Ep1 - "Got A Klik?" - Closed

Knock Out vented an irritated sigh, not registering much but yet another distraction from the mountain of work on his doorstep. The voice wasn't Megatron or Starscream of (hah!) Soundwave, and that meant it was no one he had to listen to. Knock Out made an irritated gesture as he walked around the medbay berth, checking vital signs.

"Of COURSE I have a klik, I only have fifty Eradicons in various states of deactivation and a triage line into the next sector, but FOR YOU--" He glanced up and choked on his sarcasm. "Barricade."

The entire medbay fell away at the sight of their missing infiltrator. Of MEGATRON'S--

Frag, this was their best luck all cycle.

"Take over," Knock Out said to whatever assistant was hovering at his side. He stepped around the berth, optics not leaving Barricade as if he might disappear. He stopped himself from physically touching, instead just...gesturing at one of the private exam rooms. "Lieutenant. This way, please."

"Already notified," Knock Out replied, the door closing behind them. His own tone acknowledged the same: Soundwave would be there when he'd be there.

The medic's internal scanners were already doing a preliminary framescan. The blue optics were obvious, and Knock Out had no idea what THAT was about. His reach for a handheld scanner slowed, though, with the info his preliminaries were turning up.

Bluntforce trauma to the helm, probably accounting for the optics, which had likely been broken and replaced. Hairline fractures, well-healed and obviously taken care of by a professional, but still there and indicative of damage from cracked leg struts and servos. His weapons were gone as well, the scarring around the mounts indicative of them being ripped out rather than uninstalled. And his chest plating...ragged hairline fissures remained, both on the plating, the spark cage, and the casing itself. He'd been ripped open straight to the spark, metal and mesh peeled back one layer at a time.

Frag. Well...that explained where he'd been. Such injuries would have been beyond debilitating, would have required swift medical attention.

The Autobots? Perhaps. Perhaps Barricade had been captured, tortured, and escaped? It certainly wasn't Prime's style, but who knew? The new Autobot spec ops agent that had been part of the raiding party was known for doing the Prime's dirty work....

Knock Out didn't let any of his thoughts show on his face, merely gesturing to the medberth.

"I'd like to do a full physical. You've been injured since last I saw you. Is anything giving you errors? Who did your repairs?"

Knock Out indicated that Barricade should lie back and engaged the berth's more powerful frame scanners, the results uploading to his cortex in realtime. He worked quickly, his processor flying through medical diagnosis and more personal analysis simultaneously.

The troops had been talking about Megatron's death almost as much as their own battles and lost squadmates. Knock Out had listened much and said little as he worked. It was entirely possible that the Prime could have killed Megatron, but the whole scenario had something rusted about it. First and foremost that it had been Starscream that witnessed Megatron's death. The idea that Starscream had witnessed the fight and hung back rather than helping was quite believable. The Eradicons were fiercely loyal to Megatron, and though the Decepticons had something of a history of advancement by killing one's superiors, Megatron was a special case. Starscream's "inheritance" of them could only be strengthened by producing a grayed frame and a medical examination verifying Megatron's death. Yet Knock Out had heard not a peep from the possibly-ex-SIC, nor had anyone found Megatron's frame.

However, no one had seen Megatron's living frame, either, which meant that SOMETHING had happened to the warlord. Something that incapacitated him...but not killed him. Or killed him and dumped his body out of the ship, either on purpose or by accident....

And then Megatron's long-lost aligned had walked into his medbay, fully functional and cool as you please. Knock Out had to smile, internally, wryly, at the idea that he might be the only one aside from Barricade and Megatron himself who knew that Megatron was most definitely not dead.

The question still remained, of course, as to where Megatron WAS, if he was not dead.... Knock Out pored over that idea as he looked over the exposed weapon mounts with the bare minimum of physical contact...and wondered if he dared ask. Megatron, he was fairly certain, knew that Knock Out knew his secret and had done nothing other than heavily suggest that Knock Out keep his vocalizer muted if he knew what was good for him. Barricade might or might not have the same opinion.

