Voyagers Saga:
Justice, Bolts, and Gears
Chapter 1: First Impressions
(Author's Note: This story takes place after the events of Forgotten Blood and Soulless Abyss, written by my co-author, largefish8. You might want to read those first before reading this story.)
Matt was sitting in his room aboard the Bladestorm. He'd gotten the hang of holding his human form, but he still woke up as a dragon. He wasn't sleeping however. A news report was on, "...and in other news, reports have come in of a major firefight between the H.Q.F and what reports say was a major buildup of marauder ships. The target was the newly discovered B-001 within the dragon eye nebula.
"Among the known people who had taken action in this conflict is Matthew Lynch, who was reported missing for a week but was found alive and well in the care of the locals.
"However among the losses was Kala 777 who was reported to have..." said the newscaster and was cut off as Matt turned the comm. off.
I know perfectly well who was lost," he said, getting up to go for a walk.
--
Matt sighed to himself as he was walking down the corridor. "Maybe I should consider redecorating," said Matt, "Make these walls something else besides a dull grey."
He turned a corner and paused when saw Megan who, in stark contrast with Matt's gloomy mood, was apparently doing cheerful ballet dancing while holding a paper in both hands.
Matt sat down gloomily. "Hey, Megan," he said in a dull voice
"He's coming! He's coming!" squealed Megan and hugged the paper close to her chest.
Matt jumped back. "GAH...WHO'S COMING?" he yelled.
"Gary's coming!" said Megan happily.
"Who's Gary?" asked Matt.
"Oh, that's right, you haven't met him," said Megan. She handed Matt the paper and said, "Read this." Matt took the paper and saw that it was a letter.
"Dear Megan,
I am happy to tell you that I've finally managed to see the world as I had wanted to. I'm still catching up on the times, but at least I can control my changes now. To my great fortune, I've come across a pair of aliens who were heading in the same direction I am. I shall be with you in three days at the most.
Love, Gary."
Matt looked at it. "Who the smeg is Gary?" he said suspiciously.
"Gary is the most perfect guy I ever met," said Megan, "We met in France. He's a perfect gentleman, he loves to fly with me, and he can play the guitar!"
Matt looked at the note. "Is this one of those things nobody told me about?" he said in an annoyed tone.
"Oh, don't worry, you'll like him," said Megan, "He'll fit right in among here. Granted he may not be used to fighting with his powers, but I'm sure he'll improve."
Matt sighed. "Great...at this rate there won't be room for me on this ship," he said, walking off.
Megan walked with him. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Well, there may be a few loose feathers where he sleeps, but he's really..."
"Wait a minute, feathers?" said Matt, drawing to a halt.
"Oh, yes, I haven't told you yet," said Megan, "Gary's a weregoyle. Sorta like Demona, only he can gargoyle during the day and human at night at times."
Matt sighed. "As long as he doesn't irritate the spiderbots, he'll be fine," he said.
"Um, Matt, one more thing," said Megan, now sounding nervous, "You're not the only one I haven't told about Gary yet."
"Pardon?" said Matt, his eye twitching. "So?" he said.
"Well, I wasn't sure how Uncle Nega would handle me having a boyfriend, but I guess I'll have to tell him now," said Megan, "But would you mind standing by me when I tell him?"
"Ok," said Matt. He was bored anyway.
--
The two of them found NegaMorph with Chip. NegaMorph was helping Chip tighten his loose hinges. "Um, Uncle Nega," said Megan, "There are a few things I haven't told you about my adventures."
"And those are?" said NegaMorph, not looking up.
"Well, I've been learning necromancy."
"That's nice."
"I've been treasure hunting."
"Good for you."
"And I got a boyfriend."
"Oh, lucky- WHAT?!?"
Matt managed to prepare some plasma control. "Now, NegaMorph...don't get excited," he said.
"Oh, why should I get excited about some punk messing around with my niece?" said NegaMorph through gritted teeth.
"Because Mr. Gary will be a guest in three days, if you even look at him or bribe the spiderbots to chop him into fillets, I will vaporize you...slowly," said Matt in a 'I'm not joking' voice.
