#Decepticon Reality Television au | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

elendiliel · 1 year

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Friends and Foes

I should find a proper name for this crossover AU, if only for tagging purposes... (Suggestions, and feedback in general, are never unwelcome.)

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“Scrap,” Arcee cursed. “That might make things more difficult.”

Glitch was more than a little inclined to agree with her. The two femmes were surveying yet another Vehicon fossil hunt from a crevice in a rock formation some way above the dig, just big enough for the small, agile two-wheelers. That was the fact that the hunt was being supervised in person – for once – by the Decepticon second-in-command, Starscream, who was bad news in any reality.

“What’s your version like?” ‘Cee asked to pass the time as both ‘bots made a more thorough assessment of their situation.

“A bit less dangerous and a lot more colourful, but otherwise pretty similar. Treacherous, devious and too clever by three-quarters – often too clever for his own good. Whenever he’s in play, there are at least three sides to any conflict.” Glitch had never met her universe’s Starscream, but the rest of her team had, all too often.

“Sounds about right.” ‘Cee wasn’t paying much attention; her focus kept swinging back to the silver flier ordering his troops about. Glitch knew why, and that she couldn’t let her friend become too focused on that target. It was a good thing she was never short of distractions.

“A while back, he cloned himself in another attempt to take Megatron offline, but ended up with five aspects of his own personality to wrangle. A coward, an egomaniac, a pathological liar, a sycophant and a female.”

Arcee turned to stare at the younger ‘bot in disbelief – then clamped a servo over her speech synthesiser to stifle a fit of giggles. Mission accomplished, Glitch thought as the tension left her teammate’s frame (for the moment); laughter was a sovereign remedy for anger as well as fear.

If only her own problems were that easy to solve. She’d hidden it from ‘Cee – she hoped – but that day was shaping up to be a Bad Day for her, and the capital letters were merited. Her processor was killing her, her frame felt like so many cables and springs under almost too much tension and every small sensory input drove her further up the wall. Back in Detroit, her team would have seen the signs by then. Her training with Optimus, Jazz and Ratchet would have been adjusted – not cancelled, as a real enemy wouldn’t care what sort of day she was having, but altered to be constructive but not overwhelming – Elita would have left her alone and Bee would have been far quieter than usual, and maybe even offered to take her shift on monitor duty, his least favourite chore (especially since Optimus had put his ped down about using the alternate monitor for combat training, i.e. playing video games on the television). With luck and care, she could get through her patrols and other duties without incident.

But Team Prime didn’t officially know about that (although one could never be sure with Prime himself; being paired with laconic Arcee, rather than a chatty sports car or noisy Wrecker, might not have been a coincidence). Glitch hadn’t told them more than necessary about her… differences. That was probably hypocritical of her, after the audialful she’d given Prime on a similar subject, but old habits died hard. For centuries, she had had to pretend to be normal as best she could just to get where she felt she was meant to be, fighting through every Bad Day for as long as she could without breaking down. The “cog in a machine” mindset that was common on her Cybertron affected even those who, like her, considered it so much bauxite, and a cog that didn’t turn as it should was usually thrown away. Optimus had given her a chance to leave that system behind, but on finding herself transported to a strange new universe she had automatically fallen back on what she knew, whether or not that was a good idea.

“Female? Seriously?” ‘Cee asked once she could get herself back under control, drawing Glitch out of her thoughts, not a moment too soon.

“Deadly. Almost literally, worse luck. Slipstream’s the most dangerous of the lot. Gave me this.” The smaller fembot indicated the scar on her chestplate, right beside her spark chamber. “Well, half of it. Ambushed Bee and me; I saw her first, so I was the one she pinned to a wall. Had to pull myself free to protect him.” Two digits traced the band of yellow, interrupted by a black stripe, around her right wrist. She’d need to touch it up soon; it was starting to wear away. “Bee kept me online long enough for our Ratchet to get there and stabilise me. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here.”

Arcee’s optics, which had been following Glitch’s servo, flicked up to her face and studied it for a moment. “Your Bumblebee – he’s not just your partner, is he?”

“No.” Glitch hadn’t wanted to discuss that topic too much with most of the team, especially the younger mechs, but ‘Cee was different. She’d understand, and wouldn’t tease.

