This is something that should be uploaded as a single chapter but won't be since I want to not break my livejournal! I'm not posting over thirty-five thousand words for a single chapter there in a single day! It just isn't what I do! You are going to have to put up with the fact that this is going to be updated daily until it is over!
This thing is really really old. We've had it finished forever, I just needed to edit it, but just been lazy. So lazy. Same with the Megatron one, and then we need to work on more of the other Skywarp/everyone stories.
That Bulkead/Skywarp story someone asked for?
IT DID NOT TURN OUT HOW YOU WANTED. WE ARE SO SORRY. IT IS NOT VERY CUTE OR FLUFFY. SKYWARP IS VERY DECEPTICON IN IT. WE ARE PLANNING ON A FLUFFIER ONE AT A LATER DATE.
Anyway.
This is Skywarp/Perceptor.
Sexual Dysfunction In Seekers: A Case Study
Transformers belongs to Hasbro.
Perceptor onlines his optics slowly. He's got a massive processor-ache, and it feels like he's been caught in one of Wheeljack's unfortunate explosions again. He stares up at an unfamiliar ceiling, trying to catalog which medical facility he's been taken to this time. And why no one's bothered to numb any of his sensors.
"Ah. Online, finally. I thought you were going to recharge forever at this point."
Perceptor turns his head, and blinks. A seeker?
"You are going to fix my seekers," Starscream, and it could only be Starscream, second in command of the Decepticons and code donor for the jet twins, continues, "They are defective, and you seem like you're the most knowledgeable bot for reprogramming them."
"Where am I?" he asks, sitting up carefully. He rubs his head, finding several dents in his helmet. Starscream must have hit him very hard, especially considering that he doesn't remember it happening.
"Far, far away from Cybertron," Starscream shoves a cube of energon at him, which Perceptor stares at dubiously. He's not drinking potentially drugged fuel. "I can't tell if you've got flight capabilities of any sort— but if you do, you'd better not try using them to escape. I will not be pleased."
He pushes the cube away, only for it to be pushed back into his servos, "Drink it, you little Autobot glitch." Perceptor gives the seeker a blank look, and Starscream glares at him. "I need you alive, so you can fix my seekers. Do you really think I'd drug or poision it?"
"You are a Decepticon, and I am an Autobot scientist you smashed in the back of the head to kidnap. I am not taking any chances," he comments flatly, and pushes the cube away again.
Starscream shoves it forward hard enough to slosh some of the energon over the rim, spilling on Perceptor's chest. "Drink it, or I'll knock you offline again and feed it directly into one of your fuel lines."
Perceptor studies the cube of energon, popping out his chemical analysis unit on his forearm so he can drip a bit of the energon on the receptors there. The resulting readout claims the energon is free of contamination, so he sips the cube slowly, keeping his optics on Starscream.
Starscream stares at him, "Did you just test the energon?" He doesn't bother to dignify that with a response. "You suspicious little glitch."
"You did not offer to drink it, so I needed to make certain it was as you said." He takes another sip.
The seeker snarls at him before recomposing himself, "You are getting to work right away. Finish that quickly, you'll have your first patient in here as soon as you're done."
He sets the cube, still half-full, beside him. "What precisely are you hoping I'll be able to accomplish?"
The Seeker scowls, arms crossed over his chest. "You'll fix the glitches in my bots. Get them fully functional."
"I have no idea what that means, Starscream."
"You'll understand when you meet them," the larger bot says secretively, "now finish your energon. You'll need it."
He drinks slowly, ignoring the seeker's glaring and pacing. When he finishes, Starscream snatches the cube from his servos, and yanks in a blue bot that must have been standing just outside the door. He stands up, dusting off invisible dirt as the blue seeker strides to the berth and sits down as he talks about being the best.
Staring up at the bot, he blinks silently. "You will need to lay on the floor, so I can reach you. I am one third your size, and can not work on you as you sit there."
Starscream picks Perceptor up, "No. None of my seekers are laying on the floor because you're too small, Autobot. You will just have to stand on the berth to work on them as they lay down." The blue seeker gets pushed roughly into a laying position, and Perceceptor is put down surprisingly gently.
