Transformers: Rebirth

by Zero Input

In this three-part story, follow three incidents in ancient history where humans interacted with the alien beings known as TRANSFORMERS, as the Decepticons vie for conquest and the Autobots seek survival.

111101111

Dinobots

App. 12,000 B.C.

"Big happy ceremony! We defeat spear tribe today!" the tribe leader, Mina, shouted with mirth. The other upraised their stones. "Might makes right, might makes right!" they shouted.

"Big scary men with spears beaten now," said Thot, the tribe elder. "Now I give Mina my precious keepsake. Precious stone from volcano in the north."

Mina grabbed hold of it. It glowed an uncanny red. She smiled. "This is special happy-maker for you and Fier," Thot said. Mina looked round. There in the middle sat Fier, blushing. She bundled up to him, and clasped his wrist.

"Today we be married!" cried Mina. "Happy day today!" They all cheered.

That night, Mina sat alone in the starlit darkness. She pondered her various victories over the giants and the opposing tribes. Soon she would be leader of the Kal-Est tribe, and their empire would expand throughout the earth beyond. She yawned and stretched. Then Fier came up to her, to sit and watch the stars with her.

They spent hours speechless at the great black canvas. "Look!" Mina said. "Two red falling stars! They come soon! This good luck." Fier smiled and looked into her glossy eyes. "We go to find the shiny things tomorrow, no?"

They went into the forest in a large group to find the fallen meteorites. But what were they? The smoke had cleared. "Large strange rock!" Mina said, feeling metal fragments. "Strange material!" She turned about quickly. "Good for selling, and keeping, yes?"

The elder shook his old head. "No. This is messenger from God. We make altar here, and wait for him to come. Look—this not the only rock to fall from space. Four others just like it, too. They come to fight our enemies. Let them do their work. Do not disturb."

The group was awash in silence. But Mina wanted to know more about these fallen rocks. The others all went back to the camp, but Mina stayed behind.

She clamored up to the tip of the fallen ship's tip, to look down into the rubble. The whole thing looked like it smoked for a while. In the depths of the ship, she discovered unearthly things—chunks of some kind of metal she had never known before. But she did know—just then—that this ship was alive. She climbed out of the ship, full of awestruck wonder, and, for a split second, she thought she saw a tall manlike being standing in the sun. She looked away, and turning, it was gone. She headed back to camp, her head swimming with questions.

The camp burned with festivities and joy that night. But Mina did not participate. She stood at the edge of the camp, her fists resting on her chin. "What wrong, Mina?" said Fier, coming to her. "You seem depressed."

"We find new thing today. But Elder want to leave it alone. Why?"

"He only care about our well-being, Mina. You should know. You leader! You care for those under you. No?" Fier grinned.

But Mina was still mopey. "We go tomorrow," she said, turning to him. "We find the new beings. We find out about them. Maybe they take us to heaven, from whence they come."

Fier sat there listlessly for a while. "But what if we no come back alive? What then? You leader!"

Mina stood up, and strode away. At ten paces, she turned, resolute. "Then I go alone, and die alone. You my husband now. We must stick together."

"You so stubborn!" cried Fier. "But that why I like you."

"The other rock fall somewhere around here," said Mina. "Let us go into these woods."

"But Mal'Est Tribe live in here! There only two of us!" said Fier. "We surely get killed."

"Not so," said Mina, "I strongest woman in Kal-Est! We overcome them yet." She turned to Fier. "I tell you, Fier, these beings show us to the legendary city—the city of the gods."

Fier's face went blue. "That city only in legends! How you think that possible!"

"I know in my gut," said Mina. "These beings from the beyond. I know it." Fier gulped.

They came to a clearing. The woods chirped and cooed in their wake. Mina sat down. "Now I eat," she said. "Here." She threw a piece of meat to Fier. He juggled it in his hands momentarily, and ate of it. They waited until dusk. Nothing could prepare them for the next incident.

They were sleeping when snorts and snickers awoke them. They slowly awoke, peering about, trying to figure out what made the noises. Sure enough, in the moonlight, they spotted a group of Mal'Est people, encircling them, wielding axes and clubs. They sniffed and snorted, approached them, meaning to kill them.

Mina clutched her club. A Mal'Est fisted her, and snatched the club from her hand. Then he beat her to the ground. The Mal'Est were speechless people. Their grunts and snorts were nonsensical horror to their ears as they encroached on them, ready to beat them. Mina's eyes gazed into her offender's, a tiny gasp escaping her horrified lips. He began to hold her down.

"Mina! They kill me now, but I just want to tell you—" said Fier. "—That I love you, with all that I am." Mina's eyes met his, and they reached for each other. Fier was cut to the bone by a Mal'Est, fell to the turf. Mina's eyes returned to the brutish, rapacious eyes of the offending Mal'Est.

Then it happened. A tremendous roar erupted through the forest. The Mal'Est fled. Mina stood. Before her, a stomping, tromping earthquake blasted beneath her feet. Or was it an earthquake? No. The trees furled before her, and an unusual feeling crept up her spine.

She felt through the glade, and before her, a huge metal beast towered over her, roaring and screaming, screeching and ripping. She backed to the clearing. The monster sniffed and scowled like the Mal'Est. It inched ever closer, closer and closer. It was now face-to-face with her starry eyes, metal ones meeting fleshly ones. The beast rose, and roared again. Mina closed her eyes. She knew it—today she'd be eaten. But she looked back. The beast was gone.

She returned with stories abound. But the village was stirred against her. "She spotted a Mamaro!" they cried.

"Mamaro! Mamaro! Mamaro!" The children kawed.

"But I thought Mamaro were extinct," she said. "I'm telling you, Thot! These were the other worldly beings. These are the ones that would teach us to find the city of the gods."

"You have it in reverse. The Mamaro'e were real, and the city of the gods is a myth," said the elder. "But you have acted recklessly, Mina. You had my son killed. And you go against your responsibilities. For this, you banned from Kal'Est Tribe. Go, and never return."

She was crestfallen. She begged the elder. "Please! Let me find more about the metal men! I find out more, I promise!"

He shook his head, and hit the ground with his staff. "Now go. Take food for your travels, Mina. I don't expect to see you here again."

She gave the elder a passing glance, one that said I am in the right here. I will show you! The night gazed into her soul as she traipsed about the village, saying good-by to her soldiers and the villagers. Tearful faces abounded, and she grasped many people in her seven-foot embrace. She left in the morning.

She traveled for hours and hours, across land, river, and forest. She made her way to the High Woods, where the Wood People lived. She took out her canteen, and drank. Then she dipped in a pool, washing her naked body. The next thing she was certainly not prepared for.

There was Fier, standing there. He was naked like her, basking in the setting sun. She waded up to him desperately. Her trudges struck the water harshly. Then, as she came close to him, a bright light shined, and Fier disappeared.

She treated the incident as some kind of dream or vision. She made her way through the High Woods further and further, until she came to the Gorshin Peak, where she sat for hours, gazing at the woods below. She kicked her feet about, imagining what it would be like to have children, to live in Kal'Est instead of wandering the earth. Would she ever have a place to live? She wondered. She sighed heavily, and plunked her chin on her fists. When she got up to leave, a snare swooped down from the rock face, and she was unable to move. "What happen?" she said.

Two beautifully dressed men came from behind the rock, speaking in some strange language. She thought they looked like flowers in their gaudy raiment. A giant lumbered forth, and pulled the net with one hand, heaving Mina over his shoulder. She kicked and struggled, full of anger and strife. "I Mina! Strongest of the Kal'Est! I fight forever! You not have me!"

One of the robed men walked up to her. He smiled at her, and disappeared suddenly in a kind of magic light. Then the giant began to walk off, carrying her.

The giant carried her across many badlands, places that the Kal'Est had forbidden to go. Those men—were they from the city of the gods? She considered. Maybe her dream would finally be fulfilled. Out of nowhere, as she thought about these things, a screeching shadow split the net apart, allowing her escape. The giant hummed. He made to strong-arm her. "Now I free! You not want to mess with me when I free!" She began to pummel the giant. Then, a saber-tooth tiger appeared, and mangled the giant. Mina's eyes diluted. She ran, trying to escape the beast's encroaching mouth.

It stalked Mina, she having no place to hide. It was playing with her, creeping around her footsteps. Then, that shadow swooped down and attacked the beast, piercing it with some kind of beak. It fell to the ground, whimpering. She had her chance. She ran.

She came back to the forest, kneeling by a tree, heaving, hawing. She peered behind her mane. The beast was long gone.

But the Wood People were approaching. She could hear their chants, as they busied about her, dressed in bushes. She gulped. She heard from her tribe that the Wood People could turn a person to wood with a single touch. She was frozen in place, standing in the dark woods, the moon glinting from above the treetops. She crunched the leaves beneath her feet, and widened her eyes, trying to see in the dark. The hums of the Wood People were coming ever closer. Closer, and closer, and closer.

She closed her eyes momentarily. When she opened them, right in front of her were two white balls,-no, eyes, with black face paint covering their outer rims. A bony man stood before her, dressed in leaves and bushes. She tried to back up, but the sticky body heat of another forced her forward. She was completely surrounded.

Then, a scorching heat, unlike any kind of thing she had ever beheld, blasted about the Wood People. They scattered and fled, dropping their bushes and leaves, revealing dark-painted naked bodies. The orange wisp remained on the ground, and Mina's eyes transfixed on it. "It is like—like a star on the earth." She danced about its peculiar form, surveying it, studying it. She touched the orange-dancing earth-bound star, but it sizzled her fingertip.

"You should not do that," came Fier's voice, from behind her. She turned round. There was Fier, dressed in some kind of blue armor, with a brown spiked helmet on his head. He stood next to the flames. "This substance new to human. It call 'fire' on my planet."

She stood there, dumbstruck. "You Fier. I saw you die."

"Your friend did die. I not him. I take his body, to fit in with human people. You call me Grimlock. I am leader of Dynabots, from the planet Cybertron. What your name?" Grimlock turned to Mina.

