Chapter Text
Hot Rod really didn’t know what he expected when he started this journey. Sure, he expected some problems, maybe a fight or two, even an attempted murder; but ending up in a cell in an alternate dimension surrounded by Decepticons in a facility run by humans was not on that list of possibilities. He’s sure even Perceptor wouldn’t have expected such a thing.
Still, here he was, in a facility run by this company called “GHOST”; which stood for something; being stared at by humans. And glared at by Decepticons. Not that the latter really bothered him. He was used to it.
Two humans suddenly jumped, hands moving to their ears as they listened to something. They both looked at Hot Rod. “We… only have one spare cell ma’am. No, a strange Autobot… No clue, haven’t had time to contact them. Okay Ma’am… Yes, we understand. Yes Ma’am.” One of the humans sighed, heavy and annoyed. He glared at Hot Rod, “You really fucked everything up here. Unfortunately for you, you’re going to be getting a roommate.”
Hot Rod shrugged. “So long as it’s not Megatron, I’m good with it. If it is Megatron, I’d suggest you let me move in with someone else. Exceptions to that being Starscream and Shockwave. Especially Starscream.”
Hot Rod heard the familiar bark of laughter from the mentioned Decepticon, “Aww, is the poor little Autobot scared of the big bad Decepticon Second-in-Command?”
Hot Rod looked over a few cells, spotting both the mentioned bots. “Nah, not scared. I just figure some of these guys would be upset about you two being replaced with a pile of ash.”
Shockwave actually looked over now, single optic flashing in shock. Starscream also looked surprised, like he really didn’t expect Hot Rod to say that. “Did… Did you just threaten to deactivate us?”
“Yes.”
Starscream hummed, casting a glance to Shockwave. “Well… That’s new.”
Hot Rod chuckled, “What? Never been threatened by another bot before?”
“Not an Autobot.”
Hot Rod smiled. He was proud of himself. Of the few things he picked up from Soundwave, dealing with Decepticons was the best. Most Decepticons were all bark no bite and so long as you were willing to back up your actions, most would back down.
Most
Hot Rod knew from experience – and observations – Soundwave was not a bot who was willing to back down.
Starscream smirked, his usual annoying smirk that meant he was plotting something. “Well, in good news you don’t have to worry about Megatron, that traitor.” Starscream’s hissed words were met with a collection of shouts and grumbles from the rest of the Decepticons about Megatron being a traitor and being a pile of slag or scrap. “But, you should be worried. After all, why would you need a cellmate if there’s still one cell open?”
Hot Rod paused, scanning the room for the first time since arriving. Sure enough, directly behind Starscream; at least from Hot Rod’s perspective; there was an empty cell. Hot Rod began looking closer at the Decepticons around him; some he could identify, others he could not. He paused, realizing there was one bot who might need two cells.
Hot Rod couldn’t help but laugh. “Soundwave?! You’re going to put me with Soundwave?” Hot Rod struggled to control his laughter, earning more stares of shock and surprise from the Decepticons as well as the humans. “Ah, he’s been giving you major problems with Laserbeak, that’s why you need two cells? Look, far be it from me to tell you how to run your prison, but that’s just going to make him mad. Laserbeak is family and the one bot he trusts…” aside from me “… So taking Laserbeak away is going to cause bigger problems.” Hot Rod could hear the Decepticons talk amongst themselves, glancing at him before going back to whispering. Starscream was once again staring at him in shock before shaking his head and turning away.
The humans just stared at him for a minute before rolling their eyes and turning away from him. Hot Rod would let them learn their mistake the hard way. He’d just make sure Soundwave didn’t kill anyone. That was the best he could offer.
--------
Hot Rod was jolted out of his rest by yelling. A lot of yelling. And growling. Growling that he was very familiar with, despite the voice sounding slightly different. He onlined his optics just in time to see a bot that was rather angular in a very familiar shade of blue. Said bot ignored him, either because he didn’t see Hot Rod sitting in the back of the cell or because he really didn’t care; either way, Soundwave turned around after being shoved into the cell and started slamming his fists into the wall-door-thing.
Megatron and Optimus were on the other side of the door-wall-thing, Optimus glaring at Soundwave while Megatron carried a cybercat, microbot, and Laserbeak to the cell behind Starscream; who was leaning against one of the walls just watching Megatron with that stupid smirk.
“What? What is he doing in here?! Get him out!” Optimus seemed to have finally noticed Hot Rod.
Soundwave snapped to look at Hot Rod. Despite his glowing visor, Hot Rod could see him glaring in utter disgust and anger. “What are you doing in my cell?!”
Hot Rod stayed sitting, looking up and down Soundwave.
“Well?!”
Hot Rod shrugged, “Two confirmed, theoretically three.” Hot Rod took out a datapad, crossing out two numbers and adding one to each. The datapad was simple, only two boxes, one labeled “Confirmed” and one “Theoretical”. Hot Rod shoved the datapad into his subspace just in time to avoid Soundwave from grabbing it. “Sorry, had to do that before I forgot. Anyways, I’m in your cell because they,” Hot Rod pointed to the humans, “decided I was dangerous and shoved me in here.” Hot Rod shrugged, turning his attention back to Soundwave. “Not much I can do about it.”
Hot Rod could see this Soundwave’s confusion, subtly shaking his head to replace it with anger; “and that datapad?”
Hot Rod chuckled, “You’re blue.”
Soundwave stared at him, as if expecting him to expand on that. When Hot Rod didn’t, Soundwave decided to just huff and go back to glaring at Optimus Prime.
Megatron returned to in front of Hot Rod’s cell, having shoved the three other bots into the empty cell. He looked worried, glancing between Soundwave, Hot Rod, and the humans. “Shouldn’t you…” He sighed, “Of all the bots to stick with an Autobot, you decided this was the best choice?”
“Those cassettes are a pain, and likely would have manipulated this Autobot.” A woman with grey hair came out of a small door. The guards immediately jumped to attention. She was clearly important. She turned to glare at Soundwave, “Soundwave here has made no effort to redeem himself or improve the behavior of his little minions…” Soundwave growled at this, “…And because Ravage keeps getting out, we’ve decided it best to separate them. Furthermore, since Frenzy resembles a young Cybertronian; and we know how kind you Autobots are; we decided it best to put Soundwave with this Autobot.”
“This Autotbot has a name, and it’s Hot Rod. I am Hot Rod, not a random Autobot.” Hot Rod stood at this, dusting himself off to approach the door-wall. At least as much as he could with Soundwave refusing to move and glaring at him. “Aside from that, I’m not even going to stay here forever. Seeing as how everyone important is here, I suppose I should tell you why I’m actually in this universe.” The woman looked at him, skeptical.
“This Universe?” Optimus parroted, tilting his head slightly.
Hot Rod smiled and crossed his arm, leaning against the wall; “I’m from a different universe. I have a small crew and our goal is to travel the multiverse to warn other universes about the Quintessons.”
Optimus cast a glance at Megatron before turning back to Hot Rod, motioning him to continue.
“They’re a race of giant squid and shark things that travel the multiverse deciding if a universe is guilty or not. What qualifies as guilty? No clue. Their leader is called “The Scientist” and he likes to collect…” Hot Rod looks at Soundwave, looking him up and down. Hot Rod saw the subtle jump from Soundwave; as well as the flicker of horror behind his visor. “Yeah. His favorite is blue ones. Apparently in the trillions of Quadrillions of universes he’s traveled to, he’s never been able to collect a blue one.” Hot Rod shrugged. “But yeah, they also like to use the Allspark and Cybertronians as fuel. And the Scientist doesn’t judge the universe; he makes a Judge to judge the universe.” Not the most graceful delivery, but this was the first time he’s had to tell another universe about the Quintessons.
Soundwave suddenly barked out a harsh laugh, “you expect us to believe that?” He pointed an accusatory finger at Hot Rod.
Hot Rod rolled his eyes. “I didn’t lock up your family in a separate cell. I don’t even know these humans. But, I’d like to offer you an olive branch – as the humans say.”
Soundwave back off, surprise clear behind his visor. He tilted his head, clearly listening to what Hot Rod wanted to say.
“In my universe, the Autobots and Decepticons have a peace treaty, one that I plan to honor no matter what universe I’m in…”
“A foolish choice.”
“So, seeing as how you aren’t welcome here, I’d like to formally invite all of the Cybertronians currently being held prisoner to the Guiding Light; the ship I captain; in our mission to mitigate the Quintession threat!” Hot Rod spread his arms wide, smiling brightly. He could see everyone staring at him in shock, Autobot and Decepticon alike.
“We…” Soundwave looked back toward Starscream and Shockwave, “We must think on this.”
Hot Rod smiled, lowering his arms and returning to his seat at the back of the cell; “No worries, you have quite some time before we decide to leave.”
---
Hot Rod didn’t know what he expected when he finally arrived at Earth. All of his friends acting weird and looking at him strange, and the two adult humans avoiding him and crying a lot was not on his list of “things to expect”.
It wasn’t until he snuck into the security room that he learned why: An alternate version of him showed up in this world, brought all the Decepticons onto his ship, and then left this universe with the Decepticons, The Terrans, and the human children.
The Terrans and the humans had snuck onboard the ship to plant little cameras everywhere to spy on them. He applauded their attempts to help. He took to watching the videos they all recorded, starting with the kids being found.
<< RECORDING 1, PLAYING NOW>>
“WHAT THE SCRAP?!” Starscream could be heard screaming down the hall. Followed by other, much more high-pitched screams. A lot of them. Hot Rod watched as his alternate self turned away from the huge monitor-table-thing. The Camera had to be placed on a wall or something, judging by the angle.
“AUTOBOT SCUM!”
Hot Rod watched in horror as the door slid open, the children running inside and hiding in corners of the room as Soundwave blocked their way further down the hall outside the door. Soundwave stormed into the room, slow and deliberate, just as Starscream came sliding into frame, out of breath and looking around the room, presumably at the children. “Are you brats the reason for those idiots trying to stop us?!”
The Other Hot Rod looked around the room, counting. He frowned. “Who are you guys? And why are you on my ship?”
“They’re Terrans and their human… things.” Soundwave hissed, crossing his arms. The Other Hot Rod sent him a look, but didn’t comment on the remark; rather he turned back to the kids, nodding at them.
“We work with the Autobots!” Twitch.
“Yeah! You broke the Decepticons out, and are planning to invade another universe!” Hashtag.
“Bee taught us how to fight! We’ll stop you!” Thrash.
The Other Hot Rod tilted his head, looking at Thrash, presumably. “Bee? As in Bumblebee?”
“Uh… and Grimlock!” Jawbreaker.
The Other Hot Rod smiled, finally uncrossing his arms; “While I appreciate your bravery, it’s not needed. The Guiding Light was founded on a peace treaty between Autobots and Decepticons. These aren’t even the first Decepticons we had on this ship.” The Other Hot Rod was so calm, leaning casually against the table-thing, like he wasn’t in standing between a VERY angry Soundwave and the targets of his anger. The Other Hot Rod even had his back turned to Soundwave and Starscream, just begging to be shot in the back.
“Well… They were talking about poisoning you and taking over the ship!” Twitch suddenly yelled, pointing at Starscream, who just glared at her.
“We were discussing poisoning him and taking over the ship.” Starscream clarified. As if it actually made a difference.
The Other Hot Rod chuckled; “Oh yeah? And how exactly were you planning to do that? I know better than to accept Energon from other bots.” The Other Hot Rod stopped leaning on the table-thing, turning so he could look at both the kids and the two Decepticons. Finally, a shred of self-preservation. “Besides, poisoning? That’s a little too predictable, even for you. Now, throwing my out an air lock while we’re traveling through unspace? That’s creative!”
NEVERMIND
Hot Rod slammed his face into his servo. This other version of him was giving the Decepticons ideas on how to kill him.
“But also, killing me would piss off Clobber, Whirl, Dead End, and Perceptor. Particularly Dead End and Perceptor. I do not recommend that.”
A rather sleek, red mech walked past the door at that moment, drinking Energon and looking at a datapad. Hot Rod heard the mech choke and saw him back pedal into frame, optics wide as he stared in the room.
“What, in the name of the Allspark, are those?”
“Oh, Dead End! Meet the Terrans!”
“That explains nothing.”
>> >>
Hot Rod watched countless recording, watching as the Autobots that started on the ship got… friendlier with the Decepticons they sprung from prison. As well as pick up more bots from various universes. He was fully aware of the way The Other Hot Rod was gazing at his Soundwave. Hot Rod shook his head. His processor kept doing that. Calling the Soundwave from his universe his Soundwave. It was annoying. He hated it. Sure, that Soundwave was from the same Universe as him, but that didn’t mean Soundwave belonged to him.
