Walking out onto the patio of a two-story farmhouse on a large property in Texas at dusk, a middle-aged man sighed deeply as she glanced around at the property that he has lived in for many years. Here, he raised his daughter after the loss of his wife so many years ago. Always determined to try and build something that matters to this world, that is what has been driving him forward for so many years due to his desire to make his daughter happy. Today, a real estate agent brought people to check the house again and he chased them away, but not before the agent basically broke the news to his daughter that he was stealing power from the neighbour's property now. It was not something he wanted his daughter to hear, but it was too late now. Another thing that she would be disappointed in him about.
His name is Cade Yeager, and he has been struggling to find ways to make money from his passion on inventing. While he has managed to create many different inventions, none of them have been able to make him a lot of money. He had managed to get money here and there from his inventions, and the occasional cash that came from helping another person with an issue they might have that he would be able to fix. But it wasn't really enough to get by. He has been lucky that they haven't been forced off the property yet. And he also knew he was letting his teenage daughter, Tessa, down due to being unable to be the father she is wanting him to be.
As the cool evening wind brush over his skin, he gazed up at the sky and watched as several meteors skim over the atmosphere of the planet. It was the beauty of living in the country this way as you can really see the sky and the stars at night. High rise buildings often block them out, and being out here in the fresh air had always been a place he wanted to live. It was not complicated, and he had the space to create inventions. And someday he knew that one of his inventions will make him enough money to ensure Tessa would not want for anything.
Resting his hands on the railing of the patio, his thoughts went back to his wife. His heart had remained loyal to her for so many years. After all, he made a promise to her that he would get Tessa to her graduation. And he had almost done that. She was in her finals at school, and he knew she that she was going to do great in college. She was smart, and she could do anything she wanted to if she put her mind to it. Cade was proud of her. And he knew his wife was too.
He gazed at the stars in the sky and spoke softly, believing as though his wife could hear him. "Best thing that ever happened, Emily. She's the best thing that ever happened. You'd be proud." He smiled at the sky as his brown eyes look around at the farm around him. He only became distracted by a sound coming from the barn, and Cade immediately groaned in frustration, knowing exactly what the sound meant. "Oh, no…"
He quickly made his way off the patio and ran towards the barn to find out what was causing the sound of electrical sparks. The last thing he needed was to cause a fire. Especially since he had an old freightliner towed in that afternoon. Running into the barn, he spotted a small fire and grabbed one of his fire extinguishers to put it out. It was luckily a small fire that was easy to put out, but it was still irritating. He sighed and walked away from the table that had the small fire, and looked around his barn.
He placed his hands on his hips as he took deep breaths. "Unbelievable." At the moment, it felt like the world was pushing down on him and he was stuck with no way to get out. "Unbelievable! God!" He looked around at all the inventions he had made, or had started making and now needed fixing, he just knew that he had to do something. "Something in here needs to make this family some money." His eyes fell upon the dusty, old, freightliner he had towed in earlier. Cade found it strange that the truck was found in an old theatre in town, but it was something he decided to get while it was available. "Come on, you old wreck. Judgement day."
Cade knew that this truck had been custom designed, based upon the flame patterns on the truck's body. They were faint, but he had seen them. There was a lot of damage done to this truck, and he did not know what exactly this thing had gone through. The front of the truck had a massive hole in it from large missiles hitting it. Cade just hoped that this thing still had parts that were at least worth selling. He may not use the parts in his inventions, but the parts in the truck engine itself might just get them some money.
Cade huffed loudly as he grabbed his tools and some ladders to get started on this thing. This truck's story was not really his concern, so long as it made him money. He knew that he should be in bed now, but his mind knew that he needed to do something. He had to do something. So that is why he would spend the night figuring out what this truck had to offer. And he had to at least start by making sure the important parts of the engine were mostly intact. That was the first thing he intended to do. Then he would move and check by hooking a battery to it to see if the engine still would run. At least it would be an excellent indication that the truck itself was worth something aside from the usable parts. He could sell the whole engine for big bucks.
