The Seekers flew in two formations, looking down at the trees and mountains below them as they followed coordinates that would hopefully lead to useful resources. Starscream had recently found the locations marked on the repaired Decepticon computer, though there was no indication of what, exactly, Megatron had stored there. The Decepticons on Earth certainly hadn't been a very organized bunch. (Or, more likely, that paranoid glitch Megatron hadn't trusted any of the others to know what was stored where.) With their energon stores finally running out, they had no choice but to fly out to the locations to see what they would find there, and hope it wasn't anything horrible. Skywarp and Thundercracker were just off of Starscream's wings, and Slipstream, Ramjet, and Sunstorm were similarly arranged slightly behind and below him. At least, Skywarp was supposed to be off of Starscream's wing, but a radar scan showed Starscream's right wingman several miles lower than he should have been. If he were in bot mode he would have scowled, as it was, he gave an annoyed boost of his thrusters and scolded over comms, "Skywarp, pull up. You're falling too low. Again."
Far below him, the Seeker dipped nervously in his flight, comming back, "But I'm scared of heights."
The Seeker commander sighed heavily, this not being the first time he had had to deal with the cowardly jet's difficulties. "Skywarp for the millionth time. YOU CAN FLY! Get your thrusters back up here and stay in formation!" Skywarp did not immediately do so, so Starscream tried a different tactic, "Flying too low is far more dangerous than being high up, you know. You could run into something," if terrifying the Seeker was the way to get him to move, the leader would do it. It seemed to do the trick, and Skywarp gradually got back to elevation.
The black jet was now back close enough in range to not need comms, so Thundercracker shouted from his position just behind Starscream's left wing, "If only you could be as flawless in formation as me!"
"Flawless like doing random barrel rolls just to show off and constantly trying to take leader position?" retorted Starscream caustically.
"You can't possibly understand my flying tactical brilliance!" roared the blue jet.
Further down, Slipstream and her wingmen weren't doing much better. "Sunstorm, speed up. Ramjet, you're too close to my tail, will you relax?"
"Fly faster. I'm not bored at all," retorted the white clone, inching up closer to his sister at the point of their small v- formation instead. Truly his name was well chosen, because no matter who he flew with it always seemed like they didn't go fast enough for him, and he would sporadically boost his thrusters and nearly clip his unfortunate wingmate.
"Are we almost done with this?" Slipstream dryly commed her creator, picking up a bit of speed to stay ahead of her reckless brother.
"No," he shot back sternly, "We haven't found anything useful yet."
Equally tired of the disorderly shenanigans, Starscream scolded all the clones over group comm, "Remember, this isn't a pleasure flight, we're on a serious mission to find resources. You wanna keep the base and yourselves powered or not?"
Surprisingly, it was Sunstorm who retorted, though of course, he didn't make it sound like a retort and was as chipper and polite as ever, "Aren't all flights a kind of pleasure flight when flying is so pleasurable?" he mused, doing a lazy dip to the left then rising back into place.
"You know what I mean," the original Seeker replied with forced patience, the sound of gritted teeth in his voice obvious even in vehicle mode over comms. "We'll cover more ground (and be finished faster) if we split up. Slipstream, take your team to the coordinates in the south and report back if you find anything useful. We'll cover the ones east. And stay focused, for spark's sake."
"Got it," replied Slipstream in a bored sounding voice, veering off towards southwards and followed by Sunstorm and Ramjet.
While the femme and her wingmates split off, Starscream led his two Seekers in their current position, getting ever closer to the coordinates that blazed as a dot in his navigation.
"We'd get there faster if I was leading," complained Thundercracker, edging forward in his flight.
The older Seeker swerved, neatly cutting off any chance of the other advancing. Much as Starscream loved a chance to yell at others, he was getting real tired of dealing with the clone's constant annoyance. Fortunately, they were right over the location, and would mercifully be able to land. (Not that that would spare him from Thundercracker being difficult in other ways.) Transforming, he descended down to land just outside the entrance to the cavernous opening, tapping his foot impatiently as his clones followed. Hearing them land behind him, Starscream strode purposefully towards the tunnel. He had only made it a few steps when he heard the footsteps behind him slow. Rolling his optics, he turned his head languidly around, having already half anticipated an interruption and guessing he knew exactly which anxious jet was causing it.
Looking behind him at his clones, Skywarp had certainly paused, staring into the dark mouth of the cave apprehensively, and Starscream fully expected he would have to drag the quivering Seeker in forcefully. But to the original Seeker's surprise, the coward only balked at the darkness momentarily, before, looking between Thundercracker and Starscream, he drew himself up confidently and walked ahead into the unknown in front of them.
Thundercracker grinned, and swiftly followed after his brother, while Starscream just stared.
"Slowing down more than usual, lesser me?" called back the blue Seeker from his position further ahead, smug smile on his face.
Recovering, Starscream scowled and jogged to catch up to his creations, scolding, "Hey! I'm still the leader, here!"
