//------------------------------// // Future Story: Transformers PT2 // Story: Flash Sentry One-Shots // by Banshee531 //------------------------------// It was a peaceful night in the city of Canterlot and one of the many people still awake was currently driving his police car through the city. Shining Armor, a detective in the CCPD, sighed as he looked around the city with no sign of any danger. It looked like it was going to be an easy patrol night, but he knew to never let appearance deceive him. And sure enough, his radio sounded as the captain of his precinct called into him. "Armor, we've got a suspected break in at the truck yard near your location. Something tripped the alarm and the security guard isn't responding." "Roger that," Shining replied. "Heading there now." He turned a corner and picked up speed, reaching the truck yard in record time. Arriving at the yard, he pulled up in front of it before getting out. Heading over to the main gate, he found it open and the lock undone. Heading inside and taking out his gun, he looked around but couldn't find anything that told him the place was dangerous. So why hadn't the guard responded to the tripped alarm? He got his answer when he arrived a the security office and looked inside, where he was shocked to see the guard in question asleep at his desk with headphones and an eye-mask on. "You've got to be kidding me." He was about to tap on the glass, but in that moment something happened. A blinding light exploded above the city, startling Shining as he turned towards it. The light was coming from some kind sun that was floating above the city, making it look like day all over again. Shining could barely see anything through the bright light, wishing he had brought his sunglasses with him. But then he noticed a nearby semi-truck, an older square model with tinted windows. He rushed over to it, managing to get behind it and look through its windows. They managed to dim the light enough for him to see the light, the police officer wondering what the heck was going on. Then, something shot out of the light. Some kind of meteorite, which flew towards the ground. Then another flew out, then another and another and another. Soon, tons of these lights were flying out and Shining had no idea what they were. And before he could try calling someone to ask what was happening, one of the meteors flew down towards the truck yard. Shining gasped at the sight and braced himself, as the meteor smashed into the ground. The impact caused a small earthquake and ripped up the ground a bit, but nothing major happened. Shining opened his eyes and looked at the crater that had formed, moving over to it to take a look. And when he arrived, he saw something smoking at the bottom of it. That something was glowing a strange colour, making him wonder what the heck it was. Six months later. Magna Convoy moaned as he stood in the middle of the destroyed street, having been utterly crushed by the Decepticons that had come. Not only had they whooped the Autobots' rears, but they had made off with the Extractor that held the Cyber-Former fragment. "Well that sucked," Hotshot moaned as he was still feeling numb in areas Air-Raid had struck. "I can't believe they beat us," Cascade sighed. "Now what do we do?" As she said that, sirens were going off. The authorities had finally arrived and when they got here, the Autobots didn't want to be around to give them something to shoot at. "Let's get back to base," Magna announced as he pressed his finger to his ear. "Alpha Trion. We need a space bridge." He then turned to where Twilight, Sunset, Rarity and Spike had been hiding, his sister staring at them with worry and wonder. "You three stay here. Don't follow us." "But what the heck is happening?" Twilight asked. "Who are those robots? Why did they attack you?" "You don't need to know that," Magna Convoy told her. "Just forget you ever saw us." The portal opened up and the other two Autobots transformed into their vehicles forms before driving off. Convoy gave her a serious look before transforming and driving into the portal behind his teammates. Once he was through, the portal began to close and Twilight was tempted to try and run through it. But instead, she stood there until it completely vanished. The police arrived a moment later and the girls knew they were gonna have a lot of questions to answer. Inside the metal room, Alpha Trion watched as Hotshot flew through a portal in the wall. Cascade followed with Magna Convoy bringing up the rear. As soon as they were all through, he shut the space bridge and watched as the Autobots all returned to bot-mode. When they did, they groaned at the damage done to them. "Autobots, step into the CR Chambers." They sighed, but moved over to the tubes at the side of the room. Three of them suddenly opened up as they stepped inside, all looking utterly defeated. "I know your first mission didn't go as planned." "I'll say," Hotshot growled as the tanks filled with smoke. "I thought we had the fight locked. We caught the Transformer, extracted the fragment and didn't even break