"I don't care about Will Smith. I'm just upset that the DOG died."
Title: The Nine Rings of Vos
A Transformers G1 Fanfic
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Karma is a wonderful thing. And Starscream likes to cuddle, he just can't help it!
Timeline: More of the fic is found here.
=/=
(In which Ratbat Imprints on Starscream.)
With Skywarp out fetching Rumble and Frenzy while Thundercracker accompanied the medics on their search for more power rectifier chips, Starscream found himself alone in the recovery room he had taken special care to calibrate for the specific benefit of Vosian systems.
Alone, except for the tiny form of a newly upgraded Ratbat.
Unable to help himself, though he just knew it would cause him no end of trouble, Starscream watched the little flyer recharge.
‘Ratbat looks so small and helpless!’ Starscream thought, though he knew it for the lie it was. Starscream flicked his wings and wondered why he was bothering, ‘How do I know that the Cassettacons are worth all this effort? Is it even possible for them to prove worthy of being formatted into Seeker shells?’
The only true Seekers come from Vos, although the term had been long since applied to all Decepticon jets. It was all the Air Commander could do to keep himself from screaming in rage every time some moronic groundpounder called hack jobs like those idiot Coneheads “Seekers”. Or worse, when some Kaon built knock off or reformatted Iaconian groundling thought he had the right to call himself a Seeker just because he turned into a jet! The utter gall of it threatened to send Starscream into fits.
‘Well.’ Starscream amended his own thoughts, ‘The three flyers will have skyborn shells. Ravage Frenzy and Rumble are true groundlings, and will have to be installed in the flightless modified sparkling shells developed for the non-flyers of Vos.’
After all, just because Vos was the Seeker home did not mean it was home to only the flying Seekers that were the most widely known. However, every mech of Vosian make was built with ‘wings’ to support the special sensors all Vosians possessed and needed in order to properly communicate and live in Vos.
“Mhn.” Ratbat whined softly in recharge, jolting Starscream out of his thoughts.
“What’s wrong bitling?” Starscream soothed the irritated spikes in Ratbat’s field, picking up the sparkling to aid in the scan he ran by reflex, hyperaware that nothing of the current situation was usual and that the integration may not take, “It know it’s annoying, getting used to a new shell. But at least it doesn’t hurt anymore, hmm? There now that’s better.”
Ratbat clicked softly in contentment, curling up against Starscream’s neck and gripping the seams of the Seeker’s collar armour.
“You look like Rumble and Frenzy.” Starscream mused as he looked down at the little face resting on top of his canopy, “I wonder if that means you look like Soundwave? Fragger has no excuse for hiding his face if that’s the case.”
Like their voices and colours, Transformer faces were the product of spark-coding. A blank protoform had no face and remained the familiar dead-metal gray until the spark was introduced. After the spark was placed in the shell, the spark energy and codes would alter facial structure and pigmentation to match the codes embedded in the spark chamber. It would take a few cycles, but once Ratbat’s spark and core systems - the only parts of a Cybertronian that remained the same after reformatting and upgrades - became integrated completely with the new shell, his self-repair systems would have his face and colours properly completed.
Starscream looked up as the lift door hissed open, allowing Thundercracker and the medic trine to exit the cramped compartment.
“That was quick.” Starscream remarked, watching as Aerialion started sorting through the equipment, handing Turbine five blank Seeker-specific power rectifier chips and putting the rest away. Wingnut was already opening up the empty protoforms they had prepared for the Cassettacons.
“It’s easy when I have your command override codes.” Thundercracker smirked at his wingleader, leaning up against Starscream’s side and mingling their energies, “How is he doing?”
“Better than I expected honestly.” Starscream shifted to press his wing to Thundercracker’s, accepting the support he offered, “His face has mostly settled and his pigmentation has already started.”
“Is he going to be alright?” Thundercracker asked seriously, “Is he going to be able to handle being of Vos? All of it? He’s been in that drone shell for his total sum of existence and you know how special our systems are. Even those we adopt as skyborn don’t make it much of the time.”
