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, Soundwave had extricated himself from the Shadowzone, because if Ratchet could figure out the math to get the kids out, Soundwave could do it too. He can could then remotely control a bridge, since radio waves are known to be able to leave the Shadowzone. He ran off with Starscream.
Soundwave stepped out of the ground
bridge and dumped Starscream on the floor. Weak and dazed from being moved,
Starscream curled his body around the knot of pain in his insides, but after
taking a moment to steady himself he looked around. Shockwave’s lab! Why had
Soundwave brought him here? He got painfully into a sitting position, keeping
the arm that had been gnawed on close to his body.
“Soundwave!” he said. “Where have
you been?”
Infuriatingly, Soundwave said
nothing, instead making his face display diagrams of ground bridges and
equations for space-time geometry. Starscream looked at the math and his eyes
widened.
“In another dimension… Just like
Skyquake. How did you get out?” The equations on Soundwave’s visor changed
slightly, and Starscream gave up on figuring them out. It wasn’t important.
“And you couldn’t have seen fit to
emerge a mere solar cycle earlier, and prevent me from being mangled by those
brutes?”
“My creations are quite formidable,
are they not?” Shockwave had entered from the other side of the lab.
“Soundwave. I have not seen you since the final battle on Earth.”
Soundwave acknowledged him with a
nod and displayed the equations he had shown Starscream. Shockwave looked at
them with interest.
“Fascinating. When we have access
to a larger ground bridge, you must input those equations. It will be much
easier to hide my operations in a dimension like that.”
Soundwave nodded again and then
directed Shockwave’s attention to Starscream with a wave of his hand. The
scientist stepped closer.
“Ah, Starscream. You are in need of
… repairs.” His single eye sparkled unnervingly.
“You keep away from me!” Starscream
cried, managing to scramble to his feet and move behind a lab table. “You just
want to turn me into one of your freaks!”
Shockwave just looked at him. “It
would be most illogical to do anything really interesting to you until I can be
sure you will survive your injuries.”
Starscream leaned on the table, his
strength giving out. “Is that supposed to be reassuring? Ow.” He grabbed his
side and sank to the floor again.
“Do not overdo it. If I know my
Predacons, and I do, I imagine your damage is most severe,” Shockwave said,
moving some equipment away from an old operating table. Soundwave hauled
Starscream to his feet and brought him over, shoving him roughly onto the
table. He stared at the Seeker, his face completely blank, and kept staring as
Shockwave plugged an Energon feed into his chest and began to look him over as
well. Starscream squirmed under both of their scrutiny, and he started to
wonder if they had actually rescued him at all. Had Megatron really intended
to? No. He would be delivered into captivity either way, but at least here he
was with Decepticons. Leaderless Decepticons. If he was careful, he could still
turn this to his advantage.
“Just patch up my most serious
wounds for now, Shockwave.” He did his most somber face. “The rest I can bear.
We have much to discuss about where we stand… with Megatron.”
Soundwave didn’t really move, and
the black glass of his visor stayed just as blank, but somehow his stare seemed
to grow more intense.
“Show him,” Starscream said.
Soundwave did nothing for a moment calculated to be precisely long enough to
show he took no orders from Starscream, then he turned to Shockwave and played
back Megatron and Starscream’s conversation in the cell.
As he again watched Megatron raise
the prospect of a golden age, and all but offer a seat at the table, Starscream
wondered if this was actually going to work out. He was glad that even
Soundwave, who saw everything, could not read minds, and hoped neither of them
would guess that he had been within nanocycles of agreeing to what Megatron
proposed. A tiny part of him wished he still could, but here he was.
“So he has dissolved the
Decepticons,” Shockwave said. “And he seems open to standing before some kind
of courts once the Autobots set up a government.” He looked around at his lab
full of dark history. “Would he hand us over as war criminals?”
“Not dissolved - abandoned.”
Starscream said, pressing his hands on each of the others’ shoulders. “Do we
three look dissolved to you? Other Decepticons will return from space soon. We
can signal them undetected now that the Autobots no longer have the Nemesis to
monitor our frequencies. We must be ready.”
Footnote in history, Megatron? he thought. This is where I start making
history.
