Tinman

Complete Surrender

At the rendezvous point...

When Ironhide finally found the rendezvous point out in the middle of a field, he didn't even bother stopping before he transformed and skidded to an earth-tearing halt right in front of the silent gray-blue Balkan MK6. The black Autobot glared down menacingly at the vehicle.

"So...it's you."

The surveillance vehicle broke apart at every seam, growing massive legs and arms. A blank face jutted out from where the engine sat flashing a red-orange visor. Slowly, the form rose up as Soundwave. The Decepticon straightened his back, standing erect as a pole, not appearing to even look at Ironhide. But he was. His acute sensors detected instantly that Ironhide was still armed and right now he was the sole target of any attack the infamous Autobot chose to unleash. All of his logic circuits were crackling, screaming that this course of action was illogical and doomed for failure. But they were also asserting that if he made any hostile action first, he would inevitably ruin the plan. So he waited patiently, silently, for the Autobot to make the first move.

The weapons specialist thrummed his fingers next to his sides, his cannons rumbling, "Spill it Decepticon. I haven't got all day."

"Autobot, disarm and deactivate weapon systems." the melodic voice commanded.

Ironhide made his optics burn brighter, "NOT until I see Annabelle and Sara."

"Request denied. Weapons must be disarmed in order to disclose information." Soundwave informed.

The anger clenched at Ironhide's spark casing, but somehow his own logic circuits jolted to life to reign it in, "I'll disarm them ONLY when I have proof that they are alive and unharmed," he gave the stolid Decepticon a challenging look, "Would it be logical for me to disarm if they were dead?"

Soundwave seemed to process the question, "Negative."

Nodding the weapons specialist knew Soundwave was a very coherent thinker and if something didn't set right with his logic circuits he did whatever he could to correct it—a flaw of his mainframe.

"Then, the logical action would be to assure me with physical proof so that I KNOW my actions are not wasted." Ironhide continued his manipulations.

Again the Decepticon thought, "Logic, confirmed."

"So take me to Sara and Annabelle and then I'll disarm," the black Autobot insisted.

"Negative. Visual confirmation over communication line sufficient proof."

Ironhide narrowed his optics. Soundwave was definitely a stickler for logic but definitely not stupid. It was no secret that he was the veritable brain of the Decepticon forces, intelligent as well as a skilled combatant and spy— a lethal combination. For the briefest instant he thought about just blowing that mask right off his blank face and hacking the Con's processor for the information. But, Soundwave couldn't be easily hacked. The mech was pretty much a mobile supercomputer with vast memory storage and complex circuitry that only the most advanced technical Cybertronian engineer could possibly begin to unravel. He couldn't pull it off. Not on THIS Decepticon—some low-watt like Skywarp or Brawl, perhaps, but not Soundwave. A rare smart move by Starscream to send him.

Ironhide growled with displeasure, "Show me a current visual of them..." he suddenlyjabbed a whirring cannon in the Con's face and against his chest compartment, "and Primus help you if you pull any fancy tricks," he warned in a deadly tone.