The Unknown
"Were losing it!" shouted Wheeljack.
The computers and monitors around them beeped, continuously blinked lights, and started to smoke.
"It can't take it!" cried another bot, "It's going to overlo..." *BOOM!*
All the bots in the room were suddenly thrown about the room.
A cylinder of light emerged upwards from the chamber in the centre of the lab. Its glass cover shattered
as the light disappeared, only to be replaced by a dark cloud of smoke.
A bright blue glow emerged through the thickness of the clouds. For only a moment it stood, before
blasting upwards through the ceiling. Disappearing into space.
All the bots that were thrown over, managed to work their way out of the rubble.
Wheeljack found Preceptor staring blankly at the broken chamber. Most of the glass was now missing
and the edges were burnt. He placed his hand on Preceptor's shoulder "We better report this to Ultra
Magnus." He said softly.
Preceptor nodded "Indeed, but remember this shall remain confidential. If anyone is to ask what
happened..."
"It was another 'accident'." Wheeljack replied.
~~Back on earth; Bulkhead was making a few adjustments to the spacebridge on top of Sumdac Tower.
Teenaged Sari peered around the corner "Hey Bulkhead!"
"Oh, Hi Sari" he smiled.
"Whatcha doin?" the teenager sang.
"Nothing much, just fixing the last of the bugs out of the bridge controls" he paid no attention to Sari's
bored expression as he continued to work away.
"Huh, well me and Bumblebee are going to the arcade, wanna come?"
He scratched his head in confusion "A what?"
"An arcade; it's were organics go to play all sorts of awesome games" she smiled; just talking about it got
her excited.
"Uh, alright. Just give me a few more nanosecs, I just need to fix..." he was cut off by the sudden wild
beeping of the controls. "Huh? Aw come on!" he banged his serbo over the computer. "What is that?" Sari pointed to a blinking dot that slowly moved across the screen.
"It looks like someone...or something; is ether trying to come through the spacebridge, or is sending the
same signal as one!"
Sari covered her ears trying to block out the constant beeping and looked up at the large structure waiting
for the usual wall of blue and white light, but it remained offline.
"But... it.s not doing anything."
A sudden glow appeared on the opposite side of the building. Sari and Bulkhead ran toward the edge to
get a closer look at the mysterious, floating, purple orb in the sky. It slowly began to enlarge itself. Sari
hid behind Bulkheads large leg, "W-What is that?"
Bulkhead didn't have time to answer; as a blue, flaming meteor came flying through the orb; passing the
city's buildings and vanished into the distance.
The orb; just as quick as it came; vanished. The spacebridge controls then became quite again, but
Bulkhead and Sari were too fascinated by the sudden vanishing meteor to notice. Their jaws dropped
open; Sari and Bulkhead looked at each other in shock for a few moments before breaking out of there
trance.
"What was...?" Sari asked.
"I have no idea,. Bulkhead didn't take his optics off of the sky, "but I think we better go tell Prime."
Sari nodded.
The ball of flame flew at high speeds across the sky, falling closer and closer to the earth.
When it finally caught up with the ground; it grinded across the empty field, making clumps of dirt and
grass fly. It slowly came to a stop, leaving a mile long trail of tossed up earth and smoke behind it.
The surrounding blue flame died down; leaving the motionless body of femme bot in the crater.
The last of the smoke vanished, night fell and all became quite.
Opening her optics she starred straight up into the sky. It was filled with small shining balls of light.
For a few minutes she remained motionless, starring at them with deep fascination. Lifting a serbo, she
reached up and thought she tried to grab one, only to grab the emptiness of the air. Realising this; she
slowly tried to move her upper body up with slight difficulty.
Bringing herself up, the black, purple and green bot decided to go a step further and got on her pedes.
Stumbling like she had never had legs before, she kept her arms up until she caught her balance. Taking
one small step at a time, she worked her way out the crateruntil she was out and looked back up into the sky.
The balls of light glistened in the darkness. Reaching her arm out again she tried to stretch her body as
much as she could. Suddenly she could no longer feel the ground beneath her pedes.
Looking down she saw that she was floating, her optics widened and looked to her side; a large wing
was lightly flapping. The same was on her other side. Thinking about it; she pumped the metallic wings
harder slowly going higher into the night sky. Looking down, she saw the large crater she was once in,
now a small hole in a large green square. A small laugh escaped her lips.
