Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

This book is for slightly longer multi part stories and one-shots that are a more equal mix of fluff and angst that don't fit with the other two one-shot collections

Fandoms:
Dandy's World
Undertale (and AUs)
Pressure
FNaF (+ TSBS)
Poppy Playtime
Legend of Zelda (breath of the wild + maybe linked universe)
Cuphead
Batim
Babqftim (Bendy and Boris Quest for the Ink Machine)
Sonic
Transformers
Rainbow Friends
Httyd
Rainworld
Pokémon
Trolls
Welcome Home(maybe, I'm not sure what the current rules look like, so any requests made should mention thoses)
Looney Toons
Miraculous
TMNT
Garten of BanBan
Ninjago
Cookie Run(I'm still early in the game)
(I may add others)

Rules:
Nothing s3xual
No illegal ships (related characters or anything with minors)
(Rules will be updated with time)

Feel free to request stories with tropes like:
Found family
Accidental baby acquisition
Not actually unrequited love
Alternate universes
Etc

Chapter Text

Once upon a time, there was a little toon named Shrimpo.
He lived in the Gardenview Center with all the other toons.
After his creation, his creators sat him down to talk.

………………………………………………………………….

"Listen Shrimpo, you're growing up so quickly," said Arthur, "Getting bigger by the day."

"Although you are doing good, the rules are very clear," Delilah added.

"Now you're older," the two said, "So it's time, to play your part."

"Delilah will teach you to be the bully," Arthur said

"Arthur will make sure you get your own room," Delilah said.

"You'll make us proud, no backing out aloud," they told him.

"It's a big bright beautiful world, with happiness all around, it's peaches and cream, and every dream comes true," Arthur said, and Shrimpo looked starry eyed, "but not for you."

Shrimpo looked confused.

"It's a big, bright, beautiful world, with possibilities everywhere, and just around the bend, there's a friend or two," Delilah said, "But not for you."

"You're a bully Shrimpo, which means that life is harder. People hate the things, they cannot understand," Arthur said.

"Make sure to do what we said," Delilah told him.

………………………………………………………………….

And so, Shrimpo became a bully,
He made the world despise him,
And he despised them,
For many years

………………………………………………………………….

"KEEP YOUR BIG BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL WORLD," Shrimpo yelled, "I HATE YOU ALL, ANYWAY. I GOT ALL I NEED, SO READ THE STINKIN' SIGN!" He pointed at the 'I hate you' sign he had hung.

He stomped around and yelled, "YEAH, YOUR BIG BRIGHY BEAUTIFUL WORLD IS ALL TEDDY BEARS AND UNICORNS! TAKE YOUR FLUFFY FUN, AND SHOVE IT WHERE THE SUN DON'T SHINE!"

Everyone moved out of his way as he stomped through, glaring.

"Don't you ever get tired Shrimpo?" Glisten looked disapprovingly at his younger brother.

"I PREFER A LIFE LIKE THIS," Shrimpo retorts, "IT'S NOT THAT COMPLICATED."

As he stomped off he thought, "Sure I'm fated to be lonely, and I'm destined to be hated. If you read the scripts, they say, that's why I was created."

He shrugged it off, 'But I don't care, cause being liked, is grossly overrated.'

"Really Shrimpo?" Snapped Sprout after Shrimpo insulted his cooking, "Can't you be nice?"

Shrimpo stomped off, huffing, "WHO NEEDS A BIG BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL WORLD? I GOT MY OWN LITTLE PATCH OF THE WORLD."

He slammed the door as he entered his room, "ITS NOT A BIG BRIGHT BEAUTIFUL WORLD, BUT ITS MINE, ALONE, ALL MINE!!!"

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo was a bully, always fighting and arguing. But every once in a while, there was a day, he could sneak off. A day, he didn't have to be a bully.

………………………………………………………………….

He usually headed to some abandoned floors that toons rarely went to and twisted couldn't get to because they were disconnected from most floors.

"UGH, I HATE DUST," Shrimpo growled after sneezing several times. He dug through the boxes, discarding anything uninteresting.

"MORE TAPES?" He groaned. He dug through to see if there was anything interesting. He pocketed several labeled 'Toon Creation', 'Employee Training', and 'Show Production.' He could probably bargain with Dandy for something with these later.

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo shuffled into the elevator. He had gotten assigned to do a run. Boxten, Sprout, Looey, Gigi, Connie, Glisten, and Rodger were also assigned to do the run.

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo banged his head on the machine as he struggled with the valve. He froze when he heard growling. Twisted Pebble was behind him. Shrimpo began running as fast as he could. He could feel Pebble's fangs sink into the tail on the back of his head. He struggled against Twisted Pebble until he heard an air horn. Twisted Pebble released him and began chasing Looey.

Soon after, the panic timer began. Shrimpo struggled to stand and ran towards the elevator. Only, as he approached, again, Twisted Pebble locked onto him. Twisted Pebble got another bite on him before he tumbled into the elevator.

"My, what happened here?" Dandy asked as he popped up.

"Well, looks like we're going back up," mutter Gigi.

"I don't even have enough tapes to heal you. Serious Shrimpo, why did you get near Looey?" Sprout snapped.

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT, LOOEY'S JUST A BAD DISTRACTOR," snapped Shrimpo.

"Shrimpson, you shouldn't say that when you can't do anything," Gigi said.

