Belonging 4

“Wait up, Starscream!” Skyfire called as he shot down the hall after his friend. Being slightly older than the other younglings, him and Starscream had discovered a few weeks ago that they could transform, much to the older mech’s dismay. They used this to their advantage by annoying the older mechs, flying around their heads and dislodging objects with their small sonic booms. Because of this, over the weeks they had earned the joke name of ‘The Terrors of the Base’.
Starscream pulled to a stop and hovered there as Skyfire neared him.
“Come on, slowpoke! You don’t want to miss the chance to disrupt Ratchet’s med bay, do ya?” Starscream said, laughing.
“Yeah, but won’t he get mad?” Skyfire asked as they continued down the hall, knocking down Blurr along the way.
“But isn’t that the point?” Starscream said mischievously. They reached the med bay doorway and transformed just outside. They could hear Ratchet inside, talking to Jazz. Starscream whispered to Skyfire.
“You ready?” Skyfire nodded. “GO!” he yelled and they transformed and blasted in. Jazz yelled out in surprise as the two miniature jets appeared, using their sonic booms to knock Ratchet’s tools off the tables and trays and shatter the windows. Although it was fun to the young mechs, it abruptly ended when Ratchet smacked the two out of the air and into a wall, transforming as they slid down. The two gave each other high-fives.
“That was AWESOME!” Skyfire said, laughing.
“Oh, slag.” Starscream said as he saw Ratchet coming towards them, his sound processors smoking with rage. “Let’s get out of here!” Starscream yelled, and they both transformed and rocketed out of the room laughing.
“As I was saying, those two are worse than the Twins. And that’s saying something.” Ratchet growled to Jazz, picking up tools off the floor.

“So we do it tonight then, sir?” Octane asked.
“Yes.” Megatron said. “The Autobot patrols tonight have many inexperienced soldiers among them, and Starscream’s room is in a blind spot with the cameras outside, if Sunstorm’s observations were correct. You and Sunstorm will go.”
“Yes, sir.” Octane said.
“Just make sure you succeed.” Megatron said. “It is time to bring him home.”

Jazz entered the playroom and looked for Starscream. He found him and Skyfire dismantling a toy car together and observing each piece as if they had never left the room. Jazz caught Starscream’s eye, and Starscream giggled and whispered to Skyfire, who giggled in return. This was because Sideswipe was behind Jazz, drawing on his legs with markers. Jazz, confused, looked around and saw nothing.
“What’s so funny?” he asked the two jets.
“Why, nothing, Jazz.” Skyfire said innocently. Jazz rolled his optics and walked over to Chromia, who was supervising the group.
“Chromia, the Terrors didn’t leave the room today, right?” he asked.
“Well, they did, but that’s because they said they were getting something from their rooms.” She replied.
“Chromia, what they REALLY did was bombard me and Ratchet in the med bay. They broke all the windows too. Don’t you remember? Starscream lies. A lot.” Jazz said. Chromia sighed.
“You’re right. I’ll have to keep a closer eye on them from now on. Oh, and by the way,” she added, smiling, ”you have marker all over your new paint job.”

“Prowl, you’re on security watch tonight.” Prime said to the mech as he walked into the command room.
“A night of staring at boring screens that usually have nothing to report on them? I can hardly contain my excitement.”
“And,” Prime continued, “You’re doing it with Bluestreak.”
“Oh, you just love doing that to me, don’t you Prime?” Prowl said jokingly, rolling his optics.

Chromia tucked the last of the younglings into bed and then collapsed in the hall. These guys never run out of energy! She thought. Then she stumbled to the meeting room to grab a cup of energon, hoping that she wasn’t stuck with the younglings again the next day.

Skyfire peeked out of his room, making sure that Chromia was gone before he went into action. He pulled out flavored energon he had stolen from Prowl earlier and ran into Starscream’s room. Starscream pretended to be asleep but jumped up as Skyfire entered.
“No sleep for US tonight!” Skyfire cried, dumping the cubes onto the floor.
“I can’t believe you actually pulled that off,” Starscream said, sitting cross-legged on the floor, “Prowl is usually so on guard that you can’t blink without him knowing.”
“I know. I actually had to start a fire somewhere in the base just to get him away from his room.” Skyfire said, taking a sip of strawberry.
“So what are we going to do tomorrow?” Starscream asked, changing the subject.
“I think we should try the big one tomorrow, annoy Optimus.” Skyfire said, smiling evilly.
“You know what, that’s a good idea!” Starscream replied. “But what should we do?”
“I dunno, steal the Matrix out of his chest while he’s in recharge?”
“No, I don’t even know if the guy sleeps.” Starscream replied.
“How about I get some paper and we can write all our ideas down, then eliminate the stupid ones?” Skyfire suggested.
“That’s a good idea. I’ll wait here, in case someone comes checking on us.” Starscream said. Skyfire nodded, and ran back into his room.

“You know, at least the Terrors don’t do anything at night, that gives us SOME time to relax.” Bluestreak said, staring at the monitors surveying the youngling’s hallway.
“Yeah. I was pretty pissed at them today.” Prowl replied, looking at the video camera surveillance.
“Why?”
“Oh, they stole a good amount of my energon stores, plus they set a fire near the med bay to draw me away from it.” Prowl said, rolling his optics.
“They’re smart kids, Prowl. And they’re good kids too, you just have to look deep down inside them. Even Starscream, even though his father is-“ Bluestreak broke off as a red light began flashing on the youngling hallway screen. He zoomed in on it and turned around.
“An explosion just ripped through a wall in the youngling area! It came from the outside, and I can’t tell whose room it was!” he said. Prowl took one look at the screen and knew immediately. His optic widened with panic and he slammed his hand onto the alarm button, speaking one sentence as he sprinted out of the room.
“It’s Starscream’s.”

Skyfire felt a vibration from an explosion, but he was used to it as it happened all the time, so he thought nothing of it. Grabbing a few pieces of paper and a pencil, he walked back to Starscream’s room. The door was hanging on one hinge and was crooked. Confused, Skyfire opened the door and immediately dropped the things in his hands with shock.
The room was a blackened shell, a gaping hole leading to the outside where the wall used to be. Energon (as in blood, this time) made a dark mark on one of the walls from when someone was thrown against it. Below the energon mark was one of Starscream’s wingtips, broken off by the blast. As Skyfire looked around with him with shock he noticed a metal object on the floor. He picked it up, looked at it, and dropped to his knees with disbelief. Prowl and Ratchet appeared at the door, guns at the ready, and stopped with shock. Prowl dropped his weapon and went over to Skyfire, who was shaking with disbelief and rage. He held the metal object to Prowl who took it and looked at it.
“Why, Prowl. Why did they take him?!” Skyfire cried as Prowl looked at the small silver Decepticon symbol in his hand.