THE TRANSFORMERS: GENERATION ONE UNIVERSE

THE STORY CONTINUES....
CHAPTERS 19 & 20
CHAPTERS 21 & 22

THE PROJECT N CRISIS

By JEFF WALKER - (aka- JETPLAGUE)

This Page Contains Chapters 3 & 4

To See Other Chapters Please Go And Click On The Chapers Beside The Generation One Universe Logo.

CHAPTER 3 - RETURN OF THE DECEPTICONS
The darkness inside the Decepticon shuttle was spooky and made many of the men nervous as the carefully took each step as they walked behind Archeville.  The old scientist wasn’t afraid to lead the team in front; his powerful light on his helmet shone down the corridor and revealed nothing that would be considered frightening to him.  In fact, the entire way was clear with no sign of the evil robots lying about.  Noticing this fact, Archeville came to a stop and moved his headlight around to make sure he wasn’t missing the obvious.

“Funny…they should be lying on the ground just as they were in the Ark.” He mumbles to himself.

One of the six officers came up beside him and spoke with a nervous pitch. “Sh-sh-shouldn’t we keep moving sir?  I mean…what if…what if they have an automatic defense system that’s still active.  We might get killed by a random laser or something like that?”

“Don’t be stupid boy.” The doctor snaps back at him in a gruff voice. “It must be obvious that they were either on the bridge or the cargo bay when it went down.  There’s no defense system on this ship, they wouldn’t have the energy or the parts to spare to create one.  This vessel’s sole purpose was to take them home with a large cargo.  Now stop your idiotic questions and tell the others to keep moving towards the bridge.”

“Yes Sir…uh…where is that by the way?” The confused man asked.

Archeville rolls his eyes and turns around to lead the way. “I should have come by myself.  Follow me children…and do keep up.”

As the old man continues to take lead, the others group up in a tight formation behind him.  The echoing of their footsteps makes them all twitch around with their weapons poised and ready to fire on anything that moves.  Turning down yet another dark corridor, the men all point their headlights down the way and notice the large Decepticon insignia on the door at the very end.  Archeville gives a cheerful smirk and rubs his hands greedily.

“Ah…there it is.  So much trouble the Autobots have caused me to get to this point…but their failure to prevent me from this defining moment was worth it.  Without them to stop me this time...I will finally win. Megatron…and all his secrets within his brain…are now…MINE!”

Continuing to chortle at his scheming thoughts, he now walks proudly towards the door with absolute fearlessness.  The guards behind him try to keep up the pace and seem surprised that this old man has such youthful vigor to out step the likes of them.  But before they can even get half way to the large door, a sudden low growl sounds out towards them from the darkness behind.  All of them stop dead in their tracks and turn around to see the direction of the noise.

“W-w-what the hell was that?” The middle soldier says in a trembling voice.

“Might be the ship…” The other solder says standing beside him. “Pressure could be slowly distorting the metal…or…or something like that.”

Archeville looks into the darkness with his helmet light and peers with curious eyes.

“No…Metal wouldn’t make that sound if it was being crushed.  Maybe the subs are too close to the hull…scratching it even…”

He brings up his arm communicator that’s built into the suit and taps a green button on its display.

“Sub Alpha One…this is Archeville.  Report your status…over.”

Outside in the dark, forbidding waters, the commander of Archeville’s sub answers back as he sits in the old man’s command chair.

“This is Alpha One, Sir.  We’re still attached to the side and Sub Beta Two is continuing to explore the forward section of the ship and Sub Omega Three is heading down to the stern of it.  Why is there a problem? Over.”

“Contact Beta Two and Omega Three and see if they are cruising too close to the ship’s hull.  We’re picking up a noise down here and I want to be certain that they are not damaging the vessel.” The old man’s voice responds on the crackling speaker.

“Rodger that sir.” The commander replies. “Helm, hail Beta and Omega, tell them to give Archeville a status report on his com-link.”

Down near the front of the resting Decepticon ship, the second submarine glides smoothly over the top of the massive metal ship and keeps shifting it’s lights as it scans everywhere around it.  Through the communication link up they send their report directly to the doctor in response.

“This is Beta sir…we’re well above the ship and not even near the hull.” The deep male voice says to him.

In almost the same height and cruising speed, the third sub is also scanning with its lights and delivering the Project N leader the same sort of report.

