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Frenzy knew she wasn’t the best in the team. Far from it, actually. Between the two flying Cons, whatever Ravage was (and still, there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do) and her brother, well, it was a tough fight and she’d long understood her place wasn’t anywhere on the podium.
Starting from the kit she found herself with. It was also very lacking. The others had a weapon built on themselves somehow: whether it be claws, side missiles or Rumble’s nasty pile drivers. Her weapon was… uh, screeching. She could stun enemies with it, sure, but it didn’t exactly prove effective in neutralizing them for more than a few moments. Then, back to square one. She relied mostly on blasters to cause damage, but built for her size were rare, expensive and very fragile.
Actually, she was pretty sure Soundwave only kept her around, and reluctantly so, because Rumble would never cooperate without her. She had her brother to thank, obviously, but being a dead weight had started to put some pressure on her. Especially since last time, when her screeching distraction had accidentally hit Soundwave, ready to lash out a decommissioning wave of his own, and the result had been an ear-shattering disaster.
One thing she did have going for herself: it was her undeniable connection and teamwork with Rumble. There were many myths about twins, but she and Rumble simply clicked. They worked well together, really well, so if Soundwave wanted to keep her brother around, then she’d just have to be too.
So the boss usually assigned missions to the both of them. It was rare for him to give a singular mission, even if it was stealth, and it was even rarer for it to be given to Frenzy of all minicons.
So, yeah. That was the reason for showing back to his quarters in the Decepticon base at this unholy hour, with a gash in her arm.
The documents she had to retrieve (very, uh, legally) were thankfully still in pristine condition, and considering her track record, she’d consider it an all-out win. After all, it was also very late and the time was starting to get to her. The quarters were never unguarded (between the six of them, there was no problem in finding someone who’d rather stay awake, and Ratbat was always in front of the line) but she didn’t think whoever was in check would care that much about the small stream of energon dripping down her fingers, especially if it was Soundwave himself.
Frenzy scanned her uninjured hand to unlock the door and after an affirmative green light it silently slid open. Everything was dark and quiet, she didn’t see anyone, and she was willing to bet Ratbat had taken the night shift again. Well, as long as it didn’t bother the small bat, Soundwave would let her do whatever she pleased since she brought stunning results.
But Frenzy wasn’t a night person. She preferred the sun, being outside, talking to people, concentrating attention on her, expressing herself in the most loud way possible and getting in all kinds of chaotic mischief. Everything Soundwave hated and prevented her from doing, it was also another reason why she and the deployer butted heads so frequently. Unfortunately, there was a clear hierarchy between them, so no matter how unfair it was, he always won.
Right now, the minicon simply wished to go to sleep. Perhaps she’d wrap her injury with something, just to attempt to stop the bleeding, but she’d rather repair it tomorrow morning. Still, first things first she had to give the profit of her labor to her boss.
Soundwave’s room was bigger than the rest, understandably so. He was also bigger than all of them combined. His still figure laid on the steel bed, signaling he was most likely recharging. At least, this gave her enough time to think about a report that wouldn’t put her in any worse light than she already was. She tossed the documents on the chair, being too small to reach the desk, and walked out of the room as silently as she crept in.
She hadn’t yet figured out who was on night duty, but she didn’t really care anymore. She opened the door to the minicon room and dropped any idea of stopping the bleeding, thinking it wasn’t that bad and that it certainly wouldn’t cause her death. But all reason fell behind as the berth looked just so promising, and her head a bit light. So she walked silently to her cot. After all, everyone else was sleeping.
Contrary to what Frenzy had believed, Ravage was not sleeping. He was resting his optics, yes, but he couldn’t fall unconcious, not with the pungent smell of precious energon filling his nostrils the moment the door opened. On a battlefield, the odor captivated him and drove his strategy. Stray energon signaled some easy prey, someone simple to finish. But inside these walls, it was a bit more nauseating. And concerning.
He didn’t quite open his eyes, not yet. He was still sleeping (or attempting to. Faking it, anyway) on the windowsill in the corridor, like he always did. The minicon room had soon become too noisy and narrow: the birds soared the upper part of it, the two bipedal minicons acted too much like children for his tastes, and he’d rather be anywhere else than with them when the two came back from missions if he wished to keep his auditory receivers intact.
It was no secret among them either that when one wasn’t close, the other was restless and tense. Rumble especially would toss and turn all night trying to find a comfortable position that would come only whenever his sister was around; while Frenzy was calmer, but she did hum some tunes to keep awake. How those didn’t lull her to sleep was a mystery even to Soundwave, but it was slightly better than Rumble’s continuous movement. Ravage wasn’t sure it was something simply linked to being twins either, rather them being so sickeningly clingy to each other.
