All in all, it was a good day.
With the warm tiny, new cassette curled next to him and sleeping soundly, Soundwave reclined in the berth, energon in hand and ready to read Megatron's latest report. That is until the door slammed open, almost causing a table to fall over.
"I tried to stop him!" yelled Rumble as the mech under discussion growled threateningly. Rage emitted through the bond, as Ravage's sharp talons ripped against the metal floor in anger. Soundwave, use to Ravage's outbursts kept a calm and neutral field and spark pace. Ratbat whimpered in his arms, his ears twitching and Soundwave hoped that Ravage's tantrum would be quick.
YOU BROUGHT ANOTHER ONE! Screeched Ravage through the bond, his body contorting in anger. Soundwave winced in pain, his poor audials already suffering enough abuse from Ratbat.
"Stand down, Ravage. Ratbat: brother-"
He is not my brother, but a parasite! Ravage pointed a sharp claw to Soundwave's hand. He hurt you! Allow me to return the favor. Ravage mentally supplied Soundwave a picture of him tearing Ratbat's wings apart and Soundwave immediately deleted that, hoping it'd never see the light of day again. Ravage, who was for a long time, the only cassette in his rack, had grown possessive of the blue mech especially when other cassettes came in, so this was not unusual.
Soundwave didn't even move, but turned his head to the side. He smirked when he heard Ravage's frustrated roar. Well, at least he had effectively broken Ravage's habit of pouncing on him when he was angry. Noise could always be ignored, scratch marks, however, were not that easy.
Ravage paced fuming and growling something, however, Soundwave ignored the bond and muted his audials, hearing nothing.
"Ravage: behave or leave. Oldest cassette," Soundwave stated, forcing Ratbat's head closer to his glass case just to prove his point. "Set better example."
Ravage rolled his eyes and Soundwave unmuted the bond to see how he'd react.
Example, Soundwave? Ravage groaned in exasperation. That cassette is a deranged animal. Stupid and weak. He was trapped in a metal fence and is smaller than Rumble-
"Hey!" yelled Rumble, pointing at the black panther. "I am not that small."
Ravage just shoved him to the side and stalked closer to Soundwave. Soundwave watched him warily, but didn't move his position, maintaining a dominant posture. Although it would be unnoticeable to another mech's optic, Soundwave saw Ravage's ear twitch signifying discomfort. Ravage was used to people cowering when he stalked them, not calmness.
Soundwave stroked Ratbat's head, just to further enrage Ravage and nuzzled into the bat. "Ratbat, not deranged," Soundwave stated, amusement tingling the bond, infuriating Ravage even more. Sometimes Soundwave could not believe how easy it was to trigger his eldest. Soundwave moved his hand to Ratbat's mouth and Ravage's eyes widened in fear.
"Not biting," Soundwave pointed out, nuzzling his fingers dangerously close to the half open, fully fanged mouth. Instead, Ratbat nuzzled into him and to his surprise licked his fingers. This pleased Soundwave greatly and his field spread even more as he stroked the bat's tiny cheek. Of course, this was expected since he had, unknown to Ravage dipped his fingers in cool energon beforehand.
Ravage growled, more so to repair his slowly dwindling case, and Rumble fell over, laughing.
"Oh Primus," Rumble gasped. "I gotta call in Frenzy. Ravage is getting destroyed."
Ravage faked an attack on Rumble, causing the bot to fall over in fear of getting pounced on, before Ravage licked his claws pleased with the result.
Soundwave rolled his optics as Rumble yelled at his brother as he petted the small bat.
Well, he's injured, Ravage said, ignoring his brother. Will he be able to fly? Do not expect me to nurse him.
"Ravage's services: unnecessary. Lack of dexterity, lack of medical skill knowledge-"
Ravage flipped his head back, annoyed. You made your point! Just stop!
Soundwave leaned back. "Ravage has difficulty understanding directions."
Ravage's eyes flashed, his teeth gnashing, before he calmed down when he saw that Soundwave didn't even move a strut. Well you know what, Soundwave. He's yours I won't interfere at all. I won't bury him or whatever, but I will NOT like him. He's ugly.
Soundwave's hand dropped confused with the confession and some of it leaked through the bond, before he clamped down on it. Ravage, finally satisfied that he got a reaction, strutted out, pleased with himself.
