Our current tale is a legend from ancient Vos. No one is certain if the tale is true, but it was often a story told to sparklings before the war, and is one that is welcomed now that the war is over. After last orn's debacle, we have decided to hire more...professional actors. We are pleased to welcome Starscream back to the stage, as well as seasoned favorites Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Bumblebee. We would like to thank Guest for their second generous donation and suggestion, as well as our secondary sponsor: The Iacon Institute of Cultural Studies. We are also proud to introduce our outdoor theatre addition to take full advantage of the seekers' flight capabilities. Enjoy the show :)


Chapter 4

Goldbug and The Three Seekers

(Goldilocks and The Three Bears)

Goldbug: Bumblebee

Air Commander: Starscream

Right Wing: Thundercracker

Left Wing: Skywarp

A long time ago, there lived a tiny shiny minibot who went by the name of Goldbug, both because of his golden paint and because he was as cute as a bug. Goldbug lived in the town of Protohex, and was often warned by his parents to never stray into the city of Vos. Vos was a land in the sky and inhabited by vicious seekers; military-built Cybertronians with incredible power, and incredible tempers.

Goldbug was a curious mechling however, and playing in the road in Protohex had gotten boring. It was the same thing every orn. The same purple energon, the same car-formers, and the same straight roads. Goldbug wanted an adventure, and he wanted something else to refuel with besides purple energon.

One orn Goldbug decided to stray from the path his parents insisted upon, and he drove far away from the city. He knew of only one place more exciting than Protohex yet still within driving distance for one as small as himself.

He drove to Vos, but when he actually got close to the city there was a problem. The road simply...ended. No city in the sky, no car-formers, nothing. It was just a pathless stretch of rocks where a city and a road should have been. Goldbug was too stubborn to give up on his adventure however, so he kept driving along the expanse despite how it hurt his tires and undercarriage. He was sure he was ready for anything.


Meanwhile in a cottage on the Great Cliff of Vos there lived a seeker trine. There was the air commander, his right wing, and his left wing. They were a happy if slightly dysfunctional unit, and they were at that moment sitting down to their breakfast of warm refined energon.

"Blue energon again?" The left wing whined, "Every day it's the same energon! Why can't we have something else to eat?"

"You could always eat my dust," Air Commander quipped sourly, "I slaved over a hot refiner all orn, and this is the thanks I get!? I don't know why I let you join this trine!"

"Because I can teleport?" Left Wing guessed.

"Err! Right Wing! Why aren't you eating?" Air Commander demanded to know.

"You left the refiner on for too long, and now my energon is too hot," Right Wing complained.

"You two are such ungrateful slaggers!" Air Commander shouted in frustration.

"Hey, hey! No need to be so glum, Commander," Left Wing said placatingly, "Maybe we could go flying for a while, and when we get back the energon will be cooler. What do you say?"

"I say if we race you'll cheat," Air Commander grumbled, "You and your stupid teleporting."

"We don't always have to race," Right Wing pointed out.

"Yes we do! That's the fun part!" Left Wing protested, "Please?"

"Very well. One casual race, but only if Left Wing doesn't teleport," Air Commander acquiesced.

"Yay! Last one there's a ground pounder!" Left Wing shouted as he excitedly ran out the door.

The other two seekers followed suit, turning into jet mode and flying away from their house on the cliff. The air was crisp, and the weather was perfect for their excursion to the greater city of Vos.


Goldbug had been driving for joors and his tires were exhausted and worn down. He had seen nothing but rocks and metal shards as he drove along toward the unknown horizon. He was sure that he was lost, and he would never make it home to his family again. If only he hadn't driven so far away.

Unable to drive any longer, Goldbug transformed back into robot mode and began to walk, which was even slower than driving. There was nothing around except for a cliff, so Goldbug started walking up the natural protrusion in Cybertron's crust. He only hoped that by climbing this rock facing he would be able to spot Protohex and thus return home.

A sound went off in the distance, and Goldbug flinched before realizing it was only a glitch mouse. He had heard tales of the seekers. They were violent mechs that would kill anything in their territory that wasn't one of them. They were very paranoid against grounders, and Goldbug was very obviously a grounder. Goldbug only hoped that he wouldn't encounter a trine of these brutal warriors during his travels.

After what seemed like an eternity, Goldbug made it halfway up the cliff. He was tired, and feared he would fall from the structure and snap his neck cables, but he had to keep going. As he climbed up to the nearest ledge however, he saw a most welcome sight.

It was a cottage! Gleaming and inviting in this harsh landscape, Goldbug entered the building with little thought to what he might find once inside. The door was unlocked, so he was certain whoever lived there must be friendly.

The first thing Goldbug noticed when he entered the home was the wonderful smell of warm energon. Goldbug followed his olfactory sensors to the kitchen, and there he saw three chairs with three cubes of blue energon in front of them on the table. This was very tempting to the little car-former, since Protohex only had purple energon. A smarter mech would know that three chairs equals a trine, but Goldbug was young and sheltered from the world outside his home city-state.

He tried the first cube of energon, but it was too hot. He burned his glossa and cried out in pain, but no one showed up to help him. He figured no one was home, and vaguely wondered why the homeowners would leave perfectly good energon behind.

Dismissing these thoughts, Goldbug tried the second cube of energon. Unfortunately this one had not been refined properly and was too cold. Goldbug spit out the listless energon, and went to the third chair to sit. The third cube of energon was just right, so Goldbug drank it down greedily.

