WRONG TURN TO THE BABY WAR

[jetsplaining]

So, good news -- the space bridge prototype worked. Less good news -- it seems to have taken Starscream with it instead of the drone, which was definitely not the intent. And he hadn't intended to send it to a...ship? It looks like he's on a ship. He can feel the hum of the engines through the bulkheads. There are almost definitely people on this ship -- whose is it? It seems Cybertronian in make, but it's not as though the ports of Cybertron have been especially bustling lately. The hallway he's in is too nondescript to give him a clue as to just what kind of ship this is, but the lack of Decepticon insignias in sight doesn't install a great sense of confidence in him.

His radio pings are hitting dead air, so either no one else was transported here, or the trip messed with his comms. Neither prospect is especially heartening. Clutching his datapad to his chest, Starscream flattens himself against a wall and starts inching toward the nearest turn in the corridor, calling out in a low hiss.

"Megatron?" Nothing. Well. Hm. "Slipstream? ...Strika? Anyone?"

Comments

[jetsplaining]

Starscream glares up at him. What's with the eye rolling, Megatron, he super doesn't appreciate whatever shade you're throwing here.

"If they can pinpoint my location," he says impatiently, "then yes, they'll come get me. But if it's an attack you're worried about -- doubtful, unless it's provoked." At least, he's pretty sure that his Megatron's not going to bother picking a fight with a bunch of Autobots that aren't even from their own universe. "We're still fighting a war. It'd be a colossal waste of time and effort to launch an attack on this ship when there's plenty of fighting to be done on Cybertron, if you ask me. And I doubt Megatron would do anything that stupid and tactically unsound."

What he does have doubts about, though, is just how his Megatron might react to this one. He'd like to think that his own Megatron would regard this mech with the same contempt that Starscream currently does, but...there's a chance it could cause a delay. That it might make him hesitate, even just out of curiosity. No, Starscream decides, if -- when Megatron comes to his rescue, he's got to make sure that he doesn't ever actually meet this Autobot Megatron. He'd be saving everyone a whole lot of trouble. Obviously.

[towardspeace]

"Hmm," says Megatron, who is honestly more worried about an exhausting uptick in shenanigans than he is about the Lost Light actually being attacked by Decepticons. That said, though... he can definitely imagine a version of himself being offended enough by his own appearance to order an attack... But on the other hand it's much harder to imagine traversing alternate realities to rescue Starscream.

He decides he probably has nothing to worry about. At least, nothing that isn't already standing in front of him giving him the evil eye.

"Alright," he says curtly, and starts down the corridor. "Let's see if Perceptor and Brainstorm can send you back to where you're supposed to be. Cybertron, you said?" He glances down at Starscream, considering. "Is your war still contained to your home planet, then?"

[jetsplaining]

"Yes," Starscream answers, a bit warily. It's Cybertron they're fighting over, after all, although he fully recognizes that the increasingly violent struggle for resources, especially energy, is starting to put a considerable strain on the planet. Evidently this Megatron's war had gone on long enough that they'd needed to go beyond Cybertron to fight the war.

Quickening his stride to keep pace with Megatron, Starscream gets an uncomfortable flash of deja vu to a conversation he'd had mere hours ago in one of the corridors in the Hall of Records. This is weird and he Does Not Like It. "I have data from our space bridge, you know, I don't -- did you say Brainstorm? You want me to work with Brainstorm?"

[towardspeace]

Megatron arches a ... forehead ... portion??

"I want you to give him and Perceptor whatever information you can about your prototype so that they can pinpoint where you went wrong and how it landed you here, yes."

[jetsplaining]

“This is highly classified Decepticon research,” Starscream says haughtily, holding the datapad to his chest. “I’m not going to just hand it off to a couple of Autobots practically sight unseen. I helped build that prototype.”

It is starting to sound like they might know more about space bridge theory here, though, and on the off chance they do, Starscream sure as hell isn’t going to miss an opportunity to give himself a leg up on Shockwave. He crosses his arms, tapping the datapad against his hip. “I’ll only share this data if I work with them, and only if they share all of their available research on the subject, too.”

[towardspeace]

Another eye roll.

"You said it was a prototype, didn't you? From everything else you've said it sounds like there's some kind of time discrepancy at work here on top of the... other differences -- I highly doubt any of that classified research will be news to them." He narrows his eyes. "But if you'd prefer not to help them work out how to get you home I'm sure nobody would mind leaving you at the next planet we stop at instead."

