Randall wracked his brain for ideas on escape as the seemingly demented SIC tore through the halls, pushing the teen's wheelchair in front of him.
He could come up with nothing however, and was about to give up in defeat when two other seekers stepped into view from around the next corner.
Starscream came to an abrupt halt, panting and glaring first at the blue seeker, then the purple one.
"Thundercracker, Skywarp, let me through." He growled as the two aimed their weapons at him.
"Nope." The blue said, popping the P.
"I am your superior! I command you!" Starscream shrieked angrily.
" Megatron commanded us to stop you." The seeker drawled. " Are you suggesting we disobey our leader, Starscream?"
Instead of responding, the tri-colored seeker spun around to try and run the other way, seeming confident the other two would not fire on him.
Soundwave blocked the way back.
Starscream looked from the two seekers to the telepath, trying to make a decision.
"Come to Megatron, Starscream." Soundwave droned, holding out his hand. "You must be punished."
"No!" Starscream howled.
The other two seekers began advancing slowly, keeping their weapons trained on the SIC.
He turned to them desperately. " Come now, my trine, you wouldn't let me be beaten by our glorious leader, would you?" he pleaded sweetly.
"If it meant saving ourselves from a beating, then yes." The blue one growled.
"If I escape, I will take you with me! Then all three of us can defeat Megatron together, and we can rule together, as a true trine!" Starscream tried to reason with them once more.
"That would be fun!" the purple seeker lowed his weapon.
"No, Skywarp! He doesn't mean it! Starscream doesn't care about us, trine or no trine!" the blue one, who must be Thundercracker, said bitterly, pulling the other seeker's gun back up.
"Oh but I do care!" Starscream cried hopefully. "I do, or I would shoot you both for standing in my way!"
"You only don't shoot because of the bond that ties us together, the one we formed before you changed, Starscream." Thundercracker sneered.
All niceness left the youngest seeker's voice as he replied. " Fine. Then I'll fight both of you since I know you won't shoot me either!"
"Go ahead, baby brother!" Thundercracker tossed aside his weapons, as did Skywarp and Starscream.
The three rushed each other, wrestling and throwing skilled punches.
Soundwave silently watched, waiting.
Even though Soundwave was his enemy, Randall felt he could safely ask the TIC any question he wanted and get an honest answer from him.
What is trine, and what bond are they talking about? Randall sent his thoughts to the blue mech.
Trine is a group of three bonded seekers. The bond binds them together, and if one falls, the rest are affected, but the remaining two will fight more fiercely to make up for their fallen wing-brother.
Is that what Thundercracker meant by baby brother? Randall wondered.
No. Soundwave silently responded.
Then what did he mean? Randall asked.
The blue telepath stared at him silently, offering up no response.
Private? Randall asked.
Yes. Soundwave replied.
As he stared at the impassive TIC, Randall wondered just how much he knew about everything and everybody that he wished he didn't know.
A sharp cry of pain jerked him from his thoughts, and he looked up.
Thundercracker was kneeling on top of Starscream, Skywarp having seized hold of both twisted wings.
"Will you yield, Starscream?" the larger blue seeker sneered in the younger's face.
"Never!" the wide-opticed mechling beneath him spat derisively.
Thundercracker nodded to Skywarp, and, biting his lip, the purple seeker twisted the red and white wings sharply.
Starscream let out another cry of pain, tears pooling in his optics.
"Submit, and we will let you up." Thundercracker snarled.
Soundwave stalked forward " Release." He commanded flatly.
The three seekers looked up at him, then the larger two slowly moved off the smaller, who remained on the floor, but flipped to his knees, looking up pitifully through streaming optics at the imposing blue mech standing above him.
"Don't take me." he whimpered, then a sad cry escaped him as Soundwave bent down and hauled him to his feet.
Thundercracker and Skywarp moved to where they could grasp the twisted, trembling wings in their servos as Soundwave took the SIC's blue servos in his own.
"Come." he said, and began leading him down the tunnel.
"NOOOOO!" Starscream fought, his panicked scream rising in volume till all three mechs holding him winced.
They dragged the howling, struggling seeker down the hall and around the corner, never once glancing back at Randall, sitting dumb in the middle of the hall.
