Vehicons snapped to salute as Megatron passed them in the hallway, walking the newest member(s) of the Decepticons at his side to the medical bay for an examination and assessment. Megatron paid them no mind, effectively tuning them out. Their respect was background noise that constantly permeated his every move through the Nemesis. He only noticed any of them now if they failed to genuflect within eyesight.
Walking alongside Megatron, the top of her helm roughly reaching his hip, was Shiftlock. She was largely copper-orange in color, with black markings on her doorwings, gauntlets and shins, and a prominent glossy black stripe down her torso plate that matched the color of her helm. She had an athletic, more curvy build than most of the other Autobot femmes, particularly the two-wheelers like Arcee, Chromia and Elita-One, who were all lithe, slender two-wheelers; formerly a Cybertronian speedster frame, she had managed to scan and assimilate a McLaren MP4-12C, a match to her racer's nature. Over the course of the war the bold, idealistic femme from the Dead End of Polyhex had been forged into a determined warrior, joining the ranks of the Wreckers under Ultra Magnus' command.
Megatron allowed himself a fraction of a smile. The Decepticon insignia, branded onto her frame by the Senate Enforcers long ago, though faded over time, was still present, a poignant reminder that she had started out as one of them. He briefly wondered how much hell she had caught during the thick of the Great War, surrounded by warborn Autobots who had come online and been taught to hate anything bearing that mark.
He stopped in front of the Medical Bay. "Before you are assigned your living space, I require a full examination, both of you and your sparklings, to ensure that you are not carrying any tracking or monitoring devices. You will also turn in your weapons."
"Fine," Shiftlock replied flatly. "Who's on duty?"
"An old friend of yours," Megatron casually replied as the door slid open.
"Hello again, Shiftlock. It's been awhile since I poked around under your hood," Knock Out stated with a sly smile, gesturing towards one of the berths.
The fembot grimaced. "There's a reason for that." She looked up at Megatron. "Don't tell me he's going to be examining my children. He wouldn't know a protoform from an impact wrench."
Knock Out grunted irritably. "That's no way to talk to your Chief Medical Officer," he retorted. "I don't have to be gentle if I don't want to."
"Your assessment, though disrespectful, is correct," Megatron stated, giving Shiftlock a warning glance. "That is why Shockwave will be tending to the examination of the protoforms."
Shiftlock felt the icy fingers of fear claw into the back of her helm. She held her children a little more tightly to her chest as the powerful form of the monoptic scientist made his way over to her, that single, expressionless red optic seeming to bore a hole into her.
His hand extended, open, waiting for her to place one of the unawakened infants within its grasp.
She balked, staring at the mech's hand. It was like being asked to trust your newborn child to the open jaws of a crocodile. Her arms refused to move.
"Did I or did I not promise you that no harm would come to the sparklings?" Megatron asked gruffly. "Give them to Shockwave. He is only going to scan them. Nothing more."
Shiftlock's plates were raised and vents open like hackles raised on the back of a threatened animal. "Tell me which table you want them on," she countered, sidestepping the necessity of placing them directly in Shockwave's hands.
The purple mech withdrew his servo, pointing to two empty berths next to the one Knock Out was standing by. "Place one completed protoform on each. They are not far from awakening."
She glanced down at the two infants in her arms. She had no idea how Shockwave could tell; she herself could not. There seemed to be no appreciable difference in their status. She chalked it up to her own inexperience as the question of whether or not she would become experienced in the process followed immediately after. Would she be able to return to Jazz, to spark further offspring with him, or . . .
Shiftlock walked over to the diagonal metal tables, not dwelling further on that matter.
Carefully she laid each completed protoform on the center of a berth, fussing over their comfort as only a mother could, and hovered nearby as Shockwave approached the defenseless sparklings.
Knock Out folded his arms and leaning against the wall, observing the goings on with detached interest, choosing to remain quiet and watch the outcome unless otherwise beckoned. He'd learned long ago that the less said around Megatron, the better. It had certainly worked in Soundwave's favor.
Megatron stepped closer, Shockwave holding a scanning device in his good hand, tracing the blue-lined protoform with a thin green beam. "So you say they will activate soon, Shockwave?" Megatron questioned, looking at the two silvery doll-like creatures curled in fetal balls on the berths.
"Affirmative," the scientist replied, going about his work unperturbed by the raw nerves and fretful wavelengths of their nearby mother. "My Liege, do you have experience with sparklings?"
Megatron looked up at his Lieutenant. "No," he replied, his mood neutral and relaxed.
"When they awaken, they will seek confirmation of their parentage. If you wish to take advantage of the imprinting period immediately after activation, you can convince them to see you as their father," Shockwave replied, finishing the scans on the first infant, moving around the berth to the second.
"No!" Shiftlock protested. "That's going too far, you are NOT their father!"
Megatron scowled at Shiftlock, his temper flaring as he leaned down to meet the fembot face to face, attempting to use his greater size and overwhelming persona to intimidate her as he so often did with his troops. Knock Out reflexively cringed.
"I will tell them whatever I want!" he roared at Shiftlock. "I promised I would spare them and raise them as Decepticons, but I made no such guarantees on your life! If you want to live to see your children grow up you will play along, or I will destroy you here and now and tell them you died sparking them!"