"Yeah," Commie agreed.

"Seriously little brother," Glisten sighed, "Why must you be like this?"

Shrimpo glared at them all, huffing and standing in the corner.

"Going up," Dandy said.

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo had stomped to his room and locked himself in.

"I HATE IT, I HATE IT. WHY CAN'T I DO WHAT THEY CAN?" Shrimpo muttered. He had turned his anger on his punching bag. Eventually, he flopped onto his bed, grumbling as the lumps dug into his back.

Was there a way he could get what he wanted? Then, it came to him. Dandy knew about the process of toon creation and modification. He could help fix Shrimpo, to make him better, to change his fate.

So, he crept out late in the night. He had packed his bag full of tapes and headed to Dandy's shop.

"Hmm? What do you want Shrimpo?" Dandy looked irritated and Shrimpo could have sworn his eyes seemed red.

"I WANT TO MAKE A DEAL," Shrimpo told him.

"Really? I doubt you have anything I want," Dandy glared. Shrimpo showed him the contents of his bag, causing Dandy to straighten and his eyes to take on a gleam. "I stand corrected. So, what are you after?" 

"I WANT YOU TO FIX ME. MAKE ME BETTER, CHANGE MY FATE OR WHATEVER," Shrimpo explained, "I DON'T WANT THEM TO BE ABLE TO CALL MEMTHE WORST TOON FOR RUNS."

"Very well, come with me," Dandy beckoned him towards the back. Shrimpo looked around at the various pipes, machines, and shelves filled with vials of various liquid. Dandy began gathering materials, turning on machines, and pouring things together.

Shrimpo leaned forward to get a better look, only for Dandy to slap his hand over Shrimpo's eyes. He heard a quieter boom before Dandy removed his hand.

"Here you go," Dandy presented a vial of swirling dark ichor-looking liquid with hints of other colors.

"SO IF I DRINK THIS, I'LL GET STRONGER? BETTER?" Shrimpo questioned.

"Of course, now, I have things to do, so hand over the tapes," Dandy said. Shrimpo tossed him the tapes with a roll of his eyes and stomped out.

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo stared at the vial in his hands. Drinking could change everything, drinking it would change everything. He held in his hands something that could make him respected... and feared. The thought danced through his head. He knew Dandy had modified both himself and Dyle in the past, leading to their changes in appearance.

If he drank it, chances were, everyone would know what had happened. That he had been desperate enough to go to Dandy. He shoved the vial in his pocket. He could wait to drink it.

No, he wasn't nervous, Shrimpo was never nervous.

………………………………………………………………….

Family dinner.

The once a week event where Shrimpo was stuck interacting with his family. Teagan would set up a round table, they would all sit down, and eat. Shrimpo got stuck sitting between his siblings. Rodger and Teagan sat on the other side of the table.

"How was your day, Shrimpo darling?" Teagan asked.

"TERRIBLE," answered Shrimpo. Glisten snorted.

"That's what you always say Shrimpo," Glisten rolled his eyes.

"EVERY DAY IS HORRIBLE," Shrimpo snapped.

"It's not that bad Shrimpo," Toodles protested. Shrimpo huffed a glared. He returned to picking at the food on his plate. Shrimpo liked sweet things, but he had become tired of them after all the years of being stuck eating them.

"Are you alright Shrimpo? I was told a twisted got you," Teagan said, concerned.

"I'M FINE," he said. Eventually, Rodger was discussing recent mysteries with Toodles, while Glisten and Teagan were discussing something about clothes.

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo hated having people talk about his injuries. He thought it was embarrassing, after all, he'd never seen anyone fuss about it unless it had been Toodles, Gourdy, or occasionally Eggson. Two of those were children and the other was elderly.

Shrimpo was tired. He stared at the vial in his hand and made his decision.

Chapter Text

Shrimpo popped the cork off the vial and lifted it to his lips. The taste of the liquid was a nasty mix of sweetness, bitterness, and motor oil. He forced himself to swallow down all of the liquid. Almost immediately, a wave of nausea and tiredness swept through him. He stumbled over and collapsed into bed, the world seemed to spin before blacking out.

………………………………………………………………….

When Shrimpo woke again, he barely managed to stumble to the bathroom before throwing up. He vaguely noted that it seemed he had thrown up ichor. He felt absolutely miserable.

"I... hate you... Dandy," he rasped. A fresh wave of dizziness caused him to clutch his head. He groaned and sunk to the floor. Everything hurt. Glancing at his hand, he noticed that his skin seemed to be cracking and flaking.

"W-what's happening?" He mumbled. He flexed his hand and stared. He got up and stumbled back into his bed. He picked at the flaking shell on his hands.

"Shrimpo! Shrimpo!" Finn was knocking on his door. Finn was one of the few toons he tolerated, but Shrimpo didn't have the patience right now.

"GO AWAY!" He yelled.

"Aw, Shrimpo, we could have a reel-y good time hanging out," Finn said.

"NO! I DON'T WANT TO!" He snapped, heavy irritation in his voice.

"Alright," Finn said, defeated.

Shrimpo buried his head into his pillow. His head was pounding. He clutched his head and sighed. Eventually, he managed to fall asleep.

………………………………………………………………….

Shrimpo snapped awake. His body was no longer sore, in fact, he felt pretty good. Better than he had in a long time. He slipped out of his bed and realized he was... taller. He creeped over to a mirror that Glisten had gifted him years ago.

