CHAPTER 27
"'Ey, boss, I found Subject 6!" the sleek purple mech reported. "Pretty bad shape, though not as bad as the others, huh?"
"Smart observation, genius," the even sleeker purple femmebot replied sarcastically. "You should get a medal."
"I should, shouldn't I? Wait, was that meant as an insult?"
"No, of course not. Just hand over the subject so I can examine it."
"Here ya go. Can I go now?"
"Not yet." The femmebot wrote something down on a pad, as she examined her subject. "Subject: 6-S. Lifespan: 12 years. Cause of death: energon exposure. Condition: battered, but whole. Expectations: promising." As she finished writing, she looked back at her assistant. "Now you can go. Make sure to keep an eye out for Subject 1-R. It's the only one left to expire."
"Aye-aye, sir! Er, I mean, ma'am!"
Starscream went through the hallways past passing Vehicons and Insecticons, heading to the flight deck. On his way, he met several of his Seeker troops and decided to take them along.
"You, we're heading off to find energon!" he said every time he passed one of the silver fliers. As he reached the flight deck, he had gathered six of them and decided it was enough. The Predacon snarled at him as they passed it, and, in an attempt to show his superiority, he simply snarled back at it, which prompted it to roar at him. He decided to leave it be and ordered his troops to follow him. They transformed and flew off the ship. It had become night, and the sky was filled with twinkling stars and a bright full moon.
"One day, I will get back at Shockwave for bringing that beast onto the ship!" he grumbled out loud. "It's not safe for the sparklings that there's a giant monster that could easily swallow them whole!" He dreaded the thought. "And I just left them behind on the ship with that monster! I should go back to them right?"
The Vehicons didn't answer him right away, mostly because they weren't sure if they should tell their commander what to do. One of them hesitantly replied:
"Uh, well, don't you think it's smarter to get energon first? ...Sir?"
Starscream didn't answer. He had caught the scent of something. He wasn't sure how, his olfactory sensors had never really been anything special. But for some reason, he could now clearly smell the familiar scent of...energon!
"This way, my armada!" he ordered, followed by a dive down to a valley with grass, flowers, spiky rocks and dozens of tree stumps. There didn't seem to be any energon around though. For some reason, Starscream felt like he had been here before, but couldn't quite put his finger on why.
"Search the area," he ordered. "There's energon somewhere around here, I can feel it!"
The Vehicons didn't ask why; they weren't programmed to ask questions like a normal bot. They just followed the Air Commander's orders and examined every rock, stump and the crater for any sign of a blue crystal. They regrouped ten cycles later.
"No sign of energon, sir," one Vehicon reported.
"This place is empty, sir," another Vehicon said.
"Impossible," Starscream muttered. "I can feel there's energon here, can't you?" The Vehicons shook their heads. The Seeker snorted. "Incompetent morons. Do I have to do everything myself?"
A screech sounded through the sky. The Decepticons looked up and saw a large metal bird, diving down towards them.
"What is that?" a Vehicon said.
"It looks Cybertronian," another said.
"What are you waiting for?" Starscream exclaimed. "Shoot it down!"
The Vehicons fired their blasters at the birdbot, but it avoided every laser without effort. It pecked at them several times when one laser finally hit it. It fell to the ground and lay still for a moment. However, as two Vehicons went over to check on it, it suddenly rose up and swiped them away with its wings. It set off into the sky again and hovered above them. It seemed to be contemplating something.
"Shoot it down! Shoot it down, for Primus' sake!" the Seeker shrieked.
The bird dove again, this time while spinning around like a drill, aiming for Starscream, currently standing in the crater. Whatever shots hit it just bounced off it, seemingly ineffective in this drill-like state. Starscream screamed and jumped out of the way, as did a few nearby Vehicons.
The bird drilled its way through the ground in the crater, and the Decepticons watched the hole it dug, preparing for it to return to the surface. The drilling sound continued for a few more nano-cycles, then it went quiet.
"Prepare to fire," Starscream said to the Vehicons, standing ready to attack.
