"Jetfire!"
"Jetstorm!"
"Come out!"
"I need to talk with you two!"
A singular voice cut through the forest, booming as each word was shouted from approximately half a mile away.
The voice sounded like Optimus Prime.
Two juvenile mechlings sat hunched over their knees - one blue, the other a stark orange, each with black accents. They had hidden themselves within the entrance of a cave, the towering curved rock-walls the only structures generous enough to hide something as large and reflective as a cybertronian. The native wildlife on planet Earth was much too small, and the tiny pointed pine forest offered little to no shade nor cover from sight. A mechling's leg was easily twice the width of a tree's trunk.
"Jetstorm!"
"Jetfire!"
The voice shouted again, closer and louder than the first time.
And now the voice sounded more like Ratchet, the Autobot Medic.
A flock of birds panicked from trees ahead. The two mechlings looked at each other - twins in all appearances but their visor-optics and contrasting colors.
"Ugh, why is Starscream so loud today?" whispered Jetfire, almost hissing as he spat out the words. His twin Jetstorm, typically called Storm, said not a word in turn - until a minute had passed. "Because that's not Starscream." He sneered at his brother, insinuating that he was stupid.
'Creeesh'
'Creeesh'
The foot steps of a giant mech vibrated against forest ground.
They both froze like petrol-rabbits, having little means of defending themselves if the situation came to blows.
'Creeesh'
'Creeesh'
A dark blue mech leg, encrusted with glowing navy accents stepped out of a pocket of brush, and the mechlings remained frozen in fear - they didn't have a battleplan simulated from their trainings regarding tackling this particular Decepticon-warrior.
And the mouth of the cave had trapped either of them from taking flight.
Not that flight would've given them much of an edge - Soundwave's winged claw-arms dug into the cavern ceiling and his strangely-thin bladed wings flickered with deadly intent.
"O-oh, h-hi...S-Soundwave, right?" Jetfire tried to sound casual, tried to project confidence as a metal shadow blocked the cave entrance, and their only exit. Soundwave loomed over the two with an irritated electromagnetic field, a common method of communicating emotions and expressions among cybertronians - and Soundwave was in a dire, cloudy mood if Jetfire read the stranger's EM field correctly.
"What brings you out here, to the middle of nowhere?" He sucked in every ounce of charisma he had, as if he and his brother weren't Autobots fighting for the other side - their connection to Starscream was unknown to everyone else - and had to stay that way. Soundwave could easily kill them and earn a win for the Decepticon-cause. Jetstorm on the other hand seemed to accept his death rather quickly, as he hugged his knees impossibly close and ducked his head against his chest - not wanting to see the killing-blow that would turn him into a pile of scrap.
"Please don't kill us!" Jetfire stood up suddenly, his servos in the air as the universal sign of surrender. Jetfire stepped backwards, slightly closer to his trembling brother, as if he had any hope of actually shielding Storm from harm.
"Please don't," he repeated.
And Soundwave cocked his massive visor to the side, an empty black screen running any number of malicious calculations underneath.
"Query: Why are Autobot-younglings out alone?" Asked Soundwave, for once in his actual voice, the question too specific to splice together an alternative sentence from his many mimicries of other voices, considering the time-constraints.
"Um, we just like to be alone sometimes and to talk." Jetfire honestly said. "Isn't that right Storm?" he shook his head as he glared down at his cowering brother, feeling second-hand embarrassment from his behavior. "Come on, at least get up and fight if he's gonna kill us!" he hissed.
"So just the bare minimum like always?" Storm scoffed.
"Yes, exactly!" And Jetfire kicked his brother in the head, a few times, enough for him to make a point, and a glaring dent. Still, Storm looked resigned to his fate, determined more than ever to cower, rolling over onto his back to stare at Soundwave, already visualizing himself as some gutted and skinned earth-mammal; or as a crushed earth-insect, but he couldn't decide which was worse.
But as the seconds ticked by, no one moved.
No one died.
Finally, Storm found his courage.
"So, are you going to kill us or not?" snarked Storm. "Because the anticipation alone is already killing me."
"Shut up Storm!" And Jetfire moved to kick his brother again, but then Soundwave took a menacing step closer... and they both froze up.
"Jetfire: Should not hit his brother." Said Soundwave, in a strangely soft tone, mimicking a human-mother.
"What! Why? So you can rip us apart longer?" And Storm stood up and spun around in a sudden flurry of wind, a whirlwind which launched him deeper into the cavern like a slingshot, leaving Jetfire to stare at a mocking dust cloud, as if to say, "You should've ran faster."
"You would leave me to die, wouldn't you." It wasn't a question, but a statement, a mere fact. Jetfire and his brother weren't as close as they pretended to be around the Autobots. They each had many brothers to spare - it wasn't as if one would be missed.
Soundwave was his problem now, his and his alone - Jetfire cursed his luck.
"Jetfire: Your brother mistakes me for Shockwave." And the blank visor flickered with a human-emoticon smile. Soundwave's EM field shifted into a more curious, harmless projection.
