"You know her?" Jake said to Simon. "She's Nancy Witwicky, a daughter of my friend. I… I saw her and her brother taken by some blue swarm years ago." Simon said, taken aback. Another soldier approaches them. "Simon? As in the guy that buys salami from me?" the soldier said. He unmasks himself, revealing an older and balding man.
"It really is you!" the man said. "Mister Savoldi? The butcher?" Simon said in surprise. The rest of the natives unmask themselves, revealing them to be humans. "It's my entire neighbourhood!" Simon said. "The humans start murmuring amongst each other when they see Simon.
"How… how is this possible?" Simon wondered as he looked at everyone. "I couldn't believe it myself. After… what happened to dad, a swarm of robot bugs teleported everyone to underground bunkers with stasis pods. We didn't even know we were frozen until we woke up some years ago." Nancy explained. "What about you, Mister Antiquarian? We didn't see you when we got thawed." Savoldi asked Simon. "I did get frozen, but in a different way." Simon explained.
"What's with the giant dog?" "What've you been doing all this time "Do you know why we're underground?" Simon's former neighbours asked Simon. "Everyone, please, I need to process all this. Do you guys have a base or something where we can talk?" Simon asked them. "It's the street we used to live in. Follow us." Nancy told Simon. The humans lead The Voyagers to their base as they spoke amongst each other. "Guess they won't be shooting at us from now on after all.
Later, they are led to a street that has been restored to its pre-war state, with the exception of the road, which has been dug up and crops planted on the soil underneath and fed by street lights. They all enter a former bar building which is now a common area for the people. "This is Old Tarmac's. I used to come here every weekend with my friends." Simon told The Voyagers. The team and Nancy sat at a circular table while Backfire and the other humans gathered to hear their story. "So Simon, how've you been? Last we met, you were all blue, literally. I take it that your breakup didn't go so well, huh?" Nancy asked Simon.
"I'll explain that another time. What about you? Where's your brother Daniel?" Simon asked Nancy. Her mood switches to a rather sombre look. "Daniel… he went missing." Nancy answered. "Missing? What do you mean?" Backfire asked. "When everyone was unfrozen, we were all accounted for except for Daniel. He, just didn't show up." Nancy answered.
"I'm sorry to hear that. He was such a nice boy." Simon assured Nancy. "Well, that's enough about me…" Nancy said as she wiped away a tear. "Introduce me to your new friends." Nancy asked Simon. "Well, this is Finn; he's an adventurer. His brother is Jake, and he's magic or something. These two are Susan and Frieda; they're also adventurers." Simon introduced the team to Nancy. "It's nice to meet you all. Are you guys from the surface? What's it like up there?" Nancy asked.
"Well, it's been a thousand years since the war…" Simon said. "A thousand years?!" everyone else in the bar said in surprise. "We were asleep for that long?!" Nancy added. "It's not so bad. There are some mutants roaming around, but they're pretty friendly, most of them at least. People around the world are doing pretty good for themselves, too." Finn explained. "We still have internet." Backfire added.
"Do you think you can help find a way out of here? We searched everywhere and we couldn't find a way out." Nancy requested. "There were some quakes that opened up caves. We entered from a pretty radioactive place, but we can find another way out." Finn said. "Could you help us get to Cephalon Cryogenics? We're looking for someone there." Jake requested. "Yes, the dog talks." Simon told Nancy before she could say anything. "Cephalon? You mean that scam that convinces people to freeze their brains? Why do you need to get there?" Nancy asked.
"We're looking for someone. They sent a riddle telling us to get there." Finn answered. "On top of that, a drone sent an intact brain to us from there. It was alive!" Jake added. "You mean the brain-freezing thing actually works?" Nancy said in surprise. "Yeah, we have to get to them before something bad happens." Finn said. "We'd love to have the backup." Susan requested.
"Anything for Simon." Nancy agreed. "By the way, do you know what's up with those Decepticons?" Nancy asked. "They're not Decepticons. They're drone working for Lockdown; a dangerous bounty hunter. They're here for something, but we don't know what." Finn answered. "We'll have to bring out the big guns for those guys. Give us thirty minutes to prepare. We're right behind you." Nancy assured the team.
Much later, The Voyagers, Susan and Frieda, and ten of Simon's old neighbours including Nancy, were travelling further into the dark city towards Cephalon. "How did you guys get so skilled with military-issue weapons?" Simon asked his neighbours. "Some of the old guys and gals are ex-military, remember? Like Mister French." a young man from Simon's neighbourhood squad told him. They walk through the city for quite a while, finding nothing but ruins and junk. They do find skid marks on the road eventually.
A middle-aged man with a messy beard in the squad feels the tires. "They're hot. Those drones must've been here recently." the man told the others with a grizzled Southern accent. "Do you think they're here for the brains, too?" Finn wondered. "What makes you say that?" Jake wondered. "Remember what Lockdown said in Mexico? He said that he hunted me down secretly because, to his knowledge, humans were an endangered species. We always fought off poachers that hunt nearly-extinct animals. Maybe he's getting these brains because they're rare." Finn suggested.
