Author's Notes: I am really excited to get this chapter out! I've had this one planned for a few months now, and I finally got the chance to write it! It's got action, character development, and actual advancement of the plot! Hooray! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and please leave a review if you feel like it :)


Chapter 28

Till I Am One

Q-Boom and Cosmos polished the brushed copper and metallic orbs that contained their precious newsparks. They floated in space just as they did every orn, and Cosmos couldn't help the joy he felt in that moment. He wished life could pause in this moment where he had a stellar bondmate that loved him, a few dozen sparklings on the way, and the stars in the great black expanse twinkling like pieces of glitter from a confetti machine.

"Hey Cosmos, is there somethin' on my neck cables?" Q-Boom asked suddenly; driving Cosmos from his reverie.

"Um...No dearest, not that I can see," Cosmos replied after a brief inspection, "Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm so itchy!" Q-Boom replied, "I thought Cybertronians only got itchy with rust infections or slow acid leaks or somethin'. Oh, holy pit! I feel like I just wanna rip out my own neck cables! Gah! My cables feel like there are tiny turbo rats crawlin' around inside them!"

"Calm down, Quantum Boom. You're still holding a newspark," Cosmos cautioned her, "We can go to a medic. I hear there's a good one on Gorr. We can go there as soon as-"

"AAAAHHHH!" Q-Boom suddenly screamed loud enough to make Cosmos flinch, "I can't take it anymore! My body is rejectin' me! There's somethin' inside me! Cosmos, I need to explode!"

"Alright, just give me the newspark and you can go somewhere and explode," Cosmos offered as he held out his servo for the orb.

Q-Boom shakily handed Cosmos the newspark, but something felt wrong. It was too hot. Cosmos inspected it and noticed a few dents where Q-Boom had been gripping the chamber very hard, and that's where he saw the problem. There was a claw mark perforation, and the spark inside was leaking out!

"Quantum Boom! The sparkling!" Cosmos cried out in panic, "We're losing the sparkling!"

"What?" Q-Boom exclaimed; barely able to register the new threat over her own intolerable discomfort, "The sparkling? Wait, no! It's all my fault!"

Cosmos then compressed the newspark in his servos to stop the electric bleed, but he could only do that for so long due to the radioactive nature of an exposed spark. Q-Boom finally managed to snap out of her pain when she saw the stricken look on Cosmos' face plate.

"Holy pit! We've gotta get to a hospital!" Q-Boom shouted worriedly.

"We can try, but I don't think there's one close enough," Cosmos replied as he desperately continued to apply pressure, "Is there anything in your subspace that could serve as a plug until we reach the Cybertronian clinic on Gorr?"

Q-Boom didn't waste any time as she madly threw random scrap out of her subspace and let it float all around them in the vacuum. She found mostly useless garbage until she came across something she had completely forgotten about; the invention her pop gave her on her bonding day.

"This!" Q-Boom exclaimed as she held up the device, "It can make any piece of plating we need if we just feed it some scrap metal. Do we have any spare metal?"

"I can't check," Cosmos lamented, "I have to hold onto our sparkling, or he won't survive. Do you have anything, Quantum Boom?"

"No," Q-Boom moaned softly, but then a few seconds later said, "Cosmos? I have an idea, but you have to give me the newspark."

Cosmos looked at her warily, then looked down at their fading offspring, and then finally gave Q-Boom the newspark as quickly as possible. Q-Boom grabbed it before too much spark energy could be lost in space and pressed down firmly.

"Alright Quantum Boom, now what?" Cosmos asked hurriedly.

"Sweetie, I need you to rip off a piece of one of my wings. We don't need much, but we do need enough to make a new spark chamber," Q-Boom instructed.

"You want to transfer our sparkling into another chamber?" Cosmos asked incredulously, "What if he doesn't survive?"

"He won't survive if we don't try!" Q-Boom reminded him harshly.

Cosmos looked crestfallen, realizing she was right but hating to risk such a procedure on their unborn child. He also hated to harm his bondmate by ripping away the most sensitive part of her anatomy. A seeker's wings were more than just an appendage; they were a source of frame-type pride and also a body part that hurt like Unicron's stomach acid when damaged. Honestly though, he no longer had a choice. He had to try to save their sparkling.

Cosmos propelled himself over to Q-Boom's left wing and began to yank as swiftly and as hard as he could. Q-Boom screamed in agony while at the same time trying to not put too much pressure on their infant's spark chamber. She distracted herself by scanning the newspark to see which one it was. Just as she was scanning she felt one final painful rip as Cosmos finally dislodged part of her wing!

