TransWarped (An Animated/Prime Crossover)

Chapter 17: Friendly Fire

Grimlock awoke in the dead of night with a fearsome roar. It'd been chaotic ever since.

"Get off!" Grimlock demanded as he tried to wrench his arms and legs free.

The neural buffers pumping through his system did little to weaken or calm the Dinobot. He groaned, shouted, and squirmed on the berth as he tried to fight off Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Slug, and Bulkhead. Slug and Optimus held onto Grimlock's arms while Bulkhead tried to keep a firm grip on Grimlock's legs. Meanwhile, Ratchet attempted to use a slim, cylindrical medical device, a Transfer Interlink, to scan the crown of Grimlock's head.

"Grimlock, we're trying to help you!" Optimus Prime all but snarled as he kept a firm hold on Grimlock's left arm. "Just let Ratchet do his job! Please!"

Ratchet never spoke. Through all the chaos, he kept a steady grip on the Transfer Interlink and focused on the screen beside him. Even when Slug accidentally knocked into him, Ratchet remained focused.

"Uh, should I go?" Bumblebee asked over the sound of grunts and Grimlock's cries. Ratchet instructed him to get an energon cube earlier, but Bumblebee didn't want to risk his life entering the medbay. One wrong move would flatten him. He stepped back and hoped to tiptoe away from the medbay unseen.

Optimus responded before Bee could take one more step. "No, Grimlock needs that energon, Bumblebee," he stated through clenched teeth.

"Grimlock, I need you to hold on for a few more seconds. We can take a break after," Ratchet calmly stated.

Grimlock didn't like that answer. He pulled his leg from Bulkhead's servo and kicked out.

"Hey!" Bulkhead cried as he narrowly dodged Grimlock's thick pede. His own large servo clamped around Grimlock's pede and slammed it back on the berth. "Calm down!"

Grimlock's response was interrupted by a loud beeping noise.

"It's finished," Ratchet announced, still looking at the screen. He hastily moved the Transfer Interlink away from Grimlock and deactivated it.

Optimus and Bulkhead immediately released Grimlock. With his left arm and legs free and Ratchet's intrusive medical device out of his face, Grimlock relaxed against the berth. He eventually pulled his arm away from a concerned Slug. Multiple bots' internal fans whirred as the tension in the room slowly decreased. Bumblebee continued to linger in the doorway with the energon cube.

"And you're sure you don't have an EMP?" Bulkhead panted. He rolled his wrists and shoulders to work tension out of his joints.

"For the fifth time, no, I don't," Ratchet stated with some ire. He looked at Bulkhead over his shoulder. "Even if I did, the entire point of scanning Grimlock now is to assess his processor function when he's awake."

"You got everything you need, though, right?" Optimus asked. He rounded the berth to get a peek at the scanning results.

"For now, yes. However, I need to monitor him for the next few days. That means more scans."

"Great. I can't wait to do this every day," Bulkhead drawled.

Ratchet corrected him, "I would prefer to scan him multiple times a day."

"My Grimlock fine!" Grimlock repeated. He threw his arm over his face and groaned. "No tests. No scans. Me Grimlock hate it!"

Optimus stepped in with his typical parental scolding. "Grimlock, I know this is hard for you but-"

The T. rex moved his arm to glare daggers at Optimus. "Me Grimlock no want to hear from you! You reason me Grimlock like this in the first place!"

Prime's optics widened in genuine shock. He placed a servo on his chassis and exclaimed, "Wh- me?! What did I do?!"