The drilling sound returned, became louder, and the birdbot burst out from the ground, dirt and rocks flying everywhere. It spread its wings and hovered above ground, steadily flapping its wings to keep in the air.
"Fire!" Starscream said. "No, wait! Cancel!"
The Vehicons had been about to fire when the Seeker cancelled the order. They looked confused at each other, and at him. He spotted something in the creature's beak; a small shard of a blue energon crystal. It hadn't had it before, it must have acquired it from underground. But that wasn't why he stopped them. The way it held that crystal in its beak, it was awfully familiar...
"No way..." he said in disbelief. "Metalhawk?"
Somewhere on a beach, Nightbird stood and watched the stars and the full moon, both in the sky and their reflection in the sea. The sight was tranquil, and she felt a certain calmness over the night on Earth. She liked darkness better, where she could hide from her enemies, preparing sneak attacks on them. Despite her fondness of the night, though, she always felt uneasy about it, and was relieved every time she saw the sun rise again.
She wasn't really here for the view, though. She was waiting for a certain someone. Someone who could help her retrieve her prey.
"Where is he?" she muttered impatiently. "I gave my signal to him, he should know where I am. Come on..."
The stars were twinkling brightly, the moon brighter and giving light to the ground below. Suddenly, one of the stars began moving. She spotted it and zoomed in on it with her optical sensors. It was a blazing plane, yellow and orange, though it was hard to see since it was enveloped in red, orange and yellow flames as well. It was heading towards her.
"Finally. I thought you'd never show up," she said as the plane descended and transformed into a sleek mech, indeed being golden and orange with red stripes on the wings. His helm was black, his face white and his eyes golden. He had no insignia to clarify his allegiance. The flames surrounding him lit up the area they stood in. Nightbird knew very well not to touch him.
"I apologize, my dear miss," the newcomer said and bowed, taking no notice of the fire he was causing to the grass below him. "But it isn't exactly easy to track people down when you have an ability like mine. I must say, it was difficult even finding my way back to Cybertron, and the place looks like a mess! Whatever happened to our holy world?"
"I'll tell you about it later," she said and crossed her arms. "First, I want you to track down someone for me."
"I just told you, I can't track anything down with these flames."
"It's Starscream."
The mech silenced and stared at her for a whole cycle before speaking again.
"Starscream...so he's still alive, huh?" he said lowly. "Well, if it's him, then I suppose I can't say no, can I?"
"He's onboard the Nemesis, a large Decepticon ship. You won't be able to miss it."
"Okay, got it." He was about to fly away again when he looked back at her with an uncertain look. "Uh, one question."
"Yes?"
"What's a...Decepticon?"
"Metalhawk! Is that really you?"
Starscream couldn't believe his own optic sensors, so he carefully held out an arm to test his theory. The bird-bot flapped over to him and landed on his arm gracefully. It was quite heavy though, but he had invited it himself. The Vehicons pointed their blasters at it, but Starscream signaled them to lower their guns.
He held out a servo, to further test his theory. The bird dropped the energon shard into it and let out a shriek. That was proof enough.
"It is you!" the Seeker exclaimed joyfully, ignoring the Vehicons. He looked from the shard to the large birdbot on his arm. Something seemed out of place, and it wasn't difficult knowing what. "But...but how? You were an organic eagle, but now..."
The moon came out from behind a cloud, shining light upon the bird. Back in the past, the brown, white-headed and -tailed Metalhawk had been just big enough to rest on the back of his hand and could barely nip on his thumb. Now, the bird had grown to the size of the Seeker's torso, its own torso being golden, its legs and wings being blue, and the tail and helm being red. The head had a pair of spikes going up, looking a bit like ears or horns, probably its audio receptors. The face and beak were golden, and instead of optics it had a visor, which was glowing purple. It looked like a pure Cybertronian, as if never having been anything like an organic animal ever.
"By Primus, you're magnificent..." the Seeker whispered. Metalhawk purred on his friend's arm.