“Omega here sir…we’re not even touching the ship per your request.  I don’t know where you’re getting the sound from.” The female voice also informs him.

As Archeville gave a short sigh of relief for brief moment, the woman commander spoke again as she continued to speak to the old man.

“No…wait.  I do see something…what…what the hell is that?”

“What do you see commander?” Archeville demanded.

“Oh…oh my god!” She screamed.

As the third sub continued to hover over the stern of the ship, a massive streak of green light struck through the human vessel and spliced it in half.  The energy blast was so intense that it caused the entire submarine to implode into a huge round mess of fire, bubbles and crumpling metallic debris. The shock wave of the explosion rocked the Alpha sub out of it’s lock on the ship and tore away from the side.  The sirens inside of it were blaring all over as the crew scrambled to their stations to see what had happened.  Archeville could hear the events echoing deep within the bowls of the Decepticon ship and screamed at his sub commanders.

“What is happening?! Alpha! Beta! Give me a report damnit!!”

Trying to stabilize itself from the quake, the beta sub turned around ninety degrees and started heading back towards the Alpha submarine.

“Sir, this is Beta…Omega no longer appears on our sonar…they’ve…they’ve been totally blown away by…oh…OH SHIT!”

Once again, another green streak of light rips into the second sub and punches a hole right through it.  The blast hurls debris out into the murky depths and some human bodies can be seen coming out from the forcible blast.  The commander is heard screaming over the airwaves and soon ends as the vessel explodes in a manner similar to the previous sub.  Archeville’s eyes grow wide with panic as he hears the sound of his men dying on his communicator.  The guards standing beside him close their eyes in fear as they too are overcome by the deadly screams that soon become silent.

“This…this can’t be happening…what…what is going on?” The old man stutters in shock. “Alpha…Alpha…report!  REPORT DAMN YOU!!”

The last human submarine soon controls its chaotic spin and the crew regains their positions after being thrown around.  The commander sits in his chair once again and looks on the monitors as they switch on.  Each camera flicks on every angle around the sub as it tries to see their attackers and Lieutenant Becker keeps a vigil eye while trying to keep pressure on his bleeding forehead.

“This…this is Becker sir.  I…I can’t see anything.  Beta and Omega are gone…the ship is on full alert…we’re taking on water….”

Then the man’s face goes completely pale and his eyes gaze at the screen in total shock.

“What? What is it Becker?!” Archeville is heard screaming over the speakers. “For the love of god man! What do you see?”

“Decepticons!” The man utters in a doomed voice.

As the sub gets a blast from the deadly green energy blast, a booming male-sounding robotic laugh can be heard as it strikes into the ship and sends it into a deadly fate as the other subs encountered.

“Welcome to your end…Humans!”

The team inside the Decepticon ship hears the voice just as the last submarine cuts out from communication and gives a terrified look at each other.

“Screw this man!” One of the younger soldiers utters loudly. “I didn’t come all this way to die!”

The kid bolts down the dark corridor and drops his weapon.

“Get back here coward!!” Archeville shouts at him in anger.

As the young man disappears into the void, a sudden blood-curling scream from him echoes out as the sound of something sharp rips into him.  The others back away slowly and aim their guns at the darkness.

“Jason? JASON!” The lead soldier shouts out in panic.

“This…this isn’t possible…they…they can’t be alive! They can’t be alive...they can’t…they can’t….” Archeville utters over and over again.

The men fire their weapons furiously in fear, point in all directions, in every dark corner, they bombard the ship with their weapons powerful laser fire. As they continue to blast away, the entire ship lights up and soon the darkness inside becomes as bright as day.  The men stop firing as the notice the ship is fully powered again and see their friend at the end of the corridor lying in a pool of blood.

“So humans…” Starscream’s voice echoes through the air. “You thought you could come hear and try to steal our technology?”

His laughter booms though the corridor loudly as the thought strikes his mind.

“Fools!  No one…but, NO ONE…dares to steal from a Decepticon!  Now you must pay….”

Stepping out from one of the hidden passages at the end of the hallway, Starscream and Ravage reveal themselves to the frightened group huddled together at the opposite end.

“With your deaths!” The Decepticon commander finishes speaking.

Ravage growls, his eyes light up a beaming red glow and begins to charge towards them with his mouth wide open.  Archeville snaps out of his scared stupor and takes charge of the terrified commandos.

