Song: Something Just Like This - Coldplay

The light melted into a city view and Arcee blinked at first uncertain. Megatron and Bolt came out from behind her while Moonhunter jumped through with a shake of his head. When she saw bots staring at her and heard the portal close, she finally started to peer around at her surroundings.

The city of Delta, Velocitron, had towering skyscrapers and several bridges floating above and below the plaza platform they were on. Stories of walkways with constant movement reminded her of Iacon but bigger and much more fast-paced. The vehicles riding the highways built to move around and sometimes even through the buildings themselves were going so quick, all their motions were blurry. Below her, she saw the lowest streets and pockets of open floor that revealed a lengthy fall to Velocitron's desert surface. The city was held up by mountainous pillars and given she had met some of the wildlife Velocitron had on the Isle of the Allspark, she couldn't say she blamed them for securing their way of life without interruption. With a white supergiant sun nearing its life cycle within the next hundred million years and a deep hazel sky against a gradient auburn-tinted flat desert, Velocitron was living high and free without a care in the world.

"Whoa, and I thought Cybertropolis had crazy traffic..." Bolt mused. "I've heard they don't have roads here, only superhighways and speedways, nothing but the fast life. Also, isn't it supposed to be blazing hot? We look like a bunch of stupid tourists."

"I wouldn't say stupid," a giggle sounded.

They all turned to see a curvy, light red femme with gold optics and dark burgundy stripes across her limbs and chest. She had a spoiler for her vehicle form split in half on each side of her hips and rounded horns on her helm. She held a very nice demeanor and Arcee swore she had a natural blush on her cheek armor, but it could have been the lighting.

"So, if you're not from here, might I ask where you lovely bots came from?" She said, swaying with a sweet smile and her arms behind her back.

Arcee knew it wasn't a good idea to withhold information, so she admitted, "We're from Cybertron, here to make amends. Um, is there a leader we can talk to?"

The femme nodded quickly, "Oh yes, Override would love to meet you!"

"Override?" Megatron asked. "Last time I knew about her, Ransack, her second-in-command, rebelled against her and started a civil war."

"You're correct, sir, but fortunately, Override won and Ransack was killed. His followers defected to Override's side near the end once they realized he went insane with power. Kind of sad really but what's in the past is done. I can show you to Override. She's currently over at the FastTrak Command Complex downtown."

"So...there's no ill-will?"

Both Bolt and Arcee looked at Megatron strangely.

She giggled, "Well, here's the thing. We don't really hate Cybertron for what Ransack did. Some of us knew that mech had problems. Yes, you shouldn't have pressed him, but we can honestly say it wasn't unexpected. We're a race of people who tend to live in the present more so than in the past. Half the folks here forced themselves to forget..."

Bolt whispered "Makes our job easier. We'll be out of here in no time."

Then the femme gave a small frown, "It may be a while before anyone can get to the complex itself."

"What? Why?" Arcee asked with a somewhat confused smile.

"Well, we've been dealing with some strange stuff recently, one coincidence being an unknown growth that shut down some of our highways and speedways. The Railworks Highway leads to the complex directly, but it's lost its lighting and something aggressive has infested it. Whatever it is, it's corroding the highway making it difficult to traverse. Unfortunately, we rely heavily on driving the most to get around, very few can fly so unless we figure out how to exterminate the fungus, or whatever it is, we can't get to the complex. Override is currently trying to deal with it."

Arcee contemplated that and snapped her fingers. "What if we could help?"

The femme squealed with excitement, "That would be awesome! If you can start by getting the power back up on the highway, you can pinpoint where the growths are, and we can get rid of them faster! Override would be so grateful."

Megatron smirked, "Thank you...I'm sorry, we never caught your name."

"Oh, my name is Road Rage, I'm a consultant on Override's council," she smiled politely. "And you are?"

All three Cybertronians paused at hearing her name, and Moonhunter just tilted his head unsure. Road Rage looked nothing like what her name described, didn't act like it either. She was too nice, too perky, and her stature didn't look like she could kill anyone. They each wanted to ask why she was named that but found that there was nothing they could ask that would make any sense as to why a little femme had such an aggressive name. In fact, they were beginning to think that wasn't her real name at all.

Blinking awkwardly, Arcee merely said, "We...I am Arcee, Queen of Cybertron, this is my consort, Megatron, my cyberbiologist, Bolt, and my pet Nitrotiger, Moonhunter."

