The Maximal timeship Axalon jumped into transwarp in pursuit of the Predacon vessel. The warp in space created pulled in a small ball of energy and it came out the other end. When the ships flew into the atmosphere of a planet and disabled each other, it flew away from the battle as if to see where it was; for months it orbited the planet, as if it had a mind of its own and was trying to know where it was. After some time it floated to the planet and implanted itself in a Predacon, revealing itself as the spark of the Decepticon Air Commander Starscream. He carried out a brilliant plan and tried to overthrow Megatron, but he underestimated the Predacons; in the end it was one of them that blew his spark back into space. He swore he would get revenge as he hurled uncontrollably through outer space and he went on for thousands of years before he came to a solar system about 16 light years away and finally found another planet with Cybertronian life forms. He monitored communications until he found evidence of a brewing war. He floated through the atmosphere and detected a white delta-wing fighter jet on patrol.
The spark flew down through the clouds and into the white jet. It accessed the memory and found that it was the Decepticon Skywarp. No, not powerful enough; I need to find a more suitable body, it thought. He made several sweeps of the area and found a suitable candidate: a large black stealth jet. He tailed it, staying out of its radar by flying above some clouds cloaked. Starscream found it odd that a jet so Decepticon-like had Autobot symbols; Skywarp's memory provided no clues, for he hadn't seen it before. Well, Starscream thought, there's one way to find out. He loaded his spark on the laser cannon and fired. The loss of the spark left Skywarp reeling and disoriented, with no memory of how he got where he was; the spark hurled into the jet faster than it could react and sent it out of control, but only for a second as it took command. Much to Starscream's surprise, the memory showed that the jet was him, a newer rebuilt and now reconfigured version. He accessed all the memories and knew why he had switched sides. I will soon change that, he thought, and he flew on, heading to the Autobot's base. The symbols on the wings wavered and shifted and were Decepticon again.
He flew into Autobot airspace. They asked him to confirm his position as he came in and he gave it in as convincing a voice as possible. He was given clearance for landing, but, he thought, I won't be landing. As he flew he prepared his bomb bays; when he was in range he dropped all his bombs.
"What's going on? Did we detect any Decepticons in the area?" yelled Optimus.
"No, according to this, the only jet near enough is Starscream," said Perceptor.
"That traitor. I thought the effects of the matrix were permanent."
"They certainly held out for three hundred years. There has never been a case of the matrix being removed from the recipient after a short period of time. The DNA may have had a redundant repair system that was dormant. I can't really explain it, yet. I don't have enough information."
"Fire stun cannons, I want him alive," said Optimus.
"He's cloaked; I can't track him," said Perceptor.
"Well I'll be slagged."
Starscream remained cloaked as he turned around and headed for the Decepticon base. He flew close to the ground and transformed. He approched the base and yelled, "Decepticons hear this: I have left the Autobots and have returned. I intend to become your leader."
It wasn't long before Soundwave and several jet-soldiers came out with weapons drawn. "You wanna repeat that, traitor?" demanded Thundercracker.
"Yeah, you wanna repeat that?" repeated Skywarp. Thundercracker looked at him and then looked back to Starscream.
"I said I've returned to take command. Do you really want to argue with me?" He reached out and picked him up by the neck joint.
"You better watch yourself," said Megaplex, "you wouldn't want us to blow you up because you lost your temper." He took what looked like a pistol and pulled on a handle underneath it. It telescoped out and expanded until it was a fully automatic laser rifle.
Starscream gently put Thundercracker on the ground and said, "I see. I'll make this short and sweet. I've finally returned to my senses and have decided to come back to offer my skills and power to lead you to victory. Dreadwing is a powerful leader, but he's inexperienced. If you want to win, I'm your best bet."
"Why should we trust you?" asked Thundercracker.
"Yeah, why should we trust you?" repeated Skywarp. Thundercracker's fist swung out almost involuntarily and hit him in the face. He fell to the ground with a metal clank.
"Because I just bombed their base. I took out their first defenses; they won't have them up and running for days." Skywarp picked himself off the ground and shook his head.
"It could be a trick," said Thundercracker.
"Yeah, it could be a--" Skywarp began to say, then remembered himself and stopped. He took a few steps back so that he wouldn't do it again.
"I believe him," said Megaplex, "and I'm impressed. Get me surveillance of that area for confirmation. In the meantime, let's all go in. We're open to an ambush out here."
"Where's Megatron?" asked Starscream.
"In the repair bay," answered Soundwave. "The Autobots interrogated him and he came back with some damage."