Their optics brightened to adjust to the dim lighting of the tunnel as Starscream shoved his way to the front of the group, and looking around he could tell they were on the right track. The tunnel they were in was clearly artificial, the walls bearing the marks of Cybertronian craftsmanship. He forged ahead, certain they would find something soon.
While Starscream marched ahead at a steady pace, Skywarp had fallen into a slower step behind him, head swinging back and forth to regard the tunnel walls cautiously and his wings tucked defensively against his back. Thundercracker looked back from his hurried attempt to overtake his creator as his brother stalled, frowning at the distance between them. He slowed his pace to match the lagging mech, walking solidly beside him. Joined by his brother, Skywarp relaxed, his wings straightening back into a more neutral angle as they continued down the dark pathway.
The moment they stepped into a slightly more open area, the walls started to shake violently, rubble and dust tumbling down onto them.
"Booby-trapped, that figures! Fragging Megatron!" spat Starscream, hands hovering defensively over his head, and already making a determined stride for the tunnel walls to their right.
"WHAT?! You mean you knew this could happen?!" panicked Skywarp, aiming his nullrays defensively above him and swinging towards every boulder that even fell close to him. As he was shooting one, shattering the large dangerous boulder into a shower of pebbles, another fell towards him from another direction. Before he could even scream, a blue form jumped beside him and shot the collapsing rock dead center, coating the rescuer's armor in a thick layer of gray dust. Thundercracker looked down at his sullied chassis and grimaced, but didn't move from his brother's side. "Thanks," gasped Skywarp in relief, though the peace didn't last long as the walls and ceiling continued to collapse around them.
"I didn't think it was possible for you to be any slower!" shouted Thundercracker at his creator, barely daring to look back at him where he was currently walking along the wall, periodically patting it.
"Calm down, I designed most of the Decepticon's booby traps, I'll have this shut down in a cycle," he paused momentarily, leaning with his palm flat to the wall , tapping at the side of his face thoughtfully, "Unless this is one of Shockwave's," he muttered.
"What?!" yelped Skywarp again after hearing the aside, blasting at another tumbling boulder, and its remains scattering to the floor to grow the increasing pile of rubble and send another layer of dust to settle on the two Seekers. "You don't know?! We're all gonna die!" he lamented loudly.
"I still know how to shut it down, one of Shockwave's would just take marginally longer than one of my own," scoffed Starscream as he continued his examination of the rock wall. "Ah, there it is! The trap's control panel." Flinging open what had looked to be part of the wall revealed a digital screen and an access port. Starscream ignored both of these in favor of prying beneath the device, rummaging around its inner workings. "Aaaand, there," he concluded smugly, the shaking finally ceasing as he shut down the cave's defenses. "Less than a cycle, like I said."
"Seemed a lot longer to me," grumbled Thundercraker, making ineffective swipes at the rock dust that solidly coated his armor. All he did was grind it further into his seams, and he grimaced again at the damage done to his normally flawless appearance. "Whatever's in here had better be good," he complained.
"Well, then, let's just see!" remarked Starscream, going to the back of the room where piles of crates sat. Opening one, his prideful grin dimmed as he stared at a collection of blasters and missiles. "Hmm, extra weapons. Better than nothin', I guess."
"That's it? I already have perfect weapons!" moaned Thundercracker.
"Ohh, cool," said Skywarp, rummaging through the crate and taking out a particularly deadly looking weapon.
"Give me that!" snapped Starscream, swiftly taking the blaster out of the clone's hands. "You're jumpy enough without throwing a nervous trigger finger into the mix."
Skywarp pouted, defending, "You literally built me with guns," gesturing with his just-used null ray in example.
"It's different," retorted his creator immediately, his tone offering no argument. Skywarp continued to sulk, glaring at the crate of guns as Starscream looked over the weapon he had taken and put it back.
"Well, it's not energon or oil, but it never hurts to have a few extra guns around,"
"Unless I have them," muttered Skywarp, a comment Starscream opted to completely ignore.
"Let's get out of here," pausing, he stroked at his chin, remarking, "Although, we should probably warn B-Team. It's highly likely their location is booby-trapped as well." Bringing a hand to his helm, he tried to signal the other group of clones to watch out for trouble, but all he heard was the hissing static of no connection. "Comms, they never work when you need them," he commented dryly.
Plot? In one of my stories? (Or at least something in a story other than two people talking to each other and not doing anything.) Gasp.
I couldn't help adding the part with Starscream making the booby traps, if it isn't obvious, I stan Scientist Starscream, even in continuities where he doesn't do anything explicitly sciency. (I don't really count making the clones tbh, all he did was take pre-existing protoforms and stick Allspark shards in them. There wasn't any real experimentation going on there. Not like G1 where he'll go off on nerd talk tangents and actually seems to enjoy the process of scientific discovery. What happened to Nerd Starscream in Transformers? I miss him.)