TransWarped (An Animated/Prime Crossover)

Chapter 14: A Good Idea and a Bad Idea

Arcee and Smokescreen described their attacker two days ago. While Wheeljack remained in a medically induced stasis mode, the other two were wide awake and ready to talk. They vividly remembered a large, purple bot with multiple optics. He was a flier with thick armor and even thicker pincers, one that preferred close combat fights to typical shootouts. The mysterious bot was strong, deadly, and, more importantly, managed to wrench the Predacon bone from their servos. It was all useful information. Arcee volunteered to search through the Autopedia files to find a suspect. Before she could, Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Sari gave them an unexpected lead.

Lugnut.

The idea of the Kaon Krusher coming to this dimension sent a chill down Bulkhead's spinal strut, but there was no denying it was him. There weren't many large purple Decepticons capable of creating a giant crater upon landing. There were even fewer Decepticons with more than two optics. It was easy to imagine Lugnut bludgeoning Wheeljack, Smokescreen, and Arcee with a Predacon bone as he loudly declared his love for Megatron and his hatred for Autobots.

The more Bulkhead thought about it, the more his anxiety grew. Negativity swarmed throughout Bulkhead's mind and choked out everything around him. 'There's no one else it could be! Transwarp energy brought him here just like us. He's here, working for Megatron, and more violent than he could ever be back home. He's never hurt me that badly and we've been fighting for over a year! This is so bad! This is so incredibly bad!

What are we going to do? Trying to figure out how to get the three of us home is challenging enough and now we have to worry about Lugnut? And who else is with him? It can't just be him...Primus, Blitzwing is probably here too! If Lugnut is this bad I can't imagine what Blitzwing would be like. He already tore Ratchet's servo off!'

A loud buzzing brought his thoughts to a screeching halt. [Bulkhead!]

Bulkhead's optics flickered as Lugnut's visage dissipated from his mind and he was brought back to the plain landscape of Nevada. He was standing in the middle of the Unit:E base camp.

"Oh, Bumblebee, uh hi?" Bulkhead's optics widened briefly as he focused on Bumblebee. How long had he been standing there?

Bumblebee didn't respond for a few seconds. His large optics regarded Bulkhead with concern and a bit of suspicion. [Did you hear me calling you?]

The larger bot winced. "No, sorry."

The worry in Bumblebee's optics doubled but he still didn't comment. [Then I guess you didn't see Prime and Agent Fowler pass by either. They pulled in with a dump trailer full of scrap metal. Since they're back, we can leave for patrol once you're finished refueling.]

"Oh, uh..." Bulkhead looked down at the oil can in his servo. He drained it a while ago when he first left Hangar E to get some fresh air. At some point during Bulkhead's internal rant, he'd squeeze three deep indents into the cylinder. It was his version of a stress ball. But now that he was going on patrol, there was no use for it. Bulkhead flattened the oil can between his servos, creating a perfect disk. "I'm ready now. Thanks for coming to get me."

[No problem.] Bumblebee shrugged. He looked the disk on Bulkhead's servo in disbelief. [You know it's still crazy to see you drink oil from Earth. The last time I did that, I had to get my tank pumped. Ratchet was so mad at me!] He ended with a light chuckle.

Bulkhead smiled as he walked beside Bumblebee. He didn't see it as anything special, but it was fun to see the others' reactions. "I guess it's just one of those differences between dimensions."

[I guess so. It'd be useful if we could drink the oil here. We'd rely on energon a whole lot less.]

"I'm glad Docbot and I aren't taking up more of your energon reserves," Bulkhead added with sincerity. These bots didn't have many resources and he'd feel like an even bigger burden if he had to consume their energon. If he and Ratchet stuck to oil, Team Prime could reduce their energon intake.