Approximately one Earth week later…
"Good! That's good! Now…fly!" Spaceflower cried. Sweetie transformed and flew up, miraculously not crashing into anything this time.
"Let's see her walk again," Megatron said.
"Walk to Mommy and Daddy, honey." Spaceflower kneeled down on the ground next to Starscream, hoping Sweetie would walk to them. Her walking was still a little unsteady, but she managed to walk all the way to her parents without falling down.
"And who's this?" Starscream asked, holding up a picture of Megatron (one of Sweetie's many speech flashcards).
"Megatron," Sweetie replied.
"She has improved." Megatron walked over to where the three of them were sitting in the grass. "She will not be ready for the Branding Ceremony, however, until she can understand and recite the Decepticon Oath—and has developed weapons that will be useful to our cause."
"I think she's still a little young for that," Spaceflower said, standing up and putting the flashcards away. "We can't trust her with weapons yet, especially because she hasn't completely mastered the art of flying."
Starscream smiled. "I do think she enjoys it, though."
By this point in time Sweetie had learned to use the rocket boosters on her feet (similar to the ones both her parents had). She still wasn't perfect at flying, but she seemed to love it. Whenever they had a training session, she seemed the most excited when it was time to practice flying again.
Starscream also loved it, because it meant he got to show off, and simply fly around in the sky without a care in the world. They would teach Sweetie new maneuvers with his instruction, and—ha!—this time Starscream was the one doing the commanding and showing off his skills and Megatron had to just stand down there and watch!
Megatron thinks he's so perfect and good at everything, Starscream thought as he looped through the sky. But he's no different than anybody else. In fact, I bet he's totally jealous of me right now. How pathetic!
Finally, Starscream landed, grinning. Megatron was, as usual, expressionless, but Spaceflower was cheering. Sweetie laughed and shrieked, "Flying!"
"Who's better at flying?" Starscream asked, as Spaceflower rolled her optics. "Megatron…or Daddy?"
"Daddy!" Sweetie waved her arms and Starscream picked her up. To his surprise, she transformed and flew up, up into the sky, circled around a few times, then landed on her feet. Her parents cheered again.
"Could she fly fast enough to escape from an Autobot?" Megatron asked.
"Well…you know…she's only a sparkling," Starscream reminded him.
"Only a sparkling who could go offline if she was ever put into battle," Megatron replied.
"We're not going to put her into battle," Spaceflower said. "Not yet, I mean."
Megatron sighed. "That reminds me. We also need to teach her fighting skills. Before she is ready for branding she must have her training completed."
"We can do that after she's done learning walking." Spaceflower shrugged. "And she also needs to learn more flying maneuvers. She's very fast, though."
"For all we know, we could have another Seeker in the making," Starscream added.
Sweetie turned on her tiny rocket thrusters and hovered near Megatron, who looked annoyed.
"DON'T become another Starscream," he told her. "One is more than enough."
"Megatron, that is hurtful and you know it," Spaceflower said.
"Oh, like I really care what that son-of-a-glitch thinks," Starscream snapped. "He can insult me for the rest of his life cycle, and it won't bother me."
"Why are you trying so hard to impress me then?" Megatron asked airily.
"I am doing this for ME, not for YOU, Megatron!" Starscream yelled, soaring up into the sky again.
How dare he! Starscream thought, doing a barrel roll. Who the Spark does he think he is? Does he think the whole galaxy revolves around him? No…that's silly. He thinks the entire UNIVERSE revolves around him! He thinks he's the best at EVERYTHING! And he thinks he's so cool with that stupid fusion cannon of his. Amazing as it may be, Megatron, you are not the ONLY one with really neat weapons. What about my null-rays, huh? I could slag a million billion Autobots in one battle, AND destroy those stupid humans' buildings! I could even destroy YOU! So why don't you take your lame weapons and cruelty and viciousness and shove them up your hard drive?
"Starscream!" Spaceflower called. "It's time to come down!"
"Huh? What?" Starscream turned back into robot mode and landed on the ground, feeling embarrassed.
"You're a wonderful flier, my love, but it's time to come in," Spaceflower explained. "I think you need some motor oil. Come on inside."
