I didn't even spell check this, I'm just throwin' it out there! :U I'll come back and check stuff later, though.
Enjoy anyway~

Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated!


As Ultra Magnus entered the medical bay, he thought his first objective should be to speak to Knockout. However, he didn't see the doctor anywhere in the main chamber. His four Vehicon assistants were all accounted for, though. Each of them was occupied with a task; one was seeing to an injured miner, one sorting through some cabinets, one cleaning some tools, and the last of them had their helm buried deep in a stack of datapads.

When Magnus actually stepped into the room, the Vehicon sorting the cabinets, who was closest, saw him first. He was so startled he dropped the vial of pink liquid in his servos and it clattered off the shelf and smashed on the ground.

The others all looked up at the crash and Ultra Magnus suddenly found five Vehicons all staring at him, frozen in place. The one who had dropped the vial finally started moving again after a moment. He began grumbling quiet apologies and moved to bend over and clean, but he paused again and glanced back up at Magnus. The Autobot was standing just a few paces away, and the Vehicon was visibly hesitating in taking his optics off him. Finally, he excused himself and rushed off to the back of the room and started fussing with some cloths and solvents there, leaving the shattered glass a mess on the floor.

As he hurried away, the Vehicon with the datapads stepped forward and took his place. "Is there something I can help you with... er, um... Autobot?"

"Ultra Magnus." he offered. It wasn't surprising they didn't know his name, but their reaction to him without even knowing who he was did a little bit. And now that he knew AA-00 feared for the Vehicons' safety around the Autobots, he was even more aware as they squirmed nervously as they watched him.

"Ah. Right..." The Vehicon tensed up a bit, his servos interlaced tightly in front of him. "What... what do you need? Something broken?"

"No, I'm not here for a medical issue. I had hoped to speak with Knockout. Is he here?"

"Oh! Yes, yes he is!" His vocalizer was drenched in relief. The Vehicon hurried over to a door on the right side of the room. "He's in his office." Magnus couldn't help but feel a bit insulted by his eagerness to get rid of him, but he said nothing and followed.

The Vehicon pressed a button on the keypad next to the door and spoke into the intercom, "Doctor, there's-"

"I told you not to disturb me unless someone is dying!"

He hesitated again, glancing back at Magnus. "Y-yes, I know... but one of the Autobots is here to see you... Ultra Magnus."

There was a long pause after this, until finally the door slid open. "Magnus." Knockout stepped into the doorway. His tone was friendly and light, but he had an obviously insincere smile on his face. "What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping to speak with you..." he glanced at the Vehicon standing nearby and looking rather uncomfortable. "perhaps in private."

Knockout paused, his smile faltered slightly. "...Can it wait?" he grumbled.

"It's of the utmost importance."

Glancing back into his office, Knockout let out an irritated vent. Then he shot a glare towards the Vehicon who quickly took the hint and scurried off back to work. Once he had, the medic turned and stepped back into his office. As Magnus followed, closing the door behind him, Knockout went about gathering some of the objects on his desk. Before Magnus could get a good look at them, they were shuffled into a drawer and out of sight.

"So." Knockout sat, folding his servos neatly in front of him on the desk. "What can I do for you?"

Magnus remained standing on the other side, looking down at Knockout. "It's concerning AA-00 and the Vehicons."

"Oh THIS again?" Knockout leaned back in his chair, relaxing a bit more. "I don't think this is of the utmost importance. Besides, you're not going to change Zero's mind."

"I want to know why they assigned you a team and no one else." Ultra Magnus stiffened his posture, clasping his servos behind him. "If you or your team could offer some insight, then-"

Knockout held up a servo to stop him, "Listen Mags, I'm not-"

"Ultra Magnus. Not Mags."

Knockout's smile returned, although this time it was more mischievous than forced. "Yes. Ultra Magnus... I don't know why Zero gave me a team, and honestly, you can't expect me to explain the actions of a Vehicon..." The medic said the word Vehicon with a certain derision that did not escape Magnus' notice, and neither did his continued use of the nickname the Vehicon leader seemed to despise. Perhaps this assignment was a way to punish Knockout with untrained help? It would certainly explain the doctor's reluctance to work with them.

