This fic keeps getting longer and longer and it might be a repeat of Performer where I take six years to finish it.

Chapter X

Soundwave lay back and moved to claim his half of the berth. Daniel laid down with his back to the commander. The blue-grey mech dove into his subordinate's processor, waiting to follow him into the Hub.

"Uh… Well, it's never looked like this," Daniel said, gazing around the dark room. "I've never had to do it through a psychic patch before."

"Suggestion: Defocus the patch."

"I don't know how."

"Alternative method: Tell Soundwave how to reach the Hub."

"There's a backdoor to the Hub hiding in the program that runs the automated refinery."

The commander wasted no time dragging them both through the ship's servers. Daniel felt as though he was lifted through empty space. The dimly lit room disappeared and opened up to a galaxy of purple and red lights. Soundwave commanded the stars—individual programs, Daniel noticed, when he saw one up close—to move around and find what he was looking for.

"It's a little hard to find the right one unless you know what you're looking for."

Soundwave brought up a source and highlighted a specific line that seemed like an unnecessary string buried in disorganized spaghetti code.

"Of course, you'd find it instantly, you Mary Sue."

"Terminology: Unknown," Soundwave stated as he tapped into the code that hyperlinked him to another location within the ship's mainframe, leading him to the drones' personal chat servers that was doubling as a proxy for the Hub. He had known that the drones had their own frequencies to tune in to, but had never bothered looking into it. He believed it was used to relay orders throughout the ship. Now, in hindsight and with the knowledge of their individualistic tendencies, their private communication had a potential to be used against Lord Megatron's ideology with secret transmissions outside of the typical Nemesis communication servers. He would reserve for another night to examine whether it was being used for this purpose.

"It's a phrase in Earth's literature," Daniel explained while Soundwave considered the probability of mutiny. "A Mary Sue is an overpowered and perfect character. The world revolves around them and they do no wrong. There's a bunch of other stuff that goes into it, but basically they have nothing that actually challenges them to be better because they're already awesome."

"Query: Does D4N1-3L find Soundwave to be overpowered and perfect?"

"Overpowered, for sure. I don't know about 'perfect' just yet. I think you still have a few personality quirks to work on, but that's what makes you kind of cute."

Soundwave stopped his process to stare at him. Daniel became aware of the deafening quiet that surrounded them.

"Too much?"

"Suggestion: Focus," Soundwave said, more to himself than to the drone.

"That code leads to a chat server."

"Real-time communications server: Located."

"Oh. You already found it. See what I mean about that Mary Sue thing?"

"Location of the Hub: Unknown."

Daniel took a step closer to look at the programs that maintained the drones' chat server. He pointed and said, "That's the launcher."

"File name: Central."

"It used to be Kendraya, but we figured that using an alien language would be too suspicious so we renamed it to Central. Now Kendraya's a map name of one of the levels inside. I could show you around Kendraya one of these days. You might like fantasy RPGs. How about for our second date?"

"Suggestion: Focus. Query: What happens when the file is accessed?"

"You get sent off to the Fabricator. As a new entry, you have to design a body for yourself. It'll be the avatar you waltz around in until you feel like changing it or make a brand new one to switch to. Most of our new logins stick to the drone model but with different colors and throw in some patterns to personalize a bit more. I would go with that so you can blend in and fake being a drone. Actually, I'm not sure if you can completely fake it with that vocal disorder since I don't know of anyone who has that." His visor flashed. "Sorry, I just realized what I said. I didn't mean—"

"Medical definition of disorder: An abnormal condition or disruption of normal physical or mental functions. Vocal Diction–Syntax Inter-function classification: Phonetic disorder."

"It has a name?"

"Usage of 'disorder': Inoffensive. Usage of 'disability': Inaccurate."

"Abnormality, not limitation."

"Distinction: Correct."

"Alright. Well, open her up, commander. I'll meet you inside."

Soundwave activated the program, accessing the VR server. He felt formless and expansive. His essence alone was not contained to any limited space. The sensation lasted for a brief moment as his falsified body condensed to create a simple bipedal shape without color or any defined features within a bright, white room with several doors surrounding him in a circle.

