A white police car and a red Dodge Challenger were both driving down an empty freeway until they came across a group of automobiles parked on the other side of the road together. The two vehicles stopped when they reached the line of autos.
"Till all …" the police car said.
"… are one," the semi-truck replied. Then it transformed to reveal itself as the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. The other cars followed suit.
The two new arrivals also transformed. The police car turned into a white and black humanoid robot while the Dodge turned into a red horned robot with a design similar to Bumblebee's.
"Prime, we received Jazz's message and came as soon as we could," the police car robot said.
"Prowl, Cliffjumper," Optimus addressed the two. "We have a crisis on our hands, and our skills are required. I'm sure Jazz has given you a brief summary on the situation."
"Something about a robot girl being kidnapped by the Decepticons," Cliffjumper replied.
"Her name is Jenny!" three human boys from behind Bulkhead's leg corrected him. This surprised the two new Autobots.
"Jazz didn't mention we were allied with humans, sir," Prowl uncomfortably informed his commanding officer. It wasn't that he had negative opinions about humans, he just didn't like surprises.
"This is an urgent matter, I didn't have time to tell you everything," the Autobot lieutenant said.
"Enough!" Optimus ordered getting everyone's attention. "It is vital that we retrieve Jenny Wakeman online and undamaged as soon as possible. She is the only lead we have to finding the Allspark, but we need to get her back before the Decepticons have a chance to extract the same information we need."
Hearing this made most of the Autobots cringe. They knew the kinds of methods their enemies used to get information out of their prisoners. Sheldon took notice of their disturbed expressions.
"What are they going to do to Jenny?" he asked concerned.
"If we get her in time, you'll be lucky not to find out," Ironhide answered. "They're most likely holding her aboard the Nemesis, and the last time we checked it was hidden behind the Earth's moon."
"How will we get to the moon in time?" a worried Brad asked.
"Any of you have the ability to fly?" Tuck nervously asked.
"Sorry little man," Jazz apologized. "We don't have as many accessories as your friend."
"The Ark does have that experimental warp gate," Ratchet suggested. "Although, it's risky. We don't even know if it still works."
"We could teleport to the wrong place or come out the other side with our arms where our legs should be and our legs where our arms should be," Bulkhead said nervously. None of the others liked the sound of that either.
"Unfortunately, it is the only option we have," Optimus said. "If we don't rescue Jenny, everything is lost. So who's with me?"
His crewmen looked to one another pondering their options. Eventually, they looked back at their leader with looks of confidence, determination, and trust.
"I'm with you, sir," Arcee was the first to volunteer.
"You can count me in too," Cliffjumper was next.
"This mission will require strategy, so I'll go as well," Prowl said.
"Excellent," Optimus said gratefully. "Then there's no time to lose. Autobots to the Ark."
"We're actually going to see your spaceship?" Brad asked excitedly.
"It's not in the best condition, but I have a feeling you'll still be impressed," Ratchet replied.
All the Autobots transformed into their vehicle modes, the boys all gathered in Ironhide, and everyone took off speedily down the road. They had to get to their ship and find that warp gate quickly. The more time they wasted, the more Jenny's life was in danger.
Jenny found herself coming out of sleep mode. She didn't remember how or when she got into sleep mode. Her vision was blurry, but it was slowly improving with every passing second.
"Rise and shine, XJ-9," a sinister and despicable sounding voice said.
Jenny's vision finally improved enough for her to make out her surroundings. She found herself in a dark ominous room surrounded by metal walls. Above her was a bright light shining down from the ceiling. She tried to move found she couldn't move any of her limbs. She looked around and saw that her arms and legs were fastened to a circular platform roughly her size standing in the middle of the room. She struggled to break free but she still hadn't regained her full strength. She couldn't even produce any weapons or gadgets to assist her either. The resourceful robot heroine was completely helpless. She looked up and was able to identify one of her captors. It was Starscream who stared down at her with a vile condescending grin on his face. Accompanying him was Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Blitzwing.
"I thought I smelled someone's rusty hand-me-down parts," she said venomously. "Where am I?"
"You're aboard the Nemesis, the flagship of the Decepticon Armada," Starscream answered boastfully.
"Hope the outside looks better than the inside," the robot girl belittled.
"Silence!" the Decepticon commander demanded. "You are my prisoner and you will do as I say! Now tell us the location of your insect creator."
"I'll never tell you a thing!" Jenny defiantly refused. However, this just made Starscream and his cronies chuckle sinisterly.
"We thought you might say something like that," Blitzwing said calmly. "Actually, we were hoping for it!" he then said excitedly.
"Luckily for us, Shockwave made a little 'present' to use for such an occasion," Starscream sadistically announced.
The Decepticon commander motioned to his comrades and Skywarp held up a glass canister. Inside the canister was a strange and horrific-looking creature. It looked like a metallic cephalopod violently thrashing about in its container. The sight of this creature made Jenny nervous.
"What is that?" Jenny asked nervously. "What does it do?"
"It's a little thing we Decepticons use to extract desired information out of prisoners," Starscream maliciously explained. "The process is slow and painful, but effective and enjoyable."
Jenny trembled nervously as her captors cackled maliciously at the idea of what was in store for her.
Meanwhile, the Autobots and their young human companions found themselves at the entrance of a big cave on the side of a huge mountain in the middle of the desert.
"Alright, everyone through here," Ironhide said turning on the headlights on his chest and leading the others into the cave.
"Your ship's in here?" Brad asked looking around the interior of the cave.
"Yes, our ship crashed here centuries ago when humanity was in its primitive state," Ratchet answered. "During that time, we were in stasis mode and this mountain formed around our ship."
