Hear ye, hear ye! Turbo is back this week with another round of Arcee and KO digging in dirt. The story ideas are flowing fine though I am starting to run out of names of cavernous geological underground formations to describe where it is that they blast/break/fall into next. Oh well, back to dictionary it is then. OR you, dear readers, can contribute in the review section of this chapter. Also 'crack', 'crevice' and 'shaft'(mining shaft) jokes are appreciated. :D

And back to our dirt-diggin' darlings we go.


They crawled through the opening previously made by Arcee, Knockout had to go first. She had made it clear that there will be no back stabbing on her watch. They managed squeezing through the narrow space only thanks to their smaller build. On the other side they saw a winding tunnel in which light of their floodlights disappeared.

- "I do not remember seeing this before."

- "A road is a road!" Knockout had already transformed into his vehicle mode. "Care for a race?"

Arcee hesitated, she had spent most of her life believing that decepticons were all alike – a ruthless and evil enemy with a penchant for destruction. She felt uneasy when encountering something that did not fit her understanding of a decepticon.

- "Come on, I will give you a head start." Knockout was itching to race, disregarding their state of being enemies.

- "Why?" Arcee crossed arms on her front-plates.

-"I have never properly raced with an autobot before apart from battle pursuit. Furthermore, weren't you keen on getting out?"

The playful challenge echoed with her long-restrained desire to have fun. Arcee sighed and transformed, putting Sadie up, just in case.

- "What is that?" Knockout waved his side-view mirror through the hologram.

- "The absence of driver is more difficult to conceal on this type of vehicle." And with that she took off, leaving Knockout in a cloud of dust. She raced through the rugged tunnel wondering how it had appeared there. She adjusted her side view mirror to see if he was catching up but something was off. The rumble of Knockout's engine was too close for him to be out of sight. She swerved the mirror upwards to see him racing on the ceiling of the tunnel.

- "Hello." He purred and accelerated just a little bit to change his position in tunnel so that he was in front of Arcee making her decelerate a bit. The tunnel was not wide enough for him to overtake her in any other fashion. "See you at the exit!" He called and sped up and away from his competitor. Seeing the headlights of Arcee disappear out of sight caused him a great deal of satisfaction however the lights of his sensors took away from the fuzzy feeling of victory. Something was not right in this tunnel. The temperature was rising the further he travelled and the atmosphere was becoming increasingly more hostile for them. He stopped, seeing that this probably was not the right way after all. Moments later Arcee's headlights came in sight and she showed no signs of stopping. Was she mad? Knockout transformed. He was not very good at lobbing and Arcee was definitely bigger than any of the lobbing balls he had ever handled but it was crucial that he caught her. He flexed his clawed hands and tried guessing which evasive manoeuvre she might employ.

Just a few moments later Arcee jumped in the air to squeeze through the opening between Knockout's shoulder plate and head he grabbed her out of the air. Arcee was not amused, -"What are you doing? Let go!" she cried while he resorted to pointing the angrily roaring tires away from his finish.

- "Calm down, aren't your sensors picking up anything?"

Arcee transformed and tapped on the receptor on the side of her head. - "Strange, if I am to trust them right now we are somewhere high above the sea-level which is definitely not true. They must have sustained damage during that cave in. What are your sensors indicating?"

- "That we should definitely not go that way." He pointed in direction in which they had been heading. "If anything we are moving deeper into the ground and temperatures are borderline hazardous."

- "Then this tunnel leads to a magmatic chamber!"

Knockout eyed her wearily - "So what are the good news?"

- "Thus far? None."

This time without any extravagant moves they raced back to the mouth of the tunnel.

- "That was a waste of energon, we are back where we started!" Knockout growled and rummaged through his inner compartment in search of his buffing equipment. Arcee in the meantime examined another caved-in part of the cavern.

- "Knockout! Please shine your headlights here!" That got her the response she needed faster than anything else. Without a word of complaint, she had all the floodlights she needed if not more. 'Please' was indeed a magic word whenever Knockout was concerned. – "Half this strength is plenty, save your energon!" She continued her inspection and a short while after she heard the buzzing of the rotary buffer behind her. – "Is that really necessary now?"

- "It helps me relax."

- "Cut it out, it is distracting."

- "Just a minute… Done!" Knockout sounded in a better mood already.

Arcee wiggled a loose stone and quickly jumped back as an avalanche of rubble followed, releasing a cloud of dust. She could not help but smirk when she saw Knockout shudder as the fine particles settled on his freshly-polished build.

- "What is the matter? You look mortified." She threw over her shoulder as she went to examine the newly opened passage. Out of the corner of her eye she saw him flip her off.

This little avalanche triggered a buzzing sound that came from beyond the wall of rocks. A buzzing not dissimilar to insecticons.