"AAAHHH!" Q-Boom shrieked again from the intense pain.

Q-Boom inhaled and exhaled a few times while Cosmos went to work with the plate machine. He tore away the amount of metal he would need from Q-Boom's wing and then subspaced the rest for safe keeping. He then programmed a newspark chamber design in the machine and turned it on. Fortunately the computer on that thing was simple enough that a youngling could use it, and within a breem they had an intact chamber.

"Open it!" Q-Boom ordered as she felt another tiny fraction of spark fade away, "Hurry!"

Cosmos got the spark chamber open and then opened the damaged spark chamber. The programming from the healthy chamber registered a spark and sucked it right in before firmly closing in on itself. It twirled a few times to lock the mechanism, and then it was done. Q-Boom scanned the newspark, and smiled up at Cosmos.

"He's okay," Q-Boom breathed a sigh of relief even as she spoke, "Inferno's okay. He's gonna make it."

Cosmos took the newspark from Q-Boom and cradled it to his chassis. He then placed it inside his chest compartment along with several other newsparks so it would be safe and hidden from the universe.

"I hope there isn't any permanent damage to him," Cosmos pondered glumly after they had calmed down.

"I need an enerjolt," Q-Boom announced before taking out a pack of smokable energon rods and lighting one up against her arm like a match, "Cosmos, I'm sorry. I don't know what happened to me, but it's gone now. It just felt like stuff was crawlin' around inside me. I couldn't help it. I am so sorry. I almost killed Inferno! I'm a horrible mother!"

"Stop it, Quantum Boom," Cosmos admonished even as she continued to sob, "You are not a horrible mother, but I just logged onto the archives, and I think I know what happened to you."

"What?" Q-Boom asked pensively.

"You are suffering from Solitary Madness," Cosmos explained, "You never formed a trine, and seekers without trines can experience many psychologically impairing symptoms. Enerjolt addiction is a sign that you're trying to stave off hallucinations. There are medications that can treat symptoms, but the only cure is trining."

"You mean that itchin'...was all in my processor?" Q-Boom asked uncomprehendingly as she looked down at her claws, "All this is because my bond only has you? That's crazy! My father didn't do this when he lost his trine! I mean sure, he smoked enerjolts, but that don't mean nothin'! I'm not crazy!"

"You nearly squeezed our son to death," Cosmos pointed out in a rare moment of curtness, but then in a softer voice said, "Quantum Boom, I want to help you, but I'm not enough. You need to go to a clinic. Better yet, maybe we can find you two other seekers. While having more in-laws isn't ideal, I would be willing to integrate more members into our family if it helped you to heal."

"I don't know," Q-Boom said dejectedly, "I'll...I'll think about it."

Q-Boom turned away from Cosmos then, and placed the plate machine back in subspace. Despite how bad she felt she couldn't help but smile a little. Even after death her pop just kept giving her second chances.


Soundwave's sparklings were exhausted. This orn they were training with Octane, and while he wasn't as hateful as the other Decepticons he was still a very strange mech that demanded perfection from them. They had run an obstacle course, done two hundred push ups, and practiced hand-to-hand combat with large rocks.

Freezeframe tried to study each new tutor they would get so that he could properly appease them. It was surprisingly simple most of the time. Onslaught appreciated shows of strategy, Scrapper appreciated mechs that worked with their hands instead trying to think of a way out of things, and Scourge could be flattered into a state of false security.

Octane, however, didn't really need these tactics. Despite his odd behavior he wasn't really that complex. Most Decepticons wanted power, and Octane was no different. However, while most would use brute strength or mental manipulation to achieve their goals, Octane proffered to forge friendships to strengthen his position.

That made sense considering Octane was a broadcast producer during the Golden Age. The dark purple triple changer liked the kids, so after practice he would often regale the sparklings with tales of his old life of making deals and hobnobbing with celebrities.

When the Decepticons gained a bit of power, however, Octane could see which way the wind was blowing and started using his own money to make propaganda films glorifying seekers, the Decepticon cause, and Megatron himself. This got him in a lot of trouble with the council, but his money usually got him out of that trouble and back to making movies and broadcast shows that attracted thousands to the Decepticon cause.

While Megatron had seen the benefit of having someone in charge of propaganda, he didn't see the need for such a mech on the battlefield, so Octane was left in stasis on Cybertron while the rest of the crew left for earth. Galvatron, however, expected every mech to fight; even a people-pleaser like Octane. Of course Octane wasn't very good at his new job as a warrior, so he got demoted to carrying fuel for other Decepticons; a rather humiliating position considering his old life.

