#TFAMA

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 25: Study Session

“Just what the slag are you doing?”

Highdrive nearly yelped out of his seat when Ratchet’s growling voice snapped behind him. He was only too relieved that he hadn’t sprung a leak from the fright alone.

Setting his equipment down, for safety reasons, Highdrive turned to face his mentor. “Practicing.”

The old bot arched his optic ridge as he made his way over to Highdrive’s side to get a better look at the programming chips Highdrive had chosen to occupy himself with. One would think being on a brand new, practically undiscovered, planet would leave plenty for a bot to do, but that wasn’t necessarily the case. At least not from his point of view.

He had already gone on plenty of drives with Sari, Tyla, Bulkhead and Bumblebee. There wasn’t any street left in Detroit that he didn’t know more or less by spark by now.

Ratchet hummed to himself as he slipped on a medical monocle, pressing the side to let the zoom function take its course to scan over the chip’s more finer details. “What’s the idea with it?”

For a moment Highdrive stayed quiet as what the older medic bot asked sunk in. For once he wasn’t being lectured by the older bot about what he was doing wrong. He almost asked Ratchet if he was sure he hadn’t maybe hit his helm against something without being aware of it.

“Just a basic router. I thought that if I could get the computer’s systems to work faster, then maybe we’d be able to respond to emergencies as soon as they’re called in.”

As Autobots, the group had taken to assisting human emergency service workers whenever the opportunity presented itself, depending on whether their equipment picked up on the transmission in time. Most crime and incidents tended to happen whenever one of them were in town.

“Then you’re going to have to make a couple of adjustments,” Ratchet said as he reached out towards a nearby tool, took it and started welding a couple of connectors to the chip as he showed Highdrive what to do. Granted the whole idea behind it had been for Highdrive to learn on his own, but then again, what better advice was there than from a teacher?

Sitting back, Highdrive watched Ratchet’s movements closely, committing nearly every movement and action to his memory banks. Who knew when they might come in handy.

Transformers Animated, Ratchet, Sari Sumdac, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Autobots © Hasbro Morning After, Highdrive and Tyla Brooks © Fang Wolfsbane

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[disneyworldgram]

Holding out a hand for tinker bell. by tfama from this spot in Disney World on May 14, 2016 at 10:16AM

[teach2inspireinspire2teach-blog]

@smariebrown working with my students on Machine Learning! Graphing data to find patterns while raising the bar of expectation for special Ed students #collegebound #highexpectations #changinglifetrajectories #tfa #tfaMA #lifeofateacher (at Lawrence High School)

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 24: Set In Motion

Title: Miss

Name: Tyla

Middle Name: None

Last Name: Brooks

Age: 21

Sex: Female

Eye Colour: L: Yellow R: Yellow

Hair Colour: Blonde

Height: 5ft8

Race: Caucasian

Blood Type: AB Negative

Organ Donor: Yes

Looking over the information he had managed to gather about the human female that he had lured all the way into Sumdac’s private work room, Megatron’s semi-covered optic scanned over the documented pages that were open on the screen closest to him.

Luckily the human scientist had been foolish enough to ensure that he had easy access to all forms of information gathering, including spying on the ignorant man’s fellow human beings. He would have laughed at the irony of it if he wasn’t forced to attempt such research from such a deplorable state.

Perhaps it would have been easier to convince the girl to tell him more about herself. She had seemed eager enough to try and learn more about him and what he was. Luckily for him, just like the professor, she had believed him to be some weak-willed Autobot down on his luck. He would have felt insulted if the lie didn’t work so well in his favor.

At first glance the girl didn’t seem nearly as interesting as he originally thought, but one thing being a warlord for decacycles had taught him was to always knowing an opponent before striking them. A lesson he had paid too dear a price to learn.

Not that he considered a human female to be even close to being a potential threat whatsoever, but one could never be too careful around both friend and foe. Another lesson he had learned quite the hard way, multiple times.

Thinking back on the last time he had been betrayed, Megatron felt a flare of anger rush through his wiring. That fragger Starscream had the gall to touch him on the back as if they were brothers-in-arms before he sent him off to his doom. The moment he got the chance, he would claim his revenge against the seeker and make sure he paid handsomely for his betrayal.

He, Lord Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, would see to that, even if it cost him his spark in the process. How he would do that however, was still frustratingly unclear.

Imagining his lips pulling into the frown he wished he could express, Megatron glared at the screen. He still had no idea what he planned to use for the girl, or why he had even bothered luring her to him in the first place, but that didn’t mean she was useless. Oh no, she was far from it.

All that remained was that he needed to figure out just exactly how  he was going to make use of her. One way or another, he would succeed in getting what he wanted, even if it cost her human life in the process.

Transformers Animated, Isaac Sumdac, Megatron, Autobots, Starscream and Decepticons © Hasbro Morning After and Tyla Brooks © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 12: Home, Sweet Home

“This place is perfect!” Bumblebee exclaimed the moment they entered the warehouse that Sari had suggested.

The little girl stood with her hands on her hips and a proud grin on her lips, obviously proud of herself. Tyla had to hand it to her, she certainly had the perfect place in mind like she had claimed an hour ago.

“Told you. It’s an old warehouse that even my dad doesn’t know about and he owns the place. I figured since it wasn’t being used, that you might get some use out of it. After all, you need a base and it’s a pretty cosy place to hang out at too.”

“Must be nice being rich. I couldn’t even afford a cube of this place considering my rent already,” Tyla said, making her way up to a catwalk situated on what she assumed was originally meant to be a second floor or third floor. Yeah, not even if she had two jobs would she even be able to afford one room.

“And you’re sure we can use this place?” Optimus asked, looking to Sari with an even bigger eye at her in what she assumed was their version of a raised brow.

