THE INITIATION

The characters that are mine are copyright to me, all others are copyrighted to Hasbro/Marvel/Takara/Dreamwave. Read on!

1989: Liane Kay Elliot was a portly, 21-year-old female human. She was fair skinned and pretty (so her Mother told her). Liane was shy, reclusive, with an artist's soul and eye. Not one to enjoy speaking out in the midst of strangers and even more so if one was a male peer. Once she warmed up to a person though, she was fun loving and easy to get along with. She stood close to 5'8" and had shoulder-length sandy blonde hair. Sea blue eyes looked out from behind prescription glasses that were held up by a pug nose. A pudgy face with rosy cheeks and lips that were marked at the corners with frown lines. She wasn't as lucky as others when it came to a happy home life. Though 21-years-old, she still had no boyfriend and lived at home. She was in the process of getting an Associate Degree in Data Processing at Pierce College. Her only friends were part of the club she joined a year before. This club was dedicated to her favorite cartoon "The Transformers" and it brought some solace in an otherwise lonely existence.

"I'm going to bed." Liane announced, rising from the couch.

"'Night." her sister Tracy offered, a 17-year-old who was chubbier than Liane with reddish-brown shoulder-length hair, darker sea blue eyes and fair skin.

"Good night, dear." her Mother, Starr, said as Liane gave her a kiss, she was a 48-year-old with slowly graying brown hair and strange colored eyes.

"I'm not going to sleep right away." Liane stated then left the living room. She closed the sliding wood door that separated the living room from the hallway, then made her
way to the first door on her left. She closed the door and looked at the collage on her wall. Over 100 Transformers of her own creation were there; she was proud of them all and had her favorites. She sat down on a footstool next to a small table where her two ghetto blasters sat. She turned on the biggest. She reached for a lapboard, a package of paper and a pen, and then began to write. Sometime later her family went to bed. Liane turned the blaster off and continued to write, now fully into an unfolding plot. Finally, the story was concluded and she began to proofread. She checked the digital clock seated on a painted stool across the room, it read 1:30 am. Just then a portal that went from ceiling to the floor formed near her bed. A soft blue glow emanated from a two-inch thick blue ban that framed the edges of the portal. She could just hear a slight hum coming from it. The black within the portal turned a bright white-yellow glare. She raised a forearm in front of her face until it passed. When she lowered her right arm, she drew in a sharp
breath. Standing before her was the undeniable semblance of the Autobot she recognized as Rewind.

"Greetings from Optimus Prime, Miss Elliot." the some seven feet worth of light blue and white form said.

Liane swallowed hard, her heart picked up its' beating within her chest as she breathed out, "You can't be real, I must be having a dream."

"Touch me and see that I am real." he suggested. She did so hesitantly and found the steel skin to be quite solid.

"Oh God, you are real. What do you want of me?" Liane asked, still in shock.

"Optimus will explain at the meeting. You must come with me, Miss Elliot." he replied as he gestured to the portal he had just come through.

"Not without getting properly attired I'm not. Now don't look or I'll rip out your optics and tap dance on them." Liane growled jokingly in another voice.

"Commander Wilson warned me about your voice changes and sense of humor. I didn't believe him until now." Rewind stated, slightly amused.

"Frank Wilson?" she asked as she picked out what she was going to wear.

"One in the same, now get dressed. I'll await you on the other side." Rewind said, turned and walked through the bedroom room. It was amazing that her family didn't notice the conversation.

Liane slipped out of her night shirt, eyeing the portal suspiciously. She slipped on her clothes quickly, though she cursed under her breath that someone hadn't done the laundry at all in a week.

She sneered at her ragtag outfit, an old pair of tight jeans with a hole in the knee and a Bon Jovi concert t-shirt. oO(Some impression I'll give 'em.)Oo Liane thought. She shrugged and went to her room. Rewind stood there admiring her collage.

