Chapter Twelve: A Brother's Test and a Father's Trial
Back at base, everyone was in a mild state of shock. Raf was never so strong willed. When the Groundbridge opened again, Soundwave walked through first, followed by Bee, and finally Raf brought Up the rear. "That was relaxing." Raf said with a chuckle as he deactivated his blasters and helmet. Soundwave shook his helm. "You could do a much better job with these systems, Hatchet." Soundwave's optics gleamed with mirth. "Then, again your expertise is in Cybertronian medicine, not computer science, and the two only overlap so far, especially when dealing with human computers." Soundwave extended his tendrils and got to work upgrading the human operating system of the base's mainframe. Soundwave turned to his son and smiled. "I see you've done what you could, Raf. I'm proud." He told the boy as lines of code flashed by Soundwave's optics. "Huh…" he said suddenly as Soundwave started to dig into forgotten files from the Base's days as a missile silo. It seems the humans who monitored this silo watched a lot of human interfacing to pass the time. Soundwave thought as he repaired the various systems damaged by viral attacks from the carelessness of the previous owners.
Ratchet was none too pleased to have the Decepticon Spymaster rooting around in their main systems. "Optimus," the Medic growled out in a barely contained whisper. "I do not think it is wise to let Soundwave have free rein in our mainframe!" Optimus gave his old friend a mild glare which surprised the Medic. "Ratchet, we did not capture Soundwave. He came to us willingly in the interest of protecting his son." Optimus reminded Ratchet. "With Raphael's life in the balance if he betrayed Megatron, I don't think Soundwave would act out a rashly concocted scheme against his master just to gain an edge." Optimus said. He tried to sound diplomatic, but there was a faint hint of irritation in Prime's voice as he spoke to his Chief Medical Officer. "It is my judgment that Soundwave has truly defected from the Decepticons to defend his family. Any thoughts otherwise will not be tolerated. Is that understood, Ratchet?" Optimus asked calmly. Ratchet nodded but struggled with the idea of trusting Soundwave nonetheless.
"What are the odds that all three of us are techno-organics?!" Miko asked in her always energetic and loud way. Raf chuckled. "That's like asking 'What are the odds the Autobots and Cons land on our world and not some distant hell hole?'" Raf said with a grin. "It's best not to question these things, Miko." Jason smiled at the group. "Mind if I join in?" He asked with a kind expression. "No problem." Raf told Jason as he slid over to give the Roman a place to sit. "This is all so bizarre." Jason said. Miko raised an eyebrow. "This is coming from a son of the Roman Sky God?" She mumbled with a frown. He shrugged. "I guess you're right to a point, but it's still a shock to find Lady Terra is really an alien demon." He said. Jason then looked around. "Where-" Jason's question was cut short as the base shook. "I have my answer." Jason mumbled to himself. "Where's the training area?" He asked. Miko giggled and pointed behind her to the left. Jason simply nodded and followed Miko's direction.
In the training room, Percy and Thalia dueled it out with each other. It would remind an outside observer of anime sword fights. The strikes were fast and lethal, but in power and strength, the two fighters were evenly matched with their blows. Percy and Thalia grinned as they knocked each other away in yet another clash. "I-is that…all you got, Thales?" Percy asked with a grin as his shoulders rose and fell in rhythm with his breathing. Thalia wiped sweat from her brow and stared Percy down. "I'm just getting started." She told him as her muscles tensed in preparation for another charge. Outside, Jason smiled and ran through various simulated targets while he tried to decide which would be best to test the strength of his sister and the Greek as a team. Then, Jason's face grew into a smile as he selected the one he thought most appropriate.
Percy and Thalia were recovering when they heard a deep and threatening laugh rumble from the ground. "Shit! Thalia, get back!" Percy yelled in fear as the laugh grew louder until a towering figure of rock that vaguely looked Cybertronian but was massive even by their standards. The clincher however for Percy was the creature's purple optics. "Unicron…" Percy growled as the grip on Riptide's hilt tightened at the sight of the simulation. Thalia glared at the monster. "Well, Percy," Thalia said with a grin. "Shall we?" Percy's face turned hard as steel as the Son of the Sea turned and nodded at the Daughter of the Sky.
Miko ran out of the room. "Thalia and Percy are fighting Unicron!" Helms and heads turned to the Asian teen. Then, bot, techno-organic, and even satyr joined her in the viewing area. As the group watched, they saw Thalia and Percy attack the simulated Unicron with the synchronization, power, and terror of a hurricane. They moved as one against their target. When one slowed the other picked up the slack. Then, the pair was thrown back by a monstrous backhand. As quickly as Percy and Thalia hit the ground, they came back at the simulation with all hints of holding back gone. Percy and Thalia glared at it, and summoned their respective full powers against it. Between the torrential rains and lightning bolts, the simulated Unicron fell quickly but Percy and Thalia didn't stop until it was completely vanquished. Well done, Jason thought with a small smile. Perhaps you are worthy of my sister.
