Disclaimer: Transformers Animated belongs to Hasbro

Summary: A one-shot story about the Elite Guard and how it really measures up to Optimus Prime's team. Character is written in first person point-of-view and is kept a mystery so you can imagine anyone you want it to be, or yourself if you want.

Not So Elite

Ah, the Elite Guard, I'll never forget the recruitment commercials I saw. Ultra Magnus looked so powerful and made you really wanna join to kick some Decepticon can!

As soon as I reached the minimum steller cycle age, I signed right up! My recruiter made it sound even more awesome, telling me his war stories about the Decepticons he encountered and defeated. I couldn't wait to get my own war stories to share.

Finally, the first day of Autoboot camp arrived and I was ready to go! I made extra sure I was in good shape and functional. Though later on I'd learn that I did not prepare for everything!

My drill sergeant gave me a name based off my abilities and functions. At least I will no longer have to go by the number given to me when I was sparked.

Boot camp was pretty tough, our drill sergeant wouldn't let us move on until every single person got things right, which meant if one person messed up, everybody had to do a hundred transform ups!

Once we finally got through the drills, we got to go through the simulated fights against the Decepticons. At that time I thought it taught us well and that we'd be unstoppable, I'll tell you more later on.

So the next thing we did was the lectures and lessons about Decepticons all conducted by Ultra Magnus' second-in-command Sentinel Prime. At least at that time I knew something was off about the information on the Decepticons, but unfortunately I brushed off any doubts because I thought that he knew more than us since I thought he faced one.

Now here's the real kicker about Sentinel, this guy really loves himself! I really began to doubt him when we were forced to watch videos of him when he became a prime to the trial he and his team mate Optimus Prime went through and how he came out triumphant while Optimus was demoted as a consequence to his decision of going to an organic planet.

Later I would be proven correct about my doubt about Sentinel's side of the story, which I had when I saw how smug Sentinel looked while Optimus took the fall.

Finally after all the training, I made it into the Elite Guard! I was so happy on graduation day! I couldn't wait to face-off against the Decepticons!

That sure was a nice dream, because the reality sucked! not only did we never get to fight the Decepticons, but we ended up spending our time looking for them or keeping an optic out for them.

When we weren't patrolling, our time was spent on watching more propaganda about how evil the Decepticons are and that they are lurking around Cybertron!

Things did finally get exciting when it was rumored that not only had the Allspark been found, but that Megatron turned up and was after it! Though no one would tell us who found the Allspark, but we did learn that it and Megatron had disappeared.

I was thinking this would lead to some action, but nothing happened for fifty stellar cycles. Finally I was given an assignment to go to an Organic planet to take over monitoring what Sentinel called the Autobot loser team because Agent Blurr had disappeared without a trace.

I remember thinking, "Oh that's great! Blurr probably got killed by those organics that Sentinel says are dangerous, so now they're gonna send me next! Yet...it sure beats running errands for Sentinel Jerkaft again!"

Before I left, Sentinel yells at me to not screw up or I'll be kicked out of the Elite Guard. I can't believe I actually feared that would happen!

I was taken to this planet that I later learned is called Earth, and I was amazed at the colors I see of this planet, a whole lot of green, blue, and some brown. But the dark side of the planet looked even more amazing! The lights dotting the landscape made it look almost like Cybertron.

But then when we got up close, there were so many things that couldn't be seen from the outside of the planet. Many structures of various sizes were every where on the planet. Some were the living quarters of the organics that are called humans. there were also large structures that served many different purposes for the humans.

Before I was let out of the ship, I had to pick an alt mode to blend in better. I looked through the various choices offered to me, which I believe Sentinel had picked, but I didn't like any of them. Luckily Jazz, who is way cool by the way, offered me some better choices, so I picked one of them and I was good to go.

When I first got to Optimus Prime's base, I almost thought I had the wrong place, but the coordinates were correct. The sight of his team mates confirmed that I had the right place. But I couldn't understand why they were using such an old building.

The next surprise I encountered was the various activities they were partaking in. Although I know now what Bulkhead was doing, I found it strange that he was putting various colors of paint on a large white panel.

