Hey everyone, and welcome to my first chapter of my Transformers One story! I love Transformers One so much and knew that I had to do a story on it. I hope you'll all enjoy this story with my two new OCs thrown into the mix.
Also, shout outs to Angelwings2002 for allowing me to share my thoughts and ideas, providing me feedback, and for helping me pick names for one of my characters, and to swetha19012000 for sharing great ideas which helped me create my OCs. Thank you both so much!
Anyway, here is chapter one where we are introduced to my OCs, Neon and Aurora. I hope you like it!
P.S. Sorry for any grammatical errors.
P.S.S. Before anyone calls me out on it, yes, the backstory bit at the start is copied and pasted from transformers wiki, I was just lazy lol. But I did add a bit to it for the story, so yeah. Lol.
Enjoy!
Transformers One: Connected
Chapter 1: Neon and Aurora
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers
Long ago, the benevolent Primus sacrificed his life essence to become the planet Cybertron and created the first generation of Transformers, the Primes. Through the power of the Matrix of Leadership, energon flowed freely from the planet's core, and the Primes ruled justly for a time. Two of the Primes, the kind Solus Prime and the strong Megatronus Prime fell in love, and from that love came their twin daughters, Aurora and Iris. The two Primes adored their sparklings, as did the other Primes who welcomed the young ones into their family. For a while, all was perfect.
However, the alien Quintessons began a long war of invasion on Cybertron. The Primes were eventually slain, and the Matrix of Leadership was lost, leaving only Sentinel Prime to rule the planet in their absence after the Cybertronians relocated to massive underground cities, abandoning the dangerous surface. Not long after, one of the sparklings, Iris, fell ill and sadly passed away, leaving her sister, Aurora, behind. Being the closest thing to family Aurora had, Sentinel Prime cared for the young sparkling and raised her as his own, in hopes one day, she will live up to her parents' legacy as the next Prime.
Fifty cycles after the war, Cybertronian society relied on an underclass of manual laborers born without transformation cogs including a caste of miners who physically extracted what few veins of usable energon remained from the tunnels beneath the subterranean Iacon City, while Sentinel Prime made periodic journeys to the surface in search of the missing Matrix.
(Iacon City)
It was a beautiful morning in the city of Iacon with the light reflecting off the golden buildings, giving the city a luminous glow. The citizens were already going about their day as they drove and flew past the buildings up top or down below.
Over in the barer part of the city was a huge park with walkways and attractions. The platform was flat and metal, allowing the light to bounce off of it. It was a calm area for bots to leisurely walk about or sit in. But the park was well known for its art. There were beautiful sculptures along the paths. Most of bots. Others of different shapes in an abstract form. But the biggest attraction there were the large golden statues of the Primes, standing tall and proud in a circle at the center of the park. Many bots walked by, smiling at the statues that shined beautifully before continuing on their way.
Sitting on a tarp in the center of the Prime circle was a young cog-less femme with blue and neon green armor painting a picture on a metal sheet. She constantly glanced up at the statue of a femme holding a giant hammer, making sure she was getting all of the details. Having trouble seeing a detail on the face, she lifted her light blue visor up to get a better look, revealing her odd colored optics. Unlike typical blue like most bots, hers were more iridescent with glimpse of soft colors in her irises, outlined by a white rim. She was embarrassed by her optics and wore her visor all the time to hide them.
Once she was done, she held out the metal sheet to get a better look at her work. The pose was exact, but with different colors added in a paint drip style that she liked doing. She smiled at her results. It was perfect.
She looked back up at the statues. She didn't know what it was about them, but she always felt happy. She remembered the first time her guardian brought her to the park. Even though she was only a sparkling at the time, she immediately fell in love with the art displayed everywhere, especially the beautiful Prime statues. She would constantly ask her guardian if they could return to the park whenever they could. Not long after, she was given her first painting set, starting her love for painting.
She loved doing her painting in the park. She felt at peace with all the inspiration around her. If it was up to the femme, she would spend the whole day there.
