Lord Starscream's Armada (TFP Fanfiction)

✷Chapter 2✷: Hello, Starscream...

Starscream flew steadily as his spark pound against his chassis. He hoped that this wasn't a mistake. He sort of wobbles from how much this was hurting him from merely just thinking about it. Starscream shakes it off as he wasn't willing to shut down now. He needed to find them. He could never forgive himself if he didn't try to search for them. He lands on the ground as he held the locator in his servos. 

"Where are you?" He murmurs to himself

The nine bright blue dots beeped ever so steadily on the radar. Starscream was close to giving up hope as nothing seemed right about this. That was until he heard rocks cascading from a near by cave. His audio receptors whirred and moved down to get a better visual on this. He turns around as he hums. Starscream loses focus for a moment as he walks into the cave despite his better judgement. 

Meanwhile...

Knockout was cleaning a set of his tools with a cloth as he hums. He was finally able to reorganize his med bay. He had no one to bother him and hasn't seen a snappy Starscream since the last few hours. He then hears the doors slide open. He groans. He wasn't alone anymore. 

He turns around and see that it was Breakdown. He smiles as he guess Breakdown wasn't so bad. He needed someone to buff his hard to reach spots anyway. He puts the tool away and turns around. He rests his servo against the counter and sighs. 

"What's up?" He asks

Breakdown says, "Oh, Lord Megatron wanted me to find Starscream but he isn't here."

"That fool? This is the last place he'll be in. Did you check outside? He might've gone for his 'mandatory flights'. I'm not surprised he ran off," Knockout huffs

Breakdown says, "Well, if he somehow manages to get himself into trouble. We're going to have to go get him."

"I look forward to that," Knockout drawls sarcastically while rolling his optics

They shake their helms and went to get the buffers. They know that no one would truly hurt Starscream. He was too pathetic for that kind of torture. They would assume he would burn out his energon and crash somewhere deserted. Either way, they didn't care so much knowing how Starscream gets. 

Back to Starscream...

Starscream had entered a particularly dark and long cave. His own aura was the thing that was keeping him submitted into total darkness. Starscream slightly vents shakily as he doesn't do well in enclosed spaces. He rubs his helm before walking deeper into the cave. He held the locator high as he was still determined to find at least something in his search. 

"Please...don't let this be the end. They have to be here. They have to," Starscream mutters to himself

He keeps walking before crying out in pain. He looks up and notices that the cave was truly unstable. He scowls. Starscream wasn't going to let something like a bit of rubble get in his way. He ignores the cracks that were slightly growing along the cave sides. Starscream have made it to the end of the cave. He was upset as he was convinced he wasted so much time chasing after ghosts when he hears a snap. Starscream looks up and finds that the cave was going to collapse and he would be trapped inside. 

He whimpers as he immediately covers his helm. He squints his optics as he stares down to find empty cubes and splatters of energon. Starscream gasps. Someone was last here but since when. He thinks recent for the energon hasn't crystalize yet. 

Starscream then hears a thundering noise and looks up. He had stayed for far too long and he was going to pay the price for it. He immediately runs towards the exit. He hops from side to side as he avoids getting crushed by piles of rock. He is barely at the mouth of the cave when he trips over a fallen stone. 

"No!" Starscream shouts

Starscream tries to get up as he falls back down from his pede being stuck from landing on the jagged rock. He panics more as he tugs at his leaking pede. He was close to accepting his fate when he felt something pulling him. His mind was blurring the audio and visuals from losing energon. 

He finds a green and yellow blur lifting Starscream up. Starscream struggles because he doesn't know who this blur was and was considering it was Skyquake but he was proposed as offline. Starscream doesn't bother as he was too exhausted from it all. He shuts his optics as he temporarily shuts down. 

Acidstorm's POV:

I grunt as I half dragged, half carried Starscream's fat aft out. It wasn't too far so we would be fine. I was half surprised to see Starscream there. I laid Starscream down as I stare. He seemed a bit different last time I've seen him. He wasn't his usual red and blue colors anymore. 

"Where were you when we got trapped?" I mutter to myself and turn away

Thundercracker and Skywarp land either side of me and stare at our previous commander. We were just unsure how to feel or what to do. It was a confliction of emotions. We were happy, scared, upset, mad, and confused. 

I order, "Sunstorm, fix Starscream's injuries."

"Yes, oh brave one," Sunstorm says

Slipstream gets in Sunstorm's way as she had a sharp glare. I sighs as I knew what was going to happen...again. Ever since we have been abandoned by the Decepticons, we haven't stop bickering for five minutes. 

Slipsteam asks, "Why should we? He has done nothing for us! He abandoned us!"

"He warned us! He even suggested we leave that forsaken planet!" I retorted

Thrust scoffs, "He's a coward for coming back then."

"I am just as confused as to why he's here but he's still one of us. He could have been abandoned to and been on his own for a while..." I meagerly mutter

I was still trying to figure out what happened myself. I just didn't know how to correctly respond to this type of situation. Dirge looks at Starscream with this sort of upset look. 

Dirge asks, "Is Starscream going to offline?"

"No, he didn't have that bad of an injury. It was just a leak and he must've burnt through his energon. It has to be that," I sigh

I rub my optics. I was more than exhausted. I was tired of everyone and their senseless arguing. Starscream would've easily made them shut up despite being treated as a joke by everyone else. I decided to monitor Sunstorm as he repaired Starscream. I was sure that Starscream was fine. He was just tired, probably. 

We then heard groaning and immediately back away. None of us expected Starscream to have online so soon. It was scary. 

Ionstorm whines, "It's Starscream's ghost! He's come to haunt us all!"

"Idiot! He's alive. He was never terminated. He was in a temporary stasis lock!" Slipstream shouts

Thrust shouts, "HEY! STARSCREAM! WAKE YOUR LAZY AFT UP!"

I groan as I wonder how did I get stuck with so many morons. I am going to offline Starscream myself if he doesn't take control of his armada. I scowls but I was focused on my own tragedies that I barely registered the stirring of the said bot. 

Third Person POV:

Starscream groans as he rubs his optics. He was sure that he made it into the Well of Allsparks. He doesn't mind it though as long as he wasn't in the forbidden pits. Starscream whines as he rubs the back of his helm. He shouldn't be feeling pain if he was terminated. 

Starscream questions how he even survived. He was sure that he was trapped. The memory brought more pain to his shin plate. He pulls it involuntarily towards him as he hisses. 

He sighs as he wasn't really ready to comm the Cons. Starscream knew that the others would surely point their digits at him and laugh. Starscream throws dirt into the air in rage as he thought of how unfair his predicament was. He was tormented by his past and by his supposed comrades. 

"Done?" He hears a sharp retort

He looks up and gasps in shock. He couldn't believe his own optics. Slipstream, Acidstorm, Sunstorm, Ionstorm, Thundercracker, Skywarp, Dirge, Thurst, and Ramjet. They were all there. Starscream wipes his optics so they couldn't see how moved he was. 

"Hello Starmscream..." Ramjet says