Shall we play a Game?
When Starscream regained consciousness, the first thing he experienced was disorientation, and distorted vision. The second thing he noticed was that he was lying on a cold, metallic surface. His third thought was that he didn't know where he was, or how he'd got there. As his vision began to readjust, he struggled to sit up and felt someone grab a hold of his arm, pulling him up, until he was standing. He staggered slightly, but the hand held him steady.
"Starscream?"
He recognized the mech's voice; it belonged to one of the Constructicons. "Scavenger?" Still adjusting his visual field, he strained to look at the purple and green mech. "Ugh, what happened?"
Scavenger stared back at him, his hand still steadying the seeker. "I have no idea. I don't remember," he replied in a low voice.
Taking several more moments to steady himself, Starscream looked around to take in their unfamiliar surroundings. He did not expect what he saw. He and Scavenger were inside a large, empty room, constructed of solid metal all around. It had no doors and no windows, nor any cracks or seams of any kind. Inside the room with them were eight others; some were mechanoid and some organic. Two of the mechs in the room were Autobots; the rest he did not recognize. All of them appeared to be disoriented and confused to some degree.
"Where the hell are we?"
Cautiously releasing the seeker's arm, Scavenger only shook his head in response.
Starscream walked slowly towards the nearest wall and began to examine it. "Where is the way out of here?" he asked.
The Constructicon walked towards him. "There isn't, as far as I can tell," he said uncertainly, his voice still barely above a whisper as he furtively glanced behind them at the group of strangers in the room.
Starscream stopped momentarily to look at him. "What do you mean there isn't? There must be."
"There's nothing behind these walls except reinforced metal… and empty space. No doors, no openings of any sort. Nothing," Scavenger explained, and then added, "Not even any other life signs."
"What?" Starscream faced him squarely, a hint of apprehension now creeping into his voice. "But that's impossible." He refused to accept the notion that they were trapped inside some strange, cuboid prison along with a bunch of other inmates, and no way of escape. Abruptly, he turned back to the wall and began to bang on it with his fist. The metal did not give way at all, as if it were reinforced with some kind of impenetrable force field. He couldn't even make a scratch in it. He took a few steps back and aimed both his null rays at it, but when he tried to fire them, nothing happened. "My weapons don't work." He began to panic, staring at his arm weapons in shock and disbelief.
"Neither do mine. I already tried." Scavenger wished he had some good news to share, but he did not. It seemed like they had both woken up to some bizarre, convoluted alternate reality. Or some lucid nightmare.
"Well, how the fuck are we supposed to get out of here?" Starscream's voice increased in both pitch and volume, giving away his nervousness and frustration.
His agitation must have caught the attention of others in the room, because the two Autobots, who had also just awoken to take stock of their current situation, now began to approach the two Decepticons. One of them was a heavily-armored and beige, blue and green colored Autobot, whilst the other was a silver, purple and red flyer who looked like he transformed into a B-1 Lancer.
"Decepticons – I should've known you'd have something to do with this," said the bigger Autobot in a gruff voice, smacking his fist into the palm of his other hand while looking directly at Starscream. "Let us all out of here, now, or I'll pound you both into scrap-metal."
"You think I had something to do with this?" Starscream shot back incredulously. The Autobot was much larger than he was, but he did not let that get in the way of his indignation. Still, he backed away as the Autobot took another step threateningly towards him.
"You're both Decepti-creeps, aren't you?" he leered at them menacingly. "Pulling a stupid stunt like this would be right up your alley, wouldn't it?"
"Fuck off," Starscream told him. "We had nothing to do with this, so why don't you just go back to the primordial swamp from where you came from, you useless fuck?"
"Watch your language, asshole, unless you want me to rip you a new one!" The large Autobot took another step towards the seeker, ready to take a hard swing at him, but Scavenger grabbed Starscream by the arm and quickly pulled him away. In the same instant, the Autobot flyer rested a hand on his companion's shoulder, making him think twice about starting a brawl.
"Don't waste your time on scum, Fisitron. He ain't worth it. Let's just try and get out of here first."
Fisitron growled, giving both Decepticons a death glare, but then began to move away.
Once the immediate threat had passed, Starscream met Scavenger's gaze as the Constructicon looked back at him. "Can you believe that asshole? He thinks we're behind this!" he exclaimed with antipathy.
