Author's Note: Hey, everyone. As promised, here is the next part of the Blue Beetle Rolls Out premier. After this, there's only one more to go so the basic premise can be set. However, due to a schedule error, this has to be my only fanfic update this weekend, and I will not do another until next weekend.

I apologize if this seems to be a bit of a rush job, but I had limited time before I could get this ready to upload for the rest of the day. I did my best and I hope you like it.

Enjoy the chapter. Any and all comments are welcome.

It was a sunny Saturday morning in downtown Detroit, one that Jaime Reyes was ready to seize. He headed downstairs to see his whole family having breakfast in their living room. His mom, his dad, his sister, his uncle, and his grandmother all sat at their tiny table shoulders pressed against each other. Seeing her older child coming down, Mrs. Reyes got up from her chair and grabbed a lunch bag which she then gave to Jaime followed by a hug.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you, mijo. Mrs. Reyes said. "Your first job."

"Mama, I already told you, this technically isn't a job." Jaime said. "I'm just interning to be a tutor. There's no money involved."

"You should charge him." cried out the sister. "This is Isaac Sumdac we're talking about. Surely, he can afford it."

"I'm not going to push Mr. Sumdac for money, Milagro." Jaime said.

"Well, either way, it's a good first step for your future, Jaime." Mr. Reyes said. "We're all proud of you."

"I'm not." The uncle declared.

Everyone groaned. "This again, Rudy?" Mr. Reyes asked.

"Hey. Don't get me wrong. I'm proud that Jaime is taking a job. I'm his Tio. Of course, I'm proud." Rudy said. "Though, my one issue with this is that he's working for Isaac Sumdac."

"What don't you like about Mr. Sumdac, Tio Rudy?" Jaime asked. "He's the man who made Detroit much better with his robots."

"He's hiding something. I can tell." Rudy said. "Every time he's asked where he gets the ideas for his machines, he dodges the question with a vague answer."

"Don't mind him, Jaime." Mr. Reyes told his son. "He's just paranoid."

Rudy gave a scoffing sound. "We'll see about that if it turns out the man's some kind of Frankenstein."

"Hey, it could be worse." Milagro said. "He could end up working at Kord Industries. I swear, ever since that harpy, Victoria, took over, she cares more about 'progress' than culture."

"Well, in any case, I'll be off." Jaime said.

Jaime's grandmother slowly stood from her chair and walked over to give Jaime a hug. "Buena suerte en tu día."

"Gracias, Abuelita." Jaime responded walking out the door.

Isaac Sumdac was proudly leading a group of kids on a class field trip to the inner workings of his factory. They stopped at an assembly line when Jaime suddenly appeared. He looked ahead to hear Isaac's speech.

"Back in the early 20th century, Detroit was known as the Motor City, the automobile manufacturing capital of the world. Today, Detroit is once again the world's leading manufacturer, not of automobiles, but automatons. Robots, or as we here at Sumdac Systems like to call them, our tireless, mechanical partners. Ever reliable, never complaining. No task too mundane or unpleasant. Unencumbered by fears and phobias. Able to survive and withstand extreme environments far beyond the capacity of us mere humans. The robot revolution begins here, at a typical Sumdac Systems assembly line where we make the latest line of my Sumdac robots. Any questions?"

"Where'd you get the idea for your robots, Mr. Sumdac?" one kid asked.

Sumdac thought for a moment before answering. "It was something that I just sort of… stumbled upon."

"I have a question." a girl said. "Is it true that you used to work with the Justice Society of America?"

"Well," Sumdac said, "It's true we did cross paths, and they did save my life on a number of occasions, but I wouldn't say that I was that close with them."

"They were the greatest superheroes back in the day, weren't they?" asked the same girl. "The Atom, Wildcat, Steel, Hourman Black Canary, Star Spangled Kid, and the Blue Beetle. They were awesome!"

At the sound of the Blue Beetle's name dropped, Professor Sumdac paused and frowned. He then quickly picked himself up and turned back to the kids. "Yes. We all know the stories. And I'm sure we're all sad that they disbanded, but for now, let's focus on the tour."

This was Jaime's chance to intervene. He pushed himself across the group of kids and approached the professor. "Professor Sumdac? Hi."

Sumdac took a moment to observe Jaime. "You're a little too old to be part of this tour group, aren't you?"

"I'm not with the group, professor." Jaime chuckled. "I'm Jaime Reyes. I was scheduled to see you about that tutoring job today?"

