The hum of a Ferrari made Soundwave feel at ease, knowing his little brother was safe below him. The night air was humid, flying through the partly coulded sky. The dark, violet, Reaper, was, barely visible. They had been cruising around between the base and human territory, all was quiet, nothing out of the ordinary. Suddenly Soundwave recieved another jolt to his spark, decreasing his speed. The reaper pointed it's nose towards the ground, declining his altitude. Straightening himself just above the red sports car.
"You feel to?" Mirage asked angling his mirror to view his older brother.
"Yes, but the last few times I did, that signature usually appeared." Soundwave replied, flying just above his little brother.
"Nothing this time?"
"Nothing." The reaper replied, going silent for a moment. "I hate to say it. But maybe we should get checked out by Ratchet."
Mirage mentally cringed at that suggestion. "Maybe..."
"The most he would do is a scan. Don't stress over it." Soundwave could feel his little brother was against his suggestion. But in the back of his mind he realized he should take his own advice.
Mirage didn't reply veering off the road, into the desert.
"I guess we're going that way." The violet jet quickly changed his course, climbing up in altitude. Soundwave released his drone to fly above the clouds. While he flew just within the clouds, keeping his brother within his view. After a few moments, the sound of Lazerbeak's chirping grew distant, making Soundwave switch to Lazerbeak's POV.
Suddenly a dark blur flew by the drone, missing it by inches, the force of wind that followed caused Lazerbeak to spiral out of control. Soundwave quickly changed his view from the disorienting spiral, to his own few. Just in time to avoid the surging jet that jumped across his flight path.
Banking a hard left, just avoiding the plummeting alien jet. Hearing blasters, Soundwave focused his view down below him, seeing a pack of Eradicon jets chasing both Mirage and the new jet. "Lazerbeak, Stay on the newcomer. Don't engage unless necessary." Soundwave quickly changed his course, diving at the fight below.
Ignoring the steady jolts within his spark, Mirage sped forward as the Eradicon jets got inches away from him. Mirage transformed leaping up, landing on top of one of the hostiles. Quickly using his sword to tear up the Con. Jumping off the plummeting Eradicon jet, on to another creating the same fate. As another Eradicon flew just above him.
Soundwave ignored the consistent jolting in his spark, as he flew towards his brother.
"Mirage!" Soundwave called, taking out two Eradicons, a few feet away from his fighting brother. Grabbing his little brother's attention. "We need to follow the erratic flyer."
Mirage nodded, narrowing his optics at the strange jet being tailed by the drone. Mirage quickly ducked out of the way of blaster shots, from the Eradicon flying beside him. The sparkling quickly punched the Eradicon he stood on, deactivating the con. As the con he rode began to descend to the ground. Mirage hooked his sword into the underside of the Decepticon jet beside him, using the momentum of the spiralling jet he rode, tossing the hooked con into the air. The tossed con jet flew directly into the dark alien jet, causing an explosion. The dark jet plunged into the desert ground, creating a substantial amount of dust and smoke.
"Lazerbeak return!" Soundwave transformed, landing next to his little brother. In the thick smoke and fire from the offlined Decepticons. "Nice moves." He praised the small red sparkling, as Lazerbeak returned to him. "But it could be a friendly, the Decepticons were chasing them." Soundwave began walking towards the cloud of dust, with Mirage in tow.
"Soundwave that odd signature is back, and according to my readings, directly on top of you and Mirage." Ratchet's voice came over the hybrid brothers coms.
"We just shot down our mystery signature, they were being chased by Cons." The violet bioluminescent mech replied. Hearing the sound of more jets, Soundwave materialized his visor, enhancing his vision, turning around to see more Decepticons in the distance. "We got more company on their way."
"Optimus is patrolling near by. I will send him your coordinates, he should be there in a few moments." Ratchet replied quickly.
Mirage stared up at the barely visible Decepticons. Hearing small movements from behind them, in the thick plume of smoke.
Seeing headlights speeding towards them, Soundwave turned to his little brother. "I'm going to lessen the Decepticon odds, wait here for Optimus." He transformed taking off towards the formation of Cons.
Mirage heard a pained moan come from behind. He was hesitanting to investigate, as he did not know if it was friend or foe. The deep roar of his Father's engine diverted the youngling's attention.
"Mirage, where's Soundwave?" Optimus transformed by his sparkling.
"Getting Cons." Mirage pointed to the distant battle.
"Where's the unidentified jet you took down?" Optimus asked looking at the battle out of the corner of his optic.
"There." Mirage gestured to the thick cloud of black smoke.
Mirage aimed his dart rifle at the distant battle, sniping what little Decepticon flyers remained, out of the sky.
As the last Eradicon was shot out of the sky by a dart rifle. Soundwave chuckled, flying back towards his brother and Prime.
Optimus cautiously made his way through the smoke, stepping into a decent sized indent in the ground. His royal blue optics glowing through the smoke as he cleared through the smoke looking on the desert ground. His optics caught sight of glowing red groves running down a sleek dark frame. The bot slowly got off the ground, clearly stiff from their painful landing. Optimus walked out of the smoke getting a full view of the bot directly in front of him. "Xanthia..."
"Optimus?" a pained female voice replied.
Mirage stood as his big brother flew up to him. Soundwave transformed landing next to the youngling. "You peek at our new arrival?"
"No, Optimus is now." Mirage shook his helm at his masked brother.
Soundwave nodded, bringing out his weapons, he walked into the smoke with Mirage in tow. Soundwave switched his vision, using a special filter to navigating through the smoke easily. Walking through the smoke, the jolting in his spark settled into one of his long forgotten bonds. Seeing the Prime standing in front of another bot. Stopping just behind the Prime, he switched his vision back.
Optimus turned his frame to see the hybrid brother's standing behind him.
The Prime's movement's allowed the young mech to get a clear view of the bioluminescent femme. Soundwave jolted his helm back in shock, walking forward to stand next to his leader. "This can't be..."
Mirage blinked taking a couple steps forward, still hanging back behind the two.
"Soundwave, is that truly you?!" The femme gasped, her optics filling with tears of joy.
Soundwave narrowed his optics from behind his visor, remaining unmoved, uncertain of the femme in front of him. "I watched you perish, how are you..."
The bioluminescent femme finished her son's sentence."Still online? I did go offline. But Shockwave's more twisted than you think. He sent his minions to retrieve my body for experimental purpose. He repaired me completely, in one of his lesser known laboratories. Even infusing me with energon, but he never had the spark to bring me back online I suppose. But a few months ago the lab was raided by the Autobots, leaving Shockwave in a dire state, I would be surprised if he still functions. The Autobots found my frame in the raid, took me back and revived me. I've spent the last few months battling for what little is left of our planet. Until I met with Chromia at the Iacon ruins. She told me where you were, and suggested I leave our dying planet to find you." Xanthia did not beat around the bush, of how she came to be here.
Soundwave scanned over the metallic deep blue femme. Noting the femme's large scar running from her spark up to her helm. It was no imposter, this truly was his creator. Soundwave retracted his weapons, his actions speaking for him.
Xanthia took a step closer to her son, giving him a yearning smile. "May I?"
Soundwave nodded, figuring his mother was wanting to hold him in her arms.
Xanthia eagerly wrapped her arms tightly around her grown up son. Her tears of joy finally escaping her optics.
Soundwave quickly declined all alarms flashing through his helm, deactivating his defence systems. He slowly returned the embrace to his long lost mother.
"I'm sorry you went through that Xanthia. There's so much I wish I could've done. I can't imagine how it must've been to come back online, to see our planet in ruins." Optimus sadly sighed to the femme.
"It's truly devastating. But I am reunited with my son, it's all I ever needed." The femme took a few steps forward towards her visored son.
"Sons." Soundwave corrected gently taking himself out of the embrace, stepping off to the side, revealing the small red youngling standing alone.
