Chapter Text
Muffled rave music throbbed against the planet surface of the Decepticon base as Astrotrain landed on the long runway perpendicular to the club. He inelegantly transformed, causing his passengers to all fall out of him with an indignant cry.
Unaware of her new arrivals who had just landed outside, Thunderblast was having the time of her life as she danced along the catwalk which cut through the illuminated dance floor strobing her Decepticon colours of gold and purple. She giggled as mechs and femmes alike doused themselves in her charismatic presence, cheering and whooping as they acknowledged their new Queen.
She was joined on the stage by Slipstream and Blackarachnia who sassed around her, gyrating in time with the music. She giggled as she swept herself around the pole at the end of the stage, enjoying the complimentative calls and lustful comments being hurled her way.
“Thunderblast, Shockwave has returned.”
Opening her eyes in surprise at the rough sound of her second in her audio receptor, Thunderblast span all away around the pole then strutted back down the stage to leave the other femmes in control whilst she dealt with her minions. She left the stage and walked over to Strika who was standing with her arms folded as she stood to attention against the wall like a bouncer.
“He’s back is he?” she chimed, seeing the purple Decepticon and his scout group re-enter the facility. “Hiya guys! How did it go?”
“Piece of cake.”
“Went well, boss!”
“Earth is still lame.”
“Did someone say we have cake?” Thundercracker looked around hopefully. Skywarp smacked the back of his head.
Thunderblast approached Shockwave, arms wide. “Hey there big boy! Did you get what you needed?”
In four large strides, Shockwave had reached the smaller femme. He shifted the cage in his hand and pulled it up in front of her, revealing his captive Mini-Cons.
“Oooh, you’ve brought me a present! Shockwave, you shouldn’t have!” she giggled, poking her finger through the cage to terrorize the three minibots. “Oh, I remember these little guys. Mini-Cons, huh?”
“One is essential for my work.” Shockwave enlightened her, making for the middle of the club. “But he is not needed yet, so I will leave them here to have some… fun… in the meanwhile.”
“Sounds good to me! Stash them over there, give them a nice view of my paradise!” Thunderblast grinned, pointing to the prime spot in question.
The large mech placed the cage on a protruding hook next to the dance floor, leaving the Mini-Cons exposed to the Decepticons in the central hub. “They can be played with, but not to be offlined. Do you understand me?”
“Yes boss!” Ransack, Thundercracker and Crumplezone saluted, the only ones remaining as Astrotrain, Blitzwing and Skywarp had already sloped off to join the party again.
Shockwave nodded in acknowledgment as he went to his lab.
~~~~~
Jolt was terrified.
For one thing he’d thought the Decepticons had disbanded after the death of Galvatron and disappearance of Starscream, but apparently in the Autobots’ absence they’d been reformed by the sultry Thunderblast of all people, and apparently their new base was akin to that of an Earth… nightclub?
The cage shifted violently and the Mini-Cons wailed and came crashing to the cage floor. A few Decepticons had come over to investigate their new guests and were pushing and shoving their prisoners to entertain themselves in their energon-fuelled stupors.
“They’re cute, ain’t they?” Dirge snickered as he prodded Reverb.
“I wonder if I could sell them on the black market?” Swindle pondered, causing the trio to tremble.
“Shockwave would have your helm.” Thrust chuckled. “You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“Oh can it, squidhead.”
“I told you not to call me that!”
Ramjet violently shoved the cage. “Look at them fly!” he hiccuped.
“Hey, servos off the merch!” Ransack ordered, shoving Ramjet back. “That’s enough.”
“You wanna fight, shorty?” Ramjet slurred, pushing Ransack into Crumplezone.
“Hey! Pick on someone your own size!” Crumplezone shoved Ramjet back. He fell onto Sunstorm, Flamewar and his trinemates in a heap. The white jet went to stand again but spewed up his energon instead.
“Gross!” Flamewar shrieked.
“Clean up in aisle three!” Thundercracker hollered, causing Ransack and Crumplezone to snort with laughter, then even more so when they realized the joke was on the jet, as it would be his job to clean it.
The Mini-Cons gave a look of distress towards the Decepticons. Jolt was shocked to see that their army had grown considerably since the time they first fought the Autobots for the Cyber Planet Keys.
“Long time no see, Jolt.” pulled him out of his thoughts.
Jolt peered up at Sideways who stood next to the cage, casually leaning against the wall. “S-Sideways? What are you doing here?”
“Well Soundwave got this neat little DJ gig so I decided to stick around here for a while until I get bored. So, what do you think of everything so far?”
“It’s… different? Is this... a Decepticon... club?”
“Of sorts.” Sideways smirked. “It’s the New Decepticon Army. Thunderblast’s running the joint. She envisioned the whole thing. It’s actually a base, would you believe it or not.”
“N-Not really.” Jolt sighed, resting his head against the cage. “The Decepticons have grown stronger in our absence… We couldn’t have foreseen this…” he whispered to himself, still shocked that this was able to happen.
As he peered towards the dance floor, he noticed a short Autobot serving drinks on a tray. His optics widened when the small bot was pushed over and attacked from behind, a group of Decepticons now surrounding him. He gasped in horror as streams of energon began to leak onto the disco floor as the Autobot was mauled to near offlining before he weakly crawled away from the crowd.
Jolt gasped. “T-They’re keeping Autobots as slaves?”
Sideways chuckled. “And neutrals. Hey, these guys don’t mess around. Thunderblast runs a tight ship. She’s conquered many worlds and captured many slaves. The odd one occasionally gets killed every now and then but that can’t be helped.”
The Mini-Cons chirped in distress.
They knew they were doomed.