Octane hated Galvatron, but didn't show it on the outside. Instead he forged alliances with powerful mechs that could help him gain the upper servo someday. He had even convinced the young city-former Trypticon that they could rule together. Octane wanted Soundwave's support, and Freezeframe knew that was why Octane was so nice to them. The large triple changer knew the best way to win a spark over was by being nice to his or her sparklings.

"Alright kiddies, take 5! I think we got enough of a workout today!" Octane called out to the exhausted younglings.

"What does he mean we?" Solarflare growled under her breath.

"I wanna do that again!" Video Error exclaimed; his visor light blue from being in Playful Mode.

Octane handed each of the sparklings a small cube of energon. The Decepticons didn't have the resources to refine sparkling grade, so instead they had to settle for drinking smaller amounts of regular and then continuing to feel hungry despite being fully fueled.

"That was some great energy today," Octane commended them as they sat down in front of him on the red sand of whatever planet they were on (they forgot), "Solarflare, baby, I love that thing you did with the flame cannons to melt the water on the obstacle course! Way to think outside the box! Freezeframe, you need to run faster but I love the way you never showed your feelings. You don't want the enemy to know your motivation. Video Error...maybe next time don't play hop scotch with the tires. I know you love earth games, but it's kinda weird."

Solarflare growled low again; tired of listening to Octane. It was obvious he was only talking to them because he loved the sound of his own vocalizer.

Octane's optics suddenly widened and he stilled. It looked like he was getting a message over his comm system. After a few breems of no movement Octane finally hung up.

"Okay kiddies, I've gotta take care of a little problem with Trypticon," Octane announced, "Apparently he mistakened a rock for an energon cube and now I have to pull it out of his teeth. I'll be right back! Don't go anywhere!"

With those words Octane flew away; leaving the three sparklings alone with nothing to do. Normally they would use this opportunity to get into mischief, but they were just too tired from training to be bothered with that.

"I hate this planet!" Solarflare groused, "I don't know where we are, but it's so cold here! Also the rocks smell like energon and it's making me hungry!"

"We are all hungry, Solarflare," Freezeframe reminded her, "Also, it can always be worse. At least we are no longer at the mercy of the Autobots or that strange being with the white fur."

"Yeah, our stellar cycle has been a weird one," Solarflare commented, "Still, sometimes I think about Joey and Stranglor. They were cool. I miss having friends."

"Octane is our friend," Playful Error remarked.

"No he's not!" Solarflare snapped, "He's one of our drill sergeants. Don't let that easy smile fool you. He enjoys watching us suffer just as much as the others do."

"Speaking of others," Freezeframe muttered as he pointed to several shadows heading right for them, "What do we do now?"

Sure enough, Motormaster, Rampage, and Brawl were swaggering right toward the sparklings. Video Error's visor shifted to yellow, and he instantly started running away! Solarflare and Freezeframe ran after him, but were pushed aside by Brawl as the three bigger Decepticons gave chase to the little triple changer. Yes, it was clear that Video Error was their target. They instead went off to tell Soundwave and hope he could get to Video Error before the bigger mechs hurt him.

Video Error ran to a cliff range that had many natural twists and turns as jagged red and orange rocks jutted out from the ground. Coward Error hid behind a cluster of sharp pointed rocks and offlined his visor so he wouldn't have to see the big bad Decepticons. His childish mind hoped that if he couldn't see them it also meant they couldn't see him. What he didn't know was that another Decepticon was sitting on a ledge right above him and watching the whole thing.

Motormaster, Rampage, and Brawl entered the dead end cliff range and searched for the little sparkling; each one eager to pound the little mechling into scrap metal.

"Where is that five-faced freak?" Motormaster growled low as he scanned the area with his purple optics.

"I smell him. He's definitely been here," Rampage announced.

Just then a small Decepticon jumped down from the ledge he was sitting on, and walked up to them with a knowing smirk. Video Error heard this and looked to see what it was, and saw the other 'Con. He just knew he was going to be turned in. After all, this was one of the new guys. He didn't know Video Error or Soundwave, and had every reason to try to impress the big boys.

"Hey you! You seen that little runt with the tentacles?" Motormaster asked the smaller 'Con.

"Yeah, I've seen him," The other Decepticon replied casually, "He ran through here and climbed up the cliff. At the speed he was going, I'd say he's by the sulfur gorge by now. Happy hunting."