"My name? Me Mina! You show me great new thing today. This fire, it is? I will show my tribe! You come with me. Make more!"

"I leave that for you to find yourselves. Best if beings like me not meddle with humans."

She stared into Grimlock's robotic eyes. "Please! Come with me to village. They say you mamaro, but now I know—you from other world. From the beyond." She was smiling.

Grimlock looked at her in an alien sort of way. A strange voice spoke out of nowhere in particular. "I only in this form for short time, as computer say just now. I show you my true form. Then you know—I cannot be with your kind."

A great light flashed, like the light that she saw earlier. Once the light settled, a great metal beast stood before her, along with five others, shining in the firelight. "Me Grimlock. This Sludge, that Swoop (he save you from man and cat earlier), that Slag, and that one Snarl. We come here for distress signal from others from our planet. Indeed—we come from great beyond. We Transformers, and can turn into any sort of thing."

Mina felt faint. "I take you back to your village."

"But they banish me. They kill me if I return!"

"That your problem. I search for the others that landed here."

"Wait!" Mina was saying. "We find city of the gods. Maybe they know where to find your friends."

Grimlock heaved. "Sound like good plan. You know where city is?"

"Maybe with your help, we find it?"

Grimlock roared. "What a stupid human. Not know where to find things on own planet. Come, Dynabots. We find Ark on our own."

01121011

Bad Moon

Mina traversed through the woody forests and craggy mountains, the ancient sky burning behind her. She felt alone, and did not know how to thank those who saved her. She was amazed by the new gift of fire that Grimlock had bestowed her. She thought she would harness it somehow, like there was some kind of way to use it. She experimented, trying many things to ignite.

She eventually reached a kind of totem amidst the badlands, like a small tower. She rested by it.

"A strange moon besets us tonight," she heard someone say as she slept. Her eyes slowly drooped open. "It is pale and red. Unlike any I have ever seen. This might mean trouble." Mina snored. "My name is Enoch. I come from the city of the gods. You were meant to be one of the king's concubines. But something got in the way. What?"

She was still only barely awake. "Metal beast," she said, "helped me. Came from great beyond. Looked like a mamaro."

Enoch's robed appearance started. He turned to her. He carried a white pearly sphere in his left hand, which glowed when he spoke. His head was veiled by a raven-like hood. "What else?"

"He show me fire. He look like my husband."

She thought it was a dream. When she woke up, she resumed her travels, seeing this strange event as a sign to show her the way to the city. But she wondered: what if she got there, and got abducted again? It seemed she was looking exactly for trouble. But she didn't care. She would follow the man, if she could, and go to the city of the gods.

She could see no sign of the man I her dreams. The badlands were barren of animals, and the sun beat down on her shoulders. She felt weak and emaciated. The noon days were boiling and sweaty.

She thought she would die. No wonder no one sought the city. Her eyes began to become dark. Her arms barely moved. She felt like stone. The angry sun condemned her to death. Then she saw that mysterious light again. Fier's body, dressed in that strange gray armor, was standing there talking to Enoch, before a golden stairway. They were speaking in some strange language. A language that seemed to suggest laughter and joy, mirth and merriment; yet total sorrow and seriousness. This was the language of the gods.

She awoke, and found a great fire before her. There were two slaughtered animals also, cooking in the firelight. She rejoiced inwardly, and danced about the fire in happy, deft movements. Her smile was alone to be sure, but full of joy and success.

Her travels recommenced the next day, after eating thoroughly the animals that were slaughtered before her. She knew it now: If she were to find the city, Enoch would intervene for her, as he had prepared a feast before her before. She figured it would only be a manner of time before she would reach the city.

She climbed a high mountain, one so high that she felt out of breath as she came to its top. She named it Mt. Guluburu, which meant big and tall. The air got colder and colder as she climbed. But she reckoned that she had been through worse. She was a warrior. And this was a battle she'd win yet.

The downing sun looked like nothing else when she reached the peak. Her eyes squinted in the benevolent shine. She slept in the cleft, like a spider, only to awake to a horrible screech. She followed the noise, sidling along an icy slope.

The moon was blood-red, and in its red glower was Fier, shackled, chained to the side of the mountain, howling and screeching Grimlock's horrific voice. His face looked jumbled and messed up, his armor now gone, revealing a human form. She could only wonder what happened. She asked him, standing there awkwardly.

"I find man from city of gods," said Grimlock, "I show him secrets of the beyond. Then I find city of the gods. Not know that they allied with Decepticons."

"Decepticons?"

"Yes. Bad Decepticon building Energon siphon on moon. He plan to suck the world of Energon, and leave it lifeless and barren. That why it so red now. Shockwave inside moon! Must find some way to stop him."

"I not know how," said Mina, "this sound beyond me. Moon is god in the sky. I merely human. What you suggest? I untie you!"

"No," said Grimlock, "these shackles only thing keeping me alive. The puny humans in the city want to learn from me, so they use technology borrowed from Decepticons to keep me in semi-stasis to study me more. Really they are being duped by the Decepticons. They keep me alive to learn more about Autobot's plans."

"Autobots? I not know. Thought you were Dynabots."

"And you not forget! But Autobots work with Dynabots in war against Decepticons. Autobots come to Earth to flee from war-ridden Cybertron, and find new resources. But Decepticons catch wind of plan. And they send envoys to attack."

"What we do?" said Mina. Her eyes were glossy and wind-beaten.

"Swoop come and feed me energon every once and a while to keep alive. You go with him to city. There you convince other humans to stop working with Decepticons. They being foolish, you stop them, even if you have to beat them."

"But they like the gods! I only human. They use magic. I have only fists and my club," Mina insisted.

"You figure out something."

01013010

Of Gods and Men

Grimlock showed Mina the way to the city. It was just past the mountains, beyond a cedar forest.. There was no mistaking it when she got there: It was all billowing towers, globed houses, and godly architecture; pillars and verandahs, ornamented walls, purple flags, and sparking environs. She came to the city gates. Two robed men with spears blocked her.

"Gomo gath nomer fin de?" they asked. She could not see beneath their helmets. She gulped, and tried to look determined. "I come to speak with elders! I tell them to stop worshipping Decepticons!"

"Filiel tomor fin de gogath?" they chuckled. They indeed seemed like gods: their demeanor, their voices, their height. Mina wanted to marry one. "Fin de, fin de, gomor teedeth. Yaborwah Elnoch." The doors opened. She entered.

She had heard from Thot that anyone who would enter the city of the gods would never return. She looked about her. The streets were paved with gold and silver, and completely vacant. There was a flight of staircase leading to a grand tall tower, which billowed into the sky. It was so high that Mina had vertigo looking up at it. She traipsed up the winding stairways, until she came to its entrance.

"Yab yab ento wir fin de fin de gomo la burf entil Canas, abba de Zenway. Gotoroh, gotoroh, youf fin de filloways," said a guard, opening the door into the tower.

She entered, and traipsed up seemingly endless flights of stairs. The walls were scorched black stone, with blue torches lighting the passages. She made her way ever more to the topmost floor.

She could not be prepared for what she found there.

There before her was a torchlight round room, with a glass sphere, with four pillars surrounding it equidistantly. In the center of the room was a glass container with a gigantic brain hooked to various metal tubes in a glass of water, bathing in gross green water. She felt like retching. A white-robed man with a snidely smile and a long nose walked before her. He carried a white ball in his hand, not unlike the one that Enoch carried. Mina walked unabashedly up to him.

"Why you work with Decepticons? They evil!"

The man's smile became wider. "What a foolish mortal. Came to disturb the brain of Canas and I, did she?" He walked up to her, coming uncomfortably close.

"You can talk like me? Why that?"

"Are you so naïve? This crystal ball in my hand translates speech. Surely you must be of noble birth to have reached here!"

"I from Kal'Est Tribe!"

The man laughed uproariously, a screeching kind of laugh that bit into Mina. "What a laugh! They are a bunch of weaklings! The lowest class!"

"How dare you! I beat you out of working with the evil ones!" she was determined. But the man shuffled to the middle of the room, not amused.

"Evil ones? They are merely a key to a brighter future! Can't you see? Humans and gods—watching over the universe." He laughed that screeching laugh again.

"You not know! They have siphon in moon! They plan to kill everything on earth! You the one that stupid!"

"Someday you cattle will care less about the affairs of the gods. Guards! Take this one to be processed."

A couple of giants strong-armed Mina, and though she fought back, it was no use. She was carried off, upon being beaten.

She was thrown in a dank cell, with barely any light peering out of the window above her. She felt destitute and lonely as she sat in shambles, the shackles binding tightly to her wrists. She wanted like nothing else to be back in Kal'Est, the sky pouring down on her shoulders and the endless fields beneath her feet. But she knew those days would never return to her. She sat in a puddle of water, planting her fists in her naked cheek.

She began to dig in the turf, finding tough gravel cramming up her fingernails. Then she felt something tink against her finger. She dug harder. Sure enough, a metal ball, completely made of some thick material, yet hollow, appeared. She picked it up. She began to shake it, wondering what it could be. She pressed her ear against it.

It began to speak. She shook it more. Some kind of strange tongue, to be sure, alien for certain. She plocked it on the ground. Then a light flashed out of it. A face appeared, like the one that Grimlock had. Except much uglier.

The face spoke some strange tongue, and images flashed before her: a frigid waste, a terrible dark landscape made of metal, and the earth as she knew it, plains and yellow grass; dunes and badlands. She was curious about it, and wanted to study it more. After ten minutes of showing the images, it flashed off, and the ball returned to normal.

After thirty minutes, the ball began to glow. She picked it up, and her whole form began to shake and vibrate along with the ball. Now it shined light as the sun, her body with it. Then she saw all go white.

00009000

The Beast in the Moon

Mina awoke in some dark cavern. Red energy glowed everywhere around her. Tubes and wires snaked along a rock-choked path, leading up to a gross vibrating thing, which interconnected with various other bulgy vibrating things. She traipsed through the narrow corridors, in plain wonderment.

