The Start of Something Interesting...

[lastonepercent]

The day was calm, with no recent Decepticon attacks, and none suspected to be incoming for some time.  The cons were too busy licking their wounds from the last battle, one that the Autobots had decidedly come out ahead on.  The celebrations had gone on long into the night and the recreation room was already a mess.

Thus, it was the perfect chance for a lone Autobot to slip casually outside.

Mirage had no shift currently scheduled, so he was free to spend his time as he pleased.  He certainly made no move to hide his departure, greeting his comrades in the halls on the way out, but the box in his hands remained unopened despite any passing curiosity.  It was quietly shifted into subspace before long, and  the former noble shifted into alt mode just as smoothly when he reached the doors.  Despite the completely inappropriate earthen race car mode, the mech had little trouble self-adjusting before driving off into the forest covering the mountain, for business unknown...

Comments

[lastonepercent]

Sighing, Ratchet stepped forward, clapping a hand on the smaller mech's shoulder and giving it a brief squeeze.

He wasn't Prime, dammit - he didn't have the patience or time for emotional comfort!

"Look. The best I can do until you find out more is find a way to install some sort of medical alert for you, if you want. Brief the other medics and class this 'issue' of yours as a medical affliction. That way, if you're ever 'locked up' like that somewhere, you won't be so vulnerable."

He stepped back with a shrug.

"Until we find out more, that's the best I got, I'm afraid."

[cliffjumper]

He wasn't expecting the hand on his shoulder and twitched, but the suggestion was... pretty good, actually. At least it was something that'd help in some way, if he did end up in trance again before anything else could be resolved.

"... sounds like a... workable idea," Cliffjumper muttered and dragged a hand down his faceplate. He wouldn't ever admit to the fact that the idea of ending up in trance again wasn't just unsettling because it was something he didn't understand, it also made him, yes, vulnerable.

But since Ratchet had already brought that up he didn't need to do more than to agree with the suggestion, which he did like.

"Talkin' of medical afflictions though, you think ya could check if... uh, the other thing's still locked down like it oughta be?" Dropping his hand from his faceplate, Cliffjumper frowned, shifting on his feet. "Just in case all that energy and slag did somethin'."

[lastonepercent]

"That I can manage."

Sighing in relief now that the tension was rapidly seeping out of the room, Ratchet gestured up at the examination berth, turning to fetch his own tools.

"The scan won't take long. Afterward, I can use it to try and come up with a method to track when you 'lock up' like that. It should only take a few days, and then you can report back for a new install."

[cliffjumper]

"Otherwise I'd be worried," Cliffjumper said with a grin, ducking away from Ratchet to avoid any retaliation, even if the medic was already turning away himself.

Crossing the floor quickly, Cliffjumper got up on the berth with a huff, shifting in his seat when he'd settled down.

"Yeah, sounds good. At least that's somethin' while I work out the rest." If it could be worked out, but at least there was something tangible that would be done to act as a... safeguard, for lack of better word.

[lastonepercent]

"Hah. Ha." Ratchet snarked, optics rolling even as he fussed with the diagnostic devices, activating them. The berth itself was part of it - while the telescopic 'light fixture' hanging over the berth was another part. He pulled a plug out of the side of the berth, shaking it in Cliffjumper's direction.

"Alright, pop your medical panel - gonna plug you in for the full scan."

The 'light' overhead popped on, beam narrowing down to the minibot's feet where it would start.

[cliffjumper]

Sniggering quietly, Cliffjumper's optics brightened innocently and settled more properly on the berth so the device would be able to do its job.

"Aye aye," he said with a grin and obediently opened the right panel for the connections beneath, shifting so Ratchet would have easy access. As he did so, he had the thought that he was pretty slagging relieved that he'd long since known about the thing that was the reason for the scan.

Had he found out that a few days ago instead of this... sensitivity, or both, Cliffjumper was pretty sure he'd have done far worse than yell at Mirage. Not that it'd be the noble's fault he had the stuff, but given how this had gone, and how he took things back when he found out about his ability to create protoform eggs, well.

