A Mile In My Shoes (Part Two)

“Megatron?” Starscream asked, sitting up in bed, wondering where his spark-mate was. Then he remembered their fight last night. Tears started to well up in his eyes as he recalled the scene. Did they really have to put their relationship on the backburner because of everything else they had going on in their lives?

Starscream was interrupted by Soundwave running into the room, clutching his datapad.

“Soundwave, the sun’s barely up,” Starscream groaned. “What do you want?”

“I apologize, Lord Starscream,” said Soundwave, bowing in respect. Funny…Starscream had only seen him do that for Megatron before. “Ravage brings news from his spy mission. There is an Autobot attack planned for this evening.”

“Well, why are you telling me?” Starscream snapped. “Go tell Megatron if it’s so important to you.”

“Megatron has largely stepped down from active duty,” Soundwave told him. “Currently, he is watching over your daughter.”

“What?!” Starscream cried. “No way is that true.”

“My Lord, do you not remember?” Soundwave looked confused. “Ever since you became a family, Commander Megatron has lost much interest in overthrowing you.”

“Megatron never tried to overthrow me,” Starscream said. “I was always trying to overthrow him. I think you have a screw loose.”

“Lord Starscream—” Soundwave reached his hand out, but Starscream wasn’t paying attention as he rushed into the nursery; he just had to see this for himself. And there it was—Megatron was in the nursery, rocking Sapphire in his arms. In fact, he was…SINGING to her?! What was that all about?

“Starscream!” Megatron looked confused and startled. “What are you doing here?”

“I always come in here,” Starscream reminded him. “It’s time for Sapphire’s breakfast.”

“Don’t worry; I already got it taken care of.” Megatron stroked Sapphire’s head with his finger. “She was hungry, though.”

“Um…okay then.” Starscream wasn’t used to this at all. Megatron did hold Sapphire and everything, of course, but it was Starscream who came in to feed her every morning and change her diapie. “What caused this change of spark?”

“What are you talking about?” said Megatron. “I do this every morning.”

Starscream cleared his throat. Soundwave acting weird was one thing, but Megatron too? Oh well, maybe this was just his way of apologizing for the fight.

“Hmm, well, where are the twins?” Starscream continued.

“They’re probably in Soundwave’s room, playing with the cassettes,” said Megatron. “They love taking rides on Ravage.”

“I’ll go get them,” said Starscream. “They probably need their breakfasts too.”

“You’re—you’re actually going to make their meals?” Megatron looked astonished. “That’s really nice of you!”

“I always make their—oh, forget it.” Starscream stormed out of the room. Stomping down the hallways, on his way to Soundwave’s room, he bumped into Hook.

“Watch where you’re going,” Starscream snapped at him.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything, Lord Starscream,” Hook replied. “But Scrapper and I wanted your permission for a new building project. We need you to review the blueprints.”

“Why me?” Starscream started to say, but then he remembered Soundwave saying Megatron had retired from active duty. Why, he didn’t know; maybe Megatron just felt really bad about what happened last night—although actually stepping down wasn’t like him.

“Lord Starscream?” Hook repeated.

“Um, yeah, whatever,” Starscream told him. “I don’t care what you build, okay?”

Hook shrugged. “Thank you, Lord Starscream.”

Lord, huh? Starscream grinned; he was beginning to like this. When he finally reached Soundwave’s quarters, his twins did look like they were having a good time. Stars was practicing flying with Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, and Megs was hitching a ride on Ravage’s back. But when the twins saw Starscream, they ran over to him immediately.

“Good morning!” Stars flew over to Starscream and landed on his shoulder. Megs jumped off of Ravage’s back and ran to Starscream’s feet, waving his hands, wanting to be picked up. Starscream bent down and scooped the toddler into his arms.

“Why don’t we get you two some breakfast?” Starscream asked warmly.

“Yummy!” said Megs. Starscream took them to the kitchen…where he discovered that they were out of energon again.

“Oh no…” Starscream mumbled. Megatron needed to get some energon soon or his family wouldn’t have anything to eat! That idiot.

“Lord Starscream.” Soundwave approached Starscream for the second time that morning. “I have observed that our energon levels are running low. I request permission to retrieve more.”

“That’s Megatron’s job,” said Starscream. “I need to make breakfast.”

“I implore you, Lord Starscream,” Soundwave insisted. “Commander Megatron can handle the sparklings’ breakfasts quite well.”

“What? Megatron is a terrible parent!” Starscream protested, but when Soundwave simply looked confused again, he shrugged. Just go with it, Starscream.

