Transformers

Virtual Legacy

Book 1: Earth

Chapter 9: The Sleeping Warrior

Author's note: The depiction of Malta and its historical sites are not to be considered accurate. I have never been outside the country, let alone to Malta, so all information about Malta is secondhand research. There are bound to be inconsistencies.

When the group of shadowy men had reconvened around the six-sided table, there was a very palpable air of nervousness. Both the assassination drones were offline and apparently neither faction leader was dead. This assuredly meant some rather…final demotions and necessary replacements.

When the screen came on again, the voice that came from it said in an unnerving calmness, "Well, gentlemen, it would appear that our attempt to blunt the efforts of both our enemies has not succeeded. Tell me, what are their activities at this moment?"

One of the men cleared his throat and said, "Well, the Decepticons do not appear to be mobilizing for battle. We've had satellite surveillance sweep the Savannah, but their base camp is vacant. It would seem that Megatron has dropped off the map."

"As for NEST, they seem to be mobilizing for travel. We've been able to determine that they are embarking for Malta, but the reason for that remains…"

"Malta, you say?" interrupted the screen's voice.

"Er, yes, we've managed to briefly intercept the authorization for transport to Malta. It would appear that the Schaeffer girl and at least Optimus Prime are going," said another of the men.

There was a lengthy pause before the voice said, "So, they're going to wake him up. And here I thought he would be left to rust."

"Er, should we arrange for an interception?" asked another shadowed figure.

"Not quite," said the voice, "Too much rushing and we could end up destroying most of what we seek to gain. Instead, I think we shall wait for them to return. We know which airport they'll be coming back to. It's time we put our drone army to the test."

"As you command, sir," said the fifth figure.

"And have Agent M there as well. He's had more than enough R&R in the Middle East. He is to capture the Schaeffer girl and Belpois for good measure."

"Er, not to question you, but how can we be sure Agent M will be able to capture them when they're surrounded by Autobots?" asked the first man.

"If this ambush is executed correctly, they will be far too occupied to be able to protect them," said the screen.

…

"Mommy!" cried the girl as she tried to run after them. But the men threw her mother into the back of a car. The woman pressed up against the back window and called, "Aelita!"

"Mommy! No!" cried the girl before she slipped and fell in the snow. The car quickly drove away, taking her mother away. The girl sat up and cried. But then she heard growling and turned to see the wolf again. The wolf snarled, its eyes flashing red as it got ready to pounce.

The girl managed to roll out of the way before the wolf actually landed. She quickly got to her feet and started running as fast as she could. She heard the growling and panting of the wolf behind as it raced after her. Its pawprints quickly covered up most of the prints left by her little boots.

She ran until she saw a fallen tree up ahead. She scrambled towards where the exposed roots where and crawled in between them. The wolf paused when it got to the tree and growled, its eyes flashing with menace. Then it started clawing and snapping at the roots, trying to make its way for the girl.

"Get away from her!" cried a voice. The girl looked to see her father holding a rifle and aiming at the wolf. The wolf turned around and snarled at the man. However, her father wasn't so intimidated and fired two shots at the wolf's back. But when they hit, they didn't go through its hide. In fact, there was a metallic 'ping' and a few sparks flew from where the bullets hit and rolled off. "It can't be…" said her father in astonishment and horror.

The wolf's glowed red before letting out a metallized growl. Then its pelt seemed to peel away. No, not peeling, folding up. Brown fur was soon replaced by shiny metal as the wolf stood on its thickening hindlegs, its front legs flipping into themselves before extending into more versatile arms. The wolf's head split before peeling away to reveal a rounder but still lupine head. In a matter of seconds, the wolf had transformed into a humanoid robotic form, its wiry tail lashing angrily as its red optics flared bright red.

Her father quickly put more bullets in his rifle before firing at the wolf robot again and again. But the shots barely marred its shiny surface as it strutted towards him. In desperation, he tried swinging his gun at the creature, but it caught it with its clawed hands. It snapped off the barrel before shoving it into its fang-lined mouth and recycling it into scrap. The wolf robot then grabbed her father by the collar and threw him at a nearby tree. Her father hit with a thud before falling to the snow-covered ground, dazed and winded.

The girl tried to squeeze backward but she couldn't go any further. The wolf robot turned around and let out a metallic growl when it spotted her. Even though the clawed servos, the razor-like teeth, and the glowing red optics were hard to ignore, she couldn't help but notice the cat's-eye-like symbol on the monster's chest. It snarled before it charged straight at her.

Fortunately for Aelita, that's when she was able to wake up. She gave a cry of fear, still living in that moment of terror. "Aelita, calm down, you were having a nightmare," said Jeremie's voice.

It took a while for Aelita to realize where she was. Then it all came back to her. They were on a plane heading for Malta. As soon as Optimus had heard about the will's hidden message, he decided this was a lead they couldn't afford to not follow. Which was why he, Ratchet, and Ironhide were in the cargo hold of the plane following theirs. Consider it was a long flight into a different time zone, Aelita had decided to get some sleep. It didn't seem like a good idea now.

