Julie woke up and found that it was just barely past dawn, based on the lighting that was coming into the room. She saw that Prowl was in his alt form and fast asleep in the room below her. She flew out of the room, not bothering to wake Prowl up and found herself in the main room where Optimus was standing clearly annoyed. Bumblebee and Bulkhead both walked in seconds after her.
"Feeling refreshed after a midnight swim?" Optimus suddenly asked.
"It wasn't my fault, I swear." Bumblebee cried.
"This isn't about assigning blame, Bumblebee. It's about using your head instead of your thrusters. That's what I want you to work on with Prowl and Bulkhead today."
"But I had plans with Bumblebee." Sari exclaimed, startling Julie as she spun around suddenly to find both her and Ratchet now entering the room. Remember that prototype I told you my dad was building?" She asked as she pushed a button on a remote and the garage door opened.
"Turbo boosters, sweet." Bumblebee exclaimed as he went and looked at the tech up close. "I will never be able to keep up with this world, it is so far more advanced compared to my past one." Julie mumbled next to Ratchet as she was hovering in the air by him.
"You're not actually thinking of hooking these things up to yourself, are you?" Optimus asked.
"I don't even think I can fly that fast, or go fast." Julie replied. "If he were to get hurt, I wouldn't be able to keep up."
"Not even with your powers?" Sari asked.
"Maybe I could transform into something fast, but otherwise no. Speed isn't one of my strengths."
"Of course not, I was gonna ask the doc bot to do it for me." Bumblebee replied.
"Have you got your processor up your exhaust port? These things are untested, incompatible..." Ratchet started to list off.
"And totally wicked fast." Sari finished.
"How fast you think I can go with them? Two hundred? Five hundred?" Bumblebee asked as he held the boosters behind his back. Ratchet turned on his magnetic beams and took them from Bumblebee, before catching them in his own servos.
"Kid, I just got done through pounding dents out of you, I won't let you put in more." Ratchet cried as Bumblebee turned and looked at Ratchet, clearly upset.
"What? My dad's equipment is perfectly safe." Sari cried.
"Probably after he has made sure bugs are out of the equipment." Julie replied. "I am sure you test the water before you jump in head on."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Sari asked. "What does this have to do with water?"
"Well, when you go swimming are you gonna jump into an ice cold pool willingly? Most people usually make sure the water is warm enough before you get into the pool." Julie explained. "Perhaps Ratchet or your father, or even I would be willing to help you with testing them out first, before you install them onto Bumblebee right away."
"Fine." Sari and Bumblebee both replied, clearly both resentful of the idea. "For now I want Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Prowl to work together and focus on blending in around the humans." Optimus ordered.
"Understood." Bumblebee replied.
"I would join them, but I think I would rather just hang here with Ratchet and maybe even work on strengthening some of my powers." Julie commented before she flew off down a random hallway. Thinking about all the powers she has discovered herself to have. She had definitely been growing used to the powers of Amalgamous Prime, who she remembered to be the one in charge of transformation. Which in a way led to the power of Prima, where she could turn into a literal warrior of light. She had even picked up the Star Saber back in her world and had even touched the forge of Solus Prime. She hadn't done a lot of crafting or creating powers, but she had fixed the servo of Ultra Magnus. She started to gain senses of both material and spiritual stuff, like how she sensed the evil spirit in Megatron from her home. Thought that one seemed to only work at random times, not exactly able to be controlled.
She was once able to divide herself into several clones of herself once, but as she was told, Nexus said not to use it unless under severe emergencies, as well as the fact she had yet to use the power from Micronus who said she could help magnify and strengthen her teammates. In fact, quite a few of her powers she was limited to use, as far as seeing the future or past, that only happened and came on their own when it seemed in the moment that she needed them. As well as when it came to sensing the afterlife or seeing people's souls. Otherwise she would have used it always to tell if someone was going to hurt her or if they were lying to her. She still had yet to master Vector Prime's powers of space and time. Then again, what if that was her having traveled from her home world to this one? She hadn't even once created life either, it felt wrong to anyways, even though she was supposed to have the power of Quintus Prime.
