Transfans Post-R Continuity (AKA CancerTron)

[bumblemusprime]

So far I think it's me, MV, Besty, Shanti and Jack Cade signed up for this thing... other interested parties pop into the thread and sign up.

Improv rules: whatever someone else comes up with, you must riff on it and incorporate it into your next couple issues. Each person posts a brief synopsis of one to three issues in two to five paragraphs.


IT BEGINS...

with a bang. A nuke, in San Fransisco, naturally. In what is in nowaytall an homage to G2, we see the smiling folks, the sunny day, and the FLASH. Skin burns away. Skeletons crumble. A woman watches from the military base in Alameda as the destruction races for her and thinks, "I could have stopped them."

From here we jump around in time. Jump. One year previous, just after the events of Maximum Dinos, the nation of Brasnya has announced that they have made contact with extraterrestrial life forms--giant robots. Our woman from the first scene flees a bar where said news is blaring. She is chased by an army... of herselves. Facsimiles. Jump. Three months later, the United Nations touches down in the capital of Brasnya. A robot awaits them in front of the capitol building. "I am Hot Rod," Hot Rod says, somewhat stiffly, "leader of the Decepticons." Soundwave monitors sinisterishly from the dark, and dispatches Rumble to attend to a dying Megatron, in an infirmary, the mass-shifting having burned out his body.

Megatron watches a monitor of Hot Rod. "Even if we do kill him, he'll do what Autobots always dream of. He'll make... lasting peace between our races."

Jump. One year ago. Optimus Prime watches Nemesis Prime die. N.Prime's eyes are like supernovas, his fingers reaching for O.Prime like unfolding nebulae. Jump. Back to nine months ago. The Autobot ship is nearly to Earth, O.Prime awakening from another dream of N.Prime's death. "Almost to Earth orbit," Bumblebee says. "That much closer to hearing Sunstreaker whine again," Sideswipe says.

Jump. Now. A view from orbit. Below, the radioactive cloud spreads across the West Coast. The tattered corpse of Optimus Prime floats into our view. It is gradually pulled down into the atmosphere, disappearing like a meteor.

Aaaaand I made a bunch of **** up, now go.

[snarl]

*Oh, I appear to have spectacularly missed the point! ok, let me just summarise this as an issue then...*

OK, my issue:

A disgruntled UK based Jazz is having difficulty sending his latest facsimile report back to San Francisco. Overcome with frustration, his report becomes a rant directed at Prowl over his loyalties and Jazz's effective expulsion from Bot HQ...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

London, England

In Glorious Sunshine, a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS nonchalantly prowls the Streets of a Tower Hamlets council estate...

This is Autobot codename: “Jazz”, Autobot Special Ops deep cover announcing a remote update on the current surveillance programme monitoring Facsimile defined as “Cameron” in London, England [Earth Zone “Euro 1”] a locale in which the Decepticon threat level has recently been upgraded to “Substantial”

Prior to transmission, please note protocols seem to be malfunctioning from your end [San Francisco, USA], this remote update is released on that proviso.

Report Highlights

• First contact achieved with Junior Minister “Hugh Abbot“
• Estimated ore-13 reserves present in “Euro 1”...

Christ – There’s lots of Ore-13. ******* hell Prowl. And I know my "earthen dialogue” gets your back up, but ****, I’m just being the bot I’m programmed to be. Special Ops. Deep cover. Adopt the local customs, blend in. Now, what am I doing here? I’m key.

You do not place special ops on "babysitting ****** ******* Facsimilies" missions, and bury them under bureaucracy and insist they stick to your rigid reporting system – Which you insist I do for what reason? Well this I assume... is because you’re a prick? Sorry, let me explain.

Prick: A local term.

The kind you don’t like... Naturally, I love it...

It means you’re “overly logical” - hell, I guess that means you're just being the bot you're programmed to be...

I digress. Engage your logic circuits and listen: Your operation lacks style. You need me, no other bot can broadcast your messages to the troops in a palatable manner, can they? You provide the substance, let me get on with getting it over in style.

We work well, you sinister logical asshole! And those BLATENTLY bare, exposed, tender circuits you thought you masked over whole ranking issues whith Hot Rod...

