#Pharma and Shockwave continue to be evil

[keferon]

Part 3! Ratchet and Deadlock time.

The ray of sunshine has left, leaving us in the cold dark of the angst.

Ratchet works through some stuff.

———————————————————————

Ratchet hadn’t actually meant for the conversation to start with Roddy.

The medic had wanted to fully explain why he’d left the Mecha Program for awhile. His outburst earlier cementing the fact he needed to get it off his chest, or he’d start lashing out at the wrong people.

Again.

The Kid deserved to know what staying with him could drag him into. Ratchet kept his hands busy cleaning his bowl in the shop sink.

Hot Rod, Ratchet realized, was a good enough bridge into the topic. Someone Deadlock could put a face to. Not just nameless pilots upon pilots.

“There’s a condition called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain. CIP for short. The abbreviated explanation is sometimes humans can be born without the ability to feel pain or that the sensation of pain doesn’t translate correctly to the brain. It’s a very dangerous condition to have since it means that the person doesn’t get the usual warning signs that’s something’s wrong.”

The bowl was completely clean but so long as Ratchet didn’t turn around, he could pretend he was just training a med student.

“So that question about “weird pressures”. You were checking for damage Hot Rod doesn’t know he’s sustained due this CIP condition?”

Kid was smarter than he gave himself credit for. Ratchet thought for not the first time. He almost got it right.

“Hot Rod doesn’t have CIP. Not actual CIP.”

Ratchet put the bowl down, his hand not moving from the faucet after turning it off.

“He wasn’t born with it. Because I caused it.”

—————————

“I was so damn proud.” Said Ratchet.

At the time, he was. The integration process for recruits to become pilots was horrific. Excruciatingly painful. And something out of a science fiction movie.

In order to condition the human nervous system to work with the mecha neural interface, it necessitated mapping out every nerve and neuron in the pilots body.

While conscious.

Orion came up with the best analogy for it once: You could create a perfect 3 dimensional map of an entire ant colony’s nest. Provided you poured enough molten lead down the hole.

Ratchet wasn’t one to standby watching friends or strangers suffer, so he rolled up his sleeves and set his mind to fixing the whole damn thing.

On the line between man and machine, Ratchets role in the mecha program was right on the fence.

Specifically, he’d started very close to the fence on the side of the machines, and during the course of the program, picked up enough extra PHD’s to hook a leg over said fence to reach across and start smacking the shit out of some particularly stupid doctors handling the men.

Ratchet worked for years along side Pharma and Shockwave to make the integration process less permanently damaging.

Common long term side effects were: Blurry Vision Jazz, Disassociation Swoop, Memory Loss Sludge, Paralysis Snarl, Nerve Damge Slag, Internal Hemorrhaging Grimlock, Altered Personality Shockwave, and Brain Death Orion.

There were dozens more faces Ratchet could pair with any given symptom.

Eventually, Ratchet got his lucky break. A fresh batch of recruits to try his tweaked integration process on. Hot Rod was one of them.

Ratchet had thought he’d hit a breakthrough. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t publish it yet. Not until he was sure.

Hot Rod aced the physical and mental exam. The rest of his test group did pretty well too. They weren’t cream of the crop. The higher ups didn’t want to risk loosing more valuable pilots to an experiment. When Pharma had already established an “acceptable level of care” that nicely suited them.

Ratchet personally watched the lot of them like a hawk. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It didn’t come. Hot Rod was fine. The whole group was fine.

He was so damn proud.

The pilots went straight into mecha training and then-

They dropped like flies.

It was on the bad end of the bell curve for pilot fatalities. Ratchet thought it had to be the new series of mecha that had been built at the same time. He’d switched into engineering mode to rectify that. They had glaring safety issues where the flamethrowers and thrusters intersected. Plus, it wasn’t unusual for the mecha program to just have particularly rough seasons. The tentacled fucks were out in swarms. And by god was that a bloody summer for everyone.

It happened three days after the last big fight. Pretty much everyone who came back alive came back with some sort of injury. Except for Hot Rod, who Pharma gave a clean bill of health.

Ratchet was in his corner of the medical wing, looking over his proposal for the new integration method when Jazz dragged Hot Rod into his office.

Red flag number one: Jazz was a nightmare patient who avoided the med wing like a bear trap.