a sweat. But then those Decepticons showed up and beat us six ways to Sunday." Cascade nodded. "And they took the Extractor. Now not only do they have the fragment, they've got what they need to take the others as well." Magna Convoy sighed, "we knew this was a possibility. We need to train harder so we stand a better chance next time." "Is that even gonna matter?" Hotshot asked. "They've got four members on their team to our three. How are we supposed to beat them when three of them can keep us busy whilst the fourth gets the fragment?" "And it's not just their numbers," Cascade pointed. "Their vehicles-modes are all military vehicles. They have weapons in that state and we don't." "Ahhh!" Hotshot moaned, "stupid Cyber-Formers. If I had known I'd be stuck with it, I wouldn't have scanned my car." "It's not like we had a choice," Cascade told him. "But you're right. Not being able to rescan isn't great. Now the Decepticons can overwhelm us without evening to transform. How as we supposed to fight that?" "I don't know," Magna Convoy sighed. "For now, let's not think about it. Focus on repairing ourselves. We can't return to human form until we're fixed up. Once we're healed up, we'll start working on strategies to deal with more opponents and their higher fire power. Until then...rest up." The other two didn't want to stop talking about this disaster, but they knew better then to argue with him. They all went silent and let the gas do its work on them, the damaged and dented parts of their bodies slowly repairing themselves as the gas seeped through them. As they did, Magna Convoy thought about the battle. He was just as upset as the others about their defeat, but he didn't want to show them it was bothering him. The points they had brought up were good ones. The Decepticons had them outnumbered and outgunned. How were they supposed to overcome that? He couldn't help but think back to when he had first been pulled into this whole crazy situation. Things had seemed so much simpler back then. Six months ago. Shining was staring into the crater, the light from whatever it was like nothing Shining had ever seen. As he stared at it, the light in the sky and the meteors it was firing vanished. That left Shining to only focus on the meteorite. But it was like no meteorite he had ever seen before. It was a round coin-like object that was a white crystal surrounded by a metal band. The crystal was the cause of the light, which Shining knelt down to take a closer look at. But no sooner had he done this, the device seemed to activate and leapt from the crater. Shining gasped as it flew towards him, his reflexes making him leap back and swing his arm around. But as soon as the device hit his wrist, a metal strap flew out of it and bound itself to his arm. "Augh!" He cried out, feeling a sensation like the device was binding itself to him. He staggered back and as he did, he accidently slammed into the semi-truck. This caused the device to send out a light, which struck the truck and completely enveloped it. Once it covered the entire vehicle, it retracted back into the bracelet and the crystal exploded with energy that wrapped around Shining. In the blink of an eye, the police office felt completely different. His body felt stiff and hard and when he opened his eyes, he felt like he was looking from a VR headset as everything looked like he was staring at a computer screen. "Er," he moaned, "what happened?" He tried to turn his head, but he couldn't. He tried to move, but he couldn't. "Did that thing paralyse me?" But then he realised he wasn't lying down. He was standing, or at least he thought he was standing, up straight and facing the truck. And when he focused, his vision zoomed in on the truck's reflective parts. And what he saw terrified him. The only thing being reflected in the truck...was another truck. "What?" He couldn't see himself and only saw the truck. He felt himself begin to panic, screaming as he did so. But nobody was around to hear him. The security guard's mask and headphones were clearly meant to block out everything, so Shining continued to scream and panic for a good while. When that while passed, Shining began to calm down. "Alright," he told himself, "I've somehow turned into a truck. That device must have done this. So what do I do?" He thought for a few moments, trying to think of a way to get someone to help him. "If I'm a truck, that means I can't move unless my engine is working. I need to think of a way to-" He stopped when his engine suddenly revved up, Shining surprised by this but happy it was so easy. "Alright," he tried to think of how to drive. As he did, new images appeared in his cybernetic vision. It was like a mini dashboard, showing his revs, temperature and everything else found of a truck's dashboard. Next to it were a line of numbers and a capital R on the very end, Shining realising he was looking at the gears. "Didn't know trucks had this many." He focused on the R and it glowed, Shining thinking to go and sure enough he started rolling backwards. He didn't know why, but actually driving himself was