But as quickly as he notices it, it’s gone.
A trick of the light, he thinks.
A moment later, some distance away within the expansive Realm of the Primes, Liege Maximo reappears. The wicked Prime laughs uncontrollably, pleased with himself for manipulating Micronus’s training exercise with Optimus—and getting away with it.
He summons a crude mock version of the Autobot leader. He throws his cape over his shoulder and begins to slowly pace away from the motionless mannequin.
“Optimus, Optimus, Optimus… so eager to prove yourself that you’ll suffer through pain,” Liege Maximo says aloud.
As he paces, he pulls a small handful of dangerously sharp darts out of a holster near his waist. “I suppose the one question left to answer…”
Liege Maximo spins on his heels and lets the darts fly. They embed themselves in the fake Optimus’s head!
“… is just how much pain can you take?”
Chapter 4
Micronus leads Optimus through the Realm of the Primes. Although he doesn’t mention it, Micronus notices that the Autobot leader is walking with a slight limp.
“It’s not time for you to return to Earth, Optimus,” Micronus says. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t check in on things.”
Micronus stops at the base of a hill. He waves his hands in a familiar gesture and then urges Optimus to climb the hill. The Autobot leader does as instructed and finds a reflecting pool at the top. Through it, he can see Earth!
“I wouldn’t count sheepbots for too long, but I think you earned a break,” Micronus says, turning to give Optimus some privacy. “Consider it a reminder of whom you’re fighting for.”
The Prime disappears, leaving Optimus alone with the portal.
As Optimus peers into it, his friends begin to come into view.…
“Go long, Sideswipe!” Rusty Clay shouts, running backward and winding his arm up to throw a football.
“Let it rip, Rusty!” Sideswipe hollers, nimbly running through the junk-filled aisles of the scrapyard.
Rusty is the young son of Denny Clay, owner of the scrapyard that Bumblebee and his team of Autobots call home while on Earth.
Sideswipe was a bit of a troublemaker back on Cybertron, but even though he has a bit of an authority problem, he’s an invaluable member of the team.
Rusty lets the ball fly through the air. It tears through the sky in a perfect arc… until a pair of giant metal jaws chomp down on it, instantly deflating it!
“HOLE IN ONE!” Grimlock shouts, the now-useless rubber of the ball dangling from his open mouth.
Grimlock is a reformed Decepticon. What he lacks in common sense, he makes up for in strength, loyalty, and enthusiasm.
“Yeah, hole in one, all right—hole in the one lob-ball we had!” Sideswipe says, yanking the remains from Grimlock’s teeth.
“That was a football, not a lob-ball, Sideswipe,” Rusty says with a frown. “And ‘hole in one’ is from a different sport.…”
“Don’t feel bad, Russell Clay,” Fixit says, patting Rusty on the back. “I can fit… flip… fix it right up!”
Sideswipe hands the deflated ball to Fixit, the team’s Mini-Con.
Fixit was the pilot of the Alchemor maximum-security prison transport ship that crashed on Earth, releasing Decepticon prisoners across the planet. The crash also damaged Fixit’s speech modules, which is why he sometimes trims… tricks… trips over words!
“That’s okay, Fixit. I’m sure my dad has some ‘vintage’ footballs around here somewhere,” Rusty says.
“Nonsense! I’ll repair this in two nano-cycles.”
Fixit shifts his hand into a complex drill tool.
Before Rusty can stop him, Fixit has somehow mangled the ball even worse.
“Oh my! This doesn’t seem to have worked at all!”
Across the scrapyard, Bumblebee sits at the command center computers with Strongarm, his eager, law-abiding second-in-command. While the others play, Bumblebee and Strongarm use the computer’s sensors to search for Decepticon fugitives roaming the area.
“Strongarm, why don’t you go join the other bots?” Bumblebee suggests to his lieutenant. “It looks like our Decepticon pals are lying low today. You should relax a little.”
“No, thank you, sir,” Strongarm replies, straightening into a salute. “My place is at your side.”