"Well, well, well. Have I got something to tell you about him." They walked into the entrance; Starscream shook violently and held his chestplate.
"You all right?" asked Thundercracker.
"I'm fine," he shot back angrily. The door slid shut behind them.
"What are we going to do?" asked Hot Rod frantically, "We're completely open to an attack now."
"The only thing we can do: put ourselves on full battle alert until the defenses are repaired. We can only assume that Starscream did this to plan another attack, this time with Decepticon support. It's dissappointing that he had to switch back. He'd be better off with us," said Optimus.
"Maybe we need to send a spy mission to retrieve data on him since he switched. That should shed some light on the subject," suggested Hot Rod.
"Are you up to it, Mirage?" Optimus said to him.
"Yeah, I'm up for a little infiltration, especially after that last battle."
"We'll have to upgrade your holoprojectors to give you more time. I wouldn't want you running out in the middle of the mission and getting caught," Perceptor said.
"Then it's settled. Mirage, you're going."
The intercom came on in the Decepticon base. "Attention, all Decepticons. Starscream has returned to take his rightful place as commander. Dreadwing has approved and stepped down. Everyone will take orders from him without question. Over and out."
Starscream opened the door to the reconstruction room. He walked to the table in the center, where some Constructicons were working to repair the damage of one Decepticon. Starscream waved them away. "Leave us," he said. When everyone had left, he hit a button to reactivate the Decepticon. The optical circuits slowly glowed to life. "Why Megatron," said Starscream, "how nice of you to join us..."
"Starscream--but you're--"
"An Autobot? A temporary loss of my senses, I assure you. However, your actions have been very unbecoming of a Decepticon commander. Really, giving the Autobots information under the guise of a brutal interrogation, one would think you wanted them to win."
"But--"
"But nothing. In your current form I could crush you like a bug," he picked up the much smaller Megatron by the chestplate and tossed him across the room. He hit the opposite wall hard; he stood up and looked at the rather large dent his body created. "Believe me, I have dreamed of this day for eons. In fact, longer than you would be able to comprehend. Of course, I understand you no longer have command, making this transgression understandable. You, as a true Decepticon, saw a way of regaining command and took it. Yet, you could have control if you had the common interest in mind. I know how to fix the problem." He reached down and hit his emergency shutoff switch and whispered, "fix it for good."
Hours later and miles away at the Autobot base, Prowl and Mirage raced out on their patrol route. Prowl said, "Wow, I've never moved this fast before."
"It's the design of the F-1 racer. On earth it was made specifically for speed. The major design problem for general use is it's lowness to the ground. To prevent hitting a rock or bump and flying into the air, a special feature was built into our design. The front wing produces a laser field in front of it to vaporize any rocks in the path. You should only use it once on any uncleared path, then reuse the path. It takes a lot of energy," said Mirage.
"It should have an interesting effect on the Decepticons in battle," said Prowl.
"Yes, it would," Mirage said, "well, it's not as fast as I'm used to. Of couse, I've had several racing forms before."
"Well it's fast enough for me. I'll be able to do my job better--"
The conversation was abruptly interrupted as a blast from overhead struck the ground and overturned the cars. "We got trouble," said Prowl, transforming and then pointing up.
"Don't have to tell me twice," said Mirage.
He pulled out his double-barrel pistol. An oval nozzle grew out of it and he began firing. Mirage joined him. "Reinforcements, we need reinforcements, now!" Prowl yelled into his radio patch.
"Slag, I missed. I should have scrapped both at the same time," yelled Thundercracker.
"Now, no one's going to blame you. They were going much too fast to get a good target lock. Now, though, they're fighting and should be easier to target," said Megaplex.
"Besides, it's more fun to blame Skywarp," said Hooligan.
"Hey!" protested Skywarp.
"Enough," said Dreadwing, "watch and learn." He began a steep nosedive, speeding to Mach 1. Dodging laserfire he let loose six shots from his gattling gun, dropped the bombs off his wings. He hit both simultaneously, nearly knocking them down. At 100 feet, he swooped up and finished the job by hitting them with a sonic boom. He was regaining altitude when a missile hit his wing.
"Yeee-haw, the calvary has arrived!" The Decepticons turned and saw the Aerialbots bearing down on them. Fireflight broke formation and flew to the surface.
"Man, you sure got blasted," he said to Mirage and Prowl.
"Yeah, Dreadwing sure did a number," Prowl said weakly, "Mirage is out of it."
"Well, hold on, help's coming."
