Chapter 1:
New Hope.
"How many do you think will make it?" – a female voice asked.
"In times like these…I will not be surprised if none of them comeback." – a deep male voice answered.
"Why are we even waking him up?" – a different male voice asked, - "Didn't the council decide that it was too dangerous?"
"It is not council's decision to make. He concluded so himself, and we must honor his choice."
The three voices had a strange artificial sound to them, almost as though they were talking through radios or quiet megaphones.
"Where…where am I?" – was the first thing to come out of his mouth.
He rose up from the platform on which he was laying. Forget where was he, WHO was he? Did he just appear out of nowhere? Was he just…born? He looked at his metal hands. He was a robot, no doubt about that. Everything felt strangely familiar, like he had been living for a long time, but he remembered nothing before that very moment. Strangely enough he was already thinking sentient thoughts not even a megacycle after his birth…still he had no idea what a megacycle was…or did he? It all felt very weird, he knew nothing, yet he knew a lot. However he could not make sense of all the information that was slowly circling in his processor.
Finally a blue luminescent glow caught his attention. It seemed to have been coming from the center of the room in which he was standing. What was that glow? It was so…tantalizing. Almost as though it called out to him to come closer to just touch the glow itself. He couldn't resist. He had to find out what it was. He didn't care about the consequences.
Before he could make a single step he noticed more robots, four more to be exact. They were all getting up form their respective platforms. They looked similar to him, but still they had their distinguishing features, mainly their colors and size. One of them was bight red with yellow stripes, the one next to him was similar to the previous, but the pattern was different and he stood slightly lower as well, the third bot had a light blue tone to his armor and was by far the biggest one of the group, and the fourth and the one that looked astonishingly similar to him was of a slightly darker tone of blue than the previous mech and was also the smallest bot in the chamber.. The last one appeared to be a femme, whatever that was. It was so confusing to know all the terminologies yet now knowing what they meant. It was like he was sharing his processor with somebody else, somebody that knew more than he did.
Everyone was still examining themselves and were just as baffled as to how they got here, where was here, and WHO were they? However the one that stood the closest to the blue glow was the first red bot. He seemed to have confidence in him, like he was meant to be there. He was the first one to reach the glow, to bathe in its light. He couldn't help but to feel envious towards the mech. Soon they all formed a small circle around the glow. He ended up standing next to the blue bot. They looked remarkably similar, except of course for some lines of their exoskeleton.
"Hello my children." - a very deep voice boomed through the room. Everyone automatically looked around, but found nothing. The voice seemed to have been coming from the glow itself. - "I understand that you're wondering who you are and why you're here."
The voice paused but then continued again.
"My name is Primus. I am your creator, you deity…your home. You are currently on Cybertron, my planetary form. Cybertron is the planet which you will soon come to call, home. You are part of my spark, my life source, your life source. You already know a lot about yourselves, about me, about the universe. However your processors still need time to understand all the knowledge which I have passed on to you.
Please excuse me if I'm rushing myself, but I'm afraid I have no other choice. I am growing weaker every passing solar cycle. I have created you all for a purpose. Dark times are almost upon us and I require your help…
Millennia ago, the allspark…" – astonishingly to them they all knew what it was. Allspark was the power that gave life to all cybertronians, which was created from the spark of Primus himself.
"…was sent through a space bridge, in order to protect it from the power hungry Decepticons who desired to use its power to conquer worlds. It has been displaced to the outer most reaches of our galaxy, where it still remains. I fear the time has come to recover the allspark. My fallen brother, Unicron is approaching.
Without the allspark even I cannot stop Unicorn. While I kept getting weaker over the passing cycles, he on the other hand consumed other planets in order to sustain his strength. If I was to stand a chance against Unicron, I would need the power of the allspark…
it is our only hope of surviving."
The robots exchanged glares.
"Before I send you off on your mission, I will tell you more about yourselves. That's the least I can do at the moment." – the voice was sincerely depressed by the fact that he had to rush them off so quickly.
