Deep within space, a ship was flying through the large vacuum of space. The ship was a miniature version of the ark used for the great exodus but the same size as the other vessels used by squads of Autobots. Inside this ship was a small squad of Autobots with their current captain desperate to get some action. She sighs, tapping a pencil against the console with her foot propped up.
"Nightbeat, do you have anything yet?" The captain would ask.
Nightbeat, a dark skin woman with short braids, a long dark blue trench coat, long pants, a holster for a sword on her back, and a blue visor. "nothing yet, captain,"
She had a gritty London accent, and the captain sighed as she told her that again.
"Man, this is boring." She says as she leans back in her way. "I'm excited to get into the action. Any Autobots could need my help."
"We'll know if anyone would need us once," Nightbeat told her. "For now, we ju-Huh. Well, would you look at that? There's an invitation Message from a planet a few lightyears away."
"An invitation message?" Hot Rod asked. "Play it"
"With the Allspark fragmented, we cannot use its power to restore our planet fully. And fate has yielded its reward. A new world to call him. We live among their people now, hiding in plain sight but watching over them secretly, waiting, protecting. I have witnessed their capacity for forwarding; though we are worlds apart like us, there's more to them than meets the eye. I am Optimus Prime, and I leave this to any Autobot who wishes to join us on this planet. We are waiting for you."
"Holy scrap, that was Optimus! The Optimus Prime!" Hot rod shouted. "Nightbeat, take us on a direct course to Earth and fast!"
"Yes, Boss, but shouldn't we let Optimus know of our arrival?" Nightbeat asked.
"Yeah yeah, sure." Hot Rod waved her hand with an excited grin on her face.
Nightbeat nods and responds to Optimus's message. She waited a few minutes before the comms buzzed to life.
"Hello?" Optimus asked.
"Optimus, ma'am, this is Nightbeat, a crew member of Ark-32," She says. "We heard your broadcast and are currently on our way to Earth."
"Understood. When you reach Earth, stay in orbit. The planet we are on an inhabited by small life forms that do not know our existence. Aside from that, the Decepticon ship is around the planet; due to the cloaking technology, we cannot track the ship and have no idea where it would be." Optimus informs them. "Who is all aboard your ship?"
"Hot Rod and Hardhead." Nightbeat answers.
"Okay. We may need the reinforcement to prepare for whatever the Decepticons have next." Optimus tells her. "I have to go now, Nightbeat; Optimus out."
The comms cut off, and Nightbeat turns, giving Hot Rod a thumbs up.
XXXXX
Optimus' broadcast repeated aboard the Nemesis. Soundwave stood behind Megatron, playing it as she looked out into the void of space. The other more notable Decepticons stood around the bridge waiting for Megatron's next order.
"So Optimus saw it fit to bring other Autobots here thinking that I have fallen," Megatron grumbled. "No matter. Whoever she brings won't be enough to stop the next part of our infiltration."
"What will we do until then, my lady?" Starscream asked.
"This does not hinder our plans. Whatever foolish Autobot arrives here will be dealt with just like the others," Megatron answered, "Increase our global severance and send out an order for every Decepticon on this planet to regroup with the Nemesis."
With that, Megatron walked away. She needed to speak with the Fallen and let her know about the true fate of the Allspark and what she had planned next for conquering this planet like they conquered the others.
XXXXX
"What is it, Prowl?" Optimus asked as she turned away from the comms.
"Every Autobot is accounted for. Ironhide, Bulkhead, Cliffjumper, and Bumblebee had returned from picking the kids up." Prowl informs her. "All that is needed is to bring Lio and inform him of what's about to occur."
"What's going on?" Jack asked.
"A training session with Lio," Ironhide answers. "We're going to see what he's capable of,"
"Cool, can we watch!?" Miko asked.
"It may be too dangerous to be in the room when we start," Optimus told them, "For we may not know what will occur and put y'all at risk,"
"Aww," Miko and Sari pouted.
"Speaking of Lio, where is he?" Sam asked.
"Well, if he's not standing around in the corner with his arms crossed, then he's in some other secluded area doing the same," Cliffjumper points to said corner in question.
"He spends most of his free time sitting or standing around," Bumblebee said. "Probably still trying to take in his new reality."
"If his origins are true," Prowl corrected, emphasizing If. "Though being the only known male among our species could be the reason for his behavior."
XXXXX
While they were talking, Lio sat in one of the empty rooms rubbing his forehead. He started getting visions of things he never went through, but it seemed like he had forgotten, like traveling back in time and learning the truth of the Angolmois energy, teaming up with Big Convoy, and defeating Unicron. However, the vision, or relatively new memories, went dark, only for one flash of Lio, his original look, but it's black, much like black convoy. He slowly morphed into his current appearance with black armor.
