"Bumblebee? I thought you would have been in recharge by now. What's wrong?" Optimus asked worried about the youngling, she looked frightened and like the news she had was urgent. "Optimus, I screwed up big time" Bee answered out of breath...
"Tell me what happened" optimus asks Bee gently, trying to calm her down. He didn't like seeing bee upset and he had no idea what had happened...
"Long story can be saved for when we have time but Ratchet's gone, Megatron has him." Bee started, Optimus quickly became confused and on high alert, he signalled for her to continue wanting to know the whole story. "When I went to the park earlier, I ran into Soundwave. Then Knockout and Breakdown showed up! Soundwave got us away and that's how I came to be at the house. Soundwave is Harley, it's a weird thing don't question it. You know what happened after that. Anyway, Ratchet lied when he said it was a computer bug, he knew another Cybertronian was in the room and he called me out on it. Long story short I got upset and ran from base Ratchet followed with Soundwave or Harley at the time, we were a few miles at the lake, Arachnid showed up and Ratchet said go so I went and Soundwave and I knocked her out. Ratchet as there, he was standing where I left him, he was fine, I turned to cut Soundwave out of some webs and turned back and Ratchet was gone! I looked and we found a note saying that he would meet me back at base but it was not his writing, big give away Ratchet wouldn't have written it in English, Soundwave confirmed it was Megatrons writing. He's out in the car right now and I know that I'm in line for some sort of punishment but right now we need to get Ratchet back!" Bee was quick to explain but slow enough that Optimus would understand every word. She was petrified as to what he would say and he could see that on her face...
"Soundwave is in a car outside and ratchet was taken by megaton..." optimus asks Bee to make sure that he had it right...
"Yes" Bee confirmed, she couldn't read any emotion on his face as usual so she didn't know how much trouble she was actually in...
"Well... I suppose we should go talk to soundwave then" optimus says as he heads outside...
Bee quickly followed him, she was glad that for the time being he wasn't showing the disappointment or anger, but she knew she was in for it once they had Ratchet back. They walked in silence till they made it outside to the car...
Soundwave was sitting ON the car and didn't notice when they came out because he was focused on a program he calls the 'gods eyes' it could locate anyone on the planet but he couldn't find ratchet...
"HEY!" Bee shouted to grab his attention because it was obvious that he didn't notice them...
Soundwave jolted as he became aware of the world and his feeler shot out instinctively. He looked to bee and waited for her to talk...
Only she didn't she pointed subtly to Optimus who was standing next to her studying Soundwave. Optimus was surprised at the feeler but didn't say anything, he kept his face blank...
Soundwave waited for someone to talk as his feeler swayed back and forth. He had put his glasses on so optimus couldn't see his eyes...
"Soundwave, you would know more than either I or Bumblebee, do you have anything to go on to find Ratchet?" Optimus asked after he saw that neither Bee nor Soundwave were going to speak up. Optimus knew that his scout was too scared to talk anymore, he wasn't angry, yes, he was disappointed that she chose not to tell him, but he knew that she had a good reason for not telling him about Soundwave earlier. Optimus also guessed that that was the reason Ratchet had to chase her out of the base for in the first place...
Soundwave nodded but pointed to his vocalizer, reminding bee that he can't talk. He pulled up a hologram and pointed to a dot then typed "the dot is where I last got a lock on ratchet, about four miles from where we were"...
"Right, um he blew out his vocalizer earlier" Bee spoke up quietly for Optimus to understand why Soundwave wasn't talking. Optimus nodded at the new information, "How long ago did you lock onto his signal?" he asked hoping that they could find and retrieve Ratchet quickly, not only to get him away from Megatron but also so he could talk fully to him, Bee and Soundwave about everything that has happened...
Soundwave puts up 10 fingers saying 10 minutes ago...
"Bumblebee, start waking up the other autobots. I'll contact agent Fowler, we will plan our next move from there. Soundwave follow me to the main room in base, you can scan the building and run communications for us." Optimus ordered. Bee ran off as soon as she got the order, she headed straight for the hallway with everyone's rooms in it. Soundwave followed Optimus to the main room before he left to find Fowler and inform him of the situation...
Soundwave used his feeler to plug into the system and started to scan the building...
Bee made it to the hallway and went to the first door, 'Wheeljack' Bee thought 'Well at least he'll make enough noise to get the rest of them up.' She opened the door, knowing that Jackie never locks his door, and looked around the room. She found him passed out on his desk with his katannas not far from his hand. She figured he fell asleep while cleaning them. She walked over to him and started shaking his shoulder, "Jackie" she said quietly, she didn't want to scare him but once she realised that she wouldn't be able to wake him anytime soon, she took a few good steps away from him and yelled "WAKE UP JACKIE!". That did the trick he woke up with a fright and swung the katanna till it was pointing directly at Bee...
The three humans walked into the main room to fined I strange guy there...
In the main room:
"Hey man, are you one of the soldiers?" Jack asked cautiously, "Because you obviously didn't get the message, you're not allowed in here"...
