=Chapter-4=
"A Word for being discovered"
Soundwave waited for his two Cassettcons inside a minor room; it wasn't an important place, just a warehouse to keep machinery and spare parts. Shortly, Rumble and Frenzy both crossed the doorway and walked towards their master. The Communicators officer was sitting on a pile of metallic pieces.
"Hey, Soundwave!" waved Frenzy, "What's up?"
The blue 'Con lowered his view and looked his two Cassettcons carefully.
"What happened to you?" he asked them without any hesitation.
"Nah! Just that jerk Skywarp… He got us before the reunion began," answered Frenzy.
To their surprise, a big black servo reached towards them, and carefully grabbed them. The Communicators officer lifted them softly till they were in front of his face. After a few seconds, he warned them, "Nothing serious. Be careful, Skywarp may be dangerous."
"Oh, c'mon, Soundwave! We know how to take care of ourselves!"
"I hope so," he replied as he placed them back on the floor.
The two Cassettcons turned and exchanged looks. After a few seconds, Rumble dared to ask, "Soundwave, do ya know what's goin' on? Who's this blue seeker, really? Is he another Starscream?"
"He is Starscream. He is from another reality. Megatron did tell us the truth," he affirmed simply.
The two Cassettcons turned to each other again, startled looks on their faces.
"Really? Another Starscream, here? Oh, man: that's nuts!" complained Frenzy.
"Well, at least he isn't another Skywarp!" added his twin.
Frenzy shrugged, as though he wouldn't mind that too much. Then, he turned again towards his master, "And, what' bout his tale? Is it true?"
"It is. But he's hiding facts, too."
"Okay… he's another Starscream all right…" murmured Rumble.
"Is he seekin' Megatron's leadership, too?" Frenzy seemed to be the more intrigued of the two.
"Unknown. But he hides important facts. I must know them," he said as he got up from his 'chair'. His Cassettcons knew he was about to do something.
"Wait, Soundwave… What about Megatron?"
"He doesn't need to know anything," he answered, as he pressed a button on his shoulder. "Ravage, eject!" he ordered.
In that moment, a dark cassette was ejected from the Communicators Officer's chest, and it turned into an animal shaped with a resemblance to some kind of carnivorous mammal from Earth(*). It grunted and turned towards his master as if it was asking a silent question. The two Cassettcons in robot mode just stared at the newcomer.
"Here, Ravage," Soundwave greeted. "New command: search and get more information about the new Starscream."
Ravage grunted as he nodded, then, he turned towards his companions and Frenzy petted him as the red and black cassetcon asked another question to his master.
"Hey, Soundwave! Are ya goin' to send Ravage to spy on that Screamer?"
The Communicators officer nodded, and added immediately, "Both of you, too. You must get all the information available."
"What? Both of us, too?" Rumble exclaimed, "Why? …that's Reflector's job!"
"Don't complain. You're better at it; you don't make people suspicious of us."
The twins stared at Soundwave, slightly amazed.
"Oh, man! ...That's not fair!" Frenzy complained.
Once the Cassettcons had left Soundwave alone, the Communicator Officer sat back down on the pile formed by the metallic pieces. He rested his head on his crossed servos and sighed: he hadn't expected that things would turn out so complicated. It was his fault. It was his fault that *another* Starscream woke up. He should have spent more time trying to get information from the unknown seeker (who wasn't "unknown" anymore) before ordering the Constructicons to repair him. Now, there was another Starscream among the Decepticons' ranks, as if there weren't enough problems with just one Screamer in the army.
Soundwave had never felt specially worried about the Air Commander: yes, he used to do many nasty things to Megatron, and sometimes, those affected the rest of the army (for example, the times he tried to destroy the Earth by following any of his *freaking* schemes) but Starscream would never change his side and join the Autobots… or bash his companions or wingmates in order to achieve his objectives, he knew better than that. Soundwave could prevent all his actions, and he could trust Megatron to keep him under control.