As he sat there, ready to question what he saw, his comms buzzed to life, and out came Optimus's voice.
"Lio, can you report to the sparring room," Optimus tells him over the comms.
"Right, I'll be there shortly," Lio answered with a nod. "Wait, we have a sparring room?"
XXXXX
Inside the room, Lio stood on one side looking at all of the Autobots, and he rubbed the back of his head.
"So...I will face each of you, starting at easy difficult to hard?" Lio asked as he pointed to Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, then Optimus.
"Hey!" Both Cliffjumper and Bumblebee shouted.
"We're not so easy to handle, you know," Bumblebee growled.
"And what about Arcee and Prowl?" Asked Cliffjumper.
"Easiest and Prowl fall into the same category," Lio says.
Arcee folded her arms, "Awfully sure of yourself, huh?"
"We will begin now," Optimus says, "We will start with Arcee, then move on to Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Prowl for the next match. After will be Bulkhead, then Ironhide, and we will end with me,"
"Fine by me," Arcee says as she walks forward, stretching.
Lio walked forward and got into a defensive stance, sliding one leg forward while holding one hand up, awaiting her attack. The room fell silent as the two waited for Optimus to go ahead. The silence became deafening as everyone stood in anticipation. Soon Optimus gives the single, and Arcee activates her blades and dashes to Lio quickly, she swings her blades to his left side, but as he goes to block, she instead slides down, kicking him in the gut as he stumbles back. She then does a spin kicking him in the side, which got him to stagger slightly. Arcee flipped back up to her feet and dashed again towards him, going for a jab. However, Lio leaned back while ducking slightly to get onto her level, he held his palm up to stop the strike, and she quickly went for a slide kick which Lio fell back to avoid. He falls back onto his palms and goes from a round kick on the ground. However, this round kick was different; after going for the first initial kick, which Arcee had to avoid, he went for another kick with the opposite leg while flipping back onto his feet.
"He's far more agile than I thought," Prowl muttered to herself as she watched.
She could already tell who would be the victor of this match. As Arcee circles, Lio, with her blades ready, keeps his eyes on her until she quickly dashes at him, but as she runs and he turns, she quickly stops and dashes to the side. Lio stumbled a bit from the sudden shift, and she used this opportunity to sweep his feet, causing him to fall; as he hit the ground, Arcee jumped on his chest and held her blade to his neck. Instead of tapping out, Lio quickly grabbed her arms before she could make any sudden movement, and he flipped over, pinning her to the ground.
"Okay, that's enough," Optimus says. "It's time for the next match."
Lio gets up, holding his arm out for Arcee, "You fought well; there's not a lot of bots that could cause me to trip"
Arcee looked at his hand; then she grabbed it, allowing him to pull her back to her feet. She then walked to stand aside from the other Autobots as Bumblebee stepped into the ring first.
"For this match, you will face off against Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, and Prowl one-on-one. Then it will suddenly go all against you," Optimus told Lio.
Lio nods and turns to Bumblebee, who has her hands up much like a boxer, along with the pendulum movement, basically the boxer bouncing footwork.
"I'll promise to go easy on you," Bumblebee told Lio with a grin.
"Don't go too easy on me; I still want a challenge," Lio grinned as he stretched, and the two waited to start.
As Optimus gives the signal for them to start, Bumblebee dashes to Lio first, going for a jab which Lio blocks; the jab did feel pretty hard but right after, she delivered a right cross, pivoting enough so the impact would be more significant; Lio only had a chance to block the punch which she intended since with the cross and the strength of the punch she had enough momentum for another strike with equal force. She delivers a connected left cross and quickly steps back, providing a kick to his inner leg. She then followed that up with a kick to his midsection, which forced Lio back. As he stumbled back, he rubbed his stomach, a slight smirk on his face.
He had duck as Bumblebee leaped up for a roundhouse. Lio's palm struck her, but due to their position, his palm struck her bumper; she rolled across the floor and landed on her front side with a groan, said struck bumper still jiggling, which made a few of the Autobots chuckle. She slowly gets up, rubs it, and turns to Lio.
"Hey, what the hell! You don't hit those!" She growled.
Lio quirks a brow. "Hit what?"
"She means her bumper. You don't hit her or anyone there, really," Cliffjumper says.
Lio simply blinked, trying to think of why. He then tilted his head, which was subtle enough not to notice, "Why?"
"Because it's soft and jiggly, cause it points her" Cliffjumper points to Bumblebee, who growls at her, "Which is pretty big for her size."
