[ti]Ep 2[/ti]Anything He Can do, I Can Do Better

[Deleted]

(OOC: set day 3, week 4)

...slag.

Skywarp eyed the drone hovering just out of his reach above him. He'd spent the last half hour chasing it over the flight deck before catching the drone and deciding to call it a day. Skywarp had taken the lift down back into the Nemesis and then had started to head towards the rec room to grab an energon cube.

Only- he'd forgotten to turn the drone off when he'd headed in. While it had initially struggled to escape from Skywarp's grasp, during the trip down the lift, it had stopped and gone still. And so, the seeker had forgotten about it. All it had taken was the loosening of his grip as Skywarp was walking towards his destination, his processor wondering over other matters, and then the drone was free.

Inside the halls of the Nemesis.

This wasn't like outside, where he could freely chase after the drone. Skywarp was not a very acrobatic flier, he needed space to pull off manoeuvres and that space...was not freely available on the inside of the Nemesis.

This was not good.

If only the drone wasn't manually controlled, he could have easily just sent a wireless signal to shut it down…

Thanks a lot, spindly mech.

Instead…

Skywarp lunged for the drone and it zipped out of reach in response, following its rudimentary programming to the letter.

Instead he was going to have to do this the hard way. Skywarp was all up for games when he knew had a chance of winning. He was all for them then. But he'd spent enough time playing with the drone to know just how difficult it could be to catch.

The seeker scowled once.

Then he gave chase.

Anyone unfortunate to be wandering the nearby halls would hear the loud stomps reverberating through the floor as Skywarp thundered after the drone.

[Knock Out]

Knock Out was making his way from the Rec Room, on his way back to the Medical Bay to do some last minute cleaning and organizing before tomorrows fun-filled day of doing the same boring processor-numbing maintenance and routine checks on the troops. He had a cube of Energon in one servo, datapad in the other. His gaze and attention was fully on the device, and he lazily scrolled downwards on the screen with his thumb, taking the occasional sip of the Energon. He found that if he looked pre-occupied, the more chatty inclined Vehicons would leave him alone.

Not that there would be any around at this hour. And those that were? Would be more interested in their patrols than talking with the Chief Medical Officer. Still, it was force of habit to act uninterested with his attention elsewhere. Breakdown was the one who cared about small-talk with the troops, not Knock Out.

While his attention was on his datapad, he couldn't help but look up at the sound of loud footfalls that were seemingly thundering right to his location. It was obviously someone much bigger than Knock Out, which uh, wasn't exactly saying much, given he was one of the smallest Decepticons on the damn ship.

Which probably meant he should move out the way before whoever it was barreled over him. He'd spent a good part of the day getting himself buffed and shiny, and didn't want all that effort to go to waste!

He'd sidestep so his back was almost flush against the wall, the tires on his back fully preventing this. He heard buzzing, glancing up, then his gaze would dart downwards as Skywarp bumbled into view. Ah. So he was chasing that... Thing.

“Skywarp,” He started, taking another sip of his drink. “Should you really be playing with your toys in the corridors?” A rhetorical question. No, no he shouldn't. And he especially shouldn't be charging after said toys in said corridors. Someone could get hurt! Which meant Knock Out would have to fix them!

[Deleted]

Over there, to the left!

...and missed. To the right, now!

Missed again.

The drone's path took in close to a wall. It didn't matter, Skywarp threw himself at it, only for the little machine to zip out of his way at the last second. The seeker collided with the wall, but it didn't slow his pursuit down. He kept going, chasing after the drone, despite the painful twinges from the impact with the wall.

Vehicons sensible enough ducked out of his way or decided to take other hallways. Skywarp ignored them, his focus was locked entirely on to capturing his target. Still, the drone evaded capture. It was maddening! He really didn't want to chase it indoors, where he could get into trouble if one of the boss Cons saw him. But it would be worse to leave it alone, if someone else was ordered to take care of it and stop it, then they might destroy it and he'd have nothing to play with.

And so he continued to crash further along the passageways in the Nemesis. Skywarp didn't notice when Knock Out when he rounded yet another corner, his attention was completely on the drone. It zipped this way and that, out of the way of his lunges, a complete distraction. He didn't even hear what Knock Out had said to him.

Then the drone darted out in front of Knock Out.

