Archive of Our Own

Still.

He stood perfectly still as Megatron addressed each point on the meeting's itinerary.

Such matters, largely, didn't directly concern him, but rather the warrior types. The seekers, the frontliners, and other more disposable manner of Cybertronians.

Shockwave regarded himself as apart from them, on some level.

Prideful, though he'd argue that he had reason to believe that was the case, as it was only logical.

He was an academic, and there were so precious few who he was certain understood a larger portion of what he had to say when brought into discussions.

The focus of his singular, piercing gaze had wandered over the faceplates of those he was thinking about almost single-mindedly, finials twitching as he regarded his elevated opinion of them.

There was... Soundwave, though at times he looked more as if he was simply happy to listen, very happy to listen. Weird, that almost dreamlike look that seemed to shine through his visor was weird, Shockwave thought.

Really, he was just dismissing the fact that he couldn't decipher its meaning.

Megatron as well, though he had no doubt his manner of discussions at times flew over the silver mech's helm. It was the look in his optics, they dulled slightly, looking more lost at times when he might use a word more foreign, or refer to something evidently unpleasant that the warlord had no desire to hear of it.

Observing that, of course, had been one major key to lead him into learning to occasionally withhold the truth from the Decepticon Lord.

That thought was punctuated by the sound of his own name, at which point he moved a digit to bring the documentation of his current experiments up to brief on all advancements.

It wasn't often anything he said truly seemed to register with anyone, however, this was the second time he'd mentioned something about the details of Project Regenesis that Starscream seemed to actually pay attention to. The second time he’d pay attention to something other than himself.

That was something Shockwave considered most unexpected, in spite of knowing the fighter jet was, technically, a scientist. 

Shockwave didn't think him an intellectual equal, even if that was the case. Starscream was foolish. At times recklessly so, and often enough he'd had to sew a thread of lies that balanced into logical excuses. Every time, he seemed to be able to.

It was a feat of wit enough to earn some absent form of respect from Shockwave. It was something that would go unspoken.

Closing his presentation, he then steps back to wait for Megatron to wrap everything into an end.

That didn't take more than a joor. Shockwave was able to wait that stretch as if it were no time at all.

Starscream, inversely, seemed to be increasingly antsy about getting back to, presumably, his usual preening.

Or was it just to get someplace where Shockwave wasn't staring him down like that? Because he was, in fact, studying the seeker much more intently than anyone with reason was willing to believe was just a coincidence.

And it wasn't.

Starscream had gotten his attention, and as most knew by now, that wasn't something lightly given.

As the meeting concluded, Shockwave lingered only as long as Starscream chose to, his pedes not carrying him back to the quiet of his lab as they so typically did, but instead in the wake of the smaller, flighted mech.

Starscream's body language, were he to venture a guess, read like he held some notion that this was a bad thing.

Shockwave was unaffected by that, though he could have taken it to be a slight against him. What did the Vosian expect him to want?

"Starscream. I would like to consult you about a few scientific matters, if you have a joor or two to spare." His finials raised as expectation, the gold of his optic glowing bright.

The second in command paused, sharply enough that Shockwave's chassis nearly collided with the smaller mech as Starscream pivoted around to stare up at him with a smirk, optics subtly pinched

Something about the expression appeared fake, though Shockwave failed to pinpoint exactly what - and spending more energy considering that would be a waste.

"What might you have to ask of me? Why not your usual lab rat? He can't be that busy with communications at present." he'd inquire, sounding suspicious. He had definitely evoked some unease in the flighted mech.

"I wish to discuss some matters more in depth than the allotted time for my presentation during the meeting permitted. You appeared... interested." As he spoke, those bright red optics wandered over the blank face of his helm, over his finials, and his optic. Starscream seemed to be weighing something in his processor.

"That, and there are some separate matters which I require you, personally, for."

Then he got that look; a broader grin on his faceplate that was, by nature, a sign of nothing good on most occasions, or it was a hint that he was about to launch into some bout of self congratulatory babble. The specification had been taken as praise, it seemed.

"In that case, I am happy to help the great Shockwave however I may. Just for a joor or two." the bravado was undoubtedly a veil for those nerves. Shockwave didn't understand why he bothered with all of that, but there wasn't enough of a reason to call it out either.

"Excellent, come with me." was all the scientist had to add to that before he was turning to lead the short trek back to his lab.

It was a quieter corridor, in some way more liminal since so few mechs wandered through here.

Everyone avoided Shockwave's lab except when they were in need of him for something.

Shockwave liked it that way.

The doors slide open before shutting in Starscream's wake with a heavy metallic thud, then a brief concert of several locks clicking into place.

Another reason his lab was avoided. It felt too much like walking into a trap.

The jet showed that much, as well. His wings stiffening just to dip low as he glanced back at the door, a quizzical frown at his derma.

"So," Starscream began, bluffing his way through unease that Shockwave regarded as uncaringly as usual, "You have more to say about those ores?"

He sounded so expectant.

Shockwave stared at him for a nanoklik before nodding, turning to pace over to the monitor.

"In the meeting, I only highlighted the variation of ores I have already collected samples of, that I believe Lord Megatron is presently in need of being in the loop about. There are more than the few I offered brief information about. As I recall you appeared to be more curious about some than others, and when I referenced seeding distant planets with these ores, as well as energon itself-"

"Yes, you didn't say whether the latter was successful but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be worth mentioning, isn't that right?" the seeker asked, a little more of a scheming growl underlining his vocalizer.

Perhaps he wasn't a complete fool after all.

Shockwave nodded, a small curt motion as he'd comb through a row of datapads for one in particular.

Ah, there it was.

"It may prove faster if you read through the relevant data from that experiment yourself." Shockwave then offered the datapad to the Vosian.

His more sordid thoughts were kept carefully to himself for the time being. He was making this worthwhile for Starscream, first.

If asked, he wouldn't view this as an act of manipulation, but a means of making a deal that was mutually beneficial much more appealing to the craftier mech.

He'd answer the few questions Starscream paused in his reading to ask, after a point beginning to move about the space in the lab as the Vosian leant himself back against the counter on which the shelf of datapads was currently stored.

His guard seemed to be lowering, and that was what Shockwave wanted to see.

In the meantime, he was preparing the table, a tray of tools, monitors, energon tanks, a couple small ore samples... the restraints.

Starscream would only pause again and really look at him once he'd finished skimming through what he'd been reading. Shockwave caught the way his derma sloped into a small frown, his optics narrowed as he spied the clear indicators of an Experiment being prepared for.

"What are you doing?" came the next line of questioning for Shockwave.

"I did tell you I had more to discuss than just Project Regenesis, these preparations are in relation to those theories needing further exploration. To that end, you are the only one who can offer answers to them."

Starscream didn't take very well to that, but he was clearly trying to appear unruffled about it. "And just what answers are those, Shockwave?" he'd ask with a pointed, nervous chuckle.

"Your spark is remarkable. I want to analyze its properties, and I offer you my guarantee that it will not be extinguished." he supplies readily, his cold, matter-of-fact affect seeming to ease the seeker only on one front.

He had no intention of killing Starscream. Troublesome as he was, vexing and thoughtless as he could be, he was useful to Megatron as well as he was to scientific endeavors. Shockwave may not have said anything about the clones yet, but each had proven remarkably perfect for what he'd sought to make them for. Save for... more unfortunate consequences of making someone who is alive. 

"So, what? How do you plan on examining my spark? Clearly you don't mean to scan it." he pushes, the datapad being set aside in haste.

"Scientifically minded as you appear to be, Starscream, I expect that you understand the best way to observe certain things is through the most direct, at times invasive methods." He stares down at him after crossing the lab to stand just a couple paces away again.

The Vosian sneered a little, incredulous, perhaps reasonably further unsettled. "You intend to vivisect me?" he scoffs.

"Yes. If you agree to this procedure, your willing contribution to my knowledge will be rewarded."

"Rewarded with what exactly?" Starscream's servos were crossed, his posture defensive. Flighty.

"You have just been reading about it, I have a stockpile of energon which that endeavor has yielded, which Lord Megatron is not aware of, I intend to offer some of it to you."

The seeker paused, optics narrowed dangerously as he'd shift on his struts, a servo at his hip. Shockwave had little doubt that he was putting a great deal of effort into simply remaining composed, not showing his fear.

"How much energon do you intend to provide me with, should I agree?" he'd ask, a trace amount of venom lacing his tone.

Shockwave considers that again for another nanoklik before answering, "Approximately enough to sustain yourself for a vorn."

An entire vorn, possibly a little longer. 

That was a very attractive offer.

