Special Note: For this chapter, you need a Russian text editor on your computer, otherwise certain dialogue will appears to you as just code. Again, special thanks to ST for beta reading this.
=Chapter-6=
"The Cold Wind"
The Siberian tiger advanced towards him. It didn't seem to be scared, but instead curious about the big white thing in front of it. The white thing was enormous, and it resembled something related to humans, not a natural thing; but the tiger couldn't smell the sour human scent, nor the awful and acrid scents of human devices. That was the surprising thing: it smelled nothing, but the scent of frozen carrion on a big white pile of five trunks; the tiger jumped over the trunks and cautiously approached the frozen carrion and began to smell it and rub it with its whiskers.
It was a magnificent creature, Skyfire thought. It was one of the biggest carnivores on Earth in the current epoch, it was pale yellow with dark stripes on its body, its head was massive and its fur was thick, but overall, it was as strong and agile as any other creature. The big transformer understood the humans' fascination for such creatures: tigers, lions, leopards, basically all big cat species. He was glad for the mission entrusted to him by that Russian scientific biologist group: these felines were almost extinct and they needed to get more information about the species' current situation, but since the creature feared humans for very good reasons, he was the most inclined to approach to the species and to study them, and now it had happened.
Skyfire had heard humans say that when a wild creature eats from the hand of a human, it's already domesticated. Many biologists refused to give food from their hand to wild animals because this made them dependent on humans, and these creatures were wild and free after all. However the tiger that ate the carrion from Skyfire's servo didn't know that this place was a big servo, and it didn't know that a sentient creature that had an interest in it was observing him. As far as the tiger was concerned, it was just an enormous pile of ice where it had found some frozen flesh to eat.
It was like an enormous cat; it acted like a cat… a bigger and wilder cat. Skyfire found himself marveling at it and, at same time, saddened by humans' conduct: they destroyed creatures because they were too beautiful or too ugly, they didn't respect other life forms like they did.
"They?" Was that the truth? Cybertronians also destroyed others' lives, like humans did.
His species wasn't so different than humans, after all, he thought as he lifted his head towards the extensive plain of Siberian tundra, towards some distant columns of fire and smoke.
"Well, what about those samples?" Optimus asked in the usual soft but ordering tone he used to speak when he commanded something.
"I'm not sure, yet," answered Preceptor, still looking through his lenses as he examined some of the metallic pieces, "but I think Ratchet and Wheeljack both have an interesting theory," he informed him.
Optimus, the Prime of the Transformers people, the one who hosted the Matrix, had been informed about the latest events when he arrived from another human convention, one of those things which Prowl dealt with stoically, and Ironhide was beginning to hate. All of them had been informed that something weird had happened over the Grand Chaco: a warp had been opened and something had dropped on Earth from it. And the only traces they had of "the thing" were some tiny blue metallic pieces. Soon, all of the scientists and engineers aboard began to examine the samples and every one of them found some interesting conclusions.
Prime just waited for a convincing response.
"Prime, I don't know how explain this…" somebody to the back of him began to say.
"Just say it, Ratchet," suggested Optimus softly as he turned to him.
"These metallic pieces are Cybertronian alloy, of course. All we can say is…" the medic with the white paintjob explained, "I'm sure they belong to somebody's armor."
"Do you mean they're from the body of some Transformer?" he asked and the medic nodded.
"Yeah! But they're also different; they appear to be from a Decepticon's body." The blue optics of the Prime darkened as Wheeljack approached.
"And, at the same time, those pieces aren't original," the engineer with the shining ears added.
"What do you mean?" Prime asked with genuine curiosity.
"They're scratched pieces, and I agree with Ratchet about that… but they seem to be reformatted."
"What!?" exclaimed Prime, confused.
"It's like someone's body has been reformatted and upgraded somehow," tried to explain the engineer as his ears shone in the blue light.
"But that's not possible without previous body damage," Optimus exclaimed. "A body cannot be reformatted and upgraded without hurting his spark. The laser core unites the spark to the body, and together, they're a Transformer."
"Yes, that's right," Ratchet affirmed. "But just remember that Decepticons don't hold back and they often extract the personal components and lasercore from the bodies of Cybertronians in order to keep the individual aside as they destroy the original body. Just remember the Retention Centre," he explained in an uncertain tone. "So, perhaps, they've discovered a way to extract the laser core from a body, upgrade it, and later to put the laser core back into the upgraded body without inflicting any damage to a functional body."
"That could create a new person!" exclaimed Wheeljack in alarm.
"Not necessarily." answered Ratchet. "Not if the new body is not too different from the original; in that case, the spark will fit the new body and will be just the same individual as before… You cannot put an Autobot's spark in a Decepticon's body without suffering any consequence, but I don't think this is the case."
"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean to say," Optimus admitted.
The engineer and the medic looked at each other as Preceptor transformed back to his robotic form, and then he also exchanged looks with them as if they were trying to come to a common conclusion.
"Let's see... How shall I say this…" murmured Ratchet, "Yeah, well... It's just like somebody'd gotten a Decepticon's body and altered it, or reformatted if you prefer that word, and finally turned it into an upgraded form of the original individual."
The blue and usually soft optics of Optimus grew wide as he listened to this. He never thought the Decepticons would dare to do such experiments like that with their own kind: a ruined body could be reformatted into something new because the damage was already done, and even if the body happened to be new– as had happened to him- but in essence, he was the same guy as he was in the beginning. Still, a disturbing thought was lurking in his mind.
"Was there a spark inside that body?" he asked, scared of the possible answer.
"I don't know," answered Preceptor. "The only thing I'm sure about is the body which these little pieces belong to was weaker before than it is now. It was in a different color, too…"
"Really? Which color?" Prime asked with a hint of curiosity.
"It was red."
He woke up earlier than he'd expected, and he found himself looking at the ceiling of a room he didn't know, he looked around and found it was a personal quarter with a recharge bed which he was lying on now, a console with a chair and some wardrobes and stands where he could keep personal stuff. On the other side, he saw a door of another small room, which seemed to be a restroom. Then, he heard something beeping and he turned his view towards it.
It was Swindle.
"Oh, is that you!" he exclaimed sheepishly. "Where am I…?" The Minicon beeped again. "…Yeah, I remember now."
Starscream began to remember the recent events prior to his recharge cycle: his fight with Galvatron, his final attack on Unicron, the enormous pain he felt when the evil creature responded to his attack, and later, his awakening in a repair bay from another universe where everybody and everything was the same and different at the same time. He remembered the talks and successes with his counterpart, and his new companions, as well as the new Galva- Megatron here and the mission; Starscream had been studying in the previous cycle till very late.
In spite of those strange events, he felt safe inside that room.
Swindle seemed to think the same and beeped at him as he looked at him intensely.
"Yes, I feel far better now. The recharge cycle has filled my energy reserves and I feel my systems have been healed completely." He sighed, "Those Constructions may have repaired me really well, but my systems needed to complete a process of their own." He chuckled, "I never thought Scavenger'd repair me some day…" he was amused by the idea but Swindle's beep wasn't amused at all. "What?" he exclaimed.
Starscream arose from the recharge bed and rushed towards the restroom. If that room was to take care of his body, there should be a mirror inside, at least. The small room lit up as he entered and he saw himself reflected in a mirror. He jumped at his reflection.
