"See, Knocks, you can stand." Diana smiled up at the red cybertronian, who was standing, albeit unsteadily, in the Autobot's med bay.
"I know I can stand, it's walking I'm unsure of." the mech muttered in response, casting a frustrated glance to the little blonde woman at his feet.
"Just because you wound up flat on your face last time." she smirked, reaching out to rap a knuckle against his leg.
Knock Out muttered again, trailing a hand along his chest, which has become scuffed and scraped due to his ,graceful, interaction with the base's concrete floor days ago. Needless to say, he'd learned his lesson and had agreed to ingest something to regain his strength.
Diana's teasing smirk faded, a sympathetic smile replacing it. "I can buff that out, it'll be fine." she glanced about the med bay, knowing full well she wouldn't be able to use the larger tools Ratchet had, nor would Knock Out allow any of the Autobots to touch him in such a way.
He gave a soft sigh, shoulders sagging as he looked away from her. "This is my fault."
"No, it's not." she placed both of her hands against his foot, gazing up at him.
"I brought you into all of this, I should have, should have just let you be."
"That would be boring." Diana smirked, pushing against the metal of his foot to try to get him to look at her, which he did, with a quirked brow. "Really Knocks, it takes two to tango, I could have walked away, screaming in fear mind you. But I didn't, I'm here, and I don't want to be anywhere else."
He kept his eyes on her for a moment, giving a small noise of effort as he bent down to offer her his hand, which she hopped into without hesitation. It was when he attempted to straighten up that his weakened body decided to give out, sending him staggering a few steps before falling flat on his ass.
Diana only laughed, safe in his grasp, unable to hide her amusement that the once sleek, flexible and utter show off of a mech had fallen onto his backside. "You okay?"
"Yeah yeah." he grumbled, lifting his hand near his face, studying her. "Diana?"
"Yes?"
"If the chance to leave me ever arises, would you take it?" there was a soft hesitation to his voice, as if he were worried what her answer might be.
"Seems to me I had that chance while you were unconscious, yet here I am." she smiled, leaning forwards to touch her forehead to his face, giving a sigh of happiness as she did. "It'll take more than you getting shanked to get rid of me."
She felt his face shift, a smile on his lips. "Dumb human."
"Cocky ass toaster."
"Ahem." a by now familiar voice interrupted the pair, both turning to Ratchet and Arcee who were standing in the doorway, Ratchet looking as unimpressed as ever. "On the floor again I see."
Knock Out's lips twitched into a bit of a snarl, any softness from before having vanished. "Like you'd do any better."
Ratchet just shook his head, following Arcee into the bay.
"We have a surprise for you." the blue femme spoke to Diana, smiling and extending a hand to the blonde.
Knock Out instinctively drew his hands closer to his chest, shielding Diana. "What sort of surprise?"
"The surprising kind." Arcee sighed, setting her before offered hand on her hip.
"It's fine Knocks." Diana nudged his fingers, gesturing for him to set her down, which he begrudgingly did. The human took a few steps away, glancing back at a grinding sound and watching with concern on her features once she realized Knock Out was now attempting to drag himself back to his feet.
His left foot slipped out from beneath him, threatening to send him back to the floor, but Arcee was as his side in a flash, wedging herself against his side with his left arm across her back for support. "Easy."
Knock Out stiffened, his immediate thought to push the femme away, but a glance to Diana calmed him and he sighed, allowing Arcee to help him steady himself, moving to sit on the edge of his berth. "Thank you." it was more a mumble than anything, but it caused all eyes in the room to flicker to his face.
"Wow, the great Knock Out just thanked me, I feel, amazing." Arcee mock gasped, touching both hands to her chest, fluttering her eyelids at Knock Out, who only grumbled in reply.
Diana had to laugh, shaking her head. "He's stubborn, but like I said, he's got something good in there."
"I can hear you." Knock Out groaned, giving Diana a look a child might give their parent who worshiped their smallest action.
"An excellent point, now, lie back." Ratchet stepped into the group, an instrument in one hand, datapad in the other. "Let me check the rest of your systems."
