Hello all!
somehow I did actually manage to get another chapter out for you, the others may be coming soon, may not be... honestly its all up to my motivation. anywho, I'll let you all get on with reading.
enjoy!
-.-. ... .- .-. - . .-. / -...
I ended up sitting there well into the night as Soundwave slowly explained almost everything. About how Megatron used the Dark Energon to create an army to overwhelm the Autobots, about how he then somehow managed to survive the implosion of his 'space' bridge. His recovery, and the time in which another Decepticon named Starscream, the same one from the video, commanded the Decepticons. Starscream then awakened Skyquake, also the one from the video, to try and get others to respect him. Ironically it only led to Skyquake being killed after insulting and disrespecting Starscream, something that Soundwave recorded along with the fight.
And later Starscream seemed to have tried using Dark Energon to resurrect Skyquake. Though Soundwave did say that part was not perfectly trustworthy as Soundwave nor Lazerbeak were actually present to witness the event.
He says that the Autobots must have discovered that the Terrorcon could not be killed and so found a way to banish it to an uninhabited realm.
Later he explained that after my father was injured he somehow ended up inside the body of the late Breakdown, from there he came to the Decepticons with a proposal. Offering one of his secret projects in return for a place among the Decepticon army.
He was offered an opportunity to prove himself, ultimately the Autobots prevailed and he was handed off to the Decepticon medic. Later, the Medic, known as Knockout started a side project with Starscream, how the effects of Dark energon would affect Silas.
He had then become ground zero for a plague that ravished the Decepticon army. Releasing one of their most dangerous prisoners and infecting her along with many of the other troops.
Soundwave then had to bridge all the infected off the ship and to an abandoned planet, regardless of how the losses would affect the war.
Then he explained how when he was locked in the Shadow realm he had to survive against the Terrorcon Skyquake, who'd been aimlessly roaming there since his own banishment there.
Soundwave must have killed him as he was obviously in parts when I visited the Shadowrealm myself.
By the time he'd finished explaining everything, and the multiple questions I kept interrupting him with… it was night, well into the night actually.
"Could I… Could we see…" I asked.
Soundwave easily pieced my muddled thoughts together and opened a bridge, then the other one popped open behind him.
With a flash of light the two of us ceased existing.
We stood before the inorganic corpse of Silas. The man who'd sired me and the mech that'd nearly infected Soundwave's entire warship.
Thought out of the corner of my eye something caught my attention. It was a large cylinder that ended in a cone on one end, stretching out from two sides of the cylinder were large orange triangles. Simply the fact that I could discern their color showed how bright and vibrant they would be outside of this world. After a moment of silence I gently tapped Soundwave's shoulder, it was nice to quite literally have a shoulder to cry on. After receiving my signal he turned and walked out of the odd world, back through another rift between two of his portals.
"What did you… call him… when he was… with you?" I asked quietly.
Despite the lack of volume to my voice Soundwave answered through an audio recording.
"I am Cylas, as in CYbernetic Life Augmented by Symbiosis."
"So he turned his own name into an acronym? That's kinda cool." One of the blue twins asked insensitively.
"Breaker, have some decency." White said as he approached behind him.
As the two of them bickered I turned to look at Soundwave.
"How was he… accepted?" I asked fearfully.
Soundwave remained stubbornly silent for a good few minutes.
Something I learned from him is that a stare can say far more than a tirade. So I took a page out of his… book… if they have such things, and just stared at him. Finally he relented.
"His only wish was to live among us, as one of Megatron's subjects. He was dealt with scrutiny at the best of times, and utter disrespect at the worst. In the end, his failure to carry out a seemingly simple mission led to his termination, regardless of any unforeseen circumstances." he explained openly.
"Ultimately no one but himself was surprised or disturbed by the fate Megatron handed to him."
"So he wasn't accepted by society, by me, the government or any of your kind." I realized sadly.
"No." he answered after much hesitation.
"It'd be so cool to have our own names, I mean you gotta at least agree with me on that!" Breaker exclaimed.
"You have one." Blue scoffed.
"Yeah, but a good one I mean!" Breaker reiterated.
Their antics slightly lifted my mood.
"How about we give you some." I sniffled as I wiped my eyes, the ghost of a smile flitted across my face, but I forced it to stay. If it didn't I'd only break down crying, again.
"YES! FINALLY!" Breaker shouted as he started getting all excited.
He alone threatened to turn the ghost of a smile into a full blown sad smile.
Ok, let's start with Breaker." I explained as I stood before the three of them.
