"Are you sure this is gonna work?"

"We don't have much of a choice. It's this or we all wait for the sun to finish the war for us."

Roulette looked up at the face of her leader, her commander, her friend, and couldn't shake the sorrow filling her up inside. She was doing her best not to let the grief get to her – professional racers didn't let anything get in the way of crossing the finish line – but she knew it was not likely she'd see any of them again.

"Come on, little sis. Buck up. We'll all be leaving soon. This isn't the end you know; it's just being benched for a season," Override said, trying to encourage the young Velocitronian racer seated inside the skimmer shuttle.

"Promise me one thing, Commander," Roulette said, reaching up to take Override's hand and clasp it. "Promise me, somehow, you'll tell my sister what happened. Where I went."

Override's expression flattened, and she nodded silently in assent.

"We're ready for launch!" Bluestreak called from the maintenance hangar that served as the Velocitronian Autobots' home base. "The space bridge is gonna close in three kliks, so this isn't time for long goodbyes!"

"I'm ready," Roulette said, taking in a gust of wind and filtering through her engines, trying to cool them down.

"Solus watch over you, Roulette. Good luck, and cross the finish line," Override said, releasing Roulette's hands as the shuttle's cockpit closed. Running off the launch pad as the engines fired up, Override took her place next to Bluestreak at the control panel for the launch system up to the last working space bridge over the planet.

"Did you lock onto the planetary destination we saw on the Autobot Ark's system logs?" she asked Bluestreak.

"Yeah, I got it. Last destination was a tiny little organic world on the aft-end of the galaxy. Supposed to be really resource heavy," Bluestreak replied. "If she makes it she'll be all right."

"If she makes it, we may have to follow," Override said, watching as the shuttle righted itself. Shaped like a teardrop with highly aerodynamic x-shaped wings and tail, the ion thrusters of the ship began to glow. The roar of energy flowing through the ships systems was nearly deafening, and the rush of wind was kicking up another one of the planet's famous dust storms.

Bluestreak and Override's vents sealed, with visors and faceplates automatically snapping into place. No Velocitronian lacked these systems; the dust storms would destroy their internal systems in short order without them.

"What'd you say the name of the destination planet in that system was?" Override asked as the shuttle achieved liftoff, sailing high into the orange sky and vanishing against the giant red ember of a setting sun that swallowed the horizon with its mass.

"Earth," Bluestreak replied. "They call it Earth."


Insecticon presents:

BRAT!

A Transformers Prime: Invasion Story


The powder blue Ultima GTR was gaining speed, and far too quickly. The cars following it were struggling to catch up. They would have had an easier time chasing after the little turnkey supercar if they weren't fighting against each other at the same time.

"Get out of the way, Autobot!" Knock Out snarled, unable to pass the black and yellow mustang in front of him.

A series of whirling beeps and electronic growls was the reply. Bumblebee kept turning in front of the red Aston Martin every time Knock Out tried to pick up speed to pass him.

"Wh- I am not too slow!" Knock Out growled in return.

"Move out of the way, prettymech! You're gonna have to learn how to play rough if you wanna be one of us!" Wildrider, Drag Strip and Dead End were catching up fast, hogging the two lane blacktop that seemed to stretch endlessly through the largely empty Nevada desert.

"Move out of the way?!" Knock Out cried, incredulous. "You're driving in both lanes and the center, what do you expect me to do, drive into the dirt?!"

Mocking female laughter taunted the Decepticon medic. The yellow, red and black striped formula one racer pulled up from behind the red Aston Martin, taking her half of the road out of the middle. "I swear you're such a femme sometimes, Kay-Oh!" Drag Strip shouted. "Get behind me, I'll catch up with our blue friend up in front. You might wanna drop back a few positions, because when my brother and Dead End catch up to Bumblebee, they're gonna splatter that bug all over their windshields!"

