CHAPTER 4

One Shall Fall

While the Autobots were interested in knowing which Decepticons were still loose and scattered on Earth, they kept Starscream's punishment, and so they all had to wait with anticipation the next two days before the next interrogation, and thereby, an Energon cube. Despite his hunger, Starscream couldn't help but feel gleeful throughout those few days. He had finally revealed some rather useful info to them, thus making certain that the first thing the Autobots did that morning two days later was to enter the Seeker's cell, with an Energon cube, to get some answers.

He smiled with anticipation when he saw the door open up and a figure entered with the glowing cube. It was Arcee again. The Autobots had discussed the interrogation matter and decided it would be better if all the Autobots participated in the interrogations instead of being only Ratchet. This way, Starscream would not think of any of them as "good cop, bad cop", as they would both give him cubes and deny him cubes depending on his behavior.

This method would also allow Starscream to get used to the Autobots, let them get to know each other better, even if just a little bit. It was Ratchet who suggested it. He had remembered dealing with anti-social Autobots and Neutrals back on Cybertron, who because of past traumas were afraid of being with other mechs. He had never tried with a Decepticon though. As he thought about it, most of the Decepticons seem like the traumatised mechs that he used to treat, among others.

Perhaps there was something like that in Starscream as well. So far though, he hadn't revealed much, if anything of his past. Arcee knew he had had a partner named Jetfire, an Autobot who apparently got executed by Megatron as the Seekers joined his Decepticons. She hadn't met Jetfire back in the war, nor heard of his death, but he had been a famous air support to the Autobots, together with the Aerialbots.

She had to wait with getting that information for later. Right now, she had another question for the Seeker.

"Here's your cube," she said and put it down on the floor. "Now tell me about those loose Decepticons of yours."

"I would, but I am terribly underfueled, and it would be much easier to remember if I got energized right away..." He wiggled his eyebrows in a hinting manner, which annoyed the femme.

"You'll get it after telling me about your 'Con friends."

"Oh, I feel so terribly weak..."

She sighed in irritation. "Fine," she snapped and took the cube, practically pouring its content in the Seeker's face. He had been taken aback by her giving in so quickly, and got soaked rather than refueled by the Energon.

He snarled by her barbaric action. "You don't have to be so rough. And how exactly am I supposed to clean myself with my hands on my back?" He shook his back in demonstration.

"That's for you to figure out," she said coldly. "You got your Energon. Now tell me!"

The Seeker snorted, dissatisfied with her approach. She behaves worse than me, but SHE isn't imprisoned, he thought annoyed. "Alright," he said. "I told you before that there are other Decepticons out there than those onboard the warship, didn't I?"

"You did. And who are they? How many are they? And where are they?"

Starscream's smirk returned. "One question at a time. You know that back on Cybertron, I was an Energon Seeker, right?" As she nodded, he continued. "Well, after getting forced to join the Decepticons, there were a few other strong Seekers who joined along with me. My Trinemates, Thundercracker and Skywarp..." He made a dramatic pause. "...went with us, and are currently somewhere on this Earth right now. As for their locations, I do not know, but they may be hiding among the humans, probably disguising themselves as their flying vehicles."

Arcee took a moment to process this. She had met the two Seekers during the war, but they seemed much different in model and size than their commander. She had heard of Starscream back then, but not met him until the fall of Cybertron, when Optimus had brought a team with him to Earth. It was shortly after losing her partner Tailgate, when she became partners with Cliffjumper. He looked the same as right now. The one she had heard of, however, had been much bigger and more powerful than the one she met. He was also said to be red and blue, not solid gray. She had wondered about it, but due to the war it had not been unusual for particularly wounded bots to get a new body to continue functioning. Perhaps something like that had happened to Starscream too.

"Alright, so we have Thundercracker and Skywarp," she repeated, going back on topic. "Are there any others?"

