Ep. 2 - Perchance to Dream (Closed, Roulette, Flatline)

[Deleted]

Week 2 - Day 4. A couple of days after 'Tremors'.

If there was one scientific hurdle Shockwave had not yet conquered, it would be his inability to physically be in two places at the same time. It was an ability that he sorely needed at the moment.

The scientist had been overseeing the ongoing mining operation planet-side almost since its inception, and while he could be almost completely assured that it was progressing, and producing, as expected or beyond, 'almost' was not good enough, not when so many unquantifiable variables could go wrong very swiftly instead. On the other hand (so to speak), there was only so much that automated processes and research could achieve on board the 'Nemesis'; eventually he would have to set his attention to what to do with the data provided by his lab there. And there was only so much he could delay or delegate. No Vehicon, proxy or officer on board the 'Nemesis' simply had the knowledge and expertise to take over the most delicate of Shockwave's experiments. The one in particular that had drawn him back to the warship, Shockwave would trust to no one else.

Before the scientist, floating over his main projection table, was the most complex blueprint that his scanners could provide of the weapon that had been used to attack Lord Megatron. Information streamed by, in the scientist's odd short-hand. He'd run every test the equipment could manage while he worked on more equipment to run yet more tests.

Those tests had run their course. The data would not analyze itself, and thus Shockwave found himself doing exactly that. It was not the same as fieldwork, but it was nonetheless fascinating and, in the end, it was a return to old roots. Had Shockwave been sentimental he'd have found it more than merely refreshing to be doing weapon research once again.

... However, joy of science alone could only power the scientific savant for so long, despite his own certainty that he surely could survive on research alone. And so Shockwave stood, motionless and alone in his lab, watching the data scroll by without providing any input whatsoever.

[Deleted]

She was bored.

Which was all sorts of ridiculous given her location. She was one of the best labs likely in operation this side of the universe. There was so much accumulated sciency crap around her that she could have been entertained for the next several lifetimes.

If she cared.

Scoffing and making a face at the datapad, she slumped at her makeshift desk (which was really just a table she'd commandeered and placed a empty box in front of her to place her stuff on. Chairs? In a lab? THAT WOULD BE MADNESS.) At current, her datapad was full of tedious reports on those stupid Artemia. She was sorting the data with a swipe of her finger but there was only so much of his shorthand she could digest before she wanted to jab her optics out.

Time to get up and move around! With a groan, she batted the box aside and slide off the desk. It wasn't that she wanted more work. If she wasn't here, she'd be sent out repairing something likely in some dank swamp somewhere. Or a freezing tundra. But being cooped up in the lab with Shockwave was always like playing, well, Russian roulette. He was either in a stupendous mood and stayed with his work or he got...distracted. Today seemed one of the better days.

Rolling her optics, she moved around the room, keeping an eye on the scientist. He'd been enamored with the blueprint since his return. Which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. This happened more often than not, actually, and she was used to him losing time to more than a few projects. However, she also knew that when he got this wrapped up in his work, he didn't refuel because that made so much sense. For a logical being, she found him to be as stupid as a rock at times.

When she stepped near the door it opened. Willingly. Of its own volition. The act was so surprisingly that Roulette nearly dropped her datapad. The door never opened when she was in there. He had it lock automatically because he was a sadist.

Jerking her head hard, she looked at Shockwave's back and realized that this was either a test (likely) or he was...recharging on his feet. (Also likely) She turned her head back to the yawning door to freedom. She should just flee as fast as she could and not look back. But...her attention slowly drifted back to him. She just wasn't sure this wasn't a trap...

Biting her lip, she moved closer to him, ready to bolt if he so much as moved. When he didn't, she reached out with a stylus and poked at him. Normally when she did that, he was forced to give her some response. Usually a warning or a drone being activated nearby. He didn't move at all. Narrowing her optics, she moved closer and poked again with the stylus. Something in the lab beeped and she jerked with a small sound, fumbling the pen with a small tink as it fell...into his armor.

Shit, shit, damn, ffff-

She swore quietly to herself and covered her mouth with her hands. Now was definitely the time to flee. But she couldn't leave without the pen! He'd know and Primus knew what weird retaliation he'd come up with. Cringing at herself, she sidled closer and peeked for the stylus. It rested just inside the hip flaring of his armor. BECAUSE OF COURSE IT DID. Taking a moment to compose herself, she carefully, quietly, and with great care...dipped her fingers down between the plating to fish out the pen.

