From grimlock@u.washington.edu Sun Jan 11 18:31:47 1998 Date: Fri, 23 May 1997 20:19:23 -0700 From: David Filip Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers Subject: [FANFIC 9/10] Lord of the Flies Starring the Transformers Lord of the Flies Starring the Transformers By David Filip Part Nine: Festival of the Damned Bumblebee and Windcharger moped at the sidelines while littlus tore at the EnerFruit pieces in the nearby trees. With the beastie's body already consumed, the kids resorted to vegetarianism. "Windy, did you get any help from the others." "No, but I didn't get any opposition." Windcharger didn't know how to feel about the experience. "They don't hate what I've done, but they don't think Starscream is doing a bad job either. He systematically picked away at the customs and morals we were raised with, and it seems like these kids will follow him no matter what. How much of us can he pick apart until there's nothing left? I don't understand how they can let it happen." Brawl lumbered over to the pair and wolfed down a large chunk of EnerFruit. "Hey Windcharger, I saw you talking to Warpath a couple minutes ago. Was my future self mistaken or something?" "I don't know. Warpath seemed to be pretty happy here, but he doesn't seem like he's a real threat either. Maybe it's just that Starscream will tell him to do something, or he's going to snap or..." He tossed his hands in the air. "It could be anything and it could be nothing." "I guess." Brawl seemed disappointed that the vision from the future seemed so useless, but a short attention span allowed him to regain happiness quickly. Bright and shiny objects tended to have that effect on Brawl. "Look at those giant EnerFruit pieces by the edge of the cliff! Do any of you want me to get some for you?" Windcharger shook his head. "I don't care Brawl. Just be sure to meet us back at the camp when the party is over." "Right man, I'll be with you then." With this, he transformed into a tank and drove toward the edge. Bumblebee sighed. "I wish I could be as carefree as he is right now. I just have this bad feeling that something horrible is going to happen." "Of course it will. Starscream's in charge here, isn't he?" "There he is now, making fun of some micros," the yellow robot pointed. "He was having a talk with Laserbeak and the rest of his choir when I got the last of the food." "Have you seen Laserbeak since?" "Well...no." * * * "Ah, I love this stuff," Brawl mumbled to himself as he reached off the edge of the cliff for fruit. Looking back at the nearby robots, he asked "Hey! Do you guys want anything?" Skywarp tried to muffle the sounds of scratching metal. "No Brawl. Just get out of our business." "What business?" Brawl got to his feet and noticed Skywarp, Dirge, Ramjet and Thrust holding Laserbeak down and wrapping vines around him. "Oh, I get it. You're going to play a game with Laserbeak." The bird attempted to yell for help, but his beak was already wrapped and Brawl was too slow witted to understand the situation. "Yeah Brawl," Thrust laughed to himself. "We're going to play a game with him." "Cool. Can I play too?" Skywarp shoved Brawl's shoulder back. "Of course not. Now go away, we're busy." To the choir, he nodded to the left. "Let's hide him somewhere until we need him." Brawl laughed. "Hide and go seek? I can help?" A sadistic look crossed Skywarp's eyes. "I told you to leave. If you don't HIDE right now, you'll be SEEKING a lot of pain!" Not the brightest of robots on the island, Brawl laughed at the threat. "Heh heh. That's funny man." Skywarp's voice turned stone cold. "Don't mock me, because I will hurt you." Brawl laughed even harder. "It works on so many levels! HAW HEH HE HEH! I mean, I say something about hide and seek, and you--" Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge backed away when they recognized Skywarp's angriest voice. "I'M WARNING YOU TO SHUT UP!" Brawl continued to laugh not in spite of this warning, but because of it. "HAW HA! And then you go psycho here, with 'I'm warning you' and I'm just laughin' and you're making fists here, and I'm fine here, and you--" Skywarp made eye contact with his fellow warriors, gave a head motion toward the cliff, and grabbed Brawl's right arm. Thrust hobbled in to take the other arm, and Ramjet and Dirge grabbed his legs. In one quick motion, they hoisted him up by each limb. Brawl still proceeded to laugh. "What are you guys going to do now? Toss me in the air and stuff?" Skywarp smiled evilly. "Well you see Brawl, you're the Sandman, and it's time for some peace and quiet." Ramjet leaned in and caught the intention, even if he misunderstood the roots of Skywarp's metaphor. "Yeah, but you're the Sandman who drops out of parties because he goes for long naps." "Right," Thrust added as he looked over the edge, "really long naps. As if the Sandman is...dead tired." Dirge couldn't resist adding a comment of his own. "Almost as if people are going to DROP him off a cliff, and he'll be DEAD when he collides with the ground." "Huh? I don't get it." Thrust shook his