Capture Spark
Ailments
If there was one thing about background stories I love, it's explaining the past and working it for the show's future ways. ENJOY!
He awaited her arrival in the maze tunnels, his optics darting about, but ultimately watching the door that led up to the house above him. He could hear the pede's above him creaking the floors, the sound so profound to him that he almost thought that the roof would cave down on him. But fear was not his enemy, he was used to such sounds, hearing worse in the Pit's of Kaon as a gladiator ensured that.
No, what he was more anxious about was her coming down, but also the thought that it would not be her exiting the house and entering the tunnels that were hit with a blast of cold air. He worried that her father, Truvulous as he had learned, would come down and see him. He could, of course, beat off the mech like he was a scraplet, but the action would surely end in Stoneblaze hating him forever and himself being put into a prison so guarded that not even the slyest of mechs could find their way out.
In the pit of his tanks he also worried that she wouldn't show, he didn't know why, she always showed even when he least expected it; but today he was just feeling sick. Maybe it was the question that rung through his processor that made him sick, he'd never really asked her to do anything for him, but today was different and a little humiliating if he had to say so himself.
He stayed strong, he always did, but when worse came down to worse, it had always been his physical strength that was stronger than his mental.
The door creaked open and he stood proud and tall, squaring his shoulders back until they rose almost to the height of the ceiling. The soft voice of Blaze danced through his audio receptors and he smiled, her voice alone was a melody to him. Watching the doorway he saw her and the small child walking down. He seemed more open around her than he was around him, but it was understandable; she was a soft loving femme who glowed like the moon, and he was a raging gladiator who looked like he would rip the head off of anyone if angered far enough.
Megatronus huffed a laugh, that would be the day when he was angered enough to kill like that. He only killed for a living, he had no other reason to do so, and never would he.
He hadn't noticed his optics were glaring toward the ground until he caught a glimpse of Stoneblaze's pede's stopped before him. Looking up he bowed his head and she grinned.
"Hello, Megatronus, I'm glad to see you again." She smiled back.
"Stoneblaze, how long has it been since I've seen you, and you still insist on formality as if we were strangers." Megatronus joked.
"Don't be so modest, you do the same."
He huffed. "It is only befitting that I treat a femme such as you with the highest respect. It is not every cycle that I see beauty such as yours." He kissed her servo and she rolled her optics.
"You are more proper than any of the mechs here, honestly you'd fit in like a gem."
"Megatron!" The voice caught both of them off guard, and Blaze was the first to smile.
"I've been trying to teach him words the past few days. I haven't gotten far, it's only a few times he's really opened up to me and allowed me to help or teach him. Most of the time though he's either asleep, awake and energized before me, or clinging to me for dear life. She rubbed her servo across his helm and sighed. "I don't know what happened to him, Megatronus, but someone beat him almost to death I presume. If we hadn't found him, well, I'm sure he would have been offlined sooner or later in that alleyway." They began walking. "It aggravates me that someone would do such a disastrous thing to a sparkling who is barely capable of defending himself." She shuddered with anger. "I mean, I understand that my sire can be quite displeasing at times and I will say so myself that he can be unruly when it gets down to it, but he would never beat me like that. The worst I've gotten was a quick slap to the cheek for getting out of line."
"And I presume that is what the small dent is from on your cheek?"
She rubbed the dent and looked away disdainfully. "We had a fight a few nights ago, but all is well now. I haven't buffered it out yet since I've had this one on my servo's." She looked down to the sparkling that clung to her leg. "Come here Ditcher." He raised his arms as his designation and she raised him up into hers.
"Ditcher?" Megatronus asked.
"Do you not like it? I didn't mean to name him without your input but I have to say so myself that he is quite the ditching one, and good at it too." She situated him on her hip.
"No, I like it, I just find it too perfect for him. . . Back at the gladiatorial pit I would always find myself having to search for him. Usually he'd be in the empty rooms yet to be filled with other gladiators."
"That comes to question, do any of the others know about him?"
"Only a couple, but they don't know him personally. Every time they came close he'd scream and run off in another direction. I agree with your notion that he has been beaten, but I am slightly amazed that he has come to trust us in his own way, and on such a short time span."
"I too, but I think it comes from us taking him in and not harming him in a way he might know familiar. We could consider ourselves his new family."
"Megatron!" Ditcher reached for the mech but on the way almost fell out of Stoneblaze's grasp. He began to plummet toward the ground but the mech grabbed onto him and held him safely until he was in his arms.
