Kia quickly scrambled up the platform of the old ship bound to the Earth after years of disuse, at least for flying purposes. It still has occupied by someone she needed help from. She got to the hall to main deck door which was unfortunately sealed. Debating her options, she knocked on it my throwing herself at and kicking off with her hands. When no response came, she changed to her Minicon form and kicked off the door multiple times until-
"Will you stop that racket?! I heard you the first time! Amelia, get the door!"
The doors suddenly opened and she waddled on all fours into the room. Many screens were activated on the main outlay while a captain's chair was positioned facing away from her. Only a servo twirling something was visible. A hawk-like Minicon swooped down from the rafters and perched on her master's chair. She screeched at Kia in curiosity.
"Kia, I take it this is another complaint from Max again? I'm trying to be good but you know me, I can't resist doing my job and reaping my due from those foolish humans. But if Max had a problem, he would have come personally...which means something is wrong. What did he do?"
Kia grunted and whined desperately, occasionally spinning in a circle to emphasize her eagerness.
The servo's flickering stopped and the chair spun around revealing a mech with faded red armor, a scratched out Autobot symbol on his shoulder, and specialized goggles on his head most likely used for precision in his surgeries. The mech could have fooled anyone about his age but he was younger than most expected, just shady and battle worn.
He gave a stern look at Kia, one that actually could have been concern if mistaken. "Max is injured badly? We're talking about the same Max here, right? Handsome human, pirate garb, doesn't like sex?"
Kia reluctantly nodded and the mech was taken back. Amelia, the hawk gave a whine of concern and looked between the two of them.
"Wow, that's a first! But why come to me? Max has imprisoned me once before because of my methods and practice of medicine as effective as it is, and now I'm on so called parole and all that nonsense. Why should I do him any favors?"
Kia pounded the ground with her hand and frantically growled. She gave off a shake of the head and sadly dipped it.
The mech looked down with some grief, "Tigressa got him. I take it he's not in permanent pain yet. I hate Tigressa more than him and you make a valid point about not being able to kill him myself under fair circumstances...fine, it's seven so bring him at nine and I'll have my assistants prepare the medbay for surgery."
Kia all but leaped into the air and he rolled his green optics.
"Yeah, yeah, get him ready and dose him with Midazolem throughout these next few hours. He may have a high tolerance for pain but if what I'm thinking happened did happen, you need to keep him calm or he'll spread the poison or the infection into hyperdrive. Given this isn't a normal wound you find from snake bites or flesh-eating bacteria, it works a little different. Also clean the wound if you can. Tigressa may not always kill her victims up close as planned but she often gets the ones that escape with life-threatening wounds. The only thing you can do now be there for him and slow it down."
She hastily ran off with a quick bow.
Amelia crowed and bobbed her head up and down.
"Yes, I know. Contact them and tell them we have an emergency. They'll be picky but they'll get over it."
Amelia flapped her wings and soared away.
Max was pumped with Midazolem to keep him calm for days which was a necessary risk. Kia and some of Zeliria's kid doctors brought him over around nine as promised and gave him to the good doctor's team of human surgeons. Kia was on edge putting Max in their care but it was the only option.
The doctor approached and activated his built-in medical face shield which would have frightened any nuns or children into having heart attacks. The face shield had the lower half over his mouth designed to look like a demon's mouth with sharp teeth and a cruel grin. His optics on the upper half were covered by a visor with completely red optical lens and that wasn't counting the goggles he had on his head waiting for their use.
"Hello Max, I am Doctor Sharpsteel. I know this sounds cheesy but I might as well make sure you somewhat understand who's going to be saving your sickly-sweet heroic body today."
Max was barely conscious and didn't replay, wincing as the cart he was on moved into the operating room. He had been stripped of his weapons and top clothing but his pants had remained for decency. On his left side, a huge gash spanning from part of the abdomen to right under his armpit bled. Part of his muscle and even a few bones could be seen but it wasn't the infliction of the gash itself that caused this, the muscle and skin tissue was being slowly corroded by a venom given from what caused the gash.
Sharpsteel didn't reflect it but it was obvious to Kia he looked a little disgusted at the damage. Kia and the kid doctors that followed her went up to one of the high rooms to watch the surgery as the medbay was closed off and sealed for contamination prevention. Amelia the Cybertronian ripple-wing hawk landed beside them and gave Kia a nod of comfort. Kia felt no hostility towards her.
