Head On!

The following takes place in the G1 continuity and occurs after the events of "Not to Reason Why" in the story arc that started with "The Return of Wheeljack."

Zarak looked at his lieutenants. His recent victory over both Autobot and Decepticon was fresh on his mind, but more importantly it was the work left undone. Estimates of hacked communications suggested that he killed 30 Autobots and maybe as many Decepticons including four Combiners that would never see the light of day again. However he felt much like Yamamoto after Pearl Harbor. The great weapons of both sides never appeared. No Trypticon. No Fortress Maximus. No Powermaster Optimus Prime.

"My loyal Hive associates. Our plan to have Autobot and Decepticon destroy each other is still incomplete. There must be a way to defeat our adversaries using the superior brain power of the Hive and of course the brutal might of Scorponok," ranted Zarak.

"Things were easier when we had bodies. Sure those among who become weapons are not completely useless, but we need bodies again," responded Monzo.

"Resources for that are low. For now, we must be quick and invisible. Forget your need for bodies right now. Now I need information. Our opponents have all kinds of weapons and other secrets that they never shared with us. There must be something that the Autobots or Decepticons are hiding in those vaults that they do not wish us to know about," answered Zarak.

"Which is why those computers are guarded. The archives on Cybertron, the banks of Metroplex, and even the minor lunar base are well defended," commented Vorath. "How do you plan to beat that?"

"By piercing the weak link of the Autobot defenses: the humans. We will hack their network and its connections to Metroplex to gain access for the data we need. I will send you to Earth with our ally Fastrack and aid once you get there," answered Zarak.

Wheeljack had a promise to keep, and he was finally healed enough to do it. He adjusted himself and rotated back and forth to test his readiness. He then walked into the medical bay of Metroplex. He found a much different sight than the one that greeted him earlier, after Trapezus had been destroyed. The wounded Autobots were now well enough to leave and they mostly had. Only Streetwise and Blades remained on station. Optimus had assigned them fairly easy duty to give them time to get over the loss of their comrades. Cliffjumper returned to the moon to assist Jazz.

The ICU was still loaded and Wheeljack noted that someone had beat him to the punch. There was Perceptor, clearly doing both medical and scientific work on the shattered bodies of the Autobots in the ICU.

"Hi, Wheeljack. I'm sure you're wondering what I've doing. I have determined that the current bodies of our friends are not going to make it. I've requested Spike to construct new ones on Nebulos and ship them here," said Perceptor.

"Why Nebulos?" asked Wheeljack.

"They will be Headmaster compatible. I was afraid that their damaged sparks might not be able to fully control a new body. Besides you know the benefits of Headmaster tech," answered Perceptor.

There were a slavo of warning lights firing in the medical bay. Wheeljack snapped out of his stupor and noted that they were stasis warnings. "Scrap, I thought I had more time," complained Perceptor. "I'm losing the sparks on Tracks, Chase, Outback, and Pipes. The new bodies, just the first three, won't be here for days."

"We'll have to move the sparks to other bodies," suggested Wheeljack.

"There's nothing like that around here!" roared Perceptor.

"What are you talking about? This is Earth, there are vehicles everywhere," argued Wheeljack.

"Not in the next two minutes there are not. Besides, spark transfer is a risky and calamitous proposition. We can't simply do it over and over again til we get it right," answered Perceptor.

"Ok, okay. Look the only thing we have got around here that I know of is extra human exosuits," replied Wheeljack.

"That's not much, but it will have to do," said Perceptor. "Bring the first suit."

Perceptor and Wheeljack worked carefully to convert the exosuits into new bodies for the four stasis challenged Autobots. After a few minutes they were successful. The new bodies were holding the sparks and sparks were stable. The suits could transform, but the ultimate results would be some rather small human sized transformers.

"You realize Tracks is going to be upset with us," said Perceptor.

"Perhaps, but there is a way we could make him bigger," said Wheeljack.

"How so?" asked Perceptor.

"You said the new bodies were Headmaster capable. Arcee is a Headmaster with an exosuit for a head. We could modify these suits into Headmaster units like that. Now the vehicle part, in this case, won't have a mind of its own. It will be like a transtector, or something like that. So instead of Nebulans and Autobots, it would be a small Autobot and a drone. The combined power should still be stronger than a normal Autobot," explicated Wheeljack.

"I see. Well, there is no reason to keep these guys in the ICU now that they have fresh bodies. I will move them to the main medical ward. I would ask you to stay with them, Wheeljack, so there are no surprises when they wake up," answered Perceptor.

"Uh-huh," muttered Wheeljack. Their medical procedure had given him an idea for what to do with Sideswipe and Mirage, the remaining members of the ICU.

"By the way, did you happen to see where that orange drone dolly went to? I left it here a minute ago," commented Perceptor.