Chapter 9 - Stowaway
Glory wriggled herself deeper into the gap between two of the storage crates and curled up tightly, still clutching Dragon under one arm and hardly daring to cycle air. In the months she had lived here she had explored every sector of the Nemesis that she was allowed to wander (and a few sectors that were technically off-limits) and had learned of almost every nook and cranny that was large enough for her to squeeze into. Such knowledge served her well in her day-to-day exploits -- hiding places while playing games with the Stunticons, plotting and staging grounds when she and the cassettes concocted pranks, or far more often as sanctuaries when she had annoyed some Decepticon past safe levels and was threatened with harm.
Such as now.
She switched her color scheme to black and offlined her optics to make herself less visible, trembling and waiting for the sound of footsteps to pass by. Of all the Decepticons here, Starscream was the one she feared enough to try not to antagonize. Sure, Motormaster was big and dangerous, the triple-changers were the same way, Megatron was a grouch, and Hook was stuck-up, but it was almost fun getting those mechs to lose their tempers -- they made such entertaining shows of it. Mixmaster was creepy and she avoided him when she could, but that didn't stop her from occasionally gluing his chemistry equipment to the workbench or similar pranks. Soundwave... he was an ongoing project for her, as she was firmly determined to someday rile him enough for him to actually react to her pranks.
Starscream was a different story. From the very beginning the Air Commander had made it perfectly clear that he hated her, and he seemed to take advantage of every opportunity he could to insult and terrify her. She didn't understand why he disliked her so much, but at least she had learned to gauge his moods and keep her distance from him. But prank him... she left that to the cassettes. For she had quickly learned that the last thing she wanted was an angry Starscream pursuing her. Most mechs knew that damaging Glory would mean severe punishment and most likely wouldn't carry out their threats if they happened to catch her; Starscream either thought he was valuable enough to Megatron that he wouldn't suffer a penalty for hurting the sparkling, or he just didn't care. At any rate, the red-and-white Seeker was the only mech in the base that Glory went out of her way to avoid pranking or even crossing his path.
Today, however, her latest project had gotten entirely out of hand, and not only was half the base in an uproar trying to find the organic animal she had smuggled in a few days ago, but said animal had left a mess in Starscream's quarters... and he pinned the blame squarely on her.
Slow, carefully measured footsteps sounded, and Starscream's white and blue feet became visible between the gap in the crates. She curled herself up tighter, hoping beyond hope that he would just walk on by...
"Come out, come out, wherever you are, Glory," said the Seeker tauntingly. "The storage bay's no place for a sparkling, you know. Your uncle wouldn't like it if something were to happen to you, would he?"
She swallowed a whimper. Starscream's feet didn't move, but she got the impression that he was looking around for a sign of her.
"You think you're so cute, do you?" he sneered. "You think all you have to do is flash that sickeningly sweet little smile of yours and you'll have the Decepticons falling over themselves to please you." A disdainful laugh. "You might have Megatron fooled. You might have your uncle fooled. You might even have Soundwave fooled. But you can't fool me. I'm not falling for your little tricks, child. You can't soften ME up and turn me into a pathetic fawning excuse for a mech, two steps shy of an Autobot. I won't be manipulated by you..."
The chirp of Starscream's radio interrupted his monologue, and with a muttered curse he answered. "What? Now? What the slag are you... all right, fine! I'll be right there, ETA five minutes, O Mighty Megatron." In a lower voice he snarled "You luck out this time, brat. Next time one of your pets trashes my quarters, I'll take it out of your plating." And he strode away, the sharp clip of his footsteps fading.
A little red warning light pinged in her diagnostic display, and she suddenly remembered she'd shut down her air cycling system. She kicked it back into gear, gasping in air and feeling her internal temperature drop in relief. Why was Starscream so upset anyhow? The cassettes had vandalized his quarters before -- and done a lot worse job of it than the sea otter had -- and he hadn't gotten this upset over it. At least the otter hadn't sprayed him with black stuff like the octopus had done to Reflector when they'd come across it and tried to kick it out of the way.
She didn't understand what all the fuss was about with organic animals anyhow. Sure, most of them were really small, and you had to be more careful with them than with Cybertronian animals, but they were cute and harmless. And she didn't see the harm in having a pet of some kind. It would keep her company while the Decepticons were off fighting and raiding power plants. But every time she managed to sneak out and catch one it eventually ended up getting squished or thrown back out...
