"Optimus?"

"What is it old friend?"

"We have an incoming call," Ratchet paused, his optics flickering towards where Soundwave was sitting, "From the Decepticon warlord," silence filled the base and wide optics and eyes looked at Optimus Prime. Only Soundwave seemed unfazed by this whole ordeal. Laserbeak fluttered over and sat on Ratchet's shoulders. He squared his shoulders and moved his head accordingly so she could have space to sit. Optimus Prime made optic contact with everyone and pressed the button.

"Ahhhhh," Megatron said with a dangerous smirk, "Optimus. Long time no see. How's my TIC doing?" his blood red optics flicked over to the right, "Ahh Soundwave. I see you have leaked out the coordinates of our energon mines," Soundwave remained still, "Looks like the Autobots have corrupted your mind, we need to get you home,"

"Ay watch it buckethead," Laserbeak snarked from Ratchet's shoulder. Megatron raised an optic ridge and let out a shallow laugh.

"Laserbeak," he said in a menacing way, "Looks like you have come out of your little shell," Laserbeak growled. Soundwave placed a warning servo on Laserbeak's shoulder and took a step forwards into the middle. Megatron raised an optic ridge.

"Have anything to say you soundless mute," he growled. Laserbeak narrowed her eyes dangerously. Soundwave took a silent deep breathe.

"Megatron," she replied using various sound clips," Go - home…. Begone," Megatron let out a dark chuckle.

"Not so fast Soundwave," his camion optics flickered, "If I remembered correctly, I was the one who bested you in the Pits eons ago. I have spared your life and this is how you repay me!" Soundwave fought the urge to step back and remained stoically silent.

"What do you want Megatron," Optimus Prime said, narrowing his optics.

"Oh nothing Optimus," Megatron said eyeing Soundwave, "Nothing at all," and with that, he cut the connection, allowing the screen to fizzle back into black.

"That darn sucker," Laserbeak said, growling as she hopped over to Soundwave's shoulder, "Should've rusted in the Pits," Soundwave said nothing as she silently returned to her spot on the crate, staring out the hangar door. Everyone resumed to their tasks silently. The kids plomped down on the couch and sat in silence as their guardians did routine maintenance of the base. Ratchet and Optimus Prime looked over at Soundwave with soft optics as she stared longingly out the door.

"Wanna grab some grub with me?" Jack asked his fellow friends. Miko's eyes brightened.

"Great idea! I was thinking of some fried chicken!"

"And milkshakes!" Raf added.

"Let's go see what they have first and then we can decide," Jack said rolling his eyes playfully. The kids practically hopped out the hangar chattering rapidly about the latest music release and which milkshake tastes better. Right after they left, the alarms started beeping loudly.

"We got Cons!" Ratchets shouted, "Looks like they are excavating in what the humans call a National Park Reserve,"

"Sounds like something important," Bulkhead commented.

"And it is," Optimus Prime as he slide on his battle mask. Ratchet quickly fired up the groundbridge.

"Autobots! Roll out!" everybot left the base except for Soundwave and Wheeljack who silently watched them leave. Ratchet got back to typing on his computer, grumbling about human technology.

"Wheeljack!"

"Wasup sunshine," Wheeljack said cockily.

"Don't call me that!" Ratchet grumbled, throwing a wrench at Wheeljack's head. He ducked but it ricocheted of the wall and hit him on the back of his helm.

"Hahahaha!" Laserbeak laughed quite loudly, "Karma glitch!"

"Go to the back and run routine maintenance on the radiators and generators outside," Ratchet barked his order. Wheeljack muttered something incoherent before trudging outside. Ratchet grumbled something about Wreckers and hard helm as he got back to his work on the computers. From what Soundwave could see, error tabs kept popping on his screen as he tried to eliminate them one by one. The tabs kept popping up consistently as he eliminated them one by one. Suddenly, the computer went on overdrive and tabs took over the screen and blacked out. Ratchet slammed his servos on the keyboard.

"Blasted Earth tech!" Laserbeak rolled her optics and flew over.

"Scootch over doc," she snarked, "Let the master do the work," Ratchet arched his optic ridges.

"You? A master?"

"Yes me," Laserbeak gave Ratchet a look, "Who else?"

"As if," Ratchet scoffed. Laserbeak narrowed her optics.

"Watch and learn old mech," Laserbeak paid no mind to Ratchet's indignant scoff. She quickly opened up the console and short circuited the computer. It turned on with a flash with all of the error tabs still present. She quickly typed somethings on the keyboard, eliminated the tabs quicker than Ratchet could've done. She quickly brought the computer back to normal and spun around with her servos on her hips and smirked. Ratchet stood with his mouth agape.

"H-how?"

"Skills bro," as soon as she said that, all the error tabs appeared back on again and the computer promptly shut down. Ratchet let out a small smirk.

"You're the master heh?"

"What do you mean?" she said frowning.