"I cannot believe this!" he exclaimed. "My face and my wings are white again!"
It was so. After a full recharge cycle, his face and his wings had gone back to their original paintjob, silver-white, as well as his face. But his body and optics remained in different shades of blue, and his cockpit was yellow. Swindle, who had rushed after his partner, jumped on the cleaning console up to Starscream's level. He was still blue.
Starscream looked at him and looked back at his reflection of the mirror in amazement.
"But… Why? Why has my paintjob changed again?" he wondered out loud. "Did you do this, Swindle?" he asked. The Minicon beeped at him. "No?... Then, why…? Oh, I see. It's my old self before the upgrade thing." Then his optics widened as he realized something. "It's my counterpart's paintjob, too! ...He's silver white and red…"
He let himself fall off the console, where he'd put his servos.
"…This is going to be really hard to explain…" he complained but his Minicon interrupted him with another modulated beep. "Hmmm, perhaps that will work…" the seeker said with hope.
The Decepticon Air Force on Earth found themselves inside one of the war rooms near the main entrance of the Decepticon HQ. There were the seekers along with their Commander; Soundwave and Megatron himself weren't there yet, they had to complete the final preparations for the mission. The blue seeker, now with white spots, tried to get into the room before the rest of the crew, but when he entered the room, he saw his seeker companions were already there, as well as his counterpart who was waiting with his servos resting on his hips, a gesture which seemed to be usual for him.
Of course, when they saw the change in his paintjob, they all jumped. The Air commander's jaw fell as he saw that his counterpart had a silver-white face and wings, instead of the pinkish-colored face and wings he'd had the previous day. He wasn't the only one who noticed the change: Skywarp and Thundercracker, along with the Coneheads, also noticed and exchanged looks between themselves after looking at him with startled looks on their faces.
The blue seeker just ignored them and placed himself in front of his counterpart, as he knew Starscream was the one who should know what was happening.
The red optics of the Air Commander flashed as he looked back and forth at his counterpart.
"What's this change to your paintjob!?" he demanded to know as he pointed at him. "What happened to your wings and face!?"
The blue seeker remained silent, as he also doubted what he should answer. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew there stepped back as they had the feeling something bad might happen.
"I don't know," he answered after a few seconds, "but I guess it's because I'm here."
"What!?" exclaimed Starscream.
"I woke up from the recharge cycle in this paintjob. I don't know what could have happened while I was in recharge…" He rubbed his arms in a significant gesture, which didn't go unnoticed by his counterpart: Swindle was still hooked onto his left arm. "…And I woke up like this."
"But… Why!?"
In spite of the tense air in the room, Skywarp was about to make some funny comment, but he was stopped by Thundercracker's servo on his vocalizer so he couldn't say anything. The blue seeker kept talking.
"I guess it's because I'm here," Starscream reasoned again even though his gesture suggested to the Air Commander that this wasn't the only possible explanation. "My original paintjob was white and red, like yours," he explained, trying to sound trustworthy."I guess since I'm here, in a different reality… I'm turning into what I was previously."
The seekers exchanged looks, too surprised to say anything, and the Air Commander's face changed through different moods before he could speak. Starscream had noticed his counterpart here was a very emotional guy… something which people used to say about him, he realized. However, his counterpart's moods were reflected on his face and optics so easily, and they changed so fast that he could barely read all them.
"Are you implying you're turning into something different!?" he exclaimed out loud, and the rest of the crew there tried to remain their composure as they heard that.
"Well… sort of." He paused. "I can't find any better explanation."
The Air Commander laughed in his usual fashion. Starscream recognized this mood: he himself had laughed in that noisy way: it wasn't a laugh of happiness, but of a cynical attitude towards life. However, they were cut off as a new voice resonated in the room.
"What's happening here? Why are you laughing, Starscream!?" The harsh voice of this reality's Megatron thundered. It was very different to the one of the Megatron he knew…
However, the sudden order had an effect and everybody fell silent and turned toward him. But all they knew was that the matter was about Starscream… the two Starscreams. So the seekers and Coneheads stepped back again and remained in silence in order to watch what was going on. Well, not all of them: Thundercracker had to gag Skywarp several times, and the Coneheads did the same with Thrust, the presumptuous Conehead in red. As usual, Dirge also murmured several curses and gloomy comments under his breath.
The Leader of the Decepticons, followed closely by the mind-reading guy Soundwave, stopped in front of the two seekers with identical identities, and glared at them; first at the Air Commander, and then his counterpart.
"What happened to you? Why has your paintjob changed?" he demanded to know as he glared at him.
The Air Commander smiled to himself knowing it was his counterpart that was Megatron's target, not him; besides, he could also find out what was happening since the Decepticon Leader had interrogated his counterpart, and he would not dare to lie to him.
The seeker with blue optics glared back and answered in a confident tone.
"I was explaining that, sir… I think my paintjob has changed because I'm not from here, and I'm turning into what I was before I got upgraded."
Megatron, as well as Soundwave, remained indifferent at this explanation: the former just stared at Starscream with his usual harsh look, and Soundwave's expression was as blank as usual. The only one who jumped up was the Air Commander, whose jaw dropped: "Got upgraded? What's he saying? Is the upgrade thing the reason he's blue instead red and white? "
Of course, the faces of the rest of the people there just showed confusion as well.
"Are you saying you're turning into your old self?" replied the Decepticon's Leader in his usual tone.
"I guess so, Sir."
Megatron glared at him as if he was trying to confirm something. Starscream found that glare quite uncomfortable to deal with. He seemed to be trying to confirm that what Starscream said was true.
"Do you yourself feel different in any way?" he asked demanding a response.
"No, Sir. In fact, after the recharge cycle, I found myself full repaired and better than before," he responded. "Besides, this isn't the first time I've fulfilled a mission on the polar region," he added in a confident tone.
Megatron knew this Starscream was being sincere, and he chuckled.
"Perfect. There is no problem, then," he exclaimed, then he turned towards his men. "Decepticons! Don't delay, we have a mission to accomplish!" he addressed them as he raised the arm of his cannon. "Soundwave, activate the elevator."
"As you command."
Shortly, the squadron formed by the seekers, the Communicators officer and the Decepticon Leader were flying northeast over the Atlantic Ocean, towards Europe, and finally to the north of Asia. It didn't take that long, and the crew organized itself in combat formation: the three rulers of the Decepticons on Earth, Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave, flew ahead; behind them were the seekers, and closing the formation were the Cone heads. Starscream, the one in blue, flew in the middle, as if he was being escorted by the rest of the crew, but they also kept their distance from him.
It was the first time they had seen his alternative form: it was obviously earthling, but different at the same time. The seekers found themselves angry with their own selves as they realized the alternative form of this Starscream was better than the forms they had; it was as if he was reformatted into a more sophisticated human device than them. Still, it was annoying how much he looked like Thundercracker when he was in his alternative form, in spite of his actual silver-white wings. These were the newest reasons the seekers had found to keep distant from him: the new Starscream might be their new flyermate, but not their wingmate yet.
