TRANSFORMERS PRIME: MY WILD ADVENTURE. CONVOY: NEW CHANGES AND NEW FACES
INFO:
- "text"- regular speaking
- "text"- Someone thinking to himself
-"TEXT" - story transition
Music links: the custom soundtrack for the story.
Art: drawn by me on Microsoft Whiteboard.
All references to actual characters, movies, books, etc. are purely intentional. All references belong to their rightful owners.
Sean's guardian is Optimus Prime, but Bulkhead will swap in when he is busy on leader activities or is being repaired.
BEGIN STORY
Monday, December 5th, 2010. 7:34 am.
Sean was busy picking up dog poop out back in the morning, his mind recapping every single chaotic event that occurred since he and his friend's introduction to the Autobots and their war. However, he couldn't be outside for long: he has school in thirty minutes.
'These tests aren't gonna stop anytime soon. Not while the Cons are still on Earth,' he thought as he dumped the poop into a big trash bin. Cloe, his german shepherd, sniffed the grass before crouching down and-
"Ugh, great," Sean sighed as he walked over to her and scooped up the poop with a shovel.
Feeling a buzz, Sean Rodriguez pulled out his cell phone. Miko created a group chat with Jack and Raf, and sent a photo. No, it was the photo she took of Bulkhead and Wheeljack before the latter left the base.
"I'm gonna miss the bot :(" was her text.
Sean saw an opportunity. He texted back "Hey guys, I think it's about time we do something because of what we saw back at the base, especially yesterday with the Con in disguise. I'm thinking we should start going through some training exercises to prepare ourselves for situations like that in the near future."
MIKO: Training exercise? Are you channeling your inner soldier, army kid?
SEAN: Stop saying that, it's annoying.
MIKO: Aww, are you embarrassed army kid?
JACK: Yeah I can understand why. Those scraplets scared the heck out of me.
RAFAEL: What kind of exercises are we gonna do? Besides, don't we have finals coming up?
Sean scooped the last piles of dog poop and dumped them into the trash bin. "Fire drills, so we can escape the base in case of a fire. Running exercises, so we can catch up with the bots while running. We were unprepared while onboard the Decepticons' ship, and nearly fell behind in running with Bee and Arcee. So we have to improve our running skills. We also need to do some regular exercises like push-ups and sit-ups so we can get stronger.
"Those are just some ideas I have. I don't know what else we can do. We can't fight back with weapons, cause we don't have any."
JACK: Ok, maybe we should tell the bots about this, cause they'll be confused if they see us running around the base without an explanation.
BK: You Do Know We Can See Your Messages, Right?
SEAN: Wait, who's this?
MIKO: Oops, I forgot! I added the bots to the group chat as well, IDK if you can see their names on the top.
Sean, who initially had an incoming panic over the identity of the unknown user, got confused when he saw Miko's message. He clicked on the message icon, only to find, sure enough, the Bots' names underneath the humans' names.
ARCEE: Huh, This Is An Interesting Proposal.
RATCHET: If That Means Not Having You Near My Equipment, I'm Okay With That.
BBEE: Sean We're Here To Protect You, Don't Worry About Going Through This Exercise Trouble.
As Sean got inside, he texted back. "Bee is that you?"
BBEE: Yep!
SEAN: I appreciate your opinion, but what happens if you all aren't available to protect us? What if we have no choice but to defend ourselves from threats like the Cons or scraplets?
JACK: You do have a point. Remember how you almost died to the scraplets, and we had to stop them from eating up the base? That Con-in-disguise nearly compromised your base, your only refuge on Earth. Idk if the military can lend you another one.
OPTIMUS: Though I Understand Bumblebee's And Our Worry Over Your Safety, Sean Has a Good Point. At Some Point, There Will Be A Time When The Children Will Have To Protect Themselves When Tested. But You Have Your Schoolwork To Do, So I Suggest You Do Them First. Perform Small Exercises, And Within Our Line Of Sight.
ARCEE: I Agree With Optimus' Input, Do Schoolwork First Then Exercises. And Don't Go Too Hard, We Don't Want To Fix Any Broken Bones From Any Accidents.
Sean smirked as he pulled out his lunch box and started making his lunch. Charlotte, his mom, told him to hurry out the door, because class starts in 20 minutes.
As he got his backpack and stuff and headed inside the car, he texted back to his team chat: "Then it's settled. We'll start after school. See you all then."
LATER...
School was hard as usual, especially around this time. Most of the time was spent by teachers shouting at the students to study for the final tests for the semester rather than horse around. Even Mr. Richard had to give Miko a notice for drawing some sci-fi robots instead of studying. When Jack heard about it during detention, he snickered to himself.
But today happened to be one of those days as well. While Sean was walking towards his science class, the school bully purposefully bumped into him from behind to move. The blonde nearly ran into a girl as a result, who eyed Vince with a glare before sighing. Sean also glared- and Vince happened to catch his eye.
"Move it, yellow kid. What's wrong, you wanna fight?"
Sean shook his head. Now was not the time. But his inner anger grew when he heard the bully snicker under his breath.
'Sometimes I really want to punch that guy.'*
Finally, after an hour in History class, Sean saw Miko walk into class with her stuff. She seemed to be hiding some worry in her face, from what he observed. 'She's probably still traumatized from yesterday. I'd be scared too if I was held hostage by an imposter disguised as one of our robot friends.'
Then the bell rang a while later. Everyone got out to either head straight home or talk to their friends outside of school. But our four friends went towards their robot cars and drove off. Optimus, in his truck form, was parked near the school parking lot, so Sean walked through there and hopped inside the cab.
"How was school?" the leader spoke through the radio.
"Eh, it was alright. Just more studying for our final tests," Sean sighed. Optimus drove out of the parking lot and onto the side road.
"Anything special happen?"
"No, nothing special. Just...our teachers reminding us to remember some historical wars and events for our history test, or mathematical equations for math, scientific phenomena in chemistry, stuff like that."
Optimus hmmed as he got onto the main road. Within a few seconds the truck drove onto the ramp that led to the highway. Sean looked in the side mirror to notice a lone motorcycle driving behind them, with a familiar yellow sportscar following behind it.
