Chapter Text
“TC, think fast!” Stationed at the observational computer, currently on duty as security, Thundercracker does not, as Skywarp had shouted the split second he warped into the room, ‘think fast’.
The ‘vop’ of Skywarp appearing had warned him something was incoming, but he had expected Skywarp to leisurely sling himself over his back, with blatant disrespect for anyone’s personal space.
He certainly wasn’t expecting something light, round and hollow to bounce off one of his wings. Which is exactly what he got.
“Skywarp.” He grits his denta to suppress the growl of exasperation, but his engines rumble in annoyance all the same. He can just feel Skywarp bouncing on his pedes behind him, field radiating mischievous energy.
Mischievous, when paired with Skywarp, meant trouble.
Accepting his fate, Thundercracker glances once more over the monitors, making sure no-one is requesting the entrance of the Nemesis to be activated, before he swivels round to face Skywarp at an agonisingly slow pace.
Somehow, Thundercracker manages to make an expression that is both irritated, mildly curious, and exhausted.
“You like it, TC~?”
“What is that, where did you get it, does Starscream know, and how do I dispose of it?” Whilst Thundercracker’s wings twitch as he fights back hiding his face in his servos, Skywarp grins like the giddy idiot he is, holding his prize aloft.
“A giant beach ball, stole it, not yet, and you don’t!” His wings ripple with pure joy and his field is drenching the room with self-satisfied victory. Thundercracker can no longer resist dragging his servos down his face, engines rumbling in discontent.
“Please get rid of it before Megatron finds out and sends both of us to the scrapheap.”
“Ol’ Buckethead will never know! C’mon, TC, just go along with it for a bit?” There’s a whine to Skywarp’s vocaliser, and he widens his optics, grin morphing into a pleading, playful pout. Thundercracker peers out between his digits before covering his own optics and turning back round in the chair.
“No. No. You are not getting what you want this time, that face isn’t going to help, I’m not getting in scrap because of you again and- Slaggit, stop making that fraggin’ face!” Skywarp unhelpfully warps around the chair, making sure he’s face to face with Thundercracker the split second he stops swivelling.
“Pleeeeeaaaase, TC? Just one game! Just one game!” Thundercracker peers through his digits again, and Skywarp puts on the most pitiful expression he can muster. A loud and weary vent escapes Thundercracker and Skywarp holds back a shout of success. The sound, reminiscent of a heavy sigh, means Skywarp has won his way.
His trine is soft. They usually give in to him at some point, as long as they aren’t together. When Starscream isn’t around, Thundercracker always gives in. ‘The face’ ensures that.
“Fine. I’ll let you out so you can take it somewhere hidden. Ping me your location and I’ll join you after my shift.”
“YES!” Skywarp ‘vops’ back over to his giant beach ball - seriously, that thing is huge - and grabs it with both arms. He grins in excitement as Thundercracker wearily twitches his affection back in his wings, typing in the code that activates the Nemesis’ pillar.
It’s not even fully extended before Skywarp warps into the lock, waving one arm at the camera with his beach ball by his pedes. The ridiculous thing reaches up to his knee, and Thundercracker huffs as he lifts a servo to the screen in response.
It’s stupid, because he knows Skywarp can’t see him, but the warmth thrumming through the trine bond reassures him that Skywarp knows. Probably because he’s seen Thundercracker do it to Starscream once, when he was pestering the blue seeker during a previous shift.
Curiousity and trepidation appear in the bond from Starscream, so perfectly mixed that Thundercracker can almost hear him sarcastically question if he wants to even know. Thundercracker’s response is a somewhat pained ‘no’. Skywarp’s response is a bright ‘yes!’.
Opening a commlink, Thundercracker risks Starscream’s wrath. He knows his trine leader is currently surveying potential strike areas with Megatron, Soundwave and the cassettes, which will have him in a bad mood anyways.
::// Skywarp has somehow acquired a squishy plaything. \\:: Leaving the comms open, Thundercracker simply turns down the volume until Starscream has finished screeching curses in multiple languages. Earth’s English, standard Cybertronian, and common Vosnian are the only ones he recognises.
