Chapter Text
The sewers were cold and damp, and while Iacon expanded they had grown with it in a sprawling maze of tunnels, wells and passages. A lot of them were too narrow for average-sized Bots to fit in, and even for the ones who could, the rust and the smell were enough to keep most curious away.
Of course, that was for Bots who had a choice. Waddling through the muddy waters, two small figures balanced between them a basket almost larger than their frames, the clanking sounds of metal inside it echoing in the narrow tunnel.
“Hey, be careful, Rumble!” one complained. “I am doing all the work here!”
“What are you talking about, Frenzy? And I am the one who found most of it anyway!”
There was a small warning grumble from the figure preceding them, a tail swishing in the air barely visible in the near darkness.
“Fine, fine, Ravage, you found it. We just did, you know, all the hard work while you were taking a nap – I mean, keeping guard,” Frenzy snickered.
“Your vocalizers are doing all the hard work,” Ravage sighed, shaking her helm. “I have no idea why I am stuck with you two idiots.”
“Because you have no servos to collect stuff?” Rumble suggested.
“I have dentae to bite your afts if you do not hurry up,” the felinoid Cassette answered.
“Oh, yeah, keep bullying us just because you are older, I will remember it the next time you ask me to hack a terminal for you,” Frenzy protested.
“Or to open a can.”
Ravage did not dignify that with an answer, jumping up a ladder with a graceful movement – or at least, it would have been more graceful if she had not been dripping fluids and waste. She hated being wet.
While her two companions pushed up the basket, she used her paw to knock on a section of the wall that looked just like the others. There was a moment of silence, and then a shuffle on the other side, and then the wall slid just enough to reveal some light and a bright optic.
“Arrived early?” a small voice questioned, laced with static. It was not the other Bot's fault of course, it was a miracle they had managed to get the vocalizer working at all, but to her sensitive audials those sounds were always just a bit unnerving.
“Yeah, we found some good scraps today.”
A tentacle waved her in, and she slid past the figure who was already slithering forward to help Frenzy and Rumble with the basket. Well, as much as a Squidcon that barely reached theirs shoulders could help.
Their refuge had been a storage room once, when that area of Iacon had been new and its sewage system kept in pristine condition. Then the city had grown, and parts of it had been left behind, and the dust they found showed that no Both had been there in vorns. Which was excellent, because that room was just the right size for four Cassettes and their small stash of emergency rations and spare parts. The safety they had there was worth the disgusting trek through the mud and other things. No Bot would think to look for them there.
Their youngest member had found it, of course. Being both a Beastcon and a Cassette in Iacon was bad enough, with no access to jobs or rights, barely more than Mechanimals, but at least Ravage could scratch optics with her claws and then run away from whoever thought they could keep her as a pet or a plaything. An aquatic frame did not even give that protection, and so the Squidcon had learned early enough to hide in the sewers, where its ability to slither in small crevices, swim through the dirty waters and stick his tentacles to the walls had given him more chances.
Soundwave had always been ingenious like that. He was the one monitoring and scanning all channels and information networks to figure out places where they could find good stuff, or which refuge was less likely to capture and sell them when they needed more medical help than they could provide for themselves.
There was the click of the door closing behind her companions, and the thud of the basket being left down, but Ravage was now too busy staring at a corner. There was a tarp that had most definitely not been there when they had left a few joors earlier to go scavenging, and it was covering something big.
“Soundwave. What exactly have you been doing while we were away?”
Behind her, the tentacled Cassette shuffled with excitement, his tentacles expressing joy even if the voice was still flat.
“Finally made it work.”
That statement would be far more worrying coming from Rumble or Frenzy, whose ideas of making things work usually involved explosions. Or earthquakes that somehow always led to explosions, in Rumble's case, as if they needed more problems than hiding an Outlier ability. But Ravage knew better than to underestimate the sheer power of chaos under Soundwave's quiet appearance.
“Oh, so that's the big secret project you did not want to tell us about?” Rumble asked, bouncing on his pedes and getting closer to the tarp. “Is it a new heater? Because I tell you, the cuddle pile is nice and all, but I keep waking up with scratches from Ravage.”
“If you could just stay still while you recharge and not tug my tail you would get no scratches,” the feline complained.
“Project will help us with everything,” Soundwave explained, slithering closer to the tarp.
Well, now Ravage was curious. Her olfactory sensors were not helping figure out what the mysterious item was, but no surprise there, she was still recovering from the awful stench on the way there. A tentacle extended and with a theatrical gesture the tarp was removed.
Ravage jumped back, claws out. Behind her, the twins yelped in horror.
There was a Bot, larger than the four of them put together, blue with white on his arms and legs, a large window covering a chest compartment. It looked offline, but there was no way of saying with that facemask and visor hiding its expression.
“You brought a Bot here?” Ravage hissed.