Who I hear has gone even further up the ranking ladder in my absence... Keep your friends miles away and your enemies so close they become Decepticons?

It’s hardly BUPA here. Ratchet promised a schematics update on my arm...

Get me back.

Report terminated

[Metal Vendetta]

Brasnya. Natasha, the woman from before, is fleeing her own clone army. She makes it to a small town and bursts into the local bar, where a group of drunken Brasnyan soldiers ignore her obvious distress and make suggestive comments about her appearance. As she tries to get out, one grabs her and the situation looks about to turn ugly when her facimilies burst their way into the bar. The drunken soldier lets go of her arm and gazes in awe at the army of identical attractive women. "I think I can now die happy," he says - prophetically, as the clones flip into "battle mode", overpower his comrades and viciously kill them. Natasha just manages to escape the mayhem in the bar and gets outside, finding herself surrounded - but help is at hand. A red and gold sports car speeds up, knocking facsimilies out of the way, and one door flips open. Hot Rod's avatar paraphrases Ratchet's line from Infiltration: "Come with me if you want to stay alive."

We cut to Washington, where President Alexander Holt is delivering his inaugural speech. After thanking his supporters for their invaluable contribution to his campaign, he addresses the public's concerns over event in Brasnya. He has spoken to his Russian counterpart and together they are sending a diplomatic mission to make contact with the newly-revealed Decepticons. He stresses that the public should not panic - that they have not yet determined the nature of the threat, if indeed there is a threat to face. Behind him, the screen shows the imposing figure of Megatron.

Megatron's Brasnyan base. Astrotrain reports to Megatron that with the facsimilies in place more than 75% of Earth's nations are directly or indirectly under Decepticon control. Megatron notes that although their situation would seem to be secure with the Autobots off-planet and the humans subdued, the loss of Sixshot has weakened their position and calls for reinforcements. He privately muses that if the troops left under his command would be so insubordinate as to resurrect the traitorous Starscream, perhaps it would be better to eradicate the Earth Infiltration unit entirely. But he needs them for now, and it won't do to get careless, he thinks, as his eyes come to rest on the decapitated body of Runamuck, lying on a slab. Thundercracker interrupts this reverie by revealing that there has been a problem with the Brasnyan facsimile production base and that important material is missing. Megatron, in no mood for failure, orders that it be tracked down and burned.

Hot Rod pulls into a motel where his avatar and Natasha check in under assumed names. Once safely in their room, Natasha demands to know what's going on. Hot Rod's avatar (let's call him Judd for ease) takes out a laptop and briefs Natasha on the Brasnyan cloning facility - he's had it under surveillance, and the incident that led to her escape was his chance. He tells her that he's going to take her to safety, and that she should trust no-one else.

Outside in the parking lot, Hot Rod (still in car mode) thinks to himself that he's worse than the Decepticons. While Judd's doing everything he can to convince Natasha that she's going to be all right, he knows full well that the real Natasha has been dead for two months. This Natasha is a defective facsimile where the Decepticon controls failed to take, and so is essentially a carbon copy of the original with all the same thoughts, feelings and memories. If he can get her to the Autobots, they have a chance of locating and exposing the other facsimiles, but extracting the genetic code would mean killing her. Hot Rod agonises over the choice he has to make when -

Skywarp materialises in mid-strafing run and missiles begin tearing up the motel.

[Legion]

The motel is a burning mess, the air is full of the sound of people screaming, burning wood and explosions. In Natasha and Judd's room things are little better. Judd is pinned down by a section of callapsed ceiling and Natasha has been knocked unconcious.
Outside, Hot Rod is still in car mode, not wanting to engage Skywarp directly and reveal his presence. His concern is growing as the Decepticon, despite having practically levelled the motel in his first barrage is still circling over head, watching the carnage unfold below.
He knows (via Judd) that Natasha is still alive but every moment she remains unconcious and in the burning ruins he risks losing her which would cause a major hitch in the plan to expose the other duplicates. The sound of emergency services approaching catches his attention, as it does Skywarp who breaks off his circling to begin a strafing run on the approaching vehicles. Hot Rod wonders if this is his chance to make a rescue attempt.

