Optimus part Twenty Three

Starscream teetered back and forth in his chair, attempting to balance himself on the edge. In his hands he held a small plastic square with a screen on it. He tapped away while he carefully balanced himself, making minor adjustments with his free hand. His test of skill was interrupted by Soundwave waddling out of the hallway leading to Megatron’s chamber, Starscream stuffed the square into his chest compartment. “What’s wrong?” Starscream asked. “Megatron give you a spanking for losing the only smart people on our team?” “No, idiot.” Soundwave said. “He just… has Megatron seemed weird to you lately?” “He’s always been weird. That dude seriously has a problem with personal space.” Starscream said. “Wait, do you mean has he been acting weird for us or for him? Wouldn’t weird for him be normal for us? Err, no…” “He just asked me to change the world…” Soundwave held up a large case with a metallic design on the front. “I have to drive all the way out to the middle of nowhere. And apparently I need to use this thing.” “Oh! If he finally went crazy-crazy I want his big chair. I’ve always wanted that chair.” Starscream nodded to himself. “Why do I even talk to you?” Soundwave walked away. “I could seriously just talk to a tree and get the same amount of useful feedback. In fact, probably more.” “Oh yeah?” Starscream rose from the chair energetically. “Can a tree do this?” Soundwave watched as Starscream held up both hands and, concealing his left thumb with his fingers and wrapping his right index finger around his other thumb, pretended to separate his left thumb, before throwing his hands up and walking backwards to his chair. Soundwave didn’t know what to say to that, so he left. Starscream waited until the sound of Soundwave‘s footsteps had completely faded away, then retrieved the square from his chest. “No, it’s okay.” Starscream said. “I showed him my thumb trick. Blew his mind. He won’t be a problem.” Starscream returned the square to his chest and continued his balancing act. ------ Shockwave paced back and forth in his furbished cave hideaway, arms behind his back, while he waited for the scanning software to download. To his right light pooled in through a falling wall of water, and to his left was a mound of messy equipement, a light and flat area to sleep next to a box of energy rations. He continued pacing. The matter analyser he pilfered from the stasis pod was just what he needed to finish his own subterranean scanner. When his memory block was destroyed, it released not only his emotions, but large portions of his mind that had been blocked away. As the rage and pain subsided, he was no free to take advantage of his incredible intellect. An entire lifetime of forgotten practise, experience and skill returned almost in an instant, unhindered by the thieving hands of age. Mega-, Shockwave’s plan to recover the universe’s single most powerful being in the name of galactic conquest would be complete, as soon as the scanner was finished. While he waited he examined his other equipement he’d salvaged and modified to fit into his person. A beacon locator swiped under cover of night from his former comrade’s hideout, now stripped of it’s casing and power supply and integrated into Shockwave’s left arm panel. A fully calibrated compass and long-range barometer appropriated from those idiot Autobots, who foolishly left it and other such useful items merely tucked into a corner of their impractical little log cabin while they were out performing no doubt stupid activities. It was installed into his right forearm. And a Cybertronian-sensitive IFF radar, which had been an invaluable proximity-warning during the pilfering of the previous gear, installed internally but accessible through a hatch on his chest. This was but a faction of a large amount of stolen goods, but the rest was all about to become unnecessary. Satisfied, Shockwave returned all this to it’s concealed status under his skin, and kept waiting for the software to finish. It was incredibly complex, hand-written quantum algorithms Shockwave had entered during his memory flashback, specifically coded to locate ancient dormant or residual Decepticon energy signals, and it had already been days. An unfortunate side-effect of his restored mental state was a decided impatience. Old Shockwave would have found this to be illogical, but now he didn’t really notice it. He felt almost as two minds melded into one. He was neither his pre-assassination self, nor his emotionless, calculating machine self. He was new, yet different. Familiar, yet alien. He wasn’t at all sure he liked it. He watched the screen as the progress bar inched a bit more to the right, the sound of his tapping foot performing a soundtrack to express anticipation. Finally an alleviating ping signalled it’s completion, and Shockwave unplugged the device from the computer modem next to it and slotted it into a previously created slot at the base of his neck. His eye blinked, then dulled. It returned, “filling” as the device was integrated into his body. Once his eye filled completely, he shook his head before standing straight. He was ready, and not a moment to soon, as the scanner already had a firm lock on a signature. Shockwave turn to the waterfall and jumped, through the glistening curtain and out into a vast canyon above a large river. He transformed in midair before rocketing off over the lush green below.