Chapter Text
He’s distracted again.
Soundwave shunts the irrelevant thread to the back of his processor and refocuses on Laserbeak’s surveillance report. At least, given Frenzy’s blank gaze, he is not the only one failing to devote his full attention to this briefing.
Fortunately, they reach the end of their agenda before Soundwave can get lost in thought. Again.
“What’s up, Rav?” Frenzy asks, as they’re cleaning up.
Soundwave remains focused on resetting the projector. Ravage’s stare bores into him anyway, her meaning clear: anything to add?
And just like that, the loop he’s spent the better part of the meeting failing to ignore bursts free of its flimsy containment. He twitches as it rams back into his frontal processing. Soundwave is not prone to obsession, but lately, ever since—well, shortly after—that is. From the time Shockwave became the lead commander of the Decepticons, Soundwave has found himself preoccupied with a personal matter.
Frenzy and Laserbeak’s helms swing from Soundwave to Ravage and back, gleefully intrigued by the unfolding tension.
Soundwave spins up his vocaliser. “Announcement: personal matter. Soundwave: considering change of alternate mode.”
The room is silent for one klik, two. Soundwave resigns himself to avoiding the consideration with extra diligence for the foreseeable future.
“Heck yeah!”
“Well, it’s about time.”
“Hold on!” Frenzy whips a datapad out of subspace so fast that Soundwave’s optic sensor glitches. “Hold on. I’ve got a pinterest board for the coolest audio equipment on the music scene these days. Humans have made so many sick upgrades in the last two decades, boss.”
Soundwave tilts his helm. “Current altmode: not outdated.”
All three minicons exchange skeptical looks. Soundwave regrets everything.
Laserbeak hops across the table to tap a wing against Soundwave’s shoulder and tells him, not unkindly, “There’s a whole generation of humans who don’t even know what a cassette tape is.”
“So what are we thinking?” Frenzy continues, digits flicking across her datapad. “Something loud, obviously. How about a little more purple? Or strobe lights. Ooh, what about wheels?”
“Wheels!” Laserbeak squawks. “Soundwave has far too much class for wheels. Besides, wings are clearly the superior mode of transport.” The avian rattles his own demonstratively.
“No way,” Frenzy objects.
Unfortunately, Soundwave misses the rest of their argument because the majority of active processing drops out at the thought of himself with wings.
Soundwave.
With wings.
To add insult to injury, his imagination center takes over, producing a mental image that triggers a physical reaction.
If it were any other Decepticons in the room, Soundwave’s nanoklik lapse of control would have gone unnoticed. As it is, however, these Decepticons know all of his embarrassing secrets and never let him forget it. Why would this be any different? He clamps down on his plating, manually shuts off his vents, but he’s too late.
Ravage snorts, which draws Frenzy and Laserbeak’s attention. Laserbeak lights up, stamping his talons excitedly. Frenzy makes a thoughtful sound and begins typing away furiously.
Soundwave resists the urge to transform and pretend he’s inanimate.