AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for taking chapter 10 down, I just finished it and posted it without reading through it for mistakes or bad dialog. So Chapter 10 has been revised and corrected. Also I want you to vote something for me, would you rather:
I've written the story too long in Radiator Springs and need to get to Cybertron ASAP or,
Its integral that I spend a bit longer in RS to work on relations between the TF's and Cars characters
When you review leave 'I vote A' (or B) in your review, I wish to know if you're keeping entertained enough or that I need to get to the bigger action parts I have planned for Cybertron.
Chapter 10: Mistaken Identity
Several hours had passed but the six strange construction vehicles were working away like bees and they were doing an excellent job in repairing the buildings, they were already a third way finished on Ramones house of body art, the town hall had being fully repaired and they were starting work on repairing several smaller buildings.
"Wow, I've never seen such magnificent work from construction vehicles!" said King, during the Earthquake he and his wife took shelter in their home which was one of the few buildings to survive the Quake.
"Yes, it's unbelievable how fast they're working, yet are able to finish the job with proper professionalism and mastery." Replied Doc.
Meanwhile the Autobot group had finally reunited with Hound.
"So what happened to you in there Hound?" asked Jazz, being curious as he always is.
"Oh jeez, I was bored out of my cerebral circuits. All that guy kept talking about was his time in Earth's Army and how he thought I was his best friend years ago, even though I had no idea what he was talking about." Replied Hound.
"You didn't reveal anything confidential did you?" demanded Prowl.
"No sir, I just acted senile and he sang like a canary-con about everything I apparently did during 'the war'.
While Hound further explained his experiences with Sarge, Ramone was looking at his beautiful house of body art being re-constructed, he felt happy again and he felt a little silly at how much he cried like a baby eariler, then he was about to be even more pleasantly surprised.
He looked up towards tailfin Pass Mountain and then noticed on the road leading from the mountain to Radiator Springs there were four vehicles heading towards the town. There were three cars but what caught Ramone's attention was a large truck. As it neared Ramone could make out its details, it was a flat nose semi with a red and blue color scheme carrying a large grey trailer.
"Can it be?" thought Ramone, he shouted for Sheriff.
"Hey Sheriff, is that who I think it is Homey?" he asked the police car, Sheriff squinted, but even his failing eyesight didn't need to be told otherwise as he recognized the truck with ease.
"Big Al?" gasped Sheriff.
(Although he was never seen in the CARS movie, 'Big Al' was referenced in the film by Mater who said Big Al was the only resident in RS's who could tow Bertha(?) the large road paving machine McQueen used to pave the road in the film)
Prowl also saw the four vehicles heading their way, while they were Earth vehicles he had no doubt in his mind about who they were.
"Ironhide look" said Prowl; "It's Optimus and he's bought Wheeljack as well."
"Thank Primus, my joints were achin' being stuck in vehicle mode for so long, Wheeljack better have some miracle device that'll change us back, otherwise I'm gonna blow my metal noggin!" grunted Ironhide, he was starting to feel uncomfortable and claustrophobic in Van mode.
Prowl noticed Sheriff and Ramone looking up Prime's way with great interest, this made Prowl uncomfortable as Luigi and Ramone joined them whispering among themselves while keeping an eye on Optimus.
"What are they doing?" he said to himself; "They couldn't suspect something".
"Wheeljack, please don't tell me you forgot the anti scrambler gun?" Optimus, now a big red & blue flat nose semi truck, strictly ordered Wheeljack, who had assumed the disguise of a Ford Mustang, to write it down in his memory to bring the re-write gun; the device was made by Wheeljack to instantly terminate any bugs or computer viruses infecting a Transformer.
"I swear Prime, I did! It was right in my boot compartment….."
Wheeljack stopped; he saw Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, now both Lamborghinis, trying to hold back laughter.
"Alright you two, where is it?" asked Wheeljack.
"Aw c'mon Wheeljack, would we do that sort of thing?" said 'Streaker with a suppressed smile.
