Ep1 - 'Soul Surgery' - Closed

[Deleted]

It was a comfort to Megatronus that, despite the passing of four million years and 'verse-changing events, Cleaver was much the same as ever and continued to despise idle hands in her repair rooms. After following the medic back up, through the empty Atrium and into the long cavern that housed the Neutral Med Bay, Megatronus found himself seated at the end of a berth and performing his own pre-op cleansing whilst she readied her internal and ex-frame equipment.

She'd instructed him to be liberal with the application of cleanser, and Megatronus swabbed his chassis with vents firmly closed against the fumes of the potent fluid. It foamed a little where it gathered as it worked its way down between his plates, under his armour and gradually against his mesh. Cleaver would do the rest of it whilst he was in stasis: cleaning a sparkchamber for surgery was too delicate, uncomfortable and unnerving a task for anymech to perform on themselves.

Megatronus was making a point not to think about that.

Setting the cleanser to one side on the berth, his optics moved to where Ravage was positioned as unobtrusively as possible. Still and watchful.

"I take if that you'll not be leaving unless physically forced to?" the gladiator asked mildly, faintly surprised that: a) Cleaver had allowed the cassette into this screened-off area of the Medbay; and b) that she'd not given him anything to clean.



<<OOC: Megatron(us)/Ravage/Cleaver turning to Ravage/Cleaver thread? Just more chit-chat whilst she operates on his spark because the Deceptikitty refused to leave ^_~>>

[Deleted]

Ravage, in response, settled down into a comfortable position on top of a low, empty cabinet, his tail wrapping around his pedes primly. He gave Megatronus the same steady look that he'd given Cleaver when she'd told him "no tourists in surgery". A look that said, roughly translated, "Combiners could, perhaps, drag me away, but they would really, really regret it."

[Deleted]

Returning from the cabinet containing her micro-tools and photon-magnifier, Cleaver indicated for Megatronus to lie back with a grunted click as she calibrated on the move. Her gaze on the magnifier she was setting up to attach directly to her optical relay was as much a means not to look at him as prep work. Operating on a part so intimate as a spark chamber was not a procedure she could easily align with the Decepticon warlord.

"Lacking an up to date medical record," Cleaver began, finally looking up from the spiralled-open magnifier to meet Megatronus's sharp optics, "I'll need to do a full diagnostic before I get started. Uncomfortably invasive, so I'll run it after you're in stasis. After that, I'll repair what I can and at least reallign the rest to something stable. I'll leave a full report for your medic to review afterwards."

[Deleted]

His frame filled the berth, and doubtless it would need to be lowered for Cleaver to work lest the medic have to stand on his chassis. Megatronus absorbed the crisp monologue in silence, familiar with her 'this is what's happening and that's that' pre-op approach. It was reassuring in its way, though the gladiator could tell that she was uneasy just as well as he could tell that her paintjob was primarily orange and white.

"I shall look forward to reading it."

Cleaver gave him a thin smile, that of a doctor to a patient just before they placed their life into her servos, and slid a line into a recessed data port in the mech's neck. "Inducing stasis."

Megatronus's optics flickered once before dimming to darkness, his frame sagging fractionally atop the berth. Cleaver set up the deep scan and left it to run through the hardline, then turned to face the watching cassette atop the cabinet.

"You stay put there, else I'll be dunking you into a bucket of cleanser," she warned, lifting the magnifier to her right optic. The hook-like fixtures locked into place and pulled the device flush, evoking a brief grimace before the connecting parts settled. Cleaver rested a blade against the berth to keep her gyros orientated whilst her vision adapted.

[Deleted]

Ravage stared at her blandly. "I know my place in a medbay," he said, otherwise unmoving. He knew better than to interfere with a medic's work, especially when the work was as delicate and high-stakes as this was.

"The memory backup is en route. It is being delivered in a rather...roundabout way, but it should be here within a planetary cycle. Do you need anything else?"