Hot Rod vented, calming his systems of the rage brough on by himself. The sound of a door opening startled him. It was on the recording. The Other Hot rod and his Soundwave were entering the room, it seemed as though a party was going on outside. What the party was for, Hot Rod didn’t want to know. The Other Hot Rod was stumbling and slurring his words, clearly he drank too much Engex.
Soundwave sighed as he propped The Other Hot Rod up on the table-thingy, the red bot nearly sliding off as soon as Soundwave let go.
“Frenzy, please go and get some coolant for this idiot.” As soundwave spoke, his chest compartment opened, a cassette popping out before transforming into a microbot. “Laserbeak, Ravage, make sure no one steps on her.”
“Hey!” The microbot hissed as two more cassette popped out and transformed, one into a bird and another into a cat.
Soundwave tilted his head in a way that conveyed his annoyance as clear as day, “A good majority of those bots are as drunk as, if not more drunk than this idiot here. I am not taking any chances.”
“Is that a sparkling?!” The Other Hot Rod squeaked, finally looking over at Frenzy. He then looked at Soundwave; “Are you sparked? Did you just give birth?”
“Get. The. Coolant.” At Soundwave’s command the three microbots took off as fast as possible, the door sliding shut behind them. Soundwave sighed again, looking back at The Other Hot Rod; “You are drunk. Be quiet.”
The Other Hot Rod giggled, wrapping his arms around Soundwave’s neck in a hug, and leading forward. Hot Rod saw Soundwave stiffen, shifting back. The Other Hot Rod pulled away, giggling again; “I love you. I really do…” The Other Hot Rod started crying, hugging Soundwave tighter. “You died in my world, and I never got to tell you how much I love you. I really, really love you…”
Frenzy, Ravage, and Laserbeak returned at that moment, a small container of coolant in Frenzy’s servo. She’s just staring in confusion. Soundwave turns to look at her. “Don’t… I don’t know what is going on.” Soundwave sounded genuinely confused.
The Other Hot Rod started wailing; “You died because I was incompetent! I’m so sorry I’m so stupid and an idiot!”
Soundwave sighed again, head falling back. “Forget the coolant. Got to the room. I’m taking this moron to his room.”
“You sure you don’t-”
“Please, just go. I don’t think you even can help with how drunk he is.”
The three microbots left, followed by Soundwave slowly dragging The Other Hot Rod out of the room, leaving the recording in darkness once again.
Chapter Text
Soundwave couldn’t grasp it. He had been furious over being dragged back to that stupid prison. It was made worse by his family being locked up away from him, Megatron finally spilling how he was able to cause so much chaos.
Megatron really was a traitor.
Soundwave never should have put his trust in Megatron.
Of course, then there was the Autobot. That stupid Autobot who didn’t fear him, who didn’t shy away from him, who was smiling, who wanted to help, and who was sincere.
Soundwave shook his head.
Sure, he was on that stupid Autobot’s ship, along with the rest of the Decepticons, but that didn’t mean they were going to do nothing. He was sure Starscream was already scheming, as he usually did.
Some part of Soundwave wanted to stop him, warn the Autobot about Starscream’s possible plans and keep him safe.
Soundwave hated that.
Many of the Decepticons thought he could read their minds, but no. The rest thought he could read emotions, but that wasn’t true either. His ability was a lot more basic… He could tell when a bot was lying to him.
It was so simple, but it came in handy as the third-in-command and the one in charge of communications.
But it also made Megatron’s betrayal hurt that much more. Megatron had been sincere at one point. But by the time the incident happened… Soundwave had stopped paying attention to what Megatron was saying or thinking. Had he even been sincere when he said it was a great loss?
But that brought Soundwave back to the problem with the Autobot. He had been so sincere about his offer to take them out of the prison and out of the universe that hated them. He had been sincere about calling Soundwave’s family his family. He had been sincere in his warning about the Scientist, and the Quintessons. Everything Hot Rod said was true. More importantly, he was sincere.
He told them the only rules of the ship as soon as they left the universe:
- Do not mess with the Engine. No one had any idea how it worked, and they’d rather keep it functional.
- Do not mess with the dimensional device (Multiverse Drive). The majority of the original crew has either seen or been trapped in “unspace” at least once, and they don’t want to inflict that horror on Clobber.
- Be nice to Clobber. She is doing her best. Being nice to her involves NOT ordering her to kill other bots. It hurts her feelings if you ask her to do this.
Three rules. Not even anything about not killing the captain or anything. Nothing about not hacking into the security system and watching everyone at every hour. Nothing about staying out of the vents to get past locked doors. Nothing about privacy or preventing blackmail. Hot Rod was really way too trusting. He had given them free reign of the ship after announcing those three rules, as well as giving them all a map to show where the habsuites were and what each room was.
Shockwave, unsurprisingly, went right for the labs. Apparently, he’d be spending a lot of time with Perceptor while there. Starscream was likely wandering the halls, trying to think of where to hang pictures of himself and how to convert the supports into statues of himself.
“WHAT THE SCRAP?!”
Starscream’s shrill voice cut Soundwave free from his thoughts, more shrill screams following and drawing closer. Very familiar voices… the Voices of Megatron’s new “team”.
Pests, pests, all of them pests. They should be eradicated, why do they get to live and be a happy little family?! It’s not fair… he was turned to scrap metal to repair others and they get to fly around and be happy little
“AUTOBOT SCUM!” Soundwave growled as the Terrans filthy disgusting mockeries, all of them came around a corner and into his line of sight. He would kill them, he had to kill them.
They didn’t deserve to be happy. Megatron didn’t deserve to be happy. Maybe Megatron would realize once he felt the same. But it wouldn’t be the same, because it was
The Terrans fled back the way they had come from, clearly forgetting that Starscream was in that direction for a minute, before darting into a room. Glancing at the map briefly, Soundwave realized it was the Multiversal Map Room. Apparently, Hot Rod had decided to dedicate an entire room to just displaying a map of the multiverse so far. Somehow that made sense.
Soundwave stalked into the room after the Terrans. Aside from Hot Rod, the Terrans, and a huge table with a very strange hologram above it, the room was empty. All of the Terrans were hiding in the upper corners of the room, trying to be as far from Soundwave as possible. Hot Rod was looking at them, clearly confused.
“Are you brats the reason for those idiots trying to stop us?!” Starscream’s voice was preceded by metal screeching against metal, not that there was much difference between the two noises.
Hot Rod was frowning now, counting the smaller bots. He looked genuinely concerned. “Who are you guys? And why are you on my ship?”
The sincerity of his question had Soundwave’s spark breaking. He really didn’t know what was going on. He really thought the Autobots had just decided to lock the Decepticons up in a hellish science prison for no reason. “They’re Terrans and their human…” Hot Rod was looking at him now, “…things.”
Why had he called them that? They were inferior. They were Earth-born microbes. They could be crushed by accident, and yet… The look Hot Rod sent him was one of genuine confusion, but he stayed silent, opting to look back at the Terrans. It was like Hot Rod didn’t care what Soundwave said. Not in the same way Megatron didn’t care, but more like he just accepted that this was as nice as he got. Soundwave could feel Starscream staring at him in disgust, as if he had never been tolerant of the humans.
Hot Rod was talking to the Terrans now. He was completely ignoring Soundwave and Starscream. He was brave, and his trust was so sincere…
Megatron trusted him like that once. Before all the power, before things went wrong. His family trusted him like that once too, before the incident. The incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident, the incident…
“They were talking about poisoning you and taking over the ship!” That stupid drone yelled, pointing a stupid and accusatory finger at Starscream.
Starscream, for his part, scoffed, “We were discussing poisoning him and taking over the ship.” Who this “we” was Soundwave didn’t know. But clearly multiple bots had contributed to it. Hot Rod would throw them off now though, or at least lock them up.
Soundwave looked up at the chuckle that came from Hot Rod. He wasn’t even aware he had started looking at the floor. The laughter was genuine… sincere. He wasn’t scared, he found it funny.
“Oh yeah? And how exactly were you planning to do that? I know better than to accept Energon from other bots.” Hot Rod turned now, no longer leaning with his side against the monitor. He was looking at Soundwave and Starscream, mostly Starscream; and he was smiling. “Besides, poisoning? That’s a little too predictable, even for you. Now, throwing my out an air lock while we’re traveling through unspace? That’s creative!” He laughed again, before sighing, “But also, killing me would piss off Clobber, Whirl, Dead End, and Perceptor. Particularly Dead End and Perceptor. I do not recommend that.”
Soundwave had no idea who Dead End was, but if he was with Perceptor, he must be a common visitor to the labs.
A sudden choking noise had Soundwave turning around, just in time to see another red mech come into the doorway. He stared at the Terrans with what could only be described as abject horror. He also had the Decepticon insignia on his chest. “What, in the name of the Allspark, are those?” Soundwave refrained from laughing, Starscream was not so subtle though, letting out a snort before covering his mouth.
“Oh, Dead End! Meet the Terrans!” Hot Rod was smiling again. He wasn’t being sincere this time… Little shit was being sarcastic and playing games.
“That explains nothing.” The other red mech – Dead End, apparently – deadpanned. He was thoroughly unimpressed. “Did they sneak onto the ship?”
Hot Rod’s smile fell, he actually looked bored; “What do you think? Apparently these guys are the reason we were attacked while leaving.”
The sigh Dead End let out was dramatic enough to warrant an award. “So what? We just accept stowaways now?”
Hot Rod shrugged. “We are accidental kidnappers. I refuse to go back to that universe.”
Oh…. Oh that anger and disgust were sincere. Was Soundwave’s own home really that bad?
“Hey! You can’t do that!” That stupid drone femme yelled, flying up to Hot Rod to get in his face.
Hot Rod was unimpressed, grabbing her leg and dragging her out of the room despite her protests. “You come onto my ship without my permission, and you expect me to be nice to you because why? Because I wear the Autobot symbol? Actions have consequences, clearly your Bumblebee never taught you that.”
Soundwave had never seen an Autobot this annoyed before. They were going to the labs it seemed. Perhaps this could be fun.
“Percy! Get your blind aft out here!” Dead End had shoved open the door to the labs, yelling as loud as possible. Something flew at him and he dodged to the side, a glass vial filled with paint thinner shattering against the wall. “Nice try! You missed!”
“I’m blind not deaf! And I missed on purpose!”
Soundwave watched as another red mech Why were there so many red mechs? Was red everyone’s favorite color in that other universe?! Came out from behind a desk. His Optics were dark, and some sort of laser-sniper was mounted onto his shoulder.
“Our captain is right behind you, and I think hitting our guests would be a violation of the peace treaty. They are Decepticons, after all.”
Dead End gate the flattest, dryest, most sarcastic laugh possible; “Ha ha, very funny Percy. By that logic you’ve already broken the peace treaty.” Perceptor laughed in response, clearly seeing the comments as harmless fun. “Anyways, to the actual point: We have a couple of extra mouths to feed. Including some… humans.” Despite apparently having a peace treaty, Dead End still hissed out the word as if it was something far below him.
Perceptor sighed, “Yes, I can… Well, I can’t see that, but I can sense them.” Dead End nearly spit out his Energon, coughing out some laughter. “The other bots won’t be that hard, but we will have to stop at some Earth to get human food. We should also make Clobber aware that hugging them is not a good idea.”
Dead End sighed, setting his now empty cup of Energon on a counter. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. She has trouble controlling her strength with small, cute things.” He looked at the humans at this point, both of whom were clinging to one Terran each. “Ugly naked things.”
“To each their own.” Perceptor stated, giving a shrug.
“We’re not naked!”
“Or Ugly!”
Perceptor seemed to look at the humans now, as if his optics still worked. “… I am going to refrain from commenting.”
Oh…
Soundwave didn’t expect to meet an Autobot that thought Humans were ugly.
Notes:
Again, I've never watched Earthspark, but I do know Soundwave had an incident where a cassette blew up.
I also know we never got any closure about that.
I also, ALSO know that even among the Decepticons, Soundwave is the most furious at Megatron.
WELCOME TO MY THOUGHTS ABOUT WHY.
Also, in Cyberverse, the Autobots didn't really team up with the humans. They never had human friends (that we are aware of).
So I came up with a reason for why.
Chapter Text
Soundwave and the other Decepticons were learning a lot about the Autobots they were now stuck with. Everyone knew what that meant: He would hack into their systems, listen to all their comms, and just… Observe. Anything that needed to be reported on was going to be reported to those that needed to know.
