Two sparks, One pulse

Chapter 10: Perceiving

A week later——————

The Nemesis was chaos

Everyone was trying to find the little sparkling they loved so dearly but no one had even the faintest clue where she'd gone. I quick scan of the cameras showed Enigma running out of the groundbridge but when they searched the mine, there was no sign of her.

If the drones breaking down and running all over the place with zero coordination was bad enough, they also had to deal with a panicked Soundwave.

More than once Cyclonus and Astrotrain had to step in to be his voices of reason, telling him when he needed to recharge or refuel but most nights, the navy mech would stay up until unearthly hours scouring the globe for signs.

Soundwave's optics were glued to the screen under his visor, not even looking down at the keyboard where his digits typed so fast they were a blur. Besides the tapping, everything was quiet, everyone else asleep or away.

He could feel the nervous tick in his arm that caused his servo to twitch every few minutes and there was an annoying pulse in his eyelids from lack of sleep. He no longer focused on the time, only judging it by when he felt the gazes of the others on his back, watching him.

But he kept working.

More than once he spun around at the sound of tiny pedes running to him or a little femmes laughter echoing down the halls. Even now when he was glued to the screen, he continued preparing himself for the touch of a small servo on his calf. He kept expecting it and then looking down, seeing his sister looking up at him disapprovingly.

It hadn't taken the TIC long to realize she'd done this every time he worked late, only to look back to the door and see Astrotrain or Thundercracker giving him the same look. Those two had started to train her to reign him back from overworking.

Because it worked so darn well.

That and when the larger mech would suddenly appear next to him and that little face would be smooshed up against the glass in his subspace, a place the little femme enjoyed spending time because she was then eye-level with everyone.

But she was no longer there.

Soundwave just sighed and let his helm droop a bit, allowing his optics to close for a few seconds just to ease off the heavy feeling in them.

Only for him to shoot up when his computer started beeping. 

Not wasting a second, he began typing at rapid speed, his digits a blur as he locked onto the location. His spark rate picked up when he saw a small green dot, surrounded by a few more red ones.

The bridge was open before he even turned around, and the navy mech was already running through. Despite it only being seconds, he felt like was was in there for hours until he jumped out and his pedes hit solid ground.

The TIC scanned the area, straightening up and looking around. 

But he was alone

Kneeling down, he examined the ground, still wet from rain. It was littered with footprints, big and to his surprise, small.

There were some he didn't recognize but were definitely sparkling size. So the rumors of the Autobots caring for their own young were true.

A chirp from Laserbeak caught his attention and he turned to what the minicon had spotted. Among all the others, there was a single footprint, smaller and more slender than the rest. It was almost identical to his own.

Ravage fell off from his back and hurried over, leaning down and sniffing the ground. He growled and prowled around, his tail whipping back and forth, a sign that the enemy had been here. He walked forward a few feet before turning back to his master and giving a short, apologetic whine.