Transformers: Of Bots and Men

Robots In Disguise

"You don't remember?" Fanzone asked.

"Uh, yeah." She quickly answered. "It's... all a bit of a blur. I just remember waking up and trying to find my way through the woods. That's when the... park rangers found me."

"I see..." Fanzone responded before turning to his computer.

He was immediately greeted by the blue screen of death. His eyes widened as he started banging on the keyboard, trying to get his computer to respond. Instead, he merely dislodged several of the keys.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Fanzone let out.

Seeing an opportunity, Massacre slowly got up out of her seat and began backing away from the desk. Once she was sufficiently distanced from the irate sergeant, she turned and walked out of the station.

"Mission accomplished." she announced. "Well, almost."

"Good work, Massacre." Prime commended. "Return to the ship as soon as you can."

She nodded in agreement, turning and preparing to walk off. As she did, a large semi-truck pulled up to a stoplight. Her eyes widened at the sight and she grinned, giving the vehicle a scan.

"Prime, finally found you a vehicle mode."

...

Finally, after hours of hiking through the woods and avoiding the park rangers still in the area, Massacre returned to the Ark. By this point, Bulkhead had managed to clear out the hanger door, giving the Autobots unfettered access to the outside. From the large pile of rubble off to the side, he was in the middle of an excavation job.

"Welcome back." Bulkhead greeted. "How was your trip into town?"

"Eventful." she answered. "I see you've been busy."

"Someone has to get this bucket of bolts out of the mountain and back into the sky." Bulkhead reminded her. "Anyways, you go on inside. I'm sure Prime and Ratchet are getting anxious."

Massacre nodded as she transformed back into her robot mode, entering into the ship. Unfortunately, her transformation completely shredded her clothes, reducing them to a pile of scrap.

"Whoops." she let out.

"Relax!" Ratchet called out. "I've already begun working on upgrades to your human form, including appropriate human coverings."

Massacre sighed in relief.

"You're the best, Ratchet." she told him.

He had her sit down on the ship's infirmary table as he hooked her up to the ship's computer. The download began as Ratchet turned away from his friend, looking over at Prime. Prime was going over the information collected from Fanzone's computer, reading it intently.

"It would seem we have landed in a human settlement known as Detroit." Prime relayed. "The geological structure we crashed into is call "Mount 23rd Street". Further scans have shown that beneath the mountain lies-"

Suddenly, there was a loud crash from outside. It was punctuated by a yelp from Bulkhead, and a frantic beep from Bumblebee. Ratchet, Prime, and Prowl ran out to check on Bulkhead, only to find a massive hole in the side of the mountain.

"Bulkhead!" Prowl called out. "Are you alright!"

"Yeah!" Bulkhead called back. "Nothing majorly damaged!"

There was the sound of shifting rubble, then Bulkhead called up again.

"Prime, you guys need to get down here!" he insisted. '"You're not gonna believe what I found!"

The four climbed inside, and found a massive underground chamber that seemed to fill a good portion of the mountain. There were large platforms all across the chamber, as well as dusty computer terminals and large TV arrays. There wasn't any light available at the time, and it was clear that whatever this place was, it had been abandoned for some time.

"By the All Spark..." Ratchet let out.

"Incredible." Prowl marveled.

Bumblebee buzzed in complete awe, scanning the area with great interest.

"What are you guys seeing down there?" Massacre questioned through the comms.

"It would seem that this is the abandoned missile silo I read about in the reports." Prime deduced. "Abandoned by humans for many stellar cycles."

"Meaning we won't have any prying optics looking for us here." Prowl added.

"If we're going to be stuck here for a while, and from the looks of the ship, we will be, having somewhere we can shut down for a stasis nap would be beneficial." Massacre commented.

Bumblebee let out a series of beeps, pointing towards the large hangar bay not far from the entrance.

"Good eye, Bee." Bulkhead complimented. "Once we get the ship out of the mountain, we can store it here so we don't draw attention to ourselves."

"It may take some time to get this place functional again, but I think I can rig us up something that we can make do with." Ratchet reported.

"Then I suggest we all get to work." Prime declared.

...

Later that night, Fanzone was still wrestling with his computer, trying desperately to get it to work. By this time, he was getting completely fed up to the point that he was just banging his head on his desk.

"This. Is why. I hate. Machines." He let out, punctuating each statement with a blow to the desk.

"Sergeant Fanzone." a voice called out.

Fanzone looked up and saw a portly, African American man in a black suit flashing him a Department of Homeland Security badge. Fanzone shot up in his seat, visibly sweating as the man placed his badge back in his pocket.

"My name is Special Agent William Fowler." The man introduced. "I'd like to talk to you about how the hell you managed to hack into the NDMC military supercomputer in a matter of minutes."

Fanzone just blinked before responding.

"What in the Sam hill are you talking about?!" Fanzone replied. "My computer has been buggy all day!"

"Sergeant, do you honestly think I'm going to buy that pile of B.S?" Fowler questioned.

"See for yourself." Fanzone responded, turning the monitor around and showing the blue screen to him. "Can't get the darned thing to work."

Fowler looked at it, then gestured to two of his men.

"Take the computer to the lab." he ordered. "We'll see what we can learn what caused this, and if the good sergeant is telling the truth."

"Why in blue blazes would I lie?" Fanzone questioned. "I've been up to my eyeballs in work, first from the earthquake, then that crazy girl who disappeared, and then my damn computer fritzed out."

Fowler perked up as Fanzone rattled off the things that happened to him that day, with a certain item catching his ear.

"What crazy girl?" He asked.