Heyo, everybody! It's been quite a bit. Thank you for still reading, and thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you all like it! (:D) I know I don't have to reply to all the reviews, but I'm going to do it at least one more time! (xD) I can't private message guests, unfortunately.
To Random Person: Yes. They had to! Humans are like TV, very entertaining! (xD) Thank you!
To Bluefeather4299: I'm sure the Vehicons (and humans) will appreciate you attending their funerals. (xD)
To Guest: The caps are fine. They definitely show the right emotion at the moment. I don't know about "royally and utterly"...Actually, I don't think your too far off. (xD)
To Rachael: Thanks! I'm glad I made you laugh! (xD) One does not simply create a character with similarities to TFP Starscream without giving them heels (At least, in my case). Yarsh! Shane iz colorblind! It was something that I put in the original (also very different) draft to be funny that I decided to keep. I'm really glad you like the characters!
Also, there might be some "head-jumping" in this chapter but I don't think it'll be much of a problem.
Now, with that done, enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 2
A Collective Near-Death Experience
The five Vehicons merely stood there in shock.
They knew that this "Oh-Slag,-We've-Been-Discovered" part was inevitable (thanks to Soundwave, who pretty much saw everything) but they hadn't expected Megatron to confront them immediately upon their return! Seriously, who does that?
Conner was obviously the worst lookout ever.
And as expected, Megatron had already dropped his grin of scariness for his signature glower of scariness, which kind of frightened the Vehicons. A lot.
Shane, in particular, couldn't help but have over a million thoughts on why they'll be punished (and probably die) and how they'll get punished (and end up dead) the minute he saw Megatron. However, then Shane realized…he hadn't even written his will yet! Oh, how he should've taken Knock Out's advice and written a will in advance. At least his spark-soul would've been at peace knowing Rosie had gotten his favorite human dictionary if he did. But now, it was much too late for that… Oh woe was he!
Cue Megatron breaking Shane's mental pity-party.
"Now tell me, drones," Megatron growled. "Are those humans I see?" His glare intensified. The Vehicons practically gulped in unison before exchanging anxious looks. "Just what is the meaning of bringing these pitiful insects onboard the Nemesis?!" he demanded causing the Vehicons to jolt. "Why, if Soundwave hadn't suggested otherwise, I would've already scrapped your two worthless drone-friends for merely using the Ground Bridge!" Megatron angrily gestured to Harry and Conner, who had now managed to inch off to the side and out of anger issue-induced harm's way. "You useless pieces of scrap metal better have a good explanation for bringing these worthless fleshings aboard our ship!"
"Hey!"
Megatron paused, eyes widening a fraction as he was caught off-guard, and turned to the source of the voice. The small (compared to him) human, Meg, glared up at him from her place on Derek's metal palm.
"Just who the %$&# you think you're calling a #$%&ing insect, tin can?!" she demanded, fists clenching tight. Derek instantly chose to close his hand, cutting off any more of Meg's would-be rant. Derek looked back up at Megatron.
Megatron, being Megatron, growled in pure irritation at the insolent little creature. "As you should have known, these creatures are utterly useless and simple-minded." Gradually stepping closer, he continued, "The Autobots are the only ones soft and stupid enough to even bother with their species. And while Knock Out and Breakdown…" Megatron grimaced. "…find human culture a laughable entertainment, they by no means would want one of those insects for a pet."
Beryl glanced at Klemen being held just beside her. "Oh, well, gee, that makes me feel welcome," Beryl muttered, though Klemen was too busy staring wide-eyed in terror to really pay any attention.
"To be honest with you drones," said Megatron, "I'm not sure whether to kill the humans first, or to kill you worthless troopers for bringing them onboard!"
"Is neither an option?" Conner tried, raising the equivalent of an index finger.
"Shut up."
Conner dropped his servo. "It was worth a try," he responded to the blank stare he got from Harry. By now, Megatron was practically leaning over Derek in a menacing manner.
"But I suppose it's only fair that I kill those insignificant pests first before your very optics so I have time to hear your pathetic excuses."
"For the record," Conner spoke up from behind Megatron. "It was Sharon's idea!"
"Hey!" Sharon shouted.
"Just sayin'!"
"Conner, you spawn of Unicron!"
"Well, putting myself in your pedes, I can't argue with tha—"
"SILENCE!" Megatron roared causing the two Vehicons to shush up. His gaze drifted across the five Vehicons before him. They all stood upright and silently, each foolish enough to carry a human in plain sight. Well, except for Steve. He held his servos behind his back, but it was still pretty darn obvious he kept a human as well. Megatron noticed the Vehicon fidgeting at the end of the line. Megatron barked, "You!"