“Just don’t stand there like idiots!  Open Fire!!”

The men scream out in anger as they obey his command and strike at the rushing black robotic cat with everything they’ve got.  The damage was very effective as the energy shots manage to cripple the black cat as it gets flung back from the hits.  Starscream shakes his fist in anger at the humans and aims both his arm cannons at the men.

“Bah! Ravage…you weakling!  I’ll do this myself!  DIE HUMANS! DIE!!!”

Starscream’s lasers strike all around the men and explode in large bursts of fire; they all dive for cover and try to hide behind the various struts along the corridor.  They return fire at the Decepticon with equal force and try to protect Archeville as much as possible.  The doctor himself hides behind one of the soldiers firing, but gazes back at the large door with the symbol on it.

“If I could just get into that room…he’ll be all mine…then they’d have to obey my will alone!”

The soldier looks over his shoulder at Archeville and gives him a curious glance.

“Are you nuts, doc?!  I think it’s pretty obvious they’re not dead!”

“Megatron is mine…he’s mine…I’m so close…I…I can’t stop now!!” The madman howls in a crazed tone.

As Starscream continues to fire, Soundwave, Rumble and even Thundercracker run up to aid in the commander’s attack against the few remaining humans.  One by one the team beings to dwindle down, some loosing limbs, some burn to death and the last one trying to protect Archeville gets his head sliced off as Soundwave takes out a large dual blade shaped like a round disc and thrusts it right into the metal strut the man was trying to stay protected behind.  With no one left to protect Archeville, the old man takes the weapon of his dead soldier’s hand and aims it at the group of Decepticons closing in on him. 

“I won’t be denied!  I’m destined to be the ruler of the world! Do you hear me? Nothing can stop me now…not even you!”

He fires the gun rapidly at the evil robotic group and laughs in full insanity, tears stream down his cheeks as he loses his mind from the onslaught of death around him, it was now apparent that Archeville was no longer in his right mind.  The Decepticons shielded themselves from his volley of weapon fire, but Starscream stood his ground and opened up his right side arm panel.  A group of rockets rolled out from under it and he took aim at the pathetic doctor trying to strike them down.

“I’ve had enough of this….”

Only launching one rocket from his arm, it blasted down the hallway and straight for the old man.  Stopping in wild shooting, Archeville saw the bomb heading his way and gave his last word.

“Damn.”

The rocket struck just in front of him and caused him to be blown back at the door he had so wanted to get into.  The blast had torn off his arm burned his body and now lay bleeding to death on the ground just at the base of the door.  Starscream walked over and held his gun down to the dying man’s head and smirked at him.

“Proud of yourself little man?  Time to put this animal out of its misery.”

Suddenly the large door opened and Megatron, the tall, silver-polished leader stood there with his arm cannon pointed at the air commander’s head.

“STARSCREAM!  I told you that this one was to be unharmed!”

The jet commander gulped as he came face to face with the leader’s massive black cannon.

“I…I wasn’t really going to kill him Megatron…honest.  I was just waiting for you to enter this very moment…heh-heh-heh!”

Megatron’s red eyes flashed in anger and pushed his cannon even further at the cowering Decepticon.

“You fool.  I need him alive and fully functional for questioning…now look what you’ve done!  I warn you Starscream…and this will be the only time…if he so much as dies within the next few moments…you die with him!”

“NO, PLEASE MEGATRON!” Starscreams begs. “I’ll fix him…I’ll repair his wounds!”

“You’d better Starscream!” Megatron barks at him. “And be quick to learn how…This creature is losing vital fluids as we speak, if he isn’t tended to quickly then his frail brain will cease to function!”

Starscream nods at the evil leader and reaches down to pick Archeville up.  As the badly broken and dying old man is raised up to eye level with Megatron, the leader gazes down at him and smiles.

“Welcome to our home…Doctor Archeville.”

The evil robot laughs hysterically as the old man stares at him with blood shot eyes and a fractured skull.  It is the last image he sees of the Decepticon as he soon blacks out in to a coma.

