On Telatran One’s large screen in the main room, images of Decepticon jets flying into a steel manufacturer site plays out as the Autobots all stand around to watch it unfold.  Optimus Prime stands in front of the screen watching carefully as the computer talks to him.

“Red Alert!  Red Alert!  Decepticon activity in progress!!  Human steel processing plants are being raided in several areas of this country.”

Prime gazes at the images with a intensity, “So…. they need more metal.”

Telatran One once again speaks up, “Alert!  Decepticon activity now detected at two military nuclear missile bases in neighboring states.  Megatron and remaining Decepticon forces now confirmed at site.”

Ironhide’s voice booms out from behind Prime, “And it looks like their trying to take a few weapons with them!”

Optimus shakes his head, “No…more like they want to steal the energy. Megatron must be still behind in gathering what he needs…. at least that will buy us more time.”

Bumblebee points to the screen, “Looks like Starscream isn’t leading the jets anymore.  Thundercracker seems to be giving the orders to him and Skywarp.  Heh! Look at scowl on that face…how the mighty have fallen.”

The leader turns around to see them all standing around him and the screen.  Cliffjumper shakes his fist and steps in closer.

“That Megatron!  I’d love to melt his hide back to the carbon-bonded atoms from where he came!!  Why don’t we go and stop them Optimus?  Why are we sitting here on our butts and letting this all happen??”

Prime points to the small robot to get back in line, “At ease soldier…as you were!”

The small red robot steps back in his place and grumbles softly to himself.  Prowl now raises his hand and Optimus Prime nods at him to say his peace.

“Cliffjumper makes a valid point Prime.  Why don’t we split up and take them on?”

The leader sighs, “Because it would be too late…. by the time any of you rushed over…they’d be long gone.  We need a place to fight all of them without endangering anymore of the human’s lives.  We can’t just keep going around and shooting the place up without thinking of poor innocent that would surly be caught in the crossfire.  We can be more easily repaired then they can.”

“So what are you saying Prime?  Just let the Decepticons have what they want and leave?”, Trailbreaker now says aloud.

“No…I’m not saying we should …”, Prime says trying defend his words. “But we have to think before we act…. Megatron wants us to fight near the humans.  He knows they are human shields for his army and that we wouldn’t be able to fight back with them in the way.”

Sideswipe snarls, “Then how the heck are we supposed to fight them Optimus?  No offence to those present…but…If it means some casualties of a few humans, I’m sorry to say we’re going to have to let it happen.”

Spike, Carly, Sparkplug and the General all stand below them in shock at the answer.

“Oh that’s a nice attitude Sideswipe…why not just kill the whole species have done with it then.”, Carly snaps at him.

Sunstreaker looks down at her and tries to defend his friend’s opinion, “Come on Carly…this isn’t the time to be so naive, in order to take out this creep we need to do our job…. humans will get in the way and we might not have any control over that.”

The General sighs, “Every war has its casualties Sunstreaker…but soldiers should be the ones giving their lives, not innocent civilians.”

Huffer snickers, “Yeah right, we’ve seen the images from your war history…. you guys ain’t exactly on the button in protecting the innocent either.  So don’t tell us how to fight.”

Soon the room becomes flooded with heated arguments, everyone is trying to justify their thoughts onto each other and making the noise level increase higher and higher.  Prime can no longer stand the voices raging out of control.

“Alright quiet down people…I said that’s ENOUGH!!” Prime shouts out loud throughout the room.

Everyone stops arguing and pays attention to him again.

“This debate is over.  We need a new plan of action and we need one right now, I want all suggestions anyone can give…and I want them one at a time.  Hound…I heard you have an idea about something…tell me the idea.”

Hound nods, “Right.  Well, I was listening to Carly and Mirage’s report on how my small holo-projectors did as they rescued the hostages and it gave me a jolt in the head.  If I could create a large illusion…one so big that it makes the Decepticons notice…it might just be the perfect way to lure them back to us and spring a trap for them.”