The side mirror suddenly shifted outward, revealing the traffic behind them as they got onto the highway. Sean was immediately frightened and moved his arm away. "That would be Jack and Arcee behind us, along with Rafael and Bumblebee. Miko and Bulkhead are catching up."
"Hmm."
There were a few minutes of silence. Then Optimus spoke up, "About your proposal for a training exercise, I don't want you to go to extreme methods of training. Are there other exercises you plan on using for Jack and the others?"
Sean thought about it before saying "No, just running exercises, push-ups and sit-ups, and fire drills. It's not like I'm making them soldiers- because I still don't want to get too involved in your war against the Cons. I'm just making sure we don't get caught off guard with another surprise event. You know, like with the scraplets cutting and chewing power lines or pipes, or if a fire breaks out. We go through fire drills back at school every month because it is dangerous to us humans."
"I understand," Optimus shifted his side mirror toward Sean. "And I think what you're planning is smart. Even though Megatron is dead," the bot seemed to quiet down after mentioning the warmonger, "that doesn't mean the Decepticons are done with us Autobots, or your world. Starscream is a reckless leader, and will go to extreme ways to live up to Megatron's legacy or even surpass it, with disastrous results. With Soundwave and the Cons knowing where you were back when Bumblebee and Arcee first met you, it is smart to make plans for future confrontations, even if they do find us at our base."
'Let's hope they don't find the base, either. That's the worst-case scenario.'
"Err...hold on. What do you mean by extreme methods?" Sean eyed the radio, where the voice came from.
And then something straight out of Star Wars occurred before Sean's eyes, as the radio suddenly glowed before beaming what appeared to be a hologram on the cabinet between him and the driver's seat.
The hologram depicted a large room, with a group of what appeared to be Autobots in the middle hunched over. But their body shape was very different from what they currently looked like.
Walking back and forth was a tall robot, mostly blue-colored but with some red spots here and there. Though his body shape was big and bulky, his head shape seemed familiar to that of Optimus himself. Only that it wasn't him, as the new one's voice seemed gruff.
"Give me 20 sets of transformations!" shouted the robot. And soon, the robots on the ground shifted into what Sean assumed were their vehicle modes, before turning back into their normal robot selves. They did this continuously.
Then it clicked. Sean realized these robots were doing pushup drills, only it wasn't pushups.
"I was worried you were going to train them like how a drill instructor would in the military. You said your father was one, so I assumed you were borrowing many trial exercises from him."
Sean was initially confused, before the realization hit him. He nearly laughed before explaining, "No, I won't go that far. The exercises are simple, yet it's also reminding us everyday about the conflict, and what might happen at the base."
After what seemed to be ten minutes of driving, the group of robots finally reached their base in the desert. Sean was the first to get out while Jack followed second. Raf was third, and after almost thirty seconds of waiting Miko arrived with Bulk.
"Alright!" Miko exclaimed as she walked up the stairs, "It's training time! Sean, let's do some boxi-"
But before she could finish, the blonde-haired teenager stopped her. "The bots said we have to do homework first, then training. Didn't you get my text?"
"Yeah, we can't fight with no weapons. But I brought some boxing gloves!" She proclaimed as she pulled out two pairs of boxing gloves from her backpack. Her eyes sparkled with fun, with a small hint of murderous intentions.
"Miko," Bulkhead joined in on the conversation, "remember- homework first, then exercises. Then we can watch some Monster Jam!"
The Japanese foreign exchange student pouted before pulling out her homework and began studying. Raf, Sean, and Jack soon did the same as well, minus the pouting part.
But that studying was soon cut short. Ratchet soon called for the bots after a series of beeping noises emitted from the monitors. Soon, Optmus and Arcee walked out of the long hallway together, with Bulkhead and Bumblebee coming out later.
The humans plopped down their homework and walked over to check out what was going on. "Who's calling?" Raf asked.
"Prime!" shouted a familiar voice. "Prime! PRIME!"
"Agent Fowler, to what do we owe-"
"What else? Cons!" Agent Fowler interrupted Optimus, now with a video of him talking on the monitors. From the kids' positions, they saw he was sitting inside a jet seat.
"I chased them off with some hard ordinance before they shot me out of the sky!"
"Pfft, again?" Miko asked out loud.
"They made a run for the DYNGIS!"
All of the teens' ears perked up. Even Arcee was openly confused.
"The what now?"
'DINGUS? What the hell kind of name is that?'
"Dynamic Nuclear Generation System, a.k.a DYNGIS," Fowler explained before pressing a button that presented an image on-screen. "It's a nuclear prototype energy source that's being transported to the coast for testing!"
Ratchet soon joined in on the conversation, asking the agent why Starscream would bother with such primitive technology. Jack opened his mouth, presumably to silently protest why their tech was called primitive, but soon knew better and closed it.
Fowler continued, "I'm guessing they make a big fat primitive weapon of mass destruction! If this baby were to melt down, it would irradiate this state and the four next door!"
"Uh, did Agent Fowler say what state he's currently in?" Raf worryingly asked his friends. Jack and Sean's hearts froze when Fowler said the words "nuclear" and "weapon of mass destruction." Unlike the Autobots, they knew exactly what that meant.
Another Hiroshima/Nagasaki, or another Chernobyl. Either one of those events are not good at all for everyone in the country.
"I'm a sitting duck here, Prime. I want you to spin up your bridge and send the DYNGIS to its destination before the Cons come back for it!" the agent exclaimed over the video.
"I'm afraid that sending such a volatile device through the groundbridge is out of the question," Optimus Prime replied to Fowler, "if there were to be an accident during its transmission, the radiation of which you speak of could propagate its effects through the groundbridge vortex and harm all fifty states, and beyond."
"Optimus knows about nuclear energy and weapons?" Raf breathed.
"Do you have any better ideas?"
"Well, where is the DYNGIS, anyway? Maybe we can bridge ourselves over there instead of having the trouble of bringing it through the bridge?" Ratchet inquired.
