Whoa, wait, what? What does the title say? *grins* Oh, Icefire, you sick and twisted little bitch; why do you want to scare the readers?

Wrote this chapter a few months ago while watching Children of the Corn for the first time in my life. Nothing really gory yet, just hinting out the Insecticon eating habit.

Chapter X

Feast on Flesh

The country had risen into utter bewilderment for the most part. Minicons had spent hours and even days explaining themselves to their human friends and even to their bosses. Some humans enjoyed the idea of aliens who have really lived among them for years and other held grudges because of all the lies they were told. It had turned out that some Minicons were not even a part of Pax Gaia and had not seen other Minicons since the Civil War. They had received projectors from other who had extras and lived however they could. Only a certain kind of Minicon was truly discriminated; the ones who were ranked higher such as Lex and Solus. Toddlers paid no mind at all but were curious as to how their playmates suddenly turned to metal. Little children were excited. Teenagers felt they were in a science fiction novel. Most of the adults would not say anything but take glances every few seconds and the rest either pretended nothing was different or marveled at the idea of their "superhero-like" friend who could crush a chair with a quarter of their strength. As for the government, of course, they hated them.

"We have the papers that qualify us as citizens," the robots tried to say. "It's all forgery though. Illegal!" said Congress. "The signature is there that makes it legal, the stamp and all. What do you expect us to do? Tell you truth and you refuse to accept it. This was exactly why we did not want to present ourselves." It was just a giant circle of political crap. Proton said eventually they will get past it. If they can give money to people who do not work through a national program (which people have manipulated), then they can allow Minicons to live in peace. Every day, when a Minicon was spotted, cameras and reporters followed. At some point people merely claimed they were Minicons for the attention.

And it had only been a week.

Fortis and Equus both had been informing their human friends and entertaining them with history. It was more interesting hearing about the expansion of the West from someone who had actually been there. Even the Revolution became a topic both Minicons talked on about. They walked around the city with their friends, holoforms down. They ignored the excited bystanders.

"Then this fool here," Equus said, slapping Fortis on the back, "shot a guy at three hundred meters. The whole fight broke out."

"I was scared, my finger reacted," Fortis said.

"Scared? Boy, you fought a big drunken Hungarian officer in the seventeenth century and you're telling me you got scared right before you were supposed to shoot?"

"The seventeenth century?" one friend asked.

"Julie, I'm a little over five thousand years old. We crash landed somewhere around Finland or Denmark, I forgot where, seven hundred years ago. What do you think I was doing in between?"

"It sounds like you were involved in a lot of violence."

"Human nature, sweetie," Equus chirped. "There's a war somewhere in the world, constantly. You guys can't help but get into fights. Eh, who am I to talk? My planet's dead from war." He knew he had nearly offended her, so he tried to cover it up by using his home as a different example.

"I'm… sorry," Julie said, trying to sound sympathetic.

"Don't sweat it, I wasn't there when it happened. Any Minicon who's around ten thousand and under was born on the ship. If there's anything we know about the war, it's from a geezer's perspective."

"How'd you guys fare on the ship?"

"Made it up into little sections, each had at least three people, and some could be mixed up. Could be a couple with a kid, a couple and a roommate which sometimes didn't turn out too well, or three buddies who got along extremely well. Whatever it was, the minimum capacity was three and the max was four. It was like an intergalactic road trip. Once we made it somewhere we ran right off, played around somewhere, gathered supplies, and left within the month."

"Sounds like fun. Did you see any aliens?"

"Girl," Fortis laughed, "he just said that we were jumping from planet to planet. Of course we saw alien species, even now you're alien to us. We've just stuck around longer to tolerate your human craziness."

She gave him a shove in the arm and he hardly budged.

"You know you love my human craziness." She smiled.

"Yeah sure," he said sarcastically.

"Ju-lie and For-tis, sittin' in a tree," Equus sang. Fortis grabbed the skinny Minicon, pulled him down, and wrapped an arm around. "Help! He's got me! Julie, get the po-po!"

Because of the exposition, Ignis went ahead and had Minicons dig from the surface to the Dinobots directly below. They asked for Autobot assistance to either help dig or to stand watch in case a certain Decepticon flew by or humans start to flood the mining site. The Wreckers were involved in the excavation and Mirage stood by, laid on a rock, and… supervised. The progress became three times faster with the Wreckers around and they were halfway done with their work. They still had about a quarter of a mile to go and it made them work even faster. Ignis said by the time they were done it would be the turn of the month into July. That made Gris excited, because he volunteered to teach the Dinobots. Ignis had no opposition. If one Dinobot trusted the kid, they all would. Nothing could happen to him. The worst that could happen would be an accidental step that would crush him.

