"Optimus!"

The Prime turned a little sharply when his old friend suddenly called his designation. Ratchet's voice held a bit of surprise and excitement to it, and hearing something like that from the medic usually called him to attention immediately. The other Autobots, all previously talking with their human charges, also all perked up when they heard the call. The chatter went silent as their leader walked over to the console where Ratchet stood.

"What have you found, Ratchet?" Optimus asked, peering up at the screen before him. A blue light flashed in the center of a map, though where on earth it was showing he was not certain. He was not yet completely familiar with all of the places on this new planet, even though he studied as much as he could to become more familiar with it.

The medic looked up at him, not smiling, but a bit of relief and hope flickering in his optics. "My systems just uncovered an exposed Energon source," he said, tapping away at the console for a moment. The screen zoomed in on the source, the light blinking brighter. "It's located in Wyoming, in a secluded area. A forest, it looks like," he explained, reading several things that popped up on his screen.

At his point, the other bots had all made their way over to investigate as well. Optimus felt a surge of relief flood into his chest chassis, and the others all looked fairly excited and relaxed as well. Their lack of Energon in storage had been weighing down on them for some time now, their need to stock up getting more and more dire by the cycles. Optimus was glad that a signal had finally popped up, though he doubted it was a pure stroke of luck.

"And the source was only just now uncovered?" he asked, a hint of skepticism in his deep, commanding voice.

Ratchet nodded, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he continued to stare at the monitor. "Yes, it appeared only moments ago," he answered.

"Is that something we should be worried about?" Bulkhead asked worriedly, his optic ridges furrowing. Optimus felt a bit bad for the ex-wrecker, knowing how anxious the large bot could get.

Arcee crossed her arms, her opal optics flickering with distrust and concern. "It could be a Decepticon trap," she said in a low voice. "It's not the first time we've ever come across a target that seemed to easy."

Bee whirred his agreement, the normal chipperness in his buzzing sounding deflated and disappointed. The bots all shared a look, their previous relief turning into feelings of anxiety all over again. Optimus turned to look back at the monitor again, narrowing his optics ever so slightly.

"While that is a possibility," Ratchet finally said, breaking the tense silence, "it could just be likely that the signal only appeared now because it was weak." He pointed up to the flashing dot on the screen. "The Energon readings are not very high, so it could have just taken the computer until now to register it."

"And there are no open Decepticon signals in the area?" Optimus inquired, continuing to watch the monitor as his friend was.

The medic shook his helm. "None. The area seems fairly barren of any activity. If there's anything, it's not enough for the system to pick up."

<If there were Cons mining the area, we would probably be able to tell, right?> the scout warbled, shrugging his shoulder plates. <And why would they bother with such a small amount of Energon anyways?>

"Bee's right," Bulkhead added. "They already have their servos on most of the mines that have a large stockpile. Would they waste troops on such a small amount?"

"Should we?" Arcee chimed in, clearly unsure about the idea of heading over there to check. "If it really is a small amount, is it worth the risk?"

Silence fell over them again for several moments, and Optimus could feel their optics occasionally flicking over to him. Once again, he felt a surge of responsibility, as he should as a Prime. He pondered over the options to himself for a minute; he did not like putting anyone at risk, but a big part of war was making hard choices and even making sacrifices. They desperately needed to restock on Energon at the moment, and the insufficient evidence that they were really in any danger made him doubt Arcee's idea to leave the matter alone. Glancing over his team, he could see their hopes being smashed down to their pedes. The Prime always tried to keep his team as encouraged as possible, and even if there were risks, right now, the outcomes where better in their favor.

Making his decision, he turned to Ratchet, gesturing to the GroundBridge. "Ratchet, set the coordinates. We will search the area and look for the source of the Energon. While I do not wish to put us in more danger than necessary, if there are Decepticons at this mine, it may be the best course of action to try and overpower them. We are in too much need of supplies to turn down this offer." He turned to look at his team, a softness creeping over his voice. "We may not get another chance like this in the near future."

The warriors all glanced at each other, as if having a silent conversation, before one by one they nodded in agreement. Arcee seemed to be the most on edge with the idea, but the Prime knew she could handle herself if battle did come to pass. She did seem to be a little relieved with the fact that their chances of resupplying themselves were higher now that the decision was made. Bumblebee chirped more cheerfully and fist-pumped his green friend, encouraging Bulkhead greatly. Optimus let the corners of his derma curl up ever so slightly as the GroundBridge opened.

