Fanfiction part 4

STOP!!! This isn't the beginning! This is!

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you haven't seen all of Transformers Prime and Predacons Rising, and read Transformers: Exodus, go no further! I refer to major plot developments that will give spoilers, and also half of this story won't make any sense if you don't read the novel. You really ought to play Fall of Cybertron and/ or read the Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics as well. Everyone should, just because they are so awesome. 

Legal stuff: I don't own any of these characters or settings and this is just a fan work.

Last time Starscream hung out in Shockwave's lab for a bit before getting into yet another alteration with a Predacon (they don't like to be hit with shock prods, but he never seems to learn that....) He managed to scramble into the ground bridge after dealing Soundwave a setback...

Starscream stepped out of the ground bridge into a construction site in Kaon. Several bots, including a couple of Autobots, all turned to look at him. He put his hands up.

“I surrender!” he said, then Wheeljack punched him in the face and he blacked out.

 Ratchet opened the ground bridge as requested and the Autobots waited with weapons armed. After a long interval, Starscream emerged, his hands in cuffs, accompanied by Bulkhead and Smokescreen.

“What happened to you?” Ratchet said, looking him over. His damage was every bit as bad as Megatron had described back when Soundwave had reappeared and taken Starscream, and it did not appear that Shockwave had bothered to repair much of it since then. He was limping, and missing a wing, and was covered in gashes and burns.

“Predacons happened to me,” Starscream growled, “and since Predacons seem to be the trend for Decepticon foot soldiers now, I have decided to part ways with that faction.”

“Why should we believe that for a second?” Arcee asked, keeping her guns on him. “You seemed pretty set on remaining a Decepticon, even after Megatron ended the war.”

“That was before this happened!” He took in all of his injuries with a gesture, and his wing drooped a little. “I’ve learned my lesson, and now I only want to help.”

“Uh-huh,” Ratchet said as he ushered Starscream over to a medical bed. “And isn’t this the part where you offer to trade us information in exchange for medical attention?”

“As a matter of fact, it is,” said Starscream. “I am prepared to sell out their entire operation, just as soon as you make me whole.” He held up his cuffed hands and smiled. “For starters…”

Smokescreen looked at Ratchet, who nodded, and opened the manacles.

“Well?” asked Ratchet.

“You’ll be pleased to know,” Starscream said, rubbing his wrists, “that I have taken Laserbeak out of commission for a while. This is an opportunity that will likely not come again. I’m not sure how long it will take Soundwave to repair him though.”

“All right,” said Arcee. “Talk fast.”

Starscream slumped against the bed. “I – I don’t know if I remember everything. Those Predacons really worked me over. I’ve never recovered.” He coughed weakly.

Ratchet rolled his eyes. “You can talk while I work on you. Maybe it will keep the whining to a minimum.”

It didn’t. Starscream squirmed and carried on about everything Ratchet did, but he did deliver one or two bits of intel.

“Shockwave is in Tarn, deep underneath the half of the city he didn’t turn to slag. He and Soundwave are in the process of testing their capabilities from within the Shadowzone.”

“The Shadowzone?” Ratchet repeated, amazed.

“It is another dimension, alongside this one,” Starscream explained.

“I know what it is,” said Ratchet, to Starscream’s annoyance. “We knew Soundwave had gotten himself out, but are you saying he can enter and leave it at will?”

“He figured out the math. He does things like that. Shockwave intends to move his entire operation into that dimension, making him untouchable, and Soundwave will doubtless use it to spy invisibly. He could be watching us right now.” He looked around nervously, then smiled. “But hopefully he is still trying to put Laserbeak back together. Ha. Laserbeak. Finally got him. Ha ha – Ow!” He jerked his shoulder away from Ratchet and glared at him. Ratchet gripped Starscream’s arm and continued scanning.

“It would hurt less if you’d hold still!”

Starscream grumbled something, but complied.

“How’d you get the drop on Laserbeak?” Smokescreen asked. “He’s so quick.”

“So am I,” Starscream sniffed. “I managed to get him between me and one of Shockwave’s Predacons.”

