Holy mother of dragons, I can't believe I am actually writing Transformer ficks now! Oh the horror! On a positive note I just caught up with the latest transformer cartoons and they have improved the graphics a lot since I last saw BeastWars. Hurray for that.

Back to the case at hand. I guess this might not be the most popular pairing, seriously there is a way higher demand for Starscream on Knockout action for all those Top Coat comments (You know what I mean) but nah, seemed too obvious to me. So hey, why not moosh together two characters who exchanged two lines at most during the entire series and that was at the End of that series! Booyeah, rock on, unrealistic view and like expectation mode activated!

And also,

Enjoy

Arcee regained consciousness and noticed that part of her body was covered under rubble, she was leaking energon and in her current state she could not get the boulders off her. She had followed a decepticon signal into an old energon mine and it had caved in on her.

These musings brought her to two realizations. One was that her transmitter was broken and the other was that the decepticon she pursued might have been buried in this mine too. Which was not bad in itself, as long as he was less mobile than her.

She scanned the area more in depth for possible hostile elements. It seemed that this particular part of mine had caved in with her sustaining the burnt of the boulders, there was a little bend in the tunnel behind which she could not see. In vain she tried pulling herself from under the rocks but she felt like her strength was leaving her. She felt woozy out of exhaustion. Her vision swam and then something red entered her line of sight. Through her delirium she thought it was the crimson red of Cliffjumper. She called out to him and the red blur stopped.

-"Afraid not. Looks like those rocks did you in well." Unlike her, he was mobile and unscathed. She blinked again and cursed to herself. It was Knock Out and sure enough he had his energon prod with him.

-"Don't come any closer, I will blast you to peaces!" She tried releasing one of her arms from under the heavy weight of the rocks to prove her point but her feeble attempts were meat with mocking laughter.

-"Keep struggling like this and you will lose all your liquid energon in.." He paused to make a rough estimate with flare. -"…15 clicks?"

Sobered by this observation Arcee stopped. He was a field medic after all and there was no point for him to lie about her current condition. She was fairly aware of it herself.

-"You have not killed me yet, so what do you want with me?" Knockout smiled and knelt so that their faces were close enough for currently dizzy Arcee to see him properly.

-"We are stuck here, Megatron will not rescue me and I lack firepower to blast through this scrap. You, on the other hand, are heavily wounded but have enough firepower to make an opening."

Knock Out was skilled in areas of stunning and subduing the foes rather than outright offence. Which was the reason why he usually teamed up with bulkier tank-type bots. Since he was alone at the moment it seemed like a fair point.

-"Uh, how can I trust you?"

-"What do you have to lose in this situation?"

Arcee groaned, dizziness setting in again. She did notice that the weight that pressed her down became lighter which meant that somebody had set to removing the rubble. She came to her senses when she heard a faint buzzing of the welding bit. It was standard equipment for medics and she assumed that she must have somehow gotten to the base.

-"Uh, Ratchet?"

-"Wrog again." Knock Out stated in sing-song voice but otherwise remained silent. Instinctively Arcee jolted away from the voice before her optics managed focusing.

-"Hey, watch it! I am not done yet."

-"What have you done to me?" She frantically inspected her build for any damages but only saw a couple of freshly welded seams. "Did … did you remove any of my bio-mechs?"

-"Appealing as it may be I need you fully functioning to get out, so maybe some other time."

Arcee tried pointing her guns at him but one of her arms did not manage transforming into a blaster. Something was malfunctioning half way.

-" You sabotaged me!"

-"I was not yet done with that arm. So could you please let me finish patching you up before you leak what remains of your energon?"

-"Why would a decepticon help me?"

-"Well, I assumed this would be great opportunity for me to practice my field work skills." Knockout drawled annoyed.

-"You lie."

-"No, I was being obviously sarcastic. You possess guns that blast rocks and I do not!"

-"What makes you think I will not blast you to pieces here and now?"

-"Well, for one you are an autobot," He let that observation sink in with all the implications that carried. -"Then there is this little fact that I just saved your life and finally, I believe your transmitter is broken and you still have to get out of this place by your own means too."

