On Cybertron, the pacific day of all Bots was interrupted by the attack of Sunstorm and Ramjet, Starscream's clones.
"Stop right there, you two!" Optimus Prime's voice was heard. In his vehicle form, he was being followed by Bumblebee and Bulkhead. "Your place is in the Trypticon Prison! Surrender and we'll take it easy on you!"
"Even thoguh Autobots sometimes keep promises, I humbly doubt that!" Sunstorm menaced, as he and Ramjet took flight.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Bumblebee guaranteed, accelerating after them. Ramjet flew higher, knowing there was no way for him to follw them. However, that was planned.
"Surprise!" Sari attacked them with her hammer, knocking one Decepticon on top of each other. Bulkhead attacked from down there, knocking them both off guard, and with no way out.
"That did not hurt a bit!" Ramjet proclaimed, always lying.
"Another excellent capture, team." Optimus pointed out. "I'm sure Sentinel will be happy to see these two back on their cells." There were Bots surrounding them, and cheering.
Sentinel and the Elite Guard arrived soon to take the prisoners. The self-proclaimed Magnus not even congratulated them, while the Jet Twins took the clones away.
"Groovy, chaps." Jazz commented with a smile. "These two will get extra pairs of cuffs." Then, he noticed the worrying on Optimus's expression. He sure knew what was pasing through the team leader's mind. "The medics are doing their best, Optimus. We must keep our heads up, dig?"
The Autobots, after one more mission accomplished, returned to their home base.
"Phew! Is it just me or it's getting even harder to take them down?" Sari's helmet vanished as she wiped the sweat off her face. "I think my jetpack may need an upgrade for quicker attacks."
"Well, at least you caught that troop faster than the last one," Ratchet informed. "But hey… where's the kid?"
"Where else?" Bulkhead pointed out. "Paying a visit to the ninja bot."
Improbable as it was, it was true: in a sanctuary, not far from the Autobots' location, Bumblebee entered to find the deactivated Prowl. It was the team's asking, but mostly his, for Prowl's body to remain intact. The yellow Bot sat crossing his legs, and look at the deactivated Bot's coffin.
"It's me again. We just arrested two Decepticons. Those two Starscream clones. But there are a lot missing yet. Everyone's struggling to find them. Oh, and Ultra Magnus is still recovering." Bee muttered, in a sad tone. "Optimus is really worried about him. And about the Bots in Cybertron as well. I mean, Sentinel "Magnus" is clearly not in conditions of leading."
The yellow bot stared at the deactivated Bot. Deep down, he missed Prowl… but he didn't told much to the team. Not that he didn't trust them, but… he just didn't felt like doing it.
"I wish you were here to see how things are doing… And I… I guess you're the only one that could help me..." A subtle call interrupted his deep thinking.
"Bumblebee, we need your help here. Sari and Bulkhead are waiting for you to repair the space bridge." Optimus's voice was heard.
"I'm on it, boss." He answered, finishing the conversation. "Gotta go, Prowl… see ya next time, I guess." One thing was sure: Bee had many scars to heal from, and the past events on Earth left a part of him shattered. And just the fact of not acting like himself was disturbing the young Bot.
On Earth, Starscream's body have been carried to the frontier of Detroit, by no other than Slipstream. She had spent the past Earth months fixing her leader in secret.
"Despite me and you having certain things to discuss… I can't deny that without you I don't have much else to go." She spoke, as she fixed the cracks on his body. "I am sure they won't be searching for me here, since they pretty much think they won. Those foolish Autobots haven't found ALL the AllSpark fragments thanks to us, clones, being spread all around. But something tells me you're going to need this..." She observed a small fragment she have been carrying with her far away from Earth.
Bumblebee, Sari and Bulkhead worked hard as they could. Bee's mind still remained lost in his questions.
"So… Sari, I heard you're progressing a lot with Arcee and your classmates." He tried to open a conversation, since that was getting boring.
"Sure did. Since I found Blurr and helped get him back in one piece, Nightbeat and the others have been treating me a lot better."
"I'm glad to know they accept a bit more your origins."
"Yeah, speaking of that… I can't stop but wondering how my protoform got onto Earth in the first place."
"Now that you mention it… We never actually stopped to think about it."
"Well, I think about it every day. I really wish I knew." She sighed, as she looked down. Bee placed a servo on her shoulder.
"Look, if that's still bothering you, I- uh, WE can try hepling you find out." He tried cheering her up. "We're a team. A family. We'll listen to you." The yellow Bot felt happy by seeing Sari smiling. But inside he questioned himself what happened there.
