Non Solum Fugere

Sunstreaker's Scheme

25 more presents from Fireflight's list and four days later, Fireflight was awoken by shouting. Since one of the voices belonged to Silverbolt, who never yelled, Fireflight assumed that the base must be under attack. In response, he grabbed his gun and ran into the Aerialbots' common room to see Silvebolt standing between a terrified-looking, injured Skydive and an absolutely furious-looking Sunstreaker and Cliffjumper.

"I don't care what Skydive did or didn't do. It can't justify you hurting him like this!" Silverbolt exclaimed. Upon Silverbolt pointing this out, Cliffjumper started to look guilty.

"I didn't mean for him to get hurt when we confronted him... but you're all plotting to betray us! Skydive ordered Fireflight to start buying weapons, which is why he's been on Teletraan One so much, and then convinced Sideswipe to prank Red Alert so that he would get locked up and one of our frontliners would be out of commission when you attacked. Then he called Skyfire and told him to return from his mission in space so that you would have backup when you all turned on the Autobots together!" Cliffjumper exclaimed. If the situation hadn't been so serious, Fireflight would have giggled. Cliffjumper's idea was just so silly!

"Sunstreaker, don't tell me you believe that crazy theory. You pride yourself on your intelligence," Silverbolt said. Sunstreaker shrugged and turned to Cliffjumper.

"Get out of here, little buddy. I think things are about to get ugly, and one of us needs to be able to warn the other Autobots about Skydive's scheme," he said.

"You got it, Sunny," Cliffjumper said. As soon as he left, a creepy, Decepticon-like smile spread across Sunstreaker's face.

"You're right, Silverbolt. I may hate aerials, but I don't believe a word of that crazy theory. That's not what matters, though. What matters is that Cliffjumper does...and that's exactly why I told it to him. True, he cries wolf so often that no one would believe him on his own, but with me and Ark hearsay backing it up? It'll be enough to get the higher-ups to at least suspect something's up, and when I come to them with injuries from trying to stop your attempt to switch sides, well...it won't look good for you. You're going to pay for putting my brother in the brig, you filthy Seeker!" he said. The last comment was clearly directed at Skydive.

"But you don't have any injuries," Silverbolt said. Suddenly, Sunstreaker lunged towards Fireflight and grabbed his gun arm. In a panic, Fireflight tried to pull free from the Lamborghini, and the gun went off. Sunstreaker then staggered back, a ragged hole in his side.

"I do now. I didn't really want to involve you or this dopey kid in my plan to get revenge and remove three dangerous aerials from our ranks, Silverbolt, but Skydive forced my hand. If he hadn't stumbled onto my plan before it was ready, I wouldn't have had to implicate you all in it...but as it is, I'm afraid none of you are going to avoid being expelled from the ranks. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some dangerous traitors to report," Sunstreaker said. With that, he left their quarters, sneer still plastered onto his face.

"I didn't mean to hurt him!" Fireflight wailed.

"I know you didn't, Fireflight. What happened was not your fault. Skydive, what is going on here?" Silverbolt replied. Skydive shook his head.

"Sunstreaker is finally acting on his grudge," he replied.

" What grudge?" Silverbolt asked.

"The grudge he has against aerials in general, and us in particular. Do you remember when Slingshot and Air Raid were sent to the brig for fighting with Sunstreaker, and how I told you that the fight was prompted by Sunstreaker threatening to harm Firefight because Fireflight had scratched his finish?" Skydive asked.

"Of course. We talked about it a few days ago," Silverbolt replied.

"Sunstreaker also got time in the brig, based mainly on my testimony. Apparently, he'd never been sent to the brig for anything before that, and he was not happy that he was actually being punished for something. In Sunstreaker's mind, that's a good enough reason to plot revenge against a bunch of aerials right there....assuming that the scratch to his paint job didn't do it, that is. The fact that we were also responsible for his brother being put in the brig was just the icing on the oil cake. A couple minutes ago, I stumbled upon him creating plans for attacking the Ark-plans with my name on them. When I confronted him, he commed Cliffjumper and made up the ridiculous story Cliffjumper told you. Cliffjumper grabbed me, and then, when I pulled away, Sunstreaker used that as an excuse to beat me up...likely so his story that he had a fight with us would have more weight," Skydive replied.

"There's no way the other Autobots would believe that!" Silverbolt exclaimed.

"With the way you've let the rumours about us spread? Some of them just might...especially if he has apparent evidence and has been shot with one of our weapons," Skydive replied. Fireflight started sobbing hysterically. How would he ever convince all the Autobots to like him now?

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