After all that death, how about a slightly more light-hearted chapter.
Edit: I had a lot of technical difficulties with posting this chapter, so feel free to tell me if anything seems off.
Planet: Earth, Location: Jasper, Nevada.
Several years later.
A half dozen engines revved like a pack of roaring lions, their exhaust ports spewing out smoke and other fumes like a thick, noxious fog. The six cars lined up; a grey muscle car with orange flame designs, an azure and pink Corvette Stingray, a green muscle car, two nearly identical hot pink cars with lime and purple trim, and finally a white and blue custom F1 Racecar. The referee for the street race didn't even try to pretend that this was going to be fair, he just twisted the corners of his mouth upward in a half grimace, half smile and gave a thumbs up to the six drivers. The four he could see returned the gesture, but he had to assume the drivers of the white-blue and azure cars returned the sign, seeing as their windshields were tinted.
He stepped into the middle of the road and pulled the rolled up checkered flag out of his pocket. Raising it into the air, he counted to three, then swished the flag through the air in a large figure eight. The cars rushed by and, despite the dark hair that blew across his eyes, he could see the Formula One quickly overtaking most of the other cars. He turned to his own mundane, off-white car and hopped into the driver's seat, the comforting yellow glow of the interior light soothing his nerves.
He pulled his cellphone from his back pocket and flipped it open. He speed dialed the number of a friend of his family, a friend who he was currently doing a favor for. He held the sleek device to his ear and listened to the phone on the receiving end ring for an unusually long time, or rather, an unusually long time if it had been anyone else. A minute or so later a gruff voice answered, "Who is it? I'm in the middle of something, so make it quick."
"It's Jack. The race has begun. They should be at your position soon."
"Ah, okay, affirmative. Fanzone over and out." The voice replied. The sounds of fumbling could be heard on the other side, and Jack held in a laugh, "This," clickity click, "is why," clackity click, "I hate... zzzzzzt!" Jack closed his phone with a chuckle and put it back in his pocket.
Before long, the twins and the green car were so far behind the other three racers that they were out of view. The F1 and the grey car were neck and neck, while the blue Corvette was slightly behind them. The driver of the F1 was trying furiously to force its opponent against the walls of the freeway they were currently on. However, the driver of the grey car was doing a great job of fighting back, and the F1 swerved to the left to prepare for a particularly savage swipe. At the precise moment it prepared to swipe the other car, its opponent slowed down and the F1 only succeeded in ramming into the wall itself.
The grey car rocketed ahead, while the blue car stopped next to the F1. The green car and the two pinks soon passed them. Inside both of the stationary cars, the dashboards lit up a bright blue and voices began passing on the airwaves between the two; the dashboards becoming brighter in time with the speech, "Are you alright, Mirage?" asked a feminine voice from the Corvette.
"Of course I'm fine! Its just a scratch! Who do you think I am, Arcee? Knockout?" The F1 replied as it rocketed ahead, leaving its right front wheel behind.
Arcee huffed and rushed ahead to join Mirage, her Cybertronian engine easily catching up with him, "You dropped something."
"I didn't drop it, I put it down! It was just causing friction with the road and making me slower," The racecar growled at Arcee, who would have laughed if it had been anyone else. His axle was grinding against the street. Less friction, indeed! But it was Mirage, and any sign of laughter at his antics could lead to a beating. Nonetheless, they were still making good time, and soon they crested the hill that was the halfway point of the race. They both skidded to a stop. At the bottom of the hill, the other four cars were surrounded by police cars, including a bright yellow one.
"Scrap!"
"I was actually thinking: Ha ha, you lose!" the F1 replied.
"No, Look. Bumblebee."
"So?"
"So, if Bumblebee is here that means someone noticed we were gone. When Optimus chews us out, I'm going to blame you. After all, you did run off, and someone had to follow you."
"Optimus," there was obvious contempt in the mech's voice,"can blow it out his exhaust. We didn't hurt anything."
"Besides breaking several human laws."
"Your point is? Its not like we attracted Decepticoooooh, scrap!" A brown detective coupé had joined the police cars. Thankfully Bumblebee had noticed as well, and the yellow police car was already inching its way out of the circle.
Arcee and Mirage said the same word in unison, their high beams blinking in alarm "Soundwave!"
Soundwave watched all of the activity from the back of the circle of vehicles, his cameras recording everything; searching for the two Autobots he came to fight. Minutes before, his radio had picked up police chatter about a street race, which he usually ignored. This time was different, the usual four offenders were listed, but this time they were followed with descriptions of a blue Corvette and an F1 race car. Descriptions matching Arcee and Mirage.
Now he found out he not not just two Autobots for the price of one, but three. Bumblebee had rolled up seconds after he did, and Soundwave inched forward into the circle of light created by the police cars' headlights. The Autobot scout noticed, and apparently so did someone else, because three bright beams of light blinked in and out of existence briefly on top of the hill to his right. He backed out of the circle just as Bumblebee rushed past him and followed; deactivating his headlights and following in the dark parts of the street.
Bumblebee reached the other two Autobots first, and the trio of vehicles rocketed away. Soundwave began to follow them, but a cream-colored vehicle drove by him seconds into the chase; heading towards the police. A car with a distinct Cybertronian signature. Normally this wouldn't vex him; all vehicles on this planet had a weak Cybertronian signal. This time was different however; it was stronger, though it was still to weak to be that of an Autobot. The communications officer parked for a moment to think about what he should do, the Autobots were getting away and the car could just be a distraction.
