Chapter Text
Something strange was going on in Vaporex, but in Ratchets opinion the worst part about it was that no one else seemed to notice.
His little village wasn’t that sleepy, it couldn’t be! But then how come no one else seemed to notice how stuff was going missing?
Or maybe Ratchet was just the only one in a position to notice? But that couldn’t be right either.
Still, just because Ratchet seemed to be the only to notice what was going on around here didn’t mean he was just about to let it slide.
Which led him to now, trying to figure out who was taking things from his town and where it was all being taken.
Though that led him to the next thing, from what he knew was being taken (when he first noticed Ratchet started keeping a list) it was sort of nonsensical.
Some of it made sense of course, like some discarded scrap from the back of Chromatin’s little repair shop. You’d be able to make repairs with that, or at least something.
Him being Chromatin’s apprentice was also probably the only reason he had actually noticed that stuff was going missing, seeing as going into the back to take said scrap to get melted down so they could use it again only for it to be gone was usually a big indicator something was up.
Though someone taking the wire ribbons on the light posts around Vaporex from the festival they had a few months back didn’t make much sense at all.
(And he knew they were stolen because of the scrapes that littered the metal of the pole where the ribbon used to be.)
Whoever was stealing stuff from his village really couldn’t decide what was important to take besides the obvious necessities.
Like those colourful batons he’d seen a while back too, whatever happened not to be nailed down and not missed was taken without a second thought.
All of it was just so strange.
——
“Ratchet! Come here bitlet,” Chromatin called, booming voice easily being able to reach Ratchet.
“Coming!” He called back, trying in vain to reach the same volume as his mentor.
Getting up from his workbench in Chromatins little clinic he found her waiting for him outside, a serious look on her face.
Well, maybe it was a serious look, she sort of always looked like that.
“Is everything alright? Is someone hurt?” He asked concerned.
Chromatin huffed at that, amusement smoothing out her usually serious features.
“Everyone is fine mechling, I just thought you’d want to see something,” Ratchets EM field rippled in curiosity at that.
Though before he could ask for any more clarification Chromatin began walking away from him.
Ratchet, thankfully didn’t have to worry about her getting far though. His mentor was old and scarred, before picking up medicine she had been working at the forge. Unfortunately there had been an explosive accident, leaving her without half of her left arm and a busted waist and thigh.
She’d just barely pulled through.
The forgery was now in the servos of one of Chromatins first students, and she’d been practicing medicine for centuries since so people could have a better chance than she did if something went wrong.
Now, Ratchet wanted to be able to do the same thing.
“What’d you find?” Ratchet asked, looking up (and up) at his mentor.
“Something to distract you from from your scavengers quest,” she responded, not even sparing him a glance as she forged ahead.
“Hey!” He cried, incensed, “I’m just-,”
“It’s been keeping you from your studies,” she shot back, sending a glare in his direction as they walked further. Ratchet just grumbled under his breath.
Soon enough they found themselves standing by one of the pens for the zap-horses, and then Chromatin kept walking.
“Where are you going?” Ratchet prodded, as he hurried to catch up with the taller mech.
Then Chromatin suddenly stopped, leaving the young medic-in-training to crash into her back.
His mentor, like a steady silver mountain just grunted when Ratchet hit her.
“Why did you stop?” Ratchet snarked at her, in turn she pointed out something on the ground with her cane.
“What do you make of this?” She asked him instead. Looking down at the ground Ratchet found splattered energon and what appeared to be the remains of some sort of scuffle.
“I’m… not sure?” He started hesitatingly, “maybe some animals fought?”
“Mm, it was a cybercat and one of the zap-horses, thankfully the cybercat didn’t win and the zap-horse was fine, Turgor found him before anything could happen,” she explained, looking idly at the scuffed ground.
“Again, why are showing me this?” Ratchet tried, his mentor looked back at him calmly.
“Because at the moment you don’t know how to fix up a mech who’s been mauled, and if that cybercat comes around again you’ll need to know what to do,” she stated, before turning around and walking away.
“Could have just told me that at the clinic,” Ratchet mumbled to himself before turning around and following the tall silver mech.
——
——
After that Ratchet found himself busier than he might have realized, Chromatin at the beginning had been mostly teaching him how to treat what she called ‘household injuries’ which made no sense to him considering all of the things he dealt with were farm accidents which were, in his opinion, far worse than anything you could receive at home.
But, after seeing images of just how badly some of Cybertrons wild fauna could damage a bot he guessed it made a bit more sense.
If anything he at least appreciated his mentors hands on approach.
Thankfully, the worst he’d witnessed at the moment was some pretty nasty dents one of the zap handlers got from one of the newer zap-horses. Chromatin had let him handle that one, popping out the dents and making sure nothing inside the mech got rattled or crushed from the impact.
The handler had been fine, but it would’ve been so much easier if he had been able to find the tool used to pop out the dents.
That was quick to go on his list, no way he would’ve lost something like that.
His mentor at least seemed to believe him when Ratchet said he would keep better track of his tools, but her disappointed look when she too noticed it was missing was hard not to see.
——
A few weeks later, the cybercat came back again.
The broken fence and missing zap-horse were answer enough to its success.
Ratchet had suggested them trying to feed it, because if they were to feed it then it wouldn’t find any need to attack their livestock. And besides, he’d heard from some travellers that cybercats could be tamed.
If they had such a capable hunter, wouldn’t that benefit them?
Clearly, no one else thought so, considering they just told him that it was just some flight of fancy, a wild animal couldn’t be tamed or reasoned with to any extent.
Chromatin had put her hand on his shoulder and told him that she thought it was worth a shot after the village meeting.