amazing. He drove backwards and as he did, he vision changed to show everything behind him. Somehow, he was seeing where he was reversing. Good thing because he almost slammed into another truck, but he was able to put on the breaks and switch to first gear. It took a little getting used to, but he slowly started figuring out how everything worked. Gear shifting was tricky, but he managed to get the hang of it to and was soon beginning to pick up speed. He laughed, enjoying himself, but he didn't let that distract him from what he needed to do. Find someone to help him. However, as he rolled forward, something appeared in front of him. A large round portal of some kind, which opened up close enough to him that Shining didn't have time to break. He cried out as he flew through it and found himself driving on something metal. "WOW!" He cried, sliding to a stop as he found himself in a large metal room that was poorly lit. The portal shut behind him, trapping him there. He began to panic and wished he could see around himself more. "Welcome," a voice spoke up from every direction, "I see you managed to find a complete Cyber-Former. It appears one didn't become out of phase." "Who said that?" Shining asked, "where are you?" "All around you. You're talking to the ship itself." "Ship? I'm on a boat?" "Not exactly. Give me a moment." The room lit up more and allowed Shining to see he was in a large metal room with glass tubes along the side and a large computer-like device on another wall. That computer suddenly showed a metal face, which stared down at him. "Welcome. I am Alpha Trion." "Shining Armor," he replied. "I'd shake your hand, but neither of us seem to have one." This got Trion to laugh. "Indeed. So...you are a human. I wondered what your species was like." "This isn't what I usually look like," Shining explained. "I'm usually more...fleshy. This...thing, shot down from the sky and stuck to my arm. The next thing I knew, I was this truck." "That was a Cyber-Former. A powerful device that has allowed you to evolve into a Cybertronian. Here, allow me." A laser suddenly shot down from the ceiling and struck Shining, causing him to be consumed by light. When the light faded, he blinked and realised he had his normal eyes. He looked himself over and was shocked to see he was back to normal, making him laugh. "I'm me again!" "I was able to shut off your Cyber-Former. With practise, you should be able to do that yourself." Shining raised an eyebrow as he looked at his wrist, seeing the strange device still locked to it. He tried to take it off, but it wouldn't come loose. It was like it was fused to his wrist. "Careful. You don't want to damage that." "What is this?" He asked. "The Cyber-Former. A device from my home planet that has found its way to your planet. And it isn't the only one." Shining let this info sink in and he realised what this Alpha Trion was talking about. "You're an alien?" The head nodded, "what are you doing here?" Alpha Trion didn't answer and instead, he did something that caused the computer he was in to fire a beam at the ground. In doing so, the area around Shining suddenly began to transform. Pixels materialised around him and before Shining could say anything, he was on an entirely different planet. A metal planet, with a bunch of vehicles that looked nothing like those seen on earth. One vehicle suddenly transformed into a humanoid figure, surprising Shining before several others did the same. "This is Cybertron, my home. It was once a peaceful planet, but then something changed." In the blink on an eye, the planet changed. Gone was the peaceful utopia, being replaced by a battlefield with destroyed buildings and scrap metal covering the battlefield. He spotted several robots fighting, some in hand to hand whilst others were shooting at each other. "A group of Cybertronians decided they had had enough of how things were run and wanted to rule the planet themselves. They deceived and betrayed. These Decepticons, started a war that ripped out planet apart. Leading them was a Decepticon with nothing but evil in his spark" One robot then appeared. A large silver one with a massive black gun barrel on his right arm, "Megatron." The robot named Megatron roared as he started firing at a bunch of robots, blowing them up with a single hit. He laughed maniacally at this, only for another robot to suddenly appear. This was a large red and blue one, who was carrying a large black gun in his hands. "But to counter them, another faction of Cybertronians banded together. The Autobots. Led by my greatest student. Optimus Prime." Optimus charged and began to do battle against Megatron, the two being even as more robots appeared around them and did battle. "The war raged on, neither side able to get an advantage over the other. The battles went on for centuries in a perfect stalemate, until Megatron found a way to tip the balance." The image suddenly changed again, this time to a dark room with a bunch of different science devices. On one side of the room, Shining saw a large purple robot whose head was nothing like the