One of Those Days
By Lucidscreamer
"Um, okay, that...didn't go as planned."
-o-
Five minutes later...
As usual, Wheeljack had managed a masterful understatement of calamity without even trying. It was probably due to all the practice he got, Optimus reflected while ruthlessly quelling an uncharacteristic urge to turn around, head back to his interrupted recharge, and pretend none of this was happening. Unfortunately, as the leader of the Autobots, "playing ostrich" and burying his head in the metaphorical sand was not an option.
Optimus squared his massive shoulders and gestured at the swirling vortex of black and purple energy where Wheeljack's latest invention had, only moments ago according to eyewitness accounts, rested. "What, exactly, is that?"
"And is it gonna explode?" As usual, Ironhide got straight to the crux of the matter. He folded his arms over his chest and fixed his optics on the vortex as if attempting to glare it into submission.
A sheepish-looking Wheeljack sighed and scratched at the side of his helm with the blunt end of a calibration tool. "It was supposed to be a variation of the Decepticon space-bridge. As for what it turned out to be... Um."
"Please don't tell me you don't know what it is or what it's doing," Optimus requested in a voice that made it clear he held little actual hope for that outcome.
"Okay."
After the silence had stretched for several astro-seconds, even that infinitesimal hope flickered and died. Optimus squeezed his optics shut and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You don't know what it is or what it's doing, do you?"
"You told me not to tell you that."
Fortunately for everyone, the vortex spared Optimus the burden of composing a response that did not involve the generous application of profanity, heavy weapons fire, or Ironhide (or possibly all three).
Unfortunately, it did so by exploding.
-o-
Twenty very crowded minutes later...
"You accidentally created an interdimensional portal." Ratchet's vocal processor warbled as it fought to express disbelief, irritation, and a modicum of genuine awe, all at the same time. At the moment, irritation was winning.
"Looks that way. Apparently, I miscalculated the- Ow!" Wheeljack yelped as Ratchet gave a particularly vigorous twist to the piece of armor that he was attempting to wrestle free so that he could get at the damaged circuits underneath.
"And the dimension this portal accesses is populated by large, ill-tempered creatures that just happened to decide you would make a tasty snack."
"To be fair, the Blue-Eyes White Dragons were already in the midst of a battle and didn't realize we weren't reinforcements for the other side-Ouch!"
"So-" Ratchet increased his volume and went on as if deaf to his patient's complaints as skilled hands yanked the chewed up section of chest plate free. "-naturally they tried to eat you, since you were closest to the portal when it exploded, dumping said creatures on top of you."
"Well, I- Yeouch! -It's not like I did it on purpose to annoy you!"
"Ha! Likely story..." Ratchet scoffed and continued poking in Wheeljack's now-exposed chest cavity. "You're damn lucky Prime was there or those beasts would still be using you for a chew toy."
Even overgrown, interdimensional lizards paid attention to Prime in full battle mode. (There was reason he was still alive after millions of years of war, and it wasn't because he could, when the situation called for it, be a skilled orator.)
After sorting out the mercifully short-lived battle, Prime and the creatures (who called themselves "Duel Monsters") had come to an uneasy truce. More diplomatic talks were to follow, between Prime and the creatures' ambassador, a purple-armored humanoid whose name Wheeljack hadn't caught because he was too busy being carted off to the repair bay by an irate medical officer ranting about "Trypticon wannabes and foolish Autobots who blew up at least three things before breakfast."
(All-too-aware that he was about to be at Ratchet's tender mercies for the immediate future, Wheeljack refrained from pointing out that, technically, they didn't eat breakfast. He didn't think the medic would appreciate the correction and, despite the prevailing opinion of his fellow Autobots, Wheeljack actually did possess a finely-honed sense of self-preservation.)
So, here he was in the repair bay, lying on one of the work tables, listening to Ratchet vent his frustration at the damage inflicted by the inhabitants of Wheeljack's newly discovered (and accidentally accessed) other dimension, and itching to get back to his not-a-spacebridge-after-all so he could figure out where his calculation had gone astray. And it wasn't even noon, yet.
He gave a little sigh of contentment at the prospect of the entire new realm of discovery that awaited him. Despite a few minor setbacks (such as dragon teeth marks on his chassis), it was shaping up to be a great day.
-o-
Standing in front of the newly-opened portal to the Shadow Realm and listening to a floating humanoid in purple armor explain about card games that determined the fate of the world, mystical "Millennium Items", and reincarnated pharaohs, Optimus Prime sighed.
It was going to be a long day...
Author's Note: Timeline, what timeline?; alternate universe; may be considered a prequel to my drabble "Chosen Ones". Please note that I don't care for the comics, so I don't use any terms that have derived from them. "Astro-seconds" was used in the G1 cartoon, so I used it here, regardless of how silly it sounds. If you feel the need to correct my usage, keep it to G1 cartoon canon, kthnx.
Disclaimer: Transformers is the property of Hasbro. Yugioh is the creation of Kazuki Takahashi.