“One hundred percent big guy,” Sari smiled, giving him a thumb’s up. The action seemed to confuse Optimus for a short while as he looked to Tyla for some sort of explanation. She only smiled as well as she gave him the same gesture. He copied it with an awkwardly raised blue thumb.

“Hm, I guess I can move some of my equipment over… it’ll take a while to get everything off the ship though,” Ratchet said, a scowl on his face as he wandered off through one of the archways, possibly to look at the rest of the building. Highdrive seemed like he wanted to ask about the place a bit more before Ratchet’s voice boomed back into the room, calling him over to help check things out.

“It’s so big out here,” Bulkhead breathed, nearly spinning around from excitement. Compared to the ship, or what she had seen of it so far, the warehouse was certainly far bigger, perhaps even big enough to hold their ship if it could transform into a giant robot like the others.

“You say that like you’ve never been in a big room before,” Tyla said from where she leaned against the railings, her arms folded on them as she balanced herself on the heels of her feet on the walk.

Bulkhead only smiled, his three-fingered hand rubbing against the back of his head like a child that had been caught doing something silly.

“Small minds are often easily amused,” Prowl hummed from where he looked around the base. Bulkhead kept his smile for a short while longer until the realisation of what Prowl truly meant kicked in, causing him to lower his arm back to his side. Tyla frowned to the motorcycle bot, tempted to remind him that it was because of the small mind that he was still functional. She hadn’t seen a lot of the fight, but she was pretty sure that if Bulkhead hadn’t been involved, then things could have ended a lot worse than they did.

Optimus stopped her before she could, walking up to the larger bot and putting a hand on his arm with a soft, trying smile. “I know this isn’t exactly ideal, but it’s something. We might as well try to get used to it, don’t you think?”

Those words seemed to be just what Bulkhead needed, and they seemed to be effective enough to cause Prowl to look away and rethink what he said. What Sari suggested next, got Bulkhead even more excited.

“Hey, how about we go pick out a room for you? I know just the one,” Sari offered, hopping onto Bulkhead’s extended hand like she was taking a ride at a fair as the two of them bundled off together with Sari guiding him through each room.

Perhaps getting acquainted with giant robots wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Sari took to it so naturally that it was almost as if she was one of them. Unable to contain her own excitement, Tyla rushed down the stairs, waving to them.

“Hey, wait for me!”

Transformers Animated, Bumblebee, Sari Sumdac, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Bulkhead and Prowl © Hasbro Morning After, Highdrive and Tyla © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 22: A New Perspective (Part 2)

If it hadn’t burned up during entry on the planet when the Autobot ship had taken him down into the atmosphere. If he could have, he would have curled his servo in anger at the mere thought of that blue-plated Autobot that had dared to try and fight him off. If he ever got his servo on him, he’d… he’d… he’d destroy him, and each and every member of his team. No bot would be spared his wrath.

A motion sensor that he had snuck out into the hallway beeped, immediately grabbing his attention. With some difficulty, Megatron managed to connect to the optics of a nearby surveillance drone.

What he saw, surprised him. A human female stood in what the humans called a kitchen, but she wasn’t the professor’s daughter that he had gotten so accustomed to seeing on a regular basis through the tower’s monitoring systems. No, this one was almost completely different in nearly every aspect.

Commanding the drone to get closer, he watched as she got a fright from the drone’s movements. As it appeared, she wasn’t all that acquainted with technology as the professor’s daughter was. A small glimpse into old security footage revealed that the female had spent time with the professor’s daughter, yet he had never mentioned having two of them, only ever the one, which meant that… yes, she had to be a friend, or at least something close to the term.

As he observed her, a curious notion played through his processor. If she were so uncertain of the drone, then maybe, just maybe he could use her precaution to his advantage.

Ordering the drone to return, he waited until it was right outside the door before confirming that the girl had indeed followed  amused by her courageous endeavour, he ordered the door’s panel to let her in. Once she entered, he could barely keep the smile from his non-existent mouth. “Welcome, my dear.”

Transformers Animated, Isaac Sumdac, Megatron, Decepticons, Cybertron, Autobots, Sari Sumdac and energon © Hasbro Morning After and Tyla Brooks © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 21: Sleepwalking

The night ended with Sari proclaiming herself the winner. Tyla hadn’t protested against it at all. For a kid, she was pretty good at video games. Though considering that Sari had spent most of her time alone in her room, she could only assume that the younger girl had plenty of time on her hands before the Autobots showed up.

By the time Sari’s bedroom clock reached three A.M., the two of them were passed out on her big bed, each claiming a side. When the clock ticked over to 5:13 A.M., Tyla found herself blinking awake.

Shifting some, Tyla turned onto her side in the hopes of falling back asleep, but as expected, she stayed awake for a whole ten minutes. Getting off the bed, Tyla looked over to where Sari slept as still as a new born baby. Tyla cast her a small smile before she grabbed her hoodie and headed out the room to where Sari told her the kitchen would be.

A simple glass of water and then she’d head back to bed to try and catch what little sleep she could get. After grabbing a glass from the cupboard and drinking her fill, Tyla turned to head back to Sari’s room, nearly yelping when she caught sight of something scrambling across the sleek modern kitchen counter.

Scrambling backwards, Tyla grabbed onto the sink. ‘Please, please don’t let it be a spider,’ she begged the Sumdac security system, although she doubted that it would be active in the kitchen of all places. Then again, maybe it was one of those robotic spiders that she had seen on TV before?

Keeping a hold on the counter, Tyla glanced to the door she used to get into the room in the first place. Maybe if she moved fast enough she would be able to avoid the spider and make it back to Sari’s room safely before the spider caught onto her plan.

Taking a tentative step to the side, Tyla froze with her heart beating in her throat as a long, skinny leg poked out from behind a decorative fruit bowl. The leg was far too big for a normal-sized spider.

It was far too metallic for one too.