Perceptor takes the chance to study the bot laying in front of him. He's never worked directly on a Seeker before, and really, he should be terrified right now. Decepticons are not known for their kind treatment of Autobot prisoners, even when they want those prisoners to do something for them. His scientific curiosity outweighs any fear he might have felt.
"He looks fine to me," Perceptor observes, checking the bot for external signs of damage or malfunction. None are present. This bot is one of the most finely-polished and detailed mechs he's ever seen. Though to be fair, most of his experience comes from overworked council members and Wheeljack.
"Can't you hear him?" Starcream spits out, clearly disbelieving.
He looks at the bot, who is still chattering about how he's the best seeker and no one could possibly match him. Looking up at Starscream, he blinks at him blankly, "Aren't all seekers like that?"
The Seeker screeches at him angrily, "We are most certainly not!" He waves his servo at the blue bot, "Thundercracker mistakenly believes he is better than me! That ought to be proof enough that he's horrifyingly glitched! Fix him, or I will be forced to find some other use for you."
Perceptor turns back to the Seeker on the berth. "Open your cockpit please. I'll need to examine your code and reach your access ports."
Thundercracker gives him a superior look, and opens up. He's about to reach in when he jumps back in utter shock, clinging to the wall, "Where is your spark?"
The seeker starts to sit up, only to get shoved back down so hard he shakes the berth under Perceptor's peds by Starscream. "He has a shard of the allspark in him. Get to work, little bot. Or do I need to drop you into your other use so soon?"
Reluctant to get so close to a bot that should be offline, Perceptor nonetheless steps back over to him, peering cautiously into his cockpit. The . . . allspark shard glows faintly, like a spark about to flicker out, and he can't help but shudder. At the same time, he wants desperately to know how it works, and how this bot can function without an actual spark.
"Was he created this way? Or did you put the shard in him after he . . . lost his spark?" Perceptor opens the access ports, pulling a datapad from his subspace. Starscream catches his servo and clucks his glossa at him.
"You will not be using equipment I have not personally inspected, little bot," he takes the datapad and hands him a different one. "And he was created with the spark shard. He's never had a spark."
Thundercracker smiles imperiously, "A bot such as I has no need for something as pathetic and weak as a spark."
The datapad is a standard Decepticon sized one, which means it is far too large to hold with any sort of ease. Sighing, he leans it against Thundercracker, and connects it to the bot. He starts to run diagnostics when Starscream pulls him away. "In fact, open your sub-spaces, you clearly have more than one, since I cleaned out the main, and you still had a datapad."
Shooting the mech a dirty look, he's about to refuse, but forces himself to comply, unwilling to even think about what other use the seekers will have for him. He's finished emptying them all when the datapad connected to Thundercracker beeps at them. Walking over, he scans the data in confusion; there is nothing wrong with the bot.
He sets the scanner to run a second time, on a deeper level, to search for coding malfunctions and errors in the basic operating systems. Starscream is perusing the piles of equipment that Perceptor has pulled out for him, and the Autobot sized supplies look rather ridiculous in his much larger servos.
"I will not be able to perform at maximum functionality without my equipment," he admits, hoping he'll get at least some of his things back, or this truly will be impossible.
"Well, you'll work at half functionality if I say you do, Autobot. I need to check everything before you get to any of it back," comes the retort, and Perceptor sighs before returning to the datapad. Still finding nothing, he reaches into the open chamber and starts to prod experimentally.
Thundercracker blinks at him in surprise, and glances over to Starcream, who is still looking through his things. The seeker smirks at him, and shoves the sparkshard into his servos. Hissing at the bot, he pulls away, "Stop moving. I need to check on you, and rubbing your spark... shard on me means I can not."
"You should be honored that I am allowing a pathetic Autobot like yourself to touch me," Thundercracker purrs at him, but he lays flat when Starscream eventually walks over with a few pieces of equipment.
