Echo is waiting for Skywarp in the simulation room.
The room is small and only houses one stasis-pod with various strange equipment connected to it.
"This is where we analyze your reaction to everyday situations," Echo tells him and opens the stasis-pod. "This pod is no different from the pods used for the specialized flight simulators, but instead of flight, you will experience different scenarios."
Skywarp looks into the stasis-pod.
The size of it is smaller than he would have liked, but he has to remind himself that its purpose isn't to allow his wings to move freely while his processor believes it is flying.
"Nacelle has requested a baseline to compare to before you enter group therapy," Echo says and connects him to the equipment while Skywarp's mind is preoccupied with the thought of entering the too small stasis-pod.
Multiple wires hang from his head and wings while a large cluster of electrodes has been placed on his chestplates right above his spark. The last electrodes connect to his hands and thrusters before Echo steps back and brings the equipment online.
"Take your time." She says. "I know it can feel strange."
He crawls awkwardly into the stasis-pod, the wires hanging haphazardly down its side, and he wonders how Echo is going to close the pod with them there. He gets the answer the next moment when the psychologist gathers the many wires and places them in a notch for this purpose.
Before he can react, the stasis-pod closes, and his awareness drifts away.
He is walking down a road when something collides with his back, narrowly missing his wings. He turns around, noticing a ball and its young owner not far away. He throws the ball back to its owner and receives a "thank you" in response.
The simulator skips to the next scenario.
It is morning, and the air is filled with fliers on the way to work. He is already late, and suddenly there is an opening up ahead, but to get there, he needs to push another flier out of the way to get there. He waits patiently, allowing the other flier to take the spot.
The simulator skips to the next scenario.
The sound of angry voices draws his attention and he identifies a quarreling couple.The carrier slaps the sire in the face and turns around to walk away. The sire grabs for her. He jumps into action, placing himself in front of her to shield her from the attack. Anger at the sire clouds his mind, and they end in a brawl.
The simulator skips to the next scenario.
He is with a carrier. They are interfacing, his spike sinking into the tight clenching valve, yet suddenly the carrier begs him to pull out. He hesitates, his spike swollen with the need for release.
The simulator skips to the next scenario.
And the next...
And the next...
Until he has been through more than two hundred randomly generated scenarios, and the simulator shuts down.
The stasis-pod opens with a hiss.
"Welcome back to us, Skywarp," Echo says while Skywarp blearily onlines his optics.
His processor is spinning wildly, and he stumbles out of the pod, causing the wires to wind around his frame and restrict him.
There is a moment of panic at the feeling, but Echo detaches them and frees him.
"It can be disorienting to wake from the simulation. Your mind has been so focused on analyzing and react to the various scenarios it has gone through that it needs to ground itself when you regain consciousness," Echo explains and guides Skywarp to slowly sit down on the floor.
His equilibrium gradually returns, and when he has recovered from the disorientation, his optics curiously follow Echo in her work.
"How did I do?" He asks after a while.
"You did as expected for your first time," Echo says with a little reassuring smile. "I will send the final analyze to Nacelle, and then he will explain the result to you."
"Relax."
Thundercracker looks up at Nacelle from his berth.
"You're safe."
The psychiatrist has taken the therapy to Thundercracker's private rooms to ease his distress, and he offlines his optics at the cold feeling of the electrodes connecting to his head.
Alpha/Theta-training, Nacelle had called it when they had talked about his treatment plan.
"Your processor is in a default High-Beta state, caused by chronic stress and anxiety. Alpha/Theta neurofeedback can break these vicious cycles by creating a two-way communication through wires with electrodes through the head connected to a computer. When your processor starts to move into this High-Beta, an inhibitory signal sent from the computer prevents it from going into Beta and shifts it into Alpha. If your processor starts to enter recharge and moving into Delta, this technology inhibits your processor from going into Delta and shifts it into Theta. By training the processor into this Alpha/Theta -range, the processor begins to recalibrate its default set-point from High-Beta stress to a calm Alpha/Theta state. Over time, as we rewire your processor into this new pattern, it solidifies the long-term benefit. Resulting in a feeling of being calm within the storm." Nacelle had explained the basics behind the therapy.
"I'm starting the computer now."
He nods without onlining his optics.
There is a faint gentle tingle in his processor, but he remains passive, letting whatever happens happen.
While Thundercracker slowly sinks into a state of hypnagogia, Nacelle receives a heavily encrypted message.
Taking his time to assist Thundercracker and ensuring that everything is as it should, with the blue seeker's awareness lost to the world around him, he brings a chair beside the berth and sits down.
Decrypting the message, he holds his breath when he reads it.
-Attack on H-10 averted. One taken alive.-
His spark pulse increases, relief filling him at the fact that they managed to avert an attack, and there is a desire to contact Prowl to get more information. But if the message is to go unnoticed and fade in among all the other private messages that constantly get sent between the staff of D-14, he can't.
An outgoing, unidentifiable and heavily encrypted message would raise suspicion.
And he is not yet ready to reveal his identity.