Frowning to herself, Tyla did something that she was certain she would come to regret later. Gulping her heartbeat back down, she slowly moved towards the small creature, nearly freezing every few seconds out of fear of possibly being attacked. With each step that she gave, the soft metallic clicking noise it made got louder.

A few seconds she saw the object of her fear. As suspected, it seemed to be a spider-like security drone. Tyla couldn’t clutch her chest fast enough as she expelled a breath. It didn’t take long for her eyes to narrow into a glare instead.

If the damn thing weren’t Sumdac property, she would have grabbed the nearest blunt object that she could find to smack the living mechanical parts out of the stupid thing. If she could threaten to report its scare tactics to Sari’s father, then she certainly would have. If it didn’t mean that she’d be laughed at for her silliness.

Flipping the drone off, Tyla stuck her hands in her hoodie and left the kitchen in a huff. It wasn’t until she was about halfway back to Sari’s room when she noticed that the creepy crawly was still following her.

It took every nerve she had in her body to not simply kick it to the side.

As she made her way back to the room, the drone kept up with her until it grabbed onto the cuff of her pants. She nearly shrieked at the action, swinging her leg against the nearby wall. The drone let out a cartoonish squeak before it hit the floor, its legs twitching as sparks broke free from the newfound dent in its side.

Cursing to herself, Tyla scooped the drone up, flinching at the state the drone was in. Looking to Sari’s room, she thought about admitting to the other girl what she had done and offering to pay her back for it, but who knew how much a drone like that cost to make in the first place.

Biting into her bottom lip, Tyla turned and walked down the hall, looking for anything that resembled a workshop. She remembered Sari mentioning one on the floor just above the one above the hallway she was currently in.

Deciding to risk it, Tyla made her way to the elevator and rode it to the floor she needed. As she walked through the hall, she came to the door Sari had mentioned before cursing to herself when she saw the number pad lock on it. She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised by it, but that didn’t stop the wave of stupidity she felt.

Deciding that it would be best to simply come clean to Sari, Tyla turned to head back, pausing when she heard a faint click behind her. Blinking in surprise, Tyla turned to look at the door that had been locked but a few seconds ago.

She knew that she should simply go to Sari and explain the situation, but instead, she found herself moving closer to the door. Hesitating, she peaked around the corner and nearly dropped the drone as she saw what was inside.

Transformers Animated, Sari Sumdac, Autobots and Isaac Sumdac © Hasbro Morning After and Tyla © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 20: Late Night Talks

Ever since Optimus’s revival, the bots had been rather on edge. They didn’t overly dote on their leader, but there was still something that felt rather off about the whole situation. From the sound of it, Autobots didn’t simply come back from the dead like that.

Back from the dead.

The mere thought sent a shudder up Tyla’s spine. When she had asked Highdrive for a better explanation, he had simply shrugged his shoulders and claimed that he didn’t know the reason himself. Not even Ratchet knew and he had known what the Allspark was the moment he laid eyes on it.

Given his age, she was almost certain of the fact that he knew better than any of them about what had happened, after all, the same had happened to Prowl not so long ago. Why they were trying to keep it a secret from her and Sari, she didn’t know, but that didn’t change the fact that it irritated her far more than they knew.

“If you keep holding the pillow like that, you’re gonna suffocate it.”

Tyla blinked out of her trance, looking to the red-haired girl sitting beside her, reminding her where she was. Inside the room of Sari Sumdac, daughter of Isaac Sumdac and heiress to the prestigious Sumdac Towers.

During one of the afternoons the two of them spent at the base, Sari had mentioned that she had never been to a sleepover, so to try and comfort her, Tyla had suggested that they hold one, which was why she was, as Sari put it, squeezing the life out of an innocent pillow in the girl’s bedroom.

“Ah, right. Sorry,” Tyla apologised, fluffing the pillow back out, cringing at how it refused to return to its original form.

“Something on your mind?” Sari asked, watching as Tyla tried to soothe the pillow back out.

“Is it that obvious?” Tyla found herself asking, frowning at the pillow as if it was somehow at fault for refusing her touch. Not that she blamed it. She wouldn’t want to be touched by something that had hurt her, especially not when she didn’t deserve it.

“Kinda,” Sari admitted, omitting the fact that the pillow was proof of some sort of frustration. If she could have managed a smile, she would have cast Sari a grateful one. She only assumed the other girl already understood some of her reason as to why she wasn’t doing so.

“It’s just… the whole thing with Optimus. I mean, I still don’t even know what really happened and yet they’re all acting like it was normal. Hell, not even Bumblebee is freaked out about it anymore and you know how he gets.”

Sari nodded her understanding as she slid her arms out behind her to keep herself propped up. “Maybe it is normal for them.”

“To what? Just die and come back? I doubt it.”

“Yeah but look at what happened with Prowl.”

She hit the nail right on the head with that one. Just look at what happened to him. He was doomed to die until Sari’s key somehow magically brought him back as if she had used magic on him.

Of course she herself didn’t believe in the existence of it, but it made a lot more sense than simply accepting that both Prowl and Optimus had returned from the dead because a human girl stuck her key in their chests.

No matter how she looked at it, that big orange box that the Autobots had called the Allspark had a great deal to do with whatever was really going on. Even though she was convinced of her own theory, she was pretty certain that Ratchet would find some way to avoid the subject entirely. The bot wasn’t known for his chatty behaviour.

“Do you think it could work on humans?”

Tyla blinked once more. It didn’t take much to figure out that Sari was talking about the key, what with her fingers playing with it as if it were a mere trinket.

“Do you mean like simply heal or bring people back from the dead?”

Sari didn’t answer her. Tyla didn’t know much about the Sumdac family, but from what she could recall, she had never heard Sari so much as mentioned a mother or second parental figure besides the professor. Thinking on it now, Tyla was curious enough to ask the other girl about it, but the pure sadness in her eyes made it hard to, so she didn’t, simply trusting her to tell her on her own time when she felt ready to do so.

