Thea was left confused, nervous, frustrated, and a little scared. She watched Simulus walk away, trying to decide what she should do.
“Anything else you’d like to know?”
Carapace asked.
“It’s this whole reformatting thing we’ve been talking about. We finally got some real downtime, so I figured we could finally talk details. But before that, well… I gotta come clean about something.”
“Not really,” Oddball admits. “It’s nice to meet you.”
" 'Bout time," Backbreaker says; she hadn’t been fooling him. “You’re not good at keeping secrets, are you?”
“Well I managed to keep this one long enough alright? The slip ups were uh, circumstantial. But that’s besides the point.”
Razorclaw dropped her usual snarky and playful tone of voice, speaking in a more straightforward and serious manner.
“So first thing’s first. I think I’ve asked before, but I need to be sure. How familiar are you with the predacons? Not my kind of predacons. The old ones. The decepticon combiner team.”
“Likewise.”
Carapace said cheerfully. She got back to her feet and turned towards the engines.
“Now if we’re done here, I need to start prepping the ship for transwarp.”
“Heard about 'em,” Backbreaker recalls. “Never saw 'em in person- don’t think I’d be here now if I did.”
Oddball gives Carapace a thumbs-up and a cheerful beep, and scuttles away to find a spot to rest for the journey. He picks out an out-of-the-way tangle of machinery to hole up in.
“Alright, then listen. The Razorclaw you’ve heard of, the terrifying decepticon commander and ruthless hunter, and the predacon pirate Razorclaw sitting before you, well… We’re the same person. I know that might sound crazy. So I’ll just let you spit out any questions you got before I go on.”
OOC: whoa. Didn’t see that coming.
IC:
Backbreaker is quiet for a moment as he parses this. The idea itself wasn’t too far-fetched for him; this just wasn’t what he had been expecting.
“Not too crazy, actually,” he says. “Not what I figured, yeah, but as far as crazy goes, I’ve seen weirder.”
Razorclaw gave a soft laugh.
"Yeah, I guess so. Still, I’d say you should hear the whole story.
"Thing is, being a high class decepticon comes with a metric ton of expectations, even after the war. I always had to act right, keep things up. It felt like I never had a moment to breath. Eventually these smaller bots show up. A new model, something about energy conservation.
"And before I knew it they were everywhere. Before long it felt like they were running the show and we were just living in it. Then they started putting bots and cons from all over on trial, shipping em off planet for any number of dumb made up reasons. It was clear that Cybertron just wasn’t our world anymore. At that point all a bot like us could do was leave, or wait until you get kicked out.
“But I wasn’t exactly fond of either, so I decided to make my own option. I wasn’t exactly… Comfortable with my body to begin with, so I figured hey, why not just start over? So I cashed in a favor from a friend, and got reformated. New face, new body, new me. Gone was the respected and fearless decepticon warrior with a hundred responsibilities and a reputation to keep up. And in his place, was me. A carefree predacon who could do whatever she wanted.”
Razorclaw smiled as she looked back on her old life. It felt good to get it all off her chest.
“Sorry, I know this probably changes a lot. But I figured since we were planning on doing something similar with you, then you had a right to know.”
Backbreaker shrugs.
“Can’t imagine this is something you tell just anybody,” he says. “So, uh… thanks for trusting me, I guess.”
Not for the first time, the Autobot wondered just what it was about him that made others trust him with such personal information. Maybe it was the build? The voice, perhaps? Or- scary thought- was it due to his age?
Aw, slag; maybe I am old…
“Yeah well, what can I say. You’re a good listener.”
Razorclaw said somewhat dismissively. Not sure how else to respond.
Backbreaker smirks and lets out a chuckle. So that was it, then.
“I’ve been giving it some thought,” he then says. “Going under the knife, getting that new body like we’ve talked about. The Star Talons have a good medic; think he could do the job if I gave him something to work with?”
“That axolotl guy? He seems fine enough, but reformating is serious business. I got a friend I could recommend. Same bot that did my operation.”
“And who is this ‘friend’?” Backbreaker asks.
“Better not be a name I recognize, I’m telling you now; no way am I letting Shockwave at my insides.”
“Don’t worry. He’s a con, but a good one. His name’s Knockout. He was actually in the colosseum with us, but I haven’t seen him in ages. You might have met him during the break out.”
“Yeah, actually!” Backbreaker perks up, the name ‘Knockout’ ringing a bell. “He was one of the tier one fighters, helped get us out of the commons after our little diversion.”
“Dang. Really? I can’t believe I managed to miss him. Anyway, he’s honestly the best bot I can recommend for this sorta thing. He did a great job with me, so I’m sure he’ll treat you just as well.”
“I’ll have to track him down,” Backbreaker says. “Haven’t seen him since then; don’t know if he made it here or not.”
The gladiator looks around the empty brig. If this was all Razorclaw needed him for, he’d be leaving soon to look for Knockout.
“Good talking to you,” he says. “Hope they let you out of this cage before too long.”
Razorclaw smiled. It was different than her usual cocky grin. It was happy, and genuine.
“No problem. Oh and when you find him, send him my way would ya?”
Backbreaker nods. “Sure.”
The gladiator leaves the brig in search of Knockout. He hadn’t seen the Decepticon since the start of the breakout, but if he was good enough to make it as one of the tier one fighters, Backbreaker was confident that he’d survived.
There were a couple places Backbreaker hadn’t seen yet. Mainly the cafeteria and the bunks.
Backbreaker begins his search in the mess hall. Maybe Knockout had gone to refuel after the fight.