Chapter 26
It was a few weeks after that particular incident before the Autobots and Maria were contacted by the Justice League yet again.
Maria let out a loud yawn from where she was lounging on the couch. "Man, things have gotten quiet around here for some reason. Why is it that the Cons haven't been going after the artifacts like no tomorrow? I mean, they've got the database, we've got the database...it doesn't make any sense."
"Maybe they're waiting for us to make a move," Matthew suggested from where he sat to Maria's right. Blue aura danced across his fingers before forming into a bright blue sphere a moment before dissipating into the blue, flame-like presence again. "I mean, Optimus has been working at decoding as much of the database as he can, but he still hasn't found any more coordinates for those artifacts."
"I know. I've been translating the Cybertronian entries into English for the past hour. It's all archived reports from back on Cybertron...mostly of casualties and decreasing materials while they were working on repairing something called the 'Ark'."
Matthew was about to say something else in response to his sister's moody statement, but then a loud beeping from the computer console caught the humans' attention. The two siblings turned to look at the back of the Prime as he responded to the noise.
"You have reached the Autobot Outpost-"
::Optimus! Thank God, there's someone on the other end!::
Maria stiffened slightly. She knew that voice.
"Gear? What's he doing contacting us?" The Reploid sat forward a little in her seat expectantly, one hand on her knee while the other one lay across her lap in a stance that clearly said that she was ready to move.
Matthew shrugged. "Maybe they found another artifact snd they need our help keeping it from the Cons?"
Maria looked over at her brother in surprise, then smirked. "If that's true, then I could use some action!"
::We just picked up the location of three Cybertronian signals. And - get this - they're not artifacts! They're real-life Cybertronians!::
"Are you certain, Gear?" There was a strange sense of urgency in Optimus' voice.
Maria scooted forward another inch in her seat. More Cybertronians? This could turn the tide of the Autobots' war to their favor!
Or...it could provide the Decepticons with even more firepower than they already had, and that definitely wouldn't be a good thing.
::One hundred percent, Optimus. There are more Cybertronian signals closing in on them - I suspect that they're Decepticons, unless you have Autobots in the Metropolis area::
"Metropolis?" Matthew repeated. "That's Superman's home city!"
"Do you have the coordinates?" Optimus asked, ignoring the comments from the siblings behind him.
::Yeah - I've got them right here. Just give me a sec...:: The Dakota teen quickly relayed the coordinates, then added, ::The civilians are in a panic down there. I wouldn't recommend walking around on two feet when you enter the city, Optimus::
"Understood." Optimus down on the lever, opening the Ground Bridge. "Matthew, man the Ground Bridge until Ratchet returns with Nurse Darby. Maria, come with me."
"You got it!" Maria leapt up from the couch and dashed towards the edge of the human relaxing area before jumping up. The hoverboard/battery pack on her back detached and unfolded, giving the red, orange, and gray-armored Reploid a place to land before flying toward the now-open Ground Bridge. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of her brother running over to the computer and the human-sized version of the Ground Bridge lever.
Maria and Optimus moved through the Ground Bridge and entered the city that the first Kryptonian on Earth called home. The Autobot made it a point to exit the Ground Bridge in his alt mode, as they were entering a city that was crawling with people who didn't know that giant alien robots existed on their planet.
As it was, like Gear had warned, Metropolis was already in a panic.
Maria flew in and had to move a few feet higher in order to avoid what looked like a mother and three young children running in the opposition direction, the Ground Bridge having long since closed behind the Reploid and the semi next to her.
"Sheesh, the Cons really did a number on the people's fears," Maria noted dryly. "We'd better be careful - the Vehicons are probably doing collateral damage in order to find the Cybertronians Gear mentioned."
"We must proceed with caution," Optimus agreed.
The two quickly started forward, trying their best to stay close to each other while at the same time avoiding the crowds of people running away from he sound of blaster fire and metal hitting metal. The crowds were surprisingly accommodating, moving around the semi and sending looks as they passed at the empty driver's seat before picking up their speed and hurrying off into the more intact section of the city.
