(TFP) Dodgeball

Soundwave's servos hovered over the keypad for a moment as he considered the strange noises emanating from the lower levels of the Nemesis.  His fingers fell back into their normal, fluid routine as he flipped through the security feeds on his internal monitor.  

Odd.  Something was interfering with his link to a few security drones.  He would have to report that to Megatron.

Soundwave started to contact the warlord.  Paused.  Where was Megatron?  Again, he took to scanning through security feeds and, again, he was unable to locate that which he sought.

He send a message to his master.  Waited.  And waited.

Soundwave could no longer focus on his work.  He had to find out what was going on.





“Stand still, Starscream!” Megatron's voice boomed.

The Seeker dove behind an overturned berth, a smug grin on his face as the inflated sphere bounced of the wall and into his servos.

Predaking and Steve appeared at his side a moment later.  

“Commander Starscream, Lord Megatron has all the balls on his side,” reported the Vehicon.  “What are supposed to do?”

Starscream stole a glance over the side of the berth and turned to Predaking.  “I can see Knock Out's shoulder to the left of the energon stack.  Can you hit him from here?”

Predaking poked his head up for a second, got the scene in his mind and nodded.  “You and Steve run for the other side of the room.  I'll get him while they're firing at you.”

“I'm not sure I like this plan,” Steve mumbled.

Starscream glared at the Vehicon.  “Do you have a better idea, drone?”

Steve shook his head.  “No, commander.”

“Right.”  Starscream tossed the ball to the Predacon and made a mad dash for the desk on the other side of the room, a startled Trooper in tow.  He smiled when he heard the Medic's cry of pain behind him.

Starscream pushed Steve behind the desk, jumped to his left and caught another ball in the air before joining the Vehicon.

“Starscream!”

The Seeker ducked at the Predacon's warning, just in time to miss a ricocheting ball flying at his helm.  Steve grunted.

Two against two then.

“Don't be such a coward, Starscream,” Megatron mocked.  “Come into the open and face me!”
Nothing.

“Surely, Predaking, you will confront me!”

Silence.

Megatron laughed haughtily standing in the middle of the room.  “Is there no one with courage enough to face me?”

Starscream sprang from his hiding place, hurling the ball at his master's face.
Megatron just barely dodged the projectile.

Predaking rolled out from behind the berth, scooped up another ball and threw it hard at his creator.

Shockwave hit it back with his gunned arm, just barely missing Starscream's head.

Knock Out and Steve Made their way to the edge of the storage room, watching as the three higher ups and the Predacon jumped, scooped, rolled, threw and dodged  their way around the room.

Energon cubes littered the floor, some stacked as high as Predaking's head, to make for decent obstacles.  There were two old desks and three medical berths turned on their sides to use as defense.

A line had originally been drawn down the middle of the room, but now it seemed the teams were simply sticking together and darting about the room in circles.  No one cared about boundaries.  Only victory.

“Shockwave!  Stop the Predacon!”

The scientist hurled another ball at his creation.

Predaking caught it, stiffened.  He cocked his head toward the door.  “Someone is coming.”

Knock Out and Steve bolted from the wall, gathering balls and hiding them behind a stack of cubes.  Megatron backed away from where he had Starscream cornered and moved to flip the nearest berth upright again.  

Predaking and Starscream followed.  

Shockwave busied himself with pushing scattered cubes back into a pile.

Knock Out had just hidden the last ball on his side of the room when the door slid open.





Soundwave wasn't sure what to think of the situation.  Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave, Knock Out, Predaking and that ST-3V3 drone were... Cleaning?

“Is something wrong, Soundwave?”  Megatron asked.

The TIC began flipping through security footage to alert the warlord of the downed cameras in the vicinity.  

“Forgive my failure to inform you, Soundwave,” the Chief of Science began.  “I had taken them down to upgrade their software.”

Soundwave nodded slowly.  There was nothing wrong with the software.  He had seen to that himself.

The spymaster pulled up the frequency code to Megatron's communicator.  Glanced around the room questioningly.

“Ah, yes,” his master mumbled.  “Shockwave was demonstrating a prototype signal dampener.  I'm sure he will have things running smoothly soon enough.”

Signal dampener?  Since when had anyone considered their security faulty?

Soundwave nodded again.  He glanced at the Vehicon standing between Knock Out and Starscream.

“Steve was just helping us with a bit of organization down here.”  The medic waved his hand about the room.  “Just look at this dump.”

Soundwave wasn't buying any of it.  He noticed Starscream staring at Megatron's back with a slight grin on his face.

He looked at the Predacon.

“Am I not allowed to roam the Nemesis, Soundwave?” he growled.

Soundwave decided not to press it.

“Is there anything else, Soundwave?” Megatron asked.

The slender mech shook his helm.  He turned to leave when BAM!  Something slammed into the back of his helm, nearly knocking him off his pedes.  He spun around, ready to make his attacker pay.

Megatron watched him curiously.  “Been in the high grade, Soundwave?  You can barely walk.”
The others were trying to hide their smiles.

Soundwave backed out of the door angrily.





The Decepticons stared at the door for another minute or so before allowing a few laughs to escape them.

Megatron scooped the ball from where it had landed behind a berth, just out of Soundwave's sight.  He chuckled to himself as he thought of the shock his TIC must have felt.

He rolled another ball out from behind a stack of energon cubes and tossed it to Starscream.

“Game on.”