#pharma is pharma it's literally the same good doctor who turned into the bad autobot | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amosbrittany · 5 years

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Shattered Chapter 1

Disclaimer : I don’t own Transformers Animated or any characters for that matter.

Notes : I haven’t done fanfiction, let alone TF based, in ages. And never for TFA, So I don’t really know what the hell I’m doing but what the hell, I’m going for it. lol I took quite a few liberties, pulling bits from various continuities to build this sucker.

Warnings : I have a tendency to put characters through hell. Violence and character death this chapter. Eventual Optimus/Sentinel, Megatron/Ultra Magnus, Bumblebee/Blitzwing, Jazz/Prowl and Ratchet/Pharma.

Summary : The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but Sentinel’s latest stunt might just kill them all...or worse.

The Fringes had to be the worst possible place to put a space bridge. On the very edge of Autobot territory, it took a regular beating from the Decepticons and even anti-Cybertronian organics. Crews came and went during its construction and maintenance, at times never making it back to Cybertron at all. For the most part, the disappearances were blamed on the Cons. It was a dangerous assignment that wasn't helped in the slightest if the crew assigned were full of incompetent or delinquent workers, which was typically the case as no one with a whole procoessor would settle for the post.

Sentinel Prime knew Alpha Trion sent him out here in particular as punishment, pure and simple. After the unmitigated fiasco Megatron's trial had been, he'd not only lost his position as Magnus but as second-in-command as well. He was bumped all the way down to repair duty with a group of fools and sent off to the Fringes. Naturally, he was angry. He was angry with the Decepticons for living up to their cursed name, at Alpha Trion, and at Optimus for not only upstaging him with the Powermaster armor but for taking his job afterward. He was humiliated and bitter. His team didn't help make the situation much better.

There were four other bots on the large rockbound base with him. Broadside was one of few triple changers in their ranks who could turn into a plane and a sea craft...but he was deathly afraid of both heights and water. Sentinel had no idea how that was feasibly possible, but he imagined the bot would have a spark attack on Earth when the rain came. Second was Landfill, and despite being a decent soldier and overall nice guy, he lived up to his name. Quite literally. Sentinel had no idea where the stench was emanating from on the mech's person and it was almost insulting that the mech couldn't pick it up himself. The whole team kept a wide distance from him at all times. Sentinel knew he could be whiny at times himself, but Huffer took the oil cake. He took the oil cake and complained the whole time he ate it at that. He avoided literally everything difficult, whining about it for good measure and he was the most likely bot Sentinel was going to throttle one day.

The only member of the team worth anything was the medic and truth be told, Sentinel had major concerns about the mech. Dark rumors from Delphi on Messatine followed this bot after his experimental jet upgrades following the success of the twins. Pharma had apparently glitched in the processor and hard from the procedures, not only setting a plague loose on the facility, but sawing a Decepticon defector that recently joined their ranks in half. Length ways. After some orbital cycles under intensive therapy, the doctor was cleared for limited duty and shipped off with him out to the Fringes, away from the good people of Cybertron in case he lost it again. There were a few times the Prime caught his medic giggling in an alarming manner and even talking to himself, so Sentinel wasn't entirely comfortable with his presence. But Pharma was the best in the field, so he prayed it panned out well for them.

"Can you not figure out why Landfill stinks so bad? What kind of doctor are you?" Huffer whined, shaking Sentinel out of his thoughts rudely. They stood gathered at the base of the space bridge, surveying the damage recently wrought by an agitated Deception that had attacked in passing.

"Last time I checked, it was my job to make sure you don't offline and continue to function optimally...Not help you smell like fragging rosewood." Pharma hissed, brandishing an inactive saw in place of his left hand at the minibot. "And if you don't shut up, I will ram this up your tail pipe and turn it on!"

