WARNINGS: Body horror (and stuff relating to MECH and their body snatching), minor character death

Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated.


Ratchet angrily brought his servos down on the console in front of him with a loud CLANG.

"BLAST IT!" he shouted, "How can it be gone already?!" After letting out a frustrated groan, the medic let his arms fall back to his sides and he turned away from the computer screen. Behind him, Arcee and Optimus stood next to Bumblebee who was once again laying down and hooked up to an energon feed. Ratchet continued, "I'm afraid our small window of opportunity is closed. MECH has already entered an area shielded from our scanners. I'm unable to pick up a signal from Bulkhead or Miko... or Knockout."

Bumblebee let out an angry whirr at the name. Optimus narrowed his optics and looked up at the console's screen. The Prime looked as though he wanted to say something, but he remained silent.

After a moment Arcee asked, "Have we been able to contact Agent Fowler yet?" She looked over to Raf who was standing on the platform near Ratchet.

"Afraid not." Raf looked up from his phone as he spoke. "I've been calling him non-stop, but he's not picking up."

"I'm hardly surprised. I tried to contact him yesterday and he only got back to me this morning!" Ratchet said, glancing down at Raf. Then he turned his gaze to Optimus looking serious. "We don't have time to waste trying to get the humans to help us! By the time they can do anything it may already be too late for Bulkhead and Miko."

"Well then what can we do?" Arcee asked. Her expression was stern but the desperation was pretty apparent in her voice.

Ratchet lowered his helm "Not much, but at this point... Our best option might simply be to bridge to the coordinates Knockout used and try to track them down."

"I don't know about that," Arcee replied, "Remember the last time we tried to follow MECH like that? We all almost got scrapped by an exploding optic!"

Bumblebee sat up slightly and looked up at her, "BZZZZwhirrrrr?"

"No, I don't mean that specifically would happen again. I just meant that MECH is dangerous... and they're smart." Arcee tapped her digit on her helm. "They'll expect us to follow, is what I'm saying."

"We cannot do nothing while we wait to formulate a more effective plan." Optimus stepped forward as he finally addressed his team. "Arcee and I will go to the last known coordinates and try to follow whatever trail MECH has left in their wake. Ratchet, you and Raf continue working on a new strategy, and do not stop trying to reach Agent Fowler."

Bumblebee tilted his helm and whirred expectantly.

"Your job is to recover, Bumblebee." Optimus said. "You may join us when Ratchet clears you for field work again."

Bee emitted a growl-like buzz and angrily shrugged his shoulder plating. "BeepbooooopZZZZZZzzzwhirrRRR!"

At the scout's words, Optimus' optics gave off a dangerous looking flare for just a moment. He looked back down to Bee. "Rest assured that whether or not you accompany us, Bumblebee, Knockout will face consequences for his actions today." Though his voice remained even, Prime gave off a powerful intensity as he spoke. Next to him Arcee briefly glanced away uneasily. Bumblebee responded only with a low whirr and shrank down a little- not scared, just somewhat in awe of his Prime.

Without another word, Optimus turned and headed towards the groundbridge as Ratchet pulled the activation lever. Arcee gave a short nod to Bee and Ratchet then ran after Optimus and they both disappeared through the portal.


When Knockout's systems came back online, he thought for a moment someone had made use of a very powerful gear puller on his neck. He tried raising his arm to rub at his aching helm, but found that both his arms were being held down. His processor was still a bit foggy so for a minute he didn't realize what that meant, he just thought it was a little strange. But as his sensors slowly rebooted, he remembered what had happened. As the memory came rushing back, his optics flashed on.

"Breakdown?!"

Rather than finding his partner standing over him looking concerned (like he had really, sincerely hoped he would), he instead saw he was strapped down in a rather bleak looking warehouse. The room he was in was incredibly long and nearly as wide, with platforms and catwalks lining the walls and ceiling. Various heavy machinery and technical instruments were scattered throughout the room. There was also a large metal door on the far wall to his right, and a smaller corridor off to the left.

