Author's note. Glad my taking up this story again, has been met with enthusiasm.
In this chapter we see the full Decepticon reaction to the kids' transformation.
Enjoy and please review.
Continued from last chapter.
"Oh, this is priceless," Megatron said as he surveyed the new comer who was standing with an angry look in his optics. Celeste simply stared in shock at her unexpected rescuer, where had he come from?
There before them, stood Wildracer, the light of battle in his optics, as he glared at the much larger Decepticons. He looked like he'd already been in a fight, his amour was scratched and dirty. He stood tall as Megatron looked him up and down and sneered.
"So, another child seeks to challenge me," Megatron said, cruelly squeezing Celeste so that she grimaced in pain.
"You know, you talk all tough and stuff," Wildracer said scornfully as his optics flashed in anger at the way his friend was being treated. "But I'm not the one who needs a human shield."
Megatron growled and let go of his prisoner, throwing her to one side. Shifting slightly so that he had both Younglings in his sight, he gave a cold smirk and said.
"There's nothing between us now, boy, so why don't you show me what you're made of."
Wildracer tensed his body, and then with a roar, charged at Megatron who laughed out loud at the sight and readied himself to receive him. But suddenly, Wildracer transformed, and while in his motorcycle form, skidded so that he slid rapidly along the floor, smashing into Megatron, knocking him off his feet.
Quickly transformer again, Wildracer scrambled up and rushed over to Celeste, to pull her to her feet. As Megatron snarled and started to rise, Wildracer tugged her away and the two started to run. As Megatron made it to his feet with a roar, Wildracer yelled.
"Spilt," and he transformed back into his vehicle form.
Celeste didn't need to be told twice, transforming, she lifted up into the air and shot out a broken window. As the two kids disappeared out the room, Megatron brought out his chest cannon with a snarl of.
"You...little...brats!"
And he blasted the door Wildracer had just raced out of.
Celeste's POV.
As Celeste soared into the sky, she saw Optimus and the others battling Cyclonus and Starscream down below her. None of them seemed to have noticed her shooting out the window which she was very glad about. As she pondered what she was going to do, a voice made her spin around.
"Hey Celeste, over here."
It was Radical and he was leaning out of a high tower, waving at her. She waved back but at that moment, Red Alert punched Cyclonus and the helicopter transformer went flying back to land in an undignified heap on the ground. Unfortunately, this gave him a clear view of the sky right above him.
"Hey, that's a Femme," he yelled in astonishment.
This caused everyone to pause and stare right up at Celeste who froze mid air. The Decepticons just gawked while the Autobots had looks of horror. Starscream had the most hang jawed expression it was possible to have as he stared at her.
For a moment nobody moved, not even Demolisher and Wheeljack who had just appeared, it seemed them still couldn't believe it. But then, Radical suddenly yelled.
"Celeste, behind you."
"What?" she started to say but at that moment, she felt someone grab her from behind.
As she struggled and Radical swore, an oily voice whispered in her audio.
"Well, I wasn't expecting to come across such a delectable specimen on this miserable mud ball of a planet."
With a thrill of horror, she realised that Thrust had hold of her, his arms were wrapped tightly around her body and she couldn't break free.
"Let her go, you jerk," Radical yelled angrily, aiming his gun at Thrust.
Thrust however, twisted slightly so that Celeste was between him and Radical. In a tone that made Celeste's skin crawl, Thrust now said.
"I don't think so boy, this pretty little thing is coming with me."
Unbeknownst to those in the air, Starscream had recovered from his shock and who now had a look of rage on his face. While the Autobots tried to think of how to get their Femme away from Thrust and while the Decepticons simply watched, Starscream leapt into action.
With a roar he shot of into the air and tackled Thrust from behind. The tactician gave a squawk of surprise and let go of Celeste who fell and landed heavily on the ground. Starscream meanwhile punched Thrust right in the face and then mid-section before throwing him away. Down below Cyclonus, who was nearest to Celeste, started to advance on her, no doubt wanting to get the Minicon in her hands.
But as Starscream looked down, he gave another snarl and shot down to earth, landing he withdrew his wing sword and stood menacingly between the fallen Femme and the helicopter. Seeing that Starscream wasn't going to let him anywhere near the pink Femme, Cyclonus threw up his hands nervously and said.
