It was just a regular day on Cybertron for the Autobots. Everyone was busy cleaning and working around the base.
Optimus had kept assigning Arcee and Knock Out to work together. But Arcee kept trying to ditch the Austin Martin every chance she got.
Not really wanting to work with the former Decepticon. Optimus had actually been pairing them together hoping they would overcome their differences and that the two wheeler would give the red sports car a chance.
So far everyone had accepted Knock Out as an Autobot but her. They were supposed to be looking for energon.
"I thought we were supposed to be working together on this why do you keep disappearing on me?" Knock Out asked after having to track her down for the tenth time.
"I can do this on my own why don't you go race or something?" She said to him.
"I would but Optimus said we were supposed to do this together." Knock Out tried reminding her. Then the two pulled up at a cave.
"Ok you search that tunnel I'll search this one if we split up we'll find the energon sooner." Arcee told him seeing a way to make him leave her alone for awhile.
"That sounds like a good idea." He agreed. Then they both went down different tunnels.
Arcee got back first and her com-link beeped it was Smokescreen. And she answered and started talking to him.
"So how are you and Knock Out getting along?" He asked.
"I got him to check a different tunnel so I won't have to deal with him for awhile." She explained. "I wish Optimus had partnered me with someone else."
"Arcee Knock Out has changed for the better and he's trying to make up for his past as a Con." Smokescreen told her.
"He had no business joining us to begin with he just did it to be on the winning team because he wanted to save his own sorry alf." Arcee said over the com-link. "He'll probably turn on us as soon as the situation suits him."
"I think your being too hard on him." Smokescreen replied.
"Once a Con always a Con he should have never been aloud to join this team I wish he'd stayed a Decepticon." Said Arcee.
"He should have been jailed or scraped." She continued. "As far as I'm concerned he can pretend to be an Autobot all he wants to but he'll never really be one of us."
"Arcee you don't mean that." Smokescreen said to her.
"I think I do." She answered. But then she hard a pebble roll and look up to see Knock Out who had just over heard the whole conversation standing there with a hurt look in his optics.
"Knock Out." She said now feeling guilty not expecting him to have heard that. But the Austin Martin just ignored it and quickly walked out of the cave, changed into his alt mode and drove off without a word.
"Scrap." She groaned as she transformed and drove after him now wanting to apologize. But unfortunately she came to a place where the road forked and didn't know which path he took.
Then tried to call him on his com-link but the red sports car wouldn't answer. Arcee assumed it was because he was mad at her.
She decided Knock Out would probably go back to base once he had a chance to calm down. So called for a bridge and went back to base.
Meanwhile Knock Out had stopped in an alley and transformed back to his bot mode and started crying coolant tears.
He'd felt like no one would accept him and had been afraid the others secretly hated him and at least with Arcee it turned out to be true.
Hearing what she'd said had confirmed it. What really hurt was he felt like she was right. What business did he have joining the Autobots. To them he'd always be a Decepticon.
Then he heard a motorcycle coming and thought it was Arcee and quickly wiped away his coolant tears not wanting her to know he'd been crying.
"What is it did you forget to say something?" He asked.
But then he heard the motorcycle transform and a black and red femme walked out of the shadows she looked just like Arcee except for her color scheme and red optics and a Decepticon logo she was sporting.
"Your not Arcee." Knock Out said with wide optics.
"No I'm Flamewar." She said in a tone that wasn't at all friendly.
"My name's Knock Out." Knock Out told her as he slowly started to back away feeling like something just wasn't right about her.
"I think you should live up to that name." She said right before she punch him hard across the faceplates.
Knock Out was stunned but not unconscious when she walked over and shot him with a rifle she had then Knock Out blacked out.
He woke up awhile later. And started to get up but couldn't because every time he started to move he felt like his frame was on fire.
"I wouldn't move if I were you." Flamewar told him.
"I shot you with a friction rifle it increases the amount of friction on the target if you move you'll burn, burst into flames or even melt." She added darkly.
"I used to sell wepans in addition to being a medic in the early days of the war I've dealt with friction rifles before." Knock Out groaned trying his best not to move. "The effects last up to five minutes I can hold still that long."
"Actually this friction rifle is different I had Shockwave make it so the effects don't wear off on their own the only way to undo the effects would be to shoot you with it again." She told him.
"Why are you doing this to me?" Knock Out asked. "Is it because I switched sides?"
"No it's nothing personal against you." She explained. "Your just the bait it's really your partner Arcee I'm after."
"And I'm going to use you to lure her into a trap to prove once and for all I'm better then she is." Flamewar told him.
"Ha the jokes on you she doesn't care what happens to me." Knock Out explained. "She doesn't like me just earlier this evening she was talking about how she didn't want me on the team."
"You got the wrong bot she won't come for me." He added. "If anything she'll be happy to get rid of me." "We aren't partners."
"I'll try the trap anyway." She said to him as she caressed his faceplates while he fought the urge to try to push her sevos away because he knew if he move it would hurt him as long as he was under the effects of the friction rifle.
Then Flamewar went and got something then walk back over to him with a piece of tarp and was getting ready to gag him with it.
Knock Out knew he couldn't let her gag him or if someone did fall for her trap he wouldn't be able to warn them or tell them not to move him.
