Paige's shock at ending up in the sequel to Transformers Prime was quickly overshadowed by her dismay with her own circumstances. She was probably two inches tall and stuck in the middle of a scrapyard. A scrapyard filled with all sorts of interesting things if she was normal height, but for her tiny self it was full of threats: bugs, rats, wild animals, chemicals and rampaging bots. She shuddered at the thought of all the ways that she could easily die here.
The first thing she needed to do was alert someone to her presence. She didn't think they'd be able to hear her even if she yelled and she didn't want to risk them swiping her off the counter on reflex if they thought she was a bug. The bots were too big to enter the diner and she didn't fully trust Fix-it to handle her carefully when he was still injured himself. She looked around the counter for something to use. Salt was too transparent to form a visible message that they would see straight away and she wasn't going to use pepper. If she got covered in it at this size, she'd either have a bad reaction or possibly sneeze herself off the counter. That's when she spotted the toothpicks. They were about as long as her and they looked more like branches than toothpicks, but she'd probably be able to pick them up. Luckily Grimlock's collision with the diner had knocked the container on its side. She went over and quickly got to work.
Denny entered the diner in order to clean up the broken glass early the next day. He noticed that the toothpicks were strewn on the counter. He used a hand to drag them all into a pile. He'd stick them back in the holder later. He got busy cleaning up the rest of the broken glass and then went and knocked on the trailer in order to get Rusty up.
Paige huffed in frustration and started to rebuild her message as quickly as she could. After she was finished, she ran to the saltshakers to hide.
Russell walked into the diner with his bowl of cereal as he chatted with Sideswipe. He put his bowl on the counter when his attention was dragged to the toothpicks on the counter. They were spelling out a message. "Dad!" called Russell looking out the missing window. "Did you leave a message in toothpicks?" asked Russell.
"Wasn't me," said Denny walking by.
"What's it say?" asked Sideswipe peering in curiously.
"SOS Paige – Bee," said Russell. "SOS means help and Bee might mean Bumblebee, but who is Paige?" Outside, Sideswipe got Bumblebee's attention and Russell emerged from the diner. "Do you know who Paige is?" asked Russell.
"She was a human I knew briefly a long time ago," said Bumblebee in surprise. "How do you know about her?"
"I found a message in the toothpicks," said Russell gesturing to the diner. He explained what it said.
"It can't be," said Bumblebee.
"What's wrong Lieutenant?" asked Strongarm.
"How could she be here? Did you see her?" asked Bumblebee looking into the diner through the broken window.
"There's no one in there," said Russell.
"Paige had an unusual ability," said Bumblebee. "She could shrink. We never did figure out what was causing it."
"Shrinking, like shrinking, shrinking?" asked Denny moving his hands closer together.
"So she's tiny," said Sideswipe.
"Possibly," said Bumblebee shrugging. "Probably."
Russell went back into the diner and looked at the counter. That's when he spotted Paige. She was standing in front of the saltshaker, which made her stand out next to the white crystals. "I found her," he called. He stepped over and offered a hand.
Paige climbed carefully onto the strong yet spongy surface of his hand. She sat down in his palm hands spread to steady herself as he walked outside the diner.
"She sure is tiny," said Denny peering at her.
"Primus," said Bumblebee. "How could you be here?"
Paige shrugged even though she wasn't sure he could see it.
"You know," said Denny. "I might have something she could use." He went off into the scrapyard and returned with a metal dollhouse. He put it on the counter and Russell let Paige down so she could enter.
Paige walked into the dollhouse and looked up to see a multitude of eyes look at her. Coming face to face with a large spider in a haunted house is scary, doing it with a real one that is nearly your size is traumatizing. The spider's mandibles moved and Paige ran out the door like the devil was after her. She stopped a ways away and pointed at the house. Denny tipped the house and then noticed the spider.
"I'll take care of that," he said. "I think I have some air in a can I use to get rid of the dust too." He took the house with him as he exited the diner.
Outside, Bumblebee was deep in thought.
"So what's the story with Tiny?" asked Sideswipe nodding his head toward the diner.
The others were gathered around as well all curious about the tiny newcomer.
"When I first met Paige, it was during the war and she was huge," said Bumblebee.
Russell laughed as he looked at the tiny woman.
"She couldn't have been bigger than me," boasted Grimlock.
"When I say huge, I mean giant. She was over three times the size of Grimlock back then. She appeared out of nowhere one day and ran into one of our comrades Cliffjumper. She helped us during the fight with Megatron and even took on Starscream by herself. We don't know how she got so big, but she started to shrink and she never stopped. Ratchet, our medic, never found out what caused it and she ended of shrinking so much she disappeared," explained Bumblebee. "Why she is here or how it's even possible, I have no idea."
Denny finally returned with a pest free dollhouse and Paige made sure there were no more bugs inside. There was a family of dolls inside, but she was only the same size as the baby doll so she was forced to dress in the baby doll's red and white striped jumper. She needed proper clothes and it was the only thing that would really fit. As embarrassing as it was, at least there were fewer humans to witness her humiliation here. She was already eyeing both the mother and father's clothes for when she was bigger providing she would get bigger. She certainly hoped that would be the case.
Denny set her up with several small plastic cups. One had water, one had what looked like cereal or trail mix and the empties she used for sanitary purposes and to cover the other two to keep the bugs out. The inhabitants of the scrapyard knew she was here now, but she knew she wouldn't be able to assist at her current size.
Denny had placed Paige's house on the diner counter and she sat on the doll furniture and watched the bots move around in the scrapyard. She was slightly concerned because while she had seen the episodes for the sequel it had been a long time ago and only a few episodes and the general story line stuck with her. Her eyes were drawn to Bumblebee as he walked by without a glance and she knew that she would have to tread lightly because she didn't want her presence to affect Bumblebee negatively. While it may not have been far into the future, enough time had passed that Cybertron had been rebuilt and the original human crew from Transformers Prime was likely retired or dead. Her presence alone had probably stirred up old memories and he really couldn't afford to be distracted.
In considering how to change things, a few ideas popped into her head. It would help if when Jazz arrived, that he could take some of the prisoners with him. It would put him in danger, but that would make one less on Earth. Ratchet needed to fix Fix-it while he was here as well. The reason why he had left so quickly didn't make sense to her and she felt saddened that he'd been exiled from Cybertron. Paige glanced over at the post it notes and the small stubby pencil that was left so she could write messages. She wrestled the pencil over to the paper. There was something she needed from Fix-it.