That was…something. He heard Daniel speak. His head swiveled as he looked for the drone. The patch still had them linked near-telepathically, allowing them to speak to each other across…whatever this was. No, no, everything's fine. Normally when people load in, they're not stretched across the entire log-in server. You had me spooked for a second.

So, this is the Fabricator, sir. Like I said, I think you should go with a drone body to fit in.

[Is artistic liberty encouraged?]

Well, yes, but you're not expected to—

[I did not request for an elaboration.]

I'm trying to keep you safe, sir.

[Do you think I will require protection?]

No, I think the drone army needs protection from you. We spent a long time trying to keep this far below your radar. So, please, by all means, go crazy with the model. Meet me at the Sliver when you're done.

The shape he was in grew, shortened, smoothed, and sharpened in several areas. He made his avatar to look like him despite Daniel's implication behind the plea, but took out features such as the wings, the sharp edges of a docked Laserbeak, his pointed crest, and even the facial screen. He shaped his eyes to be more rounded, falsifying a mask of innocence. He looked like a protoform version of himself, including the biolights, and without his screen.

He gazed around at the doors and the labels that were engraved in their tops. Supernova Sliver and Dev were the only ones that seemed online. The other doors had icons of locks over them. Blossom Strip, Pyre, Caelum Summit, Kendraya—Whatever they were, they had been shut down. Soundwave pondered if Trypticon had caused some type of destruction in those levels or if they were temporarily down for maintenance. He reached out with curiosity to the grayed door of Kendraya and a pop-up declared that this sector was offline, no specific reason stated. He tried Caelum Summit to see the exact same message. He would ask Daniel about them when it was appropriate. He turned and went to the burgundy door of Supernova Sliver.

The commander felt as though he had dropped through an entire lithosphere of code to get through to the virtual location. When his senses focused, he was standing in an empty metropolis street in the dark, illuminated by a single overhanging light. Across from him was the only building with color, its neon sign in pinks and reds advertising the Supernova Sliver. It reminded him of a nightclub, and he was sure that was the idea behind it. Lights flashed from inside and a beat was thumping through the walls.

"The point was not to look like yourself."

A strange model stood on the sidewalk in front of the club. It was the white alien model he had seen Daniel use when they were staving off Trypticon. The golden hair was tied back into a long tail that reached his lower back. Soundwave took in the fact that the outfit had no top, exposing the bare chest with its yellow tattoos. The red eyes of the model, Daniel's eyes, widened with restrained panic.

"Primus, you look just like your real self. That wasn't the point of this," he scolded. "You're not supposed to look like Soundwave."

"Correction: Model does not look like Soundwave."

"Sir, the purple lights? The color of your enamel? Even the way you stand, you scream 'commanding officer Soundwave.' You might as well wear a nametag."

Soundwave straightened his back a little to deviate from his normal hunch.

"And why did you go and make yourself taller?" Daniel stepped towards him with a hand over his head to measure them. The drone was half a head below him, when usually he would have stood a mere two inches over the commander.

"Height: Unaffected. Query: Why is D4N1-3L shorter?"

"Because I have a sub kink. I figured you knew that." Daniel smiled for an uncomfortable second. When the joke failed to land, he shook his head. "Right. You need a drone's name. Something that sounds absolutely nothing like Soundwave, so anything that doesn't start with an S."

He spoke the first name that came to mind, a close friend from long ago who had worked at a nightclub as its DJ. They had gotten along through their similar taste in music, and found a brotherly bond that stemmed from their strange genetic modelling. It was unfortunate that he had refused to join the Decepticons with Soundwave. Just hearing his name spoken aloud made him feel a brief pang of sadness.

"Alias designation: Blaster."

"Blaster? That's not really a drone name, that's a real Cybertronian name."

"Query: What is the qualification of a drone designation?"