Road Rage clapped her servos with another giggle. "So nice to meet you. I'll make sure Override contacts you, Arcee. I promise. Oh, and I should tell you the lights of the highway are controlled by the watchtower at the city checkpoint to the south of FastTrak. With all those growths though, the tower has been overrun, but I have every confidence in you!"

She waved them off cheerily and transformed into a bulky, small truck before heading towards a large building in the distance. Arcee watched her for a second before turning to Megatron and pointing backwards. "Road Rage? Wonder what earned her that name?"

"Maybe hates the traffic?" Bolt shrugged. "Anyways, I guess dealing with the infestation would win Override's favor faster, especially if she's isolated from the city because of it. Can't be worse than scraplets, right?"

"Oh, Primus, I hope not," Arcee said.

Wandering the city in search of the watchtower, they took in the sights as they went. Velocitron had close by distant cities that were connected by at least three separate highways each. Arcee once heard New York was the "city that never sleeps" from her human friends; this planet would put that city to shame in a spark beat.

"There, I think that's the watchtower," Bolt said pointing at a lighthouse-like building.

It was right on the outskirts of the main city line but overseeing the highway it controlled. The highway was closed off and from what Arcee could understand, the signs seemed to read something about it being a quarantine zone with some exclaiming "Warning!" and "Restricted Access!" which gave her the sense she was on the right highway. Climbing over the barricades, she ignored the Velocitronians that started muttering behind her back.

"I was going to say maybe wait until we get permission but okay, breaking and entering in a restricted area works too. It's not like, you know, we might be recognized as war criminals," Bolt said. Moonhunter followed without hesitation and Megatron didn't bother arguing Arcee's logic in all this. That left Bolt alone, and he peered back at the Velocitronians before giving up. "We might as well."

They transformed and sped across the empty highway to the watchtower. Past it, they could see a large complex on a ridge. FastTrak Command had half the highway covered in something dark and part of it was clinging to the watchtower itself. Bolt drove beside Arcee's motorcycle form in a purple sports model, a common vehicle type used on Earth. The fact that he still kept it amazed Arcee. Megatron flew above them and Moonhunter ran fast enough to keep up with the likes of the bots. Reaching the watchtower, they halted with Megatron circling around a few times before landing next to Arcee.

"It looks like some sort of vine-like substance and it's moving."

Arcee walked as close as possible to the unusual growth and kneeled down. The alien vines indeed moved inch by inch with smaller fungal remnants caking the road between them. Then something odd caught her optic. A faint yellow pustule shivered, pulsing like a living entity. It almost reminded her of-

The queen shot up abruptly and backed away to the others' surprise. "I know what that is!"

"What?"

"Roughridge Mountains, the ice caverns were covered in this because of-!"

Bolt finished with a harsh whisper, "The Horaquan. The Metal Heads are here."

Megatron frowned and shook his head, "There's no way those creatures got here. They weren't even known except by Kanjians because Tigressa created them, isn't that what you said, Bolt? Why would they be so far out here? It makes no sense."

The Vehicon held up a digit. "Or maybe it does. No one ever kept track of the creatures once Tigressa was banished, so what if it has something to do with her presence on the isle? Kor could have messaged a surviving legion as well of her return if he knew. When you killed her, it may have infuriated them."

"But why Velocitron? They never had anything to do with us or what we did," Arcee said.

"That I can't answer but if the Metal Heads are here, and with no leader to control them, they will hurt people. It's what they're bred to do."

That seemed suspicious to Arcee given all the Horaquan were known for was being a monstrous army, but armies were led, not released to do whatever. She scowled at the alien fungus and turned her attentions back to the watchtower. First thing first was to get the watchtower's power back online.

"Megatron, you and I will go in the tower. Bolt, you and Moonhunter see if anything affects those growths so we can get to FastTrak Command as soon as possible."

"On it," he said.

Megatron nodded and offered his servo. She took it and hiked up to his shoulder in a crouching position. She held on as he jumped onto the side of the building. Using his claws, he climbed up it and extended his arm to let Arcee crawl into a window before he entered. The command console for the highway functions was still intact but the Horaquan growths were already threatening to invade it. She walked up to the computer and scoffed at the growths near its screen.

Bolt suddenly commed her, "Arcee, there may be a way to destroy these things. They aren't bothered by cold because they thrived in the icy caverns on Earth without any problems, so what about heat? Is there anything scolding hot we can use up there?"

