This has to be one of the worst processor-aches Starscream has ever onlined with, but that doesn't mean his battle protocols are offline.

The first thing they point out is that the environment is unknown, neither Earth nor Cybertron.

The next, that there are allies next to him, all of them also rebooting and sitting up.

And the third – well, the rest of his cognitive functions are online by then, so he doesn't shoot the also really obvious enemies with them.

Including Prime himself.

Just perfect.

Another quick look around as the others calibrate their systems is all he needs to realize there are more important things than giving the Autobots a dose of his null-rays.

"Another Decepticon trick," Prime grumbles, and Starscream immediately turns to fully face him.

"Are your memory banks faulty? We didn't send ourselves here!" he snarls back, gesturing to their surroundings. "Any ideas where are we?" he asks, trying to keep his temper.

"Evidently, the Space Bridge transported us to this alien planet," Prime answers, looking around, and the Air Commander crosses his arms against his cockpit with a deadpanned look. "Be very cautious, Autobots."

A startled yelp along some kind of glass-breaking sound makes the Decepticons turn around, where Thrust is moving away from an orange hill—

And the large serpentine creature shooting out of it, arcing down towards the Cybertronian with glowing white optics and sharp denta, red tentacles growing off its helm—

Without a second thought, Starscream aims and fires, and the beast rears back with enough strength to slam its helm against an enormous pillar—

Movement from above catches his attention, but he's too busy avoiding another lurch from the creature to do more than look up—

A yellow silicon-based spherical thing slams into his faceplate, and Starscream crashes to the ground with a grunt, processor frizzing and going through partial rebooting and recalibration at the impact, the attacker moving closer—

And stopping, looking like nothing more than a large yellow ball to his flickering and unfocused optics.

"That sphere… is it mechanical?" the yellow Autobot asks, barely heard through audials filled with clearing white noise, and Starscream sees something red approach him and kneel by his side.

Thrust?

"I don't think it's even self-motivated," the mech next to him answers, and the Seeker grimaces as he slowly gets to his knees, watching as Perceptor waves a servo in front of the ball creature. "Whatever it is, I hope it's friendly," he adds, finally mustering the courage to pat it softly, and its surface bends under the touch like a common, though enormous, earthling rubber ball.

"Really, because it wouldn't have attacked us otherwise," he grumbles, swaying a bit as he tries to get up, balance gyros still not fully calibrated.

A loud screeched roar like diamond on glass-metal barely covering the clanging of metal, immediately followed by the sound of a blaster discharging and an even higher-pitched yip, and they're all tense and battle ready as they turn to—

"Alert, alert! Assistance required!"

Soundwave sounds the most scared, even a bit terrified, that Starscream has ever heard him, but with good reason. There's a monster pursuing him, a large gray beast with plating and fur-like filaments covering it, large yellow optics, sharp denta, and hook-like claws on its six pedes.

"My lasers can stop anything!" Thrust boasts, taking flight and angling to shoot at the beast, but the creature just flinches at the impacts and jumps as it turns onto itself, swiping a paw—

The Conehead avoids the brunt of the hit, but crashes into something at the top of one of the elevations of this gargantuan cave—for there is a ceiling of a paler color than the ground covering them—with a wet sound.

::Starscream, do something! There's a swimming monster in here!:: Thrust sends through comm not a nanoklik later, and wobbling, the Air Commander gets to his pedes, only to find his flight systems aren't fully rebooted yet.

There's a roar that makes him whip around, optics paling as he sees pale green tentacles catching Ravage and pulling him off the ground, the Cassette's efforts futile as he tries to break free.

And movement brings his attention again to Soundwave, the gray beast once more chasing him, while the Autobots—

Those slaggers are using the Decepticons' misfortune to put all their Energon cubes in Prime's trailer and drive away!

A more panicked yowl, the Seeker's null-rays warm up—

And he turns his back to the Autobots and shoots at the tentacles immobilizing the Cassette, each flinching back as the energy slams into them, but more taking their place.

"Soundwave, over here!" he calls, still firing, and hoping that one of the two creatures will desist at the sight of the other, and that, together, they'll be able to get rid of the remaining one.

::Thrust, can you fly?:: he sends back, keeping his sensors on the ball-thing sitting innocently at his pedes, not trusting it for a nanoklik.

