(This was it! The connection he’d been looking for! The last twenty building purchases were all done under the names of Megatronus’s boxing buddies! The latest one, Impactor, was right on the waterfront where the river met the industrial canal. Prime real estate indeed! It was the perfect place to park the shopping ships! Bee stuffed the papers back into the drawer and nearly hollered in joy! He was right! He’d found him! He’d look that mech right in the face and say “I know who you are!”, and Blindside would have to suck up the fact that Bee was about to do what he WISHED he could! He wound find Megatron!)
“UM- Sir?!”
(Bee leaps off the drawers and slams into the little clerk, glowing with pride.) I got it figured out, mac! This’ll be perfect!
(He takes out two shanix of his remaining four and presses it into the clerk’s hands, just like Megatron- Megatronus! As if no one had made the connection before?!- had done for him.) Thank you!
(With that he dashes out to the stationery store nearest the waterfront, buying up cardboard boxes and duct tape and one cheap knife. He spends hours on a dock, stripping pieces and taping them together into a little raft just big enough for him to kneel on. He uses the tape down to the spool watersealing it, stuffing it with empty cygarette boxes he finds in the trash for extra bouyancy. By the time he starts paddling out with a broken plate, it’s nearly night. Lights are shutting off all over the city. He’s left to watch the horizon out in the middle of the canal, then out again until the shore’s just a little line in his vision.)
(It’s absolutely terrifying. He didn’t think it would be THIS bad. He doesn’t realize he forgot to refuel until his tank starts to hurt, but he had to pay the probate guy for his trouble. It just seemed right at the time…)
(But his hunger disappears when he hears a low engine rumble. Not a low pitch. The engine was the high wail of a turbine stripped from an airship. No, that rumble was low to the water instead of up in the air where it should have been.)
(The ships appear in a blink! The floatilla! Bee stands up on his little raft, shouting and hollering and pumping his arms!) I was right! I WAS-
(The first ship wails past him, and Bee is nearly whipped off his raft in the slipstream. His feet nearly give out under him as the wake catches him up its pitch. Another one passes like lightning on his other side. The noise pounds his ears, and he can’t see for the assault of the waves against his face and the raft leaping up from under him. A shock of terror goes through him as his foot hits the water, and one last ship knocks him off the little boat completely, and he’s surrounded by dark, murky foam from the boat passing overhead like he wasn’t even there. He sinks, screaming for help and only hearing bubbles pouring out from his vents, his only indicator that he’s sinking down.)
Soundwave smoothed out his lapels as his ship crossed the bay, comforting his deployer. All trails leading from Blindside’s office had either gone cold as their target shifted into his alt-mode or had led directly to the journalist himself, who was not the focus of their mission tonight. It wasn’t Laserbeak’s fault that the mech kept poor records of who worked for him. Whoever this mech was, (a minibot, judging by the size of the tracks) he would show himself again eventually. For now, the Boss had need of him on the flotilla.
Just as he was about to enter the cabin, he heard something out on the water. A voice? Soundwave walked to the railing and looked down just in time to see a swell of bubbles, just beside a bit of cardboard… no. A raft? Quickly, the slender mech unspooled a data cable, and plunged one into the water.
The powerful jaws of his cable clamped around what felt like a wheel well. The minibot was plucked from the drink by his shoulder, lifted high into the air until his faceplate was reflected back at him in a shiny black screen. With the brim of his hat tilted down over the screen, it might give the impression of a sharp glare. There came the growl of static again. The little mech remained firmly in his grasp until the cargo ship docked, dangling as Soundwave walked aboard the floating depot. The Boss would know what to do with him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Megatron grinned as the ethanol was unloaded from his cargo shuttle. The last of the crates disembarked, Octane transformed with a groan, rubbing at his side. “Not meant to carry that much at once… Hope you’re happy, ‘cause I ain’t doin that again.”
“Don’t get soft on me. This is more than enough for the next two weeks, but you an’ your associates are gonna be delivering me this amount from now on. Of course, you’ll be compensated for the strain, but if you got anymore complaints, you’ll be taking ’em up with…”
Perfect timing as always, Soundwave tossed his catch to the floor, so that he would land at Megatron’s feet. Megatron raised an optic ridge, looking from Soundwave to their new arrival, but his partner remained ever stoic. “And who might to be? Council spy, Beureau of Importation? Come on… you look familiar, I never forget a face.” His cannon whirred to life. “Indulge me.”
Megatron's back up 