Sound and Fury
Daniel Witwicky likes his Uncle Chip. He has a cool job with computers, which is preferable to his parents job involving cars. Cars were cool, but computers let you play games.
What he doesn't like is when Uncle Chip tricks him into things.
"I don't even know her, we saw her once on a field trip and she was weird." Daniel huffed in the car. "And she's a girl."
That assessment earned a laugh from his dad.
"I know kiddo, but Sari Sumdac has been homeschooled her entire life. She deserves a chance to meet kids her age." His dad offered. "Huh, looks like the Autobots are here. Wonder why?"
"Dear." His mom said in the tone of voice she got when she somehow read Daniel's mind about his jumping off a roof to test if umbrellas made good parachutes.
"Hey, sixteen year old me would have loved meeting giant robots that turn into cars. You would have been the same miss 'car designer of the future'."
"… Guilty." Daniel's mom admits. "C'mon, there's Chip."
Daniel groaned.
Sari didn't speak to anyone besides greeting them, but she looked just as confused as Daniel felt. There was one autobot who kept mumbling about unnecessary security risks.
"Doctor Chase. Is this your family?" One of the Autobots came over.
"Elita. This is Spike Witwivky, my best friend since forever, his wife Carly, she designs cars, and their son and my godson, Daniel. This is Elita Prime, leader of the Autobots."
"Leader of my team, actually, Prime is a rank similar to that of Captain."
"Nice to meet you."
"I'm surprised to see you here, to be honest." His dad said.
"Sari invited us. We don't celebrate what you call birthdays, so it's an interesting cultural study." Elita explained.
"Hard to imagine humans are that interesting to you guys."
"You're something new for us. We've been comparing our calendar and your planet had dinosaurs back during our Great War. It's also fascinating how you adapt to things without built in armor or weapons."
Daniel lost interest and wandered away.
He wasn't interested in the party either he wasn't friends with any of the other kids, so he started climbing the jungle gym.
That's when he noticed a couple things, a car driving by with a purple symbol on it, and a huge monster like truck with the same purple symbol. The car drove away fast when one of the Autobots noticed it, but the huge truck was still parked.
Daniel stared at it for a while.
"Daniel! Time for cake!" His mother called.
Daniel looked away from the truck to respond, but when he turned back to look at the Truck it was gone.
Weird.
Daniel headed back to the group. The sooner he did the sooner he could play games on the computer.
Megatron needed to get a hold of the key in Sumdac's offspring's possession. The Soundwave toy should be able to steal the key and bring it to him, Megatron could manipulate it like the rest of Sumdac Systems technology. With that, he could use it to combine with Soundwave to make a new body.
Except things went wrong fast.
Soundwave started behaving erratically and worse, began resisting orders Megatron gave.
Somehow the key had given a spark to the toy along with its many upgrades.
The technology uprising was almost humorous, if Megatron had been able to actually lead it.
He needed a new body, this subterfuge was becoming annoying.
"I'm really sorry, Bulkhead." Sari apologized again as they left the utility tunnels.
"It's okay, Sari, you're a youngling. I was the oldest on the farm, I know how younglings get. It hurt, but I knew it wasn't gonna break our friendship."
"You have siblings?"
"Yeah. Not quite the same thing as organic siblings, but I looked after them." Bulkhead assured her. "I know I'm a little boring compared to Bumblebee."
"A little. But I still love you despite it."
"Let's get you home."
Sari held on, before thinking of something.
"Um, Bulkhead? Why did Soundwave have a decepticon symbol on him? How would he know about decepticons anyway?"
"I don't know, we better tell Prime."
Soundwave onlined again, the residual All Spark energy healing him enough to transform into a small doll after the organic and Bulkhead left.
He didn't understand what had gone wrong, why had superior technology sided with an organic?
What had Soundwave missed?
Soundwave escaped the utility tunnels and hesitated. Where did he go? The voice that had guided him was no more.
A car came up, stopping in front of Soundwave.
The door opened to reveal no organic inside.
"Query: Who are you?" Soundwave reached out in curiosity.
"Designation is Flamewar, you were the one controlling the earth tech?"
"I am Soundwave. I am Decepticon."
"How about that? I'm a decepticon too." She transformed for a moment before turning back to a car. "How about you hop in and tell me everything?"
Soundwave climbed up into the car. As she closed the door and started driving away, he began to explain what he knew.
"A voice was telling you what to do? Hmm, here, let's see if you recognize any of these."
Soundwave listened.
"FOR THE GLORY OF MEGATRON AND THE DECEPTICONS!"
"Negative." The voice was too loud.
"Anyone for servo salad?"
"Negative." It had a strange accent to it.
"I am sorry to report Megatron has fallen."
"Negative." The voice didn't actually sound sorry.
"He doesn't feel anything for you at all." The voice was chuckling.
"Negative."
"I will deal with this myself."
"Positive. Voice match confirmed." Soundwave announced.
"Well now. That's interesting." Flamewar noted. "He's supposed to be dead. He'd be after the All Spark if he was able. Hmm, looks like you and I need to find Megatron… or whoever is pretending to be him."
End Note: Something I realized, Soundwave just onlined and learned about the world through the internet (which is a quick way to madness, have you seen how humans treat each other for something simple, such having a different opinion on painting?) and Megatron (who is happy to commit mass murder to prove a point). Sari is eight and a bit of a spoiled brat. She's mostly spoiled sweet, but she does admit to using tears to get what she wants. She's not exactly a good role model for Soundwave either.
That said, Flamewar now has a hold of him.in animated, It's implied 'RC' is actually a unit designation for the equivalent of a kindergarten teacher.
(Though I imagine Flamewar would have been the type of teacher who drank on duty while Arcee was the one that got treats from her kids)
I put in the Witwicky family because I do like the idea of no matter the universe, some people are just meant to be friends, even if it's not quite the same. Daniel will be back.
Next up, the Dinobots arrive! And the chapter after that, Nemesis makes another appearance in a chapter that doesn't come from the show … technically.
I got inspired by the almanac.