Culture Shock.
Chapter One.
A/N: Dr Syn is the intellectual property of author MeowthTwo on this site, and is used with permission.
Two Days Later.
Starscream was sat in the Seeker quarters, holding one edge of the cloth-of-gold he'd managed to obtain in his hand, the rest of the bolt falling in heavy folds over his legs. Gold had been well known on Cybertron and also quite common. It was too soft to hold any real constructive use, although its stability was scientifically useful, but it was often worn for personal adornment.
Starscream had actually obtained the large bolt several months ago, for a scientific project that had never reached fruition, using a self-built machine hidden on the sea bed to filter the minute particles of gold out of the sea water. Then he had used information gleaned from the Internet to track down a human who could have the gold woven into the heavy, expensive material he held. It was a shame, really, that Starscream had had to have the human destroyed to ensure his silence, but although his scientific project had never come to pass, he now had this material, material that he was now carefully hemming and gathering to give it the shape he required.
He had been working on it for two days, even his wing brothers did not know why, nor his craftmech-medic, whom he had given the rest of the gold and a set of instructions. Dr Syn was well used to not querying any work he was given, even something as odd as this, and Starscream's wing brothers knew that pestering Starscream to explain himself would only make him hold out longer than necessary, so although he got some odd looks, he was not queried. Soon he would need the assist of Skywarp and Thundercracker, and then he would explain his plans to them, but until then, he intended to keep quiet.
Several hours later his work was finished, and he gathered the expensive cloth to him, folding the two pieces he had adapted and taking them in his arms as he headed for the med bay. He gave them to the doctor, who hid them in a box of new polishing cloths, and nodded when Starscream asked how he was progressing.
"Very nicely, but if you could see a way to obtain some of the hard and vari-hued crystalline varieties of the element called 'carbon', I could make the items look even better," the craftsmech said. "I would advise against using glass substitutes: the obvious difference in the way they refract light will make a difference to how good they would look."
"Then it is lucky that this planet is not the only one to have contained organic life and have been seismically active, plus I stopped on more than one of these others," Starscream stated as he removed a small sack from an inter-armour storage space. "Here, I kept them for their scientific value but have used few. Take what you need. My wing brothers and I are going for a flight." The medic nodded as Starscream headed out.
Starscream commed his wing brothers. "I am going for a flight over the Lookout," he informed them. "Care to join me?" "The Lookout again?" Thundercracker asked. "We've been there a lot recently, why don't we go somewhere different today?" "All in good time, Thundercracker, there is a reason for spending so much time at the Lookout recently, one that I will make clear in just a few days." Thundercracker fell silent, and although Starscream knew he was still annoyed, he ignored it. "Shall we go?" he asked brightly.
The Seekers went outside and took off into the air.
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Optimus Prime and his femme, Elita-One were stood on the edge of the Lookout as Optimus first checked that their beacon was still working and then came to stand by her, putting his left hand gently on her left shoulder. "Still fully functional, and messages received suggest at least three approaching within communications range," he told her as she turned and pressed against his warm hide, the slight oil-and-grease odour that went with his chosen alt mingling not unpleasantly with the uniquely Cybertronian scent of him. He held her close, knowing that when they got back to the Base she would want, even need, an overload.
She and her team had all sent so long in space that it would take a long time before the accumulated hunger and frustration would begin easing off. They had had each other to relieve the worst, of course, but they had still turned the base – and the mechs within it – upside down upon their first arrival. If Elita's team were like this when they had had each other to turn to in the interval, Optimus figured that a lone mech or femme in space arriving could really complicate things. So far they had had no single arrivals, but Optimus wondered if it was merely a case of when that person arrived.
"The Seekers are flying again," she noted lazily. They had noticed this fairly often recently, the Seekers getting flight-time in around the area of the Lookout. Optimus supposed the thermals were good or somesuch: as a non-Seeker he wouldn't know what made for a good flight. Whatever it was, except for a couple of cheeky low passes, the Seekers had never really bothered them.
The two watched for a moment, then turned to watch the Earth's primary setting, a sight that so far Elita had not tired of. She hummed happily as the sky changed from orange to pink and then red as the disc of the sun sank beneath the horizon. As the sky began to darken to a deeper blue and the stars began to show, the two Autobots folded down into alt and headed to the Base.
None of them realised that a pair of red optics had been fixed on them the entire time.
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A few days later, everything was in place. The building was complete and any equipment needed had been brought in. Starscream himself had checked the layout and placement of things, the strength of the lock on the main room door, the basic comforts and luxuries that would be provided, and had approved. He had taken his wing brothers aside and explained his plans. All they had to do was wait until the time was right.