"I would tell you, but most of the information is classified. What I can tell you, is that the device itself is between 10 to 45 miles from your base in an undisclosed location, near the California border. As I'm speaking, my friends are with the device awaiting your response."
Optimus inwardly sighed but thought about it to himself. He knew the dangers this device is capable of if handled with miscalculations. But at the same time, Starscream and the Decepticon army are continuing to act aggressive- even attacking Agent Fowler out of the air. Whatever it is that the seeker wants, this latest stunt means that he is becoming desperate.
"Ratchet, what is the current condition of the ground bridge?"
After pressing a few buttons, the medic told him that the tunnel's transportation systems are working good, but it's just closing the portal that needs to be fixed. "The transportation sensors should have no problem involving a nuclear-powered device."
Looking back at the monitors, Optimus made his reply. "We'll send the device to its location. But agent Fowler, because you and your government know more about the DYNGIS than us, you'll need to warn us in advance if something does go wrong."
"I'll make sure to let you know. See you later," Fowler spoke through the video feed before closing the communication channel.
Bulkhead, who was listening to the conversation earlier, noticed Miko's tense look, so he walked over to her and said "You okay, Miko? You seem scared."
"Nuclear technology may be primitive by Cybertronian standards," Optimus spoke up, "but from what we know about our human allies, it is both the next generation of technology and its own potential destruction."
The humans eventually joined in to explain to Bulkhead and the rest of the tall robots why nukes are no joke. "The last time we had a major nuclear accident, an entire city and the forest surrounding it had to be closed off from the public. Here," Rafael plugged in his laptop to the computer systems before pulling up images of the incident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
"That happened less than 30 years ago, and the radioactive fallout won't dissipate until 50,000 years from now! The radiation is invisible but deadly- and if you are exposed to too much of it, like going into the forest," he clicked an image of the Red Forest* near the abandoned town, "or go inside the exposed reactor, you'll get sick and die, with no way of stopping it!"
Optimus looked at the screen, his optics scanning the images of the destroyed building, the photos of humans with burned tissue on their hands and faces. He closed his blue eyes, feeling sorrowful for the poor workers who died fighting the radioactive waste and fires, and their families who will never see them again. Even Bumblebee felt disgusted at the images.
"And that was just for nuclear technology and power," Miko stepped in, "but we used it for weapons as well. Between 70 to 65 years ago our world was at war against itself, and it ended with the first usage of an atomic bomb." Raf proceeded to pull up images of the iconic mushroom cloud. "And the atomic bomb is like a baby compared to the nukes we have today."
"Hmm," Optimus muttered, before announcing he will bring out his trailer. The tall robot turned and walked down the hallway.
"World war, huh? How bad was it?" Arcee asked Jack.
'Oh boy, it's time for a history lesson,' Sean thought as he and the others explained everything about the two world wars.
"We originally called the first one 'The Great War' or 'The War to End All Wars' because it was done on a huge scale with new kinds of weaponry- and everyone thought that it was so intense and violent that the war's end would make us realize our mistakes and never fight again. Instead, it soon led to a second, more engaging, and deadlier war twenty years after the first one. The first was fought between imperial, colonial powers, and the rest of the world watched. The second time, however, a group of ultranationalist dictators decided to fight against, literally, the entire world."
And the lesson went on for more than ten minutes. By then, Optimus, in his truck mode, drove out of the hallway with a large, silver trailer being towed from behind. Miko slightly nudged Sean's shoulder and whistled, "Now that's a truck right there!"
Optimus unhooked the trailer before shifting back to his giant robot self. He too listened to the history lesson- and needless to say, the Autobots were both intrigued, horrified, and disgusted. Ratchet had to pull up a map of the Earth so that the humans could show where the allied and enemy nations were. Rafael also used the opportunity to show images of the major nations' leaders during the two world wars, and their respective ideologies.
"This Nazi regime in Germany sounds a lot like the Decepticons to me, compared to the Imperial one by the Kaiser," Bulkhead whistled.
"These 'communists' and 'ultranationalists' are very familiar to the Decepticons' motives, both old and new. Back when Megatron began the first uprising, he and the Cons wanted to overthrow the old government for discrimination and corruption. But nowadays, they're more on the side of these Nazi aggressors. War can change anyone and their goals," Ratchet observed the stats of each of the two ideologies.
"The sheer willpower of each and every nation's leader during the war is very impressive," Arcee said. "Who's that guy with the hat?" She pointed at one of the leader images.
"Oh, that one is Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy during the second war. He sided with Hitler against the allied faction. He was known for making military failures and humiliations- basically he was the underdog of the Axis. This is what eventually slowed the Nazi regime down," Jack explained to his guardian.
"Huh, so Starscream in human flesh," the female Autobot folded her arms. Just then, there was a green light flashing from the ceiling along with the sensor alarm. The medical robot turned on the bird's eye camera of the base, and sure enough, on the left-most exit of the highway was a group of vehicles driving toward the entrance in a convoy formation.
"It's a convoy, heading towards our base. No Decepticon signals. Looks like the military," Ratchet confirmed. The truck robot narrowed his blue optics toward the exit road tunnel.
"Let them in," the Prime ordered.
LATER, IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Optimus, in his truck mode, drove out of the groundbridge portal carrying his trailer. Driving alongside him was the green SUV and the yellow sportscar. Upon arriving at the crash site, the government agent popped open his cockpit lid and slid out before walking over to greet them.
"It's safely secured, Fowler," the Prime echoed through his radio speakers as he hummed his engines.
The agent, who climbed inside the semi-truck, noticed the radio have a camera feature inside, viewing none other than the DYNGIS. He smiled, before setting his hands-
"N-ah! No need Agent Fowler. I'll handle the driving."
Fowler crossed his arms as he buckled the seat belt. "It's gonna be a long drive."
The Autobots in their vehicle modes revved their engines before driving onto the highway. Their destination was a military base near the California-Oregon coast border.
LATER, AT THE AUTOBOT BASE (5 MILES FROM JASPER)
The humans and Ratchet watched as the trio drove in their formation on the highway. Ratchet, as a robot, did not have much pain when it comes to staring, so he was staring like a hawk- no, an owl- at the monitors, watching for any changes.
