The unknown was one of the most terrifying things, because it likes to appear just when things seem to finally be going the way you want them... but that had never stopped it from showing its faceplate to an unsuspecting Autobot from time to time.

Optimus Prime knew this better than anyone. He'd once thought that his future had been certain, graduating from the Autobot Academy and joining in the defense of Cybertron from the looming presence of the banished Decepticons...

...Well, that last part had come true, but not in the way he'd expected.

Jetfire was correct; that fated trip to Arach 7 had changed plans...Changed people. Optimus had lost two friends that day, two bots that had stood by his side for a long time, and now wanted nothing more than to make him suffer.

Because of that, he'd been knocked off of the tracks of certainty and into a limbo that seemed to lead to more certainty in his job as a repair bot...Until the Allspark itself had derailed that train as well. Now he was on a planet not his own, never knowing what the next morning would bring, who it might bring.

The Prime laid quietly on his berth, optics closed in thought. His processor shifted back in time several months, back to the day that Prowl had returned from the dead...

Bumblebee had been left at the plant alone to keep an optic on the comms. The rest of the team had been half-way to the other side of town when the little yellow bot had suddenly screamed into the comms. that he'd just heard Prowl back at the plant. The rest of the bots had rushed back and found no trace of the cyber-ninja, and Ratchet had suggested that Bumblebee was still struggling with grief and was just hearing things.

Bumblebee hadn't believed that, and had snuck out of the plant to pursue what had seemed like a phantom of his imagination...Until he found Prowl in a feline-bot form in the woods outside of town, and had lured the scout out there as a test.

But until that moment...They'd all thought Bumblebee was losing his processor...And they'd been wrong.

Optimus sat up again, both because he'd made up his mind on whether he believed any of Jetfire's claims, and also because he heard Jetfire's frantic voice coming from out in the common area. He got up and hurried out, finding Jetfire on his knees, his helm in his hands. "Jetfire, what's wrong?"

"He's gone! Again!" The orange jettwin complained, "He was just here, telling me that the bots chasing him are here, and then-"

"Wait, he's bein' tailed!?" Jazz argued, "You couldn't have clued us in on that before!?"

"I was being busy convincing you that I was hearing him at all!"

Optimus bent down, putting his hands on Jetfire's shoulders, "Do you know why they're chasing him?"

"No sir... He did not have the time to be telling me. I...I do not know if he knows." The jettwin looked up at Optimus' optics, a faint smile appearing. "You...You are believing me?"

Optimus nodded hard, "I do..."

"Good, cuz so does my dad!"

The bots all looked up as Sari and Bumblebee came into the plant. "He says that Jetstorm was caught in the spacebridge explosion, and it tried to warp him somewhere else, but then it collapsed and it trapped him in another plane of existence!"

"So he is still here on Earth!" Prowl understood with a sigh of relief, "Thank the Allspark."

"Well how do we get him back?" Bulkhead asked.

"My dad thinks he can reopen the portal again, but only for a short amount of time, or else we might just repeat the accident and pull someone else in with him, so we need Jetstorm to be there at the Tower when he does open it."

"Well that's just great." Optimus murmured, as Jetfire grabbed his helm again with a loud groan, "...Because Jetstorm apparently just left...and he's not the only bot in this 'other plane of existence'..."

Prowl sighed, rubbing his optics with a hand, "I have a feeling we are all going to need some high grade energon after this..."

"So what you're saying is that Jetfire needs to go track him down again." Bumblebee guessed.

"No. If Jetfire goes after him, then he may very well be leading these other bots right to where Jetstorm's hiding."

"Not to mention he's confined to the plant until I say otherwise!" Sentinel reminded firmly.

Optimus sighed, "For now...We just need to wait here and hope he comes back here." Before we all lose our processors...

__________________________________________________________________________

"B-Be slowing down for a moment!" Jetstorm stammered as he was practically dragged behind the femme. "I-I am not able to be running very well...!"

The femme looked back at him, and then paused. "Then I will carry you."

Jetstorm stiffened, "Oh. N-No, that is not necessary-EEEEE!"

He yelped as she yanked him up, his arms quickly wrapping around her neck to hold on as he plopped onto her back and she then resumed their fleeing. "T-Thank you...I guess."

"Oh you are quite welcome." The bot then turned into another alley, "I carry other bots all the time! Most of the bots I hang out with are like, super slow, and I hate going slow when we're supposed to be getting somewhere fast. I'd rather be somewhere early, you know?"

"I-I am guessing that makes sense...But I am wondering who you-"

Jetstorm broke off and held on tighter as the femme released him to reach up to the top of a building, pulling both of them up onto the rooftop. His optics widened however, as her arms and legs hadn't extended like the spy Shockwave's did when he was masquerading as Longarm; no, hers literally stretched, like the pink substance that often got stuck to bot's peds in Earth parking lots.

As she pulled herself back into a solid shape, he saw her entire frame was that way. Silvery and shiny like melted aluminum, her hands were continuously shifting shape and size as she took on a mostly bot-shaped form.

"You...You are not solid." He murmured.