He looked... different. He had a muzzle that pointed up at the end, his face and stomach was furry, he had a tail-tail, each tail had ten legs on them, he had sharp claws, his eyes gleamed in red, and his body was covered in ichor stain, especially his mouth.

He reached out to rest a hand on the mirror. He also realized he had antennae and something like whiskers. He shuddered when he touched one, the whole sensation was overwhelming. He immediately released the antenna. He looked almost like his twisted.

"What in the world?" He said, or rather, tried to say. It came out garbled and hard to understand. He froze. Why couldn't he talk.

"What? What is going on?" His voice stayed garbled and unrecognizable, "Why is this happening?" His voice rose as he began panicking. Shrimpo isn't supposed to panic, danced in the back of his mind but it was drowned out by everything else he was feeling.

"Shrimpo?" The concerned voice of Toodles struck him like a bullet. The door jiggled and he heard the key be inserted into the lock. He had forgotten he'd given her a key.

"Stay out!" He tried to yell, but it sounded horrific.

"Shr-Shrimpo?" Toodles's eyes widened and she stumbled back. He stepped forward and reached towards her. She screamed and Shrimpo froze.

"Dad! Dad!" Toodles yelled as she ran.

………………………………………………………………….

"Toodles? What happened? Rodger asked as he took in her state.

"Shrimpo- monster- Shrimpo's rooms- monster- help!" Toodles gasped. Rodger tensed before running towards Shrimpo's room. Goob, Scraps, Sprout, Tisha, Shelly, Yatta, and Blot followed behind.

Shrimpo was still frozen, staring at where Toodles had been. Her words seemed to echo. Why was he so affected? Before he wouldn't have cared. It felt like one haze had been lifted from his mind only to be replaced with another. He was so confused. Where was the burning anger he was so familiar with? It had always been there, burning beneath his skin. Now that burning was gone, replaced with a faint tingling sensation. He reached up a hand to try and wipe away the ichor around his mouth as he stood dumbfounded.

Then, he heard the pounding of feet. He crept from his room and he saw them. His father was in front, following behind were several other familiar faces. They froze when they saw him.

Then, he heard his father's words, "Shrimpo, where's Shrimpo?"

"It's me," he attempted to explain, only to get gargled growls. His speech was even worse than before.

"Someone sound an alarm! Twisted on the floor!" Sprout yelled.

Shrimpo wasn't sure what to do, they thought he was a twisted.

"What did you do to him?" Rodger's desperate cry was what snapped him to action. His flight or fight response triggered. Normally, he would have fought, but faced with this, he fled. His claws scrapped the ground as he tore across the floor as fast as he could.

'Elevator!' He thought, as he made a break for it. An unfortunate Finn was standing in front of the elevator.

"Sh-Shrimpo?" Finn's eyes widened. Shrimpo didn't stop. He leapt over the other toon. He crashed into the elevator and slammed his hand onto the button to send himself down.

He finally collapsed onto the ground after the door closed. The shop popped up and he turned, hoping to see Dandy, only to see a radio.

"Hello, I'm not here right now. The shop has ran out of supplies and I need to get more. If you're on a run and need help, press the first button, if you're attempting to contact me about anything related to the incident, Rodger, press the second button, and if you're Shrimpo, press the third button."

Shrimpo immediately clicked the third button.

"Hey, Shrimpo. I just realized I never told you this. That little blend I gave you, yeah it is known to have some side effects. Hopefully you won't experience any, after all I think I fixed it. But I'm not Delilah so, I'm sure there will be something. Anyway, you should be able to accumulate strength in response to stressful situations as well as get an instant boost. It'll probably cause some changes to your physical appearance, but don't worry."

Shrimpo growled at the blatant lack of concern in Dandy's voice.

"Anyway, I also threw in a little something extra. Turns out, you had a modification on you as a kid that basically increased the toon equivalent of whatever hormone makes you angry, so the stuff I gave you should change it back to closer to regular levels. Hey, maybe that'll make you stop hating everyone."

"You changed what? I hate what?" He tried to shout.

"Welp, good luck. Hope you enjoy your new strength."

"You stupid flower! Ugly weed, how do I fix this?" He roared as he began spamming buttons. Soon, the machine was only a smoking hunk of garbage. Shrimpo snarled. He needed to find some way to fix this and until then stay away from everyone. He selected the button to go to one of the lower floors.

………………………………………………………………….

Finally, the doors opened, and he stepped out. He slowly walked away from the elevator. He could hear it close behind him as he set out. There were other ways to move between floors, but they usually had at least one twisted around.

Shrimpo buried his face in his hands. Of course he would be stuck like this. Then, he noticed something weird. His face was... soft.

'Ugh, great, now I'm fuzzy,' he thought. A quick check revealed that the undersides of his tails, his stomach, and face were all covered in a weird fuzz.

He could hear the sound of twisted shuffling around as he moved across the floor.  It appeared to be twisted Tisha, twisted Scraps, twisted Brusha and Twisted Flutter. He just realized that being in the lower floors meant more twisteds and more dangers.

He sighed. It would be hard not to be seen. Before, Shrimpo was around 3'2, while now he was at least 5'10. The tallest toon was only 4'6. This was going to be problematic.

