This is my take on a modernized version of Generation 1. If there was a G1 toy, it will be in this story at some point. Some of the characterizations might change to make it more realistic, since these are giant alien robots fighting a war, so I'll do my best to stay true to the original series. The e-Hobby repaints (Tigertrack, Clampdown, Deep Cover, etc) will also show up.

----
This year

Late at night, in the Wal-Mart shopping center, Carly Spencer, a young college graduate, at the age of 16, was taking a quick break, having walked over to the Sweet Frog yogurt shop to get her favorite - chocolate and peanut butter with candy corn and Reese's cups. As she finished up her yogurt outside the shop, she saw a crazy-looking car followed by a new VW Beetle from the residential area off to the interstate. The first was white with green and red accents and what looked like racing logos all over it, and the other looked a bright yellow.




For a second, Carly could've sworn there were no drivers in the two cars, but after looking down at her fro-yo, she saw a girl in the VW, and a trim man in the race car. Must've missed it.

"Hey, Carly, break time's over," called her co-worker, Micah, a guy who played a bit too much Pokémon in his spare time.

"Alright, I'm coming," Carly said as she threw her yogurt into the trash with a perfect dunk. She wore skinny jeans that followed her curves, while her regulation Gamestop shirt did little to hide her curves from the customers who often came back to her line in the store. She had to work on hiding her British accent, as she spent a few years there with her mom and dad, who was an ambassador to the UK, and before that, Germany, before she got into MIT at 12, and graduated at 16. She spent too much time with the British kids, so regaining her American accent was her first priority when she got back to the US.

Carly looked again and saw the two cars merging onto the highway and wondered where they might be going.
----
An oil rig off the coast of Jefferson Island

"Hey Sam! Hand me that wrench, will ya?" called a middle-aged man looking to tighten the drill before the night shift took over.

"All right, dad," Sam said as he grabbed the giant tool for his father. He adjusted his yellow hard hat, looking like the other rig workers, clad in jeans, boots, heavy button-up shirts and hard hats.

As the father and son team worked on the rig, where overhead, three F-35 jets roared overhead. Odd, but the rig workers were a patriotic sort and didn't notice the odd coloration of the jets, being white and red, blue, and black and purple.

"So, William, when're you and Sam heading back to shore?" asked Jake Davidson, a tall, 6'2" black man with short-shaven hair and a smile on his face.

"We're heading back tomorrow," the elder Witwicky replied to his best friend, the one who brought him aboard the rig a few months ago as a mechanic to earn some extra money. "Sam's got school in two weeks, and my wife and I want to make sure he's rested up and ready. 16-hour days on the rig won't be a good thing right before the new school year."

"I hear ya," Jake replied. "My two kids are eager for me to get back home too. I got three more days, though."

"When you get back, we can get together and barbecue again," William replied.

"Crazy, those jets came circling back," Sam said absently, as his father and Jake looked overhead.

"Navy flyboys," William harumphed. He was a former Marine, having made it to colonel before mustering out, and was proud of his service. "Alright son, let's turn in for the night."

Sam took a second, and followed his dad to the living quarters.
----
The day before

Mt St Helens rumbled again, something that the news commented on for the past few days, as potentially signalling a more active stage of the volcano, but not for a few months at least. But the rumbling caused a rock slide, exposing something buried over 4 million years ago.

Inside the mountain, buried under rock and soil, a large golden spaceship was again exposed to the environment, the rock, soil, and trees being swept away with the grumbling of the volcano.

Some lights inside the volcano activated as a single drone launched, called a Sky Spy, as it began scanning forms for repair. Unfortunately, the scanning beam malfunctioned, and its targeting system was scanning an empty floor, when another rumble of the volcano, by chance, let a stasis-locked form fall from a console and into its path. The angular black form found itself in the path of the scanner, when a series of robot drone arms started repairing the damage.

Miles away, the Sky Spy found a squadron of F-35s, and scanned its first camouflage mode for the disabled inhabitants of the Ark, taking mere seconds to analyze the local life form, and moving on from it to the next.

Inside the Ark, the first chassis completed its reformatting, as a black F-35 with purple detailing. It transformed, revealing the form of Skywarp, the evil Decepticon. He quickly looked around at the disabled forms lying about, and found his leader, Megatron, in stasis-lock on the floor of the Ark. The scanner missed, aiming in error at the floor, and Skywarp dragged Megatron into its path.