"Nope, but I did you one!" She announced with a cackle, putting him down once more. "Those walking-scrap-piles are not good wall-scalers. As long as we stay up here they can't reach us! Unless they find a ladder. Do you see any ladders around here?"

"Why...Why are you not solid?"

She shrugged, "Was just forged that way. Some people say it's why I can't get a date. I'm too shifty. Man I could use some high-grade right now. You ever tried High Grade? Nah, you look too young for that. But I'll bet that faceplate of yours could convince any bot to sneak you some, am I right?"

"I...I don't know?" Jetstorm shook his helm, "P-Pardon, but...Who are you being, anyways?"

The femme's legs vanished as she slithered across the rooftop and began fiddling with an antenna, though her fingers passed right through it. "The name's Alloy, Pretty-Bot. I'm what you might call a femme of many talents, an ever-shifting bot of mysterious motives on a never-ending journey of discovery. Did you know I hold the record for most times climbing up from the Well of Allsparks?"

"I-"

"Three times, Pretty-Bot! Only forged once, but I got up to the top and BOOM! Kicked in the faceplate and knocked back down to the bottom. I climb back up and it happens a second time! But I was ready that third time, oh yes! I shot up that hole like a fraggin' torpedo and landed almost a klik from the top on re-entry! What do you say to that!?"

"I don't-"

"You don't talk much, do you? Oh well, this is the first time I've had a real conversation in weeks! You get what I'm saying?"

"Stop!" Jetstorm placed a hand to his helm, "...I cannot be focusing on all of it right now...!"

"Oh...Right, you're hurt."

She slithered back over, her neck stretching out like a swan's as she looked him over. "Hmm...Usually I'd have the twins to help with this kind of thing. You probably wouldn't like them, they mess with mechs more than I do. But Flash! Oh, you'd like her. She is such a great person to hang out with, you two would probably get along splendidly!"

Jetstorm caught her hand, though grimacing as it squished in his grip. "C-Could you explain what is going on? Why are the other broken bots chasing me?"

Alloy grinned widely, "Ever heard of...Spare parts...?"

Jetstorm's optics widened as he pulled away from her a little, "You are doing the freaking me out...!"

"Yeah...You know how that big-chinned dope is thinking your brother's completely lost his mental cogs? Well I have never had too many of those myself to begin with!" She curled around the chimney of the roof they were on before drooping down over the side upside down. "It comes with my condition."

"You are meaning your body being made of...Putty?" Jetstorm guessed; suddenly following this femme around was not looking to have been the smartest idea.

"Exactly! I am what you might call a permanent child-body. It never solidified, leaving me as this malleable, taffy-like form that can take inexpressible damage without actual damage. So while those other, busted chasses are getting smashed into plates on impact, I bounce off like a rubber ball...!"

She dropped down to the ground again, her body pulling itself back from its stretched state. "Fancy, no?"

"No...I-I mean yes! I just...What were you saying about impact?"

Alloy sighed, "This place, we call it a Shadowzone. It is here, but not here, yes? Anyway, it's like a giant bubble caught in a current. When a faulty Spacebridge closes, the bubble gets stuck there, but when it opens up in another location at a different spacebridge, we are sucked from where we were, down the tube..." Her arm stretched and slithered like a snake until it smacked into the chimney's base with a splat. "...Until it closes again and we smack into it."

"So...You and the other bots are bouncing around the galaxy for...A long time?"

"Yeah... Well, I've only been in here for a few weeks, just hangin' out, you know? But when the other bots hit the invisible wall, they get a little...crushed. All that being smashed and yanked all over the universe has left them busted up, and nuttier than I am!" She cackled a little, and then relaxed. "...every once in a while, a new bot gets pulled into the loop with them, and all they see is new parts to fix their broken ones, you know?"

Jetstorm shuddered, "If they are catching me..."

"Yeah, you'll probably lose pieces of your...well, everything. But that's not gonna happen, because you got me! And I can protect you until we can both get back out of here when your buddies on the other side open the pipe again!"

"But...What about the others? Should we not be rescuing them too? It is not their fault they have had a bad time."

Alloy groaned, "Well...I suppose... If we can lure them all the way back up that tower-thingy to the spacebridge...That one humanoid with the crazy hair is kinda weirdo, you know?"

"That...I do know." Jetstorm agreed, and then pulled himself back up onto his feet. "...Where do we be going now?"

"Well, we should probably keep walking around until they all file out of your buddies' place, so we can go back and tell your twin the plan, right?"

Jetstorm nodded, "But not too faster, okie dokie?"

Alloy grinned widely again, and her frame changed to that of a bird-like shape with a bot's faceplate. "Hop on, Pretty-Bot!"

"My name is Jetstorm."

"Jetstorm? Huh, I think I know somebody who knows a bot named Jetstorm too, cuz that name sounds familiar..."

Jetstorm climbed back onto her back, "Um...You are able to be flying, right?"

Alloy shrugged, "Never really tried. Hold on!"

Jetstorm clung tightly to her neck as she then jumped off of the top of the building. They freefell for only a moment before her new wings caught the air and she rose once again into the air, gliding over the streets. "Sweet Allspark...! I am hoping this weirdness is not lasting much longer..."