Once he was full of energon, the yellow minibot wanted to sit down and watch a broadcast. He went into the living room, where there were three chairs. The one on the right side was too hard, the one in the middle was too big, but the one on the left was just right. It also had a cube holder, which was very convenient since Goldbug had two more cubes of energon he could drink.

Goldbug enjoyed watching the broadcast screen, because it had all sorts of channels that he didn't get at home. He watched a seeker cooking show, a seeker sports game, and a seeker game show. Well, he thought it was a game show anyway. It was about an air commander finding a trine. It seemed like a very personal thing for a game show to decide, but to be fair Goldbug wasn't exactly sure how seeker culture worked.

Goldbug was starting to get very tired. He had driven, walked, and climbed a long way. He felt like he just needed to rest, and surely the occupants of the house wouldn't mind.

He went up the ramp to the second floor of the house, where the berthroom was located. There were three berths to choose from.

Goldbug first tried the right bed, but it was too hard. Then he tried the middle bed, but the electric current running through it was too strong. Then he tried the left bed. It smelled funny, but beggars can't be choosers, so Goldbug went into recharge anyway.


The race had turned into ten races among the competitive seeker trine, and they didn't return to their cottage until it was almost dark. Everyone was tired and cranky, most of all the air commander.

"I specifically told you not to cheat!" Air Commander screeched at Left Wing, "Why can't you ever listen to me?"

"Oh, nag nag nag!" Left Wing replied snidely, "You're just sore because you lost."

"He's sore because you teleported into a machine parts factory," Right Wing pointed out, "We'll be lucky if we don't get sued."

As the seekers argued they walked into the house. They were so busy fighting amongst themselves that they didn't even notice anything was amiss until they sat back down at the dinner table and...

"Hey! My energon's gone!" Left Wing exclaimed angrily.

"Mine too," Right Wing added.

"Mine is still here," Air Commander noted, "Well, at least the thief respects authority."

"They probably just didn't want your yucky cold energon," Left Wing countered, "Hey! My chair!"

"What about it?" Right Wing asked while looking at the chairs and seeing nothing amiss.

"They messed up my aft groove!" Left Wing wailed, "The thief sat in my chair with their tiny aft and messed up my groove!"

"Tiny aft?" Right Wing repeated skeptically, "So, are we dealing with a thief or a sparkling?"

"Who says those concepts are mutually exclusive?" Air Commander asked slyly, "Hey look! Pede tracks on the ramp."

"Who walks up the ramp when they can fly?" Left Wing asked suspiciously.

"My guess is they can't fly," Air Commander replied, "Gentlemechs, I think we have a ground pounder in our house."

"Great! I'll get him and rip him to shards!" Left Wing announced quickly.

With a flash of purple light Left Wing teleported to the crime scene, but instead of going to the berthroom he instead ended up on the roof. His wing got caught on the windsock, and he couldn't pull himself free.

"Um, guys? A little help!" Left Wing cried out.

Both seekers facepalmed at their brother's stupidity. Not only was he a whiny brat, but he was also making them look bad with his idiocy. Air Commander was very grateful they didn't have neighbors.

Unfortunately, the seekers weren't the only ones who heard Left Wing screaming. Goldbug awoke with a start when he heard the noise, and wondered who his mysterious benefactors were. He left the berthroom to meet them, and hoped they would forgive him for intruding. Surely they wouldn't begrudge a weary traveller.

Goldbug exited the room at the same time the two remaining seekers were making their way to the door. They came face-to-face with each other immediately...well, sort of. Goldbug was so short that he was staring at the cockpits on each seeker's chassis. When he saw the incredulous look on their faceplates and the laser pistols on their arms, he knew he was fragged.

"AAHHH!" Goldbug screamed in fright.

"The thief!" Both seekers cried out in unison.

Goldbug tried to run past the seekers, but Air Commander's reflexes were sharp, and he grabbed the youngling by the back of his neck armor. Goldbug struggled, but it was no use against so powerful a mech.

"Please, don't hurt me! I'm sorry!" Goldbug shouted desperately, "I was just so hungry and tired, but I meant no harm! Honest!"

"What should we do with him, Air Commander?" Right Wing asked, "Should we kill him?"

Goldbug gulped in fright and shook as he awaited Air Commander's proclamation. The seekers now held his life in their servos.

"Hey Air Commander!" Left Wing suddenly shouted from the roof, "If I teleport now will the windsock come with me? Also, can we go out for energon? No offense Air Commander, but your cooking eats slag!"

Air Commander groaned at the remark and looked down at the quivering form of Goldbug. Right Wing waited for the order, ready to kill the intruder at his leader's order.

"Actually, I have a better use for this little grounder," Air Commander said with a deceptively syrupy smile.

And so it was that the Air Commander had figured out how to solve all of his problems with the help of the car-former. Left Wing was kicked out of the trine for being an ungrateful jerk, and in exchange for his life Goldbug tethered his spark to the remaining seekers in a trining ceremony.

And so it was that Vos welcomed its first ever mixed-frame trine, with two seekers and one minibot. So remember sparklings, if an opportunity shows up in your home, take it. Change is good.

The End


Author's Notes: I had a few endings in mind for this story, but I ended up choosing the one that was nicest to Bumblebee. I always put that little guy through the wringer in my stories, so I gave him a break this time. LOL! Anyway, this was the last of my suggestions, so if anyone has a fairy tale suggestion for the "Fables of Cybertron" series I would be happy to hear it. Thank you to everyone who has read and/or reviewed this fic :)