"Oh yes, I'd love to drive alongside the slavering addict," Knock Out grumbled to himself, turning into the right lane to let Drag Strip pass him, slowing down a few dozen miles per hour. He watched as the femmebot Stunticon smoothly changed lanes, revving her engines up and passing him effortlessly. Internally he smiled. "At least the view is nice . . ."

"Keep your optics on the road!" Wildrider snarled at Knock Out. "Not on my sister's rear bumper!"

Drag Strip laughed mercilessly, fishtailing in front of Knock Out's grill before blowing past him and shooting beyond Bumblebee, who simply could not keep up.

Insufferable tease! Knock Out thought with a grimace. You can't hide behind your thug of a brother forever! Just wait until you need repairs!

"I heard you Bee!" Smokescreen called back. "Wheeljack, Shiftlock, we've got Stunticons coming up on us fast. You think you guys can keep 'em busy while I kick it into high gear?"

"We've got you covered kid," Wheeljack radioed ahead. "Besides, Wildrider and I have a little score to settle."

"I can try to block Drag Strip to buy you more time, but you're gonna have to put pedal to floorboard, Smokescreen, she'll outrace me before long. Anything from the blue speeder ahead of us?" Shiftlock asked as she moved into the right lane behind Smokescreen, Wheeljack taking the left, trying to keep Drag Strip from getting ahead.

"Nothing, they're not responding to my communications at all," Smokescreen stated, the needle of his speedometer soaring to the right, 100mph, 110mph, 120mph. "There's no Autobot identifier or Decepticon, but they're giving off Cybertronian EMF and they're running on energon."

...

Back at Autobot headquarters, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Arcee and the three human children were watching the communications screen, the display showing the moving road, with Autobot and Decepticon insignias clustered along the strip of freeway, moving and mixing among each other. The unknown Cybertronian's ident marker continued to gain speed. Smokescreen, Wheeljack, Bumblebee and Shiftlock's mugshots were in a row at the bottom of the screen, voice signatures and physical status to the side of each. In the command center the rest of the Autobots had gathered, on stand-by, in case they should be needed.

"Think it could be a Neutral?" Arcee asked, arms folded as she watched the screen.

"It's highly irregular behavior for a Neutral. Furthermore, why would a Neutral come to this planet? There's nothing of value here for them. They refused to participate in the Great War or join either side. The ongoing combat between Autobots and Decepticons here should be a repellant to them, not an attractant," Ultra Magnus stated, analyzing the movement patterns on the screen.

"Well, this world does have a lot of Energon. Maybe they're in need of fuel," Jack Darby suggested with a shrug of his shoulders, leaning against the guard rail of the mezzanine he, Miko and Rafael were standing on.

"Well, if they really need fuel, wouldn't they have asked?" Raf questioned back.

"Or," Miko added, "Maybe they're just totally crazy."

Ratchet, standing near the ground bridge controls, rubbed his face. "Oh Primus please no. We don't need another one."

The low, rhythmic thumping in the background was all the reminder anyone needed of whom Ratchet was speaking. Whirl had taken to slamming his head repeatedly into the wall to "relieve pressure on his brain module".

Optimus kept his optics on the screen, listening to the suggestions and tidbits of information being supplied by his team, rolling it around in his mind along with multiple other possibilities. The blue vehicle wasn't trying to attack, and its movements weren't quick and jerky as if it might be afraid. They were steady, but always keeping ahead of the others no matter how much more speed they poured on, almost as if it were pacing itself. . .

"Smokescreen, I want you to get as close as you can to the unknown Cybertronian, and insult them," Optimus calmly commanded.

"What?" Smokescreen asked, sounding highly confused. "Insult them? How? What do you want me to say?"

"Call them a 'bot-form'," Optimus responded.

"Bot-form?" Now it was Arcee's turn to be confused. "How is that an insult?"

Ratchet perked up. "You think that vehicle is a Velocitronian?"

"We'll know in a moment," Prime replied.

...

Aboard the Nemesis, Megatron stood expectantly behind Soundwave as he and Starscream continued monitoring the situation on the ground.

"Do we have any idea who that Cybertronian is?" he asked over the Decepticon communications network to his team on the ground.