Sumdac's eyes widened. "Is it the 12th already? I do apologize, Mr. Reyes. Time tends to slip on by, you know. Just let me… OOF!"

Professor Sumdac was knocked off-balance by something small that bumped into him as it passed by. Jaime saved him from falling before seeing what it was, which was a robotic dog that had a security keycard in its mouth. A little girl with red hair chased it with her arms reaching out for it.

"Sparkplug, get back here, you mangy, old furbot! I mean now!"

The girl finally grabbed the keycard and proceeded to pull hard fighting the dog over it. It was an even battle of tug-of-war until the dog finally opened its mouth suddenly letting Sari fall back. Jaime acted quickly and stopped her from falling.

"Whoa. You all right, kid?"

Sari looked up at Jaime and lost her breath for a second. She cleared her throat for a second while shooting herself to be standing up straight. She then gave a nervous chuckle. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine. My dog, Sparkplug, just likes to use my key as a chewtoy. That's all. So… What's your name?"

"Sari, this is Jaime Reyes." Sumdac said. "He's going to be your new tutor."

"New tutor?" Sari asked. "Wait, Dad, what's wrong with Tutorbot?"

"Nothing really, except for the part where you keep trying to escape his lessons all the time." Sumdac said.

"Well, yeah. He keeps being boring telling me stuff I already know." Sari said.

"Well, a colleague of mine has a child who goes to Jaime's school, and from what I've heard, he has good grades. I figured he would provide a much better touch at tutoring than the Tutorbot."

"It's no problem really." Jaime said. "I just hope you won't try to evade me."

Sari gave a slight giggle and blushed trying to hide it from Jaime. "Uh, I guess I can do that."

With that, Jaime and Sari headed to the next room to find a place to start their tutoring sessions. While they were gone, Professor Sumdac continued the tour.

Professor Sumdac brought the kids to a curve in the hallway where the outer wall was actually a set of mirrors. They looked through and found a group of scientists who were looking over tons of microscopes.

"Here, we are working on the latest development in nanotechnology: self-replicating and microscopic biodiagnostic robots designed to fight disease, monitor and repair the human body from within. Not quite the cure for cancer, but these microbots are a major first step in the fusion of the organic and the technological. And quite possibly, the gateway to immortality. Let's ask our head of the project, Dr. Otto Von Furth." Professor Sumdac pressed a button on the wall connected to a speaker. "Hello, Otto. I'm here with the tour group."

Down at the lab below, one of the scientists looked on up and flashed a thumbs up to the kids. "Hello, Professor Sumdac. Hello, kids."

"Otto, would you mind sharing with the tour how your process is coming along?" Sumdac asked.

"Swimmingly, sir." Otto replied. "We're putting all our focus into this project and taking bold leaps to achieve success."

Sumdac laughed. "Well, don't get too carried away."

"Why shouldn't he?" asked a woman's voice. Sumdac gave a silent gasp as he turned and saw a middle-aged woman with red hair and a business suit smiling at him. "After all, what's progress without going all out?"

"Who's that, Professor Sumdac?" one of the kids asked.

"You dummy. That's Victoria Kord, head of Kord Industries." another student answered.

"Pleasure to meet you, kids." Victoria greeted.

With an angry growl, Professor Sumdac grabbed Victoria by her arm and dragged her away from the kids. "Don't you dare try to turn the kids against me, Victoria."

"Wasn't going to." Victoria sneered. "Those little ankle-biters probably wouldn't understand a word I say anyway."

"What are you even doing here?" Sumdac asked. "How did you get past my security?"

"I pretended I was a bar of soap and gave them the slip." Victoria answered. "As to why I'm here, I think you already know the answer to that."

Sumdac's glare grew rougher. "For the last time, Victoria, the answer is no."

"You're not even going to hear my newest offer?" Victoria asked. "Isaac, I thought you were a businessman."

"Don't you 'Isaac' me. You can offer me all the money in the world, but there is no way I'm ever going to sell you Sumdac Systems."

Victoria's smile finally dropped. "Is this what I get from you? And here I thought you and my brother were friends."

"Of course, Ted and I were friends. And that's why I can't let you or your mad uncle have this company. I know what you really want."

"Trust me, Isaac. You don't want me as your enemy. And Uncle Jarvis is even worse than I am. Whatever happens next will dictate your future forever."

