Title:Transformers Shadow of the Day
Genre: Action/Romance, Drama/Friendship
Rating: T for language, violence, some sexual reference, and crude humor
Short Summary: The Third Chapter; With The Fallen gone, and Unicron's delayed arrival, the unity of Autobots and Decepticons work with Earth to shut down the dreaded Department for good.
-*-Chapter Nine-*-
Finally Getting Real Answers
Quick Shoutout:
Hey, Everyone. I thought I would do a quick shoutout to a few readers who asked some good questions that I decided to answer. Welp, here they are! I hope this answers a few things.
Angel3055: Yup! Knockout is pretty much the same from Knockout in Transformers Prime. That's how I got the idea in the first place. Other than Starscream, he's my favorite Decepticon in Prime. His cocky, arrogant and vain attitude is just a bundle of humor when I watch that show. So I figured that in my stories, I'd bring him in. I am glad I managed to get him right. I was a little worried I wouldn't. There may be a few times he might seem OC because I'm still trying to figure him out. So if he ever does seem out of char, forgive me. And thanks for letting me know that I spelled Aston Martin wrong. I think it was waaaay early in the morning or so when I wrote that part. So my brain wasn't working without my coffee. Glad you're liking it!
Sunstreaker's Squishy: No kidding, huh? lol. You would think that the military guys from Nest or the Cybertronians would manage to catch someone like Hollander but it did take a few bikers and a cocky, vain Ex-Decepticon to do it. I just thought I'd put that interesting twist into it. Make it somewhat interesting Looks like it worked. As for Knockout's holo human form, he looks like Chris Hemsworth. I know the real Knockout from the show might have red hair or silver hair or something to go with his colors but I figured I'd change it up a little. Approval? *grins*
Anyway, onto the story!
Once everyone finally calmed down and the sadistic doctor, Hollander was behind bars, everyone was settled in one of the large meeting rooms to get the scoop of what happened in Arizona. Autobots and Decepticons were still alarmed to be looking at the red and silver mech, who was basically ignoring all, as he took a buffer to his frame and was using a metal syringe to fill up the bullet holes in his chassis. A can of red paint was sitting on the tale before him, much o a few's annoyance. They were more surprised to see that Moonracer was actually helping him buff himself out, and trying very hard not to look like she was enjoying herself.
Of course, it didn't help that Chromia, Flareup and Cliffjumper were openly snickering when Knockout kept making her fans turn on when he groaned as if he was getting a very good massage from her. The sounds he was making disturbed many who were trying not to watch or even listen to. He was definitely being dramatic about it and it eventually earned him a slap to the helm by Moonracer, whose fans were kicked on full blast and heat waves could be seen trailing off of her frame.
Still, everyone was shocked to know that Knockout, a well known vain and disturbingly sadistic Decepticon Medic was there before them and had been on Earth for a number of years now.
More or less, it was disturbing to learn that the Autobikes had known and never said a word.
Chromia was now repeating her and the other three's mission report from their Community Service and filling in blanks that no one realized that had been left out the first time.
So far, Prowl hadn't exactly taken it well.
"Tell me again, Chromia, why you thought it was necessary to ignore protocol and did not say a word about well known dangerous Decepticon's presence?!" The Autobot SIC demanded, now rubbing the bridge of his sensory unit, looking as if trying to get rid of a processor ache. It didn't help that one of his optics were twitching and smoke was slowly trailing out of his audios. He was going to glitch out if this kept up.
"EX-Decepticon, you twitching rule abiding datapad wannabe." Knockout shot over his wide shoulder plate while trying to buff out the long gash in his chassis side.
Prowl shot him a vicious glare while Optimus, Starscream and Chromia groaned irritably. This was getting them nowhere.
"He saved my life, Prowl." Moonracer cut in as she helped Knockout buffering the large gash, while the bikers and human soldiers watched the two working. She was particularly happy that Prowl was making a big deal out of it when Chromia had just explained it. "He deserved his choice being respected."
Prowl scowled. "Ex-Decepticon or not, you four still had your jobs to stand for, Moonracer. He is or rather was a Decepticon and we, the Autobots still need to know what Decepticons are on Earth. It was YOUR job to let us know! If he saved your life or not! There are rules that we need to follow to ensure the safety of the humans! And by withholding the information of Knockout's existence was highly dangerous! What if he...?!" He was saying.
"Hey, Rule Datapad! Shut up!" Knockout growled sending a scathing glare at the Autobot SIC. "I asked them to not say anything, capiche?!"