"Uh, sir?" one of the Vehicons said, breaking the moment.
"What?" Starscream said annoyed.
"The energon?"
"Oh! Oh, right. Soundwave," he said through the comm. "Send a squad of miners and a drill to my location. We've uncovered energon!"
Soundwave didn't say anything, but nonetheless, a GroundBridge appeared right in front of them, and five miner Vehicons followed by ten warrior Vehicons and a drill machine came through. They began digging, and while doing so, Starscream suddenly realized why this place seemed familiar.
It was the waterfall cove, the one he had once lived in. The crater was the remains of the lake, having now grown plants over time. It seems the place had recovered somehow. But now it was going to get dug up, to harvest the energon underground. Starscream was surprised there was any left; the explosion he had caused back then in an attempt to kill Megatron had been so large, that he had been certain every single piece of energon in the area had been vaporized. Perhaps there had been a layer of bedrock underground between one part of the energon deposit and another, protecting the lower deposit from the explosion. To think that he had stumbled upon such a large mine without knowing back then. The energon in the lake had been just the tip of the iceberg.
Now Megatron had to give the Seeker some credit! He had acquired possibly the biggest mine on Earth for him, after all!
"You did good, Metalhawk," he said to the bird. "What do you say, want to join the Decepticons?"
Metalhawk screeched and set off into the air, doing a few loops and then hovering in the air, looking down at the Seeker. He took that as a yes.
The following week, the Decepticons spent their time digging out large amounts of energon from the cove, refining the crystals and storing them in cubes, then going back and do it again. This time Megatron had almost nothing bad to say to Starscream. He had found a motherload of energon, recruited another, albeit smaller beast, one which seemed capable of tracking down energon, thus ensuring their energon supplies were steady for a good while now. There was just one thing...
"We will keep the bird," he said. "Its ability to sense energon is clearly of great advantage to us."
"Uh, actually, my liege, I was the one who found the place..." Starscream tried, but Megatron interrupted him.
"But 'Metalhawk' here was the one who located the energon," he pointed out. "You couldn't even find it yourself."
Starscream pouted. The only reason Megatron mentioned that was probably because he couldn't find anything else to belittle him with.
"Regardless, you did well, Starscream," he said, making the Seeker pay attention. "Since we have acquired so much energon now, I have decided to allow you to take two cubes every second day. I cannot raise it any further, both because we still do not have enough energon, and because I do not want to give you more. You must do better if you want more."
Starscream sighed, a bit disappointed over the slim raise. "I'll take it."
Over the course of the week, the sparklings started to open their optics and take a look around them. Their optics had the same color as each their respective sparks. One of them, the purple one, had crossed eyes, looking to different sides. It was uncertain whether her eyesight was affected by this or not.
After a week, they began trying to stand up and walk around. They were clumsy and unsteady at first, but once they learned how it worked, they were all over the place, crawling up their legs, furniture, machinery and ticking off every living thing on the ship, including the Insecticons and occasionally Megatron. During such times, Starscream had to race in and grab the youngsters, pulling them away with a nervous laughter to the 'victims', who didn't find their trouble-making all that amusing. Knock Out found it all very amusing.
"Maybe you should prod them every time they pinch an Insecticon," the doctor suggested during a sickbay visit. "And shock them if they pinch Lord Megatron."
"Don't even joke about THAT, you moron!" Starscream snarled while he was feeding the sparklings. "They could get seriously hurt if they tick off those blasted Insecticons again. Just imagine if they get on the flight deck and do the same to that monster! It would eat them whole, I tell you!"
"Oh relax, nobody here's sparkless enough to actually try to kill your sparklings. Maybe Megatron, but even he doesn't seem keen on doing so."
"I'm serious, Knock Out, I can't leave them alone anymore, not now that they are able to move around."
They were silent for a few cycles, while simply watching the suckling sparklings, listening to their purring. Knock Out had said they would have to live off his energon for at least another two months.
"By the way, Starscream, have you thought up any names yet? We can't expect them to cooperate anymore unless we can get them to listen individually. They'll need names."
