Over the course of the school year, in my spare time I worked on a story of mine. It’s not quite finished, but I do have a nice chunk of text that doesn’t really cut off abruptly.
Consider it a Chapter One.
A blue race car races down the highway. It takes a few exits and comes to a dirt road leading out into what seems nowhere. As the car drives along the road, several signs pass, most of them along the lines of “Dead End” and “No outlet.” Eventually, a large rock formation comes into view. The car veers off the road and heads for a crack in the rock. It drives straight through it, and there’s a flash of bright light. The car is gone. Inside the rock, the car appears and stops in what seems to be a large room, with mixtures of rock formations and various pieces of technology scattered around. The car transforms into a sleek robot. A white robot with a masked head and lights on the side of it steps out from a doorway, holding a datapad. “Anything?”
The blue robot shakes his head. “Sorry, Wheeljack. Seems like Decepticon activity is at a low right now.”
Wheeljack nods. “Ah, well. We’ll keep searching and hopefully eventually find something. Why don’t you take a break, Mirage?”
Mirage smiles in relief. “Thanks. Let me know if you need me.”
Wheeljack nods. “Will do.”
Mirage walks through another doorway, this time leading to the Barracks. Wheeljack taps his datapad and enters some information into the supercomputer, Teletraan 1.
A winged creature flies through the air above the rock formation. Wheeljack’s sensors don’t pick it up. As it flies, it surveys the ground below. “Where is it? Where is it?” it mutters. It seems to be looking for something. It lands on the ground. “Ugh! He told me it would be here, that it would be obvious!” The creature transforms into a large robot. “sigh I don’t think I can find this right now, maybe another time…?” The robot transforms back into beast mode and flies off, muttering.
Bumblebee transformed and drove to the dirt road. He drove onto the highway. After a while, he came to the beach. He drove down to the dock and ran a scan for humans. None around. Bumblebee transformed into robot mode and commed somebody. “Hey, Seaspray. You around?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, sending my coordinates.”
“Got ‘em.”
A blue, white, and yellow airfoil came into view.
“So, Bee. What do need?”
Bumblebee shrugged. “There hasn’t been any activity.”
Seaspray transformed. “What do you mean?”
“No decepticon activity, nothing else. It’s weird.”
Seaspray frowned. “Either the decepticons have left, or they’re plotting something. I’m assuming you want me to keep an eye out?”
Bumblebee nodded. “Yeah.”
Seaspray transformed back into an airfoil. “Alright. I’ll send Teletraan 1 anything I find.”
Bumblebee smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Seaspray.”
“No problem. I’m assuming you’re gonna call Cosmos as well?”
“Might as well, it’d only give us an advantage.”
“Alright. See you, Bee.”
“See you.”
Seaspray sped off into the sea. Bumblebee transformed into his car mode and drove off to the nearest forest. A winged creature flew above him, as if it was tracking him. It looked like a bat, or a dragon.
Once Bumblebee came to the forest, he sent out a transmission to space. Within a few minutes, a UFO came down from the sky and transformed into a short and squat robot. “Hey! What do you need?”
“Hey, Cosmos. I was wondering if you could keep tabs on any cybertronian activity for me. If there’s anything unusual or suspicious, contact me.”
Cosmos nodded and saluted. “Will do, Bee.” He transformed and took off into space.
Bumblebee also transformed and drove back to the Autobot base.
As he drove home, the winged creature flew high above him. “Gotcha.” The creature swooped down and grabbed Bumblebee, who shouted, “What?!” The creature carried him off. Back at the Autobot base, Wheeljack snapped his head towards one of the computers. “Incoming transmission from Bumblebee.” it said. Wheeljack opened up a frequency. “Wheeljack-whoever’s there- I’ve been taken prisoner by some sort of cybertronian with a strange form. I don’t have much time! My coordinates are-” The transmission ended before it could finish. Wheeljack called him. “Bee. Bee! Argh! This is NOT good.” He sent a message over the base PA system. “Attention all Autobots: Code Red, Code red! Priority code alpha dash seven.This is not a drill.”
