Disclaimer: I do not own the Transformers.
School has really been getting in the way of things here, so expect a rather long wait between updates. Sorry about that.
Anyways, enjoy Chapter Four and its very threatening title, as well as the hopefully adequate action packed into it.
Thanks to all my reviewers. You guys are amazing, I couldn't do without you!
Knock Out gazed out the window, watching the stars twinkle around the knife shaped moon.
So far, his stay at the Autobot base had been rather uneventful. Since pledging his allegiance, he'd been released from the medbay, which still served as his quarters, but hadn't been allowed to leave the base.
Which meant that, most of the time, he was stuck with Ratchet, and occasionally Arcee.
Knock Out's optics swept over the moon again, and he sighed. He would have to find a way out of his bloodthirsty little problem.
"We have to get you somewhere safe, don't we?" came a voice behind him.
"R-Ratchet!" the red mech blurted out in surprise. Then, panic started creeping into his systems as he took in the fact that someone knew. Ratchet knew.
"How did- What-"
Ratchet held Knock Out still and stared him in the optics.
"I won't tell," he said simply, and waited for the other medic to calm down.
"You- You won't?" Knock Out stammered, his processor faint from trying to absorb another outrageous fact.
"Yes, I won't. But before I help you, I need to know everything that happened."
Turning his helm to glance at the moon, he added, "Even about Smokescreen."
"How did you know about Smokescreen?" asked Knock Out, another surprise shocking him out of his shell.
Ratchet smiled grimly.
"Do you know what Smokescreen was actually doing on the Nemesis when he was captured?"
Knock Out shook his helm. "I didn't even know that he was on the ship. I was only alerted to the news when Megatron sent for me to fix him."
Ratchet nodded.
"It happens that I recently developed a new camera."
"A camera?"
"Yes, an invisible camera even Soundwave's technology cannot detect. It could've been the turning point of the war, to quote Prime himself."
Knock Out followed the other medic as he walked to a table and picked up a piece of equipment.
"This is the video player," Ratchet explained. "There's one for each camera."
Knock Out poked what appeared to be an 'on' button.
The video player exploded.
"Knock Out!" blurted Ratchet. "I needed that!"
Said mech quickly backed away from the table.
Ratchet shook his helm, cursing under his breath.
"Live feed from Corridor Two- gone."
"I'm sorry," apologised Knock Out, surprised that he'd felt the urge to apologise. It wasn't something he was used to.
"Corridor Two were the torture chambers," he added. "I don't think much planning goes on in the torture chambers."
Ratchet sighed, accepting Knock Out's reasoning. Why did it always have to be his things that got wrecked?
"Nevermind," he grunted, moving the shattered camera screen to a different table.
"On with your story."
But Knock Out found his curiosity raised.
"You still haven't told me what Smokescreen was doing on the Nemesis," he protested.
It turned out to be a bad idea, if the death glare he received from Ratchet was any proof.
"If you must know…"
It was not every day that Ratchet sprinted out of the medbay, a ridiculous smile plastered to his facial plates.
"I've got it!" he yelled, while everyone else at the base stared up at him with incredulous optics/eyes.
"Doc bot's finally lost it," suggested Bulkhead.
"No, listen!" the excited medic went on. "I've found a way to see what the Decepticons are up to!"
Everyone went silent.
"I present to you… the Invisicam!"
"The what?" grunted Bulkhead.
"Boop beep?" added Bumblebee.
Ratchet held out his servo, revealing… nothing.
"Doc bot's finally lost it," repeated Bulkhead.
Ratchet sighed in exasperation, turned around and picked up a small box with a screen on it. He tossed it to Arcee, who caught it.
"Press the little yellow button," he instructed.
Arcee caught the button, and a picture of the ceiling appeared.
"Let me see!" yelled Smokescreen, peering over her shoulder to be greeted with Ratchet's grinning face.
"Gah!" he yelped, jumping back.
"The camera can be placed anywhere and is virtually undetectable," continued Ratchet, waving the camera around and showing everyone the Autobot base from a few new angles.
"This could be the turning point in the war," Optimus finally said.
