This was in the years shortly before Megatron left for Earth. Blitzwing, at the time rather young and inexperienced, loved to wander the galaxy and explore unknown worlds. Of course this was mainly for the purpose of finding new energy sources, but it also fed Blitzwing's sense of adventure. And if Autobots were present, so much the better-especially if Astrotrain and Octane happened to be with him. Then they could experience the thrill of battle. So far most of Blitzwing's expeditions had turned out well for him. Aside from getting chased away by Autobots a few times, in most cases he and the other two had managed to secure at least enough energy for themselves. But one day something unexpected happened...

Blitzwing and Octane were headed for a strange world that Octane figured had lots of energy. Upon approaching it, they saw a weird solid "ring" around the planet. It was not a circular ring, but seemed more like a road with twists and turns in it. The surface of the planet seemed mostly metallic, but there appeared to be a lot of water in several areas.

Both Triple-Changers landed and transformed. They got out their weapons in case of a surprise.

"I'm detecting a large energy supply over there," Octane told Blitzwing, and pointed to a large square building a few hundred yards away.

"Well what are we waiting for, let's get it," Blitzwing said eagerly.

They made it to the entrance of the building without incident.

"This is strange," Blitzwing began, "I'm positive we should have been attacked or at least confronted by now. Something isn't right." No sooner had he said that than from out of nowhere a huge electrified net was dropped on them. The current passing through the net was strong enough to knock them both out.

Blitzwing awoke groggily, and once his optical sensors were able to focus properly he saw he was imprisoned inside a cell. He rushed at the bars, but was thrown back by a strong electrical discharge the instant he made contact.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Blitzwing cried out in pain. A strange creature, with multiple faces surrounding its egg-shaped head and numerous tentacles extending from its lower half, approached Blitzwing's cell.

"Ah, he's awake. Excellent," the creature said.

"Who are you and why am I in here?" Blitzwing demanded.

The creature paid him no heed. Another creature, identical to the first one, also approached the cell and stared at Blitzwing.

"A rare specimen indeed," the second creature said, "A Triple-Changer. And how lucky it was that we managed to secure two of them."

"We must find out how this occurred," the first creature mused, "This is something our best scientists were never able to come up with."

"Release me at once, or I'll...!" Blitzwing shouted. He sighed and didn't finish his sentence because the two creatures were still ignoring what he said. What creeped Blitzwing out at this point was the fact that he was getting the impression that these creatures were behaving as though they regarded him as a lower life form-even lower than Blitzwing regarded most other life forms. After all, Blitzwing would talk to other life forms even though he deemed them quite inferior. By not speaking directly to him or even acknowledging that he was intelligent, the creatures appeared to be even colder and more cruel than Blitzwing ever thought of being himself. A chill ran through his circuits.

A few hours after his capture, Blitzwing's cell was opened and some rather fierce-looking robotic guards roughly grabbed him. He pulled against them in protest but one of them struck him with a rodlike device that sent a powerful and painful electrical current through him. Each time Blitzwing offered any resistance he was zapped with the taser. Pretty soon he gave up and collapsed in exhaustion. The guards then dragged him away to the laboratory. There he was forced onto an examination table and his wrists and ankles were securely clamped so he couldn't get away. As he was being secured, he glanced over and noticed that Octane was already on a similar table and the strange creatures were already working on him. Blitzwing wondered if Octane was fully conscious, but a sudden scream from Octane soon confirmed that he was. What are they doing to him? Blitzwing wondered, and what are they going to do to ME?

He did not have to wait long to find out. One of the guards opened his chest panel, and several of the strange creatures-holding various instruments in their tentacles, came over and started poking around in Blitzwing's insides. So far, so good-at least for now whatever they were doing was not activating any of his pain receptor circuits. Suddenly, a huge wave of pain swept over him and he screamed in agony. The pain subsided momentarily, and he wondered what had caused that. This went on for several hours-with occasional bursts of pain that Blitzwing didn't understand what was causing it. After awhile, he noticed that although he could still feel his arms and legs, he couldn't move them even if he wanted to. They've severed my motor relays! But to what purpose? Blitzwing thought. Then he was taken off the exam table and placed on the floor. He still could not move. One of the creatures had a device in its tentacles that looked like a small communicator. A button on the device was pressed, and suddenly Blitzwing transformed into Tank mode. Another button was pressed, and he transformed back to robot mode. The creature tried this several more times, and each time he only transformed between tank and robot mode. The creature then pressed a third button on the device, and Blitzwing transformed into Jet mode. From Transformation noises nearby, Blitzwing could tell that they were doing the same thing to Octane.