Working through the night, Cade was determined to pull this thing a part. He climbed into the cab first to check the steering wheel, and it appeared to be in good condition. Though when his hand brushed over the center of the steering wheel, he saw a symbol that startled him. He was well aware of the attack that happened in Chicago, and the autobot alliance being scrapped after that, but he had not expected to see an autobot symbol. However, Cade brushed those thoughts aside because he did not think this truck was a transformer.
He tried to open the glove box to see if there was anything in there, but it would not budge. The glove box was almost like his had been completely sealed shut and no matter how hard he tried to open it, he couldn't. But there was something inside the glove box, he could hear it rattling around when he tried to open the glove box. But he decided he would open the glove box later. He moved on to start checking out the engine.
When he opened the front of the truck, he saw that the internals of it was dusty. He had no idea how long this thing had been sitting in that old theatre for, but it didn't matter. He began checking it closely and he was glad majority of the parts appeared to be in near perfect condition. With some cleaning, the parts would actually look like new, and he would certainly be able to get a lot of money from this thing.
He continued to check out the engine of the truck and he would eventually get a battery. It was morning by the time he grabbed a battery and Tessa would likely be up. For the moment, Cade hooked the battery up to the truck to charge it, and he was startled as flickers of blue sparks glowed from the truck and a voice spoke loudly from the radio. It was something he had not expected, but realized his suspicion that this is a transformer turned out to be correct.
"Calling all autobots!"
That was what the voice coming from the truck said loudly. Cade had no idea which transformer this was, but he knew it was at least an autobot. Cade could not help but feel excited because having a transformer here would actually be good for him. Cade had always wanted to meet one of the transformers to get familiar with their anatomy and systems to understand it enough so he could apply the same stuff to his own inventions. He was really happy that he got this truck from the town.
He heard the sound of a mini cooper driving down his driveway, and he knew Lucas had decided to show up at his house again. Cade had known Lucas for a long time, and he saw him as a friend. Lucas might have his moments when Cade just wanted to punch him, but he was a good friend. But hearing the sound of the car engine made Cade realize how much time he had spent in the barn taking a closer look at the truck, and Cade knew he had to tell them what they might have found the day before.
"Dad!"
"Coming!" Cade yelled back as he rolled back out from under the truck. He had been underneath it for a couple hours, and Cade honestly had no noticed the time flying by. But it didn't matter. He ran towards the barn door knowing his daughter and Lucas were likely approaching the barn.
"Are you working with lasers?" Tessa yelled loudly in a bored, curious tone. "If so, I'm not coming in."
Cade could not help but smirk slightly as he pushed the door for Lucas and Tessa. He was honestly more interested in showing them the truck given with what he has found about it. "You guys have never seen a truck like this before!" Tessa and Lucas frown at him as they were confused by what Cade was going on about. "Get in here! Lock that door!"
Lucas frowned as Tessa ducked into the barn and he walked inside. "Okay, dude…this is super weird. And it doesn't have a lock." He closed the door behind him as Cade ran back over. "It's just a dusty, old, truck, dude. There's nothing special about it. If the parts are good to sell, then I guess you struck a bit of gold."
"Real funny, Lucas." Cade ran over to where he had the radiator currently. "Look! Look at the hole in radiator! Look at the size of it. Something blew a hole in it!" He ran towards the truck as Tessa and Lucas walk towards the truck with frowns on their faces.
"Yeah, so?" Lucas said in a bored tone. "This thing clearly had seen some hard times, man. That's not really something I am surprised about, given the state of that rusty, old, bucket is in." He shook his head and glanced at Tessa. "I guess he thinks he struck gold." Tessa shrugged with a slight smile of amusement.
