Down at Decepticon Undersea headquarters, the Constructicons were showing off their latest handiwork to Megatron, Soundwave, and the Cassettes. It was a strange-looking, boxy device that had a small "satellite dish" antenna on top of it.
"So what does this new device do, exactly, Scrapper?" Megatron asked.
"It's supposed to be able to transport Decepticons-or anything else we want-instantly anywhere on Earth," Scrapper told him, "Think of the energy we'd save. And we'd always get the jump on the Autobots."
"Interesting. But does it actually work?" Megatron wanted to know.
"All we have to do is test it," Scrapper said.
Just then, Starscream walked into the room.
"Ahhh, I think we just found our guinea-pigatron," Megatron chuckled.
"What?!" Starscream shouted, taken aback.
"You are going to test my new transporter," Megatron told him, "Scrapper. Activate the device."
Scrapper used a small hand-held control unit to get the device to point its "satellite dish" at Starscream. A beam emanated from the dish and Starscream instantly vanished.
"It works!" Megatron gloated.
"How do you know it didn't vaporize him?" Rumble wanted to know.
"Do you see Sheba around anywhere?" Megatron asked.
"Hmm. Good point." Rumble admitted, "So how do we get him back?"
"We...uhhh...we haven't quite figured out how to do that," Scavenger spoke up nervously.
"WHAT?!" Megatron was livid.
After getting hit by the beam from the Constructicons' newest plaything, Starscream found himself underwater. He looked around and couldn't see Decepticon Headquarters anywhere. He quickly rose to the surface. This was strange. According to his global positioning sensors, Decepticon Headquarters should have been there. Why it suddenly was not puzzled him.
"Maybe Sheba can tell me what's going on," he mused to himself. Sheba had gone to her cave near Autobot headquarters earlier that day, so finding her would be simple.
Starscream's flight path to Sheba's cave took him right past the Volcano. But he saw something very odd this time-no Autobot Headquarters! It looked as though a spaceship never had crashed there. Filled with curiosity, he landed and investigated.
"This could be an Autobot trick, maybe a hologram," he thought to himself. But the rock he reached out to touch was very much real, and not one of Hound's holograms. Shaking his head in confusion, he decided to head for Sheba's cave.
"Sheba? Are you in here?" Starscream called out at the entrance to the relatively small cave. He got no response, so he went inside. The cave was empty. Sheba simply wasn't there. There wasn't so much as a footprint or any other sign of her either. Disappointed, he walked out of the cave and sat down, trying to make sense of everything. At the very least, there was no sense in trying to find Sheba-it was far more practical for him to wait for her there.
Little did Starscream know, his presence in the area had not gone unobserved. Three teenage kids spotted him as they were out for a ride on their 'vehicles.' Just on the edge of a ridge, they spotted him.
"Hey Rad, who's that?!" Carlos wondered.
"I don't know. I've never seen him before," Rad said.
"But he's got the Decepticon Symbol," Alexis pointed out.
"Do you think maybe he's after a Minicon?" Carlos asked.
"Looks like he's just sitting there to me," Rad said flatly.
"Yeah well maybe he's trying to figure out where it's at," Carlos guessed.
"We'd better tell Optimus about this," Alexis said seriously. Quickly, and without Starscream noticing them, they headed back to the Autobot Armada base.
"You're saying there's a new Decepticon down on Earth right now?" Hot Shot exclaimed.
"Yeah. I wonder what he's doing there," Rad said.
"The computer says there is a Minicon in the area," Optimus Prime stated, "Whatever happens, we can't let any of the Decepticons get it. Prepare to warp!"
Starscream had gotten up and was now pacing the ground, hoping that Sheba would return soon. Suddenly, three vehicles-a futuristic looking red-and blue semi, a yellow sports car, and a white and grey SUV-suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"TRANSFORM!"
The large red and blue truck changed into a robot with a vaguely familiar face. But Starscream had never seen any of them before. The only thing that he recognized was the fact that they all wore the Autobot insignia. This was perfect. If Starscream engaged these Autobots in battle, Sheba was certain to appear. He rose into the air and started firing both barrels. The Autobots returned fire. Starscream easily dodged their attacks, then he transformed to jet mode and started peppering them with missiles.
