Optimus Prime's unusual Charge

Living legends

I kept moving; I couldn't stop; if I do stop they'll probably find me again and there's no way I'm going back aboard that ship, or wherever it is they feel like taking me! NOPE! Not me, Not today, Not tomorrow, NOT EVER! But what scares me is knowing that there is a possibility that every single vehicle could be one of these things!

I start feeling kind of sick. I lost quite an amount of blood; it's a miracle that I'm even still moving like this. My vision's growing blurrier by the moment; my shoulder just hates me in all the possible ways, and I never got the chance to wash that blue stuff out of it. Who knows, I'm probably slowly dying from some serious toxic chemicals coursing through my blood! I'm scared to think of that, but if this is what my life is gonna be for the rest of my days, death kinda looks like a blessing in disguise, as morbid as it sounds.

I haven't slept at all since I arrived here the for first time; wherever the heck 'here' is. My stomach starts aching... I haven't even eaten anything yet...Not even a measly cup of water! Why me?! Humans chasing me about with pitchforks and torches wasn't enough, was it? LIFE?! Now you feel like tossing giant alien robots in the mix as well?! So not fair...

Back at the base, Raf after stepping out of Bumblebee, runs over to the 'Human area' and quickly plugs in and boots up his laptop.

"What's the big hurry, Raf?" Arcee notices this and asks.

"Hold that thought for just a moment, Cee." Raf's fingers fly across the keyboard as he hurriedly puts together an image of the creature Bee was talking about and pulls up a website of mythical creatures as well. "Okay, Done..." He turns his laptop around and shows everyone.

.:"Yeah, that's roughly what we saw.":.Bumblebee confirmed.

"That's called a Dragon, guys..." He turned his laptop just a bit to open the website about dragons. "As in one of these things...They're large, serpent-like legendary creatures that appear in the folklore of many cultures around the world. In other words, they're not supposed to be real. They're just legends, myths."

"Maybe they're just shy?" Arcee asked.

They saw pictures of Dragons of all types, but Raf clicked on one of the images of a Western Dragon. "This one specifically is a western Dragon; often being depicted as winged, horned and four-legged... by the looks of it, at least I think that's what this one is supposed to be. The fur and big ears kinda throw me off; I've never seen that before, usually they're just scaley, with smaller ears or just earholes like any other normal reptile." Raf states as he fixed his glasses upon the bridge of his nose.

"Are you sure that's what you saw?" he asked again.

.:"Yes, of course! I wouldn't lie to Optimus about that.":. Bumblebee nodded and answered.

"Wait a minute guys...Where is Optimus and Ratchet at?"It was Jack's turn to ask.

"They're at the location still. A cave where the Decepticons were mining a bunch of Energon Crystals. Prime wanted to find this thing and made sure it was safe. Cause the Decepticons or Starscream really; had a close encounter with it and according to him it attacked him. Who knows what he was up to that involved the creature that it lashed out at him." Arcee explained.

Raf and Jack looked at each other worriedly.

.:"What's wrong?":. Bee asked, not liking their expression.

"Maybe it's best you guys go find them, it probably believes the area to be it's territory and would fiercely defend it. You see, some legends speak of Dragons Guarding huge hoards of treasure." Raf said and showed various pictures of dragons guarding caves filled to the brim with gold and precious gems.

Looking at the gems, a thought sprung to Jack's mind. " Hey, maybe it was guarding the Energon Crystals! I mean, think about it; they might be attracted to shiny things; why not glowing crystals?And if it attacked Starscream, it's probably not afraid of Autobots either." He concluded.

.:"I can believe that.":. Bumblebee whirred. Reminded of his own dent that proved it.

"Alright, we'll go. You boys stay here, and man the bridge."The humans nodded at Arcee.

"Be careful you two...these things can breathe fire." Raf warned.

Bumblebee nodded, typed in the coordinates and opened the Groundbridge. When the Bots were through, Raf closed it.

Back at the forest...

My legs are killing me! ["You know what? FUDGE IT! If I have to sleep underneath a small bush tonight, then SO BE IT!"] I fumed internally as I trudged on. Then suddenly my eyes fall upon one; a berry bush covered in fruit!

["Oh, Thank you so very much!"] I almost charge into it; I'm so hungry. Coincidentally they're blueberries. Mother nature has such a healthy sense of humour, no? Greedily plucking and eating them, I noticed that they tasted just a bit sour, but beggars can't be choosers, and who said anything about me complaining about seeing food after not having eaten all day!

Somewhere farther off; Ratchet was growing more and more tired and grumpier by the minute. "Optimus, the creature probably ran away and won't be coming back with us still around... It's as the humans say: 'Like searching for a needle in a haystack.' Plus, we both need some rest, we've been at this for hours now." He complained.

"Perhaps you are right, my old friend, yet I still do not feel at ease knowing the Decepticons know its existence and not knowing why Starscream would deliberately disobey Megatron to try and capture it in the first place." Prime answered.

"*Sigh* I'll tell you what, Prime; How about us let Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee pick up where we left off before we head back to base? That way, we won't waste any time we would have otherwise lost resting." Ratchet suggested.

"A wise plan, Ratchet. I will contact the others, and you prepare to bridge them over." Feeling slightly more relieved now, Prime was about to contact the Autobots when Ratchet discovered something.

