HOME | DD
ArdentAspen — Headmasters: Peril
#cybertron #megatron #starscream #transformers #storyfragment #transformersprime #jackdarby
Published: 2016-04-12 03:03:57 +0000 UTC; Views: 2851; Favourites: 39; Downloads: 2
Redirect to original
Description
Please please please, just answer the comm! he silently begged, sending out the third transmission in as many minutes."This is Captain Darby of Unit E, requesting immediate backup! My transtector has been damaged and I am on foot in Tarn. I've got a hostile inbound and I'm running out of ammo here. Arcee, Commander Magnus, Storm Soldier, anyone !"
At the last second, he raised his shield to block an incoming strike. Clawlike servos bounced off the reinforced Cybertronium with a hollow ringing, numbing his arm. Jack let himself roll with the force of the blow, coming up in a crouch halfway across a rusty pipe covering. His assailant sneered down at him.
"You didn't seriously think he'd come to save you?" Starscream scoffed. A bitter fury mixed with outrage and jealousy, tinging his optics a darker red than usual.
The Seeker feinted a second blow with his left hand, taking advantage of the weary human's distraction to snatch him up in his other hand. He brought the struggling Headmaster close to his face plates and glared.
"Let this be the first of many lessons, Jack ," he hissed, "Megatron never goes back for anyone. If you are not useful to him, he'll leave you for scrap."
Even as he said this, Starscream could not help hoping that Megatron would come for his scrap of skin and bone. It would make his revenge all the sweeter if Megatron witnessed the demise of this little usurper. Then the master would know: no one, especially not a human, replaced Starscream!
I kept thinking that if Starscream was alive, he'd be none too thrilled about a human Headmaster taking the role he always felt entitled to. Sooner or later, he might make an attempt on Jack's life. He's going to wish the Predacons had finished him when this is all over.
Related content
Comments: 7
"I don't think that you quite understand Storm Soldier," Medic Woman repeated again in the tone that seemed universal to irritated medics of any species. Storm Soldier fought down his irritation and reminded himself that he had contacted her. That he needed her...unique perspective. "Eightteen," she hesitated and shook her head. "It is essentially a random number. There needed to be a lower age limit for military service and that was what was decided. Ja-Vanguard. He won't be fully mature for several more years."
Storm Soldier growled with a fury that had not truly cooled since he had seen Starscream clutching his ward. "So your leaders send younglings to their deaths for political gain?" Before he had formed the words he knew she would, that she had every right to, challenge his hypocrisy. "You would send your youngling?" He welcomed the challenge. He felt a dark surge of satisfaction as he saw her bristle over the comlink and braced himself. Then she paused,her face sharpened and her optics, the ones she had given to Jack seemed to sear into him for a long penetrating moment.
"Yes," she answered softly, "yes I did, and there is not a day that goes by that I do not fear for him. The only thing that has ever made this bearable was that I knew he was not alone."
Storm Soldier felt a storm of emotions in his spark at the words. He recognized guilt, fear, and anger, but there were so many more he did not even try to understand. He had to admire how adeptly she had turned the tables on him as well. She leaned back and stared to him with what seemed to be an equally complex mix of emotion on her face.
"You have given me the symptoms," she said with finality in her voice. "I have provided you with a diagnosis and a care management plan for the patient. As his commanding office,r his life," she paused and her face flexed as if she were swallowing a very literal bitter pill, "his life is in your hands and I must trust you to provide the care he needs. Dr. Darby out."
The signal cut out and Storm Soldier felt his lip plates quirk up in an almost impressed smile. The curse of Solus on that woman. How could a mere human dig into his spark from worlds away? There was little doubt where Vanguard came by his more infuriating habits. Speaking of the youngling.
