Transformers Prime: Miami.
Chapter 1: In the City by the Beach..
It was another steamy night in the Port of Miami, The smell of the sea permeated in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife. The moon hung over the city skyline like a watchful guardian, lighting a skyline of a city that was home to over 5 million people, humans. To some, a heavily populated city meant a growing prosperous community, but to those with a hardened past a heavily populated city only meant a high value target.
Elita-One both loved and hated quiet nights like these; she loved that she could for a few moments enjoy the lights and sounds of this city, how vibrant and full of life it was. It reminded her of many things she knew and had lost.
There was a time when Elita-One was known simply as Ariel. As Ariel she felt she had a good life. She wasn't in the highest of castes in Cybertronian society but she wasn't on the lowest tier. She had a good job working as a dockworker at docking bay 67, and she dated a handsome young data clerk named Orion Pax. She paid little attention to the reports of growing discord across the planet. She always felt it was none of her business to interfere. Even as reports of several bombings across various cities of Cybertron, along with a new growing movement called "Decepticons" . Ariel was happy doing her work by the day and spending the nights with Orion whether alone in their modest dwelling or long walks across Iacon's many Silicon parks. For Ariel a simple life with her sparkmate was enough. Eventually the fire of unrest among the lower caste systems reached Iacon and before long Cybertron was engulfed in civil war.
Orion could no longer idly sit by and allow the corruption and mistreatment of the lower working castes to continue. He soon found a friendship through correspondence with a charismatic former gladiator named Megatronus. The two often talked for long periods on how life on Cybertron really was for each and every one of her citizens and whether or not they were truly free.
Ariel was there the day when she saw her beloved Orion Pax speak impassionedly at the High Council about how the castes system was unfair and that freedom was the right of all sentient beings. It was through this speech he swayed the high council so much that they impasse to him the Matrix of leadership and it was then that Orion Pax underwent a transformation into Optimus Prime. Soon after Megatronus shortened his name to Megatron and seized leadership of the Decepticons. It was here that his true colors emerged; in fact he did want peace, but peace under a tyrannical regime. Cybertron now erupted into a full scale war between Decepticons and Autobots. The first to fall in the war was Ariel, when Optimus pleaded with his friend to abandon his dream of conquest and join him at the side of freedom. Megatron answered with a blast from his fusion cannon, a blast that Ariel did not hesitate to shield Optimus from. As she lay dying, the light leaving from her spark, she could hear Megatron order his Decepticons to rise up and take Iacon at any costs.
"Boss…" She heard a voice speak to her in her comms "Hey Boss lady!" Elita-one snapped from her memory with a gasp. And realized where she was now; at the edge of the marina in North Beach overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, the skyline of Miami at night before her, the moonlight glistening off her car form of a dark pink Lamborghini Aventador. It was time to go to work.
"Yeah Mirage, You have something?" Elita said.
"Hey boss, thought I should let you know, the Medrano Cartel are lighting up the police chatter, you may want to hear this."
"Woe the day that Miami's finest can't handle the shipment of a few cases of cocaine..." Elita-one bemused.
"Yeah normally you'd think that, but something interesting to note..." he said as his car form, a dark blue and white SSC ultimate Aero, sat in the nightclub district of Park West. He hung outside a club that was playing some heavy meringue beats. His train of thought was soon broken when a tall, slender woman wearing a skin tight black dress caressed her hand over his frame and then took a seat on his hood..
"Oooh mama..." He purred.
"Mirage...MIRAGE!" Elita snapped, irritated when she realized he was now preoccupied with the planet's indigenous life forms.
"Huh? Oh, yeah!" Mirage fuddled "I then tapped into a Medrano lieutenant's phone line, not only are they receiving a shipment of a very large amount of cocaine and they are also carrying a silver briefcase with, and get this, a 'Priedra de un metal extraterrestre ' "
"Shard of an alien metal" Elita-one translated. "Perceptor, can you run a scan of any strange energy signatures, it could be nothing but I want to be sure.."
Deep under the waters of the tiny island known as Biscayne Bay lay Autobot base Gamma two. It was an US Naval Submarine base built in the 60's soon after the Cuban Missile crisis. Used primarily to house submarines, the primary access into the base was through the underside of the island where the sub would rise up into the base. After being closed in the 90's for budget cuts it sat unused until it was assigned to Team Elita to use shortly after their arrival to earth.