“He should be able to deal.” Starscream tilted his head, watching intently as Ratbat’s small wings - the simple three panel, single flap set of a second stage Vos sparkling - flexed in response to the careful touch of his claws. There was no obvious sign of discomfort. If incompatibility was to occur at this point - unlikely after the face settled - then the first sign would be sensor-pains, “See? The sensor data isn’t interfering with his recharge. He’s a psion, you saw how we needed that chip, though his old one was impressive it was not the best for this shell. He’s used to interpreting massive sensor data, and Soundwave built those disguises very well. The protocols for his telepathic ability seem to adapt easily to our wing system.”
“Lucky for him.” Thundercracker relaxed more fully against Starscream, enjoying the quiet hum of their systems synching and the soft coos of a happy sparkling.
“If he didn’t manage it, then he’s not worth our time.” Starscream said, callous perhaps, but like a fledgling raptor pushed from the nest a Seeker either flew and survived or crashed and died. If the Cassettacons expired, it would be of their own weakness. The Seekers would not mourn them either, beyond being annoyed that they had wasted time and resources on them when they just gave up and died. This odd quirk of Seeker programming, when they otherwise cherished and adored sparklings, was one of the main reasons stories of Seeker cruelty began to spread even prior to the War. A fledgling dying of wounds was one thing, and heavily mourned, but one that died for no reason? The child was obviously weak, and would not have survived well. Better they return to the Well of Allsparks and try again later.
“Still lucky.” Thundercracker’s reply was mild and unconcerned, “Most others who try to reformat into a Vos body-shell after the first vorn go nuts from the sensor input.”
“Mm, yes. You need to get them young enough to adapt to the wing systems.” Starscream shrugged his wings, using the motion to disguise how he snuggled closer to Thundercracker, optics dimming in contentment when a dark blue arm wound around his waist, “That’s why Vos has such strict regulations and enforcement on sparkling upgrades. Too soon, even for a trine-sparked winglet, and you risk damaging the sensor interpretation protocols and processors, maybe even to the spark if someone were stupid or desperate enough to skip a stage or rush through the upgrades.”
“Ouch.” Thundercracker reclined on the medical berth, pulling Starscream up with him and half onto his lap. Counting on the presence of the sparkling to prevent protests from his wingmate, “That why Skywarp and I didn’t know about this upgrade delay stuff? Because we’ve never dealt with it before?”
“Partially.” Starscream allowed, frowning at Thundercracker’s presumption but not fighting the move, “It’s common knowledge among the scientific and medical fields in Vos - it needs to be if we’re to continue to safely advance our protoform technology, among others - and everyone who carries a newspark receives a data-packet on the subject when the sparkling stabilizes past the initial fission.”
“Not like Arts or Commerce really deal with stuff like that.” Thundercracker mused, referring to the sphere’s Skywarp and he had the most involvement in back in Vos as he propped his chin on Starscream’s shoulder when the white Seeker obligingly folded his wings down to comforts sake, “But why didn’t we hear about it when we had the triplets?”
“Clerical mix-up.” Starscream scowled, “I got the data-packet. But then the spark split, and the impossible happened. By the time I realized that neither of you knew we had already put the triplets into stasis with the rest of Vos’ sparklings. I decided that it could wait for later and forgot about it.”
“Huh. You’d better be careful.” Thundercracker said, completely out of the blue. He smiled at Starscream’s confused look, freeing one arm to gently tap Ratbat’s tiny mouth, “Probably too late, but he’s imprinting on you. Got your pout already.”
Starscream blinked and looked down, comparing Ratbat’s face to the one he’d had before Starscream had picked the former cassette up.
“Oh blast.” Thundercracker was right. Ratbat’s mouth configuration, which had before been identical to Rumble and Frenzy, had shifted to mimic Starscream’s, “Well this is going to be interesting.”
Imprinting usually occurred between a sparkling and its creator during the period of stabilization prior to the final fission and formatting the newspark into its first protoform. For Seekers, a sparkling imprinted on each member of its parent trine during this time as well. It was a little known fact that a sparkling could imprint on someone other than its creators. It usually only happened during periods of great stress or right after reformatting. The Imprinted sparkling would take on small aspects of its new caretaker to reflect the miniscule changes in core code that occurred when this happened. Unlike what many believed, neither the sparkling nor the caretaker needed to be online during this process, and oftentimes were unaware of what was happening until after the process completed itself. The only way to entirely avoid being Imprinted by a sparkling was to keep ones energy entirely contained and away from contact with the sparkling’s field. A thing which Seekers, with their fundamentally empathic natures and near obsession with sparklings, were simply incapable of.