She was right, but not in the way she expected. While they were talking, down at the lab, Otto was walking across his lab when his shoelace came undone. He stepped on it and started to fall over. As he fell, he spilled a ton of chemicals on himself and started yelling. His screams of pain caught the attention of the kids as well as Victoria and Sumdac.

They all looked down from the hallway upwards to see Otto writhing in pain. But it only got worse. Otto's body began to be surrounded by a red sludge that kept growing covering his entire body.

Out of panic, Professor Sumdac rushed to the speaker and yelled into it. "What's going on in there?!"

"It's Dr. Von Furth, sir!" another scientist yelled. "He's become infected with some of the bio-nanobot samples we've kept on hand! It's growing on him like some kind of mutated plasma! The cells just keep on replicating! RUN!"

Finally, Otto rose up to his newly transformed feet. His entire body was covered with red sludge except for his eyes which were bright green. With fear and confusion warping his mind, he had nothing more than the behavior of a savage monster.

"RUN!" Professor Sumdac yelled guiding all the children out of the hallway. Victoria Kord ran alongside them. As they ran, the monster climbed out of the lab and broke its way through the walls until it was outside of the company.

The police were dispatched quickly once they were called to deal with the monster. Leading the charge was none other than Captain Carmine Fanzone. As soon as he got out of his yellow buggy, he observed the sludge monster in disgust.

"This is why I hate machines." After a malfunction with his bullhorn and getting a new one, Captain Fanzone was ready to give his orders. "All right, SWAT units, drive that thing away from civilians! Emergency crews, let's get those people evacuated now!"

As per their captain's instructions, the SWAT officers surrounded the monster and fired at it. Unfortunately, it managed to not only take the shots, but absorb the bullets into its muddy matter. It retaliated by shooting its arm at the SWAT team knocking them back.

While the police engaged with the plasma monster, firefighters circled it and began pulling civilians out of the partially-destroyed building, including Victoria Kord and Isaac Sumdac, the latter of whom tried to turn around and go back in only to be stopped by the rescuers.

"But my daughter is still in there! Sari! SARI!"

The loud, rumbling noises were faint to the ears of Jaime and Sari as they were in an upper level floor. They couldn't help but notice the distant booms.

"Do you hear that?" Jaime asked. "Sounds pretty big."

"Probably just another one of dad's inventions blowing up." Sari said. "It happens a lot."

"I don't know." Jaime said feeling unsure. "I got a bad feeling about…"

BOOM!

All of a sudden, the floor beneath the two collapsed. The ground came apart and the two dropped down to the room right beneath them. They were sore, but they weren't seriously hurt. They groaned as they got up finding themselves surrounded by stacks of crates.

"Okay. This was NOT a standard failure." Jaime said. "We gotta get out of here… wherever here is."

Sari looked around. "I think this is one of my dad's securely-sealed storage rooms. It's super top secret. Not even my key can get me in here."

"Well, it should be easier getting out than getting in, right?" Jaime asked. "Let's try to find the door before the floor fails us again."

Jaime and Sari stood and began to look around. They circled the crate stacks and reached the walls before circling the room. They were halfway around when something caught Jaime's ear. An electronic humming noise. He stopped and looked around to find the source of the noise.

"Do you hear that?" Jaime asked.

"Hear what?" Sari asked.

Jaime looked around until he noticed a feint, blue light coming from behind one of the bottom crates. Curious, he looked deep inside until he noticed a blue, glowing object lodged between crates. He reached his hand on in trying to grab the strange thing he found. Finally, he managed to catch it and pull it out.

What Jaime held in his hand was a blue, mechanical device shaped like a scarab beetle. It was black with blue, glowing parts covering most of it. He turned it over to look at it along with Sari.

"Whoa. What's that thing?" Sari asked.

"What are you asking me for?" Jaime asked. "I thought this was one of your dad's inventions."

"Doesn't look like any Sumdac tech I've ever seen." Sari said. "Maybe it's a…"

All of a sudden, the legs on the scarab sprung upwards startling them both. Jaime was just about to throw it, but before he could, the legs latched themselves onto his skin and the scarab climbed its way into his shirt sleeve. Jaime panicked and spun himself around trying to grab his back.

"GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!"

"Jaime, hold still!" Sari yelled. She jumped onto his back and grabbed onto the moving lump on it, but she couldn't pry it off.

"AAAAAHHH!" Jaime screamed feeling a very sharp sting into his spinal chord. He fell to his knees as the blue beetle legs suddenly shot themselves out of his shirt and pushed Sari off.