"I thought they were pointless, " Lio says as he rubs the back of his head, looking at all the Autobots and then himself, "Guess another difference in biology...didn't expect it to feel soft."
"Can we stop talking about that and get back to the fight?" Bumblebee growled.
"Right, sorry," Lio says as he turns to face Bumblebee; I guess he found a pet peeve.
Cliffjumper looks at Optimus, who nods, and she quickly rushes to Lio.
Hearing the quick footsteps, Lio turns around but is meant face to heel with Cliffjumper. He tries to lean back but only manages to get kicked in the head by her foot instead of his face. As he fell back, she quickly kneed his back...however, due to his size, she fell as he fell. Lio looked at her and attempted to strike her with his elbow, but she quickly pulled her feet back and slammed both into his side. She leaps onto her feet while Lio rolls onto his.
Cliffjumper dashed to Lio, going for two quick jabs, which he blocked quickly, and she went for a roundhouse which Lio stopped with his palms, and he pushed her foot away. She goes for another kick. However, Lio kicks Cliffjumper first. She rolls onto her back while Lio leaps into the air for a punch; he is then kicked in the face by Prowl.
Lio rolled back and quickly got to his feet. "Y'all need to stop kicking me in my face; guess y'all don't get that much time one-on-one?"
"It will go to a three-on-one soon, so no," Prowl answered.
Lio wondered how the fight with Prowl would go. As Optimus gives them the go-ahead, Prowl rushes forward, and Lio immediately goes for a jab; however, she suddenly fades away, and Lio quirks a brow, only to feel an impact on the back of his head. He turns around, seeing Prowl's back flip away from him. He lets out a small grunt figuring that what she did could be some ability she has, which he didn't expect her to have. Lio dashed to her, going for a punch, and like last time it disappeared; he tried to track where the real version was but couldn't; a sudden strike impacted his gut. Lio quickly grabs Prowl's arm, and he throws her into the wall. She, however, flips herself around and kicks off of it, going for a drop kick. Lio gets and goes for a kick, like before it disappears, but he quickly turns, delivering a heavy cross to Prowl's face, attempting to strike from behind. She flew back, hitting the ground hard enough to bounce off, and landed further back.
"Dear Primus, that was a heavy hit." Cliffjumper giggled. "Was that all the pent-up anger you had against Prowl?"
"No...I just hit her harder than I intended. I made a gamble on where she would be, and I expected to hit her in the stomach or chest." Lio corrected, though he must admit that he did feel some stress release.
Prow gets back to her feet with Bumblebee and Cliffjumper at her side. Lio looks at the three and gets into another fighting stance. Each dashed towards him, with Bumblebee going for a front kick. Lio grabs her foot and leans back, avoiding a rush from Cliffjumper. He elbows Cliffjumper and throws Bumblebee towards Prowl, who jumps over her. Prowl kicks Lio in his knee, and he goes for a punch which she easily avoids going for a jab in his gut; Lio knees her, and before she can attempt to prevent him, he grabs her arm. Cliffjumper punched his elbow, forcing Lio to release his grip. Prowl quickly roundhouse Lio and flips back as he goes to hit her. Bumblebee ran up and kicked the back of his head before jabbing his side. Lio grabbed Cliffjumper's face, and he quickly turned around, slamming Cliffjumper into Bumblebee, and he grabbed her arms. He stood up and closed his eyes, waiting for Prowl, he heard her footsteps quickly approaching, and he turned around, swinging Cliffjumper to her, and she disappeared. Lio promptly turned around, throwing Bumblebee and Cliffjumper at Prowl, which forced her to jump up; Lio, however, leaps up and spikes her onto the ground. As they tried to scramble to their feet, Lio stepped on Prowl's chest while grabbing both Cliff's and Bee's legs, throwing them on top of Prowl.
"Do y'all yield?" Lio asked.
"Yeah, fine, whatever," Bumblebee grumbled as he helped her.
"Not a chance; I can keep going," Cliffjumper grins.
"Sure you can," Lio told her as he helped her out, and finally, Lio held his hand out for Prowl.
It took a while for a response, but Prowl simply shakes her hand in a "No thanks" motion and gets up. It was better than her slapping his arm away or anything. Lio looks over to Bulkhead and Ironhide, with the former walking up first. Lio cracked his neck and his Knuckles, waiting to begin the fight with Bulkhead, and maybe he could attempt to end this one quickly.