Soon, a large group of robots had gathered, all of them different sizes, colors, and shapes. Wheeljack paced in a small circle. “I don’t think any of you know, but Bumblebee has been taken captive by some new threat. It’s not a decepticon, I know that for sure. We need search teams searching his last coordinates.” Robots started to group together in their respective squads, then transformed and left the room to search for Bumblebee.
Robots asked Seaspray and Cosmos, and they scoured the highway looking for clues. Suddenly, one of the robots squatted down and ran his hand over the road. “Hey, come take a look at this.” Wheeljack came over and inspected the marks. “Looks like claw marks. I’d say… eight or nine inches. And if I’m doing the math correctly… looks like whatever made this is around the size of a large van or truck. We’re looking at something entirely new and dangerous. We need to keep a look out for whatever did this.” Wheeljack straightened up. “Alright, guys. Let’s roll out!” The group drove and/or flew back to base. Wheeljack entered the data into Teletraan 1. There was only one entry. “Predacons. Affiliation: Neutral or decepticon. Danger level: high. Avoid at all times, exterminate if possible. Last seen: on cybertron.” Wheeljack stumbled back. “This is bad. These are ancient, and they took out our bots like crazy! We need to get a lock on the one that took Bee. It’ll come back, I’m sure of it.” As he spoke, a robot ran into the room. “Sir! Ironhide hasn’t returned from the mission! And the same claw marks were found where he last was.” Wheeljack nodded. “See if you can get a lock on his signature. We need to find him, fast!” The robot nodded and sprinted out of the room.
Ironhide struggled against his captor’s grasp. “I’m tellin’ ya. Yeh’re gonna be in hot energon once muh pals the ‘Bots come. Yeh better let me go, or yeh’ll get the fight of yeh’re lifetime.” The Predacon holding him swatted Ironhide with his tail. “Quiet, you. Quit your rambling, it’ll only get your voicebox ripped out.” Ironhide scowled. The Predacon flew to a high mountain and dropped the veteran onto a ledge. “Stay there. Not that you have any place to go.”
Ironhide sat down. “Yeh’ll get what yeh deserve. YEH HEAR ME?! YA FILTHY BEAST!” Ironhide shook his fist at the Predacon, who was flying away and ignoring him. Ironhide shook his head and turned around. He spotted a piece of yellow metal lying on the ground. “Huh. looks jus’ like Bee’s arm.” He goes to kick at it, when it moves out of the way.
“It is my arm, you scrap heap.”
Ironhide jumped back. “Bee? ‘S that you?”
Bumblebee stood up. “Finally, some company. I was wondering if they would grab another one.”
Ironhide smiled. “Well, I can say tha’ I found yeh.”
Bumblebee nodded. “Me, and a couple other… associates.”
Ironhide stepped around the rock and came face to face with Megatron and the entire Decepticon organization.
Bumblebee nodded. “Yeah. Now we know why they haven’t been doing anything.”
Ironhide flipped out his cannons and aimed them at Megatron. “Why don’ we take care of ‘em now?”
Bumblebee put his hand on Ironhide’s arm. “Because they agreed to help us. That’s the only reason you don’t look like a colander right now.”
Ironhide reluctantly powered down his cannons. “Fine. So wha’s the plan?”
Bumblebee shrugged. “Survive. Wait for a good opportunity to attack and escape.”
The red veteran scowled. “Scrappy plan.”
Bumblebee nodded “Yeah, but it’s the best we got.”
Ironhide sighed and sat down on a rock. “Well, then. I guess we’ll wait.”
Inside the mountain, a small predacon with spectacles sits at a large screen, designing some sort of icon. He finishes it and saves the file. “Done! We can finally be identified!” He walks into another room and pulls out a large slab of metal with the design engraved into it. He lifted it up, inspecting it in the light, turning it and observing how it looks at different angles. He nods, satisfied, and walks into the previous room to give it a color scheme. He finishes the paint job and leaves it to dry.