More footsteps approaching, these ones a little lighter, a little quicker. Lowering her air cycles a bit, she shrank back into her hiding place. Please let it not be Starscream, please let it not be Starscream...
A black-and-purple mech poked his head into the gap between the crates, and she screamed. The mech returned the shriek and jumped back, the plates of sheet metal he was carrying scattering in every direction. The ruckus raised by their dual screams and the banging metal brought more footsteps... and two more black-and-purple mechs.
"Fraggit, Kickback, what was that for?" one of them snarled, a masked mech with a strange horn or crest that looked almost like a gun protruding from the top of his head. "You wanna blow our cover or what?"
"Shut up, Bombshell," snapped the one he'd called Kickback, bending down to pick up the dropped metal. This mech wore a scarlet visor and yellow antennae, and a pair of silvery wings jutted from his back -- not sweeping elegantly to the side like Seeker wings, but pointing straight up to the sky like sails on a human boat.
"What the frag is that-that?" stuttered the third mech, this one also wearing a visor but possessing two large prongs curving from his shoulders rather than wings. "Looks like a Minibot-Minibot."
"You idiot, Shrapnel, why would a Minibot be on the Nemesis?" demanded Kickback. He turned toward Glory and frowned. "You a Minibot, kid?"
She shook her head, still too startled to speak.
"Aw, you scared her-her," noted Shrapnel, his expression softening just a touch. "She's just a little thing, too. Sparkling from the look of her-her."
"A sparkling on the Nemesis makes about as much sense as a Minibot on the Nemesis," Bombshell noted, bending down to peer at Glory. He didn't have to bend far -- if you didn't count Kickback's wings or Shrapnel's prongs as added height, these mechs were only slightly taller than she was. Still, there were three of them and one of her, and she'd never seen them before. Were they harmless... or would they try to hurt her?
"Whatcha doing here, kid?" asked Kickback, cocking his head to one side. "What's your name?"
"I... I'm Glory," she replied, uncurling slightly. "You... you aren't gonna hurt me, are you?"
"Hurt you?" repeated Shrapnel, placing a hand over his spark chamber and looking appalled. "Why would we hurt a sparkling-sparkling? It's unthinkable, I tell you-you!"
"Insecticons may be greedy, moral-less, son-of-a-glitch mercenaries, but we don't hurt kids," Kickback added, flashing his dental plates in a grin. "So don't be scared of us, we don't bite."
"Much," Bombshell added.
"Shut up," Kickback snapped.
"Insecticons?" she repeated, sitting down carefully and setting Dragon on the floor beside her. These guys seemed friendly enough. A little weird, but not scary or mean...
"Insecticons," grinned Kickback. "So, you didn't answer the question, Glory. Whatcha doing here?"
"I live here," she replied. "With my Uncle T." When that answer got her three blank stares she clarified: "Uncle Thundercracker. I call him Uncle T, though. He likes it."
Shrapnel giggled. "Uncle T-T. I know what I'm gonna call TC next time I see him-him."
"Where's Uncle T now?" asked Bombshell, chuckling a little as he said the name. "Does he know you're here?"
"Nuh-uh," she replied. "He's off getting ready to fight the Autobots."
"Fighting Autobots, huh?" said Kickback, antennae twitching and a thoughtful look on his face. "You going with him?"
She huffed. "No. He says I can't go out and help fight until I'm older. It's too dangerous."
"And he's absolutely right, kid," Kickback said in a stern voice, though a grin pulled insistently at the corners of his mouth. "Those Autobots, they're scary beasts, aren't they? Never can tell what they're up to -- SHRAPNEL, PUT THAT DOWN!"
Shrapnel froze, mouth still open and Dragon in his hands as if he'd been about to take a bite out of the toy cyberdragon's wing. "I just wondered..." he began.
"Don't!" Glory cried, scrambling to her feet and yanking Dragon free from the Insecticon's grip. "Don't hurt Dragon! Mommy and Daddy gave him to me!"
"Okay, okay, sorry kid-kid," grumped Shrapnel. "Not even a taste-taste?"
