I was at work when I was struck by what I wanted for this chapter, and I had a blast righting this, I hope you enjoy reading it!
If there was one planet in all the Universe, that Megatron despised more than any other, it was Junkion.
The planet of Junk, home of mechs gone mad looking for gleaming treasure in towering piles of rusting scrap.
But this, is where the tracker on his personal shuttle had ended up.
Optimus knew him well, the mere fact the slagger had taken it to Junkion, had made him hesitate to follow after.
That and they had to find a shuttle that was still in working condition that could make the journey.
As luck would have it, they found two, stowed away in Shockwaves lab under Helex, apparently the mech had wanted to 'see if they could be improved'.
Shockwave's little tick of not mentioning such details in reports was becoming vexing.
If it hadn't been for one of the seeker clone groups being sent to collect some supplies from that lab, their existence would not of been reported to him.
Dealing with Shockwave's obstructiveness would come later.
Right now he was stepping out of the back of one of those two shuttles, flanked on each side by Soundwave and Thundercracker, apparently Starscream was 'much too busy' to accompany him.
The atmosphere smelt of rust and smog, a combination that reminded him unpleasantly of his time as a Gladiator slave in Kaon.
They had been sure to make an attempt at announcing their presence, having hailed the planet as they drew close.
They landed on the outskirts of what could be, if you really wanted to stretch it, the city that all Junkions resided in.
Towers of repurposed scrap that looked like they'd crumble from a light breeze rose up before them, each swaying and creaking just enough that any sane bot would keep their distance to avoid being caught up in the inevitable collapse.
"I should of just ordered this place raised to the ground…" He grumbled, glaring out at it.
He knew that that would not of benefitted him, they needed Junkion to take what couldn't be used anymore, otherwise their storage locations would of been overflowing with scrap they didn't have the focus to break down.
Junkion was where it all went, from shot through shuttles to great battleships who's warp drives had collapsed, leaving the very core of the ship a twisted wreck of warped metal.
He would mutter a curse at J-477 every now and then for doing that.
How the slagger had pulled that off still confused him.
He took a moment when he realised he was looking at the conning tower of that very ship, mangled and rusting away, completely picked clean.
Thundercracker and Soundwave both opted not to comment as they followed him towards a group of Junkions that were in turn, walking towards them.
The leader of the group was none other than the leader of this sorry excuse of a planet. Wreck-Gar.
"Ahhh! Megatron! Bah weep granah weep ni ni bong!" Wreck-Gar greeted, though something was… just a bit off about the hand gesture the mech waved at him as he uttered the universal greeting.
Megatron scowled. "Soundwave, I have the distinct feeling I have just been insulted, by a universal greeting."
Soundwave, to his credit, opted not to comment.
Wonderful, his communications officer didn't want to tell him if he'd been insulted.
Earning an optic roll from his master.
Might as well get straight to the point. "The tracker on my shuttle, my personal shuttle, led here. I am here to reclaim it."
Wreck-Gar laughed. "Reclaim? Oh no no no!" He jeered, as his posse all laughed behind him. "Given as gift by Optimus Prime. Exchange made! Shuttle made good use of already! Such good scrap! So many pesky bugs though, you have them back!" He pulled a rusted box from his subspace, and dumped them out, a pile of trackers swiftly forming on the floor, each one smashed or pulled apart.
Sparklings, they were all sparklings.
He scowled. "So you admit, that you aided and abetted in the flight of one Optimus Prime, from his fate?"
Wreck-Gar grinned. "Well of course! Come come! Much to talk about no?" He waved them to follow, his pede kicking up rust over the pile of trackers.
He sneered, he wasn't going to pick those up anyway, they were useless.
The bots of Junkion were not many, the planet itself was small, being made entirely from long abandoned space junk. Which meant in just under a klik of minding each step they took to avoid falling through into some empty cavern under their pedes, they arrived at what could only be called the 'important scrap pile'.
Wreck Gar turned around before the building, and pointed to a spot on the floor. "Behold! Optimus Prime!"
In sheer confusion, he looked down.
There, in a pile of green junk, were a spattering of under pede pieces…
He recognised the shapes, he'd had the dents from them pulled enough times to recognise them.
He just, stared at the discarded pieces, then back to Wreck Gar, grinning away like a complete fool.
There wasn't a single screw remotely close to tight in that mechs helm.
"Welp! That's your search over then! You found Optimus Prime! Good job! Well done!" He crowed, clapping his servos as the rest of the posse joined in.
Then all the other Junkions present started to clap and cheer 'Good job' and 'Well done'.
Not a single one was genuine.
All mocking and teasing.
The posse of Junkion's that had followed Wreck-Gar all dispersed as Wreck Gar spun on his pedes and practically skipped inside the building.
The central room had a long table, and seats, horribly mismatched but looking relatively well kept…
And he recognised two as the seats of his own shuttle.
He pointedly sat in one, and Soundwave took the other, Thundercracker seemed not to mind sitting in one of unknown origin, looking rather bored, all things considered.
Wreck-Gar kicked his pedes up into the table and reclined, completely fine with the gunk and filth of his pedes getting on the already filthy table.
Megatron scowled, who knew what had accumulated on this table…
"Sooooo, Megatron… the big 'M', bucket helm himself, what can ah do for yah?" Wreck-Gar remarked.
His optic twitched. "Optimus Prime. His location."
