A Visit to Cybertron

After my second ordeal with the Decepticons, I figured it was safe enough to leave my protectors and go for a hike in the mountains one Saturday. I left without telling anyone I was going, but I didn't think my enemies could locate me as long as I was the only one who knew where I was going. I admit the whole idea was pretty dumb and that I would definitely pay a hefty price for my carelessness. And sure as rain, as soon as I got to the peak, almost out of breath from exhaustion, I heard a large amount of twigs being crushed, followed by a thundering footstep. Then a massive, metal object emerged noisily from behind some tall pine trees. It was Starscream. I looked up at him in shock and said,

"How the hell did you find me?"

He smirked with devilish delight and retorted,

"Do I really need to explain? It was quite simple actually, I just have been watching you from very high up, and followed you the moment you left your Autobot protectors' vicinity. Now come. We're going for a little ride."

He got down on one knee and opened his large metal hand to reach for me. He relished the look of terror on my face. As the hand came closer, I tried to back up and run, but because of my exhaustion, I only went back a couple of steps when my back hit a tree. Unable to back up any further, I gave a look of defeat, clenched my teeth and closed my eyes as he scooped me up.

"Foolish human, you truly are a pathetic species. Look how easy you tire. How does your kind still even function? You make my job almost too easy."

Into the cockpit I went and the next thing I knew, we were spiraling towards the clouds. It wasn't until I completely got my wind back when I realized we were leaving the earth's atmosphere! My head got hot and I yelled,

"Where are you taking me?!"

Starscream paused for a moment then said, "Home."

I sat still in disbelief, with my mouth wide open.

"You mean, Cybertron? But why?"

Starscream's jet mode instruments flickered and beeped then he said,

"If you bother to recall our first meeting, it was YOU who cost us our leader. I'm sure all my fellow Decepticons would LOVE to thank you in their own special ways."

I looked down at the instruments and said,

"No…you can't do this!"

I grabbed the controls and started to frantically push buttons and flip switches in an attempt to take control & Pilot my way back home, to my protector Tracks, and to Sam. The jet jerked suddenly and some of my toggling managed to make Starscream fire a round of cluster bombs that accidentally impacted our moon, creating a small dust cloud as we flew past it.

"Errr! Stop that!"

Starscream straightened out and the seat belt suddenly wrapped over me, holding me in place. He tightened the strap over my throat in an attempt to suffocate me. As the pressure became more intense, I spoke up.

"St-Starscream…you're hurting me! I-I can't breathe!"

He held the belt still and said, "That's the whole idea!"

I struggled some more to loosen the grip, but it wasn't doing any good. I could feel my heart beating abnormally fast.

"Stop! Please!" I choked and pleaded. "Very well." Starscream finally obliged. "But no more trying to take control. Nobody touches my instruments but me."

He let go of the seat belt and I put my hand on my throat and started to cough. For the next 40 minutes, I sat quietly and just observed the cosmic landmarks we passed on the way.

I had never seen Cybertron before, so I was curious to see what it looked like. We were coming up on a somewhat large planet, but when it got close enough to see, I saw that it was completely metallic! Starscream transformed and landed feet first in front of a tall purple structure. I was worried that Cybertron might not have oxygen, but was surprised to feel the wind rush in as his cockpit swung open. He lifted me out by my clothes and dangled me like a piece of bait. All of a sudden, a gang of Decepticons hurried towards Starscream, anxious for any new news regarding the continuing battle against the Autobots on Earth. Then one Decepticon spoke,

"Hail Starscream! Did you bring anything interesting for us?"

"Of course my fellow Decepticons! Feast your optics on the one responsible for the failure of Megatron's reactivation!" They all gawked and awed.

"Starscream, what is that?" One asked.

"It's called a human. It's a primitive flesh creature native to Earth. The whole planet is overrun with them! Lucky for us, they're small and would be easily conquered and controlled, but those cursed Autobots have vowed to protect them! This one in particular. The autobot Tracks is this one's guardian!"

The Decepticons all laughed. "What a joke!" "You'd think he' be too busy staring at his reflection in someone's muffler to notice the safety of a puny flesh creature!"

