The Legend of Elita

Chapter 3: Wake-Up Call

The family shrine was dark and silent. A gust of wind had blown out the burning incense. However, there was a charge in the air, like something that had started to wake up. Suddenly, the cyberglyphics on the tallest gravestone started to light up with a light blue color. Once they were all glowing, the light flowed out of it and upward. It coalesced together into a single shape and took form. The ethereal light became a ghostly figure of a robot. It appeared that in life, he had light-colored armor as well as a black helmet with a distinctive prong on the brow. The ghost floated downwards to sit on his gravestone and a staff appeared in his right hand.

Then he gestured towards the dragon-shaped incense burner and said, "Draco, awaken!" The dragon started glowing as the tray that held the ashes from burnt incense sticks started to shake, causing ashes to fall out. Then the incense burner dropped down in a cloud of fiery ashes, bouncing off of the floor three times, producing a metallic ring with each bounce.

Then a voice cried out, "I LIIIIIIVE!" A small green dragon shaped exactly like the incense burner rose up out of the ash cloud and looked around. "So tell me what mortal needs my protection, Yoketron. You just say the word and I'm there," said the dragon.

"Draco…" started Yoketron.

"Hey, let me say something," said Draco before saying, "If anyone's foolish enough to threaten our family, vengeance will be MINE!"

Yoketron sighed as Draco growled and tried to look menacing. "Draco!" snapped Yoketron, making the small dragon stop. Yoketron pointed up towards the ceiling of the shrine, where several statues, each representing an animal from the Chinese Zodiac, sat on small pedestals, "These are the family guardians, they…"

Draco sighed and said, "Protect the family."

"And you, oh demoted one…" said Yoketron, pointing at an empty pedestal between the Rabbit and Snake Guardians where the Dragon Guardian should have sat.

"I…ring the gong," said Draco dejectedly.

"That's right," said Yoketron, "Now, wake up the ancestors."

Draco sighed and picked up the gong that formed the ash collector of the incense burner along with a small stick. "One family reunion, coming right up," he said before banging on the gong while shouting, "Hey, people, people, look alive, come on, let's move it, rise and shine, it's a little too late for the beauty sleep thing, trust me." As Draco rang the gong, the other gravestones' cyberglyphcis started glowing and the light from them formed into other ghosts which sat on their gravestones.

One of the ghosts, an old femme, shouted, "I knew it! I knew it! That Elita was a troublemaker from the start!"

The mech's ghost next to her said, "Well, don't look at me. She gets it from your side of the family!"

Another older femme's ghost said, "She's just trying to help her father."

A ghost holding a calculator appeared next to her and started calculating, "But if she's discovered, Ratchet-One will be forever shamed, dishonor will come to the family, traditional values will disintegrate!"

A ghost of a farmer bot holding a pitchfork added, "Not to mention, they'll lose the farm."

The first femme ghost shouted, "My children never caused such trouble! They all became circuit-setters!"

"Well, we can't all be circuit-setters!" countered the mech's ghost right beside.

"No, your great-granddaughter had to be a cross-dresser!" snapped another femme's ghost. The ancestors' ghosts all started arguing loudly with each other. Yoketron sighed as they each gave their own opinion. Draco just sat on his tail, reading from a newspaper.

Suddenly, one of the mech ghost cried out, "Let a guardian bring her back!"

Draco saw this as a good reason to sneak away but was snatched by the second mech's ghost to speak. "Yeah, awaken the most cunning!" He held Draco up to the Tiger Guardian statue and Draco prepared to ring the gong.

But before he could strike, he was snatched by the calculating bot and held towards the Rabbit Guardian, "No, the swiftest!"

But then Draco was snatched by another old femme's ghost and held towards the Monkey Guardian, "No, send the wisest!"

Draco was getting annoyed by this passing around and was about to ring when Yoketron yelled, "Silence!" The femme's ghost dropped Draco with a clang. "We must send the most powerful of all," said Yoketron, indicating out the window towards the dragon statue that Elita sat under last night.

A light chuckling caught the ancestors' attention and they looked towards the empty pedestal where Draco had climbed up on. "Ok, ok, I get the gyp, I'll go," said Draco. The ancestors stared at him for a second before they burst out laughing. "You don't think I can do it?" asked Draco, "What this, then." He breathed in deeply and blew. Out of his mouth came a small ember which fizzled in midair. "Hot stuff! I'm pretty impressive, aren't I? The fact I've never singed nobody proves no point."

"You had your chance to protect the One family," said Yoketron.

