["You know what? No, I'm not gonna just sit here and do nothing! I'm going to explore for a bit. I may or may not get lost, but that's okay; I'm pretty sure they'll come looking for me, but I just can't sit still anymore!"] Zucky thought.
She made her way down the stairs of the platform and headed down the hall where she knew the bathroom was. That way, if for some reason Ratchet did glance over to her, he'd probably think she was going to use the restroom. The hallways were a bit darker than the main area, but Zucky thought it was just the lights being in need of replacement. This was an abandoned missile silo after all.
It didn't look like there were any rooms back here at all, as she felt like she was going down the halls forever. Maybe it's just because the place is bigger on the inside than she thought. She would keep it up for five more minutes, after that; if she doesn't find any interesting areas, she'll turn back to where she came from. Just when she started losing hope, she came across a darker room. The place seemed to be some kind of storage area of sorts.
There were crates of all sizes, random junk and toolboxes around. She tried peeking in the crates and boxes that were already opened. Some were empty, others had brand new versions of some of the junk that was strewn about, like boxes of nuts and bolts, pipes, beams and so on. Even lights bulbs and stuff. Nothing she hasn't seen before, so she left them alone. What really caught her eyes though, was what she found in one of the large crates.
The crate itself had a bunch of boxes holding the lid shut, but she's since got them off the top so she can peek inside them. She climbed on a bunch of other boxes and crates she made stairs with, so she could see inside the larger crate. What she found was a peculiar cube-shaped object. She couldn't quite see what it was, so she thought she'd get it out of the crate to see it better in what little light that was available to her.
It was laying way at the bottom, so she had to really make an effort to hang off the edge of the crate with the talons on her feet, so she can lower herself almost completely in just to reach the thing. But just as she grasps it between her hands, the cube lights up and takes to the air! This spooks her as she was almost smacked in the face with it, which surprised her so much, she fell backwards from the top of the edge of the crate and unceremoniously crashed into the boxes she used to climb up in the first place!
"Ow!" The dragon whined as she rubbed her now aching back.
The cube just floated there above her, just out of reach. Zucky was awestruck by it: It looked like a large metal cube, with four smaller ones sticking out of the corners of it. It had what looked like carvings in it, through which she saw a blue glow similar to what she seen emitted by the energon she's seen so far. The cube kept floating there in one place, as if it was...watching her?
["What, is this thing alive too?"] She thought as she tried touching it out of curiosity.
The cube started floating away from her in tandem with her own speed of approach. No matter how slowly or how quickly she tried, the thing always manages to stay out of her reach. Zucky, not one to give up too easily, tries jumping at it, but each time she misses and the last try ends with her sliding a good distance across the floor and crashing into another unfortunately placed set of boxes!
"Okay, that smarts!" She complained. The cube silently floated in place.
"What are you anyway?" She asked.
"..." The cube just floated there.
"Alright, since you're apparently shy...My name is Zucky, what's your name?" She tried again.
"..." Nothing.
"*sigh. Look, obviously you don't like me for some reason. Which is probably why you keep avoiding me, and I'm probably not supposed to be back here...So how about; you just get back in the box, continue your little nap and I'll leave you alone that way, huh?" The dragon tried reasoning with it.
"..." It still refused to react.
"Okay, I tried being polite, but my patience is really wearing thin here, mister!" Zucky was visibly getting frustrated with the cube.
She resorted to teleportation and somehow, by some kind of sorcery; the Primus forsaken thing kept maintaining itself just out of her reach!
*poof* "What the?" *poof* "HEY!" *poof* "Not..." *poof* *fair!" Zuck tried and tried but kept on missing her target!
Poofing back into reality, she slumped down on the floor as she lay on her back and looked at the ceiling while she panted out of exhaustion. The cube floated towards her and hung there above her in her line of sight, as if it was taunting her. Zucky tried reaching for it again quickly, and even tried using her tail, but nope.
"Gaaah! You...You're a clever little thing, you know that?" She whined exasperatedly. "And I hate you for that!" She pointed at it for emphasis.
"..." Still silent.
She had a lightbulb moment as she looked around and saw some of the boxes that spilled their contents all over the floor. The dragon got up and seemed to have lost interest in the cube altogether. She made her way over to the mess of nuts and bolts and other various junk that littered the floor and she started picking stuff up. The cube floated where it was for a moment, before slowly moving towards her, but kept a distance.
There was a constant, yet silent sound that the cube has been making since it activated and Zucky listened for it as she 'ignored' the cube. She figured she would measure its curiosity and if it had any, use it to her advantage. Suddenly, she turned around and started quickly throwing small objects at it. The cube doing its best to dodge everything that flew in its direction!
