"Ugh, what's taking so long!" Sunstreaker complained, throwing his helm back in annoyance.
"Chill out Sunstreaker, the big bot's coming, just have some patience." Jazz chuckled at the impatient twin.
"You know, you could get off your ass and help Optimus out, instead of complaining!" Ratchet snarled, bringing more energon into the ship.
Bumblebee followed his father down the corridor. Doing his best, to carry the arm full of sparkling supplies, and some of his favourite toys. Speeding up his walking pace, to keep up, dropping some toys in the process.
Mirage happily toddled behind Bumblebee, picking up whatever his yellow brother dropped. Only able to carry three small toys in his tiny arms. "Uh oh!" Mirage chirped as a small ball slipped out of his arms. Abandoning the other toys, quickly chasing after the ball. Mirage squealed as he was scooped up off the ground, just before reaching the ball.
Soundwave placed Mirage on his shoulder, while picking up the ball, and other toys the sparkling dropped. Deploying his tentacles, Soundwave followed the debris trail, collecting the toys, and sparkling items Bumblebee was dropping.
Arriving at the docked ship, Optimus turned around to see his youngling carrying almost nothing. "Uh, Bumblebee, where's the stuff you grabbed, and where's Mirage?"
Bumblebee looked over his shoulder, seeing the trail of dropped items, and no sparkling. "On the floor, probably playing with toys." Bee sheepishly smiled.
Optimus sighed, picking up some of the toys, off the floor. Before seeing Soundwave enter, with Mirage, and dropped items.
"Opt!" Mirage giggled, smacking Soundwave in the optic.
Soundwave winced, tightly shutting his struck optic. "Ow, hey play with this." Soundwave diverted the flailing servos with a toy.
"Thank you Soundwave." Optimus quickly relieved the young mech of all the toys, and sparkling items. "Bumblebee?" Optimus glared at the young scout.
"Yeah, thank you Soundwave." Bumblebee sheepishly thanked the Communications Chief, as the femme entered the hanger bay behind them.
"And that's why I told you to wait a sec, Bumblebee!" Arcee Grumbled, nudging the younglings empty toy chest next to him.
Before he could apologize to his Aunty, Bumblebee gasped, as he was suddenly picked up, and put in the ship. "Alright, I'm helping. Start handing scrap!" Sunstreaker gestured for the others to start handing him things.
"Oh, how kind of you Sunshine. Thank you so much for taking a break from your bitching, to come help us load the ship." Arcee sarcastically thanked, the grumpy golden twin.
"Any time sweetie, now hurry up." Sunstreaker returned the sarcasm, while bringing in the remainder of the packed crates.
Optimus only rolled his optics, at two bickering bots. Following them both into the ship.
Soundwave quickly made sure everything was picked up off the ground, before boarding with his little brother in his arms.
Soundwave followed the Prime to the flight deck, where Sideswipe checked over the ship, making sure everything was functioning properly.
"We're ready to fly, Prime." Sideswipe started the ship up.
"Excellent Sideswipe, take us out. Jetfire, Silverbolt, I need you two to give us an escort." Optimus used one of the consoles to call the Ariel bots, as the shipe flew out of the hanger.
"Sure thing Optimus, until you're out of atmosphere?" Jetfire asked, as he and Silverbolt flew beside the drop ship.
"I'm opening the bridge straight ahead." Soundwave announced to their leader.
"Just until we reach the spacebridge Jetfire." Optimus replied to the Ariel bot.
"You got it Prime. Safe travels, I hope to see you again one day." Jetfire replied, giving his farewell.
"Stay safe my friend." Optimus replied ending the call.
Within moments, Soundwave opened the spacebridge, only taking the ship seconds to reach it. Going through the bridge, the Autobots were immediately met by a desert mountain wall.
"Holy scrap!" Sideswipe quickly pulled up, following the giant red wall to the top. "Could you've picked a better place to bridge us Soundwave!?" Sideswipe hissed, looking over his shoulder.
"Sorry, but that's where I could bridge us, without being ontop of the Decepticon coordinates." Soundwave replied in an apologetic tone.
"Wow look how organic the planet is." Jazz thought aloud, looking at the desert dirt and dust.
"Looks like it would crumble beneath us." Ironhide scoffed folding his arms.
"The chances of that happening with your big aft, are probably very high." Ratchet teased his old friend.
"Very funny Ratchet." Ironhide grumbled, rolling his optics.
"So, where should we land boss bot?" Jazz asked, looking over at the Prime.
Before Optimus could answer, a loud bang made the ship moan, and rock. Throwing everybot off balance.
Soundwave quickly used his shield like arms to shelter his brother, Arcee, and Bumblebee, from falling sparks, from the ships ceiling.
"Decepticons must've tracked the ships signal!" Ratchet held onto his seat.
"Sunstreaker lock into the turrets, hold them off." Optimus ordered, as he looked at the radar, showing many bogeys inbound.
"Optimus, this ship isn't built for an ariel assault, it will only hold them for so long." Sideswipe made the ship do evasive maneuvers.
