LEXICON COMMENT:
Thank you Rachel Walker for formatting this fanfic!

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Part 1

There was that sound again. The pleasantly short, but melodic sound of the telephone woke Jenny Witwicky from her slumber. She groaned a bit, then glanced at her watch. It not only told her the time (3:15 post meridian, so it was about time for her to wake up), but instantly linked up with the telephone and informed her of the caller as well.

"Mother and father, again?" she wondered, "I am 16 years old! I can handle a few years alone here with my Autobot friend, can't I?"

Nevertheless, she got up from the couch and answered the telephone. Her father told her that he had just called to ask her how she was doing.

"I tell you, Daddy, I'm fine", she answered.

"Are you sure?" asked her father, "Things are pretty weird back on Earth these days, I'm told, especially in that strange country you're in... whatchamacallit..."

"Finland", Jenny replied, beginning to be irritated by her father's desire to nurse her. "But I've heard similar things about Mazmogad Prime, where you're staying", she told her father.

"Oh, that was your mother's idea", said her father.

He was right, Jenny knew. Jenny wasn't exactly all human - she was one quarter Mazmogadi. Her mother, Iortan-Witwicky Axawl, had been so sentimental about her parents' homeland that she had dragged her human husband there with her. Jenny, however, had insisted on remaining on Earth, and had chosen Espoo, Finland, to be the place where she spent her summer vacation.

After all the usual well-wishes had been made, Jenny closed the telephone link. She decided that she would go meet her Autobot friend for a change. Luckily he wasn't very far away.

Jenny opened the door of her apartment, stepped into the corridor, closed her door and walked the two flights of spiraling stairs down to the ground floor, where she could already see her friend parked in front of the park.

"Hiya, Punch/Counterpunch", she called to the electric blue Lamborghini sitting motionless in front of her.

"Gnn, how many times do I have to tell you that it's been just Punch for over twenty years?" replied the car.

"Oh, don't be in such a nasty mood on such a sunny summer day, just Punch", said Jenny. Just Punch, er, Punch opened his right front door and Jenny stepped inside.

"You know, Punch, I really like it here in Finland", said Jenny, "it's all so... exotic. The locals talk in their funny accent and I do my best to learn their language, but haven't really got past 'Hei, minun nimeni on Jenny'."

"What the slag does THAT mean?" asked Punch.

"It means, 'Hello, my name is Jenny'", replied Jenny, "at least I THINK it means that. But it certainly is easier than ancient Cybertronian!"

"Hmm, I suppose so", said Punch.

The mention of Cybertron made Punch silent for a few seconds.

"What's wrong?" asked Jenny.

"Nothing", answered Punch, "it's just that... I miss Cybertron."

"I have never seen it", replied Jenny, "but I know missing it won't bring it back."

"I know that", said Punch, "but I still wish it hadn't exploded 18 years ago."

Jenny's and Punch's chat was interrupted by an incoming message from the Autobot Headquarters on the Moon. Punch activated visual reception and Jenny saw the familiar face of the current Autobot leader.

"Sorry if I interrupted anything", said the leader, "but I just wanted to inform you two that we will hold a trade negotiation with a newly-discovered alien culture here on the Moon in two weeks' time. Your presence, Jenny, would be greatly appreciated, seeing as your great-grandfather Spike Witwicky was the first human to help us Autobots on your planet. And Punch, you can come too if you wish."

"Roger that, Prime", said Jenny, "bye until then."

"OK, see you in a fortnight", said Prime and the communication ended.

"I still can't get used to how you call him Prime", said Punch, "when I hear the word 'Prime' I still associate it with Rodimus Prime."

"You're so nostalgic sometimes, Punch", said Jenny, "you know very well Rodimus Prime hasn't been seen since he mysteriously disappeared 18 years ago after finally defeating the Decepticons. The current leader is Mercator Prime. He might not be as glorious as Rodimus, or Optimus before him, but he still is the leader."

"I know", replied Punch.

Suddenly Jenny remembered to glance at her watch.

"Oh my goodness", she said, "4:10 post meridian already! I'd better go to the store to get some food and then go home for dinner."

"OK, see you tomorrow, if not before then", said Punch.

He opened his door and Jenny climbed out. Punch started his engines and drove to his own garage at the row of garages a few dozen meters away.

Jenny walked in the opposite direction, towards the market Sorsakivi. Ever since the market had broken free of the Kesko chain in the 2020's, it had been customized according to its owner's tastes and was now the most interesting shop in all of Espoo. Jenny, of course, hadn't seen much of Espoo, but the shop was still interesting to her, because it was so different from American shops.

Jenny bought herself a synthetic beef steak and some synthetic orange juice to wash it down. Growing real nutrients had become so expensive that even Sorsakivi was forced to have a selection of synthetics available.

After paying for the food and walking back home to her apartment, Jenny ate her dinner and decided to have a little nap. Unfortunately, her nap accidentally became a proper sleep and she slept all the way to next morning.

The next day Jenny woke up early in the morning. She pulled the covers up, dressed in her everyday clothes, and went to pick up the newspapers. They were lying on the floor near the wooden door which led to the corridor of the second floor.

There were two newspapers: the local newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, which every apartment at the Toppelundintie area got, and the American newspaper The Times, which Jenny subscribed to directly from the US for two reasons: she liked to keep track on things in her home country and she liked a newspaper that she could actually understand.

Jenny picked up and read Helsingin Sanomat first. There were a lot of pretty pictures, but she couldn't make any sense of the most of the Finnish words. She tossed the newspaper aside and picked up the second newspaper.

She glanced at the front page: The Times, Monday June 29th 2065. Hmm, that was about right. She leafed through the pages keeping a half-interested eye on the articles. "Ho hum", she thought, "the European Union will have another committee election, two police officers shot dead in Stockholm, Sweden, how to make good Raktajino at home", stuff like that, until she come to the personal advertisements page. This was one of her favourite pages in the newspaper.

Jenny moved from one advertisement to the next, until one curious advertisement caught her eye. She read the advertisement, blinked, and then read it again. It said:

"WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 322, Oakview, CA 93022. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before."

"Hmm, this sounds interesting, adventurous, and above all, fun", she thought, "I might actually try it. I'll call Punch up and tell him the news."

She picked up the telephone and pressed the button to which she had programmed Punch's car phone number.

"Punch here", answered Punch, "what's up?"

"I think we will go on a journey", said Jenny. Before Punch could find words to express his amazement, Jenny had already put the telephone down and begun writing a letter to Oakview, California.

Ever since the invention of supersonic air mail, letters had traveled quite fast across the world. It was only four days until Jenny got a reply to her letter. She opened it eagerly and read it.

The letter was from whoever had placed that advertisement in Monday's newspaper. The writer said that he or she was intrigued by Jenny's reply and would like to meet her. "All expenses will be paid - after we get back", said the letter. There was an address located in Oakview, California in the letter, indicating the place where she should go.

Jenny hurried outside and showed the letter to Punch. At first, he wasn't at all interested in it, but Jenny kept nagging him until he agreed to have a go at it.

"OK, let's go to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport", he said, "my GPS system and road network database will inform me of the directions as we progress."

"Great!" said Jenny, shut her door and buckled up. She and Punch were on their way to meet this mysterious character.

The fact that everyone could see the lack of driver next to her in the car didn't bother Jenny in the least. She assumed that everybody would know Punch was an Autobot; after all, Autobots had driven along human roads even in her great-grandfather Spike's day, and by the time her grandfather Daniel had reached his age, Autobots were known and accepted throughout the world. Of course, Autobots were much more scarce nowadays than in her grandfather's time, but they were still known on Earth.

Punch navigated the Finnish road network with considerable ease. He turned onto Toppelundintie to the east, and after about 150 meters he curved onto Westendintie, which was a lovely little road along the eastern shore of the city of Espoo. This continued all the way up to the great road Länsiväylä, which stretched over 15 km in the east-west direction, spanning almost the whole of Espoo and a little bit of the capital of Finland, Helsinki, as well.

Länsiväylä was very quiet on such fine summer morning. Jenny estimated that this was because of the Finns peculiar habit to move to foreign locations in the summer. But Finland itself was a foreign location to her, so she guessed it was OK.

