"Well, they're, erm…" Optimus was struggling for an explanation. Starscream knew that if they didn't think of something quick, he and Spaceflower would be dragged off to the stockade.
"They're what?" Sentinel demanded, grabbing Optimus by the shoulder.
"They're our prisoners," Ratchet spoke up.
"Decepticon scum!" Bumblebee added, a little artificially.
"Why didn't you just turn them in to the Elite Guard?" Ultra Magnus asked. "We could have dealt with them!"
"They broke into our base and attacked us," Optimus replied nervously, making it up as he went along. "We were so angry with them that we decided to deal with them on our own."
"You KNOW you're supposed to turn ANY Decepticons in to us!" Sentinel hollered. "I knew you were stupid, Optimus, but I didn't know you were that stupid! I might as well send you to the stockade for disobeying your commanding officer!"
They let THIS guy onto the Elite Guard? Starscream found himself wondering, but he knew better than to say anything.
"Let's just get them aboard the ship, Sentinel Prime," Ultra Magnus said, giving Sentinel a "shut up" look. He held up two pairs of stasis cuffs.
"Don't!" Bulkhead shouted. He was looking at the sparkling, as was everyone else on Optimus's team. What was going to happen to her now?
"Please," Ultra Magnus said calmly, "let me do my job."
Before Starscream knew it, Ultra Magnus had snapped a pair of stasis cuffs onto his wrists and Spaceflower's, too. He then took Sweetie out of Spaceflower's arms and handed her to Jazz.
"No!" Spaceflower shrieked.
"Decepticon scum, you have the right to remain silent!" Sentinel snapped. He then started dragging Starscream by one of his wings, while Ultra Magnus walked alongside Spaceflower as he led her and everyone else out of the Autobots' base.
Aboard the Elite Guard ship…
Starscream and Spaceflower were trapped, alone, still in stasis lock, on the Elite Guard ship. They were sitting in a corner right next to each other, unable to move, and they couldn't see anyone from the Elite Guard or Optimus's team. Starscream was used to this kind of thing, but he knew Spaceflower had almost no experience with fighting Autobots (she was fairly new to the Decepticon cause).
"What's going to happen to us?" Spaceflower asked, voice shaking.
Starscream couldn't respond. He had no idea what would happen to them. They were completely helpless, trapped on this ship, at the mercy of the Elite Guard. Starscream heard Spaceflower's lines from the musical ("But I didn't do anything!") running through his head, but he never thought that scene would actually come true. And the other Decepticons thought they were just taking the sparkling for a tune-up; they had no idea what had happened. They wouldn't be able to break Starscream, Spaceflower and Sweetie out.
"And what about Sweetie?" Spaceflower continued. "I don't know where she is!"
"Don't worry," said Starscream. "I'll find us a way to escape."
They heard footsteps coming around the corner then and looked at each other hopefully. If it was someone from Optimus's team, they would be able to escape, but if it was a member of the Elite Guard, they were in trouble. The two of them watched anxiously, and soon found that it was none other than Sentinel Prime.
"Well, well, well." Sentinel stood over them and crossed his arms. "What am I going to do with you two?"
"Do what you will with us, Autobot scum!" Starscream yelled.
"Don't you ever shut up?" Sentinel responded angrily, slapping a mouth cover on Starscream.
"Hey!" Spaceflower shrieked, but Sentinel pulled her up by one of her wings and brought her to the center of the room.
"What's your name?" Sentinel asked, still holding her by her wingflap, even though she was still in stasis lock. "I haven't seen you around here before."
"My name's Spaceflower," she whispered.
"Well, Spaceflower," Sentinel said, looking her up and down and letting go of her wing. "You're awfully attractive for a Decepticon. Has anyone ever told you that?"
Spaceflower shook her head, looking panicked.
"I'm telling you now," Sentinel replied. "So why don't we just head to my quarters and you can show me some of your, ahem, moves?"
"What?" Spaceflower cried. "N-No!"
"You're hardly in a position to make that choice, my dear…although you do look great in those stasis cuffs." Sentinel grabbed Spaceflower again, this time by the arm, and pulled her close. "I think I'd rather like to have you in my bed with me."
Starscream, still bound and gagged, was trying desperately to free himself as he watched this whole scene—but in stasis lock, he couldn't even move, and now he couldn't talk, either. He told Spaceflower he would never allow harm to come to her—that he would protect her always. He could tell she didn't want what Sentinel was "offering", but how in Primus was he supposed to help in this status?