[Flatline]

"What in the name of Primus are you doing!?"

Flatline's shrieking voice roared out at Roulette in absolute horror at what he was witnessing. It was full of so much disgusted betrayal that one could have easily argued that he somehow found personal offense to the sight he was seeing. Really, he was pretty appalled all things considered, not wanting to see or understand just what he walked in upon, so in a way he truly was finding offense, without it being enough for him to turn heel and stomp off as much as his little peds could permit him to.

A common worker- no... no a lower ranking worker wouldn't have been an issue... no... a common PET PROJECT was dipping her fingertips down between Shockwave's plating at his hip in some sort of lewd action. An action he couldn't even partly comprehend on the level he rightly should have.

Today HAD BEEN a good day, it was going to be normal and with no unpleasant surprises. He woke up at a usual time, and got to work on the dot. No slacking, no messing around, it was all routine even if the projects themselves varied in complexity and source at any given moment. Even this trip to Shockwave's lab was rather planned, fitted into his mental schedule with careful precision while other projects were waiting to cool down or going through their calibrations.

He only needed to come by in order to drop off some milled parts that were going to be used in who-knows-what projects. Go to the lab, greet, deliver what was asked of him, perhaps see if there was any more he could do to be of service, then depart back to his own lab for his side projects and work orders with the Vehicons. But Noooo He had to walk in on Gropey-McGee fondling her commander in a, while not fully public, public ENOUGH setting for it to be an affront.

Shrewd tramp!

So for now Flatline just stood there. Shocked. Appalled. His upper torso had the plating of his armor almost puffed out like an affronted cat, the slender spines protruding from his back flared up as high as the hinges would go, while the shoulder mounted turrets were hiked to point up at the ceiling. His small pronged peds were splayed out on either side of him, as if trapped between wanting to root down in place, or push off into a turn and run, while his forearms were curled about a small box. He held the container securely, clutching it almost, as if the inanimate object could protect his fragile mind from the vulgar act that really wasn't anything bad if one were to look at critically. The entire affront was mostly WHO was involved. Either way, the red rings in his eyes cycled down, the lens plate a near pinprick as he STARED in pointed displeasure.

[Deleted]

Nothing could have prepared her for the scandalized shriek behind her. Half of her was expecting Shockwave to just wake up and demand she leave his person alone. But no, her luck was so bad that she got the other proxy walking in on what must surely look very suggestive and weird. Like she was into this type of kinky slag!

Hissing and sputtering in her surprise, she jerked her hand back out and stepped away from Shockwave fast enough to suggest guilt was moving her. The pen had just been in her grasp, too. It had slid off of her fingertips and she could either continue trying to dig it out or face Flatline. She'd rather just get it out but putting her back to the pearl-clutching idiot was just asking for bad times.

"Keep your voice down," she hissed quietly. Which was still relatively loud in the serene lab. "He's recharging." She realized, belatedly, how horrible that sounded and looked. Here he was sleeping and here she was jamming her hands into places of the unsuspecting creep. What was wrong with this picture?

"I dropped a pen in his stupid armor, ok?"

[Flatline]

Watching Roulette lurch and pull away, indeed conveyed the perfect picture of guilt and shock. It further cemented Flatline's assumptions that she was doing something awful and was as good as a confession on his part. Granted, this WAS Roulette, chances are she would be up to no-good and mischief at any given moment... granted... this situation was a bit out of the norm from what he anticipated from her. He could see her breaking stuff, shoving it off a counter in some act of vengeance. He could easily imagine her opting to relax and hide somewhere else instead of doing her task. What he couldn't imagine was her rutting her hands around under their commander's armor like she was trying to explore a lover for the first time.

The thought made him want to retch.

It was only bleatingly after the fact, that Flatline realized that Shockwave wasn't really moving or responding, information that was further outlined by Roulette pointing it out herself. Her explanation as to why Shockwave was statue still, only caused him to somehow puff up even more in affront if that was even possible. His helm raised, and shoulders crooked up in tandem with the turrets that whirred and clicked in angry protest. Her words did have one good effect though, and that was to keep him from downright screaming his next words.

"What!?"

