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There was absolutely nothing to do on the Nemesis, which was perfectly understandable given that it was a mighty warship, not some space luxury cruise. But working under a warlord who could blow your head off just for sneezing in his direction was stressful; mix that with living under the same roof as Starscream and one needs a method of relaxation that doesn’t involve shooting yourself in the head. And for the Decepticons, the best way to do that was to beat the scrap out of each other. Under controlled conditions, of course.

Inside the ship’s war room, which was where the Decepticons took their free time to drink, chat or make threats at each other, there was a hexagonal sparring ring where the crew would have matches against each other to work out their frustrations in a civilized (for them) manner. It was also a decent place to settle disputes the old fashioned way or brush up on their fighting skills, something Megatron or Nightshade would occasionally. There were no rules save for the prohibition of weapons. There was a difference between beating someone to a pulp and riddling them with holes and wasting ammo. The latter had little battlefield prowess in Megatron’s opinion compared to a true warrior trained in all manners of fighting.

“Look at her, Thundercracker.” Knockout said to his daily drinking buddy as they watched a sparring match between Nightshade and Barricade. “Isn’t she just glorious to look at?”

“Good grief, is everything just appearances to you?” Thundercracker grumbled. Knockout frowned at him and pointed to the fight.

“Look at her and tell me that seeing her fight isn’t magical.”

Magical wouldn’t be the word to described her, but Thundercracker did agree it was entertaining to see. Nightshade was fast, unsurprising given her lithe form. Barricade attacked her with a series of punches and kicks that never connected because she would weave her body around his arms, deflecting his hands and feet to throw him off balance while pushing him back with strong palm strikes.

“Stand still!” Barricade grunted. He threw a punch at her face, but she smacked his arm aside and kicked his face. A spin-kick to the chest knocked him to the floor.

“Stand still? You think your enemies are just going to listen to you if you ask nicely?” Nightshade scolded.

Barricade growled and jumped up, trying to punch her, but missing by a few inches as she spun around his arm and grabbed it, pulling him close to her. Knockout and Thundercracker winced as she punched Barricade repeatedly in the face; the screech of her knuckles digging into his face plate was like the scratching of nails on a chalkboard. She finished her assault with a kick to the chest and leaped into the air, pulling him into her arms. Nightshade spun his body so his head was parallel to the ground and used the momentum of the fall to slam him into the floor. The impact was hard enough to send vibrations through the wing and make the other Cons wince.

“That’s…gonna leave a hangover in the morning.” Thundercracker whistled. He saw Rumble handing Frenzy a few energon goodies with a grumble.

“Told you she was magical.” Knockout grinned and sipped his drink. “Nightshade is one of the most skilled warriors among our ranks. Shame that such quality can’t be found anywhere else.”

“Beating Barricade in a fight is hardly what I call skill.” A haughty voice said.

“Speaking of low quality…” Thundercracker muttered, seeing Starscream and Skywarp walk up to them at the bar.

“You’re one to talk, Starscream. You can barely fight with your fists without worrying about getting dents in your little wings.” Rumble teased.

“Not surprisin’, seein’ as he fights like a blind protoforms.” Frenzy grinned.

“Screams like one too!” Leader-1 hollered.

The entire room erupted into laughter; with the other Cons throwing thinly disguised taunts and insults Starscream’s way. Skywarp stepped forward to defend his leader.

“Shut your mouths! Starscream is the greatest Seeker in Cybertronian history, and he’s an ace
in the skies!” He yelled. “Not even his sister could-“

“Skywarp!” Starscream hissed. Skywarp fell silent, realizing that he said the taboo word and softly apologized.

“Well since you think so highly of your own skills, Starscream, perhaps you would like to educate us…in the ring.” Nightshade smiled darkly as she said this and snapped her fingers. Soundwave stepped out of the shadows and entered the ring silently. Starscream muttered a curse when he realized what she was planning to do.

“How about a little match?” She suggested. “No guns, no blades, no slag. You and Soundwave with just your fists and your wits. How about it?”

The other Cons agreed with her wholeheartedly and were all eager for a fight, leaving
Starscream in a precarious position. Refusing the challenge in front of the entire team would make him look like a coward and essentially ruin his standing within the Decepticon ranks. But he also knew that Soundwave was a brutal and efficient fighter as well, which didn’t look good for his chances at victory. Clearing his throat, Starscream stepped into the ring as dignified as he could be in their one-sided fight.

“Very well, Nightshade, I accept your challenge.” He said calmly, smirking. “But don’t blame me when I beat your little pet within an inch of his life.”