She sighed and said, "It was only a dream."

"Let me guess, that old nightmare again?" asked Yumi.

"Worse," said Aelita, "My mother was still being taking away, but then I was chased by that wolf. It would have gotten me if my father hadn't arrived. But then it transformed…"

"What? It was a Decepticon?" asked Odd, "I thought those guys can only turn into machines."

"It was only a nightmare," said Ulrich, "Nightmares tend to take scary stuff and make them even worse. That doesn't mean they're realistic."

"I hope not," said Aelita, "Because it wasn't a Decepticon. It had the Eye of XANA on it. Or at least the newer Eye."

"Definitely only a dream then," said Jeremie, "If this happened during your childhood, Franz wouldn't have even started on writing XANA's programming yet and you couldn't have seen the Eye anywhere else."

"But Jeremie, what if it means something more than just XANA?" asked Aelita, "My father wouldn't have used it for XANA without a reason."

"I did search for possible symbolic references for just about every culture on Earth when I first learned about XANA," said Jeremie, "There's no direct match to anything so I'm pretty sure Franz made it up."

"Every culture on Earth," reminded William, "But what if it's actually Cybertronian? He could have picked it up while he worked at Sector 7."

"If it were Cybertronian, the Autobots would have recognized it when they saw it," said Yumi.

"The Decepticons might know what it means," said William.

"Oh sure, like we're gonna ask a Decepticon for anything," said Ulrich.

"Ah, you're overthinking," said Odd, "When we find this 'sleeping guardian', we'll ask him. I just hope this isn't one of those 'follow the clues treasure map' quests."

Aelita gave Odd an annoyed look and said, "I don't think my father would have done something that clichéd."

Just then, Agent Simmons walked into the gang's part of the plane. "Are we all comfortable? Can I get you a magazine, salted peanuts, refreshing beverage?" he asked.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind having something to-" started Odd.

"Then you're on the wrong airplane. This is a military mission, son. Try and act professional for once," said Simmons.

"Er, speaking of which, how are we supposed to find the 'sleeping guardian'?" asked William, "Assuming it's a Cybertronian, it could be anywhere or anything."

"Well, I've had some experience in locating possible dormant NBE's," said Simmons, "As a matter of fact, Project Blackknife was very crucial for locating a lot of the Seekers."

"Seekers? As in seeker missiles?" asked Yumi.

"No, Seekers were a group of ancient Cybertronians who have been stationed on Earth for a long time. They worked for The Fallen so it seemed like the best notion of searching for these Decepticons even if they were nearly rusted through," said Simmons.

"You think this guy's another Seeker?" asked Ulrich, "Doesn't seem like a good idea to go to a Decepticon."

"There have been a few who decided to switch sides," said Simmons, "If Hopper thought we should go to this one, he's probably in that category. And narrowing down where and what it is should be easy with this." He pulled out a handheld device that partially opened to reveal scanning screens.

"What's that for?" asked Yumi.

"Detecting Energon," said Simmons, "Even if this old tin can is virtually dry, he'll still give a trace to follow."

"Wait a minute, Transformers are radioactive?" asked Yumi.

"Not by Earth's conventional senses," said Simmons, "Energon radiation is typically harmless to humans, unless you're hit by the live stuff. A large amount of exposure would be required to cause any minor mutations."

"What mutations?" asked Jeremie.

"Usually undetectable by the naked eye. But hair discoloration is the most common example," said Simmons, turning to look at Aelita and Odd.

"What? I was born with this hair," said Aelita.

"And your mom used to have cherry red hair before the Allspark zapped her," said Simmons, "That altered gene easily got passed down."

"It's a little spot," said Odd, rubbing the purple spot on his hair, "All my sisters have odd hair too. Say, when we get to Malta, you think we can swing by Valletta? I've wanted to go back there for ages."

"You didn't say you've been to Malta before," said Jeremie.

"My family used to live in Italy for a couple years," said Odd, "But we always went to Malta on summer vacations. I got a couple of photos on my phone." He pulled out his phone and searched a little before finding them. He had quite a couple pictures of his family on them. Most of them pretty old ones, depicting Odd's older sisters when they were young.

Naturally, the others were interested in seeing the photos, but Simmons had a different reason. "Was your mother's hair always that shade of purple?" he asked.

"Uh, I think she dyes it," said Odd.

"Maybe not just for fashion, sport. It seems oddly colored hair runs in your family," said Simmons. To be honest, all of Odd's sisters had some unusual coloring to their hair in the pictures, most often in their bangs or along their scalps.

"What? Lots of kids have different-colored hair nowadays," said Odd.

"That's a truth. But how many of them have that kind of hair color naturally?" said Simmons before plucking a hair from the purple spot on Odd's scalp.

"Ow!" snapped Odd, rubbing his head where it smarted.

"Purple to the roots," said Simmons examining the plucked hair between his fingers, "Typically, you need to exposed to a lot of Energon for it to show, but kids are constantly growing and their DNA's in flux enough to be effected more easily. Since your whole hairdo doesn't look like a plum pudding, I'd say that you've only been exposed to this stuff on an annual basis."

