(no subject)

[queery]

The recruits gathered at the groundbridge, comfortably on time for Knock Out's "field based lesson", and somehow, less informed about their new Professor than before they had met hir.

"Conjecture is useless with so few data points." Medix pointed out, "I will say it is obvious from Knock Out's bipedal form that sie has some sort of racecar alt, which is clearly the superior choice for a physician. It is equally obvious that, as a Decepticon, Knock Out has a unique perspective on the war, and on the political atmosphere of Cybertron."

"It's hard to know what's fair." Whirl agreed, rubbing one arm, and cognizant as she often was of Wedge's feelings, "It must have been horrible to go through a war."

Medix nodded. "There were other aspects, besides the violence. Supply chain disruption. The great plague outbreaks. The entire planet was nearly destroyed beyond recovery, from the texts I was able to source."

Hot Shot climbed up onto the safety railing, balancing there on tip-toe, and a thought occurred. He might have had some form of Cybertronian ADHD, but when required, he was incredibly intelligent. "Hold on. Medix. Before we met Laserbeak, everybody except Wedge and you knew nearly nothing about Decepticons. All I knew was the spooky rumor stuff. Whirl never even heard of them. So where exactly did you get these 'texts' from?"

Medix paused. "I cannot tell you without swearing you to secrecy."

That obviously was the best way to get everyone's attention. Whirl made a soft noise of enthusiasm, then another of required disapproval. "Medix! Was it illegal?"

"Very." Medix craned their neck toward the door to ensure no Professors were in audial range. "While on Cybertron, I used the training course computer proxies to access Iacon's Hall of Records, and discovered an entire wing of Cybertronian history that was censored and kept in highly protected storage. This includes lists of state criminals, restricted-access 'need to know' historical records of the war itself, and manuals of weaponry and technological antiques recovered by Optimus' team."

Hot Shot whistled. "Wow! Find out anything fun?"

It was Medix's turn to betray slight embarrassment. "No. I maintained access for a fifty-two hour period before I was discovered, and reassigned to Earth. I have many encrypted files in my possession still, but no computer here powerful enough to decrypt them."

"Medix. That's not right." Hoist said, a little scolding, "I mean if that stuff wasn't dangerous, they wouldn't lock it away."

Wedge, on the other hand, was watching Medix with admiration, and Medix seemed to care far more about Wedge's opinion at that moment.

"I believe the free distribution of information can only be a good thing." Medix returned simply, "Optimus thought otherwise."

Knock Out's arrival forstalled any further philosophical discussion of illegal versus immoral, and the Decepticon took a headcount, satisfying hir that all the little ducklings were present. "All right, none of you are bytesized anymore, so I'm not going to treat you like you need oversight. You're all here, I expect you to watch yourselves and all come back in one piece."

That sounded dangerous. Wedge shifted. "Seer, can you tell us where we're going?"

The Professor gave her a slow smile. "Part of learning how to deceive the meatbags involves learning how to deceive in general, and how to see through the deceptions of others. --What is it, Medix?"

"Meatbags are humans?"

"Mmmhm."

"Only clarifying." Medix said, making steady eye contact, "I have never heard humans referred to in that way. But I am now accustomed to slang."

Knock Out fired up the groundbridge, turning toward it, "I'm not as 'accustomed' to hobnobbing with the native lifeforms as some of your teachers. It makes lying to them a little easier when all you do is streetrace them."

"Ah." Medix followed, undeterred. "Then your alternate mode is some sort of racing vehicle, like one of mine. There are advantages to being able to arrive at the scene of an accident at a comfortable 200mph."

Hot Shot made a sound of approval, swinging off the railing. "There aren't any disadvantages to going fast! Right, Seer?"

"That's right." Knock Out headed through the groundbridge, still in bipedal mode. The others followed, completely unsure what to expect. Wedge was hoping it didn't involve heights, Hot Shot was just happy to be gelling with a Professor - even a Decepticon one! - and Whirl was extremely curious about Knock Out's teaching methods. It was true that this was different to every other style so far, and she couldn't point to anything specific that they'd actually learned yet, involving deceiving humans...

And it didn't look like they were going to. The environ they'd come to was a completely blasted desert landscape, empty, with only a towering cliff and roiling sand caught in the wind eddies to announce their presence.