Prowl growled and started to argue but Chromia cut him off, her arms folded across her chassis. "He's right, Prowl. We made a deal with him and he followed through with his end so we did it with ours." She immediately pointed a finger at him when he tried to protest. "Don't even think about arguing with me when you know it is exactly what Optimus would do if he were in the same position." She warned, her optics narrowed at him.
Optimus immediately dropped a hand onto his SIC's shoulder when he once again tried to find a way to argue about it. It silenced his officer immediately. "Unfortunately she is right, Prowl. A deal is a deal. Knockout did help our officers end a gang war and in the end did save Moonracer's life. So I will gratefully thank him for his help." He stated.
Knockout stopped buffing his gashes and scratches, now looking sourly up at the noble Leader. "Why am I sensing a 'but' in those words?" He asked moodily.
Optimus frowned at him. "On the other hand," he said instead of the predicted word and earning a dry look. "Prowl has a point as well. Out of most Decepticons we know about, Knockout, you are the most unpredictable of their entire fraction. Chromia and her team should have at least enlightened us that they did end up working with you. Perhaps not name you directly but say that a neutral helped them. But they should have at least let us know a few certain facts of their mission. I was aware that something was missing from their report when they first gave it. I didn't push, thinking that sooner or later Chromia would inform me what happened. Nonetheless, as long as things worked out, we will drop it."
"Optimus, this Knockout, we are talking about. We should at least place him in the brigg until we get to the..." Prowl was saying.
"I said we will drop it, Prowl, and I mean it. I understand exactly where you are going with this. I do." Optimus interrupted firmly. "We all are aware of how dangerous Knockout can be. I remember very well how Moonracer came back to our base back on Cybertron as if it were yesterday."
"Right. Talk about me as if I am not even here." Knockout huffed, right along with Moonracer who finally stepped away from him as he started on the repainting. "But, sir, that was Shockwave. Not Knockout. It wasn't his fault. He had no choice." She said in his defense.
"Moonracer." Scowled Arcee as she stood next to Chromia.
Moonracer ignored her but looked right at Optimus and Elita One, firmly. "It was either going to be Knockout or Shockwave who would have interrogated me, Optimus Prime, sir. If I had a choice between who was going to torture me, it would have been Knockout. You all know how bad Shockwave truly is. He would have had made my death ten times more painful than Knockout would have. As it was many millennia ago, I for one, am willing to forgive him because of he did to help me in Arizona a few months ago. So if I can do that, why can't any of you?" She asked almost sternly.
There was an almost sheepish pause as a few bots ended up rubbing their helms, seeing her point. If she, the one who had been the one tortured so many years ago was forgiving her very own torturer who was right next to her, they should be able. And now they were getting lectured for trying to push Knockout right back out the door or into a brigg cell.
Elita One, on the other hand, was smiling proudly at her young officer. She was glad that the pink femme was fighting for what was right.
"Can we please drop this shit and get to the part where we were just attacked by those Department guys and why they shot up our garage?" Vince Ferreira asked as he stood in between Joe and Duke.
The unsettling moment snapped like stretched metal and everyone turned serious again.
"You're right. We do need to get to the bottom of this." Jazz remarked from where he was lounging in a chair with his peds propped up onto the table. He was actually getting bored with the whole Knockout business. "My intakes are saying that the Department pulled the same slag as they did with Sounders' girlfriend. They saw a Cyber hanging around humans and went after the humans to get to them."
Knockout and the four bikers frowned, looking impatiently at him. The red and silver mech held up a single servo. "Oh, but that's where you're wrong." He said before his tone grew hard and he pointed his servo at the bullet holes. "Those Department pricks didn't attack my human partners. They weren't even around the garage when the fire fight broke out. I was there, recharging when this fragging human walked right up to me and shot me a fragging EMP gun! He aimed straight for my hood and very well nearly hit my spark chamber. Like I said, the wave hit the end of my electro prod and that was what saved my sexy aft from going into stasis lock!" He snapped irritably.
Joe nodded as she folded her arms, shifting her weight. "We were out on the race ways outside the city when we heard our cop buddy, Officer Morris's radio crack to life, stating that a fire fight had broken out by a red and silver Cybertronian and human soldiers near our garage." She informed.
"Knockers is one of our group, people." Duke growled out, his own large brawny arms folded. "Alien robot or not, he is third in command of my part of the gang. He is MY friend and no one fucks with my friends!"
Several mechs, femmes and humans stared at him for a moment.
"So, how did you get a hold of Hollander?" Cole pressed, stiffly.