Turning her attention to the balls of light, she flew straight forward into the sky. Flying as high as
airplanes go, she stopped; realising that no matter how high she got; the light balls where still no where
closer to her then before. Sighing in disappointment she flew back down backwards still wanting to watch
the sky. It wasn't till she was only a few feet from the ground that she just remembered...she didn't
know how to stop.
Flapping her wings wildly, she struggled to keep control only to land in a small patch of trees. With the branches only slightly breaking her fall, she worked her way out of twigs, pulling them out from
in between her wing joints and open parts of her armour.
Yawning, she lay on her back and starred back up into the sky. She smiled as her optics closed, capturing
the image of the balls of light in her processor forever.
The warmth of the sun on her face woke her up. Stretching, she gazed through the branches. A sudden
car sped by and honked giving her a fright. Getting a grip the black and purple bot gazed back out into the
open and watched the small creatures walking ether which way. Some even had strange four-legged ones
with tails on some sort of rope. Hearing a commotion, she turned to see a large group of people
surrounding the crater.
"What made this? You think was a meteor or something?" someone shouted. The sound of sirens filled
the air, scarring most of the people off. Three police cars and a rusty yellow car with a black stripe drove
in to the field. More small creatures dressed in funny black armour came out of them telling the others to
back away.
Only one large one came out of the yellow vehicle, he had a blond moustache, was slightly balding and a
grumpy expression holding a megaphone "Alright, alright people; nothing to get worked up about.
Probably just a prank gone wrong or something. Move along."
The more she watched the more the femme became interested in these small creatures. The funny
armoured organics tapped off the area. She wanted to ask why they doing that, but was slightly afraid.
Gathering courage she came out of her hiding place and walked over. The femme never noticed before
how much she would tower over them.
By the time she reached them, most of the creatures stopped with jaws dropped. "Uhhh...c-captain
Fanzone..." one stuttered.
"What? What's wrong with you guys?" he shouted, it wasn.t till her shadow overcastting him did he get
the hint. He slowly turned around and looked up at the smiling femme.
Just as she was about to say hello; Fanzone pointed and started shouting, "WHY MUST YOU BOTS
ALWAYS SHOW UP? YOU KNOW THIS IS ONE TIMES TOO MANY THAT YOU BOTS HAVE
MESSED THINGS UP THIS CITY! I HOPE THIS ISN'T YOUR MESS MISSY! CAUSE IF IT IS..."
suddenly afraid of the shouting creature the only thing she thought to do was run into the streets.
"Well,...that was ..different" Fanzone scratched his head.
Running a good few blocks, the femme bot tried her best not to step on anyone or anything in fear of
getting them mad. Finally deciding to come to a stop behind an alleyway, she looked around the corner to
make sure that she wasn't followed. Sighing, she closed her optics trying to centre herself. Why was that
creature yelling at her? What did he mean „you bots?. Where there others like her here? Where is here
anyway? While pondering a strange yet beautiful noise caught her attention from the other side of the
ally.
Peeping around the corner so that no one could see, she looked around until she found the source of the
beautiful noise. It was another creature but very small in size, its skin was dark in color and the fur on its
head was in little black rows tied back in large blue bow. It played a strange looking thing made of wood
and strings; each one making a different noise when it wiped its hand across them. What really caught the
femme's attention was the sweet sound the small creature sang.
The little creature was standing on a milk crate, playing its strange sound making thing, sweetly singing
as other taller beings put small sliver circles or thin pieces of paper inside a small box that took the shape
of the string bearing thing.
Standing in the alleyway the bot listened to the sweet being; taking in every note and sound. Soon she
was humming the songs herself.
A few hours later the singing stopped, when she took noticed she looked around the corner and saw the
little singer picking up what had been thrown in the strange shaped box, placed the string thing inside it,
picked it up and started walking away. Saddened by the silence she chased after it, bending over to tap it
on the head, but paused after remembering what happened the last time and pulled her hand back.
As it started to walk away; the small being looked down at the huge shadow and turned to see the giant
bot. Its eyes widened and was about to scream, but stopped after seeing the bot.s scarred face. The little
being walked up to her and smiled "Hi!" The bot froze, was this creature actually talking to her? Seeing
its smiling face, she bent over and extended a finger for the little thing to shake "Hi." She smiled back.
