Shards (Transformers Prime, Shattered Glass)

Chapter 19

Breakdown awoke to an insistent ping on his comm and a raging headache.

He sat up, wincing at the increased throbbing and opened the message. The first time he played it through, it didn't make any sense, but the second he bolted upright before it was halfway finished.

"Breakdown?"

He blinked, realizing for the first time he was in the medical bay, sprawled on a slab, then looked across the room, at Raf, windmilling his arms.

"What happened?" He rasped, sliding off the slab and holding his hand out for the boy to step up onto.

"Dunno," Raf shrugged as he scooped up Carmine "I think we got zapped."

"Right, I remember," Breakdown scanned the slabs. He wasn't surprised to see that Megatron wasn't incapacitated but-

"Where's Knockout?"

"He's awake already," Raf supplied, clambering up Breakdown's wrist and starting for his shoulder "Said something about insulated armor or something?"

"Right," Breakdown couldn't resist the smile that touched his face as he recalled the incident that brought about that upgrade "Where's Megatron?"

"Engine room, Knockout's with him," Raf secured himself on Breakdown's shoulder and sat down "They're trying to fix the comms."

Trying to fix the comms from the engine room. That meant the very relay units had been fried out and Breakdown foresaw a lot of tangling with very small wires in his future.

But that wasn't the imminent issue.

He reached up to move Raf, but the boy shoved away the heavy fingers "I wanna come, it's freaky just sitting here watching you guys sleep."

"Alright, someone should probably keep an eye on you anyway," Breakdown said, stepping out of the medical bay and transforming. Raf whooped as he suddenly slide into Breakdown's backseat and Carmine yipped.

"That is never, in a million years, going to get old."

-----

Sometimes on Earth, it was difficult not to feel overlarge and out of place, but if Knockout ever needed a reminder how just how big the world he came from was, he'd look up at the Ally's engine core. Nearly four Cybertronian stories high, it was a clear chamber that pulsed with blue energy that cast the entire engine room in an ambient aqua. Knockout couldn't see the top, even if he craned his neck upwards.

A metallic scraping reminded him he wasn't there to gawk at the engine core and he returned his attention to Megatron, who was pulling a face at the mess of wires he had his hands in.

"I think I just made it worse."

Knockout checked his comm and without a doubt the static had increased to an obnoxious screech.

"You did, but it's not going to get any better until you get that whole unit out."

With an iritated harrumph Megatron gave the unit a rough tug and the whole unit came out nicely right into his lap.

Suddenly off balance, Megatron stumbled and fell over, still clutching the unit.

"Can you fix it now?" He asked, voice muffled by the wads of wirse covering his face.

Knockout stifled a chucked and knelt to help Megatron pull the unit onto the floor "Hopefully, it doesn't look as bad as I first thought."

They where broken off from any further conversation by the rumble of an engine and they both looked up as Breakdown arrived.