• CHAPTER 4 - THE MAN BEHIND THE SECRET •
As the Archeville tries to awaken, he has moments where he opens his eyes and sees Starscream studying him with a massive electronic microscope. The old man feels strange, as if his body has lost all of its senses, he can’t feel the coldness of the table or even smell the air he must be inhaling.  The only sense he does have is his hearing.  He can faintly hear the moans and painful woes of human voices in the room. Perhaps he wasn’t the only prisoner of the Deceptions; perhaps more of his crew was spared he thought.  But why would they be in such pain?  Just what was this Deception doing to them all?  His eyes slowly closed again as the jet commander looked down at him and pressed a button just out of his eye range.

“Now, now Doctor…we must get our rest.  It will be a busy day for you…especially during your interrogation.” The evil Decepticon chuckled.

As Starscream touched the button, Archeville’s eyes closed into darkness again, sending him back into a deep sleep.  The only thing running through the poor man’s mind at the time was, ‘Dear god…what is he doing to me?’  As his mind drifted into comatose state again, he began to envision the most pivotal time of his life.  He saw himself as a young man being recruited into the Nazi youth core and becoming known as the wiz kid for his inventive creations.  He helped to forge new rocket propulsion, new biological agents, and even helped a group of German scientists work on the nuclear fusion formula.  Hitler had thrusted the young Archeville to the top ranks of his army and even made him one of his personal advisors that he kept with him at all times.  In flashback memory he could recall many moments of frustration with the dictator.  They would quarrel about fuel reserves and placement of soldiers around the world.  Hitler’s idea of ruling the world was becoming Archeville’s ambition, but when it came to instructing the easily aggressive leader with his thoughts, it was hard to get him to focus on how to achieve this task without having one his usual temper tantrums about doing things his way.  Archeville was sick of losing because of Hitler’s madness, so while Berlin was getting bombed from above and the rest of them buried deep below in a bunker, Archeville decided that it was time to put an end to this losing war.  Picking up his Lugar, he shot anyone that blocked his way towards Hitler’s main room; he barged in on the dictator and his mistress Eva Braun and wasted no time with killing the both of them.

“I’ll take this world for my own…no matter how long it takes.” He said to the dead leader’s face staring back up at him.

He remembers the U.S. soldiers picking him up soon after and taking him to a detention camp where they questioned him for hours upon hours.  The top military brass had known of his work for sometime and clearly didn’t want to kill him, in fact he wasn’t surprised at all that they brought him back to the United States and placed him in a secret base where he could continue his scientific work.  He remembers giving the Americans advice on how to perfect the nuclear bomb and a possible engine design for new planes that could “jet” across the sky in half the time.  The war was over, but he was forgotten, the military had burned any knowledge about him and even went as far as to even remove his fingerprints.  Now he was their special scientist that could give them everything they’d hope for.  Archeville had always found it amusing that while they tried to use him, he in turn was using all of them to get to his ambition.  Sitting in a comfortable cell in a military base was his closing memory; his dream like flashback soon began to melt away as he started to feel consciousness coming back again.  The days of his youth made him smile, it seemed so long ago to the old man, but the dream of someday ruling the world was a life long ambition that never truly died.

“Where…where am I?” He starts to speak in a raspy voice as he opens his eyes again.

“Ahhh…you’re awake at long last Doctor.” The smug sounding voice of Megatron echoes from the darkness.

The entire room seems eerily dark; a lone spotlight is shining down on Archeville as he tires to move.  His arms and legs feel pinned down as he realizes he’s sitting in some sort of chair and fully restrained.  He also notices a very odd feeling about himself, something isn’t quite right about his arm or his head, a sudden wave of dread fills his eyes as he remembers Starscream previously hovering over him doing god knows what to body.  Again he begins struggling to bring his arm up and starts whimpering like a frightened child.

“What…what have you done to me?!” He cries out as he continues to struggle free.

“Patience Archeville…” Megatron’s voice says coyly.  “If you need to have a look at Starscreams fine handy work…then all you had to do is ask for a reflective surface to see.”

A giant, well-polished flat piece of metal drops down in front of the man and now he can clearly see what horrors have been done to him.  Gazing into the mirror like metal, the Doctor gasps at what he sees.  The top of his head is now covered in some sort of metal with a pair of small white blinking lights sticking out like a pair of small horns.  On the front of the metal skullcap is the Decepticon logo and a few smaller built in red and green LED lights that seem to turn on and off every time his eyes move.  Looking at his right arm, he now sees that it too is completely made of metal.  A robotic prosthetic arm that looks like it goes right up to his shoulder blade.  The hand is claw like in appearance and has more of those red and green lights running up and down the arm.  Every time he moves it he can hear the gears turning and the hydraulics pumping as he tires to flex.  The man totally breaks down and begins sobbing at the terrible thing he has now become.

