Chapter 23: Our Song

A/N: Creative Writerbot, transform! Chh-chh-koo-koo-koo! Oh no, its your arch nemesis, Mundane Procrasticon! Also, there's bad internet connection on my side. Great, Procrasticon's got connections…mine. :P

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Triburst clenched his hesitant fists, before palming them open with his arms, shot and outstretched. His creation wasted no time reacting with a grimace.

"……No."

She knotted her blue arms with her face in protest. Triburst's dimpled smile drew itself wider, exceedingly proud of his insignificant actions.

"Little Star, the device that I built is important to you and lord Megatron, is it not? What would the Decepticon empire say if you didn't retrieve it, pray tell?"

"You agreed that you would give it without question!" she spat in bitter retort, tightening her arms.

"Aaaaah, that I did…to Megatron. But I did make a small request," the older transformer flexed his maroon digits facing the red seeker. "That's why you're here, dear child"

"…Come on, I'm not asking for much."

Starscream was not entirely convinced.

"No one will know about this," he pleaded with gusto. "Daddy's promise!"

Triburst's smile beamed when she dropped her shoulders in defeat; the aerial commander had to muster all her willpower to drag her heavy blue feet, carrying herself into her creator's waiting arms. Lovingly encircling the female Decepticon in his maroon coloured hands, the olive seeker leaned into the almost limp female and embraced her in a most tender hug. Starscream neck gave way to the weight of her head and slumped pathetically as he joyfully swung her from side to side, stopping to ask the emotionally absent seeker a question.

"Now……who's my little Star?"

Starscream muffled something into his armpit.

"I can't hear youuuu-"

"(I am.)" She mumbled louder.

"And who loves you?"

The old mech waited patiently to hear the second reply.

"(…Triburst does)."

"Who loves Triburst?"

"…………"

Triburst had to shake a reply out of the red seeker and achieved the desired results, voiced in a raspy low hiss.

"………Little Star loves her daddy. Very much."

"How about a hug back, hmm? I raised you for a few thousand vorns, and this is the thanks I get? See, you open your arms like this…"

Starscream wanted to die right now, but her spark refused to obey her mental command, so she had to comply with her creator's wishes. Blue arms lamely dithered at Triburst's sides before the red seeker made a second attempt at tying herself around her father. Her blue fingertips barely touched each other when Triburst playfully hoisted Starscream off the ground, bringing her on his optic level, cheek-to-cheek.

"Ah, my little darling Star, I miss that song we always use to sing. How about it?"

…Now Starscream wanted to throw him into the smelting pools. But Megatron would probably do the same to her.

'Hmm…chuck Triburst into smelting pools and have Megatron force me to hop in after him, or…sing an off-tune song.'

'…Goodbye, cruel, cruel Cybertron.'

"Ohhhhhhhh." She ululated dully.

"Little Star, little Star, how have you been?

I see you up in the sky.

You look small 'cause we are far apart,

But the truth is in your heart.

I fly to you, and you get larger,

'Cause I see Little Star glowing.

Glow Little Star, growing Little Star,

And now there are two."

Starscream's mediocre chorale was rewarded with Triburst generously petting his daughter's head, stroking the black metal with every motion. The red seeker waited for him to stop, and he did when he embraced her tighter, squeezing the circuits out of her chassis. She never understood the meaning of Triburst's original 'one-hit wonder', if it made any sense in the first place.

"Okay, I did what you wanted, old fogey. Now, how am I going to get my 'present' back to Earth?" Starscream's underlying tone told the green Transformer of her dilemma. "I can't just simply walk away with a basket of goodies when there are a lot of hungry wolves lurking about."

"Good point, Little Black Riding Hood." Triburst ignored the kick to his side. "…Well, what if you carried a biiiiig truckload of goodies?"

"I was thinking the same thing too," she agreed. "This can only mean one thing, and I know you're going to love it."

"Oh? What do you have in mind?" Triburst queried.

The aerial commander plucked her cheek away from his own and squinted at Triburst, giving her signature grin of cunning and deceit.

"…Shopping."