Although, one or two of those fleeing weren't quite so friendly.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?!" A business man shouted up at Maria. "Is that one of those robots that Luthor's been trying to pawn off to the military?"
Maria glanced down at him. "Luthor? Robots? You really must be off your rocker."
While the Reploid sounded calm, she was actually somewhat nervous. The simple idea that Luthor was not only making robots like the Cybertronians, but attempting to sell them to military powers made her uneasy.
The thought made her remember something that Barman had mentioned back near the beginning of her time on this world - when it was discovered that Luthor had made Vehicon lookalikes...
Maria and Optimus eventually managed to get past the crowds, and the pair broke out of the buildings and came across what looked like a park of sorts.
At least, what used to be a park. Now it looked like the sight of some sort of roller derby...but with giant robots instead of demolished cars and monster trucks.
Maria and Optimus came to a stop, the Reploid watching as a white mech with a black helm and blue visor over his eyes slammed into a Vehicon and sent the purple Con drone flying. A red mech standing nearby sliced the flying Con neatly in two, sending the two sides falling to the ground with a loud whoop. Nearby, a yellow mech with an identical frame to the red one slammed into another Vehicon and took his helm off with one move - and he looked pretty uncomfortable about having the Vehicon's Energon splattering all over him.
Maria blinked her blue eyes in slight confusion. "Looks like the three signals were Autobots," she noted.
"Not necessarily," Optimus replied. "Some Cybertronians do not wish to take part in the war. These neutrals know how to defend themselves, but they do not wish to join either side. However, in this case, these three mechs are Autobots."
A grin split Maria's face, and she gave a delighted laugh. "Awesome! So, who are they?"
"They are old allies of mine."
With that, Optimus transformed into his bipedal form, catching the attention of the three mechs, who stiffened in fighting stances for a moment before seeing who exactly it was who was standing in front of them.
The white mech with the visor was the first to speak.
"Prime!" the mech exclaimed, grinning. "It's good ta see ya, mech!"
Maria blinked in slight confusion. Was that...a Southern accent or something?
"Jazz," Optimus greeted in reply with a nod of his head. "I am pleased to see that you are alive and well."
"Did you forget about us?" the red mech asked cockily, smirking.
"I did not, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker." Optimus nodded to the red and yellow mechs in turn.
Maria barely managed to catch the names of the other two mechs that Optimus had said, mainly because the name Jazz had caught her attention. The last time she had heard that name was when she had been on the Nemesis with Orion Pax...wasn't he one of Optimus' old friends?
There was something else that was bothering her too, though...and it was about the three mechs' appearances. It almost felt as though the three of them were...familiar. Incredibly familiar. However, she wasn't quite able to put a finger on why exactly they were so familiar.
"Who's that?"
Maria was jolted out of her thoughts when the red mech - Sideswipe, she remembered - asked his question while pointing in her direction.
"My name's Maria," the red, orange, and gray-armored Reploid spoke up, looking over at the mech who had spoken. "I've been spending time with the Autobots here on Earth for the past few months."
"You look a lot like the native creatures around here," the yellow mech - Sunstreaker - noted with a slight sound of disgust.
"Well, actually -"
"Ya think we could talk about dis in private?" Jazz interrupted. "More Cons could end up comin', an' I don' want ta get even more attention than we've already got by scarin' the natives half ta death."
"Well spoken, Jazz," Optimus responded. "Matthew, send a Ground Bridge to my coordinates. I will be coming back with old friends."
Within seconds, a swirling green vortex appeared near Optimus, and the red and blue mech sent his gaze around to the other three mechs before turning and starting into the portal.
"Come on," Maria stated as she moved towards the portal herself. She motioned with an arm for the three mechs to follow her. "We're heading to our home away from home."
Jazz gave a smirk. "I like the sound o' that."
