Wheelie's optics onlined hesitantly. He remembered last night's events all too well and unless he was back in Sam's apartment, he wasn't sure he wanted to know where he was. Instead of attracting unwanted attention to himself by confirming he was awake, he onlined his optics just enough to scan the room. Once the scan was complete, he offlined his optics and captured the image of the room inside his processor. While on the outside, he continued to play dead. Inside his processor, he studied the scan of the room. The room he was inside was set up like a human doctor's office. Except for the fact that he was strapped down on an 'operating table' maybe, he was relatively comfortable. Surrounded by strange machinery, unable to move, and placed under a blinding white light. But still comfortable. It was an improvement over having to recharge in a metal cage, in a car trunk, on a bumpy road. The sound of footsteps caused Wheelie to freeze. Then the humans' conversation could be heard, followed by a door slam. Wheelie relaxed. They didn't seem to notice he was awake. There was some clattering of machinery that tempted Wheelie to online just one optic to take a look. But he refused to risk meeting eye to optic with these dangerous humans. Instead he used the scanned image of the room and the sounds the humans made to estimate where they were and what they were doing. One human was typing on a computer while he spoke to the other.
"You've got the first Formula ready?"
"Ready." His partner confirmed. The typing stopped. Both humans leaned close over Wheelie. He could feel them breathing on him. A clicking noise sounded, as if someone were loading a gun.
"Remember. We need him in good shape for the other ones. So as soon as we know this formula's effect on him, we remove it. Got it?" Wheelie got the 'Uh-oh!' feeling in his tanks. This really wasn't good. The human's partner must have nodded, for Wheelie heard no vocal response. When Wheelie felt light touch of metal on his chest, he knew he was on the wrong end of a gun or whatever twisted torture device that the humans had built. Wheelie braced himself. 'Please don't make it hurt.' Wheelie prayed. 'I never did anything bad to them. I'm a good mech.' Wheelie considered his previous life as a Decepticon. 'Well good now.' Suddenly Wheelie's spark chamber was being flooded with an unknown liquid. It stung his internal systems like poison, but his spark was taking to it like energon! The confused spark started spreading the poison into his body and mixing it with his real energon! Startled, Wheelie couldn't help but let out a yelp and online his optics. He had to stop the poison before it reached other important mechanical organs. Within seconds Wheelie was coughing and purging out the poison through his mouth. While in between pained gasps, Wheelie noticed how the two men just watched him. In a few seconds the humans decided they'd seen enough and implanted a blue powder like substance inside Wheelie by using another one of their wicked devices. The powder acted like a sponge and absorbed all of the poison. Wheelie gave one last cough and purged up everything. Powder, poison, and all. Wheelie studied the pool of energon that was spat on the table and dripping from his mouth. He'd lost a lot of good energon. When he was collected and realized he was fine, he hollered at the humans.
"You SLAGGERS! What in Pit was that for?" One human flashed a devious smile at Wheelie to taunt him.
"The others were smart enough not to talk back." He said. "The previous Decepticon we captured didn't survive half the things we've already tested on you. You must have a lot of hidden strength for such a small thing."
"Well I'm not your lab rat! I'm an Autobot and I have rights! You can't keep me here!" Wheelie snapped.
"Well." The man mimicked. "The way I see it, you are property of MONEE until you're no longer of use to us. Of course your friends could claim you as well, if the government knew we existed. Bottom line, as long as you stay here, you don't exist on the outside and you belong to us."
"I told you! I'm no Decepticon! They're the ones who want to kill you all. Why do you want me?"
"Because we couldn't care less about your faction in your robot war. Deep down you're all just different renditions of the same mindless destructive machine. We'll eliminate every last one of you. No matter who claims to protect or destroy us." Wheelie flashed his optics in shock and amazement. 'That wack job! Just how messed up are these people anyway?' Wheelie wondered.
"So what good came out of that...test?" Wheelie spat the word 'test' as if he could still taste and feel the poison.
"We now know that the Formula is close enough to energon, which you live off of, that you're body doesn't know the difference. And the Formula sticks to the real energon. So if one of your kind is infected with it and does not posses this," He held up a sample of the powder. "he will either be eaten alive by the Formula, or 'bleed' to death in an attempt to get the Formula out of him." He smiled triumphantly. Wheelie was absolutely disgusted with this human. Both MONEE agents walked towards the door. The one who spoke directly to Wheelie affectionately rubbed his finger tips over Wheelie's wheel-shoulder. "You should get some rest before the next test." He said plainly. Without warning, Wheelie's primitive instincts took control. CRUNCH!
Wheelie bared his fangs and tore ruthlessly at the fragile skin! But he wasn't satisfied with just a scratch. So he dug his fangs farther past the tiny muscles and clamped his jaws into the bone! The first crunching sound along with the human's screaming was amusing to Wheelie. The second crunch sounded absolutely sickening! The MONEE agent was still screaming and clutching his finger when Wheelie released him! Still relying on rage and instincts, Wheelie made a dreadful growling noise and lashed out with his fangs again like a wild animal! At first the agents stood scared stiff. But once they realized that Wheelie was still tied down, they relaxed slightly. Wheelie roared like he'd gone completely mad! Both agents bolted out of there without even thinking of looking back. Wheelie continued to roar and scream in a barbaric manner! It wasn't until the door slammed, when he finally snapped out of his enraged trance. When he was all alone, he realized what he had done. Wheelie laid his head back and looked up at the ceiling. He felt so ashamed of himself. Autobots protected humans no matter the circumstances. And he injured a man, not like a Decepticon, but like a mindless machine. The thing he was trying to prove he wasn't. What had he done?
Wheelie tasted the human's blood. It tasted awful. But no where near as awful as the guilt that was churning in the bottom of his tanks. He regretted every action he made in the last minute. Saying sorry to himself wouldn't do anything though. He couldn't do anything. He acted like a monster and there was no changing that. What would the Autobots think if they had seen him? Could he even call himself an Autobot anymore? How could an Autobot function, knowing he was a primitive monster inside? Maybe he wasn't meant to go back to the Autobots. Maybe some sentient beings were only mindless machines in disguise after all.