others. This robot was working on something. "The Decepticon Scientist, Shockwave, created a way to convert organic life into Cybertronian life." Shockwave stepped back and Shining saw the same device on his arm on the table, "the Cyber-Former." Shining looked closer and saw the Cyber-Former's crystal part was purple in colour with the same emblem as the Decepticons. The image changed again, this time to show a large ship just like where he had been. The walls of the ship were lined with hundreds, maybe thousands, of these Cyber-Formers. A bunch of Decepticons were stacking the ship and Shining found himself flying through it until he reached what he assumed was the main bridge. There, Megatron was sitting in a chair waiting for blastoff. "Megatron's plan was simple. Find a planet overflowing with organic life and drop the Cyber-Formers down onto it. Each Cyber-Former was equipped with a Decepticon Shell Program, which would override the host's mind and make them into a Decepticon loyal to Megatron. Once he had a new army, he would return to Cybertron and overwhelm the Autobots with superior numbers. And he had found the perfect planet for his plan." "Earth," Shining realised as he was suddenly warped to outside the ship. "He's gonna do that to our planet." "He would have. But we Autobots discovered what he was planning and set out to stop him." Shining watched as the ship took off, only to be attacked by Autobot ships. They blasted at it, attempting to bring it down, but the ship managed to stay in the air and flying Decepticons came in to keep the ship safe. The ship's tip then fires a beam or energy, which formed a portal just like the one Shining had driven through. However, before the ship could get through the portal, something flew up to it and managed to fire something. That something was a robot that grabbed onto the side of the ship, Shining looking closer and realising it had the same head he had seen on the computer. Alpha Trion. He managed to get into the ship just before it entered the portal and Shining was once again inside the bridge, where Megatron was piloting. But he suddenly got an alert and rushed out into the back of the ship, where he found Alpha Trion plugging his beard-like chin cable into one of the ship's computer. "What are you doing?" Megatron pointed his blaster at Trion, who glared at him. "You're too late." As he said that, the Cyber-Formers around them changed. The purple parts all turned clear. "I've deleted your Decepticon Shell Programs from these devices. If you release them, those that connect to them will get to pick for themselves what they want to be." "Fool!" Megatron fired his blaster and caused the computer to explode, resulting in many system failures. Alpha Trion unplugged himself and rushed forward, pulling out a sword that he started swinging around. The pair fought as the ship suffered more and more malfunctions, eventually reaching the other side of the portal they had been passing through. Trion managed to slash at Megatron's neck and damage it, but this made Megatron roar as he fired several shots. This blasted Alpha Trion backwards, damaging his body significantly whilst Megatron staggered back against the wall. He saw Trion was in a bad way and one more blast would end him. But before he could, an explosion occurred that completely consumed him. Megatron disappeared in the explosion, which shot towards Trion as well. The old-looking transformer quickly plugged his beard into the computer again, right before the explosion consumed him. Shining wanted to see more, but the image faded away and he was soon back in the metal room. "What happened?" "The ship exited the space bridge and exploded. I knew I wouldn't survive, so in a last ditch effort I uploaded my mind into the ship's computer. This allowed me to completely wipe the Decepticon Shell program from all the Cyber-Formers, but then the ship split into three pieces due to the explosion." Shining realised what that had to have been. "The light I saw. The one that illuminated the sky above Canterlot. That was your ship?" "Yes," Trion nodded. "So where are the other two pieces?" "I don't know. But I was able to send out a command to phase shift them out of focus. They'll have likely crashed somewhere. The phasing will only last a little while, so it's likely they sank into the ground and were buried someplace until the cloak deactivated. But we have a bigger issue. The explosion flew through an area of the ship containing the Cyber-Formers. And before the ship phased, they were pushed out and sent flying down to the city." Shining remembered what had happened to him, along with the many meteors he had seen. "Are you saying there are gonna be a bunch of these things crashing down and turning humans into...you guys?" "No." Alpha Trion looked like he was doing some calculations, as multiple formulas appeared in front of him. "According to my sensor logs...seven Cyber-Formers managed to survive the explosion. You have one, but the other six have likely gone into phase along with the ships. But we have a bigger problem. The Cyber-Formers