Further Complications
Chapter Two.
A/N Thanks to KdZeal for being my beta, and help with stats and Soundwave in this chapter.
As Ratchet had surmised, the following five days had not produced a storm, and neither was Ratchet very much closer to finding a way to putting the human boy and the Decepticon leader back into their own bodies.
Once Sam had resigned himself to this-about an hour after Ratchet had first suggested it – Sam had applied himself to the task of learning to act as Starscream full-time diligently. Starscream reluctantly let Sam in on current plans – which didn't seem to be particularly worrying, as the Decepticons were currently trying to keep a low profile and decide what they would be working on next. He practised answering questions set by Ratchet, which Starscream attended to correct Sam if he got the intonation or reaction wrong. Starscream was less than gracious about this, but did give his assistance.
One thing Sam did start doing almost from the moment he accepted the situation was to try to be in character from the moment he came out of recharge until he went back into recharge, which sometimes made some of his responses to the simplest queries seem a bit obnoxious, but thankfully the rest of the Autobots understood the reason for it. Of course, to get used to it, Sam had to be addressed as 'Starscream' and 'Lord Starscream' – something that Sam absolutely hated but had to put up with. Starscream found it quite amusing but then, Starscream being Starscream, that was only to be expected.
The time passed quicker than Sam would have liked, during which time, on top of everything else, he practised flying, transforming, walking, running, firing his weapons and sending databursts and communicating by comm - all totally routine functions that he would be expected to know almost instinctively.
All too soon it was the morning of the fifth day, and both Ratchet and Starscream were doing some last minute checking and informing. Although Starscream had been less than eager to help at the beginning, he knew that in some ways he stood to lose as much or more than Sam if the latter's cover was blown and the truth exposed, so he was keen to help Sam pretend to be him for his own purposes. Ratchet was secretly glad that Starscream had realised this, for more than once the Decepticon had pointed out flaws in the boy's performance that would have made the other Decepticons at best suspicious and at worst guess that something was seriously awry.
They went out onto the spacious courtyard.
"You had best go now," Ratchet said. "Your Decepticons await your return.
"Very well, Autobot," responded Sam, staying in character. "I suppose I should thank you for the medical assistance. Lower your force field and stand back."
Everyone stood by, and then Ironhide signalled that the force-field was down, and Sam engaged his jets, rising into the air, converted to jet form, and screamed off and up, in the direction of the Decepticon base.
Everybody stood watching until he was no longer visible. Ratchet blew air through his vents.
"Well, that's that. It's up to Sam now, lets hope his acting skills are up to it. With a bit of luck, any minor mistakes will be put down to after- effects of the lightning strike on his processors," Ratchet said.
"I hope he looks after my body!" Starscream said sourly. Mikaela raised an eyebrow at him, looking pointedly at the Band-aids dotting the body of Sam.
"He can't make much worse of a job than you are of looking after his," Mikaela said.
"Let's go in, all we can do now is wait and see, and hope," said Ratchet.
Turning, he went into the Base, Starscream and Mikaela following him.
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As the Base came into view, Sam flipped back into robot form - glad that Ironhide had made him practice till he could do it smoothly - and came to a landing.
Immediately, Thundercracker and Skywarp came out, followed by Barricade, and another mech he recognised from Starscream's description of him. The medium-sized blue and white mech with the battle mask and glassy-looking panel in his chest, who was just a few feet shorter than Optimus, could only be Soundwave.
Sam had been thinking over what to say, running it over in his head.
"Now that I'm away from that tiresome medic, I want to know what progress you have all made." He walked into the main hall Starscream had told him about. The others followed him in, and he saw the small, single opticked red mech Swindle, the black mech he had been told was Dead End, the little Frenzy, and the security truck-mech Payload.
"How are you, Lord Starscream. What happened?" asked Skywarp.
Sam was glad he HAD asked Starscream how he had come to be flying over the Lookout in a storm, this way he could tell the truth.
"I was flying behind a thunderstorm when I saw the fleshy boy exposed on a hill. I saw it as an opportunity, and swooped down to catch him but got struck by lightning. The Autobot medic took me back to their Base, although I was confined to certain areas, and fixed me. He warned my processors may still be affected by the strike," he paused. "You were all doing work when I had my unfortunate accident. Report on your progress," Sam continued.
