As Soundwave has detected a new energon mine; Megatron has already sent his vehicons to begin mining operations.
No doubt the Autobots might pick up on the activities as well and try to capture the mine and its contents.
Not much was there to do, as it was very boring watching the vehicons work. Which left nothing else to do, but to start scanning the area for the real prize. Knockout had trouble staying focussed though; his mind wandering to a strange location he doesn't recognise.
He saw them again: The Autobots and their human pets. He had a strange perspective of everyone; he was about eye-level with the humans, which in turn made the Autobots appear enormous in comparison! No news there; he figured that would be the case from their perspective, but he wasn't used to the feeling and this unnerved him.
He was taken to what appeared to be a medical bay? ["Hold on...This must be the Autobot base! But where is it?"] He couldn't get a clear view of the surrounding area, as they were indoors... They appeared to be inside a geological formation of sorts, but that's about what he could tell, before he felt like there was something or someone trying to tap into his processor.
It was brief, but he felt it take a look at his surroundings as he has been doing to...them? ["Of course; that explains the weird perspective I have! It's that dragon!"] But just as he was about to make contact, she cut off and left him blank...or at least deaf. He saw the Autobot Medic and Prime give each other a look, Ratchet typed something on the console, gave a comment and Optimus ran out the door.
How Knockout wished he could tell what was written on the screen, but for some reason, he couldn't read it all the sudden. He recognised it as Cybertronian, but that's it. ["Scrap, another dead end!"]
After some primitive medical care was performed on his shoulder pad, both he and the human female were deposited onto the floor before Ratchet walked off into the direction where Prime stormed off to. The command room perhaps? He wasn't given much time to dwell upon his thoughts, when suddenly the Autobots rolled out of a groundbridge that opened up in the mine.
["SCRAP!"] He thought as they had to switch from mining to fiercely defending their quarry. Starscream with no way to defend himself, thought it was a good idea to use the commotion as a cover for his escape, but was stopped by Breakdown.
"Where do you think you're going?!" He lifted the Seeker up by the wings.
"Don't know if you noticed, but I can't really defend myself, if I'm tied up! Are you trying to get me killed?! What would Megatron think if you lost your only bait to lure the creature in?!" Starscream was lying about finding a place to wait out the fighting, but just in case, Breakdown opened up a groundbridge and sent Starscream on his way back to the Nemesis with escorts.
Knockout was about to call for a groundbridge himself, when he almost got shot! He quickly transformed and sped off in the opposite direction of the incoming blasts. Seeing that Breakdown already called for a groundbridge for some of the vehicons to hurry away with what little they were able to gather, he pushed his pedal to the metal, but Bumblebee got in his way.
"Move it or lose it, Scout!" He snarled as he kept going, thinking he could either mow him down, or knock him out of the way. (Pun intended) However; Bumblebee managed to grab hold of his front bumper, dug his heels struts in, and successfully skidded Knockout to a halt!
Knockout wasn't going to give up that easy though. He kept pouring it on; but the clever scout pushed him back, grabbed him underneath his front bumper and flipped him over backwards violently! Bee put so much strength in his throw, Knockout was sent flying backwards. Before he landed though, he transformed back to bot mode and landed on his peds, avoiding damage to his armour plating.
Charging towards Bumblebee, he was suddenly struck with a painful helmache that seemed to come out of nowhere; stopping him in his tracks! The Scout was surprised by this but kept him within his crosshairs, blasters at the ready.
"AAAAAH! WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE SOUND YOU'RE MAKING?!" The Con medic screeched in pain.
.:"What are you talking about?!":. Bumblebee asked.
Knockout didn't respond, but only made a choking sound, and his voicebox started glitching out in a very unusual way; Violently blipping erratically for no apparent reason!
"Knockout, what's the holdup?!" he heard Breakdown calling.
"*blip*MAKE IT *blip*STO-*blip*-OP!*" The Con medic roared as he just about had enough of whatever it was the scout was doing to him, got up; tripped the Autobot with a sharp kick, before he equipped his Energon Prod and went to town on poor Bee with it!
