They'd been unsuccessful. There was a bitter air all around that would just not dissipate. It was sour and left many with disgusted looks as they each trudged around the base. It left tempers high, despite the severity of wounds. Med Bay on the Nemesis had never before been so very full of bodies needing repair.

Truly, it was surprising that they were all here willingly. But that may have been more because Knockout was on shift instead of Hook. Not that the Constructicon wasn't still hovering around the Med Bay himself. He was happily content to assist, prodding wounds with almost glee, even while humming about how his work was under-appreciated. Everyone was doing their best to avoid him.

Which meant that Knockout was a bit busier than he truly wanted to be.

He gave a deadpan look at the current mech on his med berth. This mech was frothing at the mouth mad and complaining up a storm about how damaged he'd gotten during the assault, and to add insult to it all, that they'd not even accomplished the original mission. "How hard could it have been to take that forsaken plant?" the mech raged. Knockout rolled his optics, pulling away as the mech moved and shook his fist in agitation.

Unfortunately, that question was the one needed to spark the rest of the room all over again, and jeers and snarls rose around the Med Bay. "How the slag did we let those slagheaps take so much?" another voice asked rather loudly, hearable even amongst the cacophony. "Why did we turn like organic canines?"

"Alright, alright, all of you just settle down," the glossy red medic called, annoyed. He hadn't been in the battle zone, for which he was quite grateful. With the amount of damage even Megatron himself had taken? He was glad to have missed it. He didn't need a repeat.

"How the frag did they even catch the Seekers off guard?" that voice belonged to an enraged Cassette, although which one was anyone's guess as their entire unit was currently sharing one of the berths in the back. But, as Ravage tended to only growl or hiss, and Buzzsaw and Lazerbeak were basically mute, it would have been one of the twins, both of whom looked to be barely online. "If they hadn't caught a lucky break and killed Dirge, we woulda won!"

And there went the Med Bay.

Knockout ducked as something flew in his general direction with a silent squawk. Various instruments were being smashed, and thrown around. He reacted more out of instinct than anything as he caught a glimpse of something aimed as his helm. His staff clicked from its place on his hip, and as he grabbed it, it extended. He swung, both hands firmly gripping the end. The sound it made…

It was a very loud crack. The object was batted away, almost harmlessly, toward the entrance. But it had made every single one of the Decepticons in the room stop where they were and turn to look at him. Rather surprised at the sound issued from what had appeared to be nothing more than a lightweight item, but not showing it, he relaxed his stance with a spin of the staff.

Hook's growl drew everyone's attention not a moment later. "This is Med Bay, not the Rec Room. If you all wish to start a fight, take it where breakables that are keeping some mechs alive aren't going to be caught range." For emphasis, he smacked a still grievously injured yet still very boisterous Barricade, who yelped. No one moved. Nor did they say anything.

A miracle in this place.

Knockout smirked, shaking his helm, even as he turned back to his current patient. Runabout wasn't pleased, and he glared at the red medic. "It really wasn't fair," the twin grumbled, just loud enough for him to hear. "They shouldn't have been able to take out the Seekers. And we shouldn't have had trouble retrieving Starscream."

Knockout's brow ridges rose. He hadn't heard exactly what had happened. All he knew was that Dirge had been KIA and the rest of the force had been in disarray. Although… he glanced around, still tightening a loose connection in the twin's chassis. He'd seen every mech that had gone out. Megatron had stalked out almost immediately, and Soundwave had been hot on his heels. Thundercracker and Skywarp both were laying on berths not far away, unconscious from their damage. There was no sign of Starscream.

"Dirge just…" the black mech's optics focused somewhere far away, once more drawing Knockout's attention. "He just collided with Scream. No warning. It rained fire and Seeker parts on me and everyone else." Knockout shifted grimly at the rather gruesome image. "The explosion knocked even Megatron and Prime down… though they were right there…"

Knockout shook himself, eying the mech carefully. Runabout was displaying symptoms of shock. If he was, how many others were? Hook didn't much care for healing those aspects, even if it was dangerous. He kept the growl to himself. More than half of the army was effectively out of commission.

