Chapter Text
It was a quiet day on the deception ship the “Nemesis”, aside from the thumping of peds through the halls and the laughing of one cassette bot, Lazerbeak.
“Common Lazerbeak! give it back!” Soundwave chased his cassette bot around the ship, having lost his headband that morning, only to find that his bird was playing a game of keepaway.
“No way you're already getting tired!”
“Seriously?! I need to meet with Megaton in fifteen kliks, I need my headband back!”
Reaching the medical office of the ship, Knockout was walking down the hall, optics fixed on a pad he was holding, when he was almost run over by Lazerbeak, just barely ducking out of the way, before the white and blue mech sped by in hot pursuit.
“Soundwave! What-“
“Sorry Knockout!”
The chase continued as Lazerbeak dashed into a medical lab, a harsh turn that almost made Soundwave fall over sliding after him. Leaping over carts and tables, trying not to knock anything over, slowing pace near the fragile equipment.
Breakdown was in the next room, eating an energon cube at a small table when the chaos reached him.
“Breakdown! Grab him!”
The orange bot looked up to see the cassette bot speeding toward him. He stood up to grab him but the bird was too fast slipping through his digits.
“Sorry man!” He yelled as the smaller bot zoomed past him, a quiet groan escaping his voice box.
“Lazerbeak please! I only have ten kliks!”
“Oh please, it’s not like the big guy is gonna get mad if you're a few kliks late!” He pulled a u-turn back down the hall, “besides! We’re having fun right?”
“You're having fun!” The white bot huffed, his venting speeding up as he ducked under the red and black bot.
“I want my headband back!”
He dubbed back around taking a leap and tackling down his bird. Wrapping his arms firmly around his body and wings, before slowly standing up and reaching for his neon green headband. Releasing Lazerbeak as he tied the band around his helm.
“Fun killer”
Soundwave sighed “Maybe, but this meeting is important,” the two started walking back through the ship to the conference room.
“What’s it about anyway?” Lazerbeak rose to glide beside his caretaker.
Soundwave was about to answer, but stopped in his tracks.
“I’m not entirely sure.” He shrugged, “I just know that Megatron said it’s important.”
Continuing their walk, “knowing Megatron tho, it’s probably about a new strategy against the Autobots!”
“I just hope it’s not bad news” a new voice cut through the conversation, Arachnid began walking next to them.
“Yeah the last thing we need now is another moral drop.” Soundwave continued, putting his servos behind his head, longer strides in his steps.
The three of them reached the conference room, opening the doors. Megatron sat at the head of the long table, several others sat along the sides while Starscream stood to his right.
“You two are late,” Starscream said, “what’s the holdup?”
“Sorry, Lazerbeak decided to play a bit of a prank on our way here.” He sat down next to Shockwave, as said cassette perched on his shoulder plate, his partner’s optic shifting toward him. While Arachnid sat next to Breakdown.
“No matter, you are here now, that is all that matters at the moment.” Megatron spoke. “Let us begin.”
“As I’m sure you all are already aware, our energon reserves are at an all time low, the Autobots have ceased more of our mines than we can reclaim.”
As expected, the energy in the room plummeted, with sad faces all around the table.
“However, we may be on our way to counter this series of unfortunate events,” Starscream stepped forward, holding a small clicker in his servo.
The lights went dark and a hologram appeared in the centre of the table, as he pressed the button on top.
An image of a canister showed in the hologram.
“Shockwave, Knockout, if you would?”
“Of course.” Knockout stood with his lab partner, as the remote was tossed to shockwave.
“Feast your optics on… the future!”
Shockwave pressed the button again, and the image zoomed in until the canister was no longer visible but in its place was a string of chemicals and elements,
Shockwave began, “this is a line of components, that may prove to save our case,”
“Mechs and femme, we present to you synth-en!” Knockout spoke with enthusiasm, “the formula that might be the answer to all our problems. Fuel, ammunition and nutrients. synthetic energon!”
“Artificially created in our lab, this prototype is complete. No longer may we need to rely on our dwindling reserves or rapidly depleting natural mines.”
The room suddenly lit up with excited voices, a wave of hope lingering throughout their sparks.
Megatron began speaking, quieting the chatter.
“Though I know this is exciting, please remember that this is strictly theoretical, and it will take longer to find a more stable formula. However we have decided to test this batch of synth-en on our ground bridge, considering it may be dangerous to test on a living bot.”
The Mood in the room was lowered once again, but the hope still remained, the Decepticons still stood a chance at winning this war.
“And with that, this meeting is adjourned.” The bots started standing up to leave.”We will be performing the test immediately, so that we can begin on another formula as soon as possible.” Starscream announced as the group left the room.
“Please make your way down to engineering so the test can begin!”
