War against time
Mission download
The world was familiar but seemed so drastically different. It was the same white room they'd entered when DJ had brought them the first time around. This room seemed similar but, at the same time, was completely different. The walls seemed to shimmer and shake as if they'd come down at any moment. Nothing seemed to be distinguished as furniture or walls or ceilings for that matter.
"What a nice place you've got here, Vector," hummed Hot Shot, motioning to the room around him. "Now what's going on?"
"What's going on with Perceptor?" emphasized Prowl.
"You see," Vector began. "There are some problems being overcome in his world."
"Such as?" Optimus questioned.
"What could be so wrong?" shrugged Hot Shot.
Vector sighed, seeing that he was going to need to be very through when it came to this. He placed his hand along one of the walls. Lifeless for but a moment, it sprang to light in bright colors and flashes. The wall soon became a fuzzed out screen, waiting to be pressed on play. Hot Shot sat in awe as Prowl smiled lightly at the amazement of the once invisible screen. Optimus sighed, unimpressed.
"You see, Hot Shot, you are not the only one who went through a loss," Vector explained, clicking the screen. "There was a large battle at an Autobot city."
The screen flashed to life once more but showed the horrific sights of battle. The orange blasts and grey smoke make the battle almost completely unseen. Optimus caught something though. A quick and painful moment. A battle with two bots and a third being held captive. He made out at least one before the screen was coated by the blanket of smoke. An Optimus Prime stood, under heavy fire before he fell. The screen went black.
"What was that supposed to be?" snapped Hot Shot.
"I could barely see anything," complained Prowl.
"What were the causalities?" Optimus asked quickly.
"Mostly older Autobots who accompanied Perceptor on the crash landing to earth," explained Vector.
And Decepticons?" Hot Shot hissed.
"Very little causality on their end beside Megatron's down fall," nodded Vector. "However, his death was…over exaggerated. Galvatron took his place rather quickly."
"What about…the Autobot leader?" Optimus stuttered. It felt odd asking about what became of himself.
"He…went offline," Vector whispered.
"Who's in charge now?" gasped Prowl.
"What about the matrix?" howled Hot Shot.
"Matrix?" mumbled Optimus.
"A new leader has found his place, with the matrix as well. His name is Rodimus," explained Vector. "But he is not important to this mission."
"I have a question, time bot," huffed Hot Shot. "Why take us from this point in time? Huh? What have we learned exactly?"
"Experiences are important, no matter how small they may be."
"Experiences?" snapped Hot Shot. "I only learned stupid little techniques from Scavenger and watched my leader die. I wouldn't say that's much!"
"Nothing really happened in my world either. Sure, Side Burn got kidnapped and we fought a couple times against the Predacons but nothing serious," Prowl admitted.
"Anything experiences you wish display, Optimus?" Vector smiled.
Optimus hesitated a moment. The memory of battling Starscream flashed across his mind. The damage the city. The damage to himself. He remembered the fall and then everything going black. He'd won but the pain was too much to stay online for. Then everything came back into focus with Sari's key in his chest. He cringed but quickly recalled where he was at.
"Nothing really. I met an earth child who's helping us," shrugged Optimus. Vector frowned.
"Well, we get the whole people died in his world thing," sight Hot Shot. "But what would really topple poor little Percy over the edge?"
"Are you three familiar with the names Ratchet and Wheeljack?"
"Not in my world, no. But Percy used to talk about Ratchet," nodded Hot Shot.
"Those two were his friends, right?" Prowl offered.
Vector clicked the screen. It showed a young bot working on a data pad, behind him stood a solemnly looking Perceptor. The first looked over at the latter. Perceptor sighed. The first groaned, moving over to Perceptor.
"Come on, Perceptor, everything's going to work out," he assured.
"You don't get it, First Aid. Optimus is on spark support which is assured to fail! Most of the bots I used to work with are offline! Including my two best friends!" howled Perceptor. "There is no logically way that I cannot be upset!"
"I'm sorry, Perceptor, but this is war we're talking about," First Aid countered.
"Optimus, Ironhide, Brawn, Ratchet, Wheeljack, Prowl," listed Perceptor. "And who knows how many more!"
The screen flickered off before First Aid replied. Long before then, Optimus had turned away. Hot Shot sat on the ground, deep in thought. Prowl continued to look at the now black empty screen. Vector awaited questioning.
"When was that?" Hot Shot whispered. "I mean is that now or then or sometime soon?"
"That was a few days ago, before more problems occurred, but the matter of Unicron is best for another time," Vector nodded. "By now, Rodimus has taken charge and Galvatron is still missing."
"So Optimus is…" Prowl whispered.
"Off-lined shortly after that conversation," replied Vector.
"So, Perceptor's gonna try and stop that from happening I would guess," hummed Optimus.
"Stop maybe not just Prime's death but his friends' as well. It's rather hard to tell at such an early stage," smiled Vector.
"Early stage? Aren't you supposed to be master of time and space?" snapped Hot Shot.
"There is too many outcomes to be sure which could happen," Vector explained. "But the best for safety reasons would be sending you three in."
"So," smiled Hot Shot, jumping to his feet. "Let's get this show on the road!"
"Fine," nodded Vector, opening the dimension door.
"Wahoo! Not a world that's all upside-down!" cheered Hot Shot, rushing in.
"I'm gonna go check to make sure he doesn't screw things up for us," chuckled Prowl, following Hot Shot.
"Optimus…" Vector hummed, stopping Optimus from leaving.
"Yeah?" Optimus replied quietly.
"I'm curious as to why you didn't bring up your battle with Starscream to those two," inquired Vector.
"Didn't think it was important," shrugged Optimus, trying harder to escape.
"Is it not important to mention that you have gone offline?"
Optimus finally stopped, looking at Vector. The master of time and space gave a concentrated glare at the young leader. Optimus sighed. There was no hiding the past from the one bot that's probably already seen it when it was considered the future.
"I just didn't want to get into it," admitted Optimus. "I'm not the like the other Optimus Primes and I don't want to be considered like them. Besides it wasn't a truly worthy experience anyway."
"Your experiences are the most important, Optimus," Vector whispered in a deep voice.
"Yeah, right," chuckled Optimus, finally making it through the gate.
"Such a young Optimus," Vector smiled. "Doesn't know how important he is yet."