Cut to the approaching Autobot Ark. Prime is in the communications hub under the excuse of monitoring troop movements, all round him various reports are coming in; Prowl has lodged a complaint about one of the deep cover agents; Brainstorm is requesting information from Jetfire about the Pretender process; Huffer is filing a report about a special project being behind schedule on it's construction and Blaster is whipping up the troops with one of broadcasts. In reality Optimus Prime is just trying to distract himself from the nagging memory of the battle with Nemesis Prime and Galvatron, despite seeing them both die, he is sure that he has overlooked something, despite logic telling him otherwise. He is distracted by Hubcap barging in. Hubcap explains that he's been monitoring Earth's communications channels and he shows Prime the transmission of President Alexander Holt's speech. Prime's eyes narrow in concern and he notes that he wishes that a diplomatic solution was indeed the answer to this problem.

Back at the hotel Natasha is regaining conciousness, thanks in no small park to Judd's constant shouting of her name. She rallies herself and attempts to free Judd from the wreckage but he insists that she shouldn't worry about him, that she should get back out to 'my car' and get out of there as fast as she can. She picks up the now broken laptop but again Judd insists that it doesn't matter, that there is a backup in his car and that she should just get out of there. She doesn't want to leave him behind, he helped her and now she wants to repay the debt. With a surprising (to both herself and Judd) display of strength she's able to move the wreckage that was pinning down Judd (who is continuing to insist she doesn't bother) and manages to drag him out of the burning motel.

Outside looks just as much of a warzone as the inside did, but amazing their car seems to be perfecly intact and waiting for them in just the right place. She loads the complaining Judd into the passenger seat and goes to climb into the drivers seat just as a deafening sonic boom occurs as Thundercracker comes looking for Skywarp who is busy 'playing' with the humans when he should have returned to base already and Megatron is not happy. Natasha is knocked unconcious by the sonic assualt but Hot Rod is already accelerating away as fast as he can before she's even finished passing out at the driver's wheel. However, neither Natasha nor Judd/Hot Rod have noticed the graze to her upper right arm, the injury revealing that she is not quite human.

[bumblemusprime]

I've got to jump back in. It's too good not to.

We go back to the robo-infirmary where Megatron lies dying. Starscream comes into the room. "Come to kill me?" Megatron asks.

"Nothing so cliche," Starscream says. "The Decepticons will be mine in a few days, anyway."

"Days?" Megatron laughs. "Months, if at all."

"Well, you see," Starscream says, "it seems that Optimus Prime is coming back to this planet. And given that you beat him last time you used Ore-13, it might be that one more charge of Ore-13 would lead you to beat him again. It might, perhaps, help us lead an attack on a ship full of prominent Autobot officers. Of course, that much Ore-13 might also kill you."

Megatron stands up, visibly weakened. "If only your executions matched your logic," he says, "you might survive the purge when I die. In a few days."

Cut to Jazz, speeding along a lonely Midlands road and scaring the shepherds. His avatar guns it as he thinks of Prowl. A distress signal breaks into his dashboard. It's Hot Rod. "I broke Decepticon cover," he says. "Prowl would chew you out," Jazz said, "but every other 'bot knows they never bought your shtick in the first place. I'll be there in the morning." "Morning?" Hot Rod shouts. "I'll be dead in hours! Do something! At least distract the Decepticons!"

Jazz, after protesting, pulls over and turns on the news, hearing Holt's speech. "Ambassador Jazz," he says. "That'll really piss Prowl off."

Prime sits in his captain's chair, unable to shake the vision of Nemesis Prime. He sees expansion, expansion as Nova Prime originally planned it. An empire, with a dictator at its head.

He remembers a conversation thousands of years in the past, with Ultra Magnus. "I used to think I would kill Megatron, even if he begged for his life," Prime said. "I'm not sure I would anymore."

"Someone would step in to take Megatron's place," Magnus said. "At least Megatron has demands. Can you imagine if that sadist Starscream were in charge?"

"Unless," Prime says, "someone could control both factions. Manipulate Autobots and Decepticons so they think they are making peace for the benefit of both."

"We are dropping from FTL," Hubcap says. "Sunstreaker's head signalled us. He wants a few words with you."