Overdrive

A/N: Chapter 6 already! Wow. This is the longest I've made a story in years! Thank you to Mistress Megatron, zrexheartz, vampireyautja, Dragonstormgirl, Duskmoon15, shadow-dog18, sckid, EthanPrime21, Guest, DemonMamoru, and StormRaven33 for reviewing!

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro.

WARNING: There is a short, minor scene of amateur surgery. It's not too graphic, and isn't gory at all, but I feel I should warn you anyway. Oh, and language. And Knock Out vs. Avery bitch fighting :)

I feel I've come to realize

How fast life can be comprised

Knowing endless consequences

I feel so useless in this

I can't believe

Part of me won't agree

'Cause I don't know if it's for sure

-Sum 41, "The Hell Song"

Chapter 6: Monsters

The flesh-bag's sudden, piercing shriek threatened to shatter Knock Out's audios. Wires shot out from the interior of the Aston Martin once more, choking the girl into silence and squeezing the air out of her lungs. With the captive secure inside him, the medic transformed into his normal, bipedal mode. The human thrashed and wriggled, her screams muffled by a mouthful of wires. She squirmed, stomach knotting with the fear his shifting gears and panels would crush her.

"Be quiet," Knock Out hissed, tugging the restraints around her so tightly her face began to turn blue. The young racer whimpered in pain, beginning to see spots in her vision. Once her struggling ceased, the medic loosened the vice-grip around her diaphragm, but only a little. "So much as one more squeak and I'll rip out your vocalizer with my—…"

"Knock Out," a dark voice rasped, cutting the CMO off mid-sentence.

Immediately he froze, slowly twisting around in time to see the large, ominous form of the Decepticon leader storming down the corridor toward him, each clanging footstep a war drum growing in volume. Rays of violet light flashed harshly off of the warlord's armor, his shoulder spikes rising aggressively. The doctor swept into a low, respectful bow before feeling murderous red optics bore holes into his frame.

"My liege," Knock Out murmured in response, not daring to raise his gaze. "I—…"

"Silence," Megatron hissed, "I will hear none of your excuses. After noticing the lack of activity in the med bay, Soundwave reported you absent for almost an entire Earth cycle. Neglecting your duties in favor of a midnight racing excursion is hardly a wise decision."

"I-It will not happen again, I assure you-!"

"Oh, you can be assured for certain, Knock Out, that I will not allow you to set foot outside the med bay until you can even remotely prove your worth to me as a medical officer. Your assistant has shown far more promise and diligence in his work as of late, and it is beginning to make me reconsider your position as a soldier of the Decepticon army…"

Dread twisted inside Knock Out's circuits at the implications of his lord's statement, spark hammering wildly enough he was sure the human could feel it. Her lanky form had gone entirely still within his chassis, breath coming out in shaky gasps. He could sense her trembling, her gut-wrenching fear intermingling with his own. The medic could only hope and pray to Primus that the tyrant did not register the extra bio-signal.

Megatron paced closer, his sharp, pointy digits wrapping tightly around the doctor's throat cables and yanking him harshly to his feet. "Do I make myself clear?!"

"A-Absolutely," the medic sputtered. His own hands clawed meagerly at Megatron's, silently pleading the warlord to release him before he crushed something delicate.

"You should consider this a last and final warning," Megatron growled, "The only reason I am sparing your miserable life is the fact we are rather short-staffed in the medical department. There will come a day when I am not feeling quite so generous…"

Knock Out only nodded quickly in response, not daring to breathe one word into the tense silence that hung in the air between them. Much to his discomfort, the flesh-bag had begun to squirm again inside his chassis, creating a very unpleasant tickling sensation. Warning signs popped up into his field of vision, indicating the presence of the organic life form nearby. A small beeping sensor read off her heart rate and vitals. He cursed himself inwardly for not turning off the blasted device sooner, especially when he noticed Decepticon leader's optics widen slightly at the sound.

"You're oddly quiet," the tyrant remarked. One large curved eyebrow arched upward. "You're not hiding something, are you?"

"Of course not, my liege! What on Cybertron could I possibly be keeping from y-AAAAHHHH!"

Without warning, Megatron plunged the claws of his free hand into the doctor's abdominal plating. Bending the metal plates apart, the warlord proceeded to rip through layers of wires and delicate circuitry until his digits closed around a solid object—or rather, solid creature.