As the match starts, Bulkhead actives her wrecking balls and rushes towards Lio, aiming to jab him in the stomach with one, he avoids it before ducking under another, and she goes for an uppercut; however, Lio leaps over her. He quickly turned and was forced to dodge another swing, she was much faster than he had thought, but one thing he did note was how her goal was to inflict pain, with no actual technique behind her swings. Like she's waiting to catch him slipping so she can land a clean hit on him. Lio dodged one strike, and he jabbed Bulkhead in the gut, she slammed her mace down onto Li's head, but he caught the mace and slowly pushed the mace upward; as Bulkhead tried to push it down, she went to jab it at his chest, he, however, caught that as well and kicked her in the stomach. He then knees her in the gut and throws her onto the ground.
"Do you yield?" Lio asked.
"Yeah..yeah, I yield," Bulkhead grumbled as Lio helped her.
"Okay, so now is Ironhide, then Optimus," Lio says as he cracks his knuckles while Ironhide walks forward.
Like all the other matches, Optimus gives the signal, and immediately Ironhide opens fire with her comet cannons which force Lio to attempt to dodge every blast. Lio rushes at her while dodging each shot the best way he can; he goes for a punch while Ironhide goes for her punch. As their first clashed, a small shockwave emitted from the punch's force. Ironhide stumbled back but cracked her knuckles and dashed to Lio, punching him in the face; she then kicked the inner side of his left leg and followed that up with a front kick to his stomach. He stumbled back, and as Ironhide went for another strike, Lio flipped over Ironhide, grabbed her waist, and slammed her into the ground. He steps on her back, expecting her to yield, but instead, she punches the ground hard enough to cause a small quake; as Lio slightly loses his footing, she quickly turns around, kicking him in the side; she then does a spin kicking him across the face. As Lio stumbled around, Ironhide punched him hard enough in the gut forcing him to hold the spot slightly as he stumbled around, but he soon fell onto his knees and waited.
Ironhide rushed forward, aiming to strike him again; however, Lio easily tripped her, grabbed her arm, and he slammed her into the ground, stepping on both hands.
"Do you yield?" Lio asked with a grin.
"Yeah yeah, I do; now time for something everyone was waiting for," Ironhide says as she looks at the approaching Optimus.
"Well, you faced everyone; now it's time for the main event." Cliffjumper grinned.
"Optimus Prime Vs. Lio Convoy," Bumblebee smirks.
As Ironhide leaves the ring, Optimus walks into the ring; she cracks her left as she looks at Lio.
Both of them looked at one another; even though the match had officially started, both stared at each other, waiting for the first one to move.
For Lio, he had to be careful; he was facing off against Optimus Prime. Even if this one is different from the one he knows, she's still Optimus. A legendary leader among the Autobots and maximals alike.
Optimus, Lio is a wild card. He says he's from the future of another universe, one where she and her Autobots had died, their legacy continued by descendants who had a more peaceful life. What stood in front of her was a bot who had something similar to her Matrix.
Then Lio moved. First, he dashed to Optimus, going for a spin kick which she quickly blocked with her forearm, and she stepped back. Lio lands and goes for a right hook and left cross, which she can easily dodge, the second strike not nearly having enough force behind it to cause something to happen. Lio kept up his assault, going for several strikes that Optimus quickly countered or blocked. Optimus goes for an uppercut, and he easily avoids it, but she leaps up and kicks him in the stomach.
He stumbled back, and she went for a roundhouse; Lio leaned back, avoiding the kick, but he felt the breeze from the kick move across his forehead. Suddenly he felt immense force in his chest, and he looked down, seeing that Optimus had kicked him in the chest. She then does a spin kick hitting him across the face with her foot. He rubs his cheek and looks at Optimus; he smirks and activates his mouthguard.
Optimus rushed towards Lio, delivering several punches and kicks, which Lio either blocked, avoided, or took. As she leans forward for a right cross, Lio leans back and grabs her forearm. He pulled her head and headbutted her. As she slowly stumbled back, Lio delivered a strong uppercut into her chest and then a left jab into her side. The force of the uppercut cracked her armor, plating a little. She looked up at Lio, eyes shadowed by her hair, and activated her battle mask. She goes for a punch which Lio catches; a shockwave emitted from the strike, and Lio moves his hand back, shaking it; Optimus immediately rushes forward, kicking him in the side, he goes for a right cross, but she rolls under the swing and quickly spins herself around grabbing his leg and pulling it back.
Lio falls onto the ground, and she quickly leaps up, slamming her elbow into the back of Lio's head. She rolls back onto her feet, and Lio gets back up, rubbing the back of his head. Optimus activates her swords while Lio activates his lion's claws. The other Autobots watched on with intense interest.
Optimus dashed forward, going for a strike on Lio's neck, but he quickly blocked it with his claws. He pushed back and went for a strike on her stomach, but she easily deflected the feet with her blades, and as they clashed weapons Optimus slowly pushed them down to his neck, but Lio quickly countered and pushed them back.