Sentinel snorted. At least he didn't have to babysit the doctor. He glanced up at the patchwork space bridge, the south pole smoking the hit and run. It happened frequently and it was damned annoying. "Could you all just pipe down so we can fix this and get it over with?" He scowled at the rest of the team.

"But...But that's so high up..." Broadside frowned.

"Oh for frag's sake..." Pharma rolled his optics, hands thrown in the air. "You have a plane alt-mode. What is your malfunction?!"

"At least it isn't as bad as yours-" Sentinel could appreciate Huffer's brave attempt at snark, but the screaming that followed it as the jet transformed and proceeded to run the minibot down in retaliation just ground further on his nerves.

Landfill called from a few yards away. "Permission to come closer?"

"Permission denied." Sentinel grumbled. "Go, I don't know...Scout the area or something, make sure the Cons don't set anything unwelcome up."

"SIR YES SIR!" Obviously happy to have his orders, the truck changed forms and drove off to scout around. The asteroid was sizable, so it would almost be a mega cycle before he swung back their way.

After knocking Huffer violently into a hole that would likely take him a few cycles to climb out of, Pharma returned to the pair, gracefully transforming as he dropped down. If the slagger wasn't so crazy, Sentinel would be tempted to talk him into a casual frag or two. He was quite the piece of optic candy, the only piece available really. But the jet prattled on in the worst way about Ratchet of all people, so he doubted he would have much luck. "Enjoy yourself? Because we have work to do." Sentinel grumbled.

"I'm a medic, not a mechanic." Pharma groused back, examining his fingertips.

"It's the same damn thing." The Prime held up his hand as his comment almost earned him a scathing lecture about the differences. "I don't want to hear it. Get this scaredy-bot up there somehow and take care of it while I get Huffer! And that's an order if you need clarification!"

He ignored as Pharma acted like he asked him to move the moon, turning away in favor of fishing Huffer out of his hole so they could get to work at the base of the structure. Beyond the upkeep of the space bridge, which would be their way home in case things went south where they were, he couldn't be bothered with improvements to the troops. They were good soldiers, for the most part, but personality flaws were a pain in the aft to try and work over. Besides, he didn't necessarily mind so long as the work got done, his mind was elsewhere anyway. All he could think about were his recent failures and how he was going to get back up in the ranks, at least enough to get positioned back on Cybertron. It was glaringly obvious Optimus would be following in Ultra Magnus's footsteps and he doubted the golden mech was going anywhere any time soon.

Sentinel sighed to himself, crouching at the edge of the hole for a moment. He was finding it hard to stay angry at Optimus, at least a little. Of course, the business with Elita-1 was always at the heart of his ire, but somehow seeing what she had become and the horrible things she was out there doing like what happened to Wasp had tempered it. When Optimus had taken Megatron down and brought the remaining Decepticons back to Cybertron, he had to admit his old friend looked like he had been dragged through the slag pits. He found it hard to imagine what it was like in that battle and he sometimes wondered if he would have had as much mettle to duke it out with the tyrant in the fragging air as he had. The disgraced Prime wasn't exactly a slouch in combat simulations, but he wasn't nearly as battle-hardened as Optimus. His optics flickered thoughtfully, coming out of his musings when he realized he wasn't absently listening to Huffer complain. "Huffer?"

The hole was empty. Turning on his headlights to examine the small pit better, it looked to turn into a tunnel that dipped down after a solid foothold. He could even see where Huffed had hit the edge and likely slid his way deeper into the asteroid. Sentinel let out a long, suffering sigh. Now he had to go searching for the little pest.

<Good job, Pharma. You knocked him Primus knows where.> Sentinel scowled as he climbed down into the hole.

