The place Optimus drove to was Emerald Coast. Everyone had gone home for the evening, which was a pity, because the sunset was gorgeous. Optimus had transformed so he could see the sunset with his own optics. He sat down on the sand and watched as the sun painted a display of purple, yellow, red, and orange. As he gazed, he imagined himself on the roof of the Iacon Hall of Records with Elita 1. She hated being called by her real name, Ariel, so she and her sister followed their uncle’s footsteps, name-wise. In Optimus’ daydream, he was back to being Orion Pax. He and Elita were gazing lovingly at each other and were slowly leaning towards each other. They were about to kiss when an alarm blared and Orion Pax quickly became Optimus Prime again, albeit a startled Optimus Prime. “Who’s there?!” he demanded as he drew his gun. He then heard laughter.
“Man,” giggled the laughter’s source, “I can only imagine what your face looked like!” Optimus blinked, then put his hand to the side of his head as if he were using his comms unit.
“What the heck, Teletraan?!” he snapped.
“Your daydream was too good!” laughed Teletraan. “I had to do it!”
“Was there a reason you called,” asked Optimus, “or were you just trying to give me a spark attack?”
“Well,” replied Teletraan, “yes, actually. A ship has entered Mobius’ orbit. It’s starting its landing cycle.”
“The Harbinger?” quizzed Optimus. “Already?”
“Er, no,” corrected Teletraan. “In fact, it’s not a Decepticon ship. It’s one of the newer Autobot warships.”
“What?!” yelped Optimus. “Who authorized it to come here? I didn’t ask for reinforcements!”
“You didn’t, but, if things do check out, the Council sent it,” reported Teletraan. “The rest of the team is already at the landing site.”
“Bridge me there, now,” ordered Optimus. The Ground Bridge opened and Optimus transformed back into vehicle mode and sped into it. He emerged in a grassy area to see the team, Sonic, and Amy already there. “Ratchet, what have we got?” asked Optimus as the ship extended its landing struts.
“It’s the new Vanguard-class Deep Space Interceptor,” answered Ratchet. “Built for speed and is heavily armed with sixteen port-side particle combustion cannons, sixteen starboard laser emitters, a primary star-field missile launcher, and an Overshock sonic battery. Its full crew compliment is 300 but can be piloted with a scratch crew of eight.”
“Teletraan,” directed Optimus, “identify the bots on board.”
“Well, Optimus, here’s the thing,” muttered Teletraan, “I’ve only got two spark signatures on board. One of them is some bot called Prowl, the other, I don’t have a match for.”
“Only two?!” yelped Optimus. “A scratch crew of eight is stretching it, but two?!”
“Hold on, Teletraan, did you say Prowl?” asked Jazz.
“I did,” confirmed Teletraan.
“Someone you know?” quizzed Amy.
“He’s head of Praxian Law Enforcement on Cybertron,” answered Jazz.
“And he’s here because…?” inquired Optimus.
“We’re about to find out,” called Ironhide. The entrance ramp lowered and revealed a figure inside. The figure stepped down the ramp to reveal Captain Prowl of the Elite Guard: Praxian Law Enforcement.
“Captain Prowl, reporting for duty, Sir!” barked Prowl as he saluted.
“At ease, Captain,” directed Optimus. “What brings you and your compatriot here?”
“Well, Sir,” answered Prowl, “the Council sent me here because the Space Bridge we had didn’t work properly, like someone sabotaged it.”
“Not really reassuring,” remarked Optimus.
“The ship also served as one that could overtake the Harbinger,” continued Prowl.
“Overtake it?” asked Optimus. “Why didn’t you ask it to heave to?”
“Because I was just sent here to tell you that the ship has escaped Decepticon prisoners on board, not the Throttlebots as originally thought,” reported Prowl.
“HA!” cheered Ironhide. He turned to Ratchet. “And you owe me some Shanix!”
“Oh no!” sighed Ratchet.
“How did they get out of the Stockade?!” asked Optimus.
“Judging from the Spark signature,” remembered Prowl, “an Autobot got them out.”