He tried. Goddamn it if Jazz didn’t try, but he was physically incapable of getting through medical procedures without being heavily sedated. The last time Ratchet tried to do minor stitches with only a local anesthetic, Jazz panicked and damn near broke his arm.

Jazz and Hot Rod were both wearing shorts, t-shirts and sneakers. Judging from the smell, they had just gotten here from the rec room. Probably basketball or maybe dodgeball.

Ratchet had gone through a full medical checklist before they finished coming through the door. Neither looked sick or injured. Nothing was obviously wrong beyond the clear look on Jazz’s face that said “Something is actually very wrong.”

Jazz wheeled Hot Rod in front of Ratchet.

“Show him.”

Hot Rod looked more embarrassed than in desperate need of medical attention.

“I’m fine Jazz, I probably just need to stretch.”

Jazz waved his hand cutting him off. Ratchet would usually start telling them off by now but something stopped him.

“Hot Rod raise your arms above your head. Both of them.”

The red headed pilot reluctantly obeyed. His right arm lifted straight up above his body. His left. Hot Rod made a face of concentration, as his left arm refused to go any higher than his head.

Three days.

Hot Rods shoulder had been dislocated for three days and no one fucking noticed.

Ratchet chewed out Jazz at first thinking he’d caused it. Then he chewed out Hot Rod for not coming to medical as soon as he knew about the injury.

And then, something very cold settled into his stomach the more and more Hot Rod swore he didn’t notice. That it didn’t even hurt.

“Ratchet, I’m fine!”

He should have been in pain. In agony after three days.

Later, Ratchet would go through each medical file of every pilot he had been responsible for. They had all had ailments in their files. Minor visible injuries that were all taken care of. Major ones went surprisingly smoothly. Patient notes praising the med staff for keeping them so comfortable. Praising him. Not one pilot had made a single pain med request since going through the integration process. On his files, there was one surviving active duty pilot from the same integration process.

Ratchet’s integration process.

————————

“Hot Rod said he forgave me.” Ratchet laughed. A little too wet and little too rough.

“Just like that.”

When’d he start shaking?

Ratchet still didn’t, couldn’t look the Kid in the eyes. “I left, not long after. There’s so much fucking more that was happening. That was the last straw, because when I told Shockwave and Pharma, those heartless fucks wanted to make it standard across the board. Soldiers that can’t feel pain? Of fucking course they wanted that. Didn’t matter the fatality rate was nine times as high.”

Ratchets voice was getting worse. But he couldn’t stop. “I thought I could fix it all from the inside. I thought as long as I stayed I could be some, fucking moral compass to a bunch of greedy, prideful, fucking deranged people. I was an egotistical IDIOT that thought I could somehow save every doomed kid tricked into walking into that “necessary evil.” I actually believed I could-”

Ratchet was abruptly cut off from his ranting as two massive hands grabbed him around the waist and deposited him on a ledge, at eye level.

“Kid, what-“ Deadlocks eyes looked shiny.

“I-I can’t keep looking down at you.”

The two of them sat in silence.

Neither seemed to know or want to start talking again right away. Ratchet was used to stewing in regrets on occasion. That had felt more like putting those regrets into a blender and then forgetting the lid.

Deadlocks plating was pulled tight. Ratchet had almost forgotten what he looked like when he was stressed. He wanted immediately to take it all back. Make it better. See him laugh drunk and cozy again like yesterday.

“Kid, I’m sorry. That- that was too much to put on you.” Deadlocks hands weren’t gripping him anymore but resting on either side of the ledge. Ratchet pet small circles on a thumb that twitched slightly under his hand.

Deadlock straightened and looked at him with a steely expression, mouth tense, eyes determined.

“You are one of the most intelligent, stubborn, and caring people I’ve ever met. Nope.” Deadlock corrected himself, lifting a hand. “THE most intelligent, stubborn and caring person that exists.” He dragged out the syllables of that last word.

“You!” He poked Ratchet in the chest. “Saved me. And I’m fragging terrible.”

Ratchet took offense to that, “You’re not terrible and you’re worth saving!”

Deadlock grinned, “The worst thing you can possibly say about yourself is that you care too much to put up with some kind of slagged up torture facility. Which, by the way, I am still fully offering to blown up.”

“Still full of innocent people kid.”

“Okay kidnapping then. I say we nab Hot Rod first.”

Ratchet leaned back against the wall and made one of those desperate chuckles you only hear when someone has their face buried in their hands. “Kid. The quintessons.”