In Sleeping quarters hallway:
Bee was unfazed by Jackie's sword, "Good you're awake!" Bee chirped happily. "What the pit femme?! I could've sliced you in two!" Jackie was freaked out and had adrenaline pumping from the fright. Bee shrugged, "I need your help waking the others and getting them to the main room" she said as she started to walk out of the room, "And I mean like right now Jackie!". With that Jackie went to Bulkhead's room to wake him up while Bee went to Smokescreen's room. Jackie took a long time to get Bulk awake while Bee managed to wake Smokescreen, Arcee and Ultra Magnus. They weren't happy about being woken up by Bee banging on their doors at 2 am in the morning but once she said it was urgent they forgave her. She led them to the main room, Arcee and Smoke bothering her with questions but she wouldn't answer, she didn't want to get in trouble with the team until it was absolutely necessary...
Soundwave jumped out of his skin. He hadn't realized they came in and he couldn't really reply so he stayed quiet...
Soundwave was saved by the rest of the bots coming in. "Raf, Jack, Miko, what are you guys doing here so late?" Bee asked, Miko obviously didn't recognise Soundwave. Before they could answer Bulkhead interrupted saying "Better question, what's Soundwave doing at our base?" Everyone froze, eyes directed on Soundwave watching for any movements he could make, but he just sat scanning the building like Optimus had said to do. Bee didn't want to say anything till Optimus came, because she knew that the autobots would start yelling and fighting and that was the last thing they needed if they wanted to get Ratchet back...
Miko suddenly hugged soundwave and soundwave gave a crackling scream from the unexpected contact and accidently unplugged from the main frame, feeler wrapping around Miko and handing her to bee. Not before she snagged his glasses though. "YOUR EYES ARE SO COOL!" Miko screamed in bee's arms as she handed her to bulkhead...
"Bumblebee, what is a Decepticon, reformed or not, doing here?" Ultra Magnus asked after Soundwave had turned back to the monitors to get the scan back up. "Um... I think that it would be best if Optimus explained when he gets here with Fowler" she said not looking at the group...
Speak of the devil and he shall appear! Optimus walked in talking to Fowler. He turned to his autobots and started speaking...
"Autobots we have a problem. Megatron has taken Ratchet and Soundwave is helping us find him. There will be no objections to it, Soundwave have you located his signal" Optimus had announced silencing all arguments before they began, he didn't mention anything about Bee being the main cause, he didn't want to 'dob' her in...
Soundwave looked sheepish and lifted his feeler to plug it back in. Wheeljack took it as a sign of attack and tackled him...
Bee went to stop them but Optimus stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder than saying "Wheeljack enough!" Wheeljack stopped pinning Soundwave and stood up...
Soundwave stood and connected his feeler to the main frame again and started rescanning...
Everyone stood waiting, the only sounds heard where the beeps coming from the computer...
the computer picked up a autobot signal inside the penthouse room. soundwave told optimus and they all got ready to go. when they got their soundwave hacked to security and they made their way up. they opened the door to see...
Nothing but a note...
and ratchets locator...
"Scrap" all bots present cursed in chorus...
"frag" was what the ex-con thought. he went over and picked up the note.
Dear Prime
if you want your medic back you need to hand over Soundwave
but hurry he doesn't have much time
M
Soundwave handed the note to Bee...
Bee handed the note to Optimus, it wasn't her decision for what would happen next...
Optimus had a choice to make but he won't make it alone. No one noticed soundwave walk outside and wait put there besides optimus. "Autobots it seems we have a decision to make. Do we hand over soundwave and get back ratchet, or do we stage our own rescue?" Optimus lets them vote...
"I say we hand him over!" Bulk shouted, "yeah! I mean it's not like the con's done anything for us! He's spied on us for eons!" Wheeljack backed up Bulkhead. "What about all the information he gave us?" Arcee added, the femme had seen how Bee was around Soundwave and knew that he was not a threat anymore... Arcee thought that he could become an ally in time. "It does seem as though Soundwave has changed his ways..." Ultra Magnus backed up the femme, "and it would seem that he has saved our young scout from the decepticon's on a number of occasions these past few months" he added, Bee had slunk to the back of the room, scouting it, she didn't hear any of the conversation...
Soundwave had listened to the first two arguments and then turned out. He decided to try and hand himself over for ratchet, considering that he owed him for not telling everyone that he was there. So, soundwave started searching for megaton on his scanners.
Optimus listened to his friend's discus what should happen with soundwave and had yet to hear Bumblebees thoughts on the matter... so he asked "Bee? What do you think we should do?"...
Bee perked up at her name being called, having found nothing that they could use to find Ratchet. Bee fought to show no emotion on her face although it was obvious that she didn't know what to answer with, all eyes were on her and it made her uncomfortable to say the least. She was going to say that she didn't know when she noticed the absence of said ex-con...
Soundwave entered the coffee shop across the street and sat down at the computer in the corner and covertly plugged in his feeler.
back in the penthouse Bee said her concerns "Wait where is said Mech?"...
The others looked confused at Bee's question at first, thinking that she was dodging the question, but when they looked around they noticed that the mech was indeed missing from the room. "Look the con turned tail" Wheeljack growled, "I'm sure there's a better answer than that Wheeljack" Arcee defended, "Oh yeah like what?" Bulk asked. It wasn't long before they were having a fight about what Soundwave did. Bee took the distraction from the fight to slip out of the room and the building, she knew Soundwave enough to