No, he discarded that thought immediately, the soft-sparked Autobots would not put another lifeform in harms way to save themselves. Honorable. That meant the other vehicle could only logically (Primus he hated that word!) be a human device augmented by Cybertronian technology; not the weak, only barely Cybertronian technology used in all human technology since the Cold War, but pure, possible even energon-fueled Cybertronian tech. So the only reasonable conclusion that he could reach was the involvement of that human group, what where they called? He searched his files. Ah, yes. Sector Seven.
That settled it, the whole reason he was following the Autobots was to learn ways to bait Sector Seven, but if he could lure them out another way, he would gladly do so. Hunting was more Bonecrusher's thing anyway. He u-turned and drove back to the the area where the arrests were taking place, pulling back into the shadows. The white car had stopped beside a yellow compact car that Soundwave recognized as the Police Captain's car. He noted the license plate in his logs and began running his hidden optics over the dwindling crowd of people and vehicles.
A blonde-headed male human of approximately seventeen years of age walked by the off-white car wearing what Soundwave supposed was the human equivalent off stasis cuffs. A police officer held the chain that kept the metal rings together tightly, but his hands being restrained didn't keep the teen from spouting off with his mouth. He let out a string of what the Decepticon's internal dictionary told him were profanities, before roaring in the direction of the car window, "I'll get you Darby! You hear me? You set us up and now my car is wrecked and the pigs are gonna lock me up. You'll pay for this!"
Darby. Where had Soundwave heard that name before? He checked his memory banks and found the file he needed. "Agent S7-2. Name: Jackson Alan Darby Sr. - Status: Deceased. - Replaced: No. - Possible Replacement: Jackson Alan Darby Jr. - Notes: Killed in action. NBE-278 responsible. Position to be filled by son, when of age. - File Ended."
Bingo. Soundwave entered the car's signature into his data base and began a profile on Jack Darby. After he had finished, which only took seconds due to how little he knew about the human, he opened a comm channel to the Victory, "Lord Megatron, this is Soundwave," Most Decepticons couldn't just call Lord Megatron on a whim, but Soundwave was Communications officer, that gave him special privileges.
"Hello Soundwave," if Soundwave was a human he would have no doubt dropped his cell phone in shock. He had been expecting the calm and controlled voice of Lord Megatron, not the screech of a plane rapidly going to a meeting with ground. Or at least, that is what the voice of the bot on the other end sounded like, "Lord Megatron is unavailable at the moment, and he left me in charge."
"Oh joy. When will he be back, Starscream?"
"He didn't say. And its Commander Starscream."
"We're equal rank, just because I am not a military bot doesn't mean I'm not a lieutena... Oh, never mind. Just get Flatline to open a bridge at these coordinates. I have some information I need to deliver to Lord Megatron."
"Very well. One groundbridge," Starscream paused and Soundwave could picture the jet making a grand gesture on the other side, "coming right up."
"Thank you, Commander Starscream," Soundwave had found it was best not to refer to the seeker by his rank until you had what you wanted, otherwise he would be too high and mighty to listen to anyone's orders, even Lord Megatron's. Soundwave pulled away from the crime scene, which was now all but clear of vehicles, and drove slowly to location he had given Starscream: a dark alleyway between two buildings. A rat scampered away in fear as a swirling green portal appeared partway down the corridor. Soundwave rolled quietly into the alley, accidentally crushing the organic scavenger on the way, and entered the groundbridge. Every part of his chassis rattling ; electricity arcing from piece to piece. Then, all at once, the portal and car disappeared from the alley and reappeared in a dark and sterile room lit only by the dim red lights overhead and the glow of the groundbridge.
The detective coupé shuddered for a moment and then exploded, but in a very controlled way. The pieces moved outward on various armatures and wires, twisting around each other and sliding between other parts; reforming after a few seconds. The result was far different from the old car it had been before. It was a boxy robot with long wing-like arms (formed from the front and back doors) that ended in three long fingers and an equally long thumb. The front of the vehicle became legs and feet, while the rear of the vehicle formed the torso and a massive shoulder-cannon that ended in the vehicle's exhaust pipe. A sleek head that was taken up almost entirely by a silver mouth-guard and a pair of orange optics appeared out of the top of the torso.
Soundwave stood to his full height and strode towards the exit of the Groundbridge Lab. He walked past Flatline and reached for the door control pad, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder, "Hup, up, up. You know the rules Soundwave, anybot in direct contact with organics must be decontaminated before entering the rest of the base."
"I made no contact with the humans I was monitoring," Soundwave said in his signature monotone, making an obvious effort to hide the remains of the rat smeared on his wheels.
"Any organic," The red and black medic said, forcefully this time; gesturing at the smear of blood and fleshy remains. Soundwave sighed, though it sounded more like static, and followed the medic to the energon decontamination bath. Soundwave entered the cylindrical machine and waited while the doctor entered some instructions into the keypad that controlled the device. The tube-like machine came to life. Arms and pipes appeared out of the floors, the pipes spraying a thin layer of solvent that targeted organic compounds over his whole body while an arm scanned him for the largest deposits of organic tissue. Another set of arms started scrubbing away at the areas the scanner deemed most important. Soon it was finished and the cylinder opened, allowing Soundwave to step out.
"The drying cycle is still malfunctioning," Soundwave growled, cleaning fluid forming a puddle under his feet, "get it fixed. That is an order."
"Excuse me? I am the lead medical technician, I outrank you when it comes to medical equipment."
Soundwave narrowed his optics and turned to the exit, mumbling, "Sometimes I think we have too many lieutenants on this ship."