He was surprised at the lack of cameras on the Guiding Light. There were plenty in the entrance area, the storage bay, and even the cafeteria; but the halls had minimal coverage, and there were none in any of the habsuites. That was fine though, that’s what his family were for. IF he still had them all it would be so much easier. Everyone tended to forget to look around when those
Soundwave shook his head. Once again, he was watching instead of resting. He needed to, needed to know what the whole deal with the Quintessons was. Most nights were quiet, leaving only him with mostly dark feeds and empty hallways. Tonight seemed to be different, as he got a ping that someone had activated some sort of connection.
It was to another Universe.
Soundwave excitedly sat up, connecting in without alerting either party that he was listening and watching.
Hot Rod was smiling at Bumblebee, but not the Bumblebee Soundwave knew.
“Hey Bee! How’s it going?”
“Fine, how’s your mission so far?”
“Slow start. We uh… Well, funny thing about that! We actually got more crew members!” Hot Rod looked nervous, shifting in his seat.
“Oh really? Who-”
“I swear to the Allspark, if you got in contact with that red moron and didn’t tell me I am killing you!” A femme from off-screen suddenly yelled.
Hot Rod looked startled, but smiled; Bumblebee just laughed, turning to whoever it was speaking. “You’re already plotting to kill me! IF you’re going to kill me than do it already! Stop talking about it!”
Soundwave couldn’t stop staring. Were all the Cybertronians from Hot Rod’s universe this unbothered by death? Didn’t they care about their own survival? Didn’t they get how terrible it was? Didn’t they get that once someone was gone you were never going to see them again and you realized
Soundwave took a deep breath. He needed to relax. The femme that had been yelling at the two suddenly came on screen, a Decepticon insignia clear on her torso. But… She looked like she was three bots cobbled together into one.
“You jerk!” The femme hissed, pointing an accusatory figure at Hot Rod.
“What did I do now?!” Hot Rod was laughing, but also looking nervous.
“If you ever come back, your eyes are forfeit.”
WHAT
“Oh, by order of who? You’re too busy killing Bee to bother with me.” Hot Rod replied, before straightening up as a hawk screech crackled through the call. “Hey Beaky.”
Soundwave watched as a version of Laserbeak dropped down from somewhere, landing easily on Bumblebee’s shoulder. Said version was glaring at Hot Rod, who now looked even more nervous than before.
“Listen, I know you wanted to come with us…”
SCREECH
“But you know, and I know this is really dangerous…”
SCREECH
“And I really wouldn’t forgive myself if anything happened to you…”
SCREEE-
“And I’m pretty sure Soundwave would hate me for all eternity if you died in some alternate universe!” Hot Rod yelled, panicked. Laserbeak straightened up at that, tilting his head as he looked at Hot Rod. “You know he’d be really mad, and probably say something like “You’ll pay for that!” or just blast music at me until time itself ceases to exist.”
The femme suddenly laughed, “Yeah, that does sound like something he’d do.”
Bumblebee laughed, “Plus, with you both being in the Allspark, it’s not like he could kill you… at least… I don’t think he could kill you…” Bumblebee looked to the femme suddenly, “Do you think you can die in the Allspark?”
Soundwave’s lines had long run cold.
He was dead.
He was dead in Hot Rod’s universe, and the only one left of his family was Laserbeak…
Frenzy… Ravage… Himself… RUMBLE… He was a failure in every universe, he failed, failed, failed, FAILED
Soundwave shut off the connection, servos flying up to grip his head. He needed to calm down. The ringing was back. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurt. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts.
Soundwave was snapped from his loop by a knocking at his door.
“Soundwave? It’s Hot Rod… I know you’re up.”
Soundwave took a deep breath, stiffly walking to his door, opening it just a crack. “WHAT.” It wasn’t a question, it was a demand. Hot Rod looked upset, face contorted in what could only be described as pity. He didn’t want some stupid Autobot’s pity, he didn’t deserve it. He was a failure no matter the universe, he was doomed to always kill
“I know you heard us. You have a bad habit of listening in to what other are saying.” A “bad habit”. That’s all Hot Rod saw it as? A “bad habit”?! “I’m sorry you had to find out this way, but… If it’s any consolation, you died a hero.”
Soundwave froze.
Hot Rod was being sincere again.
So, so sincere.
“What…” Soundwave reset his vocalizer, taking another deep breath and relaxing. “What… How did… The other me die?” A hero? For taking three innocent lives with him? Who in their right mind would see that as heroic?! He wasn’t a hero, he’d never be a hero, he was a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure. a failure.
“Well… It’s a little hard to explain but, to make a long story short…” Hot Rod looked uncomfortable, scratching at the pipes that ran down his arms, ruining the finish ever so slightly. “You saved all of Cybertron from… Well… Let’s just leave it at that. You saved all of Cybertron.”
Soundwave stared at Hot Rod. That was it? He saved Cybertron? “What about… What about them?”
Hot Rod looked confused for a moment, before seeming to realize what he was asking; “Frenzy and Ravage never existed in my universe. You only ever had Laserbeak to worry about.”
Hot Rod was being honest.
So, only this version of himself was a failure?
Notes:
Soundwave: "Oh boy, I can't wait to ignore my problems like I did before! And get back to my job of spying on Autobots!"
Hot Rod: "Hi, welcome to Cosmic Horrors Express. None of us care about dying because everyone here has seen at least one version of ourselves die at some point."
Soundwave: "That sounds... Horrifying."
Hot Rod: "I watched you die. In my universe you are technically the only Decepticon to be considered a hero. I demanded you have a funerla because of this."
Soundwave: "................ I do not like this anymore."Yeah, for whatever reason, Cyberverse is best described as "Don't think about the implications for too long because the implications are horrifying."
For reference of the horrors:
- Everyone on the Ark saw at least one version of themselves die in unspace while trying to escape.
- The Empty version of the Ark they find upon their arrival there implies another version of themselves NEVER escaped.
- Hot Rod fell into a toxic energon swamp (with an open wound) and was the only one to escape. Drift was not so lucky.
- The Scientist's collection of Soundwaves. Nothing further.
- Cheetor and Shockwave LITERALLY both became one with the Allspark, with Shockwave corrupting it while Cheetor purified it.
- The entire other universe with The Other Megatron (you know, the one who made Tarn).
- Bludgeon being trapped (and likely dying) in Unspace.
- Windblade having her soul shattered.
- Shadow Striker. Make no mistake, re-using dead bots is common in the comics, but it's not really acknowledged in the cartoon media (it's also only ever really done as a last resort from my understanding, so it being a big focal point about her in the cartoon makes it worth noting).
- Thunderhowl being trapped for who knows how long (long enough to be forgotten about it seems).
- Cosmos being taken hostage by a thingy that apparently feed off of fear.
- Blurr dying to cosmic rust (in front of Bumblebee and Hot Rod no less. If Hot Rod had a nickle for every time a blue mech sacrificed themselves in front of him, he'd have two nickles. That's not a lot, but it's a little concerning that it happened twice.)
- Hammerbyte being brainwashed/controlled by a Titan.
- What Starscream did to the seekers.
Chapter Text
Hot Rod hadn’t left Soundwave’s room after stopping by, opting to sit on the floor to rest and recharge. He also forced – or at least attempted to force – Soundwave to rest. Hot Rod clearly considered it an accomplishment to have Soundwave watch the monitors and cameras from his recharge slab.
Whatever.
Of course, clearly Hot Rod didn’t consider the possibility that Soundwave would wake up before him, and that with Hot Rod sleeping on the floor in front of his door, Hot Rod had effectively trapped Soundwave in his room.
Then again, there was the possibility that Hot Rod was aware of such a thing, because he was not all that surprised to learn that Soundwave had Frenzy sneak out through a vent and open the door from the outside, cause Hot Rod to fall over and wake up. Hot Rod certainly wasn’t pleased about it, but Soundwave was far too busy laughing at the noise Hot Rod made while falling over to care.
Hot Rod walked with Soundwave to the cafeteria, talking to Laserbeak and Frenzy as they walked. Hot Rod waved to Soundwave and his family as he ran over to join Clobber, Whirl, Perceptor, and Dead End at their table. The Cafeteria was so empty, and Soundwave couldn’t imagine being stuck with the same four people for all eternity.
Well…
Soundwave looked at Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Ravage. He had technically doomed himself to that fate, but they were his family. If he were stuck with Starscream, Shockwave, Megatron, and Breakdown… He’d sooner kill them than be nice.
Soundwave headed over to the energon dispenser. The rest of the Decepticons seemed confused and nervous. Energon usually came in cubes and was solid, but this kind… it was more like a liquid and they had cups. Soundwave looked to Ravage and Laserbeak. This… Would not work for them. It wouldn’t even really work for Frenzy. While said cups weren’t impossible for her to hold, they were just a little too big, and she’d likely end up covered in energon. Which would lead to her being angry and embarrassed, and then her hiding in their room for a week. Not fun. Best avoided at all costs.
Hot Rod seemed to notice Soundwave’s hesitation, standing from his spot and walking over; “Everything okay?” He was leaning forward with his arms behind his back.
Soundwave just stared at him. Why was he doing this? Why was he standing like that? Was he really so blind as to not see the issue with
“Oh…” Hot Rod looked at Ravage and Laserbeak, “We don’t have anything to hold the energon for them.”
“No, you don’t.” Soundwave hissed, putting as much anger and vitriol into his words as he could. They really just invited them onto this ship, that was so horribly ill-equipped for his family, and expected it to be fine?! How daft.
“Hey! Percy!” Hot Rod yelled over, causing the blind mech to look up; “Think you could ask Chop Shop to bring us some smaller cups, and also a bowl or two?”
Perceptor waved dismissively at Hot Rod, before going back to whatever the small group was talking about. Soundwave rolled his eyes, clearly they didn’t really-
The shriek that Frenzy let out as a blue pillar flashed next to the group had everyone jumping up. A huge mech appeared once the light dispersed, holding a crate. “Hi there!” The bot nodded to Hot Rod, who nodded back, and set the crate on a table, prying it open; “Perceptor said you needed bowls and smaller cups. Mind if I ask why?”
“We uh… We already have some more crew members, some of them-” Hot Rod didn’t get to finish as something flew out of the crate, perching on a rafter before letting out a screech. Hot Rod stared at the bird that was now sitting above him, staring. “Hi Beaky.”
SCREECH
Hot Rod let out a sigh that could only be described as “I cannot be bothered to care about this”, before looking at the bot. Said bot shrugged; “I really didn’t know he was in there.” Hot Rod remained silent, just staring at the bot. “Okay, so, maybe I did, but you need to understand! He’s very convincing!”
SCREECH
With another sigh, Hot Rod held out his arm, and the bird dropped down, smug. “Everyone, meet the Laserbeak from my universe. He’s going to get me in trouble with Shadow Striker. For fun. Because he’s a little jerk.” Hot Rod was glaring at the other Laserbeak, who looked more and more smug by the minute. That was one proud bird.
Soundwave watched as Hot Rod stood there, scolding the cassette-bot, who clearly couldn’t care one bit what he was saying. He was actually treating the Laserbeak from his world like he was important.
“Hey, Hot Rod, I’ve been meaning to ask something.” Hot Rod looked at the bot that had teleported to the ship, still unloading the bowls and tiny cups; “I would have asked Shadow Striker, but she’s really scary. So uh… Does Laserbeak actually understand what you’re saying, or did Soundwave just train him to understand certain words like-”
The bot didn’t get to finish, as Laserbeak launched from Hot Rod’s arm and proceeded to peck at the other bot, screeching the entire time.
“OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW! Point taken! You can understand us! Sorry Laserbeak!”
Laserbeak flew back to Hot Rod’s arm once the bot apologized, letting out a warble that might have been a laugh. Hot Rod gently scratched under Laserbeak’s chin; “As you saw, no, Laserbeak is not trained. He was Soundwave’s family.” Hot Rod paused, looking at Soundwave. “And, I suppose I make a proper introduction. Laserbeak, meet Soundwave, Ravage, Frenzy, and… Well, Laserbeak!”
The two Laserbeaks looked at each other, tilting their heads as they inspected the other. The perched one turned to look at Hot Rod.
SCREECH
“I understand, but you brought this on yourself.”
SCREECH
“No, I will not accept a formal complaint.” Laserbeak chirped at Hot Rod’s reply. Whatever conversation they were having, Soundwave could only imagine. “Anyways, seeing as how we now have bowls and smaller cups, your family should be all set!” Hot Rod smiled, looking at Soundwave before turning back to Laserbeak; “And I suppose you can stay, seeing as how you snuck on board… You’ll be helping Soundwave with security, we have had way too many bots sneaking onto this ship.” Laserbeak looked confused. As if Primus himself decided that confusing Laserbeak was too cruel, the Terrans and their humans entered the cafeteria, all of them looking exhausted.
“I’d say good morning but… I… Dooon’t…” Twitch started, only to stop as she stared. The others staring in silence as well. “I think I need to go back to sleep.”
