Transformation Complication

[Xroc88]

Bumblebee's awesome good chapter. cant wait for the rest.

[Big Daddy]

Chapter Four

Frankie and Mac had their shares of crazy nights?enough to start a wacky cartoon program for kids and adults. But what they had gone through the other night was beyond crazy. And they both had a real hard time trying to convince the officers at the police station that what they were telling them was the truth and not some sugar- or drug-based delusion. Luckily, through one phone call that they made to Sean Andrews, they didn?t have to stay for much longer to convince the local authorities.

Unfortunately, Bloo, Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco just happened to have been with Sean and his sister at the time they called, and Bloo?s continuous chanting of ?Mac and Frankie got arrested!? in a singsong voice and from the top of his lungs only made matters seem worse for the two.

?Cut it out, Bloo.? Mac demanded. ?We were involved in a serious situation last night. Frankie?s car did something that no other ordinary car should ever do.?

?What? Blow a gasket?? Bloo laughed wildly over his own joke.

Frankie just rolled her eyes at him. ?Just ignore him Mac. He wouldn?t even believe us if we told him.?

?Believe what?? Wilt curiously asked.

?Nothing.? Frankie replied. ?Let?s just get back home and pretend like none of this had ever?? The familiar roar of a car engine soon interrupted her. It was at that moment when she spotted her Camaro parked near the sidewalk, only a few blocks away. ?OH, NO!!!?

?IT?S HERE!! IT?S BACK!!!? Mac yelled.

Their friends looked to each other in confusion, as both Mac and Frankie screamed. They wondered what was up with the two, even as they started running in the opposite direction of the car. Chasing after them, they barely even noticed how the Camaro had been trailing them.

?Frankie!? Sean yelled after her. ?What the heck is this all about??

?We thought maybe it was a dream! It?s not! It?s real! My car?s alive! I bought Satan?s Camaro!?

Their friends again found themselves exchanging odd looks over the bizarre behavior of Frankie and Mac. Even Eduardo had to ask, ?Have senor Mac and senorita Frankie gone muy loco?!?

?I hope not, Ed.? Alissa remarked.

How the group ended up in the parking lot under the freeway overpass they were not sure. Mac and Frankie only wished they had turned right instead of left at the last main intersection. On the other side of the lot, a familiar yellow Camaro kept pace easily, paralleling their process. Even the siblings and the imaginary friends found that very peculiar.

?Other way! Other way! Other way!? Frankie yelled, and she was so focused on the Camaro that she failed to see the police car that had parked directly in front of her. The driver?s-side door swung open sharply, and she ran right into it. She hit the ground very hard. Wincing in pain, she slowly peeled herself off the pavement.

Seeing what happened, Sean quickly went to Frankie?s aid while glaring at the driver of the cruiser. ?Hey! With all due respect, officer, why don?t you watch how you open your doors??

?No. It?s okay. It?s okay. I?m fine.? Frankie told him, as she stumbled around to the front of the cruiser. ?Officer, you?re not gonna believe this, but my car?s trying to kill me and my friends.? The vague shape seated behind the wheel did not move, did not respond. Frankie squinted, her perception slightly blurred by the lights revolving steadily atop the cruiser?s roof. ?Are you listening to me? Hello?!? She slammed her fists down on the hood.

The police car responded by jerking forward and knocking her backward. Mac, the siblings, and the imaginary friends all looked on in shock, not expecting such a fierce reaction from a police officer. Sitting on the ground, the car looming over her, it struck her that she might have acted a tad rashly.

?Sorry,? she began, genuinely scared, ?no disrespect inten??

Before she could finish, the headlight covers swung open and the glaring bare bulbs telescoped outward, halting only inches from her face. Seconds later they rose skyward as the rest of the car transformed into a sixteen-foot-tall bipedal loosely humanoid robot. Enormous metal fingers reached downward.

?IT?S ANOTHER ONE!!!? Frankie screamed, scrambling backward. She somehow skidded just out of their reach as the blunt tips slammed into the asphalt. Pavement cracked, spider-webbing in all directions away from the metal fingertips. On her feet now, Frankie was running like heck, while her friends just looked on in shock. When she looked back over a shoulder, she saw that the thing was coming after just her.