But then, Knock Out might be the least of Barricade's problems. It was no secret that Barricade was one of Megatron's inner circle (to say the least), and with Starscream looking to consolidate power....

Ah, officers' games. All Knock Out could do was to continue on helping both sides and attempting to anger neither. Which meant repairing and refitting Barricade as quickly as he could before Starscream came looking for him.

"A bit underdressed? Yes, I'd expect so." Knock Out drew up Barricade's specs. "I'll have you refitted before you leave here. Nothing fancy, mind you, but serviceable enough. I will...manufacture more custom replacements...or upgrades if you'd prefer." Who knew if Barricade would be around to claim them, but still....

The berth's scan completed, and Knock Out examined the results as they finished streaming to him. "I will give you supplements to take each cycle which will accelerate healing. Overall, though, the frame repairs are healing well. Your Neutral medic is quite competent. Was it the rotary femme, by chance? She's become something of a minor legend around here. Walked in bold as you please and walked out with Lord Megatron's word that he would recognize and enforce her DMZ." Walked out bleeding energon, too, but Knock Out didn't consider that the most important or incredible part. Though...hmm.... Knock Out would have expected that wound to be heavily contaminated....

The breadth and depth of Cleaver's skill was plain to read. Deft work, all of it. It might be worth a visit, Knock Out thought, to see how a professionally-trained medic treated dark energon poisoning...hmmm.... Perhaps later. When not in the middle of a medical and political crisis.

"Oh? Do tell...," Knock Out said as he engaged another scan, spark-level this time. The medberth's scanners were slower and less detailed than a hardline scan like the one he'd performed on Megatron, but Knock Out ranked his chances of getting a voluntary hardline to a spec ops mech somewhere around his chances of taking over the Decepticons with a wrench and half a cube of low grade. While drunk.

This way he wouldn't have a full log of spark activity, but he should at least be able to tell....

Primus.

The results the scanner fed back to him were so divergent from Knock Out's last baseline that it took the medic a nanoklik to even orient himself, then another five to begin to sort out the changes. THAT was major spark frequency contamination, of the kind one only got from spark violation. KO didn't show his surprise at that. It wasn't an injury he often dealt with...at least not on Decepticons. He'd seen it a few times on Autobot prisoners or on Decepticons that had run afoul of someone particularly cruel in their own faction. There wasn't much he could do about it, in any event.

That layer of trauma almost but not quite hid the sparkbonds. At first Knock Out thought he was reading the results wrong, but no, there were two lines there. One older, meta-deep and unstable, similar to the one he'd seen in Megatron's spark. Another practically fresh, active, but not as deep. More like a servant or symbiont bond than a spark alignment. Barricade's record stated that he'd had a symbiont previously. Perhaps he'd found another at the Neutral Base?

Knock Out's attention strayed back to the spark trauma. What WOULD such, along with possible physical torture, do to one's aligned? Especially when one's aligned is destabilized slightly by heavy dark energon contamination? He filed THAT question away for very careful consideration.

The surprise was a pleasant distraction from everything else. "A gyro-flail?" Knock Out took a critical look at the indicated arm and yes, there and there, he could see the mounts for such a weapon, long-buried under alterations, human kibble, and a few scar-welds. "I haven't seen one of those--" since the Wreckers "--in quite awhile. But yes, I can definitely install one for you. Perhaps tweak the hydraulic linkages, too, to give you a bit more...oomph. I'll have to manufacture the parts, however."

Barricade was awfully convinced that he'd have time for such things. Knock Out had to wonder if Barricade knew something about Megatron's disappearance. Perhaps this had been some sort of plan...some sort of trap for Starscream? An odd time to spring it, but perhaps the Autobot attack's timing had only been a coincidence....

There was no tactful way to discuss the spark damage, so after hastily slotting the flail installation into his treatment plan, Knock Out simply segued into uncomfortable territory, keeping his mien smooth and professional. Timing being what it was, he moved over to the cabinets, coding in his key and pulling out several parts for the cannon installation. Luckily, Barricade's frame would take a slightly-modded drone model cannon. "There's been quite a bit of spark damage since last I saw you, which I'm sure hurts like the Pit. I'm afraid that there isn't much to be done about it other than to wait until your own frequency purges the contaminant." Knock Out paused, minutely. Ah, this decision again: to reveal or not reveal what he knew? Ah, to the Pit with it. Megatron already knew, and after a spark scan only an idiot would miss such a thing. "This would likely be accelerated by close contact with your aligned."

