Hello and welcome to Absurdity. Unlike previous works on this account, this will be in a continuity running parallel to my previous stories. However, by this fanfiction's very nature, this really has no meaning whatsoever (you'll understand why as you read). In fact, this fic is different than anything I have written before. One more thing, this story may contain spoilers for my other fics, so be warned. There is also some crossover work that will happen in this fic, so be advised about that (You can check the AO3 version for more details). With that said, I hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Oh, and if you are wondering about the meaning of the title… well, I will say this without spoiling it: it refers to a deeper philosophical meaning that will be explored in this fic in great depth.

Chapter 1 – Prologue

Jasper, Nevada

An irritating electronic beep reverberated throughout the halls of Memorial High School in Jasper, Nevada. Sounds of shuffling, footsteps and chatter followed as students left their classes for the last time of the week. "Hey Raf!" A voice called in one of the hallways.

A small boy turned his head in response, "Hi Dan!"

The voice's owner made his way through the mass of teenagers who were crowding the hallway. His dark chocolate looked down onto the younger computer wizard. His glasses frame almost completely matched Raf's, except his were jet black. "You wanna come to my house?" Daniel asked.

"Sure," Raf replied with a smile, "just let me make a quick call."

Raf walked a few meters in the opposite direction and pulled out his phone. Daniel could barely overhear their conversation. "Hey 'Bee? I'll be coming back to base late, I'm going to a friend's… okay, I'll send it to you."

I've never heard of any human being named 'Bee'… Daniel thought.

He ended the call and caught up with Daniel, who was already walking in the opposite direction. The two boys made their way out of the overpopulated school with haste. After narrowly avoiding a pack of known bullies, they found themselves a block away from Daniel's house.

"Man, Vince has gotten worse these days," Raf commented.

Daniel cocked his head to the side as they rounded the corner onto his street. "I agree, he really is such a self-absorbed prick."

"He's just so rude!" Raf added.

"Yeah, I know… think of it this way, in a few years' time after high school, he'll be begging someone like us to hire him as a cleaner because he can't get a job doing anything else. You don't get anywhere street-racing your life away."

Raf nodded in agreement as they entered Dan's house. It was a relatively large two-story building with modern furnishings and décor. They immediately proceeded up the stairs to Daniel's bedroom. The interior of the room was spartan: a single bed was in the corner of the room with a pearl white "L shape" desk directly opposite. The desk only had a keyboard, mouse and a large monitor on it.

Daniel pulled his laptop out of his backpack and plugged it into all the peripherals on the desk. Raf got his laptop out and sat on the bed, reviewing some code he'd written a while back. "What'd you wanna do today, Dan?"

Daniel sighed, "Oh, I don't know… there's a hackathon (a competitive event in which people collaborate to create things in a short period of time) on in New York. Wanna watch a live stream of it?"

"Sounds great!" Raf beamed.

Daniel flashed a smile and turned to his computer. He loaded the live event and put it on full screen. Raf was mesmerized by the lengths people were going through to stay on top. One team's table was filled with mostly empty coffee mugs. Apparently, they'd been up all-night working on a robot that could do stand-up comedy. I wish I was that skilled, Raf thought bitterly.

Daniel's thoughts, however, were much different. How cute, I've seen robots that could make this look like a child's science fair project.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. Daniel pulled it out of his pocket to see what it was.

INCOMING SUBSPACE TRANSMISSION ORIGINATING FROM SECTOR MW-141

Speak of the devil. Velocitron. Daniel thought.

Daniel turned his head to see Raf still paying complete attention to the livestream. "Hey Raf, I need to do something… I'll be right back!"

Raf didn't even so much as respond. Daniel smiled and walked out of his room into the hall and rounded a corner and went downstairs. Just at the bottom of the stairs, there was a metal door to the left, which he opened (but neglected to close), revealing the house's garage.

However, this garage was not in any way ordinary. Sterile, black workbenches wrapped around the room with microscopes and other scientific instruments. Vials of various chemicals (including one in particular that glowed a brilliant cyan blue) were held in a glass cabinet above one of the work benches. A computer terminal was beeping and flashing continuously since Dan had entered the room. He walked over to it and pressed a few buttons and verified the signature of the transmission.

Definitely Velocitronian, Daniel silently confirmed.

Daniel tapped a large, green button on the terminal screen labeled 'accept.' The screen immediately filled with a live video feed of a Velocitronian femme. Her armor was red and white and sported the insignia of Velocitron. Everything about her screamed the Velocitronian ideal: speed.