"My name is Rosie" it replied cheerfully, "What's yours?"
"Mine is...ahh...hmmm...it's ..." she rubbed her chin trying to think, but nothing came to her processor.
"Hehe, you don't even know own name?" It giggled. "No, I guess I don.t." She gave an awkward
smile. "How come?" it asked. "If I knew I would tell you." Shrugging, Rosie put down her strange
shaped box and sat on it. "So, are you one of those autobots or something?" The bot cocked her head "A what?"
"I guess that answers my question."
Looking around anxiously the femme asked if they could go somewhere a little more private; in fear of
scarring of anymore, what Rosie explained where humans..
Agreeing; Rosie explained of a special place that would be perfect for hiding, "Absolutely no one knows
about it. So you have to promise not to tell anyone!"
"I promise." She nodded
"Cross your heart and hope to die?"
"Absolutely!" she crossed her hand across her spark. "Good! Let's go then!" Burning with excitement the
little human ran with the femme walking right behind her. A few turns around the block they came to an
empty park. "It's a school day, so no one is going to be here for awhile." Rosie explained. "Oh, ok then." Even thought the bot had no idea what a school was. From the park they crossed a playing field which backed into a small wood. They walked through the first few rows of trees until they came to a fence "Why is this here?" The bot asked as she poked at it, "It's to stop people from going into the dangerous part of the woods."
"Dangerous?"
" Ya, but I know better." Rosie rustled through a think bush; disappearing for a few seconds then
reappearing on the other side.
"How did you do that?"
"Easy; there's a hole there, but you can just step over it." The bot does so, and continued to follow deeper
into the thick trees, trying to avoid every branch from hitting her face. Finally coming to a clearing, her
optics widened. A large shimmering lake took up most of the centre of the space, on its opposite side; the
rest of the woods were hidden behind a large cliff with a gentle flowing waterfall. It was the most
beautiful thing she had ever seen. Well...so far. "Wow! This is amazing!"
"Yup, and were the only two who know about it!" Rosie cheered, "Were in the woods just outside the
city." She picked up a small white flower and put it behind her ear.
"Hey! If a bot; can't you transform into a car or something?" The femme gave a confused look,
"Uh, not that I know of.. I don't think I even know how."
Rosie scratched her chin "hmmm, maybe...if you really concentrated. Just focus on changing."
"You sure about that?"
"I'm not a bot! I don't know how these things work. I'm only 6."
"Okay okay." Closing her optics, she focused her mind as hard as she could. With her fists clenched she
felt her body shifting.
The bottoms of her feet folded back and disappeared being replaced by long silver claws. Both serbos turned into her torso as her wings took their place. The bottom half of her body merged upward and neck extended with her sliver dreadlock like 'hairs.' flowing down it. Her helm came over her face and took the shape of a beak, as the plate covering her aft split into three separated ones forming a bird's tail. Three blue cables came in between them, each with a spear head on its tip, the middle being the longest.
Opening her optics again she gazed down at her new form. Rosie stood gazing at the giant bird bot.
"Holy cow! Your no car but you still look awesome!" she jumped, "Though I don't know any birds that
are on fire..."
"Fire?" Stretching her long neck, she gazed into the reflection in the water. "Whoa!" Blue flames
engulfed her head 'feathers.' as well as the bottom parts of her wings and the three tail cables. Yet she
couldn't feel anything.
"You look just like...ohh what was it called?" Rosie opened her box again and pulled out a thin book. It
was titled „Mythical Greece.' "This thing!" she pointed to a red and yellow flying bird that was covered
in flames. "The phoenix; a fire bird." She smiled as an idea crossed her mind "That's it! That can be your
name!"
"Phoenix huh? Hmmmm..." she held a wing to her beak thinking, "You know what, I like it! Phoenix it
is then!"
"Cool!" Rosie ran up and hugged her new bird friend's leg. "Phoenix, I think this the start of an awesome
friendship!"
"I couldn't agree with you more." Phoenix hugged back with one of her large wing feathers.
The rest of day went by with Rosie explaining all the questions Phoenix had wanted to ask throughout
her first day on earth. How the balls of light she loved were called stars, and were actually planets that
where too far away to reach. Why the cops were taping off the area of where she crashed, to Rosie's
guitar, which she played for a bit while singing Silent Night. Phoenix decided to make it her favourite song.