But the new Starscream was a complete mystery himself, Soundwave wasn't sure about what he could expect from this new Seeker. Of course, he had felt his confusion and fear… but those weren't weird considering his current situation. He had also felt a mix of emotions, those kinds of powerful emotions and passions which made him, indeed, the counterpart of the Air Commander. Still, the nature of those emotions was quite different from the ones of the Starscream he knew. Those were his feelings and thoughts towards Megatron: Soundwave also felt from the newcomer the same hatred and impotence he felt towards Megatron's counterpart in his own reality… but it was also different. Those emotions were mixed with some kind of odd respect.
Megatron must have noticed that, too, because he allowed the newcomer to join the army without hesitation as soon as he called the Decepticon Leader "Sir", something the Starscream he knew would never do. Besides, the Decepticon Leader also allowed the Air Commander to take care of his counterpart… Soundwave knew it wasn't a coincidence, but a 'Megatron scheme'.
But there were other disturbing facts about the new seeker, not only his thoughts, feelings and such, but his circumstances. Soundwave was very observant, and he noticed many things that the common Decepticons didn't. One of those was the nasty and weird wounds in the body of the new Starscream: a hard fight, of course, had caused them but they were still odd… What kind of fight could expose a Transformer's spark like that? The spark was united to the body through the lasercore, and together, they were a Transformer. However, the spark of this Starscream had been exposed as if the body of a Transformer could open like a clamshell. What kind of fights happened between Autobots and Decepticons back in the reality where that blue seeker belonged?
Soundwave shuddered at this thought. He caught a name in that Starscream's mind when interrogating him: Unicron.
He was not sure what was going to happen at all, but that was worrying…
Starscream took the strange little Cybertronian who had just appeared in front of him, and raised it till it reached his optics. He didn't have his old substance sensors that he'd used during his time as scientist any longer, but a new one, and the radars he now had worked better on a soldier. So although he couldn't analyze the nature of the strange Cybertronian, he found out the little one was something … special. Starscream knew that, even if the little Cybertronian with the masked face and blue paintjob was even more ridiculous than Soundwave's cassettes.
Meanwhile, his counterpart watched them closely. He didn't know why Swindle had decided to show himself right now; it could be that Swindle was confident enough with his counterpart here to do that. Still, he was afraid for him, Swindle always had been very self-confident.
"Who is… what's this *thing*?" the Air commander exclaimed as he shook the little Minicon in his counterpart's face. The creature beeped as it protested to such treatment. "Where was this hiding?"
"His name is Swindle," explained the blue Starscream gravely. "He's my companion Minicon."
The Air Commander shook himself as he heard that. "What? Your Minicon companion?" he exclaimed. "What the heck's a Minicon? How did you call it?"
Swindle made a new noise and then, both Starscreams turned towards him.
"Calm down, Swindle…" his master said in a soft tone, "I'll try to explain it to him, as you wanted."
The Minicon beeped again, and Starscream looked at him, surprised.
"It's talking! Those noises and sounds are its language! He speaks just like he didn't have a vocalizator," he exclaimed in amazement as he realized what those sounds were.
The other Starscream just nodded.
"I see… you do not know what a Minicon is. None of you seem to know," he said like he was talking to himself more than anything. Then, he looked at his counterpart "Yes, they are. The Minicons don't talk aloud or through their internal communicators like us… They use a binary sounds code to talk. In a short time, you will be able to understand him."
The dark faced seeker frowned as he looked at the pinkish-faced seeker.
"That's not an answer to *my* question. What's a Minicon thing? Are you a cassette-host like Soundwave is?" His counterpart seemed to be a little annoyed by the sudden events.
"Uh? No, I'm just a seeker. I cannot host anybody in my body. My Minicon was attached to me, on my arm…" the other Starscream answered, not really being sure what his counterpart meant to say regarding hosting people inside his body.
"That's the odd formation you had on your left arm?" his counterpart suddenly cut him off. "Why do you carry this thing? Answer me!"
The pinkish-faced seeker frowned as he saw the bad manners of his counterpart had come back again. He repeated to himself that he didn't want to fight him, even if Swindle kept making beeps.
