Come and get me
Even if TC didn't recognize the digital signature on the message, he would have known who it was. No one else except Starscream would dare to presume to order him in such a crass way. He considered ignoring the message. But when Skywarp showed up on TC's cruiser several hours later, he was talked out of that option.
He would have preferred getting out of it. He finally had a lead on some Trulzx tubing that he needed for his covert project. He was always one to finish what he started, and Thundercracker wasn't about to change the basics of what defined him just because a human disrupted his life.
He cringed because he was always thinking about that female whether he wanted to or not, and because of Skywarp telling him the coordinates of where they were heading.
"Zthzz? Then that means that..."
Skywarp interrupted him, a little too much enthusiasm in his words, "He was taken prisoner, as the tarxs take everyone they discover prisoner if they are foolish enough to pass their planets boundaries, or stupid enough to land," Warp finished for him, and Thundercracker could just imagine a wicked grin mutating his metallic flesh if they hadn't been in alt mode. "You up to it, TC? I know you have reverted back to your isolationist's ways of late, so perhaps I should go on my own." He irritatingly mocked. "Slag, when's the last time you left your ship?"
"I have left many times, whoever has informed you of my activities is several months behind," TC groused bitterly, frustrated but not surprised that his wingmates had been keeping track of him. He had accomplished many things in the time since the shifter incident. Thundercracker had had his ship's engines upgraded, his squad put through training exercises, his security upgraded and the ship's memory capacities increased. Accustomed to always being busy, it was suddenly required or else his thoughts would drift into that insufferable place of distress and dread. He was determined not to let the alien emotional responses get the better of him again, determined not to become the sentimental, unrecognizable being that allowed what he felt to rule him.
Skywarp chuckled through their link, the darkness of space swallowing the forms of the two jets whole. Being in stealth mode, their approach to the Planet Zthzz would go unnoticed. Which led him to how Starscream even managed to get captured, it was curious and...
"On purpose probably," Skywarp interrupted his thought process. Surface thoughts could be picked up through Trine links, especially when they were so open and unguarded. "You know how he gets when he is bored, and of late, he has been so fraggin' bored that I am surprised something like this didn't happen sooner. One hour and we will be there," Warp informed TC of what he already knew.
"Then we separate here," Thundercracker ordered. "I will find Starscream, free him and contact you."
"Perhaps..."
"No, Warp. We both know subtlety has never been something you excelled at."
"Fine," Skywarp bemoaned, hardly hiding his displeasure. "But if I miss out on any fun, I will blame you."
"Do that."
The tarxs were insect-like creatures, half the size of Cybertronians and a brutally violent species. They protected and defended their planet with almost savage cruelty. They were known for capturing those that dared interlope on their planet and not torture them but experiment. Learning and figuring out all they needed to on those they considered possible threats. They were paranoid, secretive and a species that even Deceptions had been known to fear.
Leave it to Starscream to go there. But the Seeker always had his own agendas.
"What took you so long?" His link buzzed to life as soon as he landed.
The planet was covered in absolute darkness, giving the inhabitants naturally sharp night vision. Everything smelled foul and rotten. He landed and activated his filters. He had been on the planet before, a time of long ago when they had searched for Energon. But having mined every last bit of it mega-cycles ago, the planet no longer held any value in the Decepticon's optics.
"Would you rather I didn't come at all?" TC shot back, not hiding the strain in his vocals.
"Would you rather I dismantle you?" Starscream retorted bitterly, proving that he was definitely not in a good mood. "You have exactly nineteen minutes before the security field I managed to disable is reactivated."
"If you have..."
"I am restrained, obviously," Screamer interrupted with increasing irritation, his patience dissolving away to none. "Hurry the frag up, Thundercracker."
"How many guards?"
"Thirteen. Kill them and free me. You have sixteen minutes now. Stop wasting time."
He took care of the guards and penetrated the compound in fourteen minutes. He would have made it to Starscream's cell even sooner if it hadn't been for the miscount of the security detail. Something he was sure Starscream had done on purpose.
Now, standing before Starscream, the cell door wide open, the Supreme Air Commander's hands and legs captured in thick manacles, his wings bent awkwardly and restrained as well, Thundercracker paused. But it wasn't for the expert manner in which he was held, but the three humans that were shuffling along Starscream's pediforms trying hard to release the braces. By looks of it, they had already cleared his right leg.
The humans stopped what they were doing, getting out of the area when he motioned with his hand. Spraying acid on the restraints, Starscream was free soon enough, leaving the cell and taking off quickly.