Gears groans, “Oh that’s stupid.  Megatron won’t go for some silly hologram…come on Hound, he’s not an idiot.”

Hound steps out of the line up and walks over to Optimus Prime who still pays attention to him as he continues.

“I mean a hologram that even Megatron couldn’t resist!  Think about it Optimus…we could mask the signature to send out an false energy reading so that it could look like a massive power station!”

Prime soon catches on to what Hound is thinking, “You mean…give him the impression that it actually exists.”

Bumblebee scratches his head, “Uh…and how do we do that…exactly Hound.  I mean it’s not like we could send him an invitation or anything.”

Hound looks at Optimus, suddenly it dawns on the leader on what Hound is trying to get at, “Ravage.”

The green robot nods at the leader, “Ravage.  We let him escape back to the Deceptions with our planted info and let them come to us for a change.  Somewhere far away from the humans and just the right amount of space for us to thrash us some ‘cons!”

Ironhide smiles and rubs his hands, “Oooh that’s sneaky Hound, I love how your brain works my friend!”

Prime rubs his chin in thought, “Hmmm…I dunno.  If Megatron gets too close, he might discover our trick, plus he may not bring all the Decepticons with him.”

“I know Prime, but without Megatron…the others won’t be able to stay focused.  When he’s out of the way…it will be easy pickings.”

Spike looks up at Hound, “But what about the Constructicons?  I’ve heard you say they can combine into a massive robot…how do you intend to stop them if they do?”

The green robot sighs and shrugs his shoulders at him; “I dunno Spike…we’ll jump that bridge when we come to it I guess.  But this is better then nothing…and certainly better then letting them bully us around to their terms.”

Optimus nods, “Agreed.  Megatron is the lynch pin in their whole works, once he falls, the others will become disoriented.  That’s when our jobs will become much easier.  A good plan Hound…I for one am in favor of it.  How say all of you?”

The Autobots all smile and raise their hands, Cliffjumper pouts with his side turned, but a quick elbow to the back from Wheeljack makes him reluctantly raise his hand as well.

“Alright Hound…it seems you’re plan is approved.  What do you need to make this happen?” Prime says to him.

Hound looks down at the General, “Begging your pardon General, but if you and your men could scrounge up some energy for me…I’d really appreciate it.”

The army commander smiles, “Consider it done.  We’ve got some tankers filled with fuel you can have and I’ll see about having some of the batteries being drained for your use as well.”

“I know my men have some extra fuel and battery power you can use as well Hound.” Sparkplug says entering the conversation.  “Anything we can spare is all yours.”

As the General gives a righteous nod to Sparkplug for lending his support, one of the commander’s men comes rushing up and salutes him.

“Sir! You have a call coming in from HQ…priority one!”

The General sighs, “Very well private…. come one then.”

The two walk out of the room and out of the Ark.  Spike notices Carly sitting by herself as the Autobots all begin to help Hound build his holographic generators.  He cautiously walks up to her and crouches down to her eye level.

“What’s up?  You look so down.”

Carly stares at him and wipes a tear running down her face.

“Oh Spike…it’s just…. everything is catching up with me is all.  The loss of human lives, this damn Autobot/Decepticon war…I guess I’m just taking the time to take it all in.”

Spike, so unsure on how to deal with a woman like her, takes a bold step and holds her hand in comfort.

“I know what you mean.  I’ve seen so much death and destruction…it seems like it’s only getting worst as we go.  Prime’s a good guy and he tries to protect us all…I just hope he can save us.  You’re not alone in feeling this way Carly…”

His words seem like small comfort to her as she starts to shed more tears, he struggles to think of what to say next and then holds her chin up to look into her eyes.

“Listen Carly.  I know you and I got off on the wrong foot when we met…hell…you sure ripped one into me.  Summed me up in two seconds didn’t ya?”

Carly begins to laugh at the memory of the moment and Spike giggles along with her as she begins to cheer up.

