When Spying Goes Wrong

Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers animated series/show, they belong to toy manufacturer Takara and American company Hasbro. This fanfiction is merely for the sole purpose of entertainment and not for selling/profiting purposes. What I do own is the Shocker. Take it and I'll use it on you! -glare-

Key Terms: ()()()()()()()()()()() Change in location/place \\\\\\\\\\ Change in tense (past/present/future) italics Character's thoughts/emphasis/sounds

"Megatron." Only silence responded to him. "Lord Megatron, please acknowledge. I have a situation here on Cybertron." Shockwave's violet covered image filled the large monitor screen of the main computer and was waiting patiently for a response from his most respected leader. Soon Megatron entered the control room and strode to the screen, Soundwave with him.

"Acknowledge granted, Shockwave," he said. "What is the matter?"

"Thank you Lord Megatron," Shockwave bowed, sounding quite relieved. "I sincerely regret to report that another batch of energon cubes was stolen without my knowledge by the Autobot femmes."

Megatron slammed a fist down on the control panel, hard. "What?! You contacted me just to tell me that? I don't approve of such incompetence!"

Shockwave immediately looked afraid at his anger, backing away slightly from the screen. Shockwave never wanted to displease Megatron in any way, and when he did, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he is stricken with terror by his mistake. Personally, Soundwave thought that he was a bit of a sycophant toward Megatron, what with his over-exultant address and subservient manner.

"Lord Megatron, please, hear me out," Shockwave pleaded and sounding desperate. "I do not mean to report just that. I have also wanted to ask for assistance on this matter."

"And why, pray tell, can't you deal with it yourself?" asked Megatron, patience wearing thin quickly. "Surely a few femme bots aren't too difficult for you to handle?"

"Apologies, but I am unable to leave my station ineffectively guarded against the femmes' intrusion. And I am needed to monitor the facilities."

"Why not send out the battle drones after them? That should stop their thieving."

"I have done that many times before, even ten at a time, but the femmes are too strong to be subdued so easily. Their base of operations, although located, is impossible to penetrate without demolishing the whole area first."

Megatron kept his expression serious as he stated: "So you need us here to help."

"Yes Megatron, that is the case," Shockwave nodded.

"Hmm. Very well. If you cannot get the job done, then I'll send someone who can via the Space Bridge. Be on stand-by," he ordered.

"Yes, thank you Lord Megatron. I'll be waiting." The purple Decepticon's image blacked out from the screen.

"Soundwave," Megatron addressed as he turned around to face him. "My orders are for you to head to Cybertron, infiltrate the femmes' headquarters and retrieve the energon cubes from them. Go, immediately. I'll have Thundercracker escort you to the Space Bridge."

"As you command, Megatron," responded Soundwave and bowed before leaving the room for his assigned mission.

\\\\\\\\\\ He and Thundercracker touched down on the dusty terrain in front of the circular perimeter of the transportation device. The blue seeker transformed to his robot mode. "Well, you'd better get going. Wouldn't want to anger Megatron. What is this mission of yours anyway?" he asked casually.

"None of your business," Soundwave curtly replied. He for one knew this his task was strange enough for him to contemplate for he had never before been ordered to carry out one involving the feminine opposite of their kind. And he also knew very well that his comrades were a mean group, taking almost any opportunity to blurt out cruel and humiliating remarks at someone else's expense, and if he revealed the objectives of his goal, that would most likely be passed on to a gossipy and unreliable mech, he would never be able to live it down. He will not make himself a joke.

"Okay, was only asking," Thundercracker said, backing away from the subject. "Anyway, get in and I'll type in the co-ordinates for you."

Satisfied that he would not be forced to explain himself, Soundwave made his way through the gappy entrance and stood in the centre of the wide space inside. He heard the keypads being tapped quickly from over the wall of the Bridge in which afterwards the opening closed by the door sliding across to shut the gap, and then a strong wind picked up from the inside, pulling him up to the warp that had materialized above him in a giant whirl of purple and black. Small to large-sized chunks of earth were sucked through the air with him, though at a faster rate, and went into the warp hole. He shut down his visor to focus on his destination and he was gone in a flash.

()()()()()()()()()() He first felt solidity under his feet; he activated his visor to see nothing but pitch black, feeling a little shaken of being lifted from the ground in one moment and in the next standing upright in a darkened area. Soundwave, however, was anything but confused in his knowledge of having experienced this other times before. Suddenly he felt the sensation of the floor being pushed up with a muffled whirring sound outside of the walls, then coming to a full stop and the doors in front of him slid open to let artificial light fill the darkness. Before him, in apparent expectancy, was Shockwave already standing in waiting.

"Come," he beckoned and turning to his computer terminal. "I have the location's map co-ordinates right here for you."

Soundwave followed and stopped by his side as he typed several keys until a large window appeared on the screen with a simple detailed outline of an area from a bird's eye-view.

