Our scene flickers in a manner similar to a flashback with gray and black tones, this time it starts at a repaired and old elementary school building in the mist of destruction. A big stool like object is seen with something sitting on it nearly crushing the object in half but it kept itself together letting this gigantic thing painting using a big wide board and several colors. The large-almost flat and wide digit is seen to have other color splattered shapes on them, mostly from painting at least. There are two humans seen as the watch out.

            “Don’t see any ‘Bots.” The first boy said.

            “Nada!” The shorter second boy announced, bobbling up his head. He looks sure to be eight years old while the taller boy is possibly nineteen years old, both have a familiar face structure aside to the hair and bangs, minus the tin can the second boy had on his head. This one held a big kitchen spoon. “I’ll hit the first one with my mighty spoon!”

            This boy is named Denkin Louis; his older brother is James Louis.

            “So when’s the painting going to be done?” James asked the taller machine. He waved his hands back and forth. “Hellloo?”

            Denkin looked over the corner. “He’s focused on the painting in a way we aren’t even there even though we are.” Denkin balanced the spoon object on his thumb being careful not to backtrack where he’s going.

            “We’re supposed to make sure he doesn’t stand here for long,” James started. “Not let him get offline.”

            Denkin’s persicive attitude said otherwise. “Good guys don’t get killed, James.” He didn’t have to look over his shoulder to see his brother had folded his arms, Denkin him like the back of his hand. His eyes widened when he saw something familiar to a SWAT vehicle headed their way, He could tell by the direction it’s headed.  “Forget I said that, let’s run!”

            Denkin grabbed his brother’s free hand and fled.  We see from the side of the Decepticon’s light blue optic glint as the children went away, though it has been made because of the shade. The Decepticon is way too focused to notice what is going on; including what may involve life or death.

            Scene transition to Autobot Base....

         North Dakota….

      Ratchet laughs at the screen. He had been messing with Adam’s program files and system files to enforce something most Autobots in the base wanted: Optimus Prime.  “This kid is vulnerable and weak,” He turns away from his screen towards what happens to be Sari sitting on a seat while drinking a soda. “What did you see in this boy…to tell your father that his dad told Ivy about your existence?”

            Sari’s red, valvet eyes glance up. “His life was already in ruins, seven years ago,” She actually learned about this on his file.  “Don’t you think he would know it by now he doesn’t have good luck?” She sarcastically asks Ratchet. Sari gulps down a drink from her beverage. “Four years ago...He showed unnatural powers on electronics.” A spikey and sharp looking cyber-made dog strolled into the room with an unusual glowing area that could have been made for his eyes were riddled in evil in a way. “Ah, finally somebody decided to come out the terror-dome!”

            Is that Sparkplug? It has been stellar cycles since he had last seen the pup. He looked so different, with spikes going down his tail, extra armor capable of creeping out an average human, and large fangs sticking out. Sparkplug snapped its jaw at Rachet. He hadn’t gotten over what Ratchet did to him all those stellar cycles ago when Sari wasn’t around.

            “Easy boy,” Sari put down her drink and her other hand went down the side of Sparkplug’s neck careful not to touch those spikey-sharp areas riding along his back. “He’s not your target.” Doing so caused Sparkplug to start scratching himself as he was being pleased by a companion he had been separated from for years.

            Ratchet hears loud noises coming from the back like a giant robot was dragging something into their base. Their base is stationed in North Dakota. Where People who tried discovering what was creating so much death were silenced before they could find out, leading to the state being labeled forbidden due to unknown presences. Who were in fact Autobots.

            “Hey Ratchet!” Bulkhead’s voice is heard. “I finally found who sent a junkpile of coordinates to the Decepticons about our base location.”

        A week ago there was an alarming intruder, who managed to get into their base without destroying or breaking everything but the floor, managing to keep themselves from being seen by the security cameras had nearly destroyed the keyboard on specific keys used to access…top notch secret files. And their location. North Dakota oddly got a human group of resistances who stayed behind, though they may not be humans because of their determination showing off by them bleeding energon instead of red blood. The group consists of fifteen people; half of them are actual humans, while the other half is probably techno-Organics.

            Bulkhead dragged the beaten body on the floor, drawing the other Autobot’s attention.

Ratchet now knew why it had happened.

       “The Artist?” Prowl said, joining with the others. “Decepticons do not go alone to some Autobot controlled area.”

   “Unless…. he was determined to help the remaining humans.”  Elita-1 puts in. “Nice job on the overkill-beating,Bulkhead.”

    To be fair, Lugnut didn’t seem he could get up. His large and wide digits were not splattered by energon or cracks it had other colors from painting so much over two stellar cycles on Earth. His legs were almost in pieces as some parts were struggling to remain on for the comatose Cybertroninan regaining conscious off and on. All four his optics was badly broken. His left arm has un-attached top-armor plating sticking out showing his messy wiring and layer of Cybertronian ‘skin’ revealing traumatic injuries that would require a long time to heal. His red Decepticon Symbol is still seen on his armor showing not a chance it could be removed or his devotion to human life.  His cockpit area has been busted in showing the seat area, that anyone could have sat in, be covered in glass.