Nightshade moved to exit the ring, but as she passed Soundwave, she whispered one order to him. “Make it hurt.”

The two combatants stood across each other in the ring, sizing up one another. Starscream waited for Soundwave to make his move, but the spymaster stood there like a statue, not even taking a stance. Scowling, Starscream decided to make the first move. With a yell, he ran forward and threw a punch at Soundwave, who swiftly dodged him and left him stumbling forward from his momentum. Starscream then saw Soundwave standing on his left.

Starscream growled and came at Soundwave with a flurry of punches and kicks at Soundwave, which were avoided with embarrassing ease. Starscream was no slouch in battle, but he was more adept at using his laser cannons and blades in conjunction with his natural agility. Not to mention Soundwave was well versed in the Seeker’s combat style. When Starscream launched a spin-kick at his head, Soundwave caught his leg and held it tightly.

At the bar, Rumble and Frenzy grinned at each other. Starscream was so dead.

With a hard yank, Soundwave sent Starscream spinning to the floor. Starscream jumped back up and fought back once more, and Soundwave would block each punch and kick thrown his way, retaliating with hard jabs that hurt but didn’t take the Seeker out of the fight. Starscream was losing his temper and his attacks were suffering because of it. Finally, Soundwave grabbed his fist and spun around, twisting his arm behind his back.

“Submit.” Soundwave demanded.

“Seekers n-never yield!” Starscream growled and spat at his face. Soundwave responded by pulling on his arm until there was a sickening crack. Starscream gave a pained cry, but it was barely heard over the roar of the spectators cheering for Soundwave.

“Well, it seems Soundwave has won.” Nightshade said mildly, but her smirk betrayed her amusement. “And you lost.”

Starscream said nothing as he held his broken arm. Soundwave retreated from the ring as Nightshade added insult to injury.

“Just comes to show that you aren’t tough slag after all.” She went on to say. “Better luck never, Starscream.”

Knockout, who was silent the entire fight, leaned over to Thundercracker. “Watch out for the quiet ones.”

XXXXXX

“And that is how we synthesize energon.” Wheeljack said after finally finishing his rather lengthy explanation on how artificial energon was made.

“Wow. That’s…a lot to take in.” Annie said in unrestrained awe.

The girl was tagging behind Wheeljack and Bulkhead as they worked on checking the Ark’s energon stores, with cubes filled with blue liquid synthesized from energy produced by the Ark’s solar receptors. Considering they were going to be on Terra for quite some time now, the Autobots made sure their supplies was sufficient for the long term mission, since Terra’s energon stores were few in number despite the Decepticons uncovering them. Wheeljack had explained how artificial energon was created from external sources like solar energy. The science behind it was seriously advanced, and most of it went over her head, but Annie knew it was cool all the same.

Once Wheeljack filled up the last cube, he handed some to Bulkhead and they walked out of the storage area toward the rec room to replace the tanks behind the bar. Annie was sitting on Bulkhead’s shoulder as they talked.

“So if you guys can make your own energon, then it shouldn’t be too different for you, right?” Annie asked.

“Synthesizing energon takes time and uses more energy than necessary. And in combat operations, energon is used more than we can make.” Bulkhead explained. “It’s easier to just mine raw energon and use it, but natural energon can only be found on Cybertron and its moons.”

“And yet there’s energon on this planet.” Annie said, gaining a nod from the two mechs. “So…if energon’s so hard to find and make these days, can’t you just chug down oil or something?”

“Only if we’re really desperate. Our systems were made for consuming and processing energon, and while we can ingest other fuel sources like oil and gas, it doesn’t sit well with us.” Bulkhead told her. “Imagine dumping sugar into a car engine.”

“Or drinking processed hephaestium.” Wheeljack muttered.

Wheeljack winced at that thought. He tried creating a new form of energon out of processed hephaestium and taste tested the multi-colored drink himself. The results were…less than pleasant. His memory of the incident was still a bit hazy, but according to Ratchet, he was spewing flames from every opening in his armor like he was overheating and he was talking so fast that his vocoder almost shorted out. And according to Arcee, he tried to pass through objects by running into them very hard. That wasn’t even two months into their stay on Terra.

“We’ve been mining energon on Terra for the entire year we were here; see how this planet’s able to grow the little things. Despite the Cons being here longer than us, there are tons of untouched deposits just sitting out there, ripe for the taking.” Bulkhead said.

“You ever thought about using hephaestium to power the Ark instead of energon to save more?” Annie suggested.