"You should head north from here to eventually find this location. And you should see this," Shockwave informed, pointing at a big rectangular shape on the left side of the map, "and these smaller, irregular shaped obstacles at the north east side of it. That should roughly be where they resign and the entrance of their station must not be too far away. Luckily I planted locator trackers on my battle drones so I could keep track of their movements as they chased the femmes and covered ground. From my many observations, I've found that the most number of drones destroyed were in the vicinity of this area, where I strongly believe is their base's stay. Ingenious, I would say."

If it weren't for that last remark, Soundwave would've been impressed – inwardly of course. It would seem that whenever Megatron is at his attention he would do his very best to please him, but on the other hand, whenever someone else was in his presence, he would like to show off his know-how without hesitating and point it out.

Or perhaps nine millennia of zero contact has made him more talkative and more needy for attention than usual, he deducted privately.

"The map is easy to remember: I'll head northwards now."

"Yes, right away. I'll activate the main exit to let you out."

Using that as an end to their 'discussion', Soundwave promptly turned on his heel and passed through the room's doorless exit and into the corridors that would lead him outside.

\\\\\\\\\\ Pulling up the map's image from his memory banks, he stood and scanned the surroundings in front of him. During his journey across the metallic surfaces of Cybertron, he couldn't help but explore with his visors around his native land as he walked. It was nostalgic to feel his footsteps on his home planet's surfaces again and so good. The earth was too soft, too fragile to give him the pleasures of home, and too different in every way to make him feel comfortable. Here, there were no anomalies, if any there were not many at all; everything was efficient, clean and immaculate as it should it – nothing changed dramatically without warning. This is where he truly felt he belonged.

However, in his digression of thoughts, Soundwave sighted broken parts of a battle drone scattered in a general area that drew him back to his mission at hand. He had inspected the separated limbs and the cracked body of the drone in kneeling down close to it. It had looked like its arms were ripped out viciously after the connecting joints by the shoulders were shot at repeatedly to loosen them, from looking at the black scorch marks. The rest of the body had several dents made to the frontal area and numerous chunks of it spread around the deceased corpse, its insides exposed for all to see. From his scrutinising, he had concluded that these femmes did more than just run and shoot.

Now he was here, where the trail of wreckage of crushed drones, seemingly leading to his own potential end, led him to the exact place of his destination. A gigantic structure of steel rose from his far left as a mark to end his journey. And with it at its base were the most number of drones destroyed that he had seen so far, just as Shockwave had told him. Some were disposed of in more cruel ways than others, distorted beyond possible repair. But he remained undeterred; after all, he had seen enough death in the war to be used to the sight.

The physical structures of the big steel block and the smaller, jagged ones in the distance matched the map's details perfectly. He closed the window: Now to find the unseen entrance to the femmes' hiding place.

"Rumble, Frenzy, Ravage, Lazerbeak: Eject," he commanded as the cassettes jumped out of his casing one after the other.

"Wazzup, boss?" greeted Rumble cheerfully on landing. "We have a mission of Cybertron, eh?" He looked around himself from left to right and back again before staring up at Soundwave expectantly.

"Yes. We are to infiltrate Autobot femme headquarters, retrieve stolen energon and head back to base."

"Okay, gotcha," the cassette confirmed with a thumbs up, unquestioning. "So where's their entrance?"

"That is exactly why I have called you: To assist in search."

"How boring!" butt in Frenzy. "Can't we just make a hole into their base instead? It will be faster that way."

"Negative: Forced entry ill-advised. Discretion and secrecy must be exercised."

"Yeah, numb-nuts," Rumble added. "If we do that and cause a commotion, we'll have femme bots chasing our tailpipes all over Cybertron. Then we'll never get the energon back."

"Not if we move faster than they do," countered his red and black twin. "And besides, I wouldn't mind having a few tall femmes chasing after me." He grinned playfully.

Rumble gave him a blank and disbelieving look. "You're an idiot, you know that?"

Ravage seemed to think likewise as he placed a paw over his optics and shook his head from side to side slightly. Lazerbeak squawked impatiently in the air.

"Enough idle banter," Soundwave intervened. "Go into search mode: Now."

"Right Soundwave – we're on it," complied Rumble and the four cassettes spanned out in different directions.

Soundwave took to inspecting the spacious area in between the tall structure and the smaller ones. After some moments of carefully scanning, he heard a call from Ravage coming from the jagged metal protrusions to his right. He walked quickly to him, Ravage still sniffing the ground in interest and looked up at his master when he knelt down next to him. The dark blue mech traced the flooring where it was sniffed at with his hand, in which he took his time on perusing its dark purple surface.

His patience is rewarded when he caught a faint outline that stood out from the rectangular square patterned ground. Following the black line, he found that it ran in a wide circle, big enough to fit him in its shape.

This must be their elevator entrance from underground.

"Good, Ravage." A coal-black hand lay onto the robotic panther's smooth head and stroke it firmly, causing the feline to emit a low purr in response.

