CHAPTER 6

Soundwave was waiting patiently in the control room when Shadowstar entered. When he heard her come in her looked over at her with that impassive stare. She stopped when she saw him. For some reason he made her nervous. "Well hello there," she greeted him, forcing a smile, raising a hand and waving at him.

The cassette player looked at her with an expressionless face. She stopped. "What?" she asked. "Did I do something wrong? Megatron told me to find you. He said he wanted me to go with you when you did something."

Soundwave still said nothing. He turned from her and walked out of the room. She watched him go for a second. "What's with him?' she asked herself out loud before running after him. "Hey!" she shouted. "Wait for me!"

He had stopped to wait for her in the hall. She ran right into his back. Their bodies clanged together but only she was knocked off balance. She fell against the wall and then leaned against it for a moment, her body squated over as she rubbed her face. "Now that was just rude," she said, more to herself than him.

The Soundwave still did not acknowledge her with words. He turned around and stared at her until she was standing upright again. Then he turned and walked away. She quickly followed, not wanting to be left behind. Why do I get the feeling that he doesn't like me? she wondered, staying a few steps behind the other Decepticon. She frowned. How rude. He doesn't even know me and he doesn't like me. The least he could do was tell me instead of giving me this stony silence.

She didn't know yet that Soundwave was a Decepticon of few words. While most of the other robots liked to voice their opinions with loud and annoying dialoge Soundwave was the type that only spoke when necessary. He had always been that way. Unlike the other Decepticons, who would have told her right away how they felt about her, this one wouldn't. He didn't really think anything of her. She was just another soldier, another comrade in arms. Another Decepticon who would do anything she could to beat the Autobots and take over Cybertron. Why give her an opinion? It wasn't necessary.

She tried to get him to talk to her anyway, so not to just have silence reaching her sound receptors. "Could you at least tell me where we're going?" she asked.

She was given a one word answer. "France."

His voice was just as emotionless as his face. It sounded more robotic than any of the other robots she'd encountered so far. It made her feel uneasy. She'd once encountered a transformer like that a long time ago on Cybertron. She never knew what he was thinking. She soon found out he was sent to kill her, but, because of his voice, she never knew that. I hope he's not about to do the same thing, she thought.

She was so into her thoughts she wasn't aware that Soundwave had once again stopped in his tracks. She kept walking and smacked into him. She fell back, off balance, and this time landed on the floor on her rear. "Would you stop doing that!" she shouted at him.

He didn't even turn. She thought she heard a weird noise coming from him. Like a constant buzzing. She got to her feet again, her red optics locked onto his back. "What now?" she asked.

He spoke one word. "Autobots."

She stared at him. "Autobots?"

Without answering he took off running. "WAIT!" she called, running after him.

Jazz, Seapsray, and Powerglide did not know that Soundwave had sensed their presence and climbed into the Decepticon base through a hole Jazz had cut in the floor of the building. "All right," Jazz said once the three of them were inside. "Let's split up and look for that body." he pointed to his left. "I'll go down this hall and you two go down the other ones. If you run into trouble don't retaliate. You'll just bring more Decepticons if you do. Just run back here and get out of here."

The other two Autobots nodded. They understood but Powerglide pressed. "What if they start shooting, or block the way? What should we do then?"

"Then you can attack," Jazz replied. "But if you find the body before then take it with you and try to keep them from hitting it."

"All right," Powerglide said.

"We cool with it now?" the Porsche asked.

The other two nodded.

"Okay, let's find that Autobot."

They split up.

Rumble had found something to tease Skywarp about. He'd seen the way Skywarp acted around the femme and came to his own conclusions. He didn't know what Skywarp knew about her so he figured Skywarp probably had a crush on her. "What's wrong, Warpy?" the little robot asked, following Skywarp down the hall. "Do you have a crush on the female?"

"No!" Skywarp said, looking over his shoulder to glare down at the little cassette. "I don'thave a crush on her."

"You could have fooled me," Rumble said, shrugging. "You getting all flustered and nervous around her. If you don't have a crush on her why did you act like that?"

"It's none of your business!" the jet shouted, looking away from the smaller robot.

"How come?" the little 'bot pressed.

Skywarp growled to himself but didn't reply. For some reason he wanted to keep the knowlegde to himself. It just might be useful someday, not that he'd be smart enough to use it, but one never knew.

"How come!" Rumble persisted, hovering around Skywarp's legs like a little fly. "What aren't you telling me? If you don't have a crush on her why does she make your nervous? Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Go away!" Skywarp shouted, kicking out at the smaller robot.

His foot made contact with the other Decepticon. Rumble shot down the hall and smacked into the wall at the end. Skywarp waited, seeing if Rumble would get up or not. The little robots did, slowly.

