My Life as a Teenage Beast Hunter

Chapter 1: Friends in Need

Smoke continued to rise from the Outpost Omega One's smoldering remains, not that it mattered to those scanning the wreckage. Megatron, Starscream, and a Vehicon squad searched for any trace of where the Autobots disappeared to in addition to any useful munitions or materiel.

"I found something!" A Vehicon drone reported. He presented his lord and master with a mighty golden hammer.

"Ah the forge of Solus Prime." Megatron observed.

Sometime later, Starscream stumbled upon the Star Saber and not too far off…

"Hold on…" Starscream pondered. The seeker spotted a hand peering out of the desert soil. "Lord Megatron, I believe I've discovered an Autobot!" he exclaimed.

"So not all of them escaped." Megatron deduced. "Can you make out which one it is?"

"No master. Not with so much of it buried." The Seeker replied.

"Shockwave," Megatron called over his comm link. "Send an excavation team to my coordinates immediately."

"On their way now my liege."

A mining drill and ten more Vehicons arrived to assist the scavenging operations. After about half an hour the combined Decepticon team managed to pull their query from the rubble.

Megatron raised his eyebrows in equal parts surprise and amusement.

"Well, look at this. Prime elected to stay behind and defend the base while his comrades fled."

Knockout produced his data pad and conducted a scan of the motionless Autobot leader. Energon slowly leaked from deep gashes all over Prime's body while his limbs lay battered and broken.

"I'm not sure how, but Optimus still functions, albeit barely." Knockout reported after he completed the scan. "He requires immediate medical attention if he is to survive."

Megatron thought for a moment. "Knockout, Starscream; take Optimus into Darkmount and connect him to life support. Once finished, interrogate him to discern where the rest of the Autobots fled to."

Starscream bowed in acknowledgement. "Yes Lord Megatron."

The Seeker joined Knockout in the Nemesis' sickbay where Optimus now resided. Energon cuffs secured the Autobot leader by the wrists and ankles to an operating table while several tubes delivered just enough Energon to keep him online. Next to the operating table lay an assortment of tools with Starscream eagerly wanted to use on the battered Prime. He turned to Knockout and asked "How shall we proceed?"

"He's not likely to consciously betray his comrades." Knockout began. "So I suggest a less crude method like the Cortical Psychic Patch."

Though Starscream agreed with Knockout's assumption, one could clearly see the disappointment on his face. "Very well." He sighed. Knockout volunteered himself to peer inside Optimus Prime's head. Alas, after an hour, he had bad news.

"I was unable to find anything useful." The medic reported. Starscream started off toward the door. "I'll inform Lord Megatron." He replied.

The Nemesis and the Harbinger held their positions at roughly 2,000 feet in a defensive posture near Darkmount; the recently constructed Decepticon citadel. The cybersteel fortress stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the relatively flat Nevada desert and managed to combine technology and biology by resembling a demonic pine tree of blackness. Upon Darkmount's "peak" resided Megatron's throne: an oversized cybersteel chair befitting the Decepticon leader's ego.

From his perch Megatron gazed at the world below him with equal parts scorn and contempt for the native occupants. Humans. He mentally spat. I'll never understand why Optimus held these insects so dear. Speaking of which…

Megatron hit a few keys on his throne. "Starscream, report."

"Unfortunate news Lord Megatron," Starscream reported over his comm link. "Knockout and I thoroughly interrogated Optimus Prime, but we were unable to obtain any leads on his friends' whereabouts."

Megatron scowled. "Disappointing. Starscream, keep Prime in his current position and continue to monitor this airspace. Knockout, help Soundwave reconfigure the sensor array. That is all."

Megatron began to contemplate his next move when Shockwave stepped through Darkmount's Space Bridge.

"Greetings Shockwave." Megatron greeted.

"I have developed a solution to our problem my liege." Shockwave assured.

All of a sudden, a giant black arm with a claw on one end burst through the Space Bridge vortex. Then another. A giant spike adorned reptilian head appeared next.

"Lord Megatron, I present to you the ultimate Autobot Hunter."

The sight of the great Predacon beast took Megatron aback, an expression of genuine worry on his face.

"So this is what you've been working on." The Decepticon leader realized…

Washington State…

"I don't think he's coming Bulk." Miko feared. She and Bulkhead found a place to rest and wait for Wheeljack just outside Mount St. Helens National Park. "Don't worry Miko." Bulkhead comforted. "If I know Jackie, he always likes to show up at the last minute for a big entrance."

Miko lowered her head in dismay. "Come on Miko, I served with Wheeljack remember? He's come out of worse than what happened in Jasper." The Wrecker reminded.

"I guess." Miko conceded.

Bulkhead met Miko's gaze "Look Miko, I know this is difficult for you, but the last thing Optimus would want is for us to lose hope."

That seemed to cheer her up a bit. "Yeah. You're right Bulk. Moping around isn't going to help anything. Come on. If Jackie can't meet up with us, we'll just have to meet up with Jackie."

"That's the idea Miko!" Bulkhead beamed.

