The group groaned as they got up.
"What happened?" Smokescreen asked no one in particular. Then the young Elite Guardsman paused when he heard the voice coming out of his mouth. It was...a lot higher than it should have been.
Smokescreen lifted himself off of the ground and saw that the ground seemed a lot closer than it normally was. He looked down at his pedes and saw that they looked different. They no longer had his usual dark colour or what little, but thick armour was put over them. Now, they were a light white, with thin metal plating over them. What was going on?
"Hey guys. Do I look...holy frag." Smokescreen had lifted his helm to ask the others around him what he looked like, but he didn't see the other members of Team Prime, or the mighty Predacons or Shockwave. No. The beings he saw around him were other younglings.
Smokescreen's jaw dropped.
"What? Where did everyone go?" Smokescreen demanded.
"Huh? Smokescreen is that you? We're right here. Woah." A young, bulky green mechling spoke before putting his servo to his throat when he heard the higher voice coming out of him.
"Woah. When did everything get so tall?" A white youngling with red and green stripes asked as he too sat up.
"Wha'?" A shorter yellow and black mechling with large and round bright blue optics mumbled as he got up.
"Oh my Primus." A blue and pink youngling femme whispered. Much to the chagrin of the boys around her, saw that she was slightly taller than some of them.
"You can say that again." Another femme spoke from afar. The other younglings turned to see the two femmes they saw in the picture Elita One had showed them earlier.
"Elita? Chromia? Is that you?" Smokescreen asked incredulously.
The blue femme nodded.
"Yeah." She said looking at her servos. "What happened to us? Elita? Do you see this?"
"No." A very high, and tiny voice replied.
"What do you mean?" The yellow and black mechling that must have been Bumblebee asked.
"I mean I can't." Elita replied. She turned around with her servos on her face and the group saw that her optics were dull and almost a greyish colour. "I can't see."
The others gasped.
"What do you mean you can't see?" The young Wheeljack demanded.
"I mean that I can't see. Anything. It would seem that I'm blind." Elita replied calmly.
"What?" The group exclaimed.
"Huh. Did I really blind you? Well, sorry about that." The Trickster spoke as he appeared from behind the group once again.
"No, I don't think that the problem—wait." Elita replied. Then she got up and pushed the Trickster angrily. Unfortunately with her small stature against the Trickster's now larger frame, the push did nothing and was just downright cute.
"So you did this?" She demanded.
The Trickster smirked.
"Oh well yeah." The Trickster replied proudly.
"What? Why?" Wheeljack demanded.
"Because you freed me." The Trickster replied. "Everyone wants youth right? So I put you guys into your child frames. You're blind because you were blind as a child am I right?"
Elita nodded.
"Wait, our child frames...then that means that Arcee was naturally taller than us?" Wheeljack exclaimed.
Arcee smirked. "I guess so. Maybe this isn't all bad after all."
"Are you kidding me?" Bulkhead groaned.
Arcee smiled wider as she winked at them.
"Yeah see kids? No harm done." The Trickster said.
"No harm done? Are you fragging kidding me?" Wheeljack exclaimed.
"Yeah! I'm a runt!" Bulkhead shouted.
"Hey, where'd Shockwave and the Predacons go?" Bumblebee wondered.
"Over there." The Trickster pointed away from the group towards a stack of Energon cubes.
The now younglings ran over to the cubes and saw a young, dark purple mech crouching down with his back towards them.
"Hey Shockwave. Is that...you?" Bulkhead asked as the mechling turned around to face them.
The mech that faced them now...there was no way that it could have been Shockwave. The emotionless Decepticon Chief Scientist, the cyclops that never blinked, the mech without a face rivalled only by Soundwave.
The little youngling most definitely had a face. It was actually quite cute in fact. His two large, round blue optics looked at them while the seven small audial finials from behind his slightly angular helm perked up when he noticed the other younglings come up behind him.
"Yes. It is indeed me. Shockwave." The younglings spoke. His voice was high but he spoke with no emotion, going along perfectly with the emotionless expression he was looking at them with.
"Wha'? No way." Smokescreen retorted.
The mech who claimed to be Shockwave nodded.
"Yes way."
"No. Fragging. Way." Smokescreen repeated with more emphasis. "Your face looks kinda sweet and soft as a sparkling's aft."
"...huh?" Shockwave mumbled.
"Shut up Smokescreen. Enough of that for now." Chromia interrupted the two mechs. "Shockwave. Do you know where the Predacons are?"
Shockwave shook his helm from the surprise of Smokescreen's words and nodded at Chromia. "I believe that they're right here in front of me."