“That’s gratitude for you.” Starscream’s voice now speaks from the dark as well. “You could at least say ‘thank you’ for saving your life.”

“I’m a Freak!” Archeville screams. “A monstrosity!  You should have killed me rather then leave me to look like this!”

Megatron now steps out of the shadows and stands into some of the light reflecting off of the floor.  But this was not a floor Archeville was on; it was a small table that had a chair placed in the center of it.  Only the upper half of Megatron could be seen as the rest of him was obscured by the where the tables end stopped.  Folding his arms over and smirking, Megatron’s eyes glowed in the soft light like a demon.

“Perhaps I can arrange that afterwards Doctor…but for right now…I need you alive.  Your tiny organic brain has information that I want…can you take a guess at what I mean?”

“The Autobots?  I’ll tell you everything I know about them…” He says with some nervous giggling.

Megatron’s face instantly scowls at him and thrusts his fist on the table causing it to quake from his forceful blow.  Archeville screams in agony as the tremor and echo of it snap the man violently.

“Don’t play games with me human!!” Megatron barks. “You know what I’m talking about!  Project N…tell me everything about that secret of yours or I’ll let Starscream take you and use you for his personal test subject!”

Archeville’s eyes tremble in a fear they’ve never known, he remembers hearing the sounds of other humans groaning and crying out while he was being worked on by the Decepticon jet commander.  It must have been whatever survivors were left of his sub crew, those that not been killed by the crushing depth of the ocean and of the wounded soldiers of his boarding party.  These evil robots have a cruelty that would send a shiver down any beings spine, worst then anything he’s ever done during his time as a Nazi soldier.

“Project N?” Archeville says with a frightened curiosity. “You…you know its name?”

Megatron chortles lightly and grins again. “Soundwave is very skilled in resurrecting information…especially when he has the data tracks of that of Telatran One.  Every electronic file or data from around this planet is now at our fingertips. That Project N of yours is more widely known then you think.”

Leaning into the table and bringing his face closer to the terrified man, Megatron squints his red eyes at him and brings his tone into a more serious nature.

“That cannon you used to shoot at us…it must be part of it somehow.  The technology is well beyond your limited intelligence to produce, so you must have incorporated with your own useless junk.  Confess its secret to me human…and maybe I’ll be gracious enough to let you live.”

Archeville was scared of the Decepticon leader, as he looked deep into those pulsating red eyes of his.

“And…and what of my crew?  Will you let them live if I tell you?”

“There’s no point in worrying about them…” Starscream chuckles as he now steps into some visible light as well. “It took all of their lives to save yours, Doctor. Where do you think I got most of the extra parts from?”

As the jet commander laughs at that fact, Archeville nearly became sick from the thought of his crew being diced and having their parts inside of him.

“My God…” He said in disgust.

“Come now Doctor.” Megatron smiled. “I would have thought a man like you would have been used to seeing death is such a manner?”

“What…what do you mean by that?” Archeville gauntly stated.

“We managed to uncover your detailed history…you and a group of warriors called Nazis almost had this planet in the palm of your hands.  Had it not been the failing of but one man, Earth would now be yours.  It could still be yours…if you cooperate.” Megatron smirks at him.

Peaking his interest, Archeville’s mind once again focuses on his one hunger that Megatron has now dangled in front of him.

“You would help me?  To take over this planet…” Archeville begins to grin in his madness again, but suddenly his grin dies down as he thinks of the consequences. “But…what would I have to give back in return?  Something tells me there is a price to pay for this union.”

Starscream leans in this time and tempts him further. “What does it matter what the price will be?  Think of it Doctor…you would be the sole ruler of this miserable planet!  The human race would be yours to command…just as you’ve always dreamed of.”

Megatron stokes his chin as he awaits Archeville’s reply.  He can see the man is working the scenario in his head and now returning to that twisted evil smile of his.

“Well…what shall it be Doctor Archeville?  Kill you now or help you take this world for your very own?” Megatron asked of him.

