Sean Berger Junior slept soundly, alone in his oversized bed. He looked nothing like his father, some would have called that a blessing. His father had been the most hated man on the planet. Under the direction of Megatron he had led a relentless smear campaign against the Autobots. With the immense power of his media assets he had convinced a gullible race, consumed with fear of the giant robots that had invaded their planet, that they were evil and had to be exiled or destroyed.

To make amends for those actions, Berger Junior had used the assets he inherited from his father aid the government in building and staffing facilities to keep captured Decepticons imprisoned, and consequently dispose of them with the approval of the Autobots. It had never occurred to him though. He had been hailed as a hero, a man worthy of praise unlike his father. But he knew deep down, people only saw his father's mistakes when they looked at him.

The peace of the night was short lived, Sean Berger awoke to the sound of concrete and steel being smashed, and his eyes opened just in time to see a gigantic sky blue hand reach towards him and close around him, dragging him helplessly from the room.

"You'll do." Starscream's voiced sounded gleeful as he pulled the human into his field of view.

Sean Berger looked horrified, how could this possibly be happening to him? "W-what's going on?! Let me go! Get away from me! Please! Please don't hurt me!"

"Harming you would be a waste of my time." Starscream stated. "I have a job for you Sean Berger."

"I'm not doing anything for you! Because of you...! Because of you things, my father died in prison! A traitor!"

"That's because he was a traitor. A fool that lusted for power without the strength or the intelligence to back up his desire." Starscream smirked and held the tiny man closer. "I'm sure however, that you're different. To live with your father's shame and still be so well off, you must indeed be a man of honour. That's why I've come to you."

"What do you want from me?!" Berger screamed, struggling uselessly in Starscream's grip.

"It's very simple." Said Starscream. "I want you to release, every Decepticon you are holding prisoner. If you do not, and if you inform the Autobots about this request I will execute your family, and then I will execute you."

Starscream dropped the struggling man to the ground, and pointed the barrel of his null ray directly at his head. "Do you understand me, human?" Starscream grinned again, "Tomorrow, at exactly oh-three hundred hours of your Earth time I will arrive at your facility. I expect their restraints to be lifted and them to be fully fuelled at that moment. If they are not, do you understand what will happen to you and your family?"

Berger nodded slowly, he could feel a damp warmth spreading between his legs and he stuttered a response which could vaguely be considered an agreement.

"Good. Remember, oh-three hundred. Or I will start with your pretty little flesh bag children." Starscream laughed and turned away from Berger, jumping to the air and transforming again. In a matter of seconds he was gone, leaving the petrified man shivering in the cold night air.

-

Skywarp appeared inside an abandoned corridor of Autobot City. So far he had avoided triggering their alarm system. The short jumps he needed to move around the city required little energy and were an ideal way to avoid security devices placed periodically throughout the structure.

He ducked close to the wall and peered around the corner. The brig wasn't too far now, he had no idea how many Decepticons would be there of if it were even possible to free them. Even one ally to eventually use against Starscream would be worth the effort, but he would never lower himself to begging help from the Autobots. He would get him, in his own time, in his own way.

"Did you hear they finished construction of the new senate building?" Came a voice from the opposite end of the corridor.

"I can't deal with that now." Came the reply.

"I'm just glad Optimus Prime retained control of our new military." Came a third voice. "But why did he refuse a seat on the senate?"

"I figure politics just isn't his scene." The first voice stated again.

"I'm glad Shockwave is finally getting what he deserves. Will you be taking him back to Cybertron personally, Ultra Magnus?" The third voice asked.

"Yes. If I'm not present at the the execution, it would be an insult to all the good soldiers and civilians who died because I couldn't protect them from him." Magnus stated. "I'll be leaving the investigation into Starscream being sighted on Earth to you two."

The voices were getting closer, which prompted Skywarp to sink back into the shadows. He remained poised to teleport away should they turn to his direction, but he wanted to avoid giving them suspicion that someone had infiltrated their city. "Shockwave is here." He thought to himself. "If there is anyone who will refuse to bow down to Starscream, it's him."