"It's not too farfetched. In a universe with giant robots and aliens, and giant robot aliens, nothing is impossible." Susan said. They continue down the road, cautious as to what may pop up. Soon enough, they encounter some kind of tech district. "This is San Francisco, or at least part of it. We're getting close." Simon commented. They continue through the city to find similar ruins and scrap scattered all around.
Soon, they encounter Cephalon Cryogenics; a greyed, ruined building with a large logo of a brain, patrolled by some of Lockdown's drones. "There it is." Frieda said. "Do you guys have a plan?" Nancy asked The Voyagers. "We just go in swords slashing and take the stuff." Finn said. "That's… reassuring." one of the neighbour squad members commented with an unsure tone.
"Well, I don't hear anyone else with a plan, did I?" Jake said sternly to the neighbours. "I think it's a good plan. We do have two giant robots with us, after all." Susan approved. "Though I'd say large-sized, since they're only a foot or two taller than us." Frieda added as she looked at Backfire. "It's settled, then!" Finn said confidently. "Jake, what time is it?" "Fortress Raid Time!" Finn and Jake declared as they high-fived.
Finn combines with Chop Shop as Jake follows him with his legs stretched and his fists inflated. "You heard the man! Go, go, go!" Backfire encouraged the others. The team rush in following Chop Shop and Jake and attacks the drones. The neighbours utilize assault rifles and rocket launchers on the drones as Simon, Susan, and Frieda use M.H.M.s to bore holes in the drones. After taking out enough drones, they enter the facility.
After entering through the front doors, two neighbours close the double doors behind them and welds it shut. "That was a close one!" Nancy said. "We have never fought like that before in our entire lives! This is nothing like shooting those green goo things!" the bearded neighbour said. "The main cryogenics are all the way underground. To my knowledge there aren't any loading elevators leading down there, so we shouldn't expect any drones down there." Simon told the others. "I wouldn't put it past Lockdown to use a drill or something." Chop Shop said.
They all follow Simon further into the facility as the still-active security cameras watched them. They encounter an out-of-order elevator in a hallway. Backfire pulls the doors open and looks down the dark shaft. Jake then walks between his legs and looks down. "No elevator? No problem!" Jake told the others.
He wraps several tentacles around everyone and drags them down the shaft suddenly. He lets them down at the bottom of the shaft as the neighbours squirmed around. "Dude, control your talking mutant dog!" a middle-aged woman neighbour told off Chop Shop. "That's my brother you're talking about." Chop Shop retaliated. "Enough of that, Henrietta." Simon told the woman.
"That's Hank, Mister Indiana-Jones-but-more-wimpy!" Henrietta argued with Simon. "I prefer being compared to Brody, thank you very much." Simon said. "Focus, everyone. We've got some brains to rescue." Backfire said as he walked to down the hallway before them. The hallway they walked through was lined wall-to-wall with metal vault doors with icicles hanging from every edge. "Man, they really were doing all those brain-freeze stuff here." Nancy said.
Out of curiosity, some of the neighbours open the vaults that weren't so frozen and found rooms filled with brains in tanks, all frozen. "Ugh, they really were." Hank said in disgust before she closes a door. Some of the tanks were missing some brains, not as if some tanks were skipped over, but as if they were taken randomly. Simon was one of the ones who searched through the vaults, but more frantically. "C'mon, c'mon… where are you?" Simon said as he searched the vaults.
He soon stops at one empty tank and collapses on his knees. Finn, now separated from Chop Shop, finds Simon and comforts him. "Simon, are you okay?" Finn asked Simon softly. "He's… he's gone…" Simon said as he teared up. Finn escorts Simon out of the vault and joins with the others.
"There were some brains missing. I think that Lockdown guy was here first." Susan said. "That's impossible. He's a giant Transformer, he or any of his drones couldn't have gotten in here." Backfire said. "What about that thing you do to transform into a head? Can he do that?" Nancy suggested to Finn. "He can't do that… can he?" Jake wondered. They then hear something stumbling from within a vault.
"Butch, was that you?" Hank asked the bearded man. "I'm right here." Butch responded. They all look towards the vault behind Backfire. Backfire slowly opens the vault with his rifle ready in one hand. He opens the door, but finds the room devoid of anything but brain tanks.
"There's no one here!" Backfire said in surprise. They then hear a vault door creaking from behind them. They turn around and see a pale-yellow Headmaster with an opaque faceplate sneaking out of the vault. "Get him!" Finn pointed to the intruder. The mysterious Headmaster shields himself with a frozen brain contained in a glass tank.
"He's got a hostage!" Butch warned everyone. "Who are you? Are you working for Lockdown?" Finn interrogated the intruder. The intruder presses a button on the side of its head, turning his faceplace transparent and revealing a human brain suspended within. "It's… a brain!" Jake realized in horror. "Lockdown is using brains for his drones?!" Simon said in horror.
The Headmaster looks at Simon, causing it to twitch and clutch its head, as if it had a headache. It dropped the brain, but with lightning-fast reflexes, Finn caught the jar and delivered it to Simon. "Here you go, Simon." Finn said as he handed the jar to Simon. He looks at a plaque on the jar that reads: "Monk, Alvin.".
"Al… this is Al!" Simon said excitedly as he held up the jar.
To be continued…