Subject: [FANFIC 8/10] Lord of the Flies, Starring the Transformers Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 00:00:00 GMT From: David Filip Organization: University of Washington Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers Lord of the Flies Starring the Transformers By David Filip Part Eight: The Lord of the Flies "Wow," Dirge muttered as he walked. "The fog here is so think I could cut it with a knife. I could, that is, if guys would let me hold a knife instead of--" "Shut up!" Thrust complained. "If you knock your fingers off again it will just waste more of the welding fuel to put them back on. These spears are better than the knives were anyway." Ramjet and Powerglide took the point as aerial scouts while the procession of Cybertronian children hurriedly followed. The choir boys held their spears proudly and the other biguns held ordinary knives, all of them ready to draw EnerBlood. The less attentive littluns dropped their knives while playing or wandered off into the forest's darkness. Starscream walked ahead of the pack and raised a hand to slow and quiet the other kids. Powerglide and Ramjet landed in front of him and quietly pointed to the beast repairing himself between two trees. Fifteen cybermeters away, Starscream looked round in inquiry to make sure everyone understood and the biguns all nodded. A row of spears and knives drew back menacingly. "Now!" In the midst of repairing his flight thruster with a scalpel shaped welder, Scourge found himself beset upon by more than fifteen angry youths. "What do you want from me, you damn little jerks?" Using his superior strength to smash them aside, he transformed into his hovercraft mode and jetted off through the brush. Expecting him to remain still for support, many of the boys lost their balance. Skids steadied himself with a hand on the ground. "Did you see the surprise on his face? The fear! We almost had the beast!" "Almost nothing!" Starscream snapped. "After him!" They followed the sound of his damaged hover engines through the Quintesson trails until the sounds stopped. The forest got so tangled and dark that Starscream, cursing, stopped them and cast among the trees. He said nothing for a time but his energon respirator breathed so fiercely that the boys were awed by him and looked to each other with uneasy admiration. Finally, their mighty leader pointed his double-ended spear down at the ground. "There." A tiny trail of energon had evidently poured from Scourge's fuel tank, leaving the hunters the trail they needed to follow the beastie. Before anyone could examine the drop of EnerBlood, Starscream had swerved off, judging a trace, touching a bough that gave. The hunters trod behind him, feeling mysteriously right and assured. "There," their leader pointed to a small pit where the beastie, in hovercraft mode, was hiding. Again the children closed in, and with a fierce motion of stabbing and cross cutting, another of Scourge's rocket thrusters was removed before his sleek form could escape the attack. This time his leaky fuel line left a trail of energon far less subtle than the first. The boys cheered and proceded to chant loudly as they closed in for the kill. KILL THE BEAST CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERBLOOD Shouts of ecstasy filled the air as some of the micromasters and biguns turned into land vehicles for pursuit. Afterburner's two wheeled agility sent him to the head of the pack, only to find his speed hindered as Skywarp hopped on and become a riding companion. "After him!" Like a cross between a medieval knight and an off road biker, Skywarp charged through the trail sitting on the closed cab of Afterburner's futuristic motorcycle form. "You've got to get me in closer than this!" The black and purple choir boy pumped his spear in the air for effect. "You weigh too much! I don't have all that much control--" "Just do it!" Scourge attempted to lose the angry mob by taking a trip through a Quintesson trail with many more twists than usual, but Afterburner closed the gap by cutting dangerous corners. Too slow to follow in tank mode, Warpath ran and yelled from the end of the pack. "ZUNZUG! You've got to ZORBU slow him down! The rest of us can't DABU keep up!" Close enough to stab the beastie, Skywarp lunged in. "I'm on it...right...now!" A quick arm motion drove his spear directly into Scourge's main thruster, causing a small explosion that blew the back end of the hovercraft right off and into Afterburner's front wheel. The damaged section slid to his shoulders as Scourge quickly transformed to robot mode and let his forward momentum take him into a somersault. The image of this acrobatic move was juxtaposed with the screams of Afterburner and Skywarp, who both flew off the road in a