[jetsplaining]

Starscream manages to contain his squawk of outrage to a mere indignant grunt, glaring at Megatron through lidded eyes. "Really," he scoffs. "It might have been a prototype, but my space bridge apparently managed to punch a hole in spacetime to another universe. The exact cause of that is somewhere in this data. Have Brainstorm and Perceptor made contact with other realities? Because if so, you should've said so right away -- it'd make this much simpler."

He should probably, like, check the dripping sarcasm just a little bit.

[towardspeace]

Megatron levels him with an unimpressed stare. "You punched a hole in spacetime by accident," he points out.

[jetsplaining]

Starscream puffs out his chest, refusing to be knocked off his cleverer-than-thou higher ground right now.

"Some of the greatest scientific discoveries in history were made by accident," he says smugly. "Do you know how Cybertronian scientists first split the atom? Or discovered gamma rays? Or the frequency of five-space fields? Of course you don't," he goes on, not giving Megatron a chance to answer. "But I'm sure Brainstorm and Perceptor do, and I'm sure they'd like to take a look at my data."

He was absolutely prepared to blame the accident on Shockwave, but now that he can spin it to make him look as brilliant and impressive as possible, he'll be keeping that credit, thanks.

[towardspeace]

Megatron pushes a frustrated hand over his face, and sighs. "Maybe they would, but I don't think even Brainstorm would want it badly enough to hand his own discoveries over to a Starscream from a universe where the Decepticons are still at war."

[jetsplaining]

"Well, I'd like to hear what Brainstorm has to say about it for himself," Starscream says stubbornly. Brainstorm would surely be easier to outmaneuver, or at least manipulate. He'd certainly have more of a vested interest in it than Megatron. "I just want your research on space bridge theory, not your entire archives. Besides, as someone who's actually engineered a space bridge, I'm sure it would go much more quickly with my help."

He'd totally steal as much as he could from their archives given the chance, but he's willing to settle on what he thinks is a compromise for the sake of moving things along. But Megatron's comment nags at his attention and his eyes light up with curiosity, and while he doesn't quite smile, he does look insufferably smug.

"So there is a version of me here." He knew it!! He knew it. There's no way a universe that included both Megatron and Brainstorm in it could, like, not have himin it. "What's he like? Oh, wait -- don't tell me he's an Autobot too."

[towardspeace]

Megatron just kind of automatically grimaces. "No," he says, schooling his face into a more respectable scowl, "he isn't. He's a politician."

[jetsplaining]

Starscream looks absolutely fucking appalled. "What?" he bursts out. The politics of academia are bad enough, but actual politics? Ugh. This Megatron has proven to be more or less disappointing so far, but Starscream assumed that this universe's version of himself would actually be cool and impressive. "How did that happen? I mean, what kind of self-respecting Decepticon fights in a war started over politics, loses, and then turns around and dives back into the reason it all started in the first place?"

That is certainly not what Starscream envisions himself doing after the war. Then again, the Decepticons here did lose, and Megatron did join the Autobots. That had to be even more disappointing to this universe's Starscream. He squints up at Megatron. "He is a Decepticon, isn't he?"

[towardspeace]

"I think he's neutral now," says Megatron with obvious distaste, although, let's be real, that's not about the idea of being neutral, which is basically fine as far as he's concerned, it's just about Starscream. Fuck that guy. "He used to be a Decepticon, if that's what you mean. And as far as I can tell it was just the easiest way for someone whose main talents are lying and manipulating people to grab at some kind of power after the Decepticons disbanded."

[jetsplaining]

Starscream's gaze flattens. He assumes neutrality means something different here, what with the war being over, but admittedly he wasn't expecting...that response. He feels a little called out, frankly. No good liar -- and he does consider himself one, if maybe not in those exact words -- really likes being called out as such, but that's still a more vicious take than he was expecting.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't rolled over and let the Autobots walk all over you," he says bitingly, more than happy to assume that that's how that went down, because he'd like very much to blame this universe's Starscream's neutrality on Megatron, but it still doesn't...sit quite right with him, and it shows. He won't deny he wants power, to an extent, but mostly what that's meant for him is getting to do more exciting science, take more credit, and find a way to kick Strika out of Megatron's good graces so he can be second-in-command instead. But it sounds so bad when Megatron says it. And those are definitely not his main talents.

