And so it went down for the next few days; Thundercracker and Starscream shared their bedroom, but they didn't talk to each other, and Skywarp stayed with Moonbeam. None of them were speaking with each other. Thundercracker just watched TV all day (when he wasn't scowling at Skywarp and Moonbeam), and Skywarp deliberately showed off his relationship with Moonbeam in Thundercracker's face. Starscream thought they were being petty and even ridiculous, and his spark was broken.
Starscream hadn't been out flying for two or three days, which he knew was a terrible mistake because flying was a necessity to keep any Seeker healthy, but he had been so depressed that he didn't want to do anything, even take to the skies—which normally would have cheered him up. All this drama had completely exhausted him, too; even though he got regular recharge, he woke up just as tired as he had been when he restlessly dropped into stasis.
So that morning, when he woke up, Starscream wasn't surprised to find that his wings were aching a little bit, and he realized his nausea from last night hadn't left, either. Being grounded for three days or more was just the limit, and it explained away the fact that his health had been apparently deteriorating over the past few days. As tired as he was, Starscream realized he needed to get some breakfast and then outside to fly.
By the time he got to the kitchen, his wing pain had increased, making it even harder to ignore. All his FDS ("Flying Deprivation Syndrome") symptoms seemed to increase when he moved around. Either way, he was feeling generally lousy.
Starscream made himself walk to the refrigerator and get a cube of high-grade. After all, he would need fuel, right? Well…Starscream felt himself getting tense as he watched the fuel sitting on the table, but he couldn't bring himself to drink it.
"I-I'll come back to you later," Starscream told the energon cube, pushing it away, then stood up.
As soon as Starscream got outside, he turned to jet mode and soared up into the sky. The feeling was great—here, he was free from everything horrible that had been happening in his life since that stupid Moonbeam had arrived. This was all her fault; everything about her made Starscream sick.
And that was when he realized he didn't mean that figuratively—Starscream was confounded when he realized that being in the air was just making his nausea even worse. Well, maybe if he went a little bit faster…but as Starscream accelerated to top speed, he was horrified to feel his thrusters begin to falter.
Okay, time to land! thought Starscream, and started to turn to robot mode again, but as soon as he had, he felt the thrusters on his feet give out completely and he slammed onto the ground, face-first.
Feeling slightly panicked, Starscream ran into base, then sat down on the couch, wondering what went wrong. Never, ever had he experienced airsickness before. Seekers didn't get airsickness! Either way, it had happened.
Maybe it's because I didn't drink that fuel earlier, thought Starscream, making his way to the table where his breakfast was still sitting, waiting for him to drink it.
When Starscream opened the energon cube, he lifted it up to try and get a sip of it, but just smelling it was enough to make him threateningly nauseous. Eventually, he managed to force a mouthful or two down—but then he felt his stomach lurch again; he'd barely made it to the self-maintenance room off his bedroom when he found himself throwing it all up onto the floor.
Then he heard a startled voice say his name: "Starscream?!"
It was Skywarp, who had apparently walked in on Starscream, who had been too sick to even notice.
"What happened?" Skywarp cried, sounding worried as he hoisted his brother up onto his feet. "Are you okay?"
Starscream shook his head, no, and Skywarp guided him to his bed.
"Sit down," said Skywarp, trying to stay calm and stroking Starscream's back. "Put your head between your knees…breathe…that's it…"
Once Starscream had calmed down a little, he swallowed and whispered, "Thank you."
"Please, tell me what happened?" Skywarp begged.
"I-I don't know," said Starscream, feeling shaky. "This morning I didn't feel so good…so I went to fly…and I don't know why but I-I got airsickness or something. I made the mistake of trying to consume some energon and now this."
"Why would flight make you sick?" asked Skywarp, and gave Starscream a hug. "That's not normal. I think we should go and see Moonbeam."
"That's okay, 'Warp," said Starscream, shaking his head. "I'm sure this'll go away on its own."
"Only the medic will know for sure," Skywarp insisted, pulling on Starscream's hand.
"All this is giving me a terrible headache…" Starscream groaned and lay back on the bed. "I just want to—"
"What the—oh." Thundercracker glared at them as he stomped into the room. "It's you two."
"What the slag do you want?" Skywarp demanded, an equally nasty look on his face.
"Last time I checked, this was my room, son-of-a-glitch," Thundercracker snapped. "What, am I not good enough for you now?"
"Thundercracker, there's no time for that," Skywarp told him. "Starscream is really, really sick. We have to help him."
"Yeah? What's wrong with him?" Thundercracker grunted.
