Son of Unicron

Chapter 7

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Many more days had past and Rafael had since decided that he should probably create a calendar of sorts. Unfortunately, he didn't have any writing utensils, so he had to get a little more creative. Thus, using wrappers and the sharp edge of an empty soup can, he created a makeshift calendar, using tally marks sliced in the paper to count the days. So far, he had been there for about two months, maybe more, as it was not completely accurate.

In the more recent days, the boy had begun to get used to the work that Knockout would put him through, which now included buffing being added to his official list of 'chores'.

One thing that Rafael had learned during his time aboard the Nemesis was how much the mechs on the ship gossipped. It seemed that once the vehicons had gotten used to his presence, they just ignored him altogether and would talk amongst themselves. The human child usually listened in on such conversations, as they ranged over a multitude of topics. Rafael often found himself comparing the vehicons ㅡ Knockout too, now that he thought about itㅡ to many teens in his school, with how much they all talked.

Listening in on gossip was actually how Rafael was able to know about anything that happened outside of the warship ㅡ scratch that ㅡ outside of the med-bay. The drones would talk so much that every now and then the topic of the Autobots would come up.

Whenever this happened, Rafael always made an effort not to perk up or show any sign that he was listening, in fear that they'd stop talking and let the subject drop.

They often mentioned and discussed how in the past two months, the Autobots had been quite obviously restless, as they would hit many mines. Recently though, their attacks seemed to be decreasing with the little amount of success in securing energon.

The Autobots have been looking for him, that much Rafael was certain of, but he had to admit that he had been disappointed to hear that they had been slowing down in their searches. Were they giving up on him? No, they couldn't have been. They were family. Bee was family. They'd never give up on him...

'Energon! It had to be that they were running low on energon, after all, if they were hitting as many mines as the vehicons said they were, then they were using the ground bridge a lot. Maybe they just burned through so much that they now had to save their reserves, after all, it wouldn't be the first time.' The boy thought to himself as he sat on his shelf.

"What's wrong with you?" A flamboyant voice asked and Raf looked up to see Knockout staring at him from where he was in the med-bay.

"Uh, nothing..." Raf responded, a bit startled by the uncharacteristic question.

The mech, in turn, gave him a 'yeah right' look and then immediately suspected what the human was thinking about, as there has recently been a topic of gossip that's become more common than others. He sighed in annoyance and looked the boy straight in the eye. "The Autobots won't be able to get on this ship, you know. We've been spending a lot more time in spaceㅡoutside of a ground bridge range, mind youㅡso it'd have to be a pretty big coincidence for them to come aboard."

Rafael furrowed his brows. "They've gotten on the ship before though. Didn't Arcee follow after you that one time and managed to get aboard?"

"Don't get cute with me, fleshy," he countered, not willing to let his ego be hurt. "Besides, even if the Autobots managed to get aboard, what makes you think that they'll even want to take you back?"

"Huh? Wha- ... what do you mean? Of course, they'd take me back."

"Even though you're now carrying dark energon? You are directly connected with Lord Megatron, and he could find you despite whatever shielding the Autobots have over their base. When they know the truth, they'll probably stay as far away from you as they can."