- "Scrap!" Arcee hid behind a large boulder only to discover that Knockout was hiding there as well. "What are you doing here?" Just moments later the wall of rock exploded from within having been displaced by a particularly bulky insecticon.

- "What does it look like to you?" Knockout whispered angrily regarding Arcee's previous comment.

- "Aren't they supposed to be on your team?"

- "Half the time they themselves do not know who's team they are on and today I am not willing to find out."

They both became silent the instant they heard the familiar insecticon wail. Being slightly taller than Arcee Knockout peeked over the rim of the boulder.

- "How many?" Arcee mouthed at him when he looked down. He held up 1 digit in response but lingered to see if any more were joining him. To Arcee's horror 2 more digits joined the equation and currently 3 very active insecticons were wandering in the area newly-opened for them.

- "We cannot stay here; they will find us!" Having faced off against an insecticon sentry before, Arcee knew they had a good sense of smell.

- "Ok, warrior class, what do you suggest?"

- "You distract them!"

- "What?!" Knockout was about to protest more but he saw Arcee's optics focus on a space behind him and widen in horror. Knockout got the gist, inhaled and turned around flaunting his most brazen expression. After all, insecticons were initially programmed to not harm decepticons on sight or at least he hoped that these were.

- "I beg your pardon but would you Mind not grovelling over my shoulder while I interrogate a war criminal?"

The insecticon retreated slightly from encountering a face-full of irritated Knockout, however that effect did not last long. The creature's visor glowed and it opened its mouth, small splatters of saliva ended up on Knockout's headlights. The problem with insecticons was that one could never gauge from their facial expressions if they were having a nice day or planning to rip one's face off. On certain occasions both these sentiments converged and he feared this was the case at hand. Knockout felt something happening on his back and he mentally shuddered imagining all the body work he would need to do if he escaped this place in one piece. The insecticon lunged at him but Arcee was faster, she had climbed up Knockout's back unnoticed, extended her cannons on both sides of his head and fired two rounds straight into the gaping maw of the insect.

Knockout rubbed his audio receptors as the bot fell lifeless in front of him. Unfortunately, the two remaining insecticons now were heading their way at full speed and their visors were focused on him. -" Breakdown help me..." he muttered to himself. To his benefit Arcee sprang into action and took attention of one of the bots. The other insecticon still was steadily stalking towards Knockout. He was now faced with two options, to drive or to stay and fight. Arcee had a chance surviving the encounter, himself – no way he could survive a standoff against one, not to speak of two of those beasts. He transformed into his vehicle mode, some fights were not worth winning. He revved his engine letting Arcee know what he was up to, he made one loop around the cavern with galloping insecticon at his back and called out to Arcee. – "Hop on!"

He did not have to ask twice but he cringed when he heard the crunch of Arcee's feet digging into his roof and hood. – "What is your plan?"

- "I keep them at safe distance, you shoot them down."

- "Suits me."

And they sped into the newly opened area with Arcee stationed on Knockout's roof. It seemed like a continuation of the lava tunnel they had raced through before but now hopefully they were headed away from the chamber of certain death. It did not take insecticons long to continue pursuit on wing. Arcee aimed at the ceiling of the tunnel above them to let the boulders do the bludgeoning. One bot went down caught by the rubble but the remaining one was relentless.

- "I hate to say this but I see the end of the tunnel and it is a dead end." Knockout piped to his passenger.

- "Can you do your driving on the ceiling trick again?"

Knockout swerved around. – "Can't – too rocky but I can give you some speed."

Knockout turned around and sped up towards their pursuer. Arcee leapt at the insecticon brandishing her blades. She managed tackling it through sheer force of velocity which gave Knockout time to transform and sneak behind the bot with his energon prod in hand.

- "Clear back!" He called, not wanting to tase Arcee in the process. She saw rather than heard what it was he wanted to do and jumped back. Knockout jammed his prod into the back of the insecticon's neck. The bot shuddered but did not seem to be affected in any other way apart from getting angrier. It turned around to assault Knockout instead. Arcee had gotten to a safe distance to shoot and opened fire, Knockout ducked just in time.

-"Arcee! I am not the tank you think I am!" He called out with a raising level of urgency as the insect lashed out at him.

Despite Arcee's attempts to dissuade it, the bot seemed to hold a certain fixation on the medic. Knockout kept blocking the attacks of the insecticon with his prod but his adversary, being resistant to shocks, got a hold of the weapon and yanked it clear out of Knockouts' hands.

Empty handed Knockout had no other choice but to lash with his claws, leaving deep gashes and a couple neatly cut energon ducts. An almost comical spray of energon splashed over his face from the severed duct temporarily blinding him. He blinked and covered awaiting more onslaught but none came and moments later the insect hit the floor. He picked up his prod and poked the cadaver with it. It did not move, good, it was then that Knockout decided it was a good time to start fussing.

