Sparkling Troubles

Chapter 5

"It's mine!"

"-No, it's mine!-"

Ratchet growled. His nerve circuits were already on edge from the recent capture of Soundwave, and these sparklings were not helping. Not one bit. Finally, after suffering all he could of yelling and screeching, he slammed down the tool he was working with.

"Will you two, for Primus' sake, QUIET DOWN?!"

The two quickly reacted to the shouting. They stood stock-still, Smokescreen looking at the medic with fear. Ratchet looked at Bumblebee with pity as the little bot stood. He was facing the opposite direction.

"Bumblebee, I'm over here."

"-Oops, sorry, Ratch...-"

"That's all right. Now, I know you two want to have all the fun you can handle, but right now..." Ratchet stole a glance at the dark form he was currently studying. "... right now, I need you to be extra quiet. Okay?"

The two nodded. "Hey, 'Bee, wanna play wrestling? We can turn off our vocal capacitators," Smokescreen suggested. Bumblebee nodded enthusiastically. Ratchet quietly chuckled at Smokescreen's attempt at saying a word his processor couldn't... process.

As the two little ones wrestled, Ratchet turned back to his patient. Soundwave's chassis was unlike any other he had seen before... and that was saying something. As a medic, he had seen every type naturally born from the allspark. Soundwave must have upgraded his... or even rebuilt it from scratch. As Ratchet performed an internal scan, he gasped.

Soundwave didn't have one processor.

He had two. This explained why he was able to store so much information. His primary 'brain' had already been filled to the brim with data and files... a feat that Ratchet couldn't complete in his entire lifetime. To add to the absurdity of the amount of information Soundwave held, his secondary processor was already half-filled. Soundwave must have billions of trillions of data files stored away. Many of them belonging to the decepticon cause.

Being so immersed in his musings, Ratchet was immensely startled when a light ping sounded from Soundwave's face.

Recharge: 40% complete.

Ratchet paused a moment. He was staring at the blank void of black that every mech thought as Soundwave's face. He wondered, was that really the case? Or was it just a visor?

He tentatively raised his arms to the helm. His fingers gripped the seams around the edge of the plate, and he gingerly pulled. It didn't budge. He ran the fingers along the edge, feeling for anything. His fingers felt small outdents, suggesting latches. He pressed firmly on them, and slowly raised the device.

He gasped immediately.

He had been expecting something completely different. Old. Battle scarred. Horribly mangled. Anything, anything but this. It was like fine china, like it hadn't seen the light of day in stellar cycles. Which it probably hadn't.

Another light ping brought his attention back to the visor.

Recharge: 80% complete.

Ratchet felt a light touch on his foot. Looking down, he saw it was Smokescreen.

"Waz dat?"

Ratchet sighed. This... is Soundwave."

Smokescreen looked confused. "Good guy?"

"No, no," Ratchet answered, shaking his head. "Very bad guy."

"Oh. Can I see?"

Ratchet started to deny his request when he heard a small noise. Bumblebee was standing next to the berth-post, snuffling. He looked like he was holding back...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHOOOOOOOOOOO!"

... a sneeze. Ratchet looked in horror at the recharging Decepticon, expecting him to have wakened. He was about to sigh in relief when he heard another noise at his feet.

Bumblebee had lost his balance from the pure force of the sneeze, and was staggering around the berth-post. Ratchet leaned down to catch him, but barely missed his tiny chassis as Bumblebee's helm smashed into the berth-post...

CLANGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

Recharge: Interrupted.

Ratchet could only watch in horror as Soundwave's optics shot open, staring directly at the sparklings who, in their sparkling innocence, didn't notice a thing.