Welcome to chapter 9 where nobody gets forcefully offlined and we get an insight into Soundwave's part of this mess - aint that nice? This chapter took a while - again writing and rewriting... I am still not completely content with it but I can't look at it anymore.


Knock Out raced through the streets at a breakneck speed, the coliseum was on the other side of the town and Arcee had told him to hurry. They needed to get someone over who Nautilus trusted because it was not likely the mech would be inclined to cooperate with them. At least not after the stunt he pulled and Primus, did they need a translator.

The streets were unusually busy for the time of the day and the crowds grew thicker as he approached the Pits, so much so that alt-mode travel was impossible. Knock Out transformed into his root mode and waded into crowds, passing the stalls of exotic trinkets and colored carbon, blue glowing birdseed and pots full of nickelillies. Ah, there must be another pit fight going on in the arena for so many merchants to be gathered.

He yelped when he felt someone scratch up his bumper. -"Hey, watch the paint!" He had been pressed to one of the cages of exotic animal vendors. The mech-sized cage housed an insecticon which dwarfed Knock Out. The creature had taken the opportunity of venting it's frustration by lashing at someone who was foolish enough to come too close. Knock Out sneered at the creature and it chittered in response, amused.

Had he had more time he would have started an argument with the vendor but not today. He pressed through the excited crowd and pushed his way forward, wincing inwardly as more frames pushed and scraped against his plating.

-"Medics without Borders here to see to the injured!" Knock Out announced, pointing at his barely-there insignia when he got to the the front of the line at the entrance door of the coliseum. He graciously ignored the complains of the mecha he had butted in front of. He was not exactly famous but he was known in the pits and this provided him with some pocket money and much-needed experience, now, however it provided him with free pass with no waiting.

-"Hey, Longhaul! Who is on and who is out?" He asked a large cargo vehicle with a name to fit since the mech literally Hauled the remains of the fallen gladiators off the arena.

-"Got a couple of fractured pipes over there and Colossus´s on against Overlord now." That was bad news, from what Knock Out recalled both mechs were quite evenly matched and whatever came out of that arena, would not be in one piece and less than half alive. No wonder there were so many nickelillies available for purchase.

What he hoped would happen was Megatron ending up being just damaged enough so that they could get Ratchet's insane plan to work... not without some careful bribery and blackmailing but Knock Out could handle that for them.

Having this thought in mind, the red medic jovially headed towards the improvised medical station. There was no getting to the gladiator now anyway so he would justify his presence until the match was over.

Back in the medical ward Arcee could not wrap her head around why a mech would want to leave whilst clearly falling apart . She looked at the lanky dark figure lying on the berth before her, his spark casing was far from healed and now his chest and spark were secured with a thicker layer of bandages.

Had it not been for the injuries, which, she was suspecting, originated as much from his last fight as from general mistreatment of his frame, the mech would have garnered plenty of admiring looks. And he probably will, in future, she assured herself for the benefit of the patient. For now thouth, he was sedated but awake, and clearly unhappy about it.

The head nurse puffed a vent, shooting him a disapproving look. Not that it mattered, he could not see her anyway. -"You sure do not make our work easy." After his impressive entrance to the hallway (which had startled the daylights out of Arcee) he had started slowly keeling to one side, despite stubbornly trying to stay upright, cables and all. Arcee and Ratchet half dragged, half carried Soundwave back to his berth wiith a ditressed bird hovering above their heads. His spark casing was far from healed and had he stayed up any longer it would have literally rolled out of his chest.

Tap, tap, tap.

She turned to look at him. -"Wait, uh, I know you and Colossus speak like this but.." Suddenly she felt foolish, she could have figured this out long ago and just maybe they could have forgone all this bizarre running away. If only she had paid more attention to how he communicated and had actually listened to him.

Tap, tap, tap

Arcee then felt a pulse coming from Soundwave, not only was he asking for her attention, he, in his own way, was shouting at her.-"Just a sec, let me get notes." She gently yet firmly grasped his forearm, -"I promise we will get this to work."

Soundwave cringed from the contact but Arcee did not let that dissuade her. She reached into a drawer for a blank medical record sheet and something to write with. She frowned seeing a tiny spider-bot crawl out from under the sheets and tried smacking it before it got away but it jumped and disappeared under the berth faster than she could catch it. Flustered but not less determined she decided to deal with that later and focused on her patient

-"Let us start easy."

Soundwave was unhappy, to be more accurate, he was intermittently unhappy, disappointed and annoyed. He did not want to be there - drugged and bandaged in a way that not only covered his injuries but also prevented his attempts of escaping. He was used to the fact that he could not communicate what he needed in the most common way. He had devised many workarounds for his own convenience but none of them included being completely tied down and not under any actual threat. He could have broken free at a cost of hurting the nurse and would have hated himself for it. In a sense he was disarmed in face of obnoxious well-meaning.

