Published December 25th, 2012
Chapter nine: Joke's on Who?
"My name's Skybreaker," the yellow and green scout said, striking a pose to show off his wings. "And I'm the fastest thing in the air!"
"Heh, sorry, but that title belongs to me," Rainbow Dash interrupted, puffing out her chest with pride. "You may be big shots back on Cybertron, but around here, I own the skies." Skybreaker looked at her, an amused grin on his face.
"Oh really? How about a race, then? I'll even let you map out the course," he challenged. "Come back and find me when you're ready." The hyper-active speedster rolled one of his shoulders, his grin and stance now taking on an air of confidence. Dash shot him a glare.
"Ok, then. I'll map out a course so tough, it'll make your head spin!" She jumped into the air, and hovered so that her face was level with Skybreaker's. "And when I win, you have to stay on the ground for a week!" Dark Lance cocked his head at this. He was used to Skybreaker taking some risky bets, but this was a completely unknown challenge, and the team couldn't afford to be without its primary flier for an entire week. Twilight looked similarly worried.
"Alright, what happens if I win?" Skybreaker replied, curious as to what the multi-colored pegasus would be willing to do.
"You won't," she assured him. "But just in case you get lucky; I'll let Rarity dress me up however she wants without complaining, and then walk around town in it." At this, Rarity's eyes gleamed, and Skybreaker's mouth broke into a wide, confident grin. Applejack was face-hoofing, and Bunker was standing next to her with his arms folded, shaking his head.
"Alright, Rainbow, you've got yourself a bet." He stuck his hand out, and she shook it with her hoof, the two competitors locked in a stare-down. Bunker introduced himself next, breaking the uneasy silence.
"My name is Bunker. I do most of the research, development, and repairs on the ship. I'm also the helmsman, when we can fly." Twilight looked at him excitedly.
"Could I see some of your work sometime? I'd love to know more about your technology." Bunker nodded, happy to see someone else who understood the value of knowledge and information. Smiling slightly, Burnout went last.
"I'm Burnout, the team's medic. And actually, I was hoping one of you could show me around and tell me what you know about the medicine here. I'd rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it." Fluttershy jumped up at this.
"Oh, you're a doctor? If you want, I could show you what I know about taking care of ponies and animals sometime." Burnout smiled nicely at the pegasus, instantly able to sense her timidness.
"That would be great, thanks."
It was now early afternoon, and the ponies waved goodbye as they left the clearing the ship was in. When they were out of sight, Dark Lance and his team returned inside to finish repairs on themselves and what little was left that they could do on the ship. The rest of the day passed by uneventfully, and the four of them went back to their rooms to recharge overnight after locking all the hatches.
The next morning, Dark Lance was awoken by the sound of crashing outside his room. Getting out of his bed, he opened the door to the lodging corridor, and found his three subordinates sprawled in a confused mess on the floor.
"Hey, boss." Skybreaker waved, a sheepish smile on his face as he looked out from under Burnout, Bunker laying underneath them both.
"What the scrap is going on out here? It sounded like Unicron had shown up when I came out of recharge." He watched the three Autobots pick themselves up off the floor, Skybreaker having more trouble than the others. Even when he was back on his feet, the scout wobbled back and forth, trying and failing to keep his balance. Dark Lance cringed as he fell back on the floor face-first, before deciding something was wrong. The yellow and green speedster had his fair share of shortcomings, but his balance was what he attributed his ability to go faster than anyone around any turn to, and he was currently incapable of even standing up properly. Crouching down to get his face closer, Lance decided to check the balance core of the scout himself. "Hold still," he told Skybreaker as he opened up one of his main back panels. Looking in, he could see Skybreaker's balance core was spinning normally, but it was now misshapen. He used his optics to capture a single frame, then disabled them so he could check the image without the distractions of actual vision. He could now tell that there were small blue dots on the entirety of the now potato-shaped core, indicating some sort of invasive substance or possibly a parasite. Closing the panel, he reactivated his optics and stood up, turning to Burnout. "Get him down to the repair bay. I want to know exactly what's causing this, and how to fix it." The medic stood stock still, nodding once before bending down to pick up Skybreaker off the floor. He noticed her unusual silence, and chose to point it out. "Are you alright, Burnout?" he asked worriedly.