Spaceflower's words stroked Starscream's bruised ego. She thought he was a wonderful flier? Take that, Megatron!
"She said come in, fool," Megatron commanded.
"I'm not moving," said Starscream, crossing his arms.
"Why not?" asked Spaceflower, holding Sweetie, who was drifting off into stasis. Night was falling.
"Because I don't have to go inside unless I feel like it," Starscream replied.
"YOU WILL DO AS I COMMAND!" Megatron thundered.
"You will do as I command," Starscream repeated mockingly.
Megatron picked Starscream up by the neck and growled, "You are REALLY pushing it, Starscream."
"How's this for 'pushing it'?" Starscream pinched Megatron's servo with one of his sharp talons, and as soon as Megatron let go, Starscream shot at him. Megatron shot back and Starscream dodged, still shooting.
"Stop it!" Spaceflower screamed, cutting between the two of them. "Stop fighting!"
"SILENCE!" Megatron hollered, and blasted at Starscream again.
"My love, please come in," Spaceflower said. "Don't fight with Megatron. It's not worth it!"
"She's right," Starscream replied, turning away. "You aren't worth my time, Megatron."
"What time is that?" Megatron asked. "Time you spend wishing you had my job? My strength? My weapons? My charisma? My intellect?"
Starscream, blind with rage, lunged at Megatron, but Spaceflower grabbed his wingflap.
"I said don't do it!" she cried. "Come on."
Spaceflower grabbed Starscream's claw and pulled him inside. Starscream, still fuming, went over to their refrigerator and took out some energon. When he was sure Megatron was out of earshot, he began his complaining.
"That slagging son-of-a-glitch!" he howled. "I could take him offline right now!"
"Please don't, my love," Spaceflower insisted, cradling their sparkling. "There's no need."
"Hello, you two," Blackarachnia said, walking into the kitchen. "What's all the noise?"
"Megatron and Starscream were fighting…again," Spaceflower told her, sounding exasperated.
"Mechs…will they never learn?" Blackarachnia asked, walking over to the refrigerator and getting herself some energon.
"I guess not," Spaceflower replied, shrugging.
"There are some things they will just never understand." Blackarachnia sat down at the table and started sipping her energon.
"Oh, yeah?" Starscream asked. "Like what?"
"More than you know," Spaceflower replied, giggling, and then Blackarachnia started laughing too.
Starscream was glaring. Now the two of them were probably going to get into some annoying discussion about how stupid mechs were…just because he and Megatron had gotten into another fight? And anyway, didn't Blackarachnia and Spaceflower hate each other? If you asked him, femmes were the difficult ones, since it was almost always impossible to figure out what was going on in their processors. Either you were enemies or you weren't! At least that was one thing Starscream and Megatron were able to agree on!
"You and Megatron both have scrap metal where your processors should be,'' Blackarachnia said to Starscream.
"Megatron, most certainly, but not me," Starscream told her. "Why can't you accept my ability to lead the Decepticons?"
"I can't accept your leadership skills until I see some evidence of them," Blackarachnia replied snidely.
"You take that back!" Spaceflower shrieked, jumping up from her chair.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Blackarachnia yelled, standing up too.
"I've got a good mind to, you downgrade!"
"What did you just call me?"
"I called you a downgrade!"
"You're going to regret it!"
"Is that SO?"
Oh, great, Starscream thought. One of the worst situations was when femmes fought, because their fights never ended. And they were much more vicious than that of mechs. First they involved talking, and then screaming, and then clawing at each other until they were both severely damaged, and even then they would be trying to take each other offline, in very brutal ways. Particularly in this case, because Starscream was pretty sure anger had been building in both Spaceflower's and Blackarachnia's sparks from the solar cycle they met.
"Can we please STOP this?" Starscream asked. "You don't need to take each other offline over something so stupid."
"Ironically, I just split up a fight between you and Megatron over something equally stupid," Spaceflower said back.
"Well, that doesn't mean you have to act stupid," Starscream replied.
"Don't callme stupid!" Spaceflower shrieked.