spectacular wipeout. "Bravo!" Brawn yelled, "that was brilliant!" "That's showing 'im!" Powerglide cheered. "I'll high five you guys if you didn't get killed!" Afterburner transformed back to robot mode before smashing through an EnerFruit tree. Skywarp spun across the dirt quickly, but even before rising to his feet he applauded his own courage. "Did you see that? I stabbed the beastie! Right up the afterburner!" The others laughed as his motorcycle friend grumbled "Yeah, and your pal Afterburner got sent right up a tree." Scourge set down on one knee in a clearing slightly off the trail. He knew he could be killed from close range, but he had one last card to play as the boys moved in. "After him! Quickly! Now! At once!" Starscream yelled, and several micromasters ran forward only to be immolated by Scourge's energy rifle. "Fall back! Run! Retreat!" Ducking behind an overturned log from Afterburner's spill, many of the boys were paralyzed by fear. "What can we do about the beastie if he has a gun?" "I would love to take that weapon as my own," Starscream replied to First Aid, "but what good will it be if we're all dead? Warpath!" The maroon robot stepped forward. "Zazzum! What are we going to do 'Screamer?" "Even though your turret works from your chest, transform to tank mode to get low and we'll--" "WE'RE ON FIRE!" Ramjet started to panic. Afterburner finally returned to an upright position. "No we're not, the beastie is just shooting at the log. This should take care of things." The Technobot opened his armored beige hand and generated a force field for the hunters. Dirge scratched his head-mounted nosecone. "Hey Afterburner, I didn't know you had a force field." "Your tech specs say that you know how to use tire adhesives, rockets and sonic weapons, but no force field. How did you learn this little trick?" First Aid asked. "Some people don't know this, but I did a tv show and some commercials with the other Technobots. I used the force field in a couple scenes with the Terrorcon singers." Starscream shook his head, ignoring the blasts that struck the force field. "Those lousy Terrorcons. They wouldn't know how to sing if someone smashed them over the head with a wavetable sythesi--" Suddenly aware of the beastie again, he brought the conversation to a more important issue. "How long can this field hold up anyway?" "It can last for a full minute, but then my system will shut down and I'll need lots of EnerFruit or EnerBlood to get going again." "That won't be enough time...anyway, when you shut it down, all of us will duck, Warpath will drive off from the side and use those plastic shells we made from the canisters. He'll shoot the gun right out of the beastie's hand, Ramjet will fly through the air as a distraction, and then we'll smash him good." Ramjet looked at his friends slowly and carefully asked "The beastie, right? We'll smash the beastie?" "Of course we'll smash the beastie!" Skywarp snapped. "We aren't a bunch of idiots." "All right then!" A sadistic smile eased onto Starscream's face. "We shut the shield off on three--" "Like the last time we moved on three?" "Shut up Thrust. I know how to start the count. Three, two, one...uh oh." As soon as "three" was uttered, Afterburner's shield went down and a high powered blast immolated the tree they used as cover. Ramjet and Warpath changed to their vehicle modes and proceeded along the plan, but the beast delighted in shooting for terror's sake, and more at ground targets than air. A micromaster exploded right in front of Warpath and knocked him over while Ramjet's distraction went unnoticed. Warpath changed back to a robot and ran behind a tree while hoping for a safe and clear shot. The beast laughed. "Who needs Quintessons? I'll kill you all myself!" "Oh no you won't!" Brawn ran forward in an attempt to dive for the beast's gun, but quickly found himself shot in the shoulder. Rather than slowing down or falling, he instantly dropped down to both knees. The blue light in Brawn's eyes decayed eerily as smoke rose from his wound and the rest of his body flopped forward lifelessly. This was the break that Warpath needed to make his shot count. The sharp plastic shell burst from his chest-mounted turret and pierced right through Scourge's wrist. Whith his hand suddenly deactivated, the rifle fell to the floor. Several bloodthirsty children decided to run forward. Dirge, Ramjet and Thrust made the most of spearing Scourge while others jumped up to topple him and stab him. The beastie muttered to them "Unicron...Unicron will kill you all! You all will die for defying him." First Aid sprung forward and placed a knee on the dying warrior's chest. "Oh yeah? Well how well do you think your Unicron will fare against my Swiss Army Matrix?" The robot unfolded his knife