A/N: So this one has action in it, I promise, and, there will probably be major time jumps, so if anyone thinks I rushed this chapter, I did, because somehow it just worked, at least in my brain...
Warning: Only a sentence or two of fluff… but a bit more gore/torture…
Italics=past events
Bold Italics= Ravage/Lazorbeak talking
Solorcycle= 1 year
Bonded=married
Cycled energon=blood
Pede=foot
Soundwave and Rotary Blades continued dating for a few more weeks, then they had finally decided that they should meet each other's friends. The introductions had gone well, and everyone soon became close.
Unknown to anyone, Lockdown kept an optic out on not just Soundwave, but everyone else he was close to, in case he needed to give him some… motivation to join the Decepticon cause.
Normally, Lockdown would just 'bag 'em and drag 'em,' but during his period of watching Soundwave, he noticed that not only was Soundwave smart, he had a strong will, and Lockdown didn't think that that will could be broken with electric whips and hacksaws... unless, of course, he convinced him with some unwilling volunteers.
In any case, Shockwave relayed Megatron's orders to him, and so far he was just supposed to keep watching Soundwave, not make any moves just yet.
Which was disappointing; who knew how long he would have to just watch? Hunting was far more fun when you got to mess with your prey, but for the sake of his metal hide, Lockdown would obey Megatron's orders… no matter how long it took...
…
It ended up taking almost 2 complete solorcycles for Lockdown to find some news that might interest Megatron enough to assign Lockdown into some action.
During the last 2 solorcycles, after about 1 solorcycle of dating, Soundwave and Rotary Blades finally got bonded. They had decided to just have a simple bonding ceremony with their closest friends and family. Rotary Blades also moved into Soundwave's house on the outskirts of Iacon after they bonded.
Lockdown had thought that this might be his ticket to launch, but to his surprise and annoyance, Megatron had told him to continue monitoring Soundwave.
'I need him for my cause, but it will take time for him to come to my cause, as he will not accept readily, and if what you have said is true, then I will need more than his bondmate to get him where I want him; working in these mines has given me the virtue of patience, which these plans will require…,' Megatron had said, but he must not have realized that some had more patience than others.
Now don't get me wrong, Lockdown had a great amount of patience, but he also knew that lying dormant for too long could make one's sense of patience grow thin.
Nonetheless, Lockdown would still wait until Megatron gave the order.
…...
A while after he had spoken with Megatron, he overheard Rotary Blades mumbling to herself from her and Soundwave's berthroom, while she paced back and forth across the floor, as though very anxious about something.
His curiosity piqued, Lockdown snuck closer to the outer window of the room, and tuned his audio receptors to her frantic muttering.
"How will I tell him? I know that he said he was fine with one, but now? We were just bonded less than a solorcycle ago, I don't know if I'm ready for this…" she had said to herself, obviously debating on how to tell Soundwave… something.
Her muttering stopped, and she ran out of the room into the living room, and Lockdown stealthily followed her in the shadow of the night.
"Soundwave! How was your day, dear?" she said as she greeted him, with a big hug and a kiss on his cheekplate.
Ravage and Lazorbeak were not far behind, each giving their own greeting to him.
"Alright, alright, settle down everyone, you're treating me like I'm Sentinal Prime, or something," he joked, returning Rotary Blades' kiss with one of his own, "Mine was fine, same old, same old, how about you?"
At that, Rotary Blades appeared to almost lock up, but she composed herself and said, "Soundwave, there's something I need to speak with you about," and she turned to head toward their shared quarters.
Ravage and Lazorbeak looked up at Soundwave with glinting optics, as though they knew a secret that he did not.
"What's got you all excited?" Soundwave asked them.
"You'll see," Ravage said, obviously enjoying keeping the secret.
"Why don't you go ask Blades? She has the answer," Lazorbeak added, feeling the same way Ravage was about their little secret.
Raising an optic ridge, Soundwave headed to back to their quarters to talk to Rotary Blades.
"What was it you wanted to tell me?" he asked, lying next to her on their berth.
Unknown to the two of them, Lockdown had his audio receptors tuned as high as they would go, eagerly awaiting the answer to ease his curiosity.
"Soundwave…" she started, 'Might as well get on with it,' she thought to herself, as nervousness crept into her circuits, "I…I had started getting sick each morning a few days ago, and I had thought it was just the flu-virus, but then I went to the medic because it just got worse, and I found out that I'm…" she paused, unsure as to how to go on.
"You're what?" Soundwave urged, gently stroking her ariel fins.
"I'm…I'm sparked," she finally blurted out; she then looked up expectantly into his optics, awaiting his take on the news.
