Advent Calendar - December 4
Title: Intransigence
Warnings/content advice: mild suggestive language
Rating: PG
Continuity: Animated
Characters: Starscream, Slipstream
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro et al, not to me
Prompt: intransigence
"Honey, I'm home!" Starscream sat-up quickly. His next reaction after being resurrected from the dead, yet again, was maniacal laughter. But afterward, as his CPU began to process again, and his sensors and peripheral systems restarted, he noted just a few discrepancies between his current status and the last, before deactivation. He was looking on the skyline of the insect city and the atmosphere-refracted red of Earth's atmosphere in evening - not drawn toward that tacky Motor City Landmark. And, there was a faint hum in his chest - no pain in his head, at all. His optics detected movement and shifted focus to a figure standing on the cratered roadway - a distinctly Seeker-shaped crater about him.
"You!"
Slipstream looked down at Starscream, looking about as smug as she had telling him anyone else would be a better leader. "Don't make me regret this."
"You?"
"Think the AllSpark fragment flew into your spark chamber on its own?" Slipstream sneered at him; she really feared she might regret this by morning.
"Megatron?"
"Lost your chance to Optimus Prime, again." She kicked him in the afterburners. "Loser."
What was with the clones kicking him when he was down?! So, he would do the same thing, if Megatron were in his place- "Optimus Prime?!"
"Probably transporting Peerless Leader to Cybertron for trial."
"What-?!"
"You should be happy they're leaving the system with the one functional Omega Sentinel. I'm not cheering for the Autobots here, but you and Bucket-head didn't exactly have an ingenious plan. It's inefficient: blowing scrap up all the time! Seriously! Change your outlook on the bombs, already! Collateral damage means less to salvage for our uses, later. And-"
"I'm the only one who calls Bucket-head 'Bucket-head!" Starscream insisted. He hiked a pointy opposor toward his canopy as he stood, and then hovered on his thrusters.
Slipstream ignited her thrusters and hovered, so she was just slightly higher than Starscream. "Whatever, Genius!"
"Don't start with me, Woman!"
"Oh, it's started...and I prefer 'Commander'."
"But I-" Starscream stopped, a sly expression spreading across his faceplate. He looked at Slipstream with a smirk, as if to say 'I see what you did there'. This one really was fluid in her alliances. "Am Supreme Leader of all Decepticons, Commander."
"Of course...My Leader," Slipstream said, with some difficulty.
Starscream crossed his arms over his canopy and adjusted thrust to rise higher. He looked down at Slipstream and spoke as smarmily and patronizingly as possible. "You need to work on that a bit; I almost didn't believe you were addressing me as your superior."
"Superior my sine function," Slipstream muttered, but she was actually resolved with their ranks. Why she felt resolved...she was working on.
"So, what are our assets?"
Slipstream didn't even speak, just looked at Starscream as if to say the answer should be obvious. There were a few other bots in the city, one, at least, a Decepticon, technically, but unless they had immediate need of a drain on their nonexistent oil reserves, or wanted to stage a revolt against humans to free all the toasters, there were no more useful bots.
Starscream realized this, and that if not for his present company he wouldn't be a Leader of anything, or a leader at all, or even alive. And, he suspected, she knew.
But, Slipstream also knew that without Starscream, she may as well not have a faction, or rank, or opportunity for advancement. She wondered if she had been right after all in saying anyone else would be a better Leader than Starscream. Or...a Starscream, maybe?
Starscream leered at his clone. "They do say 'bots in foul weather berth together'.
"That'd be 'wing together', Slick," Slipstream said, posing jauntily with sharp digits on her out-thrust hip. She wasn't cloned yesterday; a several orbital cycles ago, but not yesterday. "Nemesis is a wreck, but it does have a few recharge berths remaining." She smiled smirkily, "Transform and rise up!" She transformed quickly and climbed for open sky.
Starscream flailed his arms in protest, but seeing Slipstream was gaining a lead on him, transformed and pursued. "I give the commands!" Starscream argued, automatically switching to comms.
