Jasper Police Station, 5:00 A.M.

"I can't be any clearer, any more crystal clear than I am right now."

Daniel had finished explaining his side of the story to one of the local sheriffs in his hometown. When his mother, Carly Witwicky, had received the call that her son had been arrested, she was simultaneously furious, worried, and confused. Never had her son gotten into this type of trouble before. Now, his car gets stolen, and he ends up caught up in the mix. It was obvious the sheriff did not believe Daniel's story, even after hearing it reiterated several times, and Carly had trouble believing it herself.

"It just stood up," Daniel finished his story for the 3rd time.

"Just stood up, huh? That's really somethin'." The sheriff nodded, completely unconvinced by such a fantastical story. He then picked up a small plastic container and lid and handed it over to Daniel. "Alright, fill 'er up, and no drippie drippie. Door behind you to deal with business."

Daniel merely nodded as he took the container and went to provide a sample. A minute later, he emerged, and handed the sheriff the container, wrapped within a paper towel for good measure.

"So," The sheriff began as he handed another officer the sample to process. "What're you rollin'? Whippets? Goofballs? A little Wowie sauce with the boys?"

"No, I'm not on any drugs," Daniel immediately refuted.

"Well sorry if I'm a little skeptical, kid," The sheriff said as he leaned back. "Especially considering your mommy is an accomplished chemist."

"I don't take kindly to those types of accusations, sir," Carly spat out. "You can run a toxicology test on him and find him clean."

"And I'd be up for it to prove the point too," Daniel added before muttering something under his breath. "And maybe throw in a psych evaluation."

"Daniel!" Carly snapped, not liking her son talking like that.

"Sorry," Daniel sighed as he threw his face into his palm, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

"What was that?" The sheriff said suddenly, gathering everyone's attention. "You eyeing my piece, kiddo?" Daniel could not help but look at the sheriff with confusion as he held his hand on his sidearm and leaned in, eyes wide. "So, you're gonna make something happen, do it. Because I promise you, I will bust you up."

"I think someone else needs a toxicology test more than I do," Daniel retorted, bewildered by the law man's bizarre attitude. There is a good cop, there is a bad cop, and then there was this guy. The tense and bizarre moment was broken up when the Chief of police stepped in.

"First round of testing shows nothing," The police chief declared. "Despite his story, I'd say this is a classic case of wrong place wrong time. I say we just leave him with a warning before Officer Robertson does something stupid. You're free to go."

"Thank you, sir," Carly said as she took the man's hand and gave it a firm shake. Daniel nodded silently and followed his mother out of the police station. The two piled into a minivan and Carly began driving back home. A few minutes of tense silence passed before Carly spoke up again. "A psych evaluation?"

"I know," Daniel sighed. "But I told it as I saw it. That crackhead sheriff clearly didn't believe me, and I know you don't actually either. In fact, I'm still working on believing myself."

"I hear you, Daniel," Carly sighed. "But let's not jump to conclusions, alright? I just don't want my son to end up like his great great grandfather is all."

"Right. The ramblings of the giant ice man," Daniel muttered before a thought occurred to him. "Erm… Not saying this is the case, but now that I think about it, that can't be a coincidence."

"What do you mean?" Carly asked, wondering where her son was going with this.

"Well, Grandpa Archibald claimed to have discovered a giant ice man, and I claimed to have seen a giant robot," Daniel explained. "What do you make of that?"

Carly stayed silent and pondered her son's words before letting out a tired sigh. "Honestly? I don't know," She shrugged. "How about this: If you think you're seeing something like that again, try and show me. If I see it too, you're definitely not crazy. Hell, might even lend some credibility to your great great grandfather too. If I don't see what you see, I'll consider getting you a psych evaluation, if it puts your mind at ease, alright?"

"Alright," Daniel answered with a sigh, followed by a yawn. "Thank God it's Saturday."

"Easy for you to say," Carly responded while suppressing a yawn of her own. "I got called in for an experiment later this morning, plus I wanna see about checking up on our crackhead sheriff.~"

Carly raised a small phial filled with liquid, which looked like saliva as she shook it around. Daniel recognized what she had done and stifled a snort. "I'm not even gonna ask," He chuckled as he shook his head.

As the Witwickys drove home, an old red Lamborghini Countach peered from an alleyway as they drove by.

Sounds like the situation resolved itself, but something tells me more trouble is coming…


Qatar, 2 miles from Maofouz's Village

Lennox's team were tired from the trek under the searing middle-eastern sun. Though 5 months of missions had conditioned them to put up with it, it still was an unpleasant time regardless. Lennox took note of several poles shooting out of the sand, each connected by a few wires. The captain breathed a sigh of relief as their destination was close.

"Let's hope this telephone line works," Lennox muttered aloud as the team took a moment to breathe at a nearby well, Epps in particular taking a small pot of fresh water to pour over his face to cool off.