Soundwave began speed walking down the hall to catch up with his partner.
“Shockwave! this is awesome!” He exclaimed, grabbing onto his arm, “a new source of energon? This is a revolutionary discovery!”
“Indeed, however it is illogical to celebrate at this premature time. This discovery was made by an anonymous scientist at a time before the war began, in ancient ages.”
Shockwave replied,
“It is a scientific miracle we were able to decipher the logs that are still intact. And even now it will be a long time before we can use it for any medical purposes or consumption.”
“Even so we’re still testing a prototype, that means there’s potential right?”
“Indeed, there still is hope.” Shockwave called a turbo lift to reach the ground bridge. Stepping in alongside the two others, they made their way down to engineering.
“This test is, in no way meant to advance our science, but to raise the morale on the ship. We are already aware of its effects, but Megatron wants to give our crew something to look forward to.”
That made sense, there was no way they would test this new energy source in front of the whole crew without making sure it was safe to view. This was likely one of their later tests, to show that they are still fighting for something, and to make everyone feel better.
They were silent as the lift reached its destination, and the two stepped out, Lazerbeak closely behind.
Some of the crew were already there, soundwave and Lazerbeak stopped in the crowd, while Shockwave made his way to the bridge controls, talking with Knockout.
After a few moments more of the crew arrived, all gathered in front of the bridge.
“Femmes and Mechs, please stand back!” Knockout called, and everyone took a step backwards.
Being one of the shortest in the crew, Soundwave stood on his ped tips, attempting to see better, startled by large servos grabbing his sides and pulling him up on Breakdown’s shoulders.
“Thanks, Breakdown.”
“No problem.”
He leaned over the larger mech's helm, making sure not to cover his optics, as Lazerbeak perched on his smaller shoulder.
“Now the moment you’ve all been waiting for,” knockout exclaimed, as he walked towards the fuel tank of the bridge, with a canister of a yellow-green liquid. He poured the synth-en into the tank, then walked back to the side of the room pulling down a pair of goggles, that were likely entirely for show, and gave a thumbs up to the other scientist.
Shockwave nodded and called out. “Brace yourselves.” He threw a switch and faint humming could be heard throughout the room, lights on the bridge sparking to life as a swirling vortex appeared inside the bridge frame.
Instead of the regular blue-green doorway they were all used to, the bridge was an orange-brown colour. Corresponding with the lights on its side.
There was also a slight pull to the gateway, one that was much stronger than usual.
The bots in the room all took a few more steps back to avoid its pull, one bumping into breakdown, sending him wobbling forward, just barely catching himself as Lazerbeak was sent flying, letting out a yelp as he was pulled closer to the bridge.
Not wanting his friend to get sucked in, Soundwave reached out to grab his talin, falling off Breakdown’s shoulders as he did.
“Shut it down!” Knockout shouted lifting his goggles from his optics.
Shockwave attempted to pull back the switch but the folkroom refused to budge.
“Negative, the bridge is malfunctioning.”
Just as the words left his voice box, a massive electric shock shot through his frame, making him release the controls. Recoiling back and grasping his servo.
The teal mech began to panic as he frantically yelled out “everyone got back! The bridge is unstable!”
Soundwave gripped Lazerbeak tighter as they were pulled closer to the ground bridge. After stumbling across the floor, he managed to get leverage on the ground, scraping his heels into it and bending his knees to lower his centre of gravity.
“Common soundwave, hold on,” he muttered to himself, sliding closer to the vortex.
A shout came from behind him, “Soundwave! Lazerbeak!” Megatron was reaching out to him, servo extended as far as it could reach. “Grab on to me!”
Lazerbeak and him shared a glance, signalling the bot should change into his alt mode. The sound of the birds plates and cables changing shape, normally loud, was drowned out by the wind currents pulling them in, and Soundwave almost lost his footing catching the smaller bot.
He pulled Lazerbeak closer to his chaises, opening up his chest plate to get the cassette bot inside, securing it closed as soon as he was in.
Soundwave then shifted his attention back to his leader, attempting to shift around and grab his servo. But the current was getting stronger, and staying upright was getting harder by the second.
Even still, he was able to turn himself around, locking optics with Megatron from behind his visor, and reaching out his servo to grab the other’s.
Suddenly a large box from the back of the room slid off its shelf and went heareling towards the small Deception’s helm, striking dead centre, causing him to power down.
Now with no leverage and a limp frame, nothing could stop the head of communications from flying into the ground bridge, followed by the crate.
Seeing his partner fall into the portal, Shockwave couldn’t stop himself from reaching out for the smaller bot, feeling himself falling into the current as well, though before he could reach the bridge, the current was cut off the vortex sealing with a blip of sparks.