Motormaster nodded and the three burly 'Cons left. Video Error couldn't believe it! The stranger had saved him? Why? Still, he was stuck in Coward Mode and didn't trust the new guy enough to leave his safe little hiding spot.

"Hey kid, they're gone," The 'Con informed him, "I know you're back there, you might as well come out. I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Why should I believe you?" Coward Error snapped fearfully.

"Because until we get back to camp I'm all you've got," The other 'Con replied matter-of-factly, "Besides, I know what it's like to be at war with yourself."

Something about the easy way this mech spoke made Video Error want to believe him. He was so scared though, and he didn't want to get hurt by yet another Decepticon looking to take out their Quintesson frustrations on his delicate frame. He stayed back there for a few breems longer, and the other Decepticon made no move to hurry him along or even to speak to him. He just waited.

Finally, still in Coward mode, Video Error forced himself to leave the safety of his spiky boulders and slowly walked toward his potential new friend (or tormentor). He stopped far enough away so he wouldn't get hit but close enough to get a good look at the mech. He was a dark blue minibot with a red visor and a set of tires on his shoulders. Video Error didn't know too many minibots among the Decepticons, and car-formers were almost as rare. Who the pit was this guy?

"It's pretty scary when you suspect everyone is out to get you, huh?" The mech asked, and Video Error nodded despite himself, "Yeah, I get that. Believe it or not, I'm afraid of you right now, too. I mean, you could snap my neck cables with those tentacles, or you could switch yourself and attack me. You're pretty scary, just like all the others. Still, I couldn't leave you like that. I know how it feels to always be on your guard and to have trouble controlling yourself."

"Who are you?" Video Error asked nervously.

"The name's Counterpunch," Counterpunch replied, "I just needed to get away for a while. Ever since I transferred here to work with Galvatron I've been a bundle of loose wires. Sometimes I wanna run, and sometimes I just wanna hurt something."

"That something isn't me, is it?" Video Error squeaked.

"Nah, you're just a sparkling, and a sparkling with a long road ahead of you at that," Counterpunch replied with a sad shake of his helm, "Listen kid, you need to learn when to use each personality, otherwise you're gonna become a liability for your team."

"But I don't know how!" Video Error wailed miserably, "One breem I'm terrified of everything, and the next breem everything looks likes rainbows and tastes like fruit! Sometimes I can think straight, and sometimes I black out and don't remember what I did! I can't fix this! I can't fix it and everyone wants to kill me!"

Video Error was sobbing at this point and before he realized what he was doing he found himself hugging onto this strange mech as if he were a lifeline. Counterpunch wasn't exactly comfortable with how the sparkling was squeezing his frame, but he didn't push him away. He just stood there and waited for the little guy to tire himself out. Once Video Error let go, then Counterpunch spoke.

"Video Error, can you keep a secret?" Counterpunch asked in a serious tone of voice.

"Uh-huh," Video Error nodded as his yellow visor looked up at Counterpunch's face.

"Well..." Counterpunch looked around to make sure no one was watching, and then got real close to Video Error's audio receptors to whisper to him, "...I have split personalities, too."

Video Error's optics went wide, and he looked at the mech in shock.

"You do? How many?" Video Error asked curiously.

"Just one, but it's kind of a big deal," Counterpunch replied cautiously.

Then Counterpunch did something Video Error never expected. He transformed into another robot mode! This mode was yellow with dark blue accents, wore an Autobot sigil instead of a Decepticon sigil, and instead of a red visor he had blue optics!

"Hi, I'm Punch. This is the other me," Punch explained sheepishly, "Counterpunch is my Decepticon alter ego, but of course if you asked him he'd say I was the alter ego. I suppose it's all a matter of perspective, but we've learned to work together over the vorns."

"Whoa..." Even as he wanted to reach out and touch the new frame, Video Error felt himself begin to shift, and soon he was in Anger Mode, "You're an Autobot! I'm gonna kick your aft from here to Cybertron!"

"Why?" Punch asked calmly rather than run from the orange-visored mechling.

"Huh?" Anger Error asked in confusion.

"Why do you need to hurt me?" Punch asked intently, "Is it really that you're angry at me, or just that you're angry and need a reason to be angry?"

"Well I...I mean...Who cares!? You're an Autobot! I have to attack you!" Video Error rationalized.

The sparkling rammed his entire body into Punch and wrapped his tentacles around him, but the Autobot didn't fall over or try to fight back. He just stood there and waited for the sparkling to get tired, which didn't take long since his energon wasn't lasting as long as it should.