Once they were gone, Randall shook himself. "I've got to get out of here." He said determinedly. " If they will do that to one of their own, what do they do to their prisoners?"
As he said that, he was suddenly reminded of the other prisoners in this evil place.
Hurriedly, he powered the wheelchair back into the main room, which he found completely by chance having no idea where he was-and empty.
Remembering that he had been unconscious for who knew how long, he began looking for a way out.
First, he powered over to a ventilation vent, unscrewed it, backed up, and jumped the chair up into it, spinning around and screwing the vent back into place.
"All those times sneaking around at base sure helped me out this time." He chuckled to himself, and then set off.
He was glad he was in the vents as he passed many other Decepticons, walking down halls, fighting with each other, working on various things.
But no prisoners.
Randall was worried that they were in a place with no ventilation vents when a faint sound banished all thoughts of prisoners from his mind.
It sounded like…. , a mix between a screaming, bawling, and a clanging sound?
An evil, booming laugh punctuated the faint sobs.
Against his better judgment, and following his curiosity, Randall headed in the direction of the horrible noises.
The sounds got louder and louder, until Randall was certain he was indeed hearing Starscream being brutally punished.
The deafening, metallic clangs had stopped by the time he found the vent looking out upon the dim room that the two mechs, Megatron and Starscream, were in.
Starscream was chained to a bench, head hanging over the side and sobbing harshly, his trembling blue legs spread far apart and his wings dripping some kind of blue essence, the large gray mech ending over him, biting at the seeker's neck.
It took the horrified boy a moment to recognize it as energon he was seeing, and the same fluid plus a shiny discharge and some clear lubricant was dripping from a port Randall had never seen before on any mech.
Realization slapped him hard in the face, and Randall had to choke back the bile that rose in his throat as he figured out what had just happened.
Megatron was standing up now, and Randall hid his face so as not to see what he might look like, then looked back as he heard something click in place.
" I am much disappointed in you, my dear Starscream." The sickening purr that came from the evil overlord's throat almost made Randall puke again. " Stealing my best chance to get all the energy I need to return to Cybertron, and trying to seduce your trine to turn against me? Very serious crimes, my pretty one. It requires harsh punishment, don't you agree?"
Starscream gave no response; just lay limply over the bench, still sobbing.
Megatron lifted his huge ped and kicked the limp form right in the dripping port between his shaky legs.
A horrible scream ripped its way from the SIC's throat, and his wings went ridged as his back arched in agony.
Megatron kicked him again, and again, each time the seeker writhed more desperately and screamed louder and more painfully.
The pain must have been excruciating, Randall thought, as he found himself rooted to the spot, watching in revulsion at the cruelty displayed before him.
What will be done to me? He could not help wondering fearfully, shivering in dread.
After a few more kicks, the monster stopped.
"You never have learned to talk properly, have you?" he sneered at the piteously sobbing mech in front of him. "All these years I have patently tried to teach you, and you never learn."
Starscream pulled weakly at the chains binding him, just to be booted flat once more.
"Speak, Starscream!" his master roared. " Do you or do you not require harsh punishment?"
Desperately, the smaller mech shook his head no, only to have his wings seized and twisted once more.
"I said SPEAK!" Megatron snatched up the bowed head and bellowed in his audio.
Randall watched as Starscream opened his mouth, but no sound came out, just agonized crying.
The seeker squeezed his optics closed as tears streamed from them, cringing as Megatron waited for a second or two.
Now Randall could understand why he was so desperate to get away, and he wondered if any of his trine mates knew of what went on in this miserable room.
He felt certain Soundwave knew, and he felt disgust for the impassive blue mech rise in his stomach.
Megatron punched the streaming optics and dropped the mechling's head, rising to his feet and striding to the other side of the room.
Randall forced his eyes from the pitiful figure bound to the bench and noticed for the first time the shelf that was where Megatron was now.
A collection of various things was on it, but Randall averted his eyes, not wishing to see them.
He did see, however, what was in the gray tyrant's hands when he turned around: a pulsing blue whip.
Randall was glad he was seated, or he knew his legs would have given out, from pure pity for the tortured Starscream.