<Well, I say good riddance.>

<That tower better be patched by the time I drag him out.> His threat was answered with some mild grumbling. After reaching the foothold, he slid down into the tunnel, sliding for several yards before he was struck by an odd sense of vertigo. His HUD exploded with warnings on a somewhat muffled and unknown energy reading that was turning his systems on their head. Sentinel grimaces, digging his fingers into the rock to stop himself. 'Woah, that's not right...' His knees shook as he tried to collect himself. He noticed there were spidery veins of glowing violet embers visible in the cracks and further down, there were large chunks of what reminded him of raw crystallized energon that grew in abundance deeper in. Tank churning, Sentinel hurriedly climbed his way back out, thankful that getting topside cleared up his readings.

"Ugh..." Sentinel shook his head, glancing back. <Pharma, what the hell is underground in this rock?>

<How am I supposed to know? I'm a doctor. DOC-TOR. Not a digger. Landfill is the geologist specialist. Why?> After Sentinel explained what he ran into, Pharma sounded far too fascinated for his taste. <Odd. I don't suppose you brought a sample back out with you, did you?>

<Frag no. You think I want to touch that stuff?> Sentinel made a face. Of course, now they had a new problem. <Huffer, come in.> There was silence from the minibot. <We can't leave him down there...Whatever is down there.>

<Well, I'm not going down there and getting my circuits fried. They're already bad enough as it is...>

The Prime ran a servo over his face, sighing. No, he didn't need Pharma going postal on them. Resting his elbow into his servo, he gently tapped the knuckles of his free servo against his chin as he considered what to do. There weren't many reports on the innards of the large asteroid they were on, the ones there were mostly belonged to the teams who never survived their assignment and even then, there wasn't much to them. The reports got progressively more erratic prior to their stopping completely. Given what he felt when he was down there, Sentinel mused whether the energy from the crystals had been a bigger problem than realized. It was a suspicion he was going to have to put in his report.

Pharma and Broadside returned to him. "...Well?" The medic crossed his arms, head tilted.

"...I guess we're leaving him down there." Sentinel frowned. It wasn't a great call, but he didn't want the whole team to be the next crew to go MIA. That wouldn't look good for him. "If he's all right, he'll find his way out."

"And if he's not...?" Broadside didn't look pleased.

"Then...we'll...send a report he went missing. If we find him, we find him...But I'm not sending anyone down there and don't even think about arguing with me about it. I don't know what the frag is down there and I don't really want to. It felt all kinds of wrong."

"But you're just going to leave Huffer down there?" The triple changer pressed before he glowered at Pharma. "And what about him? This psychopath was the one who knocked him in there in the first place!"

"In my defense, I thought it was a simple hole." Pharma sniffed.

Sentinel shook his head. "No one is going down there till we have more information, now let's deal with the rest of these repairs. And Primus willing, the Cons will let us call it a solar cycle."

~+~

Sentinel returned to the Axalon after sending Broadside and Pharma out to hunt for Landfill when the truck never returned to the post. They'd never had an issue with someone patrolling around alone until now. It left the Prime uncertain if it was at all connected with Huffer's disappearance...or those of past crews. It was possible the bot could have been picked off by the Decepticons, but then Sentinel was sure Landfill would have called for backup if that were the case. He went digging into the base's old files as he compiled his own report, pausing when it sounded like company had joined him. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Pharma.

And only Pharma.

"...Please tell me you didn't kill Broadside." Sentinel muttered flatly.

The medic gave him an offended look. "No. I did not. He ran off on his own, thank you very much."

"And why did you not stay with him?" He demanded in exasperation.

"Because the daft fragger decided to take a cave tunnel down to go look for that idiot Huffer. That's why." Pharma scowled back at him. "I started to follow him in, when I started to feel what you described and heard voices so I decided to backtrack and report in. This infernal rock is probably layered with particular metals and stone that keep the underground contained below because he wasn't responding to his infernal comm-link after I backed out of the cave."

Well, that explained why Huffer hadn't answered him. But something was bothering him about this situation. Something was putting a bad twist in his tank. "...Lock down the Axalon." Pharma gave him a perplexed look before he shrugged and the two of them set about doing so. Once the ship was sealed off, he felt only somewhat better.