"Mirage!" The femme gasped, her cyan optics lighting up. "My sparkling. Is that truly you?!" Approaching the tiny youngling, Xanthia knelt down in front of the shy youngling.
Pressing his doorwings against his back, Mirage's optics darted nervously between Soundwave and Optimus.
"Shouldn't you be a little older then this?" Xanthia looked over her shoulder at the mechs.
"Long story, but he's growing." Optimus smiled.
Turning back to her sparkling, Xanthia softened her optics, seeing her child was clearly unfamiliar with her.
Soundwave walked over to his brother's side, crouching down to be level with the youngling. "Mirage, this is our mother." Placing a gentle servo on Mirage's back.
Mirage looked from the femme to his brother's visor.
Soundwave smiled, unknowingly behind his visor. Gesturing to the kind bioluminescent femme in front of him.
Mirage gulped nervously smiling at the femme. "Hello."
Xanthia smiled at her nervous little youngling. "It's okay sparkling. You were too young to be able to remember me. But I want to change that, I don't know why you're still a sparkling, but I intend to be there for you this time." the deep metallic blue femme took the tiny servo in hers.
The jolting within Mirage's little spark suddenly bursted with warmth, creating a new, but faint sparkbond. The small youngling smiled at the femme, hiding himself under his brother's shield like arm.
"Xanthia, your arrival was not the welcome you expected. But I believe it would be wise for us to all return back to base, so you may replenish yourself with energon, and get checked over by our medic." Optimus said, watching the skies for signs of trouble.
"Of course, Optimus lets go" the bioluminescent femme stood up waiting for the leader to lead the way.
"Ratchet we're coming back to base, with a friend. Soundwave if you'd please." Optimus nodded at the young mech to the femme's confusion.
Soundwave stood back up, quickly creating a ground bridge next to the Prime.
The femme gasped in astonishment at the fact her son could willingly summon bridges. "I've certainly got a lot of catching up to do." Xanthia smiled at her masked son.
Optimus stood in the bridge waiting for the mother and sons. Soundwave gestured for his mother to follow the Prime.
Xanthia nodded, following the red and blue mech into the bridge.
"That really our creator?" Mirage looked up at his brother as they strode towards the swirling bridge.
"Yes little red, one hundred percent. You feel it in your spark don't you?" Soundwave replied looking down at the small youngling.
"I feel little bit, not much." The sparkling replied with a sigh.
"It will grow over time little brother. I promise." The violet mech reassured his baby brother.
"Sooo Soundwave transformed into a femme bot?" Sideswipe cocked his helm in confusion, staring at the Prime standing next to the dark blue bioluminescent femme.
Soundwave walked around the two with his little brother. Closing the open ground bridge behind them.
"Uh, never mind," Sideswipe said, while his twin shook his helm at him.
"By the Allspark, how is this possible." Ratchet gasped as he approached the new femme.
"Long story short, Shockwave, but mainly the Autobots." Xanthia sighed with a smile.
"How did you get here, how'd you know about this planet?" Ratchet had a thousand questions swarming his mind.
"When the Autobots revived me, I fought along side them, on our dead planet. Eventually meeting Commander Chromia in the Iacon ruins. She told me where you were. And expressed to me that I should leave to go find you, as our planet was no longer alive." The dark blue femme, gained Ironhide's intrest at the mention of his sparkmate's name.
"Chromia, she's still alive?" Ironhide asked the femme hopefully.
"The last I saw her yes. I told her she should leave with me, but she refused." Xanthia replied to the weapon specialist.
Ironhide chuckled. "That's my sparkmate, fight until the end."
"That's how I got here though. I can't believe the Decepticons have invaded this planet." Xanthia expressed her disbelief.
"It's why we're here. There's a lot you have missed." Optimus said with a hint of sadness.
"We can certainly catch up. But come, let us get you some energon, and let me look you over. You look like you went through hell to get here." Ratchet led the femme over to his med bay.
"I was welcomed by the Decepticons first. Then taken down by this little one." Xanthia gestured at the small red youngling. "Why the hell was he out their fighting again?" The femme furrowed her optic ridge.
"Another long story, I'm sure your sons could explain better then us." Ratchet replied, scanning the femme's battered frame.
"Oh you two are just sore because I bested both of you." Arcee entered the main room, with the yellow youngling, and grey mech.
"Who's that?" Bumblebee asked catching sight of the femme getting examined by the medic.
"Let's find out." Jazz replied walking over to the med bay.
"Now that the whole team is here, we can do introductions." Optimus said as his scout approached with the femme and mech. "Our medic Ratchet." The Prime gestured to the medic.
"Yes I remember meeting you once, before the war." Xanthia replied.
"That was never a proper introduction. But I'm glad to meet you again." Ratchet replied patching up the femme's wounds.
"Chromia's sparkmate is our weapon specialist, Ironhide." Optimus continued.
"Better known as the pain in my ass..." Ratchet mumbled, making the femme laugh.
Arcee smiled at her mech, affectionately greeting him with a hug. "Geez do I ever get to see my handsome mech's face?" the cobalt blue femme sarcastically asked staring at her own reflection.
"Sorry, it's just such a natural feel, I forget." Soundwave dematerialized his visor revealing his face.
"There's my handsome son! Who's this?" Xanthia couldn't help smile at the affectionate femme.
"This is Arcee, our field marshal." Soundwave answered, before the Prime.
"And your sparkmate?" The mother pressed on, making Soundwave stutter.
"May as well be, they can't keep their servos off each other..." the twins scoffed.
"And those are the twins, they're morons." Arcee hissed, glaring at the irritating twins.
"That's a rare sight. What are your names?" The dark blue femme asked turning her attention to the twins.
"I'm Sideswipe, that's Sunstreaker. I'm the fun one." Sideswipe replied for him and his brother.
"Oh funny, he's the idiot." Sunstreaker retorted.
Xanthia chuckled, hopping of the medical berth after the medic finished his repairs.
"I'm Jazz, very nice to meet you." Jazz formally introduced himself to the new femme.
"A pleasure to meet you Jazz. I'm Xanthia, by the way everyone." The bioluminescent femme happily greeted the grey mech. Before catching sight of another youngling, standing next to the Prime. "Who's this bright youngling?"
"This is Bumblebee, he was my youngest son, until certain circumstances changed that. Now he's my eldest, while Mirage is the youngest." Optimus replied as Bumblebee happily greeted the femme.
Xanthia gave a sigh of relief. "Primus, that was one thing I thought you'd never know of. I'm so glad you know Mirage is yours."
"It took us quite some time to figure it out. But Optimus always had a soft spot for the little killer." Ironhide said, making the new femme give a confused smile.
"Killer?" Xanthia raised an optic ridge at the Prime. "What happened to my children?" Her worried tone followed with a gaze of helplessness, after seeing the sorrow filled looks of the bots around her.
Soundwave placed a servo on his mother's shoulder. "Mother, I promise to explain all of your confusion tomorrow. For now please relax, you've travelled far." The young mech tried to ease his mother's worry.
"Alright Soundwave." The femme sighed, placing her servo on top of her son's.
"We have very limited space in this missile silo. Ratchet, you will have share with Ironhide. Xanthia you can have Ratchet's room." Optimus announced, making the old medic groan in annoyance.
"Thank you, Ratchet, Optimus." The bioluminescent femme thanked the two mechs.
Mirage yawned, resting his tired helm against Arcee's leg.
Arcee smiled, plucking the sparkling up off the ground. "I think it's someone's bedtime." The femme said to her mech, gesturing to the red sparkling in her arms.
Soundwave gave a quick smile as his femme approached him with his little brother. "Sure, let's go."
"May I?" Xanthia asked, wanting to put her sparkling to bed.
"Of course." Arcee gently handed the sleepy sparkling to his mother.
Mirage whimpered, at being placed in unfamiliar arms.
