Author's note. With thanks to Mrs Bumblebee for her wonderful suggestions. If anyone else has a suggestion, feel free to tell me and I might use it.
Enjoy and please review.
"Optimus sir" Red Alert said as he walked over to his leader. Optimus Prime was standing outside their mountain base, overlooking the town where the humans lived. It was the town where their two new young friends, Billy and Fred, were at this very moment. The town where three other kids, Alexis, Rad and Carlos, should be at this very moment.
But they weren't, instead they were with Megatron and his Decepticons, hidden away on an unknown base. And the Autobots had no way to rescue them. Optimus hadn't felt so utterly depressed and helpless in a long time. It definitely wasn't a feeling he had missed or wanted to experience again.
He sighed heavily, what were they going to do? The best he could do would be to try and convince Megatron to let the kids go next time they met. But of course even if the Decepticon tyrant was willing to let them go, he wouldn't without first getting some Minicons. Which placed Optimus in another difficult position, he had sworn to rescue and protect the miniature Transformers. Megatron only saw them as weapons with which to conquer Cybertron and the Autobots. Optimus didn't want them reduced to a life of servitude.
But when it came down to it, it would have to be the kids, the Minicons could look after themselves but the kids were so vulnerable. And he knew the Minicons, especially the kids Minicons, were willing to give themselves up in an instant. He knew this because Highwire, SureShock and Grindor had already come up to him to say that he could use them to get Rad, Carlos and Alexis back.
This statement had made his Spark ache, they were so brave and loyal. If only Megatron could see this side to the Minicons, that they were sentential beings, that could think and feel for themselves. But unfortunately that was very unlikely to happen, Megatron was very stubborn when it came to changing his views, things had to be repeatedly shoved in his face before he was likely to believe it. He usually accused Optimus of trying to trick him, even though he considered Optimus a soft Sparked honest fool.
"Damn him" he said softly as Red Alert approached him. Red Alert stood beside him for a moment, gazing out at view. Finally Red Alert spoke.
"Sir, I just heard from Billy and Fred, they are going to tell Rad, Carlos and Alexis's parents that they are all camping together. That solves the problem of making sure no one misses the kids."
"For now" said Optimus bitterly. "But for how long can that work? How long is Megatron going to keep them and how are we going to get them back?"
Optimus buried his face in one hand, as his shoulders slumped. Red Alert didn't move but his expression was grim.
"I just don't know what to do."
"I know" Red Alert said looking up into the night sky.
"Hotshot's taken this badly, Optimus" he said quietly. "He feels so guilty, he blames himself for what happened."
"He shouldn't" Optimus said firmly. "None of you should."
"Don't you blame yourself, Optimus" Red Alert said firmly, looking sternly at his Commander. "How any of us could have foreseen what was going to happen, after all Megatron usually storms off in a temper when he's been bested. Who knew he could control his temper enough to think?"
This caused Optimus to smile ever so slightly behind his facemask but Red Alert could still tell he had cheered up his leader and this made him smile. Feeling slightly better he said.
"Sir, what would the kids be telling us?"
"Not to mope and to think of a plan" Optimus said with a smile in his voice. "You're right, Red Alert, they wouldn't want us to be miserable, and they would be trying to cheer us up. We will think of something and we will get them back."
'Whatever it takes thought' Optimus, 'until then, hang on kids, hang on'.
On the Decepticon Moon Base.
Alexis yawned and stretched lightly, snuggling up to the warmth she felt beside her. She shifted her arm so that her head was pillowed more comfortable. She frowned, though she was against something warm, she seemed to be lying on something and cold. She didn't understand it, so she cracked open an eye to sleepily glace around.
When she saw the gray walls and the boys sleeping beside her, she immediately remembered what had happened. Her hand flew to that horrible collar around her neck as the fact that she, Rad and Carlos were being forced to be Megatron's pets, and that a few hours ago he had made them take a nap on his knee. Speaking of Megatron...
She glanced up and her jaw dropped. He was sleeping, actually sleeping. His face was leaning on his fist and his mouth was slightly open, and he was snoring. Admittedly he was snoring lightly but he was still snoring. The sight was so extraordinary and unexpected, that for a few minutes she could only gaze up at him. But finally she shook herself and turned her attention to the situation at hand.
Quickly looking around the room, she saw that Megatron was alone, there wasn't even a Minicon in sight. Sitting up properly she couldn't help but giggle at the situation she was in. Her two best friends sprawled across the knee of a giant alien robot that was snoring. If only she had a camera. Oh, well.
"Rad" she said quietly as she gently shook him and then Carlos. "Carlos, wake up."
It took a bit to wake them, she didn't want to be loud in case Megatron woke up but eventually they yawned and stretched and opened their eyes. For a moment they sat up and glanced around wildly as they saw they were still in the Decepticon base, and it had not been a bad dream. But before they could loudly groan, she said.
"Shhh, Megatron's asleep."
"Huh" they said as they both glanced up and gawked at the sight that met their eyes. A second later they had clamped hands over their mouths to stop themselves from laughing at the sight. Alexis tried to give them a stern look, but her mouth was twitching so the effect was ruined.