"I know, I've been thinking about it too," the Seeker said. "I've only thought up four names so far. The one with the purple spark, I've decided to call her Cross-Eyes."
"Because of her crossed eyes?" Knock Out asked sarcastically.
"Well...yes. I can't think of anything else for her. Anyway, I've decided the one with the green spark is called Outrage. He's always throwing a tantrum when he doesn't get his will and always gets into a fight with the others."
"Fitting name, then. What else?"
"I'm calling the red one Flashlight. He's a fast runner, despite his young age, and since he has red energon for his innermost energon, he might end up having hyper-speed as well...maybe. And the blue one...owch!" One of the sparklings, namely the one with the blue spark, bit extra hard onto the energon pouch, causing pain to the Seeker who snarled at it to stop. It didn't seem to notice his outburst, but nonetheless settled down.
"...I'm calling him Rascal. I assume you can see why."
"Oh, not at all," the doctor said sarcastically. "Just because he constantly picks a fight with the Vehicons, Insecticons and even once Megatron, doesn't make him a troublemaker at all."
Starscream rolled his eyes, looking down at the two last sparklings, the yellow one and the pink one. "I don't know what to call the other two yet. For now, I'm calling them Pinky and Goldy until I come up with more fitting names."
"Oh, I don't know, Pinky and Goldy seem fine to me," he said with a smirk.
After they had returned to the Nemesis, Starscream discovered that Metalhawk got along surprisingly well with the Predacon. The beast didn't try to rip him to pieces, and the bird would sit on top of its head and chatter, as if they were talking to each other. Starscream had hard to imagine anyone being able to have this kind of relationship with the Predacon, but, well, it takes a beast to understand a beast, he assumed.
After another week, Starscream could feel how the lack of energon made him irritable, though not lacking energy as he had thought. Two cubes every second day and one every day provided him with enough energy to keep going, but not enough to make him feel full by the end of the day. The energon wasn't the whole cause of his frustration, however.
Because of his sparklings' now constant torment of the other residents on the ship, he was too worried they might get hurt to set out for a flight, and not getting to use his wings left him stressed, as he had been in the past when his T-Cog was missing. This time it wasn't the lack of transformation, but the responsibility of six sparklings that kept him from the sky. He felt he couldn't just leave his sparklings behind to get trampled under the feet of a Vehicon, an Insecticon or even Megatron. He wanted to keep a constant eye on them, even while they were asleep, and every time he let one of them out of his sight, he was prone to panic, and with good reason. Because when let out of sight, they would always, for some reason, ALWAYS tick off one of the big guys. He was about to get a spark attack every day.
But now, he had had enough.
"I NEED TO FLY!" he shouted all of a sudden one day, two weeks after the energon harvest. "I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE!"
"Calm down, geez!" Knock Out hushed. "The little monsters are sleeping, do you really wanna wake 'em up? If you wanna fly so bad, just go outside and fly!"
"I can't," Starscream protested dramatically. "If I do, then who's going to look after the sparklings? Who's going to make sure they don't get themselves killed by the others onboard this ship?"
"Uh, what about me?"
The Seeker looked judgmental at the doctor. "And how do I know you're not going to lose them from your sight?"
"I promise I will keep a constant eye on them."
"Even when they're asleep?"
"Come on, Screamer, they're not gonna do anything while they're asleep."
The Seeker sighed. "Maybe you're right. But I still want you to keep a close eye on them."
"I will," the doctor repeated annoyed. "Just go already. You're not the only one who needs a break from your whining. I got this, okay? Go out and have fun."
Starscream hesitated. He was uncertain whether to entrust these precious little things that are ruining his life to a bot who didn't even help him deliver them. However, he was the most trustworthy of all these morons on the ship, so he decided to leave them in his care.
He entered the flight deck where as usual Metalhawk protruded on top of the Predacon's head. The bird screeched at him in greeting, but the Predacon simply growled grumpily at him. Starscream decided to ignore them both and took off in silence.