Without warning, the sand underfoot began to blast out in a line, almost as if a chain of landmines went off, before reaching a large scaffolded sign with Arabic lettering. The blasts nicked one of four struts causing the large structure to tumble.

"Whoa hey! Heads up!" Epps shouted as everyone backed away from the underground explosions and the teetering sign, which fell with a loud crash.

"What the heck was that?" Donnelly asked, oblivious to the whole situation, turning to see the now toppled sign and a thin cloud of sand billowing around the area. Fig gave an answer, but the answer was in Spanish, to which Donnelly merely sighed. "English, dude. English."

The sudden incident perked up the entire team as they surveyed the area for any potential landmines that may have been missed when they visited the village last. No one noticed a massive, jet black metal jaguar emerge from the sand and stalk behind Lennox. It slowly crept forward and deployed its claws and bared its fangs…

"WHOA!" Epps shouted at the metal monster that was about to pounce upon the squad captain, everyone opening fire as the jaguar dove back into the sand, and Lennox spinning on the spot wondering what the Hell Epps saw. "Contact! Contact!"

Everybody quiet! Settle!" Lennox ordered once the dust had settled and he regained control of himself. Everyone was on high alert now that one of their own was nearly killed by whatever it was that Epps spotted.

"Whoa, mother!" Epps cried out, pointing his rifle at the sand. "What the Hell was-"

Epps did not finish his sentence as the same jaguar exploded out of the sand and pounced upon an unsuspecting Donnelly and proceeded to dig its metal claws into his flesh, tearing away large chunks in a grotesque fashion. The fool from New Jersey was lost, and everyone made a mad break for the village. They needed to establish contact and see about reinforcements to deal with this new menace.

The village was well within sight. Several people saw the soldier squad running away from something. Many of them remember Lennox and his team and how they had helped liberate their village from Al-queida some time ago, and it looks like trouble had found their saviors. Many men came forth armed with rifles and rushed to some old walls to see what was happening. When the soldiers vaulted over some walls for cover, what everyone saw shocked and horrified them.

Out of an explosion of sand emerged a massive jet-black metal jaguar with glowing blood-red eyes and literally razor-sharp teeth bared. On its hips appeared to be a pair of guns, which seemed to be training onto the Army Rangers before the beast snarled and opened fire. A hellish barrage of glowing projectiles rained down upon the walls the soldiers were taking cover behind. With each pause in the volley, the soldiers retaliated with their own rifles, only to hardly scratch the metal hide of the hellbeast before them.

"Where's your papa?!" Lennox asked Maofouz as he ushered the boy to safety.

"Papa!" Maofouz shouted as he changed direction towards a building with a man standing at the doorway. Both of them recognized each other so it was safe to assume this was his father.

"Sir, I, uh, need a telephone, please!" Lennox hastily requested, making a phone gesture with his hand in the hopes of bypassing the language barrier. Fortunately, Maofouz was able to aid with the language barrier and told his father what he was asking for, to which the man nodded and retreated into the house to fetch a cell phone. "Thank you very much!"

"FIRE!" One of Lennox's men shouted as they all continued to rain down Hell upon the metal beast.

"This is an emergency Pentagon call! Do you understand? This is an emergency PentaGON-!" Lennox cried over the phone before an exploding window cut him off, forcing him to hastily find cover from the glass and dust. "I DON'T HAVE A CREDIT CARD!"

"Sir, the attitude is not going to speed things up any bit at all," An Indian man spoke in a bored tone over the line. "I'm going to ask you to speak into the mouthpiece clearly."

"I'm in the middle of a war! This is frigging ridiculous!" Lennox shouted as he was frustrated with dealing with a call center of all things barring him from getting in touch with the Pentagon. Knowing there was probably no other way around this, he raced outside and saw Epps at one of the walls firing several rounds at the robotic jaguar. "Epps! Where's your wallet?!"

"Pocket!" Epps shouted as he continued firing down range.

Lennox knew that was of no help considering how many pockets their uniforms carried. "Which pocket?!"

"MY BACK POCKET!" Epps shouted back, just as annoyed as his commanding officer.

"YOU'VE GOT 10 BACK POCKETS!" Lennox exclaimed.

"LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK! LEFT CHEEK!" Epps shouted, hoping to return his focus to the monster trying to kill them all, and not have to worry about where to find his goddamn wallet. "Alright keep shootin'! Keep shootin'!"

"Okay, it's Visa!" Lennox called out over the phone as he read off the card. He also made a mental note to try and forget the information he was reading, since it was not his card after all.

"Also, sir, have you heard about our world service premium plus call package?" The man on the line recited over the phone, chin resting on his hand, bored out of his mind.

"No, I don't want a premium package!" Lennox answered, his patience almost to the snapping point. Fortunately for him, the call was being forwarded and the phone began to ring again. Unfortunately for him, a missile struck a building behind him, hailing him in dust and small debris. No harm was done, but it was a call too close for comfort.