Swinging around and down in a broad, swift arc, the gigantic hand struck her square in the back and lifted her right off the ground, sending her flying into the windshield of a parked car, glass cracking underneath her. Badly bruised, Frankie turned on the hood as the robot stomped toward her. The mechanism that had taken the name of Barricade leaned over her. Massive metal fists smashed into the car on either side of Frankie, smashing fenders and support steel, splintering plastics and shattering glass.

Then Frankie heard a voice. Though the words that reverberated in her ears were perfectly lucid and understandable, they contained not a shred of humanity. ?ARE YOU FRANCES ?FRANKIE? FOSTER??

?What? I?yeah.?

?WHERE ARE YOUR ANCESTRAL ARTIFACTS?!?

?I?I?I?I have n-no idea what you?re ta-ta-talking ab-about?? she managed to stammer.

At that moment, three hard objects struck the ?face? of the robot, and it directly its attention in the direction that the objects came, seeing Frankie?s friends doing what they could to buy her enough time to escape from the mechanical menace. It worked.

Frankie leaped onto the roof of the badly damaged car. Sliding down the rear window and off the lid of the trunk, she hit the ground running along with her friends. Emitting a metallic snarl, the Decepticon reached down with one hand and flung the car aside as it started after its fleeing quarry.

?Frankie! What the heck is that thing?!? Sean asked.

?I?ll let you know once we?re away from it!? She responded.

Out of the eight of them, it was Eduardo who seemed to have screaming the loudest, crying out words in Spanish that only he himself could understand. Meanwhile, Bloo was enjoying every minute of this wild and unusual chase. ?OH, MAN! THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME AFTERNOON EVER!!!!?

Just then, another machine roared into view: the Camaro. They all stopped in their tracks, as it did a forty-mile-per-hour power slide and smashed sideways into the oncoming metal behemoth, knocking it into a skid across the asphalt. Both passenger doors swung open as the song ?Rescue Me? blared from the car?s speakers. Adding emphasis to the music?s message, the car?s horn began honking.

Across the pavement, the enormous robot was rising to its feet. After everything that had happened that afternoon, Frankie?s decision was not an easy one to make, but she felt she had no choice but to worry about it later. If there was a ?later.?

?EVERYBODY IN THE CAR!!? She yelled.

?Is there enough room for all of us in there?? Wilt wondered aloud.

?JUST GET IN!!!!!!!!? Frankie screamed, her voice squeaking at a very high pitch.

Entering from opposite sides, they dove into the front and back seats. As soon as they were in, the doors slammed behind them and the Camaro burned rubber peeling out. Falling behind, Barricade swiftly transformed back into its police cruiser persona and gave chase.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR

[Crash-N-Cortex]

Nice story! It's looking good so far.

[Big Daddy]

Thanks. I have another chapter coming up in a little bit.

[Big Daddy]

Chapter Five

The chase lasted for what seemed like hours, and soon it was nightfall. As it led into a construction site area, both vehicles swerved, missing each other by millimeters. It was difficult to say which was louder: the squeal of sliding tires or the screams of the Camaro?s terrified (or thrilled, in Bloo?s case) occupants. Screams gave way to grunts as doors opened and they found themselves ejected.

?Hey! What?s the deal, yo?? Bloo asked the Camaro, seeming very upset at it. ?I was just startin? to enjoy the ride!?

They scrambled to stand up and would have run in any direction?except that they found themselves mesmerized by the sight that was unfolding immediately in front of them.

Emitting muted grinding and squealing noises, the Camaro was morphing right in front of their eyes. No changing in the shadows now. The robotic shape that emerged from the bulk that had been the Camaro was still the same light-blindingly bright yellow. It even sported, albeit in a radically different configuration, the black racing stripes that had originally caught Frankie?s attention.