Another Decepticon chimed in. "Yeah! That ham is an unreliable waste of scrap metal! And to prove my point, he isn't even here right now to bail you out!"

I looked at the ground. Here they were talking bad about Tracks, when I was the reason why he wasn't there! It ate away at me till Starscream proceeded to show me off some more with very undelicate handling.

"Why does the creature wrap itself in those materials?" Another Decepticon asked.

"They're called clothes. Humans are made of mostly water, and get cold easily, I think they wear them to keep warm."

"And what about that fur growing out of its head?" Another spoke and pointed.

"It's not fur, it's called hair, and I think it's used to determine the female from the male species…You know it really is disgusting how these creatures reproduce. You really don't want to know how they do it."

"So what are we going to do with her?" A rather large Decepticon asked.

"That is yet to be decided. For now, I will put her in the brig of Shockwave's Tower and we will all report to the command center and devise a proper execution for the fleshling and broadcast it through Teletraan 1 so the Autobots can witness what happens to those who dare challenge the mighty Decepticons!"

Starscream waved his hand and the Decepticons all started to file towards the command center.

He turned, and then proceeded to take me to the tall, ominous purple tower that sat quietly in the heart of Cybertron. We entered an elevator shaft and went up approximately 12 floors. When we emerged, the surroundings indicated that we were in the tower's control center. I eyed the room and noticed the purple Decepticon toggling with the instruments. His back was facing us but as the elevator door closed behind us, he stopped what he was doing and slowly turned his head. The single robotic eye was fixed on me.

"Shockwave, I need you to lock this fleshling in the brig while I organize her proper destruction with the others."

He handed me to Shockwave and his fingers closed tightly around my midsection. All the while his eye gaze on me did not falter.

"Yes Starscream."

He answered blankly and then without warning, he slowly started to squeeze me. I felt the air leave me and I let out a scream. Starscream turned and shouted, "Don't damage her!"

Shockwave looked up at him and loosened his grip on me.

"I will return when our meeting is through."

The elevator doors shut behind him and he was gone. Shockwave then proceeded to take me to the brig. He threw me in and activated the electric force field. As I sat there on my butt looking up at him beyond the force field, I knew he wanted to say something to me, and then he spoke.

"It's a pleasure to see you once again. Too bad I wasn't able to use my surgical equipment on you last time. I will suggest to Starscream if I may add my two cents towards your execution by mentioning extensive unnecessary needlework prior to your destruction."

I felt a sick feeling in my stomach as he mentioned those words. He then turned and left the brig, leaving me all by myself. I could see the other cells had spare parts and destroyed remains of possibly other Autobots. I had no clue how I was going to get out of there, so I lay down on my back on the floor in the shape of an X, and my thoughts turned to Tracks.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, hours have gone by and the Autobots continue to search for my whereabouts. They were able to find my car, but had no way of tracking where Starscream had taken me. Optimus Prime had sent out numbers of I-spy drones in an attempt to locate any suspicious evidence of where we had gone.

"This is terrible. How could this have happened?"

Optimus wondered as he randomly checked the visuals of each drove through Teletraan 1. He then saw one of the drones had sent back a picture of the moon and saw the dust cloud where Starscream had accidentally set off a round of cluster bombs. He thinned his optics and leaned in for a closer look when the screen turned to static for a second. Optimus backed away in surprise.

"What the…?" and when it cleared, Starscream's face was on the monitor.

"Greetings Prime. In case you haven't figured it out yet. I have taken your little fleshling friend and brought her to Cybertron. She is currently being held in the brig of Shockwave's Tower. Her execution will soon be carried out, but don't worry; I will make sure it's broadcast through Teletraan 1 for all of you auto-fools to see. And it will serve as a warning to all of you not to oppose the Decepticons! Or face our unmerciless wrath!"

Optimus was festering with hate. He made a fist and his whole body was shaking with hate.

"Starscream out."

Optimus looked at the floor. "Why did she do this? How could she leave and not tell anyone? How could she be so irresponsible…?"

