Ch. 98
Waiting was a lot harder than they thought it would be. And Starscream gave so little information that it was unfair.
His name is Smokescreen. Check.
He's a part of the Elite Guard. Check.
He's inexperienced. Check.
He has an unhealthy obsession with Optimus Prime. ... Check.
These were the things Starscream 'personally' knew about him and other details... well, he didn't really care about. Now that it was out in the open, all these strange yet powerful facts, he felt a weight off himself. The hiccup was revealed. The future was revealed, at least the parts he deemed important. And he was happy enough to warn the rest of the Autobot team to events as they would emerge so long as they were content with it as well. Ratchet was continuously playing a game of 'tell me, wait don't tell me' and while the others were just as curious, they didn't bother asking questions. He liked the power trust brought him...
"How much longer?" he heard Knockout whine loudly behind him.
The seeker rolled his optics and shoulders, flicking a bit of foliage from his wing, "Not long. But it is best we establish ourselves. Decepticon forces were quick to converge on this spot after his impromptu crash landing."
"Are you sure this is the site?" Arcee asked as she jumped off a large boulder, "If things have changed slightly..."
Starscream shook his helm, "I have had no contact with Smokescreen or even the events that surrounded Smokescreen. He gets here, on his own, in a Decepticon escape pod. We have energy scrambling nodes on ourselves and around the crash site so when he does 'drop in', Megatron will see a blip on the screen vanish. It can be fritted away as a mechanical error."
Bulkhead slowly walked up from an outcrop of trees, "This kid can handle himself, right?"
The seeker hummed, unamused, "At this stage, I'm not entirely sure. Our interactions had never been too detailed. Our first introduction was a quick, one-on-one. But he learns fast, which is what we're looking for, and he has made a few dents on the Decepticon record. So while he'll need a bit of a nudge, and I nominate Arcee for the task, he'll be able to pull his own weight."
Arcee frowned, "Hold on, you're going to make me babysit?"
Starscream smirked, "I'm busy recounting the events that coincide with this reality, when will I have the time to teach dear Smokescreen the ropes?"
The femme pointed back towards Knockout, "Make him do it."
Knockout growled, "No way! This kid sounds like a pain! If anyone's going to have the patience for it, make Bumblebee do it!"
The yellow mech in question walked up with a whirl and confused look on his faceplates, asking why he needed to do something.
"Starscream's already trying to pawn off Smokescreen to one of us as a 'project' while he gets away without having to deal with him," Arcee explained, glaring at the sneering seeker.
The silver mech tsked, "I can hardly help being far too busy to deal with such a minor inconvenience. But if none of you can handle it, I'm sure Ratchet would enjoy the company."
"Autobots," came a deep voice over their COMMs, "no one will ignore our new arrival regardless of the state he comes to us in. That includes you, Starscream. We will all have the opportunity to teach him what we can so he may properly aid us against Megatron and the Decepticons."
The rest of the bots looked to Starscream with a smirk as he grumbled and answered the COMM, "Yes, Optimus, I'm sure we'll all have loads to teach him..."
Knockout snickered quietly, "Ooooo, someone's in trouble with the Big 'O'."
Starscream shuddered, "One: no, I'm not. And two: don't you ever refer to him as 'the Big 'O' ever again. It disturbs me."
"It disturbs us all," Arcee muttered quietly.
The red mech shrugged simply in response then fidgeted lightly when Ratchet came over the COMM, "Team, I have Smokescreen's ship signal passing through now! ETA is a hard minute-ten at best! Is everyone in position for his arrival and retrieval?"
Bulkhead and Bumblebee scrambled to get themselves into their assigned spots while Arcee and Knockout waited for Starscream to answer the COMM again.
The seeker sighed, "Moving into position now. The nodes are functioning and set. Anything else we missed?"
"Nothing that I can see from here," Ratchet noted, "But those energy scrambling nodes are delicate. If one goes down, the others may not have enough power to compensate and you'll all be sitting ducks."
Arcee patched into the COMM as she jumped over a rock and slid down the side, "Don't worry, Ratchet, we won't let Megatron ruffle Scream's feathers."
A loud laugh from Knockout's position elicited a scowl from Starscream, "Enough talk!" he snarled, "Update on that ETA. I have a visual on the beginnings of his ship entering the atmosphere."
Far up ahead, a purple Decepticon escape pod began to burn through the Earth's atmosphere, the fire curling around the ship delicately. Though Ratchet's instruments couldn't read such a detailed sight, the medic sighed over the COMM.