"That is not it at all, Lucas! It's not normal steel! None of it is!" Cade climbed the ladder and points towards the engine of the truck. "The shrapnel in the engine it ripped the connections apart." He stepped onto the scaffolding he had along the front of the truck that was balanced on two ladders. "And watch, this took some Cade genius. You are gonna love this." Tessa rolled her eyes as she watched her father grab the battery and the cables to hook up to the truck again. "When I hook this back to a working battery…" He put the clamps of the cables on the battery, and the truck would light up again with the headlights flashing.
"Calling all autobots."
Both Tessa and Lucas listen to the voice coming from the truck, and their faces turn to fear. "Oh, yeah." Cade was smiling as he held up the cables in his hands, looking at the two who were turning fearful of what they found. "I don't it's a truck at all. I think we just found a transformer." Lucas took a moment to process it before he shouted and ran out of the barn with Tessa following. Cade frowned and moved to get off the ladder. "Wait! Guys!"
Cade jumped to the ground with a huff and ran after Tessa and Lucas out of the barn. He did not quite understand why they both had panicked and left the barn this way. Especially as the transformer clearly was not really in any kind of state to transform and do anything to them. He was a hundred percent confident about that. But given they did not know he found an autobot, and not a decepticon yet, that was understandable.
"Come on, guys!" Cade stopped outside the barn in the garage that housed an old, classic vehicle he still had been working on and taking the parts from. "There is nothing unsafe here, alright? Right now, that thing is just like a regular, old, truck. It has not moved, and it won't move because of all the damage done to it."
"Dad!" Tessa exclaimed fearfully as she stared at him in disbelief. "Are you out of your mind? You need to get that thing out of here!"
Cade sighed deeply and approached her as he tried to keep her calm and relaxed. "You don't have to worry. I've been in there working all night and I'm fine! As I said, it is just like a regular, old, truck. It has been beaten up badly enough that it possibly won't even be alive, so we are okay."
"You know what?" Lucas huffed as he stepped in front of Cade. "Just because that thing in there has not hurt you, you don't know if it is even dead! It could easily be allowing you to mess around and fix it so it can kill us all in our sleep! It's an alien killing machine!"
Cade rolled his eyes as Lucas glanced back at the barn nervously. "Dude! It's DOA! I have been telling the two of you, that thing has been recalled, totalled, done! You have no reason to panic."
"Panic?! Oh, I am not panicking. No, no." Lucas took deep breaths as he tried to calm his nervousness down. "Just because that thing is possibly a dud, does not mean we should not take chances." He breathed in deeply and looked at Cade. "So, listen, there's a number that you call. You're supposed to call the government." Cade immediately frowned as he listened to Lucas, even though he could already tell it was ridiculous. "It's the American thing to do. You're supposed to call, and if it ends up being an alien, then you win twenty-five thousand dollars."
Cade rolled his eyes at the man. "You don't win money!"
Lucas ignored Cade and he continued to speak about what he believes that they would get money. "And if you can capture it live, like tag it like a wild wildebeest, then you get a hundred thousand dollars."
Tessa herself was rather intrigued by this and she seemed to agree with Lucas's stupid idea. "Dad, we're making the call!"
Cade shook his head and gave them a stern expression. "I've seen the commercial, they don't say that. That's not a guarantee." Tessa was ignoring him, and repeating her line, while Lucas was trying to challenge him about not believing someone would lie to him about this. Cade was annoyed by the two of them, but he overlooked it for the moment. "Look, if that's a transformer there from the battle of Chicago, I need to know how it works! I'm an inventor! This could be a game changer for me! If I can apply that technology to my inventions, we'd never have to worry about money again."
Tessa was disappointed hearing this from her father. She would prefer it if Cade actually stopped trying to invent stuff, and focus on bettering himself and ensuring she could even have a future. "I've heard that before."
Cade felt hurt when she responded to him that way, and he understood what she was thinking. But he was excited about this discovery, and he could not pass up the opportunity. "Look, Tessa, this is something I need to do. I can't exactly ignore the opportunity that has literally presented itself to us right now. I know you are wanting to have help with your college, and I get that, but this could be exactly the key to getting us to that point, Tessa. You just have to trust me." He turned and walked back into the barn. "And I intend on making that promise come true, Tessa."