"Shhh, it's alright." The mother rocked her sparkling in her arms, soothing her sparkling's cries. "Where's his quarters?" Xanthia asked softening her tone.
"We'll show you, come on." Arcee waved for the femme to follow her and Soundwave down the hallway.
"Bumblebee, it's past your bedtime as well." Optimus said, escorting his youngling to bed.
"It's been too long. I've missed this." Xanthia sighed, sitting on the end of the her sparkling's berth, watching him fall into recharge.
"Come, we'll show you to your room." Soundwave gestured for his mother to follow him and Arcee. While the Prime put the yellow youngling to bed.
"If you need anything We're on the other side, I'll see you in the morning." Soundwave bid his mother goodnight.
"Goodnight, Soundwave." Xanthia said as her eldest son left her room.
"What are you grinning at?" Closing the door behind him, Soundwave glared at his overly happy femme.
"I'm thrilled I'm no longer the only femme on this planet. Aren't you thrilled to have your mother alive and well?" Arcee replied as the violet mech sat next to her on the berth.
"Of course I am. You know I'm not one that jumps for joy, over something." Soundwave said as the femme pulled him down.
"I know, I'm just really happy for both you and your brother." Arcee snuggled up to her mech, wrapping her arms around the slender frame.
"Yeah, I wish Mirage wasn't so timid around her." Soundwave sighed wrapping an arm around the cobalt femme.
"Hey, you got to remember Mirage never had a bond with her. It'll take some time. Plus it took years for Mirage to actually get comfortable with any of us. So trust me your mother is not the only one that had to go through this." Arcee reassured the bioluminescent mech.
"You're right." Soundwave exhaled closing his optics.
As the hours of the night went by Xanthia awoke from her much needed recharge. Feeling an incredible discomfort in her spark. Getting up out of her berth, the dark femme made her way into the hallway. Opening the door to the youngling and sparkling's quarters.
Mirage shifted uncomfortably in his recharge. But nothing to the extreme of causing a disturbance in her spark. Quietly shutting the door, Xanthia made her way over to her eldest son's room, knocking softly on the door. "Arcee?" she whispered hoping the young femme heard her calls.
Arcee snuck out of the berth, quietly opening the door. Allowing the mother to enter her room. "Is everything alright Xanthia?"
"I was going to ask you." Xanthia said seeing her eldest son recharging quite violently.
"Nightmares. I guess you could feel his discomfort through your bond, he sometimes wakes Mirage to." Arcee replied sadly watching her mech.
"Nightmares, about what?" Xanthia continued to gain more confusion.
"He doesn't usually say. Neither does Mirage when he has them. But when Soundwave does, it's usually about the most horrific moments of his past." Arcee replied to the confused mother.
"Arcee please help me to understand why this is. I know watching my death was quite a traumatic event to witness. But there must be more to it then that. Especially Mirage, he was not old enough to understand what he witnessed." Xanthia felt lost and frustrated, her childrens life was unknown to her.
Arcee exhaled deeply closing her optics. "In that heated moment when Shockwave finally found you. You told Soundwave to run and go find Optimus Prime correct?"
"Yes I did, and he clearly did. How else would they be with the Autobots right now?" Xanthia replied, confusion still lingering around her.
"They never made it. Shockwave captured them right after he terminated you." Arcee did not want to tell the bioluminescent femme the horrible truth. But she could no longer hide it.
The mother gasped, covering her mouth with one of her servos. "No... no... it's not true..." the femme's optics filled with tears, her stomach churned at the thought of her children being sick science experiments.
"I'm sorry." Arcee placed a comforting servo on the mother's trembling one. "Soundwave should be alright for tonight. I am going to allow him to explain, as it's not fair for me to explain what I do not fully understand." The young femme sighed escorting the mother out of the room.
"Thank you for telling me Arcee." Xanthia thanked the young cobalt blue femme, before retreating to her quarters.
Soundwave was beginning to be able to recharge through most of his nightmares. Waking up from his restless slumber, he made his way to the main room. Stretching his arms, before reaching the monitors.
"Soundwave?"
Soundwave jumped, spinning around to see his mother standing by the couch. "Primus, I didn't even hear you." He breathed approaching the dark blue femme.
"Where do you think you got your quiet peds from?" The femme raised an optic ridge at her son.
"Is there something you need?" Soundwave changed the subject, as he was ready to begin working.
"I want you to explain what happened to you two. Arcee told me you were captured by Shockwave." Xanthia pulled her eldest son onto the couch sitting him next to his quiet little brother.
"Arcee told you?" Soundwave repeated. "If she already told you, why do I need to explain?"
"She told me you were captured, she didn't go into detail." The femme replied keeping her annoyance to a minimum. "I practically fell to my knees when she told me."
Soundwave looked over at his little brother. Mirage's sad cyan blue optics burning through him. "If that's the case, I suggest you sit down for this one."
Xanthia sighed sitting herself next to her sparkling. "Please don't spare me any details."
"I can only tell you what I know. I will do my best to explain." Taking a deep breath Soundwave began to explain what had happened to him and his brother. "After Shockwave offlined you, Starscream and him captured us moments later. They took us back to this huge underground facility, where more captured younglings were being tortured and trained to become super soldiers for Megatron's army. It was only younglings that we're recruited. Any that were weak, would die by either Shockwave's hands, or Megatron's. After being infused with the most painful concoction in our lives. Megatron got his first look at us after being tortured by Shockwave's minions. He immediately wanted to offline Mirage, as he was a newly sparked sparkling, which was considered weak in his mind. But Shockwave convinced him otherwise, saying that a sparkling that knows nothing, could be the perfect killer. And he was not wrong." Soundwave's closed his optics momentarily, before continuing on. "We were Shockwave's main project. He disected us, infused us, tortured us, put us both through rigorous training, that not even a fully grown Cybertronian could survive. Until we became the ultimate hybrid super soldiers. After months of intensive training followed by multiple torturous advancement surgeries. Mirage and I stood on the top of the entire training facility, Mirage could kill before he could properly walk or talk. He's the deadliest soldier on this team. Shockwave focused mainly on his combat skills, while I was stuck learning everything about anything. I can kill just like Mirage, but I am less experienced."
It took a few moments for the mother to choke back her tears of sorrow and disgust, before asking her first son how they ended up with Optimus. "How did you find Optimus?"
"The facility was attacked eventually, while we were all trying to get to the safety checkpoints, I saw the chance to set Mirage free. I did so releasing him into the war torn streets, where Ironhide and Ratchet found him, taking him back to the Autobots. While I stayed with the Decepticons." Soundwave explained most of what had happened. "But there's a whole lot to explain of how we both ended up here. But I think it's best we don't unload everything all at once."
"I can't believe I let that all happen to you!" Xanthia cried making Soundwave and Mirage jump.
"It wasn't your fault. If I had listened to you in the first place, and just ran. We might have escaped, you did everything that you could." Soundwave shook his helm trying to comfort his upset mother.
"I should've went with Orion when I had the chance. If we joined him when the Autobot alliance was beginning. We would have been protected." The femme continued to curse herself.
"You did what you did. Wether it was right or wrong, we're here together now. What happened was terrible, Mirage and I are healthy and alive, and so are you!" The young mech jumped to his peds, trying to tell his creator she did nothing wrong.
The femme sighed allowing a few tears to escape her optics. "You're right Soundwave. But I do want to hear more about it later."
The bioluminescent mech rolled his optics. "Trust me I'm sure you'll hear more about it, from just about every bot on the team."
The femme snorted with a smile. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to get out of hand. It's just really hard to take in." Xanthia took a deep breath, calming herself.
"It okay, Soundwave freak out all the time." Mirage mischievously smiled at his older brother.
"You are so going to get it..." Soundwave narrowed his optics at his cheeky little brother.
"I joke, I joke!" Mirage giggled, pressing himself against the femme, putting his servos up in surrender.
