His internal timer had told Soundwave that night in their local hemisphere had fallen a mere few hours after awakening. Before then, Arcee had indeed let him know the things he was allowed to know.
The first, and most important thing relayed to the Decepticon, was that the fem had Ratchet plant a small, barely noticeable device on the back of his neck. Its purpose was of a wonderfully insidious design, as Arcee had in her possession a remote device that enabled her to send a powerful jolt of energy to his brain that would instantly shut him down into a state of unconsciousness, should he prove to be untrustworthy or troublesome. Attempting to remove the chip would also result in the same outcome.
The second thing he found out was that Laserbeak had been held prisoner as well, but in another area of the small ship, away from him. Had his servos been free, Soundwave may have actually applauded the Autobot for her foresight in keeping the two apart.
Currently, Soundwave could faintly see part of Arcee's shape in the next room out of the corner of his eye, typing on some sort of computer device in the ship's wall. He decided not to turn his head to her, as she had been repeatedly making quick glances in his direction out of extreme caution, and it would most likely only serve to provoke her full attention if she caught him looking directly at her.
Most bots would have gone mad just lying strapped onto this gurney with nothing to do for hours on end, but Soundwave endured. When he wasn't patiently lying there, doing nothing but preoccupying himself with his thoughts of the near future and how he would somehow deal with this fem that held him in indentured servitude, he was observing his surroundings with roving optics. He was inside of a medical lab, that much he knew so far knew. And in this little lab, there were medical instruments abound. The one he took exceptional interest in was a cord that lied loosely on the ground, connecting to a large, nearby computer. One that could be used in performing a cortical psychic patch, to be precise.
How very interesting...
A sudden, small, scarcely-discernible beeping noise, vastly unlike the normal whirring of minor machinery that he had been hearing constantly, interrupted Soundwave's line of thought. He traced it back to where Arcee stood, and saw her put a finger to the com on the side of her head, silencing the noise. She instantly walked from her current location, talking to the bot on the other end, and into a hallway that lead to where Soundwave predicted was the front of the ship.
After a few minutes transpired, Soundwave felt as the ship began to move. Once it did, he began to hear Arcee's footsteps clank back down the hall in his direction, and the Decepticon's audio receptors were not disappointed when he spotted her thin blue shape. She stopped when she was a few feet from where he was, and simply looked at him.
"There's been a disturbance in a section of Kaon's eastern sector," she spoke. "Someone reported an armed assault, and since we're the only ones close enough, we're going to see what's going on."
"Kaon," Soundwave repeated part of what Arcee's voice had said, a thin blue line level representing the word's sound briefly appearing over his visor.
"Hmph. I remember Optimus once told me that you were a gladiator in the rings down there," the Autobot huffed, as she went to a nearby terminal and inputted some information into it. Soundwave watched very closely at what she typed. "Seems almost fitting you should come along with me."
As she put in the final information, the clamps around Soundwave's servos, body, and legs disappeared. He proceeded to lift his right arm and feel it in his left servo, feeling the sore appendage from not having moved in, correctly, a long time. He soon left the gurney, and stood up right in front of Arcee, seeing how the blue fem was a great deal smaller than he was. Putting a servo to her side and lifting the small, copper-colored control she had, she held it in a way that allowed the Decepticon to see it.
"Remember, Soundwave, if you go against what I say, I press this," she reminded, before hooking it back up to her side. "Now, let's go. We'll be landing in the next minute."
He slowly nodded. After she motioned for him to go in front of her, Soundwave, though there was a hint - just a hint - of reluctance in his step, did as he was instructed, and his tall, slender figure began to lead the way toward where he presumed the entrance of the ship was.
The ramp opened up, and Soundwave became the first to exit the craft. Once again reunited with him and attached over his chest was the smaller, drone-like form of Laserbeak, outfitted with the same, obedience-inducing device he wore. Upon taking his first steps out, Soundwave lifted his head, and got a good look at his new surroundings, taking in what he saw with a surprised, yet lightened spark.
It was Kaon. The architecture was very familiar to the Decepticon, having spent most of the beginning of his life around skyscrapers and buildings resembling what he was looking at. It's when he spotted the bustling streets filled with actual living bots that were now before him that he began to think he was looking at some cruel illusion. Cybertron was alive again, and what he saw proved it.
"Sightseeing?" Arcee's voice piped in from beside him. Snapped out of his memory-influenced trance, he turned his head partially to her. She gave off a small smirk that practically radiated with empathy, knowing full well he had been captivated by what he was looking at.
"Come on," she started again in a more serious tone as she broke into a dash forward, from the landing pad the ship was on, and into the streets. Soundwave followed suit, taking a second to look at the small ship he had exited from that they were now leaving. "The bot we're looking for is a male of medium build, sporting a red-and-white paint job, and was said to be either partly covered in energon, or leaking it. He was last seen running south after abandoning a random bot he held at gunpoint, and was documented by the witnesses as acting unstable, and "scared.""
The moment she finished her description, Soundwave let Laserbeak eject from where it rested on his chest, and the minicon quickly took to the sky, searching for the target in question. As they passed by street after street, turn after turn, bot after bot, Soundwave thought back to how that medic, Ratchet, had said that Megatron had given up on the cause he started and fled. He knew that was a lie. The restoration of Cybertron was the truth, as he could now see, but the other was a lie.
A ring suddenly went out, and a new image appeared on the corner of his screen-like visor. Arcee apparently heard it was well, judging from how her head tilted toward him.
"Did your minicon find something?" she asked, as both stopped in their tracks, and she turned to fully look at him. Looking to her so she could get a look as well, he allowed the image to expand, and his visor lit up, displaying what Laserbeak was seeing. What the two saw, running through a crowd from a bird's-eye view, was a bot of a red-and-white coloration, matching the description they sought.
"That's him," Arcee confirmed, noticing his scared, if not downright fearful complexion as the mech pushed his way through the crowd. "Where's he at?"
The Decepticon's visor went black once more, and he turned to his left, pointing down a nearby alleyway that lead to yet another street. Without speaking, as per the usual, he sprang into a sudden dash down in the direction he had pointed to, catching Arcee off-guard.
Seeing how he was already well ahead of her within a few, short seconds, and while he looked like he went utterly pell-mell in his haste to find their target, Soundwave was skillfully avoiding any pedestrians that happened to be in his way. Arcee sprinted forward as well, transforming into her smaller vehicle form and racing after him in the process in an effort to catch up before she could lose her charge.
Author's notes: Reviews are appreciated, if you can spare them. I just want to know what is good, and what needs improvement on.