Eel in the machine

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Shark Lockpick Bundle Lifeline
Shark is the living dead! Okay maybe not dead, but he's still not exactly the picture of health. Armor is getting there, but his insides are trashed still.
The repair bays are a bit full at the moment, thanks to the skirmish with the 'cons the day before. Fortunately, most of the damage isn't so bad ... with the notable exception of Shark, who has, by the look of him, definitely seen better days. He's really torn up, and sprouting tubing all over the place that's ensuring his systems don't crash in between repairs. Bundle leads a wobbly, confused, and weaving Lockpick into the bay, pointing to an area to one side where he can deal with the mech and the dings, scratches, and the wobbling and confusion.
Lockpick indeed wobbles in. He acts almost drunkenly. In his alt mode, he at least has a better chance of Not Falling Over as the street car pulls in after a long pause, crawling forwards until between the lines marked on the floor "Right here? " he asks, to be sure
Shark hasn't been awake since the docs started working on him. A good precaution considering the condition he came here in, armor either gone totally or weakened badly. Weapons systems got toasted, lots of wiring is just gone, tubing for energon and lubricating fluids were sheared off or damaged. That's why he's hooked up to a transformer version of a life support machine. Oh then there was that odd transformation cog that is quite visible to the docs now. Not something they'll deal with since it wasn't damaged, but a curiosity non-the-less. Various circuit boards were damaged. And the list goes on...
Lifeline has come all the way to Iacon despite extreme reservations -- having been told that the Autobots were the only ones with the parts she needs. She's haggling with a tech over to the side over some actuators, quite irritated that the tech seems unfamiliar with the concept of haggling.
"Yes, right there, Lockpick. Thank you." Hey, the mech is being cooperative ... which is not always the case with mechs when they come in here conscious. Bundle double checks Shark's condition while he's in the room, then glances over at the tech and someone else he didn't immediately recognize. "What's up?" He asked the duo.
"oh okay! ... oh my." Lockpick states, seeing Shark next to him. He stares a long moment, though it was hard to tell with the way the car was shaped. He rolls forwards a few inches, as though sneaking up towards 
Shark.
Shark shows that he is stabilized at least, everything reads as normal as it should considered his still ravaged condition. He's like an unconscious visual for non-medics to gawk at, all that intricate internal body work and what remains of wiring and still functional parts.
Lifeline looks over as another medic and a very wobbly vehicle arrive. She narrows her optics as she sees Bundle. A contemporary of hers from the university, they parted ways due to differences in philosophy. And Lifeline still thinks he's an overly optimistic idealist, and annoying to boot. "Bundle. Haven't you /people/ ever heard of haggling? I came all the way out here for parts I need, and I'll be slagged if I have to return home empty handed."
Bundle grins over at Lifeline. "Lifeline! Long time no see." He glances at the tech she's got cornered. "Ahh, leave him be. He's new." Then, knowing Lifeline like he does ... he grins as he proceeds to totally ruin her day. "Whatever it is you're here for ... on the house." She's liable to hit him, now. But then, that's the fun part ... messing with her. He headed back towards Lockpick, and notices he's snuck closer to Shark. "Please don't get to close to Shark, Lockpick. He's badly injured." Then he got out the tools to fix the dings and scratches. "Let's get you fixed up, shall we?"
Lockpick erps and rolls back quickly until his back bumper taps another bed. he locks his brakes then "Sorry! I was just looking. I mean... Gross!" he states, erratically as he twitches, giggling then and sighs "That tickles. Aches a little." he notes, hyper sensitive.
Lifeline glares darkly at Bundle, but at the same time needs those parts so badly she's not about to refuse them out of spite. "Hmph. Fine." Her attention then turns to Lockpick, her sharp observational skills picking up the clues. Disoriented, clumsy, erratic. She steps over to the vehicle and puts a none-too-gentle hand on it. "How much syk did you take? ANSWER!"
Just as Lockpick begins to back away, there is a faint shimmer of subspace in the empty spot where part of the controls for it used to be in Sharks' body. It wasn't a lot of it, but just enough for something to peek out of
Sharks' subspace. Something oily black and metallic with glowing green eyes and long, sharp pointy teeth. Just the head of this beast peeks out, for about 10 seconds, then slides back into Sharks' subspace.
Lockpick YIPs a little bit a he was handled, and starts to transform suddenly under her hand, nearly panicked. His actions seemed panicked, but his voice was curiously calm "None! None at all. Some? A little bit." he states finally, holding his fingers a tiny bit apart. His optics continued their erratic flickering. Then he blinks and stares at the thing on Shark. Just staring. "... Maybe I did take a little more."