that were destroyed." "What about them?" "Shockwave knew what he was doing. When he created them, he made it so that they were able to repair themselves. Fragments of these Cyber-Formers would have survived and if enough of these fragments come together, a new Cyber-Former will be forged. And even if they can't find each other, the fragments will be able to do a lot of damage on their own." "How so?" "They'll likely search for the nearest piece of technology that can handle their power and merge with it. Once that happens, the tech will be transformed into a transformer that will be nothing but a mindless beast." Shining gulped, "that's not good." "Luckily, we have time. From what my sensors can tell, the fragments have also gone into phase. They won't be as out of phase as the ships were, but they'll be phased enough to not be able to connect to any technology. But it'll take time for them to re-sync with this plain. When that happens..." "Merge with tech, got it. So what do we do?" "That depends on you." Shining raised an eyebrow at this. "I brought you here to stop you from revealing too much to the world before I could come up with a plan. If you want, I should be able to unbind you from the Cyber-Former. You can return to your own life and never have to think about this again." "Or..." "Or, you can help me. I can see that you are a good person. Someone who won't abuse the power you now have. As you can see, I'm limited about what I can do in this current situation. So I need someone to go out and gather the fragments when they emerge. I originally thought about contacting the government of this planet, but whilst we were talking I logged onto your world wide web. Let's just say...I don't trust your government to not try and use the Cyber-Former tech for their own purposes." "That's...fair. So you want me to become your muscle." "That is up to you." Shining stared down at the device on his arm and thought about it, then smirked. "I'm in." Trion looked surprised by this. "I've always wanted to help people. That's why I became a police officer. If these fragments are gonna cause problems and I'm the only one that can stop them, then sign me up. I'll do whatever I need to stop them." Trion smiled at this, "then welcome to the Autobots." With that, the computer launched out a beam that struck his Cyber-Former. When Shining looked at it, the crystal had turned red with the Autobot emblem on it. "Now, we have a lot of work to do. First, we have to find the Cyber-Formers that remained whole before someone else does. We'll also need to find you some teammates, since it's likely you won't be able to do this all on your own." "Right," Shining nodded as he stepped up to the computer. "But before all that, there's something else we'll need to do." The computer showed the image of the truck he had scanned, which wasn't exactly nice to look at. It's brown paint was faded and rusted in area. "If you're gonna be a Cybertronian, you'll need to look the part. Unfortunately, I don't know how to replace the vehicle data the Cyber-Former scanned. However, I can tweak it to look more your style." "Oh, I'm liking this." "Also, I'll you'll need a new name. Something that won't give away who you are if you ever need to talk to a teammate out loud. Something a little more...Cybertronian." Shining nodded and tried to think, then got an idea. "I think I might have one. From now on, call me..." "Magna Convoy." The robot's eyes shot open as he saw the gas had vanished and the CR Chambers had opened. Hotshot and Cascade were already out and checking themselves over, Magna stepping out and doing the same. Everything looked and felt fine with them, so the other two deactivated their Cyber-Formers. Flash and Trixie replaced the giant robots, sighing when they saw they didn't have a scratch on them. Magna Convoy transformed back as well, Shining Armor stepping out of the light and feeling fine as well. "You guys okay?" "Been better," Flash sighed. "So, what do we do now?" "I guess we need another Extractor," Trixie pointed out. "And we've gotta be sure not to lose it this time." "I've already begun working on a new one," Alpha Trion explained. "And you're right. We don't have the parts to replace this one if we lose it. Luckily, I'm going to be adding a few extra features to this one. Instant teleportation back to the base whenever it get at least five feet away from an Autobot signature. I can only wonder what the Decepticons are doing with the one that they stole." In the dark area, Shadow-Lord smiled as his master examined the Extractor. "Excellent," Megatron laughed. "With this, we will be able to require my Cyber-Formers before they fall into the hands of those foolish Autobots." He looked up at Shadow-Lord. "And you're sure you couldn't infect them?" "Yes," Shadow-Lord nodded. "They have some kind of protection from the Decepticon Shell Program. And they have knowledge and technology that they couldn't have gotten on their own. Someone's helping them. Someone Cybertronian." "Alpha Trion," Megatron growled. "But it matters not. Those fools will not be able to