Optimus Prime's unusual Charge

The crystal mines

["There we go again with that stupid teleportation! Apart from not knowing what abilities I do and don't have, I can't even control em!"]

I almost get hit by a car, but manage to jump out of the way...Unfortunately, they happen to be at some military base or...whatever, just RUN!

Breaking into a mad sprint for 'anywhere but here'. I run across the tarmac, dodging gunshots and whatever other lethal playthings these guys tend to have in store. All the while praying for forgiveness for calling my teleportation ability stupid and that it would so come in handy, right about...

I disappear again in a puff of smoke.

The soldiers were left scratching their heads at What the fuck just happened, while in a nearby building, a man in a grey suit and striped tie, a Government agent; was looking through the blinds behind the window from his office at the commotion outside.

"Well, I'll be a bald eagle." He says to himself.

Meanwhile, I popped back into existence in a forest somewhere...

*Poof!*

"Huh? WAAAAH!" *Thud* "Ow."

After unceremoniously falling from the sky, I looked around, slowly getting up and gathering myself before picking a direction to go.

"Okay, so that ability could come in handy from time to time, if only I could master it, instead of popping in and out of reality at random when I least expect it." I huffed.

Looking around I noticed it was about midday, so I decided to go seek out shelter and worry about food and water sources while I'm at it.

"It's great that I'm in a forest though, no humans with guns...oh, wait...Maybe I should just shut up and look for shelter..." I forgot that even in forests, you can find hunters.

I walked and walked through the woods, every now and then using my claws to climb the trees to have a better view of what's ahead. Flight wasn't something I was particularly good at yet, though I did try from time to time, in the dead of night so I wouldn't be spotted. Finally, after what seemed to be hours, I came across the mouth of a large cave.

["Phew, I thought I'd never find shelter."]

But as I came closer and closer to the mouth of the cave, I could hear many different noises. What sounded like something (or a lot of somethings) metallic; stomping the floor of the cave, but somewhere deep within, almost like...

"Footsteps?" I asked myself.

["But that's impossible, heavy machinery way out here?"] I was confused by the footstep-like sounds though, they don't sound like what I would have expected from the machines the sounds made me envision.

["Stiff and unsteady, no; they sound more natural: as if these things have been walking all their lives and...wait...what am I thinking? Machines don't live! Do they?"]

I cautiously made my way over to the cave entrance and peeked in.

The sounds were coming from within, but probably deeper inside. I swallowed nervously and slinked in deeper. I was curious about what those were, but also afraid of what I might find. Probably just miners, but wait a minute;

["What am I so scared of? If they're just humans, I could just run away, lay low and once they've tired of chasing me, I can come back out like nothing happened, right?"]

It seems to work for me so far, but I still couldn't shake the eerie feeling I was getting somehow.

I continued on until I came up to a huge chamber, deep in the bowels of the geological formation. Good thing my eyelids could only open so far, otherwise my eyeballs would have fallen out. The chamber was lined with these beautiful blue crystal-like formations! They were everywhere, but that's not what caught my attention like that.

["I've found the source of all the noise I was hearing; robots! Not just any old bots though, these were huge! There were a lot of them; they all seemed to look alike, except for two of them: A big, (Well, bigger) bulky, blue and grey one with an orange faceplate and yellow optics and a shorter, Red and silvery one with a white faceplate and some of the creepiest red optics I've ever seen!"]

I shuddered when I caught a glimpse of those.

"Hurry up you mindless drones! Megatron expects us to do short work of this mine and be on our way back to the Nemesis as soon as possible!" The Red bot yelled at the drones that were mining the Energon Crystals.

["Wait, they can talk? Uh, scratch that; of course, they can talk! We're not still stuck in the stone ages after all...But who's 'Megatron'? And what's this 'Nemesis' thing it's talking about?"]

The Blue bot helped by clobbering some rocks open for the drones to collect the crystals from within. The force of which I could feel all the way in my bones! I gasped out of surprise because it scared me, but tried suppressing it with my hands.

Breakdown sensed something though and looked around suspiciously without turning his head and giving it away. He saw her peeking over a large rock.

I hid back behind the rock and tried steadying my breath.