"You're taking lessons from Sideswipe I see..." The violet mech raised an optic ridge at the red sparkling.
"Good morning." Optimus greeted the three upon entering the main room.
Soundwave smiled as the Prime walked by. "Good morning sir."
Optimus smiled at the young mech, before looking to the bioluminescent femme wiping away her tears. "Are you alright Xanthia?"
Xanthia stood up from the couch, giving a halfhearted smile. "I'm fine, my boys were just filling me in on what I missed."
Optimus's expression changed, replacing the smile with a sorrow filled frown. He was at a loss for words, it was a difficult subject to talk about, let alone hear. He was equally as upset as the femme was, for unknowingly having his own son put through torture.
"So what's the itinerary for today?" The dark blue femme changed the subject, trying to lighten the mood.
"We are currently at a stalemate, we're trying to uncover the Decepticons plans to conquer this world. But our opportunities to do so are minimal." Optimus replied, walking over to the monitors.
"We're the only Autobots here to contain this planet?" Xanthia followed the Prime.
"We are here to defend the planet from the Decepticons. This planet has a rich energon source, but the planet also inhabits many species, including the dominant species that completely populate the planet, Humans. They are our allies, but their armies lack the force and technology to defeat the Decepticons, hence why we're here." Optimus Prime gave a quick explanation of why they were on Earth.
"Interesting, so we work with these humans?" The slender femme asked, watching the monitors.
"Yes, and no. At the moment we work with an agent, he communicates to his government for us. He is the only human we come in contact with. We must remain in disguise around all other humans. You will need to scan a human vehicle as your disguise." The red and blue mech continued.
"Wow, lots of rules here. So where do I find these disguises?" Xanthia replied with a slight pep in her tone.
"Agent Fowler will need to know of your arrival. I will ask him to supply you with suitable vehicles to scan." Optimus replied turning to the femme.
Mirage quickly snuck by the conversing bots, heading towards the base exit.
Soundwave rolled his optics, releasing a tentacle, scooping the sparkling up off the floor.
Mirage greatly protested against being picked up. Swinging his arms in frustration, as he just hung there. "No Wave, put down!" Mirage demanded threatening to stab his brother's tentacle.
"I don't think so. Where were you running off to?" Soundwave shook his helm reeling his little brother to him.
"You asking to leak energon?" Mirage continued to threaten, ignoring his older brother's question.
"Quit avoiding the question. You know you don't leave unless you have company." Soundwave waved a digit at the hanging sparkling.
Mirage narrowed his optics, quickly jabbing his blade into the glowing tentacle. Making the violet mech drop him.
"Ow! You little shit!" Soundwave hissed retracting his tentacle, before giving chase to the escaping sparkling.
Mirage quickly activated his cloaking, running over to his mother and father.
"Whoa!" Optimus quickly looked down at his peds, feeling the sparkling hide behind his leg.
"Hey, hey, hey! What's going on here?" Xanthia grabbed the violet mech, stopping him from giving chase.
"Mirage just stabbed me!" Soundwave hissed as his mother held him back.
"What?!" Xanthia gasped in disbelief.
Optimus sighed rolling his optics, as this situation was nothing new to him. Grabbing the invisible being that clung to his leg. "Mirage, we've been over this. No stabbing your brother, use your words."
"I did!" Mirage reappeared with a whine, folding his arms in a huff.
"Still, you don't stab your brother." Optimus continued to scold the sparkling.
"I honestly never thought I'd hear that being told to a sparkling. Let alone my own sparkling." Xanthia shook her helm, releasing her hold on her eldest son.
"You're going to be hearing a lot of things you thought you'd never hear. Just like you can thank Mirage for knocking you out of the sky last night." Soundwave scoffed, smirking at his little brother.
"Yeah, especially since you've began to grow a chatty personality!" Sunstreaker teased wrapping an arm around the slender mech's shoulders.
Soundwave immediately ducked out of the hold, glaring at the golden mech.
"Easy Sunny, Wavers just might unleash his angry personality on you." Sideswipe chuckled stopping just behind his twin.
Soundwave groaned raising an optic ridge at the twins. "What are you two doing up so early? It's not the late afternoon yet."
"We got assigned to the early patrol. Thanks to Hatchet." Sunstreaker replied with annoyance. "Ow!"
"Quit calling me that, and it's for your own good you lazy tin cans!" Ratchet hissed picking up the wrench he threw at the golden twin.
"What the hell Ratch, do you cuddle wrenches in your recharge?" Sunstreaker hissed rubbing the back of his helm.
"Get moving!" Ratchet snarled pointing at the exit with the wrench in hand.
"Alright we're going!" The twins quickly scrambled exiting the base.
Arcee chuckled watching the twins hastily leave the base.
"Those two yours?" Xanthia chuckled at the medic.
"You could say that." Ratchet sighed, beginning to organize his med bay. "Please help yourself to some energon."
"Thanks I will." Arcee smirked grabbing a few energon cubes, as Bumblebee entered the main room.
"Funny, I was talking to the other femme..." Ratchet raised an optic ridge at the cobalt blue femme.
"I know, it's just so easy to bug you." Arcee replied handing Xanthia and Soundwave some energon.
Optimus handed his yellow youngling some energon. Grabbing another cube for Mirage, hesitating to give the sparkling the large container of liquid.
"Unless you want to clean up a major energon spill. I suggest you find an alternative way to feed him." Xanthia remarked to the sparkling's father.
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Arcee smirked, agreeing with the mother.
"The bottles are in here somewhere." Ratchet causally said, cleaning his medical instruments.
Mirage rolled his optics, standing grumpily next to his youngling brother. Watching the adults search for something.
Bumblebee chuckled at his little brother. "It's okay, they're getting you some energon to." Drinking his energon, Bumblebee watched as Optimus filled up a bottle.
"Here Mirage." Optimus handed the sparkling the energon filled bottle.
"Nope!" Mirage shoved the bottle back towards his father.
"Mirage you can't have an energon cube, it's practically bigger then you are." Arcee told the unimpressed sparkling.
"No!" Mirage continued to protest against the bottle.
"Quit being fussy Mirage, it's the only way you're going to be able to consume energon, until you get a little bigger." Xanthia picked her sparkling up, cradling him in the crook of her arm.
Mirage froze gazing into the femme's cyan blue optics, not knowing wether to be uncomfortably nervous, or continue to be fussy.
"If you want to grow faster, I suggest you have some energon." Xanthia continued to tell her sparkling to except the bottle, while Optimus handed her the energon bottle. "Enless you want to stay little forever, then I guess you don't need this energon." The femme shrugged lowering the energon to her side.
Mirage blinked, looking to the violet mech for an answer.
Soundwave nodded with a smile, trying to encourage his little brother to have the energon.
Mirage deflated defeatedly, looking back into his mother's optics.
"Have you made a decision?" The dark blue femme asked, bringing the bottle back up to the sparkling.
Mirage nodded, reaching for the bottle.
Xanthia smiled handing the bottle over to the tiny servos. Mirage grasped the bottle in one of his servos, pointing to the ground with the other.
The mother understood the sparkling's wants, placing him back on the floor.
Soundwave walked over to the monitor that was closest to the exit, while the Prime spoke to the human on the main monitor.
Mirage followed his big brother while drinking his bottle, creating a drunken toddle towards the violet mech. Running into his brother's leg, ricocheting from the impact, landing straight onto his aft.
Soundwave looked down at the floor where his disoriented sparkling brother shaking his helm, trying to recollect his thoughts. "Is there something you need, little red?" Soundwave asked as his brother stood back up.
The red sparkling picked himself up, walking up to his big brother. "Bored." Mirage replied leaving his half finished bottle on the ground.
"Why don't you play with Bumblebee?" Soundwave suggested, picking up the bottle.