Knock Out set the parts on a cart next to the berth and glanced at the locked door and the pandemonium behind. Did he have time for a processor scan? Ah, well, he could multitask. He moved to one of the cortical scanners, spooling out a connector and offering it to Barricade. "I'm assuming that you would rather an automatic processor scan than a hardline. Plug in, and I'll run it while installing your weaponry. No sense wasting precious time, hmm?"

Knock Out's hands stopped. His optics flicked up. Then narrowed.

There could, he thought, still be a game here. Still, it was getting awfully complicated, and Barricade wasn't usually THIS obtuse without a good reas--

The scanner bleeped the end of its cycle, and Knock Out accepted the results file, flicking it open absently as he tried to decide if Barricade was playing dumb or if something--

Knock Out would have dropped his welder if it wasn't attached to him.

Errors and corrupted sectors. Recursive cortical scars and broken firewalls. Huge swathes of damage from virals and rogue anti-virals alike. And sitting at the base of it, a tripped snarl of protocols that Knock Out knew nothing about but that they were spec ops and that he didn't want to touch them with a ten mechanometer prod.

"...ah," Knock Out said, "That explains...a lot. Not my specialty, but it looks like you're lucky your coding didn't rip you apart." Knock Out vented a vaguely amused huff.

::Knock Out to Soundwave. Your lost agent needs your tender loving care immediately. He has a bit of a memory problem.::

And here he was, in the middle of a clusterfrag of chaos with no Megatron and--as far as Knock Out could tell from the state of Barricade's memory clusters--little to no idea of what the frag was going on.

Oh, this just gets better and better....

Knock Out got back to work on the weapon mount. "And might I say, good show? What IS the last thing you remember, by the way?"

Pre-war...oh Primus SLAGGED. Knock Out nearly laughed at Barricade's revelation, but kept it to an incredulous headshake as his hands worked. This was going to get very, very complicated very quickly. No matter what had happened to Megatron, with the warlord missing Starscream would be looking to consolidate power.

Knock Out wondered why he was even trying. If Soundwave couldn't get his aft here before Starscream did, (and perhaps even if he did) it was going to make very little difference what Knock Out did. Still, though, Knock Out's fingers worked steadily. Megatron was unaccounted for, NOT dead, and if Knock Out was going to continue that affiliation...and if he wanted any hope of Megatron's processor stopping its slow slide into meltdown...he needed Barricade alive. Which meant arming the infiltrator in as many ways as he could.

Knock Out leaned in as he worked on modding Barricade's cannon mount, vocalizing a noncommittal, distracted hum.

Over comms, he was anything but. ::Yes, I'm sure. Soundwave can help with your processor lock, and I've let him know how urgent the matter is. I've no idea how much of your processor damage he can fix. There are some sectors that might be irrecoverable.::

He sent a patch through the scanner to dial down Barricade's pain sensors as he transformed out his grinder. ::We might not have much time, so I'll give you a crash course, just in case. You are one of Lord Megatron's most trusted lieutenants. You've been missing for roughly ninety planetary rotations. You were supporting a large operation, engaging a small group of Autobots, when you disappeared. No one saw circuit or plate of you until now.::

A bit of welding, a quick-cool, more grinding. ::The politics are messy, but I'll give you what'll help most: you are Megatron's aligned. It's not widely known, but what IS widely known is that you are Megatron's mech. Megatron has disappeared. Starscream has claimed the Autobots deactivated Megatron, but that is slag, since you are sitting right here. I've no idea what play Starscream is making, but he will be cleaning house, looking to move into the power vacuum. You should lay low. Extremely low.::

Knock Out patched the cannon into Barricade's systems, pinging him to run the start-up diagnostic even as he finished the welding on the mount. He glanced up to meet Barricade's optics, pointedly, briefly. ::And watch your back.::