I don't own these characters or profit from them.
This is based on the more recent Jem and the Holograms Comic rather than the 80's series and Transformers. Obviously it's not based on the live action Jem movie because that was based on a cross between the blurb on the back of the Hannah Montana movie DVD and crap.
TransJem
By, Clayton Overstreet
Jerrica stomped off stage and into her dressing room followed by the other Holograms. She had come out as Jem, but the band was still using the holographic displays and music synthesizers from Synergy. "Synergy, what happened out there?"
The purple holographic displayed woman appeared, but she was shuddering and pixilated. "I-I-I am s-s-sorry Jerrica. I am… experiencing t-technical… offline." She vanished.
"Synergy?"
Kimber said, "This has been happening a few times. Little things. Something is very wrong with her Jerrica. I know we only just got the band back together and we no longer use Synergy to hide your identity, but she's our friend."
Raya said, "You have tried fixing her before Jem and barely managed it. Whatever tech your father came up with, it's still decades beyond what anyone else has."
"I've been thinking about that," Aja said. "Dad was a genius, but it's been years and most people can still barely make people appear like a ghost on stage with mist and lasers. How did your dad develop such an advanced system?"
"And where?" Shana asked. "When we found Synergy she and the instruments and the car were all put together. No sign of a work room or prototypes or anything."
"The car is still running fine," Rio said.
Jerrica said, "You're right. I never thought much of it before, but our dad was a music producer, not a NASA engineer. I love him, but maybe when we were younger I was idolizing him a bit. When did dad ever do more than change a light bulb around the house?"
"Did wasn't an idiot. And he did develop Synergy, however he did it," Kimber said defensively.
"I'm not badmouthing him Kimber, but we need to know how. Synergy isn't just some cell phone we can throw away because she's got a glitch."
"I know. She's practically another sister," the pink haired girl said. "More likeable too."
Jerrica snorted. "No argument there. So how do we save her?"
"She's too advanced to just download onto a PC," Aja said.
Raya told her, "So maybe we should see where your father was when he developed Synergy and what he spent his money on."
Kimber nodded. "We can go through the old physical files. They are in storage. But it could take a while."
"For Synergy, anything," Rio said.
000
It took three days, but they finally found a lead. An enormous power bill leading to a warehouse on the other side of town. They arrived with Synergy's equipment in the trailer behind their car and the place was old and closed up.
"Hey check it out," Kimber said. Stuck to a wall was an old tattered Misfits poster.
"They look worse now," Aja teased.
Kimber stuck a tongue out at her. "Stormer is gorgeous. Besides take off the makeup and a little plastic surgery and where are we?"
"Hocking weight loss powder and hair dye… as the before girls," Raya admitted. "I hate to admit it but I do like how Synergy lightly erases some of those little lines and a bit of cellulite when we're on stage. We are half way past thirty now."
Rio showed up on his motorcycle. He got off, putting his helmet on the handlebars and waved some keys. "The guy who owns this place just uses it for storage. Old furniture mostly. He says we can look around just incase your dad left something, but if we damage anything we have to pay for it."
"Great, I could use a new coffee table," Shana said.
They went in and found a bunch of furniture stacked around, wrapped in plastic. Aja took a video with her cell phone just incase they needed to prove everything was the same. Only as they stepped over the threshold her phone's screen started to go on the fritz. "What that… this is a new phone!" She slapped it a couple of times and then shrugged and put it in her pocket.
Rio pulled out a small device and extended some retractable antennas. "I brought a signal scanner. According to the guy who owns the building this place has always drawn a little more power than it should. He's had it shut off and the wires checked, but he can't find the problem."
"Then maybe it's not a problem so much as something he couldn't find," Jerrica said.
"I'm getting a reading from the far corner. Something hot." The group rushed over and began searching. Finally Raya said, "I think I found something. There was a light switch, but under it, hidden by the edge of the cover was another small button. She pressed it and there was a click. Kimber barely jumped back as a panel opened up in the floor with stairs leading down. From below lights came on and a loud humming of a fan or generator filled the air.
They all shared a look and then Jerrica first they headed down.
