Chapter Three
The events that transpired before Starscream came into contact with his brother had him in the process of informing Megatron, again, just how great Starscream was, just how much the Decepticons needed him, how fantastic his flying skills were, how insightful his ideas, how inspiring his leadership, how successful his actions how…
"Starscream. If you don't cease your vocal functioning I will slam your aft through it".
Megatron said calmly, in no mood to expend energy attempting to come up with a sardonically wittier rebuttal.
Starscream, not to be outdone or silenced, continued to inform Megatron that without Starscream how Megatron could come up with insults to hurl at the Autobots during battle. Onslaught who was standing with Blastoff, both overseeing the hacking and programming of a human weapons satellite, ignored the antics of the second in command.
Starscream began in on bringing up his statistics from the Decepticon flight academy and it was at that point he went flying across the room, and not under his own power. Onslaught took a slight side step to the left and Screamer smacked into the wall just behind the Combaticon.
"I say, Starscream, have you not established CPU relays to remind you of the fate you face when you inform Megatron of your… grandeur?"
Blastoff chortled as he looked down at the tangled and less then gracefully posed seeker.
"Ram it up your exhaust pipe, you clunker".
"Oh, how astute you are with your semantics".
"Yes, quite a keen and powerfully astute grasp of offence".
Onslaught added. The two Combaticons laughing.
"Silence! Onslaught are you nearing completion of your task?"
Megatron growled.
"Why, of course, Commander, our timing is never defective and always running to your schedule".
"See that it is! Starscream, I believe you are due for duty. What is it this shift? Oh, yes, that's right, disposal unit cleaning".
It was a miracle, in Onslaught's opinion that Megatron was able to contain that smirk and the laugh that was brewing behind those crimson optics. The second grumbled something in an ancient Decepticon tongue and left, fists balled, head down, still grumbling obscenities.
Megatron uttered his own profanities and turned back to his own task, which seemed to be nagging Soundwave in regards to the latest information obtained from his cassettes.
--
So, those were the events before Starscream ran into TC and TC's facial expression told Screamer that Skywarp had an idea.
Starscream had to cut short his conversation, well, interrogation of TC, and part of him was glad so as there was nothing worse then being in on, or being aware of anything that manifested in Skywarp's CPU. What was the term… he considered it for a moment… the humans called "plausible deniability". A concept where one who should know better doesn't actually know at all and thus can then claim complete ignorance and thus complete innocence. Not to mention, if Screamer was seen to be at his post and well behaved for the next deca cycle or something, then perhaps he could actually have some level of sincerity when he tells Megatron he had nothing to do with it.
Of course, it then gave the usually second in command an idea.
What if he came up with his own idea?
What if he planned something that destroyed the Autobots?
Megatron couldn't be angry at him then.
And if Skywarp did cause rampant destruction throughout the base, then at least Screamer could say "Look, mighty Megatron, I did this great thing that destroyed the Autobots".
IT would either cover his arse, or elevate it from beyond the "guilty by association" label the seekers found themselves slapped with when Skywarp had an idea.
So, all he had to do now, was come up with an idea of his own. The seeker sighed softly, well; it was actually quite gratey, as he reached the location of his shift. He grumbled a string of curses to himself as he gathered the supplies he needed and he went to clean the first disposal unit.
"Just have to come up with an idea".
He said out loud to himself as he scrubbed at a rather stubborn stain of processed energon.