"This is United States Command. Identify yourself," An officer ordered over the line. Lennox suppressed the urge to breathe a sigh of relief as he now had coordination with the Pentagon.

"This is Captain William Lennox, U.S. Marines!" Lennox answered as he barely ducked under a hailstorm of bullets. "My team and I survived the attack at SOCCENT, but are requesting backup yesterday! Handing you over to Sergeant Epps for coordination!" Quickly spying his second-in-command, he found the man hiding behind his cover reloading. "Epps! Pentagon!"


Pentagon, Washington D.C.

John Keller and the Field Commander sped into the command center after receiving a notice from one of the operators.

"Give me a status," The Air Commander ordered as they approached the operator in question.

"Sir, we're tracking a Special Ops team under fire in Qatar," The Operator explained as he patched through the cell phone call. "They say they're survivors from the base attack."

"Survivors?" Keller gasped, genuinely relieved that someone had escaped the incident, but now on edge as they were currently under fire.

"Sergeant Epps, relay status," The Operator declared over the call.

"We're currently cornered inside a small village with heavy ordinance raining down on us!" Epps answered over the call. "I ain't never seen this in my life! We need gunships on station, ASAP!"

"Predator drones coming up in a few minutes," The operator declared. "Call is being linked to the nearest AWACS. Describe the target."

"Uh, Giant robot jaguar of death, Unknown man, I dunno man, if you've seen this shit…!" Epps tried to explain before ultimately giving up.

A few minutes passed before the Predator drone finally arrived to survey the scene. The feed was brought up on the display for everyone to see. Everyone could not believe what they were looking at, as Epps's hasty description fit the bill: A giant robotic jaguar that was bombarding a small village with hip-mounted turrets.

"What is that…?" The Secretary whispered in disbelief.

"I don't know," The Air Commander answered, just as lost as his superior was, but knew action needed to be taken. "We need air support and we need it now. Roll in Strike Package Bravo on unknown target! I authenticate Tango Whiskey at Time 0300 Zulu! All aircraft, this will be a danger-close fire mission, friendlies in the area!"


"2nd Squad of SOCCENT 1st Platoon, we are sending the hogs. Awaiting Killbox 1-Alpha," A new operator explained to Epps. "Spooky 3-2 will be standing by."

"Target is 100 meters danger close! Seven man team north of Orange Smoke!" Epps declared as he tossed a smoke flare and threw it to mark where his squad was. "Attack direction west! You're clear and hot!"

"Recieved Killbox 1-Alpha. Engaging hostile," The operator declared. "IR targeting activated."

"Lennox! The heat's coming!" Epps shouted.

"Laze the target!" Lennox ordered as he mounted a laser sight onto his rifle and pointed it at the beast. "We've got a beam rider incoming! Laze the target!"

Right as his squad stopped firing and began training lasers on the beast, one missile hit close to its mark and had sent Fig flying. Lennox mentally cursed the shot and hoped that retribution would come in the form of depleted uranium slugs at 65 rounds per second as well as several well-placed IR-guided missiles.

"Ready, heat's coming!" Lennox announced.

"What! Bring it!" Epps shouted, ready to see this monster perforated.

Soon a pair of A-10 Thunderbolts came into view. The leader opened up with a merciless volley from its gatling gun that gave its distinctive rev across the field before it pelted the jaguar down below. The pilot followed up with a single missile given the armored nature of the bogey. The second Warthog followed up with the exact same pattern. By the time they flew over, there was a massive plume of smoke and dust obscuring the target. By the time it cleared, it looked highly dented, but seemed to be shaking off the impacts.

"There's no frigging way that thing still not down…" Lennox muttered in horror at what he was witnessing. Very few things could shake off an assault like that, and this thing seemed to be shrugging it off, and now it looked genuinely pissed.

"Spooky 3-2, use 105 Shells!" Epps requested. "Bring the rain!"

On cue, a massive C-130 Hercules orbited the battlefield and banked to the left to bring its guns to bear. Once they were trained on the target, a hail of 105mm Sabot shells pelted the killbox where the beast was at. The explosions were far more aggressive than those wrought by the Warthogs, and the squad members could hear metallic crunches and clangs, indicating the shells were hitting their marks. By the time the salvo had completed, an even larger plume of smoke shadowed the beast. Once it finally dissipated, the monster was clearly in a limp, bright blue fluids pouring from its wounded tail that was hanging on by mere threads. Recognizing the situation, the beast quickly shook its head and sprinted into the dunes, its barbed tail snapping off before it vanished into the sand.

"That thing's retreated…" Lennox muttered, finally breathing a sigh of relief. "Alright everybody, sound off!"

"AGH! OH GOD!" Fig cried out in pain from underneath a light coating of rubble. The explosion had not burned him thanks to his uniform taking the brunt of the fire, but the force of the blast along with the landing had broken several bones. "GODDAMNIT!"