"I'll be inspecting the rest of it later, little bot. And I will give you what I deem necessary." Starscream hands him two datapads and a few scanners, and the most basic set of tools possible. Perceptor prevents a frown from crossing his face by dint of sheer practice at maintaining an expression of neutrality. He has no desire to see if Starscream expects him to rub his spark . . . or spark shard, or whatever it is the Seeker has.
Disconnecting the Decepticon datapad, he switches to the much more maneuverable one he had. He sighs, this isn't even one of his modified pads, he can't do anything remotely in depth. "I will need one of my other pads if you want me to figure out what is wrong," He glances down at the pad. "From what I can tell, this is just how he acts. I could try reprograming him, but it seems spark deep. As such, almost impossible to change."
Starscream hisses at him suddenly, and for no reason that Perceptor can discern, "They are not spark deep traits! You will fix them, or you will be used for something more entertaining than this."
Perceptor flinches slightly, "If you will provide me with one of my modified pads, I may have better luck. I am used to working with . . . difficult cases. But not with unmodified datapads."
Starscream hisses, "You will work with what I give you, Autobot," but goes back to the pile, and digs through it. Perceptor is handed another datapad, this one not his favorite, but one that he can use none the less. Reaching back into Thundercracker's chamber, he flinches away from the shard, but manages to connect up the pad.
Running it again, he frowns, "I can't find anything wrong with him."
The blue seeker cackles, "Because I'm perfect."
Starscream slaps the other seeker across the faceplate, "You are defective, and will be reprogrammed so you work."
Dubious, Perceptor taps a few basic commands in the pad, "I suppose I can build a few codes for him, to help suppress his-" Perceptor cuts himself off. He's not sure he wants to call it ego in front of the volatile Starscream. "His possible glitches." He taps more commands in, testing them against various bits of Seeker code. This is far more intense than the bits and pieces they'd gotten from the last time Starscream was in captivity.
"How long will it take you?"
Perceptor focuses on the datapd screen, "Seeker code is complicated. It will take a long time, because I will have to write the overrides from scratch, and then test them for durability and safety."
Starscream scowls, but nods before removing Perceptor's datapad from Thundercracker's chamber. The mech yanks the other seeker up, "Close up, and send in Dirge. Make sure he drops whatever scrap he's holding, we don't need any shiny thing he managed to pick up to get in the way."
Thunderclaw bows mockingly, "As you wish, Starscream," before heading out.
Perceptor adjusts the information on the datapad, and Starscream pokes through the pile again, giving him back a few more tools and his cube of emergency rations, before the next seeker is literally shoved in.
This Seeker is also blue, but he has yellow wings. "Get on the berth, Dirge," Starscream commands, but the Seeker makes a gleeful noise and darts to the pile of Perceptor's things.
He picks up the shiniest of tools and hisses at Starscream when he gets too close, "Mine! These are mine, and you can't take them from me!"
Perceptor's processor works double-time. What was wrong with all of these bots? Did allspark shards interfere with normal personality acquirement?
Starscream punches Dirge in the face, making the bot drop everything, and drags the greedy seeker on the berth. Perceptor is suddenly yanked into the seeker's arms, "He's mine, too! You can't take him away from me! Mine!"
"Put the Autobot down now, Dirge," Starscream hisses at him, powering up a weapon. When that fails, and only convinces the Seeker to hold onto Perceptor even tighter, Starscream shoots Dirge. Perceptor hits the ground with a loud crash, scrambling up to his peds and out of the way of the battling bots. Dirge fires back, but misses, allowing Starscream enough time to shove the mech on the berth and snap stasis cuffs on him.
He wipes his servos against one another, "There. Now you can work on him." He turns to Perceptor with a frown. "Have you been significantly damaged? You're no good to me if you're broken."
Checking himself over, he shakes his head, "I have been blown up by Wheeljack, falling this far is nothing in comparison." Starscream gives him an inscrutable look before nodding and putting him back on the berth.
