YO! I just watched one of the trailers for the third "Transformers Prime" season, where the giant animal-thing stalks out of the blue groundbridge with ol' Shocky, and I loved Screamer's reaction; his optics were HUGE! Now, back to this FanFiction...
To Iceshadow911247: Yaaaayy. Ah, I'd run away too; I don't like that series at all, and shan't read it. Eh, best name I could think of that didn't sound like a normal name. Pfffft, hahaha, yeah, but I still like his character; he's so cool! Heh heh, glad ya like her. No no, just meat in general; but sure, if you're gonna eat a human, ya might as well do it right.
To Miss MayD2: I see you've changed your username from MayDay200... Yay! I'm so glad that it's funny! Hahaha, yes, I can see that you are VERY insane! Very good idea, but ain't Knockout's incapacity as a human's caretaker one of the things that'll make their interactions be funny? A least I hope so. No, he doesn't know much about us humans, too interested in racing and his shiny finish, and being awesome of course! Thank you, I will!
To Abyss Prime: Yay, I'm glad you like it! Ok, I'll try!
To zrexheartz: Woohoo, I'm glad ya liked it! Ah, ok, and sorry anyway. I'm grateful that there's no harm done, thank you!
To smoshaholic123: Yay!
To lydiathetigeropean: Ok, I will. Thank you very much for reviewing!
And now, the chapter!
"Sooo..." Shard mused aloud, "...Now what?"
"Find out what you can from it," Megatron's harsh voice replayed from the dark, quiet Decepticon, "perhaps you will find something, some information that does not make it entirely worthless."
"And yet another blow to my self-esteem," the girl declared dramatically, clutching her chest and lolling her head to the side theatrically.
She was sitting on a countertop-like ledge in a big room with Soundwave. She assumed that it was his room. It certainly fit what she'd seen of his personality; quiet, discreet, dark, elegant.
Soundwave didn't reply. Shard pouted slightly at the lack of reaction, then shrugged and sighed, "Ok. So, anything specific you wanna know?"
Megatron's order was again repeated, much to Shard's irritation. 'He orders his underlings around like my mom does with us,' she thought with a frown.
But hey, at least she could have some fun with telling Soundwave whatever little tidbits of information she decided on! Now. What type of stuff to tell him about...
Abruptly, the topic of diseases popped into her mind. Nah, too depressing, and she didn't know that much about any. Sure, she'd entertained the idea of being a veterinarian when she was little, but she was too lazy to read up about all that she'd have to know. She could patch up a wound or soothe a cat or dog in pain sometimes, but that was it.
And besides, Megatwit had specifically demanded information on humans.
"Humans can do a bunch of stuff," Shard began abruptly, "Um, we can do hard and effort-ful stuff like carrying heavy things, running, swimming, climbing trees..."
Was effort-ful a word? Shard didn't really care, and she continued speaking, sitting and laying in random positions.
"...And we can do more delicate stuff like writing and sculpting little details, uh, drawing, writing... Umm... we don't have natural armor like you guys, so we bleed kinda easy. We have hard bones inside, big ones like the femur..."
She pointed to her upper leg as she lay on her back and waved her legs in the air, "And tiny ones like in our hands." Shard pointed to one of her hands. "Ehhh... humans can look really different: lotsa eye colors, hair color, skin tone, height... Ehh I dunno what else to talk about."
Soundwave didn't reply, just kept watching her.
Shard sighed heavily and attempted to think of more things as she sat cross-legged and leaning forward, "Most of us- at least the ones I deal with- are rather crazy. And I use that word with all of it's varied meanings!"
She tried to list some of these as she attempted to walk her feet up the wall while laying on her back, "Foolish-crazy, no common sense crazy, just randomly-silly-crazy... genuinely insane like talking to walls crazy... old-people-crazy, there's alot of that... certifiable-lunatics-in-an-insane-asylem-crazy...brain-damaged-teenagers-crazy because most kids are brain-damaged according to Bill Cosby and I agree... We're a very crazy species."
"School is evil," she stated randomly, laying on her stomach with her feet flicking and head resting on her hands, "Tons of homework, tests, quizzes, grades, lots of people all over the place. Like a prison, but suppossedly educational and for young people who haven't committed serious felonies. At least none that I know of."
"Uhhhhh... adults go to jobs, where they work hard- or not- and get given green rectangles of paper and round flat coins as money, currency," she continued, sitting up again, "Uhh, we spend it on food, clothes, entertainment, explaining all this useless information is so boring but I can't think of anything else at the moment..." Shard groaned as she trailed off.
The girl flopped backwards on the ledge, laying on her back with her arms splayed out behind her on the countertop's surface. She noticed that she was actually surprisingly tired.
"Can I take a break?" she inquired, "I've had a long day. Maybe if I rest, I can think of better more interesting stuff to talk of. Oh yeah, humans supposedly need at least 8 hours of sleep every night. See? I'm already thinking of more stuff!"
After a considering pause, Soundwave nodded. "Thanks," Shard told him, "Uh, where should I go?"
The quiet Decepticon's blank visor lit up with a picture of Knockout, and the girl sighed in resignation. "Ok," she agreed, "Where is he?"
What looked like a map appeared on Soundwave's visor, and two blinking dots on it. He pointed to one, and then to Shard. Then the other, and brought back the picture of Knockout.
"Ermhh," Shard mumbled, "I don't know my way around this place. I have no idea what, or where, those map-places are. Sorry." Her confident and bored attitude had rapidly changed to a timid and meek demeanor as she apologized for the inconvenience.