She peered around the room until she saw a furnace-like contraption, an Energon burner which powered the tower automatically. It was oddly shut down but perhaps the bots who ran the tower didn't want to lose it to the alien growths so instead just shut it down. When active, it could burn up to 10,000 degrees but she wasn't going to pour hot Energon on a highway and especially not knowing what Energon alone could do to the fungus.

Megatron placed a servo on a pipe and examined it before turning to Arcee. "I think this tower has water or something very similar. It's not a standard Energon pipe; Energon would eat through this easily."

They both looked at each other before Arcee gained an idea and contacted the Vehicon below. "Is there any intakes or pipes along the outside for liquids, not Energon but something like water?"

"Um, there's two valve caps and the piping doesn't look compliant for Energon, so yes."

"Okay, Megatron and I are going to try something so bear with us. Megatron, can you use anything to run as a makeshift hose or-?"

Megatron smirked as he held up a stretchable pipe. "-Or a real one? These look like they were designed to reroute Energon and other fluids that are used in the tower in case of breaks. If we heat up the pipes with its contents, not only will the power be back on, but we could use this to extend the reach of the regular pipes to spray off the contaminants on the highway."

"What about the growths inside?"

She looked at Megatron and he looked at her before both grew wicked grins. Arcee started up the watchtower's protocols and marveled at the furnace reigniting. Energon flowed from one pipe to another, lighting the room blue. The exterior highway glowed as each set of adjacent lights turned on. As the systems did their thing, Megatron attached the extended pipe to a sealed output of the unknown liquid before turning the handle above it to open it. He pointed to the end of the pipe towards the wall and sneered as scolding hot water seared the alien growths. As they predicted, the Metal Head fungus was burned away, falling dead as the rest of it slowly turned black. For good measure, Megatron followed the growths to a seam in the wall until he confirmed all of it was gone.

"Alright, Bolt, we're sending the pipe down to you."

Arcee turned the output off and detached the end to throw out the window. Megatron followed through by waiting until Bolt attached the end down below before chucking his portion down for the Vehicon to catch.

"Moonhunter," Bolt said, "if you would do the honors!"

The Nitrotiger made a quick yowl and nudged the output valve lever with his nose as Bolt pointed the pipe directly at the infestation. The water blew well over a hundred feet and the fungus was quickly stripped off the highway. He made sure to make a sweeping motion to get both sides of the highway to ensure the growth was nowhere to be found. By the time the last patch was gone, the highway looked clean like it was newly built. Bolt threw the pipe to the side and swiped his servos together to signify a job well done.

Arcee and Megatron jumped down while Bolt laughed, "Done and done! We should get jobs as an extermination crew. We'd make a lot of money."

The couple laughed at the statement until Arcee received an incoming call. She was surprised at who it was. "Arcee, is it? I can see you from the complex. My name is Override, the leader of Velocitron and I want to thank you. If you're wondering how I got ahold of your frequency, Cybertronian signals register different than ours so you kind of stick out. Road Rage told me what you offered to do and at first, I was skeptical. But you did as you said you would and again, I appreciate your help. Meet me at FastTrak and I will be more than willing to talk with you."

Arcee grinned as the others awaited what she was told. "I guess we have a meeting with Override after all."

The FastTrak Command Complex sat on the edge of a large plateau with several energy outposts connected to it. Rolling up to the main building itself, Arcee gawked at how massive it was. Several Velocitronians were outside and cheering her, thanking her for getting rid of the foreign fungus. As they stepped inside, FastTrak proved to look even bigger within than its exterior. Multiple levels could be seen above them with a central pillar with winding energy curling upward like a beacon in the middle of it all.

"FastTrak is our main junction for the city's functionality. We have several of these complexes across the world. It was my predecessor's design and I've kept them operational since," a red and white femme said walking down a flight of stairs with a few guards behind her. When she reached the bottom, she gestured proudly, "Welcome to Velocitron. I am Override, leader of this world."

Arcee made a friendly bow and smiled, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Arcee. I'm the leader of Cybertron."

"And your friends are..." Override paused for a second before pointing at Megatron and growing a bit irate. "I remember you. You're the one who stirred up Ransack to take my place!"

Arcee quickly defused the situation by exclaiming, "He's good now! Megatron learned his lesson, his past is behind him, and he is sorry. Right, Megatron?"