Raising his head up and giving a more relaxed look in his eyes, the old man stared at the silver metal being and calmly gave his answer.

“I can’t tell you what Project N is…but if your offer to help me is genuine…then I’ll gladly show you where it is.”

Megatron and Starscream smile at one another as they see their temptation worked on him. 

“Very good Doctor…very good.  With the Deceptions help…you shall rule this world.” The evil robot leader smiles as he gives a simple giggle at the man caving to his will.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Walking into the Autobot Ark, Optimus Prime and Spike continue to talk as they venture down the long corridor as they head for the medical bay level.

“I hope you get permission soon Prime.  The U.N. is taking forever to reach a decision to let you go to Area 51 and expose Archeville’s private army.” Spike says as he breathes heavily trying to keep pace with Optimus Prime’s long steps.

“Indeed Spike. You humans seem to have a knack for having lengthy discussions and arguments about taking any sort of action.”

Spike smirks as he looks up at the leader and breathes out in disappointment.

“Yeah…sucks to be human sometimes.  We should be more like the Autobots…give all the facts and do what’s right.  Seems to be the best way anyone should decide.  Still…never know what might trigger something next without letting everyone share their views and fears.”

“Fear should never hold anyone back from doing what’s right, Spike.” Optimus says as he stops mid-way and looks down at him. “Archeville is a danger to both your people and mine…the sooner he is brought to justice to pay for his crimes, the better we will all be.  No offense Spike…but I want to go home and finish this Cybertronian war once and for all.  If that means going in to grab him without your government’s permission, then so be it.  I want to live in peace on my own planet…and never again have to worry about who may or may not be trying to destroy the universe.”

“Sounds like a plan.  Anyone back home worth sharing the moment with once it’s all over?”

Prime gives a somber sigh and continues to walk down the corridor.

“There was someone…but Megatron even managed to take her away from me too.”

Spike didn’t bother to ask Prime anything about it; the melancholy response he gave was a clear indication that he had lost that special someone in his life.  It reminded him about the time he lost his mother, he felt as if the whole world had been destroyed and now his life was empty.  No doubt his dad had the same feelings or worst.  One day Spike will have to make up for the time he spent apart from his father, the rift between them since her passing has made the men lose too many years together.  If it hadn’t been for these ‘Transformers’ showing up when they did, chances are that both of them would still be emotionally apart from one another.  Instead of telling Optimus of how sorry he was to hear of the loss…he simply kept up with the pace of the metal being’s stride and kept him company.

Just before they reach the main command center, Prime turns to a secondary door adjacent to it.  The dual sliding doors open and shows the large room that occupies Ratchets repair bay for the Autobots.  Spike and Prime enter inside as the doors quickly close behind them.  Ratchet can be seen attaching a limb to an Autobot with white and red markings.

“Well Ratchet?  Is this group repaired yet?” Prime asks.

“Just about Optimus…” The medical Autobot replies and then looks at his patient. “Easy does it Red Alert…just a few clicks…and…there we go.”

The arm snaps on and gears can be heard guiding it into place.  Red Alert sits up on the metal table and jars his fixed arm around.

“Good as new!  Thanks Ratchet.”

“Next time just relax…You shouldn’t be moving about when Telatran One is trying to reset your transformation cog.”

The red and white robot gets off the repair table and gives Ratchet a worried look.

“I…I know…I was just…I don’t like having to change my transformation.  I got nervous I guess.”

Laughing out loud at the other side of the room, stood Inferno, Steeljaw and Blaster.  Inferno, a large deep red robot with white attachments on his hand and a ladder on the back of him, gave anyone the notion that he might be part of a firefighter crew.  Spike could make out the fire department symbols on his cab-like body frame and some of the gear he had attached to him looked to be part of what anyone would see on a fire truck.

“Nervous?!” The southern sounding fire truck Autobot laughed. “Shoot, Red Alert…you whipped around so much your darn arm came swingin’ off!”

“I couldn’t help it Inferno!” The red and white robot shouted in panic. “I wasn’t sure it was safe!  Who knows how bad Telatran One was damaged…it could have turned me into something…un-natural.”

“D’oooh go on now…you know T-1 wouldn’t do that. Besides they fixed the computer a long time ago. Ain’t that right Ratchet?”

Ratchet nods and begins wiping down the table.

“That’s right…Wheeljack patched it as good as he could.”

