Twisted Cogs | | Bayverse | | Book 2

Chapter 3 | | A Held Grudge | |

"Those who have seen the purity of light oftentimes must cleanse themselves with darkness."

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"Stop fidgeting!"

"Maybe I would if it wasn't so uncomfortable!" Toby grumbles loudly, shifting in her seat again.

Ratchet smacks her upside the head with a vocal growl, glaring at her as he returns to fixing her damaged servo. Using his mass displacement, the medic currently pokes and prods at the now vulnerable protoform, having removed the small pieces of armour that once covered it.

"Ow," the woman complains, sourly rubbing her head in pain.

"That wouldn't of happened had you listened to me the first time," he says gruffly, optics solely focused on finding the source of the breakage.

"Didn't mean you had to hit so hard, Piston," she whines, watching her guardian while he works.

"Don't call me that."

The inventor sighs, glancing at the door where Jolt had disappeared with Aquarius several minutes prior. The young sparkling had made quite the fuss, upset that he wasn't allowed to be anywhere near Toby while Ratchet repaired her, and had made the mechs offline their audials with his screams. If not for his mother reassuring him that she'd see him soon, he likely would have dented Jolt's armour further than he already had.

"Pass me the pliers, would you?" The medic sticks out his servo in demand, his optics still locked on her knuckles.

Toby obliges, reaching onto the organised worktop and grabbing a red handled pair of pliers from a selection. She places them in his servo, twitching in displeasure as he twists the broken metal back into place.

Noticing this, Ratchet glances up at her with a raised optic brow, pausing his work for half a moment. "How did you manage this? Three of your primary pistons are broken, and your pressure valve has been twisted to an extraordinary extent."

She bites her lip, looking at the floor in embarrassment. "I cracked my knuckles when Sam told 'Bee that he didn't want his guardianship."

The medic snorts, removing the pliers from her servo to ensure he doesn't cause any more damage in his amusement. He shakes his helm, placing down the pliers and transforming his servo into a welder.

"At least it's a better reason than what the twins had the other day," Toby tilts her head in curiosity, always up to hear the ridiculous situations the young recruits get themselves into.

"What did they do? Last time I dealt with them, they'd got their helms stuck together," she shudders involuntarily as her guardian adjusts another broken piece of her servo.

"They thought they'd try out their alt underwater," the woman blinks at him, already knowing what the result of such a moronic act. "The saltwater flooded their systems and jammed their T-cogs. I spent three hours flushing them out."

"Did they not learn from when Sideswipe fell in?" She scoffs, reminiscing the speeding incident.

The corvette had decided to race around the base as fast as his alt would allow, doing donuts around the planes on the airfield. Then he had misjudged a turning, and when he drifted, he slid off the tarmac, tumbling into the ocean. His reaction speed was what had saved him from damaging his transformation cognition, but the saltwater caused several of his systems to glitch, meaning that Ironhide had needed to come and rescue the stiff 'bot. To add insult to injury, the twins had taken to calling him 'Stiffy' for the following weeks, the image of Toby washing out his gear box engraved in their processors.