III
Weeks passed since October woke from her coma. She spent those days sitting up in her makeshift bed, staring at a spot on the wall. Knockout couldn’t find any new ailments about her but could only conclude that she had entered a deep depression. It was understandable after everything she’d been through, but what worried the medic was the fact that she wasn’t eating.
October’s form had become dangerously thin to the point Knockout had to insert a feeding tube, but the female didn’t seem to care. She had made it up in her mind that she had nothing left to live for now, and despite the mech’s kindness in caring for her, she hated being kept captive. She wanted to be left alone and fade away on her own terms.
One afternoon, Knockout had to leave his office. Watching the human starve herself to death was not an easy thing to witness. Currently, he was sitting on his berth in his quarters, trying to think up a solution as to how he’d be able to give October the will to live again. The door to his room slid open, and the medic didn’t even look up to see who had come to visit.
“Why so sad?” Starscream asked in an uncharacteristically caring tone. The SIC had developed a soft spot for the medic at some point, but he hid his feelings well from Megatron. The seeker had a very complicated love life.
“October is going to die if she doesn’t eat something soon,” Knockout answered quietly and still didn’t look at the flight commander. Starscream sighed and sashayed over to the medic. He stood between his legs and gently tilted his head up.
“Well…I’m not sure why you wanted to keep the little flesh-ling in the first place, but maybe it’s for the best?” the seeker questioned. Knockout glared and jerked his chin away from Starscream’s caress, “Have you no compassion?”
“When you have been claimed as Megatron’s ‘stress relief’ and are not allowed to sleep with whom you wish, you’ll understand why I have no compassion left,” the SIC grumbled. Knockout sighed and gently slid his hands up the seeker’s thighs to rest on his hips.
“I’m sorry,” the medic apologized and peered up at the seeker. Knockout didn’t exactly have feelings for the seeker, but he didn’t mind their occasional ‘relations’ in between lover quarrels Starscream and the overlord got into. The flight commander sighed and petted down Knockout’s helm as he asked, “What are you going to do about your human, then?”
The medic fell silent. He wasn’t sure what he could possibly do about her, or if anything
could be done. His processor was going a mile a minute, trying to find a solution to the problem that had presented itself. Suddenly, an idea came to him. He blinked slowly and looked up at the seeker who was confused as to what Knockout was thinking.
“Starscream, do you still have some of your clones handy?” Knockout asked curiously. The seeker’s optic ridges quirked in confusion at the strange question, but he nodded.
“Yes, but they’re all hidden on one of Jupiter’s moons,” he explained. Knockout shot a puzzled glance and the seeker continued, “They’re there for safe keeping. That little moon has raw materials on it that can be processed into energon, but transporting it on the space bridge was deemed impossible. The cubes fell apart. Anyway, why do you want one of my clones?”
“For October,” Knockout answered, “Tell me, have you ever heard of
Frankenstein?”
*X*X*X*
Months had passed, and the human had found herself missing the medic who ‘adopted’ her. October’s wounds had finally healed and she was currently sitting on Breakdown’s work area. Breakdown was in charge of the wounded now since Knockout was on a ‘mission’. October looked up at the big blue mech curiously and watched as he soldered what looked like some sort of a tool to the human. She was sitting with her legs crossed and her elbows resting on her thighs as she leaned forward with her chin in her hand.
“Whatcha doing?” she asked curiously. Breakdown wasn’t exactly thrilled about Knockout’s little pet, but he found her to be amusing at times.
“Fixing this device for Knockout when he comes back,” he answered and snapped the screen back in place. October looked over it curiously and smirked a little as she said, “It looks like a really big tablet.”
“You can say that. It’s our way of performing x-rays as you humans call it,” Breakdown explained and turned it on to do a scan of his forearm as a test. He fixed it and saw the metaskeleton structure moving beautifully beneath his protomass and armor. October saw his forearm on the screen and was instantly fascinated.
“So….your anatomy….is it similar to a humans?” she questioned. Breakdown laughed a little and shook his head.
“Yes and no. Your skeletal structure is similar to what we call our metaskeleton. It’s a series of pistons and such in there….like your mechanical things on this planet. Your muscles and skin is like our protomass. Think of it as our squishy insides, and lastly we have armor on top to protect what’s beneath,” Breakdown explained. October looked a bit confused and kept looking at the screen when he froze the image in place to point out the areas he was talking about. She then glanced back up and asked, “Does your armor come off?”
“No. It’s our exoskeleton…like insects,” he answered.
“Can your race procreate?” she inquired. Breakdown sighed and rolled his yellow optic and turned the tablet off as he stated, “Of course we can.”
“How? I’ve never seen any females.”
“You ask a lot of questions, y’know that?”
“I’m curious about your race since your friend insists on keeping me here. I decided I should learn about you guys while I’m here.”
Breakdown couldn’t help but give a small smile at her explanation. He had to hand it to Knockout that he did not pick up a stupid human. It was sort of refreshing that she asked so many questions about their race.
“The best way to explain how we procreate is the act is basically the same…well the physical part anyway. The reason you don’t see a lot of femmes on this ship is because as a race, there aren’t very many of them. So, we’ve had to adapt. Mechs can be either the carrier or supplier whereas femmes can only be carriers.”
“So…..guys can get pregnant?” she questioned in an almost amused tone. Breakdown nodded and was confused as to why she thought it was hilarious. She couldn’t stop laughing. The thought of a male anything being pregnant (besides a seahorse), was absolutely absurd to her. When October laughed, she was laying flat on top of the metal cube she was on and holding her sides. When her fit finally ended, she sighed and wiped the tears away as she sat up.
“I’m sorry Breakdown, but that whole explanation…that’s just ridiculous sounding to me,” she explained and giggled a bit.
“It’s only because of the way your race procreates. That’s why you think our way is strange and funny to you,” Breakdown stated and couldn’t help the smirk on his red features. Just when she was about to say something, she heard the hanger door open. She stood on her little cube as Breakdown looked over his shoulder to see who had entered the medical bay.
“Breakdown! Don’t just sit on your aft….help us!” Starscream ordered and struggled to help Knockout bring the lifeless form of one of the seeker clones into the room. October didn’t know what was going on and Breakdown moved to pick it up himself and carry it to the table the sports car and seeker were heading. She hopped down and ran across several tables that were in a row to get a closer look as to what they were carrying in. Knockout saw October and was pleased to see that she had recovered and was actually at a healthy weight.
“I see you’re doing a lot better,” he said with a smile. October gave a little nod and asked, “What’s with the dead mech?”
“This mech is not dead…..actually it’s not a mech or a femme,” Starscream explained as he looked over the clone. October’s skin began to have goose bumps form as she realized exactly how similar it looked to Starscream.
“Which is good really because it has both components to be either…I’m going for a femme here,” Knockout explained. Breakdown scratched the back of his helm as he looked down at it and asked, “But….what are you going to do with the husk of a femme? Make a love-bot?”
“Primus no!” Knockout said in disgust and looked down at the form, “I’m going to perform an experiment.”
At the word ‘experiment’, he looked at the human. October felt very uncomfortable at that particular moment when
all of them looked at her.
