Chapter 10: Close Encounters of the Squishy Kind Part One: Knockout

Transformers isn't mine

Knockout on lined his optics unsure of which was worse, the crash of the actual ship on the planetoid's surface, or the crash of his own frame against the back wall of the hold of said ship. Clearly the later was the direct result of the former but he hardly imagined the ships could have been as scratched up. "Pit," he swore. Here he was worried about one little scratch. Now what would have been a 2 klick job on his arm would require at least a megacycle of buffing his whole body. This was precisely why Knockout always hated flying. All it takes is one system malfunction and your finish is ruined, never mind the ground based forms are far more pleasing to the optics. His lamenting was cut short and he was dragged back into reality by his partner walking less than gracefully across the room.

He noticed Breakdown headed towards him limping but trying to look like he wasn't. Knockout laughed to himself again. "He always tries to down play pain I guess he not letting the enemy know you are injured is good but he has to know first I am on his side and second he can't hide his pain from me. It would be foolish to try anyway." Knockout thought. Breakdown looked relieved. How exactly he could be was lost on the medic.

"So where exactly are we? What happened?" Breakdown asked him finally showing some sign of discomfort.

"Clearly we are on a transport that crashed in the process of running from Autobots" Knockout answered. The look in Breakdown's optics made Knockout realize his answer came out far more snarky than he intended. "Sorry Breakdown. I know what you mean. I haven't heard anything yet." He murmured.

Breakdown shook his helm. "Never mind. Apologies are not necessary. Scrap!" he said as he grabbed his knee and propped his weight on the wall beside Knockout.

"Breakdown! Why didn't you say something earlier? I know you like to play down pain but this one is still healing. Damaging it again and saying nothing could severely affect you in the future." He scanned it quickly. "Dislocated. Hold still this will hurt, sorry." He grabbed it and popped his lower leg back into joint. He noticed his partner still didn't flinch. "That would have made most mechs at least squirm. Are you still trying to prove something to someone? You don't have to prove anything to me. Lying about it is foolish." He said low enough for only Breakdown's audios.

No, you're right. I have nothing to prove. Shouldn't you at least check on the others? Surely word has gotten around about your skills doc. If not before, now is will be obvious."

Knockout realized others had their optics on him the entire time. "You may be right Breakdown. I will be back in a few klicks." He walked around the ship most were just scratched up. He suggested various buffers that would be the most efficient and got ideas on various waxes. He took the time to actually buff a femme barely in her third frame and as payment got a new can of exotic wax. He gratefully took considering Breakdown made him throw out several canisters of nice waxes before he left. He was glad he wasn't the only one who considered it of value. Never mind the other was a femme. No one else had to know especially not Breakdown. There were four other limbs that had received damage outside of scratches and dents and after about three breems he made those repairs. He collected credits on those. "Well there is one positive thing that came out of the crash that was unexpected." He told himself. He made his way out of the cargo hold and found the engineer with slight damage. He made the repairs and discovered that they were only slightly off course and the repairs should be made in a couple of megacycles. "Certainly faster now that your arm has been repaired" Knockout told him. "Just get us off this rock!"

He returned to the main hanger deck to find Breakdown. "They were mostly undamaged. Mostly dents and scrapes that we all have and a couple of damaged joints not unlike yours. Seems the flyers escaped any damage. They must have transformed and flew with the momentum. Despite that, I am glad I am a grounder. Being thrown across the ship cemented that fact." Breakdown laughed and agreed. "I was able to get some information from the others. We are on a cyber based planetoid only slightly off our original course. I am still not sure where though. It seems to be uninhabited and the Autobots are nowhere to be seen. As soon as repairs are made will take off again. It may be awhile so I suggest we get out and walk a bit. It will be good for you knee and I need to transform and burn some speed. I am getting edgy. We will check back in a couple of breems though I imagine it will take much longer than that.