"We need to find somewhere to get out of the line of fire." Optimus thought aloud looking at the territory scans.
"Good luck, this place is a fragging open wasteland!" Ironhide hissed, bracing as the ship shook violently.
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we've got more bogeys incoming ahead." Sideswipe announced, pulling the radar up on the main monitor.
"Those aren't Decepticon signatures." Ratchet pointed out, with concern.
"Take Mirage." Soundwave handed his little brother to Arcee.
"What are you doing?" Arcee cradled Mirage in her arms, watching as Soundwave made his way to the drop hatch.
"I'm going to even the odds." Soundwave dropped out of the hatch, transforming in mid air. Releasing Lazerbeak, to inspect the bogeys ahead of the ship. He fired rappidly at the pursuing Decepticon soldiers, taking down two of the flyers.
Watching Lazerbeak's broadcasts Ratchet confirmed it wasn't Decepticons. "They must be the natives that live here." Ratchet suggested, seeing tiny creatures inside the aircraft's.
Soundwave, now had the Decepticons full attention, he flew straight up, leading the cons away from the ship. Taking advantage of the clouds, Soundwave used them as camouflage, destroying the unsuspecting Decepticons that followed him up. Flying ahead of the ship, Soundwave almost collided with an unmanned alien aircraft, veering off, to fly above it. The surveillance Chief, admired it's design. Scanning it, changing his vehicle mode to replicate the aircraft.
"Soundwave do not engage anyone, except for the Decepticons. We do not want to make a bad impression on the natives of this planet." Optimus spoke through the comlink.
"Understood Optimus." Soundwave banked left, drifting out of the clouds. Just at that moment multiple Decepticons fired at the drop ship. One looked like the natives aircraft, but reading its energon signature confirmed that it was, Starscream.
"Die you wretched Autobots!" Starscream fired his missiles at the ship. Causing it to violet plunge out of the sky.
Soundwave dove at Starscream, hitting the jet hard.
Starscream yellped in pain, as he lost control of his jet mode. Taking a moment to regain control, seeing the aircraft that struck him, destroy the Eradicons he was leading. Growling in frustration, the air Commander fled the scene, in hopes the humans would take care of the rest.
"Coward..." Soundwave thought to himself, seeing the Commander flee the scene. Shaking away the thought, he quickly flew down, to find the crash sight.
"Everyone alright?" Ratchet asked pushing a wall panel off of him.
"We're all fine old friend." Optimus checked over his team, and young.
"Yeah, but the ship is done, scrap metal, no way it's flying again." Sideswipe scoffed, letting go of the flight controls.
"We've got company!" Sunstreaker announced, pointing at the army coming at them.
"I'll rid of these pests." Ironhide gruffly replied, making his way to the large out the broken hatch.
"Ironhide, no!" Optimus followed, quickly halting the mech from doing any harm. "We're not the Decepticons, we don't wish harm upon the natives." Optimus Prime explained, turning his attention to the small army, that halted directly in front of them.
Ironhide sighed, reluctantly lowering his weapons. As the rest of the team crawled out from the wreckage.
"Whoa." Jazz watched, as some of the tiny natives of the planet, crawled out of their war machines. While others aimed their tank canons at them.
"Get ready to fire!" One shouted in their language.
Optimus quickly scanned the creature, revealing it to be a human being. "Please, we mean you no harm!" He quickly changed his language from Cybertronian, to human english. Hoping it was the correct language for the planet's region. Stepping in front of his team, blocking them from the line of fire.
Soundwave flew over to the team, transforming, landing next to Arcee and Bumblebee.
"Why should we believe that, when your buddies have been threatening us since they arrived!" A gruff man hissed at Optimus. "And stealing our tech, how in the hell, did your friend get our unmanned Reaper jet?"
"You mistake us for the Decepticons that shot us down. They're are a ruthless, ongoing threat, to anyone in this universe. They're no friends of ours." Optimus replied keeping his usual calm demeanour. "We are the Autobots. We've come to protect your planet from the Decepticons. For they are a major threat to your world."
"So just because you have a different title, means we should blindly trust you? Because you look no different from the machines trying to destroy us!" The man argued with the humongous robot.
"Machines!" Ratchet scoffed, like the others on the team, feeling insulted to be called a machine.
"Decepticons incoming!" Ironhide announced, as more Eradicons flew in, firing at the humans and Autobots.
"I'll keep them at bay." Soundwave transformed, taking off into the sky, diverting the small attack team's attention.
"I understand your scepticism, but please, we do not mean to cause harm like they do." Optimus tried to make the tiny human understand.
"Fine we'll trust you, but one wrong move, and you're scrap metal heading for the junkyard!" The man winced as shots landed near by.
Optimus nodded, firing at the threatening Eradicons. Soundwave finished the last few, before transforming, landing next to Optimus.
"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, help me salvage what energon survived the crash. Before it goes up in flames." Ironhide gestured for the twins to follow him.
The man took a moment to check over his team, making sure no injuries needed tending to. Walking back over to the 30ft robot. "I have questions, that need to be answered. That ship of yours isn't going anywhere is it?"
