Chapter 5: The Decepticons
"You left your posts and you left the entrance to the entire base completely vulnerable to both Decepticon attack and discovery from curious Earthlings and the latter almost did happen if it wasn't thanks to Hound's holograms" blared Optimus Prime obviously upset that Mirage and Hound left their posts.
"But Prime we told you we had to escape otherwise those nosey Earthlings would have…" Prime cut Mirage off.
"I know that but you shouldn't have ventured off on your own to be nosey yourselves. If you detected anything suspicious you should have contacted me or Prowl and we would've given you further orders"
Mirage and Hound in unison said sorry. But thankfully for them Prime wasn't going to punish them.
"However you two did find out some very valuable information"
Hound and Mirage looked up confused.
"Not only did you record some short but valuable footage of Earth based culture you also found out an Earthling road system right outside of our base. This can prove to be a problem if we are to remain hidden in this mountain and had we not discovered it sooner our base would have already been compromised. So for finding us this information I will not dish out any reprimands." Mirage and Hound saluted with relief.
"Yes Prime, thank you sir" they said in Unison and Optimus laughed.
"Ok you two at ease. While you two were racing with Earthlings all the rest of the Autobots have finished being reformatted and it is now our turn to go in the stasis pods. Follow me."
Hound and Mirage followed Optimus & Prowl through to the pod chamber. When they entered Mirage saw Earthling cars all over.
"Primus, they're all over stop them!" he readied his gun and set it to stun, but Prime stopped him.
"Stand down Mirage, those are Autobots. This is the result of the reanimation procedure"
"Oh, sorry sir" said Mirage.
At the other end of the room Bumblebee still in robot mode was looking down to his partner Cliffjumper who was in Car mode.
"Well how do I look?" asked Cliffjumper.
"Well you look like an Earthling alright!" replied Bumblebee.
"What the slag is this thing anyway" said Cliffjumper holding out his tongue, Bumblebee then got a wicked idea.
He opened a small storage compartment in his arm and pulled out a bunch of prickly leaf branches but Cliffjumper did not know that.
"Here taste this" said Bumblebee with a smile, Cliffjumper licked the leaves.
"OOOWWW!" he yelled with Bumblebee rolling on the floor laughing.
"You piece of molten metal you did that on purpose" roared Cliffjumper in a muffled tone, because of his tongue swelling from the nettles.
Once Prime had regained order, he had the rest of the Autobots take over duties on the ark while himself, Hound, Prowl and Mirage changed into their alternative Earth modes. A whole day passed as T-1 reformatted the last four Autobots into Earth disguises, once the computer had finished Optimus Prime stepped out of his Pod.
"I feel, I feel so different" he said.
"Yet as different as it is it feels nice."
"That's because the new internal half organic/half robotic infrastructure within you can make you feel feelings like you've never felt before." Prime looked down to see a modern type of police car talking to him.
"Prowl is that you?"
"Yes Prime"
"What does that word say on your side?"
"It say's 'Police' T-1 explained to me that the 'police' are this planet's law enforcers."
"Excellent, disguising some of us as Earth based law enforcers will enable us to move more freely among this world and possibly gain the trust of the populous."
"Ah the old 'befriend the planet' strategy" said Prowl.
"Yes, in the case that we are compromised as aliens to this world we will act on that strategy. Perhaps offer them aid and protection from the Decepticons but we will worry about that later, right now we must set up patrols and scout the surrounding area in further detail Prowl seeming as you're disguised as an Earth based law enforcement officer you will lead the patrol."
"Yes Sir" replied Prowl bending his vehicle's radio antennae to form a salute, Optimus then gathered up his troops.
"Autobots listen up. I need seven volunteers to go on Patrol with Prowl, anyone wishing to go on patrol please come forward."
"Aw heck I've been dying to see some of the local area I'll go" said Bumblebee.
"I'll go too Prime I've been dying to sample a bit of Earth culture and get down to one of those thumping soundtracks that Hound recorded" said Jazz.
"I'm sick of being on guard duty. It's about time I got out there and gave Megatron a kick in the mouth so hard even Starscream will feel it" roared Ironhide.
"Wherever Ironhide goes I go. I want to prove to him that us small 'bots can be as tough as he is" said Brawn.
"I wanna go too Optimus, like Bumblebee I want to see more of Earth too" said Hound
"I'll go too, I don't want Hound to be on his own without me to protect him" said Mirage as he put his hand on Hound's Shoulder.
"Well I suppose I had better go too Prime. I'd rather be there to repair them on the field rather than going through the anguish of waiting for them to come back in the form of a walking junkyard" sighed Ratchet.
"Very well then you seven, you will go on patrol with Prowl, the rest of us will stay here and see to disguising our base from the main road so as to avoid any other curious Earthlings from sneaking into our base. But remember you're acting in stealth mode here so try not to interact too much with the locals or one wrong word or act could compromise us to them and the Decepticons. And if you run into any Decepticons try to draw them away to a secluded and unpopulated spot, we don't want collateral damage and to reveal ourselves to Earth, now transform and follow Prowl, he knows where to go."