"Whoever this guy is, he's good!" Red Alert exclaimed.
"But not good enough!" Hot Shot stated, "Jolt! Combine!" Hot Shot's Minicon flew over and attached himself to his partner-giving Hot Shot access to a cannon just above his head. He fired, hitting Starscream dead-on.
"AAAAGHHHH!" Starscream wailed, as he transformed and fell heavily to the ground. But as the Autobots approached him and he struggled to get up, he started laughing hysterically.
"Now you've done it! You Autobots are in for it now!" Starscream gloated.
"What's he talking about?" Optimus Prime wondered. As if in answer to his question, a blast of bright energy appeared in front of Starscream, and when it cleared, there stood Sheba. Wasting no time, she quickly summoned Ifrit. Rad and the other two humans could only stand and stare from a distance as several translucent green energy orbs materialized around Sheba, spun around her, and were suddenly scattered in all directions. Both Sheba and Starscream vanished, and in their place a huge fireball appeared. The fireball dissipated and there stood the Guardian Force, Ifrit-a huge, brown Lion with fire-red mane and huge, long, curved black horns. Ifrit roared, rose up above the Autobots underneath a gigantic orb of flame, and slammed the fireball back down towards them with both fists. The Hell Fire attack did an average of 4750 HP worth of damage to each Autobot, and Jolt was forced to separate from Hot Shot by the attack.
"Demolisher! Have you located any new Minicons?" Armada Megatron bellowed.
"Yes sir! There's one near a volcano-"
"Fine! We're going to get it!" Armada Megatron stated.
"Wait, Megatron-look at this!" Cyclonus shouted, and pointed at his computer monitor. The screen showed the battle between the Autobots and a strange newcomer.
"Who is THAT?" Armada Megatron asked in surprise.
"Hey, that guy looks familiar," Cyclonus realized, "He looks like..."
"Be quiet!" Armada Megatron growled.
Just then Armada Starscream walked in, and Armada Megatron and Cyclonus stared at him intently.
"WHAT?!" Armada Starscream demanded.
"Come with me. We're going to go get the Minicon," Armada Megatron told him.
Sheba and Starscream reappeared after Ifrit's attack, and faced their opponents.
"I guess that's what he meant by us being in for it," Red Alert stated. Instantly, from out of nowhere, the four Armada Decepticons appeared, a few yards away. Sheba cast Death on Red Alert's Minicon, preventing them from combining.
"Impressive," Armada Megatron mused, as he saw the Minicon fall. At Sheba's next turn, she cast Curaga on Starscream to repair whatever damage had been done by Hot Shot's cannon, then she pounced on Hot Shot and started mauling him. After she figured she'd done enough damage, she pitched him aside, sending him towards the other Autobots. After that, she cast Tornado, causing roughly 7877 HP worth of damage to all three Autobots.
"We have no choice, we have to get out of here," Optimus Prime realized, "Whatever that thing is, it's too powerful! Autobots, let's go!" He and the other two Autobots transformed to vehicle mode. Hot Shot was barely able to transform.
"Not without this!" Carlos called out. He was holding a dormant Minicon. Quickly he got into Red Alert and the Autobots vanished before Armada Megatron and the others could do anything.
The minute the Autobots were gone, Sheba also vanished.
"Blast! They got away with the Minicon!" Cyclonus grumbled.
But Armada Megatron was no longer interested in the Minicon at the moment. He turned to the newcomer.
"I've never seen you before. Who are you?" he asked Starscream.
"I am Starscream," came the reply.
"WHAT?!" Armada Starscream protested, "No way! I am Starscream! How can there be two of us?!"
"WHAT?" Starscream echoed his own disbelief.
"You heard me," Armada Starscream snapped.
Starscream glared briefly at his Armada counterpart.
"Well you seemed to handle Optimus Prime and the Autobots quite well," Armada Megatron commented.
"Optimus Prime? That wasn't Optimus Prime!" Starscream snorted.
"It was too!" Demolisher corrected.
