Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What did you say?”

“I said Prime…”

What a mistake to just take off like that. Without any form of Energon. Such carelessness. I hadn’t even made it past the planet called Saturn. And every closer I get to it, the more I could feel myself fade. The frozen particles of the cold void of space wasn’t helping either. As I kept drifting in and out of recharge, I noticed a large technological city like ship in the distance. Friend or foe, I really didn’t know…

“Wake up scum!”

I came back online due to the fact that something just kicked me on my chest. The feeling of weightlessness only lasted a second before landing back on solid ground. I looked up only to receive a blow from a fist doubled the size of helm. Those same servos lifted me up.

"Do you know who I am Prime?"

I briefly searched my memory banks for any recollection of this thug, but recalled nothing. I must've been silent enough to prompt him to say something.

"You fool! I am Apeface!"

He roughly threw me to the ground and turned around.

"Spasma, get over here."

A tinier bot, drastically shorter than Apeface and myself, came up. They seemed to compliment each other quite well, Spasma's overall black color scheme to Apeface's grey. Speaking of said bot, "Here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna play bad cop wreck cop."

I glanced sideways at the tiny bot, he must have some special ability.

"You know Prime, there's a big price for your head. Big guys like Gyconi, Kremzeek, but I've never this much units for a bit just to bring'em alive."

Curiosity flowed through me, "W-who..."

"Eh, some chick named Quimte-Quwintesse-"

"Quintessa." pointed out Spasma quite sharply.

"Yeah, that name." Apeface sounded quite pleased with himself and Spasma just sighed, but then Apeface got furious.

"Hey! You think you're smart Eh Prime! Well you're not! Spasma, we need to put our heads together!"

In a weird turn of events, Apeface's head completely disappeared and Spasma took his place, becoming his head. At this point I decided that I was definitely low on Energon, but that wasn't the case.

He stalked up and picked me up via my face.

"You shouldn't have come here Prime, you made this catch too easy. Welcome to Chaar."

"... That there's something coming. Something that even you can't stop."

"Too bad that this place was declared a No-Go Zone. Stupid Decepticons..."

"I honestly don't know why they like this place so much, it's a beautiful city and all, they didn't have to trash it."

"On that Cade, we can agree on unison. Though seriously, you should've seen Kaon, and I'm not talking about the Con."

Silence.

"Feels good having you here Bee, hope I'm not bugging you too much."

"These jokes might."

"Yeah, you might tell me to buzz off and go back to the hive beecause they're annoying."

Bee's face went blank with playful annoyance, at least it distracted him from the hauntful memories Chicago brought him. Now a days you can't turn left on one street without running into some Decepticon while you're here.

The barren city was awfuly quiet, until a high pitched screech was heard behind them. Thoroughly alert now, both raised their weapons at the intruder, a tiny blue damaged robot that looked quite sheepish at its mistake.

"Oh shweit."

Cade took one step towards it, "Bee look, it's tiny."

The scout had not only took out his modified Plasma Cannon, but also both of his shoulder mounted rockets and an axe in his left arm.

"Goshdarnit Bee, really?"

"Hey, these days all these Cons are getting too adorable, it could be a trap."

"What? This thing?"

One step forward, it backed up. Then unexpectedly it made a loud cry: "Chihuahua!"

Another unexpected thing, the whole street blew up. The Decepticons were sure to come running.

But did that really matter for the little blue bot that was mocking them with its adorable evil laugh?

It seemed like eons when Chicago was destroyed and I was officially labeled off as an orphan. Foster wasn't an option, so I ran. Scavenged some materials, edible or otherwise to survive on my own.

It was like this for awhile, until Chicago became another Hot-Spot and No-Go Zone. That's when reconstruction efforts halted completely, and everyone left except me, figured I was good on my own.

That's what every ten year old would think right?

But the Decepticons came flooding in, taking the city for themselves.

One would think then that there was no more hope, until you've stumbled upon your new family.

It was only thanks to my parental figure Canopy, and my best friend Sqweeks, that I was able to survive this long.

-

Reminiscing is getting more common these days. Especially while I'm sitting on the window sill, something I'd always dared myself to do before 2011.

Looking beyond the cracked, dusty glass, I caught sight of the strange Patrol Unit Canopy alerted us about. A yellow scout size bot, along with a human.

Immediately I wondered if KSI were still making those prototypes, but technology was hard to find, as surprising as that sounded, meaning I won't get news from outside Chicago. But getting a clearer view, it looked very innocent, though if these years taught me something, it was to never trust any outsider.

Sqweeks and I were in position, ready to trigger the stolen Decepticon explosives that was rigged around the block.

I anxiously held the the a relatively small button, that was connected to a sophisticated box.

Once I trigger this, Sqweeks and I have a one minute time frame before Decepticons investigate.

Amazingly, Sqweek's 'cover' was blown, literally. But it didn't hinder the plan, as he yelled out the word. Instinctively, I pressed the button, and the ground shook violently with a resounding boom. Fire and smoke rose from the area of interest, and I began to rush downstairs from the two layer building.

Hurriedly pushing the door, I checked to see what damage I done to the duo, only to find them almost seemingly unharmed.

I looked on in terror to see the yellow bot fire a dangerously narrow blast at Sqweeks, the impact sending him meters past me.

"Sqweeks!"

I broke into a sprint to the damaged bot, and in no time was by his side.

I heard mild cursing from the man, at what I didn't know, but it sounded like he was getting close.

Making a mental note for a more thorough inspection later, I picked up Sqweeks as best as I could and began to move with a light jog.

That man was nearly in my personal space now, he kept shouting at me to stop, but I didn't. A few paces later he put a hand on my shoulder, halting my progress for a split second before I instinctively kneed him in his crotch. In response he let go, and his bot came rushing to his need.

Once in a safe place I waited a few moments, while crouching, my mind began to be filled with questions.

Who were they?