Scavenger's expression was concealed by his full face mask, but his mannerisms indicated that he was anxious. "Starscream, we need to stay calm. I really think it's best if you don't–"
"Stay calm? How can you expect me to stay calm?" Starscream cut in quickly, as he pointed accusingly back at the two Autobots. "We're stuck inside some God-forsaken cube, with two slagging Autobots, and a bunch of… helpless strangers! I want to get the slag out of here!" Starscream turned abruptly after his brief rant and began to pace a few steps away from his only companion.
Scavenger released an inaudible sigh, but remained where he was, unsure of what to do. "Sorry," he said, not loud enough for anyone to hear though it was intended for Starscream.
A minute or so passed and Starscream, once he had sufficiently regained his composure and was able to think a little more clearly, walked back towards him. "Don't be sorry, Scavenger. It's not your fault." He paused, and then added, "I'm the one who should be sorry, not you."
Surprised that Starscream had even heard his apology, Scavenger met his gaze. "We really need to find a way out of here as soon as possible," he said in an urgent tone.
The way he had said it made Starscream feel even more uneasy; he glanced across the room, casting a wary optic at the other prisoners. Several of them were also becoming agitated, calling out to some invisible guard on the other side of the walls who probably didn't exist. "Why do you say that?" he inquired, making sure that none of the others in the room could overhear them. Scavenger hesitated, casting his optics down at the floor in thought. "Scavenger?"
When the green and purple Constructicon raised his head up again, he turned to look across the room. "Do you know those two Autobots?" he finally answered with a question of his own.
Puzzled, Starscream shook his head. "No. Should I?"
When Scavenger caught his gaze again, he seemed to have become more contemplative. "The one who wanted to hit you just now – Fisitron? You won't ever hear this from any mech, but he's a psychopathic killer. The story goes that he murdered a couple of Decepticon sympathisers in cold blood on their way to a protest march, just before the Revolt took place."
Starscream seemed to draw back with the revelation, but then he quickly shook it off. "Well, he's an Autobot. What do you expect? I guess they're not all angels, are they?"
Ignoring his irony, Scavenger grabbed a hold of the seeker's forearm and pulled him closer, then spoke in a harsh whisper into his audio receptors. "The other Autobot – the flyer who's with him? He's even worse; he's a hired assassin."
Starscream seemed genuinely surprised. "Are you sure – how do you know that?"
Scavenger hesitated for a moment, making sure that the two Autobots weren't looking their way. "It's a long story, but… you remember when civil unrest began to break out in the capital a few weeks ago? When that Autobot Elder – Hexagine – was found murdered?"
"Yes, yes… the Autobots introduced harsher penalties for politically motivated crimes as a result," Starscream recalled, not quite seeing the connection.
"Yeah, including the authorization to apprehend suspects without evidence, and confiscate everything they own." He paused, watching the seeker's reaction. "Anyway, I found out later that Hexagine had been assassinated by a mech who goes by the name of Shadowstriker, though that's probably not even his real name." He motioned towards the flyer. "Well, I'm pretty sure that's him."
The seeker looked at him in confusion, keeping his voice low. "How do you know that's him?" he asked, nodding towards the same silver, purple and red form of the Autobot flyer standing across the room.
"Because Swindle showed me a holo-form of him, plus Soundwave later confirmed who he was, and also that the assassination had been a false flag," Scavenger replied, turning to look at Shadowstriker across the room. "I'm pretty certain it's him. Looks exactly like the holo-form I saw."
Taking a step back, Starscream took a moment to consider what he had just learned. "Okay, so we have two cold-blooded killers trapped in here with us. That's just great."
"The thing is, they're not only cold-blooded killers, but I've heard that they both harbour a deep hatred for all Decepticons – I mean, even more than is usual for Autobots," Scavenger continued, probably understating the truth a little. "Let's just – be careful around them, okay? Especially without the use of our weapons."
"So, what you're telling me is that not only are we both stuck with two deranged, Decepticon-hating killers, but we don't have a damn clue about how we ended up in here?" He met Scavenger's visored optics, trying to make sense of the whole situation, and then shook his head. "Okay. What's the last thing you remember – just before you woke up?"
Scavenger began to pace slowly away in thought. "I'm not really sure. I just remember helping out with a few odd jobs at our new metal refinery – nothing unusual. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. One moment I was walking back from the loading bay, and then the next… I'm in here." He gave a small shrug, his palms turning upwards in gesture. "What about you?"