After the transformation tests were complete, Blitzwing and Octane were hauled back onto the exam tables, tied down as before, and the severed motor relays were welded back together again. Blitzwing expected this to be less painful than before but if anything it was even more so. The bursts of pain were a lot more frequent and prolonged this time. And then the creatures opened up a panel in his head and started messing around there too. Blitzwing had no idea what they were up to this time but it felt like they were installing something. This process caused even more pain than the two previous procedures. Blitzwing was an emotional wreck by the time it was all over and he was unceremoniously dumped back into his cell. He still had no idea what those creatures were nor even the name of the planet he was on.

The next day, Blitzwing awoke to the sounds of someone being dragged into the cell directly across from him. Before, this cell had been empty. And what surprised him most was the nature of the new prisoner.

"An AUTOBOT?!" Blitzwing exclaimed loudly. But this was no Autobot that he recognized. The new prisoner was orange and black, and looked like it had helicopter and car parts in his robot mode. He was out cold completely and did not awaken for a few hours. Later on, after the new prisoner woke up, several guards went into the cell, along with a couple of the strange creatures. The Autobot struggled but was soon tasered into submission. Although most of Blitzwing''s view was blocked by guards, it appeared as though the creatures were extracting something from the prisoner. Exactly what, Blitzwing could not tell, but by the Autobot's screams he knew it was not a pleasant experience.

One of the creatures suddenly turned and pointed at Blitzwing. "What about this one?" it asked.

"We already tested him," another creature replied, "He spent far more time in space than this Autobot, and needs to be decontaminated before we can do this procedure on him. Otherwise the samples will be worthless."

Later on, Blitzwing was given a small cube of energon-barely enough to sustain him. He then noticed that the Autobot in the cell across from him had recovered from the "procedure," and was now fiddling with something in the back wall of his cell. He apparently had a cutting laser and was quickly trying to find something-a way out, perhaps.

"Bingo," the Autobot said, but so quietly that Blitzwing barely heard him. Suddenly the bars on the Autobot's cell disappeared. Then, to Blitzwing's surprise, the Autobot opened his cell.

"Gotta get you outta here," the Autobot said.

Blitzwing didn't bother arguing-considering the circumstances-and he and the Autobot headed for Octane's cell.

"Do you know what those things are that captured us?" Blitzwing asked the Autobot.

"I've heard of them before. They're an ancient race. I think they call themselves Quintessons," the Autobot replied.

But there was no time for further discussion. Halfway to Octane's cell, a guard saw them and pressed the alarm button. Pretty soon the corridor in the direction of Octane's cell was so full of guards that were all firing their weapons that there was no way of reaching him now. Blitzwing found his weapons and fired a shot into the crowd of guards. There was an explosion down the corridor, but soon it became apparent that Blitzwing and the Autobot had to find a way out and quickly. They ran through the corridors, taking the path of least resistance. Finally they found the exit-but the doors were locked.

"I'll handle this," Blitzwing stated, and transformed into Tank mode. He then broke down the door. The minute they got outside, Blitzwing and the Autobot transformed-Blitzwing into jet mode and the Autobot into Helicopter mode. Each picked a separate direction and headed away from there as fast as they could. Fortunately, there were few laser cannons set up outside, and Blitzwing easily dodged the beams sent in his direction. Soon he was clear of the planet and headed for where Astrotrain was expecting to meet him. He was wondering what he was going to tell Astrotrain when suddenly some sort of electromagnetic disruption seemed to go off in his head. From that time forward, Blitzwing could not remember anything that had transpired on that planet. He only vaguely remembered the faces of the creatures that had tormented him. Only the association of those faces with excruciating pain remained with him. And, when Octane turned up years later, he too had forgotten what had happened.

THE END!