"Epps! Call for a medic!" Lennox ordered before racing over to Fig to try and help the wounded soldier in any way that he can. "Try and keep it together, man! Help is on its way!"

"Bring 'em home," Keller ordered, now that the target had retreated. He was glad that the team had survived both for their sakes as well as the fact that he knew those marines held vital information regarding the base attack, and he needed to know. "You get those men stateside right now. I want them debriefed in 10 hours."


Pentagon, National Security Agency

Maggie had been working tirelessly to crack the code on the mystery signal that had been detected during the SOCCENT attack and when Air Force One was infiltrated. She had theories, but she knew that theories were useless without proof, a lesson that had to be reiterated by the Secretary of Defense, no less. Despite her best efforts, Maggie could not decipher the signal.

A proverbial light bulb lit up above her head when she realized that there was someone who could crack the code, but the downside was that he was not an agent like she was, and showing him such information would land her behind bars for all eternity, or worse. Maggie knew that the other teams were no closer to cracking the code than she was, and after a quick weighing of her options, she decided to risk it. She also knew that once she started, she would have to act swiftly.

"There's only one hacker in the world who can break this code," Maggie muttered under her breath. Fortunately for her teammates, they did not pay her any heed. Discreetly, she slipped an SD card into her computer and copied the file over. Now the clock was ticking. Once the file copied over, she took out the card and opened her makeup kit, hiding the card inside before clocking out for lunch. Once she was outside, she quickly hailed a cab and ordered her destination. The cab came to a modest suburban residence and Maggie paid the driver before he sped off. She marched up to the door and gave it a knock.

Opening the door was a portly young man with dark skin and a football jersey. Maggie did not wait for pleasantries and barged in. "I'm sorry to bother you, Glen," She apologized as she immediately stepped into

"Wha-Maggie?" Glen exclaimed as the woman rushed into the house.

"Listen, I need your help-" Maggie pleaded.

"A-No! This is my private area! My place of zen and peace," Glen deflected as he was not expecting an old colleague to be barging in like this.

"GLEN?! WHO IS IT?!" An older female voice crowed out from deeper within the house, interrupting Maggie's sentence.

"SHUT UP GRAMMA!" Glen snapped at the scolding voice inside, completely contradicting his statement before. He then returned his attention back to Maggie to ask the bigger question. "What're you doing here?!"

"GLEN-!"

"GRAMMAMA DRINK YOUR PRUNE JUICE!" Glen shouted once more, followed by an exasperated sigh as he marched off to a different room, completely ignoring Maggie's pleas. Once he walked in, Glen saw his cousin playing on a DDR mat. "Oh! What level are you on?"

"Siiiiiix!~" Glen's cousin declared as he got into the groove.

"Oh here comes the Matrix, here comes the Matrix!" Glen excitedly pointed at the TV screen before both did an impersonation of the famous bullet time scene from the movie in question. Once the sequence wrapped up, the two had a hearty laugh, but Maggie had a time table to keep.

"Glen, don't you want to see something classified?" Maggie whispered. Immediately he perked up and walked over to the game console and hit the pause button.

"Hey, hey, I just paused it. I need a moment," Glen requested to his cousin, who merely shrugged.

"Alright, but save my game," The cousin requested back before he left and closed the door. Now that the main issue has left the room…

"How classified?" Glen asked as Maggie held up her makeup cake.

"Like 'I-will-go-to-jail-for-the-rest-of-my-life-for-showing-you' classified," Maggie explained.

"YES…! One quick peek!" Glen excitedly took the SD card and plugged it into his computer. He saw the sole audio file and assumed that was the 'classified document' in question. He donned his reading glasses and opened the file. He heard the metallic screech and observed the visual waveform as well as the statistics laid out, and was quite surprised, to say the least. "Whoa… The signal strength is through the roof. Where'd you say you got this?"

"It hacked the National Military Air Guard frequency in less than a minute," Maggie explained.

"No way…" Glen gasped in shock. He knew that to pull something off like that would require ridiculous know-how on computer science as well as the hardware to pull off that kind of attack. Looking at the waveform graph while listening to it once more, he noticed a unique type of structure to it. "Looks like there's a message embedded in the signal. Lemme work my magic."

With that, Glen input a series of commands to try and sweep the signal for any form of message. He moved the window to the side and opened a terminal window which began spewing out text that was transcribed from the signal. The first filter yielded nothing but encrypted gibberish. As he modified the filter, he began noticing patterns of English text. Adjusting the decryption filter more, the command line text eventually spat out some notable terms.

"Project Ice Man?" Maggie muttered, reading the text aloud.

"What's Sector 7?" Glen muttered as well.

"And who's Captain Witwicky?"

Before they could read further, the front door burst open and several footsteps marched in.