The ball began to float, and fly off in some direction. She figured, if she did not know where to go, the ball would. So she followed it.

She felt as though she walked through the belly of a huge beast, with organs and things spitting out at her. Once she passed copious more wires and cords, she came to the center of the red energy, and where everything connected. There before her was a gigantic metallic being, with arms and legs, vaguely showing through from all the metal things poking into it. It had a single eye looking listlessly in front of it, now and then dotting left to right. It talked in some kind of strange tongue, resembling that of the face in the image from the ball.

Finally, it spoke in her tongue: "WHERE DID YOU OBTAIN THE BALL?"

"Me just find it. You Shockwave? I stop you!"

"ILLOGICAL. I CANNOT BE STOPPED. DYNABOTS HAVE BEEN STOPPED. NATIVES POSE NO THREAT. I AM UNSTOPPABLE."

A bunch of cords and wires constricted Mina, and held her in place. "THIS WORLD NOW BELONGS TO THE DECEPTICONS. YOU WILL BE ELIMINATED. COMPUTER: DEACTIVATE OXYGEN FLOW. NOW YOU WILL DIE A SLOW DEATH, HUMAN."

Mina struggled and pushed. But the air was beginning to thin. Quickly. "BEGIN LUNAR TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE."

This was it. Mina would die today. And the whole world with her.

Mina awoke on a beach. She reckoned that it was the same beach that stretched across the Great Sea, a place her tribe rarely visited. What had happened? Why did the Earth seem so normal? She wondered. The day was bleak and uncanny. Quiet like never before. She could not understand it. She felt like yelling out, if only just for human contact. She had not eaten in days. Yet she did not feel overwhelmingly hungry. She felt free, and happy, and alive. She smiled, then and there, and yelled out across the pink and blue nothing.

After eating some fish, she went to sleep that night. She awoke to the screeching of some giant bird, which encircled her above. It was large for a bird, when she realized it was no bird at all. She stood still, waiting for Swoop to land. He encircled her for a few moments, and transformed into robot mode, a sight that she was never quite prepared for.

"What happen?" she asked Swoop. "Why I alive? Shockwave dead?"

"Yes," Swoop said. "Grimlock might be able to explain. I bring you to him."

They departed, and flew for quite some time, the clouds cascading through Mina's arms and legs. They were very high up, but she didn't care. She felt close to the beyond, close to the gods. Soon came to the peak of Mt. Guluburu, Grimlock in his pathetic pose. "You succeed," he said, perchance a smile on Fier's borrowed face. "I commend you."

"What happen?"

"We not sure completely, but might be able to tell if you tell us what happen."

"I got to moon with strange metal ball I find in prison. Shockwave bind me in cords to stop me, and shut off air so I can't breathe. Then all went dark."

"Ah," Grimlock said, "metal ball is artifact. Probably Decepticon. Reads signatures and teleports to closest matching one. You got lucky. I think that Shockwave defeated because when he touch you, he get human characteristics, and therefore need air to live. He not dead, only asleep for a very long time."

"Then you go back?" Mina said. "Back to your land in the stars? I see it in metal ball! It beautiful!"

"No," Grimlock said, "I still go offline if released from chains. Also we must find Ark. That our primary mission. Perhaps city people know something."

"I help! I go back and ask!"

"Last time you end up in prison," Swoop said.

"Yes, but if you help me and attack them—"

"That not Autobot way. You done enough. Go away and forget you deal with us," said Grimlock. "I should never have sent you to city in first place."

"But I banished from tribe! I want to help!" Grimlock's facsimile body winced.

"Then you do this for us. You search for Enoch, man I walk with before, and try to find cyber-cables. They may be able to free me from shackles. He also may have leads on the Ark. Got it?"

"Got it!" Mina was determined. She would show that she was worthy. "May the Eternal Spirit watch over us for all time!"

Grimlock's human body smiled at her, his metal skeleton showing in his face. Swoop transformed into pterodactyl form, and she rode him off into the orange sunset.

09090909

Bahamur, of the Cedar Woods

App. 3000 B.C.

"What? I strike it, but its hide is impregnable!"

"Keep at it, Uhai!" cried Elben. The two sojourners seemed to be at journey's end today. Today, they encountered what they had sought months before. The Bahamur had finally wandered in their way. Eternal life would be in Elben's hands soon. He would be remembered as the man who slew the wicked beast of the cedar forest.

It began two years ago. I remember it like yesterday. I was nothing before I met Elben. He was like a brother to me. I wandered naked through the world, not remembering from whence I came or what I had to do with the world. I was like a beast. I met Elben after I met the woman I loved.

Her name was Ninsun. She had the most marvelous eyes. She danced as she walked. I was alone and naked, in some street corner. I could not speak any kind of tongue. My head swam with thoughts. Then she extended her hand to me. I took it, and was transformed by her touch. She named me Uhai.

She civilized me. She taught me to read. She taught me to speak. She even taught me how to dance. I could not be happier. But then the people of our village protested her taking me in.

"He's a monster!"

"A wretch!"

"Throw him out!"

Their voices bit into my ears. But my—no, our love continued. I knew it was mutual. But it would not last.

We made love under a full moon on that fateful night. We were naked, alone, and full of life. I thought the night and the feelings would last forever. But I was wrong. A group of marauders came to us, when we were naked, and killed Ninsun as I watched, helplessly, the stars of my eyes meeting the stars of hers. Then they began to beat me, stone me. But my rage was ever more fiery.

I killed them. The whole lot of them. Blood ran down my hands, and my legs shook at the devil's handiwork. I screamed. Then Ninsun's tiny voice flowed into my ears. "Uhai…" she said, "Uhai, don't be afraid."

The words echoed in the darkness.

"Don't be afraid."

I ran from those times, ran from the people who would have my head on a platter for the deed I did. I ran in despair, turmoil. I contemplated existence and life itself. I wanted to die. But my voracious hunger for life kept me still alive. I wandered the cursed earths, seeking comfort, but everyone who looked into my brutish eyes turned away.

Except for one person.

His name was Elben. He was brilliant in every way, a traveler of high repute. He told me he sought a companion skilled at fighting. I smiled at the thought, when I met him in my travels. He extended the hand of friendship, and I grabbed it. My life was close-cleaved to his, and we became fast friends. The people eyed Elben when he took me into his city disdainfully, but he held his head high. I did too. I felt accepted and like I had found my place in the world. I put the blood my hands had bathed in aside. Ninsun could, possibly, rest in peace. The world could spin normally for me again.

Elben was once a great king in a great city, Babylon. It had been established by his grandfather, who was a builder of a great tower that was meant to be a testimony of the human race, but was torn down when the scattering of languages took place. Elben showed me all the skills of writing and reading, and told me, after months of my tutorship, that he sought eternal life. To be remembered forever, and ever. My eyes gazed into his lighted eyes, and I found affinity.

I decided, then and there, that I'd help him find eternal life. He had an inkling. The city people told of an ancient legend of a creature living in the cedar forest, an equally ancient creature that killed all that approached it. It was called the bahamur. He decided that he'd kill the beast, and his heroism and warrior skill would be remembered for all time, and he would achieve eternal life. We set out after acquiring weapons, for the cedar forest.I didn't care if they'd remember Uhai, his companion. Elben, the ancient warrior, brave and strong, slayer of beasts.

The warriors, stalwart, stood face to face with death. The huge beast roared and screamed in their faces, and as they poked and prodded it with their halberds, nothing happened. Its thick armor remained still, and nothing harmed it. When the creature screeched into Elben's face, poised to eat him, an unimaginable light flashed before them, and burned the beast to a crisp. It ran off, and the two of them fainted, exchanging glances.

08970909

Hardhead's Headmaster

I awoke in a daze. Some kind of unearthly place lie before me. I was strapped to some kind of table, half dead I presumed. What of the bahamur? Such an unearthly creature! To think that we actually faced it! And yet… and yet… there I was. Alive. Well. I could not believe it. I wanted desperately to be with Ninsun. No, I wanted to be with Elben again. I wanted to have that drive to do amazing things again. To go on adventures. To live forever in the hearts of people for all time. But my wishes were not fulfilled.

A metal mannish creature walked up to me, with some kind of weapon. It talked in a mechanical, otherworldly language, a frightful whirring of gears and levers and knobs. My eyes widened. "Bring me to Elben! I want to see my friend!" The metal man walked up to me, his glowing eyes meeting mine.

It spoke in that whirring tongue again. "I demand to see my friend!" I was crying. Crying, for dear life. "Please. I want to live with him. It is my truest desire." A reddish tall metallic man, taller than the other one, with a huge cylinder on his shoulder, walked up to us. They spoke in that language. Then the tall one injected the small one with some kind of fluid.

The short one approached me. "Do you remember who you are?" he asked me, in garbles. "I am Afterburner, of the Technobots."

"My name…" I said, loudly, as if in a dream, "Is Uhai!"

"No," replied the short one, "your name is Duros. You are a headmaster. You form Hardhead's head and drive his Cerebro Circuits. You are from the planet Nebulos."

I felt lightheaded. "And of Elben? Is he alive?" I was all but ignoring their statements. I regarded them as lies.

"Your human companion's memory has been wiped. The Decepticon you faced in the woods is not meant to be sneaking around," said the tall one. "My name, to interject, is Perceptor. Dear oh dear, he doesn't remember."

"What is a Decepticon? What is Nebulos? What… am I?" I cried. I was teary. This was too much. My love life, my best friend, all a lie?

"We are Transformers," said Afterburner. "We come from the planet Cybertron. Decepticons are seeking dominance of the universe. We take on different forms to disguise ourselves as whatever is native to the planet we come to. Slag, Duros, you truly don't remember binary bonding with Hardhead?"

"No." I was honest. I didn't.

"Well, the war continues," said Afterburner. "We need your help. The Decepticons are gaining territory. It is only a matter of time before they locate the Ark."

"The Ark?"

"Yes," said Perceptor, "the space craft containing the Allspark. Optimus Prime, our leader, fled to this planet to find a world more suitable than Cybertron, since it is so war-ridden. The Allspark contains energy to create life itself. If the Decepticons locate it and the Ark, we are doomed."