Red Alert stared at the medical Autobot blankly. “As good as he could??  Why does that make me even more nervous?”

Prime walked up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Take our word for it Red Alert…you’re fine.  Just because you’re in new form doesn’t mean you’ve changed inside.  Judging from your usual personality…I can safely say that much is certain.”

The robot gave the leader a smile and nodded with satisfaction. Inferno shook his head at his friend, he found it hard to believe that this was the robot in charge of any crisis operation; he’s full of paranoid thoughts and a constant worrier.  Still, in those moments of dire crisis, he is calm, collected and knows how to organize the rescue team to their full potential. 

“Yeah Red, just chill out and go with the flow.” Blaster now adds.

The colorful orange, red and yellow robot stands tall next to Inferno, his chest is almost like Soundwave’s in that it too has a plate that could open up to storage Mini-disk transformers as well.  The polished chrome details in his face and the smirk on his face give him the look of a robot that has an ego to match it.

“Good to see you once again Blaster.” Prime says as he acknowledges his presence in the room. “I trust your happy with the new form Telatran One has assigned to you.”

“Its all that Prime!  Check me out…I’m the ultra cool, hizzle fa-shizzle that’s gonna totally bam out the ‘cons with my def noise man!” Blaster squeals out in joy as he models himself.

Prime blankly stares at the weird speaking Autobot, “Are your logic chips functioning? What in the world are you going on about?”

“Oh...uh...” Blaster stammers. “Sorry Prime…guess T-1 loaded me up with human lingo and current music trends.  Just trying to tell you I’m…uh…fine with the new look.”

“Next time…just give me the non-human expressive answers.  Your still a soldier so give me answers like one…save the rest of that nonsense for those that know how to translate it.”

Blaster notices Prime giving a faint wink and giggles at his reaction.  He raises his hand up in salute and gives him the proper reply he expects.

“Yes Sir, Optimus Sir!”

Steeljaw comes up to Spike and eyes him carefully.  The golden looking transformer is almost designed like a lion, its mane is razored like a spiked blade on top and his fangs jut out like a saber-toothed tiger.  The low growling noise nearly startles Spike as he looks at the golden cat creature circling around him and touching him every now and then with his claw-like paws.

“H-h-hey there…n-n-nice kitty…” Spike nervously says to it.

“Oh don’t mind Steeljaw there…” Blaster says as he walks over to pet the golden cat. “He’s just curious about your species.  I must admit…you humans are a fragile bunch.  But I dig your music and culture, much more colorful then any other I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks…I think.” Spike blinks unsure about how to take that.

Steeljaw wags his metallic cat-like tail as Blaster pats him on the back and opens up his chest plate.

“Ok Steeljaw, time to flip back and take some z’s”

The cat gives a low growl and transforms into a gold version of a Mini-disk, which then slides into Blaster’s open chest and closes up as soon as it sits inside.  Spike watches in amazement as the sound and look of them transforming never ceases to amaze him.

“Blaster, I want you, Red Alert and Inferno to report to Jazz for a debriefing…” Prime soon speaks to him with authority. “I want all of you to be up to speed on what’s been happening in the last four months and of the humans who have been trying to prevent our launch for home.”

Blaster scratches his dome-like head. “Preventing?  Man who’d prevent us from doing anything?!  We’re far more advance then them Prime…”

Optimus interrupts the communications officer and raises his hand. “Just…go and listen to Jazz will you?  As I said, he’ll fill you in on what’s been going on.  There are complicated matters stirring about this so just be patient and listen.”

Red Alert salutes the leader and nods. “Don’t worry Optimus Prime, we’ll be sure to get all the facts and report back to you as soon as possible.”

“And one more thing…” Prime adds. “There is to be no wandering off of this base while we are here, we maybe good friends with many of the humans for now, but all that could change with some of them after our new mission.  Jazz will tell you what you need to know, how to proceed and so on.  Don’t take any of this likely….I want you all to remember that this is the human’s planet and not ours. Our next objective after the Earth mission will be to return to Cybertron, to build a shuttle and blast for home…to whatever awaits us there.”

Blaster rubs his chin in thought and looks down at Spike.

“Sounds serious, bub.  This Earth mission…whatever it is must be very dangerous if Prime is concerned.”

“You have no idea Blaster…you just have no idea.”