Nexus. Arcee's room in the safehouse. Meeting Kia

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((From here))


Arcee sighs and creaks to her feet, then limps over to her desk and sets the little Bumblebee doll next to the little Ratchet. "Well, that didn't work. Let's hope Ratchet has a better plan, because I don't like how your engine sounds, kid."

As expected there's no reply from the little silver being under her berth, and she sighs and leaves the room to go wait in the common room and see if there's anything worth watching on TV.

Comments

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Ratchet arrives outside the safe house not too long after. He's never been there before, so it takes him a minute to decide whether or not it would be a good idea to simply let himself in or not. Finally, he settles with approaching the main entrance and knocking on the door...

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"Just slagging walk in," comes the irritable growl from inside, accompanied by the babble of a TV playing some documentary.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Ratchet opens the door and enters, managing a smirk. "You really know how to keep the safe house from sounding safe, spitfire."

Shutting the door behind him, he takes a moment to glance around. "Just wasn't sure if I should barge on in or not."

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She gives him a sheepish look as she shuts off the television and gets up. "Sorry. Most people just walk in, and I'm worried about the kid. Her engine seems to have developed a hitch while I was gone."

The room's large, dotted with couches of various sizes, and with a counter along one side that bears all the signs of an energon dispensing station. Along the other side and the back are a set of ceilingless rooms, one of which bears a scribbled out blot of sharpie marker.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"I'll take a listen to it and run a scan. That'd be the easiest way to start a diagnosis in this case, I think." He eyes the scribbles with a raised optic ridge a moment before shaking his head. "Well, shall we see if we can get her out to even run a scan in the first place?"

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Arcee nods and leads the way into her room, which is as bare as the apartment had been before it, everything stuffed away in the cupboard. Forgetting about the two dolls on the desk, she limps over to the berth and peers underneath. "Hello again, Kia. I don't know what you're holding onto back there, but it seems to be affecting the television reception."

Not even a rustle answers her.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

As Ratchet follows her into the room, he can't help BUT notice both dolls on the desk. He figured she had one that resembled him, but actually seeing it in the plush makes his faceplate heat up a bit. Shaking it off as Arcee tries to talk Kia out from under the berth, he watches and listens as the attempt ends up failing.

"Somethin' she's doing is fouling up reception? Huh." Ratchet frowns and resists the urge to peer under the berth as well. No sense scaring the young femme with a secondary presence that up close and personal in addition to Arcee. Rather, he makes sure he's a couple paces back and simply sits down, treating the situation as he does when meeting smaller beings in the Nexus by removing some of the intimidation factor. "Kia, can you let us know if you're alright under there? My name is Ratchet. I'm a doctor friend of Arcee's. We're just worried about you."

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Arcee frowns as the soft glimmer of the youngbot's big optics winks out, and then curses softly and crawls under the berth herself. It's the work of a moment to pry Kia's hand off the cable it had been glomped onto, and then she's trying her best to back out without losing hold of her.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Eh, he'd hoped it wouldn't come down to actually prying the youth out from under the berth, but it looks like that's what it will take. Given there isn't room for him to get by and under the berth as well, Ratchet extends his magnet pincers and activates them, aiming for the berth itself. Slowly, the piece of furniture lifts up until it's a good extra ten or so feet in the air.

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The little femme... she seems to be a little smaller than Bumblebee... is still in Arcee's arms as the older femme straightens to her knees and frowns down at her. Her shell- she has no armor to speak of- is soft matte silver that contrasts sharply with the tires on her knees and feet, and she bears no full resemblance to any standard Cybertronian protoform line.

"Slag...." Arcee shakes her slightly. "Kid? Kia?"

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"Back up a bit so I can set this thing down, then lay her on the berth so I can get a better look at her. Quick, now..." Ratchet waits until the two are clear, then lowers the berth to the floor before regaining his feet and lowering his exam lenses. "How long had she bee under there? Do you know anything about where she came from or why?"

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Arcee moves as best she can, but then offers Kia instead of trying to rise. "I can't get up while I'm holding her. That knee still likes to glitch."

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

Ratchet nods and takes Kia into his arms, lifting her up onto the berth and laying her out. He immediately scans her vital signs, knowing that if he's got an emergency situation on his hands, at least he can PINpoint back to Detroit with Kia and Arcee in tow to better handle the problem.

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"She's been under there since around yesterday noon. And as far as I've been able to tell she's from our reality." Arcee pushes herself to her feet with a slight wince. "She's still wearing a factory inspection tag, and her paint wasn't fully cured when I found her by the sign."