The scientist had considered an offer more stingy, something much closer to a few deca-cycles. But... for as much as he knew about Starscream, he predicted refusal if he were to suggest a number as comparatively paltry as that. 

Not that refusal did much beyond temporarily impeding the advancement of his science, but a small part of Shockwave both respected Starscream enough to ask before anything, and another part wanted him awake and aware.

He stares, watching Starscream truly roll this decision around in his processor. The Vosian's wings moved; down, up, then half down again, and he appeared to be muttering to himself... echoing the words Shockwave had spoken.

After a breem of this he stops, staring at Shockwave with an uneasy smirk. 

Scheming.

"I have one condition more, I expect you to tell me more about how remarkable I am!"

Shockwave's optic dimmed for a moment at the demand, finials dipping back the tiniest bit in his version of a pensive look.

"I already intended to inform you of each step to this procedure, as well as the observations I make in the process. That condition sounds... acceptable."

He offers his servo out to the seeker, vents cycling in what was a barely restrained, eager hiss. Starscream paused again, looking his frame up and down, then at the table and back, only to accept and allow Shockwave to lead him over.

Oh the scientists' spark spun a bit faster. Experiments like this were so often much more fun when he got to hear screams echo off the walls, but that was a rather poor replacement for knowing Starscream would very likely understand when he ran through his process verbally.

"I will extend to you the charity of inhibiting your system processors ability to feel pain." he'd state, vocalizer deviating from its typical monotony if only for a split nanoklik. 

Starscream definitely cast a worried glance toward him as he sat up on the vivisection table, servos at either side of himself. "You're twisted, you sound excited about this." he mutters, "Go ahead! That will make it easier for me to pay attention, anyway." the flighted mech sighed.

In a melodramatic fashion, Starscream then positioned himself to lay back upon the table, a sigh falling from his vents as he stared at Shockwave expectantly.

Shockwave took no more than a klik to secure the seeker's limbs with the restraints. His wings were well enough pinned by his own frame that Shockwave wasn't worried about that.

He likened this display, inwardly, to a pinned insect. 

How exquisite.

"The restraints are not impeding the flow of fuel to your limbs, are they? You are comfortable despite your movement being highly limited, as well, yes?" his helm tilts. This was the maximum level of care he thought himself capable of showing another Cybertronian, and the only reason he was bothering to ask was because it was proving to make this process so much easier, it was keeping Starscream more relaxed.

The jet glanced around toward himself, testing his now very limited range of motion. His legs and ankles did little more than twitch, and his arms, bound at the wrists, were much the same.

"... As comfortable as I can be, I suppose."

"Wonderful. Shall I begin?" Shockwave presses, servo extending toward the assortment of specialized tools he'd prepared. 

Starscream's optics flickered towards them, his wings twitching and servos curled into fists. 

Still nervous.

"You may."

Shockwave felt his finials tip further forward as that answer spun around within his audials for a nanoklik. It was so strange to him, how uniquely pleasant it was to have his intent permitted if not fully welcomed, for once.

His servo raises to indicate one of the Vosian's null cannons. 

"Before I truly get started, it would be unfortunate if  your weapons discharged involuntarily during this process. You do not have a problem with temporarily removing them for the duration of this procedure, do you?" 

It was only logical to mitigate any risk of damage to his lab.

Starscream only scoffed, looking almost annoyed as his arms transformed enough that his null cannons were dropped onto the table at either side of him. The head scientist just as quickly collected and placed them both on a countertop at his back.
Turning then to face the seeker once more, he makes quick work of opening the Vosian’s diagnostic panel to plug the biometric scanner directly into Starscream's brain module.

The connection itself prompted a small shudder from the seeker's frame.  That was made a mental note of, and presumed to be correlated to sensitive ports. Intriguing, but not something he’d question outright for the time being. There were more pressing things to direct his focus toward.

As Starscream’s neural processor was precisely limited to lock out any and every pain signal for his purpose, Shockwave momentarily found himself staring down at Starscream, his optic glowing brightly.
His finials quivered, subtly, in a way that sold out his excitement like silver semaphore flags attached to the side of his helm.

"I have disabled your ability to feel pain, and your vitals are stable, although your spark is spinning at an elevated rate."

"What else?" Starscream prompted, optics trained on the lights above him before focusing on the scientist again.
He seemed to glance at those finials, a brow arching subtly as his derma curved into a lopsided sort of frown.

"Your external plating is in remarkable condition, minimal traces of any scratching, no delamination to be seen thus far. Your paint is also... aesthetically pleasing, illogical as I find vanity to be." the former Senator supplied.

Starscream smirked a little at the praise, even if his frame didn't relax at all. Shockwave could hear the Vosian's fans begin to whirr over the very soft sound of his own before he even looked to see them, his helm turning to lead his singular optic back up toward the air commander's faceplate with a quizzical stare. He took a moment to analyze what feeling it was he could read, and he only detected anxiety pouring off of Starscream via his EM field as well as written out in his minimal body language at present.

With practiced expertise, Shockwave triggered the input for the armored paneling of his chassis and upper abdomen to retract along with that pretty, polished glass dome of his cockpit. He caught a glimpse of Starscream biting his lower derma, certainly appearing to try leveling his frame's temperature while keeping his fans quieter. A quaint display, and one that Shockwave was unable to readily decipher.

"I have exposed your internal paneling and am now prying apart the seam as delicately as possible." he continues, optic illuminating slightly with each word spoken. The spudger-like tool now in his grasp very easily coaxed those internal plates to slide open for him, all of which were just as soon held in place with a few clamps.

"The symmetry on your thoracic cavity's support struts is simply divine, the delicate pattern of your fuel lines and cables is equally satisfying to behold. Your individual components all appear very healthy."

“Tch- of course, I take excellent care of myself.” the seeker cut back, a very moderate hiss underlining his voice.

Shockwave then meticulously, delicately moved the cabling and fuel lines from being quite so in his way as Starscream's spark spun even faster. The scientist only paused for the nanoklik that he observed the turbines momentarily rotate on the Vosian’s chest. Curious, that. Watching greater tension really begin gripping the flighted mech's frame, the head scientist presumes it to be from anxiety, glancing at the readouts on the monitor to verify and reinforce that theory.

"Continue." he demands in a lower tone, staring straight into Shockwave's optic. His legs were shaking.

Something about the sound of Starscream’s voice as he spoke those words distracted the scientist for almost a full klik. His optic dimmed and finials title back in his own version of a pensive look. An odd sensation had interrupted his usual process. Warmth around his own spark, and a surge of power that cycled lower, along with a momentary flare up of his own EM field.

Anomalous as that was for himself, it was written off as soon as it occurred.

His servo moves to fully expose his spark chamber just a nanoklik later. Starscream's fans kicked up a setting more for a klik, and Shockwave spoke up again as they did, the light of energon within his fuel lines, as well as the glow of Starscream's spark itself cast brilliant blue-white light across his frame as he looms a little closer over the Vosian.

How he wished to dismantle him entirely, meticulously record every minute detail down to the nanofibers of his technomatter. He wanted to pick him apart and truly decipher how Starscream functioned, and piece him back together again. 

Shockwave wished to do that for a longer duration than was, admittedly, logical. However, the process would be most enjoyable. That was the main purpose for that want to begin with, however, logic dictated that Starscream would find such an ordeal so reprehensible that he'd not only refuse, but likely take personal exception enough to have Shockwave's position among the Decepticons put into question if he voiced that desire.

Frame him as a liability or unchecked threat from within, perhaps.

Irritating, and unfortunate.

"The effulgence of your spark is anomalous, it fluctuates in brightness at a much higher rate than typical. The oscillations are unusually rapid, and it appears to have chemical peculiarities that generates a much denser magnetic field surrounding it. It's magnificent." the scientist said, his vocalizer now more drastically shifting from his typical monotony to practically drip with intoxication of his own growing enthusiasm.

That, and the way his finials jittered as he stared down at Starscream now left little room for doubting that Shockwave wasn't very much enjoying this for all that it was already.

The seeker, on the other hand, was trembling in the restraints, vents cycling at an accelerated rate along with his spark.  "Say more, Shockwave. Keep talking."

Shockwave maintained the belief that it was on account of fear permeating the jet’s systems as his digits gingerly encircled the glass of Starscream’s spark chamber, making note of the high temperature and pleasant reactivity as his spark flickered brighter under his touch. He hardly paid mind to the sound of Starscream’s vents cycling until the hiss developed into more of a soft, maintained, roar.

It was only when he prompted his spark chamber to raise and the glass to open, leaving Starscream utterly exposed in the fullest sense, that Shockwave was able to pick up on the unmistakable salacious reading of Starscream’s field. That additionally explained the dramatic flares of his spark. Oh.