"Such as a family vacation," said William.

"Yep, looks like we've narrowed down the possible hiding spots for our sleeper," said Simmons, "Once we land, we're heading straight to Valletta. Good work, son." He clapped Odd on the shoulder before leaving the cabin.

Odd rubbed his scalp and muttered, "It's not plum, it's lavender."

…

The Most Humble City of Valetta was, despite its nickname, quite a sight. The old buildings that have seen many wars faced two natural harbors that had much traffic going in and out, often boats containing tourists from the main land.

The streets of Valetta have had many trucks drive through them, but Optimus Prime's huge truck mode made it quite a tight squeeze in some places and a necessary detour in others. Besides Optimus, Ratchet, and Ironhide, the NEST squad was driving in a military hummer while Simmons, Dutch, and the gang rode in a separate SUV, ostensibly to avoid too much attention. Of course, a big rig like Optimus was bound to attract much attention anyways. But at least the gang was able to look at the sights without seeming to out of place.

"So how are we supposed to find this 'ancient guardian' here?" asked Ulrich, "If there was a Cybertronian resting here that long, people would have found it by now."

"Not unless he's deep under the ground," said Yumi.

"He won't be underground," said Jeremie, "If Odd's family really did get Energon radiation from this guy, he'll have to be somewhere where they would have gone to." He turned to Odd and asked, "Which places did your family always visit when they came here?"

"Well, let's see," said Odd, "There's the beach, of course. And we go to the church. Mom always wanted to do some shopping and Dad always took us to the museums."

"Which museums?" asked Aelita.

"Well, there's the art museum, the local history museum, the World War II museum…"

"World War II museum?" asked Simmons, who was in the shotgun seat.

"Yeah, Dad was always interested in military stuff like-" started Odd.

"Does it have any old vehicles in there?" interrupted Simmons.

"Well, yeah, they had a couple of old trucks and jeeps on display," said Odd.

"Are you suggesting that one of those museum pieces is actually a Cybertronian?" asked William.

"Wouldn't be the first time it happened," said Simmons, "The first one we found, Jetfire, was in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum."

"Which plane was he?" asked William.

"Blackbird," said Simmons.

"The Sr-71 Blackbird?" asked Jeremie with amazement, "That was the fast jet ever invented. Nothing flew faster than them and nothing's surpassed that yet. But how could Jetfire be one? There were only a few made and the military would have kept track of which ones crashed or were put in museums."

"That is an interesting question. Unfortunately, Jetfire can't quite…tell us," said Simmons, sounding somber before turning to Dutch, who was driving and saying, "Head for the WW2 museum, I think our sleeper's there."

…

They didn't all immediately go to the museum. Even in vehicle mode, there were places where Autobots couldn't just go into without special arrangements. And the military hummer would have been too conspicuous. So the SUV went ahead to see if the sleeper was actually there, or 'scout' as Simmons preferred to call it.

Getting in was a bit tricky, namely because Simmons's Energon detector would have looked rather suspicious. Fortunately, they had Dutch to negotiate.

"I didn't know he spoke Maltese," said Yumi.

"If it's still used in Europe, Dutch can speak it," said Simmons smugly, "Saves a lot of time instead of flipping through pocket dictionaries."

Eventually, the group was allowed to go in with the detector. They immediately headed over to the vehicle section. Simmons's detector soon started humming and beeping. The vehicle section itself was pretty impressive. It wasn't as large and extensive as some of the museums on the mainland, but there was a definite authenticity to it.

Simmons quickly walked past the various jeeps and trucks as the detector beeped louder. When the beeping slowed, he backed up and started waving it at the nearby vehicles and stepping back. Eventually, the beeping reached a crescendo and Simmons said, "Got it, Deuce and a Half."

The truck in question was a rather large transport truck, being a little over 7 feet tall and a little over 21 feet long. It basically looked like a large pickup truck with an extended front bumper and a camouflage-patterned canvas covered the back. It had two pairs of axles in the back, each equipped with two tires on each side. The color of the truck looked like it was mostly green, but there was quite a bit of rust.

"This is our ancient guardian?" asked Ulrich skeptically, "Would have a Cybertronian would have picked something more…presentable."

"The GMC CCKW wasn't built for car shows," said Simmons, "It was a rough truck that was needed to transport supplies and troops to where they were needed, which was often offroad. It's not pretty, but it was strong and sturdy. It's the ancestor of the M35s we have back at NEST."

"But 'deuce and a half'?" asked Odd.

"Yeah, as the 2.5 tons it weighs," said Simmons.

"Oh, I thought it meant…nevermind," said Odd.

"So now that we found him, how are we supposed to wake him up?" asked Yumi.

"We'll need Optimus for that," said Simmons.

"There's no way he can squeeze in here," said William.

"That's why we've got those," said Simmons, pointing at the large sliding garage doors at the far end of the room.