Mirage groaned slumping his shoulders. "He always want play games."
"That's what younglings and sparklings do Mirage, they play games." The violet sighed placing the bottle up on the platform next to him.
Mirage scowled looking over at his youngling brother who was already playing a game with the Jazz. "He's playing with Jazz."
"So, go join them." Soundwave shrugged, working on the monitor.
"Bleh." Mirage folded his arms. "Can't we go train?"
"No, find something to entertain yourself with. I'm busy trying to figure out what the Decepticons are up to." The bioluminescent mech waved off the sparkling.
"Soundwave please." Mirage whined tugging at the violet mech's leg.
"No."
"Please."
"No."
"Soundwave?" Mirage continued to whine.
"No." Soundwave hissed getting irritated with his little brother.
"Soundwave?"
"No!"
"Soundwave?" Optimus called standing behind the young mech.
"For the love of Primus no!" Soundwave snapped turning around to see Optimus Prime staring at him with a cocked optic ridge.
Mirage giggled while their mother gasped, while others stood with their mouths wide open.
"Oh I'm so sorry sir!" Soundwave quickly apologized. "How can I assist you?"
"Agent Fowler suggested your mother go to him for scanning. He sent the coordinates, can you create a bridge to there please." Optimus kindly requested from the embarrassed mech.
"Of course sir." Soundwave replied, creating a bridge after receiving the coordinates.
"We'll be back shortly." Optimus said as he gestured for Xanthia to go through the bridge.
"Can I come?" Mirage asked jogging up to his father.
"You may, but be on your best behaviour." The Prime sternly told the little youngling.
Mirage eagerly followed the two through the bridge, into some sort of air field.
"Alright Prime, I've got quite the selection here, you've got your standard fighters, then your stealth class, speed class..." Agent Fowler began to gesture at the different aircraft's spread out in front of them. He turned his head, getting a good look at the bioluminescent femme. "Judging by your physique. You're related to tall dark and creepy... I've got the perfect one for you." Agent Fowler waved for the femme to follow him.
Xanthia did so with the Prime next to her. "Tall, dark, and creepy?"
"I find that Agent Fowler can be oblique at times. I do believe he was referring to Soundwave." Optimus simply explained to the confused femme, keeping an optic on the sparkling walking beside them.
"Odd species..." Xanthia shrugged as they were brought to two unmanned aircrafts.
"Now since your counterpart has the MQ-9 Reaper as his main source of travel, I figured it be a suitable fit if you had the MQ-1 Predator." The human gestured to the aircraft that looked similar to Soundwave's.
Mirage sighed bored out of his mind, watching the busy human soldiers hard at work all through out the airbase. He admitted to himself that coming, along wasn't as interesting as he thought it'd be.
"Come little one, time to go." Optimus called the small sparkling.
Arcee walked over to her hard working masked mech. She knew when his visor was on, it meant he was working intensively. "Hey I know you're busy..."
"Not really, I'm just creating a bridge for Optimus." Soundwave said before the femme could add to her sentence.
"Oh... Do you think Mirage will voluntarily spend time with your mother?" Arcee asked the violet mech turning to face her.
"I'm not certain. But from what I've observed he takes a while to warm up to bots." Soundwave shrugged opening a ground bridge.
"That's very true. But Mirage must have a flicker of a bond somewhere inside his spark." Arcee said looking up at her mech's visor.
"I don't know, Mirage lived with Optimus for most of his life and never noticed." The bioluminescent mech reminded the femme.
"They were always close though, very drawn to each other." Arcee mentioned to her mech.
Soundwave watched as the sparkling jumped out of the bridge first, followed by the Prime and bioluminescent femme.
Mirage trudged his way over to his other older brother. Plopping himself down on the floor between the gray mech and the yellow youngling.
"Hey little dude, you wanna help us finish the puzzle?" Jazz happily greeted the bored sparkling.
"No, just wanna watch." Mirage shook his helm no.
"So you picked an ariel vehicle?" Arcee asked the mother, trying to spark a conversation with the bioluminescent femme.
"Yes, it's very similar to Soundwave's, just minor detail differences." Xanthia replied to the sweet femme.
"Nice, I guess you also met your first humans. Don't worry they're not all like that." Arcee chuckled, knowing how cranky and short tempered Agent Fowler was.
"Yes he was quite a colourful character. Calling you tall, dark, and creepy." Xanthia added turning to her eldest son.
Soundwave shrugged. "Probably a valid description of myself. But my actual name would be simpler to say." He turned back towards the monitors.
"I believe Agent Fowler needs a bit more time to remember all our names." Optimus Prime mentioned with a smile.
"He's had months to study our names. What's his bloody excuse?" Ironhide gruffly commented from the couch.
"To be honest, Agent Fowler usually only engages in conversation with Optimus Prime. Occasionally Ratchet, when Optimus isn't available. So the use of our names of importantance to him. Though in the event of an emergency, without either of those two available, it would be intelligentfor the human to study our names and our com codes." Soundwave casually replied from behind the monitors.
"Primus Wave, could ya get anymore specific with logic there?" Jazz chuckled, looking up from the puzzle.
"Or humans have an incredible slow rate of data downloading." Soundwave sighed giving a simpler answer.
"Jazz aren't you and Arcee supposed to patrol the human town by now?" Ironhide asked getting up from the couch.
"Trying to get rid of us already Hide?" Arcee quirked an optic ridge at the approaching large mech.
"And I was being quiet and everything." Jazz joked getting up off the floor.
"But we're not finished." Bumblebee complained, gesturing to the unfinished puzzle Mirage was staring at.
"Aw Bee why don't you finish it with Mirage?" The silver mech gestured to the red sparkling.
"Last time I did a puzzle with him he was getting ready to kill me." Bumblebee folded his arms glaring at his little brother.
"It's either that, or wait until I get back Bee." Jazz shook his helm, transforming, following the two wheeler out of the base.
Ratchet groaned as Ironhide bumped into him, on his way to grab some energon. Turning to the Prime on the outside of the med bay. "Optimus, with our team member count climbing, with two younglings, our energon supply is running dangerously low."
"We can't be running low. We just brought in what was left of that Decepticon mine." Optimus turned himself away from the monitor he was using. Walking towards the concerned medic.
"Mere scraps of what little the Decepticons decided to leave behind. Ratchet sadly replied back.
"With the Decepticons controlling most of the energon in the surrounding area. It is difficult to come across a source, without spilling blood." Optimus knew the medic was correct, wishing it wasn't true. Watching the bioluminescent femme walk over to the grumpy little brothers.
"I understand Optimus, but if we don't have it, we don't survive." Ratchet said, gesturing towards the dwindling energon stock.
"Ironhide let's roll out and see if we can find an unoccupied energon source." Prime gestured for the large weapon specialist to follow him out of the base.
"Sure Prime, but I don't mind blasting cons to fuel the family." Ironhide replied totting his canons, as he followed the red and blue mech.
"If that could be prevented, I would rather find, then spill energon, Ironhide." Optimus transformed, driving out of the base with the weapon specialist in tow.
Xanthia chuckled approaching the grumpy children. "Why don't you two play a different game instead?"
"Train?" Mirage quickly replied to his mother's suggestion.
"No way you always pulverize me!" Bumblebee hissed at the red sparkling.
"No, no, no. Something for younglings and sparklings." Xanthia quickly shook her helm.
Bumblebee thought for a moment, before jumping up to his peds. "Let's go to the canyon and play!"
"Yes!" Mirage nodded in agreement, the canyon was better then doing another puzzle.
"Let's go!" Bumblebee quickly led the way to the exit tunnel, with Mirage in tow.
Xanthia followed the younglings with confusion. "Okay where is this canyon you speak of?"
Soundwave overheard the conversations his mother was having with the younglings. Sighing, doing one more quick scan of the monitors. "Wait..."
Xanthia stopped in her tracks, turning to see her approaching son.
