Dimming Spark

Chapter One

Fateful Meeting

"We need help!"

Frantic knocks were banging against the door of the medical clinic, and former medical assistant Knock Out rushed to greet whoever was on the other side.

Who could it be at this hour…?

He was just about to close up the facility and head home, but someone had to pick this timely hour and barge in with an emergency. Why did it have to be now? He already spent long hours taking care of endless patients; the elderly, sick children, usual cases… He really just wanted to go home and collapse into recharge. But he was a medical practitioner. Any medical emergency that came across his path, he was obligated to help in anyway.

Sighing, he walked up to the entrance and opened the doors. There, he saw a blue femme carrying a limping red femme, weak and distressed from pain. They were both in full blown panic and needed immediate assistance.

"Please, we need help…!" the blue femme began. "My friend has a low solar steam count, and her charger just blew out. This is the only medical place close to us, please help…!"

"Come in, hurry…!" his medical mind already in control.

Low solar steam count… Solar steams are used to circulate energon and other nutrients through the body. Without a significant amount of them in a Cybertronian body, nutrients couldn't travel efficiently to help the body function. Luckily, the clinic had the means to get the femme back.

"She needs to lie down. Get her on the berth…!"

The azure femme did as he instructed, and tried to sooth her ruby friend as the injured one groaned in pain.

"Easy, Wild Fire… You're safe, don't worry."

As Knock Out got the needle and prepared the formula, he injected the contents into the frail frame, and stepped back as he prepared the IV. He glanced over to check the vital stats… She was going to live.

"She'll see another day… This is a clinic and not a hospital, but I can call someone over and they can take her there."

A grateful, relieved smile was across the blue femme's face.

"Thank you… I don't know how to repay you."

Once the soon to be doctor finished his call to the hospital, he began wiping down Wild Fire's forehead with a polishing cloth.

Knock Out then asked, "how did her charger blow out again?"

"… Her steam levels were lower than usual, and I thought we had enough for the day, but while we were in the town centre it just died out… We were heading home, but Wild Fire wasn't feeling well, and that's how we ended up here."

"In the future, you could tell your friend to check up on her charger more often to see if it's working or not. Then she wouldn't have to be like this every time."

So I could go home and rest.

"Things break," began the femme. "She couldn't have known it was going to happen. Today was a busy day."

"You have to be prepared, no matter what comes at you. You can't expect things to go how you want them to. Expect the unexpected."

He could hear the femme scoffing.

"She had this condition for all of her life! You can't blame her for having been born this way. How insensitive is that? You're a doctor, oh wait… The band on your arm says you're in training."

He could feel his arm flinch in a bout of anger.

"Former in trainee," he began as a matter of fact, holding his fist from flying loose. "I just got my medical licence and I'll have you know that I will be a full fledged doctor very soon. I'll be graduating this cycle."

"I can feel the success coming already," a lack of sincerity could be detected from her voice. "Saving the sick, one spark at a time…"

Knock Out tried his best to pay no mind to the femme, but she was just so annoying… He knew he was obligated to assist anyone who was ill, but did he had to serve the overly irksome ones? He was working overtime, as is. But he had to help her friend, no matter the time of crisis.

Turning to glance at her friend, he noticed she was holding a pamphlet in her hand, which had Megatron on front of the cover.

"You're a supporter of Megatron?" the soon to be doctor asked.

"Not really…" she began. "We just passed by a group of supporters, and they handed them out to anyone who passed by. Personally, I kind of find him… extreme. Though, he does seem interesting. When his friend Orion Pax won a position in the council, he does seem to want to make a difference. I'm glad he did."

"It's amazing though," Knock Out said. "He used to be Megatronus, a gladiator. He just wants to bring equality to all. Pity that the council can't see that…"

"He's too extreme…" the femme's eyes narrowed. "He'd tore Cybertron apart."

Knock Out sighed and rolled his optics. How many things can they disagree upon this hour? He just about had it with her. When the medic bots from the hospital came and took them away, he'd be bounding out of the clinic and resting peacefully at home… without any blue annoying femmes around him.

"A friend of mine used to train under him before Megatron stopped being a gladiator," began Knock Out. "The dark blue one, uses a hammer…"

"I'm training for the military guard," she spoke, unimpressed. "My grandfather's General Deadbolt, so I have a few friends in high places."

That explains everything. The snooty attitude, how she thinks she's so high that she could get away with anything… She was a babied princess.

Knock Out then chuckled. "Everyone must be eating out of your hand, then, your highness."

A deathly leer came from her cyan optics.

"I can pull my own weight you know. There's more to me than just my lineage."

Knock Out froze as he replayed was she just said in his mind.

So she didn't threaten around her connections, just because she had friends in high places. In fact, she used them sparingly. She knew how to get her hands dirty, and wasn't afraid to dent a hand. She knew how to take care of herself without her handy connections available. She was her own person… and must've worked very hard to build what she was in front of him.

She was the opposite of what he envisioned of her.

The paramedics from the hospital then arrived, and soon placed Wild Fire in the transport unit. They both arrived here so quickly, so rushed… Now she was leaving just as soon, but he wanted to know more about her for some reason. Before she escaped and fled his grasp…

Before she left with her friend and the paramedics, Knock Out felt a hand reach out for her.

"Hey, I… I didn't catch your name."

Turning, she gazed back at him with the same cyan tinted optics, but this time they seemed more… powerful, yet gentle. Unlike the last time they glared at him hotly.

For what seemed like an eternity, the femme finally spoke. "It's Arcee… My name's Arcee."

Note*~

During a conversation with RulerofFire, I am now forced to write a possible 'prequel'/story of how KO and A met, and here we are… the first chapter.

I may possibly update this, but college classes really caught up to me. Though, I have a pretty good idea where I'm going to go with this…

So, here's to another chaptered story *slave drive from RoF* and another round of blood, guts and gore…

Hope you like!

XOXO