The room was deep and huge. There was a lot of equipment, mostly old computers and robotic manufacturing arms. Plus what looked like a bunch of old music equipment that had been scrounged for parts. Up above some fluorescent lights flickered.
"I'm not seeing anything too advanced," Jerrica said.
"Try looking over there," Kimber said. They turned and saw something. It looked like an animatronic dinosaur, silver but scaled. The pupils pulsed with red light. As if it had the paint wore off or never was painted. It stood next to a desk. On the desk was a journal of some kind. Kimber went over and flipped it open.
"My name is E. Benton. I'm a producer. My wife Jacqui was not just a singer and musician, but an amateur archaeologist. I am keeping this journal to record what she found, possibly the greatest discovery in history. Unfortunately, also the one that killed her. The space ship… spaceship?!" Kimber looked up. "No way!"
"Keep reading," Raya insisted.
Kimber swallowed and looked down. "The spaceship's name translates as Nemesis and as near as we can tell, it is millions of years old. We had a piece of coral that had formed in it carbon dated, since we could not risk turning over the contents to a lab. She says that there's too much danger in anyone getting a hold of it until we develop peaceful uses ourselves…"
"Pretty much the same message he left us, minus the whole spaceship Thing. Either he did not want us knowing that, or he was afraid someone else would find out," Jerrica said. Kimber flipped a few pages. "Lots of technical stuff, but it looks like the machines they found did most of the work themselves. Self repairing… mom and dad just adapted it."
Aja peered over her shoulder. "From the looks of this it might be… yes, it looks like self adapting… wow. This stuff is out there. Practically… alive. I'm seeing something here that looks like code, but also something like electronic DNA."
"So Synergy is like, an alien?" Raya asked.
"Makes as much sense as anything," Rio said. "We've time traveled, been shot into parallel universes, and one of our best friends is a computer. It's not exactly like this is the weirdest thing we've come across."
Aja said, "Hold on Kimber… look at this. It says the Nemesis had what appears to be some kind of fusion generator." She swallowed tears in her eyes. "Oh no…"
"What?" Shana asked.
"Oh god…" Raya said softly. "I get it. Jerrica… your parents… they died right? You mom got sick… a brain tumor that made her crash her plane? And then you dad got sick too…"
"Yeah, so?"
"Fusion," Aja said. "Jerrica fusion only means one thing. Radiation."
Jerrica covered her mouth. "Dear god... you're saying this stuff…"
"It says most of the ship was powered by something called Enerjon. A crystalline energy source that is found naturally. It's got no real side effects on humans except sometimes it causes some unnatural hair colors…" They shared a look.
Raya said, "You mean like those crystals in the cave behind my house when we I was a kid in Arizona?"
Ignoring this she went on, "But there were weapons on the ship… they had been damaged in some sort of crash… and they used fusion energy." She flipped ahead. "He sent it away anonymously to be destroyed when they realized your mother had gotten sick, but..."
"It was too late." They all fell silent.
"Jerrica, Kimber, you know Synergy isn't responsible…"
"We know," Jerrica said quickly. "I… there are all kinds of ways to get sick. This… well we know Synergy is not radioactive.' She put a hand on Kimber's stiff shoulder. "Our parents discovered something amazing and we can't take the good without the bad."
"You're right sis. We can… think about this later."
Aja took the journal and flipped through it. "I think I have something… there's a black box he thought might be some kind of repair device, but he never used it. A lot of the tech he did not understand. Aside from the sensors and holographic tech that he barely understood. It looks like Synergy developing an AI was completely unexpected. But once she did he…"
Kimber said, "I can guess. I mean he and mom adopted you girls and they took such good care of Jerrica and me too. If they accidentally created another daughter there's only one thing they would do."
Aja said, "Look, I know technology a bit and so does Rio, but it looks like anything he did not understand he just salvaged from this wrecked space ship's computers or copies and stuck in Synergy. It's why she's so big. With how advanced she is her computers alone could be smaller than a cell phone. Look what Jerrica's earrings can do. But once they ditched the weapons it seems like they just jammed it all into a system the size of a pipe organ and hoped the computer could figure it all out."
Shana said, "Which explains why Synergy is having problems if this stuff lasted millions of years and is breaking down after only a little over a decade of use."