Tyla pulled up her shoulders, trying to seem as casual about the question as she possibly could. “Who knows? We’re not exactly made of circuits and gears.”

Sari’s eyes trembled lightly as she focused her gaze on the floor beneath them. “Yeah. I guess so.”

Tyla silently cursed herself. Here she had been hoping to cheer Sari up when all she really did was upset her further. Looking around the room some, she sought something to distract them with.

“Hey, what’s your score like?”

This time it was Sari’s turn to blink as she looked up at the older girl in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Tyla flashed her a smile. “You know, your score in that game you and Bumblebee usually play.”

That brought a smile to the younger girl’s face. “I’m in the lead so far. Why?”

“You mind teaching me how to play?”

“Hm, that depends. What do I get when I win?”

“Oh, when you win? My, cocky aren’t we?” Tyla playfully nudged her arm before she gave it some thought. “How about extra fries when I’m on duty. No extra charge.”

Sari’s smile widened. “Okay.”

“But if I win, then I want…” Tyla’s eyes scanned the room once more for something of equal value. With everything in the room being far out of her own price range to keep maintained, she settled for something that could work out for the same amount as the extra fries over the span of a couple of years. “The first choice on whatever new music device your dad brings out.”

Thinking it through, Sari nodded her consent, holding her hand out. “Deal.”

With a firm, competitive handshake, they each picked up a controller and got to work on competing against each other in the racing game, playing through the large TV in the room.

Transformers Animated, Optimus Prime, Autobots, Ratchet, Allspark, Prowl, Sari Sumdac, Isaac Sumdac and Bumblebee © Hasbro Morning After, Tyla and Highdrive © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 18: Stop

“Optimus!”

Sari’s scream echoed through Bumblebee’s audio receptors at such a high pitch that he felt the fluid forming against his optics faster than he realised. His processor had still been racing to keep up with what was happening around them when a Decepticon appeared out of nowhere and began attacking.

He and Sari had managed to get to the back of the train they were kept hostage in, but when Optimus tried rescuing them, he and the Decepticon that had identified himself as Starscream, had been swinging around, each trying to get the upper hand.

Both of them had desperately been clawing at the Allspark that had been brought in exchange for his and Sari’s freedom. Due to stellar cycles of working together, they had been able to keep it out of the Decepticon’s servos until he forced it from Prime’s servos by force and flew into the sky, using it to blast anything that caught his optic.

None of them had noticed Optimus using one of the buildings to climb to where Starscream hovered to attack him from behind. The next moment the two of them were on a blimp advertising Sumdac Towers with Starscream aiming right for Optimus’s faceplate.

A couple of seconds later, the Allspark opened wide and interfered with the blast, sending both mechs flying in opposite directions, shattering the Allspark itself in the process. Smoke rose in the aftermath, hiding the result within, sending fragments shooting off on their own as the Allspark was destroyed.

It wasn’t until the thud of Optimus’s frame hitting the tarmac that he realised what had happened exactly. He couldn’t see the reactions of all the others, but he was pretty sure he knew what they were. Shock. Horror. Fear.

He didn’t see when, but at some point Starscream had flown off by himself. When Sari grabbed a hold of him and followed him down to the crash site, he didn’t know either. All he saw was a bot that he had been stuck in cryofreeze for over fifty deca-cycles that was now on the ground of a planet other than Cybertron, turning grey as his lifeforce drained from him.

A glance towards Ratchet and Highdrive confirmed that neither of the two medics could do anything in the current situation, except watch. All any of them could do was simply watch as Optimus left them behind.

Unlike them, Sari didn’t hesitate. One moment she was on his shoulder, the next she was scrambling over to Optimus, yanking the key from her neck. Ratchet started to protest, but she ignored him as she planted herself on the fire truck’s chassis.

“Don’t you dare die on me Prime,” Sari ordered through her tears. Dimming his optics, Bumblebee didn’t have the spark to tell the human girl that once a bot went offline, they rarely, if ever, came back online.

It wasn’t until Prowl’s voice broke through his audio receptors that he even noticed someone running towards them. Like some kind of maniac, Tyla ran as fast as she could, stopping when she saw why all of them had gathered round whilst the humans kept their distance.

“O-Optimus?” Tyla barely managed to breathe out. Whether it was the shock or realisation from it, Tyla’s legs buckled out from underneath her the moment she saw why. At some point Bulkhead had made his way over to the other human girl, catching her in his large servo just as she fell back. She looked to the green coloured mech. “W-What happened?”

Bulkhead only turned his helm away, unable to face her just like how he had been unable to tell Sari the truth.

“Come on, come on,” Sari muttered to herself, turning the key repeatedly only to receive a sound he had heard Tyla call a dead engine starter. Apparently once an Earth vehicle had gone into such a state, it usually took a few tries to wake it back up. Sometimes they never woke up though.

Tears began to prick the younger girl’s eyes as Tyla made her way over in an attempt to pull the girl away. Even Tyla could see that the situation was hopeless, so why couldn’t Sari?

With her arms wrapped firmly around Sari, Tyla tried pulling her away, but Sari continued struggling. Bumblebee was about to snap his frustration at her until a deep light blue glow caught his optic. Whatever the glow was, it caught Sari’s eye as well.

The red head pushed herself away from Tyla to look at the source. All of them froze in utter shock. It wasn’t until Tyla herself looked that she realised why they were all staring at her in the first place.

Lodged in the middle of her chest sat a small fragment of the Allspark. Staring down at it, Tyla began to tear up, fear over her own safety growing. He didn’t know much about humans, but how she hadn’t felt that earlier was beyond him, especially considering that this was the same human that had yelped a week ago when she stubbed her toe around a corner.