"Yeah 'Jack, If it weren't for us your senile circuitry wouldn't remember anything, like this gun thingamajig you left lying around which we 'happened' to find" said 'Swipe as he lowered his window and shot it into Wheeljacks boot compartment with him and 'Streaker bursting into laughter.
"You two little twerps, you've been sneaking around my lab again, I wish Teletran-1 never repaired you Sideswipe and as for you Streaker you owe me your life, because…" the angered Wheeljack slamming his boot door down was silenced by Prime.
"Relax Wheeljack, we have a situation right ahead of us, look" Prime had noticed the locals gathering out staring right at them.
And it wasn't just the locals staring at Prime and his Autobot group, the six mysterious construction vehicles were staring at the Autobots with great interest. The front shovel bulldozer smiled wickedly:
"Excellent, more Autobots to the slaughter, as expected and we have the big fishacon himself Optimus Prime in our grasp, Hook, tell Soundwave to contact Starscream and unleash the trap at once!"
"With pleasure and finesse" and the crane truck known as Hook drove away.
As Optimus and his crew stopped to come face to face with Mater, Luigi, Guido, Sheriff, Ramone, Flo and Red, he stared at them all for what seemed like an eternity when eventually Prime managed to mutter a simple hello:
"Erm, Greetings" for a moment there was silence then cheering and happy faces, Ramone came up to Optimus:
"Big Al it's been like twenty years, where've you been man?" said Ramone.
"Si it has-a-been too long my large friend" said Luigi along with Guido who muttered something in Italian.
Optimus was confused at the Earthlings friendliness, but what confused him more was that they kept referring to him as 'Big Al' unknown to him he was experiencing the same type of mistaken identity Hound did with Sarge.
Doc, who was overlooking repairs with one of the construction vehicles heard all the commotion and went to investigate, when he saw Prime he looked like he had seen a ghost and if he could he would have went pale.
Meanwhile Wheeljack saw Prowl waving at him, he spoke to Optimus in Morse code through their vehicles radioes:
"There's Prowl and the others, I'll turn them back to robots while you keep these Earthlings busy." Said Wheeljack in dots and beeps.
Prime replied "Affirmative" and ordered 'Steaker and 'Swipe to follow him.
Optimus' came to a logic conclusion that he had somehow by coincidence assumed the identity of a person these people knew and decided to play along to avoid suspicion.
"Err hello old friends, it has indeed been a long time." Said Prime.
"Al where've ya been? You were gone for twenty years without even a phonecall." Sheriff asked whose words basically summed up everyone else's thoughts.
Doc Hudson still looked at Optimus with thoughts of "It can't be" in his mind, Doc then noticed the symbol on Prime's left hand side (the part of the truck that makes his shoulder in robot mode) "That symbol" Doc thought, it was the same symbol he saw the emergency vehicles wear when they retreated from the media and the same symbol he saw Prowl's group wear.
Once it had all clicked in Doc then realized something else. He saw a similar symbol on the giant robot on TV, while this one he was seeing now was different, there was something about them that were similar, like how a ying and yang were different but were the same. The symbols, the strange technology inside the strangers when he was repairing them, the shape shifting robots on TV, it all seemed to come together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Meanwhile Sunstraker and Sideswipe had caught the attention of Tia & Mia.
"Oh my gosh, look at those Lambors!" said Tia enthusiastically.
"I know look at that cute red one" replied Mia looking at Sideswipe.
"Who are those primitives looking at?" asked 'Streaker.
"Us I hope just look at that beautiful red body paint" said 'Swipe, he fell bonnet over wheels in love.
Tia & Mia drove towards them shyly but managed to ask the Lambor twins:
"Umm hey there I see you're new here, want to take a tour?" Mia asked, Sideswipe responded all too kindly.
"Certainly, while you're at it why don't you tell me your name?" he asked and Mia responded in an excited giggle.
In the meantime Sunstreaker was being stared upon by Tia.
