It was another beautiful Sunday afternoon. The Rainbooms were all gathered in the park with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee on lookout. They had all gotten word that there was a Decepticon fugitive from the Alchemor running rampant in Canterlot, and they had all mobilized to hunt it down.
“Any signs yet?” Optimus asked.
“Nothing yet. Wait… hold on,” Sunset said, looking down at her device. “I’ve got something!”
Jumping from the air was a orange vehicular mode, which converted into its alternate form. Decepticon marks on his shoulders, lobster-like pincers, and a crustacean face with blue eyes sticking out.
“Yep. There’s Bisk!” Rainbow called.
“One hundred trees jumped in under an hour! Make that two hundred and I will own the record!” The Decepticon shouted.
“I hate to ruin your fun, Bisk, but you’ve caused enough damage!” Sunset said, readying herself for a fight.
“Y’know, I wonder if he eats fish on his downtime…” Bumblebee pondered as he pulled out his blasters.
“Less talking, more fighting, Bumblebee!” shouted Rainbow.
“I’m gonna get me the catch of the day!” Bisk charged forward and drove his pincers towards Sunset and her friends.
“Jump!” Sunset yelled, jumping off to the side avoiding contact with his pincers. It was a very close shave, as she felt her hair graze the side of Bisk’s claws.
“Oh good heavens! Sunset, are you alright?” Rarity cried. “He didn’t slice any of your beautiful hair, did he?”
“Nah, but if I did, then you would’ve screamed.” Bisk was about to nip Rarity’s off, but Optimus tackled him and rammed his shoulder into his face.
“My hair’s fine, Rarity.” Sunset got back to her feet. “Just get your head in the game. Blasters up, everyone!”
Everyone readied their blasters to fight.
“Everyone, set for stun!” Optimus ordered.
“Y’know, on a scale of one to three hundred, how dangerous is Bisk?” Pinkie asked, cartwheeling and firing her blasters in perfect sync.
“He’s more a Z-Grade enemy here.” Jazz replied, twirling his gun around. “Not too big of a problem, but a nuisance nonetheless.”
“So… he’s less than a hundred?” asked Pinkie. “I just wanna know. This new sci-fi anime I’ve been watching says people over a hundred are criminals and those over three hundred should just get blown up…”
“Basically somewhere on a 25 of a threat level. Not much of a threat.” Jazz shrugged.
“Then why are we fighting him?” Pinkie stopped moving, only for Bisk to kick her into a cotton candy cart. She climbed out and began picking all of the cotton candy out of her hair in massive clumps, then proceeded to eat each individual bite.
Sunset sighed. “Pinkie, we’ve got to round up all of the prisoners who escaped. Because of Starscream, our entire planet’s in danger of being hurt by those guys, so we got to get them all locked up again. Now… everyone… FIRE!”
The girls all charged up their blasters and opened fire on Bisk, but unfortunately, he turned into vehicle mode and outran all of their shots, before leaping over and landing a few feet behind them, knocking them all onto the ground face-first.
“Y’know, you’re not very good at this, girls.” Bisk smirked at the felled Rainbooms. “I expected Megatron or Starscream to beat you, not lil’ old me…”
“Good thing we’re standing!” Bumblebee yelled before smacking his face with his fist, knocking him out cold.
Sunset and the girls looked at Bisk as he fell on his back, twitching in pain. She smiled.
“Great job guys. Well, should we uh… should we call someone? Take him Canterlot Prison?” Twilight asked. “Put him there with everyone we’ve captured so far?”
“There is only one place for Alchemor convicts…” Optimus Prime stood atop the felled Bisk. “I trust you know what I mean.”
“I believe I do.” Sunset nodded.
“Y’know, I’ve not tangled with dimensional transportation in over three decades, guys.” Wheeljack messed around with a giant ring-shaped machine, with all sorts of lights around it. “No guarantees it’ll work, either. Most of the time I try teleportation, things end up as ash or don’t even go through at all…”
“Or whatever machines you make go wrong and they turn teenagers into babies.” Sunset quipped.
“Hey! That wasn’t my fault, Sunset!” Wheeljack shot back. “Just a slight miscalculation in the torque of the ray. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Sunset just smirked.
“We have no place on Earth to keep Alchemor fugitives, and we all know that getting back to Cybertron is an impossibility,” said Optimus Prime. “Therefore, we must do the only logical thing and send the prisoners deep into space, far away from any planets, space stations, or any other cosmic life.”
“You sure it’s not just gonna toss ‘em out at the barber shop like last time?” Rainbow smirked too.
“I’m positive.” Wheeljack said back. “And no, it won’t send them to a parallel dimension! Not like last time…”
“I suppose it’s all for the best.” Rarity watched the portal spring to life. “If there’s no way to keep them in check here, then space has to be the best bet for all of us.”
