Side Effects and Dark Secrets were two of my most successful stories. I do not expect to recreate that success with this one, but this is a...different perspective, let's say, of this whole angle. I enjoy the 2001 anime of Robots in Disguise. I have not looked into the new cartoon one.

I don't expect a lot of readers for this story, save for dedicated RiD anime fans. I don't think it was a popular series. But, if you are reading this and are a fan of my other Transformers stories, and you feel an interest, last time I checked, the ENTIRE SERIES could be found on Youtube.

If you are not familiar with Koji Onishi, he is a joyous boy whose father was captured by the Predacons. In my opinion, his luck is just about as bad as Kelly's. Read the first sentence of her wikia page if you don't know how bad her luck is. Koji's luck is also good because he has the Autobots to bail him out. :)

I'd say that's enough of me talking. Here is a take on what would happen if...well, you'll see. :)

Koji watched the screen silently. Sky-Byte stood beside him, observing the boy concernedly. The Autobots were rebooting their computer in their base to transfer TA-I to it. They had come back after seven years. Koji's father walked into view, older and more worn than the last time the boy had seen him, and Koji turned up the audio. He didn't touch the computer when he did so.

"Dr. Onishi. Good to see you. Where's Koji?" Optimus asked, inclining his head.

Kenneth Onishi's face fell, and he began to cry. The Autobots were greatly alarmed.

"Dr. Onishi? What's wrong?" Side Burn asked.

Koji began to cry himself at the broken voice that came from his father. "He's missing. He's been missing since three months after you left. I don't know where he is or what he's doing, and I haven't been able to track him. I don't think he's dead…but he isn't coming home."

The Autobots all stared at him in stunned silence. "What caused this?"

"I don't know. He started acting funny about a month after you left. He started wearing different clothes, long sleeves despite the good weather, hoods to cover his face, gloves to cover his hands, and he wore them all the time, even in his bedroom. He was moody and snappish. He was always crying, hated people touching him. I think he was in pain, but he refused to tell us what was wrong."

"Puberty?" Optimus asked gently.

"His voice and height didn't change, and, more importantly, he had no interest in girls. He was depressed and…He wasn't the Koji we know and love."

That stung the boy, so he switched off the computer, then teleported to his room. Sky-Byte left him alone for about half an hour then came in. He paused in the doorway to appraise his best friend. Koji didn't bother hiding from him most of the time anymore, so he just stared back.

His hair had gone limp without him taking care of it, so he'd cut it short. Bangs fell into his face, covering his eyes, his purely one-colored, golden eyes. His brown eyes had morphed to a color much like Optimus', sort of a coppery color that glowed, though he could change them to anything he wanted. His body wasn't the same, either. He was thinner, leaner, with muscles peeking out despite his young physical age of eleven. He looked like a strange human, which compounded when the silver color of his entire body was factored in. Everything besides his eyes and the shorts he wore from habit was silver.

Koji seemed to sense the full force of his oddity yet again, because his customary, chameleon-like cloak appeared on his body, Sky-Byte frowned and hurried over.

"Koji, my boy," he cooed softly. "Come out. Please? You know I don't judge you for this. It is my fault it happened as well as yours."

"My father wants me as I was, not as I am, Sky-Byte."

"He doesn't know any better."

Koji was distraught, crying again, so Sky-Byte used his new—well, not really new, but still strange— program to shrink down so he could embrace his friend. Koji cried for a while then looked up into the face of his friend, a face much different than the one from the first war on Earth.

Sky-Byte's design was simpler, less clunky, for lack of a better term. It was more streamlined like the Autobots. Yes, he could still transform into a shark, but his shark parts folded away neatly inside of him. His color scheme was a little different, too. His white was replaced with dark blue, his yellow replaced with a dusky gold to match Koji's optics, and his dark blue was replaced with silver, which were all a part of his attempt to communicate to Koji that he needn't be ashamed of himself as a Mini-Con, which was what they were calling him.

"I love you, Sky-Byte. I love you a lot. Don't ever leave me?" Koji asked insecurely.

"Never, Koji. Never," Sky-Byte assured him.

Though he was still emotionally youthful, Koji possessed the mind of the best supercomputer around…if that supercomputer was from Cybertron. His mind was faster than lightning, and could turn out answers that humans had never, ever thought of. That Cybertronians had never, ever thought of. Not to mention his abnormal strength, super speed, and ways to control things like fire and air.

All of that made him different. In his mind, he was a freak. Sky-Byte knew this, but he didn't know how to alleviate it. He had been trying for seven years. Seven long, agonizing years for Koji, to change the way he thought of himself. And it didn't help that his father kept saying that he wanted, 'the same old Koji we know and love'. Because that was a completely different Koji than the one that now existed.

"Koji, you promised that when the Autobots were back that you would come out of hiding," Sky-Byte said to distract his little Mini-con from his thoughts that were beginning to take a dark turn.

"They won't understand me either. And," he said overridingly as Sky-Byte began to talk. "Even if they did, they'd reveal me to my parents, who wouldn't."

"They're about to add TA-I. Are you sure she can't track us?" the Transformer asked resignedly.

"I'm an integrated program. She won't even acknowledge me unless I speak to her first," Koji said.

"Would you like to go and watch the Autobots set up some more?"

"No. I wouldn't."

"How about a nice movie?"

"Can we watch a comedian instead? Tim Hawkins has a new one out."

"That sounds superb, Koji."

They sat down in the sitting area of their little home and began to laugh their cares away. But both of them knew that the Autobots' return was the starting point of what would be a big reveal of Koji and what he could do. The boy had coded a program that left his spark's unique, high energy spark signal undetectable while within about a hundred miles of their home. And the program was increasing about a one and a half miles every week. Sky-Byte's spark was protected, too. But when he left that bubble? Well, the Predacons were always after energy, right? But they, and the Autobots, would never, ever expect a source of such extremely high energy to be living, and that was their biggest advantage.