CHAPTER ONE
Metroplex, in orbit of Earth
“Easy, soldier. Coming out of a CR chamber isn’t exactly a walk in the park.”
Bumblebee stumbled as he stumbled out of said chamber, with Ratchet supporting him by the arms. “I can’t feel my face,” the yellow Autobot muttered.
“That’s because it’s still healing,” Ratchet replied. “You’ll have to wear a mask over it until it’s been fully repaired.”
“Is it a cool mask?” Bumblebee asked.
“Well, Swerve said he was jealous when he saw me working on it.”
“Wait, Swerve is here?” Bumblebee straightened up, looking at the medic. “I thought he was still on the Lost Light.”
Ratchet sighed. “You’ve been out of it for a while, ‘Bee. A good week or so has passed by since you were taken out of commission.”
“Wow. Sure doesn’t feel like it’s been that long. So, what did I miss?”
Ratchet guided him towards a repair slab. “You might want to sit down for this.”
Bumblebee picked up on the solemness in the doctor’s voice. “Is it that bad?”
“Yes, and no. But mostly yes.”
Bumblebee sighed as he sat down, bracing himself both physically and mentally. “All right. Hit me.”
“Megatron has returned,” Ratchet began. Not even waiting for Bumblebee to react, he went on in an almost rapid-fire succession. “The Decepticons have organized here on Earth. Optimus has come out of retirement to help us out. Rodimus Prime has been rescued by the Crusadercons, but they’ve lost their ship. There’s this Grand Architect whose been responsible for most of our grievances this past month and he and the Destructons have somehow brought back Unicron in some way, shape, or form. Fortress Maximus is missing. Maccadam is one of the Thirteen but he’s dead now, along with Vector Prime.”
Ratchet paused, looking contemplative for a moment. Bumblebee stared at him in silence, his new mask unable to hide the shock in his face.
“I’m pretty sure that’s everything,” the medic said. “I’ll have to double-check, but that’s the important stuff at the very least.”
“Doc, you can’t just spring all of that on someone who’s just been taken out of intensive care!” Bumblebee exclaimed.
“I figured this was better then having to let you piece things together over time; time which we may or may not have.”
Bumblebee lowered his face into his hands, struggling to process this dump of information. “So, where are we now? Are we still on Earth?”
“Somewhat,” Ratchet replied. “Optimus and some others are down at the site of the Ark to set up operations. He thinks it would be too dangerous for Metroplex to set down, since Trypticon might detect him.”
“Oh, Trypticon is here, too?”
“Yeah. That was another thing I forgot to mention.”
Bumblebee sighed again. “Great. And what are we doing now?”
“For now, we’re on standby while the Primes — Optimus and Rodimus — figure out our next course of action,” said Ratchet. “In any case, you’ll still need to recover for another couple of mega-cycles before you can even think of getting back into the heat of things.”
“Right,” Bumblebee muttered. “To be honest, I kind of wish you had just left me in there….”
The Ark II, Earth
The sound of clanging metal and obscene curses told Sari Sumdac that she was getting close to Wheeljack. The Autobot engineer had been hard at work for the past few days in trying to set up a GroundBridge for the Autobots to use in traveling across the globe. Even with the help of recent reinforcements, progress was slow due to scarce materials as well as the less-than-pristine condition of the Ark.
“Careful with those beams, Grapple! Those don’t grow on trees!”
“I know what I’m doing, Wheeljack.”
“Yeah, but have you ever built and rebuilt a dozen GroundBridges in your lifetime? I don’t think so!”
Hovering a few feet above the floor on her foot thrusters, Sari dared to poke her head into the room where the Autobots were working. A good number of Wheeljack’s helpers — as well as others stationed throughout the ship — had apparently come back from a quest that had ended less than spectacularly for them. Going by their faces, she got the impression that working for Wheeljack was not much of an improvement.
After chastising some bot named Huffer for complaining about something, Wheeljack turned in Sari’s direction and noticed her. His face lit up and he briskly walked over to her, nearly knocking into a green and orange tow-truck bot.
