Sumdac stood in the center of the room, staring at the present Autobots. Aww of the giant automatons in front of him, which resembled Earth's women. He shouldn't be in awe, considering that the one he worked on was one that happened to be a male, he knew they had to come from somewhere, given how there have been attempts to make artificial versions before the cybertronians were known. Instead, he wanted to study their technology, see why their metal looks like human flesh and how they can transform into an utterly metallic vehicle.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sumdac," Optimus spoke, breaking the silence. "We've heard great things about you."
He nods as he looks at Optimus. "And I, as you, Optimus, my daughter wouldn't stop talking about y'all after I meant your allies."
"We've heard that you completely rebuilt some other Cybertronian, and you're good at reverse engineering our tech."
"Indeed. However, the one I rebuilt was not functional. There was no power source to turn the Cybertronian on, but I completely fixed his broken components within him and replaced the things I couldn't." Sumdac answers. "I no longer have him; as for your tech, I simply made it into automatons or everyday things to help make life easier."
"I had heard of your distaste for weapons," Optimus told him. "And if you wish to help us, you do not have to make weaponry."
"I have a distaste for that…and that I'm helping in a war…however, I may be able to assist you if what you say about your enemies is true." Sumdac says. "I've been hearing about your said enemies from several other organizations making countermeasures to deal with your kind,"
"We're well aware of that," Arcee says as she crosses her arm, "We heard of your man-made Cybertronian before."
"So, what is it that you all want me to take a look at?" Sumdac asked.
"Our ship is heavily damaged and could be repaired; the more hands on deck, the better," Cliffjumper says. "And maybe some upgrades to our computer systems and Jazz."
"Those are the only things that would need a look over as of now, professor; we believe that a partnership between us could be beneficial," Optimus tells him.
The scientist nods at her words, "where is the one male among you? I would like to ask him a question."
"He left with Bumblebee sometime before you arrived," Cliffjumper says. "They should be back anytime now."
XXXX
"Ow! Hey! Don't pull too hard!" Bumblebee growls.
"Sorry, I have never done this before," Lio nervously chuckled. "It's…very difficult."
"Oh, it's not difficult!" She shouted. "You're not feeling pain whenever you pull it hard."
"Okay, so I don't pull it then…got it."
"Ow! You don't tug on it either!"
"Well, what am I supposed to do? You don't exactly make this easy, and I still don't know what I'm doing…."
"Oh, come on, how can this still be confusing?"
"Well, for some of them, you told me to pull it hard….then you tell me not to."
"There's a difference between pulling apart my hair and trying to remove my scalp."
"And another question….why do you have hair when we're living metal…and why don't we feel as hard as metal?"
"Well, why wouldn't we? It's just a way more advanced form of metal, that and as you said, we're living metal, so our vehicles and building is made with different materials."
"I never understood why we can transform when we have readily available vehicles."
"Well, why do you turn into animals?"
"It helped keep us from going into stasis."
"And you didn't have any technology to stop that without becoming animals?"
"'Well, I was marooned there, and my team blindly went to that planet to find me, but I did get a new name out of the beast form I chose."
"Oh yeah, that's right, your rank just called you; what were the other convoys named?"
"There was Big Convoy, Great convoy, and copy convoy."
"Copy? What did he copy?"
"Me, he was a black copy who thought he was the original; wasn't evil per se, disliked our enemies, but he wanted me dead."
She snickers. "So you all just put something in front of the convoy? Was big convoy? Are you a lion? That's like calling Optimus truck convoy.
While she laughs at her joke Lio slowly smirks.
"Ow! Hey, that one was on purpose!" She growled as she stood up. "Just forget it; I'll show you how it's done later,"
"It wasn't on purpose; my hand slipped from chuckling."
"You weren't chuckling! Now come on."
She leads him out of the room while Lio shrugs and follows.
XXXX
"So there are no males among your species?" Sumdac asked.
"No, Lio is some bizarre anomaly," Ratchet answered. "Though there could be a chance there was one there during the time of our war."
"And if that's true, then he too would be an anomaly," Ironhide told Sumdac, "Our species do not need a counterpart of our gender."
"Yet he claims that he's been working on it, so the question is, where did that one come from," Prowl inquires as she looks at her Tak pad.
"Having a male among your species can't be that bizarre; surely you encountered more bizarre things," Stated Sumdac.
"Well, there were phase sixers, Thunderwing and Bludgeon," Cliffjumper says as she scratched the top of her head, "Granted, it was more bizarre due to their power,"
"And that one base Shockwave had with those undead Decepticons," Ironhide grunted, "We still don't know what caused that to happen,"
"The only reason why Lio is considered more bizarre is his gender. With other species, there's usually a reason for a male to exist, but we have no real need for them," Bulkhead explains.
