Now this plot is in fact a challenge I set for other people but I am picking it up myself. In this story Optimus is a lot more mellow and calm and more 2007-DOTM because he had 20 years to contemplate what happened with Attenger, plus he had the compassion that came from seeing Ellie (he's not an entire jerk). Anyway here is chapter one.
Chapter 1 the Autobot
A Marmon 97. Frank had found a freaking truck. This was what Bill and Joel were thinking as they stared at the rusty vehicle that had confronted them in the house they had sheltered from a swarm of infected and found the equipment to show that Bill's former partner had used the battery from the crashed truck to attempt to repair it.
"What is that thing?" Ellie asked, staring at the truck. She had never seen a COE truck before.
"It's a cab over engine truck." Bill said.
"That's not a truck. It doesn't have the box thing, what are they for anyway?" Ellie pointed out.
"The boxes are trailers, which were used to store things. The truck itself was just to tow the trailers." Joel explained.
As he did this Bill hooked up the battery to the truck. When he did that there was a mechanical sound from the truck as it collapsed and reshaped as a rusty metal humanoid. Joel and Bill immediately started aiming at him in defence while Ellie fell back screaming.
"What the s***!" as the robot looked down at the girl he noticed the state of the 3 humans.
"Young human my scanner's detected a hostile fungal infection. With a quick ultraviolet beam I can harmlessly destroy it for you." He said as the 3 humans stared at him.
"Did you just say you could easily cure the infection?" Joel said in shock.
"Indeed." The titan replied cautiously.
"Who are you?" Ellie asked nervously.
"My name is Optimus Prime. I am the leader of the Autobots, a faction of autonomous robotic organisms from the planet cybertron who live to protect the freedom of all sentient beings." The once proud Autobot leader explained.
"You were the guys who Attenger was hunting illegally 20 years ago." Joel said calmly.
"20 years ago?" Optimus asked in a shocked tone. "How long have I been in stasis?"
"Why were you in stasis?" Ellie asked while thinking 'and what is stasis.'
"I entered stasis to disguise myself to evade cemetery wind." Optimus explained. "What do you mean illeagly?"
"Cemetery wind was established to hunt down the Decepticons left on earth. They were disbanded and arrested as soon as the pentagon learnt about the Autobot hunting." Joel said.
"They were some of the first to fall during the infection." Bill tacked on.
"Infection? What infection?" Optimus asked. "And you never said. Would you like me to remove the fungus from your body?" he asked to Ellie. She nodded dumbly. A purple light scanned over the girl and when she looked at the bite on her arm and the fungal growth was gone, leaving just a semi healed version of the bite she and Riley found on her arm that fateful day.
"Shortly after the cemetery wind case a mutated fungus spread across America and created the infected creatures that sent the world into chaos." Joel said.
"Normally their bite would turn anyone into one of them but she clearly had that bite for at least 3 weeks." Bill said.
"Whatever we are trying to get to Wyoming. Can you please help us get there?" Ellie said.
"I believe I can." Optimus said, transforming into his truck mode before letting the 3 humans in.
And here is chapter one. Optimus has been reactivated and has agreed to take Joel and Ellie to Tommy's. See you next time for some conversations.