::This liquid is making it hard for my turbines to ignite, and that beast biting them hasn't helped!::

::But can you?::

::Yeah, a burst of them made the creature go away, so I should be able to once they heat up again.::

"Help!" Soundwave shouts, and Starscream turns around just in time to see the gray monster finally catching him, keeping him pressed to the ground under his paws like a pneuma-lion would a retrorat, the terrified Communications Officer struggling with all his might to no avail.

No, no! This isn't how we go down!

A shadow falls over him, and the Seeker whirls around in surprise, so focused on the tentacle creature, the Cassette Carrier's capture, Thrust's predicament, and the ball thing still immobile at his side, that he hasn't noticed the new menace's approach—

He can feel his voice box shut down in horror at the enormous being hovering over him, a tri-dactyl greenish servo almost over him—

Before he can pull up his null-rays, he finds himself trapped, compressed by the monster's grip as he shrieks and struggles and—

Is unceremoniously released without a warning to crash against a hard crystalline surface wings first.

His whole sensory net is set ablaze.

For the second time in the joor, he feels his sensors and flight systems go through reboot. And while the painless relief is only momentary, it's more than enough to allow him to focus on what is happening.

Just in time to almost jump out of his armor as something crashes next to him with a mechanical grunt. If it hadn't been for that sound and the mostly dark blue coloration, Starscream would've shot Soundwave until he had gone gray.

::I'm out! I'm out! Now I only have to—Oof!:: Thrust sends, and some nanokliks later, they hear him spewing baseless threats before he too is thrown into the bubble-like transparent contraption they're now trapped in.

Soundwave groans as he slowly gets to his knees, big dents and sharp punctures all over his back plating and the back of his legs. Thrust grumbles softly, a pale bluish liquid staining him, and with his pedes and lower leg plating indented and scratched deeply by whatever attacked him.

All in all, Starscream is the one in the best—

Something falls on his back, almost sending him down again, and the Air Commander growls and whirls around, easily dislodging the relatively small – oh, Ravage.

The Cassette's plating is scuffed, though not badly bent, and he seems to have no movement impediments as he lands on his pedes and immediately turns to his carrier.

Ready to finally take a look around to see where they are this time, Starscream shrieks, startled, as he is thrown to the ground again.

Though, this time, the answer to the quakes is literally staring at them.

A large face the size of their spherical prison, distorted by the bubble's shape, but the enormous yellow optics are easily distinguishable, along the curved and sharp chemoreceptor unit and the antennae on its forehelm. It has what looks like brown hair covering its helm, and there's a nail-less dactyl the same green tone as the rest of visible base layer tapping against the outer walls of their prison.

The tiny satisfied and curious smile on its faceplate reminds Starscream of—

Human children.

"It's a giant organic newspark," he lets out in a mix of surprise and horror, trying to keep from trembling more than the kid's uninterrupted tapping can account for.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity of staring, the being turns to the gray monster crouching next to it, looking at the Decepticons like… well, like a turbofox does a petrorabbit.

If Soundwave shivers and scoots away from that side of the bubble, no one cares to notice.

"Do you like our new toy-many, Nitro?" the alien asks, and Starscream feels almost ready to crash.

They can understand the thing.

They have the language packages to understand the alien, by combining three of the preexisting ones and leaving a bit without equivalent, only the sounds to go by, like the gray monster's designation. But they can understand.

Unfortunately, they don't have the means to speak.

There are languages the Cybertronian frame can't mimic, as their sound-making abilities are restricted to mechanical or a combination of sounds within a certain spectrum.

The sounds this creature uses are outside their spectrum, and there's no fragging way they can replicate the pulses they're accompanied by.

So, they can listen, but they can't communicate.

Unless…

"Please, tell me that you can record and put together a file using those sounds," Starscream whispers, turning to the Cassette Carrier as the kid embraces its pet.

Soundwave is as startled as the rest of them, clutching Ravage close, but he turns to the Seeker at his voice.

A servo rests against the cracked glass-metal and bent Cybertonium of his chest compartment, and Starscream knows that's a no.

Because even if he could record, there's no way he could play it back. The simple action of opening the compartment in its actual state, or using the systems linked to it, creates a risk not only for Soundwave, but also for the Cassettes still stored inside.