The voices drifted on down the corridor, he had managed to avoid giving himself away for now. And he had attained a clear target as well. He crouched again, and teleported deeper into the structure. The light was getting dimmer at this point, the walls were dull and personnel were becoming sparse. He could see the outline of a prison complex, not too far from his current position.

"That must be it." He teleported again, just inside the complex itself. Guards stood on either side of a long control console, and a single Autobot watched displays of each cell. Each one was displayed through a night vision camera.

Skywarp was through sneaking at this point. He didn't have the capacity to think of a way to free his comrades without alerting those guards. So he had no choice. Raising both his arms he fired a rapid stream of searing laser fire into the backs of each of the guards. They toppled unceremoniously to the ground. The Autobot behind the console looked understandably confused as to what just happened, but Skywarp didn't give him time to raise the alarm. He teleported again, appearing directly in front of the stunned Autobot, using his leg to kick him hard, sending him smashing into the wall, and once again raising his cannon to land a pinpoint shot right into the Autobot's cranium, leaving a smoking hole where the Autobot's core system should have been.

The guard nearest the console crawled towards it, reaching for the controls, desperately wanting to sound the alarm. His arm outstretched he was inches away from accomplishing his goal when Skywarp's foot came down, smashing his hand into pieces against the cold steel floor.

"Die, Autobot scrap." Skywarp fired again, blowing apart the head of the Autobot whose hand he crushed. Before walking over to the final guard, crushing his head underfoot.

His satisfaction at his handiwork quickly turned to guilt. He thought of Melissa's face looking down at him, her head shaking disapprovingly. He shook off the thought, becoming frustrated at his increasing weakness. They were Autobots, they were the enemy. It wasn't personal, it was war. They were weak, and they were in the way, that was all there was to it. Just ants under the wheels of power.

Skywarp looked down at the console, controls for each cell were labelled under each display. Most of the cells were empty, but he checked the occupied monitors from left to right. Wildrider, Shockwave, Dead End, Thrust and Blitzwing.

"Not my first choices." He pulled down on the sturdy levers under each of the occupied monitors. Behind him the sounds of cell doors sliding upwards rang out, ending with a satisfying thud. Unexpectedly however, alarms began to sound throughout the city. Skywarp cursed his luck and dragged the smoking bodies of the two fallen Autobot guards by their feet.

Hauling them down the corridor toward the cells he strode proudly into the cell that housed Shockwave, and tossed one of the corpses at his feet.

"I got some energon for you." Skywarp smirked, using his weaponry to cut Shockwave loose from the bonds restraining him.

Shockwave stared at Skywarp with his single emotionless eye. "We must free the other Decepticons." Shockwave stated, not pausing to thank Skywarp. He reached down and tore the torso casing from the fallen guard, extracting his internal power supply.

"You're welcome." Skywarp expected nothing less, and proceeded to drag the other corpse into Blitzwing's cell.

Within minutes, the six Decepticons were gathered outside the prison complex, as the sound of running footsteps grew louder.

"We may not have sufficient power to enable our escape." Shockwave stated, taking immediate charge of the situation.

"What's the point in escaping?" Dead End droned miserably from the rear of the group. "We're only going to die for the effort."

"Our best course of action is to divide the attacking forces." Shockwave stated. "We will divide into three teams of two. Skywarp and Thrust will travel due north, using their superior speed to draw off the majority of their forces. Blitzwing and I being the least mobile will travel due east, allowing the fastest possible escape. Breakdown and Dead End shall use their reinforced structures to run interference due west before escaping due north in the path created by Skywarp and Thrust. I am now transmitting encrypted coordinates for rendezvous."

The other five Decepticons dared not challenge Shockwave's instructions. None of them were capable of coming up with a better plan for their survival. Though they couldn't help but feel pangs of anger at Shockwave's decision to give himself the fastest escape through eastern wall, Blitzwing however, felt nothing but relief.

