teaching
Consciousness was pulled from the darkness as the sensors in the fuel tank emitted a signal—a signal of satisfaction, indicating that the tank was full, something that had never happened before.
Steel Fork felt a surge of power, her energy level nearing 100%, and there were no signs of energy depletion to chase her for the time being. So, she sat up, stretched her arms upwards, and relaxed every part of her body. Accompanied by the sound of tiny gears turning and parts colliding, each piece of external armor from her hands to her chest, waist, back, and feet exploded and then closed in turn.
Then, as her thoughts gradually cleared, the abundant energy, after supplying essential life functions, finally had some surplus left for the brain modules to engage in extra activities. The signals of low energy levels no longer relentlessly pursued her, and for the first time, she began to ponder the ultimate question of life: Who am I?
Then, she stared at the ceiling above her head and wondered: Where am I?
She got out of bed and stood on the floor, thinking: What should I do?
She tilted her head to look at the purple mech in front of her, clinging to it like a koala eating leaves from a tree. Her legs wrapped around its waist armor, and the lower part of her legs, near the docking panel, braced against the junction of its waist and hips—where the hip armor bulged due to the difference in thickness between the waist and hips. Her arms were spread apart and rested on the neck and shoulders above the mech's chest armor, which were covered with intricately patterned cables. The servers overlapped, and her upper body was in an embracing posture, loosely holding the head sculpt of a huge, red-glowing optical mirror in the center. She was nibbling on the slender silver antenna of the audio receiver next to the head sculpt.
Seeing that gentle nibbling was ineffective—her body received no signal of increased energy or even the smell of energy—and that she had lost some electrolyte, the electrolyte clinging to the slender antenna was dripping down its length due to gravity, she decided to bite down hard to see if any energy would flow out. Just as she was about to act…
A server grabbed her shoulder armor and pulled her upper body away, while the head sculpt moved away from the antenna along with her shoulders.
Shockwave had been standing next to the experimental table where Grimlock lay for some time, preoccupied with analyzing its data. He had neither the energy nor the need to pay attention to Grimlock's actions as it coiled around his body; in fact, the gentle nibbling on the antenna felt somewhat like a massage. The audio receiver's antenna, covered with numerous sensors, was a highly sensitive area for Cybertronians; a sharp bite there would be extremely painful. Shockwave believed he had to stop Grimlock's actions, and the generator sounded:
"I downloaded a language pack for you, so you should be able to understand Cybertronian languages now. Your energy level was too low, so I replenished it, which is why you were able to wake up."
The red light emitted from the unique large optical mirror shone on the steel fork faceplate. "From now on, you will be my assistant."
"Huh?" Assistant? The definition of the word "assistant" flashed through Steel Fork's mind, thanks to the language pack. But she still couldn't quite understand.
“I need an assistant. And you, as a new Cybertronian, possess superpowers and need energy, but you alone cannot find enough super-energy beings to sustain your life. Being my assistant is your only option.”
Steel Fork possesses a very unique body and spark, which grants her powerful abilities. "I can train her to be an excellent Cybertronian; she'll be very useful, logically," Shockwave thought.
During the hunt, Steel Fork noticed this creature, completely different from the Iron-Eating Bug and the Whirlpool Fox. She followed this purple prey until she was trapped and logged off. Upon logging back in, she found herself with plenty of energy and, after observing the situation briefly, her initial wariness lessened—in her mind, there was nothing here that could harm her. However, she didn't know what the machines in front of the prey were, so she simply clung to them, remaining constantly vigilant.
She was full of energy and in no hurry to eat her prey, so she patiently played with it. The prey beneath her made a long string of gurgling sounds, which the steel fork listened to carefully with a mixture of patience and curiosity.
I think I understand?
This was the first time Steel Fork had truly communicated in Cybertronian language since its birth in the incubation chamber. The language module was clearly not yet fully operational, and it took Steel Fork quite some time to match the words it had just received with their meanings.
"Me?" The generator hissed a few times before finally tuning up and producing the correct tone. The steel fork remained perched on its prey, and the server pointed to itself.
Shockwave nodded, hoping the machine in front of him would understand his meaning. He waited patiently; patience is the least of all qualities researchers have.