"Turn. *blip* *blip* that.*blip* sound. OFF!" The Con emphasized with every shock to the Scout's system.
Bumblebee saw an opening and managed to blast the crazy Con off of his chassis, retreated whilst blasting Knockout a couple times 'till he fell back and lost his prod in the process. Breakdown came over to help his teammate out, but got cut off by Bulkhead; "Oh, no you don't!"
The Wrecker threw his weight on his opponent, which sent them both tumbling into a corner somewhere else in the cave.
Optimus and Arcee sent the remainder of the Vehicons packing and seeing they just about lost this fight, Knockout managed to get away, barely maintaining his vehicle mode stable, because of whatever this glitch in his system was supposed to be. It was making his motor violently kick off and he was blasting bursts of energon out of unnatural places.
Breakdown tossed Bulkhead off of him, almost flattening Bee in the process and hurried off after his teammate; The Groundbridge closing after them. On the Nemesis, however, the fits the Con medic was having didn't cease. Once in robot mode, his tank and intake felt like he fueled up on acid, as he randomly blasted holes in the hull of the ship, everywhere his intake was pointing to.
This made it impossible to speak, and also very dangerous. So much so, they had to lock him up in his own quarantine chamber to avoid further injury to other cons and equipment! This went on for several minutes before it just suddenly stopped as mysteriously as it began.
Having expelled so much energon, he had to refuel and was being looked over by Soundwave and Breakdown, in case this was a contagious infection of some kind. Which luckily for them it wasn't.
"What happened out there?" Breakdown asked.
"Primus only knows... It started right after I locked horns with that scout; There was this awful sound, ringing loudly in my Audio sensors, I thought my Processor was going to melt!" The Con explained. "Next thing I knew, my Voicebox started glitching out, and finally I started blasting energon out of my intake?!"
Soundwave only took notes, he'd have to conduct research on this strange occurrence later. "Found any leads on our target?" Breakdown continued.
"Not exactly... My Processor kept wandering off to an unknown location, but definitely their base..." Knockout explained.
"Really? Any coordinates?" The Blue mech was excited to hear the news.
"No, those blasted Autobots showed up before I could see where exactly we were..." The Con medic trailed off.
"We?" Breakdown was puzzled by the pronoun.
"Yes, it's the strangest thing...somehow me and the organic have been sharing minds; it's like being in two places at once. I've been seeing her environment and interactions with others in real time. I can handle ignoring it for the most part, but this...Psychic connection's been growing stronger, the more I dabble in it." Knockout rubbed the sides of his helm as he felt he was losing it again.
"Knockout? Knockout, Are you okay?" Breakdown's voice grew more muffled as the Con medic's vision grew dark and was replaced by Zucky's own.
"Well, that was easy..." Bulkhead said.
"We caught them off guard, didn't even give them a chance to call for reinforcements." Arcee smiled.
"Good work, Autobots." Optimus Prime complimented his bots on a job well done.
In his processor though, he knew that if it wasn't for Zucky's strange ability, they wouldn't have known in time, as no one was paying attention to the monitors at the moment.
He wasn't sure what was going on. How was it that she was able to have known where Knockout was? He had to discuss this further with Ratchet, whom he suspected knows something about this.
For now he didn't know how the other bots would react to this news. Would they see this as an advantage over the Cons? Would they mistake Zucky for a Decepticon spy? More importantly though; Is this a two way connection?
If Zucky is able to pinpoint where Knockout is in real time, can Knockout do the same with her?
In the meantime, they worked together to pick up after the Cons, taking the remaining energon and seal the cave shut, in case the Cons returned to dig deeper.
They managed to get the job done fairly quickly, and get the energon through the bridge without any more trouble.
About an hour after 'Zucky's fireworks show' Ratchet got a call from Prime to open up the groudbridge. He obliged and the Autobots came through with another load of Energon Crystals.