Beep-beep, beep-beep, beep-beep...
She snapped out of her thoughts once her timer went off. Checking the time, she sadly vented. "Time for work."
Cleaning up her tools, she carefully placed them and her paint back into her bag. Once everything was all packed up, she sealed the bag shut and slinged it over her shoulder. She held up her painting that was still wet. She would have to carry it until it fully dried. Looking at the statues one last time, she smiled before making her way down the path. She wished she could stay longer, but of course, she had a job to do.
As she walked down the path, she passed a couple elegant looking femmes about her age gossiping with one another. A look of disgust spread across their faces once they noticed the miner walking by.
"Check out that miner," the pearl colored one whispered.
"Ugh, I can smell her from over here," the turquoise one responded.
"Does she even know she has paint all over herself?"
"At least it's distracting from that tacky paint job."
The two femmes laughed, not even caring that the miner was within earshot.
Feeling embarrassed, the miner avoided eye contact as she hurried away from the two. Though she tried her best to brush off their words, they still got to her. She glanced down at herself. Sure enough, she had different colors of paint on her servos and front. If she had a mirror, she would see she also had a green smear on her cheek. She made a note to clean herself off before her shift started.
Soon as she crossed the large bridge with gold carvings etched along the side, she made her way down the city street. It was busy as usual with bots driving around, others flying overhead. She would be lying if she said she didn't envy them. Even though she was used to walking, it would be nice to not have to rely on other means of transportation.
Hearing a small cry, she looked over to see a small metal creature with cat features sitting on a waste disposal bin.
She smiled at the creature. "Hello." Reaching her servo out, she petted its head, making it purr at the attention it was getting. "Are you hungry?" Opening her arm compartment, she took out a small energon cube and held it out to the animal. "Here you go."
Sniffing the energon, the metal cat took the cube in its mouth before racing off with it between the buildings.
"You're welcome!" she yelled out as the cat disappeared with its breakfast.
Crash!
Hearing the crashing noise, she looked over to see a blue mech had dropped a box full of parts.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" the mech grumbled as he went to pick it all up.
Wanting to help, the femme rushed over and set her painting down on a cart parked alongside the street. "Here, let me help," she said as she bent down and helped pick up the small items. Once she placed the parts back in the box, she stood up and handed it to the mech. "Here you go."
"Thanks!" he happily said before walking away.
"You're welcome." The miner went to grab her painting... only to find it and the cart gone. "What the-" She frantically looked around before seeing a truck toting the cart away with her painting still on top.
"Hey, wait!" she called out as she chased after the truck.
Times like this she hated not having a cog. She watched as the truck got further away before making a turn onto another street. Hoping to cut it off, she ran between the buildings, having to leap over and duck under everything in her way like an obstacle course. She then gasped as she skidded to a stop, seeing she had reached the edge of a huge drop off.
She fearfully looked down at the sheer drop and backed away. Looking to the right, she saw the truck approaching down below on a transforming road with her painting still in the cart. She studied the distance. Maybe if she timed it right, she could jump down and land in the cart with no problem. Nervously gulping, she stood at the edge and looked down. She started growing dizzy at the sight of the long drop as her legs shook underneath her.
Losing her nerve, she immediately stepped back and sadly watched as the truck drove off with her painting.
"Scrap," she mumbled as she watched her painting disappear further into the city. Unable to do anything about it, she gloomily turned around and headed back to the street.
(Time skip)
After what felt like a lifetime, the femme finally made it to the station. She saw the train for the mines waiting to be boarded, showing she made it before her mining group. Thinking she might as well board and wait, she made her way towards the train... only for a tall red and blue mech to literally run right into her.
"OOMPH!" she grunted as he bumped into her and knocked her to the ground. Groaning, she looked up at the cog-less bot and immediately recognized him. "Orion?"
"Sorry Neon!" he frantically apologized as he quickly helped her back up. But before he could continue running, two large guard bots swooped down and landed in front of them. And they looked angry.