A red fluid began to form around the shard as the girl looked to all of them for help. Bumblebee knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything, even if he ripped the shard from her body. His stingers would only cause more harm. Ratchet seemed to be thinking the same about his modifications.

“G-Guys? What is this?” Tyla asked, her eyes tearing up even further. Just when he thought they were all simply going to pull up their shoulder struts and watch the girl bleed out, Highdrive surprised all of them by stepping up.

“It looks like a piece of the Allspark got lodged in you. We’re going to have to remove it. Sari, help her lay down,” Highdrive instructed as he kneeled by the girls, his one digit evicting a bigger version of a human-sized tweezer.

Without hesitation, Sari did as Highdrive said, helping the older girl lay down on her back, keeping a hold of her hand the entire time to try and comfort him. After a short inspection, Highdrive didn’t wait for Ratchet’s authority on the matter as he attached the end of the tweezers to the fragment in the girl’s chest.

“I’m going to have to pull it out.”

“W-Will it hurt?” Tyla asked, her nerves made clear in that one, single question. Highdrive didn’t belittle her by pointing out that she had a literal fragment the size of her own hand lodged partway in her body. From the part sticking out, even he could tell it wasn’t in that deep, but still deep enough to cause the girl pain, and possible further injury if it wasn’t dealt with soon.

“It will. I’m going to need you to stay calm for me, okay?”

Yeah right. He might as well have asked her to simply stop bleeding. The fear on the girl’s face grew before she surprised all of them with a nod.

“Prowl, I’m going to need you to get a couple of medics. I don’t know what’s going to happen once I pull this out,” Highdrive informed the motorcycle bot, who only nodded before he transformed and sped to where a couple of ambulances could be heard in the distance, drawn to the scene from earlier to check for casualties.

With the tweezers gripping onto one end of the shard, Highdrive seemed to hesitate for the first time, almost as if frozen in place. He didn’t move, didn’t even breathe, not until Tyla placed her hand on top of the surgical tool protruding from his digit.

“Please Highdrive. I trust you.”

Those words seemed to make the Autobot freeze even more before he nodded lightly. He let Tyla take a deep breath, holding onto the shard until Prowl returned with an ambulance. Once the paramedics were informed of the situation, they helped Highdrive pry the shard free, with Ratchet’s help, the static field that he formed around the shard helping to pry it loose.

Luckily based off Tyla’s description, the shard hadn’t been in as deep as they originally thought, but the pain from the extraction was made clear on the girl’s face. The moment it was dislodged, one of the paramedics injected some kind of foam that would keep the wound semi-shut whilst they transported her to the nearest hospital. Highdrive surprised them all by asking Ratchet’s permission to be the one to take Tyla to the hospital. Ratchet only nodded.

With nothing to distract her anymore, Sari turned back to Optimus’s lifeless frame. With the shard still in Ratchet’s possession, Sari asked to see it. At first Ratchet seemed unsure before he let the girl get a closer look.

At first she did nothing before she suddenly grabbed the bloodied shard from him and rushed over to where Optimus lay. Ratchet barely had enough time to react before Sari plunged both the key and the shard into the Prime’s chassis the moment it opened up to allow access for her key once more.

Those of them that remained watched with wide eyes and optics as colour began to return to Optimus’s faceplate. For a moment nothing happened until Optimus blinked, looking around in utter confusion.

“Is this… the Well of Allsparks?”

Sari nearly snorted as her eyes teared up once more. “No silly. This is Detroit.”

Transformers Animated, Optimus Prime, Sari Sumdac, Bumblebee, Decepticons, Starscream, Allspark, Cybertron, Ratchet, Prowl and Bulkhead © Hasbro Morning After, Highdrive and Tyla © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 17: Rush

“Come now Autobots. Surely you won’t let a mere Decepticon wait with precious organic lives on the line, will you?” the strange bot on the TV taunted.

Tyla flinched as she turned her head as if it would somehow help her see inside the train that currently held Sari and Bumblebee captive. A flare of red hair gave an indication that Sari was still up and running, so to speak, but there was no sign of Bumblebee.

The news drones were so focused on the train that she couldn’t even see the rest of the Autobots. Cursing to herself, Tyla began to dial the frequency number the Autobots had given her in case of emergencies. She was about to press dial on Highdrive’s frequency before she stopped cold.

What if he was in the middle of a rescue? What if her call distracted him at just the wrong moment? Cursing to herself, Tyla rushed to the break room, swung open her locker and grabbed her bag.

Her boss nearly came rushing after her, demanding to know what she was up to. As much as she would have loved to fill him in that she hung out with giant robots in her free time, she simply pushed his whining tone aside as she grabbed her things, slung her backpack on and started running.

In the distance she could hear the man complaining about how her actions would reflect on her permanent record, but right now, she couldn’t really give a damn. Her only priority right now was to find the shortest route to the town centre and hope there was something she could do to help.

Transformers Animated, Autobots, Starscream, Sari Sumdac and Bumblebee © Hasbro Morning After, Tyla and Highdrive © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 16: Not Always There

“Have a nice day,” Tyla hummed as she watched another customer drive off in their car whilst she was left behind in the overly cramped cubicle known as the ordering window.

A glance around the corner informed her that she wouldn’t be bothered for at least the next five minutes. She could finally breathe.

Stretching her arms above her head, Tyla looked over in the general direction of City Hall. The Autobots had been invited to a ceremony to celebrate a new train of some sort as ‘foreign’ guests. As the daughter of the man who invented that particular train, Sari had gotten her a ticket to attend but Tyla had to deny her right to claim it. Her boss had wanted her to work on that particular day. It annoyed her to no end, but luckily Sari had understood.

It didn’t mean that she was any less annoyed by it. Not in the slightest. Highdrive had been kind enough to promise her a souvenir and she promised to watch as much of the ceremony as she could via Livestream.

