Undercover
Cleargold
Chapter 4: Return to Cybertron
A/N: I've used "girls" to represent Cybertronian prostitutes, rather in the sense of "call girls", or of being familiar towards a group of females, as opposed to the more respectable-sounding "femmes".
For anyone who's not read Megatron: Origin, Clench organised illegal gladiatorial meetings in Kaon and Megatron sought employment with him.
[ ] denotes communication via an internal digital channel.
To all of you who've reviewed, faved or set up alerts on it, thanks for doing so.
Rating: M
Warning: Contains some violence, language, and adult themes.
Genre: Hurt/comfort/Romance with some mech/femme activity.
Disclaimer: I do not own TF, Hasbro and Takara do. I'm just a housewife writing for entertainment purposes, so suing me would hardly be worthwhile. However, I do own some OCs that appear later on.
Acknowledgements: A big "Thanks" to Mirage Shinkiro for betaing for me, and Angelina Ballerina for listening as I read this chapter aloud.
The familiar metal tower rose from the waves, water streaming off it to rejoin the ocean. The entrance dropped down; Starscream transformed as he landed and stepped inside. He marched down the familiar corridor towards Megatron's control room. He was relieved to be back at the base, but as usual his emotions regarding Megatron were mixed. Over the previous few solar cycles he'd had a lot of time to think, but still hadn't decided if he'd forgiven the Decepticon leader. If Megatron hadn't accidentally damaged him and then abandoned him, he wouldn't have met Chromia again or be in his current situation.
He'd also had the chance to observe Optimus Prime and the other Autobots, and had come to the conclusion, not for the first time, that Optimus's leadership style was diametrically opposed to Megatron's. Where Megatron got obedience and allegiance because his Decepticons feared him, the way Optimus treated his Autobots inspired love and respect for him in them. Starscream was conscious of envying them for the way their leader behaved towards them, reminded that it emphasised his discomfort under Megatron's leadership.
In the control room, Megatron was seated before a console and barely looked up at him as he entered. Starscream's resentment flared again. "Megatron, by firing your fusion cannon so close by that it damaged me, and then abandoning me, you put me in the humiliating situation of having to ask the Autobots for help!" he complained.
Megatron burst out laughing. "But I'm sure you made excellent use of your sick leave in the name of the Decepticon cause, which makes it all worthwhile!"
Outrage left Starscream gaping and temporarily speechless. Finally he managed, "So...it was all a set-up?"
"Laserbeak reported some strange events after the last time the Autobots made use of our space bridge," Megatron replied, "and I wanted more information. That seemed the best way to get you into Autobot HQ, and it certainly worked."
Starscream closed his mouth. He might as well go with the flow and see where it took him. But Megatron's next words took him aback again.
"I've just had Optimus Prime call to let me know you were on your way back and request use of the space bridge in return. Why do you suppose he'd ask that?"
Starscream shook his head. "No idea. I figured he wanted something in exchange for repairing me, but I didn't realise it was that. Though actually..."
"What?"
"Well, I couldn't move about a lot for most of the time because of the damage I received, but the Autobots have some – unusual – reinforcements: four femmes, but they seem to be working on creating some more. They must be as sex-starved as we are, after all these vorns, so perhaps they've decided to do something about it –" He broke off, then added, "What did you tell Prime?"
"Nothing, so far. I thought I'd leave him to stew about it for a few orns."
Starscream considered this, then nodded. "Good plan. Megatron, I had a lot of time to think while I was at the Ark, and I've been wondering about something. Do you remember when Thundercracker, Skywarp and I first met you? You used to bring femmes in from local – er – establishments for your champions after the gladiatorial fights, and later on, our missions, and then it all suddenly stopped. Why was that?"
Megatron put back his head and regarded Starscream before answering. "It was really Clench who started that," he said, "though I'm not sure how long he'd been doing so before I went to him. I continued it for a while when I took control of the team, but then – well, things moved on a bit, and it didn't seem appropriate any more..."
"Are you sure that's the only reason?" Starscream brought the image of a femme to mind, one he'd seen Megatron with several times. "I seem to remember I only ever saw you with one of the femmes – but every time they came to our base she went off with you. Was she your girlfriend?" It was a measure of his early awe of Megatron that he'd never dared ask such a question at the time.
"You mean...Dreamtime?"
"I don't know what her name was, but I remember you had a fight with someone over her."
