Chapter 7

Starscream's powerful engine snarled as he flew through the air, turbines working full blast. Yet again, he'd received another painful beating from Megatron for his 'failures' before being allowed to take off again. Furious, sore and battered, all he wanted to do was take to the skies and let off steam. So far out of Detriot, the last thing he expected to pick up was an Autobot signal.

Diving down beneath the clouds, the seeker peered down at the highway below him, easily picking out the yellow beetle from the other cars, the source of the signal.

It's that yellow scout that's been all over the fleshling's news, Starscream thought, maybe I ought to take him home. After all, he must miss being in the company of other mechs, especially ones as handsome and brilliant as myself.

Suddenly an image of the small yellow mech popped up in his meta. He was small, but...for an Autobot...he was beautiful. He deserved no less than perfection, and from what was available on this planet, the little bug was as close to perfection as he was going to get.

Starscream transformed as lustful images of the beetle flooded into his meta. It was all too easy to imagine the little beauty stretched out for him, eyes dark with lust, begging for him. It'd been so long since he'd felt the touch of another, since he'd felt a port around his spike, and the images of the yellow mech weren't helping to keep the rampant lust coursing through his systems under control.

Knowing speed was going to be his best weapon, the jet dived down after his prize.

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The noise alerted Bumblebee to the seekers presence. No longer caring for his cove r, but more for the safety of the humans around him, he transformed, skidding on the road using the wheels in his heels. Turning to fire his stingers at the seeker, his optics widened in terror. The Decepticon second in command was a lot closer than he expected, a lot closer than was comfortable.

"What do you want, Decepticon scum?" he snarled, optics darting around to make sure the humans were either stopping before them, or moving right out of the way. Thankfully, they were all doing just that. Starscream smirked, and something about the way his optics glew put him on edge...something was wrong, very wrong, and every wire inside of him screamed at him to transform and take off. No! If I do, he could attack the humans, I have to protect them for as long as I can!

"I want you," he purred, not even flinching when Bee fired his stingers at him. Fragging things, why couldn't I have had properly powered stingers, for the love of Primus!

"What the Pit does that mean, fragger?!" he snarled back at the 'Con. Starscream gave him a lecherous, fanged grin that sent shudders down his backstrut.

"Dumb, little Autobot," he snickered. Lowering his weapon, he fired his laser into the beetle's chassis, sending the smaller mech flying to the ground, skidding along the tarmac. Starscream landed beside him, paying no thought to the screaming humans around him, "You won't be innocent much longer." That was the last he heard before his systems shut down, vision fading to black.

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Ratchet sighed, digits drumming along the keyboard as he watched the monitors. Optimus had left him to watch them while he went out on patrol. With Prowl out all the time, and Bulkhead trying to keep them in contact with Sari, there was no one else here to relieve the Prime from monitor duty when patrols needed to be done.

This increased workload is less than you deserve, the voice in the back of his meta snarled at him, Bumblebee is probably dead, partially because of you and the worst you have to endure is an extra workload.

Shut up, Ratchet snapped back. He no longer cared that having a mental argument with himself was not a good thing. Any mech, or femme for that matter that was involved in something like this, and didn't lose a piece of their sanity, wasn't normal.

The monitors caught his drifting attention when they flashed with an urgent report. Oh great, another human problem for us to resolve, just perfect, Ratchet growled to himself, what the Pit have they done this time?

"Police report a major pile up on Highway 74, heading towards Cincinnati, citizens are advised to avoid travelling through that area for the rest of the day, any further delays will be reported," the newsbot reported on-screen.

And that's urgent news?! Ratchet thought, sighing and leaning back in his chair, humans are ridiculous sometimes, it's just a pile up, not the end of the world.

"The cause of the incident is generally unknown, and facts are sketchy," the newsbot continued, "But members of the public involved in the crash say it was caused by a fight between two transforming robots."

At this, Ratchet sat bolt upright.

"One witness had this to say," the screen changed from the newsbot to a middle aged balding man, standing with what seemed to be his wife and child.

"Yeah, I saw 'em," he said roughly, "The yellow VW beetle was drivin' just infront of me when that crazy jet dived down after it. Then it just transformed, and before we knew it, there was this giant, freaking robot right infront of us!"

Ratchet's spark stopped.

A yellow...Bumblebee...? Could it be? Could the little mech truly have survived all this time by himself?

The screen flashed back to the reporting robot, "This amateur footage was also captured by another witness on his cell phone." Without even thinking about it consciously, Ratchet made sure to record what was happening, optics never leaving the screen as the pixelated footage popped up on the screen.

Just as the man had described, an all to recognisable seeker had dived right of the sky, right for an all too familiar yellow beetle. As if to prove further that this wasn't all a trick, as the car transformed, the figure that it became was recognisable to him anywhere. It really was their missing mech. He didn't have long to feel relieved to see him alive, before the mech was blasted in the chassis and carried away by the Decepticon.

"Bumblebee no!" Ratchet yelled at the screen as the video cut back to the reporter, but he was no longer listening to what it was saying, "We'll save you, we will...I swear we will."

Not hesitating for a second, he opened his communicator, sending an open communication to the whole team, All of you, listen to me and don't you dare interrupt.

Ratchet, what's going in? Optimus demanded, sensing the medic's urgent, and shaking tone.

Bumblebee is alive, I have footage of him on the human news-

He's alive?! Bulkhead interrupted, Where, we need to go and get him now!

We'll meet back at base and head to his location, where- Optimus was interrupted by an extremely annoyed sounding Ratchet.

It's not that fragging simple, we can't just go and get him! Ratchet snapped down the line, getting increasingly worried about the beetle the more he thought about the situation he was in.

...What do you mean Ratchet? Prowl asked quietly, speaking for the first time. Ratchet's voice turned grave, setting all of them on edge.

Starscream has him.

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When Bumblebee regained consciousness again, he was in a small holding cell. The cell was dimly lit, only letting the small mech see a few feet infront of him.

"Ugh...what...?" groaning as he sat up, Bee inspected his surroundings. He remembered being blasted by Starscream on the highway heading back to Detroit, but after that, his memory was fuzzy. Trying to move away from the wall behind him, he found himself unable to move more than a few meters, the collar around his neck, that he hadn't noticed until it almost strangled him, keeping him chained to the wall. "The slag?!"

Looking behind him at the wall, he found the collar was attached to the wall by a laser leash, but that wasn't what horrified the beetle. Large and dark, it stared at him in the dim light of his prison. The dark purple glare of the Decepticon insignia.

"No! No slag no!" grabbing the leash, he tried to pull it out of the wall desperately, "No, no, no, no! Come on, come on!" This position was all too familiar to him, and he wasn't keen on sticking around to see what would happen to him when Starscream, or worse, Megatron himself came in to deal with him.

"I think your little prisoner is awake, Starscream," Megatron's dark voice carried into the holding cells, making Bumblebee freeze with fear, spark pounding so hard in its chamber, he was sure everyone in the Decepticon's base could hear it.

"It sure sounds like it, my Lord," Starscream's voice was just as much of an unwelcome sound right now, "Permission to go and...have some fun with him?"

"Permission granted," Megatron growled approvingly, and Bumblebee could almost hear the lust in his voice, "Just make sure to save some for your Leader."

"Of course, my liege," came the reply. The door to the cells creaked open, letting more light into the dim cells. Bee shrunk against the wall, as if willing himself to disappear into the cave walls, cursing the day his mother decided to paint him an unmissable bright yellow.

How in the Pit was he going to get out of this one?