"I never called you stupid," Starscream told her. "I said you were acting stupid."
"Don't you know you're not allowed to call your girlfriend stupid?" Blackarachnia asked.
"No, he's too stupid to know that," Spaceflower replied.
Starscream groaned, now realizing he was in Very Big Trouble. He didn't want to fight with Spaceflower, but it looked like that was what was happening. Basically, this had been an awful solar cycle. First he fought with Megatron again, and that was never fun, and now he was fighting with Blackarachnia and Spaceflower, who were, apparently, fighting with each other. I need a stasis nap, Starscream thought.
That's when they saw none other than Blitzwing making his way into the kitchen and over to the refrigerator, apparently looking to get some energon.
"Hey, Blitzwing," Starscream said. "How are you?"
"Fine," Blitzwing told him, grabbing some energon out of their refrigerator. "I heard there is fighting going on?"
"Maybe if everyone didn't act like such idiots, these things wouldn't happen." Blackarachnia sipped her energon, looking irritated.
"Well, Blackarachnia, I was wondering if you wanted to go for a walk and perhaps some dancing tomorrow," Blitzwing's Icy face said, sitting down. "If it would be to your liking, that is."
Blackarachnia appeared to be thinking, then answered, "Okay. That doesn't sound so bad."
Starscream and Spaceflower looked at each other in shock. What?
"You guys are going on a date?" Spaceflower asked amazedly.
"I didn't say it was a date," Blackarachnia snapped. "I just agreed to go."
"Well, he obviously just asked you out," Starscream told her.
Blitzwing patted Starscream's shoulder. "I go on this date to experiment, my friend."
"Experiment?" Starscream asked.
"Yes," Blitzwing replied. "If things do not work out, then they do not work out."
"And if they do work out…?" Spaceflower asked.
"Then maybe there'll be another date," Blackarachnia answered. "But I better enjoy every moment of our first date, Blitzwing…or else."
Later that night…
"Listen…my dear…I just wanted to say that…um…I'm sorry about today," Starscream said to Spaceflower, as she set their sparkling in her cradle.
"Don't worry about it."
"No, I can tell you're still upset," he insisted, feeling distraught. "You see, Megatron just makes me so mad...he thinks he's better than everyone and he loves getting on my nerves."
"Partly, I'm sure, because you let him get on your nerves," she replied. "He thinks you're jealous and cowardly and foolish and basically extremely unfit to lead the Decepticons…but that's just his dumb opinion. You have to stop trying to impress him."
"He is so wrong about everything!" Starscream yelled, sitting down on their bed. "I am not jealous of him! I'm not cowardly or foolish or any of those things. And I am not trying to impress him! I already said it. I don't care at all what he thinks."
Spaceflower sat down next to him and leaned into his chestplate. "For someone who doesn't care, you're certainly angry."
Starscream looked into those beautiful optics and sighed. "Okay, fine. I hate him from here to Cybertron, believe me, but…well…I am jealous. Really jealous, most of the time."
Spaceflower looked up and smiled, encouraging him.
"Sometimes I think that what he said is true," Starscream muttered, leaning back and falling onto one of the pillows. "That I am cowardly and foolish and worthless and a malfunctioning excuse for a Decepticon."
"You're not a cowardly, foolish, worthless, malfunctioning excuse for a Decepticon," Spaceflower whispered. "And I don't think Megatron treats you right, either."
Spaceflower started stroking Starscream's head as he continued talking. "Megatron does scare me, sometimes. Not always, just at certain times…like those times when he's grabbing me by my neck and threatening to offline me…making me feel like a load of scrap metal, just like he always does…but the weird thing is, no matter how badly he treats me, I still seem to need his approval. Don't ask me why."
Starscream sat up and leaned his head on Spaceflower's shoulder. "I've never told anyone these things before, my love. I never told anyone that I was afraid and that sometimes I do believe all those things Megatron says about me."
"Why not?" she asked, softly.
"I…I just didn't want anyone to know, I guess," Starscream replied, shrugging. "It all makes me feel like the most messed-up mech in the universe."
"You're not," Spaceflower reassured him, squeezing his claw, and he squeezed back.