The 5 km that Punch drove on Länsiväylä passed quickly because of the high speed Punch was driving at. Then he slowed down, because he had entered central Helsinki and had to be more careful.

"Now I'll need to link up with the road information computer in Helsinki", thought Punch.

He fed a connection request to his onboard satellite antenna, which was sent to the receptor at the University of Helsinki Porthania building. The server at Porthania acknowledged the request and answered it. Punch could now see all the roads of central Helsinki as he wished.

"Good", he thought.

Punch drove a little bit south and then turned northeast onto Lönnrotinkatu. This he drove until it ended after about 1 km, when he turned northwest onto Mannerheimintie, the biggest road in central Helsinki. Mannerheimintie lasted about 3 km until it became an even bigger road, Hämeenlinnanväylä, in the north-south direction. Punch sped up a little, because he had left the commercial area and there were fewer buildings and humans here.

"We're about 14 km north of Länsiväylä now", said Punch to Jenny, "our journey to the airport is almost done. Now we'll have to move a little east."

Punch turned onto Kehä III, the outermost of the three great roads circling the most densely-populated area of Helsinki. Kehä III had a little more traffic than Länsiväylä had had, because it was a bigger and more popular road.

After about 8 km, Punch turned north onto Lentoasemantie, which continued all the way to the airport.

"Well, we're finally here", he said and drove to the parking lot of the airport where he stopped his engines and Jenny got out.

Punch shut his door and transformed into robot mode for the first time in almost a month. He had preferred to stay in car mode to blend in more easily with the humans and their cars.

"Now let's get on a plane to California", said Jenny, "but of course it will have to be a specially-built one to transport such a big hunk as you, Punch."

"Well, that shouldn't be too difficult", answered Punch.

Jenny entered the foreign terminal in the airport and took the escalator to the second floor. She walked up to a clerk sitting behind his desk.

"Hello, I have a reservation for the California flight", she said.

"And what name would that be?"

"Witwicky", said Jenny, "Jenny Witwicky."

"I see", said the man, "would there be any others traveling with you?"

"Yes, there is an Autobot named Punch", she said.

"Ah, an Autobot", said the man, "in that case you will have to fly our specially-designed Transformer transport plane. This will cost a little more and your friend has to stay in car mode for the flight. He IS a car, isn't he, not a tank or anything?"

"Don't worry, he's a car", answered Jenny, "I'll buy the ticket."

"Splendid", said the man, "that will be 2600 Finnish marks."

"You can charge it via the Internet from the Autobot central money fund", said Jenny, "tell Mercator Prime it's all agreed beforehand, by Punch and me."

"Good", said the man, "here's your ticket. Your flight will be leaving in 15 minutes from gate 1. You're welcome to sample our bar before the flight, but unfortunately we do not serve any Energon."

"That won't matter", said Jenny, taking the ticket, "Punch has already been well fed."

She walked to the bar and took her cellular phone out of her jacket pocket. She was fully aware that cellular phone use was forbidden on airplanes, but she wasn't on one yet. She dialed Punch's car phone number and asked him to transform back into car mode and drive to the plane going to California, where she would meet him.

The flight was on schedule. Jenny entered the airplane from the special walking tunnel which led right to the door, while Punch drove into its cargo space from behind. Jenny's seat was directly above the cargo space, as it was a small plane, and the floor was transparent glass so she and Punch could see and hear each other.

When all passengers had entered the plane, the 'Fasten your seat belts' and 'No smoking' signs lit up. Jenny fastened her seat belt and was thankful she had never smoked in her life. Nor, come to think of it, had Punch.

After a few hours, the airplane landed in California. Jenny and Punch got out of the plane and checked their passports at the passport checking desk. When they were outside of the airport, Jenny hopped back inside Punch and he began driving to the address given in the letter Jenny had received.

When they reached the address, Jenny climbed out of Punch and Punch transformed into robot mode. They walked to the yard and Jenny rang the doorbell. For a few seconds, there was no reply, but soon they could hear footsteps from inside the house. A woman, about the age of 30, opened the door. Jenny could see that she was a Nebulan.

"Funny", she thought, "there aren't that many Nebulans here on Earth."

"How can I be of service?" asked the woman.

"Um, hello, we've come because of your advertisement in the newspaper", said Jenny.

"Oh, right", said the woman, "that was my companion's advertisement. He's not home right now, but I suspect he will be here in a few minutes. Come in, have a warm cup of Zwoki and let's get to know each other."

The woman had introduced herself as Mnyria, a former nun on the planet Nebulos, now living on Earth. Previously, of course, she had lived on Cybertron, but since there was no Cybertron any more, she had to come to Earth.

The two women stared out of the window into the sky. Suddenly Mnyria saw a dark blue form high up in the sky and said:

"Hmm, it seems like my companion is coming back. Let's go meet him."

The women stepped outside the house where they were met by Punch, who was still standing in the yard. The dark blue form in the sky came nearer, and Jenny identified it as the form of a metallic blue dragon. The dragon came to ground level and landed on the yard.

"Hello, Mnyria", said the dragon.

"Hello", said Mnyria back.

"Who are these people?" asked the dragon.

"They've come because of your advertisement", replied Mnyria.

"Oh, splendid", said the dragon, "let's get things started then."

Mnyria took off her jacket and dress, exposing the full-body metallic armour binary bonded Nebulans wore. As the dragon started transforming into a more humanoid form, Mnyria herself transformed into a robotic head, which soon found its place between the shoulders of the robot who had been the dragon.

After a while, Punch recognized the robot.

"Stargazer!" he said, "it's been a while since I last saw you. I see you're a Headmaster now."

"Yes", replied Stargazer, "that was done on the cultural exploration trip to Nebulos I made way back in... erm... about 2038 Earthen calendar. I told Mnyria about my spiritual stuff and she was so intrigued she decided to undergo the binary bonding process with me. One could almost say we were made for each other. But I hear you've come to talk about my advertisement", said Stargazer.

"Yes", said Jenny, "we think it's interesting to go back in time. But why did you decide to go on such a curious voyage?"

"It is indeed curious", replied Stargazer, "and very dangerous. But I fear it has to be done, or else the whole Earth will be in grave danger. Are you two certain you wish to make the journey with me?"

"Yes", replied Jenny and Punch in unison.

"Good", said Stargazer, "let's get on our way, then."

Part 2

It was strangely quiet, but the three figures didn't seem to notice it. They were all thinking of the job they had to do, and only one of them had the faintest idea of how or why they were going to do it.

Suddenly one of them decided to break the silence.

"So, did you get many replies to your advertisement, Stargazer?"

"Yes, in fact I got seven, Jenny", replied Stargazer, "three asking did they have to pay their own way to get here, and if I were going to give them a bonus, and when I told them yes, and no, they cancelled, two saying I was a fool to even try such things, one asking if I was Santa Claus, and one asking Mnyria, my companion, what she was wearing."

"Oh, that explains a lot", said Jenny, "you're lucky we came here. But how CAN you manage to perform such a thing? Time travel isn't exactly going to the Central Park on a Sunday, is it? If I recall correctly it had been declared illegal even BEFORE it was invented."

"Yes, that is true", replied Stargazer, "time travel was declared illegal throughout the world to avoid people hopping through the past, present and future all the time and changing things, which could irritate other people and even lead to paradoxes, or is it paradoxi?"

Stargazer paused for a while, as if allowing someone to answer his small question. Then he continued.

"But having got the necessary technology from an alien race I will not mention yet, I decided to build my own secret time machine nevertheless. As I said, we must go on this voyage, or else the whole Earth is in grave danger."

As they were making the final touches to fully activate the secret time machine situated under Stargazer's house in Oakview, California, Punch finally asked Stargazer what was it exactly that was posing such a great danger to the Earth and how they were going to stop it.

"It's a long story", replied Stargazer, "but I will tell it anyway. I trust you all know of how the Decepticon named Trojan reactivated the detached head of Unicron way back in 2009, freeing the Decepticon leader Megatron from his 'hibernation', and the events that it caused to pass."

"Yes, we had to learn that in school in our Transformer history class", said Jenny. "Trojan's sudden disappearance from Cybertron alerted Galvatron, who was Decepticon leader at the time, and Megatron killed him inside Unicron's head. Megatron then proceeded to destroy the head itself. What's your point?"