…

Getting the large truck outside to where the Autobots could go into robot mode without attracting too much attention wasn't the hard part. The hard part was convincing the museum to let go of their valuable exhibit. Even though the Maltese government had already been called ahead regarding the decision, even they had trouble convincing the museum board to part with an almost-irreplaceable vintage WWII truck that has actually seen action on Malta. It was only the pointing out of the fact that it wasn't truly a truck and the promise of acquiring another GMC CCKW that NEST was able to acquire the truck.

The truck was relocated to the currently unused pavilion not too far from the museum. Everyone watched with anticipation as Ratchet, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime shifted to robot mode about 40 feet away from the front of the truck. "Let us begin," said Optimus before his chest panels slid and folded aside to reveal a small cavity. Out of the cavity floated a spinning shape that looked vaguely like a double-bladed curved dagger. Optimus carefully guided it with his hands, not actually making contact, as he walked towards the truck.

"What is that?" asked Aelita.

"It's the Matrix of Leadership," said Simmons, "Used to be the key to the solar harvester, now it's the new vessel for the Allspark. It's the only thing that can restart a Transformer's spark."

Aelita only watched in fascination. She had seen the Matrix before, in her dream. In fact, she was pretty certain she had seen the Allspark too. But what did it mean? Why would they appear to her?

Optimus reached the truck and slowly pushed down on the Matrix, actually touching it and making it stop spinning. "Ancient warrior, we bid you awaken," said Optimus before making the Matrix touch the nose of the truck.

Crackles of blue energy darted over the truck as the Matrix flashed a bright blue light. Optimus quickly removed his hand as the truck made sounds like it was starting up, its headlight blinking and its engines letting out several backfires. Then the truck's form started to become segmented and rearrange itself. The cab started collapse in on itself as arms extended out from under it, allowing room for the nose and grill to start folding down. The back of the truck split down the middle as the bumpers rearranged to form angles and allow spade-shaped feed to slide out and the wheels distorted slightly as moved to line both sides on each leg. The backfiring of the engine soon became raucous coughing as the tarp slid forwards; the arms grabbed the sides of it before slipping through flaps. The forming robot started to stand up, though his torso still seemed jammed in some parts and the head was apparently wedged two panels that weren't opening very well on their own. Then the arms grabbed the panels and pulled them apart, allowing the head to spring up as the rest of the robot's form fell into place.

The robot was in Ironhide's size class, standing about the same height as him and had a slightly more stocky body. Of course, it was hard to tell how stocky since the camouflage tarp of the truck was now being worn like a military vest. There was enough visible of torso to see the grill which was now in the middle of his chest and the two headlights stuck out through another set of flaps near his shoulders. His legs were sturdy with spade-shaped feet that had spokes almost like toes and forked kneecaps. The tires from the back of the truck were on his legs; one placed on either side of his ankles and the one place one placed at both sides of his knees. His face was rather rugged and gave the image of wrinkles and jowls those his blue optics were shining brighter. Oddly enough, he appeared to be wearing an old M1 helmet with the loose straps connecting to the top of his neck. He was mostly the same army green and dark grey as the truck, though there was just as much rust, particularly on his face to almost resemble stubble.

The robot peered blearily around and said in a crotchety voice, "What in blazes is going on here? Have reinforcements finally arrived? It's about time. Those dang Italians are crawling up our tailpipes."

"At ease, soldier," said Optimus calmly, "Much time has passed since you were last awake."

The robot looked at Optimus and asked, "And who the heck are you supposed to be? What kind of army get-up is that? Only turbo-revvin' punks wear flames."

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots," said Optimus before indicating his companions, "These are my officers, Ironhide and Ratchet."

"Prime? Prime…a Prime? A Prime's finally here!" said the old robot, showing more clarity before saluting and saying, "Sergeant Kupricorn, Beast Hunter, reporting for duty, sir! Though if you wouldn't mind, I'd prefer to be called 'Kup'. Used to go by my full name but then those blasted humans went and made a joke out of it. Can you believe the ingratitude of it all? I save their world more than once and trained the best fighters they had and they go make me into a historic joke."

"This is the guy who has all the answers?" asked Odd dubiously.

"These old geezers don't get out of bed very well," said Wheelie.

"I think the rust has gotten into his brain," said Ulrich.

Kup glared down at the three of them and said, "This old geezer may have rust in his processor, but not his audio receptors. Don't you whippersnappers respect your elders anymore? These young ones get more rebellious every generation. What year is it now?"

"By the human calendar, it's 2010," said Ironhide gruffly.

Kup nodded and said, "2010, that makes it about, oh, 20 or so years since I was last awake."

The others exchanged looks and Simmons called out, "Hey, old-timer, think you may need to rewind your clock. WWII was over 70 years ago."

"I know that," said Kup dismissively, "I spent a good amount of time sleeping since then. But I woke up for something earlier. What was it? It had something to do with…snow, I think." The old bot seemed rather puzzled as he tried to figure it out.

For a moment, Aelita was worried that this turned out to be a dead end, that her father made some kind of mistake with his will. But she quashed those doubts quickly. Her father wouldn't have sent her after this Cybertronian unless it was absolutely important. She stepped forward and asked, "Kup, you wouldn't happen to know about me, would you?"