"Wait," one of the humans spoke up; a female Thundercracker saw. Another younger female stood by her, a young male as well. All looked worn and ragged, thin and unnaturally pale. "You said if we helped you disable the security field and helped you get out of your restraints that you would help us get off the planet."
"I lied," Starscream said to the group of humans, not even bothering facing them as he spoke, disappearing when he turned into a bend in the hallway.
The female spoke again, a string of curses crashing out of her thin mouth. The young male began to cry, his body shaking. The female noticed TC still standing there. She brushed her hands through her matted hair and stood taller, taking in a shaky but determined breath of air.
"Cover Brad's eyes, Molly. I believe this one is going to kill us," the female told her companions, her voice full of more regret than fear as if she was accustomed to terrible things befalling her, things that she couldn't stop even if she tried.
"Sarah," the other female spoke up, her voice warbling. "I..."
"Do it, now."
Molly did as she was told. Sarah, the oldest, after grabbing to the two smaller humans, narrowed her eyes at the Seeker and waited for death.
"What the slag were you thinking?" Starscream asked tersely. His optics shifted to the three humans that were busy rinsing off and cleaning themselves in a nearby pond.
"Nobody deserves the attentions of the tarxs."
Starscream scowled deeply. The Supreme Air Commander was damaged himself and at the moment, until his repair systems kicked in, unable to fly. If TC never came for Starscream, the Seeker would have been taken apart. By the looks of his external and what his scanners revealed, internal damage, the Seeker had been there for at least a couple of days.
"Barricade was right," Starscream rasped, his finely curved face cringing with disgust. "You have grown soft for the humans. Or perhaps it is going soft for one that has brought you to being so slaggin' pathetic. Now that the female has become the lifemate of a Vildan, and obviously forgotten all about you," He flashed a smug smile, "I would have thought these unfortunate quirks of yours would have ended." Starscream leaned forward from where he sat, his optics sweeping over TC with animosity as he ruminated out loud. "I should kill you. If I don't, your next step will be joining the Autobots. Yes, better to end you before that happens." He was serious, or at least, he had been the moment he spoke of it. But suddenly, the Supreme Seeker was laughing thickly.
Thundercracker wasn't the least affected by Screamer's fickleness. Starscream could kill him if he wanted. He knew all TC's weakness. He could take him out easily, effortlessly. If Thundercracker allowed.
"No, I am curious as how this plays out," Starscream grinned with an air of self-satisfied tolerance. "And tainted or not, you are still my trinemate." He frowned. "Still needed. And I suspect that we will see that delectable female again. If you just took her when I offered her to you, had your way with her and realized how simple those creatures are, you wouldn't be so affected. Slag, just the mention of her and your spark betrays your eagerness."
"I am..."
"Over her?" Screamer interrupted, chuckling soundly, optics brightening. "Not even close."
"Are we your slaves?" Sarah, the boldest of the group, the sister to the other two boldly approached the Seekers. She was trembling, her eyes having the nervous tendency of drifting to their prominently displayed Decepticon symbols.
"We have no use for slaves," TC replied, watching the female's flesh turn ashen, her breaths sharpen. "Tell me how you were captured," Thundercracker ordered, perhaps a little too roughly, for the woman's knees gave out, and she tumbled down on her legs. Her siblings made a show to go to her, but she was strong enough to lift her hand and halt their approach.
Starscream huffed with disdain at the feeble human, got up from the rock he had been sitting on and retreated several paces away to talk to Skywarp without interruptions or distractions.
Surprisingly, proving once again that humans were far from the weak creatures that Megatron tried to make them believe, the female began to speak. With the way in which she held Thundercracker's gaze, she had never been a prisoner of the Deceptions, or she would have never dared look at him directly. But the nervous, frightened tendencies she had toward him proved she had either seen Decepticons in action or heard enough rumors. Slag, Decepticons had made their planet unlivable, scattered their species, that in enough was probably enough to disturb any human.
"We were rescued by the Autobots when Earth was... poisoned, but our ship was damaged when one of your battle cruisers found us. The Autobots tried to repair the ship, but we eventually only drifted, left with no way to contact anyone for help. We crashed here about a month ago, were captured a week ago. I don't know what happened to the rest of the people on board. We were separated when caught," she finished, her already soft tone settling toward a sad whisper.
"They are prisoners," Thundercracker let her know. During her verbal recall, he had broken through the tarxs firewalls and did a search on their information net. They may have been a barbaric culture, but they fortunately weren't beyond the employment of archaic but exploitable technology. "They will be killed as soon as the tarxs have learned all they need to know."
"And what exactly do you plan to do with us?" The female questioned. Her dull brown eyes lowered even as her inquiry had been a firm one.