“That’s a work in progress.” Wheeljack said. “I still need time to make sure it’s compatible
with the Ark’s systems before shoving tons of hephaestium into the engines.”

“That’s cool.” Annie smiled “You can’t get through life without taking a few risks, right?”

“Wrong.” They looked up to see Prowl marching toward them with his signature frown on his face. “Taking unnecessary risks will only lead to disaster for all parties involved.”

He set his eyes on Wheeljack, who was expecting the hard stare from the black and white tactician. “Wheeljack, bear in mind that if you’re wrong, you could risk severely damaging the Ark’s systems beyond repair and setting us back in a very dangerous situation.”

“I’m well aware of that, Prowl.” Wheeljack sighed.

Prowl then set his eyes on Bulkhead. “Bulkhead, I shouldn’t have to remind you that you are forbidden from telling a native of our technology and science. That’s against protocol and the Tyrest Accord.”

“Yes, Prowl.” Bulkhead said. Prowl gave Annie a look, which she returned without hesitation. He
sniffed and passed them to walk further down the hall.

“Who **** in his cornflakes?” Annie sneered at Prowl’s back, jerking a thumb at him.

“Don’t take it personally. Prowl’s a bit of a stickler for rules and regulations, but not as much as Ultra Magnus. He’s a hard ass, but he means well.” Bulkhead said.

“A bit?” Annie said.

“That’s just how he is. He takes his job a bit too seriously and it grinds some of the others’ gears.” Wheeljack said.

“Doesn’t mean he has to be an asshole about it.” She muttered.

Of all the Autobots, Prowl seemed to be the only one who was against allowing the children access to the Ark. he somehow managed to display a stoic hostility towards them while keeping his professional attitude. To Prowl, the children were a security risk and a liability, a distraction keeping the team from focusing on their jobs. He would constantly talk to Optimus about keeping the kids in containment during their visits for security reasons and Optimus would always deny him. These discussions always ended with both mechs glaring at each other like male lions.

“Yo, Jackie!” Jazz strolled up to the engineer and swung an arm around his shoulders. “How’s it hangin’?”

“Whatever it is, Jazz, no.” Wheeljack said.

“But I didn’t say anything.”

“You don’t need to. I can tell I’m not going to like it.”

“Well, this is important. Teletran just detected another Minicon and you’ve just volunteered to be my partner on this mission.” Jazz grinned. Wheeljack groaned.

“Jazz, I’m busy with my work, and they-“

“Can wait. Those death machines of yours will still be here when you get back. Liftor can watch
over thins until you get back.” Jazz dragged Wheeljack away from Annie and Bulkhead, leaving the duo alone.

“That was random.” Annie hummed.

“Yup,” Bulkhead agreed. He gave his little companion a grin. “You wanna do some off-roading?”

“Hell yeah!” She grinned.

XXXXXX

Thundercracker was afraid of very few things in life. Why be afraid of enemies bound to earth when he ruled the skies with his brothers and sisters? That’s not to say that he was entirely fearless; there was that time when he was stuck on a moon with Sunstorm infested with Scraplets, that time he was stuck on a planet full of green skinned giants who thought he was a toy (Slipstream had a good laugh out of that one), but nothing compared to the fear of pissing Megatron off, which was ironic considering his commander made a career out of doing just that.

“For the record guys, if Megatron finds out about this, I’m selling you two out.” Thundercracker reminded his comrades as he loaded another energon cube into the crate.

The Seeker trio was inside an energon cave that still remained off the grid (thanks in part to
Knockout’s efforts). None of the other Cons knew about this largely untouched mine, and thus it served as the Seekers’ personal stash. Starscream assured his team that Megatron would never find out about this, and though Skywarp trusted his commander’s decisions completely, Thundercracker still had some reservations that he had no problem making known.

“Megatron won’t know a thing, Thundercracker,” Starscream said, giving the blue Seeker a glare. “So long as you keep your mouth shut.”

“Yeah, chill out, Thundercracker. Even Soundwave and his pets won’t be able to find us with all this energon masking out signals.” Skywarp said. “We’re safe!”

Thundercracker could only give a little grunt in response. As a Seeker of Vos, he was taught
from birth that the Seekers looked after themselves and were loyal only to each other. As a group, they did not adhere to one person, even to Megatron to a certain extent. This load of absolute loyalty is the only reason he was still associating himself with these morons. Sure, the last Seeker commander was a nutcase, but at least she was somewhat competent…not entirely sane, but still competent.

