A Pet Squishy

MINE!

A Pet Squishy

Chapter 9: "MINE!"

A few hours later...

Because of their earlier "bungling" Starscream extended the combat maneuvers in the hopes of teaching his subordinates a lesson about listening to his orders. They were all the best fliers in the Decepticon ranks but Starscream was by far the superior aerial combatant and he demanded perfection. After all, it's what prompted Megatron to name him his Second in Command—that and Megatron believed in the old adage of, "Keep your allies close, but your enemies closer".

At last, once he was satisfied, Starscream ordered them back to the Nemesis. However, Thundercracker insisted he continue flying some more.

Surprisingly the Air Commander waved him off, "Very well. You need the extra training anyway."

"Yeah..." Thundercracker grudgingly admitted before speeding off.

He needed to find Lana and he hadn't intended to be away for so long. Calculating the approximate range the life raft could drift given the wind speed and ocean currents Thundercracker charted a course. Very soon he spotted the tiny faded red raft bobbing in the waves. He transformed into his robot mode, swooped low, and scooped the whole raft up in both hands as he flew over.

"I'm back...Lana?" his automatic smile dissipated when he noticed the raft was empty.

He flipped the small rubber craft over searching it from every angle. No Lana.

"Lana? Lana!" he called, pulling himself into an upright stopping position.

The blue Seeker spun around, scanning the waters. Had she fallen out? Where did she go?

"LANA!" he bellowed, his tremendous voice echoing, "WHERE ARE YOU?"

Making frantic circles around the entire area, Thundercracker searched for his lost pet. He activated his thrusters and flew high into the sky to widen his search. The Seeker turned slowly, optics darting across the seemingly infinite expanse of water. He couldn't see anything.

The blue Con clenched his fingers into the life raft, bending it in half. What happened to his pet? Where was she? He'd only left her for a few hours!

A horrible thought asserted itself in his processor. Did...did she jump out of the boat on purpose? Did she purposely terminate herself?

Something happened to Thundercracker's optics, something they'd never done in thousands of centuries—they flickered. Just for a brief instant. The Seeker pulled his head back in astonishment.

"What kind of glitch was that?" he wondered to himself. "Decepticons don't DO that! What's WRONG with me?"

Maybe Skywarp was right...he WAS too sentimental about this pet.

His moment was suddenly interrupted when he heard the far off rumble of a boat engine. The Con zeroed in on the sound and a few miles away he could see a human vessel heading toward him. He narrowed his optics dangerously at the approaching ship and vehemently cast the life boat aside.

....

Several miles away...

After several long drawn out examinations the onboard medical staff determined Lana was in great health considering her exposure. Lana knew she couldn't tell them how she REALLY got on that life raft—they'd commit her. So she feigned post-traumatic stress and claimed she didn't remember what had happened to her boat or the crew. Sure she probably had post-traumatic stress, but it wasn't because of an accident at sea. The doctors seemed to buy her story for the moment but she knew sooner or later they'd catch her in the lie.