The seeker spreads both servos on the frozen Dirge's cockpit, and yanks it open. "Scan him, and tell me if you can fix him without reprogramming him first. If you can't, we'll just go to the next one after you get your data. Same for each of my seekers."
Perceptor nods and attaches the datapad, running his scans again. Unsurprisingly, he finds nothing wrong at the coding level. It appears that the personality traits the bots are displaying are not a simple matter of surface code; not something that he can easily fix with a patch or two. The best he's going to be able to manage, under absolutely ideal circumstances, is a few programs to limit troublesome behavior.
He glances at Starscream. There's no way he's going to explain that to the mech.
"I will need to do more in-depth coding, and can not do that now," he murmurs while looking at the datapad, before disconnecting it.
Starscream sighs, muttering under his intake something about how he isn't surprised, and uncuffing Dirge from the berth. Starscream pulls the seeker out of the room, and a bright yellow one comes in directly after them.
The bot gives him a mocking bow, "I am Sunstorm, brilliant Autobot scientist. My wise and wonderful leader, the always enigmatic Starscream has told me I am to lay on the berth and let you poke around in my cockpit." The seeker drifts close, "I was always told you're supposed to introduce yourself before you go that far," the bot purrs.
"Perceptor," he supplies, "and I need you to stay still and quiet. I need to run my scans without interruption." He does not intend to let the Seekers frighten him. Visibly, anyways.
"Oh, Perceptor," the Seeker lays on the berth, cockpit sliding open smoothly, "such a fascinating name. You must be a very perceptive little Autobot." Seeing as this bot seems more . . . flirtatious, but less likely to attack him or try and shove him in subspace, Perceptor connects the datapad and takes the opportunity to poke at some of the wires inside his spark chamber. He's not used to Seeker frames, and it's entirely possible that there's an access port or vital component he's missing.
He's just about to pull away to look at the datapad when one of Sunstorm's servos clamp around his wrists. Glaring at him, he says flatly, "Let go. I need to check on your data."
"Oh, but your servos are so wonderful and tiny, pretty Perceptor. You can surely put them to better use." The seeker moves him slightly, and starts to rub the sparkshard against his servos.
Perceptor tries desperately to pull his servos away, but the Seeker keeps then up close against his shard, electricity crackling over his fingers. "Release me," he orders firmly, to no avail. Sunstorm moans, using his grasp on Perceptor's wrists to work his servos against that spark shard.
"Primus," the Seeker curses, "you have the most amazing servos, Perceptor. Are . . are all sciencebots this skilled with their nimble little Autobot servos?"
There's the sound of cursing from out in the hallway, and Sunstorm abruptly lets go. He'd stare at his servos in horror, but he's long since trained horror out of his expressions. Starscream comes in, dragging a femme after him, "What did you find out?"
"Your seekers are rapists, and will not behave unless you are here to keep an optic on them," he responds.
Starscream shrieks, and Perceptor flinches, but the mech only puts the femme down, and starts to scream at Sunstorm. The seeker pulls out the datapad, shoves it in his servos, and drags off Sunstorm. The screaming and berating is significantly more muffled, but he can still make out the general gist of it. Don't do that, he's working with your insides, you little glitch.
He wanders over to the femme, who has been knocked out. She's a very pretty femme, but if she rubs her spark shard against his servos, Perceptor will put the neutering code he's planning on writing in her as well. He sits beside her frame, far enough away that she won't accidentally hit him if she onlines violently.
Her optics flicker online before her engines or other systems kick up. He arches an optic ridge. She must have written that code adaptation herself. She turns her head and sits up, looking at him. "What the frag? How'd an Autobot get on the ship?" Her optics narrow, "Did Starscream bring you here?"
Perceptor gives her a neutral look, "I was kidnapped and informed I'm to fix all of the seekers. I am told that you are all hopelessly glitched." He looks at the datapad, flipping through Sunstorm's coding, muttering, "Not that I can tell what the glitches are."
She smirks, "There are no glitches, Starscream just doesn't like that we are based off of him. Who have you done so far?" She takes the datapad from him before he can answer, and stands up. "You only need to work on Ramjet and Skywarp?"