Optimus looked behind him, as the ship exploded into oblivion.
"Holy scrap, that was close!" Sideswipe leapt away from the ship, with Ironhide, and his twin.
"Ugh, this heat is singeing my paint!" Sunstreaker complained, placing a few energon cubes down.
"Sunny you were lucky it didn't do more than just singe your paint." Jazz retorted to the golden mech.
Mirage was now frightened from all the crashing, explosions, and Decepticons. Letting out a miserable cry, to announce his discomfort.
"No, sir." Optimus replied, as Arcee approached him with his two sons.
"You have children?" The man shook his head in amazement. "Robots that have feelings, and kin. I've seen it all..."
Optimus sighed looking over at his crying sparkling. "We're not safe here." Looking back at the humans. "It would be wise for us to leave, before the Decepticons send in another strike team."
"I know just the place, how fast can you walk?" The man replied, as his troops fell back.
"We can drive, Soundwave once we arrive, can you bridge Mirage and Bumblebee through?" Optimus turned to the violet mech beside him.
"Yes of course sir. Arcee and I will start moving out, and wait with them." Soundwave replied, beginning to walk off with the femme, and young bots.
"How are you going to drive, when your ship just bit the dust?" The man scoffed shaking his head, at the robots.
Optimus transformed into his Cybertronian vehicle mode, the rest of his team copying him.
"They transform, have kids, emotions..." the man grumbled, getting into his Jeep. "Follow me quickly." He waved for the Autobots to follow him.
"Optimus, are you sure we can blindly trust them?" Ratchet asked, pulling up beside the large red and blue vehicle.
"So far the humans have chosen to trust us, even after their unfortunate encounters with the Decepticons, before we arrived. I think the least we can do, is return the favour." Optimus replied to the wary medic.
"Alright bots, I just got off the phone with the big wigs, we're cleared to use this place." The man shouted over the loud engines.
"What place, I only see rock." Ironhide grumbled, as they all drove up to a mountain wall.
"That's what you think, lugnut." The strange man scoffed, hopping out of his stopped jeep.
"Ironhide..." Ironhide corrected, as the tiny human, pressed some buttons on a hidden keypad, unlocking a large hidden entrance.
"Come on." The man gestured for the bots to follow him.
"Ironhide, send Soundwave the coordinates." Optimus, and Ratchet both transformed, carefully following the tiny human, into the old inactive missile silo. The twins skated past Jazz, and around the human, making him curse at them.
"It was abandoned decades ago, she's a little dusty, and needs a little work. But it serves it's purpose, completely cloaked, not even your alien eyes could detect this place." The man gave a quick tour, before turning his full attention to his alien guests.
Soundwave, Arcee, and Bumblebee followed Ironhide into the main room. Mirage squirmed in Arcee's arms, wanting to be placed on the ground.
"Primus, fine!" Arcee placed the fidgety sparkling down.
"So now that we're not under fire, how about some introductions, and answers." The human said, warily watching as Bumblebee, and Mirage explored around him.
"I am Optimus Prime, I am the leader of the Autobots." Optimus formally introduced himself.
"Agent William Fowler. You can call me Fowler." Agent Fowler replied to the alien leader.
Optimus nodded, before gesturing to the rest of team Prime. "This is Ratchet, he's our Chief Medical Officer. Ironhide, my weapon specialist. Jazz, my Special Ops officer. The twins, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker, frontline warriors, and our pilot. Arcee, is our Field Marshal." Optimus looked down beside him, placing a servo on his yellow youngling's shoulder. "My scout, and son, Bumblebee."
"And this one?!" Agent Fowler, hopped out of the way of the, toddling, red, sparkling.
"My youngest, Mirage, he's a highly skilled assassin, specializing in espionage." Optimus answered, using a digit to redirect his sparkling's path, away from the human.
"He's a baby isn't he?" Fowler raised an eyebrow at the Prime.
Optimus was not familiar with the human term, but figured by the Agent's confused look, he meant Mirage was quite young. "Yes, it's a long story, I can explain later Agent." The Prime replied sadly.
"Alright, so who's tall, dark, and faceless?" Agent Fowler gestured to the violet mech standing beside the Prime.
Soundwave had forgotten he had his visor on, from battling the Cons, and making bridges. It was such a natural feel for him, he could barely tell the difference between having it off or on. Dematerializing his visor, he revealed his face.
"He looks like one of the baddies, that just tried to kill us." Fowler focused on the mech's blood red, cyan blue mixed optics, and menacing frame.
"Soundwave is my Second In Command." Optimus replied receiving a shocked glare from his nephew, and a few other mechs. "An excellent surveillance Chief. Like Mirage, he's a class A assassin, and espionage specialist. He gets the impossible done." Optimus Prime felt it was not the right moment to mention the mech's Decepticon past.
"Okay, so please explain to me, how your second in command, got a hold of one of our highly classified, unmanned stealth drones?" The Agent carried a more hostile tone, pointing a finger at Soundwave.
