I'm responding to a guest's review since I'm not able to PM them: I had not planned on putting Ratbat in this, just the main four "cassettes." Since these additional chapters are considered as prequels, I have to keep to continuity from the first chapter. Speaking of continuity, I did skip the fact that the three mechs torturing Ravage were in an alley by the building. Soundwave doesn't live in the safest part of town, but he can take care of himself.

And I'm on the RIBFIR side, so no one screams about that later.

Symbiotes: Rumble, Frenzy

Most Minicon villages had the fortune to be ransacked by Decepticons, taken in to be rewired and synchronized to larger 'bots, only to die in battle later on. Alpha-6, village located among the remaining sector of trees in the Blacklight Forest, was caught in the heavy crossfire of a battle. It was just bad luck that the fight took place here, over the last energon vein in the area. Tiny Cybertronians were scrambling in the streets, trying to stay clear of blasts and bombs.

When the first shots fired, the Minicons knew that it had to be Decepticons. Autobots had left them alone and even offered protection. Decepticons raided villages to kidnap Minicons, and rewire them to give the larger mechs more power. The smaller 'bots ran to safety, then realized artillery was coming from both factions of the war, as if the village did not exist and paid no attention to it. They were on their own this time.

Twin Minicons ran hand-in-hand across the village, hoping to find a safe area. Whenever they found a clear spot, it started to burn. They spent a good part of their miserable day dodging and diving, until at last they came to a hollowed hole in the thick wall that surrounded the village. They remained under the structure, praying to whatever benevolent god that had got them this far to continue on their blessing of survival. After a while, they fell into a light sleep, the rumbling of impacted bombs and the screams of their people keeping them awake.

When the battle was over, it seemed as though nothing was left. The last standing trees of Blacklight Forest had been leveled. The huts were burned, the crops trampled, the livestock fled. If there were any other survivors, it was hard to tell. Many of the villagers littered the ground, and in pieces, burning their lifeless husks.

From among the flames, they both saw a shape. They assumed it was a panther, given its characteristics, but its size betrayed it as a smaller domestic feline. Its red optics were glued to the twins and kept in a crouching position as it stalked forward towards them.

"Scat!" the red one said, kicking some ash at it. The cat sneezed but continued on, curious of the two survivors.

She had been ordered to find an opening to the energon mines the Decepticon were sure the Minicons of Alpha-6 had built. They had not cared if there were any survivors left; the army already had more of the littler Cybertronians than they could provide for, keeping them as experiments, spies, and, thanks to Shockwave's rigorous and barbaric experimentations, rewired a few loyal ones so that they may link to a full-sized Cybertronian and offer power. But the cat's master said they no longer had a need for Minicons and that was why they did not care if they fired upon any villages any more. So she was conflicted. There were no orders on what to do should she encounter any survivors. Should she let them be and risk the Autobots getting them? Kill them and never worry about them again? Or bring them in?

She raised her tail. On the end of it was a beacon, a radar, that allowed her to speak with her master. When her master had joined the Decepticon cause and studied Shockwave's rewiring experiments, he performed the procedure on her, more delicately than what the poor Minicons had to go through. Now she was of one mind with her adoring master, and, in this moment, she was asking him a question from the great distance separating them.

The twins, however, misinterpreted the gesture. They knew whenever a feline raised its tail in this way, it was friendly and welcomed itself around others, so they cautiously walked forward. This caused the cat's optics to brighten in alert.

"Nice kitty…" the blue brother said, extending an open hand. "Don't bite us and we won't bite ya back."

Fair enough. She walked forward to read his bio-signature, and when she was done he rubbed one of her external audio receptors between his fingers.

"Good kitty," the red one said, smiling, and offering for her to smell his signature as well, but was interrupted by the sound of jet turbines coming closer.

Both twins stepped away from the cat as the jet lowered behind her and transformed, becoming a tall, faceless Decepticon. They scurried back into their little groove in the broken wall that had protected them from death before. They half expected the Decepticon to either fire at the, the cat, or, when they realized the feline bore the purple insignia, order the cat to attack the last living citizens of Alpha-6. These three scenarios never occurred. Instead, the dark mech crouched to one knee and stroked along the feline's back, provoking a mewl and a sequences of purrs, leaning her back into her master's touch.

The mech looked up in time to see the Minicons' confused expressions, and answered them:

"Ravage: Belongs to Soundwave. Does not attack unless ordered or incited."

The twins looked at each other, thinking the same thing: There is such thing a Decepticon who preferred to keep smaller creatures alive. There were not many of those, or so far as they had seen, up until now.

