Scrap Part 1

Scrap

By Storylady 35

After Episode 10: De Ex Machina



It was silent.

The air, the ground, everything.

But then, she was used to it. She had been trapped in a world of silence for as long as she knew. It didn’t bother her as much as it did others; they saw her as different, as unlike them. That was why she ran away. She left everything in her footsteps and went as far as she could.

Silent, she let out a breath, feeling the relief and air push from her lungs and into the wind. Looking up into the sky, she saw darkness, the dark clouds and the tingling on her skin that warned her to the change of weather.

Quickly she began looking for somewhere to protect herself from the rain and spotted a small mountain just across the road. The rain began before she could reach it but she just pulled her hoody up and tight to protect herself the little she could.

The mountain did provide the shelter she wanted in the form of a cave. Blinking and rubbing her clothes to dry them, she sat down, watching the water cling to the lip of the rock and create a curtain around her. After a moment, she cupped her hands and collected some of the water, drinking it before repeating the action to wash her face and hands. Once satisfied, she dried her hands by running them back in her hair and closed her eyes, trying to relax and sleep.

However, being so dependent on her eyes, even with them closed, she could sense when things were different. And this sense suddenly tingled as she realised there was something different about this cave. Opening her eyes, she turned her head and saw a strange, unnatural blue glow coming from deeper within and decided to investigate, her hand running across the stone to feel her way.

She noticed that there appeared to be dints and holes in the rock, like someone had been drilling or digging. Eventually she found a crack in the rock for where the light was leaking. The gap was just large enough for her to crawl through before finding herself in a narrower passage, sloping deeper underground. The glow was much brighter now, almost blinding her.

Time on her own had worn away the element of caution and replaced it with curiosity so she began to walk down the slope, holding on to the side to ensure she didn’t slip. Finally she came to an opening, the light at its brightest but as she shielded her eyes with her arm; she saw strange black boxes that were emitting the glowing blue light.

Half blinded, she felt strangely warm in their presence, as if the light was physically comforting. Dry, warm and comfortable, she sat down against one of the boxes, leaning on it as she wondered what they could be. She smiled and closed her eyes, her mind able to rest and soon, she fell into a peaceful sleep, unaware of how things were about to change.



~#~



“Lord Starscream wants this energon in the store room at once. So… get on with it.”

The other troopers didn’t say anything, didn’t complain and didn’t mutter as they began the long task of lugging the new collection of energon cubes to the store room. It was a efficient task when they employed the use of a trolley to help transport as many as possible in one go but it was still a long and slow task since each cube could possible blow up if handled wrong.

On the fourth run, when the new supply was almost gone, they came across something small, curled up on itself like a little dead scraplet. The group exchanged a look on their blank, emotionless faces, each of them wondering what to do with it. One extended a long sharp finger, poking it and jumped back as it moaned and opened its eyes.

After blinking for a moment, before staggered to its feet and began making strange movements with its hands what could have been patterns. The troopers looked at each other again before one of them transformed his arm into a cannon and pointed it at the creature.

The thing jumped backwards, hands stopping in their movements and lifting them in surrender.

“What’s going on here?” Called a new authorial voice. “Haven’t you finished with that transport yet?”

The troopers turned to see the red figure of the chief medical officer as he peered into the room. From his view he could see the thing causing them to pause in their work and held in a small smirk. “A human? How interesting.” He stepped closer and looked at it in detail. “I didn’t think the Autobots would send one of their pets here alone. So, how did you get aboard?”

The thing looked at him, eyes wide but blank, hands still lifted to the air. Knock Out frowned at its defiance but that rarely used medical side of his was tingling for some reason. Something about this human was making him curious.

Sweeping it up into his hand, he decided to carry the thing towards the bridge, leaving the troopers behind without another word. The thing was remarkably still and quiet as it was carried, just staring at its surroundings until they arrived at the bridge. Walking across the gangplank to a large panoramic screen, the doctor tipped his head to the newly appointed leader of the Decepticons. “Starscream, I have something that might interested you.”

The grey seeker growled as he turned on the spot. “It is Lord Starscream to you! And what is it?”

Pleased he had managed to twist a circuit, Knock Out showed his find, his palm out to allow the human to stand and look at the Decepticon leader with the same wide eyes it had looked at Knock Out. Starscream huffed at the sight of it. “Oh? And what have we here? An Autobot spy?”

