Pretender Chronicles

A War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron/Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

Prologue, Part 3: We will Rock You

-Teal/Mae's PoV-

/* Still the same old bot, */ she thought as she and Butch pulled out onto the road behind Optimus. /* New alt-mode hasn't changed him one bit, and he probably doesn't even notice the admiring looks from the humans that see him, either. Not that I blame him, to be honest; he's got a lot on his processor with having to make sure the Decepticons don't conquer this planet, not that the inhabitants I know about would permit that if they knew of the threat. I don't know if I should tell him or not, though; of course, I don't know enough about the whole defensive system that exists to know how effective it will be. */

/* Teal, how much does your companion know about us; our liaison officer is going to be upset enough with me for bringing in the human children that saw us yesterday for protection, and I'm not certain I want to explain the presence of additional humans to him if he sees any of you here if he comes, */ Optimus said, derailing her line of processing.

/* I'm sure he's listening, Optimus, since you're using a fairly open Autobot frequency, with only minimal encryption, */ Teal responded. /* On top of that, I've known him since he was a sparkling; he was a good friend when I first arrived here millennia ago. */ /* He certainly doesn't look that old, but then some native tribal groups don't look their ages, from what I've read on the Internet, */ Optimus replied, surprised that the young looking native male could be as old as Teal had said.

/* Yes Sir, I'm as old as Teal says I am; my designation is Turq, though the humans know me as Butch, */ Butch said, introducing himself. /* And yes, what you've read does happen to be true; the couple that Teal and I call Ma and Pa don't look anywhere near as old as they really are. I've also met others that were far older than you would think just by looking at them, but not everyone gets to see them. */

/* This does sound interesting, but perhaps we should enter the base and continue this discussion with the rest of my team, in a native language of your choosing, */ Optimus said as the main entrance of Omega One opened slowly in front of them. /* My chief medical officer doesn't have much use for humans, so he may be somewhat hostile at first; don't hold it against him, */ Optimus said as a warning to the riders.

Teal and Turq rolled in following Optimus through the main entrance tunnel, and they soon came out into an open area with a large control console; Ratchet was standing there monitoring the readouts for any sign of Decepticon activity and Arcee was just coming out of a tunnel entrance on the other side of the chamber. As Optimus transformed to his normal robot mode, Arcee asked, "Find anything Optimus?" In response, Optimus pointed to where Teal and Turq were sitting, engines idling; their riders had gotten off and were stretching a bit. Mae looked up at Arcee, then over at where Ratchet was at his console and said, "If not for you being here, 'Cee, it would seem like I never left." Ratchet looked down at her and said brusquely, "Never saw you before in my life, human", at which she felt Butch bristle. She bit down an angry retort and proceeded to initiate her transformation sequence.

Optimus, Arcee and Bulkhead, who had just joined the group in the main chamber watched in mute astonishment as the human figure before them suddenly transformed into a miniature Cybertronian and the Teal colored three-wheeler went through a complicated sequence of twists until her final form resolved itself into a femme approximately Arcee's height but much more massively built. The wheels that had formed her front end were folded neatly against her shoulders and the one that had been in back was folded and integrated into the portion of her back just above where her legs joined the rest of her body. Ratchet turned at the sound of her transformation. "Teal?" he said in a whisper, then set his jaw and proceeded to scan her to be sure he wasn't seeing things.

"That's my name, old friend; glad to see you DO remember me after all," she said, trying not to laugh at his confusion as her readings came up on his medical scanner. A really confused series of beeps came from the corridor where Arcee and Bulkhead had entered and Teal looked over to see Bumblebee looking down at the human that remained sitting on his three-wheeler. Butch looked up at him and smiled, then said, "I'm Butch; you must be Bumblebee." Bumblebee chirped something softly at him and Butch tilted his head sideways a bit then replied with a series of chirps of his own. Bumblebee shuttered his optics in surprise, then reached down carefully to pick up Butch.

Ratchet, who was still trying to make head-plates or pedes of Teal's readings slowly shook his head and said, "Optimus, I'm not understanding what I'm seeing here; Teal's reading make no sense to me." Optimus didn't answer him, but turned to Teal and said, "It worked?" "Yes Optimus; I'm still not one hundred percent on the precise details of what Perceptor did to my coding, but as Ratchet can verify, I cannot be identified as Cybertronian simply by a normal medical scan," Teal said as Bumblebee walked over to her with Butch held gently in one outstretched servo.

Ratchet had chosen the exact moment that Teal held out hers for Butch to initiate another scan and the scanning beam played over Butch, with results that resulted in an exclamation from Ratchet; "By the AllSpark!"

