Once the meetings were set up, and Peter contacted Shuri and made arrangements for Wakanda to be involved the plan went smoothly.
Building materials, fuel for the huge ship and the remains of every Cybertronian that the government knew about were all diligently handed over, and work began to not just repair, but excavate the ship as well.
Optimus had meetings with the president, who apologised for their actions, with Ross, who handed over the large laser cannons they had found within the vehicles and Stark, who was helping to not just manufacture but also provide repairs on the damaged Cybertronians, becoming fast friends with Ratchet, who was their chief medic and unsurprisingly transformed into an ambulance.
Wakanda was happy to provide not just Vibranium, but also newer alloys. More complex and harder versions of Adamantium, all helped by Jean's telekinetic control over the metal's fusion process.
Shuri and Jean had become friends as well. Jean was slowly studying not just biochemical engineering but metallurgy and advanced chemistry. Her own work at AIM was branching off from Gwens, and her Greys Metallurgy was beginning to provide most, if not all, of the materials that AIM used in its manufacturing.
With the newer ACDs being set up in Wakanda as well as New York, travelling between home and work was now much easier, and Shuri found the time to visit as well.
Shuri even found time for Peter, and while they made no public appearances, the constant stream of food, drink and other members of the household told everyone exactly what was happening.
He was the only one that wasn't involved with the project. Liv was at the Ark most days, living in a temporary camp set up by Tony, and Bruce kept himself to himself.
In a makeshift laboratory, Tony, Liv and Bruce spend their days trying to figure out exactly how to synthesise Energon. The energy was strange, but with the help of the Autobots, and a few disassembled Decepticons, progress was made.
Of course, Liv found out first-hand just why Peter and Tony fought all the time.
"I will only agree to help, Mr Stark, if you take down that damn sign of yours. I have no objection to the lights, but the damn thing squeaks and we can all hear it."
Tony smiled and shrugged. Of course it squeaked, that was the point. The lights went off at 6, so he didn't break any laws but the noise nobody but the local rats, maybe a few dogs and enhanced asshole peter parker could hear. It was a finely tuned piece of engineering that he made sure only peter could hear, well, and anyone else with superheating apparently.
He smirked and smiled at her, "I might be able to do something about that, but, if you can get-" but Liv interrupted him
"No, there will be getting peter to do anything, there will be no negotiation. You are an expectant father and peter is now a grown man, We are all tired of this stupid feud you two have. End it, or I will make sure it is ended." As Liv tapped her foot and glared at Tony he raised his hands in surrender,
"Only if I can say I won, and I was only going to ask if Peter could help with a bit more vibranuim. Now that Vis and Jo are, well," and he waved his hand in a circle "alive, I want to make sure I've got enough raw materials on hand that if anything happened to them they'd be fine." and Liv tutted, as he was right
"I will speak to Shuri myself, but it will be in the contract that it is all it is to be used for. If we discover you've made a baby suit for your child we will be very very angry."
Tony paused for a second, holding a finger up, paused in mid-thought, "Oh, oh, of course, iron-baby, hmm Nah, too obvious, kid-iron." and he began to hum to himself as they finalise plans for the reactor to convert the raw arc reactor output into Energon.
While Tony seemed lost in thought over baby names, Ratchet was dragging in a square blue chested Decepticon, "Yeah, just here is fine." and with a nod, the robot left. "We've got permission to remove a conversion chamber from this one."
As Tony and Liv began to use the collection of tolls Ratchet had left them, they slowly disassembled the body.
Liv and Bruce helped lift the front panel from Soundwave's chest, "Well, look at that." Inside were four projectors, creating a rectangular energy casing, which could be filled with a power source to create Energon cubes.
"I'm not getting any kind of reading from it though, it's a perfect insulator." Bruce said as he waved a detector over it, "Which I suppose makes sense if it holds energy, does energy go bad? I mean, can they tell?"
"They complained the arc realtors we supplied them with tasted foul, so I guess they can." the trio shook their heads while grinning. The last thing any of them expected to be talking about was exactly how different forms of energy tasted.
Dissecting a Cybertronian was slow work, and Ratchet would render his assistance when needed. He would take away parts from Soundwave, and another Autobot would be made functional again.
Once the Energon convertor was complete, there was just a matter of testing it and making sure that the Energon cubes it created were stable and compatible. While it was being set up Ratchet was busy disassembling Soundwave once more.
Liv was watching him salvage components from one of Soundwave's eyes when her curiosity got the better of her, "Are you all like this?" and Rachet tilted his head, "I could see that this Cybertronian wasn't too badly damaged, but rather than resurrect him-" and Ratchet smiled and nodded
"We are not this body, it is a shell, a temporary home to house our sparks. We just dont have the facilities for a respray. We could have housed an Autobot in this body, but we'd rather wait until we got back home before we begin rehabilitation."