Among the group of decepticons, three of them sit in a small triangle. One of them was speaking quite loudly. “Why are we sitting here waiting?! We should be doing something, not sitting here talking as if nothing is happening!”
The tallest one shook his head. “Megatron has his reasons, Green. He and Bumblebee came to an agreement, and I’m gonna go with it so that we don’t die.”
Green Shadow frowned. “Hmph.”
SoundScrambler rolled his eyes. “Deal with it or leave.” The short decepticon walked away to look at the view, leaving the tall one and Green Shadow alone.
Green Shadow looked at the tall one. “So… want to find some energon?”
Blue shadow shrugged. “I doubt we’ll find any.”
Green shadow rolled her eyes. “Alright, well stay here and be a slag heap.”
She walked away into the throng of robots, leaving Blue Shadow to sit by himself.
A large predacon landed in front of Bumblebee. “You have not strayed from the mountain?”
Bumblebee shook his head. “No.”
The Predacon pressed on. “What about the red one? The annoying one who kept yelling?”
Bumblebee nodded. “Still here.”
The predacon nodded, satisfied. He flew off around to the other side of the mountain and disappeared. Bumblebee sighed. “We need to start planning something,” he said to Megatron, “Otherwise we’ll die of hunger-or worse!”
The decepticon leader nodded. “As much as I dislike an autobot, you are right. What do you suggest?”
Bumblebee shrugged. “Dunno. The best I can think of is shoot the predacons when they come, or make it seem like we escaped.”
Megatron looks at the yellow autobot. “You may be onto something with that last bit. Maybe if we hide all of us, except for a few of us… It would need some nice acting, though.”
Bumblebee looked thoughtful. “Yeah… yeah! That could work! Can you see if you can get some of your Cons on it?”
Megatron nodded. “I’ll do my best.” He walked off to talk to his Decepticons.
Bumblebee walked over to a rock and sat down.
The autobot base was chaos. Wheeljack stood in the main room, coordinating search teams, research, and everything else. Mirage came in and tapped his shoulder. “We’ve got something.”
The two walked over to Teletraan one, who gave the coordinates of the mountain. “There’s a large amount of energy signatures there. What do you think?”
Wheeljack rubbed his chin. “Let’s send Cosmos down to check it out.”
Cosmos floated in space when he got an Autobot transmission. “Yes?”
“It’s Wheeljack. We need you to check something out.”
Cosmos stopped moving. “Alright. Coordinates?”
“Sending now.”
“Received. On my way.”
“Alright.”
Cosmos flew down to the coordinates and hovered near the top of the mountain. “Let’s see… energy signatures… check. Mostly decepticon, but there’s… two Autobot. And a bunch of other unidentified signatures. Here comes one now.” He peered down at a predacon that flew towards a large ledge on the mountain. Cosmos recorded it and snapped a few pictures. “Bingo.” He flew away without anybody noticing.
Soon, the green and yellow robot had arrived at the Autobot base. “Got the intel, Wheeljack. “
Wheeljack downloaded the information onto a datapad. “Thanks a lot, Cosmos.”
He entered the information into Teletraan One. A series of pictures, files, and numbers scrolled across the screen. “We’ve got… wow. All the decepticons, and two ‘bots. I’d guess that’s Bee and Ironhide. And as for those unidentified…” Wheeljack types something into Teletraan 1. “They’re obviously the Predacons, so let’s file that…” He typed some more. “…and then run a scan for Predacon signatures.” Wheeljack crossed his arms. Cosmos nodded. “Got ’em.” The short Autobot pointed at a cluster of dots on a map. “Right on that mountain.”
Wheeljack downloaded the coordinates onto a datapad. “We’ll raid the mountain tonight.”
SoundScrambler sat on a rock, waiting for the Predacons to come. A large creature swooped down and landed in front of him. “Where are the others?”