After Megatron was repaired, he transformed up from his Walther P99 mode, and looked around. "Quickly, we must revive the other Decepticons. We don't know how long this pitifal Autobot ship will last!"

Soon, the entire Decepticon army, Reflector, Soundwave and his cassettes, Starscream, Thundercracker, Runabout and Runamuck, Blackout, and Barricade as awakened and exited the craft on foot, then carried aloft by the jets to a ledge overlooking the coastal city.

"Much time has passed," Megatron said to the others as he overlooked the landscape and primitive technology before him. "We are on a planet far from Cybertron, but our mission has not changed."

"How do we know Cybertron still exists?" Skywarp asked.

"It MUST exist!" Megatron retorted immediately, silencing the possibility of doubt in his troops. "And if this land is filled with resources, we shall return home with the power to build the ultimate weapon, and conquer the universe."

The troops started to walk towards a road, so that the car bots could begin their search for energy, as Starscream looked at the Ark, his unwanted prison for an untold eon. He shot off a few blasts at some remaining boulders, as much testing his arm-mounted lasers as hoping to bury the Ark again.

"Starscream, save your energy," Megatron said as he turned to his second-in-command.

"I'm just saying goodbye," Starscream replied, turning back to his leader.

"The Autobots have taken their 'last flight,'" Megatron smiled, as his red eyes glowed, and he joined his other troops, leaving Starscream behind.

"Thanks for the ride, Prime," Starscream said as he shot loose a few more rocks, contempt evident in his voice, "Too bad you can't go the rest of the way."

A rock slide collided with the Ark, satisfying Starscream, who turned and launched, transforming into Jet mode, with Thundercracker and Skywarp following their air commander.

"Starscream, map the area, and begin scouting areas for a new base!" Megatron called out over the radio.

Inside the Ark, a lone red and blue frame fell to the ground, where the errant repair scanner finally found it, hitting its mark. After a long repair, the COE Freightliner transformed, and stood, as Optimus Prime gave a thumbs-up to the repair scanner, saying "Thanks!" to it as he began getting his troops repaired.
----

End Preview.

 

Cast so far:

Decepticons:

Megatron - Walther P99
Soundwave - 'retro' cassette player by Sony, where cassettes are memory cards
Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp - F-35
Runabout - Lotus Esprit concept car

Runamuck - Aston Martin Vanquish (couldn't find a US car similar enough to Trans Am)

Barricade - Saleen S281 Police Cruiser
Blackout - MH-53 Pave Low heavy-lift helicopter

Incinerator - Osprey

 

Part 1: The Awakening
----

Having repaired his fellow comrades, Prime had them all muster outside the Ark's final resting place, quarter-exposed in the side of the mountain, saved only due to his final use of the deflectors seconds before the crash.

"This planet is rich in sources of energy," he said, as he paced in front of Sideswipe, Jazz, Bumblebee, and Hound, on his now extended mission. "But the Decepticons must know this too. So we must find them, and stop them."

He took stock of his troops. Each of them was ready to get going, eager to stop the Decepticons so they could return home, if it still existed.

"Hound, scout the area," Prime ordered. "See if you can locate the Decepticons."

"Just turn me loose Prime, I'll sniff 'em out," Hound replied.

"I'm going too," Cliffjumper said, cutting in. "I'm going to boot some Decepticon right in his turbocharger."

"Easy Cliffjumper. Just find them. We'll deal with them later," Prime replied, as Cliffjumper and Hound transformed for their scouting mission.




As his two scouts transformed, Prime turned to Wheeljack and Bumblebee.

"Wheeljack, I want you and Bumblebee to scout the nearest inhabited area. It appears to be called 'Portland,'" Prime ordered, looking at the two warriors. "See what you can find out about the local technology."

As the two transformed and sped off, Prime then turned to Jazz and Bluestreak, saying, "Jazz, you and Bluestreak should find follow along and find out about the local inhabitants and their culture and language. We should try to blend in as much as possible while we're here."

"You got it Prime," Jazz nodded, before transforming and taking off.

"Ratchet?" Prime turned to his medic, "Let's start working on repairing the Ark."
----
Today

Starscream transformed as he landed, reporting back to Megatron his findings.

"There appears to be plenty of fuel on the planet in the form of 'fossil fuel' as the local lifeforms call it," he reported.