Just so you know, Ratchet is the only Autobot left on base, as Arcee left with the other three, just waiting for the right moment, or so she said when brought inside the trailer. The base felt quiet to the humans, but to Ratchet? Not so much.
To him, human noises are more annoying than his friends.
"Ratchet, what's the status on your radar?"
"You are doing just fine. We are locked onto your coordinates, Optimus. Pouring any complications, you should reach the drop-off point by sundown."
"Good to hear, Prime out."
Miko yawned as she and the kids watched the screen like they would on a popular sports game. "I'm bored, I think we need to wake ourselves up," she turned towards the rest with a smirk on her face.
"You have water, don't you? It can help wake you up," Sean explained. "Besides, we gotta stick to the Autobots' advice. Homework, and then training."
The Japanese girl pouted. "Not fair," she muttered.
"Don't you all have homework to do?" the medic asked out loud, which prompted them to leave the computer set and work on their backpack assignments. They all have finals within the next week, so studying was the only thing left to do; no exceptions.
"So Raf, what's the following equation known as? A^2 + B^2 = C^2."
Rafael rested his head on his hand. "The Pythagorean Theorem," he sighed.
"And what would that be?" Jack inquired.
*sigh* "I don't know, something to do with right triangles, I guess. The study guide doesn't have the definition in here."
"It's the relationship between the three sides of a right triangle, where a and b are the regular sides around the right angle, and c is the hypotenuse!" Miko quickly explained.
"And how much is a right angle?"
Raf sighed again, "90 degrees."
"Yep, and-"
"And the other two are about 45 degrees in a simple right triangle."
The slight raise in Rafael's voice along with his interruption is what caught the kids off. Sean, however, knew something was off when the kid kept repeatedly sighing and groaning. "Hey, are you alright?"
The autistic child kept his eyes on the ground. "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just..."
He sighed before lifting his head off his hand. "I got bullied, again."
Jack's eyes narrowed away. "Yeah, Vince has been acting up lately. Just...try not to let it bother you too much, ok?"
"But Vince has always done this before every project and final test!" Raf nearly exclaimed, "Throughout the rest of the year, he does his regular bullying, but whenever some big test is coming up, he makes it worse. Like, he would shove me in my own locker and throw my notes in the trash!"
"I nearly had a confrontation with him today," Sean spoke aloud, earning a lot of surprised looks. "Did you stand up to him?" Miko asked.
"No, but I had a small staredown. He threatened to fight me, but I ignored him and left."
"Welcome to the club," Jack sighed while crossing his arms. "I always talk him down just to ease things around school. Just, try not to make him angry, Sean."
The blonde-haired teen nodded, before opening his textbook to study again. But a lingering thought made him look back at the green monitors nearby, where Ratchet was still watching like a hawk.
'I hope Optimus and the others are doing okay.'
MEANWHILE, ON THE HIGHWAY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
"MOVE IT, GRAMPS!"
William Fowler banged his fist on the wheel horn, as apparently, a rusty old truck was slowing the convoy down. After lots of blaring at the truck, it moved out of the way.
"Agent Fowler, is that really necessary?"
"Hmph," the agent crossed his arms while looking around. So far, nothing out of the ordinary has happened...yet. "Don't tell me you're one of them textbook drivers."
The Autobots continued their long drive. The highway was extended to a curb-side view of the mountain landscape, with pine trees scattered all over the hills. On the right was a giant mountain, partially blown to let construction of the two-lane highway be easier. Every child and adult really admired the view on their way. And as tempted as the government agent was to pull out his phone and take pictures, this was far more important.
Instead, he searched his phone for the drop-off site. He smirked, before telling the robot that they have about three or four more hours of driving to go. He also texted some contacts if there was anything up on their route. To his relief, they all said no.
"You know, you're saving my bacon here, Prime."
"I'm proud to be of service."
"Course, not like I need your help if you and the Cons had to turn up in your own corner of the galaxy," he eyed the radio.
"Are you suggesting no evil has existed in your world before we arrived, especially after your two world wars?"
"Err...well...it was a different, evil," Fowler replied, before his eyes widened. "Wait, how do you know about our two world wars?"
"The children taught us, even mentioning a nuclear accident at the town of Chernobyl."
"Hmm," Fowler was surprised. But at the same time, he knew that they would eventually be taught about some of our famous wars and conflicts. "Yeah, those two were the last big ones we had. The first was more of a colonial kind of war. But the second was when communists and dictators came into play. We fought to put an end to the Nazi tyranny and liberate the Germans with freedom. I guess that rings some bells," he slightly laughed at the last sentence, before his gaze turned serious.
"About that accident, that was one of many events that occurred during the Cold War. I assume you know what that is?"
"I can't say that I have." was the reply.
"Well it was not an actual war, but it was more of an arms race, or a military competition if you will, between us and the communists after the second war ended. Ever since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both sides had to race each other to construct the most amount of atomic and nuclear weapons, and the most destructive of them, too. There were several times when tensions were so high we feared total annihilation of our planet from these weapons. Thank goodness that didn't happen."
"How significant was this disaster in the Cold War?"
"It was bad for both sides, more so for the Russians, since they were the ones that messed up with nuclear technology. Long story short, it was one of the few events that eventually encouraged the people's disapproval of the government, and soon the communist regime collapsed. And that's how the Cold War officially came to an end." Fowler looked on. "As for the long-term effects, the radioactive particles are still there after the incident and have contaminated a huge chunk of land in Ukraine and Belarus. I don't know if you bots are immune to nuclear radiation, but too much is deadly for us humans."
"I see," the Prime responded. And silence ensued before the agent tried to break in some humor by suggesting country music. But just as he did so, a familiar noise blossomed from outside. Fowler looked out to see a familiar vehicle.
"That's the one!" he shouted, pointing at the helicopter, "the Con who shot me down! Who is he? Wingnut? Debag? Skyguy?"
"Watch your rearviews!" Bulkhead spoke on the radio comm.
And as the agent looked out to see the helicopter again, a group of cars drove up before surrounding Bulk.
