Golden Valley High School, Surprise AZ
May 1, 2019
Veronica sat at her desk at the front of the class watching the time on the clock tick by. Second by second. Her journalism teacher chose an old school clock with the hands and no numbers.
Not even 3,6,9 and 12.
Just bold tick marks indicating hours and half hours, and little ticks representing minutes and seconds. How any one could understand this clock exactly was a mystery to her.
She had the general idea of where the hands should roughly be if it's say, 11:30, 10:45, anything that normally would have a number next to it. But 1:12? Don't ask her to find that on a clock she will check her phone.
By her limited knowledge of the most basic clock design, it was just about 1:48 pm. Only twelve minutes until her class ended and she could be free from school.
Most days she was not chomping at the bit to go. But with Spike's eyes glued to her back, begging her to turn around and acknowledge his presence.
She had to go.
She thought she might vomit if she didn't sprint out of the room the exact second the bell started to ring.
Oh no, the vibrating in her pocket. One tone after the next. Was he texting her?
Rich.
She reached into her back pocket and slid out her phone and saw three texts begging to just talk about it.
Talk about what!?
There is no talking. At least from her, he can ramble on all he wants. But there's no guarantee that she'll respond or even listen. And to be frank,to be entirely honest. There's nothing he could possibly say that would change a damn thing.
"Ms. Brooks," you can't wait ten minutes?" Mrs. Winston, the slim beautiful curly haired woman at the front of the room asked.
"No I'm," Veronica sighed, "I'm sorry, I was listening I swear."
Mrs. Winston nodded her head and pointed to the next slide on her power point. And started to read it off.
"Now, our next project like this unit suggests is on tabloids and conspiracy, how we as journalists can make purely innocent things seem callous, you are going to go out into the world to find something unusual, strange, harmless…and try to make me and your classmates believe that it's sinister, to better understand the power journalists and those who wrongfully call themselves as such truly hold."
"And since we live in the Phoenix area, if you pick aliens, you have to go the extra mile to convince me, or you're only getting half credit," The class chuckled. "I'm not joking, every year I have a kid taking a picture of the lights of an airplane at night for this project."
Veronica turned to her left and saw Emily shooting her a thumbs up. The two girls nodded. And the bell rang, Veronica approached Emily as she was putting her bag together. They started discussing how they wanted to find something alien.
The energy started to sour as he approached, Veronica rolled her eyes just as the boy started to speak, and walked away.
"Come on let me explain," He pleaded, Emily stood between them and shook her head.
"I don't know if you're dense or being an ass but back off Samuel." Emily pointed away from them.
"This is not your business," Spike looked over Emily's shoulder at Veronica who was waiting at the door for her friend, "Just call me?"
Spike then backed off and walked over to two other boys at the back of the class who started laughing at him and one smacked him over the back of his head.
"I don't know if he's actually dense or purposefully playing dumb," Emily scoffed as she walked over to Veronica who only looked at her phone and nodded, "So, we're going to convince Mrs. Winston aliens exist on Earth right?"
Veronica looked up and smiled.
The Nemesis crash site
Location… unknown
May 1, 2019
Soundwave watched silently as Starscream entered the bridge of the ship. A certain air of solemness surrounded them as their gaze met then broke off. Starscream briskly walked up to the front of the room and folded his hands behind his back and chuckled.
"Commander, what do you find amusing?" Barricade turned around from his post at the security terminal to look at the Air Commander.
"We've been on this planet for fifteen years Barricade, hiding," Starscream mused, "And yet, have only found enough energon to keep online not to thrive, despite our initial readings of the terrain."
"The scanners could've been wrong," Thundercracker interjected.
"I don't believe they were, frankly I think we've just ill equipped," Starscream said, "Going about our search in the wrong ways."
Soundwave stayed silent, he listened as Starscream sent Thundercracker, Skywarp, Runamuck and Runabout off the ship to scout for energon. Or any strong enough fuel source they could retro fit for their purposes.
