!"

Azura shrieked as the scraplets swarm Ratchet's body, making him back up and fall. She ran to the side and yelped, swinging the hammer and pipe at scraplets that began to swarm at her. She was successful hitting several as most seem to be focused on Ratchet. The bot glanced at her as she saw the scraplets eating into his body. Jack ran over to hit off as many of the scraplets from Ratchet's body as he could.

However, as Ratchet tried to hit off the scraplets from his body, he widened his opens and slammed his fist beside Azura, making her scream and duck away, only to realize he had smashed some scraplets. "Watch your back, Azura!" He shouts, making her turn and scream as she felt something bite through the skin of her lower back. "JACK!"

Jack ran over to Azura, hitting off the scraplet and widening his eyes as he saw a flood of energon spilling from her wound, and he could also see her protoform skeleton. "Oh..." He gasped and swung the pipe around some more while Azura also swung her weapons, but her movements had slowed extremely now that she was injured. "There's too many!"

"Ugh, ah! The fire extinguisher!" Ratchet shouts, slamming his fists on several more scraplets and widened his optics as Azura fell onto the ground as several scraplets began to eat through the thin metal on her right leg. He swiped off the scraplets from her leg and pulled Azura closer to him. "Oh, Azura..." She hit off more scraplets, though she was already losing a lot of energon.