-" My boart-tipped nails! I just had them done!"

(A/N Bort or boart here refers to shards of non-gem-grade/quality diamonds used in heavy industries for drill bits and rotary blades. Yes, he has gems on his nails, sue him.)

Arcee was unable to decide whether she was frustrated about him not having used those before or relieved that their opponent was dead. Knockout started picking at his digits to remove any residual bits of metal and energon. -" You would not have a file handy would you?" He received no answer so he waited a moment and then turned to Arcee to reprimand her for being rude. However, he saw the Autobot wobble and lean against the wall. He swiftly approached her and guided her to sit down. Then he scanned her frame for damage.

- "Your energon levels are low. Since we do not have emergency energon provisions transfusion would be the best option." He muttered after assessing the results.

- "Who from?" Arcee retorted annoyed by the fact that the decepticon ignored the obvious absence of possible donors.

- "I have a couple of ideas." Knockout eyed the two bodies of the insecticons laying in the dust.

- "Are you mad?! I am not having that stuff in my body!" Arcee immediately regretted saying this as her head started ringing again.

-"It is either them or me. I did not assume that you were fine with the latter option."

He was right, neither possibility was appealing to Arcee but Knockout at least was of similar build. - "Are You OK with that?" She asked back.

- "Energon is energon, no matter where it flows." He shrugged.

The autobot rubbed her head, her vision was doubling and she understood that the medic could easily trick her and instead inject her with something lethal. Then again, without the transfusion she would not last long either. - "Fine, do it."

Knockout produced a syringe and unceremoniously plugged it into his arm port. Arcee watched sparkling blue liquid fill the canister in silent horror.

– "Ready?" Knockout approached her with the same detached expression. She nodded and presented her arm. It felt strange to have energon from a decepticon coursing through her system. Though the sensation was more in her mind than in her body. She expected it to feel different for some reason but in the end energon was energon after all.

While she was recuperating Knockout headed towards the bodies of the insecticons. Their spark compartments were still warm which meant that the energon had not yet started crystallizing in their bodies. Perfect opportunity to collect research samples.

- "Must you desecrate their bodies?" Arcee muttered while she observed Knockout's actions with level-headed disgust.

- "They are dead; they do not care." Knockout finished collecting the samples from the both bots. Their energon looked visually different from that of a common bot and that fascinated the medic. - "The live ones would not let me take samples."

-" And their brethren would not object if they found out?"

-" Really?" He put his hands on his hips indignantly. - "After what they did today I really worry about undermining my relationship with them." He stated in a tart manner.

-" Fair enough." Arcee agreed, murderous intent was hard to top.

Knockout put away the samples in his interior compartment and turned his attention to the autobot. -" How is your vision? Still blurry?"

Arcee marveled how Knockout knew about it but then again, he had to be aware of the symptoms of energon loss -" It is better. I should be good to go soon."

In the meantime, Knockout had managed locating a small rotary file and started touching up his nails. They might come in handy once more before they dull completely.

-" Is that standard equipment?"

-" Oh this little something?" He wiggled his fingers in a fashion that made light bounce off the sharp edges. -" Extremely useful for doing surgery which requires high precision and maneuverability."

-" You perform such kind of surgeries with your bare hands?!"

Knockout rolled his eyes -" The equipment lacks a sense of touch to it. For example, joining the fragile sensory conduits when reattaching a severed limb requires a certain level of finesse some tools are incapable of providing." He lifted a tiny grain of sand between the tips of his claws to emphasize the point.

Arcee had lost him at "sensory conduits" but made a mental note to stay away from his "touchy" hands.

-" Have you considered adding them to your list of medical equipment turned weapon?"

-" Na, too finicky. These loose edge too fast in hand to hand combat. Which is why I prefer avoiding that." He shrugged


KO - Touchy hands, touchy haaands!

Arcee - I am highly skeptical about your qualifications, Doctor.

KO - What do You know? Can you attach an arm? Huh, huh?

Arcee - Ratched developed Synth-En, saved Boulderhead,..

Bulkhead - That's Bulkhead! I thought you Cared Arcee! *goes to sob in the corner*

Arcee - Yeah, no one cares, anyways, ... saved Bumblebee, stood up against an army of undead bots, shall I continue?"

KO - For the record, he did not develop Synth-En, he just completed an existing formula part of which he already had. Also, he is nowhere as handsome as I.

Arcee, Bulkhead, Smokescreen - Well...

KO pointing at Smokescreen - What is he doing here?! Breakown!

Breakdown - Yes?

KO - Ruin his paint job NOW!

So yeah, I wanted to portray KO as a bot who knows his limits when it comes to combat because he is not a damn combat robot. :D