"I'm constrained without my fists, boss!" the robot shouted through his comm.
"Remain in vehicular mode unless absolutely necessary!" Optimus replied, relaying his order to Bumblebee and Arcee.
"This is a whole team of Cons!" Fowler observed.
WE NOW RETURN TO THE AUTOBOT BASE.
The humans' time on their homework was cut short yet again when the comm channel turned on with Fowler's voice. Ratchet's optics were fixed onto the monitors, and yet he was slowly becoming confused. And of course, the teenagers jumped off their couches and chairs and rushed over to see the monitor.
"This is a whole team of Cons!" Fowler's voice shouted through the speakers.
"What?" The medic thought out loud, "I'm not picking up anything! They must be utilizing a cloaking technology."
"Have they ever done this before?" Jack asked Ratchet. "Well, I can tell you we have done dozens of convoys before, but not with a nuclear-powered device!"
"No, I mean have the Cons done some cloaking tech before?"
"Yeah," the medic scratched his metal chin, "several times."
"Pull over!" shouted a new voice over the radio. It was a man, of course, but no one- not even Ratchet, recognized the identity.
"Well, I'll be dipped!" Fowler exclaimed.
"Our assailants are not Decepticons, they are human!" Optimus finally spoke through the channel.
"Human?!" Jack and Raf repeated.
"Oh please, taking on our bots? They're roadkill!" Miko smirked.
'Humans going after the bots? How would they know...?' Sean thought as he watched the bird's eye camera of the bots.
He turned towards the medic and asked, "Are you certain the agent is the only human besides us that knows of your existence?"
"Aside from his friends in the government, no one else knows. For all I know, these guys are nothing but a small band of greedy energy collectors."
Sean and the others watched the screen. "What is this, Fast and Furious or something?" Miko asked out loud.
MEANWHILE, ON THE HIGHWAY IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Optimus in his truck mode slammed into the car next to him, causing the man who stood up with a rocket launcher in his arms to stumble backwards and pull the trigger. The rocket crashed into the trailer, exploding on impact. The trailer, thank goodness, was able to withstand the rocket's detonation.
"Who are these guys?"
"Autobots, maintain your cover; and provide minimal force- disarmament only." The Prime ordered through his comm channel.
A second car drove up on Optimus' left side, before Bumblebee drove in front and slammed back first into the assailant's vehicle, causing it to slide and crash into a nearby rock and roll upside down.
But that didn't mean the humans were done with them. Optimus swerved around some sharp curves on the road, causing Agent Fowler to slightly gag. "I...need air," he breathed, before opening the window to rest his head. But he noticed the guys were still following them and catching up.
One of the cloaked men got onto the rear of the truck, and tried severing the connection between it and the trailer with a cutter.
"Optimus, on your rear!"
The truck slammed into the car, causing it to swerve off the road and land on some nearby rock ledge.
But the guy was still on the rear, and attempted to cut the ties again. Agent Fowler opened the door and climbed sideways to try and reach the rear of the truck. Miraculously, he did, and grabbed the shoulder of the man before dragging him out by the shoulder.
"You're gonna tell me everything I k-d'oh!" Fowler shouted, before the man kicked him off and flew onto the road.
Realizing that was enough, he climbed back into the cab before buckling his seatbelt. Just then, the radio crackled to life. "I hope you take better care of the DYNGIS than your captives."
"This is special agent William Fowler here, identify yourself!"
"Very well, I am Silas. But of greater consequence to you, we are MECH. Fair warning, we will be helping ourselves to your device, even if it means inflicting casualties!" A silver-haired man spoke on the helicopter. He was built as a soldier, but he was not part of the military. A scar ran down his right side, and another ran horizontally across his nose, which told of battles he fought before. He, along with his comrades, are men of focus, commitment, and sheer will.
Unbeknownst to this Mech group, the announcement was intercepted and repeated across the Autobot comm channel.
"Is that so?" Fowler spoke on his radio. "Tell me, Psy. What's the price of a DYNGIS these days?"
"Why do you think we intend to sell it, agent Fowler?"
The government agent's eyes narrowed.
"There is a war going on; between the new world order, and the newest. The winner will be the one with the most innovative technology."
The thoughts clicked in William's head. These are insurgents. And Optimus apparently had the same thought, as he unlocked the back door to his trailer, nearly surprising the agent. But the Prime said to him: "I'm getting her ready."
There were a couple of small explosions from behind the trailer, as one of the MECH agents fired remote bombs onto the trailer door before detonating them. The explosions blew off the lid, and the trailer door slid open.
"So Psy, do you really think MECH has the most radical tech?" Fowler asked on the radio.
The MECH agent responsible for blowing the trailer got onto his car while his partner drove it. The second agent drove the car close to the back while the first agent tried to climb inside the trailer. But just as he was about to jump, he heard a separate engine revved from inside- and a blue motorcycle drove out, pushing him back into the car. The driver lost control and spun out of control, resulting in a two-car crash.
There are now three MECH vehicles left, besides the helicopter carrying Silas.
"Later, Psy!" Fowler smirked as he closed the radio. But then Optimus spoke through his radio, "Do not treat your Silas lightly. Megatron preached the same ideology before plunging Cybertron into the Great War that destroyed our world."
"Optimus," Ratchet finally broke through the radio silence, "prepare to initiate phase two. Five miles from the south, you will reach the revendouz point."
But unbeknownst to both the Autobots, their comms have been intercepted by someone from far away...
The highway eventually had a railroad next to it along the way, and a cargo train was riding near the Autobots.
"There," Fowler pointed ahead, "that's our revendouz point."
The area which the agent pointed at was a tunnel for the train. There was a tunnel for the highway right next to it, but the train tunnel was chosen for a reason.
"Autobots, keep a tight formation!" Optimus Prime ordered. And soon, Arcee who led the group flew down next to the railroad tracks, with Optimus and the others following suit. The MECH agents noticed this and quickly followed them onto the tracks.
Shortly after the bots drove inside the tunnel, bulkhead quickly fired his blasters at the roof of the tunnel entrance, blocking it with rocks from the insurgents. He then transformed and followed the convoy.