"Yes, he was hidden as he was a common attachment on my left arm. That's why nobody noticed him previously." The Air commander looked back at the tiny creature again. He was slightly open-mouthed.
"He can do that? ...What's a Minicon, then? You cannot deny that it isn't a strange creature."
The seeker with blue optics tipped his head to the right … sort of because of the launchers on his shoulders.
"Minicons are…" he hesitated, "Minicons are another kind of Cybertronians back in my reality."
"What!?" There was a big shocked expression on the Air Commander's face.
His counterpart nodded. "In my reality there is a third faction involved in the war between Autobots and Decepticons" he explained, "and that faction is the Minicons."
There was a moment of silence as both Starscreams processed the latest events. The blue seeker wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but he was more worried than before: he was not sure enough to say what Minicons were, exactly… They were Unicron's creations: by the time he faced Unicron just before he got zapped to this reality, all high ranked Transformers knew that. But in this reality, Minicons didn't seem to exist, and none of his old companions, even himself, ever thought of Unicron as a real thing, but just a legend. Therefore, it was inevitable that his counterpart wouldn't believe him, and neither would the rest of the Decepticons there.
On the other hand, the Air Commander was still shocked by the latest events: another faction besides the Autotrash and the Decepticons? And they weren't the "empties", but another kind of Cybertronian? …But actually, those weren't the only problem here. He had realized that Minicon thing wasn't just some odd guy, but a Cybertronian with rare skills, and valuable enough even to catch his counterpart's attention.
And he needed to know why.
Finally, he moved his view towards his counterpart, who seemed to be waiting for something.
"So… there is another kind of Cybertronian in the war between Autobots and Decepticons back in your reality, right?" His counterpart nodded in silence. "What about the 'empties', then?" he asked in a mixture of curiosity and demanding to know.
"'Empties?'" his counterpart exclaimed. "What are those?"
Starscream smirked as he heard his counterpart. It was a good thing the blue guy didn't know many things about *his* reality.
"Don't you know that? ...'Empties' are the Cybertronians who didn't join either of the two sides as the war began. They used to be a bunch of pathetic fools with neutral programming who were always lurking for some energon reserves with which to keep themselves alive for another solar cycle. They aren't Autobots or Decepticons at all, just an annoying crew of hungry cowards… At least Autobots know how to fight."
The other Starscream listened to his counterpart, as amazed as he was disturbed. He didn't know such a faction could exist in this reality, as well as the scornful way his counterpart talked about them… All soldiers could be contemptuous towards their adversaries, the Decepticons used to insult the Autobots, and vice versa. But this? He never knew of a Cybertronian insulting a Minicon without any *good* reason… Or was it him who wouldn't insult a Minicon without any good reason, really? Starscream remembered the Decepticons of his reality used Minicons as slaves to win the War. They were just tools in their servos…
But his thoughts were cut off by his counterpart's sudden question.
"Aren't there 'Empties' in your reality?"
"Uh ...No, not really. When the war began, Decepticons were the minority, and Autobots were the defense crew of Cybertron cities. Most of the Cybertronians were civilians, I think they were Autobots by programming, though."
"What!? ... The Autobots were the defense in your reality!?" exclaimed an astonished Air Commander. It couldn't be! Since the beginning of Transformers' civilization, Decepticons always had been the defending warriors of Cybertron.
"Yeah, that's right," his counterpart answered. Then his view went back to Swindle, who had been silent all this time, as he wanted to learn about this reality, too.
However, the blue seeker didn't realize that his gesture had brought the attention of his counterpart back to the original topic.
"But you have not told me what a Minicon is yet," he pointed out as he lifted the blue servo which gripped Swindle in front of the disgusting blue optics of his counterpart.
The other Starscream grunted to himself as he realized he still had the same problem, besides, his counterpart seemed ready to use any kind of method to get information from him.
"I told you already. He's a Minicon, the War's third faction"
"Don't play dumb with me!" his counterpart cut him off. "Do you think I am to believe it's just a dwarf who's your pet or something? I've noticed this Minicon thing's something more important than it seems to be. I don't know what it is, but if it was attached and *camouflaged* on your arm, it must have been for a good reason?"
