Fanfiction key:
Eradicons are the flying drones and Vehicons are the ground drones.
Sires are fathers and Creators are mothers (at least the equivalent of)
In brackets and quotes are ["comm links"]
A meta-cycle is a year.
An orbital cycle is a month.
A solar cycle is a day.
A cycle is an hour.
A breem is ten minutes.
A klik is one minute.
A nano-klik is less than a minute.
"Primus damn it, I said no, Soundwave!"
Knockout's worries about the mission were well founded. He suspected Soundwave had sparked and had kept him off active duty until they could be sure, but the Nemesis picked up life signs from just over some place in Arizona, and looking into the local human news, there had been reports of purple cars roaming the streets and the sound of jet engines - what the humans thought were secret military experiments, Soundwave knew were the escaped vehicons and eradicons. Why they left is no secret nor a surprise, but the drones were well cared for under Soundwave's reign. He believed them to be emotionless, faceless and disposable, but Knockout convinced him otherwise. As the chief medic, he works closely with the drones, and knows very many of them by name - Breakdown had been friends with a few, in fact, and had gotten punished by Megatron for "fraternizing with the soldiers." Under he-who-shall-not-be-named's rule, at least a hundred of them perished each battle, but with Soundwave, he had invested in better armor and field medical training, and now only one or two die every Earth month, which is impressive considering who they are fighting. That being said, he knew the escapees had no idea that they would be much better off on the Nemesis again - upgraded armor, training and care put aside, the drones were given more freedom and more fuel as well. It's undoubtable that the escapees had to be malnourished and undercared for.
"They really are good mechs, Soundwave, once you get under the terrorized exterior they put on around the officers. It's a shame so many die every battle." Knockout's own voice coming from Soundwave's recording system seemed to send him into a bigger fury, shouting incoherently about the possibility of being sparked and the dangers it held for both the possible sparkling, Soundwave himself, and the entire army should he perish or be put out of commission for a while.
Soundwave replayed another recording he had of Knockout - "My love, don't worry about me. I'll always be fine as long as you're there." What was meant to calm him down just threw him flying into another fit. Soundwave sent reassurance and love over the bond, but it was like trying to knock over a brick wall by throwing bags of feathers at it. He was still furious. He sunk into his throne quietly, deciding to let Knockout vent, and put in a course for the coordinates he'd received from the Nemesis' main computer. He'd rescue the drones with or without Knockout, and he knew that Knockout would choose to be beside him the whole time if given no other option. Knockout looked at the main monitor and read the coordinates they were headed to, finally calm, and glared holes in Soundwave's head. "That's the way it's going to be, is it?"
He loved him. There was no other way to describe it, even though he felt like "love" wasn't enough. Watching him streak across the sky so gracefully, sun glinting off his wings and his empty cockpit, afterburners roasting the air as he cut through it like a knife. It was more beautiful to watch him at night, but the chance rarely arose as during nighttime humans would come by to try and see what they thought were "government experiments." They had no choice but to let him out during the day, because as much as they tried keeping a low profile, Starscream would go insane locked in the caves for so long, without a sky above him or clean air on his wings. He tried so hard to keep him safely below the surface, comforting him when he broke down, defending him against the drones that wanted him out (he was a big red target for Soundwave, they knew that, but Steve wouldn't have it), but he just couldn't take seeing him like that any longer. And after what was possibly the longest and most graceful flight he had ever seen the seeker perform, he still managed to make the night better by fragging him in the dirt, and hard as soon as his pedes touched the earth. Starscream went on to explain that the cherishing and care that Steve gave him during his "imprisonment" as he put it had activated his deeper seeker protocols; seekers were meant to be revered and worshiped, not stepped on and beaten, and the rush of the protocols hitting him as he unwound in the air had also aroused him to mate with the one who cared for him the most. His programming had chosen Steve for his complete devotion to Starscream. It was exactly the best thing that had ever happened to Steve. They were inseparable - he spent all his cycles in Starscream's joyful company. With Megatron gone, and Starscream in charge ( of at least of a small part of the army,) he unwound, and healed, and he felt good, for once in his miserable life. He often had recharge terrors about Megatron returning and offlining both himself and Steve, but that just gave Steve a reason to "distract" him. He adored him beyond words, and he was planning to ask him to bond tonight, if he had enough courage.
Starscream tore through the air towards the ground and transformed as he landed, a terrified look in his optics, breaking Steve out of his train of thought. "Commander? What's wrong?"
"Can't you hear that!?"
Starscream looked beyond terrified, like he'd just seen Megatron's ghost. Steve turned his audios higher, as high as they could go, and he faintly heard the sound the Nemesis's engine in the distance. They were at least an entire cycle away, and that gave them time to prepare.
"We have to get below, and hide! If Soundwave is here for you, we have to get you down there or he could kill us both!"
He wasn't sure what was worse, the way Starscream looked at him, as if something had clicked inside him and his world had fallen apart, or the fact that Starscream just tore off towards the Nemesis. Damn it.