SoundScrambler took a shaky breath. “They-they left. I wanted to go-but they le-left me.” He burst into tears.
The predacon frowned. “They left?”
SoundScrambler sobbed. “Yes! Without me!”
The predacon thundered past the acting decepticon and searched the whole ledge. “What?! Where are they?!” He whipped around. Soundscrambler was gone. The predacon paled. “Oh, no. No, no, NO! It was a trick!” He flew to alert his master.
Soundscrambler flew low, trying to avoid being seen. He circled above a forest, and then landed in a clearing. He transformed. “Okay, I think we’re good. Come on out.” The large group of Decepticons and Autobots walked into the clearing. Megatron stepped forwards. “Alright. Now that we’re escaped, what do we do now?”
Bumblebee looked at the tall Decepticon. “I have an idea, but you’re not gonna like it.”
Megatron shrugged. “How bad could it be?”
Bumblebee grinned. “We go to the Autobot base and explain to Optimus.”
Megatron frowned. “You’re right. I don’t like it.”
“We have to team up with the rest of the ‘bots, it’s the only chance.”
“Nope. No way. Not at all.”
“You’re already teaming up with Ironhide and I. Why’s Optimus so bad?”
Megatron raises an eyebrow. Bumblebee facepalmed. “Oh. Yeah. I forgot.”
Megatron shakes his head. “Maybe absolutely last. A last resort.”
“We’ll see. It may be a last resort-first. We need to get farther away, first.”
Megatron nodded. “Alright, Decepticons! Let’s move!” Bumblebee and Ironhide followed suit. High above them, Cosmos watched them. “Wheeljack, they’re moving out.”
“Alright, keep an eye on them. Actually, make it two.” Wheeljack replied.
Cosmos affirmed, and then floated after the large Cybertronian group.
Mirage paced in front of a small squad of Autobots. “Huffer, Trailbreaker, Blurr, Sideswipe, Rodimus. You guys ready?” Each bot affirmed. Mirage nodded. “Rodimus, you’re the highest rank here. How do you think we should track the Decepticons?”
Rodimus rubbed his chin. “Well, we already have Cosmos on their afts pipes. I think what we really need to do is check out the Predacon base, get some info. Maybe even go and raid them, incapacitate some of their forces. We’d need some firepower to do that, though.”
Sideswipe gave a wry grin. “I got you all covered.” He walked off to a room, and came out with several large rifles and what seemed to be the hilts of energy swords. “There’s enough for everybody to have a shoulder launcher, a rifle, and a sword.” Each bot chose one of each and stowed them at various points of their body. Rodimus finished adjusting the rocket launcher, then turned to the group. “I know this is Optimus’ line, but… Autobots, transform and roll out!”
The squad transformed into their various vehicle modes. Several of them had the rocket launchers ready to fire, even in vehicle mode. Rodimus’ trailer stored any of the spare weapons. They sped out of the Autobot base and towards the Predacon mountain.
Optimus sat in his room, looking at the Matrix of Leadership. He pondered why it chose Rodimus as the next Prime, yet there was already a Prime. Perhaps… maybe it acknowledges Rodimus’ potential to be a great prime, but the Matrix needs one to mentor the young Autobot. Optimus reached out to pick the Matrix up, when Wheeljack commed him. “Optimus, Cosmos has eyes on ‘Bee.”
Optimus rose. “Excellent. How is the recon team progressing?”
“They are approaching the mountain now.”
“Excellent. Inform them that I will be there shortly.”
Wheeljack started. “-? Sir?”
“Do not worry, friend. I will be fine. Rodimus will accompany me, and Huffer will be there. They are perfectly capable, as am I.”
Wheeljack sighed. “Still, if you get hurt-or worse…”
“Wheeljack.”
“Yes, sir.”
Optimus lumbered out of his room and transformed. “Till all are one.”
Wheeljack repeated the farewell. “Till all are one. Good luck, Optimus”
“Many thanks, friend.” The leader of the Autobots drove out of the base and towards Rodimus and the others.