"I… I'll tell you if you let Swindle go," answered the other Starscream after a moment of silence.
"I don't think you're in the right place to demand anything," replied the Air commander with a funny smirk on his glosa. "Besides, this little pet of yours seems to be getting more interesting every minute," he added and his smirk turned into a cruel one and he pointed his rifle towards the head of the Minicon.
The other Starscream grunted, he had made a mistake; but he relaxed as he heard Swindle beep again; he wasn't afraid, it was like the little Minicon was enjoying it. Still, he also felt a bit sick: the other Starscream was crueler than he had been.
"Ok, I'll tell you then," he answered.
"Good choice," affirmed the Air commander as he relaxed the rifle of the arm which held the Minicon.
"Minicons are the third faction, as I told you previously. I'd say they're neutrals… 'Empties' as you call them, because they haven't chosen any side. But we need them to win the War."
The Air Commander looked startled as he heard that. "What? These things? ...Why!?"
"The Minicons have the ability to make us stronger; they scan our bodies and our skills (**), and later, they combine with us, powering up our own powers and skills," the seeker with blue optics explained to his astonished counterpart.
"So… that's the reason you have one. It's like a weapon of yours," he exclaimed in amazement as he watched the little creature he was still holding on his servo. Suddenly, a new idea suddenly entered his mind. "What's the power you get from him?" he asked.
The other Starscream glared at him, he was a little disturbed because he *knew* his counterpart would ask that question and the methods he might use to get a response.
"He gives me the ability to power up my cannon launchers," he explained briefly.
The Air Commander exchanged looks with the little Cybertronian and his counterpart as he realized what he had just heard.
"I see… Then, that's the reason your cannons can be even more powerful than Megatron's fusion cannon," he half-exclaimed and half-reasoned more to himself than anything.
"I cannot relate to that, anyway…" replied his counterpart softly.
"Nevermind," spat the Air Commander as he came back to reality. Then he frowned, "I assume you use it as a weapon, as well as the rest of the Decepticons. Right?"
"Yes, we do… As do the Autobots."
"What? Those things can combine themselves with the Autobots, too!?" Starscream seemed perturbed by that idea.
"Yes, they can do that with every kind of Cybertronian." He paused. "That's the reason they're neutrals… they escaped from us and placed themselves on Earth. Both of us, the Decepticons and the Autobots, travelled to Earth to collect them… The Side which gets more Minicons could win the War," he explained briefly.
His counterpart had listened gravely: step-by-step, the pieces of the puzzle made more sense to him. Now, he could understand the nature of the wounds his counterpart had when he appeared in his reality: these Minicons had the power to make any Cybertronian even more powerful, and when it happened, the violence of the fights was so extreme than the blasts and strikes could break the lasercore of a Transformer and expose the spark of the owner. When a Transformer's spark died, his body lost its lifecolors and it turned into the vulgar grey color of a metallic machine, but very rarely was his spark exposed.
Anyway, he also realized something more disturbing: his counterpart had said he was a lieutenant, not the Air Commander; obviously he was the right rank, but nothing like he was. And that also meant every member of the Decepticon army back in that reality, might be the owner of one of those… Minicons. But nobody from his reality had one of those.
This could be… interesting.
The pink faced Starscream had a startled look as his counterpart handed Swindle to him, he took his Minicon (who beeped again) from the servo of his counterpart, and then, he looked at him questioningly.
Starscream smirked and simply asked him, "Tell me… Does every Cybertronian in your world have one of these Minicons?"
"Yes… At least, when we were fighting on Earth."
The other Starscream made a face as he heard that. "Then, do the Autobots also have any of these?" His counterpart nodded. "And I assume the Leader of the Decepticons of your reality, that Galvatron guy, also has one of them."
"He has all of them," pointed out the seeker with the blue optics.
"What?" the one with the red optics exclaimed.
"He's the Leader… so he's the owner of all of them which we were able to get."