When Sari fell on the floor, she looked over at Jaime and watched in confusion as he yelled and a black-and-blue metal started covering his whole body. After a minute of changing, he finally stood wearing a robotic, blue suit surrounding him. When he finally stood, he looked over his entire body seeing what she was wearing.

"UH, WHAT IS THIS?!" Jaime yelled. "WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

"I don't know!" Sari replied loudly.

"Interface complete!"

Jaime gasped loudly. "Who said that?!"

"Who said what?" Sari asked.

"Relax, Jaime Reyes. You are in no danger."

"What's going on?" Jaime asked. "I'm hearing a voice in my head!"

"You can call me Khaji-Da. And as of this moment, we are officially connected."

"Connected?" Jaime asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Jaime, who are you talking to?" Sari asked.

Jaime took heavy breaths looking over his shoulder. He gazed at the scarab attached to his back realizing something.

"Sari, I think there's a mind inside this scarab thingy!" Jaime asked nervously. "It's talking to me!"

"What?" Sari asked. "Jaime, you're not making any sense!"

"NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE!" Jaime yelled.

"If you're finished panicking, I'd like to get on with calibrating and testing the basic systems."

"What?" Jaime asked. "What do you mean basic sy… WHOA!"

Jaime was cut off when a pair of blue wings sprouted from the Scarab. Not only that, but blue rockets burst launching him straight ahead. Sari ducked to avoid getting hit while Jaime crashed right through the wall. It shattered to pieces as Jaime was flying just through the walls. Sari stuck her head through the newly-made hole.

"Well… at least he found the way out." Sari said before leaving the room and following Jaime's trail.

The police force's attempts to blow up the plasma monster was only a temporary solution. While it did blow up, it shortly reassembled itself. Thankfully, one of the pieces fell into the lake and fortunately found its way into the Autobot ship, the Ark. Upon entering, it accidentally woke the Autobots up from their slumber and alerted them to the situation on the surface.

Fearing the Decepticons would be at large, the Autobots scanned around for vehicles to base their new disguises on. While Ratchet stayed on the ship to study the piece of the monster, the other Autobots drove up to the surface to try and face the monster. It certainly brought confusion to Captain Fanzone to see the vehicles without drivers.

Meanwhile, Jaime continued flying like a kamikaze until he made it outside. He continued to fly around until he crashed onto the ground. Thankfully for him, Sari wasn't too far behind. She helped him back up to his feet.

"Are you okay?" Sari asked.

"I've been better." Jaime said. "Strange though, I thought that crash would've hurt a lot more."

"Kinetic absorption. You're welcome."

"I don't remember thanking you!" Jaime snapped at the voice in his head. "In fact, I don't remember asking you to put yourself attached to my body!"

Behind Jaime and Sari, two of the Autobots, Bumblebee and Bulkhead, watched them while in vehicle mode.

"Wait a nanosec." Bulkhead said. "Bumblebee, does that creature kinda look like…"

"It is!" Bumblebee exclaimed. "It's that human, Dan Garrett! I thought Boss Bot said he fell out of orbit!"

"I gotta go say hi." Bulkhead said driving forward. As he approached, Jaime and Sari noticed and turned to see him. "Hey, Dan Garrett! It's me, Bulkhead! Glad to see you're still online!"

Jaime and Sari stared blankly for a minute before Sari broke the silence with a loud scream. It was loud enough to make everyone move away from her.

"WHOA!" Bumblebee gasped. "That thing must be armed with some kind of high-frequency sonic weapon!"

"I think it's scared." Bulkhead said.

"Uh, why are those cars talking on their own?" Jaime asked.

"Those voices. It must be the Autobots."

"Auto what?" Jaime asked before exclaiming a bunch of Spanish mutterings. "Something better make sense!"

Suddenly, the sludge monster reached out a piece of itself like a tentacle and wrapped itself around Sari's waist. She was lifted up while Jaime yelled at the sight of the monster.

"THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED!" Jaime shouted.

"It appears that we are needed. I recommend the blades."

"Blades? What blades?" Jaime asked before a blue glow covered his hands. The blue metal covered his hands and created a pair of blue swords sticking out. Jaime was baffled at what he was seeing. "Whoa! What are these?"

"Just one of the many tools we can use to fight this abomination. Now, let's get airborne so we can rescue the screaming girl."