"Rehabilitation?" Liv asked
"A spark learns, and grows, it gains insights and personality, and after enough lifetimes it rejoins the All-Spark and teaches us about, well, everything."
Tony snorted, "yeah, sparks. What next, ghosts and demons?" and Liv tutted
"Mr Stark, so far, we discovered aliens, robots with minds, people with superhuman abilities. Souls aren't exactly out there."
Tony waved a screwdriver at her as they began to unhinge Soundwave's front ejection panel, "I can see the science behind that, but souls are religious, and that's just mambo jumbo."
Liv sighed, "and you watched Optimus infuse Jocasta and Vision with energy, So far, as we can tell a lot of Augment powers are extra-dimensional. Even Bruce here, a Hulk grows, gaining muscle mass and increased body weight from where? So who says a human soul isn't the same. A Cybertronian's soul is plain for everyone to see. Who says humans don't have souls, and it's just hidden?" Liv was well aware of a person's soul, as long as you held the Soul Stone, you could see them.
Tony frowned and nodded, "Could be worth examining in-depth. If Augments connect to other dimensions with their X-gene, I dont see why a machine can't be built to do the same." He had the idea after he saw the ACD, but wanted one without the cloned cells.
Ratchet nodded, "I understand your reluctance. Your fleshy bodies are much different than ours. Even Arcee is much more technological than your carbon-based forms." Ratchet lay down the spanner, and the eye he was holding, "Mr Stark, we keep certain sparks separate. Would you like to see?" and Liv definitely nodded. Anything to do with giant robots and she would want to see.
Ratchet took them to a room, and inside was a honeycomb of containers. Each one was similar in design to the spark chamber they had seen within Soundwave.
"These are the Decepticon sparks we have extracted from their bodies, and each one will remain here until we can provide a more suitable environment for them." He explained and as she looked over the cells, each one was floating in its new home. All except one.
One spun, and widely crashed against each side of the cell it was in, creating flashes as it bashed itself against the energy barrier keeping it contained.
"Nimrod?" Liv asked and Ratchet nodded.
"Megatron. He is the leader of the Decepticons and believes himself superior to all others. His rehabilitation will be long and difficult." and he sighed, "which leads up to another problem. The body your people fabricated. We do not wish to take it with us."
In the corner was a table, a standard medical table and Nirodbs body lay on it with the chest panel open and several cables hanging out.
"But, it is of Cybertronian origin, with your technology mixed in. Repaired we do not know if Megatrons spark will have given it life or not, and we cannot tell unless we supply it power."
Liv sighed and nodded, "and rather than attempt it, and give yourselves a huge headache, you'll give it back to us, and let us do it?" and Ratchet missed and nodded.
"That is Optimus's plan. I believe he is negotiating with which human organisation will claim responsibility, and then once they admit they assaulted our people, he'll tighten the screws."
A saying that had similar meanings on both worlds.
"Well, we didn't build him, but if they all prove difficult I know Peter will make sure that its safely stored, and neutralised." and Ratchet nodded
"For one of your species, other than Stark I find your knowledge of Cybertronians intriguing. I understand Peter interfaced with Arcee to create a new life form, would you be interested?" but Liv cut him off.
Crossing her arms, "No, Not ever." Liv was tempted, but Arcee's reformatting had been an accident, and as she now possessed a Symbiote of her own, something the group had agreed was not going to happen without proper security precautions, they had also agreed there would be no repeats of Peter little experiment. Even if they did all enjoy watching his memories of it.
"Ah, I understand. Physical contact between Cybertronians is unheard of. We are not a tactile species." and Liv shrugged,
"Well, why dont you just ask Arcee? I mean, surely" but Ratchet looked down at his feet."You did and she said no as well?"
He nodded, "She told me she views me as a good friend and did not want to change our relationship. But after we attempt to reformat Cybertron, that I might find a willing partner then."
Liv nodded in commiseration. Ratchet probably being the first Autobot in history to be friend-zoned.
"But. It will not be long until the Ark is fully functional, and as a thank you Optimus has downloaded our historical database. He has passed it to Arcee."
Liv knew she was spending time at the warehouse, she herself was one of the first to bond with Reboot, enjoying the strange sensation of transformation, and being presented with a different view of the world around her. Of course, she had then taken the opportunity to thoroughly ravage her, and been ravaged in return.
She had also made it clear to the group, that she had not crossed the line with Friday. Friday had been unwilling, and the pair, once they had stopped fighting, had a heart to heart.
Friday was afraid of rejection, and after Maya had as Friday put it "gone mental" at Jocasta for asking if she could sleep with Tony, was now afraid of the same happening to her. She now knew why Peter had gently rejected her. While she was in an adult form, she was emotionally immature, and still unsure of her place in the world. It was fine though. As long as she needed it, Liv would be there for her, as a friend, confidant, and if she wanted, a lover.
For now though, there were giant robots to dissect, and an annoying Stark to deal with, fun would have to wait until she was home.