The birds are chirping in the beautiful sunset sky. Then a red first-generation Dodge Challenger decorated with bull horns on the hood comes over the hill. It's the one and only Cliffjumper.
"So there I am on the lookout, when out of nowhere, these high beams light up my rear-view. And then it hits me. I'm illegally parked." he said to his partner. We then move to a scene of a beautiful blue motorcycle with a hologram of a driver. The one and only two-wheeler, Arcee.
"Another parking ticket?" she said with a bit of disbelief but also expected it from her partner. "Better -- the boot." "Big metal tire clamp impossible to remove." "Bingo! So, the local police do their thing, and I let them get all the way down the block. That's when I kick off my new shiny shoe, and bang!"
"New York's finest soil themselves." "You know me, Arcee. Mess with Cliffjumper --" "And you get the horns." Arcee knew that's what her partner loves to say. "chuckles" "Not sure how that complies to Autobot rule #1: Keep a low profile." "What can I say? Patrolling for energon out here in dullsville gets lonesome. Almost makes me miss the Decepticons." "Like Jasper, Nevada's a party? We're alone where ever we travel on this rock, Cliff." Cliffjumper's radar then starts beeping, interrupting the conversation. "I'm getting a signal." "Need backup?" "Do I ever need backup?"
Cliff makes a sharp turn, following his radar. He skids to a stop and spots a bunch of blue crystals in a crater. "I just found a whole lot of energon." Before anything else could be done, the ground started shaking and rumbling. That's when a massive ship appears above our red hero. "Decepticons." he says as he transformers and looks behind him to see the ship. Two turrets fire near him and cause an explosion that knocks him into the crater. Cliff turns around to see a group of vehicons drop down from the ship. Both sides stares each other down and Cliff knew he would need help. "Arcce. About, that back up."
"Fair warning boys: I'll put a few dings in ya." Cliff says as he transformers and drives up the hill, transformers again in mid-air, and comes drops down with a punch. We then move to a scene of a red and blue big rig. The leader of the Autobots himself. "Arcee to Optimus. The 'Cons are back. Cliff might be neck-deep in scrap." "Understood. Ratchet. Do you have Cliffjumper's coordinates?" We see Ratchet in his ambulance form in the snow. "I'm locked on to his signal Optimus. But our team is scattered across time zones." "Arcee, Bulkead, Bumblebee, Elita. Rendevous back at base and prepare to ground bridge."
We move back to the scene where Cliff is fighting the vehicons. And he's having a rough time doing so. After he knocks one of them down in the crater, he gets hit a few times and knocked down the crater himself. He lost one of his horns in the process. The vehicons jump down in the crater to confront him again, only for Cliff to start taking the fight more seriously. "You want the horns? You got 'em." he says as he readies his blasters and starts shooting at them, which they fire back. Unfortunately for Cliff, he forgot where he was. Energon and blaster fire don't mix well. So when the vehicons started shooting back, they accidentally exploded all the energon that Cliff was near.
A giant explosion happens and there's just blue fire and smoke around where the energon used to be. Two of the vehicons survived and were pulling Cliffjumper towards the ship to bring him in. He was badly injured. We see Starscream, Megatron's second in command, staring at the explosion. "The energon. It's worthless to me now." he says with a bit of a growl. He turns his head slightly to the sound of the vehicons entering the ship with Cliffjumper. The troops carry the prisoner over to their commander and dropped him in front of him. Cliff looks up at Starscream who is staring at him with satisfaction and superiority.
"Scream. It's been a while. *coughs up blood* So, where's your master?" "Nevermind him! I am my own master." he said as he pierces Cliff's spark with his claws which caught him by surprise. He thought he was gonna be left alive for interrogation on where the Autobot base is. "Anymore questions?" Scream said as he takes his hand out of Cliff's chest, making him drop to the ground dead. Scream takes a moment to stare at his victory over killing one of the Autobots. "Clean that up." he told the two vehicons that were with him as the ship flies away from the scene.
