Child of the Allspark (Transformers Prime)

Pixel hurried over when the team began to come back through the ground bridge "What happened?"

"I only saw the gory aftermath," Bulkhead admitted. "But I hear that Doc was a one-bot wrecking machine,"

"Whoa!" Pixel exclaimed as Ratchet picked her up. She would normally be fine, but he was normally slow with his movements, this was sudden.

"Hey, Pixel." Ratchet greeted, before placing her back down.

Pixel took a step away from her guardian, stumbling when she fell into someone else's servo. She glanced up to see Optimus's worried gaze. Pixel nodded and he brought her up to his shoulder.

"All right, what's your secret?" Arcee asked Ratchet.

"No secret." Ratchet denied. "Just a little something I like to call Synthen," he showed the team his containers.

"From the data Pixel transcribed? I thought the formula was..."

"Incomplete?" Ratchet chuckled "Not anymore,"

Pixel shook her head at the turnout.

"Ratchet, I question the wisdom of using yourself as a test subject," Optimus declared.

"Optimus, you didn't see Ratchet out there," Arcee argued "He was in overdrive. We should all try this stuff,"

"Or give Ratchet more so we can take a vacation," Bulkhead claimed.

"No!" Pixel argued.

Optimus sent a glance over his shoulder at Pixel to let her know that he would handle it. "I agree that the initial results seem promising, but I recommend that further testing be confined to machines, not Autobots. Outnumbered though we may be, old friend, we need a warrior in the laboratory right now more than we need another in the field,"

Optimus walked back over to the catwalk and helped Pixel back down. "Watch over him,"

Pixel nodded as she looked over at her guardian.

***

Pixel did as Optimus told her and was watching Ratchet as he recalled the fight with Bulkhead.

"And then he came right at me." Ratchet explained "And I..." he stopped as Bulkhead was unmoving "Well, come on, Bulk. Come at me,"

"I don't want to hurt you, Ratch," Bulkhead said.

Pixel gasped when Ratchet slapped Bulkhead.

"I said come at me!" Ratchet said.

Bulkhead growled in annoyance and transformed his servo into his wrecking ball and went after Ratchet.

Ratchet picked Bulkhead up and threw him across the room, Bulkhead crashing into the wall and into the hallway.

"Ratchet!" Pixel scolded as she hurried down the stairs and over to Bulkhead to check for any serious damages.

"What was that?" Arcee asked as she came into the hall.

"You have competition, Bulk," Ratchet teased "I'm a bit stronger than I used to be. Also a bit faster," he faked a punch towards Bumblebee. "Think you can take me, muscle car?"

"Ratchet, that's enough!" Pixel scolded.

Ratchet scoffed as he walked past Bumblebee "Wimp," Ratchet looked over at Arcee "How's it humming,"

"Did he just..." Arcee started.

"I'll deal with it," Pixel told the trio as she followed her guardian, only to stop when she got an alert on her phone "Looks like the 'cons hit another vein,"

"Hey, hey, shouldn't we wait for our secret weapon?" Bulkhead suggested.

"You really hit your head hard, didn't you? The mission is unlikely to require medical expertise,"

"But you never know if it may require additional firepower," Ratchet said causing the group to look over and see him leaning against the wall. "Time to put some hurt on those Decepticons!"

Arcee and Bulkhead looked down at Pixel for further instruction.

Pixel waved them off "Just keep an eye on him. I'll go get Optimus,"

***

"Pixel, bridge us back," Optimus ordered.

Pixel sighed hearing the tone in Optimus's voice, someone was in trouble and she had an idea on who. Pixel saw the look in Ratchet's optics when he came into base "Ratch...whatever your thinking,"

Ratchet ignored his charge and went running back into the ground bridge.

"Scrap!" Pixel ran down the stairs, Ratchet was on the run, and Pixel could only hope that she could be the one to get him off this high with Synthen.