Seeking Origins

[Knockout]

((Aug 17th 2027))

Knockout had to know what these glitched and reboots were about and, honestly, he figured Soundwave was the best bet. First off, Soundwave wasn't all that bad and, second off, he likely wouldn't hurt one of Wavelength's friends. Plus Knockout had other reasons for wanting to see the silent mech but those were just bonuses. Once he was well away from anything near society, and where he knew most cons wouldn't be, he transformed in an opening, shielded from view on all sides by walls of trees. <"Hey, Soundwave, can I beg your company for a bit?"> he sent to the Decepticon communications officer. He looked to the sky as he sent it, knowing that's more than likely where Soundwave would be coming from.

[Soundwave]

Picking up the communication from Knockout, he was not surprised when it finally came. Two days before he had watched as Knockout tried to remember something from his true past only to suddenly suffer a hard shut down and reboot to his entire neural core. The following day Knockout had to call for help when he suffered another severe glitch attack that had stalled his engine and locked him in vehicle mode. That was when Knockout asked if he would assist in finding the cause and hopefully deal with it, to which Soundwave had agreed. A day later, Knockout called as Soundwave remained adrift in orbit as per usual. <"Acknowledged."> came the modulated electronic monotone reply and Soundwave shifted to his Cybertronian Jet mode and descended into the atmosphere of the small blue-green planet below. It didn't take him long to descend below the cloud cover and lock onto Knockout's signal in some dense woods in central Canada. What Knockout didn't know yet Soundwave realized was that the smaller red mech had chosen a place barely five kilometers from one of Soundwave's shielded hidden lairs he had constructed in various places around the planet and throughout the solar system over the many Earth decades he had been in the area. He pushed the thought aside for now, having no intention of taking Knockout there unless he had no other choice. He circled once and transformed, landing with casual fluid grace some yards from Knockout, then turned and regarded the smaller mech, awaiting the inevitable request.

[Knockout]

Knockout watched as Soundwave landed and he couldn't help but smirk a little, such a large mech with so much grace, that was one of the things he liked about Soundwave. "No doubt you know what I'm about to ask. Consitering my little. . .umm, freeze up yesterday." Knockout said, bringing a hand to rub the back of his helm a bit "I really want to know what's up with this, every time it happens I can't remember the last few moments before everything goes dark, or even remember passing out. And getting stuck in my alt mode, that really isn't any good." he said, walking towards Soundwave "I know you're good at this kind of stuff and, well, really, I don't trust anyone else with this, well, except for Wavelength but there's some things he shouldn't be exposed to that are in my processor considering what he saw of the Dreads in the past." Knockout said, giving a bit of a sigh. Knockout knew he was a very adventurous mech sometimes, he also knew of the fear that Wavelength had after what he had seen the Dreads do to Barricade and he really didn't want to trigger that in case the wrong thing got found.

[Soundwave]

Soundwave nodded once and with one hand, he gestured to the soft ground in front of him as a cyber neural tendril slithered out of his arm just above his elbow joint along the inside of his arm. He then looked to Knockout expectantly. He knew there was a Shell program trying to over ride the natural inclinations of an Autobot Spark, but the severity of the conflict needed to be assessed and resolved.

[Knockout]

Knockout nodded "Remaining the strong, silent type again, hmm?" he said, a slight smirk and a quirked brow, though he turned and moved to sit where Soundwave had motioned, his head down. At least if he fell it wouldn't be a very long fall.

[Soundwave]

Once Knockout sat down and was ready, Soundwave's tendril reached out and latched onto the neural port at the base of Knockout's cranial plate in the back of his head, the neural threads sliding smoothly into the openings there. From there Soundwave closed his optics and slid his consciousness through, reaching quite literally into the red mech's mind to search for the shell program and the source of the conflict that was causing him such troubling issues.

[Knockout]

Knockout actually shivered just a bit at that, that port wasn't normally touched, at all, so it was a little on the sensitive side. He sighed, closing his optics to just let it occur, wanting to know what the hell was causing all of this. He, however, wasn't exactly use to controlling his thoughts and, due to such, his excitement about Soundwave being so near was a bit hard to miss, as were a few other little bits of his thoughts on Soundwave. There was also that concern, that worry about what was actually causing it and the shell program itself, which was pretty much blocking some of the signals from his spark, specifically the ones linked to past memory. Within one could get the impression of Knockout, who he was before, pretty much beating on that shell program, trying to break it, and slight destabilization every time even the smallest bit of progress was made, giving that program time to repair what the spark itself had managed to do.