"Hey, hey, I wasn't going to do anything, the Minicon...," he trailed off at the look on Starscream's face and decided it would be best to just back away.
Optimus sighed in relief, Celeste was safe from that scumbag Thrust, Starscream had protected her. But it quickly became clear that Starscream wasn't going to let any Mech near Celeste, when Hotshot tried to go and help her up, Starscream charged at him, chasing him away.
"Gang way."
It was Wildracer, speeding right into the courtyard, having burst out of a door that used to be the castle entrance. As he skidded past Optimus and transformed, it became clear why he had been in such a hurry, as a second later, Megatron blasted through the doors.
His face was a mask of anger, but when he saw Celeste lying on the ground behind, he smiled nastily and moved forward. Optimus lunged forward, to stop Megatron but the Decepticon managed to punch him hard in the abdomen and Optimus doubled over. This left Megatron free to advance on Starscream.
"I see you have taken care of the girl, Starscream. Now move aside so that I may deal with her."
Starscream gave Megatron a side long look and then took up a defensive stance, clearly not about to let the Decepticon leader past. As the red Seeker raised his wing sword menacingly, Megatron snarled in frustration.
"For Primus's sake, Starscream, I'm old to be her father, now move aside."
But Starscream simply growled and held his pose. This was making Optimus look very worried, with the Seeker in this state, if they didn't get hold of Celeste, she might be spirited away. Not to mention, Megatron was getting very annoyed and that wasn't good.
But suddenly there was a cry and a blue and white form leapt from a balcony and tackled Starscream, sending them both crashing to the ground.
It was Radical who had charged down the stairs when he saw that his friends were in trouble. As the red Seeker groaned underneath him, he yelled.
"Get out of here."
Celeste didn't need to be told twice, with the Minicon still clutched, she leapt to her feet and charged into Jetfire's arms, who instantly Warped away. Of course once Starscream realised this had happened, he went mad and tried to attack Radical, thankfully, Hotshot was able to pull him away from the furious Seeker and Warp away. Wildracer was also grabbed by Sideswipe and they Warped away as well.
This left a fuming Megatron and a very angry Seeker who was literally spitting with rage.
"Bring her back, bring her back now," Starscream was yelling furiously before Megatron whacked him on the back of the head, stunning the Seeker. Taking a deep breath, Megatron turned to Optimus was had recovered and was back on his feet.
"So," Megatron said in deceptively calm voice. "This is what you were talking about before Prime, those...children of yours have become...transformers."
"Indeed," Optimus said gravely as Megatron looked very thoughtful.
"That was why we were scanned, they have become replicas of us, essentially," Megatron said to which Optimus nodded. But now Megatron narrowed his optics.
"But what was the point?"
"Megatron, what do you think would have happened if me and my men had been hit," Optimus said calmly. As Megatron's optics widened, Optimus said.
"If not for the kids, we would have been turned humans."
"A plot by Sideways," Megatron murmured before giving Optimus a sharp look.
"That would have weakened you, yes."
"What do you think," Optimus said tiredly, but he didn't go, it wasn't often he and Megatron simply talked without trying to kill each other.
"But why, Prime, why would he weaken you in such a roundabout way," Megatron pointed out forcefully. "There are numerous ways he could take you out, without being so elaborate about it, why all this. And why was he just trying to take you and a couple more out, why not all of you."
"I honestly don't know," Optimus said, rubbing the spot between his optics. "His motives are unknown to me."
Optimus now gave Megatron a very serious look.
"Don't trust him Megatron, he betrayed you as well as us, and I wouldn't put anything past him."
"And yet you were his only target," Megatron couldn't help but say. Optimus just shook his head.
"That as maybe, but neither of us knows what he's up to or what he's going to do next. I'd caution you to be on your guard, he could easily try something with you."
Megatron gave a tight smirk.
"Let him try," he said arrogantly but Optimus had a feeling Megatron had listened to what he had to say, so that was something.
"Well, I suppose this is sayonara, Prime," Megatron said as he bent down and seized Starscream and dragged him to his feet.
"Megatron," Optimus said before the Mech could Warp away. Megatron turned to look at him.
"I'd better not catch Thrust manhandling Celeste again as I will not be responsible for my actions. She's just a child, Megatron."