Satisfied that she had at least some time to herself, Tyla fished her phone out of her pocket and went to the local news channel’s website where the stream was already in progress. Personally she found newsfeed like this pretty boring, but it wasn’t every day one could claim to be friends with the people – or bots in this case – on live TV.

With one earbud in and the other ear free, Tyla silently listened to the broadcast, nearly smiling at how nervous Optimus seemed. Heck, even Bumblebee and Bulkhead seemed calmer.

The main reason why Professor Isaac Sumdac had invited the Autobots as his special guests was because of their help in saving his employees and building from the whole nano-insect situation. A shudder went down her spine at the memory. She only hoped he and his staff learned their lesson concerning those kinds of experiments. The idea behind it was well intended, the execution, not so much.

The ceremony itself seemed to be going pretty well with Optimus even delivering a speech on behalf of the Autobots. Tyla was just about to end the broadcast on her end to prepare for the next customer to pull up by the window when a shadow across the screen caught her eye. Unable to stop herself, she looked only to watch as a new transformer appeared on the scene, although this one wasn’t a friendly.

Transformers Animated, Autobots, Isaac Sumdac, Sari Sumdac, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Bulkhead © Hasbro Morning After, Tyla and Highdrive © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 11: Curious Friends

“So, let me get this straight, this thing that you call the… Allspark somehow merged with Sari’s key card and now she can somehow bring you guys back to life whenever you die? Weird,” Tyla said from her spot leaning against the wall on the overly large, grey bed the alien robots claimed to be for medical purposes.

“That’s… a crude way of putting it, but yes,” the leader of the bots, Optimus confirmed, looking to Ratchet who grumbled something about it being the gist of it all. The latter bot was still wearing that strange eye patch thingy on his face, using it to get a closer look at Sari’s key. If it had been her, Tyla knew she would have felt uneasy, but oddly enough, Sari stayed pretty calm about the whole ordeal.

“Does that make me a superhero now?” Sari asked, electing a smile from Tyla. Of course that’s where someone her age would go with the news they just received about bringing someone back from the dead. Tyla only hoped that wouldn’t develop into a saviour complex later down the road.

“What’s a superhero?” Bumblebee asked, having been chewed out by the bigger bot, along with Highdrive, about sneaking in two human girls without so much as asking permission first. In their defence, Tyla argued that they didn’t have time to do so, considering the state Prowl had been in when the two of them snuck into the two younger bots.

“It’s kind of like a cop, but a really cool one with like superpowers and stuff,” Tyla tried to explain, pulling out her phone to search up a picture, only to find that her phone wasn’t picking up on any signals below who knew how many metres of water. “Crud.”

“Basically like you guys but less… robot-bits,” Sari explained in her own way. The bots still seemed pretty confused but accepted the comparison for now. Sari turned her attention back to the one the older of the two medics. “So does it?”

The old bot huffed, removing his monocle, and setting it aside on the berth. Tyla nearly took a step back when she noticed that the monocle was nearly half Sari’s size. Just how big were these robots really?

“Something like that, but that doesn’t mean you’re invincible or something. We still don’t know how durable you humans are.”

Tyla flinched at Ratchet’s choice of words but only shook her head as she answered what she felt was truth enough. “Oh trust me, we’re not.”

Alarm crossed the six robotic faces in the room before Tyla ended up on the receiving end of Sari’s elbow. “What she means to say is that we humans are very durable. You can’t squash us that easily, you know.”

Tyla parted her lips to interject before the big green one that had called himself Bulkhead earlier sighed in relief. “Phew, that’s a relief. I’d hate for that to happen to you.”

“Well… I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’re indestructible,” Tyla managed to correct, earning a glare from Sari, to which she responded with a look of her own. The younger girl conceded, knowing that they would have been in big trouble if the bots hadn’t shown up when they did back at the factory. “But as long as you don’t purposefully step on us, we should be okay.”

The bots nodded their understanding. After a short silence, Highdrive looked up to Optimus, reaching the taller bot’s shoulder in terms of height. “So, what happens now, sir?”

Optimus frowned some in thought, “I guess we need to start setting up a base and figure out what we’re going to do from there. There’s nothing much we can do besides that for now.”

“In that case, I know the perfect place,” Sari grinned.

Transformers Animated, Sari Sumdac, Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Prowl, Bumblebee and Bulkhead © Hasbro Morning After, Tyla and Highdrive © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 10: Discovery

“We’re losing him!” Ratchet yelled, his electric claws sparking as he tried to keep Prowl stable whilst Highdrive did his best to connect the fried, eaten-through wired, but having no such luck.

“I’m trying! I’m trying!” Highdrive yelled back, his optics fuzzing over at the sight of the mech before him. He hadn’t known Prowl, or any of the other mechs in the room that long, but this was his first ever real field experience, and it terrified him.

He almost expected Ratchet to yell at him to try harder, but the older medic grit his dentals instead, as if trying to fight back an urge to jump in. Stellar cycles spent with Ratchet had him well aware that if Ratchet could manage taking over, then he would have already done that.

The fact that they were bots that were supposed to be working on space bridge repair meant that their medical supplies were limited, definitely not supplied to the point where they would have what they needed to ensure that they could perform an impromptu surgery, especially not one on this kind of scale.

Highdrive nearly missed the sound of Optimus re-entering the room, until Tyla and Sari’s voices cut through his concentration, causing him to freeze in place long enough for Prowl’s vital signs to drop, showing a flatline on the spark monitor on Ratchet’s chassis.

“No!” Ratchet cried out, watching as Prowl’s frame’s colouring faded from black and gold to a dull, lifeless grey. Highdrive’s own optics trembled at the sight as the realisation of what happened dawned on him. the two medics locked optics before Ratchet glared off to the side, fighting whatever urge was building up in his frame.

