Transformers Prime: The Tesseract

Fourteen: A New Friend (Sort of...)

The next morning, the human scientists had to visit again, so Sunbeam ran off to talk to Starscream while the kids caught up with their guardians and friends.

"What do you want now?" Starscream spat. Sunbeam opened his cell and walked in before shutting and locking it behind her.

"I'm helping," she replied.

"You're a fool to allow yourself to come face to face with an enemy with no protection."

"I'll be fine." Sunbeam knelt down and placed something on the ground before putting whatever it was into place. Starscream grinned. This is my chance! If I kill this Autobot, I can escape and kill her friends! He thought, aiming his gun at her just as she stood back up.

"There! All done!" She exclaimed with a smile, and she had moved away enough that Starscream could see what she had been doing. There in front of him, was a bunch of pillows and a blanket that was clearly just a bunch of blankets that had been sewed together. "Now you won't be so cold 'n uncomfortable at night. Ya like it?"

"You really are stupid if you put yourself in danger just to give me a mere blanket and pillow! Do you honestly think me so weak that I would hesitate to kill you?!"

"It ain't that I think you're weak. I jus' figured ya'd want a better room. Seein' as yer gonna be here a while. And if ya really wanted to leave, ya woulda by now."

"What are you talking about?!"

"There's no lock on the cell door. Ya coulda just opened it and walked out," Sunbeam deadpanned.

"Are you serious?! I could've been free this whole time?!"

"Well...I mean, yeah...but I can't promise my friends wouldn't kill ya the second ya stepped outta yer cell."

"I really am an idiot..." Starscream facepalmed. Sunbeam laughed.

"I never had a doubt!" She exclaimed. Starscream could feel himself tense up slightly when she stepped closer to him, fearing the abuse that he had eluded since Megatron's departure. But, Sunbeam simply placed a hand on his shoulder and grinned widely.

"That's alright! We can be idiots together!" She offered.

"Why would I want that?"

"'Cause it means ya got a friend!"

"Why would I need a friend?! I'm perfectly fine on my own!" Starscream shouted.

"Yeah, yer fine...but don't ya wanna be better than fine? Don't ya wanna have someone who cares about you? Don't ya wanna not be alone anymore?"

"Why do you care so much anyway?!"

"'Cause I'm a good friend!" Sunbeam admitted. "Also, bein' alone is worse than anything ya could put someone through. Even torture hurts more when ya got no shoulder to cry on and no one to pick ya up when yer so beaten down ya can't find a single reason to stand back up anymore..." as she said this, she began looking softly off into the distance, as if wishing herself away from something.

"You seem to speak from experience."

"Everyone here would. One way'er another, we would all probably say somethin' similar."

"Shut up!" Sunbeam and Starscream heard Bulkhead shout from the other room. Sunbeam chuckled nervously.

"Guess that's my cue again. See ya later!" Sunbeam grinned, waved a goodbye to Starscream, and left. Starscream walked to the cell door and opened it, fully prepared to escape when he thought of something. I can't escape, yet. I need to get more information and try to build their trust....besides, who is going to miss me? The Vehicons? Yeah, right. He quickly closed the cell again.

"What's goin' on out here?" Sunbeam asked.

"I don't see you humans fighting to protect your planet! What makes you think you're better than us?!" Bulkhead yelled.

"Bulkhead, perhaps you should—" Ratchet started before Bulkhead punched and broke one of the large screens that Ratchet uses to get information and...whatever else he does. "Bulkhead, I needed that!"

"They said what?!" Sunbeam yelled. Ratchet facepalmed.

"Not you too..." he grumbled.

"You people really are worthless pieces of shoe gum! In fact, I'd step on all y'all right now if Ratchet wouldn't get so mad at me! You don't get to come in here and insult them! Get out! Now!" Sunbeam shouted before walking over to one of the human scientists and literally flicking him and flinging him toward the ground bridge, which Ratchet had thoughtfully opened. The rest of the scientists scrambled toward the ground bridge, and Miko made a silly mocking face at them as they left.

"So ungrateful," Miko huffed.

"Right?!" Bulkhead agreed.

"Hey, Ratchet...don't let them come back here. They don't get to treat you guys like that," Sunbeam suggested.

"Fair enough. I'm not too fond of them, anyway," Ratchet replied with a shrug, closing the ground bridge.

"Good. Thanks," Sunbeam replied. "Now! Who wants to play house!"

"Ooh! I wanna be the rocker problem child!" Miko exclaimed.

"You should play that part perfectly," Ratchet remarked. Agent Fowler spit out his drink at that, and Miko stuck her tongue out at Ratchet.

"We can do that after I teach you to read," Raf replied. Sunbeam slumped in defeat.

"I hoped ya'd forget about that..." she groaned.

"You're still on that?!" Smokescreen shouted.

"Unfortunately, she's not a very fast learner," Miko retorted. Sunbeam pouted and crossed her arms.

"Shut up, Miko," she grumbled. Miko laughed.

"Not gonna happen," she replied.

"Believe me...we know," Ratchet countered. Poor Fowler choked on his drink.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna throw this away..." he mumbled, throwing his still steaming coffee into the garbage.

"Wow, you're really on fire!" Sunbeam exclaimed.

"Why, thank you," Ratchet responded.

"No, you're actually on fire," Sunbeam deadpanned.

"Scrap!" Ratchet screeched, preparing to put out a fire that didn't exist. Sunbeam laughed.

"Made ya look!"

"That's a cheap joke!"

"Maybe, but lucky for me, the look on yer face was priceless!" Sunbeam replied.

"I hate you."

"You love me."

"Anyway, why don't you go bother Raf for a while."

"No problem!" Sunbeam exclaimed.