"Oh, but My Leader, you must have more pressing matters which to attend; trust that you have a loyal Commander to see to such routine matters." If not for the biting tone, she might have been the suck-up.
For half a klik, Starscream was so frustrated by the fact that her words were so like something he would say - to someone else - that he couldn't form an appropriately biting response. He saw the jet above perform a sideslip; in moonlight, the light teal and violet was not overtly discernible from his own deco. It was like watching video of himself.
Starscream still didn't have her figured. "You aren't-?"
"Don't ask!" She wasn't backing down on that point.
Slipstream sensed Starscream climb on her original trajectory and adjusted course to take position just behind his right wing. He recognized she had allowed him to fly lead; he was accustomed to the position, unless Megafool deigned to join a sortie. Then Starscream would be where Slipstream now was.
They had flow together exactly once, and then with the other clones. Starscream was aware he had been rather fixated on Megatron at the time. Maybe he would escape. Now and then the Nemesis crew had had a laugh at the fact that their intelligence agents on Cybertron informed them political prisoners were taken to Trypticon in Kaon for detention. The punchline being Trypticon, their prison, was a mobile - flight capable - facility.
If Megatron were here, then he wouldn't have this irritating feeling that someone else was in his place and he-
But he'd wanted to defeat Megatron and become Supreme Leader. Still wanted. That position was not going to change.
He'd never really made goals beyond that. Yes, lists of 'Things I Will Change When I Am Supreme Leader', but he hadn't really pictured it as anything but fantasy.
Even when Megatron had been missing for 50 years, Starscream hadn't actually had subordinates to lead, in that time.
He probably had a plan to come back. Probably kept it from Starscream on purpose and told Shockwave...maybe Lugnut.
"You want to race to Luna?" Slipstream offered.
Starscream's logic circuit informed him they were evenly matched - she was his clone, after all. But he answered, "First one there gets control of the satellite uplink!"
"You're on!" Slipstream said. This should be good, she thought. There was a real art to consistently coming in second.
Warnings/content advice: mild suggestive language
Rating: PG
Continuity: Animated
Characters: Starscream, Slipstream
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro et al, not to me
Prompt: intransigence
"Honey, I'm home!" Starscream sat-up quickly. His next reaction after being resurrected from the dead, yet again, was maniacal laughter. But afterward, as his CPU began to process again, and his sensors and peripheral systems restarted, he noted just a few discrepancies between his current status and the last, before deactivation. He was looking on the skyline of the insect city and the atmosphere-refracted red of Earth's atmosphere in evening - not drawn toward that tacky Motor City Landmark. And, there was a faint hum in his chest - no pain in his head, at all. His optics detected movement and shifted focus to a figure standing on the cratered roadway - a distinctly Seeker-shaped crater about him.
"You!"
Slipstream looked down at Starscream, looking about as smug as she had telling him anyone else would be a better leader. "Don't make me regret this."
"You?"
"Think the AllSpark fragment flew into your spark chamber on its own?" Slipstream sneered at him; she really feared she might regret this by morning.
"Megatron?"
"Lost your chance to Optimus Prime, again." She kicked him in the afterburners. "Loser."
What was with the clones kicking him when he was down?! So, he would do the same thing, if Megatron were in his place- "Optimus Prime?!"
"Probably transporting Peerless Leader to Cybertron for trial."
"What-?!"
"You should be happy they're leaving the system with the one functional Omega Sentinel. I'm not cheering for the Autobots here, but you and Bucket-head didn't exactly have an ingenious plan. It's inefficient: blowing scrap up all the time! Seriously! Change your outlook on the bombs, already! Collateral damage means less to salvage for our uses, later. And-"
"I'm the only one who calls Bucket-head 'Bucket-head!" Starscream insisted. He hiked a pointy opposor toward his canopy as he stood, and then hovered on his thrusters.
Slipstream ignited her thrusters and hovered, so she was just slightly higher than Starscream. "Whatever, Genius!"