Megatron grunted in reply before barking at his men to return to base. Before he and Starscream disappeared however, he looked back at Optimus, and said.
"Child or not, she still is in dire need of discipline, her and those other two, which you seem to be incapable of giving. And one way or another, I will ensure they get it."
And with that, he and Starscream were gone, leaving Optimus clenching his fists.
Some time later.
"How are you all," Optimus asked in concern as he walked over to the kids who were sitting on a transformer sized sofa. Celeste was tending to the small injuries the boys had attained during the fight.
"How are you doing?" Optimus asked softly.
"Not too bad," Radical said. "Not much happened to me to be perfectly honest, not compared to these two anyway."
He grinned at his friends, as Wildracer chuckled.
"Heh, but we didn't squash Starscream, that was a smooth move dude," Wildracer said, giving him the thumbs up, before scowling.
"Man, you know after I left you guys, I fell down this trapdoor and ended up in the moat and had to claw my way through these damn thorns. I thought I was never going to get out, I only did when I found this secret tunnel back up."
"And I'm very glad you did," Celeste said softly. Her hand started shaking slightly.
Optimus say this and bent down to hug her.
"I know it must have been pretty overwhelming for Starscream to have acted like that, not to mention having that piece of slime Thrust touch you," he said gently as Wildracer said.
"Yeah, and if he tries that again, we'll kick his aft."
"Too right," said Radical grimly.
"Thanks guys," Celeste said with a smile as Optimus sat down beside them. As Optimus took her hand and Radical started cleaning a few of the cuts she had, Celeste said.
"Megatron almost got me, in that throne room, if it wasn't for Wildracer," she broke off with a slight shiver.
"Yeah, you should have heard some of the crap he was spouting," Wildracer said fiercely. This reminded Celeste of exactly he had said, and she angrily said.
"You know he told me I should stay at home, attending to my Mech and Saprklings, can you believe that," she said and Optimus shook his head at his rivals narrow-mindedness.
"I'm glad you're not a sexist pig, Optimus,"
"And so am I, Celeste," Optimus laughed. "So am I. But you'll find my mate Elita would never allow me to be in the first place, so you needn't worry."
But despite Optimus's calm exterior, inside he felt afraid. Only Scavenger had been badly injured in the battle but it could have turned out so differently. A thousand scenarios ran through Optimus's processor, had he inwardly shuddered. He would have to think long and hard about the situation, particularly the points Megatron had made.
There was certainly no denying, the Decepticon leader could be quite perceptive and shrewd at times. He briefly wondered what Megatron was thinking before turning his attention back to the kids.
Megatron's POV.
Meanwhile on the moon base, Megatron sat brooding on his throne, pondering the day's events. Although he had seemed very offhand when he had faced that Femme, he had actually been reeling at the sight of her. He simply couldn't believe his optics and the only reason he figured out who she was because of the way they had met, everything had just clicked into place.
"Can you believe it, a real Femme. I ain't seen one of those in ages," came Cyclonus's voice as he passed by the door of the throne room.
He growled softly, did his men have to be so immature? The girl wasn't even fully grown and yet his men were acting like moonstruck Younglings. Of course Starscream was the worst, his Seeker instincts kicking in when he saw another Seeker who was a Femme.
Bah, he did not deserve this, it was really was...
"That was an interesting battle today,"
The voice, which spoke as though it was right beside him, broke his train of thought. Optics narrowing, he growled.
"Show yourself, whoever you are."
The voice, which sounded suspiciously like Sideways, chuckled softly.
"Not this time, I'm afraid. I was just wondering what your opinion of the situation was?"
"That is none of your concern," Megatron said coldly, too tried to bother with trying to find Sideways. "Be gone."
"Those children change things," the voice persisted, causing Megatron to snort.
"They change nothing, I will get my hands on them and give them the punishment of their lives, as I have intended to do since I laid optics on them," Megatron said dismissively.
"Optimus Prime cares a lot for those children," the voice whispered. "He's come to see them as his own. How would he react if you took them?"
As Megatron considered this, the voice drifted away as it said one final thing.
"How would he react if you...turned them?"
Megatron slowly smiled, that was defiantly one thought he would give consideration. Oh, yes indeed.
Author's note. What is going to happen, now that the cats out of the bag? Find out in the next chapter, until then.