"Assuming those are the last Seekers on this base, then yes," he agrees, wishing she hadn't taken the pad from him. "And yourself, of course."
She snorts, "Ha. No." She taps through the pad's commands, and tips her head to one side. "Perceptor? The same Perceptor responsible for constructing Jetfire and Jetstorm?"
He blinks, "One of the bots responsible, yes. It was a joint-effort."
"Huh," she taps her ped against the ground, considering something. "You can scan me if you want. But we're not doing it here, where those," she waves a servo at Sunstorm and Starscream, who are attempting to murder one another on the floor, "two slagging perverts can watch." She picks him up, "We'll go to my lab instead. You might like some of the equipment there."
"I would prefer some of my modified datapads and all of my tools back." He looks at the pile of things meaningfully.
She glances over at it, and kneels down, digging through it. "Very well, those two idiots will be at this for a bit longer. Pick up everything you need, and I'll check it over before you use it on me.
He scoops most of it back into his subspace, leaving the few things he can't identify or remember why he was carrying them with him. If he doesn't know what it is, it was probably unimportant. Or something Wheeljack or Red Alert had given him to hold and never asked for again.
The Seeker picks him up again and carries him out of the room, leaving the others still fighting on the floor. "I'll make sure you get a chance to scan Ramjet and Skywarp after you finish with me."
He looks through the datapad's information on Sunstorm, "That would be helpful. Thank you." He frowns at the data, "You said you and the other seekers are based on Starscream?"
She sneers, "Unfortunately. He used an allspark shard on each of us, and we got an aspect of his personality."
He glances at her, "Want to tell me what aspect you have?"
"No."
He makes a noncommittal sound, and studies his datapad again. "So, Thundercracker is ego, Dirge is greed, and Sunstorm is," he doesn't know how to politely say 'slut.' "Flirtation?" Close enough.
The femme glances down at him, "If you had your servos in his chest, I can guess why you think his sycophantic tendencies are interfacing oriented." She enters the lab, and puts him down on the table. "As a warning, I'll let you know that Ramjet is a liar, and Skywarp is afraid of his own shadow."
"And this is all part of Starscream's personality? How does anyone stand him?"
She smirks, spreading out her wings and bows, "I'm sure you can see why."
He raises an optic ridge, "Quite."
Perceptor looks her up and down, "So, do you want me to scan you like this, or would you prefer to be laying down?"
She shifts in front of him so he's optic-level with her cockpit. "No offense, but you're just not the type of bot I'm going to get in the berth for." Her cockpit retracts, "My designation is Slipstream, if you were wondering. Don't mess with the code I've altered for myself without asking first. A lot of it is trapped."
He flips open her access ports, and connects the datapad. Letting it run, he pulls out his favorite pad, and flips through it. "Is there anything specific you want me to fix or code for you?"
She shakes her head, "I write my own, this is just for you to have a more complete pool to draw on." She pauses, "I would like you to talk to me about your jettwins. I heard they were made using Starscream's code?"
"They were," he admits, scrolling through the various bits of unique code that the other Seekers did not have. Some of it is femme coding, but most of it is obviously her own work. "Wheeljack and Red Alert helped rather extensively. And I believe Jazz was integral in getting them happy and competent with combat." He stops to admire a rather beautiful bit of code, "You have some fascinating coding, Slipstream."
She smirks at him, wings flaring prettily, "Thank you. I've heard the twins are quite fond of that large chinned Prime. Sentinel, I believe he's called."
Perceptor doesn't scowl, but he almost wants to, "Yes. He is their team leader, and they like most bots."
"It's such a shame that they like him," Slipstream shakes her head, "considering that he's one of the biggest idiots I've ever seen." She smiles, "You did a remarkable thing with the stolen code, you know. Scarcely a trace of Screamer in them at all."
"That's reassuring. Doubly so after seeing some of the other Seekers here." He tests her firewalls, and finds them a thousand times better than the three other bots. "I haven't actually heard from Jetfire or Jetstorm in ages now." He keeps his expression neutral, but his spark aches a bit.