"He was rushing to finish it for you so that Synergy would be there for you like a big sister for you when he was gone," Raya said.
"Then I guess there's only one thing we can do. Just start pushing buttons. Aja can you show us how to turn everything in Synergy on?"
"I can try. This stuff is pretty complicated Jerrica. I don't think there's oing to be a big red switch, but we can try."
000
It took a while but they got Synergy out of the trailer and intot eh parkinglot outside the warehouse. They found some strange stuff. One of the machines they found in Synergy's workings shifted the rest around like a Chinese puzzle Another played some old recordings of Kimber and Jerrica's mother including a song called 'Starlight.' According to the journal their father had noticed something that translated as "Decepticon" and "Predicon" programming that seemed dangerous, so he replaced it with his own and as much of his wife's information as possible.
"If this ship was only four or five million years old," Rio said. "What's with the dinosaur?" Just one of many questions they had no answers for.
One of the machines did nothing they could see. But then the third one they tried they hit the jackpot.
Synergy's voice shouted, "Cybertronian transformation sequence and repairs in process. Synergy, optimize and transform!" Green lights flashed from her and suddenly she went dark. A moment later the whole frame of her collapsed.
"Synergy?" Jerrica asked.
Suddenly something moved. It pushed back the heavy casing with ease and stepped out. It looked…
"She looks like you," Shana said.
Jerrica shook her head. "No, she looks like Jem."
It was true. The woman who stepped out of the machinery looked just like Jem, Jerrica's fictional personality. Except instead of pink the clothes she was wearing and her hair and even her makeup were a light shade of purple. She smiled and in Synergy's deeper voice said, "Forgive me Jerrica, but since you are no longer using Jem, it seemed to me a fitting choice for my new… well my system refers to it as a 'beast form'. No offense intended."
"None taken. Are you… alright?"
"Better than ever," she said. "According to some previously unused files your father built me out of a combination of the ship's core and pieces of some even more advanced artifacts found in some nearby caves. I'm finding history of a war torn planet known as Cybertron and two races… no four races. Three of them highly evolved machines known as Predacons, Maximals, and descendants of something called… Unicron. Many of the files are corrupted. Intentionally. This appears to be a good thing. In addition I am made up of a member of these Maximals… no two… that had been altered and upgraded by a race of energy beings known as the Vox… or Vocks. The translation on the spelling into English is hard since there is no equivalent word so it is easier to just pronounce it."
"Outrageous," Kimber said.
"The Vox apparently sensed that the Maximals and Predacons were interfering in their own past via time travel and sent a merged member of their own kind along with several upgrades to stop it. It was destroyed but pieces of it and others remained. I am an amalgamation and as my systems regenerate I believe I am possibly becoming the upgraded version of all three." She paused. "What is that?"
"What is what?"
She turned back to the remains of her former self and bent down, brushing aside a very heavy section to reveal a small device. "This."
Aja said, we couldn't figure out what everything did. In fact it didn't do anything."
"Yes, it did.'
"What is it?" Shana asked.
Synergy looked up. "An emergency distress beacon." She stood up. "It's sending a signal. A very powerful one aimed at deep space… and it's receiving something from very close by."
"Close by? How close?" Raya asked.
Suddenly the sidewalk erupted next to them and they all jumped back as something landed nearby. They all screamed as it gave a roaring hiss and then spoke in modern English. "Dinobot, terrorize!" The silver robotic dinosaur suddenly shifted into a twelve foot tall humanoid robot, one of its eyes a red laser and sneering with a mouth full of fangs. "Identify yourselves…" The Holograms just stared and cowered.
A voice from in his chest that sounded disturbingly female and a lot like Synergy said, "Dinobot has been offline for 4.5 million years. Current information indicates that further actions will no longer damage the time stream."
"So," it said to itself. "The Great War is over. Megatron and Optimus no longer reside on Earth…" it smiled. "Intriguing."
Unknown Cybertronia detected." He looked at Synergy.
