Back on Mobius, the Autobots had arrived at G.U.N. HQ and were escorted to a storage barn. Optimus and Jazz were still rubbing the backs of their heads. “Did you have to hit us like that?” protested Optimus.
“Did you really think doing that would have made your sensei proud?” asked Ironhide.
“What are you talking about?” quizzed Jazz.
“Ironhide’s right,” called Ratchet. “What you did was practically suicide!”
“Prime, only an idiot would use his fists in a gun fight,” hissed Ironhide. “Those bots were out for blood!”
“Come on, man!” protested Jazz. “We survived.”
“Besides,” interjected Optimus, “I told you to not engage.”
“It was stupid of me, yes,” remarked Ironhide, “but I had my weapons when they had theirs. The enemy will always seek whatever advantage they can get. Don’t give them that advantage.”
“Dude, come on,” argued Optimus. “We beat the…”
“YES, we DID beat the bad guys!” snapped Ironhide. He then cycled air through his olfactory sensors. “Prime, you know those comics you read, where the bad guys would stop their assault because there were sparklings in the area? Sometimes they let the hero have a fighting chance?” Optimus nodded. “The Decepticons and those bots we fought; they aren’t like those guys. They will kill anyone if they get the chance, even you if you’re not properly equipped. Do not give them that chance. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” mumbled Optimus.
“Okay then,” finished Ironhide. “I’ve said my peace.” He left Optimus and Jazz to ponder what was said.
“I guess we didn’t make Yoketron proud today,” muttered Jazz.
“No, I guess we didn’t,” sighed Optimus. He then noticed Bumblebee was fiddling with a piece of machinery. “What’s up?” he asked.
“This thing won’t work!” snarled Bumblebee. “I keep getting high Energon numbers!”
“How?” asked Optimus. He turned to Ironhide. “You said that you bots practically drained Earth’s Energon reserves.”
“We did,” confirmed Ironhide. “Why?”
“I’m having technical difficulties with the Energon readings,” answered Bumblebee. “The mechanics check out though!”
“Maybe it’s not a hardware problem,” guessed Optimus. “Maybe the software is screwy. Mind if I take a crack at it? I was the best data archivist in the Hall of Records in Iacon.”
“Knock yourself out,” sighed Bumblebee as he tossed the machine to Optimus. Optimus let a plug jack come out of his wrist and he plugged it into the machine. A visor came over his eyes and code started flying by his eyes. It took a good few minutes before Optimus exhaled and let his shoulders sag. The visor went back up.
“There’s nothing wrong with it,” reported Optimus.
“What you mean there’s nothing wrong with it?” protested Bumblebee. “Energon doesn’t grow that fast! How’s our Energon reserve by the way?”
“We’re three-fourths full,” replied Optimus, “but it’s nothing to panic about. I mean what I say though, I can’t find anything wrong with it.”
“That can’t be right!” argued Ratchet after he overheard the conversation.
“Oh yeah?” countered Jazz. “Then how come I had an Energon field build-up when I stayed in robot mode for too long?”
“You what?!” yelped Ironhide.
“We’re all gonna short out soon,” remarked Jazz. “Take a look at Prime’s left hand.”
“What?!” yelped Optimus. He held his left hand in front of his face. It took a few seconds, but his hand twitched involuntarily. His optics went wide. “Autobots, transform!” he ordered. The Autobots changed into their alternate modes and switched their holo-forms on. “Man, that stung!” gasped Optimus.
“What caused the Energon crystals to grow so fast?” asked Ratchet to Jazz.
“I wish I knew,” replied Jazz. “I didn’t notice the field density until my body started shorting out.”
“You didn’t even check the density until after build up?” yelped Ratchet. “How irresponsible can you get?”
“Hey, lay off!” protested Optimus. “How could anyone guess the density without proper equipment?” That’s when the door to the storage barn opened. Team Dark strode in with a man. The man was in military brass uniform, had silver hair in a military cut, and his right eye was brown and his left eye was green.
“Autobots,” began Shadow, “this is Commander Abraham Tower, commander in chief of the Guardian Unit of Nations.”
“G.U.N?” chuckled Optimus. Commander Tower glared at Optimus, making him subside. “Er, sorry.” Gulped Optimus.
“From what I’ve heard,” rumbled Commander Tower, “you and the other Transformers were fighting your own kind.”
“Er, Transformers?” asked Jazz.
“Our own kind?” quizzed Optimus. “You mean the robot army we fought an hour ago? Sir, we’re not from this planet.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you,” remarked Tower. “For all we know, you could be a ruse developed by Eggman to throw us off our guard.”
“Eggman?” chuckled Ironhide.
“Don’t forget,” reminded Ratchet, “he nearly beat us to a pulp with those transforming tanks.”
“Did anyone notice a familiar noise when those tanks transformed?” asked Bumblebee.
“Now that I think of it, yes,” mused Ratchet. “It almost sounded like a t-cog and armor plating adjusting to the new mode.”
“If Eggman’s been taking t-cogs from the dead,” hissed Ironhide, “he and I will have words!”
“The fact that you so easily ignored us,” interjected Commander Tower, “ and that we have no idea what a t-cog is or what the dead have to do with it doesn’t speak well of your defense. Come with us. We’ll get the truth out of you.” The Autobots gulped and followed Commander Tower out of the storage barn. As they were lead to Central Operations, they noticed a lot of soldiers pointing their guns at them.
“Anyone else feel on edge or is it just me?” asked Jazz.