"What is this?" the warlord growled, extracting his hand from the ravaged circuitry of his soldier. A tall, skinny human thrashed in his grip, long strands of yellow hair plastered to its body by energon. Given its flatter shape the gladiator struggled to distinguish its 'model'—gender. However, when the flesh-bag emitted a high-pitched shriek and demanded for the 'Bucket-Head' to release her immediately, that knowledge quickly became apparent. A quick squeeze of the skeleton constricted the air from the girl's lungs yet again, forcing her into silence. At once the little parasite stopped moving. "That's better," he purred.

Knock Out's faceplates twisted in pain, his vision blurring in absolute agony as the tyrant retracted his digits with a sickening crunch! Knee joints creaking, the medic's legs gave out almost immediately. He collapsed onto the cold slate of the Nemesis, cycling in air quickly and shallowly. Primus, everything hurt. Energon pooled beneath him, staining the grey with blue. 'I'm in deep slag now…and so is the state of my chassis…' he thought dryly, 'I wonder if Unicron would be willing to buff me himself in the Pit…'

"So, it appears you've been harboring yet another secret from me after all," Megatron stated, pulling the doctor out of his thoughts, "Have you anything to say for this?"

"Sir, it isn't what it looks like—…" Knock Out started, lifting one hand in defense. The other curled protectively over the open wound in his chassis.

"This," the tyrant growled, thrusting the form of the girl toward him, "Is exactly what it looks like. A human. A flesh-ling! And not one of the Autobots' little comrades either… Tell me, Knock Out, did you fancy having a little pet of your own so badly that you had to steal one off of the street?"

"Rot in Hell," the girl rasped, "If you're planning to cook and eat me with the rest of your alien buddies, I hope you choke on my bones, you overgrown rust-bucket…"

"And it has a mouth just like yours. Fancy that…" Megatron dangled the girl by one of her legs, holding her out at arm's length with lip-plates curled in distaste as if he were examining an insect. "How fitting. Such a delicate species, don't you think, doctor? What a shame it would be if it were to fall."

The young racer's eyes went wide in fear, going pale at the sight of the long drop beneath her. She suddenly felt the urge to empty her stomach, but refrained from doing so. These aliens only wanted to torment her. They wouldn't kill her immediately…right? However, just as she stared into the blood-colored, white-centered eyes of death, something told her this one would. Fear turned to ice in her veins. Any retort she had prepared suddenly died in the back of her throat.

"I kidnapped the flesh-bag because three of those blasted Autobots were trailing me!" Knock Out exclaimed defensively. "They wouldn't risk harming me if I were holding a skin-job captive."

"Your carelessness could have just as easily led them onto my ship through the ground bridge," Megatron hissed. "You have been deciding to take more breaks than usual. To visit your pet, I assume. And for what purpose?"

"Maintenance," Knock Out confessed, "The skin-job wrecked into me, and promised a month of free service if it lost to me in a race!"

"How typical," his leader rumbled, "Well, you've created quite the mess, Knock Out. If you take the human back, she would no doubt fall straight into the hands of the Autobots, full of information to feed to the flesh-ling government. What do you plan to do with her, doctor? I suppose there is nothing left to do but take out the trash."

Feeling the tyrant's grip on her loosen, Avery yelped, trying to scramble up and hook her arms around one of his large digits so she would not fall. Despite her efforts, she could not move quickly enough in time to gain a hold as the Deception released her. He grinned hard through sharp teeth at her as she plummeted, eyes wide and mouth wrenched open in a silent scream. Shit…this is it!

Every muscle in her body tensed, bracing for impact. However, when she opened her eyes, no fluffy white clouds or golden pearly gates greeted her. Only shiny, perfectly polished silver claws and the wide red optics of an alien doctor. The human released a shaky bout of air, staring back at him with wide, confused eyes. You caught me. You didn't let me die. Why?

"There is no need for such…harsh measures, my liege," Knock Out rasped, his voice strangled through the pain of moving so quickly to catch the human with his abdominal wound. The exertion caused his arm to tremble slightly. More warning signals flashed in his vision—he was losing energon too quickly.

"Well, then what do you propose?" Megatron asked smoothly.

"Perhaps we can keep her until we can think of a better alternative…She can assist me in the med bay," the doctor explained quickly, "She can do surface repairs decently, and reach places I can't get to as easily. I will teach her to repair the inner workings of our biology… Please consider it, Lord Megatron. Killing the skin-job will only provoke Autobot hostility towards us. With our scarce energon rations we are not as prepared for an attack…"

Avery's eyebrows shot up, and suddenly she jerked upwards, peering over the medic's claws. "Wait…WHAT?"