"It's usually organic alien names that we pick up on. Sometimes they match up with letters, sometimes not. Dallas' serial looks nothing like a Dallas in any language, but because it has a certain combination of numbers that we kept calling him by for centuries, he got it from a convenience store of the same name based in—"

Soundwave interrupted, "Query: Does D4N1-3L have a suggestion for an alias designation?"

"Um…" Daniel bit his knuckle as he thought. Only Earth names came to mind. "I don't know. Henry? Miguel? Nick? Which series of sounds are you more likely to respond to?"

"Query: What is the probability of other drones having these names?"

"I used to know a Henry and there's about three Nicks. But I've never come across a Miguel."

"Decision: Finalized. Alias designation: Miguel."

"You sure? You'll be stuck with that name."

"Use of designation: Exclusive to the Hub."

"Fine. Miguel. Just remember that that's your name in here."

He drilled him briefly on how to behave. They would act as though "Miguel" were a recently awakened drone, just now budding into his sentience. Talk would need to be kept to a minimum. There would be no issuing demands to the other drones. And he was instructed scornfully to never give a fake serial. The drones used this place to get away from the monotonous life of the ship, so they only used their given names. As Daniel talked, Soundwave noticed how much more animated the drone was in using both his body language and his facial expressions, expressions that he could not do in the real world.

"Think you've got everything?"

"Affirmative."

"Try not to socialize too much or they'll try and get to know you."

"Introverted personality: Preexisting behavioral trait."

"Fair enough," Daniel shrugged. "If you at all feel the need to leave, tell me. This place can be a little much."

As far as falsifying the senses went, Soundwave found the Hub's immersion somewhat impressive. The bass of the music shook him from within. Every bump into another drone disguised as a strange creature was registered. Differences in the texture of their flesh, metal, or fur was there. The pink and purple lights warped the colors of the dancing crowd. He followed Daniel. Whenever he became distracted, he would look for the long ponytail. Some avatars looked like bots, some were recolored drones, some were large, some small, colorful, bland, clothed—each of them carried their own face regardless of specie.

"Danny boy!" someone shouted over the music. A four-armed, deep red, techno-organic biped bounded over to Daniel, wrapping all of their arms around him. Soundwave glanced the tall form up and down. Its scrawny body was undoubtedly feminine with the accented curve of the hips and chest, and the voice was something between the two sexes that committed to neither ranges.

"Hey there, Lonni." Daniel hugged them back.

"Primus, I haven't seen you in the Sliver for over a month! I thought you might've been stuck grinding in Kendraya again, you dweeb."

"I've been at congress doing business. Things got a bit weird. Kendraya's been offline since Trypticon, but everyone pretty much demanded Supernova Sliver stay up."

"Well, duh, the Sliver's the best part of this whole thing." The four-armed Lonni noticed the other drone standing by. "I don't recognize you. You kind of remind me of Commander Soundwave. Was that on purpose?"

Soundwave bent his head and nodded shyly.

"Looks good. I'm Lonni." They held their hand out. Soundwave admired the attention to detail in their painted, manicured claws. "Are you someone I know or are you, y'know, still breaking out of your programming?"

"This is Miguel," Daniel said when Soundwave did not answer. The commander was stuck in the analytical consideration of the inference behind the phrase "breaking out of your programming." "He's still waking up. I thought to show him what the deviants do."

"And you brought him to a club? I'm so sorry, Miguel, I guess Daniel doesn't know what 'overstimulation' means. He should have waited until the other zones were opened back up. They're far less exciting, and a hell of a lot easier to take in on your first dive."

"Opinion: Subjective."

The voice threw Lonni off, not expecting the sound of the newcomer to come out the way it had. "What?"

"Vocal tick," Daniel said quickly. "He said your opinion on what's exciting and what's not is just that; your opinion."

"Wow, blunt as frag. Hit me up when you get a personality, alright?" Lonni teased. They arched onto their tiptoes to plant a kiss on Soundwave's cheek, muttered, "Kih-tul," and went back to join their clique at a table.

"They're as social as they come, that Lonni," Daniel said. "They've got a point, though. I probably should have brought you to the dev house instead."

