I decided to draw Bee, Bulk and Ratch, who were arguing about what left a dent in Bee's leg just moments before, and titled the piece; 'The Blue Moose'.
Chuckling to myself when I read over the title in my head. And just to be extra cheeky, there she is; The titular 'Blue Moose' looking on from the safety of the underbrush.
Once I was done, I signed my name; 'Zucky' and flipped over to another page to continue drawing.
This time I felt like I had to address that figure I keep seeing in my head. It looked like a dark room, pitch blackness as far as the eye can see in the background.
The floor is grey, giving the whole image a noir feeling. Which is rich, considering how I have nothing else but a regular pencil to work with and no other colors but grey, but that's besides the point.
The silhouette of the figure in question was a bit harder to discern, because he was standing at an angle.
Other than that, the image was blurry, almost as if there's a mist between us inside the room?
How do I know it's a 'he'? Even I'm not sure, but I do for some reason.
["Have we met before?"] I try asking in my mind.
Silence.
Is it a person I've seen passing by once and somehow his appearance stuck with me?
I dunno, he just seems to be there for some reason. He appeared to be ghostly;all white-ish, and light greyish, with a slight twinge of pink...or was it faded crimson?
I wasn't sitting on the couch anymore and decided to move to the ground next to it.
The reason for that being, was that I didn't want to grow roots on the damn thing from sitting so much and partially because the kids were getting kind of rambunctious with the racing game they were playing on the game console.
Unless I wanted to make a distorted drawing, or just plain scribbles, I had to move over, to work properly on my piece.
Optimus seems to have made his way over to where I was silently, which is incredible, considering how massive he is. Also, what is it with these bots and sneaking up on people?
I get it, they're still wary of my somewhat easily spooked nature, but I'm getting used to the fact that I'm living in a cave somewhere with Giant Alien Robots roaming around. I have to get used to it sooner or later, right?
He placed a crate next to the platform and sat down. Leaning in closer, he saw I was working on the silhouette drawing. Unfortunately his helm was blocking the light I was using to see the page with, fortunately though his eyes are lit up, so that kind of helps?
It's sort of weird to draw under such circumstances, and honestly, it gets kind of annoying, since he blinks every now and then.
Not sure why though, it's not like they have to keep their Optics from drying up like we humans do, right?
I really gotta learn to stop asking myself weird questions I don't know the answers to, and just ask them instead! They should know.
I had a feeling he had questions regarding my sketch, so I took initiative to start the conversation, before I forgot he's there and he ended up startling me with his voice.
"I keep seeing him inside my head..." I said.
"Who is he?" Optimus asked.
"I don't know...or at least I don't think I know him. I may have seen him before. But I don't remember where." I answered. "The angle kinda throws me off..."
"What does he do?" Prime continued asking.
"Nothing, he just stands there..." I answered. By the time I answered the question, I finished the drawing. I held it out to take a good look at my work, and then settled on a title for the piece: 'Dr. Frankenstein'.
Optimus' optics focussed on the image. I hear a familiar whirring coming from behind me, and I turn around to look at him. He keeps looking at the drawing, his optics changing; similarly to what Ratchet's did and I hear what sounds like a mechanical shutter sound.
["Did he just take a picture of my drawing?"] I thought.
Little did I know, Prime isolated the edges of the silhouette in his processor and was going through all the images in his memory, looking for someone who might fit the outline.
His Optics returned to normal, but he was staring ahead. It was creeping me out a bit, but I tried playing it off, just to see what might come out of this. The thought has crossed my mind that he might be thinking very deeply about something, as I know I do sometimes too and end up staring into space.
I still haven't written down the title yet, so I took the opportunity to do so, as well as sign the piece, whilst he's not blinking. Then I sat there and waited, Prime is still staring a hole into the platform, and I was seriously beginning to worry I might have broken him somehow, don't ask how or why, because even I don't know what in blazes is going on.
Deciding it's about time I broke the silence, I started talking; "You know...before this image appeared in my head, I was looking at the map of the spaceship, and we all know how that one came about." I chuckled as I nervously rubbed the back of my neck, ironing the goosebumps back down in place as I stared at the drawing I titled; 'Nemesis'.
Silence... He didn't respond to me, but I still believed that he could still hear me.
I turned the page back to the forest drawing and chuckled as my eyes fell on 'The Blue Moose'. "You know? I usually title my drawings to remember what they're about...it also reminds me of what I was feeling at the time. I know I sent you all on sort of a wild goose chase, but I have to admit, some of it was really funny." I giggled.
Silence still...
I came full circle back to the drawing of the silhouette again. I stared at it and then moved on to the title and back again. "You know why I called this one 'Dr. Frankenstein'?"
"..." Optimus was still as silent as he was when he began.
"This drawing... I think I know who this is..." I began. "He kinda reminds me of..." I was about to finish my sentence when Optimus came back to his senses.
"Knockout..." He whispered.