            Bulkhead nodded.

            “It was so, so, so easy.” He gloats. “Being the gentle giant as he was, this idiot was repainting an ‘elementary school’ for the surviving children.” He snickered, knowing they will be dead when this Decepticon is finished off.

            Prowl scratched his chin plating.

            “But why would he come here to raise the civilian’s spirits?” He asks. “A Decepticon won’t do that unless there were others involved, others who are human themselves.”

            Ratchet remembered one team, a team bent on keeping Detroit safe.

            “Oh, I know who they are!” Ratchet starts. “Team HYBRID.”

            Elita-1 hadn’t heard of them.

            “Who—what?” She shook her helmet. “So who are they? I don’t get it. Why would a human want to get in trouble when they just got out of it in the first place?”

            Ratchet smiles.

            “Elita, I have a lot of explaining to do for you.” He turns his head towards Bulkhead. “Use the walls on him and then find those surviving civilians with Prowl.” Bulkhead and Prowl weren’t exactly partners but were since partnered up after Bumblebee’s disappearance and Optimus’s departure.

            ….Rehash of three weeks ago…

Lugnut could tell this wasn’t Soundwave. It gutted him to the obvious when Soundwave didn’t offer to play his music for kids or help Team HYBRID take down cybertronians when the team were off busy on their important mission.  He is the first to return, likely.

            “Soundwave,where’s the can—“ Lugnut stopped dead in his tracks, seeing the ceiling glowing purple in Autobot symbols. He looks straight wards seeing The Music box is busy over-riding some systems. Something told him this wasn’t Soundwave at all. He would never do that.  He takes out his large weapon and struck down the music box.

             Soundwave groaned.

            “Why did you do that?” He asked, sounding irritated.Seeing Lugnut reset the security System and the wall programming back to it’s usual texture not being bumpy nor tempting to deadly color. He’s been on Earth longer than Soundwave, technically and not like a drone. Lugnut seen more than he can share.

            Lugnut’s four optics narrowed at him.

            “You aren’t Soundwave.” He saw straight through the imposter. “Where’s Soundwave?”

            Soundwave laughs.

            “Do not play silly on me, Lugnut.” He acted strangely. Not speaking the way Soundwave usually did. It wasn’t right, though Megatron and the others got used to how Soundwave’s processor got bumped that it changed his speaking pattern (One would assume Blitzwing’s half personality played a role in disliking music). Lugnut strongly knew that side-effect only lasted a couple solar cycles. “Hello Megatron, glad you got back”

            Lugnut turns himself slightly toward the exit seeing the others got back.

            “I like what you did to the base,” Megatron acknowledged, he looks in all directions noticing something is pretty much missing. Something they used often when getting bored, also helping their logic skills to increase…as Starscream had claimed multiple times. “…Where’s the couch and card table?”

            Soundwave is clueless.

            “Did Blitzwing throw a potato?” Megatron’s optic ridge rose up at the music box.

            “Did noz!” Blitzwing interjected.”…Noz zhiz zime around.”

            A girl with plant-like qualities and glowing eyes laughs. “I would sure remember if you did throw one at him, as you did two months ago!” The French Lagoniered designed Transformer. She wore a white coat that has two green pocket areas and a hoody attached to the coat itself, underneath it is her black top completed by a glowing light blue spherical shaped spark-chamber, her jeans are in a tie between light blue and dark blue, and she wore sandals, lastly her curly black hair is still up in a pigtail.

            Lugnut got a bad vibe off Soundwave, whenever Olivia was around; this imposter seemed to hate her. He didn’t know Olivia and Blitzwing had bonded; it had been the buzz around the base for primus knows how long, and they had been significantly trying to have children.  This time, Olivia had the possible chance of conceiving a child. Oil Slick’s scans showed she had a spark developing…inside of her. Soundwave didn’t act happy for them. She’s two months pregnant, nobody actually knew if it was a Cybertronian or a Techno-Organic yet.

  Something had to give…something…like taking Soundwave to North Dakota with Team HYBRID.

Present day…

            Bulkhead and Prowl dragged the body into a room with doors and walls capable of squeezing shut anyone who was inside merely by command.  His only hope is that letting Team HYBRID be here in North Dakota is one of them finally realizing something is wrong with Soundwave…that Soundwave isn’t Soundwave. It’s an imposter. Lugnut’s claws chipped apart as his non-lifelike body was dragged on the floor.

            The dragging stopped momentarily.

            “This is the room…” Prowl starts. “Am I right, Bulkhead?”

            Bulkhead rolled his optics.