"Expression: Kih-tul. Translation: Requested."

"It just means 'goodbye,' from a planet we haven't been on in a hundred years. Some people like to speak in mixed languages around here. They think it makes them sound quirky or intelligent. You wouldn't believe the orchestra of pure noise that happened when we downloaded about thirty languages at one time from Earth's global networks. We even made it a game to guess which ones we were speaking in."

Soundwave honed his audio receptors, ignoring the loud music to try and overhear conversations. The trio near them were talking in a language that buzzed and clicked.

"Query: That was INN-07?"

"The very one."

"Observation: Difference in vocal inflection and pitch not standard of ranges of drones."

"That's another thing we can do in the Fabricator, sir. We can change our voices. We have a few who are under the impression that they really are femmes instead of mechs, so they modified their voices." His face lit up when he remembered something. "Some are also brave enough to apply it for real. Like Jason, you heard what he sounded like when he screamed at everyone earlier. But we made the rule that so long as it's a mech's voice that you modify into then it's fine, which pisses off the femmes. They understand it's for our survival, but they hate having to hide themselves."

Soundwave pondered as the music changed to something more subtle and melodic, a stark change from the thuds and bumps of the initial bass. When Shockwave had drawn up the design for the drones, he had purposefully made the model masculine. The excuse was that mechs were more formidable and were not easily emotionally compromised. The main differences between the two genders on Cybertron were how they looked and how they thought. Shockwave had it in his mind that femmes were more likely to abandon the Decepticons. The 'cons never had many femmes on their side, and those that joined had done it with self-interest, like Airachnid. Soundwave felt his mouth flex into a smirk. How amusing would it be to watch Shockwave discover that his mech-only army had a few femme-favoring psychogeneses, despite his attempts at uniformity? He could design them as masculine as he could, but hiding somewhere in the core of a few of the drones was a feminine nature. Another point to add to his investigative list: Why were some drones convinced they were femmes while most were not? What was the factor in their psychology that determined the difference when they were all designed to be the same?

"Lonni's a weird case," Daniel went on. "They think they're something both and can never make up their mind. I hope their choice doesn't affect whether or not if they keep working on Project Iacon, sir. They're not unstable or anything."

"Gender preference: Irrelevant in coding capability. Observation: INN-07's avatar: Hyperfeminine."

"For now. They've got another avatar that has the same skeleton but looks as ripped as Megatron. Oh, Primus! That reminds me, you should have seen when someone came walking in with a Megatron model as their avatar—"

Daniel walked and talked, leading Soundwave to a bar to claim two open spots. The bartender was a smooth, grey, faceless thing that operated off of an automatic program, serving them plain drinks as soon as the two sat down. Daniel was in the middle of telling him about the exciting story of "the Lord Megatron raid party" when Soundwave took a sip of the false drink. It felt refreshing, but it had no flavor.

"—so once we figured out it was some bozo looking to scare us, those of us who play on Kendraya all of the time teamed up and brought skills and weaponry over from that level to take him down while some other people were just trying to figure out a way to boot the prankster out of the server before things got too wild. I think the fake Megatron played on Kendraya, too, because I saw a few skills that could only have come from the raid bosses we programmed in there. A brilliant hacker. They might've been one of our testers. I wish I had gotten their name. Also, I hope me talking about taking down a model of Lord Megatron doesn't bother you. We all did it because it was something different to do, just for fun."

Soundwave considered the implications. If Lord Megatron were to discover the Hub and was looking to destroy it, would the drones defend their space or let their master obliterate it? Would their programming or autonomy dominate their decision?

"Interjection: Soundwave would have inserted himself as opposition against Lord Megatron."

"Really, Miguel?" Daniel asked, stressing the word with skepticism and reminding his commander to use his fake name. "You would have fought with the Kendraya raid party, against our esteemed overlord?"

"Sound—Miguel: Harboring frustrations."

"Does it have anything to do with… what we talked about earlier?"

"Assumption: Correct."

"Would it hurt me if I guessed that it sounds like there's a few holes in your loyalty, sir?"