"*gasp*" Zucky's eyes almost popped out of her head. "What are those?"
"Energon Crystals" Raf pointed out as he put his laptop down and adjusted his glasses.
Looking back from Raf; Zucky got off the couch and leaned against the railing admiring the bright blue crystals. They were big, and had this bright teal-ish blue hue to them.
"You know what they remind me of?" She asked.
The young boy came to stand by her side. "What?" He asked.
"That blue-ish liquid that leaked out of the Con when his sawblade sliced his chest open." She answered.
"Of course, that's where it comes from." Raf pointed at the Crystals.
"No way...really?" The dragon was surprised.
"Rafael is correct, Zucky...This is energon in its purest form." Prime carefully pulled out a small chunk and held it close, but at a safe distance so they could look at it.
"It's so bright and shiny." Zucky whispered. Then Prime placed the crystal back in the cart.
"But wait a minute, if you all came from way out there in space, and this is supposed to be an alien fuel source...How did it get all the way out here?" The dragon was curious to know.
"That is...a very long story reserved for another day, Zucky. Now we need to get these in their respective storage chamber..." Prime was about to walk away.
"Can I help you put them away?" Zucky asked.
Prime shook his helm." It is best that you do not; these crystals are very heavy and quite volatile. Best you stay here where you'll be safe." The prime explained.
"Okay." Zucky didn't argue with him about it. Volatile substances and fire-laced hiccups shouldn't be allowed near each other. Even though Prime doesn't know yet about it, it's best to play it safe.
Optimus nodded and went on his way. He was happy she listened and stayed put. Of course she would have probably been extra careful when asked to be; he wasn't too sure that letting her see where the vault was, was a good idea. Especially since a knockout seemed to have a connection now.
Zucky didn't stay to look where he was going, but instead went back to where the humans found them playing a racing game. She arrived just in time to see Miko wiping the floor with Jack.
"Wooohooo! Awwwwyeah, Take that!" The girl shouted in victory.
Jack was a good sport, he merely rolled his eyes at her little victory air guitar shredding. Then he noticed Zucky's muffled snorting behind them.
"Hey, wanna give it a go?" He politely asked.
"Yeah, wanna see me beat you at racing?" Miko had a smug expression on her face.
"It's been a while since I touched a controller..." Zucky hesitated.
"It's alright, it's just a game after all." Raf added.
Taking the controller from Jack's hand, she turned it around looking for the buttons.
"Don't let it scare you." Raf chuckled and started explaining. "Here's the accelerator, here's the brakes, this is for steering and this button is for a turbo boost; but only when you collected enough points...that's 100 for each..."
"Okay, I think I can do this..." Zucky held the controller in her hands and sat down. "I only have 3 fingers on each hand, so let's see how it goes."
As Miko picked the level and her vehicle, Zucky was having a hard time keeping her mind clear. She rubbed her head and eyes a bit, and dismissed it as being nothing when asked about it.
She was about to settle for a blue car, when then she suddenly changed it out for a red one, finalizing her choice, with a creepy grin she's never worn before...an eerily familiar one.
Raf noticed this and nudged Jack, signalling with his eyes to avoid being discovered.
Jack in turn looked up at her, stared for a moment before asking: "Are you feeling okay, Zucky?"
"Never felt better, squ-err, I mean uh... Jack, was it?" She fumbled and answered a bit. This came out a bit off to Jack as she already learned his name and wasn't asking or confusing him with Raf anymore. ["Was she about to say: squishy?!"]
Jack simply nodded and faked a smile as he looked at the TV screen to avoid eye contact.
After showing the players a birds eye view of the entire track, the Race was about to start:
Ready?
"Let's burn some rubber..." Zucky whispered to herself.
On your marks, get set...GO!
Miko was going to set the game up on the usual settings, with power-ups, trick paths and all sorts of shenanigans, but had to settle for a plain track (with just a few ramps) for Zucky, since she isn't very good at video games...at least according to what she said earlier. Or so they thought...
She started off way in the back at 8th place, but was gaining fast. Almost as if she's been driving all her life!
