Prelude

General Abram Jennings (CIA Headquarters Chicago)

I stare up at the elevator ceiling, the tiny glass window showing the shaft go up, up, up more. I feel the elevator slow to a very soon stop and then a Ding! to let me know I may exit. I walk out and two Soldiers salute me as I walk past them. One of them walks in front of me leading me to the Info Room. I walk through the door and the soldier stops as I enter, then closes the door behind me. "Alright, what are we looking at here gentlemen?"

"Two years ago Tak Mashido won in a Real Steel match, but in everybody else's words lost the war," one of his men said.

"And the part I care about that is?"

"Well, he's gotten a bit haywire since then,"

"People this is a CIA office not a damn Department of Social Services, COME ON, wheres the threat?"

"Um, I'll just explain after the video, you really need to see this sir," they said. They pulled up a video that hit the news in Japan earlier today. It showed A robot about the normal size you would see a league fighting bot run into a skyscraper, others joining it, and then a giant explosion ignited where they went in, the last three floors crushing itself, making the the tower groan and lean to a side, falling into another skyscraper, knocking it over like dominoes.

"What the hell... was that?"

"That's not all sir, keep watching," the man said to me. I watched as another robot ran out the bottom of the skyscraper, tossing a big piece of metal wall towards the camera. The man behind it dodged it, then turned to see where it landed. Painted big in black and green graffiti it said 'NY, your next!'

"Alright what kind of joke is this? You honestly think i'm gonna believe all of this? You honestly think i'm gonna believe some pissy WRB robot boxer dude really got so mad he went and blew up a skyscraper in Japan? WHERE HE ORIGINATES? Come on. I can have everyone of you in here fired for this, you know that don't you?"

"Yes sir, I do but that's not all sir, if you would just turn your attention back to the screen please," the man asked. The video rewound to where the Robot was running and then threw the wall. "Alright there is a big robot running out the fourth floor of the skyscraper and throws the wall at the camera man, your point?"

"Sir, if you keep watching you'll see the camera man turned back to where the robot was running, but it wasn't there anymore."

"Your point is?"

"Look at this sir," he said rewinding the video once more to the part where he was about to toss the wall when he paused it. The man zoomed in and cropped a symbol on it shoulder then cleared it, then blew it up to where i can see it.

"Well, that explains alot. Contact N.E.S.T., get me Major Lennox, tell them to assemble a small squad for Japan, then send another to New York. And get me a sandwich! I'm HUNGRY!"

"Yes sir, we're on it," they said scrambling around. One of them pulled up a screen showing a woman sitting at a desk. "Afternoon, may I ask who you are wanting to contact?" she asked.

"Jerry, what the hell is this?" I asked the soldier sitting at the computer.

"Um, I don't know."

"Mother of god what is this world coming to," he mumbled under his breath, wiping his eyes. "Get me Major Lennox please," I said to the screen.

"Sure, just give me a second, and, routing you to Major now," she said, Lennox appearing on the screen, sitting at a table going through paperwork, not even looking at the screen. "Major Lennox here, who's calling?" he said. He had gotten older and he aged quite a bit too. A few tiny strands of gray streaked through the right side of his hair. He could only be in his early fifties.

"This is the CIA, I'm sure you aware of the attack that happened in Japan earlier today?"

"No sir I am not, should I be?" he asked, still not looking up.

"I believe you should, watch this video. Jerry, route the video through."

"Routing video sir," he replied, typing furiously at the keyboard. The video popped up on the screen once more, the live feed of Lennox shortening to a square in the upper left corner. He looked up at the screen, watching. His eyes widened a little once the explosion went off.

"Those are Transformers right?" he asked, watching the second tower toppling downwards.

"No, not exactly," I replied.

"Well, if it's not a Transformer attack, then we should be fine since we're in the U.S.," he said.

"Keep watching Major, I think you'll be surprised," I chuckled. He looked back at the screen as the robot ran out the bottom of the fourth floor and chucked the meta; wall. Lennox read the wall and his expression changed from curious to frightened. "ok, that's - where did the robot go?" he asked.

"That my friend is the reason I contacted you. Jerry, crop the image again."

"Yes sir," Jerry replied, replaying his steps. The logo on the robots arm formed on the screen.

"Do you happen to recognized this symbol Lennox? I'v never seen it myself till today, but um, you being one of the closet to you Autobot members, maybe this is a symbol you recognized from somewhere."

"I don't know what that is, except maybe one of the bots in the back might know, but otherwise I have no clue whatsoever."

"Major, you are aware how the recent bot-outbreaks are beginning to become a problem do you not?"

"Yes sir, I do."

"The video video you just watched was performed by a man that goes by the name Tak Mashido, heard of him?"

"WRB leage bot-boxer, creator of the world famous league bot Zeus?"

"Precisely."

"How would you know that it was him?"

"Rewind the tape Jerry if you please."

"Sure thing." The tape rewound to the first robot running into the skyscraper. The clip paused as the bot turned it's head.

"Major, do you recognize that bot?"

"That's, it looks like, Zeus."

"And who else would be able to control other that Veralen Kova?"

"What about the two guys who controlled him?"

"Tak fired them after the Real Steel match with rookie boxer Atom, I just looked it up."

"Did he get new controllers?"

"I looked that up too. Tak went a whole year without boxing to ensure he wouldn't get humiliated again. The year he returned which was last year, he went to manual controlling to also ensure he wouldn't loose again."

"So what happened after that?"

"It appears he went up against Atom once more and this time was in fact defeated in the fourth round."

"Wow I bet that pissed him off, but it wouldn't explain why he went all terror-crazy."

"But then you have that symbol on that one bot's arm."

"This is not good, like at all."

"Major we could be looking at a serious uprising."

...