"There were female cybertronians where I came from; no one questioned it…well, humans did," Lio explains as he entered the room with Bumblebee.
"How many were there? And what were their names?" Bulkhead asked.
Lio placed his hand under his chin and looked up to think, "Not many; there was Elita One, Arcee, Chromia, Moonracer, and Firestorm, to name a few."
"What was the point of having both genders?" Ratchet asked Lio. "We don't sexually reproduce?
He only shrugs, "Did any Cybertronians you knew had a girlfriend or something?"
"A few," Cliffjumper answers, "Why?"
"Why would you date someone when there's no point in getting together? That's not how more Cybertronains are made," Lio replied.
"I…" Cliffjumper opened her mouth to retort, but she slowly lowered her finger, "Well, that's not the same.."
"We had females just because," Lio says, "Didn't need them to make kids…though there were a few claims of Cybertronains having parents, there was one who said he had a great aunt…somehow."
"Didn't you say you had a son?" Then, Arcee asked Lio, "How was he created?"
"Asexual reproduction," Lio plainly told them.
The room went silent as each looked at Lio, Sumdac included. Lio simply quirked a brow as they looked at him, their reactions ranging from disgusted about how that would work to slight fascination. Finally, Optimus broke the silence by clearing her throat.
"You asexually made him; how did you do that?" Optimus asked.
"My energon matrix had split in two after it came in contact with the Angolomis energy," Lio explains. "He was out there for a while until he finally meant me."
"Oh, that's more reassuring," Cliffjumper muttered.
"Why is that?" Lio asked. "What did you think when I said asexual reproduction?"
"Well, you see… I'll tell you later," Cliffjumper says.
"I'm sure there's another term for that," Ratchet mutters.
As Lio opened his mouth, the monitor blinked to life as an incoming call from Agent Fowler. Optimus walks over to the controls and presses accept.
"Agent Fowler, how may we assist you?" Optimus asked.
"I don't need any help, Prime, but one of your allies may," Fowler told her, "They decided to move Grimlock and give her over to another organization. So I'm trying to see what I could do to get her into your hands."
"Thanks for the update Fowler; you must do everything you can. If they manage to activate her, she would no doubt go berserk and cause massive damage," Optimus tells him.
Lio looks at Prowl, "How different are the Dinobots here?"
"Giant walking war machines with access to mass-shifting technology," Prowl replied.
"Mass shifting?" Lio asked, "Why did y'all build them with that?"
"We didn't build them, and they always had that. Grimlock is 84 feet tall; she can alter her size to 38 feet." Prowl answered. "And we can't have someone with her power and size go berserk on a planet like this,"
"Oh wow, that's bad," Lio mutters.
"Yes, that's very bad Lio," Arcee told him like she spoke to a sparkling.
Mr. Sumdac walked up to Lio, "Mr. Convoy, could I speak to you in private."
"Sure, and you could just call me Lio," He says as he leans down to Sumdac's level and picks him up. He walks away from the group with Sumdac in the palm of his hand. "What did you want to speak to me about?"
"I wanted to learn about mechs, the girls believe that there is none, but I've meant tw- er, one of them," Sumdac says.
"That's a tricky question, professor; I believe them when they say there weren't any mechs here, I came here through a wormhole, so there's a chance that the one you found did the same," Lio says.
"A wormhole, fascinating. So there are other universes beyond the end of a wormhole," Sumdac says. "You must tell me about it,"
"Maybe another time, professor, though all I could say was it was fast and slightly painful," Lio chuckled, "It gave me a whole new body to be in, but why did you want to know about Mechs."
"Because I was curious about where the one I dubbed Soundblast came from," Sumdac says
"All I could say is that it's probably another Soundwave from another universe who arrived here upon death," Lio told him, "But I'm mainly going off how I arrived here."
XXXX
"You can't just keep her in your custody. The Autobots say that activating her would be extremely dangerous," Lennox told the head of the new organization.
Joshua Red has no relations with the head of KSI. Instead, red simply looked at the files on his desk. He moved them into two separate piles while muttering to himself; he then looked up at Lennox when he was finished.
"I'm sorry, Willaim, but we aren't handing over an old ally now when we could use her as issuance or a way to protect ourselves," Red says.
"Protect ourselves against what? The Decepticons?" Lennox asked, "The Autobots are here to help us deal with them; keeping one of their own from them will only create bad blood against one of our greatest protections,"
"What I'm doing is ensuring the survival of our species; what if the protectors die? Or find a way off-world and leave their enemies here?" Red asked, "The reports from the battle in the forest stated y'all were outnumbered and outgunned."