"We can construct a machine to convert this into energon," Soundwave added in his monotone voice.

"Excellent!" Megatron smiled, as he turned to Incinerator and Blackout. "Incinerator, Blackout, find the nearest military installation and steal their database!"

The two transformed into an Osprey and a helicopter and took off, as Megatron turned to Runabout and Runamuck, a duo who called themselves 'Battlechargers', or as Starscream called them, dimwits.

"Runabout, Runamuck, find the nearest source of raw materials for our base of operations," Megatron ordered, "Be careful you are not seen by the locals, and do not engage any locals, or I'll scrap you personally. Understood?"

"Yes, Lord Megatron," came the simultaneous response from the two, as they transformed and rolled out for wherever they were going. Starscream could've sworn he heard Runamuck start cackling a bit as they drove off.

Starscream walked up to Megatron, as he turned to the other car Decepticon, Barricade, who turned into a police car. "Barricade, after we awakened, Soundwave picked up something Cybertronian in the nearby city. Find it, but don't be seen in robot mode by the locals. Take Laserbeak with you."

Barricade nodded silently, as he transformed into his vehicle mode, and Soundwave ejected Laserbeak, whose mass-shifting technology reduced him to a cassette-sized mode, in the passenger seat. As he drove off, Starscream voiced his concern.

"Lord Megatron, Runabout and Runamuck aren't known for their subtlety," he said finally, as he and Megatron looked on the departing robots.

"Of course not, otherwise I wouldn't have given them that mission," Megatron replied.

"Surely we want not to be seen by the locals," Starscream replied, "so we can construct a space cruiser and get home as quickly as possible, Lord Megatron."

"Starscream, there's nothing to fear about the locals," Megatron replied. "They're little flesh creatures barely evolved enough to use technology. You and the others verified this when you flew over their 'oil rig.' Those two idiots can keep themselves together for a few dozen breems till we can get those materials here. Then we can start constructing our space cruiser and an energy processing facility."

"Megatron," Soundwave interrupted, as Buzzsaw returned, and transformed back to cassette mode, stored in Soundwave. "Buzzsaw reports this planet has plentiful energy resources. We can make use and convert to energon as Shockwave predicted."

"Perfect. Starscream," Megatron turned, and pointed to his second-in-command. "You and your squadron will locate the closest materials necessary for processing this planet's energy to a form we can use."

"At once, Lord Megatron," Starscream said as he looked to Thundercracker and Skywarp, who without having to say it, all took off to search for the nearest power plant.

Starscream, had he been in robot mode, would've rolled his optics. Megatron was taking too big a risk, sending those lunatics out to get raw materials. Better remain undetected, and leave the planet with the inhabitants none the wiser, rather than risk exposure. Who knows what dangers lurk on this planet?
----

At the docks

"Hey Sparkplug! You old leatherneck, how are ya?" came the big smile of Freddy, one of Sparkplug (William) Witwicky's oldest friends from the Marines. He was the very image of a grizzled, but still fit and trim, marine drill instructor.

"Hey Freddy, I'm great, how 'bout you?" Sparkplug replied.

"Good, good," he said. "My daughter Mikaela and I are in town for a bit, we were meeting up with Daniel Fairborne and his wife, Allison. How about you and Sam joining us? We were just heading over to Allen's Pizza for some lunch."

"Sam and I need to unload first, but maybe we can join you guys tonight? Maybe we can do a barbeque at the Fairbones. You said they have a good setup right?" Sparkplug replied.

"Oh, you bet," Freddy replied. "Daniel's got the best deck a Chief Warrant Officer can afford. I'll run it by him."

"Oh, hi Mr. Baines," Sam said as he set down his duffelbag, and shook Freddy's hand. "Good to see you again, sir."

"You've grown up a bit, Sam," Freddy said with a smile. "All that work out on the rig really did good for ya. Mikaela won't recognize you when she sees you next. Take care!"

"I bet she still calls me Spike," Sam replied, remembering the nickname she gave him years ago.

"Let's head out, son," Sparkplug called to his sun, tussling his sandy brown hair.

Spike put his duffel in the trunk, as something shiny caught his eye. He bent down to pick up a crystal in a rock. It was entrancing - it seemed intricate, like there was more in there than just crystal, like micro-writing or something.

"Sam, come on, let's roll out!" Sparkplug called to his spaced-out son.