"What are you looking at? Your reflection makes my body chrome look bad!" he said harshly, but his words just went through Tia's ears.
"Oh my gosh, not only are you like a Lambor, you're yellow, Yellow is my favorite color!" she said merrily and Sunstreaker replied with a surprised "Oh Really?"
"Yeah Really! Your Chrome shines just like the Sun, it's just so beautiful" sighed Tia.
Sunstreaker had a sudden change of heart, he felt warm inside when other people complimented his beautiful exterior and he now felt like Tia was his friend rather than some dumb primitive from Earth.
"Well my dear, now that you put it that way why don't you show me around while talking about my beautiful body" and he sealed the deal with a wink, Tia just smiled excitedly like it was her birthday and she got the present she wanted most (which will probably never happen because the thing she wants is a certain race car by the name of McQueen ).
Wheeljack couldn't believe his optics, the two young twerps were already flirting with Earthlings and as a scientist, it freaked him out a bit (interspecies love and all).
"Hey you two where are you going? HEY get back here…..aw never mind I'll have more peace without 'em" he moaned to himself, Wheeljack finally got a hold of Prowl:
"Wheeljack, thank the Matrix you're finally here, please tell me you managed to fix some sort of device that'll turn us back to robots." Asked Prowl.
"You betcha, I got it right with me. It wasn't easy, the darn thing was smashed to kingdom come but I fixed it, the anti-scrambler gun. One burst of electric data stream and any virus, corrupt program, errors, etc, etc are gone. But first I need somewhere secluded and out of sight of Earthlings so I can transform and use it."
"There behind the old town hall, it's big enough to keep us out of sight and the rear of the building is blocked by a sand dune." Said Prowl and the seven Autobots sneaked towards the town hall.
Once there Wheeljack looked to his left, right, up, down and all around, the coast was clear and he transformed into robot mode.
"Alright, just set this thing up and she's good to go, ok who wants to go first, Jazz how about you?"
The Porsche felt reluctant and Wheeljack saw it in his eyes.
"What's the matter Jazz?" asked Wheeljack.
"Aw well don't take this the wrong way Wheeljack, but some of your inventions have…well you know…not worked properly and I don't want my memory to get sizzled." Said Jazz and Wheeljack snorted.
"You arrogant punk, I spent hours on fixing this thing to turn you back to normal and to show your thanks you give me lip, do you want to fight the Decepticons or not because you sure as Slag can't do it in Car mode!" blared Wheeljack and his words ran true in Jazz, he sure as heck wanted to fight the Decepticons.
"Alright now let's continue" and with that Wheeljack went around his business of zapping Jazz, Prowl, Brawn, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Hound & Mirage.
There were some cries of pain as the electricity shocked the Autobot cars, Ironhide seemed the most affected by it.
"For crying out loud Ironhide, don't be such a baby I thought you were tough!" said Wheeljack. Ironhide replied with:
"My exterior is tough, but my interior is old and frail." Moaned the red van.
"Then maybe it's time you quit the army Ironhide, you know get a desk job or go to an old robots home, it'd be right up your street" guffawed the Brown Land Rover Brawn.
"Shut yer Dang mouth Brawn, you're not the only one with hydraulic powered fists and if you don't show some respect I'll show you how good my fist is!"
"Don't worry Ironhide it's just humor for us 'young' bots hahaha" Brawn laughed again.
"YOUNG humor what's that supposed to mean?" roared Ironhide.
With all jokes aside Wheeljack continued his job of turning Prowl's group back to robots, the process wasn't long, just one burst of electrical data stream and the Autobots affected by Runabout & Runamucks trasnfixation ray were completely cured. All Autobots were now functioning again as they had all turned back to robot and mode and started stretching and clicking their joints, much like you would do after being cramped on a plane for a long flight.
"Man I'm sure glad to be back in 'bot mode, I was beginning to ache all over" said a pleased Ironhide cracking his knuckle joints.
Prowl walked over to Wheeljack and asked him:
"Hey Wheeljack, do you know why those Earthlings were gathering around Optimus?"