The doctors and nurses working with Sharpsteel transferred Max's body carefully onto the prepared medical table as Sharpsteel took his place beside it. His goggles activated and slid over his visor, one lens contracting to get a better look at the injury.
"Tigressa's claws struck him aiming for his chest, missed and skimmed his side. Left kidney is in the path of the infection and the outer muscle is already corroding. Skin is less damaged and can be stopped if the edges around it are cut but the kidney and muscle needs to be removed. Rodriguez, you and Dalton prepare a skin and muscle donor. Blood type B+ and skin color being...eh...let's go with Caribbean light brown as I have no idea what you humans named all the skin shades. Something to almost match if not outright if you could please."
The two nurses nodded and exited through a door unseen to their left. Kia was somewhat curious as to where they went and what was meant by "donor" but Sharpsteel had a history and it wasn't a pretty one. Another doctor came about Max's right side and put a breather mask over Max's mouth and nose pumping anesthesia.
"Deep breath."
Max was out in no time and both doctors and nurses put breathing tubes down his airway as Sharpsteel made his servo bring out thin sterilized claws to help him deal with the more delicate procedures.
"Damn Max, it's a shame you have no sex drive. Do you know how many people you would make happy, all the porn promotions you could get?" Sharpsteel laughed.
One of the doctors grew slightly annoyed. "Flirting with a patient, Doctor? That's a little low."
"Low, yes. Being able to get away with it because I actually kept my license after my discharge, also yes. Maybe if you didn't intentionally kill your patients more than you save them, you could get away with it too. Speaking of which, no killing him. We need him alive, got it, lover boy?"
"Bite me."
"Okay, I need one of you to take a liter of Energon and mix it with Black Mamba venom antidote," he then said.
One of the nurses looked at him with some confusion. "But I thought he had an infection and it's not snake venom."
Sharpsteel sighed, "No, it isn't which is why I'm giving him venom antidote hyped up with Energon. Tigressa's venom in her claws isn't a common venom. Very few species on Kanjis can produce it and it's not like I can go there to get the anti-venom now, is it? Snake venom is the closest match to the venom's chemical structure despite being dispersed differently. It's close enough though where there is a chance it'll work if the overlay is a malleable healing solution like Energon."
"Isn't Energon poisonous to humans?" A doctor asked.
"Very, but with bonding to an exterior medicine, it becomes less lethal and more chemical boosting for the medicine it bonds with. He'll still need treatment for the Energon infusion afterwards but that is the easy part. I suggest if you want to keep your jobs you get on it as soon as possible please?"
Both the nurse and the doctor nodded and quickly went int a storage freezer to the left.
Slowly, Sharpsteel used the tips of his claws to cut parts of the dead muscle out while the other doctors opened the skin outward more to give him room. As they did this, the monitors keeping track of all Max's vitals kept blaring he was dead.
The mech growled, "Will someone shut that damn monitor up! He's not dead. His heart doesn't work the same since he died in in the 1700's. This is not a normal patient. Neither this poison nor the infection will kill him but it'll be a very painful deterioration if we don't stop it. I want my enemy to die fighting, not bedridden."
One of the nurses turned the alarm off and Kia stared at all of the visible operation. She felt slightly queasy at seeing her best friend like this and when one of the kids put a hand on her shoulder, she nearly jumped.
"Hey Kia, maybe you should head out, get some fresh air to get your mind off of things. It's stressful, I know, but you need to be calm," Macie, the head doctor of Zeliria, said.
In dementor form, she crawled along the floor on her hands away from the screens and the window, shaking her head to drown out what she had just witnessed. Amelia walked over to her to make sure she was okay before flying to the side. Then she noticed a door to her left and Amelia gesturing for her to go in. It was untouched but it was the same direction leading to the area those two nurses went. Sharpsteel was way too preoccupied to stop her so she took Amelia's tip off and slipped into a vent on the wall, making her way through the wall until she confirmed she reached the other side. Amelia followed.
Popping out, she kept her surroundings in check like meerkat before following the hall to an elevator. Going in with Amelia, she clicked her nails against her skin uneasily as it descended. The hawk made a silly face in an attempt to cheer her up. She was half expecting elevator music given Sharpsteel's humor. When the doors opened, she and the hawk sneaked to the side near some empty cages. This was Sharpsteel's cargo bay. Kia was now afraid.
There were stories about him, some from his home on Cybertron, many on Earth dating to the early 1920's. And each story was true to her horror as to Max's. Sharpsteel seemed suave and caring but he was a monster and a murderer. On the contrary, it could be argued he was technically doing what his victims wanted. It was those tales she sometimes wished she could forget.