"Right dad, let's go!" Sam said, shutting the trunk, and getting into their old Ford truck. The duo still had on their boots, jeans, and khaki work shirts, which were a kind of uniform on the rig. He gripped the crystal in his hand, intent on looking at it more when they got home.

----

 

Autobots:

Optimus Prime - same truck as G1

Bumblebee - new Beetle
Cliffjumper - red Porsche Cayman GT4
Brawn - green Toyota Land Cruiser with spare tire on top

Huffer - Orange-yellow Ford Cargo with upwards exhaust

Gears - Blue with red bed detailing, Toyota Tacoma Arctic Truck

Windcharger - Chevy Camaro

Wheeljack - New Lancia Strators
Mirage - F1 car
Jazz - Porsche 991 Turbo GT3 Martini Racing

Hound - Jeep Wrangler
Sideswipe - red Lamborghini Aventador

Sunstreaker - yellow Lamborghini Aventador with spoiler and exposed engine
Trailbreaker - Toyota Tacoma with Camper

Ironhide - red Nissan NV200

Ratchet - Nissan NV200 ambulance Edition
Bluestreak - Nissan 370z - blue and silver
Prowl - Nissan 370z Police Edition
Bulkhead - Green military SWAT Van


You can count on the Autobots transforming similarly to their G1 counterparts, and their colorations similar to that of their G1 toys (with the exception of Bluestreak being actually blue).

Mild spoiler...eHobby repaints and Powered Convoy shall appear soon.

 

----

Autobot Base

With large sections of the Ark being damaged beyond repair, the Autobots stripped out the metal and electronics of it to form a ramp down to the ground, rather than having to jump out the hole the Decepticons blasted on their way out.

Prime was lucky to have Ratchet, Bulkhead, Ironhide, and the rest with him to get this done. He wondered how Ultra Magnus and the rest were doing on Cybertron, as he idly scanned the last component of the newly built elevator shaft, which would enable them to get into the actual Ark from the ground.

"Huffer, Gears," Prime called out to his engineer and transport specialist. "We're going to need an electronic early warning system, in case the Decepticons come back. They know the base is here, and it's only a matter of time before we encounter them."

"We're not fighters like they are Prime," Huffer replied. "Why don't we just fix the Ark, and leave this planet?"

"If we leave, Huffer, then the local lifeforms would be at the mercy of the Decepticons," Prime replied, "and we will have shirked our duty to stop them. No, our first duty is to defeat them, then return to Cybertron."

"Come on, Huffer, you nega-bot, let's get some plans together," Gears said with a pat on his friend's shoulder.

"He makes a good point Prime," came the scratchy voice of his medic, Ratchet. "We're not as vicious as they are."

"And that's an important distinction to keep, old friend," Prime said, as he looked out over the forested terrain. "What've you got?"

"We have everyone working on creating a lower level for the Ark, so we can get to the ship without having to use jetpacks," Ratchet reported. "Prowl and Hauler are trying to work on a Sky Spy to see if the aft section of the Ark is still up there."

"If they are, that could make the difference in this fight," Prime replied. "Let's get to work."
----

In Town

Sam took a double-take, as he saw someone he hadn't seen in years, Mikaela Banes. They used to be good friends as kids, but her dad was military, and they moved around quite a bit. And the years had been very kind to Mikaela. Her long, golden blonde hair, bangs, and curves meant practically every guy in the pizza shot took notice. Given she was also in cut-off jean shorts and a belly shirt, and filled it out quite well, that might've helped.

As the lunch progressed, Sam fidgeted a bit with the crystal as everyone chatted up, half paying attention till the pizza arrived.

"...have any classes together last year?"

"Huh?" Sam snapped back to reality. "I'm sorry, uh, sir. Classes?"

"With Mikaela." Freddy replied.

"Uh, yes sir. English, Calculus, AP US History, Physics," Sam replied, trying to remember his manners. He even took his elbows off the table.

"Really?" she replied. "I'll pay attention better next time. That summer on the oil rig really did you good Sam."

Sam got a bit red as he noticed Mikaela give him a once over, noticing he was, after a summer of heavy lifting, quite fit and had some nice arms and pecs through his khaki shirt.

"But you guys oughtta get rid of the matchin boots, jeans, and button-ups," Freddy Baines replied. "It's a bit 80's."