Daniel gave a genuine smile, "Your excellency, it has been a while."

"Indeed, if you consider six Earth months to be 'a while'" the Velocitronian femme quipped.

Daniel rubbed his head, remembering the massive difference in lifespan between their species. "Right, how is Velocitron? Moving ever faster as always?"

"You know us too well, Daniel, and you don't have to refer to me as 'your excellency" she chuckled, "how's Earth?"

Daniel's posture relaxed, "The same old story, Override. Humanity is still completely ignorant about universe around them, which is still for the best… for now. Curiously, after I installed a new sensor array I detected a few Autobot signals in the town I live in."

Her optics widened, "Autobots? On Earth? Do you know which ones they are?"

Daniel shook his head, "no, I haven't had a chance to investigate their presence here on Earth. Although they seemingly haven't been causing any trouble, which I am grateful for."

Override scratched her chin in contemplation, "I assume given by your tone that there hasn't been any Decepticon activity."

"None to my knowledge," Daniel responded with a sigh of relief, "although, having Autobots roaming the streets doesn't exactly reassure me. We have a saying on Earth, 'where there's smoke there's fire' and the array isn't completely online yet and has an extremely limited range, so I could very well be wrong."

Override nodded in understanding, "anyway, the actual reason for me calling you is to invite you to a ceremonial race celebrating the 300-year anniversary of the Interstellar Union."

"Will you be racing?" Daniel smirked.

"Of course!" Override replied as if she was offended by the question.

Before Daniel could make another snarky comment, he heard someone call in the distance: "Daniel, where are you?"

Shit. Daniel thought as he heard Raf come closer.

The younger boy barged into the garage, "there you are! I didn't…" he trailed off, setting his eyes upon the Red and White femme. "Oh… um."

"Override?" Daniel asked, "I think I'll need two tickets for that race."

"Of course," the femme responded, looking at something behind her, "I have to go. The race starts in a deca-cycle."

The transmission ended, leaving the terminal screen blank. Daniel facepalmed at his stupidity as Raf looked around the room. "How… how do you know a Cybertronian" Raf asked.

Daniel didn't respond for a moment, he still was upset that he didn't see this coming. How could I have forgotten about Raf!

"That was Override. She's the leader of Velocitron," Daniel explained flatly while getting up out of his chair, "and this is my laboratory. Where I screw around with science and create stuff."

"Velocitron? Is that another planet?" Raf questioned as he continued to look around.

Daniel took a deep breath, "now, I'm sure you won't believe me when I tell you this… wait? How do you know of other worlds… or Cybertron for that matter?!"

Raf took a deep breath and tried to meet his friend's eyes. His anxiety shone through his face like a flashlight against a thin sheet of paper. Before he could speak however, Daniel took a step back, "Wait a minute, I knew Bee wasn't a human name!" His eyes darted around in thought, remembering all the times he had mentioned it while phoning 'a friend.'

"At first, I thought it was a nickname. Those things can be weird, you know?" Daniel babbled. He walked to the center of the room, facing away from his younger friend. "But now! 'Bee is short for Bumblebee? Isn't it?"

Daniel could hear Raf gulp. He turned around to see… fear in his eyes? Raf slowly nodded in response to his question.

"Tell me, if I were to scan for Autobot signals right now, would I detect one right on my doorstep?" the taller boy inquired with irritation lacing his words.

"I don't know."

Daniel brushed passed him and pressed a few buttons on his terminal. A map of Jasper came up and he typed a few extra commands in. After a few seconds, three Autobot insignias appeared, two of which were nowhere nearby, however, one was just across the street. Daniel narrowed his eyes and scowled. "Well… at least he isn't literally on my doorstep,"

"Look, it's not like they're going send your address to the Decepticons!"

Daniel facepalmed and zoomed in on the Autobot insignia. "See this?" Daniel nearly yelled, pointing at the symbol, "In this galaxy, this symbol means one of two things: 'shoot me' or 'do not shoot me.' So, you can see why I am not too thrilled about having a car marked with THAT outside my house which happens to have technology that could be valuable to those who think 'shoot' when looking at that symbol."

"How can you detect Autobot signals?" Raf suddenly asked.

Daniel took a deep breath, "I'm in the process of installing a new sensor array on the Roof that will allow me to monitor subspace signals globally, however, right now I can only monitor Jasper. I managed to call in a few favors at Quintesson Intelligence to acquire both the Autobot and Decepticon transponder codes and frequencies."

"If that were to fall into Decepticon hands…" Raf softly started.

"I know. And that isn't close to everything I have here."