"Yes! Hear that, I'm first so I'm the best." he exclaimed.
I gave a light, reserved smile before explaining myself. "Actually, it's more because you already have a starting point, meaning you'll be the easiest. That and if I did anyone else first you'd bother me until I gave you one."
Blue cuffed Breaker in the back of the head lightly before the three of them arranged themselves and stood waiting.
"So, if we're sticking with music based names…" I mused to myself.
I thought about how to use the name Breaker in a musical sense.
"Break…" I was struggling to come up with something.
"Breakdance?" I suggested, not at all expecting that he'd actually agree.
"Yes! It's perfect."
"Wait really?"
"Yeah. I love it." he answered, I only shrugged, it wasn't one I myself liked too much, but the more I thought about it the more fitting it seemed.
"Ok… White, Blue, do either of you care who I name first?" I asked.
Both sort of just shrugged, I guess having an actual name made Breaker… Breakdance more outgoing, clearly enough for all three of them.
"Blue, do you mind if I name you…" I began stalling.
For some reason, even though he was supposed to aid Soundwave in a war, I desperately wanted to name him something somewhat silly.
I kept coming around to names like 'booth' or 'beats' but none seemed to fit just right. Finally one did.
"DJ." I exclaimed.
The three sort of just looked at me.
"DJ? As in the two letters?" he asked.
"Yeah, but it's also an acronym for someone called a Disk Jockey, they're the people that remix songs, what I do." I explained.
"Did." Breakdance corrected.
"Hey! I thought I'd deserve at least a bit of respect, I did name you after all!" I exclaimed.
"Whatever." he said flippantly.
I probably made some kind of indignant noise, but I calmed down and just turned to White.
"Ok, White, you're the last one left." I sighed exasperated with Breakdance already.
"Well… when I think of war… I think of video games… and the only fighting one that I know of that has a weapon based on music… it… it's called the Dubstep gun, so… could I call you Dubstep?"
"Dubstep?"
"Yeah, I never actually played the game, but I just found the concept of the gun hilarious."
"So you named me after a gun, from a game that you never played?"
"Yes, do you not like it?"
"I don't mind." he answered simply.
"You don't?" I asked.
"No, it's a good name."
"Are you just saying that though for my sake?"
"Yes and no."
"How?" I asked.
"Yes I'm saying it because it does in fact make you feel good, no because I do actually like the name."
"I… ok." I left it at that.
"Sir." Dubstep snapped to attention looking over my shoulder, I turned and found him looking at Soundwave.
"I have hacked into a government database. I've discovered Knockout's location."
"If you've mentioned who that is… you're gonna have to do it again." I admitted.
"The one who shall perform my surgery," he answered.
"Oh, to change your alternate mode!" I exclaimed.
Soundwave nodded.
"Then let's go get him!" I hopped around.
The possibility of helping Soundwave completely washed away whatever depressing feelings I had at the time.
"You do realize that he did say he had to hack a government database to find him right?" Breakdance asked.
"Yeah? What of it we're already on the Government's list." I shrugged.
"You must remain safe." Soundwave cautioned me.
"Where else is as safe as with the giant alien robot and his army of mini alien robots?" I retorted.
Soundwave made a sound that sounded suspiciously like an echoey robotic sigh, but he opened a portal anyway.
"We won't be bridging directly to the base, but near enough." Soundwave amended.
"Yeah, I get that." I answered.
"As he has agreed to work with the government he has access to all the tools he will require, as such it may be best for him to conduct the procedure there, I would have all of you hold control of the facility." Soundwave layed out the plan.
All the symbiotes agreed before everyone turned to me.
"I guess… I'll be… damage control or something?" I guessed.
"I do in fact have an… offering." Soundwave noted.
He opened two portals, essentially banishing himself to the shadow realm.
The symbiotes and I sort of just looked amongst each other before whipping our heads to look at the burst of light as Soundwave returned.
In the clutches of his tentacles he held something large behind him, not as large as he was, but still far larger than myself.
When he finally revealed it… I recognized it, not much of what it was but I had certainly seen it before.
It was a large cone tipped cylinder with large orange folds on its sides
"What is that?" DJ asked the question everyone but Soundwave was asking in their heads.
"Project Damocles… a threat to anyone, anywhere on the planet… with pinpoint accuracy at the flick of a switch" two voices came out of Soundwave's recording.
"Ok, but what is it actually?" Breakdance asked.
Soundwave called up a file on it, labeled a 'particle beam cannon.' it explained that it was mounted on a satellite…
"That's a satellite!?" I exclaimed.
