You know this routine of getting punched, kicked, blown up, tackled, hit in the helm with a wrench was staring to get old.

Wow, did she really just think that? Guess all these 'years' of abuse really made her no longer care about her well being or reasoning behind it all. In fact, all that really mattered at this point was how many beatings would it take to set a record. Actually, she may have already set that record...no one got plumbed as much as she did. No one.

Should that be something to be proud of?

Guess another thing to ponder.

:Status-Online:

Funny thing though, a lot of the pain was her own doing. Why wasn't she able to control herself? Fully conscious and focused but yet her frame worked against her! As if controlling itself. The last time something like that happened was because of an error in musical selection. Prowl explained that to her. This time was completely different, she was very much aware of her actions and nothing hostile was playing.

So why did her frame act on it's own?

What was wrong with her?!

:Detection within our frame:

Stupid blimps- Hold up. Our frame? Were her systems talking to her? Maybe she has finally lost it, guess Ironhide really did screw up her processor with the blast. And she said she wouldn't end up like the crazy twins...Oh the irony!

:Scanning for signatures...signatures detected. Ratchet, Jazz, Bulkhead, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Blaster, Wheeljack. Calibrating possible escape routes:

The words displayed on the inside of her closed optics were just like the ones who scanned her frame for damage. Told her where to go or strike during training, selected music throughout the day and activated her weapons without permission.

:Scanning for internal injuries...:

'What is going on with my processor'

:Beat you are alright. Scanning complete. Internal injuries at 2%:

'Oh Primus...Am I typing a conversation with myself?'

:No. Checking Energon tanks- 95%:

'What the frag?'

:Escape routes scanned:

'No! There will be no escaping out of anything! If my friends are here minus Sunstreaker then I am safe!'

:Override complete. Escape tactics disabled:

'Oh so now this computer thing listens to me.'

:Computer?:

There was no more denying it. All those times she asked what was wrong with her, it was so obvious. She was crazy. To think she was having a conversation with HERSELF! Being stupid she could deal with (That was unavoidable) but looking at her systems responding to her thoughts? Absolutely unacceptable! When she said her systems spoke to her, she didn't think it was literally talking to her!

:Identification commencing. Introduction initiated- A.I Service number 1337:

'AI service number 1337? What?'

:But you may call me Theta:

'Frag, I am crazy.'

:Activating systems:

:Time to online:

With a jolt Beat shot up, her servos attaching themselves to the closest thing. Not paying attention to the surprised grunt, her thoughts panicked. That was all fake, right? No, no none of that could have been real! None of that actually happened.

Yet, there was no way she typed that up herself? Even now Beat did not know how to control all her frame. Let alone respond to her thoughts!

What the heck was an AI?

"Let go of me now."

Hearing the deep, gruff voice, Beat glanced up. Her faceplate heated up in embarrassment as the face of her newest bully Sunstreaker came into view. For a moment the two stared at one one another before the golden mech gripped her servos and took them off his torso. Beat since kept her vision towards the ground but the former assassin kept his gaze on her.

Clearing her throat in an attempt to salvage some pride, Beat looked around and saw most of Team Prime surrounding her. This wasn't the first time she has been seriously injured, why were they all here? All the stares were giving her the creeps.

Why did it smell like smoke?

"You caught on fire."

Cringing at the angry voice, the clumsy femme didn't even need to look to know who's voice that belonged to. "Ratchet?"

"Who else? Ironhide would not give me the details of what happened but whatever you fools did caused a huge mess!"

Beat blinked at the fuming medic, did he say she caught on fire?

"On fire?"

"Yes on fire! How did that happen?!"

Ignoring his question, she looked down and nearly screamed. Black dust and singed paint covered her entire frame. Regardless of the fear and anger she held, the dust and burnt paint was an improvement from her former plain paint job.

"Why are you all here?"

Jazz stepped forward with a concerned expression and sat next to her. The smooth mech placed his servo over hers causing the petite femme to shudder. "There was an explosion in the base and we raced to find out what was wrong. Hide put out a fire and was holdin ya."

"Oh..." (What was she supposed to say to something like that?)

"We thought ya were really burned but turns out only yer paint job got scuffed."

That was a relief! Last time she caught on fire, Windblade had to spray her down with a giant hose then got stuck with the Academy healer. Not to mention the fact that it was actually painful! Very painful! Did she mention that is was painful?

Thank Primus that she felt nothing short of shock. With the whole crazy 1337 thing and the fact that Ironhide caused her to catch on fire. That mech sure did have one amazing cannon.

As she sat there in thought, Beat wondered if she should tell somebot about the mysterious virus in her helm. That was a risky move, what if she was wrong and that is was her imagination? She would be laughed at and sent home with shame. Now if she was right then Prowl would send her to Cybertron for medical assistance. Hmph, either way it would be a lose-lose situation for her.

Best to keep her craziness a top priority secret.

"Thank you all for coming to check on me."

Smiles were her response (Minus for an angry Ratchet and staring Sunstreaker.) Why the frag was he still staring at her? Normally by this time he would have thrown about fifty insults her way. It was out of character for him not to say anything. Something must have been wrong.

Where was Ironhide?

Did that supposed service number thing force her to online?

Most importantly...WHERE WAS PROWL?!

Getting ready to ask for him, Ratchet yelled for everyone to leave the med bay at once. He even went so far as to start throwing his famous wrenches at various helms. You wouldn't believe how quickly the med bay was cleared out. Not even she left the training room that fast.