“Bonded?” Another good thing about ‘Cee – she didn’t dance around the subject, but got straight to the point.

“Not yet, or engaged, but it’s a case of when, not if, I think. If he asked, I’d say yes in a sparkbeat, and as far as I can tell he feels the same way, but the time just – hasn’t been right yet.” And might never be.

Arcee smiled, but there was grief in her optics. “You’re lucky. Some ‘bots never find that special person. Whether you and your Bee do get bonded or not… hold on to him.” Her optics returned to Starscream as her expression hardened. “I’ve lost two partners now, and I don’t want you even to lose one.”

“I know.” Glitch had been fully briefed on ‘Cee’s recent history. “Which is why you’re not going anywhere near Starscream on my watch. I’ll pull medic rank on mental health grounds if I must. There’s needing closure and then there’s wanting revenge, and I’m pretty sure I know the difference.”

“What do you know about that?” The sudden anger in her friend’s tone was like a slap across the audial, but Glitch didn’t take it personally. She knew its real targets – Airachnid and Starscream. “When have you ever wanted to hurt someone as much as they hurt you?”

“Not recently, but I know a mech who has.” At least Arcee was still listening. “He was framed for espionage. Spent centuries in the cyber-stockade. Escaped and went after the ‘bot who reported him, not knowing that they’d both been set up. Tried to get even, but just made enemies of the only Autobots who knew he was innocent, other than the real spy. Eventually, he was so desperate for revenge that he let himself be used in an experiment that turned him into a techno-organic. There’s nothing wrong with being half-organic, but the transformation is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, even when it doesn’t end in a transwarp explosion.” She tilted her head as a thought struck her, and raced out of her synth before she could catch it. “Actually, one could say Wasp was my worst enemy back in boot camp. Resident bully, worse than Sentinel. At least drill sergeants are meant to be something like that.”

‘Cee stared at her again, then shook her head. “You’re unbelievable. First you go soft on Knock Out.”

“That’s not how he saw it.” In point of fact, the ‘Con medic had tried to kill the field-tech when she invaded his mind, despite the facts that he’d just done the same thing to her via cortical psychic patch and she hadn’t done anything but try to comfort him, realising that he was still grieving for his own partner. Glitch had filled Team Prime in on everything that had happened while she was in Decepticon servos, both for her own sake and to avoid anyone – especially a certain blue and yellow sports car – making up their own version of events.

Arcee carried on regardless. “Then you expect me to sympathise with a bully. And the craziest part is, it’s working.”

“Glad to hear it.” Glitch returned her attention to the scene below them. “I’ll draw Screamer away; you go after the bone. Sound like a plan?” It did – though Arcee agreed to it on one condition.

A few cycles later, as the silver Seeker commander wandered away from the tedious grubbing in the dirt he was expected to supervise (but not do, thank Primus), he caught sight of a distinctive bronze Earth motorcycle, the alt-mode of that new Autobot, trying to sneak around to the dig site. Even he couldn’t use his jet mode with so many rocks in the way, and by the time a Vehicon got there she’d have disappeared again, so he gave chase himself on foot (the terrain wasn’t ideal for her alt either), cornering her in a small box canyon. She transformed and activated her magnetic weapons, but didn’t have time to use them before his missile struck her in the chestplate.

And passed straight through, exploding against the rock wall behind her. Starscream had to shield his face from flying shards of stone, which hadn’t touched the accursed Autobot. Her wrists were bare - apart from a strip of yellow paint – but still… “Phase displacement armour?”

“No, hologram,” Glitch said, standing just behind him. She’d had that hologram projector for months, having inherited it from her predecessor Prowl, but had only used it to simulate a human rider or show movies – until recently. After her capture and rescue, she had started figuring out how to use it to create decoys, as Prowl had. It was remarkably intuitive, and extremely versatile. A copy of herself had been easy to make and control.

As Starscream spun round to face her, her laser scalpel sliced his other missile clean off his arm (the uneven terrain could be made to work in her favour); it clattered to the canyon floor, and was crushed under her ped before he could retrieve it. Vile thing. “Should have gone for the null-ray, or a sonic cannon. No need to reload after two shots.”