"And returning their ally would level the playing field; our weapons may cause some harm, but it wasn't the cause of killing one of them. I watched one back up multiple times, and she fought with just one arm; we only killed what looked like their foot soldiers. Even the cat survived, and we blast her with a gunship," Lennox says.
"What we need to do is get back on top; we're not going to sit around begging for help," Red says as he leans back in his chair, "We need to advance our technology; Sumdac may not be willing to help, but we have another scientist who would gladly make the tech we need for survival. We can't just sit back and hope for the good side to win or stay on our side,"
"I understand that, but working with the Autobots would be more beneficial; they may even help us protect ourselves," Lennox tried to explain; however, Red stood up.
"I understand Lennox, but us keeping one of their own won't be enough to create bad blood; after all, we cover up everything on their behalf; they could consider this as payment," He says as he grabs the files and walks away, "you can go tell your robotic buddies what I told you,"
Lennox looks at the table and sighs as he pinches the bridge of his nose.
XXXX
"What will we do, not Optimus?" Prowl asked, "We can't leave Grimlock in the hands of the humans,"
"I agree, Prowl, but we can't take her by force; it may be best to have Agent Fowler and Lennox," Optimus explains, "There's nothing we could do to get her back,"
"Then we should learn of this new human organization," Prowl tells her, "We already know the humans are attempting to make their version of Cybertronians, and if they have Grimlock, who knows what they're doing,"
Optimus sighs, "Prowl, it's best to leave this to the humans; we have bigger things to worry about. Stopping Megatron and finding all that remains of the Allspark is our top priority. We will get Grimlock back eventually, old friend,"
"I know…"
Optimus walked back to Sumdac, leaving Prowl in the middle of the room; she turned and faced Arcee. Without a word, Prowl heads to her room; seconds later, Arcee walks after Prowl.
"Humans trying to recreate us is one thing, but having access to one of us opens up several more possibilities for this to backfire on them or us. From Megatron taking control, them gaining sentience and attacking, or the humans turning on us," Prowl starts. "I need you to head to where Grimlock is located and follow whatever they use to transport her. Once you get outside their base, scout out the area, see what they have as security, then report back here."
"Yes, ma'am." Arcee nods.
XXXX
Fowler walked into an office with a single computer and file cabinet. After speaking with Optimus, Fowler asked about the new organization and if there was any way to learn about them. They were very secretive, and he didn't know their name; however, somehow, who was possibly part of the organization told Fowler they would give him some knowledge of them. After all, he was close to the Transformers, and it would be best to build a strong bond with him if they ever needed to speak with the Autobots.
Fowler sits down and turns on the computer. The desktop was elementary; he saw standard applications with a single folder that only had the number 1. He clicked it, and the file opened to a page with several documents with no names but numbers. Some were blocked off from being used, while others were able for him to check. He clicks the first one he spots an image of a robotic bird they held in captivity. It didn't have much information behind it, just a picture of a mechanical bird; it looked like a Raven with yellow armor.
He clicked on another file that mentioned a raptor called Thunderlizard, with some names. They said that the raptor was more significant than it should be; they expected that since it's an alien and if it's meant to be a dinosaur for the Autobots, it would stand taller. So they called it Velociraptor, mainly Blue.
He didn't get much; he didn't get anything, and Skywatch has them. He finally found the name of the organization. He could assume they've been trying to turn it into weapons, possibly to fight against whatever is out there. That's all the information needed, their name and what they've been doing.
Fowler gets up and heads to the door. As he walked out, he was led to the man who told him to head to that room.
"Hey, soldier, where can I find the head of SW?" Fowler asked.
XXXX
"Hey Lio, did you have any love interest back where you came from?" Bumblebee asked.
"No," He simply answered as he leaned against the wall.
"Come on; there wasn't anyone who got your spark skipping a beat?" She asked. He didn't answer her, which made her grumble. "It could've been anyone; I just wanna know if an old leader had a love life or some life outside of the military."
"No"
"Well, would anyone here make your spark skip a beat?" Bumblebee asked.
He didn't give her an answer; he looked down at her before he started back at the wall.
"We need to get you some hobby," Cliffjumper says as she walks over. "All you do is stand there and look stoic."
"I don't."
"You so do," cliffjumper says before she leans against the wall and tries to make a stoic look as she stares at the border, puffing out her chest to give her more bravado.
Lio slowly turned his head to face the smaller bot as she looked on while ignoring him. He sighed before he changed the position he was standing in, all while Bumblebee giggled.