It was a long flight to the cave where Soundwave had sensed the energon, but Starscream liked flying. And he wasn’t getting any distress signals from the twins or Sapphire. In fact, his spark felt kind of…empty, almost as if they were blocking his connection with them. But how could that be? They were incapable of cutting that connection off. Oh no…what if they’d died?!

No, no, Starscream soothed himself. If any of his babies had died, he would have felt an excruciating tear in his spark. They were probably just distracted with something. Starscream rubbed at his spark chamber a little bit and tried to send them hugs. That was strange…his spark chamber! Had it shrunk overnight or something? Due to the nursing cable being active again, Starscream’s spark chamber had grown larger again during pregnancy. But now it was flat, the way it had been before he’d given birth to Stars and Megs. Why?

Whatever. Soundwave was calling him…

“Lord Starscream!” Soundwave was saying. Starscream entered the cave to find the Decepticon third-in-command loading energon cubes onto Long Haul. “Are you not pleased?”

“I’m very pleased,” Starscream replied. “Now all we have to do is take it back to base.”

“Not so, Lord Starscream,” said Long Haul. “There’s much more of it down at an oil rig in the neighboring town. We need to harvest that too.”

“Although we must destroy any surrounding humans,” Soundwave added.

“Let’s do it,” said Starscream.

When they reached the oil rig, Starscream was happy with the sight of the oil tanks there. They would certainly have enough for a long time. Soundwave began to make the energon cubes, and Starscream and Soundwave both began to drain the oil from the tanks. Long Haul transformed and followed suit.

It wasn’t long before they were spotted by the humans.

“Decepticons! Decepticons!” one human was crying out. “And they’ve brought Starscream!”

“Their feared leader!” another one gasped.

Feared leader? Well! Starscream grinned wickedly and pointed one of his null-rays at the human workers.

“Want a taste of this?” he sneered.

“We’re calling the Autobots!” the worker declared, pulling out his cell phone.

“Go ahead and try!” Starscream laughed arrogantly. Megatron probably would have told Soundwave to block out the man’s cell phone reception, but Starscream was too happy about everyone referring to him as the “leader”. Just like he’d always wanted!

“Lord Starscream, should we not—?” Soundwave began, but Starscream cut him off.

“You don’t think I can deal with a couple of stupid Autobots?” the Air Commander demanded.

“I apologize for doubting you.” Soundwave hung his head.

“That’s right,” said Starscream confidently. “Bring it, Optimus Prime!”

It wasn’t long before the Autobots arrived. Starscream dimly remembered what Soundwave had told him this morning about an attack, but maybe they would forget the idea after Starscream handed their afts to them in battle!

Starscream prepared to shoot his gun, but he wasn’t initially sure who to shoot at. Optimus Prime? Usually it was Megatron who fought him, though. And after being a stay-at-home mom for so long, Starscream’s battle skills were admittedly a little…rusty. But he had to fight. Wasn’t he the Decepticon leader now?

“You’re yesterday’s model, Starscream!” Optimus taunted. “Worn out!”

“How dare you insult me, you worthless Autobot!” Starscream pointed his null-ray and shot, but he missed by a long shot. What was wrong with his aim? When was the last time he’d practiced shooting at anyone, anyway?

“I’ll battle Starscream!” Optimus told the other Autobots. “Prowl, evacuate the humans from the oil rig. The rest of you, take out Soundwave and the Constructicon.”

Evacuate the humans! How silly! Starscream wondered how many times that had cost the Autobots a victory.

“You are nothing but weak!” Starscream told Optimus, but he felt kind of nervous. After all, he’d never taken on Optimus head-to-head. That was, well, Megatron’s job.

“Cowardly as always, Starscream.” Optimus shook his head. “I refuse to let you rule Cybertron like the power-hungry warmonger you are!”

With that Starscream found himself shot right in the chest; Optimus had narrowly missed his spark chamber. Starscream fell back down onto the ground and noticed that his null-ray had fallen off! Optimus kicked it out of the way before he could reach for it.

“Do you yield, Starscream?” Optimus asked him.

“NO!” Starscream jumped up. “I will never yield to you!”

Unfortunately, Starscream was then blasted in the wing by Ironhide. The agony of the shot brought him to his hands and knees. Oh no…what if his wing needed surgery? What if it needed to be amputated? Oh, how that hurt!