Sharpsteel was once a doctor at the Iacon Regional Hospital and a well-respected one. He was a child prodigy of medicine and could rival even the older, more experienced doctors. But Sharpsteel liked to play mind games as in deal fronts. He had a method and the deals he offered were given after he cured or treated a patient completely. The first deal he offered was standard: pay up front or pay in segments like normal billing and he wouldn't bother that person ever again...unless they didn't pay which was a different ordeal altogether. The second deal he offered was instead of paying, do him a favor or two when he called upon the patient in later time, a request of sorts.
Most people obviously thought the favor meant "free" but they learned the hard way why "free" isn't always good. When the time came, Sharpsteel would call upon the patients and if they didn't respond, he always tracked them down one way or another. Something had to be paid in return for his services. When they came to his private office or ship, practically all of them never left it.
Experiments in science and medicine were a hobby of Sharpsteel's and it varied on severity of what happened to each victim. He conducted various experiments like brain transplants to bodies less compatible and challenged himself to see how long he could keep them alive, other experiments included but were not limited to horrific permanent transformations, mix-n-match creatures, organ pressure testing, mind transcendence, genetic crossbreeding, and disease study. Those who did escape, which were so very few, were often driven insane by the torture. When they did escape and when they were found, they were ignored and put into mental hospitals from the trauma.
Sharpsteel was eventually found out on Cybertron and hunted down but nobody managed to catch him. He coincidentally ended up on Earth in early 1921 where he disguised himself as an ambulance. There was a reason ambulance supported the odd heartbeat sign used today and it wasn't the actual heartbeat. The doctor had patterns akin to it on his arms and shoulder which were just for decoration but it inspired the monitor wavelengths to be programmed to read the heart that way because of him.
His time on Earth allowed him to research and treat humans, becoming the only Cybertronian able to understand more about humans than most all human doctors in the world. Then again, he had no restrictions unlike paid professionals so he had access to all the humans he needed and could push them far beyond what was considered ethical which allowed him to discover many cures and treatments earlier than their initial discovery but of course, what was the point of being considered the best doctor in the world if everyone knew the same thing he did?
Like on Cybertron, many humans fell for his ruse and turned victim after they thought they had been saved and the few lucky souls remained in insane asylums for their trouble. He didn't lure them the same way though. He befriended a nurse as sadistic as he was, it was even rumored it was a romance. Betty Forrester helped him play to victim's bleeding hearts, cured them, then used their proven healthiness to conduct his experiments. Those who escaped reffered to him by a nickname he himself never uses but it hit the papers several times: Dr. Satan.
It was easy to see why. The red armor, the etched facial battle mask with teeth, and the fact he was an ambulance in disguise. Who would believe a being such as him could exist? And that wasn't all.
Over the years, many movies became better with graphics, plot, and overall design and certain genres like sci-fi, horror, and thriller became a cesspool for new ideas for the medical books. Horror was the doctor's favorite genre. Whenever a monster flick or a science-gone-wrong theme came to theaters, he made sure to watch it. It gave him new ideas for experiments. Werewolves, human centipedes, human-eating plants, name it and he probably did it after seeing a movie about it. Most experiments died as the humans and Cybertronians weren't meant to endure such gruesome enhancements but those that survived couldn't leave without being rejected from society or killed.
Sharpsteel did care about at least one thing: the right diagnosis. He would never outright kill anybody suffering from diseases or other illnesses. He would try to cure or treat them. If they paid per the first offer he gave them, he let them go live their life because they paid their debt to him. That also was interesting that he would risk his existence just to do his job and get an even repayment in return, letting a human who knows he isn't from Earth wander free. Perhaps there was something about him forgivable but it was on thin ice.
Amelia grunted low and gestured for Kia to follow. The dementor kept close even as the hawk began to slow and creep beside the row of cages. About those cages, why were they here? Kia glanced at the rows of metal lined boxes and they came in all shapes and sizes. Some were large enough to fit three Optimus Primes in them while others were about as big as-
"Please!"
A woman's voice echoed in the farther area of the cargo hold and both Amelia and Kia tried to quickly get to the location of the sound. As they drew closer, more mumbling and panicked whimpering could be heard as well indicating there wasn't just one person down here. Amelia turned a corner and since they were both black in coloring, she and Kia blended against the shadowed cages quite well and had enough of a view to see...humans.