She grabbed a pipe from the floor and started swinging it at the cube. She didn't want to do this, but she couldn't have this thing escape the room, who knows what it could do. It was pretty ironic coming from her, but she preferred to be better safe than sorry. She swung at it as best she could but to no avail.
Getting frustrated she tried to even the playing field by taking to the air. Her skills weren't quite well honed yet, but she had to try! It took her a few tries, but she manages to get her claws on it. All hell breaks loose from there though, and it made her wish she didn't do that. The cube started freaking out and flies around erratically to get her off, but she hangs on.
She pulls herself up to try and wrap herself around the cube to somehow incapacitate the flying monstrosity, and it responds by shaking violently, wildly changing directions and even ramming her into the remaining boxes and even dragging her skin across the walls! All the while she grunted, yelped and whined in pain, but she refused to let it go.
Optimus Prime came back from his daily patrol and asked Ratchet where Zucky was. The medic tried putting the bot at ease; "She's been silent and keeping to herself all day Optimus, not that I complain... She probably went to use the restroom and would be returning momentarily."
"Perhaps you're right, Ratchet...carry on." Optimus continued on his way. A moment later as he was reading from his datapad in his room;
*CRASH!* The sound came from the far end of the hall in one of the abandoned storage units. He placed his datapad on the table and went to investigate the source of the sound. He heard what sounded like someone was ransacking the place and also what sounded like whining and yelping as well!"
He closed his mouthplate, switched his servo for his blaster and hurried along as silently as he could. The door was closed, so he counted off in his head and suddenly opened it and aimed his weapon in only to find Zucky hanging off the flying object and trying her very best to get the thing back down, but failing in her attempts.
She noticed Optimus Prime in the doorway, and tried her best to look like she was only doing what she meant she was, but failed miserably and tried to smooth the situation over by sheepishly greeting him. "Oh, Hi Optimus! I thought I'd just hang around for a bit, you know? heh..."
["Why are my hands so tingly all of the sudden?"] She thought as Prime carefully approached the cube to help her out.
The cube suddenly stopped moving and seemingly ran out of energon and dropped to the ground. Zucky tried to keep it from falling, but the object is too heavy and pulls her down with it. Optimus hurried over and caught them both before the dragon got hurt...err...more hurt.
"Are you alright?" The prime asked.
Zucky looked at her hands for a bit wondering what that the tingling was about and then answered him. "I-I'm okay... Sorry I broke it." She apologized. "If I didn't touch the thing it'd still be in one piece."
"Though it was foolish of you to go wandering off alone and touching something you do not know much about without somebot's consent... I can however, understand why you did it." Optimus began.
"You are a very curious species." The prime let her down from his servos as he carefully sat down next to Zucky. "...and no, you did not break it; it simply got depleted of its energon."
"*gasp!* I killed it?!" The dragon panicked.
Optimus tried calming her down: "Easy, Zucky...it was not alive to begin with."
"But it had energon in it, like you do...and it kept avoiding me, like it didn't trust me..." The dragon was very confused.
"Even though it possessed energon, like me...it does not possess a spark like I do, or a soul like you do..." The prime explained. "Therefore it was not alive, and simply used the energon as a source of energy, like fuel...and it was only following its programming."
"So it doesn't hate me?" Zucky asked.
Optimus shook his head. "No. It has been programmed to avoid capture. Thus,it was simply doing what it was programmed to do...avoid capture."
The dragon just sat there as she turned her gaze back on the cube. She studied it for a moment, before asking: "What is it?"
"It is...a Cube." Prime simply answered.
Zucky was not amused. "I'm familiar with my 3D-geometric shapes, thank you very much Optimus...but in all seriousness; What is it?"
"You misunderstand...that is what we call it: A Cube." The prime said.
"So, let me get this straight. This cube-like object is simply called a cube?" Zucky asked.
Optimus nodded.
"What's it for?" The dragon continued asking.
"It is used to play the Cybertronian game of Cube." The bot explained. "Cube is a Cybertronian sport resembling the primitive, Earth sporting ritual known as
. It involves pursuing the cube, filled with energon and with rudimentary artificial intelligence."
"So the cube has a mind of its own?!" The dragon asked.
"Yes, this means the cube really does have a mind of its own." Optimus answered and continued. "Teams consist of six players to a side, four in robot mode and two in vehicle mode, and the objective is to hold on to the energon-filled cube for a set amount of time, at which point it allows the player to absorb the energon boost inside as their team scores a point."
"Wow...I never would have thought you'd have such games on Cybertron." Zucky said.
"However, I do not understand why the cube ran out of energon without me or any of the other bots touching it. In fact, it has been Ano-cycles since any of us participated in the game at all." The prime said.
"Perhaps it's because of that, maybe it used up the remainder trying to get away from me." The dragon theorized.
"Hmmm..." Optimus thought.