Yes this ended where it ended. Yay! Ha ha…must get out of drama land…and back into light hearted…humor…must avoid…soap opera… *reaches towards light* In other news, it's absurdly fun to pick on Thundercracker. That is all.

Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone! It's really appreciated and I do read every one! Multiple times! :D

Chapter 16

Starscream was hiding.

A last resort and somewhat cowardly tactic to be sure. But, it was one hundred percent effective at avoiding a beating (assuming the crime against Megatron was beneath the level of say, planet destruction. Megatron had a nasty habit of hunting Starscream down for said offenses…). Considering how trigger-happy his leader had been as of late, Starscream decided to fall back on an oldie-but-goodie.

'Out of sight, out of mind' was the phrase, if Starscream recalled.

Currently he was sitting in an airfield hiding in his jet mode thankful for how truly unobservant most humans were. His red, white and blue paint job went completely unnoticed in the sea of grey and black fighter jets that didn't even match his dated model. Starscream had come to the conclusion that the pilots either truly did not notice the other jet, or they just didn't care. The seeker wasn't sure which option he preferred, but as it was no one was firing on him so he was content to sit there.

Now granted he was bored out of his mind, but that was another matter.

Normally he would have dragged his two tag-a-longs behind him as Starscream would put up with annoyance and irritation over boredom any day – but sadly he could not take Skywarp and Thundercracker with him. Someone had to stay behind and complete the jobs of the air commander (paperwork, duty rosters, whatever else Soundwave felt like dumping on him that morning) or else chaos fell upon the Seekers and Megatron would take notice that Starscream had fled.

Which usually added up to 'Starscream ran, oh yes, I was supposed to punish him, wasn't I?' in the tyrant's processor and suddenly Starscream's minor offense was raised to the level of 'I almost destroyed the planet again!' levels. So, here Starscream sat among his fellow machinations to brood. Though of course, Megatron's temper was only one of Starscream's problems.

The second one was tiny, loud and beyond frustrating in both the good and bad ways.

Starscream loathed to admit it, he really did, but he was alone in the field and that removed a sliver of embarrassment so that he could. Admit it, that is. Starscream turned on a few sensors to scan the surrounding area as a minor distraction, but failed miserably when he couldn't even find a fleshing in the area. Though, Starscream supposed he couldn't outrun his thoughts forever.

He missed the squirt.

Now, it wasn't that awful 'oh I can't live without you here!' sort of miss, but rather a when Starscream turns around to shout 'Go get that wrench over there!' a small body should be moving to follow orders instead of Starscream catching himself yelling at empty space. In fact, the Seeker had gotten so used to Rumble following underfoot he was still in the routine of asking him to do things even when the mech wasn't present (which often lead to rather embarrassing moments when Skywarp had the gal to point out Starscream had just told a screw on the ground to fetch him a circuit board).

So in short, Starscream missed Rumble because he had weaseled his way into the Status Quo of Starscream's life. It certainly had nothing to do with the fact the little brat made Starscream laugh or he was good at wire-play. Certainly not. And he definitely did not miss the sound of the squirt transforming his arm back and forth between hand and pile driver when he was bored. Never. Starscream missed having a lackey who did what he was told for a change.

And it was Soundwave's fault he wasn't there!

Starscream's engines started with a burst of heat and flame as the anger fell over him. That stupid tape deck had sequestered the tiny mech to quarters and refused to let him out. Starscream had not asked directly for a reason, but the grapevine provided an answer of 'punishment' over something. The Air Commander had an inkling that it had to do with their little interfacing sessions but honestly Rumble was an adult! You'd think Soundwave would recognize that much. The punishment was absurd and should be overridden.

An override.

Starscream nearly laughed out loud and turned his engines up farther, this time pulling out of formation and hitting the runway on his way back into the sky. Why hadn't Starscream thought of it before?

"Hey, TC."

Thundercracker ignored the annoying voice next to his audio inputs.

"Hey, hey, TC."

It was far too early in the day for this. It was Thundercracker's day off and he planned to use it for recharge. Lots and lots of recharge for dreams of pounding his Air Commander into bits of shrapnel he could fling at everyone who annoyed him.

"TC! Wake up!"

Like Skywarp. Yes, Skywarp would appreciate the irony of being attacked with Starscream shrapnel. At least then their Air Commander would be part of Skywarp forever and never leave him. Then Skywarp could never get lonely.

"TC!" A smack to blue metal.

And spend his free time annoying his brother. Thundercracker lit his optics and glared over at Skywarp. As if the paperwork and schedules Starscream left behind for Thundercracker to fill out and organize accordingly hadn't been enough, Skywarp had no one to bother. Thundercracker gave his most menacing glare to the purple Seeker. "I'm trying to recharge, Skywarp."

"I know, and I'm trying to wake you up."

"What is it?"

"Starscream's been back for like half a day already."

"And?"

"Don't you want to go see him?"

"No."

Skywarp pouted. "But he's been hiding out for three days! Don't you want to know why?"

"Megatron's been beating him." Thundercracker covered his optics. He needed recharge to deal with this.

"Yeah well, don't you want to know why?"

"Not really."

"Fine then." Skywarp huffed. "I'll go see him myself."

"You do that."

Skywarp disappeared with his traditional cloud of purple light and smoke and Thundercracker rolled over onto his side. There was a small voice in the back of his processor warning him something bad was about to happen but he ignored it. Something bad was always about to happen when it concerned Skywarp or Starscream. Double when you put them together.