Tessa rolled her eyes and walked back into the barn, feeling a little less nervous since the truck had not moved or transformed at all since they had been talking. So she trusted that this transformer was not going to move at all, and she could relax a bit. But that still did not mean she wasn't nervous at all. Tessa was worried that her father was too obsessed with this truck, and she worried that he was going to get himself in danger.
She wanted him get back onto the scaffolding and shook her head. "Twenty-five grand! It pays for my college, it pays for the house."
"Besides, you used my money to buy the truck, right?" Lucas chimed in as he points at the truck. "So technically, it's my truck. Don't you think?"
Cade slide under a bar to stand on the ladder as he looked at the man with a stern expression. "You also signed a contract regarding all research lab I.P."
"Research lab?" Lucas stared at Cade in disbelief at what he just said. "It's a barn, dude."
Cade did not like the way that Lucas responded to him and described his barn. Cade viewed it as his research lab, and even if it was a wooden barn, it was a place of his work. To him, it was gold. And he did not like anyone attempting to disrespect his space. He walked down from the ladder and walked towards Lucas who was a little nervous. He could see that Cade was angry, and he realized he probably shouldn't have said that, but it also needed to be said.
"You signed it, and now you're competing," Cade said bluntly as he walked towards Lucas. "Any idea of yours is mine. Any thought you have, I own it." Tessa scoffed in embarrassment as she watched her father berate Lucas while the man backed away from Cade. "So basically, I own you."
Lucas frowned at the man in disbelief. "I don't think you can own someone. That was like, a while ago, even in Texas."
Cade ignored Lucas as he grabbed his apron and put it on. "Alright, bring the torch over and help me with the pulley arm." Lucas groaned as he grabbed the torch and rolled it over towards Cade with a frown on his face. "I think the shrapnel took out its power core. Oh…" Cade grabbed a sledgehammer and walked towards the truck. "And Tess, you see this?" He hits the front of the truck several times with the hammer, making the girl jump nervously as she thought he was going to cause the truck to transform. He wanted to prove that he was safe, even if it meant making them nervous about it. "Would an alien killing machine let me do that?" He sighed and glanced between Lucas and Tessa. "Look, I'll make the call, we'll get the money. Just first let me see if I am right. You want to hide in the house?" Tessa nodded quickly as she definitely wanted to get away from the truck. "Go ahead."
Tessa quickly left the barn to make her way over to the house. Cade thought it was ridiculous that everyone was acting fearful of this truck, but he understood. After all, transformers have essentially been made the enemy after what happened in Chicago, and it did not matter if they were autobot or decepticon. Cade only knew what was seen on the news about it, so there wasn't much that he would understand. But he was aware of some familiar names at least.
He and Lucas worked on the truck for a little bit to keep checking the full engine of the truck. Lucas did not understand Cade's enthusiasm about digging deeper with this transformer, and he was worried about what might happen. But given that Cade seemed to be feeling rather confident, Lucas went along with it for the time being. He watched as Cade removed a few things from the truck's engine, and he could not help but notice something.
He leaned slightly and frowned as he saw what Cade was holding. "What is that? It looks like a missile."
"It is!" Cade exclaimed as the missile jet activated suddenly and flew from his hands. "Woah!" He and Lucas watch the missile fly around the barn, hitting multiple things around the barn and zooming back towards them. "AHH! Get down!" Lucas jumped to the ground to avoid being hit by the missile as the missile flew out of the barn. Cade stared in shock as he waited to hear more explosions, but it seemed the missile was simply hitting things and not exploding. "Woah…at least it didn't blow up…and hopefully it won't."
"As long as it doesn't blow your house up!" Lucas exclaimed as he shook his head with a sigh. "Come on, man! This is stuff we don't know much about. I don't get why you insist on looking at this thing closely." Lucas looked at the truck nervously and frowned as he noticed that there was a humming sound coming from the truck. "Um…Cade…I think removing that missile might have helped it."