On the other side, Starscream had also realized how his wingmates were avoiding him, but he also found himself pleased in an odd way: it was the first time he had flown alongside other Decepticons. Sure, Cyclonus and Thrust were flyers like him, but they weren't like him, especially Cyclonus who lacked even a pair of wings… In this reality, all Decepticons were flyers, and he also had a big bunch of winged companions, even if some of them were the counterparts of people who he knew from long ago back on Cybertron, or even of people who he held strong feelings about, like Thrust or Megatron.
But in this reality these things were somewhat different. He had noticed that the Thrust of this reality was surrounded or accompanied by the rest of the Coneheads; those whose counterparts were Minicons back in his reality. They seemed to get along quite well among themselves, and even with the rest of the seekers. The proof was that even when flying, they always did it together. Starscream couldn't help but think this Thrust was far different to the treacherous second-in-command (or whatever he was) Decepticon he knew back in his reality. He also found him quite different regarding his form: he was a Conehead, but his head was very different and had a remarkable face with yellow optics. Besides that, he also had a helix, not on his back but on his wings… Starscream chuckled at the thought of calling him "Squidhead": it irritated Thrust's counterpart deeply, so what about this Thrust? Sure, he would love to bash Thrust and insult him, but he wasn't sure he should do that in this reality… not without finding out the truth about the red Conehead, in spite of the Conehead himself avoiding him.
Besides the Coneheads, there were the common seekers. He was watching them as they flew before his nose. The Thundercracker and Skywarp in this reality seemed to get along quite well, too… Starscream wasn't sure, but perhaps their relationship was as deep as the one the Coneheads seemed to share. The times he had seen them, they always seemed to be together, although he hadn't had the chance to talk with them and he didn't know how similar they were to the ones he had once met, except he didn't remember Thundercracker being as noisy as the one who flew ahead of him now. Starscream was amazed at himself as he realized he'd like to get to know them better. They both reminded him of their counterparts in his reality, but they also had resemblances with Cyclonus and Demolisher… their relationship and roles seemed to be quite similar.
Finally, there were the Decepticon's rulers.
They were the main reason he was flying towards the north of Europe right now. In spite of his own opinions and himself, Starscream knew he couldn't help but obey those three guys; to be in this partially new Decepticon army was the only thing he could do at the moment. He didn't know why he was there; he didn't know the purpose of being there… But he was quite sure the Autobots here wouldn't allow him to be with them. Starscream needed to find his place in this new universe, and, at the moment, being with his own kind was the best option. That was the reason he was flying with these Decepticons in order to fulfill a mission.
But Starscream was afraid about what would happen in the mission and, overall, in the future if he was forced to use the power Swindle gave him. His counterpart had been clear: not only might this Megatron take Swindle from him, but it might also affect this universe drastically… and that could be very dangerous.
Was that the reason he had been teleported to his universe? Did Unicron, or Sideways, want to cause a shock in this reality with his presence here?
Starscream was afraid of that; he thought the best thing he could do was to go unnoticed as much as possible, and for the moment, he just flew in silence.
The hours passed as the squadron flew over the Earth's surface. This was standard: in this universe, the Decepticons didn't have a warp-gate as there was in the blue seeker's universe. It wasn't that they didn't have the technology to do that here, there was a space bridge which was quite similar to a warp-gate; it was just that the space bridge needed so much energy in order to work, and since the Cybertronians of this universe suffered from an great lack of energy, they couldn't use the Space bridge as much as they wanted. They therefore had to travel around Earth by their own way: flying.
Starscream, the blue one, was used to avoiding humans. He, as well as the rest of his companions, always tried as hard as they could to avoid them. They couldn't allow humans to become aware of their existence because it would only cause them more problems: the Autobots knew that, as did the Decepticons.
He could therefore understand the maneuvers they were doing as they flew over the European continent. Big human cities arose under their optics, especially in Western and Central Europe. Some of them had ancient stone buildings in the forms of crosses and with big towers, which tried to scrape the sky, and they coexisted with other more modern big buildings. The blue Seeker looked at them in amazement; he never stopped watching these buildings placed on cities like Cologne or Paris… It was as if the humans had a thing for reaching the sky.
More cities arose under their path, mostly placed around rivers; sometimes they saw big dark woods, and sometimes there were extensive prairies. Some of them were cultivated, and in some of them many animals were grazing.
However, the farther north they went, the colder the wind got.
The place where they finally landed was an extensive region to the southwest of the land that the humans called Sakha, or Yakutia, near the Lena River to the north of the Baikal Lake. There had been a lot of oil operations in West Siberia, but they were too important and humans watched them fiercely: if they attacked them, the Autobots would immediately intervene. Eastern Siberia didn't have as much oil as the west, but their operations were more discreet.
The land was almost frozen. Here, winters were very hard and summers were short and hot, hence the ground still being frozen as well as the numerous rivers and lakes scattered throughout the area. There were many trees too, mostly Siberian larches, pines, firs and cedars still covered in ice in many places. There were some animals too, like reindeer and those furry Yakutian ponies, which ran away as they saw the newcomers.
But there weren't any humans there.
Megatron gestured with his servo, and everybody began to descend and, as they did so, the seekers transformed back into their robotic forms, producing the characteristic cracking sound of their transformation. However, the blue seeker with silver wings caught everybody's attention as he said aloud:
"Transform!"
His transformation process was faster than that of the rest of the seekers, as was the frequency of changing-sounds. These events were weird to the others. When the Decepticons placed their pedes on the ground back in their robotic forms, Skywarp told him in a half amused, half annoyed tone, "Hey! There is no need for you to say 'transform' every time you change your form!" he pointed out, and the rest of seekers there seemed to agree.
The blue seeker looked at them a little confused.
"Oh… sorry!" he apologized, "I- we're used to doing that every time we transform back in my universe…" he explained.
"Yeah, but you're in our universe now," Thrust spat harshly.
"Silence!" roared Megatron suddenly. "Our target is nearby. Keep your talk for later."
The order had the effect the Decepticon Leader wanted, and the seekers just nodded. The Air Commander looked back at his troops as he tried to keep them under control, and then simply began to walk.
Their steps sounded like breaking ice; the summer was approaching in this region and grass was beginning to shoot up again. Underneath, however, the ground was still frozen in many places… which might explain why there weren't more trees around. The sky was pale blue, like it used to look in the Polar Regions on Earth, but there were several thick black smoke columns on the horizon. The blue seeker looked at them in wonder: were those their objective?
"There," indicated Megatron as he pointed at them with a black finger. "Those are the humans' operations." The rest of the Decepticons there looked at them and nodded. "Go!" Megatron ordered.
They watched the humans' installations cautiously from a safe distance. They were many buildings with oil towers, pipelines and gas lines. Those ones had burners located in equidistant positions: the thick smoke they saw when they arrived was from those burners. The humans burned some of their precious natural gas from their gas lines in order to keep the pressure inside the conducts; as a result, tons of gas were burned and wasted, and the pale sky was dirty with the black smoke.
Such a waste of energy…
On the other side of the installations was the place where humans stayed, small and dark buildings partially covered with ice. The humans there didn't seem to be pleased with their situation, and they move nervously around the place, as though they wanted to finish their task as soon as possible.
