TRANSFORMERS PRIME: MY WILD ADVENTURE. DARKNESS RISING: SEAN, MEET THE AUTOBOTS


CHARACTER INFO:

Name: Sean Rodriguez (he)

Age: 16 years old

Height: 5'6

Eye color: black

Hair color: Blond

Clothes: red-striped collar shirt with blue jeans and black sneakers.

STORY INFO:

- "Text"- regular speaking

- "Text"- Sean or any other character thinking to themselves.

- "TEXT" - story transition

Music links: the custom soundtrack for the story.

BEGIN STORY

Date: Thursday, November 25, 2010 (November 26 was when the show first premiered).

Living in Nevada is an understatement. Because in all honesty, there are two big places you can go to in the state: Las Vegas, and its capital city: Carson City.

Living in Jasper, Nevada, is probably the one thing you can do if you're looking to get a cheap job in a cheap, rural town.

But when you're the son of a drill instructor, well, it can get iffy. For Sean Rodriguez, his father taught him discipline, to respect one's authority, and be more productive, all the while earning a buck yelling at the top of his lungs at new soldiers within an army base remote from Jasper. But what can he expect, being productive while in a small town? Almost none of the jobs seemed interesting.

Last week, Sean and his classmates were assigned to school projects, which required them to build a makeshift object for science class. One of Sean's friends, Rafael Esquivel, decided to make a volcano that erupts, so Sean seized on the opportunity to help him.

Today, they were hanging out at a canal, overlooked by the main highway bridge- which was undergoing some roadwork. The canal had an entrance through a metal stairway leading to the outskirts of the town. Raf and Sean were writing project report papers about their recent progress. Even though Sean decided to go for something easy, being a mini windmill, he knew it would be difficult for Raf to work on a volcano. Besides, the kid was autistic and had special needs services, so working on this project would easily stress him out.

So far, they have been working on them for the past hour. The sun was approaching the horizon, and the sky turned a hazy orange with some cloud coverage. The autumn wind blew over the teenagers' heads, carrying a dry smell of moldy water.

"Okay Raf, what did you get done so far?"

"I bought some clay for the volcano, now all I need is some sort of remote-control device that can help explode the volcano." Raf adjusted his glasses.

"You sure you're not gonna blow up your house?"

"No. At least I hope so," Raf said to himself, before setting aside his papers and notebook. "Other than that, I just finished my homework!" he threw his hands up in relief.

Sean checked his watch, and it read 4:26 pm. "Well, I better get going, my dad's expecting me to come home soon. See you tomorrow, Raf!"

"You too!" returned Raf. Sean turned and walked over to the canal stairs. As he was halfway up, he turned to look at Raf, who pulled out his remote-control car and started racing it on the concrete floor.

"Errrrr, errrrr" Raf said to himself. Then his phone rang. He clicked on it. "Hi, momma!" Raf exclaimed to his phone. "Racing, right at the street. Okay, just five more minutes?"

The blonde-haired teen smirked. 'At least he's having fun,' he continued walking up the stairs.

Sean eventually got off the ramp and walked up the cliff. But as he did so, the sounds of a motorcycle engine grew louder and louder. Soon, he also began to hear what appeared to be…screaming?

'Well, that doesn't sound good,' Sean thought to himself. 'But that's none of my business.' He continued climbing up the hill, the roars getting louder. As soon as he was halfway to the edge, Sean turned to look back at the highway bridge in the direction of the canal, as it was louder there. He began to suspect some kind of police chase was happening nearby, or a car lost control of its speed. Sean began to favor the second option due to the screaming.

And then the engine noises literally roared. Sean Rodriguez turned back to see something land in front of him-

Jackson Darby?!

He had virtually no time to react because Jack Darby was only ten feet in front of him. He was riding a motorcycle, and with good skill. He immediately managed to swerve around Sean just as he got over the edge, but as he drove by the blonde-haired teenager the rushing air pushed all balance from him. Within seconds Sean lost control, fell, and began rolling down the hill. Soon he rolled over the concrete wall and fell onto the canal pavement back first.

The spine was screaming with agonizing pain, worse than any he ever experienced. Sean couldn't think because the paralyzing agony wouldn't let him. But soon, his hearing began to return, and his common sense kicked in.

Struggling, Sean managed to turn over onto his stomach, before pushing himself off the ground. As his back curved, the pain increased higher, causing him to groan loudly. "Woah," he heard Rafael mutter before the kid himself ran over to check on him. The dark-haired teenager, Jack, soon joined in and repeatedly said, "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. We- I didn't even see you there!"

