Hi, guys! I'm back with another chapter! :)
Shadescribe - I'm glad that you like how things started! And I really liked that particular suggestion - mostly because it's got two meanings in my head: The Autobots are fighting back against the Cons, and Maria and Wildfire can literally throw fire! As for reactions to seeing old faces, well...that's going to start coming pretty quickly here!
And here we go!
Chapter 2
The group of three Autobots and four humans drove a short distance out of town, arriving at the junkyard that Jolt and Joshua knew about within fifteen minutes.
During that time, Maria let her mind wander among her memories - specifically those that involved the Autobots themselves. It took her only seconds to find herself back in the gigantic, metal rooms, carried everywhere by warm, metal hands. Seeing familiar faces looking down at her curiously...
In one particular instance, she remembered a large, red and white mech with a somewhat grumpy attitude helping another mech to his feet after he had collapsed from a glitch.
"We're here," Wildfire stated, bringing Maria out of her memory banks and back to the present. "Welcome to Jolt's Junkheap."
::This is a junkyard, not a junkheap:: Jolt corrected over the comm-link as Maria looked around the area. Piles of metal garbage were piled high over their heads, and the Reploid had to crane her neck as she stepped out of Wildfire's alt mode to look at the top of some of the piles.
"At least you didn't say it's a landscape of art," Morgen commented, climbing out after Maria. "So, where's the mech?"
Bumblebee let Raf out of his alt mode, beeping, "He's just a little bit further ahead."
"That ambulance?" Joshua asked, standing next to Jolt's alt.
"Yeah - hey, wait, how did you-"
"Heritage."
Maria rolled her eyes at Joshua's statement, then started walking forward, Raf remaining ahead of the teenager while Morgen kept in stride with his daughter. Wildfire and Bumblebee rolled after them, not bothering to transform out of their alt modes. They soon joined Joshua and Jolt at the edge of a clearing in the junkyard, and the group looked out over the area.
It didn't take them too long to find the one metal-made thing that they were looking for.
Maria spotted it rather quickly, then tapped her father on the shoulder and motioned towards a vehicle that looked like it was far too good a condition to be sitting in the middle of a junkyard.
Morgen followed Maria's motion, then gained an interested expression as his eyebrows shot up. He gave Maria a curious look, and when she gave a nod, Morgen started forward.
The only adult of the group walked around the ambulance, inspecting the red and white paint job with a critical eye. "This is him?"
"Yeah," Raf responded, "but I don't think he's going to do anything with you guys here."
Morgen shot the spiky-haired kid a large grin. "We'll see about that." He walked around to the front of the vehicle and got down in a kneeling position in front of the grill. Then he yelled loudly, "Hey, Wrenchie! How's your aim, you old geezer?"
The ambulance stiffened upon hearing Morgen's yell, letting out a honk of alarm. Maria attempted to stifled a laugh at her father's antics...but she failed miserably and nearly doubled over.
Raf looked startled. "Wrenchie? Where did that name come from?"
"Code names, kiddo," Morgen replied, waving a hand back at the group. His gaze never left the grill of the ambulance, however. "That was one of the suggestions we came up with, but we ended up settling with 'Doc' instead." Morgen snickered. "But that didn't stop us from calling him 'Dr. Wrench' sometimes."
The red and white vehicle rolled back a foot suddenly, seeming to shift on its axles. "Morgen? Is that you?"
Maria recognized the amazed voice that came from the vehicle and visibly relaxed, grinning.
"In the flesh!" Morgen replied as he got to his feet, grinning. "What are you doing hanging around here, you old medic? This place isn't meant for mechs like you."
"Mr. Carlsdale, you know Ratchet?" Raf asked in confusion. "How? Optimus said there wasn't anyone else who knew that they were on Earth besides us and the government."
"What Optimus said and what Optimus knows are two very different things," Maria replied, grinning. "There's probably tons of stuff he hasn't told you about Cybertron yet."
"My family and I are giving Raf and Bee a hand in finding you guys so that we can take down that tower out in Nevada," Morgen explained to the ambulance.
"Good luck," Ratchet replied sourly. "Because I'm not going to help."
Morgen frowned. "Not going to help? What do you mean by that, old man?"
"Megatron's won; there's no point."
Maria stiffened a little when she heard that, and she glanced back at the three cars that had brought them there. Two of them had shifted on their wheels, but one of them...
