Swindle and Starscream's Little Surprise.
Summary: Swindle catches Sam for information and to please Starscream but things don't go the way he planned.
Disclaimer: Transformers and human chatacters within this story belong to Hasbro and Dreamworks/Paramount, not me.
Rating: M for scenes of torture.
A/N: This contains ideas that Littlemewlugia and I have worked on together.
Swindle and Starscream's Little Surprise.
Swindle hummed in triumph as he prepared to break the bones of the Witwicky squishy who had destroyed the All Spark and Megatron, kindly brought in by Wreckage, who had caught him by chance out with his guardian.
They had not reckoned on meeting the grey camo tank's gang in Tranquility and Bumblebee's comm had been shot so he could not call for help. After dragging them back to the Decepticon base, Swindle had started on the yellow scout first. He had not yielded the pass key number for the base but maybe he would if he heard his fleshy charge's screams.
Horrible noises came from it as he leaned down on an arm, though at first it had defiantly kept silent. Red liquid came from it. Perhaps pressure on one of the lower limbs would make it scream. It did.
"What is the number you type in to enter the Autobot base? What is the frequency of the force-field ?" he asked as a token attempt at interrogation, but he was just enjoying himself.
"I-I don't know !" was the only coherent reply he got, breathily through gritted teeth.
It was getting too messy. He went back to see if it had made any difference to the Autobot Scout, comm-ing Starscream as he anticipated an answer soon and then they would be able to plan their spying raid.
Starscream came down and appeared at the door of Bumblebee's cell just as the yellow youngling scout was saying "Don't hurt him any more! I'll tell you what you want to know- he's more vulnerable than we are and his brain cannot hold so many figures!" The crying from next door weakened and stopped.
"I won't tell you if he's dead, there's no point!" Bumblebee said angrily. Several parts of him were blackened and sparking or broken, and he felt like crying too.
"You 'll do anything I want or I'll take your Spark," called Swindle.
"Then I won't be able to tell you anything."
"Logical even if you are stupid, Autobot scum," said Starscream. "I will check for you, I think I might like to analyze human energon."
He went out.
The Autobot had even been smart with that answer, but he was not going to tell him so. In fact he was more than just scientifically curious, the boy had an interesting personality and a strong spirit, he would have liked to see how it would break. He looked into Sam's cell. Sam seemed too overcome by physical privations to care.
Starscream went in. The boy was shaking, with an immobile crushed leg. Starscream reached out to touch him, at first not noticing the faint blue light that surrounded him. Starscream felt it ask him 'Can I borrow your pattern?' He recognised it as All Spark energy, stronger than his, and consented.
When the staticky sparks and haze cleared, there was a winglet, a winged sparkling. "Is that you, Sam?" asked Starscream in disbelief.
The sparkling clicked and whirred at him, shuttering and unshuttering its optics. He picked it up and carried it back to Bumblebee.
"Sam has been changed." he said. "There was All Spark energy but no sign of any other being, so this must be him."
"Is that really you, Sam?" asked Bumblebee. "Sam?" He looked up at Starscream, about to accuse him of some sort of duplicity, or switching Sam for the sparkling, but could tell from Starscream's confused expression that he was telling the truth.
The sparkling clicked and whirred at Bumblebee also, and whimpered.
"I'm sorry Sam, I failed you," said Bumblebee, "You didn't go to college and have babies with Mikaela."
Seeker-sparkling-Sam cried in a metallic whine because his friend was distressed, and he was being held by his enemy. Or at least, that's how it seemed to his vague spark-memory.
Starscream put him into Bumblebee's arms. "I will have to teach him to fly, but you and I can be like his creators." he said.
Bumblebee sang to Sam. Starscream crooned to him too, but Sam reached for the blue rounded optics and smooth yellow lines of the Autobot scout. He only quieted to Bumblebee's voice and gentle rocking.
"What about our raid on the Autobot base?" said Swindle.
"It will have to be postponed. I want his co-creator repaired and our sparkling happy," said Starscream.