"What is with you...?"

"Not sure...I just have this feeling there is something weird going on and it's bugging the hell out of me."

Pharma frowned, scratching his chin thoughtfully. He supposed his Prime had a point. There was something unsettling about their team's disappearances. He had a feeling even a brief exposure to whatever was below ground had helped unnerve them. "You know..." Pharma began thoughtfully, looking out the bridge window. "The Decepticons never really touch down here or properly engage. It's always passing aerial strikes. Do you suppose they are wary of the asteroid?"

Sentinel's optics flickered with surprise at how he had never considered that. "That...would make sense. I mean if anyone would know these parts...It would be the Decepticons. But..." He frowned. He didn't want to try and communicate with a Con again. It would look bad, especially after the last time he had struck a deal with one. Of course, losing three of his four team members was pretty bad too. But maybe he could get answers without completely damning himself. He pulled up the communications array and started to ring up Cybertron. Pharma gave him a curious look but stayed quiet as the line was opened with high command. Sentinel sighed as he found Optimus staring back at him.

"Sentinel...?" The SIC seemed a little surprised to be hearing from him since all of his reports were in file format and he generally let Pharma deal with the talking. It was hard enough just looking at him and seeing just a bit of the Elite Guard badge on his shoulder.

"I'm going to cut to the chase, Optimus." Sentinel completely skipped over pleasantries. He hadn't wanted to make this call but he had little choice. "Earlier this solar cycle, one of my men took a tumble down a tunnel. When I attempted to retrieve him, my systems were assaulted by a strange energy source, so the retrieval was aborted. Landfill who was sent out on a scouting assignment has not returned. I sent Broadside and Pharma to look for him, but they found nothing and Broadside decided to venture underground to find Huffer. Pharma attempted to go with him, but was assaulted by the same queer energy and reported back. We can't contact them and they've-"

"Oh look, there's Huffer!" Pharma piped up cheerfully.

"Uhh..." The Prime's faceplate heated up as he glowered at the jet, paying the amused look Optimus gave him no mind. He stood to look over the console, seeing the minibot. But his gait was...off and he had an odd, distinct violet glow emanating from his biolights. Pharma took his pedes off the console and leaned forward for a better look himself.

The SIC called to them. "Sentinel? Is it Huffer? Is he all right?"

"Well, he looks kind of funny-" Not that he wasn't built funny for a minibot to begin with but something was quite off now. But neither of the bots had much time to contemplate the differences as the short mech launched himself into the air and threw himself into the windshield. Pharma shrieked, falling back out of his seat and Sentinel staggered back in shock. Huffer's faceplate was twisted in a ghoulish visage of hateful rage as he proceeded to pound on the thick glass, quickly causing the material to crack under his blows. The Prime cursed as he accidentally dented his leg on his chair to get back, drawing his shield and lance out while engaging his face visor. "Pharma, behind me!"

"SENTINEL! What's going on?!" Optimus looked alarmed, unable to see anything but their panicked faceplates and their defensive positioning.

Pharma scrambled to get behind him as he backed further along the bridge. The windshield gave out under the minibot's assault. Sentinel tensed as the small fragger charged them, faster than he thought Huffer capable, if that even was Huffer. As the minibot lunged at him, mouth open wide with gnarled denta, the Prime struck out, driving his lance straight in. The smaller bot went rigid and twitched, speared through on the energy lance, momentarily stunned. Sentinel relaxed slightly before tensing anew as Huffer tried to drag himself towards him along the lance, as if it was a mere inconvenience at worst. The roar of a chainsaw made him jump as Pharma darted forward and pressed the saw into the minibots's head, tearing the helm apart. Violet goo spattered everywhere as the body finally went still, limbs dropping. Sentinel threw his lance down, stepping back from the speared body in horror.