At first, Soundwave just stared at her, processing this news, and then his CPU flashed possible futures before his very optics, with a sparkling by his side in each…
After his momentary mental space out, he saw the expectant look on Blades' faceplate, so he continued to stroke her fins while he said, "That is great news! I bet Blaster, Blitzebel, and Ashfire will love to hear about it!"
As they continued to chat away throughout the night on this joyous revelation, Lockdown had left them for the night and headed back to his ship, which wasn't far away from Soundwave's place, and contacted Megatron immediately.
"Lockdown? Have you more news?" Megatron asked; sitting in a scrap-pile he had made his temporary throne.
"Yes, my lord, I have found that Soundwave and his bondmate are sparked, although they just recently discovered this news," Lockdown answered, patiently waiting for Megatron to reply.
"Hmmm, this may be our ticket to getting Soundwave to join our side," Megatron pondered, then asked, "Does he or his bondmate have any relatives living in or near Iacon?"
"No, my lord, but both have close friends that live in the heart of the city."
"Goood, since word has broken out that I am starting an uprising, those loyal to the council and their way of life have started calling themselves Autobots, and have been stopping my forces from conquering Kaon and the surrounding areas.
Since the council and the Prime support these Autobots, some of the population has been joining their side, but most remain neutral, for they do not fear us, and do not consider us a threat.
Nonetheless, everyone knows of the group and all of their ideals, so if one of their own were to kill a neutral, the population would get riled up, and the Autobot's reputation would be tarnished; the neutrals would believe that we Decepticons were being honest, they will join our side for protection, and we will rule all of Cybertron!" Megatron ended with a cold laugh that rang in Lockdown's comm. system for a few nanoseconds.
"That would be glorious, my lord, but how do you plan on accomplishing this?" Lockdown asked, honestly not understanding why Megatron was telling him this.
"Ahhh, I shall need you, Lockdown, to pretend to be an Autobot and kill the friends of Soundwave and his bondmate; claim that they helped some Decepticons in Kaon, by sneaking in ammunition to their forces, if you must, just make sure that they buy your act," Megatron finished with an evil smirk on his face.
"What if they don't?" Lockdown questioned, "The neutrals are smart, and are not easily fooled."
"If they don't, I shall have to send others to accomplish that task, but your main objective is to get Soundwave to believe it, so that he will be so enraged with the Autobots that he will want to join us, and help us remove the council from their rule."
"What about his bondmate? Should I kill her too?"
"No, let her live; I may need her in the future, now go, you have your orders," and with that the link was severed, and Lockdown said to himself, "Finally, I get to have some action! Now, all I have to do is dig through my trophies for some armor that will mask my appearance, a hologram projector, a voice modifier, and a temporary name for myself, in case anyone asks, then tomorrow, the fun will begin…"
…...
Ashfire and Blitzebel were talking and walking down the busiest street of Iacon on a warm Sunday, having a fun day out to look through all of the stores, and maybe even bring stuff home.
So far, each femme had at least one hand full of bags from buying things, and they hadn't even gotten half-way down the street yet.
"Did you get the news?" Ashfire was saying, "Blades is going to be a carrier!"
"Yes, I heard; Ash, you've been pinging me for like, all of last megacycle!"
"I know, but I'm just so excited I can't stop talking about it! I wonder if it's a mech or femme, what are they going to name it, for all we know, they could be having twins!" she exclaimed, waving her free servo about in a flourish.
"Ash! Chill out, you act like you're going to blow a circuit…" Blitzebel said, attempting to make her hyper-active friend calm down.
"Fine," Ashfire sighed, then quickly grabbed her friend's servo and dragged her over to a store displaying flashy femme armor.
Neither of them noticed the figure that was leaning on the wall of the ally next to the store, watching their every move.
After about 20 clicks inside the store, the femmes came back out with even more bags then last time, and this time they decided to head back to their apartment for the day.
"I don't think I can carry another bag," Blitzebel complained as they headed back toward their place.
"Me either," Ashfire agreed, and she accidently dropped a few bags right in front of the ally where the figure was hiding.
As she stooped to try and pick it up, the hiding figure suddenly snatched her bag and took off down the alley.
"Hey! Come back here!" she said, and both femmes chased after the mech with the bag.
"These bags are slowing us down, he's getting away!" Ashfire said, "Well then let's transform and follow after him," Blitzebel suggested and then promptly transformed into a Cybertronian jet.
Ashfire wasn't far behind, and sped off in her car form after the thief.
Lockdown soon realized that the femmes were gaining on him, and if he wanted this to work, he needed to get them to follow him out to his ship, but he also had to make sure that he passed by Soundwave's place, to get him to try and help his friends.
To go faster, Lockdown transformed into his vehicle mode, and gunned his engines in the direction of Soundwave's place.
'If they were smart, they would have called the local authorities right about now. Oh well, better for me,' he thought, and he continued to speed through the empty roads of the outskirts of Iacon.