Soundwave smirked, noting to himself that Daniel was trying to avoid punishment by adding "sir" every time he thought he was speaking out of line.

"Assumption: Incorrect. Loyalty to the cause: Infallible."

"To the cause, but not to Lord Megatron?"

"Lord Megatron: Symbolic of the cause."

"So, really you just want to beat up the part of Megatron you thought you were…" He looked around to make sure no one was listening, but minded his choice of words in case there had been eavesdroppers. "The part you thought you liked?"

Soundwave looked at the bland drink in his hands. Daniel leaned to look at his face.

"Unknown."

"You're still crushing a bit. Sucks when you can't up and leave to get away from it, huh?"

"Accusation: Correct. Current conversation: Requiring new topic."

"Right, yeah, sorry to bring all of that up again. Do you dance?"

"Negative."

"Did you ever dance in the old days?"

"Affirmative."

"Then dance with me."

The dark mech looked out at the swaying and jerking bodies on the open floor. He had to remind himself that each of these strange faces belonged to a drone aboard the Nemesis, that this was a virtual simulation and not an intergalactic port that attracted species from every corner of the system. He had not danced in so long that he was not sure if he really could, especially not in a strange and varied crowd.

"Negative."

"Frag, Lonni was right. I should've brought you to Blossom Strip." Daniel turned around to lean back on the counter with his elbows propped. "Are clubs just not your scene?"

"Role as patron: Uncomfortable. Role as—" He stopped, unsure if he should let Daniel know another secret about him.

"Role as, what?"

The dark mech stared at him, watching Daniel's face go from curiosity to discomfort.

"Sorry, sir."

"Role as disc jockey: Preferred."

Daniel shook his head in disbelief. The end of his hair scraped across the counter with the motion.

"I'm sorry, as a what?"

"Repeat: Role as disc—"

"No, I heard it, I just don't believe it. You were a DJ before the war?"

"Nature of occupation: Temporary stand-in."

"How long did that last?"

"Length of employment: Three months."

"Did you get fired?"

"Negative. Flux Chamber disc jockey: Temporarily disabled. Flux Chamber employer: Unwilling to register extra names to payroll."

"Damn, so you were a temp. Did you like the gig?"

"Opinion: Indifferent."

"Did people like you as a DJ?"

Soundwave rotated the bland drink in his hands and smiled. He sipped to buy himself a bit more time to reminisce.

"Ah, I saw that grin," Daniel teased. "You liked being on stage, don't lie about it."

"Statement: Inaccurate. Flux Chamber stage: Reserved for dancers."

"I'm going to call you Commander Precision every time you say I'm being 'inaccurate' when you know damn well what I'm talking about."

Soundwave smiled down at his drink. For moment he thought that the drink was getting to him, making him feel unlike himself, so he asked, "Query: Do Hub drinks affect one's physical state?"

"No, you're not supposed to get drunk off of these. Anyone who's faking being drunk is wanting to act stupid. Everything in the Hub has no flavor, but Ozzy's trying to work on that."

"Speaking of Ozzy—"

"Primus!"

Daniel jumped and knocked into Soundwave when a dark form appeared next to him. It was faceless. Soundwave assumed it was the hood that shadowed its features, but on closer inspection seemed to truly have no face to speak of. It wore tight clothing, leather gloves and tall boots, with a scabbard strapped to its side.

"You're wanted at the house," said the figure. It had a female voice, with an accent Soundwave could not yet place. The commander wondered if this was an automated program like the bartender or another drone that used the Hub to express their femininity.

"Already?" Daniel complained. "I'm kind of in the middle of something, Offie."

"I know, and I don't care. And don't call me Offie. Tone's summoned you. Once he's done with Rog and Eller about what happened with the Insecticons, we're all up to bat."

Daniel sighed and bit his lip. Instead of talking about further business, he introduced Soundwave's Hub alias.

"Uh, Miguel, this is Ofella. Ofella, Miguel. He's new, so please don't bite him."

The figure turned her head slightly to look up at the avatar, sizing him.