That took a little wind out of his sails.

“The system is fucking broken and trust me I want to see it all burn someday. But we’re in a goddamn war. And as much as I hate the mecha program, it’s the best shot at survival we have.” Ratchet watched Deadlocks finales pin back again.

He offered a palm to Ratchet, who after a moment’s consideration, not very gracefully scooted on. Instead of lowering him to the floor, Deadlock brought him to his face. His eyes closed and he gently bumped his medic with his forehelm.

“Whatever you need. Just ask. Please.”

Ratchet sighed and rested his own forehead against the cybertronian. “I want you take care of yourself. I told you all that stuff so you understand why I’m fighting giants here and you can decide to back out. They can hurt you kid. Kill you. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if Shockwave found you instead of me.”

Deadlock snorted, “Please, do you think any of those suits could handle me?”

Ratchet tapped his hand to put him down, which Deadlock obliged. He hummed.

“Well I can think of three candidates off the top of my head, but one got lost in space and the other might technically be a zombie.”

“What’s the third?”

Ratchet started shrugging on a coat, “Hot Rod.”

He smirked a bit as Deadlocks finales snapped up in offense. “What? Absolutely not. No fragging way that little rust spot can beat me in a fight.”

Ratchet began packing a go bag of medical supplies, “Well I was going to keep it to myself, but part of the reason I brought him in was because I asked Hot Rod to look out for you where I can’t.”

He slung the heavy bag over one shoulder. “Plus, I knew Hot Rod was going to love you. He sees the best in people. And kid?” Ratchet paused at the door.

“You’re someone special.”

———————————————————————

It’s always darkest before the dawn. This…has become a four parter. Dang. Good news is the ray of sunshine will return in style next time.

Some extra tid-bits, I got a head canon that the main side effect Jazz got from the integration process (other than PTSD) is blurry vision. He can see fine while hooked into a mech but can’t get his eyes to focus properly as a human. So Ratchet whipped up a visor that tricks his eyes into thinking he’s still looking through a mecha so he can see normally.

Also, a lot of you guys guessed correctly what was going on with Roddy! Good job everyone!

Lastly I have nothing personal against the dinobots if you love them I’m very sorry.

The next (last?) part will be much brighter. Because the suns coming back.

- SSTP

Oh.....oh fuck....wait WAIT THIS HAS SO MUCH MORE LAYERS THAN I WAS EXPECTING OH MY GOD

I was like. Okay huh. So Roddy can't feel pain right? He must be having this rare condition and? I don't really see where this is going? Huh. Guess it's time to find ouUUUUUH FUCK.

Please. Oh my god. The fact that Ratchet was the one who made him to be like that??? This gives both of them and their dynamic more layers than in a freaking onion. And Roddy didn't just suffer from Ratchets actions. He forgave him. Because OF COURSE he did, he's always giving everyone a second chance I LOVE THIS CONCEPT SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA

[sublimati0ns]

do you like any other ships besides koss? just curious

Yes I do!! :D My other TFP main ship is Bulkhead / Breakdown, which is a shame cuz they’re an even rarer rarepair lmao TT But I love their interactions so dearly and wish Breakdown lived so he and Bulkhead could have, perhaps, made up at the end. They’re my sweeter ‘friends-to-enemies-to-friends-again-to-lovers’ counterpart to KOSS (who are just, like, a hot mess. And they keep getting divorced).

I also love Airachnid / Arcee and their mutual obsession based in violence 🥰 Spiders tend to eat their mates, so I see Airachnid having twisted love for Arcee—who hates her, but that hate keeps her going. They’re also a rarepair and I wish they had more fancontent because they had so many scenes together, ahhh!! e02e14 also sold me on Ratchet / Wheeljack, which is another grumpy old man x cocky middle-aged guy duo, except unlike KOSS, these two are actually mature and can navigate their relationship with grace.