::// What in the PIT does he think he’s doing?! He’s going to get us all slagged! \\::
::// I believe he wants to ‘play’. We should probably grant him this before he gets bored and tries to repaint Megatron’s quarters with toxic waste. Again.\\::
On the other end of the line, Starscream hesitates in his response, glancing over to his leader who’s field already radiates with fury at lack of targets. If Skywarp was to be let loose now…
::// Very well. We only have two more sites to survey then I’ll come back to base- \\::
His trine bond pings with a location from Skywarp, and Starscream takes a split second to proudly pinpoint it as somewhere far enough away from the Nemesis that they’ll be out of sight, out of mind.
::// -and we can head off to Skywarp’s ridiculous location together. \\::
::// Roger that. Fly high. \\::
::// On convections and updrafts. \\:: The traditional Vosnian exchange marks the end of their conversation, and Starscream slams his comm shut before Megatron notices. He’s sure Soundwave already has, but the TiC won’t report them as long as Skywarp is kept safely away from the toxic waste… Again.
“Soundwave! Hone in those magnetic signals up ahead!” Megatron’s order prevents Soundwave from questioning anything, and Starscream has never been so thankful to hear of what he suspects is Autobot activity.
“Nuclear plant; heavily guarded. Autobots present; 6 signatures identified.” A thunderous scowl paints Megatron’s features, and Starscream has to bite his glossa to stop himself remarking on how identical it is to his trinemate when they’re trying to drag Thundercracker to the medbay.
(They have a 20% success rate, and even then, Thundercracker can evade them if he can predict where Skywarp will warp.)
“Pit-slagged Autobots! How dare they interfere in my plans! Soundwave, mark this site to be investigated later. If Prime wants to protect it, we’re going to plunder it.”
“Oh yes, Lord Megatron! What a brilliant plan! Let’s just dive headfirst into Autobot lasers, shall we?!”
“Hold your glossa, Starscream. Did I, or did I not say later?” It may be rhetoric, but the tension gets under Starscream’s plating. He’s already irritated from their string of failures at investigating other strike sites, and now Megatron wants to get them all scrapped?
The attempt to put Starscream in his place only makes his sarcasm more venomous.
“Well, now the Autobots are aware of our activity, I’m sure they’ll just step aside! Oh, maybe they’ll roll out the welcome mat! Perhaps the fleshling tradition of offering us tea, rather than an onslaught of gunfire and deactivation!”
“Quiet, Starscream!” With a scoff-like sound from his engines, Starscream promptly distances himself from Megatron. Unfortunately, the roar of his jet engines seems to notify those below of their presence.
“Uh, Megatron? I don’t mean ta interrupt but…” Rumble is silenced with a furious glare, but Soundwave does not hesitate to speak.
“Missile; Incoming.” The Autobots below scramble into offensive position, ready to unleash their attack against the 4 decepticons, should they try to threaten the humans. Megatron’s faceplates deepen their scowl.
“Return to base, for now. Starscream, organise an investigation team for in 7 earth days. That should be long enough for the Autobots to drop their guard.” Dodging the missiles with grace, Starscream indulges in a little of Skywarp’s joy coming through the trine bond, calming him down.
“Yes, Megatron.” The flight back to base seems to go much quicker than their journey out, probably because Starscream has something to look forwards to. He’s even more grateful when they get back and Thundercracker has activated the Nemesis entrance before Megatron has to crankily demand for it.
Other, less vigilant soldiers would wait for a comm request, which would only further Megatron’s frustration.
As soon as they’re inside the base, Starscream breaks away from Megatron and Soundwave, heading to the observation tower. The doors open, and Thundercracker doesn’t even turn in his seat as he flicks his wings in greeting.
“How long until your shift is over?”
“Just 3 kliks. You should head out. Skywarp is getting impatient.” Starscream lightly brushes his knuckles over a blue wing, feeling it flicker happily in response. Seekers back struts tended to tense up when they were on any duty involving a desk. It made for uncomfortable wings and rigid wiring.
Skywarp usually avoided such strain by constantly moving around during his shifts. Starscream had created a small sensor that he could keep in his subspace, one with magnets calibrated specifically to him that helped realign anything the strain had affected. Thundercracker, as diligently immovable as he was, and without the scientific knowledge to build a sensor calibrated to himself, did not have the luxury.