"Oh, I won't have a problem with him living here, not at all," said NegaMorph in a very strained voice. In his irritation, he hadn't noticed that he had tightened Chip's leg joint past the point of comfort.
Matt smirked and leaned close, winking at Megan. "Yeah...good idea to meet your son-in-law," he said with an evil grin. It wasn't often he got to annoy NegaMorph.
NegaMorph was practically frothing at the mouth now. "I don't see why I should trust him to be anywhere near her," he snarled. By now, Chip was making squawks of pain to try to get NegaMorph to stop tightening his joint.
"Oh...the pitter patter of little feet," said Matt, carrying on.
NegaMorph's eyes glowed red. "He wouldn't dare..." he growled. A howl of pain from Chip made a brief pause in the conversation as his leg joint was tightened to the point of snapping.
As NegaMorph paused to loosen Chip's leg joint, Megan said, "Oh, Uncle Nega, I'm sure you'll like him. He's a very good person."
"Oh sure, I'll like him," said NegaMorph, "In an 'I-can't-wait-to-go-to-his-funeral' way."
Matt and Megan walked out before laughing on each other's shoulders. "Sometimes, it's too easy," Matt said.
"You don't really think he'll be too hard on Gary, do you?" asked Megan.
"The spiderbots won't let him cause anything permanent," said Matt.
"I don't think emotional scarring is that easy to recover from," said Megan.
"Oh, I took that into account," said Matt, "By the way, did he say what aliens were bringing him?"
"Not really," said Megan, "All I got was this letter. But that was more than enough for me."
--
Matt and company were waiting in the docking bay. NegaMorph noticed darkly that a dozen spiderbots had been shadowing him all day.
"When will he be coming?" asked Draco.
"He'll be coming round the space cloud when he comes," sang Morph, "He'll be coming round the space cloud when he comes."
Matt and Chloe both blasted Morph against the wall. A familiar ship flew into view. "Hey...isn't that the Bed and Not Breakfast?" said Techo.
Chip studied it with his binocular vision. "Yes, I believe it is," he said.
"Wait...the B&NB is a starship?" said Matt. The ship had just landed and Matt and Chloe moved to within grabbing range of NegaMorph.
The door on the ship opened and a very familiar figure stepped out. "Little girl! 6-2-6!"
"Jumba!" said Lilo and Stitch happily and ran over to hug him.
Matt nodded to Jumba. "Hi...long time no see."
Jumba blinked in confusion. "You last called 9 days ago. That is not long time," he said.
Matt gulped. "Erm...of course," he said.
Just then, Pleakley came out of the ship. "Hello, everybody!" he called. He held up a tray full of cookies and said, "I brought some-" He was cut off when he was mobbed by the experiments, which ate all the cookies and ran off.
"Man, they must be hungry," muttered Chloe, sniffing a missed cookie and smelling road grit.
Then a 14 year old boy came out. He was wearing a black shirt with the sleeves torn off, blue jeans, black boots, and a green handkerchief tied around a neck like a scarf. He had slightly tanned skin and long black hair tied back in a ponytail. "Gary!" cried Megan and ran towards him.
Matt spotted NegaMorph and shook his head before pointing at the spiderbots who were all looking at him.
Gary hugged Megan and said, "Ah, my little whippoorwill, I have missed you so much."
Matt walked forward. "Captain Lynch, pleased to meet you."
Gary sniffed the air and said, "There's something unusual about you. You smell like...dragon."
Matt's eye twitched. "Heh...it's the sign again," he said.
Chloe sighed. "Well guessed," she said before muttering, "...now pretend to be surprised or kiss your eyebrows farewell."
"I don't believe I've met any dragon/human hybrids before," said Gary, "Are there many like you?"
"Most of them are at a dimension called Avalar. Just us two are nice. You don't want to meet the others," said Chloe as Matt continued to snigger randomly.
Then Megan brought Gary over to NegaMorph. "Gary, this is my Uncle NegaMorph, the one who gave me my powers. Uncle Nega, this is Gary."
NegaMorph forcibly brought his mouth up into the proximity of a smile. "Charmed, I'm sure," he said in a strained voice.
A spiderbot landed on his head and made a threatening whistle at him. NegaMorph glared at it and offered his hand to shake...till the spiderbot lasered it off. It had been his hand with the mouth.
