Chương 26: INTERCEPTED DATA-002. BRAWL.

Everything felt... different. [WARNING: ANOMALIES DETECTED.] [BEGINNING DIAGNOSTIC.] He was in... the medbay? Of course. The mission. The blast. Why did he feel so... off? [LISTING INITIAL DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS.] [WEAPON SYSTEMS: MODIFIED.] [LOCOMOTIVE SYSTEMS: MODIFIED.] [ARMOUR SYSTEMS: MODIFIED.] [ENERGON PROCESSING: MODIFIED.] [FUEL TANK: MODIFIED.] [SPARK CHAMBER: MODIFIED.] VS-031 tuned out the disturbingly long list of changes, attempting to sit up. Snap.

Slowly looking down, he stared at a pair of shattered stasis cuffs. Huh. His servos looked a little-"Yapyapyap! You're not meant to be moving!" The bot froze as 31's left servo shifted into a very mean looking rotary blaster, pointing at his startled faceplate.

"Who are you?" His voice sounded... deep. What- Then his system seized up, the blaster shifting back into a hand. He finally noticed the recognizable form of Knockout standing to the side with a tablet.

"I do think that's quite enough of that. Good thing we patched in that medical override, hm?" The bemused smirk on the medic's faceplate spoke volumes of what he thought of the current situation. The other one, white and red, grumbled as he forcibly lowered 31's confused servo.

"I'm Ratchet. And you should't be moving, if the restraints weren't a clue. Lie back down." Slowly, 31 followed the Autobot's command after getting an approving nod from Knockout. He idly glanced down at his chassis as he relaxed against the berth and- What- Why was-"ey! Hey! Snap out of it!" The clicking pair of digits did the job, drawing 31's attention back to Ratchet. The medic cycled some air as he strode to a nearby console at the berth's side.

"As you can no doubt see, you've undergone some... changes." 31 nodded, just as he finally took in how... small everything looked.

"What... happened?" Knockout sauntered forward, patting a comparatively miniscule servo against 31's forearm.

"Science! Of a sort. You were, well... in a pretty bad shape by the time we got you in here, and due to some complications regarding your spark, you were dying." The mech waved away the matter as if it was a minor problem.

"But Shockwave sorted you out! Gave you some snazzy upgrades too. Quad barrel energon blasters. Auxillary missile systems in your wrist and shoulder plates. A neutron cannon stored in your now drastically increased subspace, deployed in your alt mode of course." Knockout stepped back, leaning on the rear end of his pedes and placing his servos on his hip joints.

"Not bad for a scrap mech, eh? And those are just the surface upgrades, you should see just what he did beneath the hood-" Ratchet cut off the Decepticon medic, approaching 31 with a cube of energon.

"Enough with the alterations. We'll need to run a battery of basic tests before he can even walk, much less explore his new armament. Frame-wide upgrades are never simple, especially not when performed by a mad mech with a relic of the Primes." The Autobot seemed particularly disgruntled about that last part, even as he handed the cube to 31.

Glancing at the cube that felt exceptionally inadequate in his now heavily armoured servos, 31 quietly fed it through his frontal intake port as the two medical bots continued to bicker with each other.

It took what felt like cycles, but he'd finally been released from the medbay, with orders to avoid overstressing his reforged body until his spark and processor had time to acclimate to the changes. So 31 made his way to what some of the Cons liked to call the Pit. One of the darker areas near the bottom half of the Nemesis, it was generally a place where off-duty troopers could relax and intake energon without having to worry about randomly being conscripted for this or that duty.

All while getting some quality entertainment in the form of other Decepticons settling their differences in the age old tradition of beating the scrap out of each other, of course. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Naturally, the officers aboard the Nemesis pretended it didn't exist. Mechs needed some way to let out their pent up frustration, after all.