Cade looked at Lucas with a frown as he did not know what he meant as he was just in shock at the moment. Plus, he was worried that Tessa might have been hurt by the missile, so he was not really paying attention to Lucas much. He was just glad that it seemed like that the missile did not blow anything up, and he hoped that it would not. He did not need the government coming to him because of that.
"Dad!" He looked to the door as he heard Tessa's fearful shouting. "There's a missile in the family room!"
Before Cade could respond as he lifts his welding helmet, he glanced back as he heard the sound of air brakes hissing suddenly and sparks flying from the truck, and it began to transform. The whole barn rattled as the transformer began to transform, making both Cade and Lucas fall to the ground from the sheer force they felt in the ground and they scurried away from the transformer, glancing back as they saw him.
"I'll kill you!" The transformer shouts, and it became clear that he was struggling to refocus as he stumbled on his feet, trying to get up and his optics saw that he was in a strange place. He stumbled forward and he noticed the humans scurrying around in the barn, but he could not quite focus on them. Lucas shouts as the bot caught himself on the ground as he slammed his hands down from stumbling forward. Energon spilled out of injuries from his body. "No! No!" He reached back, desperately reaching for any kind of weapon that he might have to defend himself. He managed to grab a gun, but he fell forward as he groaned and panted loudly in pain.
Cade managed to step away far enough, watching as the damaged transformer struggled and turned to see Tessa running in. "Dad! There's a missile in…WOAH!" Tessa skids to a stop as her eyes land on the transformer, surprised to see he had already transformed.
The transformer managed to stand up, not without spilling more energon as he turned around while trying to find his feet. His optics were finally able to clear his vision and he glared down at the humans before him and he aimed his gun at them. "I'll kill you! Stay back!"
Cade raised his hands defensively with a worried expression. "Woah! Don't shoot, don't shoot!" He pleaded loudly, hoping that the transformer would not hurt them.
Lucas stared at the transformer in fear from where he lay and he was fearful. "Call 911! Run!"
The man scrambled to his feet to run out of the barn, while Cade shook his head and gestured for him to stop. "No! Lucas, don't run!"
The transformer swung his weapon and hit the barrel against Lucas's forehead, making the man fall on his back and there was an immediate, red mark on his forehead. He groaned as Lucas felt dizzy and he knew already that he was going to need an ice pack or something to put on his forehead as his head was already throbbing painfully from the hit to the head. And he heard the transformer reload his weapon as bullets fall from the weapon.
"Lucas, just calm down and don't move!" Cade ordered as the man stood up slowly with his hands raised.
The transformer glared down at the human, knowing he was not going anywhere. "Easy, human."
Cade watched as the transformer's body sparked and energon leaked from his body while he checked his weapons. The way this transformer had reacted seemed to be out of fear and defensiveness, which was something he had not expected. He didn't think any of them would even fear a human, but it seemed something terrible has happened that it made this particular transformer uncertain about humans.
He glanced at Tessa who stood beside him as she stared at the transformer fearfully. "Stay here. He's not going to hurt us." Lucas glanced at him and points to his forehead. Cade shrugged at him. "You did try to run." Lucas rolled his eyes and looked back at the bot.
Cade walked towards the bot, keeping his hands raised to show he was not a threat. The bot glanced at Cade as he approached. "Weapons systems damaged." He took a few steps back, showing that he had a lot of distrust for this human.
"A missile hit your engine," Cade explained to the bot calmly. The transformer was listening to him intently while watching him, keeping a close eye on his movement and body language. "And we took it out of you." The bot groaned from the pain he could feel in his body, but he was alert. "You're hurt really bad. I'm just trying to help you." The bot frowned a little, not knowing if he should believe the man. "You're in my home now, I'm an engineer. My name is Cade Yeager."
