AN: The Pirates of the Caribbean reference was from the Curse of the Black Pearl. It was in the part where June asks Tim Whitefeather to call her June instead of Mrs. Darby. The actual quote goes like this:
Elizabeth: Will, how many times must I ask you to call me Elizabeth?
Will Turner: At least once more, Miss Swann, as always.
Disclaimer: Neither me nor brave kid owns Transformers Prime, Beast Wars, Beast Wars II, or Beast Wars Neo.
The three teenagers looked from the huge lion to each other.
Miko was the first to speak. "Who's Galvatron?"
"Galvatron is the leader of the Predacons. He would not have hesitated to terminate the three of you had he been in the vicinity."
"Sounds a bit like Megatron," Jack whispered to Raf and Miko.
The lion growled at the mention of the Decepticon leader. "How do you know of the ancient Decepticons?"
"Ancient? Optimus and the other Autobots went to fight them just three days ago," Raf said in confusion.
The white lion cocked his head and drew in a breath. "That – that is impossible. The Autobots are the distant ancestors of the Maximals."
Jack signaled for a moment of silence. "So you're saying the Autobots are dead? A-and the 'cons?"
The lion nodded slowly. "You three should return to our base with me. Perhaps Apache will know what has occurred."
Miko looked at her companions. "So, can you transform?" she asked.
"Of course. But now is not the time to show you three. Airazor and I will escort you to our base," the lion said. "By the way, my name is Lio Convoy."
A brown and white falcon suddenly swooped down and landed. Not an altogether unusual occurrence, but something was very different about this particular falcon. It was huge.
Jack jumped, clearly startled. "I can't believe that crazy old man was right…"
Miko and Raf looked at him. He'd never mentioned anything earlier about a 'crazy old man'.
"Is this what you called me out here for?" it asked.
"Yes, Airazor. It seems there has been an accident, and that these children are not from here."
"And what exactly is so important about that?"
It turned out that the feather Jack had received from Tim Whitefeather belonged to the – Maximal, was it? – yes, Maximal, Airazor.
Jack was no longer having a hard time believing that they were currently in an alternate dimension. How else could there be other transformers that claimed to be descended from the 'bots and 'cons?
Airazor was explaining what the Maximals were doing on earth in the first place. "Galvatron did some pretty horrible things to many planets. He was arrested and kept in prison for a time, but his followers were able to break him out. They've been out in space looking for suitable worlds to conquer, all the while running to avoid being caught. When the elders heard his ship crashed had on an island here, we were sent from Cybertron to capture him and his crew."
It was at that moment they entered the Maximal base.
The three kids' eyes went wide in shock as they looked around. Most of the area had some type of plant growing on or around it. Various trees grew up from the ground of the former missile silo. Even so, the technology that was present seemed to be beyond even what Ratchet had recently cobbled together.
"Ya mind telling me what a bunch of fleshies are doin' in base, o Fearless Leader?" came an annoyed voice. A mech with gold armor and a large patch of gray fur on his chestplate appeared, red optics vaguely annoyed.
Lio Convoy sighed in irritation. "Children, this is Rattrap. He is our team demolition expert."
Miko visibly perked up at the mention of demolition. It felt like forever since she had seen her monster-truck-loving guardian. She had been upset for a while now without him. "Demolition expert?" she asked. She walked right up to the short mech. "Do you like monster trucks? Have you ever heard of the Wreckers? My buddy Bulkhead was one." She continued prattling on to everyone's amusement.
"Heh," Rattrap said. "Talks a lot, doesn't she?"
"You have no idea," Jack muttered, pulling Miko back.
Airazor went over to one of the consoles where another maximal was working. "Apache?" The brown and white mech did not respond. "Apache!"
"Oh, it's you, Airazor," the mech said. "What do you need? Have you been damaged?"
"No," the flier replied. She gestured to Lio Convoy and the three humans. "There seems to have been an accident."
"Hmm… Yes, so it would seem," Apache said thoughtfully. He walked over and looked down at the children. "Might I inquire as to the nature of this accident?"
Jack glared at Miko, as she was the cause of their predicament. Miko glanced over at Raf, because he could best explain it.
Raf adjusted his glasses, trying to think about what must have occurred. "The Autobots went out on a mission to defend a relay station from the Decepticons," he said eventually. "While they were gone, Miko here decided to use the GroundBridge to go to their location. There must have been a malfunction in the wiring system, or the relay dishes could have interfered, because we wound up in the desert instead of where we were supposed to."
Jack interjected, catching up. "Once we got home, we noticed that everything was different. Eventually-" he shot a venomous glance at Miko "-we figured out we had somehow ended up in an alternate dimension."