The creature blinked before lifting its hands and began moving them in strange and detailed patterns. The seeker looked at Knock Out who just shrugged as the human continued with her movements. “What is it doing?” Starscream asked at last.

“I dunno.”

Frowning, the Decepticon leader turned to the other bot at his side. “Soundwave. What do you make of this?”

Faceless Soundwave stepped over to them and stared at the creature and the movements. After a moment, the Decepticon lifting his large hands and began making similar movements, causing the human to pause and watch before moving again.

Starscream stood remarkably patently for a while, waiting as the two made the hand movements but then growled. “Well! What is going on!”

Lifting his head and stopping the movements, Soundwave paused before turning to a nearby computer screen and began typing. The three closed around to read what he was writing.

You can sign? That’s great! Please, I’m so sorry, I don’t know where I am. Or what’s going on. Can you tell me? Please?

This is the Decepticon base.

Decepticon? What’s that?

We are Decepticons. Why are you here?

I didn’t mean to be, I was just looking for somewhere to hide from the rain. Found these blue boxes and fell asleep then woke up here.

Those were Energon cubes and

Starscream looked at the little thing then at Soundwave. “Why is she making these movements?”

Knock Out was turning the thing in his hand to look over it from each angle, processing what he had seen. “I don’t think she can speak and that these hand movements are a form of… communication.” He looked a little closer at the human, the way her eyes constantly roamed around her and how unresponsive she was to sounds. “Perhaps she can’t hear. Fascinating.” He looked up from the creature. “Lord Starscream, with your permission I would like to investigate this creature further.”

The new leader stared at the doctor, considering the repercussions and how it would affect the future. “Very well Knock Out, keep it. But make sure it does not interfere with your work on Lord Megatron.”

Closing his hand around it, Knock Out nodded and walked away, holding his new toy carefully. Once they had left the bridge, he turned the thing so she was looking at him. “Not sure if you can understand me, but you better not cause me any trouble. I’m sticking my neck out for you.”

The human just stared blankly at him and carried on looking around, taking in the enormous world she had found herself in. She didn’t struggle or move, she just relaxed in his grip until they arrived at the medical ward. His partner, Breakdown was there, looking over the blackened, damage body of Megatron, investigating his injuries but turned to see the human as Knock Out placed it on a side table. “Knock Out, what’s that?”

“That is my new side project. How badly damaged is Lord Megatron?

“Very.”  Breakdown replied, optics on the human.

She was just sat on the edge of the table, swinging her legs over the edge, watching them. Knock Out also turned to look at her then back at Breakdown. “Don’t worry about her, she can’t hear us. That’s why I’m so interested in her.” He smiled to himself as he began diagnosing their leader’s condition. “I’ll deal with her later. Let’s get back to work.”

Still careful of his new audience, the great bulk of Breakdown returned to his work but every little sound the creature made caused him to pause and ensure it wasn’t pointing a weapon at them. However, it appeared that it was just walking around the table it had been placed on but mostly appeared just to watch them.

Knock Out gave it little thought as he worked, scanning Megatron’s injuries and making a list in his head of everything that would need to be repaired or replaced. It was already a long list.

“By all means, he shouldn’t even be alive.” He muttered, more to himself than Breakdown. “This is going to take some work.”

Breakdown didn’t reply, carrying on with his own list but the clatter of metal on the floor made him look up suddenly and saw the human had stumbled over a piece of metal and accidently knocked it over the edge of a table.

She gave a sheepish grin at the pair and rubbed her chest in a circle. Knock Out shook his head at her and went back to his work but Breakdown kept an optic on the human. The doctor noticed and took a chance to tease his old time partner. “Are you nervous about her Breakdown?”

“I don’t like the way she keeps looking at me.”

“She’s probably never seen a Cybertronian before.”

“She’s all… weird looking.”

“Probably thinks the same of you. Look, get on with your work; I’ll deal with her later.”

Grumbling, Breakdown returned to his work until the two had completed their own lists of what needed to be done and combined the two to see if either had missed something.

Satisfied they had a plan; Breakdown excused himself and left Knock Out to his new toy.

The human had found a comfortable place to sit a few hours ago, leaning on a drill while watching the pair work. Sparing a brief moment to wonder about communicating with it, as speaking and writing were impossible, since they wrote in different languages, he decided just to get on with his diagnoses.

