Just a short little drabble. Occurs some time before Predaking reveals his intelligence and ability to transform. And Breakdown lives. Nuff said.
"How did you do that?!"
"Do what?" Breakdown answered.
"That!" Starscream pointed at the massive Predacon aboard the flight deck of the Nemesis, currently rolling around atop a crushed train boxcar.
"You told it to stop chewing on the communication's array, and it actually listened! It didn't even attack you! It never does that with me."
"Oh, that." Now Breakdown understood what the seeker was talking about.
"How did you do it?" Starscream demanded.
"There's nothing to it." He shrugged. "Just gotta be nice."
"Nice?" Starscream pronounced it odd, like it was the first time in his existence that he ever used that word. Correction, like it was the first time he had even heard of the strange concept.
"Yeah, you know, it's that thing you do when you don't act like a jerk."
Starscream scoffed and began pacing back and forth.
"What an idiotic idea. Megatron didn't get his army by being nice. Hmmph, I didn't get to where I am by being nice. The lies I've told, the lives I've ruined, the-"
He paused mid-rant, realizing that Breakdown was looking at him, confusion across his features. He also noticed that during his pacing, he had ended up closer to the Predacon. It started growling at him threateningly. The seeker shuddered and backed away swiftly. He could swear it looked smugly satisfied before it went back to chewing on the boxcar.
A reasonable distance away, Starscream straightened up, regaining his composure. He cleared his vocalizer awkwardly.
"Well, seeing as the beast listens to you, you can take care of it."
"Me? But Megatron told you to do it."
"And now I'm telling you to do it." He turned around with a huff, and strutted back inside the Nemesis.
Breakdown watched his retreating figure for a moment, then looked to the side at his newest responsibility.
"So, uh...wanna go for a walk?"
Knockout's scream could be heard from all the levels of the Nemesis.
"WHAT IS THAT THING DOING IN OUR ROOM?"
And that's how Knockout and Breakdown came to have a prehistoric apex predator brought back from extinction through SCIENCE! as a pet.