"You're going to pay for that, you Maxi turkey!" he shouted, running back to the Seeker.

Skywarp got ready to kick the little robot again but never got the chance to. Something crashed into him from behind and fell he forward, off balance. Tripping over his own feet, he fell and landed right ontop of Rumble.

"Get off me!" the smaller robot shouted from under the Seeker's gray and black frame.

Skywarp pushed himself off the floor and looked over his shoulder. He saw the female Decepticon and Soundwave, who was standing as still as a statue, standing where he'd been standing seconds before. "What's the big idea?" he demanded, getting up and facing the two. "Why don't you watch where you're going?"

"I'm sorry," Shadowstar said, looking at him. "But Soundwave thought he sensed Autobots and-"

"Autobots?" the jet interrupted. "There are no Autobots here."

She shrugged. "Tell that to him." she pointed at Soundwave who still hadn't moved from his spot. He seemed to be concentrating on something.

Skywarp glared at Soundwave but said nothing. The tape deck probably wouldn't pay any attention to him anyway, if he had. Then again, Soundwave might listen to him but wouldn't even give him the satisfaction of an answer. "Weren't you two supposed to be going somewhere?" he asked instead, looking over at Shadowstar.

"Yes," she said. "But he wouldn't tell me that either. He gave me the silent treatment. I don't think he likes me very much."

"No, that's not it," Skywarp said. "Soundwave doesn't talk much."

"Oh." she looked at the tape deck. "I still think it's rude."

Skywarp didn't know what to say to that comment. He'd never thought much of Soundwave's silent nature. Of course he never thought much of Soundwave. They were never exactly friends.

Rumble had something to say about it though. "Soundwave isn't rude!" he said to her.

She looked down at him, her hands on her hips. "Well, he's rude to me," she said. "He won't even talk to me."

'Maybe you made him mad."

"How could I make him mad?" she questioned. "All I said to him was hello."

"Autobots," Soundwave said again, cutting off any further conversation..

The two jets and the tape looked at him. "Where?" Skywarp asked.

Soundwave pointed beyond the three other Decepticons. "There," he said in his emotionless voice.

"Huh?" the three others turned their heads in that general direction. They saw a black and white figure stealing down the hall, away from them. "It's Jazz!" Skywarp exclaimed, already in motion. "Let's get him!"

He didn't get too far because Rumble was still in the way. The Seeker tripped over the smaller transformer and crashed to the floor. "Watch where you're going!" Rumble shouted, getting off the floor. Skywarp had knocked him over when he'd tripped over him.

Soundwave and Shadowstar ran past them, pulling out their guns and shooting at the Autobot who disappeared around a corner.

"Let's split up," Shadowstar said to Soundwave. "Then we can box him in."

Soundwave nodded at her and the two went in different directions.

Shadowstar wasn't about to admit to anyone that she had purposely separated them. She had her own ways of dealing with Autobots, ways the others wouldn't understand and she didn't want them seeing it. She had a feeling one of them might already know, though she didn't know who it was.

It doesn't matter, she thought, grinning and showing off those fangs Megatron had noticed before. It won't matter much longer...

Jazz had gotten a glimpse of Shadowstar. He recognized her as the corpse the Seekers had flown off with earlier that day. He was surprised to see her online. There was nothing he could do about it, though. he couldn't even get near her.

He ran down the hall, trying to get in touch with the others. "Jazz to Powerglide," he said. "Can you read me?"

No answer.

"Slag!" he exclaimed.

Suddenly a figure barred his way. He stopped in his tracks and stared. It was her. The black and red jet. She was standing there, grinning at him, her fangs glistening in the light. Jazz had never seen a transformer with fangs before. "That's far enough, Autobot," she said, raising a gun. "You're not going anywhere."

"Whoa," he said, putting up his hands. "There's no need for that. I only came to help you."

"Help me?" she asked, putting a hand on her hip and leaning her weight on her other leg. "I don't need any help." she aimed her gun at his face. "Not from an Autobot!"

That's when he noticed the symbol on her wing. "You're a Decepticon?" he said, sounding surprised.

She smirked. "Surprised," she asked. "It's not like it's a big secret." she fired.

Jazz dodged the blast and pulled out his own gun. He pulled the trigger and an energy blast hit in her in the shoulder. "Gah!" she exclaimed, grabbing her damaged shoulder. She glared at him. "You will pay for that!" she screamed, jumping at him.

She landed on top of him and knocked him to the floor, their bodies making a loud clanging sound on impact.

A/N

I have writer's block. It might take me awhile to update this one again. I am very sorry.