defeat us. We Decepticons shall collect the Cyber-Formers and use them to build our army." He looked down at the Extractor as his eyes glowed purple. "And the first step, is to make sure all future Pretenders are under my command." With that, the eyes launched the light at the Extractor. When it struck, the Decepticon Emblem began to imprint itself onto the device. As this happened, Shadow-Lord stepped away from him and over to the other Decepticons. As he did, he started glowing and was suddenly surrounded in a sphere of light. Said sphere shrank down until it was the size of a person, with a person stepping out of it. Sombra. The man straightened his tie and looked up at the other three, who were all surrounded with light and shrank down as well. Air-Raid turned into a woman in her early twenties, with dark purple skin and dark pink hair. She was wearing a black leather overcoat over black clothing, with black fingerless gloves on her hands. A large scar could be seen on her face, running down from her forehead and over her right eye. Jammer became a bulky man with gray skin and dark blue hair and a goatee, wearing a black shirt and brown cargo pants over a sleeveless blue leather jacket. He was also wearing black shades and a pair of headphones over his ears. Typhoon became a lean man with green skin and spiked silver hair. He was wearing a brown aviator jacket over a white shirt and black jeans. The lot of them were all wearing a Cyber-Former on their arms. Sombra looked smug as he moved over to the computer, typing away at it and pulling up images of the battle that had taken place. He watched as Magna Convoy overpowered Jammer, whilst Hotshot and Cascade were overwhelmed by their opponents. "The leader is clearly someone with combat training. But the rest of them are amateurs at best." The woman moved up behind him, watching as she blasted Hotshot with lightning. "Those two are kids. I can tell by the way they're acting. I don't know what this Alpha Trion was thinking, but clearly he just recurreted whoever found the Cyber-Formers." Jammer moved over to a section of the base that had more seats and sat down, adjusting a dial on the side of his headphones. "Doesn't matter who they are. We'll take em down next time." "We should have taken them down back there," Typhoon stated. "Haven't you guys ever seen movies? The villains let the heroes go, but regrets it later when that hero's gotten stronger and manages to defeat them. What if that happens with these guys?" "This isn't a movie," Sombra chuckled. "This is real life and in real life, victory always goes to the stronger opponent." He smirked watching the three in their vehicle forms, all everyday vehicles that had no weapons upon them. "We outnumber them. Outgun them and out power them. They're just a bunch of civilians that lucked into these powers. You three...well two, are highly trained mercenaries with years of experience. Against that, they don't stand a chance." As he said that, Megatron finished his work on the Extractor. The metal had turned dark gray and the Decepticon Emblem now glowed proudly on the side of the glass. They had everything they needed. Now, they just had to wait for the next fragment to appear. Shining Armor sighed as he stepped through the door of his apartment. Switching on the light, he looked around and found the place was exactly how he had left it that morning. He threw his coat over a chair, knowing Cadance didn't like that but was too tired and demoralised to care. He then moved over to the couch and dropped down upon it, sighing as he let everything that had happened that day wash over him. But before he could get any sleep, his phone started beeping. Taking it out, he saw it was his sister and put it on speaker. "Hey sis. What's up?" "Shining. You are not gonna believe what happened to me today." He had a feeling he knew, "I met real life aliens." "Really?" Shining tried to act shocked, "how the heck did you do that?" "It's was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen." Twilight started recounting everything that Shining had already experienced, her brother doing his best to act like he hadn't. "Then, the ones that called themselves Decepticons walked through a portal and the Autobots looked demoralised." "Well...I'm sure being beaten like that would feel bad. But I bet they're preparing themselves for the next time they face off." "You think they'll fight again?" Twilight sound suspicious, whilst Shining flinched and couldn't believe he had let himself slip up like that. "Well...it's possible. You said the white one told the black one it wasn't over. So maybe they'll meet up somewhere else." "I wonder if I can meet them again," Twilight sounded hopeful. "Imagine the technology a race like that must have. If they showed me some of it, I bet I could learn a bunch." "Twilight," Shining frowned, "promise me you're not gonna go out looking for these things. They're clearly dangerous and I doubt they're just gonna had over their technology." Twilight was quiet. "Twilight." "Alright. I promise I won't go looking for them. But I reserve