Once they were done storing the energon cubes in one of the tunnels in the back of the cave, they left the mine and Starscream placed a Holomatter generator to clock the entrance. He made an annoyed grunt when he heard his comm beep.

“What is it? I’m busy?” Starscream said rudely.

“Even too busy for a Minicon, Starscream? That’s a shame, since I thought you’d jump at the chance to have one of your own.” Nightshade didn’t even try to hide the mockery in her voice.

“What are you talking about?” Starscream asked. He was no in the mood to deal with her right now.

“A stasis panel has been detected in eastern Emmeria, inside the Republic of Francois. Since you three are already out in the field, I figured you would want the honor of retrieving it. Give yourself a chance to wipe the stench of your earlier defeat clean.”

“Fine, I get it. We’ll be on our way.” Starscream grumbled and nodded to his team. But she wasn’t done yet.

“One more thing. I don’t need to remind you not to draw attention to yourselves. Three jets flying over a city isn’t exactly a normal sight in Emmeria.”

“I know dammit! Don’t lecture me about protocol on my operation!”

“Alright, but do try not to get your ass beat by a scout again, okay?” Nightshade said before signing off. Starscream gave a frustrated yell before shifting to jet mode and shooting into the
sky with his Seekers.

‘When I get my Minicon, the first thing I’ll do is use my new power to scrap that glitch and her silent boy toy!’ Starscream thought angrily.

XXXXXX

Rouen was one of the many popular cities in the country of the Francois republic. It was situated on top of a massive river known as the River Siene, which ran through the middle of the city. Much like many other cities in Francois, Rouen was truly beautiful to look at, and the view of the afternoon sunlight reflecting off the river was a glorious sight to see.

“Jazz.”

“Huh?” the Autobot, or rather his holo-avatar, looked back at Wheeljack.

“Can we get on with the mission?” Wheeljack sighed. “We can sightsee another time.”

“Relax, Wheeljack. No harm in sneakin’ little snapshots on the job.” Jazz looked back out to the river and sighed blissfully. “I got to take the kids here sometime in the future.”

The pair were parked on a side street near the river in vehicle mode. Their holomatters were
activated; Jazz’s avatar was a snazzy looking black man with sunglasses on and Wheeljack’s avatar was a rather average Caucasian man with who looked like he toiled around in a mechanics shop.

“So, do you have a read on the panel’s location?” jazz asked.

“I think so. It’s not in the city, but somewhere in the forests outside Rouen, just along the river.” Wheeljack said. “So long as we stay close to the river, we shouldn’t have any problems.”

“Darn. Wanted to spend some time scouting the city.”

“You call it scouting. I call it fooling around.” Wheeljack huffed. “Focus on the mission, Jazz. The Decepticons might already be on our tail.”

“Relax, Jackie, we’ll get it. Now, let’s boogey. We’re losing daylight.”

The avatars vanished as the two Autobots drove down the narrow cobblestone streets towards the outer parts of the city. It was going to be a long drive to their destination, but Jazz enjoyed any chance for some peace and quiet.

High above the city, Starscream’s team flew at sub-sonic speeds towards the area where the stasis panel was located. Their scanners were on maximum output as they searched for the panel’s exact location.

“Any sign of our quarry?” Starscream asked.

“Nothing. The signal’s faint. It’s probably underground.” Thundercracker said. Starscream grunted in displeasure. He hated going underground; no room to maneuver. No room to fly.

“Boss, I just caught sight of something you might want to see.” Skywarp said.

“What is it?”

“Two little Autobots scurrying along the ground like ants.” Skywarp chuckled. “Can we snuff ‘em
out boss?”

“Why not? I’m willing to indulge in a little game of hunt the Autobot.” Starscream replied. He needed to vent out his pent up frustrations.

XXXXXX

Jazz and Wheeljack drove along the dirt path leading out of Rouen into the wilderness, making sure to stay near the river as much as possible. Things were quiet so far, and for Jazz, it wasn’t the ideal way to spend a mission. So he decided to liven things up a bit.

“Let’s play a game to pass the time. I know one Annie taught me recently.” Jazz said. “It’s called I Spy.”

“No.”

“I spy with my little eye, something…green.”

“Trees.” Wheeljack sighed.

“Ding, ding! You got it~” Jazz laughed. This was definitely as much fun Annie said it would be. “Now you try me. Come on!”

If Wheeljack could, he would’ve rolled his eyes. “I spy with my little eye, something…blue.”

“The river!”

“Ding, ding, you got it on the first try.” Wheeljack drawled, not sounding excited at all. Jazz’s enthusiasm could be tiresome sometimes. “Jazz, how much farther do we have to go?”

