“You’re telling me that Thunderhoof disobeyed me and put a hit on the D.J.D’s assassin?!” Starscream demanded of Skywarp the next day.
“The assassin’s Nightbird. Despair not,” assured Skywarp. “I’m actually due to visit Thunderhoof. Besides, he’s become an annoyance. Last I heard, he’s chatting with his little ninja after she let her target get away. I just need to tell them they’re going after an…innocent bot, as determined by police.”
“Then you can take care of this problem?”
“And have fun while doing so yet get the results you want. That reminds me, do you want him dead or alive?”
“Dead. He’s too much of a loose cannon.”
“And his little assassin?”
“…She may be of use. It was brought to my attention that her husband is on Cybertron, within Megatron’s faction of Decepticons. Word gets out of you taking care of the Thunderhoof Mafia’s head and Megatron loses an ally, pinning the blame on Nightbird and her husband.”
“Gotcha. All right, see you later, barring any Autobot interference.” Skywarp then ran across the runway that served as the balcony to Starscream’s home and jumped, transforming to jet mode, and taking off towards the north. Sunstorm then came out of the shadows.
“We must spare nothing as we destroy the Autobot heathens!” urged the Covenant-thumper. “You have the Heart of Cybertron! Its full power must be unleashed and-!”
“No, no, no, that won’t be necessary,” replied Starscream. “Moderation MUST be exercised here. I mean, yes, I can feel the Heart’s power coursing through my circuits-”
“You’ll need every bit of it, Starscream!” called a new voice. The two Seekers turned to see Optimus and his team after they burst into the room! “Autobots, ATTACK!” called Optimus. Sonic opened with a spin-dash to Starscream’s face and temporarily knocked him silly. He recovered quickly to see Sunstorm duck behind a couch to avoid the weapons fire. Starscream rolled his optics.
“Okay, I guess moderation’s out the window if YOU’RE gonna be a home invader, Floptimus Prime!” He then fired magenta lightning from both hands and struck Optimus square in the chest, sending him sprawling into a wall.
“PRIME!” called Rattrap. Thankfully, his paint didn’t fade to gunmetal gray.
“Come on, Autobots!” taunted Starscream. “Follow your leaders orders and ATTACK!” He fired again.
“Oh man, this is bad!” gulped Rattrap.
“There’s only one alternative; ATTACK!” snarled Slash. “We storm his position and-!”
“You’re on the wrong wavelength there, Lizard-lips! WE RUN!”
“Oh yes? And just where do we run, Rodent?!”
“Anywhere but here! He’ll blow us away if we attack!”
“He’ll blow us away if we just stand here!” growled Grimlock. “CHARGE!” Everyone rushed at Starscream, only for him to fire a blast that knocked everyone to the floor. Sonic got himself ready to run.
“Hope I get lucky!” he wished himself. He ran around Starscream, creating a tornado with the Seeker in the center.
“Ah, running around, hoping to deprive me, a robot, of air,” Starscream purred. “A cunning strategy. …No, wait, what’s the opposite of cunning?”
“Stupid?!” asked Sunstorm.
“That’s the word!” Starscream then fired a small blast at the floor, scorching Sonic. Shahra spotted him and raised her hands. She used her magic to lift Sonic out of the way and then healed him.
“Thanks, Shahra,” panted Sonic. “Now go help Optimus.”
“Right, Mas…Sonic.” Shahra then headed to Optimus and healed him. His optics flicked back online. “Prime, can you hear me?!”
“I’ll be okay, Shahra,” replied Optimus. He then saw how badly the battle was going. “No! The reports were right! He’s got the Heart of Cybertron! We’ll be slaughtered! We need time to fall back!”
“Your wish is granted!” called Shahra. She fired a cloud of smoke at Starscream and Sunstorm. Shots then escaped from the cloud with no way to aim them.
“CAN’T SEE!” shrieked Starscream.
“AIM FOR THE CEILING!” ordered Optimus. Everyone shot at the ceiling and made it out of Starscream’s home while Starscream and Sunstorm were buried under the ceiling’s rubble. Once they made it outside, everyone caught their breath. “That should hold them for a while,” panted Optimus. He then turned to Grimlock. “Damage report.”
“We’re all banged up,” reported Grimlock. “We could use some repair time.”
“Shahra, get us out of here.”
“Got it!” replied Shahra. A golden cloud surrounded everyone, and they all vanished.
Meanwhile, Thunderhoof, a Decepticon with moose-antlers on his head and the alt-mode kibble of a tractor, was talking to Nightbird. “Youse tellin’ me dat you let Deadlock get away?!”
“I didn’t ‘let her get away’, Thunderblast got in my way!”
“Ey yo, youse better talk right about her, capisce? I get upset real easy, see? Nothin’ upsets me more dan some broad talkin’ bad about my doll!”