Sounwave stared as the black feline slipped out of the room, trampling Rumble in the process, until he disappeared into the hallway. Well, this was good news indeed. If Ravage didn't interfere, he'd might finally have to stop explaining why his cassettes were scratched up, buried, or almost eaten by their brother. For once, one of his cassettes wouldn't have nightmares of their demonic sibling.
Soundwave leaned into the berth in relief. Finally, Ravage was learning, with just a little more tweaks to the feline, he'd be perfect. Soundwave patted the bat and Rumble got up, before he was tackled by a red cassette. Rumble hit the floor hard as the red cassette pounced on him.
"Frenzy, get off of me!" Rumble growled, before Frenzy accidently slapped him as he stumbled off of his twin.
Frenzy once he get off, held his stomach, gasping for air. "Boss… where is he…is he still alive. I just saw Ravage walk out with a pleased expression-"
"Ratbat: functional," Soundwave stated, moving his arms to reveal the tiny bat that had surprisingly been able to sleep through all of the ruckus. The cassette must've been exhausted because all he did was twitch his tiny nose and snuggle closer to Soundwave's frame, as if he didn't like the light.
Frenzy fell to his knees and the bond screamed of exasperation. "Another avion cassette? Why can't you find a cute bipedal one-preferably femme," pointed out Frenzy, nodding his head toward Soundwave.
Frenzy did a full circle, half sparkedly helping up his twin to standing. "...Well, at least he's cute."
He ran toward Soundwave, and the blue mech had no time to react before Frenzy had landed on Soundwave's lap, snuggling into the blue mech. Of course, thought Soundwave. Frenzy just wanted to suck up the comfort field Soundwave was emitting. Soundwave only did it when a cassette was distressed. However, the blue mech did notice that Frenzy refused to touch Ratbat. This needed to be rectified. Ratbat needed as much contact as possible to create a superior stable bond once Ratbat was well enough to sync up to the mech.
With one blue hand, Soundwave pushed Frenzy closer to the bat, ignoring the startled yelp, until Frenzy picking up on the bond, stopped struggling and grudgingly cuddled up to their new brother. Soundwave stared at Rumble, who almost happily, after all the abuse he had received crawled up their carrier and shoved himself in between Ratbat and Soundwave's glass frame.
Soundwave finally leaned back as he felt all three sparks eventually beat as one. He knew that his avion twins would come in two groons, after they finished scouting for energon, but he was curious to know their reactions. Frenzy suddenly yelped when he was engulfed in Ratbat's wings, disappearing under the purple wing, before pausing when their newest brother curled closer to him.
Yes, this had been a good day.
Please let it be a girl, please let it be a-
Sorry Lasterbeak, but it's a boy!
Lasberbeak almost fell off of her perch, which was the semi open door as she stared in exasperation at her twin brother who had as soon as entered the room flown over to their newest member. He had even roughly pushed aside Rumble and Frenzy who, only half awake, had swatted their older brother before snuggling into their carrier, to see the bat cassette.
It's ugly, sniffed Buzzsaw before he flew off to sit on top of a bookshelf of datapads. Laserbeak who had hid her head in her wing, mourning the fact that she would not have a sister, perked up before she flew to Soundwave's shoulder and with one claw moved the bat so that she could see his face.
Well, I think he's cute.
He's ugly and I'm older so I win.
Laserbeak flapped her wings in exasperation. Just by one minute! She pointed out in annoyance.
Soundwave, however, ignored their argument and stared at his avion twins, noticing their dim lighted optics. The sun had gone down hours ago. Concluding that his cassettes required much needed recharge, he, with one hand motioned Buzzsaw and Laserbeak over to him. Buzzsaw went to transform to cassette mode, before Soundwave shook his head.
"Ratbat: requires stabilization. Solution: closer proximity to Ratbat necessary." Laserbeak, as obedient as ever and who prefered to sleep outside of Soundwave hopped right into her master's lap, while Buzzsaw grudgingly flew over putting as much distance to the newest cassette as possible.
Soundwave who hated disobedience, forcefully moved Buzzsaw to their newest member, ignoring the simpering hate Buzzsaw transmitted through the bond. He leaned back, curling around his sleeping cassettes and powered down his optics.
This was nice, he thought. Staring at his sleeping creations...and newest acquisition. What would be better would be for Ravage to be in the pile, too, curling around the cassettes on the other side, but he would deal with his feisty panther later. Soundwave refused to recharge until he felt all four cassettes sparkbeats slow down, until they were nearly identical. He pulled Ratbat closer and powered down.