Ch. 106

Distinct yet light. Raf had heard the pedfalls a few minutes ago and they were bothering him. It sounded almost like... Raf shook his head as he peeked out his window. The seeker wouldn't just suddenly visit. So the boy had done the next best thing: he texted Jack. His mom would have heard him call anyone after his first try earlier. She'd been checking on him diligently and he didn't need to risk another scolding.

Jack had responded quickly, saying there was a situation and the bots were busy. Raf felt so useless. He wanted to help. But his grades hadn't been up to snuff and that was inexcusable. Even if there was more to life than the square root of a rectangle and an in depth analysis of Moby Dick. But those pedfalls...

Raf texted Jack again, telling him how scared he was. He didn't outright ask if Starscream had come to see him, for whatever comical reason the mech would have, perhaps to poke fun at his predicament. But when Jack responded a few moments later saying to expect the silver seeker to come check it out, the boy knew he was in trouble. What if Airachnid had suddenly returned? Was that her outside? Was it her, skulking around, looking for him?

Raf whimpered softly as he moved away from the window and hid under his desk. He would have gone for the underside of his bed, but he wasn't that little of a kid anymore. The desk would do.

The pedfalls seemed to stop a couple houses away from Raf's. The boy wanted to peek out from his hiding place to see if this bot was getting any closer. Maybe it really had been in his own head. Maybe he wished it was one of the bots coming to rescue him. Even if life hadn't been steady or normal since he saw Bumblebee that day, it felt like everything was standing still when he wasn't with them. And he wasn't much use hiding under his desk.

The soft tapping of metal on glass had Raf gasping and covering his head to help hide himself. Nothing broke. Nothing shook. Nothing moved. The tap came again and the boy dared to look up carefully at the window beside his bed. Starscream's fisted servo was clearly tapping lightly on the glass and Raf sighed, smiling as he quickly stood.

"Starscream!" he whispered breathlessly, climbing up the bed to open the window, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

The servo reached in suddenly and grabbed the boy, wrenching the child out roughly as the mech stood tall. Raf cried out and latched onto the cold, metal claws that held him, the bot holding him up higher until the boy was staring directly into two optics, one a bright red, the other a glowing purple. Raf gasped then screamed loudly. It was all he could do. The mech chuckled and held onto his prize tightly, walking away from the house to an alley just beside it.

"Oh, little Rafael," the bot mused, "it's a shame you were home tonight. Jack and Miko were smart enough to stay with their Autobot companions. I guess you'll have to be the one to accompany me this evening."

Raf struggled to pull himself free from the servo, tears beginning to well in his eyes, "Stop! Let me go!"

The mech laughed, "Let you go? Now why would I do that? You're a very important cog in this machine, I can't let you go just yet..."

The bot trailed off, sneering as he looked farther down the alley at the blue, rage-filled optics of the seeker he truly sought.

"Oh, there you are. Finally come to play-"

"Put him DOWN, Silas!" Starscream roared, his wings flared wide.

C.Y.L.A.S. laughed again, "Not quite yet, Starscream. You'll have to take him from me!"

C.Y.L.A.S. threw Raf into the air and transformed around him, the spider legs at his back forming a casing around his thruster as he sped off into the air. Raf landed in the co-pilot's seat roughly and coughed when the straps held him down tightly. The boy struggled, feeling somewhat hopeful when he saw Starscream transform just below and begin chasing after them. Raf whimpered softly and looked ahead, seeing a person sitting in the front of this odd seeker's pilot chair.

This person must have felt the stare or simply knew the boy couldn't look away, because the man chuckled, "Well Raf, I never thought we'd quite meet this way, but I suppose you couldn't ask for a better introduction..." the man glanced back, his damaged face leering at the boy as Raf started to cry, "Hello, Raf. I am C.Y.L.A.S."

Raf screamed again and kicked his legs against his seat, "Let me go! Starscream! Help me!"

C.Y.L.A.S. smirked and flew faster, "Go ahead! Keep him interested in this fight! I plan on making sure that future-telling robot doesn't get away from me this time."