What the heck did Primus mean by training? When she couldn't even really control half of her powers as it was. Unless it meant that she was about to receive more. "Ratchet, it's no use." Julie cried as she went to where he was in the main room.
"What are you talking about?" Ratchet asked, looking up at her.
"My powers, over half of them basically have a will of their own. They only work when the moment calls for them. I can't even fight, the best I can do is simply transform at will. You heard him when he visited me. He wants me to train, but I don't see how I am to do that when I can barely even do anything."
"Perhaps..." Ratchet started to reply before three bots came walking in clearly unhappy.
"Bumblebee, you could have gotten people injured from your accident." Prowl cried.
"What accident?" Julie asked, "Why do you guys look so...."
"Worn out." Sari replied.
"Nanosec, that's what." Bumblebee replied. "If only I was faster. Come on, Sari."
"I think I should go watch those two before someone gets hurt." Julie told Ratchet, before flying after them.
Sari sat there with a timer while Bumblebee was sitting there driving circles around the asphalt. Julie was truly surprised that he hadn't worn down tracks into the ground while he was at it. Bumblebee stopped, obviously panting from how much he was wearing himself out. It was truly stupid, yet Julie didn't know of any good advice to give him and at the same time keep him with a positive outlook.
"How'd I do?" Bumblebee asked, while out of breath. "Same as last time?"
"Same as the last 20 times." Sari replied, while shaking her head disappointedly. Clearly getting bored of watching him do circles.
"Let's clock it in one more time, I gotta beat my record." Bumblebee cried as Ratchet came approaching them.
"Give it a rest, kid. You're wasting energon. Come on, Julie, there are better things you can be doing." Ratchet cried. Julie looked at the two before sighing and flying after Ratchet back into the base. She decided to rest in her newly installed hammock in the main room, as she laid up there above the rest of them. Ratchet was nice enough to help her get it installed, when she put metal ends onto them, which he aided her in having tied up between two beams, even though he insisted for her to be careful.
"If you fall from up there, it comes down, ya hear?" Ratchet cried.
"I won't fall. I swear." Julie replied, "Unless I get ill or distracted by Primus again." She muttered, remembering how she fell back in her old home world. She was starting to miss the old team, especially since Bumblebee was a lot more mature than this one, he was being so childish as he begged Ratchet to give him the turbo boosters.
"You don't understand, Doc bot. If I was just a little faster, I would have caught him. So how about giving me that turbo booster upgrade now, huh Doc?" Bumblebee cried with the boosters in his servos. "What do ya say?"
"Not even if Megatron himself forced me at blaster point." Ratchet cried, just as Optimus came running in.
"Nanosec just robbed a research lab, he was spotted heading East on I-94. Let's put the brakes on this speeder before he or anyone else causes any more damage." Optimus cried. "Julie, you're with us. Autobots, transform and roll out."
Julie flew down just as they were transforming, leaving the upset Bumblebee behind. "You know, sometimes speed isn't always the answer. There is more than one way to be fast, and it isn't always speed, but other times you can be fast by your wits. Just think about it." She told him as she flew after the others. As everyone spread out, she went with Optimus and shifted invis as he poured some sort of oil onto the road. Unknowingly, Nanosec slid right onto the trap and she watched as he fell, dropping the item that she quickly flew over and picked up, before shifting into view.
"What is this stuff? Are you nuts?" Nanosec cried as Optimus sprayed more oil onto the road and onto him. Optimus transformed and stood over him, as she hovered next to him.
"Negative friction lubricant, and technically I'm nuts, bolts, and armor plating with a few added features." Optimus replied as he launched a grapple hook at him. Tying him up in the process. As Optimus pulled him out of the lubricant, he instantly got onto his feet and started to spin circles around Optimus, tangling him up in his own hook.
"I got a few features of my own." Nanosec replied, before Optimus cut the rope off. "Now give me back my package. I got a payday I am not about to miss." He replied as he wiped Optimus, before he wiped Julie right afterwards, causing her to fall out of the air from it hitting her wing. She landed on the road, dropping the package, before he walked up to her, about to take it. She quickly jumped over the package and hugged it against her chest, due to her now injured wing. Her wing had a nice long scare and a hole from her landing roughly and from the rope.