So, with her permission (and out of eyesight of Vaporex’s leader, Asinine) Ratchet had snagged an extra cube from the storehouse.
Now, he was a fair distance away from Vaporex, though not too far, just barely out of town and leaving a cube for a highly elusive cybercat.
But, Ratchet had much bigger plans than just trying to get the cybercat to trust him, he wanted to catch it.
He was certain that it was their towns thief, that cybercat finally making a proper appearance after the sudden disappearance of so many items was just too convenient to ignore.
(And he wanted to prove to Chromatin that he wasn’t wasting his time.)
Ratchet thought back to when he left, thinking of her words.
“You’re determined and driven bitlet, good traits for a mech to have, you won’t let anything stop you,” her voice had been unfamiliarly cold when she had spoken to him, she probably knew exactly what Ratchet was doing.
But hey, she was right, he wasn’t going to stop when he knew he was so close to putting a stop to this.
——
When he returned to where he’d hidden the cube the next morning he found, to his immense excitement, that the cube was gone.
And they were too close to Vaporex for it to have been anything else but the thief.
Unfortunately, when he got back to Chromatins clinic his bright mood had immediately been diminished when his mentor had burst through the doors and yanked him inside.
After he had reorientated himself he noticed that his mentor was checking him over for injuries.
“Chromatin? What’s wrong?” He asked hurriedly as her lone hand, rather forcefully, inspected his frame.
“You’re going to get yourself offlined one of these days mechling,” she snarled out instead, piercing yellow optics glaring at him the entire time.
“I’m fine, Chromatin,” Ratchet snarked back as he shoved her servo off of him, he barely noticed the relief that flashed through her tense EM field at that admission.
“What happened?” He asked when his mentor went quiet.
“Scalar said he heard something… unfamiliar during his night watch,” she admitted, “and you, always being one to wander on the outskirts would’ve been the first one to encounter whatever it might’ve been,” Chromatin finished, now looking away from him, it was a rare show of worry from the massive combine.
And it made some small part of Ratchets spark ache in guilt.
“I’ll be fine Chroma, I promise,” he said earnestly. Though perhaps it wasn’t the right thing to say, seeing as she just glared at him right after.
“You won’t be fine! You don’t even realize that you’re in danger,“ she growled, voice low and deadly as she stalked off.
Her cane clicked against the floor it almost seemed to echo in the silence her words left behind in the small clinic.
——
It was sort of… quiet after that.
Well, partly, one of their welders went missing.
When Chromatin told him that she cast him a very pointed look afterwards.
The cube Ratchet left out for the cybercat wasn’t taken the next night, or the one after.
——
His mentor had called him obsessive once, stating that he had a tendency to need everything to be done a certain way.
Back then he had argued with her, saying that he just liked things to do be done efficiently.
Now though, he was walking around Vaporex during the middle of the night just to try and catch the cybercat.
Ratchet huffed, maybe, just maybe, that old combine had a point.
Still, he wasn’t just going to give up when someone could get seriously hurt if that cat got desperate.
And, they couldn’t afford having more medical tools stolen.
So, as Ratchet continued around his village trying to keep his optics peeled for anything strange.
It was sort of weird how different Vaporex looked at night, during the day it was bustling with activity. People always wandering from one place to another, seeing as there was always something to do.
And even if they weren’t working people were at least talking, there was always chatter.
Now it was quiet, and surprisingly eerie.
It felt like it was just him and the wind, the only thing illuminating the village besides Cybertrons twin moons were the light posts. Even then they were set to there lowest setting to conserve as much power as possible.
The limited light they gave barely helped, large shadows stretched across town, turning what had once been familiar and comforting into something strangely unfamiliar.
Ratchet shook his head, it was just his nerves getting to him.
Though just as he was about to continue on a loud crash rang out from behind one of the many vendor stalls, and it was soon followed by the sound of hushed voices.
Slowly and as quietly as he could, he crept closer to the stall.
“Hey watch it Rav! You made me hit the can!” A low growl was the voice’s only response.
Carefully, Ratchet peaked over the counter of the stall, only to spot a minicon and the cybercat.
In turn, a small red visor and glinting red optics stared back at him in surprise.
“Wha- ?” They bolted before Ratchet could even dream of finishing his sentence.
“Move! Move! Move!” Cried the minicon as him and cybercat vaulted out of the stall and sped down the road.
“Hey! Wait!” Primus how were those two so fast? The cybercat made sense, but the minicon?
Ratchet struggled to keep up with the two as they ran through Vaporex. Then suddenly they swerved into one of the back alleys and hope lighted in Ratchets spark, it was a dead end!
But just as he turned the corner to catch the thieves he found the alley empty.
No trace of the minicon and cybercat.
“Oh come on!” Ratchet shouted, glaring at the empty alleyway.
Maybe he should try a different approach.
“One of you is injured aren’t they? That’s why you’ve been stealing tools from the clinic,” Ratchet called, hoping for a response, “I can help! I’m a medic!”
The alley stayed as quiet and empty as before.
He huffed, waiting just a moment longer before turning and stalking off.
——
“So, there’s multiple thieves?” Chromatin asked. Leaning further back into her seat, which creaked under her great weight.
“Yes! And one of them is hurt,” Ratchet insisted, “I need to help them, they’ll only cause more harm to themselves and us if they keep this up,”
His mentor hummed at that, looking at him with interest.
“Well then, I can’t argue with that,” she stated, which made Ratchet light up, “but do you have a plan on how to help them? They clearly don’t want to get caught,” she continued.
Ratchet paused at that, his processor blanking.
Yeah, he had no idea how he was going to do this.