Hey everybody, and welcome to Brave Kid's "Masterforce: Animated, the Reboot"! (And just in time for Christmas, too!)

This story has already been published in its entirety by Gage39 (who also wrote a sequel, in case you're interested), so if you've read that then you already know what the plot of this story is. That being said, I was asked to present it in my own personal style of writing, so I'm giving it a go!

Chapter 1:

Where are We?!

In the years to come, whenever Sari Sumdac chose to look back at this particular moment in her life, she would always come to the conclusion that the Jet-Twins were a few chips short of a microcomputer.

In fact, they probably had no business being on active duty, given their repeated and flagrant lack of anything approaching common sense.

Of course, one had to wonder what that said about Sari, given that she had been the one to say yes when the twins offered to give her and Bumblebee a tour of Sentinel Prime's ship.

(Well, in all actuality Jetfire and Jetstorm just wanted to give the femme youngling a tour, but they liked Bumblebee enough not to mind when he tagged along. Jetstorm was pretty sure he had just as good a chance at impressing the pretty "organic Minicon" as Bumblebee did.)

She'd been sitting on Bumblebee's shoulder, trying not to doze off as Optimus and Sentinel talked. ("Talked" a word here meaning "Sentinel is trying to shout and intimidate and bully Optimus and Optimus is having none of it". ) At the moment, the current topic of dissent was changing every three seconds, so Sari wasn't certain if they were fighting about "a half-Pretender Minicon" (whatever that was) being a member of the team, or the fact that Optimus had just called Sentinel an "Over-confident, under-intelligent, entitled little Decepticon-reject". Yeah, it was probably that second one.

"Psst!"

Sari and Bumblebee looked around to see a cheerful gap-toothed grin flashing at them from the shadows. It seemed that even the twins, who had once idolized Sentinel Prime, were getting pretty sick of his power-tripping.

"Ey, Sari! Do you want to see our ship?" Jetstorm whispered.

"Yeah! We can be showing it to you!" Jetfire popped up from behind his brother's shoulder, fiddling with his goggles. It didn't take much to convince Sari that anything was better than sitting there and listening to the Primes argue.

"Mind if I come too?" Bumblebee discreetly gestured towards Optimus and Sentinel. "Those two are about to go nuclear, and I don't wanna stick around for the fallout!"

The Twins' enthusiasm seemed to fade just the slightest bit, but they weren't about to leave a fellow Autobot in the lurch. "Come then, quickly before they are noticing us!" Jetfire beckoned to them.

Touring the interior of the ship turned out to be rather like walking into a china shop with preschoolers on a sugar rush. While showing her and Bumblebee around, Jetfire and Jetstorm had to touch literally everything, and show them how it all worked. And naturally, once they got to try it out, Bumblebee had to try it out, and overall Sari began to feel as though herding cats would have been simpler. It was a great relief to the young femme when they came at last to the Space Bridge chamber in the back of the ship, near the quantum engines. If they were viewing the Bridge, then it meant that the tour was nearly over. Sari wasn't eager to go back outside to where Optimus and Sentinel were doubtless still fighting, but Jetstorm was becoming a little exhausting, and Jetfire was just goading him on.

"So…" Sari powered up her jetpack and hovered next to the door. "You guys really keep a Space Bridge in here? It doesn't look big enough to hold something like a Transwarp Bridge."

"Da! We really are keeping it here!" Jetfire crowed happily.

"Yeah, Space Bridges are not quite the same things as Transwarp Bridges. I'm thinking they are more specific," Jetstorm agreed.

Sari's optics widened as the door slid open, revealing a chamber lined with consoles and heavy cables. In the center sat a scaled-down model of a Transwarp Bridge, with a more rounded frame to fit into the hold of the Elite Guard ship.

"Wow!" she breathed, "Bulkhead would love this!" The girl flew close to the structure and laid a hand on it. Thoughts drifted through her mind of the many places she'd been and things she'd seen. "It must be nice," she sighed, "Being able to go wherever you want to, whenever you want to."

Her mind traveled to Cybertron, thinking of the home and heritage she had never known. Prowl had once promised to take her to see the place where he had once guarded her and her many stasis-locked siblings, but for now she had no way to get there.

"Well," Bumblebee interrupted her thoughts, answering her last statement, "I mean, they could go anywhere they want as long as it isn't here. Y'know, 'cause Omega Supreme blew up our Bridge." He sounded a little annoyed.