Bumblebee soon lept onto the train and knocked onto the door of the cargo car. A group of people inside quickly opened the door.
Once the Autobots drove out of the tunnel, Silas spotted them and flew the copter closer to them. But suddenly a group of strange-looking fighter jets surrounded him before zooming ahead to the convoy.
This was eventually noticed by Fowler as he looked outside Optimus' driver window. "Air support? Ours or theirs?"
"Optimus, you have company!" Ratchet exclaimed through the comm.
The seekers fired missiles at the convoy, earning some surprised looks from Silas and his MECH agents.
The Autobots swerved aside, with Optimus doing so to dislodge the trailer from himself. The missiles locked onto it before crashing and exploding.
The MECH agents, including Silas, were wide-eyed at the scene before the driver of the helicopter reported, on a surprising note, no radiation from the DYNGIS in the trailer.
The seekers flew before transforming mid-air and landing in front of the Autobots, who stopped before the edge of a cliff. Fowler watched the scene with worry, before Optimus spoke to him through the radio. His eyes widened upon hearing the message: due to the severity of the situation, the bots must break cover.
Optimus was the first to transform with the others following suit. During that time, his gears that folded into his hand carefully let Agent Fowler out of the cab and onto the hand of Optimus. And Fowler, well, he was not used to sitting in a transforming robot vehicle, so he nearly gagged.
"Remain here," the leader spoke as he softly placed the secret agent on a nearby rock ledge, who complied without any need to speak.
Bulkhead crackled his metal neck as he said, "I've been in a road trip for too long. It's time to kick some butt!" And he and Bee and Cee charged at the Cons, who also charged back.
Meanwhile, Silas was circling around the scene with awe. "So," the leader scanned, "the rumors are true. Living technology is among us. But not for very long."
While Fowler rested on his legs to catch his breath, his eyes were on the scene before him. Autobots and Decepticon troopers fighting out in the open. He saw the MECH helicopter flying overhead, and knew that they, too, were watching. Probably surprised that these things even exist.
But then his radio crackled to life. "Special Agent Fowler, you lead a charmed life walking among titans."
The black man pulled out his radio. "Come on down, I'll introduce ya."
"In good time, but at the moment I'm a little busy wondering how the DYNGIS might've vanished into thin air without a trace."
Again, the agent's eyes narrowed, trying to process what the speaker just said. From what he knows, any small talk can hint to something big.
And the next line just proved Silas discovered the truth. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a train to catch."
He watched as Silas in his copter flew away towards the train tracks, which continued down below the ridge. His eyes swung to see the Autobots continuing their assault, not even noticing MECH fly away. He roared into the radio "Prime, Silas got wise to Phase 2!"
"I understand!" Optimus exclaimed before turning to see a dark blur. Before he could see, one of the last standing troopers (cause Team Prime kicked the s- I mean, defeated most of them) slammed a broken-off tree trunk right into the leader's face, cuaisng him to stumble. He eventually fell off the edge and crashed onto some rocks before landing on his stomach on another small ledge just 70 feet below.
"Prime, do you read me?" Agent Fowler exclaimed as he looked down below. "Prime?!"
But the leader struggled to get himself up.
Agent Fowler turned towards the three Autobots and shouted "Prime is down!"
Bumblebee beeped "Affirmative!" even though the human couldn't understand him.
BACK AT THE AUTOBOT BASE.
The humans and Ratchet didn't need the agent's announcement on the radio to know what happened, as the tracker on the monitors revealed he suffered some physical trauma from the impact.
"Optimus is down!" Miko shouted, causing both Sean and Raf to look up with shocked expressions.
'Aw shoot! Not good!' Sean mentally panicked.
"And MECH is going for the DYNGIS! W-we need to think of something quick!" Jack shouted.
"You mean, like a Phase 3?"
Jack walked back and forth while thinking out loud. "Okay, if MECH wants the DYNGIS they'll have to get on that train!"
Sean, with a quick thought, walked over to the monitor set and blurted out "Mr. Fowler, are there any men on board the train that know of this?"
"Who said that?"
"The kids said that," ratchet sighed.
"Don't worry about it, kids. They've been notified!" And the radio went silent.
"What about we go on the train?" Miko asked, "Maybe we can show them some human interactions!" while punching the air with a smirk.
"Absolutely not!" Ratchet exclaimed.
"Yeah, that would be suicide!" Jack dismissed it. But Miko quickly explained "Hello? United States of Meltdown? Lives are at stake?!"
"Yes, yours!" Ratchet shot back, "You want me to bridge you into a confined space, but one traveling at ninety miles per hour? I can't even imagine all of the things that can go wrong: mass displacement, twisted limbs, metal burn?"
The kids just stared at him with worry, but Sean was focused on the tunnel.
"Err, maybe not the last one. Regardless, it is nearly impossible to fix groundbridge coordinates on something moving at that speed!"
But Raf, being the genius in the room, typed on his keyboard while asking if it's possible for a signal to be locked on the train's coordinates. The giant medic stared at the monitors, in disbelief that the kid just outsmarted him yet again.
"Well..."
"I hate to say it, but Miko is right," Sean finally announced. "What if the men onboard the train are not enough to stop MECH? I know that the army's involvement in this operation, but this MECH sounds dangerous."
"Sean, we have at least a dozen armed soldiers onboard that train, and since MECH only has one helicopter crew, that will be enough to-"
"Ratchet, I lost contact with my men on the train!" Agent Fowler's voice blurted on the radio comm.
"...handle them," the medic sighed, slowly facepalming.
MEANWHILE, IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.
The special agent was right, as MECH launched an electric bomb onto the train, which spread electricity across the train, knocking only the crew onboard unconscious. And that included the operators in the train engine, too; which meant the train will go on forever, unless someone or something stops it.
A shiny green portal opened inside the car with the DYNGIS inside, and out came Sean, who jogged in and nearly crashed into the massive reactor.
"Woah," Sean caught his breath while taking the sight for himself. The floor was rumbling, with a smell of pine cones and mild temperatures creeping in from the outside. The blonde-haired teenager turned just to see Jack Darby and Miko Nakadai jump onto the floor.