“Hi little stowaways!” Whirl waved at the Terrans and humans, so chipper that you could almost imagine a smile on his face.
“Awww! They’re so cute! I wish humans weren’t so fragile.” The humans looked at Clobber with what could only be described as abject horror, ducking behind the Terrans as if the equally small bots could protect them. “Anyways, why do you guys need more sleep?”
“Well… I’m seeing two Laserbeaks.”
SCREECH
“That is because there is two.” Soundwave sighed. He was starting to regret boarding this ship.
Notes:
I need you all to understand, I have ten tabs relating to Transformers open.
Specifically for this chapter, that I started writing at 4am.
I also caved and bought Season 1 of Earthspark and watched the episode "Decoy" (I mainly needed references for Soundwave's voice and the size of Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Ravage in relation to everyone else).
I have...... Opinions...............
Namely I stand by my headcanon that Cyberverse Hot Rod would HATE Earthspark Bumblebee.
My other opinion (In regard to Megatron) is "Yeah, no SHIT Soundwave felt like this was personal. You called Laserbeak a derange pigeon, referred to all of them as flies, and spoke down about his family as if they were stupid children. My brother in christ, at least two of them are fully grown. Not to mention you keep absolutely abusing Frenzy and Laserbeak. The former you kicked, and the latter you kept smacking hard enough that his beak kept getting stuck in things."
Also, damn, Optimus is uh.... Yeah, his behavior isn't helping with Soundwave's behavior.
So uh.... Yeah, be prepared for some very self-indulgent headcanons about Soundwave to explain his behavior. At a later time.
I need sleep.
Chapter Text
Soundwave had no idea how it came to this, but for some reason, now both Hot Rod and Laserbeak kept sleeping in Soundwave’s room. Laserbeak was perched on the chair by the monitors, while Hot Rod kept sleeping against the door.
Despite that, he still always seemed surprised when the door opened and he fell backwards as a wake-up call. Soundwave stood over Hot Rod this time, staring down at Hot Rod blankly; “Precisely what is the point of this?”
Hot Rod didn’t respond, just shimmied out from under Soundwave so he could stand up and dust himself off; “Nothing major. I just feel like doing it.”
Soundwave felt the twinge of a lie. It wasn’t a big lie, but something about Hot Rod’s answer wasn’t true. Soundwave looked at Hot Rod as he walked away. They had only been on this ship for about a week, and in this Universe for that week.
Soundwave didn’t pay much attention to what was going on outside, but he knew that he had yet to see a star. Or a planet. Or anything other than the vast void of space. Soundwave followed Hot Rod to the cafeteria, where most of the Decepticons were whispering to each other, pausing as Soundwave and his family entered.
He knew what those looks meant. The way they looked at him before glancing at Frenzy. Without any way to collect energy, they couldn’t manufacture Energon; without the ability to produce Energon, they’d have to ration. If they had to ration and he got into a fight, he wouldn’t be able to ask his family for help. They’d be too weak, they’d have to stay tucked in his compartment, safe from most weapons and asleep, but if he got too low it would happen again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again
Soundwave shook his head, grumbling to himself. He didn’t need their help; he could keep his own family safe.
“… So the sooner we leave the better?”
Soundwave looked over to Hot Rod, he was sitting with Perceptor, who had some graph on a datapad he was showing to Hot Rod. “Indeed. The chances of this thing being good for us is slim, if not impossible.”
The Graph was little more than a flat line with a sudden spike towards the end of it. Hot Rod nodded, studying the graph.
“You have no idea what any of this is, do you?”
“If you say it’s bad, then it’s bad.” Hot Rod shrugged, leaning back to give Perceptor space. “Where on the ship are the Terrans and their humans?”
Perceptor hummed, the graph disappearing from the datapad. It was then that Soundwave noticed said pad was plugged into a port on Perceptor’s wrist. A map of the ship showed up, the cafeteria almost completely red with how many dots were in it. The only other location of red dots was…
“THE ENGINE ROOM?!” Hot Rod shot up, inspecting the small map closely.
“Scrap, they are!” Perceptor tore the cord from his wrist; Hot Rod, Clobber, Whirl, Perceptor, and Dead End ran to the door; Hot Rod skidded to a stop before leaving fully.
“Soundwave! You’re in charge! Don’t let Shockwave blow up the ship!” Hot Rod disappeared once he was done yelling.
Everyone was looking at Soundwave. “What.”
Of all the rules to break, those brats picked that one. Rules one and two were actually pretty redundant. The Multiverse Drive was technically part of the engine, so any attempts to mess with the engine could result in actually messing with the Multiverse Drive; so the next time they made the jump to another universe, they instead ended up in Unspace.
Hot Rod had only ever really told Soundwave about the horrors of Unspace, how he saw himself and his friends disintegrate into nothingness, how he wasn’t sure he even belonged in that universe because he had no proof he was supposed to be there, and he had never asked the other Hot Rods what color their Soundwaves were because he didn’t think it would matter and he never paid attention-
“I swear to the Allspark I will play that stupid song on loop.” Laserbeak’s voice broke Hot Rod from his thoughts. That’s right, he had more pressing issues. “Like children in the Engine. Good news: I see them. More good news: They’re just looking.”
“Good.” Hot Rod breathed a sigh of relief, not that it was easy to tell with everyone running. “Keep an eye on them, and feel free to shoot them if they try to touch anything.” Hot Rod could just feel Laserbeak smiling.
“You got it!”
“Please tell me that flying thing is Laserbeak!” Perceptor huffed, turning a sharp corner, missing the stairs by leaping down them.
“It is! He’s making sure they don’t mess with anything!” Hot Rod took the same corner, sliding ahead of Clobber, surfing down the hand rail.
“Is it bad I’m hoping he critically injures one of those Terrans?!” Dead End jumped over Clobber, stumbling the landing as one of his heels got caught on a stair; “I have had ENOUGH of these children, and they’ve been here for all of a week!”
Whirl was still behind Clobber, the two finally catching up from their careful descent of the stairs; “I tend to agree! Apparently the other Decepticons really hate them too!” Clobber paused, moving to the side to let Whirl get ahead of her. “Something about them not letting the Decepticons go back to Cybertron!”
Hot Rod groaned; “Combine that with the torture and imprisonment at that research facility…” Hot Rod skidded to a top behind Perceptor, Dead End nearly crashing into him at the sudden halt. “Man, that universe really was the worst.” He looked back as Clobber and Whirl came to a much more controlled stop at the very back of the group.
“Hey, Hot Rod, if those research guys come for us and lock me up, you wouldn’t leave me there, would you?” Clobber questioned, sounding absolutely terrified at the mere thought of being found by GHOST.
Hot Rod shook his head, “I thought you knew me better than that! I never leave my friends behind.” He smiled at her, which calmed her down.
“Okay… Where’s Beaky?”
Hot Rod raised his pointer finger, “One moment…” “Yo, Beaky, where are you?” There wasn’t a verbal reply, instead Laserbeak sent a picture. “SCRAP.”
“They’re near the Multi-”
“YES!” Hot Rod shoved past Perceptor, interrupting Dead End, rushing down the catwalks to the Multiverse Drive. “YOU! STEP AWAY FROM THAT RIGHT NOW!”
Hot Rod watched as all of the kids jumped back, spinning to face him.
“We didn’t do anything!” Twitch yelled, throwing up her hands. She was flying and hovering dangerously close to the sensitive wires and machinery.
“Okay, I need you to land right now. If you break one of those wires, we could end up in Unspace and… And nobody wants that.”
“I’d listen to him if I were you.”
The kids gasped, looking to the other side to see Soundwave casually stepping out from the shadows. Soundwave was calm. His own Laserbeak perched carefully on his arm; tucked close to his chest; Frenzy hugging his leg, and Ravage sticking so close it was a miracle he didn’t trip.
“Why should we listen to you?!” Twitch yelled, hovering closer – fucking closer – to the sensitive wires and tubes.
“PLEASE stop flying! Land on the Catwalks, please.” Hot Rod’s spark was spinning fast. Twitch was putting them all at risk with her carelessness. He had wanted to help, and instead his stupid, careless, brash, unthinking-
“Twitch! Listen to them!” The little human girl whined, startling the flying Terran. Twitch looked at the little human, whose eyes were wide; terrified; darting between Twitch and the wires she was close to. Slowly, ever so slowly, Twitch lowered herself to the catwalks.
“Mo… is everything-” Twitch was cut off by the small child hugging her, bursting into tears.
“Don’t do that again! Please! Don’t fly in here…” Twitch was patting Mo, looking at the others. The Terrans were all confused, but eventually followed Hot Rod in leaving the area.
Soundwave slammed his door shut, locking it behind him. He took a deep breath, falling back against said door, and sinking to the floor. She was sincere. Her terror was so sincere, it made him want to purge his tanks. Soundwave lifted his hand, looking down at Frenzy, who was snuggling up next to him. He was shaking.
“Take them off.” Soundwave looked to Ravage, sitting by his feet. Her voice was calm and cool… and commanding. “You’re safe here. Laserbeak and Frenzy will keep the Autobot away.” She nodded her head to each cassette as she spoke, Frenzy grumbling as she crawled out the vent, followed by Laserbeak.
Soundwave sighed, carefully removing his battle mask and visor. Ravage purred loudly, slinking around his legs to settle into his lap.
“There’s my beautiful sparkpup.”
He wasn’t beautiful, Prime made sure of that.
Notes:
Continuity soup my beloved.
Fun fact: Baby bats are called "pups" :3
I also took ADHD meds, and this fic is the result. Simply put: I will not be taking them all that often (I focused on this fic and nothing else all day. My cat is very mad at me because of it)
Chapter Text
Hot Rod sighed, marking the map with a big red “BAD DIMENSION (EMPTY)” near the indicator for the current dimension they were in. Aside from a massive energy spike that they were slowly getting closer and closer to, there was nothing. The energy spike was far too high to be a star or a black hole, it was something else; something likely dangerous. Even the Quintessons didn’t have an energy signature like that.
Hot Rod would have to roll the dice again.
“May all crew please come to the Multiverse Map room. Again: all crew to the Multiverse Map room. That includes you, Shockwave. Science can wait until we’re stable.” Hot Rod made the announcement over the ship’s system, closing it off before snickering to himself.
Laserbeak was the first one to arrive, dropping down from a vent. “We’re leaving this empty place?”
Hot Rod held his arm out, but Laserbeak shook his head, landing on the console. “Yeah, something is wrong here.”
“Aside from the vast emptiness of space?”
Hot Rod nodded, leaning against the map’s console. “We’re heading towards a massive energy spike; bigger than anything we’ve ever seen. It’s actually flagged in the ship’s system as something to avoid.” Hot Rod pulled up the alert, as well as the graph that Perceptor had on the Datapad the day before. They lined up perfectly, once scaled correctly.
“Any idea what it is?” Laserbeak tilted his head, hopping closer to the display.
Hot Rod shook his head; “Not a clue. But if it had the Quintessons running away…”
“It can’t be good.” Laserbeak looked back at Hot Rod. Despite not having a human face, Hot Rod could tell he was frowning.
Perceptor came in, followed closely by Dead End. Neither said anything, instead approaching the console; Perceptor taking a cord from his wrist to plug into the console. Dead End stood close to his friend, leaning forward with both hands against the console. He watched as Perceptor pulled up various things, ranging from everyone’s location on the ship, to the current energy levels of the engine. Clobber and Whirl followed soon after, discussing something that Hot Rod didn’t think to pay attention to. Knowing them, it was probably about the Terrans.
Hot Rod internally groaned thinking about the Terrans. They were tiny, and had human… friends? Were they friends or simply teammates? Or were they something more, like… Hot Rod glanced at Laserbeak, who huffed.
Humans were weak, fragile, tiny, and – to borrow a word from Soundwave – inferior. Yet the Terrans treated the humans with the same familiarity that Soundwave did to Laserbeak. It was dangerous to the humans. Cybertronians and humans didn’t belong in the same space together. Earth was the human planet, and Cybertron was the Cybertronian planet.
“Cybertronians, Superior. Earthians, Inferior.”
Hot Rod snorted, turning away from Laserbeak. He looked damn smug for a bird, holding his head high.
“Let me guess, Laserbeak just said something funny?”
“He quoted Soundwave.”
Dead End rolled his eyes, Clobber looked confused, Perceptor actually succeeded in stifling his laughter, Whirl did not. Somehow, Laserbeak managed to look even more proud.
“What’s so funny?”
Everyone looked to the door to see Soundwave standing there, with his family.