"Burnout," – to their surprise they all looked at the light blue bot, - "You're a brave warrior, it's in your spark. However you should always remember that bravery isn't always the answer. Sometimes you have to stop and think about what you're going to do next before you rush into action. Sill you are just as strong as you are brave and to accommodate your strength I reward you with an ability to make your armor indestructible for a period of time." – the bot's optics widened, but soon returned to normal. He bowed slightly towards the glow and stood up straight again.
"Hotshot," – their attention shifted towards the second red and yellow bot, - "You have a very, should I say, explosive personality. I only hope that you learn to control it at some point in your life. Still you do need something to help you along the way. To you I give the energon powered flame throwers. These weapons do not require mere oxygen in order for their flames to burn in the vacuum space. I hope you heed my warning when I tell you to use it wisely." – the robot looked at his forearms and just then notice two pipes on each of them.
He threw his hands up in the air and almost instinctively released the flames towards the ceiling that seemed to go on forever. The flames shot out like two whips following the motion of his hands.
"Ni-ice!" – he exclaimed in excitement. Finally he stopped the fire and looked back down at the blue glow.
The glow remained silent for a brief moment before starting to talk again, - "Torque, Velocity."
Now everyone was looking at the two bots that looked the most similar to one another.
"You two are twins," – they exchanged glares, - "The two of you share one single spark. Even when you're millions of lightyears away from one another you can still feel each other's presence with you. You can understand your other twin better than any-bot ever will. You must cherish this bond that you share, for it's the strongest that can exist between two sentient beings. In order to help you stay close to each other, you're each equipped with personal warp field generators that are designed to space-bridge you to one another at will. Also it appears as though fate has decided for you to be hybrids between an Autobot and an Aerialbot. You each have jet boosters, but however your molds don't support wing structure so you can not have a sustained flight, but those boosters will give you a great advantage over anyone who approaches you with ill-intent." – once again they looked at one another and took a moment to study the other twin.
To their surprise they were astonishingly similar to each other. Still, Torque was a mech and Velocity a femme, meaning that he had much broader shoulders and tougher armor while her frame was much slender than his. But they knew that Primus was right, they could feel each other's emotions so well that it almost seemed like they were their own. Finally they looked away from each other and shifted their attention back to the luminescent blue glow.
"Finally," – Primus spoke once again, - "Hot Rod."
It paused and Torque could've sworn that the glow sighed.
"You're the leader of your gestalt." – Hot Shot shifted his pose uneasily, - "You embody all the strengths of your siblings, Burnout's bravery, HotShot's temper, Torque's agility and Velocity's rationality. Those strengths are combined in you. You're the perfect leader for them, and I see a great future ahead of you. However you also have their flaws. I'm going to let you figure them out on your own, for what kind of a leader would you be if you didn't know your own soldiers? One of the most important qualities of the leader is his strength, and so in order for you to live up to the expectations, so to speak, I grant you the ability to increase your body's strength beyond any other bot's. But…and please remember this. You must always think about all members of your gestalt, no matter where they are or how they feel towards you. You're the leader, and sadly the leader often times has to make the hardest decisions."
"Thank you, Primus," – HotRod bowed, - "I will not disappoint you."
"I know you won't. None of you will." – he paused once again, - "But now I'm afraid it's time for you to depart"
The door behind them slowly slid open allowing the external light to enter the chamber.
"Remember to take care of one another, for in the darkest of times, the bots that are around you right now will be the only ones who are standing by your side, no matter what. Farewell my children."
"Rocks…these rocks. Seventy stellar cycles of nothing, but these cold…grey… lifeless…ROCKS!" – HotShot slammed his fist into the ground gunning his flame throwers causing the crater under his fist to start melting away from the heat.
"Oh for spark's sake, HotShot cut it out already. My audio receptors can't take any more of your anger outbursts." – Torque emerged from one of the dark caves not far from the source of his disturbance.
They were currently millions of light years away from Cybertron on some distant planet of a nameless star. HotShot was right in his calculations. It has already been seventy stellar cycles since they were sparked and Primus sent them off on a mission. However they weren't the only ones who had left the planet in search of the All Spark. After they told Optimus Prime about the mission that they had to take on, he dispatched many other soldiers for the same task. Many disliked his decision, mainly since the Decepticon uprisings were happening all over the Galaxy, they needed every bot they could get to fight on the battlefields. Still nobody dared to disobey a direct order from a Prime.