It probably helped that Lord Megatron had very much approved of the idea when he'd found out about the place. Of course by the time 31 had made his way down the confusing mess of hallways leading to the aft section of the ship, he'd already recieved quite a few stares. Entering the Pit had prompted a wave of silence from those gathered at the bolted together tables, a pair of dinged up miners even pausing their throttling of each other in the large area's makeshift ring to stare at his bulky form. Whispers.

"Who's he? Look at the size of him!"

"Slag, new officer maybe? Looks tough."

"Quick, toss the mid grade!" Then, just as he contemplated simply enacting a strategic retreat back to his cubby, another Seeker slowly stood up from a table, marching up to him. VS-045. 31 remembered. He'd also been on the mission involving the Allspark. He'd been the one that had towed his sorry aft back into the Autobots' ship. It was certainly a sight. An exceptionally large monster of a mech cringing back from a mere vehicon. Then, the Seeker's helm tilted.

"Scrap... is that you 31?" 31 shifted awkwardly, before nodding his helm. Any commanding presence his deep baritone voice might have had was ruined by his own nervous, stuttering response.

"Y-yeah, it's me. Uh... surprise-" That's when the comparably smaller flyer barreled into him, wrapping his arms halfway around 31's waist. The large mech startled, even as several other vehicons he was more familiar with stood up, approaching with happy greetings and relieved voices.

"Oh."

He felt like a glitched out idiot, having been all nervous like that.

"Here, you're gonna drink us out of energon at this rate!" 31 chuckled, even as he accepted the cube from a scratched up looking Miner (VM-111) that had taken it upon himself to convert the Pit into some bizarre mix of an underground gladiator ring and oil house hybrid. One of the newly reformatted Zakus had dashed any degree of isolation he might have felt with a relatively simple statement.

"I might be green as earth's grass and you might be a slab of armour and guns on legs, but we still came from the same place after the Creator reforged us. We're all Cons. One way or another." The Creator. Now that was a sentiment that was definitely spreading around lately. The 'pure' Zakus had started the trend, then the newer, reformatted mechs had picked up on it. Eventually, even the rank and file generally referred to Shockwave as either the Creator or the Commander in equally respectful tones.

31 couldn't really disagree. After all, without the commander's intervention... well. Knockout had summed it up quite bluntly.

"You were dying." Of course, the moment was kind of ruined when another Zaku had called the mech a dramatic 'soap opera' watching glitch, prompting a new fight in the ring, much to the rest of the table's amusement. Suffice to say, the pit was a familiar, safe environment that quickly soothed 31's weary processor. In the back of his helm, he felt like that particular thought had jinxed the whole operation, considering the group of angry insecticons that had barrelled in shortly after.

"Out of my way! Where's One-Eleven!?" The self described 'barkeep' of the pit had stepped forward warily, waving back a pair of tense Grounders.

"That's me. Something I can help you with?" The burly insecticon stomped forward, looming over the mech.

"The hive's energon stache is out. We're here for more." 111 crossed his arms, shaking his helm.

"That's not how it works. The stuff we skim off the top stays here. If you all want a top up, you'll have it here." The bug's mandibles chattered angrily as he leaned forward, jagged visor nearly impacting with 111's own helm." You are not strong enough to stop us." It was a familiar event. The hive drank up all their assorted extra rations, and went down to the Pit to 'request' more. 31 had usually just watched.

Sometimes the Zakus managed to scare them off, but that was only when the green mechs were present in force. With just two of them around? The insecticons wouldn't back down unless someone could prove they were strong enough to listen to.

"I said no." At 111's response, the insecticon shrieked, pulling back a clawed servo to slash at the entrepreneurial vehicon. 31 didn't really consider what happened next. All he knew was that he'd stood up from his table, storming over to the two and ignoring 45's protests. Then his fist had smashed into the bug's face, and to his own internal surprise, the insecticon was sent flying into a nearby table, spilling several drinks, to the patrons' detriment.

31 stared at his servo in awe, right before a furious hiss drew his attention back to the mech he'd just downed, slowly standing up. The insecticon shoved away one of his brothers as they tried to help him stand. Instead, he flexed his claws, beginning to storm towards 31.