The bot's expression softened, mostly due to the pain and exhaustion he was feeling, despite being offline for a long time. "Cade…" He rubbed the back of his hand against his face. "I am in your debt." He reached up to one of the metal beams to keep himself steady as he still felt weak in the knees. "My name is Optimus Prime." Cade swallowed nervously as he realized he had the leader of the autobots here in his barn. He watched as Optimus's expression turned to worry and horror. "My autobots! They're in danger!" He groaned as he felt suddenly, losing strength in his knees, but he knew that his autobots needed him. A part of his helmet fell from his head and energon leaked from the side. "I need to go! I need to go now!" He rubbed his helm with a grimace of pain.
"How far you think you're gonna get?" Cade asked the bot curiously, watching this autobot struggle to maintain his balance and strength. Cade felt sorry for him. He watched as Optimus intakes heavily and placed his hand on his chassis as pain washed over his face. "Tessa, come here, he needs our help." He looked over Optimus's body curiously as he knew that he did not do it to himself. "What happened to you?"
Optimus groaned as he responded to Cade. "An ambush, a trap, set by humans." He coughed as he managed to move onto one knee. "I had been attempting to fine my way back to…" Optimus paused as he realized he did not know these people well enough yet to make a mention of his sparkmate by name. Not yet. "To my sparkmate." He coughed again and intakes heavily. "I escaped and took this form."
"But you're on our side." Tessa knew this from the stories she learned about the autobots. Especially since she knew it was the autobots who helped with Chicago, even if there was a ban on them. "Why would humans hurt you?"
"They were not alone." Optimus forced himself back to his feet, hearing and feeling groans in his own body as he stood up in the barn, even though he was slightly hunched over. "My autobots can repair me."
"Yeah, if you can reach them." Cade looked down at the helmet piece that he fallen on the ground and leaned down to pick it up. "What about me?" Optimus groaned and looked away from him. "You're safer in here than out there driving around in that condition. You won't be in any condition to protect yourself if you need to."
This man had a point. Optimus knew his body was weak and in desperate need of repair. He was lucky he had managed to make it out of the ambush he endured when he did. He did not even know how much time had passed since the ambush. Observing the man curiously, Optimus decided that this Cade seemed to be a man of his word. Optimus relaxed a little and he nodded, lowering himself back to the ground as Cade quickly go to work with helping to repair his body. As he did so, his mind went to his sparkmate, Saphira. He did not know where she was right now. He only knew the location when she had hit the bracelet button, but he did not know if she's managed to get the other autobots to her. He hoped so. He could sense the bond, but it was weak. It was weak, and he knew it was strained for this distance apart. He wanted to find her, and know that she was okay.
Meanwhile…
Saphira shifted in her bed with a frown as she was starting to have another nightmare. But it changed this time. It was a new nightmare. She had no longer been dreaming about this strange female who was speaking to her, nor was she seeing the world of Cybertron. In fact, she found herself standing in the field. The field with rolling hills, green grass and wildflowers, and a large pond set at the base of some hills, with obvious signs of mining machinery cutting into the hills. And specks of unpolished emerald shards all around her. However, she turned to see the silhouette of someone she still loved someone she wished would come to her. But as she was about to try and run to him, a barrage of explosions covered of vision and Saphira fell back with a scream, staring at the explosions of fire and watching as it spread towards her, making Saphira shriek and wake up suddenly.
"OPTIMUS!" Saphira screamed as she sat up suddenly in her head, taking deep breaths. She stared at the wall ahead of her in disbelief. She had just had a nightmare about Optimus. She grimaced and sneezed suddenly before she began to sob.
And as she sobbed, she noticed something, which made her pause in the middle of sobbing. She felt something. Something familiar. A familiar feeling that she has not felt in many, long, months. Saphira did not want to believe it. But it felt like her bond with Optimus. It was as if it had reawakened somehow. She sobbed some more before she coughed and grimaced as her throat was sore and swollen. She did not know if she should feel happy to sense this feeling or not. But if this was an indication Optimus was still alive, she hoped that this was not a lie. After all, she was very sick, and she knew she might not actually be feeling the bond.