As the generator emitted a few more intermittent, discordant noises, Steel Fork slowly asked, "You?"
"An assistant... is... what?"
"As the name suggests, they are Cybertronians who helped me."
"As the name suggests?"
"help?"
Steel Fork pointed at himself again: "A Cybertronian?"
She pointed at Shockwave: "Cybertronians?"
Shockwave nodded again, and said weakly, "Yes."
He muttered to himself, "Cybertronians don't specifically refer to us... Never mind, arguing with people who haven't even established basic knowledge is pointless and illogical."
The steel fork listened with confusion to the sounds coming from its prey beneath it. Was it mocking her? She couldn't quite understand. The prey wrapped its upper body around the head sculpt of the machine beneath it, preparing to bite down on the slender antenna in revenge.
The shockwave pulled the fork away from its upper body again. Looking at the screen, it showed that the machine's various health indicators were good. "I've sent the common sense about survival to your personal channel."
He slowed his speech: "Open...the communication channel."
There seems to be something... What is it?
The file was received, and a new message was displayed. Steel Fork didn't yet understand what this change meant; she was clearly excited and curious. She opened the newly appeared compressed file—containing the data provided by Shockwave. Like a bucket of water being pulled from an inventory in Minecraft, endless water gushed out; countless data points unpacked from the compressed file surged forth, washing over Steel Fork's smooth brain module. Her consciousness was bombarded by the data stream. Faced with the vast data universe, her body continued to fumble with Shockwave's body, appearing dazed.
Shockwave tried to increase the length of the sentence: "Is there any anomaly in the data reception?"
The antenna next to the audio receiver twitched. Steel Fork finally pulled her consciousness out of the data stream. She tilted her head, looked down at the red headlight, and asked, "Anomaly?"
“You need to get used to my way of speaking as soon as possible.” Shockwave patiently waited for Steel Fork to understand the meaning of “abnormal,” then he repeated his words. It’s logical that adapting to a language module always takes some time.
Then Steel Fork sat cross-legged on the standing Shockwave, and the two machines stared at each other like two still statues, and the air fell silent for a moment.
Steel Fork was curious to know what its prey beneath it wanted to do next.
Shockwave was curious to know what this newly picked-up savage, the "prepared" assistant, who was sitting cross-legged on him, wanted to do.
A full tank of fuel meant she didn't need to rush the hunt, and remaining still allowed her to experience a feeling called "boredom." She reveled in this feeling, maintaining a comfortable posture and drifting into a daze. Knowledge flooded her brain, and she began to ponder the ultimate question of life: Who am I?
Her breeders had named her early on and put her into the incubation chamber, which then fulfilled its mission of allowing the juvenile to mature and passing the name on to the life within her. Therefore, when she began to think, "Who am I?", the word "steel fork" came to mind.
I am Steel Fork, and my name is Steel Fork.
The steel fork looked down and asked, "Do you have a name? Should I call you prey?"
“Call me Shockwave.” Steel Fork had just uttered a complete sentence instead of a single word, meaning her language module was rapidly developing like that of a normal Cybertronian; in other words, she was starting to speak human language. Shockwave stopped trying to lengthen her sentence and instead tried to change her mindset—that being seen as “prey” was quite dangerous. “I am not prey; we are the same kind.”
"You are the prey."
“We are the same kind.” Shockwave tried his best to explain in language that even a fool could understand, under the other’s puzzled gaze. “Two Iron-Eating Insects are the same kind. An Iron-Eating Insect will not eat another Iron-Eating Insect. I will not eat you, and you should not eat me.”
“We are not the same kind.” Steel Fork thought of the swarm of Iron-Eating Insects, where every single one looked the same, and said, “Iron-Eating Insects are the same. We are not.”
“Not every iron-eating worm looks the same; you just haven’t seen them.”
The two servers, represented by the steel fork, were placed on the chest armor of the two machines, signifying the sparks of their respective powers. She thought for a while before saying, "Your spark frequency is different from mine."
"This doesn't mean we're different. Different Iron-Eating Insects have different fire frequencies."
Steel Fork jumped off the Shockwave machine and used her powers to float in the air. From above, she looked down at the large red light bulb and asked, "I can do this, and you can too, so you're one of my kind. All Iron-Eating Insects can do this."