"Frag."

The pet monster breaks free of the embrace, but while all Decepticons tense, it just sniffs around before moving away from their prison, the curved surface of it blurring whatever it is doing.

But it catches its owner's attention.

"I've had enough of this," Thrust whispers, tense and almost hysterical, as he gets to the open top of their 'jar' with a burst of his turbines.

Unfortunately, that's when the alien sees him and reaches for him—

The Conehead fires, and the kid pulls its servo back with an exclamation of pain – but not for long.

"That be-not many nice."

Before Thrust can do more, he is grabbed, and to their horror, is thrown against a wall of what they now realize is a room.

::Thrust! Answer, you glitch!::

::I'm getting out of here!:: the Conehead answers, and the alien quickly moves away, most likely to retrieve the red Seeker.

"Come back here, you-be possession!"

The two officers exchange a look, and they know without need of processor reading capabilities that it is now or never.

Flight systems still calibrating, Starscream takes Ravage and throws him to the rim of their prison exit with the help of a burst of his turbines.

He's ready to grab Soundwave and get them both out, his brief test having demonstrated he should be more than capable of reaching the needed altitude without problem, when their luck abandons them again.

"Nitro, get it!"

Ravage runs.

The gray monster pursues.

Instead of waiting for Starscream's flight systems to be ready, Soundwave activates his sonics.

As the glass it resembles, the material conforming their prison stars to resonate.

They can see the alien moving around and hear it talking, but they're unable to understand the words due to the sounds bouncing off the walls, changing and growing louder as Soundwave searches for the right wavelength—

And the glass finally breaks, falling like sparkling rain.

Without waiting an instant, the two Decepticons bolt, separating to increase their chances of escape.

There's a whooshing sound followed by what makes Starscream think of a clap of thunder—

"Catch-possess-you!"

—and as Starscream dives into the corridors of a large building-like structure—by Cybertronian standards, which means it's most likely a dollhouse—the Air Commander knows Soundwave has been caught.

Lowering his fans' output despite the risk of overheating, just in case the pet monster can hear them, he steps further inside his hiding place, not looking away from the entrance.

"Now, where could that wrong-ridicule-looking one be?"

Insulted as he feels, he just snarls silently and moves further inside, rounding a corner—

And finds the Autobots huddled together next to his Energon cubes.

For an instant, he feels like shooting them all to deactivation.

But then, he remembers just where he is, in what situation, and what has happened with his fellow Decepticons.

::Thrust?::

::I'm tied up! That thing tied me with a string so that I could 'fly around all I want'!::

::But are you damaged?:: he asks with impatience clear in his voice, and he's answered by a grumble.

::My pride has suffered the worst blow…::

::Ravage?::

::Get me out!:: the Cassette shouts, scared, and the Seeker tenses.

::Where are you?::

::In a cage with some kind of tentacle-faced furry beast! It's chasing me all around!::

::Hold on, I'll be there as soon as I can,:: he answers before changing frequency. ::Soundwave?::

::Location: Jar filled with toys. Situation: Hiding in alt mode,:: the Cassette Carrier answers, and the Seeker gives a nod to himself at that before putting the comm lines in standby.

Disgusted as he feels with himself, there's only one possible course of action.

"Autobots!" he calls, stepping around the corner, arms lowered so that he's not pointing at them with his null-rays—

He's received with blaster fire, and yelping in surprise and pain at the shots that manage to land, he automatically returns it.

There's an explosion as the shooting ceases, and he knows his null-ray has slammed into the Energon cubes.

Just my luck.

The Autobots rush out, carrying some of the surviving cubes, and Starscream quickly follows, not willing to give up just yet.

They've been at war for a long time, it was to be expected that he would be shot on sight, but he really needs a truce if they are all to get out.

The Decepticons alone can't deal with such odds, and neither can the Autobots.

But before he can leave the dollhouse, he's thrown on his wings once more by a rush of fire-retardant foam.

This time, the Air Commander has a designation to curse along his bad luck, and he really wishes he'll get a chance to talk with Inferno when this mess is over.

Well, at least the cubes that are still in the building haven't exploded, and those that were ignited have been put out.