“I see you get along with your cohorts as well as ever,” Arcee said. “And Predacon fury isn’t something you can talk your way out of.”

Starscream managed a haughty snort in between wincing and flinching away from Ratchet.

“They are completely unreasonable. Ow! Watch what you’re doing! That’s not supposed to bend that way!”

“Oh for the love of Primus!” Ratchet picked up another control pad. “I’m inducing stasis.”

“No you don’t!” Starscream grabbed for the control pad and his arm fell to the floor with a clang. They both looked at it in silence for a moment.

“There, you see?” Starscream said, gesturing with his other arm. “Look what you’ve done.”

Ratchet picked up the arm and pointed it at Starscream. “This might have more to do with you antagonizing Predacons than with me barely looking at it.”

Starscream snatched his arm back. “Why do you assume it was my fault? Those brutes – ah!” He grabbed his side and doubled over, then looked at his hand. It was covered in Energon.

“I’m leaking! Curse Shockwave and his shoddy repairs!” he said, then cried out in pain and crumpled to the floor. He tried to get up, but the red glow in his eyes flickered and he collapsed again. Some of his damaged plating fell off, revealing dozens of tiny machines moving amongst his wiring. A shower of sparks rained from the wound.

“Scraplets!” yelled Bulkhead, backing away.

“Ratchet, get back!” cried Smokescreen, shoving the medic aside and pulling Starscream in the opposite direction. He detonated an EMP grenade, knocking out the three closest bots, Bulkhead, Starscream, and himself, who all fell in a heap.

Ratchet shook his head – he had been close enough to the grenade to feel its dizzying effects – and picked up Starscream’s detached arm.

“Not scraplets,” he said, shaking several tiny, unconscious machines into his hand. “These are smaller, and I don’t think they’re naturally occurring. This is sabotage.”

“Or tying up loose ends,” Arcee said. “Shockwave must have known Starscream would try to doublecross him, and planted these on him when he repaired the damage from Predaking.”

Ratchet frowned. “Trust Shockwave to come up with such a horrific means of assassination.” He knelt beside the unconscious bots and rolled Smokescreen off of Starscream, then scanned the Seeker.

“He’s still alive. Barely. Help me get him up.”

They eased Starscream onto the bed, carefully, since there was no telling what internal damage the mini scraplets had done. Arcee laid his arm and the plating that had fallen off beside him and watched Ratchet plug an Energon feed into his chest.

“He’s an awful lot of trouble,” she sighed. “And we don’t even know if we can trust the intel he’s supposedly going to provide. And we certainly can’t trust him.”

 “Agreed,” said Ratchet, “but we can at least trust that without medical attention, he will not survive.” He paused. “Don’t say anything, Arcee.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything.” She turned to Smokescreen and Bulkhead. “Out loud, anyway.”

Ratchet tried not to smile as he went to wake the unconscious bots up.

---

Many long, tense cycles later, Ratchet switched off his frame welder and laid it on a workbench to cool.

“How’s he doing?” asked Bumblebee.

Ratchet shrugged. “His internal injuries are quite severe. I’ve stabilized him for now, but if he’s actually going to recover he’ll need a better surgeon than me.” He waved away Bumblebee’s protest. “As if the original damage from the Predacons wasn’t bad enough, I’ll have to undo most of Shockwave’s initial repairs, if you can call them that, and his assassination attempt targeted all Starscream’s vital systems. I’m bringing in something of a specialist – he just doesn’t know it yet.”

Bumblebee looked up at the sound of loud voices coming down the hall.

“I told you I can’t stay. I’m busy!” It was Knockout, and when Bumblebee leaned into the hall to look, he saw Smokescreen walking with him,

“Busy with what?” asked Smokescreen.

“Preparing to get rich! I am going to be Cybertron’s first importer of fine automotive detailing products. We still have space bridge access to Earth, and if there’s one thing humans do right, it’s building and maintaining beautiful automobiles. When bots start coming back to Cybertron from all over space, I’m willing to bet they’ll be pretty scratched up. I can fix that.”

Smokescreen looked at his own finish and picked at some flaking paint. Knockout slapped him on the back.