"My head hurts, my wings hurt, and I feel sick to my stomach," Starscream answered, struggling to sit up again. Skywarp gently pushed him back down.
"So go out flying, moron," said Thundercracker.
"You think I didn't think of that?" Starscream said back. "I thought that was the reason I wasn't feeling just right…but when I was flying, I got airsick or something, my thrusters failed, and I wiped out. When I got in, I had to throw up just by smelling my breakfast."
"Please, Starscream, you should really see the medic," Skywarp told him. "This is her job!"
"I hate to admit it, but he's right," Thundercracker mumbled.
Of course YOU want to come see the medic, Thundercracker, Starscream thought. YOU'RE crazy about her.
"All right, but please don't teleport me, okay?" Starscream asked. "Just thinking of that makes me—makes me—"
"Don't!" said Thundercracker, putting one hand over Starscream's mouth. "Let's just walk instead, okay?"
AT THE MED BAY…
Moonbeam was sitting on the repair table in the med bay, sipping a cube of energon, tapping her foot and waiting for the hours to pass. Being on call was so annoying. Sure, of course she liked being a medic, but that didn't mean she liked sitting in the med bay all day long, waiting for a sick or injured comrade to stumble in…but that was exactly what happened a moment later.
"We need help, Moonbeam!" Skywarp cried frantically, yanking Starscream into the room, Thundercracker right behind him. "We don't know what's wrong with Starscream!"
"Did he get injured?" Moonbeam calmly hopped off the repair table and walked over to the three of them.
"No, he's just got some kind of sickness, I guess," Thundercracker explained as Skywarp helped Starscream climb onto the repair table.
Moonbeam crossed her arms, looking bored. "What're his symptoms, then?"
"My head hurts, my wings are hurting more every second, I'm borderline fatigued, and I'm feeling horribly sick—with no appetite," Starscream repeated. "And NO, it's not because I haven't been flying enough because I already tried that and it just made everything worse."
"No other symptoms?" Moonbeam asked, absentmindedly turning her energon cube over in her hands. "No hot flashes, hallucinations, dizziness, temporary paralysis, out-of-body experiences…?"
"Definitely not," muttered Starscream.
"Hmm…well, I hate to be nosy, but as your health care provider, I have to ask you this," said Moonbeam. "Have you been 'facing with anybody lately?"
"No, of course not," Starscream lied, his face feeling hot as he thought of his experience with Megatron several days ago.
"Yeah, okay, I've been lied to about it before," said Moonbeam, rolling her eyes. "It's just that to be sparked up you have to have interfaced with someone first, and have you ever considered that as a possibility?"
"That's the biggest load of scrap I've ever heard!" Starscream yelled, pointing at her.
"Fine, don't listen to the medic, who happens to have delivered plenty of sparklings before and knows what she's talking about," Moonbeam said sarcastically.
"I-I can't…that's…why do you think I'm sparked up?" Starscream demanded, a little bit of fear creeping into his voice.
"Because you're showing a ton of symptoms, that's why," Moonbeam said flatly. "I don't know if you're having mood swings, though, or if this is just normal behavior for you."
"Are we going to test him?" asked Skywarp. Of course, he and Thundercracker were looking shocked too.
"Of course," Moonbeam replied. "I'll just need a sample of your CNA, we'll wait the hour it takes to register, then you'll be good to go."
"You know how much I hate needles," Starscream whined.
"You know how much I hate cowards," Moonbeam said back, grabbing her kit of medical supplies. "Just let me prick your finger and it'll be over soon, okay?"
Starscream shut his eyes and put his free hand over his mouth as Moonbeam used the needle to prick one of his fingers. It probably only took a few seconds, but to Starscream, it felt like hours.
"Now, this will tell us everything we need to know," said Moonbeam, putting the raw energon into one of her test tubes. "You three come back in an hour and I'll give you the results, okay?"
ONE HOUR LATER…
The four jets were back in the med bay again; Starscream was visibly shaking from both fear and anticipation; Skywarp and Thundercracker were pushing and shoving their way to the front to see the results of the test; and Moonbeam was just standing there, arms crossed, waiting for them.
"Now that you're back, we can look at the test," said Moonbeam. "The CNA sample we took earlier allowed me to enter your personal energy signature into this digital test which says…oh yeah. You're sparked with twins, Starscream."
"B-But I'm not…I'm not ready for that!" sputtered Starscream. "Are you sure that's legit?"
"There's more information on the receipt," Moonbeam continued. As she examined it, her neutral expression turned to a pensive, almost puzzled look. "Hmm…that's weird."
