[Transformer Robots in Disguise: Biological Basics]
It had been a couple of hours since Koji had dropped down the wall just outside of the medical bay of Autobot base. He was listlessly working through his homework, munching absentmindedly on a granola bar and looking up at the closed door every once in a while. The sounds behind the door had become muffled and calm, a far contrast with the earlier sounds of pain and distress as Sideburn was brought inside by his brothers. They had long since left the room and the hallway to go about their own business, but Koji refused to leave. In his mind the memory of what had transpired mere hours ago kept replaying itself. He kept seeing the brutal way with which Scourge had dug his sword into the car brother's shoulder, clipping one of the dodge viper's car doors before stomping a heavy foot onto the blue torso and starting to use the massive blade to cut and break open Sideburn's arm. Most of all he remembered the pained screams before Prowl and X-Brawn had managed to get the clone of Optimus Prime off of their brother and start a hasty retreat.
The calm of the hallway made the experience very surreal. Koji only stared silently as a small automatic cleaning drone rolled past, cleaning up the trail of leaked oil and energon that had followed the mechs into the emergency room. When it was done and found that the door to the medbay did not open it beeped and rolled off until it disappeared around the corner. Koji gave a small sigh before bowing his head back to the history book he was examining.
It wasn't before too long after that that the door to the medical bay opened. Koji startled, jumping up as two mechs left the chamber; Crosswise; a stern spychanger who doubled as one of the base's medics, and Sideburn, the youngest 'autobot brother', and Koji's best friend.
"Well, you'll be alright now. Take rest and do not over-exert that new arm of yours. If you get any odd reactions from it remember to come see me." Crosswise spoke, giving Sideburn a knowing look, "No tricks, Sideburn. I mean it."
"Yeah yeah, I heard ya. Thanks man, you fixed me up real quick" Sideburn gave a lopsided grin, "I feel much better!"
"Yes, I'm sure that the sedatives are still surpressing any pain impulses. As I said, go take plenty of rest. I'll see you tomorrow to check up on that arm." With that, the dark grey and cyan blue mech turned and walked off.
"Sideburn! Are you feeling alright?"
The blue autobot turned and bended slightly to give Koji a surprised smile, "Koji! You're still here? Yeah, arm still feels a bit queasy but it will pass soon enough."
"I was really worried! You sounded like you were in a lot of pain! It looked very serious too, with your arm torn off and everything..." The human boy admitted, making no effort to mask his concern. Sideburn paused for a bit before grunting dismissively, "Ah, nah, that's not true, Koji. I'm fine, see? Sure it might've stinged a bit but I'm just fine now." Sideburn stretched a bit and tiptoed to keep his balance in that show-off fashion befitting his reputation as an athletic young guy.
Koji simply looked at him with an expression that almost screamed 'you're lying', and Sideburn quickly flashed him a confident grin, "Tell you what, how about I give you a ride home? You'll see I'm a-ok when we're on the freeway!" The blue dodge viper gave the asian youngster his biggest smile to reassure him that the cybertronian was just fine as they walked through the hall and entered the base's command center.
"SIDEBURN!" The grin disappeared quickly and the Autobot jolted in shock as a hologram appeared in a shimmer of blue light. The holoform of a young woman stared at him with eyes practically ablaze in anger, "Sideburn, don't you dare! You are unfit to leave the base right now, your arm has not been properly incorporated yet! Take one step out into the tunnels and I'm configuring the SHED to light up on you!"
"Ah, T-AI, there's no need for you to do that..." Sideburn paled considerably; the SHED stood for Spacebridge Hostile Entities Detainment (Procedure) and it had the ability to trap intruders inside tunnels and deposit them straight into holding cells, "Besides, Grimlock won't like it if you abuse his coding like that..."
"I don't care, Sideburn. I'm ringing up X-Brawn to take Koji home. You will march right to your quarters and stay there until your arm feels like a proper part of the rest of you!"
"Alright, alright, jeez! I'm going already..." Sideburn scowled but took heed not to glare at the articial intelligence that ran Autobot Base under a strict regime. She could verbally chew his tires for days on end if he didn't thread carefully. "I'll guess I see you later, Koji." He mumbled apologetically before disappearing through one of the doors leading from the base's bridge.
"Hmph, he's so rash!" T-AI exclaimed, jutting her chin out slightly to glare authoritively at the closing door. "Don't worry, Koji, X-Brawn will be here soon."
"Ah, yeah... thanks, T-AI."
"You're welcome!" the holographic woman smiled down at the boy, floating down so she could stand on the ground. "-Wait... is something the matter, Koji?" Her helpful smile made space for concern as she noticed the look with which Koji glanced at the doorway leading further into the base.
"N-No, it's nothing- well... actually, why couldn't Sideburn drive me home? He has a new arm, what did you mean by 'feels like a proper part of the rest of him'? That's a weird thing to say, don't you think? He's a robot."