Gary looked what somewhat nervously at NegaMorph and said, "I'm sure you've been a very good influence on Megan."
NegaMorph nodded. "I have...Gary…" he said in an even more strained voice, offering his other hand to shake.
Matt watched to see if NegaMorph would put too much strength in his grip. He apparently did, but Gary didn't seem to mind. "That's quite a handshake you have there," he said.
NegaMorph looked confused and subtly increased the strength to no effect. "You have a tough grip," he said and yelped as the spiderbot zapped him, deciding he was pushing his luck
"Well, it comes with being part gargoyle," said Gary, letting go.
NegaMorph was busy trying to pull the spiderbot off which had continued tazering him.
"Out of curiosity, how did that come about?" asked Matt. "Well," said Gary, "I was originally born about 200 years ago. I was a servant boy for an aristocratic family when the French Revolution came. I climbed up a tree to get to safety, but I fell and apparently got killed. I spent the next two centuries haunting my grave until Ghoulwyrm put me in a stone gargoyle body."
Matt sighed and aimed a half-glare at the direction Draco and Chip had gone. "So much I don't know," he said in a nasty voice.
"Well, Megan here was able to free me from Ghoulwyrm's control and give me the body I have now. I've been spending the last few weeks seeing the world and trying to control my bestial form. That's when I came to Hawaii and met these two." He indicated towards Jumba and Pleakley.
"Ah...cool," said Matt., "I have to go beat the experiments senseless for withholding information, again," as he walked off with an ignited plasma ball.
"Now wait a minute," said Draco, "Megan specifically told us not to tell you about Gary."
"And why's that?" said Matt as he got ready to throw the plasma ball.
"Because she knew you wouldn't be able to resist teasing him about it," said Chip.
"I'm not teasing Gary...I'm teasing NegaMorph," said Matt.
Luckily for the experiments, WARDEN tuned in. "Sir...I have Councilman Davine on the line."
"I better see about that," said Matt, dousing the plasma orb.
As he walked off, Chip said, "By the way, I actually did mean NegaMorph."
--
Matt walked into his room and saw the face of the Galvan from his trial. "Sir," he said, straightening his hat.
"Matthew Lynch, we have a very important mission for you," said Davine, "As you are aware, the Empire has been gaining more ground, thanks to OmegaMorph."
"Sorry...been out of contact for a week. What do you need me to do?" said Matt. Davine sighed, "This might be hard and should really require a fully equipped diplomat ship, but you are the closest and have...experience with the people involved. You have been to dimension D-31?"
"Uh, let's see," said Matt, trying to remember which dimension that was. Then he recalled a rather messy job he did back in his earlier years with the NSC. "Uh, I think so. Is there a particular reason you're asking?" asked Matt.
"Because I believe Dante is dead...and he was the only other pilot left. I understand completely if you refuse and there will be no backlash," said Davine.
Matt thought back to that mission and did not get any nostalgic feelings. Actually, he mostly felt guilt. "Actually, I think I will take this mission," said Matt, "I feel like I should get some closure on this."
--
A few minutes later and Gary and Megan were watching the multicolored space of Nullspace. He'd mentioned something about a detour. Techo could be seen fiddling with a conduit. "Oh...hey guys...ignore me. WARDEN said there was some kinda surge in the warp drive, trying to find it," he said, seeing them
"So, how exactly does it work?" asked Gary.
"Oh, makes sure we end up where we need and not in the middle of a sun or something," said Techo.
Gary then looked very nervous. "Relax," said Megan, "We don't have any accidents like that, right Techo?"
"Well...there was that time everyone got teleported to Arizona on the Shadow Hawk, but we were being attacked by Ectonurites at the time...OW!" he said as a spark shot out and threw him back 3 feet. At the same time the view outside was replaced by the mist of a wormhole warp, except this time it was more like a storm cloud.
"Um, Techo, is that a bad thing?" asked Gary.
Techo was out cold, a nasty burn on his hand. However a klaxon had began to scream. "Stabilizer failure...navigation system...offline...repair crews to engineering immediately," said WARDEN's voice.