But the injured teenager saw him and adrenaline rushed throughout his body. "Jack~" his voice muttered before he suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Jack Darby, what the hell is wrong with you? You nearly ran me over! I swear I'm-"

Jack quickly raised his hands while glancing at the parked motorcycle nearby. "Sean, not now! Look, I'm sorry, alright? But please, now is not a good time!"

"Not a good time? You need to explain yourself, right now!" The blonde nearly screamed at the culprit.

But before Jack could reply, there was the sound of engines. The trio looked up to see two dark cars revving on the cliff edge, before driving down at a thunderous speed. As they leaped over the concrete edge, the cars appeared to shift midair before landing on the floor at least four dozen feet nearby. Once the cars landed on the ground, they were no longer cars. In their place stood two giants. Covered in dark purple metal plates, two pairs of red eyes stared at the children like a cat at a mouse. They looked human but made out of car parts, and one of their hands was extended into a weapon, from the looks of it.

But that was not all. There was a familiar sound of shifting gears, and the teens swung around to see that the motorcycle was transforming into a metal giant- no, a robot- with a similar humanoid appearance. The only exception is that the robot was covered with blue plates, and a pink crown at the head. The robot had some female characteristics.

As a pair of blue eyes opened and snarled at the other two robots, the robot confirmed her gender by shouting: "This ends here, Cons!"

It was at this moment that Sean realized there was going to be a fight, and I mean a BIG fight. It seemed Jack and Rafael had the same idea as they backed to the wall. The female robot began sprinting toward the purple bots, who in turn fired lasers from the arm cannons. In a manner of seconds, she dodged all firepower before landing punches at the robots. The ground was shaking under the kids' feet.

"Woah, what are they?" Rafael asked. "Talking cars that can turn into robots, or the other way around," Jack said nervously.

"Okay Jack, what the hell happened?" Sean asked while keeping an eye on the fight. His anxiety was spiking.

"It's...complicated."

Just as he answered, there was a series of huge thumps against the ground. The femme was backflipping from laser fire before one laser beam shot her directly in the chest and sent her flying to the ground. There was a loud screech as her steel body rubbed against the pavement. She was out cold.

And when things couldn't get worse, there was a fourth car that entered the arena. This time a yellow sports car transformed into a giant humanoid robot and managed to strike the evil bot in the face. It managed to pummel the robot with a series of punches before it collapsed to the ground. After crushing the head with its foot, the yellow bot stepped back, before accidentally crushing Raf's toy car.

A set of beeps and boops originated from the yellow bot as it looked at the trio. "No problem, rea-"

Before Rafael could finish, the robot was struck by lasers. Upon falling, the "cons" ran over and began opening their cannons at its face.

'Hold on, how come you-' Sean thought to himself but was interrupted.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

The two cons, along with the yellow robot, stared at Rafael and the other two.

Sean was horrified. An overwhelming sense of dread crawled over his bruised spine as the two dark robots stared at him and the others. He looked down at the kid. 'Rafael, what have you done?'

"...please?"

"Bad call," said Jack.

"Boulderhook, deal with the humans. I got the scout." one of the "cons" spoke to the second.

The second nodded before turning and walking over to the children.

'Oh god, this can't be happening.'

"D-don't just stand there! RUN!" Exclaimed Sean. They agreed and ran to the corner, where a large pipe stood out. It was thankfully large enough for them to fit.

Sean was the first to jump inside. Despite the immense pain from earlier, he quickly hoisted Raf inside, then grabbed Jack just as the con blocked their exit. It reached down and extended its arm to grab the kids. Jack and Rafael ran, before noticing Sean's slow speed. They grabbed him and helped him run faster.

But before the dark robot can reach them, the yellow bot got up and grabbed the con, and attacked with full force. The bot crouched down and beeped at them again, who stopped to watch the scene.

"Thank you!"

"Don't look back!" shouted Jack. "Keep going!"

"What did we just see?"

"No idea and I'm not sure I want to find out." The teenagers ran down the pipe. Their adrenaline told them to keep going, even though none of them have ever been inside a sewage pipe before.

As for Sean, well his heart was pounding against his chest.

'Seriously, what the hell happened to Jack that led to this?'

After at least ten minutes, they finally found an exit from the sewers. Upon getting out, they were far from town, but at least they were far enough from that canal.