“Just another mile or so. At our speed, we’ll be there in no time.” Jazz said. Something suddenly clicked in his mind and his keen instincts told him to glance upward, where he saw three objects diving towards them at high speeds. “Incoming!”

They split apart to avoid the three missiles that hit the ground. Dirt and water flew everywhere as the riverbed went up in flames from the missile strike that almost destroyed the two Autobots. Jazz and Wheeljack shifted into their robot modes and took out their weapons. They saw a familiar red and silver jet fly low over them before transforming into a bipedal form and
landed on solid ground.

“Starscream. What a surprise to see you this fine afternoon. I take it that your cronies are somewhere nearby. You rarely go anywhere without them.” Jazz said idly, calmly pointing his photon rifle at Starscream’s head. “You here for the scenery?”

“I don’t have time for your pointless chatter, Autobot.” Starscream growled. “I’m here to claim what is rightfully mine, and you two can’t stop me.”

“I didn’t know you owned another being’s life.” Wheeljack said scathingly. Starscream smirked.

“Everything in this galaxy belongs to me. The universe just doesn’t know it yet.” He said haughtily and extended his arm cannons. “Kill them, my brothers!”

Skywarp materialized above the Autobots and attacked them, but Jazz and Wheeljack jumped apart. When they saw Thundercracker charging at them for a fight, they quickly chose their opponents; Jazz chose to fight Thundercracker, leaving Wheeljack with Skywarp. Starscream took the initiative as he sprinted at Jazz, extending his bayonets, and Jazz went to meet his challenge
head on.

Starscream spun around to slash his blades at Jazz’s head, but the Autobot ducked under his blades and leapt up, slamming his knee into his face. Starscream stumbled back but recovered quickly, blocking a kick sent at his head and punching Jazz to the ground. Jazz hit the ground but spun his legs around in a whirlwind kick that knocked back Starscream and Thundercracker. The red Seeker fired his cannons at Jazz’s feet, and the Autobot backpedaled into Thundercracker’s range, who proceeded to assault Jazz with a flurry of surprisingly skillful
sword attacks that kept him on his toes.

“You’re really good.” Jazz commented, blocking a kick. “You practice?”

“When you live with the mechs on my team, you learn a thing or two.” Thundercracker replied and leapt back. “Like this!”

Thundercracker clapped his hands and sent a powerful sonic boom that reverberated throughout the forest. It was like thunder, and any animals that weren’t yet scared by the fighting were chased off by the sonic boom, and the brunt of his was directed at Jazz. Jazz positioned his body in such a way that he wouldn’t be seriously hurt by the sonic attack, but even then it hit him with great concussive force, blasting him off his feet. Starscream boosted in his direction and Jazz forced his body to ignore the pain to spin around in mid-flight and kick Starscream out of his way before the Seeker could impale him on his blade. He hit the ground on his back and rolled upright, only to get a pulse blast to the shoulder.

“Shame I can’t say the same for you.” Thundercracker said with his smoking cannons pointed at Jazz.

Meanwhile, Wheeljack was leading Skywarp on a wild chase into the forest. Trees were torn apart in showers of bark and leaves as Skywarp tried to gun down Wheeljack with his 55mm machine guns, and large clumps of dirt and rock were blown up by the occasional missile he fired at the Autobot. Skywarp couldn’t get a good lock on Wheeljack thanks to the trees and the thick canopy prevented him from flying lower to the ground, but he still managed to keep up a good pace.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Skywarp taunted. He teleported in Wheeljack’s path and fired his cannons. They would’ve scored a direct hit on Wheeljack had they not passed through him. “Huh?”

“Nowhere.” Wheeljack jumped down from the branch he was sitting on and landed on top of Skywarp’s jet form. Taking out a needle, Wheeljack injected something into Skywarp and jumped off.

“You little glitch! I’m gonna-huh?” Skywarp tried to teleport, but all he managed was having his body fizzle slightly before returning to normal. “What the hell is this?”

“A power dampener designed for outliers like you. I was getting sick of that particular magic trick and decided to do something about it. Thanks for being my guinea pig, I hadn’t really tested this thing out before.” Wheeljack said. Skywarp gritted his teeth but reigned in his anger.

“Whatever, I don’t need my powers to scrap you! I still have my guns!” Skywarp growled. Wheeljack shrugged and raised his hands.

“And I have mine.” His hands shifted into a pair of large blasters and fired them at Skywarp. The first few blasts took off chunks of Skywarp’s armor and he was forced into cover behind a tree.