He watched as Starscream exited the bridge and took a left at the first corridor. Off to the medical wing. He followed.
"Lord Megatron," Starscream knelt to the floor, "The search for a way off this wretched world has begun."
"Has Shockwave been in contact?" Megatron asked.
"Not in some time," Starscream answered, "I fear the damage sustained in our ship's crash may have done critical damage to our interstellar commlink."
"Then that is the first thing we shall set out to repair," Megatron said, leaning forwards off the table he lay on, "I need to know how the warfront is."
"It will be done my liege," Starscream said, as he rose and left the room.
Megatron and Soundwave exchanged glances. Soundwave nodded.
"Yes Lord Megatron,"
Now, left alone Megatron lied back down and groaned in pain. A wound on his shoulder leaked energon and he winced. He looked down at his chest panel, which Knockout had to remove to even begin repairs.
It was battered and broken. A milenia of dents, a mosaic of all the battles he fought and now he lays here, unable to lead his men. Leaving that to a Decepticon who he was convinced will be their downfall.
At least he had Soundwave to keep Starscream in check.
Wittman, Arizona
May 1, 2019
10:58 PM
"Shit!" Emily shouted as she nearly slipped off the rocks she was climbing down. Veronica looked up at her and shot up a thumbs up.
"I don't understand why we had to go so far out of town," Emily muttered.
Veronica shone her phone light at a formation of rocks that dipped down into a small ravine. Some of the rocks shone pink as she waved her light over them.
"My dad was mining down here not too long ago, on a project for his job where they were looking for a good place to build another Arc Reactor Plant," Veronica walked up to one of the pink rocks and picked it up, "Showed me so many pictures of these things."
"I thought your dad was a mechanic," Emily approached, she reached out and Veronica placed the rock in her hand. It burned slightly, like it was telling her that it did not want to be touched.
At least not by them.
"Yeah, he was the mechanical consultant on the project," Veronica said as she climbed down into the crevice that her father's job left in the desert.
The girls then found themselves in a small cave, surrounded by the pink rocks. These ones below ground were enormous. They seemed to glow without the lights of their phones and oozed off a pink liquid.
All that puddled in the center of the cave.
"What in the world?" Emily asked as she knelt down and looked at the pool of pink.
"Crazy right?" Veronica started taking photos of the rocks and the glowing pink substance.
"It's something," Emily chuckled, "What are we gonna call it?"
"I don't know, we could try saying that this is some ore that aliens placed on Earth that they'll return for," Veronica said.
The two girls laughed then started posing in front of the pool and taking all sorts of photos. Even going as far as to take pictures where they dipped their toes in.
"That's so going on my timeline!"
Golden Valley High School, Surprise AZ
May 3, 2019
Mrs. Winston sat at her desk looking over the presentation that Emily and Veronica handed in to her. She looked up at the girls who both cockily smiled at her and she rolled her eyes.
"Photoshop," She said, "Good job."
"We didn't use photoshop," Veronica protested, "This is something real we found,"
"Ms. Brooks, it looks like rose quartz," Mrs. Winston chuckled, "But I'll humor you, where'd you find it?"
"Outside the construction site of the new power plant off the 303," Emily said.
"Hmm, interesting," Mrs. Winston replied, "You guys can take a seat."
The hour passed as Mrs. Winston graded the papers and talked about the power the press holds to sway the opinions and thoughts of the populous. How integrity is more important than engagement.
And yet again Veronica couldn't listen as Sam's eyes burned on the back of her head. She looked up at the clock and it did not seem to move. She looked over at Emily who was taking notes intensively.
She tried not to look back at him. She knew if she did he'd flash his sad, green eyes at her and make her crumble apart. She would have no choice but to listen to him plead.
She turned around. He wasn't looking any longer, not like when she turned he looked away. He simply was not looking, not at her. He was staring down at his phone on the desk, poorly hidden in his composition book.
She took a second to just look at him, his curly brown hair was undone, a disheveled mess of tangles on top of his head. He did not seem to bother taking any care in how he was dressed today, normally he'd spend an hour picking what he wore. Today was a tank top and sweats. Like he didn't change after getting out of bed.