---
Starscream awoke from stasis to see
a single red eye, microns from his face. He screamed and scrambled away from
Shockwave, shooting pains down his arm and side, then lay still.
"I have repaired you,"
Shockwave said, unhooking the Energon feed from Starscream's chest.
"Everything still hurts."
Starscream flexed his arm. His elbow felt like something was grinding.
"You said to repair only the
worst of your damage. Your life is no longer in danger." Shockwave moved
away to some lab equipment.
Starscream lay back slowly.
"Are you sure? I always felt better after Knockout patched me up. I looked
better too."
"Knockout is a dilettante. If
you are serious about reuniting the Decepticons, we do not have time for trivialities
like pain, or your finish." Shockwave returned and held out a portable
grid node. "Of course, if you are interested in becoming a true asset to
the cause, I have detailed some enhancements I could give you."
Starscream pushed the screen away.
"Actually, I'm… quite comfortable. I don't want to be a bother."
Shockwave shrugged and wandered off
again into the depths of his lab, leaving Starscream to take stock of his
remaining injuries. He still felt like he'd been run over by Devastator, and
all of his external scratches, burns, and shattered plating were still there,
with quick welds holding the most damaged armor together. It didn't look like
it would stand up to much punishment, but he would live. He stood up, and could
tell immediately that his balance was off. His wing was still gone, and he was
not getting it back any time soon. Shockwave had made it clear what the price
of any further repairs would be. He shuddered. No one came back from Shockwave
the same.
For now he needed to figure out where
he stood, and what his assets were. He made his way around the lab, moving
slowly, partly from pain he was still in thanks to Shockwave, and partly
because everything about the place unsettled him. This part of the facility was
small compared to some of Shockwave's other labs he'd been to, but it seemed
the scientist had been busy here. Things watched him from tanks. He thought
maybe they were Insecticons, but Shockwave had done something to them. Surgical
equipment and detached parts littered the crowded space. He hoped none of them
were his. Just to be on the safe side, he transformed his arms into Null Rays
and back. At least he still had his T-cog.
He shook his head. The sound in
that place set his circuits on edge. He hadn't noticed it at first, but once
the high pitched buzz of electricity and the low throb of the ventilation
system wormed their way into his consciousness, he couldn't tune them out. The
ventilation system didn't seem to do much; the air was barely moving, and very
warm. The facility was likely deep underground, he thought with dismay, which
only deepened when he considered that it didn't matter anymore. Up and down,
three dimensions, open skies or claustrophobic tunnels, none of that made any
difference to him now.
He looked over his shoulder at
nothing, and reached behind him. The edge of his wing was rough, and it still
hurt, not where it was ripped off, but inside the machinery of his back, where
the joint had been wrenched. He'd felt the pain already, felt the fear, but now
that everything was quiet, he felt the loss. The room closed in, and he could
hear the skitter of Insecticons crawling around somewhere. Maybe it was his
mind playing tricks, but he heard a Predacon growl as well - all the hungry
things that he should have been able to outmaneuver, and he was stuck with them
down here. Being in the open above ground was no safer if he couldn’t fly. He
didn’t know how wheeled bots could stand it. Shockwave would pay.
He would start by finding out what
the scientist was planning, and how those plans could be turned to his own
advantage while he came up with a scheme of his own. He followed the unlit
hallway Shockwave had left through, and heard his insufferable monotone voice
talking to someone who never answered. Was Soundwave there too? Starscream
hoped not. It would make whatever he had to do much more difficult.
Wrapped up in these thoughts, he
almost tripped over a long bladed tail. A head reared up from a dark mass in
front of him, a Predacon curled up in the middle of the hall. He froze, rooted
to the spot with terror, but it only blinked and licked some flecks of blue
from its jaws, then went back to chewing on half of an Insecticon in its
talons. Starscream flattened against the wall and edged past the beast, careful
not to touch it, and as soon as he was past it, he broke into a run.
As he entered the next lab he
slowed down, checking for any more Predacons.