Everyone lost it at that. Hot Rod clung to the console, burying his face in his arms. Laserbeak fell backwards, crashing to the ground in a fit of screeching laughs. Dead End had his face buried in his hands, shaking his head, trying his hardest to hide his laughter. Perceptor had crouched to the floor, keeping one hand on the wire connecting him to the console. Whirl was clining to Clobber, adding new scratches to her frame, while she still looked confused. She was chuckling softly though, caught up in everyone else’s laughter.
“Laserbeak! Summoner of Soundwaves!” Hot Rod managed to spit out between laughs. That finally got Dead End to lose it.
“Damnit Hot Rod!” Dead End sat on the floor next to Perceptor, curling in on himself but still laughing. “Fucking summoner of Soundwaves, sweet Primus…” Dead End was still shaking his head, Perceptor falling over to lean against him while laughing.
The rest of the Decepticons, as well as the Terrans and humans showed up by the time the original six had settled down; all of them having collapsed to the floor from laughing too hard. Clobber being the exception. She was just laying on the floor with Whirl.
No one questioned why they were laughing, instead opting to stand in corners, by the walls, or perching in the rafters. Twitch was eyeing them suspiciously from her perch as they all finally started standing back up. Dead End made sure Perceptor didn’t pull the cord out; Clobber helped Whirl stand, though with much difficulty from both parties; and Hot Rod righted Laserbeak, allowing him to jump onto the console himself.
“So, dear captain, precisely why are we here?” Starscream finally asked, condescension dripping from his voice.
Hot Rod reset his vocalizer, coughing as he remembered to breathe, “So, we are here because we are leaving this dimension.” He once again pulled up the huge map, indicating which dimensions the ship had been to already. Most of them were labeled with a big red “GUILTY” in the Quintesson language. “As you can see, this dimension is empty. The only reason we ended up here is because, well, I rolled the dice during our… Departure.” Hot Rod glared at the Terrans as he said this, only the little human femme met his glare. “We’re going to be rolling the dice again, but now we know that this plane has nothing in it and should be avoided at all costs.”
“Really? What about the giant energy spike you Autobots found?” Soundwave asked, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall. Frenzy was matching his pose. It was kind of cute.
“The energy spike, according to Quintesson logs, is dangerous.” Perceptor stated, pulling up the two graphs, as well as a rough translation of the logs he had found.
“If the Quintessons are running from it, it’s likely something that can kill them. Which, while good, also means it has free will. And unless we go back to our own plane and doom an entirely different Cybertron, we’re not getting a cortex helm anytime soon.” Dead End stated, “plus, the only ones here who have combat experience against Quintessons are all against mind control.”
Hot Rod turned his gaze to Dead End; “Yeah. Violently.” Laserbeak screeched, perching on Hot Rod’s shoulder while also glaring at Dead End.
Dead End put his hands up; “We were all on the same side once. We’re all on the same side now.”
Starscream scoffed; “And how do we know that you Autobots aren’t mind controlling the decepticons of your world? Seems pretty convenient if you ask me.”
“Excuse me?!” Hot Rod spun to face Starscream, Laserbeak squawking in surprise at the sudden movement.
“Don’t presume to know about our universe. Once upon a time there were no Decepticons or Autobots.” Dead End stepped toward Starscream, glancing at Clobber and Whirl who moved closer to Hot Rod. “We were all brothers in arms once, fighting against the senate who wanted to implement such methods. Optimus wanted them to go to prison, Megatron wanted them dead. That was why we were divided. Optimus had trouble admitting that some enemies could not be saved, were not worth saving.” Dead End relaxed, glancing back to see Hot Rod petting Laserbeak; “Our Megatron lost himself to the appeal of power, and he paid the price.” Dead End nodded to Clobber and Whirl, Clobber resting a hand on Hot Rod’s arm while Whirl settled in on the other side of Hot Rod. “Optimus extended an olive branch to Tarn, and it cost a bot his life. A Decepticon had to die for the sake of Cybertron before Optimus finally realized that not everyone thinks like him, and not everyone is worth saving.”
Dead End heard Clobber whispering to Hot Rod, trying to calm him down. He also noticed that Soundwave flinched.
Notes:
Firstly: Everyone, say "thank you" to my boyfriend, who has to put up with me showing him this fic, and also spouting random Transformers-related thoughts at him. He is well aware that these gay robots have me in a chokehold (he also blames himself as he is the one who introduced me to Transformers)
Secondly: My boyfriend was like "Wait, how did Soundwave get in the Engine room?" The Answer: VENTS. Cyberverse has vents big enough for a normal-sized cybertronian to crawl through (Starscream does it in one episode), and with Ravage, Frenzy, and Laserbeak spending most of their time in said vents, he knew where to go from them.
Chapter Text
Aside from a slight ship-wide rattle and woozy feeling, the jump to the new universe was smooth. The map lit up with information about the universe, filling in the plane they were on with all the variations of the chosen universe. All in the Quintesson language. Soundwave watched as Perceptor scrunched up his face, forcing the language to change. It was the Autobot language, of course.
“Alright, looks like the war is still going on in this universe.” Hot Rod sighed, slowly translating the read-out to the Decepticon language. “And they’re still on Earth… This is going to be a universal constant, isn’t it?” Hot Rod glanced at Perceptor.
The blind bot shrugged; “I hope not. We shouldn’t co-habitat with such a fragile species.”
“Especially those of us that are blind.” Dead End added, snorting. He earned a smack from Perceptor.
Hot Rod sighed; “He is right Percy. You were still on Cybertron while we hunted for the Allspark, and now without your optics…” Hot Rod paused in his translating, looking at Laserbeak before turning back to the console. “There were times when I would sneak out to join human races, Optimus always scolded me when I got back.”
“Oh yeah. Soundwave was always scolded by Megatron because he liked human music.” Everyone looked at Clobber. “Humans apparently have a festival for music.”
Laserbeak rolled his eyes, and with another sigh Hot Rod went back to translating the information.
They were all so sincere. Didn’t they know how to keep secrets? Didn’t they have shame? Didn’t they
Soundwave shook his head. He had been spiraling like that since joining. It was inconvenient.
“So…” Starscream started, walking towards the console; “Do we have any idea what lies in store for us? What’s the plan? Ransack the planet for all its Energon?”
Hot Rod chuckled, “No, no. We’ll drop by, set up some solar panels, the humans will grab some food, and once everything is all set we’ll look for the Decepticons and Autobots and warn them.”
Everyone was quiet. Shockwave glanced at Soundwave, who nodded. “Is that really the entire plan? No plans to leave the humans here?”
“As much as I would like to leave them on Earth, these humans are kids, and leaving kids in an active warzone is generally a bad idea. Especially ones who are part of an extremely fragile species.” Hot Rod sounded annoyed, casting a glare at the human children.
That was fair enough. The smaller the species, the more fragile they were. Frenzy and Rumble didn’t even have the ability to regulate her temperature. If it got too cold, the Energon in her lines would freeze. Ravage and Laserbeak had the ability to regulate their temperature, but they lacked the ability of most normal mechs. He always worried about Frenzy, she was so fragile just like Rumble, so fragile, it shouldn’t have happened. A normal mech
Soundwave resets his vocalizer; “And what is your plan if they take action? Or if there’s another G.H.O.S.T division in this realm?”
Hot Rod scrunched up his face, looking between Soundwave and the console; “You know what? I’m going to leave looking for human things to you. Coming up with a battleplan will be left to Starscream, you know Megatron best. Optimus only needs to see we have humans with us and he’ll back down.”
The Decepticons stared in surprise, glancing at each other. Soundwave took a deep breathe; “Understood.”
Starscream smiled; “Decepticons! Grab your weapons and be ready in case our landing is noticed!” The Decepticons cheered loudly, startling the Terrans and humans.
Hot Rod chuckled, shaking his head as the Decepticons ran out of the room to grab weapons. Starscream and Shockwave walked off together, talking about a potential battle plan. Soundwave stood there for another minute, turning to leave. “Hold on there, Soundwave!”
Soundwave stops, looking to Hot Rod.
“I think you might get more information out of the console here. It’s capable of connecting to any human technology.”
Soundwave huffed; “You expect human things to be useful to me?”
Hot Rod smirked; “You’d be surprised what you can learn from using Human’s tools against them.” He glanced at Hashtag; “Besides, I think you have a little team to help you.” Hot Rod left then, followed by the rest of the crew.
Soundwave stood there as the door closed, slowly looking back at the Terrans and humans. They were fragile. Like Rumble, like Frenzy. He was bad luck. He shouldn’t be near them. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad
“So, uh… You can hack things?” The purple one… Hashtag, her name is Hashtag. She helped them once. Asked.
“Monitor. Human security protocols are lacking.” Soundwave turned away from them, walking towards the console. Frenzy, Laserbeak, and Ravage followed; Frenzy climbing up onto the console, mindful of the buttons.
“So, boss-bot, what are we observing?”
Soundwave looked at Frenzy. “Really?”
Frenzy laughed, “Oh, come on! That was funny! I’m funny!” She suddenly gasped; “Hey! Do you think we can connect to our world? Oh man! Megatron would be so up-”
“ABSOLUETLY NOT!” Soundwave snapped, slamming a hand down on the console. He glared at Frenzy’s cowering frame before shaking his head. “No. You’re not taunting them. They’re no longer our problem.” If he could he would flip the console over.
“Okay… Sorry.” Frenzy sat on the edge of the console.
She was genuinely sorry.
“Just…” Soundwave took another deep breath; Ravage and Laserbeak joining Frenzy; “Just.” Soundwave focused back in on the console.
-----
They were able to see this Earth now, and Soundwave still hadn’t found anything concrete on the existence of the Autobots and Decepticons, or anything related to secret military groups that might be hunting them. The Terrans and humans weren’t helping, instead just hanging around in a corner, talking amongst themselves or playing games. He didn’t care to find out which it was. Hashtag was the exception, standing next to him, peering over the edge of the console.
“So…” Hashtag started. Soundwave looked down at her, not saying anything. “Do you need any help?”
With a small growl, Soundwave reached down and picked her up, eliciting a little squeak from the Terran. “Rules of being on a console: Stay away from the display source. Don’t step on the buttons. Be mindful of where the edge is.” He held her with her feet on the lip of the console, where there were no buttons and she could lean against him.
Hashtag stood there for a minute, clearly surprised as he let her go and moved over to a different part. Frenzy looked up, tilting her head. “There are more rules, but those are the basics.” Laserbeak and Ravage were next to her, on a thin bar with no buttons. A seam, one of the safer places for cassettebots to sit.
“Right, right…” Hashtag took a deep breath and began working, looking up videos from small accounts, seemingly more interested in looking for things that fit the description of robots than actually finding out about military companies. “Think I might have found something.”
Soundwave’s head tilted as she played the video. There wasn’t much, a human walking in the woods, freaking out.
“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!”
“Hey!” Mo jumped up from where she was; “We’re not supposed to watch videos like that!”
“Shut up.”
“But those are-”
Soundwave turned his glare on them. “You’re not helping, you don’t get a say. Shut. Up.”
The humans and Terrans wilted, huddling back into their corner. Soundwave turned back to the display, motioning for Hashtag to continue.
“Okay, so, here’s the deal: Me and my bro-”
“Hey there!”
“Were out here, looking for Mothman, and we found him!”
The Camera spun around to show a dark forest, seemingly empty. Then they saw it, purple lights set in a pattern, moving, slowly. Mechanical whirring, somehow much louder than the footsteps of the Cybertronian. A decepticon symbol caught a glimmer of moonlight, reflecting brightly against the dark form. The creature turned slowly, head tilting. Where a face should have been, there was instead a screen, flashing bright white, causing the humans to flinch.
A sudden, horrific, metallic screeching came from the beast.
“OH SHIT!”
“GO, GO, GO, GO!”
The humans turned and ran.
Hashtag closed the video, looking at Soundwave. “There’s more.” She pulled up a few newspapers clipping from a place called “Griffon Rock”. Soundwave huffed, seeing the painfully obvious Autobot symbol on the bots. “The article claims they’re some sort of advanced rescue machines, aimed to aid humans in dangerous tasks.”
“Any mention of Decepticons?”
Hashtag shook her head; “No. No mention of Autobots Either. Just some guy called Doctor Morocco.”
“Is he like Mandroid?”
Soundwave turned to glare at the Terrans. Thrash has spoken up, shrinking back. They were all looking at him. “Who is Mandroid?”
Hashtag groaned; “Don’t even get me started on that jerk! He wanted to combine humans and cybertronians, and he also puppeteered my body around to try and kill my family! My family!” She looked positively indignant.
Soundwave looked back at the monitor. “If he’s the only thing we have to deal with, landing there is our best bet.”
So they were family. Like him. She almost suffered the same fate as he did. She was lucky. No one deserved to hurt like that. No one but Megatron.
Soundwave shook his head. “Come on, let’s go tell Hot Rod.” He moved to the door, keeping it open until everyone had filed out.
