Ch. 1

I mentioned this in a pervious story of mine, but if it seems odd to cross "Transformers" with any of Roald Dahl's work, he started it. "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" has Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket , and the other members of Charlie's family fighting off aliens for the first half of the book and the White House having to deal with the fact that said aliens exist. Quite frankly, I consider this crossover to be the next logical step and I plan to have fun with it. I hope you all do too.

I will say that this story will feature an OC of mine and I would advise you to read her origin story 'A Spark of Sand' first. I will explain how she came to be with the Autobots later in this story, but feel free to check out the full story for yourselves first.

By the way, the first names of the three astronauts Shuckworth, Showler, and Shanks can be found in the book "The Gloriumptious World of Roald Dahl."
~

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Although to be fair, the Space Hotel wasn't really a failure, so to speak. The amazing building had been launched successfully and even now was continuing to orbit Earth just as NASA had predicted. It was what came after that was the problem. Again, though, to be fair, no one had predicted an entire colony of Vermicious Knids would have decided to settle into the first hotel in space.

Of course, no one had even known about the existence of Vermicious Knids before that incident, so no one could be blamed for that either.

"You think Wonka was right? That all those Knids are gone?" Chad Showler turned in his seat to face his two fellow astronauts.

"If they weren't, they are now." Lenny Shanks ran a hand through his short blonde hair and grinned. "President Gilligrass gave the go-ahead to deep freeze the hotel for twenty-four hours after the celebration at the White House. Any Knids left sure aren't gonna be gobbling us up. All we have to do now is make sure the area around the hotel is clear. But according to Mr. Wonka, any remaining Knids won't be back in a hurry."

"Good thing we had Mr. Wonka to advise us." Bud Shuckworth, the highest ranking astronaut of the trio, smoothed down his own dark hair and smiled. "Now we can finish our mission in peace. Hopefully, we won't run into any more trouble. Don't know about the rest of you, but I've had my fill of aliens for a while."

"Amazing that we finally confirmed there's life on other planets though." Chad looked out the window at the stars whizzing by. "Makes you wonder what else could be out there."

"Yeah, like what else could try and eat us?"

"Nah, Len, they can't all be bad. Wonka said the moon used to full of nice little creatures who never hurt a soul."

"Uh-huh and what happened to them? Oh that's right, the Knids got them too."

"Lenny's got a point, Chad," Bud chimed in. "Who knows how far the Knids have spread. According to Wonka, those slimy beats could travel thousands of miles with no more effort than it would take you to walk to the corner store. If there were any benevolent life forms out there- and that's still a big if- the Knids probably made short work of 'em."

"Still, be nice if we could meet someone from another planet that wasn't trying to turn us into their next meal."

"Speaking of meals, anyone getting hungry?"

"Hold your horses, Len, lunch isn't for another hour." Bud adjusted the rocket's controls. "Don't worry; our supply hold is fully stocked."

"Plus the crate of Wonka bars. Really nice of Mr. Wonka and his boy to donate them."

"Uh, Charlie Bucket's not Wonka's kid, Chad."

"Eh, close enough. Wonka sure talks like he's the kid's father."

"We met the kid's parents at the celebration banquet, remember?"

"Well, Charlie is the heir to the Wonka factory now, even if the kid's parents are still alive." Bud shook his head and smiled. "Boy, between that and the new Mayor's kid in New York, those are two boys who are gonna grow up with a lot of people lookin' out for 'em. Good for them, I say. But we've gotta look out for the people of Earth now and that means keepin' an eye out for anything like those Knids."

"Huh, doubt there could be anything worse than them."

A high-pitched beeping suddenly echoed through the front capsule of the rocket. All three men looked up to see a massive asteroid hurtling toward them. Quick as a flash, Bud yanked on the controls and the rocket veered to the right, but the asteroid still grazed the metal ship as it zoomed by.

"Whew, close one."

"Yeah, but it's not the only one." Bud's face was grim as he pointed ahead of him. Stretching far out ahead of the ship was an entire field of asteroids, some large, some small, but all of them headed right for the rocket. Bud gripped the steering controls as he glanced at his companions. "Alright, men, we know what to do."

"Yes, sir!" Lenny hunched over a high-powered scope and maneuvered the lever that would send a small, but powerful missile at a potential threat while Chad focused his gaze down at a small black screen that was slowly filling with tiny green dots.

"Okay, we're not going to be able to avoid them entirely, but we can at least mitigate the damage. Chad, watch the radar and find us the clearest path through the asteroids. Lenny, be ready to blast the bigger ones if they get too close."

"You got it."

"Alright, Bud, head left. Not too many there yet!"

Bud followed Chad's direction and turned the rocket sharply to the left. The ship narrowly avoided being barraged by a small cluster of rock and metal, but a much larger asteroid suddenly broke off from the pack and sped toward them.

"Lenny!"

"Already see it!" Lenny peered through his scope and squeezed the trigger attached to it. A powerful missile slammed into the asteroid, blasting it into shrapnel that battered the rocket like hail. Bud kept them on course; the rocket could withstand this kind of impact. What it could not handle, however, was the asteroid the size of a boulder that was bearing down on them.

"Take us right around that next cluster, then head for the middle of this storm." Chad's eyes darted over the radar. "There's a clear patch there, but I dunno how long it'll last."

"Hopefully long enough for us to see the way out," Bud said through gritted teeth. He yanked hard on the controls, narrowly missing the cluster of rock and slowing the rocket's speed a bit in order to give Chad time to plot out their next move.

