Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. I don't own the gobots either.

It had taken an entire day, but it was still worth it. Just getting here from the Laurentian Divide had been hard enough. In fact, if they didn't have Scourge along they might not have even found this place. This was the place, though. This was the place that Starscream's Decepticons met on a regular basis. Starscream's Decepticons, it sounded so wrong to Galvatron. But at the same time it mad him chuckle a bit. Starscream was good at following orders, and he was an amazing warrior, but he was not leadership material. The only reason people had followed him was because he was Megatron's lieutenant. He was paranoid, he was overconfident, and he was all about glory and conquest, but failed to see all the little steps that would be necessary to so much as achieve those goals. Quite Frankly Galvatron was surprised that no one had challenged him when he took over. Maybe Galvatron was being overly critical. After all Starscream had devised some good plans in the past, and he had shown exceptional skill on the battlefield. During an intense fight, he sometimes showed what might even be called genius. It didn't matter though. Soon he would be leader again. The less time that idiot was in charge the better.

"Hello Starscream!" Galvatron shouted as he and his entourage descended. Starscream couldn't believe his optics. The Decepticon that landed before him looked a lot like Megatron. It certainly sounded like Megatron. But it couldn't be. Megatron had been killed. There was no cure for a destroyed spark. Besides, this one had black armor instead of white, a large cannon on his arm, and although the vehicle he transformed into was certainly Cybertronian in origin, it was much sleeker and the wings curved forward instead of sticking straight out. Not to mention the two horns sticking out of his head. Still, something told him this was his former leader, returned from the terminated by some unknown force. He couldn't help but ask.

"Megatron? Is that you?"

"No longer. I am Galvatron! If you don't believe me, then you're a bigger fool than I realized."

"It really is you." Starscream couldn't contain his shock. The only person who had ever dared to say that to him was Megatron, Galvatron, whatever he called himself.

"I have come to reclaim leadership over the Decepticons!" Galvatron bellowed. He glared at Starscream. Then marching up to him, Galvatron grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved his cannon right into Starscream's torso, not damaging anything but still putting pressure on it.

"Does anyone have a problem with that?" He asked, optics fixed on the jet.

"N-no, of course not Mighty Galvatron," Starscream whimpered.

"Good." Galvatron released him and moved to a position where all could see him.

"Hail Galvatron!" shouted Cyclonus.

"Hail Galvatron!" Everyone replied.

"It is obvious I am no longer leader," Starscream interjected, "so I suppose I will return to my former post as your second-in-command."

"You assume far too much, Starscream," Galvatron replied. "That position belongs to both Cyclonus and Blitzwing. However I'm in a good mood today, so if you can defeat either of them you may take their place. Now whom do you challenge?"

Starscream began to size up his competition. He knew that Blitzwing had once been Devastator, and he was a powerful warrior before any modifications had been made. Blackout on the other hand, had never been much of a fighter. Starscream doubted any modifications to turn him into Cyclonus would be significant enough to overcome his previous short comings. He still looked the same. In fact, he had changed the least out of any of the modified Decepticons. Starscream's choice was obvious.

"I challenge Cyclonus."

"You'll regret that." Cyclonus spat back at him. He reached behind him and pulled his rotor off his back. He grabbed one of the blades, and slowly each blade interlocked with the other, leaving only one still connected to the centerpiece. Cyclonus swung the massive flail at Starscream, catching him off guard and hitting him square in the chest sending him flying though the air and hitting the ground with a thud. The blades of Cyclonus' flail connected to form the hilt of a mace. He leaped into the air with the weapon held high over his head. Starscream rolled out of the way just in time as the mace smashed through the ground where he had just lain. Quickly he got to his feet and fired a few missiles at Cyclonus, but this time the rotor formed a shield and absorbed most of the blast, itself looking hardly the worse for wear. Cyclonus threw the shield at Starscream, who barely dodged it and started firing more missiles. One of them hit Cyclonus, knocking him down and putting a big, smoking hole in his armor. Starscream did the closest thing to smiling a robot without lips could, but something was about to knock that smile right off his face.