Jetfire grimaced, preferring his enemies to be predictable and hostile, not fake-friendly in the most unnerving of ways. And the reference to Shockwave...caught him off guard. He hadn't expected for Shockwave to reintroduce himself as alive to the Decepticons quite yet...
"Look can you p-pretty please, just pretend you didn't see us? We'll do the same for you, honest." Jetfire smiled nervously with all his sharp little teeth, akin to a vampire bat's. "Do we got a deal?" Bravely, his snaked a servo forward, his arm shaking and unable to hold steady.
Surprisingly, Soundwave seemed to consider the offer, swiveling his massive visor side to side, thinking.
"Declined: Jetfire comes with me."
Or perhaps, it was simply his sense of humor.
"W-what!?" Jetfire stuttered.
It all happened so quickly.
Two long arms ensnared Jetfire on both his sides, binding his arms and legs tight against his metal frame.
"Zzzzsssssssseeeeettttrrrr!"
He would've yelled, but a bright blue electrical discharge flared, frying his vocal cords and scrambling his senses.
At first Jetfire had thought the electricity had come from his brother - that he'd gotten over his coward's kick and returned to rescue him like out of some human-holofilm - as the ability to shoot lightning was a secretive one-percenter quirk of Storm's - an ability not even the Autobots knew about and had recorded in their logs; but as the arms of Soundwave reeled him in like a spider into a twisted hug he realized he'd been mistaken. Soundwave registered as two giant black cobras with fangs of thunder within Jetfire's confused image-compiler; and he was electrocuted again, and again - Soundwave's arms convulsed like slippery electric-eels.
Jetfire cursed his brother and his coward's spark.
Jetfire wanted to kick and scream, to pound a sharp crack into Soundwave's pristinely blank face.
The image of his terrified face reflected off of Soundwave's visor-screen, a grim black-mirror foretelling his future.
And then Jetfire flopped forward, limp.
"Comm to Vehicon #543: Soundwave requesting one-way groundbridge to sent coordinates, back to the Nemesis."
The violent teleporting reality-rip of the groundbridge was bright and swift - all Soundwave needed to do was to take a single step forward and he was already back on the Nemesis, clutching his hapless prey of Jetfire close.
"What is that!?" Megatron boomed from behind Soundwave, and Jetfire was almost dropped to the floor in surprise. Vehicon #543 had teleported Soundwave directly into Megatron's throne room...a complaint he swiftly noted into the Vehicon's newly created punishment-pending folder.
"Lord Megatron: I present the requested Autobot prisoner."
Megatron glared from atop his throne, half standing from surprise at Soundwave's abrupt entrance.
"Good work Soundwave! You are the one warrior I always trust to make up for Starscream's incompetence."
Though as Megatron looked the prisoner over, a mysterious orange-mechling; his good mood soured. He'd been hoping to get the blue one.
"Where's the other one?"
"Jetstorm: Will be retrieved. Query: Megatron only requested one prisoner? Resources are set to be spent for only one prisoner of war."
"No need, you are correct." Megatron waved a dismissed servo. "I remember how pragmatic you are Soundwave, that too is admirable." Soundwave's visor flashed a happy burst of yellow and he saluted Lord Megatron. "Plus, Jetstorm's distress over his missing brother will distract Autobot sensibilities - a missing mechling will cause Optimus Prime to lose recharge, I guarantee it." Megatron mused with sadistic-glee. "You didn't kill the blue one did you?"
"Negative: Jetstorm remains alive. Prisoner Jetfire: Will serve as the perfect bait to capture or to terminate a random Autobot."
"Exactly Soundwave! Be sure to put him in the prison-cell closest to Knock Out's Clinic. I suspect Shockwave will begin tinkering with him immediately, and I don't want him to die from something tame like a severed energon-line."
Soundwave simply nodded in response and he walked past Megatron, out of his throne room. As the entrance doors slid closed, Soundwave stopped walking and looked at Jetfire's limp frame up and down, with a twinge of regret. A sad emoticon flashed for but a second upon his visor, before he remembered his professional veneer.
Soundwave deposited Jetfire into the selected cell, with hallway entrances leading to the clinic and to Knock Out's personal quarters.
There was also an empty supply room Shockwave had been seen recharging in earlier...Soundwave was baffled as to why he didn't recharge in his assigned quarters and instead chose an uncomfortable corner...it was becoming a problem, almost suspicious behavior enough to bring up to Megatron...but not yet...
Regardless...Soundwave speculated that the mechling wouldn't last long upon the Nemesis. Shockwave's experiments tended to be merciless in the pursuit of hypotheticals... yet , Soundwave allowed himself to cultivate some hope that the mechling would survive. Cybertronian children were incredibly rare and Megatron had stated an interest "in raising an heir" out of either Jetfire or Jetstorm for that implicit reason. Unlike many bots, Soundwave liked to think himself "optimistic" about the future of the cybertronian-people, and so reasoned, that Megatron wouldn't allow a precious child to die when their species was so close to extinction...the child would be maimed... possibly ...but not killed...right?
Soundwave closed the cell-door, and checked various security functions; everything was typical for the area - save for the orange mechling yet to wake up.