"Oh come on, 'Bee," Sari lightly thwacked his shoulder, making a tiny clink sound. "He was just trying to help! Besides, he did take most of the Decepticons with him."

"Most of them." Bumblebee grumbled.

"Ack! Prekrati! Brother, do not touch that," Jetfire cried out in alarm as he spotted his twin leaning casually against one of the lit consoles.

Jetstorm jumped away from the buttons, but the damage had already been done. The floor began to vibrate as a low groaning sound built up into a steady hum that rose steadily in pitch and volume. From a point in the center of the Bridge frame, a small point of light appeared and expanded rapidly into a whirlpool of bluish-green light. A force like gravity began to tug on the young Autobots, dragging them towards the portal.

Sari tried to fly against the pull, but to no avail. "You idiots!" she snapped, "What did you do?!"

"I am not the idiot!" Jetfire protested, managing to point at his brother, "Jetstorm did it!"

"I don't care who did it!" Bumblebee yelled, trying to grab hold of something - anything - to keep himself from being pulled in, "I want that thing turned off!"

"You are not Prime!" Jetstorm pulled a face at the older mech.

"JETSTORM!" everyone shouted.

"Alright alright!" a petulant look eclipsed his visored features. "But I think the button is broke. I cannot make it stop!"

Steadily, the Bridge drew the four younglings closer and closer until they each clung to the frame in a last, desperate attempt to stay in the chamber. Sari's optics glowed an angry blue out from under her helm as she locked her gaze on the orange and blue mechs across from her.

"Boys, if we survive this, I will kill you both," she ground out from between gritted teeth. Then she lost her grip and the world spun into blackness.

W-what? Where?

There was a bright light, shining red behind her eyelids, but Sari couldn't bring herself to open her eyes yet. She could feel something soft and prickly beneath her back, and trailing against her cheek as the air filled with the lazy drone of insects.

Wait.

Insects?

Sari blinked and looked up at the leaves of a tree over her head, utterly confused. As the last thing she remembered was being pulled through the Bridge, the only logical conclusion she could think of was that this - wherever this was - was where the Bridge had spat them out. Provided it hadn't separated them all, of course. So far as she knew, Earth was the only planet in the sector capable of supporting organic life, so unless Saturn had suddenly decided to start a "keep our planet green" project, she had to still be on her own world.

With a soft groan, the girl slowly turned her head to the side, and found herself looking straight into the tanned features of a boy only a little younger than herself. With a muffled exclamation of surprise, she shot up into a sitting position and discovered two more boys at the base of the tree in a considerably uncomfortable-looking tangle of arms and legs. She would have guessed that they'd fallen out of the tree and been knocked unconscious, but they seemed oddly familiar. Sari ran her hands through her hair - only mildly surprised to discover that her armor had retracted, evidently deciding that she was in no danger - and tried to get her bearings.

The tree and the small, grassy area surrounding it unfolded into a larger park-like area. It looked a lot like a place in Detroit that her father used to take her to for picnics. Well, perhaps one of the boys knew where she was, or how she had gotten there. For a moment, Sari had a terrible mental image of herself plummeting through the atmosphere and knocking the trio unconscious and hoped that it wasn't what had happened. Grumbling to herself, the techno-organic femme gently shook the boy who was next to her.

"Hey, hey, you okay?"

He mumbled something for a second before shooting upright with a screech. Sari leaped back to avoid being struck by flailing limbs as the shorter teen dropped his head into his hands groaning. Sympathetically, Sari sat down again and brushed dead grass off of his bright yellow jacket.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." she apologized.

"S-sari?" the boy groaned in an all-too-familiar voice, "Ohhhh my aching processor!"

Sari's optics widened. "Ah, darn."

She poked the boy in the cheek, justifiably unsettled by feeling flesh instead of metal. "Bumblebee, what happened?"

Bumblebee blinked his baby blues at her questioningly for a moment before glancing down at his hands. With a shriek that would have woken the dead, he tried to stand up, tripped over his own feet, and landed flat on his back.

"No! No! We're back in Soundwave's virtual world! How did this happen, Sari? We've got to get out of here!" Panic set in and tears beaded up in the teen's eyes. "I don't wanna be a virtual human!" he wailed, "I wanna be a me!"

Sari tried to get his attention for a few seconds with no visible success before she lost patience. "Oh knock it off!" she snapped, smacking him upside the head, "We're not going to figure anything out by sitting around and crying!"

