Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews. More "what if" future fun courtesy of everyone's favorite schemer and power grabber. In the movie verse, Starscream is pure silver and very angular and stocky. In G1 cartoon, he was slim with silver, red and blue markings and very distinctive shapes across his form.
Updates to follow more quickly as I am now off vacation and back to writing on all my fics. A quick update to get the action moving.
TR TR TR TR TR TR TR TR TR TRANSFORMERS
Starscream flung the glass globe against the lab's metal wall, red optics narrowing and watching with satisfaction as it shattered with the force. "This is ridiculous!" he spat out, blue armored hands clenched into fists. "I am the Air Commander, deadliest of the Seekers, and best graduate of the Cybertron war academy!" His blazing optics focused on the ever-growing pile of shattered glass across the floor and his work area. "Arrggh, I cannot be defeated!" he ground out, lowering his grey helm into his hands.
"And this form!" He raised his helm to glare at his own reflection on the smooth wall. "Wings tilted back like a metal butterfly, blue and red markings? How horrible. I look like Prime sparked me," the jet shuddered. "I am a brilliant scientist, I should lead not Megatron. He is too weak to defeat Prime. This is the galactic payback for my mistakes, I know it. I am all for blending in within each timeline but this form! It is beyond humiliating for any of my existences to endure. This is..."
The door to his lab slid open followed by a hard vent and curse. "What the slag!"
"How dare you enter my lab unannounced!" He spun, stumbling on his solid feet instead of his customary feet pads.
"You scheduled this meeting nine joors ago to discuss aerial combat maneuvers," Thundercracker reminded. The tall blue seeker looked his leader up and down with a frown on his lip plates.
"I don't know what your condition is, but I bet it's got a long name that is hard to pronounce Screamer." Skywarp's tone sounded thoughtful before he began snickering openly.
"As leader of this trine I deserve respect," Starscream crossed his metal arms, careful to keep the arm locked ray blasters from entangling on each other.
"And we deserve warning to bring our special glasses. Oh! I bet you look real dangerous that way," Thundercracker clapped his black armored hands together. The others turned to focus their optics on him. "The red and blue markings? We need to use those special glasses and you appear three dimensional. I've seen it advertised for the humans' as the latest technological thing."
"Unlike your processor upgrades for intelligence," Starscream sarcastically stated, rubbing at the back of his helm to ease a neuron ache.
"How about a calendar upgrade? It's June not October for Halloween."
"An alternate trans scan to fool the humans, " Starscream lied.
"Why bother? The Fallen announced our existence to the world even if the humans have covered it up. NEST is going global and we fly openly. Matter of time before they know we are real."
"The announcement would have been better in three D TV," Skywarp commented.
"Get out!" Starscream ordered, accidentally releasing a blast as his arm snapped out to point. The red flash hit the wall, leaving a char mark without damage. Both seekers hesitated, waiting for defensive system to recognize and engage. Nothing happened and they continued to stare at each other. "OUT!"
Quietly, both seekers backed out of the lab then exchanged a look as the lab doors slid shut and locked.
"Do you ever worry about him?" Thundercracker
"Nope. That's Megatron's problem. His history of deceit and betrayal is legend. No tips off my wings if he's never blasted Starscream to scrap," Skywarp tilted his wings up and down in the seeker sign of not caring.
"What if he takes over?" Both arms rotated out, palms upward to rise slowly in the seeker movement of command respect.
"Same thing as always. Attack, blast whatever moves too slow to escape. Then the Autobots show and we retreat same as under Megatron," Thundercracker grunted.
"That doesn't bother you?"
"Retreating? Do we do anything else?" His optics spun tighter with his irritation.
"I meant blasting slow things like humans?"
"Nah. They make the funniest sounds when hurt."
"You are one sick 'Con Thundercracker," the tall blue seeker said.
"Oh, there's Soundwave leaving! Going to refill his lever grease with sticky glue and wait until he tries to eject the cassettes out," he said, disappearing away in a teleportation flash and leaving his trine mate staring at empty air.
Inside the lab Starscream projected his holographic notes onto the wall. "Timeline alteration attempt #3. Prevent Orion Pax from becoming Optimus Prime. My sniper shot finished what Megatron could not during the energon cube raid. Instead of Orion injured and taken to Alpha Trio to receive the military upgrades and Matrix of Leadership, he offlined. However, his friend Dion became Magnus Prime instead of Ultra Magnus. As Prime, he took Megatron's spark early in the war. Optimus hesitated because they were brothers allowing Megatron to escape and Magnus did not. His white form with Optimus' build was like seeing his ghost. Worse was seeing a Cybertron ruled by the Magnus clan of Autobots and the Decepticons regulated to a myth. Under his leadership, Cybertron continued boring, plain and never exploring the galaxy. Hence, no human contact or Nebulans or Paradron or an existence worth enduring." The jet's wings angled from his chassis in frustration.
"Timeline alteration attempt #4. Switch Megatron and Orion at the Energon Revival Festival mid lunar pass. The Fallen noticed the strength of his spark and corrupted his very coding. Orion blasted Megatron while they were still in their fourth shell then made it look like a tragic accident. The same way he offlined Alpha Trion and countless others who questioned his choices. Choose the name Optitron." Red optics closed in pain as Starscream remembered the shattered, dead melted world that had been Cybertron.
"Optitron's power knew no limits until he conquered everything. Took what left of our race and moved onto other inhabited worlds, enslaving them into oblivion for his galactic war fleet. I could not undo that time alteration quick enough." The holographic notes and wall images changed again.
"Timeline alteration #5, steal the Matrix of Leadership for myself the day it was to be transferred from Alpha Trion's care." The seeker Commander wiggled his fingers, looking down at the metal of his right hand. His memory core replayed the flare of light and searing pain before he locked that memory routine down. "Orion survived to become Optimus Prime, though slower and dumber. Still a problem. The Matrix refused to submit to me and melted my entire hand off. It still found its way to Optimus vorns later, continuing the war on Cybertron, no space exploration but no advance on either side. One-half of the world Decepticon, one-half Autobot and neither cross the centerline of stalemate. Only fun was seeing Arcee as Prime's mate instead of Elita One and Elita One with Megatron."
"Speaking of femmes, which led me to timeline alteration attempt #6, delaying the launch of our ship the Nemesis. The Autobot Ark launched unhindered with the femmes joining the mission. The multiple joors head start allowed the Autobots to blast through the asteroid field and escape clear. The lack of a Decepticon attack never created the events to crash the Ark on earth. Both ships continued their chase until ensnared in a black hole gravity well. Cybertron continued on decaying until we became a dying race."
::Megatron to Starscream, report!:: Megatron's deeper voice blasted across the internal channel.
::Report on what oh fearless leader?:: Starscream snapped back automatically.
::Our energon supplies. You were supposed to be counting them and suggesting a new plan to increase them!::Megatron
::Energon storage at 85% capacity:: Starscream flipped the report digitally to the command deck. Silence then the abrupt end of the comm line allowed him to return to his work.
"Hmm, what if I take Optimus Prime out of the quotient? Manipulate other events? A sequence to prevent the Ark from being built or sent out? Tamper with the Allspark perhaps instead of the Matrix? Timeline alteration attempt #7 and let's see what happens.
To be continued...
NEXT: The earth knows of the Transformers and embraces them, at least in their marketing attempts.