She turned back around and sighed, her face felt hot. She was trembling, it was hard for her to keep her hands away from her eyes, as the tears started to well in them.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" She shouted as she shot up and sprinted out of the door, holding her face in one hand and pushing the door out of the other.
"Ms. Brooks!" Mrs. Winston shouted, she shook her head and continued the lesson.
Veronica did not make it to the bathroom before she broke down.
Sam walked up behind her and watched as she sat down with her back up on the wall and face buried in her knees. He stopped right in his tracks before he could really get close at all.
"I miss you," he said.
"Go away," spat Veronica.
"I'm sorry," He said.
"I don't care,"
Sam shoved his hands into his pockets, nodding and looking down at his feet. Kicking at the floor.
"I just don't get what I did," Sam said.
"No shit," Veronica stuttered.
"So why don't you explain it?" He asked, his voice raising ever slightly.
He stood there waiting for an answer, that would not come. He stared at her blankly as she continued to cry.
"Won't you just stay away!" Emily shouted from across the hall, She strutted passed him and sat down next to Veronica, she looked up at Sam and shooed him away.
The boy nodded and walked away.
Autobot Outpost
About 50 miles away into the desert
Prowl sat at the computer terminal, his blue optics gazed at the screen as he scrolled through this primitive data browser the humans called 'Firefox'.
He was searching for any signs of Decepticon activity on Earth, any sign that the humans might have realized or accidentally found the Cybertronians' existence.
"Why don't we just walk out and make some noise for Megatron to find us?" Brawn asked, "Would work a lot better than all this sitting and sneaking around."
"And put the native population of this planet at risk?" Prowl did not look at his brutish ally, "Neither Optimus or I could possibly condone that."
"Of course it would be away from a populated area, but come on Prowl, tell me you aren't itching to punch something."
"I am not," Prowl's voice trailed off as he found something. A photo of a human girl with long blonde hair sitting in front of a pool of energon.
"What is it?" Bumblebee asked, his door wings dropping once he saw, "Energon, here?"
"It looks like the seeding early in the war made it as far as to this galaxy," A deep voice came from behind the three Autobots, who all turned around to see Optimus enter the room.
"It looks like this deposit is pretty close to our location, only 30 miles due north from the location tag these human's put on their online post," Prowl said.
"But there's no telling where that cash even really is, the tag could be off, you know," Bee said, "She could've taken the photo at one location and posted it to the web at another."
"Bumblebee, you will scout the area near where the human's tagged in their post," Optimus said, "Brawn, Cliffjumper you will track the girl who uploaded this image. We must find them before the Decepticons do."
Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Brawn then all transformed and left the Autobot base, hopping onto the highway to find their targets.
"You think the Decepticons will find this?" Arcee asked.
"Not a doubt in my circuits," Optimus answered.
Golden Valley High School, Surprise AZ
May 3, 2019
8:09 PM
After Emily's Volleyball game
"You need to leave her alone!" Emily shouted from across the school's parking lot.
Sam tried to avoid the confrontation by quickly putting his things into the trunk of his mom's old minivan. But before he could walk up to the front of the van to get in and drive away Emily was standing right behind him.
"Look I will, I just needed to know why it was over," Sam said, trying to walk around her.
"You know why it was over Spike!" Emily snapped her head around and pushed him.
"Not really, it's not like I was saying those things about her," He said.
"And you didn't defend her,"
"The guys were just joking around, I didn't think I needed to,"
"You're short, that's," Emily barked, "Everyone's seen under the hood, it not a fu-"
She was cut off by the revving of two engines. The two humans turned around and were blinded by two pairs of high beams. The car on the left inched forwards, revving its engine louder.
Sam inched forwards, waving his arm in front of Emily. The car's engine revved louder. The high beams dimmed, then shut off. The sound of clanging metal and shifted parts echoed as the car seemed to morph into a humanoid shape.