The little gray Minicon spent his time in the Tunnel, talking to Swoop and in new Minicon profiles with Aestas. Ever since Lex had told everyone to turn off their holoforms, Minicons who had been lost for centuries had been reunited and visited Pax Gaia for a while. Only a few stayed, but the rest had homes to go to. They had played the full parts of humans and had a mortgage, bills, gardens, a place to call their own. They filed their names into Pax Gaia's system so they could go in and out and so other could keep track of them.

There was one Minicon who Gris had not seen since they arrived on Earth. They were best friends in childhood and promised they would be friends forever. When they were separated, Gris was silently crying for almost a year. That was how close they were.

"So where have you been all of these years?" Gris had asked him.

"I clung to Mom and Dad for a long time. Mom was caught in a crossfire during the Crusade, and Dad had disappeared with the Apaches, left me behind. I'm gonna find him as soon as I can.

"But I've been jumping from house to house. I found a Minicon with an extra holoform, and he was generous enough to give it to me. I disguised myself as a little kid and went to an orphanage. I mean, who would take a teenager, right? But every once in a while I had to alter my holoform so I didn't seem immortal or something. If I wasn't adopted, I ran away to a different foster home and changed my look. Even if I was adopted I waited until I had to go off to college and then faked a disappearance until my four years of college were up."

"Had any girlfriends?"

"Duh, of course! The longest relationship was six years. But then I had to disappear because, well, you know. It was time to jump again. I'll have to find her and tell her sorry. She's probably about fifty or something by now. What about you, you little nerd? Had any lovers?"

"Sorry, Neo, I'm not interested. Besides, I'll be spending my whole life in that Tunnel. And you know how girls get when they're not loved."

Neo laughed. "Yeah I do!"

"Even Aestas never had a boyfriend. I think she at least went to a club and… you know… Because I'm someone like her can't just go her whole life without some kind of love. Maybe that's what I'll do; I'll do this job for a while, teach someone else, then quit and get a wife."

"Sounds like a plan. Is she gonna be a human?"

"I don't know if I could take it… As long as I've been alive, generations have passed in front of me. I don't want to bury a wife so soon. I'll get a Minicon wife."

Neo nudged him. "I met a cute one in this place. Her name's Decibel."

"No! She's famous! I could never have to guts to ask her out!"

"She's famous?"

"She's a singer, her and her sister and brothers. They're all famous. I can't compete."

"Try it anyway. That's what I do."

"Well you're good-looking and funny. I spend my time around rocks."

"And Dinobots. That's gotta count for something."

"It's not all glamorous."

"Not now, but wait until those bad boys are out in the open."

The energon reserve was slowly piling up as the Insecticons gathered more for their weak commander. Starscream was careful about how he treated them. Scorn them too much and they might fly away, but not enough discipline meant no respect. Still, he had noticed how each one had treated him. Shrapnel, the one with the two pikes on its back, treated Starscream as if he was the master and he was the pet. Kickback, the one with long antennae, was the child. And Bombshell, who usually kept his face covered, was between a butler and a soldier. It seemed the Insecticons were all about family. How absolutely revolting. At least they obeyed without question.

Starscream surveyed the room around them. It was a small cave, covered in the Insecticons' slime and the bones of animals they had picked off. Then he had wondered how these supposedly failed experiments had ended up on this planet. He wanted to ask Shrapnel because he appealed as the leader to the others, but his speech impairment irritated Starscream to a point where he almost wanted to diode and punch the imperfection right out of the creature's vocal processor. Perhaps he'll fix it for him; he used to be a scientist after all.

"Kickback," he called. The Insecticon turned immediately. "How did you three manage to make to this planet?"

"We followed our instincts," he responded with that hideous buzzing accent the three had inherited. "Once Lord Megatron started killing our brothers off, we flew away. Planet to planet we searched for one we could suit to. Then we made it here, to Paradise. We can move to different places that we feel accompanied to and eat whatever we want as long as we avoid humans."

"Why do you avoid humans? You're not scared, are you?" The last thing Starscream wanted was a bunch of cowards working under him.

"No, sir," Bombshell said. "We find them annoying. We've tried eating them, but they don't digest well… So we stay away from them altogether."

The Seeker chuckled. They actually tried to eat humans? Too bad they stopped, otherwise this planet would have been ripe for the taking. It would have been turned into a new Cybertron to his liking.

"How long had it been since you ate a human?" he asked.

"Thousands of years, years…" Shrapnel hissed.

"Your sensors might have changed since then," Starscream said with a smirk. "And humans have evolved a bit more, so perhaps they taste differently. I hear their medicine has improved greatly so they're not riddled with diseases."

The Insecticons looked at each other. There were over seven billion humans, so if they taste good now then the buffet begins!

"Why not try it out for yourselves?" the Seeker suggested. "This place is scorching hot, but I know humans have dared to trek these cliffs. Find a group to have lunch with."