Bumblebee paused his movement as well, while Mirage impatiently took a couple more steps before halting.
"What is it Soundwave?" Xanthia asked her visored son.
"It would be best if I bridged you all there, save time and effort on trying to control two younglings from the skies." The violet mech suggested knowing how hectic it was trying to control his brother's actions from the sky.
"Oh, will you be joining us today?" Xanthia smiled at her eldest son.
"I've been unable to find anything of interest in my scans. I believe I have spare time to go for a small stroll." Soundwave's shrugged, looking towards grumpy medic. "Unless Ratchet needs assistance?"
"No, no go, I'd enjoy some peace and quiet before the twins return." Ratchet eagerly encouraged the young mech.
Soundwave nodded firing up a bridge, Mirage and Bumblebee excitedly ran into the bridge, with Xanthia and Soundwave in tow.
Bumblebee halted after he was a few feet away from the bridge, taking in the surrounding area, he noted it was not the canyon by the base. "This is a different canyon."
"Wave and I cruised by it last night, didn't get chance to see it cause we got distracted." Mirage replied with his accent and broken english.
Bumblebee shrugged thinking nothing of it. "Well then let's explore it!"
Mirage giggled, running off ahead. "Come on then!"
Soundwave retracted his visor, releasing Lazerbeak, having an extra optic on the playing younglings.
Xanthia watched as the drone chirped flying off towards the younglings just up ahead. "Hmm never thought of you as having a pet." The femme thought aloud.
"Really, why?" Soundwave was curious as his mother only knew him as a youngling.
"You were always more focused on learning how to read and type. Decode and encrypt. You liked to play, but loved to learn. I figured with that mainly on your processor, I didn't bother to try and get you a drone, or a different cyber pet companion." Xanthia mentioned to her eldest son. "Although now I regret it. As a drone would have at least defended you when we were ambushed by Shockwave."
Soundwave kept silent for a moment, staring at the ground as they walked. "To be honest Lazerbeak chose to be with me. Just after I allowed Mirage to escape the program. I'm thankful he did though, Lazerbeak definitely helped get through some things." the bioluminescent mech admitted to his mother.
Xanthia momentarily closed her sorrow filled optics. She still couldn't register the fact her kin had been put through torturous dire training. And yet they both flourish with the will to fight and live. "I'm sorry..."
"Please stop saying that." Soundwave's request almost surprised his mother, but her facial expression expressed that she understood what he meant by it.
"I know, I should be happy to be in this moment right now, and forget about the past." Xanthia joked to her first son.
Soundwave only shook his helm no. "Be happy to be in this moment, yes. Forget the past, no."
The femme turned her gaze away from the playing younglings, fixing it on her violet son. "What do you mean son?"
"You can't forget about the past. It happened, it ruined you when it happened, and it haunts you to this day. But I will not let it define me." Soundwave spoke firmly with truth. He knew his past was hindering him, and causing grief to all around him. But he was trying his best to keep it from weighing him down.
"You sure take after Optimus." Xanthia smiled thinking aloud, as she turned her focus back to the playful younglings.
"But he's Mirage's father not mine." Soundwave scoffed correcting the femme.
"What does that matter? He's your Uncle, and has always been a father figure for you, has he not?" The bioluminescent femme retorted back to her son.
"Well, yes, I suppose." Soundwave shrugged innocently. His mother wasn't the first bot to mention he sounded like the Prime. "Optimus made me his second in command." the violet mech mentioned to his very proud mother.
"That's amazing sweetie I am so..."
"But I declined the offer." Soundwave quickly stifled his mother's excitement. As they stopped a few feet away from the younglings chasing the drone in a circle.
"Oh... why'd you do that?" Xanthia was curious to her son's choice.
"I felt it was an ill choice, there are much better successors here to choose from, rather than I." Soundwave expressed with a sigh.
Xanthia wasn't buying it though, narrowing her optics at her bioluminescent son. "Soundwave... what's your real reasoning for this choice of yours?"
Soundwave was a little shocked that his mother could see he wasn't being completely honest. "What do you mean, I just told you?" he scoffed, trying to backup his answer.
"Soundwave I know when you're lying to me." Xanthia folded her arms, continuing to glare at her son.
"That's really how I feel about it." Soundwave continued to lie to his mother, digging himself deeper into a hole.
"Don't make me come over there young mech." Xanthia challenged narrowing her optics even more.
Soundwave snorted with a chuckle, at his mother's threat. "I'm not a sparkling, I'm not afraid of you." Rolling his optics, he folded his arms.
Xanthia snorted raising an optic ridge, she excepted her son's challenge. Walking purposefully towards the cocky, violet, young mech.
Soundwave visibly tensed as his mother moved towards him, trying his best to hide his worried cringe.
Xanthia stopped infront of her son with a devious smile.
Soundwave squinted his optics suspiciously, knowing that devious expression all to well, from his own sparkmate.
Xanthia quickly lifted her left servo, waving it quickly. Causing Soundwave to jolt and turn all his focus onto the moving servo. The femme quickly took the opportunity to use her other servo to sneak it behind the distracted bot's sensitive nerve wiring, reconnecting a wire that she knew would be jarred loose.
Soundwave quickly ducked away from the intrusive servo. Glaring at the now grinning femme. "The hell was that?" Soundwave asked, as he suddenly felt a barely noticeable tingling go through his frame.
"Are you going to answer me honestly?" Xanthia asked, tilting her helm for an answer.
"Ugh, I told you why, you're seriously just blowing steam here." Soundwave continued to brush of his mother with a chuckle.
"Really now?" Xanthia smirked, lightly running a couple digits up her son's arms. "You don't have to lie to me."
Soundwave gave a small laugh, pulling away from the tickling digits. "Stop..."
"Are you going to give me a truthful answer?" The femme challenged once more.
Soundwave thought about it for a moment, but shook off the thought, figuring he could continue to hide his feelings from his mother. "I don't have to, you already got a reply."
"Unfortunate." Xanthia took that as her cue, to unleash on the young mech. Using both her servos on each side of her son's sensitive frame.
Soundwave yelped with laughter as the tickle torture began. He tried his best to shield himself, to no avail. "S...s...stop!"
Xanthia couldn't help but laugh as her son began to wither from the non stop tickle attack.
Both Bumblebee and Mirage halted their movements, turning their full attention to the mother and son.
"I didn't think Soundwave was ticklish." Bumblebee chuckled at the scene.
"He not, his sensory circuitry must be fully functional again." Mirage smirked at his older brother receiving the same torture he usually produced.
Soundwave now withered on the ground, weak from laughing so much. His cooling fans clicked into high gear, as he tried to cycle his vents through the laughter. "Okay... Okay! I will tell you!"
"You promise?!" Xanthia asked waiting for confirmation.
"Y...y...yes!" Soundwave cried out through giggles.
Xanthia retreated with a satisfied smirk. Allowing her son release from his torture.
Soundwave exhaled with relief, his frame felt like it melted into the ground, as he finally received a break from his mother's torture. He looked up as a shadow cast over him, seeing a servo held out for him to grab onto. Weakly grabbing onto the servo, his mother hoisted him back onto his peds.
Soundwave dusted himself off with a sigh. "Thanks."
Xanthia nodded with a smile, waiting for her son to give her the truthful answer he promised.
Rolling his optics with a groan, Soundwave exhaled. "I overheard Optimus and the old ones talking about me as a Prime prospect."
"That's amazing Soundwave, you're truly an astonishing young mech, I think you'd be a great Prime!" Xanthia excitedly expressed to her unsure son.
"Out of all the obvious better choices?" Soundwave curiously asked, staring at the chatting younglings.
Xanthia followed her eldest son's gaze, to the Prime's sons. "Soundwave, a Prime isn't something that gets passed down, just because you're the son of a Prime. You have to prove you're worthy of the title. And clearly Optimus sees you as one."
