All of Kaon broke loose when the autobots attacked, so the cons had to rapidly switch from mining to fighting as they desperately tried to fend their enemies off so they could escape with whatever they had acquired. Breakdown had opened up a groundbridge for Starscream and a few vehicons to escape through, and Knockout tried to follow suit, but almost got shot!
Transforming he passed by the two spectating cons as he sped off in the opposite direction of the incoming blasts. Future Knockout didn't know where to put his faceplate as his lord watched him run away instead of fighting back, as he shrunk in anticipation of what Megatron's reaction might be.
The Aston Martin pushed the pedal to the metal to quickly reach the bridge, but Bumblebee got in his way. He snarled for the Scout to get out of his way as he kept going, thinking he could either mow him down, or knock him out of the way.
But the yellow Autobot didn't oblige and managed to grab hold of the red car's front bumper, and whilst digging his heel struts in, he managed to successfully skid Knockout to a halt! Megatron's Optical ridge raised a bit as he observed the little scout in the field, most likely taking notes for future battles.
The medic right next to him, however, was hoping to Primus himself that the warlord would grow bored of this particular memory and skim past it. Even though he knew Megatron wasn't going to, probably.
Past Knockout wasn't going to give up that easily as he kept pouring it on the acceleration; but so wasn't Bumblebee as he pushed the red car back, grabbed him underneath the front bumper and flipped him over backwards violently!
Knockout was sent flying backwards, because the scout put his back strut into that throw, but the Aston Martin landed though, he transformed back to bot mode and landed on his peds, to avoid damage. Future Knockout had almost forgotten about this part of the memory, he was feeling pretty proud of his agility, but it didn't last long, because the part he dreaded has come.
He saw his past self charge towards the Autobot scout, but stopped halfway and started holding his helm in pain!
["Oh, Scrap..."] He thought. ["It has begun!"]
Bumblebee had his blaster trained on his target, but wasn't shooting. He must have been caught off guard, but was still being careful in case the Con medic was faking it. Past Knockout blamed Bumblebee for his helmache, claiming that the yellow bot was making the horrible sounds he was hearing, but the scout had no idea what he was going on about.
Megatron being a spectator didn't hear anything, but was curious to know and briefly shared minds with the past Knockout, just so he could sample the sound he claimed to hear. Megatron soon regretted it, he felt it scraping away at his very spark and quickly cut the connection before his processor started melting!
"AAAARGH! What was that?!" The warlord asked his medic.
"I don't know...I believe it must have been that dragon again." The red bot answered him.
"So, the audial connection wasn't completely severed after all..." Megatron thought out loud as he rubbed his ringing audials to ease the pain.
Turning their attention to the memory, they noticed Past Knockout's voicebox started glitching out in a very unusual way; Violently blipping erratically for no apparent reason!
The future medic noticed Megatron looking at him in the corner of his optics. ["Why couldn't the earth just swallow him now and get it over with?!"]
The Con medic roared for Bumblebee to stop whatever this new torture method was, and got up; tripped the Autobot with a sharp kick, before he equipped his Energon Prod and went to town on the poor scout with it, emphasizing his every word with a shock to the yellow bot'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. Knockout managed to get away, barely maintaining his vehicle mode stable, because of the glitch in his system that was making his motor violently kick off and he was blasting bursts of energon out of unnatural places.
The battle was breaking up, and Megatron saw the opportunity to run into the groundbridge before it closed, Future Knockout closely following him. The Groundbridge closed after them.
On the Nemesis, the fits the Con medic was having didn't cease; 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.
He damaged several equipment, and vehicons in the process, so they had to lock him up in his own quarantine chamber. This went on for several minutes before it just suddenly stopped as mysteriously as it began.
Breakdown and Soundwave were looking over Knockout. The blue bot conversed with the con medic, asking him about what just happened as Soundwave took notes on what he heard.
"I trust some of the information gathered in this session has greatly aided you in your research, Soundwave." Megatron said as he was looking at Soundwave's notes. "Report to me your updated findings, later."
"...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.
Megatron switched to first person view this time in an attempt to read what the medic was thinking. Having done so he heard Breakdown's voice grow more muffled as the Con medic's vision grew dark and was replaced by Zucky's own.
He found himself sitting on a couch with the other fleshies. He saw Bulkhead's pet; Miko, holding a primitive video game controller. She was busy picking a level and a virtual vehicle form. Looking at his own 'hands' he saw that he was the dragon again.