Miko did her very best to stay ahead of the dragon, but right as they were about to reach the finish line; she knocked the girl off the ramp.
Next she got on the ramp and using the boosters Raf talked about earlier; did a sick flip, and purposely landed on the hood of Miko's car, sending it flying backwards as it wiped out and landed on several of the other computer players!
"What?!" The Girl was in total shock.
Zucky then crossed the finish line with the remainder of the boosters she had left.
GAME! PLAYER 2 WINS!
Zucky only now came back to her senses...
"Hey, what gives?!" Miko angrily asked.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Zucky was confused.
"Did you have to lie about 'never played video games'?" the girl fumed as she used air quotes.
"I never said that, I said it's been a long time." The dragon defended. "Besides, whatever are you so angry about? We haven't even started..."
"Are you kidding me? We just finished the race!" Miko pointed at the screen.
Zucky looked at the screen and sure enough, there was a winner, and it was player two alright, which corresponds with the controller in her hands, but the car is red.
"But I chose the blue car! Why is my car red?" The dragon scratched her head."
"Huh?" Miko was thoroughly confused now.
Jack nudged Zucky's good shoulder... "Who's that?" ...and pointed at Raf.
"That's Raf." Zucky cocked an eye at Jack.
"So, who does that make me?" Jack asked her.
"You name's Jack Darby...Are you feeling well?" The dragon was beginning to feel concerned as she put a hand on Jack's forehead.
"We're fine Zucky, but are you?" Raf asked.
She thought back at how she lied about feeling well...Did she lie though? "No...I was feeling strange in my head before the race started... "Her ears fell back. I wanted to warn you, but something prevented me from saying it."
The kids looked at her wide-eyed. "Whoa.." Miko broke the silence. "Like you were being Mind-controlled?"
"Why me?" Zucky Groaned.
Suddenly a voice other than theirs chimed in; "It's just as I feared..." It was Ratchet.
"GAAAH!" The children jumped as they weren't expecting him to be there behind them.
True to form; Zucky disappeared momentarily only to fall out of the air again, but Ratchet was quick to catch her. "*panting* Don't do that!" She whined.
"I was hoping it wasn't so..." Ratchet continued.
"What is it?" Raf asked.
"I had something else in mind, something that this situation mirrors all too well, but I was afraid to admit it..." The Medic thought out loud. "Thank Primus it isn't that..." He sighed in relief.
"What was making you so worried Ratchet?" Miko put her hands on her hips as she squinted her eyes at him.
"A-topic-best-reserved-for-when-you're-older... *clears throat* But Manual Override is just as troubling..." Ratchet quickly brushed it off and changed the topic.
"Manual...Override?" Zucky was unfamiliar with the term.
Raf pulled out one of his remote control cars that he's modified. "Think of it this way..." He turned the switch to the on position on the car and set it to free roaming mode and placed the remote down next to him.
The small vehicle started running around on its own. It bumped into stuff, but always found its way around obstacles, much like a Roomba would. "Imagine that's you. You are free to go wherever you want and do whatever you want. In short; you have free will, right?"
"Yeah..." The dragon answered.
"Manual Override works like remote controls...someone else controls your moves for you." He switched the Remote control on and started moving the car around wherever he wanted it to go.
"Oh...so basically like mind control, but not really?" Zucky tried making sense of all this.
"You could say that..." Raf took it as a good enough explanation. "You're a living being after all, and not a toy car, after all..."
"The part that makes this dangerous is that in the wrong servos; You could be made to do bad things and you wouldn't be able to do a thing about it, or worse..." Ratchet trailed off as he couldn't even bring himself to mention the alternative.
Raf wasn't paying attention where the little car was going; it fell off the stairs, landed on its wheels, but Bee Accidentally crushed it when he came back into the room.
.:"Oops! Sorry Raf..." apologised. .:"...again.":. And twiddled with his digits sheepishly.
"Bumblebee... He needed that!" Ratchet whined.