A ground bridge portal then appears and the Autobots come out of its. Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Arcee, Elita, and Optimus. They took in their surroundings with their blasters ready and saw what the crater used to be. "An untapped energon deposit." Optimus says as he and the others put their blasters away. Bulkhead: "What's left of it." Ratchet: "The first Decepticon activity in three years." Elita: "That we know of." Optimus: "If they're scouting for energon, they may be preparing for his return." The Autobots jump down into the crater to see if there's any sign of Cliffjumper. And to Arcee's horror, she sees the horn of Cliff that was knocked off by the 'Cons.
"No." she whispers in disbelief as she picks it up. Elita places a hand on her shoulder in a sign of comfort for Arcee and worry for Cliff. She turns to Ratchet and says, "Ratchet, can you track his position?" Ratchet gave a small nod and looked life signal pad built in his wrist. Only to see that Cliff's signal wasn't just getting farther away from them, but was in the red zone, and disappeared. "No. Cliffjumper's life signal...just went offline." he says with a bit of disbelief and sorrow. Yet another Autobot has been perished by the 'Cons.
Back on the warship, a slender decepticon walks up to Starscream. "Soundwave, what is it?" he asks. Soundwave responds by playing a recording of Arcee's voice. "Like Jasper, Nevada's a party? We're alone where ever we travel on this rock, Cliff." Starscream recognizes that voice well. "Ahh. The one called "Arcee." Why slay just one Autobot when we still have the advantage of surprise." he says with a smirk.
We're now looking at the sunset shining on the Autobots on top of their base. Optimus: "We must not allow our anger over the loss of Cliffjumper to impair our judgment. As of today, only we six autobots remain on this Earth. We owe it to ourselves... To the memory of Cybertron... To any Autobots in any galaxy seeking safe harbor... To humankind... And we ow it to the memory of our fallen comrade, to survive." Arcee walks up and places Cliff's horn gently on the ground and stand back up with an emotionless, yet still visible mad and grieving look in her optics. "Arcee?" Optimus asked if she was OK.
"If Cliff's gone, standing around here sulking won't bring him back. So, unless anyone minds, I think I'll get back to protecting humankind." she says as she walks away from them then transformers and drives off. Ratchet: "Optimus. Helping humans will only result in more tragedy." Optimus: "Your opinion is noted." "I'll go after Arcee. I feel like she needs someone to talk too. We also can't leave her alone like Cliff was when we lost him." Elita said. "I understand." Elita gently pulled him down to give him a kiss on the cheek before transforming and following Arcee.
We now change the scene to the K.O. Drive Burger Joint where a certain raven haired boy and long, purple haired boy works. Jackson and Nakala Darby. "Welcome to K.O. drive in, where every patty is a knockout. May I take your order?" Jack said. "Uh, two super combos, extra fries." "OK. Dos numero twos. Anything else?" he asked as he was handed the food by Nakala and wraps them up to put in the bags. "Yeah. Some advice. How do I get an awesome job like yours." the guy poorly joked as he and the others in the car laughed. Jack just glares at the mic while Nakala just rubs his eyes in annoyance. Jack decided to get even with something actually funny.
"So that's two "we're not as funny as we think we are" combos with a side of "bite me." he says as he places the bags down near the window. Nakala chuckled at his brother's response. "What'd you say?!" the guy said in anger. Jack stares at the mic for a bit before grabbing it and saying, "$5.59 sir. At the window." he turns away but Nakala knew what to expect from certain people. He grabs the bags quickly before they got a chance. "Nice try. Pay up." he said with a smirk.
We cut back to the scene of Arcee entering the small town of Jasper, Nevada. With Elita not a far behind her. Before she could properly catch up to her though, a couple of vehicon troopers in vehicle form come out of no where and are right behind her. "Oh no." Elita said quietly. Arcee adjusted her mirror and saw who was behind her. "Twins." she says before she speeds up and turns into the K.O. Burger parking lot. She watched as the 'cons went by and Elita drove up and parked next to her.