He snarled this out lowly, clutching the box now up against his chest in a way that suggested his own unease and anxiety of being caught. If Shockwave was asleep right now, than if he was to wake up? They both could be in trouble! This wasn't something the medic really strived for, and he spoke on in a lower hiss once he heard her explanation.

"A pen? How did you even manage that? Were you POKING or THROWING them at him or something?"

Flatline scanned the ground for other tossed pens as he snarled. His words were almost gravelly and ragged, excess frustration that wanted to make him shriek at her somehow restrained, resulting in a mild crackle. He absolutely couldn't believe this situation, as nothing was adding up right, yet the facts were right in front of him. Shockwave was SOMEHOW asleep, he wasn't responsive, and he didn’t appear to be injured or incapacitated in any way, and Roulette... was being her normal self...

Why did he even expect anything different?

"So you think the smartest option is to try to lodge your hand under his plates instead of just wake him or leave him alone?!"

[Deleted]

She really tried to not roll her optics in their setting. The more she learned about Flatline, the more she found him to be a bit hysterical. How did he handle high stress situations, one had to wonder! As if she was taking advantage of the monster of science. If anything, Shockwave was the real one at fault here. Even if he was asleep.

"You really don't have an indoor voice, do you?" Giving him a mistrustful glower, she turned back to peek into the armor seam. For Flatline's benefit, she kept her hand to herself. For now. "Hey, brainiac, if you'll notice Shockwave only has one hand and limited motion range with said hand. How's he going to fish it out himself later? I'm just speeding up the process. And keep your voice down," she hissed.

"He does this from time to time. He works himself for too long and then just recharges where he stands. You'll notice he never leaves the lab, right? You see a cot in here?" She purposely didn't look at the berth tables. Bad memories and hoodoo just surrounded those things. In all the time she'd known him, she couldn't remember him recharging properly. Then again, she tried to know less about his personal life as she could.

[Flatline]

High stress was one thing. He could perform surgeries; he could function during critical repairs where a life teeters on the fine edge between this world and the next. He could critically process multiple scenarios quickly and try to come up with clever solutions on the fly in situations where every second counted tenfold. But what he didn’t like? What he could not stand? Was scankoid rutting around under someone else's armor in a public setting.

Social taboos and scandalous things were difficult for him, simply because he wasn't accustomed to experiencing them, and frankly? Didn’t WANT to be accustomed to such things. As a hatchling manufacture, all of the others who were stationed in the facility with him were the upmost of professional, working with high end clients who wanted custom sparklings manufactured. After this, in the war, he was a medic which was more emergencies than a lot of interaction. After that he just worked in a lab, trying in vain to recreate life again despite the All Spark being gone. Social interaction past business was... nonexistent.

Flash-forward to here, in the now, when he had to tolerate Roulette...

Flatline glared pointed daggers at the femme, all too aware that she had deflected his question and cast it aside without even an inkling of a proper reply. What she did say though made him look upon Shockwave with newfound curiosity. She raised a good point, in which he had always just seen Shockwave working and never absent. There was never once he has come by to see the Commander gone, unless he was doing some side project elsewhere. Never resting, never seeking recharge...

He had never noticed this before, but was now painfully well aware of this oversight, becoming confused on how this scientist functioned while maintaining full intellectual capabilities. It is because of this, Flatline's right knee flinched slightly, hesitation, a moment of being unsure, before he moved forward.

Each step was light, the hoof like prongs of his ped clicking down with a sort of grace he rightfully should not have. He was actually trying to be quiet now, making his way over to one of the nearby tables, without ever once turning his back to the other two. As he did so, the harpoons jutting out from their launchers whirred and clicked slightly, the prongs on the end flaring before slicking down smooth once more.

"That can't be good for him, and he will never get real recharge like that..."

He spoke lowly, trying to disengage from the taboo from before in order to focus on concern for his commander. If Shockwave functioned as well as he did on abysmal recharge only obtained from passing out? Than what sort of things could he accomplish when PROPERLY rested? The idea was thought provoking to him.

Flatline set down the box he was carrying upon the table, making sure it was well enough away from the edge, before he squared off with Roulette and Shockwave once more. His right primary limb stretched out, and one of the decorative red square patches pulled back and pushed out a chunk of metal with a clank. The post was short, his free primary reaching over to grab it and wrench it free which revealed the fact it was a pair of dark grey plier-like forceps that was made for general repairs.

