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Soundwave realized that he had a problem, and a rather large one too, but he couldn’t remember when he realized it had gotten out of hand.
The only thing he remembered being the closest thing to explain his current predicament was that he had changed the password to the Decepticon’s Wi-Fi recently, but had also forgotten what the new password was. The same one he insisted on changing.
So, there he stood, scratching his head with a million different screens in front of him and all showing the same warning message—if he failed to enter the correct password one more time, then they would officially lock him out of all Decepticon systems.
“I should go find Starscream. Maybe he will remember what the new password is,” Soundwave said, deciding that he would have to ask the smug tri-colored seeker and deal with his haughty attitude about not writing the new password like asked to in the beginning.
However, another problem arose when he spotted someone who looked a lot like Starscream, but was also a little different from him—he was bluer, wore a different visor color, and had a bland expression on his faceplate like he was bored, and simply tired of existing.
Soundwave, however, reasoned that maybe Starscream was simply trying out a new color palette out today, or had just gotten scolded by Megatron about something dumb again, so maybe he was trying a new attitude too.
Whatever the reason for Starscream and his new look or behavior, Soundwave disregarded all of it, waiving it off as something new the seeker was simply trying out. He didn’t mind being supportive, so long as he got the password to the Wi-Fi again. That and now they were both blue now, this was clearly a win in his book.
“Something the matter, Soundwave?” The now blue and calmer Starscream asked. “You look stressed. What are you up to today?”
“I need the password for the Wi-Fi again,” Soundwave said. “I know you told me to write it down so I don’t forget it again, but I thought I’d be able to memorize it this time, Starscream!”
“Huh?” The blue Starscream said, scratching his helm. He cocked his head at him and blinked a few times, as if confused why he was referred to “Starscream” instead of something else. “Starscream? When did I become Starscream?”
“Yeah, isn’t your name Starscream,” Soundwave said confidently. He poked the blue Starscream’s canopy and squinted at him with a stern scoff when he received a confused look.
“No, it isn’t.”
“Yes, it is. Megatron must’ve really kicked you down the stairs to confuse your processors today, Starscream.”
The blue Starscream stared at him for a while before shaking his helm and sighed like he had finally understood something. “Sure,” he said, kindly. “I’m Starscream.”
“Oh, forget it,” Soundwave said, realizing that their conversation was going in circles. “You probably don’t know the password to the Wi-Fi either. I’ll go ask Rumble and Frenzy instead then. Maybe they remember what it is. They always like playing things that need it.”
Despite his best attempts to track down the two rambunctious and forever hard to name twins, Soundwave couldn’t find them, and was debating on giving until he found Starscream again. At least, he thought it was Starscream again, but only if Starscream changed his paint again super quickly and even installed a new visor color—purple, and so much of it.
Soundwave’s spark hammered away. He couldn’t handle all these new changes from Starscream today. What happened to liking and having pride towards how one originally looked? Soundwave chastised Starscream in his head before approaching him and his purple aft, tapping on him on his shoulder.
“Why are you purple now?” Soundwave asked. “The blue didn’t work out? I liked the whole blue you were going for earlier, Starscream…It was nicer to look at for a while. Better than the mess of colors you usually slap on your shiny red self.”
“Hah?” the purple Starscream said. “You got your head in the clouds again or something, Soundwave? The hell are you calling me Starscream for now?”
His voice and speech pattern are different again today, Soundwave noticed. It wasn’t scratchy or as annoying to listen to, but it was far gravellier this time, and he sounded more like a delinquent. When Starscream was blue, he was a lot quieter and kinder to him when speaking with his bass like voice, but now that he was purple, it was more like the opposite.
Soundwave was sweating a little, and he deployed his cooling fans. Maybe Starscream was finally entering his mid-life quarter crisis. He was getting up there in age now that he thought about it.
“Because you are Starscream?”
“Primus, if I was him, then I’d be doing a hell of a lot more than just standing here!” The purple Starscream mocked. “You need to get your optics tested, Soundwave.”
“No,” Soundwave said, watching the purple Starscream activate his thrusters and teleport out of sight. It felt like his head was spinning out of control and like he was about to throw up from. “Wait, was Starscream always able to do that? Then why the heck does he always insist on making me hang onto his alt-mode when we go on dates!? Maybe just he wanted to be humble until now…”
Soundwave blinked at the purple Starscream. He was back again, but this time he was asking him for some shanix because he had none supposedly.
“How much did you need again?” Soundwave asked, opening his tape deck to reach for his coin purse. “And what for again…”
“I need some shanix to go play—” The purple Starscream hesitated before smirking. “I mean…I need some shanix to buy some sweets for you, Soundwave! You like those, right? Come on, let me treat you.”
“I do,” Soundwave said, thinking purple Starscream’s logic was sound to him. “But don’t you usually buy them for me on your own? You’ve never needed to ask me for it before.”