She leans on the table, servos resting on the edge of it, "Do you miss them, little Autobot?"
"They are very busy, I am in no position to demand they drop everything just to talk to an old scientist," he responds blankly, keeping his optics on the datapad.
"Maybe I can tell them to try comcalling you, Perceptor. I am sure they think you are far more busy than they are."
"Then they will try to free me, and end up offlining themselves through sheer brazenness. I am sure," he looks up at her, disconnecting the datapad as he talks, "You are completely glitch free. Would you get either Ramjet or Skywarp so I can scan them?"
She pats his head, "I'll go grab Ramjet. I'm sure Scream's still trying to hunt down Skywarp, so you'll end up scanning him last." She walks to the door, muttering to herself, "If you get to scan him this solar cycle at all." Turning, she smiles pleasantly, "Don't try running off. I'm sure Sunstorm is lurking in the hallways somewhere."
Perceptor sighs and drops down so he's sitting with his legs over the edge of the table. He spends the entire time waiting working on the code to neuter the seekers, and keep them from rubbing against him while he works. It will take a bit, and he may have to tailor the code according to each bot, but it seems like he will have nothing but time; the seekers are clearly disinclined to let him leave even after he's finished.
He smirks inside his processor, face remaining as impassive as ever, if he puts in this code first, there will be no reason to fear that other use for him... at least, not to the seekers he puts the code in. Thankfully, Slipstream isn't willing to drag him into the berth, because of her obvious interest in his twins. Which only leaves Starscream, but after one night, he will be just as incapable as the other bots.
Slipstream comes back a few breems later, dragging a white and burgundy Seeker with her. "Perceptor, this is Ramjet. He's a liar. Ramjet, get on the table so he can examine you."
"I most certainly will not!" the Seeker screeches, even as he carefully climbs up beside Perceptor, laying down. "I would never open my cockpit for a stranger." His locks disengage and the glass retracts. Red optics gaze at him, "Especially not one as hideous as this bot is."
Perceptor rubs his temples, he can feel a processor ache coming on. "Maybe we should cuff you like Starscream did Dirge."
"I would never rub my sparkshard against your tiny Autobot servos," the mech blinks at him prettily.
Perceptor turns to the femme, "Slipstream? Would you please?"
Slipstream fits a pair of stasis cuffs on Ramjet with a disgusted sigh, "I hate being related to these glitches."
The smaller bot waits until the surges of electricity die down, before hooking his datapad up and letting it run its scans. He's not expecting anything new. Spark-deep traits can't ever be removed, and the bot suffering from them will likely never see them as problems. Primus, he needs to warn his twins to stay well away from allspark fragments.
Leaning on the bot, he watches as the coding fills the datapad, "You could consider yourself the ideal the allspark was searching for."
She actually smiles genuinely at that, "You are a little charmer, Perceptor. You still are not getting me in the berth."
He blinks, realizing that his comments could be taken that way. "I was not attempting to." He turns to face her, "Your code is beautiful. Examining it is like studying a great work of art." Perceptor could get lost in that code, if he allowed himself to. Flier code was remarkably . . . pretty.
She dims her optics a bit, "You flirt."
He actually blushes at that, he had thought he'd removed that code. "I did not mea-"
She laughs, "I know, little Autobot. It is still very flattering." She looks down at the datapad, "Anything different with him?"
He shakes his head, "No. Not a single glitch I can find. He just... lies."
"Well, we should be getting you back to the room Starscream got for you." She scoops him up and uncuffs Ramjet. "I'll put a better locking code on your door. You can thank me later."
Ramjet sits up, rubbing his wrists with a pout, "He doesn't need better door locks. I wasn't planning on visiting him while he recharged."
He keeps from shuddering, "Or I can thank you now, Slipstream."
She shoves the other seeker out of her lab, ignoring the bot's grumbling, "You're welcome, Perceptor." She locks the door, and walks back to the room the scientist was in, "Maybe we'll do this again sometime."