Before Jaime could say any more, his wings spread out and his rockets activated again. He was launched from the ground and toward where Sari was. He swung his arms with the swords, but the tentacle that held her dodged out of the way.

While Jaime was trying to rescue Sari, Bumblebee and Bulkhead regrouped with the others.

"Yo, Boss Bot, you're not going to believe this!" Bumblebee shouted. "It's Dan Garrett! We found him!"

"I can see that." Optimus said watching the fight. "I'm glad he's all right. And if he's out, then that must mean there are no Decepticons around. Autobots, transform!"

Just then, all four of the Autobots—Optimus Prime, Prowl, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead—shifted themselves around changing from their vehicle forms into their robot forms. In only a matter of moments, they stood on their own stabilizing servos.

While most of the crowd watched as the Autobots transformed, Professor Sumdac and Victoria Kord kept their eyes on Sari and the armored teenager who was trying to rescue her.

"Who is that trying to save my daughter?" Sumdac asked. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that looks like…"
"Like the Scarab." Victoria finished with a boastful laugh. "Looks like you were holding out on me, Sumdac. I don't know where you got this guy, but I swear, I'll…"

She was interrupted by Captain Fanzone, who grabbed both of their heads and redirected them at the Autobots. Their expressions dropped in shock as they gazed at the last things they expected to see.

Up where Sari was, Jaime finally grabbed the tentacle and prepared to slice it. That's when both he and Sari saw the Autobots and shared the crowd's surprised reaction to them.

"Cool." Sari commented.

"Again, it keeps getting weird." Jaime said.

"Pay no attention to them for now, Jaime Reyes! You have to…"

The sludge monster whipped its tentacle around throwing Jaime off. He was on his way down until Prowl jumped up and grabbed him with his own hands.

"I have you safe, Dan Garrett."

"Who?" Jaime asked. "I swear, this day keeps getting weirder and weirder!"

Bulkhead threw his wrecking ball at the sludge monster forcing it to release Sari. She fell from where she was, and out of instinct, Jaime flew out of Prowl's hand to catch her in his arms. He carried her to safety into the nearest parking garage. Bumblebee followed them both.

"Nice catch, buddy." Bumblebee said before looking over at Sari. "Hi. I'm Bumblebee."

"I'm Sari."

"Oh, don't be. I like my name."

"No. I mean my name is…" Sari started to say before her curiosity took over. "What are you?"

Just outside of the parking garage, the crowd stared from afar.

"So," Captain Fanzone said looking over at Sumdac and Victoria, "Any of you make these?"

"Not mine." Victoria said. "I just wish I knew how it was done."

"Not mine either." Sumdac said. "But there is something oddly familiar about these giant robots."

Bulkhead threw his wrecking ball again, but this time, instead of bouncing off, it sank into the sludgy layer. He struggled, but couldn't pull it out.

"Boss Bot, I got a problem!"

Optimus shot his grappling hook at the wrecking ball chord and pulled it alongside Bulkhead. "Prowl, lend a servo, huh?" he yelled before noticing that Prowl was nowhere to be seen.

A giant, metal throwing star flew across the air and cut the chord that was connecting Bulkhead to his wrecking ball. Both he and Optimus fell over.

"He said 'lend' a servo, not 'slice' a servo!" Bulkhead said to Prowl who landed in between him and Optimus.

"Better that than feed the rest of you to that thing."

"That wasn't your call to make, Prowl." Optimus lectured. "We're a team, remember? And we need to know if we can depend on each other."

"There's only one bot I depend on: me." Prowl replied.

Prowl leaped up to slice at the monster only to get caught by it and pulled into its body. He reached out for help, but he was quickly sinking.

After seeing Prowl get consumed by the monster, Bumblebee quickly transformed. "Come on, Dan!" He instantly drove off.

"Will everyone stop calling me that?!" Jaime shouted. "Why does everyone keep calling me that?!"

"Because Dan Garrett Is the name of the human who I connected to before you. The Autobots must be confusing you for him not knowing that he's long dead."

"Dan Garret? Connected? Autobots? Dead?" Jaime asked taking deep breaths. "This can't be happening!"

"Calm down, Jaime!" Sari cried out. "Look, I don't know what's going on as much as you, but I get the feeling that those guys out there need help, and you've got the means to help them."

"She's right. Listen, Jaime, I've seen in your mind, your subconscious. I know you often fantasize about being a hero like the Justice Society of America, and right now, this is your chance to do it."

"How?" Jaime asked.

