DeceptiKids

Hide and Seek

Soundwave plugged into the ships security system once the agreed upon time had passed and began sifting through the alerts given to him - most benign, Knockout and Breakdown shrinking off their duties, some vehicons playing cards, the usual - when he noticed something... off.

'Minor blockage in west wing ventilation system.' The ship informed him in bright purple glyphs.

Gotcha. He thought smugly as he activate the cams in the vents where the 'blockage' was. He had to skip through three cams before spotting what he wanted to see - a small human boy with scraggly dark hair, curled up against the wall of the vent.

::Spotted.:: He informed Max over the comms.

He watched the human throw his head back in frustration - he was certain he'd found the perfect hiding spot this time - before moving to exit the vent. Soundwave waited until the human was safely on the ground - a vehicon helping him down who no doubt had suggested hiding there to him - before sending another comm and cutting himself off from the ship.

::Countdown, begin.::

Soundwave allowed himself a rare smile - not that anyone on the bridge could see it behind his visor - but Laserbeak felt it. He never thought he would have fun testing security systems but the last hour had been great, not only had he collected valuable data from this but it seemed Max was enjoying himself as well.

Starscream had mentioned almost casually to Soundwave that the Autobots could sent their human pets to spy on them - in fact, it was more likely that the Autobots would do that - and that they would be unprepared. Soundwave knew he was right, and what was worse is that until that moment he hadn't even thought of it. It had actually been Max to suggest testing the systems this way - apparently it was a human game played by small children. He assumed it was to sharpen their wits and help them spot any enemy humans.

With the human's allotted minute up, Soundwave plugged into the system.

'No current threats detected.'

What...?

That wasn't right - there was always something going wrong on the Nemesis, a little twitch in the back of his mind. What was going on?

Soundwave quickly flicked through the cams - in the medbay Knockout was working on some poor injured vehicon while Breakdown offered the conscious (and probably in a lot of pain) mech emotional support - in Starscream's room, the SIC was talking casually with his own human - the barracks were empty, drills were starting - the training room saw most of the vehicons practicing combat with Lord Megatron watching over boredly.

Soundwave realised with a chill down his spinal strut that he hadn't spotted Airachnid.

Fear was overtaking his logic circuits - Lord Megatron had told Airachnid that if she hurt any of the human children she would be executed immediately but Airachnid was dangerous and had a knack for murdering natives of whatever planet she visited. Soundwave hadn't seen her either - which always frustrated him, it was like the femme could simply disappear at will! - which did nothing to quell his building anxiety.

Soundwave unplugged from the system and stormed out the bridge, spooking Laserbeak who had fallen asleep in his dock. He hadn't panicked like this in a very long time, not since -

No, bad Soundwave. Don't think about them, not right now.

He walked with purpose through the halls, a few vehicons quickly stepping out of his way and muttering once he passed them.

'What's up with Commander Soundwave?'

'I've never seen him like that before.'

He didn't react to them.

Soundwave was so far in his own world he didn't notice the door next to him swoosh open. He did notice when someone grabbed his arm.

Soundwave was suddenly dragged into the room across from him. He was surprised to see Starscream looking at him rather smugly, his human stood on his berth. Starscream's smirk brightened as he gestured for Soundwave to look more closely at his human companion.

Starscream's human, Alex, stepped aside to reveal Max.

"You really should set up sensors that pick up organic life signals on a smaller scale." Alex said, "See, we humans are so small that two - possibly more - life signals close together only come off as one."

Soundwave was almost fritzing, if they'd noticed a defect in the security, why didn't the human just tell him? Then he looked to Starscream and remembered.

The SIC always loved theatrics. Starscream probably talked his young charge into this - and judging by how embarrassed and flustered the poor human looked he didn't do too well under the pressure of performing.

Soundwave gave a nod to Alex - a promise to fix the issue soon - and glanced at Starscream in his own version of a goodbye. Soundwave gently cupped Max in his servos and headed off back to the bridge.

This ship was going to be the death of him.