and didn't even notice Scourge's terror. "The Matrix...these robots have the Matrix...no...noooooooo..." The boys sliced at the beastie's throat as Starscream brought the spear sharpened at both ends nearer. In that clearing, Scourge 4033 ceased to live. * * * "..So after we fell, I said 'right up the afterburner!'" "Yeah! Right up the afterburner!" Thrust recounted. "And the funniest part about it is that it really did go up his main engine. It's true." He, Skywarp and the other boys giggled again. "The explosion was probably from cutting an internal fuel line while he was trying to fly," Beachcomber pointed out. "I guess that's just what happens when you send a sharp metal spear right up the afterburner!" Skids started to laugh. "It's odd how that phrase is still so witty, even though we've been repeating it nonstop for the past two thousand astroseconds." Beachcomber sighed. "Yeah. It was pretty funny though." "I just wish my name wasn't involved in this particular procedure," Afterburner commented. "It sounds like you're making fun of me somehow." "Calm down," Powerglide patted Afterburner on the back. "You're the greatest rocket-powered motorcycle that ever lived. Especially since you helped Skywarp deliver that spear right--" "Quiet!" Starscream yelled. "Here we hold up the prize of our victory, to show to this savage world that--" "Up the afterburner!" The boys continued to laugh as they had for several minutes before, and ignored Starscream completely. "Listen to me! Now is the time when we must celebrate and make stories of our good fortune, so we may live as the hunters of legend in--" "You know my favorite part of the beastie chase? I liked the part where his exhaust blew up and Skywarp said 'right up the afterburner.'" Laughs followed Dirge's comment, even as Starscream continued to speak. "But we--" Starscream didn't bother to continue. He saw the elation in their eyes, the laughter, the level of bonding that only a total success could bring, and knew he had little to offer them as a leader now. He had planned to focus this joy into his own glory with the beastie's head as an eternal symbol of his own personal perfection. Without their focus on a living beast, however, his organized hunting was meaningless. His words were meaningless. The songs were meaningless. The struggle for life and death were all he knew in leadership, and the only difference the boys had seen between his control and Windcharger's. To gain the power he truly wished, Starscream knew he must return them to that struggle, and decided he would put the beastie's head to use for that end. "The beast is not dead." Finally the laughter stopped. "Yes," the singer continued. "We have all done a wonderful job in killing the beast's stooge, but what shall we do when the true beast comes to strike?" Ramjet spoke up, confused. "What are you talking about Starscream? We just killed the beast." "We killed but one. There are many." "Wha--" First Aid didn't know where to begin. "But this is the only one we saw after the cave--" "Exactly. The real danger lies unseen. The Quintessons and the beasts we killed were toys in a much larger game." In an attempt to make his story fit the political circumstances, Starscream never imagined how closely his story fit reality. "Did you not hear the beast scream out for Unicron? What does this mean?" "GROM! Wasn't it some of that KORGATH Quintesson gibberish?" Warpath asked, hoping that were the truth. "It doesn't have to mean anything." Starsream's voice dropped to it's lowest level ever, and struck the boys with fear. "No. The true beast is real, and if its blue monster slave was so difficult to kill, it will surely leave us with little chance to survive. We must prepare for it." Once again a loyal servant, Skywarp stepped forward. "What can we do about it? You know we're with you Starscream." Starscream enjoyed his return to power and spoke grandiosely. "First we must savor the taste of victory and the beastie's EnerBlood. For now we must take hold of what we've done and use it as a foundation for our future." He held up the doubly sharpened stick and showed that the beastie's tormented head had been mounted on one end, and that the other could be jabbed into the ground. "We may not be able to stop the real beastie, but we can show it that we'll be willing to fight. We'll continue to hunt anything else we can find out there, and then leave some of the kill for the beast. We can still have a good time, we'll just need to be responsible about it. We can appease the beast and show it how tough we are by killing it's lesser beasts!" "We don't have to bother about the real beast!" "That's right!" "Yes!" Starscream barely smiled at this, although he knew the process of "forgetting" the beast would tighten his