<< Primary Directive: Keep the small ones safe. >>
Notes:
Ha ha. Learning more about Soundwave :3
Also, wow, Hot Rod be trusting these guys quickly!
May try my hand at Stracream nest chapter, idk. We will see.
Chapter Text
Starscream was absolutely giddy with excitement. Hot Rod, who had only known him for a week, had put him in charge of coming up with a battle plan. Sure, the chances of something going wrong was slim, but it was always better to be prepared than not.
Megatron never thought like that. Always coming up with crazy last-minute plans that always resulted in us retreating. Starscream growled, remembering every defeat. And the incident. Primus the incident. Part of Starscream wanted to ask Soundwave how he was holding up after it happened, but Megatron betrayed them before he could ask, and everything went to pit. Asking at this point, after so long, was rude. The four of them seemed to be doing fine now, especially since they left Megatron behind.
Starscream raised a brow as he finally joined the others at the entrance. He wasn’t the last, as Soundwave still wasn’t present, but he was confused. Hot Rod had a blaster, that was a very familiar shade of blue.
Starscream smirked; “Captain Hot Rod, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but where did you get that blaster? It quite clashes with your paint.” He watched as Hot Rod’s little group of friends stiffened, while the other decepticons took notice. Some started snickering.
“It’s from my Soundwave.” Hot Rod replied. Flat, not looking up from said blaster.
Okay. That was…
“And that’s why we don’t bathe Ravage!” Frenzy chimed in, strutting down the hall with the Terrans and human in tow. Said cat was stalking at the back of the group, water dripping from her joints. Her ears were back, and she looked furious. “Hey guys! Soundwave’s going to be a little late. Ravage bit him.”
Hot Rod looked up; “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did Ravage bite him?”
“Oh!” Frenzy chuckled; “Well, Ravage is a cat and uh… she thinks licking herself counts as cleaning.” As Frenzy finished, Ravage pounced on her, eliciting a yelp from the small femme.
“Enough.”
Ravage jumped away from Frenzy at Soundwave’s voice. His left arm now sported tiny puncture marks. “Whoever decided that bathing was absolutely necessary, your days are numbered.”
Starscream rolled his eyes; “It was my idea, if you must know. And it was backed up by Perceptor and Shockwave.”
“Of course, the two bots staying behind.”
Hot Rod finally put the blaster away; “the Laserbeak from my dimension is also staying behind. He’s going to watch over the Terrrans and humans.”
Perceptor tilted his head; “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“No, he knows how fragile humans are.” As if to prove his point, Laserbeak quietly landed next to the small human femme, warbling at her quietly. “He says he’ll make sure no one steps on you.”
“Um… Thanks?” Mo stared at Laserbeak, who perked up.
“Hey! That’s no fair!”
“Yeah!” Twitch and Robby stepped forward, staring defiantly at Hot Rod. “We all have combat experience! We should be going with you!”
Hot Rod stared at her, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “The only reason you’re here is because you snuck onto my ship. Children, especially humans, should not be fighting things where one misstep gets the human killed.”
“He has a point.” Soundwave moved past the humans and Terrans; “Frenzy, you will also stay here.”
Frenzy groaned; “Fine” She wasn’t pleased, but she knew better than to argue.
“Wait, we don’t want to stay here with a bunch of Decepticons!” Robby yelled, stepping closer to the exit.
“I’ll be here!” Perceptor yelled back, clearly offended.
“You’re blind!”
“Hey!” Dead End glared at Robby, putting an arm in front of Perceptor; “He may not have optics likes the rest of us, but he’s still a good shot. So you either stay with him or you run the risk of getting killed.”
“We’re at risk of getting killed anyways!”
“And why would I bother with that?” Shockwave finally spoke, “We’ve already dealt a massive blow to Megatron by kidnapping you, so killing you would serve no purpose beyond creating a mess, and likely getting thrown off this ship. It is illogical to continue fighting you humans and Terrans.” With that, he walked off, likely back to the labs.
Perceptor shrugged, “He has a point.” He stayed near the wall until he was sure he was past the Terrans and humans, and followed Shockwave.
The Terrans stood there, all of them looking displeased as they looked between Hot Rod and the hallway. “Alrighty, come on bitties! Follow auntie Frenzy!” Robby opened his mouth, clearly about to protest; “Ah, ah! No arguments! Your options are to stay here or follow me and do fun things. Your choice~!” With that, she turned and left, humming to herself.
“Laserbeak.” Both versions of the bird looked to Soundwave; “The one staying here.” The Laserbeak that hung out with Hot Rod was slightly smaller than Soundwave’s own Laserbeak, perking up now that he knew he was being talked to; “Frenzy has a habit of pestering Megatron and the Autobots. Keep her from doing that.” The smaller Laserbeak nodded, flapping his wings and taking off to follow her. “Hashtag…”
The Terran startled, staring up at Soundwave.
“Help Laserbeak. I don’t… Distract her with something.” With that he walked off the ship, getting clear and transforming to take off into the air.
“Huh.”
Everyone looked to Starscream, who looked at where Soundwave had run off to and back at Hashtag. “Huh…” He looked back out the exit. “I should probably talk to Shockwave later.”
Notes:
Sorry this chapter is so clunky, I had many thoughts and they refused to untangle.
And yes, Cyberverse Hot Rod has Soundwave's blaster. It wasn't used very much by Soundwave (it's also not used much by Hot Rod), but it is intimidating :3
How did he get it? Probably Laserbeak. And yes, The Cyberverse crew is likely smaller than the Earthspark crew. Not by much, but just enough to tell the difference between the laserbeaks!
Anyways, as a question:
Should I change the spelling of one of the Laserbeaks name's?
The change would be "Laserbeak" --> "Lazerbeak"
Chapter Text
Soundwave had no idea why he asked Hashtag to distract Frenzy. She would probably encourage Frenzy’s taunting.
“Ravage, Laserbeak: Scan the island for Energon crystals.” It made sense for them to look around for Energon Crystals. Both could easily blend in with the local fauna, and both were skilled enough to escape in an emergency.
“And what about you? What does my little Sparkpup plan to do?”
Soundwave wanted to roll his eyes. Ravage would never give up that little nickname. “I plan to see where the Decepticons are. I’m much better at stealth in this form.”
He could feel Ravage’s disapproval.
“I don’t plan to engage with them. I may leave a note on a terminal about the Quintessons.”
“So you’re speeding along Hot Rod’s plan?”
“The sooner we get everything done, the better.” Ravage wasn’t convinced. “The sooner we leave, the less chance of gaining more stowaways.” It was a simple. They spent too long in their home dimension, allowing the Humans and Terrans to not only find the ship, but also sneak on to likely sabotage it and also spy on them.
Soundwave’s Engines sputtered as he realized something. They wanted to spy on the Decepticons. They planted cameras somewhere on the ship. They were listening and spying and
“Soundwave!”
Frenzy’s cry shook him from his spiral. “Frenzy, new order: See if there are any cameras that shouldn’t be there. Look in personal quarters, isolated hallways, the storage bay. Anywhere mechs would want to gather to discuss secrets or plot something.”
“You got it!”
Soundwave was dangerously close to the water, but it was fine. He didn’t mind flying this low, it actually benefitted his current frame. He thought about his previous frame: it had been some sort of music player that he scanned in a hurry. Aside from being relatively small, it lacked the stealth he was used to. A flying box wasn’t exactly something common on this planet. It had only been 4 human years in that frame, but it came with so many problems. His fellow Decepticons liked to push his buttons.
Quite literally.
His previous frame had included buttons and dials that were a little too close to certain parts for his liking, and some of the others who had managed to leave Earth had actually taken an interest in him, and decided to press said buttons. Thankfully, Megatron had stopped it.
Would he stop it if it happened now? Would they try to hunt him down? Did they even know Megatron had betrayed them?
Soundwave banked left, dipping his wing into the water. They had lived under the ocean for so long, he’d never thought he’d miss it. As much as he hated this planet, the ocean was beautiful, filled with so many creatures of various sizes. Even humans found the Ocean irresistible. The only ocean they really had on Cybertron was made of rust, and was deadly. Sure, this ocean could rust them, but it would take much longer than humans lived. It would also require the Cybertronian to completely neglect their own care.
Soundwave leveled out, flying straight once again. There were no Decepticons on that tiny island, only Autobots. Hot Rod could warn them, and he’d warn the Decepticons. As soon as he found them.
A little ping should be enough. Soundwave smirked internally. A small, encoded distress ping, specifically reading as Decepticon was sent out.
“Soundwave? You good?”
“Hatchling?”
“Soundwave! Are you okay?! Who is trying to-”
“Relax!” Right, of course his family would be the first to see his ping; “It’s meant to alert the decepticons of this universe.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” Frenzy’s concern was warranted. If the video was any indication, the Decepticons of this world were the type to attack first and ask questions later.
“It’s my own code. If they can’t read it, THEN we have a problem.” Soundwave could decode his own work. If the Decepticons of this world couldn’t decode it, then that meant they didn’t have a Soundwave. It would be a problem then.
Soundwave felt his plating ruffle as the air shifted. Something wasn’t right. Soundwave managed to catch a glimpse of green above him before banking to the right, dodging a blaster. Hie enemy looked like a Cybertronian drone. It was sleek, dark, and had purple lights.
“Scrap.”
“Sparkpup?”
“It’s fine. I got this.”
“Sound-”
Soundwave cut off the connection to his family. He’d get an earful from Ravage later, but that was fine. He could deal with it, he just needed to focus. “Calm down” Soundwave had to dodge another blaster shot, soaring into the air; “I said calm down! I’m not looking for a fight!”
<<”Purpose”>>
It wasn’t a question, and it clearly wasn’t the bots own voice. It was a recording. Great, a bot that couldn’t speak. “I’m here to warn you! Apparently-” Another flash of green. Soundwave went to bank to the right but was cut off by blaster fire, slamming into the green thing before he could stop. His sensors alerted him of a wall right in front of him. Transforming quickly, he dug his claws into the floor as he skidded to a halt. Looking back, the drone came though the portal and transformed. It was the bot from the video. “Okay, I might be in trouble.”
Silence.
“Ravage?”
Soundwave was sure the connection was open, yet nothing was coming through. He glared at the bot; “What did you do?!” He raised his hand, ready to strike whoever this was down right here and now.
“My, you’re quite eager to fight.”
Soundwave stiffened. He looked to his left. A huge bot sat on a huge throne; he was silver and spiky, and had red eyes. Actually, looking around the space…
“Well done, Soundwave. Tell me, what threat do you know of?”
SCRAP. “Lord Megatron?”
“Indeed. To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
Soundwave sighed. He couldn’t contact his family, so he probably couldn’t contact anyone else, Autobot of Decepticon. “You’re not going to believe it, but I’m Soundwave. From another universe.”
Megatron didn’t move. Not much anyways. His eyes darted to the other Soundwave, whose nod was so subtle, it was almost missed. Megatron sighed; “Presuming you are speaking the truth, you mentioned a “Great Danger” in your message. Perhaps we could turn it against the Autobots?”
He wanted to turn the Quintessons against the Autobots? That was good. It meant this Megatron was still willing to fight, this Megatron wouldn’t betray them.
No, bad idea. The Quintessons were led by the Scientist. Megatron would give anything to win. Soundwave would be sacrificed to get the Quintessons on their side. He couldn’t do that. He couldn’t hurt Frenzy that way, not again
“Negative.” Soundwave stated, crossing his arms. “The threat is called “Quintessons”. They have no interest in working with our kind. We are food to them.”
Megatron laughed suddenly; loud and booming; shaking Soundwave to his core. He watched as Megatron stood, towering over Soundwave. Megatron had always been taller than Soundwave, but he wasn’t used to having to crane his head to look Megatron in the eyes.
He’s tall. He needs to run. He needs Ravage. Wants Ravage. Where is Ravage? Where’s his carrier? She promised to always be with him, she promised revenge; she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised, she promised
Megatron slammed a hand down on Soundwave’s shoulder rattling his entire frame and his mind. This was Megatron, not Prime. “Your fear is misplaced, small Soundwave.”
Rude
“We are strong. Let the Quintessons come, we will beat them!”
The room erupted into cheers as Megatron raised his fist. Soundwave looked to the version of himself that belonged here. He hadn’t moved, instead observing him. If that Soundwave was going to observer him, he was going to observe back. The cheering died down as Soundwave focused on his other self. He hadn’t spoken at all, just stared. He moved slowly with the practiced patience of a bot that was used to watching where they stepped.
Soundwave could only hope this Megatron didn’t betray these Decepticons.
His Betrayal would make the war personal.