"What do you fight for, Lio?" Optimus asked mid-struggle.
"Pardon?" Lio asked, confused about why they should bring this up during their session.
"Why do you fight? You claim to be from another universe, the future no less; you claim to be a leader; you tell us all these things about your world, and yet now that you're here, you decide to help us out in our conflict instead of trying to get back home or leave the planet and stay out of the countless warlike others." Optimus says. "What. Do you. Fight for?"
She pushed back and went for a roundhouse which Lio dodged. Lio goes for a front kick, and so does Optimus. They ended up hitting each other and went back to their sword lock. Lio didn't know how to answer Optimus honestly or not to answer this truly, he's done it so many times, and none of them believed him.
"You first, what's your story, Optimus?" Lio asked. "What do you fight for?"
Optimus knees Lio and grabs the back of his neck; however, Lio easily elbows her arm off of him, and he goes to strike her midsection, but she leaps back.
"I was a simple data clerk, and after hearing some of Megatron's poems and messages, I became a police officer and quickly rose the ranks. One day I saw Megatron sent into custody, and I read some of her poems about the system and didn't believe all of it; I, however, saw it firsthand when some bots tried to kill me for locking up Whirl after she beat Megatron in her cell." Optimus explains. "I walked into the senate meeting and shouted to them and the crowd that Megatron's message was right, and after that, a senator who believed me and knew the system was corrupt saved me. I fight for equality, for peace among our people and the universe. All sentient beings have the right to freedom, and I will ensure that. I continue to fight the Decepticons because Megatron has lost her way and goes around to other planets believing that metal is above all other forms of life."
Optimus does a spin going to hit Lio's neck, but he blocks with his claws, and she quickly begins to walk him back, with each strike getting harder and harder as he tries to stop them with his blades. Finally, as she went for another strike, Lio grabbed her forearm and stabbed it into the ground, and he kicked her in the stomach.
"I did not witness as much as you have, but I fight to uphold what was given to us by your sacrifice. My version for each of you died to protect free will in the universe, to ensure that we don't live under a tyrannical ruler. Many still believe in Megatron's message or wish to destroy it because they can. I and many others fight to keep the peace; we fight to keep peace on Cybertron, to keep peace in the universe. This badge and my original badge represent that." Lio says as he points to the freshly new Autobot badge on his chest. "And no matter where I am, I would uphold what I fight for and believe in or not. If another version of Cybertron is in danger, I will help the side that wishes to restore our planet. I will continue to fight for peace and help those in need of help, big or small."
Optimus deactivates her sword and delivers several jabs into Lio's stomach, and she goes for a spin kick. Lio grabbed her legs and slammed her into the ground twice, he went for it a third time, and she kicked him in the face forcing him to let go.
"If you believe in my origins or not, that's fine. I know where I came from, yet I'm getting new flashes of my universe, but it still stands true." Lio says. "I am from another universe, and I arrived here by accident; you all don't have mechs in your world, yet here I stand; I'm no spy, and everything I said thus far proved it. With or without your approval of my origins, I know that it's true, and even if you continue not to trust me, I will still fight by your side and treat you as comrades, as fellow Autobots, and as friends."
Lio finished; Optimus kicked Lio across the face, and as he went for a jab, she struck him in the chest hard enough to cause him to double over; she grabbed his arm, spun him over her shoulder, and slammed him into the ground. She then placed a foot on his chest and grabbed his left arm.
"Do you yield?" Optimus asked.
"No," Lio grunted and then pressed down on his chest and twisted his arm. "Okay, okay, I yield."
With that, Optimus removed her mouthguard and helped Lio with a smirk.
"You were quite impressive, but you need to work on several things, and you need some new weapons," Optimus tells him.
XXXXX
Walking back into the main section of the base, Miko paused a game she was playing with Jack and Sam; she quickly turned to face the Autobots.
"Who won!?" She shouted.
"Well, Lio beat everyone until he got to Optimus and lost," Bumblebee says.
"Guess she's much faster and agile; who would've thought," Cliffjumper says.
An alarm started to go off, getting the attention of the Autobots.
"Proximity alert," Teletraan 1 announced, "Agent Fowler and Lennox are up top."
"Both of them? Bumblebee asked.
"You four should hide," Cliffjumper told the kids, ", especially Jack and Miko,"
"Why us?" Jack asked.
"The only humans they learned of were Sam's father, Sam, and Sari; they may believe that you were with us for only that time, and they may attempt to relocate you and your family," Optimus explains, "And it won't stop the Decepticons if they want to get even."