'Where the robots are still there, I reckon,' Sean thought as he regathered his strength.

"Jack, we need to talk," spoke up Sean as they walked back to Jasper. "What the hell happened back there? Who was that blue robot? Who or what were those dark robots chasing you?"

"I-I have no idea, it happened so fast."

"God, I can never imagine I would see giant robots in my life. But I need explanations now, Jack," he continued before staring down at the younger culprit. "As for you-"

Raf was in shock. "I am so sorry, I did not mean to do that. We could have died!"

Sean was holding back anger and was tempted to scold him for that stunt back there. However, he was just a 12-year-old kid. And from what he saw way back then, kids have been notorious for doing that move while watching other kids get bullied.

Sean hugged Raf. "Hey it's okay, kids can do that sometimes. Look, just don't do that ever again, you understand?"

Raf nodded and hugged him back.

"Jack, if those robots can transform into vehicles, who knows how many more of them can be out there? I need to know, what happened?"

Finally, they started walking on the sidewalk. Jack took a deep breath and explained everything: from when he left work to find the motorcycle at the parking lot, to meeting Sierra, to getting chased by the purple robots in disguise, to being dropped off (and picked up again) by the motorcycle robot, to driving on the highway while being chased, to then jumping off the bridge, nearly hitting Sean, and getting into a huge fight with the evil purple bots.

"So from what you told me, all this ruckus was because you were checking out the motorcycle, the blue robot in disguise, at the diner?"

"O-Okay, maybe it was my fault, but it looked like these guys were after her before I noticed her. They were parked on the other side of the street before they attacked us."

"If they were after her before you got involved, then it wasn't your fault. Perhaps it was...her fault?"

This took a lot to process. After 15 minutes of walking, they finally reached the neighborhood. It was 4:49 pm. Sean waved to Jack and Raf before heading inside his house.

But dad wasn't there, or at least his car wasn't.

He got inside and slumped on the leather chair. He completely forgot about his back, because as soon as he sat down, the agonizing pain returned. After processing what happened in the last thirty minutes, the clock made him realize:

"God, I have homework! And chores!"

The german shepherd, Chloe, hummed as Sean sprinted to let her out into the backyard. He grabbed the shovel outside and began picking up the dog poop before dumping it into the trash can. Once the dog used the bathroom outside, the boy took care of it, before opening the side gate and began picking up dog poop in the front yard.

There was only one.

But there were a lot of cars out front.

Sean felt uncomfortable. He decided not to do that, seeing how suspicious the crowd of cars was.

After that, he took a long shower, dried off, put away laundry, then sat down and pulled out his homework, ignoring the surge of back pain. He managed to take a good look at the bruises on his back, shoulders, and arms. The concrete pavement didn't fare too well with him. 'Is this what a broken spine feels like? I hope I didn't break my shoulder bones, too. How am I going to explain this to Mom and Dad?'

His phone buzzed. Sean unlocked to find a text message from his dad.

"Hey Sean, hope your day's been good. I got called for an overtime shift in shaping these troopers. Comin' home tonight in a few hours."

After eating dinner, he worked on his last math equation. It took at least 15 minutes to finish it. Sean grumbled in relief. "Good grief. I hope I don't see them again."

He seized the opportunity to go on his phone and search the internet for "giant robots" and "robots turning into cars." Unfortunately, he only saw images and videos of stop-motion robots fighting each other. Nothing on the local news either.


THE NEXT DAY...

School flew by really fast, other than the fact he got a lot of math and science homework. But when Sean looked back on this event, it felt as though that was purely intended, because after he left school, everything changed.

After the last class was over, Sean's fear returned once again. What if those robots come back looking for us? As he got outside school, he looked around at the parking lot. There were no cars that resembled any he saw yesterday. He sighed in relief, before setting eyes upon the parked motorcycle.

Wait...

It's that motorcycle!

Sean ducked his head and covered his eyes with his hands. He hypothesized overnight and during school that the robots have facial recognition technology, so by ducking and covering his face they wouldn't identify him as the kid from last night.

He continued doing this until he turned right and headed over to the neighborhood crossing, where Rafael was. Jack was right behind Sean. "Hey, what were you doing Sean?"

"Jack, don't freak out, but I believe I saw...her."

"Look, let's just forget everything that happened, and try to go about our lives, okay?"