Raf gained a concerned look. "You're giving up? Just like that?"
"Don't give up now, Ratchet!" Jolt shifted out of his vehicle mode and stood over the ambulance. "Come on - where's the mech who kept us going after First Aid disappeared?"
The ambulance's engine revved, and the whole vehicle shifted to reveal a red and white mech with a sour look on his face. A large wrench appeared in his servo, and he shook it at Jolt. "First Aid offlined, you pesky youngling! She didn't disappear - you heard incorrectly!"
"Well, at least some things are the same in the universe," Maria murmured under her breath, eyeing the wrench in Ratchet's servo. She thought back to the last time she had seen a wrench that size - which wasn't all that long ago - and silently smirked at the memories that came with it.
"Actually, sir, Jolt didn't," Joshua spoke up respectfully from near Jolt's feet. "We didn't know until recently that she had actually survived the blast unharmed, and had been transferred to another place."
Ratchet blinked in alarm and took a step back, looking back and forth between Joshua and the blue mech. "Jolt? But we were told you were -"
"Believe me, Ratchet, there are a lot more surprises where he came from," Bumblebee spoke up, not shifting from his alt mode.
"Like me," Wildfire added, sounding clearly amused. "And Maria here." She nudged Maria from behind with the front bumper of her alternate mode, producing a surprised yelp from the Reploid...as well as a soft clang from the contact.
"Wildfire, don't do that," Maria complained, turning to look at the red and orange sports car behind her. "It feels weird."
"Maria?" Ratchet repeated. The Reploid turned when she heard her name, and caught sight of the shocked expression in the medic's optics.
"Heh heh...hi?" Maria gave a wave to the mech in front of her. "Long time no see, Ratch." A grin appeared on her face. "Jolt's telling the truth, you know. If you'll follow us back to our meeting place, we can make sure you get stocked up on Energon and don't have any dents on ya."
Ratchet looked even more disconcerted upon hearing that from Maria. "No...impossible..."
Jolt coughed. "Actually..."
Wildfire honked her horn suddenly. "Small talk is nice and all, but we should be getting back and talking where everyone else is." She popped open the door on the passenger's side of her vehicle mode. "Come on, Maria. We'll head back now and let the others know you're coming."
"But what about-"
"I'll ride with Ratchet," Morgen stated, waving his daughter on. "Get going, you. You've got a femme to warn."
Maria gave her father a cautious look, but then relented with a slight nod before she climbed into Wildfire's interior. The door closed behind her of its own accord, and Wildfire backed up before driving out of the junkyard.
Moments later, two other cars and a certain ambulance were following after them.
Wildfire's radio crackled with static, and Jolt said, ::I'm letting Ratchet and Bumblebee in on our frequency::
Ratchet's voice came through moments later. ::Are you sure this is wise, Jolt? Soundwave could-::
::Maria, Joshua, and I managed to find a frequency that Soundwave might not know about quite yet. I know it sounds strange, but we're using a frequency similar to that used by a group of humans in an alternate dimension::
::Alternate dimension?:: Raf suddenly spoke up, startled.
"The Justice League," Maria explained, smirking to herself. "I got the idea not too long ago, and I suggested that Jolt and Josh hunt it down. We're lucky that they did, too."
Ratchet made a spluttering noise, but then he asked, ::Is this how you've managed to keep your Sparks shielded from Optimus and Megatron?::
::That involves a lot of space/time warping curtesy of one Vector Prime:: Joshua responded.
::We'll explain more when we get back:: Jolt added. ::There's a lot of science involved::
There came a spluttering noise from the medic, prompting a laugh from Maria.
"Don't forget my abilities," Maria commented with a snicker. Another thought occurred to her, and her grin got to be even wider. "I wonder if Optimus is going to glitch again when he sees us."
Wildfire let out a short bark of laughter. "Hah! Optimus Prime glitching after who knows how long the war went on Cybertron? That would be a sight to see."