Starscream was confused. He had never seen the humans like that, he had never been part of a mission against humans, and he wasn't sure what was going on; he was used to fighting against Autobots, even other Decepticons… but not attacking alien installations. The blue seeker looked back at his seeker companions and his commanders; they seemed to be assessing the situation, their red optics burning with a dim but thick red glow. Suddenly, his counterpart turned to him, his dark face a black spot in the middle of the almost white landscape; his glosa turned into a mischievous smile which also seemed to be a typical gesture for him, and he murmured:
"You're going to love this…"
Suddenly, the Decepticon Leader shouted:
"Decepticons, attack!"
As though they were a single person, the entire seeker army rose into the air at the same time and flew towards the installations; the Coneheads and the blue seeker went towards the machinery which extracted the petroleum from the depths of the Earth, as the common seekers and Soundwave flew towards the humans' installations.
The place became a confusion of cries, noise and crashing machinery: the blue seeker demolished some towers with his bare servos; he didn't even need his sword or weapons to destroy human's devices, they were that fragile.
Then, he heard Skywarp:
"Look at them, TC!" the dark purple seeker laughed, "Look how the humans run!" And saying that, he shot his rifles at one group of humans, who ran like hell towards the dark woods around them.
Thundercracker, with some crushed iron beams in his servos, looked at him, and then he turned his attention towards his task as he shook his head.
Starscream watched the dark seeker, who laughed amused as he kept shooting at the humans; then his attention turned towards his counterpart who shouted:
"Stop that, Skywarp, and get that human!"
"Okay, Screamer…" the dark seeker answered.
The human who the Air Commander referred to was running towards a building with a big antenna on its ceiling; he was dressed with a long cloak in dark color, and a funny hat which was big and furry. The human tried to reach the door of the building, but Skywarp's big purple servo was faster and he grabbed the human just in time. The dark seeker raised the human to his level by his cloak; the guy began to stamp his feet and to shout in a language than Starscream had never heard before. In his sudden movements, his hat fell on the frozen ground, revealing a mass of dark hair over a white skinned face, unlike other humans from that region.
"What're you saying?" Skywarp shouted at the human in a mix of frustration and amusement. "I cannot understand a friggin' word!"
"Shut up and give it to me," ordered the Air Commander.
"'Kay!"
To Starscream's horror, Skywarp tossed the human in the air like he was a ball and his counterpart unceremoniously caught him before the human crashed to the ground. Then, the Air Commander raised his trophy to his optics level and glared at it as he began to speak in the same language as these human, his red optics flashing dangerously.
"Где диспетчерская, человек?"
"Ч-чего?"
"Что слышал. Отвечай же!"
The human seemed to be unsure what he could do: he knew what the gigantic dark faced robot that held him could do to him if he didn't respond to his question, but he was also afraid of what the aggressive robot would do to him if he didn't answer. As though Starscream could hear the thoughts that crossed the human's mind at that moment, he spoke again.
"Если ты скажешь мне, я позволю тебе жить…" he explained with a mischievous smirk.
The human seemed to get his self-confidence back and nodded in a mix of fear and hope; Starscream smiled to himself as he saw the human point to a building next to the one with the big antenna. Now he knew where the control room was. His smirk turned mischievous and he looked back to the human he held in his servo.
"Знаешь что?.. Я соврал!"(1)
The human's face turned white in horror; then, the Air Commander let the human drop from his azure servo. The human crashed against the ground from a height of almost twenty meters: his body became a lump of flesh, thick fabrics and blood as it met the frozen ground. If he was still alive at that moment, his life ended when the Air Commander trod on him.
The blue seeker had watched the scene from a distance, his jaw dropped in amazement as he watched the way his counterpart had eliminated the human, and the way Skywarp was still shooting at the rest of the humans there who had run for their lives. Then, he turned back to the Coneheads, who were still carrying out their mission, and in spite of himself he asked Thrust who was nearest him:
"Don't- don't you hide yourselves from humans? Do they know we're on Earth?"
The red Conehead looked at him confused for a few seconds; finally, he managed to answer, "Of course we don't, you moron!" he shouted. "Why should we need to hide ourselves from those puny creatures?" he asked like it was obvious.
The Air Commander stepped towards the building which the human had identified as the control room. He examined some conduits that rose from a side of the building and went towards the extraction platforms; then, he pointed to them with his right rifle and fired. A beam of azure light reached the conducts, they cracked and suddenly, all the machinery stopped. The other Starscream, still amazed by the latest events, wondered what his counterpart had just done.
Megatron, who had stood aside all this time, nodded in delight and turned towards the Communicators officer:
"Soundwave, prepare the energon cubes!" he ordered
"As you command, Megatron," he answered simply in his usual flat monotone voice.
The Communicators officer's body and posture became tense, and then through the structure of his chest, some transparent buckets to receive energon began to emerge. As he began to produce recipients, the Coneheads and the blue seeker caught them and went to the energon sources around the station: some of them tried the pipelines, and others went to the high columns of fire where the natural gas was combusted; the energy from these filled the cubes with the iridescent stuff that energon made by hydrocarbons was. (2)
Starscream filled several cubes as his counterpart and Soundwave supervised the operation and kept guard; the blue seeker was still confused, amazed and disturbed by the latest events. He knew his mission was to get energon from some human installations and break havoc in the installations... But he'd never guessed they also would attack the humans, much less deal with them in that way, killing them unceremoniously. Of course he, as well as the rest of the Decepticons on Earth, tried to kill the human kids who were with the Autobots, but just because they were on the enemy's side as they helped the Autobots and the Minicons. But, what was the crime those humans had committed? Besides, why do that just for a bunch of common energon cubes? They weren't even energon stars! Then, he remembered how many times he had done things in the past which he didn't really feel proud of.
Still, he was glad nobody had noticed his potential in combat, and Swindle, who still attached to his left arm, was silent.
The Air commander approached the Decepticon Leader and he spoke in his sneering voice.
"The Operation is going as we planned, mighty leader," he informed him in his usual fashion. "The humans have been eliminated and we're collecting all the energon we can get."
"Excellent."
The energon cubes were piled on a plain near the installations; then Skywarp, Thundercracker and Dirge transformed into their alternative forms and opened their storage compartments. The companions began to place the energon cubes inside them, although none of them seemed very pleased when the other Starscream came close to them to store energon cubes. All of them appeared to be dealing with him just because their leaders had ordered them to… but not because they thought of him as their wingmate.
Meanwhile, the Air Commander watched the energon trophy [F1] with a skeptical look on his face, then, he turned towards his crew.
"I still think that Constructions must come on this mission too," he sneered. "The Seeker force aren't big enough to store such an amount of energon."
"You're a clown, and you always will be, Starscream," answered Megatron in his usual insulting fashion. "You aren't able to realize that this mission must be completed very quickly, otherwise we would bring the Autobots' attention on ourselves as has happened in many previous missions. We mustn't get the attention of our enemies; that's why the mission is being accomplished by the seekers, not by slower mechs… Let the Constructions dedicate themselves to destroying things."
Starscream, hurt by Megatron's words, as usual tried to defend himself.
"If we've lost many of our previous missions in the past years on this planet, it's all because of your fault!" he accused, his dark face twisted. "I'm always warning you about what could happen if this or that, and you never listen to me!" he accused, gesturing with his blue servos.
Megatron turned towards the Air Commander, his face with a self-confident expression.
"Do you really think so?" he asked in a tone with a hint of reproach. "Let's see what your counterpart thinks about this…"
"What?"