Override awaited his answer and he nodded, "I made many mistakes, wanting more, and one of them was starting conflicts where there shouldn't have been. I apologize, not that I expect you to forgive me and wouldn't blame you."

The leader of Velocitron contemplated before giving a nod of her own. "I'll accept that. But just so you know, I squashed that rebellion you started. Ransack's corpse is in pieces down on the surface below. I don't like killing my own, but that was a necessity, and I don't want it to ever happen again. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Bolt said for Megatron.

"I should arrest you, have you killed too..." Override hissed much to Arcee's worry, "but even if I acted on that, it would solve nothing. What's in the past is done and right now, I have other things I have to worry about here. The question is: do I have to worry about you?"

Megatron shook his head, "No, what I did was tyrannical. My obsession got the best of me, and I thought you were in my way. And I saw Ransack's hatred for you. Since you helped Optimus...I turned Ransack loose to keep you out of our war-"

"Only to start a whole new one," she finished. The awkward tension had everyone staring between them. "I don't vendettas, but I will defend my planet not for power but because they don't deserve to be caught in the drama! We had little resources, worrying about a dying sun, and on top of that foreigners who wanted something we had no idea about. That was too far even for me, but I fought my hardest to put things right, even skewering my own morals to get it done. That was painful. I don't blame the Autobots as much as I do you...but how long am I supposed to hate you for that. I won, now are you here to usurp me personally or are you here to help me this time?"

"We are going to help you-"

"Then you better stick to that promise or next time, I will turn Velocitron against you all. If you're reasonable, I'm reasonable. If you're not, I have very little problems now in taking a life. Remember that." She changed the subject to gesture at the queen. "Arcee, I assume you didn't come here to get your friend to apologize, so what truly brings you here?"

"Those growths on the highway, I recognize them. They are an alien fungus to a specific species created by a virus. We dealt with them before, and we heard Velocitron might be in danger. I didn't want to sit around and do nothing with any of you caught in its path."

"A virus, you say? How did you get rid of the growths?"

Arcee said, "They don't like heat which is odd because I would think Velocitron would be hotter than this. I've heard the stories of the heat waves."

Override shrugged, "What they probably didn't say is we rotate around our sun in an oblong pattern. You caught us in our cooling season which, yes, explains why this weird fungus or other managed to grow on a planet otherwise burning hot. You heard of planets getting cold seasons with snow or rain? We get vacation seasons when we don't have to race around as much to cool off and can relax."

"Racing is your sport, I forgot. That's awesome!" The blue femme laughed trying to break any remaining tension.

Override smiled a little before reaching in her subspace and bringing out a familiar cylinder to their surprise. "I don't have much to offer now but for clearing up our highway, I'll give you this. It's a Radiant Core."

She threw it gently and Arcee caught it while Megatron gave her a thumbs up. "Are you sure you want to give this up?"

"I have more and I'm willing to part with the others if you could help me with a few other things while you're visiting...only visiting. Ever since that fungus came around, weird things have been happening. Sightings, some people think it's an omen of our end, and I've been hearing abnormal things at night around the city on the surface below. It is scaring everyone, and fear can make people do bad things if pressured. For now, I need to see if any other remnants of this fungus are around the city. I'll either contact you when I find something, or I'll send Road Rage your way."

She patted Arcee's shoulder and gave the others a brief nod before transforming and headed out on the newly active highway with her guards.

Megatron sneered, "Guess we're on call. If the Horaquan make a move, we'll be ready."

Bolt scoffed, "You two can handle it. Moonhunter and I are going exploring. I may have visited this planet before but never got to see many of its creatures. I'm going to do some cyberbiology work for the Iacon Archives. If you need us, give us a holler."

As Bolt left and Moonhunter trotted happily behind him, Arcee shook her head. "Typical Bolt."

"But he does his job well."

"Arcee," the Allspark's voice echoed in her mind.

"Allspark?" When Megatron gave her a raise of a brow, she gestured to her audio receptor, and he understood. "What's wrong?"

"Be wary of all around you. A traitor of the past condemns the traitor of the present but will not stop the traitor of the future. Heed all your commands received by choice but do not take lightly the consequences of them as past and future collide."