Sunstreaker kicked Starscream down and laughed mean-spiritedly. This was humiliating, not just because of what the Autobots saw but also because of what Soundwave and Long Haul were seeing. Oh no! What if they thought he failed as their new leader? Normally, Starscream would’ve dismissed what they thought, but he was in so much pain and needed their help right away.

“Decepticons…retreat,” Starscream mumbled. The Autobots cheered. With difficulty, he and the others flew back home.

…

When Starscream got back into base, all he wanted was to fix his wing up, eat something, and then go to sleep. But the twins came rushing at him with full force.

“Daddy! Daddy!” they cried.

“But…but I’m your mommy,” Starscream told them. Was everybody acting weird today?

“No you’re not!” said Stars, and pointing to Megatron, who was waiting in the doorway. “That’s our mommy!”

“Megatron, what did you tell them?!” Starscream demanded. Primus, he was already tired from his mission today…please don’t let things get worse…

“I didn’t tell them anything.” Megatron raised one eyebrow. “Besides, Starscream, YOUR children are driving me nuts. Will you have a talk with them?”

Starscream looked down and noticed the twins, running around crazily. Normally he would’ve talked to them, but it had been such a day…

“Megatron, I’m exhausted,” Starscream panted. “Can’t you talk to them?”

“What do you mean you’re exhausted?” Megatron demanded. “It’s just morning!”

“Well, don’t you have ‘something to do’?” Starscream sneered. “Or are you going to be lazy as usual?”

“I’m not LAZY!” Megatron said back. “You’re lazy!”

“Just stop, Megatron,” Starscream groaned, putting his hand up. “Can’t you see I’m tired? I need to go to the med bay. In case you haven’t noticed, I got a bad wound and it’s killing me.”

“Oh yeah right!” Megatron shouted after him. “You don’t know pain!”

Whatever THAT means. Starscream was about to head to the med bay when he heard Sapphire screaming again. Wha…? But he wasn’t getting a distress signal! Still, he was feeling nothing from her! Starscream ran like the wind to the nursery where Sapphire was screaming in her crib.

“I guess you’re hungry again, aren’t you?” Starscream sighed and opened up his cockpit, but gasped. NOTHING?! Nothing was there? Where was the feeding cable? In fact, his spark chamber looked the exact same way it did before he had any sparklings! What was going on?!

“Get away from Sapphire,” Megatron said, rushing into the room. “Either you get a bottle out of the freezer, or I can take care of this.”

Starscream’s jaw fell open as Megatron opened up his chest and revealed a feeding cable of his own; Sapphire quickly latched on. What was going on here?!

Then it started to come together.

LORD Starscream. Megatron stepping down from active duty. Everyone going to him for everything. Megatron being involved with the twins.

By some weird, cruel act of Primus, they had switched lives. Before Starscream could wrap his mind around this thought, Soundwave burst into the room again.

“Lord Starscream, we need you to go over the battle records,” Soundwave was saying. “We also need your help in figuring out a battle plan.”

Starscream looked back at Megatron, who was rocking Sapphire in his arms.

“Don’t look at me,” said Megatron. “I’m just the stay-at-home mom.”

“B-But…okay, fine!” Starscream followed Soundwave to the main monitor room. Now he realized that the fate of the Decepticons really was in his hands. The thought made him feel dizzy.

As soon as Starscream got to the control room, everyone sat down on the ground. Starscream did too, but everyone looked at him weirdly. That was when he remembered previous meetings; Megatron always stood up and made a speech, including the battle tactics he had planned. Starscream had always suspected that he made up some of them on the spot. Starscream wasn’t a public speaker like Megatron was! No way could he ever do this!

Starscream’s legs were shaky and his wings were drooping as he stepped towards the front of the room. Everyone was staring.

“Um…I-I suppose you’re all wondering what I have planned for the Autobot invasion tonight…” Starscream gulped.

“What do you think we should do, brother?” Skywarp asked, waving his hand all around in the air.

“We should…uh…” Starscream felt himself getting increasingly nervous. “Maybe, um, just attack them or something?”

“How?” said another Decepticon.

“With…with our weapons.” Starscream felt his faceplates getting red. “We should shoot at the Ark right before the time the attack is planned.”

“I hate to be disrespectful, Lord Starscream, but won’t they be preparing?” yet another member of the crowd asked. “Every Autobot will be home. We need to think of something else.”

“Well, what do you guys think?” Starscream shrugged, trying to control his nerves.

“You should face Optimus Prime!” someone suggested. “After all, you’re the Leader, right?”

“I’m…I’m the leader.” Starscream’s voice squeaked. “Right.”