Notes:
PRIMEVERSE LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(I haven't watched any episode of Prime. I just know Soundwave is a creechur, Knock Out is gay, and his husband dies.)
Fun fact: I had to look up Stealth bombers and when they started being made. Soundwave's form seems to be inspired by the B-2 Spirit, with some modifications. This bomber was first flown in 1989; so presuming the Autobots and Decepticons landed on Earth in 1983/84, Soundwave's Cassette player form would have only been in use for 4 years. Meaning he has been a stealth bomber for longer than he's been a Cassette player.
And he still gets called "Analogue boy" by the Autobots.
Chapter 10
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Hot Rod wasn’t sure why he expected things to go well. So far, his life had been nothing but chaotic; one terrible accident after another. Everything so far had been going well, they set up the solar panels without issue, and collected energon without issue. Sure, the bots Soundwave had told him about showed up, but after a brief explanation of what they were doing and why; as well as questioning why they were working with humans; said bots left. It wasn’t that eventful; the eventful part came from when he returned to the ship.
Ravage was pacing the entrance, pausing and looking up as Hot Rod rolled up. He transformed back to his base mode, walking up to the entrance, giving a clearly disappointed Ravage a quick greeting before heading back inside. He made his way to the storage bay, now filled with crates of Energon. They still needed to go to the mainland and get food for the humans. He hoped they could handle that themselves; it seemed like the greater world wasn’t aware of Cybertronians. “Hey, has anyone seen Starscream?” he should probably make sure everyone was ready to leave the island.
“I think he’s in the map room with Shockwave and the Cassettes.” It was some sort of multi-legged mech. Tarantulas, if Hot Rod recalled correctly.
“Cool! Thanks leggy!”
“That’s not my name.” Hot Rod heard the bot mutter as he left, heading towards the map room.
Sure enough, Shockwave, Starscream, and the other two Cassettes were there; as well as the Terrans. “Hey guys!” He waved, startling all of them from looking at a display of the Earth they were currently on. It looked weird, like there were wires and various other mechanical elements deep underground. “What’s going on?”
“Well…” Frenzy started, looking to Starscream and Shockwave.
Starscream stepped forward; “Have you heard anything from Soundwave?”
“Uhh… No…” Hot Rod’s smiled fell; his normally happy expression giving way to horror; “What’s going on? Is he okay?!” Soundwave had to be okay. He was strong. Not even Megatron could keep him down. He knew, he could always tell. He was the best Decepticon.
Starscream put his hand up; “Calm down. We don’t know anything yet. We know that he got into a minor scuffle and closed his connection off to the Cassettes.”
“Wait, you can do that?” Hashtag asked, perking up.
“Yeah, we can.” Frenzy replied, sighing. “He usually doesn’t do it because he will get lectured by Ravage, but when he needs to focus – and we aren’t in danger – he will do it. Thing is, he usually doesn’t do it for this long.”
“What do you mean?”
Frenzy shook her head; “Soundwave closed it off shortly after leaving. He hasn’t opened it up since.” Frenzy leaned over, glancing at the door behind Hot Rod; “Ravage is uh… She’s in a state.”
Hot Rod huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose; “Okay… Well, at least there are only two options: The Autobots or the Decepticons. We find them-”
“ehhhhh…”
Hot Rod looked at Hashtag. “Please don’t.”
“There… may be another… group we may have to… consider?” Hot Rod groaned at Hashtag’s confession, Shockwave and Starscream glaring at her.
“I thought you checked for G.H.O.S.T systems.” Starscream looked furious.
“We did!” Hashtag defended. “There’s no G.H.O.S.T-related systems, but I… may… have hacked into government systems, and-”
“Hashtag!”
“What?! We weren’t finding anything the legal way!”
“So you went the illegal way?!”
“Yes! And lucky I did because MECH is worse than G.H.O.S.T! They’re not even an official government group!” Hashtag defended herself from her sister, throwing her hands up.
Hot Rod let out a whining groan, dragging his hands down his face. “Okay, first we check the Decepticons, then MECH, then the Autobots.”
“Why the Autobots last?”
Hot Rod looked at Frenzy with a blank expression; “Remember who we are talking about and ask me that again.”
Frenzy blinked for a minute; “Right. Soundwave. Let’s find the Decepticons!” Frenzy stood up, carefully hopping off the console. “I’ll go tell Ravage!” With that she ran off.
“Okay…” Hot Rod looked to Starscream; “Is there any way to figure out where Soundwave is right now?”
Starscream smirked, crossing his arms and cocking his hip; “You really think G.H.O.S.T – let alone Megatron – trusted us to go off on our own? We all have trackers.” Starscream walked over to the console, waving a dismissive hand at Hot Rod.
“I’m sorry- You have WHAT?!”
------
Decoding some ancient language. That’s all he was doing right now. Apparently, they were looking for some artifacts for some reason. Soundwave didn’t blame them for not trusting him with the full mission yet, he was technically unknown to them.
It didn’t help that Megatron stood behind him, watching him closely. Looming over him instead of watching Starscream or Shockwave.
They were all so tall. Why did they all have to be so tall?! He hated it. Stop staring at him. Stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring, stop staring…
“How long do you plan on keeping me here?” Might as well rip the proverbial weld open. He turned to look at Megatron. “I have to get back to my family.”
Megatron glared down at him, letting out a soft chuckle; “When the job is done, my small friend. When the job. Is. Done.” He turned and left; steps thundering as he retreated, hands held behind his back.
Where was he even going? They were in the main area as far as Soundwave could tell. With a heavy sigh, Soundwave returned to the monitor, helping his counterpart once again. He was really tall, just like all the others. “So… You’re me…” He cast a glance at the dark Soundwave, who hadn’t made any move to look at him. “Where are the rest of them?”
For the first time since arriving, Soundwave saw his counterpart freeze. He heard typing stop, vents hitch, as silence befell the room.
Did he… say something wrong?
His darker counterpart turned to face Soundwave now, slow, barely contained. He stood straight, not hunched over like he usually was. One step. One step and he was in front of Soundwave, head tilted down to stare. His visor flickered to life then, playing a video.
Soundwave watched, horrified, backing away as the video played.
<< PLAYING LOG: UNKNOWN>>
Soundwave was staring down at a small bot. It looked like some type of bat, if it were made of knives. Wings made of sharp metal plates, and face pointed much like Laserbeak’s. He was once a beautiful creature, clearly made for stealth, a matte coating now peeled away. The wings that were once sharp enough to cut lines in a living bot now bent and cracked, twisting and turning in ways no living bot’s body should. If he had legs, they were gone, dark blue energon holding barely any glow covering much of the ground. Soundwave pressed a sharp finger into the head of the creature, the single eye flickering before going dark.
Next was a cat; Ravage; covering two humanoid frames. Rumble and Frenzy, for sure. Ravage was clearly dead, half of her body completely gone. Soundwave was gentle in removing her, setting her aside. Glass fell from some sort of screen that made up the top part of her face, exposing the skeletal frame beneath.
The first humanoid was small, and had once been blueish in color. His visor, which came down to a point, was broken, as was his helm. Much like the cat, his skeletal frame was exposed; dimmed energon pouring from an open eye socket that no longer held an optic. The other was dim.
A cough came from the last bot, who attempted to turn over himself. When he couldn’t Soundwave turned him over to look at him. Much like the previous two, his visor was broken, but this time it was only his visor. Glowing red optics attempted to focus on Soundwave. When one finally did, the little bot smiled, reaching out for Soundwave. The bot’s eyes widened, the smile falling as his optics dimmed, his hand falling to the ground. Looking down, Soundwave’s hand was stabbed through the bot’s torso, right through his spark.
<<END LOG: UNKNOWN>>
His counterpart’s screen returned to black and he stepped back, returning to his work of decoding whatever it was they were decoding. The sounds of typing and vents resumed, though the air was still tense; vehicons casting quick, frightened glances at Soundwave’s darker counterpart. Externally, Soundwave was fine. As still as his counterpart was known to be, seemingly unbothered. It wasn’t true though. This darker counterpart of him was horrible, a monster, in all sense of the word. He had hunted down and killed those cassettes, and then took Laserbeak away to work with him. He probably didn’t even care about the poor bird.
Eventually, Soundwave returned to his share of decoding, casting quick glances at this darker version of Laserbeak. The poor guy deserved freedom, not being tied to the one who murdered his family.
-----------
Hot Rod glared out at the planet. He didn’t hate Earth, he loved it, but he would prefer if its inhabitants weren’t so fragile. Him and Soundwave had actually bonded over how cool Earth was, and that they wished humans weren’t so fragile. Or, at least, Hot Rod wished humans weren’t so fragile. Soundwave, apparently, wasn’t that concerned. Not about how fragile humans were, but he wasn’t concerned about stepping on them.
Something about Hot Rod’s confusion made Soundwave explain: He was used to dealing with creatures much smaller than him. Despite being a decepticon, and prone to being loud and… destructive, Soundwave knew how to watch his feet. Looking back, it made sense. Soundwave enjoyed dancing, he was so fun before the war that even the seekers danced with him.
Hot Rod missed those days. Things weren’t perfect, bots still fought, but the wounds of war were slow to heal. Hot Rod shook his head, clearing his mind. Now was not the time to get lost in memories, he had to find a place to land and then go looking for the decepticons of this world.
Hot Rod froze as the air in the flight control room shifted. Glancing around, he knew everyone else felt it. Their plating rattling, electricity dancing along their wires. Teleportation? No, some sort of bridge. A bridge that functioned similarly to a space bridge. Hot Rod could see everyone looking around, nervous. Hot Rod knew this feeling though… he knew he did…
“Moon Cheetah!”
Clobber looked at him, her single optic wide. “Huh? Wait, those things are-”
She wasn’t able to finish her question as a green, swirling vortex opened near the door. Everyone raised their weapons.
Hot Rod’s eyes widened at who came through.
“Optimus?”
Notes:
Ah Primeverse... The Trauma dimension. XD
Things will only get worse for them from here.
But once they leave the Primeverse, things will chill out (for a little while)
My boyfriend is helping me write this arc because lordy I do not know Prime.
All of you who came here because Earthspark is.... Earthspark, you will be pleased to know my boyfriend's reaction is "That's not Optimus. What have they done to my boy?! Wait, does Optimus know about any of this?! He's going to turn into bayverse Optimus as soon as he learns! WHY DID THEY DO THAT?! Oh, animation error! :D"
He is having a LOT of trouble comprehending that they have actual pro-Autobot propaganda in that universe (The comics). Bear in mind, I have shown him ONE episode (Decoy).
In good news: Cyberverse has grown on him. We did skip seasons 1 and 2, but that's fine. Cyberverse had a VERY rough start (But at least it nailed the landing).
Chapter 11: BONUS: look at some of me notes! :D
Summary:
These are some of the notes I have taken, mainly pertaining to Earthspark and Cyberverse.
This is mostly to tie y'all over (Because my Boyfriend is helping me type the Primeverse arc and we be cooking) and show y'all what is going on in my brain while I'm typing this.
Some implied stuff for Cyberverse, just as a heads up. Soundwave was really at the center of the rot. XD
Chapter Text
Earthspark notes:
- Hot Rod is apparently a smoker (Energon vapes??)
- Optimus prioritizes Humans and Autobots over Decepticons
- Sentinel encouraged harmful practices (Empurata, “Secretaries”, Functionalism, etc.) but was never open about taking part in such things/gave them a positive spin
- Sentinel was adept at Smear Campaigns
- Ratbat was secretive about personal life, though it is known that Ravage and Laserbeak worked for him, and Soundwave served as his secretary
- Publicly, Ratbat treated Ravage and Laserbeak as pets (in private, he knew how smart they were and valued that more than their forms)
- Publicly, Ratbat spoke derogatively (“Merchandise”, “plaything”, etc.) of Soundwave, praising his looks and claiming he “Was never one to share”. Privately, he found Soundwave’s ability (Lie detection) and work ethic more valuable than Soundwave’s looks
- Ratbat planned to escape (with Soundwave) as the war was winding up. An issue occurred (First violent protest, Megatron present, Optimus not) where his escape route lost power, and he died in an explosion
- Soundwave doesn’t like telling lies (side effect of his ability), so he will tell lies by speaking half-truths or omitting certain facts.
- The indication of one’s lying is Soundwave getting a headache. The severity of which depends on the severity of the lie
- Rumble and Frenzy were found by Soundwave in the slums while he was working for Ratbat. They were a couple of thieves, and made a mistake
- Ratbat’s worst crime is Embezzlement (Unknown to him and all others, he was technically an option for becoming a Prime because of this. He does actually care about others, and defends those who need defending; such as Soundwave and his family. He also just really likes money.)