"Autobots, I need backup." Optimus cried into his comlink as she got onto her feet, with him wrestling her. Trying hard to pry the package out of her fingers. Optimus quickly got in the way, blocking her from Nanosec as she tried to get away with the package. If she could draw it away from him, then it will make him more angry and hopefully less focused on his surroundings. Optimus had just got tangled up by the rope around his feet, before she shifted into a cheetah, hoping it would be fast enough as she picked up the can in her mouth and took off running. Hoping to find more water after using the last of the stuff she had on hand from both healing her wing and transforming. She didn't take off running just yet, hoping she could help Optimus.
"I could do this all day, but I got a schedule to keep." Nanosec remarked as he continued to mess with the rope that was tied around Optimus's pedes. She was just about to take off running down the road, before Optimus suddenly sliced up all the rope into smaller pieces, grinning angrily at Nanosec. Just as Nanosec was about to turn and run, Optimus quickly grabbed him by the back of the black and orange fancy suit and
"You seem to have a problem with taking things that don't belong to you. Care to tell me where you got the suit?" Optimus asked, just as Julie saw Bumblebee coming flying right at them. "Bumblebee, no!" Optimus cried as Julie hopped onto the other lane and took off running as fast as she could. She hopped over the rail before running down the road with the now free Nanosec trying to catch her. "Give me back my package." Nanosec cried as he chased after her. She tried to dodge between different cars and vehicles in the process, to slow him down as he was merely chasing head on. She ran at full speed past Ratchet, as he tried to catch up to her, before being pulled back by Ratchet's magnetic lasers. "Too bad those wheels are attached to metal." He cried. "Julie, you can shift back now. I got him." She shook her head, with the package in her mouth, due to not having any water nearby. She rolled the package over to Bulkhead who stopped it with his foot.
"Well, well, well. What do we got here?" Bulkhead asked.
"Don't touch it. The fact Julie was running with it is bad enough." Ratchet hissed, "That's unstable destronium. Moving it at high speeds makes it incredibly volatile. If it were to detonate, it could wipe out half of Detroit."
"Didn't you used to be a redhead?" Bulkhead asked, as he examined Nanosec. Julie sat there looking up at them in her animal form, just as Bumblebee came speeding toward them. Dodging him, Ratchet ended up dropping Nanosec as Bee passed them, before Nanosec got up onto his feet. "That's two I owe ya, lemonhead." Nanosec cried, before Julie saw him taking off. She was about to run after him, before she found Bumblebee was running around them at such high speeds she couldn't get out of the circle he was running around them. Not without getting herself injured. A growl was released from her as she watched Bumblebee.
"Ok, I admit it. The turbo boosters were a bad idea. I can't stop my vehicle mode." Bumblebee cried.
"So, why don't you try robot mode?" Ratchet cried, clearly irritated. Bumblebee instantly transformed and was skidding against the ground as he was forcing himself to stop. "Why didn't we think of that?" Sari cried.
"Ratchet, I suggest you disable those boosters now!" Optimus cried as he was clearly furious about the situation. Her tail swished, revealing herself to be just as irritated. She growled in agreement, getting Sari's attention.
"No time, we need to stop Nanosec, now, before he blows us all the way back to Cybertron."
"Right, transform and roll out." Optimus cried. Before he approached Bumblebee, "In your original vehicle mode." He growled, as they all shifted back, unlike herself. She hopped onto the back of Optimus's truck form, not willing to exhaust herself just yet if they needed her to still chase after Nanosec. They rode down the highway, Sari inside of Optimus's cabin.
"Listen up, we need to approach with extreme caution. He's carrying unstable destronium." Ratchet cried as they drove.
"Destronium? Why would a small-time crook want to steal destronium?" Optimus asked. Julie growled, furious she had not yet told them that she relied on water to help her usually transform. Otherwise she would have gone ahead and answered that question.
"You think that is what turned his hair white?" Bulkhead asked.
"White hair in organisms is usually a function of age." Prowl replied.
"Age. That's it!" Bumblebee cried before he turned on the boosters again and took off at full speed, leaving them behind. She growled in response.
"Bumblebee, what are you doing?" Optimus cried.