"Y-yes Lord Starscream" Swindle said. Grumbling, he commed Dr Syn, the Medic. Then he shook, for in Cybertronian terms they were both younglings, and he would not have liked to have killed one, and Starscream was his leader now. This way they might still be able to get some fuel out of it, or kudos against Optimus. What was he going to do if Starscream was upset with him for a long time, and his fellow Decepticons? They could make life very difficult for him more than withdrawal of privileges. They could bully him and keep him short of fuel, or even not talk to him at all
The doctor arrived, and set to on repairing Bumblebee, who was a mess. He also brought Starscream some formula energon for the sparkling.
"You are to clean up the End cell," Starscream said to Swindle, "for going too far and asking stupid questions. The Autobots are not likely to have let him know the frequency of the force-field. As he is a sparkling now, we cannot ask to access the power of the All Spark."
He cooed at the sparkling, but Sam would only let Bumblebee feed him.
Swindle went off grumbling. The end cell, where Sam had been put, was particularly damp and mouldy, with things growing down the walls. Being too small for Cybertronians it was used primarily for human prisoners and no-one ever cleared it up. So it stank and had bloodstains and other stains on the floor. Although it was disgusting, he settled himself to clearing it up, thanking the Unmaker that Starscream had not given him some other punishment.
A shiver ran through his servos: it was very unlikely Starscream did not have something worse in mind. He would always be Swindle the schemer, the torturer, never the glorious soldier winning battles, getting the femme, giving her a sparkling and bringing home the treasure. Well, some treasure had come by his efforts, and it was not that he never got out of the base, and he didn't want to be a goody goody hero, but a difference of pace would be nice, or a reward for his efforts.
When he was repaired, Bumblebee called Sam's parents.
"Sam's doing something different with us, he's safe but he won't be back for a bit. Can you look after Mojo?"
Sam's parents sounded very grateful to know he was safe, but how could he tell them their teenage son was a sparkling in arms? He cycled out air through his vents in a sigh. Sam only understood that his friend was sad and started crying nervously. Bumblebee rocked him and gave him some more formula.
"It's OK Sam," he said. "I will look after you and keep you safe. And Starscream will teach you to fly. It doesn't matter that you're only a little sparkling. Like a human baby, you don't need to do much at first. Just be happy. We'll get out of here somehow."
Sam's little silver hand touched Bumblebee's shiny yellow hide and blue fire came out of it, decorating his protector with blue and gold All Spark Guardian colours.
"Look!" said the amazed scout, taking him over to Starscream. "He gave me my colours! Will you be protecting him too?"
"Yes," said Starscream, taking Sam gently and looking at Bumblebee in amazement "I said I would and I will." The feeling inside him surprised him. He did not often say words that anyone could trust, and he did not know how he would keep this promise, but he was determined to try.
As Starscream took Sam from Bumblebee to give him a cuddle, thin gold and red stripes - red being the other colour for All Spark Guardians - spread over his wings and fuselage too from the blue fire that surrounded the little sparkling.
He suddenly felt that he was involved in something that was bigger than he was. "Come on little All Spark," he said, taking him to Frenzy's headless body in their medbay, "I'm going to see if you can heal!"
The body in question was the one Mikaela had sawed the head off in the breaking yard after the fight with Bumblebee. Barricade had retrieved it for him. The one the All Spark had regenerated for him at the Hoover Dam had been damaged by Simmons' flamethrower and the head cut in half by one his own discs. The Decepticons had managed to retrieve the half head from Sector Seven, leaving a fake one in its place, but for some reason it would not work in spite of Frenzy's diffuse neural net, so it had been left apart.
Starscream put Sam down near it . "Go on, ask the All Spark to heal him," he said. "Soundwave misses him. He does not say anything about it, but I can tell, from the way he treats me and Barricade."
Sam's little steel fingers glowed blue and the head joined to the body. All Frenzy's lights lit up and his arms and legs moved. "Thanks All Spark!" he said, springing to his feet and flexing all four of his hands experimentally. " Be seein' ya!" He then ran off excitedly, with a couple of hyperactive bounces, and folded up into Soundwave's chest.
"Both of you aren't very good Guardians!" scolded Dr Syn the medic. "You haven't taken him for his first health check yet! And why not see if he needs language programming so he can express some views of his own on what he wants to do?" He rubbed the little sparkling's back and Sam belched gently as the doctor let air out of the valve. Then he took him for an oil change, greased his joints and gave Bumblebee some special polish for him.
