Oh and for anyone who wanted to know...Soundwave and Bumblebee are like 13 years old right now. I think there will be a time skip soon. Oh, and this chapter will mark the return of some of my drone OCs. Kenny (Vehicon), Bloodbath (Vehicon), Trips (Helicopter vehicon), Trapper (Truck vehicon), Blueshot (Tank vehicon) and Sonny (Jeticon) belong to me. And introducing my new OC vehicon Thomas who will be debuting in this story. He looks just like the regular vehicons but with a double-band visor.

Chapter 2: Determination

Bumblebee was awoken by the sounds of a door slamming shut. He groaned as he felt his head aching. He remembered being ambushed before he got to his house and getting punched twice knocking him out. He could see he was in a large room with the lights dimmed and he couldn't move his arms as they were strapped to a chair. His legs were also bound to the chair. He clawed at the chair and struggled to get loose but he was halted by the door opening. Two mechs came in with one pushing a cart with tools on top. Apparently they were going to torture him for information. But Bumblebee didn't know what info they wanted. He began to cry wanting to go home.

"Well, it looks like the kid is up!" One of the mechs smirked.

These guys were big and wearing very thick armor. The one pushing the cart wore knuckle braces that were already stained with energon. Bumblebee gulped as the cart was moved beside him.

"What did I do?" Bumblebee asked nervously.

"It's not what you did, it's what you're going to tell us." The first mech spoke again.

"What is it?" Bee asked.

A screen turned on the wall to Bee's left and it showed a picture of him and Soundwave walking. His optics went wide in fear.

"Do you know this mech very well?" The mech began the questions.

Bumblebee turned to the other mech who looked like he really wanted to use the braces. Bumblebee couldn't go against his best friend...this was wrong. But...he didn't want to get killed.

"Yes...yes I do." Bee sighed.

"Good, now then...tell us why he wears that visor...what's under it?" The mech leaned into Bee's face.

That's when Bumblebee scowled. He promised to keep it a secret.

"NO! I'm telling you." Bee sneered.

"Oh really? Well that's too bad!" The mech said before looking to his friend who nodded.

The mech got close to Bee and punched him hard in the face. Bumblebee yelped in pain as the braces made Bee's left optic swell up. The beater laughed.

"You gonna tell us now?" The mech asked.

"NO!"

The beater then punched him in the chest and energon spat out of Bee's mouth as his mouthguard slipped down. Bounty hunters never cared how old you were, if you didn't tell them what they wanted, they were going to hurt you.

"YOU BETTER TELL US!"

"NEVER! HE'S MY BEST FRIEND AND I'LL NEVER YOU! DO. YOUR. WORST." Bee dared them.

That really seemed to piss off the mechs as one of them grabbed a wrench off the table and smacked Bee twice in the helm with it. Then the other one splashed Bee with oil and energon. The whole time, the brutes laughed at Bee's torture but Bee still refused to talk. But he was in so much pain he thought he was going to die today.

"Still not going to talk?"

Bumblebee looked weakily up to the mech and said with a venomous tone...

"GET. FRAGGED!" Bumblebee said as drips of energon spat out of his mouth and right onto the interriagator.

"GGRRRRR! Alright then, I actually figured it would come to this. Keep him here while I go fetch our old buddy." The mech told his friend who nodded.

Bumblebee watched as the mech left leaving the knuckle braced mech with him. The mech chuckled before going behind Bumblebee and yanking on his doorwings. Bumblebee started to cry as he felt a burning sensation on his back.

"You're alone with me now, I got something planned for you." The mech sneered before taking the wrench again.

"DO WHATEVER YOU WANT TO ME! I'M NOT TELLING!" Bee snarled.

"Yeah I know, but tell me, how much do you value your optics?" The mech asked smacking the wrench in his hand.

"A lot, who wouldn't?" Bee said confused as his left optic twitched from the black bruise.

"He-he, you want to know what happend to one of my friends the last time they messed with a wrench?"

"What?"

"THIS!"

The mech stabbed the back end of the wrench into Bee's right eye damaging it. Static burst everywhere as Bee screamed and struggled against the chair.

"YEAH! SHOULD'VE TOLD US AND THIS COULD'VE BEEN AVOIDED!" The hunter laughed. "OH WAIT, I WOULD'VE DONE IT ANYWAY!"

Before the mech could continue the torture, the other hunter returned with an even larger mech. This mech had one eye and a gun for a left arm. Bumblebee looked at the mech the best he could and thought he was going to leak transmission fluid.

"This here is Shockwave. He'll get you to squeal!" The mech said as he and the other one left the room.

Shockwave walked menacingly towards Bumblebee who whimpered. He was too scared to really notice the pain of his optics. Shockwave was silent and seemed to be studying the damaged mech. Suddenly he sprung up his gun and powered it up. Bumblebee could see deep into the gun as the purple glow inside grew. Shockwave looked over at the image of Bee and Soundwave.

"Still not going to tell?" Shockwave asked.

"No..." Bee lowered his head.

Bumblebee expected to be offline as soon as he said that. But instead, Shockwave lowered the gun and sighed.

"I didn't think so...which is why I'm setting you free." Shockwave said releasing him.

"Wait what? I thought you were going to kill me." Bee asked as Shockwave helped him up.

"No, look even I have been curious as to who Soundwave really is. And even though at first I was going to kill both of you, I realized it wouldn't be the logical thing to do right now. What the others don't realize, is that I'm not only an assassin for this organization, I'm a spy. I'm part of a group of rebels sworn to help defeat our unreliable military. They despise these bounty hunters as well believing that after they gain control over the military commanders, they will also use the power for evil purposes. I will not let that happen. Plus...I believe you've suffered enough." Shockwave explained and looked at Bee's broken optic.