head. "Never mind Brawl, it was a bit too subtle for you." Laserbeak squirmed around but could do nothing to help or escape as the four aircraft robots started to swing Brawl's body back and forth. Skywarp could barely contain himself. "Don't let these comments worry you. The Sandman will find out what they mean soon enough." "But I want to know now," Brawl whined. "Okay," Skywarp said cruelly. "It's time for the Sandman to take his mystical journey." With those words, the taboo of the old life vanished. No longer did they feel the urge to protect or respect Cybertronain life, they simply considered it as an unimportant element in their plans of conquest. The four singers released their grip on Brawl after a swing and sent him hurdling off the cliff. "What are you boys doing?" "Huh?" Skywarp asked. "Oh, sorry Starscream, we were just taking care of a pest." The other boys smiled at this. "Well I'll need you in a moment. We want to make sure to keep as many followers as possible, and we'll need a ceremony to encourage them to stay." Ramjet nodded. "No problem. The rest of us can stash Laserbeak away until we need him. I'll get to the drums." * * * The kids had been socializing loosely with each other in small groups and didn't even notice it when First Aid and Skids dragged a large log into the center of the area. Starscream regally took his seat there as the tom-intensive drum solo began. The laughing and playing stopped as all eyes focused on Starscream. "All who wish to join my tribe may stay here. I provided you with food and I alone can protect you from the beast." The sheer savagery of Ramjet's playing seemed to push Starscream's credibility far higher than even his triumph against the beast did. "Who do you think you're kidding Starscream?" Windcharger finally regained confidence in his voice. "Everyone voted for me as the chief, and we wanted to keep the p-beam going. Now it's a heat ray and everyone's running around for food--" "You came here for food too. The difference is that I provided it." "Of course you did. You are the leader of the hunters, you were supposed to do that. It was your job." Windcharger paused here to let it sink into the fragile young minds present, but Starscream ignored the comment. Seeing some of the kids start to nod, Windy went on. "Besides, I have the megaphone, so--" Starscream couldn't let this pass. "The megaphone, huh? Too bad you didn't bring it with you." Thunder rocked the island and clouds passed overhead. Ramjet even stopped his primal drumming. "You hear that everyone? It's going to rain. What if this planet has a corrosive chemicals in the rain? We don't know. You're going to look really foolish without shelters or a comm system." Several eyes blinked knowingly. "How smart will you look then?" The hunters uneasily looked to the sky. Starscream signaled for Ramjet to start playing again. "Don't let him insult us like that! Stay if you want and go if you don't! This will be the time when we dance to celebrate my glorious victory over the beast!" Starscream's choir cheered at this. More privately to Windcharger, Starscream grinned. "I won't say goodbye to you this time. It's just too bad that our own language doesn't have a word like 'H'ors d'oeuvre' because that's what truly fits here. We'll see you again." After a fiendish grin, he lead the choir in its usual chant: Kill the beast Cut his fuel line Spill his EnerBlood Led by Starscream, they moved their bodies in angular patterns and some littluns joined them in the dance. KILL THE BEAST CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERBLOOD "Uh..." Windcharger couldn't believe the scene. "We were talking about leadership? And what we were doing for our safety? Hello?" Surprisingly, the children decided not to answer him. Starscream simply signaled for Ramjet to raise the volume on the drum amps and screamed. "Come on! Dance! I want all of you to dance now!" More and more children joined as the primal, infectious rhythm beat through them. The raw power of the number of children involved in the chant united them as a whole. Eventually they formed a ring and Skywarp imitated the beastie. First the hunters lifted firewood to tap on Skywarp, then as the black and purple robot faked pain and injury, they all closed in for a simultaneous strike of clubs. Skywarp rolled out of the way and rejoined the ring, which had even more dancers taking part. There was the throb and pulse of a single organism. KILL THE BEAST CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERBLOOD Other children entered the circle and acted as the beastie, often yelping louder as they were struck with increasingly intense blows. When they saw Wheelie take the center of the circle, Windcharger and Bumblebee decided that even they should join the dance -- not to act like Starscream, of course, but simply to join the community. KILL THE BEAST CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERBLOOD Eventually one kid came running into the center of the circle and screamed even more than any other beast actor. "The Lord of the Flies is