The others were COM dialled to return and slot back into his casing, much to Frenzy's protest to join him outside and an arm punch from Rumble to silence him.

As he could not activate the elevator hatch from the outside without the risk of alerting his presence, he opted to lie in wait behind the small obstacles until it opened for him. He transformed to his micro-cassette mode, his reduced form hidden perfectly.

\\\\\\\\\\ It was some time later when the surface of the hatch rose up, allowing three femmes out. They transformed to their Cybertronian car modes and drive off in the direction he came from. Soundwave thought it possible that they were going to obtain more energon and considered stopping their plans but he had his orders. And he thought it unlikely if another chance of entering the hideout would ever come again. Without hesitation, he transformed back to his robot mode, then quickly stepped out from his spot, turned to the front of the hatch and slid in sideways before its doors fully closed. Once it finished its descent, its doors opened on the opposite side. He waited to see if anyone would come round the corner. Finding that nothing happened, he cautiously stepped out. He stood in a moderately narrow corridor, its interiors entirely painted in bright orange – just like the Autobot's base back on earth.

The colour scheme did nothing to camouflage his appearance, in fact making him stand out more so, as well as the size of the corridor not meeting his need for more room for his body size.

But then, with his acute hearing and the echo of from the walls, the sound of exchanges could be heard to his left and was getting louder. Trusting to luck that the femmes wouldn't notice him, Soundwave pressed against the wall and transformed. The two conversing Autobots walked on past him, looking at each other instead of what is in front of them, and laughing in short bursts once in a while.

Through one optic he saw that they were both carrying two energon cubes each in their arms and, deducting that they were heading to their storage room, he changed back to his normal form after they were out of ear-shot, then followed quietly behind, minding his distance.

They led him round a curved corridor where a door was at the end of it. Soundwave thought fast. As the doors automatically opened for the approaching femmes, he sprinted as fast as he could, trying to make as less noise as possible and get close, just before they entered, then transformed with speed next to the wall, a couple of metres behind their feet.

One of them gasped and snapped her head to glance behind her. "What was that?" she nervously asked her friend.

"What was what? I don't see anything."

"But I thought I heard something behind us just now."

"Oh it's probably just a loose screw or something," her friend waved off and walked in. "Come on, let's put these in the stockpile."

The femme remained on the spot, which made the doors still open to allow the Decepticon spy use a retractable claw on the side of his cassette form, grab the other side of the doors and drag himself in from across the floor. As he was doing this the femme looked down the corridor again, unconvinced of her friend's lack of concern but obediently followed her nonetheless. Thankfully for Soundwave there was a metal table near the doors conveniently at the side of the wall in which he took shelter under.

The first thing that he readily noticed was that the room was not empty. In fact, there were other femmes in here, five in all, including the two who had come in. The two with the cubes faced a wall on the far left side of the room. A hidden key panel shot up from the floor for the code to be punched in and then, like magic, the wall ascended itself to reveal a secret room full of stashed cubes in large amounts.

He did not expect that the actual storage room would be in a hidden place, let alone be in a room occupied by femme bots. They were talking with each other, sitting at tables. He was grateful that none sat at his. A thought told him that must also be their Recreation room as well as storage for energon, from all the femmes that were congregated here. He figured that the small size of the interiors of the base was the reason for the place to have a two-purpose room.

This did not bode well with his plans – he was stuck; the option of peacefully breaking the entry code of the energon holder without detection now impossible, as well as his escaping unseen. He felt tempted to go with leaping from where he was and causing a panicked frenzy with the help of his cassettes, just as Frenzy had suggested, but thought it foolish. A safer alternative would be to wait it out until every femme went into recharge for the cycle and leaving a perfectly isolated and quiet room for him to get to work in. For how long these beings will stay in here Soundwave was not certain but he would be patient enough. Unlike most of the Decepticons, patience was a virtue of his and he will use it as he would any other skill.

And so he stayed put on his spot, being ever so watchful of each of the femmes. One was a blazing red colour; another was a pale blue and one lime green. The two who had come in with the cubes were a lavender hue and grey – the nervous one.

A sound of a door shwooking open to his left in which stepped out the tallest and most mature-looking femme with a clad of rose pink and white colouring covering her body. Soundwave proposed that she was their leader as all of them quietened down and were at attention but still remained seated.

"Girls, don't make too much of a ruckus," she said firmly. "I know that our energon raids have all been successful but don't get carried away now."

"Yes, Elita-One. We're sorry, did we disturb you?" responded the green one.

So this is Elita-One that he had heard about.

"Yes, somewhat Moonracer. Just keep the noise level down, if you will ladies," Elita told in a motherly voice and returned the way she came in.

"Hey, let's take a few cubes from the storage pile," the one called Moonracer suggested once her leader was gone.

"What? Are you joking Moonracer? We need them for energy, not energon-binging," said the red one. "Besides, we all know you can't hold your energon for too long. One and a half cubes and you get tipsy."