“Don’t you chicken out on us now,” hissed Optimus, “we’re all scared.”
“Here we are,” barked Commander Tower. They were at the door to Central Operations. Commander Tower keyed in the password on the numeric locks and led everyone inside. They walked down the corridors of G.U.N. and soon arrived at the main control room. “This room is lined with lie detectors of all types,” revealed Commander Tower. “They’re switched on at the moment. If you lie, my men shoot you.”
“Good luck,” muttered Ironhide.
“Now, where do you come from?” asked Tower.
“We come from the planet Cybertron,” answered Optimus. A green check mark flashed on the main screen. Commander Tower was puzzled.
“Er, from another planet?” he asked.
“Yep!” confirmed Optimus. “Cybertron’s a beautiful world, especially now that there’s peace between our two factions, the Autobots and the Decepticons.”
“There was a war on your planet?” asked the Commander.
“Yeah,” replied Optimus. “It lasted for four million of your planet’s years and ended when this planet got caught up in the crossfire.”
“When was that?” asked Tower.
“It was in 2007 to 2016,” answered Optimus, “about 2,000 years ago.”
“I was promoted to Corporal during that time and then was promoted to my current rank of Sergeant at the end,” recalled Ironhide.
“I see,” mused Commander Tower.
“Now we enjoy a new age of peace so much,” boasted Optimus, “it’s practically in our C.N.A.!”
“C.N.A.?” asked Rouge.
“It stands for Cybernucleic Acid,” answered Ratchet, “the very backbone of our genetic code.”
“Genetic code?” asked Shadow. “That implies that you grow like biological organisms.”
“We sure do!” confirmed Optimus. The conversation carried on, but no lies were detected.
“That’s enough,” interjected Commander Tower. “Well now, I think we can give you accommodations here.”
“We’d prefer a more remote location,” replied Optimus. “We weren’t supposed to be known by you guys.” As they were talking, Sonic and Amy came into the room.
“Hey, guys!” called Sonic. “What’s shaking?”
“Hey, Sonic!” answered Optimus. “We were just talking about where we should set up a base of operations.”
“Sonic,” recalled Amy, “Didn’t you use to live in a giant cruise plane?”
“A what?” asked Optimus.
“A plane that functioned like a cruise ship,” explained Sonic. “It’s a huge one, but it crashed a hundred years ago. I used to live in it when I was 15. Tails would also hang out there and build about a dozen underground rooms.”
“Er, Tails?” asked Jazz.
“My best bud,” elaborated Sonic, “and a brilliant mechanic. Maybe in the morning, he can help us get you guys settled!”
“That’s great,” agreed Optimus, “but until that time, we kind of need to crash here. Jazz, where did you stash your stasis pod?”
“Behind Club Dancitron,” answered Jazz.
“Go get it and bring it here,” directed Optimus. He turned to the rest of the Autobots. “Let’s go get ours.”
“Where we left them?” asked Ratchet.
“Yep,” replied Optimus.
“On a flying island?” quizzed Ratchet.
“Uh huh!” answered Optimus.
“How?” asked Ratchet.
“With the w…” Optimus didn’t complete the phrase as his optics went wide.
“The what? Warp Ring?” asked Ratchet with a sarcastic smile on his face.
“Scrap!” swore Optimus.
“Warp ring?” asked Sonic.
“When my team and I landed here,” explained Optimus, “we landed on a place called Angel Island.”
“Did you meet a red echidna?” asked Amy.
“You know Knuckles?” quizzed Optimus.
“Yeah,” replied Sonic, “Ol’ Knucklehead and I are friendly rivals. Wish I could say the same for Grouchy here.” He pointed at Shadow, who gave a ‘hmph’ in protest.
“Well, Knuckles opened up a Warp Ring and once we stepped through, it closed automatically,” answered Optimus
“Hoo boy,” sighed Sonic, “Knuckles will give you an earful. Let me call him up.” Sonic took something out from behind his back and pressed on the keypad the something had. It popped open to become a headset. “Call Knuckles,” Sonic said into the microphone. A few rings later and a voice said “Hello?” “Hey Knucklehead,” laughed Sonic.
“Sonic, did you call me just to rile me up?” asked Knuckles.
“No, actually,” replied Sonic. “I heard that you met these guys called the Autobots.”
“How did you find that out?!” yelped Knuckles.
“Optimus and his buddies are here with me,” revealed Sonic. “He wants to talk to you.” He handed the headset to Optimus.
“Hello Knuckles?” asked Optimus.
“Hey, Optimus!” called Knuckles. “Did you find new…er…vehicle modes?”
“Yep, and we cleared the charges on the bot that came here,” replied Optimus.
“Well, that’s good news. So, what’s up?” asked Knuckles.
“Well, we’re under the impression that your, erm, friend, Doctor Eggman is desecrating the final resting places of those that died in our civil war to gain our abilities,” explained Optimus.
“That’s not good. So, why are you calling me?” asked Knuckles.
“We need those pods that we landed in,” replied Optimus.
“Well, that’s easy, just flick the Warp Ring in the air, think of the location, and then step through,” instructed Knuckles.
“That’s the problem. When we used it, it closed automatically and just disappeared,” said Optimus, sheepishly.
“WHAT?!” roared Knuckles. “DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HARD THEY ARE TO MAKE?! I ONLY HAD THREE!” Knuckles sighed on the other end. “I’ll open another one, but this time; close it on your own!” Knuckles hung up and left Optimus with a ringing in his ears.
“Ow,” he winced.