Immediately, technicians started running towards the warp engines. "We better get him to the medical bay," said Megan as she grabbed Techo's arms. Gary grabbed his legs and picked him up.
"Structural integrity degrading...full system failure in 1.2 minutes...emergency materialization activating...eject jump drive at once." said WARDEN calmly.
Matt immediately started punching in the override system. Eventually WARDEN said, "Jump drive disengaged." The multicolored mess outside cleared away to reveal empty space. Matt breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Are we in the right universe?"
"Alert...core temperature rising...damage to coolant systems detected...ejecting," said Warden, ignoring Matt.
--
A hatch on the side of the Bladestorm opened and the glowing column of the ship's jump drive shot out, shooting out like a blue comet, before exploding in a huge dome of light. Doing so, it illuminated the plant they had been in the eclipse of.
--
Matt groaned with annoyance and said, "Now we're going to have to stop and do repairs. What planet is this here?" "This dimension's Earth, sir," said WARDEN.
"Scanning timeline...we are at the correct date...but the incorrect location...scanning for local signals," said WARDEN.
Matt glanced at the date and saw that it was the 22nd century. "Huh, for once we end up in the future instead of the past," said Matt.
"Negative...this is the time frame...attempting to communicate with contact," said WARDEN.
Matt sat back and glared as the next voice said, "We're sorry, but the planet you are trying to reach is busy, please try again later..."
Matt groaned and said, "Just land at the spot on Earth with the best available technology for repairing the warp drive."
"Scanning...location confirmed," said WARDEN. A hologram of the earth appeared and spun until it highlighted a location in America.
Matt frowned. "Wait a minute," he said, "That's Detroit, Michigan. I said the place best suited for repairing-"
"Scans indicate that technology available in Detroit is best suitable for jump drive repair," said WARDEN.
Matt sighed. "Crap...get a team together," he said.
Meanwhile, Gary and Megan had brought Techo over to the medical bay. "He is going to ok, right?" asked Megan.
"He's fine, watch," she said and brought him out of the sleep he was in.
"Ugh, I feel like I've been hit with a giant curling iron," said Techo.
"Well maybe this will cheer you up," said Gary as he reached into his bag, "I picked these up when I was in Brazil." He pulled out a bag of chocolate-coated coffee beans.
Techo grabbed it and threw them down the waste unit. "You numbskull...NEVER BRING COFFEE INTO THIS SHIP!" he yelled. Gary was about to ask when he saw the experiments' gazes.
Suddenly, Morph plunged down the chute and came back up with the bag. "Got it before it hit the garbage!" he said excitedly. The other experiments immediately crowded around him.
A spiderbot luckily earned a small award for saving the whole bay when it vaporized the bag. For a second, the experiments seemed about to attack it, till they realize what it could do.
Techo turned to Gary and said, "Do you have any more of those things?"
"Well, I've got two other bags in my other bag," said Gary, "It's actually quite tasty when-" He was cut off when the experiments made a rush for Gary's luggage.
"Gary, rule one: caffeine's like a cross between lucazade, cocaine, and kr-ta to experiments. We can safely say they will be no use for 12 hours except as shock troopers," Techo said in a gloomy voice.
--
Matt had set up base in the forest outside of Detroit. He had turned on the cloaking device so no one had noticed them coming in. Right now, he was at the door looking outside. It was apparently winter right now so there was snow anywhere. Suddenly, he heard the sound of something ricocheting off of metal. "What the-" Suddenly, five blurs flew past him and outside.
"What the hell was that? IF THEY SCRATCHED THE PAINTWORK..." he yelled, walking down the ramp, his shape shimmering as he began to lose his concentration...and as a result his form.
Just then, Megan and Gary ran out. "Matt, the experiments just-" Megan paused as Matt went into his dragon form. After pausing a moment to take it in, Megan continued, "The experiments just ate two bags of chocolate-coated coffee beans. They're out of control!"
Matt sighed and lowered his front paw down as the experiments ran by and made a little flick. After a few minutes, they found the experiments in a snow drift 40 feet away.
"How many times do I have to tell you not to eat..." started Matt when he did a head count, "Hey, where's Stitch and Hyena?"