Soundwave walked away from where he'd been standing next to the girl's ledge and walked to the doorway, turning to look back at Shard. The girl quickly scrambled up and jumped off of the ledge, landing on the floor with a quiet grunt of effort; it was a much higher jump than she was used to.
She ran after Soundwave, ignoring the discomfort as she put weight on her right foot, (which was still sore from when she'd stepped on a piece of sharp stone when she'd been running from Caterwaul in one of the abandoned apartments).
After a minute or two of walking, Shard and her guide arrived at the entrance to a large room: a huge, dark doorway that made Shard feel very small as she walked through.
"Thanks, Soundwave," Shard called as the dark Decepticon left, leaving the girl alone with her kidnapper/ guard. Yippee.
Shard noted that the crimson Decepticon was fiddling with something on a large table, and wondered what it was. Was this his room? It was way bigger- and much more full of stuff- than Soundwave's room.
She wasn't sure what all the strange alien devices where supposed to be, or be for. And Knockout didn't seem to be inclined to acknowledge her presence. So, Shard sat by a wall, entertaining herself by guessing what different gadget-y things might do.
This merely ended up frustrating her, since most of the devices were too confusing or complicated-looking or just plain weird to guess.
Thankfully, within just a couple minutes, Caterwaul arrived, breaking the lonely boredom. Shard perked up at the presence of another female, since hanging around a bunch of dudes isn't very much fun, especially if one doesn't know them and they ignore one. 'One,' being Shard.
"Hey, Shard," Caterwaul greeted, and the girl waved, then asked, "What're all these device-thingies in here for?"
"It is my medical equipment," Knockout answered, much to the girl's surprise. She'd thought that he didn't want to speak with her.
"Yours?" Shard inquired, "You're a doctor?" She'd thought that some of the gadget-things were torture devices...
"I am a medic," the crimson Decepticon clarified, "and this is my med-bay. Though I much prefer breaking things to fixing them." Shard nodded; she could believe it. He seemed more salesman/attacking-ninja-y than doctor-healer-y.
"Oh, Caterwaul," Knockout called, "I need another shelf. My energon-prod starts bending if it's leaned against a wall for too long."
Caterwaul sighed, "Fine. Where's the scrap metal?" "I don't currently have any," Knockout replied, then added with a cruel smirk, "At least, none that you'd be willing to use."
Caterwaul bristled, optics flashing angrily as she let out a small snarl. This entire exchange greatly confused Shard, who had no idea what they were talking about. She stayed quiet though, willing to observe and listen.
"If you're going to irritate me," Caterwaul stated firmly, a growl in her voice, "then you won't be getting any help from me, and I shall greatly look forward to a battle-practice session with you. My claws could do with a new scratching post."
Knockout cringed, "Alright, alright Caterwaul. There are plenty of unused metal pieces in the storage room." Caterwaul gave a curt nod, and left.
She came back, muttering something about a bug and dragging a pile of metal scraps with her tail, on a flat, sled-like sheet of metal. The feline set the stuff down and turned to Knockout, less aggressively this time.
"How big do you want this shelf?" Caterwaul questioned, and Knockout considered for a moment, before specifying the size in some unit of measurement that Shard assumed was in Cybertronian. It made sense that they'd have different units of measurement than humans.
"Alright," Caterwaul agreed, and then did something that seemed completely absurd to Shard. The feline stuck her head into the pile of metal, and... started eating it!
The dumbfounded girl watched in amazement as Caterwaul grew several inches, right before her eyes!
"Wow," Shard stated, "Do you just keep eating metal until you... explode or something?"
"Ehh...Noo. ...No, I don't," Caterwaul answered, blining in concern. Then, ignored Shard's bizarre inquiry and asked the red medic where he'd prefer having his new shelf. Knockout indicated a blank spot on the wall near one corner of the room, and Caterwaul walked toward it, motioning for Shard to join her.
The girl trotted over, and held up the thin sheet of metal to the wall when Caterwaul asked her to. Then, to Shard's astonishment, the feline retched up the metal she'd eaten, and vomited it on the side of the sheet of metal nearest the wall.
In roughly a minute, the metallic glop hardened and dried like cement, welding the sheet of metal to the wall. Caterwaul added more metal goop, waited until it hardened, and then gave a nod of satisfaction and left.
"What'd you mean, 'none she'd be willing to use'?" Shard inquired of Knockout, who shrugged one shoulder, "The closest large amount of scrap metal to the med-bay is from several drones."
"'From'?" Shard inquired, cocking her head. "Yes," Knockout answered, placing a pointy-looking rod-like device on the newly-made shelf, "They didn't survive their injuries from our last few battles with the Autobots, so they are currently in the morgue, ready to be made into spare parts."
Shard's expression was one of horror and disgust as she took in his words. No wonder Caterwaul had been angry at him.
"Where... is the m... morgue?" she asked, almost choking out the words. "Next room over," Knockout replied, carelessly pointing out which direction. Shard nodded her thanks, and stalked quietly toward the indicated room.
She came back to the med-bay several minutes later, stone-faced and clenching her fists.
Shard glared around the med-bay, evaluating once again the numerous medical devices. They seemed to have been used less often than the morgue, which more resembled a supply room, one for mutilated scraps of once-identical robotic carcasses, now waiting to be recycled.
Shard refused to let that continue.
Yikes. This chapter-ending was WAY more depressing than I'd originally written. I promise that the next chapter will be funnier and more cheerful!