If there was one thing to be wary of when fighting Wheeljack, it’s his ingenuity. Wheeljack was always upgrading or creating new innovations, mostly weapons or custom made grenades that did everything other than explode. His blaster arms were just one of his main weapons that he rarely used for surprise effect, and it worked almost every time.

Wheeljack cut his assault short to shift his right arm into another weapon-a solar energy whip. Pulling his arm back, he cracked the whip forward and it cut straight through the tree between him and Skywarp. Skywarp wasn’t expecting to be forced out into the open so soon, nor was he expecting the whip to hit him in the chest and send him sprawling. Cursing, he transformed to jet mode, but a rocket from one of Wheeljack’s shoulder launchers hit his left wing and knocked him into a tree.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the rocket wasn’t even a regular rocket, it was some shrapnel warhead that exploded on contact and riddled Skywarp with a rain of razor sharp filaments that tore into his armor painfully.

“How many weapons do you fragging have?!” Skywarp shouted.

Jazz was still fighting Starscream and Thundercracker, and despite the jokes he made about the Seekers, he would be hard pressed to say they were slackers when it came to combat. Starscream was very well at home with his blades, slashing at Jazz while Thundercracker would hang back a bit to fire at his with his canons. There was a level of cohesion between the two Seekers that Jazz didn’t expect from someone like Starscream, but Seekers had a habit of surprising you in the subtlest of ways. Even still, he wasn’t a cyber-ninja for nothing.

Jazz ducked under an overhead kick from Thundercracker and grabbed his leg, spinning his body around to use momentum to grant him the strength to throw the larger mech into Starscream. It was only by dumb luck that Starscream didn’t accidentally skewer Thundercracker on his bayonets.

“Get off me!” Starscream shoved Thundercracker off and glared at Jazz. “How the hell can he last so long against us? We outnumber him!”

“He’s Prime’s cyber-ninja. Those guys can do some pretty freaky things.” Thundercracker said, getting to his feet. “But with any luck, Skywarp will be here to give us a helping hand.”

Just as he said that, Skywarp came flying out of the forest covered in burns and bleeding cuts
with hundreds of sharp metal fragments sticking out of his armor. He crashed into Thundercracker and they both hit the ground as Wheeljack jogged out after him. Seeing the sorry state his team was in, Starscream growled angrily and sheathed his blades.

“Enough of this slag! I won’t be embarrassed by two Autobots!” Starscream raged. “You two, hold
them off!”

“While you do what?” Thundercracker growled. He wasn’t in the mood for Starscream to pull some disappearing act.
Starscream didn’t answer, which confirmed Thundercracker’s fears. The Seeker commander ignited his boosters and flew into the air, hovering over the clearing just over the treetops. He reached into his hip compartment and took out a spherical object while glaring down at the Autobots.

“For you, Autobots, with love!” he grinned and threw the object down at them before transforming and flying away.

Wheeljack was the first to realize what the object was and leapt at Jazz while activating his overshield. Seconds before he reached Jazz, there was a deafening boom, followed by a bright flash of light and then a heavy pressure wave slammed into him, and he blacked out before he hit the ground.

XXXXXX

Starscream followed the beacon to a small, barely noticeable cave entrance near the river that he almost missed had he not been so close to the ground. One would’ve completely overlooked the opening had they been traveling by land, as the waters near the area were choppy and violent. He landed in knee deep water and entered the cave, grimacing at how cold and wet the place was.

“I hate this planet. If it isn’t a scorching hot desert, then it’s a freezing wasteland. I can’t wait to turn this rock into a smoldering husk.” Starscream grumbled.

He traversed into the innermost cavern deeper inside the cave. With barely any light from
outside, the caverns only light source came from the underwater hephaestium crystals that made the water glow faintly. Starscream’s eyes scanned the water, but he couldn’t find the tell tale glow of the stasis panel despite it being so close.

‘Where is it? That accursed trinket must be close by.’ Starscream thought. it was small enough to be held by a human child, so locating the panel would be a little difficulty with it being so small. But he wasn’t going to give up this far into the game.

It took him a few minutes, but then he noticed the green glow coming from the water near the center of the cave. He jumped into the water and wadded toward the glowing object, grinning in victory as he saw the outline of the embedded in the rock.

“Yes! It’s mine!” He exclaimed and ducked underwater. He fired his cannons and destroyed the rock holding it before snatching the panel up and resurfacing. “Finally! My own Minicon!”