"When Trojan activated the head of Unicron, Unicron did more than just tell him the truth about Galvatron and reveal the defunct form of Megatron. Unknown to Trojan, Unicron initiated a back-up procedure of downloading a copy of his personality to a smaller version of himself he had constructed aeons ago just in case someone would eventually defeat him. Now this smaller Unicron has awoken and yearns to destroy all Transformers. It will soon find Cybertron long destroyed, and head for Earth instead."

Stargazer's words hit Jenny and Punch like a blow to their hides.

"Holy spires of Iacon!" cried Punch.

He waited a few seconds for his voice to calm down, and continued.

"Earth's bigger than Cybertron was, and the new Unicron is smaller than the old one, so I guess the Earth will not be destroyed, but if the new Unicron is even half the size of the old one, it can be fully capable of destroying all trace of human and Transformer civilization found on Earth. Remember, humans are small, no offense, Jenny, and Autobots are scarce, Decepticons perhaps nonexistent."

"Which brings me to my second point", said Stargazer, "The Decepticons. For millennia now Autobots and humans have viewed them as the epitomes of evil, which must be destroyed from the Universe. True, they are what we would call 'evil', but we still need them. Our creator, Primus, didn't just create Autobots. He created Transformers, two distinct groups which belonged to the same race. If either were to be destroyed, the other wouldn't survive for very long. The exact facts about this are yet unknown to me, but the basic principle is clear."

"Just one small question, Stargazer", said Jenny, "how exactly DO you know all this? It's the weirdest thing I have heard so far."

"Mnyria and I have been meditating about this for a long time, consulting our own god Primus, some of your leading gods, such as Jehovah or Vishnu, and more distant, lesser known gods such as the neutral observer Ipsoftos. Some of them had theories, others had facts. A single god possesses little information, but when we collected all the spiritual messages we had received into a great database, we soon found out about this new threat. We have every reason to believe it to be true."

"Sounds good enough for me", said Jenny, "what about you, Punch?"

"Well", replied Punch, "it might turn out to be nonsense, in which case I would have nothing to fear. On the other hand, I might be in danger of getting killed. But that would be a more exciting, honorable life than I've had on Earth for the past decade. I'll go with you."

"Excellent", said Stargazer.

Somewhere outside the building, two mysterious figures were watching the spot where they had last seen the three figures they were after.

"Do you suppose it's them?" asked one.

"Who else?" asked the other, "they match the description our leader gave us, which admittedly wasn't very detailed."

"What do you suppose we do now?" asked the first one.

"They are obviously about to go on some journey", replied the second one, "we'd better split up. You go with them wherever they're going, secretly of course, and I'll wait here for their return. Is that OK with you?"

"Erm, I suppose it is", answered the second one.

"Good", said the first one, "let's do it, then."

The other figure had already left for the house of their quarry.

"Ta-da!" exclaimed Stargazer as he pulled the covers from his secret time machine.

Jenny and Punch saw a strange contraption, which had some kind of big booth and a lot of wires attached into it. Stargazer began to describe his machine.

"Anything inside this booth will travel into the past a set amount of time", he said, "but there are two problems. One, this machine cannot be used to travel to the future, only to the past. Two, I haven't yet found out exactly how the traveler is going to get back into his/her own time. But we'll deal with these problems as we face them. I ask you one last time. Are you two certain you want to go on this voyage?" asked Stargazer.

"Yes, yes, get on with it already", said Jenny impatiently.

"Good", said Stargazer.

All three of them climbed inside the booth. The door closed and Stargazer pressed a small button on his arm.

To tell the truth, Jenny was a bit disappointed. She had expected the time jump to have neat visual and aural effects - psychedelic colours, noises that oscillated from low to high and back again, perhaps even pictures of time-measuring devices - just like she had read in comics when she was a little girl.

The truth, however, was a lot more bland. If it wasn't for a slight queasy feeling in her stomach caused by the electrons in her molecules shifting unnaturally in their orbits, she wouldn't have noticed she had made the jump at all. All of it lasted less than a second.

When everything seemed to be as it was again, Stargazer started speaking.

"We have now hopefully traveled 56 years back in time, into the year 2009. I don't know who the house I bought in the early 2060's now belongs to, so we have to be very careful about going out, because we don't want to frighten anyone. Also, take note that in this time, Cybertron still exists and Autobots and Decepticons are all over the place. We will have to be very careful not to meet any Decepticons before they come into our plan."

"Are we truly in the past now?" asked Jenny, "can we somehow stop Cybertron from being destroyed?"

"No, we cannot erase what already has happened back in the time we made the jump from", replied Stargazer, "but we CAN prevent that which had yet to happen from happening, such as the small version of Unicron from getting to the Earth. Also, it would be nice if we found a Decepticon and brought him or her with us back into the year 2065."

"Huh, I am all done standing in this stupid booth", said Punch, "let's get out."

He opened the door and all three of them stepped outside into a world that was exactly the same as their own, yet strangely different.

When the three beings were gone, a fourth one clambered out of the time machine.

"Huh", thought the being, "that blasted Autobot time machine may well be the only one of its kind currently in existence, but it still makes time travel feel very strange. Now I must follow those three in secret and complete the plan our leader assigned me. A crazy plan, but our leader is also crazy, so I figure that explains why he assigned this plan to me. I'd better get going."

The being looked around the room and hid behind a pile of junk, keeping a close eye on the other three.

"Fortunately I had the foresight to build this time machine in a secret room underneath the yard of my house", said Stargazer, "because if I had built it underneath the house itself we could be going straight into someone's living room now, and our bulky size might cause damage to his or her furniture."

"Yes, I see", said Jenny as the three of them climbed onto the surface again.

Suddenly Stargazer heard a loud, angry noise. A small, four-legged furry animal came running towards him, baring its teeth and barking all the time.

"Bah weep graaagnah sheep ni ni bong, xyzzy, muuhathenipsumiini, salaam aleikum, little Earthling", said Stargazer, "what is the matter?"

The animal didn't reply.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Stargazer.

"No time for that", said Jenny, "we'd better get going."

The three quickly jumped over the fence and hid behind it.

Stargazer pressed one of his optical sensors against a hole in the fence and watched the yard. The furry animal kept staring in their direction and barking. Suddenly the front door of the house opened and a fat, 70-year-old man wearing a white jacket too flashy for his age and brown cowboy boots stepped out.

"Priscilla! Come here!" he called to the animal, "You ain't nothin' but a hound dog! Shame on you!"

The animal went abruptly quiet and retreated to the house. A frail, old voice from inside asked:

"What is it, dear? Is there some trouble?"

"It's all right, Mama", replied the fat man, "Priscilla just had another of her barking fits. Go back to bed now."

The fat man went inside the house and closed the door.

"Hmm, a strange man", thought Stargazer, "I wonder who he was?"

When they were clear of the house that would belong to Stargazer 50 years from now on, Punch and Stargazer transformed into their alternate forms. Mnyria hopped to the ground, transforming into her Nebulan mode. She and Jenny got inside Punch and Stargazer took the air above them.

Punch began driving in the direction of the Autobot Earth Headquarters.

When they arrived, they were greeted by a 34-year-old man and a small, yellow Autobot.

"Hello", said the Autobot, "I am Bumblebee and this is my friend, Spike Witwicky. Who are you again?"

Jenny looked at the man for a fraction of a second. Not able to control herself, she said,

"Great-grandfather!"

"What was that?" asked Spike.

"Erm, I just said it is great to know we don't need to go any further", said Jenny, hastily.

"Well, that is certainly true", replied Spike, puzzled.

Jenny let out a small sigh of relief. She didn't know how Spike would react if he were to find out she was his great-granddaughter.

Suddenly Stargazer took the turn to speak.

"Excuse us", he said, "we're on an important covert operation assigned directly by Rodimus Prime. We need a ship to get us to Cybertron."

"Hmm, why wasn't I told about this operation?" wondered Bumblebee.

"That's because it's covert, silly", answered Stargazer, "now give us a ship."

"Of course", said Bumblebee, "please follow me."

He transformed into car mode, asked Spike to get inside him, and began driving towards the shuttle launching site.