“I know, right? A ninja should be more respectful to a client’s main squeeze,” remarked a new voice.
“Youse should listen to dat guy, he…” Thunderhoof then realized who it was and saw Skywarp! “…EY YO!”
“YOU?!” snarled Nightbird as she drew her sai!
“That’s right, Vito Corleone and Uzumaki Hinata!” laughed Skywarp. “Make a scene and summon the press, why don’t you? What a photo-op! The Mafia Mech, the Cyber-kunoichi, and their wacky Seeker pal!”
“Youse ain’t no friend of mine!” Skywarp’s face fell.
“Oh, Thunderhoof!” he protested. “I’m crushed! How the high and mighty forget! Don’t you remember? You, Young Nightbird here, me, and the rest of the gang?”
“Ey yo, what’re youse talkin’ about?! I never met ‘em OR you! I worked for Cryotek! I didn’t know what he was doin’!”
“Oh, but you knew about it afterwards! And put it to good use, I see! Why else would you be seeking Starscream’s favor?”
“…What do ya want?”
“To find out why you disobeyed Starscream and put a hit on Deadlock!”
“Ain’t ya read da news?!”
“Thunderhoof’s right,” remarked Nightbird. “That drifter killed the D.J.D!”
“BZT! Wrong!” replied Skywarp. “It ain’t Deadlock. Nope, nope, nope! That’s why Starscream said no hits on her! I’ve seen the guy, and I do mean GUY! He looks more like a Praxian, nowhere near as cute as Deadlock!”
“Youse sayin’ it’s someone else?” asked Thunderhoof.
“Yeah. Someone who wouldn’t mind seeing our old pals out of the way.” Skywarp then gasped as if a horrible thought struck him. “Maybe…gulp, sob, me too! That’s when I thought about YOU, Boss Thunderhoof! An important, upstanding mech like you would find it…awkward if certain secrets were revealed about his past?” Thunderhoof then looked nervous.
“Wait a cycle here, youse ain’t sayin’ I-!”
“No, believe it or not, I’m saying you ordered that hit to keep the guy quiet and all those secrets locked away.” Just then, Thunderhoof’s intercom buzzed.
“Mr. Thunderhoof, Nightbird’s husband is on the line,” reported his secretary.
“Ah, that’s right, you got a hubby!” Skywarp remarked to Nightbird. He then pressed the accept button, then held a finger to his lips to both of them.
“…Y..Yes, sir?” asked Thunderhoof to the person on the other end.
“Thunderhoof, I came to call about Operation: Chamber Breach,” rasped the familiar voice of Megatron. Skywarp goggled, then looked to Nightbird as she nodded in confirmation.
“…Er, we hit a bit of a snag,” gulped Thunderhoof to Megatron. “Nothin’ dat can’t be cleaned up, but it needs to be on da down-low. It might make us later dan projected.”
“How late?”
“Only a couple a’ cycles at worst!”
“…That’s fine.” Nightbird’s face then relaxed as she ducked down. “Now, I would advise you to keep your head down!” Thunderhoof heard the roar of jet engines getting closer, then went as flat to the floor as possible while Megatron burst through the window in jet mode, clotheslining Skywarp and then transforming while grabbing Skywarp’s neck. “Any words you wish to say to him?” asked Megatron. Thunderhoof got up and dusted himself off before he began.
“Did ya really t’ink de idea to put a hit on Deadlock was all my idea?!” he snarled. “Megatron got a mnemosurgeon to examine da stiffs’ memories!”
“Hold on, a mnemosurgeon AFTER death?!” argued Skywarp.
“Yes, the individual details were sketchy,” remarked Megatron, “but we strung them together and pieced together what happened.”
“Dey sent me da reports and badda bing, badda boom, I placed da hit on Deadlock, since Starscream wasn’t too keen on following up on a concerned citizen’s needs. So, I remembered da ol’ sayin’ ‘Always bet on da leader,’ and told Megatron about what youse guys was havin’ me do!” Skywarp teleported out of Megatron’s grip, then fired his weapons before transforming and flying out of the building. “EY YO!” snapped Thunderhoof. Megatron looked out the hole in the wall and growled. He then relaxed and smiled.
“Thunderhoof, you are to be rewarded for your loyalty. Perhaps a new office nearer to Kaon?”
“Ey yo, dat ain’t a bad idea! Thanks, Lord Megatron. Oh, and Nightbird, about what I said before we were rudely interrupted-”
“We both worked on that script, Thunderhoof,” reminded Nightbird. “Your life is still yours.”
“Thanks for bein’ understandin’.”
“Now, Thunderhoof, about that snag…” mused Megatron.
“Like I said, it’s only gonna put us back by two cycles at worst. We’ll still get inside before the day is out.”
“Excellent! Despite this set back, we’ll still breach the Vector Sigma Chamber before the Solstice!”