Dreadwing had lost control and began to plummet. The anti-grav retros switched on and he slowed. Smokescreen pulled out and Dreadwing transformed into his tank mode. He hit the ground gently and Smokescreen joined the air battle. "We're gonna need that help now," said Prowl. Dreadwing approached on tracks and prepared to fire.
"Don't worry, we're close enough to the base that they should get here soon," said Fireflight.
Just then came a rumbling like distant thunder. On the path they saw a cloud of dust. The rumbling became a roar and the at the center of the dust cloud Optimus Prime appeared. He fired the machine guns on his cab, empty shells flew out of openings on the top corners of the cab. He fired two missiles from the screaming jet engines. The blasts struck Dreadwing, blowing a huge hole in his nose. He stopped dead in his tracks. Optimus screeched to a stop. "Hurry, Fireflight, load them in my trailer. I think I broke a land-speed record!" Fireflight carried Mirage into the trailer and Prowl limped there. Once they were in, he turned around and powered up his jet engines again. He shot forward and sped away. Sandstorm flew in and let loose a barrage of laserfire on all the Decepticons. A huge dust cloud appeared as the rest of the reinforcements came down the road.
The Decepticons saw the new arrivals and knew they couldn't win. "Retreat!" yelled Sky Jack, " we've done enough here." he fired one last shot, blowing Skydive out of the air. Dreadwing got second wind and rolled away hurriedly.
The Autobots cheered as they fled. Air Raid quieted them down and said, "They'll be back." He looked in the direction of the fleeing enemy. "We'll be ready for them next time."
Dreadwing came out from the ready room to talk to Starscream. "Where's Megatron? I had plans for him."
"Yes, well I also had plans for him. It was a good decision to try and make him miserable, but it was a mistake to take him into battle. He's a loose cannon, and should be stopped. So I took the liberty of solving our problem. You'll see him soon," said Starscream.
Megatron came out and yelled, "Prepare yourselves, we're planning a battle."
"What'd you do to him, Air Commander Starscream?" asked Dreadwing.
"Simple enough concept: make him the leader he was, make him forget the alliance, and make him blissfully unaware that he's under my complete control via a mind link. Everything I make him think will become his idea. He will be our leader, and we will take our orders from him. He'll think he chose this new form to make him a harder target," he said.
"You just put my plans to shame. Good work," said Dreadwing.
Outside the base, Mirage snuck toward the door. Suddenly the door opened and two Decepticons emerged carrying a few barrels. Mirage hid behind a wall and waited. The Decepticons moved in preparation, and showed no signs of leaving. "I'll have to do this the hard way," he said to himself. He activated his holoprojector and dissappeared into the wall. He snuck quickly and unnoticed to the doorway. At just the right time it opened and another Decepticon walked out. Mirage dodged to miss him and slipped into the door. Now he was in enemy territory. He started his plan to use three separate holoprojectors to keep his time up, for one moment visible would be spotted by every surveillance camera in the corridor. He walked to the stairs, for the hoverlift might have arisen suspiscion. He found the main computer room. He quickly disabled the cameras in the hall by using a welding torch to cut a wire in a switch box; it looked like a malfunction. A lot less conspicuous than blowing it to scrap, he thought. He switched his holoprojector and 'became' Megaplex. He entered the computer room.
Once inside, he used a stolen access code to get into the files. "Let's find out what you're hiding, Starscream," he said. He accessed anything he could and copied them to a disk. "I hope Ratchet can find out from this why he changed." He hid the disk and slipped out. He heard footsteps down the hall, so he hid behind the corner and watched. He saw Megaplex coming down the hall, so he changed into Hooligan. He walked out to meet the Decepticon.
"Report, what's the malfunction with the cameras?"
"Uhhh, fried wire in the switch box."
"Well, why haven't you fixed it?" Megaplex asked.
"I was just getting to that," he said. He opened the switch box and soldiered the wire back together. "Done."
"How's that?" Megaplex said into his wrist communicator.
"Fine," came a voice.
"Megaplex out," he said.
He walked away, just in time for Mirage to shift his holoprojector again. He entered the hoverlift as Megaplex and went down. He left the ground floor and walked away. As soon as he was over the first hill he became invisible and transformed; he sped away, undetected, and a cloud of dust appeared out of nothing, as if a dust storm just flew into the air.
Megaplex walked down the hall in the other direction. He ran into Hooligan coming toward the corridor he was just in.
"Well, what are you still doing here? Get back to work," said Megaplex.
