"Too late!" *camera goes off* "Got it!" Miko beamed. Zucky pulled her ears over her face that took on a deep shade of red-ish purple as Ratchet hurriedly placed her back down.
"Fellow circuitry or not, that phone's gonna cease to function one of these days." The medic mumbled.
.:"Uh...did I miss something?":. Bumblebee asked.
"NO! No, you did not! So don't ask!" Ratchet roared as he stomped by, mumbling incoherently under his vents.
Bumblebee raised his servo's in submission and stood back to give him space to pass by. "Okay! Primus...What crawled up his exhaust port?" Bee mumbled.
Ratchet, despite standing at the far side of the room, shot him a death glare and raised an enormous wrench for Bee to see. Bumblebee quickly jumped behind the platform stairs, trying his very best to hide from the sudden wrench-happy medic.
The humans followed suit behind the couch, and not a moment later, Optimus, Arcee and Bulkhead show up.
Prime noticed Bumble and the humans hiding for what how would assume to be Ratchet who has since moved on to his work, Optimus cocked his optic ridge at the silly sight and gave it a thought before asking:
"Though I am yet an expert on traditional earth entertainment activities; I am quite positive the one who seeks out those who are hiding, must be aware they are participating in said game of 'hide and go seek', or is this what is known as 'Peek-a-Boo'?"
Arcee who understood what was going on got his attention, signalled for him to crouch down and she whispered; "I don't think they're playing a game..."
Prime looked at her confused, and she said out loud: "They're over here, by the way...!" Which caused Bee to bleep incoherently as he grabbed all three of them and pulled them the best he could behind the platform!
When he had them there, he hushed them, and peeked over the edge at Ratchet before shooting Arcee a glare as she was just snickering behind her servo.
"So, when do we jump out and yell 'surprise'?" Bulkhead asked. There was a collective simultaneous facepalm from everyone except Ratchet who just looked up from his work, listened for a bit, shrugged and continued what he was doing.
"What? I didn't know it was his First Flash day..." Bulkhead whined as he crossed his arms. Zucky shook her head in disbelief.
The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful and soon it was time for the human children to return home, and the Autobots to retreat for a well deserved recharge. This left Zucky alone with her thoughts in the room.
She couldn't stop thinking about how easily it now was for Knockout to just control her actions the way he did earlier. 'Remote control', 'Manual Override', 'Mind control', doesn't matter what they called it, it was still scary to know and think about.
It scared her to the point she didn't want to fall asleep in case he would try making her sleepwalk or something crazy...
["Man, oh, man...What I wouldn't do to kick his rustbucket of a tailpipe aft back to Cybetron and back and the then some!"] She thought...["But I can't and that sucks...He's too big, too strong, heck; these robots take a beating and still get up and come after ya!"]
She tossed and turned wide awake, still. ["Man...if there was only a way to level the playing field somehow, or something, I don't know..."]
She knew in her current condition, no...even when she was in one piece, no injuries and such, going toe to toe with a Cybertronian is madness and it almost got her killed. She wasn't even looking for a fight, she was just trying to escape!
The rules of reality were against her in that regard, and she knew it. She picked up the sketchbook and pencil and started doodling. A page filled with nothing, suddenly coming to life with characters, sprawling backgrounds and whatever she put her mind to.
Then she got an inspiration, based on those medieval pictures she seen on Raf's laptop; A familiar scenery to her at least, a Fearsome fire breathing western dragon on the attack, but replace the fearless knight in shining armour, with a cowering one on the run with his butt on fire! She still wasn't done though...and she kept changing up a few things until she was happy with the results.
Titling it "A lesson to never forget"; she giggled at the silly picture and finally put the pencil away when it was complete.
Zucky finally was feeling sleepy. She didn't even bother to close the sketchbook back up and just placed it on the table and went straight to sleep. She struggled a bit with the thoughts of Knockout sneaking into her mind again, but fell asleep anyway...