"That wasn't safe, little one," Megatronus scolded. "Never do that again."
"Sorry." His head rested against the gladiators shoulder. "Megatron. . ." He breathed, his optics shutting off for a nap.
"I tried teaching him your full name but he couldn't seem to comprehend it that well. So I stuck with Megatron, I hope you don't mind." Blaze commented bleakly.
"I think it fits well with me, after all, it might be an easier name for my fans to call out to me."
Stoneblaze rolled her optics and sighed. "Are we really going down that road?"
"Only if you want me to."
"Please, the last thing I want is another stuck up prick who thinks he's better than the next one. I have enough of those in my life." She crossed her arms and looked away.
Megatronus laughed, the child lightly bouncing in his arms, but the action did little to affect his recharge. "I would never turn down such a dark road of unruly behavior. That is for those who think they are higher than the others around them. And I am clearly an example that someone will always be both higher and lower than another."
"Except for Primus."
"Hmm?"
"You know, the one who created this planet. . ."
"I know who Primus is, I was only caught off by your words."
She laughed and he smiled down at her. They walked in silence for a while, their lack of words a gesture for Ditcher who seemed to need the rest more than they had considered. Megatronus held onto the sparkling with little effort on his part, only switching him to his other arm when he felt weak in the other. It almost felt right to him, them walking together with the sparkling at their side, like a family for them was meant to be. But his idea was far too fetched, she was practically royalty and he was the scum of their planet. He knew this whole endeavor would have to end soon, he knew she had someone most likely already betrothed to her, he could see it in her optics - that dull ache of longing she stared back at him whenever they locked optics. She always seemed so happy, but the more he got to know her, the more he learned of her true self inside, and the more he began to know that they were more alike and different than they had previously thought.
"Stoneblaze," He began. "I needed to ask you something. . . Would you mind coming with me to meet someone?"
"Who?" Her optics barely left the ground.
"He was a gladiator I fought with, the night I brought Ditcher to you. There was a reason unexplainable that I spared him and I've been meaning to see him for it, but I can't seem to find anything to say or do. I waited until today to go, wondering if you could help me - after all, I did almost end his spark."
"I will proudly go with you, Megatronus, it's not every day I get to see one of the mechs you 'almost' offlined." She giggled only a little. "But only if you don't mind bringing Ditcher along, I don't really have anywhere to drop him off at and I'm guessing that neither you do too."
"No, it's alright, he can come, only as long as he doesn't cause a ruckus."
She huffed a sigh. "That should be pretty easy, as long as we make sure he doesn't run off on us." The sparkling yawned and stirred in the mechs grip. For a moment the both paused only watching him until he stopped his movement and fell back into recharge again. His servo's reached around Megatronus's chest plate and began kneading it.
"He trusts much more when asleep," She rubbed his helm. "I don't know if it's something I should be sad or happy about."
"I think we're lucky that he's willing to sleep around us, most sparklings who go through traumatic pasts such as his won't even allow another near them so quickly."
He stopped and Stoneblaze halted behind him. Looking up she saw the building they were before, a rusting metal building that was roughly a little smaller than her house. Above were words rusted from old age enough that she couldn't make out what it said.
"Where are we?"
Megatronus handed Ditcher down to Stoneblaze but the sparkling refused to let go, making strict chirping sounds when the mech tried to pry his servo off him. She pushed the sparkling back up to him and shook her helm.
"He's latched himself to you, moving him will only upset him."
The mech sighed and pushed the sparkling more onto his shoulder. He kept silent for a while before speaking. "We're at Kaon's hospital. The mech I had fought was moved her the night before for a more sturdy healing process."
"What did you do to him?"
"Nothing short of killing him." Megatronus sighed, almost sounding ashamed of himself. Stoneblaze placed her servo on his shoulder and smiled comfortingly. He walked in and she followed. Inside it was as dirty as the outside. Everything looked ready to fall apart, and even more the cybertronians that worked there looked worse than the cleanliness of the building itself. She tried not to stare, knowing that it both be rude and out of place for her. She was probably one of the cleanest bots there and if getting stares for that wasn't enough, others glared at her already knowing that she was higher caste.
She noticed Megatronus was glaring around as well, and as he did the ones who had caught her across the hallway diverted their optics acting as if they hadn't even noticed her.
"I feel like I murdered someone with how they stare at me."