Video Error sat down and took several deep intakes of air, but continued to glare ferociously at Punch. Punch decided the demonstration had lasted long enough, and changed back into Counterpunch.

"You know kid, when I was your age I couldn't control my two sides, and we each always fought for control of the body," Counterpunch told him, "That's what's happening to you, isn't it? Every part of you wants a piece of the action, but none of you really knows how to balance the needs of every personality. You're not protecting yourself or growing as a mech because of this. Am I right?"

"You don't know anything!" Video Error shouted as his orange visor flashed, "I'm just fine the way I am! You're just a spy! Take one step toward me, I dare you! I'll wipe the ground with your energon!"

Counterpunch sighed and shook his helm. He was speaking to the wrong personality. He needed Normal Error if he was going to help this sparkling. So, he decided that he would just sit there and wait.


It took a joor and dozens of transformations before Normal Error was in control. In that time Counterpunch tried to explain what he wanted to do for Video Error, with varying degrees of success. By the time Normal Error came around Video Error had a general concept of what Counterpunch was talking about.

"So, you said I could learn to control the other parts of myself?" Normal Error asked for clarification.

"Yes, and it is paramount that you do so before you are called on to fight," Counterpunch replied sagely.

Counterpunch led Video Error to a collection of rocks that casted large black shadows on the cliff wall and the ground. It was important that no one see what they were doing because Counterpunch couldn't let anyone know just how close he really was to his 'brother' Punch.

"When I was a youngling my sire was desperate to erase me from Punch's processor. Being an Autobot, my sire preferred Punch over me," Counterpunch explained as he pulled a disk-like device with protruding wires from his subspace, "He took me to the wise old Alpha Trion in an effort to exorcise me from Punch. Alpha Trion, however, was a much wiser mech than my sire. He built this device, it still doesn't have a name yet, but this little apparatus allowed Punch and myself to talk to each other for the first time. We managed to come to an agreement on how we should live our life, and even to this day I will sometimes plug this into my processor so we can speak to each other."

"You want me to speak to my other personalities?" Video Error asked in a calm yet disbelieving tone of voice, "Is that really possible?"

"Yes, and you will be glad you did," Counterpunch assured him as he held out the device for the sparkling's inspection, "So, do you want to try it?"

Video Error saw many reasons why this was a bad idea, but then again he also was desperate for a cure or even a treatment to his processor glitch. He still was skeptical however, since this didn't sound like a cure. He didn't want to learn to live with Coward, Crazy, Playful, and Anger. He wanted to get rid of them.

Heaving a deep intake of air and then exhaling it, Video Error stared at Counterpunch for a few astro seconds before he finally said "Hook me up, Counterpunch. I will talk to them."

Counterpunch then gingerly opened the outer casing on Video Error's helm, and he inserted the first wire to put the sparkling into stasis lock. He inserted the second and third wires to connect his various personalities to each other within the neutral setting of the device. The fourth wire connected to his own helm so Video Error could tell him when he was ready to regain consciousness. He wouldn't listen to their conversation, but the first session worked best with a moderator.


The five Video Errors were all sitting down together in a circle in a white space with no floor or ceiling, and yet somehow they all somehow managed to still be seated. Normal looked around and saw that Crazy Error, Coward Error, Anger Error, and Playful Error, all had separate physical manifestations of their consciousness just like himself. It was a surreal experience to be able to look at his other selves.

"So, we're really going through with this, huh?" Anger Error huffed as he crossed his arms over his chassis, "This is all a big waste of time!"

"Indeed, I would rather delete you all," Normal Error declared dryly, "However, if we are really going to be stuck together forever than we should at least set up some ground rules."

"Okay, how about these?" Crazy Error shouted, and suddenly there was a floor made entirely out of measuring rulers, "Now that we have the ground rulers, let's polka!"

Suddenly the entire space was filled with obnoxious accordion music, and Crazy Error started dancing the can-can despite not wearing a skirt. Anger Error roared furiously and attacked Crazy Error!

"Make them stop! Make them STOP!" Coward Error cried out in panic as Anger and Crazy rolled on the ground trying to subdue each other.

"Ooh, can I join in?" Playful asked excitedly as he jumped into the fray and started fighting with the other two.

"Enough!" Normal shouted loud enough for it to echo around the empty space, and everyone stared at him in shocked silence, "You are all damaging Video Error. We are supposed to be one and the same, but you're ruining everything."