Kup turned to look at Aelita and seemed lost in thought for quite some time. Then he said, "Wait, I think I remember. Yes, that day in the mountains. I saw those men in black drove off with you. Oh, I wish I could have gotten there sooner." He paused before saying, "Wait, that was over twenty years ago. You should have aged since then. But you actually look younger."

"Er, no, that was my mother," said Aelita, rather shocked that Kup was there that day, though something tickled at the back of her mind, "I was the little girl then."

"Oh, of course, you look so much like her," said Kup before saying, "Say, shouldn't you be a bit older? You shouldn't be that old, but I don't think you're quite old enough."

"That's…a long story and I think you have an important part of it," said Aelita, "Please, you need to tell us what you remember from that day. Who were those men in black? What happened to my mother? And why were you even there to begin with?"

Kup made a sound that sounded enough like a sigh, though probably a different mechanical function entirely. "I'm afraid there isn't much to tell about the beginning. I had settled down to go into stasis not too long after the Great War. Earth's Great War that is, not whatever was apparently happening on Cybertron. I might have slept on for who knows how long when I eventually…had a dream."

"Robots can dream?" asked Yumi.

"Not quite like you humans do," said Ratchet, "While in stasis, our dormant processors, if they're not trying to conserve too much energy, computes the data we amass during our active cycles to determine which data is more significance and to determine any possible factors involved which we might oversight the primary time we acquire that data."

"Huh?" asked Odd.

"They self-analyze their memories when they sleep," said Jeremie.

"Not a fully-accurate term…" started Ironhide.

"Doesn't matter what the term is because it wasn't like that at all," snapped Kup, "I know this wasn't something I hadn't encountered before at any point when I was online. I'm not too sure what it was. Maybe the Allspark itself sent me a vision or something. All I knew was that I was needed at a mountain cottage at a specific set of coordinates. It might well have been the Allspark because I found I had enough juice to get back online and drive there. But by the time I had gotten there, the woman was already abducted. I thought for a bit that I have to go after them because that's why I was woken up. But then I picked up an Energon signature really close by and a little girl's scream. That told me where I was really needed. So I shifted gear and started headings towards…"

Aelita only half-listened to what Kup was saying. She already knew this story, she was in it. The sheer impossibility and trauma made her young mind reject what had really happened, the truth only showing up briefly in terrifying nightmares. But now every last bit of that long-repressed memory was flooding right into her mind.

…

The little girl was squeezed back against the roots of the upturned tree. Her mother was gone, her father was barely conscious, and the monstrous wolf robot's optics were fixed upon her. The creature snarled before it started to charge at her.

However, before the wolf could touch her, there was the sound of a blaring car horn. The wolf robot looked to the side before it was suddenly struck full force by a large truck. The truck was old and rusty, but it had more than enough force to send the wolf robot flying. It fell into a heap of snow at the other side of a clearing. The truck drove into the clearing and started to shift as it went. Before it had half-crossed the field, it had taken the form of a large robot wearing the truck's canvas as a vest. "Pick on something your own size, why don't ya?" said the robot.

The wolf robot got back onto its hindlegs and growled at the truck robot. Then it darted forward and started slashing at him with its claws. Sparks flew from the scraped metal, but the blows were hardly deep. "Not so tough against something not made of flesh, are you?" said the truck robot before drawing out a large sword. The truck robot swung his sword at the smaller robot, but the wolf robot was a lot more agile than the other. At the same time, its claws and fangs made little difference on the larger robot's metal skin, so it would appear that they were at a stalemate.

By then, the girl's father had managed to regain his senses and was staggering over to where the girl was. "Are you alright?" he called.

"Daddy, I'm scared," called the little girl.

"I know, my angel, just don't move. I'm coming to get you," called her father.

Unfortunately, the wolf bot's audio receptors were just as keen as a true wolf's. It noticed that its target was going to be taken out of its reach so it bounded around the truck bot and headed straight for the upturned tree. The father noticed the beast coming and quickly put himself between it and his daughter. The wolf bot sprang forward, metal claws extended to tear through the man and get to the girl.

However, a different kind of rendering was heard as the wolf bot's waist was suddenly parted by a large metal blade. This threw off the creature's momentum significantly and it fell down mere feet from the father. The father didn't get time to feel relieved before the wolf bot's upper half, still alive despite the bifurcation started crawling forward, intent on claiming its prey. It was soon stopped by the metal blade being thrust down through its back, pinning it in place. While being cut in twain might not of stopped the monster, this blow appeared to have hit a vital spot and the wolf bot's arms dropped as its optics dimmed out.

The father waited a few moments to make sure the beast was really dead before running back to his daughter and hugging her. "Daddy, it was so scary! I want to go home! I want Mommy!" cried the little girl.

"Shh…it's over, it won't hurt you," said her father soothingly. He turned around to see the truck robot walking forward slowly. He held his daughter closer to her protectively.