“Sari! I’ve been looking for you!” The Autobot engineer knelt down to be closer to eye-level with the techno-organic. “You haven’t been hiding from me, have you?”
Sari rubbed her arm, choosing her words carefully. “No,” she said quietly. “I’ve just been… resting. I’ve been through a lot lately and just needed some time to process it all.”
Wheeljack nodded. “So I’ve heard. I’ve been meaning to compare notes with this Kicker friend of yours and see if we could piece everything together. Of course, he told me he wanted to wait until you were ready to go over everything.”
“Right. Well, that’s why I’ve sought you out… because I think I am ready.”
“Really?” Sounding excited by this, Wheeljack stood up and turned to the others. “All right, everyone! Break time! I’ve got to attend to something!”
“Thank Primus!” said Huffer, wasting no time in setting down his tools and walking away from the project.
Grapple, on the other hand, looked confused. “Are you sure you don’t want me to take over? I’m sure we can handle things from here.”
Wheeljack shook his head. “I don’t trust you to not screw things up.”
“Are you kidding me? I’ve been building things all my life! For nearly four thousand years!”
“Yeah, but have any of those things been GroundBridges?”
Not waiting for Grapple to respond, Wheeljack turned back to Sari and beckoned her to follow him. “Come on. I’ve already transferred all of my notes from my lab on Metroplex to my old one here.”
Sari followed him through the corridors of the crashed Autobot ship and eventually reached said lab. Indeed, it was in a much poorer condition than the one he had situated for himself aboard Metroplex. That did not seem to deter Wheeljack as he immediately approached the main computer and switched it on. Minutes later, Kicker Jones showed up in the doorway.
“I take it we’re getting started?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Wheeljack. “Get your techno-organic butt up here.”
Armoring up into his “robot” form, Kicker used his own foot thrusters to propel himself upward to stand atop Wheeljack’s console. Sari followed suit and the pair watched as the engineer brought up his notes.
“So,” Wheeljack started, “I am correct in guessing that Sari was created by Machination around Cycle 9797 — or 1997, for you humans — as the first successful techno-organic, yes?”
“Correct,” Kicker replied. “I was created a few months earlier and deemed a failure. If it weren’t for the man who raised me — Dr. Brian Jones — I would have been disposed of.”
“Interesting,” Wheeljack murmured. “Are you still in contact with Dr. Jones?”
Kicker shook his head. “He forced me to break contact with him a few years ago when word of Machination’s activities got out. He didn’t want them finding out about me and putting the rest of my— his family in danger.”
“Do you know where we could find him?” Sari asked.
Kicker shrugged. “He could be anywhere in the world. His work forces him to move every few months, from state to state or even country to country. It would be impossible to locate him.”
“Never say ‘impossible’ when you have the galaxy’s smartest computers at your disposal,” said Wheeljack. “With Teletraan-X, we’ll be able to find him in no time.”
“And what will he be able to tell us?” Sari asked.
“Anything he knows about Scorponok and his schemes. Seriously, it seems like every time we think we’re done with that spawn of a glitch, something else of his comes up again.” Wheeljack glanced apologetically at her and Kicker. “Er, no offense.”
Sari did not take any and she returned her attention to the screen. “What about my father?” she asked. “Can Teletraan-X find him?”
“We can give it a shot,” Wheeljack replied. “I should add that it might not be 100% accurate or infallible; some of the tech on this ship hasn’t been used in a hundred years and may have been damaged in the crash.”
Sari cleared her throat. “Do you… do you think you could do it now?”
Wheeljack glanced at her. “I know he still needs rescuing, but we’re not exactly in any position to prioritize his rescue at the moment.”
“I know, but… can you just find out where he is? Just so that I know he’s still alive.”
Wheeljack regarded her for a moment before slowly nodding. “I’ll see what I can do. It might take a while, though.”
Sari sighed. “Right. I understand.”
Kicker glanced between her and Wheeljack, looking as if he was deciding what to say. After a moment, he finally spoke though his voice was low and quiet. “I can lead you to where Project: Cadmus was held.”