Epps let out a dramatic huff of air as he practically gave everyone a wide eyed look. "No kidding! We are American Soldiers apart of a huge worldwide military organization who has been hunting for that bastard since this whole thing with the Department began a couple of years ago and we have highly technology enhanced alien beings whose brains are faster than our own high tech computers and we still couldn't catch him! So how is it that a couple of bikers and some narcissistic Ex-Decepticon caught him when we have all of the tools and toys and robot aliens do it and failed?!" He said practically without even taking a breath and still seemed okay about it.
"Hey! I resent tha..." Knockout was saying, only to pause as if to think about it then shrugged with a smirk. "Wait. No, that's actually about right. Go on. Tell me more about me."
Starscream, Thundercracker, Strika and Hook all groaned and rolled their optics while some of the Autobots just gave Knockout a dry look. "Knockout, shut up." The Decepticon Leader groaned before looking at the four human bikers. "Please do actually answer that." He added.
Vince and his sister shared a glance with her boyfriend and his uncle, almost hesitantly before looking up at Knockout, who was once again occupying himself with painting over scratches and such. "That is another thing. We can't. By the time we even got there, Knockout had a lot of the armed soldiers running and had the old bastard by the leg, dangling in the air and screaming at him to put him down." Vince remarked.
Eyes and optics turned to look at the red and silver mech, who seemed too distracted to be listening.
But he proved right away that he was, even as he continued repainting himself. "The old human coot was in a van down the street, barking orders into their radios. I figured he was their leader because he kept shouting at them about how incompetent they were for getting their afts handed to them by one single alien robot and how they would lose their pay checks and enter into something called retirement if they lost me." He said blandly and uninterested. "So, I went after him. He tried running on foot but didn't get far. The one problem that most finds with me," he turned his cherry red optics back to everyone watching him, still looking blank and bored. "Is if you underestimate me, I am going to zap the fragging pits out of you with me electro prod. Underestimation is stupid but way too common among everyone, Cybertronians and, obviously, humans. Don't underestimate me and you won't get hurt." He said dangerously.
There was a long pause.
"Uh...that's...nice to know." Jazz remarked slowly before shaking his head and looked at Optimus. "Okay, so, moving on. Now we have the Department's Big Boy, what now? We have him, so does that mean it's time to end the Department yet then move onto the bigger picture?"
"Whoa, wait a minute." Will called out before looking up at Knockout and pointing at him. "Before we do that, what about him? What are we going to do with him? Is a Decepticon or an Autobot? Where does he stand?" He asked.
"I am standing right here." Knockout said sarcastically in a bored way. And received a dark look from Will and Ironhide and snickers from everyone else. He huffed after a moment and looked impatiently. "I already told Sweetwheels and the other three. I am not a Con any more. And sure as the pits am not a fragging Autobot. I am a neutral." He said in boredom before looking dully at Optimus. "But since I am out of the can, I will work with you. Besides, some of the humans that trashed my frame got away and I happen to hold grudges for a while. I will help you end this Department slag as long as they get what's coming to them for ruining my paint job."
There were a few groans and eye-optic rolls once again.
"Oh my god, he sounds like Sunstreaker." Epps remarked staring at the red and silver mech, earning a dark look from said.
Barricade sighed heavily, sending Knockout a nasty look. "Wrong, Epps." He said wearily. "He is worse than Sunstreaker. He glitches if there is a speck of dust on his frame and has to have a full body paint job to make sure there are no scratches on him."
Knockout glared murderously at the black and white mech. "Here is something I learned from Duke my first day as a Savage Demon." He said darkly before raising his servos and flipped him off.
Several ended up laughing, Duke being the loudest, even when laughing with Cybertronians. Barricade was even laughing in amusement. It lightened up the mood dealing with Knockout, that's for sure. Everyone was starting to ease up on him as it was.
"All right, Knockout. We will welcome you to join us. I suppose we could use another medic since we will be dealing with Galvatron and his Minicons, as well as the Department." Optimus said lightly before turning his attention to Keller and Will. "Now we can get to the bigger problem at hand. When will we begin questioning Hollander and the Department medics?"
Keller shrugged as he looked up at the tall Cybertronian. "Simmons is already questioning Jackson and his crew. I will go check on the status of that once we are done here. As for Hollander, we should begin on him immediately." He said as he looked at Cole, who straightened up. "Cole, without letting your emotions getting in the way, I will leave that to you. Do not let him goad you into a fight, Cole." He warned.
Cole smirked at her father, shrugging. "No worries, dad. I have had practice with controlling myself with Skywarp. I think I can handle it now." She swore before looking up at Starscream. "I want Starscream with me though. If I do lose control, he can hold me back from killing the old bastard."