Skywarp noted where the drone was first. He lunged. Then he registered the red paint, which was a complete contrast to the black walls and ceiling that had been in the background all this time. Which meant…?

It was too late to check himself. Skywarp had a split-second to vaguely register a face and realise that the red blob was a person. Oops. Then the seeker slammed into Knock Out who was already standing flush against the wall, thus knocking the medic back and crushing them both against the wall.

Ow…

This time, the impact definitely disrupted his chase. Though the seeker definitely came out it in much better shape than his unintentional victim. Skywarp slowly peeled himself off the wall -and off Knock Out- then backed up and peered down at the mech he'd accidentally crushed.

Oh.

Oh, this wasn't good.

He'd run over the shiny mech. The medic. Megatron's chief medical officer. Someone of actual rank. While Skywarp didn't exactly respect Knock Out -come on, the shiny mech was tiny and not physically imposing at all- Knock Out did have some measure of authority and sway with Megatron. And that Skywarp could begrudgingly respect/tolerate.

"Oops?" Skywarp offered, trying to look contrite.

Something gave an unhappy mechanical whir from above and he looked up. In the midst of crashing into Knock Out, Skywarp had lost track of the drone. It had dashed up out of the way from them both but had run afoul of the wall itself. It gave one last tortured buzz before dropping from the air. The seeker's hand flashed out and caught it from smashing into the floor.

"Awww, it broke…" Skywarp mumbled, looking over the battered machine.

He'd been trying not to break it, that's why it'd been so hard to catch. But it seemed that the drone had done the job itself...

[Knock Out]

Everything had happened so fast. No sooner had he finished speaking, the drone thing flew itself down as if curious about the cherry-red mech - or maybe it was simply trying to avoid Skywarp. His optics narrowing in thought as he focused on the flying object for the briefest of moments as it buzzed infront of him. He was just as curious as to what it exactly was. A drone, yes, but why was it flying around, where did it come from, and more to the point... Why did Skywarp have it?

Then, more movement from behind the drone... Movement which involved a huge purple and grey mass of overly-large Seeker headed Knock Out's way, and fast - which made his optics widen in horror.

The one time that Knock Out had the tiniest glimmer of a wishful thought, the tiniest fraction of a hope that maybe one of his teammates wasn't a complete idiot? They proved him wrong. Why. Why did he get the idea that Skywarp would have the sense to stop.

More to the point, why didn't Knock Out move out the damn way.

He thought he was safe. Flush against the wall, and out of harms way! But that was sadly not the case. It was almost as if Skywarp hadn't seen him! Which was an insult given how much pride Knock Out took in his appearance and finish. He was the brightest thing on this entire ship! That said a lot about Skywarp, that's for sure.

Sadly, he didn't move. He didn't think to! Not that he probably could - Skywarp was huge compared to him, and even if Knock Out had managed to scramble to one side, he would've been clipped by the seeker regardless. Although that probably would've been better than just standing there, which is what Knock Out did.

He did however manage to gasp out a rather undignified yelp of a squawk as he was knocked back further into the wall. Pain flooded through his systems as the wheels on his back were smushed against the wall for a split second. He dropped both the Energon cube and his datapad as his servos frantically moved up to try and push the idiot off him. Luckily Skywarp pulled himself away before even more damage was done.

Although there was damage done. That perfect, shiny finish that Knock Out took great pride in, and had spent hours painstakingly buffing (okay, Breakdown had spent hours painstakingly buffing...) today? Was now scratched and dinged up. Scuffs of purple and grey paint on his pristine cherry-red finish?

Oh, this wasn't good indeed.

Then to add insult to injury, all Skywarp said was 'Oops'.

It was a tense few seconds as Knock Out stared up at the other mech, his optics narrowed into a furious glare. It was almost as if he was silently dreaming up and thinking of the many ways he could make the Seeker's life an absolute hell for scratching his paint. Then there was a tortured whir of a buzz from beside them, and more movement from the other mech as he reached out to seemingly snatch the thing midair before it crashed.

Funny, that. How he could move fast to do this now, yet couldn't avoid barreling into Knock Out.

He wouldn't avert his gaze. Continuing to stare daggers at the other mech. Waiting for an apology. Waiting for something more than an 'oops'. His servos curled into fists at his sides.

