Chapter Text
Octane walks towards the mess hall to get his ration of energon when Starscream comes storming down the hall and snags him by a wing, "You! Walk with me!"
"I do have actual work I'm supposed to be doing, you know?" Octane protests, but lets Starscream lead him away from his station to complain about whatever crawled up his exhaust.
"I am a beacon of logic!" Starscream begins his rant and Octane has never been so glad that he isn't expected to actually say anything and all he has to do is focus on not making a face.
"Everything I do, from air command decisions to scientific innovation, is perfectly logical!" Starscream is getting terribly shrill, a bad sign to have happening this early into his monologue. "That overgrown ray gun wouldn't know logic if it hit him in the optic!"
Octane has to duck to avoid getting hit by the wildly gesturing arms of logic.
"He thinks he's so smart and important, getting full access to my labs!" Starscream grinds out, "And Megatron, that senile oaf, thinks he can order me around just because he has that big idiot, Tarn, throwing his weight around on his behalf."
"I mean it's not as if he's ever let Tarn do anything to you," Octane points out and Starscream glowers at him for a second before continuing.
"And that hulking, antisocial cyclops is probably in my lab, rearranging my things-" Starscream stops midstep and Octane runs into his back. "He's touching my things unsupervised. Go do whatever it is you were doing, I'm busy."
Before Octane could respond, Starscream was already rushing back down the halls. He waves to Starscream's back and calls after him, "Bye Starscream, good talk." As he walks back to his post, Octane wonders how it is that this was the closest friend he has on the ship.
Shockwave finished clearing a section of the lab when Starscream burst in.
"Stop that!" Starscream crosses the lab quickly and begins inspecting the bench, looking carefully for damage or carelessness. "Those are delicate experiments I'll have you know."
"I'm aware, but I need space to begin our work." Shockwave seemed unconcerned about the way Starscream glared at him between each checked item.
"Do you have any idea what it is you just disturbed?" Starscream growls as he ensures everything was accounted for.
"Recognizing a set up for null ray ammunition production and alterations is not terribly difficult. I decided that as we are unlikely to encounter any battles in the near future, this would be the best candidate to be packed away."
"Of course you didn't-" Starscream freezes as he realizes Shockwave did actually know what he was moving. He narrows his optics at Shockwave. "How did you figure that out? My projects are in code." Starscream jabs a finger towards Shockwave's helm. "You must have been spying on me this whole time! Admit it! You know my code because you've had someone coming in here and spying!"
"I have not." Shockwave's denial is ignored by Starscream, who spins on his heel to pace the lab.
"It was Soundwave and his little cretins wasn't it?" Starscream yanks open cabinets and peers through them, presumably to find out how the cassettes were getting in without his knowledge.
"I told you, I was able to identify your project by the materials sectioned out for it." Shockwave didn't seem even slightly bothered, he just stands and follows Starscream's path through the lab with his optic.
Starscream gives up on searching and settles for slamming a palm down onto the lab bench and growls, "If I find out you're covering for those scraplets…"
"It won't be a problem, Soundwave and the cassettes are uninvolved. If you're ready to begin our work, I have some ideas as to what we should begin testing." Shockwave pulls a datapad from his subspace. "As I understand, you are a rather accomplished chemist so your input would be appreciated."
Starscream's face relaxes from its pinched expression. It had been quite some time since he'd had the opportunity to work with another scientist using his area of expertise. Wings held at a proud angle, Starscream pretends to think it over and then steps closer to Shockwave, "Tch, if you insist. I'm sure if I left you to your own devices you'd simply blow yourself up and take my lab with you."
"I highly doubt that." Shockwave's denial is ignored as Starscream snags the datapad from him and begins to scan its contents.
"Hmm, your hypothesis on the use of neodymium has potential but sourcing enough to support the whole army would be difficult…" Starscream knocks the back of his servo into Shockwave's shoulder, "Move it, if you want me to lend my genius to this I'll need my own notes."