They wouldn't have had time to issue any complaints even if they had intended to. A contingent of armed Autobots burst into the spacious courtyard and opened fire at the group of Decepticons. Shockwave and Blitzwing instantly took off towards the Eastern wall while the remaining four shot back at their pursuers.

"YEAAH! LET'S GO, DEAD END!" Wildrider blurted out, throwing his arms up in the air. Stooping to transform he sped off toward the group of Autobots smashing straight through them and speeding off into the west.

"Oh, I just know we won't survive this." Dead End shook his head and transformed following his partner's example and running over several Autobots before disappearing into the distance. As Shockwave had predicted, the rear of the group turned on their heels and pursued the deranged and depressed Stunticons.

Once Shockwave and Blitzwing were no longer visible Skywarp and Thrust looked at each and bolted due north as instructed. Transforming and taking off into their established territory they sped northbound to their designated target.

Without warning, a heavy shot of enemy fire seared upwards and struck Thrust square in the underbelly. The VTOL jet gave a helpless cry and stuttered to a halt careering back towards the earth, transforming to avoid landing on his head. Glancing to the rear Skywarp could see Ultra Magnus' smoking weapon as he approached the downed body of Thrust, ready to deliver a death blow to the disabled robot.

Skywarp continued onwards. It wasn't his concern, Thrust was expendable, he only had to worry about his own safety. He considered teleporting away, putting some real distance between him and the pursuing Autobots. Before he could however, he saw it again, the image in the back of his mind of Melissa's disapproving stare glaring down at him. The compulsion from the war protocol to flee and the gnawing frustration of the image that was torturing him prevented him from taking decisive action. Skywarp slowed and banked slightly to consider the action once more.

"I'm going to regret this. I know it." He banked sharply, barrelling down on his fallen companion and the imposing white form of Ultra Magnus. He had been seen however and Magnus turned the barrel of his gun on Skywarp. A tremendous volley of energy flew out toward Skywarp and looked like it was going to cause massive damage if they collided at that speed. But the shot never met its target.

With a high-pitched snap Skywarp appeared directly in front of Ultra Magnus, his rocket propelled body slamming into the white robot, knocking him onto his back. Magnus however wasn't going to stay down so easily. He let off another shot from his rifle destroying one of Skywarp's primary engines. The jet transformed to regain some mobility and skidded to a halt on his knees several feet from Magnus' head.

"Uncharacteristically noble for a Decepticon." Magnus spat, as he rolled onto his front firing another volley at Skywarp who used the force from his remaining engine to dodge to the side. "You sneak in here, and you free the prisoner I've waited four million years to bring to justice. You're going to regret you didn't run while you had the chance."

Skywarp snarled and raised his fists, seemingly forgetting the weapons attached to his upper arms. Luckily for Skywarp, Magnus' cumbersome and energy consuming rifle was out of power. Both of them discarding their distance weaponry in favour of melee combat circled each other briefly before lunging into a flurry of fists and feet.

Skywarp however was physically inferior to Ultra Magnus, even without his armour. Skywarp struggled to put up a fight and soon found himself flying backwards, colliding with his fallen comrade, as Ultra Magnus advanced on him.

"Give it up. And come quietly. If you help us track down Shockwave we may give you a nice easy sentence spending the rest of your life in prison." Magnus said calmly, reclaiming his rifle from the ground.

"Guess I'm not a match for you after all." Skywarp grinned and held tight onto Thrust's immobile frame, looking directly into Magnus' bright blue eyes. "The noble thing to do would be to comply and submit when I'm defeated, right?"

Magnus said nothing, and stopped advancing on Skywarp for a moment, before realization dawned upon him. "No you don't!" He shouted, lunging toward Skywarp trying to grab him before he completed his silent preparations.

"So long, Soldier-Boy." Skywarp's grin turned to a smirk worthy of his brother's arrogant trademark. He and Thrust disappeared with another high pitched snap, leaving Magnus with his silent unchannelled rage.