“See to it that you stretch before you fly. I am not recovering your aft from the ocean again.” His words might be strict, but Thundercracker can hear the playfulness behind it, and feel Starscream’s concern through the trine bond.
“Even though it was satisfying to watch other bots faceplates when the salt grinded oh-so-quietly in our joints?” Starscream swats the back of his helm, but follows it by moving a servo to the backplates, pressing a digit in against far too strained struts.
“That part, I enjoyed. Particularly watching Megatron lose his temper as I kept shuffling when he was trying to lecture us~.” Thundercracker snorts a laugh.
“You’re going to get yourself slagged one day, Star.”
“Oh, please. If our dear, mighty leader hasn’t sent me to the pit yet, he’s never going to. He’s soft.”
“Says the one fixing my struts for me.” Starscream pauses to swat his trinemates helm again, but his digits return to their work, gentle as ever when dealing with sensitive wings. He’s pleased to see the flutter of Thundercracker’s wings that mark him as grateful, relieved, and comfortable.
“Would you prefer to overstrain them and get dragged to Hook?” Those blue wings hitch up as high as possible and Starscream hisses under a vent as the cable beneath his digits tightens up to the point where it could have potentially snapped.
“Be careful, you glitchhead! You really will be going to Hook if you keep treating your struts like elastic!” The tension doesn’t release, Thundercracker’s wings remaining high and slightly trembling, until Starscream runs a reassuring hand along the top edge of them.
Skywarp’s concern pulses over the trine bond, questioning the cold dread he could feel seeping into it. Pouring a mix of irritation and solace into their silent communication, Starscream manages to calm both his wingmates at the same time, feeling Skywarp urging them to join him, and Thundercracker’s wings lowering.
Exactly three kliks after Starscream had first entered, a little light on the dashboard goes off, alerting of a shift change. Thundercracker activates the entrance one more time - for Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust returning from patrol - then stands from the chair.
Starscream leads the way, though he pauses in the doorway as he watches Thundercracker fill in the activity log, placing it back in a drawer below the dashboard for the next mech on shift. The Reflector triplets enter to take their place, sharing a polite nod with the blue seeker.
Starscream, of course, rolls his optics so hard they almost disconnect.
“Hurry up, Thundercracker!”
“Reflector, could you open the hatch once we get there? Mark it down as recreational in the log book.”
“Consider it done.” Following after his impatient trineleader, Thundercracker knows Skywarp is probably even more impatient. He’ll start getting into trouble soon, if he isn’t entertained.
“And where do you think you’re going?” A black servo clamps down on Starscream’s shoulder, almost dragging him off balance. Starscream glares back at Megatron, aware of Soundwave lurking further down the corridor. As Thundercracker slows to a halt before he can collide with Starscream, he begs him to behave over the trine bond.
Starscream, being himself, does not listen.
“What does it matter to you, Megatron? Afraid I’ll take the leadership position from behind your back?!” Megatron’s optics flash with a warning of danger. Before this can get violent, Thundercracker calmly comms their intended coordinates to the the Decepticon leader.
“We need to fly with Skywarp. He’s growing bored and… Mischievous.” The servo clamped on Starscream’s shoulder eases to a resting hand, one that Starscream bitterly shrugs off. Truthfully, he’s settled into this routine too much to actually attempt mutiny, but he has a reputation to uphold. No matter how much Megatron seems to be becoming a somewhat competent leader.
“Considering the alternative… I will allow it.”
“Thank you, Lord Megatron.” Thundercracker dips his helm in respect, quickly ushering along a still-glowering Starscream. Their quiet hisses and rumbles can still be heard by Megatron until the duo have passed through the airlock into the exit tower.
Megatron vents a heavy sigh, running a hand over his faceplates. He can feel amusement in Soundwave’s field, which is strange since the mech usually reels his field in.
“Query; Toxic waste not to Megatron’s tastes?” Megatron gives a shove to Soundwave’s shoulder, not entirely unfriendly, pretending like the scowl on his face isn’t hiding a content chuckle at Soundwave’s cheeky ‘query’.