"I want to return to my life. I want to be with Elben again," I said clearly, "I would treat this as a fever dream. This all… is too much for me."

"Oh, boy, stubborn as usual. I guess Hardhead will have to wait," said Afterburner, throwing up his servos.

"Impeccable," said Perceptor, "I suppose we will release you. You will know where to find us. I have imbued our location into your mind."

"Whatever," I said. My bonds were undone. They took me out of the strange building. The sun poked into my eyes momentarily. I looked behind. All that was there was a field of grass. I turned round. I smiled, and went on my way. I would find Elben.

I found my way to Babylon. I knew I would find my companion there. I knew I would find succor. But there was this itch in my mind. Like I belonged with those strange creatures. Like I came from another world. But I put them aside. I would be on top of the world again yet!

I found Elben's estate soon. I barged right in, calling his name. "Who would see the king of Babylon, the slayer of bahamur?" a man said from around the corner. What? But those aliens killed the beast!

I walked into his study to find out the meaning of this tragedy. "Elben!" Guards were detaining me, holding me away from my friend. "What is the meaning of this?" Then I saw: the beast's head hung on his mantle, a testament to work not done by his own hands.

He wore a purple robe, adorned with color and royal regale, and he poked his eyes at me, flaunting. "What's going on, friend?" said Elben. He held a crystal ball in his right hand, as he sauntered up to me. "Look at this: the eye of the bahamur! Now I will have life immortal. Look! My statue is being built right this minute." He pointed outside. I saw two iron feet stuck on a pedestal.

"What—but those aliens killed the beast, not you!"

"What's this?" Elben said. "Denial, eh? It was I who killed the beast. You just watched on in wonder. My glorious moment, shining in the sun, and you just stood there and watched, stupidly."

"Idiot! What's the meaning of this?" I demanded simply.

Elben leaned in, as if to kiss me. "I understand," he began, as if telling some long story, "that you are wanted in many cities. It would be a shame if I lost my claim to fame for the sake of my wanted friend who is of relation to me. Guards! Throw him in jail! The public will know that I was only associated with you because I was waiting for the right moment to dispose of you for the greater good."

"Dastard!"

Then they brought me to the dungeon, deep down below the palace. I felt raw and angry. And I knew that when I felt that way, no human would get in my way.

That night was the jailbreak. They threw me in prison, shackling me tightly. But my rage was stronger. Much stronger. I broke the shackles, my brow furrowed.

They came to have me executed publicly in three nights. But I walloped the three of them, and grabbed a sword. I sliced through armies of guards, and trudged up into the palace, escaping into the night. I cut down many soldiers, not feeling any remorse. My past was dead to me. Elben, he was dead. Ninsun, I felt love for. But she disappeared from my memories, a fleeting feeling of love touching here and there.

In my carnage, I saw Elben staring at me from a distance, his eyes glazed and unfocused. I shot him one severe look, and took off into the night, fleeing forever from planet earth.

I came back to the Transformer's base, hot with rage and desirous of combat. Finally, I felt ready to relearn my past, to know of my origins. I searched the bushes and brambles for the hidden entrance. After hours, I heaved a sigh and sat by a prominent bush.

The night fell. My bones were weary with hunger and tiredness. Finally, that small metal man walked up to me. I thought it was another fever dream. "So, you've finally come. I was betting that it would be at least five days, but it was only three! Come. We will discuss our plans."

I was hot with excitement. He led me into the base. I still got strange vibes from the hidden entrance. "It's a hologram, Duros. I see you're as jittery around technology as ever."

"Can you tell me about my past?"

"All in good time," Afterburner said, "We need to discuss plans of actions first."

We were in that same darkly lit room in which I was strapped to the table. "Why did you strap me to the table in the first place?" I asked.

"Precautions. You could have been a Decepticon spy, using a pretender shell."

"Pretender?" I said.

"Yes," Afterburner said, "like we said, we Transformers take on the form of whatever we want. This includes the Decepticons.

"Now, on to business. Perceptor?"

Perceptor lumbered forward. "Right," he said in his mechanical chime. "As you both know, the Decepticons are at large. We three were sent by order of the Prime Council to prevent them from reaching the Ark and finding the location of the Allspark. We know of two Decepticons who have arrived: Iguanus and Fangry."

"Iguanus… is he the one people call the bahamur?"

"Catches on quick," said Afterburner. "Yes. You don't remember, but he severed your binary bond, and you must have stripped yourself of your armor to prevent overheating. That must have been what caused you to lose your memory."

"Right," said Perceptor. "We were able, quite fortunately, to destroy Iguanus's outer pretender shell in the battle."

"And that lout Elben took all the credit!" I shouted. Afterburner made little metallic chokes I thought to be laughter.

"But the robot form remains, which is more powerful than the pretender shell, considerably. It will take him some time to make a synthetic body with which to scare humans (that is how the Decepticons choose to hide themselves, quite unfortunately), so he will remain in robot form for quite some time. Now is our time to locate him," said Perceptor. "But we cannot face two Decepticons alone. They will ravage us."

"We should do it anyway," I said.

"No," said Afterburner. "We need help. Specifically, help from an ancient Autobot warrior. And we know where to find him."

08965410

Grimlock's Sleep

"The humans called this Mount Guluburu in ancient times. I have been made aware of the humans using this place as a prison for people who went astray," said Perceptor. I rode on Afterburner in his motorcycle mode. Perceptor treaded along in a tank mode. Everything was returning to me—I became more aware of my home planet, Nebulos, and the Transformers' visit there to get minerals for their war, which had spread across galaxies and many planets. Little tidbits of memories of back home came into my mind. Nebulos was much like Earth, only in a constant state of purple-hued twilight with craggy cliffs. I was selected as a headmaster when some Nebulons allied with the Autobots, as others allied with the Decepticons.

We traversed the winding slope of Mount Guluburu, the afternoon sky blearing down on us. The night fell presently, but we continued on. Grimlock was apparently at the peak, chained in stasis shackles, they said. I still had very little knowledge of the Transformers, and everything felt so alien to me, though I was an alien myself to this planet.

We came to the peak. Everything was cold and dark. The air felt stiff and raw. "This," said Perceptor, "is Grimlock." I saw only a human head, dunked under gravel, bobbing down and scarred. The scars revealed metallic innards. He approached the pathetic head.

"This is your great warrior?" I said. "He looks weak."

"Be careful what you say. He's quite a grumpy one. And mark my words: he is a strong warrior," said Afterburner. "Perceptor? Can we fix him?"

Perceptor transformed into robot mode, and surveyed the stupefied body. He moved the gravel aside, revealing a gray armored body. Little transmissions could be heard out of Grimlock's body, like he was saying something indeterminate, a kind of dream speech. He bobbed his head back and forth ever so slightly, so little that it seemed he only had a shadow of life. Finally the whole body became completely revealed.

"Now all I have to do is reroute the location of the de-stabilizers to an external source," said Perceptor. He pointed his shoulder cannon to the stasis shackles, and a blue laser shot out of it. "Afterburner? Bring the proxy puppet."

"Puppet?" I said.

"Right. The puppet with receive the effect of the shackle's damage of being undone from the one shackled."

Afterburner produced a small metallic puppet, like some kind of toy. My brow duly furrowed. Perceptor pointed to the doll, which redirected the laser coming from his cannon to the puppet. "Now, undo Grimlock," he told Afterburner. He used a small gun, with direct aim, to fire at the shackles, which, perchance a jerk from Grimlock, undid the stasis shackles, and directly after, the puppet overheated, and began to pipe smoke from his head. Then he exploded. "This is recent technology to be sure," said Perceptor. "Otherwise we would not be able to free Grimlock. When he came here, nothing would have been able to free him. He would have been chained forever."

Grimlock's eyes began to slowly open. A mechanized sigh came from his scarred mouth, like a choked groan. He continued to heave for a while, and Perceptor pointed his shoulder cannon at him. "Now to undo the matter transmuter, so he can go back to his robot form."

"What does that mean?" I said.

"A matter transmuter. It allows Grimlock to store most of his mass in subspace so he can maintain a smaller form, a human form. When he's in robot mode, he is more easily reparable."

Afterburner turned a knob on Grimlock's back, and he began to glow a white glow, and light enveloped the whole area around us. I looked after covering my eyes, and a great metal beast lay there in the cleft, his metal mouth touching his metal tail. He snarled as he lay there, as if in a deep sleep. "He is still in deep stasis," said Perceptor. "It will take a while to jump start him. Let's bring him back to base."

Perceptor dragged Grimlock, covered in a tarp, back to Autobase, pulling him with cables. We entered the base, that hologram amazing me once again.

They hooked Grimlock's sleeping body to some wires, as he continued to snarl. I could only imagine what Transformers dreamed about. The wars on Cybertron? They must have been vivid in their minds. Especially a warrior like Grimlock.

I dreamt of Nebulos that night. A beautiful woman, more beautiful than Ninsun, stood before me, with teary eyes, seeming to beckon to me. We were completely alone. Completely solemn. We held hands. Then she disappeared, and Nebulos was replaced by a darker world, with metal cliffs and gruesome arches. I saw a pit of pods, thundering skies, and wretched landscapes surrounding me. Gruesome robots floated around me like jellyfish.

I wandered the frigid wastes, and felt an uncanny fear, the kind you feel in a terrible nightmare, an illogical kind of fear, one I would not feel when awake. I opened one of the pods, the lightning scattering behind me. The pod's outer surface opened, its material like flesh. I gazed inside it. A human body, with a face dredged with death before me. Its eyes stared at nothing in particular. Now the dream reached its climax. It was the woman. I knew it then. She was my wife. This actually happened.

I awoke in a pool of sweat. Beads rolled down my face. The pods. The gruesome planet. My binary bond. It all made sense, then and there. I stormed into Perceptor's chamber, my head swimming with thoughts.

"Perceptor," I said. He whirred like clockwork into a sitting repose. "You lied, didn't you? The Nebulons never voluntarily joined the war against the Decepticons, did they?"