The robot charged at the simultaneously transforming Barricade. Unfortunately for the friends of Foster?s, they happened to be standing directly between the two clashing machines. As the robots slammed into each other, a section of the previous police cruiser?s chest popped opened to reveal an inner compartment, which was not empty.

Springing out and away from the main combat, the spidery form of Frenzy clutched at the clothes of Frankie and Mac and spun them around. Frankie?s transformed Camaro interceded immediately to protect them, knocking Frenzy aside while taking the brunt of Barricade?s charge, which sent the yellow robot tumbling backward. Rolling onto its feet, it charged straight at the transformed cruiser. As Barricade was knocked askew, one of its massive metal legs swung around parallel to the ground, swooshing through the air just over the ducking humans? and imaginary friends? heads. The group rolled and scrambled to put distance between themselves and the battling machines.

At least, seven of them did. Something was holding Mac back, preventing him from fleeing. Looking around, he found himself eye-to-lens with a mechanical nightmare that had secured a firm grip on his pants and was pulling him close to its insect-like jaws.

?HE?S GOT ME! I?M GONNA DIE!!!?

?MAC!!? Bloo cried, seeing the danger that his friend and creator was in, immediately going into panic mode.

Mac?s frenzied, rapid kicks glanced off the indifferent mechanical monster. All that kicking did, however, allow him to wiggle out of his pants. Freed, he managed to get to his feet. In shoes, socks, and boxers, he turned to run after his companions. Unfazed, the mechanoid promptly leaped onto his backpack, which he quickly removed and let it fall behind with his pants. But Frenzy was quick to jump off that and on Mac?s back and head.

?HEY!?

Staggering under the weight of the clinging robot, Mac did not have time to wonder where Bloo had found a power saw. Looking past him, he saw an open chest from which a dozen other tools protruded like metal flowers. Bloo came forward, holding the howling saw out in front of him. ?Leave my boy alone, you foul alien machine!?

Responding to the more dangerous threat, Frenzy let go of Mac and leaped at Bloo, who swung the saw wildly. There was a brief but very loud grinding noise. One of the robot?s arms went flying. Having picked up a loose length of rebar, Frankie charged the machine from behind and began battering wildly at the robot?s head. A couple more hacking swings and it lay on the ground, severed from the main body and twitching spastically.

Meanwhile, Bloo was still swinging the saw wildly, near catching the legs of a few friends in process. Mac shouted in reaction to this, ?Bloo! Stop! The thing?s dead!? However, Bloo wasn?t listening?he was having too much fun with the power saw. With no other choice, Frankie slightly clubbed the rebar over Bloo?s head, knocking both him and the saw out in the process.

?And to think, we?re fighting for our lives from something more dangerous than this idiot.? She uttered.

Well behind them now, Barricade had transformed back into a police cruiser, burning rubber and charging. The Camaro-turned-robot waited, waited?and then stepped aside. At the same time it undercut a nearby crane. Hanging from the crane?s arm was a solid steel wrecking ball. The wrecking sphere smashed square into the roof of the charging cruiser, stopping the vehicle cold. Flashing police lights and their protective plastic splintered and went flying in all directions.

With the metal-on-metal combat stopped, the group from Foster?s turned and walked towards the standing figure of Frankie?s transformed car. It reached down to pick something out of the dirt and, extending a limb, offered Mac?s pants back to him.

?Uh, thanks.? Awed by the machine standing silently only feet away, Mac hurriedly struggled back into his pants. Next to him, the stares of the Andrews siblings, Frankie, and the imaginary friends were no less rapt as they gazed up at the mechanoid.

?My god. What is it?? Sean asked.

Frankie had already come to a decision. Maybe it wasn?t founded on solid science, but it was good enough for her. ?Looks like a robot. Moves like a robot. If it could talk, I have a feeling it would talk like a robot. So I think it?s a robot.?

?Well, duh!? Bloo exclaimed. ?I could?ve told you that hours ago, Frankie! It?s a superadvanced robot. Probably Japanese.?

Despite the fact that it saved their lives, Eduardo was still extremely frightened of the yellow robot. ?Why won?t it just leave us alone??

