I hate paperwork. I hate it just as much as any other 'con on base. I just happen to be the one who actually does it, regardless. Besides Soundwave of course... I swear Soundwave is a paperwork drone in disguise. I don't know how he has time to do all of his paperwork and still do his other duties, all before recharge. Drives me nuts!
But... I am happy to announce, I am completely caught up. I just have to give my data pad to Soundwave, and then I can go to the rec room and join the others for a nice cube of high grade. Megatron's way of saying "Good Job" as we'd kicked major aft against the Autobots today.
Catching sight of Skywarp, I stopped. I honestly don't want to know what's going on in the glitch ridden processor of his, but I felt the need to stop. He was standing with the Cassette twins, and that was never a good sign of things to come... "What are you three doing?" I asked, tone blank. They didn't seem like they'd joined the party as of yet, so they were sobber... I really didn't want to know... there was ribbon in on of the twins hands...
"Uh, nothin TC. We're not doing anything," Skywarp said with a grin. He knew I didn't believe him... but I shrugged and continued my journey to find Soundwave. I just did not want to know.
Even all the way out in the housing corridor, I could hear other mechs getting sloshed. Decepticon camaraderie usually dictated yelling, sometimes... dreadful and out of key singing and what the human species calls "bar brawls". Tonight sounded like it was the singing... Primus, I don't know if I want to go over there anymore...
Soundwave's quarters were always... creepy was putting it lightly. He never seemed to have the lights on, and even the door going in seemed dark and dreary. I guess it was the one place our 3 in command felt he could be himself. I assume he has an aversion to lights... Either way, it was disconcerting whenever I had to drop reports off to his quarters and not his office...
"Enter," his monotone voice said before I'd even tapped the door. I'm one of those that believes Soundwave is a psychic. He just seems to know things... like when someone's outside his door without any indication. He also knew how to read a mech just by looking at them. Hell, he was the one who gave us warning whenever Starscream's glitch took over and started acting treacherous. Every time he's warned us, Screamer would be seen doing something that would put him in Megatron's bad grace for a while.
"Sir, the Seekers reports are compiled in this data pad. I was told to drop it off here..." I said, sounding unsure. I winced inwardly. Soundwave nodded and extended a hand, expecting the data pad to be handed over. I did so without a word.
Soundwave's room is very... decorative. Not many mechs come to this room... I think I'm one of maybe 4 in total beside the cassettes... so many of us see him as a blank personality... but whenever I have to fill in for Starscream in delivering reports to him, I find something new added to the room. Like that human baseball. I can just barely see what looks like a human signature gracing the dirty white ball...
"Thundercracker: Dismissed." And with that, I hurried out of the dark room. Heh, who knew Soundwave liked human baseball enough to acquire a signed ball? It was almost worth snickering about in the hallway, but I have a feeling Soundwave and his creepy knowledge would find out and I'd be in for it. So I continued to the rec room in silence, contemplating the others I passed by.
It was a bit late at this point... the others have been partying for around an hour. I'm slow at paperwork, and the fact Starscream had been knocked for a bit of a loop in battle had landed him unable to do his own paperwork. Being Starscream's second in command for the throng of seekers, I fell next in line with the battle paperwork. I honestly have to wonder what happens to all of these reports...
"TCeee!" I cringed at the sound of Swindle on high grade. He couldn't handle energon very well, and was always causing quite a stir. "You're missin' the best party eeeevverrrrr!" He was surrounded... and not by his usual gang of Combaticons... He had Runabout and Runamuck on both sides (both twins looking rather energized as well), Barricade (who was remarkably sober) behind them, keeping all three from stumbling forward, which was a remarkably noble thing for the interceptor, and Ravage at their feet "sitting pretty".
"Here!" Runamuck (at least I assumed it was Runamuck... I could never remember which was which) said loudly, shoving his half finished cube into my canopy. "You need to get wasted!"
"But that was yours!" Swindle shouted, rather aghast. "Now what're you going to drink to get wasted?" Runamuck looked truly stumped for a moment before snatching his cube back from my grasp.
"My cube!" he shouted, looking offended. "Get your own! Slagger... trying to steal my drink..." Sometimes I wondered about my fellow Decepticons...
"I can't believe these idiots..." Barricade mumbled, bringing a hand up to his helm. The three promptly stumbled forward without the mustang's hold on them, sprawling all over the floor. "I swear, I quit. No more good deeds..."
I gave him a look, "What's the matter? Don't like insanity at its best? You feeling ok? Normally you're into big parties."