Bundle's optics blaze, and he grabs Lifeline's wrist, motors whining as he puts a good bit of pressure into the grip. "If you are incapable of observing protocol and decorum when visiting a fellow practitioner’s environs, I /will/ enjoin the guards to remove your chassis from those environs, Lifeline. You will not engage any patient here in discourse while you are here, nor will you accuse a patient not under your care of /anything/ while in these environs."
Lifeline lets Bundle pull her away from Lockpick because, simply put, he's right. But she's not about to back off. "And you're going to say that you already knew that this PATIENT is fritzing out on syk? Because I see the symptoms DAILY in Cubicron, where I have to WORK for my living." She remembers Bundle's temper, and his tendency to up the vocabulary when he's angry.
Lockpick stares at Shark, fortunately too distracted to be agitated by the raised voices. Syk users could be unpredictable at times. But right now he just stared, as though waiting for that thing to appear again.
And just as if Sparky reads the mind of Lockpick, she peeks her head out again and stares him down. Little sparks move along her head. Then back into subspace she goes while the docs are distract acted.
Lifeline receives a private Radio transmission.
Bundle sends a private Radio transmission.
"Relax, Lockpick. No one will harm you here." He assured the (understandably, after that) twitchy mech. "I had my suspicions, yes." Bundle calms down once Lifeline's mitts are off of Lockpick, putting his rather considerable bulk between the two. "But that does not mean he is not deserving of care."
"AHAH!" And with that, Lockpick suddenly leaps at Sharks' form, hands reaching for the creature that he saw there a moment ago. But he under estimates his leap and falls short... short enough that his head slams into the base of Sharks' bed. Good thing transformer beds are just elongated pillars, and it hardly moves as the mech sits there, facedown, rather stunned now.
Lifeline hmphs, taking a step further out of the way. "Never said he wasn't. But I know that twitchy little mech. He's a petty thief from Cubicron, so watch your stores around him." She glances over at the trussed-up Shark, wondering what the deal is with him.
Shark is jarred by the impact of Lockpick against his bed, just enough in fact to pull free one of his connections to the life support machine. That's when all hades breaks loose since the machine thinks something catastrophic just happened as it blares and whoops. Lucky for Lock it's just an electrical feed and not something more vital.
Lockpick says, "I didn’t do it!"
"Lockpick!" Bundle snaps ... and now he's pouncing on Lockpick, picking the smaller mech up by main force and a none-too-kind grip on whatever bit of Lockpick he manages to get hold of, fighting the urge to shake the shit out of him. "You will park yourself where I put you and you /will not move/ ... or I will give Lifeline leave to do as she wishes to you." /Wham/, and down goes Lockpick into the spot he'd left, before Bundle scrambles to correct the damage done, muttering polysyllabic, mostly-incomprehensible oaths under his breath.
Those machines quiet down once the lead is hooked back up to Shark, but his head has moved from the jarring. But was that from the impact, or did the patient momentarily wake up.. dun dun dunnnnnnn.
Lifeline startles at the sudden emergency blares and ALMOST rushes forward to help. But Bundle's fast, and this IS his repair bay. So she watches as he gets the injured mech back under proper life support. "Bundle, is there...anything I can help with while I'm here?" If he weren't an old friend of hers she wouldn't even consider offering.
With a squeak and a flail, the mech wriggles as he was picked up, and put down smartly on his backside back on the lines drawn on the floor. He sits there, stunned mostly and his optics flash on and off a few times. Then they brighten to white, narrowing as he glowers at Bundles' back... not moving a muscle, but there was that surge of rage quite visible.
"I could use a second pair of hands to double check the connections, yes." Bundle says, already going over /everything/ from one end to the other with a fine optic. He gently adjusts Shark's head so it's not lolling as he works.
Shark didn't move his head on his own if anyone bothers to check, just the jarring did it. The reason for why Lockpick even jumped at his table isn't showing again. Though the medics will notice that small spacial weakness around the subspace part. Maybe that will be enough to keep Lockpick out of trouble for lurching at the patient.
The glower continues burning into Bundles' back a few long moments, before Lockpick glances down, now scratching at one of his tattoos idly. He taps on one end of the engraving, the other end levering until it lifts out of place. Then he smoothes it down once more, pursing his lips in thought.
Lifeline steps over to help Bundle when he invites her to, her eyes quickly checking over everything. "Everything here looks go...look at this fluctuation in the subspace pocket there." She SHOULD be paying attention to Lockpick, but...well, she's not.
"What the ... " Bundle says, staring at the readout. "That's not normal. Blast and scorch it ... there must have been some damage deeper in that I missed or something." Except ... Bundle's /good/. Bad as Shark is ... he wouldn't have missed something that'd cause this! At least, he hopes not.
And yet there it is, plain as the day you were created, a small fluctuation to the subspace pocket caused by damage to the edge of the part that controls it. Too bad unconscious mechs cannot tell you tales.
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