"I remember that." Megatron smiled a ferocious smile to himself. "I was obliged to re-assert my authority. Yes, Dreamtime was my girlfriend for a while, even though she worked in the brothel." Megatron rubbed a hand across his face, and the brooding expression Starscream remembered from that era settled on his features. "Not long after you three Seekers came to me, when I tried to make a booking the pimp sent a message that we'd have to go to the brothel instead of the girls coming to us. Obviously that was going to be impractical in the circumstances, especially since the security forces were looking for us by then, so I went to find out why things had suddenly changed.
"But the pimp wouldn't come out – he sent someone else to speak to me, probably his accountant, since he went by the name of Tallysheet. His attitude incensed me so I beat the slag out of him there and then. Then one of the girls came outside to find out what had happened to the fragger." Megatron's brow-ridges impacted together. "So I told her I'd decided not to get them in any more as it was impractical with the war starting." His features settled back into their usual mocking expression.
But Starscream had the feeling Megatron wasn't telling him everything. One question clamoured in his mind: Why go to the brothel himself, and not send Soundwave or me, or one of the others? Especially since the security forces were particularly looking for him. There must be some other reason why he went, and he had a feeling it had to do with this Dreamtime. But even if Megatron had some emotional attachment for her, he'd never tell me. He wouldn't trust me enough not to find a way to use it against him. Starscream realised he was unlikely to ever get to know the real reason.
It certainly wouldn't be wise to ask. It might prompt questions on Megatron's part that Starscream couldn't answer without incriminating himself. He didn't even want to imagine what Megatron would do to him if he thought he'd got emotionally involved with an Autobot female. So to throw him off the scent, he changed the subject. "But Megatron, why can't we bring some femmes to Earth as well?"
"Too dangerous for them," Megatron retorted.
"Optimus Prime obviously doesn't think so, and if the Autobots can, so can we, surely? Especially if he's building some more."
"No, it makes me wonder what his motives are for that...How far have they actually got?"
"They haven't completed them - I saw some of the frames," Starscream volunteered. "I think they're planning on creating about twenty new femmes."
"Hmm...I'd be interested to know what made Prime think it was OK to bring those four femmes to Earth."
"They probably provided some data for building the new femmes. They call it Project Aurora." He wondered what Megatron had in store for his next mission; hopefully nothing where he'd either have to see or fight Chromia, at least until he'd been able to put the whole experience behind him. "Also, some of the Autobots wanted to see their girlfriends, I gather." Starscream remembered Chromia's expression as she'd told him that, and had to clamp down on the memory to exile it to the back of his data bank.
"And presumably the others who don't have girlfriends wanted some?"
Starscream shrugged. "I suppose so, not being on intimate enough terms to ask any of them."
Megatron leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands behind his head, and met Starscream's gaze. "Well, Starscream, to borrow a phrase from the flesh creatures, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander." A slight smile curved his lips. "And we might have more to gain from it than the Autobots, at least in terms of public relations."
Starscream could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Meg – Megatron, are you saying we should bring some femmes here?"
"No, Starscream. I'm saying you should go to Cybertron and find some."
Eerily, Starscream wondered if Megatron had read his mind just astroseconds before. He allowed a slow grin to twist his mouth. Just the job for me right now!
"Take Thundercracker and Skywarp with you, and if you find lots of them, you can use the space bridge," Megatron added.
"That's probably wishful thinking, isn't it?"
*
Starscream stepped out of the space bridge, followed by Skywarp and Thundercracker. Shockwave stood before them, blaster arm raised.
"Ah, Shockwave! Did Megatron not warn you that we were coming?" Starscream asked, his tone sly.
"No," Shockwave said, "and as you haven't brought any energon with you, I consider it a waste of this resource!"
"Well, if we're successful there'll be a consignment going the other way," Starscream said.
"Successful in what mission?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Starscream half-turned to his fellow Seekers. "C'mon, you two!"
The three of them transformed and flew through the ceiling. Starscream glanced back. Shockwave was staring after them in outrage and brushing swarf and debris off his shoulders. Starscream let out a whoop as he spun away from the building. "That's shocked Shockwave!" he chuckled. The others laughed their exultation as they followed him. "Onward!"
Dusk was falling as the three Seekers swooped above the city of Kaon. The few remaining undamaged neon signs flickered and buzzed into life, advertising their wares, although the war had led to the demise of Cybertronian commerce millions of stellar cycles before.
Starscream plunged down to land on the span of a bridge over layers of buildings and roads, many pitted with missile fire or with sections missing, and waved the others to set down beside him. He stared down into the void before him. Just ten levels down a row of still-functional signs told of a small commercial area.