Raf looked away from Daniel. The taller boy couldn't exactly tell what the young computer genius was feeling, but he knew it couldn't be good. Shit, I think I really scared him… he must really care about this 'Bumblebee.'

"Hey Raf?" Daniel spoke in a cheerier tone.

"What."

"You should know that I have taken precautions to prevent my tech from getting in the wrong hands. This entire area is rigged to self-destruct if I deem it necessary."

Raf looked at Daniel and sighed, "What happens now? Are you going to escort me out and promise to forget about this entire situation?"

Instead of directly answering his question, Daniel inquired, "how long did you tell Bumblebee you'd be staying here?"

Raf was taken aback by the question, "two hours."

Daniel quickly looked at the time on his phone. His face seemed to light up like a Christmas tree, "then we have time for a quick adventure! Have you ever stepped foot on another planet?"

"No."

"Brilliant! There's a first time for everything!" Daniel exclaimed.

"I don't think this is a good idea," Raf shifted uncomfortably.

"Nonsense Raf," Daniel exhaled as he walked closer to him, "I've been doing this for three years now. Trust me, I'm not going to take you to a warzone or anything like that."

The younger boy was slightly put at ease. Daniel walked passed him and opened a closet that Raf had just noticed. He grabbed a lab coat and put it on, as well as getting a strange looking gun from the same closet.

"I still don't know -"

Before Raf could finish his comment, Daniel fired his 'gun' at the wall, creating a flat, yellowish, oval portal.

"Woah." Raf gasped.

"You haven't seen half of it yet," Daniel smirked.

Wait a minute, I forgot something, Daniel remembered. He went over to a cupboard and grabbed another device, called a hypospray. Then, he grabbed a vial from a drawer and slid it into the back of the device. "Now, before we go anywhere, I'm going to need you to hold out your arm."

Raf raised a brow, "okay?"

Dan decided to make this process as painless as possible. He quickly darted towards Raf, grabbed his arm and injected the serum into his arm with a hiss.

"What was that?" Raf inquired, seemingly unfazed by the whole ordeal.

"That was an immune-system enhancement serum, it will prevent you from dying a horrible death even before even taking your first breath on another organic world," Daniel explained, "the bacteria and other nasty things floating around on other worlds are completely alien to our immune-systems. So, they need to be enhanced for us to survive."

Raf nodded in understanding.

"Oh, and that shot will extend your lifespan for about 20 years or so."

Not even looking at the other boy's astonished facial expression, Daniel tapped a few buttons on a screen on the strange pistol he'd shot at the wall just a few seconds prior. Where to… Daniel pondered, oh I know! He finished pressing buttons on gun and pulled the trigger once more. With a zap, the portal went from being a solid yellow color to being like a window which led to another world.

"Come along Raf!" Daniel cheerfully said as he went through the portal.

Raf followed behind, jumping through the oval shaped portal onto a type of soil he had never felt before. It was squishier than the soil on Earth, like walking on a giant sponge. He gasped at the landscape dominated by massive, bright green, snowcapped mountains. One of the planet's suns had just dipped below the tallest mountains, while the other smaller one just barely peeked between two mountains. "Wow…" he glowed.

"Turn around," Daniel ordered with a big smile.

Raf did what he was told. His eyes were would have fallen out of their sockets if he had opened them any wider. His jaw dropped to the floor, "Oh my God."

Large, silvery megascrapers taller than the planet's clouds stood before them, backed by even larger mountains. They all glistened in the sunset, turning them a beautiful shade of red. Only after a few seconds did Raf notice the car-like vehicles that were flying around the city's buildings like they were on roads.

"Where are we?" Raf breathed.

"Raf, I'd like to officially introduce you to Quintessa," Daniel grinned, "officially the first extraterrestrial world you have set foot on."

They stood in silence for over a minute, observing the city ahead of them. Raf noticed large, metallic, egg-shaped things floating in traffic with the flying cars he had noticed earlier. "What are those?" he asked while pointing at one of the egg-shapes.

"Those are the Quintessons themselves. They are naturally very frail beings, only naturally suited for very specific environments such as oceans ponds. These metal suits allow them to live in environments they'd normally be unsuited to."

Raf nodded in understanding.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Union City awaits!"

"Union City?" Raf asked as he followed behind Daniel.

"Yes, it was built after the Interstellar Union was founded 299 years ago. It was designed to be a multi-species city. It can accommodate beings the size of humans all the way up to the size of Cybertronians themselves!"

"May I ask a question?" Raf asked after a few minutes of walking, "what's with the lab coat?"