::Optimus glitched when he first met you?:: Raf suddenly spoke up in surprise. ::When did that happen?::
::That was a long time ago on Cybertron:: Ratchet commented in reply. He sounded somewhat shaken. ::However, it seems that it has only been twelve years for the humans we met back then::
::But...how is that even possible? Joshua mentioned something about a...a 'Vector Prime?'::
::An ancient Cybertronian - one of the first Thirteen Primes. It's said that he was capable of warping both time and space, but I never thought that he would do such a thing so recently...Jolt, when did you arrive here on Earth?::
::Twelve years ago:: came the blue mech's reply. ::I met Joshua then, but I didn't reveal myself to him until last year. He might have figured it out eventually, though::
::I probably would have:: Joshua agreed. ::Considering what happened, though, I'm glad you told me when you did::
"Wildfire didn't show up until a pretty big event a couple months back," Maria commented. "Something about coming back home made both me and Matt forget that we ever went to Cybertron, but we got our memories jogged when Wildfire and Sparkseer decided enough was enough."
::Wait...you guys really went to Cybertron?:: Raf asked, sounding like he was trying to wrap his head around what was being said.
::Well, just me, my wife, and my two oldest kids:: Morgen responded. ::Their younger siblings and friends were brought into all of this later::
::You have MORE in your brood?!:: Ratchet sounded severely dismayed at this news. His reaction caused Morgen to roar with laughter.
"Hey now," Maria responded, annoyed. "Don't dis Liz and Collin. I happen to like my little siblings."
::And my cousin is no slouch, either:: Joshua added.
Ratchet grumbled something that Maria couldn't catch.
"We're almost there, Ratchet," Wildfire spoke up. "Just a few more miles."
True to Wildfire's word, the group of four vehicles soon arrived back in the forest clearing that Wildfire had led Bumblebee into earlier.
The humans climbed out of their respective vehicles and cleared out of the way of the femme and mechs so that they could transform. Morgen ended up leading the group over to the other humans in the clearing, leaving the mechs and femmes already there to watch as the arrivals shifted into their bi-pedal forms.
"So, who's the ambulance?" Liz asked, looking at her older sister curiously.
"That's a grumpy old medic," Maria responded, grinning as Ratchet transformed. "He's one of the Autobots that Optimus is really close with."
If the medic heard the humans conversing, he gave no sign. His optics were practically glued to another red and white Autobot standing in front of him.
Wildfire grinned at Jolt and Bumblebee, who exchanged amused looks with her before they went over to the humans.
"First Aid?" Ratchet asked, looking like he couldn't believe his optics.
The named femme gave a slight smile. "It's me, Ratchet."
Ratchet looked a little unsteady on his feet. He started forward, looking like he was about to collapse. First Aid was quick to move forward to catch him. The next thing everybody watching knew, the two somehow ended up meeting each other halfway in a hug.
"I didn't think that Ratchet was ever that friendly with a femme," Matthew commented from where he stood behind Maria.
The Reploid jumped a little when she heard her older brother's voice, and she turned and glanced back at him. "Yeah, that is kinda weird..."
"I don't think it is," Morgen commented, exchanging a knowing look with his wife. At the same time, Wildfire and Sparkseer exchanged knowing looks far above their heads, but said nothing.
"What are you doing here?" Ratchet asked, backing out of the hug in order to give First Aid a good look. "I thought you were -"
"Vector Prime seemed to have other ideas for me," First Aid replied, smiling. "The same goes for the rest of the team. You should see how Coil has grown."
"Coil?" Ratchet turned his helm, catching sight of the aforementioned yellow mech, who was standing next to Jolt and behind Collin.
"Hi," Coil stated, giving the mech a quick wave.
The medic's optic ridges went up. "He has grown. When was the last time he had a checkup?"
Coil's optics widened upon hearing the word, then retreated behind Jolt and peered around the neon blue mech's waist.
Collin frowned in disapproval at his friend. "Why are you so scared? It's just a check-up."
"There have been some...difficulties with that," First Aid replied. "Mainly because of where we've been for nearly twelve Earth years."
Ratchet returned his attention to First Aid, and he frowned. "What, exactly, do you mean by that?"
Wildfire snorted. "Vector Prime pulled a fast one on us. Not only did he warp time and space to get us to Earth, but he stuck us in the heads of the human teenagers here. We spent a good twelve years like that."
Ratchet snorted. "Impossible."
Maria exchanged glances with her siblings, a smirk starting to cross her face.
"After what I've seen with Maria?" Wildfire looked down at the Reploid. "I'm not sure if there's anything that is impossible anymore."