"I'm getting low on energy, Blitz," Ashfire said to her friend in the sky, "Do you think you could continue to follow him, while I get some fuel at Blade and 'Wave's place? I could also see if they could help us catch this thug."
"You do that," Blitzebel replied, "I'll follow this guy," and with that Blitzebel sped off after the mech as they passed her friends' place, and Ashfire quickly transformed, grabbed the rest of her things, and frantically knocked on their door.
Upon hearing the earnest knocking, Soundwave went to the door and opened it. He (along with Rotary Blades and Blaster, who was hanging with them today) was surprised to see an exhausted Ashfire barge in, drop her bags on the floor, and run into their kitchen to fill up an energon cube.
"Ashfire!" Rotary Blades exclaimed, slightly disturbed at seeing her happy-go-lucky friend exhausted to the core, "What happened?"
After she had downed a whole cube, she explained, "Blitz and I were having fun shopping, and then I dropped some of my stuff, this mech just snatched them from out of my hand and took off. We chased him all the way here, and Blitz is still going after him; could you help her, Soundwave?"
"Of course, Blaster, will you come with?"
"'Course I will, we'll get this mech, you don't need to worry," Blaster assured, and Ashfire muttered a thank you as she started to fall into recharge from over-exerting herself.
As soon as Soundwave and Blaster stepped out of the house, they transformed and zoomed toward the direction Ashfire had said they'd gone.
"Blitzebel," he said on the comm., "What are your coordinates?"
"Soundwave, good to hear Ash got to you; I'm transmitting coordinates know," and Soundwave instantly got a HUD that gave her coordinates directly to his processor.
"Be right there; let's go!" he said, and they sped even faster to find her, 'I hope she isn't knee deep in scrap,' he thought, as he soared and Blaster sped (1) through the colorful sunset sky, not far from the coordinates given…
…...
Blitzebel had chased the mech all the way to a ship in a junkyard on the outskirts of the local town, and was now debating on whether she should go in alone or not.
'I guess I'll just wait, Soundwave should be here soon,' she decided, and sat down on the nearest pile of scrap.
"This place is disgusting! Why would anyone want to have a ship in this place?" she said out loud to herself, and didn't notice the mech she'd been chasing throw an electric prod her way.
The prod landed in-between her neck and shoulder joints, sending its painful electric charge that would overheat her circuits throughout her body.
The last thing she saw before her world turned black was the mech standing above her with stasis cuffs…
…...
After about 5 clicks of flying and driving, Soundwave and Blaster transformed in front of the same ship Blitzebel did, except instead of waiting, like she had, they charged right on in through the open door (which should have been a signal that something wasn't right, but since these were good times, mechs and femmes had grown lax with noticing 'obvious trap' tactics).
As soon as they were inside, the door that led them outside closed, leaving them trapped in unknown territory.
"Tell me where they're hiding!" they heard someone yell toward the front of the ship, promptly followed by a scream of agony.
Forgetting to use caution, Soundwave and Blaster ran as fast as they could toward the voices, and when they reached what appeared to be some sick version of a brig, their optics widened in horror.
For there, lying in a bloody, crumpled heap in chains, was Blitzebel, her captor holding an electric whip in his servo, the electricity casting an eerie blue light in the darkened cell.
"I've… already… told you!" she coughed, spewing some cycled energon on the floor by her captor's "I… don't know… anything… about the… Decepticons… or… where they're…hiding."
"Lies!" the mech yelled as he slapped her across the faceplate, "My spies saw you in the Kaon mines, giving info on our whereabouts to the Decepticons!" and he continued to whip her until she cried for mercy.
"Please!" she begged, coolant leaking from her optics, "I thought… that you… Autobots… were… the good…guys."
"Hmpf, are you neutrals really that blind as to not see through our disguise? We only want you to think that you're safe with us in your cities. We could care less about what happens to all of you. We just want to be the rulers of Cybertron," Lockdown said, knowing full well that Soundwave was here listening…and watching.
"Oops, I've said too much, looks like I'm going to have to make sure you can't speak of this to anyone… ever… again," and he slowly pulled out a knife from his subspace, and dramatically drew it over his head, waiting for Soundwave to do something.
"Stop it!" a mech yelled, not Soundwave, Lockdown noted, but perhaps it was Soundwave's friend?
"You leave her alone!" ahhh, there Soundwave was, now, to make him buy it.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Soundwave and his friend Blaster," Lockdown said, turning to face them.
"How do you know who we are?" Soundwave asked, as Blaster slowly started to head toward Blitzebel.
Lockdown chuckled, "Let's just say… I've gotten to know you and your friends a bit more… personally; tell me, do you know what gender your sparkling is yet?"
Soundwave and Blaster froze at his last comment, fear seeping into their circuits, and horrible thoughts crossed Soundwave's CPU.
