Chapter Text
Kup coughed up soot. What had happened? He remember a monstrous roar and... then what? Something collapsing. Yes, yes the cave he had been standing in had collapsed. But why?
He remembered Grimlock. That's who had roared. Why had he roared? In warning. Kup suddenly realized, he had seen the landslide that had caused the cave in and tried to warn the Autobots that had been inside.
Rocks shifted. Kup groaned as one dug into his side the wrong way and the shifting stopped. "Kup?" came a muffled voice.
"H-here." Kup barely managed out. The rocks began moving faster now, and in moments Kup was free and in the arms of the Dinobot King himself.
"Me found Kup!" Grimlock yelled as he ran to Ratchet's makeshift medical tent just outside the damage zone, several other wounded Autobots lay there as well. Including Cliffjumper, whom was holding one of his arms. Grimlock set Kup down on one of the tables.
"-- Telling you if was those damned Dinobots of yours!" Cliffjumper was yelling, paying no heed to the fact that both Grimlock and Snarl were under the medical tent. The younger of the two helping Ratchet with repairs, Grimlock didn't even flinch, though Kup heard an almost inaudible growl. "They're out to kill us all!"
"Now wait just a minute-" Kup started. Then Ratchet materialized in front on the red minibot, wrench in hand. The CMO leaned close to Cliffjumper's face.
"I swear to Primus i will rip that voice box of yours out if I hear one more negative thing about the Dinobots. Just remember it was him-," Ratchet pointed at Grimlock. "-who pulled you out and it was him whom went to retrieve your arm. Now shut up or i'll leave it unattached." Needless to say, Cliffjumper shut up.
"So..." Kup started as Ratchet walked over to him, letting Cliff sulk. "What happened?"
"Seekers." Ratchet said. "They saw the Dinobots near the cave and a couple mech walking in and out and bombed the place before anyone knew they were there. The Dinobots tried warning you guys, but Starscream was faster." Kup nodded, that sounded about right.
"Everyone make it out?" Kup was relativity undamaged, thankfully.
"Not yet," Ratchet said with a sigh, the CMO patted Grimlock on the arm. "Several bots still in there, including Wheeljack. The Dinobots have been working all morning trying to get everyone out." Grimlock sighed, he was filthy and tired and frustrated and annoyed. Ratchet shot him an apologetic look. "Go rest big fella, i'm sure some of the other bots can manage."
Grimlock was shaking his head before Ratchet even finished talking. "No, Me, Grimlock, go help again. Us have to find everybody." and with the the Dino-king walked off. Ratchet sighed.
"The boys have been working so hard to make sure everyone gets out okay..." Ratchet and Kup watch Grimlock walk off as Swoop helped another mech to the makeshift medical tent. Ratchet patted Kup's leg and commanded him to get some rest and went to check up on Springer, whom was actually walking, but had a fretting Swoop holding him up. Kup chuckled. Springer was one crazy kid.
---------------------------------------------------
Grimlock slept peacefully under the stars. The Dino-king twitched in his sleep. Red Alert watched Grimlock. They had pulled the last of the buried Autobots out only an hour ago. Grimlock and his brothers had practically collapsed with exaction since they had almost rescued all the of the 23 Mechs. At least 17 to 18 of them to be exact. Red checked his clock. 10:30 pm. The security director sighed. Ratchet was still up fixing Mechs, only a handful had been well enough to go back to the Arc's medical ward.
Grimlock let out a huff and rolled over curling up. It was getting rather chilly. Red made his rounds. He found a couple more massive lumps that were the Dinobts sleeping in their alt-modes. They had opted to stay outside to protect the wounded bots in case of another surprise attack.
Red Alert had to admit, having all of the Dinobots so close helped ease his worries, if only a fraction. The security director jumped when he heard shuffling, gun in hand. He sighed loudly when he discovered a sleepy Grimlock standing behind him, the Dino-King nuzzled Red in apology and staggered over to where Sludge and Swoop were laying, The flyer laying on his older siblings back, Grimlock curled up next to Sludge, the latter easily shifting to curl around Grimlock effectively sharing his warmth. Swoop twitched, but otherwise didn't move. Red found Slag and Snarl curled like this too.