            “You can’t get lost in here, it’s not a maze.” He explains to the Dead Cybertronian. “This is the place!”

            Lugnut couldn’t move his jaw. It felt like a ton of iron screws were planted deep into his face. It felt shattering, extremely painful at best.  He recalled a moment in time when Auto was still teaching him to paint, to show and express his emotions on whatever he could do.  More often than not he wound up getting so engrossed into his Artwork the girl had to get other help from the Cons to bring him back into the base for the day.  He made hundreds of Artwork it must have been reproduced all over the globe and ‘seen as is’ at art museums. One of his last artworks at Detroit involved a sunsetting over Detroit with what seems to be gigantic machines watching it set as they sat on the mountain ridges with one little figure belonging to a girl sitting on the tallest robot, among them was a robot with spider like legs, another with jet-wings, the other having a hunched back structure, an alligator like tail seen at the corner, and the shoulder paneling belonging to Megatron was seen.  He had another version without them in it featuring just pebbles and rocks showing their shadow.

            “Lugnut, I swear, if you get into a trance again when you are painting…It’ll be the death of you.”

            He remembered looking right at Auto’s worried face.

            “I’m an armature artist, I’m learning. And I won’t offline because of my trances!”

            Lugnut would always remember her, cautioning him to use glasses when painting since they helped serve a great distraction in keeping him aware of his surrounding, which he did bring occasionally. He decided not to bring the glasses with him to North Dakota; his spark told him it wasn’t necessary. He partially saw the Autobots leave him for death.  He didn’t figure Sentinel was actually serious about joining the Decepticons, until Sentinel saved a bus full of tourists from uncertain death by Safe Guard.

            Ta-da-ck-da- dack

            The walls were closing in on him.

            “Hey guys!” The exciteable voice is heard from the ocean. “Look I can swim! I got a tail. Tails are cool!” The others turned their heads to see Ivy U. Autospring  swimming in the water with a black mermaid tail with the shape of tattered ribbons with finds to the side of her hips and the back of her had a purple ribbon structure poking out.

            Megatron looks to Starscream, he is the medic and scientist of the crew. Who enjoyed playing cards since Auto introduced them to him and the crew, even the tic-tac-toe game and racing. They were not aware she actually rented a place from a hotel and didn’t have anywhere to stay, not even Megatron knew.  So naturally Megatron has good reasons to question one specific Con. “Starscream, what did you give her?”

            Lugnut and the other Decepticons were giggling.

            “I…gave her a special serum to..umm..”Starscream shyly tapped his fingers together. “Test out.”

             Blitzwing’s personalities spinned.

            “Hahaha, you’ve been burrrrnned!” The random Personalitie declares.

            Megatron glares at Starscream.

            “….Use it on a ginnny pig next time!” He told him, emphasizing on the ginny pig part.

            Ivy splashed her tail in the water, she did summersaults and spanned herself like  a gigantic fish would do. “Weee!” She squealed, crashing into the lake once again. Her cheerful smile is a resolution to her inner fantasy girl who is capable of keeping her breath under the ocean. Actually as a human she cannot swim and is so scared of swimming because of several dreams she had jumping into the ocean to end up dead.

            “…One problem. I don’t know how long it’s going to last...”

       “STARSCREAAAAAAM!”

            My picture isn’t done.

            His weak arm pulled the nearly offline body forwards, as the walls seemed to be rushing. I can’t go..can’t go…Not yet….those kids.  He could see a white tunnel ahead from another entry way. His armor is dented in as hard wall pressed against him. The images of his family flickered in his processor, Detroit, discovering the allspark for the first time, Having to leave Earth without completing a portrait, dragging his legs in Egypt’s Sand, and among other things seeing a Sparkling for the first time in millennia’s. The screen fades to black.

            Our view pulls back showing a compacted, large, square box now in the place that Lugnut had been except for a red glowing ball is seen poking from the side. The Decepticon symbol was still there. The box pulled itself forwards suggesting it still has life inside. By a miracle.

            The view pans to Sari and Sparkplug.

            “Keep Adam on what he’s supposed to do, find Optimus Prime’s head.”

            …Scene Switch…

            “How come  you still want Optimus Prime back as a Leader?” Prowl asks Ratchet. “I can lead this team better than Bumblebee!”

            Ratchet snaps.

            “You are not authorized to do that,” The older Autobot tells him. “You planted that bomb on Optimus before he went onboard the Decepticon ship and tried killing him with your clones. Bumblebee was a better choice because he wasn’t too back-stabbing as you! Bumblebee did not leave mercy to the Decepticons and no matter his dislike towards humans… he got us a distinct advantage around the other Techno-Organics. Your plans fail, they are nothing!”

            Prowl’s dark gray servos grew into a fist.

            “And don’t even think about overthrowing Optimus!” Ratchet adds. “You dead shell.”

            Authors note: Point of View is returning to Adam in the next chapter, just a heads up!