I ship MegOp by obligation (in TFP but also across all continuities, including as D/Pax) because they’re the Transformers ship and it’s hard not to acknowledge that they have something between them LMAO And then MegStar in a purely dead dove way, since they also have an undeniable charge, albeit a bad one…

I thought their abusive relationship in TFP was really compelling, this horrible crash you can’t look away from, especially when Megatron admitted in s01e19 he always knew how much Starscream hated and wanted to kill him—but he kept him around, because SS made MG’s life exciting. MG’s reason to terminate SS for real was that SS got predictable—boring, even. It spoke to their power imbalance and the convoluted, toxic emotions between them, a cocktail of lust and loathing… An evil tyrant and his miserable court jester :( It’s so fun to turn around in my head; I adore “this isn’t love” style ships aljdfkg///

On that note, I also ended up shipping Shockwave / Starscream when they escaped the Nemesis together in s03e13 and proceeded to cohabitate on Cybertron www Their relationship is like a loveless marriage for convenience: They don’t like each other, but they’re smart enough to know that getting along is the path of least resistance, and that acceptance to dull their claws creates a bond of familiarity that would have never existed otherwise. It’s lukewarm and tentative, but now they know each other more intimately than either of them had ever wished… And that’s so fun to play with hehe///

I mostly ship based on how the canon convinces me to invest in the characters / their dynamics, so I don’t have many pairings beyond the above—I’ve only finished TFP, ONE, and uh… the Bayverse movies (which I saw mostly as they came out, so my memories of them are spotty) (though—Cogman my beloved, I can see him with Sir Edmund and in a demented throuple with Yaeger and Vivian).

But I’m in the process of watching G1 and TFA, so I’ll definitely have more ships later! I also learned a bit about Pharma and Ratchet’s relationship in the IDW comics the other day and I’m itching to read about them to see how much food there is there for me 🤤 Toxic old man yaoi…

Completely out of left field, but I also crackship Smokescreen with Starscream in an unrequited / queerplatonic way. Smokescreen is one of my favourite characters in TFP—this earnest, lionhearted kid, born into a war-torn world and raised by propaganda. I always felt his starry-eyed and uniformed view of the war had a lot of potential for challenge and disillusionment, and thought that by the end of the series, once the other autobots (including Prime) had become jaded, he was one of the only mechs left who might take pity on Starscream (provided he sees more of SS being tortured by god than SS being vile LOL).

Since they don’t really interact in canon, my ship is purely based on HC, but I imagine they could (SLOWLY) bond in my loosely-established post-Rising KOSS timeline… Especially after being betrayed by Knock Out, abandoned by Megatron, and then mauled half to death by the Predacons, having ONE LITTLE GUY who kinda-sorta winces at his misery could be such a band-aid on the open festering wound of Starscream’s life. I think it could help him character develop (somewhat, with a lot of grinding his teeth and digging his heels in).

Some sidenotes:

I love Knock Out and Breakdown’s dynamic, but I don’t perceive it to be romantic in TFP (IDW comics are a different story, but those iterations feel like distinct and different guys to me); in TFP, KOBD is like an Evil Scientist + Loyal Henchman bromance in my eyes (…I should redraw them as Frankenstein and Igor… Or Yzma and Kronk…)

I crackship the ONE version of Sentinel Prime with TFP Starscream in a toxic way (but less so than MegStar), purely due to AU nonsense

I also crossover crackship Starscream with Vox from Hazbin Hotel (I am not a VivziePop fan, I will just always show up for Christian Borle) and while it’s completely a joke I just know they’d get along… Vox’s powerset would be very useful for Starscream’s schemes, and he’s already an expert at dealing with long, temperamental men…

[multi-muse-transect]

Transformers the Last Knight rewrite.

The movie begins the same as the original but this time the Knights of Cybertron arrive and they consist of Pharma, Tyrest and Star Saber as they help King Arthur in the process helping forge an alliance while a saddened and conflicted Quintessa sees this.

Smash cut to years later as Bumblebee (Dylan O’Brien) is now the leader of the Autobots who tries live up to Prime’s legacy while lamenting the loss his comrades during and after Chicago with the help of Mikaela Banes and William Lennox as the three are at the Chicago memorial. Also a throwaway line from Mikaela saying “Sam is taking care of his kid.”

We get a montage of Bee and the Autobots going around the world fighting Decepticons but they don’t seem to respect him at all, the Dinobots led by Grimlock (Jon Bernthal or Greg Berger) in particular coupled with dealing with the backlash of Optimus Prime’s execution of Sentinel with humans semi-trusting them after China but the government doesn’t back them back at all. They get into a fight against Galvatron who Bee and the Autobots injure and he seemingly perished during the fight but he is saved by Decepticons Onslaught and Stinger who he tells of a place that can light their darkest hour…

Meanwhile in an ancient excavation sight somewhere in the Andes Mountains, a team of Archaeologists find dark energon as they are ambushed by Stinger and Onslaught. A dying Galvatron says he isn’t truly a true Cybertronian as he is weakened and has has heard of the myths of dark energon that can make him whole, Stinger stabilizes it and soon Galvatron is stronger and resembles his classic self mixed with Bayverse design and is more powerful than ever as he begins the next phase of his plan as they take the team hostage. We get a montage of Decepticons “surrendering” around the world.

Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots soon find Star Saber (Hamish Linklater) who is in stasis but with the help of Lennox, revive him. Saber reveals that he was part of the Circle Of Light, an order of legendary knights that protected Cybertron before the Autobots with Grimlock and his Dinobots being one of the initiates before going rogue then disappearing. An angered Grimlock tells Bee that they left cause Saber is a religious fanatic and the order isn’t what it makes itself out to be. Saber suggests to find the other knights as there is a great evil afoot and a sorceress named Quintessa who can stop it.

Galvatron contacts the army and arrives with the hostages who are already dead as he gives the signal to Mindwipe (Elizabeth Olsen). The Decepticons held in the TRF facility break free and regroup with Megatron in a crashed Decepticon ship as he uses the stabilized dark energon to revive his dead soldiers: Soundwave, Shockwave, Starscream, Blackout, Brawl, and the rest of the Constructicons. They are revived but also come out differently sporting classic designs mixed with War For Cybertron and are much more powerful than ever. As a test run, Megatron orders Starscream to kill Sam Witwicky which he he accomplishes by bombing his house and killing him though his kid and Carly survive. Galvatron begins to show signs of madness due to the Dark Energon when he is seen talking to a body of his minion Igor leading to doubts among the newly resurrected Decepticons except for Mindwipe who is revealed to be his wife and Soundwave.

Bee finds the other knights with the help of the Wreckers, Tyrest and Pharma who have seemingly died as Grimlock continues to warn him and we get an emotional scene with Saber burying his comrades. Bee runs into Quintessa as she sent a message into his mind as she was watching them this whole time revealing the great evil is Unicron who is really the Earth itself and she was the daughter of Primus with the Knights as his servants before Primus went to stasis and were sent by the original Thirteen Primes to find Unicron. The Knights discovered Unicron’s location but found out that life grew there and decided that they deserve to live…except for Star Saber, Pharma and Tyrest who rebelled in an effort to destroy Unicron under the orders of Megatronus aka the Fallen. Arthur and his Knights alongside the Knights Of Cybertron were killed in the battle but not before using his sword to put Saber into stasis and now Saber wants to finish the job. Bee goes to confront Star Saber who is seen talking to Mindwipe and making a deal to defect.

Saber betrays the group when Bee reveals everything revealing he’s been in contact with the Decepticons as well. He reveals to Megatron about Unicron planning that was earth has been destroyed, he can have all the Dark Energon he wants and that he can use it to rebuild Cybertron therefore becoming its champion. Mindwipe implores him to take the deal.

With the help of Breakaway, Bee and the Autobots find their location as Saber uses an amulet to control Quintessa who pleads to Bee to kill her. Megatron makes a broadcast to the world about their planet’s origins and televises Quintessa about use her powers to destroy Unicron while watch from their ship. Bee finds out that Sam responsible for Sam’s death and goes berserk. Starscream betrays Megatron and uses his faction of Decepticons to take advantage of the chaos as the rest of the Autobots are cut off from Bumblebee who is left alone with Megatron and Star Saber

Quintessa fights the amulet’s control as she realizes that she was meant to be more than a destroyer but a savior of all life, including humans. She breaks free and saves Bumblebee and turns to her true form with Bee and her fighting Star Saber and Megatron. Saber is seemingly killed by Quintessa while Bee is tempted to kill Megatron but doesn’t not wanting to repeat the mistakes of Prime with Sentinel summing up the theme of the movie and it’s “be better”

Bumblebee has Megatron and his fellow Decepticons in custody in Diego Garcia now watched over by the Autobot Elite Guard while the public’s perception changes. Grimlock and Bee share a conversation about respect and being better with him saying that perhaps he can take Optimus’s place before Bumblebee goes onto oversee new arrivals of Autobots, including Windblade.

Star Saber is revealed to be alive and prays to Primus for what he is about to do and revived Pharma and Tyrest saying they have work to do as they return to Cybertron and plan to have Optimus Prime on their side whether he likes it or not.