"Has your team not been performing up to your standards?"

Knockout raised one optical ridge, "Why do you ask that?"

"You didn't seem pleased with them." Magnus glanced back at the closed door, "although they appeared to me to be fulfilling all their duties as your assistants."

"Hmm.. Yes, well they get the job done, I suppose..." Knockouts optics flickered down to the drawer and added quietly, "I've certainly had better..." Then he quickly folded his arms across his chassis and leaned back further. "Anyway, that's hardly relevant. If you actually want to know about Zero's motives, you're asking the wrong person."

Knockout stood, circling around the desk and approaching the door. Pressing the command for it to open, he stepped into the doorway. "WY-01! Come in here, won't you?" The medic didn't wait at the door, he swiveled around and moved back to his desk, leaning on it casually as the Vehicon approached.

It was the same Vehicon who had greeted Magnus. "Yes, doctor...?" he asked, standing just outside the door.

"Now now, don't be shy." Knockout smirked, "Come on in. And shut the door, would you?"

WY-01 hesitated for a moment, then stepped through the door, pressing the keypad to close it. He tried to keep his gaze on Knockout, but he kept shooting nervous glances over at Ultra Magnus. The Autobot kept his servos behind his back, trying not to look too intimidating. He was starting to feel bad about frightening these Vehicons.

Knockout didn't seem to have such reservations. He gestured towards the enforcer, "Ultra Magnus here has a few questions for you." he said, smiling devilishly. "Do try to answer him honestly; we wouldn't want you to get in trouble, would-?"

"Thank you, doctor. I'll take it from here." Magnus interrupted, glaring at the medic. Scaring the Vehicons was not going to help make the case that the Autobots wanted peace. He looked back to WY-01, trying to soften his expression. "You are not in trouble, I can assure you. I only want to inquire about AA-00."

WY-01 shifted anxiously, leaning towards the door slightly and keeping their gaze fixed firmly on Magnus. "Oh... Wh-what about them?"

Ultra Magnus gestured towards Knockout. "Knockout has been the only non-Vehicon to be given assistance by AA-00 in his duties... the Autobots have not been given teams or even approached to work with the Vehicons in any manner." he tilted his helm curiously, "Can you offer some insight as to why that is?"

"Uh... well, I..." WY-01 glanced back and forth between Knockout and Magnus a few times, then lowered his gaze. "Well, I don't know about the Autobots or anything... but we aren't really assigned to Knockout. We're assigned to the medical bay."

Magnus tiled his helm curiously. This seemed to pique Knockout's interest as well. From the expression on his face, this was apparently news to him too. WY-01 continued. "I mean, we do what he says and everything since he's got more training than us, but he doesn't report back to AA-00 about our status. I do. I'm technically in charge of the other four Vehicons in my squad... Not Knockout."

"Ah..." Ultra Magnus nodded his helm slowly, "But if you don't report to Knockout, then why assign you to the medical bay with him?"

"Well because..." WY-01 paused, glancing over at the doctor. "because there's a lot of Vehicons coming and going from the med bay and... AA-00 doesn't really... trust Knockout..."

"Oh really?" Magnus glanced over at the medic. He did not look pleased, but that was to be expected. A mech like Knockout didn't take well to getting his ego bruised. Hopefully he wouldn't take it out on squad WY later... but Magnus kept pressing. "Why is it they don't trust the doctor? He was a Decepticon like all of you, after all."

WY-01 shrugged his shoulder plating slightly. "Yeah well... to be honest, AA-00 never trusted the Decepticon leadership either. They didn't treat the Vehicons especially well... except for-" he cut himself off, glancing at Knockout. The medic was positively fuming by now. "...s-some officers. There were a few nice ones... But... Knockout wasn't one of them. And AA-00 won't assign us to someone that won't treat us well."

"I see... Do you think there is any way we can let them know the Vehicons will not be mistreated by the Autobots?"

WY-01 didn't say anything for a long moment, then finally shook his helm. "Uh... With all due respect, sir... I don't exactly know that you won't either."