And with that the seven Autobots transformed and joined up with Prowl.
"Let's roll out troops" he said and lead the way out the Ark, out of the forest and onto the road. As they drove down the road through Tailfin Pass Prowl heard a horrendous noise coming from nearby.
"By the optics of Alpha Trion what is that noise?" he asked.
It was Jazz, using his vehicle's radio he had tuned into a local music station and was listening to 'Route 66' by John Mayer and was bobbing along to the music as he went in enjoyment.
"Jazz turn that racket off will you, I get enough audio receptor aches from Blaster never mind you"
"Aw C'mon Prowl it would do you a world of good to just lay back and listen to some crazy tunes and getting to know music from other planets would really make you one cool robot among others" replied Jazz he was really into music and culture.
"As much as I want to learn other Cultures Jazz, I agree with Prowl that music is too off putting and it's distracting us from the mission at hand" said Bumblebee.
"Ah darn it, I sometimes think you 'Bots don't wanna become cool & hip"
"We Don't" replied Ironhide with a straight face.
Just then two cars drove through the group of Autobots at dazzling speed, they were both the same type of snazzy looking sports car but one was black, the other white. While they drove past one said in a voice that didn't change tone:
"Outta my way primitive creatures"
"How rude, I oughta kick him up the rear pipe!" shouted Bumblebee.
"Ignore them Bumblebee probably just some reckless Earth punks like Hound and Mirage ran into earlier" said Prowl.
"I don't think they were Earth punks Prowl" said Hound.
"What do you mean Hound?"
"Don't you smell it Prowl? That smell, those are Decepticons!"
"DECEPTICONS!?" shouted Irohinde "Where are they I'll blast them into dust!"
"Decepticons, are you sure Hound?" said Prowl.
"I'm certain, and judging by the black and white color scheme and exact same match of car I would say that was Runabout and Runamuck."
This didn't make Prowl happy, he wasn't expecting to not bump into Decepticons as was the reason for this whole search & destroy mission, but it turns out Decepticons found them and Prowl was totally taken by surprise by running into Decepticons this soon and so close to the Autobot's home base.
"What I don't get is, wouldn't we have been able to detect them coming so close to us?" asked Bumblebee.
"Unfortunately Autobots, at first we thought it was only a theory but it turns out T-1 was right in his warnings. By assuming an Organic based vehicle mode, our robot based tracking systems and computers are now defunct in vehicle mode." The rest of the Autobots almost screamed.
"You mean we're completely blind in vehicle mode? How are we meant to find the Decepticons?" roared Brawn.
"With our optics" replied Prowl, "But if those are Decepticons in Earth modes they didn't detect us either otherwise they would not have drove past us so closely."
"Well that's some good news but I better just say that those walking piles of Deceptijunk are getting away!" shouted Jazz.
"Ok Autobots follow them!" commanded Prowl and the Autobot group shot off in dazzling speed after the Deceptitwins Runabout & Runamuck, their Cybertron based engines combined with their new Earth bodies allowed them much greater speed on Earth than in their Cybertron modes.
Meanwhile the Decepticon twins were discussing their mission.
"What's the plan Runamuck?" asked Runabout.
"Megatron has ordered us to raid the nearby town for more fuel based energy at a place called Flo's. Once we steal the energy we head back to base and keep in stealth mode at all costs, so no going into robot mode"
Just then the Deceptitwins heard sirens, from an Earth based police car no doubt.
"What the Earthling police forces are after us already? There's no way they could've found out about our raid this Early" said a beleaguered Runamuck.
"We'll have to lose them, once we have we'll return to our objective" ordered Runabout and the two drove off at 210+ mph normally Earth based police couldn't catch them, but for some reason this one was catching up.
"What on Primus? Runamuck that police car is catching up to us at 220 mph plus." Runamuck looked into his rear view mirrors and Runabout was right.
"Something's not right" he said "quickly drive through the town, full speed!" and the Decepticons shot off with the (unknown to them) Autobots following closely behind.
Meanwhile back in Radiator Springs, outside of Flo's McQueen was flirting with Tia & Mia. Although he knew Sally wouldn't like it he still retained his flamboyant personality from before he moved to Radiator Springs. Tia & Mia were asking all sorts of questions.
"So Lightning how fast can you actually go?" said Tia.
"Yeah Lightning tell us!" said Mia.
"Aw girls, girls surely you know that my name, isn't just a name it also implies how fast I really am. I'm faster that fast, I'm quicker than quick, I'm Lightning!"
Just as McQueen was talking the Transformers rounded the corner…
"Yesiree I am the Fastest thing alive on this planet today nobody can beat my 900 hore power engine, KA-CHO…"
Lightning stopped in shock as he saw the disguised Transformers speed past him and Tia & Mia at 290-300mph. As the Transformers disappeared from sight within seconds the three cars were left with their mouths wide open in amazement. Sheriff drove into view, his facial expression the same as Stickers'.
