Optimus Prime's unusual Charge

Dream Guard

Despite Knockout's confidence in the plan working, after locking the con medic up for the night, Breakdown sought out the permission from his master to stand guard at the door to the con medic's berth room door that night.

"All hail lord Megatron!" The blue bot kneels at his lord's pedes.

"What is it, Breakdown?" The warlord asked.

"Requesting permission to stand guard at Knockout's berth room door tonight, Sir." Breakdown answered.

"Oh, and what makes you so sure Knockout can spend tonight out of the quarantine chamber?" Megatron asked. "Have we already forgotten what got him in there in the first place?"

"No, Sir. However, as per your own orders, he is determined to follow through in hunting down the creature and bringing her to you, my lord." The blue mech elaborated.

"How so?" The decepticon leader was curious now.

"He would not reveal to me what he was planning, but he did say that for this to work, he would require absolute peace and quiet." Breakdown explained. "He has great confidence that this is going to work."

"This had better work...however; permission granted...for now..." Megatron answered in a grim tone.

The blue mech bowed and left to stand guard at the door, in case anything happened. ["How do I keep getting myself into these messes again?"] Of course he was not provided with any answers, so might as well just do it.

The hallway was even colder and darker at night, not that it bothered Breakdown at all; he's gotten used to this ship anyway. He stood by the door of the berth room, the silence sinking in. He always wondered what it was like when the crew settled for the night.

Standing guard in these halls was usually the job of the vehicons, thank Primus for that; slag, is it boring! Through the door he could hear the calm vents of his ally, who was recharging peacefully... for now. Why in the pits of Kaon would he require to be recharging in order for this plan to work any?

["Wait a minute..."] The blue bot just had a thought.

He had remembered the little experiments they have done with the energon in the little vials, this human practice called 'Meditation'. Isn't that what's gotten Knockout kicked off the ship in the first place?!

He's been shown time and time again that whatever this madness he was attempting to master wasn't going to work, so why try again?! He'd have better luck capturing that dragon with a Turbofox trap!

Sure Knockout was able to prove he could locate her, and yes he was able to somehow form a psychic link with the dragon as well, but it's a two lane road of both directions: Yes, he was able to manipulate her actions, but this also left his mind open to be manipulated as well!

As the blue bot was looking around, he noticed a spot where it looked like a damaged spot that has since gotten patched up.

Breakdown was reminded of how his friend had lost control of his processor one night and ended up in the creature's dreams without meaning to. This was after the red mech glitched the day prior, claiming to have heard an awful sound ringing loudly in his Audio sensors alone, because Breakdown didn't remember any sound that would have made him or any of the cons cringe in pain.

Knockout also explained that his Voicebox started glitching out, and he started blasting energon out of his intake. The force of which was so great it interfered with the medic's car motor, causing it to violently kick off as he started blasting bursts of energon everywhere! The red bot could barely maintain his vehicle mode stable, because of it!

They had to lock the red bot up in the quarantine chamber, because the situation had gotten so serious that Knockout started blasting holes in the hull of the ship, everywhere he pointed his intake! Several vehicons and equipment had gotten damaged.

Breakdown cringed at the thought of violently expelling energon like that; he can only imagine what it would have been like. Poor Knockout, it must have been like having fueled on battery acid! The medic complained of a sore intake, but there was nothing they could do but provide him with fuel for the energon loss and hoped it stopped.

The blue bot then heard sounds (other than Knockout's venting pattern) coming from the room behind him. He carefully listened in, and after a short while deduced them to be the medic mumbling in his recharge. Was he having a conversation with someone? It was hard to tell with whom, though; his words weren't so coherent. He would probably hear about it tomorrow.

The mech was starting to feel his struts getting stiff from standing in one place for so long, so he thought he should walk the length of the very short hallway to get the energon circulating properly. So far Knockout has been handling this fine enough. This does remind Breakdown of a procedure the red bot told him about before: Mnemo Surgery or something like that?

The con medic claimed to be an expert in the field, and the blue bot had to take his word for it, because he's never seen this being done before. He's only heard it from Knockout and a few stories that he shared but that was pretty much it. He wasn't sure, but if this was the case, perhaps this time the medic does have things well in servo enough to succeed!

One thing still bothers Breakdown, however; it was that the creature had once bested him in that regard. The blue bot remembered the morning after the energon blasting fiasco, Knockout had woken up hopelessly upset and scared. So much so, he refused to try and locate the dragon's location.

Knockout had paced back and forth in his Quarantine cell the entire morning that day. The scuff marks are still on the floor of the cell, a testament to that. Everything scared him; even the sound of the med bay doors opening caused him to jump several feet in the air, and shriek like frightened femme bot!