"Similar story, except that I was inspecting one of our recently repaired cruisers. I remember powering it up and going through the usual pre-launch checks – nothing unusual, either." Starscream recalled how that memory ended suddenly and then the next thing he knew he had woken up in this prison, disoriented and defenceless. "You all did an excellent job with it, by the way. I mean with the cruiser. I'd meant to tell Scrapper in person next time I saw him."
"Thanks," the Constructicon replied with sincerity. "I'm sure he'll appreciate it."
"That's if I'll ever get the chance to tell him."
"Why wouldn't you?" Scavenger asked, walking back to join him, though he was afraid of the answer he was going to receive.
A long moment of silence followed. "I don't think we're supposed to get out of here alive." Starscream's voice had dropped to a near whisper as he said this, though there was only a thin layer of calm and self-control that was holding back the rage he felt towards their current predicament, and towards the unknown perpetrators behind it.
Before Scavenger could respond, wanting to assure him that he would do anything he possibly could to help get them both out of here both alive and intact, he noticed two of the strangers in the room approaching them, and he tapped Starscream lightly on the forearm, pointing, to alert him to their presence.
One of them – a tough-looking, leather-clad male humanoid – spoke first, his voice deep and rough. He was of a much heavier build than his companion, with large muscles that bulged underneath his black jacket. "Hi, I'm Valkyr. This is Raptor. We're from Xylanthia. Who are you freaks?"
Starscream crossed his arms, studying the two of them with only casual interest. They both appeared to be organics, and he realized that he and Scavenger had been mass-shifted down to match their approximate size and height. The same appeared to be true for the two Autobots. "I'm Starscream, and this is Scavenger. We're from Cybertron."
"Scavenger, huh?" Valkyr nodded in amusement as he eyed them both appraisingly. "Nice weapons you got there, Starscream." The man noticed his wings, made as if he were impressed. "You can fly?" Starscream gave him no immediate answer, so the man changed the topic. "Any idea where we are?" he asked finally.
"None," Starscream said honestly.
After a brief pause, Valkyr nodded casually towards the two Autobots in the background behind him. "You know those two metalheads?"
"Not really," Starscream answered dismissively, and then asked Valkyr a question of his own. "You two are both organics?"
The man laughed out loud. "Organics?" He pulled a packet of cigarettes from his front jacket pocket and casually lit the end of it with his lighter. He took a long drag from it before exhaling a smoky mouthful a little too close to Starscream's face. "Sure, I'm an organic," he finally replied, then pointed a thumb at Raptor. "But he's a cyborg." His companion, Raptor, was clad in a black, thick rubber space-suit, padded heavily at the front. The only thing that might have given away his semi-organic nature was the thin visor that completely covered his eyes.
Starscream stepped back to avoid the foul air, waving it away. "You really shouldn't smoke in here," he said.
The seeker's bluntness seemed to irritate Valkyr. "Oh, yeah? And why is that?" He took another puff, but this time blew it out harder, as if in defiance.
"We don't know how long we're all going to be stuck in here together – maybe a couple of hours, maybe longer – and in case you haven't noticed there are no windows or air vents anywhere, which means that there's only a limited supply of oxygen – something that you organics in here require to live, but which will be depleted quickly if you don't stop indulging your filthy habit," Starscream explained.
Valkyr looked over at his partner in amusement. "Looks like we have ourselves a smartass," he said, took another puff and exhaled more smoke, slowly and deliberately, before casually turning and walking away.
The two Decepticons watched them leave to join two others, both also male humanoids. One of them immediately began to cough before rebuking Valkyr for smoking and taking up precious oxygen, but the Xylanthian simply laughed in the man's face, then wielded a sharp, switchblade knife.
"I'll do whatever the fuck I please," Valkyr sneered at the man, who immediately backed down.
"He seems nice." Scavenger's comment was laced with obvious sarcasm toward Valkyr, and noticed that his companion's mood had shifted a little. "Starscream?"
As if he could read Scavenger's mind, he replied, "There's something about those two that really rubs me the wrong way," he said and then, aware of the obviousness of his statement, he clarified, "Other than their impoliteness, I mean."
"Oh?" Scavenger prompted.
"Yes, there's something about that Valkyr character… but I don't know what it is."
Scavenger leaned against the wall, his thoughts now turned to finding a way of escape, but he had no great ideas, nothing that he thought would help. He sighed, and Starscream, still standing with his arms folded, turned and looked back at him. "What if you're right, Starscream? What if we don't get out of here?" he managed.