"HEY!" The two paused, one of the Zakus had stood up, mono-optic glaring at them both. Then the mech slowly lifted a digit, turning to point it at the ring.

"You both know the rules." The insecticon stared at the green mech for a moment, then let out an amused grunt, stomping towards the circular indent. 31 took in everyone's expectant looks. Zaku, vehicon and insecticon alike. Then he promptly followed behind his opponent.

"Rip him apart Mandible!"

"You've got this 31!" The two fighters circled each other, fists and claws raised. It was an interesting match up.

'Mandible' was undoubtedly the fighter with more experience. He knew how to take a hit, and dish it back out twice as hard. But 31 wasn't just your bog standard mass produced Seeker anymore. He was built for real combat now, and as much as it hurt knowing the sky was now out of his reach, it felt good being so... heavy. He had mass, and he had strong enough locomotion systems to throw that mass around with alarming speed. He also had quite a bit of reach thanks to his new size. Frag, he made Mandible look short.

45 had summed it up with a single word. Warforged. Mandible lashed out with a slash, aiming for 31's segmented visor. The attack was aborted and the insecticon forced to focus on rapidly dodging or deflecting hits as 31 barrelled forward, letting his newly reinforced armour simply absorb any counter-slashes. There were no attempts to block his attacks outright. That lesson had been learned when he'd overpowered the bug in the first few seconds of the fight, smashing him into the ground.

Instead, Mandible simply got more and more desperate as 31 continued to push him into one of the ring's corners, until finally, the bug simply had no where else to go. The insecticon let out a panicked warble as 31 latched onto his sides, before lifting the bug-like mech into the air with a roar. The assembled crowd cheered, vehicons and insecticons alike. He couldn't lie. He loved it.

"COME ON!" Then he promptly threw Mandible out of the ring, the mech once more soaring through the air before unceremoniously slamming into a nearby wall. 31 turned, pointing a digit at the gathered insecticons before making a 'come on' gesture.

"WELL!? GIVE ME A REAL BRAWL!" To their credit, not a single one of the bugs backed down, shrieking in excitement as they hopped over the crudely welded barrier and entered the ring. After all, if there was one thing a bunch of insecticons enjoyed more than energon, it was a good fight.

The last opponent hit the ground, to the rest of the audience's obvious enthusiasm. The ring was littered with them now. Battered insecticons in various states of disrepair. 31 had vaguely noticed some of the mechs at the front chanting, but he'd largely ignored it until now. Of course the chant was harder to ignore when the entire Pit was yelling it.

"BRAWL! BRAWL! BRAWL!" A name. Among the Pit at least, he'd earned himself a name. 31-or Brawl, he supposed, had gingerly been making his way out of the ring in an effort to avoid toppling the barrier when a dented Mandible had approached, flanked by two other insecticons. The rest were still groaning on their afts inside the ring after all.

"You." Brawl stared down at the mech, even as the assembled crowd watched in rapt anticipation of another bout. Then the insecticon bowed his helm, a servo thumping against his chestplate.

"You are a fine warrior. You have our respect, Brawl." The warforged mech slowly nodded, idly glancing at a visibly amused 111 out of the corner of his vision.

"You're not so bad either. Held up damn well." Then he stepped forward.

"But no more harassment, got it? If your hive wants to spend their free time intaking energon and fighting, they do it here, like everyone else." He felt weird, laying down the law like that, but the insecticons seemed ok with it. One of the Zakus gave him an approving thumb up. The 'soap opera' watcher, to be specific. Mandible nodded, bowing his helm once again. Despite his mostly expressionless visor and mandibles (heh) Brawl could hear a hint of a smile in the Decepticon's voice.

"In honour of your strength, we will obey." Brawl sighed in relief.

"But." He tensed up. Mandible crossed his arms, looking away.

"We will want a rematch." That one prompted laughs all around.