Meanwhile, on the Nemesis.
"Knockout...?" Breakdown Nudged him.
"Knockout..." He shoved the red mech.
"Lay it on him..." the blue mech said to Soundwave.
"KNOCKOUT!" Breakdown yells as Soundwave shocks Con medic back to his senses.
"Aaaaah!" Knockout was unpleasantly surprised. "Don't do that!"
"You zoned out on us for 5 whole kliks!" The blue mech explained.
"Really? The race only took like 3 kliks..." Knockout grinned when he remembered the female squishy's futile attempts to beat him. "You should have seen the looks on their faces!"
"Who's faces?" Breakdown was confusing.
"Why, the Fleshies of course!" The red mech chuckled. "Did they really think they could beat a bot at a race? Even if it was just a simulation."
Breakdown and Soundwave looked at eachother. The blue mech shrugged his shoulder as the communications officer shook his head.
"Foolish Knockout!" Megatron roared.
The Con Medic yelped, almost leaking on himself from fright. "Lord Megatron, Sir...H-how long have you been standing there?" He asked.
"Long enough to know..." The decepticon leader growled. "Should those fleshlings find out their new playmate is being controlled by a decepticon, no less; they can and will bust our scheme wide open!" The warlord snarled as the moisture from his vents fogged up the quarantine unit's transparent wall. "Did they or did they NOT notice it was you?"
"Oh No, your Radiancy! I blended right in!" Knockout quickly answered as Megatron was staring him down with a killing glare.
"You had better, Knockout..." The Warlord snorted menacingly before turning his back on him and stomping his way out of the Medical bay. "...and Soundwave?"
The silent mech looked up at his lord and master. "Report back to me immediately once you're done here." Soundwave silently nodded as Megatron left.
Once the Medbay doors were closed, Knockout slumped down as his pedes finally gave out after being ridiculously tense for way too long.
"You really have to kick that racing addiction of yours, Knockout, otherwise Megatron's gonna be using your altmode as a pedestal." The blue mech warned.
The red mech shuddered at the thought, considering how Megatron's armour is littered with sharp edges.
"Maybe it's best you just stick to trying to find the Autobot base." Breakdown suggested.
"I have been trying, I really have! But for some reason she hasn't been outdoors, and that's what has been making this so difficult in the first place." Knockout answered. "They've cloaked their base well, and without a view to the outside surroundings, I can't tell where it is."
"I guess it'll be a waiting game then...but Megatron hates waiting..." the blue mech added. "...well, besides you suffering spark burn from your intake down to your tank, you check out just fine. But after your little display, it's best you stay in there for a while until you can control it."
"I suggest you get started..." Soundwave finally said something, by way of a recorded voice clip of Megatron as he finished up on his notes and left as per Megatron's orders, leaving the two other mechs alone in the medbay.
Knockout was worried he messed up big this time. He did lie after all about not being discovered. He almost slipped up and called the human named Jack for 'squishy'.
The boy was awfully silent after that and in his peripheral knockout saw how he and the spectacled one signalled to one another about what just happened.
The con medic sat down on the berth and vented. Breakdown could see how he was worried, but he couldn't do anything for him now, but take over Knockout's job in the bay. Especially since several vehicons got injured during the red mech's energon expelling fiasco.
That night, Knockout decided to have a full recharge session. Something he hasn't had for several days now. Perhaps it was that; his processor must have been running on fumes and that could have been the cause of him slipping in and out of his own mind.
Or at least he tried to have a full and healthy recharge session...whereas he normally dreams of cruising along on wide open roads; insead he found himself in a peculiar location, one he hasn't seen before.
It looked like a forest, but not the ones he's seen. It had a drier feel to it, but not like the scorching heat of the desert around Jasper. His olfactory sensors could pick up the scent of saltpeter in the air, probability of the ocean being nearby.
There were various trees around tall ones short ones, and cacti...lots of them, as well as thorny bushes. He kept a mental note of these to keep his distance. Which was easy enough since the path he was on was pretty wide.