"What? What's weird?" asked Starscream frantically. It was hard to imagine anything weirder than this.
"Well, your little dumplings aren't purebreds," Moonbeam replied. "Meaning, their other parent has no Seeker CNA. Who is he, anyway?"
"Um…I don't know." Starscream shrugged. Actually, he had a pretty good idea who the other parent was, but there was no way he would admit it.
"You do know that the test reports both parents' energy signatures and designations, right?" Moonbeam said flatly. "Let's see who you're so ashamed of 'facing with, huh?"
"NO!" Starscream shouted, running over to her to stop her from seeing the designation of the other parent, but it was too late.
"You spread your legs for Megatron?!" she shrieked. Now it was her turn to be shocked. "I thought you guys hated each other!"
"Well, we do," said Starscream, staring down at the floor, feeling humiliated. "But that doesn't mean we can't—"
"I don't believe this!" Moonbeam interrupted him. "Of all the possible partners you could have, why in the name of Cybertron would you 'face with Megatron?"
Starscream shrugged his shoulders again, thinking of how although 'facing with Megatron was both incredibly humiliating and painful, it was also the most pleasurable and how, in the end, he could never resist complying. How could he explain that to everyone, though, if he didn't even know how to explain it to himself?
Seeming to sense Starscream's discomfort, Skywarp walked up to Moonbeam and kissed her cheek. "Why don't we just let Starscream rest a little, kissy-wissy?"
"Why don't we take a little rest too, sugar daddy?" Moonbeam cooed, and kissed Skywarp on the lips. "All this excitement's got me fired up!"
Skywarp and Moonbeam were indeed fired up with burning love, but Thundercracker looked fired up with burning anger. As that familiar scowl darkened his features, he flexed his wings a little and stomped up to his brother.
"STOP IT!" he hollered. "STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"
"What are you talking about?" Skywarp looked shocked as he pulled away from Moonbeam for a second.
Thundercracker looked at Moonbeam's beautiful face, and then over at Skywarp. This was becoming unbearable. Moonbeam was to be HIS mate, and only his! They were meant to be!
"You stupid freak!" Thundercracker pulled Skywarp away by the wing, ignoring his sudden yelp of pain. "You don't deserve the lovely Moonbeam! Leave her alone!"
"What, you think Moonbeam's too good for me?!" Skywarp yelled back. "You don't think I'm a good boyfriend?"
"You think you're a good boyfriend?" Thundercracker let out an artificial laugh. "You don't know the first thing about having a girlfriend!"
"At least I have a girlfriend!" Skywarp shot back. "Who's the stupid freak now, huh?"
"Just who do you think you are?!" Thundercracker roared.
"Better than you!" Skywarp shouted. "If you were my friend, Thundercracker, you'd be happy for me and my girlfriend!"
"If you were my friend, you wouldn't keep rubbing your stupid relationship in my face!" Thundercracker hollered, angrily shoving Skywarp back into the wall.
"I'm not rubbing my relationship in your face!" Skywarp grabbed Thundercracker by the wing. "This is rubbing my relationship in your face!"
To everyone's surprise, Skywarp delivered a hard-enough-to-dent punch to Thundercracker's faceplates, knocking him onto the floor. Thundercracker bolted up, seething with rage, and tackled the purple jet so that both of them were on the floor. It wasn't long before a full-blown fight had started.
The two Seekers were hurling insults and obscenities at each other as they tried to tear each other apart—more viciously than some Autobot/Decepticon battles, even. Starscream chanced a glance at Moonbeam, and she was leaning on the repair table, smirking, as usual. Obviously, she just loved it when these mechs fought over her.
"I'm right!" Thundercracker shouted. "Starscream, tell him I'm right!"
"No, tell him I'm right!" Skywarp interrupted.
"Shut up!" Thundercracker yelled. "Starscream! Tell him!"
"Oh no you don't!" Skywarp slapped Thundercracker. "Obviously, he thinks I'm right!"
"NO HE DOESN'T!"
"YES HE DOES!"
"NO HE DOESN'T!"
"YES HE DOES!"
And it went on and on like this, until—
"STOP IT!" Starscream screamed. "JUST STOP IT! Neither of you are right! You're just a couple of idiots who have betrayed the Trine and I don't want to talk to you or have anything to do with you or even look at you ever again because I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!"
Skywarp and Thundercracker froze in the middle of their fight and Moonbeam's smug expression turned to one of surprise as Starscream bolted out of the med bay without another word, slamming the door behind him.
TO BE CONTINUED…