"It's coming right at you," he checked, pulling up graphs to estimate trajectory and speed, "You planned this spot on, Starscream. It should be in the crash zone in... twenty seconds."
The seeker stayed where he was, his optics trained on the sky. As the pod drew closer and the burning light from the atmospheric fire snuffed out, Starscream stepped forward as though to meet the oncoming ship head-on. The pod quickly flew over the silver mech with a roar from its broken engines and smashed into a low hanging tree branch before making its first impact into the dirt and skidding into their prepared drop zone. The crash forced Starscream low to the ground, almost a fortunate circumstance, because the seeker noticed the energy scrambling node set nearest to the direction the pod had come from had toppled over from the force. The silver mech grumbled as he stood, rushing to the node as the rest of the bots converged on the pod.
Ratchet COMMed him as he looked at the readouts on his screen, "Starscream, is everything alright?"
Optimus went to the medic's side, looking gently concerned, "Ratchet?"
Ratchet waved to him softly and sighed quietly when Starscream responded, "You said these nodes were delicate and one has fallen over. Are we compromised?"
The medic smiled, "No, not yet. The readouts are still in the green."
Starscream huffed as he climbed over a mound of dirt down to a small ledge to reach the node, "Well I'm putting it upright anyway. I don't need this shorting out on us while we're in the middle of this..."
Back over at the pod, Bumblebee whirled in upset as he and Bulkhead struggled to pull the ship's door free.
Knockout tsked as he watched, "Maybe it's better if we knock? Smokey probably has access to getting the thing open anyway."
Arcee smirked, "Or maybe we should've had Optimus outside with us as bait?"
The red mech stifled a laugh, pulling himself and Arcee back as the pod hissed in upset and the door began to pull away, the large hunk of metal collapsing to the ground to reveal what little space the white-painted occupant had.
The mech's blue optics went wide and his servos twitched lightly as though they were ready to transform into weapons, "Ahh..." he managed, "friendly?"
Bulkhead chuckled and offered him a servo to help him out, "The friendliest. Welcome to Earth."
The mech smiled when he saw the Autobot sigils and grabbed the green mech's servo, "Thanks. I'm Smokescreen."
"We know," Knockout huffed out, leering at the white mech angrily; Starscream hadn't said anything about a racer frame or a flashy paint job.
Arcee nudged the red mech as Smokescreen frowned, "You know? Is this..." he looked around a little, "part of how you knew to wait here for me?"
Arcee smiled as nicely as she could, "Look Smokescreen, there's a lot to explain. What I can tell you right now," she gestured back to Starscream, who was still busy gently tending to the node some distance away, "is that our friend here-"
"Wow," Smokescreen said gently, "she's beautiful."
The femme paused, watching as the white mech walked passed her towards the seeker, and frowned, "'She'? ... Smokescreen, that's-"
Knockout grabbed her and held the other bots back when they tried to stop him, "No, no! He needs to learn..."
Bumblebee bubbled, throwing his servos up as he declared that he couldn't look. Bulkhead was torn. He settled for covering his optics with a servo. Only Primus himself could have made him admit that he was peeking through his digits. Arcee and Knockout were the only two watching without obstruction. The femme rolled her optics, already assuming how bad this was going to be. Knockout was smiling in excitement.
Smokescreen seemed to prep himself as he got closer to the seeker. All he knew was that 'she' had helped him out in some way. He was eager to look this pretty femme in the faceplates and express his gratitude. Those large wings meant 'she' was probably an expert at flying and aerial pursuits. He'd have a lot of questions for 'her' about this planet and its more thrilling side.
As Smokescreen came up behind 'her', he let out a soft intake, "Hey there."
Starscream made a small noise. He was busy, he didn't have time for Smokescreen right now. One of the sensory node's delicate glass nodules was covered in dust and the seeker was desperately trying to conclude if the damage gave them an open window or dwindling time to clean up the crash site.
Smokescreen took the response as a shy 'hello' and smirked, "So, uh, your friends over there say you helped me out. That's pretty sweet of you," he reached down, gently stroking a servo over one of Starscream's larger wings, "especially for a cute femme like-"
Starscream stood quickly, turning with enough force that his wing was able to smack the unwanted servo off him with a loud crack. His optics were wide with anger. Smokescreen stared back in surprise, his chassis rigid at the realization of his mistake, but perhaps not fully. The seeker was shaking with such terrifying hostility that he was unsure he would be able to stand much longer without moving to balance himself in some way.
From back over by the pod, Knockout laughed loudly, shouting, "And he touched him too! Oooh!"
That did it. Starscream pulled his servo back as far as he dared and punched Smokescreen in the faceplate.