Max, or rather... Flipsides at this very moment, followed close behind Soundwave as they walked into the monitor room. It was a rather small room, full of monitors... it didn't get much simpler than that....
Max's attention was immediately shot over to Thundercracker who was off on the side, for a brief moment they made eye contact. Max worried slightly that Thundercracker was going to say something, but he quickly shot his eyes elsewhere.
Max swore she saw a bead of sweat fall down his face.
Soundwave tapped a chair, intending for Max to sit down on it. Max sat down on the chair and was immediately given a data-pad.
"Flipsides: task", Soundwave tapped on the datapad, "operating gate B: understand?"
Max nodded quickly and Soundwave went to his chair, doing more complex tasks. She gave a quick glance towards Thundercracker and he also was working.
Thus the first hour of monitor duty began.
Max felt her patience dim as she watched the gate, operating the darn thing wasn't too hard, just press a button to open it for someone. She could only imagine that it wasn't a particularly important gate as she only opened it for the occasional grunt.
As time went on, it got more and more difficult to focus, daydreaming was just more tempting than this...
"Halt: state designation and reason for leaving." Soundwave spoke through a microphone to some grunts. Max was listening in on the conversation, not to eavesdrop, because this was really the only thing that was actually going on that happened to be somewhat... entertaining, if you could really call it that.
Max grew more invested into the conversation as Soundwave seemed to be going back and forth with whoever wanted to leave the Nemesis.
"Access denied, Lord Megatron has forbidden travels to-" the distinct sound of something banging could be heard, Max could only imagine that someone got mad and hit a wall or something. She noticed Soundwaves servos clench slightly before Thundercracker walked over.
"Hey loser, what part of "access denied" did you not understand? Scram before I get your superiors". After a while Thundercracker groaned.
"I hate Constructacons" he mumbled under his breath.
"Thank you, Thundercracker." Soundwave spoke.
"Aw, it's no problem sounders, those bolt-heads are annoying" Thundercracker sat back down in his chair, pinching the bridge of his nose.
After a moment of silence, Soundwave spoke up.
"How are Starscream and Skywarp?"
"Skywarp's ... fine, annoying but fine. Starscream has been a lot more demanding now, ever since Megatron started talking to Shockwave more." Thundercracker gestured a bit with his servos as he typed out a few commands onto the datapad near him.
"Does Starscream rant to you?" Soundwave asked, sending a glance across his screens.
"Oh, all the time. I swear, it's like every mega-cycle he's talking about how Shockwave is stealing his "spot" and all that scrap. Shockwave this, Shockwave that. If he spilled his engergon on the floor, he's going to blame it on Shockwave." Soundwave chuckled slightly, much to Max's surprise.
"You mean Starscream hasn't done so already?" Soundwave commented, a sliver of sly humor was tossed into his tone.
"I bet you that he already has, five times. I think at this point we could replace him with one of those yappy human dogs and get the same result."
"Thundercracker, you're being too nice; Megatron would probably prefer the dog over Starscream" that got an audible laugh out of Thundercracker.
During their conversation, poor Max just sat in between the two. Not that she minded, it was nice seeing Soundwave, or really any Decepticon rather, having a good hearted conversation. It made them seem more... human? They weren't just trying to take over the earth and wipe out all of humanity...
"So how are the cassettes?" Thundercracker asked, nonchalantly.
"Their doing fine. They've all gotten along with Flipsides, and Flipsides is getting along with them." Max tried not to perk up as she heard her "name" spoken. She could feel the attention drift over to her like a wave of water.
It left her to silently panic.
"Are the others treating you nicely?" Thundercracker bent over so that he was looking at Max. Max met Thundercrackers eyes briefly as she saw a warm and well-intentioned smile across his face, as if he was just a family friend.
Max would've said something, she was going to say something, but... she didn't. Her eyes flicked over to Soundwave briefly for a clue on what she should say, thinking that she was just being shy or something but...
Soundwave glared at her, his optics slightly visible through his visor, almost like medusa's glare.
"Oh, I'm guessing this is just a shy one then?" Thundercracker said, leaning back into his chair, deciding to not pursue Max for an answer to his question.
"They're a little more quiet than most" Soundwave answered, his glare ceased and Max just felt... less tense... so to speak...
What the hell was that?
Soundwave tapped on the datapad Max was holding with a digit. Max realized that in her frozen state she had accidentally forgotten to let some grunts pass through the gate, and she frantically pressed the button to let them through.
