Decepticons Can Dance
Chapter 9
"Well, shit, things just went from bad to worse," Liana mumbled under her breath. At this moment, she didn't know what to fear the most: the infuriated seeker or the aggressive wolves. "Torn to pieces by wolves or smashed into a pancake by a pissed off giant robot? I ought to flip a coin for this."
The wolves turned their fierce gaze onto the second intruder who befouled their den. Their fur bristled like porcupine quills. Froth began to form around their mouth as long as Starscream stood in their midst. The beasts refused to back down and easily surrender to this unearthly foe. Now, they almost seemed to disregard Liana exclusively as they focused on him.
Daringly, the DJ looked at her furious savior. He too seemed fixated on the wolves. His null rays were aimed at the animals, ready to blast them.
"Run!" Liana screamed to herself mentally. "Get out!"
She exhaled sharply and stealthily attempted to sneak back out towards where she entered the cave. Her heart palpitated wildly within her ribcage and she was almost sure she was going to have a coronary right then and then there. But she didn't have time to halt and allow this fright-induced heart attack to occur: the only thing mattered was getting out to live for another day.
"You stay right there, organic wench!" Starscream hissed with surprising ire.
Liana never heard such venom in his voice before. Instantly, she froze in her tracks for fear of being crushed by his literal iron fist. Some color left her face and she felt fear ball up in her like a spiny hedgehog. There was certainly no way she was going anywhere now.
The wolves still refused to back down. They remained fixed on Starscream as he did so on them. Everything seemed to be set up like a really weird version of a Mexican standoff.
"You will come with me now," the air commander told the young woman. His ruby optics were still glued onto his bestial foes. "I will lower my servo down to you and you will step into it. By Primus, you better do it or I will personally feed you to those filthy creatures!"
Liana could only look back at him with a wide-eyed stare. Truthfully, she didn't know which was worse. She figured she'd actually have a nicer death being torn apart by the wolves considering the Hell Starscream would put her through after he extracted her from the den.
He lowered his clawed servo to the ground. The green eyes girl began to bite her nails out of sheer apprehension. She could die now by wolves or perish a possibly more gruesome and violent way within a short amount of time by Starscream.
"I can talk my way out of it," Liana spoke within herself. "I can lie. No, I have to. I'm going to hold off on dying for as long as possible. I just hope he's not mad enough to not listen to my explanation… Boy, I just might be fucked."
After a few seconds of hesitation, she cautiously placed her foot onto his servo. She pushed herself up and her other foot followed. Liana sat down, preferring to not stand up lest she lost her balance. Her eyes didn't lock with his optics.
Once he had her within his grasp, he turned back to the hostile beasts. He only bore his fangs at them and hissed menacingly.
The wolves yelped and whined as if they were meek and fearful puppies. With their tails between their legs, they turned around and bolted, retreating deeper into their abode. Their shrieks of terror echoed against the rocky walls, creating an eerie and harrowing chorus. This went on for a minute or two before their noise died down all together, leaving an empty and disquieting silence.
Then Starscream gave Liana his full and undivided attention. The look he gave her made her organs turn to rot at once.
"I want to hear your explanation for this," he growled with the hostility that reminded her of the wolves he saved her from.
"Actually, I do," she said quickly. "I swear, it's the truth. I decided to take a jog in the woods. You know, we Earthlings need to watch ourselves with what we eat. Plus, we need plenty of exercise. Also, I planned on going to my apartment back in the city so I could grab some CDs for the next party your boss wants me to throw."
"You are a horrible liar!"
Liana somehow felt her face grow even whiter than what it was already. When she swallowed, it felt like a watermelon was snaking down her esophagus.
"Nuh-uh!" she asserted. "I just didn't want you to disturb you earlier because you looked so comfortable chilling out!"
"That's a load of slag and you know it!" he thundered. "You decided to run off to escape me! I know very well what was on your mind… I admit you fooled me once so shame on me. If you plan on fooling me a second time then shame on you, femme."
"Aww, fine, fuck it!" She was just as irritated as him. "I admit: I did want to escape! Maybe I would've succeeded if I didn't take that nap in that den full of damn wolves! I was so close!"
"No, you weren't…" He pointed a finger at her. "You failed. You're not going anywhere. You're stuck here with us til death takes you away."
Liana did not want to hear this at all. Vigorously, she shook her head. It just wasn't possible. It was cruel and unusual punishment… But he was a Decepticon after all.
"No, you can't do this to me!" she raved. "I can't live in that goddamn crate until I'm an old woman! I'd rather kill myself than suffer such a horrible fate! I'd go insane!"
"You have no say in this," he said dourly. "Once Megatron has his optics set on you, there's nothing you can do. He'll either kill you or you'll be captured in order to be freed from the Decepticons."
She wanted to cry like she never cried before. However, she didn't want to look weak in front of Starscream and lead him to believe she was a whiner. Liana bit her lower lip and tried to dam up her woe.
"But it's not fair!" she said. "I have to life with you, your evil boss and your crazy friends FOREVER?"
"Sheesh, take it down a notch, please…" he grumbled. "It's not that bad."
"Are you hearing yourself?" At this point, she didn't care if she sounded like a total diva. "I'm in a nest of Decepticons! It's a billion times worse than in a den of wolves! I'm never going to go to my real job again! I'm never gonna sleep in my own bed! I'm a slave!"