Ultra Magnus couldn't say he didn't expect the Vehicon to feel this way, especially considering his nervous behavior... that didn't lessen the sting of hearing it said out loud. And so frankly too! "Is there... What... Why exactly... do you feel this way?" Magnus stumbled over his words a bit, trying to phrase his question diplomatically. "We are supposed to be at peace now. And none of the Autobots have been cruel or violent towards any of the Vehicons since we returned to Cybertron."

"Yeah but it's not...!" WY-01 started loudly, then shrank back as he realized his tone. "It's not all about right now, okay?" he continued in a softer voice. "I mean, back on Earth... We had almost six thousand Vehicons just over a year ago... now we've got just under five thousand. And there's only six of you. I could point to one Autobot and any Vehicon could list off at least one friend that got scrapped by 'em this past year... That's not something that just goes away because you said you're gonna play nice."

One thousand Vehicons?! The number startled Magnus... had it really been that many? Certainly the number would be high, but... well, he hadn't actually thought exactly how high it must have been until now. WY-01 wasn't finished yet, though.

"And frankly, sir, you aren't really convincing me that you care about the Vehicons, right now." he continued, "I mean, you just assumed that Knockout was in charge of us. Why? Because he's not a Vehicon? We're not slaves. We don't need someone to order us around! We've been treated like disposables for a long fraggin' time, and until you can prove you don't think of us that way, you're not going to change anyone's mind. Especially not AA-00's." He paused, staring up at Magnus, then promptly turned his gaze to the floor and shrugged his shoulder plating. "S-sorry... but, that's just... I'm just being honest."

It was quiet for a long minute in the office. Ultra Magnus was still processing everything WY-01 had said. He hadn't realized the extent of this division for some reason. Perhaps he was in the wrong mindset. Perhaps he had been thinking of the Vehicons as disposables rather than actual Cybertronians. Come to think of it, how many Vehicons had he offlined in his short time on Earth? He had no idea. Would he have remembered them all if they hadn't been Vehicons? Would he have even been so quick to kill them if they weren't? But, to be a bit more fair, they did all look incredibly similar. That he, and probably the other Autobots, had grouped all those kills together in a seemingly indiscernible blur was understandable, wasn't it?

Well actually, apparently not. Not to the other Vehicons. And not to AA-00.

As Magnus pondered on this, Knockout finally spoke up.

"Hang on a second..." he said, raising a single digit pointedly. "Earlier, you said the other four Vehicons in your squad... but there's only three others out there."

"Oh... uh, yeah." WY-01 grumbled, "I'm not actually sure where WY-05 is. He never reported in..."

"That's completely unacceptable." Knockout practically hissed. "Even if you aren'tunder my authority, the medical bay is my domain, and I expect all its personnel to be accounted for!"

"Uh... yes, I suppose... I mean, I could try to-"

"Don't bother." Knockout interrupted, circling back around his desk. "This Vehicon will hear from me personally about this."

Ultra Magnus let out a quiet vent as he watched Knockout start sorting through his desk again. Well, at least Knockout intended to channel his anger towards someone who wasn't even in the med bay, let alone under his authority. He could deal with that impending disaster some other time. He was still trying to deal with AA-00, he didn't have time for Knockout's dramatics.

Looking to the Vehicon again, he nodded. "Thank you, WY-01." he said. "Your honesty has been incredibly helpful."

WY-01 just shrugged their shoulder plating again in response, and Magnus took that as his cue to go. He stepped towards the door and pressed the keypad to leave. As the door slid open, though, the three other members of squad WY all toppled through the doorway!

One of them quickly pulled herself up on the doorframe, staring anxiously up at the Autobot towering over her. "Ah! S-sorry, we were... we weren't eavesdropping, I swear! We just... uh..."

"It's quite alright." Ultra Magnus said, then gestured for her to move. "But if you'll excuse me, I'm in a bit of a hurry."

The Vehicons scrambled to get out of the way, and Magnus hurried past them and out of the medical bay. He might have stuck around to try and reassure them, but right then he had to see the other Autobots about these new revelations. They had to find some way to prove that they respected the Vehicons...

But Magnus had no idea how to go about doing that.