Rosie went rigid, despite her human, Araxie, climbing down her leg. He had called her out because she was moving, hadn't he? She wished she wasn't so jumpy when it came to things crawling on her. Scraplets were an exception, though. Those were scary. But now she was going to die for bringing back humans. Rosie mentally sighed. At least she had written her will beforehand. Rosie was sure Shane would take good care of that little kitten she had managed to sneak on board several months ago.
The other four Vehicons watched as Megatron made his way towards Rosie, hands behind his back and with his signature fixed stare. Rosie forced herself not to tremble (too much, anyway) when Megatron finally stood before her, looking down upon her in that scary manner of his.
"Is something wrong, drone?" It would've sounded slightly thoughtful if it was someone other than Megatron saying it.
"U-um, no, my liege," Rosie responded. She stared up at him with what Vehicons could make of a worried expression. Megatron couldn't read "drone" facial expressions though, so at least that was good.
"Hmm, good," Megatron spoke. "Then it should be no problem for you to collect the fleshlings your group has brought on board." Okay, Rosie was still scared but she didn't quite expect him to say that.
However, she had no doubt Megatron would either: A. ask her to crush them (which she would never on her life do) or B. hand them to him so that he could crush them. She liked neither idea. Rosie snuck a glimpse at her friends. Derek looked somewhat expectant, Shane appeared apprehensive; Steve looked worried Starla would be taken away from him, and Sharon was practically on the edge of her seat, figuratively speaking.
"Well?" Megatron snapped to which Rosie couldn't help but cringe in fear at. She hesitated.
Then, Rosie began to walk down the short line of Vehicons.
She paused in front of Steve, the closest to her. Steve stared at Rosie's open palm in a sort of sad disbelief and looked up at her. Steve dejectedly handed Starla over. Next, Rosie turned to Sharon. With a mumble of, "Aw man…" Sharon placed Beryl in Rosie's servos. Megatron watched intently as Rosie moved to Shane next. With nothing less of a sad look, Shane gently put Klemen in Rosie's servos to join the other humans. Finally, Rosie stood in front of Derek. Derek obediently set Silvia down on Rosie's cupped servos. However, he gazed down at his closed servo, containing Meg, for a moment.
"…Might want to get a muzzle," he said quietly, dropping Meg into the human group Rosie held. Meg hit Rosie's metal palm with a 'thump'.
"Son of a $%#&," Meg muttered, standing up once more.
"Good," Megatron spoke bringing the Vehicons to turn to him. "Now hand them to me."
Scenario B it is.
Slowly, Rosie moved towards Megatron step by step, humans in hand.
"Oh, well this is $%&#ing great!" Meg exclaimed, sending a fierce glare ahead. "Thanks a #$%%ing lot for $%&*ing kidnapping us, giant #$%&*$# robots!"
"Welp," declared Beryl, "this was not how I planned to spend my weekend."
"It's not even the weekend yet, you moron!" Starla reacted.
"And it never will be!" Klemen exclaimed in a high pitch. "Because we're going to die!"
Beryl blinked, sitting crisscrossed with arms folded. "…Well, at least we're being killed by freaky giant robots."
"How is that a good thing?!" Starla demanded.
"Hey, you gotta admit that's kinda cool!"
Meg whipped around to face Beryl, obviously not in the mood to hear any attempts at humor (or whatever Beryl was trying to do). "Beryl, I swear, I will absolutely maul you if say ONE. MORE. WORD," she growled, her voice dropping down to a dangerous octave. Starla gave a look of serious disbelief that clearly said, 'This is not the time!' while Klemen inched out of Meg's way to where Silvia kneeled. Beryl stared for a moment as if her mind was processing the threat.
". . .Pizza."
"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Meg lunged for Beryl, who yelped in surprise. Rosie watched in shock for a moment. She moved her free servo to stop them.
"Wait."
Rosie froze upon hearing Megatron's voice. She directed her gaze up at him. Megatron actually walked closer wearing a grin of an unidentifiable expression. Puzzled, Rosie didn't recoil as Megatron watched—in amusement?—Meg try to violently attack Beryl. Everybody else as perplexed as Rosie, including Soundwave, looked up and gathered closer in order to see. Rosie couldn't help but cringe at the violence, even if it wasn't necessarily...as much as it could've been.