"FBI! Clear Right!" A man shouted as several flashlights illuminated the room, causing Glen to scream in panic.

Maggie got up and approached the agents to explain herself, but all she got for her trouble was being knocked down and pinned to the ground.

"GET OFF MY GRANMAMA'S CARPET!" Glen shouted as he was pinned down as well. "SHE DON'T LIKE NOBODY ON THE CARPET! ESPECIALLY POLICE!"

Maggie ignored Glen's mama's boy-esque tirade and groaned. Her time table was up, but at least she had new information to work with. The only problem now was getting it into John Keller's hands.


Witwicky Residence

"It was an awesome spectacle here an hour ago when over 40 C-17s took off from this very base. We're not told where they're going. The gov-"

Daniel turned off the TV in his room, having heard enough of the news for today, and tossed the remote onto his bed before rubbing his face. He barely got any sleep, the events of last night still haunting his mind. After he woke up, he decided to check the news to see if there would be any updates or reasons for why his father was pulled back into duty. Apparently a massive attack had laid waste to an airbase in the Middle East that left no known survivors. Daniel knew that such an unprovoked attack demanded retaliation, and now his father's return to duty made perfect sense, especially when the military declared DEFCON 1.

He was especially glad that his run-in with the police ended without a record, but he could not help but feel that he was losing his mind. No one saw what he saw, and that worried him. At the same time, what he saw was something so similar to what his ancestor had claimed that there was no way that it could be coincidence.

Daniel's musings were shattered when he heard an engine rev outside of the house. His eyes widened when he recognized the engine.

"Can I please not lose my mind…?!" Daniel exclaimed in a hushed whisper. In the event this was real, he rushed to his parents' room and pulled a safe from underneath the bed. He knew better than to pull this out unless it was an emergency, especially if he thought this was having a mental episode, but if he got confirmation that he was not losing his mind, he would feel more comfortable carrying it. He mentally thanked his father for giving him firearms training and taking him to airsoft games once in a while, and hoped that he wouldn't end up killing him over this act. For now, he just wanted to get the Hell away from that Lambo with some form of self defense. He opened the safe and pulled from it a small glock with a single magazine. Making sure the safety was on, he tucked it away out of sight and ran downstairs. He never got the chance to recover his bike, and thus resorted to using his mother's bike, which was a garish pink with a pillow on the seat.

With that, he rode out of the house, and to his horror, the Lambo from Hell began to follow him. Daniel failed to notice that while the car was tailing him, it was not trying to catch up. The chase went on for a good few minutes until Daniel reached the KO Burger in town. Because he was trying to run for his life, he failed to notice a large broken tile of sidewalk crumbling underneath and flipped the bike over with a yelp and landed flat on his back.

"Daniel?!"

Daniel quickly got his bearings and saw that Mikaela was outside the restaurant with a few friends who were giggling at his misfortune.

"Uh, Hi," Daniel groaned, deciding to try and play it cool now of all times.

"That was, um.. That was really… Awesome?" Mikaela commented, struggling to find a word to describe Daniel's stumble.

"Welp, it sure felt awesome," Daniel groaned as he got back onto his feet and onto the bike.

"Are you alright?" Mikaela asked, considering how much of a spill that was.

"Honestly? Not really," Daniel hastily answered. "I'm pretty sure I'm losing my mind. Currently being chased by my own car! Gotta go!" The teenager then hastily scrambled onto the bike and rode off. Mikaela felt a twinge of concern and felt compelled to act.

"Alright, I think I'll catch up with you all later," Mikaela excused herself as she walked over to her scooter and donned her helmet. As she pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street, a police cruiser - a Mustang by the looks of it - aggressively cut her off before speeding off, annoying her in the process.

Daniel, meanwhile, had rode down to the freeway underpass, the flame-decorated Lambo still behind him. A number of derelict cars littered the area - a perfect place to hide. He then heard a new engine roar, followed by a high-pitched siren. Looking in the direction of the sound he saw a police cruiser.

"Oh great. Cops," Daniel muttered as the Lambo drove around the police cruiser. Given his last encounter with the police, Daniel decided to slowly approach the vehicle. What he failed to notice was that the badge decal on the side possessed a symbol of a face, sharp, angry, and angular, almost like a robotic devil. Further near the rear of the vehicle was a decal that read 'To punish and enslave…'

"Officer!" Daniel cried out as he rode closer to the vehicle. The moment he reached the driver side door, it swung open and hit his bike and knocked him down to the ground. "OW! Oh that hurt…!"

Daniel groaned as he tried to regain his bearings after having a door slammed right into him. What the police officer was thinking, he had no clue. Eventually he got to his feet and rested himself on the hood of the car. There he saw the officer in question before he suddenly fizzled and vanished. Daniel was shocked at this. One moment there was a mustachioed police officer sitting in the driver's seat, the next, he vanished as if he were a hologram. The cruiser then angrily revved its engine and inched forward, eliciting a frightened yelp from Daniel as he fell backward and the car kept revving forward.