Breakdown had to stifle his own chuckle. He didn't show it at the time, because he wanted to help his friend out, but he'd be lying if he didn't admit that it was the funniest sound he'd ever heard.

Knockout tried to play it cool but failed miserably. The poor bot was a mess of nuts and bolts as he collapsed to the floor and proceeded to tell his friend what had happened. The blue bot always hated to see his friend like that, or even any of the vehicons, and no, not just because it was embarrassing for a con to be acting so pitifully.

He was well aware of the tough and stressful lives they were all living because of this war. Megatron wasn't making it easy on anyone at all, either. Knockout knew that if he doesn't deliver on his mission, that Megatron would tear him apart. Breakdown then had had to cheer him up before Knockout had even a little bit of confidence back to continue on.

After walking down the hallway, he returned to his post and gave the door another listen. Things seemed to be going well; maybe last time he was just too exhausted to properly control the situation? Whatever the case, he seemed to be having the time of his life at the moment.

The blue bot vented relieved, until he heard the medic audibly grunt as if he'd bumped into something.

["What the?"] Breakdown thought.

The next thing he noticed was sound of a struggle; as if Knockout was fighting something? No, he was trying to break something by punching and kicking at it no doubt. Breakdown was unsure if whether or not he should wake him up or not. What if he's almost at a breakthrough with his plan?

Megatron would have his head, if this plan fails because he woke the medic up and it ended up being at the wrong moment! Then the struggling stopped. But was this a good or a bad thing?! Knockout then started...laughing?

["Uhmmm?"] The blue mech was thoroughly confused now.

The mumbling continued. Again Breakdown couldn't make out the conversation, and after listening in for a short while, decided to just stand guard and wait. Perhaps it was getting about time for Knockout to wrap things up already. But before the blue bot could adjust himself, he heard a very loud crash, coming from within the room!

"Knockout?!" Breakdown called to his friend, but no answer.

He didn't spare any time and barged in to check in on the red bot. Knockout wasn't even on his berth anymore; he seems to have been violently tossed with an immense force, off his Berth, across the room and into the opposing wall!

"Knockout, knockout?! Wake up, medic; that's enough for tonight!" The blue bot was shaking his friend, in an attempt to wake him up. But nothing happened.

"Don't make me do this, Knockout..." Breakdown prepared to punch his friend in the face. He didn't want to do it, but there was no other way that he could think of to get him to wake up. It would probably earn him some major attitude from Knockout, for ruining his complexion, but he didn't have much of a choice here.

Breakdown prepared his fist. "C'mon Knocks...One...two...Th-"

Suddenly Knockout belted out the loudest outcry Breakdown has even heard him produce so far in his functioning life! So loud was it, that he had to drop his friend's body and slap his own servo's against his audials to muffle the sound!

"Alright, alright! You don't have to yell!" Breakdown tried calming him down.

"Ah! Not the finish, anything but the finish...I just...buffed that?" The medic was finally awake and frantically looked around, finally noticed Breakdown in the room with him.

"What are you doing here? And what am I doing on the floor?!" Knockout was confused.

"What does it look like I'm doing? You were acting strange again, so I was trying to wake you up." The blue bot answered."You didn't want to respond at first, but then suddenly you screamed at the top of your vents."

It took the medic a moment, but he finally remembered why he screamed and started frantically checking himself: "AAAH! The thorns, they were everywhere! They didn't get me anywhere, did they?!"

"No?" Breakdown couldn't believe it, but he had to and cocked an optical ridge as he answered the question.

"Oh, Thank Primus you're alright!" The crazy red bot started kissing his armour and then out of the blue hugged his friend very tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, You beautiful hunk of pistons you!"

Breakdown didn't see this one coming, in all his vorns knowing Knockout; he's seen him do and heard him say some very unusual things, but this? Surely his circuits were probably fried or something. Yes, that's gotta be it, right?! At least he hoped so, as horrible as that sounds.

Unfortunately they weren't completely alone either, a crowd of vehicons had gathered at the door, since they were first awoken and were sticking their helms in witnessing the whole drama going down.

["Oh, slag..."] This had to be a bad dream. "Uhm... Knockout?"

"Yes, my dearest Breakdown?" The medic answered, but didn't open his optics.

The blue bot just vented, tapped his shoulder and pointed at the door, where the cons clones were gathered.

"Ah!" Knockout was quick to let go of Breakdown and hopped several feet away from the big decepticon.

"Speak of this to anyone, and the lot of you will cease to function, am I understood?!" The blue con stomped over, wielding his hammer for emphasis.

The vehicons backed away quickly, nodding vigorously at the question. They knew better than to doubt Breakdown delivering on his promise.

"Good, now make tracks!" The burley decepticon snarled. The vehicons didn't waste much time and each scrambled into their respective directions.