"Do you think I don't know Optimus Prime when I see him?!" Starscream growled.
"Maybe your optic sensors are defective," Demolisher shot back.
"That's quite enough of that. Perhaps things will be clearer if I introduce myself. I am Megatron," Armada Megatron said.
"MEGATRON?!" Starscream exclaimed, "That's impossible!"
"You mean there's ANOTHER Megatron out there?!" Armada Starscream complained.
"Hmmm I see..." Armada Megatron said thoughtfully, "I think there's only one explanation for our strange visitor. He must be from an alternate Universe."
"Ohhhh," Demolisher and Cyclonus said.
Armada Starscream remained unmoved by this revelation.
"I want to know about the strange creatures that helped you just now," Armada Megatron said.
"What? You mean Sheba and Ifrit?" Starscream asked.
"What are they?" Armada Megatron wanted to know.
"Well, Sheba is my Guardian Force, and Ifrit is one of her summoned monsters," Starscream said.
"Guardian Force, eh. How did you acquire her? Did you capture her?"
Starscream burst out laughing. "Me? Capture HER? You must be joking!"
"Well if you didn't capture her, how did you gain her assistance?" Armada Megatron persisted.
"It was my understanding that someone else appointed her as my Guardian," Starscream stated.
"Do the Autobots and the other Decepticons each have their own Guardian?" Armada Megatron questioned further.
"As far as I know I'm the only one," Starscream replied.
"I want to see this Guardian for myself," Armada Megatron said.
"But she's not here," Starscream told him.
"She appeared when you were in danger," Armada Megatron realized, "And she disappeared when you were out of danger. Hmmm..."
Sheba reappeared just at the entrance to Decepticon Undersea Headquarters-which was where she was headed when she'd been involuntarily teleported to Starscream's location. She knew something odd had happened to Starscream, so when she got inside she angrily demanded what happened. After the situation had been explained, Sheba insisted on examining the transporter device.
"HEY! Someone had this rigged wrong! Instead of transporting stuff in our world, it sent Starscream to another dimension!"
"Oops," Scavenger gulped apologetically.
"Well hurry up and bring him back! I had to haul his afterburner out of a tight spot just now!"
"We can't do that just yet," Scavenger told her.
"WHAT?!" Sheba exclaimed.
Armada Megatron combined with his Minicon, and fired his weapon directly at Starscream. The force of the blast knocked him backwards, and Sheba immediately appeared again. This time she quickly summoned Bahamut. After Sheba and Starscream disappeared into the protective dimension, an enormous, steel-gray and purple dragon swooped down out of the sky and launched its Mega Flare attack. Armada Megatron lost 9999 HP and his Minicon was knocked out. Sheba then cast Curaga on Starscream to regain some of his lost HP.
"Get him you fools! The longer he is in danger, the longer that creature stays!" Armada Megatron shouted. Seconds later, Starscream felt a cold blade pressed against his throat. He turned his head as much as he could and saw Armada Starscream glaring at him.
"Sheba! DO SOMETHING!" Starscream hollered.
Sheba turned and saw this, and went ballistic. All her fur stood on end, and she began uttering a long, bloodcurling snarl. Immediately she cast Blizzard on Armada Starscream, taking off 735 HP.
"AAAAGH! What was that?!" Armada Starscream cried out.
"Backoff!" Sheba ordered, "That was only a small taste of my power-a mere fraction of the damage I'm capable of inflicting! I can have you rendered offline before you can twitch! Now, get that sword off his neck right now if you don't want to be reduced to titanium fragments!"
Cyclonus and Demolisher began to edge away. Armada Starscream reluctantly removed his sword and put it away. Megatron was still recovering from Bahamut's attack.
"I'm going to get the Constructicons to send me here!" Sheba quickly told Starscream, mere seconds before she vanished again.
"Oh, so she'll be back, huh?" Megatron mused, "All we have to do is wait, then."
Back at Decepticon Undersea H.Q., Sheba told the Constructicons to reset the destination co-ordinates to just outside Autobot Headquarters, and use the device on her.
"Are you sure? What's happening?" Megatron asked.
