I don't know how or why but I had to start this fic!
The Red and Black Chip
Cybertron: 14 Million Years Ago
Deep within the slums of the great cities on the Planet Cybertron, a secret lab with three Transformers were performing their final tests on their project. Within the lab the three scientist researchers, Alpha 5, Mainstream and Blowout were the only ones who knew the location of the lab and the research they were conducting was forbidden in Cybertron Law, the main reason they were forced to use a lab within the dark slums. Although Alpha 5 and Blowout were devoted to the research Mainstream was concerned with what they were making.
'Is this right?' asked the smaller bot.
'Mainstream, we've been through this over a hundred times now!' snapped Alpha 5, as he carefully picked out the outcome of the many cycles of research.
'This will benefit all of Cybertron!' said Blowout as he took the device out of Alpha 5's hand.
'You'll see! In the future someone will be grateful!'
Mainstream looked at his feet. He had a feeling that this wasn't such a good idea.
Earth: Present Day
'Do you think this is such a good idea?' asked Spike as he picked up a box and put it to the side.
'Of course it is!' replied Carly, sweeping the floor.
'But I wonder how Wheeljack will react!' pondered Chip, as he wheeled over with another box for Spike.
'Ahh, don't worry! He might be glad you did it!' said Bumblebee as he finished sorting out a pile of tools.
Spike, Carly, Chip and Bumblebee had been cleaning Wheeljack's workshop all day. The scientist was getting checked out by Ratchet and Carly wanted to surprise the mech by cleaning his messy workshop. Wheeljack had a reputation for being one of the messiest Autobots ever! The three humans had surprised themselves when they looked round at their progress. Of course, cleaning a workshop owned by a 20ft robot wasn't easy so they were grateful when Bumblebee offered to help. Soon the workshop looked clean and tidy and not the trash site that Wheeljack had a habit leaving it in. Carly looked round pleased with what they had done.
'This is perfect! He'll love it!' she squealed.
'I dunno. He might flip a circuit!' muttered Spike.
Carly looked at him, slightly angry.
'You men are all the same!' she snapped.
'You all like to live and work in a mess!'
'Technically, robots don't have genders!' explained Chip.
'What's that supposed to mean?' asked Bumblebee, surprised that Chip would say such a thing.
As the four friends argued they were unaware that Bluestreak had just passed the open door of Wheeljack's workshop. He looked at it not stopping and was surprised with what he saw.
'Wow! It's so tidy!' he thought to himself as he headed to Ratchet's medical bay.
Inside Wheeljack was closing up his Spark Housing Unit as Ratchet was typing something down on his computer. Bluestreak had come down to give a report to Ratchet and was glad he didn't have to get kicked out. Ratchet hated it when someone walked in on him examining someone unless it was really important.
'Well Wheeljack, you're as healthy as the first day you rolled of the commission line!' informed the medical officer.
'Good to know!' replied Wheeljack, hopping off the examining table and looking up to see Bluestreak walk in.
'Hey Bluestreak! How's it going?' asked the cheerful mech.
'Nothing much. By the way, your workshop is looking pretty clean today!' replied the young bot.
Wheeljack suddenly stopped being so cheerful. He looked at Bluestreak with optics that made the young bot jump back with fear. Ratchet looked up a little surprised to hear that Wheeljack's workshop was clean, it was always such a mess.
'What...do you mean...it's clean?' asked Wheeljack, in a very dangerous tone.
'W-well I just saw Spike, Carly, Chip and Bumblebee cleaning it and I just thought it looked clean!'
Before Bluestreak could say anything else, Wheeljack ran out the medical bay. Ratchet had heard the whole thing and he sighed.
'I better follow.' he muttered.
'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!' wailed Wheeljack, as he walked in to his now very tidy workshop.
The three humans looked up with uneasy faces and Bumblebee was just looking down, not wanting to see Wheeljack's angry optics. The mech was not pretty when he got mad. Wheeljack was just looking round in horror.
'YOU RUINED IT! MY PERFECT WORKSHOP!' he howled.
'It did need a clean up Wheeljack.' explained Carly, trying to calm him down.
