Long before I was born, a group of Transformers had broken off of their respective factions and created a new one. They convened in secret, hid themselves from their former comrades, and literally disappeared off the map. Time went on—the War between Autobot and Decepticon continued and escalated when the Minicons appeared. When they left Cybertron the war died down…

My first memories were of my master and my human friend, Ash. I remember him standing over me and the first words I heard are:

"It's just another load of scrap," he grumbled, "An inexperienced sparkling!"

"Mirrorshade!" was the second voice I heard, gruff and hearty, but motherly. "How could you say that when you began the same way as he did?"

"That's exactly why I say that! Do you think I'm gonna witness this protoform making all the same mistakes I did?" Mirrorshade was very grumpy back then…

"Then teach him!" a small voice, barely even near the level of the former two, commanded. The room fell silent and I noticed that the others must have been considering it. Though this voice was small, it seemed immediately that it was given great respect by the other two. I came to know this small, but courageous voice as my friend Ash.

"Wait….wait….!" said gruff feminine voice, "What are we gonna call him?"

That was the first time I saw my master. He peered over me with a frown. His optics were covered by an orange shade—that's why they called him Mirrorshade! "What about Scrap?"

"No, no, no!" Ash interjected, "He should pick his own—that's how this land works!"

"What are you talking about?" the feminine voice whined.

"He chooses his own name, because he was born here," She replied, "Cause that's what my ancestors would want…."

Mirrorshade must have relented, because I didn't hear anything about it afterwards. However, he made a strange sound and then commanded, "Come on then…"

The first time I was out on the road, I knew it was what I was meant for. I remember knowing how to maneuver, though I had never done it before. My body just did what needed to be done, and I enjoyed it. It was my calling.

However, my master didn't approve of my play and many times prevented me from having fun. I didn't know then that he was worried about me. Soon enough I learned that I could outrun him and quickly took advantage of my speed.

"Kid, wait!" Said the female, who had transformed into a green truck, "Argh…! Ash, how the heck are we gonna contain this friend of yours if we can't even get his attention?"

"We've just gonna learn to get along, that's all," Ash called back from the passenger seat of Mirrorshade's alt mode, "Although, I must admit…he's got a kick!"

"You and your odd interests!" Mirrorshade grumbled.

As we all headed into the mountains of the area something must have dawned on my human friend. "There are cops all over this section of road!" She gasped, "What if he gets caught!"

"Then we'd have a lot of explaining to do!" Mirrorshade revved his engine and caught up to me, begging me to slow down. "There are humans all over that will see you!"

"What's a human?" I called back, not listening and not understanding the gravity of the situation. Before I knew it I was gaining even more speed. I accelerated down a hill and struggled to stay on the road, since the twists and turns threatened me with a plunge down the mountain. I left Mirrorshade in the background.

I never felt so amazing and soon learned how to counteract the pull of the turn as I went down the steep incline. I still don't know how I learned so quickly…

My fun was cut short as a strange crying sound followed me. It was the "humans" that Mirrorshade had mentioned before. They didn't look so different from us except they had flashing lights on their backs. The sounds really frightened and irritated me. My friends were no where in sight. I panicked and tried to speed up. By this time, I was at full speed—there was no escape for me.

The road suddenly bottomed out and went flat and my pursuers gained on me very quickly. I was alone and scared out of my mind! They pulled up even with me and I saw little Ash-like beings in their seats too. They looked surprised. They quickly tried to run me off the road. I wasn't used to or prepared for such rough-housing. It made me spin off into the shoulder of the road. I had to stop to get a hold on my senses. They surrounded me and I must have blanked out cause that's when I heard a sudden crash. My friends had forced the humans off the road.

"Now! Let's go!" Ash yelled from out Mirrorshade's window. We made our escape back to our home as the humans tended to their machines.

"You, Mudflap! You don't have any more brains than a protobunny!" Mirrorshade bellowed when we got back to our base, "You could have blown our cover! Then those good-for-nothing humans that are hunting us would find us!"

"Calm down, medic-boy…." Said the femme with the truck alt mode, "We got away didn't we? And we didn't hit them too hard now did we?"

Ash giggled at the femme's levity which seemed to lighten Mirrorshade's mood. He stomped back into the medbay and slammed something against a wall. He didn't come back out. Ash and the femme exchanged looks and laughed. It made me feel much better.

"Well, Kiddo, think of a name yet?" The femme chuckled and crossed her arms. She had a wide smirk on her face which made me feel like she was planned something really embarrassing. She could have been for all I knew.

"Wha? How do I come up with that?"

Ash sighed and said, "Didn't anything you did make you feel happy? It's not like you have to come up with something that is profound or anything…"

"Something that made me happy?" I remembered when I felt the happiest in my whole life (which wasn't much time) but I didn't know how to say it. "Uh…I went fast…"

"Okay…." Ash moaned, "What about it?"

"You can't really have you call yourself 'went fast' after all…" the femme agreed.

"Ummmm…that hill….I made me the fastest on that whole trip!" I struggled for words, "I felt so free! Like that was what I was supposed to do…what was that thing?"