Maine…

A custom Urbana 500 sports car made its way across Maine's east coast toward a ferry boat dock. The car had a black body with yellow stripes across the top and sides. Little did the humans in this state know, the car was actually an alien robot known as Bumblebee. "Where are we going Bumblebee?" Rafael wondered. The Autobot scout bleeped a reply. "Griffon Rock?" Raf said. "Why there?" Again Bumblebee replied with his characteristic squeaky warbling. "What people? Who?" Raf wondered with increasing fervor as Bumblebee rounded a corner. The scout gave a cheeky string of beeps. "Oh. Yeah I suppose it would be better to see for myself." Bumblebee eventually reached the ferry and boarded.

Kansas…

Arcee and Jack had been traveling on the highway for quite some time since they left Jasper through the Ground Bridge. Jack had already grown bored of the vast expanse of wheat and couldn't take his mind off of Optimus and the others.

"Hey Jack, I'm gonna pull over. I need to stretch my servos." Arcee suddenly announced. "Okay, sure." Jack agreed.

Arcee found an abandoned farm house to park up next to. Jack hopped off before Arcee shifted into her bipedal form in what seemed like forever. "Ahhhh." She exhaled as she began stretching her limbs. The femme noticed Jack looking into the sunset.

"You okay partner?" she asked. Jack turned to face her. "What are we gonna do Arcee?" The cyber ninja knelt down to meet his gaze. "Survive. Meet with the others if we can. Then we take the fight to Megatron."

"But right now we're scattered to the winds." Jack argued. Then, a thought occurred to him. "Aren't there any other Autobots out there who can help us?"

Arcee lowered her head. "There were a lot of Autobots on the Ark… but like us… they were scattered to the winds…"

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"You hungry?" Arcee asked. "Yeah." Jack replied. Arcee shifted back into motorcycle form and the two made for the nearest fast food joint.

Terrax System

Helmsbot's log supplemental: Star date 310395.29. We've managed to chase off a group of Star Seekers and have harvested more Energon than we've ever seen. We will depart shortly for a system on the edge of the Orion Spiral Arm as that is the endpoint of a massive energy beam that originated from Cybertron. The Commander seems very concerned by this, but I don't know why. End entry.

The construction surveyor turned reconnaissance flyer stirred in his seat awaiting takeoff. Come on. He thought. What's taking them so long? He received word from his commanding officer that they would leave Terrax within the hour. That hour had nearly passed and the crew of the Enduring Spirit still found themselves spinning their wheels. (Literally in a few cases.)

But sure enough, three wheeled vehicles approached the shuttle before shifting into their robot modes. "Crosswind, is everything ready?" the commanding officer asked.

"All systems go and everyone else is aboard Commander." Crosswind replied. He could hear his commander chuckle as she boarded.

"You know you can just call me Elita." Elita One reminded for the umpteenth time. She and her two most trusted lieutenants, Fire Star and Moon Racer, had been leading this particular group of Autobots on a recon mission of the Sirius star system. They had been mining the third planet Terrax for its bounty of Energon when one day, Elita decided to leave the system after she picked up a massive energy signal from Cybertron.

"Everyone strapped in back there?" Crosswind asked. "We're ready when you are kiddo." Ironhide answered in his gruff voice. He sat in the shuttle's troop compartment along with Jazz, Hound, Prowl, Sideswipe and the Aerialbots.

Crosswind eased the throttles forward and lifted off from Terax's surface. Within ten minutes he established a stable orbit around the planet. "Transwarp coordinates locked in Commander." He reported.

"Engage." The femme replied.

Crosswind activated the Transwarp drive. The shuttle disappeared in a brilliant flash, bound for a blue green world orbiting a yellow sun…

Meanwhile near an asteroid in deep space…

Cyclonus waited patiently for Scourge's report to come in. "I confirm that energy spike Cyclonus. The coordinates place its origin at Cybertron and its destination at a small planet on the edge of this spiral arm."

The former deserter hunter smiled. "Very good Scourge. Assemble the rest of our force and prepare to depart." He ordered.

"Yes sir." Scourge replied. The tracker dialed another frequency. "Motormaster, this is Scourge."

"Motormaster here," a deep Brooklyn sounding voice answered. "Whadya want?"

"Get your team to the ship. We're leaving soon." Scourge answered.

"'Bout time we got off this rock!" Motormaster exclaimed. "Hey Dragstrip, Dead End, Wildrider, Off Road, Blackjack get your sorry chassis to the ship!"

The Stunticons rushed into the strike shuttle without delay.

A/N: Oh yes. It's back. S**t's about to go down son. Seriously though, longtime Transformers fans will know what's coming. I'll update this as often as I can but consider me back in business after nearly 3 years. And don't worry, I'll get to Jenny's side of things next time. On a side note, Crosswind is an OC and picture him having Johnny Yong Bosch's voice. I'd want Elita to be voiced by Estelle. Moonracer has Ashleigh Ball's voice. Fire Star has Grey Delisle's voice. I'll get to the others in future chapters. Until next time, thanks for reading.