"Grim scare ya?" Ratchet asked as Red entered the medical tent, a newly repaired Wheeljack lay snoozing on a medical berth, he has to get up and make repairs when Ratchet was to tired to do anymore.
"Yes, he did. I know he didn't mean it though." Red Alert said sitting on a berth to rest his tired peds for a minute. "He nuzzled me."
"Warm, ain't he?" Ratched said with a grin, Red nodded. "Yeah he can be scarily quiet when he wants to." Red could only nod again, that he could. "I'm kinda glad he doesn't, in truth."
"Me too." Red, once again, agreed. "Or I may actually have a problem with them." Ratchet just grunted as he worked. Red Alert didn't mind the Dinobots, he had at first, but Red had soon learned that the Dinos, unlike almost everyone else, cleaned up their messes and were actually sorry when they broke something important. Unimportant stuff... Not so much. But it was a compromise that Red Alert had learned he could deal with.
Grimlock also had this wonderful habit of keeping Cliffjumper away from the paranoid security director, even if was just for the fact that the Dino-King hated Cliff, blasted minibot was always fueling Red Alert's paranoia. Swoop had an amazing habit of telling Red about the twins pranks, if only to keep the director out of them. The twins caught on after a while, but didn't appear to mind, they usually got caught sooner or later, and with both Red Alert and Prowl out of prank range, the punishments haven't been all that bad. So Swoop had really been helping them out.
Red Alert stretched his joints. "How is he?" He asked nodding to Springer. The green triple changer had also opted to stay and try to help in case of an attack. Though that meant Ratchet had to fix him up sooner than he had been planning. Springer had been walking after all, which usually meant he was fine and could wait to be fixed.
"He's fine, needs a little fixin' when we get back to the Ark medbay, but other than that he can fight." Ratchet said with a yawn, jaw joints creaking. Red poled Wheeljack awake. The scientist in turn woke with a start.
"Huh, what?" He said looking around.
"Ratchet need to get some rest." Red Alert said, Ratchet grunted.
"I'm fine for another hour at least." The CMO replied.
"Good, that'll give me just enough time to wake up." Wheeljack said stretching, headfins flashing softly. Ratchet just rolled his optics. Wheeljack got up off the berth and walked around checking on patients. He came back around just in time to hear Ratchet bickering with Springer. The CMO didn't look pleased that he had to growl everything in stead of yelling at the green wrecker, the Medical officer didn't want to wake anyone else. Springer just looked aggravated.
Wheeljack chuckled, the young Wrecker had some spunk. Red Alert shook his head and went to make his rounds again, best leave this one to the ones he knew could handle it.
----------------------------
Wheeljack didn't know when he had dozed off, but whenever he had Springer, the little slagger, and ran off in an attempt to make rounds. He made it to about Grimlock before he had passed out with exhaustion, curling up in the pile with the Dinobots, draped over Grimlock's head arms covering the Dino-kings' eyes. Grimlock had hardly moved all night, shifting just enough to keep everyone comfortable, and sleeping again. The sun was just making it's peek over the mountain and Autobots were coming to assess the damage from the day before. Many paused to look at the two separate piles of Dinobots (and one Springer) before chuckling and moving along.
The smaller pile consisted of Slag and Snarl, whom were curled around one another. The Larger one had the other three dinobots, and a green wrecker. Sludge was curled around Grimlock and Springer, the Dinoking was curled around Springer, and Swoop was draped over Sludge like a blanket. They were all still sleeping.
Hot Rod shook his head as he and Bluestreak stood over Grimlock and Springer. "Out here he hardly makes a sound, in the bunk he snores like a freight train."
Bluestreak laughed. "Maybe he's scared he'll wake up Grimlock." The two mechs snickered and Grimlock let out a displeased growl making the young Autobots jump. The dinoking gave a slight shift and eased back into slumber a klick later. The two mechs side. That had been close. Now to help assess the damage.