"And if he loses control? Come on, girl. He is just as emotional as you and is really bad at controlling his anger. No offense, Screamer." Jazz remarked, raising a hand to the Seeker.
Starscream glared at the Autobot TIC but then shook his head. He knew he had a point. His temper did get away with him now and then. "None taken." He simply said as he held out his hand for Cole.
Optimus, however, nodded as he looked at Jazz. "Jazz, go with them. I want you there questioning Hollander and keeping them from killing him if he does push too hard." He said.
Jazz huffed but smiled as he hopped off his chair and joined the Seeker and his mate. "Right-o, bossbot. I am on it. Come on, Lady and the Seeker. Let's go have a bit of fun with the D man." He stated in his cheerful way. "So I will play the Bad Cop and you two play the Good Cops. Y'know, I threaten, you promise. That whole sort."
"How about I promise to knock your helm with my hand if you mention that again." Starscream growled as they left the room.
Everyone left behind groaned.
Knockout, however, snorted loudly as he watched Starscream go. "Sooooo, when did Starscream get hitched with a human? I always thought he wouldn't find someone who could handle him." He remarked lightly.
Barricade scoffed and laughed at the same time as he looked right at the Ex-Con. "Oh, that's nothing, Knockout. Wait till SHE loses her temper on you. She is just as bad as he is. And even better, they have a sparkling together." He remarked.
Knockout's optics widened as he whirled his head around to gape at him. "What?! Sparkling?!" He yelped.
Optimus smiled as he shared a glance with Elita One. "Yes, actually. It seems we have a lot to fill you up on. I will leave that up to Moonracer." He said looking to the pink femme. "Moonracer, give him an update on what has been going on. Fill him in on the information, the rules and such. Then take him to Ratchet to see if he can help with anything. Being a medic, I am sure you will want to see what we have in the medical facility."
Knockout grinned, his optics brightening. "Ooooh. I definitely want to see what kind of toys Old Hatchet has lying around." He said before turning to Moonracer. "Lead the way, Sweets. I will be right behind you." He added giving her a wink.
Moonracer had to smirk as she started out of the room. "Why, so you can stare at my back side?" She said surprising all with the flirtatious tone.
Knockout's smirk turned into a cheerful grin as his optics immediately dropped down to her said backside. "Yup!" He said as he walked out after her.
There came a light clang which told everyone that she smacked him and his undignified squawk of "Watch the paint, Sweets!"
"Yea-ah. He is going to be a handful all right. As if Sunstreaker wasn't bad enough. Now we have his more vain, darker half here." Epps said with a chuckle. Some of the others shared his laugh while others grimaced.
Keller had just arrived at one of the interrogation rooms when Simmons walked out, looking satisfied. It was a good sign of what was to come, that's for sure. It must have meant that Jackson was keeping his word. "Seeing a smile on your face must mean you have something for me to know." The secretary said.
Simmons nodded as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tape recorder. "Yes, sir. Doctor Jackson just gave me the information on all Department facilities. He even had me give him a map to point out where they are at. Some of them you won't be happy about but some you will. He said that the biggest facility, the main head quarters is in Washington D.C. Without us knowing, it has been right under the entire city the whole time. I am going to have Hound and Skyfire get to work together on scanning the facility. Jackson said it is more than likely that the Director of the Department is hidden there." He stated.
Now, very serious, Keller nodded as he straightened. It wasn't good news bit then again it was. "Good. Did he give you information on the Director's identity?" He asked firmly.
Simmons shook his head, now looking serious. "He wouldn't say, sir. He said he knows who it is but he can't say. Apparently, according to him, the Director has his family as hostages. If the Department even gets a hint that he spilled the beans, they will kill his family. I tried pushing but he showed me something rather interesting." He pulled out his phone and opened up a picture file for Keller to see. It was a picture of a scar behind Jackson's ear. It was no doubt some kind of surgery transplant the good doctor went through. "He said that five years ago, most of the higher ups received a specialized data chip, inserted into his very skull. He explained that it was some kind of receiver chip. If certain key words were said, say like the Director's true name, it would activate a high electro shock right into his brain and probably kill him."
Keller turned deadly serious. "Other than that, did he said what it does? Is it transmitting our coordinates?" He asked frowning.
Again, Simmons shook his head. "He said it doesn't have a tracking device. But I am not exactly willing to believe him. I am going to run this by Ratchet, Hook and Wheeljack and probably with Starscream, see if they can't figure out what this chip really does." He stated before putting his phone away again.
Keller nodded in some satisfaction. "What about the experiments the Department has done? Did he say anything about why?" He asked firmly.