"We're ruining everything?" Anger Error asked; offended, "What about you? You don't react. You don't care; you just think. Do you know what Video Error would be if you were the only one that existed? Shockwave! Do you really want to turn us all into Shockwave? Even Shockwave didn't wanna be Shockwave!"

"Have you ever noticed that Shockwave's name is similar to our dad's?" Crazy asked out of the blue, "What would Shockwave look like if he was painted blue and white? Ooh! That would be so slagging cool! We should totally do that!"

"Shockwave is dead, I think," Normal replied, "Listen, Counterpunch said we can only survive if we work together, so I think we should make a schedule of who gets the body when."

"But what if there's something really dangerous around and it's Anger's turn?" Coward asked worriedly, "My job is to protect us."

"No, my job is to protect us!" Anger Error contested, "Your job is to run around and be useless when we should be fighting!"

"But you would just get us all killed!" Coward argued, "I keep us alive!"

"Yeah, some life," Crazy scoffed, "You never wanna do anything fun! I make our dreams come true. Clearly I deserve to have the most time. Then we can be free and paint mustaches on everyone!"

"You don't add anything to our joy," Playful stated haughtily, "I'm the real fun one, and my fun has actual stakes to it. When the Decepticons see me win games and competitions they know Video Error is both fun and smart. I'm the best of both worlds, and certainly more useful than you are, Crazy."

"Who cares about being useful?" Crazy shrugged, "I can get us whatever we want. If there's a stash of energon goodies, just take it. If there's fun to be had, just do it. Games are just rules disguised as fun. I make Video Error's life worth living, and that makes me the best Video Error."

"Wait, guys, this isn't about who is best," Normal pointed out, "The real problem is we used to all fit together. We used to be one, but now we can't even remember a time when we weren't five. We even forgot our own dad! We've been hurt, and we will continue to be hurt. If we are going to keep this body going then we need to figure out when the best times are for us to change. First, when do we need you, Anger?"

"When we're in trouble or being challenged!" Anger immediately answered.

"No, not exactly," Normal corrected him, "I mean, yes, those are good reasons, but what about Solarflare and Freezeframe? They are our responsibility because we are older than them. I vote that Anger handles the protection of our siblings."

"Why can't I do it?" Crazy asked petulantly.

"Because you are too easily distracted," Normal replied, "Anger is both passionate and focused. He is the best protector. However, we are small and defending ourselves isn't always advisable. I believe Coward needs to appear when we cannot possibly win a fight."

"I can do that, easily," Coward replied with a nod, "I'm the one most likely to get past the firewalls anyway."

"Playful, I noticed you appear whether or not we are about to enter a game or tournament situation," Normal observed, "I suggest you only appear when it's time for organized play."

"What? But that doesn't happen very often!" Playful whined, "I like to make up games! Why can't I initiate play with others?"

"I wouldn't mind, except you tend to appear at times when your presence could be harmful to us or the situation is too serious for you," Normal explained, "As for Crazy, well...you should appear when there is no danger, and/or when our siblings want to play. They seem to like you more than me anyway."

"Why should I listen to these stupid rules?" Crazy Error pouted.

"Please, this is for Video Error's safety and sanity," Normal stressed, "You don't have to be locked away, just choose your moments carefully and allow whoever is using the body at the time to give consent first."

"Well...alright, if you insist, but I still think this is dumb!" Crazy snapped; arms crossed over his chassis and his glossa sticking out.

"And of course I will appear when critical thinking is needed, especially if an adult wants to talk to us," Normal stated with authority, "After all, I am the most mature personality and the adults prefer talking to me. Now, any questions?"

"Yeah, how do we get out of this slagging white room?" Anger asked in annoyance.

A large red button suddenly appeared in the middle of the circle the five Video Errors were sitting in, and the button had Cybertronian glyphs on it that said: PUSH FOR REALITY.

"Well, it's time to start a new life, brothers," Normal said as he smiled at his counterparts, "Let's be the best Video Error we can be."


Counterpunch stood over Video Error as he awoke from stasis lock. Video Error's visor was red, indicating Normal Mode.

"So, how was your first time in the void?" Counterpunch asked lightheartedly.

"Strange," Video Error admitted, "However, I believe I feel a little better. I don't know if I can control my crazy side yet, but I think everything else is under control. Let's go back to camp. My family is waiting for me."

Counterpunch nodded with a sincere smile and took Video Error's servo to lead him back to camp. He knew the bullies would still be there, and his problems in the outside world would still be there, but Counterpunch also knew from experience that internal harmony could make outside problems seem much smaller than they had been before.