However, as Sari moved some rocks aside, she felt her energy flowing on something behind the scraps around the place. As she moved them off her way, she gasped at what she saw. "Guys! Look at this!" Sari called for her fellow robots. Bumblebee and Bulkhead looked to see… a Bot. A girl Bot.
Its optics were illuminated, but they were closed as if she was in a stasis nap, and her body remained immobilized. Her chest had a wound that healed in a short time.
"A girl Bot. What is it doing here?" the yellow Autobot wondered. Then, he took a look at her chest. "No emblem." The girl Bot seemed to whimper in fear, as if it was having a nightmare.
Sari then looked up to her head. There was a small symbol on her helmet: a star.
"We better get help for her. I know the right Bot for this." Once the two agreed on helping, they struggled to take her out of that pile of scraps.
In Jazz's dojo, with the help of the AllSpark Matrix, the girl Bot's body was completely restored. The team approached the Bot, that slowly started to move and regain color. As she opened her optics, her blurry vision adjusted.
"Hello!" Bulkhead looked up to the girl Bot. She gasped in surprise, and tried moving her legs, but the way she moved made her fall off the platform. "Oops. Sorry."
"Don't mind him. He's ugly but won't bite." Bumblebee offered a help for her to stand up. However, a few steps after standing up, she fell down again.
"Your parts are still a bit rusty, so don't expect much." Ratchet alerted, as the girl Bot sat back on the platform. "Hmm… astonishing. Her body is composed of Autobot and Decepticon technology. She possesses wings and arms of a Decepticon and the rest is fully Autobot."
"You mean… she's a hybrid?" Sari asked.
"Not precisely, but something like that."
"Maybe that apply as well to her optics. In Earth, humans wold call it heterochromy." Sari pointed out. The right optic was blue and the left one was red. "Hey, the star-shaped symbol is glowing."
"I don't have explanation for this event, but now that she's awake, perhaps we can analyze her memory bank and see if we can find out something about her." The girl Bot feared a bit when the medic Autobot approached her.
"Hold on a minute, Ratchet. She looks awfully scared." Optimus observed the fear on the Bot's face. "Considering the state she was when you found her, she possibly passed by some kind of trauma or was wounded in battle."
"Well, maybe she just needs to get her groove back before answerin' anything." Jazz pointed out.
"I know. Let's take her for a walk. Maybe she'll remember something and get a little more open to us." Sari suggested.
"I think that's a good idea. Bumblebee, Sari, do your best to make her feel as good as possible." optimus asked.
"Don't worry, boss. She'll soon feel at home." Bee guaranteed, as the girl bot simply blinked in response.
In the vault of space, Thundercracker unsucessfully tried to locate a safe place to land, tired of floating around.
"Oh, to think we've been floating for eternity on an unknown spot of this dreadful dark place!" Skywarp lamented. "Who knows where we can land?"
"Not that nonsense speaking again, Skywarp! I am also not happy at all about the situation, and this is disturbing my perfection." Thundercracker growled.
"That's all you can think of, right?! Can't you see we're in terrible condition and lost forever, and we will never be able to return?!"
"Pipe down, you!" Thundercracker growled. Then, an sudden attack made Skywarp shriek and hide behind the egomaniac clone.
"Salutations, Seekers. I live again!" Starscream greeted. "If you both stopped picking on each other, we have work to do."
"I am not returning to Earth!"
"No, fool. We're going to Cybertron, and freeing the Decepticons." Starscream explained. "Join me, Seekers, and we shall triumph over those weak Autobots once and for all!" As he flew away, Thundercracker soon pushed Starscream out of theway, and rthey both started discussing over leading the way. Slipstream took a while, but reached Skywarp, that got in a defensive position.
"I assume you'e not happy to see me, right?"
"U-uh, sure, I am, S-Slipstream, but… oh, I think I'm not okay. Wait! Don't leave me alone!" The coward Starscream tried reaching the other two, that were waaay far.
"You're not the only one..." The female Seeker muttered. Something inside her felt… different.
Back to Cybertron, Bumblebee and Sari took their new "friend" to meet the surroundings.
"Bumblebee, Sari, got anything from our silent friend?" Optimus called for them.
"Earlier than we thought." Sari admitted. "Apparently her name is… Starshine. and as far as we've been, she seems to like being in the frontier. Not a very social Bot, apparently." She and Bee saw the girl Bot climbing up to a high spot and sit there, watching the sky. "We gotta go. We'll call you back."
The two reached for the girl, as she remained motionless.