It was part of his emergency kit, and while this was no true EMERGENCY, it was convenient so he didn't have to root around for something comparable in the laboratory. It is because of this he walked over to Rou, keeping his distance from Shockwave, before offering the tool without a word.

[Deleted]

Roulette could read the hesitation and warring motions in every tense line on Flatline's body. The hesitating little step he took, the way he warred between general outrage at her presence and the over protectiveness of Shockwave was funny in a cosmic way. Shockwave didn't need coddling. He wasn't a precious mech that needed to be sheltered and taken care of. Roulette would be the first to point that out. He needed to be locked up so he did not harm to others and himself.

However, that was generally thought to be an unpopular opinion, so she kept it to herself.

"Try telling him that." She waved a hand vaguely at the lump. "There is no down time for him. Not unless his body can't take it anymore." Even when he was injured, as rarely as that was, he didn't stop. It would have been admiring or even inspiring if it were any other mech.

When Flatline offered the forceps, Roulette's optics widened in surprise. He was trusting her to do anything? With his own tools? The unlikely feeling was that he was starting to come around to her charms. More plausible was that if she fouled up and got caught, the blame would be all on her. She was surprisingly comfortable with that.

"Thank you." She gave him a chipper grin before turning, with the tool, to fish out the stylus. She had to boost herself up on the tips of her pedes to see over the flaring of his hip. Feeling a bit magnanimous, she murmured to the other proxy, "So...regretting assigning yourself to his company yet?"

[Flatline]

Roulette could be a perceptive little weasel when the time was right, for Flatline did offer her the tools on the sole idea that if she messed up? Then she would be the one in trouble. The medic could easily have done the task himself, and honestly may not have even needed the tools in order to do so. His slim secondary hands were small enough they could have probably slipped into the hip joint and slipped out the pen with little issue... that said? Flatline would rather be jettisoned out of an airlock before he would want Shockwave to wake up with his hand rutting under his armor.

Flatline stood off to the side while Roulette worked, his helm propped high up upon its connectors, while his legs were stooped a bit as if anticipating needing to spring up and away from something. He may have subtly hoped Shockwave would online right at this moment, to see the reactions of them both. Maybe Roulette would let out a hilarious screech squawk in fear, or perhaps Shockwave would just smack her down to the ground with the broad size of his cannon. ((A futile hope, let a mech dream)) That said, at the same time, he also hoped it didn’t happen. He was torn between possibilities.

"I didn’t assign myself to anything."

He managed to throttle his voice now, the initial shock and horror bleeding out of his words to make them a low hiss of a whisper. While some anxiousness still lingered in it and his field, he had things mostly under control.

"I got appointed to my laboratory, and subsequently Shockwave's side through a chain of events. I didn't choose anything."

Decisive, almost formally stated, before the informal hitch came back in full, speaking bluntly and honestly.

"That said, if offered the position I would have accepted, though never would have imagined that working under such a notable name in science would end up like..."

He didn't even have a word for this, his pale features scrunching up a bit to make the seams over his faceplate seem that much deeper. He rolled his wrist out, trying to formulate a word, only to turn the hand motion into a gesture at the scene before him and the lab, effectively saying 'all of this'.

[Deleted]

"Pfft, yeah. Notable," she muttered, voice dropping while she concentrated on fishing out the stylus. It was right fragging there. But the angle of her arm made it difficult to just snatch it without clanking into his armor (or gods forbid, a sensor node. Ugh. She could only hope he wasn't that sensitive around his hips.) This was turning out like that stressful board game.

"I wouldn't have chosen. But maybe that's just me. I'm sure someone of like mind finds his work that much more amazing." She couldn't quite maintain the sarcasm. For one, her attention was split between her task and keeping Flatline in the field of her awareness in case he decided to do something particularly assholeish. He seemed the sabotaging type.

Even if she had the ability to give the other proxy the sharp side of her glossa, she very well couldn't. Shockwave was a brilliant scientist and without his lack of anything resembling scruples or morals, he made ingenious advances in the field. Their own field of science was lightyears ahead of where it was at the beginning of the war. And it had only cost countless lives to his hand.

Tch, he probably has a list somewhere in his files. All neat and tidy like that. The thought hardened her movements until she all but snapped the stylus out of his armor faster than necessary. All without actually hitting him. Which was a wonder given how much her hand had started to shake with suppressed anger. Her field all but bled it for a moment before she tamped back down the emotion and turned to Flatine, just as calm as ever and offered his tool back.

