Transformers Prime: A New Adventure.

Chapter 5: Escapee.

(Onorato de Riero's POV...)

I was definitively sure that running away from home is a good idea to escape the life you hate, a life with abusive guardians or abusive parents watching over you after the deaths of your biological parents and/or the deaths of your abusive parents' siblings and their own parents, and you can't tolerate it anymore. Especially if it looks like absolutely nobody is doing anything about it because they're scared of having their reputations ruined, they're scared of physical retaliation, they're scared of potential lawsuits, they're scared of losing their jobs for interfering on your behalf, and they're generally scared of whatever form of retaliation your abusive relatives can cook up for their activities being exposed and if it looks like the evidence could be enough to send them to prison for child abuse.

And trust me, after I secretly notified the police about me being abused by my parents while handing in every form of evidence in the book with a little help from my parents' relatives who disowned them at the first signs of abuse coming to light, I ran away from home for the last place my former parents would expect to find me in if they ever got out of prison and they refused to change or they decided to allow themselves to relapse.

The last place that my former parents would expect to find me is none other than a cave system along the route of the Underground Railroad in an area devoid of technology such as house phones, landline telephones, televisions, and even security cameras and motion sensors.

For something like running away from home to escape your abusive house life, it's a brilliant strategy as long as you thoroughly plan for anything that can happen, including the police tracking your phone, the police tracking your credit and debit cards, the police forming search parties, your relatives forming search parties in the neighborhood watch while coming up with lies to prevent being arrested for child abuse, your relatives searching endlessly for you while thinking of the harshest punishments in the book with included beatings and property destruction, your running away from home being put on the news and causing people to be prompted to call the police if they spot you or manage to find you somewhere in the town or in the city, and even the police and your relatives looking for you in the first places of your running away route they can think of in the hope of finding you.

Ever since I heard about my parents being arrested while I was incognito, I had – how can I put it? – acquired not just the life values I learned from video games like Fallout, Bioshock Infinite, Super Mario Brothers, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Final Fantasy VII, Assassin's Creed II, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Last of Us, Shadow Of The Colossus, Red Dead Redemption, Tetris, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and so forth, but I also learned from Rorschach in Watchmen that even in another world, there is good and there is evil, and any form of evil must be punished.

When I was calling the police while my parents were out dining, my 99 friends of varying young adult and adult ages and I each packed 36 bags with clothes, as well as all the money I had and all the money my parents stored so that no one can use it to bail them out of prison, some amounts of reserve money my friends made from their spring jobs, some amounts of reserve money they made from their winter jobs, some amounts of reserve money they made from their autumn jobs, some amounts of reserve money they made from their school jobs that are similar to S.T.E.P. from autism spectrum disorder schools, some amounts of reserve money they made from their family jobs, some amounts of money they made from their childhood jobs, some amounts of money they made from their high school jobs, some amounts of money they made from their college jobs, some amounts of money they made from their adult jobs, some amounts of money they made from their various other kinds of jobs, lots of non-perishable food and semi-perishable food, a lot of self-recharging spare phones that don't require electricity all the time – I invented those in my spare time, along with making them untraceable and along with booby-trapping them with the same DNA scanners from Judge Dredd's Lawgiver gun, in addition to programming every one of them to alert me if anyone is trying to copy my DNA, as a family member, a clone, a shapeshifter, a time duplicate, or otherwise – a lot of foods I know how to cook without needing gas, without needing electrical flames, without needing oil, without needing induction cooktops, and so forth while keeping in mind how to properly cook foods that are otherwise unhealthy or can kill a human if prepared wrongly, a lot of stuff I can use to clean myself similar to sponge-bathing, a lot of my books about different kinds of real life subjects such as survival and guidebooks about the different types of areas in forests, suburbs, farms, and cities all over the US, a lot of my personal stuff – I had sold all of my toys and video games to prevent my parents from destroying them or throwing them in the garbage and for lots of extra money that I also packed – I said goodbye to my friends after I traveled across the United States to a cave system that can sustain me long enough for me to find an affordable residence after I turn 18, and I left my old life with my parents behind and waited for the opportunity to find refuge somewhere else in the United States that's easily affordable, has no rules against pets, has no landlords or landladies with animal allergies, has affordable well water, has enough space for gym equipment, has enough space for rations to last up to 7 years, has enough space for more then 30 people, has enough space for toys, video games, memorabilia of different types, clothes, and electronics, all of them being of all different types and amounts, has enough space for children and babies, has enough space for more than 10 cars, has enough space for a movie projector, has enough space for homeschooling, has enough space for more than 30 employees for home life, has enough space to store lots of main and reserve money, has enough space for a security system the equivalent of Transformers bases and the Home Alone films, and generally has enough space I could possibly need. Not just for just in case my parents escape from prison and manage to somehow track me down or even encounter me in the streets without knowing it or without knowing where I live, but also because I want to start anew. But I'm definitely not moving to Chicago, Illinois, for one example; after all, that city is among the few in the United States that, to this day, is still crime-ridden. No way in Hell am I risking my life there.

And I ain't going to New York City either, for 2 reasons in particular: 1, rent is expensive in the Manhattan borough of the city no matter how much money you own or earn in a job. And 2, tourist areas of the city tend to be littered with stealthy ninja-esque pickpockets and other kinds of kleptomaniacs.