"Hmm," Starscream said and thought for a moment. "Those Combaticons who wrecked havoc in the last days of Cybertron? They went with us too. I have no idea where they are. Perhaps hiding as well, causing destruction in some minor country, who can say?"

Arcee's spark seemed to beat a bit faster by the notion. She had seen the terror of the Combaticons for herself during the war. The Decepticons Brawl, Swindle, Vortex...a shuttle that she couldn't remember the name of, and their leader Onslaught. It is said they had been modified by the Decepticon scientists to merge into a giant Combiner, a nearly impossible to defeat opponent. It had turned the war in the Decepticons' favor, and the cause of much destruction on the planet. They had each been built specifically for battle, hence the name. Their Combiner form, Bruticus, was a terror no one had seen before.

To think that those mad mechs were on this planet right now was a horrifying thought. Hopefully they were at least apart from one another.

"Okay, the Combaticons," she repeated. "Anyone else?"

"Hmm, let's see...oh, the Stunticons are also on this planet somewhere," he replied with a chuckle. "In fact, they're the ones Breakdown and Knock Out came along with. Motormaster and Dragstrip are probably 'hitting the roads', as they say, somewhere with a lot of humans."

Arcee didn't like the sound of that either. While the Stunticons weren't a Combiner team like the Combaticons, she had heard rumors that if they get at least five members, they would be able to make themselves Combiners like the Combaticons, or the much older Combiner team, the Constructicons. Motormaster was definitely the leader, Dragstrip being his right hand mech. Breakdown was part of the Stunticons but didn't like the attention as much as the others did. He spent most of his time alone, but according to rumors spent a lot of time with Knock Out when he arrived. She had never heard he was part of the Stunticon team though.

"Alright, so Motormaster and Dragstrip. Anyone else?"

"Hmm," the Seeker said and thought for another moment. "Well...maybe...no. They're the ones. My former Trinemates, the Combaticons and the Stunticons. They're the mechs who are currently roaming the Earth. Thundercracker and Skywarp will either be roaming the skies or hiding among the fleshlings. The Combaticons may be destroying things, and the Stunticons will most certainly be racing on the human roads, maybe even run over a few of them."

Arcee glared at him by his last words, but knew he was probably right. The Stunticons, particularly Motormaster were merciless to anyone standing in the road and wouldn't hesitate to ram into them. If they did that to humans, they wouldn't survive it. Even bots would get seriously injured from an impact with them.

"Thank you for the info, Scream," she said and took the empty cube as she left the room, making sure to lock it behind her. Starscream became thoughtful after she left.

It seemed like a reasonable amount of information he gave her, though he wondered if he had said too much? Admittedly, he too had been concerned regarding the renegade Decepticons. Not so much with Thundercracker and Skywarp, but the two other teams. He hadn't been popular with either, particularly not during his short rule of Cybertron when Megatron had seemed terminated by Omega Supreme, the Autobot Guardian. And in his current state, they would love to get their servos on him.

Hopefully they would stay hidden for as long as he existed, and they wouldn't get in a conflict with them.

"Those are dangerous 'Cons," Bulkhead said as Arcee returned and told them what she had been told. "I've got a few dents to proof that."

"And they could be hiding anywhere," Bee said concerned. "They could be destroying stuff right now!"

"Indeed," Optimus said. "We best be more careful from now on. And warn Agent Fowler in case they are discovered."

"Do we tell the kids about this?" Bulkhead asked. They went quiet for a moment.

"Not right away. If they ask, you can tell them. While they do not need to panic or get worried, they have the right to know about the troubles on their planet. We cannot keep them in the dark anymore."

The Autobots nodded in agreement. After the arrival of their dangerous prisoner Starscream, it was no use lying to the kids any longer, even if just omitting telling them the truth.

As Jack and Miko arrived at the base later that day - Raf had to stay at home until his shoulder had fully recovered - the kids asked right away what Starscream had told them by now. The Autobots were surprised over having to tell them already, but did so nonetheless. They were shocked to find out there were more Decepticons on Earth than those they had met or heard of.