"If anything goes wrong," Ratchet told them as they began to transform, "I would advice heading back to base immediately. If one of you is injured, I cannot afford for any of you to continue with the battle. I only have enough Energon to refill one of you," he added with a bit of regret in his voice.

Optimus nodded solemnly to his old friend before transforming into his alt. mode. His engine roared to life and he rushed through the swirling green portal, his friends licking at his heels. The four of them GroundBridged into the middle of a thickly wooded forest. As Optimus changed back into his biped mode, quickly on alert and transforming his servos into blasters, he struggled not to run helm-first into a tree. The others also felt very constricted in the trees, Arcee the only one who seemed to be able to move around more smoothly.

Optimus' mouth guard slid over his faceplate, his optics scanning the area smoothly and carefully. His spark was calm as he forced himself to be calm, not moving a nanite until he knew the coast was clear. His limited vision swept over everything it could, and once he confirmed that they were safe for now, he ushered for the others to follow his lead. They nodded curtly and followed, Bumblebee covering the right, Bulkhead watching the back, and Arcee keeping left. Each of them had their weapons at the ready.

For several minutes, all signs showed that their had been no activity as of late. Optimus felt his plating begin to relax ever so slightly as they moved on, and the others' movements became more fluid, less tense and anxious. They moved around the forest the best they could, maneuvering around the thickly wooded area. As they went along, the area began to clear up a little to where they could move more freely. Optimus noticed that they were slowly heading more downhill, though it was not a significant difference.

Then something caught his optic, making his spark beat just the slightest bit faster for the briefest of moments. Up ahead, he could see places in the ground where the earth had been disturbed by something hard and heavy. As he observed it more closely, slowing his pace a little more, he could tell that they were pedeprints, not much larger than their scout's. His optics narrowed and he slowed to a stop, noticing something else wrong with the form of the ground.

The others all paused beside him, tensing up as soon as they saw that their leader was observing something. "What is it?" Arcee hissed quietly.

Optimus slowly dropped to one knee, his servo taking place of the blaster he had had at the ready. Without replying, for he did not have a definite answer yet, he dragged his digits along the uneven mounds of earth that he had found alongside the pedeprints. As he followed the trail slowly, he saw that it was as if something large had been dragged across the ground. However, whatever had happened conspired a long time ago. He had not noticed the shift in the ground until now, the crevice wide enough to where a two Bumblebee's could lay across. Grass had grown over it, and over the time that it had been there, the earth had shifted so that it looked more normal, more clean. He hummed quietly to himself, lifting his head to follow the crevice. He saw whatever had caused this shift in the ground had gone a long way.

"It seems as though something was dragged along here," he said as he stood up, gesturing to the ground. "It is possible something large crash-landed here."

The others all exchanged looks of surprise and disbelief. For a moment, no more words were said as they observed what Optimus had discovered. The Prime watched as their optics widened with realization.

"You're saying a pod crash-landed here?" Arcee said, her voice a little breathless out of disbelief. "On earth?"

Optimus nodded once, though he was not of course certain of this observation. "There is a chance that is what occurred here, yes," he told them. "However, whatever transpired was a many cycles ago. The ground has long begun to revert back to its natural state." He once again gestured to the dip in the ground.

While the other two took a closer look, faceplates skeptical, the scout nodded in agreement. <The ground does look very normal, and even though we haven't been on earth for long, judging by the quality of the dirt and mounds, it could have fooled human eyes as well,> he chirped matter-of-factly.

Optimus was a little surprised by Bumblebee's certain knowledge of these things, but then thought that it should not be all that shocking. Bee was a scout, trained to notice these differences in the area around them. Arcee and Bulkhead, however, did not seem to piece that together, optic ridges raised in surprise.

The scout crossed his arms and pouted, looking slightly embarrassed. <Raf teaches me a lot of stuff, okay?> he mumbled in his broken voice.

The Prime did not want Bumblebee to look down on this observation and patted the smaller bot on the shoulder plate. "A good observation, Bumblebee," he praised calmly. "We are glad to have your scout training with us."

The yellow one smiled up at him from behind the face mask, whirring lightly in gratefulness. The others all nodded, Bulkhead quickly offering an apology if they made him feel embarrassed. Optimus smiled slightly, enjoying every minute of his team interacting like this. He was always happy to see them act as a family. 