Thundercracker choked on a laugh and Starscream thumped him, moving to get up with a huff. Still chuckling despite the abuse, Thundercracker held the Air Commander back.
“Sorry, but he would have needed to imprint on somebody, and better you than a Conehead. Look,” Thundercracker said persuasively, rubbing a conciliatory hand along Starscream’s wing-joints, “We’re already vents deep in this thing, might as well go all the way with it. Each of us can imprint two of the brats each as a Primary. Although I think Warp should get Rumble and Frenzy for karma’s sake.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Starscream mused, settling back down, “There’s no telling how long it will be until Soundwave returns, and someone needs to take care of them. It should be us. We found them, upgraded them, and they have access to sensitive information so our clearance is high enough. We’ll also best be able to protect them when it comes down to it. For better or worse they’re of Vos now. Perhaps being Seekers will prevent them from spying on us so much.”
“Whoever goes after them thinking sparklings are easy targets is gonna be surprised.” Thundercracker snorted, laughing pre-emptively at the hypothesized unfortunate.
And for good reason.
The hydraulics in Vos builds were ridiculously overpowered for their size, even in the sparkling shells. A result of optimizing launch capabilities and necessary for the ability to traverse over Vos terrains. From a still, grounded start a full sized Seeker could jump five to six time his height using his legs alone. Without the aid of thrusters. Seekerlings could jump comparatively higher as they had less armour mass. Sharp talons and denta, both capable of piercing through standard armour, were included, and a Seekerling’s armour was flexible, but tough enough that a sparkling would be shocked, and perhaps dented, but mostly unharmed even if their caretaker stepped on them. (It had been known to happen on occasion.) As a weapon of last resort, the outer edge of the wings found on all Vos builds was a peripheral attachment that could be disconnected from the rest of the sensor grid and used to slice an enemy in combat. The razor-sharp edge was an addition that was made standard after the Second War, though few if any Cybertronians outside of Vos knew that it was not a part of the actual wing and could actually be taken off and used as a melee blade. No mech who got that close to a Seeker that desperate ever lived long enough to tell about it. Not even against the youngest of them.
“I’ll have to remember to record it. I’m sure Soundwave will appreciate the memento.” Starscream snickered, before nodding sharply, “Alright. You get Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, I’ll take Ravage as well as this one, and Skywarp deserves the processor ache Rumble and Frenzy will give him.”
“I’m back!’ Skywarp’s voice called from the main lab area.
“Speak of the devil.” Thundercracker said, letting Starscream get up and put Ratbat into one of the incubation berths he had hastily pulled out of storage during the little flyer’s transfer surgery.
“And he has appeared.” Starscream rejoined with a smirk, leading the way quickly out the door.
(Word Count: 2156)
=/=
So just as a note: Whenever the Seekers are alone together or just generally talking to another Vos mech they speak in Seeker-cant. You'll see it more when I switch to a non-Seeker PoV, since the Seekers don't really notice when they switch from Cybertronian Standard to Vosian depending on their company. Which is probably why Megatron actually believes that Skywarp is loyal to him.
My goodness I'm posting long scenes these last few days. Also, I found this fic in the thecybertronian the other day. I'm quite pleased with myself.
IRL: The author of the book series I'm illustrating called me this morning and told me he didn't like the way I did the coloring, even though I sent him samples and he agreed on the technique beforehand. So now I have to do the whole thing over again. Which means I wasted all of Monday. That's 12 hours of my life I can never get back! I know its for cancer charity. I know it's up to him to have the final say. But it's. So. Frustrating. *screams*
On the upside, it's Tuesday. Which means History of Animation class, wherein we do nothing but watch cartoons and just need to show up to pass. And as a bonus, my Narratives teacher never showed up, so we spent the entire class period watching spy flicks and zombie movies.
Ciao.