"So, who are these autobots, I keep hearing about?" She finally asked. "Oh. Well I don't know much
about them. just been on the news a lot; but there robots like you except they change into cars
and can't fly." Taking the flower from behind her ear Rosie tossed it into the pond.
"You think be able to help me?" She watched the flower float away, Rosie shrugged "Don't
know, never seen them personally, but I wouldn't think they would be hard to find."
"That's good." Phoenix sat beside her little friend like a swan sitting in a nest. Rosie looked up at her
friend's side "Speaking of flying, you have wings why don't you fly?" she asked. "Oh, I do, I'm just...not
very good at the landing part." Phoenix blushed. "Well, maybe I can help you." Rosie got to her feet, "if
you already have the flying part down, the landing should be no problem!" Phoenix felt nervous all the
sudden "Um, no offence, but you can't fly. How would you know about it?" Rosie gave an offended
expression " read enough books on birds and planes to know what I.m talking about! It should be
instinct to you in no time."
Next thing; Phoenix was on top of the cliff looking down. It was higher than she thought, adding to her
nervousness. Rosie waited at the bottom shouting as loud as she could, "Now remember; when you first
jump, keep your wings straight to catch the wind current! After; go around a few times then when
near where you want to land, through your weight back and flap. Got it?" Phoenix gulped "uh, s-sure."
The wind gusted "Go now!" With optics held tightly shut she leapt off the ledge, wings held straight.
Opening one eye, Rosie was the size of an ant. The wind felt good flowing through her head „feathers." A
small voice was heard from below. "Alright that's good now come on down!" Obeying her orders
Phoenix flew in for the big moment. Unfortunately nerves got the best of her.
Thinking back on what Rosie had told her she threw her weight back and flapped her wings. "No! Too
soon! Too soon!" Rosie cried, but it was too late as she covered her eyes before seeing the flaming bird
crash in to the trees. A small moan came from the pile of broken branches, "Ouch..."
"Okay, so you got nervous; it's fine I would too, but let.s try to focus this time." Phoenix nodded; flying
back to top she took off again and circled twice until she finally came in for the landing. When the time
was right she through her weight back and began flapping. About to celebrate when she touched the
ground it was short lived by not slowing down enough and crashing in to the trees once again. Rosie
sighed and faceplamed. "Alright, third time.s the charm."
The third time turned in to four, then ten, then fourteen, each one with Phoenix landing in the same spot
knocking down at least five trees in the process.
The sun begun to set, Rosie yawned and rubbed her eyes "Alright, last time, go ahead." Phoenix repeated
the process, dived, circled twice and came in. Close to the ground she pulled back and flapped her wings.
Slowly but surely she landed softly with both feet on the ground, "I did it!" throwing up her wings
"Rosie! I actually did it! Wahoo!" Phoenix leaped and did a circle in the air. Half asleep, sitting on a
stump Rosie took no notice until a giant bird swooped her from her spot "Whoa! What!"
Phoenix laughed at her friend.s surprise reaction. Reaching down; she took grab of Rosie.s dress collar
with her beak and sat the little human on the end of her neck. "Hang on!" Rosie hugged Phoenix.s neck as
she flew upward and did another loopy-d-loop. "Yaa!" she flung her arms up in the air "That was fun!"
she giggled. "Want another round?" Phoenix asked, "As much as I want to, I think I should start heading
home now."
"Oh...well can I give you a lift home then?" Phoenix didn.t want to be left alone.
"Ah no! Err I mean...no thanks I can walk." Phoenix „ears. lowered in disappointment "oh, ok then."
repeating what she learned they came to a soft landing. Lowering herself so Rosie would have an easy
dropping height, the little human hopped off and hugged the bird bot's beak. "You where awesome today,
come back and see you tomorrow okay?"
"Promise?"
"Promise"
"Cross your heart and hope to die?" Phoenix asked in a mocking tone.
"Absolutely." She crossed her finger across her heart, picked up her guitar case, and waved good bye as
she ran back through the woods. Phoenix watched her friend until she disappeared into the darkness of the
trees.
Stepping into the water; she looked like a giant swan resting on a lake. It was the first time she felt
lonely. Gazing up at the rising moon, she smiled; seeing the stars once again. The feeling of loneliness
soon faded and was replaced by joy; knowing her new earth friend would come back for her.
She couldn't wait.
To be continued...~