Starscream laughed triumphantly as he held up his prize and his grin widened further when he detected the unique signature coming from it. It was a Decepticon Minicon as well! What a grand day this turned out to be!

The panel scanned his biosignature and dissolved to release the Minicon inside. Multicolored particles reformed into a physical shape and Starscream was given his first look at his new partner.

The Minicon was small and angular with smooth, straight planes along his body, with an aerodynamic frame built for speed with little resistance. He was red with yellow eyes and a black face plate. His body was twitching sporadically like he was suffering from some kind of indefinite electrical surge, but his expression showed no discomfort. The Minicon looked up at the smirking Starscream and whistled.

“Damn, you’re definitely not a pretty face to look up to.” He said.

Starscream’s grin evaporated from his face in a heartbeat at the crass comment. “Show me respect, Minicon! I am your new master!”

“Yeah, yeah, Decepticon superiority and all that.” The Minicon waved him off. “So…who are you again?”

“Starscream, commander of the Seekers and future leader of the Decepticons.” He answered with a grumble. He would get stuck with a foul-mouthed little scraplet. “And you are?”

“Grid’s the name, flyboy. And despite that ugly mug of yours, I can see you’re gonna be lots of fun.” Grid’s eyes glinted with a murderous gleam. “So who are we gonna kill today?”

XXXXXX

“…ackie…Jackie…”

“Please stop yelling.” Wheeljack groaned as he regained consciousness. His head was ringing like a church bell and his body ached like Omega Supreme punted him across the Hydrax
Plateau. “Jazz…is that you?”

“Hey, buddie.” Jazz smiled down at him. “How you feelin’?”

“Like I got trampled by a herd of Thunderhooves.” Wheeljack replied and say up with some help
from Jazz.

“At least you’re doing better than those two.” Jazz nodded at the still unconscious Seekers just two feet from them. You save me from the brunt of the blast wave but those two were the first to get hit. Whatever Starscream hit us with took them out seconds before it did us.”

“A concussion bomb. Those things are nasty if they hit you at close range.” Wheeljack said. “That two-step scraphead tried to flatten us without a care for his team.”

“It’s Starscream, he has a reputation for screwing people over.” Jazz rolled his shoulders and looked around. “Speaking of cowardly assholes, where is that that scratchy voiced buffoon?”

“At the panel’s location no doubt. We’ve got to catch up to him. Who knows how large a head start he has on us.” Wheeljack said.

They transformed to vehicle mode and drove away from the ravaged riverside as fast as they could. It took them almost fifteen minutes to reach the cove by land, where they were forced to go on foot. Jazz, being flashy, sped off a slippery rock and leapt into the cave in a single bound, changing form in mid-air and hitting the water in a roll, stopping in a crouch with his photon rifle drawn. Wheeljack just grappled onto a rock and swung himself down into the cave.

“Was that really necessary?” He asked.

“I don’t know,” Jazz grinned. “You tell me.”

They walked deeper into the cave, mindful of their surroundings. Wheeljack checked the scanner to see how close they were and was worried when he saw that the beacon was gone.

“Jazz, I’m not seeing the panel’s signal anymore.” He said.

“Damn. We’re too late.” Jazz said.

“You’ve got that right, Autobot.”

A red energy bolt shot through the air and hit Wheeljack in the chest. He was knocked backwards into a stalagmite and didn’t get up. Jazz ran over to him and found that his partner had been blasted into stasis lock, though the bolt only left a moderate burn on his chest. That was only one shot!

He looked up and saw Starscream standing atop a stone pillar. His right arm had changed into a glowing red cannon crackling with energy, with a tiny black and red race car connected to his forearm-the Minicon!

“How do you like my new toy?” Starscream laughed. “It’s a null ray. One shot will shut you down
in a Spark pulse. Took your friend out in one short, and it was only at half power. I wonder what happens when I amp up the power output.”

Jazz wasn’t going to let him get another shot off. He fired his grappling hook and pulled himself into the air just as Starscream fired a null blast at him. He twisted his body in the air and fired a few blasts from his photon rifle, not at Starscream but at the cave ceiling.

“Your aim must be lacking.” Starscream laughed. He prepared to fire another null blast, but failed to notice the falling rocks until a large boulder hit him in the head. More boulders crashed onto him followed by a stalactite. He was knocked off his perch and hit the water, with the rocks pinning his large body halfway underwater. Jazz landed next to him and pointed his photon rifle at Starscream’s half submerged head.