?It probably wants something from us, Ed.? Frankie said, full of wonderment, taking a couple of steps toward the hulking machine.

?Frankie, what are you doing?? Mac asked. ?This thing didn?t come out of a cereal box!?

Gleaming yellow, the robot responded by taking a step toward the approaching Frankie. The head inclined downward in her direction. She found herself smiling and wrong from the get-go. ?I don?t think it?s gonna hurt us, guys.?

As they stared at the robot, they failed to notice the lights that sprang to life within what for the past several moments had been a dark, inert skull. Sprouting tiny centipede-like legs, the decapitated head rose up slightly to take stock of its surroundings. Its attention fixed on an object that had been dumped in the dirt: Alissa Andrews?s purse. Skittering over to it, Frenzy?s head began to transcan the contents. Lipstick, useless. Glasses, no good. Pen, insufficiently complex.

Sidekick. Limited storage capability, small and decidedly primitive, but sufficiently adaptable. As soon as it completed the transcan, Frenzy kicked the actual device into a pile of rubble and out of sight. Transformation ensued. The result was that it became an exact duplicate of the now-banished device. Unseen, it worked its way into the open purse, withdrew its legs and went dormant.

Frankie and robot stared at each other. ?I think?I think it wants something from me.? Her attention focused on the dark lenses that seemed to stare back into her own eyes. ?I?m not sure what. The other one kept asking something about ancestral artifacts.?

?Ancestral artifacts?? Wilt remarked, slightly confused. ?You mean like those old glasses that Madame Foster said once belonged to her great-great-grandmother??

?I guess so.? Cocking her head to one side, Frankie studied the robot?s head. ?Can you?talk? Communicate? In words we could understand??

Coco attempted something that she believed would help. ?Coco. Coco. Coco. Coco. Cococococo! Coco. Coco, Coco. Coco, Coco, Coco. Cooooco!?

The robot had done the same thing that the others had and just stared at her blankly, not understanding a word she said. Coco shrugged her shoulders, figuring it was worth a try, while the voice of an unknown D.J. poured forth from within the machine.

?I think it talks through the stereo.? Mac assumed. ?Or at least, it can channel commercial broadcasts and try to filter content to convey what it means.? In response, applause echoed from the robot. Nothing to lose by trying to get some more information, Frankie decided. ?What were you doing out last night? My buddy, Mac, and I followed you and saw you send something up into the sky.?

The sound of a radio evangelist?s sermon filled the air. ?And a mighty voice will send a message, summoning forth visitors from Heaven!?

?HE?S AN ALIEN!? Bloo screamed excitedly. ?AWESOME!!?

The machine nodded and emitted a brief electronic squeak. As they stepped back and looked on, it shrank, shifted, transformed. Moments later, sitting before them once more was a by-now-familiar yellow Camaro. The doors swung wide and the horn beeped insistently.

?I think it wants us to get in.? Mac guessed.

?SHOTGUN!!? Bloo yelled, as he slipped in behind the wheel. It wasn?t long before Frankie got in and bumped him off the driver?s chair, taking position as driver there. Or at least she thought. Carefully, she took the wheel in both hands. It remained steady and unmoving beneath her fingers.

?I think I could get used to this.?

END OF CHAPTER FIVE

[Xroc88]

Great chapter!!

[Crash-N-Cortex]

The story is getting intense!

[Big Daddy]

Chapter Six

Once back on a busy city street, the Camaro slowed to comply with the prevailing speed limit. Tentatively leaning forward, Sean Andrews let one hand slide back and forth over the dash in front of him. Stained and sun-bleached, it felt exactly like dried-out old car upholstery.

?Wait a sec. If this car can reshape itself, why?d he pick such a piece of crap? I mean, he could be anything, right? So why this? Why not a Hummer, or a Ferrari??

Brakes squealing, the car skidded to an abrupt halt. Both doors swung open, the car tilted sharply from side to side, and its occupants found themselves dumped onto the pavement. Alissa Andrews rose, started to brush at her clothes, and stopped when she realized the futileness of the gesture.