"Your misguidance led Sentinel One to disaster!" snapped an old femme's ghost.

One of the ancestor's ghost, a mech who was holding his disembodied head with an enormous chin, grumbled, "Yeah, thanks a lot."

Draco gave the others a dubious look and asked, "And your point is?"

Yoketron floated up to him and said, "The point is, we will be sending a real dragon to retrieve Elita."

Draco looked shocked. "What? But, I'm a real dragon!" he shouted, grabbing Yoketron's head.

Yoketron removed himself from Draco's grasp. "You are not worthy of this spot," he said as he pulled Draco off of the pedestal, with a little resistance from Draco's clinging. "Now, awaken the Great Stone Dragon!" He threw Draco out of the shrine, making him skid along the floor as he went out.

Draco stuck his head back inside and asked, "So you'll get back to me on the job, then?" His gong was thrown at him and hit him in the face. The stunned dragon fell over as Yoketron rubbed his brow with annoyance.

Draco grumbled to himself as he walked down the stairs. "Just one chance, is that too much ask?" he muttered to himself, "It's not like I can get him killed again." He walked up to the dragon statue and started ringing his gong. "Yo, Rocky, wake up!" shouted Draco, "You gotta go fetch Elita!" However, the dragon statue remained motionless. Draco walked in front of the statue and threw his stick in front of it. "C'mon boy, go get her, c'mon," he said, talking like the dragon was a dog. However, the statue still didn't respond.

Draco growled as he used his gong to climb up the statue. He looked at it in the face and snarled before grumbling and climbing over to the side of its head. He shouted into the ear before banging his gong against it, "Hello? HELLOOOOO? Hello!" Suddenly, the ear snapped off and nearly went flying. Draco quickly grabbed the ear and put it back where it was. "Uh oh," he said. Cracks quickly went up the statue towards the head. In a few seconds, the entire dragon statue collapsed.

Draco coughed and waved the dust out of his face. He looked across towards the disembodied dragon head and tapped on it. "Uh, Stoney, Stoney? Oh man, they're gonna kill me!" muttered Draco.

Suddenly, Yoketron's voice came from the shrine, "Great Stone Dragon, have you awakened!"

Draco quickly grabbed the head and hurried up the hill. He held it up in front of his head and popped out from behind a bush. "Uh, uh, yes, I just woke up!" he called, "Good morning! I am the Great Stone Dragon! I will go forth and fetch Elita! Did I mention I was the Great Stone Dragon?"

Fortunately, Yoketron seemed to have fallen for it. "Go, the fate of the One family rest in your claws," called Yoketron.

"Don't even worry about it!" called Draco, "I will not lose face!" However, the dragon's head was pretty unwieldy and Draco had just lost his balance. He ended up rolling back down the hill, with the stone head squashing him several times before it came to a rest back at the rubble pile with Draco under it. Draco groaned and muttered, "Ooh, I'm gonna feel that tomorrow." With a great heave, Draco managed to flip the statue's head off of him. "This is great, now what?" said Draco, "I'm doomed! And all cause Miss 'Man' decided to take her little drag show on the road."

Just then, Chip hopped up onto the head of the ruined statue. He had overheard a great deal of what was going on, not to mention seeing the 'Great Stone Dragon' crumble. "You know, you could always go get her yourself," said Chip, "That'd help bridge things with the ancestors."

"Go get her?" said Draco, "Are you crazy. After this great stone Humpty Dumpty mess, even getting her back will never get me back in the temple." Suddenly, his expression brightened and said, "Wait, that's it! If I make Elita a war hero, they'd be begging me to get back to work! That's the master plan! Oh Draco, you clever dragon." Draco quickly started running towards the gate.

Chip watched him go before running after him. "Hey! Wait for me!" he called.

"Hey, what makes you think you're coming?" asked Draco before running out the gate.

"Cause I'm lucky," said Chip.

Draco looked back and said, "You're lucky?" He laughed and asked, "Do I look like a sucker to you?"

Chip jumped out through the gate and remarked, "A loser."

Draco frowned and said, "Hey, what do you mean 'a loser'? How I pop off one of your arms and threw it across the yard, then who's a loser? Me or you?"

"Still be you," said Chip.

"Oh, you better start running now," growled Draco. Chip wiggled his eyebrow and started running down the road with Draco following after him.

Just then, Arcee and Red Alert walked out into the garden. "I'm so worried for Elita," said Arcee.

"I know, I know," said Ratchet, "I wouldn't want to send her into battle if she were really a boy. But there's nothing we can do now except wait and hope." Just then, he noticed the remains of the 'Great Stone Dragon'. "Oh slag, how did that happen?" he exclaimed.