How unprecedented.

Simply staring down at the Decepticon air commander for a moment in perplexed astonishment, Shockwave's digit's twitch against the glass of his sparkchamber. Processing this observation took him a klik, finials angled forward, jittering, then back again as his helm tilted the tiniest bit to one side.

Starscream would be left to hiss, urgingly, "Please continue, I want more! Keep analyzing m-me, you zealot!" as he waited the breadth of that interim where Shockwave had to contend with rare distractibility as he accounted for all the readings and cues of desire he was now drinking in from Starscream.

"I did not anticipate that you would find this process anything other than terrifying, Starscream." he'd confess, back to that flat affect for only a moment as he maneuvers his servo to almost coquettishly smooth his digits over the glass, around to the back of it. Seamlessly, he probes the neural wiring that prompted the glass to retract with his smaller digit, his optic being the only part of him now bathed in any light that wasn't a dazzling, blazing, near-opalescent blue.

Shockwave's cooling system seemed to stall out for only a moment, his fans going utterly silent as he relished the sight of the Vosian's open spark.

"What's wrong, you've stopped t-talking! Please continue, praise me more Shockwave!" the jet's voice cut into the edges of Shockwave's processing after another klik.

He felt dazed, unable to fully concentrate as fuel was heavily redirected toward his array. Acutely monitoring the alerts appearing on his own HUD in how seldom-seen they were, the head scientist cycles his vents viciously.

"You truly are a superb individual to study, Starscream." he states, optic flaring brilliantly in the otherwise blue glare from the seeker's fully exposed core. 

"The absolute measure of your spark's electromagnetic radiation is approximately twenty magnitudes higher than that of the average Cybertronian's. The fact that you do not require a great deal more fuel than most as a result is nothing short of staggering." he leans closer over the seeker, ignoring the uncharacteristic warmth now rippling through his cabling, the pressure gathering around his interfacing systems.

The Vosian trembled violently with a gasp as Shockwave's digits ever-so-gently ghosted across the rapidly spinning surface of Starscream's spark, the arching of the jet's backstruts acutely observed by the scientist. 

"Mghh- More, Sh-ockw-wave" Starscream's voice glitched in a whined out demand.

Glancing at the monitor, Shockwave slides his thumb along the other mech's spark again, vents hissing as he suddenly pauses midway through drawing his servo back toward himself, wanting to take in this sight more fully.

"The oscillations of your spark are eccentric, particularly when touched directly. It not only seems near imperishable according to all readings, but the pulsations it exhibits when you are excitable are... exhilarating to induce." The seeker's spark flared deeper blue as he spoke, thoroughly ensnaring Shockwave's gaze.

It was only then, in moving, that he was granted abrupt awareness that his paneling had retracted as his pressurized, throbbing spike brushed Starscream's thigh and prompted a momentary surge to his active processors that deviated his focus from the formerly enthralling task at hand.

Shockwave freezes up fully, optic dimmed to a faint but fiery red for just under a full klik, looming and leering down at the flighted mech at his mercy.

What a truly novel experience this was shaping up to be.

Servo twitching as his optic flickered up toward the seeker's face, his finials angle back, vents whirring loudly as they pull heat he similarly hadn't registered out of his frame. 

"What is the matter with you?!" Starscream's biting voice pulled Shockwave from the spiraling of his own processor and fishtailing line of thought.

"I am unsure of how to answer, this is not something I have ever experienced while running an experiment at any point in the past."
Where most mechs may have exhibited some semblance of embarrassment, perhaps even shame, Shockwave offered nothing but his usual, entirely too intense stare as he busies his focus a little more with hooking his digits gently around Starscream's t-cog, plucking it from the space where it comfortably sat, inspecting the luster with divided interest.

Easier to process the satyric charge setting his sensory network alight while avoiding actually doing anything about it straightaway. What was there to do about this, it utterly disrupted his ability to make any scientifically worthwhile observations, for the most part.

The thought to make a brief exit was cut, again, by the Vosian's wanton voice, and the pulses Shockwave was getting from his EM field. "You're s-sick in the helm to be getting off on this." he spits, the aperture behind the glass of his optics visibly opened fully, gaze roaming Shockwave's plating languidly in a way that made the logic-driven scientist's spark flare a bit.

"I never told you that you could move on from touching my spark." the Vosian adds with a snarl, almost certainly a front to try, pitifully, to mask his persisting fear. 

Shockwave's helm tilts, turning to let his gaze wander across the tools he'd prepared, legs a little more stiff as he'd click the fighter jet's t-cog back into place. He considers his words a couple times over for a nanoklik.

"My appreciation for this indulgence of my curiosity on your part has overridden my logic-based processing with a bothersome want and some... indistinct subroutines I am unable to parse." He leans closer, digits trailing to meander from the jet's thoracic cavity, across one clamp and over his hip.

Humming in consideration as Starscream's frame shudders subtly from that attention, Shockwave cycles his vents deeply,  his spike aching in response to all the cues he was picking up on.

"You sadistic freak- do more than that please-!" Shockwave felt a row of calipers tighten around nothing at those growled out words, his vents billowing a small amount of steam.

"Commander Starscream, if it would please you, I wish to interface." he states, flatly, to the point.

Certainly he could take advantage of the restrained state of the seeker if he wished to, but his spark spun in an utterly obscene way with how Starscream was begging for him to do more than simply look at him now that he'd stopped touching him in ways that generated a charge so readily.

The Vosian gaped at him for a nanoklik, almost looking like he was torn between flinging a reasonably judgmental insult and simply shouting in frustration.

Instead of either of those things, Starscream shudders and bites at his lower derma for a nanoklik, the vents at the sides of his helm heated enough to generate a very soft orange glow. "I deserve it, please, I know you've considered dismantling me, the least you could do is leave me feeling as though I have been!" 

Finials quivering briefly, Shockwave's fans roar as he promptly removes the tension from the restraints binding Starscream's legs to the table. It was so odd to have his knees feeling unsteady beneath him without being damaged in a way that would have caused it.

"Your insinuation that I am sick in the helm is hypocritical when you yourself are making such a demand, Starscream." the scientist remarks, pacing to very carefully bring himself up, momentarily using his hyperflux cannon as a means of averting clumsiness as he climbs onto the examination table to loom above the Vosian properly.

"I do not need to feel to see that you are enjoying this experiment just as much as I am. You demand that I leave you feeling destroyed, I will eagerly oblige that desire."

Starscream opened his intake only to shut it again quickly with a clack of his denta, optics widened for a split nanoklik as he shuddered against the table's surface. With a smile that turned a bit wicked,  he moves just enough to ensnare Shockwave's waist with his knees, wisely unwilling to change his position much with the surgical procedure not having been concluded by any means as of yet.

"Then get on with it, Shockwave, make good on your word!" he sounded only the slightest bit cocky, though it was underpinned entirely by unmistakable desperation. His field betrayed his lingering fear, though now it mingled with a sense of thrill.

Fascinating.

Maneuvering to cradle Starscream's hips between his own thighs, the head scientist's optic dims slightly as his spike pushes against the front of the Vosian's array. He didn't even have the time to ask that Starscream retract his panels before they were both opening with a soft click, the seeker's spike pressurizing against Shockwave's own deliciously.

Relocating his cannon and servo alike to forcibly lock the seeker's hips in place before him, Shockwave  stares down at Starscream, studying the way his spark seemed to shiver in its open chamber, the rapid flow of energon through his fuel lines around it, the rush of coolant alongside that, and... oh, he wanted to see more.

With his hips rolling against Starscream, motion heavy and maddeningly teasing, Shockwave events in a gratified sigh. His servo moves to tenderly relocate more fuel lines, exposing Starscream's toxin filtration system along with a portion of one fuel tank and pumps, hydraulic lines, and more importantly, to Shockwave's intent, the line between his valve and gestation chamber.  

The sight on its own had his spike drooling transfluid, and trailing some slightly shaky digits along the gestational line itself prompted a shrill whine from the seeker as he looked a bit disconcerted again. 

"Beg for me again, for the delight of me fully observing your systems functioning in perfect concert as I overcharge your processors, Starscream."

The desire to be invited was a new one; the novelty of it still fresh in Shockwave's processor enough that he couldn't yet bring himself to care enough about how unusual that was to pick it apart and sort whether to erase it. His attention was entirely too engrossed with the hint of wet friction provided by Starscream's valve just glancing with the lower edge of his own anterior node as he ruts their spikes together with growing hunger.

The Decepticon second-in-command quakes beneath him, vents giving off a soft glow as his faceplate contorts in a nearly pained expression of unmasked impatience. "PLEASE just frag me a-already!" he cries, "Creep th- that you are, I want you to s-see everything as you ru-ohh~ ruin me!"