Perceptor's head sagged, and a beep projected from his mouthpiece. "It was one of the most gruesome experiments on the Decepticons. No, that is not appropriately conjectured. One of the most gruesome experiments of the Cybertronians, one and all. Nebulos was a peaceful planet. Rich with energy and raw materials. The people were peaceful, happy, a veraciously blissful planet. Then the Decepticons came, and gathered up the people, to use their own bodies as energy sources, to spawn more protoforms for the war.

"By then, Cybertron was all but out of Energon. We needed the energy. Even some Autobots, though against Optimus Prime's orders, used the energy harvested from the Nebulon's bodies. Then the Nebulons slowly but surely awoke from their sleep in the pods, and formed a rebellion. They used discarded bodies of Transformers to fight their battles. They discovered the technology to binary bond with the Transformer bodies, and pilot them.

"Soon, some of the rebels gathered to the Decepticon's side, led by the leader of the rebellion, Lord Zarak. Their purpose was for conquest of the universe, along with the Decepticons. The Decepticons, no doubt, treated them as expendable, but in their deceit allowed them to fight alongside them, finding use for discarded bodies of offline soldiers. The war changed then. The Autobots apologized deeply for their use of the Nebulon's bodies, and freed all of those that were used for energy sources.

"Needless to say, many Nebulons still remain captives. It is our solemn duty to free them. In those days, it was reaffirmed of the Autobot directive as stated by Optimus: Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. Duros, if you are desirous of quitting us, we are not here to stop you. We would even return you to Nebulos if you so desire."

I considered. But I had no purpose. My family was gone. What reason would I have to return? "I am Hardhead's headmaster. I don't intend on being anything else. This world has shown me nothing but foolishness and shallow motives. I will remain with you."

Perceptor nodded, his face contorting into sadness. "So, the truth as been told," said Afterburner. "C'mon, the big guy's finally waking up."

We entered Grimlock's chamber. He continued to whirr and stir, his gears churning and shifting. He slowly roved his head up, his teeth glinting in the light. His eyes slowly shined a bright blow, flittering and shimmering. He moved his mouth to speak. "Where… Dynabots?"

"Presumed offline," said Perceptor. "Only you remain. It has been approximately seven thousand Earth solar cycles. Nearly a vorn has passed since your departure from Cybertron." A low growl came from Grimlock's mouth.

"What… purpose do I have? Human race… survived?"

"Yes. They have thrived. According to our records, the common people of this world discovered fire from a human named Mina."

"Mina…" Grimlock said. "Sound familiar. Think I meet Mina. I show her fire myself. Interesting."

"Indeed," Perceptor said.

"What your names? Where am I? Is the Ark… is it safe? Autobots safe? Allspark safe?"

"I am Perceptor, this is Afterburner, and this is Duros, the headmaster of Hardhead. We have arrived recently in pursuit of two Decepticons, Fangry and Iguanus. You are in the spacecraft Protos."

"I see," said Grimlock. "That interesting. I must rest now. Been too long. Humans chain me to stasis shackles. I feel so cold, so clunky. Will I ever recover?"

"You will be able to reuse your body within days. Then we must engage the Decepticons," said Perceptor. "They must not reach the Ark, or find the Allspark. That is our primary objective."

07070707

The Hideous Strife

"Locked and loaded!" I said. I carried a type seven proton cannon, ready for battle. I would ride on Afterburner, firing it off at the Decepticons.

"Right. We must locate Hardhead's body, as it is quite crucial for us to win the battle," said Perceptor. "Once we procure it, you will pilot it with your binary bond, and we will defeat the Decepticons. Our goal is to capture them, but if we turn them offline it will have to suffice.

"The odds increase against our favor with Grimlock not being able to come online. Fortunately, the weaponry found in his body will be able to help us, but there is a great probability that at least one of us will not return. Again, Duros, I will say that you do not have to join us today. You have the option."

"Like I said, whether I like it or not, I have nothing to return to. I will join you."

"Very well," Perceptor said. "Then let us travel to the cedar woods. We will defeat the Decepticons on this day."

We set out for the woods that day. The winds blew through my ears, and when I closed my eyes, I could see Ninsun. I could see my wife. I could see Nebulos. Everything flashed before me, and I felt nothing was impossible. The thought of death, of joining my wife and lover, filled me with joy. No, the battle would not be for naught. Whether we won or not, it would not be purposeless. We would die heroically, if we did. Or we would live, and save the earth.

We arrived at the cedar woods presently. The place seemed enveloped in an otherworldly purple fog. Quiet seeped into my very being. A stinging quiet, one of solitude and fright. "Be on alert," said Perceptor. "The Decepticons could appear at any moment."

I clutched my proton rifle. Afterburner moved at a slow and steady coast, crunching the leaves below him. "We have no presumption as to where the Deceptions abide. They could be below us, or above us."

"It is unwise for Autobots to come here."

We looked about. "Who said that?" Afterburner said suddenly. A huge purple thing zinged by us. "Where are you?"

A robot appeared above us, and I felt the air about us whirling, whirling us about, and I fell a few yards away, cut and bruised by something. "I call it the wind buster," said that same voice. I looked up, and a Transformer walked up to me, wielding a tall gun. "It compresses and intensifies wind, making for a great weapon. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Iguanus…" Perceptor said, fallen in a heap of leaves a short distance from me. He was separated from his concussion blaster, and he reached for it.

"Right you are," chimed the Decepticon. "And this," he reached behind his back, and an entire portion of his body came off. "Is my sonic bazooka. No bot can ever overcome this." He aimed it at Perceptor.

"No!" I cried. And without warning, Iguanus blasted Perceptor with some kind of blue energy beam, scorching him and leaving a huge hole.

"You're next, Nebulon," said Iguanus.

"Duros… Run…" said Afterburner, who was still in his cycle mode, chunked in a mound of dirt. "I'll hold him off… just find your body."

I ran. I ran, and I ran. I heard that fearsome sound come from the Decepticon. I presumed the both of them dead. I could only wonder where their base was. But I had my proton rifle. And I had my life. I had my hope.

"Where are you, little fleshling? Come out, so I can kill you!" Iguanus taunted as I ran along. I hid behind a tree. "Don't think that I can't see you. Come out, little ant." I turned, and blasted him with a concentrated blast of the cannon, straight from Grimlock's arsenal. "Oh, so!" the Decepticon said, when the smoke cleared. He was barely dented. Impossible, I thought. "This one has a bit of a bite. How amusing!" I jumped out of the way. That blue laser blast came my way. I barely avoided it.

I decided to run and hide. I could hear the Decepticon's lumbering footfalls behind my back. I didn't dare to look behind me. Such would be certain death, I thought. Then I heard a fearsome howl coming from around the corner. It resembled that of a wolf. Coming towards me I saw a ferocious beast: a wolf with bat wings, all hairy and ferocious, foaming at the mouth. I could barely move from fear.

I knew it was Fangry, but I still could not move. Something about it made the whole experience feel like a nightmare. It was inches away when a door hatch opened behind the creature, and a man, dressed in armor, came toward me. "Duros!" he said jovially, as if addressing an old friend. "Long time, no see! Come on, come on, won't you greet me? Has your change of heart eluded you? What of your decision to join the Decepticons?"

"My… what?" I said. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

"Why, what an odd fashion to address an old friend. My name is Brisko. I am a Nebulan scientist. You are a Nebulan warrior, remember? You infiltrated the Autobot's ranks to find out about their plans, and we staged your death so you could join us again without incident! Come, come. You must return with us to the base. What happened? Did the 'accident' cause you to lose your memory?"

"You're—you're lying! I never—"

"Ah, so this is Duros," said Iguanus, moving up to me. "I didn't recognize him without his armor. Flesh creatures, they're so… indistinguishable."

"Come on, Duros. Let us make into the base. We are close to finding the location of the Ark. With the two Autobot's memory banks in our possession, we may be able to find it yet," said Brisko. They led me into some kind of passageway, which was hidden on the outside by a cloaking field.

"We have your body here, in case you want to return to it," said Brisko. I saw a huge green tank, parked in the corner of the base. I didn't know what to make of all this, for certain.

I clamored into the cockpit of the tank. Memories came flooding back to me of controlling it. Yes, I was a warrior. A Decepticon? A member of those who would enslave my people? I could not remember. I felt like I was atop a high precipice, ready to jump and either kill myself or be caught by large hands, bringing me to life and success and happiness. My eyes starred.

"Where is my armor?" I said to the Decepticons, exiting the cockpit. I had a plan. "I will finish the Autobot scum who dared to enter our lands."

Brisko laughed aloud. "Such spirit!" he said. "Wandering right into the heart of a Decepticon base! What a fool." Two guns pointed down at my position. Brisko sauntered up to me. "For years I played along with the Autobots, living in their perfect little world on Cybertron, eating their lies up like a hungry dog. For years I watched you," he grabbed my chin, "you and your pitiful little ideals, on the front lines, taking all the hits like some kind of hero. We were spawned on that metal planet. How much more so do we belong to those who birthed us! You and your pitiful little ideals. How I will smash them to a million pieces. Fangry will eat you. And then I will be satisfied, at last."

He entered the slobbering shell of Fangry. The giant wolf-bat walked up to me, growling, disgusting saliva dripping onto my skin. I closed my eyes. This was it. Death. I would finally die today. I walked stupidly into my doom. "There's an Autobot—aggh!" It was Iguanus. I looked up from the lumbering Fangry. Iguanus was sliced across the chest.

"Me Grimlock not done yet! Hardhead! Now!" I complied. I jumped into Hardhead's body. Now was my chance. If I could only operate the buttons.

Grimlock fought gravely with Fangry. It seemed like Grimlock was winning, but—no. Fangry was ready to chew him to pieces. Then he transformed, shot Grimlock in the chest. I scrambled for buttons. I looked nervously up from the controls. Remember! Remember!

I fired the cannon. Fangry jolted into the corner from the blast. "Me Grimlock finish you!" He stabbed the Decepticon right through the chest. My eyes met Grimlock's optical sensors. I heaved a sigh.