Starscream grunted and stepped back: it seemed that in whatever reality Megatron, or Galvatron as he had named himself in that reality always had the upper hand. But, suddenly, the blue creature he had held on his servo beeped again. The two seekers looked at him with inquisitive looks. The blue one seemed to relax after he got back his *pet*, but the red and white one looked back at him a little confused.
"Is its name 'Swindle', then?" he asked finally in a tone tinted with amazement.
"Yeah..." his counterpart asked, a little confused which grew as the Air commander exploded into laughter.
"Ha-ha-haaaa! That's really funny!" he exclaimed as his harsh laughs resonated in the room, "I cannot believe it!"
The other Starscream frowned, he felt disturbed by his counterpart's behavior.
"What's so funny about his name?" he asked in a serious tone.
"You don't know, do you?" came the answer of the other Starscream, "Of course you don't… The name of your pet is the same as a certain member of the Decepticon army in this HQ." There was a mischievous smirk in Starscream's glosa, "It's very funny to imagine his face if he found out who his counterpart in your reality is."
"I see… But it doesn't surprise me, really," answered the blue seeker softly.
"Uh? Why not?"
"Because two of the seekers with cone-heads who you introduced me to previously are Minicons in my reality, too."
The Air Commander stood still for a few seconds, and then, he began to laugh again. These laughs were half-fanatical, half-amused by the revelation. Finally, they silenced and the Air Commander recovered his composure.
"... It seems there are many differences between this universe and yours besides the Decepticons' HQ encampment," he said as he realized something in that moment. "It may be a problem if you're going to stay in this reality…" It was Starscream's common sense that talked now, not his fear towards his counterpart.
"You're right… I don't think I know enough about this universe. It seems there are a lot of differences between our realities."
The Air Commander frowned as he crossed his arms; his optics looked at his counterpart cautiously. He had just realized the threat that his counterpart might be for him was followed by other problems: he had got to keep an eye on his counterpart, and, in this way, to watch him as well. But, if this blue version of himself didn't know many things about his universe, what was the point, then? The new Starscream would just add problems to the Decepticon Army.
Starscream realized he needed to show this reality to his counterpart, at least to avoid future problems.
"Come with me!" he ordered as he turned on his heels and began to step towards a corridor, "I'll show you quarters where you can stay. Later, I want you to go meet the rest of the air force in an hour." He turned towards his counterpart, who was watching him with a confused look on his disturbing blue optics. "You will have to do that if you want to be here," he added in a harsh tone.
The blue seeker watched his counterpart for a few seconds as he walked along the corridor, and finally, he stepped after the Air Commander. Swindle just beeped and began to run, just to keep up with the speed of the major Cybertronians' great strides.
"Did you see the way that wretched seeker looked at me!?" exclaimed an indignant Thrust, "He was looking at me like I was some kind of Autotrash!"
"I cannot see why you're so surprised, Thrust," Dirge replied, "He's Starscream, after all."
"Bleh!"
"Perhaps, you guys're mistaken," Thundercracker said after a pause. "If all the stuff Megatron said is true, we cannot forget he's from another reality where things are quite different from here… Perhaps that Screamer isn't like the one we all know and love."
"Speak for yourself TC," exclaimed an irritated Thrust. "As for you, Ramjet… Next time, watch what you're crashing into!"
"Hey, that wasn't my fault!"
"Maybe, but it's still bein' your fault he's here now! The idea of bringing him here was yours!"
"It was Soundwave's order!" the white Conehead exclaimed.
"Yeah! An order he gave us when he listened to you!"
"And an idea you agreed totally if I well remember!"
"Don't blame me for…!"
"Hey, hey!" Skywarp intervened, trying to stop the quarrel between the two Coneheads. "It doesn't matter now! Let's calm ourselves down and get back to the job. It's more important." The two Coneheads looked at him with a harsh light in their optics. "The HQ's job's our priority, and we need to finish the next energon packages to send to our home planet."
The group of seekers exchanged looks and, after a few long seconds, they agreed to keep up their job. The result of that quarrel could be worse than the reason for the quarrel itself.
Thundercracker still had in mind the surprised look the other Starscream gave him when he found out his identity. Why he was so surprised? ...And why, being Starscream, did he have a blue color scheme, instead of red and silver white? There were many odd things besides the fact of a visitor from another reality itself.