"So what are we waiting for?" exclaimed Smokescreen, looking up from the video player.
"Let's plant these on the Nemesis and bash those 'Cons!"
Optimus looked around at the affirmative expressions of his team, and nodded.
"Very well. Arcee-"
"Can I go?" called Smokescreen, waving his arm in the air.
"No, you cannot, and you shouldn't interrupt a superior officer like that!" replied Arcee, turning to glare at him in the optics.
"Arcee, calm down," Optimus commanded gently.
"I personally think Smokescreen would be okay for the job," mused Bulkhead.
"He's been trained by the Elite Guard, after all, and he's a quick thinker. He can get himself out of trouble."
"Whirr whirr beep," piped up Bumblebee.
Optimus turned to Ratchet, who frowned and thought about it for a moment.
"I reckon you could let the kid have a try," he finally said.
Optimus turned to face Smokescreen.
"Alright. Smokescreen, you leave for the Nemesis in an hour."
-Later-
Smokescreen crept along the corridor, glancing around for any sign of onlooking optics. Sensing none, he placed a camera on the roof of Corridor Two, and continued on his way.
"So far, so good," he told Ratchet through his comm link.
"Don't let your guard down," the medic replied. "Alright. Turn left, and add a camera in the vent above the Vehicon quarters."
"Done," answered Smokescreen, fixing the Invisicam in place.
"Right. Next, walk down the corridor, and head to the brig."
"That sounds like what you tell me to do when I mess up, Ratch."
Smokescreen raced down the corridor to the brig. He took his last Invisicam out of subspace, and was about to put it in place when suddenly, an electric feeling raced through his circuits, and all his systems offlined, leaving just his spark pulsing.
"Smokescreen?! Smokescreen, can you hear me? Respond, Smokescreen!"
Ratchet turned to Optimus, wearing a look of hopelessness.
"Enough information?" asked Ratchet, annoyed.
Knock Out shrugged. "One last question… How did you know that his death had something to do with me?"
Ratchet sighed.
"Do you think I would let an absent-minded rookie run around on board the Nemesis without a camera tracking his every move, for Primus's sake?! Now, your story, if you please."
Knock Out, satisfied, told Ratchet about everything that had happened to him. Somehow, he got the feeling he could trust the Autobot medic, and even briefly mentioned his few weeks of energon deprivation in the brig.
Maybe it didn't hurt as much because he'd suffered worse after.
Breakdown.
Knock Out cleared his mind of his ex-assistant and continued on with his story.
Ratchet listened intently until he finished.
"Okay, Knock Out. Now I'm just going to have to figure out what to do with you."
"Ratchet… thanks."
Ratchet grunted and exited the room.
Knock Out settled down on his berth, wondering what was going to happen that night.
Little did he know that a certain yellow scout had been standing outside, listening to every word he and Ratchet had said. Bumblebee, shocked, left the area, upon deciding that he wouldn't tell anyone.
-7:00 pm-
"I like your paint job."
"Did you seriously just compliment me?"
"Well, of course, I like my own more, but-"
"Oh, Knock Out!"
Ratchet walked into the medbay to tune into a somewhat playful chat, and grabbed a scanner with a loud noise to get the two younger Autobots' attention.
"I'm going to scan Knock Out," he told them, activating the scanner and fiddling with a switch.
Reading over the results of the scan, he frowned, and told Arcee to leave the medbay.
Yelled at, to be more precise.
"Arcee, get out of here immediately!" he shouted, almost pushing her away from Knock Out's berth.
"What- Why!?" the femme spluttered, stumbling a few steps and stopping in the doorway, while Ratchet hurried back to Knock Out's side and began plugging various tubes into his frame.
The ex-Decepticon in question was looking frightened, as if he wasn't quite sure what was going on, but knew it wasn't good.
"Highly contagious virus," stated Ratchet, plugging one last wire in before almost slamming the door in Arcee's face.
"Tell me that was just for show," sighed Knock Out, dropping his fake expression and unplugging a few tubes.
"Yes, it was. Now come on."
Ratchet helped him to remove most of the energon lines from his body, before helping him up and leading him into a secluded room and locking the door.