"Then you've all been here for a really long time," Sheldon commented.
"And we don't look a day over 30," Jazz responded jokingly. Then he looked over to Ironhide. "Well, some of us." The old veteran shot the wise-cracking lieutenant a dirty look.
After a while, the group reached the end of the tunnel which opened up into a big cavern where a huge orange metal structure lay embedded in the wall. Part of the structure looked like it had a couple giant engine thrusters sticking out.
"There it is, kids," Cliffjumper said. "The Ark."
Brad, Tuck, and Sheldon all stared up at the huge structure in wonder and amazement. This was obviously just a small part of the ship their new alien robot friends came here in, the rest had to be buried somewhere deep in the mountain.
"Well, let's find that warp gate," Ratchet said pressing a button on a remote which opened up a boarding ramp in the structure.
Back on the Nemesis, Jenny was undergoing excruciating torture. The robotic cephalopod had wrapped its tentacles around her neck, waist, arms and legs and was emitting painful electric shocks to its screaming victim. All the while, Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp and Blitzwing were sadistically watching. After a while, the cephalopod ceased its torturous shocks.
"Last chance, primitive earth unit," Starscream threatening said with a malicious smile. "Ready to tell us the location of Dr. Wakeman?"
"It's gonna take a lot more than that to get me to cooperate!" Jenny defiantly spat. However, this didn't seem to bother her captors.
"I was hoping you'd say that," Starscream replied with a sinister chuckle. "Because that was just one of the functions this thing is capable of. Probe her central processing unit and download her memories."
The cephalopod moved its tentacles toward Jenny's face. One entered her mouth while two entered her through her eye sockets. The process was painful as she felt the tentacles making their way to her robot brain. The robot girl shook her head attempting to resist, but the tentacles wrapped around her metallic brain and started emitting electric shocks. This was even more painful than the previous torture as Jenny could feel the creature accessing her memory banks and downloading the information in them.
Back on Earth, the Autobot team led their small human companions to a huge room in the Ark. A huge old complicated-looking structure stood in the center of the room. It looked like a giant metal ring standing upright. Cords leading from the giant ring were connected to some sort of control panel located on the right side of the room.
"Is that the warp gate?" Sheldon asked confused.
"That rusty thing doesn't look like it can pick up radio signals, let alone teleport anything," Tuck said doubtfully.
"It may not look like much," Ratchet replied while pressing buttons on the control panel. "But this thing still has enough energon power to teleport anything and anyone as far as the length between the Earth and the moon."
"Which is perfect for us," Optimus said satisfied. "Ratchet, is there enough power for it to be used more than once?"
"Affirmative," the medical Autobot answered. "I'll be able to send a small team to the moon and back. But there's only enough power for it to be used twice."
"Then we must be careful and make every ounce of it count," the Autobot leader said turning to his other subordinates. "Prowl, Cliffjumper, Arcee, you're with me."
"Yes sir," Prowl replied.
"We're with you, Optimus," Arcee also replied.
"You can count on us," Cliffjumper said.
"Make sure everyone makes it through the second gate before it closes," Ratchet instructed in a cautious tone. "Because that will be the last time it opens."
"Don't worry. No one will be left behind," Prime optimistically assured the medical officer.
"Here it goes!" Ratchet said turning the machine on.
The room began to shake as the warp gate hummed to life. Tuck held onto Bulkhead's leg to keep himself from falling down. Arcee caught Brad before he could fall over. Sheldon almost fell over, but something grabbed his hand before he could hit the ground. He looked up and saw it was Bumblebee looking down at him with a comforting smile. Electricity from the huge ring started zapping into the center. After twenty seconds, the sparks started converging together in the center and started forming into a small light. The light started growing bigger and bigger until it almost filled the space within the giant ring.
"The gate is open! Now's your chance!" Ratchet alerted them.
"Alright! Let's go!" Optimus said making a break for the warp gate. Prowl, Cliffjumper, and Arcee followed right behind him.
"Bring Jenny back safely!" Sheldon called after them as they ran into the portal of light.
After running into the light, in what felt like only a few seconds, the team immediately found themselves standing on the surface of the moon. Optimus, Prowl, Cliffjumper and Arcee took a moment to observe the grayish barren terrain and the dark starlit sky.
"Looks like we made it," Cliffjumper commented looking up into the sky and seeing the Earth above them.
"Ratchet, do you read me? We're on the Earth's moon," Optimus spoke into his communicator.
"Reading you loud and clear, Prime," the medical Autobot's voice was heard. "Let me know the moment you're all ready for the trip back."
"Got it," Optimus confirmed before turning to his followers. "Alright everyone, let's start searching this moon." Then he transformed into his truck form and drove off.
"Right behind you," Cliffjumper responded as he and the others followed suit.
For almost twenty minutes, the four vehicles roamed across the moon's surface trying to find any sign of what they were looking for.
"This is taking too long," Cliffjumper complained. "Are we sure they're here?"
"Our scanners pinpointed the Nemesis's energy signature to this location," Arcee replied.
"We were all in stasis mode for a very long time. How can we be sure the Ark's scanners still work?"
"There's your answer, Cliffjumper," Optimus alerted.
The group turned back into robots and ducked into a crater. The four bots poked their heads out of the crater and looked up at the sky. Arcee and Cliffjumper's expressions were filled with shock and dread while Prime and Prowl's were filled with calm determination.
"There it is," Optimus said. "The Nemesis!"
Hovering around thirty stories above the moon's surface was a huge dark spikey spacecraft. The appearance of such a craft looked like its purpose was to strike fear in the hearts of those who saw it.
"That's a sight I haven't seen in a long time," Cliffjumper commented. "Not long enough for my taste."