"No!" He pleaded.
"Sorry can't have you messing up my plans so it quite time for you." She mocked as she started tying the cloth over his mouth.
"No!" He screamed one more time. This time using his servo to bat hers away.
Which he quickly learned was a mistake because it caught on fire and he fought back a cry of pain as coolant tears spilled out of his optics. And Flamewar quickly tied the cloth over his mouth.
"See I told you not to move." Flamewar hissed. She let Knock Out servo burn for a few minutes just to torture him before putting it out.
Now gagged and still under the effects of the friction rifle all Knock Out could do was glare at her. He hated this femme for what she was doing to him.
Then she sent a transmission to Autobot base. Asking for Arcee.
Meanwhile back at base Arcee realized Knock Out hadn't gotten back yet. And was now worried because it was night now.
What if the Austin Martin had decided to leave the Autobots because of her.
Then they got a message over the consul. That said.
"Dear Arcee I have your partner I heard you have a habit of losing them." "First Tailgate then Cliffjumper and now unless you meet me at these cordnets you can add Knock Out to the list of your fallen partners." "I must say he's actually kind of hot."
"I'm going to kill him if you don't show up by midnight." Signed Flamewar. "And P.S. come alone or he dies."
Arcee closed the message. And went to the ground bridge everyone else had been in recharge because it was 10:00 at night. So she would be arriving two hours ahead of schedule.
Meanwhile Flamewar had set up a bomb as a trap for Arcee it would blow the moment someone step on it.
Then she injected Knock Out with circuit speeders to make it harder for him to hold still now that the cybertronian stimulant was in his system.
Then she left him lying there. Knock Out was still struggling not to move but the circuit boosters were making it hard to hold still.
Poor Knock Out just knew he was going to die. There was no way Arcee would come to save him.
But he was suddenly proven wrong when a ground bridge opened and Arcee walked out of it.
Knock Out was shocked that she had come to save him. But his surprise was quickly replaced with horror when he remembered the trap Flamewar had set.
And that the minute Arcee tried to approach him she would step on and trigger the bomb. But being gagged he couldn't warn her about it.
So Knock Out did the only thing he could think of and to spite the pain and how much his body burned he jumped to his peds and ran over and tossed himself onto the bomb triggering it so Arcee wouldn't.
Arcee had been far enough away to not be caught in the explosion but watch in horror as Knock Out took it in full force.
"Noo!" She screamed as he hit the ground.
Knock Out didn't move and she rushed over to him after seeing him get caught in the explosion.
She kneeled down next to him and got his gag off. "Knock Out!" She cried hoping the red medic would respond but he didn't.
His body looked charred and parts of it were on fire which she quickly put out. And half of one of his legs was melted.
"No!" She kept crying repetitively. She had said terrible things about the Austin Martin earlier and he had just sacrificed his spark to save hers.
"So sorry for you loss Arcee but you'll get to join him and your other partners when I kill you." Flamewar said to her.
The words were barely out of Flamewar's mouth when a now angry Arcee tackled her and continued to throw one punch after another as coolant tears of rage and grief poured out of her optics.
Arcee was going to make Flamewar pay for what she'd done. And the two femmes were now locked in combat and it was a pretty even match.
But Arcee managed to come out on top and beat Flamewar who unfortunately managed to escape.
Arcee started to go after her. But she heard a low moan and saw that it had come from Knock Out who was still alive but just barely. He had survived but was badly hurt.
Arcee saw the friction rifle and shot him with it again to turn off the effects. He didn't move other then his optics which stayed closed but twitched as if he was trying to open them.
"Knock Out." Arcee said as she looked at the amount of damage that had been done to the red transformer. "Just hold on a little longer."
Then she put a hand to her com-link. "This is Arcee I need a ground bridge now and get the medbay ready Knock Out's in bad shape!" She practically pleaded.
"Hang on Knock Out help is coming." She told him softly. And stayed by him tell a ground bridge appeared then she and Ratchet got him to the medbay. Where Arcee waited outside while Ratchet got to work trying to save Knock Out.
Arcee waited outside the medbay for hours. Until Ratchet finally came out and said Knock Out had had a close call but was going to be fine after a few weeks of bed rest and taking it easy.
Arcee when back to see him as soon as Ratchet told her it was ok.
Knock Out was laying on a medical berth and looked better. Ratchet had to give him a new leg to replace the one that had melted.
And he still had several burn marks that were visible which was driving him nut. But he had to wait to recover a bit more before he could fix it.
"Thanks for coming for me." Knock Out told her.
"Anytime your part of this team and I'm sorry about the stuff I said earlier." Arcee said to him. "Thanks for taking that explosion for me."
"Well I couldn't let one of my friends get blown up." He replied.
"You know that was kind of stupid." Arcee told him. "In the same amount of movement it took you to toss yourself on that bomb you could have just pulled your gag off and warned me and you would have taken less damage."
"Now you tell me." Knock Out said as he facepalmed having not thought of that at the time.
Then Arcee went over and hugged him. And the two of them were now friends.
And once Knock Out healed Arcee even helped him fix his paint job.
The End.
I have some writers block so I decided to post some of my old one shots from Wattpad. Hope you enjoyed this story.