"Agent Fowler, I can assure you, Soundwave didn't steal your technology. We simply all possess the ability to scan, and transform into any vehicle we scan. Giving us a camouflaged advantage." Optimus replied, trying to get the heat off of Soundwave.
"So please explain the uncalled for invasions?" Fowler hissed, now getting to the real questions.
"Our home planet has been ravaged by eons of war. Thus our home is now dead, no longer able to sustain life. We recently discovered your planet in our ancient findings. Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, got to the findings first. He searches your planet for our life fuel, energon. Your planet is rich, with our resources. I fear Megatron would collect the energon no matter who gets in his way. Therefore he would gladly attempt to kill, and conquer the human race."
Fowler's facial expression changed from a frown, to a deep concern. "Are you certain?"
"I am telling you the absolute truth, Agent. My Autobots and I are here to help defend your planet from Megatron's tyranny." Optimus replied sincerely.
"Hmm, I will have to pull some major strings to get you cleared to do that. On that note, you'll have to stay in here until you get your disguises, and until you know our planet rules. The whole planet doesn't need to know of your existence. You'll just be pulled apart, and experimented on, if you're found out." Agent Fowler thought aloud, walking towards the entrance. "Tomorrow I will bring some vehicles for scanning. For now make yourself at home." Fowler sighed tiredly, exiting the silo. "Just keep your people in order, until I get back tomorrow."
"What if the Cons attack?" Jazz questioned, stopping the human in his tracks.
Soundwave shook his helm, waving a servo. "Megatron will not attack needlessly, as he already has control over some energon. Our arrival will only make him scream, punishing his soldiers that did not destroy us."
"Soundwave is correct, Agent Fowler. Megatron will be busy figuring out his next move." Optimus reassured the human.
"Whatever, as long as Megaton is preoccupied. You guys just stay put!" Fowler growled leaving the silo.
"Wow, he's almost worse than Prowl." Sideswipe scoffed.
"So now what happens?" Arcee asked, turning to her leader.
"Well, first things, first. We need to get this place operational." Ratchet answered for the Prime.
"Ratchet is correct, we need to get this place running, if we're going to make this our base of operations." Optimus replied, wiping some dust off of a platform.
"Sure, I'll take the twins, and Jazz, and salvage what little is left of our ship." Arcee shrugged, waving the three mechs over.
"I thought Agent Fowler told us to stay put?" Jazz reminded, approaching the femme.
"I'm sure he just meant driving around, Soundwave can bridge us." Arcee rolled her optics, at the wary mech.
"If you can, retrieve any, monitors, and control panels. I will repair them if they're salvageable. This primitive human technology, needs a little boost to be worth while." Ratchet said, moving a hatch to a control grid.
Optimus sighed reluctantly. "Fine, go, but be quick. Don't start any fights unless necessary."
"Don't worry Optimus, we'll be quick. There's literally nothing left of our charred ship, so why do I bother?" Sunstreaker retorted, following the femme's small team.
"Shut it Sunshine, it's a few minutes of your time." Arcee snarled at the golden twin.
"Ratch you want us to search for your tools?" Sideswipe ignored the two bickering bots.
"No, that's the first thing I grabbed." Ratchet declined the offer.
Soundwave had his visor back on, kneeling down next to the medic, helping repair what outdated circuitry remained in the human control system. Visibly jumping from the sudden jab in his side, looking over his shoulder at the culprit.
"Hey I know you're busy, but could you whirl up a bridge to the crash sight?" Arcee asked with a grin.
Soundwave stood himself up, locking onto a decent sized wall, creating a ground bridge for his femme.
"Thank you." Arcee gave a loving tap to the mech's arm, before leading her team through the bridge.
Closing the bridge, Soundwave went back to repairing the the control grid, with the medic. While Optimus took both his sons, to explore the extent of the base. Ironhide followed, unsure of what else to do.
Ratchet moved his servo away from one of the motherboards, as a tentacle quickly began it's repair. "Thanks kid, you're making quick work of this mess." Ratchet praised the young mech for his quick repair skills.
Soundwave nodded, he had other things on his mind. "Sir?"
"Call me Ratchet, please." The CMO scoffed with a smile.
"Ratchet, why did Optimus say I was his second in command?" Soundwave continued to finish the repairs.
"Well you are." Ratchet quirked an optic ridge, pulling out a motherboard.
"I thought, you or Ironhide are?" Soundwave continued to question.
"Yes of course, we were. But I'm getting older, not as agile. And Ironhide's a hot head, that'd rather shoot first, ask questions later. Although together we make a worthy Commander." Ratchet snorted, welding some panels together. "But you, you're smart, caring, quick, agile. You get things done. You've got a big processor, and a huge spark. All the golden traits for an amazing Commander."
"I'm sorry, I just don't see it being a wise choice." Soundwave exhaled sadly. "There's better bots for the position."
"I disagree." Soundwave looked up in the direction of the baritone voice.
"I knew you were worthy enough on Cybertron, for the position, and you are here." Optimus tried to reassure the young mech. "I believe you can handle it Soundwave."
"Wave!" Mirage toddled over into his big brother's arms.