How could Shockwave deny him that enticing request any longer? It had sent a surge through his cabling enough to coax a soft huff of a sound which betrayed as much want as the logic-driven mech's own EM field now did.

Pulling Starscream's left leg over his right shoulder, Shockwave drags his spike through the surprising amount of lubricant gathered at the air commander's valve to make haste in burying his spike deep within the smaller mech. A soft hiss of hot air rushes from his vents as Starscream yelps, legs tensing around Shockwave's frame as though trying to lock him in place as he rocks his hips, easily pushing past each tight row of internal calipers.

The sensation was transcendent as the surge of charge that it sent through Starscream was echoed through the scientist himself.

Shockwave felt his frame shudder as the Vosian's wet, tight valve gripped his throbbing spike.

For once, Shockwave felt at a loss for words.

It was as if his systems had been overridden and possessed with unmitigated desire.

His optic burns brightly as his servo curls around that precious line he'd exposed. Gaze darting between Starscream's face, indecipherable pleas muttered and squeaked out through his glitching vocalizer as Shockwave's hips lurched down into him.

How enrapturing the sight before him was. The rush of energon swelling through Starscream's lines each time their hips met flush, the way his spark appeared to ripple with every brush against his anterior node, and the thunderous scream of turbines coming online under the cascade of feverish stimulation Shockwave was devoting toward him.

It was rare, to begin with, that the scientist so much as self-serviced. 

Typically, such impulses only arose on any level that persisted when there were a number of larger-scale setbacks with his scientific endeavors. Autobots discovering an off-site lab and either destroying it themselves or giving Shockwave enough cause to enact failsafes he developed and never wanted to utilize.

It was always a pain, losing so much valuable research. It made his spark chamber feel like pressure was being placed upon it, unflinching as he was about carrying out everything as necessary.

Self servicing, so very seldomly, for the sake of ridding himself of irritating impulses and notifications that got in the way of his concentration was one thing, where this was leagues apart from that. 

A charge crackled through his very plating as Shockwave's body seemed to move on its own, steam billowing from his vents as he bore down on Starscream in rhythmic motion, each roll of his hips like a wind-up leading seamlessly into another surge of thought-numbing pleasure crashing through his processors.

This was fantastically unsustainable, a high like little else to ignore the monitor displaying just how very close Starscream now tread to the line of his processor's limits, spark spinning at a maintained, highly elevated rate.

"Marvelous." he musters after a klik more, vocalizer strained, though not glitching into anything comparable to those exquisite shrieks and squeaks the Vosian's own was now producing.

A delicious, dizzying pleasure was thoroughly enveloping Shockwave's senses, the drive to seek more ensnaring his focus so completely as a new, heightened surge of charge swept through his frame he couldn't help the way his servo closed firmly around the Vosian's gestational line, grip dragging slightly downward as his hips lurch violently into the flighted mech's. He was so very close, finials tipped forward toward Starscream, in all his overclocked brilliance... trembling, squirming, squawking mess begging and cursing in far less coherence than Shockwave was able to extend any thought into deciphering now.

The scientist himself was deaf to the low growls of his own engines or the heady sighs of near-moans now rising from his own vocalizer. 

When had he ever been vocal about something like pleasure at all? no memory existed on his processor of that.

The thought was overwritten as soon as it had occurred by his processors simultaneously slamming into their limit  with such force that his frame quaked over Starscream's, weight bearing down on his cannon as the seeker wailed and jerked violently through an overload beneath him. 

— — — — —

As Shockwave's system began to reboot, his fans came back online, cycling fiercely as the steady ambient murmur of energon flowed through his lines. The familiar cold lighting of his lab greeting him first as his optic blinked online again, Shockwave's audials rang with the noise of Starscream's voice.

"Get OFF of me you oaf!"

Ah.

He'd crashed his systems so rapturously that he'd failed to take account for his own positioning, now partway pressing down upon the smaller mech, chassis first, in a way that certainly couldn't be comfortable.

Straightening up, Shockwave cycles his vents slowly, and catalogues all that greeted his line of sight, his servo trailing along the seeker's gestational line, now illuminated a vivid magenta with Shockwave's transfluid. His finials twitch a little, and his gaze drifts upward, surveying whether he'd damaged Starscream at all.

Minimal scraping of their paint was present, and the Vosian's systems were still functioning at an elevated rate.

"Don't tell me you're done already, Shockwave." he jeers, exhibiting some signs of discomfort, purely regarding the head scientist's own silence, if Shockwave was reading him correctly.

"I do not recall making any indication of that being the case, Starscream." he begins, slowly withdrawing to marvel at the mess they'd made in merely getting started. "I find that there is more I want to test, if you are agreeable to that."

He stares down at the second in command with intense expectation.

Starscream shifts, slightly. His glossa darted over his derma as his optics flit around the space of the lab quickly, across the monitors that sold out the way his spark spun a bit faster again at those words, where Shockwave personally saw it happen, otherwise. 

He truly was an extraordinary specimen to behold.

"What more do you have rattling around in that warped processor of yours, then?" the seeker demands.

Oh how glad Shockwave was that he'd actually asked.

Raising his servo toward his chassis, he transforms, layer by layer, down to bare his spark chamber and the shivering golden spark housed within just as he pushes it forward, the glass housing it opening to bare it just as fully as Starscream's spark already was.

"I would like to attempt spark merging with you." he states simply.

Blunt as always, words almost sounding cold and dispassionate about the prospect were it not for that telltale distortion to his own voice that indicated genuine excitement.

The Vosian blinked, only able to gape at him for a nanoklik, floundering for words.

"Are you insane? Why would you want to do that?" he'd finally ask after what seemed more like a few kliks than one one-hundredth of that amount of time.

"Why should I indulge your desire to go that far?" he'd add, that ever-present bravado faltering enough that it gave Shockwave pause.

Shockwave's finials angle back slightly, and his optic dimmed in evident confusion.

What was so unusual about that desire?

Was it not a process that would enable him to share in Starscream's senses, thoughts, emotional processes, and memories in a way that any manner of scan or study paled in comparison to?

"Shockwave." Starscream presses.

The scientist's gaze again focuses on those brilliant crimson optics now glaring up at him, pointed yet radiating unease.

"You are... unique, abnormal in ways that place you squarely beyond the reach of my own understanding in spite of all the means I have at my disposal to rend you down to your most fundamental components to be analyzed... even that would not allow me to comprehend you, Starscream." he allows his gaze to meander toward the monitor, noting the way the Vosian was reacting to his words.

"I wish to understand you, in all of your perplexing, exasperating, sublime manner of being. That is why I want you to indulge me." He'd stare down at him, his words surprisingly earnest, nearing the territory of being spark-felt... though Shockwave himself would deny that being a possibility.

A few nanokliks of silence passed between them as Starscream seemed at war with himself over just what he wanted to say. His spark fluttered nicely, in Shockwave's personal opinion, as he cycled his vents with a disquieted sneer on his warmed faceplate. 

"If I didn't know better I'd accuse you of liking me in your predictably unsavory way." Shockwave's finials tip back slightly, optic dimming momentarily at those words. Before he could reinforce Starscream's apparent belief against that being the case, the Vosian spoke again. 

"You're reprehensible, Shockwave. Yes, fine, I'll humor this ridiculous whim of yours if it will sate your curiosity."

Oh. 

He hadn't fully expected that Starscream would be interested. He could feel the way his own spark flared, prompting a faint scoff from Starscream. Ignoring that, he readjusted, sliding his cannon alongside one of Starscream's arms, servo at his waist as their chassis press flush.

“Excellent, let us proceed.” was all Shockwave had to say before their sparks met.

A jolt surged through his frame as the coronae of their sparks brushed. Starscream shuddered beneath him, denta momentarily bared as his optics darted downward only to fix onto Shockwave's optic again.

The scientist was met with an influx of data flooding his processors enough that his own frame seemed to move, again, on its own. Pushing his spark closer to the Vosian's, his hips resumed a slow and steady motion as Starscream's internal calipers compressed around his spike again. The first of the information to truly be sorted by his active processor was that of pleasure now oscillating evenly between them, electrifying as it shrouded their senses in tandem. 

Hot air rushed from their vents in their shared charge, sparks shivering together as Shockwave allowed more data from Starscream to be unpacked and processed.

It was such a pleasant haze, gaining access to the thoughts cycling through the  flighted mech's own processors. The sensation of cold at his back, the way the table brushed against his wings with any movement now that Shockwave's weight pressed them firmly against that metal, the shiver-inducing feedback of their continued entanglement from both sides... it threatened to throw the head scientist into a second overload in the span of just a few nanokliks.

