4

"You'll have to try this high grade I've been experimenting with," Knockout said as he followed Soundwave to his quarters. They'd been keeping up a playful banter as they went, finding conversation easier than ever. "I've added an interesting human recipe to it and now the high grade is a solid."

"Human Recipe: harmless?"

"Yes, although I think even the humans avoid thinking about the ingredients in Jell-O." As Knockout babbled on, his eyes drifted down Soundwave's slim, glowing frame, eyes caught on Soundwave's swaying hip joints as he walked. Soundwave had a nice aft.

"Soundwave: up here."

Knockout's optics shot upward to see Soundwave facing back at him. He grinned. "You've caught me." He pulled Soundwave closer, pressing him against the wall of the empty hallway. He whispered, "I just don't know how I'm going to make it to your quarters."

Knockout's mouth found his sensitive neck cabling, and Soundwave dug his digits into the red mech's back. The spy's knee joints were bending on their own, and Knockout wrapped his arms around him tighter for support, unable to resist grinding his heated interface panel against Soundwave's.

Soundwave froze when a red light blinked on his screen.

"What is it?" Knockout asked.

"Detecting: intrusion aboard Nemesis."

Knockout groaned. "What kind?"

"Energon-free vitals: human."

Knockout reluctantly pulled away from the other, rubbing his face in frustration. He was drunk with lust and in no mood for work. Soundwave's body language said the same as he stood away from the wall. Knockout engaged the electrical prod, his optics narrowed. "Humans, they're always around in the most inconvenient times. Soundwave, why don't you inform Lord Megatron and I'll handle this."

Knockout moved forward, but Soundwave took his wrist. "Negative. Soundwave: pursue."

Knockout looked at him. "Should I inform Megatron, then?"

"Negative: seek quarters."

Knockout laughed. "You want to go alone and send me to my room, and hide all of this from Megatron?"

"Megatron: inebriated."

"And your reason for going alone?"

Soundwave paused for a moment before turning and swiftly heading off, ignoring the question. He wasn't used to people questioning his actions and just wasn't sure how to lie. Out of the three humans who frequently barged onto the Nemesis, one of them was of relevance to the intelligence officer. In case it was the human in mind, Soundwave would have to handle this alone.

Knockout stood in the hall, perplexed. He thought to himself that he wasn't going to let Soundwave boss him around, but really, he was just too curious not to follow the spy. He waited until Soundwave was farther off before creeping after him.

The elevator stopped at the third deck where Soundwave had traced the alien vital signs. The third deck was used for storage. It was a dimly lit, long room with crates storing weaponry in rows along the sides. At the far end was a flickering light. Soundwave peered at it, determining that it was a faulty ground bridge. The bridge was useless in this state, but Soundwave was not familiar with the technology enough to predict its actions.

He walked with silent stealth, knowing his motion was barely detectable. But the signal was not specific enough to help him at this point. From here he'd have to think of another method of finding the human. So he walked purposefully now, his bases loud on the floor. He measured the cycles of the human's quickened pulse. He continued on, but the pulse remained the same. He walked until the pulse began to cycle faster. He moved to one side with no reaction. He took a few steps toward the other side and the pulse hammered.

Knockout crept from between each crate as he followed the other. Soundwave was so focused on searching for his prey that his sensor for mech vitals was completely down. If there had been an autobot hidden around here, Soundwave would be in trouble. Knockout would tease him later for his one-track processor. For now he watched the scene with interest.

Soundwave stood in front of a crate, which he knew his target was behind. With one quick stroke, he released his feelers. They shot around the crate from either side, and he felt them wrap around the target on the other side. The feelers were met with a shriek. It felt small, and he knew what he would find. Soundwave lifted the human up.

"Let me go, let me go!" he shouted, kicking with one leg and beating his little fists against the single feeler suspending him in the air. Soundwave didn't respond as the young human struggled. His efforts with his right arm were much weaker than the other, and Soundwave saw that there were small bridge burns through the child's clothing. His right leg had also sustained small burns from the faulty bridge.

"Location: purpose?" Soundwave interrogated.

The boy panted. "I… we… it was an accident. The bridge wasn't supposed to land here!"

Soundwave's tentacle gripped a little tighter as he brought the human close to his facial screen. The boy's optic adjusters were broken, the square pieces of glass cracked. Soundwave sympathized a little, with the recent damage to his own screen. Both he and the boy had less than perfect optical vision, though not a spark knew of Soundwave's flaw. Of course, a flaw in common was not the reason Soundwave chose not to kill the boy or hand him over to Megatron.

Soundwave approached the flickering ground bridge. His free tentacles tapped it here and there, examining it. There had to be a way to get the thing up and running.

"What are you doing?" Rafael asked. "You're not going to kill me?"

Soundwave didn't answer, focusing his attention on the bridge.

"You won't be able to fix it like that," Rafael said. When Soundwave looked at him, the boy ducked his head. "I'm assuming you're trying to fix it. This bridge needs to be destroyed before another one can open in the same location. It needs some kind of electrical impact."

Soundwave opened the claws on the end of his feelers, charging them with a high voltage before slamming them into the bridge. It flickered and burned furiously, but didn't collapse. Soundwave turned back to the boy, frustrated. He wondered if this would be easier if he wasn't still carrying traces of high grade in his system.

"I guess that's not a strong enough charge," the boy said. "Maybe you should…" He turned to the side, noticing something behind Soundwave. Soundwave turned to find Knockout stepping into the open.

"It's about time you explain what's going on," Knockout said.

