Alright, this is my first foray into writing fanfiction in a very long time. This story will use Transformers Prime as a base. In it will be a combination of Beast Wars and various elements the IDW comics. It has been a while since I have seen transformers prime so if the characters are a little out of character, I apologize. I hope you enjoy and please keep any criticism constructive. Note: edited 02/12/2022
Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers in any way, shape, form, or iteration. All characters are copyright of their respective companies and are used without consent at no profit to myself.
Thought seemed to come slowly to one Jackson "Jack" Darby as he began to awaken. He tried to collect his thoughts, last he knew he and his two best friends Miko Nakadai, and Rafael Esquivel had been kidnaped by the Decepticons to use as hostages. For what he had no Idea, ever since a near miss with Smokescreen none of them had heard anything from any of the Autobots. After being exchanged for the relics the Autobots had collected Megatron had activated the Omega lock to both restore Cybertron and, as they learned, cyberform the earth.
His eyes began to open as he recalled the skirmish to stop the process ended with the lock being destroyed by Optimus Prime, the bots escaping, and the kids. "Ah, awake, are we?" Came the voice of the Decepticon Medic Knockout. Jack's eyes shot open as he sat bolt upright. Two things became chillingly clear the moment he did. First, he was now in a large glass-like tube in the mad doctor's lab. Second, with a chill he realized he was naked. He moved to cover himself as the Knockout laughed. "Now now, no need to be bashful, after all I am a doctor."
A low moan to his right caused him to turn his head. Almost immediately he turned it back as he realized the naked form of Miko was in a similar container next to him. He looked to his left and saw Raf had been given the same treatment and was in another glass tube. He turned back to the red Decepticon with a glare and red face. "Alright what do you want with us now, and where are the Autobots?"
"Your friends, the Autobots, are no more." Came the low growling voice of Megatron as he walked into the lab. Jack was happy to note that the unusual forearm he had before was gone, leaving his arm severed at the elbow. "After our efforts to cyberform your planet failed we launched an immediate attack on their base." He turned as Knockout pulled up an image of a familiar mesa being blasted to pieces onto a monitor. "My Vehicons are still searching the wreckage but I'm sure we'll have the bodies soon enough, we already managed to capture one Autobot alive anyway." The screen changed to show an image of the Wrecker Wheeljack suspended by his wrists in a cell.
"Well, that's what you think." Yelled Miko who had fully awakened, covering herself as best she could. Jack stole a glimpse at her, focusing on her lightly blushing face. He had to admit he admired her courage in these kinds of situations, and she did look pretty with her hair down. He shook himself slightly, where did that thought come from? He then looked again at Raf who was curled up in a ball in the back of his tube watching the exchange. "I bet they got out before you even fired."
"We shall see." Megatron growled back.
"As to why you are here," Knockout replied. "Well, simply put you will be the subjects of a bold new experiment, and I couldn't have any" He paused "contaminates in the testing area." Knockout continued, indicating their state of undress. "During this war on your planet our number of troops has diminished. After seeing what the Omega lock did to your planet, I got to wondering, what would happen if I tried to use a similar process on humans?"
Megatron grinned. "Yes, we were able to cyberform a small portion of the area surrounding the Autobot's base, we are now calling it Darkmount." He leaned down to glower at the three, causing them to shudder. "From there we will begin our conquest of this pitiful planet until the Omega lock is repaired and it can be cyberformed properly." He straitened back up. "And what better test subjects than the Autobot's human pets to lead the first assault."
"Now now lord Megatron," Interrupted Knockout. "This is just the first experiment. If they do survive the process, I doubt they'd survive the "research" afterwards." He finished with a sickening grin at the thought of dissection.
Megatron Sighed. "Very well, I'm curious to see if we can make anything useful out of this planets' fleshlings."
Knockout grinned. "Well using raw cybermater and the Enigma of Combination should have very interesting results on them either way." The three teens felt sick to their stomachs hearing this discussed.
Megatron nodded. "However, before you begin your experiments, I need you to reattach my proper arm." He said indicating his severed limb. Knockout contemplated the job asked of him and nodded. "It'll take about half a cycle."
Megatron glared at the Medic. "The prime arm was ripped off you, that's a lot of pathways to repair and reconnect and that's not counting your fusion cannon." He turned back to his captives. "Make yourselves comfortable, this could be your last moments alive." He smirked and led Megatron away for surgery.
"Alright, now's our chance to bust out of here." Miko whispered, backing to the edge of her tube. She ran at full speed, ramming her shoulder into the glass. The glass bowed a bit before righting itself, Miko was bounced back landing on her back. Jack turned away to spare her any additional embarrassment, only to see that Raf was still curled up in his cell. He walked over to him leaving Miko to her attempts. He knelt next to Raf, only now noticing that his glasses were gone too.