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They say it takes a certain type of Transformer to become a Decepticon, but many who have sworn allegiance to Megatron's growing army would shake their heads and disagree. For every optic counted amongst the Decepticons, a soldier would never feel lonely to think that there was no one similar to himself in design, and possess a polar personality at the same time. Simply put, it takes all kinds of characters to populate the Decepticon army, as long as they pledge their unadulterated allegiance to its leader.

Take this Decepticon as an example.

Yes, that one walking rather stupidly to the corner shop. A simpleton may label him as another neutral drunkard, who found himself on the wrong side of one too many 'uncomplicated' bar fights, but an experienced soldier would tell you otherwise. That this Transformer, his body sorely in need of a good repaint, was in fact, a Decepticon drunkard who was ambushed in an exchange of fists in a social bar. And after another glorified night of fisticuffs, he nurses his over energized head by walking to get some refreshments at a small shop, because flying was too 'loud'…even the glare of the moons were too loud.

See? Any Transformer can be a Decepticon. Autobots were too picky with their recruits. They had to have that idealistic mindset, that easy gullibility of accepting their new-age 'philosophies'. But the Decepticons don't lie. They don't pepper their words with feel-good idioms. They don't oppose the natural instincts of any given Transformer. And they certainly don't find much problem with this half-drunk Decepticon captivated by a data pad clearly labeled 'MATURE CONTENT' (it's the latest issue of 'Hot² Femmes', guys!).

A miscellaneous connector hastily snakes out of his arm and connects to the data pad, turning the screen online with a friendly blip.

Said Decepticon groans and drools lecherously at the data pad, scaring one of Transformers littered in the small corner shop.

Yeap, this Decepticon's lucky every month, 'cause the femmes just can't resist him. So, to purge their uninhibited desires, a lucky femme gets to bear her raw wiring to this suave Transformer (hence the purpose of this classy data pad ever existing); details listed include her REAL name (no lie), contact number, and favourite hobbies (you're one of them, be happy).

Primus, you can see all her circuits from here to Iacon! Betcha' she's a tin-plated racist, don't like us small types. Hey, jes' sayin'…don't knock it if you haven't tried it, lady.

No one complains when the dark painted Decepticon increases the picture's resolution to twice its size, but a neutral femme at the counter squeaks at his boldness. The Decepticon holding the adult data pad rears his ugly head to bring the femme to his attention.

Here comes the love machine. Oh, con.

He thinks his debonair one-lines are going to make her drop her shopping and dedicate her spark to his wondrous being. He couldn't be more wrong. They were so terrible, so shallow and mind-numbingly atrocious, that every word rolling out of his vocal processors grated away at his pitiable dignity. Hel-lo! The female said she's tied to a mate of her own, who's unforeseen shadow looms over our intelligent Decepticon warrior. Another cliché spirals out of his energon hole.

"Maybe he'd like ta' watch an' learn a few pointers from me?"

Oh sweet Primus, shoot me now. No, wait, wait, wait, shoot him.

To save the Decepticon from, well, himself, the female's mate literally grabs his attention with a great blue fist over his small black head, and turns the warrior's optics away from the femme to a more unappealing feature: his angry mug.

"Do you know who I am, neuty?!"

"No, ah don't, an' ah don't care. So git' yer keister outta my mate's way, er' else."

"'Er' else' what, fugly! You think I'm afraid of you, you overgrown garbage can! Megatron's my LEADER-!"

THUMP

Ooooh, that's gotta hurt.

How do you 'thump' someone in the head when its literally engulfed in one hand? Would that mean he inadvertently punched himself first?

Who cares. Hey, check it! That dumb con flew outta the window so hard, 'looked like he went Mach gazillion without activating his thrusters!

Soundwave knew there was no point in watching Skywarp, but the Decepticon seeker proved to be too amusing to pry the tape deck's optics away from his daily routine. He could afford a small measure of entertainment now and then with his cassettes, who were rolling in fits of laughter on the ground. Rumble and Frenzy were too sowed in stitches to function vertically, and Soundwave could feel Ravage's body vibrating irregularly, a rare but unmistakable sign of the panther enjoying the joke in the tape deck's chest. The camera viewpoint ducked to the ground and the scene quickly swirled to the Cybertronian sky, because Buzzsaw was stunned into paralysis at Skywarp's antics.

