What if instead of Megatron, Starscream was the one who became infatuated with Nightbird ?
Now, I'm not sure if he'd like her as a colleague or romantically. Also, that depends if he decided to go save her from the Autobots or if he managed to steal Nightbird from Dr. Fujiyama after the Autobots returned her to him. No matter the outcome, he would've discovered that she may have developed a personality thanks to Bombshell's brainwashing, which may lead to Starscream forcing him to give her a vehicle mode as he makes her his second-in-command. I imagine they would've kept Fujiyama hostage (not that the good doctor would know if he's a hostage or not, considering Nightbird would probably remain loyal to him).
Anyways, they travel to Cybertron and steal the Combaticons' brain modules and build them new bodies, resulting in… well… The Combaticons. And Bruticus too. (Duh.)
I guess the faction itself would be called "Combaticons", which oddly enough, the members (except maybe Nightbird, though I'm not sure if ninja ever did any military work) are all military-related.
The insignia would look something like this, but in orange :
Maybe some Megatron's Decepticons would join Starscream, like Blitzwing. Who knows ? Pretty sure the Combaticons would become anti-villains (though I don't think an 80s cartoon can handle serious and complex characters) and survive the events of the 1986 movie. Maybe Starscream and Nightbird's romance would even lead to the creation of Drift !