Once inside the ship, Stargazer took to the controls.

"Autobot Headquarters, we're requesting takeoff clearance", he said to the microphone.

"Springer here", came a reply, "you are clear for takeoff. Have a nice trip!"

Stargazer didn't wait another second. He pulled a lever and the ship took off into the clear blue sky.

When the ship had left the Earth's atmosphere, Stargazer faced his companions.

"The Autobots probably won't bother to track us any more now, they'll think we're going straight to Cybertron", he said, "and the Decepticons probably don't even know we're here in the first place. Now let's get on our way. Punch, I believe it's time for you to do your trick."

"Of course", said Punch, thinking: "I never thought I was ever again going to need this. I thought this was a part of me that was to be forgotten forever."

"Oh well", he said, and flipped over, transforming into the sleek blue Decepticon known as Counterpunch.

"I am Counterpunch, a Decepticon warrior, and these three are my prisoners", he said.

"Not bad, Counterpunch", said Jenny, "not bad at all."

In another place, another Decepticon known as Trojan was just about to return to Cybertron to persuade the Micromaster Constructor Squad to make a few supplies for him. Suddenly he heard a noise coming from the entrance. This made him jump out of sheer surprise, because he didn't expect anyone but himself and his eerie new acquaintance to be here.

"Wh-who are you? Show yourself!" he cried, turning around to the direction of the entrance.

A strange-looking blue robot showed up. Trojan was relieved to see the Decepticon emblem on his chest.

"Relax, friend", said the robot, "we don't wish you any harm. I am called Counterpunch. I was just transporting these three prisoners to our leader Galvatron but I got lost on my way. Perhaps you could help me?"

"I'm afraid I can't do much to help you", said Trojan, "in a way, I'm also a little lost here. I'll just go back to Cybertron to do a few things, and then when I come back, we'll see about your problem. OK?"

"OK", said Counterpunch. Trojan transformed back to spaceship mode and flew outside the head of Unicron.

"Phew, I thought he'd never leave", whispered Counterpunch, "now let's get this crazy plan going."

Part 3

To the casual observer, the sinister form of the head of Unicron might have looked calm, peaceful, dormant - even dead. And that was what everyone had officially believed, until now.

However, there were five beings that knew different. One of them was, of course, Unicron himself. The second, a Decepticon warrior named Trojan was currently on his way back on Cybertron - in secret, of course, just as his arrival to the head had been secret.

Unknown to the first two, the last three had completely different goals in mind. They had so far succeeded in tricking Trojan into believing one of them, Counterpunch, was a real Decepticon and the other two, the Autobot Stargazer and the human Jenny Witwicky were his prisoners. Jenny, in particular, had to be constantly kept secret from everyone else. The simple reason was that in this time, she was not supposed to have been born yet. Herself, she just hoped she could get back into the year 2065 when all this was over.

Unfortunately for Jenny, the company's mission was just starting. After Counterpunch had released his feigned hold of the two others, Stargazer addressed his companions.

"All right now", he said, "who of us knows the most about electronics?"

"Not me", replied Jenny, "my parents put me in an artistic school. Unless our mission is to perform makeshift ikebana on Unicron's wiring, I won't be of much help here."

"I know some electronics", said Counterpunch, "it was an obligatory part of the training I had to undergo in the Autobot Military Academy before I was accepted into the special intelligence forces. I know my way around a few chips and wires, but Unicron's circuitry is still foreign to me. Not in design, but in content."

"Well, that still helps", replied Stargazer, "as I meditated and came in contact with several gods, I learned a bit about Unicron's essence. If you provide the grammar, Counterpunch, I'll provide the vocabulary. If all works well, we may be speaking Unicron's language without him hearing us."

Satisfied with his metaphor, he set to work.

Elsewhere, in the vicinity of the planet Cybertron, was another robot who didn't want her presence known to others. However, she had a plan to carry out. The readouts on the surveillance radar showed her quarry was inside the head of Unicron.

She was a little bit scared of actually going there, but she had no choice. She fired up her thrusters and hoped the stealth armour she had developed for herself in the 2040's would prevent anyone on Cybertron from noticing her.

While Jenny stood watch on the rim of the gaping hole that had once housed the gargantuan mechanical and electronic structures inside Unicron's neck, Stargazer and Counterpunch had located the circuit board they were looking for and waited for the right moment to start their work. For a few seconds, neither dared to move, but then Stargazer cautiously moved his finger and touched one of the wires.

For a deci-second, nothing seemed to happen. Then, from the ceiling, came a faint, but eerie voice asking:

"WHAT IS HAPPENING? WHO IS THIS?"

Neither Autobot dared reply. The voice continued.

"IS THAT YOU, TROJAN?" it asked.

Suddenly it dawned on Stargazer that Unicron was aware of his tampering with the circuit board, but as his optical sensors had been inoperative for four years, he couldn't see who was tampering with it.

"Yes", replied Stargazer, in a very low voice, hoping Unicron would mistake it for Trojan's.

When they were convinced Unicron had been fooled into thinking Stargazer was Trojan and had relaxed, Stargazer and Counterpunch resumed their work.

"Can you make anything of it?" whispered Stargazer.

"It's still quite foreign", whispered Counterpunch back, "but the design is actually quite simple. Luckily Trojan had already done the most work for us. Now you must tell me how Unicron exactly is going to create that small copy of himself."

For many minutes, Stargazer and Counterpunch stood in front of the circuit board, asking each other questions about Unicron and doing whatever work they could do on the board. This was not an easy task. Trojan had to keep his work secret from Galvatron. Stargazer and Counterpunch had to keep theirs secret from Galvatron, Unicron AND Trojan.

Finally, Counterpunch stepped away from the circuit board, breathing a small sigh of relief.

"There", he said, "from what I've estimated this should keep Unicron thinking he actually is copying himself to the small copy after all, but at the same time prevent him from actually doing so. I've cut off the I/O streams of the personality copying routine from the actual routine. The routine will still be activated when it receives any signal from the input stream. However, my hook will prevent it from reading the input stream at all. Regardless, the hook will send information to the output stream telling Unicron all is going well."

"That's good, that's very good... I hope", replied Stargazer.

He, too, stepped away from the circuit board and decided to go check on Jenny, if she had detected any intruders.

"I see two craft approaching", said Jenny, "both purple, with Decepticon markings. The one closer to us looks like a space shuttle, but the one further away looks like a fighter aeroplane with inverted wings."

"That'll be Astrotrain carrying Trojan, followed by Cyclonus carrying Galvatron", said Stargazer, "right on time. All right Counterpunch, the stage is yours once again."

As Counterpunch resumed his feigned hold of his 'prisoners', Jenny started back to the place they had been when they first met with Trojan. She shot a final glance to the inky blackness between the head of Unicron and Cybertron, and could see a third speck of motion behind the craft known as Cyclonus. She didn't know what it was, and disregarded it. Their mission in the head of Unicron was almost over.

All was going according to the plan. Stargazer picked up Jenny in his hands, and Counterpunch pointed his weapon at Stargazer's head. Jenny thought she could already hear Astrotrain approaching, but the atmosphere inside the head of Unicron was actually much too thin for that. Jenny didn't notice, as she had been in a spacesuit all the time.

Astrotrain did indeed land, and Trojan emerged from him, pushing an anti-gravity cart in front of him. When both were outside, Astrotrain transformed into robot mode.

"Boy, this place is creepy", he said.

"It's not too bad when you get used to it", nodded Trojan.

Trojan and Astrotrain walked along the corridors inside the head of Unicron. Passing Counterpunch, Trojan nodded to him, signaling his notice of him. Counterpunch nodded back, signaling all was still under control. Astrotrain, however, did not notice the two other robots standing in the shadows.

After a few minutes, Trojan and Astrotrain stopped in a large, hexagonal-shaped room.

"We're here", said Trojan as he put his cart in place in front of some exposed circuitry.

"WELCOME", came a faint whisper from the room. Astrotrain jumped, frightened. Trojan forced him to calm down and they went on with their business.

As Trojan was helping Unicron revive Megatron, and thinking Unicron was copying himself to the storage cube (when he actually wasn't, thanks to Counterpunch's and Stargazer's modifications to the personality copying routine), Stargazer once again turned to Counterpunch.