"Relax, I'm not going to touch her," said the robot, "She's safe enough now. I'm sorry I couldn't catch that other car but it looked like you needed help more."

The man stared up dumbly at the robot and asked, "Why did you help us?"

"Hey, a little girl was being attacked by a wolf. Anyone would have jumped in," said the robot.

"But, don't you know who I am? I was part of an organization that has tried to capture your kind for years. I would have been considered your enemy," said the man.

"Oh, that Sector 7 club? They've never been after me. Even if they were, I couldn't just stand by and watch an innocent youngling get harmed. Standing by and letting evil do its work is just as bad as helping it," said the robot before grabbing the hilt of his sword, "And it had to be someone particularly nasty to send this monster after your kid."

As he pulled his sword out, the wolf bot sparked and its optics lit up. The man was about to run but then the optics began projecting an image. It was very blurry at first but then it became clearer, eventually resolving into the image of a robot's head. It also appeared to be wearing a helmet, but of a more covering design including a mouthplate. The more obvious features on the head were the optics behind the visor.

The hologram spoke an apparently prerecorded message, "Congratulations, you've somehow managed to keep yourself from being captured and managed to destroy my drone. You might be tempted to think of this as a victory, but you know it's not. I already have your wife and my minions won't stop until I have the complete set. You and your brat can flee to anywhere, but we will find you. There is nowhere on this world where you can hide." The hologram cut off as the last bit of power in the wolf bot gave out.

The man looked at the wolf bot before asking, "Was that…one of you?"

"If you're asking if he's from the same place I came from, I'm pretty sure he is," said the truck robot, "Never seen him before but he looks pretty nasty. If only I had enough power to deal with him."

"What? Surely you have the strength to fight him," said the man desperately, "You destroyed his drone."

"That was only a drone, he would probably be a lot tougher than I am," said the truck robot, "Even if he wasn't as strong, I'm not the well-oiled fighting machine I used to be. And it'll take a lot more than oil to get me running well again. I just have enough juice to get to I've been meaning to get to and that's it. I'd help you find your wife, but I just don't have it in me anymore." The truck bot turned to go and said, "Besides, staying close to you will make it easier for them to find you. You two ought to hide until you can get reliable help. If you happen to find something that can charge me up, though I doubt you could, you can find me sleeping at the island you call Malta."

"Who…who are you?" asked the man.

There were a few moments of silence before the robot said, "Just an old guardian." He collapsed down into his truck mode before driving off.

The man started carrying his daughter back to the house. "Don't worry, my dear. I'll take you someplace safe. We'll go far, far away. I'll never let anyone take you. You will be safe no matter what."

The little girl barely heard all of that. All she could do was cry and the only thing she could think about was her mother…

…

"Aelita? Aelita? Aelita, are you okay?"

Aelita blinked as she became more aware of her surroundings. She was so caught up in her relived memory that she had blocked everything else. She turned to Jeremie and said, "I'm fine. I just…remembered something I buried a long time ago."

"Apparently," said Jeremie, "Are you going to be ok?"

"I'll be…I'll feel better when all this is over," said Aelita, a bit shakily. She shifted her attention back to the Transformers where Kup was apparently finishing his tale.

"So you just left them behind so you can drag yourself all the way here?" said Ironhide disapprovingly.

"I was sucking on fumes!" snapped Kup, "Even if I helped out, I would have been dead weight or an easy target. They needed a getaway car, not a rusted-up antique."

"There's something that's agreeable," said Ironhide rudely.

"Don't you get smart with me," said Kup, "I've taken down brutes easily five times more ornery than you."

"Enough," said Optimus, not raising his voice but sounding stern all the same, "This enemy of ours is still active, no doubt preparing for his next strike. Kup, we need some insight as to the nature of this enemy. Do you have any idea at all who he is?"

"Never met him before," said Kup, "But I do have this." His optics lit up before displaying a holographic image of the hologram he had seen long ago. Aelita visibly cringed at seeing the face that her mind had tried so hard to forget.

But while the entity was unknown to Kup, it was familiar to the Autobots. "I know that mug anywhere," said Ironhide, "That's Sixshot."

"Who's Sixshot?" asked Ulrich.

"He was one of Megatron's top soldiers," said Optimus, "A warrior of great strength and power."

"Rumor has it he was built by combining the parts of two of the strongest Triple Changers," said Ratchet, "That's of course nonsense, but no one can switch between as many different alternate modes as he can without reformatting themselves."

"He caused a lot of trouble for us during the war, until the day he disappeared that is," said Ironhide, "Rumor has it that he tried to overthrow Megatron himself and was banished when he failed."

"If he's behind Soundwave's disappearance, that rumor might be true," said Ratchet.

"Whether he is working for Megatron or against him, this much is certain: he had declared himself to be our enemy and he will stop until he has obtained what he wants," said Optimus.

"There's still one thing unanswered," said Ironhide before turning to Kup and asking, "If you're not a Seeker, what were you doing on Earth in the first place."