Scanning the little thing, he compared his findings to a scan he had of a healthy normal human. The process took him a few minutes, comparing the two scans to try and find why this human didn’t appear to have hearing.

His peripheral vision picked up the movement of the creature and he watched as she stared at the screen, comparing her scan with the other. Then she smiled and looked at him, tapping her ear and then pointing to screen.

Guessing this was a primitive hand signal, Knock Out zoomed in on the area she had pointed out and spotting a tiny difference between the two images. Inside the ear of the normal scan were three tiny bones, connected to give the human hearing. This human only had one, much larger bone, depriving her of that gift.

Knock Out’s optics widened. That was it? That tiny fault was the reason this human couldn’t hear?

He laughed a little and looked at the human before picking her up again and looking her over once again, half wanting the shake her up and down to see if that would fix her. But, with a plan in his circuits, he put her down once more and went off to his work station, grabbing a handful of metal and beginning the task of slowly and carefully constructing something.

The human just stared at his but from where she was, she could only see his back so sat and waited, wondering about these huge robots she had found herself surrounded by. Her eyes wandered over the technology around her and the huge lifeless form in the middle of the room. She felt a little sorry for that one, he looked pretty damaged… or would that be ill?

Whole new questions began spinning in her head, questions on where they had come from, what they were and what they wanted with her.

She thought about that first one she had seen, the way it changed its arm into a gun and shuddered at the thought of the weapon being pointed at her.

Then there was the red one, who had saved her. The way he carried himself reminded her a lot of the doctors she had seen for years. That and the body in need of repair/healing told her he was a medic of some kind.

The big blue one, almost twice the size of the red one was very funny, the way he looked at her and the curl of his lips when he frowned. She just wanted to go up to him and hug him!

She thought about the other two she’s seen, the grey skinny one and the tall dark blank one who could sign. She liked that one, being able to communicate with him but he had a very stiff way of signing.

Then there was that skinny grey woman who the red one had taken her to first. Perhaps she was in charge of the others.

With so many questions in her head, the girl found herself exhausted and curled herself up on the metal table she’d been placed on. It wasn’t the warmest thing to sleep on but at least it was safe. She might be deaf but she thought herself an excellent judge of character and doubted that red medic would hurt her.



~#~



“Ah SCRAP!” Jumping up, the human gasped and looked over to the medic as he kicked something on the floor. “How many times do I have to tell Breakdown not to leave his junk lying around! I could have scratched my paint!”

Mouth wide, the girl stared at the robot as he turned back to her. “Ah, you’re awake.”

She blinked at him. “I understand.” She stopped and covered her mouth with both hands. “I… I can… I can talk!”

“Of course you can.” Said the robot proudly, hand on his hip as he smiled at her. “I didn’t want to be using that… hand… thing.”

The girl smiled and shook her head in disbelief. In doing so, she felt something on her head and reached up, touching her ears gently. Something cold meet her hand and she patted the device to get a judge on its size and shape.

“Headphones?” She said at last.

The robot nodded. “The actual device is in the ends but the band will keep it on your head. How’s it working?”

She sat where she was for moment and just filtered the stream of data pouring into her brain.  

Cybertron, Decepticons, Autobots.

Knock Out, Megatron, Breakdown, Soundwave…

She gave a snort. “Ops.”

“What’s wrong?” Said the medic, she now knew was called Knock Out.

The human grinned at him. “I thought Starscream was a femme.”

Knock Out chuckled. “Easy mistake to make.”

“So, you’re Knock Out?”

He nodded. “I guess the data chip is working.”

“It’s strange, having all this information in my head. It’s like seeing half the world though a computer screen. Kinda like in a sci fi movie.”

Knock Out shrugged. “No idea what that is.”

“I do!” She giggled. “Because it’s in my head!”

“Well then, now that we can talk… I have some questions for you.”

“Fire away!”

“For one… do you work for the Autobots?”

The girl checked the information in her mind and shook her head. “Never met Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, Arcee…”

“Ok, ok, no need to go into detail. How did you get aboard the Nemesis?”

“I told Soundwave yesterday, I fell asleep at one of your energon mines and was accidently brought aboard.” She giggled again. “Wow, what a funny word, Energon. Energon, Energon…”

Knock Out rolled his optics. “Stay focused human. Now, where are you from?”