The second car did the same. Two identical robots, one white, one black. The pair exchanged glances.
"Is that the one?" The black one asked.
"The girl, yes, she was in the photo." The white once responded.
Sam and Emily exchanged looks. Emily turned around and started to run. Sam tried to run behind her but was knocked down by one of the robots.
"Sam!" Emily shouted, she turned around and tried to get back to him but something grabbed her from behind and lifted her high off the ground.
"Hello, my name's Runamuck," The white robot snickered, as she held Emily up to her face, "What's yours?"
"Autobots!" The second Decepticon spat, pointing at a red muscle car and a silver SUV coming for them.
"Guess you can introduce yourself on the way," Runamuck chuckled as she transformed into vehicle mode and strapped Emily into the passenger seat with four different belts.
Runabout then also transformed and the two Decepticons, tires squealing, raced out of the high school parking lot and vanished into the traffic outside.
The silver hummer and red challenger raced into the parking lot and shifted into their robot modes. Cliffjumper hanged back to check on Spike, who the Decepticons did not take. While Brawn waved his blaster around and tried to see if he could spot them.
"They got away," Brawn said, disappointed he didn't get to punch the Battlechargers.
"Brawn! This one's injured," Cliff shouted.
Brawn walked forward and knelt down to check on Cliff and the human. Sam was unconscious.
"Great," Brawn muttered.
"What the hell?" Another voice said, the two Autobots turned around and saw Veronica and another human boy looking up at them.
"Great," Cliff looked up at the sky, tonight could not get any better. He raised his finger to the side of his head and sighed, Prowl's gonna blow an entire fuse box "Cliffjumper to base, we might have a problem."
"Don't freak out," Cliffjumper muttered, his gaze shifting to Veronica, "Two robots just took your friend then one in this image you posted online."
His eyes turned green and a hologram formed in front of her. Her eyes widened and she gasped. Then she fell over, and the boy next to her had to try to catch her.
"Good going Cliffjumper, could've eased her into learning that little tidbit," Brawn rolled his optics.
*What kind of situation, Cliffjumper, Brawn someone respond now,* Prowl ordered over the commlink.
"We lost the human girl in the picture, and three other humans saw us and the battle chargers in the process type situation." Cliff said.
*Return to base.* Prowl ordered.
"What about the humans," Brawn asked.
*What about em?* Prowl answered with a question of his own, *Were you photographed?*
"No, but two of them are unconscious," Cliffjumper said.
Prowl gave no answer, the human boy looked up at the robots as Veronica woke back up.
"So, you guys wanna go on a little field trip to find your friend?" Cliff chuckled.
Veronica sat in the back seat of Brawn's hummer mode with Sam's head in her lap, he still was not awake, guess the other robot smacked him pretty hard.
"Uh, Mr Brawn," The other boy asked, "Where are we going?"
Brawn answered with a laugh and hopped off of the US 60, onto a dirt road, with Cliffjumper following behind.
"What the?" Veronica muttered, she rolled down the window and peered out at the new metal road they were suddenly driving down, hidden away in the desert.
They drove smoothly down the ramp coming up at two metal silo doors that started opening after they passed a laser blue laser marker that turned green as they raced by.
"Might wanna put your head back in," Brawn said.
Emily obliged and now they were in a tunnel driving under the surface, with yellow light illuminating the way. She looked out the windshield at the bright white lights that started as a small sliver in the center of her vision and expanded to light their way as two more silo doors opened.
Brawn raced into the center of the room and opened the doors for the humans. Jamie hopped out of the front seat and helped Veronica unload Sam and they rested him on the floor.
Brawn transformed into robot mode, the silver parts of his Hummer H3 form shifted to reveal his primarily green and burnt orange armor plating.
Veronica turned around and watched the red 2016 Dodge Challenger crawl to a stop as the doors shut behind him, and Cliffjumper transformed into robot mode.
"You brought them here?" Prowl snarled, approaching Cliffjumper.