However, the smell was strong. Much too strong for it to be normal. Had that idiot come back bloodied? For a moment he wondered whether Frenzy had finally taken her first kill, but remembering the subject and the fact it was supposed to be a stealth mission, he deemed it far more likely to be the smell of her own energon. He didn’t even need to open his eyes to find the direction she’d gone to. First Soundwave’s room. His muscles relaxed. She’d be okay, then.
But when she strolled right under him again, smell as strong as ever, he put up a dark scowl. So she was going to act like an idiot. He sighed as he opened his dark red eyes, observing a dark figure trailing behind the minicon without a sound.
Ratbat, for once, wasn’t doing the night shift either. This didn’t mean she was recharging though. She couldn’t help it, she loved the night. The darkness, and flying around undisturbed and unseen. It filled her with joy, and her sonar made the best music in her ears whenever it was used. She loved to fly with her eyes closed, but she also had the restrain not to do it when she was assigned a mission in the light for the day after. She was nocturnal, and loved to be nocturnal, but not everyone was. Rather, she was the only one.
Even Laserbeak hated flying in the night. As if his dark coating gave him any shelter in the broad daylight. He wasn’t even that reflective! Once, she’d brought the crow outside in the dark and he’d slammed face first against the second pipe to the right.
She had laughed at him for weeks. But he’d also gotten better.
Those were the thoughts that kept her awake. Honestly, she also wanted to make sure Frenzy came back safe and sound. The girl was… in a bit of a rough spot. Her weapons weren’t great in case of an emergency, but she could hold her own if the situation was dire enough or her brother was on the line. Still, she could do a stealth mission fairly well. Soundwave had chosen her for this, as Rumble’s kit proved fairly ineffective and too violent for stealth on any raised platform, so everything that wasn’t at the ground floor on a building; she and Laserbeak lacked the appendixes to shuffle through documents too, and Ravage was needed for the day ahead. So he’d taken his chances and sent Frenzy instead.
Ratbat kept herself busy with her sonar. It made her hearing even more receptive, and in the span of a minute she could hear people chatting all around her, walking, doing things in the night. Rumble’s tumbling didn’t upset her all that much. He was trying to be at least somewhat quiet about it.
Frenzy’s footsteps were easy to distinguish after a while, she was the only minicon moving around their area, her legs moved fast and frequently even if at an uneven pace.
She didn’t hear only her footsteps, though.
Plic, plic, plic.
The sound of something dripping. Was it water, oil? Maybe she’d just imagined it. Perhaps Frenzy had had a shower already.
The sound continued. When the door to the minicon room opened, Ratbat felt it very clearly. The mystery liquid fell down and bounced a bit on the floor, like only one specific substance did.
Energon.
Contrary to Frenzy’s prediction, it was Laserbeak who was having the night shift. Being the first minicon of their carrier, Laserbeak had a direct and incredibly strong connection to him. Should anything bad happen, someone barging in or stealthily trying to acquire some information about the spy master, he would need no more than a ping to acquire Soundwave’s immediate attention. He also knew the carrier was certainly not sleeping. Something was on his mind, but Laserbeak didn’t ask. It was not his business.
He was expecting someone, actually. Frenzy needed to get back from her stealth mission, hopefully with the right documents. Stealing was certainly not her favorite thing to do nor her specialty, but she proved good enough at it. She was still better at proving distractions and grabbing the enemy’s attention, although because of how risky the job was, Soundwave was always very reluctant to let her do it, but never explaining why. This had led to more than one argument between the two.
So when the door opened, Laserbeak’s eyes focused through a night vision lens on the figure standing in it. He leaned forward from his spot. Ratbat had taught him how to, but he found it really hard to hang upside-down like she did, so he simply opted for an artificial branch in said corner Soundwave had installed specifically for this patrolling reason. However, when the door closed with only one petite figure entering, he knew he could relax. Frenzy had got back. He would resume his duties.
But not in that very moment. A glint of something caught his gaze immediately after Frenzy entered the carrier’s room to drop whatever intel she’d acquired. A shiny pink drop was now on the floor, where she’d been standing nanoclicks prior. When she exited the room and went back to the corridor, where Ravage was still fake-sleeping, another fell right under the panther-like ‘Con, causing his susceptible nose to scrunch.