Soundwave smiled, from behind his visor, at his bubbly, bouncing little brother. Quickly placing the repaired motherboard back in the control grid. Soundwave retracted his tentacles, standing himself up. "I don't believe I'm ready for the position quite yet Optimus. I don't want it at this time." Soundwave declined, the Prime's kind gestured position, in his ranks.
"Of course Soundwave, I will not force anything upon you. When your leadership skills, outshine your other talents, that's when you'll be ready." Optimus reassuringly smiled at the unsure violet mech.
Soundwave simply nodded in reply, Mirage gurgling in his arms, as he walked towards the hallway. "I'm going to check out the rest of the base."
"I can show you around, come'on!" Bumblebee took Soundwave's slender servo, in his own servo, leading him down the hallway.
"Self confidence, must not have been in Shockwave's programming." Ironhide scoffed, folding his arms, watching the medic work.
"Ironhide." Optimus hissed, narrowing his optics at the weapon specialist.
"Sorry Optimus, but between him and Mirage, the only confidence they have is when they're on missions." Ironhide shrugged innocently.
"Ironhide isn't wrong." Ratchet groaned, his old gears protesting, as he stood back up.
Ironhide quirked an optic ridge at the medic, in surprise. "I'm not?"
"It was probably an unintentional programming. Low self esteem was just a package deal, with the abuse, and torture, those two received during their training." Ratchet replied, putting the panel back over the repaired grid.
"Okay, so how do we fix that?" Ironhide openly questioned.
"It's just something that hopefully happens over time. But some can't be fixed, you got to remember Shockwave, and Megatron used low self esteem as a way to control the brothers." Ratchet sighed dusting off computers. "You've found your next in line, haven't you?" Ratchet smirked over his shoulder, at the Prime.
"I'm not going to pretend your wrong old friend." Optimus Prime gave a small chuckle, as a sudden ground bridge opened.
"The hell are you two talking about Ratch?" Ironhide began to get annoyed with the medic. As Arcee, and the boys dragged monitors, and other junk into the base.
"Primus, it's like talking to a dino bot." Ratchet rolled his optics, turning to the black and grey mech. "Prime, Ironhide! Optimus has found the next Prime." He shook his helm, as the bridge shut.
"What?" Arcee, and the boys all diverted their full attention to the medic.
"You didn't tell me you're going offline!?" Ironhide gasped, glaring at the red and blue mech.
"Optimus is dying?!" Sideswipe gasped in concern.
Ratchet face palmed with a growl. "He's not dying you idiots! Optimus has just chosen a candidate, for the next Prime, should he ever go offline." Ratchet hissed at the weapon specialist, before Optimus could nicely explain.
"Oh yeah, and just who would that be?" Ironhide rolled his optics at the medic, as the whole base lit up with lights, and power.
Soundwave walked back into the main room, with Bumblebee and Mirage in tow. "I found the main powerhouse, I got it going. I Reengineered it's human fuel systems, to an energon efficient one. It will only take a minimal amount of energon, to keep it up and running." Soundwave stopped in his tracks, seeing everyone intently staring at him. "Is something wrong?"
"Oooh, I see now." Ironhide thought aloud, only causing Soundwave more curiousity.
"Anyway... excellent work Soundwave." Ratchet changed the subject, focussing on the pile of junk on the floor. "This is what you managed to salvage?" he sighed, picking up a broken monitor screen.
"That's it. Enough berths for everyone, including a couple medical ones. But nothing else was really worth grabbing, it's all burnt to a crisp." Jazz replied, wiping the soot Off his frame.
"That's alright, we can make it work." Optimus reassured his team.
"Optimus, I grabbed what sparkling supplies, survived the crash. Again very limited, but most of it survived, just needs a good wash. But good enough for now." Arcee turned to the leader, handing him some sparkling items.
"Thank you. Were any of you seen by anyone?" Optimus asked placing the supplies on a small human platform.
"Nope, no one was there except us." Sunstreaker casually replied.
Ratchet began digging out soot covered control panels, hoping to connect them to the humans computer system. "Soundwave, could you please help me over here, for a moment?" The CMO kindly requested the masked mech.
Soundwave silently obliged, approaching the medic.
"Is there anyway you could dismantle the human systems, and replace it with ours?" Ratchet asked cleaning off the burnt monitors.
"I can disassemble it, yes. But we will have to use a bit of their system. As we don't currently possess the proper technology, to build a fully functional Cybertronian computer." Soundwave honestly replied, removing the tiny human controls, and monitors.
Ratchet sighed, as he welded the mounts for their large monitors. "Unfortunate, but I understand."
"Sorry we couldn't salvage much from the wreck, Ratch. We tried, but everything was fried to a crisp." Jazz apologized, wishing they hadn't crashed.
"It's alright Jazz. We'll just have to make the best of it, with this primitive human tech." Ratchet smiled at the grey mech.
"If the human grade tech struggles to preform. I could always complete the task." Soundwave mentioned, rebuilding the computer with their own control panels.