"Very well, Lord Starscream," agreed Barricade, and he began his report.
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You don't like me, do you, fleshling?" asked Starscream to Mikaela, catching her up in the corridor.
"No, I don't and drop the 'fleshling', you're as fleshy as I am at the moment, so cut it out," Mikaela told him.
"Why don't you like me?" he asked, pouting at her. She thought it was an expression that didn't sit well on Sam's face. She sighed, stopping and leaning back against a wall.
"Now, let me see….You shot at us in the Hoover dam, blew Bumblebee's legs off, menaced Sam when he was on the roof, shot down the helicopter that was trying to rescue the AllSpark, destroyed several jets, and tried to kidnap Sam on the hill a week ago." She ticked off all the points on her fingers as she listed them. "And you wonder why I don't like you?" she asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Even though I am in the body of your mate?" he asked. She dropped her arms.
"Especially as you are in the body of my mate!" she said. "The sooner you two are back in your own bodies, the better!"
"But…you like this body, don't you?" he asked, moving too close to Mikaela for her comfort. Feeling threatened, she pushed her back against the wall.
"You're invading my personal space, buster. Back off!" she said.
"Wouldn't you like to participate in a little experiment of human and Cybertronian examples of foreplay on a human body?" he asked. "I am considered very skilled amongst my own people."
"Get lost!" said Mikaela in outrage. "Of all the conceited…just back off and leave me alone. This is your only warning," she said.
"Oh come on, just a kiss?" asked Starscream, Sam's brown eyes widening guilelessly, an illusion that did not fool Mikaela. Then, before she could react, Starscream brought his hands up to her shoulders, shoving her roughly against the wall, and pressed his mouth to hers.
His kiss was hard and harsh, and Mikaela squeaked and struggled, and as Starscream kept her pinned to the wall, she became aware of how very strong Sam's body really was, in spite of it's wiriness. Fear ran through her as Starscream pressed Sam's body up against her. Gathering her wits, she steeled herself. As an attractive girl with no father around to protect her, Mikaela had learned to look after herself, and she knew exactly what to do in this situation. She had, after all, warned him to back off.
She grabbed hold of the arms to steady herself, and brought her left knee up, hard, between Starscream's legs.
Starscream broke the kiss with a high-pitched scream and fell over, hands disappearing between his legs, as he rolled on one side, groaning.
"I said no," she said. "No means no, Starscream. If you touch me like that again, I'll show you other places on a human body that can cause pain if struck. Now, you should recover in ten minutes, but stay away from me in future, do you hear?"
Without waiting for an answer from Starscream, Mikaela walked away. Only when she was out of sight did she drop her face into her hands and breathe hard, allowing herself to shake a little in reaction, but did not cry. She took a few more deep breaths to calm herself, and then composed herself, and walked into the medbay.
Ratchet looked up. "Hello, Mikaela, what can I do for you today?" he asked.
"I can't keep my mind from worrying about Sam. I wondered if I could give you a hand here." she said. Ratchet nodded to a storeroom.
"The Army gave us a load of medical supplies, There's pen and paper in there. Could you take inventory of all the small fiddly things - human bandages and dressings and thin wires and parts and so forth?"
"Sure, Ratchet," she said, and walked to the indicated room.
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Sam nodded as the last of the mechs gave their reports.
He was a little in over his head, but not much, as for most of the projects he could tell the mechs to keep doing what they were doing, but he wondered what he'd do if things changed. He decided not to worry about it, and deal with that when he had to.
"REQUEST-TO-SPEAK-IN-PRIVATE," said Soundwave in his harmonic voice.
Sam nodded. He followed the blue-and white mech into an adjoining room.
"Yes, Soundwave?" he asked in Starscream's haughty manner.
"SAMUEL-WITWICKY-IS-NOT-STAR-SCREAM," Soundwave stated.
Sam wished he was human again so he could swallow in the same way as he realised that somehow, Soundwave had rumbled him.