Maria's grin became perceptively wider when she heard that.
"I agree," Sparkseer said, nodding. "There are many things that I have seen that I would have previously thought to be impossible."
"And we haven't seen all that much," Matthew agreed.
Ratchet scanned the group around him, frowning. "I have not heard of strange events taking place in any location of the country."
"What about all the kids that disappeared in this area of the Midwest?" Khrista spoke up, frowning. "That should have gotten a lot of attention."
"We did end up hearing about that," Raf spoke up suddenly. "My parents didn't want us to go to school in case we ended up getting kidnapped ourselves."
"Yeah, I remember that," Bumblebee agreed. "Optimus was a little concerned about that and wanted you guys to stay at the base for a while."
"What did he say?" Liz asked in confusion.
"He said that Optimus wanted us to stay at the base," Raf explained, looking over at Liz. He frowned. "Hey...Maria's your sister, right? So why is it that you can't understand Bee when she can?"
Liz blinked a couple times before frowning. "That's just how Maria is."
"We heard that the issue was resolved and that the children were returned to their rightful homes," Ratchet said, looking at Khrista.
Khrista snorted. "Do you really think that was it? A Pokemon video game came out sometime after with a girl and this shirt on the cover." Khrista motioned to her dull red T-shirt and the yellow Master Ball that adorned it. "That girl happens to be me."
"I knew it!" Raf exclaimed. He turned and looked at Maria. "And you appeared at the end to get everyone home - that happened too, didn't it?"
"Yeah." Maria smirked. "Khrista couldn't get everyone home on her own, so I was their main ticket home."
Ratchet frowned. "What is it that you're speaking of?"
"You remember that video game Miko brought into the base?" Raf asked, looking up at the medic. "The one that you said completely broke physics?"
The red and white mech snorted. "Of course I remember. It is impossible for a human to be capable of passing through walls like that game claimed."
Khrista smirked, and her shirt started to shift colors. The red faded away, becoming more of a gray color...and Khrista promptly walked through Ratchet's foot.
"You mean like that?" Khrista asked, her shirt shifting back to its dull red while Ratchet lifted his foot in alarm.
"How did you-"
"It's just something that I can do. And I'm not the only one with superpowers, either."
"Yeah," Maria agreed. "I wasn't called Flare-Up in other places for nothing." She held up her hands, and a fireball materialized on her palms before she started bouncing it back and forth in her hands. "See?"
Ratchet looked absolutely flabbergasted at the sight of the fireball in Maria's hands.
"Whoa." Raf's jaw dropped. "Superheroes really do exist."
Maria let the fire dissipate while Morgen chuckled.
"There's more to my kids than just what Maria showed you," Morgen said, clearly amused. "I'm surprised at everything they can do."
"You mean you all have superpowers?" Raf asked in surprise.
"Not the two of us," Katie responded, shaking her head at the boy. "Our children, however..." She eyed Matthew, Maria, Liz, and Collin.
Matthew chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, looking embarrassed at the attention he was getting from Raf and Bumblebee. "Yeah, Maria and Khrista aren't the only ones with superpowers."
"We probably shouldn't be showing off right now, though," Liz spoke up warningly. "We have a problem with those Decepticon guys, right?"
"Indeed," Sparkseer commented in agreement. "As well as the issue that Optimus Prime and his team have been apparently scattered. Is that correct, Raf?"
Raf nodded. "Yeah. We had to leave the base because Megatron knew where it was. He ended up building a tower right next to it."
Maria's eyes widened in alarm.
"How'd he build that thing, anyway?" Wildfire asked, looking over at Ratchet. "What's been going on in the war since we left?"
The mech looked uneasy, and he glanced over at First Aid for a moment before speaking. "After we forced Unicron back to his slumber, Optimus reverted to his pre-Prime state of Orion Pax. We managed to find a way to get him back to his normal self, but in the meantime, Megatron used Orion's knowledge of decoding to start to wear away at the Iacon database."
"The what?" Collin asked.
"A database of knowledge on everything we did back on Cybertron," Wildfire explained.
Maria nodded absently, remembering what had happened when she had followed Orion Pax the last time that she had left home.