"Maybe lightning hit it last night," said Arcee.

"Or maybe the wind blew it over," said Ratchet, "I tell you, this thing was the biggest waste of credits I ever spent. It wasn't even accurate at all."

"You'd think that they'd at least build them to last," said Arcee.

"Yeah, what kind of cheep rock do they make statues out of these days?" said Ratchet before picking up a piece and crushing it in his fingers too easily. "Eh, I surprised this fake even lasted this long. We're probably better off without this dud anyway."

"Why do you call it a dud?" asked Arcee.

"I don't know, it just doesn't seem as good as those statues we have in the shrine," said Ratchet, "A cheep imitation at best. I don't think anyone will miss this."

Meanwhile, in the wilderness in the northern hemisphere of Cybertron, the Decepticons were on the move. While they all had the ability to fly in robot mode, the anti-aircraft cannons positioned widely over the planet would have shot down anything that didn't give off an Autobot energy signature above a certain altitude level. So the Decepticons remained in vehicle mode to better mask their energy signatures. They also flew low to the ground because some of the Decepticons had ground-based vehicle modes and they had to slow down for them to be able to keep up. Nevertheless, the Decepticons were making rapid progress, destroying any village that happened to be in their way.

The Decepticon army was passing through a slightly rocky terrain that was covered in fog. Suddenly, the space jet in the lead slowed down and started hovering. The Decepticons behind it slowed down and stopped as well. A short signal from the space jet sent a command to three of Decepticons. With a rapid clicking of joints, the second-in-command, Starscream, and the lieutenants Lugnut and Blitzwing changed into robot mode. The three of them walked over to some large bushes growing under some trees nearby. After about a minute of searching, a pair of Autobots were thrown out into the open. "Cyber-Ninjas," said Blitzwing, "Ze vere tracking us." His blue face spun around to a red one and he said, "I should smash zem into cannon folder!" Then his space spun around to a black one and he said, "Ooh, I vant to see ze pretty firevurks. Can I? Can I? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The space jet hovered towards the Cyber-Ninjas. As he went, it slowly shifted into robot mode. His tall mighty form towered over them, with his pointy helmet giving him even more height.

"Megatron," whispered the white ninja bot.

The cyber-hawk, Lazerbeak flew down and perched on Megatron's shoulder. Megatron knelt down and looked at the two scouts. He straightened the armor on the white bot and said, "Nice work, gentlemen. You found the Decepticon army." The other Decepticons, who were already in robot mode, laughed at their leader's joke.

The black ninja bot, who was wearing extra armor that made him resemble a samurai, said, "The Emperor will stop you."

"Stop me?" asked Megatron, "He invited me." He picked up the ninja bot by his neck and held him up high. "By building his Great Wall, he challenged my strength. Well, I'm here to play his game." He pulled out his sword, a strong and sharp blade made of unbreakable tironium steel with a unique design in that it had an empty space in the middle of the blade. The ninja bot froze in fright as Megatron held it close to his neck.

Then Megatron threw the ninja bot and said, "Go! Tell your Emperor to send his strongest armies! I'm ready." The two ninja bots quickly ran into the fog as fast as they could. Megatron rubbed his chin as he watched them run. Then he gave a nasty smile and said, "How many bots does it take to deliver a message?"

Starscream grinned sadistically as he powered up his null ray cannon on his right arm and aimed. "One," he said.

There's the next chapter and the introduction of the main source of comic relief for this story, being portrayed by my original character, Draco. Originally, I was considering to have Waspinator fill in the role of Mushu, but I decided Draco worked better. I threw in that jibe at Sentinel Prime as a reference to the second Headmaster episode in Transformers Animated and also Sentinel's a jerk. I threw in the extra part about the 'Great Stone Dragon' to sorta justify 'Mushu' going instead. Besides, it was kinda obvious in the movie that it was a dud.I decided to go with Megatron's Cybertronian body for this story since he doesn't need his sword(s) to fly with. The two Cyber-Ninja scouts were Jazz and Prowl in case you didn't figure it out. It's up to you to decide which of them died, since they won't appear in the story anymore. But if you know the show, I'd think you know. The next chapter ought to be up soon and it'll be longer than this one. So keep an eye out for it and please review.

EDIT: I actually didn't find out until later, but both the First Fa Ancestor and Yoketron were voiced by the same actor, George Takei, AKA Mr. Sulu from Star Trek. What a fortunate coincidence.