?Aww.? Alissa said. ?You hurt his feelings, Sean.?

?Liss, it?s a robot. It doesn?t have feelings.? Sean remarked. ?What?s it doing now??

As they looked on, the car?s windshield morphed into a screen. Imaging beams scanned the street, bouncing from car to car, traveling farther than either of the occupants could see. They settled on a brand-new, fully customized Camaro GTO. Simple scanning beams were replaced by more complex transcanner waves. A moment later and the Camaro was transforming again, reshaping itself before the very eyes of its occupants. When the process finally concluded, it was a different vehicle that stood before them. An exact duplicate of the distant GTO, except for one difference. It was the same bright yellow as before and sported identical black racing stripes.

Frankie?s expression did a little transforming of its own, changing from one to awe to outright admiration. She took a step toward the freshly morphed vehicle, admiring it openly. ?Now this is a car.? She couldn?t repress a huge grin. Life had never been better. Walking back to the driver?s side, admiring every glimmer of light bouncing off the blemish- and ding-free bright yellow paint job, Frankie slid in behind a shining custom steering wheel. ?I?m not sure about the final destination, but I think I?ve found my adventure.?


The completely done-over Camaro finally pulled to a stop at a pullout on the highest road near town. Doors opened and the passengers climbed out. They expected the car?s edifying radio to offer up a suggestive song, or at least an informative one. But the speakers stayed silent. The car stood up on two transformed legs.

Head tilted back, Wilt was staring up at the night sky. ?Uh, Frankie???

Frankie and everyone else looked upward. Blobs and streaks of light were illuminating the clouds from within. There was no thunder, so they could not be caused by lightning, which meant they had to be caused by?something else. As everyone looked on, what appeared to be a small comet struck the atmosphere sharply, shattering?separating into five pieces. But comets did not separate when they struck atmosphere.

One segment of whatever it was slammed into the hillside atop which they had parked, barely a couple of fields away. Trees snapped, brush ignited, and dirt and rock flew in all directions as the piece of sky ground to a halt. The force of the impact shook the ground beneath their feet. Other pieces of the mysterious falling object were drawing attention elsewhere.

Frankie?s transformed Camaro began leading the way, as they all followed a trail of flaming brush and vitreous scree down the hill until they came to a ditch where one of the falling stars had landed. When they finally reached the site, nothing concealed the still-smoking object from their view.

?You know, maybe we should be walking fast in the other direction.? Sean suggested, as Eduardo nervously nodded in agreement with him.

?Sí.?

Pushing aside the few branches that had not been snapped off or stomped flat by the yellow-and-black robot breaking trail in front of them, a thoughtful Frankie disagreed. ?I think if there was any danger, he would have stopped us from coming with him.?

They had finally reached the source. Embedded in the earth at the bottom of the ravine and directly in front of them, a complex knot of streaming metal dripped white-hot silvery beads. Standing yards away, they could feel the heat coming off the object. As they looked on, the globs of liquid metal retraced their path, blending back into and being absorbed by the globe much as a ball of pure mercury would soak up smaller spheres. When the glistening orb began to crack open like a giant metal egg, the earthlings stepped back behind the yellow robot they now thought of as a friend and protector.

From within the sphere a metallic leg emerged. It was followed by a second, then a pair of arms. A silhouette began to rise, higher and higher against the still-flaming, crackling scrub, until it was nearly thirty feet tall. Unmoved by the sight, their own mechanical companion stood nearby, as if waiting for something more. Despite what she had told Sean earlier, Frankie began to wonder if maybe they ought to start looking for some bigger trees. Just in case they had to take shelter behind something other than her transformed car.

The immense shape that had emerged from the silvery egg started to turn toward them. Its attention was drawn away from the earthlings by a blast from an eighteen-wheeler barreling down the road above the ravine. Turning in the direction of the sound, the newly arrived alien mechanoid transcanned the big truck as it slowed to take a sharp curve. By the time the night-running transport had sped on past, a second, identical truck was facing the group from the depths of the ravine.

The ?truck?s? engine growled. It sounded just like a Detroit diesel, only with something added. It was diesel-plus. Diesel transformed. Angry diesel.