“An Autobot did what?!” yelped Ratchet.
“That was 20 mega cycles of my life alone putting each of them in their cells!” shouted Ironhide. “That glitch spawn!”
“Possibly the rest of it, if the Decepticons are gonna start the fight again,” supplied Prowl.
“As if we don’t have enough Decepticon problems as it is!” wailed Optimus.
“Wait, what?” quizzed Prowl.
“Shockwave survived the raid of her Earth lab,” replied Optimus. Prowl tensed up.
“Er, Prowl,” gulped Jazz, “any history you wanna share?”
“Shockwave ran a Praxian internment camp I was in,” answered Prowl. “I thought Megatronus killed her! A shot to the head usually does that!”
“Save your anger for when we actually meet her,” directed Optimus. “In the meantime, you and your travel buddy need to scan a new vehicle mode. I’ll clear this landing incident with the government and…”
“Travel buddy?” asked Prowl.
“Yeah,” confirmed Optimus, confused at Prowl’s reaction, “the other bot on board.”
“What other bot?” quizzed Prowl.
“We found two spark signatures on board,” reported Ratchet.
“Impossible, I was the only one on board,” dismissed Prowl. “The Council put in a computer program that took over the whole ship and flew me here. It fragmented beyond repair and so I deleted it.”
“Then, who’s the…?” Optimus asked before something came through the hull from the inside and ran away. “Hey! That’s a new ship, buddy!” shouted Optimus. The creature didn’t listen as it ran away.
“Yet another problem,” sighed Cliffjumper.
“On top of getting a new vehicle mode for Prowl,” remarked Optimus. “On that note, Prowl, we’re using extreme cover on account of there being too much Energon here.”
“How?!” asked Prowl.
“Don’t look at me!” protested Optimus. “We’re still trying to figure that out!”
“We’ll brief you on our situation when we get to base,” assured Ratchet. Optimus commed in.
“Base, requesting Ground Bridge,” he commanded.
“Understood, Sir,” replied Teletraan.
“Is someone at the base?” asked Prowl.
“Hey! Hello!” called Teletraan.
“He isn’t connected,” sighed Optimus, “he can’t hear you.”
“Actually, yes I can,” countered Prowl. “Who are you?”
“I think you knew me by my project name,” chuckled Teletraan, “Project: Battle brain?”
“…You do know that the A.I. was declared unstable?!” yelped Prowl.
“Your face is unstable!” snapped Optimus.
“…Wow Op, really?” asked Jazz.
“Sadly, that was the best he could give at an awkward moment,” sighed Teletraan.
“Shut it, and bridge the nine of us back,” hissed Optimus.
“Nine?” repeated Prowl. “You mean these two met you guys before?”
“Mobius’ news people caught us and did their job,” replied Optimus.
“An entire planet knows about us?!” shouted Prowl. “Article 9, Section 6, Subsection 31 of the Pax Cybertronia states…”
“I know we’re supposed to be robots in disguise!” snapped Optimus. “However, if we didn’t let the world know we’re here, we may be mistaken for their local enemy. A man named Dr. Eggman has discovered how T-cogs function and is digging up the resting places of the fallen soldiers here. He has an empire of robots and people are antsy about us as it is. Hence why we have a liaison with the government.”
“And you believe these people can offer anything to us?” asked Prowl.
“Well,” replied Optimus, “Sonic here can run at speeds capable of breaking the sound barrier and Amy can magically summon an oversized hammer out of nowhere. And that’s just a small percentage of the super powered people here.”
“Well,” mused Prowl, “that’s…enlightening. …To base then?”
“Bridge is right behind you guys,” directed Teletraan. “By the way, I call being Ship-board A.I.”
“Dibs on being the captain,” called Optimus.
“What?” yelped Prowl. “You can’t call dibs on a Naval position!”
“Sure I can,” argued Optimus. “Dibs.”
“You really are a child,” muttered Prowl. The Autobots, Sonic, and Amy went through the portal. Once it shut, the figure from the ship tapped its foot.
“The curse of deep cover,” the figure sighed in an alto voice. She then darted into the nearby woods.