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20 Years Later...
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"Way back in the early 20th century, Detroit was known as the world's leading manufacturer of automobiles. If you wanted a car, it was probably made here in Detroit. But now as we enter the 21st century, Detroit has once again become the world's leading manufacturer, not of automobiles, but automatons! Robots! Always faithful, forever serving, no task to mundane, unpleasant, or difficult. Unaffected by any fear or phobia and able to survive in environments impossible for any human to survive. And it is here, in this very building where the automatons make their first step to better all mankind," Isaac Sumdac, now in his mid-forties, introduced, "Now, are there any questions?"
"Uh, Mister Sumdac, how'd you come up with all this cool stuff?" a kid asked.
"Well, when I was young, I was already an aspiring inventor. But then, well let's just say that luck was on my side, and soon enough, I was creating the latest and greatest machi—Woah!" Sumdac was tripped by a small mechanical puppy running through his legs. The dog was then followed by an eight year old redheaded girl with dark skin.
"Sparkplug! You get back here you mangy little fur-bot!" the girl demanded. She eventually caught the dog-bot and tried to pull something out of its mouth: a keycard. "Let go, n-n-n-now!" The dog let go with a bark and what could be perceived as a smile. The girl fell backwards and landed on top of her dad who was roughly only as tall as she was though much wider.
"Sorry dad," she apologized. Sumdac got up and brushed off the dust.
"Everyone I'd like to introduce my daughter, Sari Sumdac," her father introduced, "Sari, what do you say?" The gum-bubble Sari was blowing popped and covered her face.
"Anyone got a pair of scissors?" she asked. She managed to get the gum off then chewed it again. "Never mind."
"Eww..." the crowd said simultaneously. Her father merely sighed.
"So, what's it like to grow up around all these robots anyway?" a boy asked.
"I dunno, what's it like to go to school with other kids?" she answered.
"Once again, I'd like to apologize for my daughter's behavior, but she must be going back to her studies now," Sumdac said. Her tudor-bot appeared behind her and dragged her away.
"No! Not the tudor-bot! Anything but the tudor-bot! Nooo!" she screamed.
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"Here we are working on a set of special nano-bots," Sumdac motioned to the window next to them, revealing a lab filled with scientists buzzing around, "We believe that we can create microscopic robots that can be placed inside the human body and then self-replicate, acting like super white blood cells. This, my friends, is the first step to breaking the barrier between technological and organic. Possibly even the gateway to immortality!"
As Sumdac spoke, down in the lab, something was going horribly wrong. A roach being used to test the nano-bots began to grow quickly. Within seconds, the roach had grown to the size of a full-grown human and broken out of its container. It knocked over another container of nanos and absorbed them, suddenly going berserk, tearing through the lab and absorbing most of the technology and one of the scientists. The super roach leapt up and crawled the wall, heading straight for Sumdac's tour group...
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"Warning! Code red! All units to Sumdac Systems! Repeat! Code red!" the police scanner announced, just before Captain Fanzone managed to take a bite out of his Burger Bot Burger.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on my way," he replied. He ate the burger in three bites and drove off.
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The entire police force, most of the fire department, and several ambulances were waiting anxiously outside Sumdac Tower. Suddenly the roach, now three stories tall, leapt out of the building and roared.
Fanzone had finally arrived. "This is why I hate machines," he pulled up a megaphone, "Test. Testing one two." The megaphone squeaked irritably. "Will someone get me a bullhorn that works for crying out loud?!" An officer handed him another megaphone.
"Alright!" Fanzone shouted into the bullhorn, "SWAT teams get that thing away from the civilians! Emergency crews evacuate the people inside the building!" The SWAT teams shot at the giant roach. The roach, however, was unaffected and swung at them, absorbing most of the team and a police car.
Meanwhile, Isaac Sumdac, the tour group, and almost all the scientists were being led out by the fire department.
"Wait, wait! My daughter's still in there!" Sumdac protested, "Sari! SARI!"
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"Sparkplug!" Sari called, "Sparkplug! What happened in here?" She looked around at the destruction of the factory searching for her robotic dog.
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"Alright! Pull out the big guns!" Fanzone ordered. The SWAT teams then armed themselves with bazookas and aimed for the roach, waiting for the order to fire.
"Wait, Captain Fanzone, please, you don't want to attack this creature!" Sumdac advised.
"Oh yeah? Watch me," Fanzone replied, "Fire!" RPGs flew through the air at the giant insect and blew it apart, covering the area in goo.