"We'd better leave before Cyclonus and Galvatron arrive", he said, "let's get back to the shuttle. If Trojan and Astrotrain inquire about us, we'll tell them you are taking us as prisoners to Cybertron, while actually we're going back to the Earth."

"Roger that, Stargazer", said Counterpunch, "let's go."

The three of them were already in their shuttle when they heard the cry they had been expecting.

"TRAITORS!" came an almost deafening, obviously furious shout from the other end of the huge construct.

"That's Galvatron all right", said Stargazer, "we'd better not run into him if we want to avoid any mix-ups here in our past. Let's find another way to get back into space."

Inside the head of Unicron, Galvatron and the revived form of Megatron had already started fighting against each other. Of the five Decepticons there, all were too busy to notice the small Autobot shuttle craft depart from the back side of the head of Unicron.

Inside the shuttle, the two Autobots thought they had evaded all the problems. In reality, though, they were not so lucky. Totally unannounced, a sixth Decepticon appeared in front of them. The Decepticon was in the guise of a red and white jet, with very aerodynamic wings.

"Starscream!" gasped Counterpunch. Jenny, however, inspected the new Decepticon a bit more accurately. Starscream was dead, she thought, that couldn't have been him. Suddenly the truth dawned on her.

"That's not Starscream!" she shouted, "It's Windchaser, his daughter!"

At the same time, Megatron watched as the lifeless form of Galvatron dropped to the floor in front of him. He watched it for a few seconds, then relaxed.

"Good riddance."

These words snapped Trojan, Astrotrain and Cyclonus back into reality from the trance-like state they had been in watching Megatron and Galvatron battle for life or death. Megatron turned into each in turn, asking if he had their total and utter loyalty and obedience. Cyclonus and Astrotrain answered, of course, in the affirmative.

When Megatron came to Trojan, however, he said: "You have initiative, Trojan. Courage. Intellect."

Trojan began to smile in secret, absorbing the praise Megatron gave him and wishing to meet that nice Decepticon, Counterpunch, again.

He wasn't so lucky. Megatron continued by grabbing him by the throat and throwing him into the casket that he had once carried the seemingly lifeless form of Megatron himself in.

"You have TOO MUCH initiative, Trojan. You're very dangerous. How can I be sure you won't betray me someday?"

Trojan was too scared to speak, or even think. Megatron went on about Galvatron's and his own mistakes, then pointed his fusion cannon at Trojan's face. Trojan's last thoughts were about how he would never again see Counterpunch and how he had found the true cause of Galvatron's madness.

When Astrotrain was departing the head of Unicron carrying Cyclonus and Megatron, Megatron had unintentionally erased all trace of Counterpunch, Stargazer and Jenny ever having been inside the head as far as anyone native to this point of time knew.

Soon he was about to erase all trace of Unicron himself ever having existed.

"Megatron's no doubt left the head by now", said Stargazer, seeming to panic, "according to the history books I salvaged from Cybertron before it was destroyed he's going to destroy the whole head now! We've got to get away or we will be killed along with Unicron!"

At the controls, Counterpunch shouted back.

"Yes, of course! But how? We've got a crazy Decepticon after us, and apparently she doesn't know anything about Megatron's plans!"

"We'll explain later!" shouted Stargazer, "Right now concentrate on escaping! I'd rather die shot in the face by Windchaser here than blown to bits by Megatron's explosives!"

"OK, here goes nothing..." cried Counterpunch as he forced the Autobot shuttle craft into a dive below Windchaser.

The sole reason he succeeded in getting past her was that she was still facing toward the head of Unicron, while the shuttle craft was already facing away. Windchaser had to waste almost half a second turning around, and in that time the shuttle craft was already hundreds of meters away.

"I'll get them sooner or later", thought Windchaser, "even my father is almost three times as fast as that Autobot shuttle, and I'm even faster! I'll just kick in my thrusters and wait..."

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted as an entirely unexpected, gigantic explosion came from behind her and knocked her unconscious. Lacking fuel input, her thrusters gradually slowed down and shut off, leaving her to drift away along her current flight path.

Windchaser didn't know it yet, but the blast had also damaged the shuttle's engines. Both craft drifted helplessly through space, until they finally crash-landed onto a tiny asteroid tens of kilometers away from the spot where the head of Unicron had been.

Of the four unconscious forms, Counterpunch was the first to regain consciousness. "I guess it's no use continuing this pretense any more", he thought, and transformed back to the Autobot Punch. Windchaser would know who he was in any guise, anyway.

Punch stood up inside the shuttle and shook Stargazer and Jenny awake.

"Uhh... what happened?" asked Jenny.

"Apparently Megatron did indeed destroy the head of Unicron", replied Punch, "knocking all four of us here on this tiny asteroid."

"Four?" asked Jenny. "Yes", replied Punch, "it seems your friend Windchaser is here too."

Windchaser regained her consciousness slowly. Unaware that she had just missed meeting with Trojan, which would have been quite a noteworthy experience in her life, she turned her attention to her original target, the Autobot shuttle craft. Two Autobots and one fleshling emerged from inside it. She transformed into robot mode and stood up, facing the shuttle.

"Hold, Autobots!" she shouted, pointing her arm cannons at them. "You are my prisoners! Don't move or I'll kill you!"

"And then what?" asked Stargazer, "You would still be stranded in this timeline, which is apparently your past as well as ours. The time machine you must have come here in is my invention, and is not perfected yet. You need our help if you ever wish to go back into 2065."

Stargazer had hazarded a guess that this Windchaser was indeed from the future, as was he himself. He didn't know where the Windchaser native to this timeline was, but he guessed she was back on Earth, being taught military things by someone equal to her father, Starscream. Luckily, his guess had been right.

Windchaser lowered her guns.

"You're right, Autobot", she said, "I do need your help in finding a way getting back to the future. But what the slag shall we do now?"

Part 4

"I believe this is the first time I've actually set foot inside an Autobot shuttle craft", thought Windchaser as she cautiously entered the small shuttle, "I hope I won't develop a habit of this."

"Relax, Windy", said Stargazer, "all you have to do is cooperate with us and we won't keep you any longer than is necessary. You told me you already have been a prisoner of the Autobots once, well this time you're not our prisoner. We're in this together for our mutual benefit."

"Yes, I suppose you're right", said Windchaser, closing the door behind her.

All four of the newly-formed team were already in the shuttle. Punch pushed the ignition switch and the shuttle took off.

The flight back onto the Earth was done just as secretly as the flight from the Earth had been. This time, the Autobots wouldn't probably mind seeing the unidentified shuttle craft, because most of them were already (albeit falsely) informed it was on a covert mission from Rodimus Prime himself, but it had to be kept totally secret from the Decepticons.

As the journey from the asteroid near the place where the head of Unicron had been to the Earth took several hours, Windchaser, Stargazer and Jenny had time to have a conversation as Punch steered the shuttle to its destination.

"What exactly ARE you going to do to get us back into 2065?" asked Windchaser.

"Well, I don't know if it'll work, but we'll try anyway. We've learned quite a bit about you in 2065, you know. We know you were born by a creature called a 'Changer' from the planet Gaudron. While none of us has actually been to Gaudron, I suppose there were very potent... spiritual powers there. Your mother might have carried a few of them to the Earth with her, where she met your father, Starscream."

Windchaser felt a twinge at the mention of her mother, Shifter. Her father had, of course, told her about her, but still there seemed to be some kind of mystical field around her memory. There were many things Windchaser knew of her mother, and even more she didn't.

Windchaser snapped back into reality from her memories when Stargazer resumed talking.

"I believe when we are to combine your mother's natural spirituality with my learned one, we might well come across a means to send us back into the future. But to do that, we must meet your mother when she is still alive."

"That means we'll have to time travel again", said Windchaser.

"Exactly", replied Stargazer. Shifting her reclining form, Jenny murmured to herself:

"And there I was thinking this would be a simple, quick mission... never such luck with Autobots..."

The shuttle soon landed back at the spaceport of the Autobot Headquarters in California. Springer's familiar voice could be heard through the commlink.

"Welcome back, Stargazer! How was your mission?"

"It was fine, a total success", replied Stargazer, stepping out from the shuttle.