"Affirmative." Soundwave answered.
"And you want me to… what pilot it?" I asked.
"No, I require you to operate it. The Symbiotes shall provide protection for you while you use the Damocles to halt any threats advance."
"What kind of threat are we talking about?" I asked slowly.
"Others of my kind, or of your kind." Soundwave answered.
"So… I'll be killing people?" I asked quietly.
"Not necessarily, the cannon emits a steady beam, if you so wish you may simply use it as a barrier, or to destroy their vehicles. The beam alone will intimidate most into halting. It is the former that I am the most cautious of." Soundwave answered.
"I…" I paused, "...ok." I finally decided after a moment.
Soundwave then reopened the portal and all of us went through.
Subwoofer and Reverb stayed near me, while the triplets grouped together with Soundwave.
We came out behind a column of stone near a military base.
Soundwave still held the Damocles and then transformed and flew up, leaving the rest of us down here. A few minutes later he returned without the Damocles and handed me a small USB stick, though it looked a lot like his bio/technology.
"So, which building is he in?" Breakdance asked before I could ask what the USB was for.
"Presumably a secure one, possibly close to the center?" Dubstep surmised
"Hanger E, alternatively Hanger F." Soundwave answered after examining some files.
Soundwave then began to march towards the base.
As long as I'd known him he'd never been blunt, always using the long, work-around method, he must be excited, or antsy I can't really decide.
The triplets followed him as he began to siege the base.
He fired his blaster at vehicles or large weapons while leaving the soldiers to the triplets and his tentacles.
I followed after him but stopped at the fence line, just beside the hole either he or the triplets had made, judging by how it was knocked down and not flattened or incinerated I believe it was the Triplets.
Subwoofer and Reverb stayed with me. Subwoofer sat beside me and Reverb perched under my arms which I had crossed over my chest, to ensure that I wouldn't accidentally touch the fence. I wasn't sure but I was worried the fence could be electrocuted.
Finally Soundwave and the other three made it to the Hanger. Soundwave turned and looked right at me, he seemed to hesitate a moment before ducking into the hanger.
I bit my lip as I watched a few fires raging from the path of destruction they'd caused. Do I go and risk being shot to get inside? Or do I wait out here for this 'Knockout' character to complete the procedure?
I pulled the USB out of my pocket and smudged my thumb on it as I turned my gaze upwards.
Due to the time of day I wasn't able to see any stars or satellites, but it was later in the day. Finally I turned to look at the hanger where Soundwave had gone into.
"Ok…" I muttered to myself
I pocketed the USB and prepared to run. Subwoofer abruptly shoved his snout between my legs and wriggled his way till I straddled his back.
"You want me to… ride you?" I asked.
He sort of just looked back at me.
I laughed to myself.
The Alien robotomized wolf wanted me to ride him through a government military base just to make it to the alien robot that was basically the universe's slenderman. Oh and I also held the tiny little stick of data that could command a giant death laser… I sighed/chuckled; no person would ever think of such a complicated set of circumstances.
With a gentle pat to his shoulder we were off. Reverb flew ahead and distracted the soldiers while Subwoofer got me to the hanger, I heard the rumbling of tanks rolling and instantly became afraid. Would they actually fire? Would they even notice that I was just a kid? Would they care?
I almost slipped off Subwoofer as he skidded to a stop and had to run around one of the tanks which had rolled right in front of us. I was basically being dragged beside Subwoofer. Finally I somehow planted my foot on something, a rock or another tank or something and managed to clumsily throw myself back onto Subwoofer's back.
Finally we made it to the hanger, though it was at the cost of my short-lived bravery.
I hopped off Subwoofer and walked on shaking legs to open the small human sized door.
Once it was open I was greeted by DJ, who let me, Subwoofer and Reverb inside.
I thanked him and went inside and collapsed against the stairs that led to a level further above.
"So you're Soundwave's little peasant?" a voice asked.
I turned abruptly and came face to face with a large white faced robot. The rest of his plates were red with some golden accents.
I waited for Soundwave to refute the label of 'peasant' but he was lying motionless on a large table in the middle of the hanger.
I looked back at the one I presumed to be Knockout.
"What's wrong? Did you take after your master and forget how to speak?"
I just scoffed at him before pulling myself up with the railing and walking up to the higher platform.
The rumbling of tanks and the whumping of helicopters could be heard beyond the walls of the hangar.
"Y'know, Soundwave did say that you are able to fend them off. If you could get on that, that'd be great." he quipped.
