Author's note. With thanks to Cutlass-Cougar and Mrs Bumblebee for their suggestions once again, they've been a big help in writing this chapter.
For those of you of like seeing Megatron in a parental role, this is the chapter for you.
Also, there's a bit with the Autobots that may seem confusing at first but is me dropping a sneaky hint which will make sense in a later chapter. Just so you know.
Enjoy and please review.
"Over the course of this half of the day cycle," Megatron begun as he surveyed his little pets who were lying on his knee, where he had made them go after the two boys had been brought to him.
"The three of you have been disobedient, insolent and naughty respectively," he continued giving them very stern looks. "This is intolerable and I won't allow it to continue. And as I said when you were first brought here, if one of you misbehaves, then all three of you get punished."
Placing one hand across their shoulders to hold them in place, he raised the other one ready to start. As the three of them tensed, he added.
"This time you're only getting a spanking. But the very next time I have to punish you, I will have Cyclonus record it, and then I will send it to Prime and his Autobots and let them see what is happening to you."
They immediately protested, but he was not to be swayed in this promise. They would learn and if he had to dish out a little humiliation, then so be it.
Bringing his hand down on their exposed rears, he started spanking them. They all yelped with pain as he did this, and continued to do so throughout the spanking. He gave them fifteen hard smacks, five for each misdemeanour.
At long last, too long in the kids' opinion, he finished and let go of them. They stood up shakily, their bodies protesting the harsh punishment. As they shuffled their feet, Megatron used his finger to raise their chins, forcing them to look at him. He looked sternly at them, ensuring they knew of his displeasure before he spoke.
"Demolisher tells me you were doing some chores for him earlier."
Rad nodded, that had been before Demolisher had gotten all moody and demanded he take a nap. He and his two friends wondered where this was going.
Megatron now gave them a tight smile.
"I think that's just the thing for you, a few chores will keep you out of mischief, now won't it."
"Yes," they all mumbled, however, Megatron wasn't satisfied with their response.
"Yes.......?" he said delicately.
"Yes, sir," they said in tones that were respectful enough for him to drop the issue.
Letting go of their chins, he leaned back against his throne, and activated his comm.
"LeaderOne, bring the other Minicons into the throne room, it's time they were given a proper cleaning."
He then got up and placed the kids on a table. They stood there awkwardly, no doubt because they were still reeling from their latest punishment. But finally, the Minicons, led by LeaderOne entered, carrying cleaning equipment.
As the Minicons, stood to attention Megatron said.
"These children are going to clean and polish your armour," he announced, giving them a small smirk. "Think of it as a little treat for you all."
The Minicons beeped their understanding and thanks, and so Megatron turned back to Rad, Carlos and Alexis.
"I expect all of them to be shinning by the time I get back, understand," he said and the three of them nodded.
"Well, I'll leave you all them, I trust there will be no escape attempts, not with LeaderOne here,"
And with that he left, leaving the kids with the Minicons who had started climbing up to where they were. The kids breathed a sigh of release as Megatron exited the room, and went over to the cleaning materials.
"Dio," Carlos complained, rubbing his sore backside. "I don't think I'll ever be able to sit down properly after this, why does he have to smack so hard."
"At least he doesn't lecture as much as Demolisher, or fly of for no reason," Rad grumbled as he grabbed a tin of wax and a chassis. "You know he spanked me just because I didn't want to take a nap barely a few hours after getting up?"
"Why'd he what you to take a nap?" Carlos asked as he started working on LeaderOne.
"I dunno, he was in some kind of mood," Rad shrugged as he also set to work on a Minicon.
"What about you?"
"Ah….um," Carlos said blushing. "See Cyclonus was asleep and I was going to play a little trick on him but I ended up hitting Megatron."
"What," Rad and Alexis said together.
"Yeah," Carlos said, grinning in embarrassment. "I made this little ball of grease and stuff and I was gonna launch it at him when he woke up, but Megatron came in and he startled me and....splat."
Both Alexis and Rad stared in shock for a moment, before they dissolved into giggles. Soon, they where howling with laughter, causing even the Minicons to smile at the kids antics. Even Carlos managed a weak smile.
"Very funny guys," he mock grumbled. "But seriously, you should have seen the look on Megatron's face, it was priceless."
One of the Minicons giggled, and Carlos bestowed a big grin on him.
"I think I'll start on you," Carlos announced to the green Minicon and he sent to work removing a layer of grime on the Minicons armour.
"Was he scary?" Alexis asked, interested in how her friend would answer.
"Nah, not really," Carlos said, waving a cloth filled hand. "I mean when he comes at you with that look in his optics, you know, the your about to get it look, but it's no different from when I've played a prank my big brother or dad."
"Not that scary, am I?"
