30 Minutes Ago...

 

Backstab stood in the middle of the chamber, holding the glowing green canister aloft. "Listen to me!" she ordered. "This is the product of our loyalty, of our dedication to Lord Starscream and the Decepticon cause!"

She heard a slight high-pitched chuckle from one of the shadowy corners of the room. "Lord Starscream," the Decepticon muttered to himself. "I could get used to that.

"This is the fruit of our labors!" Backstab continued. "Pure, undiluted Energon!"

"Really? Yo, that looks like something you scraped out of my crankcase," Soundoff replied as he stepped forward. Backstab frowned--somewhere else, she could feel Starscream doing the same. They all hated how he talked like an Earthen music station, how he somehow decided that he needed to sound like what he called "Em-Tee-Vee" instead of speaking like a normal Decepticon.

"Keep up that attitude and you won't get any of this," Backstab said as she stepped closer.

"Heh, maybe I'll just take that offa you then," Soundoff retaliated. A gigantic hand, swift for its size, smashed into Soundoff's chestplate and forced him into the wall.

"You need to show some respect," Thunder growled as he stepped between the two, his massive fists curling around the Cybertronian weapon. "For your elders and for those better than you."

"Knock it off!" Starscream yelled as he stepped from the shadows, null rays charging. "Save this for the Autobots!"

The chamber grew quiet. Thunder cast a murderous glance at Soundoff before turning back to Backstab. "I'm sorry," he said as he went down on one knee before her, "please continue."

"Oh please," Starscream muttered as he dissapeared back into the shadows.

Backstab ignored his comment and looked at the display of fealty before her. She smiled and gently patted Thunder's shoulder. "This is the gift from Starscream to us," she said, holding the canister aloft. "This is the catalyst with which we will destroy the Autobots once and for all!"

"How's it work?" Reverb asked, his voice barely registering with her audio receptors.

"Like normal Energon," Backstab said, "we absorb it like normal Energon. Only the effects are far more...noticeable." She emphasized the last word with an evil smirk.

"Then let's see," Reverb replied.

"Very well," Backstab said, "let's."

All five of the Decepticons stepped forward. Backtrack looked uneasily at the container. "I'm not sure this will be good for our internal mechanisms," she said as she knelt in front of the glowing green substance. "Has...has it been tested?"

"It's about to," Backstab said as her optics narrowed and her face crunched into a sinister smirk. "Everyone, hand over your siphon cables."

There was a chorus of whooshes and clanks as the Decepticons popped open access ports and unstrung the cables that siphoned Energon from their fuel tanks. As usual, Thunder was the first to comply, almost pushing his way to the front of the crowd to hand Backstab the cable that dangled from his chest. Backstab chuckled in amusement as she took the cable and made her way around, gathering up everyone else's and holding them alongside her own.

"This is very exciting, isn't it?" she said in a low tone. With that, she plugged all five cables into the lid of the container and pressed the button. As the green liquid churned and bubbled its way into the cables, Backstab could already feel the power that eminated from the vapors inside the cable, coursing through her servos and making her mechanisms whir to life like never before. She could feel the Energon flooding over her fuel supply. She closed her optics, clenched her fists and leaned back as power burst into her.

Meanwhile...

 

Soundwave stared out from the bridge of the Nemesis-III. Neither him nor the ship's scanners could pick up anything--no asteroids, no wayward satellites, not even an occasional alien starcraft. There had been nothing since they arrived, and so far there would be nothing. No one ever came through this sector, but there was also no place to hide if they were ever attacked. It was both the best place and the worst place in the galaxy to hide.

He could sense the transmission even before it arrived. There was a scratching sound as a voice tried to make contact. Soundwave adjusted the frequency internally as a vidcom screen popped up on his forearm. All that he could see was a haze of static and a box-like head silhouetted through the interference.

"Speak," Soundwave commanded.

"He did it," the black shape said, their voice scratchy and garbled from light years of scrambling and interference. "Starscream gave them the Energon you sent."

"Excellent," Soundwave said. "Megatron...will be pleased."

"So, how long before the effects wear off?" the silhouette asked.

"Unknown," Soundwave answered. "This is why...Starscream's troops have it. Testing. Soundwave...out."

Soundwave shut the viewscreen and walked towards the back of the ship. If he had a mouth, he would be smiling.

He entered a chamber not too far removed from the bridge, but still secluded from the rest of the ship. He placed a palm on a flat surface next to the door. Dozens of minature panels popped open in his hand and plugged into the microscopic ports on the flat panel. It took only 3 cycles to read.

"Acknowledged," the voice of the Nemesis-III reported. "Designate: Soundwave. Function: Decepticon Communications Expert."

The door slid noislessly upward and disappeared into the roof of the chamber. Soundwave always felt a chill in his circuits as he entered--he usually chalked it up to the core temperature being a few degrees colder than the remainder of the ship. The door shut behind him just as silently as it had opened.

"Soundwave," came a raspy, weary but still sinister voice from within the chamber. Instantly Soundwave hit one knee and lowered his gaze.

There was a sound as a platform lowered, the bottom of it connecting to several ports along the floor. Steam and gases hissed as a tangle of wires, cables, cords and circuitry untangled themselves from the ceiling. All of the pieces went to the center of the platform. From the middle glared two red eyes that shifted their gaze. Two black hands gripped the ends of the throne. Even in this state, Megatron could strike fear into most.

"Report," Megatron ordered, his voice weathered and beaten from the purging process.

"Starscream has done it," Soundwave said, still on one knee. "He has given it to them."

From somewhere within the cables and wires, Megatron smiled. "Excellent," he said. "Soon, we shall see just what that substance is capable of."

"Do you think...he is capable of knowing?" Soundwave asked. "That it is not...Energon?"

Megatron's glare narrowed. "Starscream may be invaluable," he said, "but he is not so smart. If there is a chance that his hopes of conquest would grow better, then he would rather leap on it than consider the consequences. He is not a fool, but he is still far from sane."

"I understand," Sounwave said.

"Good," Megatron replied. "Now go...monitor what will happen. Report back to me on this once you know. I need more time..."

"At once...Megatron," Soundwave said as he bowed his head and turned to go. Once more, the tangle of wires and cables that was Megatron rose back into the ceiling, disappearing from prying optics into a place unknown.