Rafael responded hastily. "Ratchet accidentally ground-bridged me onto the Nem-"

"Not you, you little road kill," Knockout growled. He fixed his eyes on the spy. "Why are you helping one of the Autobot's pets? Holding him hostage would give Megatron great leverage over them. It only makes sense to hand him over."

"Handing over: certain demise."

Knockout spoke somewhat cautiously. "You have a soft spot for the human?"

Soundwave gripped the boy tighter, making him wince. He was humiliated that the human would hear such a thing. "Negative." He looked at the human, whose expression betrayed curiosity. He pressed the claws of a tentacle against Rafael's head. Either the boy was too afraid to swat him away, or too trusting to feel the need to. He tapped the boy's skull. "Intellect: immense." He looked at Knockout. "Human: rivals Soundwave." Knockout didn't quite follow why Soundwave didn't want to harm his rival, and he could hardly believe this organic could be on the intelligence officer's level. Soundwave turned his tentacle so the boy faced away from them. He took a step closer to Knockout, his vocals softening. "Request: assistance."

Knockout sighed. "What do you need me to do?"

The two decepticons combined forces to collapse the ground bridge. Only moments later a new ground bridge opened. Knockout raised his prod, prepared for an autobot attack. If they were overpowered and the autobots went loose into the ship, the punishment would be devastating.

Three autobots burst through the bridge, the yellow scout, the femme and none other than Prime himself. They raised their weapons.

"Hold off!" the Autobot leader commanded, "Soundwave has Rafael."

The yellow scout wailed furiously, shouting threats in their secondary Cybertronian tongue.

Soundwave remained unaffected by the pointed weapons, standing tall in their presence. Any decepticon would have used the boy as a shield over their spark, but Soundwave held him out like he was a cube of high grade. Knockout wished he hadn't given the spy so much to drink.

"It's okay Bumblebee," Rafael said.

As soon as he spoke, Soundwave lowered him to the ground. He limped forward, and the scout knelt and lifted him into his arms.

"Wait," the boy said as the Autobots headed back to the bridge. He turned to Soundwave. "I get it, you know. We're rivals like Bulkhead and Breakdown. Bulkhead saved Breakdown so that he could beat him later, fair and square." Knockout listened with shock, never hearing this side of the story before. "You're saving me now so you can beat me when I'm ready for you."

Soundwave stood unresponsive, but the boy was sure of himself. The intruders stepped back through their bridge and the light dissipated into darkness.

After a moment, Soundwave turned to Knockout, but the red con shook his helm. "Bulkhead was the one who saved Breakdown from MECH? Breakdown told me I thought it was Starscream who got him out."

"Negative: apparently." Soundwave felt slight worry as he watched Knockout. The other kept his optics turned away. "Knockout-"

"Look, I'm sorry," Knockout interrupted icily. "I have a lot to think about. I just, I need to get out of here." He stomped off to the elevator and left the third deck.

Knockout stormed through the Nemesis toward his quarters. Inside, Breakdown lay on Knockout's berth with his servos behind his head. "How was your late-cycle frag?"

Knockout crossed his arms. "I have a hinge to pick with you, Breakdown. You lied to me about MECH."

Breakdown sat up, his one eye narrowing. "So what if I did?"

"You told everyone Starscream rescued you. But it was Bulkhead! Didn't you and Bulkhead fight right after you escaped?"

"Yeah, of course I attacked him. He's an autobot."

"He saved your aft! You couldn't give him a head start or anything?"

Breakdown stood and towered over Knockout. "I was following orders."

"Oh, whatever! Nobody listens to Starscream. You could have easily mouthed off to him and gotten away with it. And why did you lie to me?"

"I lied to everyone! I would have looked like a traitor for taking an Autobot's help."

"But why did you lie to me?"

Breakdown looked lost. "I… thought you wouldn't like the truth."

"Yeah, because you know what you did was wrong. That's why you lied to me."

Breakdown shouted. "What is your malfunction, Knockout? You sound like an Autobot!"

Knockout didn't reply. He didn't have his thoughts straight yet, but there was one thing for sure that he knew. Soundwave was the epitome of a perfect decepticon: loyal, focused and successful, and he still managed to follow his personal code. And here Breakdown was, lying and making excuses like he always had. What if it were Knockout instead of Bulkhead? What if it had been Megatron commanding Breakdown instead of Starscream? Knockout wouldn't have a chance.

"I've made my decision about your offer."

Breakdown's face froze. "What?"

"If you can't even stand up for yourself on one small occasion, how could you ever stand up for a sparkmate?"

Breakdown's shock slowly turned to rage. His lip twitched into a snarl. "You… I let you frag around this whole time while you made up your mind. I should have never made an offer to a psychotic slut like you."

Knockout laughed, barely even angry anymore. "Is that how it is? Like you haven't been taking home three eradicons at a time." Knockout regretted mouthing off then, because Breakdown swung his fist around, colliding with Knockout's shoulder and sending him crashing to the floor. Knockout choked as his intakes re-inflated. He glanced at his red, curved shoulder, now marked with a giant dent. "That's going to take ages to fix," he growled with a grin. Breakdown stomped over to him before he could rise and punched him hard in the face. Knockout tasted the Energon leaking from the crack in his lip. He engaged his electrical prod and swung it around, hitting Breakdown in the neck. The giant mech fell backward, convulsing on the floor. Knockout stood shakily to his bases and puffed out his hull. "You better be out of my quarters by the time I get back, or Primus help me, I will prod you again."

Knockout headed out the door and down the hall, knowing exactly who he needed to find.

To be continued…

I'll give you Knockout's prod for your thoughts on this chapter.