Maria gave a smirk in return, then turned and flew through the Ground Bridge and came out back at base...only to see more people than when she had originally left.
"We heard about what was going on in Metropolis from Matthew," Raf stated as Maria flew over to the couch - which was now occupied by Raf, Miko, Jack, and Matthew.
"I kind of figured as much," Maria remarked lightly, landing on the platform near them.
"So, who are the three Cybertronians?" Miko asked eagerly. "Are they Autobots?"
"Course we're Bots!" Jazz exclaimed as he came through the Ground Bridge. "Wha' else would we be?"
"Definitely not Decepticons, that's for sure," Sideswipe scoffed as he and Sunstreaker stepped through the Ground Bridge after Jazz.
Ratchet's optics widened upon seeing the three newcomers - specifically, two of them. "By the AllSpark, no...not you two!"
The red and yellow Autobots exchanged grins upon hearing the medic's exclamation, only for Jazz to knock them both in the back of the helm.
"Don' go an' get any ideas, you two," the white mech warned. "Do you want da wrench?"
"The wrench?" Jack repeated, frowning when he saw the red and yellow Autobots shudder.
"Yeah." Jazz frowned. "Ya mean ta tell me Ratch hasn' used da wrench?"
The humans looked at each other, then shook their heads.
Maria shrugged. "He used it to upgrade the Ground Bridge, but he hasn't done anything else with it. I get the feeling that's not what you're talking about here, though."
"It isn't," Jazz confirmed.
"None of you deserved it," Ratchet commented.
"So, who are you guys?" Raf asked.
"I'm Jazz, and these two are Sideswipe an' Sunstreaker," Jazz introduced, motioning to himself, the red mech, and the yellow mech in turn. "Optimus an' I go way back."
"Really?" Raf looked at Jazz in surprise while Matthew and Jack exchanged looks of confusion.
"Yeah." Jazz chuckled. "Used to be a cultural investigator, but I'm Special Ops, now. Prowl handles all the archivin."
"Prowl?" Matthew repeated.
"He was Prime's second-in-command on Cybertron," Arcee explained. "He's our local enforcer."
"Cop Bot," Bulkhead added, noticing the confused look on Miko's face. He looked over at Jazz. "Have you heard anything from him?"
"Las' I heard, he was helpin' out a lil' planet with Ironhide an' Chromia," the white mech responded with a half shoulder-shrug. "I offered ta come wit' 'em, but dey said I should find OP - and take dose two wit' me." He jabbed a digit in the twins' direction. "Sometin' abou' not wantin' dose two into Ironhide's lil' armory."
"For good reason!" Ratchet responded, shaking a giant wrench at the newcomers. "Bringing up morale with your pranks is one thing - destroying the armory is something else!"
"How did they manage that?" Maria asked, eyes glinting with curiosity.
"We were setting a trap for Ironhide," Sideswipe explained, grinning. "He's always fun to prank!"
CLANG!
The wrench that had been in Ratchet's servo flew through the air like a boomerang, hitting both twins in the helm before returning to the medic's servo.
"Whoa..." Maria blinked a couple times at the sight, eyes wide.
"OW!" Sunstreaker glared at Ratchet, rubbing his helm. "What was that for?"
"For any pranks you might have pulled on my brother in my absence," the medic responded matter-of-factly.
Maria frowned in confusion. "Brother?"
Jazz chuckled. "I was just as surprised as you when I heard dat Hide and Ratch were brothers. They're just as alike as me an' Prowl."
"You're nothing alike!" Sideswipe protested.
"Exactly! An' we're still brothers!" Jazz let out a laugh. "Even if he's a stiff mech."
"What do you mean?" Maria asked, frowning.
"My bro's got a super-powerful brain up 'ere," Jazz explained, tapping his helm with a digit. "If 'e runs into anything that doesn't make any sense to him, 'e glitches."
"Glitch?" Raf frowned.