The disfigured seeker flew higher then dipped dangerously when added weight slammed into him from above. Starscream dug his claws in and tore angrily at C.Y.L.A.S.'s wings, pulling as much metal off as he could before gazing down at the cockpit. Raf looked back up, pleading silently for the seeker to get him out, but the disfigured mech under him had other ideas when the spider legs reared up from around his turbine and slammed into Starscream's back, sending him plummeting to the Earth below.

The seeker crashed into a concrete riverbed, groaning in pain as he sat up. They had still been low enough in the sky that the damage would be minimal, his hiccup hadn't activated, but he was going to be very sore later. C.Y.L.A.S. slowed and landed a few hundred feet away from Starscream, transforming and grabbing Raf out of the air in a taunting fashion.

"Is that all you have, Starscream?" he mocked, "I knew you wouldn't be fooled by Project: Damocles, but I thought you would have been better prepared for this!"

Starscream spat a little energon from his mouth as he stood, "Put him down."

C.Y.L.A.S. smirked, "Take him from me."

The seeker ran forward in a strategy he knew was reckless. But another part of him knew that this disfigured abomination was interested in him and nothing else. C.Y.L.A.S. sneered as Starscream drew closer and prepped his spider leg attachments for the speed the seeker was matching at. What he didn't expect was the sudden rush of acceleration Starscream achieved with a quick burst from his turbine. A hard punch landed in his faceplates and the boy flew from his servo in surprise. Raf screamed and when he felt a new servo clutch around him delicately he latched on, sobbing into the metal. Starscream landed on his peds roughly, covering the boy with his other servo as he held him close and doubled back to find a place to hide him.

C.Y.L.A.S. growled angrily and ran after him, grabbing a wing to wrench him back and throw him to the ground, "We're hardly done here yet, Starscream!"

The seeker hit the cement roughly and moved out of the way just before his opponent could stomp down on him. Raf was still huddled tightly in his grasp, but he could hardly protect the boy if he was still holding him. Starscream winced as he struggled to his peds and saw a road he could set the boy down on just ahead.

He took a few steps then felt himself pulled back again, a sharp stab tearing into the lower part of his side. The pain made him cry out in a yelp and his legs buckled, forcing him down. Starscream whined as he leaned over and slid Raf delicately from his servos to the ground, the boy rolling out onto the cement beneath the mech with a soft 'oof!'. Raf stared up at the seeker's wide optics and the boy winced when Starscream cried out again, another spider leg protruding from his shoulder.

"Admit it," C.Y.L.A.S. sneered, snaking a third spider leg around the seeker's neck to pull his helm back, "these modifications are far better than what I could have worked with in that copy we made. The perfect cross between your clone, Airachnid's parts and my wit and determination. You don't stand a chance."

Starscream whined as he tried to pull the spider leg away from his neck, every drip of energon leaking from his wounds felt ten times more as he heard Raf cry openly. Oh, he didn't want the child to see this. He didn't want him to be in the middle of the brutality he was suffering, to witness the horror of what this monster had planned for him. He didn't want him to see his wounds or hear his cries of agony. The boy didn't deserve any of that.

C.Y.L.A.S. pulled harder at the seeker's neck to force him further back and leaned down to him, whispering into his audials, "Let me tell you a little secret, Starscream, because I know you'll foresee it eventually. I'm going to bring you to Megatron. I'm going to let the Decepticons figure out how to use your power. Then I'm going usurp Megatron and rule the Decepticons myself. And if you're well behaved through all of that, I might just keep you alive after I'm done with you."

Starscream's chassis was trembling from the anguish he was suffering, but he still managed a snarl, if not for himself then for Raf's sake, "N-not a chance..."

C.Y.L.A.S. tsked and shoved harder into the spider legs impaling his prey's frame, listening to him squeal, "Now isn't that a shame?"

The seeker held in a wail then gasped in surprise and pain when his assailant was suddenly off him, a loud blaster shot echoing into the concrete channel.

Smokescreen stood some distance away, blaster aimed carefully, and he smiled, "I'm with Scream. Not a chance!"