Meg was on top of Beryl either trying to strangle her or beat her to death or maybe both. It was clear Beryl had been startled, however she managed to avoid getting punched in the face. Several times. When Beryl caught Meg's fist she had also nearly gotten bitten. Plus, Beryl was pretty sure Meg's aimless blows were caused by the fact that Meg was currently driven into her ranting mode, during which Beryl was sure she heard the words "stupid orange juice" before she got the air knocked out of her. And obviously Starla, Klemen, and even Silvia were too rattled to help her.
Finally Beryl managed to (blindly) knee Meg at point blank, catching her off guard, before shoving crazy girl off. Beryl wasted no time grabbing and pinning Meg's hands against her back. Beryl used her own weight to keep Meg from getting back up.
Talk about anger issues, Beryl thought, at the same time wondering if her crazy friend had ever killed anyone before.
She leaned forward. "Meg. Calm. The #$%*. Down." Beryl hoped her point would be made.
"Let go of me so I can kick your #%$!" Meg retorted, struggling to free her hands and throw Beryl off, but to no avail. "How the $%&* are you so $%&* heavy and how the $%*& is your grip so tight?!"
Beryl shrugged. "Dunno. I can wrestle down my three bros 'n sis in a free-for-all, so that might have something to do with it." Frowning slightly, she added, "But you know, as much as I like wrestling with you, I kinda think you need anger management or something."
"#$%* ANGER MANAGEMENT!"
"Beryl," Starla interjected. "Just so you know, the last girl who suggested Meg needed anger management classes Meg threatened to, 'break every bone in -her- body, rip out -her- tongue, shove -her- heels down -her- throat, and throw -her- in the dumpster,' with zero remorse." Shrugging one shoulder, Starla carelessly added, "Of course, Meg and I weren't friends yet at that point but I figured someone should have recommended it to her."
"I heard everyone else who asked before Starla was sent to the hospital," Klemen added in a helpful tone.
"Well, #$%*," said Beryl, impressed. "You see, Meg, that's one of the reasons we're such good friends."
"Oh my gosh," Sharon randomly remarked, "this is just like a soap opera!"
"This is nothing like a soap opera!" Starla exclaimed, looking up at her.
"Guys, I swear, I am not above kicking all your #$%$#," Meg hissed.
"That's exactly why I'm pinning you down," Beryl said.
"Okay, fine, I'm #$*&ing calm! Now will you let go?!" Meg asked, still attempting to shake Beryl off.
"Nope."
Meg gritted her teeth. Then she released a sigh. "I'm calm…" Beryl let go and stood up with a shrug.
"Good enough for me."
Meg stood up as well. No one said anything for a moment.
Until Beryl was spontaneously thrown off balance by a right hook ramming into her shoulder, courtesy of Meg, who proceeded to leap onto Beryl without a second thought—other than, I'm still going to kill you!, of course. Rosie fumbled a bit trying to make sure none of the girls fell out of her servos.
Megatron smirked. "Oddly enough, this is quite entertaining."
"I know, right?" Sharon agreed.
"So can we keep them?" Steve asked hopefully. The grimace he received from Megatron made Steve realize that that probably wasn't the subtlest approach.
"What makes you think that just because these insects are entertaining we can keep them?"
"Uhhh…"
"We're in the middle of a war, drones," Megatron snarled, causing the group to back away. "Just what good will a bunch of puny insects do for the Decepticons?! Now hand them here so that I can crush them and get this over with!"
"No!" squeaked Rosie, stepping back. She held the humans close to her chest plate.
Megatron raised an optic ridge. He was irritated, definitely, but mildly surprised as well. "Excuse me?"
The first thought that popped into Rosie's mind was, Oh scrap, what did I just say?! However, she couldn't back out now. It's not like the humans were useless, right? And she wasn't going to just let them get crushed because Megatron couldn't see their uses, right?
"U-um, my liege," Rosie spoke, trembling slightly, "I-I'm suggesting that we should m-maybe…keep them?"
Megatron narrowed his optics. "Really, now? And tell me, drone, just why we should keep these pests on board our ship?"
"B-because they could be of some use!" Oh gosh, really, Rosie? That was specific. Rosie felt she had spoken too quickly, but she couldn't help it! Pressure hinders her ability to keep quiet if she knows what she could do to…to… Well, she could still think of various ways the humans could be helpful, and already Rosie was thoughtlessly listing them aloud.