"Starscream, come here a moment," ordered Megatron, beckoning with the arm of his cannon which made the gesture more dramatic.
The blue seeker stopped and looked at the Decepticon Leader in wonder.
"Yes, Sir," he answered as he tossed the energon cubes he was carrying in his arms
When he came closer to the Decepticon Leader and his counterpart, he saw the great silver mech was amused by something, and his counterpart had a harsh look on his face; he remembered seeing that face on his counterpart when they met for first time, but he barely had any time to think about that.
"Tell me, Starscream… what do you think about this mission?" the Decepticon Leader asked him in a self-confident tone.
The blue optics flashed in confusion, he didn't understand very well what the purpose of that question was. Was this some kind of test?
"I- I think it's quite easy, sir," he managed to answer. "I think the mission is being completed properly, sir," he finished, encouraged by the leader's smile.
Then Megatron, still smiling, turned towards the Air Commander who had kept silent all this time.
"See, Starscream?" Megatron exclaimed. "Look at your counterpart and learn things from him. He knows how to recognize a mission well accomplished."
The dark face of the seeker twisted in rage and he looked back at his counterpart. The other Starscream had just realized what had just happened: Megatron had played with his counterpart in the same way Galvatron used to do with him; he knew what his counterpart was thinking and feeling … and he regretted having answered that.
But then again, what could he have done?
The rest of the seekers just ignored the chat among the ranks and kept collecting energon cubes; all except for Thundercracker. He was standing quite close to the high ranks in his alternative form, and he'd had the chance to listen to the full conversation. As usual, he sighed to himself, but he continued in his usual fashion: "Watching, listening and shutting up your opinions." He always did so.
… But none of them realized that one of the humans they had attacked had managed to approach the building with the big antenna.
"I don't like this, Prime," said Prowl gravely, "Have you considered what might be happening?"
Prowl, the second in command, found himself along with Jazz talking in private with Optimus inside a small room. They didn't want to scare their fellows, but they wanted to debate what could be happening and to get some conclusion on what they could do about what was going on.
"I'd like to know all the information we've got, Prowl," he replied.
"Me too… I'm afraid I don't understand everything that's going on here," added Jazz.
The response of the Autobot with the big blue optic caught Optimus' attention. He had been working with them for eons, perhaps since the beginning of the war; he couldn't remember it well now. but he always marveled how different his seconds in command were, and how efficient they were despite their differences. Prowl was the personification of logic, and Jazz was the personification of the joy of life; it was as though both of them together formed a single person.
"Let's summarize: a temporary-space warp is opened on the sky over the Grand Chaco and something falls down from it," Prowl began. "Then, we send a group of Autobots to investigate the phenomenon and they find some tiny metallic blue pieces along with several footprints from different people." He exchanged looks with the people around him as he tried to confirm that they understood what he was saying. "We don't know who the owners of those footsteps are, but when Preceptor, Ratchet and Wheeljack investigated the metallic pieces, they found out that they belong to a Decepticon body which has been upgraded in some way."
"Yeah, that was what they said," affirmed Optimus. "Please, Prowl, keep talking."
The Autobot disguised as a police car nodded.
"Then, we can draw the following possible conclusions. First off: the warp opened and the upgraded body of the Decepticon fell from it, and later it was caught by some Decepticons who had stopped by there at that time. Second: there wasn't just one upgraded Decepticon, but several, and one of them crashed as they crossed the warp, and they later disappeared again. And third: the warp opened, and the upgraded one and somebody else were waiting for it to open… In fact, the warp seemed to be opened here for that purpose."
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed Jazz as he listened to those explanations. "Why do you assume than somebody took the upgraded body?"
"Because there is no trace of what had fallen from the sky except for those little metallic pieces, and we know something dropped from the warp, and that somebody else was there, too."
"Oh! I see." Jazz felt a hint of shame because he hadn't realized any of these obvious facts.
Optimus sighed heavily.
"And now, we have a new Decepticon to be worried about… I hope-" but he couldn't finish his sentence as the alarm began to beep in the base. "What's happening?" he exclaimed.
Jazz approached one of the computers panels in the room and typed something.
"It's Teletran-1… It says the Decepticons're attacking an oil-installation in oriental Siberia, north of Russia," he informed them in alarm.
The beginning of the mission began, as usual, with Optimus' war cry..
It was late. It was still afternoon by humans' standards, but in Siberia, in the beginning of spring it got dark sooner, and the weather was still very harsh, theretofore the night arrived faster.
The storage compartments of almost every seeker were full; their mission was about to finish and they had got a good bunch of energon cubes. The Air Commander was about to transform himself to be filled with more cubes, when he was interrupted on hearing the flat monotonous voice of Soundwave.
"We're not alone, Megatron," he informed, "somebody's approaching." The big red optic of the Communicators officer flashed in warning.
Megatron abandoned his relaxed posture and looked at Soundwave, his red optics flashing in alarm. "Approaching? ...What are they? Autobots?" he asked.
"It might be. There isn't enough data to confirm that. The energy signature is too far," Soundwave answered.
The Decepticon Leader smiled confidently.
"There is no reason to be alarmed, then. Let them approach. We are almost finished."
"I don't think so!" interrupted the Air Commander. "We're taking an unnecessary risk! If they're Autobots, we'll lose an important load of Energon. I suggest sending Laserbeak to…"
"Silence, fool!" sneered Megatron angrily towards him. "There is no reason for the Autobots to know we're here… and if they're humans, they won't dare to deal with us!" he reasoned.
Starscream grunted at the lack of sense in Megatron's speech, still he couldn't help but shut up his vocalizer.
In spite of the Air Commander's opinion, the Decepticon force just stood there continuing to store more energon cubes.
And, of course, this had very bad consequences…
It was as usual. The Autobots approached cautiously until they reached the plain where the Decepticons were collecting the energon cubes; of course, they quickly noticed their presence. There were several cries of alarm and threats from both sides.
"Megatron, you fool!" the Air Commander sneered, "I warned you about this and you ignored it!"
"Shut your mouth and fight!" the Decepticon Leader spat back as he fired against the other Cybertronians.
As the Autobots approached, their adversaries found out their forces were quite matched: there was Optimus Prime, as usual, along with one of his lieutenants, Prowl, as well as the Prime's bodyguard, that rude guy called Ironhide. But they hadn't come alone; all of the Aerialbots were with them… It was obvious that somebody had warned them that the Decepticons had attacked the oil- installations.
Knowing this, the Seekers adopted several forms: the Coneheads turned into their alternative forms, and the common seekers remained in their robotic forms; soon, they rose in the air, and arranged themselves to beat the Autobots… or to defend their precious energon cubes, at least. The Air Commander began to direct the attack and his fellows obeyed him… all of them, except for his counterpart who stayed watching the Autobots in amazement.
"Prime…? He's… Optimus?" he mused in wonder.
It wasn't hard for him to recognize the Autobot's prime, he was quite similar to the one he knew back in his reality: his robotic form, his alternative form, even his voice was almost the same… except that this one carried a big rifle which seemed to be able to match Megatron's fusion cannon. He felt confused; he didn't want to fight against him and his fellows, but a sudden cry from his counterpart brought him back to reality.
"What are you doing, you fool?" the sneering voice of the other Starscream resonated in the middle of the oncoming chaos. "Fly and fight! They're our enemies!"