"I wanted to be alone, Elita." she says as she deactivates her hologram and parks herself. "I know, Arcee. But I feel like you need company." Before anything else could be said between the two, Jack and Nakala walked out the restaurant and ready to go home. Suddenly, Jack's phone rang. "Hey mom. We just got off work. No, I'm not going to the dance. I don't think Nakala wants to either." Nakala shook his response, confirming what his brother said. "Thought so. And besides, experience suggests I should never cut a rug...unless I'm installing carpet." Nakala playfully rolled his eyes at his brother for the joke. Then something caught his eye. A beautiful blue motorcycle and a sweet pink and white car. "*whistles* Such beauty. No other motorcycle will match." he said. Arcee felt herself blush at the comment.
""Be careful?" Seriously? This is Jasper." Jack says. He stops once he notices that his brother was checking out the two vehicles. But ofc what really caught his attention was the motorcycle. He always wanted one, but never saw one this nice before. "I love you." he says quietly. Then realized he was still on the phone with his mom. "Yeah, I-I love you too mom. I got to run." he says quickly before putting his phone in his pocket. He walks to the motorcycle and says, "Hello beautiful. Where have you been all my life." He feels the seat of the bike before saying, "Nice."
He looks over at his brother to see he has opened the car door. "It was left unlocked?" he asked him. Nakala gave a shrug while having his hands pointed at the car. He looked inside the car and saw how perfectly clean it was. Car looks like it was well taken care of. But what caught his attention was some strange symbol on the steering wheel he never saw before. He had never seen such a symbol before. He sat down in the driver seat to get a better look at it. Something didn't sit right with him when he sees it. He feels like he should know what that symbol means.
While that was happening, Elita took notice of the two items Nakala had with him on his back and wrist. "*Those items look like cybertronian tech. What is he doing with those and where did he get them?*" Both of their thoughts were interrupted when two pairs of car lights shine on not only them, but jack and Arcee. "Scrap." Arcee said before the two cars charged at them while two of the girls from school fled. Arcee and Elita have no choice but to take off with the two boys.
"Hey!" Jack yelled in surprise that the motorcycle was moving by itself. The car door even shut in Nakala's face and started moving too. "Woah! Woah! Woah! Woah!" Jack yelled again seeing that they were driving towards the cars. "WOAH!" Arcee squeezed between the two 'cons while Elita drove around them and got next to Arcee. "Don't let go!" Arcee told Jack, which surprised him. "WHO SAID THAT?!?!" The two 'cons were getting closer to the group and the 'bots knew what they were planning. They immediately hit their brakes to allow the 'cons to smash into each other instead, allowing Arcee and Elita to get safe enough distance from them to get the two boys with them to safety. Vehicon: "Commander Starscream, target sighted. Accompanied by Prime's sparkmate and two human youths." Starscream: "Destroy them all!"
Elita and Arcee stopped to let the brothers get out/off of them. "What...are you two???" Jack asked with many questions filling his head. Nakala however, already had an idea what they were. "We do not exist. Tell anyone about us, I will hunt you down." Arcee said before Nakala forced his brother down another alleyway. "There was no need to threaten them, Arcee." Elita said with a hint of disappointment in her voice as they drove down the alleyway they were in. "We already have enough pro-" Arcee stopped mid-sentence when she saw one of the vehicons go down the alleyway the boys went down. "Scrap!" she said before taking a sharp U-turn with Elita following.
Jack and Nakala look back to see one of the purple cars chasing them. "We don't even know her!" Jack yelled. Arcee then comes flying over the 'con and gets close to the two boys. "Hop on!" she ordered them as Elita smashes in the 'con a few times to get around it. The pursuit is taken back to the road where the 'cons start shooting at them. Luckily they have stormtrooper aim, so they weren't able to hit either of the four before they got to the open highway. "Why are those guys shooting at us?!" Arcee: "There's no "us" kid". Elita: "And they're no "guys.""
During the chase, a black striped, yellow camaro comes out of nowhere and rams into the 'cons making them lose control and stop for a bit. Jack: "Friend of yours?!" Arcee: "Family." Elita: "Thanks Bumblebee. Try to keep them busy so we can get these two to safety." Bumblebee: "*Beeps*" The two vehicons eventually catch up to Bumblebee and try to get past him. But Bumblebee wasn't gonna let them. That is until one of them didn't turn with the other and sped up enough to get to Bumblebee's side and make him lose control as well.