"And how is Rafael?" Optimus asked concerned.

"He says he's getting better," Jack replied. "Though the doctor said it will be another four days before he's relieved of the sling."

His shoulder had gained a minor fracture, but still needed about a week's rest and recovery. It was fortunate it had not broken during that long fall from Starscream's cluthes, or worse. He had told the doctor and his mother that he fell on a rock while riding his bike (which he hadn't used in years), and had been driven home by a friend who put his bike in the garage before leaving. He had then explained to his mother that he had wanted to try riding his bike again, and that he had been a bit rusty on it, causing his fall.

"Well, okay," Bee bleeped depressed by the answer.

"He also said that he'd race you as soon as he's recovered, Bee," Miko said to cheer up the sad mech. Her words seemed to lift the yellow bot's spirits, though neither she nor Jack could understand his bleeps. It was Basic Cybertronian, something only Transformers could understand. It was kind of equivalent to a toddler's babbling, except the robots could actually understand what the sounds meant. So far, none of them knew how Raf was able to understand the bleeps.

"So what will you do now? With Starscream, I mean," Jack asked.

"We'll keep asking him for more information," Ratchet answered. "Though we take turns now instead of being just me."

"Why are you still keeping him?" Miko asked worried and upset. "He hurt Raf! He could do the same to us! I don't trust him, I don't like him."

"I don't like it either," Jack said. "And I haven't even met him yet. Getting a Decepticon to switch sides sounds nice, but this guy seems too dangerous. How are you even going to get through this?"

The Autobots took a moment to consider the kids' worries. It did seem like a pointless goal. And it wasn't exactly like they had made any progress with him. And it had almost been a month since they brought him in.

"Every living being deserves a second chance," Optimus finally replied. "And Starscream has shown genuine hatred towards Megatron, which seems promising. He has been through a lot of war, just like all of us. Being the second-in-command of the Decepticons may have both its advantages and disadvantages. He is used to being punished by Megatron in presumably brutal ways. I believe if any of us were in his situation, we may have reacted the same way."

Once again, silence. The other Autobots hadn't thought of it that way. Well, Ratchet had. But not the others. They remembered, after Megatron was brought back to life with Bumblebee's help, how the warlord had gone straight for Starscream, pulling the screaming Seeker by the head into the warship and did terrible things to him.

The next time they saw him, he was badly battered, most likely from Megatron's punishment. He had then injected a Dark Energon crystal into his spark chamber and thought himself invincible, until he got his arm shot off by the Autobots. He had then pulled the shard out again and left the Autobots with the zombified Skyquake.

Back then, they had only been relieved that Megatron had put a stop to Starscream's plans, and were focused on stopping him from raising Skyquake. But now that they thought back on it, they realized this poor mech had been exposed to a lot of abusement, even if it was deserved.

"See it as a challenge," Ratchet said. "If we can change Starscream's mind, then perhaps the other Decepticons have hope as well."

"Absolutely," Optimus agreed, glad to know Ratchet had understood the purpose of keeping Starscream. "It is a hope of a better tomorrow, for all of us."

During the next interrogation, it was Bumblebee's turn to ask the Seeker. The humans had been concerned about exposing Bee to the one who had hurt him and his partner so bad, but the interrogation went surprisingly well.

Knowing Raf would recover before long, Bee wasn't as angry with Starscream as they had thought he'd be. He arrived with a cube, fed it more gently to the Seeker than Arcee had (only a few droplets had spilled on the floor), and asked questions in a held-back tone. The Seeker could sense his anger and hear a bit of it in his bleeping, but the Scout was surprisingly good at keeping his cool, despite his young age.