"What's going on here?" – Velocity slammed down from above like a blue shadow, her boosters glowing red from heat.
"HotShot's got a screw loose…again." – Torque squinted his optics in the mech's direction, who had already gotten up and was still going on with his angry rant.
"Guys, just hear me out." – he turned towards the twins with a strange sorrow look in his bright blue optics. – "I have a glitch in my system every solar cycle. I can admit that, I'm a glitch-head, ok? But you want to tell me that an entity that lived for many eons can not have a tiny glitch in his system even once in a BILLION years?" – The flames were slowly dancing on the edges of his flamethrowers' pipes.
"What are you trying to say, 'Shot?" – Velocity rolled her tired shoulder, noticing a weird clank in her right one. Probably a rock got stuck there, she thought.
"Don't you guys think that Primus' calculations of impending doom were a little…should I say…off? I mean it's been SEVENTY stellar cycles and still NOTHING. The planet is glitching, he was wrong and he's just too proud to admit so…." – he paused and looked towards a wall of rocks that had blocked off one of the caves.
A strange banging sound was coming from inside of it. Then without a single warning the wall was literally blown to tiny bits from the inside with a loud blast. The three bots covered themselves form the upcoming debris. Finally when the dust settled they was a broad shouldered mech standing in the mouth of the cave. Burnout as always was clutching his energon hammer in his massive hands. Torque had never seen a bot being so attached to his weapon.
"You do realize," – Burnout's voice boomed and his optics transfixed on HotShot, - "That by offending Primus you're also insulting every Cybertronian that he created, whether online…or off." – he squeeze the hammer tighter.
"Some deserve to be insulted," – HotShot hissed to the ground beneath him.
"What was that?" – Burnout approached the smaller mech with his hammer still in his hands.
HotShot was not backing away, but his stance did weaken when the distance between the mech decreased and their difference in size became more apparent. Still he showed virtually no sign of intimidation. He might have been shorter than Burnout, but his bad temper at times made him much more fearsome.
Before the bots got too close to one another a blue flash passed between them and landed on the ground beneath with a loud 'tsing'. They both flinched in surprise and looked down. Between them, HotRod's energon axe had planted itself snugly into the solid stone floor. Their eyes followed the trajectory of the weapon to its owner who was standing in the clearing between two large stone walls. One of his eyebrows was raised, but not in surprise, more along the lines of small outrage.
"Enough you two," – he approached the rivaling siblings and swiftly yanked his axe from out of the ground and hid it behind his back.
"Now I know that this isn't exactly a most luxurious getaway a bot can have," – he placed his hands on his hips and looked up at the planets sun that was almost at its zenith over the planet.
"Not the speech, anything but the speech," – HotShot hissed as he rubbed the bridge of this nose. He noticed that the twins in the back have also buried their faces in the palms of their hands. Everyone had heard HotRod's speech so many times to the point of it being ridiculous.
"But we have embarked on a very important mission," – he continued without paying them any attention, - "We are searching for the All Spark, guys. The only thing that can stop Unicron and by extension our impending doom. Now if that's not a noble and worthy cause to keep striving forward, then I really don't know what is. But will accomplish nothing by just standing around and complaining about how miserable we may feel at the moment. I promised Primus that I will not disappoint him and I'll be fragged if I don't succeed on this mission."
He finally looked back down at his gestalt just to be letdown by the sight that he beheld. He knew that HotShot was never intending on listening to his inspirational speech, but he didn't expect the twins to be just as disheartening. With a weary sigh he let his shoulders slump as he too was almost ready to give up.
"Alright, I know that we haven't achieved much yet…" – he began once again just to be interrupted by HotShot.
"Much? We achieved NOTHING! Wake up 'Rod. We've wasted seventy stellar cycles of our lives…"
"And I'm prepared to waste hundred more!" – he raised his voice to the point where he actually caused HotShot to visibly sink down in surprise. – "Guys don't any of you realize how important this is. It's not like we're going around and cleaning Space Bridges."