"There's no time! Something strange is going on over there, and I want to find out what!" Sheba told him, "Hurry up already, will you, Scrapper?.
Scrapper activated the device and the beam struck Sheba, and she vanished.
Sheba reappeared beside Starscream, and noticed that the Armada Decepticons were all merely standing there waiting. She changed to her robotic form and angrily pounced on Armada Megatron without warning. She scratched his face and then pinned his arms to his sides while she rolled and pitched him sideways. He fell right into Cyclonus and Demolisher. As they got back up, Sheba stood there and growled fiercely.
"Uhhh...nice kitty...?" Cyclonus stammered.
"Why did you attack Starscream?" she demanded angrily.
"After I saw your battle with the Autobots, I knew it was the only way of getting you here. Nothing personal," Armada Megatron said offhandedly.
"That's nice, because I take Starscream's well being and safety very seriously," Sheba snarled back, "I don't appreciate stunts like that."
"Let's not worry about that now," Armada Megatron said, "I want to learn more about you. You seem to be far more powerful than a Transformer with many Minicons. I want to know how I can gain such power."
"Are there Organic Transformers like myself in your Universe?" Sheba asked.
"No," Armada Megatron stated.
"Then you can't," Sheba said flatly.
"And why not?" Armada Megatron wanted to know.
"Because Guardians are appointed. There is no other way to get them-they are far too powerful for any Transformer to capture-let's just say you'd never stand a chance at capturing and controlling me. And if there aren't any in your Universe to begin with, then none can be appointed."
"What about those creatures you summoned? Surely I can obtain those, and they seem more valuable than a Mini-Con," Armada Megatron suggested.
"I'm afraid not," Sheba told him, "First of all, I don't think you have access to the dimension where Summoned Monsters are available. Secondly, there are only two ways to get a Summoned Monster-either draw it out, which is an ability you don't have and probably never will; or defeat one in battle. And I'm betting you couldn't even defeat Carbuncle in a battle, let alone a Summoned Monster as powerful as Bahamut."
"Well it's your fault we lost that Minicon today!" Cyclonus accused Sheba.
Starscream had been letting Sheba handle things, after all, she was fully capable of blasting those four Decepticons into stasis lock in no time if things turned ugly. But now he stepped in. "Hold it! WHAT is a Minicon?" he demanded in exasperation.
Armada Megatron picked up his still-unconscious Minicon, Leader-1. "This is a Minicon," he stated, "They are a third race of Transformers that, if joined to an Autobot or a Decepticon, makes that Autobot or Decepticon a good deal more powerful-often unlocking special weapons of unimaginable destructive power. The more Minicons one has, the more powerful they become. Somehow the Minicons ended up here on Earth, and I am trying to recover them so that I can fulfill my destiny as Ruler of Cybertron and the Galaxy." He turned his attention to Sheba again. "Now tell me where you came from-how your race came into existence."
"I'm not exactly sure," Sheba said, "All I know is, somebody did some weird kind of experiments on the ancestors of the Autobots and Decepticons, and the Organic Transformers was the result of those experiments. I can have either a metallic or organic form, and I'm technically a Decepticon."
"Hot Shot! Are you alright?" Alexis asked, as Hot Shot painfully transformed after returning to base.
"I will be, once I get some repairs," Hot Shot replied, "That thing was so strong that I couldn't do anything while it was attacking."
"Optimus, man, what was that thing?" Carlos wondered.
"I have no idea," Optimus Prime stated.
"It seemed to be protecting that Decepticon," Red Alert mused.
"Is it some weird kind of Minicon?" Rad wondered.
"Definitely not. Minicons are not, nor were they ever, organic. That creature is something else. But I've never seen anything like it before." Prime told him.
"Well, since it's organic, maybe we can tranquilize it," Rad suggested.
"Tranquilize?" Red Alert questioned.
"Yo, that means we pump it full of drugs so it falls asleep. I saw them do it on a nature show once. It can't attack you guys then," Carlos explained.
"That might be a good idea," Optimus Prime agreed.
"I'll get to work on it," Red Alert offered.
"I'll help ya," Carlos told him.