“Meanwhile, you have a training session scheduled, correct?” Soundwave raised his hand.

“N-No I…um, do I?” Starscream’s voice quivered. What?

“You do!” Skywarp jumped up enthusiastically. “First you have to lead us Seekers in aerial maneuvers. Then you have to train the grounders!”

“I just…why don’t we take a day off?” Starscream suggested humbly.

“No way,” said Thundercracker. “If we have a battle tonight, we’re going to have to train, and besides, nobody is better at training than you are, brother.”

“Maybe at aerial maneuvers!” Starscream sounded panicked. “But I’ve never done grounder training before!”

It was true; he hadn’t.

“Yes you have!” said Skywarp. “You always do! What are you, chicken?”

“NO!” Starscream shouted. “All right, everyone start training!”

…

Starscream was dripping coolant as he led the ground-bound Decepticons in grounder training. It had been easy for him to lead the flight maneuvers, since he always did that during training. (Well, Thundercracker had taken over once he was in his third trimester and could no longer fly, but now he’d gotten back to his normal self.)

But grounder training was different. It was hard. Starscream had seen Megatron lead it, and he had always wondered how the grounders managed to handle it. They had to do transform-ups, jumping jacks, scrimmages, laps, heavy weight-lifting, everything you could think of.

“One two! One two!” Starscream panted.

All the other grounders followed. “One two! One two!”

Starscream bent over and moaned as the cramp in his side got even more painful. It had developed during running, and it had not gone away. Starscream was used to flight practicing. Of course he’d participated in the basic ground-bound training that everyone had to do, but Megatron had always taught the intense workouts that Seekers didn’t have to do. But since he had become the new Decepticon leader, Starscream had to do all the training.

Finally, training ended. Starscream felt like he was going to collapse; he was going to stumble on down to his quarters when Soundwave confronted him in the hallway. If only Soundwave would stop bothering him…

“Lord Starscream, there is no time to rest,” Soundwave said apologetically. “We must go over the battle plan.”

“Can’t you just get somebody else to do it?” Starscream groaned, still rubbing the cramp in his side. It reminded him of the contractions he’d gotten during labor. Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it was close. Then again, he had switched lives with Megatron, and he had never given birth at all. That was Megatron’s job.

“Negative,” Soundwave replied. “It is your rule. Only the mech with the highest authority may approve the battle plan. I will follow this rule.”

“Okay, fine!” Starscream followed Soundwave to the control room. Again, everybody was watching him. This was so annoying. Starscream grabbed the sheet of paper that contained their battle plan for that night.

“We seek your approval, brother!” said Skywarp.

“It’s great,” Starscream replied, shoving the paper back at him, not even reading it. “When are we going?”

“Well, that’s for you to decide,” Thundercracker reminded him.

Do we have to go tonight? Starscream wondered. But…well, yes, they did, because the Autobots had planned their strike for tonight!

“We’ll go in about two hours,” Starscream told them. Just enough time for me to get a nap in.

TWO HOURS LATER…

“Starscream!” Skywarp was hollering as he shook Starscream awake.

“What?!” Starscream snapped.

“Time for the battle!” Skywarp shouted. “Come on, let’s go!”

Starscream’s stomach lurched with nerves; he had always wanted to be leader, but after all that had gone on today…Would he really be able to handle it?

The last thing Starscream wanted to do was drag himself out of bed, but somehow he managed to do it. Along with all the other Decepticons (except for Megatron, who had to take care of the kids) he flew to the Ark.

“Um, what was the plan again?” someone asked.

Oh no. That was when Starscream realized he hadn’t read the battle plan, and now they thought he’d memorized it!

“Um…blow the place up!” Starscream cried.

“Sir yes sir!” said the Decepticon, and shot at the Ark. Immediately, all the Autobots came running out, shooting their weapons at the Decepticons. Starscream still had his wing injury, and again, his skills had grown flimsy after spending two years taking care of the kids. Oh no…oh no! Starscream shot his null rays at everything, but nobody got injured except him because he realized he was getting hit a lot! And…oh Primus, that was when Optimus Prime decided to show up again.

“So we meet again, Starscream,” said Optimus, holding his gun. “Prepared to fight?”

“Always,” Starscream squeaked, but he didn’t mean it. All he wanted was to run away!

“So be it then,” Optimus replied, and Starscream felt himself get shot in the face. As the world started to turn black, he heard Optimus saying, “You’re predictable, you’re arrogant, and you never stood a chance.”