But he wouldn't yell. No. However, he would remember this little incident. It was much too late to pick fights (not that he was stupid enough to pick a fight with someone who could do more than squish him against a wall), and he'd just have to pay Skywarp back for the lack of apology next time he came crawling into the Medical Bay for something.

“...Where exactly did you get that thing, anyway?” He finally vented out an exasperated sigh, bending down to pick up the now empty cube of Energon, and the datapad which thankfully hadn't broken.

“I am fine after nearly being crushed, by the way, thank you for asking.”

[Deleted]

Parts of the drone were bent out of shape due to its encounter with the wall and what had once been smooth plating was now dented and crumpled. Skywarp didn't attempt to fiddle with the damaged pieces, with his big fingers, he'd only make it worse. He knew that from long, hard experience with breaking anything delicate that was placed into his servos.

His processor had been devoted to the drone during the chase and even the fleeting moments after he'd walked into Knock Out. Now, however, with the chase over, the drone caught and in his servos, Skywarp's mind was free to turn to other things.

Namely, the irate shiny mech in front of him.

The seeker blinked at the question, then glanced down at the drone. Knock Out's query seemed innocent enough, there shouldn't be any harm in answering it. Plus, the other mech did have the authority to reprimand him for the squashing and hadn't...yet, that is. Sooo, probably best to answer.

"The spindly mech made it for me," he said with a shrug. It took him a moment before Skywarp realised that wasn't really a name and Knock Out might not know who he was talking about. "Fla- something. Something squashable. Can flatten. Is flatenable. Is that a word? Flatly. Flatline! That's the one, he made this. I usually take it and chase it outside only I forgot to switch it off and it got away from me..."

Skywarp turned a dour look on the machine in his grip. "The spindly mech made it so that the only way you can turn it off is by hand." It was clear by his tone what he thought of that particular design decision.

“I am fine after nearly being crushed, by the way, thank you for asking.”

It began to sink in to Skywarp that the shiny mech was not particularly happy about being mashed into the wall. There was something he was meant to do in these kind of situations...what was it now…

OH.

Right.

"I didn't mean to, you know," Skywarp mimed smacking into Knock Out with his hands, punching a fist into his open palm. "Didn't see you until it was too late."

That still wasn't quite it. There was something more...but what…

Oh well, whatever it was, it clearly wasn't important.

[Knock Out]

While Skywarp looked at the broken drone, Knock Out would glance down at himself to get a better look at the damage that'd been inflicted on his frame. While it was unfortunate that he'd been almost crushed, the damage was luckily quite minimal in the grand scheme of things - superficial dings, scrapes and a few dents. To a priss like Knock Out, they were a huge deal, however.

So why wasn't he doing that whole over-reacting and yelling thing he did when he got the tiniest of scratches?

To put it simply? Skywarp was very, very lucky. If it were a Vehicon or someone like Flatline that'd steamrolled him? The Chief Medical Officer would've been screeching by now. But Skywarp? Well... Despite being annoying, there was every possible chance that Knock Out may need a favor of him one day, due to that neat little teleporting trick he could do. Knock Out had every faith he could easily confuse and manipulate the Seeker with big words to get what he wanted from him, but he could now also hold the fact he didn't yell or reprimand him over his head to ask bigger favors.

There was nothing like guilt to get people to do things for you, afterall!

He'd quirk a brow at the description of the one who gave the drone to Skywarp, and would shift his attention and gaze upwards to look at the other mech. He knew right away who he was talking about, as he wasn't an idiot - but then Skywarp would continue to ramble...

Use your words, Skywarp. Come on.

He got it eventually.

“Oh? Flatline, mm?” Well, this was interesting. “Can't say I'm surprised that he failed to give it a proper off switch. Everyone knows with things like that, a remote switch is the way to go!” His tone lilting, any hint of annoyance at being smashed into a wall had gone, and he'd stand up a little straighter as if he was over the whole thing already. Could he also add helping Skywarp and one upping Flatline to this ever growing list of things to use against Skywarp for favors?

He totally could.

He chuckled as Skywarp mimed smacking into him, shaking his helm and smiling. “Aah, don't even worry about it. No harm done! A little wax and some T.L.C and I'll be good as new. I am deeply sorry that your little drone got broken, however.”

He wasn't really. It was a piece of crap and deserved to break – if only because of who made it.