Soundwave did not look worried in the slightest. He raised a tentacle to tap the frame.
“Frame not a real Bot. Just empty shell.”
Which was admittedly a slight improvement, but did not clarify much.
“What do you mean a shell?” Frenzy asked, moving closer to inspect it.
“Found in sewers. Dumped. Mannequin, or doll, very well done. Empty inside.”
“Hey, you are right! I can see all the way through it! Who the frag would dump something like this, it looks practically new!”
“We can sell it for – for a lot!” Rumble laughed, joining his twin in poking at the frame. “Look at all these shiny parts, I bet we could get that new heater, and an Energon purifier too!”
And they could, mused Ravage. They just had to find a buyer who would not ask questions, which were by coincidence the only buyers they could deal with.
“Shell not for selling.”
“Then what did you keep it for? Spare parts?” she inquired. “I am pretty sure we do not need this much metal.”
“Will demonstrate. Rumble, Frenzy, step away.”
The two Cassettes moved back and Soundwave opened the chest compartment and slithered inside, his flexible frame twisting until it was extended inside the empty frame, tentacles stretching in the legs and arms and helm. Then the compartment closed.
“A bit too flashy for a hiding place,” the other Beastcon commented.
And then the helm turned towards her, a flick of red light under the visor, and the shell stretched and started to stand up.
The three remaining Cassettes moved back with a shriek.
“No reason to worry. Soundwave can control shell,” assured a flat voice coming from the frame's helm, though not exactly from the vocalizer. It was Soundwave's voice, but amplified, and the frame demonstrated by waving a servo in a friendly hello.
“That's – weird. So weird,” Rumble whispered. “And also kind of cool?”
“You made yourself a – a Bot suit?” Frenzy squeaked.
Ravage growled, seeing the way the twins' optics had started to shine. There was no getting rid of the newly named Bot suit now that they had seen it.
“How did you get that thing in here, anyway?” she asked, trying to earn some time.
“Can be folded into box. Mechanism similar to alt-mode transformation.”
The Bot suit took a few steps in the cramped space, and flapped its arms. It was a bit awkward, but it looked like a real Mech doing that, maybe one who had gone too many orns without oiling their joints. So, a lot of Mechs in Iacon.
“Bot suit easy to control,” Soundwave confirmed. “Can be used to access establishments not open to Cassettes and Beastcons. To sell scavenged items for more. To buy better equipment and Energon.”
“You want to go around pretending you are – one of them? That's crazy!” Rumble whistled, then he grinned. “I love it! Can I take a turn?”
“Tentacles needed to operate the Bot suit,” was the answer, and the flat tone did nothing to hide the obvious smugness.
“It's dangerous,” Ravage warned, her tail flicking nervously behind her. “Even if you can pass for one of the Bots up there, you will still be an unregistered frame, no way that thing is in the system.”
“Oh, that's where I come in!” Frenzy piped in. “I can hack the systems – not the big government ones, fine, but I am positive I can get Soundwave into some places. Useful places.”
“And that thing looks scary, nobody would want to mess with him!” Rumble cheered. “And if they do, well, we provide back-up and run away. Same as usual.”
“That's true,” the feline admitted, still reluctant. “But how can Soundwave run away in that thing?”
Just on clue, the chest compartment opened and the Squidcon popped out, launching himself at Ravage who tumbled on the ground.
“Like this,” Soundwave declared, sitting smugly on her back. “Chest compartment can be used as launch platform too.”
“Yeah! Surprise attack!” Rumble laughed. He thought for a moment. “Hey, listen to this, what if I hide inside that with you, in Cassette mode, we should fit, right, then you eject me at the enemies and I transform in the air and get their faceplates smashed before they know what hit them!”
“Cool! We can do it together as a combination attack!” Frenzy added, clapping his servos.
Ravage disentangled herself from the tentacles to find Soundwave staring at her with imploring optics.
“Worked hard. Want to help more. Please?”
The twins, at seeing the scene, promptly joined him in doing turbo-puppies optics.
“Please, Ravage, can we try it at least once?”
“Please! We'll be careful!”
Ravage sighed, knowing she had already lost the battle. Besides, Soundwave was right, if only because nobody would believe a bunch of Cassettes was doing something so crazy.
“Well, we have nothing to lose anyway. But we will practice a lot more before you get out in public, Soundwave. And we are not doing anything rash. Get into places, sell or buy stuff, get out. Is it clear?”
The confirming nods she got would have been more reassuring if she had not known her little gang for vorns. As it was, she put her hopes in their superior experience at running away from explosions.
**
“A pleasure doing business with you, Sir! Please come back soon!”
Ravage did not snicker, because that was unbecoming, but seeing the shop owner go out of her way to wave at Soundwave until he had left the establishment was satisfying, especially since that very same shop owner had chased her out with a stick earlier that orn. Rude.