"And it was coded in Autobot codes that Optimus was familiar with as far back as before he became Prime, as he had previously worked in the Hall of Records as a data clerk," Ratchet confirmed. "Megatron discovered in this way that there were relics from our home world scattered about the planet, and he planned to set out and look for them so that he would be able to use them against us. We were forced to race against him in order to discover the relics and use them against Megatron. We had...some wins and some losses."
Wildfire and Maria exchanged glances before looking back at Ratchet as he continued his tale.
"Eventually, we discovered four relics known as Omega Keys, which could be used on a device referred to as the Omega Lock, located on Cybertron. Megatron succeeded in obtaining all four through Starscream's treachery, but Optimus came up with a plan to win them back before Megatron could activate the Omega Lock."
"What is this Omega Lock supposed to do?" Joshua inquired.
"It was meant to restore Cybertron to its original glory." Ratchet let out a wishful sigh before his face shifted to a scowl. "And if the Decepticons were to activate it and restore Cybertron, then they may as well be considered winners in the war. As it was, Optimus and the others were able to succeed in regaining the Omega Keys, and would have activated the Omega Lock themselves had Starscream not kidnapped the children and brought them to Cybertron."
"Starscream did what?" First Aid repeated in alarm.
"A hostage situation," Shape-Change noted, frowning.
"Megatron said that he was going to expose us to Cybertron's poisonous atmosphere if Optimus didn't hand the keys over," Raf spoke up. "And he was planning on turning Earth into a second Cybertron - starting in Jasper!"
Jolt flinched when he heard that. "If that happened, then all the humans on the planet-"
"Would most likely perish," Joshua finished grimly.
"So Optimus destroyed the Omega Lock," Raf said, nodding. "But Megatron still managed to terraform part of the planet."
"That beam we saw a few days ago!" Liz realized.
"And that tower that suddenly appeared," Maria murmured quietly, remembering the vision she had experienced at that point in time.
"Optimus ordered us to split up so that the Decepticons wouldn't find us," Raf continued. "Bee and I have been trying to get everyone back together to see if we can do something about the Decepticons, but we've only been able to find Ratchet and you guys so far."
"And finding you guys was a real surprise, believe me," Bumblebee added. "Since you've been missing and all."
"This isn't good," First Aid said in worry. "If the Decepticons have the upper hand now-"
"We'll make sure that they don't have it for long," Wildfire said, clenching her servos. "I've been itching to do something like this for a long time. Just give me a way to Nevada, and those morons won't know what hit them."
"Wildfire, have you gone insane?" Ratchet demanded, turning sharply to look at the red and orange femme. "That tower is a reproduction of Darkmount on Cybertron! You would not be able to survive-"
"I'm a gladiator by nature, Ratchet," Wildfire hissed in response. "Or have you forgotten that already? I fought in the same arenas that Megatron did before I joined the Autobots."
Raf's eyes widened when he heard that. "You what?"
"Wildfire will not be going in alone, Ratchet," Sparkseer spoke up. "I am not about to let her go in without proper back up."
"Or me," Jolt added.
Shape-Change wordlessly nodded in agreement, blue optics sparking with determination.
"You're not going in there without me," Maria said boldly, raising a fist. "I've climbed towers and fought giant monsters before."
Ratchet looked terrified, and he shook his helm at all of them. "You're impossible. Even if you wanted to do such a thing, how would you-"
"Joshua and I are working on transferring a Ground Bridge from a crashed Cybertronian ship to his personal lab," Jolt volunteered suddenly. "We found it some time ago and we've been tweaking it."
"A Ground Bridge?" Liz repeated. She looked over at Maria. "Didn't you say that was a kind of teleportation system of some kind?"
Maria nodded. "Yeah. I didn't think there was a crashed Cybertronian ship nearby, though. Joshua, when did you find it?"
"When I was building my lab. I can show you the exact location of it later."
"You two certainly haven't been idle," Wildfire noted dryly.
Ratchet was starting to look more and more haggard. "You are certain about this. You are willing to offline yourselves attacking the Decepticons in order to stop them."
"Ratchet, there are things that we have done that make attacking the Decepticons easier than it looks," Wildfire said seriously. "We can fill you in, but I don't want to stand around for longer than I have to."
If Ratchet was going to say anything in response, he was interrupted by a beeping noise that caused the entire group to stiffen in surprise.
What's the beeping noise? Well...I'm afraid that you're going to have to wait until next week in order to find out! See you then! :)
