Transformers Prime – A New Life

Chapter 6: Familiar Faces

MJ had to admit, in her lifetime, and the time she spent with Peter, she had seen some pretty crazy and amazing things… but none of that compared to what she had just experienced. For about half an hour after she had gotten off the ship, Jack, Raf, and Miko had introduced all of team Prime and explained their backstory, which she found to be highly miraculous. Never in her life did she ever imagine that giant mechanical alien lifeforms would be living amongst them disguised as vehicles. And what amazed her even more, was that they were still fighting a war between the Decepticons and managing to keep it all a secret from the rest of the world.

But their story wasn't the only one being told in the base. When asked about how she managed to evade the Cons on their ship, and why she had web-shooters, MJ began to explain about her relationship with Peter Parker, better known as Spider-Man. After the words had come out of her mouth, she could swear that Miko's eyes were going to pop out of her head and that both Jack and Raf were about to collapse from shock. After the initial surprise had passed, she went into further detail about her time with Peter, and of course the certain rough spots that happened in their relationship. Finally, she reached the part about how Peter's enemies had sought out and attempted to kill his Aunt, and friends to get their revenge. Upon hearing that he had taken on all his enemies at once despite severe injuries, everybody, human and Autobot alike, was taken aback, amazed at just how brave Peter was. Then MJ started to tear up and hug Petey closely as she finished the story with how the one person she loved more than anything in the world, died right in her arms.

Miko walked up to MJ and consolingly put her hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry, MJ."

"Yeah," Jack chimed in, "He didn't deserve to die, but he did manage to save you and several other people," he continued trying to help her feel better, "he was a hero."

"I know," MJ said as she wiped away some tears, "But I still wish there was something I could've done to help save him."

Petey started to whimper a bit before he started crying himself. Thinking quickly, MJ carefully cradled him in her arms and began to rock him gently. After about a minute of rocking, the little guy calmed down and MJ couldn't help but smile. There was something about being a mother that felt just incredibly rewarding, especially in moments like this.

A second later, Petey opened his eyes, looked up at the Autobots, and giggled upon seeing Bumblebee. At first, Bee just whirred in apparent confusion, but a moment later he crouched down, put his hands in front of his face and started playing peekaboo with Petey, who just laughed.

Everybody either smiled or laughed at this, all except for Ratchet who simply looked away and shook his head in disbelief. "Genuinely amazing how a newborn human can be so easily amused."

Just then the doors to the bases elevator opened up and a dark-skinned, middle-aged man in a suit stepped out and walked up to the railings which prompter everyone, human and Autobot. to redirect their attention. "Prime," he said to Optimus, "I've received a notification that you and your team recently stormed the Cons warship. Mind telling me for the record what you were doing?"

"Agent Fowler," Optimus addressed the visitor, "my team and I boarded the ship to perform a rescue operation."

"Don't tell me one of the kids somehow got stuck on that thing again," Fowler said in slight disbelief.

"It wasn't any of us, Agent Fowler," Jack said as he stepped forward.

MJ then started walking up, which gave the man a bit of a surprise. "It was me they had to rescue from the Decepticons. Me and my son."

"Ah," the man simply said in response, "Hello, Ms.…"

"Watson."

"Ms. Watson," Fowler said before straightening himself, "I'm special agent William Fowler of the United States Government. I'm the Autobot's general liaison."

"Yeah," began Bulkhead, "kinda like our own personal government assigned babysitter," he finished with a chuckle.

"Hilarious," Fowler responded stoically.

"Joking aside," continued the Wrecker, "we probably wouldn't've been able to get aboard and save MJ and her kid if it hadn't been for someone finding the Cons ship and telling us."

"Come again?" Fowler asked the wrecker with a confused expression.

"Before we got on the ship we received an encoded transmission from somebody who said that they knew about her being taken by the Cons, and where the ship was," Bulkhead answered, "I just assumed it was either you or one of your other guys…"

"Well obviously it wasn't, Bulk," Arcee interjected, "If it was any of them then he probably would've told us himself, and he wouldn't have visited us."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Bulkhead said before scratching his head a bit in thought and turning his attention back to Agent Fowler, "But if it wasn't you or anyone in your division who sent it, then who…" Before he could finish his sentence, the elevator door opened again and a tall, bald, black man with a patch over his left eye, walked into the base.