"I'm not crying!" Bumblebee sniffled, "My optics are just leaking. Organics do that sometimes!"

A groan from behind them alerted the pair that the other two boys had regained consciousness. With a sigh, Sari stood and moved to untangle the two. "Here, come on. You guys had a nasty fall."

The slightly taller boy in the blue flightsuit tried to stand on wobbly legs and settled for leaning against a tree. "Oog," he groaned, twisting the ball-cap over his short brown hair, "My processor is aching!"

Still sitting on the ground, the twin in the orange flightsuit nodded dismally. "Mine too!"

Sari walked away, grumbling.

"Sari?" Bumblebee gulped.

"Nope. Sari is in Face-Palm Land right now." the femme replied sharply.

Bee turned back to the two lanky boys at the tree. "Uh...Jet-twins?" he asked.

"What?" they asked in unison. They blinked slowly before the situation hit them and they jumped back.

"Gyaaah!"

"Brother, you look prichudlivyy! What did you do?" Jetfire giggled, poking his twin.

"You are also looking different, Brother! I didn't do anything!" Jetstorm snickered, poking back.

Bumblebee glared up at the pair, who were a good head taller than him - and yet appeared to be at least a year younger - and tapped his foot impatiently. "This is all your fault!" he growled, "If Jetstorm hadn't been playing with that control board, we wouldn't be stuck in these fleshie bodies!"

Jetstorm crossed his arms and pouted. "It isn't being my fault!" he whined.

"Yeah!" Jetfire jumped in front of his twin, full of fraternal protectiveness. "It was your responsibility, not Jetstorm's!"

Flabbergasted, Bumblebee stood making soundless gesticulations in the air a moment before finding his voice again. "My responsibility!? You Autobrats were the ones who took us on the tour in the first place!"

This was, of course, completely true. But the Twins had locked themselves into Solidarity Mode and were not likely to back down any time soon. They sniffed and glanced haughtily down at the brightly-clad boy.

"Well you are older Autobot, you should have been stopping us!" Jetstorm smirked.

Bumblebee was beginning to turn a fascinating shade of vermilion as Sari decided to exit Face-Palm Land and lend a hand.

"As much as I'd like to see the ultimate - and I'm guessing messy - end of this conflict," she said sarcastically, "I think the most logical thing for us to do right now is to go looking for my Dad and the others. They'll probably know what to do with us."

It was quickly agreed that this was much more productive than standing around and arguing, so the quartet began to make their way towards the city. For five blessed minutes, all was quiet, and they were able to enter the city in peace. Of course, it was too good to last, and before they'd gone past the third traffic light the arguing had picked up again. Sari had just begun to quietly plot to herself varying creative ways to dispose of her three comrades when she was distracted by a commotion up ahead.

In an intersection curiously devoid of people, something like a cross between an Old West bar-room brawl and a Power Rangers battle had broken out. At the heart of it was Optimus - no real surprise there - alongside Prowl. They appeared to be fighting two flying Decepticons she didn't recognize. While this was not a scene she was unfamiliar with, there was something off about it, like walking into a room to find one piece of furniture out of place.

It wasn't until Optimus caught one of the two Decepticons by the wing and pulled the unfortunate down that Sari was able to put her finger on it. The Optimus she knew had been primarily a rescue-mech who was more of a think-on-your-feet type who used a fire-axe. The Optimus she was looking at now seemed almost as though he had years of experience in fist-fights and grappling. Her attention was drawn back to the Decepticons when the purple jet swooped low, firing on Prime until he released the blue one. The latter then pulled off a fairly impressive set of aerial maneuvers in the confined space, making a steep climb until both Decepticons were out of the way of the taller buildings.

With a mighty shout of "Wing Cross!", the two suddenly combined - much in the fashion of Jetfire and Jetstorm - into a multicolored superjet, considerably larger than Safeguard. Prowl and Prime dodged frantically as the combiner rained down a heavy suppressive fire on them.

"We gotta help them!" Bumblebee started for the intersection, only for Sari to catch him by the collar and drag him back behind a concrete road barrier.

"Not like that you can't!" she scolded, "Remember how you never let me fight when I was a little kid? Same principle." The boy scowled at her, but was unable to argue.

"T-then maybe you go help them?" Jetfire offered in a squeak. The idea was not without merit.