"SILENCE!"
His screechy voice rang out loudly and proudly through the dark forest. Liana painfully cringed at the magnitude of his voice. She ceased her pouting.
"Good God, no wonder why they call you Starscream…" she remarked.
"Listen up, femme," he resumed. "If Blitzwing, Lugnut or any other mindless minion of Megatron was in my place, you'd be marked for instant death. They would tell him of your little exodus and the bot himself would squish you like your species crushes cockroaches. However, I, on the other hand, am much more compliant…"
Hope filled her eyes.
"You mean, you won't tell him?" she asked softly. "Please, don't tell him!"
"Alright, I won't…" He smiled wickedly. "But only on one condition."
"I have a feeling I'm not going to like it but let me hear it."
"Promise me you will never try to escape again and don't tell Megatron you ran off. He'd have my helm if he found out I almost lost you… Do we have a deal?"
His word meant nothing to her. As far as Liana was concerned, he was ready to kill her a few minutes earlier. Not only that, all those 'Cons were heartless murderers. She believed she owed nothing to them considering they interrupted her happy and flowering existence. All she had to do was put on a sincere act and then plot a more fool-proof and more carefully thought out plan to escape once and for all.
"Absolutely," Liana smirked, "hey, why not? You scratch my back, I scratch yours… Don't take that literally. You have claws like Freddy Kreuger. I'm upset that I won't be free but I at least want to live." Then she narrowed her gaze at him. "Maybe you'll set me free one day out of the kindness of your black, shriveled up heart."
"It'll take a lot of convincing, Liana," he spat. "I'm not risking my life for you by allowing you to go free."
Starscream turned his gaze up to the sky. A few stars were starting to appear as the sun finally dipped behind the horizon. He could hear crickets drone and an owl hooted nearby. Twilight was practically there.
"Today has been quite the day for the both of us," he said, shattering the silence. "We might as well head back to our humble home so no one raises any brow plates."
"I can't believe I miss my crate," Liana said dismally. "But I guess it's better than chilling out in that thing rather than getting ripped to pieces by wolves. God, now I remember why I only went camping once! I hate nature!"
"Well, that'll certainly discourage you from making any forays into nature, right?"
"You ain't telling me much, flyboy. Now take me back to my crate so I can be miserable there."
(…)
"Starscream!"
Blitzwing's optics earnestly scanned the expansive forest, on the lookout for the seeker or the DJ. Megatron had ordered him to go search for them since they hadn't been seen since the early afternoon when the two first set out. To say the least, the triple changer was glad to have been given the task: things were getting oppressively boring again.
"Starscream, stop playing in ze voods, jou dumbaft!" Hothead called, creating an echo. "Vhere are jou?"
"Liana, my musical friend!" Random crooned. "Did jou run avay?" He laughed. "Oh, I see! Jou vant to play a game of hide and seek vith me! Jour challenge has been accepted!"
"I forfeit," Liana's voice came from the dark landscape. "I'm in no mood for games."
At last, he could see Starscream emerge from the woods with Liana who sat obediently in his servo. Blitzwing's painfully large smile greeted them as they walked up to the mine's entrance where he stood.
"So vhere vere jou two?" Icy questioned. "Jou've been gone for some time."
"Humans need time to get some fresh air and whatnot so they can maintain their health and happiness," Starscream explained.
The blue face rather ignored his answer. Instead, he smirked mischievously which was somewhat uncharacteristic of him. His arms folded across his chest and he chuckled gently.
"Yes, zat's vhat zhey all say," he said smugly.
"You are sick!" Liana barked. "There was no lovey-doveyness! I was getting my fresh air and this creep was watching me the whole time!"
"Blitzwing, if you're actually implying such a thing, you're more insane than I've previously thought!" Starscream huffed. "Then again, maybe you are if you're thinking that an organic and Cybertronian are in love…"
"Did jou ever hear of a joke, Starscream?" Blitzwing sighed.
"Maybe you're the one with hidden affections considering you kidnapped a Human to begin with!"
Liana's jaw dropped quite steeply at this accusation. Instantly, her eyes plastered to Blitzwing.
"Oh, please!" Hothead shook his helm disapprovingly. "Zhose organic femmes are so ugly and not vorth my time!"
"Fuck you too," she bit back. "You never could get a girlfriend either way because you're more insane than the Joker on meth! And you're ugly to boot. I hope you fall in love with a Human girl and she steps all over you. You ought to never underestimate the females of my species. That includes me as well!"
"Hey, I have feelings too…" Random said sorrowfully. However, his large smile made a triumphant return. "Maybe I vill find an organic femme and prove jou vrong!"
"Yeah, right…" Icy came back. "Not in zis lifetime. I vould razher be turned into an Autobot femme."
Inwardly, Starscream smirked. As annoying as Liana could be, especially during her rants, he liked that boldness. Despite the fact her fear had been overridden by boldness, he learned to deal with it. In fact, he was just content she wasn't one of those cowards who sat in their cell (or crate) curled up into a ball, quivering like a leaf.
Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he thought it was definitely going to be interesting to have a Human living alongside him. The seeker was certainly anticipating what was going to come about as time went on.