She hated it when the Allspark spoke in riddles but that alerted her greatly. Was it someone on Velocitron, someone on Cybertron, or someone she would encounter elsewhere? "Traitors" of Cybertron were often perceived as the Decepticons and many matched the description of betraying their planets to betraying their cause after, one of whom being Megatron himself who gave up the Decepticons to pay for his crimes. She didn't want to dare believe he was the future traitor, but she couldn't rule out anything knowing fate. She then thought of the other candidates. Anyone from Chaar had potential, Ransack was dead so no problem there, and the other worlds she wouldn't know of until she saw them. It was virtually a dead end meaning right now, and that bothered her.

A sudden roar made all the Velocitronians in FastTrak pause. Megatron and Arcee looked at each other before addressing the nearest citizen. "Is something wrong?"

The mech said, "I'm not sure. I think it's a vortekia but they stay at ground level usually. It sounds almost in pain."

Another roar, this time stressed, made Arcee and Megatron run quickly out the back door with several Velocitronians following. Among the towers of energy feeding the complex, they spotted the most horrific sight. A vortekia crawled around on its wings and small legs whimpering and shivering in a circle and since the species was naturally blind, Arcee could tell it was having trouble trying to find a direction to stick to without the wind currents it created to sense its surroundings. However, there were dark patches and purple veins coursing up it quickly as it let out another roar of agony. With its back towards the bots, it hunched over and suddenly snarled but it didn't sound normal. Its armor turned a nasty dark violet and abruptly, it turned around and gave a possessed, ungodly sound.

"Oh my-!"

The vortekia had a skull gem on its forehead and ten times more teeth than before, dripping a purple sludge from its mouth. Arcee recognized the symptoms immediately. The vortekia was now a Metal Head abomination.

Megatron immediately said, "We need to kill it before it infects anyone else!"

Unlike regular vortekias that would create their natural vortexes of dust and other loose fragments, the corrupted Metal Head dragged itself across the ground uncaring if it damaged itself in the process. Its mindlessness proved terrifying as it lunged at Arcee. Megatron kicked it square in the mouth from the angle he had beside her. They both donned their cannon and arm blasters alike before shooting at it. The vortekia twisted out of the way of several shots before crawling the side of the wall protecting one of the towers and leaping off it.

Arcee was toppled to the ground as the creature snapped its jaws at her. She held it as far back as she could before swiftly kicking off its underbelly to fling it over her helm. Flipping upright, she was quick to note it was behind her and did a 360-degree swipe of her leg which nailed its skull gem, forcing it to retreat backwards in pain.

Megatron blasted its tail off and it turned on him hissing but before he could meet it halfway, they heard the horn of a large vehicle. The light red form of Road Rage sped towards them and rammed the vortekia head on, a loud crack emitted from the latter and her tires bounced off its body. She flew over the remainder of it and slid to turn around, tires still spinning.

"Twenty-ton tiny truck coming through!"

Road Rage surged forward as the Metal vortekia clutched its broken jaw only to make a sound of surprise as Road Rage's bumper made contact with the rest of its head. It grew still with one final noise, not before sending the small femme rolling from a mistimed bounce. Instead of pain though, Road Rage merely laughed as she was tossed about. She transformed on her last flip and landed on her back with a smile.

"That was fun! Can I do it again?" she giggled somewhat dizzily.

"Road Rage, your timing is impeccable," Megatron said. The skull gem of the vortekia popped up indicating its passing and rolled to the feet of the mech who picked it up with disgust. "I still don't get why Metal Heads would be here if there's nothing to do except attack people and other creatures."

Arcee shrugged, "If it's a species made to destroy, it'll do just that regardless of who it comes in contact with I'd think."

Road Rage popped up and said, "I came to tell you guys that since you seem to know more about this foreign presence than we do, we might need you to help us contain it in other places as well. We detected more weird signatures that the fungus gave off across town, but Override wants to investigate it first before sending you in if that's okay."

"That's fine but if something is infected by it, don't hesitate to call us," Arcee said.

"Will do! While you're waiting feel free to visit anywhere on Velocitron you want. Racing is the biggest sport here; free-for-alls and scheduled races are available to watch anytime. You could even participate in a few if you feel up to it. Ask Blurr, he runs the Dreadnaught Speedway across the city. It's a fun track."

As she walked away, Arcee looked at Megatron who grinned. "Why not enjoy ourselves instead of worrying constantly. Up for a race to Blurr's speedway?"

"That's not fair because you'd win."

"How so?"

"You can fly over the buildings. I have to drive around them," she pointed out.