“After last time, my taste for toxic waste has diminished.” There’s a pause of comfortable silence between them before Megatron claps a hand on Soundwave’s shoulder, walking past to go and check the roster in his own quarters.
“Send Lazerbeak after them. Starscream may have regained my trust after that de-frag fixed his misaligned circuits, but the three of them together may still cause trouble.”
“Lazerbeak; follow seekers.” The cassette ejects from Soundwave and caws her agreement as she soars around the corner in chase of Starscream and Thundercracker. Transforming back into cassette form, she just manages to make it through the closing doors and slot herself into a gap in the framework.
Neither of the seekers notice, too busy trying to keep Skywarp where he was, prevent him from causing trouble, and reassure him they were on the way.
“Enlighten me as to where he got this… ‘giant beach ball’, and why.”
“Already told you, Star. He says he stole it, and as for why… Pit knows, ‘Warp doesn’t care about reason and logic.”
“... True, true. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get too attached to it. It’ll be harder to hide a ‘beach ball’ than even that stupid cactus he insists on keeping as a pet.”
“Considering it’s gone from 2 meters to 4 meters whilst under his care, I’d say he’s doing pretty good.”
“Oh, shut up, Thundercracker. I know you’ve been taking care of it for the last meta-cycle.” Starscream lightly shoves at his wingmates shoulder, jostling him teasingly whilst Thundercracker steps away from him, averting his faceplates as they darken with increased energon flow, blushing.
“M’not.”
“You water it specifically with freshwater from the nearest river. You wielded together a pot for it from scrap metal. You even named the blasted thing!” Gawking, Thundercracker’s vocaliser produces small bursts of static before he can compute his response.
“Warp likes to think he’s the one keeping Needlestorm alive, alright!”
(It takes Lazerbeak everything she has not to squawk her laughter whilst she records, only imagining how Soundwave and Megatron are going to react hearing this play back.)
Starscream raises one optic bridge as if to ask Thundercracker if he’s even hearing himself right now. Considering the blue seeker turns his back to Starscream and flicks a couple of insults through his wings, shutting off his vocaliser, Starscream knows he’s practically offlining from embarrassment. The trine leader rolls his optics.
Needlestorm, honestly.
When the hatch of the Nemesis opens and wonderful sky stretches ahead of them, Starscream immediately transforms and jets off. The sensation of soaring winds, cool breezes, and refreshing freedom make his spark feel lighter. His joy thrums through the trine bond, his wingmates responding the same.
Being cooped up underwater made them all a little claustrophobic. The great expanse of Earth’s open skies was their liberation, the reason they hadn’t all collapsed into irreversible stasis yet. A seeker without his flight was a mech doomed.
Skywarp can feel them coming closer, his side of the trinebond pulsating with merry delight. It’s enough to bring Thundercracker out of his embarrassed sulk, and cause Starscream to do a couple of playful stunts.
“Screamer!!! TC!!!” Skywarp rockets between them, gigantic beach ball bouncing from wing to wing as he sways, and Starscream’s processor almost shorts out.
It really is huge! It’s giant! It’s- It’s-!!! It’s perfectly proportioned for them, and Starscream can’t help but wonder what madness the squishies have to make things that are far too big for their puny, fleshy frames.
“Where in Unicron did you find such a thing, Skywarp?!” Circling back around, expertly bouncing the ball from wing to wing as he falls in line with his trine, Skywarp’s engines roar with pride.
“Stole it!”
“From where?”
“Remember the raid we did on the Walney wind farm? I kinda, maybe, sorta… Stopped by the nearest seaside town on the way back for some therapeutic destruction.” Starscream is silent for a long klik, and the longer he doesn’t screech at Skywarp, the harder it gets for his trinemates to hold back their amusement.
Before Thundercracker can ask if his processer has stopped working though, Starscream erupts.
“I ORDERED YOU BACK TO BASE. I - I ORDERED YOU BACK TO BASE!!! You pit-slagged, glitchheaded, bot fraggin’ son of a Cessna!!! What kind of microchip moron goes back to shore, where the Autobots were waiting to slag us, to get a beach ball?!?! WHAT IS YOUR MALFUNCTION, SKYWARP?!”