Starscream had decided with himself that he would only tell very important info at least every second interrogation, so as to keep him valuable for longer, and so he could come up with something useful to say. During the interrogations he couldn't say that in, he would simply give the Autobots the coordinates to an Energon mine, which was always appreciated. He did that as well during Bumblebee's first interrogation. He mostly did it to make sure the Autobots would continue having a steady Energon supply, so things like what happened during the Synthetic Energon incident wouldn't happen again.

The next day, the Autobots had come back to the base with more Energon cubes. It was the same day Rafael was relieved of his sling. Luckily it was a Saturday so he got picked up by Bumblebee in the morning, excusing to his mother as going to the computer club, and stayed in the base with Jack and Miko all day. Everyone was happy to see the little boy again, especially Ratchet and Bee.

"Good to see you're at good health again, Rafael," Ratchet said with a smile. "You are welcome to watch me do my work later if you're interested."

"Thanks, Ratch, I will."

"We really missed you, y'know," Miko said and patted him lightly on the arm. "Now the band's back together!"

"We didn't actually start that band..." Jack said.

"So, how's Starscream?" Raf asked all of a sudden.

"He's doing fine," Ratchet said. "And in case Bumblebee hasn't already told you, he had no memory of what he did to you after ingesting the Synthetic Energon."

"He didn't?" The humans were all surprised by this - they hadn't been told of this. It had simply slipped the bots' minds.

"Strange, right?" Arcee replied, adding to the kids' confusion. "Ratchet knew what he had done after getting pummeled by Megatron. So why didn't Starscream?"

"Maybe he hadn't been affected for very long," Bulkhead suggested. "Ratch was affected for two days, but he had only for about an hour."

"Perhaps," Arcee said. "Though I remember him saying that he used to be an Energon Seeker. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it though."

"He used to take care of Dark Energon, maybe he took care of Synthetic Energon too," Miko went in without thinking.

The bots stared at her. She realized she had not talked about her seeing Starscream between interrogations. She had heard a bit of everything from him. "Uh, I heard those things from you guys," she lied, hoping they bought it.

But they didn't seem to dwell on how the girl knew about this. Instead, they thought about what she said.

"Perhaps, since I've seen him being near and even touching Dark Energon without being affected like the rest of us do," Ratchet replied thoughtful. "Even the Vehicon troopers seem unable to handle it for very long. Perhaps Megatron isn't the only one who has developed a resistance to Dark Energon."

"What does that have to do with Synthetic Energon though?" Bulkhead asked.

"I have heard the Energon Seekers were skilled in handling many kinds of Energon on Cybertron," Optimus said. "And even heard rumors that they can detect Energon on a much wider, clearer range than the rest of us. While the ancients did seal away the formula before our time, it could be possible that those Seekers had a similar formula. I do not know how that would contribute to Starscream having amnesia though, but it could mean that certain kinds of Energon affect him differently than us."

"Miko, stop!" Jack said later, while the Autobots got back to doing their own things. Miko had snuck off into the hallway to get to Starscream's cell. Jack and Raf had followed right behind her. "What are you doing?"

"Doi, I'm gonna see Screamer," she said as if it was the most obvious answer.

"But why?" Raf asked. "You said yourself that you don't like or even trust him. Why do you suddenly want to see him?"

"Because he needs an earful after what he did to you!"

The boys followed her speechlessly. A small human girl giving an 'earful' to one of the most dangerous Decepticons in the universe seemed a bit hazardous.

"What good will that do?" Jack asked. "Won't he just snap back at you?"

"That won't hold me back!"

They arrived at Starscream's cell before long. Raf hadn't actually been at his cell before, and Jack had never even seen him. Only Miko had actual experience with the Seeker, if only a little bit.

She made no hesitation before shouting: "Hey! Starscream!"

The boys froze as she shouted. A few seconds later, a drowsy voice sounded: "Hmm? Who's there?"

"Come on, let's go!" Jack hissed at Miko and tried pulling her away.