"Might as well be doing that." – HotShot turned away from HotRod and looked past the cliff ahead of him into the endless rocky valley.
"Besides." – his hands found their way on his hips again, - "I have really high hopes about this planet…"
"This ROCK." – HotShot shot over his shoulder.
"…The energy readings are off the charts. We haven't seen that in many stellar cycles."
"The energy levels are high," – he prepared himself for all the rage he was about to unleash.
"Because this ROCK!" – pointed at the very ground beneath himself
"Is filled with the SAME, HOT, MOLTEN, ROOOOOOOOOCKS!" – he stopped the stone so hard that it started to crack from the base of his foot.
Torque had to agree with him there. This was a relatively newly formed planet so it was still cooling down on the inside which might be causing the abnormally high energy readings. However he didn't muse for too long because he noticed that the cracking kept going long after HotShot had stomped his foot.
Everyone's curious gaze was transfixed on the quickly crawling crack that was making its way towards a large stalagmite that was standing in the middle of the cliff. Only now did they all realize that it had no cosmic business being there because there was nothing on top of it that could have caused it to grow over time.
Finally the crack had reached the base of the stalagmite and traveled up to its tip and for a fraction of a second there was moment of complete silence. Then suddenly a loud shriek, which sounded like it was produced by some being or an entity, had tore the air around them. A moment after that a light blue beam had shot from the tip of the stalagmite and made its way through the planet's thin atmosphere.
The entire event unfolded in less than two seconds but it was enough to scare the bots to the point of them actually shivering for a few seconds. The most petrifying thing about it was the spark chilling shriek that erupted without a warning.
Everyone took a few moments to calm themselves down and exchange concerned glares before once again looking at the source of their disturbance. The tip was now gone from the stalagmite and the light blue glow was still emanating from it, though there was no more beam that shot into space.
"What the frag was that?" – Burnout was the first to come to his senses.
"What? How should I know?" – HotShot caught everyone's optics focused on him, since he was the one that started the chain reaction that lead them to where they were.
"Alright, stand back." – HotRod once again pulled out his axe and activated his battle mask.
"I don't think that's it's such a good idea, Rod." – Torque concluded after following his leader's train of thought.
However he wasn't listening anymore. He swung the axe over his head and sliced through solid stone with one swift motion. This time nothing extra ordinary had happened, except for the fact that the glow got much brighter causing everyone to turn their optics away. HotRod reached into the source of the glow and clutched his hand over a handle of some sorts. Finally with a strong tug he pulled on the container from which the glow was emanating.
"It can't be." – HotShot mumbled still not believing in what was happening.
"It is." – a smirk came onto HotRod's face as he held up the glowing box, - "Mechs and femes….the almighty…All Spark." – he almost whispered the last words almost like he was afraid to disturb it.
A gasp passed by the gestalt and they all realize what had actually just happened.
Many light years away from the gestalt of the Autbots, a decepticon warship was slowly floating about in space without a particular course.
Loud rhythmic, metallic thumbs sounded down the hallway as Starscream was making his way towards the central bridge, where Megatron resided on his large throne-like chair. The Air Commander approached his leader with caution fearing that he still hadn't forgiven him his last outburst of "insubordination".
"Starscream," – Megatron hissed with a malicious tone in his harsh voice, - "Why do feel the need to disturb me with your traitorous presence?"
"My deepest apologies, Lord Megatron." – he bowed towards his commander causing him to clench his jaw in anger. – "But it appears as though Autbots have recovered the All Spark."
Starscream paused as he studied his master's barely changed expression and then continued, - "Soundwave has picked up a massive surge of energy from a distant quadrant. There is nothing in the universe that can produce such immense power…it can only be the All Spark."
Without taking a moment to process the presented information, Megatron spoke again, - "Send out Shockwave…let him choose his accompanying bots."
"Yes, brilliant plan my liege." – Starscream bowed even lover, causing Megatron to nearly loose his patience with the mech.
"Spare me. Strascream." – he finally growled. The Air Commander rose up and stormed out of the room his face twisted in anger as he was once again being ordered around by that waste of junk metal Megatron.