Knock Out swatted Ratchet's hands away, instead plucking the tool from the older mech's hand. "I can do that."
Ratchet frowned, reaching for the tool, which Knock Out held away. "Need I remind you you are my patient and in my base, thus I am in charge."
"That was fine before, but I'm not helpless anymore. I can check myself." he leaned back again, Ratchet leaning over him to try to retrieve his tool.
"Knock Out, stop being ridiculous!" the Autobot Medic sputtered, the two mechs now thoroughly engaged in a swatting match, Ratchet clipping the top of Knock Out's head with his datapad. "You're behaving like a sparkling."
Arcee had to step away to avoid the flailing arms, pausing near Diana who was laughing softly, the bridge of her nose pinched between her thumb and forefinger. "Is he always like this?"
"You have no idea." Diana replied, almost choking on her laughter when the quarreling pair nearly toppled over one another and off the berth.
Arcee couldn't suppress her own laughter, her small frame shaking lightly with the action. "Medics." she shook her head, looking to Diana. "So, surprise?"
The woman glanced up to the femme, nodding eagerly. "I think they'll be at this a while."
The blue 'bot smirked, waving for Diana to follow as she turned to leave the Bay, leading her to the main room of the Autobot base.
"So, what kind of surprise is this?" Diana followed at Arcee's heels, a perplexed look on her face as the femme halted at the ground bridge console, punching in a few co-ordinates.
"You'll see." Arcee smiled, looking to Diana then behind her, the human following her gaze to see Jack, Miko, Raf, Bulkhead and Bumblebee. "Ready?"
"Bring it on." Miko smiled, flashing the pair near the controls a thumbs up.
Arcee nodded, activating the bridge and turning to give Diana a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, if it was dangerous, we wouldn't be bringing the kids."
Diana glanced to said children, smiling as Miko whooped and sprinted through the bridge, Jack and Raf jogging after her, Bulkhead shaking his head gently as he and Bumblebee followed. "I wasn't worried that it was something dangerous, I just hate surprises."
The femme winked, following the others through the bridge, Diana at her side. "Well, this was mostly Miko's idea, so blame her."
Diana nearly choked as they exited the ground bridge, the half burnt remains of her shop sitting a few dozen yards away.
"Bee and Smokescreen have been keeping an eye on it, the Con's haven't been around." Rafael explained, looking between the stunned blonde and her home. "We, we thought you'd like to, well." he glanced to his feet, unsure of what to say.
Diana's mind nudged at her, telling her she should say something, not alternate between gawking at her new found friends and her nearly razed home. Instead she found herself walking forwards, the others following silently until she had halted between the third of the three shop doors, the least battered. "I, I thought it was gone."
"Their shots were mostly on the outside." Arcee explained, gesturing to the left hand side of the shop, which was charred and nearly melted. "The one back corner is gone though."
Diana finally found her composure, a wry smirk on her lips as she attempted to open the large door. "Just an old dodge back there, I hated that thing anyways, never ran right."
The group seemed to relax at that, as if the string that had been holding them tense and concerned, had been cut.
Bulkhead stepped forwards, digging his fingers under the door and lifting it easily.
"Thanks." Diana smiled, stepping into the blackness of her home, coughing slightly at the residual smoke. "Ugh, needs to air out."
Bumblebee gave a small chirp, following Bulkhead's lead and heaving the second door open, though the final door wound up turning to a pile of dust in the yellow mech's hands, something Diana only laughed at, assuring the worried 'bot that is was fine.
"This is a sweet place." Miko spoke, already poking about the lower half of the building, giving the now scattered tools and equipment a quick once over before moving on.
"It was my parent's shop, before they died." Diana smiled, kicking at a bit of debris on the floor. "Guess it's toast now, literally."
"I'm sorry." Jack's quiet voice came, the teen setting a hand on the blonde's shoulder. "We thought, you could salvage some stuff, take it back to base, it's why we're here, to help."
Miko bounded to the group, grinning. "All hands on deck. Just tell us what you want us to do."