"I suppose it depends on how long I stay here." He had every intention of finding a way off this ship. Wherever it was. Close enough to the other Autobots that he had a chance of rescue if he made it to them. Somehow.
He blinks. There's a seeker underneath the berth. With a light stasis cuff on one wrist. "I assume that's Skywarp?"
Slipstream puts him on the berth, and pulls out the other seeker, "It is." She rolls her optics as he clings to her and shrieks about how Autobots are scary. She ignores him and shoves him on the berth, using the cuff already on him to keep him on it.
Looking down at him, Perceptor sighs, "Open up, please." He pulls out the datapad and taps Skywarp's cockpit. The bot whimpers and stares at him wide opticked and terrified. "I will not hurt you."
The seeker's optics dart from him to Slipstream then back to him, finally whispering, "D-do you promise?"
He keeps himself from sighing again, "It would be counterproductive to hurt you."
Slipstream glances down at the other seeker, "That means he promises. Now open up."
Skywarp slowly opens his cockpit, but when it gets about halfway retracted, and Perceptor reaches for him, the bot shrieks and snaps it closed again. Perceptor sits back and waits.
Slipstream shakes her head. "I'm going to get the supplies to set up an energon dispenser in here for you. Primus knows you'll need it."
Perceptor pinches the bridge of his nose as she walks out. Looking down at the seeker, who has his cockpit slowly opening up, he sighs; he's certain to get molested again now that there isn't a bot supervising. When the bot is fully retracted, he stands up then lowers his servo slowly, not making any sudden movements, into the chamber.
When the bot doesn't do anything other then whimper at him, he connects the datapad. Letting it fill, he starts to check various wires and frowns at how frayed and damaged some of them are. He pokes one, and the seeker flinches under him. "Did that hurt?"
"Nnnn-no. It... it didn't."
Perceptor rubs the wires again, tracing them down to see where they connect, and the Seeker trembles. He stops again, "Are you sure it is not hurting?"
Against the berth, Skywarp's claws curl and uncurl, "N-no. No pain." His ventilations are ragged and quick.
"I could perform a bit of maintenance for you while we wait," he offers. It's not a selfless offer. He'll be getting valuable experience with a flier's internal wiring if he's allowed to clip and replace the damaged wires he's noticed.
Skywarp bits his lower lip, optics glancing down at Percy's servos then to the smaller bot's face. "It... it won't hurt, will it?"
Perceptor tugs gently on one of the wires, making the seeker gasp, "If that didn't hurt, then no. It will not."
The seeker nods hesitantly, "G-go ahead."
He trips a few sensors to make it safe for him to clip the damaged wires. "If anything hurts, you must let me know." It's quick enough work replacing them, and he has plenty of spares to use. The Seeker occasionally makes a tiny noise or shakes under him, but every time Perceptor asks if he's hurt, Skywarp insists he is not. Finishing just as the datapad beeps at him, he pats the wires, which are all pristine and new now. "I repaired as much as I can without better tools."
Skywarp murmurs, "Thank you," and glances away while fidgeting slightly.
Shrugging, Perceptor looks through the data. The very first thing he notices is how low on fuel the bot is. "Have you had any energon?"
The bot flushes, looking at him with dim optics, "N-no."
Perceptor actually frowns, "When did you last have any, Skywarp?"
"I had some last solar cycle," his optics glance away, as if nervous.
The sciencebot taps his fingers against his thigh, "And how much was 'some'?" He's going to have to completely re-scan Skywarp after he gets some fuel in him, and he's going to have to throw most of these readings out. Energon deprivation did strange things to code.
"Almost half a cube, in the morning," comes the soft reply.
Perceptor glares down at the datapad, "A bot your size needs at least two cubes a day. Preferably three. In the begining, middle, and end of the solar cycle. Do you just forget to take any?"
Skywarp shakes his head, "Dirge normally takes it from me. Or Thundercracker chases me away."
The scientistbot taps on the datapad, deleting most of Skywarp's data. "Would you com Slipstream and ask her to come here with a few cubes of energon?"