the right ask questions if I happen to run into them again." Shining rolled his eyes, but knew that was the best he was gonna get. "Fine. Just...be careful, alright." "I will. Promise. I'd better get going. Rainbow's been wanting me to tell her about this all day. Oh, I put a video online if you want to see what happened yourself." She hung up before Shining could ask more and the man quickly went online and typed in a bunch of words he thought might help him find something. And sure enough, he found the video and quickly hit play. It showed him and his team fighting against the vending machine and extracting the fragment, followed by Twilight asking a bunch of question. Shining didn't remember her having a camera and by the looks of things, Twilight was filming this at eye level. Had she put a camera in her glasses? The video then showed the arrival of the Decepticons and the fight that had ensued, Shining flinching when he saw Hotshot and Cascade be taken down. Those two really needed to work on their fighting techniques. The video ended with the Decepticons leaving and taking the Extractor, followed by the Autobot's departure. "What am I gonna do?" Shining asked. He needed to think of a way to get stronger. If he couldn't, the Decepticons would steamroll them each and every time. The next day. The only thing people were talking about that day were the killer robots. Twilight had already met up with her friends and they were watching the video once again, Rainbow, Pinkie and Spike looking excited to see a bunch of humanoid robots slugging it out against each other. "Ow!" Rainbow flinched when Hotshot got zapped, "that had to hurt. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen." Rarity didn't look so excited. "I assure you, actually being there isn't as cool as you think it is. All the stress we managed to get rid of came back at ten times the amount." As she said that, the Autobots were all blasted and the Extractor lost. "Oh," Fluttershy frowned, "why do they have to fight like this? Can't they talk their problems out?" "A'h don't think those four are up to talkin," Applejack told her. The others nodded as the Decepticons left, "ya'h really think they're aliens?" "They're definitely not Equestrian," Sunset confirmed. "And there's no way something like that could be made on this planet. At least, not yet. Aliens are the only possible explanation." "Wow!" Pinkie cried, "can you imagine getting to meet an actual alien? I wish I was there when they showed up. You think they'd take us for a ride on their spaceship?" Twilight smirked, wishing she could be there right now. But she had promised her brother she wouldn't try and seek out these robots. So all she could do was wonder where they were and what they were doing. Explosions filled the ship as Hotshot and Cascade ran through a maze of metal box, avoiding lasers that were being fired at them. Hotshot managed to roll out of the path of a laser and took cover behind a box, both his hands in blaster mode whilst his goggles were positioned over his eyes. He looked around, as Cascade jumped over another explosion and landed next to him. Hotshot jumped out from behind the box and started firing at the laser blaster in the ceiling, keeping its attention as Cascade leapt out from behind the box. She did several flips and cartwheels, allowing her to get bunder the blaster. Due to its design, it couldn't fire beneath it. This allowed her to use her hair tendrils to grab it and pulled the weapon out, destroying it. They both sighed in relief, as Magna Convoy stepped into the room. "Not bad," he told them. "See, you guys have what it takes to win." "Yeah," Hotshot sighed, "when we outnumber them. We need to train against multiple opponents. That's the only way we're gonna be able to figure out how to fight against the Decepticons." "I'm with hot head," Cascade agreed as Hotshot frowned at her. "How's Alpha Trion coming with the holodeck?" "Slowly," Magna Convoy told her. "And he's too focused on the new Extractor to continue working on it. For now, we'll have to use what we can to practise. Alright, Hotshot. Cascade and I will fight against you and you'll try your best beat us." Hotshot's eyes went wide whilst Cascade smirked, holding up her blaster ready to shoot him. "Blasters on their lowest levels. Don't wanna hurt anyone." He raised his blaster, "you've got ten seconds." Cascade started counting as Hotshot quickly rushed towards one of the boxes, reaching it as she got to ten and started blasting at him. He dived behind the box and prepared his own blasters, whilst Magna Convoy ran towards the box. Hotshot transformed and shot out from behind the box, Cascade's blaster fire following him as he tried to get away. Magna Convoy also fired at him and managed to hit the spot right in front of him, making it explode and knocking him flying. "Augh!" He hit the ground on his roof, forcing him to transform as Magna ran forward. Cascade fired some more, Hotshot rolling along the ground and firing back at her as she did so. The blaster fire forced Cascade to stop shooting and avoid the