Ironhide, being an observer, noticed the new seeker as he jumped in the air to meet the rest of his awful kind. Prowl also did so and muttered:
"Who is that? I've never…"
"Worry about him later, policeman!" replied the red macho Autobot, "and let's catch that bastard Soundwave!" he added, running to confront the Communicators officer.
The Aerialbots ran to fight their nemesis. At first they'd admired the Seekers force, they were everything they aspired to be: flying transformers with powerful skills and strong characters… yes, they were what a flying creature should be. But soon, they'd changed their minds when they went on their unexpected travel to the past, as they also found out they had a skill that no Seeker could dream of. They were gestalts.
Still, at the beginning of the aerial fight they fought as individuals. At first, their forces should be matched because although the Aerialbots were five while the seekers were six, the seekers couldn't merge as gestalts; soon, their roles were distributed. Air Raid faced Ramjet as they tried to make the other crash into something… or somebody. Fireflight tried the same with the Air Commander; Starscream was far faster than him but the crazy maneuvers of the Aerialbot were making him nuts… Where had this guy learned to fly? How could he beat somebody who flew as though he were drunk? However, Dirge was luckier and led Silverbot almost to the ground using his gloomy skills, even though the Aerialbot was overcoming his innate fear of flying, Dirge's gloom could induce him into suffering it again. On the contrary, the fight between Skydive and Thundercracker was dispassionate; neither of them seemed to have enough interest or skills to surpass the other… The only one who was fighting furiously was Slingshot, who kept shooting at Skywarp and Thrust, who were making him crazy with their speeches and teleporting maneuvers.
"Waaaaaah!" he shouted as he fired at them both, "Stop rambling and fight, you two!"
Starscream watched the scene, feeling unsure about what he could do; he didn't have an opponent, and certainly, he didn't want to fight against the Autobots. But he didn't have a choice , either… What could he do, then? He watched his counterpart flying in aerial combat with the Autobot who flew like a drunken blowfly; the other Starscream flew really fast, he realized, his counterpart was able to match him in the air really well even if he was getting pissed because of the idiotic movements of his opponent. Starscream acknowledged his counterpart didn't need his help… Same thing for the Dirge guy, and for Skywarp, whose laughs and joking comments resonated in the middle of the fight. The blue seeker was amazed as he saw how easily Skywarp teleported himself in the fight. Even Wheeljack didn't have such control of that skill. Finally, his view turned towards Thundercracker, who seemed to be in trouble, and he made his decision.
The blue seeker flew to confront the other blue seeker, remembering that his skills should pass by unnoticed; he screamed in his attack as he caught his left wing which turned into the sword, but he didn't power it up… The sudden maneuver caught Skydive off guard, and in a flash, his sword slashed the shoulder of the Aerialbot who rolled in the air till he crashed against the frozen ground near Silverbot. The problem was that Thundercracker had prepared one of his sonic bombs, but the sudden intervention of the newcomer made him lose control and the sonic bomb was fired - into the pipeline.
The metallic conduct shook fiercely and began to expand as it began to suffer from the effects of the sonic bomb, and finally, it exploded noisily producing an enormous column of fire and smoke which stopped the fight between the two sides for a few seconds. The Siberian cold wind was interrupted by the thick smoke and hot air of the burning hydrocarbons.
"Oh, Primus, no!" mused the seeker with the blue optics as he realized what had just happened.
Thundercracker heard him and turned to him amazed: he hadn't meant to destroy the pipeline like that, but why did the other version of Starscream seem to regret that? And what was that freaking thing with a wing turning into a sword? The Coneheads were right when they'd said that the newcomer seeker had a sword-wing. Thundercracker couldn't help but feel a little disturbed by that.
"That's nuts, Silverbot!" Skydive sneered as he rose himself from the ground. "We must do something!"
"Yeah! You're right. We must stop this nonsense" he agreed. "Aerialbots, combine ourselves and make Superion emerge!"
"What? No way!" shouted the Air Commander in frustration. "I won't allow this!" And, with a manic scream, he fired his null rifles towards the Aerialbots.
But in spite of his efforts to catch one of the Aerialbots with his null rays, and therefore avoid them being able to combine, they later did so. Thrust backed down in fear as he saw the gigantic gestalt begin to merge, but the blue Seeker was astounded by this. Step by step, the Aerialbots were combining themselves to make a new and bigger creature they called Superion, which was even bigger than Tidal Wave in his alternative form.
"I cannot believe it!" he exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like this!"
Thundercracker turned to him once again in wonder. There were no Gestalts in his universe? It didn't matter right now, it was just a minor issue; the big problem was Superion, the aerial gestalt.
"Decepticons! Don't hold back!" shouted the Air Commander suddenly, "Fight him! Fight him!"
Without another word, the seekers began to attack the gigantic gestalt.
A sudden distant explosion filled the quiet air of the frozen landscape; after that, several minor explosions followed the big one, and the air was interrupted by the sound of something similar to thunder. The Siberian tiger lifted its head as it smelled the air, its ears moving nervously in every direction, and finally it ran away frightened by the sudden movement of the big ice cap where it had found the carrion. The place wasn't safe anymore.
Skyfire was shocked as he heard the explosion and turned towards the smoke columns on the horizon, the ones he had seen as he watched the tiger. A big column of fire and smoke arose between them, as if something had exploded violently. He was so amazed that he forgot about the tiger and moved from his place, frightening the creature.
When he rose up in his gigantic size, he gazed at the fire and big column of smoke.
"It can't be!" he exclaimed in alarm, "The pipeline has exploded!"
But something made him change his mind; there was something odd about the following explosions, their energy signature was worryingly familiar. He had an annoying feeling about what could be happening in the oil-installations where the explosions were. The large mech stood in silence, debating with himself about what he could do as he looked sadly at the big column of fire.
"Oh, slag!" he exclaimed.
And, in spite of himself, he transformed into his alternative form and took to the air towards the distant place.
He flew at medium velocity and quite low in order to hide himself from what he guessed was happening. He didn't want to be involved in anything else to do with his people's civil war, but he kept flying. The wind was cold and cutting, but it began to fill with the burned fuel scent, a certain kind of odor that humans and many other creatures on Earth found very unpleasant. He wasn't surprised he barely saw any white hares or whatever other animals in his path.
Finally, he landed near the place and hid himself behind a hill which, surprisingly, was big enough for that. He raised his head and looked at the humans' installations.
What he'd feared the most was now happening…
The place was full of smoke columns, fires and burned holes in the ground, destroyed buildings and human corpses. In the middle of the chaos, the titanic figure of Superion, the Aerialbot Gestalt, was in a fight with the seekers force which harassed him as a herd of wolves does to a moose, trying to demolish him as they attacked the uncovered parts. They flew very fast around him, and Skyfire could barely distinguish the several blurs of blue, red and white; he knew the entire float, especially one of them, the one who flew faster than the rest… Wait! There was another blue seeker who flew almost as fast as Starscream. Who was he?
A new explosion caught his attention and he looked at it. Then, he frowned at what he was seeing: Optimus, the Prime, was fighting hand to hand with Megatron; it wasn't the first time he'd seen them fighting, and actually they were using the weapons they held in their respective sub-space pockets; their skills were matched and neither of them seemed to have the upper hand. Behind them, Soundwave and his Cassettcons fought against Prowl and Ironhide.