Lio held his hand out for the kids to climb onto, and he walked off to another room; all while the elevator opened, and the two humans walked.
"Prime! Can you explain why you claimed to have fought Megatron, but what we thought was Megatron was found at the bottom of a lake defrosted?" Fowler asked.
"I'm sorry?" Optimus asked.
Lennox took out his phone and looked at their monitor, "Is there any way I can display an image on that?"
"Go to the image you want, and I'll do the rest." Teletraan 1 explains.
He shrugs and does so, which displays the woman in question, a very large Cybertronian with dark grey armor and gold platting on parts of her body; the Autobot's eyes widen upon seeing the image.
"By the Allspark," Ironhide mutters.
"Is that...Grimlock?" Ratchet asked.
"Indeed it is; the question is when and how did she get here," Optimus says; she looks down at the humans.
"We know the supposed year, but we don't know how or why," Lennox explains. "We wanted to bring this to your attention in case she was friend or foe because currently, she's offline."
"If she ever comes Online, you think Ultra Magnus would arrest her?" Cliffjumper jokes.
"Not unless we get Grimlock to explain what happened and explain it all to Ultra Magnus," Optimus tells her. "Though I wonder if we should attempt to awaken her."
"I agree," Ironhide says.
"Why not? It sounds like she's an ally, and she may give you all a huge advantage." Fowler explains.
"She may, but she has an incredibly huge temper,"
Prowl answered.
"And she doesn't always see Optic to Optic with Optimus," Arcee told him. "They but heads a lot."
"If we wake her up in this case, she may break through the walls and or somehow destroy our cloaking. If we attempt to wake her in the arm, she will destroy it though I don't think she'll fit..." Ratchet mutters.
"For now, I say we leave her here she is, and hopefully, you do not attempt to activate her," Optimus told the two.
"No, can do Optimus," Lennox says. "Grimlock is being held by what came from the ashes of Sector 7,"
"The ashes?" Bumblebee asked.
"After the light of what happened and what they've been hiding, Sector 7 disbanded, and they're currently looking for new organizations. This new one may be holding onto it for now." Fowler explains
Lennox nods, "and y'all are giant robotic aliens that look like women; y'all don't exactly fall under the laws for this country, although Grimlock is your friend...um, ally, and you don't get to just walk up to her, and bring her back, we would need to try and move her back into your custody...and that's where N.E.S.T would come in."
"What does that stand for?" Lio asked as he walked in and looked at the screen.
"Non-Biological, Extraterrestrials, species, treaty." Fowler answers. "It would've worked as a team of specialty trained soldiers from every army working alongside the Autobots dealing with threats in this country and others. Since your battle in the forest, they decided that something we should make something, so you all won't walk and travel freely across countries and kick up some international conflict."
"Sounds fair," Ironhide mutters as she crosses her arms. "But how would this help with Grimlock?"
"We get Grimlock into our custody and, by extension, your custody," Lennox says. "That way, she would be in safe hands."
"Do the Decepticons know of this?" Ironhide asked Lennox.
"No, but with how long it took us to get her out of the lake and to transport her, there is a chance that they noticed her someway," He answered.
"That's not good; if Megatron knows that Grimlock is on this planet, then she would try to find something of equal power or find a way for us to no get our hands on her," Prowl grumbled, "and they've been quite for some time now,"
"For all we know, Megatron could be dead after that explosions." Cliffjumper says, "but that doesn't mean that Starscream won't attempt to capitalize on this."
"Didn't she try that before, but it failed?" Bumblebee asked.
"Well, that's what we wanted to tell y'all; we will keep y'all posted with any other updates that we know of," Lennox told the Autobots, and he nodded to them. "Take care."
Fowler nods at the Autobots, and both head back to the elevator and take it back to the top.
As the Autobots stood there, the kids ran back into the room.
"Who's Grimlock!? Is she strong!?" Miko asked with glee.
"Hey, I just thought of something; why don't we have y'all meet my dad," Sari says.
"How would that help?" Lio asked.
"Well, besides having the help of the smartest human on the planet, he could help give those two an excuse for being here," Sari points to Jack and Miko.
"What do you think, Optimus?" Ratchet asked.
"Sari already explained that he built his Cybertronian, so it may be beneficial to have his assistance for some time," Optimus says, "with more humans knowing of our existence and organizations being in play to help us out. If we were to get your father involved, how shall we go about doing this?"
"Have him meet Lio first," Sari says.
"Wouldn't it be smarter to start small?" Jack asked.
"Normally, yes, but he's been working on a male taller than Lio, so technically, Lio is smaller than the first one he saw," Sari grins. "But we can bring Bumblebee and Cliffjumper and have them get to know each other or speak. Besides, it's better if we get to him before the Decepticons do, right?"
