Different Wavelengths

Logic Gate

Sir Soundwave stood just outside the door to Shockwave's lab. Maybe it was the lighting or just nerves, but somehow the door appeared taller than it usually was back on the Interceptor.
Sir Soundwave just hoped he could wrap this up quickly. The human children were still hiding in his room onboard the ship, but it would only be a matter of time before the three were discovered. He decided that as soon as Shockwave dismissed him, he'd use the last of his shore leave to get the kids off the ship and back into the hands of their Autobot friends, a sentence that was still surreal to the spymaster.

Sir Soundwave knocked on the metal door. "One moment", replied an emotionless voice on the other side. A second later, the door snapped open and Soundwave peered inside the lab. It was a lot cleaner than the one back home and Shockwave was calmly typing away at his monitor as the TIC walked inside.
Shockwave closed out of the monitor and turned his attention to Soundwave.
"Your presence is welcomed, Soundwave", Shockwave told him, tone never changing in the slightest. "He grabbed a datapad off of the table. "I will be writing down everything you tell me for later study. Are you ready to begin?"
Sir Soundwave nodded slowly. The last time someone spoke so formally with him, he had his voice box heavily damaged, so the TIC was more on guard than usual. Despite that, he pulled his EM field as close to his body as he could to give the illusion that he wasn't afraid.

Shockwave began asking questions. "Let's start from the beginning. When you were transported inside the artifact, were you able to see anything?"
Soundwave thought for a moment before nodding. "Could you show me what you saw?"
Sir Soundwave displayed an image on his visor. It was difficult to forget the bright colors and flashing lights inside the cube. He thought he had seen a dark shadow darting around him, but maybe that was imagined. Shockwave examined the image in earnest. "I don't know what I am looking at, but it is fascinating regardless."

He typed something into his datapad. "Anything else? Perhaps some kind of sound or additional anomalies?" Sir Soundwave tried to remember, but all he could recall was the blurry image of... Well, wherever he was taken to. He shook his helm no. "I see." It was near impossible to tell if Shockwave was disappointed in the lack of additional information, as his EM field registered blank to Sir Soundwave.
"I'd like to test your knowledge on the events before the incident", Shockwave told him. "What happened before the interaction with the artifact occured? Can you remember?"
Soundwave nodded and provided him with a detailed report on the entire mission, sent straight to the datapad.

Shockwave analyzed the contents. "This is... Not your usual writing style", the scientist murmured. Sir Soundwave tensed up. He nervously fiddled with the ends of his headband. Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, IGNORE IT-
"Then again, those with certain cases of processor damage may engage in unusual behaviors. It would not be illogical to assume that this is the case here."
Oh thank Primus.
Shockwave continued reading the report only to stop at a particular line. "It says right here that Breakdown and Skyquake were present at the excavation site", he noted. Soundwave nodded, feeling anxiety creeping in.
"But Breakdown and Skyquake were miles away at different parts of Earth at the time. The excavation was carried out by the Miner Class Vehicons. So why do you claim Breakdown and Skyquake were there?"

In that instant, Sir Soundwave realized that he had given Shockwave the report detailing the incident in HIS OWN WORLD. Panic set in and the TIC could not stop shaking. "Please answer the question, Soundwave", Shockwave said. His flat voice was lightly colored with suspicion. "This report was logged BEFORE you went down with me and Commander Starscream to the excavation site. You of all people should be aware of who was sent to extract the artifact, and yet you claim that Medical Assistant Breakdown and Officer Skyquake were the ones doing the excavating. Illogical."

Sir Soundwave began to take a frightened step back, desperate to keep a safe distance from the bot with a cannon for a hand. Shockwave followed in tandem. "Please answer the question", he repeated. Sir Soundwave had no answer. Not knowing what to say or do, he simply shook his helm no again.
Shockwave was silent. The spymaster tried again to read his EM field but was once again greeted with nothing. Shockwave leaned into his personal space, for ing Soundwave to look the scientist in his big red eye.
"Answer. The. Question."
He shuddered. But he also had a very dumb plan.
A single tentacle slipped from his chassis and slithered over to some machinery on an opposite wall. The tendril attached itself to a machine and sent a high voltage into it. The contraption exploded. Shockwave snapped his helm towards the distraction and Sir Soundwave quickly retreated his tendril.
"A moment, Soundwave", Shockwave said. "It appears we have an accident." Shockwave set aside his datapad and went to get some tools to repair his machine. Sir Soundwave only had one shot...

Sir Soundwave approached the table with the datapad and used another tendril to access the device's files. He swiftly deleted everything on it, including the report he sent to Shockwave. Then he turned his attention to a nearby monitor. He had to act fast. It would only be a matter of time until Shockwave looked back this way.
Sir Soundwave hacked his way into the monitor's systems, slipping past firewalls and fail-safes. He sifted through thousands of files until he found a data package nestled between miscellaneous research notes and a document on Project Predacon.
It was titled Fallen_Star_Archive and seemed to have been made recently. He downloaded a copy and disengaged. Sir Soundwave looked back to Shockwave, who was scanning the broken machine to find out what caused it to suddenly short out.

Sir Soundwave shuffled backwards until he was out of the lab. Then he all but bolted away from the place as fast as he could.

Eventually, the TIC had to stop to catch his breath. He was on a completely different part of the ship now, as far from Shockwave's reach as possible. Sir Soundwave felt his tense body relax a bit. He was safe. For now at least. But now this world's Shockwave was onto him.
And, oddly enough, he liked that?
It was certainly odd to see Shockwave so uncaring and focused. It wasn't entirely unwelcome...
But that wasn't important. What was important was getting back home. Sir Soundwave examined the contents of the stolen data. It was surprisingly neat but used so many words that it was still tough to read on his own. He'd have to show this to Raf later.

Opening a ground bridge, Sir Soundwave held on to a glimmer of hope, for now he was one step closer to home.