Alexis walked into the room. "The Minicon didn't wake up yet," she stated.
"Well, let him snooze," Carlos said, "What I want to know is what those weird attacks were that the creature was using."
"Those first couple attacks certainly wasn't any conventional attack that I've seen," Hot Shot said.
"It looked more like...magic," Alexis realized.
"Magic? I don't understand," Optimus Prime told her.
"You mean you don't know what Magic is? Oh boy," Alexis sighed.
"Can I interest you in a position in my forces?" Armada Megatron asked Sheba, "We would be unstoppable. You could have anything in the Universe you wanted."
Sheba wandered over to Starscream, reached up with her paws and forced him into a sitting position, then climbed into his lap, nuzzled him affectionately, and began licking his face. Starscream began laughing as the roughness of her tongue tickled him.
"Look at them!" Armada Starscream muttered in disgust-but a twinge of jealousy came over him.
"What for? I've got all I ever wanted right here," she replied.
"But surely-" Armada Megatron began, but Sheba interrupted him.
"Look, I know where you're going with this, and you need to know something right now. I can't join your little army here, because it's not in my programming. My primary function is defense, not offense, and my sole purpose in life is to protect Starscream from all harm. Nothing else. Destroying Autobots will get me stripped of my powers, so that's naturally out of the question. And since this isn't my Universe anyway, I can't stay-I don't belong here."
"Then why are you still here?" Armada Starscream cut in.
"The guys in my Universe haven't figured out how to send us back yet. But they're working on it," Sheba told him.
"Megatron, are you sure you can't try to force her to serve you?" Demolisher asked.
"Anyone who tried would be scrapmetal before he hit the ground," Sheba growled.
"Okay, okay. Just wondering," Demolisher said nervously.
Suddenly, an alert signal went off on Demolisher's comm link. The computer was sending him an automatic message.
"There's another Minicon around here somewhere!" he said excitedly.
"Good. Now let's find it before the Autobots do!" Armada Megatron shouted, and transformed to his tank mode. Cyclonus and Demolisher both transformed and headed after him. Armada Starscream glared at Sheba and Starscream for a few more moments before leaping into the air, transforming, and heading off.
"I wonder if I could get a Mini-Con," Starscream mused, after the Armadacons left.
"Don't even think about it!" Sheba told him.
"Oh come on! I want to at least see if they're compatible with me!" Starscream insisted.
"Well...on the offchance that they're probably highly incompatible, I guess," Sheba relented, "But if we find one, and it's not, we're leaving it here!"
"Fine," Starscream agreed, "Now, how do you propose we locate the one they're after?"
"Leave that to me," Sheba assured him.
The Minicon Locator Alarm began sounding at the Armada Autobot base.
"I don't believe it! This one's not far from where Carlos found the other one earlier," Red Alert stated.
"Well it's a safe bet Megatron's already on his way to find it," Optimus Prime told him, "We can't waste any time, either, men. Let's go!"
Armada Starscream banked sharply in a turn, and noticed something odd. On the ground, near a small cave, the other Starscream was standing, leaned up against the rock wall. Beside him, the strange creature was digging furiously at a glowing spot on the ground.
"I don't believe it! They're after the Minicon!" Armada Starscream said to himself. But then he saw Optimus and the others approaching Sheba's position, with Armada Megatron and the others not far behind, so he decided to make his move later.
"Pay dirt! The nose knows!" Sheba gloated, as she lifted a glowing hexagonal disk out of the hole. Starscream waited for her to hand him the disk. When she brushed off all the dirt, the glow faded, and she gave it to him. Nothing happened.
"Okay, so it's not compatible." Starscream told her, "Now what?"
"Give me the Minicon!" came Optimus Prime's voice.
"NO! GIVE ME THE MINICON!" Armada Megatron shouted.
In a fit of extremely quick thinking, Sheba grabbed the dormant Minicon in her mouth, cast Teleport on Starscream, and then darted away.
"After her! We must get that Minicon!" Armada Megatron ordered.
