Goldenrod - SoundRod AU

Red Lines

The Judge slithered through many ways that Hotrod could be seen as horrible in. Where as for Cheetor they only praised him for his ability to keep the Allspark alive.

Cheetor was less than thrilled when Hotrod was thrown into a cell after being beat and had panels of metal ripped off forcibly and then stuck back on.

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Hotrod whimpered, lying on the ground of a cell, energon pooling out around his metal frame. The dark black-ish metal now stained with blue blood, a red light overhead illuminated Hotrod's blue-black metal.

His optics drifted to stare out the cell, where he was met with four pairs of eyes staring back at him.

"Huh?!" Hotrod tried to lift himself off the ground, but struggled to even sit up.

"Calm down...I can't hurt you from here." Soundwave's voice echoed across the hall to Hotrod. "Soundwave?!" Hotrod whimpered out, sitting up in pain.

His blue optics fixed on Soundwave and Lazerbeak. "Glad to see you— are those my glasses?" Soundwave spoke sternly, trying his best to point at the red visor that had been covering Hotrod's eyes for the past 26 hours.

"Uhm....no?" Hotrod joked.

"Enough, you know a way out I assume?"

"Well sorta-''

"Good because Lazerbeak needs to know that way out so they can get the others to help us. Now, tell them where to go."

"Hold on-!"

"They need to know what is the quickest way to get in and out-.."

"SOUNDWAVE!!"

Soundwave glanced at Hotrod, his pink optics darting across his smooth blue-black metal. "First off, I know you want to get out of here, I get that. But I'm stuck here as well. We need to work together again, like how we did in the caves!"

....

Soundwave just stared at him, assessing him with his cold pink eyes. ".." Hotrod felt uneasy by his gaze. "S-Soundwave....im sorry for snapping but we both need to get out of here on our own, but with each other's help.."

Soundwave let out a sigh. He calmed himself to the point he felt it. The crescent energon blade slid out and cut his chains off. He pulled his back off the wall and stretched.

"Fine." Soundwave sighed.

"You could've done that the whole time?!" Hotrod yelped. Soundwave sighed and looked down, trying to hide his embarrassment. "Y-yes and no...I needed an anchor to calm myself so I could.."

"You're so selfish I swear to Primus!" Hotrod sighed. Soundwave took a step back, looking down the hall as if he was gonna run.

"Boss don't!" Lazerbeak tried. "Save yourself Hotrod.." Soundwave hissed and took off down the hall with Lazerbeak flapping skittishly behind.

"Soundwave!!" Hotrod yelled, gripping the bars of his cell in pain. No response.

"Frag.." Hotrod whimpered and laid against the bars. He looked down, silence taking over his thoughts.

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Soundwave got outside of the pavilion safely, with a little help from his blade. "Soundwave!" Cheetor exclaimed, jumping out at him.

"Is everything alright, Soundwave?"

"Perfectly fine."

"Where's Hotrod?"

"Inside."

"Still?!"

"I left him to rust in his cell, Cheetor."