"It's only that they know you're an outsider. They can't touch you as long as you stay near me."
She clung closer to him, keeping her optics on where they were walking and not on the others who looked over to her. It was more than odd to her to feel this much like an outsider. Of course at the pits she would get stares and wondering optics, but no one ever glared at her like this, it was like they had more of a respect for her there than here, and she only had to chuckle under her breath at ironic point of it.
"What's so funny?" Megatronus asked and she looked up to him.
"Just that it seems people don't pay mind of me in the pits but here I'm some type of conundrum." She peeked around the hallway. Not many nurses or doctors wandered the halls but she had to remind herself that this was Kaon, and it wasn't a place known for its hospitality. They came to a slow pause and peered into the room before them. A mech sat at the edge of the berth, his head hung low in thought. His servo's reached around the berth and clenched it ever so often, his form fidgeting and tightening as he twisted his neck to the side.
"Well. . ." Blaze motioned toward the mech and Megatronus sucked in a deep breath.
He couldn't say that he was slightly nervous, after all he'd never done such a thing. But that's the exact reason he'd brought Stoneblaze along. "I can't be the first one to say something, he was your opponent."
Ditcher yawned and spread his arms out, his helm raising. Blinking his optics he looked over into the room and began scrambling from Megatronus's grip. He dropped from the mech's arms and ran into the room and crawled underneath the berth. The following moment the mech peered his head down underneath the berth to see the sparkling and Megatronus began stepping into the room threateningly when he reached his arm underneath. The sparkling grabbed it and the mech led him out from underneath the berth.
"How did you find me, sparkling?" The mech asked, the sparkling staring up at him in awe. Chirping the small child began bouncing around, holding the mechs servo in his own. When he stopped he ran to the mech and hugged his leg.
Stoneblaze didn't let the small moment stop her; she gingerly walked in, taking the sparkling by his servo when he reached out to her.
"I'm so sorry, he normally isn't like this."
The mech looked up at her, his violet optics piercing her own cyan ones. "It's fine, I'm glad to see that he is happy."
"See?" She knelt down, picking up the sparkling. "I was not aware that you knew him."
"Not really. I intercepted his sire beating on him. He ran away before I could fully fend off his sire and I could never find him since." He looked to the sparkling, a smile raising. "Tell me, where did you find him?"
"In an alleyway, starved almost to death."
The mechs expression fell. "Oh," He looked away ashamed.
Blaze pursed her lips. "But, how are you? Are you well?"
He peered up to Megatronus who had taken a spot near Stoneblaze. "I am better now, I was unaware that you would visit me."
"I don't ever spare those that I fight. But I saw something in you, don't think that this will happen every fight."
Blaze chuckled. "He mean's that he's sorry and that you remind him of himself from when he was your age."
The mech looked up to Megatronus and bowed his head. "Thank you," He stood on his pede's, wobbling as he did so. "My designation is Soundwave."
"The son of the late Crashwave?"
"Yes," Soundwave nodded. "His death was. . . Tragic."
"And family inflicted?" Megatonus inquired.
Stoneblaze shot a glare toward him. "That's a little harsh isn't it?" Ditcher at that moment began reaching for Megatronus and she easily handed the sparkling off to him.
The stood in silence for a moment until Soundwave spoke up. "It is not harsh at all, many who knew, even didn't know my sire understood that he was a self-righteous mech who cared nothing for others. He happened one day to cross the line and I snapped."
"You interest me, Soundwave. When we were in the gladiatorial pits you had a silence to yourself, and now you speak more often than not." Megatronus pointed.
"It's a ruse I use to either scare or throw off my opponents. It had worked up until I fought you," The mech huffed lightly. "I in honest truth do speak much more often than I let on."
As the two mechs talked, Stoneblaze's audio receptors were brought to another noise. Sobbing came from down the hallway, and against the caution that Megatronus had given her, she ventured out of the room and toward the noise.
The hallways seemed even more daunting and dank without Megatronus keeping an unsettled eye on the nurses and doctors. Those there seemed more confident in glaring at her and staring up and down her distinctly clean exterior.
"Don't cry, mech, it makes you look pathetic." The voice was deep, stern, and haunting.
"S-sorry." The crying subsided to pressured sniffles. "I-I'll try not to."
"He was bound to die anyways, you should've known that."
"I just wish I could have done something. . . I. . . I have nowhere else to go."
