Soundwave was leaning on a wall in the Nemesis' main control room. He was tapping into his many private music playlists.
What was he in the mood for?
Pop? Nah. Nothing mainstream.
Country? He wasn't in the mood.
Jazz? Too...Autobot.
Then up came the playlist he downloaded from Miko Nakadai. It was labeled Slash Monkey Epicness. Soundwave mentally shrugged and opened up the playlist and pressed play.
His audio receptors were suddenly and instantly filled with loud guitars, banging drums, and shrieking voices.
Soundwave moved his helm with the beat. Miko sure did have good taste. He closed his optics and focused on the music. Next thing he knew he was listening to the next song. Then the next. Then the next. Then the next.
It wasn't until Soundwave realized that someone was annoyingly tapping the side of his helm did he reopen his optics.
It was Airachnid, wearing a very frustrated look on her faceplates. The silver and pink femme continued to tap Soundwave's helm. He swatted her servo away.
"What? What? What do you want?" Soundwave demanded.
Airachnid pointed at the Nemesis' main console. It was blinking and its alarms were blaring.
"I'd like you to do your job, Mr. Communications Chief!" Airachnid snapped.
"Okay! Alright! Chill out! I hear it!" Soundwave replied. He walked over to the large console and began to assess the message that was being broadcasted.
"Hey...that's weird." He muttered. "Starscream and Knockout are still aboard ship right?"
"What?" Airachnid asked. "Well, yes, yes they are last I checked. Why do you ask?"
"'Cause it says here that the broadcasted message is comin' from the two of 'em." Soundwave explained. "They're requestin' a bridge."
"That can't be right. It must be an Autobot trick." Airachnid said. "However, we should probably let them and Megatron know so we can send someone to go check it out."
"Yeah. Okay." Soundwave agreed.
Starscream fell through the silver tunnel first, Knockout followed him immediately. He saw that they were being thrown out in midair, so he transformed. Unfortunately, just as he steadied himself in the air, Knockout fell on top of him.
"Knockout! Get off of me!" Starscream demanded. He rolled in the air in an attempt to shake Knockout off, but Knockout held on tight.
"Not a chance! Get my pedes on the ground and I will happily remove myself!" Knockout snapped.
Starscream groaned annoyedly as he made his descent. When they were close enough to the ground, Knockout jumped off, and Starscream transformed.
"Well now. Where are we?" Knockout wondered.
The two Decepticons were standing close to the edge of a rock cliff. It was barren desert as far as the eye(or optic) could see. The sun was unrelenting as it cast it's bright light down on the land and the two Cybertronians.
"In some desert. I'll contact the Nemesis to send a groundbridge." Starscream said.
He raised his servo to his comm. link. "This is commander Starscream. I am requesting the activation of a groundbridge to my coordinates."
As Starscream listened, all he could hear was static.
"What? This is Commander Starscream! Someone answer me!" He yelled. More static.
"What's wrong?" Knockout asked.
"Something must be wrong with my comm. link. Try yours." Starscream replied.
Knockout attempted to contact the Nemesis himself, but he ended up with the same result as Starscream.
"Hmm. Last time this happened was when the Predacon destroyed the comm. link satellite. Wasn't it?" Knockout spoke.
"Indeed. If something like that is the case we'd better hurry up and get back to fix it. We don't need Lord Megatron to be any more angry. He will be fuming when he returns to the ship, especially after Shockwave's failed experiment." Starscream spoke the last sentence with a hint of glee. Knockout merely rolled his optics.
"Just send out a broadcast already. I know you have the tech on you. Hurry up with it." Knockout snapped.
"Do not order me about!" Starscream replied as he took out his message transmitter.
He began typing in the commands and the request. When he was done he hit the broadcast button.
"And now we wait." Starscream said.
"This is quite curious." The honourable Decepticon leader Megatron commented. "Are you certain that this is not another glitch in our systems?"
Soundwave ran scans through his visor and manually through the console. "Well, it shouldn't be. I mean, sure. Ever since we integrated that Earth tech with our systems, ev'rythin's been glitchin'...but, this message and these signals I'm pickin' up at that location seems legit."
"But the question still stands, why would the Autobots go through so much trouble just to recreate signals of Cons they know are on this ship?" Megatron wondered.
"Indeed." His second in command, Starscream said. "I know they think that we're beneath them, but they usually give us more credit than that."
"Or maybe they're just slipping." Knockout suggested.
Megatron crossed his arms in thought. "Hmm. While it is suspicious, I believe that we should proceed with caution and investigate. Airachnid. Starscream. Go to those coordinates and see what is the cause of the transmission."
"Yes sir." Starscream replied.
"Whatever you say." Airachnid added. "Let's go Screamer. Soundwave."
"Yup. On it." Soundwave replied.
A swirling green groundbridge portal appeared. The two Decepticons transformed—Starscream, a powerful fighter jet, Airachnid a sleek helicopter—and sped through the groundbridge.
They emerged on a massive rock wall in a vast desert.
"According to the coordinates Soundwave supplied, the source of the transmission should be...right below us." Starscream said.
He and Airachnid walked to the edge of the wall and looked down. There they saw two mechs. One was a red bot, who was sitting down. The other was a seeker, who was pacing back and forth and ranting about something.
"Where are they?" The seeker demanded, his voice echoing throughout the canyon below.
"What? That's odd. Starscream, he sounds just like—" Airachnid began.
"Me." Starscream finished. "We need to get a closer look."
Airachnid nodded and followed Starscream as he carefully made his way down the rock.
Meanwhile...
"Starscream, will you pipe down! If you keep going on like that you'll destroy my audio receptors. That is, if you don't blow a fuse in your own cranial chambers first." Knockout complained.
"I sent that message over half a blasted Earth hour ago! The Nemesis should have sent a bridge by now!" Starscream ranted. "In fact, they should have sent one as soon as they recieved the message! I am second in command of the Decepticons after all!"
"Uh huh. I know. You never let me or anyone else forget." Knockout muttered.
Starscream glared at Knockout. "Your negativity is not helping."
"What? My negativity? I'm not the one throwing a fit! Grr, of all the Cybertronians in the fragging universe, I just had to get stuck in the middle of nowhere, with you!" Knockout exclaimed.
"I was thinking the exact same thing. In fact, I think that I'll leave and find a way to get beck to the Nemesis on my own!" Starscream yelled.
"Fine by me!" Knockout snapped back.
Starscream proceeded to stomp away from Knockout and around the rock wall they were by.
"Of all the incompetent, vain, wretched wastes of—" Starscream was cut off as he turned a corner to see—
"Airachnid? What? How?" Starscream stammered.
Airachnid tilted her head to one side in confuu, before turning behind her.
"Quite the splitting image I would say." She remarked. Then a mech came into Starscream's view. A mech who looked exactly like him!
"Well, this is quite the odd situation we have here isn't it?" He spoke.
Been a while hasn't it? Yeah, sorry. This chapter gave me a really hard time. Anyways, here you go. More is coming don't worry.
Leaving comments and reviews will probably help the updates come out faster. Just sayin'.