Chapter 32
"I'm sure Megatron would oblige you" he snickered.
"We don't talk of that dark time" Shadow dead-panned.
"Well did I kiss him... actually, ignore that" Optimus muttered back.
"I was young and stupid alright? plus then we didn't know who Megatron truly was" Shadow as she finished her salad, "Wait when did you kiss him?" she asked as she laughed a little.
"I was in that experimentation stage" Optimus mumbles. Shadow laughed out loud, "When was this? and I missed it?" she asked.
"The day you were stuck getting a repaint remember that?" Optimus laughed.
"Worst day in a long time that was a terrible experience" Shadow said in response shuddering remembering it.
"But you looked soooo pretty!" He said to her.
"Oh, shove off" Shadow said laughing at him, "That was for the ball wasn't it? that was weird" She asked.
"Yeah. I didn't even get to dance with you" he pouted.
"Oh well if you hadn't gone onto the dance floor then maybe you could've" Shadow remarked, "We'll party sometime and we can dance then how does that sound?" she suggested.
"Perfect" he said.
"It's a plan then" Shadow chirped.
"We should get back to Sirena" he said to her.
"Yes, we should now that I'm not being threatened over food" Shadow agreed and they walked towards where they left Sirena.
"I hate to think about what happened after we left" he muttered.
"Honestly it'd be smarter if we didn't go back" Shadow said agreeing to his mumble.
"Maybe but we gotta" he said again.
"Unfortunately, yes" Shadow replied as they made it to the room.
"Oh, primus I can't look" he said as he opened the door.
"What?" Shadow asked cautiously as she stood behind Optimus and couldn't see into the room.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" He yells as he moves out of Shadows way. He moved out the way only for Shadow to hit by a pillow as inside the room Sirena had recovered and the three cons were in a full out pillow battle.
"Die Knockout!" Sirena tells and gets him upside the head. The three cons hadn't taken notice of Shadow or Optimus as they were too busy smacking each other with pillows. "honestly this isn't the weirdest thing I've caught her doing" Shadow said to Optimus.
"Oh? Do tell!" He said with smirk as he filmed it.
"let me think" Shadow said, "Oh right she was having a tea party with Razor once while we were on the ship"
"Huh" he replied.
"Yeah she's weird" Shadow stated as Sirena nailed Soundwave in the head with her pillow.
"Scor- Argh!" Sirena yells as Soundwave tackles her. They landed right in the doorway so when they looked up they saw Optimus and Shadow standing there laughing at the events.
"Hi!" They said together as they wrestled.
"Hi" Shadow replied as she laughed and Optimus continued to film the events.
"You shall lose Soundwave!" Sirena yells at him. And lose he did as Sirena was able to pin him. "What happened to resting?" Shadow asked them.
"What resting?" They ask together again.
"For Sirena - you know Ratchets orders?" Shadow pressed.
"Ratchet who?" They ask with matching smirks.
"It's your fault if you get wrenched" Shadow said not caring for their game.
"She's all healed. Don't worry" knockout replied from the bed.
"Okay" Shadow held up her hands, she wasn't fully convinced but KO was a doctor so she didn't say anything else.
"See?" The two on the floor said pleased.
"Whatever" Shadow said not impressed.
"Aww! We made her angry!" They giggled. Shadow just merely rolled her eyes and turned to walk away. Suddenly everything at the base went dark.
"Oh, c'mon what was that?" Shadow complained.
"No idea but we can't see anything" the two on the floor said referring to outside the base, the electric line and the control room.
"Then what could've caused this?" Optimus asked.
"We don't know!" They yell in frustration.
"Then find out" Optimus ordered, they were still on the ground but at the order they got up. They navigated their way to the control room and put the computer systems on the generator but nothing was wrong when they.
"This is weird" Shadow commented.
"Yeah, but what's weirder is we can't stop talking together" they replied.
"Yeah okay" Shadow said, "So the system shutting down affected you? yep no I'm out" she said.
"Glitch" they hissed at her.
"Okay this is creepy enough you don't have to curse me out too!" Shadow exclaimed, calming down she asked, "Do we have any reason to worry or did Fowler merely forget to pay the electricity bill?"
"We don't have an electricity bill" they respond "it's a government facility, so we have means to worry" they said "and we were cursing the computer"
"Oh" Shadow said in response, "and I was trying to make a joke with the bill thing – didn't work so well"
"Someone needs to get to the sub-basement and tell us what it looks like down there" they demanded.
"I'll go" Shadow shrugged.
"We'll give you directions as you go" they said to her and handed her a torch.
"Thanks" Shadow said taking the torch and going to the sub-basement.
"You'll have to go down three floors to get there" the informed her via comm.
"Alright" Shadow replied. She went down those three floors before talking into the comm - "Okay now what?"
Corridor to your right, second left, first right and it should be the steel door at the end of this he corridor" they replied.
"Okay" Shadow replied, as she took each direction she repeated them. She got to the steel door at the end of the corridor and opened while telling those on comms that she was there. Of course, they already knew. "Do you see the door to your fight?"
"Yeah I see it" Shadow responded as she shined her torch light on it.
"Open it. It's the fuse box" they ask.
"Got it" she opened it - with a little bit of difficulty.
"What's it looks like?" They ask again.
"Dusty and fried" Shadow answered as she coughed from the dust and small amounts of smoke, "The wires are shot"
"what color fuses?" They ask.
"They would be - blue, red, yellow and black - a lot of them are fried" Shadow responded as she inspected the fuses and wiring.
"In the cupboard to your left should be some spares, try replacing them" they directed.
"Oh, this will be fun" Shadow responded sarcastically - truth was she was very good with fixing things but she usually shocked herself a few good times in the process. She went to the cupboard and found the replacements and starting working.