It didn't take long for the femme to figure out her friend did something he shouldn't have. "Orion, what did you do?!" she asked incredulously.
The mech nervously chuckled as the guards approached him. "Hey, fellas! Thanks for the head start. You wanna give me another one?"
"You're dead!" one of the guards growled.
"I'll take that as a no," he said grimly.
Not wanting Orion to get hurt, Neon nervously spoke up as she tried to defuse the situation. "O-okay, I d-don't know what is happening, but m-maybe we can talk this out and-"
"Shut it, runt, or you'll be joining him!" the other guard snapped at her.
Neon fearfully stepped back as Orion protectively stood in front of her. "Heyhey, leave her out of this. I'm the one you want."
The other guard punched his fist into his servo. "Fine by us. I'm gonna enjoy this."
But before the larger bots could hurt Orion, something bumped into them from behind. Immediately they turned around to see a silver cog-less mech with a now tipped over cart.
"Hey, watch where you're going- Ooh," he started before seeing who he was talking to.
"What did you say, no cog?!" One of the guards snapped at him.
Orion told Neon to shush before taking her by the arm and quietly pulling her away with him.
"Sorry, Sir," the silver mech said as he lifted the cart upright, "I wasn't talking to you, I was referring to the bots that were behind you."
Confused, the guards turned around to see the red and blue mech and femme no longer standing there. "What the-"
Once their backs were turned, Orion and Neon snuck around them towards the silver mech. Immediately the red and blue bot scooped up the femme and plopped her into the cart before leaping in himself.
"Where'd he go?!" one guard asked.
"The filthy red and blue bot?" the silver miner asked as he put the tools back into the cart, "has a big mouth, squeaky joints, gives off a corroded metallic stench?"
"Where is he?!" the asked as they turned around to look at him.
"He went that way," the miner said as he pointed to his right.
The guards rushed off to find him. "When I get my hands on him..." one went off as they left.
Cramped together inside the cart with tools on top of them, Neon looked at Orion with a frown. "How did I get tangled into this?" she whispered.
"If I had left you standing there, they would have interrogated you," he whispered back before smiling, "thanks for standing up for me."
She vented. "Don't thank me, I chickened out. I mean, that guy was huge!"
Orion chuckled.
"And don't laugh, you're still in trouble," she scolded him.
"Keep it down, you two," the silver mech whispered to them, "wait until we're on the train."
The silver mech innocently pushed the cart across the platform and into the train with the other miners. Once inside, he leaned against the cart as the train took off and made its way to its destination.
"Alright, all clear," the silver mech said.
Soon Orion and Neon popped out from the cart, having to catch a large tool before it could fall to the floor.
"Okay, D-16, I may be a little dusty but corroded? That's too far," Orion argued.
"Let me guess," D-16 said, "kicked out of the archives?"
"You went back to the Archives?" Neon asked as D-16 helped her out of the cart.
"Yeah, I had to jump out of a window this time, almost died, heh, it was wild!" Orion chuckled as he tried to climb out.
"And going through ancient data is worth dying for?" D-16 asked.
"Yes, it is," Orion responded before falling onto the floor, tipping the cart over in the process.
D-16 rolled his optics. "Ugh, I need a new best friend," he groaned as he and Neon knelt down to pick up the fallen tools.
"And you wonder why we always worry about you," Neon told Orion.
Orion helped pick up the tools as he explained his actions. "If there are clues in our recorded history that can help locate the Matrix of Leadership, they're in the Archives. Trust m-"
"Sentinel Prime, the Sentinel Prime, is up on the surface right now, risking his life for us in search of the Matrix," D-16 told him as they flipped the cart back up.
"That's exactly what I'm doing," Orion said before placing a tool in the cart, "but I'm trying to help him."
D-16 chuckled. "Yeah, okay."
"The sooner energon flows again, the sooner we won't have to mine for it. Don't you both want to choose your own paths, do whatever you want?"
"We're miners," the silver mech reminded him, "we mine, that's all."