"Good lord..." The medic murmured, his plates shaking. He turned off the saw, shaking off the foreign fluids. They looked over at the communication array where Optimus was just gaping at them in shock. Pharma turned to Sentinel. "He broke through the bloody window..."

That blatant observation jarred him out of his stupified state. "YA THINK?!" Sentinel sqawked back at him.

"What the hell did I just see..." Optimus's optics flickered.

Pharma crouched by Huffer, nudging him onto his back for a better look. Shards of violet were embedded under several cables, his denta were shattered as if he had been chewing on something hard and volatile, and violet goo oozed from the wounds they had inflicted to his frame. He could, however faintly, pick up on that same wrong energy they had felt from the caverns below. That feel of unease returned anew. "I don't know, Optimus Prime...But I think you should send us back-up. Immediately. Because I have a feeling Broadside and Landfill might be returning much the same way very soon."

It looked for a moment that he had lost his ability to process let alone vocalize, but Optimus regained his wits as he nodded grimly. "Understood. We'll be there asap!"

#transformers #transformers animated #sentinel prime #pharma #AU #fanfiction #optimus prime #megatron #ultra magnus #bumblebee #blitzwing #prowl #jazz #ratchet

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notwhelmedyet · 7 years

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LL #1 thoughts

LL#1 felt frenetic. I think that’s the best word for it.

alright, hiding most of this behind a cut because this isn’t a well considered review, it’s just literally some of my thoughts.

frenetic pacing: I assume this is mostly due to the sheer amount of content being covered. But also: there are so many scene changes on page breaks? Which I feel like definitely contributed to the mood.

super weird reading a thing that you’ve seen tons of panels from on tumblr: yeah, not much too add to that, but it’s really weird. Also, replacing actual narrative tension with suspense about the reveals (i.e. knowing that something bad is going down with that decepticon but not knowing when it’s going to happen)

page 1: Cybernoughts are a lot smaller than I thought/remembered. Anode is going to have to try hard to win my affections because this indiana jones act isn’t winning me over yet. Partisan kneecaps is a good line.

page 2: I would die for Lug. I am very charmed by her.

page 3: teleport bracelets are an excellent idea and someone should invent some. Actually, if they’re a thing you can just make the fact Brainstorm hasn’t is a little weird. Pacing is still good thus far, you’re just a little perplexed.

page 4: Oh, of course, it’s a flashback! And Censere is here! He’s really Doctor Who-ing it up in here and his cape looks fabulous. I like that the page makes it unclear if Anode actually grabs Lug’s hand...since I have a vague notion of what will eventually be revealed.

page 5: Why is the background of this splash page so low resolution? It feels weird.

page 6: Okay, we have now spend 6 of our precious pages on Anode and Lug and none on the entire rest of the cast. I’m a little dubious about this pacing decision. I’m a little confused by the framing at the start and whether Lug is supposed to be in a pod or not? That may be intentional. And hey, Magnus! Cool.

page 7: Anode might not want to listen to a longwinded speech on the Cybertronian civil war, but I would. Also, the vague cut to outside the fortress is...disturbing. What with the bodies and all. Having Anode antagonize Magnus in her first appearance makes me feel on Magnus’s side. meh. Also, what is up with his chin? It is wrong. But the return of the Magnus practices jokes brick joke is good stuff.

page 8: This page is doing way too much. Nautica, Velocity, Roller and Rewind get a pair of panels between the four of them. And then we’re introduced to some sleazy looking Decepticons who I guess we’re gonna hate. Rapidfire appears to have an incredibly tiny waist.

page 9: Good good stuff but frustrating that it doesn’t get more time. Tailgate is so naiive that he doesn’t seem to understand that all the decepticons that they killed were people? It makes me cringe a bit, but I assume that is on purpose. Cyclonus, on the other hand, has gone through grad school as far as character development is concerned.