[towardspeace]

Megatron glares at him. "The war ended well before I joined the Autobots. I'm not proud of how long it took me to see reason," he says pointedly, "but Starscream made his postwar career decisions pretty quickly. Like a scraplet leaving a malfunctioning ship."

[jetsplaining]

The glare is sort of uncomfortably familiar, and Starscream shifts his weight, scowling back. Megatron might not actually be talking about him, but somehow he still feels a little stung by those words.

"Who'd want to stay on a sinking ship after the captain's already abandoned it?" he shoots back, his hands curling tightly around the edges of his datapad, but that's not even the most objectionable thing Megatron's said in the last thirty seconds. He's keeping track. "See reason? See reason? Maybe your war started differently, but my Megatron is trying to make everyone else see reason. The Autobots are just too stubborn to admit it."

[towardspeace]

"I just told you I hadn't--" He breaks off with an irritated huff and scowls straight ahead of him as Starscream starts evangelising.

"Let me guess. He's trying to overthrow Cybertron's oppressive government, but somehow his nice little rebel faction is getting a little more brutal and tyrannical than anybody thought it would?" He glances back at Starscream, eyes flashing. "How far along are you? Has he instated the Justice Division yet? Has he started making people call him Lord Megatron?"

[jetsplaining]

Starscream actually takes a half-step back, glaring back at Megatron. As self-interested as he may be, he does still consider himself pretty loyal to Megatron; after all, it's not like any of his personal aspirations actually conflict with that loyalty. (Yet.)

"Commander Megatron is not a tyrant," Starscream says with pointed emphasis, almost through his teeth, "and if there was a 'Justice Division', I think I'd have heard of it. We've already dismantled the Senate, for the most part -- we'd be well on our way to rebuilding Cybertron if the Autobots hadn't decided to interfere."

That's a...highly simplified version of events, but Starscream doesn't feel like giving him any more ammunition -- and what does he know about Starscream's own Decepticons, anyway? Nothing that Starscream hasn't already told him, which means that technically, Starscream can claim the upper hand here. Of course he almost completely ruins this advantage by muttering, "Granted, I think we'd be done with the Autobots already if he hadn't made it so personal with their leader..."

[towardspeace]

Megatron actually laughs. He's certain he knows what Starscream is talking about, and that interpersonal weakness is one he's much more capable of looking at with a self-critical eye than his whole sordid past and present with Starscream -- probably because he considers his embarrassing overblown rivalry with Optimus Prime to be squarely in his past at this point, whereas he absolutely still hates Starscream and considers his attitude towards him to be objective and reasonable.

"Oh, yes -- just get Optimus Prime out of the way and you'd already be constructing a Decepticon utopia. With your Commander Megatron at its head, of course, and any and all dissent crushed by whatever force he deems necessary, because he's right and anybody who disagrees with him just needs to see reason."

[jetsplaining]

It sets Starscream's teeth on edge that he laughs, and he glares daggers, or energon blasters, or...whatever in Megatron's direction, totally prepared to snap back with some haughty rebuttal, until that totally unfamiliar name draws him up short, and his expression shifts into of sheer bafflement.

"Optimus who? What are you talking about?" He side-eyes Megatron hard. "There hasn't been a Prime in -- megacycles, at least. Who the hell Optimus?"

[towardspeace]

That knocks Megatron right off his high horse. He blinks, and stares blankly at Starscream.

"Optimus Prime," he repeats. But, no, if there haven't been any Primes for that long, then maybe -- "Orion Pax?"

[jetsplaining]

Starscream might take a little more joy in Megatron's abject puzzlement if he hadn't almost immediately dropped a name Starscream does recognize (but he'll take a little joy in it anyway). His eyes lid and he huffs out a vent of air, crossing his arms again. If he's catching Megatron's drift right, and Orion is a Prime somehow in this universe -- ye gods, no wonder this Megatron is such a mess. He's kind of reluctant to concede the point that this Megatron's downfall might be the same for his own, though.

"Orion Pax," he says tartly, "isn't the leader of the Autobots. Elita One is."

[towardspeace]

"Who?" He doesn't recognise the name at all. "How--?"

[jetsplaining]

Every moment that Megatron looks so totally baffled makes Starscream feel just a little more vindicated, and even though he's still pretty annoyed, he does manage a small and irritatingly self-satisfied smirk.

"Elita One," he repeats, emphasizing the syllables as though Megatron is hard-of-hearing. "How have you not heard of her? She's been the leader of the Autobots almost from the start, ever since Alpha Trion appointed her -- right before he kicked it."