"Yeah, who knows what lies they could spin to get him to trust them," Miko added.
Optimus nods. "Lio, Bumblebee, and Cliffjumper, you three would head to Sumdac towers and speak with Mr. Sumdac; once done, y'all will immediately return here."
The three of them nod and transformers; Sam hops inside Bumblebee while Sari hops into Cliffjumper. Jack and Sari went to get into Lio's, with Miko wrestling Jack out of the driver's seat. As she sat there, Miko grinned and grabbed the steering wheel.
"You don't need to drive Miko," Lio says as he follows Bumblebee out of the base.
"I know, but I just want to try and drive it; I've never been inside a truck this big," Miko grins.
XXXXX
Mr. Sumdac sat at his desk, silently tapping his fingers against it. He was finished working on a small tech-organic drone and was half asleep at this point. As he slowly begins to doze off, a loud beep jolts him straight up.
"Hey, dad, I need a favor; you know the room with that huge elevator? I need you to head there and wait; I have a surprise!" Sari shouted.
Mr. Sumdac nods and heads toward the room in question. It was an elevator that would lead up to the level with Sari's room. There was a more oversized elevator in there that would bring much larger things up to that level, like trucks that have building equipment that needs to be loaded off. Sumdac pressed the button and waited.
Seconds later, the elevator reached the top floor, and he noticed two cars and a truck. One of the cars looked like a very old Camaro straight out of the last century; the other was a red muscle car with horns, and lastly, a Peterbilt truck, which was red and white, with blue flames and some golden accents around the truck. He watched as each kid got out of the car.
"Oh, my Sari, where did you get these cars?" asked. "Especially the yellow one? It's such an ancient model, so vintage."
Miko chuckled while Sam rubbed the back of his head; he could feel the anger from Bumblebee at the moment. Mr. Sumdac walks around the truck looking at the colors.
"Such bold colors; I would've expected just blue and red, or just red." He says.
"Hehe, well, I got another that sports those colors," Sari says, rubbing her head. "But he likes the colors."
"Oh he, so the truck is considered he? What about the other cars?" He asked.
"Well, the cars are her." Sari corrected.
"Ah, which is pretty typical when guys talk about cars," Mr. Sumdac says. "So what should we do with them?"
"Oh, talking automobiles?" Mr. Sumdac says. "Do they have AIs aboard?"
"No," Lio reflexively answered.
Sari quickly gets in front of the truck. "Okay, dad, so one day, an alien male robot found me and invited me on an adventure. He's like the one you were building, but alive...and shorter."
Suddenly the truck begins to morph into, and transformer—parts start to disappear or compact as new features appear. Sumdac steps back as Lio finishes transforming, and he gets onto his knee, looking down at Sumdac.
"Hello, My name is Lio Convoy, and I am a friend of your daughter," Lio explains while Sumdac is standing there with wide eyes, wide enough to match dinner plates. "These are my friends; the yellow car is Bumblebee and the red Cliffjumper."
The two transform; Bumblebee has a slight scowl on her face, while Cliffjumper nods with a grin. He looks at the two of them and slowly nods as he looked at them.
"Okay...so do your friends want to come in and talk?" Mr. Sumdac asked.
"Yeah, you should sit down...you may not like what's next," Sari says.
XXXXX
"So you believe that the Allspark is fragmented across this planet?" The Fallen asked as she looked at Megatron.
Megatron merely nods. "Yes, I have two fragments, and one was responsible for bringing back one of my troops. If we can find the rest, we can combine them and restore the Allspark."
The Fallen leans back in her seat, her fiery eyes staring deep into Megatron as she sits there; she lets out a long sigh. "Is that important as of now? If we continue with the infiltration, we can destroy this world and easily find what remains of the Allspark."
"Yes, but with the Allspark, we may have yet another large advantage," Megatron told her. "And I already have contingency plans in case our correct objective fails."
"If you say so," Fallen says with a subtle eye roll. "If your infiltration doesn't work out, I believe I have my idea as of what to do next and to more energon than we would need."
"We have Ore-13 at the moment, it's better than the artificial stuff, and enough would amplify the user's powers," Megatron says, "if it increases Starscream's power, imagine what it can do for me? Do for you or any better warrior than Starscream."
"Have you fully tested it out?" She asked.
"Yes, and as of all our tests, there is no side effect to the ore."