"What is it Ratchet?" Optimus asked, suspecting he already knew what had prompted his old friend to utter that phrase.

"Butch's human form isn't human at all; it, like Teal's Cybertronian forms, seems to be a blend of human and Cybertronian physiology, but on a level that I've never suspected could be possible. It's almost like his form was once that of a human, but was somehow "reformatted" to match a donor template," Ratchet said, with more than a degree of awe in his voice. As Turq climbed onto Teal's hand, she spoke, "You are more correct than you know, Ratchet. I reformatted Turq due to what would have otherwise been a fatal injury to his original human body."

She carefully held Turq next to her spark as she turned to Optimus; she had a far away look in her optics as she said, "Bumblebee would never have heard this saying before, since it became less common after "they" spread their carefully crafted lies about such things, and in fact by the time he emerged from the Well, it was all but forgotten, but at one time it was said that no Guardian wished to see their Sparkling return to the Well before them. Humans have a similar saying regarding their offspring as well, though it is usually some variation of "no parent wishes to bury their child"."

Optimus nodded and said, "I do recall the saying that you speak of, and know approximately when it became taboo to discuss such things. Are you saying that his parents knew of your abilities and asked you to do this?"

"No, they didn't know; nor did I, to be honest. They suspected I was different, but never explained to me how they could have; all they did was accept what I did with Turq as a sign that the two of us were meant for something greater than they could ever know." Teal ex-vented softly then said, "I thought you were going to be looking for the human children? If my data is correct, the two boys are in the same school, and will be getting out at the same time this afternoon; sending Arcee ahead would be the best course of action, as she is the least likely to be noticed at the school."

-Autobot Base Omega One, 1200 local time, old human quarters-

Optimus Prime carried Mae and Butch down the corridor and knelt in front of a door to let them down. "Teal, I'm sorry that Ratchet co-opted your respective alt modes for further tests," he said as they looked around.

Mae smiled and said, "Optimus, there are only two Mechs in the universe that I would allow to do that, and Ratchet is one of them. You know who the other is, I'm sure."

Optimus nodded and replied, "the other is Perceptor; unfortunately, I do not know his current whereabouts, so Ratchet will need to store any data pertaining to your status in his own memory banks until such time as we meet him again."

Mae nodded, then said, "And he will likely stay close to the base now that the Decepticons are known to be active again, so as to be able to bridge us where we need to go to combat them."

Optimus nodded, "I see you're still mindful of tactical considerations after all this time; old habits die hard?"

"Yes, that and that's the way I tried to train Butch to think, even when he and I looked like human children," Mae said.

Optimus looked at Mae and said, "I know that there are differences in human cultures and there are noticeable differences in human anatomy; how did the culture you found yourself in react to how you must have appeared when you first arrived?"

"Well, I was found by one of their hunters, a female name Lael, who brought me to her village just the way she found me; Perceptor's programming of the stasis pod must have included a randomizing factor in the calculations because I didn't end up looking exactly like her. It also must have released some sort of nanobots to gather other data, so there was a minimal communication barrier between us. She wasn't wearing anything when she found me, and didn't seem to think it strange to find a girl waiting for her where we met," Mae said.

Butch smiled and spoke, "I remember it well, Sir. Lael was our village's only female hunter and it created quite a commotion when she returned with a girl after the earth tremor that we had felt instead of what she had gone out for. Of course, I barely noticed the commotion once I got a good look at Mae; she wasn't unpleasant to look at, and even though my parents tried to stop me, I walked over to where Mae was and started talking to her."

Optimus spoke, "I think I get the picture, as the humans say. Now, Teal are you and Turq sure you're going to be satisfied with the accommodations here? They are rather spartan compared to what you had on Cybertron." Mae smiled, and shook her head. "Optimus, these are luxurious compared to the first few longhouses I lived in when I first arrived on Earth, as Butch can attest," she responded, "and please call me Mae; even though I remember everything from being on Cybertron, unless we are fully linked, my alt mode uses that name. The same is true of Butch and Turq; as you heard, he speaks Cybertronian Basic in human form, as do I. We will be fine."

Optimus nodded and asked, "What about when the children arrive? How do we explain your presence to them?"

Mae looked up at him; "Teal and Turq are our guardians, and they are newly arrived allies, of course. In a sense it's the truth; they don't yet need to know that Butch and I are actually Cybertronian as well," Mae said. Optimus nodded and said, "A sensible answer, as usual."