Knockout waited behind Breakdown and followed a few steps behind him. His sensors immediately told him the atmosphere was similar to Cybertron but with traces of hydroxide compounds giving it a more alkaline hint. It wouldn't be too corrosive. He detected no spark signatures other than his, Breakdown's and those on the ship. There was no life outside of the wreckage. Breakdown confirmed the same readings.

"Noted" he told Breakdown and transformed. He drove around a moment before transforming again and walking beside the larger mech.

"So you are now sure the boogie bot won't capture you so you walk beside me? How touching, Doc."

So Breakdown wanted to play that game huh? Knockout was no stranger to it. "Breakdown, Seriously, I am no sparkling. If you were damaged further by either boogie bot, or a real attack, or simply clumsiness, I could repair you. If I were damaged however-"

"Yes, I recall the deal. I will be your body guard and your beautiful finish will not suffer any further scratches."

Breakdown was laughing at him now but he didn't care and only laughed back. "Catch me if you can, Breakdown. He laughed and transformed. Breakdown didn't even try to race. He transformed and cut him off in a clearing. "I believe the phrase is Tag you're it" They transformed again.

They continued on this way for several more klicks enjoying the cool air from the constant night around them that they were unaware of how long they had been walking and how far they were from the crash site and were it not for Knockout's keen hearing and he becoming instantly aware of the scratches and hisses, he would have very likely followed Breakdown right into a hole.

"Breakdown, stop!" He grabbed the larger mech's arm. There is something in that hole!" He pulled his energon prod from subspace and instinctively stuck it in the hole. He would no doubt be unable to erase the sight that followed from his processors. Large black tubal creatures with glowing blue optics slithered out of the hole as if drawn to the pulse from the prod. "What in the name of the unmaker are those?" Knockout asked Breakdown who no longer looked surprised and was smashing them to pieces with his hammer. "I thought you said there was no such thing as boogie bots! They are straight from the pit." As squishy innards, fresh energon and shards from their frames flew everywhere and covered his finish. "Ewwww!"

"They aren't, Knockout. They are just space slugs. They are scavengers that usually live under Cybertron and clean up decaying energon. They clearly prefer fresh energon though. The Autobots employed them against us once, disgusting energon suckers."

"Energon suckers!" Knockout said trying to keep the fear out of his voice. You mean I have withstood explosions around triage units only to get my energon drained out of my veins from a slug! If this wasn't dangerous it would be interesting." He finally said as he pulled out his circular saw and began slicing them in half as they attempted to get close enough to crawl up his legs. He tried unsuccessfully to zap the ones that kept seemed to come out of the ground indefinitely.

"Knockout stop using the energon prod they are drawn to it as well as the smell of ours." Breakdown told him as he came to his aid and smashed up the others. "Hammer Time" he said laughing. "They won't eat you, we are much too large. They just like your smell apparently. Maybe next time you should go easy on the wax. Though I can't say I blame them."He said laughing. "Battle isn't a good time to draw attention to yourself though."

"I didn't want to be in the middle of a battle, especially with Unicron's pets. They laughed. Let's head back. I only hope they didn't take off without us."

Breakdown left ahead of Knockout. He subspaced his prod and the body of one that was mostly still whole. Knowing he was out of danger the scientific curiosity got the better of him. "These might actually be useful later, if not as a weapon then in locating energon." He thought.

He stepped back on the ship behind Breakdown just in time to hear the announcement that they would be lifting off in half a breem. Good, he thought. To Breakdown he whispered. "Thanks."

"That is my job, Doc. Besides I think I owe you my life anyway. Fighting slugs is much easier than spark surgery after all."

Knockout wasn't sure about that but he was sure of the fact that he would rather do spark chamber reconstruction than see one of those alive outside of his lab again. He would no doubt ever forget this day. For more reasons than one. He looked at Breakdown who had fallen into recharge. He pulled out his buffer and began to work the scratches out before falling into recharge himself.