“Nowhere. I don’t have a home.”

“Really? I thought all humans had homes.”

The girl shook her head. “Over 40% of earth’s population don’t have a permanent place of residence.” She blinked and tipped her head. “Wow, I can access the world wide web from this thing!”

Knock Out waved his hand to get her attention again. “Never mind that; you don’t have somewhere to live?”

“Nope.”

“What do you do for energy?”

The girl shrugged. “Beg when I can, steal when I have to, starve when I can’t.”

“I see.” Knock Out thought, tapping the side of his head. “So, what’s your name?”

The smile she’d been holding vanished. “What was that word you said? ‘Scrap’?”

The doctor leant back a little and couldn’t look at her. “Ah, yeah… it’s…”

“A curse word in your language, equal to ‘dam’ and… much worse in mine. But… scrap, as a word, means a small and often unwanted off cut.” She grinned proudly. “That’s me, Scrap.”

Knock Out frowned at her, leaning closer. “You mean, your name… is Scrap?”

“It is now.”

The doctor stared at her for a while. If her name was scrap, he could probably get away with cursing a bit more, pretend he was calling for her instead. And she did have a point, she was small and unwanted, fitting of the name. “But why do you want to change your name? There’s no what you were created with ‘scrap’ as your name.”

“I told you, I don’t have a home. I don’t have anyone who could call me by my old name. And besides, I don’t even know how my old name sounds, just a load of sign language for it. But you… you gave me a whole new life and I think I need a new name. I believe that is a tradition among your kind, that when you change form or life, you change your names. ” She turned her head to show him her ears. “These headphones have given me a new life… with hearing and speech! I could never replay you for this, Knock Out. But with your permission, I’d like to stay here and try to help you however I can.”

“I doubt there is much you could do.”

“I could clean.” She looked around the room and down at several piles of discarded metal. Her eyes soon went back to the bot as he thought it over. “Please Knock Out! I promise, I can look after myself.”

He frowned, looking at her. “One week. We give this one week trail. If you turn out to be too much trouble, I will personally throw you off this ship.”

“Yes! Yes, I promise! I promise, I won’t disappoint you!”  Scrap yelped as she stood up and jumped on the spot. “Thank you Knock Out, thank you! I won’t let you down, I swear!”

Helped her down to the floor, Knock Out sighed. “I mean it, Scrap. One problem and you’ll be getting flying lessons!” He pointed off to a corner. “Now, make yourself useful, I have work to do.”



Before Episode 12: Speed Metal



“What is that… thing still doing aboard my ship!” Starscream bellowed as he saw Scrap walk in front of him with her arms full of metal.

Scrap stopped where she was and looked at him with a disapproving huff. “Nice to see you too Starscream.”

“Scrap, get on with your work.” Knock Out said, not even looking up from the screen near lord Megatron. “Commander Starscream, Scrap there is my new assistant. She’s helping keep my workspace clear.”

“Yeah, and its taking forever.” Came a muttered reply.

“Scrap.”

“I’m working!”

Starscream stared at the thing. “It can hear now?”

“I fitted it with a hearing aid.”

“Wasting time that should have been spent helping Lord Megatron back to health!” The seeker snapped, arms crossed.

Scrap looked up from her work at the tone of his voice, particularly when her computer aided mind told her that Starscream had been after Megatron’s job for years. Knock Out appeared to know as well as he gave a smirk. “I thought you would be glad to know that we can’t do anything until we’ve fully investigated his injuries.”

“Then get investigating!” The Seeker grunted before leaving.

Scrap huffed as she scratched the back of her head. “He is a strange one.”

“Ah, you get use to him.”

Scrap sighed as she looked at the neat piles of metal she was making and began to think. She smiled a little more then went back to her cleaning. “So this metal, it’s all useless to you?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Why?”

“I might have a use for it. By the way, do you know where Breakdown is? I haven’t seen him all day.”

“He’s out looking for energon.” Knock Out said before sighing and flopping in his chair. “Ah, I am so bored. There is nothing we can do with Lord Megatron until he’s cleaned up and that’s Breakdown’s speciality.”

“But old Screamer keeps him away on energon patrols? Humm, that tells me someone doesn’t want him to get fixed… I mean… better.”