Chapter Text

Starscream had left. It didn't take much intelligence to figure out everything was, as he knew humans put it, going to heck. Based on previous experience, he knew being a neutral was likely a death sentence, but the way things were going, he had even lower chances of survival if he stayed with the decepticons or even somehow joined the autobots. Despite what some cybertronians thought of his intelligence, he had been a scientist and knew something about odds.

He couldn't get far, but if he could gather enough resources, he could reach this planet's moon. Based on his calculations, there should be caves on the moon he could use to avoid detection. He'd need energon, energon converters, and materials to set up a basic base. His first stop was to dig through the harbinger's wreckage and take anything that had been left after both Autobots and decepticons had rediscovered and scavenged it.

"Now, where can I get energon?" He muttered. He had taken a few cubes from the Nemesis, but that wouldn't last long. Unfortunately, the only place he could think of that would have energon and not end with him dealing with Decepticons or Autobots was MECH. He would have to be careful, but he could hope they had some energon and resources.

'Human technology is so primitive,' Starscream thought as he hacked into the servers. It seemed MECH had disbanded, but from the remnants, a new organization, called the transformation into cybernetic life project, or TICL project, pronounced Tickle, had been created. He identified a lab nearby and began planning how to break in.

(Two days later)

Starscream had created a diversion to draw out most of the humans. He crouched through the surprisingly large halls to try and reach the main lab. Rifling through their supplies and gathered up what he could into a bag. Then, he heard the noises.

Creeping through the lab he peered into what looked like a containment cell and his eyes widened. The cells were filled with young cybertronians, ranging from young sparklings to young teenagers.

He quickly began weighing his options. He couldn't hurt them, after all, there hadn't been young cybertronians in thousands of years. He couldn't leave them, there was no telling what TICL would do, especially considering they had been MECH. If he took them with him, he would have to provide energon and shelter for all of them. If he took them to the decepticons or autobots, they would get dragged into the war or whatever was happening now.

He sighed and quickly crept forward. All the sparklings looked over at him with a mix of caution and curiosity. A young flier with oddly shaped legs that resembled an earth deer bounded up to the glass to look at him. He quickly began prying open the doors.

"Alright, you are all coming with me, make this easy and follow me and grab anything that looks useful, we are getting out of here," Starscream announced. Several looked nervous, but they all followed along with his orders.

"What about this? They used it to make a-a portal thing," a young grounder pointed to a rudimentary portal.

"That's very useful, good job," he told them. He began dismantling it and taking it all. "Now, all of you follow me."

They all shuffled back through the halls towards the exit. Starscream saw several humans charging forward, but a well placed missile delayed them.

"Alright, all of you transform, we need to leave," Starscream ordered. Several did transform but others just gave him confused looks. He sighed and grabbed some of the untransformed sparklings.

"Grab those who can't transform and move out," he ordered. It was a clumsy escape with them taking what they could and escaping.

Finally, they stopped when they reached Starscream's camp. There were a total of 11 sparklings he could see. Two normal aerials, a shuttle, a helicopter, three grounders, three young Predacons, and an insecticon. The predacons looked youngest, if he had to guess, at least two of them were taken from the wreckage of one of Shockwave's labs.

"So, can I ask where the humans got all of you?" Starscream questioned with a raised brow.

"We... were humans?" the shuttle answered hesitantly.

"Not all of us, Kelp and Sharpshot were never human," the insecticon motioned towards two of the predacons.

'Of course they couldn't find actual sparklings, those are all gone. But whatever they did with them is far more convincing than Silas,' he thought before speaking, "Well, I suppose I should explain because I doubt they did. I am a Cybertronian, a seeker to be exact. Cybertronians are from the planet Cybertron. Currently, there is an ongoing civil war, which I will wait to explain in more details, and Cybertron has died. Whatever those humans did have converted you into what appears to be cybertronians."

An aerial bot raised their hand. "Yes?" Asked Starscream.

"What's your name?" They asked.

"I am Starscream," he held back from listing titles. After all, the sparklings wouldn't understand them and they really weren't worth anything anymore, he thought bitterly.

"Where are we going? Can't they just find us again?" One grounder asked.

"We are going to this planet's moon. The war is on this planet anyway, so even without the risk of the TICL group, we would need to leave anyway," Starscream said.

"How?" Another grounder said doubtfully.

"Just sit and soon I will rig up a groundbridge and we will leave," Starscream said.

It took several hours, but thanks to the rudimentary groundbridge the humans had created, he managed to upgrade it to be stable enough for the trip to the moon.

"All of you, gather what you can, it's time to go," Starscream ordered. All the sparklings scrambled to grab what they could and lined up. Starscream finally opened up the portal and he strode through first. He watched as all eleven sparklings shuffled through.

"Wait, how can we breathe?" One of the grounder sparklings shouted.

"You won't need to breathe like you did before," snapped Starscream, shutting that thought down before the panic spread. He led them to a cave and everyone shuffled inside.

"Should we do introductions?" The question came from one of the young aerials after they established a camp in a huge cave.

"Hmm, well, that would be useful. As I told you, I am Starscream," he said.

"I'm Liliana," the aerial who had suggested introductions said. She was the one with deer like legs, odd whisker and ear like structures, and green coloring with pink accents.

"Violet," the other aerial said. She was built more like a typical seeker and was mostly purple with red patterns.

"I'm Dave," a grounder with a sports car alt mode introduced himself. He was a bright blue with dark purple accents.