“I think you should take your place a little less seriously once in a while, cadet.”
Strongarm frowns.
“How about this: I order you to go keep an eye on the others,” Bumblebee says, approaching the request from a different angle. “And if you happen to have fun in the course of your mission, that’s permissible.”
Strongarm maintains a serious look on her face.
“Sir, yes, sir!”
Bumblebee shakes his head as the cadet exits the command center.
“Was I ever that eager with Optimus?” Bumblebee wonders aloud to himself.
Back in the Realm of the Primes, Optimus smiles down at his former lieutenant.
“You certainly were, Bumblebee.”
“Why aren’t you ever that excited to see me?” Micronus asks, suddenly appearing in front of Optimus. Micronus gestures at the portal and it begins to close, cutting off Optimus’s brief glance at his Autobot teammates on Earth.
“Bumblebee has assembled a good team down there,” Optimus says. “I don’t know if he realizes it yet, but he has.”
“I’m glad someone is adequately filling your stabilizers while you’re away,” Micronus says. “But it’s time for you to reassemble and get some rest. I have new trials planned for you once you’ve recharged.”
As Optimus limps away from the hill, following the hovering form of Micronus, a third figure slinks up to where the portal just closed.
“You’re going to be even more fun than I had hoped, Optimus!” Liege Maximo whispers, horns twitching.
He waits for the two bots to clear the area and then repeats the gesture that Micronus made. Immediately, the portal reopens, focusing back on Bumblebee sitting at the computer console.
“It’s showtime!”
Chapter 5
Bumblebee taps at the keys, his optics growing weary from staring at facts and figures spread across multiple screens.
The other Autobots, now joined by Strong-arm, are messing around elsewhere in the scrapyard.
The mysterious and stoic Autobot Drift, a recent ally, is off on his own scouting mission with his two Mini-Cons, Slipstream and Jetstorm.
Denny Clay is in the diner he calls home, cataloging barbarian toys from the eighties that he purchased online.
Unbeknownst to Bumblebee, the scheming Liege Maximo is looking down on him from the Realm of the Primes, outside of normal space and time.
Liege Maximo delights in causing disruption, and he knows now that Bumblebee and Optimus hold a deep bond of respect for each other.
Summoning his powers of manipulation, Liege Maximo creates an image of Optimus on one of Bumblebee’s screens. Bumblebee is so used to processing data that he doesn’t think much of it.
“When did I pull up this profile of Optimus?” Bumblebee asks out loud to himself.
He attempts to click it away, but he can’t find a way to dismiss the file. As his confusion mounts, a familiar voice echoes through the speakers.
“BUMBLEBEE!”
Bumblebee nearly topples backward!
Since Optimus awoke in the Realm of the Primes, he has occasionally appeared to Bumblebee to deliver messages of encouragement or warnings against danger. But showing up in Bumblebee’s computer is a first!
“Optimus? You startled me!” Bumblebee says, calming down. “What’s the glitch? Do we need to prepare for an attack?”
“YES, BUMBLEBEE!” the voice booms once more.
Bumblebee is nervous—this isn’t like the previous visions he’s received.
“YOU MUST PREPARE FOR A TERRIBLE ATTACK!”
The yellow Autobot sh
outs into his wrist communicator for his team to assemble in the command center immediately. He turns back to the screen.
“What kind of attack, Optimus? From whom?”
“FROM ME!”
The image of Optimus begins to laugh terribly before turning to static. The speakers fuzz and shoot sparks across the floor.
Bumblebee is stunned silent.
Before he can process what just happened, the rest of his team pours into the command center.
“What’s wrong, sir?” Strongarm asks, the first to Bumblebee’s side.
“I… I saw…” Bumblebee can’t think of a way to explain what he just witnessed.
When he first started seeing Optimus, his teammates weren’t sure if they believed him or not. It wasn’t until the Autobot leader appeared in full metal form to help them out that everyone accepted it.
There’s no way they’re going to believe Optimus just showed up to warn Bumblebee of an attack—from Optimus himself!