"I was the one who sent you the intel," the man said after walking up beside Agent Fowler.

While everybody just looked at the man in apparent surprise, Optimus stepped forward to greet him. "A pleasure to see you again, Director Fury."

"Likewise, Prime," the man said.

"General," Mary Jane said looking up to the new visitor with a seemingly impassive face.

"Ms. Watson," the man replied with the same amount of emotion.

"Hold it," Miko interjected before turning her attention to all of team Prime, but mostly Optimus himself, "Would somebody mind explaining what exactly all of this is about?" she asked before starting to tap her foot impatiently.

In response, the Autobot leader gestured to their new visitor. "This is Nicholas J. Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Both Jack and Miko asked in unison.

"The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," Raf answered.

"That's right, son," Fury said before returning his gaze to Optimus.

"General," Optimus addressed Fury, "I would like you to officially meet our new human allies," he said before gesturing to the kids on the ground level.

"Pleasure," Fury nodded to them before making his way down the stairs, "Now to answer your question, Ms. Nakadai," he stated to Miko, "like Agent Fowler's people, SHIELD helps to keep the Autobots out of the public eye, but we also help maintain their secrecy from other specific people that we as well as aid them in any other… what you might call… special cases."

"Special cases?" Raf asked.

"He sometimes sends us on assignments or provides us assistance on missions that have something to do with any super-powered individuals," Arcee explained.

"Correct," Fury replied as he reached the bottom of the staircase, "We also, from time to time, locate and inform them of any Decepticon related activity, especially when it involves any of our enemies. Which is how we knew the location of the Nemesis: we'd been tracking it for several weeks and finally got it pinned down, waiting for the right opportunity to call in team Prime and have them take it down. However, when we learned that Ms. Watson and her son had been taken aboard, we decided to take action and send them in as soon as possible."

"Yeah, thanks for the assist, Eyepatch," Bulkhead replied.

"Your very welcome," Fury responded with an indifferent attitude, "Anyways, I'm certain that Ms. Watson has a few questions of her own for me to answer," he said as he began walking down the stairs to ground level.

MJ just looked at the man with an angry face. "Yes, actually… I do."

In response to the seemingly hostile tone she used, the others backed away while bumblebee let out a very nervous sounding sequence of beeps.

"For starters, I'd like to know how even you could possibly have the nerve to show up here and save me and my son when you and your people did nothing to save Peter!" MJ just yelled out in rage.

Fury just sighed and looked down at the floor. "Believe me," he started before looking back up at MJ with a face of regret, "not a day goes by that I don't regret abandoning him when he needed help, but I was ordered by the World Security Council, the people who oversee .E.L.D. and to whom I report, to deal with other matters, forcing me to just leave him there to take care of himself."


11 months ago, New York City

Fury was standing on the bridge with his finger to his ear, arguing with the person on the other end of the communication line while Captain America was standing just a couple feet away from him, holding Peter's barely conscious body in his arms. Right then he was in the worst possible position: not only was there a small-scale war going on between rogue shield Agents and other superheroes, one of the best heroes that he had ever seen in all his experience had been shot and was now bleeding to death. And to make matters potentially worse, he was being called back by his superiors to help deal with matters back at home base and just leave Peter there to die. Just before he had the chance to talk back to his superiors he heard a raspy moaning and turned to find Peter trying to lift his hand.

"Just go…" Peter weakly said while clutching his aching side with his other hand, "I'll… I'll just swing to… the nearest… hospital…. Ow!"

"No way, son," Cap said to the young hero, "In your current condition, there's no way you'll get to the hospital in time."

Fury then stepped forward with a deadly serious look on his face. "And I for one am not going to allow it on my conscience that you died while I just did what my superiors said and did nothing to help you."

Fury then stepped forward with a deadly serious look on his face. "And I for one do not want it on my conscience that you died while I just did what my superiors said and did nothing to help you."