Wheeljack looked at her with a death glare.
'I like working in a mess! I know where everything is and now...where's my wrench?' he muttered, looking around.
'In that drawer with the rest of your tools.' replied Chip.
Wheeljack howled in anger again and at that moment Ratchet and Bluestreak walked in. Ratchet looked round amazed but concerned. Wheeljack may be messy but he knew where everything was even if it was under a pile of trash. It was amusing though to see the scientist slumped on the floor in dispear.
'Wow, they really did clean it up!' he said, trying to cheer Wheeljack up.
Wheeljack looked at him, anger in his optics.
'You didn't mind me working in a mess!' he snapped.
As the bots tried to calm Wheeljack down, Spike leaned over to Carly, who noticed.
'Don't...say it.' she muttered.
Spike grinned and leaned in even closer to her ear so he could whisper,
'Told ya so!' replied Spike, earning a slap to the head from the blond.
After a while there was a knock at the door. Looking up they saw Jazz and Optimus Prime walking in. Prime was holding his head as if he had a headache and Jazz just looked round in awe.
'Prime ol buddy, I do believe we ain't in the right place.' said the 3rd in command.
Wheeljack walked over, a little embarrassed that Optimus had seen him very upset. Optimus was just rubbing his head and he seemed to be in a bit of pain. Wheeljack examined him before asking,
'What can I do for ya Prime?' he asked, suddenly calm.
Jazz began snickering as Optimus began to explain the reason for his visit.
'Well Jazz told me something...amusing...and I blew a personality circuit. I need a spare.' explained the leader of the Autobots.
Wheeljack glanced at Jazz, who was trying to hold a laugh from coming out.
'You told him the energon recharge berth joke, didn't you?' he asked.
The moment Wheeljack said it, Jazz fell over laughing like mad. Ratchet snickered and Bluestreak put his hand over his vocal processor and knelt over to prevent himself from falling. Bumblebee chuckled as well and the humans just looked confused.
'What joke?' asked Chip.
'Sorry Chip, I don't think you'd get it!' giggled Wheeljack.
Chip looked down in disappointment as Wheeljack walked over to his desk.
'So you need to replace a personality circuit?' chuckled Wheeljack as he opened a drawer.
After a moment he slammed it shut and glared back at Carly. Carly jumped back a little afraid, she had already made the Autobot mad and she had a feeling she knew why.
'What...did you do...with my spare circuits?' he said, in a very low tone.
'I put all the circuits in that box over there!' said Carly, pointing to a large box piled under a few others.
Wheeljack walked over and pulled the box from under the pile, causing the other boxes to fall and the contents fall all over the place making a small mess. Carly sighed as Wheeljack opened the box. Spike chuckled a little and Chip just sighed.
'You put all my circuits in here?' asked Wheeljack, realizing this was now going to be hard.
He used to keep circuits here and there and he knew where they were but now he had all different types of circuits in the same place. All he needed was a blank circuit to replace Prime's personality circuit and he started fishing around the box of jumbled circuits. He pulled the first one out and looked at it.
'Too small.' he muttered, throwing the circuit behind him.
He pulled another one out.
'Nope, too thick.' he muttered again, tossing it to the side.
Carly grumbled as Wheeljack began making the workshop a junk pile again. Spike just chuckled, he had a feeling that today's efforts were going to go to waste, Wheeljack made a mess where ever he went. Wheeljack continued pulling out circuits until he pulled a red and black one out. He looked at it with curiosity.
'I don't remember having this.' he said looking at it closely.
He turned to the humans.
'Where'd you get this?' he asked.
'I dunno.' replied Spike.
'I think that was what Bumblebee found.' said Chip.
Bumblebee walked over and had a look.
'Oh yeah! I found that under that pile of junk you brought back from Cybertron!' said the small yellow Autobot.
Wheeljack looked back at it. According to his sensors it was just a blank circuit, no special functions and no viruses were within it. The colour was unusual but nothing out of the ordinary. Wheeljack didn't even remember having this and for some reason it gave him the chills. Ignoring it he handed it over to Optimus.