"Take it easy, Bout," he said carefully. No Decepticon liked to be pitied. Most didn't even like being spoken too in soft tones. But in this case, he could warrant it. Let the twin get upset later. "We'll take it one step at a time. Once you're healed, you can pound away at the Autobots to your spark's content for this infraction. With Megatron's OK, of course."

"Starscream was damaged real bad," a different mech said, earning both his and Runabout's attention. Blackout was standing against the wall. He held a few telling scratches and dings, but looked otherwise alright. Knockout's optics narrowed. His rotors weren't falling right. So that was his main reason for sticking around this long. "I doubt he'd have survived long without immediate medical."

That was sobering. Starscream had been thoroughly fragged on multiple occasions, sometimes even by those on his own side when that glitch of his acted up. But he'd proven he was rather tenacious and stubborn. He'd always been able to bounce back from whatever was thrown his way. And judging by what he could see of Thundercracker and Skywarp, they should have come online by now.

Making a face, he moved toward the Seekers, drawing once more, the attention of the entire room. The sounds that had begun to grow louder as time passed cut off with a sudden snap as he reached Skywarp's berth. He was half tempted to throw a rude gesture out there for them all to see, but… that would probably set them all off again.

He stared at the black Seeker. He could list the injuries easily visible without problem. Skywarp's self-repair had taken care of most of the injuries before he'd arrived here. Hook had patched the rest rather quickly not long ago before moving on to a more alert patient. There wasn't really much to the Seeker's medical pad.

And Thundercracker was the same.

So then, why hadn't they come online? In his medical opinion, it had to do with Starscream's predicament. Dirge, however, had only remained offline for the time it had taken to get him to the base those months past. Thundercracker and Skywarp had "overslept".

Still though, he was careful with his prodding. Dirge had been quite violent when he'd first awoken. There was no telling how these two would react. He wanted to avoid being scratched as best as was possible.

Grumbling incoherently to himself, he removed a wire from his wrist and glared at it. This was something that made him regret not becoming a full medic before the academy went up in flames. He wasn't able to perform deep scans, and so was reduced to hard-line connections. Unpleasant and harsh on both mech's CPUs, it was usually only used in dire situations.

Steeling himself, he found a connector at Skywarp's own wrist and felt the rush of the whole process assault his processes. His HUD was overlaid with Skywarp's own, and everything Skywarp felt was transferred to him. He probably hissed or cried out. He really didn't care at the moment. There were errors pointing to things that needed attention when there was time. Skywarp was also in need of fuel, though not desperately so. It was overshadowed, really, by the sharp pain in his spark.

But, as he physically opened the flier's spark chamber, vaguely sensing Hook watching from behind, he could find nothing wrong. He palmed his helm, annoyed. The problem was certainly the Trine Bond, then. There wasn't much he could do for that.

Except, he knew Starscream wasn't deactivated. He could, in a weird, ghostly way, still sense Starscream though Skywarp's spark, just as he could sense Thundercracker in a bit stronger kind of way. The pain was from Starscream's end. He could figure that much.

"Ugh," he intoned, forcing himself to disconnect. It was hard enough being in someone else's casing without feeling two others by extension.

"What did you do?" he heard Hook ask, surprised. That tone was enough to make Knockout turn to him with a wary expression. That was when he realized that half the room was gawking in his general direction. The CMO pointed at Skywarp, making Knockout turn again.

Skywarp was twitching. Not in a bad way. He was waking up. Knockout blinked, surprised. Vibrant, almost purple optics unique to the teleporter, blinked online, cloudy and dazed though they were. On the next berth over, Thundercracker's own orange red optics did the same. Skywarp was the first to speak, though. His optics danced around what he could see of the room, and he groaned. "Star?"

A/N: So, I finally got around to updating this thing! I have no idea why Knockout decided to be written this way. I think I prefer the style like this instead of 1st person. What do you think? I hope the next chapter won't take as long as this one to be put out, but, as I'm working of War Front, I may switch off between the two stories.