Megatron was about to say something but found she was right. There was no way to make a race even, especially with their vehicle forms having far different top speeds. Not even flying between the buildings alongside her would make it even.

"Fair point."

But she then smirked, "Of course, if I were to get a head start because you love me so much..."

Arcee suddenly bolted and transformed, zooming down the highway and leaving Megatron in the dust. Two Velocitronians were watching, and both were surprised. Upon catching them staring at her, Megatron laughed, "That's my sparkmate alright."

He transformed and took off after her. Weaving through the city, he spotted her at an on ramp to the Dreadnaught Park outpacing some of the Velocitronians though they were just cruising. He pursued, spinning upon making a sharp right and boosted his thrusters to go faster. It was always fun to chase her, always had been when they were on separate factions, not he would admit it. Capturing the uncatchable Arcee was the Decepticons' most impressive feat, and he gave Starscream credit for finally doing it.

Dreadnaught Speedway was almost a huge roller coaster, and it looked intimidating up close. As the highway leading around it had several off ramps to specific seating and a small market attached, they took the direct off ramp to the stadium overhang seating just above where the pits were. Energon fueling stations lined the underside on the bottom two just out of sight while the pits themselves were visible for the audience to watch. It was empty mostly with a few bots hanging out talking. Both Cybertronians transformed back to robot mode and Megatron barely passed her by swooping down.

"Ha! Beat you!" Arcee sneered.

"Oh now, I'd say I had won that. Didn't you see me ahead two inches?" He smirked.

"No, no, nah-uh, I got that. Don't lie now."

"I'm not lying!" He laughed. "I got it, and I will hold onto my stance."

Arcee shook her head, "Yeah, mm hmm, sure."

"That was some racing there, guys," a blue mech suddenly said, "but if you want to know who's the real winner, why don't you take it up on the track? Real battles are fought on these roads."

They met the mech halfway as he introduced himself. "The name's Blurr. I run the Dreadnaught Speedway. It's a daredevil's dream and a Velocitronian's paradise. Road Rage told me we had a few guests from Cybertron. She's a motor mouth, can't hold no secrets."

Megatron touched his digits together tensely, "You're not mad, right?"

"I mean, what some of you did was a bitch move but Ransack wasn't as invisible as he thought in terms of motives. You can't be racist and jealous and not get a few looks your way. I spied for Override regarding him. We all knew he was waiting for a chance...guess he took the wrong one."

"I apologize-"

"No need, big grey, you can't dwell too far into the past when everything is better not lingering on specific details. Why do you think Velocitron survived for so long? If we got stuck on the past, it would have been a bloodbath by now," Blurr said. "Even ask Road Rage."

Arcee perked up her eyebrows for a brief second before asking, "Why is she named Road Rage by the way?"

"Now that's a story. I know, she doesn't match the profile of someone like that name describes physically. Road Rage is the nicest, sweetest little angel you will ever meet...until you get her on the track. We learned this the hard way because she has killed people. She is one of the most aggressive racers known and has been banned from several speedways because of her terrifying demeanor. Off the track, a darling. On the track, ha ha...you're going to the medbay dead or alive. She's not the fastest, mind you, but she still won multiple races because she was able to take out the other racers that were faster than her. She is abnormally strong for a Velocitronian and for someone her size. The reason she holds a position on Velocitron's council is because Override finds her funny and she's a good negotiator...not by terrorizing people."

Megatron mouthed "wow" in a concerned manner while Arcee just stared at Blurr. "I would hope no one ever angers her if that's even possible."

"It is," Blurr said with a pained tone, "but it takes a lot to get under her plating because she always sees the positive side of things, even when it hurts her. So, if you actually try, you might unfortunately see that. I would rather she stayed with her bubbly, childish nature than ever be 'mature' because I wouldn't want to see her act like most of us do on a daily basis knowing how violent she can be when pushed. That we all can live with."

After getting over the initial shock of the matter, Arcee cleared her throat. "So, what about Dreadnaught Speedway makes it so special? I heard others refer to it."

Blurr rubbed his servos together. "Now, you're talking my language. Dreadnaught Speedway is, like I said, a daredevil's course. One of the best freelance racetracks on Velocitron. But since you're so interested in it, how about you race me, bot to bot? Let us see if Cybertron can keep up."

"I prefer not to race-"

"Scared?" Blurr jabbed.