The engine of the car soon shut off, leaving Daniel both terrified and confused. His fear would only skyrocket when the cruiser began to break apart, shift, and rearrange itself. The police car then took the form of a giant bipedal robot with purple accents, blood red eyes, and a sadistic grin upon the plates that made up its face.

"There you are…" The giant growled.

"Oh God NO!" Daniel screamed as he clammored to his feet and ran as fast as his feet could carry him, all while the monster chased him, eventually smacking him into the air before he landed on the hood of a derelict car. "This is a bad dream… It has to be…!"

"Now to business…" The monster grinned before slamming a clawed fist onto the hood of the car, pinning Daniel into place. "Are you Daniel Witwicky?"

"What are you-"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION, FLESHLING!" The beast interrupted with a roar. "Are you Daniel Witwicky?!"

"Y-Yeah?!" Daniel hesitantly answered.

"Alright then," The car-turned-monstrosity muttered. "Where is the item from your Craigslist listing? Where are the glasses? Answer quickly and I won't reduce you to a red smear!"

The monster punctuated his threat by crushing the hood of the car Daniel was atop of, popping the tire underneath. Daniel took this opportunity to run like Hell once more, barely missing the grasp of the monster.

"Oh no you don't!" The monster shouted as he gave chase. "Get back here you miserable little sack of flesh!"

Daniel continued his mad dash away from the interrogating monster. To his dismay, he saw Mikaela on her scooter driving towards him, and evidently, in the same path as the monster that accosted him.

"Get back!" Daniel warned Mikaela as she kept driving. She gave a perplexed look, wondering what had gotten her classmate so freaked out and running so fast. Those musings were cut off when Daniel saw that she was not changing course and decided to take matters into his own hands and tackled her off the scooter. Mikaela let out a frustrated groan, planning to give the crazy boy a piece of her mind.

"What is your problem, Daniel?!" Mikaela scolded before heavy metallic footsteps drew her attention. Immediately she froze up in fear at the giant monster. "Oh shit…"

"That is my problem!" Daniel answered before trying to shake her back to her senses. "Get up and run! Get up and run now!"

Before Barricade could reach the two, a familiar engine roar came in as Daniel's Lamborghini swerved and impacted the monster in a sort of dropkick, sending it crashing to its back. The vehicle then pulled up to the two and the passenger side door opened up.

"Get in! Quick!" A voice called out from inside the vehicle. Daniel was snapped from his initial shock and turned to Mikaela.

"C'mon! We gotta get in the car!" Daniel pleaded while the monster groaned as he got up.

"I don't want to-"

"Please, trust me!" Daniel interrupted Mikaela's counter-pleas. Eventually she recovered from her shock and the two piled into the vehicle.

"Fasten your seatbelts, you two!" The car spoke over the radio. The two did exactly as told as the gear shifted into drive and rubber screamed as the car sped off.

"Cursed Autobot SLAG!" The monster roared before leaping forward and transforming back into the police cruiser it originated from, engine roaring and lights flaring. The chase was on.

The chase had led from the freeway to the back alleys of the derelict industrial sector. The Lambo, for its exterior condition, weaved around the modern Mustang like any powerhouse car, avoiding it by any means necessary. The chase eventually led to an abandoned warehouse as the Lambo crashed through one of the old windows and through several decaying shelves of boxes and other things, emerging no worse than when it began. The monster police cruiser did the same, only coming out of each impact with minor abrasions to the glossy paint. The smell of burning rubber permeated the warehouse as both cars swerved and ran full throttle to either catch or evade, depending on the car in question. The Mustang soon caught itself in a skid far longer than it liked, giving the Lambo a chance to gain some distance away from the adversary. Once outside again, they were deep within the industrial district of Jasper, a place that had long since been abandoned as business ventures to the town had changed. The Lambo quietly backed into an area and shut its engine off before locking its doors.

"We're locked in," Daniel declared, seeing the locks refuse to move. Daniel then tried to turn the ignition, not getting any noise. "The car won't start, but at least we ditched the monster. Erm… You did see the monster, right?"

"Y-Yeah, I saw it," Mikaela answered quietly.

"Good. I'm not losing my marbles then," Daniel sighed.