It was too much, and not enough. Shockwave wanted more.

"I want to know you, Starscream." he murmurs, an arc of electricity jumping between his optic and the cabling at the Vosian's neck. 

That was something he wouldn't have considered before, added intimacy. He had no denta to bite the seeker with, as Starscream appeared to subconsciously crave, nor any means of kissing him either. That little jolt of energy, however, prompted a more pronounced lurch of the seeker's hips toward his own.

Intriguing.

"Mnghh- y-you're taking this agonizingly slow, Sh- Shockwave." the second-in-command chided, though there was no real irritation behind his voice now.

As Starscream's optics flickered, Shockwave's roared and fans kicked into a higher setting all anew as another surge of data enveloped him.

This was different, datasets of what must be emotion threatening to overclock his active processor, no subroutines he'd run following the supposed punishment administered by the senate so long ago had approached this.

A fluttery, light feeling that made his spark quiver washed over him first. Was that true joy? Starscream's spark spun faster and the charge between them grew. Shockwave's cables tensed and his frame shook subtly beneath despite himself as the feeling of unbridled thrill coalesced with that spiking pleasure and drowned his processor in a disorienting cocktail.

Memories that weren't his own overtook Shockwave's internal HUD display and sensornet.

The last joor danced across his sensornet, the Vosian’s misgivings directed toward himself, his intrigue, disregarded desire spurred by the appeals to his own ego, and the security and mild gratification of knowing that he was valued in some way.

Vorns worth of memory data cascaded over the scientist's processor at blistering speed, an overload creeping up upon them both.

A haze of memories flitted through his mind, he recognized himself, again. A feeling of trepidation and opportunity bleeding over his senses from those glimpses of his own frame from just shortly following the removal of his head and hands.

Perplexing.

Adoration, belonging, then a terrible sense of loss, mourning, defiance, uncertainty, despair, fear, jolted through him like flashes of lightning.

Megatron was the only figure Shockwave could identify of the otherwise unfamiliar mechs flashing through his thoughts.

Starscream's backstruts arched, his voice glitching as a low keen in ecstasy ripped its way free of his vocalizer. Wings quivering beneath him, clattering and scraping against the table as the blissfully searing, pulsing, heat of his valve closing around Shockwave's spike. His frame trembles violently along with and beneath the scientists' own as their pleasure overlaps and compounds upon itself. 

His systems nearly crashed just as they had the first time, Starscream's optics coming back online before his own blinked back at the Vosian.

Overstimulating, though Shockwave stubbornly refused to yield when he was certain there was more still to be seen. Withdrawing his hips from Starscream’s only for a moment, he passively grinds down against the seeker’s anterior node once again, even as his own cooling system struggles to keep pace with his frame.

He wanted to see more, to know more.

Nervous, feverish excitement surged through his mind violently enough to cause his frame to quake for a fraction of a nanoklik.

A spiraling blur of shimmering, jagged rock sped by before abruptly yielding to the impossibly vast open breadth of Cybertron's sky. The moons streaking their way across the dusk-flushed sky, stars innumerable shivering in a distant dance overhead until the ground below twirled into sight again, and just as rapidly rose towards him only for the chilly night air to carry his- Starscream's frame as if he weighed nothing at all, thrusters igniting again to send himself careening right back into the sky. Freedom.

Was that the first time he'd taken flight?

Shockwave marvels at him, servo rising to gently cup Starscream’s jawline, a gesture borne of earnest admiration and wonder, though Shockwave was unable to fully replicate that feeling of adoration he’d gotten a proper taste of. He didn’t need to say anything now, the sentiment perfectly conveyed as soon as it arose in his spark as their very cores pulsed together. Starscream was growing impatient as the kliks dragged on, and it seemed there was little else of note to explore for the moment.

A pity.

Admittedly, and expectedly, Shockwave didn’t think himself completely satisfied just yet, even if he did need a couple kliks to stabilize once more.

It appeared there was minimal probability of Starscream being sparked, Shockwave noted as he withdrew to sit further upright again. With the connection severed, he observes just as he had been before for a nanoklik. There was no trace of any sparklet created as they parted, his own spark retreating into the depths of his chassis as the layers of cabling, metal, and glass all clicked back into their rightful place.

“I believe, Starscream, that this exploration has been a success.” the words were nearly purred as his finials flitter. “I will conclude your vivisection momentarily.”

Watching as Starscream maneuvers to look down at himself for only a nanoklik only for his helm to drop back against the table once more, Shockwave ignores the surfacing want to make him squirm and squeal again along with the way that thought made his node throb faintly.

"You're planning something else." the Vosian murmurs, optics narrowed slightly. "You aren't completely finished with me, I can tell.” Starscream likely meant it as an accusation, even if it didn’t quite sound the part.

Shockwave's servo pauses amidst returning each of  Starscream's wires, lines, and cables to where they'd been before, his helm turning to directly meet the seeker's gaze. "While not untrue, what led you to that conclusion?

It was decidedly odd, the thought of someone being able to accurately get a read on him. There was no way it could have been ascertained until just a klik ago, but what could have tipped Starscream off?

"You may lack a faceplate, now, but those finials of yours are much more expressive than you yourself think they are. They move, especially when you've got something stuck in your processor." the cocky sort of smirk Starscream wore now would earn him a lingering stare.

Plucking the clamps from their formerly secure places, the head scientist quietly triggers Starscream's Spark retreat into its chamber, and back into the recesses of his chest, as his thoracic cavity seals itself and transforms back into place. Perfect. 

"I intend to keep you a short while longer to ensure that your systems are stable and operating within what are normal parameters for yourself. Although I also find that I'm not yet completely satisfied following those secondary experiments with interfacing." he explains, thinking little of the fact that his curiosity outweighed his stamina. Such was the cost of so typically disregarding intimate entanglements as little more than needless methods to waste time. 

Unnecessary, but, well... spark merging itself now raised a few questions to revisit later. Some of which pulled his attention, distantly, toward the subject of combiners. None had ever agreed to allow further experimentation, not even those who’d volunteered to become combiners so long ago now. What a pain it was, only being able to speculate.

Dismissing those thoughts entirely as Starscream’s legs were drawn up toward himself, servos twitching as though trying to reach and remove the restraints, Shockwave’s finials angle toward him again.

“Do I have to be bound to this table while you do that?”

Perhaps he was beginning to feel antsy, given that he had been restricted from moving much at all for a little under a joor and a half now.

"You do, based on your observed tendency to be flighty." His answer came simply, much to Starscream's evident chagrin.

Shockwave disregarded the way the jet's derma sloped into a frown, instead devoting his attention to smoothing his servo along Starscream's thigh. His legs were, honestly, quite nice, in form as well as function. Like the rest of his trine, Starscream was finely proportioned. Elegant, aerodynamic, and light in frame. The structure of his lower legs, particularly, along with his struts, was a feat of adaptation.

"Why would I flee in this state, I wouldn't hear the end of it if– What are you doing now?" those fiery red optics were fixed upon him again.

"I have doubts that you'd be so willing to humor me if I asked to examine the structure within your legs, to disassemble even one of your struts to catalogue the structure of your thrusters." the head scientist begins, tone bordering on wistfulness at the idle fantasy, not minding that Starscream's vitals jolted in a way that radiated fear for a moment, "So instead I can compromise for showing my appreciation for such a lovely exemplification of the features unique to seekers in another way. One you will find indisputably preferable."

Tugging the Vosian's thigh flush to his abdomen with his servo, Shockwave fumbles, slightly, to mirror that motion with the other arm. Starscream was quick to catch on, though. Optics widening in what appeared to be surprise as the purple mech inched their hips flush once again. The scientist let out a soft and satisfied hum as Starscream's thighs squeezed around his spike, finials twitching as he angled himself better to allow their anterior nodes to brush together.

"Mnh- look at you, touting yourself as a mech of pure logic, when hah- here you are acting on desire." The fighter jet half-sneered up at him as he languidly ruts their nodes together, spike pleasantly squeezed as it pistons between Starscream's thighs.

He wanted to dispute that notion, staring down at Starscream as his own fans kicked up a setting again, irritation mingled with pleasure. "I deem it logical to act on my own curiosity. If that meets criteria for you to deem this subroutine desire, then my desire is founded in logic."

Starscream only huffed out a laugh and rolled his optics, even as his charge began steadily rising for the third time. Shockwave dismissed it entirely, refusing to dwell on that when his thoughts readily drifted elsewhere.