“But you’ve been like a rock through all of this and I couldn’t have done anything without your help.  None of the Autobots could have…. infact…. I’d say that you’re the best example of humanity they’ve ever seen.  As well as the prettiest.”

Spike suddenly realized he blurted out the one thing he shouldn’t have and became nervous.  His eyes began to shift like a terrified child and removed his hand while quickly standing up. Carly was obviously flattered by his sincerity and stood up smiling at him.

“Thank you Spike.  You’re a good guy…I shouldn’t have judged you so harshly and as for thinking I’m pretty?  Even though I am a right mess right now…boy I could use a shower…I thank you for saying so just the same.  You’re a good friend.”

She hugs the young man tightly and Spike slowly hugs her back.  Yes she’s messing looking right now, but even that cannot dim her true beauty in Spike’s eyes.  To him, she’s the most beautiful looking woman in the world, but he dare not confess his real feelings for her right now…especially not since she considers him only as a “friend”.  As he hugs her back just as tightly, he takes the moment for what it is and whispers back to her.

“You’re a good friend too.”


“Come on Starscream, pick up those metal beams and load up already!!”

Thundercracker points at the sulking former air commander as he stands there with his arms folded.

“I refuse to take orders from the likes of you.” Starscream whines in his usual irritating voice.

Skywarp comes running over with a bunch of steel beams in his arms and looks at the two jet robots not helping.

“What’s the hold up you two?  Megatron expects us to be back with this load before he returns from his mission.”

Thundercracker glares at Starscream, “Yeah, you heard Skywarp.  Hurry up so we can all head back to the ship, I don’t want to end up being on his bad side like you were.”

“The pains of being the new air commander my dear Thundercracker…” Starscream chuckles. “I’ve had to listen to Megatron moan on and on about how I screwed this and that up…that it was my fault that the Autobots got away or we failed to take over parts of Cybertron from them.  Believe me my friend…you are going to be on his bad side from this point on.  So deal with it…commander.”

Thundercracker scowls at Starscream's patronizing tone.  Skywarp sighs as he watches the two Decepticons argue.

“Oh boy, here we go…”

“Listen Starscream…” Thundercracker says grabbing hold of the former commander.  “I’m in charge and if I say we do what Megatron says…then we do it without question!  Does that ring a bell, buddy?  You said the exact same thing to all of us in the Cybertronian air squad when we tried to form our own faction.  But like the sniveling coward you were and still are…you did what Megatron wanted like a good little soldier and almost had us all re-programmed or executed!!”

Starscream turns his back on him, “But you weren’t…thanks to me.  I was the one that managed to talk our leader out of making you all into spare parts or mindless drones for his army. If I hadn’t saved your lives by declaring loyalty to him then none of us would have been around to live to talk about it.  Megatron was far too powerful back then to try and splinter off into our own group, he would have killed us all as traitors and melted us down into scrap.”

“But…” Skywarp adds. “You still ratted on us.  Not such a hard thing to forget you know.”

Thundercracker nods, “Right.  We did admire you Starscream…at the beginning of the war.  You were a brilliant scientist and had quite the keen mind…. you could have been one of the best leaders of Cybertron.”

Starscream turns around angry at his comments, “Could?  COULD?!  I still CAN be one of the best leaders of Cybertron, perhaps even be the greatest of them all!”

Both Skywarp and Thundercracker laugh.

“Nope…” Skywarp says still giggling.  “Megatron dashed all hope of you ever becoming that.  When’s the last time you worked in a lab or created something?  You’ve changed over the years…you’ve become too obsessed with being crowned ruler of Cybertron and blowing up Autobots.  Not that blowing up Autobots is a bad thing…”

“I simply made a choice for the good of us all.” Starscream says to them both. “I would have taken the opportunity to take him out on Cybertron when the time was right, I was just waiting for the right moment to make my move.  I’m still a scientist at heart, with many fresh creative ideas…but what’s wrong with wanting to have the power to aid with that endeavor as well?  Megatron is weak right now…this is the time to help me in my cause to claim the Decepticon Empire.”

