Static
Chapter Eight
It was touching to see how well Optimus acted with Static in his current state. He would sit with her and cuddle her to comfort her if she was upset, he would help her climb or build stuff when she was playing, he would also help her tidy up or pick up the building blocks when it was time for recharge. Then he would act like a watchdog and look after her when she was in recharge and make sure no harm came to her.
Megatron, on the other hand, was a different matter altogether. He would do everything he could to make sure that Optimus would leave Static alone, that Optimus would stop acting protector and leave Static in the open by herself. Whenever Optimus was in recharge as well as Static, Megatron would sneak up and try to hurt Static or Optimus to render the other one useless when he attacked. He would also deliberately knock down Static's building block towers and upset her so that Optimus would try to fight him; instead, Optimus helped to rebuild them better than before. No one from both the Ark and the Nemesis could understand why Megatron behaved in such a way. He had never acted like this before, not even as an adult.
"Maybe its sibling jealousy?" suggested Wheeljack as he waited in Ratchet's Medbay after blowing his arm off… again.
"What's that?" queried Bluestreak; he had helped Wheeljack into the Medbay having been the only one close enough to him to help.
"Sibling jealousy is when, in this case, Megatron is jealous of Optimus liking Static more than him and is doing everything in his diminutive power to break up that special relationship between the two. So far, he is thankfully failing to do so. In fact, he isn't even making a scratch." Explained Ratchet between welding Wheeljack's arm joints.
"Ohhhh, that makes more sense." Replied Bluestreak. A scream echoed through the halls just as Ratchet was on the final joint, causing him to slip in his work.
"OWWW!" yelled Wheeljack in pain, quickly snatching his arm back. Ratchet and Bluestreak, however, ran to the door and looked down the corridors to find the source of the scream.
"Stay here!" ordered Ratchet as he darted down the halls, towards the Rec. Room.
The Rec. Room was in pandemonium, or, at least, the playpen was. But it wasn't a fight that caused the scream. It wasn't even a little scrap over some toys. Megatron was sat on Optimus who had a heated Energon dagger embedded into one of his antennae and he was screaming into the floor as Megatron's foot pressed his helm into said floor. Static was crying and clutching her antennae too as though she was going through the same treatment Megatron gave Optimus whilst sat on Megatron's lap. Ratchet was horrified. He was literally rooted the spot with complete horror as he stared at the sight that lay before him.
"MEGATRON!" roared Starscream in fury and shock as he ran into the room having heard Optimus' scream. "WHAT IN THE PIT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" The rest of the Ark and Nemesis' crews spilled into the Rec. Room and soon crowded the doors and were uneasy at the scene that confronted them.
Energon trickled down the side of Optimus' helm from his bleeding antennae and pooled around him like a moat around a castle. When Static saw her brother's Energon spilling onto the floor, she screamed loud enough for Megatron to let go to cover his audios; Static jumped off her half-brother's lap and kneeled beside Optimus as Ratchet and Starscream carefully picked their way over to the broken family. It was like a scene from a mild horror film. Where Megatron had got the Energon dagger from, no one could say but one thing was for sure, Megatron could never have gotten to it by himself.
Just as Ratchet and Starscream reached them, Megatron glared daggers at the two mechs and it was the kind of glare that Starscream knew only too well.
"Ratchet, I suggest that you. Stand. Perfectly. Still." Ratchet gave the Seeker a quizzical look as if to say 'Are you mad?'
"He Is Correct Ratchet," spoke up Soundwave from behind Ironhide. "Lord Megatron Only Gives Starscream That Look And It Simply Means That If Anyone Comes Any Closer, He WILL Shoot You." A deadly silence fell over the somewhat mesmerized Cybertronians.
"Yeah, we've all seen it too many times to know what happens next!" Skywarp put in and many of the other Decepticons murmured and nodded their agreement. At that point, the two armies split into two, Decepticons on one side and Autobots on the other, all glaring at each other with an immense amount of palpable tension, hate and anger. Ratchet and Starscream were unnerved by this as were, surprisingly, the Minibots and Cassetticons as the two sub-groups broke away.
"Are you sure that there isn't any form of virus in your processors? If we leave them, more harm will come to Optimus or Static! And I will not be held responsible for it! I also want the pit-spawned glitch-headed fragger to own up immediately for giving Megatron that heated dagger!" as Ratchet said this he took a large step forward, closer towards the three Sparklings. What happened next happened so fast the crowd of Bots and Cons barely saw it and neither did Ratchet.
A section quickly transformed and Megatron's infamous cannon sprang out and fired at Ratchet, exactly on the medic's shoulder plating, throwing backwards at the sheer force of the impact. When the smoke cleared Ratchet was slumped against the wall and, as Perceptor examined him, slipped into stasis lock and all hopes of keeping peace among the bristling ranks disappeared over the horizon. Bye bye peace!