TF (OC): Searchin’
Rating: PG
Series: G1
Summary: This is the back-story for my OC Tracer. Rescue and repercussions
Warnings: None really… oops…
Disclaimer: As per usual, the good things in life are not mine to have, but belong to someone else... in this case Hasbro, Takara and IDW and anyone else I’ve forgotten… Tracer belongs to me… as do Kicker and Rollback
Feedback makes friends. Flames dealt with by the masters of paranoia and fire, Red Alert and Inferno.
Authors Notes: I’d apologise for leaving you all with the cliffhanger last time… but I know you all loved it really *snorts*
Searchin' Part One
Searchin' Part Two
Searchin' Part Three
Searchin' Part Four
Searchin' Part Five
Searchin' Part Six
Searchin' Part Seven
Searchin' Part Eight
Searchin' Part Nine
Searchin' Part Ten
Searchin' Part Eleven
Searchin' Part Twelve
Searchin' Part Thirteen
Searchin' Part Fourteen
Searchin' Part Fifteen
Searchin' Part Sixteen
Searchin' Part Seventeen
Searchin' Part Eighteen
Tracer braced herself for the shot, expecting any moment to hear the soft click of the trigger being pulled, followed by the high-pitched whine that signalled the laser blast heading her way.
She heard the click and tensed almost imperceptibly, waiting for the pain.
But it never came.
Cautiously, she onlined her optics; a soft shimmer surrounded her and Soundwave was nowhere to be seen. The sounds of the battle filtered through to her audios and time seemed to return to normal. The shimmer dissipated the moment she realised it was Trailbreaker’s forcefield. Standing, she located him, nodding her thanks before returning to Hound’s side to check on his condition. He was still in stasis and there was no way it was safe to bring him out of it in the middle of a battlefield. Which also meant there was no way she could help him off the battlefield. She wasn’t strong enough to drag him any distance. Sensors focussed elsewhere, she didn’t notice Trailbreaker’s approach, jumping when he placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t do that!” She snapped reflexively, twisting round to glare at him.
“Heh, sorry. Just thought you could use a hand.” Tracer nodded, unable to do much more than watch as Trailbreaker hoisted Hound into his arms.
“Least the battle’s nearly over.” He nodded towards the fighting, recognising the signs of Megatron calling a retreat before the Decepticons took to the air.
“Okay, so it’s completely over then.” He amended.
“Good.” Tracer couldn’t help but vent a sigh of relief, catching Soundwave’s form amongst the retreating Decepticons.
The other Autobots made their way over, Prime’s figure towering amongst them.
“Hound?” Prowl was efficient in everything he did, including asking for updates.
“He’s in stasis. We need to get him back to Ratchet.” Tracer explained.
“I’ll take ‘em.” Ironhide stepped forward and transformed, allowing Trailbreaker to load Hound in him. Tracer followed, climbing inside, knowing there was no way she could drive back to the Ark. Now that the battle was over and her processor had chance to catch up with what exactly had happened she felt drained.
The journey back to the Ark seemed to take very little time at all. Before she knew it, they’d pulled to a stop outside the med. bay and Ratchet was staring in.
In short order, she had been repaired, cautioned on taking it easy, assured that Hound would be fine and shunted out of the med. bay. Standing in the corridor, she suddenly felt a little lost.
“You okay kid?” Tracer turned to find Brawn standing then, head tilted questioningly at her.
“Yeah…”
“Heard you stood up to Soundwave earlier. Good on you!” He clapped her on the back, ignoring her wince as she staggered and guided her down the corridor towards the rec. room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
There seemed to be an impromptu party in the rec. room, not that Blaster needed an excuse to play his music loudly; it was only during parties that he didn’t get reprimanded for it. Brawn led her to their usual table, waiting until she’d sat down before leaving to get them both some high-grade that had appeared. Thankfully, their table was about as far away as they could get from Blaster, meaning that the sound wasn’t quite as intrusive and disturbing as it could be.
Over the course of the evening, Tracer found herself relaxing despite herself. The battle wasn’t mentioned and the music was lowered to a more acceptable level so conversation could take place properly. It was simply friends having fun.