It was giving him an odd feeling though...is this supposed to be a different location on earth, or just another alien planet with similar flora?
He walked along for a while until he came across a local. It was a human, or at least it looked like a human.
The creature was what he assumed was the female of the species. She hasn't noticed him yet, because she was sitting on a rock and playing a flute.
She was a short small framed individual; long brown hair and green eyes. She had a simple set of clothes on: a T-shirt, a pair of denim, and some sneakers. Her hair was in a ponytail, leaving her bangs free to the whims of the soft breeze.
She was playing a nice tune, he had to admit. Relaxing and it fit the scenery well. The closer he got the more he noticed his perspective was distorting, or was it his processor failing him again?
Ever since he got here, he seemed to feel a lot smaller than what he would expect himself to be. Again; perhaps this is a larger similar planet?
When he was just a few feet away from her, did she notice him. The song stopped abruptly, she turned around to look at him. She stared for a bit before she spoke.
"You..." Her tone was laced with acid. "How did you get in here?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing...this was supposed to be my dream. Yet, I see no open road for me to cruise on...in peace." He retorted.
"No...this is my dream; My imaginary world, and you Knockout, have no business being in here!" She stood up and scowled at him.
"Do I know you?!" The red mech asked. "I never met you, how do you know who I am?"
"Yes you do, but you don't recognise me..."She answered."Why can't you just leave me be?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about, fleshie." Knockout answered. "But...*gasp"
The mech walked closer to her in defiance, and only then after looking her dead in her eyes did he notice.
"You're that Dragon!" He exclaimed in surprise.
"What do you want?!" Zucky demanded to know.
"I..." He scrambled for words. ["Okay, K.O...you got her attention. Don't slag it up!"] "I've come to tell you something...and to ask you something."
"Well? Get it over with, and go away." She crossed her arms as she wasn't buying it.
"Alright; did you do it on purpose?" He asked.
"I already told you; you're the one who's trespassing here, NOT me!" She growled and it seemed to echo all around them for a short moment.
"You don't have to shout, and that's not what I meant!" Knockout had to cover his audials.
"What did you mean then?" She lowered her tone a bit.
"Earlier today, temporarily lost control of my actions..." Knockout explained. "My audials were assaulted by an infernally loud frequency, the my voice box glitched out and then afterwards I started expelling energon beams out my intake...was that your doing?"
The girl thought for a moment...["A loud noise? A glitch in his voice box and spewing energon out his intake?"] "Can you describe the sound you were hearing?"
"It was like...what you humans call 'music', but horrendously loud." the red mech answered.
"Hmmm...what about the voice box glitch? What unusual sounds were you making?" She continued.
Knockout attempted and failed to accurately replicate the sound for some reason, but by the sound of it...it almost sounded like a robotic hiccup.
She began snorting and snickering.
"What's so funny?!" Knockout wanted to know.
"Yes...yes it was me; but it wasn't on purpose." Zucky finally answered. "Miko had the amplifier to her guitar on a way to high volume, and because I was in the middle of eating my food I almost choked, so I quickly swallowed. This triggered me into a fit of hiccups, that in turn somehow led me to start breathing fire."
The red mech just stood there slack jawed. ["What in the pits of Kaon?!"]
"And let me guess; it was you who took over when we were playing that videogame, huh?" Zucky asked.
"How did you...?" The con medic was about to ask, but got cut off. "You're not very good as you think you are at sneaking around, are you?"
She hopped down from her perch on the rock. "My friends told me all about it..." she closed the gap between them even more and stared him dead in the optics. They were eye level. "So, what is it you wanted to tell me?" She asked.
"Your friends already told you." He answered, still trying to make sense of wherever this place is, and by what logic it functions.
"Good, now leave..." Her tone was icy as she stepped back. "Now...or I WILL make you."
"How? I don't even know how I got here, let alone how I get out of here!" He pointed out.