us! You have to know! It's fear! It's us!" The wild ranting encouraged Ramjet to pound his drums faster, motivating the children of the Cybertronian Boys' Academy to play more aggressively at hunting. The beast's actor claimed that his time in the light was short, and that he believed one lone Cybertronian would rise up to light their darkest hour, but even this comment did not stop the circle's hunt. In fact, the dancers pounded harder and harder, fearing these truly were words of the beast. KILL THE BEAST CUT HIS FUEL LINE SPILL HIS ENERBLOOD By now the beast was on its knees in the center, crying out against the abominable noise. He mentioned something about an EnerWeed induced vision of the future where a CBA student would use courage, wit and sleight of hand to save their entire world. Several blows later, the beast struggled forward to break the ring. He stumbled for the nearby stream but was too slow for those who followed. The hunters smashed, struck and beat him in any way they could. When the beast made it to the stream, rain finally broke out from the dark sky. The drumming stopped, the hunt stopped, the chanting stopped, and only the torrent of rain was heard. The boys all crept back away from the stream when the beastie ceased to move. It was not nearly as large or menacing as they had suspected, and already its EnerBlood stained the stream. All the boys ran in terror as the rain intensified. Running water slowly proceeded to push sand over Thundercracker's lifeless body. * * * "Bumblebee? Are you the only one who showed up?" "We have Wheelie and twins, but they're out collecting EnerFruit. We also have two littluns." "Micromasters don't count." Windcharger considered his situation. "No. Everyone counts." He looked down at the two small robots who stood before him. "Listen guys, I want to thank you for sticking by me. It would have been easy just to give up and say 'gee, let's have fun instead of acting responsibly' so you guys should be very proud of yourselves." Whisper and Sunrunner, the two littluns, were shocked. "You mean we could have chosen to stay with Starscream?" "Wow! We were sticking with you because we thought you were the chief. We should have been paying a bit more attention." "I am the chief. It's just that Starscream decided to become an chief of his own lately. You don't have to stay if you don't want to, but we are fighting for a cause that is noble, and just and--" "Did you hear that Whisper? We don't have to stay with Windy!" "Alright Sunrunner! We can have fun with Starscream!" Both micromasters transformed into small fighter planes and flew in Starscream's direction. Windcharger stared in shock as Bumblebee's visor blinked. "Are the littluns still here Windy? Did I see what I thought I saw?" Windcharger shook his head. "Sometimes I ask myself the same question. I feel like I'm a soldier in the middle of the Gobotronian wars, and when these kids ran off it's like I've been sold out by Old Bot Withers--" Windcharger stopped himself in mid-sentence, remembering that Brawl was an orphan. In one of Old Bot Withers' most famous desertions, he ejected the crew compartment of his transport and left Brawl's Combaticon father, along with one hundred other Cybertronian soldiers, on a hostile planet. Only two of those soldiers survived, and Windcharger now considered the possibility that he may have abandoned Brawl similarly himself. Perhaps, Windcharger wondered, perhaps there was a little Old Bot Withers in his own heart. "What's wrong Windy?" "Where is Brawl? And what about Laserbeak?" "They didn't come." Windcharger shook, but couldn't decide whether it was from anger, fear, or confusion. "It doesn't make sense. They said they'd be here. We should have gotten more followers too. I honestly thought I got through to some of them. How long ago did we tell them we were leaving?" Bumblebee frowned for his friend. "Two hours ago. If anyone else is coming, they're taking their time." Windcharger seemed about to say something but didn't, so Bumblebee continued. "Night will be over before you know it so you might as well go to the shelters and shut down for a bit. It's not a good idea to just waste energy with the...well...you know out there." It didn't have to be said. A taboo seemed to be forming for the word "beastie." Windcharger whispered something as he climbed up the platform and into the shelter. Bumblebee whispered back. "What did you say?" "Thundercracker." The two sat looking out at the glittering lagoon from a distance. Silent at length, the chief got up and picked up the megaphone again. "Bumblebee?" "Uh?" "What are we going to do?" Bumblebee nodded at the megaphone. "You could call an assembly. You could try calling the others down here again." Windcharger laughed sharply at the word and Bumblebee frowned. "You're the chief, you know." The comment only drew more laughs. "The chief of what? Who will I call an assembly for?" "Us! Stop laughing like that Windy! What's the others going to think?" His voice turned serious again. "Bumblebee?" "Huh?" "That was Thundercracker." Wheelie