"You wear one of the most technologically-advanced armor that you will ever see. My power will allow you to form any weapon you can imagine. We can only achieve our full potential through true symbiosis, but if you let me take the lead on this one, then I swear to you, I won't let any harm fall to you."

Jaime held out his hands to look at them. He clutched his hands and took a breath before finally replying.

"All right. Just tell me what to do."

While Khaji-Da was giving instructions to Jaime in his head, he proceeded to fly out of the parking garage and join the Autobots in their fight against the plasma monster. He changed his head into a laser blaster and shot at the beast while circling overhead. The monster roared and shot sludge pieces out of his body to hit Jaime. Thankfully, he dodged them all before regrouping next to Optimus.

At that moment, an orange, satellite-shaped machine hovered over to Optimus and handed a rod to him.

"What's that?" Jaime asked.

"Ratchet's been working on an override for the nanobots that partially make up that creature." Optimus said. "Unfortunately, we'll have to get inside that thing to upload it. We need someone small and fast."

"Better let me handle it then." Jaime said.

"Okay then." Optimus said handing the rod to Jaime. "Bulkhead, Bumblebee and I will keep the creature distracted. You circle it before plunging into its body."

Jaime gulped. "I know I volunteered for this, but I'm just now realizing how disgusting this plan is. Oh, well. In for a penny…"

Jaime again flew upwards high above the fight. However, the monster shot a bunch of projectiles up toward Jaime while completely dismissing the Autobots.

"Um, how come that thing's not paying any attention to us?" Bumblebee asked.

"Do you think it knows what we're up to?" Bulkhead asked.

Optimus rushed toward the monster, who just blocked his attacks and pushed him away.

"It's certainly getting smarter. Smart like… Prowl." Optimus widened his eyes realizing something. "That creature's merged with Prowl's commlink! It's heard everything we're saying!"

"Then let's make it ignore its brain!" Bumblebee yelled.

He aimed his lasers and zapped at the monster, who then reached down and grabbed Optimus, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee before pulling them into its body.

"HEY, BOLA DE BABA!" Jaime yelled as he launched himself toward the monster from midair. As he flew towards the plasma monster, he pointed the rod deep inside of it. "SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!"

At that, Jaime disappeared into the monster's mouth. It stood still for a moment before a reaction struck. All of a sudden, the monster's entire body lit up covered in electricity from the inside. Once the light stopped, the monster collapsed creating a muddy mess all over the street.

"JAIME! BUMBLEBEE!" Sari yelled from afar.

Thankfully, everyone who was inside of the monster climbed their way out of the mud that covered them. They all shook the mud off their bodies while Bulkhead found his wrecking ball.

"Hey, I was wondering where that went to."

Optimus looked around and found Prowl on his back partially covered by the sludge. He approached him as he removed his mask.

"What happened?" Prowl asked.

"Your teammates just saved your circuits, Prowl, whether you like it or not." Optimus said.

Prowl started to get up, but failed to do so. He collapsed down into the mud feeling a great pain that Optimus noticed. He moved some of the substance off of Prowl only to notice that there was a huge hole on his chest with electricity flying.

"What's wrong with him?" Jaime asked. "Is he going to be okay?"

"We need to get him back to the ship right away for repairs." Optimus said before making a call. "Prime to Ratchet, prepare the med lab. We got a casualty."

"Ship?" Jaime asked.

"Follow them. This might be your chance to set the record straight with them. You know, after they attempt to rescue their comrade."

"Uh, okay." Jaime said confusingly.

The Autobots drove underwater back to the Ark. Jaime Reyes followed them thanks to the feature the Scarab has that allowed him to survive underwater. Once he was inside, he looked around the ship in amazement stunned by what he was seeing.

"No way. An actual alien spaceship. My friends, Paco and Traci, will never believe this!"

Jaime continued to walk across the ship until he came across the infirmary where Prowl was laying on his back on top of a table with his fellow Autobots surrounding him.

"Is he going to be okay?" Jaime asked.

"Well, he's not ready to join the Well of All Sparks if you know what I mean." Ratchet said.

"Uh… I don't know what you mean." Jaime said.

"He means it's not too late for Prowl." Optimus said. "Actually, come to think of it, did something happen to you, Dan? You sound… different."