Oh no, this Cybertronian heavy tank shockwave really doesn't know how. His pride wouldn't allow him to jump up and argue: "Look, I can!" His meticulousness as a researcher compelled him to state the facts: "Some Iron-Eating Bugs can't fly. That makes sense."
“But those that fall will be eaten by other iron-eating insects, and you said that your own kind won’t eat its own kind.”
Steel Fork recalled and pondered before making her judgment:
"You are not one of my kind."
You are the prey, I will devour you.
As the Decepticons' chief scientist, Shockwave has faced a variety of perilous situations, including but not limited to his advisor's questions during his dissertation defense, Megatron's doubts about the usefulness of his project after hearing about its high resource consumption, and his helplessness while repairing himself with a broken optical lens. He possesses extensive experience in handling crises and has also accumulated a wealth of linguistic skills.
To change Steel Fork's perception and make her see him as one of her own, she can't be led by the nose. Shockwave must become the dominant party in the discussion. He said, "Cybertronians all share one common characteristic: the ability to shapeshift."
What is transformation? Only Steel Fork had this question; the definition of transformation was already in her mind. But knowing is one thing, and truly understanding requires a personal experience, and she had never transformed before.
Shockwave continued, "Transformation, the mark of our kind."
He activated the transformation gears, which in turn moved the various parts of the machine, guiding them to their designated positions. The internal components collided due to the transformation, and with a series of clicks, Shockwave transformed from humanoid form into a Cybertronian heavy tank. He said, "I can transform. We are the same kind."
"Can I... transform? What if we were the same kind?" Steel Fork curiously touched the Cybertronian heavy tank, the server touching the huge muzzle, the gun barrel, and the thick, hard armor from top to bottom.
“Okay. Try transforming now.” Shockwave already knew from Steel Fork’s memories that she had never transformed before, and now was a good time to check if her transformation ability was normal.
Steel Fork asked in confusion, "Um... I mean, how do I transform it?"
"It's in the information I gave you, you should know that. When the transformation gears are working properly, the Cybertronians can transform."
"How do I transform? Where's the transformation gear?" Steel Fork looked at her arm, touching her waist armor and the soft metal, or rather, protoplasm, covering it. She lifted her foot and patted her leg armor. "I don't see the transformation gear. Could it be on my back?"
The server reached behind her, but was blocked halfway by the wing. Steel Fork suddenly felt something itchy on her back. She turned to look, but was hit on the visor by the flaring wing. Ignoring the pain, Steel Fork made a new discovery: she had never known that her two wings, or rather, the wings on her back, could move!
"My wings can move!"
As she watched the pair of wings behind the steel fork flapping incessantly like butterfly wings, and she seemed to be engrossed in watching her own flapping wings and playing with her own body parts, completely forgetting about transforming, Shockwave had no choice but to helplessly remind her: "Transformation is a Cybertronian instinct, I don't need to teach you."
It looks like you can see a huge drop of sweat hanging on the Shockwave head sculpture.
"But I really can't feel where my transformation gear is..."
It's not a problem with deformed gears at all...
“…I’ll transform again, and you can observe carefully.” Shockwave deeply displaced the gas. Even her low-IQ Decepticon colleagues wouldn’t have been qualified to make her do this, but since it was just the two of them Cybertronians here, it was logical for him to demonstrate so she could learn to transform efficiently. “Imagine your wings unfolding, your body curled up…My transformation mode is a tank, yours is a plane. My experience might not be suitable for you. The most important thing to learn to transform is for you to try it yourself.”
"Have you ever felt that the surroundings suddenly become eerie?"
"Perhaps my magnetic field has changed. As for the Cybertronians' magnetic field, it's in the data, and you should know about it too."
"Is this the feeling of a change in the magnetic field?"
"What you're feeling is the magnetic field emanating from my low mood. A 'sudden change' is what constitutes a shift in the magnetic field."
Why are you feeling down?
"It makes perfect sense that I'm feeling down."
"What's that big red light bulb?" Steel Fork moved to the side of Shockwave, poked the red light bulb, and then pinched the sharp antenna next to it. The antenna moved around, attracting Steel Fork to bite it, but suddenly a server appeared and blocked her mouth.
