Warning: Violence, I guess?

2. Bath Time

In the Decepticon base, Skywarp had a reputation as a juvenile prankster. Annoying, but ultimately harmless, his brilliant schemes consisted of paint buckets rigged to fall on those who walked under them.

Thundercracker, in contrast, was the type of 'con that easily blended into the background of a room. Despite the infamy seekers had for their flighty natures and over-the-top extroversion, it was normal for the blue jet to be completely overlooked. He was the anti-social type that wasn't particularly worrying, in comparison to the more dangerous incarnations of the trait seen in mechs such as Soundwave.

In battle, personality traits had a strange way of translating to fit the extreme situation. Skywarp tended to fight with enthusiasm, his childishness becoming a frightening apathy similar to that of schoolyard bullies, a dangerous brand of feigned naivety. The normally empathetic Thundercracker wasn't quite so reserved in the face of enemies that voluntarily chose to be in the war, adopting a cold and ruthless style. Perhaps to retain some of his self-defined dignity, he tended to follow orders of his commander and warlord rather than taking the initiative to be cruel. When being directed by another, any actions he took weighed less on his conscious.

However, some days, he found himself making an exception to his own rules of self-restraint.

"Catch!"

Skywarp dropped the Autobot he'd carried into the sky onto his partner's altmode, resulting in a sickening crack that did not originate from the jet. Skywarp cackled at the 'bot's groan, increasing in volume when he fell offline.

"'Warp! Don't, that's heavy," the Decepticon let himself angle to the side, and the unwilling passenger slid off him into the empty sky. This only caused the teleporter to laugh more at the soldier's misfortune.

Luckily for the Autobot, he fell on comrades.

"Skywarp, stop laughing. It's embarrassing."

"Come on TC, that was slagging hilarious. Did you see their expressions when he fell on 'em? The little one was totally buried."

"…Okay, it was a little entertaining. But he bled all over me. It's disgusting."

"Pfft, alright 'Screamer. Fuss over a little spilt energon on your frame in the middle of battle."

"You don't know where that Autobot has been, it could be full of viruses."

"An Autobot? Naaaah."

The two jets descended as they continued squabbling, reaching the battlegrounds to search for more victims. In normal cases, seekers preferred attacking from the safety of the sky by far to any melee style, but at this point the battle was so one-sided the fliers had no reservations in joining the chaos on the ground.

Spirits high at their team's current success, Skywarp took the opportunity to kick a few downed minibots he disliked as Thundercracker scowled at him, until they finally saw something of interest.

"Psst, TC, look! It's that Autobot twin that always tries to jump us," Skywarp said as he nodded his head towards the not-so-distant figure with a cruel sneer. Sideswipe was a short ways away, not currently preoccupied with a foe yet momentarily oblivious to the ill intent a short distance away.

Thundercracker didn't vocalize a response, yet his expression shifted in the tiniest way to a determined scowl. The other seemed to interpret this as a go-ahead, and warped behind the brawler.

Sensing him, Sideswipe whipped around, but moments too late as Skywarp grabbed him.

"Let go of me, you Decepticon fragger!"

"Tsk, you should be more polite, Sunstreaker. You're not really in the position to be talking slag about me."

Thundercracker joined the two at this point, commenting, "No 'Warp, Sunstreaker is the yellow one."

"…Really? Which one is this, then?"

"Side…something"

"It's Sideswipe, glitches," the twin unsuccessfully tried twisting out of his precarious position as the seekers chatted. "You stupid fraggers wouldn't be able to tell each other apart if you weren't color coded."

In reply to this, Thundercracker punched the Autobot in the faceplates. "Bad move, Autodork."

While Sideswipe recovered from the blow, the darker jet tightened his hold on an arm and sneered, "I wouldn't say that, Autobot. We're both pink by the time a battle's over." With that, he forcibly kicked the soldier away while maintaining a tight grip on the appendage, activating his thrusters in the process. The Autobot screamed as wires snapped and energon lines ruptured, tearing his arm away from his body.

True to his description, quite an amount of energon splattered on all three of the fighters, droplets sticking to their plating. The blue jet growled angrily at this, to which Skywarp rolled his eyes. On a whim, Thundercracker decided to put the blame on the Autobot rather than his partner, and pointed a charging cannon point blank at his spark chamber.

However, the killing blow was interrupted by a shrill call reverberating through the air.

"Decepticons! Retreat!"

The pair looked up from their victim to see Decepticons gathering towards Megatron and a rather large collection of energon cubes. Deciding to quit while ahead rather than risk reinforcements arriving to prolong the battle, the warlord was directing his team back towards the base.

Skywarp looked back down to his prey, which was struggling weakly as shock and energon loss (not that it was lost, per say, being in clear sight upon the frames of all three and the playing field) started to take its toll. Thundercracker let his cannon power down, briskly dropping it to his side and transforming as he took to the skies.

"Leave him, 'Warp. We need to go."

Skywarp tsk'd as he dropped the fighter on the ground, lingering a moment before transforming to follow his trinemate.

----

Catching up in the sky a few klicks later, Skywarp commented, "Good battle, wouldn't ya say?"

Thundercracker made a noise equivalent to a snort in response.

"What?"

"We're both pink by the end of a battle? Warp, that was…pathetic."

"Oh come on. I thought it up on the spot, and I had that fraggin' gladiator pinned."

"That was inexcusably bad."

"Feh. Fine." A pause.

"What about, 'We'll be bathing in your energon before we're done with you, foolish Autobot!'"

"…Skywarp."

"What?"

"No."

Thundercracker sped up suddenly, forcing his partner to follow suite, and the two continued exchanging insults about their respective battle techniques while returning home.

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A/N: One thing I kind of hate about some fanfiction I've seen is how people tend to play up the power of their favorite characters, and weaken the ones they hate. Therefore, I drew from the fact that Skywarp actually does rip off Sideswipe's arm in issue 7 of AHM. I hope none of the other descriptions here makes them seem too badass for canon, though you should assume this is one of those very rare battles in which they're doing good.