He watched them fight, and mixed emotions arose in his spark. His view was focused on the Seekers and Superion, involved in their fight, and it was sad: then, he turned towards Megatron, and his expression changed from sad to angry, and finally, hatred filled his smooth features and ice cold blue optics as he watched the Decepticon Leader.
Skyfire had always been very quiet, patient, honest, responsible and neat. He'd always loved his job and purpose in his life, and he also loved to help others find their paths in life… But after he woke up after several millions of years inside an ice cap in the frozen pole of an alien planet, a new emotion awoke in his spark: hatred. And it was entirely the fault of that silver-grey mech, Megatron. When he first awoke, he was too confused to understand and to think coherently about what was happening… but after his second awakening, when Wheeljack extracted him from the new ice cap, he began to learn what was really happening. And he realized that he knew Megatron, already…
It happened a long time ago, in the Golden Age. He remembered the ancient Cybertronian cities discussing their interests in gladiators' fights; one of the mayor quarrels at the time was the confrontation between Vos, the Seekers' native city, and Tarm, one of the most important Decepticon cities at that time. He remembered that Tarm's quarrels were resolved by its gladiators… and Megatron was one of those popular gladiators. Now, he remembered some of their students being deeply interested in those combats and lauding that Megatron guy as a personal hero.
…And now, that hero was the great silver-grey mech who was fighting fiercely against the Prime.
He didn't hate Megatron at that time; the mech just was a very popular character back then, when he didn't have any interest in gladiators' combats: it was just a torrid entertainment and he simply ignored it. He hated what the silver-mech had become: a tyrannical, cruel and megalomaniac guy who led his people into the most horrible civil war that anyone could ever imagine. Yes, if in his whole life Skyfire hated anybody, it was Megatron. The Decepticon Leader had ruined all the Cybertronian species, and because of him, Skyfire had lost everything in his life: his life's purpose, his world, his hopes, his joy for life, his friends - everything! And now, he found he couldn't be involved in a war he couldn't understand: he was just flying in a storm over the polar region of an alien world, he lost control and everything went horribly wrong; he entered into stasis mode, and when he awoke again, millions of years later, the world and the people he once knew had disappeared for the worst.
Yes, he really hated that guy… He really meant that.
Skyfire found himself extracting a big pistol he kept inside a sub-spatial pocket; he'd used it when he helped the Autobots in any of their missions, but since he left the frontline, he had kept the weapon with him just for his own protection; he never meant to use it against anybody before. But now, he raised it and pointed it at the Decepticon Leader. He had never used the pistol against anybody except for self-defense, but now, the weapon held all his hatred against the silver-grey mech.
He just waited for the right moment to fire his weapon at the Decepticon Leader; if he did this well, he could avoid the rest of the fight without being noticed. Yes, he could do that.
But Skyfire's hatred blinded him and he didn't calculate the consequences of his act…
After falling to the ground, Prime kicked Megatron when he threw himself on top of him trying to strangle him. The kick was strong enough to send the heavy mech several meters away from him; Megatron found himself crashing on the frozen ground, and when he tried to wake up, something caught his interest. There was a figure behind a hill which seemed oddly familiar. What was-?
But he couldn't finish his thought, a sudden flash of energy caught him with his guard down; there was a small fire on his shoulder and his arm was wounded quite badly, as he was thrown against the ground again.
The sudden attack didn't catch only the Decepticon Leader off guard. Prime was also surprised and he looked back to where the shot had come from, and he saw what it was.
"Skyfire!?" he exclaimed in surprise.
Megatron grunted as he realized what just happened.
"What- Is that traitor here, too?" he grunted as he tried to move.
The Seekers made a sudden maneuver as they saw the sudden flash; the two Starscreams reacted in different ways. The Air Commander stopped suddenly in the air and looked at the hill, and later to his fallen leader; a mixed emotion appeared on his face, one so strong that paralyzed him in the middle of the battle. On the other hand, the blue Starscream became confused by the sudden events: the Decepticon Leader was felled by the servos of a newcomer. Who? How?
The unexpected attack had confused him and that moment of distraction was fatal: the big servo of Superion hit him as if he were a fly, he didn't see that coming, and suddenly he found himself rolling in the air without any control. He screamed as he tried to regain control in the air, but his back's structure was damaged by the strike of the gigantic servo so he couldn't get back in control, and his path ended with him crashing to the side of a hill. The other Starscream was shocked also by what was happening: his counterpart had just fallen because of Superion, and as he realized his current situation, his attention went back to the Aerialbot Gestalt and the combat he was involved in.
Meanwhile, Megatron tried to take back control of the fight, but his arm was badly damaged and he couldn't move it in order to raise his weapon: the strike filled by Skyfire's hatred had badly damaged his main weapon's maneuver. Suddenly, he realized the Prime had noticed his current situation and tried to take advantage of this by jumping on him; he rolled aside in order to avoid Prime's attack which he did so… except for the fact that Optimus caught him by his wounded arm. The Decepticon Leader grunted as he felt the pain, but another sudden flash of energy, which almost roasted his nose, made him realize he was in more danger than he thought at first. Skyfire had fired at him once again.
He rolled and kicked Prime viciously, trying to avoid his grasp; an accurate kick on the Prime's face plate got the result he wanted. Megatron got up and ran towards the seekers shouting:
"Decepticons retreat!" he ordered in his usual fashion, "Get all the energon cubes you can and fly off!"
The seekers stopped in the air and looked at their leader in stupor for a few seconds, then, they made up their minds and began to fly behind Megatron. Soundwave did the same without a word; Starscream looked back for a moment with an indecipherable expression on his face, then, he turned back and murmured:
"That is what we should have done at first…"
"What about the other Starscream?" the strong voice of Thundercracker suddenly asked.
"Leave him alone!" ordered Megatron. "He knows how to get back to the HQ… And the Autobots haven't noticed him."
The rest just kept their vocalizers closed as they heard the leader. Soundwave's big optic got darker in worry and he said in his usual fashion:
"Poor judgment… The Autobots know about him already. To expose him is a risk."
"Shut up, Soundwave! I didn't ask for your opinion… We can know how loyal he is to us if he tries to get back!" Megatron explained.
The Communicators officer did so and kept his own opinion to himself as the Decepticon crew fled away.
The Gestalt group separated themselves into their members and they landed next to Prime, Prowl and Ironhide, who were looking in the direction where the Decepticons had flown away.
"They've fled," announced Prowl.
"Of course! They always do that!" exclaimed Ironhide.
"No… they flew away because they already got what they wanted," explained Prime with a sad look around him. The explosions burnt the frozen ground and there were several human corpses around, some of them were crumpled in a mess of fabrics and bloody flesh, and besides them, the pipelines still burning their precious contents.
"I'm going to see if anybody's still alive," announced Prowl in his stoical fashion. He understood how Prime felt.
"Okay, I'll take care of the fire in the pipeline," Ironhide added.
"Please do so, both of you."
"Firelight, Air Raid, go and help Ironhide," Silverbot ordered, then he turned back to Optimus. "Prime, can you explain what's happened here?"
"The Decepticons got the Energon they wanted, you dolt!" exclaimed Slingshot, "so they just flew away."