Rumble had been playing a video game half-heartedly for the past couple of hours. Frenzy was off recharging in Soundwave's chest with the others so he'd had a bit of time to himself. Soundwave had laid down the law that the only way Rumble was getting out of his room was as a cassette in his chest. Bored out of his mind in the room beat being cramped up in their 24/7 any day. Rumble pressed a button and opened a treasure chest on screen and smirked when it turned out to be a trap. He loved setting those off on purpose.

Though, Rumble did have to wonder when Soundwave was going to let him off of punishment. Rumble knew he was fragged off about the whole 'Screamer thing, but he didn't think he was this fragged off. Rumble paused the game and stared at the blinking screen. Maybe this had something to do with Frenzy's little talk the other day about Megatron. Was this Soundwave's twisted way of protecting Rumble from the big boss? If it was, the Boss really needed to find new ways to show his affection.

The door to Soundwave's quarters opened with a hiss and Rumble frowned before turning. "What'cha doing back so soon, Boss…" Rumble trailed off when he got a good look at the smirking mech leaning on the entrance. Prettiest darn sight he'd seen in ages. "Star." He took a little breath. "Starscream?"

"Who else?" The seeker smirked before straightening up and standing tall in the doorway. "Come on. I need help in the lab."

"Wha?" Rumble's optics flickered as he tried to process the sight before him. Starscream was here and asking for him? This was too good to be truth but the timing was so, so awful. Didn't he know Rumble was confined to quarters? "I, I can't uh, leave. Soundwave's orders…"

"What rank does Soundwave hold in this army?" Starscream spoke with an almost disgusting sweetness.

Rumble stared. "Uh…he's the communications officer?"

Starscream shook his head and tsk'ed at him with a single servo. "Overall rank."

"Uh, third?"

"And what rank am I?" Starscream smiled smugly and spun his finger in a circle. "Overall."

Rumble felt something click in his processor – though he wasn't sure if it was a good thing. "Second."

"And if I'm not mistaken, Second outranks Third." Starscream cocked a hip out. "Therefore, my orders outrank Soundwave's and before you protest," Starscream cut off the mech before he could mutter out another word, "that even goes for orders given to his personal team." Starscream clapped his hands together. "I, Second-in-Command order you, Rumble, to report to my personal lab for work." He smirked again. "Now."

Rumble wanted to leap up from his spot and sprint out of the room towards the now very familiar lab covered in loose wires and half-experiments but couldn't seem to get his feet to budge. What Starscream said was technically true. He did outrank the Boss. But there was that itchin' cassette programming revealing its ugly head telling Rumble directly disobeying Soundwave was a very, very, very bad idea. "But-"

"Move your aft down to that lab right now before I kick it to the brig for insubordination!" Starscream shrieked. This was supposed to go smoothly. No questioning, no hesitation, just relief that Starscream had found a loophole to Rumble's predicament. Where was the appreciation, dammit! Rumble shivered for a second and Starscream rolled his shoulder. Little punk actually looked scared of something. Soundwave's wrath perhaps? "And don't worry about your daddy. You're just following the orders of a superior officer. If he gets mad at anyone it'll be me." Starscream smiled. "And I outrank him, so it's all good."

Rumble stared some more and willed his feet to hit the floor. This was it – do what Rumble wanted to do, or do what Soundwave wanted Rumble to do. Go with Starscream, or stay and wait to be released when his Boss deemed appropriate.

"What on earth are you waiting for? I haven't got all day!" And Starscream didn't if he wanted to fit a little 'fun' in before they got down to work. The Seeker hadn't just been missing a lab assistant as of late. So much easier to work when one was, relaxed, before they began. Starscream decided to try this angle and see if it got the little twerp moving any faster. "The sooner you get going the sooner we can be alone!"

Rumble felt one foot start heading before the other one and with a snort he was trotting to the door. How could he have any trouble deciding when such a pretty face was making' propositions like that? "I'm going! I'm going! Don't blow a gasket."

"Oh hush and do as you're told, runt." Starscream kicked Rumble in the aft lightly before turning back to Soundwave's quarters to shut the door. He ignored the 'Hey!' that left his little comrade and pulled up Soundwave's note board to leave a quick message noting that Rumble was in the best of hands.

Starscream oh so loved the chain of command.

Skywarp had popped in and out of the usual locations looking for their wayward Air Commander. He wasn't in his quarters, the command room or the recreation room. Skywarp frowned to himself as he walked down the corridor a bit waiting for his warp engine to cool down. A minute more was all he needed before he could start jumping about again, but for now he could think. If 'Screamer wasn't in any of those places than the only other option was he was holed up in his lab.

Skywarp snorted wondering why he didn't check there first.

Starscream had been spending most of his free time there tinkering with plans and gadgets and who knows what else. (Though Skywarp was able to find a gadget here and there that helped out his pranks and as long as Starscream never noticed it was missing…) When his computer gave the 'ping' that his warp engine was ready to go, Skywarp left the hall with a laugh destination in mind.

"Hey 'Scream-Oh Primus!" Skywarp's greeting was cut short by his horrified yelp. The purple mist that hung around after his teleports cleared and made the sight before him even more detailed and Skywarp thought his tanks just might purge. "What…what the hell are you two doing!"

"Nevermind that! What did I tell you about teleporting into my lab!"

Skywarp wasn't sure if he was impressed or further horrified by the fact Starscream was able to scold him while doing that with him so he settled for the disgust. Made him feel better. "You're fraggin' the pipsqueak!"