"Oh come on, stop being such a party-pooper Firestar. There are enough cubes in stock for more than one hundred and eighty orns of energising and more from all the raids we did. I say we need a well-deserved break, don't you agree?" Moonracer got up from her chair and made her way to the secret room, typed in the codes and took an arm full of cubes. She then handed one out to each of her friends in the room, the last to Firestar who took hers reluctantly.

"Well, I suppose you have a point there. There hasn't been an unsuccessful raid yet."

"That's the spirit," Moonracer approved happily and took a gulp of her drink at once.

"I just hope that you can keep your voice down just as Elita ordered. You're loud even when you're not over-energized, and that's bad enough," commented the one in blue.

"I'm sure that you will take care of me if I get too rowdy, Chromia," Moonracer smirked cheekily with the container to her lips.

The blue one only snorted in response and took her own swig of energon. And so they started conversing with one another again with a few rounds of energon to accompany their conversations. Soundwave, being the silent observer, was mildly surprised that most of them could intake around four to five cubes without losing their balance and falling off their chairs, what with their slighter physiques, though they did seem to appear a little wobbly on their fifth cubes. Moonracer, as correctly said by Firestar, was doing far worse than her comrades after only two cubes and doing something close to a dance around the room, which amused them greatly.

"Woo! This party's great!" she shouted.

"Would you shut your mouth clamps? If Elita-One comes in here and sees you acting like this, she won't be pleased," warned Chromia angrily but with a slur to her voice so she sounded less commanding.

"You'll get yourself hurt at this rate," giggled the grey femme, which sounded even more unconvincing.

"Right, right, calm down," Moonracer replied smoothly, somehow halting her movements to face her friends. "I'm not gonna do anything drastic."

"Uh huh. Right. We believe you," the lavender femme said sarcastically and taking a sip.

The intoxicated femme laughed as if a joke was just made, then, as quickly as she laughed, she said, "Oh, it's so hot in here! I need to cool down."

And she did what Soundwave never believed she would do.

()()()()()()()()()() Decepticon HQs

He sat comfortably at his desk and peered at one of the file reports in front of him in concentration. Megatron had been occupied with reading these files for the past few hundred nano-clicks, which had gradually made him feel tedious of the repetitive task. He thought of what else was of more importance than doing this and instantly reminded himself of the mission he had given Soundwave. He frowned. It shouldn't have taken this long to complete an infiltration and retrieval mission. And he doubted that the Autobot femmes would be strong enough to defeat a warrior like Soundwave. But then why the wait?

Frowning even more so, he got up from his seat, ignoring the files, and went out of his quarters. He intended to use the main computer to contact his missing Third-In-Command. Upon reaching the room, he propped himself into the chair in front of the console and typed the necessary COM link codes. When it made the connection he spoke: "Soundwave, report status immediately. What's taking you so long?"

There was some pause, a ruffled sound like a microphone was being shifted and then Soundwave's voice came through. "Greetings Megatron. Status is…operational and well."

Relieved that he wasn't dead or injured somehow, he replied: "And how is your mission progressing? Why have you taken such an extensive amount of time? I expected you to be efficient, Soundwave."

There was another hesitant pause, though this time a little longer before he answered: "I am in a difficult position Megatron: Cannot move without being seen. Mode of action: Wait."

Hmm, so that's why, Megatron acknowledged. "Then where are you that is disallowing you to make a move?"

"The femmes' Recreation room that is their energon storage room also. To…disturb them now would be most unwise."

"I see." The silver white leader narrowed his optics at the blank screen. "Display visual feed."

When the screen made no change he ordered him again, more sternly. Another moment or two and it showed him what Soundwave was witnessing at that same time, complete with audio. Megatron was completely silent, mouth agape, at the scene playing before him, and chasing away any thoughts of annoyance from his mind as he took in the sight. The doors behind him opened but he was too caught in watching the monitor to notice.

"Megatron, there you are – I've been looking all over for you," said Starscream, holding a data pad in his hand and walking over to him. "I have a new report for you to" – A loud laugh distracted him. Now Starscream too fell silent as his optics set on the mesmerizing femmes moving on the screen, mouth open and the data pad falling from his hand unnoticed.

He somehow regained some sense in his mind, shaking his head before addressing his still engrossed leader.

"Megatron, what are you watching?" he asked astonished, knowing what the obvious answer was but nevertheless asking out of shock.

"H-Huh?" Megatron managed to mutter in response while he eyed a dancing green femme passing across the screen.

"I said: What are you watching? oh deaf leader. Is this some kind of secret channel made on earth or something? Because I have never seen that on earth's programmes before."

Megatron seemed to snap out of his stupor as he finally faced the seeker who had an expectant expression. "Of course not, you twit. This is a live feedback transmission from Soundwave who is on a mission on Cybertron. He is momentarily stuck in his position for the time being until an opportunity for him to be alone and undetected arises."