"Oh, come on," Orion said, "I can see us doing big things." He looked at the femme. "Nee, you could open your own art gallery to show off your paintings."
Neon gave him a soft smile. "It's a nice thought, Orion, but my paintings aren't the greatest," she said as she set another tool back in the cart, "Besides, it's more of a hobby."
"Okay first, how dare you say your paintings aren't great, they are amazing," he told her, "Second, who says you can't turn a hobby into a profession? You would be surrounded by all kinds of art! Doesn't that sound cool?"
She lightly chuckled. "I guess it would be nice to work with art all day. But Ds right, we're still miners. Mining is all we can do."
Orion leaned back against the cart. "No, there's gotta be more I can do. I can feel it."
"Oh yeah?" D-16 asked with a smirk, "like that time you had a feeling you could transform without a cog?"
"Ugh, don't remind me," Neon said as she pinched her brow.
"You said you would never mention that again!" Orion told D-16 in a low voice.
"Took us three days to pry you open," the silver mech continued. "Your feelings get you in trouble."
"Yeah, yeah," Orion muttered as he picked up the last couple parts.
"We care about you, Orion," Neon told him, "We don't want you to get hurt."
"Just trust in Sentinel Prime," D-16 added.
"I do trust in him." Orion said. Placing the last bit into the cart, he looked at the two. "Hey, if we did have cogs-"
"I'd transform into a shovel and beat you," D-16 immediately responded.
Neon sternly looked at him. "D-16!"
"Kidding!" he said with a smirk, "Kind of."
"I didn't like how fast you answered that," Orion said, "but listen, if you did beat me, then I couldn't give you this awesome Megatronus Prime thing I have here, and it's cool, I can give it to someone else-"
"What Megatronus Prime thing?" D-16 asked, now very intrigued.
"Aah it's nothing," Orion continued, "just a, you know, mint condition Megatronus Prime decal first addition." He held up a shiny holographic purple sticker of the Prime's face in front of D-16. He couldn't help but smirk at the shocked expression on his best friend's face.
D-16 gasped at the sight of the decal. "What?"
"I mean, if you don't want it, I could just throw it away," Orion joked.
"Throw it awa- Don- that's not funny! Let me see!" D-16 went off as he reached over to grab it.
Orion immediately pulled it away from him. "Wa-a-ait, don't grab, you're going to crease it," he then gently placed it on D-16's shoulder nice and flat, sticking it in place.
D-16 smiled at the shiny decal on his shoulder. "You know, Sentinel says Megatronus was the-"
"Was the strongest Prime to ever live," Orion finished for him, "I know, buddy... Looks good on you."
D-16 couldn't help but admire his gift. "Aww it's... really cool!" He excitedly showed it to Neon. "Check out how cool this is!"
Neon chuckled at his excitement. "It looks great on you, D."
D-16 looked at Orion and gave him a happy smile. "Thanks."
"Always got your back," Orion told him as he held up his fist.
"No matter what," D-16 finished as they fist bumped.
Neon smiled at the two. She always admired their brotherly bond. If she were to be honest, she always felt she was the third wheel. Still, it didn't stop them from treating her like she was their sister.
Feeling something irritating her optics, she took off her visor and rubbed them. She blinked a couple times before glancing over at a femme beside her. The femme immediately noticed her odd colored optics and gave her a weird look. Feeling embarrassed, she put her visor back on and stepped away.
"Hey, Neon," Orion said, gaining her attention, "did you get that painting of Solus Prime finished?"
Remembering her painting, she sadly vented. "I did... only to set it down for a moment and have a truck drive off with it."
Both mechs were puzzled by this. "Wait, what?" D-16 asked.
"I set it down on a cart to help someone," she explained, "but once I was done, I saw a truck driving off with the cart with my painting still on it. I thought maybe I could cut off whoever it was through an alley but there was a huge drop off at the end. It was right there making its way below where I was. I could have jumped down onto the cart to grab the painting, but..."
"Your fear of heights kicked in?" Orion finished for her.
