Frozen in Prime

Armada

Bulkhead groaned as he slowly came to. "My head gasket." He mumbled but then took in his surroundings. "What the? The 'Cons warship?" He asked. It was true. He was indeed aboard the Nemesis.

He yelped when he almost fell out of a hole in the middle of the Energon storage. "Ratchet, don't ask how I got here, long story." He said into his comms but got no response. "Ratchet? You copy? Scrap!" He said and stepped out of the Energon storage. "Stealthy. Stealthy." He said to himself, but then heard footsteps. A few Vehicon troopers were coming.

Bulkhead attempted to reenter the storage, but the door closed on him. As the Vehicons pass by, Bulkhead leaned on the door, then stepped forward but bumped into into the last person he'd want to see any day. "Starscream?!" He asked and aimed his cannons as Starscream aimed his missiles.

"Why is it that every time I return to my old stomping grounds, I find an Autobot roaming the halls?" Starscream asked. "Don't tell me you came crawling back to Megatron." Bulkhead said. "Hardly. Now, out of my way." Starscream said. "Scream, you gotta show me the way off this boat." Bulkhead said.

"Sorry, too busy." Starscream said. "Look, when you needed help -" Bulkhead started. "As I recall, we bartered. So, unless you have anything of value to offer me, step aside." Starscream said. "The exit, now!" Bulkhead demanded. "I may have given Arcee a free pass when she and I last met," Starscream raised his claws and slashed Bulkhead's chassis. "But I won't hesitate to skewer you as I did a certain Cliffjumper." Starscream finished.

Bulkhead growled and bashed Starscream away. He pointed his cannons and said, "Perish, Bulkhead!" Bulkhead roared again and started bashing the Seeker. "This is for Cliffjumper! For Bumblebee! For everything!" He sneered.

Bulkhead panted. "You left me no choice." He said to the dead Starscream.

24 hours earlier.

"Oh, what I would not give to have wings again." Starscream growled, and then he found what he was looking for. "Ah, just as I left it. The Harbinger. Things are finally looking up." He said.

As soon as Starscream entered the abandoned warship, there was no Energon whatsoever. "Really?! Not one scrap of Energon?!" He shouted, then pinched the wall, causing a nearby door to open. Starscream peeked inside. "A laboratory?" He questioned as the door closed behind him, and he touched the computer. "And it's functional." He said.

Lights lit up the 5 bodies in pods. "Protoforms!" He gasped.

Meanwhile, Bulkhead was driving around when he picked up something. "Bulkhead to base, picked up a strong reading. I'm gonna go check it out." He said, then drove off the road.

"Let's see, transference of binary bonding, submolecular infusion. The formulas seem straightforward enough. Well, my little lumps of clay, looks like you're ready for the molding. Let's give cloning a whirl, shall we?" Starscream said.

Bulkhead transformed and ran to the energy signature, which was inside a massive hole. "Oh, no sign of activity." He started climbing down.

Starscream drew a sample of Energon from his arm and attached the container to an outlet. The lab started glowing as the Energon was sucked into the machine, and Starscream was laughing like a mad scientist. "Give me life!" He yelled and pulled a lever. Energy crackled across the floor, and the protoforms started turning into perfect copies of Starscream. "Like-minded company! At last!" He said with a sadistic smile.

Bulkhead was further down the hole, and he couldn't believe what his optics lay upon. "Energon? Boxed and ready for pickup?" He questioned, then a shadow covered him. The Nemesis hovered right above the hole. "Scrap!" Bulkhead said and tried to climb down more but slipped and fell right on top of the boxes, knocking him out.