"You might not believe this, but they think Optimus is somebody that used to live here." Replied Wheeljack.
Prowl then thought a bit.
"Hey Hound, didn't somebody that lives here say they knew you from a great Earth war?" asked Prowl.
"Yes, it was a totally weird experience, I never seen him in my life and what's more…"
"Thank you Hound, that'll do" said Prowl not wanting to hear Hound banter on, Prowl then turned to Wheeljack once more:
"Wheeljack, do you think that when Teletran-one recce'd the Earth, do you think it's possible that when he scanned suitable Earth vehicles for us, he actually gave us the identities of actual living people on this planet?"
"Hmm I was thinking about that myself, but obviously in Hound's and Optimus' cases of mistaken identity, it's obviously true." Replied the Autobot scientist, Prowl then slapped his head and wiped his brow.
"This is great, let me guess, Optimus decided to play along and pretend he's actually the person these people think he is?"
"Yes that's true Prowl but he did it so we could sneak away unnoticed and I know what you're thinking, Prime is going to blab something out that'll jeopardize our identity and ruin the whole mission, its totally going against the orders he had originally intended for everybody to follow, but look on the bright side Prowl, from what Ratchet told us, those kind people welcomed you and along with Ratchet, some guy named Doc Hudson repaired you and Ironhide and possibly saved the lives of Mirage and Brawn after they got Trounced by Menasor." Said Wheeljack who got a dark look from Brawn and Mirage.
"Hey ease off fellas, I'm not saying you're weaklings, no way."
"Your point is Wheeljack?" asked Prowl.
"My point is Prowl, that these people seem to be genuinely nice, as long as we're careful we should be in no danger here and Optimus is wise enough to sense that, as you said a few days ago, if all else fails try the 'befriend the earthling' strategy, now that they know the Decepticons are out there, there's no point in trying to pretend that giant transforming robots are invisible to them."
Prowl peeped around the corner, he saw Optimus tugging some massive primitive looking machine. Unknown to Prowl while he was hiding behind the town hall, the residents of Radiator Springs had asked Optimus to repair the road for them. With the six construction vehicles busy repairing the buildings, Prime detached his trailer and hooked up to Bertha.
Prime's almighty strength towed Bertha with relative ease, as she started laying down a new tarmac and within minutes Prime was finished, unlike McQueen's efforts before, Optimus had paved a perfect road in minutes and received a lot of cheer from the residents.
"Man Al that was amazing have you been working out?" asked Mater.
"Not really, but as you know they don't call me big for nothing." Answered Prime with a small laugh.
"Well homey you won't believe this, but somebody else managed to pull Bertha along as well, looks like you're not the only muscle head around here, you haven't met him before but he's actually famous." Said Ramone.
"Oh really?" responded Optimus.
"Yup, say hello to my friend Lightning McQueen, the famous car and the second person in the history of Radiator Springs to tow Bertha." And Lightning unenthusiastically came forward to greet Prime with a shy "Hello".
"Well Hello Lightning it certainly is pleasant to meet you, may I enquire what it is you do that makes you famous?" asked Prime.
"Racing" mumbled McQueen.
"Ah yes racing, we used to do it back where I came from…" Prime was going to continue but was interrupted.
"Listen its great meeting you and all but I really gotta go" and McQueen drove slowly away, Prime was left confused.
"Ah don't mind him Al, that young punk has been in a foul mood all day, tell us what you did in the last twenty years then." Asked Sheriff, Prime bit his bottom lip trying to make up an excuse.
"Well, I've done so much, problem is thinking of where to start…" said Optimus.
Prowl looked on as the Cars seemed to idolize Optimus, much like the same way they tried to make Prowl and the Autobots feel at home when the Cars found out it was them who defeated Menasor (with help from Defensor but the RS citizens don't know that), Prowl realized that he needed to be a bit more grateful to them and his troops.
"Guess you're right Wheeljack. Perhaps Jazz was right; I should wind down a bit more…."