Soundwave was impressed with the humans' strength. From what Soundwave read about the Chaos Bringer that was a feat, even against a simulation. He smiled. That strength is what made him fall for Rosa in the first place. Soundwave suddenly felt a stab of pain in his helm and was sent to his knees by the pain. "Did you think you could escape me that easily, Soundwave?" Soundwave's jaw clinched. "I had Knockout install a neural override unit just in case you betrayed me again. Enjoy watching your son die at your own servos!" Megatron said to him as Soundwave felt his body stand at attention. "Get. Raphael. Out!" Soundwave pleaded with pain in his voice. "Slag it! She T3ed us!" Raphael yelled. "Ratchet, prep sick bay now!" The boy ordered. "Roadburner, Bulkhead, and Miko restrain him!" Raphael ordered as the boy hacked into his father's processor and tried to locate the firmware chip and isolate its yelled out in victory when he temporarily blocked the chip's signal. "Ratchet, you have to act fast and remove the chip!" Raf told the Medic as he uploaded a target cross on top of the chip into Ratchet's HUD. "You three…" Ratchet motioned to the three bots holding Soundwave's limp cchassis "…put him on the table now." Once the bots did as instructed, Ratchet quickly induced stasis.
As soon as Soundwave went under, the mech found himself in the gladiatorial arena in Kaon. Megatron laughed at the Spymaster. "Is that mech youngling so important to you, Soundwave? You, my most loyal soldier, would betray me and not destroy that slag smear and his glitch of a carrier." Soundwave said nothing, but the Spymaster could almost feel his Energon boil in its tubes. Soundwave glared with deadly determination at his former taskmaster. All this talk is coming from a glitch who lost her processor and destroyed her homeworld because a mech rejected her, and she has the nerve to call my Sparkmate a glitch? Soundwave thought as he struggled to contain his rage until the right moment. Suddenly, Megatron charged. Soundwave almost laughed. "Predicable…" The Spymaster mumbled as he sidestepped his attacker's charge, grabbed her by the neck, and threw Megatron down. Megatron caught the ground with her peds and executed a flip away from Soundwave. The mech closed the gap between them quickly and sent his right bladed arm into Megatron's chest plate. Megatron grabbed the arm as Soundwave drew it back and twisted. The alloy of Soundwave's arm groaned in protest, but Soundwave managed to hold back the scream of pain that fought for freedom. He would not give the twisted femme the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Instead, Soundwave gave Megatron a point blank resonance blast from his free servo. The blast sent Megatron flying and gave Soundwave time to reset his mangled limb. Then, Soundwave ran at Megatron while she was still disoriented from the close range sonic assault. "You want me, Megatron? You got me!" He growled as he began to kick and slice at the monster. "You can pick on me all you want, but you cross a line of no return when you mess with or insult my family!" Soundwave growled as he picked up Megatron in one servo above his helm and gave her a spine chilling glare. "If I find your sorry valve aft in my processor again, I'm going to rip out your Spark personally! ¡¿Compende?!" With that, Soundwave threw Megatron in the air, funneled all the power he could muster into his sonic blasters, and fired.
When Soundwave was roused from stasis, he groaned and sat up slowly. "Dad…" Raf said timidly as Ratchet gently lowered the boy onto the Beth to be closer to Soundwave. "…even in stasis you thrashed around quite a bit. Are you alright?" Soundwave looked down at the worried boy. "I just had an old fashioned grudge match with Megatron. She wasn't going to leave my processor without a fight." He said with a vent. "I managed to beat her though." He said with a grin. He looked over and noticed everyone was looking at him, even June and Optimus. To ease the tension a bit, you know? Jack's got Arcee. Miko's got Bulkhead. By the Pit, June even managed to snag Mister Stoic himself. We have to find you a nice femme." Raf turned red at this. "Dad, you sound sound just like Mom, albeit without the Spanish accent!" The boy said in protest as the whole room erupted into laughter.
Despite this jovial atmosphere, below the Earth, the destruction of three of his most powerful creations caused Unicron to begin to stir within the confines of his main body as the Earth's core, small twitches that were being registered as micro quakes all over the world, nothing to worry over yet, but it certainly left a few scientists scratching their heads as they looked over the data from various seismographs. From the core, rumbled a sleep-laden voice, "Followers of Primus, you're destruction shall be swift and sure."
Please Read and Review. Author's Note: "T3ed us" is a reference to "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" when the TX corrupts the T-800's system to try and force it to kill John Connor.