"But Mirage also showed potential, but as a youngling that surpassed almost every high ranking officer through the many classes of warriors. He declined every rank he earned. Only wanting to be an assassin spy, with no rank." Soundwave mentioned to his warmly smiling mother.
"Mirage is not far off from his big brother then, is he?" The femme raised an optic ridge at the violet mech.
"I don't know, I think Ratchet or Ironhide would be better choices. I just feel it's a bad choice..." The young mech sighed deeply looking down at the cool dirt ground.
"Are you saying that because of your past as a Decepticon?" Xanthia asked, narrowing her son's worries down, exactly.
"Mom you have no idea how torturous it was for Mirage and I back on Cybertron. Just because of our Decepticon background, we're automatically listed as dangerous, out of control, and untrustworthy. I mean, I only dealt with that for a few months at the Autobot base. Mirage dealt with years." Soundwave tried to explain what the other Autobots would see if he became a Prime. "We still deal with it here, just not to the extreme."
Mirage pricked his helm up, his sensitive audio receptors, hearing a faint noise in the distance. "You hear that?"
"Hear what?" Bumblebee gave his little brother a confused look.
Mirage only rolled his optics at his brother's response. Walking off in the direction of the sound he'd heard.
"Hey, where are you going?" Bumblebee quickly followed the little sparkling.
"You're afraid no one will listen to you as a leader. But the fact is, you're the only one holding yourself back. Your leadership may surprise you one day." Xanthia tried to reassure the young mech.
The violet mech sighed in defeat. "So I should take on the apprenticeship?"
"Yes Soundwave, I do. The time for a new Prime to rise can happen at any given moment. Wether it be a happy retirement, or an unfortunate demise. A new Prime must be ready to take on the responsibility. The sooner you start as an apprentice, the better to ease the nerves of those who worry what happens next. It would definitely make the Decepticons more wary at the fact a future Prime is ready to defeat them at any given time." Xanthia encouraged her eldest son, to take on the Prime apprenticeship.
"Huh... well that's interesting..." a gruff yellow opticed mech scoffed to himself.
Knockout groaned walking away from the drilling eradicon soldiers. "What are you mumbling on about now, Breakdown?" Knockout grumbled walking up a pathway leading to the top of the canyon.
"I didn't know Soundwave had a twin." Breakdown gestured for the red medic to look down at the bots below in the canyon.
"That's a femme, I've never seen her before." The medic gasped seeing the dark metallic blue bioluminescent femme speaking with the violet bioluminescent mech.
"Well she just convinced that traitor to take on the Prime apprenticeship." The large blue mentioned with a snort.
"Soundwave's moving up in the universe, Megatron will be none too pleased to hear Soundwave is the next Prime. Or that the Autobots have another new member." Knockout thought aloud. Unaware that a sparkling was sneaking up the pathway, after destroying the eradicons.
"Hmm, well whoever she is, she's going to get a warm welcome from my hammer." Breakdown threatened, transforming his servo into a hammer.
"Shh!" The medic shushed the brute, listening for the whirring sounds of the mining drills.
"What?" Breakdown hissed in a whisper, turning to the medic.
"Those grunts stopped their damn drills, they must've finally hit energon." Knockout replied to the impatient blue mech.
Breakdown groaned following the medic down the canyon pathway.
"Or not..." Knockout stood in awe as he came across the scene of deceased eradicons laying on the ground.
Soundwave's helm quickly lifted as Lazerbeak dove at him, frantically chirping. Quickly realizing both younglings were out of sight. "Scrap!" he cursed as his mother noticed the missing young.
"Mir..."
"Shhh!" Soundwave quickly silenced his mother, before she could shout for the younglings. "We're not alone."
"Soundwave and that new bot are standing over there conversing. How the hell are they all offline?" Breakdown hissed scanning the area with his optics.
"Well it certainly doesn't take a genius to figure it out." Knockout gowled noticing movement behind one of the drills. "Clearly we've got a nosey intruder." the medic smirked leaning over the drill, looking directly at the yellow youngling standing next to the cave entrance.
Bumblebee gasped spinning around, as the large blue mech's shadow cast over him.
"Well well who's this little one? Prime sure has quite the collection of younglings." Knockout chuckled with a sinister grin.
"Then he won't miss this one then." Breakdown raised his hammer to strike the yellow scout.
Mirage rolled his optics, tossing a piece of raw energon at the two Decepticons. Shooting it with his dart rifle, causing it to combust, sending dust and rocks flying.
Bumblebee quickly moved to Mirage's side, at the entrance of the cave. As both mechs hissed in frustration, as the dust slowly settled.
"Mirage!?" Knockout gasped as the tiny red sparkling came into view.
"I thought he was a youngling?!" Breakdown squinted his optics, trying to see through the dust.
"Does it matter? They're going to blow all the energon, if we don't stop them." Knockout groaned firing at the two brothers.
Mirage easily dodged the blasts, distracting the doctor from firing at his inexperienced brother.
"You better dancs as good as the sparkling youngling!" Breakdown threatened as he swung his hammer at the scout.
Bumblebee ducked, and dove out of the way. Trying to keep out of the line of fire from both cons.
Mirage saw his brother was getting attacked, he quickly leapt over his opponent, hooking one of his blades onto the hammer. The sparkling quickly used all his might to flip the mech down and over into his partner.
"You are so scrap metal!" Knockout hissed slamming a fist into the ground, as he picked himself up.
Breakdown gasped as a driller flew through the air, heading directly at them. Rolling out of the way as Knockout dove to get clear.
"There's no way the sparkling did that!?" Breakdown picked himself up off the ground, after the driller hit the ground hard.
"Looks like he wasn't the one..." Knockout replied, starring past the driller, seeing a tall slender mech with tentacles making his way towards him.
"Let's remind this traitor of where he belongs!" Breakdown enthusiastically jumped to his peds, ready to engage the mutant.
"Don't be a fool, we're out numbered. Even if it's just Soundwave alone fighting us. We need to retreat." Knockout hissed at his partner.
"But the energon?" Breakdown gestured to the exposed cave.
"It was a sampling mission. We've got plenty of other mines. Megatron doesn't need to know this was a loss." Knockout quickly transformed, peeling off.
Breakdown growled doing the same as the medic. He knew Megatron had bigger plans brewing, a small energon scout was no loss.
Soundwave stopped in his tracks. Halting in front of the cave, where the younglings stood. Glaring down at his little brother. "What were you thinking, engaging the enemy like that?"
"I was heard sounds, so I checked it out." Mirage replied to his irritated brother.
Soundwave groaned, rolling his optics. "Bumblebee could've gotten hurt, you put him in danger."
"I had control. Bee's not hurt." Mirage shrugged going back towards the raw energon.
Xanthia tried not to drop her jaw at how nonchalant her sons were about their own safety. Only having concerns for the youngling scout.
"Bumblebee you usually have more sense then that. From now on don't follow Mirage if he wonders off, especially if he is suspicious of something." Soundwave scolded the inexperienced scout.
Bumblebee hung his helm, lowering his doorwings, as he was scolded by the bioluminescent mech.
"Chill Wave, he wasn't hurt." Mirage told his big brother to calm down, as he continued to walk away.
"He was very close to it. Now where are you going?" Soundwave grumbled, watching the sparkling walk away.
"Look." Mirage gestured to the raw energon waiting to be mined.
"Great we've stumbled onto a mine owned by Megatron." Soundwave groaned at the energon.
"Nope, just sampling report only. Bucket head not own it." Mirage corrected his big brother.
"The Decepticons haven't claimed it." Soundwave correctly said what the sparkling was saying to him.
Bumblebee looked over his shoulder as a gentle servo was placed on him. Seeing the bioluminescent femme, kneeling beside him.