“Oh, they weren’t my only weapon.” Starscream’s razor-sharp claws swiped at Glitch’s neck, but she ducked the blow without really thinking. His actions were as loud as his voice to her, and much more truthful than his words. Her computational ability could give her a crucial advantage in combat – she could calculate, with a fair degree of accuracy, her opponent’s next move, often in plenty of time to block and counter it, and so fast and instinctively that it felt like an extension of her senses, as though she were “hearing” their intentions. Some people could “lie” – feint – very well; her sensei Jazz, straight as a spirit level in conversation, was an excellent liar in combat, when he “spoke” at all. Starscream, though, for all his deceptive ways, told the truth through his body language. And couldn’t shut up in either sense. “And I’m sure your friend Arcee told you how much I hate two-wheelers.”

“She did.” Glitch blocked an attempt to stab her in the chest, countering with a punch to the under-protected side of Starscream’s abdomen. “On the other hand, I’m none too fond of arrogant Decepticons without a shred of backstrut who can’t stop talking to save their sparks, so I suppose it balances out.”

“I’m surprised – what the spark was that?” “That” was a rapid-fire combination of kicks and punches that had left Starscream somewhat dented (he’d only intercepted a couple of strikes) and Glitch’s servos only a little more scuffed.

“Metallikato Sigma. I should’ve warned you, I trained under a cyber-ninja, as well as Sentinel Prime.”

“He’s still alive in your universe, then?” Blast. He knew where she was from, then. And she couldn’t use that line any more. Pity. It had been nice while it lasted. “As I was saying, I’m surprised she isn’t here, considering that I killed her partner.” He was altogether too pleased with himself about that.

“Which is exactly why I kept her away from you. For her sake, not yours. By the way, your counterpart was responsible for the death of Optimus Prime, so I’d say you’ve got some catching up to do.” The shocked look on his face was unsettlingly satisfying to see.

For the nanoklik before his previous anger returned. “Oh, do I? Well, I’d better start – with you!” She had made the mistake of taking her optics off him for just too long; three of his claws raked her left forearm, leaving three deep cuts from the servo-joint down to her shield, which they almost tore clean off. She managed to pull away before he could take one of her most useful mods, and her arm was still functional, but the cuts were sparking badly and hurt. He’d have been asking for it on a normal day, let alone a Bad Day.

For a few frantic cycles, she kept the upper servo as he struggled to adjust to her shifting from “calm and defensive” to “furious and half-feral”, but it quickly became clear that she had been right to keep ‘Cee away from him; despite having little to no history with the Decepticon SIC, too often her own rage led to carelessness that could have been fatal, as rash attacks left vital areas unguarded for almost too long. Pretty soon, they were back to stalemate; Glitch had acquired a few more superficial scrapes, while the tip of one of the spikes on Starscream’s knees had been sliced clean off, among other injuries – which didn’t hinder him nearly enough.

Commander Starscream! One of the Vehicons ‘Cee was fighting – the two Autobots had open comm lines to each other, so Glitch knew her friend was doing well – had finally managed to call his superior officer, not quite distracting him as he resisted his opponent’s attempt at a judo-style throw. We’re under attack by the Autobot Arcee. She’s destroyed the Predacon fossil. What are your orders, Commander?

“Retreat, you fool!” Starscream’s self-preservation instinct was strong in any universe, and he sometimes knew a lost cause when he saw one. “That Autobot isn’t going to be beaten by the likes of you. Transform and rise up, or whatever the stupid phrase is.” He took his own advice, shoving Glitch to the rock-strewn ground, shifting into a jet and soaring unsteadily away. The field-tech probably couldn’t have stopped him even had she not had other problems at that moment.

***

What’s he done to her? When Arcee finally tracked down her teammate – thank the Allspark the ground wasn’t all rock; tyre prints showed up well on grass and earth – she had curled up into a tight ball, eyes closed and hands pressed to her audials as though she were trying to shut out everything, and was rocking backwards and forwards slightly – completely out of character for the normally fierce, brave femme. If Starscream had caused that, he would pay.

Knowing the damage those hands could do, Arcee tried to pull them away from her friend’s head, but Glitch recoiled as though she’d been struck. “Don’t! – sorry.” Each word made her flinch, as though even the sound of her own voice was too much.

As gently as she could, Arcee asked, “What – how can I help?” She realised at the last moment that “what can I do to help?” was the wrong question. Sometimes, helping someone didn’t require doing anything – quite the reverse.