"Proceed with even greater caution," he said after a moment, returning Team Prime back to the mission. He turned slowly, drawing his blasters again as the others took their previous formations around him and went along with him, back to their battle ready moods. Although he would not say so out loud, Optimus was getting fairly anxious now. A pod of this size on earth could indicate that Megatron had called for more Decepticons. Arcee had informed them that Arachnid had arrived on the last known crash-landing they had investigated. 

More enemies meant more battles. And Optimus wanted nothing more than to end this war. The less physical combat there was, the better. To him, peace was not achieved with violence. However, war said otherwise. 

After carefully making their way through the clearing for nearly twenty more minutes, he could finally make out the pod in the distance. Even from a distance, he could tell that it was some sort of escape pod, though it was heavily damaged. Several parts were broken and falling of the ship. As they got closer, he could confirm that this had crashed a long time ago, wild vines and moss growing over the outer rims. Several pieces of the ship were scattered around it, a large opening on the side, big enough for Megatron to fit through. What Optimus guessed was the latched door was on the ground off to the side, as if discarded without a second thought. Behind him, his team carefully looked over the pod as well, their expressions wavering.

Then came the voices. 

"This is your own ship! You should be more careful around it!"

The Autobots all froze in their tracks, their blasters whirring as they built up the power while pointing it immediately towards the ship. The voices continued, not having heard this.

"I know, I know, I'm really sorry!" another voice replied, sounding stressed. "I swear I didn't do that on purpose."

The other voice, female, laughed. "You dork. Normally you aren't so clumsy."

Optimus glanced back to his team, moving faintly while gesturing them to surround the ship. The voices sounded lighthearted, but one could never be to certain. They nodded at him and circled around the ship, avoiding being seen. The Prime slowly crept towards the open entrance, blaster at the ready.

A new voice entered the conversation, a raspy male voice. "Well, whatever you did, it broke something. That alarm had to be going off for thirty minutes!"

"I didn't know how to turn it off!"

"Again, this is your ship!"

"You two know that I don't know how to work it!"

As Optimus approached, listening to the conversation, he began to feel slightly.. confused. Whoever was in there did not seem to have any idea of how to handle the ship, keep it intact, or even turn off alarms. Just what kind of alarm had he set off? How long had these bots remained with the ship? He narrowed his optics, knowing his questions would be answered soon. He pressed his backside against the pod, closing in on the entrance. 

"Well, at least we turned it off. You have the fuel?" the raspy voice asked. 

"Yeah, I've got it." The voice paused. "Well, most of it. Should I got back for some more?"

"Probably."

"Can I help?"

The raspy voice groaned, chuckling a bit, while the other seemed panicked about the idea. "Sarah, no! You know that this stuff isn't good for humans!"

Optimus froze, optics widening. Humans?

Almost right after the thought, two humans exited the pod. One was a male, hair colored a strange brown color that looked almost orange in the sunlight. He had a grin over his face, dancing green eyes playful as he pulled another shorter human out from the pod. The other was a teenage girl, possibly no older than Miko. Her hair was similar to the you man's, but not as bright colored. Her eyes matched the other human's, but her spirit seemed much more rowdy. She struggled as the male pulled her out of the pod, protesting loudly. 

These humans seemed to be in no immediate danger.. judging by their behavior, they actually felt rather comfortable and relaxed, as if what was going on around them was normal. Optimus felt himself lower his blasters slowly, his plates relaxing again. In that moment, the male human turned his head to look back at the girl being dragged alongside him. His eyes were instantly drawn to the mismatched red and blue colors behind them and he gasped, letting go of the girl and jumping back. 

"Kyle?" the girl asked tentatively as he continued to stare, mouth gaping open. She glanced behind her quickly, her reaction very similar. 

Optimus froze in place, his spark beginning to hammer loudly in his chest. His optics were wider as well, a the smallest bit of panic leaking into his expression. For several moments there was complete silence. He dared move his optics, looking to the left, in the direction he had seen Bumblebee head to surround the pod. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see that Bumblebee was watching around the corner, his faceplate showing that he was obviously worried and anxious. 

