chapter 6: Home Alone

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"Response: accepted. Goodbye" and with that soundwave shut the door, leaving Max alone in Soundwave's room.

Well... not completely alone... she had Ratbat, Wingthing and Squawktalk.

Which is how... Max ended up spending her afternoon (or what she could only assume was the afternoon with no way to track time) with the three. They were playing a game, thankfully for max it wasn't a card game (she had gotten sick of playing card games, especially 52 pick-up). Max wasn't sure what the game they were playing was called but found it similar to snakes and ladder, in the sense that it was a game meant for literal infants.

"You have to go down again Wing-y" Squawktalk rused, Wingthing took in a deep sigh and moved her piece down, making it Max's turn next.

Max was slow to respond, mostly due to the lack of engagement. Max took what she could only assume was the dice and rolled it across the board.

It rolled six, which landed her piece... down...

again...

Max had to force herself not to yawn as she moved her piece down again. After her turn was down she rested her head on her hand and rested her eyes a bit. The sweet release of sleep tempted Max, however the urge to not seem rude in front of the cassettes was stronger. Max tried to think about other things to get her mind off of sleep.

However she didn't need to for long.

"Maxie?" Squawktalk prodded the human with his beak, breaking Max out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" Max lifted up her head, still dazed.

"It's your turn again pal" Squawktalk nudged the dice over to Max, who took it and rolled. She rolled five, down.

Thing was... she was already at zero, the lowest number. Max saw an opportunity to make the game more... exciting.

"You know... why don't we add in negative numbers? You know... for fun?'' Max suggested to the group, Ratbat and wingthing both cocked their heads sideways in confusion.

"What's a negative number?" Wingthing asked rather quietly

"A number that goes past zero." Max explained, seeing no harm in telling rabat. Suddenly both cyber-bats faces shifted into ones of horror and awe as Ratbat screeched.

"NUMBERS CAN GO PAST ZERO?!" part of Max felt dumbfounded, but continued on with her explanation.

"Yeah actually, for example negative one and.." as Max continued the cyber-bats just stared, like they were being told the secrets of the forbidden dark arts. Squawktalk just looked on, bored.

"I think negative numbers are... too exciting for them" Squawktalk joked before getting into a more serious voice. " Ok my turn to roll". Which brought the group back to focus.

Or well almost... The cyber-bats were still hyped with the information of negative numbers.

Max prepared for another round of knock-off snakes and ladders when thankfully Wingthing piped up.

"I'm bored of this game, let's play a new game!" part of Max thanked whatever holy being was watching down that day from preventing another round of boredom.

"But what should we play?" Squawktalk indulged the younger cassette.

" some of the seekers told me about this new game they play, it's called I declare war." wingthing rattled on about the rules of the game, and just like that life seemed to return back into the room.

Max could feel the urge to fall over and sleep into next week, disappearing as cards were placed into her hand.

"Ok so.. I . declare. War!" Wingthing placed down three cards, gesturing to Ratbat to place down three cards, then to Squawktalk, then to Max. They turned over the last card they placed down, revealing the card.

"Oh! I got a queen! What about you Maxie?" Ratbat squeaked. Max turned over their card revealing that it was a spade.

"Oh well, Ratbat wins. Time for round two." wingthing said. A small smile creeped up on Max's face as Ratbat did the chant.

"I declare war!" cards were placed down again with Squawktalk chirping

"I won"

Squawktalk spoke the chant as everyone placed down their cards.

"I declare war!"

Max almost screamed out loud as she won the round, now it was her turn to do the little chant.

"Ok! I declare war!" Max looked up from her cards, but nobody was paying attention to the game.

Everyone was looking over at the door.

Max was left confused for a second until she strained her ears. Max swore she could hear a faint... humming? Murmur even? It was coming from outside the door, at first Max thought it was Soundwave.

This idea was rejected however as Max noticed the cassettes tense up, the humming getting louder. The noise was becoming unbearable for max. The sound made her ears vibrate until...

"Ow" Max muttered quietly, holding her hand up to her ear as a small shock hit her. As soon as she did, the aura of the room changed.

It was suddenly wrong in a way... as if something was just off...

That when Max noticed it, the noise! It was gone... or rather... dissipated. The noise now had no clear direction of where it was coming from. In fact, Max could barely hear anything, the only noise that mildly registered was sqwalktalk's low-tone voice, but then it was only barely.

The cyber-bird ushered the three under the berth as what sounded like a loud pat littered the room.

Someone was inside.

The four kept their mouths zipped shut, the bodies tense as whatever was inside the room began to walk about near the berth.

Max swore she could hear a low-toned noise, possibly from the figure, almost as if someone was talking. She prayed that it was soundwave.

The figure walked up to the berth, but stood still for a moment. Max took this time to flick her attention back to the cassettes for guidance.

Wingthing was shaking, Ratbat buried his head under his wings and Squawktalk stared back at Max with a worried expression.

An expression that contorted into one of horror as his beak opened up, Max moved her head to see what he was looking at...

Only to be met with a red gaze staring back at her.

And it didn't belong to Soundwave.


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AUTHORS NOTE:

hey yall, sorry for the shorter check-in chapter. i promise next chapter will be alot more interesting.

speaking of next chapter, who do you think was the "imposter?"

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