"Ahhh, freedom! Oh, it feels so good to fly again..."
While feeling the gentle breeze cooling his armor and the clouds washing away his worries (and energon stains from feeding times), he wondered what the Harbinger looked like now, after getting destroyed by the Vehicons and everything...
Wait, they never did destroy that place, did they? he thought to himself. True, while he did order the place destroyed, he retracted the order to fight back the invading Autobots at Darkmount. The Harbinger was still there...and maybe even the Autobots. Could they have dared making that ship their new hideout? Unlikely, as Starscream himself had shown them the way to the harbinger about six months ago. But what if they were there? If Starscream managed to find the Autobots' new base, surely the warlord would allow him even more energon cubes every day...
"I'll risk it," he mumbled to himself. "If anything, I can get my log back. Surely by now the Heralds of Unicron must have received the message in there..."
And so he flew all the way to the cliff where the Harbinger was situated in. He transformed, landing by the rocks just outside the Decepticon ship, speculating whether to go in or not, just in case the Autobots were really there. Should he call for back-up?
"No, Megatron would just scold me again for leaving the Harbinger for the Autobots to use. And in case no one's there, I would look pretty stupid..."
"Phase 3: Fallen Star, complete."
Starscream let out a loud shriek which he was certain the Autobots, Decepticons or even Heralds of Unicron could hear, wherever they may be right now. He turned around to see exactly who he knew it would be; Creop Trivem. It felt like forever since their last meeting. However, before Starscream could even greet or scoff at him, Creop initiated his routine:
"As the roar of the dragon will be heard,
The Dark Lord shall re...re...the D-D-Dark L-Lord sh-shall..."
Starscream moped. This had never happened before.
"Dark...the Darararark Lordordord shall rerererereretuuuuuuurrrrrnnnnnn..."
"Uh...you okay?" Starscream asked concerned as Creop's image began flickering, his voice seeming to malfunction. Something wasn't right.
"The...the...the... THE DAAARRRRK LORD SHALL RERERETUUURN!"
Starscream was startled by Creop's sudden yelling, sounding almost like a scream, followed by an unusually flickering, sparkly disappearing, almost like an explosion.
Standing in silence, shocked over what had just happened, Starscream felt discouraged to check the Harbinger now. But he wanted to get back his log, so he pulled himself together and went in.
"That Creop...is a real creep."
He entered the Harbinger with his laser guns out, tiptoeing his way in, stopping for a moment to listen for any sounds, then moving on. As he entered the control room, he saw that no one was around. No Autobots, no humans, not even any equipment. The GroundBridge was gone, the tools and scooters were gone. He searched around in panic.
"No...they even took my tape recorder! They took my log!"
A squeaky noise sounded from behind and he turned startled around. No one was there.
"Come out! I know you're there! Just show yourself already!"
But instead of words, the noise-maker responded with more squeaks and purring. He froze. He turned his head and looked at his back. One of his sparklings was clinging onto his back like a koalabot. He could just barely make out the color of the sleepy sparkling's optics.
"Cross-Eyes?" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be back on the ship, watched by...Knock Out!" He snarled the last part.
"Hey, Screamer! You here?" a familiar voice sounded from the hallway. He froze.
"This is the tenth time we've checked, Rartorata," another familiar voice sounded. "He's not gonna be here."
"You don't know that, Drancron! I'm positive I heard a voice in there just now!"
"You always have little voices in your head," a third familiar voice sounded.
Starscream could see the shadows of the Blendtrons on the wall, and turned his back the opposite way, to hide his sparkling, preparing for what was coming next.
Knock Out searched desperately everywhere, under the tables, behind machines, on the ceiling, but nothing looked anything like an escaped sparkling.
"Oh scrap, oh scrap, oh scrap," he hissed as the other five sparklings had woken up from their nap and began running around, getting in his way. "Starscream's gonna kill me when he gets back! How can I lose a sparkling ten seconds after he left? He'll never trust me with the sparklings again! Not that it would be a bad thing though," he added after tripping over a passing sparkling and falling to the floor, face first.