Still, he was glad Skywarp could end the quarrel between his wingmates. Oddly, he used to be one of the conflictive elements in the wing-team the seekers were part of. In spite of this, Thundercracker thought of Skywarp as a trustworthy friend.
So many odd things in just one day….
That afternoon, Teletran-1 had beeped in alarm as it detected a strange vortex over the Gran Chaco, that extensive region of South America. At that time, in the main screen of the enormous computer, lots of descriptive graphics of the phenomenon began to appear; unfortunately for the Autobots, there weren't many people in front of the big computer who could understand the strange nature of those graphics.
Bumblebee stopped at Teletran-1 as he realized it was beeping in alarm, and he tried to read the complicated graphics, which were appearing on the main screen. They were too complex for him, but he knew it had to be… important. Then, he turned towards the other wing of the room where an Autobot wasn't aware of what was happening right in front of his optics.
"Hey, Jazz… Come here and… Jazz, JAZZ!" he called out as he noticed that the Autobot with the big blue optics was still ignoring him.
The little golden Minibot hurried towards him, and he realized that Jazz was sitting next to Blaster, who was in his alt mode placed on a table. Jazz had a goofy smile on his glosa, his big blue optic was off and he was tapping the right servo fingers on his leg.
It was quite obvious to Bumblebee what was happening with those two. His rounded face turned angry as he realized Jazz was listening to some kind of music radioed by Blaster by their internal communicators: a very useful idea when nobody wanted to listen to the sort of music they both liked.
"JAZZ, WAKE UP AND LISTEN TO ME!" he shouted as he shook the black and white Autobot.
Suddenly Jazz and Blaster both came online again. "Waaah… Uh, what's up?... Bumblebee?" he exclaimed in confusion. "What's goin' on? Why are you shouting?"
Bumblebee made a face and he replied, "I've been calling you for cycles!"
"Oh, I sorry… I was listening to a 'Pet Shop Boys' single," Jazz excused.
"Yes, he's right," added Blaster as he turned back into his robot mode, "We *love* '80s music!" he explained with a big smile on his glosa only matched by the cheery expression on Jazz's face.
Suddenly, Jazz's expression turned serious. "What's happening, Bumblebee?"
"It's Teletran … It has detected something weird over South America. It's sounding the alarm, now," he informed him.
As Jazz realized of the importance of the events, he hurried towards the computer and began to tap the buttons on the console. His big blue optic band shone in amazement.
"What's happening?" asked Blaster as he placed himself next to the black and white 'Bot. Bumblebee did the same.
"Bumblebee's right. Teletran has detected something weird over the Gran Chaco… Only I cannot find out what it is."
"Decepticon activity?" Blaster suggested.
"I dunno," replied Jazz as he was still tapping on the controls, "it seems to be some kind of natural phenomenon… But I'm not sure."
"Perhaps we should ask somebody more skilled in this kind of thing… Wheeljack or Perceptor, for example," suggested Bumblebee.
"Wheeljack's an engineer, not a natural scientist. But Perceptor's a good option… and perhaps Skyfire, too," replied Jazz without taking his eyes off the screen.
"Ok, I'll ask for Perceptor. But I don't think Skyfire wants to be involved in this if it's Decepticon-related…" Blaster explained.
"It doesn't matter right now. Just do it," ordered Jazz.
Notes:
(*) Among Spanish Transfans, Ravage is not a feline, really. He's closer to being some kind of canine. In fact, I, myself, thought of Ravage as a Doberman dog with a long tail rather than a big cat. That's why I say he seemed to be some kind of carnivorous mammal.
(**) I haven't read a lot of Armada TF comics, but I'm aware that in the comics, Decepticons tortured and reformatted the Minions to turn them into their weapons. But in the cartoon, when Screamer got Swindle, he said to the Minicon, "Scan my beautiful figure for me!" Therefore the cartoon Minicons have the ability to scan their owners' bodies so they can be the best for them.
Edited by CathLeigh