"Poppin!" the girl suddenly shrieked, a huge grin spreading over her face. Her green eyes sparkled with wonder and she suddenly ran over to the Prime, startling him. He backed up a little, changing one blaster back into his servo and raising it in on instinct, in hopes he would appear as less of a threat. The girl stopped a few feet in front of him, doubling over and laughing while holding her knees. "Poppin, get out here right now! You won't believe this!" She seemed so ecstatically happy that it left Optimus very confused as to why. 

"One second!" the voice called from inside, the same as the one who had mentioned that they were humans. 

Optimus started when he saw the rest of his team rush in, blasters at the ready. He could only guess that when the girl had begun shouting loudly, it had panicked the other three and they came running to protect their leader. While he was touched and proud of them for their quick thinking, he also did not want to appear as a threat to the humans. When Bulkhead and Arcee saw that they were not Decepticons, as they had been expected, their forms faltered slightly.

"There's more of them?!" the raspy-voiced man cried, hurrying over to the girl and grabbing her shoulders protectively.

The girl turned to him excitedly, her eyes wide. "Kyle, do you know what this means?? Poppin isn't the only one! There are more of him!" She pointed up to Optimus, then to the others. "I mean, just look!"

Just at that moment, heavy steps could be heard coming from the pod. Not even a moment later, a Cybertronian walked out of the open entrance, carrying a few stacks of Energon cubes. He was a mixture of bright neon colors, mostly pink and blue that darkened towards his center. The colors blended in with each other so easily it was like looking at a bright pink sunset in the dimming blue sky. He had an orange visor over his optics and a facemask slid over the rest of his faceplate. He was small for a Cybertronian, nearly a helm shorter than Bumblebee. The stacks of Energon were hiding his breastplate, so none of the Autobots could tell if he was on there side, or if he was a Decepticon. 

For a few seconds, there was utter silence. Optimus stared at the new bot with wide optics, surprise hitting him like waves. The rest of the team was also fairly shocked, frozen in place with their blasters aimed at both the humans and the new bot that had appeared. The Cybertronian was still for a moment, before he suddenly dropped all of the Energon cubes and dashed forwards. Optimus jumped back, the others instinctively tagging behind him and getting into battle ready stances. 

However, the small bot was not attacking them. Instead, he quickly scooped up the humans, which they seemed perfectly fine with, and held them close to his chest chassis, his optic ridges furrowed nervously. "Don't hurt them! These are my friends!" he shouted, his voice stammering ever so slightly. "Put the.. put the weird guns down!"

Bulkhead and Arcee exchanged flabbergasted looks with one another, their plating relaxing ever so slightly. "Weird guns?" the ex-wrecker repeated, raising an optic ridge.

Optimus was overflowing with questions. Who was this? How did he know the humans? How had he arrived here? Was he on there side? He felt a little childish with all of those things running around in his mind, but he was rightfully confused. He put his blaster away immediately, ushering for the others to do the same. Even if this was a Decepticon, if they could remain civil throughout this encounter, then perhaps they could come to a peaceful solution. 

"We will not attack, friend," Optimus said calmly, holding out his servos in front of him. "I apologize if we alarmed you. We assumed you were the enemy." 

The Cybertronian seemed to relax a little, tipping his helm to the side while his optic ridges displayed his confusion. "Enemy? What enemy?" he asked, his voice lifting a little bit.

The team displayed visible signs of shock and disbelief, Bee whirring in surprise. <You know, the Decepticons!> he chirped. 

He shook his helm slightly. "Who are they?"

Optimus cast a glance back to the others, who all stared back at him with wide optics. This Cybertronian did not know who the Decepticons were. He most likely had not chosen a side. Did the poor mech even know where he was from?

"Poppin!" cried the teen girl, looking up at the bot. "Can you believe it? They're like you!"

The small Cybertronian, Poppin, glanced down at his human friend, then back up to the team. He leaned his helm forward, studying them with silence and furrowed optic ridges. Then, he perked up, his visor glowing a little bit in excitement. "Holy crap, you're right!" he exclaimed. Without setting them down, he suddenly hurried towards them, stopping just in front of Optimus and staring up at him with what the Prime could only guess was a bright expression. "You guys are robots too! Like me!"

Optimus had taken a step back, a little surprised by Poppin's sudden approach. For a moment, he was dumbfounded, for the first time in many, many cycles. He had no idea how to reply to this bot. He was most definitely Cybertronian; or was he? He looked that way, and all evidence pointed to the fact that it had been his pod that had crash-landed here. Yet Poppin did not seem to understand that he was alien to this planet, instead believing he were some sort of.. creation from this world. 