"Just… go…" Peter insisted while also cringing a bit from the pain, "I've… been through worse than this… before…, I'll… I'll be able to… manage this."

Fury just stood there for a minute, his disposition showing nothing obviously uncertainty. Finally, he looked to Cap and gave him a small nod. Now it was Cap's turn to feel the horrible uncertainty as he laid Peter down on the ground in a seated position. However, just before they walked away, Fury searched the lining of his coat, and out a small syringe which he attached a needle too.

"At the very least let me give you some of this, it might just be able to help," fury suggested as he presented Peter with the syringe.

"What is that… stuff?" Peter asked.

Fury then kneeled down and rolled up the right sleeve of Peter's costume. "It's a chemical some of our scientists developed to help give someone's healing abilities a temporary, yet considerable, boost. It might just help stabilize you and give you some more time to get yourself to the hospital."

Peter gave a week nod and allowed Fury to inject him with the chemical. After a moment he stood up, actually feeling a little bit better but still felt some throbbing in his side where the bullet hit him. He then took a second to cover his wound with some webbing, before turning back to Fury. "I think I can take it from here, Fury."

"Alright," Fury acknowledged, "I'll also do what I can to ensure that your identity stays a secret… now get moving."

And with that, Peter jumped up, spun a web-line, and swung away.


Present Day, the Autobot Base

"From there I did what I could to ensure that nobody would learn of his secret identity," Fury continued. "I had some of my technical experts cause a media blackout all across the city so that if somebody did manage to get a picture or video of him they couldn't upload it to any social media sites. After that, I planned to track down anybody who had either seen or taken photos of him and pay them off to delete any visual media they had and for them to keep their mouths shut about his identity."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Bulkhead commented.

"However, after I'd learned what happened to Peter, I just felt an overwhelming sense of guilt," Fury said as he glared at the floor of the base, "If I had just gotten him some help like I wanted to, then he wouldn't've have died that night."

MJ couldn't help but feel a small pang of guilt: here she was thinking Fury just left Peter to die when in fact Peter told him that he would take care of himself so as to keep him from getting in any trouble. Even though he was dead, she still loved him with all her heart. He just never stopped trying to do the right thing.

"I'm sorry I doubted you," MJ said to the general, "If I'd known…" she trailed off.

"It's alright," Fury said looking back up at MJ, "Given the circumstances, I don't really blame you. And as for why I helped out now," he continued, "after the funeral, I thought to myself that if I couldn't save him then I would do whatever I could to protect everybody that he cared about."

MJ wiped a small tear from her eye and sniffed a bit before looking back to Fury, a thankful expression present on her face. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," the general replied with a small smile, "Now, in case you were wondering after I learned about your being pregnant, I just figured that Peter was the father, and I had the feeling that your father would've been the least of your problems. So, sometime after you ran away, I made sure to have agents keep track of you and ensure that anybody who would likely want to use your son for whatever purposes, couldn't do the same. Which reminds me," he said as he reached into and felt around in his pocket, "Here," he finished as he tossed something to MJ, "This may help."

MJ took a look at the small watch-like device that Fury had just given her, fairly confused. "What is it?" she asked.

"It's an inhibitor bracelet," Fury replied, "simply put it on his wrist and it should hide his genetic signature from any scanning devices."

"Thus, rendering him virtually invisible to those means of searching, and making it that much harder for anybody who's looking for him to actually find him," Ratchet concluded, before looking down at the general, "Rather ingenious, Fury."

"Thanks."

"One question I have is: how did you manage to make something like this?" Bulkhead asked.

"It's a little something SHIELD's R & D department came up with after studying and reverse engineering some tech that we acquired from the MRD," Fury responded.

Upon hearing that, the Autobots tensed up indicating to everybody else they knew very well who the MRD were and what they did.

"I'm guessing you guys know about the MRD," Jack asked as he walked up to Arcee.

Arcee looked down at her human friend and gave a small nod. "Fury, on a few occasions, has had us go in and deal with some of their more… shady operations, as well as free some of the mutants that they've captured. During those missions, we've actually seen first-hand what those monsters are capable of."

"You ask me, it outa be those freaks getting locked up in cages and not those poor kids," Bulkhead added.

