Healing Hearts

Chapter 14

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"What are you doing?"
Knockout turned his helm to look up from his medical data. An unimpressed look was on his faceplate as he locked optics with the intruder standing within the threshold of his medical ward. "Can't you see that I'm busy, Starscream?"
The 22-raptor bowed sarcastically with a twisted grin, before he sashayed closer to the red 'bot, purring, "Oh yes, of course, my apologies."
Knockout shook his helm before going back to his data, comparing the small bits of information he had been able to glean from the odd scan of Megatron to the usual readings given off by the Allspark. The medical Decepticon had felt vindicated when he'd found out that he had been right when he said that Megatron did indeed have the energy of the Allspark within him, but the other numbers weren't quite the same or even similar in some cases. There was also the fact that the energy readings had completely disappeared when he had come back to get a more in-depth scan.
Knockout mostly ignored the menace leaning over his shoulder plates until said menace broke his focus with measly human words. "Why are you comparing data on the Allspark to whatever this weak source of it is?"
Knockout had to stop his mouthplate from dropping open as his processor worked overtime to remember that Starscream had indeed been a scientist before he had joined the war. The stressed countenance of the red diva brightened as he pushed the display panel towards the seeker.
"Oh, this is perfect. Screamer, this is a scan of Megatron that I took a few days ago to 'assess his health'. He's in perfect shape, but I found this odd signal and I don't know what to make of it. Could you help me, sweetspark?"
Starscream sneered, but grabbed the data anyway. "You're lucky I keep my processor in high working order."
Knockout ignored the annoyed seeker to look at his digits, checking to make sure there weren't any scuffs from typing on those rough slabs. "Uh, huh. Thank you Dreadful Lord Starscream."
The seeker rolled his optics, but didn't deign to respond as he delved into the data.

-

"These readings... Knockout?"
The red 'bot being called vented from the other side of his medical ward and put down his buffer. "What?" was his terse reply.
"Get over here, you aft. I figured out your problem."
Knockout's stiff expression eased lightly as his optics brightened in curiosity. "Oh?"
The second-in-command enlarged the statistics on the data slab before handing it over to the approaching medic. "Yes. It figures why you wouldn't be able to. The readings are similar to an experiment done by the original primes themselves. Any scientist worth their energon memorized the results."
Knockout ignored the prissy mech to think back to the Battle of Mission City. "Are you saying that-"
"The Allspark had a few tiny fragments break off, and the reading you picked up was a shard before Megatron absorbed it?" Starscream turned to look at the medical bot with a smirk before finishing, "Why yes, I am."
Knockout smirked back as his processor immediately turned over how this information could be used to profit himself. Namely, finding other shards of the Allspark and showing up Starscream.
Getting straight down to work, Knockout walked over to his computer and started inputting information into his sensors to triangulate the locations of other energies similar to the one he had found in Megatron by using the satellite Soundwave had hijacked from those tiny humans. For beings that were so barbaric, they had surprising capabilities.

A while later, Knockout smirked victoriously as a map of the planet Earth appeared in holographic form on his gauntlet. Seven small red spheres glowed with differing brightnesses on the North American continent. The fabulous racer considered the spheres as he noticed that the dimmest one was roughly at the same coordinates as their ship. That must have been the shard inside of Megatron.
"Ah, so there are only roughly two shards left then? A pity."
The red 'bot most definitely did not shriek as he jumped back, his arms flailing in fright as wide optics met the laughing ones of one annoying seeker. "Primus, Screamer! Why are you still here?"
Starscream tapped a long digit against his smirking faceplate as his vocal wiring hummed. But before the medic could get angry, the seeker pointed his digit at Knockout's hologram. "I wanted that."
The red bot crossed his bracers in front of his chassis, tilting his helm away from the annoying 'bot.
"Fine then, since you helped me with the data, I'll give it to you."
Starscream hummed smugly as he received and downloaded Knockout's program.
"And why did you say there are only two shards left?" Knockout questioned. "There are seven locations listed, you dull aft," he finished.
Starscream clicked his glossa in disapproval, waving one of his spindly digits over the glowing sphere to zoom in on North America. "Knockout, dear spark, do you not see the dim sphere located right where we are? Obviously, though Megatron doesn't have the Allspark energy anymore, it still showed up on the map. Thus, all of the weaker energy signals are most likely from fragments that have either been absorbed or destroyed by nature or Autobot scum."
"Well then, Ruler Supreme, why are the shards scattered across this land mass and not centralized to Mission City?" Knockout challenged.
Starscream lifted his bracers in a mockery of the human shrug as he left the chamber without a word. Knockout scowled as he made to follow the seeker before finding his way to the ship's ground bridge in an attempt to get a helm-start on the backstabbing second-in-command.

-

Deciding to see just how right Starscream was with his hypothesis, Knockout bridged down to a small neighborhood in South Gate, California.
Rolling out of the swirling vortex of color in his alt mode, Knockout approached the marked location with caution, though that didn't stop him from rumbling loudly down the paved streets. The vain mech preened at the many envious stares he received.
Pulling up to the location proved part of Starscream's theory. It was just a large human dwelling. Perhaps a shard of the Allspark had been stashed inside, but the medical officer doubted it. The Autobots were jacked up on energon and paranoia. They'd never be foolish enough to entrust their race's very existence to puny humans. But then again, that sounded distinctly Autobot...
Piercing the house with a quick scan just to be safe, Knockout pulled away from the curb when the results came back negative. The source of the Allspark energy was already gone. That damned seeker had been right.

-

Knockout cursed as he dodged enemy fire. He hadn't expected the house to be watched by Autobots, and now he had the bratty scout on his tail.
It didn't help that while they were racing around bends and across bridges on the Pacific Coast, Bumblebee was matching him speed for speed. Who knew the young bot was such a good racer?
Unbidden, a bit of respect flickered to life in Knockout's spark. All of the other Decepticons had either flight alts or a hatred for all things human, so he never had a chance to share his love of street racing with anybot. If only he had convinced Breakdown to join the Autobot faction when they were still younglings, maybe he'd still be online...
Knockout's sensors flared suddenly, alerting him to another bout of incoming electric charges. The red sports car swerved to avoid them, but he was too late. Knockout went veering off the road as his programs short-circuited under the onslaught of electricity.
Cursing colorfully, Knockout, for once in his long life, regretted his choice of alt mode. Had he been a flyer, there would have been no danger of losing a limb attempting to transform while rolling down a steep cliffside, taking on more than just damaged paint. There was nothing the Decepticon could do as he approached the salty sea beneath him.