Daniel stopped and turned heel to face Raf, "I don't just go on pleasure trips like this, most of the time I'm exploring, and it's important to have protective clothing when travelling the unknown. Besides, it's my signature in this universe."

"This universe?" Raf questioned.

"Forget about it, I'll tell you about the multiverse later."

About ten minutes later, the two boys found themselves at a road. Unlike the other flying vehicles, the cars on this road had old-fashioned wheels, which didn't, however, slow them down in the slightest. The cars whizzed by like lightning bolts, creating massive winds for pedestrians on the sidewalk. Daniel gestured Raf to follow him along the sidewalk to a bench with a giant pole sticking out of the concrete next to it. "Seriously Dan? A city bus? I take those all the time in Jasper!"

"These aren't like your regular terrestrial city busses."

Daniel pressed a button on his phone. Instantly, a bus came out of the blisteringly fast traffic and stopped in front of the pole. "The number 1701 Downtown bus comes every ten seconds," Daniel said with a sheepish grin. The bus was filled with alien organisms. From beings that looked like giant houseflies to massive brown slugs.

He tapped his phone against a terminal screen at the front of the bus and gestured for Raf to hurry up. "Get to your seat and hold on!"

Raf sat next to Daniel. "Seriously. You need to hold on." Daniel warned as they started to pull into traffic.

Suddenly, Raf felt like he was in a rocket going into space. The G-Force applied to his body by the bus's acceleration made his cheeks press against his skull. Like a floppy dog in a wind tunnel.

After a few seconds, the acceleration stabilized and Raf regained his wits. He gawked at how fast things went by outside the window, like if someone were to film a one-hour car ride and sped it up to take a minute. "Don't get too comfortable," Daniel cautioned, "we're getting off in fifty stops."

Raf rolled his eyes and thought, fifty stops, how long with take?

In the corner of his eye, Raf could see Daniel about to press the bus's stop button. Oh shit. He immediately grabbed a hold of a nearby pole as the bus rapidly decelerated to a stop. Again, in a daze, Daniel had to pull his younger friend off the bus, "comon, the bus driver won't wait forever."

"Qu'va!" Daniel said apologetically to the driver who waved him off.

Daniel sighed and watched as Raf wobbled around on the sidewalk, careful to keep him away from the road. "D-Daniel?" He asked.

"Yes?"

"Can we not do that again?" Raf moaned.

Daniel chuckled, "Of course. I could have just created a portal to where we wanted to go… it's all about the experience y'know?"

Raf glared at him, "That was not fun"

"Sorry, the next and final thing we'll do here will make it up, I swear."

Raf looked at his friend skeptically, but nodded nonetheless, "lead the way."

Daniel resumed his cheerful attitude as they walked up to one megascraper's lobby. As entered the elevator, however, instead of having a bunch of buttons to select a floor, they had a numberpad and a screen. Daniel entered the number 2000.

"You have selected floor two-thousand: observation deck. Is this what you want?" an automated voice spoke in English.

"Yes," Daniel responded.

Unlike the bus, which was an absolute nightmare in terms of acceleration and G-Forces, the megascraper's elevator gracefully ascended into the sky. Raf could see the floors rapidly increasing at about fifteen floors per second. The ride took just over two minutes, and without problem they exited the elevator.

The observation deck was massive, though relatively uncrowded. Three Cybertronians looked out over the city, chatting with a few Quintessons. Raf followed Daniel into another small elevator that took them to a platform that allowed human sized organisms a good view. There was no one else on this platform and Raf placed his hands on the glass. "Holy crap."

Looking down, it looked like you were flying on a terrestrial passenger jet. The surface seemed so far away and so tiny. Yet, they were still very close to the rooftops of the other megascrapers "How far away are we from home?" Raf asked.

"I'd say around 15,000 Parsecs from Earth," Daniel replied nonchalantly.

Holy shit, Raf thought as he did the math in his head, that means that if we could travel at lightspeed, I'd take us 49 thousand years to get home!"

"That's quite a distance" Raf understated, "what's the range on that thing?"

Daniel stretched his head, "theoretically infinite within 4D Spacetime."

'What about other universes? You mentioned…"

"You're opening a whole new can of worms there, Raf. I suggest you drop it."

"Okay," Raf huffed as he looked over the brilliant, alien landscape. "What about these Quintessons? Are they friendly towards us?"

Daniel cracked a smile, "the Quintessons are a very complex matter, and I suppose that I'd have to give you a crash course on their history in order to answer that question.

"Go on," Raf pressed.