Soundwave pulsed again just to get a grasp of what was happening around him. The nurse had taken it as a sign of impatience, good for her. If anything, he was grateful to be treated as a fully capable mech despite his speach impediment, not everyone understood difference between being mute and mentally challenged. For that alone he was willing to forsake his standoffish attitude for the time being and attempt communication.

-"Tell me how you say 'Yes'."

He tapped, heard scribbling and briefly wondered how she was recording this. Then the nurse followed up with more questions on basic answers like "No" and "I don't know", "Good", "Bad" and "Help".

When she was done he tapped out a string of " Help, Help, Help"

-"You need help."

'Yes'

-"What kind of help do you…" Arcee mentally slapped herself, they were not that far yet, she had no means of understanding a more complex answer from him. -"I meant, Do you feel pain?"

'No, just take me out of my misery.'

-"Wait, I did not get all of that." Arcee furrowed her brow,

Soundwave groaned, this would take forever, Megatron would have known how to translate this.

-"I know this is not very quick but I promise we are getting there." Arcee was getting more familiar with Soundwave's body language and him tensing up did not go unnoticed. She tried offering some consolation. -" Knock Out is on his way to get Colossus but he is not back yet. Let us try getting some things out of the way until they come. I want you to help me figure out why you wanted to escape."

Wasn't that the question of the day, Soundwave wondered bitterly. He did not trust these bots but they had not yet proven dangerous or maleficent, if Laserbeak was correct in her assessment. Hence Soundave opted to avoid further antagonising them. He vented out, steeled himself to be patient and resigned to tapping.


Knock Out was elbow-deep in somebot's chassis when he heard the bell announce the end of the round. No ovations and no prestige could be heard. He strained his audials for a moment, trying to make out any more subtle sounds but nothing came out apart from the moan from his patient, right, he had gotten distracted.

Knock Out continued patching up the mech and listened more. Silence spelt bad news for their plan of involving the Colossus, or Megatron, as Orion had corrected him, but such was the fate of gladiators. Either way Knock Out quickly finished up with the mech before him and waited for the arena gate to open. Assessing if anything or anyone were salvageable was a skill the red automobile had perfected.

Finally, the gates to the arena parted, opening up to the steaming, crumpled chassis of Megatron being dragged behind the scenes, bits of coal falling out of his combustion tank (likely a hit to the gut), followed by a limp frame of Overlord who looked in better condition but had more holes in chassis.

On a good day Knock Out would have made the gladiator keepers bid on which one of their proteges would get treated first but today Knock Out had other agenda.

Both of the opponents were badly hurt but had not managed offlining each other during the match. Understandably their keepers were not happy. Both Megatron and Overlord were a rather large investment - keeping them well - geared and visually appealing apparently cost more than their keepers were willing to pay in cases they got damaged this badly. But that was OK, Knock Out was not adverse to receiving payment in services and neither was Ratchet. Offering repairs free of charge would make them indebted and more willing to 'lend' their possessions.

-" I beg your pardon, are these chassis for sale?" Knock Out traced a trail of leaking oil on Megatron's chassis with one of his claws, being careful to avoid the streams of pressurised hot steam.

-" Get your scrawny digits off my property, scavenger." That was Megatron's keeper, known as Galvatron, extremely proud about the entire gladiator thing, also greedy.

Brash dismissal did not dissuade Knock Out, he was used to those, so he tapped his chin and sauntered towards wheezing Overlord.

-"How about this one? I bet you he is worth more as spare parts than gladiator material now."

The keeper of Overlord answered nothing. It was true but due to their success both Overlord and Megatron had also become symbols of sorts. Repairing them would cost, disposing of them would cost even more.

-"I could offer repairing one of them in exchange for some services." Knock Out examined his claws, all non-chalance. -"But decision will soon be not yours to make. This one." He pointed at Megatron, -"Would expire first." Even if that was not necessarily true, further stalling would culminate with just that. Clearly Galvatron had contingency no plans in place for this moment - he had been too assured in the power of his possession. Overlord's owner just sneered and called out to his crew instead.

-"What sort of services?" Galvatron seemed more interested now, seeing that the owner of his main opponent was not about to let his possession die.

-"I would vaiwe the fees if you would agree to lend me your precious subject from time to time. Free of charge, of course."

Galvatron looked hesitant. -"And you dare call yourself a medic without boundaries, you are supposed to offer help to any downed mech."

-"Medics without boundaries got disbounded ages ago. I am only morally bound to follow their code. It is a corrupt world." Knock Out shrugged and smiled sweetly. -"Tick tock, sweetspark."

-"Fine."

Knock Out's optics lit up, this was a good start.


Knock Out is not a nice mech but he is capable of genuinely caring.
Just maybe not in the most ethical way.