"Anyways, Bee, what's up with your hair?" Cliffjumper asked, seeing that one-half of her hair was braided.
"I decided to change to braids, tried to teach Lio how to braid, and he only managed to do one," Bumblebee answers.
"Well, at least he's learning." Cliffjumper chuckled. "Maybe you could learn to do hair as a hobby."
"Mhm"
"Why are you just standing here anyways? We already meant Sumdac, and he's just talking with Optimus," Cliffjumper says, "everyone was dismissed."
"Are you just not responding to mess with us?" Bumblebee huffs. "Because that's pretty annoying."
"I'm not purposely annoying you; I'm just thinking," Lio tells them. "Everything is still bizarre…still don't feel like I belong here, even after our sparring session."
"Do you want to talk about it with someone?" Bumblebee would ask him, though he shook his head and looked down at her with a slight smile.
"I'm fine…I just need some time to a thing, one moment I'm okay, the next I realize what's going on," Lio says. "My mind is all over the place, and so is my behavior."
Optimus approached the three of them. "Cliffjumper, could you take Mr. Sumdac back to his home? He would like to leave."
"You got it, boss woman," Cliffjumper says with a salute as she walks to Sumdac and transforms.
Lio watched as Cliffjumper left the base, and he looked back at Optimus. "Any updates with Grimlock?"
"Yes, Agent Fowler told me of the new human faction name, they call themselves Skywatch, and he found that they have some other Cybertronians in their custody," Optimus explains.
Right on time, Agent Fowler's caller ID appears on the monitor. Optimus turns around and heads to the console. She pressed accept once again, and Fowler appeared on the screen.
"Prime, they reached a deal. They said you could have Grimlock within your custody; however, you would need to speak with the head," Fowler explains.
"Thanks for the assistance Agent Fowler," Optimus says. "Would you be able to patch them through? Then, Teletraan 1 would be able to secure the line for us."
"I'll patch him through prime, Fowler out."
With that, he hung up, and Optimus turned to the two with a slight smile.
"One situation is dealt with; now we may have another to deal with," Optimus told them.
"What's the issue?" Bumblebee asked.
Before Optimus could answer, a male voice spoke over the line.
"Hello, am I speaking with one of the nonbiological?" Red asked.
"Indeed, I am. You may call me Optimus."
"I'm the head of Skywatch, and I heard that this non-biological is one of your allies, and you want her back."
"Indeed, Grimlock is a powerful and proud warrior, but she has a huge temper. If she were to wake up, she would undoubtedly destroy whatever facility she's held within"
"I understand, but not this, Optimus. If anything with your kind shows up on our radar, destroying cities or anything. We will be taking Grimlock away from you, she will not be directly in your base, but a base that's meant to be the main headquarters of N.E.S.T. She'll be monitored twenty-four seven."
"I understand, though there's no reason you should hold one of my hostages, even if something terrible occurs."
"We need a way to defend ourselves, Optimus, there may come a day that your task force will fail against this massive army, and we'll be left with nothing capable of taking them down."
"Taking our own is another way to ensure that outcome. Grimlock is an asset we must have; we how we cannot wake her up without proper security measures."
"Well, see the outcome of all of this, Prime."
With that, Red hung up. Optimus turns to look at the two Autobots behind her.
"Seems like N.E.S.T is slowly forming, or at the very least, they have a base," Bumblebee says.
Optimus nods. "Autobots, stay on standby. I need to speak with Prowl."
The two of them nod.
XXXX
Arcee slowly approached the headquarters of Skywatch. She transforms and looks at the surrounding area of the camps. It looked just like a standard military base, nothing out of the ordinary, say for five large buildings to the side of the floor. Arcee takes out a sniper and looks at one of the buildings. Whatever was inside was active and moving around, it wasn't trying to escape, so whatever it was, we domesticated it.
Arcee narrowed her eyes as she spotted what appeared to be a tail. She merely grunted and looked into one of the windows seeing Joshua Joyce meeting Red, making a mental note to figure out who the two of them were; something caught Arcee's attention. Looking down, she noticed an extensive truck driving into the base with what appeared to be the Cybertronian Sumdac claimed to make.
"So he was telling the truth," Arcee said to herself. "Look like they could be a potential threat. Prowl, this is Arcee; I made it to their headquarters and spotted something interesting. The one Sumdac claimed to make is being brought into their headquartered. There are also five warehouses outside; I can't determine what's inside; if I get close, whatever's inside may alert the base of my presence."
"I read you, Arcee, return back to base. But, unfortunately, we have bigger fish to fry at the moment." Prowl responded.
"Yes, ma'am"
Prowl leaned back in her chair and folded her hands.