"Shrapnel, be nice!" Kickback barked. "Go haul out that energon and titanium alloy we swiped, all right? And don't eat it all either, save some for the rest of us."
Shrapnel grumbled and stalked off.
"Anyway, like I was saying," Kickback went on, turning back to Glory. "Gotta be really careful about Autobots. Good thing Uncle T's being smart and keeping you here..."
"But I wanna go with him," whined Glory. "I wanna help fight Autobots. I wanna help Megatron and the Decepticons. But they say I'm too little for everything. Hook won't even let me help him in his workshop."
"Trust me, kid, you don't wanna fight the Autobots just yet," Kickback informed her, and he took a seat on the floor and patted his lap. "Come sit with Uncle Kickback, and I'll tell you all about the Autobots, all right?"
She frowned at his invitation. So far Kickback seemed nice, but that didn't mean she trusted him right away. So she settled for making herself comfortable across from the Insecticon, still clutching Dragon tightly in case he or Bombshell tried to steal him.
"Eh, close enough," Kickback noted. "Anyhow, you ever seen the Autobots on Earth?"
"No."
"Well, you heard of an Optimus Prime, right?"
"He's their leader, I think. Megatron talks about him sometimes."
"Ooh, Optimus Prime's a great place to start," Kickback said with relish. "And you don't want to meet him in real life, kid -- he's HUGE! Big as Megatron and Motormaster! And tough too -- head-on collision with Motormaster and he didn't even get a scratch!" He laughed at her stunned expression. "Oh yes, if you're ever in a fight with an Autobot, pray it ain't the Prime."
"Or the Dinobots," Bombshell cut in. "Even bigger and tougher than the Prime... and monsters too. Savage, mindless things..."
Glory shivered. "B-but the Dinobots can't hurt Uncle T, right? Not when he's in the sky..."
"Dinobots can fly, kid," Kickback said in a sinister tone. "And even the non-fliers can be dangerous."
"Bluestreak," chuckled Bombshell. "Wickedly fast, and eerily accurate aim when he shoots."
"Prowl," Kickback added. "Cold and logical, emotionless they say."
"Jazz. Unpredictable and sneaky -- you never know what that mech's up to."
"Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The twins, almost always fighting side by side... as brutal and oil-thirsty as the Dinobots, but much smarter... and much more dangerous because of that."
"Wheeljack. Just as unpredictable as Jazz... maybe more so, since he's a brilliant scientist. Things tend to explode when he's around..."
"Mirage. Sneaky and slick... and he can turn invisible, so you never know where he is."
With the description of each Autobot Glory's optics glowed more and more brightly with terror, and her grip on Dragon tightened until she was nearly crushing the toy cyberdragon in her grip. Kickback and Bombshell spoke in low, solemn tones, as if imparting vital wisdom to the sparkling, but an older and more experienced mech than Glory might have noticed the sly, mischievous light around Kickback's mouth and Bombshell's optics.
Thankfully, heavy footsteps cut the Insecticons off mid-sentence before they could terrify Glory any further.
"Oh slag!" blurted Bombshell. "We aren't supposed to be here!"
"See ya later, kid!" Kickback said quickly, grabbing the sheet metal he'd dropped earlier and sprinting away. Bombshell hustled after him.
Glory almost ran out with the Insecticons, but realized that if they weren't supposed to be here, then someone might think she was helping them if they caught her with them. Panicking, she looked around for a hiding place. If Starscream had finished with whatever Megatron wanted him for and had come back for her...
There! One of the nearby crates looked to have been unloaded roughly and was coming apart at two seams, leaving a corner that could be pried open fairly easily. Quickly she tugged at the panel, wedging herself into the gap and wriggling inside. The crate was pretty big and only half full -- of blaster power cells, if her sense of touch could be trusted -- so though it was a tight fit, she could hide in here until whoever-it-was passed by.
Voices drifted through the metal walls of her hiding place... Constructicon voices.
"...too soon after the last battle, doncha think?" asked Long Haul.
"How else are we supposed to get energon?" insisted Scavenger. "Pull it out our afts? Our stores are low again, and we can't run this army on sea water."
"I would not be surprised to learn we were infested with Insecticons again," Scrapper drawled. "We shall have to investigate this matter once we return from this raid. Energon theft is a serious offense, after all..."