Both Sari and Wheeljack looked at him. “You can?” the former asked.
Kicker nodded. “I’m not sure what good it will do — it may be long abandoned — but I have a hunch that there might be something there.” He paused. “It might also be where they’ve taken your father.”
“What makes you say that?” asked Wheeljack.
“I don’t know; it’s just a hunch. But seeing as how his father Newton was head of Project: Cadmus, I can’t help but feel there may be a connection.”
“Well, that’s great and all, but my original point still stands; we can’t exactly prioritize rescuing one human while the Decepticons are doing Primus-knows-what on this planet.”
“So you can’t spare even one Autobot?” Kicker asked. “I thought you guys got in a whole bunch of reinforcements.”
“Yeah, but Prime’s have already got most of them on their own assignments. I suppose you could try and plead your case to him, but I wouldn’t keep my hopes up.”
“Fine. Then suppose just Sari and I go.”
Wheeljack narrowed his eyes at them. “You don’t need me to tell you how incredibly dangerous that would be. Especially since Scorponok’s probably still looking for Sari.”
“All the more reason to have an Autobot with us for protection.”
Wheeljack ran a hand down his faceplate. “You’re really gonna pull this one on me, aren’t ya’? The whole ‘help-me-out-or-I’m-gonna-risk-my-life’ thing.”
Kicker simply shrugged as he folded his arms.
After a few minutes of staring at the two techno-organics like a disappointed parent, Wheeljack sighed and looked away in defeat. “Let me call up Prime and talk with him. Like I said though, don’t get your hopes up.”
Kicker nodded. “Fair enough. And thank you.”
While the Autobot engineer made his call, Kicker turned to Sari and was surprised to find her looking almost forlorn. “Hey, are you all right?” he asked. “This is progress, isn’t it? We’re going to find your dad. Hopefully, of course.”
“Yeah,” Sari murmured, unsure herself as to why she was not feeling any sense of elation. “Hopefully.”
Earth, elsewhere
Located deep within the wilderness of southwestern Vermont, the so-called “Bennington Triangle” was infamous for being the site of several disappearances and strange happenings over sixty years ago. Stories circulated of a several-feet tall monster that roamed the forest and was responsible for said disappearances and happenings. While such events had not happened in the decades since, the area was still widely regarded with fear and trepidation and only a handful of brave souls had dared to trek through the territory.
For all the myths surrounding it, Scorponok saw the “Bennington Triangle” as little more than what it actually was to him: yet another one of his secret locations. In fact, the Triangle was the site of one of the first base of operations that he had set up upon arriving on Earth, though he had scarcely revisited it in the last sixty years. He only returned to it now due to most of his other locations — namely Machination bases — had either been destroyed or compromised by his enemies.
Stalking through the forest, cloaked by the thick foliage, Scorponok approached the hidden cave located at the base of Glastenbury Mountain. Two metal doors — disguised as “rocks” that had fallen and blocked the opening — slowly slid apart after receiving Scorponok’s signal and promptly closed behind him once he was through. The large Decepticon then made his descent into the underground cavern that served as his base, using his claws to cut through the cobwebs and overgrowth that had formed in the past six decades.
The only thing that drew him to this specific location — as opposed to the other hidden bases that he could have gone to — was a particular subject of his that he knew he would need at his disposal if he had any hope of combating Megatron and the Grand Architect. He was grateful that he had held off until now from playing this wild card of his, rather than doing so at any of the points when the Autobots were meddling with his schemes. Sometimes, he impressed even himself with his forward thinking.
Upon reaching the center of the base, Scorponok immediately made his way to the main computer and turned it on, pleased to find that it was still functional after all this time. He put in a few commands into the console and an adjacent door just to the side started to open, revealing a large stasis pod within. Sleeping inside the pod was a large green and black bot with purple accents, white wings protruding from his back. To Scorponok’s relief, all of the vital signs on the pod were showing positive.
“It is time to wake up, old friend,” Scorponok said as he stepped over to the pod. “There is much that needs to be done.”
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