"I think they went that way," said Gary, pointing at tracks in the snow leading towards Detroit.
Matt looked down to see two trails headed off into the distance. "Ah crap, WARDEN, get the base set up and get some vehicles down here. Guys, I always wanted to try experiment hunting. Any tips Lilo?" he said, shimmering back to human.
"Well, they'll probably be heading for the center of town," said Lilo, "They'll want to cause a lot of mayhem now."
"What is happening here?" asked Jumba as he walked towards them.
"Stitch and Hyena are on a demolition trek towards Detroit," said Matt.
"Ooh, have always wanted to see that. I will fetch camera," said Jumba excitedly before running back inside.
Then Matt realized something. "Wait...all the coffee's quarantined in the ship vault. Who gave them coffee?" he said sniffing. The best smell was on Gary. "Did we bring our own lunch?" he said menacingly, letting his teeth transform for extra effect when he grinned.
"Erm, I hadn't realized they had such a violent reaction to caffeine," said Gary, twiddling his fingers in a guilty way.
Matt's grin was like that of a shark when it had seen a drowning swimmer coated in meatloaf. "Really...well, I guess you volunteered to help," he said, grabbing Gary.
--
Captain Carmine Fanzone was sitting in his rusty car. He had been waiting for the light to turn green for over three minutes. "I swear, the machines get screwier every year," he muttered. Suddenly, a creature that resembled a blue koala jumped onto the hood of his car.
"WHAT THE?" he said, jumping back in his seat.
The creature laughed insanely and yelled "MEEGA NALA QUEESTA!" before ripping the bumper off and throwing it at the traffic lights.
"Hey!" yelled Fanzone. Then the creature licked the entire windshield, leaving it covered with drool. Then it laughed, jumped off the hood, and ran away.
"Control, this is Fanzone. Did something escape from the zoo, the exotic section?" he said into his radio and heard something rip the door off. A red koala creature pulled the other end of the radio out and ate it before running off after the first one.
Fanzone groaned to himself before pulling out his old-fashioned cell phone. "Something tells me this day's gonna go down the hill," he grumbled.
He was turning it on when someone knocked on his door. "Hi dude, did you see two pals of mine come this way; about so high, blue and red," said a British teenager with weird blue eyes.
"If you meant the mutant koalas, they ripped off my bumper and door. The red one even ate my radio." Fanzone glared at Matt and said, "Did you let those monsters loose?"
"No, I'm as normal as the next guy," said Matt.
A hovering police drone came into view. "Cease and desis..." it began and exploded as Matt clicked his fingers and overloaded its plasma power cell.
"Well...nearly normal."
Then a distant crash was heard and Matt said, "Oh, that must be them. Uh, I'll pay for your car and drone later." He quickly ran off in the direction of the crash.
Fanzone stared for a minute before remembering what he had been about to call. He pressed send and said, "Optimus...get your bots down to..." and stopped as a voice said, "Pizza Bot...may I take your order?"
Fanzone growled and said, "This is why I hate machines."
--
Matt and company peered round the corner. Stitch and Hyena were causing mayhem. Jumba was on the comm., in a sulk because Matt had refused to let him or Pleakley tag along. "Well, there they are, Lilo. What works when Stitch goes coffee crazy?" he asked, looking down at Lilo who was in experiment form.
"Well, normally I wait for him to tire out," said Lilo. A streetlight crashed down nearby them. "Which isn't an option here," she said, "But he does get really thirsty when he's wound up like this. We could catch him when he's drinking."
There was a tearing noise and part of a fire hydrant flew past them to embed in the wall. "You mean like that?" said Matt.
Stitch was busy gulping up the spurting water. "Ok, on the count of three, we jump and grab him," said Matt.
"Is that '1-2-3-go' or 'go on 3'?" asked Lilo.
"Oh, just go." said Matt, looking at the third member of their group. (Chloe having remained back at camp to help set it up.)
"Well, I suppose I better get ready," said Gary. He concentrated and his skin turned a deeper brown while his ears became pointed and his teeth grew a little sharper. Curved-back horns grew from his head and his feet, which he had remembered to remove his socks and boots from, grew into large claws. Then feathered wings and a leonine tail sprouted through preexisting holes.