The box Glory was in shifted abruptly, and she barely stifled a gasp of surprise as said box was carried and set down somewhere else... but where?
"How much more can you carry, Long Haul?" asked Scrapper.
"Few more," he replied. "Don't overload me. I want Hook to look at this rear axle once we get back -- it's been bugging me since I hit that pothole back in Tennessee..."
Glory almost cried out as her world lurched around her and she felt herself moving forward -- the crate she was in must have been loaded into Long Haul's truck bed! She wanted to yell for him to stop, but she didn't want to get into even more trouble, so she kept silent. Clinging to Dragon and curling up as small as she could, she slowed her air cycling and stifled her whimpers as much as she could as Long Haul continued on down the corridor.
Break...
Megatron allowed himself a pleased smile as he watched his troops surround the nuclear power plant, some ducking inside to pillage their prize for precious energy, others contenting themselves with harassing the human workers a bit. Excellent, most excellent. These humans were more intelligent than the ones he normally ran across -- they made no effort to put up a resistance when the Decepticons attacked. Everything was going quite smoothly. It was almost a shame that things hadn't been more challenging, but he supposed they could always take a detour on their way back to the base and stir things up at the Autobot headquarters...
"Fraggit, did I haul this gear for nothing?" grumped Long Haul from where he was parked just behind Megatron. "Thought we'd get some Autobot action, at least..."
"Shut up, whiner," huffed Bonecrusher. "You ain't dying or anything..."
"Hey, all this spare ammo ain't exactly light," Long Haul snapped.
"Quiet, you two," Megatron ordered. "If your load is simply too much for you to handle, Long Haul, have your comrades lighten it. We wouldn't want our more delicate soldiers to suffer needlessly, after all." That last he said with a smirk.
"You calling me a wimp..." began Long Haul huffily.
"Shut up," advised Bonecrusher, giving the dump truck a warning kick to a tire. Long Haul snorted indignantly but quit complaining as the bulldozer began pulling crates out of his truck bed.
Soundwave stepped up to Megatron's side at that moment. "Advisory: vehicles approaching from northeast. Autobot strike force: probable."
Megatron nodded and activated his radio. "All Seekers are to go airborne and scan the area for Autobots! Shoot them on sight! Stunticons, continue with the raid, but you are free to attack any Autobots that make it past the Seekers. Astrotrain, once you're fully loaded return to the Nemesis. And don't be stupid -- fire only if you're fired upon! We cannot afford to lose this energon..."
The crate Bonecrusher was holding slipped out of his hands at that moment. He managed to catch it again by bringing his knee up to stay its fall, but the movement was enough to jostle its contents... and elicit a cry from within.
Megatron whirled. "What the... Bonecrusher, open that crate!"
Bonecrusher set the crate down and pried open the lid. Megatron dragged it closer to peer inside... and felt his jaw drop. Curled up among the power cells was Glory, shivering and clutching her dragon toy as she stared up at Megatron with an expression of bright-opticed terror.
The Decepticon leader recovered quickly. "Glory, what is the meaning of this?" he demanded, optics flashing angrily.
Glory whimpered. "I didn't mean to, sir... I was hiding from... from Starscream... and I felt them pick the box up but I was scared and didn't say anything..."
Megatron cut her off with an impatient wave. "We will discuss this later. Continue what you were doing, Bonecrusher. Glory, you will stay by my side at all times until we return to base. Understand?"
She nodded and climbed shakily out of the crate. "Where's Uncle T?"
"Doing what he's supposed to be doing," Megatron said shortly. "No more questions, we have incoming..."
BOOM!
Megatron whirled to see Dirge spiraling toward the ground, smoke pluming from his left side and wing. The other Seekers closed up formation and shrieked ahead to meet their foes... the Aerialbots, gleaming white in the morning sun and firing with gusto upon their rivals.
"Aerialbots: incoming!" Soundwave reported.
"Thank you for stating the obvious!" Megatron snarled, stepping in front of Glory and raising his cannon. "Take Glory away from here!"
"As you command." Soundwave stooped, hefted Glory in his arms, and strode away.