"That might be a good place to start looking," he said, pointing.
"What are we going to do if we find any girls?" Skywarp asked. "We ought to have a plan."
"I have one," Starscream said. "But we'll worry about putting it into action when we find some femmes." He'd been scanning the signs as he spoke, and pointed again. "There. Look!" The sign showed, quite unmistakably, a female Transformer in a suggestive pose. "Let's go!"
They launched themselves downwards and landed on a street which looked almost undamaged. Starscream marched up to the door below the sign. It opened easily – too easily. Starscream grabbed the door to stop himself from falling into the panorama of serpentine metal streets that stretched and intertwined below him.
Thundercracker caught his other arm and yanked him backwards by reflex. "Let's try somewhere else."
"Lower," suggested Skywarp. "There's another lot of signs down there." He pointed into the chasm.
Starscream nodded, and leapt into the void, transforming as he went, the other Seekers following. At least we know what to expect now, he thought, and appearances are obviously misleading here! He swooped down towards the next row of signs and remembered how deep the levels went.
Landing, they strolled along the road, scanning the signs.
"Nothing here," Starscream said with a shake of his head. "Where's the next level?"
"Down there," Skywarp pointed. "Well, you didn't think it was going to be easy, did you?"
Starscream didn't answer. He was already back in the air and heading for the next apparently undamaged commercial area.
"Starscream!"
He turned. "What?"
"What if we're looking in the wrong place?" Thundercracker drew level with him.
"What d'you mean? We've only just started looking. We check these out first, and then move to other areas."
Thundercracker shrugged. "Okay."
"Well, what were you going to suggest?"
"I just thought we're pretty unlikely to find any femmes in any obvious places. They've probably all been destroyed already, especially on the upper levels."
"You're probably right. So what were you going to suggest?"
"Go straight to the lowest levels and ask someone?"
"You could try it, but d'you really think the locals are going to let on where their squeezes hang out? After all, we probably count as foreigners now!" But Starscream considered the idea further. "Tell you what, I'll carry on checking out these commercial areas, you and Skywarp try out your idea, and we'll keep in contact."
"Skywarp?"
"Okay." The other two Seekers dived off into the distance.
Starscream turned his attention back to the rapidly-approaching row of signs. But none of them showed the kind of image he was seeking. He spiralled down further into the void. I'll probably end up down with the others, he thought, but here goes! He flew past the parade, spotted a likely sign and landed on the ledge left by a past episode of destruction. The sign buzzed on and off above him. He swung the door open.
The building was intact, but dark. He tried knocking on the door to see if he could attract anyone's attention.
The silence attenuated inside the building. "Anyone here?" he called.
There was no reply. He turned and left.
*
Two solar cycles later, they were still looking. Starscream had worked his way down to the lower levels and rejoined his fellow Seekers, checking every likely sign on the way, plus a few others. When they'd met up again, they'd begun to scan for life forms at each level, since the city seemed abnormally quiet.
"Perhaps there really are no more femmes on Cybertron now," Thundercracker suggested.
"I suppose it's possible," Starscream conceded, "though hopefully not likely."
"It wouldn't be fair if the only femmes on the planet were Autobots, now, would it?" Thundercracker mused. "Although it's totally deserted, not just lacking in femmes!"
"Actually," Starscream said thoughtfully, "you're right, and I'm beginning to wonder why. Before we followed the Autobots into space Kaon still had a thriving black market economy, right here under the shadow of our fortress. It isn't just because of the war – it's almost as if something's happened here that's made the inhabitants of Kaon terrified to go out in the open."
"Why are we looking for femmes and not fighting, though?" asked Skywarp.
"Don't you want a girlfriend?" Starscream asked.
"Hmm. I suppose so. Why, do you?"
"Yes, of course!" he said, suppressing the image of Chromia that tried to appear on his heads-up display. I've no intention of letting knowledge of my feelings for Chromia get back to Megatron, he thought. He knew he couldn't even trust his trine with information like that. "Now, let's move on."
They were already on the lowest level, but this part of the city appeared deserted, and it was also fairly dark; light couldn't penetrate much so far down.
"If there are any girls here, they'll most likely be where there are plenty of potential customers," Thundercracker said.
"You're on form today, TC! That's the second sensible thing you've said in the last breem." Starscream wondered why he hadn't thought of it himself. "I'll scan for life forms."
The scan told him there were some Transformers just south of their present position. "Let's head south," he said.
Although the scan had shown life forms, there were still no Transformers visible. So when Starscream finally spotted a Cybertronian vehicle he stepped into the street to stop it.