"O-oh!" T-ai blink, one hand covering her mouth, "Y-you think-" She looked at him for a moment, "-do you really think it's that easy? Koji... they are NOT just robots! I thought you understood that." With that, she outstretched a hand to wave at the wall of monitors to make them light up. The main screen illuminated a shape consisting of many wires. It took Koji a second to realize he was looking at what seemed like a wireframe model of Sideburn.
"Sideburn got injured in battle and lost his arm entirely. Our replication system located in the medical bay fabricated a new arm for him based on his specific blueprint." T-Ai summarized.
"Much like ordering spare parts at a car factory..." Koji added. T-AI cringed a bit, "Y-yeah, but really you should be careful making a comparison like that. Some of the Autobots will take offense if you consider it that crudely. You see, this is a spark" And with that, the holographic projector conjured up the image of a bright blue and slightly greenish orb of energy, floating inches from Koji. Within the orb was a mass of denser spheres, circling around each other not unlike an atomic structure. "And that is Sideburn. Or X-Brawn. Or Optimus, WARS, Crosswise, even Megatron. Every Cybertronian has one of these and it's what they are."
"Just the orb?"
"In essence, yes. So you can't call them a car... that's just their body. This is-"
"-Their soul?" Koji tried, eyes widening with apparent surprise, "This is a soul?!"
"Ah! Well no, not in the way I think humans refer to as a soul? We don't even call it as such, just 'spark' will do. But yes, if this orb remains intact then it doesn't matter if the entire body is destroyed; the Cybertronian lives on. I am making it sound very simple right now, though." T-AI whispered the last bit as an afterthought.
"Alright, so they are robots with a soul-ball inside of them." Koji nodded, "I think I understand that but it only makes it weirder that Sideburn can't drive me home, T-AI. If Sideburn is an orb controlling a body, it really is like replacing a car part!"
"Except that your version of a robot is an inanimate object that doesn't feel, and since you were there when Sideburn lost his arm – really you should stop hanging out around battlefields – I am pretty sure you heard him scream when Scourge tore him apart." T-AI bit back sharply, "They feel as much as you do; they feel pain when their bodies get damaged. And that's because their bodies are made of living metal; a substance with a metalliferous base component instead of carbon, which is the base component of your body." T-AI swiped at the monitor again and it showed the spark next to a blobby image of some liquid grey metal.
"Is that the metal?" Koji asked, tilting his head slightly, "It looks like quicksilver".
"It's the metal in its most basic form, when a spark has not influenced it yet. It can be shaped mechanically and attached to the body of a Cybertronian. This will expose it to the influence of that person's spark energy and over time the living metal will be inscribed with that spark's resonance. At that point the spark will get full sensory data from that metal and will be able to use it effectively." As T-AI spoke the monitor reacted accordingly, switching the blob of metal to the image of an arm and attaching it to the wireframe image of a generic robot body. Then it placed the spark on top of the body, flowing pulsing lines from the orb in the torso through the shoulder joint and down to the new limb.
"I think I get it. So Sideburn's spark is unable to use his new arm?"
"Only in the most basic sense. He can transform, and he can pick things up and carry them, but he will be slow to react with it. It would be as if you're trying to do something with an arm that has fallen asleep. You could move it by sight but you would feel nothing through it. You wouldn't feel whether you are making contact with something, and how much pressure you're exerting through your arm. If Sideburn would get into a fight he wouldn't be able to use it optimally, and if he had to save a human he could put that human at serious risk of injury. Their bodies are just as tough as armoured metal after all-"
"-T-AI, are you trying to scare the kid?" A deep voice with a southern accent sounded from the doorway that lead to the space bridge. Both hologram AI and human boy turned their heads around to look at the green and white mech that was observing them. "Oh, hi X-Brawn! No, T-AI is explaining me why Sideburn couldn't drive me home, that's all."
X-Brawn's optics focused on the holographic woman before turning to the computer monitor, "I see."
"I felt it was only right to answer his questions." T-AI explained, touching her chin briefly in a thinking gesture.
"X-Brawn, could I see it? Can I see your spark? Or is that a question I shouldn't ask?" Koji wondered out loud. T-AI gasped, "-You can't ask that!"
"Sure he can ask, little lady! Koji is a bright kid, and he asks plenty of good questions." X-Brawn chuckled, "But I'm afraid you cannot see a spark other than the fake one on that monitor. No 'bot in their right mind opens their cores unless it's an emergency. Darn, most of us don't even know how to do it! And for good reason too..."
"Ah, I was curious as to what it would look like for real..."
"Well, I know you by now, Koji. I can already tell you that Sideburn will not show you his spark either. Best leave it alone."
All Koji did in response was letting his face turn into a pout. X-Brawn could be straightforward, but he was good at seeing right through him. "Alright. I won't ask again then."
"Good kid. Now, I'll take you home. With any luck you'll be just in time before dinner."