“I'll tell you what. I am done with my errands for the day, how about we take your drone to the Medical Bay and fix it up, hm? And by that I mean I make you one that is far more suitable for flying around and playing with – given that it'll have a remote off switch for one,” He winked. “Plus, I can probably make it go even faster than that one, too. Since unlike Flatline? I know the meaning of the word fun.”

[Deleted]

The thing Skywarp had been missing was the actual apology itself, the words "I'm sorry." Which, if he'd uttered them, would have been utterly insincere and mere lip service. It wasn't really in him to worry over the consequences of his actions. Or feel bad about them either. Had Knock Out chosen to punish him, he'd have begrudgingly taken it, then promptly forgotten the incident. That he wasn't being yelled out now and it seemed that the shiny mech had no hard feelings about it? It'd make this encounter less memorable, and therefore Skywarp would again promptly forget about it.

Except.

Except, Knock Out was interested in his drone. Not only that, the shiny mech wanted to make him a new one!

Hmm.

Skywarp was slow. And stupid, let's not forget that one. But things eventually did stick around in his processor and one of the things that was incredibly obvious in the Decepticon ranks was the tendency to backstab and use each other for favours. He was not as unaware of this as Knock Out believed him to be and even Skywarp would view unexpected niceness from his comrades with suspicion. It usually meant that they were out to get something from him. Skywarp had not skipped merrily off to do Flatline's bidding at first instance without some consideration over whether it could be worth it or not.

So in this case, he did mull over whether he wanted to owe the Decepticon Chief Medical Officer something. This didn't take long, Skywarp's thoughts flickered from, he does wicked things with that saw to prisoners, it's pretty awesome to Lord Megatron isn't often angry at him to Knock Out's so shiny, I like shiny.

The end verdict was 'eh, okay, should be interesting.'

"Oooh, a fast one!" he said excitedly. Never mind Flatline's drone already gave him enough trouble at its current speed. "Make it really colourful too. Bright purple! With pearlescent paint!"

[Knock Out]

It was probably for the best that Skywarp didn't utter an apology – Knock Out would've quickly called him out on the fact it was insincere, and no doubt given him a short lecture about how that wasn't the proper way to do things – and maybe even a lesson on how to make it sound sincere and genuine when it was anything but. Knock Out had perfected that little art! At least this way he could guilt-trip the other mech later for favors, and with the fact he'd offered to build a new drone on top of this? Well, Skywarp really would be in Knock Out's debt! To have favors owed to him was a welcome and much needed one, because he never knew when he might need to call on someone for help or to be an alibi for when he left the ship to do whatever it was he did.

That was how it worked around here on the Nemesis. Backstabbing and helping each other out, if only to hold it above each other and to ask for favors later. Some were obvious about how they went about it and made no effort of hiding that they weren't helping for the sole reason of being nice, but Knock Out usually wouldn't draw attention to it – blindsiding others weeks, sometimes months, later with “Oh yes, remember that time I did that thing for you? I need you to do this for me”. Although it wasn't like the Chief Medical Officer to do favors without wanting something in return, so maybe he wasn't as subtle as he first thought.

“A fast one indeed!” He smirked, “Although since I'll be giving it a remote off switch, it shouldn't be too much hassle to give it multiple speed settings, should you feel like flying around planet side.” That would be for his own safety, nothing like Skywarp losing control of a fast drone on Earth like he'd just done on the enclosed corridors of the ship, and some fleshbag finding it. He didn't want to explain that to their Warlord because it would somehow be his fault.

The color choice that Skywarp suggested would make Knock Out internally cringe, although he wouldn't outwardly show that he was repulsed by the idea. Then again, it seemed nobody on this damn ship had any taste, so it wasn't surprising that those were the colors chosen – and it could've been worse.

“Bright purple with pearlescent paint?” He chuckled, “An interesting choice! One which absolutely can be done! I could do some engraving or decals if you wanted to be really fancy with it!” At least Skywarp was lucky in that Knock Out had a background in body and paint repair, was good at what he did – and had a well stocked supply of various shades and colors of paint right here on the ship. Maybe once seeing said selection? He'd change his mind and pick something less tacky, or with some gentle persuasion, could be convinced to go with another color scheme – something classy like cherry-red and gold. The possibilities were endless, afterall!

