Optimus Prime's unusual Charge

The Cube

The next day after getting ready for another day of possibly mind-numbing boredom, Zucky finally put her taloned foot down.

["You know what? No, I'm not gonna just sit here and do nothing! I'm going to explore for a bit. I may or may not get lost, but that's okay; I'm pretty sure they'll come looking for me, but I just can't sit still anymore!"] Zucky thought.

She made her way down the stairs of the platform and headed down the hall where she knew the bathroom was. That way, if for some reason Ratchet did glance over to her, he'd probably think she was going to use the restroom. The hallways were a bit darker than the main area, but Zucky thought it was just the lights being in need of replacement. This was an abandoned missile silo after all.

It didn't look like there were any rooms back here at all, as she felt like she was going down the halls forever. Maybe it's just because the place is bigger on the inside than she thought. She would keep it up for five more minutes, after that; if she doesn't find any interesting areas, she'll turn back to where she came from. Just when she started losing hope, she came across a darker room. The place seemed to be some kind of storage area of sorts.

There were crates of all sizes, random junk and toolboxes around. She tried peeking in the crates and boxes that were already opened. Some were empty, others had brand new versions of some of the junk that was strewn about, like boxes of nuts and bolts, pipes, beams and so on. Even lights bulbs and stuff. Nothing she hasn't seen before, so she left them alone. What really caught her eyes though, was what she found in one of the large crates.

The crate itself had a bunch of boxes holding the lid shut, but she's since got them off the top so she can peek inside them. She climbed on a bunch of other boxes and crates she made stairs with, so she could see inside the larger crate. What she found was a peculiar cube-shaped object. She couldn't quite see what it was, so she thought she'd get it out of the crate to see it better in what little light that was available to her.

It was laying way at the bottom, so she had to really make an effort to hang off the edge of the crate with the talons on her feet, so she can lower herself almost completely in just to reach the thing. But just as she grasps it between her hands, the cube lights up and takes to the air! This spooks her as she was almost smacked in the face with it, which surprised her so much, she fell backwards from the top of the edge of the crate and unceremoniously crashed into the boxes she used to climb up in the first place!

"Ow!" The dragon whined as she rubbed her now aching back.

The cube just floated there above her, just out of reach. Zucky was awestruck by it: It looked like a large metal cube, with four smaller ones sticking out of the corners of it. It had what looked like carvings in it, through which she saw a blue glow similar to what she seen emitted by the energon she's seen so far. The cube kept floating there in one place, as if it was...watching her?

["What, is this thing alive too?"] She thought as she tried touching it out of curiosity.

The cube started floating away from her in tandem with her own speed of approach. No matter how slowly or how quickly she tried, the thing always manages to stay out of her reach. Zucky, not one to give up too easily, tries jumping at it, but each time she misses and the last try ends with her sliding a good distance across the floor and crashing into another unfortunately placed set of boxes!

"Okay, that smarts!" She complained. The cube silently floated in place.

"What are you anyway?" She asked.

"..." The cube just floated there.

"Alright, since you're apparently shy...My name is Zucky, what's your name?" She tried again.