It was alive.

Winry Rockbell started up at the 15-foot tall robot that moments ago had been a regular (albeit strange) compact car with a jet-ski. A jet-ski that had apparently become some kind of wings, now resting on the robot's shoulders.

It didn't make any sense. The whole situation was just insane. Winry realized there was only one thing she could do.

She squealed.

A Classic Story

Part 2: Fallen

"S...sir?"

Lazarus turned from his admiration of "Unit 1" to face one of his lab technicians as he slowly approached, staring up at the giant robot with the look of a terrified dear.

Lazarus smiled. "Yes?"

"The...the video is ready to upload...we're just waiting for you to..to record your message to the potential clients..."

"Is there a problem?" Lazarus asked, doing a very poor just to hide his pleasure at the tech's discomfort.

"It's just that...is it a good idea to have this one in that mode? It was by far the most--"

"I assure you, all of the machines are under my control," Lazarus replied.

"Still, it might not be safe..."

"What was your name?"

"...Percy, sir."

"Unit 1," Lazarus commanded, turning back to the robot, "aim your primary weapon at Percy's head."

The robot raised its right arm slightly, adjusting so that the massive cannon attached to it was pointing right at the trembling technician.

"Charge."

A sphere of light began to grow in the mouth of the cannon, as did a wet spot in Percy's pants.

"Stop."

The sphere of light vanished and Unit 1 lowered its arm. Percy looked as though he may faint.

"As you can see," Lazarus grinned, "we have nothing to fear from our metal friends. However, if you need further proof...Unit 1, kneel before me."

Unit 1 did not move.

Lazarus looked up at it in shock that soon turned to anger. "Unit 1, kneel before me! Kneel before Lazarus!"

Unit 1 still did not move.

"S..sir?" Percy whispered, though he doubt he was heard over the sound of his employer's grinding teeth.

Lazarus glared up at the monster, as if he were about to unleash unholy fury upon it. However, he eventually just hissed "Convert" through his clenched jaw.

Without any kind of hesitation, Unit 1 became to shift and shrink. Soon, the alien sidearm rested on the floor.

"Just a minor glitch," Lazarus muttered, more to himself than Percy, as he reached down a picked up the weapon. "A bug in the code...easily repaired." He began to walk away, gesturing for Percy to follow. "The message will soon be ready. Good. What is the status of the Truck?"

"We've upload several versions of the command protocol into its CPU, but still no results. We're beginning to theorize that it's...well...dead. However, it's possible that..."

As the two made their way out of the hanger and into the other parts of the complex, they failed to notice the headlights of the white compact flash to life, as if to watch them go.

Then just as quickly, they became dim.

"Oh WOW!"

Winry's robot seemed taken aback as she began to dart around it, with a speed that defied the logic of even this situation.

"Look at it move! Imagine the hydraulics! This is so cool! Look at the lines...the details! Everything looks so good, it's like it was meant to be like this..but then it looks like that when it was a car too! Whoever designed this is beyond genius!"

"Thanks. If I ever meet them, I'll be sure to tell them you approve."

Winry stopped where she was, hanging from one of the shoulder wings. She blinked several times.

"It talks too!"

She began to bounce about madly again, and the robot's...eye lights brightened, giving it quite the horrified expression. It spoke again, but in a very different voice.

"I say...get the hell off me!"

Winry came to a very sudden halt, back at her starting point of the garage floor. She continued to stare at the robot, but this time, with a horrified expression of her own.

Which lasted all of five seconds. "Wait...Bender?"

The robot seemed to blush, and it rubbed the back of its head, sheepishly. "Sorry. I scanned a lot of the local pop culture while I was in the field. Sometimes I use the audio instead of my own voice processor. I believe you humans call it a 'nervous habit.' "

Winry slowly nodded. Then she blinked again. "Wait a minute...what's going on here?!"

The eye lights flashed on and off, creating the robot's own blinking effect. "Oh right. Sorry about that. I guess you'd say my name is...Bumblebee."

"You guess?!" Wiry shouted in almost angry confusion as she stood back up.

"I'm sorry, but my language isn't the easiest to translate into yours. Besides...I kinda like it."

"Makes about as much sense as anything else that's happened tonight," Winry conceded in a sigh as she scratched her head. "So...Bumblebee...just who/what are you?"

"I'm an Autobot. A Transformer from the planet Cybertron."

"A what from the who now?"

Bumblebee seemed to hesitate before continuing. "I'm not sure you'd believe how long a story it is."

In response, Wiry pulled up the chair from a nearby worktable and sat down. " 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away'?" she offered.

Bumblebee nodded and got down on one mechanical knee, like a parent about to tell a child a bedtime story.

"Millions of your years ago, on the planet Cybertron, life existed, but not life as you know it. Autonomous Robot Organisms, that could think and feel inhabited the cities. For the longest of times, this planet knew nothing but peace and prosperity. The Golden Age, my friends call it. But it was not meant to last.

"Apparently there were those among us that believed we were superior to the rest of the universe. That it was our right to rule. I'm told they presented their ideas to the Council of Elders, but of course they were shot down. But they didn't give up. They decided that if we couldn't see that they were right, we were weak, and had to be eliminated.

"And so began the war."

"War?" Winry interjected. "War for what?"

Bumblebee frowned. "Total domination.

"Using a three phase plan, they infiltrated, escalated and eventually devastated us. They were masters of deception, so we came to call them 'Decepticons.' It was a name Megatron used with pride."