His optics widened in horror as he saw Sentinel pull Spaceflower into a harsh kiss on the lips, even though she was still trying to squirm away. As soon as Sentinel had finished the "kiss", Spaceflower looked like she was going to cry.
"Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" Sentinel asked, still gripping her arm.
"Leave me alone!" Spaceflower shrieked and, even though she was still in stasis lock, she managed to swing around and smack Sentinel in the face with one of her wings, knocking him onto the floor. Starscream knew that if she wasn't in stasis lock she could have caused a lot more damage, but being in stasis lock was almost like paralysis. She didn't even have her singing power.
"Assault an Elite Guard officer, will you, Decepticon?" Sentinel Prime said, gathering himself up. "Did you know that can get you one whole stellar cycle in the stockade—at least?"
"You were the one who was assaulting me!" Spaceflower cried.
"Is that so?" Sentinel hollered. "Well, I can make your sentence two stellar cycles if you want—or a lot more than that! Decepticon load of scrap metal!"
With that he backhanded her right in the face, and she was the one who collapsed on the floor now. He kicked her in the leg and continued, "There is no place for you in society! Any of you!"
Starscream was shaking with anger, staring at his girlfriend lying on the floor in stasis lock, even more helpless than he was. The femme he had sworn to protect and love his wholelife cycle long. And she was being treated this way. He had never felt such rage before. It filled every single wire in his body, every bit of circuitry. It was made even worse by the fact that he could do nothing about it. Nobody treated Spaceflower like that. NOBODY!
SNAP!
Starscream looked down. The stasis cuffs, in his lividness, had broken.
"I can't go to the stockade!" Spaceflower was insisting, unable to get up from the floor. "What about my family?"
"Well, I guess I could let it go…" said Sentinel, pretending to be thinking as he kneeled down next to Spaceflower. "As long as you give in to my former suggestion. What do you say?"
"Sentinel Prime, you are disgusting!" Spaceflower cried.
"An insult!" Sentinel snatched up Spaceflower by her wingflap again. By the way she winced in pain, Starscream knew he had damaged it. "You've got a lot of nerve to—"
Before Sentinel could continue, he was hit by a null-ray blast that smashed him right into the wall.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Starscream hollered, tearing off the mouth cover and firing more blasts at Sentinel Prime.
"Starscream!" Spaceflower gasped.
As fast as he could, Starscream ran over to Spaceflower and undid her stasis cuffs. Then they ran back to Sentinel, who was lying against the wall.
"And you say we are the evil ones!" Starscream yelled, inadvertently echoing Megatron's line from the musical. He fired another blast at Sentinel and pinned him down with his foot. He handed the stasis cuffs to Spaceflower, who quickly attached them to Sentinel's wrists.
"APOLOGIZE TO HER!" Starscream demanded, pointing his null-ray at Sentinel's neck. "And I may let you stay online!"
"I have nothing to apologize for!" Sentinel hollered back. "I'll never do it!"
"You're hardly in a position to make that choice, Sentinel Prime," Spaceflower replied scathingly, kicking him in the face. "If Ultra Magnus knew what you did to me I know he would get rid of you. Maybe we should tell him, Starscream…"
"NO!" Sentinel looked down at the stasis cuffs then up at Starscream and Spaceflower. "What…what do you guys want?"
"I SAID APOLOGIZE!" Starscream blasted Sentinel again.
"Call yourself a glitch-head," Spaceflower added. "And tell us what you did with our sparkling!"
"What sparkling?"
Spaceflower's servos turned into guns and she shot Sentinel, too. "You know which sparkling I'm talking about! Mine! She's on this ship and we aren't leaving without her!"
"DO IT!" Starscream and Spaceflower both screamed at the same time.
"All right, I'm sorry!" Sentinel cried. "I shouldn't have done that! I…I don't know what I was thinking!"
"Call yourself a filthy, malfunctioning excuse for an Autobot!" Starscream yelled.
"I am a filthy, malfunctioning excuse for an Autobot!" Sentinel replied, looking pained. "And…and I have no idea what happened to the sparkling! She's with Jazz, remember?"
"Then we have to go find her!" Spaceflower cried. "She could be in danger!"
"Right, let's go," Starscream agreed hastily, and Spaceflower grabbed his claw.
"You can't just leave me here, severely damaged and in stasis lock!" Sentinel yelled after them.
"Sure we can," Spaceflower replied.
"Come on, my love," Starscream told her. "Let's go find Sweetie…and the Autobots, too."