"My name's Ben," the shuttle introduced himself. He interestingly had golden colored paint with silver accents.

"I'm Austin!" A young grounder with a four wheeler alt mode. He was yellow with green stripes.

"I'm Bella," the teal and orange helicopter said.

"Umm, Millie," the young grounder mumbled. She had a white and pale blue van as an alt mode.

"I'm Ember, that's Sharpshot, and this is Kelp," the oldest Predacon introduced herself and the two younger. Ember had a bird looking alt mode with fiery colors, Kelp had an odd long necked aquatic creature with dark green and blue coloring, and Sharpshot had a spiked two winged and two legged dragon with silver and black coloring.

"And I'm Ivy," the insecticon introduced herself. She appeared to be a praying mantis and was a lime coloring with bluish and pink accents.

Starscream noted the variety across all the sparklings. He was surprised they hadn't just all ended up the same frame.

(Five days later)

Starscream had set up a fully fledged groundbridge that could teleport from the moon to the earth. He also began working on laying out an actual base for himself and the sparklings. He had also begun working on teaching them about Cybertron.

"Alright, what do you all want to learn?" Starscream asked as he stood in front of the gathered sparklings.

"Can we go over some of the languages please?" Bella asked.

"Oh, more about the war!" Ben asked.

"Alright, alright," Starscream rolled his optics at Ben's enthusiasm, "The Decepticons and Autobots both developed their own codes and languages over the war to help keep messages private. Both are based on neocybex, the standard language with influences from different dialects. Decepticon drew mostly on kaonian, while Autobot was based on iaconian. Then, each mixed in various new codes."

They sat listening as Starscream explained and taught them various Cybertronian languages, including Autobot, Decepticon, neocybex, Vosian, iaconian, kaonian, wing speak, velocitron, and old Cybertronian. He also reviewed the war and Cybertronian history, along with science and things like basic matinence.

After finishing the lesson, he headed back over to his console. He had tried to see if he could get a read on what was going on down on earth. Unfortunately, he couldn't do much without risking getting found. He also scanned to find any hint of energon that was untapped. He had found some stashes on the moon, but he couldn't be sure how long that would last.

Chapter Text

It happened suddenly. A battle, a punishment, a fall. Starscream had been exposed to the synthetic energon attempt, the red energon they had found, and Megatron's dark energon. Unfortunately, it hadn't seemed to achieve Megatron's goal of creating a perfect solider he could control. In a battle soon after, he fell. He had been feeling ill and weak. Then in the air, his wings seemed to loosen before a shot to them tore his wings clean off.

He felt cold. Water rushed over his frame as he sank, deeper, and deeper. Pain was the only thing filling his processor. Finally, he knew nothing more.

"Where is my pathetic second in command? Normally he would have crawled back by now," Megatron huffed.

-signal not detected- flashed across Soundwave's screen -Starscream: offline-

"Hmmm, I wouldn't be so sure. Starscream has appeared after pulling such stunts before," Megatron sighed.

Knockout was growing nervous. Starscream had been missing for an earth week and Megatron no longer had a single mech to focus his anger on. He hadn't realized how much attention Starscream drew off him and the rest of the troops. Not only that, but the dark energon was shortening Megatron's already short patience.

"Still no sign of Starscream, I take it?" Knockout casually said.

-Starscream: not detected- flashed across Soundwave's screen.

"Well, I'll get out of your hair as the humans say," Knockout said, walking back to the medbay. Hopefully if he stayed there, he wouldn't have to deal with Megatron.

Starscream woke up. That wasn't something he was expecting. A quick glance of his frame caused him to jerk in shock. Where his legs should have been was a long tail that looked to be an odd mix of organic and Cybertronian. Then another thought came to him.

'My wings,' horror washed over him as he reached for his back and flinched. 'No, no, no,' pain shot through him as he brushed the stumps where his wings would be. Now that he was consciously thinking of it, he realized there was a dull ache across his whole frame mixed with several sharp pains, especially along his back.

His whole body was a dull grey, similar to how it was but it was faded, disturbingly similar to the gray of a deactivated frame. He could feel a fin between where his wings should've been. A long tail ending with a fin and containing smaller pectoral fins.

"S-Soundwave! Knockout! Open a groundbridge!" Starscream attempted to use his comms only to get static. He nervously looked around. He tried to calm down and focus on looking for somewhere to hole up until he figured everything out.

It had been a week. Hunger clouded Starscream's mind. He hadn't found any energon and had no way to contact anyone. He had at least figured out how to swim better. He moved through the water, desperately searching for anything useful, like discarded technology or sunken ships.

Out of the corner of his vision, he noticed several shiny fish. He locked onto the fish, following their movements. He licked his lips as he watched and his muscles tensed. He was hit by an overwhelming hunger as he watched the fish and his thoughts only focused on the fish, everything else was drowned out. Then, he lunged.

Starscream found himself becoming aware of the bloodied fish in his grasp, a strange taste and substance filling his mouth. Looking down, he saw several bites missing out of the fish. He let go of it disgusted.

'Why did I do that?' He thought as he watched the fish corpse drift downward. Then, he was hit by another hunger pain. He looked at the sinking fish again before deciding to give in to his hunger. He snatched the fish back before taking a tentative bite. The taste was strange, but not necessarily unpleasant. He figured it was better than starving and finished off the fish.

