The day had come: an update on any new Cybertronians arriving on Earth. Optimus Prime knew deep down, surely, more Decepticons have arrived. But… what if this time something… else… arrived on Earth? Something… Cybertronian, nevertheless, but benevolent and… an Autobot?
As he and his team (Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, the Twins, the sisters, Sideswipe, Jolt, and new recruits Jetfire and Wheelie) walked into the control room, Major Lennox greeted them with a nod and a grin.
“Good news, guys!” Lennox said ecstatically.
“What is it, Major Lennox?” Prime asked. If he’s in a good mood this time, something good must have happened, Prime thought.
“Yes, more Cybertronians have arrived on Earth…” Lennox started…
“Decepticons?” Prime asked.
“Warmer…. “Lennox said.
“Hmm,” Skids, one of the Twins, said, “Cybertronian, but NOT Decepticon?”
Lennox only replied with a grin. Understanding the soldier, the Autobots froze, and grins exploded from all their battle-worn faces: new Autobots had come to Earth. The group began cheering: Jetfire nearly even smiled, Wheelie was skating on his wheel-feet in a circle, Skids grabbed his twin Mudflap and gave him what humans called a ‘noogie’, Bumblebee got a high-five from Ratchet, and Prime was sporting a deep, pleased smile.
“Where did they land?” Prime asked, quieting his celebrating troops.
Looking at a monitor, Lennox pinpointed the impact zone.
“It’s… just on the edge of Detroit, MI.”
“Autobots,” Prime began, “Today, more of our brothers will be united with us once again. Today, we recover an ally, a friend. Today, we will welcome this new arrival with open arms, and show them what it means to be an Autobot!”
The Autobots began cheering once again, and awaited Prime’s signature statement.
“Autobots…” Prime began, gesturing them to continue.
“Transform and Roll Out!”
A few hours later, a plane landed at an airport. Not a commercial aircraft, loaded with passengers and luggage.
A fighter jet, gray, sleek, and intimidating, decorated with Cybertronian symbols…
At the same time, another jet landed at a private air base. This one, however, contained the Autobot troops and Master Sergeant Epps. Epps climbed into Prime’s vehicle mode – a blue Peterbilt 18-Wheeler with red flame decals – and Prime gave the order to roll out.
The convoy traveled all through the bustling city of Detroit, searching for the new Autobot’s unique energy signature, hoping that if they couldn’t find him, he would find them.
“Jetfire? Have you detected any sign of him from above?” Prime asked Jetfire in vehicle mode.
Jetfire had been assigned to be the Autobots’ bird’s eye view, and right now, he had just drifted off into a stasis nap, his body on autopilot, when he received Prime’s transmission.
“Zeh? Uh! Oh! Uh, nope, no sign of him yet, Prime!” Jetfire hastily responded. “Rest assured, I’ll keep a look out.”
At that moment, said Autobot was hiding under a bridge in a deserted part of town, masking his energy signature, hoping that if any Decepticons were near, he wouldn’t draw any attention to himself and possibly destroy anything. For the past month, he’d been hiding, waiting, and if he had ever needed to travel in the open, he zoomed swiftly through the Detroit streets in his “police” motorcycle alternate mode.
He decided that he’d have to look for a massive group of Autobot energy signatures – surely it was Prime’s group, somehow finally discovering him in hiding. He transformed and drove off from his hiding spot for the last time.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned fighter jet flew over the city, looking for an Autobot that he could interrogate – and torture, if necessary. He’d been hunting a newly-arrived Autobot for the past month, to the extent of hacking into the human-Autobot alliance, N.E.S.T, and deleting the news of the Autobot’s arrival, hoping that with this stalling, he’d have gotten any info out of him and kill him before Optimus Prime arrived.
And there he was: his quarry was finally in range – a black and gold motorcycle with a holographic human driver. He dove in for the attack when… another surprise presented itself…
Not one other Autobot… but rather, nearly every Autobot who’d come to Earth since before Megatron’s death. Now, he could eliminate every Autobot on the planet, even before his ally on Mars could send reinforcements. Remembering an attack he made on the Autobots on the day of Megatron’s death, he zoomed towards the convoy like a mechanical overhead, just as one of Autobots realized too late…
“It’s Starscream!” Ironhide yelled while transforming.
All the Autobots rose to their stabilizing servos, recognizing the villainous Decepticon.
As they assumed their robot modes, naturally, the citizens of Detroit went into a panic. Cars crashed, people were injured, and there was a sense of fear in the air. Starscream was flying straight at the scrambling Autobots, and then Transformed and unleashed a barrage of missile fire. Some of the Autobots were blasted back, and Prime managed to hold onto Wheelie before he was blown to kingdom come.
“Before we launch any kind of counterattack, we need to evacuate the area of humans!” Prime ordered. “Ironhide, Ratchet, Sideswipe, Jolt (who was landing on the spot)! Keep Starscream busy and cover the humans! Arcee, Chromia, Elita 1, Mudflap, Skids and Epps! Clear the area of humans! Bumblebee and Jetfire, we’ll attack Starscream!”