Not wishing to watch anymore, he was about to turn away when Megatron spoke, in a gentle tone?
" Star, Star, it hurts me to punish you like this."
Yeah right.
"But it must be done to quell your misbehavior, because I love you and wish you to grow up right."
Randall wondered how much Starscream believed that.
The very word, love, sounded wrong coming from this twisted mech's mouth.
"Now I will allow you to choose the rest of your punishment. Answer me truthfully, do you want whipped or shut up in the box?"
Randall didn't know what 'the box' was, but he bet it was more pleasant then being whipped.
So he was shocked when a frantic Starscream croaked out, " W-whip me, p-please!"
Megatron seemed just as shocked, arching an optic ridge as he stepped closer to the violently shaking mech.
"Surely you don't want that. I told you to tell me the truth. Now say it."
"Wh-whip m-me." Starscream whimpered.
Flipping on a switch, the whip in his servos flickering and humming now, he began shoving it up the open port between the twitching legs of the battered mechling.
"AGGHHHHHH!" Starscream's body shuddered violently, and he clawed at the air, choking on his own screams as sparks flew from the other end of his body.
"Well?" Megatron drawled, obviously enjoying the intense agony his SIC was in.
He then withdrew the dripping whip and lashed it down across the trembling wings.
"Whua aghh, p-p-pl-master!" Starscream wailed out.
"Yes, my pretty one?" Megatron stopped striking him and cradled the dark face in his servos, the tears pooling and running over the edge of his cupped palms.
" Pu-put me in the b-b-ox." Starscream sobbed.
Megatron slowly and in mock sadness shook his head. " Now you are truly lying, my precious pet." He said, petting the top of the seeker's head. " If you had begged for a whipping once more, I would have let you go. But now…"
"NOOOOOOO!" Starscream thrashed weakly as the whip cracked down once more over his wings, then again and again, each strike wrenching a heart-rending scream from the tri-colored seeker.
Randall wanted to run, to avert his eyes, to cover his ears, but he was rooted to the spot, unable to move one inch of his body of his own accord as he stared in horror at the unwarranted beating the younger mech was being forced to bear.
It was not until the paint was in ribbons on the seeker's back and wings did the cruel leader of the Decepticons stop the punishment.
Laying the still pulsating whip down, seeming not to notice the tip graze the still weeping port on the beaten mech's backside, Megatron unchained Starscream and lifted him in his arms, cradling him like a baby.
Starscream lay almost lifelessly in the strong gray arms; the endless crying though told that he was still alive.
Randall had seen a large sturdy metal box in the corner of the room earlier, but it was only now he realized what it was for as Megatron dragged it into the center of the room.
He could see it was barely the size of the seeker as Megatron opened the heavy lid and bundled the flyer inside, face down, arms behind his back and legs folded under him.
"No, no, M-Megatron, please!" a weak, pleading voice came from the seeker being forced into the now-small looking box.
"So now you talk." Megatron continued forcing him inside. "Too late for that now, I'm afraid, my little prize."
"Any, anything you wish!" Starscream rasped. " Anything!"
"Then be quiet!" Megatron barked at him, and finished cramming him inside. "There. We'll see how submissive you can be when I come to get you and see if you deserve to come out of this little home of yours or not."
An excruciating wail came from inside the box and was abruptly cut off by Megatron slamming down the lid and locking it tightly.
Megatron flipped off the switch to the whip, placed it back on the bench, and walked out, not even glancing at the silent box in the center of the room.
Randall saw red as he thought of all the things he would like to do to Megatron for this.
Even though Starscream was about to probably torture him and kill him earlier, Randall still did not enjoy seeing him abused in such a matter, and he kinda understood now why he was so unpredictable and dangerous.
Being treated like that would drive anyone insane.
Turning to go, he almost screamed as he ran right into a solid blue leg.
He had not even heard the telepath approach him, though since he was so riveted on the scene in the other room he was not surprised.
To resist him, is deadly. You see now?Randall was not surprised by the fact Soundwave preferred to speak by thoughts here.
Yes, but- But nothing! You MUST not resist him! To do so is a long and painful death!I will not help him, Soundwave. No matter what you say.
But you must. The telepath seemed frustrated. All the other flesh-creatures will be tormented before your eyes until it is your turn.