Knock out chuckled a little. “I noticed.  Starscream’s little power plays are exhausting.”

Scrap stopped in her work and smiled at him. “Knock Out… your file… it says you’re an Automobile.”

“I chose an Automobile as my alter mode yes. Why?”

“Are you fast?”

He caught her tone and grin. “Why you do ask?”

“Do you think we can get off this ship? I have a feeling the two of us can help each other out.”



~#~



Scrap smiled as she sat in the passenger seat of Knock Out’s alt mode. “They should be just over here… somewhere.”

The Decepticon hummed as they rolled up to the bright lights and purring noise of several humans and their cars. He stopped at the edge of the gathering of humans and their modified cars. “Are you sure about this Scrap?”

“What’s the matter Knock Out? Don’t think you’re fast enough?” she grinned then opened the door and stepped out. Knock Out remained silent and still behind her, watching as she went over to some tough street racers and began talking to them.

They appeared amazed at her appearance and whatever she was saying. They looked at Knock Out several times before eventually they nodded and she went back to the car. “You’re in the next race.”

“I see.”

“Knock Out, trust me, you’ll enjoy this. You like racing and you like winning? Well these guys will give you both. And if I happen to get some cash out of the deal, then so be it.” She grinned before stepping out of the car again. “Just… make sure you don’t lose. I had to put you down as the collateral.”

“Wait, what?” He said but the human was already gone, standing alone by a wall. The car growled a little, the purr of his engine high in pitch but Scrap just smiled and waved at him.

Come on, you know you’ll win. She told him over the radio waves.

He would have complained but she was right and the race was about to begin.

Knock them out Knock Out.

Letting his engine roar, Knock Out prepared for the race, lining up with the others and watching as some human female stepped into the middle of the path and lifted up her hands. The other cars reeved their engines in preparation, the roar of hungry beasts ready for their kill.

The woman in the middle smiled before dropping her arms quickly. The cars all speed off in a squeal of tires, the dark strange red one towards the back.

Scrap frowned as he vanished and she ran up with the other spectators to see a bit more of the track. Knock Out was clearly having a little bit of trouble getting in the flow but as the group rounded another corner, he kicked it up and over took three of the seven cars.

“Coming through.” He said aloud as he passed another.

The human inside frowned at him and tried to rear end the hidden transformer but Knock Out slipped out of his grip and the car instead went into a spin and crashed into another.

At a boy Knock out. Three cars to go and this is in the bag.

Don’t tell me how to race Scrap, I was doing this before your great, great grandparents were alive!

Scrap’s laughter filled his receptors as he overtook another car. Two left.

The finish line was in sight and Knock Out decided to make a bit of a show of his victory. He rode right up to the bumper of the other cars and, gently, tapped them both. A discharge of energon surged though the two human cars and they both span out of control in different directions, parting for the only remaining vehicle as he crossed the line and skidded to a stop right before Scrap’s feet. She smiled and patted him on the roof. “That’s my boy.”

Knock Out said nothing as others were coming over to them but Scrap managed the crowd just by crossing her arms and leaning on his side. “Don’t bother, he won’t come out. Now, our winnings?”

The crowd grumbled but honoured the agreement, handing over a very large wad of notes which Scrap took with a grin. “Till next time.” She said and climbed into the car, quick enough that no one could see there was no driver.

Tires screeching, Knock Out sped away from the group, silent as they drove in the darkness. Scrap sat in the passenger seat, counting the winnings. “Three hundred and twenty. Not too bad.”

“Why do you need that anyway?”

Scrap pulled at the old baggy hoody and jeans she was wearing. “Clothes and food. I might be living with you and the others but you have no idea how to care for a human. This will keep me going for a few months if I’m smart. And when you have lived with nothing, you learn to make the little last.”

“It must have been hard.”

The human sighed and leant on his door as she stared at the night passing them by. “Yes, at times. People have a very low view on the homeless. Even less of me because I was deaf. Those street racers were particularly nasty to me, always sneaking up on me just to make me jump.” She shuddered. “One time I was woken up by a burning exhaust in my face!”

“That’s… bad right?”

“Very.” She looked back at the cash in her hands. “It’s nice to get one back on them. And you looked like you had fun.”

“They were nothing compared to the racers we had on Cyberton but… it was enjoyable.”