Several men and women along with a few Minicons and one large sauropod Dinobot in the back cried in cages, some stacked on top of one another. The cages were sanitary but they had fur-lined cuffs to prevent wrist burns and the cages had solid bottoms to prevent any incidents that could make the victim on the bottom feel less "comfortable." Some of them were already losing their minds and in fetal positions while others frantically banged against the bars, screaming for someone to hear and save them.
Kia was extremely tempted to do just that when Amelia's wing stopped her and she was given a sad shake of the head. It wasn't that Amelia didn't want to save them, she knew she couldn't and Kia knew why.
Just then, two voices talking and walking up made both Kia and Amelia freeze to not give away their locations. The two nurses they had seen leave strode up to a certain row and one named Dalton, a blonde apparently since he no longer had his hair scrub, held up a chart.
"Seven patients have blood type B+ and only two have nearly identical skin color. Those are current Patients 34 and 59. Patient 34 has been banging his head against the wall so I'm not certain we should take him which leaves Patient 59."
The one called Rodriguez nodded but before he could say anything, a hand grabbed his ankle and he peered down at a young woman who had tear streaks all down her face with faded mascara lines which indicated she had been there for at least a few days.
"P-please let me go! I'll do any-anything! Please! Please!"
Kia expected the man to kick her off but instead her crouched down and gave her a cold stare, "Why should I?"
"I-I-I I'll give you money! I'm rich! I'll pay anything-anything y-you ask if you let me go! I have a daughter! Baby girl!" The woman pleaded.
Rodriguez gestured for Dalton to give him the medical charts and skimmed through it to find her page. He did a little reading until he found something and gave her a smirk of ill intent.
"Well, it says here you were treated for pancreatitis and he treated you. When he offered you a chance to get payment plan when you said you didn't have the money, what was that you said again? 'My presence alone should be rewarding enough'? Mmm well, your presence has been rewarding. Hearing you cry at night in this cage is music to my ears."
"No no no no, I-I have to get back to my daughter!" She sobbed. "I'm sorry! No no, I'm sorry!"
Rodriguez slammed the charts against her bars and she scrambled backwards to the other end. "You had your chance, but you couldn't keep your goddamn mouth shut for five seconds, you entitled bitch! Now pay for it!"
Most people in the cages grew quiet after that with only small mutterings to be distinguishable among the silence.
"Huh?! Isn't that why you all are here?! Because you couldn't get your heads out of your asses and you though 'oh a favor, I get a free surgery! Dur-hur-hur!' You aren't laughing now, are you? Everything has a price, and now you pay with your lives. Now if you'll excuse us, we have a job to do. Dalton, get Patient 59 and kill him, transfer his body to Surgery Room Two."
Dalton narrowed his eyes, "Kill him? We only need to operate on him to remove some muscle and skin."
The other nurse scoffed, "He's useless if he's missing parts of his body now. Doctor Sharpsteel needs completely healthy patients and they have to be the way they come in for the favor. That means if anything happens to them between their call in and the experiment, they're useless. They're assigned a certain experiment once he has them for a reason. 59 is supposed to be used for...heart testing and conscious surgery...yikes, bastard's better off dead anyways. Removing the skin and muscle may affect even the slightest data for that experiment and Sharpsteel doesn't like his data slightly off."
"Yes but-"
"Just do it! You're the famous butcher of Lavender Penitentiary! You've done this like a hundred times, have you not?"
Dalton sighed and snapped his fingers awkwardly before heading beyond the visible line of sight for Kia and Amelia. They suddenly heard a man shout in fear before it turned into a deadly cry as the sound of something sharp and big cut through him multiple times. Neither two femmes moved and then there was whistling and a door opened on the other side. The shadow of a man dragging a headless body through the door was visible even from several rows of cages.
Kia and Amelia were horrified but it was Amelia who stepped forward and ran past the cages to the right. Kia reluctantly followed and several hands tried to grab her when she went through one row. Scared, she backed away only to get pulled by the hawk into a small room.
She growled in a peeved manner but that was forgotten when she looked at the wall of the room. Flight memorabilia from the 1930's from the pilot's leather aviator gear to the wide goggles and faded black boots in the corner. Pictures of multiple fliers in the 1930's were also hung on the wall, and many of those were of Amelia Earhart. News articles of her flight, her disappearance, and of her partner, Fred Noonan also missing were headlines and it became one of the most famous missing persons cases in the United States. Bones had been found at Nikumaroro and they were hers but nobody knew what killed her.