“We’re probably going to have to invest in making a prison for them at some point.” Knockout, a medic spoke. “If there’s any of them who can fly, they might crash land back onto the planet which will make capturing them another long hassle…”
“I agree with your idea, Knockout, but finding the right resources and Cybertronian tech to house them all in might take ages.” Optimus took Bisk by the head and carried him over to the portal. “And really, Bisk didn’t do much for the Cons anyways. This should be a merciful send-off.”
“Better than Megatron blowing his brains out with a Decepticon rifle.” Fluttershy nodded.
Knockout shrugged. “True, true. Oh, before I forget, how have our Crystal Prep friends been since the incident of uh… two weeks ago?”
“It’s been two weeks already?” Sunset went through her phone and checked the date. Sure enough, it had been two weeks since the Shadowbolts were last at the base. “Huh, I guess you’re right. We can let them back in now.”
“I’ll call up their guardians to pick them up.”
“Perfect!” Wheeljack said. “And when you do… there’s something I wanted to show you guys. I’ve got a new experiment set up, and I want you all to give me some feedback on it.”
“Its not another age-reversal experiment is it?” Sunset asked.
“No, no! Far from it.” Wheeljack shook his head. “I manufactured a new tool to help batle the Decepticons. Since they like to mess with our heads, I figure that two can play at that game. My new device will allow you to get into a Con’s head, to really break ‘em up from the inside so we can mop ‘em up on the outside.”
Fluttershy gulped. “It won’t kill them.. Will it? I know they don’t like us, and we don’t like them but… it seems cruel to do something that could kill them.”
“No, it’s not gonna kill them. What do I look like, a monster?” Wheeljack asked. “It’s just gonna give them some psychological nightmares, make them hesitate so that we can have more clean shots at ‘em.”
Around the corner, a green Autobot made himself visible.
“Hey, the Shadowbolts are here,” said the Autobot, twiddling his fingers. “Well, most of them anyway. Highbrow’s having a heck of a time trying to get Sugarcoat to come over and Sour Sweet and Smallfoot went out for a drive. They said they’d be here in a few minutes.”
“Excellent, Hound.” Optimus replied. “Make sure that their gear is returned to them.”
“Got it, boss!” Hound saluted before leaving.
The Autobot guardian to Twilight, Punch, looked back at the others.
“Am I the only who’s a tad worried for those girls? They don’t seem like the happiest bunch of people on this planet.”
“Sugarcoat was pretty upset when I watched her last week at the coffee shop.” Sunset tapped her feet. “She was typing ferociously on her laptop and didn’t say a word to anyone. I’m worried about her…”
“Well, since they’ll be coming soon, maybe we can talk to them.” Ironhide said, “Come on, let's give them a warm welcome back.”
The girls and the Autobots stepped out of the lab and handed Bisk over to Wheeljack, before walking into the main entrance where the Shadowbolts were coming out of a Groundbridge. And standing near the bridge was Hound, Blaster, and Outback.
“Welcome back, Indigo.” Hound grinned, taking a knee down to greet his friend.
“Good to be back, Hound.” Indigo suited herself up. “Man, two weeks felt like forever!”
“Well, you’re back now. I’m glad to have my partner back on duty.”
Lemon grinned as she faced her partner. “Blaster, my man! Good to see ya!” She leapt up and gave him a high-five dunk
Blaster chuckled. “Lemon Zest. Still as spunky as ever. I missed that happy smile on your face.”
“Yeah. I tried my best to keep it the past couple of weeks.” Lemon fiddled with her headphones’ playlist. “Even with the new songs by Sapphire Shores and Coloratura out, I missed this place so much too…”
Sunny Flare greeted her partner with a friendly look as well.
“G-day Sunny. I’m glad to see a friendly face like yours back here.” Outback said in his friendly Australian accent.
“Still have that accent, huh Outback?” Sunny asked.
“Course I do. It’s grown on me right proper.” Outback smiled and crossed his arms. “Now, how’s about we light somethin’ up and eat? You must be starving.”
“I’d love that.” Sunny grinned.
“Well if you do, be back soon. I got a new experiment I want you all to see.” Wheeljack said.
“It better not be a age-regression experiment buddy!” Lemon snarled and jabbed her finger.
“It’s a weapon to attack the Decepticons with, Lemon.” Wheeljack deadpanned. “I’m not gonna make the same mistakes twice.”
Lemon’s finger drooped. “Oh. Sorry…” She innocently rubbed the back of her head.
Soon, two more forms came out of the portal. One was Sugarcoat who looked less than happy, and the other one was her guardian Highbrow: a Headmaster who left Cybertron to help the Autobots with their fight with Megatron.
“Look, I know you’re not happy about this, but just be glad that you’re back.” Sunset walked up to Sugarcoat, before she could even open her mouth. “It’s one thing to be punished, but it’s really not a good idea to be a bad apple about it.”