XP
A Transformers G1 Fanfic
Author: Sanjuno Shori Niko
Summary: Karma is a wonderful thing. And Starscream likes to cuddle, he just can't help it!
Timeline: More of the fic is found here.
=/=
(In which Ratbat Imprints on Starscream.)
With Skywarp out fetching Rumble and Frenzy while Thundercracker accompanied the medics on their search for more power rectifier chips, Starscream found himself alone in the recovery room he had taken special care to calibrate for the specific benefit of Vosian systems.
Alone, except for the tiny form of a newly upgraded Ratbat.
Unable to help himself, though he just knew it would cause him no end of trouble, Starscream watched the little flyer recharge.
‘Ratbat looks so small and helpless!’ Starscream thought, though he knew it for the lie it was. Starscream flicked his wings and wondered why he was bothering, ‘How do I know that the Cassettacons are worth all this effort? Is it even possible for them to prove worthy of being formatted into Seeker shells?’
The only true Seekers come from Vos, although the term had been long since applied to all Decepticon jets. It was all the Air Commander could do to keep himself from screaming in rage every time some moronic groundpounder called hack jobs like those idiot Coneheads “Seekers”. Or worse, when some Kaon built knock off or reformatted Iaconian groundling thought he had the right to call himself a Seeker just because he turned into a jet! The utter gall of it threatened to send Starscream into fits.
‘Well.’ Starscream amended his own thoughts, ‘The three flyers will have skyborn shells. Ravage Frenzy and Rumble are true groundlings, and will have to be installed in the flightless modified sparkling shells developed for the non-flyers of Vos.’
After all, just because Vos was the Seeker home did not mean it was home to only the flying Seekers that were the most widely known. However, every mech of Vosian make was built with ‘wings’ to support the special sensors all Vosians possessed and needed in order to properly communicate and live in Vos.
“Mhn.” Ratbat whined softly in recharge, jolting Starscream out of his thoughts.
“What’s wrong bitling?” Starscream soothed the irritated spikes in Ratbat’s field, picking up the sparkling to aid in the scan he ran by reflex, hyperaware that nothing of the current situation was usual and that the integration may not take, “It know it’s annoying, getting used to a new shell. But at least it doesn’t hurt anymore, hmm? There now that’s better.”
Ratbat clicked softly in contentment, curling up against Starscream’s neck and gripping the seams of the Seeker’s collar armour.
“You look like Rumble and Frenzy.” Starscream mused as he looked down at the little face resting on top of his canopy, “I wonder if that means you look like Soundwave? Fragger has no excuse for hiding his face if that’s the case.”
Like their voices and colours, Transformer faces were the product of spark-coding. A blank protoform had no face and remained the familiar dead-metal gray until the spark was introduced. After the spark was placed in the shell, the spark energy and codes would alter facial structure and pigmentation to match the codes embedded in the spark chamber. It would take a few cycles, but once Ratbat’s spark and core systems - the only parts of a Cybertronian that remained the same after reformatting and upgrades - became integrated completely with the new shell, his self-repair systems would have his face and colours properly completed.
Starscream looked up as the lift door hissed open, allowing Thundercracker and the medic trine to exit the cramped compartment.
“That was quick.” Starscream remarked, watching as Aerialion started sorting through the equipment, handing Turbine five blank Seeker-specific power rectifier chips and putting the rest away. Wingnut was already opening up the empty protoforms they had prepared for the Cassettacons.
“It’s easy when I have your command override codes.” Thundercracker smirked at his wingleader, leaning up against Starscream’s side and mingling their energies, “How is he doing?”
“Better than I expected honestly.” Starscream shifted to press his wing to Thundercracker’s, accepting the support he offered, “His face has mostly settled and his pigmentation has already started.”
“Is he going to be alright?” Thundercracker asked seriously, “Is he going to be able to handle being of Vos? All of it? He’s been in that drone shell for his total sum of existence and you know how special our systems are. Even those we adopt as skyborn don’t make it much of the time.”