"You want me to come down?" They ask her but she could tell it was really Sirena asking.
"No, I've got this - scrap!" Shadow tried to reassure but cursed as she shocked herself, "Don't say anything - and I'm fine" she mumbled into the commlink.
"I won't believe that in a million years" they respond.
"Well you shouldn't doubt me cause that's 3 out of 4 replaced" Shadow responded, her tone was happy but quiet as she was concentrating.
"Just be careful" they ask.
"Done and with only one shock" Shadow said ignoring their request.
"Just trip the green switch beside them now" they directed.
"Okay" Shadow said as she flicked the switch. The lights came back on for all of 10 seconds.
"Well it's not the fuse box - that's stayed fine" Shadow explained, "The fuses and the wiring have stayed intact and there's no other damage that I can see"
Try the door behind you. That's the main power grid, but we're warning you, is about 5 square kilometres of space and if you miss the stairs it's quite a drop" they suggested.
"Oh, Primus who designed this base?" Shadow complained, "Okay well at least I can manipulate the shadows for a little bit more light" She went to the door and opened it. The huge dark cavern was bathed in a dim blue light. "Want some help?" They ask her.
"Just tell me what I have to do" Shadow said as she stepped cautiously.
"Touch the positive and negative charges with two fingers. If it zaps you it's fine" they respond laughing.
"I thought you didn't want me to get zapped" Shadow complained but she looked for the charges anyway.
"It will tingle, not zap" they replied.
"Well don't say zap if you mean tingle" Shadow sassed, she found the charges and carefully walked to them.
"We're kidding. OT really will zap you" they reply giggling.
"Oh c'mon" Shadow complained as her finger were close to the charges. "I hate you guys so much" she said as she touched the charges an she jumped back at the zap and all Sirena and Soundwave could hear through the comms was her string of cursing followed by "It works"...
"1 down, 999 to go" they mocked.
"I really hate you guys" Shadow said as she caught her breath.
- fast forward 999 zaps and charges tested.
"So, which one didn't zap you?" They ask.
"Number 989" Shadow replied, "Of course the one that didn't work was near the end"...
"OK, Sirena is coming down to fix it" optimus said.
"Okay" Shadow responded as she sat down - they may have been small zaps but after 1000 of them they took your energy. Sirena walked up and smacked her on the head "ask for help next time! This is gonna make Soundwave look insane" she said.
"Ow" Shadow responded, "What do you mean make Soundwave look insane - he is insane!"
"But now he looks like he's talking to himself" She giggled.
"Oh yeah that" Shadow remembered "How are we going to fix that? Shut down maybe?" she asked as she stifled a yawn.
"Rewire it" she said as she plugged in her feeler.
"I meant fix you!" shadow replied.
"I have no fragging idea but I can't go back to the nemesis like this" she replied.
"yeah definitely not - Soundwave talks once you're out" Shadow agreed "So we'll have to figure it out soon - you need to be with the cons for tomorrow's supply run"
"I know" she said as the power came online.
"Yay" Shadow said when the lights flickered on, "Good work"
"Thanks honey" she replied and they walked back upstairs.
"Alright now to get you and Soundwave fixed - I think you need to shut down for a while" Shadow suggested.
"Argh! That hurts my head" she complains.
"Well I don't know if there's another option - also when was the last time you properly slept?" Shadow asked giving Sirena a knowing look.
"Well... I went into stasis when I let soundwave and Bee go?" She said more like a question then an answer.
"You piss me off" Shadow dead-panned, she took Sirena to the med bay and they waited for Ratchet and Soundwave to get there so they could figure out how to fix them.
"Ow. Ow. Ow" Sirena whined and Shadow held her ear.
"You're not going anywhere until we can figure this out" Shadow said, "So I'll let go if you sit your aft down and wait for Ratchet"
"Fine!" Sirena hugged and sat down.
"Good" Shadow let go of her ear just as Ratchet and KO came in - the later dragging Soundwave in by his ear.
"Glitches" they hissed.
"Yep" They all answered back. "Okay so what are we thinking to reverse this?" KO asked.
"I say we shut them off" Ratchet replied.
"That's what I said but Sirena's saying no to it" Shadow said.
"I'm saying no to it to thank you!" They say but it was clearly Soundwave behind it. Shadow shared a look with the doctors and KO grabbed Soundwave before he could realise what was going on.
"Hey! Wha- no!" They said as Ratchet grabbed Sirena too.
"Sorry guys - I love you" Shadow apologised before she activated stasis. They both slumped into each other as their eyes went dark.
"I feel bad" Shadow said as the doctor's let go of the sleeping duo.
"Why?" Knockout asks her curiously.
"Because they fight us every time we do that - they must fear it for some reason" Shadow replied.
"insomnia. They fear sleep" Ratchet replied.
"Right" Shadow said as she looked at the duo - they were now laid out on the berths fast asleep
"What do we do now?" Knockout asks.
"go get some rest ourselves - we have a 12-hour supply run tomorrow" Shadow reminded.
"Which we have to battle Her in. I'm not looking forward to that" Knockout replied.
"She said that we're safe-ish till lunch" Shadow said, "Megatron doesn't know where we'll be till then"
"Yeah I suppose. Still" Knockout said as he left the med bay. Shadow shrugged and watched Sirena for a while - before she left as well. Optimus had gone to check on bee after the power came back online. She was still asleep and didn't notice any of it.
Five hours later and Shadow and Knockout were back in the med bay. Sirena and Soundwave were still in stasis. But they were getting ready to wake them up. Sirena has to get back to the nemesis.
"Alright stasis shutting down now" Shadow announced.