"Using my head, and my thrusters." Bumblebee replied. Stomping her front leg, clearly upset, she growled as they drove after them. "We will figure something out, Julie. Don't worry." Ratchet spoke as he saw her while they were driving. "I don't know why you haven't just shifted back by now."
"She used water from a bottle she had when she shifted." Optimus replied, "Is that why you haven't transformed, you needed water in order to?"
Julie was downright surprised that he knew, but she sighed as she simply laid down on the back of his truck, where normally people would hitch something up onto him. Then again, this was Optimus she was talking about. They pulled up to a park where Bumblebee was in his bot mode, standing over Nanosec. She saw a nearby fountain and quickly ran through, shifting back into herself before joining them as they all shifted and saw Nanosec collapsed on the ground.
"That suit, it didn't just make him look older, it made him turn older. The more he used it, the faster his body aged, until he finally ran out of time." Bumblebee replied.
"That stuffs about to blow and take us all with it in about 30 nanoclicks." Ratchet cried as he examined the destronium. "I can get rid of it, if you guys trust me." Julie replied.
"I can move it someplace safe, fast." Bumblebee cried at the same time.
"At this point, the only safe place will be the upper atmosphere." Ratchet cried.
"Bumblebee, your turbo mode is fast, but it can't fly." Optimus replied.
"But I can." Julie cried as she took the can from them and shifted into her old phoenix form that she forgot long ago about. She held it in her beak as she quickly took off flying into the air at full speed, leaving several feathers behind as she flew as fast as she could out of the atmosphere and threw the can, before it exploded, hitting her in the process and sending her falling back down into Earth's atmosphere.
Optimus watched as they saw Julie, or in other words, some big bird coming crashing toward them.
"She got hit." Sari cried as they saw her falling toward them.
"I can't help, she isn't made of metal." Ratchet cried as he watched.
"No, but perhaps I can." Optimus cried as he sent his hose spraying water at full speed, trying to slow her down or get her to wake up in the process. As he did she seemed to start flapping her wings once again, before she slowly landed in front of them, collapsing with her wings spread out on the ground. She shifted back into her normal self in front of them, as she laid with her back up.
"Julie, are you alright?" Ratchet cried, as they all ran toward her. She wasn't even moving an inch. She didn't reply as they could hear her catching her breath, while laying there in the process. Optimus crouched down and was about to touch her, before they heard her speak up. "Bee, the next time I give you some sort of advice, I want you to use it. Hopefully you have learned your lesson, speed isn't strength."
"I said that earlier." Prowl cried. "When we were trying to catch Nanosec previously."
"That doesn't matter, what is important is that we are all in one piece." Optimus replied. "She is right though, Bumblebee."
"Yeah, I know." Bumblebee cried as Julie was slowly shifting and trying to get up onto her feet, but failed as her feet shook and sent her falling to her hands and knees. "I am sorry I didn't listen. I should have taken your advice with getting them tested out first, before I went full blast, as far as using them."
The police showed up and took Nanosec away, as Prowl used his hologram and helped him up and into the police car.
"Julie, are you okay?" Sari asked as she sat in Optimus's servo.
"I will be fine, after some time. I need water and sleep. That explosion hit me hard, and I think there were some fragments of iron in that canister. It took my strength hard." Julie replied as she sat there collapsed on the ground, sitting there on her knees.
"Looks like you found a good use for those turbo boosters after all." Ratchet spoke, turning to Bumblebee.
"Looks like you got a few new dents to pound out of me after all." Bumblebee commented as Optimus set Sari down to help Julie. She had her arm wrapped over the little girl, who was trying her best to help her up onto her feet, but she wasn't doing well on her own.
"Nice work Autobots. Now, let's transform and roll on home." Optimus spoke up, before transforming into his alt mode. He watched as Julie struggled to her two feet and walked over to his cabin, with the aid of Sari trying to give her a hand. She made it a few steps, before Ratchet quickly picked her up in his servos. "No, you're riding with me. I need to look you over and you need some rest if you're gonna recover from today." He replied before the old bot transformed around Julie.
"Race you back to the plant?" Prowl asked.
"If it's all the same to you, I think I'll walk." Bumblebee replied as he stood there next to Sari.