"These humans are obviously good entertainment, however that can't be their only function because humans are obviously quite resourceful and if they hadn't been then how could they have gotten this far but that's not my point I mean because humans are much smaller than Cybertronians and even though that makes them significantly weaker compared to us that means they're capable of getting into places we Cybertronians can't and besides that the Autobots like humans, right? So clearly, if we had humans we could feign and rescue and they could gather data or befriend the Autobots' humans or ward them off while we fight since sometimes the Autobots' humans can be a bit bothersome or these humans could distract the Autobots from the fight since the Autobots are quite soft-hearted and care for these creatures' wellbeing and I also figure that since you're amused by upsetting Starscream perhaps having him handle one of the humans would be quite amusing as well especially if he's not allowed to really harm or at least kill the fleshling?"
Gradually Rosie realized that all eyes and optics were on her. She finally quieted herself. Attempting to keep calm with silent inhales and exhales, Rosie directed her gaze at Megatron, wondering if anything she said had even made sense. Megatron was not staring back, however, and seemed to look off into the distance as if considering the possibilities. Then, as if deciding on something, he nodded and looked down at her.
"…That is clever thinking, Vehicon," he spoke, sending a wave of utter surprise throughout everyone without earshot. "I've rethought and decided to let you all, even the insects, live." The Vehicons practically let out a sigh in unison, relaxing their stance significantly.
"However!" Megatron barked.
The Vehicon group looked up.
Eying them, Megatron added, "I do not trust you drones enough to keep track of these puny beings. Your officers will be taking that job whether they like it or not. Now go back to your duties! Before I change my mind…"
The Vehicons gave a collective, "Yes, Lord Megatron," plus a couple nods before dispersing at their own speeds. Rosie paused for a moment. She nervously searched for a safe place to put the humans. Finally, she decided if Megatron was serious—as he usually was in these cases—he'll probably make sure the fleshlings will not be stepped on. Hopefully. Rosie gingerly set the five human girls down on the floor of the command room.
She then bent down to one knee. "U-um, we'll be back later," Rosie assured them. She stood up and scurried away, leaving the humans under Megatron's supervision.
Megatron watched Rosie leave a moment before turning his attention to the five girls on the floor. Noting their size, Megatron scoffed. He wouldn't be surprised if some foolish Vehicon or officer ended up stepping on one of the creatures. In all honesty, Megatron wouldn't care either. But since the fleshlings could be of use to him, he decided to keep them alive. For the time being.
"What are your names?" he questioned causing the girls to look up from, well, whatever they were doing. It appeared the one with charcoal-colored hair had been chasing around the girl with messy curls using a book rather large (for a human) labeled "Math". The other three girls had been watching (the shortest girl on the end brushing her hair), but now all five gazed up at him.
"Meg," answered the charcoal-haired girl with a slight glare.
"Beryl," responded the girl Meg had chased.
"I'm Starla," said the girl wearing a gray T-shirt accented with red.
"Klementina," spoke the shortest girl, brushing her hair with a cyan and black hair brush. The last girl—the one with gray eyes wearing an oversized striped sweater—simply stared back up at Megatron with no identifiable emotion. Megatron stared down at her, specifically.
The girl stared back up at him.
Megatron narrowed his optics slightly.
The girl's blank face didn't change.
Megatron went one step closer.
She still stared up at him.
Megatron stared back at her.
The girl didn't speak.
Megatron stared harder.
She still didn't do anything other than gaze up at him.
Megatron stared even harder.
The girl said nothing.
"…Well?" he finally demanded with a serious frown.
"Oh, she's a selective mute," Klemen answered in a nonchalant manner whilst still brushing her hair.
Starla rolled her eyes. "Her name is Silvia. Don't expect her to converse with you, as she rarely does with anyone."
Megatron narrowed his optics at Silvia. "I see…" Remembering Soundwave was still in the room, Megatron stood to his full height and turned to face said communications officer. "Soundwave, alert the other officers. They are to each take care of a fleshling. Except Airachnid. Primus knows what she'd do if left alone with one."
Soundwave nodded and faced his back to Megatron, returning to do that and whatever else he had been doing beforehand. The five girls on the floor exchanged puzzled and curious glances. Then realization dawned upon Starla. Her eyes widened with alarm.
"Wait a moment..." She looked around, just on the verge of panicking. "Where's Araxie?!"
Yes, Megzy, you are scaring Silvia. You don't have to force your glare-stare on her. And, yes! Araxie has escaped! Sort of... I mean, the Nemesis is in the air, how on earth would she actually leave?
But I'm kind of curious:
What was your reaction to Megatron letting them live?
A show of hands, who here thinks Araxie might die?
Who here actually wants to see what would happen if Airachnid were given one of these girls? (xD)