[Deleted]

"A thorough run down of recent symptoms would be helpful," Cleaver murmured, one processor thread tiering off to speak to the cassette. The motions of her frame became minute, lines and parts charged and taught for the microscopic adjustments that were to be made. Not only physical, but in energy as well.

Sparks could be manipulated, very gently and gingerly, with micropulses. Cleaver had enough hands-on experience with spark surgery to be proficient, but she never felt confident doing it. It benefited no one to appear anything but assured when directly altering a mech's metaphysical essence, however, and her features had fallen into an established mask of calm concentration.

The medic activated her avatar behind the spark casing, manipulating the hard-light to place the holo of her human persona solidly on a cluster of neural and coolant lines, but passing harmlessly through the peripheral edge of the warlord's spark. Cleaver's physical self snaked out and jacked in a monitoring line directly into Megatron's spark casing as she coaxed it open, providing her the absolutely immediate readings she required.

"Personality matrix has been shot to slag, and what I'm doing now should stop the cascade errors permanently." Cleaver began to probe at the edges of where the spark splitter was doing its work, ignoring the fractures from what appeared to be a new and neglected allignment bond (and like slag was she going to think about that now). "Don't want to miss anything whilst I'm here, though, if there's a symptom indicating yet another underlying problem that I don't know about."

Inside the massive chassis, the human holo crawled to lay hands on and hold the spark splitter as Cleaver began to unpick its weldings.

"And if you say that he's missing three million years of memory, I'll compact you."

[Deleted]

Ravage nearly proved exactly WHY Cleaver didn't want him in the operating theater when the medic activated her hardlight avatar. The very sight of a human crawling around right next to Megatron's spark chamber alarmed him on a very visceral level. Ravage tensed, limbs gathering in preparation to...well, he would have intended to leap to Megatron's defense and would have likely--possibly fatally--distracted the medic during spark surgery.

Luckily, reason won out over instinct, and he settled back down after making what he hoped was only a minor scratch of claws against the cabinet. He turned the lunge into a slow shift of his weight.

Cleaver's question, of course, was loaded with possible issues. Ravage was fairly sure that Megatron-as-he'd-been-before-the-attack would have not tolerated Ravage discussing his proclivities. Megatronus, however, Ravage was fairly sure, would appreciate having his medic know everything she could about how to fix him. "Quicker to anger than usual. Unstable mood. Multiple murders of Eradicons per decacycle." Ravage queried Soundwave's files and found what he was looking for. "Possible hallucinations. Restlessness."

[Deleted]

Cleaver's nod was as fractional as the movement of her instruments, a sign that she had heard even though a verbal response was almost twenty minutes after the fact.

The emotional instability made sense. Absence from an alligned when the allignment bond was this new and undeveloped was similar to heavy withdrawal from an addictive substance. That powerful, mesh-crawling absence didn't make sense of the murders, however, and from Ravage's tone it was clear that habitual homicide wasn't usual for Megatron. Which was... nice.

The medic sent off a diagnostic search string for the usual and unusual suspects of sudden psychosis, leaving it to run as she finished lifting the sparksplitter from its electromagnetic moorings. On the other side of Megatron's sparkchamber, Cleaver's holoform eased away the last of the physical connectors.

"Who's your CMO?" Cleaver asked when she finally eased the device out of the blue corona, holding it up with a critical scowl.

The cassette's response was prompt. "Knock Out."

Checking the mech's stats, and finding that they had improved when his spark had been made whole again, Cleaver set the device to one side on the berth with no small amount of professional disgust. She composed a data packet of current readings and an attached message.

::For Your Attention -- Sender - Neutral medic Cleaver of the DMZ base

Knock Out

I've removed the splitter from your Commander's sparkchamber. Whatever you thought called for such an asanine installation isn't there now, and the spark on the whole is stabilising from the unification. Did you want this archaic piece of butchery back for parts, Doctor? I would strongly advise against installing it in some other poor glitch.

