Ch. 99
One punch became two. Then it broke down into several as Starscream unleashed his rage upon the young Autobot who not only mistook him for a femme but dared to touch his wings without permission. The hits were not hard but they were many and Smokescreen didn't make it any better when he squealed and tried to get away.
"Wait, wait! I'm sorry. But you can't really blame me when your frame looks like a femme's!"
Starscream shrieked, his growls turning from near silent to manic. Smokescreen tried to run from the seeker and find help from the stunned Autobots still standing by the escape pod but this ultimately wrote his downfall when Starscream charged after him and tackled him to the ground.
Knockout laughed louder, doubling over. Bumblebee beeped and whined, asking if it was as bad as it sounded.
Bulkhead's voice was shaky, "W... worse," he choked out, "worse than it sounds."
Bumblebee whirled that he still couldn't look and Arcee scowled, "Well, we can't let this go on."
She moved to walk forward when Knockout grabbed her servo, pulling her back, "No! He's learning! Never again!"
Arcee frowned at him and pulled her arm away, "If we let this continue, there won't be much left of the learning curve when he's been beaten-"
"Nope, Starscream's just smacking him senseless now," Bulkhead interjected, wincing with each loud smack that echoed into the air.
The femme sighed, "Fine. If he's smacked to death, that won't exactly be a good thing. I'm putting a stop to this now."
Knockout wailed and tried to catch her as she slipped away, "Nooooo! This is hilarious!"
Smokescreen yelped loudly when the irate seeker backhanded him, his servos pushing up to protect his faceplates from another attack, "Get him off! Get him away from me!"
Arcee sighed and activated her COMM, "Arcee to base. We have a situation. I'm going to request a bridge on Starscream's behalf. He's... preoccupied."
Ratchet answered the COMM, "I'm opening a bridge now. Is everything alright? What's going on?" Smokescreen yelped again when another slap racked against his helm and the medic jumped in surprise, "By the Allspark, what was that?! Are you under attack?!"
Arcee sighed and watched a ground bridge open nearby, "No. We're fine. I'll explain once we get back to base. Have the medbay ready."
"I'll have it set. Get back in one piece," Ratchet responded, pulling away from the console to prep his medical tools.
Bulkhead grumbled as Arcee tugged on his arm, "Do I really have to look?"
"You're not going to look," the femme told him, "I need to you pull Scream off."
The green mech whined, "Uh, you sure we should get in the way?"
Arcee watched Starscream repeatedly smack and swipe at Smokescreen's helm, "Yeah. We have to."
Bumblebee beeped that he was going to help Smokescreen up and pulled away from the group, inching his way over to the very one sided fight. Bulkhead sighed as he watched the yellow mech and followed along with him, wincing at every loud smack and the yelp that came after.
Arcee shook her helm and answered her COMM when it beeped, "Yes, we're still here."
"I'm still waiting at base," Ratchet informed her, "Where are you?"
The femme frowned when Bulkhead hesitated to grab Starscream off of Smokescreen then simply latched on and ripped the seeker away, "Give us a sec, we're dealing with idiots right now."
Starscream snarled and lashed out, kicking as Bulkhead quickly carried him over to the ground bridge and rushed in. Knockout followed in disappointment and Smokescreen limped after, supporting himself with Bumblebee's help. Arcee sighed loudly, walking after them.
"We're coming through now," she informed over her COMM, "We'll clean up the site later."
As Bulkhead came through the bridge the irate seeker pulled himself from the green mech's hold angrily and the Wrecker put up his servos quickly, "Scream, hey, Starscream, it's over, you gotta calm down."
Knockout came through, huffing, "That fight could've been so much better if we had left a few prods out for Starscream to get a hold of. Then we could've seen Smokey dance a little!"
Smokescreen glared as he came through the bridge after, Bumblebee beeping to him softly as he scoffed, "Starscream? That stiletto freak? No wonder you don't like me, you're a Decepticon."
The seeker's wings flared and Bulkhead gasped as the mech rushed to grab something off Ratchet's work table, "Wait, wait, Scream! Stop!"
Starscream rushed at the white mech again and plunged his claws deep into Smokescreen's chest plate, eliciting a loud hiss from the bots around him and a shout of 'that's not pretty!' from Knockout.
Smokescreen stared with wide optics as the claws phased back out of him, a large metal piece firmly in the seeker's grasp, "W... what the-"
Starscream didn't give him a moment to respond as he shrieked and began beating him senseless with the Omega Key he had just phased out from the young Autobot's chassis. Smokescreen wailed and curled up on the floor, trying desperately to protect himself from the wrath of the seeker above him. The assault finally ceased when the form of Optimus Prime came from the medbay and the mech wrenched Starscream away from his victim. The seeker was dragged back towards the hall by the hulking mech, his lithe form able to slip away for only a moment before Optimus grabbed him again. The loud clattering from both the Phase Shifter and Omega Key falling from Starscream's hold made the bots in the room wince and the Prime wasted little time in carrying the smaller mech deeper into the base.
After a moment of stinging silence, Smokescreen unfurled from his protective ball, his frame trembling, "Th... That was... that was Optimus," he hissed in excitement, "I mean... the actual Optimus Prime!"
Knockout rolled his optics and picked up the items Starscream had dropped, glancing in slight worry down the hall Optimus had taken the seeker, "Smokey. Don't talk."