control even further. He had anticipated use of the stick sharpened at both ends as a victory symbol, but now knew it could be used to retain his power. A ritual to be followed on his command would serve as a constant focus for his followers. When attending to it, they would be able to spend less time thinking of Starscream's increased status and more time in their subordinate roles. "We can only do this if we follow my plan precisely. We need to leave the head where it will be noticed. Powerglide!" "Yes Starscream?" "You will be the one to place our kill's head on the mountain. It will be a permanent ritual, from now on, to let the true beast know we mean business!" While he may have been fearless before, Powerglide shuddered. "Do I have to go alone?" "Yes. I will need my other hunters to make an entrance more... impressive. Return to our new base when you are done. With the beast's head as a warning, we will surely be safe there. You must be brave enough to perform this task for us." "Uh...okay Starscream." Powerglide reluctantly transformed, loaded the stick sharpened at both ends, and took to the skies. "Skids, you and the other hunters who can't fly will guide our remaining littluns home." "We'll do it sir but...what are you and the choir going to do?" Starscream's evil smile returned. "We're having a recruitment drive." * * * "I really don't know what we can do." "Well Windcharger, pacing around will just use up more energon," Bumblebee thought to point out. "What's even worse is that we don't have the communication system. Without that p-beam, or the heat ray, or whatever it is now, we can't signal home. We can't even build one anymore with so many of the skilled workers over with Starscream's gang and so few here. Do you really think this tiny beer fire will help any of us?" "Skreeee!" "Right Laserbeak. If only there were a way to get some of them back on our side--" The roar of jets from Starscream's choir landing and the soprano's yell from outside the shelters promised to have the opposite effect. "I'm back! I'm back and victorious! We killed one of the beasties! This won't be the last beast, but fear not! Our hunting force is always victorious! Join us and you, too, can feel the wonderful excitement of the hunt! The joy of the kill!" Littluns cheered as Starscream continued with a similar speech to the one he gave his own followers only moments before. Windcharger, Bumblebee and Laserbeak gave a collective sigh and joined Brawl, Thundercracker and the twins outside. Windcharger practically ignored Starscream and spoke to his friends. "I don't believe this. Starscream must have a thousand gigabaud mouth and a one kilobyte brain. We need more people to help out if we're going to get off the island as it is. It's a waste of time to keep hunting if--" "But Windy!" Brawl's optical visor sparkled with innocent glee. "They're going to give us food from the kill!" "Yes," Starscream smiled in their direction and acknowledged Windcharger's presence for the first time. "We won't bother with Windy's talk about the p-beam. Nothing ever got done with that. We won't worry about his talk about the beastie. I killed a beastie. He'll even insult me and say I'm not competent, but that's because he doesn't have the character to lead. It's the character issue that he doesn't talk about, and he should stop talking about--" "Talk? Talk? Who started this meeting Starscream?" Windcharger shouted through the megaphone. "You think we're all cowards and should run away from the beast--" "I never said that!" "Well just in case you think he has enough character that you'll believe what he says, than that's fine," Starscream told the crowd. "I'm dealing with the real issues. My hunters and I are living in a jungle clearing by the river. We hunt and have fun. If you want to join my tribe, come and feast with us tonight. Perhaps I'll let you join. Perhaps not. It will be dark in one hour and you may meet us then." Skywarp sneered at the crowd and transformed at the same time Starscream did to fly away. Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge spoke in unison before doing the same. "The chief has spoken." Many of the littluns cheered, but Windcharger stared silently at the departing jets. He knew his time as the leader was running low. Brawl and the littluns ignored his demeanor and hopped up and down with glee. "EnerMeat! They got the beastie, so that means EnerMeat! Can we go Windy? Huh? Can we?" "Yeah," the twins agreed, "EnerMeat tastes--" "Really cool and stuff. Let's go to Starscream's bunch for some meat." Laserbeak, Bumblebee and Thundercracker were the only ones who noticed the glassy stare over their leader's face. It finally broke with a defeated sigh and sullen monotone. "Fine. Perhaps we should go." The