The conversation went dead as silence seeped back into the room. Max found herself beginning to struggle between her tedious, yet basic task and the inner-workings of her brain.
Why was he looking at me like that? Max tried to answer the question just as it was raised.
Did I make him mad or something? Was I supposed to keep quiet?
Max's mind went into a spiral of all the possible things she could have done wrong in that moment, things such as making actual eye contact with Thundercracker, or perhaps she was supposed to ask Soundwave for permission before answering. Thankfully, she didn't have to do so for very long. Surprisingly, a sudden ding rang through the room, signaling the end of the shift.
"See you next time sounders" Thundercracker said, waving at Soundwave as he held Max by the hand, leading her away and back over to the berthroom.
In the silence that followed the walk back to Soundwaves quarters, Max got the courage to ask the question
"Did... did I do something wrong?"
Soundwave glanced down at Max as she said that.
"Negative" Soundwave responded. "However try not to answer any questions later on" and in a rather comforting manner, Soundwave lightly patted Max on the head.
The small gesture was... nice, but did little in terms of calming down Max, she still was under the impression that she did something wrong.
The silence was giving a small amount of time to brew before Soundwave cut it again.
"We don't need to pick up the others from soundblasters, Ravage is leading them back to the berthroom.... Do you have any other questions?"
Max struggled a bit as she tried to formulate her next quarry, a poor attempt on her part to try avoiding an awkward silence and also hopefully answer some other questions.
"How come i didn't go alone to soundblasters?" Max knew on her part that the question was... rather "dumb" on her part, it wasn't like she was looking forward to going to his place.
"Two reasons really, I'm sure you know the first" Soundwave answered, already confirming Max's thoughts about asking the question.
"The second is because when cassettes are created, the host mech has to split their spark. Meaning that for a small amount of time, the host and cassette share a spark. Which is why its important for newly-activated cassettes stick close with their creators." Soundwave paused for a moment, allowing Max time to comprehend the information before continuing.
"If for whatever the reason, the host and cassette were to separate, there's a chance for the bond to be broken, and then it is only a matter of time before the cassette perishes" the last bit seemed to have more of a somber tone as Max thought over his answer.
They can die? She thought
Thank god i'm not a cassette then...
The last thought, although meant to be humorous, seemed to be in poor taste.
The walk continued in silence, Soundwave didn't seem to want to answer more questions, which was fine by Max.
She didn't want to know more.
By the time they got back to Soundwaves quarters, Max could barely keep her eyes open, it was like a fight to stay awake and Max was the losing dog in the corner.
Upon entering the room, the Soundwaves cassettes were all inside, some were sleeping, while Rumble and Frenzy greeted the Soundwave.
"Hey boss! Welcome back, how was the monitor shift?" Frenzy asked, Soundwave sat down in his chair.
"Unimportant, mostly.." Soundwave spoke as he leaned back into his chair.
"Soundblasters was also kinda boring, he had nothing to do, other than a few old human board games but that's it really.." Frenzy responded.
"And then that weirdo shockwave entered to check up on soundblaster, thank primus he left, he's a creep!"
Soundwave silently chastised Rumble for calling shockwave a weirdo, Rumbled backed off slightly on his shockwave slander.
"I wish his room wasn't so close to shockwave's lab, there was so much screaming going on next door over, he must have been doing some experiments on some poor grunts or something" Frenzy's comment sent a shiver of fear though Max as she gasped, silently, at the thought of Decepticons experimenting on other Decepticons...
Well... they were evil for some reason...
Max got ready for the night as she changed into something more comfortable and made her way to the corner of the room where her "nest" was. Along the way she nearly tripped on lazerbeak.
"Hey flippy, watch it!" Max was confused for a second before realizing that they were speaking to her, to which she mumbled out a half coherent apology.
Once her head hit the pillow, she was out.
AUTHORS NOTE:
hello dear readers, at this time of posting ive noticed that i am number 1 in the transformers G1 tag on wattpad and i dont know how to feel about this. on done had i am happy because like.. THATS MY BOOK. but on the other hand im kinda... overwhelmed, i mean my book isnt like super popular or anything, but it is kinda... sureal to think about...
anyhow, uh.. thanks for reading!
Transformers will continue after these messages:....
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Nemesis Intruder (transformers)
Science Fiction*transformers AU* as both third in command and communications officer of the decepticons, few things go under soundwaves eye. if something were to try, he would have it delt with permanently however, the communications officer is of course willing...