Laserbeak frowned. She was injured, why wasn’t she saying anything? The only one that could stop her from bleeding out was their master, maybe Rumble but he was a lot clumsier with his hands. He simply hoped she wasn’t going to try and do it herself. After that, when he entered the room right behind her without as much as a beat of his wings, another drop fell again. She didn’t even seem to care about the energon she just lost, simply crawling into her bed.
Rumble turned immediately with a smile when he felt the door opening, a figure entering, and a weight on the bed closest to his. In that order.
It meant Frenzy had come back.
“Frenzy!” He whispered, shuffling closer. His sister seemed surprised at first, actually her eyes struggled to focus for a moment.
“Hi.”
“How did it go?” Rumble asked again after a beat. Something seemed wrong in the other minicon, and for a moment he feared she’d failed the mission. Usually, Laserbeak would have scolded them already and told them to keep their shrill voices low.
“...okay.” She replied, shrugging. After that, she finished it way too curtly. “I’ll get to sleep.”
This definitely set him off. Frenzy loved to talk, about anything. Stealth missions she usually hated because she had to be quiet, but she still told him everything when she got back, the good and the bad. So seeing her like that had his mind scream that no, something didn’t go quite according to plan. Did their carrier already know about it?
“What happened?” He asked, voice suddenly graver, leaning in her direction. Frenzy’s gaze turned a bit sorrowful.
“I… nothing happened, Rumble. I’m just tired.”
“It was supposed to be a stealth mission. You didn’t encounter anyone, did you?” He questioned immediately. Frenzy stopped. She held the cover tighter with one hand.
“You… don’t tell Soundwave, okay?”
Rumble knew he couldn’t exactly promise that. But he also wasn’t going to betray the trust of his sister, so he nodded. He moved closer, nullifying the gap between the two beds and Frenzy did the same. Although, when she moved, a sharp, choked breath escaped her.
Rumble was quick to move his eyes to her arm. She’d just moved that, so…
The covers were stained with two distinct streaks of pulsating pink.
Soundwave wasn’t asleep either. He never was, when one of his minicons was outside alone. Should any kind of ping reach him, although none had come, he had to be ready to intervene, transform into his alt-mode and sprint down any road to reach them. Frenzy was no exception.
He also knew every single one of them was still awake. Frenzy for obvious reasons, Laserbeak had taken over night duty, and he could understand Rumble even if he didn’t approve of his antics. Ratbat surprised him, but she was a creature of the night so what was he going to do, yet Ravage not quite snoozing off also made Soundwave wonder if all the minicons had had the same idea.
When Frenzy came back and dropped the documents, he felt somewhat relieved. Then she moved out of his room and into the minicons’, so he carefully got up to examine what she’d been sent to retrieve.
He wasn’t quite hoping for a report in the morning. Knowing her, she’d forget about it and when asked would give a shrug in response, along with the lines of ‘the mission was accomplished, wasn’t it?’. He really needed to work more on her discipline.
But one thing he had to check. The cybertronian she was sent to rob managed a lot of interesting and dangerous activities. He initially just meant to check the folder and make sure she got the right pages and wasn’t sidetracked.
So he picked it in between his fingers and opened it. There was quite the amount of paper slid into it, perhaps some extra information he hadn’t thought she’d get, but this looked like quite the catch. Everything he needed was in there.
With a curt nod, he closed it. This time he slid it on the desk.
And then he registered something wet and faintly warm on his palm. He opened it and scanned it. It was very faint, but there seemed to be an almost imperceptible line of something, glistening when the hand turned toward his window. He was quite surprised, he had no such thing when he got up previously. This meant it must have come from…
He eyed the folder on the desk. Seeing nothing was on the front page, he instead flipped it over. The back had a small hand print, no bigger than the one of a minicon for sure, and it was damp and warm like the one on his palm.
He eyed it suspiciously. Then confronting the hue from the yellow paper of the envelope and the slight blue paint of his own hand, he realized what color the original substance must have been.
Pink.
His gaze widened. Yet no alert ping had reached him. He checked over his last connections with the minicons, and only Laserbeak had correctly reported to him. From Frenzy, there was nothing since two days prior.
He looked over the chair just to be sure. There was some there too, the same energon. With one step he moved to his door. Frenzy had closed it on her way out, but that was the only thing separating him from the final piece of evidence that didn’t leave any room for error.
A drop of fresh and shiny energon, right before his own door.
And Frenzy lacked the weapons to draw it from someone else.