The shield was circling back. Starscream had moved too far away when he dodged it the first time for a direct hit, but it still left a large gash in his side. He screamed in pain and was distracted long enough for Cyclonus to leap on top of him and pin him down.

"Do you give up?" he asked impatiently.

"Yes, yes, I give up. Now please get off me!" Cyclonus stood up and began to walk away, and Starscream fired another missile from behind. There was an explosion, but when the smoke cleared, it was obvious Cyclonus' shield (now reattached to his back) had blocked the attack.

"Care to try that again?" he asked in an irritated tone.

"Not particularly."

"Barricade, repair them." Galvatron ordered. He walked over to Starscream and looked down at him with disdain.

"How the mighty have fallen." he smirked. "Oh and just out of curiosity, Starscream, what were you planning to do as leader of the Decepticons?"

Secretary of defense John Keller rarely visited truck stops. However this was an important meeting and a truck stop just happened to be the best place to hold it. It took him a while, but eventually he found what he was looking for. It was a large blue Peterbilt truck decorated with flames. In it sat a driver who was had a somewhat glazed look in his eye, as if his head was up in the clouds. Keller opened the door and got in.

"So…" Optimus Prime began, "has the president agreed to my proposition?" Keller sighed and prepared to give him the news.

"I'm sorry Prime, he refused the terms."

"I feared as much." This was unfortunate. Optimus had sincerely hoped that this proposition would bring the humans closer together, and decrease the amount of in-fighting that they often went through. However in order for it to work, they would have to get over some of their differences, something they were apparently not ready to do. He really was too much of an optimist (no pun intended).

"Don't get me wrong, the president was thrilled when he heard that you were willing to share advanced technology with us. It's just that second condition—"

"The one about sharing it with the other nations of this planet?"

"Yes, that one. To be honest, there are parts of the world that don't even have running water or electricity, what would they do if we gave them cold fusion? And then you have countries like Iran and North Korea. They'd just use any technology we gave them to build weapons, and then use them against us and our allies. Do you think the American government, or any government for that matter, can afford to take that risk?"

"No."

"I'm glad you understand," Keller said in a calming voice, "but that's not the only reason I came to talk to you."

"Really?"

"Yes. Five meteors crashed in the continental United States and then disappeared. we tried to cover it up as best we could, but I want to know something. Were they all Autobots?"

"No. Only two. If the other three were Autobots they would have contacted me as soon as they landed. They didn't."

"Have you told the kids?"

"No. I didn't want to worry them. It's true they helped us defeat Megatron, but they're still only kids. They have no military training whatsoever, they aren't nearly as brilliant scientists as ratchet and some of the people you have working for you. They need to live their own lives. It's not good for them to be caught up in any of this."

"No, it's not. But like it or not Prime, they are; and between you and me, I doubt that will change very much. You'll have to tell them at some point."

"Anything else you wanted to say?" Optimus asked.

"No, that was about it. I'll let you go."

"Thank you, Keller. For someone so young you're a lot of help."

"What do you mean young? Wait a minute, how old are you?"

"By your earth measurements of time, roughly five thousand years."

"Good God. When do you retire?" the secretary of defense half-joked.

"When the war is over." Keller got out of the truck as it pulled away, admiring it more than ever.

"I'm surprised. That's actually a good idea. Although my objectives may be different, I think I could actually use part of your plan."

"Thank you Mighty Galvatron, I live to serve."

"Once Barricade has repaired you I want you to take Skywarp and Thundercracker and carry out the first step of your plan. Hopefully your study of the flesh-creatures' politics was not in vain."

"As you command."

"Soundwave! Hack into the government's computers again and cause whatever havoc you can. You'll have to wait for Barricade to take you. Do you understand?"

"Y-yes M-mighty G-galvatron." Galvatron let out a loud laugh. Yes, he thought. Soon Optimus Prime, and the matrix, will be destroyed.

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