Transformers: All SparK
Written by Sheida McCall, Matthew McCall
& David Mills
Edited by Sheida McCall
Original concept by David Mills
Transformers © Hasbro
Some characters © David Mills & Sheida McCall (list at the end of story)
Prologue:
Recap
It had been nearly one hundred solar cycles since the Battle of the Cyber Planet Keys and Omega Lock and the start of the Space Bridge Expedition lead by Optimus Prime. The objective was to traverse across the vastness of the universe in hopes of constructing a Space Bridge to connect the galaxies. Five planets were directly affected by the events surrounding the Omega Lock: Earth, Velocitron, Gigantion, Jungle Planet, and the Transformers' ancestral home world of Cybertron. When Optimus Prime chose to lead the Space Bridge Expedition, he appointed Jetfire as the Supreme Commander of all Autobots and Cybertron. Crosswise leads the troops on Earth, having kept contact with the descendants of the Transformers' human allies Coby and Lori Hansen. They had long since lost contact with Gigantion and Jungle Planet, though last reports showed Scourge still lead the Beasts and Scavenger lead the Giants. Aside from that, none could say. As for the Speed Planet, Hot Shot now leads the speedsters of Velocitron, having raced against and beat the leader Override just before the Space Bridge Expedition commenced, though at the time, Hot Shot did not realize she had chosen to go with the Expedition team—he was just racing. Their last week together, she finalized his position as the new leader of Velocitron, and confessed feelings towards him that he was not aware even existed, though he himself was quite quick to reciprocate! Therefore, using old Cybertronian traditions, Override and Hot Shot each had portions of their Sparks removed and merged to become sparks for their "children," the first of which was Hotstreak, a practical mirror image of Hot Shot at a younger stellar cycle. Then came Freeride, headstrong and self-conscious, always gunning for attention. Override and Hot Shot loved them both, but Freeride had a bit of a rebellious streak for which she was constantly reprimanded, as Hotstreak showed more self-control—even when showing off for others. It was hard to grant equal praise when one showed proper respect while the other was blatantly defiant. Still, they tried.
In recent days, Hot Shot had begun receiving numerous transmissions from Override on the ship Ogygia—that is to say, more than usual. That meant that her team was really close to reaching their destination! Hot Shot took to monitoring the computer terminal for many decacycles, anticipating all of the exciting things his Spark-Mate was witnessing. Then one day during a casual transmission, Override was cut off and the connection was lost. On any normal day, Hot Shot would have assumed it was just a simple power failure, except that just before the link was terminated, there was a deafening explosion…then silence only broken by radio static. He did not have a chance to react when Jetfire on Cybertron appeared on the monitor. He informed the younger 'bot that a strange messenger by the designation "Blaster" reported disaster in all of the four sectors of space where their ships were exploring. Jetfire called for all planet leaders to be sent out to investigate the disturbances. Hot Shot was quick to accept the mission, fearing for Override's safety, but he needed a stand-in to lead Velocitron in his absence. Many saw his son Hotstreak to be the logical choice, but Hot Shot knew of others who would be just as good a choice. Yes, Freeride was one of them; if she could just see past her pride, she would have been a better choice than Hotstreak! Blurr was another; currently second-in-command, Blurr had served by Hot Shot's side for the past fifty stellar cycles, and he could have appointed him leader without argument, but he wanted the decision to be made through a race like all things were on Velocitron. Another still was Siren, a young femme who took residence in Breakdown's shop after the old bot decided to go with the expedition. She had a good reputation as a leader to her friends. Albeit, her leadership was a bit reckless, getting herself and several of her friends—including Freeride—into a motherboard of trouble. Lastly, there was Blade Stryke, a level-headed young femme abandoned by her clan when she was a sparkling. She was wise beyond her stellar cycles—though all the wisdom in the universe cannot stop a young bot from "trying something just once." And even though she practically idolized Siren like an older sister, she has shown time and time again how strong she was both physically and in will-power. They each had their flaws which were counterbalanced with each other's strengths.
There were others quite capable of leading Velocitron, but these five were Hot Shot's top choices. He was not about to just pick anyone, not wishing to show favoritism towards one individual. He truly believed that anyone had the potential to be a great leader, and to prove it, he decided to uphold the Velocitron tradition and declared the planet-wide race: The Velocitron Grad Prix. The prize would be leadership of the planet while Hot Shot went with the other planet leaders to investigate the possible attack on the Space Bridge Explorers. This is where our story begins…