"Oh yeah, Soundwave's practically a living Cybertronian computer. Why do we go to all the trouble to build a functional system, when we've got walking, talking, monitor helm, here?" Sunstreaker snorted, rolling his optics.
"That's a little rude, Sunny." Sideswipe warned his golden twin.
"What, I'm not wrong?" Sunstreaker scoffed, back at his twin.
"You might be correct, but you don't have to say it like that." Ratchet glared at the rude twin.
Soundwave didn't think much of the golden twin's comment. He knew what he was. When he was with the Decepticons, they treated him like a glorified computer system anyway.
"There's seven rooms, along the hallway. There's not enough for everyone, so a few will have to share." Optimus changed the subject, to something different.
"Soundwave and I can share." Arcee volunteered.
"Twins?" Optimus turned his helm to the two mechs.
"Yeah I guess..." Sunstreaker rolled his optics, with a sigh.
"Aw you'd miss me Sunshine!" Sideswipe teased, hugging his twin.
"Somehow, I think I wouldn't mind the vacation." Sunstreaker pushed his twin off him.
"Bumblebee and Mirage can share one, next to my quarters." Optimus thought aloud, watching his two sons play with some recovered, soot covered toys.
"Thank Primus..." Ratchet mutterred under his breath, thankful he got a room to himself.
"Start moving berths into your designated rooms. Then we'll see if there's anything else, we need to cover before we rest." Optimus said to his team.
After a few Earth hours of moving, rebuilding, and remodeling. Almost everyone, decided to retreat to their new quarters, for some much needed rest.
Soundwave stayed in the main room, long after everyone went to bed. Testing out the computers, making sure everything was functional enough to preform. Soundwave's frame tensed suddenly, fighting his instinct to attack. As a loving pair of arms wrapped around his waist, from behind him.
"When are you going to come rest?" Arcee hugged her mech, leaning against his frame, she watched as the masked mech ran calibrations.
"I'm just finishing now." Soundwave replied, not breaking his concentration.
"Ratchet can finish it in the morning, come'on. You need to take a break." Arcee began pulling the mech away from the computers.
Soundwave sighed in defeat, spinning around to face his captor, as he was dragged into their new room. "Is my company really all that different then being in the room alone?"
Arcee rolled her optics, shutting the door. "Soundwave you're not a piece of scenery, you're a whole mech, with a spark, and a personality."
"Some would disagree with you." Soundwave removed his visor, as the femme sat on the berth.
"Shut up, and come to bed." Arcee gestured for Soundwave to join her.
"I'm not actually tired." Soundwave yawned, contradicting himself.
Arcee folded her arms, raising an optic ridge at the violet mech.
Soundwave protested no futher, obeying the femme's earlier cammand. "That was unfortunate timing."
"That was a nice try though." Arcee chuckled, finding the mech adorable. Pulling the mech down with her, as she laid herself down on the berth.
Soundwave's frame locked up, fighting the the femme. He quickly relaxed his frame, while alerts, and alarms went off in his processor. His spark raced, as he continued to fight his combat programming. Laying next to the femme.
Arcee stared at the mech with concern, hearing his vents cycle loudly, as his chest rose rapidly. "Soundwave?"
Denying all of the alerts, Soundwave shook his helm, finally locking optics with the cobalt blue femme. "Yes?" he slowed his vents.
"Is something wrong?" The femme questioned, placing a caring servo on her mech.
"I'm okay, my processor thinks I'm under attack, that's all." Soundwave replied, relaxing his frame.
"These are playful, intimate actions though?" Arcee was still very confused.
"I'm slowly adapting, I've never had this before. I've always been an antisocial war machine. My main concern is that I don't attack you out of instinct." Soundwave honestly replied, placing his servo in the femme's.
Arcee deeply sighed, frowning. "I can stop, if it makes you more comfortable."
Soundwave pulled the femme closer to him. "No, please, it's alright."
Arcee gave him a warm smile, in reply. Soundwave returned the smile.
Soundwave fought the urge to fall into recharge. The mech's expression changed, his tired optics full of deep thoughts.
Arcee could tell her mech was being self conscious about his nightmares. "I know you are worrying, and I want you to stop."
"I'm sorry?" Soundwave looked at the femme with confusion.
"I will never be mad at you for having nightmares. I don't care if you wake me by accident. I'd rather be awake, to comfort you if needed." Arcee kissed Soundwave's helm.
"Thank you." Soundwave softly kissed his femme's forehead. He didn't want to be repetitive, saying he wished he didn't have nightmares, and that he felt stupid, and embarrassed for having them.
Arcee continued to smile, closing her optics. Falling into a much needed recharge.
Soundwave waited until the femme was in a deep recharge. Carefully getting out of the berth, he made his way to the main room. He finished the rest of the calibrations, on the computer systems. Looking over to the pile of salvaged bits from their ship. He began to organize the pile into separate piles against the wall. Chuckling, Soundwave could see the split in half couch, figuring that was the first thing the twins grabbed, when salvaging. Dragging the broken couch into a small open section of the main room, he began repairing it. After repairing it, Soundwave sat himself down with a sigh. Looking around, the monitors were glowing, the whole base was now organized, and functional. His tired frame refused to allow him to get up to find more work. Unwillingly closing his optics, drifting off into recharge.