"Okay, here's the plan," Sari - being the only one with actual experience being human - quickly decided that she was the leader of the "team" and drew up an impromptu battle plan. "You three stay here, out of sight, unless I call you. I'm going to get closer, but I won't jump in unless things get hairy. You know how Optimus gets about me fighting." All four grimaced at the thought of the generally overprotective Prime.

As Sari crept closer to the fight, she missed Jetstorm whisper to Jetfire, "Why would things be growing hair?"

Once she was within three yards of the fight, the femme youngling realized she probably wouldn't be needed at all. Prowl activated his hologram clones and moved about in a flurry. The Decepticon combiner fired indiscriminately at anything Prowl-shaped, allowing the original to attack from varying angles. He moved so quickly that he almost appeared to be teleporting as he flung throwing stars first from one roof, then from another. All this was merely diversion, however, to give Prime time to act.

Unexpectedly, the familiar red-and-blue Autobot shouted in a rather unfamiliar voice, "Super Ginrai!" An 18-wheeler trailer that had sat placidly at the side of the street for the duration of the fracas shot forward and combined with Optimus's body, re-forming into a considerably taller warrior.

"Holy transforming megazords, Batman!" Sari blurted out, shocked beyond belief. She was positive that Optimus hadn't been able to do that that morning. And as far as she knew, it was impossible for a Cybertronian to upgrade themselves that quickly - at least, not without a Key, which you don't have anymore, her thoughts added unhelpfully.

The combiner seemed to take this as a challenge, and swooped low, scraping its wingtips against the buildings around it. Optimus didn't stop for banter, or warning, or any plan of attack. He charged forward, fists clenched. A bright light seemed to be coming from his armor, distorting his appearance somewhat. With a low growl, Prime spread out his hands, and Sari yelped as chunks of loose pavement rose up into the air, surrounded by the same energy field projecting from the large mech.

"Not again!" the Decepticon(s) snarled. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, the combiner wheeled away, breaking off his/their attack. "Another day, perhaps, Autobot."

Prowl came to stand on the rooftop beside Prime, and both mechs shared a disapproving glance before turning to survey the damaged intersection...and the tiny, armored figure waving at them from below.

Prowl jolted. "That's...not one of ours, is it?" he murmured to the other as he squinted from the roof.

Sari activated her jetpack and flew up to hover in front of the titans. "That was pretty sweet, boss-bot! But...what happened to you?"

Prime stared at her without the slightest shred of comprehension in his optics. "Do you know her?" he whispered to Prowl, "I didn't think there were Minicons on this planet."

Prowl frowned and stroked his chin. "I do not believe she is a Minicon," he observed, "Nor is she an acquaintance of mine."

Beneath her battle-mask, Sari frowned. "Come on, guys, knock it off! Of course you know me, unless there's another band of identical Autobots who have been half-raising me!" She snorted and crossed her arms. "Seriously, Optimus, enough with the jokes. You were never any good at them anyway."

The red and blue mech blinked and leaned away from her. "My name," he said, shifting down into a red and white semi truck, still attached to the trailer, "Is not Optimus Prime."

The door of the truck popped open and out stepped a dark-haired man in his late teens or early twenties. He shook out a beat-up leather jacket and slung it over his shoulder as he offered Sari an apologetic grin. "My name is Ginrai," he said.

Just as Sari was beginning to think that Bumblebee's theory about being trapped in Soundwave's virtual world weren't as far-fetched as she thought, Prowl also shifted down into a motorcycle with a human man sitting atop it. It looked exactly like his holoform, but it was certainly not a hologram. The sound of sneakers against pavement warned Sari that the boys had decided not to stay put after all.

Jetfire waved his arms vaguely at the two men. "What! What? What. What? What?!"

"Prowl?! Buddy, I know you love the human species, but what happened?!" Bumblebee managed to squawk after a few breathless seconds. As he had before, Prowl - or rather, the policeman - made a confused face.

"I...I am sorry, have we met before, young man?" he asked politely.

Sari began to pray for a distraction. Something - anything - to break the extremely awkward silence that fell after Prowl attempted to introduce himself. A distraction was promptly provided in the form of three Autobots who looked to be younger than even the Jet-Twins. The first, a pink and white femme about a head shorter than Prowl normally was, skidded to a halt at the sight of the collected humans. Behind her, a slightly taller mech youngling decorated in blue, black, and white nearly plowed right into the femme. He did a rather impressive course-correct at the last moment and windmilled his arms wildly to keep from tipping over. A second mechling in bright red and orange careened around the corner and ran smack into the blue and white Autobot, and both were hard pressed to keep upright.