"Oh, I'm just as wasted as they are, believe me," he stated with a smirk. Ah, he did have that fog in his optics. He's just remarkably stable. "I just figured they needed babysitters... They're the ones I assumed would stir up trouble and I didn't want to deal with the after effects."
"Huh, well then. I commend you for your bravery," I snorted, turning to move through to the rec room. Barricade hummed a response, but I didn't catch it as my com-unit buzzed to life.
"Thundercracker," I groaned. Starscream was apparently awake again. "I need you to come down to Storage 4."
"Acknowledged... be there in a few clicks." Slag it all... I was so close too... Oh well, better to go see what Screamer wants. He didn't sound to foggy (that hit had really knocked him and he had been making very little sense when Warp and I had brought him to Hook), so apparently he was fine...
I passed Barricade, who was barely keeping one of the twins from falling on his aft, and avoided the snatching arm of Swindle (he was on the ground still and was scrabbling for something to help him back up it seemed). "Have fun," the other twin said with what sounded like a giggle.
Storage 4 was only a small walk out. Near to the med bay, and a few corridors away from the rec room. Normally, there was nothing very spectacular about it. It was a storage room, and being close to the med bay, it held many surgical supplies, as well as a few miscellaneous items. It was spacious compared to other storage rooms, being about as big as the rec room, but not a very normal place for a meeting. As I entered though, I took in Starscream's rather bemused expression. Megatron himself was here as well, and he had one hand covering his optics in what seemed exasperation.
I then caught sight of my third wing. Skywarp grinned cheekily at me with a small wave. "Hiya TC!" He was half in a wall. Well, that was different. When was the last time Skywarp had become one with the scenery in a warp?
"Where's Rumble and Frenzy?" I asked immediately, bringing a quick scowl to my black and purple wing mate. Megatron pointed upward and let out a suffering sigh. I followed his gaze as I heard Starscream snicker into his hand. Frenzy's aft was sticking out of the ceiling. One leg was lazily moving back and forth, presumably in boredom.
Before I could ask about Rumble, Starscream pointed at the far wall. I couldn't see anything (and apparently Megatron didn't either as we both shared a confused glance), and I was just turning my gaze back to Starscream when I heard it... Bang! It made me jump and I saw Megatron give the wall a strange look. "What the...?" I asked quietly.
Megatron brought a hand back up to his optics and let out another long sigh. It took a moment before it dawned on me as well. Rumble was stuck over there... But judging from the position, he was stuck... in the hull plating?? Well, that explained Starscream's presence even when I was fairly certain Hook would have kept in the med bay... Hook, being in the med bay, which was literally next door through that particular wall, had probably heard the banging and called Megatron. To which, the commander had probably dragged Starscream with him to this room in the following search for the reason. But it seemed our glorious leader hadn't put two and two together when they found the current scene.
"Skywarp!" I am not ashamed at this point to note that my vocal processor squeaked in a rather embarrassing way. "What the slag did you do??"
Skywarp scowled some more at me. "Wasn't me... Glitch-heads panicked half-way through a warp and we ended up like this."
Starscream scoffed and Megatron asked, "Where were you warping too?" His tone held no accusation, which was my only clue that he wasn't going to offline my trine mate... it also told me he found this situation fairly amusing. At least Megatron was still in a good mood (thank Primus we'd won this last skirmish with Autobot forces)... Bang!
"Well.. you see..." Warp fidgeted earning an annoyed glare from Megatron.
"You were going to prank someone," Starscream interjected, wings quivering (which easily said he was utterly amused with Warp's situation as well, though I could also feel it through our trine link, as could Warp), "The twins had second thoughts and tried to pull out and leave you with the consequences, but they did so just as you warped."
"Yeah," our third said glumly, "And the results through off my warp coordinates, and we ended up like this..." He waved a hand around the room. Bang!
"For the love of Primus can we get him out of there already??" a new voice yelled and I jumped at finding Hook suddenly beside me. How he got there with no sound was beyond me... Not even Warp could startle me any more... "His banging on the walls is driving me nuts!"
Megatron locked optics with the medic, "Are any of them in any danger Hook?" The medic hesitated before shaking his head negatively, "Then I believe, there is a party we must all attend in the rec room. We'll get them out when it ends. If any of us remember."
Starscream, Hook and myself watched our leader casually walk out of the storage room, each of us slack jawed. Two more bangs, one sounding ominous as it came from Frenzy above, echoed around Skywarp's cry of indignation. "But! But we wanna go to the party toooo!" Starscream snickered again before Hook huffed in annoyance, practically dragging our air commander out the door in the same direction as Megatron. I sighed, before following as well, ignoring the whines of my wing mate and the cassette twins.