Further Complications.
Chapter Six.
Ratchet heard them before he saw them, and turned to greet them as they entered. Surely, having just landed, they couldn't have got into trouble or up to mischief already? That hope died as he saw Sunstreaker and Sideswipe come in, scratched, dirty, and grinning like loons.
"What have you two been up to? Only you two could find trouble just after landing!" he groused.
"Well, we couldn't help it if ol' Screamer decided to overfly us just as we were coming in, could we? He looked like he wanted to play, so how could we refuse?" grinned Sunstreaker.
"We got him good." Said Sideswipe. "Just for old time's sake. Bent his wings, so he'll have to walk back to wherever he came."
Ironhide, could you go out and look for Sam? The Twins jumped him! Ratchet commed as he reached for his two largest wrenches. The Twins were so busy being pleased with themselves that they never saw them coming. Ratchet had only just finished explaining about the body-switch and why he was more mad than usual about what they had done when Ironhide brought in a shaking, distressed Sam, wings painfully bent at the edges, dirty, scuffed and scraped, and leaning on Ironhide for support.
Ratchet gave the Twins another scowl, then motioned for Ironhide to put Sam face-down on his operating table. He moved over to examine Sam's wings as the twins also walked over. Sam turned his head, saw them coming, and whimpered.
"Er-sorry about that, we thought you were Starscream." Sideswipe said, having the good grace to look slightly abashed. Sunstreaker, still grinning, just gave a shrug of his shoulders.
"I'll deal with you two later, your injuries are superficial, go and report in to Prime." Ratchet told them.
"What, looking like this?" Sunstreaker said in dismay, brushing one hand down the scuffing on his yellow hide.
"It's your own fault, and Prime has seen you looking worse, I know, so get out of here, or do you need more persuading? asked Ratchet, picking up another large wrench and eyeing the pair.
"Um – no, you've made your point." Sideswipe said, and they both rapidly headed for the exit. Ratchet snorted, put down the wrench, and began examining Sam's deformed wing-edges with gentle touches.
"Who – who the hell were they?" Sam asked, as Ratchet carefully dampened the sensations on the wings so he could start working on them.
"Those two are the Twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, and you had the misfortune to meet them before I could warn them what had happened." Ratchet said. "They practice a form of martial arts called 'jet-judo' which is, as you found out the hard way, exactly what it sounds like – leaping on Seekers and forcing them to the ground. In the sky, a Seeker is in his element and has the advantage in a fight, but get them down to earth, and they are at a disadvantage." Carefully, Ratchet began straightening out the bends and creases the Twins had put in Sam's wings. "The Twins are slagging nuisances at times, but their Sparks are in the right place and honestly, sometimes the trine seem to treat it as a game. It's not often they would fly low enough to be caught from a straight ground-leap, they probably thought you were Starscream trying to tease them."
Sam winced as Ratchet forcibly bent his wing tip back into shape. Then he checked the connections and made sure everything was working as it should. The scrapes and scratches he checked but left: they were already beginning to self-repair. After half-an-hour he motioned Sam to get up and turn as he scanned him, which was the point at which Starscream walked in. He seemed agitated.
"I saw those twin nuisances have arrived. Makes me glad to have advance warning before…ah, I see you have not been so fortunate, Sam. How much damage did they do to my body, Ratchet?" Starscream asked, pulling a face and pacing up and down the med bay. Both Ratchet and Sam watched him with concern. There was something desperate about that pacing, something urgent.
"What is the matter with him?" muttered Ratchet to Sam, then said in a louder voice to Starscream "They've done nothing I can't repair."
Things abruptly fell into place for Sam. Starscream was acting in a very similar manner to the way he himself had been this morning, and Starscream had been a Seeker longer than Sam, or any member of his family, had been alive. Why would being in a human body for a week or so take away the longing that Sam figured Starscream was feeling? He turned, hoping to do something about it, but altitude and wind chill could be a problem. He didn't want his body to freeze to death.
He saw one of the beds Ratchet always kept ready for human patients…perfect. He grabbed the top sheet in one hand, grabbed Starscream with the other – who yelled in surprise and outrage – and wrapped the latter in the former.
"You need the sky." he told Starscream as he strode out.
"But I'm in your stupid ground-bound body, so I can't fly!" Starscream replied.
"I can though." Sam said, databursting Ironhide to drop the force-field. "So it just looks like I'll have to take you."
As he received notification from Ironhide that the field was down, Sam began running and launched himself into the air, engaging his thrusters, Starscream clasped in his hands as he headed up towards cloud level.
He felt Starscream grow still in his hands, felt some of the tenseness leave his frame, but not enough, it still wasn't enough. Sam realised that it wasn't just being in the air he needed, it was the flight aspect, being wrapped in a sheet and held by another was not close enough to real flight. Sam could only think of one possible solution, it was risky, he'd need more altitude to try it and it was still risky then, and might still not be enough.
Climbing in the sky, he hoped he wasn't misjudging his own capabilities, and hoped Starscream wouldn't get chilled. Carefully, he unwrapped the tense human from the sheet, pleased to note he had long sleeves and a jumper on anyway.
"This might be scary, but trust me." Sam said. He made sure he was high up, with no clouds to obscure him for at least a half-minute, then threw Starscream up above him, then angled to drop down about ten feet below him, so he would not fall to the ground, dropping at an equal rate to Starscream's rate of fall. He counted to twenty, turned upside down, grabbed Starscream and found enough space under his plating to put him there to warm him up. He was shivering when Sam put him in there, but after a while he warmed up.