"Why do I feel like I'm being somewhat… obtrusive?" the old medic finally said, tying Knock Out's peds up in place.
"Ratchet… please hurry…" groaned the half-binded mech, feeling his mind beginning to slip away.
"Hold on, Knock Out. Almost done."
Ratchet tweaked the last knot tight, before standing up, casting a long look at the vampire tied in a sitting position against the wall.
"Alright, Knock Out, I'm going to leave now."
Knock Out's red-turning-purple optics met his blue ones.
"Thank you," he whispered as Ratchet left through a narrow crack in the door and locked it from the outside.
-9:00 pm-
"Why are there thuds and clangs coming from that infirmary?" pondered Arcee, getting a little worried for Knock Out's safety.
"It's nothing," replied Ratchet, tapping away at his keyboard.
"It sounds painful," Bulkhead put in, earning himself a glare from Ratchet.
"The treatment is very painful, yes. But it works, and Knock Out should be better by tomorrow."
A particularly loud clang filled the air.
"I'm going in after him," announced Arcee, taking a step.
Ratchet turned to face her.
"Arcee, think about it this way. If we continue with the treatment, he'll be better by tomorrow morning, and you can talk to him all you want. But if you jump in right now and disturb the process, he'll only get worse. So, it's short-term suffering for long-term health. Understood?"
Arcee sighed and settled back down.
"Understood."
-Later that night-
The door to the infirmary creaked just slightly as Arcee pulled it open, creeping inside and looking around.
What she expected to find was Knock Out, unconscious on a medberth, with a million various tubes plugged into his frame, and monitors flashing.
What she found was Knock Out, perfectly awake, tied against the wall, struggling against his bonds.
"Ratchet!" the femme hissed, moving forwards towards the ex-Decepticon before her.
Arcee looked up at Knock Out's pale cheek plate, noticing that something was certainly off about him. For starters, his optics were violet, instead of his usual red. But Ratchet had mentioned something about 'treatment,' and there was obviously none of that going on right now.
Arcee, deeming it safe, untied the cherry mech, who immediately pounced on her.
"What the-!" she yelped, finding herself suddenly pressed against both the floor and the wall opposite the one Knock Out had been binded to.
Knock Out growled, his glowing violet optics intensifying as he brought forth his fangs and aimed for Arcee's neck.
"Knock Out!" the femme grunted, barely able to understand what was going on. Her battle programming told her to defend herself against the incoming threat, and so she did.
Knock Out gave a yelp as he suddenly found himself greeted with a punch in the face. The vampire hissed at Arcee, before slipping out of the infirmary door.
Arcee leapt to her peds and followed him, transforming her servos into her cannons and running after the energon-crazed mech. Firing continuously at him, she managed to clip his shoulder. The shots only glanced off his armour, and most of them missed altogether.
"Scrap!" cursed Arcee, as her prey turned a corner and briefly disappeared from her view. How on earth was Knock Out so fast? Before this, the only time she'd known the ex-Decepticon medic to be fast was in racing, and he was in vehicle mode at the time.
Vehicle mode. How had she forgotten?
Arcee transformed and zoomed after the fleeing vampire, eventually catching up.
"Knock Out!" she growled, transforming back and powering her cannons up to full charge. Arcee shot Knock Out directly in the back, sending him crashing down against a nearby wall. He skidded to a halt, the light of the moon over the horizon casting light over the corridor.
The vampire jumped up, energon bleeding from a few minor scrapes on his frame. With a low hiss, he charged towards Arcee, who dodged just in time to send him crashing into the wall again.
Knock Out turned and let out a terrifying sound that resembled a roar, and turned to pin Arcee to the wall, ready to sink his fangs into her throat.
Arcee, trapped between Knock Out and the wall, found just enough room to raise her gun, and blast Knock Out's arm.
The vampire crashed to the ground just as the moon disappeared over the horizon line.
"What-" he spluttered, his violet optics turning to crimson as he propped himself up on his elbows to be greeted with the point of Arcee's cannon.
"For Smokescreen," she hissed.
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