Parental Stress

2009-08-09T18:52:17Z

Parental Stress - Chapter 1
Plot bunny from blackbird_snow
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"Starscream?!"

The seeker in question winced as the snarling, static-laced voice of his master reached his audios. He had been mercifully silent since both mechs had fled Earth's atmosphere following their defeat at the hands of the Autobots and their disgusting fleshling allies. Probably brooding over the loss of The Fallen's precious star destroying machine, Starscream thought contemptuously as the Nemesis came into view, as if the ancient fool's plan would have worked anyway. In Starscream's eyes, his leader had long since lost sight of his original goal: to restore Cybertron to it's former glory, and as such, Starscream was always ready to seize command of the Decepticons. But not today, Starscream sighed mentally, before turning to his master and replying hesitantly:

"Yes, Lord Megatron?"

The once great silver tyrant, now dented and mangled with battle damage, took a moment to look Starscream in the optics before returning his gaze to the ship only a short distance away. They were flying in their root forms, not even daring to transform for fear that they might aggravate their injuries.

"We need to contact Soundwave," Megatron rasped. "We need to know how many of our troops made it out alive from the battle, so that we can regroup and formulate a new plan."

Starscream almost groaned at the predictability of the tyrant, but was prevented from replying immediately by their arrival at the entrance of the Decepticon warship. The tantalising promise of warmth, energon and recharge temporarily alleviating his desire to punch his master square in the broken jaw. The hatch-door opened without much resistance, allowing the two battered Decepticons to step inside.

In the dim light, Starscream could just make out the shapes of the many hatching pods that littered the ship, each designed to hold the still-developing sparklings that were to become a new generation of Cybertronians, but without the Allspark or a reliable source of energon, the hatchlings had begun to starve. Grimacing, Starscream recalled the many cycles spent watching the increasingly weak hatchlings die, hoping that one would somehow manage to survive. But all his effort had eventually been proven fruitless. Week after week had passed, with sparklings weakening and dying every day, as well as that, Starscream had to put up with cutting insults and snide remarks from the fallen one, berating him for his failure at keeping the sparklings alive

The seeker barely noticed Megatron brushing past him, passing the pods in the room without so much as sparing them a glance, on his way to the one remaining CR chamber on the ship that still functioned (if you use the word "function" in it's loosest possible sense).

Grumbling internally, Starscream made his way to the main communications terminal, and began to initiate the procedure that would allow Megatron to hone in on Soundwave's frequency, when he was abruptly pulled from his thoughts by a strange chirping noise. The seeker stood up straight, scouring the room in order to locate the source of the noise. He really needn't have bothered, as the noise soon repeated itself. This time it sounded much closer, in fact it sounded as if...

Starscream jumped as a small figure suddenly pounced at him, crashing into his torso and nearly breaking the fragile glass of his cockpit. Now flat on his back, the seeker's defense mechanisms took hold and automatically his weapons powered up as he pointed them threateningly at the mass of black metal now perched on his chest.. Only his utter shock prevented him from doing anything too drastic.

"STAHHH-SCWEAMMM!!!!", the sparkling yelled happily.

Dire_Hyena

Parental Stress