Matt sighed. "Too slow," he said, grabbing Gary and pushing him into Stitch's field of sight.
Stitch stopped drinking and looked at Gary. "Um, hi," said Gary nervously, "Uh, you really shouldn't-" Stitch cut him off by spitting a mouthful of water at Gary's face.
Matt jumped out and tried to dogpile on Stitch. "C'mon...this is no way to behave," he said desperately before being grabbed and thrown at Hyena who punted him back to Stitch, who did it right back again. Gary and Lilo watched as Matt was used for impromptu tennis.
Suddenly, the two of them heard sirens wailing. Lilo looked to see a red and blue fire truck, an ambulance, a yellow compact car resembling Fanzone's car without the rust, a large green SWAT van, and a highway patrolman on a black and gold motorcycle with a similar sidecar driving towards them.
Matt at that point got sick of being punted and turned dragon half way back to Hyena, the full weight of his dragon form landing on Hyena. He proceeded to jump up and down till the moving stopped.
Lilo changed back to human form and approached the police officer on the motorcycle. "Sir, my friend's taking care of the, uh, bad doggies," she said, "You don't have to arrest them." She reached out to put her hand on his leg, but her hand went right through.
"You better leave now," said a voice from the fire truck, "This is no place for a small human. Autobots, transform!" Suddenly, the back section of the fire truck split off like a trailer while the front half converted into a tall red and blue robot.
The ambulance also transformed, turning an older-looking robot.
Then the police officer on the motorbike disappeared as the motorcycle transformed into a ninja-like robot. The sidecar unfolded and attached to the robot, forming samurai-like armor.
The yellow compact car uncurled into a relatively smaller robot.
Then the green SWAT transformed into a noticeably large and bulky robot.
Matt was about to blast Stitch into semi-consciousness when he heard that. "Oh you got to be kidding," he thought, turning to face them, still in dragon form.
"Easy there..." said the samurai robot, approaching Matt like he was some kind of wild animal.
Matt looked at the robots and said, "Look, I have the situation under-" Suddenly Stitch sucker-punched Matt into a wall.
Magnetic pincers appeared on the former ambulance's arms before they shot magnetic energy at Stitch. Stitch didn't seem bothered. He picked up a truck and smirked evilly at the ambulance droid before throwing the truck like it was made of cardboard
"Ok, this punk's going down," said the yellow bot that was the compact car. His hands converted into stinger-like devices which shot bolts of electricity at Stitch. Stitch dodged the blasts and ran towards the bot. Before he could react, Stitch lifted him up before throwing him into the samurai bot.
Matt came round, growling before realizing he could hear more growling. He turned to have a hail of plasma balls fired from Hyena explode on him.
Hyena gave a nasty laugh before the big green robot said, "Hey! Knock that off!" His hand converted into a wrecking ball before he swung it at him. Hyena was so concentrated on blasting Matt that he didn't see it coming until it hit him.
Matt waved the smoke away, snarling. "Nice shot," he said, before firing a blast of plasma and knocking the returning Hyena out the air and back down the hole he'd made when Matt had originally jumped up and down on him
Then Stitch approached the former fire truck and said, "Feeboogoo!"
"Uh, I don't know what you just said," said the robot, "But it's a fight you want, you've got it." He reached behind his back and pulled out a large ax. Then a face plate appeared over the lower half of his face.
Stitch settled for scrambling up onto the bot's head, extending his extra limbs and bringing all four fists down. The large robot winced as a sizeable dent was formed in his helmet. But then he reached up and swatted Stitch off. Stitch fell down to the ground. Then the bot lifted his ax and brought it down on Stitch, who caught it with his four hands.
Matt got up. "I think Hyena dislodged a scale," he said before seeing the standoff. "Oh come on," he muttered.
The red and blue robot seemed to be just as strong as Stitch and thus neither of them was able to force the ax one way or the other. Finally, Lilo shouted, "Stitch, down!"
Stitch seemed to come to before jumping out from under the axe. "Lilo!" he said happily, still partially wasted on the coffee running over to her. Matt sighed before shimmering and turning back to human. He wandered over. "What are you?..." began the green bot. Matt held up a hand and pulled out a stun rod. Hyena poked his head up angrily and fluffed up as Matt tapped him with the rod.