"Very interesting, Miss Elliot." Rewind stated.

"Thanks, took me three years to do all those characters." Liane said, she noticed he looked her up and down so stated, "Uh, sorry about the outfit."

"It matters little, you'll be given a suit to wear to the meeting anyway." Rewind replied and then commented, "An ostrich as a cassette, very intriguing."

Liane smiled, "You wouldn't say that if you ever read my stories."

"Oh?" Rewind uttered as he turned to fully face her.

"Never mind, I'm being silly. The chances of any of my characters coming to life is probably slim to none. Let's go, eh?" Liane said.

"After you." he gestured towards the portal.

She went through the portal ahead of him, she expected it to tingle but it didn't, and then she was awestruck by the size of the metal hallway she entered.

"Geez, how tall are the others to have a ceiling this high?" she queried.

"Optimus is the tallest at sixty feet even." he replied, the portal snapped closed behind him just after he exited it.

"That's a good four stories isn't it?" Liane asked, she didn't have much trouble keeping up with the cassette Autobot as he moved along the hallway towards a human sized door.

"Close enough." Rewind stated, "Now then, here's a dressing room." he pointed to the human sized door and continued, "Teletran-1 will provide a suit for you. Just stand in the circle undressed."

"Right." Liane remarked wryly as she gave him a glower, "What kind of girl you take me for? I don't strip in an empty room that could well be rigged with video equipment for anything."

"Take my word, Miss Elliot, you will be totally alone in there. But if it will make you feel better, ask Teletran-1 to provide a dressing screen." he suggested.

"I can hang that. Be back." she stated and entered the room. Ten minutes later, she stepped out in a bright white formal suit, "I hate skirts." she remarked to Rewind with a frown, "And I look perfectly awful in white."

"Come, Miss Elliot, the others are waiting." Rewind announced, he started walking down the hallway towards a set of doors that were Transformer sized.

"Which others?" Liane inquired, keeping even with him as they walked.

"The high ranking officers, of course. Like Prime, Maximus, and Magnus... to name a few" he rattled off.

"All the tall guys too." Liane remarked as they approached the doors, which opened wide
automatically to their presence. The sight within flabbergasted her.

"Come in, Miss Elliot." came Primes' voice.

Rewind escorted her to the Transformer sized table. Several sets of optics studied her; the
heaviness of it bore down on her uneasily.

"Going up lass?" queried an Autobot strikingly similar to the grizzled blue-gray warrior she knew was Kup.

He proffered a palm at floor level, which she climbed up on as ladylike as possible taking into consideration she was in a skirt. He lifted her up to the tabletop and she hopped off his hand. She looked about and was impressed by the resemblance these robots bore to their namesakes.

"Hiya Liane." came a familiar male voice.

"Frank?" she asked, homing in on the voice, "Why you son of a..."

"Watch the language, not lady like." he warned as he walked up. He was also dressed in a white formal suit, which made him look awful. His bottle like glasses didn't help his image any and neither did that long brown hair of his.

"You sound like my Mother." Liane groaned, shaking her friends hand.

"Its good to see you in the flesh, my dear." Frank grinned widely.

"Frank, behave yourself or I'll sick Dreadstarr on you." Liane growled jokingly as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Oh I'm hurt." he feigned jokingly, "What do you take me for, a reincarnated Depth?"

"I hope not," Liane replied with a light chuckle, "or I'd have to kick you in the you know where."

"May we begin?" the red, blue and white form of Optimus inquired patiently.

"Sorry 'bout that, sir." Frank said apologetically.

"So, why am I here?" Liane asked.

"Commanders Wilson and Reeder have told me much about you." Optimus Prime stated, "I wish to ask you to take a test."

"What kind, pray tell?" she asked.

"To become a S.T.A.R.S. Commander, my dear." Frank answered.

"I'll give it a try. Where do I go and what do I need to do?" Liane asked.