Wreck-Gar hummed. "Optimus Prime ay? Which way he went yah mean?"
"Yes. He fled his fate of having his spark extinguished by my servo." He snarled. "The coward fled instead of facing his long overdue destiny!"
Wreck-Gar hemmed and hawed at that for a few long moments. "Are you his ex or something? Cause daaaayymmmnn, you are just screamin' 'I'm an abusive ex!' right now, an' the mech ain' been here for orns!" He chuckled. "Be honest now, how long you been running after that poor mech, hmm? Even we heard about you shootin' him through the spark all the way out here!"
He snarled, but Soundwave interrupted. "Query: Does Wreck-Gar know direction of Optimus Prime's departure from Junkion?"
"Hmmmm…. Nope! We just helped him make a ship and sent him on his way! One ship for another, good trade." He prattled, nodding to himself. "Did give us a whole 'its been an honour' speech before he left. Looked happy, oh! He said 'And if Megatron comes looking for me, pass on this message. 'Goodbye.'"
Thundercracker raised an optic ridge. "Just, 'Goodbye'? That's it?"
"THAT'S IT?! Goodbye?! GOODBYE?!" Megatron kicked off, slamming his fists down in fury, not caring in the slightest about the oil and other scrud and scrap that bounced around him.
He missed both Soundwave and Thundercracker letting out long suffering sighs.
Wreck-Gar didn't even flinch, chipper as ever. "Yup! Just 'Goodbye'! Then he was off! That FTL drive we pulled from an old cruiser worked a treat!"
Soundwave reached up and grabbed Megatron's cannon bearing arm before be could raise it. "Query: How powerful was that FTL drive?"
Wreck-Gar shrugged. "No idea! We pulled it out of that cruiser, slapped it on his one, and sent him off!"
FTL drives were powerful devices, able to warp the space ahead of them just right that it created miniature vacuums in the fabric of space, allowing ships to achieve speeds up to eight hundred times the speed of light, making travel between entire galaxies possible in only a few orns.
In all likelihood though, Optimus'cobbled together ship, did not have the fuel capacity for such a feat.
But he could be easily on the other side of the galaxy by now with how much time it has been.
Their current search range was currently only the surrounding solar systems.
This would complicate things…
"Wreckie! It's starting!~" A femme called from down the corridor behind Wreck-Gar, who jumped up from his chair almost instantly with a whoop and a cheer.
"Coming Nancy!"
Thundercracker glanced to the other two mechs in confusion, but neither offered a possible answer.
Megatron's last sensor seemed to give and the Warlord shot up, storming after the Junkion leader who'd vanished down the corridor into a room a weird song was coming from.
He walked in to find the Junkion leader cuddling with a femme, both watching a large monitor displaying a…. Residence? He assumed that's what it was, and weird fur covered organic sitting front and centre, eating. "What… In the pits of Kaon, are you watching?"
Both bots shusshed him.
He went to snap when Soundwave walked around him and observed the show, before deploying Rumble and Frenzy. "Rumble, Frenzy: Obtain intel on display."
Both deployers looked at him, then back to the weird mostly furless creatures that were now interacting with the fur covered one, before shrugging and clambering onto the couch to watch, sticking to the side opposite the Junkion leader and his femme.
Evidently none of the Decepticons present understood a single iota of what was being said, some weird organic language.
"Query, entertainment?"
The femme grinned. "Oh yeah! There's this species that loves making shows! They broadcast them out into space for free! Just get the right frequency and boom!" She chirped, just in time for a chorus of what could only be laughter to come from the speakers, evidently whatever had happened was funny, as the two bots also laughed. "The language is a bit tricky, but that just makes it all the more fun! Alf is such a cooky little alien!"
"They're quite the bunch, creative, witty. Oh! Oh! There's this one human called Indiana Jones! He goes on all these crazy adventures to find long lost treasure!"
Nancy giggled. "Indiana is his favourite! I even changed my name to Nancy! It's such a nice name, you know?"
Megatron felt like a fuse was going to burst in his helm.
He scowled and turned, stalking back towards the shuttle, deciding they wouldn't get anything else from these scrap lovers.
He sat in the shuttle and waited, and waited.
He had expected Soundwave and Thundercracker to follow him out.
But no, apparently that blasted organic show was enough to keep two of his highest ranked mechs distracted from the fact he wanted to get off this blasted planet!
It took three joors of him absolutely not sulking, befor Soundwave and Thundercracker finally returned.
And of course, Rumble and Frenzy were chattering incessantly, as they always did.
Only now it was worse, they'd decided this organic language was perfect for chattering in code.
He shot Soundwave a scowl as they went on and on.
Thundercracker settled into the pilot seat, quiet as ever, though his expression seemed contemplative over something. Just what he needed, another Seeker attempting to use his helm.
By the time they were free of Junkion's atmosphere, Soundwave at least had the processor to recall the chattering duo.
Megatron felt no better in the long silence that followed, the only noise coming from the shuttles console as Thundrecracker plugged in the coordinates for Cybertron.
He'd have to order someone being him an Autobot husk.
He needed to shoot something.
Otherwise someone was going to become a husk.
First off, her name really is Nancy, I found out about here as Wreck-gar's femme friend on TF Wiki, and I had to include her.
Megatron experiencing multiple microaggressions was a delight personally~
And yes, that was a Neon Genesis Evangelion Reference.
Anyway, take care!
Moon.