"She was with the other girl when the photo of the energon was taken, she knows where it is, he was injured," Cliffjumper said.
"And the third one," Prowl asked.
"Just along for the ride," Brawn chuckled.
"If we had the infrastructure to do so I'd lock you two up for compromising our position and revealing yourselves to the humans," Prowl said.
"Enough," Optimus's voice boomed, "Ratchet, see to it that the human wakes up unharmed,"
A white and red Autobot then approached and scanned the boy, he looked up at Prime.
"All vitals seem fine, no internal bleeding as I can detect, it's just a waiting game," Ratchet said.
"Now, Cliffjumper," Prime nodded, turning his attention to the horn headed Autobot, "Explain."
"We made it to the human's school just as Runamuck and Runabout kidnapped the human girl, she was with the knocked out boy, these two saw us as I was trying to resuscitate him or just figure out what to do."
"I wanted to just leave," Brawn admitted, "We failed our objective."
"Well done Cliffjumper trying to make sure that the human was not harmed," Optimus said, ignoring Brawn's callousness to the situation.
"Prime I would not applaud his recklessness," Prowl muttered as he walked away.
"Is Spike gonna be okay?" Veronica asked, Optimus knelt down to her.
"Your friend is in good hands," Optimus answered, "I have the best doctor I've ever known in this or any galaxy watching over him."
"What are you, why did those other robots take Emily?" Jamie asked.
"Emily and Veronica both posted this image to the world wide web," Optimus explained, showing the hologram of the picture at the energon pool the girls took, turning his attention to Veronica "The pool of pink ooze you found there is Energon, an extremely scarce fuel and energy source necessary for our species to thrive, the Decepticons took your friend so she'll tell them where you found it."
"Energon, Decepticons?" Veronica muttered, "It was just a picture for a school project, they could've just asked where it was."
"The Decepticons intend to interrogate her," Prowl answered.
"Why did you guys show up, for the energon?' Jamie asked.
"Yes, but also to try and stop the Decepticons from abducting you should they also find the photo online," Arcee answered.
"It was just a school project," Veronica muttered again, dropping to her knees.
"Ms Brooks, I know this is a lot to take in, and I am sorry," Optimus said softly, "What seems like happenstance is often fate, and it never calls when it's convenient. Not in my experience."
"Who are you?' Veronica asked.
"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, we come from the planet Cybertron," Optimus said, "Our people have been locked in a millennia long civil war over the energy needed to revitalize our homeworld, destroyed by the Decepticons lust for power and control."
"Why are you here?" Jamie asked.
"Simply put, after our planet became uninhabitable due to eons of war, there was a mass exodus across the stars, our war spreading into your galaxy," Optimus said, "Regrettably to your planet, for a time I thought the Decepticon threat here was long gone, but now I know they are on the rebound."
"Why fight?" Jamie asked.
"Once Cybertron, our home was peaceful, but unjust. A slave by the name of Megatron amassed himself fame as a gladiator, once he entered the political arena and became the governor of Kaon. He became obsessed with getting more power, more territory, and subjegating those who he felt did not suffer enough under the old guard, and killing all who stood in his way, he killed my predecessor Sentinel Prime and the high council in cold blood, and declared himself Cybertron's new emperor."
"Then started his campaign to kill anyone who did not accept his new rule, those of us who managed to escape to Iacon, formed the Autobots to resist his new form of apartheid."
"Now he wants to conquer our planet?" Jamie asked.
"Either that or strip all your natural resources for his empire," Acree, "But he hasn't been seen in quite some time, even longer than the other Decepticons."
"So that's why they were so quick to just take Emily," Sam muttered getting up off the floor.
"And that's why we'll be quick to get your friend back." Optimus said.
"How, we don't even know where the Decepticon base is," Bumblebee asked.
"I have an idea," Veronica said, "But you guys might not like it."
"As long as your friend is safe, I am all ears," Optimus said.
Decepticon HQ
Emily woke up, her head throbbed and she felt sick like she was having a bad dream that she woke up from right before she drowned.
