PREDATORY (Megatron x Starscream)

Chapter 9

The brutal roar that precipitated down from the mountain slid coldly through the trees, splattering on their shoulders.

Starscream's wings perked up without her knowledge, quivering eagerly. It was a voluminous sound. The low, rolling crescendo of his bottomless throat speared through the vehicons one by one: she watched them stiffen up, impaled like some unfortunate mech-kebab. Unlike them, though, instead of paling, her face flushed an eager blue. For some reason, perhaps a fascination with the predacons' captivating display, she was actually excited for the inevitable chaos.

Starscream couldn't see much, but her limited vision yielded an impressive sight. Crawling forth like a tyrannical harbinger of Armageddon, the heavy form of Megatronus slid free from the teeth of the mountain, wings extended. He was a lot larger than she remembered. Casting a waterfall of liquid darkness tumbling down the mountainside, the reaper chose, instead of leaping forth and taking flight, to glide down beyond the rocky lips, sending stones and sand flying from his pads.  He cast his wings out parallel to the earth and leaped once again, this time catching the wind and gliding through the air. Then, as if it were never there to begin with, the shadow of his being vanished beneath the treeline, a withering spirit.

Starscream's optics widened. Everything else had gone still. Even the predacons in the sky were dutifully silent: from her periphery, she could see that they were just as fixated on the rift where he'd slipped into nonexistence, waiting for the fabric to open up again with bated breath. Oh, how bated it was.

Then, so immediately that he really could have just popped back into existence, a cracked and violent scream wracked the far side of the dome. The canopy split apart uproariously, spitting up the form of Megatronus' arrowed body. He had two of the vehicon troupe clasped in his hind claws, one for each palm. With a pulse of his wings, his paws tightened, and the mechs' writhing bodies were popped, spraying crescent arcs of energon onto the ground below. The crystalline droplets were reciprocated by a volley of needled projectiles, burying themselves in his hide. Those darts were full of the highest level sedative they had on hand. Two dozen shots later and he hadn't even flinched.

Like folding origami, his wings abruptly pinched back downward and he began a fantastic swan-dive into the trees. More darts raced to fight him off, but it was no use; as soon as he broke the tepid surface, he was unstoppable. He re-emerged with another mech hanging from his jaws, dangling like a toy. This one's rupture was much more violent, and Starscream watched in terrified awe as mechanical parts shot off in every direction, energon spouting from the bottomless pit of Megatron's gullet.

The other predacons were back to being excited again. Quintus, sensing an opportunity, disappeared into the growth to hide. Nexus lowered himself to be level with the treeline, and Onyx and Micronus joined eachother in flying towards the commotion, not looking particularly hungry for chaos, instead motivated with the instinctual fervor of regular hunger. Solus was the only one who stayed put. Her hackles were higher than before, and in this light, her frills were luminescent, a clear warning to the new creature spreading bodies on her domain. Starscream could immediately sense the tension between them.

Megatronus soared past the rain of tranquilizer bullets battering his flank. Solus screeched at him. She stuck her chest out threateningly and made to guard him from passing, as if she could block him out of the sky. Her domination was admirable. He didn't take offense, pulling his massive arms into the air and reciprocating her deadlocked stare. Her denta gnashed, flinging strands of spittle into the sky.

Amazing. Starscream watched with pinched brows and a dumbfounded gape. Maybe this was the thrill Shockwave found from watching them, she wondered. Each twitch of their tanked bodices was precise, and seemed to evoke a strong reaction in the other, twitching maws, vile hisses, and crackling tail twirls. Suddenly, Solus catapulted forward, arching like a boomerang and sizzling through the sky.