Skywarp Started It.

I wrote this for a friend who wanted to know what had happened to Soundwave, before, Chapter 2 is the original story.

Soundwave went about his daily activities, until he noticed that it was oddly quiet. Ravage and Laserbeak were within him, and Buzzsaw was out scouting. Rumble and Frenzy had been in his quarters. He instituted his telepathic link to them. The two cassettes assured him of their location, so he went back to his duty.

The next day went the same inharmonious way, only this day started with a fusion blast. Starscream had denounced Megatron's newest plans, thus resulting in Starscream being sent to the repair bay, and Megatron stomping furiously to his office. Thundercracker was at a monitoring station next to Soundwave. All still seemed too quiet; Skywarp was the only one who had not been scheduled any duty at the time. Again Soundwave checked on his cassettes using his telepathy. Naturally they responded all was fine. Something caught his notice, they had not responded from his quarters.

“Computer locate Rumble and Frenzy.” He called.

“Rumble and Frenzy located, at section 2, area 2, corridor 1.” The computer voice announced.

Soundwave’s circuits buzzed. ‘What were they doing out side Starscream's quarters?’ He wondered.

“Computer locate Skywarp.” Soundwave commanded.

“Skywarp located. Location Commander Starscream’s quarters.” The computer answered.

“I bet ‘Warp is up to another one of his pranks.” Thundercracker added.

Soundwave continued his duties; what ever happened between the seekers was none of his business. He kept an optic on the two cassettes, which never entered the Air Commander’s quarters.

Two days later just as Thundercracker had predicted Starscream was slightly injured, by a prank that blew up by accident. Soundwave warned the cassettes to stay away from Skywarp. Normally the seekers had an affixation with harassing the smaller ‘cons, but Skywarp had taken an unlikely interest in Rumble and his brother Frenzy.

The odd quiet lasted two more days, and then Thundercracker had an ice-cold bucket of water dumped on him as he entered his quarters. Soundwave had insisted that Rumble and Frenzy clean the water up.

The quietness ensued again. Something had disturbed him from his recharge. Soundwave listened to Rumble and Frenzy argue over energon that Skywarp had given then the previous day.

“Well it didn’t taste bad. And you drank it too.” Frenzy said.

“Ya well you drank more of it! And stop yelling my head hurts.”

“It was your idea to go with Skywarp and get in on his pranks.”

It was fun. That one the Screamer broke was the best. I don’t remember you telling Skywarp No!” Rumble became defiant.

“I thought that we could keep a better optic in ‘im if we were with ‘im.”

Soundwave lit his optics and sat up. The world seemed to turn inside out, then settled down slightly wavering. He tried to do a system diagnostic, but everything was running in slow motion. Finally his systems started reporting in his visor.

Main fuel source: Tainted. Unknown contaminate, all systems affected.

Source: Ingestion from discharge from cassettes Rumble and Frenzy.

Systems functioning at 25 normal speed.

Malfunction: Unable to isolate contaminate from fuel.

Analysis: Contaminate dilution required.

Estimated time to dilution: complete 120 earth hours.

Soundwave sat on his recharge bed, the situation slowly becoming clear. He was over energized, with a foreign substance that he was unable to expectorate. He would be this way for nearly a week. He stood up weakly, trying to keep his footing.

He staggered in between Rumble and Frenzy to the door. The two cassettes where awe struck. Never in their lives had they seen Soundwave act anything but cool, calm, and composed. Absent-mindedly they followed Soundwave, which walked directly to Megatron's office. The two cassettes listened at the door, hearing nothing. Then suddenly both jumped as the door slid open and Megatron came out.

“Computer. Open a link to Skywarp.” Megatron commanded.

“Internal comlink open.” The voice responded.

“Skywarp here sir.” The jet spoke.

“You are to clean this base from top to bottom. You will have no other duty until it is finished. Is that understood?”

“Yes Megatron.” Skywarp’s voice had lost its luster.

Megatron manually cut the link at the console, he started to storm back to his office, when he caught a glimpse of the two cassettes. He stopped just short of them. “Do no think that you two are free of this incident. I have not contemplated a proper punishment, yet.” He growled.

Rumble and Frenzy took their queue and returned to Soundwave’s quarters.

Megatron continued to his office, he was pissed. Not only had this little prank affected Soundwave, his friend, but also it had pushed his plans back. He would now have to wait for Soundwave to recover, before the next mission.

Soundwave decided that this would not stop his base from functioning. After meeting with Megatron, his balance had been slightly better. He was now able to walk short distances with out swaying. He sat at the communications console and began to work. Slowly he noticed that what would have taken a few hours, had taken him the better part of the day. He was frustrated. His thought process was a very cloudy mist that he was unable to lift. His usual stark clarity of thought gone. He got up, and slowly walked to his quarters.

The next morning Soundwave’s processor had started to clear. His balance was now at 75, though all his motions were still very slow. It was during this time that he started working on a plan. Megatron had insisted Skywarp work, but this time it was not enough. Soundwave had always turned away from the petty pranks of the purple jet, because they had never been focused on him directly. Ravage had recorded Skywarp explaining the whole plan to Thundercracker that the stating whole thing had centered on pulling a prank on Soundwave. Thundercracker warned Skywarp not to mess with Soundwave, but the damage had been done.

Through his daily activities the thought kept creeping in to his slow processor. It would have to be something easy, but that about how far he got before the haze settled and his thoughts were more on concentrating on his tasks.

By the third day his processor had recovered, and his clarity of thought returned. His movements were still not at peak, but had begun to show their fluidity again. He had been keeping an optic on his self-diagnostics, in four-hour increments, as the contamination level dropped below 50. He felt relieved as he began to feel like himself. It was then that he formulated his plan.

Contamination levels had dropped to 35 on day four, but Soundwave was not caring. He was hurting all over and the pain kept him in his quarters. It also made him determined to get back at Skywarp.

Skywarp had finished cleaning and had gone to talk to Thundercracker.

“I don’t believe that Soundwave is still affected by that energon.”

“You know ‘Warp, I wouldn’t be so happy if I were you.” Thundercracker answered.

“What’s he going to do? Send those midgets after me? He already told Megatron, and I just finished that.” Skywarp scoffed.

“Just remember, Screamer is used to your jokes. Soundwave is not.”

“Speaking of the Air Commander. I got a good one for him!”

The voices faded as Frenzy crept back through the air duct. He reported to Soundwave, who only strengthened his resolve.

To Low Down Dirty Tricks

Fanfiction!