Love is a Battlefield

Chapter 11

A week later Ricochet was sitting at a table by herself in the Rec room. Her thoughts were wandering back to her encounter with Starscream. The entire time she was with him he acted as if he needed help from no one and he also kept looking at her with suspicion. Then again many Decepticons seemed suspicious of Autobots. After all such behavior made sense after millions of years of war. Yet, by looking at him she could see right through his tough guy act. Considering how much time he spent around Megatron such an act seemed to also make sense. However she had a feeling in her spark, though she didn't understand how, that there was something different about him.

Just then Wildstar entered the room, grabbed a cube of energon from the dispenser, and sat down at the table Ricochet was at. She set the cube down in front of her, put her elbows on the table, and rested her helm in her servos with a sigh.

Ricochet looked at her cousin and asked "Somethin' the matter, Wildstar?"

Lifting her head out of her servos and meeting Ricochet's optics with her own, she replied "Just a helm ache from a rough week."

"What happened? I wasn't part of the problem, was I?"

"No, Ricochet, your little cave escapade isn't part of the problem." Wildstar grabbed her energon cube, took a sip, then continued "The problem is a certain mech. Sideswipe has been flirting frequently with me since last week. No matter how many times I've told him I wasn't interested in him, he would keep at it. Just a few minutes ago he was flirting with me, in the Med Bay, while I was trying to work."

"You know mechs, Wildstar." Ricochet sighed before she asked "May I suggest somethin'?"

"What?" Wildstar sighed rubbing her aching forehelm.

"Maybe since I picked up some of my vocabular habits from Jazz. You could weaponize wrenches like Ratchet has."

"Seems a little extreme, Ricochet, but I'll consider your suggestion." Wildstar said as she stood up and picked up her energon. Then, with a smile, headed back to the Med Bay.

-Meanwhile at the Nemesis

Starscream stood in the middle of his lab lost in thought since it was the only quiet place on the Nemesis he could think. His processor had been wandering on and off since he had returned from being trapped in that cave last week. He came to his lab to work but try as he might his thoughts kept going back to the Autobot femme Ricochet. Why would a Decepticon such as himself keep thinking about an Autobot, whether a femme or not? It was driving him crazy. What had gotten into him?

Megatron was sitting on his throne in the Command Room still stewing over the loss of the weapon destroyed last week. Most Decepticons had scattered to other parts of the Nemesis avoiding their leader like cosmic rust. Soundwave was the only mech in the room with the gunformer and he was silently working at a communications consul. Judging from Megatron's mood, the TIC decided to just continue his work knowing it was only a matter of time until the warlord ordered an attack.

Two weeks later Megatron did precisely that by attacking a hydroelectric dam. While Soundwave handled converting the electric power into energon the Command Trine kept an optic out for Autobots. A short time later Optimus lead the Autobots along with Ironhide, Ricochet, Lightspeed, and Hawkeye to meet the equally small group of Decepticons.

When Starscream alerted Megatron to the approaching Autobots, the Decepticon leader ordered his troops to open fire. Optimus and Ironhide, while evading the Decepticon weapons fire, made their way up the dam to engage Megatron and Soundwave. Ricochet and her brothers, meanwhile, flew up at the Command Trine.

Starscream saw Ricochet come straight at him head on, the very act catching him by surprise, and then the next thing he knew she had kicked him down. He landed on his side a short distance from the energon, Ricochet landing near him, then pointing her left laser at him. Looking him in the optics, she had a feeling she couldn't identify pulsing in her spark. Her brothers, meanwhile, had dealt with Thundercracker and Skywarp.

Short time later, Megatron ordered a retreat causing the Decepticons to scramble off with as much energon as they could carry. As the Decepticons scrambled about Ricochet unsubspaced her dagger and made an attempt to stab Megatron as the warlord flew away his troops close behind. Unfortunately she not only missed but dropped her dagger, tripped, and got it jammed in the side of her thruster.

Short time later the Autobots returned to the Ark. Ricochet lay on a Med Bay berth with Wildstar tending to her thruster. Somehow no one else got even a scratch in the battle. Ratchet grumbled as he tended to Sideswipe who was suffering the results of a prank gone wrong. Said prank had angered Sunstreaker, who had dislocated his own brother's shoulder, after the failed paint related prank colored the yellow lamborghini pink.

"Just what the Pit were you thinking, Sideswipe?" Ratchet growled "I thought you would know better by now than to mess with your brother's paint."

"Would you believe that my original target was Inferno." Sideswipe said with a nervous smile.

Ricochet and Wildstar both snorted with laughter then Ricochet said "At least this time ya got what was comin' to ya."

Ratchet finished with Sideswipe's repairs at the same time Wildstar had finished with Ricochet's. She then handed Ricochet her energon dagger. As Ricochet slid off the berth subspacing her dagger she headed for the Med Bay door. She stopped in front of the door as she caught sight of Sideswipe out of the corner of her optic. Turning around she saw the red hellion heading right for where Wildstar was.

Wildstar was ignoring Sideswipe's flirting as she worked on cleaning her tools. Then Sideswipe reached over and grabbed Wildstars aft giving it a squeeze. Next thing Sideswipe knew a red wrench met the side of his helm causing him to wisely back off. When the sound of a wrench meeting a helm was heard Ratchet smiled. Wildstar stared Sideswipe down,wrench still in servo, as if daring him to try something else. Sideswipe left the Med Bay sliding past Ricochet not looking back. Ricochet turned and left the Med Bay with a smile. It would appear as if Wildstar would be just fine on Earth.