The hunger that had been clouding his mind finally cleared, allowing him to return to his task. His attention was drawn by a disturbance in the water. A ship was cutting through the water. Starscream began to follow, hoping he could steal the radio.

He waited for them to slow before lunging towards the boat. Then, he recoiled. He cursed internally, not having taken a minute to assess the situation and realize there was a large net. He thrashed, attempting to escape, but only getting more tangled. Pushing back panic, he used his claws to cut some of the ropes, but found the process was slow going.

He had almost managed to cut enough rope to escape when the net began to be raised. He frantically sped up his cutting. He hissed as he accidentally cut through the organic like flesh of his tail with his claws. Finally, just before he breached the surface, he slipped loose. Quickly, he darted away so as to not be caught again.

‘For such weak organics, their nets are surprisingly effective,’ Starscream thought as he examined himself. There was a few small cuts on the… fleshier parts of him from when he had been careless and some friction burns from his struggles. The non armored parts of his frame were far more fragile than before.

Nothing was working. Starscream couldn’t find any viable way to contact the Nemesis. He couldn’t find many proper materials in the ocean, mostly just a load of worthless scrap. He may have snagged a few of the shinier pieces of said scrap. He was also forced to hunt for food and try and avoid humans. The few encounters he had with them in the month since his change was more than enough to make him do whatever he could to avoid them.

‘I’m going to actually kill Megatron next time I see him,’ Starscream thought darkly as he darted behind a rock outcropping to avoid a boat. The stumps of his wings still ached and he doubted he would ever fly again. He was shocked he didn’t get sky sickness, but figured it was because whatever the change to his frame was caused him to be immune. After the ship passed, he kept moving. He had learned quickly he was far from the only dangerous thing in the ocean. He was one of the larger creatures, but there were larger creatures than him.

Chapter Text

It had been a grand total of six earth months. Starscream slunk through the rocky outcroppings and kept his eye out for anything interesting. He had decided early on to avoid staying in one place, after all, his days as an explorer taught him that one new creature could upset an ecosystem.

Like many seekers, he had superior mapping software compared to other cybertronians, and he had some of the best of all seekers, having gotten it upgraded for his exploration expeditions and to try and understand Skywarp’s warping. He had begun planning some of the routes he would likely use. He continued forward, searching for a good area to actually justify returning to this area in the future.

As Starscream continued his exploration and living beneath the wave, he noticed something. His frame was brighter. His dull grey coloring had changed to be a more whitish grey, and his fins and markings were blue and red. It resembled his old frame to his surprise.

Starscream thrashed. He was again stuck in a net, this time one not even connected to a boat. He had been close to the shore already but as tides receded, he was now beached and tangled in the net.

Then he heard it, “Mom! Mom! Come here!” Turning, he saw a small human child.

“Russell, don’t run off,” a woman ran over, and froze at the sight of Starscream. He bared his teeth and hissed at the humans.

“What is it mom?” The child asked.

Starscream attempted to yell, “Leave me alone!” Only, the sound game out as a garbled, aggressive sound.

“I don’t know Russell,” she said, pulling him back.

“I think he’s hurt,” the child said, staring at Starscream as he growled and hissed at the pair, having realized he couldn’t actually communicate.

The woman hesitated a moment before saying, “Stay here.” She began carefully creeping closer.

“I’m not gonna hurt you, I just want to help,” she said soothingly as she approached. Starscream glared, watching her carefully, but didn’t try and attack. She carefully began tugging on the ropes, making him tense and snarl.

Mary carefully attempted to untangle the large creature. She had never seen anything like this. It was somewhat mechanical looking, but also had flesh and a humanoid top half. She could make out various scars across the creatures body, even having dents, scratches, and chips on the metal parts of its body.

Finally, she removed enough rope and the creature escaped the last of the net. Mary stumbled back as the creature reared up. It stared her down, and she was frozen. Finally, it patted her on the head with a single claw before turning and slipping back into the sea.

Starscream had been shocked the human had helped him. He stared down at her, considering what to do. Finally, mimicking what he thought he had seen an autobot do with a human, carefully patted her head with a claw. Then, he used his arms to pull himself back into the ocean.

The next day, Starscream returned to the secluded beach where he had beached the previous day. His gaze swept over the beach, curious to see if the helpful human and her child had returned. Sure enough, they had.

“Look!” The kid tugged on his mother’s arm, pointing out the creature watching them. Starscream watched for a minute as the woman cautiously kept an eye on him while the child waved. Finally, he sank back beneath the waves.

Mary hadn’t seen the creature in a few weeks now. It had popped up for several weeks after she freed it, just watching them from a distance when they visited the beach. She had just been walking down to the beach with Russell when she got a call. She sighed, seeing it was her work and picking up.

Russell wandered down to the water while his mother talked. He waded in and splashed around, searching for shells. Then, he noticed a faint shine in the distance. He immediately recognized the silvery white and red as the creature that had been in the net. Glancing back at his mother, he saw she was still talking. Turning back, he waded further into the water.

Starscream had decided to return to the beach after his exploring hit a dead end. Peering out, he saw the small human going deeper in the water to his surprise. He hadn’t even been sure the small thing could swim. He moved closer so he could keep an eye on him.

As the small child approached, finally getting close, he saw how the struggled against the current. Not wanting the human who was the sparkling of the helpful human to drown, he dove beneath the child and then scooped them up as he returned to the surface. Flipping onto his back as he floated, he stared at the small human lying on his torso.