Hyena groaned and fell over. "He'll be fine," said Matt, "Just a 400 million volt shock. He'll sleep it off. Er, sorry about the big mess we made here. These guys were on a caffeine rush."
Matt knew what these were, Cybertronians, Autobots judging from the symbols...could be worse. "Nice to meet you," he said.
"Um, greetings," said the red and blue bot, "I am Optimus Prime, commander of this small Autobot force on Earth." He indicated the ambulance bot, the yellow bot, the samurai bot, and the green bot. "These are my men; Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl, and Bulkhead."
"Captain Lynch, NSS Bladestorm," said Matt. He noticed worriedly that the one called Ratchet seemed to take an interest at that.
"Hi, I'm Lilo," said Lilo, "This is my dog, Stitch."
"That's a dog?" said Bumblebee.
"Man, this planet gets weirder every day," said Bulkhead.
"We're not from this world, the NS...mmmglh," began Gary, stopping when Matt covered his mouth
"Um, this is our friend, Gary...uh..." Matt faltered as he tried to remember Gary's surname.
"Lesog."
"Lesog, that's it! Gary Lesog."
"That human looks even weirder," said Bulkhead.
"Well, I'm not really completely human," said Gary, "I'm part gargoyle."
Bulkhead looked blank. "What's a gargoyle?" he asked.
"Long story. No time here. My ship's on a schedule, needs fixing," said Matt quickly. He didn't like the gaze Ratchet was giving him.
"But Matt, they're Transformers," said Lilo.
"And we'll be seeing more of them as soon as we leave," said Matt hurriedly as he gathered up Hyena, "Uh, I can send a few of my men to clean up the mess they made here."
--
Back at the temporary base, Matt was giving a little history lesson. "The NSC and Cybertronians aren't exactly on good terms, like this for example," he said, showing a news file. It showed a city in chaos. Transformers were rampaging, shooting at anything moving. The picture flickered to a space battle of a barren planet, NSC ships systematically tearing unknown ships apart.
"Say, how comes they've got a different logo thingy than those guys back in town?" asked Lilo, pointing at the rampaging Transformers.
"This was first contact. The NSC thought they were the only one. A month before we won, a second bunch turned up...and were fired upon," said Matt, gloomily, "A special operations unit mistook them for reinforcements. They were a recon unit...unarmed."
"The way you say it, it sounds like you were leading that special ops unit," said Chip. Matt looked decidedly guilty at this. "You lead that special ops unit?" said Chip.
"No..." said Matt reluctantly. Inside he knew that was an utter lie, but he couldn't face telling them that. "But the Cybertronians count the unit pilots as war criminals."
"So they'll probably not want to help us much with our war," said Chloe.
"That's why we're here," said Matt, "We're here to try to improve the relationship between our two governments."
"We got the job because we were closest." said Matt, cutting off the computer image of a Titan class Leviathan using its doomsday torpedo on a planet's surface.
"Hmm, this is not going to be easy," said Chip, "Sounds like there are plenty of bots left who bear scars from your attacks."
"The Decepticons, the attackers hired assassins, only one pilot left," said Matt gloomily.
"Wait, what are Decepticons?" asked Draco.
Matt turned the viewer back on and zoomed in on the purple symbol of one of the city attackers. "These guys," said Matt.
"So… what's the difference between them and those other guys?" asked Contrinus.
Matt pressed in a few keys and the screen showed the Autobot and the Decepticon insignias. "The Autobots," said Matt, pointing at the insignia, "are the nicer robots. They were primarily built as a work force and most of their personal weapons are really just tools they use for labor. However, the Decepticons are the bad ones. They were built as military robots so they have real weapons. Also, they're the only ones that can fly."
Then the screen shifted to show a blue and white robot with a large hammer in his hand and the Autobot insignia on his chest. It also showed a grey robot with a huge cannon on his right arm and the Decepticon insignia on his chest. "These are the leaders of the two Transformers factions: Ultra Magnus of the Autobots and Megatron of the Decepticons. Ultra Magnus is a peaceful bot who only wants what's best for Cybertron. Megatron, however, is a tyrant who thinks the Decepticons should rule the universe. At some point during the Cybertronian War, the Decepticons were banished from Cybertron, but I think they're still around."