As Prowl thought of his rather lifeless and non-personality attitude, high on top of Tailfin Pass, unbeknownst to the Autobots they were being watched, by the Delinquent Road Hazards no doubt, Wingo's story of shape shifting robots that lived in Radiator Springs were met with deaf ears, but as the captured news footage of the Stunticons revealed that Wingo's story was not completely false, they decided to check out Radiator Springs for themselves, high atop of the mountain using a pair of high-quality binoculars which they stole from Sarge's store watched on.
"This is unbelievable, Wingo was right, DJ take a look." Said Boost.
"Woah, look at the size of those things, it must be pretty awesome to turn into robots, I wonder where they got that job done?" Wingo snapped at DJ.
"Aw you fool, that's the point; there is no one on this planet that has the technology to make a robot that can disguise itself as a vehicle."
"You mean those things aren't even from Earth?" asked Snot Rod.
"I'm not sure man, they're robots but they don't seem to have anybody controlling them, it's like they have their own will or something." Wingo's words were again met with laughter but he told them to take a look again and sure enough as they had seen, the robots were talking, laughing and showing lifelike body movement.
"Should we call the cops? They could be those same 'bots' that tore up the highway" asked DJ.
"No way man we'd get busted so fast…." Boost was going to continue with a type of rhyming sentence until they were disturbed.
"Please tell me you losers aren't skipping merrily to one of your hip hop tracks again." Said the voice, the Road Hazards turned around to be met by the sinister Chick Hicks.
"Aw hey Chick, how's it hanging?" asked Boost.
"Fellas I feel great and you will too…." Chick was cut off by Boost.
"Hey wait, Chick before you continue you gotta check this out…" but Chick seemed to read Boost's mind.
"You found a bunch of cars that can magically turn into robots and vice versa and that you think that they're not even from this planet am I right?" Boost was left with his mouth wide open.
"Yeah of course what am I saying I'm always right I'm Chickster the Eighty sixter. But anyway I'm glad I ran into you fellas I need your help."
"Woah no way Chick" said Boost "last time we helped you we were put in the slammer"
"No, No you got me all wrong, why would you need to worry about the police, in fact why worry about anything? Allow me to explain, you see those robots down there?" the Road Hazards looked down at Prowl and the others as Chick continued.
"Those my friends are 'Transformers"
"Transformers" said the DRH in unison.
"Yes and as their name applies they can change from robot to vehicle, the perfect disguise for this planet. But as you 'intelligent' fellows pointed out those dudes are definitely not from Earth, they come from a planet known as 'Cybertron' those fellows down there are called Autobots and they've been locked in an eternal war with the 'Decepticons' they were the bad boys you and the rest of the world saw on television tearing up the highway."
"How do you know all this?" asked DJ.
"Well my friend that is because I'm smart and your dumb."
"HEY" shouted DJ.
"Relax kid I was just kidding, sheesh. Anyway I know all this because I was approached by one of 'them".
"Whose 'one of them?" asked Wingo.
"The leader of the Decepticons, this guy is wicked, I mean that literally because he's both wickedly cool and wickedly evil. But he's a reasonable guy and the proposition he gave to me was to die for."
The Road Hazards looked worryingly at Chick.
"What proposition?" asked Wingo.
"How do you fellas like the word 'Universal Domination'?" said Chick with an evil grin, the DRH looked at each other confused.
Back in Radiator Springs Wheeljack, Prowl and the others (back in car mode) rejoined with Optimus who was still talking to the residents.
"I see you've met with our friend's sir" said Prowl.
"Ah Prowl good to see you again." Said Optimus.
"Wait you know those cops?" asked Sheriff.
"Yes, we're all good friends" replied Optimus.
"Woah sorry sir" said Sheriff "I didn't know you were the leader of a secret police force" and he gave off a salute.
"Police force?" said Prime but Prowl cut in for him.
"Yes, 'Al' is our chief and a great one at that" Prowl turned to Prime and gave a wink and a smile.