Megatron turned back to the power plant to see a familiar red semi truck barreling down the road toward the power plant, a convoy of Autobots at his mudflaps. Well, he'd wanted some action. It looked like he was about to get it -- and plenty of it.
Break...
"But I wanna help!" demanded Glory, squirming in the Communications Officer's grip.
"You are too young," Soundwave informed her, setting her down some distance from the power plant. "Your request: contrary to Megatron's orders."
"But..."
"No buts, kid, the war ain't a place for sparklings," Frenzy interrupted, bursting out of the shrubbery nearby at that moment. To Soundwave the red cassette reported "Sir, one of the buildings has gone down! Offices and not a reactor building, thankfully, but still down! And Rumble and Ravage are stuck inside!"
Glory's systems jolted at the news. Rumble and Ravage! She shivered involuntarily as her memory banks suddenly called up images of before... the labs collapsing on top of her... crushing pressure on her leg... a slab of metallic wall paneling tumbling down atop her mother...
Soundwave's chest compartment flipped open. "Go back, Frenzy. Operation: Excavation. Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ratbat, eject. Operation: Aerial Guard."
The mechanical condors and bat soared away, and Frenzy bolted after them.
"I wanna help!" pleaded Glory, clinging to Soundwave's leg. "Please! Rumble and Ravage are my friends! I don't want the Autobots to get them!"
Soundwave looked down at her, his expression unreadable behind his ever-present mask and visor. "Situation: too hazardous. You are inexperienced. Risk of injury to yourself: too great."
"Please!" she begged.
"Negative," Soundwave ordered. "Release me immediately..."
Glory screamed as a blast of laser fire punched through Soundwave's left shoulder, smoke and hydraulic fluid pouring from the wound. Soundwave didn't even jerk in pain, but ripped his rifle from his shoulder and whirled in the direction of his attacker, a yellow-and-gray Autobot with a domed helm who wasn't much taller than Glory but wore a vicious snarl on his faceplate.
"Take cover," Soundwave ordered.
She didn't need to be told twice but bolted. Instead of heading for a hiding place, however, she sprinted in the direction the cassettes had gone. She didn't care what Soundwave or Megatron said -- she had to help save Rumble and Ravage!
Frenzy was clawing frantically at a heap of shattered concrete and rebar when Glory caught up with him, circulating air heavily as she skidded to a halt beside him. He left off his digging to give her an incredulous look.
"Hey, you're supposed to stay with Soundwave!" he protested.
"But I wanna help you!" she pleaded. "Please?"
Frenzy huffed. "Fine, but Soundwave's gonna kill me for this." He pointed to the rubble to his left. "Start digging there, thought I heard scratching there."
"Okay." She hurried over and started tossing chunks of concrete aside, doing her best to ignore the explosions and laser fire all over the place. Had it been like this when the Seekers found her in Polyhex? She wasn't sure... the battle had been pretty much over by the time she'd come online...
A section of ceiling tile crumbled under her hands, revealing a metallic black paw.
"Ravage!" She dug frantically with both hands, uncovering more of the feline foreleg, then the shoulder, and finally the sleek panther-like head. The cassette-cat lifted his head and onlined his optics blearily, regarding Glory with a slighty confused expression.
"Oy, Ravage!" Frenzy left off his digging to dash to his brother's side. "You okay? Can you stand up?"
Ravage gave a growl that clearly said "What do you think?" His head and one foreleg were free, but his haunches remained deeply buried.
"Oh, cool your thrusters, we'll get you out of there," Frenzy retorted, and his arms split and flipped around until his piledrivers snapped into place. Hurrying to the pile of rubble that trapped Ravage's hindquarters, he knocked it aside with a few quick blows. Ravage scrambled to his feet, staggering just a bit and favoring one hind leg but otherwise fine save some scratched paint. Glory flung her arms around his neck in relief, and for once Ravage didn't even growl in protest.
"Where's Rumble?" demanded Frenzy. "You see him go down?"
Ravage growled and shook his head from side to side.
"Retrorats," Frenzy grumbled, mouth set in a worried frown. "He's not answering his radio either. Musta been knocked out by the collapse. C'mon and help us dig..."