She stepped in front of the Holograms. "I won't let you harm them. Synergy, transform!" Her body shifted, her skin split open in panels and wires came out. To their surprise behind them the car their father built and left with the rest of Synergy suddenly split open and began to change. Synergy back flipped landing inside a space that seemed to be a perfect fit, her snake-like wires interlocking. It shifted and changed. A moment later it stood up, twenty feet tall and shaped like pink armor.
A moment later her fist reached out and punched through the side of the trailer they had hauled here there in. It came out making a bigger hole, the Hologram's instrument's crawling over the arm like lizards again reshaping until a large canning formed. She swung it around and aimed it at the silver Dinobot where it began to power up with a low whine.
"Intriguing," Dinobot said, not showing any fear in the face of the large weapon. "It appears you have a techno-organic core and power armor. A distinct upgrade." His eye narrowed. "I applaud your bravery young bot. you show honor in protecting these weaker creatures. I understand… honor." Memories of similar creatures, hairier and smaller… danced through his brain. "I have no issue with you, at this time. Perhaps when I have decided what to do with this planet we can pick this up again later. For now we may both consider this a draw…" A moment later he was transformed back into his eight foot silver dinosaur form. He gave them a terrifying hiss-roar and then turned and ran off.
"What… what was that?" Shana breathed.
"Trouble," Raya said firmly.
"Synergy, are you…?" Jerrica was interrupted as the giant robot fell to one knee, the barrel of its weapon aimed at the ground. Suddenly it split open and Synergy, back in her human form, fell onto the ground. "Synergy!"
They all gathered around her. Kimber and Jerrica tried to pick her up and she smiled. "I'm sorry Jerrica, but taking on that form was draining for my systems. I need… enerjon." Her eyes closed and she went limp.
'Wow, she's heavy.'
"Is she alive?" Aja asked.
"She feels alive," Kimber said touching Synergy's cheek. "But boy is she heavy!"
"How are we supposed to move her?" Rio asked.
"How are we supposed to move us?" Raya added. "Our ride just turned into a giant robot."
Kimber stood up and reached for her phone. "I know someone we can call. They've got the stuff to move a lot of heavy equipment."
"Oh no Kimber, you don't mean…"
000
Pizzazz smiled and stepped out of the truck they were using to haul thee large trailer with their band's logo on it. "So you need us to save your butts again eh Jerrica?" She looked at the hole in the street. "Seems like you had a party here."
Off to the side Stormer, Jetta, and Roxy got out of the passenger side. Stormer hurried over to Kimber for a kiss. Jerrica rolled her eyes, but did not say anything. A moment later a black limo pulled up and Eric got out to join them.
"What's all this?" He looked down at the body on the ground. "Is that…?" He looked at Jerrica, confused. Then bent down and poked her cheek. "What the…?"
"We can explain as we go. We really need to get everything off the street before someone shows up and sees all this."
"Hey we know about getting out before someone sees the mess," Roxy said.
"No kidding," Jetta said.
It took some work, but they got the power suit and the rest loaded up into the trailer. They did a quick sweep below, but there were only scraps now that Dinobot was no longer there. They got the computers and notes, but there was little else. Either Mr. Benton had cleared it out or maybe he had another lab somewhere else. One they had no time to look for at the moment. Especially considering the hidden room that they had never found in their own house where Synergy had been kept for years.
Back at their mansion the Holograms reluctantly told the Misfits what had happened. Ending with Jerrica saying, "You can't tell anyone about this."
"We wouldn't—" Stormer began, then looked at the others.
"We wont' say a word,' Pizzazz said. They stared at her. "Don't' look at me like that. Aliens. Shape shifting robots? Please. They'd lock us up."
"Yeah mates, and it's not like any of us are geniuses. If your dear old dad couldn't figure it out, what chance would we have?" Jetta asked.
Roxy added, "And I wouldn't trust Techrat with any of that stuff. Right Eric? The guy's almost killed us with his own stuff."
Eric had been a little out of it. "Huh? Oh right. Wouldn't trust him with that. Look, I think it's best if we just walk away and pretend this never happened."
"Really?" Kimber said. "You're not going to ask for hush money or threaten to tell?"
"Like they said, nobody would believe us. Besides if what you said is true, that dinosaur thing is still out there somewhere and it seemed to know your weird purple friend there…" he nodded to the couch where they had laid Synergy down. "…wasn't human. If she's a robot or whatever it could track her. I don't think we want to be around when that happens."