"It's beautiful..." she said, with her soft, serene voice. "All this imensity of… luminous points… Who knows how far they are, or if they're close..."
"You have a really… peculiar interest on stars." Bumblebee commented.
"Well… I've always felt… safe when watching them," Starshine sighed. "But I can't… remember why..." She held her head in pain.
"Hey, don't force yourself," Sari alerted. "We can help you in this case… if you just let us." Starshine blinked to her, but gave her a short smile.
Back to the ship, Star's mind was plugged into Omega Surpreme's computer.
"Well, her memory bank is a bit messed up, but I'll try getting something." Ratchet analyzed each of the images he could find. Then, one of them called Bumblebee's attention.
"Wait. Turn that image back." Ratchet did it so, and as the resolution got better," Bee gasped. "That's… that's the sector where I was activated. I remember so well."
"You think maybe she was activated there too?" Sari wondered. "Hm… would that make her somehow Bee's sister?"
"Not exactly. Many Bots are built on the same sectors, and even with the same kind of templates," Optimus explained. "Bumblebee's template, by the way, is the most popular one."
"Well, I for one would like to have a sister." Bee smiled over the opportunity. "Think about it: someone I can teach about racing, tell stories about defeating bad guys, how to kick Decepticon' skinplate..."
"Speaking of Decepticons, you will not believe the images I collected." Ratchet pointed to the screen. He pointed to the images that remained blurry. One seeemd clearer than the other.
The clearer image showed, through her point of view, herself opening her optics and being watched by Shockwave and Blitzwing.
"Shockwave? Blitzwing?"
"I'm confused. The sector where I was activated is located where the Autobots live," Bee pointed out. "That deosn't make any sense."
"I assume she WAS activated there, but she was taken to the Depecticons' lab," Ratchet suggested. "The blurry image has nothing well defined, but has sound as well." The team heard sonds of crashing and explosions.
"That would make sense," Sari added. "Let's see what we can find."
Traveling through Star's memories, they watched another one that showed Star walking by a hallway. Star flinched as she remembered.
She walked by the hallway, hoping to get a good spot for the appointent that was coming.
"That is my spot, weakling! Ze wimps are ze last qualified!" Blitzwing commented. She gulped in fear, and moved to another place, but was pushed aside.
"Move over, short stuff," a voice demanded. It was Lugnut. "This is my spot to listen Lord Megatron's plan!"
"Why don't you mess with someone your own size? If you CAN find someone like that, Lugnut..." That voice… it was Starscream! As Lugnut turned around to leave, Starscream turned to Starshine. She whimprered in fear. "It's okay. They won't bother you." He offered a hand to her. she took his hand, smling with certain shyness.
The Autobots could not believe what they just watched.
"Okay… that was shocking." Sari pointed out.
"I never thought I would see Starscream being nice to someone that wasn't himself," Optimus pointed out.
"Starscream..." Star commented, as she remianed with her eyes closed. The team turned back to her. "He… he was different back then… he was… my friend… my only f-friend..."
The team then saw the image that came to the screen. Another memory.
Starshine and Starscream watched as the Decepticons left to fight the Autobots. They were by themselves on the ship.
"Well, looks like we have the Nemesis to ourselves," Starscream examined.
"Yes… I'm just… sad I wasn't chosen to go with them," Star looked up. "I tried my best on training, but Megatron… keep looking at me as if I was… irrelevant."
"I for one think you did great."
"I just want… so hard to know how it is away from this place. I mean, there... in the deepness of space… maybe even... reach the stars..."
"Don't worry, there's always next time," Starscream placed a hand on top of hers. "And about the stars… I'm sure you'll reach them someday."
"Starscream..." She commented, as they looked up to the starry sky. She eventually laid down near him.
"Aw..." Bulkhead commented. "But if Starscream was so nice then… what happened?" Star flicnhed as another memory came to her.
Star remained hidden while the lab' doors remained closed. She was told by Starscream to be. Then, she saw Shockwave and Megatron walking out of there.
"I thank you for alerting me, Shockwave. You're proving yourself worth it of secretive missions."
"Yes, my master. No betrayers shall be hidden from you."
"Betrayers?" Star wondered. "What was he talking about?" Then, she saw Starscram walking out. "Starscream!" She rushed to him. "Are you okay?"
"Excuse me, please. I have better things to do." He said, as he walked away.
"Starscream… what happened? What they did to you?"
"He won't answer to you no more, Starshine." Shockwave looked at her, as he turned around. "You no longer exist on his spark."
"No..." Star gasped. She trembled, falling to her knees.