lasers, but Magna Convoy got in close and threw a punch at him. Hotshot dodged the first punch, then managed to grab the second punch at the wrist. He quickly spun around and tried to judo flip Magna, but it didn't work and the larger robot remained in place. "Ah man." Magna chuckled. "Did you forget what I told you about flipping a larger opponent?" "It requires you to use their own momentum to do it." "Exactly," Magna Convoy then grabbed him with his free arm and swung him around. Hotshot cried out as he was sent flying through the room until he crashed into several boxes, the orange and black robot falling in a heap with a groan. Magna rolled his eyes as he moved over to him, Hotshot attempting to pick himself up. But before he could, something grabbed him by the legs and pulled him backwards. "WOW!" He tried to stop himself, but he couldn't. He eventually stopped and found a blaster pointed right at his head. "Boom," he heard Cascade tell him. "You're dead." Hotshot looked up at the female Autobot, who smirked as she uncoiled her hair cables from around his legs. Hotshot moaned, knowing he was beaten as Maga moved over to them. "Remember guys. Winning a fight isn't about being stronger, smarter or faster. It's about using all of your abilities together in the right way." He reached down and helped Hotshot to his feet. "You gotta think of your powers for what they are. One tool in your tool belt. If you only use them in a single way, you become predictable to any wiser opponent." Hotshot moaned as he cracked his back, "you couldn't have reminded me about that before you whooped my butt?" "Where'd the fun in that be?" Magna Convoy chuckled. "The Decepticons might have seen what your robot forms can do, but they don't know you. They don't know what you're capable of. That's your biggest advantage right now." In that moment, an alarm sounded that caught the Autobot's attention. Magna Convoy turned to rush out the training room, Hotshot and Cascade following behind him. They ran through the halls of the base and came to the main control room, where Alpha Trion was staring at a map. "What's going on?" Magna asked, "is it another fragment?" "It is," Trion nodded. "However, it hasn't appeared yet." This confused the Transformers, wondering how he had detected it if it hadn't appeared yet. "Thanks to the sensor data I acquired yesterday, I've been able to program the computer to detect the energy signature of a fragment that's about to unphase." "So you know where the fragments gonna show up before it does?" Hotshot asked, Trion nodding. "That's great. If we can get to it before it appears, we can grab it before it connects to anything." "I'm afraid it's not that simple. I have a general location, but no exact coordinates. That means you'll have to investigate the area on your own and hope it shows up where you are." They all sighed, but knew it was better than nothing. "Alright," Magna Convoy turned to the others, "time to roll out!" They nodded and were about to head over to the Space Bridge, only for Trion to speak up. "Hold on," he told them. "I have something for you. I've been working on this for a while and given what happened yesterday, I decided I needed to finish it." Suddenly, part of the floor opened up and something was lifted up into the room. The Autobots were excited to see whatever it was, expecting some awesome new weapon. But they were disappointed to see that what Trion had created...was a trailer. It was mostly blue with a few streaks of white and the Autobot Emblem on the sides. "Seriously?" Hotshot asked, "what is that?" "A trailer for Magna Convoy to tow behind him," Alpha Trion replied. "That is the function of his vehicle form after all." The white and blue robot looked the trailer over. "It has a space in it to allow you to carry your weapon out of sight." A part of the trailer's roof opened up and Convoy was able to put his blaster inside. "Plus, it has something else I think'll come in handy in a pinch." "What?" Magna Convoy asked, but Alpha Trion simply smirked. "You'll see. Now you'd better get going. Can't be wasting any more time before the fragment activates." The trio frowned, but didn't argue. They all transformed into their vehicle forms and Magna Convoy hooked the trailer onto his back. "Activate camo-mode." The truck announced before all three Autobots began to change colour. Magna Convoy changed into a standard gray truck along with his trailer, the Autobot Emblems vanishing. Hotshot turned entirely blue and Cascade turned entirely black, whilst holographic drivers appeared in the driver's seat. "Activate the space bridge!" "Activating!" Alpha Trion announced as the machine that made it began to power up. "Locking on to suitable drop site. Site found. Now activating space bridge!" The portal appeared and all three revved up their engines. "Autobots...ROLL OUT!" Magna Convoy drove forward and pulled the trailer along behind him, whilst Hotshot and Cascade followed him through. Once all three were through the portal, Alpha Trion shut down the portal. Once it closed, Trion sighed. "Good luck...Autobots."