"Good morning," A sinister voice purred to her, she looked up and saw the blue optics and smirk of the one who spoke, Starscream "We have much to discuss, Miss Emily Henderson."
"Commander," Barricade said as he entered the room, you may want to see this.
"I will return human," Emily watched as the two Decepticons exited the room, and the door shut behind them.
Starscream and Barricade entered the Nemesis's bridge and approached Soundwave. On his chest screen was the image of a small pink fire in the desert.
"Energon," Starscream muttered, then he looked closer and saw Optimus and a human standing next to it.
"Laserbeak found the energon," Barricade chuckled, Starscream backhanded him.
*Bring the human to us, and you may have this cache,* Optimus shouted at the Decepticons through Laserbeak and Soundwave's video feed, *I trust you'll make the right decision.*
Starscream growled, his brow furrowed and his wings raised up into the air. He turned to Skywarp and his seekers.
"We will retrieve the energon, Blitzwing! Retrieve the human."
The Energon cave
Optimus watched as Wheeljack moved the last of the energon into the groundbridge portal, and it shut behind him. This was going to be risky, he turned and saw the small amount left so as to not tip Starscream off.
"What if he doesn't have Emily, or if he doesn't want to give her back." Veronica asked. Sam stood behind her and raised his hand like he wanted to put it on her shoulder but decided against it.
"Then we will have to engage the enemy," Optimus said, turning to Ratchet, "Once we have Emily in our possession, take the humans out of here."
"Wheeljack's already on stand by to open the ground bridge," Ratchet said, "Optimus we are going through a lot of trouble for one human girl, this is more likely to injure the kids then it is to not."
Before Optimus could respond the thunderous howls of jets in the black night sky filled the cave as they drew closer. Cliffjumper, Brawn and Bumblebee readied their weapons.
Prowl and Arcee stood next to the small amount of remaining energon with their blasters drawn to it.
Optimus watched as four jets entered the cave. Starscream transformed into robot mode and landed on his feet with Emily in his cockpit on his chest, she banged on the glass hard when she saw Veronica and Spike.
Thundercracker, Blitzwing and Skywarp followed. The three mechs identical to Starscream landed and aimed their null ray blasters at the Autobots.
"The energon?" Starscream asked, "You're really willing to give it up for one human?"
"The energon vein was not as fruitful as the image posted online led either of us to believe Starscream," Optimus said, Starscream chuckled.
He knew how to lie, he was a Decepticon after all. And the best perk of being a good liar, was knowing when someone was a bad liar.
"Is that so?" Starscream asked, playing along, "This is all the energon this vein provided to you?"
"It is," Optimus answered.
"I don't believe you," Starscream chuckled, "But I am pleasantly surprised you're trying to deceive me, Blitzwing, start digging."
The silver and purple mech then knelt down and punched a hole in the ground, revealing more energon.
"If you're going to mine, dig downwards," Starscream said, he opened his chest compartment and grabbed Emily and set her on the ground.
Emily ran up to Veronica who grabbed her in a hug.
"Are you okay," Veronica asked.
"What's going on?" Emily asked.
Ratchet then transformed into ambulance form and opened his back doors, the humans then clambered inside. Ratchet then slowly backed up towards a newly opened ground bridge.
Optimus watched as Ratchet and the humans were teleported to safety then turned his attention to Starscream. The Decepticons could not be allowed to leave with the energon.
"Now you all can leave, we'll just be taking our energon," Starscream chuckled, Blitzwing then ripped a shard of energon from the ground and went to hand it to his commander.
Suddenly a blaster bolt struck Blitzwing's wrist, causing him to throw the energon shard to the ground and hold his hand in pain.
"Altering our deal?" Starscream mused, "Fine, Decepticons eviscerate them!"
Without hesitation, Skywarp vanished in a field of purple electricity, then reappeared behind Brawn, kicking him in the back of the leg. Before he could make a killing blow, he was shot in the shoulder by Cliffjumper.