"Oh, man look at him" Carlos sniggered, pointing a finger as he silently mocked. Rad shook his head noiselessly laughing.
"Now that's a sight you don't see every day."
Turning to Alexis, he said ruefully.
"Did you have a good sleep?"
"I did actually" she admitted, rubbing her head slightly, her most of the ache was gone. "But I'm amazed I managed to with the amount of snoring that was going on."
She stared pointedly at the boys, who looked indignant.
"Hey, are you saying we snore?" Carlos hissed, being careful not to raise his voice.
"Maybe" she giggled, but then took pity on them and said.
"You're not as bad as him" she said, nodding up at the still slumbering Decepticon.
"Let's get out of here, before he wakes up" whispered Rad, and the other two nodded their agreement.
The crawled to the edge of Megatron's knee and saw that his leg was at a slight angle, meaning they could slide down. Carlos went first with a silent cry of glee, it was actually a fun ride. Alexis and Rad soon followed and they quickly made their way across the vast room. Unfortunately, just as they reached the door they ran into the foot of someone who was just walking into the room.
"Hey, where do you little punks think you're going?" Cyclonus demanded as he stared down at them, Starscream and Demolisher flanking him. Before the kids could move, the Decepticons bent down and scooped their charges into their hands.
"Trying to escape" Starscream said with a smirk as he held Alexis up to his face. Alexis simply folded her arms and said.
"No one said we couldn't go exploring."
"Well, we'll see what Megatron has to say about that" Demolisher said sternly as he carried Rad over to Megatron. The sound of the Decpeticons heavy tread caused Megatron to wake. He blinked a couple of times and then his optics narrowed at the sight of the kids.
He sat up straight and said.
"Did I say you little brats could leave my side?" he demanded. He glared at them for a moment before saying "I will overlook this, this time but mark my words you will be punished next time."
The kids didn't say anything merely looked defiant. Megatron smirked.
"I think it's time you got to know my men a little better."
Looking up into the faces of his soldiers, he said.
"Take your chare for the hour or so, we'll think about feeding them later. Demolisher, stay here, I want to discuss our strategy with you."
They bowed and Starscream and Cyclonus left, and Demolisher handed Rad back to Megatron. Carlos sent his friend a syptheitc look as he and Alexis were taken out of the room. They were taken down and corridor at the end of which, Cyclonus went in a different direction to Starscream. Alexis gave him a quick wave which he returned before they both lost sight of each other.
Cyclonus went into a room, put Carlos on a high shelf and sat down on what looked like a metal bed which Carlos thought was called a berth by the Transformers. To Carlos's disappointment, it looked like there was no way to get down, unless the helicopter took him down. Cyclonus grinned at him and said.
"Hah, so you thought you could get away? Well let me tell you punk there's no way that that's ever going to happen because."
And Cyclonus abruptly keeled over and started to snore. Carlos stared at him in absolute disbelief, did that guy just fall asleep mid sentence. And he was stuck on this high shelf, what on Earth was he going to do for the next hour.
"Ohh, man" he groaned, falling back on the hard surface, life really wasn't treating him well.
Meanwhile, Rad wasn't fairing so well either. After Cyclonus had left with Carlos and Starscream with Alexis, Megatron had moved Rad back to his knee. Demolisher stood to one side of the throne and he and his leader started discussing battle tactics. While Megatron was talking, he began stroking Rad, which started to really grate on Rad's nerves.
What was worse, was that since it was just Rad there, Megatron directed his full attention on patting Rad. Rad started trying to dodge, Megatron's fingers, moving his body and ducking his head. Megatron, however, wasn't having any of that.
His hand closed around Rad, holding him in place. Rad squirmed but it was no use, Megatron's grip was too tight, in fact his fingers tightened until Rad's body relaxed. When this happened, Megatron loosened his hold enough so that it wasn't uncomfortable. Rad glared at Megatron as the Decepticon tyrant smirked down at him.
"That's better, my little pet" Megatron sneered as he started rubbing Rad's head with the tip of his finger. This movement caused static and Rad's hair stood on making the boy yelp and cover his head with his hands.
"Stop that" Rad cried as Megatron paused, his finger above Rad's head and then moved his finger back and forth so that Rad's hair moved in the direction of said finger. Megatron just grinned even more, he seemed to think it was highly amusing. Demolisher leaned forward at this.
"Hey, that's funny" he said as he now extended a finger to mess with Rad's hair. Rad tried to cover his hair but Megatron tightened his hold again, after pinning Rad's arms against his sides. Rad struggled but then got a sharp tap on his head by Megatron.
"Now none of that" Megatron growled which caused the hairs on the back of Rad's neck to stand up. "Behave."
Poor Rad was forced to tolerate being petted and patted by the two Decpeticons. It got worse when Demolisher starting poking him and pinching his arms, causing Rad to wince.
"Whatever Carlos and Alexis are doing, I hope they've got it better than me" Rad thought with a grimace as Megatron made him lie down on his stomach as the purple and green Mech started rubbing his back.
"I really hope."
Author's note. Next chapter is what happens between Alexis and Starscream, and the three Decepticons attempt to create food for their charges, with mixed results.
Till next time.