"We're - huff huff - here!" the femme announced, bent slightly as if catching her breath.

"Can we help?" the red mech asked eagerly.

Ginrai offered the trio a lopsided smile and shook his head. "Sorry, guys, it's already taken care of."

"Awww!" The blue younging drooped in a dramatic show of disappointment. "We missed all the action again!" As he pouted, he transformed into a rather odd-looking police car.

Having already seen humans masquerading as her friends, Sari was not as surprised as she could have been to see a human boy tumble out of the car. She was in a bit of shock to realize that the boy was only about twelve years old. There was a smudge of dirt across his nose, and his dark hair stuck out in several different directions at once.

"By the Allspark!" Bumblebee whispered to Sari, "I didn't think humans were allowed to drive that young!"

"They most certainly are not!" she whispered back.

The other two younglings followed their friend's example and transformed into a rather unorthodox pink rescue helicopter and a somewhat scaled-down firetruck. As with the police car, the drivers of the false-Cybertronians turned out to be children, sixth grade at the oldest. The helicopter pilot - a petite blonde girl in a school uniform - adjusted the bright red bow at her collar and stared curiously at Sari's armor. The boy beside her was taller, though still perhaps a head shorter than Sari, and appeared to be wearing either a toga or a bedsheet. Sari found herself thinking that the boy could have used a good haircut, as the giant ponytail of blue was probably a liability in battle.

Jetfire tilted his head and stared at the three children, tipping his entire torso to one side to do so. "Can humans be changing into Cybertronians?" he asked in a suspicious tone, "Because I always was thinking they could not."

Bumblebee patted him on the back in what was meant to be a reassuring manner. "Yeah, no. That's...that's not supposed to happen. At least, I don't think so."

The three middle schoolers glanced at Prowl and the young man calling himself Ginrai, who in turn looked to Prowl and then back to Bumblebee, the Jet-Twins, and Sari. Despite the yellow femme's recognition of them, Ginrai had no idea who they were. It bothered him, because there was just something off about the quartet. Well, besides the part where he couldn't tell if the femme was a Minicon, or some kind of Headmaster like the children.

"Look," he said, shrugging on his jacket. "You want answers? So do we. Why don't you guys hitch a ride with us back to the base, and we can work it all out there?" He ignored Prowl's alarmed look until the man cleared his throat softly.

"I would hesitate to say that's a wise decision, Commander. For all we know, they could be spies for the Decepticons."

"Hey!" Bumblebee yelled, "I resent that"

Sari clapped a hand over his mouth with a hissed, "Shut up!" Once her friend had quieted a little, she turned to the human who appeared to be in charge.

"Okay, we'll go with you."

Ginrai nodded and opened the passenger-side door of the semi cab. "Alright, you four can ride with me." He waved to the others. "The rest of you, roll out and tell the others we're going to have company."

The cab of the truck had not been built to accommodate five human beings, and they all found themselves rather squished. Having never been on the inside of a vehicle that wasn't a ship of some kind, Jetfire and Jetstorm gingerly poked the seats as if worried they would swallow them whole.

"What is this?" Jetstorm asked, pinching the fabric between two fingers.

Sari acted as though she didn't see the weird look Ginrai sent the taller of the Jet-Twins, and attempted to explain. "That's called upholstery. You know, seat cushions. Humans are more fragile than Cybertronians, and need it to protect them."

Bumblebee stretched obnoxiously, arms flung out and across his three seat-mates. "Yeah! And it makes sitting down much more comfortable!" he yawned.

"Oh." Jetstorm seemed satisfied with the answer, but instantly thought of another question to ask. And another. And another. In fact, for the duration of the ride to the Autobot base, Sari and Ginrai attempted to deal with questions about everything from the purpose of a speedometer to the reason for cupholders.

At last the truck pulled up in front of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse, constructed of drab, unwelcoming cement. As the heavy garage door rolled upwards, Sari found herself thinking At least some things never change. She climbed over the boys to sit beside the truck door and was readying herself to hop out when she realized that the place was empty. No big-screen tv, no couch, no makeshift kitchen, even the factory equipment looked as though it hadn't been touched in years. Might've spoken too soon...Sari scanned the room desperately for some kind of proof that giant alien robots lived there, but there was nothing.