"Heh. Mission? To spy on pretty femmes? This is ridiculous!" Starscream retorted incredulously but his optics strayed over to transmission despite what he said.

"Wrong, you clueless tin head!" snapped Megatron. "I've assigned him to retrieve the energon they have stolen from Shockwave's station. That is all."

Starscream chuckled, folding his arms. "Oh really? Well, it seems to me that this is more than just retrieving energon, leader. It's turned from mission to playing peeping Tom! I bet Soundwave's rather enjoying himself." He chuckled again.

Megatron thrust a finger threateningly in his direction. "You'd better shut your mouth now or –"

Suddenly a white flash erupted from nowhere and, once it faded away, Skywarp stood amongst the two commanders, looking panicked. He scared expression looked even more so when he realised that he was not alone and the two occupants of the room were staring at him in questioning. He at once stood in alert.

"S-Sorry for disturbing your privacy! I'll leave right…now." He frightened mood disappeared instantly when he laid his optics to the active figures on the monitor. "Whoa, who's that baby? She's one fine mama!"

Starscream looked disgusted, turning back to the screen, which was more to his favour.

Megatron heavily sighed. "Skywarp, what do you think you're –"

"There you are you son of a glitch!"

"Get ready to be pounded!" In stormed Thrust, Dirge and Ramjet, covered on the head with energon dripping over their shoulders and leaving a bright trail behind their every step. They were apparently the latest victims of one of Skywarp's pranks and were bent on making him pay.

"Don't you dare move this time, or we're gonna make your punishment even worse than we originally planned!" threatened Ramjet.

His state of mind before returning, Skywarp pointed rapidly and blurted out: "Look-Look you guys! It's femmes – lots of 'em! I'm not lying!"

"Oh yeah, like when you said that you weren't playing any tricks on us when you told us that you'd give us a round of energon, on the house – you weren't lying," said Dirge, uninfluenced, yet the triple changers turned their attention anyway and was soon stopped in their tracks, entranced and with their mouths gaping open as did happen to everyone else.

"Phew!" let out Skywarp loudly.

"What in blazes is everyone doing in here? Get back to your stations at once you imbeciles!" bellowed Megatron, who was angry at being ignored but most of all intruded upon.

In a loud burst, Thundercracker came running in looking flustered. "Skywarp, there you are! Lucky thing you didn't get caught or you'd be staying in the med bay for the next – what the?" Nobody needed to guess why he looked shocked all of a sudden. "Can anybody explain why we're watching a half naked femme dancing in a room?"

Megatron appeared ready to decimate someone in the next second but Starscream didn't take notice as he answered the question obligingly. "Soundwave is giving us a live show all the way from Cybertron in high quality entertainment. Care to join us?" he offered in amused invitation.

"Soundwave?" questioned Thundercracker. "So that's why he had to go to Cybertron. And why he didn't say what he was going to do there. Er – to record femme bots? I probably would've volunteered to go with him if he had told me."

"You would scare them away if you were in the same room," commented Ramjet bluntly.

"The one in red looks hot," muttered Thrust, still transfixed on the screen.

"Hey Soundwave, get a close-up on them!" shouted Skywarp, who was clearly taking pleasure from it as was everybody else.

"Soundwave, move it up a bit and keep it still – you're wobbling too much," ordered Starscream.

To their approval, the camera shifted to where he was told, which enticed more yells of instruction on where to shoot the it next until an extremely infuriated Megatron, still sat in his chair, roared: "Silence you fools!"

They immediately ceased their calls. When he was satisfied he turned around to address Soundwave. "Turn more to the left."

"Yes, sir," Soundwave complied.

The others gave their leader highly surprised looks. The camera shot kept moving closer and closer slowly into the open without pause, yet none of the femmes sensed its presence. It was only a split second later that the green femme clumsily tripped backwards, staggering in uncoordinated steps, too fast for Soundwave to avoid. The next second later came a terrified shriek.

"What is that!" screeched the green femmes who had trodden on the length of the camera, which had very quickly retracted back under the table.

Skywarp grimaced. "Oh man, now he's gonna get it."

"That idiot, he should've been more careful," Megatron fumed.

"Ow," they heard Soundwave simply emit.

One of the femmes' head is seen peering curiously under the table and a horrified look showed up on her face. "It's a spy bot!" She made a mix between a squeak and a scream and stood up again, her feet backing away.

"Get it! It must be one of Shockwave's toys!"

In reaction, the sound of transformation was heard through the speakers, the view of the camera now raised to be much higher and the sound of a loud crash told everyone that Soundwave had changed back into his robot mode before moving out from under the table, thus splitting it in half.

"Get out of there quick Soundwave, or they'll kill you!" cried Starscream.

As if it was taken as an afterthought, the screen was speedily turned right around, heavy thudding of footsteps were heard; it was like the Decepticons were being taken through his escape as they saw the screen being shaken from side to side and getting closer to the exit doors.