Unbeknownst to the kids, and Minicons, Megatron was watching their activities via a camera set up in the throne room. This camera wasn't normally on, but Megatron wanted to observe what his pets where like when he and his men weren't about.
He watched as they joked about, as they started cleaning the Minicons. It was one thing that intrigued by the fact they could recover so quickly from their punishments and act like they hadn't happened. Though he could see they clearly hadn't forgotten about the fact they'd been punished, not if those winces were anything to go by, but still.
"What about you, Alexis?" Carlos asked now. "What did you do?"
"I talked back," Alexis answered, throwing her head back as she carefully started polishing Blackout. "Megatron couldn't handle a little criticism."
Megatron's optics flashed as he heard this, a little bit of criticism, is that what his girl called her insolence. He'd have to have a talk with her at some point over the joys of children being seen but not heard.
"Alexis," Rad groaned. "You know he always smacks if we do that, why you would do it."
"He was insulting Hotshot," she said indignantly. "Sneering away, saying how weak Hotshot was, they boasting that he was a much better leader than Optimus. I just set him straight."
"Amiga," Carlos said seriously as he scrubbed his friend Motors. "We love you and all, but I think Megatron's right, you're going to get in trouble someday with that smart mouth of yours."
"As if either of you would have stood for it," Alexis retorted. "Just like a boy to tell a girl something like that."
Megatron watched as the kids playfully argued, at one point throwing cleaning stuff as each other, but oddly not slacking from their task. He noted how at ease the Minicons where with the children, especially when they started making faces at each other.
Who knew that human faces were so...flexible?
At that moment, Starscream came into the room and Megatron realised that he had been watching the kids for quite a while now. The Seekr could spend hours practising his sword moves and fighting skills.
"How have they been?" Starscream asked as he saw what Megatron was doing, Alexis was currently chasing Rad while Carlos laughed. Starscream had asked about all three of the kids but Megatron knew what he really meant.
"Your charge was insolent, Starscream and I was forced to spank her," Megatron said cooly, noticing how Starscream's face fell a little. Interesting.
"But you know, Starscream, she made an interesting....comment while she was mouthing off."
Starscream looked at him, wary of where his leader was heading with this.
"And what was that, sir," he asked calmly.
"She seemed to be under the misguided impression that I mistreat my soldiers, Starscream," Megatron replied, his optics boring into his SIC's.
"Now where do you suppose she got that idea?"
"I don't know sir," Starscream answered, his face not revealing anything. "I have certainly never complained within any of the kids hearing about anything concerning you sir."
"I should hope not Starscream," Megatron said, his optics flashing dangerously. "I would hate to think you had been giving my pets the wrong impression."
Thankfully for Starscream, the Minicon alarm sounded, ending the discussion.
"Fallout," Megatron ordered, getting to his feet. "I will be along shortly with the Minicons, tell Cyclonus and Demolisher to wait."
As Starscream rushed out to do as bid, Megatron left the room and hurried for the throne room. He stopped only to grab a cage so that he didn't have to worry about the kids getting into trouble.
They looked up as Megatron entered but he didn't have time for their questions. Quickly taking hold of them, he deposited them in the cage he had brought. He then gave them a stern look and said.
"Stay right there, do not even think of trying to escape and use the Warp Gate, it will be locked and if I find you have tried anything..."
He didn't bother to finish his threat, they got the message. Indicating for the Minicons to follow, he suddenly turned and stopped one, Motors that was his name.
"Be sure to watch them," Megatron ordered him as he left the room, leaving the three kids in their cage and the Minicon all alone.
Several hours later.
Autobot Base.
"I'm so sorry, Optimus," the newest edition to the Autobot team said, hanging his head sorrowfully.
"If I'd have known how much trouble, you'd guys would be in, I would have made more of an effort to get here sooner."
"It's not your fault, Smokescreen," Optimus said quietly as Red Alert worked on him.
"I'm afraid what happened to the kids could not have been prevented, even if you had been there."
"He's right, Smokescreen," Red Alert said as he reached for a tool. "There's no point dwelling on what might or might not have happened. All we can do is move on, and plan for the future."
"We have to get the kids back," Hotshot said hoarsely, he was lying in the next berth, having gotten quite a bad beating.
"How can they stand it, the way he hurts them, I can't get their cries out of my head," the yellow Autobot moaned softly.
"Hey," Smokescreen said gently, moving over to where Hotshot was lying. "It'll be okay, we'll get those kids back somehow, you'll see."
"And kick some major Megatron aft," Hotshot said fiercely, optics flashing.
"Indeed we will," Optimus said grimly, he too hadn't liked hearing the kids' yells of pain.
"We need a plan," Red Alert said grimly.
