TFP: A New Beginning - Chapter 5

First Knock Out and Hot Rod disappeared, then Smokescreen went AWOL, now Arcee was missing and there was a puddle of energon just outside of New Kaon where she had been on patrol.  Not to mention a rebellion among refugees was beginning to break out.  This was not turning out to be a good day for Bumblebee.

He had petitioned Ultra Magnus to let him scout around Kalis for any signs of what might have happened to his wards.  Someone had to check out the uprising anyway, he had said.  It wouldn’t hurt for him to head out.  

Magnus hadn’t been keen on allowing him to leave after his earlier mistakes, but he eventually agreed to it.

Bumblebee had spent half the day tracking Knock Out and Hot Rod, his sense of urgency turning into that of frustration.  Maybe nothing bad had happened.  Maybe they were just shirking their responsibilities by going into hiding.  

He drove through the wreckage of the war-torn outcroppings of Kalis, feeling his spark begin to settle as he found no sign of a struggle.  Knock Out and Hot Rod must really be safe.  It was the first time he had ever been thankful for the ex-Con’s disregard for protocol.  He imagined his wards racing out in the open landscape, far away from any feud that might be starting in or around the city.

He turned a sharp corner and dared a sigh of relief.  Though he immediately regretted it.

The warrior scout slid to a stop and transformed, optics wide and mouth agape.  He bent to one knee and ran a digit over a drying pool of energon, no more than a day old.  He looked around and found a disturbingly familiar object lying on the ground ahead of him.

He stood and lifted a servo to activate his comm.  “Bumblebee to base,” he said.   He walked over to the object and picked it up to get a closer look.  “What is the status of our interdimentional prisoner?”  He waited for a reply and frowned at what he heard.

Soundwave had escaped and Bumblebee knew he now held one of the Spymaster’s tentacle-like cables in his hand.

“Patch me through to Ultra Magnus.”  He waited.  “Sir, I think I’ve got a lead on Knock Out and Hot Rod.  I found signs of a struggle on the outskirts of Kalis.  I believe Soundwave escaped the Shadowzone and abducted them.  For what reason, I don’t know.  Yet.”

“Abducted?” Magnus grumbled quietly.  “What reason do we have to believe that Knock Out himself didn’t betray us?”

Bumblebee frowned.  “Knock Out wouldn’t betray us.”

“You’re sure?”  Bumblebee could practically hear his eyebrow arch.

“I…”  He looked around at the decimated town, a deep pain rising from within his spark.  All the chaos.  All the destruction.  The pain.  The deception.  All that the war had cost them came crashing down on his spark in that moment.  Trust seemed so farfetched in the midst of the cruel aftermath.  And yet… “I would stake my life on it, sir.  I’ll find Knock Out and I’ll prove he’s on our side.”  Because really, what else was there for him to do?  He was an Autobot soldier who had practically been raised by the late Optimus Prime.  Faith, hope and trust, even when dealing with a former Decepticon, was the only option.

Magnus grunted on the other side of the comm.  “Very well.  Watch your six, soldier.  I don’t need to remind you that Megatron is still out there somewhere.”

“I’ll be careful,” Bumblebee replied, the hint of a smile on his face as he cut the comm.  The commander was finally starting to soften up to him.  See there?  Hope.  It was the Autobot way.

He transformed and sped after the trail.





Knock Out was lost in his work.  He had pretty much stripped Starscream of what was left of his armor in order to get to all the leaking energon tubes in his endoskeleton and solder them shut before his levels reached critical.  At the same time, he had both himself and Soundwave patched into Starscream’s main fuel lines for a steady transfusion of energon to keep him online enough for Soundwave to integrate his mind with Starscream’s system in order to relay his vitals to the Medic, since they didn’t exactly have the proper equipment in the shabby, half collapsed bar.

Knock Out kept an optic on Starscream’s spark.  It would be dim one second, bright enough to illuminate every crevice of the chassis around it the next second and almost non-existent after that.  All due to pain, of course.  Knock Out had to leave the majority of Starscream’s pain receptors active in order to get a proper diagnostic from his system and he hadn’t had any anesthetics on him when he was abducted to at least ease the sensation of being taken apart.

He could only imagine the agony Starscream was going through as he fought to get him stabilized.

Why was he working so hard, anyway?  Why did he have this need to save his former Commander’s life?

He brushed the thought aside as he focused his attention on his work.

Knock Out took a second to glance at the energon drying in the joints of his servos.  Starscream’s energon mixed with his own as well as Soundwave’s.  It was odd to think that, after Megatron’s rejection of the Decepticon cause, his own defect to the Autobot side and Soundwave’s tortured alienation in the Shadowzone, here they stood over a dying Starscream, the traitor of all traitors, relentlessly working and eager to restore his life.

And that was when Knock Out realized Megatron was no longer in the room.  There was a gasp outside and before the Medic’s optics could fully widen at the realization of what was happening, a garishly bright, yellow and orange body flew through the door and slammed into the opposite wall.