Shifting in his seat, Scrap sighed. “We should do it again some time.”

“Perhaps.”

Scrap smiled at him but then yawned, covering her mouth as she did. “Ah, sorry.”

The car chuckled softly. “Get some rest. I’ll get us home.”

“Home.” The human sighed. “That’s nice.”

The soft purr of the engine and the smooth road soon rocked the human to sleep as Knock Out drove out to re-join the Nemesis.



Before Episode 12: Predatory



Turning on the spot, Scrap smiled into a bit of highly buffed metal that worked as a mirror. “Well? What do you think?”

Knock Out shrugged. “You look the same to me.”

“Says the bot that spends five hours buffing himself every day? Breakdown, what about you?” She turned again, showing off the outfit she now wore. “What do you think?”

Looking over one shoulder, Breakdown looked up and down the small figure, the little dark brown haired human now wearing a dark purple t-shirt with a round neck and long black sleeves. The bottom half of her now wore dark blue jeans that tucked neatly into knee high grey boots.

He shrugged and turned back. “Hmm.”

Shaking her head, Scrap turned towards the exit of the medical bay. “You two don’t have a clue about fashion.”

“Scrap!” Knock Out suddenly snapped as he looked at her. “Where are you going?”

“Only to see Soundwave. I’ll be back in a few minutes!”

The medic grunted but said nothing else until the doors had closed behind the human. “She better not run into Starscream again.”

“The thing’s remarkably resistant.” Breakdown commented as he carried on repairing Lord Megatron’s arm. “Still gives me the creeps.”

As the pair went on with their work, Scrap walked down the enormous corridors of the Nemesis, nodding at the troopers that went past her. The drones didn’t even look at her, not caring about Knock Out’s new toy but Scrap was getting use to their strange treatment. She didn’t have to avoid of them but she minded them as they minded her, a mutual simple agreement.

The senior Decepticons like Knockout, Soundwave and Breakdown had no real objects to her, only insisting that she kept out of trouble and out of their way. It had been a week since she’d left with Knockout for a street race, something that the medic had since taken to doing on a regular base, only sometimes joined by his little partner.

She’d even found an extra use for her time, helping with the delicate and internal damage of the Decepticon leader. Under Knock Outs close supervision she was able to use her small hands to remove damaged components that even Knock out couldn’t reach. She almost felt honoured to be helping in such an important way.

However, there was one bot Scrap had to avoid.

The temporary leader of the Decepticons, Starscream had taken a nasty spike to her due disobeying his orders on Knock Out’s punishment a few weeks ago. But Scrap had argued that he had forbidden Knockout or Breakdown from fixing the ‘cosmetic’ damage he had inflicted on the medic. He said nothing about her. And with three high ranking officers on her side, Starscream was just waiting for a chance to scrap Scrap.

Scrap smiled as she walked, opening up the digital screen that her hearing aid had built in. To her, the right side of her vision was now a dark blue transparent screen with several symbols on it that she could use by moving her eye and blinking. The symbols were cybertonian but the computer chip in her headphones was able to translate them to a language she was able to understand easily. Using the locating app, she honed in on Soundwave and she entered the bridge without a word.

The blank faced bot did not move from where he was, but he did dip his head a little. Smiling, Scrap walked over to his computer and slowly began climbing up the sides, clinging carefully to the metal edges and pulling herself to the top. There she sat facing him and began moving her hands in her old language style.

Hello Soundwave. She signed then fell still.

He didn’t change at all, carrying on with his work without even moving his head. But Scrap suddenly noticed a few extra bits of code on her screen.

You should not be here.

She grinned before moving her hands again. Yes I know.  I only wanted to show you my new outfit.

You look appropriate.

Almost blushing, Scrap tipped her head to the side. Thank you.

Soundwave didn’t reply, just carried on with his work, tapping away at his screen while Scrap just sat beside him, looking through her screen and working her way through the masses of data her headset had access to.

Eventually she paused and blinked a few times. Soundwave… are you scanning the surrounding system at the moment?

No.

You might want to. I’ve picked up something. Quadrant seventy five point seven. It appears to be some kind of craft, moving fast and heading this way.