“I still have some carnauba wax in my own stash. I’ll hook you up, and you’ll be a customer for life. And when I make enough money, I’ll start importing Earth cars to scan. Those bots from Velocitron will flip over some exotic new alt-modes.”

Smokescreen laughed. “It looks like you’ve got it all figured out. Oh, hey Bumblebee.”

They entered the command center and Knockout turned to Bumblebee.

“Oh, hey, it’s a good thing I came over. I’ve been meaning to ask you, do you think you could help me arrange some kind of deal with that human agent friend of yours? And maybe smooth over the whole kidnapping him in my trunk incident?” Bumblebee shrugged and led them through to the next room. Knockout trotted to catch up.

“Intergalactic trade is new to me, and you’ve got connections on – wha? What is he doing here?” Knockout stared at Starscream, who was still in stasis in a nest of life support cables. “And what happened to him?”

“First Predacons, then Shockwave,” said Ratchet.

Knockout turned around. “Serves him right.”

“No argument here,” Ratchet said, “but I need your help to repair him.”

“Why should I?”

Ratchet walked over to him and tried to look him in the eye, but Knockout turned away again, glaring at Starscream.

“You’re more experienced than I am,” Ratchet said.

“Oh, really, old timer? And how’s that?”

“I guarantee you’ve worked on more Seekers than I have. When their Air Commander declared for the Decepticons,” he waved his hand at Starscream, “only a tiny handful of Seekers defected to the Autobot side. And most of them didn’t last long. Flying anatomy is highly specialized. Make a weld too thick, and it can interfere with aerodynamics, or even transformation. Too thin, and it may not stand up to the stresses of flight. Plus, I know you’ve repaired serious injuries on Starscream before. You know him.”

“All of that explains why you want me,” Knockout said, “not why I should lift a finger to help him.” He pushed past Ratchet and went into the other room.

“It’s called mercy,” Ratchet called after him. “You’re a doctor, aren’t you?”

Knockout didn’t leave, but went and stared out the window at what was becoming Iacon again.

“Mercy,” he muttered. “Whatever.”

Arcee, Smokescreen, and Bulkhead approached him, and he tried to ignore them.

“You did the right thing when you turned on Starscream before,” Arcee said, leaning on the window next to Knockout. “and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but helping him is the right thing to do now. Don’t worry. We’re not letting him go this time. He’ll face justice, but Predacons – Shockwave – that’s not justice.”

“I don’t want to,” Knockout said. “And you can’t make me.”

“No, we can’t make you,” Arcee conceded.

Bulkhead shifted uncomfortably, started to squeeze up to the window too, then stepped back before speaking very quietly.

“When Breakdown was captured by M.E.C.H., I didn’t want to rescue him, but Optimus told me to rise above myself.”

Knockout turned on him. “Don’t!” How dare they use Breakdown to get to him? It wasn’t fair. Bulkhead blundered ahead anyway.

“And you know who came to rescue him right after I did? Starscream.”

Knockout’s eyes widened. “But Breakdown never said anything about that. Hmph. Screamer probably just wanted him to help with his little coup.”

“So?” said Bulkhead. “I just wanted a rematch.”

“Does it matter?” Arcee looked sadly at the floor, then up at Knockout. “You and Breakdown were partners, right? Friends? Wasn’t getting him back, even for a little while, worth it, regardless of Starscream’s motives?”

Knockout turned back to the window so no one could see his face. Of course it had been worth it, but what did that have to do with Starscream? Arcee and Bulkhead finally backed off, which was great – Knockout didn’t know what he’d do if they kept prodding a wound that was still raw. He didn’t have to be grateful to Starscream, did he? Starscream was a jerk.

“Knockout?” Smokescreen said after a while, “You can’t leave a bot looking like that, can you?”

Knockout smiled, relieved to have an excuse to do what he already knew he was going to do. “No, I don’t suppose I can.”

Ratchet looked up as Knockout strode back into the room.

“Take a before picture, Doc. We’ll bang out those dents toot sweet. Or course, getting him shiny again will use up my whole stash of polish, so you’ll owe me.”

Ratchet laughed and shook his hand. “We’ll put it on Starscream’s tab.”

To be continued...