"I am sorry," he apologized, "I am afraid I am not catching on."

Bumblebee raised his servo, nodding. <Yeah, I don't really know what's going on either. What do you mean we're robots?>

Poppin raised his optic ridges, taking a step back. "Oh! Sorry! Didn't mean to go to fast for you guys." He backed away a bit more, setting the two humans on each shoulder plate. There they sat, watching with obvious confusion and excitement. "Let's start with names. That's usually how people introduce each other, right?" He extended his servo to the Prime. "My name's Poppin!"

Hesitantly, Optimus took the servo firmly, shaking it once. "My name is Optimus Prime. This is Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee," he told him, swinging his helm a little to gesture to each bot. 

Poppin nodded, and the Prime could practically see that he was smiling under his mask. "Nice to meet you guys!"

From his left shoulder plate, the teen girl crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Those are some weird names. Was the person who built you five years old or something?" she asked sarcastically. 

Poppin jumped, turning his helm to glare at her. "Sarah! Don't talk to them like that! Isn't that rude?!" he cried, waving his servos in the air quickly to try and shush her. "Sorry about that. She really tends to speak her mind," he told them, laughing awkwardly. 

Arcee raised an optic ridge, clearly suspicious. "Built us?"

Bulkhead scratched his helm, taking the brunt of the confusion. "I don't follow.. we're Cybertronian, from the planet Cybertron? Aren't you?"

This seemed to leave Poppin and his human friends in quite a shock. The humans' eyes looked like they were about to bulge out of their heads, while Poppin's plating was raised. For another awkward set of minutes, there was silence. Finally, the small Cybertronian shook his helm in disbelief. 

"You're saying you guys are aliens?" he asked, his voice light. "Like in sci-fi books?" He pointed to himself, clearly distraught. "And I'm one, too?"

"We always thought Poppin was built!" the young man, Kyle, said. 

Optimus glanced back at the others, concern in his optics. The others were no longer anxious and now very confused and worried about the bot in front of them. They could hardly believe that he did not know his own lineage. The Prime excused himself and his team for a moment, leading them a distance away to speak privately with them. 

"Maybe he's right," Bulkhead suggested. "In his case, I mean. Maybe someone built him? I mean, MECH has come pretty close before."

<But that was with controls,> Bee whirred, shaking his helm. <Poppin has a name, a personality, and friends. Plus, he came out of the pod with Energon. I would guess he was going to fuel up.>

"That explains the signal Ratchet picked up," Arcee added. "But why wouldn't we have found something before if that pod has been there for so long?"

"I overheard them scorning Poppin for breaking something on the ship," Optimus explained. "It is likely that he may have accidently shut down the ship's cloaking system. Ratchet was only able to locate the exposed Energon afterwards."

"Then all evidence leads to the bot, Poppin, to be one of us, right? One of our kind?" Bulkhead asked, clearly flabbergasted. 

Optimus nodded once. "From all indications. However, he does not seem to be aware of that."

"No kidding," Arcee grumbled, crossing her arms. "This kid seems to think some humans built him." She narrowed her optics as she glanced back at the bot, who was waiting patiently near his pod. "A likely story," she added with a scoff. "He could just be a Decepticon, but won't tell us that in order to learn some inside information."

The Prime shook his helm. "I do not believe that Poppin is aware of the Decepticon faction, if he is not aware of his own lineage."

<Well, what do we do?> Bumblebee asked. <Just leave him here? It's obvious he's been found out by some humans.>

The Prime thought it over for a moment, but in the end he came to the same conclusion that he had already been leaning towards. "The wisest course of action at the time may be to take Poppin and his human allies to base. We will have more recourses to learn about Poppin there, and hopefully he will come to understand where he is from if he has more access to Cybertronian technology."

The three others once again exchanged looks, unsure vibes surrounding them. Optimus was a little worried that they would disagree, but he was assured once they all nodded in agreement slowly. Smiling a little as an apology, he lifted his digits to his audio receptor, tapping into their comm frequency. "Ratchet, we require a bridge. We will be bringing a few guests with us."

~

Second chapter is here! Man, it's really long. I thought about splitting it into two chapters, but I don't think it would really flow as well if I did that. So, here's a 4500 word chapter!