With that thought in mind, Optimus alerted all the Autobots, and within minutes, they all reported to the Ark and stood there bickering amongst themselves about what they could do to save her, but since the distance was so far, how would they get there in time? Tracks stood up and spoke,

"Optimus, I'd go to Cybertron, but I'm not built for space travel like Starscream, what are we going to do? They'll kill her any moment!" Optimus put up his hand.

"Calm down Tracks, we will think of something."

Back on Cybertron, I continued to sit and fester in my cell when I heard some metal crunching in the next cell over. I got up and ran to the darkest corner of my cell, hoping not to be seen. Suddenly the crunching metal sound tore a huge hole into my cell. It was dark, but through the smoke, I could make out a towering quadruped with a long brontosaurus-like neck. It's optics lit up and I was relieved to see that they were bright and blue! An Autobot! Perfect! I was saved! I ran from my shadowy corner and approached him.

He noticed me below and said, "Optimus has instructed me to return you to Earth immediately."

I was curious to know the name of my savior.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Sky Lynx. Please board me as we don't have much time. I have taken out the security cameras but it won't take long for them to notice they've gone offline."

He transformed into a large space shuttle and I ran inside and strapped myself in. In seconds, we were out of the brig and rocketing back towards Earth.

Starscream had opened a channel through to Teletraan 1 again and wasted valuable minutes with Optimus on why the Decepticons were superior to Autobots.

"So you see Prime, I don't know why you Autobots even continue this futile attempt to stop us from taking over the universe. If you would wise up and just turn Decepticon, you could have a piece of this universe as well!"

"Never Starscream!"

Optimus shouted. The sound of a shuttle landing in the distance stirred a few of the autobots and Starscream watched through the monitor as 3 of them walked out of view. He paid no heed to it and continued to mock the Autobots. Outside the Ark, Tracks, Bumblebee and Ironhide were relieved to see me exiting the shuttle and running with open arms towards Sam. I jumped into his arms and wrapped my legs around his waist.

Then I got down and saw Tracks. He kneeled down and opened a palm, which I jumped into and when he raised me to his eye level, I leaned forward and grabbed his head and planted my lips on his shiny metal faceplates. Ironhide stood watching. He smiled but turned away, a little disgusted at the sight of a flesh creature laying admiration on a noble Autobot. Bumblebee was also eager to receive admiration. Tracks handed me to him and I crawled on his shoulder and gave the side of his head a big hug. Then I turned to Sky Lynx and said,

"Thank you for rescuing me Sky Lynx."

He transformed back into his beast form and his bird like head answered,

"It was my duty. You're welcome."

Bumblebee and the others then casually walked back towards the Ark and worked their way through the crowd of Autobots until they stood up front next to Optimus to allow Starscream to see me safely perched on Bumblebee's shoulder.

"And another thing Prime, I…WHAT? WHAT IS SHE DOING THERE?!"

Optimus turned towards me and back towards Starscream and said,

"You're an idiot Starscream. I dispatched Sky Lynx to intercept Camille the minute to told me where she was being held. Luckily, he was near Cybertron when I contacted him. Then all I did was stall you to allow time for him to spring her."

Starscream looked dumbfounded.

"Why that's… that's impossible… it can't be… AAAHHHHHH!!"

And with that, Starscream's fist smashed the monitor and the screen went to static. The Autobots cheered and Optimus turned to me and crossed his arms. I could tell he was waiting for something.

"Uhh…I suppose you want me to apologize…right?"

Optimus nodded his head.

"Okay. I'm sorry for leaving without telling anyone where I was going. I promise to never do that again."

Optimus unfolded his arms and put out his hand for me to jump into. I leapt off of Bumblebee's shoulder and into his hand. He held me at his chest level and I leaned into it to give him a hug. I could hear the spark inside resonating and it gave off a pleasant warmth. Sam yelled from down below.

"Hey! How about giving me my girlfriend back?"

Optimus smiled and lowered me and Sam held his hand out as I stepped from Optimus' hand like Cinderella exiting her coach for the ball. I was in total bliss to be in my sea of metal men again. It thrilled me to no end being the only girl there. As the remainder of the day's sunlight slid from view of the night sky, I could feel myself getting tired and sleepy. Apparently the space trips took a lot out of me. So Sam and I boarded our guardians and we decided to head for home.