TF: Prime -- Of Sparks and Cons :22:

“Of Sparks and Cons”
Chapter Twenty-Two

“Tell us about Reclaimer,” Renegade stated, looking directly at Cascade. He could tell the mech didn’t want to get into the discussion, was possibly regretting telling Renegade anything about it in the first place. But he wasn’t going to let it go, not when one of the young ones was involved.

“Claimer is a former crew member of an Energon mining vessel that was destroyed in a battle not far from Cybertron. As far as I know he skipped around from ship to ship from that point on until he ended up at the colony. He and Quicksilver arrived together,” Cascade started.

“So they knew one another before they arrived on the planet?” Dunestar asked, looking at Cascade curiously.

“In a way… I don’t know if Quicksilver ever realized it, but Reclaimer protected her during the trip here,” Cascade explained, “He had heard that there was a youngling femme on the shuttle that brought them here from the station.”

“Station?” Renegade asked, he hadn’t noticed one on his way to the planet.

“I’m sure you noticed the debris from it,” Cascade stated, pointing upward toward the ceiling, “There was once a supply depot that orbited the planet. That was where the ships used to dock, before the shipyard was built.”

“I noticed the debris,” Renegade nodded, “I scanned it and the components caused me to assume it was the debris field from a space battle.”

“In a way, it is. The station was destroyed by a group of pirates that called themselves the Peacemakers, of all things,” Cascade snorted, “It was a group of Cybertronians along with a number of organics.”

“They destroyed a lot of things before a warship arrived and took them out,” Dunestar stated, looking over at Renegade, “And they took a lot of lives with them.”

The latter got Renegade’s attention and he glanced over at her. She moved her optics in the direction of Cascade and Renegade nodded. One of the few things Cascade had ever told him was that it had been pirates who took the life of his bondmate. Turning back to Cascade, Renegade waited. He would only urge the mech back onto the proper path if he wandered too far.

“Regardless,” Cascade shook his helm and looked down at his fingers before he continued on, looking up at Renegade, “Reclaimer and Quicksilver disembarked separately. It was a while before they met again.

Reclaimer had been busy working with the mining crews. At that point he wasn’t more than a grunt, alongside Groundbreaker. Catalyst hadn’t shown his ugly mug yet. The crew leader was a mech called Freelancer, a Neutral who did dirty jobs for the Decepticons and Autobots alike. He was a stickler for regulations and structure. So, Reclaimer was rushing to a meeting and he nearly tripped over Quicksilver. She actually did fall. From what I understand, he helped her with directions to Dune’s shop.”

“I remember that, she was terrified when she came in and it took me half the cycle to calm her down enough to tell me what had happened,” Dunestar said and Renegade looked at her, “I’ll tell you about that later.”

“Very well,” Renegade nodded before refocusing on Cascade, “I have heard how he helped her, now how is it that we may need to worry about him?”

It was getting late and Renegade was getting tired.

Venting a sigh, Cascade stood and sat again. Renegade was starting to get the feeling that he was far more agitated over this than he had been the conversation about his sparkling and deceased mate.

“Not long after you came to the colony, I happened upon Reclaimer and Quicksilver training,” Cascade continued, still looking nervous.

Renegade made a note to ask about the type of training. It was the first time he’d heard about any of the young ones being trained in any manner. However, at the moment he was only concerned about any danger Reclaimer may pose for Quicksilver and, possibly, the others.

“I watched for a while, staying hidden,”  Cascade stated, “Reclaimer was attacking Quicksilver, giving her directions as he moved toward her. She followed them to the letter. Until the end. She misstepped and disregarded one of his warnings. I can’t really say what exactly she did wrong, but Reclaimer came up from the ground in a rage.”

“How did she react?” Dunestar asked and Renegade glanced down at her, noticing the tight expression and narrowed gaze.

“Not well… she kinda froze up and stared at him. When he started toward her, she backed away,” Cascade said, his voice was deepening as he spoke.

“I wasn’t fast enough to stop him from striking out at her. By the time I reached them, he’d dragged her around and was holding her at arm’s length by her upper arm. The sheer terror on her faceplate,” Cascade stopped and stood again, only this time he began to pace, “It happened not long after the cavern incident and directly after the first time she came to me for help with that lock on her residence. When I saw him pulling back to strike her, I lost it in a way that I had not done since Celestial Winds’ deactivation.”

“What happened, Cascade?” Dunestar asked softly.

Renegade held the younger mech’s gaze for a nanosecond before he looked away and spoke quietly, “I nearly offlined him. All that save him was Quicksilver dragging at my arm to stop me. She was a mess, the training had been hard and top that off with the damage he’d caused. She looked like she had been through a one pit of a scuffle. And still, she was trying to protect him.”

“You didn’t overreact towards her, did you?” Renegade asked, looking up at Cascade pointedly.

“No, she snapped me out of it and I dropped Reclaimer to the ground. That mech may be twice my height, but if I’d not stopped he’d no longer exist,” Cascade admitted, venting a sigh and taking his seat once more, “I took Silver into the colony to Fixit.”

“Did you leave Reclaimer behind?” Dunestar asked. Renegade couldn’t decide if she sounded like she was in disbelief or about to start laughing. Maybe both.

“Yes, I did. There was no way I could lug that oversized cargo hauler back to the colony,” Cascade responded with a huff, “Besides he didn’t deserve the help.”

Leaning forward, Renegade looked at Cascade, considering the implications of what he’d seen. There was no way to know if there was a repeat, unless Quicksilver would speak of it. However, Renegade doubted the youngling would speak up any time soon. Even if asked a direct question.