"Don't take it to spark little one. Soundwave may seem harsh at times, but he only wants to protect you." Xanthia gestured towards the mutant brothers in the cave.
"I'm so useless out here, I'm just a liability." Bumblebee sighed, starring at the brothers.
"I'm sure that's not true. Why do you say that?" Xanthia questioned trying to comfort the youngling.
"I've never really fought the Decepticons, I don't even have any real training. Mirage is a sparkling, and he's the first one to be called into a mission. I'm either never summoned for one, or I do all the useless no conflict missions." The scout complained secretly wishing he was trained like Mirage and Soundwave.
"Listen sweetie, Mirage, and Soundwave were put into training against their will. You wouldn't like that to happen to you. You're a youngling, that's only been in the battlefield maybe once or twice. That would be the main reasoning for you staying on stand by." The femme tried to explain to the upset youngling.
"I understand that, but if I had their training I would be able to go out in the field more often." Bumblebee replied to the nice femme.
"You get upset because Mirage doesn't know how to play youngling games with you, correct?"
"Yeah, but that's because he gets mean, and messes everything up." The scout scoffed to the mother.
"Mirage gets mean, and frustrated because he never got the chance to play games. The only programming he developed was killing and fighting. Would you enjoy not knowing how to play, and only knowing how to fight?" Xanthia asked the young scout.
"Well no..." Bumblebee replied with a sigh.
"So enjoy being a youngling while you still can. Trust me, with Megatron threatening this planet, your father will need all of our help, including yours." Xanthia gave a reassuring squeeze to the scout's shoulder, before standing back up.
Bumblebee mulled over the femme's words, watching as Soundwave conjured up a bridge.
"Whoa look at all this energon. Nice find guys!" The twins excitedly praised as the bridge shut behind them.
"Mirage and Bumblebee found it, but it needs to be guarded. The Decepticons were sampling it, though we're fairly certain they gave up the claim." Soundwave explained to the two warriors.
"We won't give them the chance to, right Sunny?" Sideswipe smirked at his twin.
"Not a chance." Sunstreaker nodded in agreement.
"Just stay here and don't touch anything, until Optimus and Ironhide arrive." The violet mech sighed turning to his little brother. "Mirage lets go." Soundwave escorted the sparkling towards the cave entrance.
"Why we not guarding the energon?" Mirage almost complained as they met up with their mother and Bumblebee.
"We're going to meet up with Arcee and Jazz." Soundwave said before turning to face the yellow scout. "Bumblebee, you have two choices. Stay here with the twins and help your father and the rest of them mine, or go back to base and stay with Ratchet."
"Wait, why can't I come with you to meet up with Arcee and a Jazz?" Bumblebee questioned his two boring choices.
"Because those are the choices Optimus gave you when I spoke with him a moment ago." The violet mech replied to the youngling's whines.
Bumblebee pressed his doorwings against his back with a pout.
Xanthia glared at Soundwave with a quirked optic ridge. Gesturing to the upset scout.
Soundwave sighed rolling his optics. "I guess we can bring you along, but you return back to base with Jazz."
"Yes!" Bumblebee excitedly celebrated, as Mirage waited for him to follow him.
"Come on let's go!" Mirage transformed, impatiently revving his engine.
Soundwave shook his helm, as the two younglings drove off. "You joining me in the skies?" he turned to his smiling mother.
"Oh since you asked so kindly, I suppose so." Xanthia shrugged, with a sarcastic reply.
"Mirage definitely has your attitude..." Soundwave scoffed, transforming flying upwards.
"I see nothing wrong with that!" Xanthia called after her son, before transforming flying after her violet son.
"So how do you do patrol, if everyone on the team is a land vehicle?" The deep blue predator asked, flying a small distance away from the reaper.
"It's really no different then if I were a land vehicle. Honestly it's better this way. That way we've got optics on the ground, and in the sky. Plus if I had to do patrol with more than one flyer I think I would go insane. There's only so much airspace, not to mention it looks extremely suspicious to the humans if jets fly in a formation." The reaper replied to his mother's question.
"You must have to tip toe around quite often with those humans." Xanthia scoffed as they flew just below the clouds, getting a visual on the Ferrari and Urbana 500.
"Mmm not as much as they do. I can simply fly out of sight. I mean Mirage can cloak himself, but the others it's not such an easy get away. Not to mention the human laws they have to follow, along with Optimus's strict rules." Soundwave banked to the right, as both sports cars drove off the road, meeting up with the femme and grey mech.
Xanthia followed as the reaper descended towards the four. Transforming into their robot forms as they greeted the mech and femme.
"So you found an energon mine, nice work." Arcee praised both younglings as both bioluminescent bots approached them.
"More like Mirage heard a noise, and just happens to find trouble wherever he goes." Soundwave sarcastically remarked, stopping next to the cobalt blue femme.
"Takes after his big brother then. Mister I hear everything and know everything that happens." Arcee playfully punched her mech.
"Very funny... how was your patrol?" Soundwave exhaled, turning his attention to the grey mech.
"Uneventful, just traffic, short tempered humans. And humans that drool over our vehicle modes." Jazz shrugged, making Arcee groan at the mention of humans drooling over their vehicle forms.
"What, you growing tired of the humans already?" Soundwave teased his grossed out partner.
"To a point, yes! To many either pet you, sit on you for a picture or fantasy moment, or my favourite, they try to take a peak at your undercarriage, and bring up what they think are your tech specs." Arcee shuttered as she listed off her pet peeves.
"As long as you continue to have patience, you can handle it." Xanthia tried to hold back her chuckle.
"Ugh trust me patience is not my strong suit at the moment." Arcee rolled her optics with annoyance.
"Well lil Bee ya ready to go back to base. We can finish that puzzle." Jazz exhaled wrapping his arm around the scout's shoulders.
"Okay, can we race there?" Bumblebee asked happily.
"Humans Don't venture this far out, so I can't see why not." Jazz patted the youngling's shoulder.
"Yay!" Bumblebee quickly transformed waiting for the grey mech to do the same.
"Alright see ya back at base." Jazz waved before transforming, and driving off with scout.
"So are we going on a patrol?" Xanthia asked the group of younger bots.
"Kind of. It's more of a scouting mission for energon." Arcee replied to the dark metallic blue femme. "Mirage already found a mine, so we've got a head start." The cobalt blue femme gestured to the red sparkling kicking around a rock.
"Is there many around this section of the planet?" Xanthia asked while watching her sparkling play.
"Yes, but unfortunately most are controlled by the Decepticons. That's why it's so hard to find energon without spilling it." Arcee sighed in reply.
"It mostly consists of tracking, digging, and exploring dark cold caverns." Soundwave explained before his mother could ask anymore questions.
"In other words, hope you're not against to get your paint dusty." Arcee joked wrapping her arms around her mech.
"I don't think that will be an issue. My paint isn't as pretty as it used to be." Xanthia jokingly replied, noticing Soundwave's frame visibly tense up for a nano click, before relaxing into the embrace.
Soundwave saw that his mother noticed his frame tensing up from the sudden action from his loving femme. Materializing his visor over his face, he began scanning the nerby terrain for any possible signs of an energon source. "I'll just... uh pinpoint a good searchable location..."
Arcee noticed her mech's attempt to play off his usual defensive reactions to her affection. Seeing Soundwave's mother staring at him with sympathetic concern, Arcee put two and two together.
Mirage gave one good kick to the rock he was playing with, causing it to skip across the dried cracked ground, halting only after it struck his mother's ped. Mirage nervously grinned at his mother, as the bioluminescent femme looked down at what struck her ped.
Xanthia smiled warmly at her sparkling that cautiously approached her. "No need to be scared, here." the mother gently kicked the rock to her shy sparkling.
Mirage stopped the rock with his ped, he continued to stare at his mother warily, as she smiled at him.
"I've pinpointed an area of interest" Soundwave broke the tension, firing up a ground bridge.
