Huffer - Tuesday's Child
Title: Tuesday's Child
Author: Jen "Newsy" Kerner
Character: Huffer
Word Count: 840
Rating: PG for battle action
Group/Theme: Days of the week*/Tuesday
*using the Monday's Child nursery rhyme - this chapter is based on "Tuesday's child is full of grace"
Summary: Caught alone on an ill-advised visit to the humans' hospital, Huffer must confront a cadre of Decepticons on his own.
The vision plagued Huffer. It haunted him more than any atrocity he had ever seen on Cybertron, even more than the first sight of Megatron alive again on Earth. The image of a young human female whose name Huffer did not know, lying helplessly broken in an infirmary, was seared into his processor.
On the surface, something so much smaller than he ought to be easy to repair, Huffer thought. Most of his minibot-sized systems were simpler than those of a larger mech like Grapple.
Most of them. But not all. Should his comparably tiny processor or fuel pump be injured, Huffer knew those wounds would present a greater challenge to Ratchet - if only because the physician's hands were so large compared to his own. Perhaps the young human had suffered a similarly complex injury, something involving the circulatory system or the neural net.
But minibot injuries, even severe ones, had been repaired. Bumblebee and Cliffjumper had taken more than their share of serious hits on Cybertron, and none of their damage had ever been permanent. If the uniformed human was the equivalent of Ratchet, if he had equivalent skills, certainly the young female could be repaired with no lasting effects.
Couldn't she?
Huffer had to go. He had no permission, but he also had no choice. The only way to purge the haunting visions was to see the human patient again.
One of the advantages of being a minibot, Huffer had found, was the fact that a minibot's small size gave him a better chance of slipping away undetected. This was especially true for one with his role, because when there was nothing to build or repair, there was no demand on his time. Huffer strolled casually out of the Ark, doing his best to appear aimless or at least unhurried, then transformed and drove at top speed toward the humans' infirmary.
Without the aid of the vehicles that looked suspiciously like Ratchet, it took Huffer a few passes through the city to find the building. He transformed and did his best to look discreetly through various windows until he recognized the young female. Her condition appeared only marginally changed. The machines registering her vital readings showed that her inner systems were more stable, but she remained unconscious, immobile and attached to the apparatus that forced air into her chest. This time, she was not accompanied by the older humans Huffer had seen before. The one with her now, a male, was older still, yet the two bore a striking resemblance to each other. Perhaps this was a parent's parent, what Spike called a grandparent.
Huffer thought he heard a droning mechanical voice somewhere behind him, but he paid it no heed. He found it all but impossible to avert his optics from the Spark-rending scene in the infirmary. Was this, Huffer wondered, what the humans felt like when they saw a Cybertronian for the first time?
The faint droning was followed by a clack-clack, the distant sound of mechs transforming, the pounding of approaching footsteps. Huffer felt the grip of metal-piercing teeth on his leg.
Finally, he looked down. Ravage released his grip, stepped back, hissed and growled. Frightened, Huffer slowly moved his gaze upward... directly into the leering optics of Soundwave.
The minibot fumbled in a panic, taking three attempts to key in Teletraan's frequency. "Help," he managed to squeak before a blast from Laserbeak impacted his left side.
Blocking Ravage with one leg and Laserbeak with one arm left Huffer wide open, he knew, for an attack from the lookalikes Rumble and Frenzy should they eject from the big mech's chest. Or worse, wide open for an attack from the big mech himself. Huffer ducked and dodged as well as he could, all the while cursing himself for his rash stupidity.
Soundwave aimed his cannon - but not at Huffer. The small Autobot envisioned the trajectory of the weapon: a straight line directly into the side of the infirmary.
No! If anyone was to pay for his idiotic decision to take off by himself, Huffer resolved, it should be him and him alone, certainly not a building full of innocent indigenous lifeforms. In one uncharacteristically quick and smooth motion, Huffer knocked the two tape-beasts aside and leaped into the line of fire just as Soundwave let fly.
Laserbeak tumbled aimlessly for a few kliks, just long enough to catch some of Soundwave's fire with his wing. Still, the majority of the blast slammed into Huffer's abdomen, and the minibot involuntarily doubled over in pain and fell to the ground.
Before Soundwave could take another shot at the infirmary or the wounded Huffer, a rocket landed and detonated on contact with the Decepticon's gun arm. The big 'bots - Huffer didn't care which ones - had arrived. The humans' infirmary was in better hands than his now... better hands than the ones that had placed these innocents in danger in the first place.
One final thought registered, almost audibly, in Huffer's processor before he dropped into stasis lock. Stupid protoling...