Storm Soldier stood and gave a long exvent. Medic Woman was correct. Vanguard was his responsibility and he did know what to do. Or rather he knew what she had said worked for Vanguard's little friend in a similar situation. Storm Soldier grimaced when he recalled how carefully she had been to hide the accusation in her voice. He stood and walked back to where the human lay beside his still transector. Jack was on his side and despite being asleep his entire body radiates tenseness, from his hunched shoulders to his tight face. He muttered something incoherent and the fear in it caused Storm Soldier's spark to tighten. Yes, he knew what he had to do. Gingerly he lowered himself down beside the human until the Cybertronian's massive thigh was a hand's breadth away. He gently reached out with the back of one ragged tallon and traced it down Jack's back with a feather touch. The human briefly stiffened and Storm Soldier felt a flicker of panic that he had disturbed him form the first night's sleep he had had in weeks. But after a moment Jack relaxed and Storm Soldier let out a quiet vent. He repeated the gesture with a bit more certainty and felt the tightness in his spark uncoil a bit when Jack relaxed further and didn't wake up. Storm Soldier carefully modulated his voice so that it hovered just below human hearing and began to speak softly. Between the touch and the sound it was not long before Jack slipped into the deep healing power down state that Medic Woman insisted he needed. When Storm Soldier judged that the state would not reverse itself he pulled his hand away. Only to hear Jack's breathing hitch. Rolling his optics Storm Soldier dropped his hand back down and let it cover the human's small frame, barley touching the warm biomass. He was rewarded by a slow, steady heartbeat.
"Troublesome and impertinent youngling," Storm Soldier murmured.
👍: 2 ⏩: 1
Ah, Storm Soldier, never challenge a mother! You'll soon find yourself in a predicament you did not expect!
Agent Nakadai had come up to Thunderhead once during the recovery. Evidently some of the bandages needed changing and Storm Soldier was adamantly refusing to let the few Predacons with small enough hands to get near enough to be of any use. Even Arcee had been turned away -- something that had infuriated the blue minibot. As Wheeljack had been halfway accepted as some renegade Dinobot in one of the other clans, he had just enough influence to secure an audience with Predaking that allowed Miko to enter the camp alone.
Miko found Wheeljack, Arcee, Darksteel, Ripclaw, and a Dinobot she didn't know all standing outside one of the structures that, for lack of human word, she called longhouses. Their plating and wings were all raised in visible agitation as they peered through the darkened doorway.
"Okay, where is he?" Miko did not bother with greetings.
"Well met, Valkyrie," Ripclaw touched her shoulder. "They are within. Take care that you do not approach in your full body."
Miko took this to mean that she was to go in out of the transtector. Well then, that made things a little trickier if push came to shove. At least Wheeljack was here.
Once her eyes adjusted to the gloom, she was able to make out the hulking form folded into an impossibly small alcove at the back of the longhouse. And there, on a lowered recharge slab, lay Jack. It was impossible to tell if he was awake or not, and Miko's heart painfully skipped a beat at the sight of him lying there in the shadow of an old enemy.
The woman never broke her stride, ignoring Megatron -- he would never be anything but Megatron to her -- to lean over the berth. Jack was awake, but his eyes were unfocused, and his mind elsewhere. With a shuddering sigh, Miko eased herself down onto the slab and took his hand.
"Hey." With her other hand she brushed his hair -- ah, it was getting shaggy -- out of his left eye and off of the bandage over the right side of his face.
"Wake up, Jack. C'mon, You don't want that to scar."
Miko had not been told the details of Jack's injuries, nor how he'd gotten them. It was evidently classified. Miko knew how that went, she'd gained some scars she couldn't talk about either. But she didn't need to know how he'd come by the injuries, she just needed to make sure they were taken care of. As Jack's eyes began to clear with the recognition of her voice, Miko hauled him up into a sitting position.
"Mind his ribs!" the looming shadow overhead snarled. "Two are cracked. And don't aggravate the gashes!"
Miko scowled up at him. "Oh, I'm sorry, did you want to change the bandages?" she asked sarcastically, "No? Then stay out of my way."
