Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental multi-fandom project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. For more details, see the relevent section in my profile. This is The 365 Project, 8 July.
In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."
Disclaimer: "Transformers", "Transformers: Real Gear" and all associated characters and concepts are the creation and property of Hasbro, used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.
Does anyone else remember the 'Real Gear' Transformers that came out around the time of the first live-action movie? I liked those. They had a certain immersive feel to them because they were more-or-less the same size as their alternate modes that you couldn't get with cars, trucks, planes, etc. I miss them and kind of wish Hasbro would re-release the line, maybe as part of "Generations"...
-o0O0o-
"Real Gear; Real War"
By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'
-o0O0o-
This is Earth, but it is not the world that you know. It is a world transformed, a place where things are not what they seem. It is a world at war, a secret war, a war millions of years old from a distant planet called 'Cybertron'. On one side, the Autobots - led by Optimus Prime, a simple mech risen to great deeds - and on the other, the Decepticons - commanded by the mighty former-gladiator Megatron - and caught in the middle, the human inhabitants of planet Earth, drawn against their will into a war not their own. Caught between Autobots and Decepticons, the humans now have no choice but to fight, but they have a weapon unexpected by either side - the destruction of one of the Transformers' greatest relics sent a shockwave across planet Earth, bringing life to mechanical objects that have sided with their former creators...
The humans have Real Gear.
-o0o-
Cargo pants and a green hoodie with the hood pulled up meant no one paid much attention to the figure walking down the sidewalk on a summer day made cool by a strong breeze. None of the people whom he passed or who passed him would realise that he wasn't alone.
"The signal is now one block west, Chief," a voice came over the earpiece the figure wore, hidden by his hood, "Strong, steady and not moving."
"Trap?" 'Chief' asked softly so that almost no one would hear it.
"Probably," the voice agreed, "But that's why we're here, Chief."
"Don't call me 'Chief'," 'Chief' muttered.
"Sure thing, Chief," the voice acknowledged, causing the man to groan quietly.
In an age of celluar phones and Bluetooth headsets, no one paid attention to the quiet conversation as 'Chief' made his way through the crowd. No one but someone one block to the west who was actively scanning communications frequencies.
"Terran operative closing in on our location," that someone informed their superior.
"Let them come," the superior answered, "They will learn their mistake."
-o0o-
'Chief' put his back to the wall next to the door, "Nightbeat, give me a reading."
"Two mechanical life-signs, one biological," Nightbeat answered after a moment, "There's some strange distortions though, like echos."
"Anything we need to worry about?"
"I worry about everything, Chief," Nightbeat reminded him, "That's why I'm still active."
"Don't call me 'Chief'," 'Chief' muttered again, "Nightbeat, Strongarm, the mechanicals are yours; Browning, you're on the biologic with me."
Two 'Yes, sir!' and one 'Right, Chief!' answered 'Chief' as he pulled a weapon from its holster and took a couple steadying breaths.
Then he stepped away from the wall and kicked the door in.
"Federal Agent! Ivan Vorath, I have a warrant for your arrest!" 'Chief' announced, sweeping the room with his weapon.
Vorath slowly stood up from where he was sitting at a desk across the room, next to a window, "A warrant for my arrest, hm? What are the charges, then, mister 'Federal Agent'?"
"Harboring known fugitives and conspiracy to commit domestic terrorism," 'Chief' answered as he leveled his weapon at Vorath and started towards him, "Hands in the air, slowly."
"And what will you do if I refuse?"
"Someone once said it best," 'Chief' answered, "'Come along quietly or there will be... trouble'."
"Then I suppose there will be trouble," Vorath remarked, reaching for the watch on his wrist and unfastening it.
"Not another move, Vorath," 'Chief' warned, "I will shoot!"
"Go ahead, shoot," Vorath taunted, throwing his watch towards 'Chief'.
'Chief' dodged to the side and brought his weapon up in a snap-shot to Vorath's center-mass. Despite the appearance of a normal automatic pistol, Browning didn't fire bullets, but magnetically contained bolts of ionised plasma, and 'Chief' watched as the shot burnt through Vorath's cloths and skin until the other man stood there, a smoking hole burnt in his midsection.
"Good shot," Vorath chuckled cruelly, "If I were human, I'd be dead now. But then again, I'm not human!"
Vorath suddenly seemed to explode into whirling and shifting parts as human appearance was replaced with Cybertronian armor.
"That's no biologic!" 'Chief' shouted to his team, "That's a Pretender! Rules have changed!"
"Got that right, squishy!" A voice came from behind 'Chief' as Vorath's watch transformed into a robot and lunged at him.
Inside one of 'Chief's' pockets, a game controller-looking device transformed itself and climbed out to jump up and intercept the incoming watch-robot and slam them to the floor with a sharp pronouncement, "Rules change means we play Jungle Ball. Nightbeat, find the other one!"
A blue avian-form robot shot out of another pocket into the air, a back-mounted turret sweeping back and forth, "On it, Strongarm!"
"Laserbeak, eliminate!" Vorath ordered, causing a red and black MP3 player on his desk to transform into its own avian form and begin to dogfight with Nightbeat, "I'll deal with the Terran."
'Chief' raised Browning back up to point at Vorath again, "Last chance; this time I aim for the head."
-o0o-
Later...
Standing outside the apartment to keep anyone else from entering, 'Chief' raised his cell phone - a normal cell phone, not a member of his strike team - to his ear, "Director Fairbourne, Chase. Meantime and Laserbeak are now in custody. But we have a... situation. Yes, ma'am... you could say Vorath resisted arrest. He was a Decepticon Pretender. I'm going to need a mayhem suppression squad dispatched to this location to handle the aftermath and take his 'associates' back to base for interrogation to find out why they would turn on us for the Cybertronians. I know; if the Real Gear are going over to the NTM's, we risk losing our only hole card against them."
-o0O0o-
Author's Note; Vorath and Browning aren't actually Real Gear Transformers; Vorath was Mindwipe's Headmaster partner in the US G1 comics and Browning appeared in Transformers: Masterforce where he was, in fact, a 'life-size' pistol that directly transformed to a robot with no mass-shunting, so in a way he was actually the first 'Real Gear' Transformer if one thinks about it...