A/N: Wow, I'm actually please by how this chapter turned out. I thought it was going to be short and not very funny, but it's actually a little longer than chapter 3.
A thank you to my good friend Rain/Soundwave for reviewing my story. You cheered me up with your two reviews about chapter 3. Also I'm glad to know that chapter 3 made you a Soundwave fan. Thanks for putting a link for this story on you deviantART account. She's mysterious-jokester, if you're wondering. This chapter is dedicated to you, mostly because I know how much my Starscream obsession annoys you. :3
Thank you Kibble Beast for your long and funny review! This chapter is also dedicated to you. Hopefully it will live up to your standards.
Thank you TFSTARFIRE for adding this story to your faves and for reviewing.
Thank you chickentyrant5 for faving this story.
Warning: Contains fluff.
Disclaimer: I still own nothing.
The Early Stages of War
Chapter 4
We have now reached part four of our tale and well…Poor Hatchet is starting to reach his breaking point with all these sparklings. But before we witness Hatchet losing it, we must go back to the slightly rough part of Vos we saw back in chapter two; we don't have to go far, just down the street from Jazz and Prowl's apartment complex. Here we will meet a young, single, Seeker femme by the name of Starfall…
Starfall lived in a one-story apartment complex with only three apartments. In one of the apartments lived a bonded Seeker couple named Razorwing and Cloudrider; they owned a small but popular convenience store. In the other apartment lived another Seeker femme named Skystrike; she was a nurse in a nearby hospital. Starfall was good friends with all of them.
But the oddest thing about these four was that Starfall was the only one among them with the ability to have children and could split-spark. Cloudrider could not carry a sparkling full term and Skystrike wanted a child but wasn't interested in bonding with someone and couldn't split-spark.
The three neighbors all begged Starfall to split-spark for them, since they trusted no one else, and she agreed after much convincing. Starfall promised Razorwing and Cloudrider that she would carry their sparkling first and before long, Hatchet informed her that she was carrying.
XXX
Inside Starfall's spark chamber…
The spark she carried was just drifting and occasionally, much to it's amusement, gently bouncing off the walls. It was just another peaceful day when the sparkling had the horrible feeling that something was wrong. Very wrong.
It then watched in pure horror as a part of itself started stretching away from it's body until finally, POP! There, only an inch away from the sparkling was another sparkling.
"AAAAHHHH!," screamed the first sparkling.
"AAAAHHHH!," cried out the second.
"AAAAHHHH!"
"AAAAHHHH!"
xxx
After an hour, both sparklings stopped screaming, thank Primus, and the first sparkling realized what it had to do.
The first sparkling drifted over to the second and immediately started pushing it while screaming, "You…Get…Back…In…Me!"
"Stop it!," cried out the second. "You're hurting me!"
"Oh, fine!," yelled the first, who gave up so easily because all that pushing was making it tired, not that it would admit it.
Both sparklings just stayed away from each other, until the first started to stretch again.
"Hi," said the new third sparkling.
"Primus! If this keeps up, we're going to run out of room soon!," cried out the first.
xxx
Not long after the Third's appearance, the three sparklings began to tolerate each other's existence; Third even took to sticking by Second's side. But soon they realized they had to divide the leftover personality traits that were floating around with them.
"Okay," started First, "Who gets the bitchy trait?"
"You," stated Second and Third at the same time.
"What?! Why should I get the bitchy trait? Why not you?," it said, pointing at third.
"Because you were mean to second when he came," answered Third.
"Was not!"
"Was so!"
And so another argument began. But while the two argued, Second took the paternal trait, knowing that if he didn't he might end up with one of the bad traits.
"Okay fine, give me the bitchy trait," pouted first. After receiving the trait, first noticed that the paternal trait was missing and so was the funny trait. "Hey you guys took the good traits."
"You snooze, you lose," said an amused Third.
There was only one trait left and it was one that no one wanted. It was the maternal trait. "Well, take it!," said an irritated Second to First.
"But I don't want it!," whined First.
"Too bad. You get it because you were here first."
"That's stupid!"
"Look if it stops you from whining so much, I'll take half of it," offered Third.
First thought it over for a moment before agreeing. "Break it in half," ordered First to Second.