As the night began to turn into morning, Mirage whimpered, standing up in his crib. Locking his optics onto the recharging youngling across the room from him. Mirage loudly babbled, trying to get his brother's attention, to no avail. Grumbling, he climbed out of his crib, toddling down the hallway, into his father's room.
Optimus opened his optics, lifting up his servo that hung over the side of his berth.
Mirage giggled clinging to the servo as it lifted up.
Yawning, Optimus sighed getting up. "Good morning to you to." he moved the sparkling into the crook of his arm. "You want some energon, little one?" the Prime asked, quietly making his way down the hallway, to the main room.
"Ga!" Mirage nodded, happily gurgling at the Prime.
Soundwave cowered as he was beaten by a few Eradicons. Wincing as a pair of claws raked viciously down his back, causing him to bleed. A familar evil chuckle made him shutter.
"Stupid brat, get up!" Starscream hissed, kicking the bleeding youngling in the side.
Soundwave's frame trembled, as he pushed himself up, only to get slammed down to the floor.
"So weak, I don't know why Megatron even bothers with you. You're only worthy of being Shockwave's science project, I suppose." Starscream's voice dripped with venom.
"Starscream, Lord Megatron requires your assistance." Shockwave approached, shoeing away the Eradicons.
"Of course." Starscream smirked at the bleeding youngling, as he left the room.
"Get up Soundwave!" Shockwave commanded, forcefully pulling the violet youngling back to his peds. "You're superior over them, yet you continue to function as the weak link."
Soundwave winced in pain, watching the one opticed mech fire up his disecting tools.
Soundwave backed away slowly, not wanting any more of Shockwave's torturous reprogramming.
Turning around, Soundwave turned to the door control panel. Typing in the access codes, Soundwave yelped in pain, being struck from behind.
"You escaped last time, do not think it will happen again, youngling!" Shockwave dug his claws into the youngling, throwing him onto the upright berth. Activating the restraints, he shook his helm as Soundwave helplessly squirmed. Grabbing a buzzsaw, Shockwave moved it towards the youngling's frame. "The procedure will be faster if you do not struggle." Shockwave emotionlessly said, as the buzzsaw cut into Soundwave.
Soundwave cried out in pain, as energon poured out of him.
"Soundwave?"
Soundwave whimpered in his recharge, as his frame restlessly jolted.
"Soundwave?" Optimus called again, placing Mirage on the other end of the couch.
Mirage drank from his bottle, watching his father try to wake his older brother.
Optimus placed a servo on the recharging mech's shoulder. He knew from past waking experiences with Mirage, he was at risk of getting hurt. But ignored the danger, in order to help the young mech. "Soundwave wake up."
Soundwave shot upright in a panic, his systems alerted him to the Prime's presence, but did not encourage an attack.
Optimus knelt down to be level with the sitting panicked mech. "Soundwave, you're alright now." he spoke in a calming tone.
Soundwave blinked his optics, realizing who was in front of him. "I'm sorry sir, did I wake you!?" Jumping up to his peds, hiding his face behind his visor out of embarrassment.
"No, your little brother did awhile ago." Optimus replied, gesturing to the guzzling sparkling on the couch.
Soundwave nodded, looking over at Mirage. Who squealed happily at him.
Optimus stared at the violet mech with soft caring optics. The Prime could not tell where Soundwave was looking, due to the pitch black visor.
Soundwave looked into his Uncle's soft caring optics, from behind his visor. They were so inviting, non judgmental. He yearned to tell the Prime what he was going through.
Unable to read his nephew, Optimus decided change the mood. Seeing the well organized, functional base. "The base looks good, Soundwave, thank you."
"I didn't want everyone else to work harder, while trying to adjust to the new planet." Soundwave shrugged, scanning the tidy main room.
While the grown ups talked, Mirage finished his bottle. He slid off the couch, toddling over to the neatly stacked energon cubes.
Optimus smiled, watching the sparkling. "Care for some energon, Soundwave?"
"No thank you." Soundwave politely declined, before displaying the base enterance security camera feed on his visor.
Optimus narrowed his optics at the visor, seeing quite a few vehicles approaching. "Can you, fix the feed on the first vehicle?"
Soundwave did as the Prime asked, zooming, and enhancing onto the first vehicle. Showing the familiar gruff human, driving.
"Agent Fowler. We should wake the others." Optimus sighed, grabbing Mirage from scaling the energon tower.
"Done." Soundwave sent out a high frequency alarm message to all the slumbering Autobots.
Hearing loud groaning, and cursing from down the hallway, confirmed his nephew's word.
"What the hell Soundwave?" Sunstreaker groaned holding his helm. As the rest of the team followed him into the main room.
"Autobots, our human ally has arrived." Optimus announced, as the crew of vehicles parked in the main room.
