"Wheeljack doesn't like Magnus huh?"
"Doesn't seem like it." Knock Out shrugged gently, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest, watching as Diana tore apart a tool Ratchet had given her, something he hoped she could repair for him.
"Well, Wheejack is a free spirit, and Magnus is, well. You know." she glanced up to Knock Out, then across the hangar to the Lieutenant they were discussing.
"He's got a pole up his ass."
Diana had to choke back a laugh, instead staring hard at the tool she was repairing, or at least hoped to repair... the Autobot's had fled with so little of their resources, she wanted to give Ratchet at least something to work with.
"Really, he's just sitting there, waiting for Optimus to poke it to make him dance."
"What, is that your expert medical opinion?" she laughed that time.
"Let's say yes, just to piss of him and Ratchet." he grinned down to her, wiggling his brows.
"You should really be nicer to Ratchet you know, he doesn't bug you as much, he just lets you do your thing."
Knock Out rolled his eyes.
"I mean it Knocks, he did save your life." she waggled a finger at him, grateful to be free of most of the remnants of her wounds, save the odd itch to the bones of her right arm.
"Yeah yeah." the mech sighed, waving off her scolding. "At least I don't prank him anymore."
Diana arched a brow, her questioning silence prompting him to continue.
"Well, I was just hiding his things. Moving stuff, nothing really bad."
"You're a jerk." Diana laughed, shaking her head and returning her attention to the tool.
"A fabulous jerk."
"Uh huh."
"Hey, Doc Knock!" Miko's voice drew both of their gazes, the girl jogging across the concrete towards them, Jack and Raf trailing along behind her.
"Mmm?" Knock Out refolded his arms, resting them over his chest.
"You know the Cons, where'd Shockwave find a dragon?" Miko halted beside Diana, giving a quick look to whatever the older woman was doing before looking back to Knock Out.
"Fossils, same as the ones we've been recovering." the mech replied.
"But from Cybertron, right?" Raf asked.
Knock Out nodded. "Shockwave wasn't a part of the exodus of the planet, some people thought he died, lab caved in around him or something. He's been alone with his toys for a very long time, it's not really surprising that he was able to clone the Predacon."
The four humans hummed thoughtfully as Knock Out spoke, Jack eventually speaking. "Well, there's lots of different kinds of Predacons, right? Guess he chose the biggest and baddest."
"I'll say, nothing makes you wet your pants faster than a giant, angry, metal dragon." Miko grinned. "I still think you guys should steal him, or at least you should have brought back one of the clones you found in his new lab, instead of blowing them up."
"I don't think you can just steal a Predacon Miko, it's not like a puppy." Diana smirked at the younger female.
"So we should've taken one of the baby ones! Trained it to be kick ass!" Miko grinned again, bouncing around and boxing the air.
"But then you'd have to feed it and take it for walks and clean up after it." Diana teased, earning a laugh from the boys.
"I'd call it Scrambles, the Death Dealer." Miko nodded, drawing another laugh from everyone.
No more was said though, as Optimus appeared, calling the Autobots to roll out.
Diana rapped her wrench against Knock Out's foot before he left, smiling up at him. "Have fun conquering dear, bring me back a skull."
"For you? Two skulls."
"Soundwave... you brought back... Soundwave?" Diana was standing with the other humans, all of them gawking at the Decepticon restrained in the Autobot's base. "Knocks, when I said bring me a skull, I was just bullshitting!"
Knock Out just grinned at her.
"Because we had the foresight to shield our new base, our captive will be unable to transmit his co-ordinates to the Decepticon warship." Ratchet spoke, elaborating for both his comrades and Soundwave, to make it clear for the flier that he was truly voiceless.
"Neither will they, in turn, be able to pin point his location." Optimus added, standing the closest to Soundwave, Ratchet at his side.
Wheeljack grinned from where he stood. "Guess we have all the time in the world to make mister personality tell us everything he knows."
"The Con's surveillance chief must know a lot, right?" Jack murmured, glancing between Diana, Miko, Raf and Fowler, all of them perched across the room on the catwalk, a safe distance away as Optimus had insisted.