“We’ll have to keep an optic on him whenever he’s around her,” Renegade stated, looking between the other two, “He may want to train her again, but I don’t want him to until we know he’s not going to be dangerous toward her.”

Cascade nodded, as did Dunestar. Both looked exhausted and Renegade was beginning to feel it himself. Looking over the pad in his hand, Renegade looked at them once more and vented a sigh.

“I don’t know about you two, but I am ready to go into recharge. Those four are going to be up and going before any of us are aware,” Renegade stated with a slight smile.

Standing without a word, Cascade nodded and moved toward his compartment. Watching him go, Renegade heard the door into Windsplitter’s compartment open as his door closed and smiled at Dunestar as she stood up and grabbed his hand to pull him to his feet. He followed her, carrying the pad with him.

***

“Doc, when was the last time you bothered to pull anything down from up here?” Reclaimer grunted as he dragged a large crate down from the top of a high shelf. It was clear this section of the medical bay was used for little else but storage. And most of the items were covered in a fine layer of dust-like particles. Possibly cast off from Primus knew how many surgeries and dismantelings.

“Haven’t had any tall enough bots around here to do it in quite some time,” Knockout responded. Looking down, Reclaimer couldn’t help but smirk. He towered over even Megatron and it made him useful in a number of capacities. Not that he enjoyed being a glorified stocker for the rest of the ship.

“You could have just climbed up on Breakdown’s shoulders,” Reclaimer suggested. He carried the crate over to a berth and set it down, feeling a vibration running through the decking of the ship. It was being prepared to leave the planet.

“And risk this finish? I think not,” Knockout said in response with a smirk.

Reclaimer looked at him to make certain the medic was serious. He had heard that Knockout was one of the vainest mechs aboard the ship, if not in the Decepticon army, but he’d doubted the rumor. Now, he had a feeling, it was proving true.

But, to be on the safe side, “Are you telling me that you wouldn’t get what you needed just because you might scratch that pretty paint job of yours?”

Knockout looked back and up at him and his smirk turned downward slightly, “Yes, do you have a problem with that?”

“None,” Reclaimer stated, setting the crate of supplies down on the berth non-too-gently and thinking, ‘Not even Quicksilver is as vain as you and she’s a youngling and a femme.’

“Good,” Knockout nodded slightly, more to himself than to Reclaimer, as he set about digging in the crate.

Reclaimer stepped back, his optics drawn to the form on one of the medical screens. He strode over to the image and leaned toward it, his optics narrowing. The form was extremely familiar and if what he saw was what he thought he was seeing, it did not please him.

“Doc, is this Quicksilver, the youngling?” Reclaimer asked, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder plating at the image as he turned to look at the medic.

“I know who Quicksilver is,” Knockout snapped as he turned to what Reclaimer was indicating and wiped his hands off, “Yes, those are her scans.” Knockout moved forward and deliberately closed the scan out. The Decepticon insignia took the place of the scans and the medic went back to his supplies.

“All that damage,” Reclaimer pushed, trying to find out some more about the femme.

“Is from a long time ago, drop it Reclaimer,” Knockout ordered, “That is between myself, Quicksilver, and her guardians.”

The term guardians hit Reclaimer hard. Even after speaking with Renegade, Reclaimer had continued to think of Quicksilver as his responsibility. He had spent a great deal of time teaching that femme and helping her develop from an introverted, frightened sparklet to a slightly less introverted and frightened femme. To be shut out of her life by the medic made him scowl deeply.

“Do not scowl at me, Reclaimer was it? You want permission to learn of the youngling’s health status, take it up with Renegade. I do not have that authority and would not grant you permission if I did,” Knockout said bluntly without turning to face him. Instead he was setting supplies out on the berth, noting them on a data pad.

“Very well, then I will speak with Renegade,” Reclaimer stated, turning to leave the medical bay, only to have the medic call him back.

Knockout stood beside the berth, his faceplate twisted into an unimpressed expression as he stood with his right hand on his hip plate and his left resting on the berth’s top, “Are you forgetting something? It is your job to assist me this dark cycle until these supplies are categorized and inventoried. Besides, I doubt Renegade and his little… family… will appreciate being bothered in the middle of their recharge.”

Venting a harsh sigh, Reclaimer returned to the storage area and began to pull down more crates. Once he was satisfied that the job was being done, Knockout turned around and returned to what he had been doing prior to the discussion. The entire time Reclaimer worked, his processor fought a losing battle with his spark. No matter what argument he held with himself, it did not stop his spark from aching to know that Quicksilver was safe and in a good environment. He had not always been the best with her, getting rough enough once that Cascade had nearly beaten him into oblivion for it, but he still cared deeply for the youngling femme that he’d run into, literally, while she was wandering the colony. She’d been completely lost and too afraid to ask anyone for directions.

Reclaimer had nearly bowled her over in a rush to get to a meeting of the miners, before he’d been in charge of one of the teams. The way she had looked up at him, the fear in her optics, had stopped him in his tracks and driven everything about the meeting out of his processor in seconds. It had taken nearly half an hour of Chartah time to get the femme to settle down enough to ask the simple question of how to get to Dunestar’s shop. And the moment he’d told her, she had dashed off, leaving him behind.

Shaking his helm, Reclaimer returned to the present, setting the crate he was holding down on the decking near the berth Knockout was using to check over everything and note it in the logs. He needed to talk to Renegade and Quicksilver as soon as possible. If nothing else, he could volunteer to continue her training in hand-to-hand combat.