She was right. “Just – be.” Be there, Arcee filled in. “It’ll pass.” So Glitch had been expecting this. Which meant it wasn’t entirely Screamer’s fault.

She waited patiently with her comrade as seemingly endless minutes slipped by and the younger ‘bot slowly calmed herself and gradually uncurled – until, without warning, she practically threw herself at Arcee, wrapping her slender arms around her friend in an almost armour-denting hug. Arcee returned it, as for whatever reason Glitch now seemed to need to be touched and held, until the tiny medibot wriggled free to sit on the ground beside the taller warrior, looking much happier than she had all day.

“Better?” Arcee enquired.

“Much.” She sounded better, certainly. “Sorry you had to see that. It hasn’t been that bad for a long time.”

“That’s happened to you before?” Arcee had deduced that earlier, of course, but wanted to double-check. “So it wasn’t anything Starscream did?”

“Not exactly, and yes, now and then. My processor’s wired differently from most. Usually the main downside to that is only a bit of a problem with social things, optic contact, expressions and so on, but some days even simple tasks need all my focus, if I can do them at all – executive dysfunction, humans call it, I think. And some days, that happens.” Arcee waited again while Glitch lined her next thoughts up; without her realising it, that had become second nature. “There – isn’t much of a filter between my sensors and my CPU, and at times it breaks down completely and everything just becomes too much. I know the warning signs, and usually I can take it easy and get away with it – maybe space out for a bit, but that’s all. Today, though, I had to go on this mission and I had to fight Starscream. Result – worst meltdown in stellar-cycles. Worth it, I’d say.”

Arcee wasn’t so sure – though Starscream had been sent packing with his tailfin metaphorically between his legs, which might not have happened had Arcee, still furious with the ‘Con over her partner’s death, gone after him instead. She also decided to shelve her friend’s deeper issues until they could discuss them with Prime and Ratchet; they would know what to do about them. Besides, she was curious about something she’d heard over the comm. “Did your Starscream really kill your Optimus?”

“Technically, for the minute or two it took Sari to use the Allspark Key and the Allspark itself to revive him. He and Starscream were playing tug-of-war over the Allspark high above Detroit, and it got fed up and threw them both off. Damaged their systems, and Optimus fell pretty hard onto tarmac. Screamer, lucky beggar, ended up in the forest nearby – much softer landing – but stuck in stasis-lock, until a human girl found him.” Glitch’s familiar silly grin lit up her face for the first time that day. “He persuaded her to reboot his systems, but she insisted on fixing him up first – with makeup and a pink wig.” Arcee couldn’t help but burst out laughing, the image was so ridiculous – though another idea soon sobered her up. “I imagine he didn’t take that well.”

“He didn’t, but she countered his threats by promising to broadcast a picture of him “fixed up” all around the world, and possibly the galaxy, if he harmed her. Professor Princess might be about half Raf’s age, but she’s not to be taken lightly.” (Professor Princess? Half Raf’s age? The more Arcee heard about Glitch’s universe, the more bizarre it seemed.) Glitch tilted her head as another thought struck her. “I wonder when he found out she’d decorated his wings with rainbows?”

That, of course, set them both off again, dissipating any remaining tension nicely. Even when Arcee finally noticed the still-sparking cuts on Glitch’s arm, and insisted on calling for a groundbridge right away so that Ratchet could fix them, the two friends shared a good mood that no foe, however deadly, could altogether destroy.

#transformers prime #transformers animated #fanfic #tfp arcee #autobot oc #tfp starscream #misplaced medic au

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transingthoseformers · 9 months

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I am picturing so many shenanigans.

Listen since they are referencing G1 so much it doesn't start as Dinobot/Dinosaur Island but Shockwave is left alone too long and he finally checked out the human internet spoke to one nerd a little too long and was sent Jurraisic Park and now there are dinosaurs.

The JazzWaveProwlTara family just wake up to Starscream shouting about this and ready to wring his neck while clutching a whining baby T-Rex who is gnawing on his hand. They have dinosaurs now. Shockwave did careful research not to affect the environment and everyone is fascinated. Swindle turns into a moneymaking opportunity, and they have their own instagram and followers. The T-Rex is named Rexy via internet vote.