The vehicle screeched to a halt just inches from Starscream. "Are you crazy or what?"
"I'm looking for a femme," Starscream said. "Where can I find one?"
"You and the rest of Cybertron," the vehicle muttered.
"Come on, there must be some left alive!"
"I know you!" the vehicle said. "You're Starscream of the Decepticons." Part-transforming, he peered at him. "Though I haven't seen you in vorns, and your design is strange –"
Starscream knew he had to push the advantage home, especially since the vehicle bore a strange marking, neither Decepticon nor Autobot. He raised his arm and prepared to fire his null ray.
"No need to shoot," the vehicle said, transforming an arm and extending it as if to ward off Starscream's fire. "I'll tell you where to try, though I don't know if they're still there."
Starscream did not lower his arm. "I'm waiting," he said.
"Okay. Try that building over there." He pointed down the street at a deserted-looking apartment block, unadorned with any sign.
"Are you sure?" Starscream asked.
"Yes."
"Don't they advertise?"
"They don't need to – anyone who wants to find them knows where to look."
"Thundercracker, investigate," Starscream ordered. He kept his arm raised. "If you don't find any girls, tell me and I'll shoot him."
Thundercracker crossed the road, went to the building and entered warily. A few moments later he emerged and gave a thumbs-up signal.
"All right, you can go about your business," Starscream said, reluctant to engage the vehicle in battle for once. That wasn't his purpose at present. Why the strange marking? But there was no time for speculation. He and Skywarp walked over to the building.
"They're here," Thundercracker said. "Three of them." He grinned. "One for each of us, I guess."
They entered the building. Inside, at the back of the small room, the three female Transformers stood waiting in a circle of dim light cast by lamps. Behind them a passage led to a further suite of rooms, judging by the doors Starscream glimpsed, and he could just make out a staircase which led to an upper floor.
"What'll it be, boys?" one of them said.
Starscream studied them. The one who had spoken was slightly-built, with wide-set optics and a pale lilac smile to match her bodywork. Her companions were a pale orange and a bluish-green. All were pretty, and all bore the strange symbol on their chassis. "I'm Starscream." He indicated the others and gave their designations.
"You're Decepticons, aren't you?" the lilac femme said. "I'm Shadowkiss. This is Hotstuff." She indicated her turquoise friend. "And Tendertouch." The pale orange one.
"We aren't your usual clients," he said. "We've come to take you with us to Earth."
Shadowkiss put her hands out in front of her. "Oh, you can't take us away from here," she said.
"Why not?" Starscream asked.
All expression left her face. She looked over her shoulder at the entrance to the rooms behind her, and then around the room, before adding in a whisper, "We look after a sick friend."
"What's wrong with your friend?" Thundercracker asked, his voice quiet. "Perhaps we could heal her if she came with us as well."
"She lost a leg at the beginning of the war and can't work."
"That's a long time to go without getting fixed," Starscream commented. "But it would be easy enough to repair your friend if you came with us."
"To serve as prostitutes for the Decepticons on – some other planet?" Hotstuff countered, looking around the room and at the stairs behind her before speaking. "We wouldn't want to do that."
"How would that be any different from what you do here?" Starscream demanded. "Look, girls, Earth is a completely different place from Cybertron, and I can promise you that your presence there would really be appreciated."
The three femmes laughed. "But we're really appreciated here," Shadowkiss said.
"We'd only be interested in going if we could better ourselves," Tendertouch added. "We just want to be like ordinary femmes."
How am I going to persuade them? Starscream wondered. He hadn't anticipated that they would want to stay on Cybertron, and didn't want to make rash promises that Megatron would then refuse to honour, but nor did he know of any major selling points that would make Earth seem a more attractive proposition than Cybertron.
"Girls, what is it?"
The voice was deep and masculine, and the footsteps that sounded from the staircase were heavy and deliberate.
The lilac female's face closed. "Nothing, Stomp. We're just talking to some customers."
The footsteps got closer. Starscream saw the femmes' faces become expressionless again. They're scared of him, he realised. That's my selling point. He raised his voice. "You must come with me, all of you!" he said.
The owner of the footsteps appeared in the dim doorway behind the females. "You're not taking any of my girls anywhere!"
"Oh no?"
"No." Stomp stepped into the lighted circle. He was almost as tall as Starscream, but much broader and heavier, and the caterpillar tracks of a treaded vehicle rose above his shoulders. Starscream was reminded of Megatron's Cybertronian alt mode.