Soundwave moved his head back to the screen and went on to change the image to a scan of the planet and moon. Soon the system picked up the moving craft and zoomed in. As Scrap moved to have a look, she found herself suddenly swooped up in Soundwave’s long bony hands and dropped between his chest and Lazerbeak, effectively hidden.

Symbols appeared in her eyes just as she opened her mouth. Keep quiet.

He turned away from the screen, towards the figure who was currently at the helm. Peering around Lazerbeak, Scrap observed as the silent communication officer just stood and waited until Starscream noticed him and turned around. “What is it Soundwave?”

Careful to keep the human hidden, Soundwave pointed to the screen behind him and Starscream moved to investigate. “Huh… a strange craft is heading in this direction. Do we know if it’s a Autobot?”

Soundwave said nothing and Scrap bit her lip to stop herself from talking. Luckily Starscream zoomed in on the craft and hummed. “No insignia.” He huffed, leaning off her. “Well, it might go right past us and if it does, we have no point in bothering with it.”

Even Scrap could feel Soundwave’s gaze drilling into Starscream but the commander just frowned and brushed it off. “Now get back to work.”

Once his back was turned, Scrap stuck her tongue out at the seeker and crossed her arms.

He will regret that.

Every action has consequences Soundwave. I really should head back to Knock Out, I promised I wouldn’t be too long.

As she moved for the side of the control panel to climb down, several long thin strands wrapped around her waist and gently lowered her to the floor before retreating back to Soundwave who hadn’t even paused in his work. She smiled and winked at him before vanishing to the shadows to avoid Starscream.

Once safely in the hallway, she made her way back to the medic bay before climbing down to the bay, under the gangway. There, tucked into a corner, was a small collection of scrap metal. To anyone else, it was just a mess of metal but to her, it was home. Pulling one particular piece of metal, it swung to the side like a door and she entered the only room. Four sheets of metal were carefully positioned to make walls which were in turn supported and locked in place by the others on the outside. There was no welding, no joints and no mess yet it was secure and private.

It was sparsely furnished with just a double quilt and pillow for her to sleep on and a small make shift fridge Knock Out had designed to keep some food for herself in. She’d made it a little homely with a pot of flowers and a chest she kept her clothes in as well as a small table she ate off but as it was, she liked it. She wasn’t use too much and it was enough.

“SCRAP!”

She cringed a little at the high pitched voice and ran to the door, looking out at her friends. But Knock Out was pointing to his arm and glaring at Breakdown. The human rolled her eyes and returned to her home.

Being named after a curse was alright most of the time but it did get confusing.  



During Episode 13: Sick Mind



Hands pressed deep into her pockets, Scrap stood in the empty medical bay, looking up at the tall impressive figure of Lord Megatron. He was as fixed as Knock Out, Breakdown and herself could make him and yet he was still lifeless, pardon the brain activity the monitor was registering.

There was a strange whooshing sound behind her as the door opened and closed and the clanking of footsteps approached her. “Scrap.” The medic acknowledged as he stopped at her side and also stared at their leader.

The human nodded a little then let out a sigh. “He’s not getting better, is he?”

“He is in a stable condition. That is all we can do for now.”

“Is there anything we could have missed?”

Knock Out shrugged a little. “Soundwave has informed me that Lord Megatron did introduce dark energon to his spark, in order to gain control of his army. However, dark energon is very unpredictable. I myself have only seen small samples of it and I have no idea how it could affect his recovery.” He gazed casually at the monitor. “At least his brain is still active, so there is still a chance.”

The human just stared at the bot, stuck in a never ending coma before her. “If there was no chance of recovery… and their condition was as serious as this… in human cases, doctors would consider euthanasia.”

“Euthanasia?”

“You never heard of it?” Scrap asked, blinking at the bot’s confused tone. She sighed and looked back Megatron. “It’s the act of ending a life for the sake of freeing them from pain or suffering. It can be done by just… turning off a life support and letting nature take its part.” She lowered her head suddenly and smiled a little. “It’s a very touchy subject for humans, when or if a person has the right to die. Some consider it a mercy… some murder.”

Knock Out didn’t speak, he just stared at the human before turning where he was and leaving her alone once more. Confused by his entrance then exit, Scrap sighed and decided to go see if she could get off the base for a little bit. After all, the Nemisis had been struck by lightning a few hours ago, and could now be detected easily on the right frequencies. The last thing she wanted was to run into an Autobot on a rampage.