Being the last bot inside, Beat lazily sat down on the medical berth confused. Was she supposed to leave as well? With Ratchet, she wasn't able to tell when she was supposed to leave or stay.

Watching him closely, she noticed the way the medic's features instantly changed when he touched the side of his helm. Engaging in a private com link conversation. He seemed concerned and a bit irritated judging from the series of growls and sighs.

:Weapons disabled:

The trainee worriedly shifted as the words ran into her line of vision. That thing was talking to her again... "Stop talking to me!"

"What did you just say to me?!"

"N-nothing Ratchet, apologies."

A huge sigh escaped the trainee as the legendary medic turned around and continued with his conversation. Whoever was talking to him wasn't giving the best news. What should she care anyway? If she asked what was happening one of two things would occur.

She would get yelled at or two, hit in the helm with a wrench.

'Best keep my mouth shut'

:Disable voice control?:

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

Covering her lips components with both servos, Beat looked at Ratchet. Glaring daggers, the medic pointed a digit at the door... "Get out."

"Great, kicked out of the med bay and now walking around with a damaged finish."

Glancing at her servos, Beat attempted to brush off dust in an attempt to avoid the self operating frame (that could talk to her!) This never happened before, all her systems would do was scan things and help assist throughout training. Well, it did also state how much energon she needed to consume, offered different types of music, allowed downloads, kept memory of every Autobot on base, left multiple warnings when something was about to happen, asked for certain commands to be initiated, Asked for permission to disable commands...scrap.

This whole time, she was talking to herself! Since the very beginning, every time that those 'blimps' appeared, it was uh... What did that thing call itself, AI 1337? She still didn't understand what an AI was. Perhaps Google (new best friend) would have the answer to that question. Google was the smartest thing this planet had, Sam taught her about the miracle site. Google would always answer questions no matter what how stupid. In honesty, she liked Google more than Jazz.

Ouch ok, that was over exaggerated. There was nothing she liked better than Jazz (he was perfect.)

"Beat? You look awful!"

Snapping out of her internal thoughts, Beat instinctively looked down to see Sari making disgusted faces. She couldn't blame her, the dust and chipped paint didn't do her appearance any favors. Meh, as if her looks were any good in the first place.

"Yeah, I know. Had a little accident during training."

"Ironhide told Captain Lennox who told Agent Fowler who told Epps who told Nest who told Magnolia who then told us about an hour ago."

Captain Lennox? Agent Fowler? Epps? Nest? More humans she would have to recognize? Great.

:Searching database for Lennox:

UGH! Blocking the pop up, Beat frowned. Upon knowing that her systems could communicate made it that much more annoying! Stupid blimps. Wait, since when could she look up people in the database? Was that allowed?

"You alright?"

"Oh yeah sorry. I need to fix myself up but I don't know where to get it done."

The techno organic grinned at the Cyber Ninja trainee, she knew exactly where to go. The one mech that could fix Beat up perfectly, custom job with a fresh coat of wax. The only problem was what if he didn't want to help Beat out? The mech never did like her.

Sari always wondered why, she didn't do anything to him personally. Heck, Beat avoided him as much as possible. Something that fool enjoyed more than anything. Guess she would have to make a deal with him.

"I know where you can get a personal paint job done. Any color, any pattern, fresh coat of wax...the whole works!"

Beat perked up as soon as the words were heard, fresh coat of paint! The femme hasn't had a fresh touch up in so many Deca-Cycles! She hardly did any training before so there was never any need to do so. Sari said any color...there was no such thing for her. The color would have to be white. It was standard trainee uniform. Then again, what was wrong with some color? Color was exciting, fun, showed one's true personality. Beat was scared to try on a new scheme, Prowl would be furious with her. He would always talk about the honor of bearing the trainee colors. The whole point of her even coming here was to restore honor to the academy and herself. Would switching colors really affect her negatively?

"So do you want to fix yourself up or not?"

Smirking, Beat lowered her servo and placed Sari atop her helm. "Let's do it."

Just as they began to walk down the hallway, Blaster ran past the duo with a concerned faceplate. Both females looked at each other before Sari jumped off Beat's helm and landed gracefully on the ground. The Cyber Ninja trainee rolled her optics at how excellent the land was executed. (Only because she was half Cybertronian!)

"Yo Blaster, where ya going?"

Stopping in his jog, the music loving mech turned around. "I am going to the space bridge. No one is allowed to go there right now. And by no one, I especially mean YOU."

"Why can't anyone go there?"

"Because none of your business girl, now why don't you go- Slag Beat you look terrible!"

"I know."

"Get yourself a new paint job. Like I was saying Sari, do not go there right now."

The now 18 year old girl crossed her arms over her chest, "Alright, I won't go right now."

"Thank you. I will see you all later."

With that he continued his jog to the space bridge. Sari watched him disappear before transforming into her robot form and slowly following behind. Beat raised an optic ridge at the young girl and shook her helm. "Sari what are you doing?"

"What's it look like? I am going to see what's happening."

"But you heard Blaster s-"

"He said don't go right now. It's been past right now so that means we can go."

"Uh..."

"Don't be a chicken. Come on."

Sari began to walk, her hips swaying more than usual causing Beat to once again roll her optics. "Humans..." She could only imagine the horrible torture that would come if (no let's be honest WHEN) they got caught.