"Thank you."

[Flatline]

"He is notable."

Flatline defended quickly, a frown plastering over the previous grimace he had been sporting. He could not understand what in the world would have made Roulette so belligerent towards the scientific commander. The mech was odd... he did expect tasks to be performed well, but that was no different of any leader. Was she just upset that he didn’t participate in banter? Flatline had no idea, but it only further cemented his perspective of her being nothing but a guinea pig.

What other reason would Shockwave keep a rebellious worker around when there were likely so many others? Individuals that would shank another Cybertronian in the throat for an opportunity to work under such a prestigious name with the most advanced tools. but... were there others?... Primus were they the only ones on this ship with scientific skill like this? Where they 'just good enough'? He couldn't be just good enough!

Undergoing a bit of an internal crisis suddenly, Flatline completely missed most of what Roulette was saying, the words blurring into a droning noise in the background. His red optics blankly staring out into the abyss as he piecemealed together what he knew of others on this ship. He was scrambling through all the mech and femmes he has seen, trying to remember what others worked in sciences or medicine. He only snapped out of this when Roulette made a fast motion that startled him back to reality.

Optics flicked and locked down onto Roulette, his hand rising to pull up and away from her as if he didn't recognize what she was trying to hand to him. He almost looked like he thought she was attempting to shove something fowl into his grasp, and not just his own tool that integrated with his systems. After he caught up to reality and saw just what was presented, his hand reached out and grasped onto the handle delicately.

Once the pliers were in his possession, he opened them just enough to let the stylus drop down onto the ground with a clatter. He didn't want it, he had no need for it. Once it was deposited, he handed the pliers off to his secondary limbs which flicked and folded the tool up, only to push it into the slot on his forearm. It was a practiced movement, and in only a few seconds the tool was vanished back beneath the red panels on his armor.

"Yes yes... so what is it we do now? He can't just be left like that."

A secondary hand brushed out to motion at Shockwave as he said this, the top edge of his lip peeling back slightly in frustration. If they thought removing that pen was bad, actually relocating the scientist without waking him could be a futile game of 'who wants to get in trouble'. But... could they just leave him out and in the open like this? Obviously something was WRONG.

Maybe something really was wrong... What if there was a glitch that meant that Shockwave simply COULD NOT fall asleep until reaching that forced shutdown phase? This made Flatline squint his eyes a bit, approaching forward slowly to look at Shockwave's single large optic a bit closer.

[Deleted]

Roulette eyed the dropped stylus between them with some distaste. Really? He just dropped it on the floor thinking she was going to go to the trouble of picking it up like some common peon? Did he not know her at all? Ignoring the pen, she turned to study Shockwave with her usual frank regard.

"Of course we're going to leave him there. Neither of us can pick him up and if you wake him up he'll just go back to working." She wasn't going to add that it was fairly hard to wake him up. Either that or he was just that good at ignoring her. Roulette never could decide which of the two was the truth. For as long as she'd been working for the mech, there was quite a bit she didn't know about him.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to enjoy the freedom and escape the lab while the doors are unlocked." She gave him a snide grin and took her first few steps toward freedom. She was going to get the heck out of there and go waste her evening doing something meaningful. Like nothing. Nothing seemed meaningful.

[Flatline]

Flatline dipped his helm a bit, only to stretch out his legs to try to look at the optic from different angles. He couldn't really tell anything from the lined red orb like he could a traditional eye build. Lens dilation and the integrity of internal components viewed through the plate could reveal some basic issues that could plague a processor, but this... well it was some custom optic system that he would have to poke at a bit more to learn about, and that wasn't something he really could do at this time, nor wanted to get caught doing.

Jutting his jaw forward, Flatline's lower teeth poked up and over his lip in dismay. The ragged edged dental plate only accenting his displeased look as he stared up at their Commander and lifted a hand up. His spindly fingers all curled down against his palm except for one pointer that was extended out in front of Shockwave's optic. He moved it back and forth momentarily, to see if the Optic would show any kind of reaction. At one point he even flicked the dark claw AT the eye, of course stopping it before it struck the plate. When this failed to yield a response from the system, his hand uncurled and blotted out the light from hitting it, only to move away to let it shine back on the red orb.

"Escape... pah... you speak as if you are enslaved here."

