Ever since the war ended, Knockout proclaimed that he had decided to join the winning team, and he had done just that. He had become one of the heads of the Science and Medical Division of the council, and he had been working closely with Magnus and the council ever since. When the humans came by he was most likely in his lab, thus, it came as a complete and total shock when the members of Team Prime returned to see both Magnus and Knockout turned into younglings as they were.

"What? Knockout too?" Bumblebee exclaimed.

Knockout stomped over to the other younglings.

"Wait, is that you guys?" He asked.

Bumblebee nodded.

Knockout sprung forward, took hold of Bumblebee's shoulder and began shaking him wildly.

"WHAT THE FRAG IS GOING ON?" Knockout demanded.

"Woah woah Knockout stop!" Raf screamed as he clung to Bumblebee for dear life.

Bumblebee pried Knockout's servos off of his shoulders and pushed him back.

"You all are gonna have to listen." Bumblebee said.

Jetfire turned to face the now younglings, and then he noticed one more unfamiliar youngling among the bunch.

"Oh, who is this?" He asked.

"Huh, oh aha, this is well...Shockwave." Elita answered.

The rest of the council spun around at the sound of the Decepticon scientist's name. They looked at the violet youngling incredulously.

"Wha'-Shockwave?" Prowl exclaimed.

Shockwave looked up at them and nodded.

"Greetings." He spoke.

It looked as though Red Alert was about to throw himself at the youngling, but Jetfire stepped forward in between the other Autobots and the Decepticon youngling.

"What are you doing here? You do realize that we have to take you into custody now don't you? And where are the Predacons?" Jetfire told him.

Shockwave held up the test tubes around his waist.

"Here they are." He answered calmly. "And you will find that you cannot put me in custody."

"And why would that be?" Red Alert demanded.

"Because we need him." Chromia answered. "Quite the unfortunate circumstances we're in I have to say."

"What circumstances? Will someone explain this already? Please?" Knockout cried.

"Well, we went to investigate the missing youngling and the sparkling sighting like Magnus told us too, then we were met by Predaking and Shockwave. Shockwave took us down to his lab where he was doin'...I dunno, stuff reminiscent of Frankenstein or something." Smokescreen began.

"Huh? Who?" Prowl stammered.

Smokescreen waved him off.

"Human thing. Never mind that." He replied.

"Look, the point is stuff happened down there and we need Shockwave in order to return to our former selves." Arcee finished. "It would also seem like we're also gonna need Ultra Magnus and Knockout to come with."

"Why? What happened there? You aren't explaining anything." Prowl pressed on.

"Well-" Arcee began before the box in Chromia's servos began shaking violently until the Trickster burst out of it, shocking absolutely everyone in the room.

"HEEEELLLLLOOOOOO new council of Cybertron!" The Trickster exclaimed ecstatically.

"I am the Trickster! Hello hello hello hello..." He walked forward and shook every councilman's servo. "I put a curse on these fine beings here so that they would revert to their youngling forms and to return them to normal they must go on an adventure of epic proportions to turn themselves back! Cut them some slack please and give the kids a ship dammit!"

The members of the council stared, dumbfounded, at the mad deity standing before them.

"Who are you?" Prowl asked bluntly.

The Trickster slumped forward in disappointment and covered his optics with his servos.

"Yet another person who doesn't know me. I feel forgotten." He moaned.

"That's because you are forgotten ya relic." Wheeljack retorted.

"SHUT UP!" The Trickster shouted.

Elita pushed both mechs away from each other and stepped forward towards the council.

"I'm sorry about that. If you didn't catch onto the Trickster's ramblings, here's pretty much what happened." She spoke. Elita explained what had happened since Magnus sent them off to find Hot Rod and the youngling.

"So let me get this straight." Ultra Magnus began to speak as it would seem that he began to collect himself from his earlier shock. Due to his short stature, he saw it fit to stand up on the chair he was sitting on. It didn't make an immense difference, but the disciplined air of the firm Autobot commander had returned to him in this small body as he folded his arms and looked out thoughtfully.

"You turned Team Prime, including me, Knockout, and Shockwave into younglings and now you want us to go off on an...adventure to return us to our adult frames?" Ultra Magnus spoke to the Trickster.

"Yep. Pretty much." He confirmed.

"Why would you do such a thing?" Mirage asked.

"'Cause I was bored." The Trickster answered simply.

"And you say that they cannot return to their adult frames unless all adult-turned younglings go along on this endeavour." Prowl continued.

"Adventure." The Trickster pressed. "And yes."

"Just how many of these, ingredients are there Trickster?" Jetfire asked.

The Trickster thought for a moment. Then shrugged, earning a violent attack from Wheeljack and Bulkhead.

"Whaddaya mean you don't know?" Bulkhead demanded as his youngling comrades pulled him and Wheeljack off of the Trickster.

"It's like I said before. I'll add more as you guys go along." He said.

Bulkhead growled.

The Trickster stood back up and smirked.

"There's no use gettin' all angry like that y'know. There isn't anything any of you can do about it so you might as well go along with this. That is of course, unless you wanna grow up all over again." He said.

Team Prime all scowled at him before he chuckled and disappeared within his box.

Arcee turned to the council.

"We need a ship." She said.

Ultra Magnus put his servo to his chin.

"Yes it would seem so." He agreed.

"Sir! Are you really just going to agree to this madman's terms?" Red Alert exclaimed.

"It's not like any of us have any choice Red Alert!" Magnus replied. "Based on Team Prime's accounts the Trickster's power seems very real and from what I just saw now, he is not lying when he says that he's willing to leave us like this. None of us can afford to grow up all over again, especially with Cybertron beginning to be rebuilt. Who will trust a council who has a child-no matter whether or not he has the mind of an adult-to lead their people?"

The rest of the council began to nod and mutter their agreement with Magnus's words.

"Now. We are going to require a ship for this endeavour." He spoke.

"Adventure." Elita corrected him. "It's an adventure. The Trickster modelled this entire scenario after an adventure that happened before."

"Oh? And who's 'adventure' would that be?" Mirage wondered.

Chromia stepped forward and put her servo on her friend's shoulder.

"Ours."

So, I finished watching what I believe is the season finale to RID 2015, and to that show, I say: May continuity be DAMNED!...ahem. I mean, I liked it. ._.

So yeah. Expect another Before chapter (because I wanna finish that before I finish this) sometime soon hopefully.

May I also ask...does anyone like the Trickster so far? I dunno, I was just wondering. I realized I was feeling some serious Mako Mankanshoku vibes going on while I was writing him this chapter.

Let me know what you think! Comment and review!