Skywarp shakes his head, “See what I mean?  You’re obsessed, all the other Decepticons that tried to overthrow him were soon dead or had their personality chips yanked out and placed into secure storage.”

“They were fools Skywarp.  They lacked my superior intellect and ruthlessness to do whatever it took to see the job through.”

Thundercracker now bends over and picks up his collection of metal beams, “Famous last words of them all.  Face it Starscream…you had your time.  You missed it and now Megatron is the leader.  We may have followed your orders as commander, but behind those orders was Megatron, the one that is still ruling us all to this day.  So on that final note…lets get this stuff back to him before he ends up putting us all back on that scrap pile list of his.”

Skywarp transforms into his sleek black jet mode and the metal he holds quickly gets put into his cargo hold as he changes.  Thundercracker also transforms and like wise has the metal instantly fold into his body as he becomes a blue jet.  The two blast their after burners and fly into the sky, leaving Starscream standing there looking generally ticked off.

“Ungrateful morons.  I’ll show them I’m not finished being leader yet…even if it takes me another millennia…one day I shall rule.”

In the distance, the humans can still be heard screaming and panicking as they run from the Decepticon attack the three jet transformers had done.  Starscream was very annoyed and shot at the screaming hoards as he shouts out to them.

“Oh shut up!!  I hate this planet! And most of all I hate all of you!!!”

Starscream quickly transforms and flies off into the sky after doing his wild shooting spree, now it will be his mission in life to dethrone Megatron and dispose of this planet of humans once and for all.


Grabbing the phone out of one of his officer’s hands, the gruff old General takes the call in his makeshift tent at the bottom of the mountain with the Autobot ship visible in the background.  As he closes the flap to the tent for a bit of privacy he hold the phone to his ear and speaks to whoever is on the other end.

“This is General Pressman…”

“Good day General…or should I say good evening.” The voice says on the other end. “ I realize that dusk is settling in right now so I imagine you and your men are looking forward to turning in early for a good nights rest.”

The General squints at the odd comment, “Who the hell is this?  Stop wasting my time and get to the point.  What’s the priority?”

“The priority is that you obey every command I give you.  If I say return to base I mean return to base…yes?”

The General’s eyes dim and he suddenly realizes the voice on the other end.

“So it is you…shall I call you Project N leader or simply Dr. Archeville?”

“Well done, I am impressed by your research my boy.  Don’t bother to trace this call by the way…it would be a useless effort.” The doctor says in a smug tone. “Imagine my surprise when I learned it was you trying to use the aid of Chip Chase to uncover my operations.  I am somewhat relieved that I managed to find him before you could even finish your…uh…personal pet project about me.”

The graying General sits down in a chair near a small green table where the man rests his arm not occupied holding the small phone.

“How did you find out?  I told no one about that…”

The Doctor giggles, “Well lets just say that Chip is very talkative under the right motivation.  Not only him it seems…I’ve heard from one of your returning soldiers that you’re in discussions with the Autobots to coordinate an all out offensive on the Decepticons.”

The General sighs a bit thinking Archeville is keen on the plan; he quickly smiles and cheerfully acknowledges the information.

“Well…yes.  I was just about to tell Optimus Prime about my plans for such an operation.  If we combine our forces we may be able to take out the Decepticons before they can even launch.”

“I see…” The only words the doctor says in return.

The General continues, “The combined fire power and use of more of those special weapons of yours will surely…”

“That’s enough General” Archeville interrupts.  “Since you didn’t mention that fact to Prime I feel I must order you not to even attempt to suggest it ever again.  There will be no major offensive by you or your soldiers, is that understood?”

Looking confused the General becomes flustered, “I beg your pardon, Sir?  We need to act now while the Decepticons are still trying to construct the ship!  If you don’t have the balls to do it then I’ll…”

Once again the doctor interrupts, only more loudly, “If you do any such thing I will personally see to it that all of your loyal men and women soldiers are executed by any means necessary.  That includes your lovely granddaughter…”

“What?! You son of a bitch…who do you think you are? You can’t threaten me!”

