Chapter 10

Unknown Planet

Stripes awoke in a large crater. His systems had been forced to go into a stasis lock to prevent his critical components from overloading from the heat and pressure of re-entry. He groggily climbed out of the crater and looked around.

He was standing along a strip of desert between a volcanic field and a jungle. He figured the Jungle would be the best place to make himself scarce. So, he transformed into vehicle mode, driving off towards the jungle. Once he got near the outer edge, he changed back to robot mode, and walked into the vegetation. As he went deeper in the jungle, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. He looked around, but nothing was there. Stripes continued into the jungle, cautiously treading over the terrain. He looked over his shoulder, thinking he had heard the clanging of metal. Nothing was there, though.

"This place gives me the creeps..." Stripes said. Then, he heard a roar to his left.
Standing nearby was a huge cheetah, and it was clearly angry.

"Uh… Nice kitty..." Stripes stammered, slowly backing up. Stripes then bolted through the brush, jumping over logs and obstacles that the Cheetah had trouble traversing. He was now running for his life!

"Bad day bad bay bad day BAD DAAAYYYY!" Stripes yelled. Then, Stripes felt something snap around his leg, and he tripped, feeling the wire yank him off the ground, and up into a tree.

"AW, CRAP!" Stripes exclaimed, dangling from the tree like a Christmas ornament! He was helpless, considering his Gatling Arm Cannon was still offline from earlier. The Cheetah approached, slowly walking up to the ensnared Stripes, as he noticed the serrated teeth of the Cheetah weren't natural! They were some sort of tritanium alloy. Stripes struggled in futility to free himself from the snare, as the Cheetah drew closer and closer, a rumble in its throat.

"Crap, crap, crap!" Stripes thrashed and tugged a the cable holding him up, but it just wouldn't let go! It was then he realized from his optic scans, it was made of some sort of elastic titanium!

But that could not compare at all to what happened next. As soon as the Cheetah was in striking range, it transformed! Into a bipedal robot with weapons! It was Cybertronian!

"Finally, fresh energon..." The animal bot said, licking its lips.

Stripes could do nothing else but let out a frenzied scream.

# # # # #

Nemesis

Bumblebee looked over all of Megatron's "proof" that Stripes was the Son of Primus. So far, he was putting up a very convincing argument.

"So, according to your scans and recorded video from your optics, when you tore him from his car on earth he was already starting to go through the 'metamorphosis' according to the tablets?" Bumblebee asked.

"Yes." Megatron said. He froze a specific shot. "Look here, at his blood when I am lifting him from the car after he crashed. Do you not find it odd that it has changed color from the usual human red to an oily blue?"

"Oh, really?" Wheeljack was extremely skeptical. "How do we know you haven't altered the video somehow? They can be easily faked these days..."

"I had a feeling you would say that," Megatron replied. "So I had a sample of his blood taken before I accelerated his metamorphosis through a nanite-based solution." Megatron went over and picked up a canister of fluid, which was the same oily blue as the so-called "blood" in the video. "Scan it yourselves. It will have the same signature as Stripes' internal systems."

The Autobots scanned the container. Sure enough, it had Stripes' signature.

"...This will do, for now. But don't forget, I have my eye on you." Wheeljack said, pointing a finger at Megatron. "Now, I guess we should focus on finding Stripes before he gets hurt."

"Agreed." Bumblebee said. "Let's scan the area for his signature. He couldn't have gotten far."

# # # # # # #

Meanwhile, back on the Unknown planet…

Stripes was unable to move as the Cheetah-bot held him against the tree with a carbon mono-filament blade against his chassis as he hung upside down in the snare.

"L-l-look, man! You don't want my energon! It's… It's unclean! I've been drinking a lot of petrol-based fuels recently, it's not pure!" Stripes begged.

The Cheetah-bot sighed leisurely as he activated a homing beacon on it's chest. "Here, it's the law of the jungle; you take what you get."

"No, please!" Stripes panicked. "HELP! SOMEONE HELP ME!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, but then the Cheetah-bot moved the mono-filament blade to his neck, right near a vital energon line. Stripes went silent.

"Cheetor, what in the name of Primus are you doing?!" An authoritative voice snapped.

Both Cheetor and Stripes looked over to their left. Coming out of the brush was a large silver back gorilla, a Velociraptor, a giant rat, and a wolf with eagle wings on it's back. They changed to robot mode as well, just like Cheetor had.

"Well, what do you think of my catch, Boss-bot?" Cheetor asked in an eager-for-approval voice, turning to the gorilla-bot. "Not bad for a first hunt, don't you think?"

The rat-bot clapped it's hands slowly in a sarcastic manner. "Congratulations. You caught a sports car..."

"Yes, that' s right! I caught a…." Cheetor then cut himself off. "Wait a minute..."

"Cheetor, You caught an Autobot!" Primal scolded. "I highly doubt he would make a suitable trophy, let alone a good supply of techno-organic energon!" Primal then sighed. "However, I do have to commend you on your hunting skills. You are getting better at stalking and chasing, so I'll give you that much..."

"Yeah, that's all good and well..." Stripes spoke up. "Now would someone get me down from here?!"

Cheetor sighed, and with a swift swipe cut the snare with his blade, causing Stripes to fall ungracefully onto the ground.

"OW!" Stripes exclaimed, hitting the ground face-first!

"Now the only question is, what to do with the sports car?" Primal said. "For that matter, who are you in the first place?"

Stripes got up, rubbing the back of his head. "...My name is Stripes. I am from the planet Earth. I used to be known as Carlos, though. But that's a long story..."

Everyone went silent. Primal then walked up to Stripes, looking into his optics with a piercing yet wise glare.

"Uh..." Stripes stammered. He was now feeling uneasy again.

"Let's go." Primal said. "You're coming back to our base with us. To the Axalon."

"Wait, what?" Stripes started to protest. "I appreciate it, but I've got issues of my own, and..."
Primal then drew one of his saber blades, cutting Stripes off as he pointed the blade at him. "This isn't up for discussion. Men! Escort him back to the ship!"