"That's the optical lens from my head sculpt. You're using the wrong word!" The light bulb on Shockwave's head... the red lens of the camera seems to have become brighter, and the light it emits is redder. Does he seem a little unhappy?
Steel Fork felt as if an eyebrow was drooping down above the red light bulb, and she gently tapped the lens of the large red optical mirror with her fingertip.
Why did your optical lens dim slightly just now?
The shockwave needs to get this lesson back on track.
"You should keep trying to transform."
"You just said my transformation mode is an airplane?"
"Yes." The server gently rested on the wing, and Shockwave squeezed the edge of the wing with the force of squeezing rubber. This made Steel Fork a little itchy, and she shook her wing forcefully and quickly, shaking off the other machine's server.
Steel Fork began to imagine what she would look like after transforming. What would the airplane she transformed into look like? Would it be big or small? Where would her fluorescent stripes appear on the airplane? What would it feel like after transforming? And what exactly is an airplane...? She already had an understanding of airplanes.
The wings stretched taut outwards, rose upwards, then relaxed and drooped down, repeating this several times. Steel Fork tried its best to feel the changes in its body, manipulating every part of its body with all its might.
The gears turned with a clattering sound. Suddenly, the humanoid steel fork disappeared, and an airplane appeared in front of Shockwave, with only one arm still hanging down and swaying.
"Absolutely perfect!" The shockwave optical mirror suddenly brightened several degrees.
"You're right! I can transform!" The airplane-shaped steel fork spun around in the air like a horizontal top before hovering steadily, its voice jubilant: "We're the same kind! I have a kindred spirit now!"
Yes, we are the same kind.
"Hunter... no, Shockwave, watch me transform into a super monster!" Steel Fork quickly accepted that he and Shockwave were of the same kind.
She transformed from an airplane into human form and tried this many times.
"I'll transform again." With the experience from last time, Steel Fork successfully transformed into a standard Cybertronian fighter jet.
The airplane mode was very novel to Grimfork, and she loved the feeling. She really wanted to fly a little longer.
The plane hovered motionless in the air for a moment, then veered to the right and left. The lab space was now too small; the steel fork had to be handled with extreme care to avoid bumping into any equipment. She flew towards the door, seeking more space. The front of the plane bumped against the chest armor of the Cybertronian standing at the door. Shockwave's servo, resting on the wing, rubbed its fingers against the wing a few times before sidestepping and pushing the plane out the door.
Steel Fork's language module is online and running normally. Although her basic understanding may not have been successfully established, her mindset has been successfully shifted, and this "teaching task" is basically complete. Shockwave is very pleased. He decides to let this young machine consolidate his teaching results. If Steel Fork forgets to transform in the future and he has to teach it again, he will definitely doubt the machine's abilities.
It makes sense to let the steel fork roam freely outside to prevent her from damaging things in the lab.
The steel fork focused on its new form, poised to unleash its power. Once pushed to the doorway, it soared into the sky.
"Oh! I—love—this—feeling—this is truly the best day of my life!" A powerful gust of air swept over the aircraft, whistling through the air. She could feel the pulse of the flames, the surge of the energy fluid, and an unparalleled sense of exhilaration. She looked down at the land; the fighter jet swept over the ruins where she had once stood, passed through towering buildings, and arrived at the open, flat Embroidered Sea. This was a new place she had never been before, and she had almost lost her way.
Steel Fork had only been flying out of the base for a few centimeters when she began to miss Shockwave. The words "full fuel tank," "kindred spirits," and "Shockwave" were linked together in Steel Fork's processor. She had encountered Shockwave, gained abundant energy, and learned that she had found a kindred spirit. She finally understood the feeling of loneliness she used to experience when looking at the empty surroundings—a feeling of something missing. Now, the loneliness within her was dispelled by the word "kindred spirits."
Having flown far from the base, the pervasive emptiness once again invaded Steel Fork's processor. A layer of frost condensed on the surface of the wings in the lifeless Cybertronian sky. She turned around, found the base, and was about to fly back.
The steel fork declared to itself from within:
I'm starting to like this kind of thing called shockwave!
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