He shakes his head again, "No, she yells at me when I ask her for energon."
Perceptor vents a careful, slow sigh. "Will you give me her com frequency so that I may ask her to come with energon?" The Seeker considers the request and nods, offering him the code.
She answers his call rather quickly, "How'd you get my frequency, little bot? Did Skywarp share it with you?"
"He did," he looks at the seeker, who is poking at the cuff on his wrist experimentally, "Did you know he's almost starving to death?"
"Is he really?" she only sounds half surprised.
He runs a servo along Skywarp's frame, and the seeker shudders under him, "Do you really yell at him if he asks you for energon?"
"He's a grown bot, he can take care of himself," comes the flippant reply.
He reaches into the chamber, and runs his fingers along the wiring, "It seems he really can't."
"Seems like you've just volunteered yourself for the position, then," Slipstream says cheerily over the com, cutting it off the same moment she walks through his door. "You'll have a dispenser here, and you'll get the honor of keeping Skywarp fueled." She ignores the flat look he gives her, turning to install the energon dispenser in the wall.
Perceptor pets Skywarp's head as she works, and the bot makes soft little purring sounds. When she finishes, she hands him a large cube of energon. "Here you go, and now I'm going to work on your locks." She smirks down at the mechs, "I'm sure you'll be happy to have them."
Frowning at her, he puts the cube to Skywarp's mouth, and the mech purrs even louder.
He waits until Skywarp has drained the cube before reattaching his datapad. "Where does he recharge? If I am to feed him every day, I should know."
"Skywarp?" Slipstream pulls a bundle of wires out of the locking mechanism on the door, "He has a room, but he generally recharges in storage closets. He teleports when he's afraid. That's what the cuff is for, so you can work on him without him warping off."
"Could I have some stasis cuffs for the other seekers?" Skywarp flinches, and Perceptor runs his thumb absently along the bot's helmet vents, making the mech relax into the touch.
"If you want, but I'm not sure how you're going to put it on them." The door beeps distressingly, and Slipstream curses, "Looks like I can't hardwire this into keeping Starscream out. Just the others. You're going to have to deal with the idiot bursting in randomly."
"I'll be fine, I'm sure," he takes the completed code scan from Skywarp's chamber, tapping the edge gently. "You can close up now, Skywarp." He turns to face Slipstream, "I appreciate the help you have provided."
"It was nothing," she waves a servo. "Keep Skywarp from comming me ten times a day for energon and we'll consider the debt repaid."
He looks at the data as he talks, "I will need him with me as I work, and he seems like the safest of the seekers to run basic programing on. I will test the co-" he stops midword; the code on the datapad clearly informing him that Skywarp really wasn't in pain, and is still quite turned on.
The seeker is still purring at him, face nuzzling his side. When the bot realizes he's stopped speaking, he blinks up at Perceptor innocently, "Keep petting me?"
He withdraws his servos carefully, trying to ignore the sad whine Skywarp gives him. "I will assure he stays fueled. And I will test my codes on him."
Slipstream arches an optic ridge, little smirk tugging at her lips, "Did you just realize you had him running hot for you?"
He uncuffs Skywarp cautiously, "Your sparkshards makes it difficult to tell." The seeker sighs unhappily, looking like he wants to curl up around Perceptor, but stopping himself. "It is not what I am used to."
Skywarp slips off the berth reluctantly, dropping to the floor and peering over the edge stare at Perceptor. Slipstream grabs the mech, and tugs him away, "Well, you'll learn the tells soon enough."
Perceptor studies his datapad, keeping the embarrassed flush off of his faceplates. "I suppose I will. Thank you again for your help, Slipstream." He glances at Skywarp, "I will see you next solar cycle, Skywarp. Come by when you online so I can get you energon and work on your code."
"Alright, Percy," Skywarp smiles shyly at him. Perceptor narrows his optics a bit. He hates that nickname.
Slipstream pulls the other seeker out of the room, and he decides to take this time alone to work on the neutering code.
Please Review
More tomorrow, everyone! This is only part one o3o