Part of him wondered why he had bothered. Before, he wouldn’t have cared if the child drowned because it carelessly strayed from shore, but now here he was actively preventing that and allowing the kid to touch him.

“This is so cool!” The kid squeaked as he stared in shock at Starscream. Starscream snorted and gently patted the child’s helm with a single claw. Flicking his tail, he began to slowly float back towards the shore where the child’s carrier was.

The phone finally hung up and Mary sighed, pinching her nose. Looking over the beach, she froze before starting to panic when she didn’t immediately see Russell.

“Mom! Mom look!” Turning towards the ocean in panic, she saw her child happily waving from where he was perched on the belly of the sea creature.

“Russell! Get over here!” She yelled, panic in her voice. He pouted put the creature gently nudged him as it swam towards the shore. He sighed, but slipped off and swam back to shore.

“Russell! Are you okay?” She questioned as she frantically looked him over.

“I’m fine mom,” he huffed before turning back, “Bye!” He waved at the retreating see creature which warbled and waved back.

“Russell, you can’t just play with sea monsters!” She scolded.

“But he’s nice,” Russell protested, “Besides, he even helped when the current was strong.”

“We can talk about this once we get home,” she said. She grabbed his hand and the two began heading home.

Chapter Text

Jack groaned as he woke up. He couldn't recall what had happened as he glanced around the area. Then, he saw it. A dragon, an actual scaly dragon. Far smaller than the Predacon, a whitish grey with faded speckles of grey and red. It was definitely still alive as even from as far away as he was, he could see the chest rise and fall with each breath.

'What am I doing?' He thought, as he found himself compelled to approach against his better judgement. Crouching, he sucked in a breath as he stared at the dragon. Now that he was closer, he could make out the jagged, painful looking scars that cut across its body, some old, some fresh. His hand hovered just above the dragon's scales.

Then, its eye snapped open, a fiery red with a slitted pupil. He stumbled back as it stood teeth bared. Jack ran, as fast as he could. He could hear the thuds of feet as it gave chase.

"No, no, no, this can't be happening," he gasped as he ran. He suddenly fell forward, his foot catching for a moment, and the dragon pouncing on top of him.

"What did you do human?!" The roar was loud and screechy. Jack stared at the dragon, his brain stalling as he recognized the voice.

"St-Starscream?" He stared wide eyed.

"Of course human, who else would it be?" He scoffed, staring disdainfully at Jack.

"What happened? Why are you... like this?" Jack asked.

"I don't know! You tell me what the autobots did to me," Starscream snapped, his lips peeled back in a snarl.

"The autobots didn't do this!" Jack protested, gasping for air as Starscream momentarily shifted his weight, putting more weight on Jack's chest.

"Hmm, fine. I suppose this isn't the Autobots style anyway," Starscream muttered, "You'll stay with me human, that way I can at least make the autobots help change me back." He released Jack, but kept a careful eye on him.

"No way, they'll never help you," Jack hissed.

"Oh? Do you think you can find the autobots without my help? This doesn't appear to be an area either of us are familiar with," huffed Starscream, "I'll make you a deal human, I help you, and you help me."

Jack hesitated, was he really doing this? Unfortunately, Starscream was right about him having no idea where they were and him having no idea how to contact anyone as he was decently sure he didn't have his phone. Sighing, he conceded, "Fine, it's a deal."

"I knew you'd make the right choice human," Starscream gave a sharp toothed grin.

The pair began to wander through the woods, looking for any sign of civilization. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any roads, or really anything besides forests and some beaches.

"Can't you fly?" Jack asked. Starscream huffed.

"Do you see any thrusters?" Starscream asked.

"You have wings, I don't think dragons need thrusters," Jack responded, tired and starting to get hungry.

"Fine," Starscream growled. Tensing, he adjusted his wings before leaping up. He could immediately recognize several differences, his body felt both lighter and heavier, the tail provided an odd counter balance, and his wings were what was launching him in the air, not thrusters. He was barely off the ground a minute before he crashed down. Standing, he shook himself.

“You really can’t fly?” Jack groaned.

“Hmph, I told you, flying as this is far different than flying as a jet,” growled Starscream, “But if we don’t find anything, then, maybe I can figure this out.”

The pair continued for several hours until the sun finally began to set. Jack stopped and began gathering up some wood.

“What are you doing human?” Starscream glared.

“It’s getting dark and cold. Humans don’t do great if it gets too cold,” Jack told him.

Starscream huffed, “Fine, I suppose I do need you to be in optimal conditions to bargain with the autobots.” Starscream flopped onto the ground nearby, irritatedly shaking his paws and tail to get off the dirt. Jack meanwhile began to set up the fire. After the fire was set up the pair sat in awkward silence for several minutes.

“So… how’d you get those scars?” Jack asked cautiously, the fact it was Starscream he was with was sinking in after the hours of quiet walking.

“What?” Starscream said before glancing at himself, a realization flickering in his eyes, “Ah, these. I had them before, you merely couldn’t see before because Knockout excels in cosmetic repairs.” Starscream found himself inclined to speak with the human due to boredom and the fact he may be stuck with it for an extended period of time.

“Okay… but how did you get them?” Jack asked, not wanting to have to continually sit in silence. He also thought maybe he could find some interesting information for the autobots.