The slab he was strapped to was tilted upward so he was almost in a standing position, although his pedes were nowhere close to the ground. Though he couldn't move his frame, he was still able to look around somewhat. His vision darted around, searching desperately, but there was no sign of his partner. He did, however, see that not too far away, over on the left side of the room, there were a good number of humans scrambling about, apparently working very diligently on something that was just outside his line of vision.

"Breakdown? ...Oh yes. Silas did say that was the transformer's name."

Knockout tore his gaze away from the working humans and his optics darted upward. Standing on a catwalk on the left above him, a thin, pale woman wearing a standard MECH jumpsuit with a white lab coat thrown over it was looking down at him through a pair of standard MECH goggles. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun and she looked incredibly serious.

Knockout glared up at the human. "Where is he?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Usually the first question asked is 'where am I?' or 'what's going on?' This must be quite important to you. What was your relationship with-?"

"Shut up." Knockout's voice was sharp and demanding. "I'm not interested in banter right now. Tell me where Breakdown is!"

The woman lifted a clipboard from where she'd held it at her side and looked down at it. "You shouldn't concern yourself with that," she said flatly. "So your name is Knockout, correct? And is it true you are a Cybertronian medic?"

Knockout tried to struggle against his restraints, but it only achieved a loud clanging that echoed across the room while the metal straps remained firmly in place. "SHUT UP! Where is Breakdown?!"

"You'll find this will proceed much smoother if you coopera-"

"I'M NOT ABOUT TO FRAGGIN' COOPERATE WITH YOU! What have you done with Breakdown?!"

The woman paused for a moment, a little startled by Knockout's loud interruption. Then she looked down and scribbled a few notes down on her clipboard. "Hmm. Quite the temper... We can certainly accommodate for that, though," she mumbled. Then she lowered it and looked up to meet Knockout's gaze again. "Cooperation is your best option at the moment," she continued, her voice remaining cool and even. "We have already captured you, and you will find that escape is quite impossible. Now," she held up the clipboard with her pen ready, "will you confirm that your name is Knockout and that you are, in fact, a Cybertronian medic?"

Knockout didn't respond, he only stared at her with wide optics. After a moment the woman looked about to say more, but another voice called out from where the other humans were gathered. "Oi, doc! Quit meddlin' with the machines. We need ya down here!"

"Please excuse me," she said with a slight nod to Knockout, then she turned and headed down a short set of stairs and towards her fellow MECH agents, her shoes clinking on the catwalk as she hurried along. Knockout watched her go with a fierce glare.

Once she had gotten far enough away, he turned his helm back and looked around. So escape was impossible, huh? Well, he wasn't about to just take her word for it. He looked down at the slab he was stuck on and tried again to free his wrists. No such luck. He couldn't transform out his buzzsaw either, not with the metal strap over his wrist the way it was. He started looking around to see if there was anything nearby that might be useful, and that's when he realized that an offline Bulkhead was just on his right and similarly strapped down.

If he could wake him up it might be helpful to have an extra processor trying to find a way out of this. Even if that processor belonged to the very dumbest of the Autobots... which was saying something, considering... y'know. Autobots.

He gave a short glance back over to the other humans to be sure they were still preoccupied, then "Hey, Bulkhead?" Knockout said as loudly as he dared. "Bulkhead! Get up!"

The green Autobot stirred slightly in response to his name. Knockout continued to call him, shooting a glance back towards the humans every once in awhile to be sure they didn't look over, and finally Bulkhead opened his optics and a bright blue glow returned to them.

He blinked twice and glanced around. "Wha...? Where am I? ...What's goin' on?" he grumbled.

"MECH captured us, remember?" Knockout spoke quietly, "We don't have much time. We have to figure a way out of here while they're busy or-"

"Wait! Where's Miko?" Bulkhead interrupted him, whipping his helm around to take in his surroundings. Then he started shouting, "MIKO!?"

"No! No shut up!" Knockout hissed. He turned back and saw that a number of the MECH agents had looked up and two of them were on their way over. Scrap! That was probably the one opportunity they might have had to come up with a plan together... He should've know that idiot Wrecker would blow it.

