"It's not the size of their body that matters. It's the size of their heart."

Pan grunted lightly as she gripped the rock ledge above her. Her orange converse easily gripping the ledges underneath her feet.

The orange-red mesa the Hammer girl was climbing was certainly a challenge(for once) for her. Her hair tied back in a ponytail as small droplets of sweat dripped down her neck.

Pan paused, glancing up and her expression grew more determined as she renewed her climbing.

She had almost reached the top when suddenly her phone went off. Pan gasped, almost slipping from the two-point-two kilometer drop before regaining her balance and breathing in relief.

Pan scowled at the pocket that held her phone before quickly making her way up to the top of it. Pan panted, her hands on her knees before she flopped to the ground, dusting her pants as she sat on the ground.

Pan fumbled for her phone, switching it on when she found it, to see a text from Ratchet, surprisingly.

'Where are you?' the text read.

Pan's eyebrows furrowed, 'Out.'

'Did you forget that I was picking you up today?' Ratchet asked. Pan could almost hear the annoyed groan that was a common noise from the orange and white mech.

Pan's lips curled up, 'Maybe....'

'Panacea.'

'Yes,' Pan admitted, she hesitated before typing out another message, 'Can you send me a ground bridge?'

'Why? Panacea, where are you?' Ratchet texted.

Pan sighed before sending her coordinates. She waited for a while, biting her lip nervously.

'Sending one to you now,' Ratchet's text read. Pan winced at the cold tone of the text as a green swirling portal appeared in front of her.

Pan shifted her bag nervously before entering the portal where she came across three concerned human friends, and a whole team of confused/amazed/pissed off(in Ratchet's case) Autobots.

"Why were you climbing a giant mesa?" Ratchet snapped first, hidden concern in his optics as anger flared up.

Pan shrugged, saying nothing, only fueling the medic's frustration with the girl.

Pan smiled to the others before departing.

Ratchet growled to himself before storming off

The remaining Autobots and humans looked bemused, with the exception of Optimus who looked amused with the whole situation before he too disappeared.

"What just happened?" Raf's innocent voice asked

"Nothing to worry your little head about," Miko patted his head.

Raf blinked at Jack and Miko they both shared a look, "I don't get it."

🛠️

After Optimus and Arcee left to go to the Arctic, Pan finally came back, looking much more like her normal self.

Her climbing clothes stashed in her bag with her normal clothes looking as pristine as normal.

Pan climbed the stairs, not even looking at the bots attempting to fix the panel in the floor, joining Miko and Jack before peering around for the last of the Quartet, 'Where's Raf?' she asked the two, standing in front of the TV drawing complaints from both of them.

"He went to play further in base," Miko said, "Can we play now?"

Pan's eyebrows furrowed but she stepped out of the way and the pair returned playing each other.

Pan started down the stairs when suddenly the lights flickered, her head shot up as the lights turned back on. Jack complains to Miko about their game.

"Hey guys, look at what I found!"

"We're busy," Ratchet went to tell him before yelling in fear as he and the other two Autobots fired up their weapons.

Pan, Jack, and Miko rushed to Raf,

"Hey, Hey! What's with you guys?" Miko shouted at them, her eyes wide as she held her hands out.

"Scraplet! Scraplet!" Bulkhead panicked.

Pan blinked between the Autobots and the "Scraplet"

"What's a Scraplet?" Raf asked curiously. His face warped on confusion.

Ratchet shuddered, "The most dangerous vermin ever to crawl upon the face of Cybertron," he said, finality in his voice.

"This?" Jack scoffed as he motioned to it. "Are you kidding me?" He asked Ratchet.

"You're giant robots. Scrappy here is teeny," Miko said to the bots.

"You have no idea of the damage that teeny thing can do!" Bulkhead said nervously, shuffling his weight on his peds.

"Aw, he wouldn't hurt a thing," Raf said as he patted the Scraplet's head.

It yawned as it woke up. Its eyes focused on the Autobots before it showed its rowdy of sharp teeth and it flew at them.

The four humans cried out in shock as the Scraplet tore into Bumblebee's arm.

It managed to get quite a bit of Bumblebee's metal before Bee was able to throw it off. Raf quickly hit it several times with a crowbar before it seemed to die.

"Whoa, easy there killer," Jack said as he grabbed the crowbar off Raf.