Glory screamed and Ravage yowled as a ribbon of blaster fire lanced through the air and impacted in the rubble at their feet, causing both cassettes and the sparkling to spring back in alarm. The ground shook slightly with the footsteps of something huge approaching... something that emerged from a cloud of smoke and dust to tower over the three of them, a massive gun in his hands and pointed directly at them. Gleaming in the sunlight, the chips in his scarlet-and-blue paint and the spider-web of cracks radiating through one windshield on his chest doing nothing to detract from his imposing air, the Autobot regarded them coolly from behind his mask even as he continued to advance.
"Oh fraggit, it's the Prime!" hissed Frenzy, and he hastily resumed digging.
Prime... Optimus Prime! Glory whimpered and backed away as Kickback's words returned with a vengeance... if you're ever in a fight with an Autobot, pray it ain't the Prime...
"Glory, snap out of it!" Frenzy barked. "Help me dig! Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, Ratbat, we could use a little help here!"
Immediately the bat and condors swooped down, shrieking and firing on Prime with everything they had. Prime's gaze moved from Glory to the flying cassettes with a jerk, and his gun-arm immediately raised to aim and fire at the airgoing threat. The three cassette-flyers scattered, but not before unleashing a cluster of missiles at the Autobot commander, who staggered backward as they impacted against his broad scarlet chest.
"Get him, guys!" shouted Glory.
Ravage roared hoarsely, and she turned to see that he'd uncovered Rumble. The purple cassette was in a lot worse straits than Ravage had been when they'd uncovered him -- his visor was shattered and dark, energon oozed from the corner of his mouth, and a long piece of rebar had speared him through the chest, barely missing the spark chamber. Frenzy immediately bent down, gripped the rebar tightly, and jerked it free. Energon and oil spurted from the wound, and he clamped a hand over his brother's chest in an effort to stop the leaking until self-repair could seal the broken lines.
"We gotta get him out of here and to Hook or Soundwave," Frenzy muttered, voice tight with worry. "Ravage, think you can carry him?"
Ravage gave an indignant huff that his strength could even be questioned, but he nodded assent.
"Good." He slung Rumble over the mechanical panther's back. "Let's get out of here..."
A horrible screech, and Laserbeak crashed in the ruins not ten feet away, smoke trailing from one wing. Ratbat, too, tumbled to the ground and came to a bouncing crash-landing close by, slapped out of the air by a huge blue hand. Buzzsaw continued to circle the Prime, firing for all he was worth and shrieking for his attention, but he alone couldn't distract the Autobot Leader as he turned to face Glory and Frenzy.
Glory found herself pinned to the ground by that terrible blue gaze, though every servo and joint in her body trembled in fear. Something glittered in those blue optics... something almost like recognition... she tried to force herself to back away, but her feet refused to obey her CPU...
Prime broke optic contact as jet turbines drowned out all other sound, and he snapped his gun up to fire at the blue Seeker who transformed to land just behind Glory.
"Frenzy, get Glory out of here!" Thundercracker commanded, stepping forward to place himself between Glory and Prime.
"Copy, Blue Leader!" Frenzy quipped, grabbing her hand and tugging insistently. "C'mon, kid, we gotta jet!"
Ravage loped off at a swift but steady pace, doing his best not to jostle Rumble's body. Laserbeak and Ratbat dragged themselves to their feet and took off, still shaky in the air but quickly recovering from their blows. Buzzsaw took up position at the rear of the pack of fleeing cassettes, providing an armed escort of sorts for his brothers and Glory.
Glory turned her head to peer over her shoulder at Thundercracker and Prime. Uncle T was going to fight Prime? But Prime was so strong, so frightening. She loved her uncle and thought he was the greatest fighter on the Nemesis, but was he a match for the Autobot leader?
She wouldn't find out today. For Prime only regarded Thundercracker with a curious look, then said something Glory didn't catch and sprinted away. Thundercracker watched him go, keeping his arm-guns trained on him until he was out of sight, then transformed and soared upward, circling the cassettes as they fled the battlefield.
"Whoa, never seen Prime back down from a fight," Frenzy noted. "Your uncle's got bolts, kid. Real bolts."
She felt a thrill of pride at Frenzy's statement. Of course, she'd always known Uncle T to be the best Seeker ever, but to see him challenge Optimus Prime -- no, not just challenge Prime, but to have Prime run away rather than fight him -- only reaffirmed it...
