Chapter 11: Brothers
"Starscream!" Jack exclaimed, frozen on the spot.
"We are screwed..." Miko gasped ominously as the seeker approached with quick strides to the control terminal in the main hall.
"It's alright, guys. Everything is fine." A small voice intervened from Starscream's right servo.
"RAF?" Jack and Miko exclaimed at unison.
Starscream just growled in annoyance and deposited the small kid at the Ground Bridge's terminal, ignoring the other two teenagers. Immediately he headed for the corridor, not wanting to spend more time than necessary in company of the human grubs. The vortex came to life to the last used coordinates, and the seeker disappeared through it. He didn't have time to waste.
"OK, what did you just do, and how?" Miko asked, in disbelief.
The battle was not going well for the Autobots. The seekers had flight superiority, and they were hiding in the smoke. Their cunning sensors permitted them to track the movements of the Autobots, but the Autobots could not track them.
Also, though only one of them had spoken, Optimus knew that there were two seekers. There was just too much gunfire and blasts raining over them to come from only one mech. They were circling in the sky and shooting, making impossible to locate them. Soon, only Optimus was standing. His comrades with injuries of different grades.
At that moment, as if their luck was mocking at them, the wind changed its direction, clearing the smoke. Optimus could now see clearly the two F-16 circling above him. One of them was sea-blue with a thin red line across his wings, and the other one was black with a thin purple line.
"Oops! Our cover has been blown away..." The black jet spoke. He had been in silence until that moment. His voice sounded younger.
"How fortuitous... You'll get to see the face-plates of Starscream's avenger!" The blue jet added, his voice deeper. And with that, he nose-dived to the ground and transformed mid-air, landing hard a few yards away in front of Optimus, the pavement cracking under his feet. His frame type was similar to Starscream's, but he was bigger and slightly bulkier. His face-plates were different, and had a severe expression.
"I did not kill your brother!" Optimus shouted, standing his ground, and firing two warning blasts at the blue seeker. Thundercracker unsheathed a big cybertronian sword and deflected the blasts with incredible speed.
"Megatron told us that you would try deceive us." The blue seeker replied easily, and approached his enemy, his expression icy.
Obeying an unspoken command, Skywarp made his move. Teleporting suddenly next to Optimus, he launched a kick. The Autobot Leader barely had time to block it when the black seeker teleported again out of reach, reappearing at Optimus' opposite side. They kept exchanging blows for some moments. Skywarp's frame type was also similar to Starscream's, but he was smaller and slightly sturdier. His face plates were also different, he seemed younger. And clearly, despite been a seeker, he was a very skilled close-combat fighter. His disorienting teleporting abilities were giving Optimus a hard time to deflect all his blows. The Autobot Leader was also slower due to his own injuries, and was quickly loosing his ground.
In a rough movement, Skywarp managed to pin down the blue and red mech, twisting one of his arms behind his back.
"Meet your end, Prime. This is for our brother." The blue seeker stated coldly, raising his cybertronian sword.
Optimus tried to struggle, but it was in vain. Skywarp had him firmly pinned to the ground. He prepared himself for the final blow.
The sickening sound of a blade tearing circuitry filled the air.
The Autobot Leader opened his optics and froze at the scene.
Starscream stood in front of him, Thundercracker's blade piercing through his chassis.
"...Starscream..." The blue seeker murmured, shakily, releasing the grip on his blade. The grey seeker fell to the ground with a loud crash, the blade still stuck across his frame, just below his spark case. The black seeker gasped and immediately released Optimus, rushing to his fallen trine-mate.
"No... 'Screamer! Tell us something! Don't leave us again!" Skywarp cried horrified. Thundercracker fell to his knee-joints beside him, lost for words.
"...You... stupid glitched aft-heads!" He coughed. "Don't worry about me... I've survived far worse..." He paused and coughed more. "The important thing here is... that Megatron has deceived you two!" The grey seeker hissed with difficulty, sparks flying from his wound and Energon leaking to the ground.
"What?" Skywarp and Thundercracker exclaimed at unison.
"Do you mind it if I explain everything later...? In another moment when... I weren't bleeding to death and such?" Starscream replied, wincing in pain. Skywarp and Thundercracker felt a little relieved. The wound looked serious, but if Starscream was still scolding them it couldn't be that bad.
"And what do we do with the Autobots?" The blue seeker asked.
"Help them through their Ground Bridge. Don't harm them. They won't hurt any of us." The grey seeker said, with a pained expression and looked to Optimus. The Autobot Leader rose from the ground and nodded, locking his gaze into Starscream's.
"Raf, I need a Ground Bridge to my coordinates." The blue and red mech said.
"And don't harm the human pets they have at their base either..." Starscream added.
[A/N]: As Skywarp and Thundercracker does not appear in the TV show (at least, until now), everything I described about them is totally a make up. Don't blame me... much... if you don't like how I imagined them...