[Soundwave]

Soundwave was caught off guard by the idle thoughts in Knockout's mind, but he pushed them away. He was here to deal with a serious issue that hampered the medic's ability to function properly, and that was where his focus lay. Finding the shell program, he examined it carefully and how it interacted with the true nature of his Spark, or more accurately, tried to dominate and suppress it completely. This was where GLaDOS had seriously erred, and now Soundwave had to repair the damage. He stepped into the shell itself, and while he couldn't remove it completely, he could reach in and recode it to work in tandem with the Spark, not suppress it, guiding it rather than overriding it. It would take time to realign the coding of course, and even longer for Knockout's neural control system to adjust and begin to accept data from the Spark again, but it was a start at least.

[Knockout]

Knockout sat as this was done, however, the moment that shell was even touched, he tensed, a growl of pain coming from him and a hand moved down, gripping the ground and leaving claw marks in the dirt. That shell had a defense measure, and it was pain, a lot of pain for Knockout. "May. . .maybe. . .sedation. . .f-first. . ." he managed to growl out as his body shook a bit.

[Soundwave]

Soundwave's optics narrowed in response to that, feeling the backlash from being linked to Knockout's neural system. With a nod, the dark mech extended more tendrils to grab hold of Knockout and steady him, then reached back and let loose an internal code burst that would serve to Knock the red mech out, literally. Then he began again to recode the shell program, watching more closely for other defense mechanisms this time.

[Knockout]

When that code burst went forth, it did the trick, Knockout being knocked the fuck out from it, his optics closed and his body gone limp. With the body no longer aware, his consciousness began more internalized. He manifested in his own mindscape, a hand on his helm as the whole scene changed around them, what seemed like just streams of data morphed into a vast, mirror finished floor, city scape on either side of the expanse and, right where they were, where the shell was, glowing bars, bars Knockout could never step outside of, though Soundwave could "So how bad is it?" The manifestation of Knockout asked.

[Soundwave]

Soundwave regarded the shift in the landscape curiously for a moment, then looked at Knockout with a tilt of his head. The shift told him most of what he needed to know, noting that the shell program literally and figuratively caged him and making it nearly impossible to communicate with himself internally, let alone split his awareness. He reached out a tendril and latched onto one of the bars, reaching into the code and attempting to rewrite it. He could see the code still, even within the manifested landscape, simply because of how his own mind worked. He couldn't completely free Knockout, but perhaps he could reshape the cage into something else, perhaps a room with a door, or a chair, anything that would allow his consciousness, his Spark, and the shell program to function in concert together. He extended a second, and then a third tendril, adding more of them one by one as he went into the strings of code represented by the bars of the cage, rewriting each one carefully without completely replacing the code, but streamlining it and modifying some of it to actually communicate with Knockout's Spark. Perhaps the entire Shell could be removed later, or maybe it would integrate itself fully and become part of Knockout once Soundwave had finished rewriting it. It was not unworkable, but it was going to be tedious and a bit tricky, especially since he also intended to remove the defensive coding as well. He didn't worry about answering Knockout's inquiry quite yet, putting all of his focus on attending to the delicate task at hand.

[Knockout]

Knockout would watch from within the mindscape, not really knowing what to say for the time being, just wanting whatever this was that was causing the glitch to stop. "So, how's Wavelength doing now that Alex is free?" he asked as he sat back and watched, he wasn't feeling the pain right now, though he was sure, if he was awake, it'd hurt like hell. As it was he was still aware that his body was venting heavily to keep cool during this.

[Soundwave]

Soundwave remained quiet, his optics dim and his entire frame still as a sculpture standing mere inches outside of the cage itself, save for the gentle writhing of his thirty-two tendrils that had emerged out of his back to move over the cage as he reworked the coding of the shell program. He moved methodically through it, line by line, reworking it, streamlining it, and deleting the harmful defensive code that caused Knockout harm. But even with as intensely focused on what he was doing, he did register the second query, he simply did not respond. Gradually the cage began to change, taking on a new form around Knockout, one that would better permit consciousness, unconsciousness, and Spark to communicate while still being guided by the Shell program.

[Knockout]

As the cage shifted in the mindscape, it became much smoother in shape, the solid bars turning into what seemed to be more like fluid, flexible and, while still a barrier, a much easier to pass one. "Well, that's a lot less hostile." Knockout commented, looking around as that cage reshaped, becoming more like streams of water from above, at the top the core of that shell program represented by what seemed be a floating, electronic island of some sort, Knockout didn't know what was atop that but right now, he was just glad that the shell program didn't represent itself like a cage anymore "I never thought that cage belonged, something about it always felt unnatural. This still feels unnatural but it is better than before."