He stared at the woman. She was at least thirty, had long stringy black hair, bruises on her face, deep scratches on her arms and was seriously dehydrated and working on malnourished. Cheeks slightly hollowed out, her frame needlessly thin, she wasn't attractive in the least. But her ability to approach him, to question him, spoke of humanity's strength of will. His optics hovered. He couldn't ignore the weak anymore. Alexis had changed him. Had made him see, had made him understand compassion.
"I will make sure you are taken to the nearest neutral base where you will be able to contact the Autobots and inform them of the state of your comrades."
"I... " she paused, swallowed thickly and spoke again, "Why would you do this? I thought... You are a Decepticon," she pointed out the obvious.
"And you are a human. If I believed everything that was said about your species, then you should have been dead long ago."
Somehow, the female managed a weak proud smile.
The female was overly still. Convincing, no, bribing Warp to assist him, the woman's younger siblings were inside Skywarp, who flew closely alongside his wingmates. Now beyond the Zthzz planet, stealth mode was no longer required. The woman kept her eyes on Warp, keeping her attention on the view of her family. Her hands were gripped tightly together, the trembling of her body still present but not nearly as noticeable as it had been when she first sat in his cockpit.
She didn't smell good, and with the curses and threats that Warp uttered to him as the other two sat inside the Seeker, her siblings smelled no better. She had obviously been through a lot since the ruination of her planet, the flicker of volatile emotions in her eyes making that apparent.
"Perhaps you should keep one of the females for practice purposes," Starscream cut through the Trine's link, his vocals amused. "That way when you see Alexandra again," He lingered on the female's name as if tasting it on his glossa, "you will actually know what to do with her."
Skywarp sounded shocked, his words filled with skepticism, "Slag, Screamer. They are disgusting, and they won't stop squirming and touching. I think I am going to heave my tank. If you smelled these creatures, you wouldn't suggest such a thing."
"Nothing a prolonged amount of time in the cleaning racks wouldn't take care of," Starscream replied in a manner that implied he had thought it through.
"I have my doubts," Warp internally cringed.
"What say you, TC? Or are you determined to ignore me?"
"Not interested."
"Oh, but you are," Starscream spoke with malevolent delight. "So interested that my question originated in your own thoughts. It may have been rejected and forgotten, disgusted and repulsed you, but yes, you thought of it first. Deny my if you want. You itch for the feel of flesh."
The image of Alexis drifted inhibited through his processor. The feel of her hand in his own. Thundercracker couldn't stop the involuntary, intensely intimate emotion that rocketed through, barely able to stop it from transmitting through their link with the close proximity.
Closing off his thoughts, he replied evenly, his vocals etched free of emotion, "Don't try to force your own compulsions on me, Screamer."
"And if I could give you an outlet for seeing the human? If I told you I knew a way to penetrate the field that lined her adopted planted? Would you deny this offer as well?"
"I would."
This time when Starscream laughed, he did so wholesparkedly.
Dropping the humans off at the nearest neutral base, the three Seekers were now back on Thundercracker's ship. He really didn't expect them to follow him back.
"What should we do next?" Starscream asked as soon as they stepped onto the landing bay, frowning. He frowned even deeper when he saw the animated motions of TC's pet coming to greet him.
He didn't ask about the creature, only gave Thundercracker a lifted optic ridge.
"Next?" Thundercracker repeated, devoid of enthusiasm.
"Now that the fun on Zthzz is over, we need to find something else diverting to do," Starscream informed the two.
"You never said why you were on Zthzz," Skywarp stared at the Supreme Air Commander with suspicion, his mouth pinched together tightly.
"No. I did not." Starscream dismissed Warp with a subtle warning, turning to Thundercracker. "Thundercracker can pick where we go next."
"You two can..."
Starscream stepped up to the blue Seeker, monopolized his space and leaned in close, almost stepping on Terra, who managed to retreat behind TC. "No, the three of us, as it should be. This you will not deny." Starscream's vocals were deceptively pleasant, his optics though, burned.
"Rhia then," Agitated at Starscream's coercion, Thundercracker chose a space station that was known for its cleaning springs and quality of Energon. Also for the beauty of its femmes, something he knew his trinemates would appreciate far more than the opulent cleaning and repairing centers. He felt no need to inform them that he had been heading to that region of space anyway, and that being on the space station would serve the useful opportunity of getting in touch with one of his supply contacts.
"Yes, that will do," Starscream smiled, backing off. "That will occupy us until..." He let his words cut off with purpose, his optics flickering back to TC, a merciless, cryptic smile hovering momentarily, forcing Thundercracker to question exactly what his wingmate desperately wanted to say but didn't.