Mnyria hopped down from his shoulders, transforming into Nebulan mode. Stargazer himself transformed into dragon mode and took wing.

Soon after them came the two other original occupants of the shuttle craft, Jenny and Punch. Punch transformed into car mode and the two women stepped inside him. Springer eyed them from the control tower, seeing nothing unusual about them. What he did see as unusual, however, was the third female.

"A Decepticon?" asked Springer as he saw Windchaser stepping down from the shuttle.

"Yes", replied Stargazer, "we have taken her as our prisoner. She has quite grown into it, I think."

"OK", said Springer, and dismissed the Decepticon.

It wasn't until several minutes until Spike came panting to the control tower.

"Springer, you must hear this", he said, "I've finally gotten through to Rodimus Prime when he was leaving that faraway planet he was doing negations in. I told him about Stargazer's 'covert operation' and he said he didn't know anything about any operation!"

Springer stood up from his chair. "Those guys have got some serious explaining to do!" he said.

But the five occupants of the shuttle were already several kilometers away.

Stargazer and his companions arrived once again at the house that would belong to Stargazer after a few decades. Jenny looked around to see if the current owner was anywhere to be seen. Fortunately, there was no sign of the fat man.

Jenny and Mnyria stepped out from inside Punch. Punch transformed into robot mode, and Mnyria opened the gate to the house. Behind them, Stargazer and Windchaser landed, transforming into robot mode, with Mnyria taking her place as the head of Stargazer.

All four figures went to the secret trapdoor which hid the entrance to Stargazer's secret laboratory. Stargazer opened the door and led them down to the laboratory itself. Windchaser, the last one in, closed the trapdoor behind her.

When they were near the time machine, Stargazer at last turned to face Windchaser and asked her when she remembered her mother last being alive.

"Um, let me see..." began Windchaser. After several seconds she finally concluded. "About 1988 in Earthen notation, I guess."

"Great!" exclaimed Stargazer, "now we'll set the time machine to take us back in time another 21 years!"

With that, he drew the covering cloth off his time machine.

"Um, excuse me", said Jenny, knocking on Stargazer's metallic leg, "how do we know that we still won't find any way to get back into 2065 from 1988? What if we get trapped in a time 77 years before our own?"

"That is indeed a very great risk", said Stargazer, "and I cannot guarantee my plan will work. But hey, what choice do we have?"

Soon everyone was in the time machine again and Stargazer pressed the button. The jump into the year 1988 was even less spectacular than the jump into the year 2009 had been, because they were traveling through less time than before.

Stargazer opened the door and the four figures climbed out of the time machine.

"If I'm right, we should be in 1988 now", he said.

Turning to Windchaser, he asked: "Do you have any idea where your parents would currently be?"

"Somewhere around the Autobot Headquarters, probably", replied Windchaser, "we will need passage there once again."

"Leave that to us", said Stargazer, leading the companions back up onto the surface.

Once outside his secret laboratory, Stargazer eyed his surroundings. The house obviously didn't belong to the fat man in this time. The only occupant in the yard was another four-legged carnivorous creature like the one that had belonged to the fat man. However, this one was shaped differently. Its body was all white, but its nose and ears were black. The creature was lying on its back on a small, red house, obviously asleep.

Stargazer didn't want to stir the strange creature in its sleep, but instead led his company out into the street. Looking back, he could see a young, male human with scarce hair and an orange and black shirt coming to wake his animal companion up. Luckily the human didn't see Stargazer or any of his companions.

"As far as I remember about Transformer history", said Jenny, "we should now be in the time prior to Unicron's coming to Cybertron. The current Autobot and Decepticon leaders should be Optimus Prime and Megatron. The Nebulans should currently be meeting the Transformers for the first time, so Stargazer, don't let anyone know you're a Headmaster. And Punch, I seem to remember you first enrolled into the Autobot special forces in 2006."

"Yes, that is correct", said Punch, "I will have to keep a low profile. Fortunately, that's what I, as a double agent, do best."

"What about me?" asked Windchaser, "Will I need to hide from anyone?"

"Erm, let me see..." said Jenny, "you should be fine if you just don't tell anyone your real name. Pretend to be one of the Seekers your father is the leader of."

"Oh, right", said Windchaser.

"Now if we're all done discussing our cover stories", said Punch, "let's go to the Autobot Headquarters!"

He transformed into car mode, and Stargazer and Windchaser transformed into their respective dragon and jet modes. Jenny and Mnyria climbed inside Punch, and the two aerial Transformers took to the air above them. Their target was once again the Autobot Headquarters in California, but this time at a different point of time.

At the Autobot Headquarters, Bumblebee and Spike Witwicky were once again the first to meet the companions. But luckily these two were, in a sense, different from the two they had met in 2009, and so didn't know anything about their feigned "covert operation" from Rodimus Prime, who himself didn't exist yet.

Jenny looked at the current version of his great-grandfather. This one was not a 38-year-old man, but a 17-year-old boy. He spotted Jenny.

"Hey, you look cute", he said, "do you want to go out for a soda?"

"There's no time for that", replied Jenny.

"Oh, all right", said Spike.

Jenny was glad she didn't have to date her great-grandfather.

Stargazer took the role of the speaker once again.

"We need passage to the restricted area beyond Autobot Headquarters", he said, "Optimus Prime needs us."

"For what?" asked Bumblebee.

"Sorry", said Stargazer, "that's strictly confidential."

"OK then", replied Bumblebee, transforming into car mode, "just follow me."

Luckily Spike and Bumblebee had not yet spotted Windchaser, who walked in her robot mode about 10 meters behind the two cars. She didn't know what explanation she would give if she was discovered in the Autobot Headquarters.

Once inside the restricted area, after Bumblebee and Spike had left, Stargazer asked Windchaser where her parents would most likely be.

"My father and I spent a lot of time together on a beach a few kilometers from here", she replied, "I suppose that's where they are now."

Elsewhere, a few kilometers away from Autobot Headquarters, two powerful, aerodynamic jets were slowing to a halt, transforming into robot mode.

"Now, what was it that you wanted to show me?" asked one.

"This is how I got my name", said the other and changed shape into a small humanoid creature, seeming to glow as bright as a G-type star.

"What are you?" gasped the first being.

"My people call ourselves 'Changers', we can transform to anything we desire as long as it is alive", replied the other, "but this is our original form."

The two of them continued talking to each other, not noticing the small shuttle craft several hundred meters above their heads. The shuttle landed behind their backs, still unnoticed.

"All right now, let's get this over with", said Stargazer. He eyed the two forms in the distance, which were unlike anything he had ever seen.

"I suppose those are Starscream and Shifter", he said, "I really hate to interrupt their secret tryst, but we have to do this to return to our time."

"Hmm", thought Punch, "Starscream will probably get suspicious if he saw an Autobot or a human, and Windchaser looks too much like himself. Perhaps it's best I transform to Counterpunch once again."

"Yes, do that", said Stargazer.

Punch flipped a few internal switches and transformed into the Decepticon Counterpunch.

Shifter flew up so that she was at Starscream's eyelevel and put her hands on his faceplate, a strange form of energy flowing from them. Then he blacked out.

As Starscream was lying unconscious on the ground, Shifter noticed someone tapping her shoulder. She turned around, facing a Decepticon Transformer she couldn't identify.

"Do not be alarmed, Shifter", said the Decepticon, "we won't do anything to you. We just need your help."

"Who are you? How do you know my name?" asked Shifter.

"That, along with a lot of questions, will be answered shortly. Right now we need to get away from Starscream."

Counterpunch led Shifter to Stargazer, who explained her the unfortunate state the four of them were in, trapped in their past, trying to find some means of getting them back to their own time.

"I know a way", said Shifter, "but it won't be easy. I cannot even guarantee it will work in the first place."

Stargazer asked her what the way was.

"When I came here from my planet Gaudron several years ago", explained Shifter, "my people had such a powerful urge to flee from the planet's destruction that we decided to make a spaceship for faster travel. I, the last survivor, hid the spaceship a few kilometers away from here. It is a very special spaceship, capable of reaching places other ships can't. Perhaps it could lead you to someone capable of fulfilling your need."

