High Above ~ Down Below

[Deleted]

Characters: Starscream | @windblade | Spacewarp
Location: Nemesis' Flight Deck then over the forest
Content Warnings: N/A
Plot Summary: The overtly courageous Starscream rescues his cowardly underling from the clutches of a vile Autobot scourge!

[Deleted]

It was common knowledge aboard the nemesis that Starscream wished to ascend to a position of regency within the Decepticons. It was an all-encompassing desire which more than often negatively impacted the Decepticons as a whole. Not that Starscream had an ounce of care to give about the ramifications of his fraudulent behavior. Nay, more often than not he relished in the sparks he snuffed to achieve his desires. This instance of deception did very well to highlight his machiavellian nature. The rank of Air Commander granted this devious decepticon control of Megatron's Seekers, and it wasn't often that he demanded one particular seeker out of a thousand vehicons.

"Spacequake?" He addressed his underling with utmost level of disrespect. It takes a special level of egomania to make Narcissus himself cringe in disgust, but such an exemplary show of pure conceit and scorn allows Starscream to take the cake nine out of ten times. How he jumbled the names Spacewarp and Skyquake together was truly beyond human comprehension, yet lo and behold, it occurred. "Out of all my seekers, I hunted you out for a mission of utmost significance to the Decepticon cause..." The use of the word "my" was deliberate, in Starscream's own twisted little mind, all of the Decepticon's were his, not Megatron's. Anyone who says otherwise is simply a pest, which need-be exterminated.

"Your mission, should you choose to accept (failure to accept merits dire consequences), is... Erm... Reconnaissance for... Autobot forces in the um... Forrest... Sector?" He stumbled over jumbled words as if he were scrambling to think up a mission on the spot... Mostly because he was. Starscream, for all his inherent brilliance, has the fatal vice of acting on impulse. Of coarse, his impetuous narcissism would never allow him to admit such a fault. "For this mission, you have the great honor of participating in this endeavor with myself...."

"You may address me as, Lord Starscream. Any questions? That was rhetorical, you will not pester me with any"
Spacewarp | @windblade (I'll tag ya when we're ready for ya! Also, XD if either of you want me to change the summary just ask! Hope the posts good for ya!)

[Spacewarp]

She found her new form to be... bigger, to say the least. The last few days aboard the Nemesis had seen Spacewarp come to the realization that she had found herself in a completely new universe. There had been many more harsh adjustments she'd had to endure besides replacing her battered frame, but perhaps the most notable example was being informed that the Autobots now controlled Cybertron. Her curiosity led her around the Decepticon ship over and over again, asking question after question. Megatron was still Megatron, from what she could tell, so not all hope was lost. Starscream however, was not Starscream. This one was far different from the Seeker she had known back home; he was treacherous, manipulative and deceitful. He was a problem to say the very least. But Spacewarp could work with that.

She had been unceremoniously summoned by Starscream himself, seemingly out of nowhere. Once she had reached the flight deck, Spacewarp noticed just how vacant it all looked; from what she had gathered, most of the other seekers largely consisted of re-purposed Vehicon soldiers. Were times so desperate that the Decepticons now had to get by using armies of drone soldiers? She perished the thought as her new superior approached to address her.

The former Air Captain of the Decepticon Navy looked down at her new boss. Stars he was short... and thin... and frail. Spacewarp bit back a fiery comment in response to the absolute butchering of her name. She'd never even heard of a Skyquake before! The mission profile was a lot more vague than she'd liked. Whatever Starscream was planning, Spacewarp would be forced to go along with it, for the moment at least. She fully intended to reclaim her position in the Decepticon command structure, even if these were no longer her Decepticons.

"Understood, Lord Starscream," she replied, simply.

[Deleted]

Ah.... Lord Starscream, the words dripped from her lips as though it were the ever-succulent nector of Primus himself. It rung through his cranium hours after the encounter with no small amount of pleasure. When he had finally taken the time to analyze the specimen before him, it would be the most heinous of lies to state he wasn't intimidated. She was... She was massive... She was hulking... She was like a gorilla! "BY THE ALLSPARK ~ YOU'RE GIRTHIER THAN THIS SHIP!" It was an utterance he should have filtered before speaking, but the overwhelming sense of dread gained through his subordinate's appearance limited Lord Starscream's common senses. His optics frantically scanned every inch of her frame as though he were some cornered beast scrambling to search for a rivals weaknesses

"Ahem, In-In any case..." His composure was only partly retained, one could still tell that he was shaken up by her appearance. "In any case, I digress, if you'd follow me..."

With introductions now out of the way, so begins the "mission". Starscream stepped to the edge of the flight deck, basking in the cool afternoon breeze. He let himself fall forward, plummeting below, only to return back up as a jet, a loop in the air simply to show off. He did prefer to look stylish in the air, after all. He spoke nothing whilst in the air, and instead focused on getting as far away from the Nemesis, or rather Soundwave, as possible. The wind brushed through his wings, and glided through his stabilizing find. The trees rustled, and the air had a comfortable chill to it. Starscream did so love flying.

It was once he reached a forest (where precisely it was he didn't know), that he went for a nosedive, his insides and outsides turning and grinning until he made a stomp at the soft dirt below. "Now, since we're out of Soundwave's range of peripherals... I hear wild rumors about you, Spacequake... The Decepticons are in a dire need of your assistance. As you may no doubt realize, our numbers have dwindled and our power has faltered. In order to rescue the Decepticon cause from its inevitable doom, you must... Transcribe to me how your universe's Starscream, was able to personally obliterate Lord Megatron and seize full command...." his gestures and movements between every utterance was elaborate and deliberate, like a politician conning his fingers arching and extending, and his arms exaggerating each sentence. "Entirely in the defense of Lord Megatron, of coarse... Well?! What are you waiting for?! Obey your master, behemoth!"