Second tried to break it but it was difficult and in the end was only able to break off only a small piece. He quickly gave the small piece to Third and gave the big piece to First, since he liked screwing First over, gee I wonder why.
XXX
It wasn't long after that little incident that Starfall began to feel labor pains, which was odd since it was much too early. At the hospital she insisted that she didn't want to be in stasis during the transplant process and Hatchet relented.
After giving Starfall painkillers, Hatchet opened the spark chamber and used his tongs to reach in.
xxx
First and Second were using Third like a ball and were pushing him to each other when a bright light filled their room.
"I know why you're early Starfall," said a booming voice. "You have triplets in here."
Then a pair of tongs reached in and grabbed First. "First!," screamed Second and Third in pure horror.
First struggled to free himself and knew he was going to die. NO!, he thought, if I'm going to die, I'll die fighting!
First used all his strength to break free from the tongs' hold and tackled the arm that held them. First then proceeded to bite the arm and took pleasure from Hatchet's cries of pain and anger.
Hatchet tried to reach for something, ANYTHING, to get the little hellion off of him. He felt the handle of a tool, grabbed it, and smacked the sparkling off his arm with it.
First landed on the floor hard and was dazed from the surprise attack. He looked back at Hatchet and saw he had a mallet in his servos. First wasn't afraid and launched himself at the doctor, only to be hit again.
Hatchet loomed over the unmoving sparkling, thinking that first had run out energy to fight. He bent down to get the sparkling when suddenly First threw himself at Hatchet's face and held on as Hatchet tried to pull him off. Hatchet then used the mallet to smack the stubborn sparkling off his face and once again he landed on the floor.
This time when he landed on the floor, Hatchet didn't give him time to recover and kept hitting with the mallet.
"Die! Die! Die!," he yelled.
"Hey! I can see and hear what you're doing you know!," screamed Starfall.
Hatchet stopped and grabbed the sparkling and threw him roughly into the protoform. "I'm sorry, but that was no sparkling. That…was…a …demon…from the Pit," stated Hatchet.
Starfall really didn't know what to say to that and instead changed the subject. "How about we get the others out, okay?"
Hatchet cycled his vents. "Fine," he muttered.
xxx
Third clung to Second and whispered fearfully, "That thing isn't going to come back, right?"
Second never took his gaze off the bright light and whispered back, "I don't know, third, I don't know."
Then a large hand emerged from the light.
"It's the hand of Primus," whispered Third.
"More like Unicron," muttered Second.
The hand then reached toward the two sparklings and grabbed Second.
"Second, no!," screamed Third. He slammed against the hand but to no prevail and Second was gone, taken to the horrible light just like First.
"Please Second, come back," sobbed Third, "I don't want to be alone."
xxx
Second tried to struggle against the grasp of the hand but quickly stopped after he realized how pointless it was.
It's not fair, thought Second as everything became dark, I was just brought into existence only to die a horrible death. I'm going to miss Third, Pit, I already miss First. Maybe I'll see him in the Well of Sparks…
xxx
Third was crying, crying for his only friends, when the Hand appeared again.
Third stopped crying and grew angry. "You're here to take me too, huh?! Fine, take me! I don't want to live anymore if I'm going to be lonely forever!"
With that said, Third jumped onto the Hand's opened palm and begged for the sweet release of death. Then everything became dark…
xxx
When Starfall saw her firstborn online his golden optics for the first time, she knew she couldn't give the little demon up.
"Can I?," she whispered.
Hatchet nodded tiredly. He carefully picked up the still dazed sparkling and placed him in her arms. "There," he said, "an evil, but healthy, Seeker femme."
Starfall rose an optic ridge. "Um, this is a mech."
"What?" Hatchet looked carefully at the sparkling. "It is a mech! Primus, he is going to teased, big time," laughed Hatchet.
The sparkling, not liking Hatchet poking fun at him, began to cry, loudly.
Hatchet winced at the noise, while Starfall just smiled, seemingly immune to the cries. "At least I now know what to name you, Starscream."
xxx
Third opened his optics and saw that he was in a white room. He turned his head to the left and saw another sparkling looking at him.
Third giggled happily, he wasn't going to be alone anymore!
"Third," whispered the sparkling.
"Second!," squealed Third. He rolled on his side and gave Second a big hug.
"No leave again," whimpered Third.
"No. Me promise," swore Second.