"Woah, wait a moment Optimus. My scanner is picking up a moving source of; Energon? It's faint, but it's there..." Ratchet pulled up a holo-map and showed it to Optimus. It showed where he and Prime were, and the other dot was moving not very far (for them) away. "It doesn't look normal. Something about it is off... I can't tell if it's a Decepticon or not."

Suddenly the ground bridge opened and Arcee and Bumblebee stepped out. "There you are, the kids were getting worried about you two." Arcee said.

"You didn't bring them with, you? Right?"Ratchet asked.

"Ratchet has just picked up a source of energon moving not far ahead. We are unsure if it's a Decepticon or otherwise." Prime added.

.:"No, the kids stayed behind at the base. Bulkhead's gonna be a while, since Miko had detention again...Speaking of Decepticons, Raf seems to think that thing's a Dragon.":. Bumblebee told the Prime.

"Which is why we came looking for you. This might get dangerous, they said that it might be upset its hoard got taken away." Arcee said. "And apparently dragons can breathe fire."

Ratchet was having a hard time believing the young bots. First, A Blue Moose and now Fairytale creatures that breathe fire?! "Then why did it run away and only spit saliva in Starscream's optics instead of melting his faceplate off?" He asked.

Prime had a possible answer: "Perhaps it is more afraid of us than we initially thought."

.:"Then Why did it attack my leg?":. Bumblebee asked.

"Blind panic..." Optimus simply answered. "Perhaps desperately trying to escape from Starscream, it ran into your leg and upon realising that there are more of us around, it ran to go hide somewhere else."

"But what would the Decepticons want with it?" Arcee asked.

"We do not know, and this is the reason why we stayed behind; for its own safety, we might have to bring it back to the base with us." Optimus Prime answered.

"All due respect to you my friend, but have you blown a diode?! Bringing in a wild animal to the base while we have human children around?!" Ratchet could barely wrap his processor around what his friend and leader were saying.

"Animal? Biologically; yes...Wild? I am not certain about that." Prime zoomed into the Holo image of the creature and pointed at the neck.

The other bots squinted their optics at the image. .:"Is it wearing a shirt?":. Bumblebee wondered.

"By the Allspark...Whatever it is. It's an intelligent lifeform and there must be something about it that The Decepticons would want to exploit." Ratchet concluded.

"Whatever that something may be, it is prudent not to let it fall into the wrong servos." Optimus confirmed his initial plan.

"The only lead we do have is this signal. If we can find out what is causing it, we could at least rule out if whether or not it has anything to do with our mysterious creature." Ratchet looked at the map again and noticed the dot stopped moving.

I was starving! I managed to down all of the berries on the bush! My hands were covered in juice and I almost couldn't stop licking my fingers, but I realised that I need to find somewhere to sleep. Although the Berry bush was covered in a whole lot of fruit, it was still too small to hide in, so I wandered further and kept an eye out for more food sources in case I needed them again, also water. It was getting dark, so I had to finally settle on something.

Having found a source of water nearby, I washed my hands and face of the remaining juice, lest I attract ants. I found what looked like an old fox's den underneath the roots of a large tree and tried getting in. It was a tight squeeze, but I managed it. I also manage to get my whole coat covered in dirt, but hey; at least I was warm.

Jack and Raf were hanging out at the base as was usual, when Bulkhead arrived with Miko. They could tell, not only because they recognised the sound of Bulkhead's motor, but also because the volume to his speakers were cranked up way high as Miko rocked out with her 'Air guitar' the whole route back to the base.

"Hey Guys!" Miko greeted her friends. "Where's the others?"

"They went to give Optimus and Ratchet a servo with something." Jack answered.

"With what exactly?" Bulkhead asked.

"Uhm, well remember that creature you all saw earlier?" Raf asked.

"Yeah?" Bulkhead didn't like the worried look on Raf's face. "Something wrong?"

"Well...That thing is a Dragon and they went to make sure Optimus and Ratchet come back in one piece." Jack answered.

"*GASP* A DRAGON?! HOW COOL IS THAT?" Miko yelled excitedly.

"Cool?! It's dangerous!" Jack couldn't believe Miko.

"Well, I'm going too." Bulkhead told Raf who then prepped the bridge.

"Okay, Hold on! I'm coming t...EEP!" Miko shrieked when Bulkhead planted his ped right in front of her!

"No, Miko. Absolutely not!" He said in his stern tone.

"You sound like my parents." she pouted.

"I'm serious Miko, you. Stay. Here." He ordered, plucking her up and placing her on the sofa of the human area.

Raf opened the ground bridge and Bulkhead transformed went through when Miko manage to zip right by Jack and just managed to get into the ground bridge.

Raf was too late to shut it down, and they were left there alone. Jack just pinched the bridge of his nose and called Arcee.

Back in the woods.

"What is it Jack?" Arcee answered.

"Bulkhead..." Jack began, but got cut off.

"Okay, great. Thanks..." Arcee was about to finish up and close communication, when;

"...and Miko." Jack finished his end of the conversation."

"Aw, SCRAP." She Faceplate-Servo'd.

"Yeah...bye Arcee." Jack hung up.

And as if on cue, the ground bridge opened and Bulkhead came through. Then the bridge closed again. They didn't see Miko come through, but they did look at Bulkhead who sensed what they might have been thinking, and he responded: "Lemme guess...Miko..."

They just nodded.

"Bulkhead, you go find Miko, we'll go find the Dragon. Stealth mode." Optimus ordered.

"Got it." Bulkhead answered.