Nobody except Max, Sharpsteel, Amelia, and her. Turning towards Amelia with sadness and pity, the hawk Minicon merely blinked in thought before pulling a drawer open with her beak and pulling out a key. She handed it to Kia and nodded. The dementor pawed at the key and still stared at Amelia.
Nobody did know and no one will ever know. Amelia Earhart didn't die on that island, only her body. When she and her navigator flew over the Pacific, they were nabbed by Sharpsteel. Noonan was killed by accident and her plane was thrown overboard to crash into the ocean off the coast of Nikumaroro but Sharpsteel kept her. He apparently heard in an interview once that she compared herself to a hawk or an eagle and somehow, he got an idea for his next project from that.
As if reading her mind to remember what she was told truly happened that day, Amelia took a data drive from below the low riding table and flew up to place it in the port. Activating the screen and catching the file, a video began to play. There was sound though it was kind of corrupted for years of disuse. The video started with Amelia Earhart strapped to a table, a cameraman was obvious by the unsteadiness of the video and he stood on the end of the table, and Sharpsteel, in lighter coloring, was walking up to the table.
"Is it going?" Sharpsteel asked.
"Yes sir, it's rolling," a feminine voice replied. It was probably the nurse, Betty, who helped him in the 30's.
"Good! Hello Amelia, I hope I didn't keep you waiting."
"Terrible first date line! Hope you don't expect a kiss," she snarled as she struggled.
"No, nothing like that. I like to make my victims at least a little cooperative. It's not always fun to talk to wailing idiots. But you're no idiot, my dear. You are a very talented flier for someone who has no wings, maybe you'd even give Starscream a run off. I heard you like birds, hawks and eagles?"
Amelia tried her hardest not to panic and cry, keeping her voice as steady as possible. "Yeah, what's it to you?"
"How would you like to be a hawk? Does that sound alright because I have a pet Minicon bird who has lived her life and now I think it's time to put her down and get a new one. Problem is...she needs a new processor and I can't find anything that suits her," Sharpsteel smirked.
The camera panned to the Minicon's body lifelessly on an adjacent table with its head open with no processor and it matched the same Minicon who stood next to Kia to at tee and was staring at the footage with little more than disappointment.
Sharpsteel talked for a few moments until he sat on a stool below the table near her head to give him the perfect angle. It wasn't until he started cutting into her skull that she screamed and Kia even winced at the sound. After two grueling minutes of blood curling torture did the cries suppress when her brain was removed and quickly placed into the awaiting empty helm of the Minicon.
The video's view of the second part of the operation wasn't the best but if one looked close, they could see Sharpsteel placing cabling in the brain and other little parts probably to process the Energon without destroying the brain. Five minutes and abruptly, the Minicon awoke and grew frantic trying to flap its wings and kick away from the table even with its skull open. Sharpsteel held her down and began speaking low to soothe her.
"Amelia, Ameliiaaa, you need to calm down or you're going to hurt yourself which would be a big letdown if the world's bravest woman of air can't handle a little pain. Relax and let me finish!"
She was strapped down to the table the first chance he got and panted with a few bird-like screeches following.
The clip suddenly ended and Kia shook from her state of mind, glancing over at the real Amelia Earhart before her. Amelia cooed and expanded her wings with distinguishable grief. She didn't like being trapped in a body that wasn't hers, especially living beyond normal human years. If Kia could recall, she was the longest living experiment he had ever successfully done. Eventually, she would pass but so far, she was kicking and decent.
Kia's gems lit up and she perked up. That was her summon to return to her master. Amelia saw it too and crowed in understanding it was a hopeful sign. The two silent beings nodded at each other and sped off back to the observation room over the surgery.
By the time she got back, Max was no longer down below and the nurses were cleaning up. She had no idea how long she was in the cargo hold but Macie ran up to her seemingly happy.
"Kia, they just finished up! Sharpsteel says it may be a few hours before he's awake but the surgery was a success! The venom's been countered and all the infected parts have been removed and replaced! He even got a new kidney too! Come on!"
Kia didn't hesitate to follow her but Amelia stayed in observation in thought.
Max felt numb, hungry, and thirsty when he awoke which made him irate. He noted the mass to his right curled in a ball on his bed. Kia would always be there for him and that brought a small smile to his face at this indescribable moment. She was asleep so that gave him time to take in his surroundings. There were empty beds on both sides of him but he was also on a platform with railing in front of him and the surrounding walls and ceiling were grey and metal.