"Okay, we're inside the train," Jack spoke through his phone as Sean hoisted both he and Miko up.
"Good, the cell phone comlink patch works!" the kid exclaimed on the phone.
While Sean nervously eyed the massive steel object in front of them, the noise of helicopter blades grew louder. Jack decided to open the train door to take a look, and sure enough, the vehicle was hovering fifteen feet above the train.
"Raf," jack spoke on his phone, "MECH is landing on the train!"
"In about twenty seconds, you're about to come to a divided track, brace yourselves!"
Jack closed the phone and spoke to Miko and Sean, "We're about to make a hard turn, so make sure to hold on-"
Suddenly loud screeches of metal blossomed as the train made a sharp turn on the track. Sean and the others nearly crashed into the wall but caught themselves.
"~Tightly," Miko nearly gagged.
Meanwhile, the helicopter lost control of itself temporarily before the pilot readjusted itself to follow the train. Silas demanded to know what happened.
"Hacker," the pilot confirmed after clicking on some buttons. He then clicked on a big button pad and said "former, hacker."
The kids on the train, however, did not know the unfortunate that happened back at base, as they were too busy trying to regain control over their stomachs. Sean, however, kept his eye on the DYNGIS before noticing the soldier's body on the floor.
'Oh god, he better not-'
"Errrrhhh," groaned the soldier as he nearly snored.
"What...happened to you?"
Just then the helicopter noises grew louder before a loud CLANG echoed in the cargo car, grabbing the attention of the trio. After a few tense seconds, some sparks littered from the ceiling onto the ground. It was there they realized what was happening: MECH is breaking in.
"What did that buy us, ten seconds?" Jack asked out loud.
"Raf is losing his touch," Miko was worried.
Sean stepped back nervously, before glancing back and forth between the soldier and the ceiling. He then spotted the soldier's gun nearby.
'My inner Call of Duty is calling me, but I'm no Woods or Mason,'** Sean thought.
Meanwhile, back at the ridge, the Autobots were busy shooting down the last few troopers. Bulkhead and Bumblebee were beating them up like human wrestlers, while Arcee just shot at them with her arm blasters.
"Prime, come on!" Fowler shouted from above. Optimus, after being out for the past six minutes, finally awoke and got himself up, before spotting the train from afar, with the insurgents' helicopter on top, meaning they already got there.
He looked up at Agent Fowler and exclaimed "I'll stop them, stay there!" before climbing down the ridge and began jogging along the tracks with high speed.
Back on the train, the weilders were almost done cutting the hole into the car room inside. But the kids were so nervous that Miko decided to pull off the fire axe from earlier as a weapon. Jack watched with concern before picking up the fire extinguisher from nearby. Sean, who saw it happen, finally had enough and picked up the soldier's rifle.
"Hoh boy," Jack stressed out upon seeing the gun in Sean's hand.
Just then the cutting stopped, and the piece of the ceiling fell straight onto the floor. The teenagers looked up to see three masked men come into view, staring back at them from above.
A very tense silence ensued before Miko finally spoke up "You want a slice of this? Well do ya?!"
"Err, what she said!" Jack shouted while aiming the extinguisher at them.
But Sean stared back with shaking hands and wide eyes. He never fired a gun before, and never had to face a militarily-equipped agency with a gun in his hands. But with all happening at once, Sean was visibly scared.
'I don't wanna die, I don't wanna- aw crap, I gotta use this gun to defend them, s**t, I don't wanna die,' thoughts raced in his head as Sean slowly raised the gun at the intruders.
The masked insurgents watched the teenagers before one touched the side of his head, presumably his ear, before muttering something under his breath. "Sir, we breached the ceiling," the agent said, "but we have three armed kids, probably teenagers, inside the car."
But with the helicopter blades whipping around, and the rushing air from the ceiling, the kids barely heard what the soldier was saying.
"Retreat...? Yes sir," the agent said, before the three turned and ran back toward the helicopter, as Silas, upon noticing something from behind, ordered the retreat of all forces from the field.
And to the kids' surprise, the helicopter levitated off the train before moving ahead.
"What...just happened?" Jack asked.
"We scared those psychos, that's what!" Miko exclaimed.
"Hmm," Sean wondered aloud as he lowered the rifle in his shaky hands. 'S**t, that was close,' he thought as he slowly and carefully placed the weapon back on the floor.
Jack quickly opened the train door to watch what the helicopter was doing. "Wow," Miko said as she held onto his arm, "you're pretty fierce."
But the teens watched the helicopter as it levitated far from the train before someone came out through the front door and pulled something out. Soon, a smoke trail blew out from where the man was towards the tracks ahead. The canyon surrounding the tracks blocked the view, but after a few seconds from where the smoke trail flew down, a pile of dark smoke came out, while a soft boom was heard.
"Oh no," Sean watched the scene with worry, "they didn't!"
Jack went back into the car and pulled out his phone. "Ratchet, MECH just blew the tracks. You need to bridge us out of here, the soldiers too!"
"We lost access to the train data, I can't bridge you back without your coordinates!" Ratchet shouted through the phone.
"WHAT?!" Sean shouted as he heard what the medic said through the call. His heart rate began pumping hard. "What do you mean you can't bridge us back?"
"We've been hacked! We can't bring you three back!" Rafael exclaimed with fear.
The three stared at each other in horror.
"Maybe we should jump?" Miko asked.
"At ninety miles per hour?" Jack exclaimed.
"It's the impact or the meltdown, your pick," Miko replied.
"Oh, what were we thinking volunteering for this?" Jack visibly pouted.
"Next time maybe you should do better talking us out of these situations?"
"Next time," he muttered.
Sean watched the train engine from the doorway while they talked, before eyeing the DYNGIS in their room. His mind was filled with notes. 'These guys in the engine should've seen the damage from afar, and should've stopped the train. But it's still going fast. Damn, the conductors must've been knocked out, too, whatever it is that happened to them.'
He sighed after making his decision. 'There's only one way to figure this out.'