"I will consider it if the flesh-ling would be willing to give a…demonstration of said abilities," the tyrant purred. He turned to the adjacent corridor, calling, "Breakdown."

There was a sudden sharp clanging sound, and a loud raucous cacophony as a menagerie of very heavy, very sharp medical instruments clattered to the ground inside the med bay. As the med bay doors shifted open, the large blue mech emerged, his yellow optics wide as he saluted. "Yes, Sir?"

"Bring out the necessary medical supplies. Knock Out is in a bit of a predicament."

"Yes, Sir, but we are running low on-…is that a human?" the wrecker suddenly asked, incredulous.

"Never mind the flesh-ling. Do as I command," the Decepticon leader growled, impatient.

"O-Of course," Breakdown mumbled, disappearing into the med bay only to reemerge with an armful of semi-identifiable tools.

The human's eyes went wide. They expected her to do what with all this, exactly? As the blue mech placed the supplies down next to her, the tyrant grinned once more, saying, "Now, human. If you are so skilled as our doctor claims you to be, this should be an easy endeavor for you. Repair his wound."

"B-But…" Avery stammered. As her eyes surveyed the tools, she noticed with dread that she could only lift about a third of them—only the 'small' ones, tweezers, small clamps, and the like. "Don't you have anything smaller?"

"Good medical officers know how to improvise," the Decepticon leader purred.

"The clamps, skin-job," Knock Out gasped, clutching his wound desperately, "Use the-…"

"Silence," Megatron growled, "If the human is competent she will figure this out on her own."

Avery swallowed nervously, glancing from the doctor's wound to the large pile of medical instruments. Upon closer inspection of Knock Out's abdomen, she could make out engine components beneath. Their placements were separated strangely, but through the ravaged metal she could see the source of the problem—a few severed tubes leaking transmission fluid and a strange blue substance. What had they called it? Energon?

That must be their blood, she thought wryly. Rummaging through the heavy junk, her fingers closed around a large pair of forceps nearly her height in length. "I guess if I can dissect a frog, I can repair a giant alien robot," she huffed under her breath. "Here goes nothing."

Three pairs of optics watched her closely as she clambered up onto Knock Out's lap, hefting the forceps behind her. Heaving with all her strength, she managed to angle them just where she needed them, struggling to spread open the metal so she could crawl inside. Knock Out hissed sharply, his faceplates contorting in pain. She winced at the sound, but continued, locking them in place so she could get to work.

Quickly she ran back to the tool pile, extracting a few clamps the size of her hands as well as a large probe. Using it as a staff, she climbed back up and into the Aston Martin's circuitry, trying not to slip on the sleek metal. She pushed clumps of wires and other things out of her way as she reached the severed tubing, careful to avoid being electrocuted from the sparks gushing off of his armor.

It's just like fixing an oil leak…a giant oil leak… she reminded herself. Working quickly, Avery grabbed the two ends of the severed wire, moving to secure one of the clamps around it. It was a temporary solution, but would keep him from bleeding out. Just as she secured the other four wires, a gust of hot, dry air enveloped her. More sparks gushed off of his armor, the metal now searing hot to the touch. It burned her hands as she tried to move a few of his engine components back into place with the probe.

"Oh no…" she muttered. "Knock Out, what's happening?!"

No answer came, except a few more low notes of pain from the medic. She would have to think fast. Adrenaline thrumming in her veins, the racer rushed out, gritting her teeth against the searing burn of the metal around her. She welcomed the cool air of the ship on her sweat-drenched skin. Spotting the large blue mech, she called out, "Hey, you! Big Blue guy! I need your help! Grab that welding tool and seal off those clamped valves, will ya? I can't reach them without getting third degree burns!"

Breakdown looked from the girl to Megatron for confirmation. Was their leader seriously considering bringing on board a flesh-bag to aid in the med bay? Surely the dark energon had finally gotten to his ancient processor after all. However, the look in the tyrant's eyes showed that he clearly intended to see this through, to make Knock Out suffer for neglecting his duty and kidnapping the girl in the first place. The warlord shrugged his massive shoulder spikes, watching the scene with amusement. "What are you waiting for, Breakdown?" he taunted. "You've been given an order."

"All right…Out of the way, squirt," Breakdown grunted, leaning down and grabbing the welder, doing as instructed to seal off Knock Out's wounds.

"Thanks," Avery huffed, smiling up at him. She couldn't believe her luck in this actually working, even if it was only a mediocre job on her part. Feeling the alien warlord's red gaze on her form, she immediately rushed back to work. Grabbing a large cloth from the pile, she raced back over to Knock Out, dabbing the blue stains from his legs and abdominal plating. She barely managed to catch the forceps Breakdown handed back to her, stumbling back toward the pile to return them. Nevertheless—they were making progress.

