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This was certainly an unexpected turn of events.
You squirmed in Soundwave’s hand as he carried you through the Decepticon base, ignoring the curious stares you received as you shouted profanity after profanity at him. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was just supposed to be some fun pranks. You weren’t supposed to get caught.
Okay, maybe this was a little justified. You and a friend had technically been stealing Decepticon supplies, and graffitiing their hidden warehouses, and throwing fireworks into said warehouses when the graffiti didn’t catch the Autobot’s attention.
Yeah, this was definitely justified. Honestly, you were more surprised it took them this long to find you. Wasn’t Soundwave supposed to be Head of Surveillance or something? Embarrassing. You just hoped your friend had been able to get away and call someone. Maybe the Autobots. Didn’t they have a hotline for Decepticon abductions?
A door wooshed open behind you as Soundwave walked through it, though you weren’t paying much attention, too focused on trying to get him to put you down to catalogue where you were. Next thing you knew, you were roughly set on a flat surface. You stumbled and fell backwards, hitting the cold metal with a wince.
Soundwave wordlessly stared down at you, then his gaze turned upwards, looking at something behind you instead. You immediately stood and turned around, finding yourself under the scrutinizing glare of Megatron himself.
Your first instinct was to run. Why wouldn’t it be? This robot had probably killed plenty of humans, what more would one rude vandalizer be? But that wouldn’t work. From what you could tell, you were standing on his desk, and that was quite a long ways above the ground. You’d certainly get injured, and that wouldn’t help your situation much.
Your second instinct was to plead for your life, but there had been enough “Starscream gets beat up by Megatron” compilations on YouTube to dissuade you from that course as well. That, unfortunately, only left one option: Talking to the Decepticon warlord and hoping you didn’t get squished.
Megatron hummed, studying you.
“It’s smaller than I expected.”
“Height: Normal. Humans: Are very small.”
It took a second for you to register that Megatron had just referred to you as ‘it’, like an object. The adrenaline rush you were getting from this probably wasn’t helping your awareness.
“I’m not an it!” you shouted petulantly, wincing when you realized just how childish you sounded.
“Ah, so it speaks,” Megatron smirked. He then turned his attention back to Soundwave, speaking to him in a language that sounded synthetic and alien to your ears. Sometimes their voices got low enough that you could feel the buzz of the words reverberating through your bones.
At the apparent end of their conversation, Soundwave bowed, spared you a glance, then left the room without another word. You watched him walk out the door, not yet wanting to face the reality of being alone with the full attention of the Decepticon warlord focused solely on you. At least you could get away with screaming at Soundwave.
You felt a clawed finger and thumb lightly take your upper arm to force you to turn and face Megatron again. He wasn’t smiling anymore, and the deafening silence that accompanied his quiet study of you wasn’t exactly comfortable. You shifted a bit in his hold, eyes flicking all over the room. A thought occurred to you that maybe he enjoyed making you squirm.
You felt the thumb shift to your stomach and you grimaced, hands instinctively resting on it in preparation to push the metal digit away.
“You’ve made quite a name for yourself,” Megatron finally said. You managed to hold his gaze for a few moments before its intensity forced you to look away again.
“Have I?”
He hummed, nodding. “We thought you and your partner were some troublemaking autobots before we installed cameras. I must admit, it was brave of you both to attempt such an act of rebellion, as hindering as it was for us.”
Megatron pressed down on your stomach, and you suddenly couldn’t breathe.
“How is it that your species has survived so long without an exoskeleton?” he asked as you gasped for air, desperately trying to get your diaphragm working again. His hand left you and you hunched over, one arm wrapped around your abdomen. You weren’t really paying attention to what Megatron was doing until you felt his hand on you again, this time lifting you up until you were eye level with him.
“It would be so easy to simply squish you,” the warlord said, his grip tightening around you. For one horrifying moment, you thought he would go through with his implied threat, thumb pressed so firmly to your chest that you were sure he could feel your heartbeat. He was probably overjoyed that he could physically feel your fear. But his hold on you loosened, not so much that you would slide out of his hand, but enough to let you shift and move into a sitting position, which you did.
You knew you weren’t out of danger just yet, but having a sliver of control over the situation did help calm you a little.
“You are lucky Soundwave enjoys the company of your kind,” Megatron muttered, lowering his hand to let you slip back onto the desk. You didn’t trust the stability of your legs just yet, so you carefully sat down, pulling your knees to your chest. Megatron picked up a glowing blue tablet-thing from a stack off to his right and set it in front of him, scrolling through it and occasionally writing something on it with a stylus.
“What are you going to do to me?” you asked softly once the silence grew to be unbearable.
“Nothing yet,” Megatron sighed, “you’re much more valuable alive and unharmed, as long as you cooperate.”
That wasn’t the response you expected. “What?”
Megatron glanced at you. “A few months ago, Soundwave pitched the idea of employing human agents, referencing how well the Autobots were fairing with their own. I wasn’t convinced. Once it was revealed that you and your partner were human, I was more open to the idea.”
“Agents for what?” you found yourself asking. You weren’t sure where this sudden boldness came from, but thankfully Megatron didn’t seem to mind.
“Intelligence-gathering, double-agents, stealth missions, public relations,” Megatron listed, “anything that would require a human’s face or size, starting with the gaps in our security system that allowed you and your partner to not only find our warehouse, but slip in undetected.”
“So, what you’re saying is… you need a second opinion?” you asked slowly. Megatron looked at you, and for the first time it felt like he was actually looking at you rather than bacteria growing in a petri dish.
“That is an oversimplification of what I require of you, but yes,” he replied.
You thought for a moment. “Well, to start, we used the door.”