In the drivers seat, Ginrai ran his thumb over a small button or sensor on one of the strange gold cuffs around his wrists, and a high tone rang out. In response, a hole opened up in the floor, revealing a long ramp down into a brightly-lit space. The semi truck rolled smoothly down, and near the base of the ramp the Twins noticed Prowl (or not-Prowl, they weren't sure yet) and the three children beside their vehicles. Ginrai parked the truck and jumped out, followed by the others. Sari deactivated her armor and ran her hands through her dark red hair, open-mouthed.

"Wow…" she breathed, staring at the sophisticated setup. It looked like a hybrid of the inside of the Elite Guard ship and something out of a spy movie. Adding to the strange organization-like feel of the secret base was the fact that it was crowded. There were humans all over the place - and Sari noticed that the little girl with the helicopter appeared to be the only other female.

A rather distinguished-looking man in a business suit looked up at Sari and her team and his eyebrows nearly met his hairline. Sari thought they were going to fly right off his face when he heard Bumblebee whine, "Wah! There are so many humans in here! What's going on?!"

The businessman (or so he appeared to be) marched over with a stern expression that reminded Sari more of Optimus Prime than anything. Folding his arms, he addressed Ginrai in a kind, but slightly stern, tone.

"Ginrai, who are these children?" he asked, "And why would you bring them here?"

"It's, well, it's a long story." Ginrai admitted, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

A snort came from right behind the serious man, and a smiling teenaged boy with auburn hair moved to stand beside him. "Knowing the Commander," he pointed out, "I'm sure it's an interesting tale!"

"Yes indeed," said the businessman, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind explaining the situation, right Ginrai?" There was a touch of humor under the placid tone, and Sari caught a twinkle in the man's eyes.

Ginrai made a playful salute and turned to his "strays". "Okay, I guess we should start with some introductions, right? Right."

He motioned to the man in the suit, "This upstanding gentleman is Hawk, the redhead snickering is Lightfoot, and that unfortunately hideous fellow at the end of the row of computers is Road King."

"Ugly?!" Road King - who was really quite good-looking - spluttered, "I'll have you know, sir, that I won the Grand Prix without so much as breaking a sweat! That's more than I can say for you, Mr. Truck Driver!"

Ginrai leaned over and threw a friendly arm around Bumblebee's shoulders. "You notice, he didn't deny being ugly!" he said cheerfully. Then he turned his attention back to Road King.

"Easy to win the Grand Prix when that car the old man gave you does all the work, right?" he teased.

It might have come to blows if Hawk hadn't stepped between the two men with a pointed look. "You two can go back to insulting and bludgeoning each other later if you like," he said, "But at the moment we have more important matters to deal with."

Turning away from the two, he bowed slightly to Sari. "Perhaps you would care to tell us how you got here and why?" His warm smile set the quartet somewhat more at ease, and having named herself unofficial leader of what she had dubbed the Transwarp Quartet - name subject to change - , Sari spoke for them all.

"Like - Commander? - Ginrai said, it's a long story, but if you've got time I'd love to tell you." The girl shot a poisonous look at the Jet-Twins, who would have wandered away had Bumblebee not grabbed their arms. "The Twins here wanted to give Bumblebee and me a tour of their ship, and thought it'd be a good idea to monkey around in the Space Bridge room. Someone-" and here she stared very hard at Jetstorm "- accidentally activated the thing. The four of us got dragged through by the energy vortex and woke up outside the city with them as humans."

Hawk blinked. "I'm sorry, but...why would the boys being human surprise you?"

"Well, the last time I saw them, they were giant alien robots," Sari replied with a touch of sarcasm.

Hawk did not react to the sarcasm. "That is what we are," he said mildly. "We disguise ourselves as humans."

Sari blinked for a moment, not sure what to make of this revelation. "Well they don't," she said, pointing at the boys. "They turn into vehicles. I've known the species for - well, since I was sparked, but that's a whole other story - for a long time, and I'm pretty sure they would've told me if being a human and a vehicle was an option. You can scan humans as an alt-mode, but then you can't be a car or anything." As if to demonstrate her point, Sari summoned her armor and then deactivated it.

"All the same," Bumblebee piped up as he attempted to keep Jetfire and Jetstorm from pushing buttons or pulling levers, "That's actually kind of cool. How do you go from humans to robots and back?"

Prowl had been at a console in the back of the chamber, reading a report of some kind for most of the conversation, but now he stood and walked towards the gang, smiling at them.