“Shall we, then? I can't make anything standing around the corridors, after all!” He'd hum, starting to head back toward the Medical Bay, hoping Skywarp would follow.

[Deleted]

Engravings and decals! He could pick them? Skywarp's throttled mind eagerly seized the offer as he set off after Knock Out.

But what-?

He didn't know. Something cool, was his only thought, though he hadn't thought much about what actually was cool.

"I want-hmm," he mulled this over. "-A con sigil!" No, that was lame and boring. "A dead Autobot!" Yes, this was so much better. "Optimus Prime exploding! -No, his decapitated head!" he cackled. "All bleeding and stuff. That'd be so cool!"

Skywarp's simple mind quickly became enamoured with the idea. He'd far left behind the grounds of what was actually feasible to engrave on a small drone but never mind that. The picture he wanted was macabre as slag.

"With Megatron standing victoriously on the rest of his body! Can you do that?"

[Knock Out]

Knock Out regretted offering to do engravings or a decal near instantly. It was almost as if he'd forgotten who he was speaking with. The first choice? The Decepticon Sigil? He could do that easily. But oh, no.. Skywarp wouldn't stop there. Nope. Dead Autobot? Okay, that could also be done.. Probably. Just how big was he expecting this drone to be? Obviously there would be room for some kind of decal but...

He kept going.

Optimus Prime exploding? Nope. Kept going. Optimus Prime's decapitated head that was bleeding. Okay then.

He'd quirk a brow and glance over his shoulder at Skywarp. Knock Out loved gore, his love for cheesy over the top horror movies proved as such, as did his love for experimenting on and slicing into others of his kind. But Skywarp... Really? The other mech sure had an overactive imagination, that's for sure. Nor did he seem to have an offswitch, given how he kept talking and switching his idea.

...Then he asked for something else to be added along with Optimus' decapitated and bleeding-and-stuff's head. Knock Out would vent out a soft, but amused sigh.

“Certainly an odd choice, but I can do that for you,” He replied smugly. While this would be extra work... It meant he really would one up Flatline and his stupid broken drone, and Skywarp would owe Knock Out a larger favor. It was win-win! “I suppose Flatline didn't offer to do this service for you, given I don't see anything on the drone that looks remotely appealing or artistic. Yours will not only have multiple speed settings, but will look amazing while doing so. Kind of like myself.” He'd purr, splaying his fingers to his chassis as he made his way down the corridor.

It wouldn't take them long to get back to the Medical Bay. The room was clean, the surfaces pristine and sparkling. Tools were arranged neatly. The only thing that was really out of place were the datapads that were scattered over a desk in the far corner – which was what Knock Out would've been organizing and filing had he not encountered Skywarp and gotten himself distracted.

“If you'd like to ah.. Take a seat on a medical berth, I suppose, I can clear off one of these benches and then you can come over and we'll get to work?”

He figured that he should make Skywarp sit down or something while he got things ready to start building this drone, as he didn't exactly want the childish mech poking around at things he shouldn't be touching in the Medical Bay when Knock Out's attention was elsewhere in the room.

"So why did Flatline make you a drone, anyway?" He hummed, curious as to what the arrangement had been there, given Flatline didn't seem like the type to go out of his way to make things for people for fun.

[Deleted]

Skywarp had no sense of the complexity of the image he was asking for. But even if he had, he still probably would have asked for it anyway. Knock Out had offered and he wouldn't have offered if he wasn't capable of it. The medic was a stickler for perfection after all.

"Nah, he didn't," Skywarp replied. "Just repaired a drone from the storage deck." The seeker pulled a face. Knock Out was offering to build a whole drone from scratch with lots of extras. Whereas Flatline ha sent Skywarp to fetch something that had been destined for the scrap heap. Flatline had less resources available to him, that much was clear, he had nothing on what the chief medical officer had access to.

Skywarp was, in no way swayed to Knock Out's side -or indeed to Flatline's, he was just…noting what each had to offer.

He'd figure out where his loyalties lay when the situation called for it, not a moment sooner.

It wasn't long before they reached the medical bay. Skywarp's attention…wavered. It was not his innate dislike and distrust of such space coming into play, since he knew he wasn't here for any medical procedure of the sort. Rather, there were plenty of distractions, machines an tools of all kinds, each with their own independent purpose. Skywarp itched to fiddle with them, figure out what they did and why.