"Then let's find this spaceship!" said Stargazer anxiously.

"One moment", said Shifter.

She placed her hand on Stargazer's faceplate. A kind of energy flowed from her fingertips to Stargazer's shared mind. Stargazer experienced a few seconds of strange dizziness, then cleared of it and asked Shifter:

"Now what on Cybertron have you done?"

"I have shared some of my 'Changer' knowledge with you. While I couldn't risk giving you actual 'Changer' powers as I did Starscream, I believe I have supplied you with enough spiritual information to find my spaceship and fly it to whomever you think will help you on your way."

"But what about you?" asked Stargazer, "Will you come with us?"

"No", said Shifter, "my place is here with my loved one, Starscream."

"Good", replied Stargazer, calling to Counterpunch, Jenny and Windchaser, "let's get on our way, then."

Looking back, Stargazer could see the semi-dormant form of Starscream shifting in his place.

"Uhh..." moaned Starscream as he stood up. Shifter didn't even have the time to say goodbye to her new friends as she ran to Starscream.

"What have you done?" shrieked Starscream as he looked at his hands, which seemed to glow as bright as the Changer herself.

"And we know what happened next", said Windchaser in the distance, "so let's get out of here before we interfere with that."

The companions found the spaceship Shifter had told them about in a very well-hidden place, out of anyone's vision. The ship was utterly spherical in shape, with some kind of crystal forming its front, and only, window. There was no visible door to the ship, but Stargazer pressed his spiritually-enhanced hand against the surface, and a door big enough to allow full-sized Transformers through opened in the wall. Everyone hurried inside the ship, the door sealing itself shut behind them.

"Wow, this is truly a strange ship", said Stargazer, looking around, "I hope I can fly this thing. Hold on tight, everyone."

Counterpunch, Jenny and Windchaser sat down on the ship's floor as Stargazer curled up in a form of lotus position and closed his eyes, beginning to chant some sort of mantra Shifter had given him.

To everyone's utter amazement, the ship rose from the ground with no visible means of propulsion. It left the Earth quite hastily, seeming to disappear into the blue sky. When they were certain no one could see the ship from the Earth any more, Stargazer stopped chanting and resumed speaking, still not daring to open his eyes.

"OK, we're off the Earth", he said, "but where shall we go?"

"Don't ask us", replied Jenny and Counterpunch, in almost perfect unison.

"When I was newly created or 'born' as the case might well have been", said Windchaser, "my father told me how my mother had told him about some kind of place a few selected races used to know in the days where the universe was still young, and Primus and Unicron themselves were just forming into the formidable metallic giants they became in our days. The 'Changers' were one such race, and I believe my mother knew of this place. I think that's where we should go."

"Well, you could have told me about it sooner!" said Stargazer, half-jesting.

"Let's try that, then", he continued as he forced his thoughts deeper into the "Changer" knowledge Shifter had given him.

The ship resonated with his thoughts and set forth on a new course.

The ship entered a starry nebula many giga-meters away from the Earth. Looking out of the window, Jenny, Counterpunch and Windchaser could see blindingly bright streams of light they knew to be images of stars seen at a speed nearing that of light itself.

Suddenly the ship sped up even more, causing the outside view to blend into a weird mess of colours. As the speed rose, the passengers of the ship started to black out. Jenny was the first to go, Windchaser following her. Counterpunch stood awake a few seconds longer, then he, too, collapsed onto the floor. Stargazer sensed he was the last one conscious, and desperately tried to maintain some control over the ship for a vital twenty or so seconds, then he also blacked out.

When the four companions came back into consciousness, the first thing that they sensed was that the ship had stopped and even buried itself half-way to the surface of some planet. What planet, nobody aboard the ship knew for sure.

Jenny, Windchaser, Counterpunch and Stargazer climbed out of the "Changer" spaceship, which sealed itself shut behind their backs. As Counterpunch transformed back into Punch one last time, Jenny and Stargazer took a look at their surroundings.

The surface was unlike anything either of them had ever seen. The ground was composed mostly of light peach-coloured rock, with purple cactus-like plants growing all around. Most of the landscape was either vast, empty plains or huge, looming mountains, but to one side, a group of menacing-looking black, metallic towers could be seen.

Suddenly Stargazer realized what the place was. He could barely hide his excitement as he said:

"I have heard several legends about this place, but I wasn't certain it actually existed... until now! My friends, I bid you welcome to the mysterious, solitary planet of Hypsis!"

Part 5

"So tell me, Stargazer", said Windchaser as they were crossing the vast landscape of the planet they had ended up on, "what exactly is so special about this planet?"

"According to legend, this planet, Hypsis, is supposed to be home to all the 'gods' or other deities in the Universe. Which is good for us, as luckily we will find some being here potent enough to transport us back to our own time", answered Stargazer.

He was silent for a few seconds, then added:

"Providing he or she is willing to do it."

After a while they came close to the largest group of sky-high towers they had seen from the site where the 'Changer' spaceship had crash-landed.

"These high, mighty towers must be connected to large planets such as Lucratia, Nebulos or even Earth. Those smaller towers over there", gestured Stargazer, "are surely for smaller planets like Mazmogad Prime or Bhooyuti. We'll just try to gain access to one of these towers."

The companions walked towards a great black tower more than 400 meters high. They tried to enter through the gates, but two sturdy alien guards wearing steel armour, spiked helmets and brown cloaks stopped them.

"You can't come here!" one of them shouted.

"Why not?" asked Stargazer.

"Because you do not belong under this god!" answered the guard.

"Then what shall I do?" asked Stargazer.

"Find the tower of your own god, of course, stupid being!" said the guard in reply.

"How will I know which tower he is in?" tried Stargazer asking.

"Do I look like a god - erm, something - damned information bureau?" shouted the guard, "If you want to know, go look for it!"

Stargazer thanked the guard for his helpfulness and walked back to join the others.

Stargazer, Windchaser, Punch and Jenny traveled for many hours, trying dozens of towers, each time getting the same response. Finally Jenny sat down, exhausted.

"This is futile!" she cried, "Unless we figure out something ourselves we'll never gain access to any of those towers!"

Punch sat down beside Jenny.

"Unlike you, we Transformers do not suffer from fatigue", he said, "but we still get bored in extreme circumstances, such as this one. Let's find some cause why we can't find our god anywhere."

Everyone was quiet for a few minutes, until suddenly Windchaser spoke.

"I've got it!" she said, "Our god isn't here in the first place! Remember, we are Cybertronians. Our god is Primus, who has since his 'creation' inhabited Cybertron itself, unlike the gods here. If we want to meet him, we must go back to Cybertron!"

"But how?" asked Stargazer, "The 'Changer' spaceship must have been damaged in the landing. And even if it isn't, I still don't know if I can fly it back to Cybertron. My passing out has almost erased the 'Changer' knowledge Shifter gave me."

"Then we have no choice but to find some other god", said Jenny, standing up, "I suggest we forget about the big towers and go for the smaller ones instead. Maybe we'll find some tiny tower left unguarded."

Everyone thought that was a good idea, so they set forth away from the big towers, towards the small ones.

Elsewhere, the high goddess Zaheislik sat on her throne in her audience chamber. The throne was made of solid onyx, and was decorated with bones of the race she had helped create.

Zaheislik moved her hands away from the armrests, which ended in white grinning skulls. To tell the truth, the bones actually sort of freaked her out. She had instructed her servants to put them there because it added to the fearsome impression she caused on her followers, not because she would like it. As of this moment, she was a bit bored.

Since civilization had developed on the planet Ordum, on which she reigned as high goddess, only very few of Zaheislik's followers had come to see her. Those few that had, had usually done so only to offer their regular animal or plant sacrifices. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Suddenly the lift doors opened. Zaheislik realized she had slid down on her throne a little, making her appear lazy. She quickly straightened out in case she needed to appear fearsome.

Through the doors entered a quite normal-looking, mature male Ordumian, looking somewhat like a furry lizard. He walked a few decameters through the chamber, and stopped in front of the goddess's throne, bowing so deep he needed to drop down onto his knees to avoid falling down.

"Yes, yes, what is it?" asked Zaheislik.

"O Mighty Goddess", began the Ordumian, "it is with great shame that I must report I have failed to provide my sacrifices this year. I expect to be punished duly."