The two agents approached Bulkhead and started talking to him, something about keeping calm. Bulkhead kept yelling about Miko, and wasn't at all interested in anything else they had to say. Knockout wasn't listening to any of that, though. He looked back around towards the other MECH agents. They appeared to have finished what they were working on and pulled away, along with the machinery they were using. As they did, Knockout was able to see what they were fussing over was a leg. A Cybertronian leg.

"Very good, that should suffice." The voice of the woman from earlier rang out. After she spoke, there was a whirring sound and the leg started to shift. As it continued to move, Knockout realized it was attached to an Eradicon. Hewas firmly strapped down to a third slab which was now being tilted into an almost-standing position similar to the one Knockout and Bulkhead were in. His mask was still on so his expression was unreadable, but from the way he trembled slightly and his servos clutched at the slab beneath him it was pretty clear the poor mech was absolutely terrified.

The woman stepped up to the catwalk's railing and spoke to the 'Con, "Now then, you're a Decepticon soldier, yes? And what is your name?" she asked, flipping over some papers on her clipboard and preparing to write.

The Eradicon stayed silent as he stared up at her. He glanced down quickly towards Knockout and Bulkhead, but they couldn't offer any clue as to what was going on. In fact, their presence probably just made everything that much more confusing. "I... I don't... what's happening?" he mumbled, "And... Why did you fix my leg?"

"Well we can't use you if you can't properly move about," the woman replied, "Now please answer my questions and I will be glad to answer yours once I'm through."

"...I'm GT-06." the Eradicon said hesitantly.

The designation was scribbled down on the clipboard. "Thank you, GT-06. Now, do you have any physical or mental maladies? It is very important that you are honest with me."

"No I don't." GT-06 glanced around again. "What exactly is going on here? Why do you need to know that?"

The woman lowered the clipboard and continued, "To proceed with our operation we just need to ensure the safety of our agent. If you have any disqualifying conditions we want to know about them before we attempt a conversion "

GT-06's visor flashed brighter as his optics widened beneath his mask. "Wait, c-conversion...?" he stammered. "To what?"

"Surely you noticed the transformers that captured you were not your fellow Decepticons. They were converted into shells- new bodies for our agents," the woman said with a small nod.

"WHAT?!" Both Knockout and GT-06 shouted together.

GT-06's shout was washed in horror as he realized what that meant for him and what they planned to do with him.

Knockout's outburst was not steeped in fear but in rage. So this meant that Breakdown hadn't been alive at all- these humans had just stolen his partner and decided to stick one of their agents into him! So not only did Knockout get his hopes up and throw away the protection he had with the Autobots for nothing, but MECH had been using the frame of his offlined partner as a slagging puppet! His claws dug into the slab beneath him with a sharp shriek from the metal. He opened his mouth to shout- to tell these MECH lackeys how vile and despicable they were... but Knockout couldn't even find words that would do justice to the fury and devastation that was surging through him. The thought of one of these disgusting humans piloting Breakdown... it was just unbearable.

On the other side of him Bulkhead shifted slightly as though trying to shrug, "Tried to warn ya..." Knockout looked back at Bulkhead as he spoke. "Back on the road, I mean... sorry."

Knockout might have had a harsh reply for him, but not a moment after the Wrecker spoke, they suddenly heard the thrumming of an engine. One of the MECH agents scurried down the stairs and over to the large metal door on the right and pressed a few buttons allowing it to slide open, though all that could be seen on the other side was the curve of a long, narrow hallway. Just as the door opened fully, a blue armored car came barreling around the turn closely followed by a pair of black and purple muscle cars.

As they rolled into the room, Silas and one of the Vehicon agents transformed to their robot modes. The third drove up to one of the nearby staircases and parked as other agents approached it. That didn't really seem important to Knockout, though. In fact, he had his optics locked on Silas the moment he'd come into view and was glaring viciously at him.

Silas made a beeline towards the Eradicon. When he passed by, he only gave Knockout a short glance. How had he not realized the second he saw this abomination approaching on that road? Everything about him was wrong. The look in his optics, the way he walked and drove, even the sound his engine made... No, this wasn't Breakdown at all.