"He faints," Arcee replied flatly.
Upon hearing this, Miko gained a sinister look on her face, followed by a sinister grin and equally sinister cackle. "Oh, man, I really want to meet this guy! Then I could show him Doctor Who!"
"I think that if he just meets Maria, he's going to glitch," Matthew responded.
"Maybe." Maria shrugged. "That depends on whether or not he's seen an organic who was transferred from their original body to a robotic one...and is a World Jumper to boot."
"World Jumper?" Sunstreaker looked over at the Reploid and frowned. "You? Impossible. There's no way someone so small would be able to take on the job."
"Uh-huh. I've defeated animals your size before - two of them. One could manipulate time, the other space. And I beat them both when I was only a portion of this size." Maria crossed her arms over her chest. "Have you ever done anything like that?"
Sunstreaker glowered and muttered something under his breath, but said nothing that Maria could catch.
Sideswipe laughed. "I like you, Maria! It hasn't been every cycle that someone manages to shut up Sunny!"
"Don't call me that!" Sunstreaker roared in response to his brother's statement.
Now it was Miko's turn to laugh.
"Man, you guys are awesome!" the teen exclaimed. "What kind of music do you guys like?"
Jazz looked over at Miko with a look of surprise. "Music? You mean dat stuff wit the drums an' de singin'?"
Jack and Raf let out a groan at once.
"Don't let her introduce you to Slash Monkey," Jack warned.
"We won't be able to sleep at night," Raf added.
Sideswipe had a grin cross his face almost instantly. "You like that stuff too? Awesome! I was starting to wonder if there was any way I would be able to listen to that stuff after Sunny took away my recordings of it!"
"I thought I said, DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Sunstreaker roared at his brother.
"You got recordings of it?" Miko repeated, ignoring the yellow mech's exclamation. "How? I didn't think that we were able to get anything out that far in space!"
Jazz shrugged. "I ain't no scientist, but it's got sometin' ta do wit' radio waves or sometin' like dat." A sly grin crossed his face. "Sides was de only one who wanted ta look for de Slash Monkey stuff. I like most o' de oder stuff."
Maria let out a humming noise as an idea came to mind, and she smiled slightly. "I'd like to be able to compare favorites. Maybe we'll find something in common between our two worlds."
"Sure!"
Ratchet let out a harrumphing noise. "Maybe some other time, you two. The three of you don't know what's been going on here on this planet for the past few years, so it may be good to fill them in rather than introduce them to parts of your culture."
"Awwww..." Jazz's lips shifted into a pouting expression, and Maria suddenly found it really hard to hold back her laughter. "All righ'. Fine." An instant later, he became bubbly again. "So, what's the intel? We picked up some chatter 'bout humans who could fly and do stuff dey weren't supposed ta do or sometin' like dat."
"Well, you can say something like that," Matthew replied evenly. "My name's Matthew, by the way. Call me Matt. I'm Maria's older brother." He got up from the couch and walked over to stand next to his sister at the edge of the platform. "Besides the Autobot-Decepticon War that this planet has going on right under its nose, there are also groups of humans with unusual abilities - superpowers, if you will. Some cause trouble, some stop it."
"The good guys are the Justice League and anyone who happens to pop by to give them a hand from across the galaxy," Maria added. "The bad guys are...well, everybody else who wants to get in their way and cause a general ruckus."
As the explanation of Earth continued, Jazz and the red and yellow brothers took in everything that they could about what had happened so far to both the Autobots and ever since Maria had arrived there. When they came to recent events - involving the Unicron prophecy and the events that followed up to Optimus regaining his memories - the white mech just had to interrupt.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Jazz stated, holding up his servos. "Are you tellin' me dat Optimus got on da Con's ship an' he don' remember?"
"That's what I said," Maria replied, shrugging. "I've still got my memories, but I doubt they'd be of much use when it comes to figuring out the layout - or even where it could be right now."