"Is it you, Miko?" Starscream said and came over to the door, looking through the top window. He looked down and saw not just Miko, but the two other human boys who he knew were with the Autobots. He realized the tallest of them was new to him. He had heard of the boy, but knew not his name nor his looks. He faintly remembered the small boy named Rafael, however he did not know when he had seen him before. He knelt down to get near eye-level to the children, mostly so he could get a better look at them.

The boys seemed to freeze in place as Starscream faced them. Miko simply stood with her arms crossed, having an angry expression on her face.

"Hello, children," he snickered. "Couldn't keep yourselves from seeing me, could you?" He chuckled merrily.

"Enough of that," Miko snapped. "I'm here to give you an earful for what you did to Raf and Bee."

The boys wanted to just pull her away and run off to the Autobots, but they couldn't move their limbs, only stand and stare at the scene unfolding before them.

"An earful you say? You don't mean you want to punish me, do you?" He laughed hard. "Alright, give me your best shot! I'd love to hear what you have to say to me."

It seemed like a trick question. That malicious smirk on his face, those half-open eyelids, it just seemed like he was ready to throw anything she might say, back at her.

What she said surprised them all.

"How did you feel when Jetfire was killed by Megs?" she asked.

Starscream's smirk fell, and he winced back in astonishment. "How...how do you know about Jetfire?"

"I heard Arcee mention it once. Thought it'd be useful against you. So how did you feel when Megs killed him, huh?"

Starscream snarled at her, really not having expected her to lash something like that at him. He thought about his answer for a while, hesitating.

"You must've felt terrible, right? Or maybe you don't care at all? Wouldn't expect a Decepticreep like you to know-"

"Yes, I felt terrible," the Seeker answered. "It was the worst experience I ever had! What of it?"

She hadn't expected him to answer right away, but continued nonetheless.

"Then you should know how Raf felt when you almost killed Bee. And the other way around."

Starscream snorted at her. "They haven't known each other for very long. Jetfire and I were friends for millions of years before I joined the Decepticons! And just because he had that stupid pride of his, he got himself killed. I didn't even get to see him after he left us. I just got the news from Soundwave that Megatron had terminated him..."

The kids listened intensely to him. He paused and gazed at them, shaking his head before getting emotional.

"Jetfire was an idiot. I don't care that he's gone. In fact, I'm glad he's gone. Spares me of all his annoying speeches to me, attempts at impressing me with his aerial skills... I hated all that. And it has nothing to do with the weird relationships you kids have with the Autobots. I find it disgusting. Organics and Cybertronians, living together in peace. Yuck."

The kids were highly offended of this.

"Fine, if you wanna be that way, we'll leave!" Miko said and turned around. "Come on, guys, we don't need him!"

"We never said we did..." Raf said.

Starscream felt relieved when they left. He speculated if he had been too mean to them, but cast that thought aside as quickly as it had appeared. He didn't care one bit about the humans, not at all.

"Those miserable brats," he snarled to himself as he struggled to get up on his peds. "They'll regret insulting me."

Miko practically ran out of the hallway, wanting to get as far away from Starscream as quickly as possible. The two boys struggled to keep up with her and get her to calm down before entering the command center. She managed to reduce it to stomping as they entered. Only Bulkhead noticed them coming in and approached them.

"Hey, what's the matter, Miko?" he asked, seeing how upset she was. "Why are you so angry?"

"I'm not angry," she barely said with clenched teeth, her words not very convincing.

He turned to the boys instead. "Why is she so angry?"

Miko was afraid for a moment that they would tell on her, but they kept quiet and instead shrugged, pretending not to know. However, her relief was short-lived, as Bulkhead figured it out by himself.

"You didn't just speak to Starscream, did you?" As Miko didn't answer, he took it as a yes. His face turned bitter, looking in direction of the hallway. "What did he say to you?"

"Nothing," she said. "It's fine, Bulk, don't worry about it."