"Look behind you," Laserbeak turned around to find that all of her hard work was gone. Her jaw fell.

"What! It was right there a moment ago!"

"Tough luck kiddo," Ratchet shrugged with an innocent look on his face. Laserbeak gave Ratchet a look. Soundwave quickly snapped a picture and saved it into her memory banks. Laserbeak was never going to hear the end of this. Soundwave debated silently in her helm as she watched Ratchet and Laserbeak work together to solve the computer crisis. She finally let out a small sigh. It was the least she could do to repay Ratchet's kindness towards her lifelong friend. She quietly stood up and walked over. Laserbeak's optics lit up as soon as she saw her.

"Soundwave's gonna help us!" Ratchet looked up from underneath the computer console.

"What?"

"I said, Soundwave is going to help us," Laserbeak said dragging each syllable out. Ratchet rolled his eyes.

"Last time I checked, I'm not deaf,"

"You make it seem like you are," Soundwave rolled her eyes as she detached her tentacles and plugged them into the computer. She quickly rebooted the computer and worked her way through the lines of code as they ran through her helm. She spotted the virus along a line of code deactivated it, mending and adjusting the line of code around. It was a repetitive virus, bound to show up one day or another as the human's computers are too primitive for cybertronian vast and advanced technology. It would redo whatever you did to the computer whether it was eliminating all the error tabs or entering data if you didn't backed it up to another computer. Luckily, Ratchet did just that. It wasn't supposed to be a virus in the first place, it was just supposed to rerun the lines of cybertronian code so the computer could comprehend and carry out the function. Apparently, the function backfired. She detached her tentacles from the computer and the screen fizzled back to life. And they stayed on. Ratchet looked at Soundwave in surprise.

"Bossbot to the rescue!" Laserbeak said, pumping her fists up in the air. Soundwave remained still as stone before returning to her crate. She felt Ratchet's line of vision hit her back as she sat down and faced the hangar door. She fought the urge to sigh and slouch down.

Laserbeak and Ratchet continued running maintenance over the systems, bantering and arguing along the way with their loud comments overtaking each other. Soundwave decided to redirect her focus onto their childish get-to-know each other more moment. She has to admit, she wasn't expecting Ratchet to be this good with handling what the human called children. HIs reputation throughout the war was flying wrenches and aft kicking comments, not what she was seeing. She careful snap photos of those two, even recorded short videos where she felt was needed. That was all going into what the humans called a scrapbook, except, this is a digital scrapbook that not even Laserbeak knew of. Suddenly, Optimus Prime's urgent voice rang through the speakers.

"Ratchet!"

"What is it Optimus?" he asked as he ran towards the computers, ready to fire up the groundbridge.

"We need backup!" you could hear shots being fired a the swoosh of his duo blades. Ratchet tried to comm Wheeljack back but with no avail. He cursed loudly and tried to find a solution.

"We could go," Laserbeak offered. Ratchet looked at her in surprise.

"What?"

"Me and Soundwave could offer some backup," Laserbeak said looking pointedly at Soundwave.

/What!/ Soundwave yelled through the bond.

/Yeah we're going! We need to help them! They've done so much for us!/

/We can't face Megatron!/

/Who said we're going to face Megatron! We're just gonna zoom around and offer some support here and there, you know, taking out the trash/ Soundwave grumbled. This was going to be a bad idea but she knew Laserbeak was right. She quickly hacked into the comm link and sourced the coordinates. She stood and up activated her groundbridge.

"Ep ep ep," Ratchet said waving his wrench in the air, "You two are staying here on base!" Laserbeak promptly ignored him as they both dashed through the groundbridge. Ratchet quickly tired to throw a wrench at both of their helms but it just missed them by an astro second and went flying towards the wall. Ratchet punched the nearby surface in frustration. Wheeljack came walking back carrying multiple boxes and whistling quite loudly. He looked around and saw only Ratchet.

"Hey doc bot!" he asked, "Where did the Cons go?" Ratchet threw multipled wrenches at Wheeljack's helm.

"You idiot!" Ratchet yelled, "Why couldn't I contact you through comm?" Wheeljack looked flabberghasted.

"I - uh…."

"Answer me now," Ratchet said in a soft quiet voice.

"I turned it off!"

"Why?!"

"Because - uh,"

"I don't care what the reason is!" Ratchet yelled, "We need backup out there and you didn't check your comm link. Lives could've been endangered because of you! Soundwave and Laserbeak had to go in your place!"

"What!" Wheeljack protested, "Those Cons could be stabbing our backs this very second! Especially that loud mouth gl-

"I dare you to say one more word," Ratchet said menacingly. HIs wrench was posed in the air.

"I mean- nevermind," Ratchet grumbled darkly before firing up another groundbridge.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Get your aft out there and help!" Wheeljack quickly ran through the groundbridge. Ratchet closed the groundbridge and covered his face with his servos. He silently sent a prayer to Primus, something he hasn't done in millennials.