"Looks like I found the other betrayer I was told about." Megatron's voice called her attention. Shockwave grabbed her wrists.
"Indeed, they were both as I said, planning to take over the Nemesis and expell you."
"What?! I would never do this!" Star scolded, offended by that accusation.
"You really think this cute face can trick me?" Shockwave lied, as he looked at her with his only optic. Star closed her optics, feeling her spark beat intensely.
"Leave me ALONE!" She growled, as her star symbol glwoed intensely.
"What in the name of..." Megatron saw the powerful glow. It wasn't like anything he ever seen, not even in Megazarak's era. Starshine kicked Shockwave away, and turned to Megatron, with her power seemingly flowing all over her body. It was like her spark was possessing her.
"You caused pain to my friend… to the only friend I ever had. I will never forgive you for this! I will not allow you to hurt anyone else!" Starshine made her words firm as never before.
"So you want to fight?" Megatron called for his weapon. "You will regret this action, that I assure." Their fight was well-balanced for a while, with Star's unusual speed and training moves keeping her safe. Megatron however, started to fear when her energy overflew, and her star symbol started to crack.
Quickly thinking, as she charged to attack, he impaled his swords into her spark chamber.
The last image the team saw was her optics going off. This concluded the images the team collected, and Star opened her optics gasping.
"What by Primus was that?" Ratchet was stunned. "I've never seen such power coming from one single Bot."
"You saw Megatron's face?" Sari pointed out. "He was totally scared of her." Then, they heard someone punching the walls.
"Shockwave… I can't stand to hear his name!" Bumblebee scolded. "I hate him so much right now words can't even say what I'm feeling!" He continued punching the walls, until Optimus placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We certainly have a huge burden against Shockwave, Bumblebee, but now he's in prison. He won't cause any more trouble." He said, trying to calm Bee down. The yellow Bot sighed, and looked at Star.
"Well, now that we know what happened to her, what should we do?" Bulkhead asked. Optimus looked at Starshine: she seemed saddened.
"Let's keep her!" Bee said, holding Star's hands. "I mean, as a member of our team. She was activated in the same sector I did. She was really meant to be an Autobot! Now that the Decepticons are on Trypticon, they won't hurt her anymore. Please, boss, say she can stay in our team." He looked at Prime with pleading eyes.
Star smiled at Bumblebee, then looked at Optimus. He gave her a short smile.
"What do you think, Starshine?" He said, with kindness, offering a hand. "This can be a great chance for you to try a different path. I guarantee you will be part of a team that really appreciate your efforts. Would you like to join us?"
Star looked at him, and after blinking twice, she moved, but instead of shaking his hand, she embraced the Autobots' leader.
"Heh. I think that's a yes." Ratchet couldn't hold back a smirk at the girl Bot's innocence. Optimus placed a hand on her back, accepting the hug. Bee squealed of excitement. Now he had a sister, and the team had a new member.
On Trypticon Prison, the alarms rang. Starscream and the Seekers had invaded that sector. With their blasters shooting out, they invaded the exact sector where Megatron and the toher Decepticons were, and had unabled the Minicon guards.
"Starscream?!" Shockwave couldn't believe his only optic. "You're active! But how?"
"It needs more than a fool Autobot pulling out my AllSpark fragment to defeat me." He said, blasting off the controls, opening Shockwave and Lugnut's cells.
"Freeing us for vat reason?" Blitzwing asked. "Think we'll respect you for ziz?"
"What about having a chance of revenge against the Autobots? Or you can be here forever with the leader that lost for a Bot that wasn't even a Magnus." His stare at Megatron made the Decepticon leader growl.
"Wait, what? I thought you said we were freeing Megatron from Trypticon!" Slipstream pointed out.
"Oh, my simplistic female Seeker, the plan will suffer a drastic change! If the all-mighty Megatron could not win from a weak team of Autobots, what right he possess to be leader of the Decepticons?!" Starscream bragged. "No, no, I have better plans for our faction! And our first step is freeing our comrades!"
"As always you are correct, my glorious leader." Sunstorm affirmed, as Skywarp opened his cell and Blitzwing's. "It is a delight to see you again."
"I don't agree." Ramjet pointed out, walking out of Sunstorm's cell.
"I cannot believe you will listen to him!" Megatron protested.
"I'm sorry, Megatron, but as you can see, I'M in command of the Decepticons now. First we take over the Autobots, then Cybertron, then the universe!" Starscream flew in front, beign follwed by the others.
"Although he do have a point… why do I feel so reluctant?" Slipstream asked herself, as she followed them.
To be continued...