by Freds Workshop
I walk the battlefield, stepping lightly amongst the bodies, looking for my
brother, fearing the worst. It's been over two cycles since his last
communication. There is little more I can do but keep searching.
On earth, our weapons are lower-powered; the worst that would happen was
that you'd get the wind knocked out of you; maybe a few circuits fried. A
quick trip to the repair bay, and you were as good as new. But here on
Cybertron, blasters fire with full intensity, doing real (and permanent)
damage.
It was foolish of us to come back here. We didn't have to; we could just as
easily have stayed on earth. But Sideburn was insistant; with Megatron out
of the picture (at least, for the moment) we had time to rest, to catch up
on other duties...and to visit old friends.
That's what brought us back to Cybertron, really. Old friends. An old friend
of Sideburns'. A FEMALE friend.
Many things changed after the Unformatting. Cybertron was returned to its
former metal glory. And our fellow Cybertonians were restored, as
well...those that wanted to revel in the old ways again were able to, while
those few who preferred an organic existance were free to pursue it.
That's when things changed for Sideburn. After the unformatting, that is.
When he used to be known as HotRod...
Continued.
You see, Hotrod was the one that helped bring about the unformatting (see my
fanfic, Crime and Punishment), which returned Cybertron to its former metal
glory. The machinations of the Oracle, and of the beast machines that
followed it, were but a fading memory for most. True, there were still
organic Cybertonians, but those few who chose that life retreated to
Cybertron's two moons (themselves replacement, organic moons brought in long
after the Unicron War). It was this that eventually ended things for Hotrod,
and brought about the birth of Sideburn.
The minds of Transformers are not like the minds of others. Yes, they have
memories and emotions, but these are stored as Datatracks. And as we all
know, datatracks are like files on a computer; they can be altered,
reprogrammed...or erased. If you erase the datatracks, you have essentially
'killed' that transformer. True, the essense of the being is still alive
within their soul, or 'spark' as they call them, but everything that made up
the life of that particular being is stored within the datatracks. There are
few sparks that carry this information encoded within them. Those that
don't...become blank slates.
This happened to a great number of Cybertonians...including Hotrod's
consort. It was thus that when Hotrod went searching for the great love of
his life, he didn't find her. Oh, he found her spark, her essense, but...it
wasn't his consort. It wasn't the Arcee that he remembered. That being was
gone, her datatracks lost. The only memory of her even having existed was
held by Hotrod himself...the last of the true Autobots, one whose datatracks
survived both the Battle for the Spark, and the Unformatting. Hotrod's
datatracks survived because of his connection to the Matrix at the time of
the planet's unformatting (see Crime and Punishment). Only one other's
essense remained intact during that process...Optimus Prime.
TO BE CONTINUED
Notes: presumably, the Oracle DID half-win. Memories were altered somewhat.
Most Cybertonians' memories were erased? Whatever the reasoning, many remember their names, but most else is gone...they're all new beings. Or
maybe the few memories they do have, have no context. Or perhaps everyone's
memories were altered (but based on what?) Bottom line is that for whatever
reason,. Arcee is gone, so Hotrod has his memories erased (death of
Hotrod/birth of Sideburn) and a new paintjob (blue painted over red) so that
no one associates him with the old Hotrod persona(such as those who were
there during the unformatting who might recognise him.) Or maybe somehow
Nightbeat and Hotrod merge? That might be a great way to explain the
power-up/color-change on RID...the Hotrod persona emerges when he is powered
up. That would mean that there is an accident, and somehow both sets of
sparks/datatracks are shoved into one body at some point before...does that
mean Prowl carries Bluestreak's and Smokescreen's personality with him? Tracks is one of the
bullet-trains? In any event, Sideburn somehow gets part of his Hotrod memories back, and goes looking for a friend...
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