"Hey," Jack began "we'll be okay."
Raf turned to look at him, tears in his eyes. "How, for all we know Bumblebee and the others are dead and-" Jack cut him off. "We don't know anything for sure Raf." He tried to put a hand on the other boy's shoulder, but the glass stopped him. "I think Miko was right, and that they groundbridged out before the base was destroyed."
A series of thuds drew their attention. Turning their heads, they saw Miko repeatedly kicking the glass. It would flex a bit with each blow but not break. "Got, to be, a way, out." She panted.
Raf and Jack started looking at the floor and ceiling, respectively. Both to check for any weakness they could exploit, and to keep from staring. "Miko, the only thing even close to a way out is some kind of hole in the ceiling, and from what I can see it's connected to a pipe that leads out of the lab." Jack said noting said hole in each cell some twenty feet above them. They couldn't get out that way.
Miko turned to look at them. "Alright then, the tubes seem to be touching, if I kick one way and Jack the other, we might break at least one of them." She noticed they were still averting their gaze and frowned. "Guys this is big, our modesty kind of has to take a back seat here." She crossed her arms beneath her chest and looked down to her side. "Not like I wasn't checking Jack out either." She muttered with a blush causing Jack to blush also.
Raf giggled a bit. "Moot point for me anyway Miko, I'm near sighted and don't have my glasses." Miko looked concerned at Raf but didn't comment.
"Alright Jack," She started backing up, Jack doing likewise, no longer caring about modesty if it meant escaping. "Ready, set, GO." She yelled both taking off at full speed to where their tubes met. They each delivered a kick within a foot of each other that sent them flying backwards.
"You two, okay?" Raf called finally standing upright. Twin groans answered him, time to think of another plan.
Jack sat up rubbing the back of his head as Raf sighed. "I don't know how we're going to get out of this one." There was a heavy silence in the air as that statement sunk in. Miko sat back down with her back to the boys.
Jack took a deep breath. "I'm sure the bots will find a way to rescue us, or maybe Wheeljack will get loose and give us and opening to escape." The second half of that sentence came out barely above a whisper.
Several moments of silence stretched on before Raf spoke again. "Can I be honest about something?" Both teens perked up at the question. "Despite this probably being how I die; I wouldn't change any of it." Both teens tried to sputter a denial about dying but Raf cut them off. "Even if they survived, I don't know how they'd reach us, and with no way out of these cells this is looking like the end." Since he couldn't see Miko he looked Jack in the eye. "In my family I may be the youngest, but I'm also mostly ignored." Both teens nodded, Raf had hinted at that before. "Then I met you two, Bumblebee, and the Autobots, and almost immediately I felt like I mattered."
This statement hung in the air a few moments. The other two teens thought about their situation. If they couldn't say all their goodbye's, at least they could make sure nothing was left unsaid between the three of them. Jack knelt next to Raf again. "Raf," Jack started out. "you're probably the closest thing I have to a brother." He took a deep breath. "I know my mom wanted to have more than one kid," He winced a bit at the thought that he might not get to see his mother again. "When I was about five or six, my dad walked out on us." Jack gave heavy sigh. "After that I just tried to fill the gap, make things easier for mom." He looked at Raf. "But ultimately, if I did have a little brother, I'd hope he'd be sweet and kind, like you are." Raf blushed at the praise and nodded towards Miko.
Jack walked over to Miko's cell and took a breath, but Miko looked Jack in the eye and beat him to the punch. "Jack, I love you." Jack's expression morphed to one of shock as a quiet "finally" came from Raf's cell. Miko plowed on. "When we first met the bots. I thought you were just a boring 'Average Joe'. Jack went to cut her off, but Miko plowed through. "Then, after a while, I saw through that. You're a sensible, caring guy who hates seeing those he cares about hurt." She took a shuddering breath.
Jack was stunned. He looked at Miko's red face. "Why didn't you say anything."
Miko put her hands on her hips and glared a bit. "Why do you think I would pull half the things I did?" She asked angrily. "I was trying to get your attention." She took a breath. "Half the times you followed me through the groundbridge I'd hoped I could break away with you and tell you, but I kept chickening out." Jack looked down, thinking about those incidents in a new light.
But Miko wasn't done. "It didn't help that half time we hung out at school you brought up Sierra." Jack felt like he'd been punched in the gut. He hadn't known about Miko's feelings for him and was inadvertently hurting her by bringing up his unrequited feelings for Sierra. To be honest he'd been thinking about how a relationship with her could work, and ultimately, he knew it wouldn't. Not with all the craziness surrounding their adventures with the Autobots.