and the twins walked in as Bumblebee replied. "You already said that." "Well..." "Yeah?" "It was murder." Bumblebee yelled shrilly while the other boys were silent. "You stop that! "What good is talking like that? It was dark! There was the dance, and the thunder, and we were scared. We also had a rhythm going." Windcharger spoke slowly and cradled the megaphone, then rocked it back and forth in one hand before he put it down. "I wasn't scared. I don't know what I was." "Yeah," the twins agreed. "I wasn't--" "Scared either." Wheelie, too unfocused to rhyme as he usually did, spoke softly. "No, we were scared. I was, you were, we all were. Everyone." Windcharger's head vibrated with unfocused anger. "Look at what we did! We have to face up to--" "No Windy!" Bumblebee shouted. "That's all crazy talk. Crazy talk, you hear me? You're talking crazy! Besides, we were on the outside, we couldn't do anything about it. It certainly wasn't--what you said it was." "Don't you understand? The things we did--" "No Windy! Listen to me. We were on the outside. We never really came in at him." There was a loathing, and at the same time a feverish excitement in his voice. "It was an accident, that's all it was. He shouldn't have come at us in the dark like that. He was really asking for it." Windcharger shook his head. "You're visor is half cracked. You couldn't see what we did." "Come on," Bumblebee shuddered nervously as he denied the boys' responsibilities. "We have to forget about this. It was an accident and that's that. Everyone was involved so no one was really responsible." Deluding himself further, he imagined that there were two of each child on this island; one would always play by the old rules, the other was an evil doppelganger. This notion was far easier to accept than the truth of their own actions. Windcharger rocked from side to side. "I'm just afraid. I'm afraid of us. I want to go back to joking about my classes with Vortex and Blast-Off. I want to get an English lecture from Springer, or a boring history lecture from Blurr, or a morality lecture from Optimus Prime. Oh, I just want to go home! I wish I never snuck aboard this field trip!" This welcome change of subject surprised Bumblebee. "Huh?" "My parents didn't think the Cybertronian Boys' Academy had many safe school shuttles so they didn't sign the permission slip. I had to sneak past Ultra Magnus just to get inside the shuttle. Smart move, eh?" Wheelie leaned forward to comment. "Sneaking is not what good boys should do. It could mean punishment for you." Windcharger stared at Wheelie and remembered the encounter with Brawl and the time travelers. "Did you see Brawl?" "I don't know where he chose to go," Wheelie rhymed. Windcharger sighed and hoped the green tank was still alive. He wouldn't dare admit that he abandoned Brawl without checking first. Whether his own irresponsibility or some darker power prevented the tank's apperance, Windcharger acted as if all was well -- he couldn't bring himself to believe anything would be different for Brawl. "Maybe he wanted a life of hunting, just like the rest of them. I don't think Laserbeak went with him, but I don't know what to think about anything anymore. Brawl came to me from the future and warned me about you Wheelie. He said you were going to be taken over by Quintessons and you'd try to kill me." "Let's not consider thoughts so sad. Let's all be happy and glad!" "Yeah," Bumblebee agreed, trying to change their mood. "We don't have to sit around and think about this. We can just have a campfire." "And tell stories--" Rumble suggested. "Or eat EnerFruit--" Frenzy continued. "And braid each other's hair," Windcharger added sarcastically. Without noticing Windcharger's tone, Wheelie continued. "And tell rhymes." Wheelie synthesized a throat-clearing sound. "There once was a bot from Nantucketron--" Windcharger leapt up. With all his stresses, another annoying rhyme was more than he could bear. Especially when he knew what words rhymed with Nantucketron and fit into so many limericks. "Shut Wheelie off! Just shut him off!" Rumble, Frenzy, Bumblebee and their leader scrambled to deactivate Wheelie as he struggled to finish the rhyme. He tried to push them off but they opened his paneling and disconnected his internal power supply quickly. "It was important that we did that," Bumblebee commented, "because of what those robots from the future told you." "Right." "And it didn't have anything to do what happened back at the party tonight. He's the only one we'll shut down." The fear finally started to creep into Bumblebee's voice. "We won't do this again," Windcharger whispered, suddenly afraid of himself. "It's just for Wheelie. He was easy for the others to pick on, so I guess he'll be safer this way. Starscream's bunch won't bother him. Besides, it's not like you should be accusing me of anything. I was on the outside of the circle." Bumblebee nodded eagerly. "Yes. The outside. We were all on the outside." * * * Beachcomber shook his head. "I'm sorry Starscream, but the heat ray burned out. I think