This time, Simmons nodded and pulled out a flash drive. "He gave me this to help out. I already took a peek at it. It has over a million files on it on many experiments that they have done are will be doing. The file I looked at first was about those Dinobot things. That was an early experiment they were trying to do. The plan was to turn them into high tech weapons to be used against the Cybertronians and our world governments." His face fell into a more serious intake. "Their plan was a hostile takeover, Mr. Secretary. They are planning a whole world take over. They were trying to build their own robotic army, using Cybertronian technology that The Fallen gave them. It wasn't just about waking up some dark robot god. It was about gathering really important resources to create a highly intensified empire, right here on Earth. And it wasn't just The Fallen that was working with them. There is a brief mentioning of some weird robotic entity with five faces that was what the Department was really working for."
"Five faced robots?" Keller asked frowning.
Simmons nodded slowly. "Jackson said he has never seen these five faced robots. But he only heard rumors from Hollander. And he doesn't even think Hollander has even seen them. Apparently only the so called Director has seen them and works directly with them. No one else in the Department knows about them. Only them." He explained. "Jackson said that even the Fallen didn't know that The Department was working as double agents against him and us and the Cybertronians. I can only think that there is something bigger than this whole Unicron thing coming. According to Jackson, the five faced robots were here long before the Cybertronians ever got here. The rumor has it that they came here just as Earth was probably even born, looking for test subjects for their own experiments. I think that is where the whole alien conspiracy theory of alien abductions began, sir. Something is out there that is already here, causing hell for human kind. Whatever these five faced things may be, they sound a lot worse than this Unicron thing does."
This was not good news at all. Keller didn't like it whatsoever. It sounded like something worse was coming and he wasn't sure if humans and Cybertronians were ready for these...five faced robots that probably did or didn't exist.
Nonetheless, they couldn't bring it to the Cybertronians yet. Not with everything going on. They already had too much to worry about right now.
"Until we have more information, we will keep this to our selves, Simmons. We already have the Department and the Minicons to worry about. Whatever these five faced robots are, we will let Optimus and the Decepticons know about them later. Let us just concentrate on one thing at a time. Or otherwise, we will be like headless chickens running about." Keller said firmly.
Simmons didn't like it but he saw Keller's point. He knew that the Cybertronians didn't need any distractions right now. And a silly rumor like this wasn't what they needed right now. "I will continue asking questions right after I give this flash drive to our techs for examination. What about Doctor Doom Hollander? Should I begin on him?" He asked frowning.
Keller shook his head as he gave Simmons a tight smile. He knew what kind of reaction he was about to get. "No need. I have Cole and Starscream working on him." He held up a hand when Simmons gave him a flabbergasted look. "Jazz is there, keeping them in line. Though with the information Jackson is giving us, I doubt anything Hollander will or will not say won't matter. But I am curious about the Dinobots. If they were supposed to be weapons to be used against our friends, why didn't work?" He asked frowning.
Simmons shook his head, looking serious. "Who said it wouldn't, sir? Until Ratchet can get a closer look at them, we don't know anything about them. They might have some hidden program we don't know about. Just a flip of a switch..." he paused as the dawning look formed on Keller's face.
"And then we will have a major problem." Keller finished for him as he looked away towards the wall. He took a deep breath before looking back at Simmons with a serious frown. "Once you finish talking to Jackson, go talk to Groundhog and see if he and Hook can't do a quick check up on the Dinobots. Better have Sunriser there with them to keep the dinosaurs from losing their edge. We need to know exactly what the Department has done with them. Also, ask Jackson what he does know about them. We need to make sure that they won't be a danger to anyone. I know that Optimus is throwing a pass to them but if there is something dangerous about the Dinobots, we might need to either dismantle them or lock them up. But we won't do it until we know for sure of how dangerous they will be."
Nodding, Simmons backed slowly away, heading straight for the interrogation room. He paused from going back in. "And when should we bring this whole rumor about the five faced robot entities to Prime and the Decepticons?" He asked frowning.
Keller sighed, looking away from him. He knew that they should probably tell Optimus right away but like he had said before, there was already too much for the Autobots and the Decepticons to even be concentrating on. "We will wait after the Department has fallen completely. We need to worry about them and the Minicons first. But if something does happen, if we do find actual evidence that these things exist, we will let them know. But not until them. Good work, Simmons. Keep at it." He said before turning and walking away. It was time to check up on Cole, Starscream and Jazz and see what they had found out.
Simmons took a deep breath as he watched him go. He just hoped that these so called five faced robots didn't actually exist and that the feeling in his gut wasn't true. He was just having a really bad feeling about the whole thing. He just hoped it didn't come back and bit them in the ass.