"I'll have you know that I was sent here on an important mission to deal with a great evil by…by…" said Kup before he started tottering. Fortunately, Optimus grabbed him before he fell over.

Ratchet took a medical scan of Kup and said, "He's still suffering from Energon deprivation. The Matrix may have given him enough to jumpstart him, but he'll need more Energon to keep going."

"I'll be fine," said Kup groggily, "Just need some time to get my second wind…"

"You won't be getting any wind at all unless you power down," said Ratchet.

Must stay here…must watch over…" groaned Kup as his optics started to flicker.

"Rest now," said Optimus, "You can tell us when you've been refueled. Simmons, I think it time for us to return."

"It'd be easier if this guy were in vehicle mode to transport," said Simmons.

"In his state, I doubt he'd be able to get halfway through," said Ratchet, "There's enough room in the cargo plan for the four of us, even if he remains in robot mode."

"Alright then, let's get a move on, people," called Simmons, "We've got a lot of robot to move."

…

Finding out which airport that NEST would be using was rather simple. The assault and capture should have gone straight forward from there. But there appeared to have been a change in plans.

"Couldn't they have informed us earlier that we would be providing the transport for the captives?" asked one agent to the other as they drove their Jaguar towards the airport, two other Jaguars following.

"When the higher-ups change their plans, the grunts are the last to hear about it," said the other agent bitterly.

"Yeah, but it's not like the higher-ups to change their minds so quickly about something," said the first agent before looking a bit hesitant and saying, "They're saying that the boss and Agent M had some sort of disagreement."

The other agent gave him a stern look and said, "I'd be careful where you'd mention that. That's the sort of talk that can get you in big trouble."

"Still, I think it's obvious that Agent M wouldn't be able to take those targets all the way back without mangling them," said the first agent, "Those claws are obviously not meant for holding. I mean, it's only a beast bot." The Jaguar suddenly rumbled a bit, almost sounding a snarl.

"Zip your lips before you get into too hot water," said the second agent, sounding completely strict.

…

The flight back to France was uneventful. Since Kup was in stasis at the time, they couldn't even ask him more questions and Aelita in particular was still burning with questions, questions she wasn't sure Kup could answer. Why was Sixshot after her family? Why was he even on Earth in the first place? How could have he have convinced the men in black to work for him? And, though she hoped this question was baseless, was he really the mind behind XANA or could that be another Cybertronian at work? There were just too many questions and no place to start answering them.

So lost she was in her pondering that she had trouble remembering if she had slept or not. If she had slept, she had spent her dreamtime pondering over these confusing conundrums. If any particular images formed from this subconscious thinking, she couldn't remember them clearly. But at least she wasn't having any more nightmares.

Once they landed, it was a simple manner to get Kup ready for transport. There was a flatbed trailer that Optimus could haul in truck that they had called for and reserved in advance. Once the ancient Cybertronian was strapped down and covered with a tarp so curious people wouldn't stare, they'd be ready to go.

The kids were exiting the plane, still reeling a bit from the jet lag. "Crossing time zones can really upset your sleeping pattern," said Odd before yawning.

"It's something you guys are gonna have to get used to," said William, "We're in the army now."

"Wait, who said we'd be in the army?" asked Yumi.

"Well, that's most an expression," said William, "But NEST looks like it's gonna-"

"NEST hasn't asked for us and I don't think we've been conscripted by any means," interrupted Yumi.

"You're not saying you'd rather stop right here and not see how this finishes, are you?" asked Odd.

"Well, not quite, but this isn't war for us. We're informants more than anything," said Yumi, "They probably don't even need to keep us at NEST for that."

"What?" asked Jeremie loudly.

"You know what it's like to hang back and let others do the legwork. I say we let them-"

"What? I can't hear you over the engines!" called Jeremie.

Aelita looked around and called, "There aren't any planes taking off or landing right now!"

"Then what's making that racket?" called Jeremie.

"Uh, guys!" called Ulrich pointing upwards. They all looked to see something flying towards them, much too narrow to be a plane.

"Oh no, please don't let it be that one," whispered Aelita as she started to recognize the shape.

The MQ-9 Reaper didn't slow down for a landing, but it did fire a missile at where the Autobots had parked in vehicle mode. The explosion was enough to make flip over before they could change to robot mode. By that time, the Reaper had swung back for another blow, this time shifting into the dreaded dragon robot that the kids had seen before. The dragon went for Optimus first, slashing at the Autobot leader with its talons. The lashing tail with the spinning propeller blades at the end discouraged Ironhide and Ratchet from getting close enough to aid their leader.

Naturally, the rest of NEST's attention shifted to the attack, though there was little they could do without risking hitting one of the Autobots. As such, no one noticed the three black Jaguars driving onto the landing strip. It wasn't until they were closing in on the gang that Yumi noticed them. "Guys, we've got to move, now!" called Yumi.

However, Aelita didn't respond. Her mind was back at that snowy mountain cottage, seeing the black cars coming to take her mother away. It took quite a lot of shaking from the others to get Aelita to snap out of it. By then, the Jaguars were almost upon them.