Those that were on shift early the next day had already left. Tracer hadn’t been cleared for anything more than light duties for a couple of days, so she had stayed when Brawn left.
“You okay?” She looked up to see Smokescreen slide into the seat next to her.
“I guess.” Somehow she knew that her answer wouldn’t satisfy Smokescreen. He made his living by reading other mechs. The tilt of his doorwings told her she was correct.
“You can do better than that.” Tracer stared down into her half-empty cube.
“Just feels strange…” She muttered, finishing the rest of the cube in one gulp. Beside her, Smokescreen raised an optic ridge.
“Let me try. You feel strange because you now don’t have the fear of Soundwave coming after you because you’ve stood up to him.” Tracer started at that before settling back thoughtfully.
“Yeah and it’s a good thing ya don’t have to worry about him no more.” Inferno had managed to walk up to their table undetected by either of them. Smokescreen and Inferno exchanged a look and Smokescreen quickly stood up, saying he had other places to be and other mechs to see.
“You okay kid?” Inferno handed her another cube and sat down. Tracer nodded her thanks before taking a sip from the new cube, delaying answering his question. Smokescreen’s reply had made her think. She had spent a fair amount of time running scared, fearful that Soundwave would come after her again. And now that he had and failed, she was left in a sort of limbo. There was no reason for her to be scared anymore because it seemed unlikely that Soundwave would try again.
“You know, I think I am.” She gave Inferno a smile and took another sip.
“I’m just glad Trailbreaker were there.”
“Me too Inferno, me too.” They both happened to look up and see Trailbreaker enter the rec. room at the same time. Before Tracer had a chance to stop him, Inferno was waving the black mech. over. Inferno waited until Trailbreaker had sat down before standing up and grinning at the pair of them.
“Well, I’ll leave ya two alone then.”
“Fragger.” Tracer muttered as the fire engine left them sitting there together.
“What?” Trailbreaker watched a curious expression on his faceplates, as Tracer glared at Inferno’s retreating back.
“He’s trying to cash in.”
“What?” Now Trailbreaker was thoroughly confused. Tracer stared at him for a moment before leaning across the table.
“You not heard about this bet they’ve got going?” She whispered, flinging her arm out to indicate the rest of the rec. room.
“I heard.” Trailbreaker replied carefully.
“I bet you he’s got a bet going that he can get us together!”
“Wouldn’t surprise me.”
“How are you not worked up about it all?”
“No point getting worked up over it. This lot will always find something to gossip about. You and me, that’s new to them.” He offered her a small smile, a different expression flashing across his faceplates as she didn’t comment on his wording.
“Huh.” Tracer sat back and stared at him.
“They’ll get bored of it in another week or so.”
“Right.” Tracer couldn’t quite figure out why she actually sounded disappointed about that. She took another small sip from her cube before looking up at Trailbreaker again.
“Thanks for… you know, earlier.” He lifted a shoulder in a sort of shrug.
“No worries. It’s what I’m there for.”
“Keeping an eye on femmes who attract the wrong sort of attention?” Tracer smirked as Trailbreaker just stared at her, thrown by the question and evidently not sure how to answer. In the end, he took a long drink from his cube before meeting her optics again.
“Well, hopefully you won’t be attracting that sort of attention anymore.”
“Smokescreen doesn’t think I will. He reckons that now I’ve stood up to Soundwave, he’ll leave me alone. And Prowl’s always thought he would never come after me on Earth. Guess now he’ll be right.”
“At least Soundwave now knows you’re tougher than you look.” Tracer laughed.
“Kicker always used to say I was stronger than I looked. Never quite forgave me for knocking him off his feet.”
“You and Kicker were close, weren’t you?”
“Yeah.” She paused, looking intently at him for a moment, taking in the tone of his vocaliser. “But not in that way. We were good friends.” The look on his faceplates made her stop talking. She wasn’t quite sure why, but she suddenly needed to be anywhere but here. Abruptly, she stood up and left, leaving Trailbreaker wondering exactly what he’d said wrong.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Hey, do you guys hear that?” Bluestreak braked, sending the Lamborghinis flying past either side of him as they too braked hard.