The blue mech did most of the hard work, sealing the medic up with ease. Knock Out hissed in pain, cycling out air in ragged pants, hiding his faceplate in one hand to stifle any more notes of agony at surgery with no anesthetic. 'At least Breakdown knows what he's doing…' the medic thought hastily. Seeing his discomfort, Avery paused in cleanup duty to rub small circles on his leg plating with her slim fingers. "You're doing just fine, pretty boy," she said, "It's almost over."

"How cute," Megatron sneered, grinning maliciously.

Knock Out's optics wrenched open at the sudden contact, peering down at the flesh-bag with distaste. They narrowed into a hard glare at her words, and his leader's amused expression. How humiliating! How dare she speak to him as though he were a sniveling, injured sparkling in need of comfort? He was a powerful, sleek Decepticon soldier, not some defenseless, squishy creature like her! Raising two claws, he flicked the girl away lightly, growling, "Don't. Touch. Me."

"GAH!" Despite the medic's lack of power behind the movement, Avery felt as though she'd just been hit by a bullet train. The force knocked her back, sending her tumbling head over heels and onto her back with a painful thud! Rubbing the back of her head—oh, that felt like it was going to bruise—she sat up slowly, vision blurring with spots at the pain. When it cleared once more, she glared daggers at the doctor. "You know what? Fuck you."

"No thanks," the doctor spat right back. Frag it to the Pit if he was being childish. After being nearly scrapped by Arcee, tailed by Autobots, gutted by his leader, and violated medically by a flesh-bag, he had had enough.

Avery's blood boiled, her face flushing crimson in anger, but she played right along, uncaring of what these giant robots thought of her. "That's right, I bet you'd much rather have a round with Lord Bucket-Head over there. Or perhaps you'd rather bang your assistant. I can't tell. You did say something about being able to attract both genders, but I see no chicks on this ship. "

Megatron and Breakdown exchanged glances, the warlord chuckling darkly while the wrecker's faceplate burned in humiliation at what the human was suggesting. "Just what are you implying, parasite?!" Knock Out blustered, leaning toward her aggressively. "I just saved your puny aft—!"

"What do you think?" the human hissed right back. "Why else would you kidnap me to escape from your supposedly 'friendly' enemies that wouldn't dare hurt an innocent life form? Everything about you, your flamboyant attitude, to that bright red paintjob, to you sneaking away from your boss to race against 'inferior life forms'… You're nothing but a starved attention whore!"

Knock Out growled menacingly, lashing out and curling his fingers tightly around the girl, jerking her close to his faceplate as he hissed, "The only whore I see is the-…"

"Hey," Breakdown interjected into the catfight, looking between the girl and the doctor awkwardly, "It's been a…pressing day on everybody. Let's just take a moment to calm down, okay?"

"Enough of this nonsense," Megatron rumbled. "The flesh-ling has proved she is competent enough to learn at least a bit of basic medical knowledge from our kind. As long as she behaves, I approve of using her as slight leverage against the Autobots. She will stay and assist you in the med bay, just as you wished, Knock Out. Likewise, since you brought her here, she is your responsibility. If she slips up once—just once, you will be the one to dispose of her as well."

Avery's anger inflated instantly, and she fumed. She was now this asshole's responsibility. A pet. "Fine," she grumbled. A nasty smirk crossed her features as she added, "There are a few things you need to know about humans, especially the females. We require a few basic things. Food, sleep, showers… And if you want my help with repair, we'll need to acquire a few tools in my size. I'll also require transportation to and from my classes at the community college here, and work. Wouldn't want the Autobots to suspect anything, now would we?"

"Do not speak to me as if you were above me," Knock Out hissed, "You will leave from this ship when I say you can…"

"Correction," Megatron interjected, "When I deem it necessary. Which is now. We are wasting time. Take the flesh-ling to retrieve what she needs. Breakdown will accompany you in case she tries to escape. And get her cleaned up, while you're at it. She'll on infect the other injured patients covered in filth and energon."

The warlord turned, heading to exit the sector. Before the doors hissed shut behind him, he paused, grinning over his shoulder. "Have fun, doctor."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave me a review! Let me know what you thought! Was this in character? I know Lord Megs wouldn't accept a flesh-bag on such light terms. He's leaving her to Knock Out as punishment. Tell me what you thought! Pretty please?

-KM

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