She vented. "I guess I'm not as fearless as you, Mister 'I jumped out a window."
D-16 folded his arms as he gave Orion a look. "Well, at least one of you thinks before leaping."
"Yeah, yeah," Orion chuckled as he rolled his optics. "But hey, cheer up. You can always paint another one. Just maybe don't set that one down on another cart."
The femme couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, at least I still have some paint left over. I'll work on a new one once our shift is done."
"Or I was thinking the three of us could check out that new oil house downtown," Orion said with a grin, "I hear it has great drinks, live entertainment, and the best part, its miner friendly. It could be fun."
The introverted side of Neon kicked in as she looked unsure. "I don't know. I'm not too keen about being in crowded places."
"Come on, Nee," Orion said, "you spend so much time either at home or at the park by yourself. You need to get out there and mingle." He teasingly nudged her. "Who knows, maybe you might find someone you'll like."
Her face immediately turned blue. "I'm not interested in dating, Orion! Besides, the last time a mech tried flirting with me, you both scared him away."
D-16 proudly smirked as he punched his fist into his servo. "Heh, yeah that was fun. But we only did that because we knew you didn't like him... Plus, he came off kinda creepy."
Neon chuckled. "You know, when I got assigned to mining, I didn't expect it to come with two overprotective sparkling sitters."
"Hey, it's not our fault you're too shy," Orion protested with a smirk, "besides, we like you that much." He playfully rubbed her head, making her chuckle as she swatted his servo away.
"Orion does have a point, Neon," D-16 said, "It wouldn't hurt for you to get out of your shell from time to time."
"And who knows, you might have fun," Orion added.
Neon was silent for a moment before letting out a vent. "I'll think about it, okay?"
"I didn't hear a no," Orion happily said as he patted her on the back.
Neon gave a weak smile, already dreading it.
(Meanwhile)
Elsewhere, in a deserted area was a whole lot of nothing. Just smoke that filled the air and rust that nearly covered the whole ground. The sky was red and eerie, giving the scenery an ominous feel to it. All was quiet before the sound of footsteps disturbed the silence. Soon, a winged figure emerged from the smoke with a glowing blue weapon in hand.
Her glowing energon sword up and ready, the magenta and yellow femme scanned the area. Her blue optics fiercely glowed while her wings twitched with anticipation. She knew she wasn't alone.
Hearing movement behind her, a smirk formed on her face. Immediately she turned around and deflected the shots fired at her by a quintesson soldier. Tucking and rolling over, she lunged forward and swung her sword at his torso, killing him instantly. Soon two more quintessons emerged from the smoke, ready to take the young femme on as they readied their weapons.
The femme grinned as she twirled her sword. "Bring it on, uglies!" Sword at the ready, she charged.
The enemy fired as the flier dodged and deflected their attacks. She slid across the ground past them before leaping up and striking one of them from behind. Spinning around, she managed to block the other quintesson's attack but had to back pedal as he fought more viciously. Flipping backwards, she activated her thrusters and flew at him, using her sword to finish him off.
Five more quintessons then emerged as they fired at the femme. "Aah!" she shrieked as she quickly moved out of the way. She flew into the air to dodge their attack, having to constantly spin around to stay out of the line of fire. Needing to fight back, she deactivated the blade and pressed a button on the hilt. The hilt changed shape as she aimed it at the enemy. What used to be a sword had now transformed into a blaster. She fired back at the enemy as she swooped at them, taking down each one she hit. Soon there were only two quintessons left. Swooping down again, she fired her weapon at one of them before landing on the ground. She smirked as the last one charged at her. Using her thrusters, she flipped herself in the air over his head before landing on her pedes. Reverting her weapon back into a sword, she spun around and drove the blade into his torso. The quintesson fell once she pulled the sword out from him, leaving her the last one standing.
"WOO!" She cheered as she raised her sword in the air. She boastfully laughed as she spun her weapon around. "You quintessons messed with the wrong f-" Just then a large spike impaled her from behind, making her gasp in surprise. A quintesson had managed to sneak up from behind and attack her while she was busy gloating. It was all over.