"Perhaps it would be best if we were to show you rather than tell you, my young friend," he said. Standing side by side, Hawk and Prowl crossed their wrists and shouted, "Suit On!" in commanding tones. Cybertronian basic armor, modified for human anatomy appeared over their bodies exactly the way it did when Sari summoned hers. The two exchanged a smile at the flabbergasted looks on their guests' faces and upped the ante, crying out, "Pretender!"

The armor extended up and up, changing and shifting until the two figures standing before them were the Prowl they knew from their universe and blue and gold Autobot seeker, whose red wings stood out against the rest of his paint scheme.

"That's cool." Bumblebee managed after a shocked silence, "Really cool."

"Brother, look! He is being flyer, like us!" Jetfire squealed happily, "We are not alone!"

Sari was certainly impressed, although the suits of armor raised more questions than they answered. Crossing her arms, she spoke up again. "Alright, Mr. Hawk. I told you everything we know, so now it's your turn. What's going on?"

As Metalhawk returned to his secondary (human) alt-mode, he looked a little hesitant. "Under the circumstances, I don't know for sure," he admitted. "It could be that some interference with your Space Bridge set you in a different state of phase and dropped you into some parallel universe. As to why your friends became humans, well I haven't the slightest clue, I'm afraid." He twitched slightly at the familiar crack-hiss of a soda can opening.

Ginrai took a swig of the carbonated drink and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Cool, sounds like an old sci-fi show!" he commented. With a slightly disgusted sound, Prowl - still in his full Autobot form - leaned down and pushed the man away from the children.

"Please ignore the man behind the console," he said dryly, "He isn't a real Pretender."

"What is Pretender?" Jetfire asked, wide-eyed.

Hawk raised his eyebrows and beckoned to the quartet. "Come with me."

He led them to a room adjoined to the first, barely separated by a partial wall. In the center was a low indentation containing a hologram projector. Hawk bent down and turned it on, projecting an image of a very familiar planet. Taking the tone of a lecturing professor, Hawk faced the teens and began to explain.

"We are Autonomous Robotic Organisms - or, Autobots - from the planet Cybertron. Our bitter rivals are a faction of our species called Decepticons. During the early days of the great War, a handful of us left Cybertron to chase down a particular band of Decepticons we'd been fighting."

The projector began to cycle through pictures of many and varied planets and solar systems as Hawk talked. "From one end of the universe to the other, through star system after star system we hunted them until at last they led us to this little galaxy. We very nearly caught them, and engaged in a fierce battle during which our ships were damaged. Both the Decepticons and the Autobots were forced to make emergency landings on the third planet from the sun, and the Autobots managed to defeat our enemies and seal them away in the four corners of the Earth."

Hawk turned off the projector and sat down on the edge of the indentation with a wistful look. "Of course, after that we discovered that we had no way to return to our homeworld. But we had each become - well, not to sound cliche or anything, but - enchanted with the organic sentients that inhabited this planet. Such spirited and unexpectedly brave little folk, humans are. Rather like the way hobbits must appear to humans." He chuckled a little. "Each of us decided that if we could not return to our own people, we might as well adopt the human people as our new family. We took the forms of human men and have been living among you for centuries ever since."

It was a little staggering, to say the least, and opened up a whole new world of possibilities for transformation as far as Sari was concerned. She thought the part about being "enchanted" by humanity was a little sappy, but overall rather touching. Jetfire found himself wondering if these "Pretenders" were some kind of triple-changer, and whether he might be able to do it too...well, provided he ever got his real body back. Jetstorm mostly wanted to know why he wasn't a giant robot anymore.

"So…" Bumblebee straightened his ball-cap and motioned to Ginrai and the three children from before, who were standing in the open doorway. "Are those guys Pretenders too?"

Hawk shook his head. "No," he said. "You see, some newer Decepticons arrived on Earth years later, and they freed the ones we had trapped. They had discovered a way to transform humans into a hybrid species via the use of a kind of gold bracelet that they wear. It bonds the wearer with a Transtector - which, as best we can describe, is a vehicle made out of an unusual kind of rock that even we can't identify."

He beckoned to the blonde girl, who hurried to stand next to him and showed a pair of silver bracelets on her slim wrists. "These are a variation of the gold-Cybertronium bracelets that Ginrai wears; the ones made of silver-titanium alloy allow a human to become the headpiece of a Transtector body. We call them Headmasters." The Autobot-man put a hand on the girl's shoulder and both smiled. "In the case of Minerva here, and the boys, Cab and Shūta, We call them Headmaster Juniors. They have a limited amount of power, so they mainly function as an Autobot Rescue Team."