So, with sensory net and flight systems calibrating again, Starscream pushes pride aside and hopes his pitiful wobbling out of the dollhouse is enough to convince the Autobot slag-heaps that he means them no harm.

This time.

Instead, what he gets is a tri-dactyl large organic green servo wrapping around him and lifting him to be face to faceplate with a clearly angered alien kid.

"That was many many bad," the giant admonishes, voice rattling his wings with the close proximity, before the dactyls close over him, forcing him into a curled position and pressing to keep him that way.

Whining in pain at the angle his wings are trying to be bent into, and pushing back against the gargantuan organic, Starscream can't do anything when he's thrown unceremoniously into a box and left in the dark as the cover closes.

With the foam having cooled his frame, there's no other sound in his new prison than his own whimpers as he straightens his struts and cabling.

::It got me too,:: he sends through open comm some nanokliks later, defeated and annoyed, but too sore to feel true anger.

::I can't keep running forever!:: Ravage sends, more of a whimper than a cry, and the Seeker grimaces, getting to his pedes to search the walls of his box for anything that may be useful.

::Hey, mechs, listen!:: Thrust cuts, urgency clear in his voice.

What follows is a trembling sound, like enormous pede-steps…

And Starscream realizes with a start that it's the Conehead's own audio feed being patched through the comm line, so that they can hear what is going to happen with the Autobots now that they're in the open.

"You saved my arranged-positioned building. Gratitude."

"Oh, you can't be serious…" the Air Commander whispers to himself, though listening attentively as he continues his examination of the box's walls.

"All in the line of duty!" Inferno answers cheerfully, and Starscream groans, letting his helm fall against his chest plates. "Hey, wait—!"

"Be careful! We are extremely fragile creatures!" Perceptor adds, slightly worried and scared, and the Seeker sneers venomously.

They hadn't cared that the Decepticons were as equally 'fragile' when it had been them attracting that pet's attention or being thrown against walls.

::It's caught them! The alien has caught them!:: Thrust exclaims, and Starscream tenses, listening attentively. ::It's… putting them on some kind of table?::

"My name is Aron. What are you?"

"I can't believe it's being nice to those Autoscum!" Starscream shrieks, punching the wall without any results. "Can't it see we're the same?!"

"We're Autobots. Au-to-bots," Prime answers, repeating their faction's name more slowly and clearly, obviously hoping for some kind of understanding.

"Abbots? That-be what you are?"

"Yes, Autobots."

"Abbots."

"Autobots. And those are Decepticons," Prime adds with such darkness when speaking the purple-marked mechs' designation that the Air Commander knows that, if the alien wasn't convinced before that they were 'many many bad', it will be now. "Decepticons. Be careful with them."

"Ections? Oh, Ections! The bad one-many are Ections."

::That's bad for us, isn't it?::

::Let's hope it doesn't mean it'll be worse, Thrust.::

"Aron!" a new voice calls, sounding kind of 'nasal', to use a human expression.

"Aron!" a second exclaims, worried, and softer and more melodic. "You-be not playing with pyro, are you?"

"Not me, Birth-Giver. It was the Ections."

::Did it just set its creators loose on us?!:: the Conehead squeaks, fearful, and Starscream has to suppress a shiver at just imagining their size and strength.

::Keep calm, Thrust,:: is the only thing he can answer, tensing and double-checking his null-rays, turbines, and flight systems.

"Are-be-negative you a small old to make up unreal thing-many like this?" the first voice asks, a bit tired, and the Seeker hopes, for just a moment—

"I do-negative make letter-consonant-M up! Look!"

::It's coming for me!:: Ravage calls, distressed, and Starscream tenses, wings trembling.

"Get away from me!" the Cassette roars, audible through Thrust's feed and the comm, but the Decepticons know it'll be nothing but growling to the aliens.

The shriek that answers that is more than enough confirmation.

"Go away that sickening-detestable creature!" the second voice squeals, disgust clear in it.

"There-be many!" the kid answers, and the Second in Command starts to feel the cold grip of fear tightening around his motor controls.

::Aw, slag, they're coming for me now!:: Thrust whimpers, and Starscream reaches up to see if he can open the lid, but he can't even touch it.

"This one was a machine resembling person, but it converted into a flat surface-flying craft."

::I'm going to vaporize these things!::

::Thrust, wait—::

"Do-be-you see? Now it-be machine resembling person again!"