He didn’t lose any more time. The door to the minicon room was slightly ajar, the tail of Ravage silently leaving it open. He could count two more drops. Considering Frenzy’s base walking speed, it meant more or less one every two seconds. He didn’t mean to wake any minicon up, but he knew damn well none of them were actually sleeping. And Laserbeak was this close to sending him an alert ping.
So he slammed open the door.
“Frenzy.!”
Rumble’s concerned whisper-shout mingled with Ratbat’s terrified squeak, being almost drowned out by Ravage’s slithering reprimand, yet somehow mixing with Laserbeak’s bark of warning, and all of them being overpowered the moment Soundwave marched into the room shouting the same thing.
Frenzy didn’t expect it. She clutched her hurt limb to her chest and very quickly scanned everyone in the room. They weren’t all there when she entered it. Wasn’t Ratbat on night duty as usual? Where had Ravage and Laserbeak come from? And what was Soundwave doing there?
Her gaze fell on the carrier first and didn’t leave him. She couldn’t, his piercing gaze was undecipherable and yet seemed to pin her on the ground. Every other minicon followed her movement, though. Seemed like they didn’t quite expect it either. But the feverishly pink arm left little to wonder.
“Repair bay.” Soundwave sentenced after only a moment. “Now.”
Rumble helped her, although there really wasn’t need for walking. She trudged to the medbay, following Soundwave closely. Right above her, Ratbat. Ravage stalked right by her side and Laserbeak was closing their small formation.
Soundwave held the door open until all of them were in. Ravage didn’t even ask before grabbing Frenzy’s back in his maw and putting her on the top of the bed with just two elegant jumps. Climbing on a raised platform still lower than the bed, Rumble looked between the two of them frantically.
In suffocating silence, Soundwave opened a drawer to show a minuscule welder made for minicons and a couple of stray pieces of iron. From another, anti-rust and a couple of rags.
Ravage leapt graciously again on another windowsill, observing from above. Laserbeak poised himself on a branch made for him, and Ratbat made a few quick flaps to stay above the lights in the room.
Soundwave turned, taking her arm inside of his palm. He began cleaning the wound, and as Frenzy tensed the pink energon rippled out slightly faster. He blocked the stream with a thumb, working to eliminate the pink hue all around.
“Report.” He commanded, putting more anti-rust and scrubbing a part that had regretfully already dried, making her wince.
Frenzy kept her gaze glued to the thin sheet that covered the bed in the medbay. She hadn’t thought about it yet. Unfortunately.
Soundwave waited a few clicks before he could hear her talking. The voice was reduced to a whisper.
“I… I infiltrated the target’s quarters.” She began. “And I found the documents.”
Soundwave raised his gaze to bear a hole in the side of her head, never stopping his scrubbing. Finally the black was resurfacing on her skin. But he wanted to know more.
“H-however…” She kept going, clean fingers curling into a fist. “The target found me, too.”
Soundwave noted into his hard drives that the next visit to said target should no longer be stealth.
But he digressed from that. Finally, he put the rugs back and grabbed the pieces of iron instead.
“Did it cause this injury?”
Frenzy’s mouth twitched. Then she finally opened it again. “He, uh… grabbed me. I-I stunned him, but he fell down, smashing me into something.” Then, even lower. “A-at least I think.”
Soundwave began to weld the pieces of iron with her skin. It would be a bit uncomfortable for a while, but it was by far the easiest and quickest solution to this problem.
Frenzy’s last phrase resonated in his head for the whole process. It meant she didn’t remember completely what had happened. Which greatly implied she had passed out or been unconscious for an undetermined amount of time. It was mostly a matter of luck that she had regained her senses before everything could go dangerously awry.
Hoping he was satisfied, Frenzy looked for a way to get down as soon as the tools were put back in their place, but Soundwave prevented her from leaving by putting a giant hand right over her head and shuffling to find something else.
Frenzy eyed the carrier suspiciously until he plugged one end of a purple wire into a monitor, and turned the other thin line to meet her head.
“Wait, no, I’m not lying!” She almost screamed out, and Rumble jolted too. Soundwave let go of her and kept the chord in his other hand, but a decent distance away. Just to show he didn’t mean any harm. For some reason, Frenzy had sounded panicked.
“I will not look into your memories.” He replied, calm but firm. “You admitted yourself that you passed out. I will check for any lingering sings of concussions or similar injuries.” He rolled the thin cable in her direction. It stopped right by her side, and then he crossed his hands.
Frenzy’s gaze darted to him, to the cable, to the door left open. To Rumble still underneath.
“Only concussions.”
“Other head injuries will come out of the physical scan in any case.”