Suddenly there was roaring in the sky. Several Jets could be heard flying overhead.
"Mamma Mia those fighter jets always-a-showing off and making such a racket at that" said Luigi, with Guido again replying in Italian.
"Yes Guido that is completely true!"
"Those planes sure are acting funny, it's as if they're circling over us." Said Sheriff.
"Yes a little too strange for my liking" said Ratchet.
Then all of a sudden six jets dived at Radiator Springs, the one leading the dive was laughing with a certain familiar sinister voice. Prime recognized the laughter.
"That laughter" he said and then there was a whistle noise, the whistle of falling bombs.
"TAKE COVER!" shouted Optimus followed by a massive explosion.
Luigi's Cassa Della tires was ripped apart from the blinding flash. The jets speeded past the rooftops with the leading plane laughing.
"I've been waiting a long time for this Optimus Prime." It said.
Prime muttered to himself with shock:
"Starscream!"
And it was indeed Starscream, along with Thundercracker, Skywarp, Thrust, Ramjet and Dirge, the Decepticon seekers were bombing Radiator Springs to kingdom come.
"What's going on?" shouted Sheriff. Optimus ordered Sheriff to take cover.
"Sheriff, take your friends out of here, we'll deal with this." But the citizens couldn't evacuate, the accurate bombing was keeping them pinned in fear and they also feared that by rushing into the desert they would be easily seen in open ground from the air and be shot up like Swiss cheese.
Starscream got onto his radio and contacted his comrades:
"Constructicons, Soundwave, transform and attack!"
Lizzie who was as deaf as a bat was resting on her shop's porch, she looked at all the explosions.
"Oh my I didn't know it was the Fourth of July!" she stuttered. Suddenly the tape deck that she found which was resting on her porch table shifted and changed and from a tiny tape deck grew to near thirty foot tall robot destroying a part of Lizzie's shop as he transformed, it was Soundwave!
"Rumble, Frenzy, Lazerbeak, Ravage attack the Autobots!" ordered the Decepticon and his personal army of casseticons transformed into their respected robot modes, Rumble and Frenzy were humanoid twin robots with different color schemes, were the ones responsible for the Earthquake, Lazerbeak a metallic bird of prey had a red and black color scheme while Ravage, was a puma with a Black body and grey legs.
Mater grew scared in all the destruction going on.
"Aw shoot, I better get outta here" he said but as he did so he was confronted by the six construction vehicles that repaired RS from the Earthquake.
"Hey fellas you better get outta here, the whole place is being bombed!" but the leader of the group, the front shovel bulldozer smiled evilly.
"Constructicons transform!" the leader was in fact named Scrapper and his troops, Bonecrusher, Long Haul, Mixmaster, Scavenger, and Hook transformed into robots.
Mater let out a large Scooby-Doo like 'Yelp'
"You're not going anywhere puny Earthling" said Scrapper aiming his gun at Mater.
Meanwhile the Autobots now being pinned by laser fire and bombs, to make matter worse, Soundwave and his casseticons were bearing down from on them from behind, and things went even more worse when the Stunticons, Combaticons and the Deceptitwins, Runabout and Runamuck smashed through more buildings. They too transformed.
"We're surrounded" cried Bumblebee.
"Gee you think?" said Brawn.
Starscream and the rest of the seeker planes hovered down in front of the surrounded Autobots and terrified residents. The Constructicons walked into the fray with Mater in Scavenger's hand, badly beaten but still alive.
"Well, well, well if it isn't the Autobot leader Optimus Prime and his Autobot lackeys, Seekers Transform!" and on command the six F-15 jets (apart from Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge, they had modified wings and tailfins) turned into robot mode and confronted their surrounded victims.
"Trapped like little raticons, to me you Autobots are very similar to raticons."
"What is it you're after Starscream?" asked Prowl.
"Oh not much really, Universal domination, this entire planet's energy sources and the complete destruction of the Autobots!"