As if God intended to prove Jack's hope wrong, there was a honk. The trio turned to see the familiar yellow sports car pull up and open its doors. Immediately a series of beeps came from inside the vehicle.

There were the beeps and boops again.

"I think it wants us to get in," stammered Jack.

"No, just me and Sean." "What? How did you know?" Jack was confused, as was Sean.

"It said so. Your's is over there." Raf pointed his finger at the parked motorcycle nearby.

"Look, I don't really-" Jack said, but Rafael ignored his warning and attempted to get inside the car, but not before the blonde stopped him by the shoulder.

"Absolutely not! Haven't you ever heard of stranger danger?" Sean exclaimed as he softly pushed him away from the car.

"But Sean, he saved us from those guys at the canal!" Raf turned with a begging look.

"Right, but that doesn't mean they could be on our side. For all we know, maybe they want to escape from the government or something. Look, aren't your parents picking you up?"

"I usually walk alone home," Raf replied.

Beeps and boops ensued. "He says they're not going to hurt us, but we have been called for an important meeting."

"Tch," Jack sighed, before walking away from the group. He quietly muttered to himself, "Doubt she'll be

"He? Okay, how can you understand what he's saying?"

"He talks in morse code," he replied before the robot-in-disguise then "spoke" again. "He says we don't have a choice. It's for...our safety?"

Sean thought about it for a while. Even though this robot was a lifesaver, he is still a stranger. Besides, he's a robot, not a human- so the sense of danger is higher. But at the same time, those dark robots from earlier tried to take them away. Or worse...

So the thought of wanting to know what's really going on has bothered him since yesterday.

Ultimately, curiosity won the case. Sean sighed before saying, "Okay, fine, robot. You win. But I need some answers first. We need answers."

More beeps. "He says he and his friends will explain everything once we get to...their base?"

Sean shrugged before getting inside the car with Rafael. The doors shut behind them before the vehicle sped off into the main street of downtown Jasper.

"Mr...uh...pfft, car, do you know where you're taking us?"

Beep beep. "He says we're going to a base that's far from here. It's for our safety, we could be in danger."

Throughout the time, Raf was "talking" to the robot, who introduced himself as "Bumblebee." And Sean felt uncomfortable with the fact he was riding inside a car that can turn into a robot. What if he was touching sensitive parts?

"Hey, are you okay?"

"We're inside a robot, Rafael. We could be touching unwanted things. Besides, this bee robot took down at least two of those evil bots. This brings up another fact: we're probably going to meet more of those purple guys."

"I hope not," Rafael muttered.

Unbeknownst to the humans, Bumblebee thought of the same thing. That stunt pulled by the younger child yesterday has brought him into a conflict he would not be able to understand or comprehend. Sure, Arcee dealt with the older human, Jackson Darby, long before Rafael Esquivel was dragged into the situation. But regardless the threat is still there; the Decepticons have returned after a three-year break from the war, and in their crossfire are three- no, four- humans with no knowledge of how to fight back against Starscream and Megatron.

Sean looked worried as the car drove onto the highway ramp that led outside of Jasper. As the desert landscape came into view, he started looking around. "My dad's going to kill me," he muttered.

"Err, bee? How far is the base?" Rafael unintentionally eased the blonde's stress. Bumblebee then told him it's a few more miles from town.

After what seemed to be thirty minutes of driving, the kids found themselves at a small three-way highway intersection placed in front of a giant canyon rock that was about as tall as the skyscrapers in Las Vegas. By the time they got there, Jack and the motorcycle robot caught up with them. However, Bumblebee didn't slow down at the intersection but zoomed past it onto the rocks toward the canyon. Sean and Raf nearly shrieked, thinking this was all a big lie-

-until part of the rocky wall opened into a tunnel, which Bumblebee drove through. The tunnel was large enough for two car lanes to fit; and the tunnel was covered with metal walls. Raf and Sean marveled at the sight, and they could've sworn a girl's voice was heard.

"No way!" he muttered, and it echoed throughout the tunnel.

Just as he said that the tunnel's opening was revealed, and once they got through, a large- no, perhaps the biggest room he ever saw came into view. It almost reminded him of when he first went into the high school gym as a kid. The gym pales in comparison to this room. It was circular, the walls were a mix of concrete and large rock formations, and large beam lights hung from the ceiling. It pretty much looked like some sort of underground fitness center.