"After him, don't let him escape!" yelled on of the femmes behind him but the camera kept moving, never stopping.

"You fool, what about the cubes?" protested Megatron who stood up from his seat, hands on the panel.

"Are you nuts, Megatron?" interrupted Starscream. "He'll be destroyed by them if he goes back – he's outnumbered!"

The seeker's point was left ignored as Megatron resumed watching the chase and escape scene unfolding before him. What was shown was a journey through a right-curving corridor leading to a straight one with an elevator conveniently opened for Soundwave to enter on the left side. He went beeline for it, rushed inside and then the sound of a button was pressed repetitively until the doors finally close just in time before the femmes could catch up round the corner. The whir of the elevator filled everyone's audios, indicating that he was going up.

"That was a close call," said Thundercracker, sounding like he ran with him.

The camera turned to the opposite doors, they opened and he stepped out to begin running again, no doubt he suspected that the femmes would continue to go after him. And indeed it was true, for the noise of angry, shrill shouting could clearly be heard from behind the fleeing mech. But then it switched to the noise of low motors and it was coming closer.

"They transformed!" exclaimed Starscream, who knew from when he last encountered the femmes.

In response, Soundwave's speed increased to try and escape his pursuers when another set of motor engines could be heard, this time from in front. Caught in the action in anticipation, all the Decepticons crowded round the computer at once.

Distant forms of Cybertronian cars rose above the surface of the horizon in a line of three. Something was heard being slipped out, the object revealed by a beam of purple shooting out from the general source of Soundwave, aimed at the cars before him but more so at the car in the middle with a stock of energon in its storage compartment behind it.

The laser bullet hit one of its front tires, causing it to over turn. The two by either side of it avenged their fallen friend by closing the distance between them and Soundwave, then without warning transformed to their feminine modes to tackle him, hard. The camera's view shook from the impact and was thrown skywards suddenly with a loud CRASH. Several transformations were heard.

"Quick – restrain him before he gets back up!"

The camera was jerked upright again to capture a glimpse of the midsection of a femme then another whilst being handled roughly so it never stayed on one place for more than a second, showing that there was a struggle taking place. But it soon ended when blue static shocks flew over the screen accompanied by a sharp buzzing sound and Soundwave's monotonous scream.

It was unnerving to listen to the unnatural sound followed by an eerie silence taking over the main computer room.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Another one of Shockwave's lackeys?" asked a female voice.

"Hmm, I don't think so. He looks more advanced than those droids he always sends," said another.

"Hey, you. Can you talk?" the first one who spoke asked curtly.

He didn't answer. Nobody knew whether he was playing mute or was unconscious from the shock attack.

"Hey, I asked whether you can speak, you dumb Decepticon."

"Look, his spy monitor is hanging out." It was known what she meant when the camera was then lifted for the red femme's face to glare into its lens.

"Is this thing on?"

"He could have been using it to maintain a connection to somewhere," the blue one behind her suggested.

"Hmph. Well, if it is then I would like to give whoever's on the other side a little message before we take care of this spy," the red femme told in a dangerous tone but it was directed more into the spy camera, making her sound aggressive and her glare look like she was staring straight through the invisible link and at the audience in question with steel hot eyes.

"Listen whoever Decepticreep is watching this. If you sent this weirdo spy just to see a little show of us femmes then we'll make you sorry by destroying your friend here." The camera was forced to look at a captive Soundwave on his knees, a femme grasping his shoulders tightly with his hands made out to be bound behind him and the origin of where the camera extended from on the side of his hip. It was abruptly turned back to the femme's angry-looking visage.

"Just hope that we will have mercy on him. If we have any that is. Send reinforcements and you may never see a piece of your friend ever again."

She dropped the device carelessly to the ground, which caused a cruel CLANK on impact and the transmission was terminated instantly.

It was an understatement to say that the Decepticons were surprised. They expressed a mixture of shock, disturbance and, most of all, a distinct feeling of terror.

"W-What are they going to do to him?" asked a nervous Skywarp but no one dared to say what they expected will ensue. There was a bout of silence.

"So leader, what do you propose we do now? Leave him to die or go rescue him?" Starscream inquired.

At first there was no reply from the silver warlord who was still standing and his optics still intently focused on the black screen with a slight frown worn on his face. There was some suspense before he spoke. "…We shall do nothing."

The red seeker raised his optic ridges. "What? So you'll leave him in the hands of those femme bots? You don't care?"

"Of course I care you ignorant dunderhead! Soundwave is an exceptional warrior and is most valued within the ranks of my army, unlike some soldiers," Megatron returned with accusing optics. "And I'll do everything I can to bring him back."

"If that's so, then how come you say we do nothing Megatron?"

"Because, Starscream, I will not risk getting him killed by provoking the femmes into doing so. And if you can recall, which I doubt, they said that they may "have mercy on him". They are Autobots after all – it's not in their programming to destroy mercilessly."

