Chapter 7

"Eight solar cycles," Starscream growled. The minicons clicked and beeped nervously. "And you only found me when I lent a servo with my signal… I really should crush you all into scrap." Something broke him off mid-rant however. He raised his head and silenced the minicon's protests with a curt gesture. A fellow Cybertronian was approaching…


Down in the village, Tony and Christine Yorke slept soundly in bed. A noise woke Christine with a start- a boom which made the furniture shake slightly. She reached over and shook her husband awake.

"Tony", she whispered. Then louder: "Tony!"

"Hmmm?" Tony rolled over and sleepily rubbed his eyes.

"Go see what that noise was, love."

Reluctantly, Tony made as if to get out bed. Just then there was a thud. Then another, and another. The beaded light shade tinkled in time to the noise, as something massive moved past their upstairs window, blocking the light from the streetlamp outside.

The couple were frozen to the spot. They didn't even draw breath for what seemed an age. Then, slowly, Tony withdrew back into the bed. They clasped hands tightly, and trembled in the dark as whatever it was moved away up the street.


Starscream strode forward, and disdainfully swept the barn doors away like matchsticks. He stood outside and turned his head down the lane, where the other Decepticon was approaching through the dark, crushing the vegetation at the side of the track.

"Megatron."

"Starscream. Did you enjoy your little vacation? A rather humble place for your tastes, I feel."

He drew level with Starscream, and hesitated.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just… I expected you to be in worse shape, given the damage you sustained."

It was true. Megatron had looked forward to taunting his second in command, fully expecting Starscream to be bedraggled and scuffed, as well as irritable from his plight. But the air commander gleamed and looked fit to slag a thousand autobots. In truth, he looked better then Megatron. He pushed that last observation to one side irately.

"So, how were you able to break the stasis lock and alert your 'cons?"

Starscream grinned arrogantly. "I was able to channel rudimentary energy from my surroundings, enough to send out a small signal. I utilised heat and electrical energy from one organic. It was no matter for someone of my genius."

Megatron laughed. "How very primitive. A primitive solution on a primitive little island."

Starscream snarled. "That 'primitive' method proved to ten times more useful than all our forces combined in the search for me. You've been combing the earth with no idea where to find me, haven't you, leader?"

Megatron chose to ignore that. "It is indeed beneficial to have you back," he grudgingly conceded. "Everything is in place now for our strategy to begin."

Starscream raised an eyebrow. "I'm flattered you waited until I could enter the fray." He felt the familiar relish flood through him, the joy that came before battle. Then he stopped and frowned. Something wasn't right... something was missing…

"A piece of my signal circuitry," he muttered.

"What?" snapped Megatron. He had been preparing to transform. This island annoyed him. The longer he was here, the more he wanted to smash everything he saw from pure contempt. The human dwellings he saw here were even smaller and more pathetic looking than the ones he had seen in the United States.

"A piece of my signalling circuitry is missing," Starscream repeated. "The human female has it, the one who lives here. I want it back."

"The same fleshling whose energy you utilised?" Megatron sneered, incredulous. "I assumed you had disposed of her. Why did you not plunder her entire internal energy supply? The result may even have allowed you to transform."

"Because," Starscream spat, "I didn't want to utilise any more of that inferior source than necessary. She made off before the minicons restored me. She is currently in a nearby human city, celebrating her... sparking date."

Megatron was grinning wickedly. He was beginning to have a change of heart about this place.

"How about you stretch your wings, Starscream, and we have some fun on this rock before we leave?" he chuckled darkly. "Besides, he added, with mock concern, "This human child needs to learn she should not take things that don't belong to her. Where is she?"

Starscream turned and pointed through the night, towards a distant mass of lights.