"Sorry, I'm going to check on that camera malfunction, just like you ordered. I would've come sooner but I thought I heard a noise and wanted to check it out," he said.
"But...I...just..," Megaplex said, confused. Suddenly, it dawned on him. "Ahhh, slag! Megaplex to Starscream, come in," he said into his wrist communicator.
"Yes," came the reply.
"Level one intruder alert. I'll explain later," he said defeatedly.
"I've got the information you wanted, Optimus. The latest scans of Starscream's stucture," said Mirage. He put the disk into the computer. Perceptor looked the display over, a confused look slowly distorted his face.
"If this is correct, he now has two sparks. What's strange is that one seems to have his energy signature but a Decepticon personality. In essence, he's going through an identity crisis," he said, interested.
"Starscream's ghost," said Optimus quietly.
"Excuse me?" said Perceptor.
"Yes, it all makes sense now. Remember when Starscream's ghost returned after Galvatron destroyed him? Then his return in a body after trying to reactivate Unicron? That was his spark. It must've traveled through space from his last battle and found his new body, and now he wants revenge."
"If that's the case, then I believe I can solve it by remodulating your laser cannon to separate the two," said Perceptor.
"Get to it. This may be our only chance, and he may already be expecting it."
"Look at this, Starscream," said Soundwave looking at the video footage from the main computer room. He selected a section. First, Megaplex entered and accessed the computer. He put in a disk and did some work and then removed the disk and walked out. He turned a corner then came back, still within partial view of the camera. His form wavered and shifted and seemed to be Hooligan.
"There are only two Autobots I know who could do that: Hound or Mirage. I want to know what was taken," he commanded.
"One moment....Ah, yes. It seemes to be that they took all the files about you. Strange, I would've thought they would be looking for weaknesses within our base."
"Yes, but that's what we would've done. We don't think like Autobots." Suddenly, Starscream shook and doubled over.
"Starscream--" said Soundwave, alarmed.
"I'm fine," he said angrily. He left the room to his ready room. You fool, he thought, you can't stop this.
I can try, came another thought. You won't take me without a fight.
I can and I have. Every cycle I'm in here, every file I erase, weakens your resolve, and brings me closer to complete control.
But I have all the life support functions and the self-destruct mechanism. If you try a total takeover, this body terminates in less than two cycles. Do you want to try it?
There are ways around you. I have plans you can't access that will insure that I'm never forced out of this body.
We will see.
"We've gotten a message from Megatron. He said that they found out about him helping us and they were going to recycle him. He escaped and went to these coordinates," Optimus pointed at the map on the computer screen, "and they are going to surround him."
"There are hills all around the area. That says ambush," said Hot Rod.
"Right. It could mean either he's in real danger or they've gotten to him. Either way, we should be ready. Prepare a convoy; I want all ground and air units possible there. This is our chance to save Starscream and Megatron, if it's not too late. Get ready and roll out," said Optimus.
The convoy was out several cycles later. In the area, Starscream discussed the plan with Megatron. "You will stand here and coax them into the right place then yell 'Attack' and we'll blow them all to slag."
"Why would they believe I would switch sides?" asked Megatron.
"Because, we had a clone imitate you just for this plan," Starscream lied. "They'll listen to anything you say."
"Yessss!"
He walked away thinking, It's all falling into place. A weak thought floated through his mind and said, No!
The convoy neared the area. "Be prepared for anything," Optimus said quietly. They came within range and Megatron waved to him. He stopped and transformed.
"I'm glad you're here. They've been catching up to me. I didn't know how much more time I could have stayed here," he said.
"How close are they?" asked Optimus.
"This close," he said with a nasty grin, his eyes changing from green to red. "Attack!"
Starscream flew overhead, thundering across the sky. The bombs he dropped screamed to the ground and blasted in front of the Autobot convoy. Suddenly the hills around the area were swarming with Decepticons and a barrage of fire flew at the Autobots. Ambush, thought Optimus, I expected this. "Execute plan alpha," he yelled. All the Autobots transformed and found boulders to hide behind. They fired up toward the Decepticons and some were hit. Optimus transformed his laser cannon and targeted Starscream. "Let's hope this works," he said to himself and fired the special beam.
It was a direct hit. It hit his shields; they seemed to absorb the blast and his engines cut out suddenly. The black plane plummeted from the sky and hit the ground. It layed smoking and damaged in a small crater. Optimus ran to him. "Starscream!" he yelled desperately.