"Psshh, that's what happens when you dabble in things you can't even begin to understand!" She reprimanded him.
"Watch you tongue squishy, I can still easily reduce you to meat paste!" The con medic retorted.
"Yeah, sure." She snorted and turned her back to him.
"Grrrr...alright, that's it!" He switched his servo for a saw blade and was just about to slice her to bits, when she turned around, grabbed the spinning blade with her hand, tore it out and tossed it aside.
Next she gave him a good firm punch to the faceplate, that sent him flying back several feet and skidding along the rough terrain, yet again ruining his paint job. All this without her hands bleeding or even bruising up!
The decepticon sat up quickly in surprise and disbelief. Zucky scowled at the con and snapped her fingers. This turned the tables on Knockout; he was now a human!
"Who are you?! What are you? Where are we?!" He was not thoroughly confused and then some.
"The name's Zucky, I am a human, and this is my subconscious. You should know that...after all, you're the one who keeps trying to poke around in my mind!" She answered.
"You're not a..." Knockout was about to correct her, but got cut off.
"I don't have to tell you anything. You've overstayed your welcome; Leave...now..." She warned.
"Not until you turn me back, you puny flesh heap!" The young man fumed.
"What a dumb-aft...Fine, I'll kick you out myself." She said underneath her breath.
"What?!" The con medic asked.
Zucky then little by little was morphing into her familiar dragon form, but soon became something more akin to the western dragons found in medieval lore; huge, more lizard-like than humanoid and fiercely ferocious! Her whole body covered in spikes and spines and the fire she spewed out at the young man melted the ground into magma where it hit.
The Decepticon turned human, quickly jumped out of the way to avoid being charred; unable to transform and make a speedy escape, Knockout was left running for his life through the thorn-ridden scorchy hell of a wasteland that the environment had turned into.
["I'm not in Jasper anymore, that's for sure!"] He thought as he ran and dodged fire bolts. ["*panting...How can these flesh bags keep running in these things?! I'm already so exhausted, but I gotta keep running!"]
Zucky who flew the whole way after Knockout decided to land in front of him.
"Oh, COME ON! How is this fair?!" He screamed as he tripped, fell over and hurriedly backpedaled.
"Now you know what it feels like..." The dragon snarled. "Get out, and never come back!" She stomped the ground which started an earthquake and split the ground open.
The con medic fell in and screamed the whole way down, landed on a roadway in his bot form with a loud metallic thud. He groaned as he got up.
When he recognised the environment, he quickly looked himself over and saw that he was back to normal.
"Oh, thank Primus!" He hugged himself. "I'm back!"
He wanted to go cruising right away, but found that his chassis really did hurt. He tried transforming, but found that it only caused him agonizing pain.
"What is this? What's going on?" He asked himself.
"Just making sure you learned your lesson, Frankenstein..." Zucky answered.
The con turned around quickly and had to take a few steps back. Zucky stood there behind him, but towered over him.
"Oh scrap..." the red mech whined. "Haven't you tortured me enough for one night?"
"I don't remember YOU being merciful when I begged...so, why should I?" She bent over and snatched him off the ground and held him in a vice-like grip.
"Because I learnt my lesson; don't go messing around in other's processors." He quickly blurted out.
"You know, for a Decepticon, you're a horrible liar." She simply said.
"But you kicked me out of your dream...isn't that what you wanted?" He grunted.
"Yeah, I suppose so..." Zucky looked around. "But If I ever find you poking around inside my brain, EVER again; Megatron ain't got nothing on me, ya little 'hot wheels' wannabe." She growled as she bore her teeth at him."Capiche?"
The mech nodded vigorously. "Hmph.. Good. However, to make sure you never try again..." Zucky placed him back down on the ground. "It's almost time to wake up..."
"Wait...what did you mean by...?" He was too late to ask, as Zucky disappeared from the location and he woke up.
"That?" He only saw the ceiling of the quarantine unit he was in.