The breadth of what Shockwave wanted to test now was perfectly within reach, particularly since Starscream hadn't made any indication that he ought to stop, even with that false bravado veiling his nerves again. 

"Although not at all what I initially had planned for this evening, this is the perfect opportunity for me to experiment with my own limitations, as well as y-yours." his finials jitter as his gaze trails up the polished glass of Starscream's cockpit, straying only briefly toward his turbines as they began to turn, only to then dart toward his optics once more.

"You owe me more pr-ah~ praise, Shockwave." The Vosian cajoled more than demanded.

His finials twitched, calculative in thought as his body moved near-automatically. The slick friction between them combined with the pressure around his spike while still a little fried in the sensornet from two overloads... Shockwave couldn't bring himself to care that this wasn't going to last on his end. 

There were other methods of fully satisfying Starscream as well as his curiosity.

"I find the coloration you selected f-for your livery to be quite nh– nice, it's truly very striking." he nearly keens, entirely unused to hearing himself moan.

Optic flickering offline for less than a nanoklik, Shockwave's finials snap upward only to tilt back again, his cabling growing tighter as he neared the precipice. Digits sinking against Starscream's thigh with enough force to scrape his paint, the head scientist grinds down against him as steam puffs from his vents, a charge crackling through his plating.

"The shape of your wings-ssszz even removed from their superior aerodynamic shape gives you an imposing silhouette." he rambles on, voice carrying a little more of an electrical hum as his movements grew harsh and feverish.

Starscream trembled beneath him, his digits curled inward and his arms arced subtly. The clatter of movement and whining squeals of metal on metal echoing through the laboratory just as the Vosian cried out upon climaxing a third time.

Shockwave was not far behind him at all.

"Your voice sounds lovely like th-that." he nearly growls, frame so very tense in his grip on the seeker right up until his cabling rapidly relaxed, pleasure snapping back as his processors simultaneously overclocked to the point of crashing, his optic blinking back online to the sight of transfluid spattered across the better part of the Vosian's abdomen. 

It was quite the captivating look, Shockwave decided as he cycled his vents and stilled himself again.

Not a klik later, Shockwave promptly slides back off the vivisection table, pedes hitting the floor in a heavy clunk beneath him as he transforms the paneling of his codpiece back into place. His own physical appetite sated and notifications demanding he recharge soon, though his desire to run tests on Starscream had yet to fully reach its limit for the cycle.

Starscream’s cooling system quieted somewhat as Shockwave paced across the lab to unlock and skim through a drawer. As he glanced back at him, the scientist’s helm tilted lightly in thought. “You look exquisite, dazed and in such a disheveled state.”

"Mm. And just what the frag are you rummaging around for over there?" His legs finally relaxed and stretched down across the table again, the fact that he wasn't to be released any time too soon being clear enough that he was settling in where he lay again, no doubt assessing whether there was something to complain about now. "I can hear that it's nothing to clean me up with."

Shockwave's finials flick. "I may have pinpointed my own limit, but your biometrics indicate that not yet being the case for you. So, logically my work has not concluded." 

Starscream's optics widened as he took notice of the devices now held in the scientist's grasp. His frame seemed to jerk a bit, wings scraping at the table as he twitched under his lingering restraints. 

A flight response? He hadn't thought he'd be so jumpy over something so simple, particularly following the preceding examination.

"Do you have any objection to the use of... I suppose to use a more pedestrian word, toys?" it really was far too audible; the interest he had in his own plans all but palpable in his voice.

Starscream squirmed a little, glossa darting over his derma before he was chewing at his lip just as briefly. "You're going to spoil me?" he'd finally ask.

The question didn't quite make sense, at first. Shockwave was quite honestly motivated entirely by a more selfish sort of curiosity and little else in this line of thought. Mutual enjoyment, though, again was something that sent a small charge spiraling down through the internal calipers of his valve. 

What a novel thrill.

"If that is how you choose to interpret this, then yes. You will not be left wanting, as I intend to exhaust you prior to cleaning my lab." How pleasant it was, watching the other mech squirm in place out of what had to be anticipation as much as it was unease as he approached the table once more.

"Remain still for a klik, for me." he'd direct, the more bizarre device he'd retrieved being set down.

"A-Alright. Instead of only telling me how incredible I am now, I want to hear more praise for my– gh... performance, too." The gears visible in Starscream's joints appeared locked up, his thighs subtly pinched as he stared at Shockwave's  choice of 'toys.'

Shockwave offered only a hum in acknowledgment to that, finials angled forward as his digits swiped lubricant from between the Vosian's thighs to ease the process of slipping the circular devices in his grasp on. Starscream tensed further, vents cycled out in a hiss as he'd bare his denta for all of a nanoklik.

They were the more conventional looking of the three devices Shockwave had selected, transforming partially to fit the flighted mech, though the smaller of the two which sat nearer the tip of his spike began transmitting new biometric readings to the monitor alongside the table as soon as it was placed.

Observing that made Starscream's servos and faceplate twitch a little. Delectable.

"I have concluded the most enjoyable method conducive to measuring your limits is through initially inhibiting your ability to overclock your processors, following that with documenting the time between each successive overload until your body is unable to continue. Is that acceptable?"

Starscream hissed again, denta bared and optics flashing as if he was inclined to argue. The readings on the monitor were equally revealing, though, to the full re-pressurization of his spike. 

"You really are so much more perverse than anyone here seems to believe you to be." he huffs, "Yes, that's acceptable, Shockwave." His tone dripped with false venom, as it appeared he was more impatient than anything. Good.

"Then I will proceed with this phase of the experiment."
He saw no cause to say it, but there was some pleasure to be found in hearing just what Starscream thought of his whims. 

Attention directing itself instead toward the odd, segmented device which only partially replicated the shape of a spike, Shockwave's digits trace the odd, opalescent plating covering the ventral face of its base. With a soft click, a cord was drawn and casually lifted toward the ring which now sent a constant feed of data to the monitor. The end of that cord was... odd. Far more like delicate tendrils of roots as it climbed up the length of Starscream’s spike and coiled itself around the ring, incorporating itself into the device seamlessly just as the scientist had expected.

Another switch would be tripped on the device, illuminating it with the unmistakable glow of biolights as the plating shifted and seemed to shudder across its surface as if it were alive. Starscream's faceplate had fixed itself into a perturbed mask, though the look in his optics was nothing less than quizzical.

"What is that?" Starscream was practically shaking, sounding so very nervous. 

A small, satisfied thrill jolted through Shockwave's frame as he'd show off the truly mechanized portion of the encased... partially organic lifeform?

"This was something I developed for the purpose of a regrettably cancelled series of experiments. I have modified a very rudimentary form of remarkably adaptable organic life so that it has yielded complimentary characteristics to our own circuitry and function. The shell is composed of a combination of sentio metallico and silica. The creature itself naturally seeks to generate a charge while siphoning energy for itself, I have modified it further to direct the extent to which it behaves as a voltage regulator myself."

Starscream appeared half-sickened, half ready to somersault over himself and try to make a break for it.

And yet he didn't move.

"I can assure you that there will be no lingering consequences of utilizing this, and it is not alive in the same sense that we are. It is quite a bit like very simple nanotechnology, if that is what is concerning you." he'd add, noting the way those ruby optics darted between what he held and his own, lone optic.

"I'm more concerned about why you have it, but any answer you could give threatens to be far more dreadful than anything I want to hear." the Vosian scoffed, "So, stop telling me about it and begin acting out this sick fantasy of yours."

Relishing Starscream's evident horror along with the fact that he was clearly still interested, Shockwave's finials jitter again, engines nearly purring as he swipes that sickening, enticing affront to ethics through the lubricant of the Vosian's valve a few times over. Seeing him bare his denta and glare a little in response sent a slight, pleasant shiver up the head scientist's backstrut. Adjusting his weight, he leans over Starscream, toy maneuvered in his grasp to very slowly ease into the seeker's valve.

"I have yet to tell you how truly captivating your optics are, their brilliance and ferocity lends itself well to your beguiling nature." His helm finials tilt back sweetly as he bathed in the sight of Starscream's body jolting, legs tensing and twitching in, likely, a less than voluntary response to the way the partially-organic creature now burrowed its tendrils into all the highest-voltage places within his valve, eagerly wriggling and stimulating his sensornet. 

The displayed level of charge jumped from 19.8% to 78.6% in an instant, continuing to increase more steadily from there only to top out at 99.89%.  Starscream's frame quaked in response, cabling tight beneath his plating and joints locking up from that tension. Steam billowed from his vents and he whimpered as the nanokliks ticked by without his processor being allowed to overclock and reboot.