Shockwave steps to the side and as Starscream looks up from the datapad to search through a drawer, motion catches his optics. Shockwave's finials waggled slightly as he watches Starscream start working. Starscream scoffs and goes back to rummaging through the drawer packed with test tubes and sheets of flimsies.
Soundwave sighs leaning back in his seat. He spent the last half of the day shift and the entire night shift looking through the incoming data without finding anything even remotely close to being suitable. More data is available to parse through though and Soundwave considers working through the upcoming shift when the door to his office slides open. Tiredly, Soundwave swivels his helm around to see that Ravage and Frenzy had just entered.
"Boss!" Frenzy greets him with her typical enthusiasm. She sets a cube of energon onto his desk with a slosh that threatens to spill fuel onto the desk. "You're working too hard." The disapproving helm shake with her servos rested on her hips was mostly teasing.
"Busy. This kind of search can't be fully automated." Soundwave retracts his mask to take a sip of the energon and tips his helm gratefully towards the cassettes.
Ravage's slashing tail and growl however, is disapproving and not teasing at all. "When were you planning on getting fueled and recharged?"
Soundwave fidgets, feeling like a chastised sparkling once more. "Soon, I was just about to get up."
As always, Ravage sees right through him and he jumps nimbly onto the desk to stand between Soundwave and the monitor. "We didn't help launch a revolution just to have to work without breaks." His ears are pinned back.
Frenzy snickers, "Ooo you're in trouble, Boss."
Soundwave dares to take his attention off of Ravage just long enough to shoot her a dirty look. He's confident the sentiment is received regardless of the visor, not that Frenzy does anything but continue to laugh at his situation. Ravage's tail lashing against the monitor has Soundwave turning back to him.
"No one is making me work this much," Soundwave explains, "But the revolution is going to end in disaster if I don't find a new base of operations soon."
Ravage doesn't budge, "You're going to finish your cube and come back to the hab to recharge, kit."
Soundwave sees more raw data get delivered from the Nemesis's sensor network. Ravage moves himself in front of that section of screen and Soundwave shoots an irate look at him. "I'm a fully grown mech, Ravage. I can handle a couple of long shifts."
"Uh oh," Frenzy grins at Soundwave's attitude, "Someone's grouchy." Soundwave resolutely ignores her commentary.
"Between your tone and your actions, I can hardly tell you aren't a kit. Don't make me turn off your console for you." Ravage sits, clearly ready to fight a war of wills if needed.
Soundwave gives up, he's too tired to fight his guardian and then continue a full shift afterward. "Fine. But I'm getting back to work as soon as night shift starts." He keeps his tone firm, if he gives Ravage too much leeway he'll go mad with power and start demanding Soundwave stop pulling doubles entirely.
"If you must." Ravage sighs and jumps onto Soundwave's shoulder after he drains his cube. "Was that so hard? Come on, let's go back to our quarters and recharge. Maybe a bath, you're dusty."
"I'm fine Ravage." Soundwave puts his pede down, he'd rinsed off two night shifts ago and barely did anything that would've dirtied his plating since.
"People are going to think I'm a bad guardian," Ravage grouses, "Letting you walk around covered in dust and dirt."
"I'm a full grown mech," Soundwave reminds him again, "And I can guarantee you that I'm in better condition than most other mechs."
Frenzy sees an opening, "I don't know, you seem pretty grimy to me."
Soundwave just heaves a sigh at her goading. "I guess you wouldn't want a ride back since I'm so gross then." He moves to stand up from his chair.
"Hold up a second, no need to make assumptions, Boss. I don't need some snazzy ride, I ain't Screamer." Frenzy motions for him to let her up.
Wordlessly Soundwave concedes and holds out a servo letting Frenzy scramble up his arm onto his other shoulder.
"Yeah, only a little dusty up here." Frenzy has never seen a low-hanging energon fruit she wouldn't reach for.
"I'll shake you off," Soundwave threatens.
"Behave. Both of you." Ravage stops the oncoming squabble before it can begin. They're both quiet for the rest of the trip through the halls of the Nemesis, though Soundwave and Frenzy shoot one another looks, promising to revisit the issue later.