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Wedge was looking for a word. A word to describe how he was feeling. He wasn’t mad but he was happy either. He wasn’t quite irritated. His mind went to the human word he had picked up from Wes. Miffed. That's it. I’m miffed. In his spark he knew it was wrong of him to be peeved at his friend for the crime of getting sick but it didn’t detract from his slight irritation. Wedge wasn’t even mad about the fieldtrip, as clearly Hotshot had been pushing himself to the limit to try to achieve their goal. But if Hotshot had just told anybody he wasn’t feeling well, he might not have gotten so sick and now whatever he was infected with he had likely given to the rest of them. It was for this reason that they all had participated in zero actual rescues and their sims were very easy this week. Their professors had been monitoring them for the Rustbug-pox and didn’t want to strain their likely already ill frames. They hadn’t even tried to quarantine Hotshot as it was very contagious so there was no point in avoiding him either.
At various points throughout their day, the recruits all stopped by to visit their sick friend. He spent most of the day in recharge or scratching his rash so it’s not as if he were great company but they knew he would do the same for them.Back to Wedge’s mild irritation, Unfortunately, Wedge had two reasons to visit medbay today. His primary objective was to visit Hotshot. His secondary was under the instruction of his professors. After Hotshot had gotten sick, his professors made it very clear that they were supposed to notify an adult when they were feeling unwell. Wedge had learned two things from that lecture: 1. A tag team lecture from Heatwave and Chase was something he’d never like to experience again and 2. It was almost always better to tell someone something was wrong and let it fester. Which brought him to his second reason. Yesterday he had started coughing and today It didn’t get any better. His throat and frame had gotten sore as well so he figured it was probably time to pay Blades a visit. He had seen how miserable Hotshot currently was from not resting or receiving treatment when he first began to get sick, and wanted no piece of that. Wedge knew that he was usually the most hard-helmed in the team but even he had put down his usual stubbornness in favor of feeling better. He coughed and then sighed in irritation. Being sick was such an inconvenience. To himself and his team. Maybe he should-
“ Hello Wedge!” called Medix from behind him. Welp there goes that plan. Eh, it was stupid one anyway. Wedge smiled and waved back tiredly. “ Not feeling well?” asked the medi-bot. “How’d you guess?” asked Wedge who was genuinely surprised, as the red mech was usually terrible at reading bots. “ Your olfactory is running.” he stated in usual deadpan and handed Wedge a tissue from his arm compartment. Wedge took it gratefully. “You’re not alone, Whirl and Hoist arrived here earlier for similar reasons. It seems as if the academy will be critically low on healthy recruits for about two weeks.” “ You seem fine though” Medix stared past Wedge’s helm in the way he always did when he attempted to make optic contact. “I am a medical bot, we naturally have stronger antivirus-software. This does not make me impervious, however, and I might very well be joining you all soon. Until then, I will continue to assist Blaze and keep you all company.” Wedge smiled at him. Medix may not always understand the feelings of other bots but he had his ways of showing he cared.
When they arrived at medbay, Wedge saw that Whirl and Hoist were already there. Blades was trying ( rather unsuccessfully) to shake Hoist awake while simultaneously trying to comfort Hotshot who was purging once again and assist Whirl’s whose gyroscopes were seemingly malfunctioning ( flyer bots are terribly sensitive to gyroscope malfunctions). Blades reminded Wedge of one the earth animals he’d seen on a previous rescue, something called an oct-to-pus. Medix began to assist Whirl to help take the load of Blades. Wedge didn’t even know where to start or what protocol to use as he had a bad habit of not listening ( which he was working on and had improved upon) especially during first-aid lessons, so he settled on trying to wake Hoist who had to be the Cybertron’s deepest sleeper. After the commotion had died down, Blades lined up the semi-functioning recruits and began to talk. “ Well, it seems as if my predictions have unfortunately come true. You’re all here because you aren’t feeling well aren’t you?” All except for Medix nodded. “That’s alright, I’m just happy that you all came to me unlike some bots we know” Patient zero at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “Now come here and let me get a look at you so I can determine what kind of anti-virus you need,” Wedge began to get nervous at that. He wasn’t afraid of examinations but rather of taking antivirus. It tasted absolutely terrible. He looked at his teammates and it seemed as if Whirl felt the same way. Hoist looked too tired to care and would eat a scraplet if it meant getting to go back into recharge. Wedge looked at Medix whose usually impassive face held a slight grimace. “ Are you all right Medix?” questioned Blades. “I am experiencing discomfort in my tanks,” he answered. Blades nodded “I might as well start with you, please come with me into the exam room” stated Blades gently.
As they walked away, Wedge looked back at Whirl and Hoist. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” “Not if you're thinking about running away before he can give us any of that disgusting antivirus- orworseashot-BECAUSETHATISDEFINATELYAGAINSTPROTOCALANDIAMTOTALLYNOTTHINKINGTHAT!” Whirl rambled while listing to the side. Wedge grabbed her armed to stabilize her.Hoist perked up at the sudden volume shift, albeit not by much. He looked at them with exhausted optics. “You guys can’t seriously be considering that. You know it would be best to-” he stopped talking when he noticed that they had both transformed and got away. He stood up to stop them but fell right back down, too low on energon to transform. He tried to stand up again and wondered why his frame felt as if it were glued to the floor. He realized much too late that he was already falling back into recharge and could do little to stop his friends.