We were outside, tending to Perceptor and Afterburner. They were both ravaged from Iguanus's supersonic blaster, more so than I imagined. "Hardhead," Perceptor said, amidst whirrs and clicks from his mouth chip. "Take our ship—and go. Leave us here. Should any Autobot come to this planet, they will uncover us, and repair us. But we haven't the technology on the Protos to repair us and return to Cybertron.

"Grimlock, take the Decepticon ship and return to Cybertron. Tell them—tell them we fought. Tell them—tell them—"

He went offline. His optical sensors went dull. "Is he dead?" I asked Grimlock from within the tank.

"No—not dead," Grimlock said. "Only sleeping—for long time. Like I did. I find good hiding place, where no human look. Then I go back to Cybertron. You go before me. Don't worry, ship will operate on own with your body. No need to remember anything."

"Grimlock, how did you-?"

"I sleep for long time. But I come online when Perceptor find me. I not remember much, but I remember you telling me you need my help. I find out where you are from ship computer. Then I come to help you. Decepticons stupid. Leave ship open. Easy to find."

"I see," I said. "Don't forget this planet. I think it is beautiful, regardless of the way I was treated here."

"Yes," Grimlock said, "they sometimes dumb. But, we dumb too. That just the way it is."

"Grimlock," I said, "will we ever meet again?"

"I think we will," he replied. "War on Cybertron not over yet. We need bot like you in war. That for sure."

"Thank you," I said, "and goodbye."

And that was the last I saw of Grimlock for a long time. And the last I saw of Earth for a long time, as well. I could only imagine what became of Elben and his city. But I was excited about returning to Cybertron, wars or no wars. I was excited to start fighting again.

080975T

The Witwicky's Seaward Travels

App. 920 AD

We were travelling for months, across the big sea. My name is Michael Witwicky. But things changed, even my name, when we arrived at our destination. Things changed in ways I would never expect.

We were fleeing. Running from the lives we have back in Ireland. It was raining on that day, when we flew away on our sail ship, away from our lives, away from the convictions, away from all the insanity and beatings and yelling, fighting.

But we didn't know how far we went. It rained heavily, and we got caught in a vicious storm. I nearly felt we would die, then and there. But our mother was resolute. "You, go to the storage room. I will steer the boat."

"We are not leaving you, Mother!" cried Roth, the youngest. Liam crossed his thick-boned arms. "We will not lose you!"

"You three will live!" she cried. "As for me—don't worry! I will join my family in heaven should I perish. Now go!"

She was insistent as ever. We went to the storage room of the ship, huddling and folding our arms in our knees. We figured at any minute the ship would capsize, and we would lose our lives. But we were wrong.

"Michael!" I heard from somewhere, my own name crawling into my ear like a memory. It was Roth, his voice teetering over the edge of my water-clogged ears. I slowly came to, my eyes glued shut from the selfsame water.

"Where are we?" I mumbled. I felt pathetic, just sitting there on the sandbar, in the middle of nowhere. "Where is Mother?"

"We haven't found her yet," said Roth, clamoring up to me. Liam was standing, like a statue, on the top of a wind-slashed rock, his arms folded. He looked solemn, like a hawk surveying the lands below. I knew then and there that he would look after the Witwicky family from here on out.

"I know what we're all thinking," he said, holding his fist up. "Mother isn't coming back. She died. But I will tell you one thing. Our mother is strong. She survived our father's drunken beatings. She bought that boat we lived on for so long with her own money that she saved. She took care of us in that rotten rat hole we lived in for as long as she did. I will tell you with confidence: she lives. Now let's go. We will make ado on this new land."

I nodded. I acknowledged my brother's insight, but I wasn't completely optimistic myself. Should she be dead, we would still be able to survive on our own, right? We were young, but capable. I felt certain of that.

0009YR4

Jinrai's Regime

The Witwicky brothers wandered off that day, unbeknownst of their surroundings. What they knew was they were in a new land, with endless opportunities. What they didn't know was that they were being watched, and those possibilities may very well end along with their lives that same day. Their lives were held by a thin string, one dangling from the fingers of a prestigious man, in charge of many things on the island on which they traversed.

"Jinrai-sama! Some intruders from a foreign land have shown up today!" said Don, Jinrai's personal assistant. Harujima Jinrai, the man in charge of the Shinbasu regiment in Mabasu, Japan, stood erect, listening to his assistant's words with a careful attitude. His gray hair and fake eye glistened in the torchlight.

"What do they look like?"

"Not from Japan."

"I see. Go investigate. When you get a chance, bring them here. I wish to meet them," replied Jinrai. "If they are pretenders, they must be dealt with."

"Yes, Jinrai-sama!" Don said, bowing. He exited. Jinrai walked up to a large altar, torches lighting its stony frame. He dipped his hand into it, perchance a grin. He picked up a metal crescent-shaped object, gazing into it with intent.

"Yes, with this gift from the heavens, I will command the spirits of the spirit realm to follow my command. Even the demon-samurai of the Yami-Baku woods will yield. The Matrix of Leadership, as long as it is in my possession, will give me infinite power." Then he placed it back in the altar, swathing his kimono about, returning to the top floor of his underground cave.

He walked the dead streets of Mabasu, a condemned village in the outskirts of Japan, said to be the home of the spirits of the dead. There Jinrai practiced his swordplay with his katana, looking at the tree he hacked and sliced. He imagined his enemies, there before him, being cut down and down, falling before him like servants. He imagined the wars he had been in. Countless people would yield before him, with the Matrix of Leadership in his possession.

"My name is Apex Bombrix," said the giant metal man. Jinrai was just a boy. He looked into the metal man's plaintive eyes, and then to the destruction wrought before him. Mabasu lay wasted and war-ridden, by such destructive forces Jinrai had never seen before. "This—is the Matrix of Leadership. I am entrusting it to you. Do not let it fall into the hands of those who destroyed your town."

"But everything! You took everything! You took it all! Give it back!" Jinrai cried.

"That was the Decepticons. I used all of my power to take them down. Soon my body will go into permanent stasis, and it will crumble to pieces. You must prevent further destruction by protecting the Matrix with your life. Please—will you promise me?" Apex said. "Please."

Jinrai, in his boyish sensibilities, felt like crying out. But he had no choice. He took the Matrix, feeling its strange alien metal in his palms. "Thank you. And farewell," said Apex. He fell before Jinrai, and his body went black. Then, inexplicably, it crumbled like breadcrumbs before him, and disintegrated, leaving nothing behind.

Nothing. Jinrai had nothing. No more Mabasu. No more home, family, or friends. Only the Matrix.

Jinrai awoke in a pool of sweat. He placed his hand on his forehead. "These demons gave me the power to control them. They made me their worst nightmare. Little do they know—soon I will have the ultimate power. I only need to train a little more. I will not have trained in the fighting arts all these years for nothing. I lost my home, my family, but I will gain the world."

08080URT

The Ghost Samurai

We lived off of wild game for months. I had fun in those days. When the whole world was beneath our feet, and we were happy and free and together. But they did not last. We were on foreign soil, we did not belong, perhaps even less than we belonged in Ireland. We were aliens yet, and anything could happen. And anything did happen.

We were camping by a fireside one night, talking about nothing in particular when we were assailed by armored men. "We don't want any trouble," said Liam. "Leave us in peace."

"Namae wa," said one of the guards.

"What?" said Roth. "What do you want?" They were dressed in shrouded cloaks, in all-black clothes. Only slits revealed their eyes. As far as I knew, they could very well have been mermen.

"Namaewa!"

"I think they want our names?" said Liam. "Very well. Namaewa Liam. This is Roth, and that is Michael."

They peered at each other, murmuring as they did. They said something imperceptible, motioning for us to come with us. We followed them off of the sandbars, through woods of tall thin trees, which I didn't recognize at all.

We walked about for hours. Finally, we reached some form of civilization. But there were no people. The place felt like a haunt of ghosts, with ruined buildings with shingled roofs and broken totems sitting on their porches.

They led us to a pitch black area, and into a cave of sorts. The walls were torch-lit, and a feeling of fear crept up my back. I felt the walls. They were sticky with wetness and moist moss. The place bespoke death in an uncanny manner.

We came to a candlelit room, with waxed wood floors and paper doors all about. The hooded men led us through the rooms, opening up a random combination of the doors, twisting and turning through the building. We finally came to an important looking room, with a white-garbed man standing in its center. He held a crystal ball in his left hand.

"Greetings," he said, and I was amazed I could understand him. The ball lighted as he spoke. "My name is Harujima Jinrai. You have come a long way, have you not?"

"How can we understand you?" said Roth suddenly.

"This ball, young one, allows my speech to be translated, and yours, as long as I hold it in my hand." He chuckled. "Are you surprised? I have obtained this ball from the demon-spirits who live on the other side, along with many other things. Now—where have you come from?"

A hooded man nudged me. "We—" I said, "—we're from Ireland. It's a long way away, but…"

"Ireland," Jinrai echoed. "That is interesting indeed. I've never heard of such a place. You don't look like you're from around here. Such poor looking clothes."

"Listen," said Liam, "we're looking for our mother. She took us here. We were escaping from our father and the lives we had back there. She's kind of thin, five feet tall—"

"It appears some of that was lost in translation," said Jinrai. "Your mother? I have not heard of anyone else around here except you. Don! Escort our friends to an inn nearby. Make sure they are well accommodated."

Another black-clad man appeared, as if from nowhere. They took us by the arm, and led us through the rooms again, and into the city. We were taken to a ruined inn, with cots laid out for us. We exchanged worried looks, and disappeared into sleep.

"How is this new recruit?" one of the assassins asked as they headed to Mabasu.

"Never talks. Looks like a keeper. We'll have to see how he fights for ourselves, though."

"I heard he claimed the highest ranking in three weeks. Three months!" He guffawed loudly, so much so that the stranger could hear him.