“Oooh, ‘Screamer’s getting creative. I’m in trouble, aren’t I, TC?”
“Yea.” Displeased by their nonchalance, Starscream slips into his habit of swearing, insulting, and cursing in multiple languages. He knows his trinemates don’t understand most of them - his database has 7211 universal languages, Skywarp’s consists of 400, and Thundercracker has just 3.
Eventually though, Skywarp tires of Starscream’s rant and off-putting attitude.
“Oh, shove it up your afterburner.” Spinning around in flight, Skywarp launches the beach ball at his trine leader, revelling in the solid ‘THUD’ it makes against Starscream’s cockpit before he catches it as it bounces back.
Starscream goes silent, his fury boiling through the trinebond like a simmering volcano.
“Skywarp.”
“Yeeeees~?”
“I dare you to do that again.” Despite feeling Thundercracker’s plea for him to absolutely not do that again, Skywarp only speeds up in flight, intending to add more impact behind his throw.
“Okay!”
“Skywarp, no!” Thundercracker moves to intervene, bouncing the ball back towards Skywarp off his wings, but the teleporter only whoops a laugh and sends it straight back towards Starscream.
Starscream increases his speed, as fast as he can, and impacts the ball with enough force to turn it into a projectile.
“Ha! Take that, ‘Warp!” With the ball incoming at missile speed and with scarily accurate aim, Skywarp opts not to catch this one, and instead warps out of the way. The ball, being a simple beach ball, slows down and starts to fall when it doesn’t hit anything.
Warping to below them, Skywarp transforms back to robot form, catches the ball in his arms, and then boots it back upwards like he’s seen squishies on television do with ‘footballs’. Except Skywarp’s goal was not a net on a grassy field, but his trine.
“Caaaaatch!!!” For the next few breems, they continue playing like this, bouncing the ball back and forth between each other as they fly in the air. Evening clouds start gathering, turning pinkish-orange as the sun lowers.
Never one to turn down an opportunity, Starscream jets underneath the ball, twisting in midair so his thrusters push the ball even further up, into the clouds above them. Thundercracker doesn’t hesitate, rocketing after the beach ball and right into the clouds.
He, like Skywarp, transforms into his robot form, but it’s not to catch the ball. Instead, he spreads his arms out along his wings, taking in a deep vent, and shuts off his optics. For a moment, nothing exists but the condensation clinging to his frame, the static electricity in the cloud, and the calming silence that comes from being wrapped in weather like this.
A grin appears on his faceplates, and at the same time as he turns his optics on and reaches one servo out to catch the ball, he releases a sonic boom that’s only enhanced by the cloud. Instantly, water is released from the cloud in an absolute downpour, and he booms a laugh as he can hear his trinemates screeching at him, with their surprise exploding over the trinebond.
They don’t let him hide in the cloud for long, Starscream looping around it to wrap the condensation together tightly in hopes of exposing his trinemate, and Skywarp warping around in rough guesses of where Thundercracker could be, lighting the cloud up with purple flashes that get brighter as the cloud gets smaller.
“Come out, TC! We just wanna get you back for that!” Snickering, Thundercracker holds the beach ball in waiting, aimed at where he thinks Skywarp will appear next. As if he had known the future, Skywarp warps straight into the area he’d picked out - having felt the ions destabilizing as the air always does around Skywarp’s target - and Thundercracker knocks the ball over to him in a gesture reminiscent of a volleyball spike.
It bounces off Skywarp’s helm, but he’s quick to backflip in the air and catch it, grinning upside down at Thundercracker.
“Ooooh, you’re gonna pay for that~! Screamer, I found ‘im!”
“Oh, I’m aware of that.” Blue arms loop around his waist, and Thundercracker angles his helm back to catch Starscream’s sly grin, before the trineleader cuts his engines.
Freefall, Thundercracker finds, is absolutely terrifying.