littluns cheered and ran off. Bumblebee turned Windcharger around by the shoulder and spoke with horror. "What are you doing. That's insane! Starscream will just get more followers! These kids don't know how to look out for themselves and Starscream certainly won't help them!" Windcharger's monotone continued. "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Besides, if we're there we can make sure nothing extremely bad happens." "And what if Starscream was right about another beastie?" "Then I'll burn that bridge when I come to it." "What if he gets tired of hunting Quintessons and tries to hunt one of us?" "I'll burn that bridge again when I come back to it." Laserbeak shivered and honked quietly. "A plan? Yeah. I'll try to see if I can rally some support from the biguns. They're the only ones with the ability to help us. We need more people who can actually build something around here. Like a new communications system." Thundercracker was worried. "Do you really think you'll be able to get anyone's help?" "If we can't, we're screwed." * * * Skids skewered pieces of the beastie over some fires. "I love a barbecue. Especially now that Starscream has been using that beastie's rifle to start the fires!" "Yeah," Thrust agreed, hobbling over to another rotisserie on his peg-leg. "It's too bad Brawn couldn't have been here." He nodded to the corpse of their fallen friend. Beachcomber held a hand to his chin. "I wonder why Brawn got KO'd by a single shot to the shoulder? That doesn't make sense." Dirge pushed some of the band's amplifiers onto a makeshift stage of flat rock. "I don't know. Maybe he was low on energon and he had a power field that ran low?" Also pushing amplifiers into place, Skywarp scoffed at the idea. "It's not like many Cybertronians use force fields, and Brawn wasn't one of them." "But I was thinking that it might be like on Star Trek. Maybe if he has a structural integrity field then--" "Don't even try, man. Quit while you're ahead." Skywarp shook his head and mimicked Dirge. "'Structural integrity field? Star Trek?' Is that what kind of crappy science they're pushing nowadays? Hey, First Aid! You're the med student. Why don't you tell us what you think happened, or at least try to fix him." First Aid guzzled down a handful of EnerBlood and spoke absent mindedly. "I don't know. He's dead." Thrust was angered by this. "You didn't even look at him! Maybe you could fix my leg too if you JUST LOOKED AT IT!" "I am a doctor! How dare you accuse me of slacking off to enjoy the..." suddenly First Aid's voice of indignance turned to soft rapture. "...sweet, delicious, tasty EnerBlood. So wonderful. Good enough to kill for. Good enough to die for. The flavor. The FLAVOR..." Thrust backed off, suddenly nervous. "Yeah. Never mind. I'll just leave Brawn here on the off chance that you decide to take a look at him. You can do it whenever you like." "The flavor...flavor so fine...so incredible...so--" Afterburner stepped forward and shared a glance with Thrust. "This guy's really insane. It's almost as if--" "We're here! Let's over-energize and get wasted!" Brawl lead the charge as he and all of Windcharger's micromasters stormed into Starscream's hangout. The lead choir boy jumped out from behind an amp and yelled out to the crowd. "This is the dawn of a new era on this island! Tonight we shall rejoice in our good fortune, knowing we have killed one beast and kept another at bay! Celebrate with me! Celebrate! All of you!" With this comment the kids started eating while Starscream's choir boys ran onto the stage an plugged in their gear. Dirge tested his newly reattached fingers on his bass, Thrust tuned his guitar, Ramjet tightened his drum heads and Skywarp plugged his keyboard into the audio mixer. "Go ahead and get some EnerMeat. I'll try and get some help from the others." Most of the children had already gone ahead. Windcharger suddenly realized he was only speaking to Laserbeak, Thundercracker and Bumblebee. "If you don't mind Windy, I think I'll take a walk instead." For the first time in an hour, Windcharger's voice turned from one of resignation to one of curiosity. "Why Thundercracker? A little energon should do your system good." Thundercracker nodded in the direction of the Cybertronian Boys' Choir. Not only did his former band plan to play without him, but Starscream had given up the harmonica and now played Thundercracker's Stratocaster guitar. The opening power chords to "Hunger," one of the choir's signature songs, drew cheers from the hungry littluns. "Yeah," Windcharger patted his friend on the shoulder. "I imagine it's pretty annoying for him to take your Strat'. Just be sure to eat something while you're out there." "I'll find some EnerFruit trees or something." With a quick draw on his