Both Sparkplug and Sam laughed a bit at the jest, while they enjoyed their pizza. After they had gotten things boxed up, and were finishing up their drinks, Sam dropped the crystal on his Galaxy 5 phone, sending what looked like and electric jolt into the phone, which momentarily displayed a jumble of alien symbols on it.

Example of the glyphs Sam saw

"Woah," Sam said, taken aback by the glyphs he saw.

"What was that?" Sparkplug asked, wondering what made his son jump.

"Some weird stuff flashed on my phone screen for a second before turning back off," Sam said in surprise.

"Maybe a virus?" Mikaela asked. "It is an Android. They get viruses."

"I don't know," Sam said, putting the crystal back in his shirt pocket, and standing up. "Dad, mom's probably waiting for us, we gotta get home."

"You're right son," Sparkplug said as he grabbed his box and shook his old friend's hand. "Freddy, it's been great catching up with you. Mikaela, good to see you again. Maybe you and Sam can hang out sometime before school."

"Sure, Mr. Witwicky," she smiled, a beautiful smile that made Sam's heart race a little faster. "See ya, Sam."

Sam gave her a silent wave, as he thought she might be possibly checking him out.

----
In Town

The equivalent of a Cybertronian beacon flashed in town, drawing the attention of Barricade, as he was driving down a street, trying to triangulate the signal, when it blasted across every Cybertronian frequency at once.

Swerving in the street, he turned on his police lights, and sped off to the source of the signal.

"Megatron, signal detected," Barricade reported through Soundwave back at their temporary base. "Based on age and encoding, it could be one of the shards."

"A shard of the Creation Matrix," Megatron said to himself. "With it, I could raise an army on this planet."

Megatron turned to Soundwave, "Find it and capture it. Now!"

"Yes, Lord Megatron!" replied Barricade as he cut the signal.

Elsewhere, Wheeljack and Bumblebee had stopped at a stoplight, when both their radios were overwhelmed by the signal as it blasted their receptors.

"What was that?" Bumblebee kind of shouted over their inter-Autobot radio to Wheeljack, stopped at the stoplight with him.

"I don't know, but it's Cybertronian, and it came from west of here," Wheeljack replied, as his radio went back to normal. "Let's get to whatever it is before the Decepticons find it."

"If we heard that, no doubt they did too," Bumblebee said, as the two turned around and speed off to the signal.
----

Outside of the pizza shop, Sparkplug and Sam were spotted by a Saleen S281 Police Cruiser, as they walked to the side lot, hidden away from the street. The car drove up the alleyway, and flashed its siren a little, as the lights reflected off the buildings.

It revved its engine, as it surged closer to the two, pressing them against Sparkplug's car.

"What the hell?" Sparkplug said. "You guys don't have to get rough! We'll cooperate officer!"

Over the loudspeaker, a grim voice sounded, "Do you have the shard?"

"What? What shard? What're you talking about?" Sam sputtered, scared as the car revved its engine, inching closer.

Suddenly, the car's doors opened, and it started making a sound as the car seeming stood up, reforming itself into a nearly 13-foot tall robot.

Shocked at the now giant robot in front of them, Sparkplug and Sam backed away as much as they could as the robot menacingly walked towards them.

"Do you have the shard?" it asked again, its face grim and angry.

Before they could reply again, a yellow VW beetle and a white racing car with green and red stripes and "Alitalia" written on it zoomed onto the scene and slammed into the bot, sending him careening into the building opposite the pizza shop.

"Get in!" said the two voices coming from the two cars, as Sparkplug got in the white car, and Sam got in the VW. The two sped off, as Sam looked at the female driver in the car.

"Thanks," he said, breathlessly, as the police car transformed, its waist twisting around, arms folding under its chest, which became its hood, and started chasing them.

"No problem," the girl inside smiled. "What'd he want?"

Trying to steady his breathing, Sam answered, "He said something about a shard."

Thinking a bit more clearly, Sam pulled it out of his shirt pocket, an elongated crystalline shard he only looked at briefly.

"Wheeljack, you hear that?" she said aloud.

"Wheeljack, who's Wheeljack?" Sam asked.

"I heard," came the gravelly voice. "We'd better take 'em back to base, keep 'em safe."

"Safe? Safe from whom?" Sparkplug asked inside the Lancia Stratos to its driver.

"From the Decepticons," Wheeljack replied. "They can't track us in vehicle mode unless they get a visual on us. And our boss would like to speak to you two, if you don't mind. We can protect you from that thing."