Then three Seekers appeared and the sparklings were pulled apart.
Both began to cry. "Hush," Cloudrider murmured softly to Second. "You'll see each other again tomorrow. I promise Thundercracker."
XXX
And she was right. Thundercracker saw Third (Skywarp) everyday; the two were even reunited with Starscream the day after their birth. But at the same time as their birth, an old mech was visiting the hospital…
Jetfire was old, very old, and grumpy too, but if there was one thing he loved it was sparklings. On this particular day Jetfire was on his way to see his new grandson.
When he finally entered he saw his son and his bondmate and next to them was a sleeping youngling.
"Okay I'm here! Now where's my grandson!"
"Please keep your voice down, you'll wake him," whispered Steamfire.
"Who, Son?"
"Your grandson."
Jetfire looked around the room and saw no sparkling. "I don't see him."
"He's right there," said Steamfire pointing at the youngling.
"THAT'S A NEWBORN! PRIMUS, HE'S HUGE!," cried out Jetfire.
The sparkling woke and began to cry. Steamfire sighed and began to soothe the poor thing before he woke up his femme creator, who was exhausted after giving birth to such a big sparkling.
"We know he's big. The doctor says he going to be taller than us."
"What's his name?"
"Skyfire."
Jetfire looked at the sparkling. "Well Skyfire, I'm going to train you to be a strong warrior like me you're old enough. This I swear!"
Good luck with that Jetfire, but I have a feeling that things won't go to plan…
XXX
Skywarp was in Starscream's room with said mech, when he said, "Me want TC!"
"Too bad, TC sleeping," stated Starscream. "He have Binky too," he added bitterly.
Now Binky was special to all Seeklets because he was made by Starfall as a gift for Razorwing and Cloudrider's sparkling. But when Starfall took out the stuffed Cybertronian jet, all three began to fight over it. After several hours of fighting, it was Thundercracker who suggested that they share it, each one getting it for a day.
Today was Skywarp's day with Binky, but Starscream really wanted to play with the toy now.
Skywarp looked annoyed. "It my turn with Binky. Play with Sprinkles." He then handed the pouting Seeklet a stuffed cyber-bear. Starscream looked Skywarp with disbelief; Sprinkles was one of Skywarp's favorite toys. "But Sprinkles yours." he said.
"You keep. Me no mind," he shrugged.
Starscream smiled and hugged Skywarp. "Tank you Warpy." Then both sparklings went back to quietly playing with their toys, at least for a few more minutes.
Skywarp was tired of waiting and stood up and started to bang his head on the wall.
"What you doing?," asked Starscream.
"Me trying to get to TC," answered Skywarp.
"By hitting wall. That stupid," said Starscream.
"Me no care." After an hour of banging his head on the wall, Skywarp stopped. "Last time," he whispered and hit the wall as hard as he could.
But the strange thing was that Skywarp, instead of hitting the wall, landed on a soft surface. He quickly stood up and saw Thundercracker deep in recharge.
"TC!," the Seeklet squealed happily.
Thundercracker's optics instantly onlined, jumped up, and accidentally smacked Skywarp with his hand.
"Owie," whimpered Skywarp.
"Warpy? How you in my room?," asked a bemused Thundercracker.
"Me just poofed," he giggled.
Then seeing the blue Seeklet's expression, he cycled his vents and grabbed Thundercracker's servo. "Me show."
Skywarp closed his optics and concentrated hard, so hard that Thundercracker thought his processor crashed, when suddenly there was a violet light and the two found themselves in Starscream's room.
"Screamer," Skywarp muttered weakly, tuckered out by the jump.
In response, Starscream smacked his head and whined, "No call me that!"
Thundercracker remained silent, staring at the cyber-teddy in Starscream's arms. He grabbed the teddy from Starscream and stated, "Bad. This Warpy's."
"But, but-," Starscream whimpered, lips quivering and optics widening. He then let out the loudest scream he could muster; cracking the walls and shattering glass, this scream was heard all around including a certain apartment complex…
XXX
Jazz was gently pushing his toy car when Prowl put his toy police car in the way.
"What did I do wrong?," asked Jazz.
"Your car lights are off," stated Prowl. "I have to write you a ticket."
"What?! But Prowlie, I'm your best friend," Jazz cried out desperately.