EnerWeed, Thundercracker transformed to jet mode. "But Thundercracker," Bumblebee panicked. What if Starscream is right about another beastie? I really don't think it makes sense for beasties to be real, but if you see one there could be others, and I don't know, but if they are--" "I'll be back in a while, don't worry about me." The roar of his engines went largely unnoticed as Starscream and the others played on. His friends watched silently as he took to the air. "You should have stopped him from going off like that!" "How Bumblebee? We'd better just get going and eat before nothing's left." "It was such a long way to get here, I'm worried that my axle--" "Sucks to your axle!" Windcharger suddenly noticed how much pressure he was under. "I'm sorry Bumblebee. I just...uh...I don't know. Let's eat." Skids, Beachcomber and First Aid happily tossed parts of the beast through the air to be caught by the incoming micromasters and others. "Come on to the group!" Skids cheered happily. "Everyone who wants some meat can get it!" * * * Thundercracker landed and transformed to robot mode on the side of the mountain. He noticed that Starscream's band had gone on to play some heavy metal classics, and missed his role as the lead guitarist. He took a strong draw on the EnerWeed and the world seemed to fold in on itself. Then the voices began. Each time he saw a vision of the future it became slightly clearer, so he took one more puff hoping for a moment of perfect clarity. Instead, he found the beastie's head on a spear that blocked his path. One sharp end of the spear went up the robotic beastie's neck joint, the other end had been jabbed into the ground. "Hello Thundercracker." The dim and tormented eyes suddenly came alive. "You are a silly little boy. Don't you agree you are a silly little boy?" Thundercracker stared back at the head silently. "Well then, you'd better run off and play with the others. You like your friends don't you? Windcharger, Bumblebee, Starscream and the rest?" Then the beast's mouth opened further and Thundercracker saw miniatures of three students from the CBA's other field trip shuttle. They were Shrapnel, Bombshell and Kickback, all Insecticons. "Aren't you afraid of me?" Thundercracker shook his head. "There isn't anyone here to help you, only me. And I'm the beast." The Insecticons flew about and seemed to eat away at Thundercracker's metal flesh. "You're not a beast. You're just some big ugly robot's head on a stick." "If only I were!" Scourge's head remained motionless but a laugh filled the air. "Fancy thinking the beast was something you could hunt and kill! I am the Lord of the Flies. This is what flies do, is it not? Feed upon the dead, eventually feeding each with all?" Thundercracker looked down at the images of Insecticons on his body. "These three would never hurt me. Insecticons are my friends." Again the motionless laughter from the beastie's head shook the forest. "Yes they are. So are Starscream, and Skywarp, and Windcharger. You knew didn't you? The beast was nothing you could kill. I'm a part of you all! I'm the reason it's no-go!" Thundercracker took an even larger dose of his EnerWeed and found he could hear Starscream's band play Hotel Californiatron. And in the master's chambers They gathered for the feast They can stab it with their steely knives But they just can't kill the beast The last thing I remember I was running for the door I had to find the passage back to the place I was before Relax said the nightman There was no intent to deceive You can check out any time you like But you can never leave He shook himself away from the song and saw The Lord of the Flies as a lifeless head on a stick. The tiny Insecticon images disappeared too, and the guitarist cautiously stepped back. The head suddenly came to life again with a third laugh and struck him down to the floor. "You see that it is true. You might as well run along and meet your friends while they have their party. I will be there with the rest of you as well. You will go down, won't you? Won't you?" Thundercracker realized that he dropped his joint during the fall and scrambled to find it. Overwhelmed by a sudden fear of the head, he decided to obey it, abandon his EnerWeed, and run for the others. * * * The band finished their set for the night and proceded to disconnect their instruments from the PA system. Ramjet conspicuously left his electric drum amps plugged in. Powerglide and Warpath were discussing their food while Bumblebee walked to get some from Afterburner. "Zoodle!" Warpath declared, "I love EnerMeat because it tastes great!" "You already said 'Zoodle,' and it wasn't all that impressive to start with," Powerglide replied. "We're going to have to put a correctional language program into your head