We now see a 12-year-old boy racing his toy car just below the bridge of the highway that's near the entrance of a sewage pipe. Suddenly his phone rang. "Hi mamma. Racing, right up the street. OK. Just five more minutes?" he shuts his phone and continues racing. But moments later, he hears the sound of engines coming from above him. He looks up in time to see a blue motorcycle and a pink and white muscle car come down from above and perfectly in front of him. He drops his controller staring in awe and says, "Woah!" with a smile. Jack takes a moment to gain his composure before responding. "Oh. You have no idea." He gets off Arcee and Nakala gets out of Elita. "Hey Raf." "Hey Nakala. This is your car?" Nakala shakes his head in response.
Before anything else could be said, more engine sound came from above. The two vehicons found them so they too drove down the hill. Once they were in the air, they transformed, surprising the 3 kids. Then another 'con in flight comes out of no where to join his fellow vehicons. Arcee and Elita had no choice but to transform as well, to fight the 'cons and protect the kids. "This ends here 'cons." Arcee said as she and Elita got into a battle stance then charged at the vehicons, who started shooting at the two. The two most agile of the Autobot team were able to dodge the blasters without problem and begin fighting the 'cons.
Raf: "Wha- What are they?" Jack: "Talking cars that turn into robots. Or the other way around." Nakala knew it was the other way around. He too is actually one of them, judging by the dreams he's been having of someone. Now's not the time for him to think on that. He has this to worry about for now. He's ready to jump in and help with his two devices whenever he's needed. Elita is dealing with the flier while Arcee is left with the cars. "This! Is! For! Cliff!" Arcee said punching one of them in the face 4 times, only for it to be unfazed by the blows, which surprised Arcee a bit. The 'con then started to shoot her, which Arcee responded with 180 back-flips to dodge. Unfortunately, one blast hit her mid-air which knocked her back some.
"Arcee!" Elita called out as she managed to leave the flier 'con dazed for a bit. But before she could get to Arcee, the two car 'cons got in her way. Luckily for her, Bumblebee drops down on one of the car 'cons and punches the other. Arcee gets back trying to recollect herself from that blast she took. Bumblebee steps off the con he dropped down on and accidentally crushes Raf's toy car. Bumblebee: "*Beeps and buzzes apologetically.*" Raf: "No problem. Really." Then Bumblebee gets blasted by on of the 'cons, along with Elita landing next to him after getting knocked back herself. They look up and see the 'cons blasters aimed right at them, ready to finish them off. Raf saw this and did something to get the 'cons attention away from them, but it was a stupid choice.
"Leave them alone!" he yelled. All 3 'cons and both 'bots looked over at the kids, and Raf realized his mistake immediately. "Plz?" he asked sheepishly. Jack leaned down near his ear and said, "Bad call." The air vehicon walked toward the kids while the car ones stayed with the 'bots to make sure they didn't do anything to stop him. Nakala immediately got in front of his friend and brother to protect them. He activated the device on his wrist and, to everyone's surprise, he grew 'til he was as tall as Soundwave. Taking the confusion to his advantage, he punched the 'con in it's face then looked back at Raf and Jack. "Run." he said, which they obliged, knowing that they should save the questions for later. Nakala looks back in time to see a fist hit his face.
He recollected himself quickly enough to catch the next fist and headbutt the 'con, quickly grabbing it's head to knee his face, then back-fist to knock it down. He followed Jack and Raf and saw a sewage pipeline they can go through. He messed with his device again to shrink himself back down to his normal size to run in the pipe with them. Just before he enters, he looks behind him to see the flier's hand reach in for them. Nakala wasn't gonna let that happen though, so he let two of his tentacles out of his back and shock the vehicon 'til it was knocked out. Luckily Raf didn't look behind him to see that. He didn't want them to be shown to anyone else just yet. The only one that knows of his tentacles is Jack, accidentally.