The youngster's signs are slow, and her tank shows no trace of ever having held fuel. It seems she's been running off the energy of whatever Allspark charge gave her birth.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"Slaggit," Ratchet growls under his breath, so to speak, as he takes in that information and finishes his scan. He glances back at Arcee. "Have you got any energon here? Preferably lower grade? She's literally running on empty. If we don't get her some fuel, she'll burn up her own spark!"

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The pink and white femme blinks, then turns and darts out of the room, returning in a few moments with a mug in her hand. "This is the biggest container they've got out there."

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"It'll do for the moment. Just as long as she's got something to process that isn't her own spark energies."

Opening Kia's chest plate, Ratchet finds her fuel lines and an available port leading into them. He extends both tool arms from his back setup, along with a small pump that can be used to push a small amount of energon into the fuel lines and down into his patient's tank. The medic works quickly, feeding the energon into the pump and letting the fuel get where it needs to go. All the while, he keeps an optic on the youngster's vitals. "Her systems are starved. With any luck, though, she might actually come to here in a just a bit. I just hope she doesn't panic."

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"Thus far she hasn't seemed the panicking type," says Arcee, absently rubbing her chest as she watches and listens to the little silver femme for a few moments. "There goes her engine."

With the renewed purr Kia's big optics open, and then widen fearfully as she catches sight of Ratchet.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

It helps that Kia is young; Ratchet's long since developed a soft spot for kids, whether they be of his own species or human. Thus his bedside manner is better than usual, allowing him to offer Kia a reassuring smile while he finishes up.

"Easy, missy. Just makin' sure your empty tank isn't so empty, anymore. I'll be done in less than a breem." As the last of the energon is pumped in, Ratchet dismantles the relatively simple set-up and disconnects it from the port before visually checking all the fuel lines again. When he's satisfied that those are working as they should, he closes Kia's plate. He'd like to do a full routine maintenance check, but now is likely not the best time. "...and there you are. Hopefully you'll do less hiding now so we can just give you your own energon in a mug, eh?"

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Those big optics watch him, widening again as she sees him close her chest. Then she looks up at him uncertainly as she touches the plate, her attitude saying that she hadn't known that opened, and is curious about it. She wriggles and tries to sit up, but then beeps and holds her head as vertigo hits for a moment.

"Beep?" asks Arcee, blinking.

As Kia moves the inspection tag comes into sight, proclaiming her flawed and marked for dismantling and recycling.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"Something must be glitched in her vocalizer." Ratchet eyes Kia a moment, then blinks his shutters as the tag comes into view. He glances back at Arcee, his own optics wide. "This one... She was marked 'flawed'."

Ratchet places one hand on Kia's chest plate to gently hold her in place. "Don't get up too quick. You're too weak to leap from the berth just yet."

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"Is that what it says?" Arcee looks at the tag with surprise and dismay. "I never translated all of it. I just looked at her brand tag and recognized it as one of the car brands I studied when I was alt mode hunting." She scans the strip of adhesive paper, working out the words, then blinks. "She was alive before they finished building her. No wonder she's traumatized."

Kia wriggles slightly, but is obedient to the hand and lays still.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

"That'd go a long way in messing any bot up. She probably high-tailed it out of danger's way when they tried to take her offline, not that I can blame her in the least. At least she ended up in a good place." Removing his hand, Ratchet steps back a little, looking thoughtful. "Can you talk at all, kid? Even just in coded blips?"

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Arcee's faceplate drops into an unconscious scowl, her hand once more rubbing her chest as her spark flares with indignation.

Kia, for her part, is looking back at Ratchet with no hint that she understands anything he's saying... or even that he is saying something. With no vehicular life to remember, the little silver bot is starting from scratch, with just the memory of the assembly line, being stickered, and then dumped on another conveyor belt heading toward a very big masher before she wound up in the crowded and confusing place where Arcee took her arm and brought her here.

[critical-medic.livejournal.com]

When Kia fails to respond, Ratchet sighs, rubbing the back of his helm with one hand. "I'm not sure she understood the question or if she did, she can't answer. This kinda thing... The problem could be a memory file glitch, coupled with fouled up primary programming. Normally I would suggest running a defrag, but without proper programming to restore in the first place and correctly ordered files, it's not going to do much."

Stepping back up to the berth, he figures he might as well try something. He doesn't want to make the little bot feel stupid, but there needs to be some sort of established communication. Ratchet takes one of her hands in his and places it over his windshield.

"Ratchet," he says simply before waiting a moment and then repeating himself. He then taps the fingers of his other hand against her chest plate. "Kia." His optic ridges raise a little, as if he's trying to encourage her to repeat after him and understand their designations.