On his chest he bore the same marking as the vehicle Starscream had stopped in the street: a circle with the silhouette of a fist enclosed in it.
Starscream had surveyed the room and could see that there was little space for fighting. But there were three of them and only one of Stomp, and besides, they were used to fighting, while the pimp might not be. He opened a channel for digital communication with the femmes. [Stomp can't pick up this communication,] he told them. [Go and get your friend. Be ready to go, but keep out of the way.] And he raised his null ray and fired.
Stomp dodged the volley with surprising ease. "This brings back memories of the arena!" he grunted. His hand disappeared inside the armour plating at his wrist and was replaced by a gun. "Don't take on what you can't beat, stranger!"
"I shouldn't be a stranger to you," Starscream muttered, ducking to escape the shot. "I'm Starscream of the Decepticons, and I want to know about this strange marking the locals wear!"
"That's easy – they belong to me!"
"Kaon was the Decepticons' stronghold," Starscream retorted. "And Megatron won't take kindly to having to retake the city." He feinted and grabbed Stomp's wrist, then slammed the front edge of his shoulder against the pimp. He felt something give in Stomp's chest, and hoped it was important. But there was no time to follow up the thought. Stomp shoved his gun wrist against Starscream's cockpit, trying to smash the glass.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Starscream yanked on the wrist and shoved the arm up in the air. "That's only just been fixed." He thrust his leg between Stomp's and round behind his ankle, and pushed. Stomp crashed to the floor.
"Well, don't just stand there watching!" Starscream said to his trine. He knelt on Stomp's chest and thumped him on the jaw, hard enough to put him temporarily offline. "Thundercracker – get those girls. Skywarp, find some means of securing him." He sat on Stomp's chest to stop him from moving if he came back online.
Thundercracker reappeared with the femmes just as Skywarp returned with an inhibitor claw and an archaic-looking wrist restraint. "I found this in one of the private rooms," he said. "There were some other weird things there, too – electric lashes and the like. Looks like Stomp caters to some strange tastes!"
"I remember these things," Starscream said. "Let's get them on him quickly – looks like he might be coming back online."
By the time they'd put the restraints on Stomp he was almost fully conscious again.
"We could kill him now," Skywarp suggested.
"No. We'll just leave him here as a message to his followers, otherwise someone else will just step in to fill the vacuum." Starscream stared down at him for a moment. "The local crime lord," he murmured. "I'll let Megatron know about you!" He fired his null ray at Stomp to put him offline again, then turned to the waiting femmes and Thundercracker. The injured femme was partly supported by one of the others, partly by a makeshift crutch. Almost all of her left leg had gone. It ended in a jagged stump which sizzled and crackled at the exposed electrical fittings. "What's your designation?" he asked her.
"Dreamtime."
"Come on, then, ladies – we're going to Earth!"
*
Dreamtime stared at the prone form of the big mech who'd been her friends' pimp, then looked hard at the three Seeker mechs. They all looked familiar, but she couldn't place them until she noticed the Decepticon symbol they all bore. Then she remembered. The silver and red flier seemed to be their leader. She turned to him.
"Megatron. You mentioned Megatron," she said to him. "Is he still –"
"Functioning?" Starscream's upper lip quirked into a lopsided grin which held amusement and mockery.
"Yes. Is he?"
"Yes. But we've been on Earth for the last 4 million years, deactivated in a crash-landing until...recently. And even more recently we decided we needed a little female company – some home comforts, you might say."
"You talked about – Earth – before, is it –"
"Organic-based life, different solar system, not too far away, though. Let's go!"
"Er – Starscream, aren't you forgetting something?"
"What?"
The mech with the blue paint job gestured towards Dreamtime. "She can't walk, or transform, and we don't have enough space to carry any of them in comfort in these forms – never mind all of them!"
Starscream nodded and waved a hand at the third Seeker. "Which is why Skywarp's going to teleport us back to the space bridge."
"Hang on, Starscream! I'm not so sure I can teleport everyone at once."
"Shall we try?"
It seemed Starscream was in no mood for opposition.
Skywarp shrugged. "Best if we make a circle, then, and hold hands. But we might need to do a couple of jumps."
Dreamtime found her hand being taken into a larger masculine one. "No, hold my wrist," she said, and gripped the crutch when Skywarp released her hand. Her other arm tightened around Shadowkiss's waist for support. She wasn't sure what to expect, and even with the crutch her balance was poor.
"Hold tight, everyone!" Skywarp called, and in an instant the familiar surroundings of the brothel winked out of existence.