Space…the final frontier. Despite most beliefs, it is generally quiet and peaceful. It takes a lot to interrupt the serenity of the location.

This happened when the space in one particular spot started to distort and bend outwards. Then a ship seemed to burst out of it, shortly followed by another one.

They were shooting at each other.

"Gah! We're taking heavy damage! Sections 2, 3, 5, and 7 are compromised!"

"Keep steady!"

"Man, this is ridiculous! We're an exploration vessel, not a battle cruiser!"

"Yes, but we were the only ones close enough to follow the Predacon criminals!"

The other ship was having a very different conversation.

"The enemy vessel has been compromised. Finish them now!" snarled one crew member.

"Now where's the fun in that? A little pleasure before business, yeees."

And the other ship wasn't far off from being turned into scrap metal.

"Structural integrity compromised," announced the computer.

"Bring the plasma lasers around! We need to ground them! And jettison the protoforms into safe orbit." If they were going to crash, at least he could try to save the rest of the crew.

The cannons on the top of the ship came around and started firing at the other ship. By some miraculous stroke of luck, enough of the shots hit the other ship for the engines to blow.

"Engines offline!"

Now they were both heading for the planet.

"Isn't there something we can do?!"

"It's no good. The ship suffered too much damage. We're going down."

Meanwhile, on the planet, a teenage boy was staring upwards with his best friend. "I'm not sure what to do next," muttered Ash Ketchum. "I'd like to go to another region, but I'd also like to learn about this aura thing…"

"Pikachu."

"'Course, I'm not sure what else I'd do if I was learning how to use aura. I mean, I'd have to stay in one place, and don't get me wrong. I love Pallet Town, but it's so…bland staying in one place you know?"

Pikachu nodded. "Pi."

"But with all the stuff that happens to us, aura manipulation would be really useful to have."

"Pi-ka." Pikachu suddenly straightened and looked up.

"What's up Pikachu?" Ash followed Pikachu's line of sight and saw two objects falling from the sky. "Huh, wonder what that is." They landed with a noticeable sound. One wasn't too far from Pallet Town. Ash shot up and stared in the direction of the closer one. "That's really close. Let's go check it out!"

Pikachu gave Ash an exasperated look. "Pika Pika-pi!"

"Aw, c'mon. It can't be that dangerous compared to some of the stuff we've seen! Besides, what if somebody got hurt? They might need help."

Pikachu sighed and jumped onto Ash's shoulder. "Ka chu."

Ship #1:

"Ugh…Damage Report."

"Believe me. You don't wanna know."

"I was afraid of that." He thought a moment. "Any sign of the Predacons?"

"We're not picking up any signals, so they must not be close by, but we're also picking up high amounts of energon."

Ship #2:

"How annoying. Computer, is this the correct planet?"

"Unknown. There is not enough information to confirm whether or not this is the planet of interest."

The bot slammed his fist into his arm rest. Maybe he could still make this work. "Never mind that. Is there energon?"

"Affirmative. Readings indicate high levels of energon, high enough to permanently damage systems unless protected by appropriate forms and equipment."

"Is that so? Then we'll just have to take on forms based on the local fauna, the strongest you can find. Do it now."

Outside, a rotating wall of light popped up and started scanning any nearby Pokemon. Something similar was happening at the other ship.

"Hey…" The youngest member of the crew peered into the reflective surface. "I'm…a unicorn?"

A large Raichu snickered. "Not bad kid. You do like fast after all!"

"But unicorns are so girly! Can't I choose something else?"

"We have a limited amount of synthetic organic material," said a Rhydon. "We can't afford to use it just so you can change your alt mode."

"Yeah, but-"

"The ship's computer chose what was best suited for us based on what it had available. You can't afford to be picky."

The Rapidash let out a depressed sigh. The Raichu snickered. "So what're you gonna use as your code name? Fire flower? Sunset dash?"

"Shut it Rat face."

"Nah, I was thinking more along the lines of Rattrap. How 'bout you big guy?"

"I'll go by Rhinox." This form did have a horn that resembled a rhino's. Although, he was a bit curious about why it resembled a large drill as well.

"And I'm not gonna go by a stupid, girly name," muttered the Rapidash. He checked his reflection again. Maybe something to do with the horn? But the only things that came to mind were 'Uni' and 'Impaler. His mane sort of looked like it was on fire. "Blaze. I'll be Blaze. What do you think?"

"It's a fine name," said a Slowking as he stepped out of the reformatting chamber. "I think I'll keep my name in case anyone out here is familiar with Optimus Prime."

"That doesn't seem likely," said Rhinox. "I don't recognize any of these species, and I'm sure there would've been records of such unusual life forms."

"Well, that's just Prime…"

At the other ship, a Beedrill, an Aerodactyl, an Ariados, and a Parasect were meandering about outside the crashed ship.

"No, no, no!" The Houndoom holding the golden disk was significantly less pleased. "This is not Earth. Not only did you fail to eliminate the Maximals when you had the chance, you caused us to crash on the wrong planet, Megatron, you idiot!" He threw the disk back into the shadows of the ship.

"I'm sorry. I must have misheard," said a particularly imposing Tyranitar as it walked out of the shadows. "What did you call me?"

"You heard me. Because of you, we are now stranded on a completely unknown planet. I don't care if it's made entirely of energon. It's useless to us if we can't transport it back to Cybertron! This. Is. All. Your. Fault!" The Houndoom crouched into an attack position. "Which is why I am taking over. Dinobot, Terrorize!" The Houndoom broke apart and rearranged into a blue bot with very sharp teeth, a rotating drill sword, and Houndoom styled armor. "I challenge you to a one-on-one battle. The winner will become leader of the Predacons, and the loser will be destroyed."

Megatron shook his head. "My dear, dear Dinobot. There is more to being a leader than just strength. There's intelligence, planning, and…cunning." He moved his tail to reveal the Parasect aiming a missile at Dinobot. Dinobot had just enough time for his mouth to fall open in shock before the missile hit him and sent him flying far away. Megatron chuckled. "Loser. Now, listen up." The remaining Predacons gathered around him. "The Maximals also landed on this planet. I want you to find them and determine if they survived the crash. If they did, then destroy them!"

The Predacons moved to do as Megatron ordered.

Back at ship one:

"This blows," griped Rattrap. "Why'd we have to land on such a backwater planet?"

"Look on the bright side," said Optimus. "The purpose of the original exploration was to study planets we're unfamiliar with, and here we are on a completely unknown planet. What more could you ask for?"

"Well, call me spoiled, but a working space ship would be nice," snarked Rattrap.

Optimus rolled his eyes and sighed. "Just no pleasing some people."

"Hey, look down there!" said Blaze, gesturing towards a herd of Ponyta and Rapidash.

Optimus watched them running about. "Quite an agile species. It suits you."

And then Blaze was running down towards the herd. Optimus's eyes widened. "Blaze! Get back here!" Blaze was already out of hearing range and still heading straight for the herd. Optimus activated his com link. "Blaze! Return to base at once! We don't know if the Predacons survived the crash!" Static feedback came out of the com link.

"The energon radiation is interfering with the com link frequencies," deduced Rhinox. "Any further than 100 kliks, and they aren't worth slag."

"So, eh…This your first day on the job?" asked Rattrap, his voice full of sarcasm.

Optimus twitched at Rattrap's barb and turned to see the herd starting to move. He had no idea which one was Blaze, but none were staying behind. "Quick move out! We can't afford to lose Blaze!"