-"How do you know that?"

-"I figured your friends would have already created a ground bridge for you, if that was not the case, am I right?"

-"Fine." Arcee shuffled closer to Knock Out and extended her faulty arm. He accepted it far more gently than she expected with his pointy fingers and all. He resumed working on welding the cracks shut. Faint buzzing noise from welding tool filled the otherwise uneasy silence that lingered between them. Every now and then sparks would illuminate his features in such a manner that he looked similar Cliffjumper. Disturbed by that random thought she tried pulling away again but Knockout caught her wrist.

-" Not yet, the seam is still fresh. It is too brittle on its own." He rummaged through his emergency medical kit and produced a couple of bottles.

- " What are those?"

-"A reinforcing sealant and a polish. I am afraid I only carry red and white on me for personal touch-ups but either of them will do in a pinch."

-"I do not need it to be pretty, I just need them to hold." Arcee was annoyed, she did not want to stay with him longer than necessary, Optimus and her team must have been worrying about her. Or even worse – needed her help. This statement did seem to ruffle Knockout the top-coat fanatic.

-"I beg to differ, fresh seams are susceptible to corrosion and may open unless they are given time to cure. Now will you let me finish?"

-"You sound like Ratchet now."

-"Must be an occupational hazard." Knockout mumbled in response and started applying the sealant coat on the freshly welded patch. Then he cured the seams with a medical laser and proceeded to topcoat.

-"I do envy Ratchet. He gets to practice what he was made for. So what will it be – red or white?" He wiggled the two distinctly colored bottles in front of Arcee's unimpressed face.

-"Which one is heat-resistant?"

This made Knockout think a bit.-" I am not sure how hot your cannons get or which kind of top-coat you have but white would absorb less heat in any case."

He finished his touch-ups and then, despite Arcee's protests buffed the repaired areas to a high sheen.

-"All done." He dusted his hands off and collected his supplies. In the meantime Arcee tried out her cannons, they transformed flawlessly. She could not bear the high sheen of her repaired areas though but that would wear off eventually.

-"Wait, was that welding bit a part of your prod?" She pointed out while Knockout was reassembling his weapon.

-"Yes, medical equipment upgraded for combat purposes."

-"You mean you possess no weapons of your own?"

Knocout sighed, he was tired of explaining this over and over again -"I was designed to be a field medic, not a war machine. My tool kit was not meant for combat purposes. Seeing as I am expected to fight now I had to tinker a with what I had."

-"You could always upgrade your current equipment."

Knockout considered that idea preposterous. "Do you know what that does to your aerodynamics? Besides I would have to sacrifice my medic's equipment which is not ideal. I like my rotary blades."

-"Well.." Arcee felt like she had struck a sensitive cord. "Thank you for fixing me up."

-"You.. are welcome." Knockout sounded quite surprised to receive gratitude in exchange for his efforts. "Though, if I had more time I would polish every little crevice in your build." He stated with a strong conviction without realizing how suggestive that sounded. His patient gave him a curious look so he elaborated his statement. -"I appreciate all shapes and sizes when it comes to bots, disregarding affiliation." Apparently he was fully aware of how he sounded and just did not care.

-"T.M.I." Arcee retorted and aimed at the rocks blocking their passage. Rocks and other geological matter flew everywhere but she managed shooting a small opening in the wall of rock. The passage she created was only large enough for her to squeeze through, sensing Knockout's questioning stare she shot a couple more rounds, making the passage larger.

-"There, it would be best if we both left at different times. Otherwise that would raise suspicion."

-"Suspicion for what?"

-"I believe none of us would benefit from this event going public. You least of all."

-"Megatron only bothers if we try usurping his position."

-"How about teaming up with the enemy?"

-"Believe me Starscreem had gotten away with more than that."

-"How do you even know that?"

-"Vehicon channels have the juiciest gossip."

And this concludes our part one which was far more easy to write than probably the rest of this thing will be.

Toodles!