Then there was their medic Ratchet who was sitting in front of a large monitor where he appeared to be watching some sort of entertainment video. The beings on the video were very strange looking, and yet they had the same functional parts we did, servos, peds, a torso, and limbs.

I walked around to another part of the building to see if I could find another way to see inside, and I immediately spotted the very large vegetation sticking out of a large hole in the building. I also noticed the boxy structure that was inside the vegetation, and then I heard humming noises from within it. I pull out my viewfinder and zoom in and I spot Prowl the ninjabot meditating.

I go back to the living area and this time I spot the minibot scout Bumblebee as he takes over the monitor, which causes Ratchet to yell at him about it being his time to watch TV and to use his own monitor to play his games. So I peer through the window of his quarters where he puts in this game, and then I spotted something else that shocked me, a small organic child in the room with him!

I was shocked to see this girl, whom I learned is named Sari, so close to Bumblebee. But as I kept observing them, I noticed that Bumblebee seemed to be OK and no harm was being done to him.

I finally spot Optimus Prime when he came in to Bumblebee's room to tell him to turn the volume down on his game, which Bumblebee whined about, until Optimus threatened to take the game away. He obeyed immediately and I was stunned that he wasn't threatened with a harsher punishment.

I followed Optimus when he went to his room and I observed how sullen he looked as he laid on his berth. He seemed to be in deep thought, and I wondered what he was thinking about.

The next few days were spent spying on Optimus' team while they were in action. though they weren't fighting Decepticons at first, but fighting against the organic criminals sure looked a lot more fun than doing nothing on Cybertron.

Then the Decepticon seekers showed up when they tried to take over the city, and yet Optimus and his team mates were able to fight them off! I gotta admit that I was so jealous that they got some action, I wanted to jump in, but Sentinel jerkaft told me not to get involved.

But I did end up getting involved. Right after the seekers were defeated, and after Optimus' team left, I saw the head honcho himself Megatron! My jaw dropped at the sight of him, he was huge! It was no wonder why the war went on for so long, he looked hard to beat.

Luckily I was still hidden when I overheard Megatron's plans to blow up a power plant to harvest energon, then heard that it would also annihilate the humans in the process.

"Frag you Sentinel!" I said as I decided to do something. So I head to the Autobot base to warn them.

Optimus and his team mates were surprised to see me and that I was spying on them, but I got straight to the point and told them Megatron's plans. Optimus immediately assembled his team.

"Please let me go with you guys! I haven't seen any action since...ever!" I begged.

"Sure, we could use all the help we can get." Optimus said.

I was overjoyed, but apparently they seen to be used to getting action cause I saw Ratchet roll his optics at my behavior. Of course he's a war veteran so he's seen tons of action.

We made it just in time because Megatron and his soldiers showed up right after we did, and the look of surprise on their faces was priceless. Megatron ordered his soldiers to fight us and continue with the job.

I thought that my training in Autoboot camp would finally pay off, but I was wrong! In just a few seconds after attempting one of the maneuvers of the Elite guard, I was taken down a few kliks later. Optimus and his team mates were doing fine, but they were using completely different moves.

I tried again, this time using another move, but I was still taken down. Thankfully Ratchet came to my aid and got the Decepticons that were fighting me off my back.

He told me, "Forget everything you learned in boot camp, it's all useless here!"

"Then what do I do?" I asked.

He answered, "Use your processor and do what you feel is right. Take a look at what Bee is doing."

I look over and notice that he is taunting a triple changer with insults, and I thought, "How is that going to help?" But it worked! The triple changer got angry enough to turn into a tank mid-air and he plummeted to the ground.

Then Prowl said to me, "Excellent! Keep observing what is going on around you, Asses the situation and figure out your next move."

That really helped because I saw the very large Decepticon Lugnut about to use his POKE weapon on Optimus, but I jumped in and distracted him.

I shouted, "Hey! Megatron is a glitch who can't even defeat a bunch of repair bots!"

Lugnut roared, "How dare you! Megatron is most glorious and will defeat all Autobots!"

I had him right where I wanted him, I stood in place to let him charge at me as hard as he could. As soon as he got close enough, I leaped out of the way and he hit Megatron who had been behind me when he was fighting Optimus.