"I guess we should start at the beginning," Daniel muttered. Suddenly a grin appeared on his face when he thought of an old movie scene that could help him explain this, "did you ever hear the tragedy of Quintus Prime?"

Raf immediately recognized the meme he was referencing, but decided to go along with it. "No."

"I thought not. It's not a story the Autobots would tell you. It's a Cybertronian legend. Quintus was one of the thirteen original primes, so powerful and so wise he could use an artifact called the 'Emberstone' to influence the base elements to create life… He had such a knowledge of biology, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."

"He could actually save people from death?" Raf grinned.

At this point, Daniel could barely keep a straight face. "Manipulating life is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."

"What happened to him?" Raf giggled, unable to contain himself.

"He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his creations everything he knew, then they killed him in his sleep. Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."

"Is it possible to learn this power?" Raf wheezed.

"Not from Optimus."

Daniel started to howl with laughter, causing everyone on the observation deck to look at them quizzically. "What's so funny?" A Quintesson asked.

"Sorry, just giving my friend here a history lesson laced with a bit of humor," Daniel replied sheepishly.

"Ooo, history! I happen to be a history professor at Union University!" the spheroid beamed passionately, "what are you studying?"

"He was just telling the creation story of your species," Raf replied meekly.

"Quintesson history eh? Excellent choice, in fact, the best choice in my expert unbiased opinion."

Daniel snorted, "then perhaps you could tell him about the Imperial era pertaining specifically to Cybertron?"

The Quintesson's demeanor immediately shifted, "those were dark times for everyone. My people were spacefaring long before anyone else and we conquered many worlds: including Cybertron. We manipulated them with the ultimate aim of them becoming subservient to us. We failed and as a result, were driven off-world. The modern Autobot insignia is actually derived from the slave brand we used to sell them on the market. Many believe it was our interference that caused the Autobot-Decepticon war. Which has ravaged every corner of this galaxy. Ironic. That war was the main driving force for the collapse of the Quintesson Empire, but, it also was the catalyst for the formation of the Interstellar Union."

"I keep hearing about this 'interstellar union," Raf spoke, "what is it?"

"The Interstellar Union or ISU was formed 299 years ago because of the sheer damage caused by the Autobot-Decepticon war," the Quintesson explained, "everyone was suffering and dying. During the time between the collapse of the Empire and the modern era, my kind underwent various reforms behind the scenes. The Imperially driven Quintesson race was deceptive and vile, fueled by arrogance and an insatiable lust for power. However, after centuries of contemplation, we changed and reached out to other worlds diplomatically for the first time in our history. The Interstellar Union was the result of this diplomacy. The ISU today is an interstellar state that spans over 350 sectors of the known Milky Way, and is dedicated to peace…"

Daniel spotted someone entering the observation deck. A human. Like him, he had a stark white lab coat. His light blue hair was spiky and wore the same shade of blue under his lab coat to match.

"Nope. Not dealing with a Rick today," Daniel muttered.

Daniel could hear the professor getting into a tangent before interrupting, "I'm so sorry professor, but we really should be going."

"But Daniel…" Raf moaned.

"No time," Daniel whispered in his ear, "we have to go. Now."

Raf nodded and said goodbye to the Quintesson who had spoken with them. Dan quickly opened a portal nearby and they both jumped through into his garage. He quickly closed the portal and exhaled.

"What was that about?" Raf asked as he dusted off his shoulder.

"Somebody I really don't feel like talking about right now," Daniel grumbled as he throwed his lab coat onto one of the tables, "I believe your two hours is almost up."

Raf looked at the time and agreed, "well, I should grab my things."

Daniel escorted Raf out of the garage into his bedroom upstairs, where he grabbed his laptop and backpack. Before Daniel opened the door to go outside he asked, "are you available in ten days from now?"

Raf thought for a moment before responding, "yeah? Why?"

"I was wondering if you would want to watch a race on another alien world that is galactically renowned for their speed."

"Sure, why not?" Raf laughed.

"I'll text you later with the details," Daniel confirmed, "one more thing. You CANNOT tell the Autobots anything you've seen today? Do you understand? Just don't mention it and you'll be fine."

"Of course, I'm sure they'd get all overprotective if they found out…"

"That's the least of my worries, Raf." Daniel sighed as he opened the door, "look, you have a ride to catch."

Raf immediately spotted Bumblebee parked across the street. "See you later Daniel!" He waved. The younger boy ran across the street and the yellow and black car's front passenger door opened.

Dan watched as the car sped off into the distance and thought, what have I done? Have I just opened Pandora's Box?