The gang quickly ran forward, though they couldn't go straight forwards where the Autobots were fighting the dragon, but off to the side near the flatbed trailer Kup was currently lying on. The Jaguars drove after them, but had to swerve loudly around the trailer as the gang got too close.

The commotion roused Kup enough to make him sit up and asked, "What's all that racket? Can't a bot sleep in peace?" He spotted the black cars and said, "Oho, came back for more, eh? Well, you aren't taking that little girl away so easily." Apparently, he wasn't fully aware what time he was in, but he knew his foe when he saw it. He pulled out his sword and stabbed at one of the Jaguars.

The car quickly hit on its brakes before the blade could strike it. Its doors opened and two men in black suits scrambled to get out. The reason why soon became obvious as the car they were in started to shift. It didn't appear to change as complexly as the other Cybertronians, but it didn't take long for it to take on the form similar to that of a jungle cat.

Kup didn't look the least bit surprised. "Ha, thought that'd trick me, beastie? That shell you're wearing was so obvious a disguise I'm surprised the fleshies were fooled," he said. The jaguar snarled before slashing at Kup. However, Kup had produced a round compact shield by that time and used it to block the jaguar's claws. Kup stabbed at the jaguar again, but it moved a bit to the right, causing Kup to only skim its metal hide.

By this point, the other men in black had exited their Jaguars which were converting into robot jaguars. Instead of getting out of the way like most sensible people, they began converging on the kids. The group had run as far away from the brawling robots as they could get, but when it became apparent they wouldn't be able to outrun the men in black, they made a stand. Aelita and Jeremie pushed behind with Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, and William at the front.

There was one man in black for each of the kids, so it appeared at first that the defenders were outnumbered. But if the men in black thought that they were catching them easily, they had another thing coming. Ulrich and Yumi struck with hard kicks, honed from several years of Penkak Silat. William had enough military training to know how to brawl against men his size, not to mention the hardened physique he developed from said training. Odd was, well, the odd one out for not having specific training, but he watched enough boxer fights on video to know where to punch.

Quite clearly, the men in black were expecting for the kids to put up a fight and were being buffeted back. But one of them made a dash around to where Jeremie and Aelita were. However, Aelita wasn't nearly as defenseless as he assumed she was and proved it by delivering a hard kick right into his crotch, neatly incapacitating him.

Kup was also putting up a very good fight against the jaguars and had managed to behead of them. He looked towards where the kids were fighting and cheered, "That's right, give those kidnappers what for! We'll show them they ought not to mess with Sergeant Kup and his crew!"

Right after he had spoken that, a loud roar made him turn around, just as the dragon had sprang away from the Autobots and tackled him. The force of the tackle was enough to knock Kup off the trailer and onto his back on the ground. The dragon pinned his arms down with its middle legs and snarled at Kup. It seemed the dragon-bot was about to make a meal out of Kup when it pulled out some sort of device that had several prongs at one end. The dragon-bot ripped off Kup's helmet, exposing the rusty cranium underneath, and affixed the pronged end of the device to the top of Kup's head.

The device lit up and sparked, the prongs squeezing on Kup's head. He spasmed and yelled in pain as the device apparently electrocuted him. His body jerked before his face took on a vacant look and he lay still. The sight of this was horrifying and distracting enough that the kids dropped their defenses a bit. Before they could recover, the men in black powered through. They produce small aerosol cans that they sprayed in the kids' faces. Whatever was in those cans was quite potent as they were almost all unconscious in seconds.

The only exception was Aelita, though her head swam precariously and her muscles felt limp. The only thing she could do was to grab Jeremie as they tried to take her away. Her grip was sure enough that the men in black had a hard enough time before they decided to just grab Jeremie too.

Aelita was barely aware of being carried towards the surviving jaguars which had changed back to rather marred cars. She and Jeremie were thrown into the back seat of one and two of the men in black getting in the front seats, the other agents climbing into the other Jaguar. As they were driving away, she was dimly aware that the dragon was roaring and setting fire to everything in sight. Then everything went black.

Finally, another chapter added. I would have updated quite some time ago, but my inspiration left me. But I've recently gotten a good dose and I hope it'll keep me updating with a bit more regularity. Just for the record and to remind everyone, this story is on a separate continuity from Dark of the Moon. Therefore, Age of Extinction doesn't affect it either. I may be using characters and concepts from those two movies, but they don't actually happen here.

Regarding the chapter itself, there isn't a whole lot of exact Transformers trivia to go into this time. I supposed you might consider the wolf-bot to be this universe's counterpart to Weirdwolf or Carnivac, most likely Carnivac. The Jaguars at the end are designed after the Alternator Ravage, the bestial one, not the Tracks redeco. We'll get more into Kup and Sixshot in the next chapter, which shouldn't be that far away. And in case it is, I'll keep a bit of tension off by saying that no one dies in this chapter, they just get really big boo-boos...except the beheaded Jaguar, it's definitely dead. Anyhow, the next chapter ought to be up hopefully before a month passes, but considering my track record, don't hang too much on this. Until then, please review.