Of course, he simply could ask Knock Out for answers but that would not sate his curiosity. Such information tended to be meaningless until Skywarp had witnessed or experienced it himself. With his throttled processor, he very much was a kinesthetic learner.

“If you'd like to ah.. Take a seat on a medical berth, I suppose, I can clear off one of these benches and then you can come over and we'll get to work?” 

Hmm…? Oh, sit down while Knock Out got himself set up. Skywarp lumbered over to a medical berth and lowered himself onto it, keeping a curious optic on what the medic was up to. Ooooh, making things. This was exciting.

At Knock Out's question, Skywarp paused to cast his mind back over the series of events that had occurred during his first meeting with the spindly mech.

Skywarp had…hmmm.

And then he had…

Then Flatline had…

After too long a pause, it dawned on him, ooh that was it.

"I told him I was bored," Skywarp beamed, pleased to have found that answer.

[Knock Out]

Knock Out would go to fantastic lengths to one up Flatline in pretty much anything if given half a chance. Sadly for him? This current chance he'd been given meant building a drone. From scratch. Then he'd stupidly offered to do a decal on top of all this, which Skywarp had took and ran with – asking for something that would take up quite a lot of time to do.

At least Knock Out was lucky in that he had access to so much more than what Flatline had at hand. He had an excess of spare parts just laying around doing nothing, and some of the best equipment on the ship – so while it would be time-consuming? It wouldn't take nearly half as long as if Flatline had to do the same with what he had in his lab.

Which was probably why Flatline had only repaired a drone, rather than gone to the lengths of building one. He wouldn't comment on that, but an unimpressed snort would leave him. He quickly realized that he probably should've just offered to take the broken drone and build up on that, make it a hundred times better – as he hadn't actually built a drone before. But it was too late for that now. He'd move over to one of the benches that had datapads strewn over it, and would shove them all aside – making sure they were all powered off so Skywarp couldn't go snooping. Doctor-patient confidentiality and all that. Then he'd sidestep and move over to a large set of drawers.

He really would go to any length to one up Flatline. Which apparently included offering to build things he actually had no idea how to build. Weapons he could build. Silly toys that improved his own quality of life he could build. Flying drones that had to withstand being played with by Skywarp? Hm. And he'd offered to give it multiple speeds.

How hard could it be?

He opened drawer after drawer, pulling out random parts and setting them down. At least he had the right idea - there looked to be small propellers, motors, bundles of random wires, circuit boards, batteries and random pieces of metal which were filled with holes, similar to the human Meccano building sets. He'd have to weld together a frame for the thing, and find LEDs and other flashy things for it, as well as work out what was needed to build the remote control part of it – but luckily he'd done that before, so it wouldn't be too hard.

He'd also have to get rubber from somewhere for dampeners, as well as finding something to make landing gear out of. This was a huge job. Why. Why did he offer to do this from scratch? He was so very thankful that he did have pretty much everything needed to do this, but still.

He'd been so focused on gathering what he thought he needed that the silence had become... Troubling. He'd glance up warily and across to the Seeker, making sure he was staying out of trouble and remaining seated. Skywarp... Almost seemed to be lost in thought. Was the question really that hard? Thankfully he didn't have to wait too much longer for a reply – although he seemed perplexed by the response given.

“You said you were bored and he actually offered to build you a drone? What did he get out of it?”

That didn't sound like Flatline. Flatline wasn't that nice. He would've told Skywarp to go find something to do, surely. He didn't do favors for others! Or maybe he just didn't do favors for Knock Out.

Whatever. Knock Out figured he had enough parts strewn out to build the internals of this stupid thing – and it wasn't like Skywarp knew any better if he didn't!

“You can come over here now if you'd like to watch me do this. I think I'm ready to start building. Or you can go look at the selection of paints I have over on the other side of the room. Just on the off chance that something catches your optic instead of bright purple and pearlescent – there are a lot of colors over there, after all!”

Please. Please pick something else. Those colors sounded horrible together.

Then again maybe letting Skywarp look at the selection of paints was a mistake in itself, given there were a pretty decent selection and variety of colors - he might come back with something even worse - although, it could work out well in that it'd keep him distracted long enough while Knock Out worked out how to even get started on this thing.