The stranger lifted his black cowl, watched the other two shower him with praise with disdain. He clapped it over his mouth as soon as they turned to him. "Okay. I've heard this Matrix is priceless. The most priceless possession in all Japan! Tonight, we take it, and Jinrai's miserable life. It was about time Arikawa-Sama found him, he's been eluding us for long enough. Nameless, you will go from the south. Raishin, you will go in from the east. And I, I will attack from the west."

The stranger nodded. The other two darted off. The stranger remained there for a moment, taking in the encroaching night. Then, he sped off.

"Did you hear something, Roth?" said Liam, rustling out of bed. Roth stood at the window, peering at the foreign night. Don, that strange black-clad stranger, stood at our door like a sentry. I moseyed out of bed, and followed Liam to Roth's side. "We should get some sleep. It is best we keep our wits about us in this place."

"No," said Roth, "there's something out there. Something not human. It's, it's a ghost. It's coming here." He turned. A portentous gaze to each of us. He turned again.

Liam put a hand on Roth's shoulder. "Just get some sleep," he said to Roth, wise words always coming from his mouth. I was unsure. Roth always had special powers to look into the Otherworld, like a sixth sense. As Liam, tired, walked up to his bed, I went to Roth's side, and tried to figure out what he saw.

"What do you think it is?" I whispered. I could see him shivering.

He looked at me, with dazed, frustrated eyes. "Something pretending to be human. It's come for something here. Something powerful."

"In this city?"

Just then, Don thrust the door open. "Dameda!" he shouted, and his shout woke up Liam, who flounced out of bed with a crash, perchance his own shout.

"What?" he said, scratching his head.

Don motioned for us to follow. Liam quickly dressed, and we tunneled out the door. The halls were dark, and I nearly stumbled. The walls were paper, and I could silhouettes of people getting dressed . We have arrived in a strange land, I thought. Finally, we arrived outside, where we saw the village ablaze. The ruin that haunted me before now lay wasted by furious, indolent flames.

Jinrai stood at the gate to the village, as if he did not care about its wasting away.

"The Ghost Samurai did this," he told us, and just then I saw two dead bodies, black-clad men who looked as though they died fighting, their last breaths escaping in sheer agony.

Don spoke to him silently. "Yes," said Jinrai, turning. "Thirty years ago the demons took my family. Now they have taken my city. They will pay. I had planned to take Japan with the Matrix, but now even what I had was taken from me. It looks as though he has taken the lives of these two assassins, too. Poor souls."

He looked at us. "And what is your part in this, youngsters?"

Liam became irate. But Roth walked forward, determination in his eyes. "We will help," he said. "I understand what you face, and how to deal with it."

"Ganbare!" said Jinrai, his Japanese slipping through the translator-crystal. "Then we will leave in the morning."

09090Y+

Dorcas Witwicky

The stranger had survived from the attack, and travelled up the mountain to follow the creature that had killed his companions. Never had the stranger spoken to anyone upon arriving in Japan. He threw off his cowl. The people of the Getsujin Dojo had called the stranger a man, but she never revealed her gender to protect herself. She had learned the art of stealth and secrecy by living with an abusive husband. Taking food for her children when none was provided, learning to kill animals in the wild with nothing but a kitchen knife… Her master was shadow itself. Therefore, she learned the art of ninjutsu easily under Master Goemon at the Dojo. Now she had only to protect her children. She had to assure a good life in this new land, and this creature was the key. Slay the creature, as she had done to many meals, and take the reward, use the reward to make a better home. This would be an even better reward than Jinrai, to be sure, and to eliminate a threat would hamper their living. But until then, be safe, Roth. Be safe Liam. And, be safe Michael.

We travelled with Don through the Yami-Baku woods, north of Mabasu. The trees seemed to darken the further we travelled into it, and so did the sky. I shivered in the cold fear that enclosed on us. But Don would protect us, right?

Don continually rasped Japanese words that made little sense to us, but I took it to mean "careful!" or "quiet!" He had given us short swords to stave off whatever demons came out way.

But Roth knew better. He knew that spirits neither feared swords nor could be harmed by physical attacks. "What is it Roth?" I said. Something was troubling him.

"It's not a spirit we face," he said assuredly, but fearfully. "It's something… I cannot explain it." The wind rustled.

Jinrai travelled with the Shinbasu regiment deeper into the Yami-Baku woods, determination in his eyes. He found a body by a gnarled log, a wound deep in her side. She lurched in pain as he picked her up, studied her face. She was not Japanese.

"Who are you? What do you know of the spirits? Speak!"

She grunted and wailed, and turned to him soberly. "My name is Dorcas Witwicky. I am of the Gestujin Dojo, studying under Goemon. I trained in the art of stealth…"

"That pompous fool," said Jinrai, a little happily. "Training women."

"I am strong," said Dorcas, "but that thing is stronger. I just want to live here in peace. I came with my sons. I just want to live in peace with my sons."

Jinrai remained quiet, and propped her up against the log. "I will get you to your sons," said Jinrai. "For I have them in my custody. But for now, I must defeat that monster."

"Be careful," said Dorcas, uttering a vanished breath. "He is strong. Not human."

Jinrai nodded. They proceeded onward.

We travelled a little deeper in the woods, when we found something quite remarkable. It was a large metal thing, with wings like a bird but with glass at the front. It looked like a house—only it could fly, and was meant for a very tall being. We checked its structure with passionate curiosity. "Remarkable!" said Liam. "How could something like this exist?"

Don placed his hand against the steel. Sure enough, a red light appeared underneath his palm. Then a door opened in the object, so fast it was as though the wall was never there. Don headed inside, without a word. "We should not go in there!" shouted Roth desperately.

"What could happen?" said Liam. "It's no harm taking a look."

He walked into the ship's blackened entrails. I decided to stay with Roth. "Really, Roth," I said to my younger brother. "It should be fine. Let's just take a look, shall we?"

Roth reluctantly obeyed, and we followed the others.

The interior was extraordinary to say the least. Panels with buttons and knobs abounded, all for fingers ten times our size, and many other devices and things with wires and cables coming out of them also. Then the door slammed. Roth was right. We ran right into a trap.

The Shinbasu Regiment arrived. There was a circle of stones, and a huge bonfire crackling with human skulls as the tinder. They readied their weapons. The Ghost Samurai lumbered forth, like a huge mountain, standing twelve feet tall.

He wore golden armor, with a skull for a face, glowing eyes, and a helmet worthy of a great Samurai. A bone finished at the top of his head, in the shape of a crescent. He held a huge sword. His gasps were tinny and horrible. He began to speak. "You fleshlings usually run by now, too scared to come all the way into my woods."

Jinrai pointed his katana right at the Ghost Samurai, and looked stalwart at him. "I am Harujima Jinrai, leader of the Shinbasu Regiment, under Lord Arikawa. You have claimed too many lives, demon, including my family! Today you will face my wrath."

"Oh? Because I can feel your body shivering, and I can detect an awful lot of nervous perspiration. Even my victims who are overconfident fall before me. But you do not have that luxury I see. Well, for your remarkable courage," the demon started to put on a quizzical look. "I will tell you my name. I am Bludgeon, and I command no regiment or bow to any king. However, I am a Decepticon, and on one momentous occasion, my kind will take over the entire universe, and no fleshling creature like yourself will be alive to testify to our greatness or even bow down to us.

"Do you know why?" he turned to Jinrai, quitting his jesting tone. "Because they will all be dead. An entire universe for us to live with each other in peace. An entire universe of machines."

"An entire universe of ones such as you? No!" A subordinate rushed at Bludgeon, and Bludgeon quickly reacted in smooth motions, impaling the servant in one deft stroke. He then threw him aside, plunging him to the leaves below, a hunk of noise coming from his mouth. The rest assumed battle poses.

"What? You won't run away from me? Such courage! But the bravery of idiots is bravery nonetheless!"

The rest of the crowd stormed him, attacking from all sides. He deflected every blow, then suckered them with a sharp strike, each killing the servants in one hit. They fell like leaves, only leaving Jinrai disabled. "Dorcas was right about you," he said, lying in a pool of his own blood.

Bludgeon growled. "Just in honor of you, I think I will show you my true form. Then maybe I'll finish the job I started thirty years ago. In other words, I'll lay waste to the entire countryside!"

"Monster!" cried Jinrai. He rolled over, trying to move, but his arms quavered. Then Bludgeon glowed, and started to peel his armor off as if a shell. The glowing got more intense. Emerging from the light was a huge brutish creature of metal, with colors of green and orange, and a hulking, ugly face. To call it a demon would be a compliment.

"I am Bludgeon, future ruler of this solar system! Where Shockwave and Iguanus failed, I will succeed! I will find the Ark, and the Matrix of Leadership, and end this pitiable ball of dust!"

He clunked off, calling something in a strange technological language. Jinrai stood, balancing on his sword, blood sweating down his forehead. He had one advantage: Bludgeon did not know that he had the Matrix. But what would he do with it?

We wandered around the ship, trying to find a way to open the door. Then, out of the impinging dark, we heard a voice taper through the strange boxes throughout the ship's interior. It sounded like nonsense, but upon the noise the ship began to whirr and move. It then rumbled, and they perceived it seeming to lift off the ground. It hovered over the forest, and they peered out the window. Low-hanging clouds sifted over the forest, preventing any further sight. The thing moved at such speeds they were dashed against the walls. It then landed with a loud clump a distance away. The door opened, and a huge metal monster walked in, closing the door behind him. He seemed to commune with the ship somehow. I listened, but could not make out what they were saying.

"I can understand them," said Roth. "He says that his recent burning of the village was not enough to sate his thirst for violence. He says no living Autobots are here to stop them from finding the Matrix of Leadership and laying waste to the planet!"

"That isn't good," said Liam. I nodded, obvious as it was. Don shifted off, as if to face the metal monstrosity himself.

"What's that, Overlord?" said the huge one in my language. "Fleshlings are on board?"

"Yes, Bludgeon," said the ship, talking in our language as if to let us know they knew we were here. "I couldn't get them off. They're running around like Scraplets."