Jaime hesitated to answer. "Okay. I was meaning to tell you this after your friend is back on his feet, but…"

Jaime was interrupted by a bright, blue light that shined from afar. Optimus noticed that too. They headed deeper into the hanger where the All-Spark was. Jaime was baffled seeing Sari standing right in front of the All-Spark while her keycard was zapped and transformed into a more 3-dimensional key.

"Sari!" Jaime shouted. "What are you doing here?"

"Apparently, losing my security deposit on my key." Sari said.

"How did you get aboard this ship?" Optimus asked.

"She followed me home." Bumblebee answered.

"So I suppose you have an explanation." Optimus told Bumblebee.

"Actually, I'm narrowing it down to my top five."

"What exactly are you doing here, Sari?" Jaime asked.

"Well, I kinda convinced Bumblebee to let me tag along to check out this awesome ship." Sari said. "Then, I found this weird, glowing thing that zapped my key. I don't know what it did, but it was really weird."

"Honestly, after today, that's the least weird thing that happened." Jaime said.

"Prime!" Ratchet yelled from down the hallway. "You better get up here now!"

Everyone rushed back to the medical room where Ratchet was working intensely on Prowl's wound. They began to sense the worry that Ratchet was giving off.

"The circuit damage was too extensive! I can't keep him stable!"

"What does that mean?" Jaime asked.

"It means, it's going to take a miracle to save Prowl at this point!"

Sure enough, a miracle was about to occur. Sari's newly transformed key began to glow and pull itself toward Prowl dragging Sari along. Bumblebee helped Sari up to the operating table where she proceeded to insert her key into Prowl's chest wound. Surprising everybody, in an instant, Prowl's torso was as good as new. It was like his wound never happened.

Prowl groaned sitting back up. He looked over at Sari curiously. "That is quite a cure."

"How did you do that?" Jaime asked.

"I don't know." Sari said.

"Interesting."

"At this point, nothing surprises me." Optimus said.

"Well…" Jaime said turning to everyone, "How about this?" His helmet disappeared revealing his face. The other Autobots looked confused, but Optimus looked shocked.

"This isn't Dan Garrett." he realized.

"What?" Bumblebee asked. "You sure?"

"Yes." Optimus said. "Before he sacrificed himself to stop Megatron, he showed me his face. This looks nothing like him."

"Yeah." Jaime said. "Um, my name is Jaime Reyes. From what I learned, Dan Garrett died, and I kinda found this thing attached to my back."

"How is this possible?" Ratchet asked.

"I don't know." Jaime said. "But I think I know just the person who can give us answers."

Every last one of the Autobots returned to the surface to escort Jaime and Sari back to the crowd. All the police officers surrounded them when they emerged.

"Put your hands where I can see them!" Captain Fanzone ordered.

"Why do they want us to do that?" Bumblebee asked.

"I don't know." Sari said. "I think it makes you look less scary or something."

Following Sari's advice, the Autobots held up their hands, but in a pose that made them look more menacing. The police were spooked by how they appeared to them.

"It's okay, everyone! They're friendly!" Sari cried out. "Well, except for the red-and-white one! He's kind of grumpy, but other than that…"

"Don't listen to her!" Victoria Kord yelled as she walked to the front of the crowd. "These things, whatever they are, are clearly dangerous! Best we take them down and see what makes them tick! As CEO of Kord Industries, I'll be happy to oversee the studies!"

"Studies? Us?" Ratchet yelled angrily. "I'd like to see you try!"

"Don't make it worse, Ratchet." Optimus advised.

"Hey!" Jaime yelled. "If it wasn't for these guys, all of Detroit would've been a demolition site for… Plasmus over there." He pointed over at Otto Von Furth, who was carried out of the mud pile heavily unconscious and carried to an emergency truck. "I think you owe them!"

"Why should we listen to you?" Victoria asked. "You're probably in league with these things yourself, and…"

Victoria was interrupted by a loud phone ringing from her pocket. She groaned and checked the caller ID before answering. "Yes. Hello, Uncle Jarvis. Look, I…" She then looked confused. "What? Are you sure? I… Well, I guess that's true, but… All right. We'll talk later." She ended her phone call and sighed before turning to the police. "I… withdraw my statement." She grimaced as she walked away from the crowd.

"Oh, Sari!" Sumdac yelled running to hug his daughter. "I'm so glad you're all right."

"I'm fine, Dad." Sari said.

"SUMDAC!"

Everyone turned to the crowd where a crowd of familiar people powered through the police. It was Jaime's family with Uncle Rudy at the front, who then grabbed Sumdac by the front of his shirt roughly.