"Starscream!" Megatron snarled as he entered the medical room. He looked very displeased. "Knock Out, where is that lunatic?"
"Out for a flight," Knock Out replied absentminded. "Needed a break from the little ones."
Megatron growled. "I never told him he could take a vacation when he wanted. He brought this on himself, so he must take the consequences as well. You tell him he better keep his little pests under control from now on. I'm losing my patience with them."
"I'll do my best, my liege."
"Goldy", the sparkling with yellow eyes and spark, was being chased around by "Pinky", and ran over to Megatron, seeking cover behind his leg. Knock Out gasped as the sparkling grapped onto the warlord's leg.
Megatron looked down at the clingy sparkling who looked back at him with large glossy golden eyes and let out a cute little squeak and smiled at him. Megatron looked astonished at the mechling, but the moment was brief; he soon shook the sparkling off his leg.
"Get off me, brat!" he snarled as the mechling came off. "I'm not your mommy."
"No, he's out enjoying himself," Knock Out smirked.
Megatron cleared his throat, pretending that didn't happen. "Anyway, tell Starscream that—"
Suddenly the lights began flickering., distracting the two mechs. Even the sparklings stopped playing around, confused by the blinking lights.
"Probably just a light malfunction," Knock Out suggested, when suddenly the ship began rumbling as well, synchronized with the flickering lights. The sparklings began shrieking, like their "mommy" did.
"Something's not right," Megatron muttered and pinged the control center. "Status report!"
"Lord Megatron, the Predacon is trying to get inside the ship!" a Vehicon responded.
"So?"
"Well, and there seems to be something on its way here. It looks like an aircraft..."
"Is it Starscream?"
"No sir, this one is much bigger...and on fire!"
Megatron was curious. "I'll check it out." He ended the call and went for the flight deck. "We'll talk later," he added to Knock Out before going.
As Megatron reached the door for the flight deck, he could indeed hear loud scraping against the door, whimpering and thumping on the floor. He couldn't believe his audio receptors. Was that really the Predacon's noises?
He opened the door and stepped outside. He quickly stepped aside as the Predacon stormed past him, almost squeezing its way inside the ship, followed closely by Metalhawk, Starscream's new pet. Both seemed scared somehow. It was strange to see such a mighty beast, having brutally maimed Autobots and even Decepticons, ruling over not one but two worlds, terrorizing its dominant population...now crouched together, cowering like a...well, like Starscream. What could have spooked the mighty monster so much?
Megatron turned his attention away from the cowering Predacon and birdbot, slightly concerned over what may be coming. He focused his optic sensors to spot the tiny speck on the dawning sky. Indeed, it was a flaming object, and it was getting closer and closer...
As Megatron was about to raise his cannon to shoot the potential threat away, the burning jet transformed and landed gracefully on the flight deck. The mech before him was enveloped by orange flames, making it impossible to identify his colors and allegiance. The only thing he could tell was that he was a flier, similar in size and figure as Dreadwing, but the head looking more like a Seeker's. Megatron tried opening a comm., but it wouldn't work. He felt a strange energy radiating from this stranger.
"You must be Megatron, leader of these so-called Decepticons, right?" the stranger said, having a surprisingly light-toned voice for someone so sinister.
"I am," the warlord replied cautiously, unsure what to make of this mech. "And you are?"
The stranger presented a burning right servo, as if to shake hands with the warlord. "Yes, my apologies for not introducing myself first. I just had to be sure I had reached the right place. I am—"
"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" a thundering, yet shrieky voice screamed throughout the sky, catching the two mechs' attention. From the blinding light of the rising sun, Starscream came soaring in at full speed, transformed and placed himself between Megatron and the stranger.
"Step aside, sparkling," the stranger said mockingly to the Seeker. "I have a mission."
"Starscream, what is the meaning of this?" Megatron growled.
"Megatron, don't touch this guy," Starscream begged. "This is Sunstorm the Saint. If you touch him, you're dead."