"It's a ship; it moves," Matthew stated in a slightly nasally, gravelly voice. "It could take us months to track, only to get us fired upon." He grinned sinisterly.
"You're quoting somebody," Sideswipe guessed, pointing at Maria's brother. "And it sounds like Con."
"How'd you know?" Miko asked, frowning. "It could be something out of a movie."
"No, it wasn't," Matthew replied in his regular voice, his grin not as sinister now. "Sideswipe's right - it was a Con. Starscream gave us some help in finding the Space Bridge Jack used in order to get to Cybertron. I paraphrased what he told Ratchet when we asked where the Con base was."
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked at each other, then back at Matthew. "Starscream's here?" they asked together.
"Yeah." Raf gave a nod. "He's gone rogue, though, and we haven't really heard from him for some time."
Wicked grins came across the two mech's faces, and they looked over at Optimus eagerly.
"Can we go after him?" Sideswipe asked. "Please?"
"In due time," Optimus replied. "Now is not the time to go searching for an opponent. There are artifacts hidden here on Earth that we must find before Megatron does, or else events here could become drastic." He looked over at Jazz. "I would appreciate some assistance in decoding the database in order to find the coordinates."
Jazz gave a mock salute. "Sure thing, OP! Dat'll be no problem at all!"
"And if your friend Prowl gets here after helping that other planet, he might be able to help, too," Maria added, recalling what Optimus had said back on the Nemesis.
"Sure, if my bro isn't runnin' around keepin' dese two jokers in line." Jazz jabbed a digit in the direction of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. "He used ta work as a police mech in Praxis."
*Of course he would* Inferno grumbled, startling Maria with the suddenness of the strange voice's reappearance. *I don't think he'd be able to do anything else*
Maria decided that now would probably be the best time to ask the strange voice better than anytime else.
Inferno? Do you know the Cybertronians? Maria frowned slightly as she leaned back into a relaxed pose while Miko gained a disappointed expression upon hearing that Jazz's brother was a strict policeman.
The Reploid didn't really expect Inferno to answer, as Inferno wasn't truly a part of her - Inferno simply a being that was piggybacking in Maria for a while, but neither were truly sure as to how long. Inferno was still her own person, but she never really decided to interrupt Maria's life unless it was really important to either one of them.
Like right now, it seemed.
*Yes and no. I'll explain later - when we've found more than just Blitzen*
When Inferno fell silent, Maria remembered the young man that was "living" in Joshua, a neighbor back on her home world. It was strange, considering that there was someone so close who had one of Inferno's friends living in him.
And then there was the possibility that -
"Hey, Maria."
The blue-eyed Reploid was shaken out of her thoughts by Jazz's voice, and she looked up at the white mech with a curious expression on her face. "What's up?"
"Think we could talk 'bout some o' dat music stuff o' yours?" Jazz asked.
A smirk crossed Maria's face. "Sure. It's been a while since I dug into my musical archives." She looked over at Matthew. "And you're coming, too."
"What? Why?" Matthew's blue eyes darkened slightly.
"You've got pretty decent taste, too. Besides, I want to show you something that we could use back at home, too - when our band practices."
Miko perked up and gave Maria a curious look. "You guys have a band?"
Matthew gave a nod. "But we don't take suggestions from people who listen to heavy metal too often." He looked over at Maria while Miko made a huffing expression and crossed her arms over her chest. "All right, you've got my attention. Let's get going."
"You are more than welcome to use one of the empty storage rooms in the base," Optimus stated. "Ratchet?"
The medic gave a nod, then sent one final glare in the direction of the twins before motioning for Jazz and the siblings to follow after him.
"We'd better not make the mech wait long," Jazz noted. He held out a servo, and Matthew quickly climbed on. Maria scrambled on after him, then sat cross-legged on the warm metal while Jazz started walking after Ratchet into the deeper areas of the base.
Maria didn't know why she had climbed on, but something told her that she had done something like this before...