"No, Lord Megatron," Knock Out answered over the channel. "It's not responding to us. Fortunately it doesn't seem to be responding to the Autobots either."

The silver mech glared at the screen for a moment, pondering the situation. The behavior of ground vehicles was something he never bothered with, save tactics on how to destroy them more effectively. He could not, however, shake the feeling that he had seen this sort of driving behavior before.

"Motormaster," he said to the enormous purple, gray and black hulk leaning against the wall nearby. "What do you make of this."

The double-trailered sixteen wheeler stared at the screen and the dots moving along its holographic projection surface.

"Looks like a race," the Stunticon commander absentmindedly said.

"A race," Megatron mused, thinking.

"A Cybertronian with no Autobot or Decepticon identifier that's just racing along the ground?" Starscream added, "The only neutral Cybertronians I know of that care that much about racing are those twitchy idiots on-"

"Velocitron," Megatron interrupted, coming to the same conclusion. His eyes narrowed. "That had better not be Ransack's way of saying he failed to conquer my colony world. Starscream! Assemble a team of seekers and get the tow cables. The Stunticons aren't going to be able to keep up with a Velocitronian, but I want that neutral captured and brought to the ship as soon as possible. I want to know why it's here on earth."

"What do you mean they can't keep up?!" Motormaster interjected, insulted by the notion that any of his crew couldn't catch up to some pathetic, light-weight little race car.

"Mind your insolence, Stunticon," Megatron rasped warningly. "Velocitronians have spent millions of years refining themselves for nothing more than racing. Their entire society is based around speed, and even the slowest of them could outpace a Cybertronian racer. Even a jet might have trouble keeping up with them."

"Which is why we should leave it to the professionals," Starscream smugly added with a mien of arrogant pride, needling Motormaster. "Seekers!" he commanded through the console. "Assemble on the flight deck and equip tow cables. We're going hunting!"

...

Smokescreen was topping at a hundred and fifty miles per hour, slowly catching up to the blue Ultima GTR. The yellow body of the formula one was in his rear view mirror, pulling alongside. He had to act quickly.

"HEY BOT-FORM!"

The engine of the powder blue car seemed to howl in pure rage. "Bot-form?!" a female voice snarled back at Smokescreen. "Suck my exhaust Cybertronian!" The car bolted ahead, soaring past two hundred miles per hour.

"Wow, you have a real way with the ladies, don't you, Smokey-pie?" Drag Strip teased.

"Hey, she talked to me, didn't she?" Smokescreen easily replied, smiling inside. "I'd say I'm doing better than you guys are."

"Too bad you never got to be a racer," Drag Strip purred. "You'd have been fun to play with."

"Aren't you a little, I don't know, old for me?" Smokescreen retorted.

"Old?!" Drag Strip snarled. "Get smelted you little gearstick!" She roared ahead of him, chasing after the Ultima.

"Wow, someone's gonna die alone," Shiftlock teased.

"She's a Decepticon, I don't have to be nice to her," Smokescreen said back.

"Remind me to take the kid out sometime and teach him the finer points of dealing with fembots," Wheeljack added.

"And what experience would you have with women, Captain Loner?" Smokescreen asked sarcastically, redlining his engine to try to keep Drag Strip and the blue Neutral femme in his line of sight.

"More than you have, rookie," Shiftlock chuckled.

Bumblebee's alarmed chirps and whistles erupted into the conversation.

"Oh scrap he's right, they're turning around, everyone LOOK OUT!" The friendly banter abruptly ended as Drag Strip barreled back towards the group in the opposite direction, Smokescreen skidding out of the way to avoid being crashed into. Bumblebee, Shiftlock and Wheeljack drove out into the dirt as Wildrider and Dead End tried to plow into them.

"Sorry Bots, you're cramping our style!" Knock Out called as he zoomed past the dust clouds where all but Smokescreen had run off into the desert sand, transforming as they came to a stop.