"He looks like Commander Soundwave."

"It's intentional."

"Recent deviant?"

"He's getting there."

"He's got creative potential. Hello, Miguel."

"Greetings," Soundwave blurted with slow courtesy.

"Your vocal I/O seems bugged. We'll work on it." Without missing another beat, she added, "You're welcome to join us at the developers' assembly."

Daniel inhaled like he was ready to say something, but he was not brave enough to speak.

"Is there a problem with that, Daniel?" Ofella prodded accusatorially. "Any drone is allowed to show up at the dev house, right?"

"I… No, no problem. I just don't know if Miguel's ready for that."

"He'll know if he's not. That's what being your own person's about, isn't it?"

Daniel's lips thinned and he nodded.

"Good. I'll see you at the assembly."

When she left, she seemed to have disappeared entirely. Her form was there, then wasn't, like a mirage.

"Observation of Ofella: Firm."

"She's fucking ruthless," Daniel groaned. "Every single time I come down here, there's always another problem Tone wants to talk about, or it's the same problem that we can't ever figure out, and he always sends Ofella to kick my aft about it. Primus, I'm sorry about this, sir."

"Apology: Accepted."

"I should've told you what it is I actually do here. Now that I say that out loud, it sounds bad."

Soundwave had his own guesses on what Daniel's role among the drones was, but he remembered that he was not supposed to know about the council just yet. That part of Daniel's memory of their psychic patch together had been fried, so he played dumb.

"Query: What is D4N1-3L's role?"

"I'm part of a council of drones. We made a sort of… not exactly a democracy, but it's not an oligarchy either. It's a handful of us who try and make the hard decisions so no one else has to think about it. It's not to be rulers or anything, we're just trying to keep everyone safe by setting them straight and let them know, 'Hey, we're the ones that think about the bigger problems so you won't have to.' I run the Hub security, mainly to make sure you don't find out about it. Kind of ironic, huh?"

"Revisal of diction: Republic."

"We just say 'council.' 'Republic' sounds a little strong."

"Political system implemented: Republic. Definition of republic: A political system in where supreme power lies on a body of citizens elected by citizens to represent the population. Synonym used to describe the elected body: Council."

"You make it sound so icky."

"Nature of politics: Icky."

Daniel chuckled, "I guess there's no argument there. You feel like joining in on witnessing a republic at work? Take part in this so-called democracy?"

Soundwave looked around once more to make a final assessment of the lax double-life the drones were leading. It was one scene of many, he told himself. Locations like Pyre and Caelum Summit and Daniel's favorite Kendraya could prove to be drastically different types of environments might have its users act differently. A club scene was always the same, with its promiscuous air that overstimulated his senses. He saw some drones act on their best behavior, a fight breaking out in a corner, and many getting a little too intimate for public display. The fact that these were all drones, the race built specifically for the purpose of the Decepticon cause, made without personalities, created only to take orders and endure front-line attacks, designed to slave away at the energon mines… It was baffling to watch them act like, in Daniel's words, "real Cybertronians."

"Current interest in politics: Outweighing desire to remain in Supernova Sliver."

"Follow me. We've got a few doors that lead everywhere so you don't have to leave the Hub then jump back in to get there."

Daniel took his arm to lead him, and dropped it just as quickly when he felt the gesture to be too familiar. Soundwave internally sighed, thinking that the drone might never completely accept that he was alright with these shows of familiarity when it suited this investigative project. He put a hand on the drone's shoulder to keep with his pace and not lose him in the crowd. He felt a buzz of joy, not from him but from Daniel. He talked through their psychic patch:

[Do not lose me in this unchaste environment.]

I promise, sir.

xXx

I actually have a legitimate reason as to why some of the drones are "trans" (heavy on the quotes) beyond the reason of "trans characters for the sake of trans characters," and it'll make sense when Soundwave reaches the end of his investigation.

Absolutely no one ever said that this vocal oddity Soundwave's got is called VDSI. I pulled that one out of my ass. You're totally welcome to use it.