“This is no threat General.” The doctor says in a gruff tone. “Elise is a bright young woman with so much promise, don’t you think?  Even though you haven’t spoken to her or your son in so many long years makes it that much more painful to mention.  Heartbreaking isn’t it, with one word from me I could wipe out your only means of joy in life.  I understand the rift between you and your son would be so much more increased if he should find out that you were the cause of her death.”

The General slams his fist on the table and stands up shaking with anger.

“Acheville if you so much as even look at my son or granddaughter…”

“Easy now General. I merely mention it as one possible outcome from your disobedience, if you agree to do as your told, then nothing will happen to your family.  Think of them and the lives of your troops carefully as you utter the next phrase to me.  Think hard.”

Pursing his lips and giving the odd spasms with his left eye, the General clenches his teeth as he answers.

“I…understand…Sir.”

Archeville relaxes his voice, “Well done General.  Now tell me the details of what you and the Autobots discussed…lets see if we can give it a small tweak in our favor, hmmm?”

The commander sits down in his chair again, obviously feeling defeated and terrified at the thought of what this crazed man could do to his family. Archeville patiently waited for General Hank Pressmen to spill everything he had heard about during the meeting with the Autobots, the plan to release Ravage and to lure the Decepticons into the holographic trap.  Looking out of the small vent hole from the side of the tent, he could see the backend of the Ark sticking out of the mountain.  A sad look creeps onto his face as he knows he’s about to betray his new trusted friends, The Autobots.

Just outside of the Ark entrance, Hound and Mirage casually come walking out towards Ravage’s cage nearby.  The makeshift prison the cat is in looks to be made of some sort of metal forged from pieces of the ship.  A massive lock holds the cage door together, strong enough that even the likes of Ravage couldn’t use his razor-sharp claws to slice through.  The growling black cat transformer watches them pass by with glowing red eyes.

“Hey Hound, did ya hear the news?”

“No do tell Mirage.”

“Telatran One found a secret human energy facility a few miles out west of here, and it’s got one of the largest energy signatures T-1 has ever seen on this planet.”

The black cat listens carefully as the two Autobots lively talk to one another in front of his cage.

“You don’t say…” Hound says with a smirk.  “Must be really important if the General didn’t tell us about it.  You think Prime suspects they’re holding out on us maybe?”

Mirage nods, “I’ll bet it’s a large enough amount to take back to Cybertron…maybe the humans are afraid we’ll try to steal it from them.”

Hound takes out a large key and swirls it around his finger as he thinks about it.

“Hmm…yeah.  It would be tempting.  But hey…we’re the good guys remember and these humans are our new friends.  I’m just glad the Decepticons don’t know about any of this, why I’m sure they’d love to get a hold of that energy for themselves.”

Mirage leans on Ravage’s prison, “Wow, that would be devastating.  Not even our guys back home would be able to withstand them if they got hold of it I’ll bet.  Oh wait, should we be talking about this around the prisoner?  Prowl would be mad at us for this security leak…”

Hound stops spinning the key on his finger and leans down looking into Ravage’s cage.

“Daaah, it’s ok.  It’s not like Ravage is going anywhere.  Are ya boy?”

Hound taunts the black cat with the key; putting it close to the spaces were Ravage could almost reach it and then taking it away fast from him.  The angry cat growls at the green transformer and violently slashes away at the metal bars in front of him.  The whole cage rattles from his actions, something that makes Mirage get up and stand behind Hound.

“I hope that cell keeps him in.  Stop teasing him with that key…Prime wouldn’t like you goofing off around like that.”

Hound snickers, “I won’t tell if you don’t.  Besides, Prime is too busy trying to keep up with where the Decepticons will strike next.  I can’t believe he wouldn’t attack a human facility Megatron and his goons where raiding.”