Starscream walked over to him. "I don't know what's going to happen, but one thing's for certain: I'm going to try my damndest to find a way out – I don't care what it takes." With a renewed sense of hope, Scavenger returned his gaze and nodded. Then Starscream cast his optics around the room, studying its inmates again. "I think the first thing we should do is try to determine who we can trust, and who we can't."
"Well, the Autobots are definitely out. So are Valkyr and Raptor," Scavenger replied, dismissing them aloud, "and I've no idea who those other four are."
"Neither do I." Starscream grabbed his companion's arm and guided him towards the center of the room. "So, why don't we go over and find out."
Reluctantly, Scavenger followed, though he was not looking forward to mingling with the odd crowd; his instincts told him that they were bad news.
The other four inmates turned out to be not much help. One of the other two humanoid organics, Max, wanted nothing to do with Scavenger or Starscream; he seemed to have an issue with mechanoids, and had demanded that they stay away from him. The other one – the same one who had angered Valkyr when he'd admonished him for his smoking – said that his name was Cyrus. He was friendlier, and even seemed helpful, though there was something about him that made Scavenger think he was untrustworthy. Both of these humanoids claimed they were from a planet in the Rigel star system.
The last two inmates were non-transforming robots from the planet Azure, which supported a mechanized world that the two Decepticons were reasonably familiar with. One of them was mech and the other femme, and their names were Brom and Tia, respectively. They were both a light blue color, with simple robot bodies, but Brom was slightly larger than his partner, who was sleek and feminine. The two of them clung to each other, huddled together as if they were joined at the hip.
"Do either of you know how you got here?" Starscream ventured to ask them.
"N-no," Tia shook her head nervously, looking to her partner for support. "We were simply returning home from an evening out at the cinema. We were on the tube, and then…" She trailed off, looked like she was about ready to break down in tears.
Starscream wondered vaguely whether she could produce actual tears, like organics did. "The tube?" he asked.
"Network of transport tunnels," Scavenger elucidated.
"Ah."
"Oh, please, you've got to help us! You're our only hope!" Tia pleaded, abruptly reaching out to grab hold of Starscream, but he instinctively backed away. He felt uncomfortable about being anybody's saviour, especially when the victim was a stranger he'd only just met. He wasn't Optimus Prime, after all.
"I'll do the best I can," Starscream told her after a pause, "that's all I can promise."
"Thank you," said Brom, pulling Tia closer in a protective embrace. "If you can find a way to get Tia out of here, I'll be forever in your debt. You won't regret it, I promise you," he said to Starscream.
The seeker had heard just about enough from the two of them, and he suddenly got the urge to get away for a few moments so he could think.
Unfortunately, however, Cyrus had overheard the conversation, and his curiosity had gotten the better of him. He walked over to join the two Decepticons. "Excuse me – I couldn't help but notice, but aren't you two Decepticons?" he said, regarding them with mild interest. "Not that it's any of my business, but I've heard that the Galactic Alliance recently issued a generous reward for any information that might lead to the capture of any Decepticon within the Joint Military Zone."
It took a great deal of self-control for Starscream not to imagine punching Cyrus' lights out, in vivid detail. "We don't recognize the Alliance's authority, fuckwit," he said simply. He couldn't help it; idiots like Cyrus annoyed him.
Cyrus gave him a dismissive shrug. "Hey, no offence intended, but I can't help it – I used to be a cop."
Just as Starscream was about to give up and ignore him, words suddenly appeared on the wall in front of them all. Max pointed frantically, getting everyone's attention, while Valkyr shouted at everyone to shut the hell up. Scavenger moved instinctively closer to Starscream, and the room settled into an awkward silence as all eyes and optics gazed up at the writing that had just appeared, repeated in each of their native languages. It was holographic in nature, formed from laser light.
Shall we play a Game?
You are all here because you are guilty.
As punishment, you have all been sentenced to die.
However, the Game Master is willing to offer only one of you the chance to walk out of here alive.
To win the Game, you must be the last man, or mech, left standing.
You have only 6 hours to play the Game.
If there is more than one of you left standing after 6 hours, you will all die and there will be no winner.
The winner, if there is one, shall be rewarded with one million credits.
Then the writing disappeared, and was replaced with a countdown clock, beginning at 06.00.