"Oh, how delightful," sighed Bludgeon. "I guess I will have to exterminate our little infestation." He glowed, and shrank down to twelve feet, and became dressed in suit of armor.

"It's the Ghost Samurai!" said Roth. "It must be!"

I gave him a look, and soon enough, Don hurled him at Bludgeon, yelling something impassioned in Japanese. But Bludgeon swatted him away like nothing. "One down," he said, and we hid from his sight, and heard his footfalls advancing. "However, do you think what I'm thinking, Overlord?"

"What?" the exasperated machine said. "What is your ploy, Bludgeon?"

"We will use them as bargaining chips. You hear me, filth? You will be our way of defeating the Autobots in case we come across them. You'd better be scared."

He walked off, turning into the huge metal monstrosity again. We gripped each other's hands, huddling in fear. Before, we only feared the Shinbasu. And then, the Ghost Samurai. Now we feared a being of greater evil than the Devil himself. Tears streaked on my eyes. But I looked to Liam. He did not look afraid. He seemed to have a plan, but I could scarcely imagine what it could be.

09&#UE2

Optimus Prime

Jinrai lay soaked, awash in reflections. He would die there, he assumed. He held the Matrix over his face, its gold glittering in the sun. He closed his eyes, and held it abreast. He fell to slumber. Peace stilled his heart. But something more than that, his alert senses detected, stilled him more, even healed him. The peace took him into a state of whiteness, of endless light, where he fell down a coalescing tunnel that resounded with voices and images of nondescript faces. He heard a voice thundering above the rest, which spoke to him: "I AM PRIMON."

"I AM GUARDIAN PRIME."

"I AM NEXUS PRIME."

"I AM SOLUS PRIME."

"I AM MAXIMUS PRIME."

"I AM ZETA PRIME."

"I AM VECTOR PRIME."

"I AM PRIME NOVA."

"I AM PRIMA."

"I AM SENTINAL PRIME."

Finally, the tunnel ended, and in the coalescing images and light stood a mannish metal being wearing sparkling red and blue, his face covered by a metal sheet. Ten others stood behind him, which he guess were the owners of the previous ones. "I AM OPTIMUS PRIME," said the final one.

Overlord and Bludgeon did not speak. The silence awed me, and put me in stuck fear, but Liam did not become likewise frozen. Instead, he got up after a few moments, and walked over to a door, which was oddly our size. "Where are you going?" Roth whispered.

"To check something. Come on!"

We followed him, clearly he was the leader. He led us down an odd tunnel with bubbling tanks and other strange paraphernalia. We came to four tanks with naked humans inside them at the far end of the hallway. The walls nearly collapsed in on us. "So that's it…" said Liam.

"What?" I said, shrugging confusion off my shoulders. Roth looked the same.

Liam smiled. "These creatures—they do not eat, they do not sleep—where else could they get their energy, but from this?"

"Humans?" said Roth. "They—look human. But somehow, different. It's a little strange. How awful! These men are being kept here, for energy!"

"But it would take a lot of time for them to lose power if we took these humans out."

"Yes, but that's not my plan," said Liam, happy with his own discovery. "We will control the robot—from the inside."

"That name means nothing to me," said Jinrai. "How then, do you expect me to be impressed?"

"I am the seventh of the Prime Council, and the bearer of the Matrix of Leadership, which allowed you to tap into the Creation Matrix, the very consciousness of all Transformers. It is the source of our life."

"The only Transformers, as you call them, have been either weaklings or evil in my experience. The weak ones had not the strength to fend off the evil that took my family."

Optimus was unfazed by the insult. "It grieves me to say that some of us cannot protect what is precious. I am sorry for your homeland. However, I know of your plight, as the Matrix has healed your wounds and filled you with mechanical blood.

"As such, you will be able to defeat the Decepticon that plagues you. The Matrix will turn your sword into a weapon that can pierce Transformer alloy. Use it well, Jinrai. We will meet again—a long time from now."

The images faded, and Jinrai awoke in the woods, fully healed, feeling amazing. He desired no food, nor wanted for drink. But he felt more alive than he had ever felt before.

We hefted the body out of the tube, as Liam stripped and climbed in, we attached the wires and tubes to his body like suction cups. As Roth leaned in to plug him in, he said, "remember, after an hour, remove my body. Remove the other ones, too. It would serve us better to let these monsters not have power if nothing else."

We plugged him in, and closed the tank. Then we looked at the body we had removed. It shriveled in instants, and soon was practically nothing more than a shriveled skeleton. We looked at each other in disgust. What if this happened to Liam?

Jinrai walked so fast he felt like he was not walking—not even running, but sprinting. He could not decide how he could move so fast. But he did not care. His sword glowed with an unearthly light, like magic. Finally, his dream could come true.

But would not conquering Japan be nothing better than what Bludgeon wanted? He decided he would mull over that after the beast was slain. He saw a huge floating metal thing, a ship he decided, and decided that that was where Bludgeon had gone to. He then sprang his knees, and without a second thought, jumped high into the sky, and pierced a huge hole in the side of the ship, landing on its bridge. He greeted Bludgeon, who sat in a chair, arms and legs folded. "We saw you coming here, fleshling," he said. "We've been expecting you. Who would think you owned the Matrix of Leadership? The very engine of Cybertronian life. How easily it would have slipped out of my hands, if not for my plans being put into action."

A robot, a smallish thing with gears and levers protruding, ambled forth, with Don, Roth, and Michael in its clutches. "One more step, and they die!" said Bludgeon.

Jinrai did not move. "I thought so," said Bludgeon. "Now, the sword?"

Jinrai walked up to Bludgeon, holding the sword abreast. Right as Bludgeon's hand came forth to grab it, he flung it at the robot, and deftly took it out of its sparking entrails. Then he flung himself at Bludgeon, who withdrew his own sword. The battle ensued.

We watched in fervor as the two of them clashed, sword on sword. Don could barely move. Roth bit his fingers. Jinrai was inhuman. Something had happened to him, but we did not know what. His eyes glowed a greenish hue, nothing like any Japanese person we had seen yet. His movements were quick, he moved so fast it was like watching a hummingbird. He parried every blow Bludgeon struck with, then hit back, clinking the monster's body. Bludgeon was losing. But he was not finished. "Enough of this!" He peeled his skin off, and quickly the huge robot from before appeared. "Let's take this outside!" He bum-rushed Jinrai, and they tumbled out of the door, into the woods, rustling the woods below. I wanted to follow. I heard nothing from Overlord, and presumed Jinrai dead, as no one could withhold such a powerful blow.

Jinrai lay on the ground, crushed. But he had no bruises. He got up, quickly, and faced Bludgeon, who transformed into a gigantic gun with wheels on it, and trammeled the forest below him, ready to run him over. He shot huge shells from the gun, pelting shrapnel and dirt all over the place. "Come out, come out, little fleshling!" he cried. "Come out to meet your doom!"

Jinrai did not know where to go. The whole forest blew up before him trembling at the might of Bludgeon. He gripped his sword. "Oh, but you are not a fleshling anymore, are you?" said Bludgeon, quitting his rampage, transforming into robot mode again. "You are a hybrid now. How about a deal. You give me the Matrix, and I will not kill you. Who knows? You could even join me in the conquest of the planet!"

It did sound enticing. But Jinrai had him at his mercy. "You will see that no one bargains with me, especially the monster that took my family away!" cried Jinrai, thrusting himself at the Decepticon.

Bludgeon grabbed him, ready to squeeze him. "You are in no position to boast. Family? What a worthless notion. A family is only something to alienate yourself from the rest of your kind. Be like us, and you will have no need for a family, as you everyone will be your family. Join us, Jinrai, or die!"

He looked into Bludgeon's vapid eye. Then he remembered Optimus Prime. Something sparked in his underbelly. Freedom is the right of all sentient beings. "No!"

"Then you will meet your doom!"

But before Bludgeon could squish Jinrai, his leg got chopped off. He fell to the ground. "You will not hurt my friends." It was Dorcas, wielding the sword.

Jinrai came to her side. "You are a fool, Bludgeon," said Dorcas. "Family is what keeps me alive. And without it, I would be weaker even than you. But family is not limited only to those you are related to. Anyone can be my family!"

Jinrai looked at her with envy. How could someone be so strong as that, and a woman? Bludgeon got up, swearing in his strange language. "Very well!" he announced. "Now I will show no mercy!" He shrank into his pretender shell. Then he ran at blinding speed, ready to cleave Jinrai. He took the blade from Dorcas, and resumed their dance. "What's the matter? You seem to have lost your speed!" Bludgeon did not stop his taunting as they danced about. Now Bludgeon had the upper hand, and ripped Jinrai's flesh apart like paper. He lay on the ground, Bludgeon ready to impale him as he did the servant.

Then, a shadow hung over them, and Bludgeon looked up at it. "Overlord, don't distract me as I finish off my prey!"

"Oh, I won't," said Overlord. "Instead, I think I'll just open fire on you!" He transformed into robot mode, and blew Bludgeon to kingdom come.

Jinrai and Dorcas exchanged weird looks. Overlord lumbered forth, and fell to the ground with a loud crash.

897RTG#

Epilogue

We could not recover Liam's body from the rummage. Overlord slowly fell apart and dilapidated like the human body we found inside it, and it seemed Liam gave his life to control the monster and then destroy it. But we met with our mother again, and we were happy again. We were a family. She married Jinrai, and we lived happily in Mabasu, hiding the large robot underground. We never heard from Bludgeon again. Jinrai had forgotten about his regiment, and discharged from his direct service as general to Lord Arisawa thereafter.

I approached him one evening as we prepared to eat our noodles. He looked contemplatively. "What ever happened to the Matrix?" I asked him, sipping some tea. Don had told me about it, after I learned some Japanese. He looked disdainful. "I am the Matrix now. I absorbed it, along with my passion for conquest. Now all that remains is an immortal human, for better or worse."

"What will you do?"

"I will live with my family. That is the most important thing for me."

Dorcas stood at the doorway, looking at the beautiful setting sun. We could do anything together.

THE END