"You have been killed in battle," a female computerized voice spoke, "training sequence is now over."
The femme groaned in frustration as the holograms fizzled out along with the landscape, revealing she was actually in a simulation room. She grumbled as she stepped out into a clean, golden room with different weapons set up along one side and a computer system on the other.
"I was so close!" the femme whined as she deactivated the sword and walked off the platform.
Having watched the femme train on the large computer screen, a slender old mech with silver armor approached and took the hilt from her. "Perhaps less gloating and more focusing on your surroundings," he suggested as he placed the hilt back on the mantle with the other weapons. "But do cheer up, Miss Aurora, you'll get it the next time."
"I've been stuck on the same level for days now, Cogman," she said as they made their way towards the door, "Sentinels not going to let me join the search if I can't pass a simple training exercise."
"Don't rush yourself, young lady," Cogman told her sternly, "Besides, right now we have other matters that need attention. Now that your combat training is done for today, you must refuel before we can go over your speech for the grand opening this afternoon. Afterwards, you have to fill in for Sentinel at the city council meeting."
The femme groaned at the last one. "Do I really have to sit for an entire meeting? They're so boring!"
"If you are to be the next Prime, you will be the one hosting many meetings, so I suggest you get used to it. And no, you cannot talk yourself out of it. Sentinel would not approve if you did."
Aurora groaned again. "Fine. But there better be snacks this time."
"That's the spirit," the mech said as they walked past the golden carving carved in the wall the huge hallway.
Glancing at the carvings, Aurora stopped and looked at the two bots carved side by side one another. One was of a masked mech, another of a femme holding a giant hammer. She sadly looked at them and vented.
Realizing the femme wasn't following behind, Cogman turned around to look at her. "Miss Aurora?" He walked over and turned his attention to the carvings. He smiled at them. "Solus Prime and Megatronus Prime. Your carrier was one of the kindest, most intelligent bots I have ever met. Your sire, the fiercest warrior to ever storm the battlefield. Together, they were a force to be reckoned with."
Aurora vented. "I wish I knew them like you did. Any memories I have of them, or Iris, are just blurs."
Cogman looked at her sympathetically. "You were so very young when you lost your parents and twin," he smiled at her, "They loved you very much. If they were here today, they would say how proud they are of the femme you have grown up to be."
The femme looked at him and softly smiled before sadly looking down. "I wish they were here. I have so much I want to ask them."
"They may not be physically here with us, but I have no doubt they are watching over you. And they will always be a part of you..." he pointed at her spark, "in here."
Feeling better, Aurora smiled at him. "Thanks, Cogman. That's sweet. A little corny... but sweet."
He let out a humph at her as he folded his arms. "Corny she says," he muttered.
Aurora chuckled before looking back at her parents with a proud smile. "I want to be a great warrior just like them. I want to make them proud."
Cogman smiled before remembering something. "Oh, I almost forgot," he then pulled out a small box and handed it to her, "this was delivered earlier today for you."
Seeing the return address on the package, the femme's optics lit up with excitement. "Is that what I think it is?" Taking the box, she opened it before pulling out a small device. A huge grin immediately spread across her face. "Yes!" she happily shouted as she hopped up and down. "Yesyesyes, it's finally here!"
Cogman was skeptic by the device she was holding. "I'm afraid to ask but, what is your intention with that cloaking device?"
"You'll seeee!" she happily sang before hiding it in her compartment.
Cogman shook his head, already knowing she was up to something. However, there were more important matters at hand as the two continued on with Cogman going through the rest of Aurora's schedule.
And that was chapter one! I hope you all like Neon and Aurora so far! And yes, I wrote Cogman in this, and yes, he's different from his TLK counterpart. He's also bigger and has a flight mode in this story for those of you wondering. Just thought it would be fun to add this version of him in here.
Anyway, thank you all for reading and hopefully I will post the second chapter soon. Until next time! God bless!