"The hill? It's just a hill…" the femme muttered.

"Well…" Ash slowly mumbled, "Technically it's called a 'downgrade'."

"Downgrade….?" I wondered, "Downgrade! That's it! That's me!"

"Sounds like the opposite of Upgrade….doesn't make you sound very smart…." The femme said.

"Nonsense, it's great!" Ash cheered, "Not all Transformer names have to do with computers now do they?"

"Well….no, I guess they don't." Then the femme walked off saying, "I gotta do some work on the communications again—it's been glitchy."

Ash quickly took charge when the fembot disappeared, "Let's go sit outside, it's still nice out." When we did, she sat on an area that was set aside to look at the world below. The trees concealed the entrance in the mountain and us. Ash crawled up onto my crossed leg once I had sat down.

"I have someone for you to meet!" she exclaimed while pulling out a long object from her pack. Quickly it changed shape and a small robot stood there. "His name is Chrome—he's my minicon! After I met him Mirrorshade came looking for him and I guess I became a part of the team after that. It took a while for him to get used to me."

"So what exactly does he do around here?" I asked.

"He's the leader now…" Ash suddenly looked sad. "but he's also the medic. Make sure you remember that, cause if anything happens to him you guys are all in trouble!"

"All? How many are there?"

"There are apparently many, many Midicons, but I've only met three or four…"

"Midicons?"

"I guess you need a crash course here…" Ash thought for a moment, "You're a Transformer, okay? Transformers are from another planet and they came here a long time ago because of a war. There are Autobots and Decepticons besides our team..the autobots fight for freedom, and the Decepticons fight to conquer."

"That doesn't sound good…" I remember being very confused, but I tried my best to understand.

"It's not!" another voice came in from the air. When I looked I noticed a plane coming in and transforming into another robot. He was much taller than I was.

"Hawk! Keep it down!" Ash frantically tried to shush him, "He's always yelling…"

"Downgrade should know about the former leader if you're giving him an orientation…" Hawk said.

"How'd you know he was Downgrade?" Ash asked.

With a wave of his hand Hawk mumbled, "Mirrorshade told me…"

"Figures…well then, Downgrade, you should know the former leader's name was Apollo Purus…" she stated, "He died right before you awoke."

"Died? From what?" I asked.

Ash and Hawk glanced at each other and then they said simultaneously, "Decepticons…"

Ash elaborated by saying, "They attacked me in attempt to steal Chrome. When the others came to my rescue, Apollo was wounded too greatly for Mirrorshade to fix him."

"It's been hard for us all to cope, Ash," Hawk said, "but having you safe and then this new bot here, will probably make it better…"

"Probably…?" she asked.

"Well, it makes me happy to see you come everyday," he smiled warmly at her, and then chuckled, "but I'm not always the one to watch you, now am I? That's what Mirrorshade does!"

Ash giggled but then gestured for him to stop. He seemed to care a great deal about her and he smiled as he disappeared into the base. A momentary silence made it awkward for me to ask anymore questions. Ash looked to the horizon at the setting sun. "I think I should be going home now, Downgrade. I'd be breaking a promise I made to Mirrorshade if I stayed—my parents might come looking for me."

She must have noticed my frown because she added, "I need my sleep. You do too. Afterall, tomorrow will be another big day for you!" She slipped into the same door Hawk went, leaving me to wait until dark thinking about all we had talked about. Once it got dark I walked inside and looked for Mirrorshade, feeling he could answer something that plagued me. I ended up finding him at work in on the bridge.

"Um…Mir-Mirrorshade?" I asked; I didn't exactly remember his name at the time.

"….Yes…?" he grumbled. "What'do you want?"

I fidgeted, then asked, "What exactly are humans? Why is it so bad if we're seen?"

Mirrorshade turned around slowly but when his faceplate was visible I noticed he wasn't mad—he was perplexed. I don't think he expected that question. "Well, humans are another lifeform—an organic one. They're much weaker than us on the outside, but some are just as strong as us on the inside…this world is theirs."

"Don't we live here, too?" I had an odd way of seeing things, "wouldn't that make it our world too?"

The medic chuckled, "Not in the same way. We are only guests here…and while we are here we have to respect the wishes of this planet's superiors."

"Wishes?"

"We are not to be seen by average humans," then he looked down, "As odd as it sounds, they don't want anything to do with us. They'd be afraid if they were to see us."

"But Ash isn't afraid," I said confidently, "Isn't she a normal human?"

Mirrorshade smirked and again chuckling to himself he said, "Yes she is…but she was chosen by us to be our liason." Then he walked towards me and taking a good look he mentioned, "I can see that I misjudged you—you're much smarter than I gave you credit for. But you're still young. It looks like I'm going to have to invest some time into your teaching if I want you to make something of yourself."

I looked at him, not knowing what he meant or what to say. He seemed to except something from me after his words because he just kept staring at me with those critical eyes. Once I tilted my head he finally spoke to alleviate the clouds in my mind.

"I'm going to teach you to fight."