Ch 4
Megatron-
I had shoved off the new trine leader on purpose, intending to make her angry. I liked to gauge my subordinates' limitations. Apparently this femme seeker reacted far faster and angrier than Starscream. I didn't even really discuss anything with Freefall.
Even after I had warned the two idiot fliers the fighting had escalated. Right now I was sitting in the mess hall while the two squabbled at each other from across tables. "What do you have in that processor of yours, rocks?" Skyseam calls out.
"Better than an empty helm such as the one sitting on your shoulders!" Starscream shouts back. Out of the corner of my optic I see Thrust begin to get up, Dirge and Ramjet trying to pull him back down.
"I think someone forgot to install maneuvering circuits into your systems, you have all the grace of a ground mech who thought he could fly using a jet pack!"
"At least I'm nowhere near as slow as your lazy aft!"
"You think you got enough red paint to be labeled an Autobot?"
"Is that paint black or did you just get scorched?"
"ENOUGH! Sit down, shut up, and drink your energon! After you finish go about your business AWAY from each other!" I bellow. This cowed Skyseam into trying to make herself smaller while Starscream scowled at me. What the frag was his problem?
Skyseam was the first of the two to leave, rushing off to take care of cleaning duty which she had with one of the Constructicons. Starscream's trine mates scoot closer into the table and begin talking to him in hushed whispers.
Getting up I head out, heading back to my chambers to work more on some plans. Maybe that was it. Ever since Starscream and Skyseam had started fighting I had refused to let him check over the plans which, like it or not, lead to more failures. Sighing I glance up to see the black seekress engaging in a conversation with Soundwave, petting Lazerbeak on the helm absentmindedly while she lightly taunted the navy mech. What surprised me was Soundwave insulted her back a little, amusement creeping into his usually flat voice.
"Skyseam, get to work!" I yell at her as I stomp past and she holds out Lazerbeak with a sullen expression, almost like I had kicked a cyber puppy. I watch her move off before heading my own way again. I was going to have to find some way of punishing her for insubordination and refusal to get along with the other soldiers, particularly her superiors.
Starscream-
"But what about Megatron?" Skywarp asks, pouting a bit.
"I still left that door open but I'm aiming for more options, besides, I don't actually enjoy being beaten around the base. I've already tried going about this in the style he'd be more familiar with but he never noticed. It's a wonder I didn't open up more options before." Skywarp thrums his digits on the table top as I speak, ticking off Thundercraker.
"Warp, stop it." He demands as he places his servos over his bond mate's firmly. "I think your right Starscream; you should have been bonded already. You're how old now?"
"Three hundred and eighty seven vorns." I reply. Warp lets out a whistle.
"Dude, you've been waiting, like, forever." I knew what he meant. Seekers usually spark bonded shortly after their two hundredth vorn. TC and Warp had jumped the gun a little and bonded at around a hundred and ninety.
"Skyseam has been waiting just as long. Freefall and Cloudstrutter say she's very picky and doesn't go for just about anyone. But maybe I shouldn't go with her; she's bound to have to go back to the outpost." Just as I finish speaking a red servo bangs flat on our table.
Glancing up I notice Thrust. What did this fragger want now? "I'm butting in you got that? So stay away from Skyseam, she's mine." He growls possessively. I raise an optic ridge and glance up and down his frame once before snorting.
"A conehead? No, something tells me she would find someone even as one dimensional as Soundwave a better catch then you. Now go away before you irritate me more." He grips my wing roughly and I wince right before turning my null rays up as high as they'd go and shooting him straight in the abdomen.
His frame smokes as it instantly heats up from his fans shutting down and he collapses backwards, falling into immediate stasis lock. Standing up I step over the downed conehead and start walking away. "I'll catch up with you two later. I intend to make myself busy."
Megatron-
Currently Skyseam had taken up a shift in the Command Center, opting to work longer rather than relax like her trine mates chose to do after their long flight here. I wouldn't have had a problem with the femme if Starscream wasn't in the same room.
Currently they were shouting at each other, tossing insults back and forth, and arguing about nothing in particular. Again. After two joors of it I'm relieved when Starscream's shift ends. Hopefully whatever it was they had between them would be fixed quickly otherwise I was going to slag them both.
-0-
Walking into the Command Center I barely register the warning to duck. Doing so I watch as a chair flies over my helm and into the door. Apparently it was Skyseam who threw it seeing as she was near the work station she had occupied earlier and had no chair next to her. I stood several paces behind a crouching Starscream who tosses the insult of 'couldn't hit the broadside of a warship even if you were standing five feet from it'.
"That is it!" I shout, grabbing my second roughly and dragging him over to stand next to Skyseam. "You two have been carrying on like idiotic sparklings for the past eight cycles. You will tell me what your problem is with each other then fix it or Primus so help me I will send you BOTH to the Pit."
Skyseam looks at me with proper confusion while Starscream rolls his optics. "But I have no problems with commander Starscream." Skyseam states.
"You dumb aft. Don't you know anything?" Starscream sneers and I slam my fist into his helm, momentarily knocking him offline.
"Skyseam, carry him off to his quarters, I have no patience for him right now. Thundercraker come to my quarters by the end of the joor or the Unmaker so help me I will slag you as well as your idiot trine leader and this upstart femme!" I shout, shoving impatiently on Skyseam as she stumbled under the weight of my second to the door. Picking up the reports to review I stalk out shortly after, heading to my quarters.
Thundercracker turned up five minutes before the end of the joor, poorly disguising his discomfort. "You, in here, now!" He hesitates slightly before stepping past the threshold and the door slides closed behind him.
"Something you wanted sir?"
"Inform me on what the slag has gotten into those two imbeciles." I didn't have to mention who I was referring to.
"Are you referring to their mating rituals?" My processor goes blank.
"What?" Thundercracker releases his breath and relaxes slightly.
"Seeker programming can be confusing to outsiders so I'll try not to lose you on anything. Before procuring a mate two seekers will break into constant fighting, challenging each other, and spouting any manner of insults they can think of. The more dominant of the two, usually the tallest, initiates the second phase which is flirting. At that point all fights die down to a minimum. Note that before this stage begins an outside party can try to wrestle interest away from one of the targets. Also, any form of relationship isn't recognized until the second step so both seekers can try their tactics at procuring another mate during this." Thundercracker's words make something click in my processor. I hold up a servo to forestall any more knowledge.
"Hold on, so you mean outright defiance and fighting, is a style of flirting?" I had a sinking feeling that Starscream's behavior, which always seemed directed at me, was him trying to woo me.
"Not necessarily. It's more like stating your interest in someone. I'm surprised you're asking about all this, I mean sure Starscream told me he was hugely attracted to you, but I didn't think you'd have an interest in anything he did."
"I don't, I just want those two idiots to stop doing whatever." I say, waving a servo through the air. While the first part of that sentence was false I wasn't going to act on it. Thundercraker had said relationship which was something I didn't want.
"Well, I regret to say this but the two are exactly the same size."
"So?"
"Meaning neither one will consider themselves dominant and thus the fighting will go on until one of them is shoved from the picture."
A/N
I still thing this story is blah.