"Y-yeah? I was about to say that...How did you know?" I was surprised.
Optimus looks at me as though he didn't expect me to still be sitting there. Then he vented softly.
"I had a suspicion." He began explaining. "The dream you told me about, the energon signature you wrote down, and now this." He pointed at the drawing in my hands.
"I did say that my dream was about him though." I thought out loud.
"Yes; but I had to be sure." Optimus confirmed.
Nurse Darby walked over to us and put her hands on her hips.
"There you are, I've been looking for you all over." She said. "Was this supposed to be a game of hide and go seek?"
"No, Ma'am. I just got tired of sitting on the couch all day. I answered. "Also, I can't sketch if they keep jumping on it like that."
June looked over at the couch and saw the kids hopping excitedly in their seats, fully engrossed in their racing game.
"You'll get used to it, don't worry...now up, we need to check on your progress." She helped me up.
"Oops, I didn't interrupt your conversation did I?" Only now did Nurse Darby really pay attention and saw Optimus sitting there.
"It is alright, Nurse Darby. We will resume in the Medical bay." The Prime stood up to his full height and put his hand next to June and I so we could climb on.
Once in the med bay, she started undoing the bandages and cleaning the wound up.
Ratchet who was already in the room when we arrived scanned me again, and took notes on his datapad.
He asked a series of questions and took notes on the answers I gave him. Questions about how I slept, How I'm feeling today, if I had any more headaches, and so on and so forth.
"Hmmm...It seems to have spread more evenly now." He mumbled as he checked what the scanner came up with.
"The energon?" I asked.
Ratchet simply nodded as he took notes on his datapad.
Having heard that, June stopped in her tracks.
"What energon?" She asked.
"Uhm, remember when I said I fought Knockout when he tried to dissect me?" I began explaining.
Nurse Darby nodded, as worry was plastered on her face, fearing the worst.
"Well, during the struggle some of his energon got into my bloodstream." I finished explaining.
"What?" She frantically started looking me over.
She performed the fastest cranial nerve exam ever, and grabbed hold of my arms, stared me dead in the eyes, and interrogated me: "Are you alright? You're not feeling sick, are you?"
"Yes, I'm alright, and No, I feel just fine, June." I replied.
"Don't you dare lie to me, missy!" She gave me her sternest expression and wagged her finger at me.
"No, why would I do that?" I asked. She really started scaring me now.
"Easy, Nurse Darby..." Optimus tried to calm her down, but she snapped instead.
"Take it easy? TAKE IT EASY?! How can I take it easy, when this young lady could probably be dying in front of us as we speak?!" She fumed.
"How is she checking out then, Nurse Darby?" Ratchet asked.
The lady instantly stopped when she actually thought about what the lightning test told her about the dragon's health.
"She checks out just...fine?" June answered, though confused.
The Autobot medic simply nodded. He then showed the results on the scanner that confirmed what she said.
"Don't feel bad, June. I didn't understand it either, and I'm well aware of how poisonous energon is to organic beings." Ratchet explained. "That is exactly why we tried our best to get her to our medical bay as quickly as we possibly could."
He pulled up a stool next to the berth and sat down, as he sensed a long explanation was required.
"In all honesty, I was even skeptical of her survival, considering how long it took before she got medical attention." He continued. "But the next day, she checked out just fine for someone who went through all that she did; fever went down, her vitals were good and healthy, like nothing happened."
He pulled up an old chart on the datapad. The same one that showed the traces of energon as they appeared in her circulatory system.
"You see; the only anomaly I did find was that she had traces of energon in her blood." He showed the tiny beings the chart. "But they showed up as larger drops in her bloodstream. Since it didn't integrate itself into her bloodstream like it would have, if she was Cybertronian, her body should have gotten rid of it in her sweat and waste, but it didn't. The next step then should have been a manual extraction..."
He then pulled the new chart up: "According to the new scan, we're too late for that now. It seems to have spread out completely and coated everything her blood does, so extraction is basically impossible now...unless you don't mind her dying in the process, of course." Ratchet said in a grim tone.
I shrunk back in fear. Nurse Darby hugged me close. "Absolutely NOT an option!"
"And I agree with you, June. I would never do that." Ratchet said."Which leaves us with no other choice but to let her live with the energon in her system for the rest of her life, and judging by how she didn't show any signs of the adverse effects that normally come with energon poisoning in organics; she'll be just fine."
"That's just talking about the physical part of her...What about her mental health? The headaches that lead her to somehow reading Cybertronian, her writing of it as well, her drawing a map of a ship she spent less than a day aboard? That unusual dream that made her do that in the first place?" June started bombarding the bots with questions.
"I honestly don't know, Nurse Darby...Most organic creatures struck by energon poisoning, never survived long enough for any of us to ever notice a change in their mental health." The medic answered.
"We have noticed a pattern in these incidents...they all seem to point back at the same Con who caused all this in the first place; Knockout."