Bombshell's mask slid back, meaning he was ready to feed. All of their mouths oozed, imagining what kind of taste the pesky organics might have obtained since the prehistoric era.

"Have fun."

The Insecticons transformed into their own unique bug-like shapes. Shrapnel was a cockroach, which seemed to suit him well. Kickback was a grasshopper, also suitable but more towards his name. Bombshell was a beetle. He was not sure how that fit, but the bug assured him he had the strongest hide out of the others. Shrapnel and Bombshell flew low to the ground while Kickback hopped along below, keeping up a fast pace with ease. Even with the heat at its epitome in the desert, their gluttonous thirst for blood was all they cared about. All they wanted was new meat. The only meals left in the sand were lizards and snakes and the occasional armadillo or jackrabbit. Those were small and even a bowl full of them could not satiate the Insecticons. But if Starscream was right about a new taste in humans, they would fly over to the next town and begin to feast.

They caught a scent of at least five or six people just a half of a mile away. Shrapnel and Bombshell landed and they all walked. The buzzing of their wings against the quiet cliffs, echoing off of the faces, would give them away all too early for the kill.

The victimized group was made of six people, all young college graduates looking for a well-deserved vacation. To the Insecticons' surprise, humans really did develop a different taste. Not to mention they were clean of germs with their higher sense of hygiene. Bombshell said they should go ahead and head on to a town. Of course, the others had no objection.

Three hundred killed by massive robotic bugs over Ashville was the news across the nation. Everyone had panicked and humans had assumed it was the Minicons that had caused it. Lex, being the only Minicon truly brave enough to tell Cybertronian history, explained the devastation.

"If I'm not wrong and my memory serves me well today, these beasts were—are Insecticons. They are Decepticon experiments, to be used as super soldiers in their army. They feed off of nearly everything; metal and flesh alike, even rock. They are absolute animals. I am honestly surprised that they're here; of all the planets from here to Cybertron that exist they chose here. And they have been here longer than us Minicons.

"A few thousand years ago, when the war began, us Minicons had no idea of it. We lived in villages in remote parts of Cybertron. We were captured, some of us killed, to be used as tools for Decepticons." That has ever since been taken out of context and Minicons were presumed Decepticons. "We saw the damage Insecticons could do. One of us here, a devious young Minicon, had the idea to turn the Insecticons against their commanders. So he located the highest ranked bug and told them—… Um… " He turned to a sitting Minicon. "What did you tell them, Periurus?"

A strong, lavender-colored 'bot stood up. His job was an aid to a Representative to New Mexico. "I told the boss that he didn't need to be told what to do, that he could do whatever he wanted, and that Megatron was using him. He believed me right away. Those Insecticons were denser than Fort Knox."

"There you have it." Lex turned back to the people. "The Insecticons started attacking Megatron's soldiers and soon the bugs were all destroyed. Or so we had thought. It was about seven thousand years later when we Minicons escaped Decepticon control. We haven't heard of them since, until the attack on Mission City."

The Insecticons came back to Starscream a bloody mess. Pieces of flesh hung from their teeth out of their mouth, their claws painted with blood; they were sharing the fluids off each other's fingers for Primus' sake! Such grotesque animals!

"I see you've enjoyed your lunch," he said with a snarl in his lip.

"Humans taste so much sweeter, sweeter…" Shrapnel purred, grabbing Bombshell's arm to lick off some blood, but the beetle snatched his arm back and hissed.

"See what you've been missing all of these years? Now you have new course of consumption." These Insecticons have not changed much at all, he thought. The same desire for destruction… and even the same eating habits… still lie in their programming. They are the same soldiers, just in fewer, sadder numbers. If I can only keep their trust they will not rebel. "The humans are much smarter, you know, and they have the Autobots on their side."

The bugs looked at him with widened optics.

"Autobots, -bots?" Shrapnel said.

"There are Autobots here?" Bombshell started to shake.

These Insecticons are so solitary they don't know of the Autobots' presence. "Yes, my warriors, Autobots," the Seeker said lowly. "They have been here for a time. It was here where they offlined Megatron. It was here where they believe they had won the war."

"The Autobots won?"

"I'm still alive. You are still alive. Do you think the Autobots have won? Have you given up?"

The Insecticons chattered to each other in their primitive language designed in clicking noises. Judging only by their facial expressions they agreed the war would still go on, as long as they still functioned.

xXx

I'm gonna be feeling like crap for the next few days. Nothing serious, just the natural process of which girls are in pain decided I was next on its list. *chugs a V8*

...Holy mother, I think I have a new chapter idea in my head. Who wants to see Minicon sports around chapter... *checks notebook* Thirteen? Want some sports around chapter thirteen?