"How are we going to fool humans if there aren't any around to fool?" Whirl asked, not entirely respectfully. Knock Out didn't take offense, though.

"I assume you're already passable at fooling humans if you've been out in the field. This is a different kind of lesson." Sie moved around the cliffside, and the jagged, gothic-aesthetic of the Decepticons came into view in the form of a starship, crashed and sticking out of the rocks.

The recruits were appropriately awed, except for Hot Shot, who noncommittally said, "Cool. It's kinda like the one where we found Laserbeak, in space."

Knock Out gave him a look. "What happened there?"

"Oh you know." Hot Shot said, in that casual way that indicated he was in no way casual, "We were heroes. Saved the Decepticon who was injured and desperately clinging to life."

Wedge flatly, but affectionately amended, "They were scared at first, but everybody wanted to help him once they realized being a Decepticon didn't make you doomed to be evil."

The wording on that was peculiar, but Knock Out let it go at that, content to take the insurrection slowly and carefully. Why not? There was plenty of patience these days. The Council's renewed stranglehold on Cybertronian affairs was proof enough of the need to be careful - their reach was long. Even to Earth.

"Good takeaway." Knock Out said simply, and rapped on the crashed Decepticon ship's door panel. "While we're waiting, what do you notice about this ship? Hot Shot's already mentioned it's a war-era Decepticon vessel."

"It's bifurcated." Medix ventured, "The other half is not in evidence, therefore it was likely attacked in mid flight and brought down, rather than crashing and being split by the cliff."

Knock Out nodded, and glanced at the others.

Whirl activated her energon-based scouting tool, "It's... Active! I never would have guessed. But there's live energon running through it, and it's giving off a shielded heat signal. So it's not just a wreck."

Hoist tapped her chin thoughtfully. "The prongs that stick out like that are actually signal relays that can create a holographic 'net', a lot like the sim holograms, that mimic cloud cover or other meteorological conditions. That's a kind of early cloaking developed on non-Cybertronian worlds. Fools the locals and also the less sophisticated Cybertronian scans."

Knock Out was impressed, and didn't bother to hide it. "There's probably less I can teach you about disguise than your other professors think."

It looked as though Medix wanted to correct that assumption, but the door in front of them opened and forestalled any debate.

No one was there. Whirl, perhaps eager to see if this was another test, wandered forward and waved into the space where a Cybertronian ought to be. She made a disappointed 'aww' when there was no impact of a genuine invisibility net, or any mirror gimmick.

"Spooky." Wedge murmured. If it had opened right away at the knock, it would have felt automated. The pause made it feel ... thoughtful. "Is the ship... A Cybertronian? Like a Titan?"

"Impossible." Medix inserted, before Knock Out could answer, "Even if it was - and such beings were rare - the aforementioned bifurcation would have injured it too grievously for it to survive. There is another explanation."

The interior hallway was well kept, with wires tucked out of the way and debris swept out of the corridors, though there was still evidence that the ship was only an ad hoc living space. Lights overhead were dim, their casings cracked and split, and most of the side doors were closed. The further they got into the ship, the more nervous the recruits seemed to get - except for Wedge, who was quiet and thoughtful.

The hall opened up onto what would have been the ship's bridge, if it were intact. The stations surrounding the center had mostly been converted into living spaces, including stasis cells lining one wall for the purposes of short recharge, and at the central hub was a tall, thin, lithe Cybertronian without a face.

"Soundwave," Knock Out greeted with familiarity, "This is the latest clutch of Rescue Bot Academy hopefuls. Hot Shot here, Whirl, Medix, Hoist, and Wedge." Sie was quite pleased to have remembered all their names, even if they were Autobot easy mode.

"That's Soundwave?" Hot Shot took a step back, bumping into Wedge, "The Soundwave?"

Wedge put an affirming hand on his shoulder. "Take it easy. Remember whatever you heard might not necessarily be true."

"I hope not," Hot Shot hissed very quietly, "I hear Soundwave eats sparks."

Soundwave turned the jet black mask in Hot Shot's direction, and repeated in his voice, "I hear."

"Oh." Hot Shot managed, "So. Please don't."

"Soundwave was the communications officer and third in command of the Decepticon Empire." Knock Out interjected,