But Bulkhead didn't believe her. Without hesitation, he went straight for the hallway. The kids' hearts beat faster as they went after him. "Don't follow," he said without looking at them. "You don't need to see this."

The kids stopped following him and instead got worried about what he meant.

"You don't think he's gonna..." Jack started.

"He wouldn't," Miko said in disbelief.

"We gotta tell Optimus," Raf said.

Starscream was starting to calm down from his fuming over the kids' indirect interrogation of him, when suddenly the door was roughly opened without giving him a heads-up. He had been standing with his back turned to the door and was surprised to be interrogated again so soon.

"What, already?" he said puzzled. "But the interrogation's first tomorrow..."

He saw that the mech entering was Bulkhead, he had no Energon cube on him, and his facial expression was as steamed as his own was a few cycles ago. Something didn't feel right.

The Wrecker ignored the Seeker's initial question and instead gave his own. "What did you say to the children?" he snarled.

The Seeker was taken aback by the accusation. Did the kids go tell on him? The thought made him even angrier than before.

"For your information, they started it," he snapped.

"What. Did you. Tell them?" he repeated with a growl, clenching his fists as if preparing to punch him.

Not certain if the Autobot would actually attack him, he dared defy him.

"I told them how disgusting it is for Cybertronians to be chummy with filthy organics like them. And I won't take it back."

Bulkhead didn't ask him to take it back. Instead, his fist turned into a wrecking ball, making the Seeker flinch. Was he really going to attack him? He started to get worried.

"Hey, now," he said with a nervous laughter, as Bulkhead started to slowly approach him, the light from outside making his front black in a creepy way. "No need for violence. I'm sure we can talk about this..."

"You just said you wouldn't take it back," the Wrecker replied coldly as he got closer. "To me it means we can't talk about it. The others may think you can be turned good with pretty words, but I don't. You're not the sort of type who'll listen to words. I know what Megatron does to you." He stood a mere meter from the Seeker and lifted his servo. "Apparently it's the only thing that works."

Starscream let out a scream. "No! Don't! HELP!"

"Bulkhead!" a thundering voice sounded from behind them.

Bulkhead lowered his servo - having turned back into a hand - and stared at Optimus in shame, seeing Prime's unusually gloomy expression. He had never seen him angry like this before. Unlike Bulkhead, however, Prime kept his head cool.

"Optimus, I..." the Wrecker stuttered.

"Step away from our prisoner, Bulkhead," Prime said, this time more level-headed but still with traces of anger in his tone. "We do not resort to violence unless absolute necessary. How many times do I have to tell you?"

Bulkhead lowered his head in shame and stepped aside. Starscream smirked gleefully. Prime glared at him and his smirk fell.

"But, Optimus," Bulkhead tried and pointed at the Seeker, "you don't know what happened. This piece of scrap talked trash about the kids!"

Optimus contemplated for a moment. "It still does not excuse you to physically punish him. We are Autobots, civil mechs, we sort out things by talking, not by fighting."

Starscream sent Bulkhead a hateful smirk, but it fell as Prime turned his attention to him.

"As for you, Starscream. You may berate us as much as you like, but if you harass our human companions, it will be seen as misbehaving. I will not tolerate you bullying the kids. You will go without a cube tomorrow."

Starscream gave a shriek of frustration. "But, Prime! It was they who started it! They...they asked highly personal things of me! You bots can interrogate me all you like, but I won't tolerate being interrogated by miserable humans!"

Bulkhead clenched his fists again. "Optimus, please, let me at him!"

"No," Prime replied. "Starscream, none of us are comfortable about this situation, neither you nor us. But we all have to try our best to get along, because you are staying with us. Autobots have different rules than Decepticons. The first rule is that we help each other out, no matter how much we may resent one another. You will eventually become part of that too."

Both Starscream and Bulkhead stared at him in disbelief. Bulkhead in particular was very much against Starscream staying with them. He wanted him either out of the house or out for good. And Starscream was not comfortable by having to convert to the Autobot way, mostly because it was so different from the Decepticon way. Although so far, it seemed almost as cruel as with his former comrades.