"Wait...how had you known what was going on, before I screamed? You were spying on me?!" The con medic asked disturbed.

"What?! No! I... Urgh!!!" Breakdown dragged his servo across his faceplate.

"Breakdown, with my permission was to stand guard at your berth room door tonight, Knockout." It was Megatron.

"Lord Megatron!" The two cons exclaimed in unison. Knockout was startled to find him there. Breakdown has long since hit the floor with his knee joints, but had to nudge his friend with his elbow joint, to snap the medic out of his surprise daze.

The red bot quickly collapsed to the floor. "Sir, how long have you been standing there?!" The medic was afraid to ask, but his intake is quicker than his wits.

"It has come to my understanding that you were determined to follow through in hunting down the creature and that you Knockout have hatched a scheme that you were confident would work this time, correct?" The warlord asked his own question, ignoring to answer that of Knockout's.

"Y-yes, my lord..." The red bot may or may not have leaked on himself just now upon hearing this. How in the world was he going to get out of this one?

"But in order for this plan of yours to work, you require absolute peace and quiet, is that so; Knockout?" Megatron continued.

"M-meditation requires that Sir..." The medic had no idea where his master was going with this, but he did realise that he in fact just contradicted his own request. Knockout answered the question and awaited whatever Megatron had coming for him.

"You know what else requires peace and quiet, Knockout?" The decepticon leader continued.

But before the red bot could answer: "My recharge session, Knockout." The warlord hissed as he leaned in for emphasis. "See to it, that your sudden outbursts are reserved for the daylight, doctor..."

"And it doesn't matter how long I've been observing you, Knockout. For one way or another, I will be getting a full report first thing tomorrow morning, from you!" Megatron said."To fill in the few gaps that I may or may not have missed, regarding...this..."

"Yes, of course Lord Megatron." The medic answered.

"And it better have yielded results..." The Warlord made clear. "...and I will make sure that it does."

"Sir?" It was Breakdown's turn to ask.

"The earthlings have a saying... 'A picture is worth a thousand words' So I will spare your voicebox the strain of explaining in detail what happened on your little expedition." Megatron began to explain."Tomorrow at dawn, Knockout; you will report to the medical bay as normal..."

Knockout was feeling the relief already, but didn't show it, in case he would 'jinx it' as the humans would say.

"...Soundwave and I will be awaiting your arrival. We will be using a cortical psychic patch, to extract every bit of useful information we can, that will assist us in locating and capturing that dragon." The warlord continued.

Knockout felt an excruciatingly painful pang in his spark as it skipped a beat upon hearing what his master just explained. It felt like something inside him just died, and he wanted to scream bloody murder, but he couldn't, because Megatron just ordered him to reserve outbursts for the daylight.

"And Breakdown, you are in charge of making sure the good doctor makes it to the medical bay in time..." Megatron added.

The blue bot was stiff the whole time, stiffer than his pistons have ever been after a merciless beating. His audials have just registered that he had to practically drag his friend to the torture chamber, in a way of saying. Primus have mercy.

"I do not care how you do it: shove him, drag him, carry him if you have to; just make sure it gets done, understood soldier?" The decepticon leader finished.

Breakdown nodded once. "Understood, my lord." He subtly trailed off.

Megatron walked out of the Berth room. "Breakdown, come here."

The blue decepticon followed his leader out of the room and noticed Soundwave next to the door outside.

"Restful recharge, Doctor." The decepticon leader said before he nodded to the communications officer, who in turn locked the door securely from the outside and jammed the inner lock. Next, Soundwave Electrified the door and its locks.

"He had a long day ahead of him. We need to make sure Knockout gets his rest after all..." Megatron said to no one in particular.

"Breakdown, you as well; rest up. That's an order." The warlord said.

"All hail lord Megatron." Breakdown bowed and walked off into the direction of his own berth room.

Megatron and Soundwave did the same, and Knockout was left to his own thoughts, alone in the cold dark confines of his berth room. He was afraid to fall into recharge, because he feared he might get carried into the med bay, without knowing it, but at the same time he feared the land of dreams, because: ["What if I end up in the creature's dreams again?!"]

Whatever form it took this time, he wanted nothing to do with it anymore. Be it a repeat of the first time, being on the wrong side of Optimus' ire or the Cactus fields. But tomorrow morning's going to be way worse! A million times worse!

Not even a combination of all three situations upgraded a hundred times over was going to dwarf what Megatron had in store for him tomorrow morning! He didn't want to think about it, but it's stuck in his processor now.

This reminded him of how Megatron tortured the living spark out of Starscream. The Seeker was left unable to fall into recharge all night, until the vehicons came to Knockout for an answer. He did complain of having been rudely awoken that night, but right now; he understands Starscream's pain...