"Jack, we have a new mission. We need to stop the train!"***
Both teens whirled their heads with surprised looks. "Are you crazy? How are we supposed to get all the way over to the front...no. No way!" Jack asked before realizing what Sean was implying.
"We only have a small time window! It's either you jump and get irradiated, or you stay and get irradiated, or you can stop the train from the engine!" The blonde-haired exclaimed.
Jack looked out to see the engine car. "At ninety miles per hour? This is madness!"
"But our robot friends are almost far away, they won't make it at full speed!"
Jack Darby's heart was racing. Sean was right, the whole reason they came was that Optimus Prime lost consciousness, and MECH was going to steal the DYNGIS from the train. The train was traveling non-stop at 90 miles/hour for the past ten minutes after leaving the Autobots from their spot.
By math, they are at least fifteen miles from the giant robots. If they found out after kicking the Cons out, they would not reach the train due to both the jagged terrain and the distance the train covered from their battlefield.
Jack finally put that aside and said, "Okay, we have to be quick." Turning to Miko, he said, "stay here, alright?"
"Okay," she said, before suddenly snatching the phone from Jack and shouting, "Raf, this is important! Make sure Bulkhead gets my guitar!"
After snatching it back, Sean was the first to climb up the DYNGIS and into the roof hole, with the wind blowing at his face. He crouched onto the roof on his knees, before seeing the train engine. He was really close, for it was two cars away from the DYNGIS.
But just as he was about to make the jump to the first car, he heard a familiar HONK. Turning around, he saw a red and blue semi-truck driving fast alongside the train, even passing their car.
'Optimus?!'
Jack, who got onto the roof, realized what he was doing, as the crater in the tracks was finally revealed. And the distance was closing, fast.
Both Jack and Sean had no time as they, against mother nature's odds, ran towards the edge of the train and jumped to the next car, nearly falling over. Jack was the first to recover as he ran up to the train engine and jumped onto the railing near the coupling. Just as Sean was about to jump, he spotted Optimus transform into his giant robot form and jump towards the engine. Within seconds the mech grabbed onto the front end of the train and pushed his metal feet to the ground, intent on mentally stopping the engine.
But what Optimus Prime didn't know was that the engine itself was still running. So pushing it will only slow the inevitable, not stop it.
Jack climbed down onto the railing walkway before running inside the engine room. Sure enough, the conductors were unconscious. And the engine throttle was all the way forward.
He grabbed the throttle and pulled it backwards. The speed thermometer was slowing down, but with the crater just ten seconds away, that wouldn't stop a 90-mile-per-hour train. So he looked around before spotting the emergency brakes lever, and pushed it back with all his strength.
The gas blew off, and the wheels threw sparks against the tracks as the train, with the Autobot's help, slowly groaned to a stop, just before touching the wrecked tracks. While that happened, Sean gripped his hands on the edge of the first car's roof for dear life.
When the train came to a halt, Sean raised his head to see Optimus get up and look at him and Miko nearby, before spotting Jack inside the engine room, who just got out the door.
But then a familiar noise returned, and the robot turned his blue eyes toward the helicopter hovering above them.
'No, not again,' Sean groaned as he stood up on the roof and watched the vehicle.
"Well played, visitor," the loudspeakers crackled to life from the helicopter, "but MECH still has home-field advantage, and we will find a way to level the playing field."
What the others didn't hear was Silas talking to himself inside the flying vehicle, which he added on, "even if we have to open you up, to see what makes you tick."
And then the helicopter turned and flew away, soon disappearing over the edge of the canyons. The blades continued whipping the air before being silenced by the soft wind.
"Optimus," Ratchet finally spoke through the comm. "...are you and the children...still intact?"
"Indeed, Ratchet, intact. But the world in which we live is different than previously imagined. One with its own Decepticons, in human skin," the leader replied.
"Phew," Jack sighed. "Sean, Miko, you alright?"
"All good!" shouted Miko, before she suddenly gagged and looked away, and hurled. After she did that she slightly muttered "Yare yare" in Japanese ("Good grief").
"I wish I never do this again," Sean sighed. His phone rang, and he pulled it out to see Raf calling. "Sean, are you alright? You're phone signal's near Optimus' signal. How did you move up front?"
"Well, me and Jack decided to stop the train, with Optimus' help, of course."
"Wait, seriously?"
"Wow, you're doing all the work for us, kid," Arcee's voice came over Rafael's. Sean knew that by her voice she was smirking.
"I'm guessing the visitors have been taken care of?"
"Yep, these seekers won't bother us again," Bulkhead joined the conversation before a loud CLANG was heard. Apparently, he stomped his foot on the head of a defeated Con, making sure it stayed dead.
Miko hurled again, this time it was a little louder. And then Jack soon did the same, but barely anything came out.
"How's Miko doing?" Bulkhead asked.
"She's hurling right now."
"She's what now?"
Optimus watched the three children before finally speaking, "Ratchet, bridge the children back. They may need some assistance."
So now the Autobots know about WW1, WW2, and the Cold War (just the Chernobyl incident, but they will learn of the Korean war, the Vietnam war, and others that happened during that time). But they will also learn about the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror.
So what did you think of this chapter?
*Sean and Vince rarely confronted each other at school. However, that will change in the coming chapters, as tensions will slowly build up between the two. At some point, they will start using fists.
**The main characters in Call of Duty Black Ops 1 and 2. Since the first Black Ops game came out around the time of these events in the story, Sean has played that game and not the second. Yes, he knows about the numbers.
***As much as I liked the original scene in the show, I decided adding some realism to it would only make it more intensifying and...well, more realistic. Because in all honesty, there's no way Optimus would've stopped the train from reaching the crater and causing a wreck that triggers the meltdown. If the electric bomb used by MECH immobilized the troopers inside the cars, it would stand to reason that the conductors were knocked out, too, meaning the engine throttle will stay at 90 miles per hour. And that meant the only way to stop the train would be to pull the emergency brakes inside the engine room. And I don't really know if the kids would've really been blown off the train roof at 90 mph, but for the sake of the story, let's just say that it doesn't happen.
-Published December 5th, 2022