"Do that again, it did help." Starscream said.
In fact, Sam did it three more times, but by then a combination of Sam's nerve beginning to break, Thundercracker calling in to find out if he was okay, and Starscream being satisfied, culminated in Sam landing once again. As he dropped down, circling around and spiralling lower, he commed Ironhide, who commed him back a few moments later to tell him the force-field was back down. Breaking out of the holding pattern, Sam angled down, did an elegant flip, and landed carefully.
"Showoff." said Ironhide good-naturedly, impressed in spite of himself. Sam put Starscream down carefully, then backed off.
"I had best go back, or Thundercracker will be wanting to investigate my absence. I 'll tell him what happened, the first part at least." Sam said. "After all, it's only fair to give them fair notice of those Twins."
Ironhide nodded. "Okay, I'll take this one in to Ratchet once the force-field is back up." he said, indicating Starscream who was still slightly chilled from the flight.
Nodding, Sam leaped into the air and flew off, and Ironhide raised the force-field again. Then he turned to Starscream, crouched, and held out his hands.
"C'mon, I'll get yer to Ratchet." he said. Starscream pulled a face but complied, climbing onto Ironhide's massive palms. He grabbed hold as Ironhide stood. It was disconcerting to be so small when he was used to being taller than all the Autobots, and said as much to Ironhide. "This is just going to take some getting used to." he finished. Ironhide nodded in agreement as he headed into the Base with the human cupped in his hands.
"For you and me both." He agreed.
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The weekend was fairly uneventful for Starscream, and filled with Miles explaining everything he could thing of about school for Starscream, and helping him get all Sam's homework assignments completed, although it ended up with Starscream helping Miles with Math and Science. Even in Sam's limited human body, Starscream seemed to already have the fundamentals worked out, and even described the Math that Miles had been groaning over for the last week as 'incredibly basic', and actually showed more patience than any of the Autobots would ever have credited Starscream with by explaining it to Miles step-by-step, until he had grasped how to do it.
"It would be a fine thing if Starscream's friendship with Miles lasts beyond this incident." Bumblebee remarked to Ratchet. "If Starscream discovers one human can be more than he ever credited them with, maybe he'll realise that other humans can be. If that small thread of understanding is reached…" he said, tailing off.
"Treaty negotiations have been built on far less, Bumblebee." Said Ratchet. "We can but hope, hope that this fragile friendship could be the beginning of a possible temporary ceasefire, and maybe something greater if we can point out to Starscream that the reason for the original conflict – possession of the AllSpark – is gone, along with Megatron and the AllSpark. All that the Decepticons have to fight for now is revenge, and even revenge can leave a bitter taste in the mouth if once it's over all you have to show for it is destroyed worlds and dreams gone up in flames."
"It would be an even more bitter experience if he were to lose, or if it turned into a permanent stalemate, with new members of each side turning up for millennia." Bumblebee observed. Ratchet nodded.
"I think that idea may try Starscream's limited patience." The negotiator-turned-medic stated. "If we can convince Starscream of the value of co-operation, it may be the chance for a new start for us all, humans, Autobots, and Decepticons. Think of what we could all achieve together. New worlds for us all, new adventures to be undertaken, and new experiences to be had for everyone."
Both Bumblebee and Ratchet looked over as the two human boys came out, talking animatedly, and hoped the friendship would endure.
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Monday morning dawned bright and clear, and Bumblebee drove both humans to the school. Miles had wanted to go in his new junker, to show it off, but it would also look odd if Bumblebee didn't accompany Sam, and was considered wasteful for them to both arrive in separate cars as they were friends. Eventually they worked out a compromise: Miles junker had been taken to Mikaela's Dad's garage for a service, valet, re-spray and wax, to smarten it up. Bumblebee would take them on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and they would go in Miles' car on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
They pulled up outside Mikaela's house, to pick her up, and she climbed in the front seat as Starscream moved to the back. She didn't make any effort to speak to him, and Starscream guessed she was still sore about his earlier attempt to get intimate with her. He decided he'd have to leave his own curiosity about the method unsolved, but this silence between them would seem unnatural, if things that Miles had told him were true, and he had no reason to believe otherwise. He had to do something, otherwise people were going to notice.
"Mikaela, I apologise for my actions of last week." He said.
"I should hope so." She said stiffly. Miles nodded – Starscream had explained to Miles what had transpired, so Miles knew what was going on.
"Mikaela, we are going to have to sort something out or…" He searched for the right expression and found it. "Or people are going to talk. They may assume you and Sam have broken up."
"So?" she asked raising a shoulder in a half-shrug. "I can always say that's the case, then Sam and I can "make-up" once he's back where he belongs."
"There's one major problem with that, Mikaela." Said Miles as Bumblebee turned into a parking space in the school lot.
"What's that?" she asked.
"If you've supposedly broken up with Sam, that'll make you fair game for every jock in the school, particularly Trent." said Miles. She looked pensive at that as Starscream said "Who or what is Trent?"
Miles looked up as Bumblebee killed his engine and flicked open his doors: Miles and Mikaela got out and Starscream followed a few seconds later.
"I'd rather you found out a different way, Star-er, Sam." Miles said. "But it looks as if you're about to find out the hard way." He pointed at the approaching group.
"Because here he comes now."