Chapter Text
“You bought.. A lot..” Breakdown hummed softly, looking down at the bags. “Does there happen to be anything in there for the rest of us?”
“Perhaps.”
Knockout fluffed up his hair a little, correcting the shape before pulling out a key and descending the dark metal stairs to the motel rooms. The location had been all too willing to give the crowd a place to stay, with no payment required.
“Humans. Too kind for their own good.” The larger man grinned, stepping over the fallen vending machine, packets of out of date chips scattered beside the glass.
Knockout let out a cackling laugh, unlocking the door, fondly reminiscing on the memory of the receptionist cowering behind his desk, hands shakily holding out the keys for the two rooms.
“We’ve brought.. things!” The medic announced proudly, followed by a chorus of cheers and groans.
“About time!” A rough voice barked from the bathroom. Below heavy footsteps, the floor creaked while the building trembled. Men, of near identical features, clambered to the sides of the room, clearing out for the dark lord.
“Ah, still shirtless my liege?” Knockout teased, staring up, yet never quite meeting the eyes of the Decepticon leader, falling just short to the man’s bandaged pectorals.
“Your ridicule is unwarranted, Doctor,” Megatron growled. “I trust you come in great success, Or dare you return a failure once more?”
The medic released a puffed breath.
“Are formalities really necessary, my liege? Keeping up with protocol seems to be the least of our concerns.”
Megatron scoffed, ignoring the question as he snatched the bags from his soldiers and storming back into the bathroom.
Knockout took some clothes to the room next door. In the room there were two real beds, and three makeshift ones on the ground. Sitting on their knees on a real bed was a lanky man with a bird mounted on his shoulder, fiddling with the remote to a TV.
“What are we watching?” Knockout huffed, flopping down onto the second bed.
“Some stupid Television program called ‘Nat Geographic’,” whined a man, from the floor.
“Quiet, you pathetic fool,” Knockout hissed, pegging a pillow down at Starscream. “I’m invested.”
“It hasn’t even been-”
“Shut.”
Starscream rolled his eyes, lying back onto the makeshift bed.
Barely a minute into the program, Knockout found himself utterly entranced by the creatures presented on the screen. Cautiously, he moved to sit beside Soundwave who, too, was absolutely enamoured by the production. Before total mind capsulation, he looked between the other decepticons, trying to accept the reality of the situation. He truly was within a fleshy frame, metres shorter than himself. Fortunately though he was not alone, accompanied by his partner, his friends, his leader, his enemies and whatever Starscream was to him. He comfortably settled into Soundwave’s side, letting his mind be controlled by the soothing visuals.
“Sparklings.” Starscream scoffed, pulling himself up onto the bed, resting against Knockout.
The redhead shifted uncomfortably, trying to move closer to Soundwave, accidentally shoving the chief of communications a bit too much as Lazerbeak flapped his wings, making little frustrated chitters. Soundwave moved sharply, a finger gently running over his bird’s head, before his attention was pulled back to the show.
All three Cons were totally captivated by the spectrum of animals that the show was informing them of.
“This useless rock certainly has an abundance of species upon it,” Knockout hummed during the end credits, grabbing the remote to flip to a new channel. “Truly fantastic-”
His pleasure was short-lived by the program that was now violating his eyes, under the title ‘Big Bang Theory’.
“UGH! VILE SCRAPLETS!” Starscream shrieked, lifting a pillow and slamming it against Knockout. “SWITCH THE FRAGGIN PROGRAM, DOCTOR, OR NOT EVEN UNICRON WILL SAVE YOU FROM MY WRATH!”
“DON’T YELL AT ME! I’M TRYING!” Knockout cried, desperately pressing buttons, before finally a new show appeared.
“House Mmduh.” Starscream squinted.
“MD, Scraphead.” Knockout huffed, sitting back again, “At least this program’s not bad.”
The room then hushed, as the episode carried on. The patience giving way to let Starscream think.
“Do you think the autobugs are transformed to?” He questioned into the air. Knockout’s eyes widened, lips pressing together into a thin line. Starscream looked at him, expression immediately dropping to that of an unimpressed parent, “They are human aren’t they?.” He groaned, “You know Megatron’s going to want to track them down, right?”
“Don’t be too sure, Scream.” Knockout shook his head, “if Megatron has any thoughts in that large head of his, he’ll consider that the Autobots would have a lot of support right now, more than we could ever manage.”
“They do?”
Soundwave shoved Starscream, unable to maintain an illusion of apathy. The grounded flyer screeched dramatically, rubbing the wrong arm to ease the injury.
“Now, now Soundwave, for those of us more… challenged in the realm of common sense, it may not be as obvious that of course the Autobots have more support, they have human acquaintances.” Knockout grinned, pinching Starscream’s cheek roughly, nails digging into the pale skin, “Isn’t that right?.” The other man grimaced in pain, cheeks flushing as he swatted the doctor away.
“Keep your nasty fleshy hands to yourself.”
“Now hush yourself.”