Unexpected Encounters
[Redacted] Highway
Raf had wanted to stay at the base until Jack woke up again, but Agent Fowler had told him that his mother was insistent he come home. However, this time Bumblebee and him were accompanied by Corporal Figeroua and Jazz.
Thankfully Jazz had the Corporal with him, so it wasn't an awkward ride. They were taking a different route to avoid getting kidnapped again. His mother had refused letting them groundbridge into the house because of the possibility of unknown radiation contaminating the area. (The fact Ratchet had to double check had not done the Autobots any favors.)
"So I'm thinking I can adjust the scanning program, I might be able to lessen the amount of codes used. Ratchet's looking over it, unless Roadhauler …"
'He'll be fine, he's stable, they're just keeping him in stasis to keep him from moving around too much.' Bee assured him. 'It's a precaution. We'll get back and maybe the others will have made a cure, and then you can hang out with him again.'
"I hope so." Raf rubbed his eyes. When he opened them, a light flashed and something hit Bumblebee. "Bee!"
Jazz got between them and another hit.
Their attacker was a black car with gray accents. Bee and Jazz coordinated their movements and sent the car spinning, but it wasn't long before it swerved back in front of them and transformed.
The bot in front of them resembled a mix of Arcee and Starscream, but looked wrong, like the parts weren't right. It looked like … all the parts he had seen strewn about Dr. Arkeville's labs.
Raf couldn't stop the whimper that escaped him as he realized what was happening.
Helicopters began lighting the area.
'Raf, sensors indicate a fuel station five clicks to the west. Get out and run there, call Agent Fowler.'
"Okay. Okay." Raf wasn't a fast runner, but he was small.
'Go!'
Raf was out of Bee and running as fast he could while Bee transformed and met the unknown transformer in a clash that made Raf want to tuck into a ball.
Followed by a noise that did knock Raf off his feet. A glance back showed that Jazz was up in bot mode and blasting really loud noises.
Someone grabbed Raf and picked him up. Raf kicked out in panic. He missed hitting anything that would get him released and got the man's thigh instead.
"Easy! It's me! I've got you Raf, come on!" The Corporal slung him over the shoulder and ran a lot faster than Raf. "We need to get you to eat more, you weigh less than my gear- whoa!" He skidded to a stop.
"Hand over the brat!" Circuit Breaker hissed at them.
"You're not getting the kid!"
"You are getting in the way! You're a traitor!" She shrieked.
Raf hit the ground and blinked up at the sky, very confused how he ended up there.
The weird transformer was reaching down to pick him up, when a truck horn sounded and Ultra Magnus was slamming into it in truck form.
Someone touched him and he jumped again.
"It's me! I've got you." Agent Fowler scooped him up. "Your mother can yell at me later. Corporal!"
"I got him, hop in!" Jazz swerved in front of them. It was cramped, but they were through the groundbridge pretty quickly.
"Where's Bee?"
"He's helping Magnus, no worries." Jazz assured him. "Arcee and Bulkhead are backing them up."
"Okay, I know your mother doesn't like it, but next time, we're just groundbridging you into the living room." Agent Fowler assured him as Jazz came to a stop back in unit E.
"Is the Corporal alright?" Raf twisted to look at him.
"I'm fine. I was wearing body armor. Just a little sore." There was a scorch mark on the body armor. "Sorry I dropped you."
"I'm okay. Thanks for not letting her take me."
"Just doing my job kid." He smiled.
Raf was picked up by Nurse Darby, Agent Fowler following him, but he could see the Corporal had remained in Jazz.
Fig hadn't expected the doors to lock on him before he could leave.
"Okay, I wasn't going to say anything, but it's not okay to go after a youngling." Jazz informed him.
"No shit. I already said I wasn't gonna let them take the kid." Fig glared at the dashboard. "I didn't know …"
"That answering your phone was gonna give our position away? Now you know." Jazz started up some music.
"And knowing is half the battle." Fig sighed. "I'm not… I don't trust you guys, you lost Nurse Darby's kid, but … I wouldn't trust that crazy doc with the kid either, and the kid runs to bots and Agent Fowler when things go wrong. That speaks volumes about trust." Fig didn't like it.
"So you are working with the crazy lady trying to kidnap the kid?"
"Not exactly. Same Boss, different departments. Why?"
"Know my job?"
"Roadhauler's CO?" Fig was tired.
"Yes. Roadhauler's one of mine who would go behind enemy lines to get bots out of trouble and he was good at it. Eventually, he went after a distress signal that turned out to be fake, last transmission was his own distress call. I'm not gonna let that happen to any of them. So you and me are going to be riding together, you dig?"
"Yeah, I get it." He looked down. "I don't like we're not trying to rescue Jackson Darby."
"That's because the cons did some damage to our expert. Roadhauler wouldn't have left anyone to the cons, but that stuff the cons used … I get half a chance, I'll infiltrate myself. Wanna ride along?"
"Yeah, sounds like a plan."
The doors unlocked and Fig was immediately beset by Nurse Darby shining a penlight in his eyes.
No one paid much attention to Optimus as he slipped out to Skyfire.
"Roadhauler's still steady. And the Synthetic Energon formula is running a few more trials. We're getting close."
"Thank you, Skyfire. I require your discretion."
"You have it, Prime."
Optimus was taking a risk. He had only Alpha Trion's example and faith that this wouldn't affect anything that happened to the frame.
Ratchet would likely not be pleased.
Using the phase shifter, he slipped the key to Vector Sigma into Roadhauler's chassis, as close to the spark as he dared. There was a brief glow as it settled.
The artifacts of the primes had a way of keeping sparks going for just a little longer. Smokescreen would be able to retrieve it if necessary.
"Think that will work?" Skyfire asked.