"Okay you two," The car spoke in a hushed whisper, quietly startling the two. "I'll need a moment to get you out so I can take care of our resident bad cop. Once the fighting starts, hide."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Daniel answered quietly. His attention was drawn down the road where he saw the police cruiser roll down, lights blinking as it surveyed the area. Eventually as it looked like it was passing, it came to a stop, and Daniel heard the key turn and the ignition rumble. "Here we go…"

The Lamborghini's engine roared to life and the tires screeched as the gas pedal was floored and the car bolted past the Monster Mustang. The red vehicle then gave a swerve as the passenger door opened up, along with the seat belts, forcing both Daniel and Mikaela out of the vehicle. It was here that the Lamborghini Countach began to transform. The figure that stood in front of the two was a massive robot sporting the same color scheme as the vehicle it emerged from. The spoiler was now along his back and the chrome tailpipes lined his forearms. The hood of the Lambo made up its torso as the wheels served a dual purpose as shoulder joints as well as joints for the ankles. Before Daniel or Mikaela could get to their feet, the Mustang raced forward before transforming into a vault and tackling the red robot. Both were quick to recover, but the mustang drew forth a spiked flail that looked to be made of the tire rims of his vehicle mode.

"I'll be sure to leave you a rusting pile when I'm done…" The monster threatened the Lambobot with a snarl before a compartment in his torso opened up and a short, purple and green robot emerged. "Reflector! After the fleshlings!"

"Consider it done!" Reflector nodded as he began chasing the humans through the industrial sector.

"And as for you!" Barricade roared as he swung his flail right into the Red bot's face, knocking him into a silo that crumpled under the impact. "Don't you know that it's a crime to interfere with police affairs?"

The Lambo bot was quick to regain his bearings and deftly dodged the flail a second time before grabbing Barricade's arm. "Perhaps I should tell you that it's a federal offense to impersonate an officer!" He retorted before heaving his opponent over his head with all of his might and slamming him into a small concrete shack that crumbled under the mass. The Lambo then tackled the down fighter and began unleashing a series of punches to Barricade's face. Pinned down as he was, Barricade could not hope to block the onslaught, but was able to get a few good hits in for his trouble.

"Alright, I've had enough!" The Lambo shouted as he grabbed Barricade by the shoulders and delivered a swift headbutt to the Decepticon's forehead. His optics rolled for a bit before dimming and falling back unconscious. The triple tailpipes on the Lambo then shifted and began to glow an iridescent blue as he pointed them at the downed foe. He stood up and gave him a quick nudge before walking away. "And stay down. Now to help the Humans…"


As his Lamborghini was trading hands with the Monster Mustang, Daniel ran to put as much distance between him and the fight as he could, with Mikaela close behind him. Unfortunately for him, the little robot that the monster had deployed had snuck up on him from behind several water crates, and split into 3 smaller versions of itself as they tried to pin him down. Mikaela continued running as the trio held Daniel by a leg each and his back. Eventually, Daniel found purchase on the one on his back and grabbed it while using it to smack the smaller cretins off of his legs. Once he was free, he tossed his makeshift weapon aside and continued running. The 3 reassembled back into one and gave chase once more, and gave Daniel another tackle that had sent the two tumbling down a hill before the human was pinned against a chain link fence.

"Back… Off!" Daniel shouted as he used his foot to shove Reflector away and onto his back. Taking the opportunity, Daniel drew out his gun and disabled the safety. His aim was not steady in the moment, but any means of incapacitating this droid from Hell was worth it. He fired a few rounds, each pinging off Reflector's armor before he split apart into 3 once more and pinned him once again. Fortunately, Mikaela came rushing in with a reciprocating saw and proceeded to hack the drones off of Daniel, while trying to avoid accidentally cutting him in the process. The drones collectively screamed as the ones pinning Daniel's legs were off and he wasted no time driving several bullets into their eyes, ending them. The final one was heavily dismembered, but Daniel ran out of ammo to finish the job. Both breathed a sigh of relief as the final drone grumpily hobbled away as nothing more than a torso and head.

"Not so tough without limbs or your other action figure buddies, are you?!" Daniel taunted before running over and booting the last piece of Reflector into the night as he screamed.

"You have a gun?" Mikaela asked as she saw the glock in Daniel's hand. Despite emptying the clip, he put the safety on regardless and tucked it away.

"My dad's," Daniel answered. "Used in case of emergency or self defense. I think that gremlin ticked both boxes."

Reflector soon landed several meters away from the group. Struggling to move without arms or legs, his lower torso unfolded into a series of small appendages that supported his tiny frame. He soon found himself at Mikaela's bag and spotted her phone. Giving it a quick scan, he then tossed the device and transformed into an exact replica, hoping the human was none the wiser.

Daniel and Mikaela, meanwhile, slowly approached the Lamborghini Robot, who disengaged the tailpipe guns on his forearms. Instead of the aggressive demeanor of Barricade, this one was much calmer, and strode in a manner as to not provoke.

"What is it?" Mikaela asked in a hushed voice.

"It's a robot," Daniel answered, stating the obvious. "But more like a super advanced robot. It's probably Japanese."

"I'm actually not Japanese," The bot explained in a welcoming tone as he stopped in place. "But I can see what you're getting at. Are you two alright?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Daniel answered with a bit of hesitation, while Mikaela just nodded. "So is that monster dead?"