Pan's eyes wide as she looked at the remains of the metal bug. Her expression showing all of her fear with no words.

"Whoa. I did not see that coming," Miko said shocked, her own eyes wide.

"I'm sorry, Bumblebee," Raf said as he ran up to Bumblebee.

"It's fine, Raf," Bumblebee said, wincing slightly.

Raf didn't listen to him, "Is he going to be okay?" he asked Ratchet.

"Only a mesh wound. He'll live," Ratchet said looking at the young mech's arm.

"Now do you believe me?" Bulkhead asked the Miko and Jack, "All scraplets do is dismantle machinery and eat anything metal. Especially living metal," Bulkhead said shuddering.

"Well, bug squashed, game over right?" Jack asked nervously.

Pan and Raf shared a grim look at the looks on their bot's faces.

"No. When it comes to scraplets there's never just one," Ratchet shook his helm, before his optics widened, "And I fear I know how they got in here," he finished grimly.

🛠️

The giant metal sphere from when Bulkhead and Bumblebee went on their Arctic mission that Pan hadn't been present for had defrosted. Water dripping into the hole that had teeth marks surrounding it.

Pan shuddered, the mere sight of the metal sphere enough to send chills down her spine.

"It's a trap, a scraplet trap," Ratchet reported grimly as he scanned it.

Bulkhead gulped, "An empty scraplet trap."

"Most likely ejected into space eons ago, only to wind up in the Arctic where the temperature kept them in stasis," Ratchet continued as he used his welder for light to look inside the sphere.

Jack shared a look with Pan, "Until we brought the thaw," he said grimly, sharing the thought on both of their minds.

"Now they're wide awake and ready to brunch," Miko said oddly quietly.

Raf gulped, "So, how many are we talking about?" he asked nervously.

"Thousands," Ratchet said coldly, his optics looking around at the walls, "The power malfunctions and ground bridge damage are sure signs that their investigation is well underway," he finished, his optics landing on a terrified Pan.

Who was looking back at him with deep concern for her guardian.

🛠️

"Ratchet to Optimus. Do you read me? We have a situation," Ratchet said to the computer before it shut down.

Pan winced as her guardian growled in frustration.

"The scraplets have gotten into the com-link system! If we don't eradicate these creatures immediately, They will reduce the entire base to a scrap heap!" Ratchet all but snapped, turning to the others.

"Well, I say we bug out of here and let them keep it!" Bulkhead said as he nervously glanced around at the walls.

"Yeah," Bumblebee agreed eagerly, his optics filled with fear.

"Evacuation is not an option. If we don't get the ground bridge back online stat, Optimus and Arcee will perish," Ratchet said gravely.

Pan's eyes darted to Jack looked crestfallen.

"They will?" Jack asked, his voice lowering in octave.

Miko then turned to her giant green ex-wrecker, "Bulkhead, you never run!" she growled out slightly.

"Miko, you haven't seen a swarm of these things devour a bot. I have. They pick-" Bulkhead said before Pan cut him off with a cough. Her eyes wide as she shook her head at him.

'Not wise,' Pan wrote down quickly.

Jack frowned, "You have to let us help," he said coming forward.

"We're not made of metal," Raf added helpfully.

Miko jumped at the chance for action, "Yeah, the scraplets can't hurt us," she said with Jack, Raf and Pan nodding in agreement.

"Typically I find your fleshiness to be your least engaging quality," Ratchet admitted, not bothering to expand, "But it would appear to provide an advantage under these extremes," he mused.

Jack nodded, sharing a look with Pan who also nodded, "Okay, good. So we pair off, one bot one human. Pan and I can watch your back while you repair the ground bridge," he said, looking at Ratchet as he finished.

"And we go on a bug hunt," Miko said confidently making Bulkhead and Bumblebee shared nervous glances.

🛠️

"How's it going over there?" Jack asked Ratchet nervously as Pan also glanced towards her guardian.

"I've repaired the damaged conductors and rerouted the central conducts, but the ground bridge still won't receive power!" Ratchet said getting frustrated.

Pan went to type something in her phone, only to pause and look up at the same time as Jack. The two shared a look before suddenly the Scraplets took off the wall, flying at them.

"They fly? You never said they could fly!" Jack shouted as the scraplets flew past him and came at Ratchet.