"Oh really?" Starscream folded one arm over the other and cocked his head to one side. "How would you know if they don't change their minds all of a sudden and do the exact opposite? You never know."

"Enough – you have drained my patience Starscream," Megatron warned menacingly. "Another word from you and you'll pay the consequences. My word is final: we do nothing. Understood? Now all of you get out of here, there is nothing else to see," he dismissed with a wave of his hand.

The seekers and coneheads hurriedly obeyed and exited the room without a word.

"Some leader," Starscream muttered as he sauntered away, said above a whisper so it successfully reached the other's audios.

Enraged, Megatron spun around to blast the floor next to his foot, inciting a quick yelp from the smaller mech and a more hasty retreat.

"Screechy coward," Megatron spat, sitting back down with more force into his chair than needed. Pushing the insolence of Starscream aside in his mind, his thoughts were concentrated on the predicament Soundwave was in once more.

He could only hope, as the femme had said, for his still being alive and for his safe return.

()()()()()()()()()() Cybertron

CLANK. "Whelp, that's done," said Firestar and clapping her hands of imaginary dust. "Now, what shall we do with this creep?"

"Didn't you say that we would destroy him or something similar along those lines?" asked Chromia.

"Yeah, but I was lying. We're not really gonna kill him. That's not our way. Even though he is a Decepticon, it would be wrong to do such a thing. That would labelled murder."

Moonracer hopped to Firestar's side energetically, apparently still affected her drink and not about to subside yet. "Oh good, it would be a horrible shame if we were to terminate him. He's such a cutie!" And with that she deftly skipped up to Soundwave, cupped his face and pressed her lips dead centre on his mask without so much as thinking.

After she released his face, the temperatures rose on both cheek plates and in between, making the dumbfounded Decepticon very hot underneath his mask in which he was certainly grateful that it hid his shocked expression.

"Moonracer, that's disgusting!" remarked the lavender femme. "And cover yourself up!"

The femme in question only giggled madly as a response. Soundwave, on the other hand, wasn't sure if he'd make a run for his freedom or pounce on her if he was let go right then.

"Release me or else." Her actions prompted him to speak, though with somewhat less authority in his tone than usual.

"Or else what, Decepticon?" questioned Firestar challengingly; hands on hip and bending down a bit to look him in the face. "I think we'll have a little fun with you before we let you go. You need to be punished for that stunt you pulled back in our base. Right girls?"

They all voiced their agreement with enthusiasm. Before he knew it, Moonracer was down on her knees and staring inquisitively at his midsection. "What do these buttons do?"

"Don't touch those: They are private," he said quickly, the heat rising in his face again.

"Ooh, private huh?" she said teasingly, glancing up at Soundwave with a mischievous smile on her feminine features. He wished that he had never said anything. "I want to find out what they do." Her hand is lifted, digit extended to poke the buttons that only Soundwave himself was most liable to touch.

Panic-stricken, he cried out: "No, don't – stop –" But it was too late and the unnatural monotonous scream filled the surroundings once again.

()()()()()()()()()() Decepticon HQs

"Shockwave to Megatron. Shockwave to Megatron, come in."

"I am here. Any news?" Megatron responded. He had never left his place after he had seen the disturbing transmission from Soundwave and, instead of doing nothing, he had called on Shockwave to be alert for any appearance of the absent mech and to report back to him immediately when sighted. He had felt sure that if drones were sent to aid Soundwave, it would not have boded well with his survival.

At present, he was most thankful that his subordinate is still functioning, if Shockwave's report does not say otherwise.

"Yes, Megatron. He is here with me right at this moment, but," Shockwave said in a regretful tone, "he is, how can I say, unmoving?"

"What? Is he alive? What happened?"

"Erm, well, he was brought outside of my station tower and left there by the femmes, then they drove back to where they came from. I had my worker droids bring him in as he couldn't move but he is alive. You'll need to have someone bring him back to your base due to his state of condition."

"Understood. Megatron out." The screen blacked out. "Skywarp, Thundercracker: Go to the Space Bridge and retrieve Soundwave," he instructed while pressing a switch on the control panel, then waited patiently but not without a sense of dread in seeing what "state of condition" he was in.

\\\\\\\\\\ He did not look good. The other Decepticons huddled together in the arrival of the dark blue Officer, who was supported by the two seekers, an arm each hung over their shoulders and his visors blinking on and off repeatedly like a siren light.

"I take it back, I never want to join him on this mission," uttered Thundercracker to Skywarp.

Megatron pushed his way to the front of the crowd and a displeased look surfaced. It changed to that of amazement when Soundwave somehow had the strength to raise his head and steady his feet on the floor halfway, knees bent and buckling slightly.

"Save them," he simply said as he unwound an arm from Skywarp's back and pressed the eject button in succession for each cassette to jump out.