we cooked too many pieces of meat." "Yes, I suppose we'll have to sneak into their camp and steal some thing to power the heat ray." Starscream smiled at the thought. "I thought you already had the beastie's gun. You can shoot things with that." "Yeah," Afterburner added, "and why do we have to steal from the others anyway? It's not like there's anything they can do to us." "Ah, but there is." Starscream smiled slightly. "They will try to spoil all the things we do. Besides, we need as many weapons as we can get if we want to keep the beastie at bay." "Yeah, the beastie..." Powerglide spoke cautiously. "It was...disguised tonight," First Aid mumbled. "Exactly," Starscream nodded. "Even though we gave him the head of our kill, he may still come looking for us. You can't tell what he might do. We must be ready." "What about Laserbeak?" Dirge asked. "How does it fit into our plan to tie him up?" "Don't you ever pay attention?" Skywarp elbowed his friend. "We were supposed to hunt 'Beak tomorrow and we'd leave some of the kill for the beast." Starscream wore an unusual smirk. "There has been a change of plans. We'll be hunting someone else tomorrow if all goes well, but the hunt can only work if follow all my directions to the letter. You'll need to lead most of the others on a special mission for me." Skywarp grinned. "No problem there Starscream. What are you going to do?" "I will prepare many surprises on the mountain for Windcharger's next visit--" "But why would he want to come back to us?" Dirge wondered. "He will. He just will. We don't want to be caught off guard so we'll need surprises for him. One of them will be another stick sharpened at both ends..." * * * Even while shut down, Windcharger left minimal sensors on so he would instantly be awakened in the case of an emergency. His mechanical mind wandered over thoughts of Dead End's steps into the sea, Huffer's treachery, hearing about Brawn's death at the beast's hands, wondering why Laserbeak and Brawl didn't join him, wondering about the idiotic micromasters, and wondering if he deactivated Wheelie off out of cowardice. Certainly Wheelie could be reactivated, but the morality of removing consciousness from a fellow student was dubious. He wondered if he was fit to lead or even if he truly was a leader any more. The rains had stopped. Suddenly he heard voices in the night, one hundred astroseconds before the sun was set to rise. All still would have been peaceful but for the sound of ripping metal as twenty kids tore through the shelter's walls. Bumblebee and the twins were closest to the new opening. Most of the attacking micros were easily brushed off, but there were quite a few biguns in the fray who caused serious problems. Windcharger leapt up from his resting slab to avoid the back end of Skids' spear only to be struck down by a roundhouse kick from Thrust's artificial leg. While on the ground, Windcharger rolled off to the side and tripped Powerglide, freeing Rumble and Frenzy to jump away from their fight with five others. As quickly as the enemies came, Skywarp told them "We got what we came for," and they ran for the forest. With the shelter left in ruins, Windcharger didn't bother to follow them; They must have already taken whatever they wanted. "What the hell was that all about?" Windcharger asked. "They sure left in a big hurry--" "But we smashed 'em good." "Yeah, we did." Windcharger thought for a moment and honesty compelled him to go on. "Or at least we survived. I just want to know why they were here." "I thought for sure that they'd go for the megaphone," Bumblebee muttered in a loud and slightly distorted voice. Windcharger and the twins continued to look off in the distance. "Yeah, maybe. Did they damage Wheelie? Maybe we should bury his body so we can reactivate him when it's safe, and the Quintessons wouldn't be able to touch him." "His body is buried in the rubble of a torn wall right now, but I think he's okay." Windcharger stepped back towards the damaged shelter. "That's good. Let's check around to see what they did to the place and why, maybe that will tell us--" "Why did you stop?" Rumble asked, only to turn back to the shelter and cringe again. Frenzy also turned and took a double take. "Bumblebee...your face is gone!" This was quite true. The marks of Swiss Army Matrices could be seen at the edges of his head casing, and Bumblebee's shiny laconia faceplate had been completely removed. Obviously it meant that Bumblebee was blind, but he also couldn't speak without wiring his system to the megaphone. "I was just so sure they'd go for the megaphone that I never thought they'd need my facial Laconia. They also dropped something else." The boys looked down at a small silver rocket engine and Windcharger spoke gravely. "It's one of Laserbeak's thrusters. They want us to know that they have him." After a moment of introspection, Rumble posed the question on everyone's mind. "What are we gonna do about it?" Windcharger considered this while staring at the mountain. -----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.