She only has three clawed fingers, and she was holding a second controller. It seems she was going to participate in a virtual race against the other fleshie. She rubbed her head and eyes a bit, perhaps she felt Knockout's presence, but she didn't think any more about it.
The other fleshies were suspicious about it, however; The one named Jack asked if she was feeling okay, to which Knockout bumbled his words a bit and almost called the boy for 'squishy', but dodged a bullet. But he wasn't out of the smelter yet, as he asked the boy if his name was indeed Jack!
After the little racing game was over, a racing game that Knockout did inhumanly well at, Megatron found himself back on the Nemesis. Breakdown was having a hard time waking Knockout up from his daze, but after a quick and painful shock from soundwave, the medic was back and complaining about the blue bot's methods.
"You zoned out on us for 5 whole kliks!" Breakdown explained.
"Really? The race only took like 3 kliks..." Knockout grinned . "You should have seen the looks on their faces!"
Megatron's face took on a grim expression upon hearing Knockout boast after possibly blowing his cover wide open.
"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.
Megatron saw his past self enter the medbay.
"Foolish Knockout!" The warlord roared.
The Con Medic yelped, almost leaking on himself from fright. "Lord Megatron, Sir...H-how long have you been standing there?" He asked.
Future Megatron shot his medic a glare, having remembered this part. Knockout was hiding this from him, wasn't he?!
"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.
LIES! ALL LIES! HE JUST SAW IT HIMSELF! Megatron loomed over his medic.
"You dare lie to my faceplate, Knockout?!" He roared.
The red bot shrinks back and becomes completely speechless.
"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.
"Care to explain, what that was about?!" The warlord surprisingly repeated himself, but grabbed hold of Knockout's chestplating and pulled him closer, in case the medic could only squeak out an explanation.
"You really have to kick that racing addiction of yours, Knockout, otherwise Megatron's gonna be using your altmode as a ped stool." The blue mech warned.
"Uh...Look lord Megatron, This is what I was talking about! How these organics are able to manipulate these simulations." The red con tried changing the subject.
"This had better be worth it, otherwise that ped stool alt-mode would only make up a part of your worries!" The warlord growled and dropped Knockout.
Megatron decided to slip into first person again to make sure Knockout wasn't hiding anything else. He found himself in a peculiar location, one he hasn't seen before. It did look like an Earth location, however. It felt like a semi-desert area close to the ocean.
He walked along for a while until he came across a female human. She hasn't noticed him yet, because she was sitting on a rock and playing a flute. She looked to be smaller than the average human; not that it mattered much to the warlord, and had long brown hair and green eyes. Her hair was in a ponytail, leaving her bangs free to the whims of the soft breeze.
She seemed familiar...somehow...
The closer he got to her, the more he noticed his perspective was distorting. He felt a lot smaller than what he would expect himself to be. When he was just a few feet away from her, she finally noticed him. The song stopped abruptly, as she turned around to look at him. She stared for a bit before she spoke.
Her reaction to him was hostile, and she seemed to know him; or Knockout in this case. Knockout argued with her for a while, claiming that she infiltrated his dreams, and not the other way around. The human female begged to differ.
Knockout claimed he didn't know her, but she told him that he does, but he just doesn't recognise her as she was at that moment. This is where Megatron's sensors went off. SHE! She's the dragon! No wonder they sort of looked alike.
It took the con medic long enough, but he finally drew the same conclusion.
"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.
Megatron realised what Knockout meant earlier, with how the humans can manipulate their dreams.
Knockout demanded she stopped shouting and elaborated on his question, it being about how his whole system glitched out at the mines. The girl asked for an example of what happened.
["She did not know what was happening..."] Megatron realised. ["She's able to manipulate Knockout, but unless she's at his same location, she cannot know what's going on around him?"]
After Knockout attempted to provide the human with the examples she requested, she began snorting and snickering.
"What's so funny?!" Knockout wanted to know.
"Yes...yes it was me; but it wasn't on purpose." The girl 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."
["What in the pits of Kaon?"] Megatron was clearly expecting a whole lot more to make a Cybertronian's systems glitch like she made Knockout's do.
"And let me guess; it was you who took over when we were playing that videogame, huh?" She asked.
Oh...
"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?" The girl asked.
my...
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.
Primus!
"KNOCKOUT!" Megatron roared.
They were eye level. "So, what is it you wanted to tell me?" She asked.
The warlord was reminded of the question he had asked Knockout before, but got distracted to view this memory instead.