"There is not much recorded, but there is a slim chance that the presence of the key will keep his spark going a little longer than it would without."
"Slim chance is better than nothing. Ratchet's going to try bringing him out of stasis tomorrow." Skyfire reported. "New trials look promising. Especially as we have more data to compare."
"Any idea of how long?" Optimus stepped away.
"Unknown. Sooner instead of later, which will be a blessing."
???
He was running on all fours again. The white lion just ahead.
The vision faded out, before he was tracking something through metal buildings.
Someone was talking lowly, but then everything went dark and he was alone.
"I'd like to wake up now." He mentioned to the darkness.
"That's not quite possible, old friend." The lion was made of white (or was that green) and gold light and sat in front of him. "You don't know the me of this dimension yet, I am Lio Prime."
"Roadhauler. For now."
"I see. I'm not omniscient, but I sense that that is not the full story." Lio Prime noted.
"I was human, just had some spark energy from Vector Sigma. The decepticons used that as an excuse to turn me into a beast with anger issues." Jack yelped as by the end of his rant he was human again. "I know I can't go back to this." Flesh instead of metal. He'd almost forgotten what he looked like.
"It's okay to miss the things you used to have. You just can't let it consume you." Lio Prime reminded him.
"I know, I'm trying. It's frustrating. Even without the synth en making my anger worse." Jack sighed. As soon as he finished the exhale, he was in his beast mode, back at optic height. "You're not from this dimension, but sounds like there's parallels."
"There are parallels between all dimensions, even the ones where Optimus Prime fell to corruption and Megatron remained a champion for change have parallels and communities to this dimension. My duty is to observe and render aid when necessary. I felt the matrix deplete and came to assist, but when I arrived it was already being charged up again." Lio Prime chuckled. "I know other versions of you, some of those who were born cybertronian. I know even the ones which sided with the Megatrons. Your loyalty is second only to your desire to protect others." Lio Prime sounded wistful.
"And how many times have you wanted to shake those other versions into some form of sense?" Jack asked.
That got a surprised laugh from the lion.
"Too many!" Lio Prime recovered. "You're struggling with a name, but you're already heard a couple that resonate with something inside you, have you not?"
"Miko had a list. There was Prowl, which is already taken, Wolfang, which I know is her playing on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Maximal, which is … not bad but sounds like a name for a group, Fowler keeps calling me Hauler, and Miko suggested Howl, so sometimes I think Howler wouldn't be to bad, but it doesn't sound right." He huffed.
"When you're ready, you'll know. Though it probably won't happen until after you've healed a bit." Lio Prime stood up. "Brace yourself Old Friend, help is coming."
"Will I see you again?"
"Most likely. I don't like how much dark energon has been used, so I'll keep an optic on things here for a while longer. Hopefully the next time we meet will be in reality."
The last thing Jack saw as everything turned to bright white light, was the symbol on Lio Prime's chest.
It looked like a wolf's head.
End Note:
Okay, so we have another MECH made transformer. Everyone, say hello to the eventually named Nightbird. Another G1 reference.
Jazz is one of the nicest and chillest bots. He's also capable of taking you apart in multiple ways the instant you cross the line and hurt someone he cares about.
Fig has no idea what he's gotten into.
Optimus is taking a page out of Alpha Trion's book. It does actually help.
Lio Prime, Alias Lio Convoy, originally from Beast Wars II, which was never released in America (you can find it on YouTube) he also plays a major role in Beast Wars Neo, where he acts as a guiding spirit before coming back to help. He has a Toy for Prime because he sensed the matrix being depleted and came to help, but found everything resolved itself without his intervention so he just stuck around to observe.
The short version of his backstory: Lio and his crew crash on earth where there's "anglomose" (I spelled that wrong) energy that the decepticons want. There's multiple factions that get involved, including a trio that speak Spanish and that's a trip to listen to because one of them wishes for tequila at one point,(and I am not joking, it's like one of the writers visited Mexico met three party guys and wrote them into the script to show off they had been to Mexico) and honestly the description of Anglomoise energy sounds like dark energon at times (especially in Neo where it can be used to summon Unicron) and at the end of the season, villain goes one wing Angel but the good guys win and they scatter the anglophone (dyac) energy defeating the big bad and Lio and his team go dimension hopping because the clash tore a hole in the space time continuum.
In Neo, Lio's team is considered a legend and no one knows what happened to them exactly, but Big Convoy's team stumbles on a recording explaining what went down.
Throughout the season Big Convoy (who is a mammoth and is very reluctantly training this group of young bots, one of whom is voiced by Naruto's VA) has moments where he starts talking not like himself, and it's revealed he's been channeling Vector Sigma and Lio Convoy during those times. Anyway, the goal is finding the Anglo Energy (I know, but I give up) before the bad guys do, except unexpected bad guys get it who resurrect the villain from the previous season who is not himself but actually Unicron. Cue race to keep Unicron from taking over Vector Sigma (who fills the role of primus in this continuity) and there's an epic battle where everyone including the seasons villains join forces to fight Unicron and peace is restored and if that sounded familiar at all yeah they revisited that plot line in Armada and Energon.
Anyway, you guys should watch both series, they're on YouTube and they are a fascinating glimpse into the history of transformers story telling. Just be aware that they do have a character named Apache that is a baboon for some reason (from what I can tell, he's actually a very reasonable character, Lio's second in command, but I know some people had problems with the character) and the three Spanish speaking transformers are essentially hard drinking party boys.
Oh! And Beast Wars II has a competent Starscream!
Anyway, the maximal symbol is a wolf's head. Which will be a plot point in the next chapter or two. At which point I start adapting Minus One and the end of the show, but it's not the end of the story. Because we'll have to deal with MECH and some fallout…