::Holy Primus, they're bigger than…:: the Conehead whispers, trailing off now that his optics are giving him the information the rest of his scans couldn't provide.

"Be-negative that first-rate, Seed-Giver? They all can do that!" the kid adds cheerfully, and Thrust's curses fill the comm.

::They've grabbed me! It's grabbed me!::

::Be quiet!:: Starscream shouts, null-rays so charged that they're starting to light the box, empty but for himself.

"That-be adequate, Descendant, but, ah… we better store-discard before—" the first voice answers, clearly nervous, as the walls to the Seeker's cage start to vibrate.

Red optics pale in realization before he sets them to a brighter light input, hoping he's not wrong—

The lid is pulled back, and his visual settings allow him to see the even larger green face with marked optical ridges, skin flaps hanging down the sides of the face, and hairy tails framing the mouth and rising from the top of the head.

Without a nanoklik of hesitation, Starscream discharges his null-rays right on the giant's curved sharp nose before it can realize he's there.

What he didn't count on was the box being thrown aside quite so violently, but Starscream isn't a Seeker for nothing.

A brief burst of his turbines, and he lands safely on the floor, Thrust and Ravage by his side, before they scatter.

The new aliens are indeed extremely large, but this means that, while flying may put them in grabbing range of their longer arms, running will put them away from those very same hands.

"Do-negative allow them to escape!" the furry one exclaims, and despite his best efforts, Starscream finds himself herded to a corner with his two fellow escapees.

"There they go!"

"Come back here!"

They scurry around as much as they can, the Fliers sometimes aiding themselves with bursts of their turbines while Ravage tries to pry open what looks like a ventilation shaft's cover.

But they're tired, damaged, even though not seriously, and this situation is making their systems run too hot and fast for their own good.

Eventually, they're caught, and pressed together in the unrelenting grasp of the furrier creature.

"There, got letter-consonant-M!"

And without a chance to do more than squirm and wince at plating and extremities bending the way they shouldn't, they are dumped into Starscream's box once more, the lid closing even before they crash to the bottom.

::Query: Situation.::

::Ah, there you are. I was beginning to think you got yourself deactivated,:: Starscream hisses, moving from under the other two and grimacing at his bent struts and over-tensed cabling. ::We're all captured, put in the same box by the alien's creators. You?::

::Trapped—Correction: On servo.::

::Don't try anything—:: he tries to warn, but the box moves, the Cybertronian crashing against a wall with startled and pained yelps, before he gets the chance.

"Ow, it bit me!" one of the aliens exclaims, making the Decepticons exchange a look as the words, easily heard even without anyone patching them through comm, are easily deciphered.

They try to stand up, but their prison moves once more, throwing them to the ground again, and then they're flooded by light and—

Starscream yelps even more harshly that time, his over-sensitized wings burning as if struck by lightning at the sudden impact of Soundwave landing on top of their pile before the lid closes and darkness covers them once more.

"Apologies," the Cassette Carrier drones, moving off the other three, and slowly, they disentangle and get to their knees.

"No need to—"

And the box starts shaking.

Again.

And throwing them to the walls.

Again.

And against each other.

Again.

On a pile once more, they decide, of mutual accord and without exchanging a word, to stay still and try to grab onto the floor as if they were magnetized to it.

When the box rattles with a startled shriek, their efforts are proven in vain as they slam against limbs and hard surfaces.

Again.

"And the plan had been going so well…" Starscream moans from the twisted position between his equally jostled fellow Decepticons, and there are affirmative groans all around.

UPDATED 09/01/2023: Corrected Grammar.

AN: And we get to the first point that left me confused in the chapter: Communication. I understand that, as a cartoon, they made everyone speak the same language and understand each other effortlessly, but it was a very big 'no, no'. And as thus, the story has changed: Since the Autobots can't really speak, they're nothing more than cool toys, or even pets, to Aron. Oh, my...

Also, the ball that slammed into Starscream is a marble here, because I don't understand why there would be several soccer ball-sized spheres on a table.

I'm naming the chapters after traditional children games, according to what happens in them. Do I need to explain 'Hide and Seek' and the reasoning for using it this time?

Questions are welcome and will be answered as soon as possible.