Chapter 2: Winston

A lone pickup truck silently drove through the road. It bumped into several jagged rocks that were in the road, but no matter. The truck stopped, the pickup truck transformed. The back wheels that housed the loading bay flipped out to become the arms, and the front of pickup truck turned around to the small and stubby legs. The Autobot logo glowed on his gorilla-like Autobot stopped just a few feet away from his destination.

Before he could enter, he heard loud explosions from above. He looked up to see a squadron of Autobot fliers engage another squadron of Decepticon Seekers. He sighed, as he just walked in the building in front of him.

The room he entered after the door closed was a mess. There were several cans of Engex were strewn across the floor, next to some miscellaneous tools also strewn everywhere. However, ignoring the mess, he just trotted over to a work desk, where some kind of device sat. There were also some large computers attached to a far wall. Some screens are also present on the wall.

"Welcome home, Winston." Boomed an automatic voice. "Are we to resume our Shield Generator test?"

The Autobot now known as Winston sat down on his desk. He picked up the device along a small screwdriver. He poked inside of it, and then put the screwdriver down. He then pushed down on the device, and then he set it down on the desk. The device projected a small shield, before malfunctioning and turning off. Winston sighed as just walked away from his desk.

"Now, now, don't beat yourself up about it." The automatic voice said again. "It is only the thirteenth test we had done."

"I know, Athena." Winston remarked. "But… I'm just feeling like… I could do more."

With that said, Winston walked away from the desk to grab himself another datapad. He read through it, but he stopped when he saw his communicator going off.

"Incoming transmission." Athena said. "From the Nerve Center."

Winston quickly made his way over to the communicator, and pressed the answer button. A hologram of Perceptor quickly came into being.

"Winston, are you busy at the moment?" He asked.

"Um, no sir." Winston replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I need you over here." Perceptor requested. "We are trying to locate any artillery units we might be able to use against the Decepticons, but the codes are too much for us to handle on our own. Come here immediately!"

"Copy." Winston replied.

That was the end of that. The communication ended, and Winston proceeded to get some items for his trip to the Nerve Center. However, as he was going along, he caught a glimpse of an old file that he hadn't touched in a while. He took a quick second to read it over. The file read "Overwatch".

"Winston!" Athena boomed, startling Winston a bit. "You're going to be late!"

"I know, Athena." Winston replied, closing the file. "It's just this idea… it could work…"

Winston set the file down on his desk. He was now in deep thought.

He had conjured up an idea where he would gather up a team of Autobots that would be like the Wreckers, but instead of being offensive, they are more authorized in protecting the Autobots and preserving lives. However, the result of the hypothetical missions that Overwatch may take may be catastrophic. The missions they take may be something along the lines of breaking into Decepticon strongholds and rescuing prisoners. He couldn't bare the idea of making countless Autobots risk their lives for rescue ops. Because of this insecurity, he had scrapped the idea of Overwatch without any other consulting.

Winston was so deep in his thought, he didn't even notice that Athena had activated her alarms.

"Alert. Alert." She said systematically. "Decepticon squad in proximity."

"Just when I thought I could take a break from the war…" Winston grumbled, grabbing something from below his desk. "Athena. Kill the lights."

Athena, as ordered, turned off all of the lights within the room. Winston also took initiative, as he took to the shadows. Just as Winston seemingly disappeared, the doors of the room swung open, with a group of Vehicons slowly entering. They looked around, and saw the room was clean.

"Area secure, sir." One of the Vehicons spoke.

"Good." The lead Behicon replied. "Get moving. We have a quota to keep up."

The Vehicons then moved around to secure the room. Two Vehicons walked over to the computers and opened them all up. Winston, watching from above, now knew what to do.

First, he dropped a small tool to catch the Vehicons' attention. This works, as all of the Vehicons stopped what they were doing to turn their attention over to small tool clacking onto the floor. Winston used this opening to drop down from the ceiling, right on top of one of the Vehicons. All of the Vehicons activated their blasters and began to fire on Winston. The blasts seemed to have no effect, as Winston just moved onto the next one. He grabbed one by the head, and threw him into a wall. He jumped once more, behind two other Vehicons, and just bashed their heads together.

Winston then stopped for a breather, but that gave an opening for a black Decepticon to come in. He growled in annoyance, and just turned both of his arms into a shotgun. He just simply fired at Winston's face, which immediately knocked him out.

Winston woke up to a form of pain. He quickly realized that he was currently held by two of the remaining Vehicons, and the other remaining two were just standing guard. Winston's vision was still hazy, but he heard some murmurs of the black Decepticon muttering something to one of the Vehicons. He shook his head to get rid of the hazy vision, and he quickly came to. He looked up to see that same Decepticon slowly aim his shotgun at his head.

"I'll be sure to send your regards to the Prime…" The Decepticon said ominously. "Monkey…"

Winston gritted his teeth, and growled silently.

"I'm not a monkey…" He seethed.

He quickly clenched his fists, and braced himself. The Decepticon only made a face similar to raising an eyebrow.

"I'm an Autobot!" Winston finally declared.

He then threw his arms up, making the two Vehicons holding him let go. He then grabbed the one that held his left arm, and swung him around. He hit the other Vehicon and then the black Decepticon. The other two Vehicons that were simply on guard raised their blaster to shoot, but Winston leapt over them, making them miss. Winston landed behind the Vehicons, and pulled out his Tesla Cannon. He pulled the trigger, shooting out a short, but powerful shocks of electricity at the two Vehicons. After a few seconds, they fell to the floor, black smoke bellowing out of them. The black Decepticon from before quickly stood up and aimed his shotguns again. However, Winston fired his Tesla Cannon at him as well. The Decepticon was electrocuted as well, but instead of falling to the floor, he… evaporated?

Winston didn't have time to dwell on this, as the communicator went off again.

"Athena, who is it?" Winston asked.

"It is likely from Perceptor again." Athena replied. "He did request your presence at the Nerve Center approximately several cycles ago."

Winston rubbed the back of his head, and answered the communicator.

"Winston, what is the matter? I requested you to be here about-" Perceptor began, interrupted by the dead Vehicons behind Winston. "What happened?"

"Oh… a little… accident happened." Winston replied sheepishly. "Decepticons came here for something. Don't know why, I mean, my workshop is quite void of anything useful."

"Well, at least you're okay." Perceptor sighed. "Now, I need you here at the Nerve Center, chop chop."

And with that, the communication ended. Winston sighed, as he tucked his Tesla Cannon away. He then turned to leave.

"Winston, wait." Athena said.

"What is it, Athena?" Winston asked.

"What should I do about the Decepticons?" Athena asked.

Winston looked back. The dead Vehicon corpses were quite off-putting.

"Have the clean-up drones deal with them." Winston requested.

Winston began to make his way to the door, but stopped. He quickly walked back to his desk, where his Overwatch Team file was just sitting idly. He took a look at it, and thought hard. With some thinking, he took the file, and proceeded out of the door. Once outside, he then ran towards the door, and transformed into his pickup truck form and drove down the jagged road towards the Nerve Center.

Unbeknownst to both him and Athena however, several streams of black inky smoke coursed its way outside from within Winston's workshop and slowly assimilated into some kind of shape.