Ascending from the ravine, the eighteen-wheeler rumbled across the road and halted less than a foot from the group. Its grille alone was considerably bigger than they were (even Wilt). Any one of them could have reached out and touched it. But neither of them hadn?t because right there, directly in front of them, it transformed a second time.

Wondering what came next, their attention was drawn down the road in the direction of town. They were soon joined by as peculiar and unrelated a trio of vehicles as one could expect to find gathered together in the same place. There was a beautiful sports car, an emergency vehicle, and the baddest-looking pickup truck anyone had ever seen. The three new arrivals soon simultaneously transformed into upright robotic shapes.

?Oh, man! I hope this is some kind of invasion plot! That?d be awesome!!? Bloo exclaimed.

Eduardo couldn?t help but to cry out in fear. ?Oh, no! Me no want big, scary robots to take over Earth! Me have so many things to do, like watch the new episode of Loren is Explorin?!?

The head of the largest robot there lowered farther toward them. Since it was a good deal bigger than all of them put together, they started to freak out a little?Eduardo more than the rest. The voice that emerged from the massive head was carefully muted, designed to reassure and not frighten.

?Do not fear. Freedom from fear and all else is the right of all sentient beings. We will never harm humans.? The immense machine straightened, looming high above them. ?Frances ?Frankie? Foster? Biological descendant of Samantha Foster, greatest explorer of the nineteenth century??

?Y-Yeah.? She affirmed.

?I am Optimus Prime,? the robot announced.

END OF CHAPTER SIX

[Big Daddy]

Chapter Seven

?That?s got to be the lamest name I?ve ever heard for the coolest robot I?ve ever seen.? Bloo commented.

Frankie frowned at him for a moment, before turning her attention back to Optimus Prime. ?Ignore him. It?s a pleasure?I guess.?

?So how?re you guys speaking perfect English?? Mac inquired.

?We have assimilated Earth?s languages through your planetary information assembly. Your ?World Wide Web,? as it is called.?

Sean was shaking his head slowly in wonderment. ?You are aliens. Uh, are you ?biological? creatures, too??

?No,? the robot informed him quietly. ?We are independently cognitive mechanical entities from a very distant world?a suitably simple comprehensible identifier for you might be Cybertron. Similarly, you could also think of us as autonomous robotic organisms.?

Mac was murmuring to himself. ?Autonomous robots?Autobots.?

Enormous lenses focused on him. ?Just as there are no apposite translations for where we originate or what we are, there are none for our individual nomenclatures.?

Bloo was absolutely lost in the dark. ?Come again??

?He means their names.? Mac told him.

An immense arm indicated the semicircle of other machines. ?For convenience in communication we have selected namings from your vocabulary to approximate a combination of our localized camouflaged shapes as well as our particular temperaments. Though by your definition we are no more than ?machines,? we do possess individual characteristics and personalities as well as abilities and skills. For example?? The arm lowered to center on the robot that had morphed from an exotic sports car. ?My first lieutenant: Jazz.?

The car?s high-powered speakers responded agreeably. ?What up, peeps!?

Optimus Prime indicated the thickset bipedal form that had transformed from the black pickup. ?Our weapons specialist: Ironhide.?

The robot peered down at his gleaming black shape. ?This exoskeleton appears suitable for battle.?

Finally, Optimus Prime singled out the mechanoid that had morphed from an emergency vehicle. ?Our medical officer: Ratchet.?

The robot thus identified looked down upon the earthlings. ?I am pleased to report that, by your species? customary but inadequate standards, you each are in an excellent state of health.?

The great mechanical arm of Optimus Prime gestured one last time at the imposing semicircle of machines, singling out a by-now-familiar yellow-and-black shape. ?You already know Bumblebee, guardian of Frances Foster.?

Frankie frowned. ?Bumblebee? Guardian??

?If the rest of you can talk, why can?t he?? Wilt asked.

It was the medical mechanoid who replied. ?His vocal-processing symbology was destroyed on the battlefields of Tyger Pax. Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to restore it.?