"How?"

"We're good like that," Bumblebee's confident voice came through the radio.
----

Outside town

Wheeljack and Bumblebee raced out of town on the interstate, chased by Barricade, as two more cars sped up to catch them. A white Porsche with red and blue racing stripes, and a blue and gray 370Z revved their own engines, catching up to them on the vacant highway out of town.

As Wheeljack and Bumblebee sped off, nearly 90 MPH, the police cruiser strained to catch up to them, while the Porsche and 370Z both seemingly exploded off the road, transforming into two giant robots themselves, tossing the police cruiser off the overpass, allowing the two to evade their pursuer.

"What what THAT?" Sam said, watching it through the rear-view mirror.

"That was Jazz and Bluestreak," the driver calmly replied, as she tapped a control on the radio. "They're our backup."

"Wait, you mean you have giant robots working for you? Some of 'em are good guys?" Sam said, in awe of what was happening around him.

"They're Autobots, and yes, they're the 'good guys' as you put it. That police cruiser was Barricade, a Decepticon," she answered. "They stripped Cybertron of its vast resources of energy, and will do the same here if we don't stop them."

"Wait, we? What do you mean? I'm not getting involved!" Sam said.

"Sorry, Sam, but you're already involved," she turned to him, as her image shimmered a little.

"Oh my God....oh my God....you're a robot...."

"Sorry to trick you like that," she answered. "But we had to rescue you. And using a holo-driver lets us blend in better."

"So you're not a 'Decepticon' like that guy back there?"

"No, we're the good guys, as you put it," replied the holo-driver, as they sped out into the desert.
----

 

----
Jazz and Bluestreak finished off their fight with Barricade, and joined Wheeljack and Bumblebee as they got to the Ark.

Transforming into robot mode, Jazz and Bluestreak walked over to see Sam and Sparkplug get out of Wheeljack and Bumblebee, who both transformed into robot mode, to their amazement.

Suddenly, a large, 32-foot tall robot walked out, impressive in size and build, a red and blue frame that blocked the sun, as it knelt down to meet them where they stood. Its simple act seemed designed to re-assure the two.

"I apologize for bringing you here and involving you in our fight," came the soothing, authoritative voice. "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots."

"Who are you?" Sparkplug asked, as he looked around, trying not to be overwhelmed by the giants he walked among.

"We are autonomous robots, Autobots, from the planet Cybertron," Optimus replied. "Four million years ago by your calendar, we left Cybertron in search of energy. Sentinel Prime, my predecessor, had found a then-uninhabited planet rich in resources. His convoy was attacked by the Decepticons, and only a few shards of what was once our Creation Matrix survived the attack. He returned and when it was his time, he passed the Matrix of Leadership to me."

"A planet...you mean earth?" Sam said, filling in the holes in the story.

"Yes," Prime answered. "Many years passed, and the survey missions grew into legend on Cybertron. But by the time we left, Cybertron was only years away from total exhaustion of all its energy. My mission was to find the closest planet, and hope to bring back enough energon to stop the Decepticons."

"We launched with our crew, some of which detached in your asteroid belt to start mining resources there, while our ship approached your planet, and was attacked by Megatron," Prime continued. "During the fight, our ships got caught in the gravity of your planet, and crashed here. It was only a split second course correction and use of our deflector beams that saved us from destruction, crashing into this volcano."

"So what do these Decepticons want?" Sparkplug asked.

"They want to take your energy back to Cybertron to use it to conquer the planet, and eventually, other inhabited systems, including yours," Prime answered.

"What about you?" he asked.

"We want to stop them before they harm any of you humans, and once we do, take them back to Cybertron and defeat them, once and for all," Prime replied.

"Dad, I think we can trust these guys," Sam said, as he looked at the group of robots around him. "They saved our lives, when they didn't even have to."

"Perhaps, son," Sparkplug replied, taking. "Well, Optimus, I'm Colonel William Witwicky, but most everyone in the service called me Sparkplug."

"And his military buddies used to call me Spike," Sam replied.

"We'll help you blend in here on Earth, and you guys stop the Decepticons," Sparkplug said, holding his tiny hand out to Prime.

"Alright Sparkplug, Spike," Prime began extending his giant hand, which Sparkplug took a finger of, "Welcome to the Autobots."
----