Randall glared up at him. I don't care.
Soundwave stood stock-still, unresponsive suddenly.
And I'm going to get Starscream out of there and fixed up. Randall thought fiercely.
Soundwave knelt down by him. No. But I will get you out of here. You do not deserve this fate.
But, but Starscream!
Starscream will be fine. He had borne this before.
For how long?
I do not wish to record it.
But you do.
Soundwave unstrapped him and scooped him up. All in all, just over nine million years.
Why don't you do something?!
I am no Autobot. The fate of another means little to me, so long as I myself am satisfied.
Then why do you help me?
I don't know. The TIC confessed.
Randall's memories from then on were jumbled and confused as Soundwave gently deposited him inside his chest compartment.
He remembered seeing Megatron pounce on Soundwave as soon as the mech had emerged from the ventilation shaft, demanding to know where Randall was.
Soundwave had calmly lied, saying he did not know, but was already searching for him.
Megatron had growled a threat that Randall just could not make out if the telepath did not find the boy, but it had made the seemingly insensitive mech tremble slightly.
Then a search was hastily assembled, but no luck, of course.
Then Megatron decided to lay a trap for him.
And it probably would have worked, if he had not been trapped inside of Soundwave at the time.
The thirty-some human captives were beaten, force to rape one another, and slowly torn into pieces and murdered.
It took over four hours for Megatron and the others to torture and kill the humans, Soundwave himself watching over it all impassively.
As for Randall, he had curled into a ball and cried and cried the whole time, the tortured cries of the people ringing in his ears.
Soundwave had said nothing to him the entire time, but when it was all done, Megatron erupted into a horrid rage, and every 'con bolted from the room, including the TIC.
Then he finally spoke. I will be unable to take you myself. You must find a way.
He then had left Randall to build his sub, and then returned to take him out of the base.
Soundwave seemed strained as he shoved Randall and his little sub out a small crack in the door before shutting it without a word.
Randall had driven like crazy all the way back to shore, and then was rescued by a surfer who found him after he hid his sub nearby and dragged himself up onto the beach.
He had spent a month in a hospital recovering, then escaped one night and was found by Jazz while on patrol.
Optimus had fussed greatly over him when he was returned, and hardly let him out of his sight for some time after that.
Randall had told him that he had been captured by the orphanage staff and detained for a while before he escaped.
But he was afraid his reoccurring nightmares would give him away, and had been thankful Prime seemed to swallow the lies he offered about the stories the other bots told him.
Since then, he had been in and out of the Decepticon base more times then he could count, keeping an eye on Starscream and Soundwave.
Lately, he had been noticing that Soundwave had offspring he did not recall him having before, and discovered that Megatron was the father of them all after watching them interface, something Soundwave appeared to hate.
From what he had learned from Ratchet about Autobot reproduction, which he assumed was the same for their enemies, he figured out Megatron had forcibly bonded with Soundwave as punishment for not locating Randall.
It seemed to be having affects on Megatron too, as he was more caring towards the handsome blue mech now, as though he feared what might happen to him if something awful happened to his TIC.
Randall could not really tell what Soundwave thought of it, other then he loved his little ones and he hated interfacing with the tyrant.
Starscream, however, seemed surlier then ever, and seemed even colder towards his trine mates.
As Randall raced through the tunnel, he forced the foul memories from his mind and focused on the task at hand.
He had just enough cloaking devices to take two mechs with him, and two left for Bumblebee and Optimus's mate.
He figured on taking Ratchet and of course Optimus, and he just hoped the rest would stay behind as he would order.
Reaching a hatch above that would be close to the ambush site, he opened it and climbed out.
Riding quickly to where they had been attacked, he scanned the area, relived he got there first.
Only to remember that he had never told Prime where they were surprised at, and therefore the leader had no idea where to go.
Thinking quickly, he recalled a dog whistle he had in his pocket.
He never used it for dogs, but to annoy the twins when they pranked him.
Grinning, he blew long and loud, and after a short time, was rewarded with a dust cloud to the west that was quickly approaching.
Relived, he put the whistle away and leaned on the handlebars of his motorcycle, waiting on the Autobots to reach him.