Elita-One and her team were placed here for a very specific reason, for under the waters of Miami Beach sat over 100 tons of energon. It was the Autobot emergency energon supply that was placed here by the Autobots in the mid 19th century. It was Elita-One's task to protect the supply; for if that was ever lost, so would be the Autobot's chances for winning the war and reclaiming Cybertron.
Perceptor worked over his computer scanners. He scanned through various energy pulses that fused over the planet. He checked everything from power stations, nuclear plants, and even the other Autobot base in Nevada. He pinpointed his search to the southern Florida area, and found a blip that was defiantly not of this earth…
"After cross-secting over 5 million different subsects of energy signatures on this planet and beyond its solar system, I can safely triangulate the origin of this signature." He said nonchalantly not even looking up from his instruments.
"And...?" Elita said in an annoyed fashion.
"The shard is definitely Cybertronian" Perceptor said
"I knew it" Elita thought "Mirage, any idea where the shipment is coming from?"
"That's what is confusing the cops," Mirage said, "They know it's coming into the Port of Miami, but no one has a clue where and when. The police are scanning all ports but the Port of Miami is a huge spot and with the humans' President in town to see the basketball game, Miami PD are stretched enough as it is. "
"So it looks like your theory about the meteorite crashing into the southern Andes last week was right, Perceptor." Elita One complimented.
"With all due respect Elita one, I am always right…" Perceptor lauded.
Rolling her optics, Elita formulated a plan in her data banks. "The Miami PD are tied up enough as it is, and if this is a shard from Cybertron, it will give off a signal that only we can track. I would rather us get that shard than the Decepticons."
"Now we're going after drug Cartels." Mirage noted "Nice, so are you going to tell our liaison Agent Greene?"
"I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission, Mirage." Elita said with a slight smirk to her voice. Sunstreaker, what's your 20?"
"I'm outside the American Airline Arena, Lebron just hit a layup against Carmello! Anthony that sent the game into double overtime!" He said while parked near the entrance to the huge arena in downtown Miami. The yellow Henessey Venom fit in perfectly among the locale.
"That's nice and all but I need you to head to the Port of Miami looks like we're going hunting!"
"But it's the Heat vs. the Knicks!" He bemoaned. "And it's the Playoffs!"
"You can catch the highlights later on ESP or PPSN or whatever that show is called!" Elita nagged.
"Gears, where are you?" Elita asked over comms.
"Have I ever told you how much I hate this place?" The Autobot reconnaissance specialist complained. "The salty sea air is murder on my undercarriage and the sand gets everywhere in my carburetor relays…."
"Gears…" Elita tried to cut in
"And this neighborhood of Little Havana smells like fish! I don't know what this fish is but I can probably tell it doesn't taste very good either….." He continued to complain
"GEARS!" Elita snapped.
"Okay, okay…" He conceded "You don't need to yell..."
Elita composed herself; she didn't mean to snap at the little truck, it was just his demeanor to complain about EVERYTHING. "I apologize Gears, but you really need to hear this."
The Autobot squad leader called out to her team, "Mirage, Perceptor, Sunstreaker, Gears; converge on the different entry points to the port of will updated your systems so you can scan for the Cybertronian signal. Look for the Medrano Ship to arrive and intercept. Harm no humans and take the shard and as an extra 'scrap you' to the Medrano Crime family; and destroy the cocaine shipment."
High above the night sky, a Decpeticon jet intercepted the Autobot radio transmission.
"Astrotrain, this is Blitzwing, I believe the Autobots have wind of the shard's arrival. There's a good chance they may interfere with the delivery to our client.
Even higher, in the edge of the earth orbit, was Astrotrain, in his Space shuttle form. "Meet me there, we'll deal with them personally." He said as began his re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.
Writer's notes-Here is the first of many rewrites I want to do for this story, I hope you enjoy reading it as I have writing it. I'm changing up a few things to this new read over won't seem all that much repetitive. Big thanks for Aurrawings for inspiration and beta'ing the story!
NEXT TIME: As the Autobots prepare to meet the Medrano Drug Cartel head on some nasty surprises are in store for them as the appearance of two triple changers complicate everything. The Port of Miami will become a War Zone as Elita one and her team attempt to retrieve the Cybertronian cargo and at the same time avoid being detected by the outside world.