"But, Soundwave doesn't speak... does he?" Miko asked, her hands on the railing and her eyes glued to the group across the room.
"I'm not sure he even has a face." Raf added, unable to hide his nervousness.
Diana smiled, setting a hand on the boys shoulder. "I could draw one on his faceplate with magic marker if that'd make you feel better?"
Raf grinned up at her, though he didn't reply as Optimus had begun speaking, apparently starting to question Soundwave.
"Why is Megatron stealing human technology?" the Prime queried. "What is he attempting to build."
The flier didn't speak, at least, not in his own voice. Instead he replayed Optimus' words, mixed up and garbled in a taunting recording.
"Whoa, Optimus Prime the remix!" Miko said, unable to keep herself from smirking.
Soundwave fell silent again, displaying a simple smiley face cartoon on his visor.
"Oh yeah?" Bulkhead grumbled, letting his right hand shift into his much loved wrecking mace. "What if I wipe that smile right off his face?"
Optimus sighed. "Soundwave, we have treated you fairly. For the sake of the natives of this planet, tell us what Megatron is attempting to build, before we are forced to rely upon less civil methods of interrogation."
Soundwave tensed a bit, a wave of data written in Cybertronian appearing on his visor, cycling rapidly across the screen, a second later the Decepticon emitted a loud and ear piercing noise, all those in the bunker staggering away and holding their hands over their ears.
Knock Out snorted a little bit, doing his best to hide his amusement. Typical of the flier, really.
"Scrap this!" Ratchet growled, surprising everyone by stepping forwards. "Soundwave is no ordinary Cybertronian, inside or out."
"My thoughts exactly..." Knock Out hummed towards Diana, the blonde frowning at his words.
Ratchet continued. "So I would strongly suggest opening him up so we can have a first hand look at the information recorded on his drives."
The other Autobot's exchanged a look, still a litle surprised at Ratchet's outburst.
Once more, Soundwave tensed up, data appearing on his visor again.
"Uh oh..." Arcee murmured.
"Alright, he's downloading data!" Bulkhead grinned.
"No, Soundwave is erasing data." Ratchet breathed, stunned that the Decepticon would be so willing to alter his own mind.
After a second the data vanished, Soundwave lifting his head and speaking. "Soundwave superior, Autobots, inferior." his voice was harsh, coarse as one's voice gets when they haven't spoke in days due to a cold or the like, it was enough to grate on everyone's ears as they listened in a shocked silence. Once he fell quiet, Soundwave fell back against the berth he was restrained on, visor flickering to black.
"Is he...?" Bulkhead asked, confusion evident on his face.
Ratchet lifted one arm, quickly scanning the flier. "His vital signs remain functional. It seems he has simply severed all communications by crashing his own drives." there was a stunned bitterness to his voice.
"Soundwave never does things the easy way, if he wants to keep you out of his head, he'll keep you out of his head." Knock Out said from his spot along the wall. "Sorry to say it but, he's the best for a reason."
Everyone had fallen quiet again, wandering off to do their own things whilst Ratchet and Knock Out poked at the dormant Decepticon, only when Agent Fowler returned from taking the children home did they regather in the central area of their base, the man relaying information on Decepticon activity at the South Pole.
Optimus had left with Arcee, Wheeljack, Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus, leaving the others behind on guard duty.
"Can't we throw a tarp over him?" Bulkhead sighed, looking to Soundwave. "He's creeping me out."
"Yeah, it's like he's watching no matter where you go!" Smokescreen added, waving his hands about in front of the tethered mech.
"I stand by my magic marker face idea." Diana nodded, now on the floor with the four bots.
"Will all of you stop focusing on what Soundwave can or cannot see, and help me figure out what he did not tell?" Ratchet shouted, making no effort to hide his annoyance over the situation.
"Hey, I'm working!" Knock Out called, gesturing to the data pad in his hands.
Ratchet only sighed at the red mech, continuing on. "Like why Megatron would be interested in something believed to generate enough power to create a black hole."
"Black holes, so Megatron's looking to swallow up the known universe?" Smokescreen asked, tossing a confused look to Ratchet.
"And everything in it." Bulkhead sighed.