“Shockwave!” he said, “Now that I
am in charge here, kindly corral your pets. They’re making a mess.” He kicked aside
a mangled Insecticon leg. Shockwave and Soundwave looked at each other, and
Laserbeak emerged from a groundbridge portal, which Soundwave closed. He landed
on Soundwave’s chest and the two of them wandered over to a computer, silently
discussing whatever data the Minicon had retrieved. They were clearly up to
something.
Starscream glared at them as he
approached Shockwave. “You’ve been busy. It’s gratifying to see my colleagues
taking initiative. So, what’s the plan?”
Shockwave swept his hand across the
room, indicating row upon row of cloning tanks with Predacons inside.
Starscream looked at them, disgusted.
“Where did you even find bones to
make this batch? Weren’t all the Predacon remains destroyed when Unicron was
imprisoned?”
“All the known bones, yes. These
were copied from the previously cloned CNA of the clone group after Skylynx and
Darksteel.” The mention of their names made Starscream shudder. Shockwave
didn’t notice as he walked down the row of tanks. He was on a roll. “And these
younger ones are actually third generation, copies of copies of copies, and as
such have turned out a bit… suboptimal. I intend on making heavy modifications
to them in order to alleviate their shortcomings, using what I learned from my
project with the Dinobots.”
Starscream thought there was no way
that could turn out well, but he said nothing, turning away as dismissively as
possible. “Soundwave,” he said, “Please tell me you have a plan besides
bringing extinct monsters back to life. Or,” he held up his hand as Shockwave
tried to interject. “chopping people up and turning them into extinct alien monsters.” Shockwave’s annoyance was perfect. The
scientist’s sense of rivalry was easily stoked, and the greater a wedge he
could drive between Shockwave and Soundwave, the better.
Soundwave opened a bridge and let
Laserbeak fly into it. His face displayed extradimensional space-time
equations, along with a split screen showing a video feed from Laserbeak of the
three of them in the lab. As he studied the math he wondered how Soundwave kept
track of all the information his Minicons fed him. It was very annoying, almost
as annoying as the fact that Laserbeak was now able to operate invisibly.
“Most impressive,” he said. “By
bridging through the Shadowzone, we can position any sneak attack with perfect
advantage, and see what is going on before we emerge. We can position our
troops invisibly as well.” He frowned. “If we had any.”
Soundwave pointed at the Predacon
clones. Starscream groaned.
Shockwave nodded at Soundwave.
“Since no Decepticons have yet returned from space, my clones are our only
logical option. The Insecticons seem distracted, and appear to be obsessed with
the moon, and what is left of the Forged have their hands full dealing with
raiding parties from the settlement the Dinobots have established.”
Dinobots! Starscream fought to
conceal his glee at the fact that they were still around. Grimlock and his team
were probably the only bots on Cybertron who hated Shockwave as much as he did.
Maybe more. Revenge suddenly looked very possible indeed.
“Dinobots, eh?” Starscream said
with a smirk. “I see you failed to eradicate the Autobot presence on Cybertron,
as Megatron commanded.”
“Compared with your achievements
over the last few millennia,” Shockwave said, “my efforts here do seem rather
humble.”
They glared at each other, or at
least, Starscream glared. Shockwave was, as always, insufferably
expressionless.
“Fine,” Starscream said at last.
“We’ll use the Predacons. However, do not let them fly around in the open. If Predaking
discovers they exist, he will come to claim them as his subjects, and I doubt
he’ll look kindly on you cracking them open and making modifications.”
He had to keep as much of their
force grounded as he could, and make the case for his own flying being
indispensable, so it would become advantageous for Shockwave to replace his
wing. Once again however, Soundwave and Laserbeak were in the way, with their
now invisible, extradimensional spying abilities.
>>> I haven’t figured out
the specifics of their plan, if any, but for now they are testing the
groundbridges. I’m sure the Autobots are having adventures too, but it’s mostly
reconstruction projects. Several days to a couple weeks have passed,
anyway…<<<
“Starscream, stay here and monitor
this bridge for feedback,” Shockwave said. “I am ready to begin calibrating the
large ground bridge for use with the Shadowzone coordinates.”