'This should do. Just download the personality data into your backup mainframe and switch them round and then you can download the data into the circuit. Like the humans say, "easy as pie", whatever a pie is.'
Optimus took the circuit and looked at it. His sensors told him the same thing that Wheeljack's told him. It was an unusual circuit but nothing seemed special about it and it didn't seem dangerous. Shrugging it off he thanked Wheeljack and left the room to find a private place. Wheeljack looked round his workshop and sighed.
'It's gonna take forever to get this place back to the way it was.' he muttered.
'Knowing you Wheeljack that won't take too long!' snickered Jazz.
Optimus Prime sat down within his quarters and pulled the panel on the back of his head. He had already downloaded the personality into the backup mainframe and it was safe to pull out the burnt out one. He gently pulled it out and had a look at it. Completely burned out with a bit of smoke rising out it. Still he couldn't help but chuckle at what had happened that morning.
'Prime! Prime! Guess what! I got a new joke!' wailed Jazz.
Optimus was talking to Sparkplug at the moment but looked up to see an excited Jazz. Jazz always came up with funny jokes and they did make him chuckle from time to time. Sparkplug himself got interested.
'Cool, I always wanted to hear an Autobot joke!' he piped.
Jazz then began.
'Okay, okay. An Autobot walks into an energon recharge berth and asks to be refilled with ore-13 and ion-82. The medical officer asks, why mix the two?, and the Autobot says, Cause I've just been to sector 2286Alpha!'
The moment Jazz had finished with the punchline Optimus Prime began chuckling, then began laughing really loud, until he had to hold on a ledge for support to stop himself from falling over. Jazz was laughing too and he almost fell over. Sparkplug just looked confused. Suddenly there was a loud bang and both Sparkplug and Jazz jumped. Optimus grabbed the back of his head and wailed.
'Owowowowowowow. Oh jeez that hurts.' he muttered.
'You okay Prime?' asked Jazz looking at the back of his leader's head.
Sparkplug stepped up.
'I thought a bomb went off or something!' he said.
According to Prime's sensors, he blew one of his personality circuits. Prime sighed, figures that something like that would blow within him. To an Autobot it meant that they were getting old, the proof was that Ironhide blew his about 20 odd times! Standing up Prime began walking in the direction of Wheeljack's workshop, with Jazz following.
Prime chuckled again and picked up the circuit Wheeljack gave him. It did confuse him that this circuit gave him a funny feeling. Though his sensors said it was safe he couldn't help but think something was wrong with it. Shaking it off Prime inserted within him, maybe he could ask Wheeljack to repair his old one to get rid of this funny feeling. The moment the circuit settled within him, he suddenly felt a powerful jolt. He almost fell over and he gasped when his circuits began to heat up. He quickly activated his cooling systems and tried standing back up. After a moment the funny feeling had subsided and Prime felt like he was back to normal.
'Strange.' pondered the Autobot leader, as he closed up his head.
Optimus shook his head and left his quarters. He had replaced circuits in the past but it never did that to him before. Maybe because it was a different design then what Optimus was used to, it seemed to be the only logical explanation. Optimus began walking back to Wheeljack's workshop, wondering if it would still be clean.
Jazz, Ratchet and Bluestreak watched as Wheeljack began trying to find all of his tools where Bumblebee had put them. Bumblebee was a little disappointed that Wheeljack didn't even say thanks, then again he wouldn't like it if someone messed with his stuff, but still he could at least thank him. Wheeljack moaned and groaned as he opened cupboards and pulled open drawers. He looked back at Bumblebee.
'Where's my Ion-Reflexor?' he demanded.
'I put that with your power tools!' replied Bumblebee.
'Where are they?'
'Top drawer.'
'Which one?'
Bumblebee made a slight growl of frustration.
'Y'know Wheeljack you could at least thank us! We just wanted to help!'
'Well next time try asking me!' snapped Wheeljack.
'It was supposed to be a surprise!' argued the yellow Autobot.
Jazz leaned in close enough so that Ratchet could hear him. Ratchet looked over at Jazz curious at what he wanted.