Optimus turned his attention to Starscream, drawing his wrist mounted blade and lunging for the Seeker commander. Starscream thrusted into the air and landed behind the Prime. He then tore part of his wing off his back, transforming it into his own blade and swinging it at the Autobot leader.
Their blades clashed, they reeled back and went back in for another swing. Optimus swung upwards and Starscream blocked and paryed off of Prime. He then transformed his free hand into his null ray and fired.
On the other side of the cave, Arcee jumped over Thundercracker's shoulders, landed behind him and swept her leg under his feet causing him to fall into Prowl's now raised knee.
He quickly recovered and grabbed Prowl by the bull bar of his alt mode on his chest and threw him into the cave's wall. He turned his attention to Arcee and tried swinging one of his wing-blades at her. She just dodged and flipped away from it.
Eventually making enough momentum to jump onto the blade mid swing and use it to boost herself up to kick the Seeker in the face. But before she could stick the landing Thundercracker grabbed her ankle and threw her onto the ground.
She rolled off her back just as he swung his blade down. Narrowly avoiding being cleaved in half.
Bumblebee ducked under Blitzwing's blade and used the Seeker's swing speed against him, he saw he was moving towards the wall and smirked.
He put his battle mask on and taunted the Seeker by pulling a similar maneuver that Arcee used against her opponent. But instead of trying to jump onto the Seeker's blade, he moved out of its way, letting Blitzwing trust his sword deep into the wall.
The Seeker growled as he tried to remove it from the rocky surface. Not wanting to let go of the weapon and fight on, he tried to force it out. Bumblebee laughed, he then grabbed the shard of energon from off the floor and threw it at the Seeker and shot at it.
The blast shook the cave, Optimus looked at Bumblebee who stood confused as the ground beneath them started glowing.
"Optimus?" Bee asked nervously.
Optimus gave Prowl a nod, the second in command nodded back. He decked Thundercracker across the jaw, sending the Seeker onto the floor.
"Wheeljack, we're gonna need that ground bridge right now!" Prowl shouted into his commlink.
Suddenly the ground bridge portal wooshed open.
"Autobots, this energon deposit is unstable, it's time to go!" Optimus shouted, he clashed blades with Starscream once more. Starscream snarled, he was not going to let Optimus Prime escape.
He raised his null ray to fire on the Autobot commander, but suddenly could not, he looked down to see Prime used his other blade to slice the barrel of his null ray clean off. He tried transforming his arm back into his hand but also couldn't do it.
It was jammed.
Optimus then punched Starscream in between the optics and stepped back as his Autobots fled through the ground bridge. Bee was the last to leave.
"Optimus I'm so sorry," Bumblebee muttered, Prime cut him off before he could continue.
"Let's just get to safety, Bumblebee," He ordered. Bee then ran through the bridge followed by Prime and the bridge closed.
"The Autobots are right, the cave is about to blow." Thundercracker said, scanning the ground beneath them.
Starscream then transformed and flew into the air. Skywarp ran over to the mangled and somehow still online frame of Blitzwing and teleported them to safety outside the cave and Thundercracker followed just as the cave blew.
He flew up into the air and followed Starscream to the ledge of where the cave once was and transformed back into robot mode. Skywarp and Blitzwing then warped next to them.
"That was a pretty big explosion," Thundercracker muttered, "Might want to put this fire out before any humans see it.'
Starscream did not answer, only staring into the fire. His blue optics appeared purple as the red and pinkish orange flamed burned in the night before him.
"Skywarp to Soundwave, we need a ground bridge, tell Knockout to prepare sickbay."
"So much energon, lost." Starscream muttered as the groundbridge opened behind him.
Knockout ran out of the portal, shoulder checked by Starscream who entered it. Knockout then helped Skywarp carry their wounded comrade Blitzwing through it. Thundercracker continued to gaze at the flames.
He looked down at a jack rabbit that was trying to run from them then back at the flames. He 'breathed' through his air intakes. He turned to the portal and pondered for a moment. His wings lowered on his back, drooping to his knees.