And now that same Femme had even had the gall to pet Ravage's head and compliment Soundwave on what a well-behaved pet he had! Which was an excellent reason to not feel even a little bit guilty at charging extra for the scrap they just sold her.
They had never been able to sell stuff for that much when they were limited to black market dealers, those guys knew the Cassettes had no choice but to accept their conditions. But a little messing around with credentials from Frenzy while Ravage distracted the owner, and now a respectable used parts shop was only happy to get merchandise from a certified seller, even if that seller had not even officially existed before and talked a bit awkwardly.
Of course they were being careful, and selecting their targets in different areas of Iacon, choosing crowded, middle-class shops that would not remember a specific Bot and would not have the time to make careful checks in the rush. They were also ducking out of sight in alleys and disappearing in the sewers the second they were done, just like now.
Ravage stopped in front of the alley, looking to all bystanders like a pet sniffing a corner while she waited for her master. Rumble and Frenzy had even crafted a cute ribbon to wear around her tail, and so what if it could come down with a hard enough shake and had a smoke bomb in it? The Bots passing by without a second glance did not need to know it. Ravage was not letting anything to chance, not if the alternative was letting Soundwave go alone. Dignity was for Bots who had less pressing worries.
There was the whirring noise of a transformation sequence from the alley, and then the wet plop of something small diving in the sewers, and a second after a second plop of something heavier being dragged down. With one last glance behind her to make sure nobody was watching, Ravage slid in the shadows and followed Soundwave in the sewers.
Rumble closed the hatch above them, and jumped down from Frenzy's shoulders. Standing on each other, they were just tall enough to reach the opening. In the shallow waters under them, a blue music box was floating, and Soundwave was sitting on top of it, stretching his tentacles in the air after being cramped inside the fake Mech.
It had been Frenzy's idea to masquerade the box that their Bot suit folded into. It was far less conspicuous, and nobody would question an abandoned, broken music box if they had to make a run without it. And, though the Cassette did not mention it, music was one of Soundwave's favorite things, and the way the Squidcon's optics had sparkled at the new look was worth it.
“Well? How did it go?”
“No problems at all. I actually think that Femme was flirting with our Soundwave,” Ravage purred, getting rid of the ribbon. Rumble retrieved it for safe-keeping.
“Flirting attempts improbable,” Soundwave snorted. “Shopkeeper just wanted returning seller.”
“Well, yeah, we always find the best stuff!” Rumble scoffed, while they started making their way back to their refuge. “Which the slagger would have known if she were willing to buy from Cassettes. But no, how could lowly inferior Cassettes have something worth selling?”
“Well, these lowly inferior Cassettes now have almost enough credits for the heater we saw in that advertisement,” Ravage announced with a grin.
“And just in time, nights are getting colder,” Frenzy muttered, shivering.
Cybertronian winters were not a problem if you lived in a comfy apartment with a heating system, or if you were a Bot with a powerful engine, but Cassettes were small and their engines just could not produce that much heat, especially not living on scarce low-quality Energon. Sleeping in a cuddle pile helped, and so did the thermal blankets they had assembled together with scraps, but Ravage was well aware that they needed a better solution. And thanks to the Bot suit, they were close to getting one. They had already been able to buy better Energon, their stock for winter better than ever, and they got new cables so Frenzy did not have to resort to risking his own for his hacking escapades, and even oil for their creaking joints. It had felt incredible.
Maybe, after the heater, they could splurge on a polishing kit and some paint. It was never going to last in the sewers, but Frenzy and Rumble were now sporting an almost undistinguished dirty purplish surface, and they were not complaining but Ravage knew they missed having their own red and blue – or blue and red, she did not remember which one had been which. The twins had been lucky enough in their early vorns, with a home and caretakers, before the Council cracked down even on bipedal Cassettes, the ones who looked just like ordinary Bots in their root mode but smaller, and then they just slipped through the cracks.
And Soundwave never even got to experiment what polish and paint felt like. The Squidcon Cassette's earliest memory, he had shared once and only once in the middle of a quiet night, was being thrown into a waste disposal flute with a shriek and the complaint of what a useless deformed runt he was. He had been hiding and scrapping by in the alleys and the sewers from there until he met them.
Ravage almost hoped that it had been one of those horrid facilities were Beastcons were kept as pets and animals to be sold and used. The alternative was that someone had actually taken him home from a hot spot when he was just a protoform, and when his frame had started stabilizing and they had realized he was a Beastcon Cassette they had just dumped him. It was ridiculous – the simple fact that hot spots made very kind of frame-type should have been enough to tell everyone that they were the same, sentient Cybertronians like bigger Bots, no matter how many limbs they walked on, or how they were shaped. But no, they were stuck there and -
Count her vents. Focus on what she could control. Paint and polish. Soundwave deserved it, they all did. It was not too much to ask for, right?