Pan's eyes widened before she was attacking the Scraplets with Jack.

"Ratchet!" Jack shouted distracting Pan who glanced towards the orange and white mech who had hundreds of Scraplets on him.

"The fire extinguisher!" Ratchet yelled out. Jack rushed to grab the said item as Pan kept hacking at the Scraplets.

Pan whirled around as she heard ped-steps.

"Ratchet, get the patch kit. We're leaking energon like- Whoa," Bulkhead said, as the Scraplets noticed them.

🛠️

"We get them all?" Jack asked making Pan, Raf and Miko look up hopefully.

Ratchet shook his helm, "Hardly. These were just the scouts," he said grimly.

Pan let out a barely audible groan that only her guardian caught. His optics glancing over her worriedly.

"Oh, no," Bumblebee sighed as he hit his helm against the ground.

"So, the rest of them know we're in here?" Bulkhead said anxiously.

"And if we allow ourselves to become their next meal, Optimus and Arcee will never make it home," Ratchet concluded. "We must get the ground bridge operational," he added.

"And we can use it to send the scraplets anywhere on earth," Raf said thoughtfully as he shot Pan a look who answered with her own.

"Why not back to the Arctic?" Raf finished after silent urging from Pan.

"We already know they don't do cold," Jack added as he held up the fire extinguisher.

"Sweet! One-stop shopping," Miko said cheerfully.

"Given the body mass of the scraplets, the sub-zero temperature should freeze them on contact," Ratchet said thoughtfully.

"So think, Ratchet, think! If the ground bridge is still down, there must be a breach in the energon fuel line," Ratchet said, a silly grin on his derma.

He looked really happy to have figured that out, Pan chuckled at the thought.

"And how are we going to fix it? If you hadn't noticed we can barely stand? Let alone walk," Bumblebee said sassily making Raf and Pan give small laughs.

"If we weren't breaching, one of us could get back over there and fix it," Bulkhead said.

"Where do we find it?" Jack asked stepping forward.

"And how do we fix it?" Raf asked. Each of the four humans holding determined expressions.

🛠️

"Ratchet, all systems go!" Jack yelled as he, Miko, Pan, and Raf came running into the room.

"Fire it up!" Miko cheered as Pan gave her guardian a thumbs up.

"Ground bridge activate," Ratchet said breathlessly as he stood up and turned it on before he fell to the ground again.

The humans looked to each other in concern before Bulkhead was rushing through the ground bridge with en mass of Scraplets after him.

🛠️

"Report bio-circuitry status," Ratchet said steadily to the four humans.

"Levels are rising," Jack said as he and Pan gave the medic thumbs up.

"Excellent," Ratchet nodded to them, before turning his helm to the other two, "Rafael, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro-pulse monitor," He said again, this time to the youngest.

"Miko, check Bulkhead's interface patch," Ratchet almost ordered the youngest human girl.

Raf nodded, "It's steady."

"Looking good," Miko gave the medic a thumbs up.

"Perhaps, you should get some rest yourself, old friend," Optimus said, drawing the medic's attention to the Prime seated next to him, "You saved quite a few lives today."

"It wasn't all my doing," Ratchet said looking down at Jack who was typing away on a human-sized computer, Miko who was watching Raf attach another cord to Bumblebee with Pan's help, "We're just fortunate that this infestation happened on a Saturday."

"Our human friends may be small, but they are strong," Optimus smiled lightly as he caught his old friend watching his charge carefully.

A scream brought everyone's attention to Miko, the two boys jumping into action as Pan covered her mouth to stop her giggling, "Scraplet?" Jack asked

"Spider!" Miko screeched, "Is it on me?!"

The Japanese exchange student then went off running, her guardian looking after her, "Did she just scream like a little girl?" The green Autobot asked.

Jack shook his head with his arms crossed over his chest beside Raf who was chuckling as Pan laughed(shocking a couple of the bots; having never heard her laugh before).

Pan finally calmed down and a grin was stuck on her face as her green eyes twinkled with laughter.

Here's chapter Twenty-One. 

So, the poll is obviously over, with Romantic winning..... by a landslide, of rather.... unopposed.
So congrats Romantic voters. 

And Pan will continue to "defy" Ratchet by doing the things she loves to do in the future.*wink* *wink*.

Hope you enjoyed!
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