-1For those of you who guessed 'whoopass', you're partly right.
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"I already have her, Starscream." Seeing Starscream do a double take at that voice drew a laugh from the Autobots, combat situation or not. "…Megatron?" The jet heading his way didn't even have to answer. He would have recognized that brutally efficient flight pattern anywhere. "You're supposed to be dead!" All the Decepticons stared as Megatron cruised in closer. "You're an idiot, Starscream. Did you really think I'd die that easily? If any of you had thought to check, you'd have found that I was alive and kicking this whole time, sustained by the All Spark's power! You've failed me for the last time and I'm about to make the lot of you regret it…" Arming all weapons, he locked on to the thoroughly shocked Starscream. "Because I've switched sides!" Pivoting in midair with deadly grace, he let him have it with everything his new form had and a few things it didn't, sending the other Decepticon to make a himself-shaped crater in the mountainside above the Ark. All three of Starscream's friends screamed in the manner of schoolgirls encountering a large spider, then promptly turned and set a new speed record as they cleared the area. Trailing thick smoke and scathing expletives behind him, Starscream himself soon joined them.
Even Megatron himself was laughing as he powered down his weapons and landed in front of the Ark. Sarah giggled as she climbed out of the cockpit, then lost whatever composure she had and started laughing her head off. "Did you see the look on his face? Had he been a human, I think he would have wet his pants!" Transforming, Megatron just couldn't stop laughing. "I knew those three were cowards, but that was ridiculous!" Even the normally stoic Ironhide was laughing himself absolutely sick. It was a moment for the history books. For the first time in their lives, they'd witnessed a humorous Decepticon attack.
No matter how it had ended, the attack meant that the Decepticons knew where they were. "We need a defense system," Megatron eventually suggested. That would take care of their lack of available manpower. Sarah agreed to this, even despite how the work drained her, and she wasted no time in beginning her self-appointed task.
Deactivating her blowtorch, Sarah pulled back from the panel she'd been welding. Pushing her mask up, she brushed a strand of grimy brown hair out of her eyes. She'd been at this all day, creating components and piecing them together. Thus far she'd made two laser cannon turrets to be mounted on the Ark's exterior, and a third was well on its way to completion. She really wanted a shower, or some food, but she decided that she would settle for a quick on-the-spot nap. Removing her mask and placing it on top of the deactivated blowtorch, thereby insuring that there would be no way she could lose it, she turned away from where she was working and ambled over to her pile of tools. None of them would be of any use now, but one particular item off to the side… A sleeping bag. Ah, that was what she wanted. Picking it up, she immediately unrolled it on the floor and was out like a light the moment her body touched the ground.
Transforming in midair as he usually did, Megatron landed in the dust with feline grace. Another patrol over and done with, and no Decepticons in sight. Listening in on radio chatter from the military base he'd gotten his jet form from, he'd learned that he was considered a ghost plane. That had to be why none of them had tried to pursue him yet. Chasing spirits wasn't something to waste fuel or manpower on. The doors slid open before him as they always did, granting him entry into what could only be described as a commons area. This was where everybody gathered to organize patrols and the like, but at that moment it was empty. At least, that was how it seemed at first, before he caught sight of the half-assembled laser cannon tucked away in the far corner so as to be out of the way, the two completed laser cannons off to the side, and the small human form curled up on the floor. He grinned. Sarah. He'd known Decepticons with less determination than she displayed. It amazed him; the sight of such a small, fragile organic being displaying such courage in the face of beings so much larger and stronger… Walking closer, he gazed down at her silent form… and realized something that made him feel as though his spark had fizzled out in his chest.
At some point during her nap, Sarah had stopped breathing.
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I'll bet none of you expected THAT…