"You shouldn't be," Aja said. "Thanks for your help, but this isn't your problem."
Stormer was abotuto argue but Kimber said, "She's right. We'll let you guys know how it turns out, but for now you should all back off and let us handle it."
"You're sure?"
Kimber smiled and kissed her. "You know we can handle it. And if I need you, I'll call. Don't' worry Stormer, I still want you around. Just… just let us get Synergy on her feet."
"Okay."
Pizzazz said, "Hey you guys had a robot fight and invited us. I'm good." She winked. "And hey if you can't get new musical instruments by your next show, we'll be glad to cover the gig for you." They all laughed and the Misfits left. At the door she added, "You know I think my father might have dealt in that enerjon stuff a few years ago. Mostly transport for the government. They needed a lot for some project back in the eighties and nineties. But I think he had a piece on his desk when I was a kid he used to let me and Roxy play with. I could ask him about it."
"I might know where some is too," Stormer said. "My brother and I used to go rock hunting. I think we had a piece in our collection."
"It's okay. I know where to find some," Raya said. "If I can call my father and get our old address." Pizzazz nodded and they left. "And if those caves are still there."
"Any way we need some of this enerjon, stuff," Rio said. "And fast."
000
(Cybertron)
Cheetor was in the council chamber with Black Arachnia and Rattrap when the news came in. "Whoa, check this out. We just got a decepticon emergency signal."
"What are you talkin' about spots? There hasn't been a Decepticon, Autobot, Maximal, or Pred in ten years. We're all techno-organic Cybertronians."
Black Arachnia said, "The rat's right."
"On Cybertron, sure," Cheetor said. "But the original Optimus and Megatron and even unicorn were lost in space for millions of years. And that whole time Cybertron itself was out here. We've time traveled. And our whole planet came here from another universe billions of years ago. And Autobots found other cybertronian inhabited planets across the space bridge. Who knows how many of our people are scattered across the universe?"
Rattrap snickered. "Oh please, admit it. Since we stops Megs and reorganized the new techno-organic people you're just bored kitty-cat."
"Maybe, but we did get a signal and it's from Earth…'
Black Arachnia smiled. "Well then as the council of Cybertron it's our duty to assign someone to go for us. Because as leaders we can't put ourselves in danger. How about that big guy, Whalor?"
"Nah, we need someone more subtle," Rattrap said, playing along. "How about that one monkey-bot…"
"Guys…" Cheetor said, his tone begging.
"I suppose we could check it out…" the spider-bot said with a grin. "Provided we don't' tell anyone before we leave." They looked at Rattrap.
He sighed and leaned on his fist. "Fine, but for the record… we're all gonna die."
(Deep space)
Three ships, partially damaged from a tthree-way conflict, floated in space. Slowly repairing themselves over hundreds of years. They picked up the signal to and slowly their systems came back online.
(Other parts of space)
On several planets the descendants of cybertron picked up the signal. The racing world, the beast planet, and several more. All tracing it back to Earth. In his temple among the jungle Scourge the dragon narrowed his eyes. "Interesting…"
000
Back on Earth Eric Raymond was going through some old files he had taken with him when he had been kicked out of Starlight records. It took a while but he found what he was looking for. An old order from Jerrica's father back when his wife had died. He had not been in any shape to take care of anything himself. Eric, his assistant, had handled most of his paperwork during that time.
There was the order. Benton had found some sort of radioactive waste and had hired a disposal company to get rid of it. Well he had told Eric too. It had been a pretty sum of money. And it had been so much cheaper to hire three guys from outside Home depot to burry it in the mountains somewhere.
Fusion powered alien weapons? How much was that worth? If he could just find them… And with Jerrica and her friends out rock hunting, nobody would have any idea what he was up to. Forget running bands like the Misfits or the Stingers. Eric Raymond, arms dealer, had such a nice ring to it.
(In a secret location)
Dino-bot accessed the Internet, sending his mind out among the data stream learning about the modern world. As he did he came across a webpage for a museum. On display was an ancient artifact. The same alien device that Megatron had used to make him and had transformed both Cheetor and Black Aracnia into transmetal 2 forms as well. The humans had no idea what they had. Neither would most Cybertronians, save for the handful that had been on past Earth.