"We've got to stop them!" Optimus Prime told Hot Shot and Red Alert. But try as they might, neither Hot Shot in car mode, nor Cyclonus in chopper mode, could catch up with her. She was intentionally leading them away from where she'd teleported Starscream-a measure designed to keep anyone from threatening Starscream's life just to try to get the Minicon from her. Then she stopped, returned to her organic form, and cast Teleport on the Minicon. That sent it to a new location that would take the others some time to find. Then she headed back to where she'd teleported Starscream to. Hot Shot approached at full throttle, with Rad and Carlos.
"Okay man, pretty soon we'll be in range," Carlos said, "You ready with that thing?"
"I guess so," Carlos said, as he held on to a tranquilizer gun. Suddenly, about 100 feet away from Sheba, Hot Shot stopped, and let Carlos and Rad out. Rad didn't waste any time aiming and firing the tranquilizer gun. Sheba felt the dart hit her in a foreleg.
"Oh no, not that!" Sheba complained. Quickly she removed the dart, but Rad quickly fired more darts into her, hitting her in the back and neck. In all, she now had four darts to remove, one of which she was having trouble reaching. Already she was starting to feel woozy.
"NOOOOOO!" an anguished, high-pitched cry rang out. Starscream bolted from his position and quickly yanked the dart out of Sheba's neck. High above on the cliffside, Armada Starscream was watching this little drama unfold with keen interest.
Starscream was so preoccupied with helping Sheba that he did not notice Optimus Prime behind him. Suddenly a stun blast hit him and he fell unconscious to the ground-but otherwise unharmed. Sheba was still conscious, and she angrily cast Flare on Optimus Prime, taking off 8797 HP. But she didn't dare move an inch, for fear of causing the drug to circulate faster. She turned her attention towards Hot Shot, summoning Leviathan. The Sea Serpent GF's Tsunami attack pushed Hot Shot backwards, taking off 7400 HP.
"Hey, that thing doesn't have the Minicon anymore!" Carlos realized suddenly.
"And when it falls asleep, it won't be able to tell us for awhile," Rad added.
Upon hearing this, Armada Starscream swooped down off the cliff and grabbed Sheba, who was just slipping into unconsciousness, and took off, laughing maniacally.
"Hahahaha, the Minicon will be mine!" he cackled. Not long after he left, Starscream regained consciousness.
"What have you done with Sheba?!" he demanded angrily, "Where is she?"
"Starscream took her," Optimus Prime stated.
"You were the ones that tranquilized her! You FOOLS!" Starscream sputtered in rage, and leaped into the air before transforming into Jet mode.
Armada Starscream sat and waited for Sheba to wake up. He'd carried her to a secluded area and laid her down, away from the prying optics of either Megatron or Optimus Prime. He wanted to find out from her where she'd stashed the Minicon, so that he alone could find it. Of course, he already had his Minicon, Swindle, but he wanted more. He gazed upon the sleeping organic feline creature with a mixture of wonder and jealousy. Sure, he had a Minicon, but the partnership between this creature and the other Starscream seemed like...more. He noticed that Starscream didn't order her around-in fact, to him, she seemed to be the one in command. The extent of her powers that he had observed was astonishing. She seemed relentless in attacking any who would harm the one she was sent to protect. And yet, she was very affectionate as well, as he had seen. He reached out and stroked her fur, mostly out of boredom, but partly in the hope that this would help awaken her faster.
"If only I had a creature like you."
Sheba awoke hearing those words, but was uncertain who had said that.
"What's going on?" Sheba moaned, "Where am I? Where's Starscream?"
"Right here," Armada Starscream stated.
"Not you, the other Starscream," Sheba corrected.
"I don't know. But now that you're awake, you can tell me where you hid the Minicon."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I cast a randomly-targeted Teleport spell on it. Even I don't know where it is," Sheba stated, "But it is of no use to me. And I'm not about to help your Megatron conquer the Universe."
"Megatron doesn't know about this," Armada Starscream said in a stage whisper, "He's incompetent. I would be a much better leader."
A grin spread across Sheba's face. "What a coincidence. My Starscream feels the exact same way about our Megatron," she told him, then her expression changed. "Speaking of which, what were you doing holding a sword to MY Starscream's throat?"