Near the entrance was another towering giant, a robot with red and white colors. A fourth one-bulky and green all over came walking in to see the kids. Bumblebee opened his doors, and Sean and Rafael got out, feeling awe but also developing a sense of megalophobia (for those who want to know, it means the fear of big objects- in this case, Sean is feeling uneasy at the size of the Autobots).

As the kids got out, the femme motorcycle and Bumblebee transformed. Sean struck his hands into his jeans pockets, gaining a strong awkward moment. 'These guys are huge, I don't want them to see me,' he thought to himself.

And then he noticed the new guest. A young Asian girl with black hair with some parts dyed pink, wearing a mix of pink and blue clothes. The pink-dyed hair gave away her identity as the Japanese transfer student, Miko Nakadai. When she first came to Jasper high school, Sean was genuinely curious to learn more about how fun it is back in Japan, and what she thought of here. But after seeing her wild behavior at school, he decided it best to let her be.

"I thought there were three," grumbled the red and white robot as he eyed the humans.

"Haven't you heard? Humans multiply," replied the female as she walked to the side.

Rafael came forward and spoke first: "I'm Raf," before turning to the girl.

Miko with wide eyes dashed over to the green giant, not even noticing the boy's greeting. "I'm Miko, who are you?"

"Bulkhead," replied the said robot, looking worried.

"Are you a car? I bet you're a truck- a monster truck! Do you like heavy metal? How much do you weigh? Do you use a wrecking ball for a punching bag?"

When the blue female robot and the white one turned their eyes to the last two, Sean forced an introduction.

"My name is Sean. Sean Rodriguez. And this is Jack Darby," Sean slightly nudged Jack's shoulder. He felt nervous saying that.

"Almost ran you over, kid. Make sure you watch where you're going," The female responded. Sean looked up at her with a confused look, before Jack explained, "She was driving me, not the other way around."

"I...see," he nodded, before asking how did Miko know about the robots. "She saw me and her talking in an alleyway."

"So if you're robots, who made you?" Raf spoke up.

"Oh, please!" returned the red and white robot. As soon as he finished, there was loud shaking. Only this time, it sounded bigger than what Sean felt yesterday. In fact it was WAY bigger.

The kids turned to the second tunnel to find a gigantic behemoth towering over them. This robot had car parts as usual, except the tires on his heels were massive.

The robot spoke in a deep voice, almost soothing yet with a touch of authority: "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. Also known as Autobots."

'Cybertron? Another planet? Hold on; these are aliens, but robots!' Sean's eyes widened at this revelation, and his mouth and arms dropped.

Jack stepped forward, "Why are you here?"

"To protect your planet from the Decepticons."

The female spoke up: "The jokers who tried to bump us off last night?"

'Decepticons? Deception, that word. That's a synonym for lying.'

"Okay, well, why are they here?" Asked Jack.

The giant robot lowered himself to match their height. "A fair question, Jack. In part, they are here because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war."

"Well, why are you fighting a war?" asked Rafael. Sean was genuinely interested.

"Foremost, over our world's supply of Energon, the fuel and blood of all Autobots, and Decepticons alike. The combat was fierce, and endured for centuries. In the beginning, I fought alongside one whom I considered a brother. But in war, ideals can be corrupted. And it was thus, Megatron lost his way."

"Is there gonna be a quiz?" Miko sighed before Sean pinched his temples and muttered, "Please, this is serious for gosh sake."

"So, what does Megatron, or any of this, have to do with us?"

"Megatron has not been seen or heard from in some time. But if his return is imminent, as I fear, it could be catastrophic," the leader of the Autobots frowned.

The blonde couldn't believe what he was told. 'Sean Rodriguez, what have you gotten yourself into?' he thought to himself as he listened to the conversation between the Autobot leader and Jack and Raf. He looked around, and all the rest of the bots were watching them. They all had blue glowing eyes, staring down at them, at him. Meeting the gaze of the red and white robot, Sean quickly turned back to listen to the leader's conversation to avoid an awkward moment.

MEANWHILE, IN THE DEPTHS OF OUTER SPACE.

Within seconds, the massive transportation machine activated, and then a lone jet of alien origin came out. The jet transformed into a fierce warrior of robotic origin. Whereas the "Autobots" the humans met earlier were fighters of peace, this one was the complete opposite. For he has returned; the war-monger, the conqueror of worlds, the leader of the Decepticons, and Optimus' former friend: Megatron.

Clenching both fists, he shouted with all his might and pride:

"Decepticons! I have returned!"