Frankie nodded before asking, ?Why are you here? Out of all the planets in our solar system, why come to our world??

Optimus Prime?s voice grew solemn. ?We have come in search of what I will categorize for you as the Energon Cube. This unimaginably ancient entity is the container of a supreme power that imbues us with the gift of?for you I will call it simply ?spark?. This designation is an oversimplification an order of magnitude and significance far beyond your ability to comprehend. We are here in search of it, because we must find the Cube before Megatron.?

?Who?or what?is a Megatron?? Sean asked.

?We were once brothers, in the sense that you understand the term. But Megatron lost his way. It was no longer enough for him to control himself. He became obsessed with the idea of controlling everything. He turned those he could dominate against those he could not. Instead of builders, they became destroyers. For their betrayal of everything that our kind had always stood for, those who turned now bear the name Decepticons.?

From his eyes a three-dimensional image appeared in the clear night air: a view of an incredible battle taking place on an alien world composed of metal and other non-organic compounds. As the view shifted, the earthlings were exposed to scenes of flaming craters, destruction on an unimaginable scale, mile upon mile of total devastation. The surface was littered with limbs and heads and other pieces of lifeless machines. And everywhere there was fire, and smoke, and death. The sight was enough to terrify Eduardo, leaving Alissa to calm him down with a gentle rub over his furry back.

The view shifted again to show a ship descending. Its physical appearance was like nothing the group from Foster?s had ever seen. In the process of touching down, it transformed. Though seen only from behind, the immense outline managed to convey an aura of overpowering menace. Standing over a crippled Autobot, it reached down and plunged a fist into the other?s metal chest. Steely fingers yanked back out a handful of flickering energy. The pulse of energy rapidly faded to nothingness, as did the light in the lenses of the robot lay dying on the ground.

?For eons,? Optimus continued, ?our world was locked in the stalemate that resulted from Megatron?s actions. The endless combat all but exhausted our resources and nearly extinguished our kind. Those few who survived finally decided the only way to put an end to it was to flee.? A deafening bellow emerged from the figure identified as Megatron as the final image faded.

Ironhide supplied further enlightenment. ?Only the Cube can reanimate our face, allowing us to repopulate our world. That is why Megatron desires it. He will at last obtain the power he has always sought over the future of our kind.?

Once more, Optimus Prime took up the account. ?In the course of eons of fighting, the Cube was flung out into space. I and my companions as well as Megatron and his ilk have been searching for it ever since. We have finally succeeded in tracing its present position to your planet.? The group from Foster?s exchanged a look as the mechanoid continued. ?When it crashed here it transmitted a signal that took long to reach our world. Megatron was the first to follow it here, pursuing it immediately after it was cast out of Cybertron. His arrival was imperfect and on a part of your world suitable for delaying him. He succumbed to ever-shifting ice.?

Frankie?s eyes widened with recognition?her dream?it was true.

?Unfortunately, Samantha Foster?s discovery and subsequent physical encounter triggered a tiny part of Megatron?s hitherto dormant internal configuration.? Ratchet stated. ?The resultant luminal reaction left a coded physical imprint on her portable prosthetic lenses.?

?Her glasses? The map to this Cube is imprinted on her glasses?? Frankie remarked.

?The Cube still resides on your world,? Jazz said. ?But we can no longer detect its signal. It has been?blocked by something.?

?If we find it, we will return it to our homeworld.? Ratchet mentioned.

?If the Decepticons reach it first,? Optimus added, ?they will use it to rebuild their armies. They will begin this process by transforming Earth?s machines. Once that is accomplished, there will of course no longer be any reason or need for your world to continue to provide support and sustenance to irrelevant carbonoids. Megatron will see to it that these wasteful life-forms are extinguished.?

?Excuse me?? Frankie murmured uncertainly.

?Plants. Animals. You.?

A significant silence ensued. It was only broken when Mac eventually looked over to Frankie.

?Please tell me you have those glasses??

END OF CHAPTER SEVEN

[Xroc88]

Frankie better have those glasses.