"No no." Ratchet interrupted , his tone making it clear that the two were being absurd. "He would merely want to harness the power of something capable of swallowing worlds, in order to... create one..." he trailed off, his eyes widening as realization dawned on him. "Oh my."
Knock Out glanced up from his datapad, how brows lifted. "Oh shit..." he too seemed to share Ratchet's realization, leaving Diana, Smokescreen and Bulkhead utterly lost.
Diana frowned up at Ratchet, but didn't speak, only watched with the others as he moved over to one of his consoles to call Optimus. "Optimus, I know this hardly seems the time, but it may aid you in your task."
"Go ahead." Optimus' voice called back from the console.
"I believe that Megatron may be attempting to rebuild the Omega Lock... do we let him?" there was a sad, but hopeful, tone to his words.
"No, for you know as well as I, Megatron will use a reconstructed lock to cyberform both Cybertron and Earth. And that is one abuse of power that we cannot allow."
Ratchet gave a heavy sigh, his shoulders slumping. "Understood."
The four Cybertronians were quiet for a while, and Diana didn't dare to speak. She couldn't begin to understand how they felt without a home, and to have the means to repair it within their reach, well... it was bittersweet really, to know they refused the Omega Lock to spare her world. She would never be able to find the proper words given the situation.
"Ratchet, it may not be with the Forge or the Omega Lock, but we're gonna find a way to get out planet repaired." Smokescreen finally spoke, optimistic as always, Diana couldn't help but smile at him.
The sound of a door opening caused the five of them to glance back, Fowler returning from his office with a file in hand. Before anyone could speak though, shattering glass and a familiar whining noise caught everyone off guard, all of them jerking around to see Laserbeak smashing through a window.
"Oh no." Ratchet growled, ducking with the others as the minicon fired at them.
Diana barely noticed Knock Out move towards her, placing himself between her and the shots as she ducked behind a pillar, only when she peeked out did she notice he had moved to protect her.
"Shoot it!" Knock Out shouted, hurling his datapad at Laserbeak as the little thing freed it's master.
Smokescreen obliged in a second, leveling his arm and landing a hit on the tiny flier, sending a bit of it's wing flying to the floor.
It didn't seem to bother Laserbeak though, the little bot diving towards the Autobots before moving to settle into his place on Soundwave's chest, the mech jolting awake as contact was made.
Bulkhead, Smokescreen and Knock Out darted forwards, each of them bearing their preferred weapon.
Soundwave paid little notice to them, quickly knocking the three aside and stunning them with a surge from the ends of his tentacle like arms. Even Fowler, who had charged forwards bearing a fire extinguisher was batted away, leaving only Diana and Ratchet before the advancing Decepticon.
Ratchet did his best to move away from Soundwave, but the Con was quicker and had the Autobot on the ground in a moment.
Diana darted out from behind her hiding spot, finding nothing else to assault the mech, she pulled off one of her shoes and threw it at him, finding some small sense of satisfaction when it bounced off of Soundwave's head. "Hey, no face!"
Soundwave turned to her, but didn't move for her. He took a second to study her, this human, the strange little creature Knock Out had taken as his mate.
"What the hell is your problem?"
He didn't miss the slight gimp to her step, the remnants of her little altercation with Starscream. A slight tinge of respect formed for the human, that despite her last stand off with a Decepticon, one that left her broken, she would stand up to one again.
"I mean it, why are you following Megatron? You're the smartest Cybertronian I know, even with your freakish sense of loyalty, you have to see that Megatron's causing more harm than good!" she halted a good few yards from him, clever enough to keep her distance Soundwave noted. "Your home is destroyed, so many are lost, and you still blindly follow him to war, why?!"
Soundwave, surprisingly, didn't answer. Instead he activated the Autobot's ground bridge, taking hold of Ratchet's foot and beginning to haul him away. He paused when he felt the dull thud of Diana's other shoe hitting the back of his head.
Diana froze when Soundwave turned on her, shrieking as one of his tentacle arms snatched her by her leg and lifted her, depositing her against one of the steel beams crisscrossing the ceiling. She could only curse at the Con as he disappeared through the bridge, Ratchet in tow.