“He should be able to deal.” Starscream tilted his head, watching intently as Ratbat’s small wings - the simple three panel, single flap set of a second stage Vos sparkling - flexed in response to the careful touch of his claws. There was no obvious sign of discomfort. If incompatibility was to occur at this point - unlikely after the face settled - then the first sign would be sensor-pains, “See? The sensor data isn’t interfering with his recharge. He’s a psion, you saw how we needed that chip, though his old one was impressive it was not the best for this shell. He’s used to interpreting massive sensor data, and Soundwave built those disguises very well. The protocols for his telepathic ability seem to adapt easily to our wing system.”
“Lucky for him.” Thundercracker relaxed more fully against Starscream, enjoying the quiet hum of their systems synching and the soft coos of a happy sparkling.
“If he didn’t manage it, then he’s not worth our time.” Starscream said, callous perhaps, but like a fledgling raptor pushed from the nest a Seeker either flew and survived or crashed and died. If the Cassettacons expired, it would be of their own weakness. The Seekers would not mourn them either, beyond being annoyed that they had wasted time and resources on them when they just gave up and died. This odd quirk of Seeker programming, when they otherwise cherished and adored sparklings, was one of the main reasons stories of Seeker cruelty began to spread even prior to the War. A fledgling dying of wounds was one thing, and heavily mourned, but one that died for no reason? The child was obviously weak, and would not have survived well. Better they return to the Well of Allsparks and try again later.
“Still lucky.” Thundercracker’s reply was mild and unconcerned, “Most others who try to reformat into a Vos body-shell after the first vorn go nuts from the sensor input.”
“Mm, yes. You need to get them young enough to adapt to the wing systems.” Starscream shrugged his wings, using the motion to disguise how he snuggled closer to Thundercracker, optics dimming in contentment when a dark blue arm wound around his waist, “That’s why Vos has such strict regulations and enforcement on sparkling upgrades. Too soon, even for a trine-sparked winglet, and you risk damaging the sensor interpretation protocols and processors, maybe even to the spark if someone were stupid or desperate enough to skip a stage or rush through the upgrades.”
“Ouch.” Thundercracker reclined on the medical berth, pulling Starscream up with him and half onto his lap. Counting on the presence of the sparkling to prevent protests from his wingmate, “That why Skywarp and I didn’t know about this upgrade delay stuff? Because we’ve never dealt with it before?”
“Partially.” Starscream allowed, frowning at Thundercracker’s presumption but not fighting the move, “It’s common knowledge among the scientific and medical fields in Vos - it needs to be if we’re to continue to safely advance our protoform technology, among others - and everyone who carries a newspark receives a data-packet on the subject when the sparkling stabilizes past the initial fission.”
“Not like Arts or Commerce really deal with stuff like that.” Thundercracker mused, referring to the sphere’s Skywarp and he had the most involvement in back in Vos as he propped his chin on Starscream’s shoulder when the white Seeker obligingly folded his wings down to comforts sake, “But why didn’t we hear about it when we had the triplets?”
“Clerical mix-up.” Starscream scowled, “I got the data-packet. But then the spark split, and the impossible happened. By the time I realized that neither of you knew we had already put the triplets into stasis with the rest of Vos’ sparklings. I decided that it could wait for later and forgot about it.”
“Huh. You’d better be careful.” Thundercracker said, completely out of the blue. He smiled at Starscream’s confused look, freeing one arm to gently tap Ratbat’s tiny mouth, “Probably too late, but he’s imprinting on you. Got your pout already.”
Starscream blinked and looked down, comparing Ratbat’s face to the one he’d had before Starscream had picked the former cassette up.
“Oh blast.” Thundercracker was right. Ratbat’s mouth configuration, which had before been identical to Rumble and Frenzy, had shifted to mimic Starscream’s, “Well this is going to be interesting.”
Imprinting usually occurred between a sparkling and its creator during the period of stabilization prior to the final fission and formatting the newspark into its first protoform. For Seekers, a sparkling imprinted on each member of its parent trine during this time as well. It was a little known fact that a sparkling could imprint on someone other than its creators. It usually only happened during periods of great stress or right after reformatting. The Imprinted sparkling would take on small aspects of its new caretaker to reflect the miniscule changes in core code that occurred when this happened. Unlike what many believed, neither the sparkling nor the caretaker needed to be online during this process, and oftentimes were unaware of what was happening until after the process completed itself. The only way to entirely avoid being Imprinted by a sparkling was to keep ones energy entirely contained and away from contact with the sparkling’s field. A thing which Seekers, with their fundamentally empathic natures and near obsession with sparklings, were simply incapable of.
