When Thundercracker woken properly, the battle was over. Skywarp was pulling him from wreckage, chewed up and jet black from all the soot in the air, but alive, somehow.
The Sharkticons were gone. And so was the Nemesis.
"He left us behind." Skywarp muttered miserably.
Thundercracker didn't bother to argue that Starscream hadn't abandoned them. "We should go after him."
"And stuff his helm in a trash compactor, yeah." Skywarp sat back and wiped his brow with the back of his servo, smearing the soot enough to reveal the pale facial derma underneath. "But we're not going anywhere. Not till you're fixed."
"Do you think Starscream's okay?" Thundercracker couldn't help but worry. Starscream was the smallest of their trine. Good at plans, but no good in a brawl.
"He's not here." Skywarp murmured.
"We'll find him." He promised. "Someone's gotta watch his fragile back."
Thundercracker never would have expected to find Starscream in the Earth, but even if the signal they'd followed here lied, the trine link couldn't. They flew over miles of rolling ocean to find land mass, transforming out of jet-mode and landing on the earthy ground with a thunk.
The planet was bright and beautiful and loud with life. Thundercracker found himself smiling.
"No way is Starscream here." Skywarp protested, kicking at the ground and sending an earthy lump of grass flying. "This planet is too dirty for Starscream's tastes."
"What's the signal strength?" Thundercracker asked tiredly.
"For him or for energon?" Skywarp jabbed the screen on his wrist.
"Starscream is our priority."
"He's aboard the Nemesis, a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Skywarp pulled his face. "You wanna fly back to him in style and give him a pit for dumping us? Or crawl up to him on your hands and knees from fuel deprivation?"
"There'll be fuel on the Nemesis."
"Yeah, and we won't need it." Skywarp smirked cheekily.
"'Warp, please. Don't start–" TC tried.
"No one came back for us." Skywarp snapped, playful demeanour sharpening, "To them we were dead, or as good as. Starscream didn't care enough to even check, too busy living it up as 'Second in Command'. So excuse me if I wanna do a 'Starscream' and think about myself for once in getting enough fuel so I have the energy to punch him in his faceplate when I see him again!"
"You're not going to hit him." Thundercracker felt exhausted.
"Yes, I will."
"You're not." Thundercracker followed him, conceding to finding fuel first. "One look at his wide, scared optics and you'll melt."
"That doesn't work on me anymore. I've built up an immunity!"
"You haven't built up any slag."
Skywarp huffed, and jumped into a transformation sequence before blasting into the air. Thundercracker shook his helm and followed him.
The signal of energon was an open mine. Below, moving in and out of tunnels, mining drones were pushing carts full of glowing blue energon. Skywarp licked his lips.
Skywarp landed in the centre of the mine, using his thrusters to ease his descent. The mining drones shielded their optics, shying away. "Guys it's me!" He exclaimed, just as Thundercracker landed next to him. And both froze. Among the mining bots was a certain aerial commander.
"No," Starscream shook his helm. "No, impossible, I-I saw-"
"Yeah, you saw me get chewed up." Skywarp teleported forward. "Thanks for jumping to the rescue, by the way-"
Starscream recoiled in terror, legs shaking and stumbling backward, his wings instinctive drooping until they were straight down to appear most smaller and defenselless. "N-no!— Wait— I didn't—"
Skywarp made a noise of pure frustration and stomped forwards. Even the Vehicons go away. Starscream inched back at his approach.
Starscream stared up, still stuttering, wings shaking, trying to assume a submissive posture. Skywarp frowned down at him, before sighing.
"C'mere, you big baby," he grumbled, reaching around Starscream and hauling him into a hug.
"Warp, you are just talk." Thundercracker whispered with smile, approaching his two younger brothers, "so much about punch him..."