"Allow me Prime." the blue, red and white form of Ultra Magnus said, "Miss Elliot." he proffered a palm, and she clambered on and was taken to the testing area in the next room. After about an hour, she finished the test and was surprised to found out she had gotten all the questions correct.

"You must now decide where to have your base." Prime said.

"Oh I know the perfect place," Liane grinned, "Off Jefferson point, underwater."

"So be it." Prime said.

"What about a staff?" Liane asked.

"Unfortunately many Autobots are already spoken for, or are defunct." Prime said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Liane said quietly, then paused, grinning. "Hey, wait a second here. Could you build me a staff if I provided the material, sir?"

"I don't see why not." he nodded.

"Good. Well, let me get back home and I'll look about. See you later Frank, gentlemen." Liane smiled.

The next day Liane withdrew a great deal of cash and went hunting for scrap metal and wrecked cars. A week passed, it looked hopeless in the car department, though she did have plenty of scrap metal.

"Well Trudy, I've got you and our rental U-Haul full up. How about we make one last stop to find wrecked car candidates for possible staffers?" the engine of the orange 1979 Plymouth Horizon

TC3 seemed to rev up a bit, "Thought so, got a feeling about this one, eh?" the car revved again, Liane found a parking spot, "Be back in awhile." She walked into the junkyard.

"Hello there, young lady." came a cheery greeting from an gap-toothed older man, "Whatcha looking fer?"

"Got any not too wrecked autos?" Liane inquired.

"I got a couple in the back. One's a bit burned out though." the older man replied.

"I'll take a look, thanks." she nodded.

Liane made her way around the piles of scrap and such until she found the encircling fence. The sight of a perfect red bumper caught her eye. She walked toward a space in between two piles.

"Oh my God, it can't be you." she breathed as goose bumps rose up on her arms.

Before her was a charred 1948 Chevrolet Fleetliner 4 door sedan, sitting next to her was a red 1963 Corvette Stingray that has seen better days. Liane came close to the burned wreck, tears in her eyes.

Bringing out a rag in her pocket, she wiped the license plate off.

She frowned, "Damn, I thought for sure you'd be Betty Joe, after all this time." she sighed in reminiscence of the first car she loved as a little girl. "Well, you sure have nice looking company."

"Talk to 'em eh?" inquired the old man as he approached, "I do too sometimes, they listen well, like their alive almost."

"How much for them?" Liane asked.

"A hundred bucks for both. Deal?" the old man inquired.

"Deal, you made me very happy." Liane grinned.

"And them too, it seems, look at them smiles on that grill work." the older man pointed out with a gap toothed smile.

Liane smiled, it indeed looked like that, "I'll be back for them in a hour or so."

A week later, Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus quietly rolled near but not into the Elliot's driveway late at night. The scrap metal in the U-Haul and three vehicles greeted their headlights.

Luckily they didn't notice her Mother's Plymouth further down the driveway.

"Do you suppose this is her contribution?" Magnus asked as he backed in.

"So it seems. I'll load them on you, then we can get to work." Optimus said, transforming into robot form.

The next morning

"Where the hell is Trudy?" Liane asked in a panic. Then she realized that the Autobots had come and taken them.

"What's wrong, dear?" her Mother inquired.

"It seems Trudy, those two cars and scrap I bought, are all gone." Liane stated. She then had to explain to her about the visitation with Rewind and such.

And later that day.

"Hey, a big red semi just pulled into the driveway." Tracy announced from her room.

"That would be Optimus, want to meet him?" Liane asked of the two.

Any doubts about Liane's sanity were thankfully soon put to rest.

"When will my staff be ready?" Liane asked of Optimus Prime, still in semi form.

"Early next year. A new base will be also be done around the same time. You will be assigned to that base. I will contact you when both are finished. Until then, Miss Elliot, have a good day." Prime said.

"And to you, sir." Liane replied smiling and watched him go. "This is going to be one heck of a
wild lifetime."