The group leaned over Shockwave's shoulder to see his no longer clawed or half cannon servos on top of three piles of jagged bones on the ground.
Chromia turned to face the Trickster, who had been watching the scene unfold from a distance.
"What did you to them? Did you kill them?" Chromia demanded.
"Nah, my spell was meant to put you lot back into your youngling frames or bodies. Those guys didn't have youngling frames since they were grown in test tubes, so my spell turned them back into the bones from which they were made. Closest thing to their youngling bodies y'know." The Trickster explained.
"They had better be alive you piece of slagging-"
The Trickster waved the threat from he femme away.
"Don't worry. They're fine." The Trickster interrupted.
"Why...why have you done this? Who are you?" Elita asked.
The Trickster smirked and bowed to the younglings.
"Greetings Autobots. I am the Trickster. I was created all those years ago by Nexus Prime himself. I was meant to be his assistant and aid him in whatever or other, but I didn't want to blah blah blah. Listen, it all comes down to Nexus using his power to entrap me in this box here for several million years." The Trickster explained.
"Why?" Smokescreen wondered.
The Trickster shrugged innocently.
"I honestly have no clue myself. I mean, well, it might have a tiny bit to do with the fact that I destroyed a couple moons and several asteroids and planets in another galaxy and then made a black hole to try to hide it...but other than that I honestly haven't the slightest clue. I mean come on! Who hasn't destroyed part of a solar system in their lifetime?"
Team Prime stared at the mech incredulously.
"What? Oh, don't worry I won't do it again. I've had some time to think things over and I swear not to destroy anything like that ever again."
The youngling Autobots sighed in slight relief.
"...not anything on that scale anyways."
"Okay, so why did you turn us into younglings?" Bumblebee demanded.
"Because I have been locked up in a box for the last 30 to 40 million years. I haven't seen light nor had any real fun in all of that time. I swear, if it wasn't for amazing ability to cope, I would have surely gone mad in there." The Trickster answered casually.
The younglings didn't say anything to the Trickster, but they were all thinking the very same thing.
I'm pretty sure you have.
"Okay you know what Trickster? I couldn't give any less of a flying frag about your life story. Just turn us back!" Arcee demanded.
"Eh...nah I don't think so." The Trickster replied.
Arcee looked ready to run over and attempt to strangle the apparent deity, but Elita held her back.
"Why not?" Elita asked.
"Because this could easily be the most fun I've had in eons. Watching you guys run around in youngling frames with your adult minds in tact? It's hilarious." The Trickster replied.
Now Elita looked ready to strangle him.
"But but...if you want to turn back, then all you have to do is drink some Energon-"
The younglings ran towards the pile of Energon cubes nearby.
"-mixed with a few extra ingredients. Of my choosing of course." The Trickster finished.
The younglings groaned disappointedly.
"What?" Arcee groaned.
The Trickster thought for a moment before snapping his digits and a glowing piece of paper appeared in his servos. He handed it to Shockwave.
"Tangle Rootzen. Oronan seed. The Juice from Leaves of the Jungle Planet? All of these are off world." Shockwave spoke.
"Indeed. And that's not even all of it. When you obtain the first few I will allow the next bit to appear until you have all of the ingredients." The Trickster explained.
"You are totally screwing with us." Bulkhead retorted.
The Trickster shook his helm with a smile.
"Nope. Not at all." He replied. Then he turned towards Chromia and Elita.
"This little adventure I made sound familiar you two?" The Trickster asked. From the the narrowing of Chromia's optics, it seemed like the answer was yes.
"I based it off of your original adventure after all." The Trickster continued.
"Chromia, Elita, what's he talking about?" Arcee asked.
"Something we'll explain later." Chromia replied.
"Oh, a few other rules to this game. First, you all have to go together. All of the adults turned into younglings have to come with, and, if one of you dies during the expedition, then you guys are stuck in adolescence. You'll have to grow up all over again." The Trickster concluded. The Trickster flicked his wrist once again and a smaller version of the box he had been trapped in appeared in Chromia's servos.
"I'll be tagging along as well to monitor your process." The Trickster explained.
"Uh, why the box though?" Chromia wondered. "Haven't you been locked in a box this whole time?"
"Yeah, but when you spend all of your time in one place for an extended amount of time, you get accustomed to it." The Trickster answered. "Good luck in all of your endeavours kids."
Then the Trickster snapped his digits, and he turned into a beam of light that disappeared into the box in Chromia's servos.
"So...what now?" Smokescreen wondered.
"Well, I suppose that we're going on an adventure."
...I'm not very good at "funny".
Let me know what you think! Comment and review!