“Star! Starscream! Switch your engines back on, switch your engines back on!!! I can’t fly both of us! Starscream!!!” Cackling, Starscream lets them drop until the ground is within view, and just when Thundercracker thinks maybe - just maybe - his trineleader may have finally lost it and his circuits had corroded, there’s a soft ‘vop’ behind them, before the unsettling sensation of being warped.
Back up in the air, just below the remains of the cloud he had made rain down on them, Thundercracker is released from Starscream’s hold. He glares at Starscream, irritation buzzing over the trinebond, but the response is only cheeky playfulness from his wingmates and his optics widen.
“You two planned this...” Skywarp slings an arm over Starscream’s shoulder, both of them looking incredibly proud of themselves.
“Yup! As soon as you made it rain on us!”
“Consider this your ‘just desserts’, Thundercracker~.” Rolling his optics, Thundercracker shoves at them gently, enough to get his point across that they certainly proved their revenge. Then, he notices something.
“Skywarp, where’s your ball?” The teleporter looks around, spark sinking as he realises his ball is nowhere to be seen. His sorrow echoes across the trinebond as he shrinks in on himself. Starscream brushes a servo over his wing comfortingly.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find it.” Skywarp offers a small smile of gratitude, but all three of them know that he won’t shake off this sadness until he’s either had a full recharge, or they find the ball that was surprisingly fun to play with.
Maybe squishies weren’t so maddened after all, Starscream considered.
Thundercracker glances towards the horizon, optics narrowing in the golden light as the the sun meets the ocean.
“Come on, it’ll be harder to find in the dark.” Before they can transform into jet form and start searching though, they tense up. Something is approaching. All three of them ready their weapons in waiting, focused on where the blip on their visors is travelling…
And then there’s a familiar squawk as something emerges from the evening clouds.
“... Lazerbeak?”
“What are you-? Is Megatron spying on us?!”
“MY BEACH BALL!”
Clearly, the three of them have different priorities. Skywarp dashes forwards to take the beach ball from where Lazerbeak has it balanced on her wings, whilst Thundercracker tries to calm Starscream down from screeching about “He knows those circuits in my personality component were fixed, I’m not glitched anymore, why is he spying-!?”
Lazerbeak caws as she does a loop-de-loop. Skywarp looks at her. Looks at the beach ball in hands. Looks back to the casseticon. And grins.
“2 vs 2, us against TC and Screamer!”
“Wait, what? Skywarp-.” Cut off with a beach ball to the faceplates, Thundercracker freezes mid-flight. His thrusters start to ominously rumble and his vents deepen in sound. Starscream retrieves the ball, bringing it back up to his trinemate - and as of this moment - teammate.
Skywarp’s overconfident grin slowly morphs into a nervous, forced smile.
“Uh-oh.”
“Give it to ‘em, Thundercracker.” Starscream’s playful voice should not sound so malicious, Skywarp thinks, transforming back to jet form and roaring away. A beach ball, projected by a crazily powerful sonic eruption, bounces off his vertical stabilizer.
Before it can drop though, Lazerbeak is there, pushing the ball towards the opposing team. Not that any of them have any idea what they’re playing, just that they’re bouncing the ball back and forth between their teams.
They sky has long gone dark and been painted with stars before they give up, all 4 exhausted and low on energon, but filled with joy that they had rarely experienced since the start of the war. As they start to head back to base, Lazerbeak ends her recording, having streamed the whole ‘game’ to Megatron’s personal quarters.
Sitting in a chair that resembles a throne, low grade energon cube in hand, Megatron chuckles lowly. Not in an evil manner, but just because his vocals are that deep. Standing by his side, Soundwave’s field is relaxed and content.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so concerned about the seekers after all.”
“Starscream; Fully de-bugged. Risk of mutiny; 2%.” Humming in consideration, Megatron relaxes back into his chair, sipping at his energon cube.
“Perhaps I will let Skywarp keep that ridiculous invention.”
“Query; Cassetticons permitted access?”
“Affirmative. Increased moral will make the Decepticons easier to lead, more willing to obey. Increased teamwork will ensure our victory!” Soundwave remains silent in the background, but there’s no doubt that he agrees. Ever loyal, he would never stray from Megatron’s side, but seeing him return to the great leader he was at the beginning of the war…
It made the Nemesis feel more like home.