Bumblebee watched Knock Out and the Stunticons disappear into the distance, beeping the question on everyone's minds.

"I dunno. But if they're taking off in such a hurry, it can't be a good thing," Shiftlock said.

"Wheeljack, your squad has incoming," Ultra Magnus commed from the base some distance away. "We're detecting Seekers, roughly fifty of them, headed towards your position."

"Looks like the other half of the party just showed up," Wheeljack said.

Further ahead on the road, still in hot pursuit, Smokescreen was struggling to keep up with the Ultima femme. "If this keeps up my engine's gonna overheat!" he complained to himself.

"Smokescreen," Wheeljack commed, "We've got seekers coming in, and they might be after you and the Neutral. Stay on her tail as long as you can. We're gonna try to hold 'em off here."

An signpost over the highway was coming into view just ahead.

"I'll do my best, Wheeljack, but I just can't keep up with her! I'm pushing it as hard as I can go!" Smokescreen commed back.

The Ultima suddenly blurred across the pavement in a blinding flash of speed, passing under the signpost; the car's rear swung to the right until she'd completely reversed herself. She transformed, leaping upwards, landing in a crouch, facing the oncoming Autobot as she skidded to a stop.

"HA!" She announced with an air of superiority, hands on her hips. She pointed upwards. "See? I totally got to the goal marker before you did! I won!"

Smokescreen finally passed under the signpost, sliding sideways to a stop and transforming, staring at the somewhat shorter aqua blue femme in front of him. "Goal marker? What are you talking about?"

The femme folded her arms. "Oh don't try to play coy with me bot-form, that is clearly a finish marker for this part of the raceway." She looked up at it. "Display the winner!" she commanded.

The green highway sign continued to display "Jasper, Next Right."

"I said display the winner! What, is that stupid thing broken?!" she said, frowning.

"This isn't a raceway," Smokescreen tried to explain. "Look, there's a whole bunch of Decepticons headed this way and my friends are trying to keep them from getting to us. We need to get out of here."

"Pff. Decepticons are so not my problem. I won the race, that's all that matters," she said. "If they wanna try to beat me they're welcome do it, but I'll just make them suck dust like I did with you."

Smokescreen could not believe his audioceptors. "The Decepticons are going to be your problem when they start shooting at you! Come on, we have to move!" he reached to try to take hold of the femme's arm.

The blue femme hauled off and slapped Smokescreen sharply across the face. "Get your hands off me you rust-brained piece of scrap! I know what you are, you're an Autobot and you're every bit as bad as a Decepticon, so get your hands off me, because I do not need or want your help!"

...

In the Autobot base, Ultra Magnus' mouth drew into a tense, unhappy line, listening into the conversation.

"Wow, and I thought I was bad," Miko muttered under her breath.

"Ow!" came Smokescreen's voice over the comm line. "She hit me!"

Arcee snorted. "If she thinks she can take care of herself, I say let her."

"Even if she is being difficult, that's no reason to leave her to the Decepticons," Optimus explained. "Ratchet, have a ground bridge ready. We may need to bring her here temporarily."

...

Smokescreen frowned. "Okay, look, this is for your own good!" He lunged down and grabbed up the blue femmebot, tossing her halfway over his shoulder. "I got her, Prime, open the ground bridge, quick!" He could see the seekers blackening the sky just behind as they already began opening fire on the other three, who were racing towards Smokescreen's position, dust clouds behind them.

"PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT YOU STUPID JERK!" the femme screamed, directly into Smokescreen's audioceptors.

"Gaaah! Hurry Prime before I go deaf!" he shouted into the comm line as she began kicking and hitting him.

"Oh this is just going to be fun, isn't it," Ratchet groused, opening the ground bridge.


Notes: Roulette is an actual canon character, but I am creating a new take on her for the Aligned/Prime Transformers universe. Shiftlock is my own character. Everything else, Hasbro!

Fic inspired by the song "Demon Girlfriend (Kagamine Rin)" by FamiRock Project.

Fic takes place after "Masters and Servants".