"He spoke to you?" I asked as I stopped a little more than halfway up the steps. It surprised me that the silent Soundwave would talk to him, especially someone who would probably know him from before his vow of silence was broken.
"No of course not, it's Soundwave. He had me playing Charades for 5 seconds too long before he just showed a picture of you with the tag of 'Very important ally'." he answered sarcastically as he turned his focus back to Soundwave.
"Did he tell you what operation he wanted done?" I asked as I continued my ascent up the stairs.
"He showed me a picture of four wheels. I got the idea."
Soundwave being simple? That was a surprise.
I got up to the main hub where I could look down on Knockout's work from a small bay window in the office.
There were quite a few large computers arranged in rows, something similar to what you'd see at mission control at NASA.
I sat down at one which had a good view of Soundwave and picked up the headphones that rested beside the computer. I purposefully refused to think about how the wearer of these headphones was probably dead now thanks to the three I'd named only a short while earlier.
I threw on the headphones and quickly started up the computer, it was password protected… something I should have realized.
I got up and checked each computer, each was password protected, I quickly ran through and started trying to break the passcode on each one. I started a cycle, going from the first computer in the first row to the last computer in the last row, 15 computers in all. I'd barely repeated half the cycle when a megahorn shouted.
"We have you surrounded, please exit the building with your hands raised above your head." the commander ordered.
"Y'know, on Cybertron, they would just rush in guns blazing no questions asked. This is just boring." Knockout quipped.
DJ stood at the door, looking up at me. Reverb hung from a light fixture in the middle of the hanger, Subwoofer had curled up in the middle of the computer room, Dubstep stood at the top of the stairs and Breakdance was down on the floor near Knockout and Soundwave each was waiting for me to tell them what to do.
Knockout turned to me and gave a smile that made him seem like he knew so much more than me.
"Last computer, the password is AOO1" he supplied.(1)
"And you didn't think to tell me that earlier!" I exclaimed as I ran to the computer in question. With 4 simple keystrokes I was in.
"Oh well I'm sorry, I was too busy reprogramming a living supercomputer."
I quickly plugged in the USB and opened the program.
I was given a satellite view of where the cannon was aiming. I quickly adjusted and then hesitated.
"You want me to press it?" Knockout asked dryly as he gave me an exhaustedly mocking look.
I fervently shook my head and pressed enter as I clamped my eyes shut. A moment later I heard a roar and a few explosions as the beam hit the tanks. I cringed at the yells of the soldiers, but my only solace was they sounded more like yells of shock and fear, then pain.
I cringed at the sounds, regardless of all the things I told myself to make myself believe that I wasn't hurting anyone.
I watched on the security cameras as more tanks approached, with a hesitant click of the enter key those were also rendered inoperable, the same yells echoed into the hanger and made me cringe back, this time a shudder was added.
"You ok soft skin?" Knockout asked offhandedly without taking his eyes off Soundwave.
I didn't answer, I just shook my head firmly and turned back to the computer.
The soldiers were hesitant to try the same strategy again.
Instead they had soldiers rush the door, In response I beamed down a giant crater right in front of the door. As before I heard the soldiers yells, but one echoed louder than the other… a scream… I froze as my eyes popped wide open. I stumbled away from the computer and went too far from the computer that the cord pulled the headphones off, both me and the headphones fell to the floor. My legs had gone weak and just collapsed beneath me. I sat wide eyed as the scream echoed in my head. I covered my ears to no avail, it was in my head. Clawing at my humanity. It hurt my heart, and my head. I bowed my head to my knees and whimpered. It came out as a pitiful one, not a pouty or cute one like Subwoofers. Pitiful as I was… it came out as a whimper and groan and wail all in one, a perfectly inhuman sound for an inhuman person.
Something then landed on my head. I kept my head down and ignored it, that is until it clamped itself around my ears.
I looked up and caught my reflection on the computer's screen. Reverb sat on my head with her wings pressed over my ears. In the reflection I saw her look down at the ground. I looked to where she was looking and saw her staring at the headphones on the ground.
A thin green beam shot out of her eyes, just like Skyquake had done in the video Soundwave showed me. It passed over the headphones and a moment later her parts were shifting about, a bit of my hair got caught in her plates which I had to painstakingly pull out.
But she helpfully blocked out all sounds and just played a small song, Let Me Down Slowly by Alec Benjamin.
I just let the tears slip out, it was that kind of silent cry some people had. Turns out I was one of them.
Knockout peered in the window at me curiously.
"Now normally if you were one of our own, we would need to call the medic over. Liquid leaking out of your optics just is not normal."