"I don't mean that…" the Aerialbot leader turned towards his zealous subordinate. "I mean, why Megatron flew away if they were able to be victorious… Have you noticed that new seeker? The one with so many kibbles?"
"Yes, I've seen him, too," admitted Prime "I don't know who he is; it's the first time I've seen him."
"…However, I could answer one of your questions, Silverbot," interrupted a new soft voice.
All the Autobots turned towards the newcomer's voice and they saw the gigantic figure of Skyfire walking down the hill towards them, and they looked at him in wonder.
"I shot Megatron when he was fighting Prime," he explained, "so he should think a fight against all of us was a risk too high for only a bunch of energon cubes." He looked around. "I am sorry for what happened here… I am sorry for those humans," he said, his voice tinged of pity. "Perhaps I should inform the Russian scientist who I'm working with about possible survivors," he announced.
"There is no need for that, yet," exclaimed Prowl as he examined the area. "There are no survivors. All humans here are dead by now."
A gloomy air covered the Prime's face as he watched Prowl examine the buildings and corpses; meanwhile Ironhide, helped by the two Aerialbots, crushed the pipelines and froze them in order to extinguish the fire; step by step, the fire was getting smaller, and its golden light and waves of hot air began to disappear. If the fire wouldn't die, the entire oil-installation would explode with awful consequences.
"I'm sorry, Prime… Perhaps I should have been here sooner," Skyfire apologized as he also looked around the area.
"Don't worry about that, big guy!" exclaimed Ironhide as he froze the pipeline. "The wound was already open when we got here."
Skyfire chuckled softly till they heard Air Raid asking from where he stood:
"Still, what about this guy, the weird blue seeker? ...I mean: he's really fast and his right wing… it's a sword!" he exclaimed.
"Perhaps I'm speaking nonsense… but, what if the thing that dropped from the warp was him?" Skydive suggested as he held the open wound on his shoulder. "He is incredibly fast and has great skill."
The rest of the crew turned to him in amazement.
"That never occurred to me…" muttered Prowl in tone oddly tinged with embarrassment. "It could be, Prime. Perhaps we should test that theory, but we don't have any proof besides the little metallic pieces."
Skyfire looked at Skydive, the young grey and red Aerialbot. He was the one who Skyfire felt most connected to, but he found he wasn't able to understand what Skydive meant to say.
"What are you talking about?"
"Long story," answered Air Raid. "But if you want to hear it, I suggest you ask Preceptor…"
"Yes, he'd love to give you a full speech about that," added Slingshot with a mock smile.
Skyfire raised an eye ridge. The talk between these two guys sounded more than a private joke than anything.
"Prime, I suggest that we should go back to the HQ as soon as we finish our task here. It's getting dark and we should repair ourselves and analyze the information," said Prowl, cutting the discussion between the Aerialbots.
"Ok, Prowl, you're right!" he nodded. "There is nothing more we can do here…" his tone still tinged with sorrow.
"Ok, then, let's go!" exclaimed Ironhide. Then, he hesitated. "You coming, too?" he asked Skyfire.
"N-No," he answered, "I must advise the Russian scientist about what happened here."
"Okay! Suit yourself," Ironhide shrugged and transformed himself.
Skyfire watched as his companion Autobots left, some of them flying and some running on the ground. He sighed and lowered his view; the sun was setting and his white body shone golden with the polar light, but he could see in the dark. Then, he realized the meaning of the previous discussion with the Aerialbots; his view turned towards a nearby hill.
Yes, he had seen the blue seeker crashing to the side of the rocky hill there, and he hadn't flown out from there.
The grasp on his weapon tightened and he walked towards that rocky hill.
Starscream moaned as he felt the wound on his back, and he placed his sword-wing back to its place. It was the first time he had suffered a wound like this… and he didn't like it at all. He had been careless, as a warrior, he shouldn't have been distracted by an attack like that, even if that shot had been able to hit Megatron and demolish him so suddenly. But Starscream was annoyed with himself for more than that: yesterday he had been badly wounded, and in spite of the fact that he had been repaired by the Constructions guys, he was only repaired just recently - and he had got wounded once again.
Starscream began to think this reality was affecting his judgment in battle.
"Primus," he exclaimed as he tried to get up on his odd pedes, "I'm so stupid!" He touched his back structure and let his internal systems check out its condition. "Well… it isn't really that bad…" he said with relief.
Swindle beeped from his left arm.
"Yes, I know, we could have demolished that gigantic Gestalt guy with one shot… but I cannot allow you to show yourself to the rest of the Transformers here," he warned, but the Minicon beeped again. "Look at this: if you'd helped me, I could have dispersed the Autobots, but that's not what I want… And we'd be in great danger for that," he reasoned.
He leant back against the rocks of the hill as he watched the sky getting dark; the fire had been extinguished and now, he could feel the Siberian cold wind and the place getting dark. He smiled at the thought of the Autobots extinguishing the fire, he had caused the pipeline explosion, although not deliberately.
"… I know they flew away," he murmured. "They did it again… that does not surprise me." He closed his optics. "I can repair myself with my own systems in a recharge cycle… I'm still keeping the energon cubes in my storage compartment, so I can do that with my own systems." His tone was amused.
He waited with his optics closed for a few minutes as he let his internal systems do their repairing job; his mind floated as he thought on the latest events and future plans: after his encounter with the Autobots of this reality, he doubted they would let him join them, moreover if they knew who he was. He was also shocked by the demeanor of the Decepticons in this reality, and overall, with the cruelty his counterpart showed since first sight. Still, he didn't have any better option but to remain with them till he could find a better place to recover..
But he had the feeling his counterpart and the Megatron here would not allow him to make any strange movements. Starscream could understand his counterpart's attitude towards him, and he had seen some strange events, which gave him strong deja-vú feelings… But he didn't yet know what he could expect from his counterpart. He was cruel, he didn't hesitate to threaten someone's life to obtain his purposes by means of blackmail... and once he had done that, he killed them. But, at same time, he seemed to have a personal battle with the Megatron of this reality, where he was used to being defeated, and he also seemed to be worried by his presence here.
Starscream was surprised at himself as he realized he wanted to know more things about his counterpart. Till now, this thought scared him.
But now that couldn't happen, he was abandoned in the middle of an almost frozen place of Earth, and he didn't have a clue about what could happen next. Whatever happened, he couldn't do anything but wait and see what was going to happen.
A cold wind brushed his proximity sensors and he had the urge to open his optics and look forward.
A big grey cannon was pointed at him, the cannon of a big weapon held tightly by a gigantic white guy.
"Don't dare to move," warned the big white guy in a soft but firm tone, "if you don't want me to fire at you."
Story Notes:
(1) The dialogue in Russian says:
-SS: "Where's the control room, human?"
-Guy: Wha-what?"
-SS: "You heard me. Answer me!"
-SS: "I'll let you go if you tell me."
-SS: Do you know what? I lied…"
I know that in parts of Siberia other dialects are spoken, but I don't think the workers at a petrol station would speak those. So I put it in Russian. The Russian dialogue was edited by Caravanka. Thank you very much!
(2) In the cartoon, we seen the energon produced by petroleum and as such it is iridescent in several colors. And the one produced by Vulcan, energy crystals and such, is pink.
Re-Edited by Cathleigh