"Man, there is no way I'm chasing after them at THAT speed!" said Sheriff.
Back to the chase, Runabout and Runamuck were still trying to evade the police but couldn't lose them. Runabout looked into his mirrors then noticed that civilian looking cars were with the police car going at the exact same speed.
"Hey Runabout look at those civvies behind the Earth police car, they're all going at the same speed!"
"This isn't right Runamuck civilian cars on Earth don't go that fast." Then the cars following them started firing lasers at the Decepticons.
Thankfully the Autobots were still able to use their hidden vehicular based weaponry in Car mode and were unloading on the Decepticons trying to aim for the tyres.
"They're firing at us, and if I'm not mistaken that's Energon fire, that can only mean one thing Runamuck"
"AUTOBOTS" replied Runamuck "Of course that is Prowl leading the pack, and we're outnumbered!"
"We're in over our heads Runamuck, Come on let's head towards the motorway and lose them in the busy traffic. Those sentimental fools won't dare endanger the lives of innocents." And they drove into the nearby highway with the Autobots following.
Innocent Cars were driving all along the motorway going through their daily routines. However (apart from the noise of the hundreds of engines) the peace and quiet was destroyed when Runabout & Runamuck burst onto the scene.
"Out of our way!" they shouted as they drove into the wrong lane (the right hand side) with all sorts of oncoming cars turning and braking to avoid collision.
"Hey watch out!" shouted a female car.
"Woah you lot from England or something? This is the wrong side ya morons!" shouted another male car.
But the Deceptitwins paid no attention to their screams and warnings as they drove in a straight line without putting any effort into avoiding the cars, and any cars that didn't move met steel with Cybertronian titanium (basically like a human trying to head butt a wall) and any cars that did collide with the Decepticons twisted and crashed into oblivion, the Decepticons just laughed at the expense of others misfortune, their strategy now was to create civilian casualties and hope the Autobots will give up chase to help the injured.
The Autobots in the meantime were trying desperately to avoid all the oncoming traffic and wreckage that the Decepticons were making. Ratchet looked around and saw the injured innocents crying for his help, he wondered why but when he looked in his rear mirror he saw the side of his vehicle form says 'ambulance'.
"Of course, T-1 must've given me an Earth based medical vehicle form" and as the Autobot's medic/mechanic it was pretty logical for him to be an Ambulance. Ratchet then stopped and was seen by Prowl who also stopped while the rest of the group gave chase.
"Ratchet why have you stopped?" asked Prowl.
"Those innocent vehicles, they need medical treatment" replied Ratchet.
"Leave that job to Earthling doctors Ratchet"
"No Prowl I am a doctor and as a doctor I have a responsibility to treat both Autobot & civilians wounded as a result of our battles. And if you haven't noticed I am an Earth doctor now." Ratchet tilted his side for Prowl to see the word 'Ambulance'.
"Of course T-1 must've given you an Earth based emergency vehicle as an alt mode."
"Please Prowl I have to help them; judging by the huge expanse of the desert it could be a long time before any Earth doctors get here." Prowl sighed, while he could do with the manpower, he knew as Autobots they had a responsibility or rather a mission to aid the innocent of planets the Autobots were fighting on.
"Very well Ratchet, do what you can for them but once Earthling emergency services arrive with sufficient resources I want you to rejoin the rest of us ASAP."
"Yes sir" replied Ratchet and watched Prowl drive back off and as he did so Ratchet tended to a badly wrecked car that lost his front wheels and was severely dented.
"Don't worry I'm here to help now"
Meanwhile Runabout and Runamuck could still see the Autobots behind them.
"Runamuck we're still being tailed, it won't be long till they catch us!"
"Well Runabout it's about time we called in reinforcements." And Runamuck got onto his car radio.
With Prowl gone for the meantime Ironhide took over as commander, not from his authority but from his experience. Compared to other Autobots, Ironhide had been fighting the Decepticons for millennia before most of the Autobots he's with now were even created.
"Come on guys, we almost got the little retro-rats" he shouted.
But then the Deceptitwins veered off the road, one went left the other right back into the desert. Ironhide was a little confused.
"Aahh those little Decepticon rookies must've turned yellow and ran." Said Brawn.
"Er hate to ruin your gloating Brawn but I think they just drove away to let the reinforcements handle us!" said Bumblebee as he hinted forward.
The rest of the Autobots looked forward nervously for they saw a most terrifying sight. Belting down the road and obliterating any cars that got in the way were five vehicles a large black truck with grey trailer, three sports cars and an F1 looking race car all with devious smiles on their faces as they smashed the other cars out of the way with Enjoyment.
"Outta my way ya little runts!" shouted the cackling black truck with the other smaller cars laughing.
While they were Earth based vehicles, judging by the color schemes and the voice of the truck, it did not take long for the Autobots to figure out who they were, for there was only a certain group in the entire universe that drove so recklessly, destructively and enjoyed it.
"STUNTICONS!"