"Well, if you lived in Iacon, maybe you couldn't gotten a doctor that was better suited for the job, couldn't you. Or maybe you could have taken care of him yourself. Well, life ain't fair, so get used to it."
Stoneblaze peaked around the corner to see one of the med-bots glaring down a sparkling. The sparkling had curled himself up against the wall, the floor his seat. He had settled his head underneath his arms, hoping the mech wouldn't see his tears.
She waited until the mech left before hurrying toward the sparkling. Crouching down she pulled his arms apart to see his face covered in tears.
He pulled away from her and buried himself once again.
"Are you alright?"
"I'm. . . Fine." His head twisted away from her. "Go away."
"No, I know that look. What's the matter?"
The sparkling looked up toward one of the rooms. The door was slightly cracked open, but not enough that she could see in. She already knew what was inside, one of his family members dead from one of the numerous illnesses that struck Kaon and the inner lying areas.
"My sire. . . He was sick with so many things, the doctors couldn't help him." He glared down the hallway. "They're stupid. . . I'm stupid." He buried himself again, stressing away another sob.
"You're not stupid." She raised her optic ridges. "You're not stupid at all." She grabbed his servo and raised him to his pede's. "You. . . Wanted to save him?"
The sparkling shook his head before slowly nodding.
A smile crept up on her face. "I know someone, he could help you with that." She glanced away.
"With what?"
Her optics glanced back at him and she smiled softly. "He could teach you how to become the best med-bot in all of Cybertron." Her optics peered at his exterior. His red had become a rusted orange and much of it had been chipped away. What was left of any of his color made him look like death was already settling in on him.
"First, we'll have to get you cleaned." She leant her servo out to him and he crossed his arms. Pursing her lips she nodded. "Well, at least you could follow me."
"I don't know you."
Her mouth opened but was swiftly shut.
"Stoneblaze," Megatronus walked up behind her. The sparkling stepped back, his optics going wide. "You left. . . You. . ." He looked at the sparkling. "You shouldn't do that in a place like this. What they would do to you if they got ahold of you. . . You'd rather be infected with rust."
"I'm sorry, Megatronus. I heard him crying, and-" She looked to the sparkling to see his optics were wider than saucers.
"I wasn't crying." The sparkling corrected.
Megatronus looked to the sparkling. "We met one time. Knockout if I remember correctly."
"Yes." The sparklings optics lit up at hearing the gladiator remembering his designation.
"I assume that you are here because of the death of your sire?'
"Yes." The glistening dulled. "I just wish I could've done something."
"I assume you have no where else to go." The silence was the answer. "Allow Stoneblaze to give you a chance, I believe that she may have somewhere that would give you a chance other than our own orphanages."
Knockout looked to Stoneblaze. "Only if you trust her."
Megatronus looked at Stoneblaze and then back to Knockout. "I do."
The sparkling seemed to think about it for a long while before nodding his head.
Stoneblaze's attention was diverted to her surroundings. "Megatronus, where's Ditcher." Her tone grew frantic. "Please tell me you know where he is."
"I left him in the care of Soundwave, as much as the mech is a mystery on his own, I believe he can be trusted with a simple task."
"But can you trust him specifically?" Her tone lowered.
"If I didn't I wouldn't have left Ditcher there in his care." He turned around. "Come, let us leave this place and go wherever we may need."
Stoneblaze looked at Knockout and then walked off, watching for the sparkling until he slowly began to follow them down the twisted dingy corridors.
Megatronus lagged behind until Stoneblaze caught up to him. He hurried her along enough that they were a short ways away from the sparkling so they could speak without any eavesdropping. "Stoneblaze, may I inquire as to who you are bringing this sparkling to?"
"Of course you may. I am taking him to the best Medic in Iacon databases written in our Golden Age. You may have heard of him, Ratchet?"
"The name rings a bell, I may or may not have heard it here a few times out of spite."
"I would expect as much from how they glare at me," She shivered. "But yes, he is the best, especially for how young he had started out. I believe he will be eager to take in a new apprentice and would love to teach someone as eager to learn as he is to care, his tricks." She glanced at him and chuckled. Resting a servo on his arm she settled on a smile. "I know him well, he in fact was the one that helped my Carrier and Sire bring me into this world. I would trust him with my life - the mech hasn't found a thing he couldn't fix." She glanced back at Knockout and smiled. "Nothing at all."
I love bringing in all the Characters, I feel like it's finally all coming together!
