Rad sat there miserably. His ribs had healed at an astounding rate, and he had to dance for Megatron again today. He had been practicing, but he couldn't catch his breath. He was embarrassed when Demolisher noticed.
"You okay?"
"Y-yeah, of course."
The Decepticon frowned then headed out the door. He returned with Starscream, who scooped him up to observe him.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Rad muttered, trying to regulate his breathing.
"What have you been doing?"
"Practicing dancing."
"When did you stop?"
"What does it matter?"
The flier frowned. "It matters. We don't want you to die. Something is clearly wrong, but your scan showed that you have no human diseases. Now, what is wrong?"
"What do you care? You're Decepticons!" Rad said angrily.
Demolisher, Starscream, and Cyclonus snorted. "Autobot poisoning," the helicopter muttered.
"Why do you keep saying that?" the boy demanded.
"Do you really think we're so sparkless?" Demolisher spat. "We're just like those Autobots! Do you think we want to fight?"
"Well then why did you start?"
"Because we were basically slaves!" the tank exclaimed.
Rad blinked. "What?"
"We were miners, fighters! We were forced to work for hardly anything!" Cyclonus growled. "When Megatron started the uprising, we hoped the high and mighty Autobots would accept us! All we had to do was get rid of the Council that oppressed us! But did they care that we wanted freedom? No! They wanted their lives to stay the same! All they want is to enslave us again! We just wanted to be accepted, and that's never going to happen! We're the bad guys, and that's all we'll ever be!"
Their optics were misted over, and they all quickly turned their faces away from Rad, trying to hide their pain. The boy watched them then turned to Starscream.
"Is that true?"
"I wasn't a slave like them, but fliers were always looked down upon under the old system. Especially Seekers," the mech said softly, looking sad. "We're thought to be too violent, and we have odd traditions."
Rad didn't know what to think. If they were telling the truth, which the pain in their faces told him they were, then the Autobots weren't saints. He looked away, realizing that they really did care about him to tell him such personal information.
"I'm having trouble breathing," he finally admitted, blushing. "I've been having trouble since before I left Earth. I don't know what's going on, but it's hard to focus on anything else. I don't think it's my…collar."
Starscream pursed his lips, nodding thoughtfully. "That means I need to do a more thorough scan. Come to my workshop. Demolisher, make sure to tell Megatron what's going on when he wakes up."
The Seeker carried the boy to a room he'd never been in before. It was littered with wires and other scientific equipment. He was settled on a Transformers-sized machine.
"This will feel very strange, fleshy."
"Can you call me Rad?" the human asked. "I don't like being called fleshy."
"Rad then."
And that was that. The boy stood still then cried out and spasmed as the scanner beam rushed through him, setting his nerves tingling fiercely, as if his entire body had fallen asleep, like when he sat cross-legged too long and his foot went numb. He sat down hard, tears streaming down his face. Megatron strode in, quickly moving to see Rad.
"What are you doing to my pet?" he demanded.
"He's having trouble breathing again, sir," Starscream explained, fiddling with a computer. "I'm just scanning him. He had a more intense reaction than I thought he would. I've never used this on a human before."
"He's crying," Megatron said disapprovingly, picking him up and basically cradling him, stroking him gently, which actually soothed his skin.
Starscream was about to answer, but he didn't get anything out. His face pinched in confusion as he stared at the results of the scan.
"Um, Rad…"
"What's wrong?" his leader demanded.
"I…Look at this."
Starscream moved to the side, his optics latched onto several full body pictures of Rad, each showing a different system. The boy was embarrassed that it had seen through his clothes and showed him naked in one shot, but the thing that stuck out was large, glowing blue sections shown in his respiratory system and some small ones in his muscular system.
"I don't know what this means. Explain. Is he sick?"
The flier shook his head in disbelief. "It looks like…But it couldn't be! Humans don't do this, not at any stage of their lives!"
"What's wrong with me?" Rad asked fearfully.
"That blue stuff? It's…metal."