"Well thank you, I guess I should be getting home before these guys catch me." Bee said.

"No...you cannot return home. I was able to reach your parents and inform them that you are now under our care. With you here however, our organization has a risk of being compromised since we usually kill our victims. The others right now believe you are dead so...we will hide you with the rebels." Shockwave explained shutting off the camera with the image.

"WHAT? BUT...WHAT ABOUT SOUNDWAVE?" Bee said worried.

"Do not worry, I will see to it that he be protected as well. But it doesn't mean I won't find out his secret. I will investigate our research further and locate Soundwave. You just worry about yourself." Shockwave said as he escorted Bee to another room.

"Will I ever see him again?" Bumblebee asked.

"It's hard to say, with the planet divided between the countless higher officials and everyone else, laying low for awhile is the best option right now."

"What about you?"

"I plan on leaving to assist the resistance army in stopping our planet from battling others."

"And you're gonna kill Soundwave after you study him?"

"It depends...I may find him logically useful to me in this predicament."

"Don't hurt him, he's my best friend."

Shockwave just looked at Bee before escorting him out the back where a red and blue mech stood against the wall. The taller mech looked at Shockwave, then down at Bee.

"Optimus, I need you to take him to my old crew up in Crystal City." Shockwave said and gave Optimus 100 credits.

Optimus smirked and transformed before backing up to a trailer.

"A trailer? What for?" Bee asked.

"I got other stuff to send as well. Get in quickly before the others suspect." Shockwave said.

"Thank you, will they repair me?"

"You better hope so."

Shockwave placed more crates in the trailer and shut the door without another word before going to do research on Soundwave. Shockwave always forgot that Optimus could get very reckless at night. He would fall asleep to any soft music that played on the highways. A few minutes later, they were on the road heading for Crystal City. It was very late at night and Bumblebee attempted to tend to his wounds. He could only see static through his right optic. He missed Soundwave, what was he going to do without him? His other friends and his family would never see him again...at least for now. He could barely move anymore but at least he stopped leaking energon. This wasn't Soundwave's fault at all. He hoped he didn't feel bad and thought it was his fault.

"Poor Soundwave...hope to see you soon again buddy." Bee said before laying down and falling asleep.

Optimus was silent the whole time as he continued down the road. He didn't mind night trips, but he knew he could get sleepy fast. About an hour later, three vehicons and a silver car were racing down the interstate fast. One of them carried a little empty cart ready for the little prank they had in store. Vehicons were known to be pranksters and cause a lot of trouble. The vehicon named Kenny moved up front of Optimus and played some soothing music.

"It's bedtime!" Kenny sneered.

As the music played, Optimus began to snore and sway slowly across the lanes. Kenny's brother, Bloodbath, waited behind as the new vehicon, Thomas, pulled the cart up behind the trailer. Connected to the cart was a ramp for Bloodbath to use. Bloodbath gunned his engines and leaped onto Optimus' trailer with enough force to knock the trailer door open. The silver two-door car, Jazz, was in charge of collecting all the crates that slid out and tossed them into the cart Thomas had.

"Huh?" Jazz said seeing a body in the trailer.

Jazz sped up into the trailer and transformed to see Bumblebee asleep.

"So this is who Shockwave wanted us to find. He-he, but it's fun playing pranks on Optimus." Jazz snickered.

He picked up Bee and carried him out to Thomas.

"Put him in there too." Jazz said.

"Huh? Who's that?" Thomas sniffed.

"Someone we need to keep secret for now." Jazz said and transformed.

Thomas transformed and placed Bee carefully in the cart then transformed to catch up with the others. Jazz rolled up beside Kenny.

"Got the goods, I'm ghost!" Jazz sped off.

Kenny sped off as well. Thomas pulled up and purposely let out a sneeze to jolt Optimus up.

"ACHOOOO!" Thomas sneezed peeling away.

"WHOA!" Optimus jumped.

Bloodbath did a burnout and leaped off the trailer landing in front of Optimus and sped off.

"GOT YOU AGAIN OPTIMUS! STAY UP NEXT TIME!" Bloodbath laughed.

Optimus chuckled and rolled his optics. They got him with that same attempt many times before. He decided to head to a rest stop before returning back to Shockwave. Back in Kaon, Soundwave sat in his room still crying and holding Bee's tire.

"It's all my fault. I should have helped him home instead. I wasn't there for him." Soundwave cried. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?"

Soundwave punched his wall hard cracking it. He then took his mask and threw it on the ground luckily not breaking the glass. He sat on his bed and pressed his legs against his chest waiting for his feral side to take effect. When it did...he let out a loud growl.

"No one takes my best friend and gets away with it. They don't know what true power I have...but I'm not afraid to use it. I will find him, and when I do...they will pay, this whole planet will pay. Those dreams I have are true. I am the mech that will decide this planet's fate, I have the power of Unicron and the spark of Primus, I am the smartest and deadliest mech alive and I WILL PROVE IT." Soundwave vowed as he clenched his claws into tight fists.

Suddenly, there was a bang at his door. Soundwave curiously placed his mask back on and went downstairs to open the door. No one was there, only a picture taped to the door. He pulled it off and looked at it. It was the same picture of him and Bee that the bounty hunters had shown Bee when they tortured him. Soundwave was shocked...who took this? On the back, there was a little message that said...

"I know who you are...Soundwave...

To be continued...