It must be kept away from (and repaired).
The sandstorm was like a rusty meat grinder, crushing the metal wreckage of the city ruins into iron filings. Steel Fork's leg armor emitted a series of tiny clanging sounds—the sound of thousands of metal fragments striking the gaps in her armor, like countless miniature drills trying to pry it open. Steel Fork wasn't in the mood to activate her ability barrier. She left the base; she needed to conserve energy. With the sandstorm approaching, she hastily found a building in the ruins that offered barely any shelter from the wind and sand and took refuge inside.
"I hate Shockwave! He's a liar!" Steel Fork had never felt so bad. This was the first time in her life she had been deceived, misled, and betrayed. He had concealed and lied about the true purpose of the data link; he even wanted to erase her personality and memories! "Shockwave is a ruin! A brick! Dust! Iron filings! Iron-devouring bugs! Waste liquid!"
The vocabulary was exhausted, the cleaning fluid swirled on the optical lens, and the saturated liquid finally couldn't hold on any longer and slid off the faceplate. The sandstorm outside the wall hadn't stopped yet.
...
She regained consciousness on the experimental table, with Shockwave beside her, his back to her. The head sculpt was facing upwards towards the monitor, processing the seemingly endless and uncountable data.
The fork-shaped servos swayed and gripped in her line of sight. She quickly lifted both servos to touch her head sculpt, bent her legs, and simultaneously used her waist to push herself up onto the experimental table. Her memories were still intact, her consciousness was clear, her bodily movements were unrestricted, and not a single part of her body was missing.
With its wings drooping loosely behind it, Steel Fork said to Shockwave beside him, "I just had a really bad nightmare. Do you want to know? Was I sleepwalking? How did I end up in a lab?"
Shockwave did not answer the question. He turned around and calmly looked at the machine sitting on the experimental table, as if nothing had happened.
"You're online."
Was everything that happened just a dream? The server touched the part of the breastplate closest to the fire seed chamber, and Steel Fork vaguely sensed that the fire seed had undergone some changes.
The eccentric scientist, who quickly accepted being forced to undergo the fusion of the Spark and form a Spark Link after logging on, hesitated due to the dual obstruction of emotion and the Spark's influence on reason. Even after the Steel Fork logged on, he still didn't take action against her. The one-eyed light bulb flickered a few times, seemingly in thought, and Shockwave said, "Given that my vital signs are intact, your danger assessment has been reduced. Logically, I choose to preserve your existing personality."
Sensing the confusion and doubt on the other end, Shockwave continued, "Now that you're online, you can begin your work. This cycle, you need to maintain the equipment in room 404, and check the base's external facilities and the condition of the internal wiring. There's a sandstorm outside the base, which may cause problems with some facilities, so I hope you'll be more thorough during your checks."
Aren't we buddies? Can't you let me take a break?
...
In a fit of anger, Steel Fork ran away from the base. Now, she is sheltering from the sandstorm amidst ruins, sitting down to rest against a wall, and secretly shedding tears of grievance.
Steel Fork could feel a subtle vibration coming from the wall she was leaning against and the ground beneath her. She was all too familiar with this vibration; it usually indicated the presence of a swarm of Iron-Eating Insects nearby. Numerous tiny legs tapped densely against the metal panels of the building. One or two Iron-Eating Insects rolled onto the ground in front of Steel Fork, their large eyes looking at her, then blinking curiously twice.
Their enormous mouths, disproportionate to their small size, opened wide, revealing layers upon layers of serrated metal teeth. Armed with mouths full of meat-grinding fangs, they targeted the Cybertronians' most vulnerable, convoluted, and greasy parts, and pounced. Then the swarm arrived, many iron-eating insects flying towards the fork. They swarmed, layer upon layer of insects forming an impenetrable blanket, completely enveloping the fork.
All the iron-eating insects that flew close to the steel fork could no longer advance, creating a vacuum around it. The iron-eating insects closest to the steel fork had their energy, along with the sparks within them, drained away. Their corpses were quickly devoured by their companions before they even hit the ground, leaving behind fine iron filings from the metal collisions that flew and filled the surrounding vacuum area.
"My energy level has dropped, so I'll rely on you guys to replenish my energy for the next cycle." The energy of the different Iron-Eating Insects mixed with the Fire Seed, gathering above the steel fork's palm. She thought to herself, "The Iron-Eating Insects are much better than the Shockwave; they can stay with me, give me energy, and are especially enthusiastic towards me!"
But they taste awful! They're nothing compared to the energy cubes from the shockwave!
The steel fork swiftly devoured the mass of polymer, without extracting any more energy from the Iron-Eating Worms. She transformed into an airplane and quickly flew into the air, leaving the Iron-Eating Worms behind.
She wanted to eat the energy cube produced by Shockwave... oh no, it was the big, blue, square energy cube that Shockwave gave her. Steel Fork once again told itself internally, Shockwave doesn't produce sweet-smelling energy cubes!
Soaring high in the sky, Steel Fork's field of vision was incredibly expansive. Below, the movement of the Iron-Eating Insect swarm left dark trenches in the ground; in the distance, the Rust Sea and the flat ground stretched to the edge of her vision, outlining the horizon; large swathes of wreckage littered the ancient battlefield of the Giant Frenzied, from which she sometimes scavenged the bones she needed for her Shockwave attacks. Turning another direction, a small purple dot moved amidst the metallic silver beside the base.
That was... a shockwave? What was he doing coming out of the base?
...
