Chapter 2: Civilization

It wasn't the liveliest of towns, but it was definitely a town of some kind. Its perimeter was lined with a head-high wall made of dark marble that had become cracked and dirty from neglect, but even through the dirt, metallic threads could be seen running through the surface of the marble. It seemed that everything in this place contained metal to some degree.

The small group of Autobots approached the wall and moved along until they came to an ornate iron gate where they peered between the bars. The main street that ran through the gate was lined with what appeared to be small shops and venders. There were beings of some sort that were operating these shops, but they were too far away to be seen easily.

Prime was about to attempt to open the gate and go inside when he suddenly heard a female voice behind him. "Turn around … slowly!" Prime slowly turned his head and saw a large gold spearhead in his peripheral vision. He turned to face the aggressor and was shocked at what he saw. She had a small, toned, humanoid body, but her legs were proportionately quite long and the waist of her hourglass-shaped torso was so small that he could reckoned he could probably easily encircle it with his hands. Positioned on her shoulders was a head that was angular, but unmistakably feline. What he at first thought was oddly colored skin was actually short and fine fur that was scarlet red in color. She had a small white muzzle with a tiny black nose and a pair of tall pointed black ears with a tuft of hair at the end of each one. She wore a bodysuit that was three shades of blue and a long cape that was constantly being disturbed by her long swishing tail. Matching the cape were a pair of large, angular light-blue eyes with little black slits for pupils that stared at him intensely. She was only about chest-high to him and not physically opposing in the slightest, save for the huge spear—which was really more of a harpoon, now that he had gotten a better look—but her glare could freeze water.

"Who do you think you are?" Ironhide said with a scoffing tone as he and Brawn aimed their guns.

Prime looked over at them as he raised his hands in a surrendering gesture. "Lower your weapons." Then he looked back at the cat woman. "We come in peace."

The cat woman seemed to relax a bit as she took a few steps back and placed the butt end of the harpoon against the ground so that the weapon was vertical—in this position, the harpoon was as tall as her. Behind her was another cat woman who was dressed in an almost identical uniform, but in a reddish color scheme. She had blue fur that was thicker and longer, especially at her cheeks, and she was of a stockier build. She was also covered in black stripes. She had her own harpoon, which she held in a similar way.

The Autobots relaxed as well.

"So, who and—sorry to sound rude—what are you? And what is your business here?" the first cat woman said in a stern, yet casual tone.

"I'm Optimus Prime, Leader of the Autobots", Prime said, as he gestured to himself and his men, respectively. "We come from a planet called Cybertron. As for why we're here … it'd take awhile to explain, but we're stranded and don't know where we are or how to get back home."

Minerva raised her eyebrows in surprise. "From another planet, eh? Well, I suppose anything is possible. I'm Minerva, and this is Cassandra," she said, gesturing toward the second cat woman who saluted in a casual way that was almost cute. Minerva paused for a long time, apparently contemplating how much she should reveal before continuing a bit slowly. "This planet is called Catotronia …"

Suddenly, a shriek was heard.

"Cassie!" Minerva screamed when she whirled around and saw that a shadowy hooded masculine figure was holding a blade to Cassandra's throat. Minerva grasped her harpoon tighter and held it in a threatening manner, even though she knew there was nothing she could do, immediately.

"Damn you cats!" the man snarled. "You've spread over this world like a disease! Like plague-ridden rats!" He had managed to hide his body pretty well behind Cassandra's, despite the fact that she was quite a bit smaller, the only vital part of him sticking out was his head, his glowing eyes staring tauntingly. But in the time it would take Minerva to wind up to throw the harpoon, he could easily slit Cassandra's throat, and she was not yet ready to take that risk.

"It isn't our fault that evolution gave you the shaft, you psycho!" Cassandra snarled as she struggled to free herself. She had dropped her own harpoon when the man surprised her, and was now clawing at his hands, awkwardly.

"Silence, filthy animal!" the man said. Even though his hand was shaking with rage, he steadied it enough to press it more firmly against Cassandra's throat. His level of adrenaline was so high, he didn't even react to the cat woman's claws digging into his hands. He was so obsessively focused on the cat women that he paid no heed to the group of Autobots and hadn't been watching any of their actions.