"The asymmetry of your denta makes for a fearsome visage when bared, as I understand it they are sharpened for the purpose of piercing energon lines." he'd murmur, trace admiration lacing his voice as the angle of the toy was adjusted to more directly push into the interior node of Starscream's system. 

A shock crackled through the seeker's plating, his gaze turned upward and frame arched as he gasped in a desperate attempt to further cool his system. He was running so extraordinarily hot at present. 

"You're performing so nicely, taking this as you are, Starscream." an arc of electricity jumps from his own optic to dance across the Vosian's cheek. A kiss, of sorts. Shockwave was curious to discover whether affection held any bearing on the way Starscream reacted as that toy undulated within his valve, building as much charge as it was taking.

Glancing over the monitor, Starscream's processing capacity and collective charge were now steadily clocked at 99.99%, his thermal regulatory system just the same.

Starscream had been held, beautifully, at the precipice for nearly fifteen kliks by the time Shockwave decided to offer a scant amount of mercy.

“Sho-ockwav-ve PLEASE!” he keens, voice modulator glitching spectacularly again.

With a swift twitch of his thumb, the tendrils buried into Starscream's internal calipers, node, and sensornet contracted beneath that odd plating, and with another, it exerted the charge it had collected outward at Shockwave's equally unspoken directive. Just the flick of a digit and the Vosian was all but convulsing in a wave of pleasure, electricity humming through his frame as he wails. Coolant gathered at his optics, subtly, and the way his faceplate warped under his own pleasure held the scientist's rapt attention.

The time would be counted down, Starscream's refractory period being measured just as attentively as the effect providing him with affection and praise was. Several small zaps of energy to the temple, cheek, to the very edge of his derma, all from Shockwave's optic as his servo releases its grip on the toy to instead stroke along the flighted mech's abdomen, up across the glass of his cockpit.

It was an expression of reverence, though Shockwave was largely ignoring the possibility that he was capable of truly admiring anyone. That emotional subroutine had been removed, along with approximately twenty others. He tended to delete them or dismiss them as errors if any began to execute again.

"The opportunity to glimpse the contents of your spark, to know you... has been truly, profoundly enlightening." he purrs, finials twitching as Starscream's optics blinked online again, his internal systems back up to higher operations with soft clicks and hums after just 1.75 kliks had ticked by.

"Anomalous as you are, to understand the thrill of your exploration of other planets, your thirst for knowledge, which I find we share..." another short series of zaps, and his servo began gradually trailing back down the smaller mech's frame, "I have arrived at the conclusion that you are one of very limited few I am capable of calling a peer, as opposed to merely a fellow Decepticon."

Starscream was silent, staring at him with a perplexed look mingled that same apprehension that had been present throughout this process of experimentation. His optics widened when those words apparently sank in, though. 

"You respect me." he voices.

"Correct." the scientist affirms, helm tilting subtly to one side, servo twitching down to collect the momentarily-abandoned toy again. "I have not previously given you proper credit for your scientific knowledge, though your militaristic knowledge and capabilities are also admirable."

A devilish little grin carved its way across the Vosian's derma at that, a look of self-satisfaction following. "You've developed an appreciation for me... you practically like me, Shockwave."

How vexing.

He couldn't fully dispute that, even if he disagreed.

"You disrupt the logic of my processing subroutines, I intend to run an analysis of that disruption once this experiment has concluded." The Vosian only rasped a laugh at that, only appearing more assured of his own assessment of that development.

Shockwave maneuvers the toy to tease over the entrance of Starscream's valve once again, coaxing a faint creaking shudder from his frame, his optics pinched a little as he ex-vents sharply.

"Enough stalling, then. You promised me I'd feel ruined, show me you're a mech of your word."

An endearing, if feigned, bid at demanding more control. Shockwave was pleasantly thrown off by the unexpected warmth of his own spark oscillating faster in response.

"I must say, Starscream..." he begins, the toy fluidly thrust and buried deep in the seeker's valve once more, the tendrils again greedily branching outward to root themselves into all the most impossibly sensitive spaces between and beyond each row of those tight, heated calipers. "hearing you invite and demand this attention is highly tantalizing."

Pivoting the angle of his wrist in a looping, ardent and deliberate motion to piston the toy into the Vosian's internal node. The flighted mech's form trembled and arched entrancingly, and several more 'kisses' are planted across Starscream's faceplate.

At the ten klik mark of his charge reaching and sustaining itself at 99.99%, the mechanisms of Starscream's joints began to squeak and his EM field flared enough that it seemed to fill the space of the lab entirely. The turbines on his chest span as rapidly as his internal fans, and steam billowed from his vents like smoke as his optics rapidly flickered. The tension in his body looked exquisite and excruciating, walking the line between the two so perfectly that it earned the entirety of Shockwave's attention the nanoklik tears of coolant began pooling around his optics, a strained, heavily glitched howl in ecstasy rising from the second in command. 

Shockwave hadn't considered the possibility that such steady overstimulation could drive a mech to tears. His finials quiver a little at the realization. "You're doing extraordinarily well, being so patient as you are, Starscream. Your reactions are absolutely splendid, I will allow you release soon enough." the scientist croons, words marginally gentler than his tone, "Just a little more."

Five kliks more and Starscream was screeching small, desperate pleas, panting hard as his frame rose to meet each thrust of that toy and wave of pleasure crashing through his overheating system. Absently, Shockwave wondered whether this was what the common mech regarded music like, finding he wouldn't soon grow tired of hearing that. Soft praises and assurances were offered along with those electrical kisses of his, his cannon raising to allow Starscream to curl the digits of one servo around the barrel. Even that harsh grip felt bizarrely tender to Shockwave.

As the time measured passed twenty kliks, the head scientist gleefully allows the Vosian's charge to finally reach 100%, the initial shock of that quantifiably small jolt snapping through Starscream's frame so violently that his thrusters activated for a fraction of a nanoklik before the immediate aftershock jolted through his cabling and caused his limbs to, mostly, go completely slack as the scientist encouraged him in riding out his final overload.

"SHO-O-OCKWAA-A-A-AVE!!" he screeched, expression contorted in what easily looked to be utter agony in that instant.

Starscream's system had crashed, wondrously, and completely enough that Shockwave measured just two nanokliks under five full kliks before the Vosian successfully came back online. The seeker was a mess, tears and drool streaked across his faceplate as he then stared dazedly at Shockwave, a purely contented smile curling across his derma. His frame was, inarguably, in need of some cleaning and care. Scuffed paint in a few places, purple mingling with red, and more pressingly, transfluid spattered across or streaking about a third of his form.

He looked as ruined as he'd wanted to feel.

The toy was withdrawn and discarded for later cleaning, Starscream seizing priority without needing to utter a word.

"You truly are beautiful, in spark and in form. Observing you is enjoyable to the point that, admittedly, I do not have a logical way of articulating it." his servo moves to gingerly cradle Starscream's jaw for a nanoklik before removing those last restraints.

"You have inspired me to reexamine an oversight of mine, to explore something I had otherwise dismissed. I must liken this to beholding the collision of a pair of galaxies for the first time."

"What I am hearing, Shockwave, is that I am correct in thinking you're fond of me." Starscream mused, a softer smile than Shockwave had ever personally witnessed at his faceplate.

As he spoke, all scanners were removed from the Vosian and shut off, in the same motion, Shockwave re-enabled the pain impulses to be conveyed by his sensornet. He would assuredly find his frame ached some, the faint groan it prompted from Starscream being proof of that. Still, it wasn't any more significant an inconvenience than the exhaustion settling through his lines now. The scientist doubted he could move very well in light of everything from the last two joors. Weighing his options for a klik, he very carefully scoops Starscream up from the table to cradle against his chassis and carry him over to the decontamination shower. 

"Albeit reluctantly, I will concede that... perhaps what I may feel could be described in such a way."

To negate the chances of Starscream slumping to the floor, Shockwave opted to keep him leant against himself, setting the Vosian down carefully as he slid a knee forward to  better support the air command's weight with a thigh between Starscream’s legs. Cannon curled around the seeker's middle, he leaned forward enough to gently scrub his form completely clean.

"Only perhaps?" he huffs a laugh, disbelieving. "What conclusion do you intend for me to draw, when you're being so considerate in cleaning me up that you won't allow me to fall? Honestly, I didn't even think you were capable of this."

"To see to your care following experimentation is what I intended from the beginning, additionally this is the most logical means of ensuring your frame is perfectly clean prior to removing all scratches to your paint." his helm tilts, optic dimmed slightly in momentary confusion. Perhaps he'd overlooked something considered a norm somewhere. It wasn't important enough to expend any further thought on.

"My, my, Shockwave. You're even going to buff my paint? What boundless benevolence, offering me such gracious care." Starscream teases back with a smirk.

