New Toy

When Lightning led the dozen or so remaining Decepticons back to the Moon in a sorry state, they had barely landed when an irritating figure appeared before Lightning and the others.

"Commander, welcome back!"

It was Starscream. He stood there with a delighted expression on his face.

Under the gaze of those crimson electronic eyes, Lightning gave a soft snort. "Are you here to laugh at me, Starscream?"

"Oh, no, no, no!"

Starscream naturally denied it flatly, but the nauseating smile on his face clearly reflected his true thoughts.

"I merely received a warning from the patrols, so I came to confirm with you, Commander—do we still need to send our reinforcements over?"

That question was truly like a knife stabbing into Lightning's body, making his already grim expression turn even uglier.

The grudge between him, Dirge, and Starscream could be traced back to the earliest days of the Decepticon Corps, when they had agreed to resist Megatron's tyranny together.

Later, because of Megatron's political maneuvering, that group of allies, whose relationships had never been particularly solid, became enemies from then on—the kind who would not rest until one side was dead.

So forget verbal attacks; both Starscream and Lightning's group knew perfectly well that, given the chance, none of them would miss an opportunity to stab the others in the back.

With a muffled snort, Lightning impatiently shoved Starscream aside and headed toward the Nemesis.

He had suffered almost no injuries in the previous battle. He had merely expended a little too much energy from his AllSpark.

The mission had failed, after all, and Lightning knew he needed to answer to Megatron.

However, Megatron was in need of people at the moment, and more importantly, they had already uncovered the crucial information concerning the Quintessons. He believed Megatron would