Greetings, all! This is my first story here. As stated on my profile, this, along with anything else I might write, contains slash. In this case, it's mech on mech action. This an alternate universe with G1 characters involved.

This story is mainly centered around Megatron and Starscream, but other characters will be reasonably involved as well. Also, this entry is simply a prologue and will be the shortest chapter I submit by far.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers and don't get anything but personal entertainment from writing this.

Enjoy.

Prologue

Soundwave sighed from his seat in the spacious Control Room of the Decepticon's underwater base. He tried to remain as unnoticeable as possible when Megatron and Starscream burst into the room, arguing as usual. It was times like these that the cassette deck cursed his telepathic abilities. His superiors' minds never produced anything less than a jumbled mess of confusion.

As he continued his work, Soundwave caught portions of Megatron's most recent thought. With another sigh, he pushed his chair backwards and ducked down at the same time. Seconds later, Starscream's body came sailing through the space Soundwave's upper body previously occupied, fully accompanied by a shrill wail from the Second in Command. The flier hit Soundwave's computer terminal, shattering the screen with an obnoxious crash which matched pitch with his wail. The Seeker tumbled unceremoniously onto the floor. Groaning, he rose from the ground and shot Soundwave a venomous glare.

"What are you looking at?" he spat.

"Starscream: Never learns," replied the Communications Officer, the barest hint of teasing in his voice. Megatron watched the scene play out, his arms crossed over his chest and a sneer decorating his faceplate.

"Oh yeah? Well, slag you!" Starscream yelled pathetically. He forced his way past Soundwave and rushed out the door before Megatron could even consider pursuing him. The cassette deck turned to the Decepticon Commander for instructions he knew were coming.

"Soundwave," Megatron started, his voice unusually tired, "Contact the Constructicons and have them fix your terminal. Ramjet and his trine mates should be dragging themselves in here any moment for their shifts. See to it that they don't make matters worse. I'll be in my quarters."

"As you command, Megatron," the telepath replied. He mulled over Megatron's thoughts for a moment before fulfilling his orders. With a grunt, he sat down at a neighboring terminal but didn't begin working. Instead, he considered his two leaders. He could feel the tension between them, even during his recharge cycles at times. For ages, the telepath sensed their growing stress- a kind of stress that certainly wasn't hate related. But recently it had gotten much, much worse. Perhaps it had to do with Starscream's increasing number of half-baked schemes and insubordinate actions. Though, that led Soundwave to wonder why Starscream had become increasingly volatile.

He knew it was only a matter of time before something gave and his leaders were forced to confront the raging torrent of feelings bubbling up in them both. He just didn't realize it would be such a long and undignified process.