["I didn't think they could hear me! Please, let it be that they didn't."]

Breakdown saw her alright but didn't tell anyone; in case she gets spooked and manages to escape. Who knows? She might be in league with the Autobots; they tend to have fleshy pets with them. He chose instead to continue the conversation with Knockout.

"We would have the job done a lot quicker, if you helped us out, you know." He stated as he walked over to his next target.

"As if! I just got a fresh paint job." Knockout scoffed.

["Oh good, it didn't see me..."] What a relief I felt.

"Yeah? Well, with all this dust flying around, it's gonna be back to square one again for you with your precious paint job if you don't. Either that, or Megatron's gonna have a field day with it, if we're late because of you!" Breakdown answered as he broke another rock.

"Ugh, Fine! I'll help pick them up, but don't expect me to do something that's gonna leave scuff marks!" Knockout gave up and started helping for a change.

"We have to have collected enough of these crystals and be out of here before the Autobots notice we're even here!" He added.

"Alright, alright! I got it the first time!" Breakdown yelled as he slowly stomped his way closer to the rock he saw the weird fleshy creature peek out from.

I was so distracted with what they were talking about, that I never noticed the blue bot looming just a few feet away from my hiding spot! I don't dare to peek though, cause it sounds so much closer now.

["Please, just pick up your shiny rocks and go away, please!"] I silently prayed.

I was still covering my mouth, but eyeing the entranceway. I thought about waiting until the giant walking tuna can to move away, before bolting the heck out of there!

"Hey, Knockout!" it boomed.

"Oh, what is it?! Don't you see I'm busy helping? Isn't that what you wanted from me?!" The one I now know as Knockout growled in response.

"Do you think we have enough Energon Crystals for now?" Breakdown said out loud whilst signaling to Knockout that he's found something behind the rock.

Knockout got the message; "Well, I don't know Breakdown...Megatron was very specific when he gave us this task, after all. Maybe just a few more carts and we can call it a day and go back with whatever we've gathered here tonight." With a venomous smirk, crawling itself upon his faceplate, he signaled back to Breakdown, telling him to make more noise with his hammer, and he'll do the rest.

"Alright then, here we go: Last lap boys!" Breakdown started working a lot faster to cover for Knockout's ped steps. Knockout slinked into another area of the cave that lead back around to the entrance.

I waited about a minute or two and peeked over the rock and saw the one I figured was called; Breakdown with his back turned to me.

["Good, at least that could give me the chance to..."]

Suddenly he turned around!

"PEEK-A-BOO!" As fast as he did, he slammed his hammer arm on top of the rock she was hiding behind!

She yelped loudly out of surprise, stumbling and falling over backwards facing the ceiling, or at least she had hoped it was just the ceiling. But no, there: towering over her was the red bot with the creepy eyes! Knockout. He bent over forwards;

"WE SEE YOU!" He teased as he went ahead and grabbed her small body and picked her up with one servo, turning her around and examining their captive.

"AAAAAAH!" I shrieked and tried resisting his grip on my torso.

"Well, well...What ugly manner of an organism have we come across this time, my friend?" He asked Breakdown, who stopped hammering.

"Primus only knows, does it belong to the Autobots, though?" Breakdown asked warily looking around.

"Probably not, no signs of the Autobots, just...it?" Knockout turned her around again before settling on "it."

"LET ME GO!" I was getting very angry at being handled like a ragdoll.

"Oh, settle down, you fleshy freak! You've brought this upon yourself by sneaking around behind our backs like you did." Knockout snapped back at me.

I shrunk back, eyeing him, wary of what he might be planning.

"Please let me go, I promise I won't tell a soul about what I saw!" I pleaded with him.

They both laughed at her pathetic attempts.

"Oh, of course you won't; we will make sure of it..." He sneered at her.

Then came a creepy voice through their com-link.

"Breakdown, Knockout! What's taking you so long?!" Megatron thundered.

"Lord Megatron, I was just about to call you! The drones were a little slow today, so we had to help, to be done in time. We're ready for a ground bridge now...Oh, and; we have a little surprise for you." He smirked at the creature struggling in his servo.