"What happened?! What have you done with our boy, Jaime?! I swear, if you did anything to hurt him, I'll…"

"Tio Rudy, wait!" Jaime cried out.

Jaime's family stopped and turned to see the blue-armored boy who they then recognized to be their missing member.

"Jaime?" Milagro asked. "What happened to you?"

"I'm not so sure." Jaime said before turning to Professor Sumdac. "But something tells me that the professor here might have an idea. Is that right, Mr. Sumdac?"

Sumdac looked at everyone who surrounded him. He realized then that he had to come clean.

After motioning for the police to leave, Sumdac lead everyone else into his company building and made sure no one could hear him tell his story.

"What?!" Rudy yelled out. "You're telling me that Ted Kord was the Blue Beetle from the Justice Society of America?!"

"Blue Beetle." Optimus said. "That's what Dan Garrett called himself before he sacrificed himself to stop Megatron."

"Indeed." Sumdac said. "Ted Kord and I have been best friends since childhood. Dan Garrett fell from the sky and landed near my home. We both watched him die and the Scarab fell off of his back."

"So Ted Kord also had this thing on his back that made him a superhero?" Jaime asked pointing at the Scarab.

"Not exactly." Sumdac said. "From what we could discover about the Scarab, not just anyone can wear it. It seems to have the ability to choose who it bonds with. And no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get it to bond with any of us. So we did the next best thing: we reverse engineered the Scarab to build our own gadgets for Ted to use during his time with the Justice Society. Soon after he died though, the team just disbanded and everyone went their separate ways. No one knows where they went anymore. In order to preserve my best friend's memory, I had to keep the Scarab safe from those who would abuse it."

"Like Victoria Kord." Sari realized. "That's why she's been wanting to buy your company, is it?"

Sumdac nodded. "She and her uncle, Jarvis, are nothing like Ted. They took over his company after his demise and completely changed it. They care more about progress than human lives. I can only imagine what they'd do if they had the Scarab in their possession. So I did everything I could to hide it away. Although, the last thing I expected was my daughter's newest tutor to stumble upon it and create a bond with it."

"That sounds like quite a story." Bumblebee commented. "Jaime's got some luck, huh?"

"Luck, or perhaps fate." Prowl replied.

"Well, whatever is going on, can you get it off my son?" Mr. Reyes asked.

"It's… not that simple, I'm afraid." Sumdac said with a frown. "Jaime and the Scarab have already connected in a more internal level than we can imagine. It's already bonded into his cerebral and nervous system. The only way for the Scarab to let him go at this point would be if… If Jaime died first."

"What?" Jaime gasped. "So you're saying I'm suck with this alien backpack on me until the day I die?"

"You have nothing to worry about, Jaime Reyes. I already promised I wouldn't let anything happen to you."

"Not exactly as assuring as you'd think." Jaime said.

"So what do we do?" Mrs. Reyes asked.

Jaime thought hard for a moment before finally sighing and turning to his family. "I think… I think the best thing for me to do is just go along with it."

"Jaime…" Mr. Reyes started to say.

"I know what you're thinking. And yes, I agree, it's way too dangerous." Jaime said. "But I still have to do something with this power, right? I mean, if you can do the things that I do and not do it and the bad stuff just happens, I can't help but think that it would be on me. If I can't get rid of this Scarab, the least I can do is use it for good."

"If it'll make you all feel any better," Optimus said, "We'll watch out for him."

The Reyes family looked at each other slightly unsure. "Well… I suppose that would be better." Mr. Reyes said. "But Professor Sumdac, I want you to promise that if you ever find another way to separate Jaime from that thing, you do it."

"I'll see what I can do." Sumdac promised.

"Well, what do you know." Milagro said. "My hermano is a superhero. And he's teaming up with alien robot cars. It's like it's a new Justice Society."

"A new Justice Society?" Jaime asked with a proud smile. "That does sound sweet."

Deep in the darkest regions of space, sitting in the remains of the Nemesis, Starscream basked staring out into the furthest reaches.

"Fifty solar cycles of searching, but the All-Spark is out there. I can feel it. And once I find it, the Decepticons will have no choice but to follow my leadership."

Starscream was drawn to a beeping sound that came from his computer. He pulled it a screen from it showing a map of the universe. It kept zooming in until it showed an image of Earth.

"An energy signal. It leads to an awfully remote sector. Still it looks promising." Starscream gave an evil smile. "Extremely promising."