Miko had already picked up on the fact that Jack would not welcome her speaking in this particular conversation. So, minding his opinion for once, she kept silent.
"Very interesting," muttered Apache. "You could be on to something." He pulled out a scanner and adjusted it as he spoke. "A powerful enough signal from a relay station could have the potential to alter the course of a GroundBridge." He swiped the monitor of the scanner up and down. "And all three of you do have traces of GroundBridge radiation on you, so-"
Miko interrupted him. "Radiation?" she practically shrieked.
"Calm down," Apache said. "It is not lethal."
At that moment, three more Maximals entered. One was gray with a little gold on his armor, and had blade-like, white protrusions on his forearms. The second was mostly blue and black, with white on his shoulders and knees. The third was white with a red chestplate and black lower legs and arms.
The first looked down at Raf with interest. "Never seen those little glass things on a human's face before," he said. He did not seem fazed by the presence of humans in base.
"They're glasses," Raf said back. "They help me to see correctly."
"Oh, that makes sense," he mumbled. "Name's Stampy. What's yours?"
"I'm Rafael," Raf replied. "But you can call me Raf. These are my friends, Jack and Miko." He gestured to the others in turn.
"Cool name," Stampy said. "The big, white brute behind me is Polar Claw." He pointed to the large mech. "And this is Break." He nodded to his black, white, and blue companion.
Lio Convoy cleared his throat, and Stampy straightened up.
"And you guys were in the middle of something, weren't you?"
The Maximal leader nodded.
Once Apache finished explaining the likely scenarios in which they could have been flung into this dimension, the three children were properly introduced to the Maximals.
Stampy and Break were new recruits, eager to prove themselves and easily distracted by the unfamiliar customs and culture of earth. The latter transformed into a penguin, and the former into a rabbit. Raf was pleased when he found out they enjoyed playing video games, like Bumblebee.
Polar Claw was the heavy-lifter of the team, but despite his fearsome strength and size, he was quite gentle. Miko was reminded of Bulkhead by this, and began to miss him even more. Polar Claw, true to his name, transformed into a polar bear.
Apache was their medic. He liked to fix up the machinery that was broken or old, viewing it as inferior or antique. He transformed into a mandrill.
Airazor was their only flier, transforming into a giant falcon, reflecting the legend Tim Whitefeather spoke about. The femme was proud and found she was most happy when fighting Predacons. Jack found she was a lot like Arcee.
Lio Convoy, the leader, was much like Optimus – he believed in freedom for all beings and opposed evil forces that threatened it. He was more willing to go into battle than the Autobot leader, though.
Since the teens were stuck without an immediate way back to their dimension, Lio Convoy suggested that they may as well learn about the Predacons, since they would no doubt meet in the future.
A scan of a huge mech came up on the screen. "This is the Predacons' leader, Galvatron," Apache said. "He is called the Emperor of Chaos, as he plans to rule the universe. He is ruthless and cruel, yet shows unexpected regard for his underlings. Except for one of them, that is…
"This is Starscream," the medic continued, gesturing to a scan of a tall, skinny mech mostly covered in black feathers. "He's Galvatron's Second in Command, but has unparalleled ambition to overthrow his master and seize control of the Predacons for himself."
Miko snickered, leaning over to whisper in Jack's ear, "Sounds like the Starscream we know."
"Can you be quiet for five minutes?" Jack hissed back.
A scan of a bat-like Predacon came on screen, a small deployer perched on his shoulder. "Soundwave," Lio Convoy announced, "the Predacon's communications officer. He and his deployer, Laserbeak, use sound to confuse and stun enemies."
Break leaned over to Raf. "He's a bit of a loudmouth."
Raf looked at him, surprised. "The Soundwave we know doesn't speak at all."
"That's quite a difference," the Maximal replied.
After that, there was Bonecrusher, a strong but dumb soldier who transformed into an alligator; two nigh-identical insectiod mechs named Waspintor and Buzz Saaw who were called dumb and dumber by Stampy and Break; Terrorsaur, a red and white mech with a pterosaur altmode; and Quickstrike, a blue-green and gold mech with a fused snake-scorpion altmode.
And then came the drones. Instead of having the generic Vehicons or Insecticons, there were four types: Battle Ravage, a robotic jaguar; Cruellock, a robotic dinosaur; Divebomb, a mechanical hawk; and Insecticons, which looked mostly like they did back in the kids' dimension.
It was all a little confusing.
AN: This chapter is a bit boring.
An important notice: I'm going on vacation for three weeks and won't have access to Microsoft Word, so I won't be able to write the next chapter for this - or any of my other stories - until I get back.