“Perhaps its best we leave her be for the time being Sunset.” Highbrow spoke. “She’s had that demeanor for the past two weeks as her friends told me. Not exactly healthy to be mad for that long…”
“Perhaps Wheeljack should make a machine that takes the bad things out of her and leaves only the good stuff…” Sunset stroked her chin. “But then there’d be a bad Sugarcoat that’d probably break out of the machine, attack everyone, and try and throw Good Sugar in there so she can cause mayhem in the real world…”
Sugarcoat tilted her glasses and huffed. “Don’t even start with me, Sunset.”
“Geez, who died in her house?” Lemon asked.
“Maybe Megatron is hiring. At least he’d treat us harshly, just as how we’re supposed to be treated…” she mumbled.
Highbrow shook his head. “Sugarcoat, no. A girl like you deserves respect, you aren’t evil like that Principal Cinch.”
“But CPA doesn’t DO RESPECT!” She screamed. “I WANT PRINCIPAL CINCH BACK! NOT THAT BUBBLY-HAIRED MORON, CADENCE!”
Highbrow shrunk down and slowly backed off. He could feel his head about to jump out of his socket.
The others were left scared as well. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all slowly backed away from her angry face.
“Yeah, Wheeljack, you’d better make that de-toxifier in your spare time. Sugarcoat NEEDS therapy…” Sunset walked off with the group.
“No problem, Sunset.” Wheeljack cracked his cyber-fingers.
Later, all of the Autobots, the Rainbooms, and the Shadowbolts had shown up into Wheeljack’s lab for the experiment. Sour Sweet and Smallfoot had finally arrived as well, and needless to say the couple were trying to keep a good distance from an angry Sugarcoat.
“Now, then. This new device should allow us to gain the upper hand over the Decepticon horde.” Wheeljack held a small remote in his hand, which was connected to a large laser-like device with red rings around it. “Activate it, and the Cons’ll have nightmares more terrifying than any horror movie you could ever think of…”
“Are you sure this is safe Wheeljack?” Applejack asked. “I still remember last time…”
“Yeah, I don’t want anyone to repeat past trauma.” Ironhide shivered.
“I’m not gonna screw it up!” Wheeljack yelled. “Why do you all keep doubting me? I’m just as capable of beating Megatron as the rest of you guys!”
The girls all raised their eyebrows at Wheeljack.
“What?”
“Just go on with the experiment already!” Sideswipe whined.
“Look, I know you’re all upset with me because I ruined AJ’s lunch, caused Rainbow to lose an award, and sent the Bolts away from here for two weeks, but you really need to know that I am a capable scientist. And who would you rather have me working for here? Optimus or Megatron?” He asked, looking as the group fell silent.
Sunset just shook her head. “Just get on with it, Wheeljack. We’re waiting.”
Wheeljack activated the device. “Always naysaying everything I create. Thinking I cause more problems than accidents… I’ll show them…” he mumbled under his breath and secretly increased the power of the device. “I think that it’s time we shake things up and no-one will be the wiser…”
The machine’s power increased, and the sound grew louder.
“Uh… is it supposed to do that?” Applejack asked.
Wheeljack’s eyes bulged. The machine’s power was sounding louder and louder, like it was about to explode. His little act of sabotage had gone too far and now he was in danger of blowing the whole base to pieces.
“Everyone! Hit the deck!” Optimus ordered.
But before anyone could move, the machine detonated, sending a blast of white light out the room and down the corridors, blinding everyone inside. The sound of an explosion could be heard, with clattering metal, tumbling ash, and all other cacophonous noises shattering the silence.
Wheeljack opened his eyes and looked around him. Everyone was out on the ground, groaning in agony from the blast. Ashes and soot covered their faces and half of Sugarcoat’s hair has been burned to pieces.
“Are you all okay?” Wheeljack asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Applejack stood up, but realised she was in much bulkier clothing than usual. “Hey? What am I doing with a robot body?”
Lemon Zest got herself up as well, and she groaned.
“I can’t believe this, I… wait. Why am I bigger? And…” Lemon’s eyes widened. “Where are my boobs?”
She felt herself, and she felt her behind. “That is not mine!”
“Oh... “ Sunset moaned as she got up. “Wait… something isn’t right. Everything’s much bigger than before.” He looked to the left and he saw the girls. “Girls, did I grow smaller?”
“Wait. Why is my voice so deep?” Asked Optimus, looking around. “Plus, why do I sound like a boy now?”
Wheeljack blinked. “Oh no… everyone, please don’t panic… but I think you all just switched bodies.”
Everyone examined themselves for a brief moment and screamed in harmony with each other, slamming their hands to their temples. The only ones who didn’t were Sour Sweet and Smallfoot, who seemed to be fine with their new forms.
“Huh. They took that better than I thought they would.” Wheeljack said.