"I was following Megatron's orders. Besides, your appearance and your powers intrigued me. Why do you protect him?" Armada Starscream asked, changing the subject.
"It's my job. Apparently he has a destiny to fulfill, although I have no idea what it is," Sheba replied.
"Even I can see there's more to you two than that!" Armada Starscream pointed out, "That overly-affectionate display earlier-pardon me for saying, but there's more going on there than meets the eye."
"Yeah? The importance of that to you is what?"
Armada Starscream sighed heavily. Sheba gazed into the crimson optics and understood. She then noticed a scratch in his armor.
"You're injured," she commented.
"It's nothing," he said flatly.
"Well it's probably from the Blizzard spell I cast on you earlier. Let me help. Cure!" Sheba said. Several bluish-tinged white energy orbs rose up in a twisting circular pattern around her, with a ring of wavy green energy. Sparkles of blue energy descended on Armada Starscream in a circular pattern, and the scratch suddenly vanished.
"Wha-wha-what did you just do?" Armada Starscream exclaimed.
"I cast a Cure spell on you," Sheba replied.
"Spell?"
"It's Magic."
"What's Magic?"
"It's what gives me most of my powers," Sheba told him, "It's kind of hard to explain to someone that doesn't know anything about it. But in basic terms, Magic is the ability to use powers that most people don't have or cannot use-such as instant healing, or summoning a monster, or attacking with Fire or something without a weapon, almost just by merely thinking about it. Well, actually it's a little more complicated than that-but people who do not possess magical powers can't just think of something and expect it to happen. Not just anybody can do it; you have to have a special power source. But I don't think those power sources are accessible to you."
"Oh," Armada Starscream said.
Sheba finally felt like the tranquilizer had worn off enough for her to try to stand up. She sniffed the air, in the hopes of detecting Starscream's scent and locating him. She climbed up the hillside and had a look around. Off in the distance she saw him, heading towards her. She sat and waited patiently for him to arrive. When he landed, she embraced him, purring loudly.
"I heard that other Starscream had you. What happened?" Starscream wanted to know.
"Ahhh not much, he just wanted to know where the Minicon was," she replied.
"He didn't try to hurt you, did he?"
"Nah, after seeing what I did to the Autobots, I think he knows better."
"Any idea when Scrapper and the others will be able to bring us back?"
"Not really."
Suddenly a hail of laser fire erupted around them. Starscream turned to see Armada Megatron, Cyclonus and Demolisher bearing down on them.
"YOU! You robbed me of my chance to get the Minicon!" Armada Megatron shouted at Sheba.
"Boy this guy's dumber than I thought he was," Sheba commented, and she quickly summoned Cerberus. This put her in Double and Triple, so at her next turn she cast Double Protect to lessen the effect if any artillery hit them.
"Okay, this is a special occasion, so I'm going to lend you Pandemona," Sheba told Starscream. She transferred a bright purple energy ball to Starscream, and he quickly set all his junctions before summoning the Wind GF. A tornado descended down to where Starscream and Sheba had been standing a moment ago, and out of the Tornado, a large purple humanoid creature-which vaguely looked like it was wearing an alien space suit-came down. It sucked in air from three tubes next to its right armpit, and Armada Megatron and the other two were dragged inside, into the rapidly expanding air sac that had for a moment almost looked like a tail. When the air sac was fully expanded, Pandemona began contracting it, spewing the three Armada Decepticons out, which caused roughly 9400 HP worth of damage to Cyclonus, 8755 HP worth of damage to Demolisher, and 7921 HP worth of damage to Armada Megatron. The Armadacon Leader got up, furious, and saw Armada Starscream watching from high up on the hill.
"Starscream! Destroy them!" Armada Megatron ordered.
"Forget it! That's suicide!" Armada Starscream replied.
"WHAT? I gave you a direct order, Starscream!" Armada Megatron shouted, "How dare you!" Quickly he combined with his Minicon-who seemed to have recovered-and fired his cannon at Armada Starscream. The blast missed him, but hit the rock wall just below him, causing the edge to crumble. Before he could react, Armada Starscream found himself plunging down the side of the cliff.