Shockwave heard the hiss of his own fans kicking up for a moment as mild annoyance flared in his processor. His finials click back in his own version of an unamused scowl as he carefully turns Starscream around to face him. "Why do you find such amusement in needling me like that?"

Not that it wasn't uniquely charming, in a backwards, highly irritating way. Shockwave absently thought that Starscream not behaving that way would make his company quite dull, and subsequently less desirable. However, he refused to voice that thought so readily.

"Primus you're dense, you're so much more responsive than you believe yourself to be. It's... entertaining."

Ah. 

He'd need to very closely examine his own processor later, scan himself and inspect the parts that had been cut away. That must have some correlation to being so, allegedly, responsive to emotional matters involving others.

"So you enjoy that about me, is that an accurate assessment?" he inquires, servo moving to gently check for any remaining traces of their entanglement across the span of Starscream's wings, finding only a few scuffs from the table which could easily be buffed out. 

"Yes, I'm amazed you're compelled to even ask that."

The shower was promptly turned off, and Shockwave scooped him up to primarily rest upon his hyperflux cannon along the way to placing the Vosian atop a more barren counter.

"Wait here."

Pivoting to retrieve polishing wax and finish along with an orbital detailing tool from a cabinet, Shockwave cycles his vents as he returns to the counter where he'd deposited the Decepticon second in command.

"It's a surprise you have that sort of thing in your possession, you know. I never took you for a mech to indulge in vanity." the seeker remarks with a soft laugh.

Shockwave considered that for a nanoklik, applying polish to then begin buffing Starscream's frame in gentle circles of motion, working from his chassis downward.

"I don't. They're supplies kept out of... forgotten habit, I suppose."

Starscream's cocky grin lingered for another split nanoklik as he'd open his intake to answer only to pause, looking at Shockwave the way he often tended to when he'd said too many things to try the patience of Lord Megatron in one cycle. Nervous, his field radiating apprehension that indicated uncertainty about whether he’d pinpointed a subject he shouldn’t utilize as ammunition in his typical snarkiness.

"Mm. From- mhm." He'd flounder for words.

"I surmise you must have shared some of my memories, as well. Perhaps something from my time as a Senator." Shockwave dispassionately intoned. "I have no logical reason to take exception to you mentioning it."

The slight, gathered tension from the last klik instantly dissolved from Starscream's frame at that incidental assurance. He visibly had some questions, though if he refused to ask any, the scientist saw little reason in venturing any thought toward answering them.

"How are you feeling? Your biometric readings looked stable a moment ago, but that is only indicative of so much." he asks, glancing at Starscream's face as he polishes the glass of his cockpit. The fighter jet seemed to be occupying himself with scrutinizing the marginal progress made in polishing his frame.

Starscream opens his intake and cycles his vents sharply, only to pause another nanoklik in consideration. Something halfway malign gleams in his optics, a servo moving simply to deliberately lead Shockwave's ministrations with the buffer along one of his thighs.

"Well for starters," he lifts his servo instead to flick one of the scientist's finials, prompting Shockwave to flinch a little, optic dimming as he listens, no less curious nor expectant.

"my legs are immeasurably sore and achy, the lowest of my spinal struts may as well be terribly compressed, and my frame as a whole feels as though you tried shooting me out of the sky. I thought you promised no adverse effects, what happened to that? Hm, Shockwave?"

Oh. 

Oh dear, he really should have expected that much. 

Cycling his vents a few times in processing those words, Shockwave very closely inspects his work as he ensures no trace of any scuffs or scrapes remained on Starscream's thighs.

"I have an energon additive which will remedy most of those problems; however I must point out that when I made that guarantee I had not at all been planning on interfacing. That was... unexpected, and I could not have calculated for that occurrence beforehand."

"Well abandoning that guarantee the moment a 'variable' happened to change was negligent on your part." the Vosian glances over the work done to his legs, then snaps his digits and points toward his wings. Demanding, and deliberately so if Shockwave were to draw any conclusions from the grin Starscream now wore.

Illogical.

Shockwave's finials flicked sharply enough to nearly click, fans audible in his growing annoyance. It seemed that was his own way of rolling his optics, and it registered properly enough to Starscream, that the second in command gave him a deliberative stare, frame rapidly relaxing with a slow ex-vent by the time Shockwave began meticulously polishing the smaller mech's wings.

"All of that said, I will admit you kept your word where it matters. I am not wanting, and in light of how rough on me you were, you're being astonishingly gentle. This is nice."

It was equally vexing and uniquely endearing, the dizzying behavior Starscream exhibited. His mood vacillated so easily, constantly defying any course Shockwave found to be reasonable. It made Starscream difficult to read and predict, but very interesting to analyze.

"So, am I to conclude that you have enjoyed yourself, despite your... marginally superfluous complaints?"

He heard that click of Starscream's glossa again, apparently critical of something he'd said.

"In spite of how much of a sadistic freak of a sociopath you really, truly are, yes. I've enjoyed myself quite thoroughly."

It was interesting to observe Starscream as he moved to push his wings further toward the contact of the buffer, the simplest conclusion to draw from that action being that he liked attention of that kind being given to his wings. It wasn't something Shockwave had considered before, that there may be any difference in sensitivity across the Vosian's frame. Though, he supposed his finials could be loosely compared. 

This was a hypothesis to further dissect and possibly experiment with later, there were more pressing things to consider.

"Good, for a reason I can't quantify nor place I would be disappointed had you not also enjoyed it." he'd profess, thinking it was strange.

Perhaps a discussion with Soundwave was also in order, the empath may have some insight to offer regarding the matter of emotions which he personally wouldn't have even considered. Particularly with how the matter was now looping through his processor.

"Really? Here I thought you liked it when your test subjects writhed and screeched in terror." Starscream ribs softly, optics closing as he wears a rather self satisfied grin. "Tell me, what makes me so different? What has you wanting me to have enjoyed that?"

A klik would bleed by before Shockwave answered, optic momentarily glowing brighter as he pinpointed the wording that he wanted.

"I said it before, but I suppose it bears repeating in the event that my words did not reach you; in spite of your reckless and conniving nature, I find you are a colleague or counterpart to myself rather than some inferior fool. Your shared enjoyment made for a heightened thrill."

The Vosian squeaks out a snicker, a lopsided smirk at his derma, one eye pinched slightly from the expression as he easily leans into Shockwave's touch while the excess polish is wiped from his frame.  No Streaks, nor lingering scuffs or scratched paint. The scientist speculated, very absently, whether he'd simply wanted to hear that sentiment a second time. He supposed it didn't matter if that was the case.

Excellent.

"We can do this again in a deca-cycle or so, maybe by then you'll have sorted out a diagnosis for whatever it is you're feeling about me." Starscream chirped, testing the motion of his legs as Shockwave stepped back to stow everything back in it's proper place. 

He'd pause, however, at the offer.

"Am I to expect that you'd demand a similar quantity of energon for further experimentation being conducted?" the question was proposed as he'd offer a cube of energon to the smaller mech, additive and all as promised.

"Obviously," he scoffs, taking the fuel the instant it was within reach just to hop down from where he'd sat with a faint clack of his struts against the floor. "and I want you to fuss over me like this once any 'testing' concludes, too." 

So he likes being doted on.

Shockwave supposed that wasn't an unreasonable demand, given the stress this line of testing had put on his frame.

He nods, servo resting at the side of the vivisection table he was now fixated upon cleaning. "I find those terms acceptable. Additionally; should you desire more knowledge regarding any of my current projects, you may ask."

Starscream wobbled only slightly before starting toward the door, a servo waving in a mock-dismissive manner.

"Yes yes, I know. I'll want to see your more detailed notes regarding each of these ores you've collected samples of. Later, though. I'm in dire need of a recharge."

It was a relief he didn't intend to linger too much longer, truthfully, to Shockwave. The quandary of emotion the logician was now left in was just bothersome enough that his patience for company was growing very thin.

Considering how to respond as Starscream unlocked the doors, the head scientist glances over the half-clean table briefly. "Of course."

He pauses, helm tilting a little as his gaze fixes upon the Vosian's form again.

"Thank you, Starscream. For indulging my curiosity, and for interfacing with me."

The air command's optics widened, vents at the side of his helm looking hot again for a nanoklik as he'd bare his denta in a sneer. "Frag you're awkward!” he hissed, “You're welcome you freak, good night." 

"Good night."

Shockwave watches as Starscream turns to tiredly storm off in a huff, finials angled forward for the nanoklik before he'd finish tidying his lab, thoughts swimming as he then followed his typical routine in winding down to retire to his berth.