I sniffled and wiped my nose on my sleeve before getting up and moving back to the computer. I powered down the Damocles program and withdrew the USB. I made sure there wasn't any residual code from the program before going down the steps and just sitting there.
No soldiers bothered us anymore, but the symbiotes remained active incase. Knockout focused mostly on Soundwave and I just sat there thinking.
Suddenly Reverb stopped playing songs for me, cutting it off at Alan Walker's Faded. A short ping was what replaced the song.
I jerked to attention at the ping, thinking it was Soundwave using Morse code again. But a quick look at the operation table revealed that that was not the case. A small screen was moved in front of my face, it looked to be attached to an armature that resembled her legs. At the same time a small microphone appeared made of her ears. It was a full on headset… the only odd thing was that it was made of Reverb.
The headset reformed itself for a moment, placing the speakers on the outside while still covering my ears. The headphones flipped back around and the screen began projecting a map of the building. A few areas were fuzzy mostly where Knockout was working. There was one little red dot on the map however, it pulsed in sync with the ping. I stood up and started walking towards it, cautiously.
Suddenly Subwoofer was beside me, hunched low in a hunting stance, prowling forwards.
The two of us continued walking, with Reverb hitching a ride on my head. Soon, after turning down a few corridors we found a jail of sorts. Inside was only one inmate. But it was so dark in the cell I couldn't actually see anything. I looked at the screen and it displayed a grid, produced by Reverb's echolocation. In the far right corner was a large lump, however every other corner was empty. I picked up a small bolt and lightly threw it at the lump.
It pinged off the metal surface and rolled to a stop in the middle of the cell. The lump groaned and stretched revealing four limbs, it slowly got up and looked at us.
"Hi there." I greeted cautiously.
The four armed creature stuck out their front legs and stretched their back revealing a waving fluffy tail as they stuck their rear in the air.
After a short stretch they stood upright.
The figure slowly walked over to the bars and pressed up against them and dragged their side along them, making a clinking sound. That caught my attention as I realized it was metallic, similar to Subwoofer.
"Looks like you'll have a new pal." I commented looking at Subwoofer.
I turned to a console on the wall and tried hacking it. It was a bit harder than usual, maybe because it looked like something from Soundwave's kind.
Reverb's little display screen started labelling everything and explaining what it was. In another 30 minutes or so I managed to open it. In that time Subwoofer and the creature in the cell were examining each other. It almost sounded like the creature was laughing. I glanced over just as I put in the last entry to the console and watched as the bars slowly lowered into the floor.
The creature stood waiting, watching the bars as they lowered at an agonizingly slow pace.
Once they were still taller than I was, the creature leapt up and fit through the gap between the top of the bars and the ceiling, landing perfectly fine on the other side.
I jumped backwards from the sudden movement.
I stared up at the bars which were still roughly 6 feet high.
Subwoofer looked shocked, he literally just sat down and stared wide eyed at the creature. It looked a bit like him but it also shared similarities with a cat.
It started to walk circles around Subwoofer as he just kept looking at it.
"Ya got a crush there Subwoofer?" I laughed.
He whirled around me and gave me a meaning stare, an indignant "I do not" (full of denial)
I just laughed again as we followed his crush back to the main room.
"I see you released the little devilish vixen." Knockout commented.
"Vixen, you mean… she… is a fox?" I realized at the same time.
"Yep." Knockout answered.
He pat the table and the fox leapt up onto the table.
She seemed to then help the procedure, with her help Knockout had finished in another 5 minutes, claiming it would have been nearly 6 times as long without her help.
Soundwave slowly stood up from the massive table and gave a single nod to Knockout.
He looked down at the fox, almost in surprise. Even Knockout noticed.
"Are you alright?" he asked Soundwave.
Soundwave didn't answer, just continued staring at the fox.
"Was she one of yours?" I asked empathetically after a moment of hesitation.
"Undetermined." Soundwave answered.
I swear Knockout jumped nearly as high as the fox did earlier (of course to scale with him) before exclaiming "You can talk!?"
Soundwave turned and gave him a stare, a stare Knockout took as a 'tell no one' stare. because he promptly shut up and just accepted it.
Suddenly we all heard a familiar sound.
One of Soundwave's portals opened, but his screen was blank… he wasn't the one to open it.
(1) AOO1, refers to the Autobot base name; Autobot Outpost Omega One. once again this is none other than Raf's computer... I mean I guess Fowler and Bryce would also know the name of the base but Raf is more likely to set that as his password.