The girls must have realised the situation as well because of how silent they had gone until Sari let out a startled yelp, the object around her neck nearly pulling her from Optimus’s digits. Ratchet locked optics with their leader as he slowly approached the berth and set the girl down on it.

Highdrive thought about questioning Optimus’s intentions on the subject, but a look towards Sari showed her own curiosity growing as the object glowed and dragged her over to Prowl’s chassis. No one in the room seemed to breathe, both bot and human, as the object maneuvered itself above Prowl’s chassis and changed its form to match the slot hidden beneath the melted wires.

The Autobot leader and human girl exchanged a look once more, and with a nod from Sari, the object pushed itself into the slot as a bright light filled the room.

Transformers Animated, Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Prowl, Sari Sumdac and Autobots © Hasbro

Morning After, Highdrive and Tyla © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 09: Orange Box, Blue Light

One moment she was sitting comfortably in the driver’s seat of a giant transforming robot, and the next she slid down a bigger version of a laundry shaft after the daughter of one of the city’s most influential men.

The slide down the shaft would have been fun if it wasn’t for the rough landing that the two of them met at the bottom. Grunting, Tyla stayed on the floor a while longer whilst Sari got to her feet, dusting herself off as she begun to look around.

From what Tyla could see, it was a large, empty room with nothing of interest, as much as a probable alien spaceship could hold in terms of not containing anything noteworthy. The only thing really in the room was a big orange cube-like box. She knew the shape had a certain name, but what that name was, she couldn’t remember.

Mathematics was never really a subject that managed to keep her attention. Some would argue that it was the reason for her current employment situation, she would argue in return that the shape’s name literally had nothing to do with her knowledge for her current job.

Smartass. Lazy. Uneducated. Those were the first words they’d throw on her, claiming their own genius as the reason for their well-paying jobs. She didn’t care how much she earned. She just wanted enough to get by and maybe buy something she liked once and a while. That wasn’t asking for so much, was it? In this society, it was like asking for a feast at a soup kitchen.

“What is this place?”

The sound of Sari’s voice nearly caught Tyla by surprise as she looked over to the younger girl. If the daughter of a technological genius couldn’t figure out where they were, then she doubted that she herself would have any better luck.

“Dunno, kid, but it’s definitely no place I’ve ever been to. You?” Tyla asked as she got to her own feet, wincing some from a sharp pain that shot through her thigh. Moving it side to side revealed that at worst she’d only have a bruise or two from the landing, but at least nothing was broken.

Sari shook her head, her curiosity leading her further into the room. Tyla’s first thought was that they should stay put and wait to see what would happen next, but then again, they were in a ship occupied by sentient robots. How often was she going to get another chance to explore a place like this?

Taking a chapter from Sari’s book, Tyla walked up to her. The room seemed empty, save for the odd shaped cube. A quick glance over it made it seem like some kind of storage device. It made sense, considering the size of the grey handles, but why would a single storage device be put in an empty room with nothing around it that looked like it was being stored as well?

An exchanged look between the two of them led to Sari slowly extending her hand towards the object. Considering that the box was at least two times her own size, Tyla didn’t see a possibility of Sari accidentally opening it, so she didn’t stop her, though the moment her hand did touch the side, Tyla had an overwhelming urge to pull the younger girl away, to safety.

At first nothing happened, and then a second later, the entire room filled with a bright light blue light, nearly blinding both girls with its brilliance. For a moment, the room seemed devoid of any other colour until the light focused into a straight line, aiming itself at Sari’s chest.

Tyla could only watch as the younger girl stood still before her, mouth agape as images flashed between her and the box. From what Tyla could make out, Sari’s images were ones of humans, whilst the box returned ones of robots, one of them similar to one of the robots they saw earlier fighting against the cockroach.

Without questioning if the object could possibly be radioactive or harmful, Tyla found her hand reaching for Sari’s shoulder. The moment they made contact, however, Tyla felt something strong smack her all the way across the room like a giant, invisible hand.

All she knew within that moment was the cry that escaped her own lips, and the next, a groan as she regained consciousness that she had temporarily lost the moment the back of her head was introduced to the hard, metallic floor beneath her.

“Tyla! Tyla wake up!” Sari yelled at her, holding her firmly by her shoulders as she shook her back and forth. Tyla had to put her hand on the back of her own neck to keep it from snapping in half.

“Ugh… what was that?” Tyla asked, fighting back another groan as her head announced the pain. Asking for something for a headache didn’t seem like it was on the table, at least not in her current location.

“I don’t know, but whatever it was, it did something weird to my security card,” Sari said, a frown on her lips as she held up a key that currently hung in place of where a security ID card had been a couple of moments before.

“Weird,” Tyla hummed, taking a hold of the key, mirroring Sari’s expression before a sliding sound echoed through the room, drawing their attention to the large figure that had just entered the room.

Transformers Animated, Sari Sumdac and Allspark © Hasbro

Morning After and Tyla © Fang Wolfsbane

[fang-wolfsbane]

Transformers Animated: Morning After: Chapter 08: Operation

“Autobots, transform and roll out,” Optimus Prime ordered his team, transforming into his new alternate mode, letting Bulkhead gently place Prowl’s injured frame on the back before he drove into the water, followed by Bulkhead. Bumblebee and Highdrive made to follow, transforming into their respective vehicle modes as well before Highdrive caught sight of the two human girls rushing to their side.

“Wait! We’re coming with you!” Sari announced when she was almost halfway through Bumblebee’s window.

“No, you’re not. It’s not safe,” Highdrive tried protesting as Tyla grabbed a hold of his door handle and yanked with everything she had in an attempt to open it up.

“Dude, we just survived a giant cockroach Going underwater in an alien car really sounds a lot safer,” Tyla chipped in, squeezing Highdrive’s handle a little tighter to see if that would work with prying him open.

