Once the four autobots settled down in the small waiting area of medbay, Optimus motioned for Wheeljack to begin his story.
"Alright, well, me and my buddy, Bulkhead, were helping one of our human friends learn how to drive, right? So she's riding with Bulkhead and I'm up in front, giving directions and what not, when we stumble upon a Decepticon mining operation. Normally, Bulkhead and I would just storm the joint and blow the place sky high, Wrecker style-"
"'Wrecker style'?" Prowl interrupted, confused. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the term"
"Uh, Really Big Kaboom?" Wheeljack tried.
"Ah. I see." With a glance back to the Wheeljack working with Ratchet, Prowl asked in a not whisper "Prime, should we really be keeping them in the same room?"
Optimus glanced back as well. Ratchet and Wheeljack were too focused on repairing Blaster's damaged circuitry to notice.
"Given that our Wheeljack has not been known to 'kaboom' when working on another bot's circuitry, I think for the time being, we have nothing to fear" Optimus responded.
"Well, at least you told Jazz to skedaddle" Ironhide said. "I already know what kind of auditory mayhem him and Blaster get into when they're in the same room for more than two minutes. Now get back to the story. It sounds like you're about to get to the good bit"
"Well, as I was saying, Bulkhead and I were going to blow the joint, but since we had Miko-"
"Miko?"
"The human friend. Anyway, since we decided the best thing to do was to send her back to base, right?"
"A logical conclusion" Prowl agreed.
"So I call up Ratchet- the one from my world, obviously- to send a ground bridge to my-"
"A what now?" Ironhide asked.
"You don't have ground bridges in this universe? How do you get anywhere that's too far to drive?"
"We just get a lift from our buddy, Skyfire" Ironhide said.
"What is he, a shuttle?"
"Yup"
"Huh. Well, it's… it's like a space bridge but smaller. So our ground bridge gets there, but then another one appears between me and Bulkhead, and ANOTHER one appears right on top of me! There's this big explosion, and next thing I know, I'm here in your base" Wheeljack concluded. He leaned back in his seat and waited for comments.
"If they don't believe me, I'll make a run for it. Those big guys I ran into earlier seemed to like me enough not to bite my head off" Wheeljack thought. "And if they do, once that Perceptor guy gets back, I've got a one way ticket home"
"Alert! Decepticon attack on West Coast Power Plant! Immediate action required!" Teletraan 1 said.
"Looks like this will have to wait. Autobots! Transform and roll out!" Optimus said.
Megatron was leading a swarm of Insecticons on an attack on the power plant. Skywarp and Thundercracker filled up cubes while Soundwave loaded the cubes into Astrotrain's cargo bay and Starscream was criticizing everything, from the illogical use of the insecticons to the humidity. The humans who worked at the plant were hiding in wait of an opening to get to a nearby jeep and escape. unfortunately, Skywarp and Thundercracker were getting closer and closer to their hiding spot.
Optimus led his group of Autobots, which consisted of Ironhide, Prowl, Tracks, and the alternate universe Wheeljack, to behind a grouping of large boulders and motioned for them to be quiet.
"Ok Autobots, before we can stop Megatron, we must get the humans out of danger first. I am open to suggestions"
"I've got one, boss bot" Wheeljack replied.
He then stood up, took aim, and threw his grenade at some crates at the opposite side of the plant of the human workers.
The crates exploded, throwing chunks of wood and burnt factory supplies in various directions. Skywarp and Thundercracker ran in that direction, allowing the humans the opportunity they needed to get to the jeep and out of danger.
Optimus sighed. He didn't care for this new Wheeljack's style, but couldn't argue that it wasn't effective.
"Autobots, attack!" Optimus yelled, leading his troops from out of their makeshift cover.
They fought.
"Hey, Ironhide, is that Starscream?!" Wheeljack asked.
"Yeah" Ironhide replied. "Why?"
"He's fatter than I remember, that's all"
Starscream huffed indignantly while Skywarp pointed and laughed.
"Haha, he's right! You are fat, fatty!" Skywarp jeered.
Starscream growled angrily.
"Why you little, pit spawn of a glitch, when I get my hands on you I'll-"
"And your clones are ugly too!"
Now it was Skywarp's turn to huff in anger.
"I am not ugly! I'm the prettiest seeker I know!" Skywarp replied.
"And we're not clones, either!" Thundercracker added.
"We're not?"
"No, of course we're not! Do you even know what a clone is?"
"Uhhh…"
"Decepticons! We have what we came for! Back to base!" Megatron yelled. He pushed Optimus and started to fly. "Astrotrain, blast off!"
"Nevermind, I'll explain it to you when we get back to base" Thundercracker said. He and Starscream transformed and started flying.
"See you around, Autoclowns!" Skywarp said, transforming and taking off as well.
"We've got to stop them!" ironhide said.
He started to run after them, but Wheeljack stopped him. He was holding a detonator.
"And three, two, one" Wheeljack said, then activated the detonator. A loud explosion came from Astrotrain and smoke came out of his cargo bay. He opened his hatch and released the sizzling energon cubes before those, too, could explode.
"Now that was style!" Tracks observed.
"That was amazing" Ironhide praised.
"Good work, Wheeljack" Optimus said. "Everyone, transform and roll for home!"
Back in the lab, Perceptor was taking scans of the two Wheeljacks, going back and forth, taking notes, and muttering things like 'uh huh', 'interesting', and 'well, that's different'.
"Well, what have you got so far?" Ironhide asked after a few hours.
"Not much. Most of the distinctions are too minute to be worth mentioning" Perceptor said. "However, this Wheeljack is a few Earth inches taller than ours. So you say your untimely arrival was due to three intersecting dimensional transport systems?"
"Yeah, that about sums it up"
"Perhaps if we were to commandeer a Decepticon space bridge, I could reverse the polarities-"
"We'll take care of getting that space bridge and leave all that fancy science stuff to you. How's that sound?" Ironhide said.
"Yes, yes- of course! My apologies, I get carried away sometimes…" Perceptor replied. He then went back to fiddling with the controls at the main computer.
"I'll trade you," Wheeljack said to Ironhide suddenly.
"Huh what now?"
"I'll give you the Perceptor from my world if you give me yours" Wheeljack said.
Author's Note: let me know if there's a G1 character you want to see Wheeljack from the Prime universe interact with before he goes back home