["Oh scrap..."] The red bot thought as he accidentally leaked transmission fluid. Are all the forces in the known universe against him today, or what?!
"Your friends already told you." Past Knockout answered the girl.
The two argue for a moment, until Knockout loses his temper, going in for the kill only for the girl to grab the spinning saw blade with her hand, tore it out and tossed it aside. Next punched his faceplate, that sent him flying back several feet and skidding along the rough terrain!
It seems that the laws of reality did not count in the 'dream world', because doing all that would have resulted in her injuring herself, but she remained unscathed. The human also displayed the ability to transmogrify both herself and other individuals in here.
"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 proclaimed when past Knockout, confused as he was, asked several questions trying to make sense of the situation he was in.
What followed afterwards was past Knockout running for his life until he woke up from what seemed to have been a bad dream. At least it was enough to quell the Warlord's murderous tendencies just a smidge; long enough to sit through several memories before he got to Knockout's most recent little adventure. The so-called clever little scheme that required peace and quiet...
Darkness...as far as the eyes can see. Something seemed wrong...or at least it's what it felt like. This memory seemed blank for some reason.
"This is an fleshy's processor, while it is in stasis mode." The con medic explained. "I thought it was a blank dream at first, but when I prodded further, I realised that it was different."
"What happened to her, then?" The warlord asked.
"It was at this point that I tried a lighter, less detectable manual Override; this earned me a terrible burning sensation all over the front of my chassis. She had suffered severe metal burn due to a round of cube going wrong." Knockout answered. "I searched her memory for that bit of information and checked if there was anything about her location, but apparently Optimus Prime told her to keep her eyes closed, so she also has no idea how to get to the base."
Megatron walked over to the sleeping dragon just a short distance away.
"If only I could grasp her miserable little carcass and pull her out of here, and be done with it already!" He snarled.
"Wakey Wakey..." The decepticon leader heard a familiar voice ring out in the dark silence.
He lifted his gaze and looked up at a young man approaching them. Knockout's fleshy looking dream avatar was back. Megatron looked at his robotic medic that was standing next to him.
"With her in such a weakened state, I just couldn't let the opportunity pass me by, my lord." He said with a sadistic smirk. "She was mentally vulnerable, and Revenge is a dish best served cold' after all. I just couldn't help myself!"
"Mind games, Knockout?" The warlord asked as he watched the memory unfold.
"Getting into the creature's mind, compared to all previous times was a whole lot easier this time. Besides, I'm not only a weight-loss surgeon and aerodynamic specialist; my medical skills meant I've performed Mnemo Surgery several times before; I've mastered the art of rewriting memories." The medic boasted. "I've always did find torturing my patients rather amusing."
The two decepticons stood there watching the memory play out. Past Knockout takes out all his anger on the now human version of the dragon for what she's done to him in a very short span of time. He was determined and was going to make her pay for each and every one of her transgressions.
He was about to run her over with his vehicle mode, until he apparently crashed into what looked like an invisible wall with all the speed and force the con had mustered, and it had knocked him clean out of his vehicular mode!
Megatron who was calmly observing the memory cocked an optical ridge at what he just saw. Was it the dragon who did this? Was she finally recovering? She did apparently hear him hit the wall, but she couldn't see him? Past Knockout started hitting the wall with all his strength. Punching and kicking mercilessly at it. The girl noticed this and picked up a small yellow vehicle and ran off with it. That small yellow vehicle stuck out to the warlord. It almost reminded Megatron of Bumblebee.
But she apparently named it after the Autobot scout's little pet; Rafael, was it? Past Knockout seemed to have changed tactics at this point; He tried negotiating with the human after he just made it abundantly clear he did not have her safety or best interests at spark?!
The warlord had no idea how the medic was going to achieve that, but was still curious about it, and continued viewing.
The con medic very smoothly segued into the topic of what qualities the organic had, that made her a perfect candidate for a decepticon. Unsurprisingly though, the girl refused. Next, past Knockout made his point all the more clearer in reminding her how much power he really was in possession of, by puppeteering her around. Even stooping down to coos and calling her pet names, with the excuse that he's practically her sire?!
The creature wasn't at all amused however, (so wasn't Megatron to be honest), and after she gave Past Knockout a piece of her mind, and the yellow vehicle destroyed what was left of the medic's patience, the torture session continued.
After a while, despite all she's been through, the human somehow, Primus only knows why; The human managed to start chuckling?
Needless to say; the medic didn't take it very well, and turned the background into that of the storm-stricken skies with them standing on the deck of the Nemesis.