The cat chirped and left her master to go sit in front of the twins, right outside their protective hole, her tail swishing back and forth in a playful manner and optics wide as saucers.

"W-What's it doin'?" the blue one dared to ask.

Soundwave was wondering that himself. Across their link, he was gathering that his symbiote wanted to bring the boys along. She liked them, and she hinted that they should undergo rewiring just as she had, to link to him. He was not sure of the idea. For one, there were no orders of what to do with Alpha-6 survivors and, two, it was bad enough he had a cat in his mind. Primus knows what chaos a link to the mind of twin Minicons could do to his sanity. From his own experience with the smaller specie, Minicons were like children and liked to get into trouble.

She turned her head to him and mewed, vocally expressing that she wanted them to come along. He stood up, keeping his gaze to the pair of red visors in the hole below.

"Ravage: Requesting Minicons join."

"What he say?" the red one asked.

"I think… I think he said the cat wants us to come along," his brother answered.

"I'm not staying with Decepticons! They're mean! You saw what they did!"

"I think it's better than dying out here!"

The red twin glared at Soundwave. "I don't want to go!"

"Choice: Yours."

His visor flickered in surprise. "Wait. You're giving us a choice? Meaning, we don't have to go if we don't want to?"

He nodded.

"I'm staying here."

"C'mon, Frenzy, think about it!"

"No, you think about it! He'll take us back and do all kinds of freaky slag to us!"

Ravage hissed, tired of the bickering. Maybe asking them to be an addition to their small household was not a good idea. She would not be able to handle such behavior. She walked back over to her master, who bent over again for her, and she climbed around his leg, up to his back, shifted, and fit into his back and along his spinal strut. Soundwave stood again, staring at the twins. They stared right back, both faces expressing fear for what might happen to them. He hesitated to leave them. It was like looking at two helpless sparklings in a dark alleyway, begging to be loved, to be fed, to be sheltered… But he would not offer that if they did not want it. He turned to leave, to find where the energon vein could be hidden, when, after a few long strides, he heard, "Wait!"

He looked to see both boys running out of their hovel to him, and stopped at his legs.

"We'll go with ya," the blue one said.

"Yeah, but we want to be treated like people!" the red Minicon expressed. "None of that slave-type scrap."

"Agreed," the tall mech said, and turned so he could better face them. "Designation: Soundwave."

"I'm Frenzy," the red twin said, "and this is my brother Rumble."

"Don't mix it up. Even our carri got us confused."

Soundwave did not want to lead them around their burnt village, looking for something even a drone could find, so he left a scan and ordered a team to find the energon vein when the scan indicated it, and went back to base, going straight for Shockwave's laboratory. The one-opticed scientist was in the middle of another Insecticon genetic study when he strolled in with two Minicons on either side of his heels. The purple mech looked to acknowledge him and looked straight at the smaller twins when he realized they were there.

"Are they scheduled?" he asked. The twins stopped when they heard his voice.

"How did you do that?" Frenzy asked.

"Yeah, ya ain't got a face," his blue brother added. "How can you talk?"

Shockwave ignored them both.

Soundwave remembered that drones and officers had brought in Minicons to his lab to rewire, but they usually had to make an appointment ahead of time. So he answered to his equal, "Negative."

Before Shockwave could comment that he was busy and rewiring a personal Minicon required scheduling at least a week in advance, the infamous second-in-command of the Decepticons strolled in to look for a torturing tool to use on an Autobot he recently captured, which he had boastingly announced as he walked in.

"Autobots think they're so noble," he chuckled. "That even our methods of interrogation won't make them talk. Perhaps a shock rod ought to teach the sentry I've got locked up in the cells who the winning side will be."

"Is that a guy or a girl?" Rumble whispered to his brother about the thin-legged mech in front of them, which was not soft enough to pass by Starscream's audios. The Seeker growled and looked to face his insulter.

"Be wise of who you are slandering, Minicon," he hissed. "I could squash you like the pest you are."

Soundwave stepped forward, making it known that these were his Minicons and he was not going to tolerate tension at the present. He gestured for the boys to get onto a medical berth and they obeyed, climbing up the supports.

"Never took you for one to have children on your bizarre team, Soundwave," Starscream commented. "Isn't that cat enough of a pain to have?"

Soundwave vocalized a growl, which he was sure was coming from Ravage as well.

"Minicons: Survivors of Alpha-6. Soundwave: Offered sanctuary."