Having everything heaped at once on him wouldn't have been pretty.

[lastonepercent]

Ratchet plugged in, and the berth immediately connected and began it's diagnostic of Cliffjumper's systems. At the same time, the laser-scanner above kicked on, efficiently scanning across the minibot's frame with a whirl of lights, updating Ratchet's on-file schematic of Cliffjumper's systems.

The medic plugged himself into the medical berth as well, analyzing the results as they came. Thankfully, it only took a few moments.

"Well. It's still working fine. It looks like the energy pulse may have rebooted it briefly, but no harm was done. And the fail-safes are still intact. They would have activated as well, if it was offline for too long."

[cliffjumper]

He had to resist the urge to squirm or shift as the scanning went on - not because it took overly long or he was bored or because shifting would mess something up. He was just... curious.

About the results. That was all. And well, okay, maybe the scanning beam felt a bit... prickly, too, but he wouldn't say anything about it. It was far faster than Ratchet plugging in and going through things manually.

"... That's good." rubbing the side of his helm, Cliffjumper shrugged, "I know it was pretty thorough and stuff, but since it was energy and a fraggin' lot of it - least it seemed like a lot - I wanted to be sure," he said as he rubbed the metal covering his spark chamber, frowning.

He'd become... well, not actually used to it, but he'd accepted that this was a thing that was around a while ago, but that didn't mean he wasn't pretty paranoid about something happening.

Not that it'd mattered much so far - he hadn't really been in a relationship that'd ended up with spark 'facing, after all. And yeah, he knew it wasn't that simple, but that didn't mean he wasn't twitchy about it, still.

[lastonepercent]

"Yeah, you should be fine." Ratchet said again, unplugging as the diagnostics wrapped up.

"You have a few other, minor, normal issues - you've pinched wires in your right shoulder again. Among other things. I'm pinging you a list. Grab a supplement cube on your way out the door."

Ratchet grumbled as he did just that. The list was rather exhaustive.

"Anyway. Give me three days to prep the warning device - provided nothing major happens in the interim."

[cliffjumper]

"... Oh, yeah, forgot that's what it was," Cliffjumper said, ducking his helm on a guilty half-smile, because those wires in his right shoulder pinched constantly.

It might just have been something about this particular altmode or transformation scheme, but he liked both pretty okay and wouldn't be changing until necessary - either by medic's orders or circumstances.

He wasn't sure there was anything to change to that might alleviate the issue here on Earth, though.

"All of this?" Sliding off the berth and grimacing as he got the ping and scrolled through it, Cliffjumper huffed. Surely not all of it..? He hadn't, after all, been avoiding Ratchet like some other people tended to do sometimes.

"... But thanks. And yeah, yeah I'll get the cube as well," he said with a huff and waved a hand in the air as he paused at the doorway between Ratchet's office and the rest of the medbay.

He didn't like the supplemental stuff, but Ratchet would know if he didn't take a cube with him... and would know if he hadn't drunk it when he came back in a few days, slag it all.

[lastonepercent]

"'Forgot'," Ratchet grumbled, shaking his head in irritation.

"Yes, all of it.. You came in for a checkup, you get to deal with the results!"

He waved a hand, shooing Cliffjumper out the door.

"You're welcome - now scram. I've got a fabricator to assemble before I can even start on your add-on."

[cliffjumper]

"Going, going... And it's easy to forget it when it keeps happenin' and ain't really detrimental to my functionin'!" Cliffjumper called out right before he darted out the door, reluctantly swinging by the cabinet that held the prepared supplemental energon cubes and snagged one.

He felt... a little more at ease about everything, even if Ratchet's solution was, at best, a stop-gap measure. But if he couldn't find any other way to learn what he probably really needed to, at least it was a good stop-gap measure.

Hopefully it wouldn't be needed at all, either.

With a static sigh tickling his mouth, Cliffjumper reluctantly broke the seal on the cube and started to sip it as he walked down the corridor. Better drink it as soon as possible and get it over with.