“What did you see, Bee?” Sideswipe asks, impatient to know what’s going on.
“I saw…”
“Skinkbomb!” Fixit shouts, pointing at the screen behind Bumblebee. “Our leader must have spotted Skinkbomb, the Decepticon demolitions expert. His radar blip just appeared on-screen!”
Fixit’s treads roll across the floor to the console. His digits tip-tap across the keys and pull up a profile for Skinkbomb. The Decepticon is broad and stocky, with reptilian features and a wide, squat tail.
Fixit chuckles to himself.
“No wonder Bumblebee is speechless—Skinkbomb has quite an ugly mug!”
“You got that right,” Grimlock says. “And that tail don’t look too pretty neither.”
“Skinkbomb was apprehended for unauthorized demolitions on Cybertron,” Fixit informs the group. “But he’s explosive even without his bombs. His tail is actually a miniature warhead of its own, which he can detach at will and regrow by consuming metal and oil.”
Strongarm looks expectantly at Bumblebee, who is still rattled by the sinister message from Optimus.
“Um, sir…” Strongarm says, nudging Bumblebee discreetly.
The Autobot leader realizes his team is staring at him.
“Oh, right,” he mumbles. “Let’s, um, get out there and… arrest… this Decepticon.”
The other bots exchange puzzled looks. Their leader’s lame attempt at trying to coin a catchphrase just now was especially pathetic.
“Wow,” Sideswipe whispers to Grimlock. “Bee really dropped the lob-ball on that one, didn’t he?”
Moments later, the Autobots are rolling out of the scrapyard.
According to Fixit’s monitoring devices, Skinkbomb is at the base of the Crown City Bridge. Bumblebee and his team need to move fast to prevent catastrophe!
When they arrive, Strongarm, along with Denny and Rusty in police uniform disguises, head for the bridge’s entrance to block oncoming traffic and clear the road of civilians.
Bumblebee leads Sideswipe and Grimlock under the bridge to confront Skinkbomb along the water’s edge.
Strongarm, in police cruiser vehicle mode, uses her megaphone to help sell the urgency of the evacuation above. Within a few minutes, the bridge is cleared.
Rusty and Denny stay topside to maintain the barriers while Strongarm heads to the base of the bridge to join her teammates in a volatile battle.
KABOOM!
Skinkbomb is slow and bulky, but he is handy with explosives. Each time the Autobots gets close, Skinkbomb hurls a small grenade to keep them at a distance.
“Boom! You get an explosive! You get an explosive!” Skinkbomb vibrates with a deep, unhinged laugh. “I’ll blow us all to bolts before I go back to lockup!”
Skinkbomb chucks a bomb toward Bumblebee, who dives out of the way in time to miss most of the blast.
The Autobot lands in the water below the bridge. As he lifts himself out of the murk, a face slowly comes into focus through the rippling water.
“BUMBLEBEE!”
Bumblebee rubs his optics, convinced that it must be a trick of the water.
“I’VE SEEN THE ERROR OF MY WAYS, BUMBLEBEE,” the vision of Optimus says to his former protégé. “ALIGNING OURSELVES WITH THE WEAK AUTOBOTS WAS A MISTAKE.”
Bumblebee looks back at his team.
Grimlock, Sideswipe, and Strongarm are working together to get close enough to apprehend Skinkbomb, but the Decepticon is holding them off.
“What are you talking about Optimus? You’re a hero!”
“I WAS A FOOL!” the voice bellows. “BUT NOW I AM STRONG.”
Optimus’s optics take on an eerie glow.
Bumblebee glances at his team once more as they struggle against their powerful foe. In battle against a dangerous Decepticon like Skinkbomb, every nanocycle counts!
He wants to go help them, but he’s frozen in anticipation of what this vision of Optimus will say next.
“NOW… I AM A DECEPTICON!”
Chapter 6
The Autobot leader is distracted by his vision of an evil Optimus.
“Watch out, Bee!” Sideswipe warns.
The agile young bot tackles Bumblebee, pushing him out of the way of one of Skinkbomb’s explosives.