Jack took a breath and steeled himself. Miko closed her eyes and expected the worst. "To be honest Miko I stopped considering Sierra for a while now." Miko's eyes shot open in surprise. "I finally realized a while ago that if I tried to date her, I'd have to keep a lot of secrets from her, and I know that those kinds of secrets would kill a relationship pretty quick."
He took in another breath, in for a penny, in for a pound. "To be honest I've had my eye on a certain petit gung-ho wrecker lately." Miko's breath caught in her chest, did she dare hope? Jack put his hands against the glass, Miko copying the gesture. The two locked eyes. "Miko, I love you too, and if we get out of this, I WILL make up for how much I've hurt you."
Miko put her head against the glass, a tear going down her face. "Looking forward to It Jackrabbit."
The moment was broken. "Thank you." Raf said holding his hands up. Jack and Miko Jumped, they'd forgotten he was there for a moment and heard everything. "You two have been dancing around each other for weeks now. I thought we'd have to resort to the old 'shove them in a closet' trick to help you two get your act together."
A few moments passed before a giggle broke the air. Another second, and the giggles turned to outright laughter as Miko sank to the floor of her cell, Jack following suit behind her. "We have been idiots." Jack gasped between laughs.
The trio of teens calmed down a bit before Miko called over to Raf. "Thanks half pint."
Raf replied with a dull "Ha ha."
A dull series of footfalls brought them back to stark reality. "I'm fine for now Knockout." Megatron's voice growled. "You can reconnect my cannon later, and we both want to see this experiment to fruition." The door to the lab opened, admitting the two Decepticons. "
I don't like leaving my work unfinished." Knockout muttered.
"Well then, let's start this experiment, I don't want to leave Starscream in command of Darkmount longer than I have to." Megatron replied. "Is the Enigma ready to be tapped?"
Knockout gave a nod. "I just need to throw the switch after I administer the cyber matter." He connected a cable to device holding something that looked like the Matrix of Leadership, only instead of blue the light was a magenta, and instead of handles it had four triangles on it that gave the appearance of two bigger ones.
"Once I do the Cyber matter should bond with the Deoxy variant of their cybernucleic acid, giving us the basis of a hybrid, and potential temporary soldiers." Knockout Concluded.
"Excellent," He turned and smiled at the three humans. "don't worry, what doesn't kill you will only make the Decepticons stronger. You may begin Knockout."
With a grin Knockout turned a dial and pressed a button on the nearest control panel to him. With and ominous suction noise a torrent of glowing blue pours from the holes in the ceiling of their cells. The kids screamed and moved as far as they could away from the liquid filling up their cells. Unfortunately, with as much of the cyber matter that was flowing in it didn't take long to reach them. With a cold burning sensation, the three began to rise in their cells, buoyed up by the liquid saturating the cells in their bodies. When the cells were about three quarters of the way full Knockout threw the switch, watching as the magenta-colored energy traveled to the cells and was conducted by the cyber matter.
For the three it was sheer pain. Feeling that their bodies were being broken down and electrified all at once. They struggled to stay afloat in the liquid but once the cells were full their world went blank and almost immediately the pain stopped. "Are we dead?" Came Raf's disembodied voice to the other two.
"I don't think so." Came Jack's voice. Somehow the three were no longer in their bodies but sharing a kind of void. Then from nowhere and everywhere came a voice.
"The three of you are being transformed." Came a gentle voice. Jack felt it familiar somehow. "I am communicating with you via Nexus Prime's relic, I am known as Vector Sigma."
Shock emanated from the three. "You're the computer I downloaded the Matrix from on Cybertron?" Jack asked. Awe emanated from Raf while Miko commented. "We're talking to a space computer, Suh-weet."
Vector Sigma continued. "In this experiment lies the future of Cybertron, Earth, and all life in the universe, you three and those like you that follow will be essential in the coming battles." This stunned the three. Not only would there be more beings submitted to this, but the fate of the universe now lay in their hands.
Vector Sigma seemed to pick up on this. "In these new forms I will give you the weapons and tools you and your allies will require."
Somewhere off in the distance they heard a commotion. "Something's wrong." Screamed Knockout. "Somehow the subjects are interfacing with the Enigma."
"Then shut it off!" Yelled Megatron.
"Our time is short." Continued Vector Sigma. "To escape this ship the three of you must focus on first each other, then your goal. Go now and know that you are transformed." With that Vector Sigma's voicer faded away.
In their void the three teens were panicked. What had Vector Sigma meant? Raf figured it out first. He mentally reached out and connected with Jack. Their mutual kindness and responsibility forging a strong connection. From their Jack reached out to Miko, their love and spirit forming another strong connection. Finally, Miko reached out back to Raf, their ingenuity and caring forming the final link. The three felt themselves pull together and back into the conscious world.