"Hahahahaha!," he laughed menacingly. He transformed and stood up. "Nice try, Optimus," he said and punched him. The blow made him fly backwards through the air. He walked to his dazed form. "But I guessed your move. I knew you would try to force me out, so I reworked my shields. They took the blast and used it to fuse my spark permanently into this body. How ironic that the plan to save your friend is what destroyed him!"
"Noooo!" Optimus screamed and jumped forward. They began fighting hand-to-hand combat, punching and wrestling each other. After landing several punches that all but knocked Starscream out, he fled, jumped into the air, and transformed. He flew up into the air and away. He made a wide u-turn and began firing. Optimus took shelter behind a boulder.
Meanwhile, Soundwave drove to the front line. A panel in the top of his giant photon missile slid open. A mirror inside focused the sun's rays inside to an opening near the front. Mirrors near the front bounced it back to another set around the opening it first came through. It hit a special diamond that focused the light to come out the nose the missile. It shot out as an extremely focused continuous laser beam which he directed at Ironhide. He held out, but the heat began to build to an excrutiating level. Sandstorm hovered in and saw what was happening. "Eat this," he said to himself. His jet engines fell to the sides and one missile shot out of each and struck Soundwave's treads, terminating the laser, overturning him, and destroying the treads on his left side. Soundwave transformed immediately and fired a high energy pulse beam from the satellite dish on his shoulder. The blast made a hole in Sandstorm's side and blew out the engine. As smoke billowed out, his rotors whirled slower and slower. He fell, but then transformed. The jets on his back fired, becoming retro-rockets to slow his descent. "Well, I'll have to do this myself," he said angrily. On the ground, he whipped the jets off of his back and fired a barrage of lasers at Soundwave. He fell backwards with many holes in his chest, no longer active. Inferno rushed up and put out the small fire in Sandstorm's flight engine.
"You'll have to get Hoist over here to patch you up," said Inferno.
"Yeah," said Sandstorm. "I'll see Ratchet when we get back."
Mirage and Prowl were firing up at Bruticus as he bared down on them. Each step brought the giant closer to stepping on them and scrapping them. "We got one chance," said Mirage.
"Let's do it," Prowl said, grinning. They both transformed into their racecar forms. They spun their tires and sped forward. Their front wings began to glow white with the laser field generators on maximum. They flew forward and ran into Bruticus's feet, sheering them off. They drove on as Bruticus lost his balance and fell forward. He smashed to the ground and stayed there with no signs of conscienceness. "Better call Hubcap."
Hubcap was already there. "He's here," Mirage said.
Skywarp, Thundercracker, Megatron, and Megaplex were flying in a v-formation, firing into the Aerialbots' formation. They broke to avoid getting hit.
"That's it. Cover me," said Air Raid. He sped up and flew directly toward Skywarp, spinning and veering wildly to miss his fire. As he closed in he just barely flew to the left to miss colliding, and once he passed to Skywarp's right he reached Mach 1. He flew on and passed to the left of Thundercracker so that he went between the two. The sonic boom made Thundercracker shake uncontrollably. He regained control just soon enough to see what had happened: Skywarp had made a wide u-turn to his right to catch up. Going much too fast to stop, Air Raid had sent him on a collision course with Thundercracker. They flew into each other with barely enough time for Thundercracker to scream, "Skywarp, you fool!!!" They burst into flames and began falling to the ground.
"You want this one?" asked Hoist, watching the sky for flaming debris falling to the ground.
"Sure, it's what I live for. You fix the good, I scrap the bad. I don't know how much I can salvage," said Hubcap , " better get Inferno. I don't tow when it's still burning." They kept watching as they crashed to the ground, smoldering. "Boy this'll be fun!"
Starscream's chest began to glow brightly. He directed energy from his fusion reactor to charge a powerful laser emitter. A blue beam shot from his chest and exploded against Optimus. He flew back and hit the ground. "Good," he said, "but not good enough." His trailer flew out of subspace and fired a missile from a jet engine. It hit Starscream's leg and knocked him down. "It's my turn," he said. The trailer transformed and he climbed onto the platform. Starscream transformed and fled into the air. Optimus targeted the laser cannon on his engine; he let a tremendous blast fly and the engine exploded.
"Retreat," he yelled, trying wildly to regain control, "you haven't seen the last of me, Optimus Prime!" He flew as fast as possible and all the others followed him.
"RETREAT!" yelled Megatron frantically. "I'm your leader, you take orders from me alone! Retreat!"
Starscream made it to nearly a mile away from the base before he finally crashed. The Decepticons picked him up and carried him back to the base as fast as they could.