"Hmm, very well. You may leave, return to your current objection and make sure to report anything large to me,"
XXXXX
Mr. Sumdac sat there going over everything Lio, Bumblebee, and Cliffjumper explained to him. He had already heard about most of it from Joshua, and now he got one side of said threat in his office. While they are seemingly on the hood side, they're still dealing with war. It was shocking, and any average person would freak out, but ever since receiving the body, he knew another one had to be out there; it had to come from somewhere, and now it was. He didn't welcome the idea of the war once again.
He welcomed seeing these aliens, learning about them, and possibly helping them in another way. But aliens coming to his planet to kill them with a team of underdogs here to defend them is not easy to hear, especially since they would need his help. What's worse is that with them here, he's involved, anyone who may help the Autobots, and now these kids are involved.
"I see," Mr. Sumdac says. "This is all extremely hard to take in.."
"Yeah, I figured it would," Lio says with a nod. "You can take your time to think about this; you can tell Sari to inform us of your choice."
"No, no, I can tell you know...but why involve the kids?" Mr. Sumdac asked. "I don't think they should be involved in something so dangerous."
"I agree with you there, but the Decepticons saw their face...well, not Sari's," Bumblebee says. "They attempted to hunt down the other three."
"I know this is all extremely hard to understand, but we can review it all again if you need to," Lio says.
"I understand." Sumdac responses.
"Really?" Each asked; Lio is the most surprised by his understanding of everything.
"I know y'all aren't evil, y'all brought the kids here okay, a villain wouldn't rough them up or worse, and y'all explained that y'all aren't here by choice, but you're here to defend us," Sumdac says. "But as I said before, my only problem is the kids...they shouldn't be in action."
"They aren't. After school or any obligations, they head to our base and stay there before heading home. We are hiding from all scanners, including our own. Phone signals and everything else is blocked from the Decepticon eyes." Cliffjumper says.
"And if there's any trouble, they can call us, and we'll be on our way soon," Bumblebee says with a grin.
"Right...would I be able to meet the others and your leader?" Mr. Sumdac asked.
"Sure, we could maybe swing by tonight. Usually, around that time, nothing happens," Bumblebee says. "Well, nothing happens much, and if it does, we three can leave while you meet the others."
Suddenly one of Sumdac's robots starts to go crazy, and one of the arms blows off, scarring the humans. As it falls, Sari's key begins to blow and lands on its back. Sam and Jack slowly approached and noticed a glowing blue crystal.
"It looks like a piece of the Allspark," Sam told the Autobots.
XXXXX
Megatron walks back to the bridge, and she walks up beside Soundwave.
"If we get yet another setback with this current phase, I'm jumping to phase six," Megatron tells her; Soundwave turns to Megatron. "Don't give me that look; it would be the best thing we could do after many setbacks. We should already be close to that phase, but Starscream decided to deviate from the set phases."
Soundwave looks at Megatron before displaying two phase sixers. One on her face plate and another on her chest screen. Megatron looked at the two-phase sixers, and she rubbed her chin.
"Hmm, out of those two, I don't know who to use yet, but just one would be good enough," Megatron says. "Makeshift, artifacts around the planet, Skyquake, and those clones are other things to use before the phase sixer possibly. However, if the phase sixers fail somehow, we would need yet another contingency after."
Soundwave replays Optimus's message and then displays Makeshift. She would figure that Makeshift would be of good use if they could intercept one of the newly arriving Autobots and have her take their form.
Megatron looks at the screen and gives Soundwave a grin, which displays a grinning emoji. The two of them laugh, with Soundwave laughing silently, no sounds escaping her, but the movement was there.
While Megatron had her ideas, she would inform Soundwave of them to get her opinions on what they should do or when an asset would bested used. Her concept for Makeshift could yield promising results; if Makeshift succeed, they would know where the Autobot base is; if she fails, the Autobots would not know who to trust.
XXXXX
Arriving back at the base, Optimus finished talking with Hot Rod about an estimated arrival time. As Optimus heads to her room, Lio walks up to her and displays the Allspark fragment.
"I found this fragment inside one of Sumdac's robots," Lio explains.
Optimus takes the fragment, and she looks at it. "While it may be somewhere desolate, it would also be inside more isolated spaces and smaller objects."
"We have human allies for that, but speaking of that, Sumdac would like to meet with you and the other Autobots," Lio told her. "I told him he could come tonight, give everyone else a chance to recharge after what we went through this morning."
"Good to know; it seems like everything worked out in the end," Optimus says as she walks to her room.
Bumblebee looks at Lio as he watches Optimus leave, and she gets an idea and walks up to him.
"Hey, Lio, I need some help," Bumblebee says with a grin.
"Okay, what is it?" He asked.
"I need you to help braid my hair." Bumblebee grins.
"Yeah, sure." He answered; there was a moment of silence before he asked. "What's braids?"