Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters. They belong to Hasbro.
The halls of the Nemesis were quiet, disturbingly so. Soundwave was just finishing up his late-night shift in the control room. He slowly glanced about himself but he didn't see anything suspicious. As if nature seemed to feel a void that needed filling due to the lack of unusual occurrences, Starscream walked through the door. This in itself would not be considered unusual, had Starscream's servos not been bound behind his back and his mouth gagged.
Soundwave felt an intense wave of panic surge through his body, but quickly suppressed it, his visor and battle mask effectively hiding all emotions, giving him his consistently stoic appearance. He had asked Starscream and Barricade to watch over (babysit) the cassetticons while he pulled the night shift. It was two fully grown mechs against six hyperactive and rebellious younglings. He mentally face-palmed. Should've known they wouldn't stand a chance.
Shaking his head, he walked over to an irate-looking Starscream and untied his hands. Starscream removed his gag and proceeded to glare venom at Soundwave. This was bad, this was unusual, normally Starscream would make true of his name and shriek like a banshee that had just discovered it liked hard rock. Instead, he got the silent treatment.
"Inquiry: What happened?" Soundwave asked, using his vocalizer for the first time since he asked Barricade and Starscream to watch the cassettes. It crackled with static from disuse, but he ignored it for the meantime and decided he would get a tune-up tomorrow.
Starscream's optics narrowed dangerously. If he hadn't had a reputation to keep, Soundwave would have cringed. Starscream opened his mouth and his words were practically dripping acid.
"What happened? What happened?"he hissed, stalking closer to the larger mech, effectively cornering him. "I'll tell you what happened. Those hellions happened that's what." This time, Soundwave did cringe. "They tied us up, Barricade and I, they tortured Barricade, and then they left us."
"Inquiry: Where is Barricade?"
"In his quarters, recovering." Scarsceam said, waving his hand dismissively. Clearly, he was affronted by what had befallen himself, and was less concerned about his babysitting partner.
"And the younglings?"
" How should I know? They disappeared after they tortured Barricade."
"Fact: Children are not evil. Inquiry: Why would they torture Barricade?"
Starscreams eyes seemed to glare at him harder, if that was even possible. "They are evil, and they were torturing him because he refused to allow them to watch that human show, NCIS."
Scrap. It was around that time when Soundwave felt his blood starting to turn cold. The younglings had been denied NCIS. One of the first things he had noticed about coming to this mudball planet was that the TV. show had some sort of mystic calming effect on the cassettes. The first time he had seen them watching it, he had thought that the Autobots had infiltrated the base and somehow placed some sort of hypnotic device in his quarters. The children had sat around the screen, unmoving, unblinking, they didn't respond with even a flinch when he had called out to him. He had been torn between panicking, and dropping to his knees and thanking Primus for the miracle he had seen fit to bestow upon him. Eventually, he settled for the latter.
The one time he had tried to talk them out of watching it, they had all frozen, turned slowly towards him and,with hate pouring from their optics, started to surround him with ill-intent written all over their face-plates. TV. Time had immediately been restored after that incident. Briefly, he commended Barricade in his mind for having the ball-bearings to stand up to them. He shuddered to think about the ill-fate which had befallen the reluctant babysitter.
"Command: Take me to Barricade."
Starscream smirked evilly, Soundwave groaned inwardly. It was going to be a long night.