"Decepticons retreat!" came Megatron's cry. "Starscream, Skywarp, escort Astrotrain! Long Haul, carry the wounded -- and stop whining about it! Thundercracker, collect your niece and deal with her!"
Before Glory could ask what "deal with her" meant, something grabbed her from behind and sprang into the air with her. She struggled a bit in their grip until she twisted around to glance at her captor and saw it was Thundercracker. Relaxing, she turned back around to get a Seeker's-eye view of the retreat -- most Decepticons taking to the air to speed their escape, but the Constructicons and Stunticons remaining on the ground and electing to drive as far as possible. Soundwave and his cassettes were huddled in Long Haul's truck bed, and the Communications officer was cradling Rumble in his lap like a sparkling, tending to the puncture wound in his chest. He was going to be okay now...
She twisted back around to look at Thundercracker's face. He didn't even look at her as he flew -- his face might as well have belonged to a statue for all the expression he wore. A knot seemed to form in her fuel tank. Uncle T only looked like that when he was upset about something...
As if in reaction to her thoughts, Thundercracker veered off from the main Decepticon force, angling to land in a small canyon. He touched down and set Glory down, though he didn't release his grip on her but only shifted it to her shoulders, turning her around to face him. His face was no longer expressionless -- now it looked worried... and angry.
"Are you hurt?" he demanded sharply.
"Nuh-uh."
"Glory, what were you thinking?" he hissed, shaking her slightly. "I've told you a hundred times that you're not allowed out on the battlefield! You could get hurt, you could get captured by the Autobots! If I hadn't been there, there's no telling what Prime would have done with you!"
"But Uncle T..." she protested, trying to scrape together a defense. Uncle T had never yelled at her before, and it was almost as scary as facing down Optimus Prime.
"No buts!" he ordered. "If this happens again..." He suddenly pulled her close, almost crushing her against his cockpit. "Glory, don't scare me like that again," he murmured. "I thought I was going to lose you."
She clung to him, still confused and scared but just wanting him to be here with her. The servos in her legs suddenly went shaky as the reality of what had happened finally sank in. She'd almost been taken by Autobots... she'd almost been killed...
"How very touching," came a familiar sneer, making her tighten her grip on Thundercracker.
"Starscream, shut up," another familiar voice snarled. "Get back to your assigned task."
"What, and I'm not allowed to investigate when one of my trine goes AWOL?"
"Thundercracker commed me for permission to land, now get back to escorting Astrotrain!"
Starscream grumbled irritably, but the roar of turbines signaled his departure.
Thundercracker carefully pried Glory's arms from around his neck and stood, turning to face Megatron. Glory, too, turned toward the Decepticon commander, though she kept her optics on his feet. He was mad at her, she could tell, and after she'd tried so hard to please him, to be a good Decepticon for him...
"Glory," Thundercracker prompted, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, "you have something to tell him?"
"I'm sorry, sir," she said quietly, not daring to look up.
"And I'm sorry too, sir," Thundercracker added. "This won't happen again."
"Accepted, Glory," Megatron replied, and his tone was so even that she chanced a glance at his face. There was no anger there, not even annoyance, but a thoughtful expression that startled her more than the most ferocious snarl of rage could have.
Megatron didn't seem to notice her confusion. "As for whether this happens again, Thundercracker... that remains to be seen."
"Sir?" Thundercracker sounded just as confused as she felt right now.
"It occurs to me," said Megatron, "that if Glory is to become a contributing member of the Decepticon forces, she will need far more experience than her lessons on the Nemesis can provide. Perhaps it is time she began observing our activities firsthand. By seeing us in action, she can better determine what her function will be when she is ready for her upgrade."
"But sir, a battlefield's no place for a..." began Thundercracker.
"I am aware of that," Megatron snapped. "And arrangements shall be made. Return to the Nemesis. I shall contact Shockwave and request his aid in this."
Glory looked back and forth from Megatron to her uncle, confusion and frustration whirling around in her CPU. She got that familiar feeling that the adults were making big decisions about her, and that she not only didn't get a say about it, but she wasn't even going to know what they were talking about.
She sighed. It was like Rumble had told her some time ago -- "Sometimes being little really sucks."