"Don't start with me, Woman!"
"Oh, it's started...and I prefer 'Commander'."
"But I-" Starscream stopped, a sly expression spreading across his faceplate. He looked at Slipstream with a smirk, as if to say 'I see what you did there'. This one really was fluid in her alliances. "Am Supreme Leader of all Decepticons, Commander."
"Of course...My Leader," Slipstream said, with some difficulty.
Starscream crossed his arms over his canopy and adjusted thrust to rise higher. He looked down at Slipstream and spoke as smarmily and patronizingly as possible. "You need to work on that a bit; I almost didn't believe you were addressing me as your superior."
"Superior my sine function," Slipstream muttered, but she was actually resolved with their ranks. Why she felt resolved...she was working on.
"So, what are our assets?"
Slipstream didn't even speak, just looked at Starscream as if to say the answer should be obvious. There were a few other bots in the city, one, at least, a Decepticon, technically, but unless they had immediate need of a drain on their nonexistent oil reserves, or wanted to stage a revolt against humans to free all the toasters, there were no more useful bots.
Starscream realized this, and that if not for his present company he wouldn't be a Leader of anything, or a leader at all, or even alive. And, he suspected, she knew.
But, Slipstream also knew that without Starscream, she may as well not have a faction, or rank, or opportunity for advancement. She wondered if she had been right after all in saying anyone else would be a better Leader than Starscream. Or...a Starscream, maybe?
Starscream leered at his clone. "They do say 'bots in foul weather berth together'.
"That'd be 'wing together', Slick," Slipstream said, posing jauntily with sharp digits on her out-thrust hip. She wasn't cloned yesterday; a several orbital cycles ago, but not yesterday. "Nemesis is a wreck, but it does have a few recharge berths remaining." She smiled smirkily, "Transform and rise up!" She transformed quickly and climbed for open sky.
Starscream flailed his arms in protest, but seeing Slipstream was gaining a lead on him, transformed and pursued. "I give the commands!" Starscream argued, automatically switching to comms.
"Oh, but My Leader, you must have more pressing matters which to attend; trust that you have a loyal Commander to see to such routine matters." If not for the biting tone, she might have been the suck-up.
For half a klik, Starscream was so frustrated by the fact that her words were so like something he would say - to someone else - that he couldn't form an appropriately biting response. He saw the jet above perform a sideslip; in moonlight, the light teal and violet was not overtly discernible from his own deco. It was like watching video of himself.
Starscream still didn't have her figured. "You aren't-?"
"Don't ask!" She wasn't backing down on that point.
Slipstream sensed Starscream climb on her original trajectory and adjusted course to take position just behind his right wing. He recognized she had allowed him to fly lead; he was accustomed to the position, unless Megafool deigned to join a sortie. Then Starscream would be where Slipstream now was.
They had flow together exactly once, and then with the other clones. Starscream was aware he had been rather fixated on Megatron at the time. Maybe he would escape. Now and then the Nemesis crew had had a laugh at the fact that their intelligence agents on Cybertron informed them political prisoners were taken to Trypticon in Kaon for detention. The punchline being Trypticon, their prison, was a mobile - flight capable - facility.
If Megatron were here, then he wouldn't have this irritating feeling that someone else was in his place and he-
But he'd wanted to defeat Megatron and become Supreme Leader. Still wanted. That position was not going to change.
He'd never really made goals beyond that. Yes, lists of 'Things I Will Change When I Am Supreme Leader', but he hadn't really pictured it as anything but fantasy.
Even when Megatron had been missing for 50 years, Starscream hadn't actually had subordinates to lead, in that time.
He probably had a plan to come back. Probably kept it from Starscream on purpose and told Shockwave...maybe Lugnut.
"You want to race to Luna?" Slipstream offered.
Starscream's logic circuit informed him they were evenly matched - she was his clone, after all. But he answered, "First one there gets control of the satellite uplink!"
"You're on!" Slipstream said. This should be good, she thought. There was a real art to consistently coming in second.