He didn't have much time before Soundwave shut it on him and he'd have to fly back to base. He looked at the fire again, then entered the portal. It closing behind him.
Three weeks later
Sam Witwicky's house
"Spike, what the hell is this!" Margaret Witwicky yelled, Sam walked into the garage in response, and was just as shocked by what he saw. A yellow 2011 Camaro sitting in their garage.
"I uh, was saving a lot of money working at Burger Bot and bought myself a car," He said, "It's honestly a junker, I think the guy swindled me."
"Where'd you get it?" His mother pried,
"Uh, Maryville," He thought quickly.
"Yeah no shit you got swindled, you got a car in the ghetto," She said, "You're eighteen, if it breaks down, it's on you."
She then exited the garage.
Then Bumblebee transformed into robot mode, hitting the ceiling slightly as he did so.
"I thought she would never leave," Bumblebee said.
"What the hell are you doing here," Sam asked shooing him down.
"Prime said that since the Decepticons have seen you kids, that we should probably keep an eye on you, make sure none of you get abducted by the evil aliens again," Bee answered, "Just the good ones."
Sam raised an eyebrow at him.
"What do you think I'm doing here?"
"Making a mess of my parents' garage." Sam said.
"Right," Bumblebee then transformed back into vehicle mode and opened the driver's side door, "How about we make a mess of Optimus's garage instead?"
Sam smiled and opened the garage door, hopping into the driver's seat. So Bee backed out and the door closed. Then they were on the road approaching the highway.
"So are you called Sam or Spike," Bee asked.
"Doesn't matter, are you called Bumblebee or Bee?"
"Doesn't matter Spike," Bee laughed.
Autobot HQ
"It's a shame we didn't detect the energon below the cave and mine it," Wheeljack said, as he moved the new energon cubes into the silo.
"You win some you lose some," Arcee answered, Wheeljack looked at her then down at the human next to her.
"Think I should build you guys a platform so we don't step on y'all by accident," Wheeljack asked.
"That would be a good idea," Jamie nodded.
"You should get on that Wheeljack, just make sure it doesn't blow up," Arcee chuckled.
"Optimus, I am not sure letting the humans 'hang out' here is the best of ideas," Prowl said.
"I would have to disagree," Ratchet said, "As much as I'll miss the quiet, it would be much too difficult for the others to guard them if the humans were not in a safe location, especially since their school year has now ended."
"Never thought you'd be okay with a bunch of youngins walking around your space," Prowl said.
"Our species is about changing Prowl," Ratchet said, "It's hard but things change."
Optimus and his two closest friends then looked at the door as Bumblebee raced in. Spike exited the driver's seat and Jamie ran up to him and bro hugged him. Bumblebee transformed into robot mode and waved at his leader who waved back.
From across the room Veronica avoided Spike's gaze and continued listening to Brawn's war story with Emily. Spike in turn avoided her gaze and walked over to Wheeljack who was now starting to build a deck for the humans.
"Their dynamic is going to be strain to watch however," Ratchet muttered.
Optimus smiled a small amount, then turned around and watched his Autobots and new human friends become more acquainted.
Decepticon HQ
Runamuck and Runabout walked up the bridge of the crashed Decepticon ship to Starscream. They exchanged nervous glances.
"No luck?" Starscream asked.
"Not much, no commander, but the others are still searching for energon pockets." Runamuck said sheepishly.
"Soundwave detects much energon on this planet, more than what we would've sent here at the beginning of the war, we must find it all," Starscream said.
"We understand sir," Runabout answered.
"I don't think you do, our plans cannot succeed without a massive energon reserve," Starscream snarled, "Unless you don't ever want to see Cybertron again."
The two Battlechargers shook their heads no. They did want to see Cybertron. It had been too long.
"Then leave me, and do not return until you at least have some energon to show for it!"
They obliged, cursing Starscream's name as they exited. Soundwave then turned and faced Starscream.
"The schematics, he finally sent them," Starscream smirked.