“Hot Rod?” the Medic whispered.  “No, no, no.”

Megatron stepped into the room with a huff, optics dangerously narrow.  He reached his right arm over his chest and pulled a jagged piece of debris from his left shoulder.  “I won’t ask a second time,” he growled.  “Who are you?”

The younger bot returned Megatron’s glare with full force.  “I don’t owe you any explanation.”  He pushed himself up.  “Give Knock Out back and no one will get hurt.”

Knock Out’s jaw dropped.  Really?  Are you really that stupid?

Megatron let out a howling laugh and smirked at the Sparkling.  “If you’re trying to intimidate me, you’ll have to try harder.  Do you even know who I am?  I am-”

“Megatron,” Hot Rod finished.  “Emperor of destruction, dark lord of the Decepticons, gladiatorial champion of Kaon and big, fat, horn headed loser to the Autobots.  What’ve you been doing out here in the wastelands?  Crying yourself to sleep?”

Knock Out swore his spark ceased functioning in that moment.  He hurried to finish sealing the last of the leaks, ripped the energon catheter from his own fuel line, vaulted over Starscream’s body and hit Hot Rod in a tackle to knock him out of the way as Megatron’s fist met with the wall he had previously been leaning again.

“Wait!” the Medic yelled.  “Wait, wait, stop.  This just- Please, everyone just stop.”

Megatron glared at him, but didn’t move to attack.

Knock Out shot a glance at Soundwave.  He stood by the downed Seeker, continuing to monitor his vitals while his own energon siphoned through a tube in his arm and into Starscream.  He, too, watched in a tense stance yet did not move away from his station.

“The war…” Knock Out started.  “The Decepticons.  You said they were no more.  So why fight?  Why continue?  We’re home.  We can start again.”  He pushed Hot Rod farther away.

The Sparkling pushed back.  “I’m not afraid, Doc.”

“Shut up, you idiot,” Knock Out hissed.  Back to Megatron: “He means no harm, really.  Please… Please don’t hurt him.”

Megatron stared at him.  “I have no intention of refueling the war, Knock Out.  Just as I have no desire to be affiliated with the Decepticons.”  His voice took a sadder tone.  “Though we both know that cannot be avoided.  As for your friend meaning no harm…”  He held out the shard of metal that had been jutting from his shoulder and dropped it on the floor.  “I warn you, young one, do not be so quick to start a fight.  Courage and stupidity are divided by a very fine line.”

Hot Rod, still glaring at the warlord, stepped around Knock Out and boldly strode to the shard.  He snatched it off the ground shoved it back at Megatron’s face.  “I didn’t do this.  You threw me into a wall, but I didn’t do this.”  He dropped the shard and stomped back to Knock Out.  “The Bots’ll be looking for us, Doc.  We should-”

And that was when the shard exploded.





“Don’t look at me like that,” he said.  “I know you didn’t want me to come back, but I got you out of there, right?”

No answer.

“I could have let you blow up.”

A moan.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re right.  You’re always right.  I wouldn’t have let that happen.  But, come on, were you really just going to leave me?  After all the stuff we went through?”

His optics flickered on and off.

“Okay, Screamer.  Get some rest.  You’re stable now.  We’ll talk when you wake back up.”

“Sk… Sky…”

Skywarp frowned at the twisted form of his Trine leader in his arms.  “I’m here, Screamer.”

“Skywarp…”  His voice was barely a whisper.  “Th… Thank… you…”

Skywarp smiled.  “Go to sleep, Starscream.”





His optics sparkled under the dancing stars.  Everything was falling into place.  Or falling out of place, depending on how you looked at it.  They had started all kinds of little revolts throughout the port cities.  Uprisings of rebellion against the Autobots judicial system.

Naturally, such things would have happened anyway, but he had rather enjoyed being a part of it.

He sniffed at the air and growled.  Something out there was bothering him.  Something familiar and yet completely foreign.  He tried to pinpoint the scent, but was quickly put on the ground by a brain-scrambling shriek from the implant in his head.

After a few minutes, the painful sound stopped and he pushed himself to his feet once more.

“Remember the mission,” a deep voice said behind him.

He didn’t need to turn to see who it was.  He had heard the voice before, but more than anything, he knew the scent.

“Don’t tell me what to do,” he hissed.

The other mech only grinned at him.  “I know someone who will be happy to see you.”

He tilted his helm.  “Who?”

“Soundwave,” the mech said with a laugh.

He grinned back.  “You know where he is?”

The mech reached down to pat him on the head.  “I’ll take you to him, if you’d like.  I can’t wait to see his face when his precious Ravage is returned to him.”

The cat laughed.  “Let’s rip a camera of some newsbot’s head first.  I want to have a copy of his reaction when I tear his visor off.”

“I do love serving our masters with you, Ravage,” the mech said with a smirk.

“Likewise, Thundercracker.  Likewise.”