'Five Energon cubes says Wheeljack wins!' whispered Jazz into the medical officers audio's.
'You're on!' whispered Ratchet, grinning as he looked back at the bickering Autobots.
Suddenly Optimus entered the room and walked up to the two Autobots until he stood between them. Jazz thought that things were now going to get interesting. Optimis was a little suprised to see Bumblebee and Wheeljack argue, they were two good friends and rarely fought with each other. He was used to seeing his men argue about small things and it didn't bother him unless it got serious. He tried to talk to Wheeljack, who didn't even realize he was there.
'Ummm, Wheeljack? I don't suppose you could...'
'IT'S CALLED APPRECIATION, I WAS TRYING TO HELP!' wailed Bumblebee.
'I DON'T CLEAN UP YOUR STUFF! WHY ME!?' howled Wheeljack.
'BECAUSE WHERE EVER THERES A MESS, YOU'RE BEHIND IT!'
Optimus looked back and forth between the two Autobots. Jazz snickered in the corner and Bluestreak tried to stop himself from laughing. Ratchet shook his head knowing that the two Autobots were going to get an audio-full later on. Prime just sighed and decided to break up the quarrel.
'Okay break it up you two!' he ordered.
'I'M NOT THE ONLY MESSY ONE HERE! YOU ALWAYS DIRTY THE FLOORS WHEN YOU COME BACK FROM PATROLS!'
'AT LEAST I TRY TO CLEAN IT UP!
Optimus growled in frustration. It figure that the two Autobots would ignore him. The other three Autobots just watched, expecting Prime to hit them on the heads.
'I said that's enough!' growled the Autobot leader.
The two Autobots ignored him and continued. Prime was starting to get angry and he started shouting.
'I TOLD YOU TWO TO STOP! NOW OBEY MY ORDERS!'
'YOU'RE UNGRATEFUL!' screamed Bumblebee.
'YOU'RE DISRESPECTFUL!' cried Wheeljack.
Prime suddenly felt an unusual urge within him. There were times when his men ignored him, but it was during jokes. The fact that his men were ignoring him now made the Autobot leader mad. Suddenly something within him sparked and he snarled.
'I SAID THAT'S ENOUGH!' he screamed.
Then without warning he hit both Wheeljack and Bumblebee across the chest, so hard that the two Autobots were flung across the room.
Both Carly and Spike looked up to see Wheeljack heading right for them and they both bolted out of the way just in time for Wheeljack to smash into a pile of his collection of oddities. Bumblebee hit the wall on the far side with such force he made a dent in the wall. He fell to the ground and whimpered in pain as the amour on his back had cracked opened to revel his circuits, that began sparking when he moved. Jazz's jaw dropped, Ratchet gaped in horror and Bluestreak just looked at Optimus in confusion. Optimus himself looked shocked at what he just did.
'Wheeljack! You okay man?' cried Jazz running over to Wheeljack, who was trying to pull himself out of a large box.
One of his arms had a large dent and his left optic had been shattered. On his chest where Prime had hit him was an even larger dent. Ratchet ran over to Bumblebee and helped him up. Looking at the damage on the smaller bots back he looked up at Prime, concerned with what he had just done.
'I'm taking him to the medical bay. Jazz can you bring Wheeljack?' he said calmly.
Jazz nodded and helped the mech to his feet. Prime just looked at both bots in horror. He would never hit one of his own men with such force, even his own men knew that.
'Prime? Are you OK?' asked Bluestreak, slowly walking up to his leader.
'I...I...I didn't mean...' stuttered Prime, looking at his fists.
Spike and Carly couldn't believe what they just witnessed. Optimus Prime would never hurt another machine out of frustration. They walked up to the Autobot leader, carefully, and saw the confusion in his optics. Even Prime didn't know what he just did.
'Prime, I think you better come to the medical bay too. You might have blown another circuit without realizing it.' suggested the Medical Officer.
Optimus nodded and followed the Autobots out the workshop. Whatever had happened to him, Prime wanted to make sure it never happened again.
What is wrong with Prime? Is it something to do with that circuit? And what were those three scientists working on 14 million years ago? Find out next time!