"Silence yourself, man!" Jazz said suddenly, as he aimed his gun and put a hole right through the attacker's head with a thin laser.

The man went limp and unceremoniously slid to the ground, dead.

Minerva stared at Jazz in shock for the briefest moment before running to Cassandra. "God, are you okay, Cassie?" She looked at Cassandra's neck and saw that there was, thankfully, no blood. Her thick fur was partially to thank for that.

"No, I'm … I'm fine," Cassandra said. After taking a few moments to compose herself, she ran over to Jazz and grabbed his hand between both of hers and shook it vigorously. "I don't know why you did that, but … thank you SO much!"

"Oh … you're welcome," Jazz said, feeling a little embarrassed, "I just hate the kinda coward who'd sneak up on a lady like that. No matter what you mighta done to tick the dude off."

Minerva sighed, irritated, as she went over to the man's corpse. "These idiots."

"What was that all about?" Ironhide said, following her to the body to get a better look.

Minerva kneeled and pulled the hood off the man's head revealing a face that looked metallic and angular, like that of a Transformer, glass eyes and all. The rest of his body was humanoid in shape, but it was metal and even contained segmented joints like that of a robot, although his skin was scratched and bloody in a few areas implying that it was also living flesh. He wore simple, tattered, medieval-style clothing.

"Well, it's a very long story, but I'll try to be brief: apparently these people used to rule this planet, or that's what they say. Then there was … some kind of disaster—I dunno, I'm no scientist—and most of them disappeared. Most of the rest of them have migrated to the moon, but some stragglers were left behind. Poor bastards. Meanwhile, cats evolved into higher beings and we basically took over. Now, every once in awhile, we come across some desperate terrorist like Mr. Wonderful here who isn't afraid to just attack someone in the middle of the day because they don't care if they get killed in the process. Maybe they want to. They hate the world and they blame it all on us." She made a faint scoffing sound. "But it's not like it's our fault—you don't choose evolution, it chooses you.

"Other people on their side have already blown up one of our larger cities and, as you can see, you resemble them slightly. That's why I didn't want to take any chances with your snooping around the walls of this city."

"I understand." Optimus said with a nod.

Minerva stood and looked at Prime for awhile. "Look … I can't promise anything, but … we owe you our lives, so I'm gonna do my best to see that you get some assistance. I really don't know how much we can help you, but I'll see to it that we'll do whatever we can."

Prime felt a considerable amount of weight being lifted off of his shoulders. This was far from a guarantee that they'd get back home, but Step 1 had been accomplished—they'd found an ally—so he allowed himself some relief for now. "Thank you. Your assistance is appreciated."

Minerva excused herself, walked away until she was out of earshot, and pulled out what looked like a small communicator from a pouch that was clipped to the side of her belt. She spoke into it, listened to the person on the other end, and repeated the process a few times before folding the communicator and placing it back into the pouch. Then she approached the Autobots again. "So, now that they're expecting us … how fast can you guys run?"

"Heh … actually, we'd rather roll." Bumblebee responded.

Minerva tilted her head. "What, you guys have wheels hidden somewhere?" She moved her head as if she was expecting to spot them somehow, if only she were to look hard enough.

"You could say that," Optimus Prime said, amused. Then: "Autobots … transform!" His arms folded behind his torso, his head sank into his shoulders, and his legs bent backward in a very unnatural way until he became a big red semi.

The rest of the Autobots followed suite: Bumblebee became a small yellow Volkswagen Bug, Ironhide became a red van, Brawn became a small brown Land Rover, and Jazz—who was more of a show-off and leapt into a handstand and transformed his back end first—became a black and white Porsche. The only one who didn't transform was Perceptor who, instead, hopped into Prime's trailer.

Minerva shook her head and blinked. "Well … okay, then! Whatever works." She nodded once at Cassandra and they both morphed into four-legged cats. "Follow us, then!"

Perceptor had peeked out from the trailer and he saw this transformation take place, and he was amazed, not only by the strange nature of the transformation itself and its oddly organic and almost mystical nature, but by the fact that he could now recognize the breeds of cat. Cassandra was a bobcat, and Minerva was a lynx of some kind—species that he'd seen on Earth.