Once the language programming was started off he could soon say words in Decepticon, Autobot, and something that might have been ancient Cybertronian.
"Don't we ground forces get any share in this All Spark power?" grumbled Barricade after successfully teaching Sam 'Decepticons mobilize', 'Starscream' and his own name. "Couldn't he bring back Megatron?"
"That will depend when and if he and the All Spark want to," said Starscream. "I suggest you do him some favours, like getting him some fuel and doing the job all policemen hate worst!"
"What telling his parents he's dead? I could do that, it would give me some experience of dealing with flesh-bags, which we will have to learn eventually, living on this little dirt-ball rock that's not even fit for the Unmaker to eat!"
Sam started crying. He did not like the tone of Barricade's voice, and now he could understand it was his world and his parents being talked about.
"That's enough! It won't help if you've just insulted his parents and his planet, and he's probably still scared of Megatron!" said Dr Syn firmly.
"I'll go to and stand look out for you," said Swindle "I want to get out of this base and do something about this business." He was not just pissed because he had been punished for doing just what he normally did, but because it was rather boring watching Starscream sparkling- sitting rather than leading them against the humans or Autobots.
"Why don't you give him a chance to recharge?" said Dr Syn. "He must be tired. I'm sure some of us could do with one too." Barricade glared at the medic, but Dr Syn matched him and soon won the staring match. Barricade angrily slunk off. They all decided that it would be a good idea if they recharged.
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"Right! He's a Seeker, so next, he will have to learn to fly," said Starscream.
"Er excuse me, Starscream but aren't you forgetting something? Doesn't he need to learn to transform first?" said Bumblebee
"We Seekers can fly in robot or alt-form" said Starscream.
"Walk first, he'll have to learn that, but as he is in my form he'll learn it all together. Come on Sam and Bumblebee, let's do it!"
Bumblebee picked up Sam and they went out to a little-used airfield. The Base was in a remote area and the Command Trine could take off from it anyway, but Sam would need real planes to copy and a runway to learn to take off from.
Bumblebee was delighted to find he could still carry him in his driving seat as he had before, because Sam had not changed too much in shape and size.
"Just get out and lean on me," Bumblebee commed to Sam "Put your hand out, palm out, and scan the aircraft you want." Bumblebee demonstrated the gesture.
Sam scanned a small two-seater plane. With Bumblebee's and Starscream's help he started learning to walk, which because of his shape was more like hopping like a kangaroo or big bird. It was evening, the best time to learn to fly, Starscream said, because of the warm thermals coming up from the land or off the sea, and he was quite excited.
Meanwhile Barricade and Swindle went to the Witwicky home.
Ron answered the door.
"Mr Witwicky?" Said Barricade. "I have some bad news for you
"It's about Sam isn't it? We got a non-definite message a few hours ago."
"He has been involved in an accident with a car. Can I come in? Would you like to sit down?"
"Are you gonna prosecute the other driver?" asked Ron.
"Unfortunately they did not stay around, but we will keep looking," said Barricade.
"A hit and run? Oh Shit!"
"So you want us to come and identify whether it is Sam?" Said Judy shakily.
This was unexpected , but do-able. He had studied human bereavement behaviour slightly, they would deny death until they had evidence.
"Yes." He checked with Swindle about doing a hologram of Sam.
"Easy," said Swindle "I have clear memories of how he last looked, and it's a holoform not a hologram, they could even touch him, I could make it as solid as you like, even with fake congealed blood!"
They located a small morgue with no coroners and just duty staff on. "Morgue grunt staff find the place rather creepy and cold so they want to just get the job done quickly." said Barricade.
Unfortunately they got a small staff member who was a stickler for regulations.
"I want a video or Police report of the accident, a hospital report , death certificate, police report and crime number for every stiff!" he said.
"Police camera video we could mock up," conmmed Barricade to Swindle. "Reports can be written, but for hacked-into-the-computer official numbers we will have to ask Soundwave."
Turning around, annoyed at the time constraints, they returned to the base.