He had no clue where he was.
"Ah, I see you've finally awakened."
He knew that voice and he resisted the urge to groan. "Sharpsteel. I'm either in your ship or in your lab, can't tell."
The mech approached from the left side and took a seat next to the balcony holding the human sized beds. He placed an elbow on the platform and leaned his chin against his servo. Amelia flew beside him and perched on the railing with a soft screech. Kia woke and purred at the sight of Max but kept an eye on Sharpsteel.
"Amelia," Max acknowledged. "One minute I felt like I was being torn apart by Tigressa, the next I'm here in your care. What did you do?"
"I saved the rest of your body. The venom was deteriorating your skin, and your kidney and side muscle around your waist and lower ribs were damaged in your battle. I managed to stop the venom with Energon-infused Mamba antidote, your kidney and muscles were replaced with the help of a donor, and your skin was grafted in segments also with a donor. Your muscles will need some time to heal before you can work them into shape and I suggest not going shirtless for a while. The patches of skin given were not an identical match as much as we thought so it'll be off until your scars are settled. It should then blend a bit better with the rest of your body."
Max frowned and sat up, ignoring the slight twinge of discomfort that followed. He lifted off the cover to see his left side and sure enough, there weren't just multiple grafts but there was a lighter shade of skin bridging from parts of his abdomen to the side of his pectoral and upper ribs where the venom had been stopped. He lifted his arm and could feel the tenseness of the muscle in the shoulder, ribs, and waist.
He immediately glared at Sharpsteel who only raised his eyebrows in return unmoved. "Who did you kill for this?"
The mech shrugged, "Someone you'll never see at an organ donor party in the future, that's for sure. I did it to help you, mainly because Kia begged me to help you knowing no other hospital could counteract an alien venom as strong as that."
"You killed an innocent person and you gave me their parts against their will?"
Sharpsteel tsked and shook a finger, "If my memory is correct, Patient 59, who you can give your blessing to by the way, chose his fate. He chose to do me a favor and my favor was him to sacrifice his body to help another. He repaid his debt so legally I did nothing he didn't agree to. I even tell my patients my favors can be deadly flat out but they don't care! They somehow see the opportunity as free even though I make sure they understand the fine print of what I'm asking.
"I, of course, don't tell them about the experiments but I do warn that every favor can lead to death, injury, or permanent damage and it is written in the contracts they sign. So, if you were to look at this from a legal point of view, they gave me their lives willingly and I use them as I state I intend to. I am untouchable in court or by federal law. I can even prove it by giving any government that tries me each and every document that clearly states since they refuse to pay, they are bound to repay 'by a favor of my choice regardless of risks of injury, death, or dismemberment.' It says that, no joke."
Max shook his head in disbelief, "Unbelievable."
"And speaking of payment," the mech smirked, "you and I need to talk about your medical bills."
"I'll pay immediately. There's no fucking way you are getting any favors from me."
Sharpsteel looked unamused. "You really take the fun out of my work, you know that?"
Max then produced his own smile, "Or what if I add a third option to the table: a trade?"
This caught the doctor's attention and he cocked his helm to the side. "I'm listening."
"I know you have mostly Autobot medical equipment you kept through the years but what about Decepticon? If I told you I have Decepticon medical equipment including a couple of cortical psychic patches, what would you say if I gave them to you instead of paying. Fair trade?"
The mech chuckled darkly, "I like that but you're going to be the only one I'll let do this you know because it wouldn't be fair to me if I can't get any patients now, can it? We have a deal. Bring that equipment to me as soon as possible and I'll clear your debt."
Max nodded as Sharpsteel stood up and began to walk away. He cuddled Kia who rubbed up against him in glee and he pressed his forehead against hers in return.
"Oh and Max?"
The human stopped and stared.
Sharpsteel grew into a cocky expression. "If Kia's going to keep that key to the cargo bay doors, make sure you don't misuse it and press my ire. I'm willing to vanquish your debt but if I lose any of my cargo, I will not be so lenient the next time you are injured. I may just even watch as you bleed out before I kill you myself."
Max gave a confused glance at Kia who shrunk before noticing Amelia bowing her head in shame. He had not a clue what those two did but Sharpsteel knew about it and he was in the middle of it.
"Okay, what did you two do?"
AN: I've been meaning to bring this character out. He's a horrible Transformer but he's the best doctor in the world. I had to.