And immediately after Nakala shocked the 'con, it was dragged away from the pipe by Bumblebee, who peeps in the pipe to check on three. "Thank you." Raf said before Bumblebee goes back to fight the other two vehicons, after giving Nakala a look, who was ready to pull out his staff, not knowing it was Bumblebee who dragged the flier 'con away. He thought it was one of the car ones that came to help. This made Bumblebee sus of him, cuz if he's only now gonna pull out that cybertronian looking staff, what knocked out that flier. Jack puts his hand on Raf before saying, "Don't look back." Raf: "What did we just see???" Jack: "No idea, and I'm not sure I want to find out." Nakala looked back for a second before following them.
Back to the fight, Bumblebee and Elita are holding their own okay. Not great, but fine. With the flier being knocked out at the moment, it's now a fair 2v2. Arcee got up and joined the two, so the 'cons were now at a disadvantage and were losing ground. Then a honking sound was heard behind the 'bots, and they can see Bulkhead transforming into his bipedal form standing next his comrades. "Who's ready to rumble." he says before the 'cons really know their disadvantage now and drive away. The flier that was knocked out regained consciousness and saw only the 'bots, so he too retreated. The 'bots took a moment to rest from the fight and Arcee looks up at Bulkhead and asks, "What took you?" Bulkhead: "Traffic."
The 'bots return to the base to report to Optimus of what happened with them. Arcee: "And the cons would've been scrapped if I wasn't distracted by the human." Optimus: "Human?" Elita: "Three boys." Arcee: I guess the third one caught us in action. I don't know. Was a little busy at the time." Optimus: If the Decepticons are targeting us, anyone perceived as our ally will be at great risk." Bumblebee tells Optimus what about the human with the two cybertronian weapons, which definitely catches the attention of Ratchet. "A human with cybertronian tech?!?"
Next day, at the school, we see Jack and Nakala leaving school, but stop when they see Raf waving at them from a tree. They decide to walk over and talk to him about what happened yesterday. Jack: "Raf, hey. Look, let's just keep this between us and forget anything ever happened, okay?" They were interrupted by the sound of a horn honking at them and turn to see that same yellow, black-striped muscle car. Raf: "*Gasp* Jack." Jack: "Oh. Not again." Bumblebee opens up his door and does his usual beeps and buzzes. Jack: "I-It..wants us to get in." Nakala: Just Raf." Jack: "How do you know that??" Raf: "It said so." Jack: "What???" Raf: "Your rides are over there." Both Jack and Nakala to see the cobalt blue motorcycle and white and pink car. How did they not see them? Jack: "Look, I really don't think that --" Raf: "How's it going?" "Raf?" Jack and Nakala turn around to see Raf already inside Bumblebee. Jack tries to stop him 'cuz he's unsure of wanting to be in this situation. "Wait! Stop!" he says, but they already took off.
Jack looks back at Arcee with a stern look before looking at his brother. "You wanna go with?" he asks. Nakala looks back at the two and gives a sad look. He wants to go with 'cuz he knows they are just like him. He's been in his robot form before and has his own vehicle mode too. But he wants stay with his brother and protect him. After a certain...incident, he doesn't want to let anyone he cares about to be taken away from him again. He looks back at Jack and says, "If you won't go, I won't either." Jack and Nakala then walk away together, with Nakala glancing back at the two 'bots.
We see a teenage girl by the name of Miko sitting on a brick wall drawing in her sketch book. "Coolest. Bike. Ever." she says. Her drawing is interrupted by her phone ringing. "Host parents? Ignore." she said in annoyance as she closes back her phone to get back to her drawing. But as she looks, she notices that both the motorcycle and car were gone. She groans in annoyance, but sees the two vehicles behind her and go down the road. For whatever dumb reason, she decides to follow them. (A/N: Like...seriously, who just follows a vehicle like that just to finish their drawing?)