"No Argument there," Fury agreed, "Anyways, I figured I could at least make their tech go to some good use."

MJ then took a minute to place the bracelet around Petey's right wrist. Once it was secured, the dial gave a small beep and its backlights turned from red to green indicating that the suppression circuits were engaged.

"Thanks for your help, Fury," MJ said giving her baby another loving hug.

"You're very welcome," the man nodded, "Now as for your stay in Jasper…" he continued, "I believe I may be able to help you out with a few things."


Back on the Nemesis, Megatron had just returned to the bridge after giving Knockout a brutal beating and leaving him to recover in the medical bay. The other crew could tell from their leaders' disposition that he was likely to do something similar to anybody who ticked him off any further. So, in response, they decided to keep their distance and let him walk to the front of the ship and stare at the horizon below.

Airachnid then decided to approach her leader. "Lord Megatron," she began with a salute, "pardon me for asking, but I thought I should ask, what is our next move?"

Megatron simply turned his head and glanced at his lieutenant. "Our 'next move', Airachnid, is to locate the infant yet again," he said looking back to the horizon, "It's unique genetic makeup will greatly advance our cause, and perhaps even finally provide us with a significant advantage over the Autobots," the Decepticon leader finished with a wicked grin.

"I understand that my lord," Airachnid replied, "But…"

"Yes, yes," Megatron interrupted her, "By now there's no doubt that the Autobots have already taken measures to mask his signature…" he said trailing off and rubbing his chin in a bit of deep thought, "if we are to find him again, we'll need to seek out someone who's more than accustomed to tracking in this manner as well as capable of dealing with any Autobot guardians."

Airachnid's eyes widened as she realized just what her leader was talking about. "Master, you're not seriously thinking of—"

"Indeed, I am," Megatron responded before turning around and looking to Soundwave, who had just walked up behind them, "Send the message to him, immediately."

In response, the Decepticon communications chief simply turned to a computer terminal, extended a mechanical tentacle from his chest and plugged it in. Seconds later, he began transmitting a message to somewhere in deep space, as indicated by a series of images on the computer screen. A progress circle popped up on the screen and began filling up, indicating the progression of the transmission. Once the message was confirmed sent, Megatron sinisterly smiled. He may have failed to hold onto the girl and her child for now, but he was more than determined to get them back alive, by any means necessary.


Later, in a seemingly abandoned warehouse, Silas, the leader of the terrorist organization MECH, was standing in front of multiple screens which were continuously playing and replaying video recordings of both the Autobots and the Decepticons in battle. The more he learned about them, the more intrigued he became about them and their kind. The fact that such science even existed… the possibilities for how it could be applied to improve MECH and its own technology were just about limitless.

After about a minute, a MECH scientist Approached Silas. "Sir," the man stated.

"What is it, doctor?" Silas asked, an edge of annoyance clear in his voice.

"We've recently intercepted a transmission originating from the Decepticons warship, the Nemesis, and traced its destination to somewhere in deep space."

Silas turned to the man, now very interested in what he had to say. "I see. And what did you learn?"

"It took a while to decrypt the message," the man said before referring to a sheet of paper on a clipboard, "but we have determined that they're seeking the aid of someone to help them, track down a… human infant."

Now Silas became very intrigued. "An infant?"

"We were confused as well, sir," the scientist responded, "But we managed to hack into their database and download some information, and we've learned that they're after the child of the deceased superhero, Spider-Man."

"Ah," Mechs leader said as he began to rub his chin, "So it would appear that despite his death, his legacy has found some way to live on."

The scientist started getting excited from what his leader was saying. "it's possible that by obtaining even a single DNA sample from the child, we could significantly advance our own biotech programs and add to our arsenal."

Silas looked back at the man, a clear look of determination on his face. "Get whatever you need to track down the infant together as soon as possible," he ordered before returning to the screens, "it's time that MECH also got into the business of creating new living bio-weapons, and this… spider-child will help us to create our first," he finished with a wicked smile.

A/N: And that's it for now. I hope you all enjoy this chapter and I'll do my best to get the next one up as soon as possible. I own no franchises here.