BOOM!
Bumblebee gets slammed into a bridge support pillar by the force of the blast. His audio receptors are ringing and his entire chassis is rattling. He is dinged up but otherwise unharmed.
But what about his teammate?
“Sideswipe!”
Bumblebee splashes through the shallow water to Sideswipe’s side. The ninja-like Autobot is badly injured—having taken the brunt of the explosion while saving Bumblebee.
“Sideswipe, I need to get you out of here.”
The battered bot struggles to speak.
“Don’t sweat it, Bee… just take out… that Decepti…” Sideswipe’s voice trails off.
Bumblebee props Sideswipe against a bridge support pillar and rushes back to the fight.
Grimlock and Strongarm are still dodging explosive blasts, seeking any opportunity to dash in and attack Skinkbomb.
When the dangerous Decepticon spots a very angry and determined Bumblebee charging in his direction, he knows his luck is running out.
“Uh-oh, looks like it’s time to bring the house down!”
The demolitions expert spins around and reveals that his bulbous tail is lighting up—the explosives within it are armed!
With a grinding of gears, the tail comes loose from Skinkbomb’s frame.
“Hasta la vista, babies!” Skinkbomb shouts as he makes a break for it. “Exit, stage left!”
Bumblebee grinds to a halt a few feet from the tail.
Grimlock and Strongarm race after Skinkbomb, but their leader instructs them otherwise.
“There’s no time, Autobots! Find cover, now!”
The flashing lights on the detached tail accelerate.
Team Bee runs toward the support pillars, with its leader carrying Sideswipe over his shoulders.
The four Autobots duck behind the thick concrete just as—
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The force of the blast makes the bridge groan and sway.
Luckily, Strongarm and Grimlock were able to lead Skinkbomb far enough away that there is no structural damage.
Unfortunately, the explosion gave the Decepticon plenty of time to escape.
With an injured Autobot and no arrest, the mission is officially a failure.
The bots shift back into vehicle mode (and Grimlock into Dino mode), pick up the Clays, and return to the scrapyard with their wounded comrade.
In the Realm of the Primes, Liege Maximo cackles with delight. By briefly pretending to be Optimus, he has sown discord among the Autobots on Earth.
“They must think their fearless leader has brain rust!”
Pleased with himself, Liege Maximo closes the portal to Earth and travels through the Realm to check in on the real Optimus and his training under Micronus.
He finds the pair meditating atop two towering pillars.
“This doesn’t look challenging at all,” Liege Maximo whispers.
He uses his immense abilities to create a small fleet of sharp-limbed drone robots. Using their bladed arms, they quickly scurry up the pillars.
Without warning, the drones attack Optimus!
Before the Autobot can react, several of their blades slice against his frame, leaving painful rivets in the steel.
SLASH! SLASH!
“Micronus! Are you warning me never to let my guard down?”
Optimus summons his shield and unsheathes his sword.
The drones continue to leap at him with thrashing claws. He blocks incoming blows and attacks back when he can, careful to maintain his balance atop the massive column.
Micronus is jarred out of his meditation by the clashing of blades. He looks across the divide between their pillars to find Optimus embroiled in battle against a small army of bladed assailants—bots he did not summon himself.
The pint-sized Prime rises from his position on the pillar. With one wave of his hand, he lifts Optimus up into the air. With another, he removes both pillars, sending the sharp little attackers plummeting. They smack into the ground, shatter into flecks of light, and disappear.
SKEESH!
Micronus lowers himself down and brings Optimus with him.
“I don’t understand,” Optimus says. “Did I perform the trial wrong?”
“No, Optimus,” Micronus responds. “You weren’t wrong—the attackers were. I didn’t create those bots. Which means something is rotten in the Realm. Someone is interfering with your training.”
Optimus looks around him for a likely culprit, but the Realm of the Primes is an immense, shadowy place with an ever-changing landscape. Anyone wishing to hide would have plenty of places to do so.
Transformers Robots in Disguise - The Trials of Optimus Prime Page 2