On transformation they each behaved oddly: Ravage swaying precariously from one side to the other as he tried to take clumsy steps forward as if he were spun around at high velocity in a spinning chair, before collapsing face down on the ground. Lazerbeak was already lying flat on his back and making weak, feeble squawks from where he was. Frenzy and Rumble were the only ones standing, though Frenzy seemed unconscious and was held upright by a determined Rumble, yet he looked ready to fall to the floor as well, his small body trembling every now and then.

Soon after they were all out of his casing, Soundwave fell into a stasis-like sleep again.

"Get them to the repair bay! I want him healed completely," ordered Megatron loudly, having seen enough of his state.

Skywarp took the limp arm again and, with Thundercracker, dragged him from the departure platform. The coneheads carried the cassettes each, one needing to hold Rumble plus Frenzy for he was too affected like his brother.

Cruel laughing was coming from Starscream, his arms crossed, opposite to Megatron by the doors.

"Oh poor Soundwave! Can't even take care of a few femmes – how pathetic, hah! I'll bet I won't make the same mistakes he made that got him into this mess. Look at the state he's in!" He shook with more of his laughter, bitterly unending.

Megatron could not stand it any longer. His insubordination has gone on far enough. He knew that he laughed not only to mock Soundwave but also to him as well. He only wanted to show both of them up and prove that he was the better soldier. A devious smirk crept on his lips while Starscream ceased his laughing fit.

"Okay then Starscream. Prove it." This gave a confused look from Starscream.

"Huh?"

"Prove to me that you can do better than Soundwave: Go to Cybertron and complete the mission for him. Personally, I don't think you'll be anymore successful than he is, or worse."

"W-What?" he stuttered, the confidence he had displayed before vanished.

"Or are you too afraid? You saw what they did to him. Don't worry Starscream, you can stay here and be safe just like the coward you are," Megatron smoothly challenged, grinning all the while.

"I am no coward! I'll show you that I'm not. I'll got to Cybertron and get back every one of those energon cubes, defeat the femmes and come back unscathed! Count on it."

"Your bravado never ceases to amuse me, hm-hm-hmm," the silver Decepticon teased, which only served to feed the other's fiery determination.

"You'll see! This will be a cinch!"

\\\\\\\\\\ "Aargh! Let me go!" Starscream shrieked angrily, on his knees, wrists bound at his back. He was rewarded with a stinging slap on the cheek by Chromia.

"Shut your mouth Decepticon! You have no right to speak here."

"I will not take orders from a femme! I can do whatever I –" BONG! Firestar's fist was clenched tightly in the air.

"I don't think you heard her properly. Are all Decepticons deaf like you?" A groan was produced behind her.

"Are you alright Moonracer?" the grey femme asked, concerned, in her delicate voice. "You shouldn't have gone out with us if you were feeling sick."

"I'll be fine," Moonracer replied in a tone that suggested the opposite. "A few energon converter-aches won't bring me down so easily."

The lavender femme next to Firestar wasn't convinced. "Tch. Yeah right. Look at you; you're slumping over with a hand to your middle cavity in pain. You call that fine? This is your own fault for drinking past your limit last cycle, which I remember you saying that you wouldn't "do anything drastic", which of course wasn't true either." She made an I-told-you-so look at her. "So are you going to kiss this one too?"

The ill femme took one glance at their captive and in an instant grimaced. "Are you kidding me? No way! Even if I was over-energized I wouldn't kiss that."

Starscream was torn between being offended that he was held prisoner by Autobot femmes and the fact that a femme didn't want to kiss his handsome face. He chose the latter.

"I will not stand for these insults!" he screeched, his cheek plates heating up with indignation. "I demand that you release me or you'll regret it!"

A second fist landed on his head.

"Will this guy never shut up?" asked the lavender femme disbelievingly.

"Maybe you should use the Shocker on him. That might do the trick," recommended Firestar.

"The Shocker? What's that?" Starscream asked impulsively, in spite of the painful blows. However, when the device was sub-spaced he started to regret ever asking.

"Oh this? This is the little toy that we used on your friend the last time he came here. And if you don't remember, which you obviously don't, we used it to stop you from escaping all the way."

He stared at the two protruding points at the top of it with foreboding and, for the first time since being caught, felt fear. She moved behind him.

"H-Hey, what are you doing?" He twisted his head around to his left and right to try and see just that but couldn't.

"I've heard that one of the most vulnerable parts of an aerial transformer are their wings, though I'm not surprised since they're used for flying, a most important function," she shared, more to herself than to him.

Horror filled his mind. "No, wait! Please don't – I'll do anything! They're sensitive!"

"Ooh, sensitive you say? This will be most enjoyable."

Curse my vocalizers! "Hold on – stop –" An audial-piercing scream punctured the once-quiet atmosphere and the femmes from then on discovered that he truly lived up to his name.

Author's Notes: And the moral of the story is?: Don't mess with us ladies, boys! lol. Unless you want a beating:P nahh, only kidding. I think...