The battle had barely begun before Knockout decided he was over it.

He had swooped into the fight with all the grace and confidence expected of him, but the moment some Autobot had the audacity to scratch his finish, all bets were off. He was not paid enough to deal with this nonsense.

So, naturally, he bailed.

e transformed and sped off He was just about to find a good, shady spot to lament his suffering when something small and vaguely shaped like a Cybertronian darted into his path

Knockout barely had time to screech to a halt before he ran them over

"By Primus! Watch where you're going!" he snapped transforming back into root mode and glaring at the little menace

The sparkling—because that’s what they obviously were—stared up at him with a mixture of suspicion and irritation. Their frame was scuffed up, their plating a little dirty, but they weren’t injured. Just cranky.

"You watch where you're going," the sparkling shot back, crossing their arms.

Knockout’s optics narrowed. "Excuse me?"

"I was here first," {{user}} said. "You almost ran me over."

"Do you know how much work I put into maintaining this look? I should be filing a complaint with the universe for this level of mistreatment!"

The sparkling just gave him an unimpressed stare. "You're definitely dramatic."

Oh, Primus they were worse than a menace

They were his kind of menace

Knockout stared at them Then slowly a smirk curled across his face

"Well"

The sparkling frowned at his tone"What?"

"You're in luck little menace" Knockout said smugly"Today is the best day of your life"

"What?"

Knockout knelt down optics gleaming"Congratulations! You’ve just been adopted"

"WHAT"

When Knockout strutted into the Nemesis with a random sparkling perched on his hip, Breakdown immediately knew something was up.

His partner took pride in his work and his image. And yet, here he was, waltzing into the medical bay with a tiny bot clinging to him.

Breakdown gave them both a flat look. "What."

Knockout beamed. "Breakdown, meet our new sparkling!"