@windblade (I'd say after Spacewarp 's post would be an alright time for ya to show up! Also, real sorry about the delay, the holiday's had a real nasty lingering effect on me)

[Spacewarp]

She was expecting at least some form of basic acknowledgement for stroking his ego, but Spacewarp certainly wasn't expecting that. While her neutral expression more or less stayed the same, Spacewarp's eyes widened at Starscream's accidental admission. Her gaze practically drilled into his optics for the next few uncomfortably awkward seconds, in both shock and horror. No wonder he was having such a hard time toppling Megatron.

By the Allspark, he was practically shaking at the sight of her! Comparatively, Starscream was a pool noodle when put up next to the oak tree that was Spacewarp; not to mention she was a good few feet taller than him as well. His composure in the face of a subordinate larger than himself was laughable, which narrowed his chances of ever confronting Megatron about his leadership directly even more. Come to think of it, it couldn't have been a coincidence that he reminded her of a snake.

"Of course." she replied, shaking off the girthy comment to follow Starscream to the hangar, her footsteps loudly drowning out his. Spacewarp had never been one for flashy aerial maneuvers or death defying drops, mostly because she wasn't Vosian in origin. She simply took a step off the edge of the deck after him, transforming a split second later to catch up. Their considerable size difference was only exaggerated further as Spacewarp pulled up next to Starscream, surpassing him in both width and length. She was truly hoping it wouldn't do much to put a dampener on his generous ego.

He wasn't taking them anywhere in particular, from what they'd flown over thus far. There were no human settlements, Autobot bases or anything else for miles; just acres of quiet lakes and forests. Starscream's sudden change in trajectory was the indication she needed to signal their destination. Spacewarp dove towards the ground to meet him, but lacked her boss's finesse with the landing. The seeker smashed into the earth behind him with all the noise and force of a bomb dropping, cracking the ground beneath her.

Then came the real reason he'd dragged her out here. She muscled through Starscream's attempt at butchering her good name to hear just what his intentions were, finding them to be roughly what she'd expected. He had heard through some source about her own Starscream, and now wanted her 'advice' as how to best imitate him. The Decepticon kept herself quiet for a moment after being called a behemoth, but she nevertheless answered the question burning in his mind.

"Of course. I, Air Captain Spacewarp, will tell you of him."

She dropped all semblance of attempting to boost his ego through added fluffy right off the bat, giving Starscream the straight facts.

"He started by cultivating favor with the rest of the Decepticons, through first taking control of the navy by leveraging influence and implementing new combat techniques that gave us an edge in the war with Unicron."

Spacewarp took a step closer to Starscream, now starting to truly look down upon him, "By the time Megatron fell to the Autobots, Starscream was already in a prime position to succeed him, and soon afterwards the Autobots were defeated."

"Make no mistake..." she continued, leaning over him now, "... my Starscream made no covert or overt attempts on Megatron's life or position to further his own ends. All the schemes and plots I've heard so much about have done nothing to move you closer to usurping Megatron; in theory of course. If you deeply desire to surpass him, heed my words; put the Decepticons ahead of yourself and your desire to replace Megatron, and they will follow you even if you don't sit in the Nemesis's captain's chair."

[Deleted]

The wind that blew across her frame as she flew at full speed over the uninhabited area was one of the most welcoming feelings in the world to Windblade. Her turbines were by no means silent, but she didn't quite mind. She was purely enjoying the freedom of traveling, moving across the globe with only a few cares in the world, and the wind moving across her frame. It was cool and welcoming, a stark contrast to the hot, stuffy air of the desert where the Autobots presently had their main base of operations. Now that was one of the few places that was always irritating when she kicked on her turbines, sending up sand flying and landing in places difficult to clean out later.

'Now isn't this a sight.' She mused to herself as she soared over the forest below, admiring the beauty Earth actually had to offer. That was until something rather loud captured her attention. Her senses were turned to their fullest at the present time, so it wasn't hard to miss that sort of sound, as if someone had just let off a bomb. But even in a non-populated area who would take such a risk? Humans doing some kind of testing for their military? Decepticons finding a area to mine away the energon? "One way to find out."

Windblade tilted one of her wings so she could make a sharp turn towards where the sound had come from, blasting full speed once more. Her engine and turbines were loud and the wind roared in her audios, but that didn't stop her from getting distinct smell of Cybertronians in the area. So, it was Cybertronians who were at fault with what she assumed was a random bomb going off, but she had seen no signs of smoke or the like. Maybe it was something else entirely.

To be certain, Windblade slowed her speed, focusing her hearing this time and catching two voices nearby. Hmm, one sounded vaguely familiar to her. One that spoke surprisingly smooth in her audios, making threats and promises of exposing...something. Telling her what to do...No! Where were such thoughts coming from? She mentally shook off such strange thoughts that ran through her processor, trying to focus on what she was hearing and moving closer until she spotted Spacewarp and Starscream, more so Spacewarp. The femme seeker wasn't exactly hard to miss with her size.

Windblade made no hesitation to get to the bottom of what the two were up to. "You know, little strange to see two lone Con Seekers out and about without others around." Windblade spoke casually, transforming and hovering in place thanks to the thrusters on the back of her legs, loosely crossing her arms over her chest plates. "Don't suppose its unlikely you're wanting to leave your faction is it? Mean, this would make this having to arrest you think a whole lot easier."