"Pretending"
or
"Me too old for this...."
He stopped in a small clearing to gather his bearings, and wipe the simulated sweat out of his optical lenses. He looked up, as if testing them. The jungle was so thick here that the sunlight came through in tiny pinpricks, cascading down from the treetops, at least sixty metres above him. Grimlock shook his head, and let out a snort of disdain. If he was in his normal form, he thought, he'd be a lot higher against these trees, and making his way through the jungle would be a lot easier, and a lot quicker. And a lot more obvious, too, and that was the problem; he couldn't let his quarry know he was here.
"At least when this over, me can retire," he reminded himself quietly.
It was almost a year since the end of the Great War. Cybertron was now governed by the Maximals, and was well on the way to a full restoration of its once glory, the like of which hadn't been seen for countless millennia. Most of the Maximals 'ancestors,' the Autobots, from whom they had evolved over the last century, had retired, either to secret homes deep within Cybertron, or to unknown parts of the Galaxy. Some, however, like Grimlock, still had work to do.
Most of the Decepticons had been destroyed in the final battles of the war. Of those who had survived, the majority had surrendered, and had either been voluntarily deactivated, or joined their descendants the Predacons in peaceful exile. A few, however, went to ground in the deepest reaches of the Galaxy, still living the tyrannical ways of their fallen leader, Galvatron. In the months that followed, some of the Autobots' last remaining active warriors scoured the Galaxy, until all of the rogue Decepticons had been brought to justice.
Except Starscream.
When Cliffjumper and Brawn had failed to return from their search of the Alzoc system after six weeks, the Maximal High Council had sent in a team to find them. And when they failed to return, Grimlock decided to take matters into his own hands. After researching the system, Prowl, the highest ranking Autobot still in active service, had recommended he take his Pretender shell; Grimlock hated the contraption, with every circuit in his body. When he was in it, he didn't feel like himself. He felt......less.
He was just glad his Dinobots were no longer around to see his final humiliation. One by one during the last years of the war, like most of the Autobots' greatest warriors, they had been destroyed. The last one had been Swoop, during the final days of the war. They had been leading a group of Autobots and Maximals raiding a Decepticon Energon production plant, and Swoop had sacrificed himself to safeguard some of those under his command. Grimlock had found this extremely difficult to bear; not only had he lost the final link with his team, but Swoop was one of the best warriors, and one of the most loyal Autobots that Grimlock had ever known. He was a friend.
That was the first time, after Swoop's death, when Grimlock first started looking forward to retirement. He had an apartment, deep within the confines of Cybertron, where he planned to live out his final days in solitude and peace. And he had been looking forward to it, until he'd decided to go looking for Starscream. And now he was regretting coming.
"Had to be the hero," Grimlock chastised himself, as he crossed a small river running through the jungle. He crossed quickly, as the river was exposed. After spending the last week cursing the trees that were keeping him hidden, he was suddenly feeling very vulnerable without them, and tried to speed up his crossing to get back to their safety. And then as he crossed the river by way of a path of stones, he slipped. His legs came up from underneath him, and he landed in the river with a splash. It was fast, and deep, and it dragged Grimlock down and along in its current.
"Damn shell!" he tried to curse, but only succeeded in taking in a mouthful of water, which improved his situation no end. While his internal systems tried to deal with the intake of this unwanted substance, Grimlock tried to recall the human process of swimming, but found that the current of the river was too fast, and he was too inexperienced at the action to make any success of it. He gave up, and just as he'd started to wonder how long he was going to be dragged along under the water, he hit a large submerged tree trunk, and was thrown out of the river, into the air. Grimlock let out a yell, just because he could more than anything else, as he hurtled towards the trees. He came crashing to the ground a few feet from the bank of the river, just a short way inside the shelter of the trees he had clamoured for a short time ago. He pulled himself to his feet, and let out another yell, scattering a group of bird-like creatures in the trees above him. So what if his quarry heard him? He was way past caring about that now.
"This your fault, Starscream!" he cried. "When me find you, me gonna throw you in the river. Then when you get out, me gonna kill you!"
Grimlock followed the path of the river for another day, and finally came out of the jungle at nightfall. The river continued on into a valley, and Grimlock could see he was approaching the planet's mountain range. He continued to follow the river, keeping close to the walls of the valley, until morning, and just as the sun had come up, and Grimlock had almost reached the base of the first mountain, he saw a rundown shack. It was quite large in size, but looked like it housed someone of human size. Outside the shack, Grimlock saw what looked like scrapped parts of human vehicles. He put his hand over his shell's face to block out the sun, and zoomed his sight in on one of the car parts; it was a deep red, and it was badly battered, but he could still see the Autobot symbol clearly. It was Cliffjumper, or at least, it was what was left of him. Grimlock bowed his head silently, in respect for yet another fallen comrade.
"This stops now," he said loudly, then looked again at the shack; someone had come out of it. The newcomer was human in appearance, about the same height and build as Grimlock's shell, and wore a similar dirty-grey overall, that Grimlock was pretty sure most Pretenders had as standard underneath their shells' armour.
Grimlock balled his fists, and started running towards the figure.
"Starscream!" he yelled, "Me found you, now me gonna kill you!"
Grimlock launched himself at the humanoid, and brought both of them crashing to the ground.
"Hmm, let me see now," the man retorted as he kicked Grimlock away, and scrambled to his feet, "Dumb speech, rash action, clumsy use of a Pretender shell – the 'mighty' Grimlock, I presume?" Starscream's shell sneered as he said this. Grimlock swung one of his legs out from his position on the ground, and brought Starscream crashing down again.
