Optimus though fixing the generator would be an easy task. But alas- after two hours they were covered in slum and seemed to have made things worse.

"Where is the patch?" Optimus asked, trying to prevent another leak.

"Patch?" Megatron asked and looked for Laserbeak, "Where's Laserbeak?"

"I think he dove into a tube?" Optimus suggested.

"Well he has the patches-" And Megatron was assaulted by some escaping fuel. "Argh!" He yelped as he took of his glasses to clean.

Optimus should stop smirking. But he couldn't help but wonder if his Megatron wore glasses too.

"I can see why Knockout did not want to-" Optimus leaped back as some sludge squirted out at him. "How often do you maintain this?" He asked in shock.

"Not enough." Megatron said briskly as he put his glasses back on, Optimus let out a stuffled snicker. "What?"

"Nothing." Optimus muttered and pretended to be interested in the generator.

-

-

After another whole hour, they were finally done. Optimus was trying his hardest not to sneeze, but his vents were so clogged and he needed to clear them.

"HONK!" Optimus wished he could sneeze quieter but he was more worried about all the sludge he cleared out.

Megatron was covered in it. "Argh!"

"Apologies." Optimus muttered- there was another one coming. "Washracks?" Optimus suggested.

"Definitely." Megatron said as he put away his glasses and then they headed off. The stopped outside the washracks, "You first-"

"No no, it is fine, you are dirtier." Optimus argued, "No offense-"

"I insist-"

"I double insist." Optimus argued.

"I triple-"

"I quadruple-"

"I quintuple-"

"I sextuple insist." Optimus finished, Megatron thought for a while.

"What comes after?" He asked.

"I will tell you after." Optimus said and pointed to the washracks. Megatron gave up and slumped in. Optimus felt a little prouder, after all, he was more courteous.

After around five minutes, Megatron came back out, "Well?" He asked.

"Septuple." Optimus said briefly and headed in. He really needed to sneeze and he didn't want to dirty the walls. "HONK!" Damn it.

"Bless you." Megatron called in.

"Thanks." Optimus muttered and turned on the makeshift shower, "Ek!" He jumped away as freezing coolant hit his back. This this Megatron takes cold showers too. Great.

-

-

Optimus took his time, once he got out, he wished he hadn't. Megatron was waiting for him.

"You did not have to wait." Optimus started. Megatron just shrugged and they walked to the main room. Once they got there, Optimus retreated back to his crates. Or the Decepticon's crates- they were basically his crates with how often he sat on them.

Dreadwing seemed a little uneasy with him in the room, but not murderous- good!

Soundwave walked up to him, "We're going to go with the 'paint him purple' plan." He started.

"Why?" Megatron asked.

"Much less risky." Soundwave said, "I had Laserbeak look at stats while he worked." Optimus' shoulders slumped. At least he won't have to misguide Bumblebee now.

"I don't know, he's downright awful at pretending to be evil." Starscream muttered as Knockout skipped over with some buckets of paint. "You forgot the Optical contacts-"

"I can't carry everthing at once!" Knockout started.

"We can help him get into character." Breakdown noted. "I just called you stupid, what do you do?" He asked.

"You didn't call me stupid-"

Breakdown groaned. "It's called role play."

Meanwhile, Knockout got out a air brush.

"Ep! Not here- do it in the medbay!" Soundwave argued and took some of the buckets into the medbay.

"Well, Mr canvas? Are you coming?" Knockout asked as he took the rest of the buckets into the medbay.

Optimus let out a pitiful whine before he followed. Knockout just grinned and excitedly waved his brush.

"Luckily the silver doesn't require painting." Knockout said, "Lucky for you I suppose." He muttered.

Then Optimus remembered his aft was silver.

Knockout was rather fast with the painting, so engulfed in his work that he didn't even bother to babble. Which Optimus didn't mind, if he had to engage in social interaction, he wouldn't be able to sulk.

And sulk he did.

Luckily Knockout only deepened the blue on his peds. His once red chassis however- It was the ugliest purple he had ever seen. And not only that but Knockout even had to paint his helm a darker blue and tint his windows yellow.

In all honesty- if he showed up to a fight like this, he wouldn't blame Megatron for wanting to kill him. He might even encourage it.

"There! Done! How do you like it?" Knockout asked.

"I value your skill but the colours I disagree with... Deeply." Optimus had to bite his glossa to stop hurtful words from coming out.

"Eh, me too- but I haven't been able to paint anyone- soooo... Fun!" Knockout rambled. "Now where are the contacts?" he asked and started to looked around.

Soundwave walked in and snorted.

"Don't you dare." Optimus started.

"It's a very convincing disguise- now all you need to work on is how you display yourself. For one, stop slouching." Soundwave suggested.

Optimus didn't even realise he was slouching, he let himself go so far already?

"I'll go fetch Megatron, he knows Optimus more than anyone." Soundwave said and left.

But then Knockout was back, ready to shove some Optical contacts in his optics. "A nice blood red!" Knockout started and handed the contacts to Optimus as Dreadwing and Starscream peeked in.

Starscream snorted while Dreadwing tried not to express his disgust.