Diana smiled, genuinely touched by the thoughtfulness of the group who'd known her for scarcely a month. "Thank you, I won't forget this." She glanced around her shop, frowning, unsure of where to begin. Her gaze paused at the sight of her bike, tipped on it's side and pinned beneath one of her work benches that had been flung across the room during the attack. She had to laugh, pointing to the motorcycle. "That, is definitely coming."
It only took Diana an hour to pick through her belongings, most of the items in her loft were salvageable and Miko and Raf had taken to packing what was deemed important into Bulkhead; her clothing, a box of photo albums, a small collection of stuffed animals, Diana's various toiletries and the like, mostly the irreplaceable things. The rest of her home would be taken care of by Agent Fowler.
Jack was with Diana on the shop floor, holding a box as the woman picked through her tools, plucking out the ones she desired to keep and setting them into the box which was then tucked into Bumblebee's trunk.
Once the task was deemed finished, the group headed back to the Base, greeted by Smokescreen who had activated the bridge for them.
"Where's Ratchet?" Arcee asked once the bridge closed, the four humans quickly unpacking the boxes from Bulkhead and Bumblebee so the pair could transform back to their usual forms.
Smokescreen exploded into laughter, stunning everyone with the heart behind it. "You have to see." He turned towards the med bay, curling a finger for them to follow. He halted at the door to the bay, which had been left open, pointing into the room and laughing again.
The group followed, all eyes blinking at the scene before them.
Knock Out was on the floor, again, one arm lying before him, his fingers tapping along the floor in annoyance. His other arm was braced against the floor, his elbow resting on the concrete and his chin in his hand, a look of utter boredom on his face. "Welcome back."
Ratchet was seated on Knock Out's back, pinning him down, but contentedly able to finally perform a thorough inspection of the red mech's body. He barely glanced to the group, ignoring them as they burst into laughter, turning his attention back to his datapad.
"Knock's, what, the, hell." Diana gasped, wrapping her arms around her stomach as she laughed.
"Looks like Ratchet can beat Doc Knock!" Miko exclaimed, lifting a hand into the air and pumping her fist a few times.
"What?! He did not beat me!" Knock Out sputtered, squirming again under the heavier medic, who immediately clapped him upside the head with an order to be still.
"That's kinda what it looks like." Bulkhead chuckled, an arm braced against the door frame as he laughed.
"He put me on my ass." Knock Out exclaimed, pointing across the room to an unnoticed Optimus, who was quietly tapping away at a console, ignoring the scene behind him.
"And he will do it again if you do not let me finish." Ratchet scolded.
Knock Out just gave a heavy sigh of frustration, bowing his head to the floor and muttering.
"They were throwing tools around and everything!" Smokescreen howled, still doubled over with laughter. "Then Optimus comes in, grabs Knock Out by the back of the neck and that was the end of that."
"I hate you all, I really do." Knock Out grumbled, voice obscured by the concrete his face was pressed into.
"It's not that bad Knocks." Diana hummed in a sing song voice, crossing the room and crouching near Knock Out's head, which he lifted to give her a suspicious look. "I brought my buffer."
ER MA GERD GUIZ, there's leaked episodes of the new season from Singapore! :D (I have a link to it on my DeviantArt accout, if you'd like to see you might have to do a little digging, as I can't link here. /3 If you search XshadowsenshiX on DeviantArt, that is me! It will bring up a bunch of "art", just click any Never Fast Enough and from there you can click my DeviantID, the link to the video is on the newest chapter on there, Chapter 23, in the bottom in the description.)
*I also just put it on my tumblr, I have 2.4 friends on there so I forget about it . I'm marcena04529 on thar.
I lurve Knock's new lines, tee hee, 'specially when he makes fun of Starscream for bragging about killing Cliffjumper. (For the zillionth time.) And Ratchet being such a baby, I won't lie, it inspired his and Knock's scuffle in this chapter.
I'm not quite sure of Ultra M., I don't feel like his voice suits him... And I'm inclined to agree with Wheeljack, what's with dem shoulder pads... (There's links to piccy's of Magnus on the DeviantArt version of this chapter as well!)
And Optimus, WEH! T_T ALL OF MY FEELS AHGHFDHGFK.