“Blue, what the Pit are you stopping for?”
“I can hear someone else.”
“Out here this time of night? I doubt it.” Sunstreaker scoffed his sneer evident even though he was still in alt-mode.
“Honest. Kind of sounds like…” Bluestreak cut his sentence short as a blue off-road vehicle skidded round the corner and stopped, headlights illuminating their forms briefly before turning and heading in a different direction, off the smooth road.
“…Tracer.” Bluestreak finished lamely, transforming and watching her bounce easily across the landscape. Almost as one, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker transformed, automatically coming to stand either side of Bluestreak.
“I wonder what she’s doing out here.”
“Let’s find out!”
“You can’t be serious?”
“Come on, we haven’t had a good race for ages. Or are you worried she’ll beat you again?”
“Hey!”
“She beat you? When?”
“Back on Cybertron Blue, ages and ages ago.” Sideswipe ignored the murderous glare on his twin’s faceplates. “Up for a race then?” He folded down easily into alt-mode, revving his engine before steering off the road and after Tracer.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“What the frag did you say to her?” Inferno stared down Trailbreaker, the usually genial fire engine now somewhat annoyed.
“I didn’t say anything. She mentioned Kicker and I asked whether they were close. Then she left.” Inferno nodded slowly, before turning to comm. Red Alert.
“Red. Tracer’s left the rec. room.”
“I know. She asked permission to leave the Ark.”
“And you granted it!”
“I’m monitoring her location Inferno. She’s safe.”
“Why’d she run off though Red?”
“My guess? She needed to get out. Just like she used to do back on Cybertron with Kicker, when she thought I didn’t know.” Inferno thought about it before realising that Red Alert was right.
“Well?” Trailbreaker asked almost impatiently.
“Red knows where she is. She just headed out for a bit of a drive.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I thought her top speed wasn’t that good?” Bluestreak asked, struggling to keep up with the two Lamborghinis, even over the rough ground.
“She had a head start Blue. But we’ll catch her.”
“Fragging right we will.”
Comm. lines off and sensors tuned to the bleakness around her, Tracer could almost convince herself she was back on Cybertron. She knew that the Twins and Bluestreak were following her and she treated it exactly like the races she used to have with Kicker. Pushing her engine as far as it would go, she sped across the uneven terrain, relishing the escape the race provided. The rumble of high-performance engines echoed either side of her moments before the Lamborghinis sped past her, braking harshly and turning, forcing her to stop to avoid crashing.
“You’re not as fast as you were back on Cybertron.” The familiar cold tone was back in Sunstreaker’s voice as he transformed, pointedly waiting for the others to do the same. Tracer transformed as Bluestreak pulled up, suddenly feeling very small with Sunstreaker towering over her.
“I could have overtaken you.”
“Not without straining your engine. Face it, you’re just not as good as me any more.” Tracer scrabbled for a retort, not managing to find one.
“Why did you follow me?”
“Didn’t have much choice. Blue here was worried about you.” Sideswipe broke in, sensing the tension between Sunstreaker and Tracer.
“I can take care of myself!” She answered hotly, irritated by the implication that she couldn’t defend herself.
“No one is doubting that, it’s just strange to see someone else out here this time of night and after what happened today I just wanted to make sure that you were okay and everything. You know because I know what it’s like to be alone and today was bad and…” Bluestreak trailed off as Sideswipe gently put a hand on his shoulder.
“What Blue’s trying to say is we wanted to make sure everything was okay.”
“Of course everything’s okay. Why wouldn’t it be?” Tracer didn’t seem to expect an answer to her question, finally breaking optic contact with Sunstreaker to glance across at Sideswipe.
“Just never seen you race since you got here. Why now?”
“Because I needed to get out!”
“Things with Trailbreaker not going so well?” Sunstreaker took a step towards Tracer, enjoying his taunting.
“Frag off.”
“Sunny…” Sideswipe’s vocaliser held a tone of warning.