A massive hand slammed down beside the bunk. "He is my responsibility, human."
Miko's eyes darkened and for a moment Storm Soldier almost imagined he saw fire in them. "Oh, you've done a fantastic job of that then, haven't you?"
Then, under her breath, "Now you know how Optimus felt at the Omega Lock, don't you?"
Storm Soldier reared back, fury radiating from every diode. He opened his mouth to speak but caught sight of Jack subtly shaking his head. Please don't. He narrowed his optics and settled back into the alcove again, watching them.
"Okay Jack, let's see that burn." Miko turned her back on Megatron and began easing the bandage off. "Your mom says you've been using the burn cream so far, but she sent me up with a nanite gel pack Raf and Ratchet have been using on-base."
"D-do I-" Jack coughed in a pain-roughened voice, "Do I even want to know why a human-appropriate nanite gel was necessary?"
Miko smiled sweetly. "My boyfriend is a big doofus who tried to tune up the base jeeps without paying attention to the alien equipment around him. That sums up about half the reasons right there."
"Boyfriend?!" Jack choked, jerking away both from the woman's grip and the freezing cold gel replete with nanobots, "You want to run that by me again?"
Miko cheerfully ignored this and continued to smooth the oddly textured mixture into the long, ugly acid burn that ran the length of Jack's face. Looking at the raw flesh made her stomach turn, and she hoped that her jab about the Omega Lock wasn't more accurate than she'd thought.
"You should come home sometime, and meet him," she forced herself to keep talking.
Jack tried to smile, but it stretched the burn and he hissed through clenched teeth. Still, he managed a wink out of watering eyes. "A visit would be nice, but I'm not sure I'm going to get to so much as set foot outside the creche for a while, let alone leave the planet."
"You are correct." Storm Soldier interjected flatly. "You are confined to the creches or the warriors' nest once you have recovered unless I or Predaking say otherwise."
Unable to properly emote with his face, Jack settled for flapping one hand in an exasperated fashion. Miko caught his meaning and rolled her eyes. "We might have to smuggle you out."
👍: 2 ⏩: 1
"And you are who exactly?" Jack eyed the three infant Predacons and one tiny Dinobot with amused skepticism.
"We are S.A.V.S.V.!" The largest little Predacon proudly.
Jack debated trying to pronounce that and then shook his head. "What does that stand for?" He asked with a grin.
"Sparklings Against Velocity Smuggling Vanguard!" The Dinobot tot burst out. He glowed with pride, presumably at being able to remember the entire acronym.
Jack narrowed his eyes and tried to look stern. "Did Storm Soldier put you up to this?"
"Nope! We decided to sit on your impertinent head all by ourselves!" The littlest Predacon declared.
"Right," Jack rolled his eyes and leaned back. "Now what were you going to do?"
"Tell you a story!"
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
"Umm...ummm...otay," Swoop spread out his servos to get their attention. "Once upon a time last cycle, there was a petro-rabbit."
"And he ate Luna-1!" Strafe interrupted eagerly.
"My goodness gracious," Jack rasped flatly, "Now how did we not notice that one of the moons was missing?"
"Because," Scourge said very patiently, "It was a giant petro-rabbit."
"Oh," said Jack, as if this made perfect sense.
Outside, Arcee stifled a smirk. "What on earth is going on in there?" she whispered to Miko, who had returned to her transtector.
"Old Bucket-head hired the Lollipop Guild to keep Jack from leaving," she said Souray, but there was a twinkle in her optics.
The femmes shared a knowing look, each concerned about Megatron's recent stint of possessive behavior when it came to "Vanguard". If Arcee didn't know better, she'd have thought he was acting like a first-time Guardian.
👍: 2 ⏩: 0
First Soundwave and now Starscream XD
Yeah I could imageint that MEgatron won't be toop happy
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Yeah, though an encounter with Soundwave might be more dangerous
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
True...good thing Bee's team gets to deal witj that XD
👍: 0 ⏩: 0