“Nothing psychical.”
Frenzy fidgeted with her new gray arm plate as the metal cooled down. Soundwave’s expression didn’t change.
“Agreed.”
With some more hesitation, Frenzy plugged the cord into the back of her head. The line began to glow a soft red hue. She felt a couple of gentle shocks go through her brain, then the cable glowed in the opposite direction, and in a few seconds it was over. She was quick to remove it the moment a result popped onto the screen. She kicked it away from her.
Laserbeak was the one having the cleanest line of sight to the monitor. He frowned.
“So what?” She asked, as Soundwave still studied the eerie green screen.
“Result: light concussion.” He replied, unceremoniously.
Frenzy was ready to retort but she stopped. A concussion certainly explained her desire for going immediately to sleep, the minor ache in her head, but something else was off. Soundwave didn’t sound pleased, and she could understand that, but she thought he’d be angry. It wasn’t a perfect mission, far from it. Was her mind playing tricks on her already?
The carrier focused his gaze on her again, making a hand gesture to Rumble she missed. “Additional symptoms may include drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, headaches, confusion and inability to focus. Do you feel any?”
Why did he sound so… so weird? His tone was usually incredibly monotonous. Now it didn’t properly sway, but it sounded so alien put in his speakers. A tinge of emotion, something she didn’t understand. It just put her on edge and made everything feel wrong.
“Frenzy?!” This time it was Rumble, under her. It brought her back into the present. A couple stray movements passed in the corner of her eye, probably Ratbat moving the lights, making her wonder for how long she’d been like that.
“I… uh, I’m a bit light-headed.” She admitted. “And, well, tired, but… nothing new there.”
Why was he acting like that? Normally they’d be squabbling by now, criticizing each other to the point of throwing fists. She didn’t know how to react, he was upsetting her too!
She’d seen their carrier heal an injury tons of times, and he had never acted like that. He had never asked that to Laserbeak or Ravage. Heck, not even to Rumble, and Ratbat hardly ever got hit. His-
Oh, then it clicked. It was again because she was the weakest. Because she couldn’t do anything right. In fact, when had someone failed as spectacularly as her? Got a concussion after actually putting up a fight and a strategy. She should be laughing. Anyone else should be, it was funny.
And foolish, she found herself thinking. And preventable. It was stupid, letting her guard down like that after she assured the target was asleep. But then he had turned, fallen off his bed and seen her small light. What was she supposed to do, call for help? None of the other minicons ever did it, they had a backup plan. She did have it, but the stun had repercussions the moment the Cybertronian fell down dragging her along into a bookshelf. Someone like Ravage would have never let that happen and-
“And it was an accident.” A deep and robotic voice brought her gaze back up. Soundwave reached a hand on her head, gently stroking it. “They happen. Tomorrow I will give you the stern scolding about emergency comms you deserve, but for now rest. You’re coming with me.” She remarkably jerked. But the palm partially blocking her vision was warm, somewhat inviting.
Only then did she notice the connection open to Soundwave’s personal comms. She’d unintentionally said all of that to him. If one could die of embarrassment, she would be stoned.
He pat his finger twice on the back of her head, an unspoken command to take her alt mode. He’d done that with Ratbat and Laserbeak thousands of times. She knew what to do. Still, her movements turned sloppier than she was hoping, definitely one of her less stylish transformations.
Soundwave took her cassette form and opened his hatch to put her in. Once that was closed, the majority of the outside noise was reduced to the comforting beating of the carrier’s spark. His inside mechanisms clicked with hers, steadying his grip. Then there was a barely audible whirring noise, signaling another scan. She should have seen it coming, should have been upset about it, but somehow it simply soothed her. Knowing she was there, with him, and he wasn’t going to let go easily.
She’d never pondered how close Soundwave kept his minicons to his spark. Other mechs kept them on the wrists, on their arms, in a place easily reachable. But they were tucked in inside of him, in his chest, protected from the outside world, well hidden. After all, Cybertron was not known for being kind to minicons.
From there she could feel any movement from his body. The way his gears turned as he laid down on his bed, the information flowing to his head to read into the fresh scans.
Are you comfortable?
He asked, prodding their connection. It was another odd thing, he rarely used it with her. But she still gave an affirmative reply, feeling sleepiness embrace her form. Did she prefer staying with Rumble and the rest of the minicons? Probably. But they also knew she was safe. Not like she could oppose from inside here.
The waves of buzzes emanating from the spark turned soothing.
And next time you’re hurt, he continued with a more menacing tone, you come directly to me.