A light bulb in one of the base's rooms was out, the corroded metal sheeting was crumbling, and the walls were leaking. Without Steel Fork to help him fly around the base checking things out, Shockwave had to come out and investigate himself. He was currently busy maneuvering a drone over the base, checking for exposed pipes and damaged walls. Unbeknownst to him, a drone had quietly flown up behind him and was hiding behind a corner.
Without me, even repairing a wall is so difficult. I knew it wouldn't be possible without me. From behind the corner of the wall, Steel Fork peeked out, watching Shockwave's movements, then retreated behind the wall just before he turned around and his gaze met hers.
Unfortunately, I'm not coming back!
Taking advantage of Shockwave's back being turned and her unseen, Steel Fork stealthily slipped into the base. Since he was already here, he couldn't leave without grabbing some energy cubes!
The door next to the shockwave room was open, and Steel Fork made its way smoothly to the entrance of the energy storage room. The energy storage room door was tightly closed, and several energy blocks were placed in front of it, exactly the amount Steel Fork needed for one cycle. The energy blocks were floating in the air, supported by his supernatural abilities, revealing a data panel underneath. Steel Fork curiously picked up the data panel; it read:
This is the energy block you need for one cycle. Our energy reserves are limited, so conserving energy is logical.
Note: Please do not enter the energy storage room.
Right next to it, there was another sentence that was enlarged and bolded.
Please don't take this data pad away; I still need it.
"Am I that kind of person?!" Steel Fork angrily slammed the data panel to the ground after reading the message.
The data tablet began to dive downwards at an extremely high speed. Just as it was about to reach the ground, it paused suddenly before slowly landing on the ground.
...
The shockwave returned to the base, but the steel fork had not yet left.
The program in her brain module bound Steel Fork; she couldn't muster the desire to leave the base, nor could she move. She simply sat down at the entrance of the energy storage room, happily munching on an energy block, leaving her face smeared with blue energy liquid. But Steel Fork didn't care; with her superpowers, she could clean it up quickly.
"The Spark Link has indicated your location to me. Now that you're back at base, your relaxation time is over. Steel Fork, get to work."
Shockwave, back at base, was the first to reach Steel Fork and give her instructions.
The spark pulsed joyfully under the influence of the link, while the steel fork rejected the emotions brought by the spark and the link, struggling to separate the brain module from the core voice.
Steel Fork frowned uncomfortably, meeting Shockwave's gaze—whose meaning was obscured by the lack of a face—and said, "I hate you."
Shockwave, one of the stabilizers, bent down and knelt on the ground, holding the steel fork and bringing the half-eaten energy cube closer to her visor, gesturing for her to continue.
"Your words have no effect on your actions. Keep recharging, then get to work."
Steel Fork was furious, but she didn't know how to vent her anger. She had unknowingly swallowed the energy crumbs in her mouth, and suddenly felt she needed something else—not an energy block, but something that made her teeth itch.
She tossed the half-energy cube in her arms into the air like a ball, and before the shockwave could react, she quickly grabbed his head sculpture. The red optical lens pressed tightly against her breastplate, and the fragile antennae standing like a grove of trees beside the head sculpture were right in front of her. She took a bite, and the half-antennae landed in her mouth.
Steel Fork released Shockwave's head sculpt in a good mood, and the half-eaten energy cube floated back into her arms. Steel Fork carefully chewed the half-antenna she had bitten off, wanting to savor the taste, and wasn't in a hurry to continue eating her energy cube.
Shockwave, however, was caught completely off guard by the steel fork biting off its antenna. The information he gave the steel fork led her to bite in a very strategic spot: the antenna of the audio receiver. To receive as much information as possible from the outside world, the receiver antenna must have as many sensors as possible; it is very sensitive. And as a scientist, Shockwave's antenna would only be more sensitive. This meant that any damage to the antenna would be extremely painful, let alone being bitten off directly, and the steel fork definitely knew this.
A few sparks flew from the broken half of the antenna. A flood of pain signals assaulted the brain module, momentarily overwhelming Shockwave's other senses and nearly knocking him offline. He briefly lost control of his body, succumbing to the pain and losing all strength. His head, no longer supported by the steel fork, collapsed to his knees, utterly powerless. His exhaust fan whirred, but his body temperature was surprisingly low; the brain module had erroneously activated the fan, the pain signals completely disrupting his thinking. Fine condensation appeared on the outer armor, like a layer of fog, and the small wings on his back convulsed and trembled unconsciously under the onslaught of pain and mental chaos.
After a long while, the shockwave finally found its generator: "...Your actions...are meaningless."
"Just make you feel bad." Steel Fork had finished the energy cube in her arms, and with her hands idly holding Shockwave's head sculpt in front of her eyes, she tried to see some emotion in the huge red optical lens.
"I don't feel any discomfort, just pain. Your thinking is illogical."
Steel Fork grinned, thinking Shockwave was just being stubborn—if he had a mouth. "But your spark tells me you're in pain, aren't you?"
Shockwave pushed away the fork's hand, struggled to his feet, and said, "If you do this again, the risk assessment will be raised, and personality deletion will be your fate."
"I have to go to work. Deleting my personality now would delay your experiment, wouldn't it? Your experiment should be more important than the antenna, right?"
The wings lifted, and Steel Fork, in a good mood, stood up. She was truly ready to go to work; she was leaving. However, as she left, Steel Fork was chewing on two other antennas.
At the entrance to the energy storage room, Shockwave, who had just stood up, knelt down on the ground again, powerless.
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