"Watch your left, Bud." Lenny was watching a decent-sized asteroid pass by them. "They seem to be worse over here."

"Yeah and they're getting worse toward the right too." Chad bit his lip, his brown eyes wide in his tanned face. "Can we get above them, Bud? We might have more luck that way."

"It's worth a shot." Bud angled the nose of the rocket upward and fired the rear rockets. The spaceship jumped forward as if it had been stung and arced over another cluster of rocks. "Alright, looks somewhat clearer. How much farther does this asteroid storm go on for, Chad?"

BANG!

All three men rocked in their chairs as something hit the left tailfin of the ship. Lenny was still holding onto the trigger of his launcher, his face grim as he watched more debris scatter.

"Sorry about that; had to shoot the bigger one and like you said, Bud, our ship can handle a few dents."

"Yeah, but not that many. I don't wanna risk our reentry rockets being smashed again."

"At least no one's trying to intentionally smash them this time." Lenny's eyes widened. "Uh-oh, another one."

The huge mass of icy rock was still a decent way out from the rocket, but Lenny wasn't taking any chances. His shot broke the asteroid in half, tiny pieces of gravel spilling out into the endless void of space as the two halves drifted by.

"There! Head forward and then toward the right. I think it's starting to clear," Chad directed.

"Yeh, but we're gonna be way off course by the time we get outta this," Lenny said grimly.

"We can worry about that later." Bud steered the rocket past another tight cluster of rocks. "Right now, we gotta get outta here alive. We just need to focus."

Unfortunately, as is often the case, Fate decided to throw yet another wrench into the astronauts' plans. The radio began beeping frantically, a burst of static barely audible over the clanging of the stony perils against the sides of the ship. The radio buzzed as another asteroid grazed the side of the rocket just inches away from where the three men sat.

"Shuckworth! Come in zzzzzzz come in! This zzzzz NASA. Do you zzzzz Shuckworth?"

"Can't answer, NASA! We're caught in an asteroid storm!" Bud took his hand off the controls to answer, but immediately had to grab them again and swerve to the right. A good-sized asteroid had decided to break off from its path and streak straight toward them. Dodging it, however, put the rocket in the path of two other rocks that seemed to intentionally curve toward the ship with the intent on smashing into the capsule's front window.

"You're zzzzzzz away. We can't zzzzz Shuckworth! Shanks! Zzzzzzz ler!"

"We're trying!" Bud yelled. "Chad, where do we go?"

"I... there's too many of them! Another wave is coming!" Chad looked up at his companions with frightened eyes. "Head even farther right, Bud. There's a lot of them, but they're small. There are too many big ones coming up on the left!" Sure enough, several massive clusters of rock were already gathering off to the left of the spaceship. They were still some distance away, but even with Shuckworth slowing down the ship's speed, the massive chunks of stone were getting closer every second.

"Chad's right, Bud; shooting those things won't make much of a difference."

"I see that." Bud groaned and tapped the radio one more time. "We're about to take a beating, NASA. Hope we come through it okay!"

A loud burst of static was the only reply the three astronauts received, but none of them were overly concerned with that at the moment. Bud, Lenny, and Chad steeled themselves as Bud aimed the rocket into the path of the smaller clusters of asteroids. In an instant, the sound of scraping metal and heavy banging filled the capsule and the rocket began to shake as it was pelted from all angles.

"Chad, can you see an end to this? Our ship's strong, but if the walls are breached, we're finished!"

"I'm not sure! I- oh no!"

"What?"

"Our radar's dead! One of those asteroids must have knocked it out!"

"WHAT?" Bud clutched the controls as the spaceship shuddered around him. "LENNY, CAN YOU-"

"NO GOOD!" Lenny turned a terrified face toward his commander. "If I try to shoot anything at this range, we'll be caught in the blast radius. And the debris will be just as bad."

"We have to think of something!" Chad cried, peering through the window. "I think I see-"

CRASH!

Bud, Lenny, and Chad were knocked back into their seats as their rocket was knocked clear out of the asteroid storm by a particularly large rock. The rocket spun like a top through the star-studded sky before giving a great shudder and starting to fall at a massive speed toward a dusky red planet.

Is that... Mars?

Bud didn't have any more time to think as he and the others were pushed almost horizontal by the force of the planet's atmosphere pulling the rocket to its surface like a child yanking on the leash of a disobedient dog. The sky turned from black to grey to dusky blue in seconds as the red dust of the planet's surface raced up to meet the three men.

We're going to crash!

A loud bang and a flash of light filled Bud Shuckworth's head. Dazed, he felt himself being thrown out of his restraints and pain flooding his head as he slammed into a wall. Something in his shoulder gave way, flooding his body with a white hot agony and driving the breath from his lungs. The spaceship skidded along the surface of the planet before coming to a halt, alarms beeping shrilly before suddenly cutting out. Then there was silence.

Lenny... Chad...

Bud's vision swam as he tried to lift his head from the floor. Something warm and sticky was running down his cheek and his shoulder burned as though it was on fire. He thought he saw Chad slumped over the controls, but before he could be certain, blackness swallowed both him and his pain up. How long he remained like that, Bud couldn't say. But at some point, the blackness faded into gray as light spilled into the ship. Bud tried to focus as large shadows fell over him, glowing blue lights hovering above his face.

What... what are...?

Bud tried to say something, to ask for help for both him and his friends, but the words were trapped in his throat. He thought he heard voices talking to him, but they sounded far away despite the glowing blue lights getting closer. Then the vision faded and Bud Shuckworth fell into darkness once more.