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The Lookout, several days later.
"I love this place," Elita purred as they both uplinked to the satellite to check on its status and any new arrivals to be expected. "Prowl and Hound are joining us," she noted. Optimus looked grave, his optics half-shuttered. "That means we will have to tell Prowl about Jazz," he said, a tinge of sadness colouring his voice. "They were bonded."
Elita winced. Although not yet bonded to Optimus, she hoped to be at some stage, perhaps when the situation on Earth was more predictable. She already found that she hated it when their work shifts did not coincide, she could not imagine the pain Prowl would feel. "Won't he know already?" she asked. Optimus shook his head gravely. "Not necessarily, there are other things that can break a bond other than death. However, I suspect that in his Spark he will know, but probably he won't want to believe it." The Autobot leader sighed before unshuttering his optics and capturing Elita's gaze with his own.
"It means we will still have to tell him and show him the body." He shook his big silver and blue head sadly. "Then he can start to grieve, as I suspect he won't until he knows beyond any doubt." Elita snuggled up closer to give support, her optics lighting on the Seekers, who were ahead, looping and cavorting in the air.
"They're here again," she said without concern. "I guess the flying conditions must be good up here." As it was the same direction as the sunset, they stood and watched the Seekers for a few moments. The sight of blaster fire from one Seeker to the other was shocking to them, nobody had ever heard of two Seekers from the same side battling it out before, and they both watched intently as two of the three shapes exchanged fire, the third flitting out of the way of some stray shots. Then one of them was hit, and Optimus and Elita pulled to the side as they realised the injured Seeker was setting a course for the Lookout, the highest point of ground for miles.
As he came closer, one wing damaged and trailing brown smoke, they could see it was Thundercracker. Elita winced. The paint was peeling back, the entry hole was blackened, and both Autobots could smell the acrid stench of half-melted electricals and cabling. Elita had activated her arm-blaster, just as Optimus had brought out his swords, but she deactivated it, flipping the cannon back into an arm and hand when she saw the injury was unfeigned. She moved to go forward but Optimus, having put away his swords, waved her back, reaching to clasp the Seeker about the waist while tipping backwards to support his back and wings.
"Elita, watch my back, he insisted, although it seemed the other two Seekers had vanished. She turned, her back to his, optics scanning the sky. Optimus asked "Thundercracker, what happened?" as he lowered the blue mech to the ground. He figured he'd need Ratchet's help for this, and commed him to bring tarpaulins and his flatbed.
"Starscream's gone mad, I don't know why, he just suddenly started firing at me!" he said, his voice laced with pain. "Please, what's happened to Skywarp. He was firing at him too!"
"I don't know," he said, scanning the sky briefly with his optics himself. "Look, you're safe now, I've called Ratchet, we'll take you and look after you." "Thank you,." said Thundercracker. "I'm very grateful, I-"
Optimus and Elita never got a chance to hear any more as a bang of displaced air just ten feet in front and thirty feet above Optimus heralded Skywarp's arrival. As Optimus looked up, one of Thundercracker's arms came up, the knuckle-claws raking across Optimus's face. Optimus instinctively reached up to protect his optics, dropping to a crouch to dodge, and that was when Skywarp dropped Starscream, whom he had held suspended beneath him.
Elita was still stood upright, but barely had time to react before Starscream grabbed her cannon-arm with one hand and her waist – trapping her other arm against her side as he did so - with the other. As he angled upwards, Elita shouting and struggling in his grip, Skywarp swooped down to grab Thundercracker by the upper arms, who abruptly stopped attacking Optimus and let go. Skywarp jerked his injured wing brother up in a plate-rattling jerk, and then the two disappeared.
Starscream and the still-shouting Elita were now quite far up. Optimus got out his arm-cannon. They weren't out of range of that! As he lifted to get the receding dot in his sights he realised that at that distance his accuracy would be in question. Even if not, shooting Starscream could mean he dropped Elita. Optimus dropped his cannon as he watched, helpless to intervene, then folded into alt. Perhaps he could track them from below and find out where their base was?
He managed to follow them for a few minutes but then another dot appeared from nowhere in the sky, flew over to the other two, and then they all disappeared. It seemed Starscream had either planned this out earlier, or had spotted their pursuit and called Skywarp to whisk them away. For now, there was nothing he could do.
That did not mean there was nothing he could do at all. He commed the Base, calling a meeting of Ironhide, Ratchet, Mirage, Bumblebee and the five femmes from Elita's team.
It might take time, but they would search for her, find her, and get her back.