Starscream simply snarled at him. "Just leave me alone. Get out."

Bulkhead was about to counter back, but Optimus laid a servo on his shoulder. "We will. Think about what I said, for now. We will see you again tomorrow."

As the bots left, Starscream almost felt like crying of frustration. What did these Autobots want from him? What did he have to do to become one of them? He didn't believe any one of them had gone through the same thing to join the Autobots, so why did he have to?

Because they feared him. They said he was dangerous. A monster. It finally sank in. They thought nothing more of him than Megatron did. At least, Bulkhead didn't. The others were trying, but he knew they really didn't care about him.

The only one who had truly cared about him was long gone with the war.

"Jetfire..."

The next day, the interrogation was going to be run by Bulkhead. At first, Optimus was going to give it to Ratchet, but Bulkhead insisted that he wouldn't draw yesterday's events in this meeting. Prime decided to trust the Wrecker with the task of interrogating their prisoner. Though he told the humans he wouldn't blame them if they followed him, hinting that they should keep an eye on Bulkhead during the interrogation, just in case.

The kids took the hint and followed behind Bulkhead, waiting until he had opened and closed the door behind him, before going over to the lower window to look inside. They had never actually seen the interrogations between Starscream and the Autobots yet, so they watched with anticipation.

Inside the cell, Starscream was not happy to see who his interrogator was.

"You?" he snarled, recalling yesterday's event. "I wish Ratchet would interrogate me again."

"Hey, I wanna give this a try, don't ruin the mood now," the Wrecker said with a hint of a joke. But neither of them found it really funny, not even the humans outside.

"Fine, let's get this over with," he snarled, also remembering he wouldn't get a cube this time. He seemed to have a habit of not getting a cube, like, every third interrogation. Perhaps he should try better at behaving, so he could get more cubes, but right now he was just steamed.

He sat down on the floor, and so did Bulkhead. They were now at eye-level, glaring into each other's optics with hatred.

"Now, is there anything you wanna tell me, Scream?" Bulkhead said in a less than obvious annoyed tone.

"I'd wish you all would stop calling me that already," he replied. "So what if I have an excellent vocalizer? I may as well call you Fatty."

Bulkhead snorted by the insult but tried to stay cool. "I'll mention that for the others. But why don't you rather tell me something about the 'Cons?"

"Well, let's see," Starscream said with fake thoughtfulness. "Megatron's a jerk, Knock Out's an idiot, Breakdown's a brute, Airachnid's a wretch and Soundwave...well, he's a teacher's pet, and all the Vehicons are morons. That enough for you?"

"You forgot about yourself," Bulkhead said sassily. "You're a lunatic, right?"

The Seeker snarled at the insult. "A lunatic who'd shred you to pieces if only his servos weren't stuck to his back!"

"Exactly why we made them that way. Okay, how about you tell me what Megatron is doing recently?"

"Trying to find more Dark Energon, contemplating your destruction, planning to conquer Earth and Cybertron, such things."

"We already know that," Bulkhead said, starting to get tired of this little game. "Now tell me something we don't know."

"Did you know," he replied with a smirk, "that my favorite color is red?"

"Not that kind of don't know!"

"You didn't specify."

Starscream thought that if he weren't going to get an Energon cube, he could at least have some fun with it. He soon regretted it as Bulkhead turned his servo into a wrecking ball, as if threatening to attack him again. He looked concerned at the servo.

"Now talk."

The kids were worried too. "Should we tell Optimus?" Raf asked.

"Not yet, let's see what happens," Miko replied.

Starscream snorted at him. "It must be so good to have such a big, sturdy body like you do, isn't it? This way you can make anyone do anything you want, just as long as they don't get killed by your primitivity. Do you feel big and mighty, threatening helpless little beings like myself?"