“Alien?” Highdrive questioned in confusion before he spotted Sari nearly falling inside of Bumblebee. It seemed the younger of the two bots had given in to the girl’s request. Highdrive found himself letting out a sigh through his vents as his door swung open, nearly tossing Tyla onto her backside. “Fine, but stay out of sight, at least until we can explain.”

The grin on Tyla’s lips spread from ear to ear as she hopped inside, grabbing his seatbelt and securing it over her much smaller frame as her hands grabbed him by the steering wheel. “Great. So how does this work? Do I press some kind of button or-”

“I’ll be doing the driving,” Highdrive huffed, seemingly insulted by the mere suggestion that he wouldn’t know how to work his new set of wheels. Tyla only flashed him a sheepish smile as she removed her hands and held them at her sides. She didn’t have the package from earlier anywhere nearby, but he chose not to ask about it as he followed Bumblebee down the same ramp Optimus and Bulkhead had gone down from.

Exchanging air for water took his tanks a mere nano click to adjust to, causing a few bubbles to flutter free from beneath his hood, but considering that both Tyla and Sari had chosen to get inside of them instead of following in some alternate modes, he figured that they needed the beforementioned air to survive.

He didn’t know much about organics – humans in particular – but luckily some of his courses at the academy had dealt with organics as a whole and how they needed certain conditions met in order to stay alive, more commonly referred to as ‘breathing’. Cybertronians didn’t abide by that rule, but they sometimes followed the same basic concept by letting air in and out of their vents to try and cool down or show expressions such as sighing or showing a form of relief.

The moment the bubbles cleared, Highdrive caught sight of Tyla nearly smacking herself against his window, staring at other forms of organic life flying past them. The pure amazement on her face was enough to let him know that what she was currently seeing was something she wasn’t used to.

If his alternate form allowed it, he would have smiled, but for now, he focused on following the wet, sandy trail Bulkhead was pushing up from his spot ahead of Bumblebee, the sane nearly enough to cover the bright yellow car before him. He could easily drive to the side to avoid it, but considering how strong the water’s pressure was, it was a safer bet to cut through the same line Optimus was blazing at the front.

Ratchet must have been watching them from the command deck, because before they even fully reached the ship, the docking bay ramp slid free from its station, opening up the doors to grant them entrance. Optimus wasted no time in taking Prowl to the medical bay, followed by Bulkhead in his bi-pedal form.

Ratchet got to work, studying the sparking wound at Prowl’s chassis whilst Bumblebee and Highdrive stayed by the entrance to the room, nervously watching. Ratchet gave them a scowling glare, nearly tossing one of his tools at the two bots. It was only their quick thinking in slamming their seats back that hid the two girls from sight. Ratchet definitely didn’t seem like he was in the mood to find out just what they had done.

“What are you waiting for kid? I thought you wanted to be a medic. Hurry up and come help me over here before we lose him!”

“R-Right!” Highdrive stuttered, throwing his wheels in reverse as he raced down the corridor, Bumblebee in suit, just before they retracted their seatbelts and swung their doors open, tossing the girls through one of the ventilation shafts into the floor below. Highdrive made a mental note to apologise to Tyla a little later when things calmed down a little. Bumblebee must have thought the same thing because the next thing Highdrive knew, Bumblebee was jogging beside him.

“Do you think we were a little too harsh on them?”

“Maybe, but they’ll have to forgive us. Prowl comes first.”

Bumblebee nodded his agreement, the two entering the medical bay to find Ratchet already using his arm magnets to try and calm the sparking shooting from Prowl’s torso. He didn’t have to make optic contact with Highdrive twice to tell him to hurry up and help.

Out of instinct, Highdrive moved to the storage cabinets, grabbing everything he thought might be of use to the older medic within the given moment. When he approached the other side of the berth, Highdrive didn’t need a professional medic to tell him that they didn’t have nearly all the tools they needed to help Prowl. Brief optic contact with the old Autobot opposite him confirmed as much.

A beeping sound from the alarm near the door caught Optimus’s attention enough for him to wander off from the berth. Highdrive felt the heat in his cheeks rise at the sight of their commander choosing to heed the call of a minor alarm, rather than trying to stick around for support for one of their comrades. Sure, Prowl had never exactly been the friendliest bot or ever acknowledged them as part of a team, but one didn’t simply spend deca-cycles with a bot and not form some kind of form of comradery, even if most of those cycles were spent in stasis.

A shake of the helm from Bulkhead was enough to deter Highdrive from demanding why Optimus was leaving the room, but then again he was a Prime that had been placed in charge of a simple maintenance ship, so he probably had his own reasons for not wanting to stick around in a med bay that held a bot that was struggling to stay online. Highdrive only hoped that the reason for Optimus’s demotion wasn’t something that would end up with the rest of them in the same situation as Prowl.

Highdrive mentally scolded himself for his deprecating thoughts. Here, before him, was a bot with acid eating through his chassis, that needed his help, and he was more concerned over a Prime that was getting out of the way so that the only two medics on board could focus on the job at hand.

“This isn’t good,” Ratchet hissed through gritted dentals, his magnifier hooked over his optic, zooming in and out based on the commands his optic was feeding it from behind. It was a basic tool for medics to use in the field, but Highdrive had often found it useful during his practice tests and exams.

It was easy to miss something small that could lead to a bigger problem in the future if the medic on the field took too long to notice the problem first hand and inform the off-site medics that needed to assist if the situation became too dire. Right now, Highdrive knew that he was the secondary medic on scene. The one called in to help the primary medic perform his job. He was prepared for that, willing to acknowledge his part and follow the other’s orders to the last letter, but what he didn’t expect to hear were the words Ratchet said next.

“Get ready kid. You’re operating.”

Transformers Animated, Optimus Prime, Bulkhead, Prowl, Bumblebee, Sari Sumdac and Ratchet © Hasbro

Morning After, Highdrive and Tyla © Fang Wolfsbane