'If he knows about that, he must know where we live, and I don't think he'd hesitate to kill any of us…'
"Surprised?" Lockdown asked, moving away from Blitzebel and toward Soundwave; all the while keeping a watchful optic on Blaster and Blitzebel.
"A bit," Soundwave answered, "I didn't know Autobots could be so sparkles."
"Well, they are, welcome to reality, but now that all of you know, I'm going to have to kill you," and, to everyone's utter horror, Lockdown threw the knife right at a defenseless Blitzebel, and it hit her in the center of the chestplate.
"Blitzebel!" both Soundwave and Blaster yelled, as Blaster ran to help Blitzebel, and Soundwave went to get Lockdown, who had run to the back of the ship, where the door was.
Soundwave could have sworn he had never ran so fast in his lifecycle; anger, hurt, and worry, all propelling the joints in his legs, making his vents work so hard he thought they would burst.
When he got outside, to his surprise, he found the Autobot lying dead on a scrap-pile, a spear impaling his chestplates.
"What the…?" Soundwave had started whispering, but he was soon thrown to the ground by an unknown force, and promptly flipped onto his back, with a gun in his faceplates.
"Who are you?" the mech asked, and held the gun unwavering in his faceplates, "Are you an Autobot?"
"No!" Soundwave answered quickly, fear he had never known before taking control of his functions, "I'm Soundwave, my name is Soundwave, and I'm not an Autobot!"
With that the mech let him get up, took the gun out of his faceplates and said, "Name's Lockdown, I'm a Decepticon bounty hunter."
"Well, Lockdown, were you the one that killed that mech?"
"Yah, this mech here stole my ship, I had to track it down, and that wasn't easy without my gadgets; you ok?" he asked, feigning concern as best as a good Decepticon could.
"Yah, I'm fine, shaken by the current events, but still fine; my friend though, I don't know if she is ok, I've got to go check on her!" and Soundwave transformed and sped off back into the ship, Lockdown following behind him.
"Blitzebel!" Soundwave cried as he transformed next to Blaster, "Is she alright?"
Blaster shook his helm 'no', and was struggling to hold back the coolant that had threatened to cloud his optics.
"Hey… Soundwave…" Blitzebel coughed as she lay in Blaster's arms, "Do… me…a favor… will you?"
"Of course," Soundwave acknowledged, gently cupping her cheekplate.
"Tell… Ashfire… Blaster… and Rotary… Blades… that I… was glad…to be… their… friend… and…congrats…on your…sparkling," she gasped as she vented for the last time, her optics going dark, no longer the vibrant purple they used to be.
"Blitzebel!" both mechs cried, finally giving in to their emotions, and the stress of a situation they had never been in before, that they hoped to never be in again.
"Would you like to take you home?" Lockdown asked, after the mechs had grieved for a few clicks.
"Yes," they both said, but then Soundwave added, "And… do you think… that you might be able to transport my bondmate and to Kaon? I believe that we are no longer safe here…"
"Of course, I will drop you off and if she agrees, I will take you where you wish to go."
"Thank you," Soundwave said, and Lockdown excused himself from the mechs to go to his comm. room.
"Lord Megatron," Lockdown sent, "I have convinced Soundwave to move to Kaon, the loss of a friend convinced him that the Autobots were not safe, I am ready to receive new orders."
"Excellent!" Megatron replied, "Things are going just as I wanted, when you transport them to Kaon, I want to know their exact location, so that I may spy on him some more…"
"Yes, my lord," Lockdown said as he cut the transmission, and prepared the ship for launch.
'These times are about to get more interesting,' he said to himself, as he gave a dark chuckle at the thought.
Let us pretend that Blaster has car alt-mode, because let's be honest, Blaster is waaaaay to tall to be a boombox.
A/N: Wahhhh! I killed my my third favorite OC :'( Why, Ashlyn, why! Well, you had to give the readers some action, but look what it has cost! I must attempt to stop killing my favs, Hasbro does it enough with Starscream!
Enough of me smacking myself for killing her; since I realized I haven't really described Ashfire and Blitzebel's appearances, it is below…
Ashfire: She is big enough to be a convertible sports car; she has almost the exact same features as Prime Arcee, except her pedes are far smaller, and her paint job is pink and orange with orange optics, and she doesn't have winglets.
Blitzebel: Think TFA Blitzwing for her wings and alt-mode; she also has a beige and purple paintjob, but she has purple optics instead of red; she also has helm that is similar to Airacnid's in TFP, but hers goes down into the form of like a shoulder length square cut, and then Airachnid's helm mixed in with it.
So, I think that describes how they look, I haven't drawn them yet so I am going off of the fuzzy images in my brain :P
Anyway, hope you liked this chappie, and I should get back to the present here soon, but we'll have to see.