Cyberverse notes:
- No Empurata surgery (Officially. Shockwave just be that way)
- Sentinel was not a “prime” but was elected (Election fraud?)
- Sentinel wanted to introduce culling of Outliers, Empurata, and other systems that would be negative.
-War started out as peaceful Decepticon protests, but upon not being heard turned violent
- Optimus and Megatron technically Won the war, but Megatron wanted to purge ALL of the ones in power (Council, Primes, Elected officials, etc.) while Optimus just wanted to imprison/punish the guilty
- There is racism, especially from jets (Most notably Starscream) towards car-based bots
- While neither side hates humans, the Decepticons view them as acceptable casualties, while the Autobots view them as something fragile and to be careful of (because they die easily)
- Hot Rod and Lazerbeak both got some powers after Soundwave’s death. Hot Rod can “overclock” (Overclocked, Overclocking), where he gets blue electricity running down his lines, his eyes glow, and his flames turn (Soundwave) blue/white. Lazerbeak got the sonic/noise blast, which is done through his beak
- The cosmic horrors (seeing yourself die horribly, cheating death, etc.) can, and will, be viewed as a part of daily life. This doesn’t mean it will be embraced/interacted with (Example: Universe three. AKA “Fuck, Unicron won.”)
- Still deciphering Quintesson (not exact, but they are getting closer and closer)
- Unicron doesn’t exist in this universe, so they cannot translate until there is a universe where the Autobots/Decepticons know about him
- Everyone is one bad day away from a downward spiral of “What if”/realizing every (major) choice they make gives birth to another universe (or ten)
- Hot Rod keeps track of blue Soundwaves because his soundwave told him to do something to ground himself (he just picked blue Soundwaves because it was something easy to keep track of)
-Quintesson tech/interactions do not spawn new universes (ie: there is no universe in Cyberverse where the Quintessons won, as that would cause a paradox)
Chapter 12
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“Optimus… Everyone, you’re going to want to see this!”
Everyone looked to Ratchet. It was uncommon for him to call them all over to the monitors, but not unheard of. Still, his phrasing drove icicles of worry into the humans. As they all gathered around the monitors, they saw what had gotten the medic’s attention: A strange, alien ship was spotted off the coast of some island Northeast of them; and it was heading towards the mainland.
“Woah! More robots?!” Miko was clearly excited at the idea. Either they’d get more allies, or have to fight a two-front war. She really didn’t care which.
“It is unlikely. I do not recognize the design of that ship, nor does it match any in the records.” Optimus stated, calm but commanding as ever.
The more concerning part was the ship wasn’t trying to hide at all. On each monitor was a different news outlet, talking about the ship, calling in everything from professionals to “professionals”.
“It won’t be long before the Decepticons find them.” Jack was practically glaring at the monitors. He couldn’t understand why these ones were being so blatant; he did know that Agent Fowler was going to have an absolute field day with this.
As if merely thinking about the agent called him, the proximity alarm activated; heralding the arrival of Agent Fowler himself.
“Prime! You want to tell me what in Washington’s teeth is- oh, you’re already aware.” Agent Fowler came storming off the lift, only to be met with the monitors displaying the news. “Good. Now what in Uncle Sam’s glorious beard are you going to do about this?”
Optimus nodded at Agent Fowler; “Excellent timing Agent, perhaps you’d be willing to assist us in coming up with a plan to deal with this unknown prescience.”
Fowler glared, not in actual anger but in surprise, reeling back from where he gripped the guard rail; “You mean you don’t even know what this is?!”
“We have never seen such technology before.” Ratchet interjected, “We also lack recordings and records of such technology. Simply put, it’s not Cybertronian in nature.”
Agent Fowler looked at the rest of the group; Arcee shrugged, Bumblebee gave a sad or confused beep; Bulkhead was the only one to speak.
“I’m not even sure I could smash it.” He began walking over to the comms console; “I can get Jackie in on this, just in case he’s seen anything out there.”
-----
“So you’re telling me that a Quintesson ship is now on Earth?” Wheeljack did not sound pleased, not in the slightest.
“Mind sharing with those of us that don’t read Cybertronian what Quintessons are?” Miko was leaning with her back against the railing now, staring at the monitors as drawings and writing filled each one.
“Mostly myth and rumors, nothing official, though we all know how rumors can turn out.” Wheeljack sighed; he was clearly busy with something. Optimus nodded, while Ratched shuddered, recalling what the legend of Dark Energon versus the reality. “The most common stories of the Quintessons and their ships is that they travel to a planet, stay there for a few months, then boom. The planet is empty. Not even bodies.”
“You mean like Unicron?” Raf asked, scrutinizing the drawings against the photographs.
“Not quite. Unicron, back in his legends, was a planet devourer. Literally eating entire solar systems. The Quintessons… Well, no one knows what they do.” He hissed at something, grumbling about bolts; “There’s a lot of conflicting information and hear-say. Some claim it’s an ark trying to preserve all life in the universe.”
“And what about the other rumors?” Jack asked, worry creeping into his voice.
“Eh, the usual. Some say it’s trying to exterminate all life. Some say it brings them to a higher dimension. Lots of psychobabble that makes no sense.” A loud crack had everyone jump; “SCRAPPING WRENCH!”
“Never a dull moment on Team Prime.”
-------
Hot Rod cautiously eyed the bots coming through the portal. A ground bridge. Cheetor used them while he was on Earth, but Hot Rod had never expected to see one again. “Usually you ask permission before coming onto a bot’s ship.”
Optimus continued to stare at him, clearly shocked. Three more bots came in behind him, one of which was clearly Bumblebee. The other two were unknown to…
“Hot Rod?” A huge, hulking, dark green bot whispered, almost like he was doubting himself. The sound of a transformation cog activating rang through the main hull, and the bot’s hands changed from maces back to their usual form.
“Yes… you are?” Hot Rod had never seen such a bot, one that was not only huge, but also had integrated weapons; at least ones that transformed.
“Bulkhead… You… How are you here?” the bot – Bulkhead – looked around at the other bots present, frowning; “And what are all these ‘Cons doing here?”
Ah, right. Hot Rod forgot for a moment that Autobots might not be that happy to see Decepticons. “They’re part of my crew.” Hot Rod would swear that Optimus’s eyes grew brighter, and he seemed to stand taller.
“You achieved peace during your time in space?” He sounded… Happy.
Hot Rod blinked, remembering the Optimus from his world. He too had been happy to see Decepticons and Autobots working together, even if Megatron wasn’t part of that equation. “On a technicality, yes.” Hot Rod motioned to Starscream; “These bots with the Decepticon insignia are not from the same world as me. They were being mistreated…”
“Oh really? And how does one mistreat a ‘Con?” The femme finally spoke up. While the others finally put their weapons away, she still had hers drawn; more concerning was her glare at Shockwave.
“Put us in a prison, brainwash us, force us to fight our own to earn Energon… anything else I’m missing, Shockwave?” Starscream hissed, crossing his arms as he sarcastically waved one hand at Shockwave. He was leaving things out, and he knew it.
“Generalized torture with the cuffs and stasis bolts, harvesting of parts from still living bots, experimentation not only on us but also humans, withholding information from Lord Megatron and Optimus Prime, extended periods of isolation, draining bots that lost of all their Energon to feed those of us still alive, desecration of corpses, and the trackers.” Sockwave counted everything out on his one hand, glancing towards Starscream; “I believe that is everything… Commander Starscream.”
Starscream made a face that could best be described as having just tasted Energon waste. The Autobots that came through the portal seemed shocked; “Pray tell, who committed these crimes against you? Should they ever come here, we will make sure they are punished appropriately by the right authorities.” Optimus stated, nodding at Starscream. A soft “click” was heard as Optimus’s battle mask was folded away from his face. “You have my word as a Prime.”
Starscream, Shockwave, and the rest of the Decepticons began looking at each other, before bursting into laughter. Hot Rod sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, I don’t think your promise means much to them when you were one of the bots that put them in that prison.”
Bulkhead and the femme looked at each other, exchanging looks of horror as they glanced at Optimus. Bumblebee shared their look of horror, though his expression was a mix of horror and confusion; like he couldn’t believe that Optimus Prime was capable of such a thing. Optimus, for his part, frowned; optics downcast as he took a deep breath, taking in the weight of Hot Rod’s statement. “I understand. You have every right to not trust me given your experience, however…” Optimus looked up, locking eyes with Starscream, who was finally calming down from his laughing fit; “I am not the same Prime as the one you left behind. I hold no hostility towards you, nor do I wish for my fellow Cybertronians to suffer. All I ask is that you respect the inhabitants of this planet while you are here.”
Starscream was still snickering, smirking as he took a few breaths to calm down fully. Once he did, he reset his vocalizer; “So, you’re only condition for helping us is that we don’t murder humans?”
“That is correct, Commander Starscream.”
Starscream hummed at this; “Those conditions are amendable. We are simply here to get our Soundwave back from wherever he is. You wouldn’t happen to have a blue bot who is filled with nothing but murderous rage in your custody, would you?”
Bulkhead and Bumblebee cast a glance at the femme, who looked offended; Optimus was unmoved, “We do not have a bot fitting of that description in our custody.”
“You know anyone who looks like an unmanned human drone, or a Cybertronian drone? The ones that fly?”
Optimus looked up, locking eyes with Frenzy. She was perched in the rafters along with the humans, the Terrans, the two Laserbeaks, and Ravage. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and the femme drew their weapons again.
“Woah, take it easy! I’m just asking a question.” Frenzy put her hands up, suddenly swinging back so she was hanging upside-down, craning her head to look at Optimus. “So, see anything like that?”
Optimus motioned to the other bots, all of whom tucked their weapons away. “I believe I know the bot you are referring to… though his involvement may complicate things.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that?” Frenzy asked, kicking her legs. Hot Rod glanced at Starscream, who was moving closer to the microbot.
“If my intuition is correct, the bot you are referring to is our own Soundwave.” Optimus’s tone was grim, like even he did not want this to be true.
“Would a visual help?” Hot Rod asked, not waiting much for a response. “Hashtag, think you could bring up the video you showed me?”
Hashtag nodded, muttering to herself; “Might not even be the same bot, but it’s better than nothing.” She quickly brought up the video she had found online, the one that showed the strange, lanky bot with the screen face and Decepticon insignia.
“Yep, that’s our Soundwave.” Bulkhead grumbled. Bumblebee gave his own opinion, in the form of whirring beeps and clicks. Both moved closer to the screen, watching Soundwave intimidate the humans.
Hashtag let out a cough, drawing attention to herself; “As I said before, it might not even be the same bot.”
Frenzy shrugged; “Sure it is.” She grabbed the rafter, curling up so her feet were under her before swinging herself and landing on Optimus, perching herself on his shoulder. Despite the drastic size difference, Optimus stiffened. “Boss-bot usually adds his own quirks to important messages, beyond the basic encoding. Something that only we would pick up on. My guess is that he tagged this one with the URGENT flag. It would explain why your Soundwave came out swinging.”
“Wait, their Soundwave attacked him?” Hot Rod asked, clearly worried.
“If your Soundwave had an encounter with our Soundwave, then it is likely he is already with Megatron.” Optimus stated, staring at the now paused video. Soundwave’s menacing frame loomed on the screen, blank visor staring back.
“Yeah, the question is if he’s a prisoner or if he’s working with them.” The femme added, resting a hand on her hip as she glared at the image of Soundwave.
-------------------
Soundwave glared at the screen. It wasn’t right. He couldn’t understand how these bots were so blind. Maybe they just didn’t see things like he did, but that was fine. They were lucky to have him. Anyone was lucky to have him. No. Soundwave shook his head. He couldn’t think like that. Thinking like that got him in trouble.
Soundwave glared at the code. It had originated from Laserbeak, jumped to his darker counterpart, and finally slithered into the computer. The actual problem was that it was siphoning data from the computer, sending it somewhere else.
MECH.
Hashtag had found out about them while they were looking for information on this world, and had sent him the files while he was flying. They were some sort of terrorist group that wanted to do the same thing as GHOST.
Advance humanity beyond their current limitations.
It was disgusting, and only lead to suffering. Soundwave took a deep breath. If his counterpart was being willfully ignorant of this issue, then… perhaps he could use that to his advantage. He is a Decept-icon, after all.
<<Hello there. I see you :)>>
Notes:
Once again, everyone say thanks to my Boyfriend.
He spent an entire week helping me with this chapter and beta'ing it for me (though, mostly to make sure the Primeverse guys are in-character)
He will continue to help me.
So, as for timeline wise: This arc will take place after "Triage" but before "The Human Factor".
That should help explain the general timeline/mindset for everyone present!
I have also started watching TFPrime, so hopefully that helps.
And yes, very light on Soundwave this chapter. He is not doing much, but he will be coming back soon! :D
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