He grumbled this out, bobbing to a new angle while stretching out his digitigrade limbs in order to reach the height to even see into the eye proper. This left his slim legs nearly post straight at this point, the tiny toes of the peds flaring as his weight rocked from one to the other to maintain balance properly. Shockwave wasn't a short Cybertronian, and Flatline was struggling to contend with this fact first hand.

He was content to try to figure out a plan with Roulette, only to hear the femme take a few steps. There was a delayed response, but it did eventually click in his processor that the sharpshooter was trying to make an escape. When this information hit him, he snapped his helm around to stare her down, his mass lowering back into a normal stance so that his legs were bent into a far more comfortable position.

Without second thought, he would try to scurry after her.

If she stood still? He'd just grab onto her shoulder to try to make sure she couldn't rush off yet, but if she attempted to run? He was fully intent to try to tackle her down. He wasn't going to be left alone in this puzzle! He needed help and would accept nothing less! She couldn't abandon him!

"Hey! Yeah... No... You need to help me figure this out!"

[Deleted]

There was no way in the pit Roulette was sticking around to watch Flatline make an aft of himself in front of Shockwave. All of his fumbling fussing wouldn't achieve anything other than waking the scientist up. And that was the last thing Roulette wanted! He'd remember he had some task for her.

At his words and the sound of him turning, she picked up her pace. Not outright running but she was definitely not going to just stand there for him to grab and drag back toward the behemoth. Nuh ugh. He'd have to haul her back kicking and screaming. (And yes, a churlish part of her hoped he'd waste his time in chasing after her. Just to reduce him down to such standards.)

"If you want to stick around and play babysitter with a sleeping mech, fine by me. I'm not." She couldn't fathom what the hell Flatline was so upset about to begin with. So Shockwave was sleeping! The horror! Though, she supposed him sleeping at his work station was a little odd.

Maybe she'd been around him too long to see it as out of the ordinary. But the fact was, it was ordinary for Shockwave. He worked until he was exhausted, took a power nap or whatever the pit it was he did, woke and did the whole thing over again. Sometimes she could persuade him to refuel in between. Was it weird? Yeah, but it wasn't like she could change his mind.

Now the question was...could she make it to the door before Flatline stopped her?

[Flatline]

"Nonono! Just you wait!"

She was going to leave him! She was going to ditch him with this problem that seemed to have no easy solution! It was her burden before, but now she was abandoning it upon him like the little coward she was! Granted... it wasn't her burden technically, and it was only his because he somehow made it his burden, but... practical details like that didn’t matter, what mattered most was the fact she was trying to escape and leave him all alone with this dilemma, a dilemma with no easy solution.

One issue at a time.

As Roulette began a hasty retreat, the medic began his own rush forward. Slim digitigrade legs may be flimsy and feeble in any sort of real combat situation, and had more fiddly parts to contend with in regards to maintenance and repairs, but in this case it did very well in assisting him catching up to her before she could start her own run. Each footfall made a 'tink' sound on impact, the small hoof like peds grappling for traction against the slick metal flooring as he did so. Once he got within range, he clutched onto her upper arm to try to spin her around to face him and halt her fleeing.

"Hold up! Maybe this is part of what's... wr-unsusual about Shockwave."

He almost said the word 'wrong' but he felt weird about it. Flatline was no blind follower, he didn’t walk a path of ignorance and unfounded loyalty, but he did respect higher command. Each one of them have earned their places for a reason and to imply Shockwaves personality was wrong seemed out of line. That said... Shockwave was a bit... more unusual than he had ever thought when he heard of the mech, but none were flawless.

"Think of how fragged up you would be if you never got any proper rest."

At this thought, Flatline pulled back a bit as if disgusted at Roulette, though still kept a firm grip on her upper arm. His fingers curled snugly about the other Cybertronian's limb, showing he wasn't going to risk her popping free and making a run for it as much as he can help. While she wasn't overly tugging or spinning like a trapped animal, he wouldn't put it past her if it started up soon. Granted, if she did get free he would be half tempted to use his harpoons and inbuilt motors to just reel her back.

"Have you ever TRIED to fix this situation? Or do you just flee from it. I bet you can't even figure out a solution if you wanted to."

He spoke with a degrading sneer. Maybe if he challenged her enough, she would get defiant and help to prove him wrong.

"If we can get him one proper recharge, maybe there will be an improvement."