Lugnut's large Optic widened in surprise as he yelled, "NO! Look Out master!"

"huh?" Megatron turned his head and was immediately hit with Lugnut's weapon, which knocked him back several feet. Thankfully Optimus moved right away to avoid the impact.

"Argh! Lugnut you idiot!" Megatron yelled.

"Forgive me my liege! I was only trying to hit the Autobot!" Lugnut apologized.

"Next time watch where you point that thing!" Megatron ordered.

"I'm sorry master! I deserve to be punished!" Lugnut said.

"You can start by carrying me out of here, Decepticons! Retreat!" Megatron barked.

"That was good! You really nailed them!" Bumblebee praised.

"Thanks! No one's ever gonna believe I did that! Especially Sentinel." I muttered the last part.

"Why would you say that? You're in the Elite guard!" Bumblebee said.

"Pufh! The Elite guard, yeah." I dissed.

"You don't like it? Although with Sentinel there, can't say I blame you." Bumblebee responded.

"Oh that's right! You guys were kicked out, weren't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I had my reasons." Bumblebee said.

"Well you guys should consider yourselves lucky! From what I observed, you guys have seen more action than I have the entire time I've served, and that's just from what I've seen since yesterday!" I told them.

"Really? What do you guys do?" Bulkhead asked.

"We spend a lot of time either patrolling Cybertron for hiding Decepticons, or going after those who are accused of being Decepticons." I answered.

"So what you're saying is, the Elite Guard isn't all it's cracked up to be?" Bumblebee asked.

"Pretty much." I answered.

"Could you tell us why you were sent to spy on us?" Optimus asked.

"I wasn't even supposed to let you know I was, but since I chose to get involved...Sentinel sent me because they had sent Blurr, but they lost contact with him. Hey, do you guys know what happened to him?" I asked.

"No, we haven't run into an Autobot named Blurr." Optimus asked.

"Hmm...I wonder what happened to him? Though from my observations of the inhabitants of this planet, I guess it wasn't the organics who harmed him." I guessed.

"Oh yeah, whatever Sentinel said about organics, forget about it! They do not spew slime, nor do they burn us! Well...except for Meltdown, but only because he was mutated. But the rest of the organics are harmless! Well unless they feel threatened, some do have weapons." Bumblebee rambled on.

Thankfully Optimus gave me a lengthy explanation about this planet and about the Decepticons here, which by far was so much more interesting than Sentinel's scrap! Optimus is such a good leader, that it's a wonder about why he wasn't given a second chance in the Elite guard. At least he'd be better than that glitch Sentinel and would actually have better things for us to do! One thing for sure, I am quitting the Elite guard and joining Optimus Prime's team!

A few days later after leaving a few messages to my colleagues and friends, I happily handed my resignation form the Elite guard to Ultra Magnus. I wish I could've seen the look on Sentinel's face when Ultra Magnus told him I quit and asked what he did that made me do it. But I did get a very angry call from Sentinel telling me that I can't quit and how could I betray him like this. Knowing I had nothing to lose, I told him to take all the useless information he gave at boot camp and shove it up his hard drive. This time I got to see his face when I said that. Good thing I recorded the video call so I could enjoy that look over and over again. Bumblebee got to enjoy it as well.

A few months later we finally found Agent Blurr, it turns out he had been captured by a human and was forced to street race. Though he says he actually enjoyed racing, but he wished he hadn't been prodded by that human. Sadly he had disappeared again when he and two seeker clones went through the space bridge. Where ever he is, I hope he's OK! If he made it to Cybertron, I really hope he didn't run into Longarm Prime! I can't believe that he was Shockwave! To think that I had actually worked with him! I actually thought that Longarm was so great and way better than Sentinel!

Of all the places we had searched for Decepticons, one was amongst us all along! As for all the suspected cons'...I hope they get their names cleared and are let out of the stockades before they decide to become Decepticons for real like Wasp did.

At last! We did it! We defeated Megatron! Any other Prime would have killed him, but Optimus took the higher road and arrested him instead. If anyone deserves to be the next Magnus, it is Optimus! I'll have to make sure that Sentinel doesn't get his slimy servos on the Magnus hammer!