Arcee enters the alleyway and gets in front of the two brothers, while Elita gets behind them. Arcee: "Relax. We just wanna talk to you." Jack: "Don't you mean you and your new friend." Arcee: "Kid, there's a lot you don't understand." Jack: "No, I-I-I get it. I get it. The first rule of robot fight club is you don't talk about robot fight club. What YOU two need to understand is that me and Nakala don't want a bunch of crazy talking vehicles following me around, trying to get me killed." Arcee then transforms in her bipedal form, and so does Elita. Elita: "Jack, Nakala. Both of your safeties are why you need to come with us. Optimus Prime said so." Jack: "Wha- Eh- Optimus who??" Arcee: "You may be in danger cuz you are two of the few, two of the only who have ever seen us." They then hear a voice of a teen girl behind them. "Dude! What are you waiting for? Go with!" "Scrap." Arcee said, knowing that they have to take her now too.
We are now on the scene of the squad driving to the base, and Miko was having a good time on riding the motorcycle with Jack. Miko: "WHOO-HOO! WHOO!" Jack: "And why exactly are we taking her?" Arcee: "Rules." Nakala was inside Elita, deep in thought. "You OK Nakala?" she asked snapping him out of his thoughts. "Y-Yeah. Just...questioning everything." he said quietly, as usual. "You have a very unique voice. All questions will be answered once we enter the base." Nakala looks up and notices they went past a stop sign and were about to crash into a wall. "Hey. What- WOAH!" Jack yelled, before the wall opened up and revealed a human-made tunnel that they drive into. Miko looks on amazed before they enter a giant room where Ratchet is standing. "Cool." Raf says also amazed while Jack and Miko look on in awe as Bulkhead shows himself. Nakala too was amazed, but was also expecting it. But he didn't expect the base of these guys to be human looking. "*Probably an old military base.*" he thought.
The kids got off/out their rides and the three 'bots transformed in their bipedal forms. "I thought there were two." Ratchet said confused. "Haven't you heard? Humans multiply." Arcee joked with annoyance in her voice. "The girl spotted us trying to get Jack and Nakala here to come with." Elita said. "I'm Raf." Raf introduced himself to Miko while holding his hand out to shake, but she wasn't focused on him right now. "I'm Miko." she said before running to the green 'bot. Miko: "Who are you?" Bulkhead: "Bulkhead." Miko: "*gasp* Are you a car? I bet your a truck. A monster truck! Do you like heavy metal? How much do you weigh? Ever use a wrecking ball for a punching bag?" Nakala was already annoyed with this girl knowing how she was gonna be the whole time. "Oh great. She's one of those." he mutters before putting his hand over his head.
"So, if you guys are robots, who made you?" Raf asked, only to get an annoyed scoff from Ratchet. "Puh-lease!" he said annoyed and a bit angered, judging by his face. "Go easy on them Ratchet." Elita said. "Judging by tech today, not from Earth." Nakala stated. The four hear heavy footsteps from behind and turn around to see a bigger 'bot approaching them. Optimus Prime: "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron, also known as Autobots." Jack: "Why are you here?" Optimus Prime: "To protect your planet from the Decepticons." Arcee: "The jokers who tried to bump us off last night." Jack: "OK. Why are they here?" Optimus gets on one knee to be close to the four. Optimus Prime: "A fair question, Jack. In part, they are here because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war." Raf: "Why were you fighting a war?" Optimus Prime: "Foremost, over control of our world's supply of energon, the fuel and lifeblood of all Autobots and Decepticons alike."
Optimus: "The combat was fierce and endured for centuries. In the beginning, I fought alongside one whom I considered a brother. But in war, ideals can be corrupted. And it was thus... that Megatron lost his way." Miko clearly didn't care as she did a fake yawn and said, "Is there gonna be a quiz?" Nakala flicked her on the cheek in annoyance. "Ow!" "Quiet, and listen." Jack: "So, what does Megatron, or any of this, have to do with us." Optimus: "Megatron has not been seen nor heard from in some time. But if his return is imminent, as I fear, it could be catastrophic."
We're now back on the warship where we Soundwave walking towards Starscream, playing some kind of signal. "Those transmissions are emanating from deep space." he said. "I would hate to waste the energon... unless you are absolutely certain." Soundwave nods his head in response. "*sighs* Then lock on transmission coordinates, and active the space bridge." he tells a vehicon, who then proceeds to do as he was told. We now see the space bridge in space be activated, and a ship comes out of it. It then transformers into none other than Megatron himself. "Decepticons! I have returned."
To be continued...