Thundercracker choked on a laugh and Starscream thumped him, moving to get up with a huff. Still chuckling despite the abuse, Thundercracker held the Air Commander back.
“Sorry, but he would have needed to imprint on somebody, and better you than a Conehead. Look,” Thundercracker said persuasively, rubbing a conciliatory hand along Starscream’s wing-joints, “We’re already vents deep in this thing, might as well go all the way with it. Each of us can imprint two of the brats each as a Primary. Although I think Warp should get Rumble and Frenzy for karma’s sake.”
“That’s not a bad idea.” Starscream mused, settling back down, “There’s no telling how long it will be until Soundwave returns, and someone needs to take care of them. It should be us. We found them, upgraded them, and they have access to sensitive information so our clearance is high enough. We’ll also best be able to protect them when it comes down to it. For better or worse they’re of Vos now. Perhaps being Seekers will prevent them from spying on us so much.”
“Whoever goes after them thinking sparklings are easy targets is gonna be surprised.” Thundercracker snorted, laughing pre-emptively at the hypothesized unfortunate.
And for good reason.
The hydraulics in Vos builds were ridiculously overpowered for their size, even in the sparkling shells. A result of optimizing launch capabilities and necessary for the ability to traverse over Vos terrains. From a still, grounded start a full sized Seeker could jump five to six time his height using his legs alone. Without the aid of thrusters. Seekerlings could jump comparatively higher as they had less armour mass. Sharp talons and denta, both capable of piercing through standard armour, were included, and a Seekerling’s armour was flexible, but tough enough that a sparkling would be shocked, and perhaps dented, but mostly unharmed even if their caretaker stepped on them. (It had been known to happen on occasion.) As a weapon of last resort, the outer edge of the wings found on all Vos builds was a peripheral attachment that could be disconnected from the rest of the sensor grid and used to slice an enemy in combat. The razor-sharp edge was an addition that was made standard after the Second War, though few if any Cybertronians outside of Vos knew that it was not a part of the actual wing and could actually be taken off and used as a melee blade. No mech who got that close to a Seeker that desperate ever lived long enough to tell about it. Not even against the youngest of them.
“I’ll have to remember to record it. I’m sure Soundwave will appreciate the memento.” Starscream snickered, before nodding sharply, “Alright. You get Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, I’ll take Ravage as well as this one, and Skywarp deserves the processor ache Rumble and Frenzy will give him.”
“I’m back!’ Skywarp’s voice called from the main lab area.
“Speak of the devil.” Thundercracker said, letting Starscream get up and put Ratbat into one of the incubation berths he had hastily pulled out of storage during the little flyer’s transfer surgery.
“And he has appeared.” Starscream rejoined with a smirk, leading the way quickly out the door.
(Word Count: 2156)
=/=
So just as a note: Whenever the Seekers are alone together or just generally talking to another Vos mech they speak in Seeker-cant. You'll see it more when I switch to a non-Seeker PoV, since the Seekers don't really notice when they switch from Cybertronian Standard to Vosian depending on their company. Which is probably why Megatron actually believes that Skywarp is loyal to him.
My goodness I'm posting long scenes these last few days. Also, I found this fic in the thecybertronian the other day. I'm quite pleased with myself.
IRL: The author of the book series I'm illustrating called me this morning and told me he didn't like the way I did the coloring, even though I sent him samples and he agreed on the technique beforehand. So now I have to do the whole thing over again. Which means I wasted all of Monday. That's 12 hours of my life I can never get back! I know its for cancer charity. I know it's up to him to have the final say. But it's. So. Frustrating. *screams*
On the upside, it's Tuesday. Which means History of Animation class, wherein we do nothing but watch cartoons and just need to show up to pass. And as a bonus, my Narratives teacher never showed up, so we spent the entire class period watching spy flicks and zombie movies.
Ciao.
XP