Ch. 62

Breakdown sighed quietly as Starscream sat next to him on the berth, the seeker's wings twitching, "I know. It's a bit much."

The blue mech smirked, "Yeah, you've woken up here... how many times now?"

Starscream shook his helm, "Too many. I'm sure Ratchet is starting to keep score."

Breakdown hummed lowly, looking towards the ground bridge, then the tunnel that led to the outside, "How much longer until Prime shows up?"

The seeker scoffed, "Are you asking or complaining?"

"Both. Do you know?"

The seeker shrugged, "It hasn't been terribly long. You're just lucky Ratchet was able to keep the others off our backs... I know you and Bulkhead have history, but was it truly that bad to make him that angry?"

Breakdown chuckled, "Knockout's part of the reason why he's angry, even if he doesn't know it."

Starscream's optical ridges rose high and the blue mech shook his helm, "Not like that."

"Then how? You two are always fighting each other," the seeker stood, "Even in battle, from before, you two would always go against the other. You never could focus on fighting a different bot on the battlefield. Then again, the same could be said for Arcee and Airachnid..."

Breakdown sighed, smiling gently, "It goes before the war."

"That you knew each other?"

"No," the blue mech explained, "That I met Knockout. The doc wasn't a real doc, you know. At least, he never paid for his license..."

Starscream's optics narrowed, "Am I about to become fairly nervous about the medical care I've been receiving?"

Breakdown laughed, "No, doc's one of the best! ... He was a body repaint specialist who liked repairing and fixing bots, too. Problem was, he didn't have the credits to pay for the schooling and medical text downloads... So..."

As the blue mech trailed off, Starscream's wings perked, "Ah, illegal data entry and self downloading..."

Breakdown nodded, "Yep. So, he has the skills, the know how, just not the little scrap of metal that says he bought it. And he worked hard. He had mechs and femmes from all over coming to him. He didn't charge much which, back then, was a gift from Primus..."

The seeker hummed, "You were his assistant then too?"

The blue mech leaned back, sighing, "Not even close. I was thrown on his doorstep. By who, I'm not sure. I was in demolition back then and a lot of places they were sending me to weren't exactly the cleanest. I got a bit of rust and thought my nanobots could handle it. I got worse. And with what I was making, I didn't have the credits to get it fixed by a licensed physician."

"Knockout was your only option."

"An option I didn't even know about. The last thing I remember was driving through one of the service tunnels when I stopped to transform and rest after a double building demo and a set up for three more the next day. That's when I blacked out."

Starscream leaned against a computer console, "What had happened? The diagnosis?"

Breakdown hummed as he remembered, "Well, he said that my nanobots were nonexistent, that the immunity programming file inside me had been corrupted, probably from something I came into contact with, and that's why the rust got so bad. It took him days, probably weeks to clean me out and seal it all up, then to make it look good..."

Starscream snorted a laugh, "As he always does."

"... He did a complete repaint. Top to bottom. I looked and felt better than new. And I had nothing to repay him with."

The seeker sighed, "Well, that explains you and the good... doctor," he hesitated, "But I still don't see what that has to do with you and Bulkhead."

Breakdown groaned, "I had to set up the scenario, cause what happened to me and Knockout fixing me is ultimately why I'm in deep with ol' Bulk."

Starscream tapped his arm in thought, "Then please, continue."

The blue mech grumbled, "Well, when I explained to the doc that I had nothing to give him, he told me not to worry about it. He said when I could repay him I would, and not to worry about it until then. Not too long after that came the bombings in Iacon," Starscream grimaced as he spoke, "It was about then that bots had to make a choice. I signed up with the Autobots-" he smirked when the seeker's wings flew up high, "I know. And, I was a Wrecker."

Starscream's wings slowly leveled out and he let out a long intake, "Aaahh..."

Breakdown nodded, "So I got to know Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Seaspray, a lot of the mechs and femmes... But it was during a battle in Tarn a long time later that I saw Knockout, the doc, out on the battlefield. He was right in the middle of this scrap and all I could think was 'perfect, I can save his life like he saved mine'. I drove out and beat the scrap out of a 'Con that I thought was sneaking up on him... Only, he wasn't sneaking up on the doc, he was going to him for medical treatment on a blaster burn to the arm. Doc wasn't too happy that he had more work to do. Didn't matter a few seconds later though when the rest of the Wreckers moved in to pick off some of the larger targets."

The seeker hummed, "And I'm going to guess red is quite the target."

"I tried to hide him so I could repay the debt," the blue mech murmured, "and I did up until Bulk came to check on me, thinking I was hurt. When he saw Knockout, a 'Con, he thought I was a spy. The Wreckers didn't give me a chance to explain. They started shooting and that's when the doc saved my sorry aft again and we drove out of there."

Starscream tsked, "How unfortunate..."

Breakdown shrugged, "Seemed to work out ok. The doc had wanted to join with the 'Bots, too. But he couldn't. If they would have done a basic medical overview of his chassis, they would have found the cranial port for his illegal downloading. He would have been arrested. 'Cons didn't care if he paid for the information so long as it was legit. That day, the doc told me I could go with him, that I didn't have to worry about being cited a traitor by the 'Cons if I joined with him there; he would vouch for me. And I did. Wasn't like I could go back to the Wreckers and explain I was repaying a life debt. I would've been killed."

The seeker sighed quietly, "And I suppose Bulkhead never got over that."

"I'm sure he's still mad."

"Sorry for interrupting," came a small voice; Breakdown and Starscream looked down, Raf peeking around the corner.

The seeker shuddered, "I always forget when you're here. Sometimes you can be so quiet..."

The boy frowned a little to build his confidence then stepped forward, "M-maybe you should tell him now, now that you have the chance. And if he won't listen, we can."

Breakdown frowned, "'We'?"

Miko came rushing around the corner with Jack and the girl sighed, "It's such a sad story! You lose your friends, your faction, all because you tried to do the right thing! Bulk would have understood if you would have told him, I know he would!"

Starscream covered his optics and grumbled, and the blue mech shuttered his optics gently, "Ah, thanks kids... But it's been eons since that happened. Whatever reason I had doesn't matter much anymore."

Jack nodded, "You're right. What matters is what you do now."

Miko smiled wide and sweetly, "Yeah! Like... maybe a certain silver jet offering to fly me around the state as fast as he can?"

The seeker smirked at Breakdown, "Manipulative, isn't she?"

The blue mech chuckled, "She's got bearings asking you for a ride, I'll give her that."

The girl pouted, "Oh, come on! I'm sure you could do it in less than twenty minutes! Let's break some records!"

Starscream only shook his helm and smiled, chuckling when Breakdown rolled his optics and laid back down on the med berth.