"Why is she so heavily damaged?"
"Because of me."
"You did that to her? And I thought Megatron had anger issues."
"Do not compare me to a Cybertronian. Ever. And the Teno is not a female."
"It's a mech?! Slag..."
"Not a mech either."
"Then what?"
"An it."
Knockout raised an optic ridge at the mysterious creature then frowned. He looked at the small femme lying unconscious on the examination table. Breast plate, delicate frame type, curves, larger aft area...this was a femme by the looks of it. Then again, many mechs could take on those traits if wished. Shrugging the mech reached for her port and forcefully slid it down.
Oh yeah, this was 100% femme.
Smirking at his discovery, the corrupt medic sealed it up once more. "That is a she."
"If you so wish."
"She is kinda small, are you sure this femme is a lethal weapon?"
The creature tilted it's slimy head, "...Yes."
Knockout nodded, his red polished paint job shimmered under the light of the med bay. The hunter stared in his direction for some time until the medic center's door slid up. Both medic and maniac turned to face one of the most terrifying yet loyal Decepticons in all Cybertronian history.
"Ugh you could knock Soundwave."
A Cybertronian with a screen as a faceplate? This was new. The slimy alien took a small moment to carefully examine the new Cybertronian. It was clearly identified as a mech. He was quite tall, thin, an aerial design. The way he stood was stiff, uncomfortable, eerie...mysterious. The hunter was unimpressed.
As the alien stared it felt him scan its form but thought nothing of it. He would find nothing, the hunter was made to block any scan from discovering vital information.
"Well there is something you two have in common. No faces."
"No. Only one of us has 'no face.' What do you want?"
Soundwave did nothing except point towards the exit. The creature immediately knew what that meant and proceeded to leave. "I will be back to collect what is mine Knockout."
"Naturally."
The walk to the command center was neither exciting or nerve racking. Soundwave never spoke a word and the hunter liked that. Though it did feel his gaze time to time, most likely trying to find out what species it was. He would find nothing. It belonged to no species...it was it.
Finally arriving at the command center, both the beings walked inside. The hunter had been in here countless times and each visit was more annoying than the last. There were petty mechanical soldiers monitoring screens or bustling back and forth with duties to preform. They all looked alike. Same faceplates, frames and depressing colors. Such a pity that each must have had unique names and personalities that their superiors would never care about. Wasted life.
Soundwave walked ahead to stand next to a female Cybertroian that never failed to amuse the hunter with her stupidity. They called her Arachnid, yes? The Decepticon that transforms into a giant insect. Odd.
"I see you brought the mess back on board Soundwave."
It turned to face the spider femme who smirked at her own comment. How she enjoyed attempting to get a rise out of anyone. The slime creature ignored her and continued walking across the bridge until coming close to the figure with his back facing everyone.
"Megatron."
Tall, dark and rusty...those were the first three words the creature described when it came into contact with the Decepticon leader.
"Have you retrieved that 'Teno' of mine?"
His voice was deep and menacing, the creature respected a being with authority in it's voice. Sadly, he had authority but not much wisdom. Making deals with demons was dangerous.
"Your Teno?"
"Yes, MY Teno. The same one that you agreed to give to me in exchange for the AI you are so desperate to collect."
He stood many feet higher that the creature itself but that did not worry it in the slightest. His optics were such a deep red, evil. His gaze alone could intimidate those of weaker will, hence all his minions. Combined brute strength, elite combat skill and impressive intelligence. The Decepticons have a powerful leader.
"I know. The Teno is yours to do with what you like. The Program has no need of it."
"You have more?"
"Of course."
"You claim that this shell possesses much power. How do I know you will not give me a useless toy?"
"The Knights always pay their debts. And when we do, the payment is of truth."
Megatron nodded his helm in understanding. He did not expect to make a temporary partnership with the odd being. It came into contact with him when his spies on Cybertron reported a powerful creature in search of a 'Teno.' Not of Cybertron and the only bot that kept constantly leaving the planet was the Autobot called Beat.
The creature promised a great power that could help him win the war should he give it the location. Megatron was no fool, he knew better than to contact an unidentified species. His original plan was to capture the creature, force it to give him the power and then simply destroy it. But no matter how many assassins he sent, the beast managed to offline them all. Even some of his finest soldiers (minus those in his personal circle) were torn apart.
It was clear that this thing, whatever it was, had power. So instead of fighting a new and possibly deadly enemy, he made a deal. In exchange for providing whatever information he had on Beat, the creature would give him the answer to winning his civil war.
It didn't take very long for the spies to find out that Beat was in the Cyber Ninja trainee program. She would train there for periods of time then return home to that dreadful Eurythma planet. However, under unknown circumstances, she was transported to Earth. He assumed it was to complete her training but what could she learn from the Autobots here? It didn't really matter to the Decepticon leader at that point. She was on Earth and his quest for victory just became easier.
The creature followed suit and devised a plan to reclaim her. Megatron was promised the answer to his war and the freak would take what it wanted. The rest is history.
"This machine better do it as you promised, for YOUR sake."
"Threatening a creature you have no possibility of killing? I believed you smarter."
He approached the being with menacing strides. The mech clearly had the confidence to back up his walk but even he was able to be destroyed. That was the way of the universe, all simple things must die at one point. Cybertronians today were simple and thus had to die.
"Is that a challenge?"
He unleashed his blade and pointed it directly at the slimy beat's throat. The leader smirked, showing some of his famous shark dental plates. "I could kill you now and take both the AI and Teno. The dead have no use of material things."