"Yessirfinesirneverbettersir." she answered nervously, spinning around to salute and simultaneously dropping her charge, who fell to the ground with another crash and a muffled groan of pain. She winced, but held the salute, obviously worried about what her commander was thinking about her lack of control over her condition. Dark Lance looked at the two in confusion.
"Burnout, what is going on?" he asked, obviously not willing to deal with any antics today.
"Nothingsirwe'refinesirespeciallyBunkersir." she answered, still saluting. The commander turned to his resident scientist.
"Bunker, what's she talking about?" his voice was becoming more insistent, showing that his patience was running out. Bunker sighed, his arms coming out from behind his back. Dark Lance could now see that the white Autobot's hands were missing. Looking him over for further problems, Lance also noticed that his feet were still in beast mode. He returned his gaze to Bunker's head. "Alright, what happened?" he asked firmly. He crossed his arms to show that he was not going to let anyone leave until he got an answer. Skybreaker, still on the floor, turned his head to reply.
"We don't know. We went into recharge mode last night, perfectly fine, and then when we got up this morning, we were all wonky." He tried to stand again, without success. Burnout was still standing perfectly still in her salute. Dark Lance sighed.
"Alright, let's all get to the repair bay, and see if we can figure out what's causing this. Burnout, help Skybreaker get over there." He shook his head in exasperation as the scout faceplanted yet again.
"Yessirrightawaysir." the medic replied, turning around to help him get back up off the floor. As Dark Lance turned to move towards the repair bay, he heard Bunker choke back a laugh.
"What now?" the leader said, not eager for more problems.
"Yo-your lance," his subordinate stuttered out, trying to keep himself from losing all control. Dark Lance grabbed the hilt of his weapon, unlatching it from its resting place on his back and bringing it forward to look at the... giant flower? He looked in shock and confusion at his weapon-turned-plant and sighed, his shoulders slumping at this new development. The outer shell that typically protected his hand from retaliation while in combat had now spread outward, with the tip of the lance as the fulcrum, and folded in on itself, making a convincing blue flower. It had the same light blue dots across its length as Skybreaker's balance core, making it look even more organic. Returning it to his back, Dark Lance sighed again, and made his way to the repair bay. When they got there, he helped Skybreaker onto one of the examination tables. Burnout's voice box may be malfunctioning, but her skills were still fully serviceable. She moved the table to a scanning block in the wall, and fed the entire thing with Skybreaker still on it into the block to be checked for anomalous readings. After several seconds, the machine beeped, and it regurgitated the scout back out into the room. Burnout watched as the screen next to the block showed the data from the dots.
"Well? What are we looking at?" Dark Lance asked. He forgot, momentarily, what had happened to her voice box.
"Wellitlookslikethere'ssomesortofstrangeformofEnergonthathascoalescedontohisbalancecoreandhascorrupteditsothatitdoesn'tworkright.IthinkthisEnergonmaybewhatisaffectingallofusinsimilarways,causingtheproblemswe'reexperiencing." For once, Dark Lance did not find the fact that his species did not need air to breathe, or speak, a good thing. He slowly repeated what she had said in his mind, picking apart her analysis and forcing it into words that made sense to him. He eventually managed to figure out from her rapid speech that the cause of the problems they were experiencing was an unknown form of Energon. He quickly came to the conclusion that they needed more information on what had exposed them to this new Energon.
"Alright. Burnout, you go to the town. My disguise is ruined, Skybreaker can't even stand, much less walk or fly, and somehow, I don't think Bunker's condition is restricted to his robot mode. When you get there, find Twilight, and tell her what's going on. I don't care if you have to write it out to get her to understand, just make it happen. Skybreaker, sorry, but you're stuck here for the moment. We'll get you out to the control stations so you can still do something if Bloodwing's team tries anything, but until we get back, I don't want you leaving the ship." As Burnout moved towards the door, Dark Lance went to help Skybreaker.
"What about us?" Bunker asked as they headed to the bridge.
"I don't think we were the only ones affected by this unknown Energon. You and I are going to the Decepticon ship to find out if I'm right."