“I lost my wallet. Cover me?”
“Okay. Just this once, make sure you buy me a big box though,” Soundwave said, digging for his spare shanix. His mouth watering already at the thought of sweets and the kinds Starscream usually bought him, but recently there wasn’t any time to go out and buy them. He was still a little bummed about that.
“Take his shanix and I’ll turn you into spare parts for the twins to play with, Skywarp!” A sharp and shrill, but familiar voice shouted from behind them.
Soundwave whipped his head toward the voice and almost fell over, slamming his tape deck shut on accident. There was another Starscream running at him and the purple Starscream, but at full speed. However, what troubled him the most was that this new Starscream looked an awful lot like the one he was used to normally.
The new Starscream tackled the purple Starscream and squeezed his throat, shouting many profanities at him as well. “I warned you ahead of time that he has a problem telling bots apart and yet you still tried to extort him while pretending to be me, Warp!”
“Hey, how was I supposed to know he’d actually try to give me his shanix while thinking I was you,” Skywarp said, squeaking. “I was going to give it back to him! Swear on it, Screamer!”
“Huh…what’s going on?” Soundwave said, fearing that he was now officially seeing double of Starscream now. This was more confusing than when Rumble and Frenzy asked him to point out who was who before he ate his lunch. Way more confusing, and he didn’t even have something yummy to soothe his worries once it was all said and done.
“Are you okay, Soundwave?” the blue Starscream asked in a gentle and calm voice. “Skywarp didn’t actually rob you of your shanix did he?”
Soundwave looked at the blue Starscream. He looked him up and down and pressed his servos against the side of his head in confusion.
The blue Starscream, the purple Starscream, and the original Starscream—he knew—they all had the same frame structure and faceplate, but different colors and voices. But what it worse was that all three of them were even wearing Decepticon insignias, too.
“Why are there three of you instead of one? Who is who?” Soundwave said, shocked. He felt his frame go faint, and his legs collapse, the sound of his name being shouted in the air as he did before his vision went dark.
“I told you it would’ve been too much if he saw all three of us at the same time! You guys need to leave! Now!”
“How was I supposed to know he would faint like that…”
“I was just playing a little prank on him, guys. I wasn’t actually going to take it. Who knew he’d be this trusting!?”
Soundwave was afraid to turn his optics online. From his estimate, he was lying on his berth right now and had just woken up from stasis. Still what troubled him was the dashing hope he had in his spark for the two other Starscreams to be gone by the time he came online again, but that hadn’t come true like he imagined. In fact they were still there and arguing with each other about him.
They were also talking with the Starscream he recognized by his voice alone—loud, screechy, annoying. The sad part was that he had almost missed hearing it. It was only until he heard the door close and he could sense a change from four spark signatures to two. After that he sat up and turned his optics back on to look at the remaining Starscream.
Relieved it was just one seeker in front of him. Soundwave felt his shoulders relax as he scratched his head and stared at Starscream; it was the one he was most used to seeing—and like he thought, he didn’t see anyone else in the room but him. “Thank Primus, it’s just you.”
“Of course, it’s ‘just’ me,” Starscream said, rolling his optics. “I also told you to write the new Wi-Fi password down since you were so insistent on changing it!”
“What’s the new password then,” Soundwave said, having forgotten that he was nearly locked out of all important Decepticon files and data from inputting the wrong password five times before the systems he had installed threatened to start a complete memory wipe out on him.
“123456.”
“Oh, so it wasn’t 12345?”
Starscream stared at him, unimpressed. “That’s the old password, Soundwave!”
“I thought it was the new one. Who knew I had it all wrong, Soundwave said, pulling up his blankets, distracted when he spotted the two other Starscreams entering the room—the blue and purple one.
“Damnit, Soundwave! They’re just other seekers, not other version of me for Primus sake!” Starscream said. Never in his life did he expect Soundwave to turn into his alt mode like a frightened and balled up hedgehog, as if still lost by the appearance and knowledge of three seekers existing before him—three Starscreams.
“But I don’t know who is who,” Soundwave said, still trembling. With his luck, this was just another weird dream and there was only one Starscream or seeker for him to remember the name of. “This is all too confusing, Starscream. My head hurts. Wake me up when they’re gone, and it’s just you again…”
Starscream sighed and picked Soundwave up, tucking him close to his canopy. “Alright, alright. Guess we can introduce everyone at a later date.”
“I feel bad,” Thundercracker said. “I thought he’d feel better by now.”
“Talk for yourself. I’m the one who got his faceplate knocked around for playing,” Skywarp said, touching the bandage on his nose. He whined when Thundercracker punched his shoulder. “Hey, what was that for!?”
“For spooking him twice. No, thrice,” Thundercracker corrected.