Shockwave will be reminded of the proper storage for volatile compounds, though I believe he has relocated the offending chemicals. It is a grave oversight.
It will not happen again, but just as I will not promote him over you simply because of his previous station, I expect you keep your slurs about his forced condition to yourself.
Once Megatron arrived, Shockwave began to explain.
“There was a vat of acid placed precariously on one of the lab tables. In following Kenny, I must have knocked the table and that must have pushed the vat off. It spilled onto him and now there is nothing left.”
He gestured to the hole in the ground.
Megatron looks from Shockwave to the steaming hole in the ground. It stinks of molten slag and chemicals, and he’s repulsed to find that he recognizes the distinct odor of a mech melted alive.
Shockwave had worked in labs more confined than this for eons.
“You’re telling me that you killed my Head Engineer, days after being told to help him learn his post!?”
The vehicon doesn’t have time at all to process the full horror of what happens next. One moment there’s an unwieldy vat resting on the edge of his usual work bench, and the next there’s vile-smelling, horrid yellow liquid covering everything--including him.
Kenny’s servo is already gone by the time the pain hits him. And then the metal of his peds is oozing away, sinking him towards the ground like a pile of ice that’s been doused in hot water. Or alternatively HORRIBLE BURNING, YELLOW ACID. Kenny gets one good scream out before the bit that splashed up against his chassis burns its way into his neck cables and silences the mech’s agony. The dissolving pile of metal that was once K3N-N13 gets a few last desperate flails in, trying to scrape the ravenous liquid off of himself as it sinks him to the floor. Wherever he touches it, his dermal metal sloughs off—then his internal cabling and endoskeletal structure. Anatomical components become thick, grey slime. Blue energon mixes with the yellow fluid, turning it bright green and then sickly brown. The mech’s helm is melted well melted through by the time the hull of his spark chamber is breached. Contact between the flammable sludge and the remainder of his life-force explode violently—splattering the burning muck across the room.
It takes less than a full klik from the time of the accident for the once-vehicon to be reduced to a flaming puddle. Kenny’s remains drip through a hole in the floor. The gaping maw where the acid ate its way through to lower levels. Cries of pain and alarm ring up from below where other mechs now find themselves experiencing milder, though nonetheless horrible, versions of the same plight.
A quiet “What the Hell?” echoes through the labs before Shockwave starts dumping neutralizing agent on the puddle, er, hole.
And then a ping to Megatron.
::There has been an accident in the lab.::
The warlord growls from his seat on the ground in the dark of his shared quarters. All of the recent goings on had his spark whirling in near-constant irritation that stung if it worked him up for long enough. The wound left by the Star Saber may never fully heal, but if it meant this level of pain from his daily routine, something had to be done about it. Sitting in darkness and focusing on the ventilation of his frame helped to keep him calmer.
Until of course, the next thing went wrong. Shockwave wouldn’t comm him if it wasn’t important. He stood and began down the hallway.
::I am on my way.::
Shockwave was never one for jokes, no matter how poor in taste. He had departed, given his reasons already… Either the scientist had lost his memory of this, or this was another Shockwave entirely. Given how active the multiverse had been as of late, Megatron was inclined to believe the latter.
Perhaps this one could be persuaded to join him.
“It would take more than that to kill me. But here I stand, ready to take our home back once and for all. What have you accomplished in my absence?”
This one was in no way joking.
“I have restarted the Predacon Project in various labs throughout Cybertron. They are not yet ready to come into the world, but it was my intention to use them to free those the Autobots have taken prisoner.”
He kneeled.
“I only ask to serve you once more, my liege.”
Ah, this will work out nicely. “It is good to have you back.”
“In your absence, I have appointed a vehicon with a high aptitude for engineering to fill your role. Immediately demoting him would not go over well with the other troops- so you will act as a mentor to him for now. I would like to see your progress on Project Predacon, and the soldier need not be involved in your personal projects.”
“I want to avoid what happened with Predaking, especially with the war drawing to a close.”
“Lord Megatron?”
“Forgive my abandonment. I thought you had been offlined.”
Shockwave was never one for jokes, no matter how poor in taste. He had departed, given his reasons already… Either the scientist had lost his memory of this, or this was another Shockwave entirely. Given how active the multiverse had been as of late, Megatron was inclined to believe the latter.
Perhaps this one could be persuaded to join him.
“It would take more than that to kill me. But here I stand, ready to take our home back once and for all. What have you accomplished in my absence?”
Megatron's back up 