They drove and flew for a while before stopping because Whirl had been flying unsteadily for the past mile. They transformed back before speaking. “ We should probably stop here. We can wait until it’s dark and then go back to the academy. Blades will surely have forgotten about it by then!” This was a bad idea as: A. Blades wasn’t a goldfish and would undoubtedly remember, and B. Unbeknownst to the recruits, their professors were looking for them right now as they hadn’t told anybody where they were going and shouldn’t have been out while they were sick. All in all, it was a terrible plan, but to two young, overheated processors, it sounded marvelous. “I don’t even feel that sick anyways,” stated Wedge. “Me neither, plus it’s not totally wrong, as recruits are allotted 3600 seconds of outdoor recreation and we are technically still following the rules!” agreed Whirl. They talked for a bit before their throats got too sore to comfortably speak, before Wedge decided it was best they rest in order to ‘sleep off’ as the humans would say, their illness. Wedge said he would take the first watch to make sure no humans stumbled across them, and for a while he did, but soon fell into recharge as well.
Heatwave wasn’t much of a worrier. That was usually Boulder’s thing. Earth was a relatively safe planet and he had known it was only a matter of time before the recruits discovered they could sneak off. It was expected because growing up meant getting into trouble. That wasn’t why he was worried though. It was getting dark and the recruits were still not back yet. He would have expected this behavior from Hotshot ( who was currently occupied being itchy in medbay) and maybe from Wedge, but not from Whirl. She had always been a model student, so it was concerning that she would act out like this. Chase was currently investigating this right now. With Chase on the case (pun intended) they were sure to find the recruits soon. Heatwave sneezed. “Are you functioning properly, Heatwave?” Heatwave jumped a bit, startled. “ Yes Chase I am, thank you for asking.” Chase eyed him suspiciously as Heatwave scratched his servo under the desk. “Alright. I believe I found the location of our missing students. It is imperative that we retrieve them before they get themselves into trouble.” “Right. I’ll comm Boulder and let him know”
The three bots drove down the long stretch of road together. It was reminiscent of their earlier days on planet earth, back before the academy. It was nostalgic in a way, reminding of the free time in between missions that they used to share, which had become a thing of the past since the recruits' arrival. It wasn’t as if the recruits were bitties or anything, but they had all severely underestimated the amount of time looking after the group mechlings would take up. Of course they all cared deeply for the recruits, but it was nice to have a break every once in a while. Heatwave was broken out his thoughts when he noticed that he had fallen behind his team. He thought about speeding a bit to catch up but his frame was starting to ache- Scrap. I don’t have time to be sick. I have too many responsibilities. Augh I sound like the kids. Whatever, I’m a grown mech, I’ll probably be fine- He noticed Chase slowing down to catch up to him. “Heatwave, are you entirely sure that you’re functioning properly?” “ Chase, I already told you I’m fi-” “ You cannot lie to me, Heatwave, we have known each other for much too long.It is safe to be truthful with me.” Heatwave sighed. He knew he would have to come clean eventually. Chase always had that effect on him. He could charm the very spark out of his chest if he so pleased. “ I’m not feeling so great, if I’m being honest. But it doesn’t matter, I have too many things to do.” “Heatwave, of course it matters! Viruses don’t care how busy you are. Besides, what kind of example are you setting for the recruits?” Heatwave considered this and then felt a bit ashamed. He was a fully grown mech and should know better than to behave like this. How could he expect the recruits to follow instructions if he didn’t do the same? Nothing made him madder than when the recruits didn’t listen to them especially regarding their own safety. Heatwave had forgotten that everyone needs help when they're sick, even adults. “ I apologize Chase, I was behaving extremely childishly.” “ That is alright. I feel deep affection towards you anyways. This illness is very mild in adults so I imagine you’ll be right back to yourself again in no time. With a little help from Blades of course!”
After they arrived at the coordinates, they found the recruits in stasis under a large tree. The transformed back into bot-mode to better assess the situation. Boulder pressed a servo onto both of their helms. “They’re definitely overheating.” Heatwave nodded as he noticed the deep blue blush spreading on their face-plates along with the coolant they were sweating. He also noticed the beginnings of a rash on their servos. Since Boulder was the largest, he transformed into vehicle mode so he could begin to load and secure the recruits onto his back. Chase and Heatwave began to shake them awake half expecting them to stay in stasis with how high their fevers had gotten. Whirl woke up first. She looked at them sheepishly. “ Are we in trouble?” “ No, you’re in A LOT of trouble” Heatwave half-growled trying not to lose his temper. “ I am very disappointed in you, Whirl.” stated Chase. She wilted at that. “You too are very lucky we are the only bots in the area. Spreading germs is very inconsiderate. What if you got someone else sick? I thought we had all learned the importance of resting when unwell. What could have possibly made you think going out while ill was a good idea?” Chase questioned. The young femme looked away with guilt, optics getting wet, emotions no doubt exacerbated by her illness. “ We’re sorry, Professor Chase! We know we were wrong, but we just really didn’t want to take the antivirus! What if it tasted bad or Professor Blades uses an injection gun?” Chase and Heatwave softened at this. The recruits had grown so much during their time at the academy, They’d nearly forgotten how immature they could be. Boulder piped up. “ I understand that taking medicine can be scary or unpleasant but sometimes the only way to get better is to take it. Your frame needs a little extra help to kick the virus and that’s ok! If you're scared or don’t understand a medical procedure, just ask Blades and he’ll explain it to you. What’s not ok is running while sick and refusing medicine outright. I hope we’ve all learned some valuable lessons this week about what to do when you’re sick, right?” Whirl nodded. “Wedge, are you listening?” Wedge, who had been staring off into space, snapped to attention and nodded. Heatwave helped him onto Boulder’s deck. “ So does that mean we’re not in trouble anymore?”
“ Not a chance” replied Heatwave and Chase at the same time, as the drove off back to the academy sun setting behind them.