"Alright, I forgot all your names, but you have to state them all for the record anyway. This interaction will be recorded." Agent Fowler, stepped out from a big rig, gruffly greeting the half awake Autobots. The rest of the men in the other vehicles, jumped out as well, lining up behind the Agent. Staring in awe at the giant robots.
"That is quite alright Agent Fowler, good morning to you, and your friends." Optimus replied politely greeting all the humans.
Looking around the base, seeing the giant sized minitors, working with the fully operational base. "You didn't waste anytime shining the place up. Nice work." Agent Fowler complimented. "Now I'll skip the alien coffee, with breakfast. And get down to business."
"What's coffee?" Bumblebee asked, what the twins were about to.
"Over priced sludge that keeps humans sane." Agent Fowler sighed, reading over a clipboard.
"Primus, maybe we should feed some coffee to the Decepticon's." Jazz joked, making the twins snicker.
Agent Fowler rolled his eyes, turning his attention to the Prime. "I need you to state your race, and home planet, big guy." Fowler gestured to Optimus.
"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, a Cybertronian Autobot, from the planet Cybertron." Optimus stated to the Agent.
Soundwave's mind was still wandering, he hadn't much time to recover from his nightmare. Before everyone had arrived. He turned his helm, to look at the femme that grabbed his servo.
"You alright?" Arcee whispered to her mech, as Optimus talked with the humans.
Soundwave nodded with a tired sigh, knowing Arcee was questioning him, because he was hiding behind his visor.
"You didn't recharge last night did you?" Arcee raised an optic ridge.
"I did, just for a bit. Can we talk later." Soundwave whispered, feeling pressured from the questioning.
"Sure." Arcee gave a reassuring squeeze to his servo, before letting go.
"I've got a few different vehicles here for you to scan. Choose whatever suits your fancy. I tried my best to get vehicles that resemble your positions and personalities, considering you have young guns with a particular taste to look trendy." Agent Fowler gestured to the parked vehicles behind him. "Go ahead, do your thing."
"Thank you Agent Fowler." Optimus smiled, turning to his Autobots. "Autobots scan a vehicle for your disguise." walking over to the semi truck, Optimus scanned it, transforming into a red and blue semi truck.
Arcee chose a lone motorcycle, while Ironhide happily chose a giant black pickup truck. Ratchet thought it was suitable for him to pick the ambulance. While twins were not thrilled by the pickings, most of the cars looked boring. Jazz didn't really care to much, choosing a sporty looking car. Bumblebee scanned another sporty looking vehicle, while the twins fought over another. The twins ended up scanning the same car in the end.
Mirage watched as everyone except Soundwave, scanned vehicles. Toddling over to Agent Fowler, babbling away.
"Go scan something babbles!" Agent Fowler tried shoeing away the bot almost his size.
Optimus chuckled, picking his sparkling up by the doorwings. "Mirage is much to young to have the ability to scan, Agent Fowler."
"Well now that you have means of travelling, without looking completely suspicious. You guys can roam around, but there's a lot of rules before you just drive. Number one would be, no transforming in front of any other humans. You know what, just no contact with any humans unless it's me. And respect the speed limit!" Fowler began to list off.
"Agent Fowler, I see there's a lot of traffic laws for your planet." Ratchet mentioned after looking at the download of traffic laws.
"Yes I..."
"Leave it to me, I will gladly go over the rules with the team." Ratchet volunteered. "Especially with our particularly crazy drivers." Ratchet glared over at the twins.
Optimus went over the research in his processor, surprised with all the rules. "Thank you Ratchet."
"That's all I need from you guys today. This is your new home. Outpost Omega One." Agent Fowler actually smiled, welcoming the alien robots. "Now you don't have to alert me to every interaction you have with the Decepticon's, unless it's immediately putting humans in danger. But I do want reports for the records. And most importantly, no collateral damage!" Fowler said, signalling his men to get back in the vehicles.
"Of course Agent Fowler. We're guests upon your planet, we only wish to give you the most respect. And protect all from the tyranny of the Decepticon's." Optimus vowed to the human getting back into the semi truck.
"Thank you Optimus Prime. I'll see you bots later." Agent Fowler replied, driving out of the base with his men.
"Ugh, do we have to have a class on human traffic?" Sideswipe complained as Ratchet handed out data pads.
"Yes, now shut up and study." Ratchet hissed making Sideswipe wince.
"There's a lot of rules." Arcee sighed, scrolling through the rules of the road.
"Ratchet, I'm going to do a small patrol around the surrounding area. See if there's any energon deposits." Optimus Prime mentioned, handing Mirage to the old medic. Before he made his way to the base exit tunnel.
"Of course Optimus. I'll check in if you don't return within two Earth hours." Ratchet replied, taking the gurgling sparkling.
"Sir, may I join you?" Soundwave quickly jogged over to the Prime.
Looking over his shoulder, Optimus smiled at his masked nephew. "Of course."
"Hey, how come they don't have to stay, and study?" Sunstreaker whined gesturing to the two mechs exiting the base.
"Because Optimus is responsible, and Soundwave flies. Now you better pay attention, I'm giving you a test at the end of this." Ratchet replied, receiving groans from everyone.