Shiftlock did not back down against Megatron's forceful threats and invasion of her personal space, his temper bringing out a steely defiance in her features and body language. "Are you sure that's what you want?" she asked icily. "Because if they assume you are their father and know I am their mother, we're going to have to pretend to be mates."
Megatron narrowed his optics, momentarily considering the ramifications of such an action. The fact that she refused to cringe before him was getting under his mesh, inflaming a need to crush her and force her to submit to his demands. Fortunately his self-control overrode the bloodlust rushing through his fuel lines. "You should be so lucky to have me as a mate," he hissed. "Very well, Shiftlock. We will put on this masquerade, with all of its trappings." He let that sink in for a moment before he continued. "Keep in mind that you and these sparklings will be treated like any other Decepticons, so I will brook no insubordination nor tolerate repeated failure. You and your children will serve the Decepticon cause as you should have from the beginning, or all of your lives will be forfeit!"
Shiftlock continued to glare into the Decepticon Lord's vermilion optics, but her plates lowered, a silent assent to Megatron's terms that allowed her to save face from the indignity of agreeing to it verbally. This was good enough in Megatron's estimation, and he stood up straight once more.
Megatron's hand clapped down on her right shoulder. "Now look happy, dearest. Our sparklings will be waking up soon," he murmured threateningly.
She felt like she was going to purge her tanks, but forced herself to smile.
Knock Out couldn't believe what he was seeing and/or hearing. It was going to make fantastic gossip among the troops.
Shockwave completed his scan of the red-lined protoform. "Both are functioning normally," he announced. It was about this time that the red-lined protoform began to stir, servos flexing and limbs tensing as the spark inside established the final neural-network connections to the body. The internal transformation mechanism triggered, and with a flash of white light from the transparent housing on its torso, the sparkling's body began to expand and change.
The compacted mass of CNA stretched out, taking shape, reaching the approximate size of an average scout (roughly half Megatron's height); its body was slender and curvy, the charcoal gray of its mesh adorned with glossy black plating marked with candy apple red accents, most notably in the form of stylized flames trailing up arms and legs. It - she - was a speedster-frame like her parents, and she looked like Jazz reincarnated as a woman. Shiftlock's forced smile became genuine; she almost wanted to laugh. Oh, the ruse was going to be hard to keep with a daughter that looked like that. Megatron was not nearly so amused. He really had to force a smile now, which made his expression more comical than anything else.
The second sparkling began to stir; its body expanded into something taller, somewhere around the height of Megatron's chest. He, too, was a speedster-type, but curiously, wings sprouted from the backs of his shoulder plates. A car with wings? He appeared to be. His armoring was a perfect white over paler gray mesh, blue powerlines and paint accents, his body type strong and athletic, a fit for a warrior. His torso had the same sort of extended roundness as Jazz, though his coloration would have suited Prowl.
Both of them sat up, looking around, blue optics searching for parents, coming to a stop on Shiftlock first; she was the only femme present.
"Welcome to the world," Shiftlock said gently, smiling at the both of them. They smiled back in turn, recognizing her wave field and voice almost instinctively; she felt like home.
"Where is father?" the femme asked, not recognizing the wave field of any of the other mechs as familiar and welcoming.
"I'm right here," Megatron answered immediately, pouring on charismatic charm that hadn't been seen since the days before the Great War.
Shiftlock's engines hitched and her plates fluttered like the ruffled feathers of a startled bird, but she kept up the pretense. "Yes," she agreed a little reservedly. "He's right here."
The two siblings looked between each other, as if puzzling this feeling of inconsistency among themselves; having nothing else to go on and being as trusting as, well, newborns, they accepted the statement as fact. Carefully trying out their limbs, they slid off the berths, standing shakily at first, marveling at the sensation of being upright. Of the cool hardness of the metal. Of the noises their feet made when they touched the ground. Everything was new, fascinating, and intense.
Megatron walked over to them both, opening his arms. "Come to your father, children," he beckoned. The two of them took unsteady first steps towards Megatron, reaching out to him, touching his arms and chest with the sort of reverent awe one you might expect if Megatron had been Primus himself. The Decepticon Commander had to admit to himself that he enjoyed the look of abject worship in their eyes. If only everyone could be so tractable and moldable to his will.
Shiftlock tried to hide her loathing. It should be Jazz standing there, not this tyrant pretender. She resolved to do everything in her power to make Megatron pay, somehow, for usurping her mate's place in their children's lives.
"There is much for you to learn," Megatron said to the two new Cybertronians. "I will teach you. Come with me, both of you. Your mother will be along shortly; she needs maintenance done first." He cast a commanding look to Shiftlock, warning her not to interfere.
Innocently the siblings took Megatron's hands, and let him lead them out to of the medical bay, their limbs gaining strength and coordination with every step.
The door slid shut, leaving Shiftlock alone with Knock Out and Shockwave.
As you may have noticed, I'm kind of skipping fannon convention concerning how sparklings grow, having them essentially being adult babies. This is kind of a throwback to the original series, where new Transformers were built or came online already fully formed, but maybe a bit naive.
This does not, however, preclude our two new Cybertronians from being just as much of a handful. :)