But I do believe an introduction is in order.

My name is Onorato de Riero.

I'm currently turning 18 tomorrow.

I have short dirty blondish brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, and I have a muscular toned athletic build from years of exercise before being taken in by my parents as well as inheriting muscle genes from my grandparents in their youth, and I was as muscular as some of, but not all, of the greatest professional wrestlers in the 1980s and the 1990s.

After traveling for maybe 3 days to find the state of Iowa, according to my handheld GPS I invented 2 months ago before my parents pushed me to my limit, I settled down in a cave I stumbled upon to wait out a rainstorm that came through in the past 2 minutes, and it really was a storm, thankfully without lightning or thunder.

I remarked, "Well, at least the plant life in this sector of the United States are getting the moisture they need for this season."

I made the choice to explore the cave more and make it a brief shelter before moving on.

The cave was big enough to house someone the height of the Incredible Hulk portrayed by Edmund Neal in the 2008 Incredible Hulk film, but the cave also wasn't that long, even though there are thankfully no bears or bats.

As I made my way to the back end of the cave's interior, I stumbled across an odd-looking remote control that looked to be buried in the dirt by at least half, but enough for me to pull it out.

I pulled out the remote to see that it was still in good condition, if only dusty and with chipped pieces of paint and chipped pieces in general. But it's still usable.

I wondered aloud, "Hmm. What's a strange-looking remote control doing in an abandoned cave?"

I used my self-sustaining flashlight to search the back of the cave, but there wasn't anything there except for rocks of different sizes and plants that grow specifically in caves.

I remarked, "Well, might just see if the remote works; could be helpful to find out what it controls and what it does in general."

I turned on the remote and a bright light lit up the cave as a familiar-looking portal appeared in front of me.

I could only stare in shock and awe and confusion as I questioned aloud, "No... That can't be a Ground Bridge, can it?"

I knew what Ground Bridges were thanks to the fact I meticulously watched Transformers Prime.

Yeah, like almost every other person who was or wasn't a Transformers fan, I knew the whole storyline of the cartoon from beginning to end, along with the things that connected it to the War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron video games, the Rescue Bots cartoon, and the Exiles, Exodus, and Retribution novels.

Transformers Prime in particular was one of my favorite things to watch on a good day and a bad day before today happened.

Anyway, the Ground Bridge sounded like an actual Transformers Prime Ground Bridge portal, but instead of the green and bluish-white associated with Ground Bridges and Space Bridges in the Transformers Prime show, this one in particular was red with purplish-black and dark grey.

It was almost as if this would be the Ground Bridges associated with a Shattered Glass version of Transformers Prime from fanfictions I used to read, if the Ground Bridges had inverted colors.

I wondered to myself, "Where will this take me anyway?"

After careful consideration, and considering the fact that my paranoia about my parents mingled with my logical side in perfect harmony, something rather unheard of in human beings, I walked through the portal.

Now that you're all caught up, let me tell you, the walk through the Ground Bridge took longer than I thought.

But now that I think about it, when Arcee and Cliffjumper traveled through an exploding Ground Bridge to get to Earth, the tunnel transporting them from Cybertron to Earth seemed to be about this long in comparison.

Also, Cybertronians are bigger than humans, so that meant they can easily go through a portal in less time in robot mode or in vehicle mode, depending on how fast they're going and depending on transportation range on both ends of the portal.

But what was equally strange was that I don't feel nauseous and I don't feel like my bones are vibrating.

I don't get it; I know that this is the feeling of disorientation that humans feel when they're using a Ground Bridge the first few times.

But thankfully and also not thankfully, I was approaching what seems to be the end of the portal. But then, it suddenly... pulsed... and a bolt of energy, presumably Energon, shot down from around the circular exit and it struck me.

I yelled in pain, "AARRGGHH!"

I collapsed to my knees before I got back up, feeling the pain slightly subside slowly.

I exclaimed, "What the f*** was that?!"

Yeah, I'm a potty mouth. Sue me for a million dollars, for all I care.

Anyway, what had happened, as far as I remember, Ground Bridges never did that for humans traveling into the Transformers Prime universe.

Unless fanfictions count.

And if I remember correctly... wait... this means I could potentially turn into a techno-organic!

But that doesn't mean I'm staying in there just in case someone follows me.

So, I took off sprinting like Carl Johnson's super sprint from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

I went out of the other side in time, because when I looked back at the portal, it closed behind me.

I looked in front of me to see... why, it was none other than the first Autobot base on Earth these days, Autobot Outpost Omega One.

Suddenly, the Autobot medic known as Ratchet came out of the entrance in vehicle mode to avoid being seen by anyone driving on the T intersection.

Ratchet states while opening his driver door, "Come with me, now!"

I went into Ratchet's driver seat and was taken into the base.

About an hour and a half later, I met all the Autobots, both the chronological ones and the non-canon ones who were brought into existence by Primus himself.

And for the time being, we're all happy.

The End.

(Author's notes: There you have it, folks. Another techno-organic joins the mainstream Autobot ranks. BUT who else will join the ranks, I wonder? (Mwah hahahahahahahahahahahaha)

Well, in any case, see you all in chapter 6: Migrating.)