"Unconscious," The robot answered. "But I doubt Barricade will be playing Bad Cop so long as I'm around."

"Barricade?" Daniel echoed.

"That's his name," The robot explained. "Mine is Hot Rod, by the way."

"Oh, I get it," Daniel with a nod. "Because you turn into one, right?"

"Actually I've had the name long before I turned into a Lambo," The bot now known as Hot Rod explained. "Oh, and before I forget, sorry about the trouble I got you in last night."

"Uh, no, sure it's cool," Daniel waved off. "I got off without a record, but what was with that light show you did last night?"

"Right, that," Hot Rod nodded. "I needed to send a beacon for some friends of mine to land. They actually want to meet up with you."

"'Friends to land…'" Mikaela muttered, genuinely curious where all of this was going, but had to ask for confirmation first. "Are you an alien?"

"First 100% correct guess this evening," Hot Rod declared with a confirming point before transforming back into the Lamborghini Countach and opening the passenger door. "Any further questions?"

"He wants us to get in," Daniel stated, completely in awe at the situation.

"And go where?" Mikaela nervously asked with a chuckle in her throat.

"50 years from now when you're looking back at your life, don't you wanna say you had the guts to get in the car?" Daniel asked. This was enough to elicit a small shrug from Mikaela as the two got in and fastened themselves in. Hot Rod drove over to where Mikaela left her bag so that she could gather her things before they were off again.

Both Daniel and Mikaela were relaxing in the back seat after such a hectic ordeal, from being chased by Barricade to the scuffle with Reflector. Despite no one being in the driver seat, Hot Rod maintained a steady cruising speed and abided by all the traffic laws present.

"He's a pretty good driver," Mikaela commented as Hot Rod cruised down the road.

"Well, he probably had time to practice," Daniel suggested. "So, how're you holding up?"

"If I'm gonna be honest? I wasn't expecting any of this today," Mikaela slumped back with a sigh. "But at least you're not going crazy like your great great grandfather."

"Tell me about it," Daniel scoffed. "I was actually considering a psych evaluation at one point."

"There's one thing I don't understand though," Mikaela sighed. "If Hot Rod is this super advanced robot, why does he turn back into this piece of crap Lambo?"

SCREEEEEEECH!

"Okay you two, Out!" Hot Rod angrily ordered through his sound system as he slammed his brakes, much to the chagrin of those behind him.

"Oh that's just great!" Daniel groaned as he got out and onto the sidewalk. Hot Rod then did a quick U-turn and drove away. "Now you pissed him off! $4,000 just kicked us out and drove off!"

"'Piece of crap Lambo,' she says," Hot Rod muttered as he drove off, surveying the oncoming traffic while keeping to his lane. Eventually, he saw what he was after. If he were in his robot mode, he would be grinning right now. "I've been due a refresh."

A bright blue flat beam emitted from the side of the old Lamborghini Countach as it enveloped a much newer Lamborghini Gallardo. Once the scan completed, the paneling along Hot Rod began to shift. The old faded paint began to flake away as a brand new custom clear coat emerged from underneath like the molting skin of a reptile. The panels of the vehicle rotated and shifted to effectively get rid of the old Countach as a brand new Gallardo took form, complete with the customizations held prior, but shiny and new. Hot Rod then did another U-turn when the traffic permitted and slowed to a halt to the two he had just kicked out, all the while playing the Kill Bill soundtrack on his sound system.

"What?!" Daniel gasped in amazement at what he was seeing. Gone was the beat up 1980 Lamborghini Countach replaced with a Gallardo fresh from 2007. The door then opened in the brand's classic fashion welcoming the two back.

"If you're gonna ride," Hot Rod began proudly as the two took their seats. "Ride in style!"

With that, Hot Rod shifted into drive and drove off. Mikaela was genuinely impressed with the sudden upgrade, while Daniel had the biggest grin on his face as his $4,000 investment paid for itself 40 times over, and he felt like the luckiest guy in the world.


A/N: Got a BEEG chapter this time around! I was originally gonna split this up into 2 chapters, but ultimately decided not to. The real challenge was adapting the fast-paced cuts from the Scorponok battle to text format. And of course Scorponok ain't here and Ravage is standing in. Daniel thought he was going crazy, but fortunately for him, he's not. As for the rumble between Barricade and Hot Rod, that sequence was fun to write. For the record, I based this version of Barricade on the Aligned Continuity version (Since that's technically where we are) and had him be a bit more mouthy than he was in the movie. And since Hot Rod could talk, he could bite back, and that also meant I could borrow a quote from the G1 movie to boot. Also, Glen shouting "SHUT UP GRAMMA!" was too funny not to include, personally. :P

Also, side note, I have a discord server! The link will expire 7 days after the posting of this chapter, so feel free to join if the time window permits. (discord dot gg/BY3gq3bv) Shameless plugging aside, I hope this was a good read. :)