* * *
No one was exactly sure how it happened, though the Constructicons blamed it on poorly-designed safety interlocks in the transwarp flux capacitor, and Shockwave blamed it on shoddily-constructed safety interlocks in the transwarp flux capacitor. Then they'd get to shouting at each other, and eventually Soundwave would just kill the connection and go sulk in his quarters.
Almost despite themselves, headway was being made on fixing the problem of all three major members of the Earth-Decepticon command structure suddenly having the minds and bodies of teenage versions of themselves. No one had ventured any theories as to how that actually worked, as the physical stages of pubescent developement had no bearing on the way Transformers built shells.
But they still had short and scrawny versions of Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave wandering around. Starscream was the best of the lot, in Blitzwing's opinion, because the jet didn't seem to have changed much. He just hung out with the other jets until they called him a windling one too many times, he pitched a temper fit, and then he crawled into Blitzwing or Astrotrain's berth for cuddling.
Soundwave seemed to feel that blasting angsty metal music at odd hours of a shift was amusing. Or that sneaking up on whomever was standing watch and the mimicking voices and conversations to mess with his head was amusing. Soundwave was a little bastard, really. By the third day of having him around like this, everyone in the crew had unanimously told Scrapper to stop farking around with energy raids and fix the Big Three.
Megatron tended to get the most bogglement, though. As soon as Scrapper had figured out what was going on, he'd shoved a pair of needles and a ball of wire into the miniature warlord's hands and told him to sit quietly in Medical.
And Megatron had done so, seemingly quite content to knit until something more interesting happened. He went through wire like an evil knitting machine straight from the Inferno, and what he knitted varied from interesting to but-why. Though, he had a nice optic for making cloaks - Astrotrain growled whenever anyone got within three feet of his beautifully cabled chainmail one. Skywarp seemed to have made a nest out of his, Thundercracker's, and Reflector's.
After a week of Megatron knitting, though, bogglement faded. Him sitting in the corner of Medical with Scavenger running around to keep him supplied with wire and specialty tools was much less worrying than where Soundwave had gotten to. Or that Starscream kept hanging around with Soundwave. Those two gave each other ideas, as poor Dirge had found out.
Now, finding Megatron sitting in your quarters after you've just been shot almost to the Hall of Heroes and back, that was worrying.
"What're you doing here?" Blitzwing growled.
The smaller mechanism leaned back on the stool, balancing it on two legs. "I thought you'd be able to answer my question, Blitzwing. Well, at least marginally better than the Constructicons could."
"Hnh." Blitzwing stuffed a bit of wiring back into one wing.
"Why does Prime trash-talk whenever he faces me?"
Megatron's sharp face betrayed only disinterested curiosity, but Blitzwing wasn't quite fool enough to think that was all he felt. The triple-changer picked his words carefully. "It's very... personal between you two. As long as you both live, the War will never end."
"Hm." Megatron leaned forward abrubtly, almost overbalancing the stool. "Why doesn't he just kill me then? He's had opportunities."
"Don't know."
Megatron nodded and slid off the stool. He barely came up to Scapper's chin, and only came to mid-chest on the triple-changer. It made Blitzwing's relays twitch to see their leader so small and scrawny-looking. It would be so easy to snap his neck...
Except it really wouldn't be. Onslaught had abducted Megatron for a sparring session briefly on the second day, and the little tyrant had owned all five of the Combaticons. No one had entertained any thoughts of... unpleasantness after that.
The little warlord stalked out of his room, pausing only briefly next to Blitzwing. The triple-changer yelped when he felt the small hand curl around his main gun and pump it briefly, and Megatron laughed before he took off back for Medical.
End