“You know Prime…” Mirage says turning to walk back inside the Ark.  “Ever since Sherman dam he won’t risk harming the humans again.  That energy facility is probably full of humans maintaining it, so let’s just hope the Decepticons never find out about that place.  Come on, let’s stop chatting about this…I want to go back inside for the night.”

Hound twirls the key around his finger again and watches his friend go inside.

“I hear ya buddy.  Time to power down for the night and conserve my energy levels.”

Looking down at Ravage again, Hound spins the key and places it down near his side.

“Nighty, night Ravage.  Have fun being a prisoner for a long time…hahah!”

As he leaves, the key drops off of his side hook where he was trying to place it.  The shining object drops to the ground a few meters away from the shabby looking cage.  As Ravage watches Hound disappear into the Autobot ship, he desperately tries to reach out with his paw to grab the key.  It’s too far to grab it from where he was and the frustration of not being close enough made the black cat frantically think.  Suddenly he stuck his black paw out again and a small panel opened on the top of it.  A thin, small wire-like arm extended out of it and managed to hook onto the key.  Reeling it back in, Ravage took hold of it with its other paw and held it in-between it’s razor sharp claws.  Raising it up to the lock, the cat managed to wedge it in and unlock it like human hand would.  The heavy metal lock dropped to the ground with a loud thud and the cage door swung open.  In the darkness of the prison, the cat’s red eyes glowed as it looked around.  Neither a human, nor an Autobot could be seen around, and the mini-disk Decepticon stepped out as free transformer.  It was time to run, he had to get the information back to his leader, and before the Autobots became aware of his escape.

As Ravage begins to run down the bottom of the mountain’s path, a human soldier appears out of the brush just as he pulls his pants up.  Long days of monitoring the Ark tends to leave no room for bathroom breaks, so the soldier had thought since no one was around…might as well get the chance while he can.  Unfortunately he didn’t count on running into a Decepticon robotic panther just as he was finishing up.  The man’s eyes grew wide as he looked up, Ravage’s eyes gazed at him somewhat curiously as he wondered what the human was doing to that bush.

“SOUND THE ALARM!!” the man screamed in a shrilling panicked voice.

Ravage whipped his head around to see the darkening sky become full of spotlights trying to focus on his position.  Now a loud horn wailed on and off as it alerted everyone below and within the Ark of his escape.  The soldier tried to reach for his gun and pull his pants up at the same time, but the black cat would waste no time on this bumbling fool.  Ravage scurried behind the mountainside and tried to go in a different direction from where the lights where.  Bumblebee and Wheeljack where startled by the Decepticon running past them as they appeared out of the Ark.  Both drew out their weapons and began chasing after him.

“Ravage! HALT!!” Wheeljack commanded at him.

“He’s getting away!” Bumblebee cries out.

Soon all the Autobots and humans soldiers come running out in every direction and follow the sprinting robotic panther as it tries to hide in the mountain’s shadows.  Optimus Prime followed behind Gears and Windcharger as they searched the dark side of the rocks to locate him. 

“Gears…activate your infrareds” The leader commanded.

Gears quickly transformed into his red and blue Roadster Coupe mode and switched his large headlights into two red beams that seemed to move without having to pivot himself.  The lights exposed everything the darkness was keeping from them from seeing, and soon enough he found Ravage trying to hide nearby.

“There he is Prime!” Gears says.

“Autobots!  Open Fire!!” Prime shouts to them all.

From every angle, the Autobot’s weapons all blast away at the cornered enemy.  Prowl uses his targeting eyepiece on his weapon to get a deadlock on the cat trying to avoid being hit.  Just as he is about the shoot the weapon, Optimus Prime knocks his weapon up with his arm and looks at the surprised black and white robot.

“No.”, Optimus says quietly. “We just want it to look good…not actually hit him.”

Prowl nods and whispers back, “Sorry Prime…I nearly forgot.”

Ravage leaps out of the way again and now makes bolder jumps down the mountain, this time he finds a way beyond all the shooting and soldiers looking for him.  As Ravage comes around the bend of the lower mountain, General Pressman suddenly appears and holds his hand out for the cat to stop.  Ravage growls at the human and his eyes glow red.