The next disaster is Breakdown getting the boot and towed in Kentucky and they have to break him out before he gets uncovered because he's banned from the state after several incidents at the racing rink. Which is when, with Tara's holoform, the Cassettes, and Jazz, they also find Bumblebee arrested too and call the Autobots to pick him up.

Deadlock shows up and Starscream and them think they are fucked because he didn't part from them on good terms to say the least but he appears as a plus one to Ratchet. Who everyone says "I thought you died??" to only for her to roll her eyes and Deadlock to follow behind besotted and threatening.

Jazz and Prowl are thrilled by the reunion and everyone gets a check up.

Thundercracker shows back up and, as part of their attempt to ease tensions, makes a documentary about it. It is supposed to be a serious demonstration of compliance and their history and it is, but it has a lot of parts with Decepticons being silly, baby nonsense, and Shockwave making unholy abominations because he manages to sneak a read of the Emberstone and while he was banned from making more dinosaurs making babies is clearly allowed so part of the documentary is his announcing Specimen Zero escaped and can fly and a very loud shout from Starscream of "YOU MADE A DRAGON!" and Shockwave saying,"I made a protoform." and then having to pull a biting baby Predaking from the trees. All this broken up by snippets of Trine Reunion drama as Thundercracker brought their human partner Marissa and their pet dog.

Everyone is deeply invested in the Decepticon Reality Television and there's a whole following about Breakdown's 'secret boyfriend' while Bee sweats nervously in the background.

The Maltos have definitely watched.

More serious thought though occur, of them receiving a message on a Decepticon frequency saying, "Calling all Decepticons. Calling all Decepticons stationed on Earth. Your hailing signal has been received. Assistance en route. Lord Galavatron's ship the Revenge en route."

That would be adorable as fuck!

I wholeheartedly blame Shockwave for why there are dinosaurs in rescue bots so naturally naturally he's cloning them back here too (plus side: the sparklings playing with fluffy raptors?) Tarantulas helped him and they called Nighty as a consult on occasion because that'd be adorable

Plus arguably blah blah blah we can't clone back dinosaurs because the dino DNA is too broken to work with but we can make new dinosaurs example the chickensaurus project that's considering a little ✨out there✨ by the paleontological community and the ethics of bringing a new species into the world as a novelty animal blah blah blah Riot being a downer about dinosaurs time over

Yessss on Rexy the Instagram Star.

"What were you two idiots thinking"

"Bold for you to assume we were thinking Jazz"

Dratchet Dratchet Dratchet Dratchet Dratchet

Deadlock and Ratty have the coolest "how we met is a long story" story ever don't they, and I feel like it's connected to Deadlock finding Ratchet hurt and returning the favor from yOU GUESSED IT THE DEAD END CLINIC ^w^

Also interesting to see the "Ratchet may or may not be dead" theory

Thundercracker our beloved, he's trying ultimately but everyone's making the docuseries silly goofy silly goofy

Shockwave babygirl that there is a decision alright

Adorable

Yes

I imagined tfe Predaking is a lot smaller than we see him in tfp, he's little (well little by cybertronian standards) and he's technically a Terran because I say so and that'd be adorable as fuck (if Nightshade can scan an owl statue for an altmode can't Predaking do similar?)

Ah yes Thundercracker meeting the trine and learning Nova Storm has taken his place in the trine (he's okay with this naturally, it was him who left) so he's excitedly introducing Marissa and Buster

Yes, everyone is so invested

Look I just had to make various in universe tags for this stuff

#Breakbee4life, #DRT, #DeceptiDinos, #RattyIsBack, #DoYouBelieveInDragons, #TrineReunionDrama, #Decepticon, #DeceptiFails, #Rexy, and probably more. Definitely more. This shit is popular on social medias and Megatron is having so many emotions and opinions about the clusterfuck that this is but deep down he's just a little proud that they're settling into a domestic ish post war rhythm.

Wait

Wait oh no

Galvatron oh no

#maccadam #transformers #it's the crackiest of crack aus #many many characters #we need a name for this now #jazzprowlwave #transformers earthspark #there are no spoilers #only crack #wAIT #PERFECT NAME IS RIGHT THERE #Decepticon Reality Television au #unless you have anything better

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