"Beautiful blade. Custom made correct? I have never seen one like that before. Megatron-"
The creature growled and pierced itself onto the blade causing many to step back in shock. Megatron seemed unfazed by the action."You can't kill me, I'm already dead."
The Decepticon warrior rolled his optics and retracted his blade. "Take your AI and leave my ship."
"As you wish, it was a pleasure having you as my informant. Enjoy your new weapon but be warned, once you unlock its abilities make sure you can control it."
"Hmph. Question beast..."
"What?"
"You know the location of the Autobot base."
In reality the hunter knew, only a fool would not record the location of a base where it was transported to. However, it did not like Megatron in the slightest so there was no way the location would be revealed.
"No I do not."
Megatron glared, "Get out."
Knockout sipped on energon as he and Breakdown read their data pads with instructions from Megatron. Taking a break from the reading Breakdown noticed the small femme stir. "She's waking up."
"Finally, get me the energon replenish modules and pain stabilizers."
This is the part where I am supposed to express my thoughts on my situation but as you can tell...there's no point. My situation SUCKS! I'm alone, afraid, cold and in pain. Nothing in my existence was ever easy but this is taking it to a whole new level. Was I destined to always be hurt? Nah, to have a destiny, ya gotta be living thing.
The only good thing about this mess is that I got to mop the floor with Sunstreaker.
"She's small."
Voices? Hmmm none I recognize. If Theta were here, it could have identified them- what am I going to do without the program to guide me? I'm more useless than how I started before Theta decided to finally speak to me.
"Small but pretty."
Yep, they definitely aren't talking about me.
"And apparently very powerful."
Oh yeah, they sure are not talking about me.
"They say she goes by Beat."
Nevermind, they are talking about me.
"Beat? Awkward designation. I'll change that after her reformation."
Wait what? Reformation? What's going on out there?
Knockout traced Beat's cracked lip components and smirked. She looked like a youngling barely coming into her adult frame but he knew better. The femme was clearly old, older than any of them on the Nemesis. Time had done her justice, she had not aged a bit. Now her armor, that was a complete and utter mess. Not only was it burnt- primus knows how- but it was outdated and obsolete. How did this tiny femme survive for as long as she did like that?
Megatron wanted her to be transformed into the warrior she always was meant to be. That was exactly what he planned to do but there would be no harm in upgrading her...sexual appeal. After all, what is a femme without the ability to seduce a mech? Beauty could be a gift and a curse, Knockout planned to make it both for this one.
Sadly, before the fun part of experimentation, a scientist must know how the specimen operates. The conceded medic attached several wires to Beat's helm and information appeared on the screen behind the table. There was a lot to go through.
But if what slimy weirdo said about this femme was true, he would need to carefully analyze every bit of data shown.
Patience was such a horrible virtue sometimes.
"I am here to collect my AI."
The sound of the voice made both mechs jump in place, Breakdown growled while Knockout stood up. "Does no one knock anymore?!"
The hunter quickly walked over to Beat, it stared at her for a moment. Such a powerful software and it chose an obsolete shell. Making a clicking sound, the creature gripped Beat's 'spark chamber' and began to pull.
"What the frag are you doing?!"
Another harsh pull and Beat's swollen optics managed to pop open. The small femme screamed in agony as the hunter further pulled on her chamber plating. Knockout and his assistant watched in horror at the brutality before them. This monster was insane! What was it thinking? It could kill her! That poor femme had to endure that with no shut down of her pain sensors.
One last pull and her chamber opened, Beat's optics leaked like never before. Her unsteady spark pumped life into a machine that did not require it. The slimy beast carefully inspected the inside, "No..."
It looked again, longer than last time.
"No."
Then again, "No. No. No. NO!"
In a heated rage, the creature roared and grabbed Beat by her shoulders. Picking her up, it brutally slammed her against the wall. Energon flew from the femmes mouth and landed onto the hunter's bare face but it did not seem affected by it. "Where is 1337?!"
She made no response, her servos twitching from the pain. The slimy alien suddenly stood completely still, dropping Beat in the process. That clever little AI unit, it escaped. How foolish of the creature to let that happen. The most shocking detail is that 1337 actually abandoned it's Teno. That rarely happens, normally an AI construct would delete itself were their machines taken down in battle. Artificial unit 1337 was always known to be extremely attached to this particular Teno. So leaving the shell must have been a last resort.
Yet, something did not make sense. The blast should have rendered the AI helpless for some time. Then again, units perceive the things a million times slower than any being does. It must have left the shell long before the hunter even managed to hold the EMP detonator up. This means 1337 was still in the Autobot's base safely hidden away.
The creature should have been angry by all accounts but it wasn't. It would have to plan everything more carefully next time. "I have what I need, goodbye."
Ushering out the lab, the hunter went straight to the ship's exit. Back to the Autobot base, it was.
"Would just look at what that brute did?!"
"Megatron must like it."
"Pffft."
Knockout gently picked up Beat and placed her on the table once more. She cried out in pain as energon began to flow out of her spark chamber. "Looks bad."
"I know. Luckily, we can fix this. Put her into complete stasis. I'm going to need her fully offline for the reformation process. Her sweet little frame has so much potential and I plan to take advantage of that."
"Alright. What look you going for?"
"Dunno yet. Let me finish reading her schematics to see if I can come up with something based on her weapons. Our lord will be so pleased, we're going to have such fun."