As Hawk led Minerva, Sari, and the three boys back to the main control room, he paused to point out the golden cuffs on Ginrai's wrists. The younger man still leaned casually on the doorframe, soda can dangling from one hand.

"The ones we call Godmasters, like Ginrai and Lightfoot, have much more firepower than the Headmaster Juniors, and are considerably stronger. We've run several tests, but so far it looks like they contain an almost unlimited source of power. Ginrai, however, has double that amount. That is why, if you stay with us long enough to witness some battles, you may hear us refer to him as Super Ginrai."

"Yeah," Ginrai joked. "I'm way cooler than the rest of these idiots."

"No, you're not," Road King said.

Hawk ignored the pair and continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "The two Decepticons that you saw Ginrai and Prowl fighting earlier are brothers. Their names are Hydra and Buster. Like Ginrai and Lightfoot, they are Godmasters, but they chose to join the Decepticons. They seem to think that since there are two of them, they can beat Super Ginrai. But, as can well be imagined, so far they haven't succeeded."

"Sir." Prowl had long since returned to his human body, and had printed up the report he had been reading earlier. He tapped his chin thoughtfully as he gazed down at the printed sheets. "I think they were sent out to lure us away from that shipment for Sumdac Systems."

"You're usually right, Prowl. I don't doubt it," Hawk agreed.

At the name "Sumdac", the four members of Sari's team snapped to attention - not that they hadn't been listening before - and glanced at each other uneasily.

"What do you mean? What's happening with my father's company?" Sari demanded, crossing her arms and glaring at Prowl, Hawk, and anyone else she thought might have answers.

"Wait, you're Powell's daughter?" Ginrai exclaimed. He sounded ever so slightly nauseated by the idea.

"Powell?"

Sari sounded equally nauseated, and behind her, Bumblebee mimed a heaving action. "No way! Gross! I'm Sari Sumdac! My father is Isaac Sumdac. You know, the inventor? Created Sumdac Systems? Ringing any bells?"

"I'm afraid," Hawk said, casting a sympathetic look at the distraught femme, "that Powell runs Sumdac Systems now. It has become part of Isis Corp."

"Which is a front, owned by Decepticons." Road King added darkly.

"What?" Jetfire exclaimed.

"I am not even knowing Mr. Sumdac and I know that is bad!" Jetstorm said in a subdued tone.

Shūta swung his sneakers back and forth as he sat on the edge of the control boards and stared at the newcomers. The girl with the dark red hair was growing steadily paler, and seemed like she was wobbling a little bit. "Hey, it's Sari right?" the boy asked. "Are you okay?"

"I think," Sari said as she backed up, "I think…" Her eyes darted back and forth as she tried to process the information.

"I need some air." With that she turned and fled the room, leaving behind worried stares and a general feel of discomfort.

"Maybe I should go to talk to her?" Minerva asked softly, peering around Hawk's arm to look in the direction the older girl had run.

"Nah, it's okay. I'll do it," Bumblebee mumbled. No one else understood Sari the way he did, after all. She had almost lost her father once before: did she really have to go through it a second time? The teen-formerly-known-as-an-Autobot made a gesture that might've been a wave, and hurried up the ramp to the warehouse above in search of his best friend.

"Did I say something wrong?" Shūta asked, tone slightly plaintive. The third Headmaster Junior punched his arm playfully, then returned to spinning the swivel chair as fast as it would go.

"Yeah, probably." Cab snorted.

"Do the two of you mind staying here?" Hawk asked the Jet-Twins, "I know you're confused and possibly even a little frightened right now. I am sorry for that, truly. But there are some questions that we need to ask you."

The lanky boys signalled that he should wait a moment, then turned to quietly converse.

"Should we be trusting them?" Jetstorm whispered, "They seem nice, yes, but I do not want to be taken for fools."

"Well," Jetfire gnawed his lip, "What would Sentinel be telling us to do?"

At this thought, both boys snorted. "Sentinel will be saying that they are filthy organics and not to be near them." Jetstorm answered.

"Oh! That is settled then. We should be doing opposite of what Sentinel says to do." Jetfire grinned widely and turned back to Hawk.

"We be not minding," he answered.