Megatron winced and facepalmed as Arcee lost her smile. "Alright, Velocitronian, you want to race? Let's go."

The blue mech snickered to himself, "Gets them all the time. Given how large the track is, two laps will be fair enough. Just don't expect me to hold your servo, two-wheeler."

Arcee cracked her neck and followed Blurr as he jumped the railing to the pits below. Megatron took a seat and crossed his arms with a sigh. "This is going to be either really good or really bad."

Blurr stopped just next to the decorated line and gestured to Arcee. "Beginning and end. Try to keep up."

Arcee met his smug grin with her own sharp smile as he transformed. She followed suit and revved her engine to taunt him. His engine sounded louder as an answer.

"Alright, boys, light it up!" Blurr said. The track's vibrant red and gold colors turned on and pulsed in the direction of its winding path.

An announcer suddenly spoke, "Racers, let those engines roar! Three, two, one, GO!"

Both Arcee and Blurr shot off the line and sped down the first straight. He had faint streaks of blue emitting from his tires leaving a brief transparent trail of neon. Blurr got the lead and kept it as they made several winding turns. Every time Arcee tried to pass him on the inside, he would slide down to cut her off. She grew annoyed as he laughed.

"You have to take risks out here to get ahead! There's no fun in smooth driving!"

They approached an oncoming loop and Blurr sped up, so did Arcee, but she saw him leaving her behind as he had the power to keep up with the loop's demand. She realized she wouldn't make it if she tried; she had not the capacity to keep herself on the platform nor the stability to come off it safely even if she did at least get to the top. As the loop curved upward, she quickly thought of her options and saw the loop ended just beyond the curvature of the upside. She smirked inwardly.

As Blurr went up, she decided to take the shortcut. Bringing herself up to maximum speed, she swerved off at an angle and jumped off the loop. The path forward was right there, and she laughed as after a few seconds, her tires hit the road and she sped off. She could tell everyone was amazed as the announcer was heard mumbling something out of surprise.

"And…Cybertron takes the lead in a shocking maneuver! Is that legal? It is!"

Arcee saw Blurr behind her several meters back and was determined to catch her. So far, he was silent which said something. Several winding turns and three small loops, which she was able to do this time, allowed her to maintain her lead. Then the jumps came around. She enjoyed herself immensely leaping over other parts of the track and one sharp turn had her suddenly leap over Blurr beneath her who was seconds from taking the same turn. Right as she did so, the crossing line came up marking her first lap down and onto the final.

Blurr was cutting corners a bit more professionally than previous as he slowly gained on her. She could hear his engine bellowing as he pushed himself. When they came to the big loop again, she did her shortcut but this time, Blurr did too. He bounced off the road a little which stalled him a second but zoomed after her determined to win back his spot.

Arcee could feel her engine heating badly. She wasn't meant to go the pace of a born Velocitronian. Upon the three small loops, she heard him nearly on her tail and on the jumps, he sounded possessed.

"I'll admit, you're a good racer, but you can't beat me! I was born to race! I'll give you an A for effort!"

Arcee didn't listen to him as he nearly rode her rear. As the final sharp turn was coming up, she did something bold. She slowed on the turn itself letting Blurr be head-to-head with her. They jumped the last ramp together, and Arcee stayed even with him and tricked him into slowing ever slightly.

"Good run, Blurr, except you forgot one thing!"

Blurr took the bait. "And what's that?"

"You're easy to distract."

Arcee used every bit of her ability to hit top speed, popping a wheelie in the process. Blurr didn't expect it and he failed to adjust on time before she got ahead by a foot and crossed the finish line.

"Oh, Cybertron has won! Unbelievable!"

They both skidded to a halt as they transformed and Blurr was shocked by the results. But he wasn't a bad sport about it. He slowly grew a big grin and nodded at Arcee.

"You got something fierce inside you, Cybertronian. You have my respect," he said. "Maybe we'll race again some time?"

He offered his servo and Arcee shook it. "Anytime, Velocitronian."

Blurr laughed and patted her shoulder as friendly as can be. As several people who happened to be in the stands cheered, Megatron smiled and jumped down to meet Arcee as Blurr was met by one of his associates.

Arcee was exhausted and Megatron clapped, "You did great, Arcee!"

She raised her servo shakily from the energy rush and gave a thumbs up. But as she was walking with him towards the exterior of the stadium, her commlink went off.