Author: Jen "Newsy" Kerner
Character: Huffer
Word Count: 840
Rating: PG for battle action
Group/Theme: Days of the week*/Tuesday
*using the Monday's Child nursery rhyme - this chapter is based on "Tuesday's child is full of grace"
Summary: Caught alone on an ill-advised visit to the humans' hospital, Huffer must confront a cadre of Decepticons on his own.
The vision plagued Huffer. It haunted him more than any atrocity he had ever seen on Cybertron, even more than the first sight of Megatron alive again on Earth. The image of a young human female whose name Huffer did not know, lying helplessly broken in an infirmary, was seared into his processor.
On the surface, something so much smaller than he ought to be easy to repair, Huffer thought. Most of his minibot-sized systems were simpler than those of a larger mech like Grapple.
Most of them. But not all. Should his comparably tiny processor or fuel pump be injured, Huffer knew those wounds would present a greater challenge to Ratchet - if only because the physician's hands were so large compared to his own. Perhaps the young human had suffered a similarly complex injury, something involving the circulatory system or the neural net.
But minibot injuries, even severe ones, had been repaired. Bumblebee and Cliffjumper had taken more than their share of serious hits on Cybertron, and none of their damage had ever been permanent. If the uniformed human was the equivalent of Ratchet, if he had equivalent skills, certainly the young female could be repaired with no lasting effects.
Couldn't she?
Huffer had to go. He had no permission, but he also had no choice. The only way to purge the haunting visions was to see the human patient again.
One of the advantages of being a minibot, Huffer had found, was the fact that a minibot's small size gave him a better chance of slipping away undetected. This was especially true for one with his role, because when there was nothing to build or repair, there was no demand on his time. Huffer strolled casually out of the Ark, doing his best to appear aimless or at least unhurried, then transformed and drove at top speed toward the humans' infirmary.
Without the aid of the vehicles that looked suspiciously like Ratchet, it took Huffer a few passes through the city to find the building. He transformed and did his best to look discreetly through various windows until he recognized the young female. Her condition appeared only marginally changed. The machines registering her vital readings showed that her inner systems were more stable, but she remained unconscious, immobile and attached to the apparatus that forced air into her chest. This time, she was not accompanied by the older humans Huffer had seen before. The one with her now, a male, was older still, yet the two bore a striking resemblance to each other. Perhaps this was a parent's parent, what Spike called a grandparent.
Huffer thought he heard a droning mechanical voice somewhere behind him, but he paid it no heed. He found it all but impossible to avert his optics from the Spark-rending scene in the infirmary. Was this, Huffer wondered, what the humans felt like when they saw a Cybertronian for the first time?
The faint droning was followed by a clack-clack, the distant sound of mechs transforming, the pounding of approaching footsteps. Huffer felt the grip of metal-piercing teeth on his leg.
Finally, he looked down. Ravage released his grip, stepped back, hissed and growled. Frightened, Huffer slowly moved his gaze upward... directly into the leering optics of Soundwave.
The minibot fumbled in a panic, taking three attempts to key in Teletraan's frequency. "Help," he managed to squeak before a blast from Laserbeak impacted his left side.
Blocking Ravage with one leg and Laserbeak with one arm left Huffer wide open, he knew, for an attack from the lookalikes Rumble and Frenzy should they eject from the big mech's chest. Or worse, wide open for an attack from the big mech himself. Huffer ducked and dodged as well as he could, all the while cursing himself for his rash stupidity.
Soundwave aimed his cannon - but not at Huffer. The small Autobot envisioned the trajectory of the weapon: a straight line directly into the side of the infirmary.
No! If anyone was to pay for his idiotic decision to take off by himself, Huffer resolved, it should be him and him alone, certainly not a building full of innocent indigenous lifeforms. In one uncharacteristically quick and smooth motion, Huffer knocked the two tape-beasts aside and leaped into the line of fire just as Soundwave let fly.
Laserbeak tumbled aimlessly for a few kliks, just long enough to catch some of Soundwave's fire with his wing. Still, the majority of the blast slammed into Huffer's abdomen, and the minibot involuntarily doubled over in pain and fell to the ground.
Before Soundwave could take another shot at the infirmary or the wounded Huffer, a rocket landed and detonated on contact with the Decepticon's gun arm. The big 'bots - Huffer didn't care which ones - had arrived. The humans' infirmary was in better hands than his now... better hands than the ones that had placed these innocents in danger in the first place.
One final thought registered, almost audibly, in Huffer's processor before he dropped into stasis lock. Stupid protoling...