[Deleted]

Skywarp had kept watch as Knock Out opened drawer after drawer, pulling out lots of different bits and pieces. The seeker was literally on the edge of his seat, tipping forward and twisting himself to the side so he could get a better view of what the medic was up to.

At Knock Out's question, Skywarp blinked innocently. While Skywarp was of the unrealistic opinion that he was the most amazing thing in universe and so of course, sometimes people wanted to give him stuff -this never happened- even he recognised that this was not an answer that Knock Out would take.

"Oh he just asked me to crush Autobots for him. As if I'd say no to that," Skywarp cackled. As far the seeker was concerned, he'd do that for free, anytime, every time, regardless of who did the asking. That had been an easy agreement to make.

The seeker perked up when Knock Out called him over. He had risen up half-way when the second bit registered. He could look at colours -or watch the medic build stuff. Skywarp paused in indecision.

"I'm going to look at the colours," he said, leaving his broken drone on the med-berth as he eagerly bounded to the other side of the room.

Oooh, there were a lot of them. That green was pretty neat. Oh and that orange was absolutely wicked. Aw, he really liked that blue too.

Indecision struck Skywarp as he stared at the selection of paints. So many. How could he pick?

He snuck a glance over at the medic. "I want all of them."

There.

That way, he didn't have to chose.

[Knock Out]

“That's all?” Knock Out blinked. Was Flatline in some kind of trouble and needed the help of Skywarp to deal with Autobots on his behalf? He would've thought it'd be something bigger than what any self-respecting Decepticon would do for free. “...Did he say anything else about said Autobots? Names? Reasons why, perhaps?”

He just had to know. There had to be more. Flatline had pissed off someone and needed Skywarp to deal with them. That had to be it! Maybe the Vehicons knew something if Skywarp didn't... He'd make a mental note to poke them for possible gossip later.

“Mm? Oh. Go ahead, take your time.” He hummed, waving his servo semi-dismissively. Although he'd keep an optic on the Seeker, just in case he got distracted by one of the many machines which were in the Medical Bay. Almost all of them were switched on, despite the room being darker than normal and not 'in use'. They whirred, clicked, and hummed away – an ambient noise that Knock Out had grown used to, and amongst the low rumble of the Nemesis? Was actually quite pleasant and peaceful.

While Skywarp was perusing the paints, Knock Out would nonchalantly reach over to grab one of the datapads, and powered it on. With a quick slide of his thumb and a few button presses later, he had the blueprints for a drone on the screen. This might actually help. He wouldn't be going in blind! It wasn't cheating, it was just a safeguard so that this drone could be as amazing as it possibly could!

Or something like that.

His plan to keep Skywarp distracted with the choice of paints, however, did not last long. And no sooner had he set the datapad down and picked up a few of the pieces of metal filled with pre-drilled holes? Did he hear Skywarps voice.

“All of them?”

He should've seen that coming. He vented out a soft sigh, but couldn't help but chuckle.

“No, no. Pick.. Uuh... Five.. Five is a nice, solid number. It gives a nice variety, don't you think?”

Surely five was an easier number for the seeker to handle. Giving him free reign over so many was probably expecting too much. Then again that had been the point. To overwhelm him, keep him busy as he umm'd and aah'd over the choices! But it was not to be.

Leaning forwards slightly to look at the blueprint, he would start to assemble the frame of the drone.

[Deleted]

Skywarp rolled Knock Out's question around his head. Nope, nope.

Nada.

"Just said Autobots in general at the time. Didn't mention a specific Autobot." The seeker shrugged. Then perked up as he did remember an earlier part of their conversation. "Although I'd asked him beforehand if I could pull off one of his arms and he said no," Skywarp's tone made it clear how unfair he thought this was. "Cuz, yanno, he was missing one already so I thought he'd look better if he didn't have the other. Anyway, later, I figured out that if I wasn't allowed to pull his arm off, then other Decepticons wouldn't have been allowed to do it either, so it had to been an Autobot."

Here, he beamed, pleased at his deduction skills. He was sooo clever!

"Flatly -Flatline did talk about an Autobot then, the one that tore off his arm. But he said that he almost killed them and left them for dead," Skywarp gave a snort and shrugged. Almost was just not good enough in his books.

The next thing Knock Out said however, brought Skywarp up short.

Aw what.

Pick five colours?

Only five?

"That's too little!" Skywarp whined. "There are so many I want!"