1 Earth Cycle Later
Rock and dirt. That's all that was here. Lots of rocks and dirt. Maybe a lizard or two, tiny things, or those annoying squawking flying things that pick at the meat sacks on the ground (what a strange planet), but otherwise, a whole load of nothing for miles. A stone's throw away from being in the brig. This is what Soundwave was so eager to see? So eager to possibly sacrifice himself to see? Gee. Sure picked the right mech.
Soundwave's hurt stretched across the bond before he smothered it to attempt to hide it from Knockout, but it was too late. He knew Soundwave was doing his hardest to be a good leader - everything Megatron wasn't - and he really was doing a good job. All he went out here for was the drones that had escaped. It was really a rescue mission - he knew the drones had to be in bad condition, but what good is a rescue mission if the one doing the rescuing is in vulnerable shape?
Soundwave's hurt eased a little upon hearing that Knockout understood, and he reached out to grasp Knockout's hand - a thing he observed the humans do. It was nice, so simple but still somehow comforting. Humans can be smart creatures if they really give it their all.
The sound of a familiar, screeching jet engine hit their audios. That is to say, a screaming one. Both Knockout and Soundwave were frozen in place. They both saw Starscream offline on the bridge floor. There is no way he could have survived that, his energon was everywhere. Soundwave sent Laserbeak up to get a look, and he reported back that he has visual of both Starscream and a Vehicon hot on his tail. Both their engines were burning up, like they'd been going as fast as possible for an entire cycle, and they were covered in red dirt. "Report: Starscream and a Vehicon drone heading Southwest at top speed."
A vehicon with the designation DUK3 ran towards them and looked ahead. With his visor he could see one of his brother Vehicons indeed chasing Starscream. "Sirs, isn't Starscream offline?"
One of the vehicons behind them said "maybe it's Steve?" and that caused an uproar in the squadron, and DUK3 went to go calm them all down just as Starscream came into view and began firing down on them, hitting DUK3 right in the back and Soundwave straight in the chest. Fragger had good aim now all of a sudden?
Knockout went to fire at Starscream and was tackled by the Vehicon, who put up no fight, but did his best to restrain Knockout - a strange move considering Knockout was several times more powerful than the Vehicon could hope to be.
"What is your designation and what do you think you are doing to me!?"
"My designation is Steve sir, and if you're going to try and hurt Starscream I'm afraid you're going to have to offline me first!"
Starscream's fire rained down so fast and hard on Knockout it was blinding. He must have heard the Vehicon and took a defensive turn - but what could the vehicon possibly have said to set Starscream off like that?
Knockout managed to avoid most of the fire, but his spear was knocked out of his hand. Soundwave dove to pick it up and shocked Starscream so hard with it he immediately took a nosedive and crumpled into the Earth as if he were made of paper. The vehicon became so enraged he shrieked and jumped on Soundwave, beating him senseless, cracking and breaking both his own servo and Soundwave's visor before the Decepticon lord overcame the shock and threw him off.
A legion of escapee vehicons and eradicons came barreling towards them, and Steve grabbed the spear from Soundwave before he could use it and slammed it so hard into him that it snapped it in half, sending an arc of electricity into every mech within a mile radius, knocking all of them offline.
Upon onlining, Knockout immediately scanned Soundwave's spark chamber - it was weak, but it was there. Two life signs. The shock gave him the last bit of energy needed to spark. Lubricant began pooling and streaming down Knockout's face. He felt over the bond that Soundwave had no pain, and was fine other than a broken visor and light armor damage to his chest.
The sight of Knockout openly sobbing over Soundwave stopped every other mech in his tracks, including the terrified and infuriated Starscream, who was currently being checked over by Steve. "Leave me alone Steve, I'm fine!" Starscream batted his love's scanning hands away in favor of watching the spectacle before him. Steve looked up at his beloved and followed his gaze to Knockout and Soundwave. "Officer Knockout, sir, do you require assistance?"
Starscream gaped and scoffed at the idea of Steve helping the self centered medic fix the sparkless "lord" of the 'cons. Knockout glared at Starscream and shook his head. "No, I can feel over the bond that he's fine. I'm just stunned. That shock you gave him had given the last bit of energy his systems needed to spark."
Wait - bond? spark?
"You're bonded to Lord Soundwave, sir?"
"You said your designation was Steve, correct? Are you the leader of the escaped drones?"
"Yes, but-"
"Then you need to get them to the Nemesis for repairs, upgrades and training. Follow DUK3 - he'll show you where we've er, parked the Nemesis. If you can bring Starscream along calmly I'd be glad to repair him myself, as long as he doesn't flip out and shoot anyone. I'm sure we can solve the whole 'who rules the Decepticons' issue when everyone is repaired."
"Uh-sir, yes sir!" Steve lead his drone team to follow DUK3 and helped Starscream to his pedes. His cockpit was crumpled and broken and the nose of his altmode was a pancake, which dug into his robot mode abdomen, but otherwise he could make the trip to the Nemesis on foot. So much for the whole 'ask him to bond tonight' thing, but at least he was safe and only in minor disrepair.
This might be the last update for a little while because of the holidays. There might be one more, I'm not sure. Merry Christmas of 2012, everyone! I'm sure updates will resume after Christmas because I'm 90% sure my mother got me the Vehicon toy, which I'm sure will inspire me to write some more.