"Mega-Ton?"

"Mega-tron," Bumblebee corrected. "Supreme Leader of the Decepticons, and basically the harbinger of death."

"Oh," Winry whispered.

Bumblebee nodded solemnly. "We Autobots fought valiantly to survive...to destroy their evil forces...but..."

The robot trailed off, but before Winry could say anything, she heard a song begin to play from his car stereo:

"...But in the end / It doesn't even matter..."

"Bumblebee?" Winry asked softly. "What happened?"

"The war raged across Cybertron, devastating all in its path and draining the planet's once rich resources...they say the Gold faded to grey...and then...

"Cybertron died."

It took Winry a moment to find her voice. "What...what do you mean...'died'?"

"Cybertron just didn't have enough power. It couldn't support life. It couldn't hold itself together...so we left."

"You just up and left?" Winry gaped. "How...?"

"Some stayed," Bumblebee replied. "The Autobots didn't really have a choice though. The Decepticons were hardly going to stay put and die with the world they helped destroy. Not when there were other worlds to conquer. They had to be stopped. No matter the cost."

"So...how'd you wind up on Earth?"

"Optimus Prime, commander of the Autobot forces lead a crew onboard our most powerful (still functioning) ship with a very specific mission: Find Megatron."

Winry gulped. "And?"

"We found him," Bumblebee replied grimly. "Him and some of his most powerful warriors. We boarded their ship...and we received a first-hand example of Phase 3. It's a wonder any of got out alive...we're still not sure all of us did."

"What happened?"

"Optimus ordered a retreat, but he and his brother Ultra Magnus stayed behind, making sure our ship detached from theirs safely. They then stopped wasting ammo on the 'Cons and started blasting the ship. Last thing I saw was the Darkseid, the Decepticons' most powerful warship, going down in flames over a pale blue orb..."

"Earth," Winry realized.

Bumblebee nodded again, and a British voice sounded from his speakers.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"I guess they got off one last shot," the Autobot continued in his own voice. "Next thing I remember is coming back online about...one Earth year ago. We haven't been able to determine how long we've been out, but we do know what brought us back.

"A signal. Very weak, but obviously Prime's command frequency. All it said was 'They are here.' "

"The Decepticons?"

"Yes. In an attempt to keep the local life forms out of the conflict, we decide to try and beat them at their own game. We adapted the forms of local vehicles and infiltrated into your society. We've been searching constantly, but haven't found any trace of the Decepticons."

"Well that's horrifying," Winry muttered. "But how does that bring you to my place?"

Bumblebee shrugged. "I'm not sure myself. I was staking out a used car dealership, scanning the Internet, there was this high frequency cry...and then my internal engine was critically damaged."

"Did they find you?" Winry asked.

"I doubt it. A Decepticon would have let me know it was them, then made sure to finish the job. But whatever it was knew exactly what it was doing. By the time I realized what had happened, I was near death."

"But how did you find me?"

"I was barely able to do a Internet search for the nearest mechanic. My only hope was that they would have been able to at least repair me enough that my own internal repair system would re-start. Lucky for me, you were."

"I see," Winry nodded. "So, this whole time you've been explaining things to me..."

"I've been finishing the rest myself, yeah," Bumblebee smiled. "Though I have to say, you did an amazing job."

"Well," Winry yawned. "I am a genius."

"A very tired genius," Bumblebee said as he stood back up. "It is pretty late."

"Not to mention the brain overload," Winry said as she jumped out of her chair and stretched. "I guess I should go to bed and try to process all this."

"That would be for the best."

She hardly acknowledged him as she headed toward the door and her upstairs apartment. "Feel free to use whatever you need. G'night 'Bee."

"Good night, Winry Rockbell. Thank you for saving my life."

She muttered a half-conscious response before closing the door behind her. Bumblebee couldn't help but smile, but it soon faded. Transforming back into a car, the Autobot began work on the last of his internal repairs.

And while doing that, perhaps out of curiosity, perhaps out a sense of duty, Bumblebee opened a connection to the Internet, and began his search anew...

At the dawn of the new day, Lazarus found it difficult to hide his amusement.

The video demonstration was impressive. Even more impressive than he anticipated. However, when he showed the footage of the machines converting, he could tell that his prospective clients were beginning to doubt. After all, there was little you couldn't do with special effects these days...

The doubt was destroyed when he stepped onto the stage, Unit 1 taking step behind him. He looked over the awed assembly from on high, standing just outside his pet robot's shadow, and he decided not to bother suppressing his grin.

"As you can see, the machines are very much a reality," he announced. "A reality that obeys my will, and my will alone. But for the right price, my will becomes your will..."

He didn't need to say anything else.

Instantly, the crowd began hurling offers at him. He heard millions, then billions. He even caught a heavily accented voice offer him a harem of wives to go with the money.

"Who ever said war was good for nothing?" he asked himself in self satisfaction.

"I think that's what I hate most about you humans," came an angry, thundering voice. A voice from directly behind him. "Nature...war...gods...You think you can control it all."

The crowd fell into a stunned silence, and Lazarus forced himself to turn around.

Unit 1 was staring down at him, an unmistakable look of hatred and disgust on its face.

"I don't know what's greater," the robot spat. "Your arrogance or your stupidity."

"What is this?" Lazarus whispered as Unit 1 pointed its cannon at his face. "Stop this! I command it!"

"I am MEGATRON!" Unit 1 roared. "And I kneel to on one!"

And then Lazarus's world went white...

To be continued...