"You better believe me mighty," he countered, as he leapt up, grabbed the back of Starscream's head, and started bashing his face into the ground.
"This probably not do you much damage," he said, "but it sure help me feel whole lot better!"
As he said this, Grimlock heard a smashing sound behind him, and a large shadow cast itself on the ground; he stopped what he was doing, and turned round slowly, to see the tall form of Starscream's inner body standing in the ruins of the shack.
"I will be wanting that back," he sneered at Grimlock, indicating his shell.
"Aha," said Grimlock quietly, looking from the shell to Starscream and back again.
"Me should've thought of that trick myself," he continued, trying to buy some time.
"When will any of you Autobots learn that no 'trick' will capture me," Starscream countered, leading Grimlock to look over at the remains of Cliffjumper. Grimlock's face contorted into a look of pure venom, which he shot at Starscream.
"No more!" he yelled. "No more Autobots die for you! You do what you want, me don't care anymore. Me just gonna retire, like me should've done in first place. You wanna stay here on this mad planet, you do that!"
Starscream looked at him in silence for a moment, then started laughing.
"Grimlock, you're trapped down there in that tiny shell, with no armour and no weapons, and you think I'll just let you walk away? You're even more stupid than I remember!"
Grimlock ignored this remark, and instead looked down at Starscream's shell; in his attack, some of the face plating had come away, leaving the circuitry exposed. Clutching at straws, Grimlock heaved the shell up, its back to Starscream.
"You shoot me, you'll have to shoot this too," he said, "and that hurt you a lot more than it hurt me."
Starscream seemed to consider this, than his face turned into what Grimlock thought was almost a smile.
"Go then," he said finally, "and take the shell, if you want it that much. Its not like I need it, and you can't do anything to me without any weapons." He made a mock shooing motion, sneering again. "And, of course, by the time you get back here with what's left of the Autobot army, I'll be long gone."
Grimlock edged towards the river, still holding Starscream's shell.
"Got that right," he murmured, and threw the shell into the river, face first. He watched the sparks and the smoke fly up as the water hit the exposed circuits, then spun round to look at Starscream. He was clutching his face, and screaming in pain. Grimlock seized his opportunity, and mentally split his shell. He sprung out from inside, growing to full size almost instantly, and pulled his energy sword out from off his back, holding it above his head.
"Always knew shell was liability," he said, although he doubted Starscream was listening. He'd fallen onto his back, and was still clutching his face.
"Me thought me had it all figured," he went on, as Starscream tried to get to his feet. "Me thought retirement was right thing to do. But me realize now, while slag like you still active, it never right thing. Me have to put stop to things like you. It what I do." He took a swipe at Starscream with his sword, and cut off his left wing. Starscream howled in pain again, and white-hot sparks flashed from his dismembered body.
"This for the Autobots," Grimlock said, as he swiped again, and cut Starscream's other wing off.
"This for my Dinobots, especially Swoop," he continued, as he arced the sword in front of him, and sliced off Starscream's legs at the knees, bringing his torso crashing to the ground. Grimlock holstered his sword, and grabbed Starscream under the chin. The Decepticon was looking at him, but his spark was fading. His arms were twitching, and his badly scarred face was trying to speak, but it was just random noise. Grimlock stared at him with disgust.
"But this," he said, bringing his fist back, "this one just for me!"
Grimlock swung his arm forwards, and punched his fist right through Starsream's head. Sparks spat out all over his devastated body, as Grimlock pulled his arm out, and dropped the carcass to the floor. He watched in silence for a while as Starscream's body twitched, until he was sure he was finally dead.
It took two days for Grimlock to fashion a distress beacon from the remains of Cliffjumper and some of the Maximals he'd found in Starscream's shack. He then set about repairing the shack, and giving the fallen warriors a decent burial. He'd laughed as he was doing this, noticing not for the first time how a human custom had got into Autobot ways of life.
It had then been a further week until an Autobot shuttle arrived at the shack, having received his signal. Prowl now stood outside the shack, surveying the remains of Starscream's body.
"You couldn't just arrest him, could you?" he commented. Grimlock snorted.
"Well," Prowl continued, "at least now we can finally all retire. Me, I've got a plot of land on Earth's moon with a few of the others, and a nice, easy life ahead of me. What about you? You still going home to Cybertron?"
Grimlock shook his head.
"No. Me stay here."
Prowl frowned at him.
"What for? Grimlock, the war's over, the Decepticon's are defeated. We can stop fighting now!"
Grimlock shook his head again.
"Decepticons may be gone, but there always evil. And it up to us to stop it. Up to us to protect the inoccent."
Prowl flashed him a puzzled look.
"But why here?" he asked him, "this planet is in the middle of nowhere. There are far better places you could pick."
Grimlock looked Prowl directly in the face.
"Main city here full of corruption. Government can't cope. Saw it on way here. They could use someone like me. Have to use blasted shell, of course," he continued, glancing at the offending article, which was now propped up against the shack.
Prowl nodded, and offered Grimlock a smile.
"Just remember you'll always have a home to come back to," he said.
Grimlock nodded back, and looked at the area around him, at the river, the mountains, the valley, and the jungle off in the distance.
"Me will get used to living here," he said, as Prowl made his way back to the shuttle. Grimlock looked down at the river, as a thin, slippery creature leapt up out of the water, spun round, and dropped back in with a 'plop!'
"Might even learn to fish..."