Knockout didn't struggle to get free; he already knew that was futile. Rather, he stayed perfectly still as Silas went by, only following him with his optics. He wasn't sure how yet, but he was going to get out of these restraints, and then he was going to destroy this impostor!

Silas approached the Eradicon and looked at the woman standing nearby on the catwalk. "Doctor Vee-" he addressed her, "how have things been progressing down here? I couldn't help but notice that none of our captured transformers have been converted yet."

Vee tilted her head down slightly, her lips narrowing somewhat angrily as he spoke. "This is a delicate operation, sir. I believe it is important that we have the proper data on their individual psychological conditions before we rush into-"

"These are machines, doctor." Silas interrupted her. "Regardless of how many tests you want to run on their supposed sentience, that fact still remains. There's only so much you can evaluate that can't be deciphered in coding."

"Sir, you really are underestimating these transformers as a species." Vee said. She straightened her posture and tilted up her chin, as though trying to look bigger. "Their personalities are not entirely dictated by the internal coding. In the evaluations I've already completed I found they're much more evolved than you seem to think."

"I'm not interested in debating you, doctor, and as it turns out, we are a bit stressed for time at the moment. It would be best if we could get on with it, already."

"But there is so much more I could learn about them! If I could just finish-"

"That's an order!"

Vee let out an irritated huff and turned on her heel to stride back down the catwalk. While that whole exchange was going on, Knockout continued to keep his optics trained intently on Silas. Behind him, however, another commotion had stirred up. The two MECH agents were having some sort of trouble in the backseat of the Vehicon that had pulled up to the stairs. After a long struggle, they managed to pull a kicking and screaming Miko from the vehicle and started carrying her over to the stairs. The Vehicon transformed once they were clear and reached down to pluck her from their grasp. While all that was happening, Bulkhead was furiously tugging at the metal straps holding him down and screaming at the agents to leave the girl alone.

"DON'T YOU DARE HURT HER!" he shouted as the Vehicon picked Miko up by her wrists, which were bound together with a simple ziptie.

He only gave a sidelong glance towards Bulkhead before he stepped around him, placing Miko down on the platform behind Knockout. He didn't release her until the other agents there had control of her again. One of them took another ziptie and attached her already bound wrists to the railing, then quickly backed away as she kicked at him. After she was secure, the agents hurried over towards Vee and the Eradicon leaving just one behind to guard her.

When they'd gone, Miko turned to Bulkhead. "Bulk! Are you okay? What'd they do to you?"

"I'm fine!" he said, looking concerned. "What about you? They didn't hurt you, did they?"

Miko shot an angry glare at the nearby agent. "Hurt me? Yeah right- I'd like to see one of 'em try."

"Shut up, you two!" the agent shouted. He appeared to be trying to listen to what was going on over by the other MECH agents.

They had wheeled over what looked like a bulky, half spherical computer chip with a number of clamps and tendrils on the flat back end. There was also a small black plaque on the side reading CAID. It was about half the height of the average agent, but it looked rather heavy.

Dr. Vee stepped onto the platform behind GT-06 and placed her hands on a control panel connecting down to the slab he was on. She leaned over to address him, "Now GT-06, would you please open your chest cavity for us?" she said flatly. "We require access to your 'spark chamber.'"

"WHAT?!" the Eradicon shouted, his voice suddenly high pitched. The idea of letting these humans fiddle around with his spark was just horrifying! "N-NO! What are you crazy!"

"You would do well cooperate with us. If you refuse to comply I will have to use a manual override, and I must warn you, it is not pleasant."

"No fraggin' way!" he shouted, tugging at his restraints again. "I'm not gonna let you at my spark! You humans are fraggin-" He was suddenly cut off as Vee brought her hand down on the panel. A powerful electric current could be seen surging through the metal beneath the Eradicon as he let out a strangled scream! This continued for nearly ten seconds until finally the plating over his chassis shifted and transformed back revealing his inner mechanisms. Knockout and Bulkhead, who had been staring at the spectacle, instinctively averted their gaze. Silas and the humans showed no such consideration and continued watching the Eradicon intently, even as the bright blue glow of his spark chamber became visible. Both of them slowly looked back a moment later, though, when they figured etiquette had probably gone out the window a long time ago anyway.