"Oh dear," Sumdac muttered, more out of worry than disgust. And his worries were correct. The pieces began to ooze over everything and collect into one giant mass that reformed itself into the roach, except for one piece which had fallen into Lake Erie, and was now searching for something to absorb.
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Deep down, at the bottom of the lake, the goo had found something. It crept into a small crack in the hull and found its way in.
"Alert! Alert! Foreign object detected!" the security blared. The stasis pods that held the Autobots in a coma deactivated and awakened them.
"What's going on?" Bumblebee yawned.
"Search the ship for the problem," Optimus ordered. The rest nodded and looked around the ship for roughly two minutes when Ratchet announced over the comlink that he'd found the problem: a blob of rolling mass that was trying to "eat" part of a chair. Ratchet had caught it with his magnetizers and held it in a floating magnetic field.
"What is it?" Bumblebee asked. He tried to poke it but Ratchet slapped his hand away.
"You apparently don't understand the concept of 'looking with your eyes' do you Bumblebee?" Ratchet grumbled. Optimus walked over to the computer.
"Teletraan-1, deploy a reconnaissance drone." A small rocket shot out of the hull and splashed out of the lake. A small camera fed a video feed of a huge monster attacking some police while they shot at it with little results.
"Looks like those guys could use a hand," Bumblebee commented.
"And I know just who's gonna lend one," Optimus replied.
"You don't mean—" Bulkhead began. Optimus gave him a smile.
"He means," Bee finished glumly.
"Ratchet, you stay here and analyze this stuff. I got a feeling the monster and this thing are linked somehow," Optimus said. Ratchet nodded. "The rest of you, let's get on the Rover and help those guys out. Move out!"
"Hey, has anyone seen my other stinger?" Bumblebee asked.
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"All units fall back!" Fanzone ordered. The vehicles retreated while the monster continued to chase them. Then, a small rover drove onto the dock without any notice, and four people walked out.
"Now, try not to attract any attention until we can confirm there are no Decepticons," Optimus told the others.
"What do those idiots think they're doing?! You guys! I said fall back!" Fanzone ordered, "Wait a sec, they're not police." The four "civilians" were ducking and dodging the swinging tentacles then counter attacking to little effect.
One tentacle wrapped around Bulkhead, "Hey! Anyone wanna help?!" Bumblebee leapt into the air and fired his stingers at the tentacle.
"Hey, wait a sec, where are those guys going?" Bumblebee pointed at the retreating SWAT teams and fire trucks.
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"Sparkplug, get back here!" Sari demanded. Her dog had led her outside when she finally managed to grab him.
"Hey, who's that?" Bulkhead asked pointing at a redheaded girl wrestling with her robotic dog.
"Sparkplug, for the last time, GIVE THAT BACK!" Sari finally managed to wrestle away the keycard when Bulkhead appeared in front of her.
"Hello little girl. Did you lose your mommy?" Bulkhead said in a cute baby-like tone. Unfortunately, he failed to notice that she wasn't looking at him, but the tentacle looming behind him.
"AAAAAAAAAAHH!" she screamed.
"Look out!" Bumblebee shouted. Bulkhead and Bumblebee managed to doge in time; however, the tentacle grabbed Sari and was now holding her hostage thirty meters up at least.
"That girl needs our help!" Optimus observed, "Autobots, formation Alpha!" The Autobots then activated their weaponry: Optimus's battle axe, Prowl's throwing stars, Bumblebee's stingers, and Bulkhead's wrecking ball.
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"Sari! That's my daughter up there! Captain Fanzone, you must send someone to help!" Fanzone simply turned Sumdac so he was now staring at the four people still fighting the monster.
Sari, meanwhile, had stopped screaming and was watching Optimus. His axe activated and glowed blue.
"Cool," she uttered.
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"Autobots ATTACK!" Optimus shouted. He leapt and activated the rocket on his axe flew him in a front flip and gave him enough momentum to slice right through a tentacle. Prowl launched his throwing stars, but they were merely absorbed by the monster.
"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" Bulkhead launched his wrecking ball and hit the monster in the head. It dropped Sari, but Bumblebee caught her.
"Hi I'm Bumblebee," he introduced.
"I'm Sari," she replied.
"Ah don't be, I like my name," he smiled. He put her down inside a car garage.
"No what I mean is my name is Sari," she corrected.
"Ohh..."
"So who are you anyway?"
"I'm an Autobot," he began.
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