“Oh come on, everyone’s been talking about it. What else could it be?”
“Maybe that Soundwave keeps coming after her and this is a good way to escape the feelings?” Bluestreak ventured, managing to draw Tracer’s attention to him. She faltered for an instant, just staring at him before her shoulders slumped.
“We always used to race, me and Kicker. It was just us two, no one else. No war. Just the race.” She muttered, optics fixed on the ground.
“An escape. A way of forgetting what was going on. Something to distract you.” Bluestreak added. Tracer nodded, not raising her head, before turning, intent on making her escape. Sunstreaker’s hand clamping down on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks.
“You can’t run forever.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” She twisted out of his grip and stared back up at him.
“You seem to think that you can just run away from all your problems.”
“I was not running away!”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“Who asked you to care anyway? You don’t care for anyone. Except them.” She waved in the direction of Sideswipe and Bluestreak, ignoring their gasp of shock.
“How…?” She could hear Sideswipe mutter.
“You might be a tracker, but you can’t see what’s in front of your own optics.” Sunstreaker sneered at her before folding back down into his alt mode and accelerating off into the night, calling out to Sideswipe and Bluestreak as he left. They lingered uncertainly for a moment.
“You going to be okay?” Sideswipe asked. Tracer shrugged.
“You’d best go after him.” Was all the answer she would give, watching as they both transformed and sped after Sunstreaker.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Tracer was subdued when she rolled back in sight of the Ark. After making sure that Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Bluestreak were well away, she’d taken off in the other direction, at a more sedate pace. She took the time simply to think, but still hadn’t come to any satisfactory conclusions. The figures standing there, illuminated by the entrance lights brought her abruptly out of her thoughts. Not to mention made her want to turn around and drive as far away as she could.
“Tracer, come on, me and Red wanna have a word with you.” Inferno’s voice was quiet, but the tone was serious. There was no getting away from it and reluctantly she transformed, following them into the Ark. Red Alert headed straight for the Security Center, the one place, he said, in all the Ark where their conversation couldn’t be overheard or recorded.
Once inside, she watched as Red Alert went through his standard checks before settling himself down in his chair, in front of the monitors. Inferno lounged against the wall. Tracer lingered uncomfortably, wondering exactly what they wanted to talk to her about.
“You happy here?” Inferno began.
“Of course I am. Whatever gave you the idea I wasn’t?”
“Things haven’t been easy Tracer.” Red Alert turned and spoke over his shoulder, optics still focussed on his monitors.
“Don’t you think I know that? So after everything, you’re just going to send me away?”
“Of course not.”
“So then what? More monitor duty?”
“No.”
“Come on, you know I can hold my own. I just got a bit unlucky that was all.”
“Not saying that you can’t Tracer. But ya have to realise we worry, right?”
“Especially when you run off outside in the middle of a conversation.*
“Red! You gave me permission to leave.”
“I didn’t realise what had happened.” The quiet admission from Red Alert was telling. Normally he could understand the activities of any Autobot with just a few button presses.
“I know I shouldn’t have run out on ‘Breaker like that…”
“But?”
“I needed to get out.” Tracer turned and paced. “Look, Sunstreaker’s already chewed me out about racing around in the dark, so I don’t need it from you!”
“Sunstreaker?”
“Yes. Now, if there’s nothing more you want to say?” She left the question hanging, hoping that there was nothing more they wanted to add.
“Just… be careful, okay kid? Don’t want you getting hurt or nothing.”
“Smokescreen already said that he doesn’t think Soundwave will bother again.”
“Inferno wasn’t just talking about that Tracer.”
“What then?” Tracer asked before realisation dawned in her optics. “Trailbreaker. You mean Trailbreaker don’t you?” The way Red Alert shifted uncomfortably told her everything she needed to know.
“Please just ignore that slagging bet. It was bad enough you trying to set us up Inferno. If, and only if, anything were to happen, don’t you think I can deal with it myself?”
“Well, yeah but…”
“But nothing! Now if you’ll excuse me?” Tracer barely gave them time to reply before stalking out of the Security Center.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Part Twenty