That was at least progress. It
seemed to Starscream as though they had walked through endless labs, each with
some kind of bridge, and every single one needed recalibration. He’d known
Shockwave had done extensive research while he re-discovered space bridge
technology, but he was amazed how many bridges he had built before he figured
it out. Hopefully recalibration was all these older ones needed. That and
clearing out all the vermin that had infested so many of Shockwave’s lab
facilities. He pressed against the wall as a Predacon clone stalked past him
into the room.
Soundwave started to follow
Shockwave into the adjoining lab.
“Wait!” Starscream said. “You
aren’t leaving me here alone with… that, are you?” He pointed at the Predacon.
Soundwave and Shockwave looked at each other, and then Soundwave let Laserbeak
go. The Minicon circled the room once and then perched atop a monitor.
“What is he supposed to do?”
Starscream called after the departing Waves, then muttered to himself, “take
video of me getting eaten?”
For a cycle or two Starscream and
the Predacon stared at each other, then Starscream moved to the middle of the
room.
“Look,” he said loudly and slowly.
“Do you see where these floor plates join? This is the line. That is your side,
and this is my side. You stay on your side. Got it?”
The Predacon cocked its head and
flicked it tail, and Starscream couldn’t tell if it had understood, but
eventually it lay down and continued to stare at him. He edged over to a rack
of equipment and picked up a shock prod, which he clutched as he watched the
Predacon from as far away as possible in the small room. Any room with a
Predacon in it was too small.
What was taking Shockwave so long?
The ground bridge monitor showed steady power levels and normal space time
geometry in the area. No other bridge was even operating, let alone causing
feedback. How hard was it to put in ground bridge coordinates? It shouldn’t
make any difference what dimension they were in. He’d seen the math. It was
nothing special. The Predacon was apparently getting bored as well – it had
clawed and chewed the end off of the nearest lab table, and it stretched its wings
nearly over the line. Then it flopped its tail over.
“Watch it!” said Starscream,
pointing at the intruding tail. “You’re on my side!”
The Predacon looked at him for a
moment and edged its tail farther across the line.
“Of all the mutinous – You did that
on purpose!” Starscream charged up the shock prod. “Get back on your side!” He
gave the tail a jolt, then ducked as it lashed up at him. A stack of scientific
equipment crashed to ground, and several pieces broke. Starscream shoved them
towards the Predacon, who shoved them back.
“This is my side!” it growled.
“Exactly,” Starscream said, pushing
the equipment back. “You broke them, so they go on your side. Shockwave is not
going to be happy with you. Laserbeak, you show Shockwave who broke this.”
The Predacon hissed and threw one
of the pieces at Starscream, then scattered the rest of the debris across his
side with a sweep of its tail.
“How dare you?” yelled Starscream.
He knocked it over the head with the shock prod, then screamed and scrambled
away as it bit the weapon in two and lunged onto his side of the lab. It was
nearly on top of him, but he turned just in time, grabbing the nearest thing he
could to defend himself. The nearest thing was Laserbeak, and the Predacon
munched him right out of Starscream’s hands. It dropped him immediately and
backed away. Starscream and the Predacon stared in mute shock, first at
Laserbeak, who flapped weakly on the ground, then at each other. Soundwave
probably already knew.
Starscream took a step back, then
screamed and ducked away as the Predacon leapt toward him.
“Now you’ve done it!” he said,
scrambling for the ground bridge. “Soundwave will never forgive you.” He just
had time to pull up a random destination in Kaon and activate the portal before
it reached him. The beast slashed at nothing as he vanished and the bridge
closed.
A moment later Soundwave walked in,
looking around for the source of Laserbeak’s distress beacon. He started when
he saw how many pieces the Minicon was in, and his tentacles immediately snaked
across the floor, picking them all up. The Predacon slunk away from him as
Shockwave came in. Soundwave put the biggest piece, Laserbeak’s main body and
part of his wing, onto his chest, holding him there carefully since his wings
couldn’t latch him into place. After a moment of silent communication, his face
played back video of Starscream grabbing Laserbeak and the Predacon’s jaws
blacking out the screen. His thin fingers curled into a fist as he turned
slowly toward the Predacon.
“Sorry,” it said, backing away with
its head down. Shockwave patted its nose reassuringly.
“Starscream is the one who will be
sorry.”
Soundwave looked down at Laserbeak
and nodded.
