It's been ages, but I finally managed to type it out and upload (short side of writing in a paper notepad - it's hard to make yourself sit and type it out).
Soo... Shockwave is still in the realm of memoires. The fateful turn is approaching.
Please comment, people! ^)
Soundwave was still out and Shockwave knew it was logical to get some down time as well, but he couldn't force himself to move away irrationally fearing that his partner would online the very moment he left her side.
'How long have you been sitting here?' - the question startled the tech and he onlined his optic to see Megatron with energon tubes in his servo. Shockwave checked his internal clock. Nearly ten orns - it didn't feel that long. He must have powered down, then. However, the mech before him had no need to know that.
'What are you doing here?' - he asked in response. Megatron shook the tubes with dull-blue stale recycled en they were fed. "You failed to show up for your energon this cycle, someone had to bring it". The steely mech turned his face to the recharge berth. "Will he ever online?" - he asked.
As if responding to the sound of his voice, the form on the berth stirred, uneasy at first, then swinging her wings around. Soundwave attempted to rise and gave out a horribly loud, audials-wrenching screech.
Shockwave was at her side in no time, all tiredness forgotten. "Helpmeholdemdown" - he spurred out, pinning his partner wings to the berth.
Soundwave thrashed around in panic, trying to speak up only to produce more excruciating sounds.
"Soundwave, calm down! Listen to me! You're safe! Can you hear me?!" Soundwave stopped moving. "Can you hear me? Just give me a sign" - Shockwave repeated.
Slowly, carefully, the flyer nodded.
"Your voice box is a wreck - I salvaged what I could. Optics smashed, no suitable parts to replace them. Offline them if you still haven't. I installed you a sonar system so you could navigate - can you feel it?"
The violet flyer lay perfectly still as Shockwave recited the damage she suffered. He gave her a pause to assess the new equipment. Finally Soundwave nodded and immediately all frequencies were filled with a sonic blast, so strong that it trew both mechs on the floor.
"Stop!" they cried out in unison. The torturing sound (if it indeed had been a sound) stopped.
"So, you found it. We should calibrate it later. I restored all the torn cabling on the drives that I discovered, but you should check the data for integrity. Anything feels off at the first scan?" Soundwave shook her head negative and he continued: "Your visor is now part of you. It is transparent enough for when we have suitable spare parts to restore your optics and you can use it as an external display. Do you feel it?"
This time the pause was longer. Finally the visor lit, blinked and got filled with running symbols - distorted first, but then quite readable... if only Shockwave knew those symbols.
Megatron moved to stand beside the tech as he too stared at the screen. He couldn't decipher those glyphs either. Finally, the screen cleared and an inscription in cybertronian appeared: "What happened?"
"You lost" - Shockwave stated simply.
"Megatron: Alive?"
Megatron chuckled "Takes more than that to scrap me". Soundwave recoiled from this sound, scurrying away until her back bumped into the wall. " MEGATRON HERE: WHY?!" - the visor read in big blinking glyphs. "I second the question" Shockwave said.
Megatron regarded the pair for a split click before saying: "The boss has no place for losers. You have a come back fight in six cycles. I have bet my spark on your ability to fix him and Soundwave winning that match. That makes three sparks at stake. Win, or he'll scrap us all" With that, he went out.
Calibrating the sonar was kin to interfacing. Spark chambers bared, they faced each other, connected through the deep hidden ports of initial factory load. It was a long process of assessing, adjusting and re-assessing again and neither spoke as they were working. Shockwave drafted a procedure and gave his partner access to his navigation systems retaining only a small part of his capacity so he could watch her spark pulse and turn. Something nearly imperceptible changed in her spark patterns, but Shockwave couldn't fully grasp it and probably it was just his weariness speaking.
Within a cycle Soundwave learned to navigate her way through the area resigned for arena slaves with ease. She was making quite a progress but fight in five cycles? Hardly. Shockwave allowed himself to power down only after he made sure she could handle her way.
When he onlined, his partner was idling nearby, data running up her visor, and again, he couldn't decipher what it said. The door slid aside and Megatron walked in. The mech just kept showing up without any logical reason for him to and the violet tech was immensely irritated by this fact. "Ready for another go?" the newcomer asked. Immediately the visor darkened. Soundwave nodded.
"Another go?" - Shockwave heard himself say.