"'Helpless little being' my aft," Bulkhead replied stiffly and slammed the wrecking ball in the floor, startling the Seeker. "Just tell me what Megs is doing!"

This prompted a small outburst from Starscream, who crouched together, wings lowered in fear. "Please don't hurt me. I'll tell you, just please don't kill me. Just spare my life, please, please, please..."

The Wrecker blinked, not having expected this reaction. He threw it aside and continued: "Alright, talk."

The kids had almost had a heart attack when Bulkhead slammed his wrecking ball hand into the floor, making a loud banging noise. Afterwards, they saw Starscream begging for his life, not really surprised to see that reaction, having been startled themselves. Nonetheless, it was strange to see this dangerous mech behaving so...submissively. And those downcast wings kind of looked like the ears on a scared animal. It looked kind of...cute. Weird.

"You remember the Space Bridge we built some time ago? Well, we've begun building a new one just before I got betrayed by Airachnid."

Bulkhead stirred uneasily. "Another Space Bridge?"

"Of course. You think Megatron will just give up on Cybertron? He won't give up until we've emptied the Earth's deposits of Energon and restored Cybertron somehow! I'm telling the truth!"

"You keep saying 'we'," Bulkhead noted. "You saying you still side with the 'Cons?"

Starscream went silent. He hadn't noticed he had said 'we' instead of Decepticons. "So what if I do? It's not like you Autobots are making me feel welcome! In fact, I might rather face the wrath of Megatron than get abused by you."

"Well then, why don't you run off to your master then?" Bulkhead raged and stood up in a threatening way. "See if I care about you!"

He roughly opened the door, prompting the humans to run off in direction of the command center, before the Wrecker stormed out and slammed the door shut behind him.

Starscream contemplated his situation. "Maybe I should return to the Decepeticons after all."

As Bulkhead entered the command center, Optimus had finished reading a passage from the Covenant of Primus. Apparently, an age-old profecy was about to take place here on Earth. Bulkhead explained what he had heard from Starscream, about the Space Bridge, and they kept it in mind.

It became important later, as after Rafael had replaced a picture of Bumblebee with a funny talking cat, Agent Fowler called and showed them a picture of Soundwave in a military facility, taken by the police. He also gave them a list of items stolen by the Decepticons recently.

"They only need one more thing if they are building what I think they're building," Ratchet said.

"A Space Bridge," Optimus replied. "Just as Starscream said."

Then Optimus asked Agent Fowler to evacuate all the humans in the currently attacked facility, where they were taking the last piece. He wouldn't tolerate even a single human casualty. Afterwards, Optimus, Arcee and Bulkhead went through the GroundBridge portal to fight the Decepticons. Bumblebee had gone out with Raf on the road to race together, like they promised while he was MIA. Which left Ratchet behind with Miko, Jack and Starscream.

But Starscream ended up getting ignored throughout that day as well as the next couple of days. The only thing warning him of what was going to happen was a strange dream he had that day when falling into recharge.

He dreamt that Megatron and Optimus faced off against each other. Nothing new. Megatron started glowing purple. A little spooky, but probably due to the Dark Energon. Then, suddenly, he saw Megatron pinning Optimus down while a volcano erupted behind him - not with regular red lava, but with purple. Almost as if Dark Energon was pouring from the Earth.

Starscream woke up with a start. Dark Energon, erupting from the Earth? Real Dark Energon, the purple kind, not the lavender kind that could be manufactured on Cybertron, was said to be the 'Blood of Unicron'. But if that was the case, then...

He got up, went to the door and started banging on it with his head, making him slightly dizzy. The Autobots needed to know about this. Heck, even Megatron needed to know about this!

"Hello?! Autobots!" he shouted, hoping they had installed a camera in them like they did in his last cell. "You have to listen to me! Do not let Prime fight against Megatron! We have to evacuate this planet! Right now! I think Earth is actually the legendary god of destruction, Unicron!"