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"There's the senorita (finally). 'Where'd she come from and where's she goin'?"

Jazz eye's furrowed when he laid eyes on the older seeker following her. "…Who's that con?"

"Dunno," the Autobot communications officer shrugged. "Maybe her sugar daddy?"

Jazz wanted to winch at the very notion, but quickly checked himself and lightly shrugged his response, followed by a curious silence.

"Look, he's hugging her, but she ain't a happy bug. Hey Jazzman, think Superfly's her big mac?" Blaster's optics trailed the seekers into a small appliance store. "They're spending way too much time accessorisin'."

Blaster snapped his jaw shut when Jazz whipped a flat palm over his face. "That bag he's carrying!"

"'Nothin' wrong with it-waaaydaminit'!" Blaster quickly scanned the suspicious shopping bag. "Is it me, or is it gettin' heavier?"

The two Autobot's in hiding watched the larger seeker attack Starscream with another hug, but by then she was more than ready and kept him at arms length…

…And behind his large frame, the olive Transformer dropped a small piece of metal into one of the shopping bags he helpfully offered to carry for Starscream. Blaster and Jazz turned to each other as if the answers they were looking for were written on their companions faces.

"Sneaky woman…" Blaster whispered and Jazz nodded in agreement. 'So that's your game…Going shopping with the B.F.G over there, looking like you're buying presents for the boys back home. Every shop you go to, the green genius sneaks a small something inside that bag (what's its name…'Tinker Toys'. Hoo boy, there must be some big kids in the Deceptiarmy). Don't tell that ain't suspicious behaviour, angel.'

"I'd say Starscream's got a present for ol' Megs on Earth which needs assembling," Blaster magnified his view and scrutinized the cluttered bag further. "And the goods inside doesn't look too child friendly to me."

"We gotta get it, man," Jazz tipped his head in deliberation. "And I've got just the plan to get the funky junk."

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"Aaaaaaaaaowwwwww…" the purple seeker groaned lazily at Thundercracker's stern hands working against his bent wings. His blue wingmate merely shook his head at his companion's overcharged state and made a small tching noise. Skywarp never failed to let Thundercracker forget that a seeker can get hurt in all kinds of places, and he just found a new one. Again.

"Why…how…when…" the blue jet ended up sighing questions to himself while mending Skywarp's dented body. "You said you were going to the shop…just…"

"I did…then-then this big-oooouh! Aaaagh……bleeeeeh-"

"I mean, it doesn't take a lot of-"

"Meeeeeeeh-weebleeeeerhrp-"

"You-"

"Gogomaaaaagh-"

"Why are you overcharged?"

"Feeerumphaholooopahphwhen was I not?"

"Warp…" Thundercracker whispered indifferently. "You, er…you still overcharged?"

"Uh-huh, hey, I got-…like, I got-"

"I know." Thundercracker's optics winked from the adult data pad to his friend's rear end, clearly embossed with a giant footprint. "…Con, I know its embarrassing to go to the medic, but…"

"…Cmoooooooon…"

"…I am NOT touching your aft."

"Why NOT?!"

"'Cause…cause-! …WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?!!!!" the blue Transformer threw his arms out exasperated at the whole situation. "Did I step on your 'Cool-Stuff-Skywarp-Can't-Find-Twice' collection?!"

"Nu-uh. I just thought Starscream would be back soon-"

"But she's not!"

"Yeah, an-an' I wanted ta' teach her a lesson, for, for, like, leaving us here, an' not telling us where she's goin', and then, and then all I get, is like, you being all homosexual on my rear end, an-"

The purple Decepticon earned himself a medal of idiocy on the same day, in the shape of Thundercracker's fist.

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A/N: 01-01-2007 There seems to be an internet connection problem, so if I don't reply fast enough to your reviews, emails, or put new chapters, please forgive me. I would also like to thank everyone for their support and helpful criticisms, and wish you all a Happy New Year, 2007:DDDD