“Easy now…” Pressman says to the Decepticon.  “I…I’ve been told to give you a message…to your leader.”

Ravage quiets down and gives a confused look on his face again.  The General face is nervous and at the same time very grim.  His eyes give away his reluctance as he begins to talk.

Optimus Prime leads the Autobots around and continues to look for the escaped prisoner, everyone moving their heads from side to side as they search. 

“Keep a sharp eye…” he says to them.

Suddenly a silhouette of the Decepticon is seen jumping out ahead of them and now runs fast down through the valley.  Optimus Prime and the others all point their guns at him and randomly fire away at the fleeing cat.  The shots begin to die down as soon as they see he’s no longer in reach of their blasts.  Optimus squints to see and then turns to his robotic soldiers and gives a thumb up.

“Excellent job everyone!  He’s taken the bait!”

The Autobots all cheer and Hound walks up to the leader with a big smile.

“Hope I didn’t over do my performance Optimus?”

The leader laughs, “Not at all Hound. I think any Decepticon would have believed you.  Now then…I think we’ve got a job to do.”

Hound nods and watches Optimus Prime transform into his large rig and trailer.

“Autobots!  Transform and Roll Out!”

The leader’s command makes them all quickly convert into their various vehicle modes, Carly and Spike run up to the transformed leader and stand in front of him.

“Hey!  You’re not leaving without us!” Carly cheerfully says to him.

“We’re coming too Optimus…” Spike says as well.

The leader turns on his rig lights and revs his engine.

“Sorry, but this is not your fight guys.  I can’t risk anymore human casualties and I don’t want you two there if Megatron looks for some sort of bargaining chip.  No…this is our fight now.”

Sparkplug walks up to the leader as well and folds his arms.

“I agree.  Spike and Carly shouldn’t go…. but I should.”

Optimus sighs, “Sorry Sparkplug, but that goes for you as well.”

“You need me Optimus…I understand how energy plants work, I used to work at one before I worked in construction.  Hound will need my knowledge on how to create holographic human workers that look convincing, not to mention how the plant looks and runs.”

Hound, sitting beside the transformed leader in his Hummer mode, reluctantly agrees with Sparkplug.

“He’s got a point Prime.  I’ll need someone to give me details on how to make it accurate.”

The rig continued to rev its engine and smoke spewed from the dual stacks attached to it.

“Alright…just you though.  For Primus’s sake…I can’t have every human in harms way.  Personally I think your just looking to tag along.”

Sparkplug smiles, “You could be right.  But this is my world Prime…and my rules.”

The leader opens his driver’s side door, “Ok…hop in and try not to get in our way.”

Sparkplug pats his son’s back and rests his other hand on Carly’s shoulder.  Both look at him with great concern and he just smirks at them.

“You kids stay here and be ready for anything.”

“But Dad…I should go with you…”

“Spike…listen to me.  I don’t want you in harms way either…you’ve got your life ahead of you and should be given the chance to see it through.  Don’t worry about me, I don’t really want to die before my time anyway…but I’ve got to go and help them to this.  OK?  So just trust me son, I know what I’m doing.”

Carly watches the two men hug each other; she can clearly see that Spike and Sparkplug share a bond that only a father and son would have.  It touches her to see them so close; if only she knew of the rift that use to be there between them before this all began.  Spike lets go of his father and allows him to climb into Prime’s cab.  Carly and Spike move out of the way and watch the entire convoy of the Autobots drive past and down the dirt road.  As Spike continues to watch them all leave, he sees his father waving at him out of the window.

“Be safe…and come back.” He says softly to himself.

Carly could hear his low words and gave him a shoulder hug for comfort.

“He’ll be ok Spike.  Lets go into the Ark and monitor Telatran One, at least we can keep an eye on them all from there.”

Spike nods gently and breathes.

“Yeah…I hope this plan works.”