“We are at war human, everyone has been hurt bad at some point. Several of the wounds you see are from your precious autobots,” Starscream glared, “Others are from Megatron, and a few I believe are from before the war.” He spat the name with venom. His tail flicking irritably.

“Uh, I guess that makes sense,” Jack awkwardly said. The pair resumed an awkward silence for several minutes.

“Well human, I am going to recharge. You should as well,” Starscream sniffed, curling up.

“Organics sleep, we don’t recharge,” corrected Jack. He was reasonably sure Starscream wouldn’t hurt him, as he had mentioned bargaining with the autobots. Starscream glared at him a minute before closing his eyes. Jack sighed and lay on the ground closing his eyes.

‘Hopefully I’ll be home soon,’ Jack thought as he finally drifted off to sleep.

Jack woke up to his stomach rumbling.

“Stop that noise human,” Starscream glared from where he lay.

“I can’t help it, I’m hungry. We need to find food.” Jack sighed.

“Hmm, I suppose I need fuel as well, where we could find human food and energon though…” Starscream hummed.

“I don’t think we need to worry about energon with all… this,” Jack motioned to Starscream’s whole Draconic body.

Starscream froze before huffing, “I suppose you are correct. What do humans and… dragons eat?”

“Uh, fish? Meat? Some plants?” Jack shrugged, “If I had to guess, fish is our best bet with the beach and lake we found.”

“Okay human, show me how to get this ‘fish,’” ordered Starscream. Jack rolled his eyes but stood. The pair began to make their way towards the lake they found.

“Now what human?” Starscream asked from where he had perched on a rock.

“Well, um, I think people use fishing rods and nets?” Jack shrugged.

“You think?” Starscream asked.

“I’ve never actually been fishing, I live in a desert!” Jack protested. Eventually he found himself trying to stab any fish he saw with a sharp stick. Starscream gave an amused snort as he only succeeded in getting himself soaked.

“Why don’t you practice flying?” Jack snapped, “Make yourself useful.” Starscream glared and growled, causing Jack to tense, but after a minute stopped.

“Fine, I’ll do something productive,” he hissed.

It quickly became apparent neither had great luck, and once it seemed to be somewhat past noon, they resumed wandering. Unfortunately, they found on,y more forest and beeches. Finally, they returned to the lakeside to camp.

“I think we’re on an island,” Starscream grumbled. Jack just sighed, lying down near the fire he had set up.

The next day, Jack resumed attempting to fish and Starscream trying to fly.

“Hey, you think you can try to fish?” Jack asked.

“I am trying to fly and get us off this island,” Starscream glared.

“But if we starve, that’s kind of useless,” Jack protested. Starscream huffed and wandered over to the lakeshore. He crouched down, watching for any sign of fish. Then, attempted to grab one with his claws, only to splash himself. Jack snorted at the sight.

“Hush human, I got closer than you,” Starscream snapped.

“I don’t think your claws are going to catch anything. Maybe try using your teeth,” Jack suggested. Starscream resumed his crouch, watching the water intently. Then, he lunged, snapping his jaws. He very nearly got one, but recoiled at the taste.

“Hey, that almost worked,” Jack said.

“Ugh, this tastes so wrong,” Starscream’s snout wrinkled.

“How do you do that?” Jack asked, ignoring Starscream’s comment.

“Hmm, I stay still, and I try and aim where I think they’re going, not where they are,” Starscream explained after a moment.

It still took another hour, but the pair finally got the hand of catching fish. Leading to them sitting by the fire as Jack cooked the fish.

“Why do you cook your food but not mine?” Starscream complained.

“Because raw food can make humans sick and you’re a dragon, so you’re fine,” Jack said. Starscream glared, but didn’t try and attack him. Then, they heard the squawks. Four little dragons of varying colors flew down, sniffing curiously.

“No, this is mine,” Starscream growled at the small dragons, leaning protectively over his fish.

“Wait, can you understand them?” Jack asked.

“You can’t?” Starscream peered at him in surprise.

“No,” Jack answered. He carefully kept the fish away from the small dragons.

One snatched a fish from Starscream, leading to him attempting to claw it and them all escaping as Starscream tried to attack.

For the next four days, the pair had a routine. Wake up, fish for breakfast, Starscream practice flying, Jack making a temporary shelter, getting dinner, and sleeping. Finally, Starscream was decently competent flying in his new body.

“Human, we’re leaving today,” declared Starscream.

“Finally! Any reason you finally want to leave today?” Jack asked.

“I can finally fly well enough to get off this island and I can sense a storm coming in the next couple of days,” Starscream huffed.

“I’m not dangling from your claws the whole time,” Jack immediately said.

“How else are you planning to fly?” Starscream snapped.

“Let me sit on your back?” Jack responded. The pair quickly began arguing. Jack convinced Starscream by saying he was less like to fall and it would help convince the autobots to help. Starscream relented and allowed Jack to climb on. He winced slightly at the spines digging in as he sat. Finally, Starscream leapt into the air. Jack held on with a scream as Starscream flew.

“Shut up!” Starscream yelled. Finally, they reached a soaring height and Jack was able to sit up. He sucked in a breath as he gazed around.

“This is… amazing,” he said.

“Of course,” said Starscream smugly, before in a more genuine tone saying, “It’s the best thing in the world.” The pair continued on searching for anything.