to get rid of those spoken sound effects." "But I like to say things like--" "Come off it. Besides, EnerMeat is great because it encourages more killing." "But I like it because it tastes great!" "More killing!" "Tastes great!" "More killing!" Uneasy with this sudden argument, Bumblebee warily walked to the remainder of the food. "Aren't I having none?" "Come on. You didn't hunt for it." Afterburner barked. "Neither did the littluns." "Fine. Take it. See if I care." The Technobot offered Bumblebee a piece of the beast. "I'm just really upset about the way things aren't making sense here--" Laserbeak cut him off with a squawk. "Exactly Laserbeak. That's exactly it. Now that everyone is afraid of an ultra powerful beast, we're all acting differently. We aren't acting like the robots we used to be." Skywarp moved an amp across the stage and took a piece of meat for himself. "Shut up with this. There's no need to analyze what we're doing here." Thrust closed up his guitar case and disagreed. "No, it makes sense. Wheelie and Bumblebee over here are whimps, so they seek the protection of a government where ideas are favored instead of action." "Shut up Thrust." Ignoring Skywarp, Afterburner continued. "Yeah. You should also take a look at First Aid, Beachcomber and Skids. They used to be the most peaceful guys around, but now that they have a taste of excitement and the thrill of the hunt, they're going psycho with it--" "Shut up Afterburner!" Skywarp walked past them and went on to haul the rest of the amps away. Ramjet sat down and started to listen. "I don't think you should shut up, this is all very important." Bumblebee nodded, ignoring Warpath's and Powerglide's continuing debate in the background. "If you want to join Windy and the rest of us, you can." "No way Cockroach," Ramjet commented. "Look what Starscream's leadership has done for Afterburner here. He used to be the crabbiest jerk around--" "Hey!" "But Starscream's strict control and unquestioned power encouraged him to channel his efforts on something useful. Like killing stuff." "I guess," Afterburner considered. "So stop trying to analyze everything! It's not like every moment on this island is supposed to be a metaphor for the events in a political dictator's path to power." "Well my auntie always told--" "Just buzz off, Roachboy!" Sulking, Bumblebee walked away from them. Laserbeak still wanted one last piece of meat and asked Ramjet for it. "Okay Laserbeak, here you go. Just answer one question for me: What do you think my role is in this whole mess?" Thrust laughed. "We almost got both of them to shut up." "No, I'm serious. What do you think I'm doing here?" Laserbeak clucked his honest opinion. "How dare you? You think that me and the rest of the choir are just unthinking pawns who crave power and brutality, only realizing too late that it can turn on us? No way." Skywarp walked over with Dirge in tow. "Listen you idiots. How many times do I have to ask you to shut up with all this. We're on an island, and everything is all just a bunch of stuff that happens." "Yeah, you idiots." Dirge echoed, "Shut up with all of this. We're on a--" The bass player stopped speaking when he received everyone's dirty looks. "Well, er, what I meant to say is that the bird here is talkin' trash about us." Not realizing the danger as Starscream walked near, Laserbeak continued to cluck his opinion. "Oh really Laserbeak," the choir's leader spun on a heel and looked down at his detractor. "Do you honestly believe that I've gone mad with power and that I'm using the promise of a constant mystical threat to distract my followers and generate fear I can control? No one would fall for it. It's too obvious." "Yeah," Skywarp added. "It's so obvious that any attempt to explain it in such detail is a condescending insult to your audience." "Audience...I like that word." Starscream scratched at his chin. "We will have some audience participation in a moment, but we must save Laserbeak for our hunting audience tomorrow." The avian transformer whined in fear. "Grab him." * * * Thundercracker ran as he never had before. "I've got to warn them! I've got to let them know! The beast is everywhere! The beast is fear! The beast is us!" Rather than transform into a jet to reach them sooner, the guitarist's EnerWeed induced haze sent him scrambling through the harsh forests and slowly to an unexpectedly violent festival. -----David Filip------------------------ grimlock@u.washington.edu ----- Are you tired of conformity on the internet? You can rebel against the culture of the net in four easy steps! 1) Thank and encourage crossposters. 2) Discuss politics politely. 3) Support censorship. 4) Praise Apple Computers, Intel, Microsoft, AOL and the entertainment industry for a job well done.