"AAAAAGH!" he screamed.
Sheba reacted instantly. She changed to her robotic form, and flew towards the falling Armada Decepticon. She caught him just as he was about 50 meters away from the bottom of the cliff. She soared higher into the air, and landed, gently placing Armada Starscream on the ground feet first. Then she turned her attention to Armada Megatron.
"That was pretty stupid of you, attacking us like that. Did you really want to be made into recycled materials that badly? Don't you know that attacking me is w-w-w-dot-futility-dot-com?" she growled.
Armada Megatron glared at her before addressing his rebellious warrior. "Starscream, you disobeyed me. That was extremely foolish!"
"WHAT? That's the smartest thing he's ever done!" Sheba snapped, "If you punish him for not attacking me, you're even more of an idiot than your other two smallminded minions!"
"Hey! I resembled that remark!" Cyclonus protested.
"Once you leave, you cannot protect him," Armada Megatron pointed out.
"Oh, we'll see about that!" Sheba shot back.
Suddenly, a static-laden transmission started to come in on Starscream's comm link. "Starscream, can you hear me?" came Megatron's voice.
"Megatron? I can barely read you!" Starscream replied.
"Starscream, listen carefully. We are using your comm link to find the co-ordinates to bring you and Sheba home. Is she there with you?"
"Affirmative," Starscream replied.
"Excellent. We will attempt to beam you back in approximately 3000 astro-seconds."
"Sheba, did you hear that? We're going home!" Starscream told her.
"Three thousand astro-seconds, eh? Not much time then," Sheba said, and went right up to Armada Starscream. "I'm going to give you a gift. It's in exchange for not attacking us back there." She concentrated briefly, and a small orb of green energy appeared in her paws. She pushed it into Armada Starscream's chest-where it was absorbed.
"Now, if your Megatron ever tries to punish you on account of me, or tries to get someone else to do his dirty work in that regard, that orb will react and undo whatever he's doing. I'm afraid it won't react if you are being punished for some other incident that doesn't involve me, but if your Megatron tries to say you were being punished for something else, the orb will know he is lying."
"I don't know what to say," Armada Starscream said.
"Well pretty soon you're going to have to say goodbye," Sheba said.
"I won't forget you," Armada Starscream responded.
"Oh, time's almost up!" Sheba quickly ran and stood beside Starscream. Seconds later, an energy field enveloped them and they vanished.
"Now for you, Starscream!" Armada Megatron growled, and ran towards Armada Starscream. But some bolts of blue energy erupted from Armada Starscream's chest, and hit Armada Megatron, causing him to cry out in agony. Needless to say, Armada Starscream was delighted with the result.
"Hahahahahahaha! See? Maybe she can protect me while she's gone!" he crowed.
"You will live to regret that," Armada Megatron growled, "Oh yes, indeed!" The Armada Decepticons then suddenly beamed back to their base on the Moon.
"Hah! Not likely!" Armada Starscream scoffed, as he was beaming back.
Sheba and Starscream materialized back at Undersea Headquarters.
"Ummm, I don't think we should use devices like this," Sheba stated, "There's too much room for crazy stuff to happen. I think we should stick to old-fashioned flying. Plus it's not as fun as flying anyhow."
"I agree," Starscream added.
"Perhaps you're right," Megatron stated, "Scrapper realized while you were gone that the amount of energy needed to power the device isn't justified to the amount it can transport. It's far less efficient than he first thought it would be."
"I'm the one that figured out it would be inefficient," Hook muttered off to the side.
Suddenly Starscream turned and glared at Sheba. "You were flirting with that other Starscream!" he accused.
"Other Starscream? What the-?" Rumble piped up.
"I don't think I want to know," Megatron groaned.
"What, are you jealous?" Sheba asked, her eyes glimmering mischievously.
"Jealous?! Why I-" Starscream didn't get to finish his sentence. Sheba tacklehugged him in the middle of it and began licking his face.
"Don't be silly. You're the ONLY Starscream for me-in any Universe," Sheba told him.
The End