"Flash! This program has been interrupted to bring you important news! Under cover and stealth of night, a currently unidentified party has managed to capture two Decepticons! Whereabouts of said Decepticons, as well as their captors, are currently unknown!"
"Sweet Primus!" Prowl cried, almost jumping out of his chair. All the Autobots started talking at once. Who was captured? Who captured them, and why? Worst of all, why had THEIR show been interrupted?
"Hey," said Sunstreaker, fiddling with the remote. "I was watching that."
"How did the humans manage to capture two Decepticons?" Optimus asked. "Who are they?"
"Maybe they'll say," said Prowl.
Everybody listened, but for now there were just a bunch of reporters milling around, talking frantically. Finally a female announcer with bottle-blonde hair (apparently styled with transmission fluid) and giant fake boobs came on-screen.
"This is Krystal Flemming, reporting live from Washington D.C.," she was saying. "Various news sources claim that Washington has captured two major-profile Decepticons, Starscream and Megatron. No one is sure what the U.S. Government plans to do-sell these robots to a foreign power, reverse-engineer them, or simply kill them immediately. The hostages pose no threat to us, seeing as they have been both disarmed and deprived of fuel."
"That's strange," Optimus commented. "Megatron told us Starscream was dead about six months ago when he stopped showing up to our battles. But from what this report says, Starscream was alive when he was captured."
"Maybe he tricked us," Prowl replied.
"Where is Starscream?" Optimus asked. "Starscream is your second-in-command. Why is he no longer showing up to battle?"
"Starscream is dead," Megatron replied, glaring at him. "I killed him."
"WHY did you kill him?"
"Because he betrayed me one too many times."
So where WAS Starscream, then? What was Megatron trying to hide? Perhaps Starscream was just being tortured, like they had always suspected. Autobots are noble, but who cares what happens to Decepticons? The Autobots didn't always realize that there are certain things that can happen, bad things, that you don't wish even on your worst enemy.
"The good thing is," Optimus told Prowl, "is that the Decepticons are very largely nothing without Megatron and Starscream. Now might be a good time to attack."
"I don't know," said Perceptor, coming into the room. "I couldn't help but overhear, and I remember the reporter saying that the humans might reverse-engineer their hostages. If our genome fell into the wrong hands, disaster could occur. And even if it doesn't...who knows what they ARE going to do?"
"Let 'em do whatever they want, I say!" Ironhide walked in after Perceptor, sipping on a cube of energon. "That's just two less Decepticons to deal with."
"Besides, it would be Decepticon genome, not Autobot genome," Optimus reminded them.
"Even worse." Perceptor shook his head.
"Wait." Prowl sat up straighter. "Are you saying we should actually try to rescue the Decepticons?"
"Not just yet," Optimus told him. "But we do have to do something. After all, what if they come for us next?"