“You’re one to talk about poor aim.” Jazz quipped. He pulled the trigger but a missile flew out of the darkness and hit him in the shoulder. He staggered back from the projectile and rolled aside to avoid the second missile, clutching his damaged shoulder. Thundercracker and Skywarp appeared and dug up their leader.

“You’re lucky we’re loyal to you or we would’ve let you drown you bastard.” Thundercracker growled. Starscream ignored him and glared at Jazz.

“Until next time, Jazz!” Starscream said. Skywarp placed a hand on their shoulders and called
upon his warping ability. In a bright purple flash, all three Cons were gone along with the Minicon.

Jazz sighed and put his rifle away. Another Minicon lost to the Cons, Prowl was definitely not going to be happy about this. For a stone cold tactician who based his entire military career on logistics and probability, he was also a very sore loser. Turning to Wheeljack, he saw that the engineer was still out like a light from the null blast and would probably be like that for a few hours at least.

“Well, Jackie,” Jazz said to his unconscious partner. “That turned out to be an eventful day.”

XXXXXX

“So this is what the Nemesis looks like from the inside. Why is everything so purple? I mean, I know that’s our main color and everything with the whole purple insignia, but this dim lighting is an eyesore. How can anyone see in here, because holy slag I can barely see my fingers…”

Starscream groaned as he was forced to listen to Grid’s constant chatter. With Knockout hard at work on fixing his wounds from earlier, he couldn’t move to another room or even smack the little freak unconscious. Skywarp and Thundercracker were in the CR chamber recovering from the internal damages they sustained from the concussion bomb. Knockout didn’t bother hiding his amusement at his patient’s discomfort.

“You certainly know how to pick ‘em.” He remarked.

“Shut up.” Starscream hissed. Grid paused and looked up at him.

“Wait, are you tellin’ me to shut up, or him? Because I don’t appreciate being told to shut up by a guy who got his ass handed to him in a cave-“

Starscream’s gnashed teeth caused sparks to fly as he forced himself not to murder the little git on the spot. “Would you just go to-“

“Starscream.” Everyone quieted down upon seeing Nightshade enter the medibay. Starscream
roughly pushed Knockout away and stood up with a grimace.

“Nightshade, I have completed the mission with flying colors.” He said curtly. “This is my Minicon, Grid.”

“So you finally won yourself a Minicon partner. Very good.” She said with a small nod.

“It wasn’t that hard, really. I even managed to take out an Autobot with my new…partner.” The
Seeker had to force the word out. “And I got him with my own two hands.”

‘Much more than you’ve ever done in this operation.’ He thought scathingly.

“Yes, you took an Autobot out of the fight. But know that unless you see the light leave their eyes, they’ll keep coming back. You should know that by now. So unless you’ve blown a hole straight through their Spark core, the Autobot might still be alive. Wounded, but still alive, no matter how splendidly you did.” Nightshade said, not taking her eyes off him. “Don’t flatter yourself, Starscream. You won one battle; you didn’t defeat Unicron with your bare hands.”

“B-But I fought off two Autobots and got the damn Minicon by myself!”

“At the cost of not only incapacitating two of your subordinates on the field and abandoning them to go off on your own.” She replied. She walked forward slowly, like a predator getting into position to attack. “Thundercracker told me about that stunt you pulled with the concussion bomb. You left two of your mechs to the Autobots mercy, along and undefended.”

“W-Well, you see…”

“And you shouldn’t be bragging about victory considering the Autobot Jazz still managed to pin
you under a boulder despite having no Minicon and Thundercracker and Skywarp had to bail you out!”

Starscream could only stammer as Nightshade mercilessly tore his victory apart, verbally abusing him with words as sharp as a laser scalpel. Knockout stood off to the side watching it happen with his usual cocky grin. This was gold.

“Megatron may condone the sacrificing of soldiers to complete the mission, but I will not,” Nightshade continued. She took out one of her black feathers and stabbed it into Starscream’s shoulder before twisting it in the wound painfully and bringing him to his knees. “Pull a stunt like that again and I will break every steel bone in your body before tossing you into the brig. I will not have you put valuable soldiers at risk just because of your damn superiority complex.
Are we clear, Starscream?”

“Y-yes, Nightshade.” Starscream whimpered in pain, trying not to scream from the searing pain in his shoulder. Of course she’d manage to stab a sensitive part of his armature!

“Good.” Nightshade took the feather out and gave him a reprieve. She nodded to Knockout and
left the medibay. Starscream seethed in anger and embarrassment as Grid walked up to him to watch her go. He then chose this moment to ask a very inappropriate question.

“So…is she your ex or something?”