"You're my only friend, Jazz," said Prowl.
"All the more reason to let me go," pleaded Jazz.
"Sorry, but the Law makes no exceptions," Prowl said, ending the argument.
"Fine," Jazz huffed. Prowl handed him what he hoped was a fake ticket and turned on his car's lights when they heard a scream full of anguish and so loud that it knocked the both of them down and gave them processor aches.
"Son of a glitch! What was that?!," cried out Jazz.
"Don't curse," ordered Prowl. "That sounded like a femme; she could be in trouble and it's my duty as an officer of the Law to check it out. Jazz, I'm going to need your help."
"You got it Prowlie," said Jazz excitedly.
The two transformed and headed toward the origin of the scream.
"Stop," Prowl ordered Jazz.
"Why are we stopping? We only went a few feet."
Prowl took out a notepad. "You broke the speed limit."
"Prowlie!"
XXX
Starscream was panting, that scream took so much energy from him, but he was still upset.
"TC, what you do," groaned Skywarp as he came online again.
"He took Sprinkles," muttered TC, his audio sensors still buzzing.
"No, he didn't. Me gave him Sprinkles," explained Skywarp.
"Oh." Thundercracker looked back at Starscream, who was on the verge of tears, and handed him back the teddy. "Me sorry."
Starscream hugged the teddy close and looked back at Thundercracker. Starscream gave him a shove and sat in a faraway corner of the room.
"Glitch," muttered Thundercracker as he got back on his pedes.
"He just angry," said Skywarp, giving him a small smile.
DING-DONG
"Door, Mapa," called out Starscream.
DING-DONG
"Mapa!"
DING-DONG
"You get it?," Skywarp asked Starscream. Starscream nodded in agreement and went to answer the door.
When the door opened, Starscream saw two sparklings, not much bigger than he was, standing in front of him. One looked serious while the other looked jovial.
"I'm Officer Prowl and this is my partner, Volunteer Jazz," introduced the serious sparkling.
"You not police," scoffed Starscream.
"I am," said Prowl, showing him his badge. Starscream's optics widened, it was a real badge.
"We're here to investigate a mysterious scream that originated here," explained Prowl.
"You know what happened?," asked Jazz.
Starscream looked embarrassed. "That was me. Me just got upset because TC took my teddy."
"You did that! Wow, you have a loud vocalizer," said an impressed Jazz.
"If that's all, then my apologies femme," said Prowl, who was secretly glad that nothing was wrong.
"Femme," whispered Starscream darkly. "I…AM…A…MECH!," he screeched, using his pronouns correctly for the first time.
Jazz and Prowl looked horrified as Thundercracker and Skywarp held Starscream back as he cussed at them.
"Calm down," whispered Thundercracker. "Hold it back."
Starscream stopped struggling and cursing and gave the ground-pounders a death glare. He glared so intensely, that something fritz and Starscream lost his sight for just a moment. When he got his sight back, the two were gone. The younger Seeklets let go of Starscream and looked shocked when he turned to them.
"What's wrong?," he asked.
"You have red optics!," yelled out Skywarp.
"No," he whispered in disbelief.
"It true," agreed Thundercracker.
Starscream ran to a mirror and gasped. His once golden optics were now a horrible crimson red. Starscream fell to his knees; this really was turning out to be the worst day ever in the red, white, and blue Seeklet's short life.
"Hey, it okay," Skywarp said soothingly.
Starscream ignored him. Then Skywarp came up with an idea. He started to concentrate really hard.
"Warpy," started Thundercracker.
At that moment, Skywarp's optics offlined and onlined in as crimson, just like Starscream's. Thundercracker realized why he did that and began to concentrate too.
Starscream felt them tug on his wing nubs and he turned to see that they had red optics too.
"See," said Skywarp happily. "We match."
Thundercracker gave Starscream a warm smile as well. "We stick together."
Starscream remained silent for a moment before saying, "Yes, we do. We are a trine."
Both Skywarp and Thundercracker nodded in agreement. This was the true start of the future Command Trine.
A/N: Hope you enjoyed. This will be the last sparkling birth chapter for a little while, but we're still a good few chapters away from the start of the war.
Next chapter: First checkups A.K.A. Round 2
Please R&R! Reviews give me the urge to write!