"Their fleeing armies went slap bang into a colony system," said Matt, gloomily.
"Let me guess, these guys have a very low opinion towards organic life, right?" said Chip.
"Nope, they have no opinion at all. Imagine an army of Mertles crossed with Draconus's lack of restraint." said Matt, striking out for an example
Lilo grimaced and said, "Not a good combination."
"Especially since they're all giant robots," said Draco.
"We hammered their orbiting fleet, but the planet was an industrialized moon, a giant city. Imagine how hard it would be to find Decepticons in the city?" said Matt. "We lost nearly 2000 men a day to ambushes."
"Their ability to transform into vehicle modes probably helped made their ambushed more affective," said Chloe.
"Yeah, plus they could scan a ruined tank and pretend to be a ruined vehicle among the bodies," said Matt, gloomily, "We brought a new model of mech unit into the field in response, so we could at least meet em on their terms. It worked insanely well, mostly cause the mecha's were...undead to them."
"Undead?" said Megan.
"Well, our mechas are inanimate objects, not like the Transformers. To them, a mecha's a puppet that's disturbingly similar to them," said Matt, "Plus, normally a Cybertronian notices when its arm is blown off and doesn't, say...pick it up and use it as a mallet."
"So how did the Autobots get involved with this?" asked Contrinus.
"A...a recon unit teleported in...to investigate. The mecha unit had just finished a mission...mistook them for backup...2 got away," said Matt, obviously uncomfortable with the subject.
"So the Autobots don't trust us," said Chip.
"No," said Matt, "That's why we're heading to Cybertron, to patch things up with them. Unfortunately, it looks like it'll take a while to repair the jump drive."
--
The Autobots returned to their base after their encounter with Stitch and Hyena. Optimus was going to go to his quarters to consider the event when the computer beeped. He walked over and looked at the screen. "It's a message from Cybertron, the Autobot Council," he said. After the incidents with Wasp and Lockdown, Jazz had given the Earth team the supplies they needed to contact Cybertron when needed.
When Optimus activated the message, the face of a sagely-looking robot appeared. "Alpha Trion, sir," said Optimus, saluting the Head of the Civilian Guilds.
"Optimus Prime, we were hoping you could help. You might have heard about the trouble the N.S.C have been having with some warlord or emperor or some such," said Alpha Trion.
"The N.S.C.?" said Optimus, "Are you referring to the aliens involved in the Ghost Pilots Massacre?"
"Your knowledge of Cybertronian history is impressive," remarked Alpha Trion.
"Thank you, sir," said Optimus, "I think it's important to learn from the past to prepare for the future."
The Cybertronian elder continued. "Well, they have requested help again and the Council has agreed to at least meet with their ambassador. But the ship appears to have gone off course. It was last detected in your area. Has anyone...strange turned up?" he said.
"Well, now that you mentioned it, we did encounter some strange beings about a megacycle ago," said Optimus, "They said they were from another world."
"Hmm...be careful, there is a rumor that they have a ghost pilot commanding the ambassador's ship," said Alpha Trion.
"I will keep an optic out for anything like that," said Optimus.
"Yes, and if so, keep your other optic on Field Tech Ratchet."
"Ratchet? Why?"
"Because he was one of the two survivors of that unfortunate incident," said Alpha Trion.
Optimus sighed. "Don't worry, if these people are the ambassador team, I'll make sure nothing goes wrong," he said
"Very well, Optimus, I'll leave it your servos," said Alpha Trion before signing off.
As Optimus walked away, he said to himself, "I hope I know what I'm getting us into."
There's the first chapter of my new story. I have really high hopes for this story, seeing how it's been burning a hole in my brain for about half a year now. Just to let you know, this story is based on the continuing saga me and my co-author are doing. We're coming into the Transformers universe about a few days after the events of 'Human Error'. Gary Lesog's introduction story is my account on deviantART. Anyways, I plan to introduce quite a few new Transformers to this story, so you'll definitely want to hang around for more updates. The next chapter should be up soon. Please review.