"You offered them protection?" the Seeker laughed. "My, my, how very unlike Megatron's top spy."

"Yo, ease off him!" Frenzy yelled.

"Yeah, or I'll take this thing an' shove it up your exhaust pipe!" Rumble said, holding up a small pick. In his palms it was like a sword.

Starscream's optics widened for a moment in disbelief, then narrowed as he scowled. "You should teach your minions something about respect, Soundwave."

"Like you deserve it," Rumble said, sticking out his glossa.

"Why you little impertinent—!"

"Are you performing the procedure by yourself, Commander Soundwave?" Shockwave butted in, hating to hear any more of Starscream's raspy complaints.

The tall mech nodded. He admired Shockwave's civility over his creepy investigations in the realm of genetics. The purple mech left the room, leaving the higher officer to deal with shoving Starscream out on his own.

"And what purpose, pray tell, will these two be of use?" he growled, pointing a claw in the Minicons' general direction.

"Skills specific to Minicons: Intelligence gathering."

"As spies? Isn't that why you have your feline?"

"Ravage: Cannot be expected to perform unlimitedly."

"You mean she's tired," Starscream scoffed.

"Affirmative. Overworking: Unhealthy."

"Speak for yourself," the Seeker murmured. "I'll leave you to your toys, then." He picked up the shock rod that he came for in the first place and left.

"That guy's a total piston rod," Frenzy grumbled. "Who is he anyway?"

"Air Commander Starscream: Second in command to the Decepticon Empire."

Both twins' visor flickered.

"So we just badmouthed the SIC of the Decepticons?" Rumble muttered.

"And got away with it?" his brother added.

Soundwave ignored the question and grabbed small needles full of sedative, letting them both know the liquid's purpose was to numb them down and make them shut down temporarily so they would not feel the pain of surgery. They cautiously held out their arms to him so he could carefully and properly inject the liquid, and told them to count backwards from ten. Rumble made it to seven and Frenzy reached eight (or rather "seveh" and "eiiii…") before they fell into recharge.

When they woke up, a few hours had already passed and Ravage was lying in between them. A groan from Frenzy made her lift her head up and her tail twitch.

"Aw, I feel heavy," he said, reaching his arms up only for them to fall back down. Rumble's system whirred to life and he managed to sit up and look at himself.

"Talk about an upgrade," he muttered, noticing that his dermal plating was now more Cybertronian-like. Minicons did not possess that special ability to transform, but Shockwave's experiments in rewiring and re-plating them, even implanting a t-cog, gave them that power.

Ravage got up and rubbed against his side as she walked to the edge of the table. Soundwave had a hand extended to her to pet her as he talked to his new symbiotes.

"Procedure: Successful. Transformation blueprint: Installed."

Their visors flickered as they searched their processors for the instructions. Soundwave turned around for Ravage to demonstrate the connection to their master's body and aligned herself to his spine.

"Got it!" Rumble said, racing to the edge of the table, jumped up, shifting in mid-air, and installing himself onto Soundwave's right shoulder. The impact was rough and had the tall mech stumble back a few steps. He saw Frenzy ready himself to dash across the table in the same way and this time Soundwave braced himself. When all three were attached, he initiated the synchronization. Memories and feelings passed between all three.

The twins were reluctant to offer so much about their past so the TIC released his own history into their minds to gain their trust. His years as a sparkling, his parents, his few friends, his days in school, the days he was bullied for his freakish frame and vocal code (which he remedied by kicking their afts with his tendrils), graduation, his job before the Decepticons, when he met Ravage, when Megatron asked for his services… Ravage supplied her own memories: Having no one to care for her but herself while growing up, her panther friend Slackjaw who taught her how to hunt, when the panther was killed by getting caught in a fire, her distrust towards all beings, the day Soundwave found her and saved her; everything up to this point. Rumble and Frenzy's past was simple yet filled with the childish nature of Minicons: They were troublesome sparklings together, which was unusual for the sons of the chief's advisor. They played a lot of pranks and had been caught 86.4% of the time. The other 13.6% they blamed on other people or no one had even bothered to punish them that time, too tired of their games.

Soundwave and Ravage were thinking the same thing, and that caused a rumbling giggle between the brothers: They were going to have a hell of an exciting life if these two were planning on pranking the officers.

xXx

I always loved Minicons. They're just adorable and quirky and I wish people would write more of them. I like to elaborate in areas where the producers didn't, so I've got a lot on the Minicons.

If you like 'em too, you might like Pax Gaia.