"Hey Arcee, meet me at the Delta Park in downtown when you get a chance," Bolt said.

Both bots looked at each other with Megatron simply shrugging. Arcee didn't rush off to meet Bolt and he knew why as she still stood in place to cool off her engine.

Bolt and Moonhunter watched the Velocitronian wildlife roaming the dry, vast plains from afar at the city's cliffside park. The Nitrotiger shifted a little watching a deer-like creature prancing and stopping every few yards before briefly sitting on its hind legs to focus on sensing predators.

"You can't eat that, buddy. Sorry," he said.

Moonhunter still eyed the animal and licked his fangs with a small mewl. Suddenly, he was trailing it visually as it sprinted away but grew dissuaded as it shot off like a rocket, faster than he could go, leaving a trail of smoke and dust behind it. By a few seconds, it was already a dot on the horizon. Both Bolt and Moonhunter were dead silent before the former began laughing.

"Even if you could eat it, I think it's out of your league."

They heard a grounder and a flyer approaching and knew who it was. Moonhunter purred as Arcee approached and pet him.

"Have you two been having fun?" Arcee asked.

The Vehicon gestured to the view outside of the city limits. "Yeah, we just had a game of what was prey and what was predator a while back. We both lost as we learned appearances aren't everything, especially seeing a harmless, cute Veloci-rabbit bite a rapidog's head off. Quite peaceful here otherwise."

"We had our share of surprises today too," Megatron said.

Bolt held up a digit. "Can you two do me a favor? On the subject of the animals here, I noticed there are bellbats roaming around. Did I ever tell you they don't bite? Last time I was here, I handled one. Could you bring me a few of them? I just miss the little guys and since it's nearly dusk, they are active. They are my favorite creatures on this planet so far."

Arcee frowned, "And you can't get them because?"

"Because I'm pretty terrible with handling animals. Viewing them, excellent. Hunting them down for research, absolutely terrible. I one time almost killed myself trying to outrun some Dinobot-looking creature that I tried to get close to. And I'm not going to talk about the situation where I crushed a mudboar hoglet by accident. So, I leave the handling of other creatures to the care of others because I have really bad luck with them."

"Okay, Megatron, let's get this poor guy some bellbats? Can we do that?" Arcee mockingly sneered.

They both peered around to see small blurs of metal flying about. Some of the bellbats interacted with Velocitronians though they swatted them away like they were nuisances. Megatron crept near where one was circling near a light post and caught it on a timed jump. The Velocitronian closest to him cheered him at the impressive judgement of distance and the patience to calculate the precise moment to strike.

As he brought it back to Bolt, Arcee fast-walked tracking one that fluttered into an alleyway before diverting to a market street setup. Various stands and shops were lined up and sold everything from fancy Energon mixes to weapons and gizmos. It was quite different from the market placement Cybertron had. The Runner's Market was the only open market, but it was in Cybertron's darker subterranean areas at the edges of cities run by gangsters and other suspicious characters. This was far more lively and friendly to the common bot.

The bellbat was forced to flutter into an open door from the commotion of the traffic of bots, and Arcee followed it in. It hit the ceiling and made a concerned noise before hanging onto the taxidermized head of an unknown creature. The shop was quiet until she heard footsteps.

She turned to her right to apologize but froze when a clawed organic foot came down. It had a similar structure to that of an Earth rhinoceros' but mixed with a dinosaur's thicker attributes. As her optics trailed up, her spark stopped as she saw the yellow glow of a skull gem. Quickly pulling out her ricochet ray, she aimed it at the creature only for it to be knocked out of her grasp abruptly as she heard an angered snarl and the light from the window revealing the deadly jagged fangs of a Metal Head.

AN: Velocitron, the planet of speed. Some of you are probably wondering why the Velocitronians aren't jumping on Arcee's ass about their civil war. Well, part of their personality was neutral in the novels and they don't strike me as keeping a huge grudge because like them, everything has to keep moving. That includes incidents of the past. It doesn't mean Override's completely oblivious to feelings of hostility, she just won't prioritize them over the matter at hand.

One of my readers pointed out the nods to the Aligned novels and there are plenty of callbacks you will read but I will admit there were some changes as well and for certain reasons. A few characters will have slight alterations, not to disrespect the original, but to keep a theme you may notice with the upcoming worlds and their inhabitants. I appreciate you all for reading this and I hope you look forward for more.