The electric pulse finally stopped and GT-06 slumped back against the slab, his helm rolling forward and the glow from his visor slightly dimmer than before.

"I did warn you." Vee said quietly. Then she looked up at Silas. "Agent Caid is already downloaded onto the insert, sir."

"Very good. I'll take it from here." Silas interrupted her and reached over and picked up the half-sphere. "Obviously yours isn't ready yet, but is it too much to presume the next agent is also prepared?"

"I'm afraid not," Vee replied.

"Then see that gets underway immediately."

"Yes sir." Vee turned from the console and hurried off down the catwalk and towards a platform holding some powerful looking machinery.

Silas looked back down to GT-06. He was trembling as his gaze darted anxiously from his open chassis to the object in Silas' servo. Silas took a step closer and lifted the object, holding it out towards the Eradicon. As he did, the clamps on the back opened with a menacing KRSHHT sound.

GT-06 stiffened up, struggling against his bonds. "Hey... hey wait! Wait, y-you can't do this!" The plating around his chassis twitched slightly as though he were trying to transform it back in to place but couldn't manage it. Silas didn't react or even acknowledge the 'Con's protest.

"No! Get away! Don't- Don't do this, Breakdown! Please!"

Silas shoved his servo forward, connecting the device to GT-06's spark chamber. The clamps immediately pressed down locking it into place as the Eradicon screamed helplessly. The tendrils on the back side seemed to activate and proceeded to burrow into the spark chamber and take root. GT-06's screams suddenly became charged with static.

"The more you fight it the longer this will take," Silas took a step away, glaring down at the 'Con. "and the longer the pain will last."

"M... m-make it stop!" GT-06's voice was so garbled from the static it was hard to make out the words.

"You can make it stop." Silas said, as though he were trying to sound encouraging. "Stop resisting, and then everything else will stop too."

GT-06 let out one last, desperate scream that slowly transitioned to mere static. Then he went silent, falling limp against the metal. The glow in his spark chamber and optics faded. It stayed quiet for nearly a minute as the focus in the room remained on the now offlined GT-06.

Finally, GT-06's frame gave a violent shudder and he lifted his helm. The glow returned to his optics but, strangely, not his spark chamber. He looked down at himself, shifting around as well as he could beneath the metal straps.

"Whoa!" He spoke, now in an entirely different voice. "This feels really weird."

"Welcome back, Agent Caid." Silas said, clasping his servos behind him. "How are you functioning? Are all your systems in order?"

Another agent on the catwalk pressed a command on the control panel and the restraints holding down the newly converted Agent Caid released, allowing him to slide down to the ground. As his pedes touched the ground he staggered forward a bit, but kept his footing. Once he'd gathered himself he stood at attention, saluting Silas as he twitched his wings slightly. "Yes sir! Thank you, sir!"

"Very good." Silas stepped around him to get a good look at his new soldier. "This new frame of yours is a flier. Piloting yourself rather than a separate aircraft may take some getting used to." He gave a quick nod over to the other two Vehicons. "Of course, the other agents will assist you in getting acquainted with your new body. I suggest you get started immediately."

"Yes sir!" The eagerness in the agent's voice was very apparent. He turned quickly to go, perhaps a bit too quickly, as he nearly fell over. The other two Vehicons lunged forward and caught him, however. They gave him a moment to regain his bearings and then helped him walk towards the metal door. Before they'd reached it, he pushed himself off them and hurried ahead.

Knockout, Bulkhead, and Miko watched him pass by in stunned silence; the horror of the scene they had just witnessed still sinking in. Once Agent Caid and the others had gone by, Knockout turned his optics back to Silas.

Silas immediately met his gaze with a smugly satisfied look on his stolen face. For the first time since he'd woken up, Knockout finally seemed to grasp how desperate this situation was, and a wave of panic swept over him. MECH was actually using Cybertronian bodies as puppets for their soldiers! And worse yet, that look Silas was giving him meant that he was next.