"We train." - Megatron said in a way of explanation and Soundwave nodded again. "If he loses and dooms us all, it better not be for the lack of effort".
They went out, Shockwave invited himself along. He wasn't sure he believed the arena boss to issue the threat indeed - scrapping all three his leading players in the beginning of a season was highly illogical. Yet, there was always a chance of unknown factors at play as well as the boss abandon logics for the sake of his irrational rage.
Shockwave positioned himself on the same spot they occupied the last time and looking at Megatron and Soundwave slowly circle each other in the centre sent irrational chill of deja vue through his circuits. The fight was short.
"Too slow", - commented Megatron, reaching out to help Soundwave up. They started over again. And again.
Shockwave would wince if he could. With her reactions this slow, she wouldn't stand a chance even against a complete rookie.
When Megatron launched a new attack, Soundwave countered it with a loud screech that made the gladiator stumble. He would still crush into her, but she managed to sidestep at the last moment, and the steely jet crumbled to the ground, clasping his audials.
Shockwave felt pain too. He did the only logical thing then - offlined his audials; the piercing sound turned to disturbing vibration in his chassis then - unpleasant, but bearable.
Looked like Megatron figured that out too.
The steel gladiator got up and surged at his opponent, seizing the opening, as the violet flyer was now facing away. Shockwave was surprised to see lines of code run up his partner's visor. With a soft hum the arena cameras came to life and centered on the fight. Soundwave span out of Megatron's reach, barely avoiding his punch.
'Really?!' - he bellowed and pursued her. Shockwave kept his optics on cameras. They followed the steel mech's movement. Astonishing.
But Soundwave's reactions were still slower than needed. Megatron closed in on her and landed a blow to her shoulder. Shockwave couldn't really believe his optic: her feeler connected to Megatron's armor and shocked the attacker. Megaron fell to the ground, momentarily offline.
"Takes more than that to scrap me" - Soundwave used his own voice to taunt him.
In less than a click, though, Megatron rose to his peds. "Still not good enough" - he said, but there was little conviction to his voice.
Next few cycles were bizarre. Soundwave was struggling to control her seemingly new abilities. The piercing screeches she would give out from time to time alerted the whole arena. Some hotheads among the slaves even threatened to tear her voice box off. They would never dream of challenging Soundwave if not for the champion's injury. Shockwave didn't know what Megatron said to those hotheads, but that stopped quickly.
Shockwave didn't really care for the threats. Guards would never let the fighters spend energon on fights that brought boss no creds. He was more worried about his partner. Something changed in Soundwave. She didn't give off the same vibe as before. He could not explain it logically and that haunted him.
Whenever left to her own devices, Soundwave was running code through her visor and every time she realised she was being observed, she erased it.
This built in electroshock abilities as well. Shockwave called up the specifications for Soundwave that the arena boss showed him when she arrived. It hadn't been mentioned, of that he was sure. As her being a femme hadn't been mentioned as well. What else lay hidden in that chassis? Didnt' she trust him enough to tell him?
The last question was illogical. Why would she trust him with something he had no need to know? It was illogical that he felt hurt by this.
Finding out her secrets might be crucial to their survival. That was logical.
Shockwave wanted to question her, but - scrap! - he was barely catching any alone time with her now, and even when he did, she quickly drowned out any serious conversation he would start by initiating interface.
And that felt wrong too.
Before her comeback match the three of them holed up in the tech bay and the final weighting of the chances took an unexpected turn.
"Still too slow" - Megatron summarized his view.
"It is insignificant" - a stranger's voice sounded from Soundwave's vocaliser. It was creepy how she stole audio samples of others to express herself.
"Please, elaborate" - Shockwave said.
There was a pause, then the answer appeared on her visor - apparently, Soundwave failed to find a suitable audio record.
"Soundwave: long dead. We all: dead"
"Is that why you wanted me to scrap you?" - Megatron raised his voice.
"Why didn't you?" - this time it was a patched audio.
"That would be giving you what you wanted - hence, losing, and I do not lose" - Megatron stated.
For a moment Shockwave felt like he did not belong here, to his own tech bay - he had no part in this conversation, but then Soundwave erupted in screeching sounds and static and it startled them until they realised it was laughter. "You lost even before you entered this game, slave" - the phrase was pronounced in a powerful voice, clearly used to issue orders and hold speeches.
Shockwave never heard it before. And it was long before he would know whom it belonged to.