-Autobot Base Omega One, after school hours-

"Bumblebee is reporting that they have made contact with the children; he is en route with the younger male, and reports that Arcee seems to be having trouble acquiring the older one," Ratchet said from his position at the communication console. "Also, she noticed at least one female that seemed fascinated with her alt mode." Mae giggled; Ratchet looked down at her with a frown, then said, "Of course, you would find it amusing, since you have a similar alt mode yourself. Do human children always find two wheeled vehicles fascinating?" "It depends a lot on where they live, in my experience; where Turq and I lived, such things were extremely rare, so when they were seen, we and other kids did find them fascinating," Mae said. "Elsewhere, they can be less so; I've even heard that in some communities, the authorities have put restrictions in place to make them less appealing to own." "Why would that be the case?" Ratchet asked. Butch chimed in at this point, "As unfortunate as it may sound, there are humans that have a tendency to cause trouble, and motorcycles are their preferred method of transportation; Mae and I have heard about incidents where two rival "gangs" would arrive in a community at around the same time and cause serious trouble for the residents. In at least one case, the leader of the state government was forced to call in the Military Reservists that lived in his state to deal with the problem."

Mae said, " Now remember; they don't need to know either Butch or myself are Cybertronian yet."

As she spoke, they heard the rumbling of Bumblebee's engine and the higher pitched whine of Arcee's, and then they were inside the base. As Mae looked on, two teens got off of Arcee and a third climbed out of Bumblebee, and Arcee and Bumblebee transformed. Ratchet counted and said, "I thought there were two."

"Haven't you heard? Humans multiply," Arcee and Teal said simultaneously. Ratchet looked down at Mae, who rolled her eyes as if to say "I had nothing to do with it," and then watched Miko go after Bulkhead with a bunch of rapidly asked questions. /* Don't let her rattle you, big guy; she's just curious about you, */ Mae said over a private channel, while keeping an eye on Jack and Raf. Raf appeared to be in awe of his surroundings, especially the computer equipment while Jack was harder to read; more than once, he looked over at Mae as if to say something and each time he was distracted by something else. Mae walked over to where the teens were and waited for Optimus to arrive.

"So, if you're robots, who made you," Raf asked innocently, and Ratchet responded, "Ugh. Puh-leez."

The thudding footsteps of Optimus Prime arriving from another part of the base silenced any further argumentative exchanges between the teen visitors and Ratchet. He stopped and stood to look at them, then said, "We are Autonomous Robotic Lifeforms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots. The other humans you see came with our two latest recruits,Teal and Turq, who have been their guardians for some time." Miko looked around and noticed Mae and immediately bombarded her with questions, like she had with Bulkhead. Jack shook his head and turned to Optimus and asked, "Why are you here?" Mae was only loosely paying attention to the conversation until she heard Ratchet say, "Optimus, the human children are in as much danger here as anywhere. They have no protective shell; if they get underfoot they will go - squish." When he brought his foot down, she tensed as Jack and the others flinched in reaction to the heavy thud it made on the floor of the base. Optimus replied, "Then for the time being we must watch where we step." Teal, sensing the frustration that Mae felt, reacted in a manner that was second nature to her; she stepped carefully over the group and smacked Ratchet in the back of the head. Ratchet spun around and Teal grabbed him by the shoulders and said, "They're little different than sparklings; would you do something like that around our own kind?" Ratchet looked down at the teens, and then shook himself; "No, I wouldn't and you know it."

Just then, the proximity alarm went off. Jack asked what it was and Bumblebee answered, and Raf surprised Mae by providing a basically correct translation of what had been said.

Mae led the group around the corner after Optimus suggested that they stay out of sight of Agent Fowler so there wasn't any discussion of their presence at this time and listened to the conversation. /* Fowler sounds like a typical government agent to me, Mae, */ Butch said silently to her and she found herself in agreement; he sounded a lot like how Agent Johnson did at some times when dealing with him.

"Pretty big bearings, for a human," Bulkhead said after Fowler had reentered the elevator and started back up to where his helicopter was. Teal and Optimus started to speak at the same time and Optimus let Teal finish the statement; "He's just concerned about his world, as he should be."

Teal stood back with Turq watching how Mae and Butch interacted with the three new arrivals, smiling softly as Mae chose to tease Jack about something. Butch had knelt to talk to Raf about something , so she watched Miko for a while. Suddenly, another alarm went off and she moved carefully over to see what it was; Ratchet started grumbling about bugs in the system and that the signal couldn't be right, but Optimus wasn't willing to ignore the possibility that a team member was in Decepticon custody. "Optimus, do you need us to assist, or should we remain here?" Teal asked.

Author's Note:

Yes, it's me again. Song in the title is from Queen; it's fitting because meeting extraterrestrial Autonomous Robotic Lifeforms will definitely rock you. And we get to see Teal go ballistic when Ratchet tries to intimidate the kids; the only thing that saves him is Agent Fowler's unexpectedly timely arrival.