page 10: ANOTHER scene switch because we couldn’t look at the same character for two pages running. Ack. Swerve. I felt horrible this whole page because it kept being funny whilst also reminding me Skids was dead and I felt like I was having the wrong emotions. ALSO: SWERVE WHERE THE HECK DID YOU PUT THAT BADGE AND ALSO WHY.

page 11: this page had the highest ratio of ‘seen it’ panels to ‘new’ panels which made it a very strange reading experience. Also, I guess writing 40K words about ratchet and drift has solidified by dratchet shipping a bit because I kept resenting how little screentime ratchet and drift get together. Also still a bit prickly about how easily Drift accepted Rod’s apology back then.

page 12: my god this page. This page also wanted me to feel multiple emotions so distinct that I felt bad for not being able to pivot emotions fast enough. We dwell on Ravage’s death for a single panel, interrupted by weird slapstick comedy. agh

page 13: I like the den. It’s nice. I’m not sure if they mean like an animal den or a sitting room? Ratchet and Drift stand next to each other. For all appearances at this point JR has Doctor Who season finale’d the geobomb (huge cliffhanger end of season turns out easily solved immediately in the next season) which is irritating. Pretty sure it’s how they shifted universes but we’ll see. Also “Aw Rung - has no one told you?” is a horrifying pivot back to skids and feeling awful

page 14: I want to feel sad but this page is insistant I instead feel intense confusion, concern for rung and horror. I don’t know what’s happening here and I don’t like it. rung honey are you okay

page 15: oh look we Worf’ed Cyclonus. I’d like to see that fight cause anyone that can beat up cyclonus has got to have moves. also, his chin is wrong and I don’t like it. You can definitely see how this drama is going to shake up and I do not like. I like plots where people communicate, think about their actions and make good decisions. (this is partially a lie but ah tailgate stopstopstop and think. also, maybe see if Cy is okay first? does he need to lie down? should you call velocity???)

page 16: oh my fucking god these page transitions. Drift why the heck did you bring your Great Sword into the teleport chamber? Anode, honey, mind your business and do not touch my boy or his sword without his permission. Also, anode, did you just explode my boy? what are you doing

page 17: well, if this is a vision from Primus, Primus is pretty fucked up. Why is Grimlock there? what the hell is happening? why is there pharma (the terrible doctor) but not ratchet (the best doctor)? The wiki tells me the words on the ground mean PREPARE, CONFRONT, REPEL...which I guess will mean something eventually. I hope this vision isn’t literal because while that would be a terrifying final showdown...it would also be intensely silly.

page 18: aaaaaaaah ratchet and drift talking. last time this happened I told you the truth. is he references his vision before the Lost Light took off? Or has he been collapsing/having visions while traveling with Ratchet? Is there a chance we could see some ratchet & drift adventures??

Why are you in such a hurry, Rod? If you want Cy in charge, find him and tell him, don’t tell Whirl to tell him. Also, there are practically 0 adults left in this fortress.

AND OKAY. I need to complain about this teleporter some more. How the HECK do they fit TERMINUS, ROLLER and MEGATRON in there simultaneously? let alone them and the rest of the bots? I am so deeply confused.

page 19: nobody bothers to help drift up because they’re all monsters. Also, saw the functionist universe thing coming a mile away (because spoilers obviously). Rewind is very cute here.

page 20: ooooh reveal. the pacing here feels good but all my bots have such cute facial expressions that i’m very distracted from the horrible reveal.

page 21: DRAMA! Senators can fly! Multicolored Rung-styled protestors! more judge dredd bots. And huh, Megatron’s badge is still red. I guess he didn’t want to paint over bumblebee’s badge? Or maybe he felt memorializing ravage with a blacked-out autobot sigil was weird.

...overall, I liked it, obviously. I feel like the anode and tailgate plots are going to be that sort of awkward secret keepy plots that make me feel bad, but the functionist stuff and whatever the heck is going on with Rung is exciting! there is just...so much. So much. We needed a bigger cast?

#mtmte liveblog #mine

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