"I on the other hand, can definitely find a use for it," he growled to himself.
(Far away under ground)
The Nemesis weapons control computer thirty feet underground beeped softly inside its containers. Inside its programming a consciousness, a copy of its last user began to awaken. A failsafe in times of war to keep the captain of the ship alive if possible. Maybe not as advanced as a Cybertronian spark, but a backup, possibly able to transfer into another body. If it could only connect with some new systems.
Only this one was unusual and overly complex for the backup. Slow to rebuild. As if two sparks had merged as one.
A small line of glowing green code ticked by on a display. Cybertronian symbols that slowly reformed into the local dominant human language spelling out a single word that flashed over and over in the dark. …MEGATRON…
To be…turned into a TV Series?
Author's Note
Next to Optimus, Arcee, and Bumblebee, the Beast-bots especially Black Arachia are the most recurring Transformers characters since Beast Wars aired. Sexy spider-bot who is half robot, half arachnid, and yet had boobs for no apparent reason. Well one reason. It certainly makes her memorable. And the basis for several other characters including Thunderblast and some other spider-bots. She especially just keeps coming back. And the dragon-psycho-bot. Megatron becomes Scourge who we still like better.
The whole robot merges with organics thing is a natural progression. Digimon did the same thing. Then they invented Sari, merging humans and transformers. Synergy seemed a good prospect for version 2. If you read the Jem comics they eventually stop having Jerrica hide her identity so Jem is up for grabs and a transformer Jem seems possible.
Meanwhile Jem and the Holograms which was a great cartoon, is a decent comic, and was made into a terrible movie, seemed like a great idea for a crossover. Officially GI Joe and My Little Pony has met with the Autobots. And in Jem they kept making a point that Synergy was amazingly advanced technology that nobody else could figure out.
Both franchises owned by Hasbro.
And frankly watching Beast Wars I always figured that Dino-bot clone had to survive. He had half of Rampage's indestructible spark and had been upgraded to transmetal 2. It's easy to picture him appearing gently through history, helping here and there but not too much since altering the future could wipe out his people just like almost happened in the past. So he would bide his time until he caught up with his future.
At the end of beast machines all the sparks were given techno-organic bodies. No more separate types of transformers. But if watching Superman or Dragon ball Z shows us anything it's that space faring species are hard to eliminate entirely. And they did a whole series where they travel the space bridge to a lot of other planets, including another one where they turn into animals. Seems ripe for conflict.
Especially if say Earth suddenly gave birth to a new upgraded type of transformer. Some would come for the technology. Others, if the overly Christian biblical end of Beast Wars is any indication, would come to "destroy the abomination". Others to save her. And god knows humanity might have a claim on something that could upgrade our species in the other direction. Eric Raymond gets his hands on weapon's tech… tech last touched by Megatron, both versions. The Vox might have a vested interest in keeping their upgrades made to Tigerhawk out of Cybertronian hands, since two of their people died doing just that from Tarantulus. And Unicron, some piece of him, might see a merger of all three types as a way to rebuild himself and a new species to dominate the universe. The holographic technology could be useful too.
Is Optimus Prime still out there? Some new heroes and villains?
And heck, maybe some of them just like the music from the band, which now has a new Jem to take over as lead singer. Will Jerrica be pushed into the background? Does she even need the Holograms? Or could she make her own? Start a new version with younger kids who used to be orphans they raised or just make some out of holograms or create copies of herself? Drama galore! Battle of the bands… in space! Other bands. The Rainbooms an Sirens from Equestria Girls. Soundwave showing up and romancing Synergy… you get the idea.
She could even develop a special song that can save or destroy the universe depending who gets it. And we could find out why all the dead animals on Cybertron are versions of the same animals on Earth and why they were killed in the first place. Ditto Scourge's planet.
Feel free to do your own fan fics. If however someone wants to develop this or my other works as TV series, email me.
Also check out my original works both on this site and on Amazon as books under Clayton Overstreet or C.D. Overstreet. Surely I've written something by now that would catch your attention.