And need one they did, if they had any hope of ever retrieving the kids and bringing them safely home. Optimus could only hope they made it through the night without being punished, if he knew Megatron, he knew that the Mech would be gloating for all he was worth. Just as he equally knew the kids would stand up to him. And likely get punished for it.
Back at the Decepticon Base.
Megatron was in a very good mood as he strolled towards the throne room, his men trailing behind him. Not only had they successfully captured the Minicon shield but they had given the Autobots a sound thrashing.
Megatron grinned, the only reason they hadn't done worse to the Autobots was that a fourth Autobot had shown up out of nowhere and had saved them. Still, his appearance hadn't been enough to stop Megatron taking the Minicon, so all in all, it had been a very good battle.
And unlike Optimus and his men, he and his trooped were still in good shape, so much so that none of them needed to visit the Med Bay. He smirked, this couldn't be better, things had gone so well recently, first he had taken Prime's precious humans, and now he had beaten a Minicon off the Autobots, life was defiantly good.
"Well, hello my dears," he greeted as he entered the throne room. They had been chatting amongst themselves but stopped as he came towards him.
Their faces fell slightly as he approached, the look on his face enough to tell them that the Decepticons had won the day, meaning the Autobots had lost. Of course he could not resist gloating a bit as he took them out of their cage and set them on his lap.
But predictably, they protested when he said how utterly weak the Autobots had been this day, how it had been ridiculously easy to defeat them. This had resulted in a fair amount of backtalk.
"You know," Rad had said in disgust. "A sore loser's bad enough, but gloating when your rival's down is worse."
"Yeah, Carlos piped up. "We've never seen Optimus do anything like that."
"Have you any idea how vain you sound, and how utterly silly," Alexis had said contemptuously and that's when Megatron had had it.
"Silence, you little brats," he snarled picking them up and giving them a threatening squeeze. That had shut them up though they continued to glare.
No, he was not going to spank them that would spoil his mood. However, he was still going to give them a good punishment.
"You three," Megatron said sternly as he brought them up to optic level.
"Are grounded."
Some time later.
"Aw man, this totally sucks," Carlos growled as he kicked the bars of their cage.
They'd been put in this cage and in an empty room as part of their 'grounding' and were to remain there for the next few hours. It was storage cupboard that they'd been placed in with their cage, but there wasn't much inside it and no windows, so it was very boring.
The only light came from a flickering light in the ceiling which cast an orange glow over the room, and throwing a lot of shadows. It gave the place a very gloomily look to it, matching the kids' mood.
"Hmmm," Rad groaned, his stomach was starting to hurt a little, he was getting so hungry. Alexis threw him a sympathetic look.
"You too?" she said quietly. "I wish I'd eaten more at breakfast but I just didn't feel like it.
"I know what you mean," said Rad, though he wasn't sure if Demolisher would have given him anything more to eat."
"I have a feeling we might not be getting any food tonight," Alexis sighed heavily.
Carlos leaned against the bars, hunger and rage coursing through his body. It wasn't fair, Megatron couldn't treat them like this. And he wasn't going to let him.
"Yes," he said in response to what Alexis had just said.
"We are,"
Megatron's POV.
Megatron sat on his throne, happily contemplating the day's events. He had gotten a Minicon and utterly thrashed the Autobots, all in all, not a bad day's work. Even his little pets naughtiness couldn't mar things for him, they were after all children and that's what children did, get into mischief. It was simply up to him to correct that behaviour.
But as his mind drifted away from his charges, and refocused on the battle, he suddenly frowned. In the post battle exhilaration, he hadn't taken time to analyse the battle and what it could mean for future conflicts.
What was it about the day's battle that had got him thinking? Was it that Starscream had managed to best Prime, preventing the Autobot leader from engaging Megatron? Or how about how that young fool Hotshot lost his fight with Cyclonus and the Medic Red Alert hadn't fared much better against Demolisher how successfully retrieved the Minicon.
He of course felt pleased with the way things had turned out but he was annoyed that the Autobots hadn't put up a better fight. Really, it was almost as if they had lost the will to fight....
Megatron's optics suddenly widened as he realised something. After all, what was the one thing that had changed for the Autobots? The children, he had held them captive for quite a while now, not allowing the Autobots to see or even hear from him. And this meant that the Autobots were...disheartened.
Without the kids antics to cheer them up, the Autobots were falling apart with worry over their young friends. Well, well, this was a development and no mistake. To think that those kids held such sway over Prime and his men.
They were the Autobots weakness. And he was going to use that weakness to.....destroy them.
Author's note. Megatron comes up with a plan to destroy the Autobots, but the kids get wind of it. Can they stop him in time? Find out in the next chapter which will feature a certain character that a lot of you have requested will appear. Till then.