~ Cleaver::

"Pass this along," she instructed, transmitting the lot to Ravage.

[Deleted]

Ravage cycled his optics at her for a moment before confirming that yes, she really did mean right NOW.

Ravage vented a long sigh. Medics.

::CMO Knock Out,:: Ravage sent over a high-priority channel, coding the message with glyphs for medical communique and the Decepticon variant of rank that always meant Megatron. He sent over Cleaver's transmission and waited.

Knock Out's response was not long in coming, and Ravage shuttled it on to Cleaver without a word.

::For Your Attention -- Sender - CMO Knock Out of the Nemesis

Cleaver -

Thank Primus, and frag NO. Needless to say, no one consulted ME about installing the slagging thing. I have high suspicions that the patient decided to INSTALL IT HIMSELF, as he refused to let me take it out. I have no idea why, and as long as it's gone, I don't care. Vitals look better already than they've been for a quarter-cycle. Your aid is appreciated.

~Knock Out::

[Deleted]

"Don't you sigh at me," Cleaver said without looking up from her work, tone mild even as she transmitted another packet to the cassette. "I allow assistants into my Medbay, not spectators."

::For Your Attention -- Sender - Neutral medic Cleaver of the DMZ base

Knock Out -

Good to know that rank has absolutely no impact on patient stupidity. A lot of these readings are off the chart - presuming it's the effect of the Dark Energon as there aren't any flags. Only encountered it as detrimental until now. Might be worth exchanging comm. channels - professionally speaking.

~ Cleaver::

The medic set the old piece of tech aside and deactivated the holo inside Megatronus's chassis, beginning the process of resealing the spark chamber. "Done. Should resolve most of the problems, except the most obvious."

[Deleted]

"Excellent," Ravage said. Such a short procedure to (hopefully) effect such a large change for the better. "Thank you, Cleaver."


::For Your Attention -- Sender - CMO Knock Out of the Nemesis

Cleaver -

My rank or his? What does it matter...the answer is no either way.

The readings are high, yes, but consistent with my last set prior to all the excitement. Speaking of Dark Energon, I highly suggest--if you haven't already--treating any you come in contact with as biomech-hazard. I've had a Pit of a time cleaning any wounds it got into. Nasty slag, and that's coming from someone who is usually fascinated by new and exciting additives.

Frequency and key attached. We medical personnel must stick together, after all.

~Knock Out::

[Deleted]

Cleaver replied across the supplied frequency rather than seeing how much messaging Ravage would continue to tolerate. The tip of his tail was already twitching.

::For Your Attention -- Sender - Neutral medic Cleaver of the DMZ base

Knock Out -

Tell me about it. Contamination so bad I had to excise in the end from where Megatron shook hands with my internals. 'Physician, heal thyself' isn't so beneficial outside the proverb.

~ Cleaver::

The warlord's spark back within the confines of its casing (though the thin plates could hardly mean that it was safely closed away), Cleaver twitched her head in the negative. "Don't thank me yet. Still got to chase down all the glitches that thing threw and repair those. Long but tedious work. Won't need to open his 'casing again. You can relax."


<<OOC: Fadey-out close to you?>>

[Deleted]

:Cleaver -

Ah, that's right. I'd heard of your encounter. It sounds as if you had a much deeper wound than any I've had to treat. I would be interested in seeing your case notes, if you wouldn't mind. I'm particularly interested in minor dependency alterations. I've noticed a few disturbing trends but haven't had quite enough cases to build a true hypothesis....

Knock Out::


Linkages in Ravage's back eased...slowly. Not entirely, of course. The splitter's removal did not mean that Megatron would again be...himself. However, that and his reunion with Barricade could only be good influences.

...a thought that Ravage never would have believed he'd actually have.

He laid his head down on his paws and watched quietly as Cleaver worked and conversed with her fellow medic.

~End