Zaheislik leaned a bit forward to study the creature more closely. She struggled to remember what she had usually done to punish such offenders. However, as the last one had been about 24 millennia ago, she couldn't remember.

"Erm, what was I supposed to do to you?" she asked, trying to hide her embarrassment.

Luckily the Ordumian didn't notice it.

"But O Goddess", replied the creature, "everyone knows you punish those who fail to offer their sacrifices with death. I have sinned, and I expect to receive my due punishment."

"Really?" asked Zaheislik.

"Yes, O Goddess", replied the creature.

"Very well then", said Zaheislik. She snapped her fingers briefly, and the Ordumian was engulfed in blue flames, which burned his body to a crisp. In less than a second, the flames died down, leaving only a small pile of soot to signify the creature ever having been to the audience chamber.

"I'd better have someone to clean up the floor", thought Zaheislik.

Much to Zaheislik's amazement, the doors opened again. This time, however, the creatures that entered were not Ordumians, but beings she had never before seen in her life. Three of them were large and metallic, a little bit bigger than herself, and one was organic, with a weird pinkish skin colour and weird garments, small enough to be used as a pet on Ordum.

Zaheislik was so excited about these newcomers that she stood up and walked through the chamber to meet them, an act she hadn't done in many hundred millennia.

"Who are you, if I might ask?" she asked the beings.

One of the large, metallic beings answered her question.

"Eh, sorry for the intrusion, O Mighty Goddess of something-or-other", he said, "my name is Stargazer and these are Windchaser, Punch and Jenny Witwicky."

"Good afternoon", said Zaheislik. The others replied in kind.

After the greetings, Stargazer resumed speaking.

"I was wondering if you could help us. We have traveled back in time 77 Earth years, and are looking for a means to get back to our own time. Do you know anyone who might help us?"

"Earth, eh?" asked Zaheislik, "I have never heard of that planet. I'm really just a simple high goddess of one inhabited planet a few or so peta-meters from here. But I know someone who might help you."

"And who might that be?" asked Stargazer.

"A god called Ipsoftos the observer lives in a tower very near here. He hasn't got a planet of his own, and so he is willing to help just about anyone who cares to visit him. Just tell the guards I sent you and they will let you in", answered Zaheislik.

"Thanks, O Goddess", said Stargazer, "we'll get right on our way."

He led his companions back into the elevator. After the doors had closed Zaheislik walked back to her throne, sitting down in a comfortable position.

Once out of Zaheislik's tower, the companions traveled in the direction she had pointed them in. Soon they came to a similar black tower such as hers had been - about 50 meters high, with only one guard guarding it. The guard was dressed in a simple leather and silk uniform, and didn't look very menacing.

"This must be Ipsoftos's tower", said Stargazer, "let's try to go in."

He walked up to the guard, who was instantly on alert and also approached him.

"Hey! You! Where do you think you're going?" he asked.

"We're seeking the god Ipsoftos, I hear he lives in this tower", said Stargazer.

"Well of course he does! But he doesn't accept just about anyone, you know!" replied the guard.

"But we're not just about anyone", said Stargazer, "we have been sent here by the mighty goddess Zaheislik herself."

The guard's grim look instantly became a more delightful one.

"Why didn't you say so?" he asked, "Zaheislik and Ipsoftos are old friends. Right this way, and you will come to see His Highness."

He stepped out of the way, allowing Stargazer and his companions to proceed to the elevator leading to the tower.

Inside the tower's topmost chamber, the companions saw a huge throne similar to that of Zaheislik's, but this time carved from amethyst, not onyx, and without any bones. On it seemed to rest an Earthen man about 21 years old, with pale skin, short blond hair, and rectangular eyeglasses. He was dressed in dark grey jeans and a black shirt with a white grid pattern. He didn't look much like any of the companions had imagined a god would look like.

The man was alerted to the companions' presence and stood up from his chair. He walked the two decameters it took him to stand close to the newcomers.

"Erm", began Stargazer, "we are seeking the god Ipsoftos. I am called Stargazer and..."

He was cut short by the young man.

"Oh yeah!" he said, "We two have been in spiritual contact before! Remember, you and Mnyria meditated and contacted me? Why don't you introduce us?"

"Oh, OK, if you want", replied Stargazer, "Ipsoftos, these are Punch and Jenny Witwicky, my Autobot and human friends from Earth, and Windchaser, a Decepticon we picked up along the way. Everybody, this is Ipsoftos the observer, freelancer god."

"Are you really a god?" asked Jenny, "You don't look much like one."

"Ah, but looks are always deceiving", replied Ipsoftos, "you should know that, because you hang out with two Autobots and a Decepticon. If you want a god who doesn't look like this, I'll give you one."

In the next instant, he changed form into a giant two-headed dragon, the body of which was silver, one head red, the other green.

"Ouch!" muttered Ipsoftos as one of his heads smashed against the ceiling, "I always forgot how low this room really is. But anyway do you see my point?"

"That proves you have magical powers. How do I know you are really a god, and not just someone with natural mystic powers like the 'Changer' Shifter, whom we met on Earth a while ago?"

"OK, I'll show you something mortal magicians can't do", said Ipsoftos, reverting back to the form of the young blond-haired man, "watch this."

Ipsoftos opened his palm and began moving his fingers in an undulating pattern. A small stone sphere about 5 centimeters in diameter appeared between them. At first, the sphere just rotated, but soon it began to develop a layer of water, which caused the surface to form into a texture of dry land and wet sea.

"Here comes the fun part", said Ipsoftos. He reached for his pocket with his other hand, picking out a small pebble which he placed on the sphere. He blew slightly on the pebble.

To everyone's amazement, the pebble began changing shape. It became bigger, assuming the form of a humanoid creature, less than half a centimeter tall. The being looked around itself a few times, then sat down and said:

"Oh! I am alive! But where am I? And why is there no one else here? Perhaps I am the only chosen one of our god! Pretty neat..."

"Satisfied?" asked Ipsoftos as he placed the sphere on the ground.

"OK, I accept", said Jenny, "you're a god. Now can you help us?"

"I'll try my best", replied Ipsoftos, "what's your problem?"

When Stargazer had told Ipsoftos about their problem, Ipsoftos changed shape to a small mouse which squeaked:

"Yes, I see. Traveling back through time can be very dangerous if you don't know how you're going to get back into your own time."

"But can you help us?" asked Stargazer.

"Hmm, I may be able to", replied Ipsoftos, changing shape into a large humanoid robot, with eight arachnid legs sprouting from its back, "but I've never tried anything of the sort before. Even though we gods are supposed to be omnipotent, it still doesn't mean we do everything all the time."

As Ipsoftos changed back into the shape of the young man with the black shirt, he and Stargazer reached an agreement. Ipsoftos would try to send them back into their own time, to the location they had been in when they first traveled through time, which was the secret laboratory under Stargazer's yard in Oakview, California, Earth.

When Ipsoftos and Stargazer had discussed all the important stuff, Jenny asked Ipsoftos:

"You seem to be rather fond of changing your shape all the time. What, pray tell, is your original shape?"

Ipsoftos changed shape to Auguste Rodin's 'Thinker' sculpture, giving the impression he was thinking about it. After a few minutes, he reverted to his previous form and said:

"Funny, now that you mention it, I think I have changed my shape so many times I have forgotten what I originally looked like."

When all was ready, Ipsoftos stood facing the four companions and asked:

"OK everybody, are you now certain you want me to try this?"

Stargazer looked at his friends, as if relaying Ipsoftos's question. After a few seconds of silence, Stargazer replied:

"Yes, we are ready."

"Good", said Ipsoftos, "then let us begin."

Ipsoftos changed shape to a solid, circular dome around the four companions. Then he began chanting a simple, quiet mantra, which he added most for the effect. Inside him, the four companions wondered what might happen next.

Jenny was the first to notice that the whiteness of Ipsoftos's interior began to change colour. It became pale shade of pink, which deepened to a rose colour, then into a vivid scarlet.

"What is happening?" she asked Stargazer.

"As I suspected", replied Stargazer, "we are experiencing the Doppler phenomenon applied to light itself. When we made the two time jumps back in my laboratory, we saw no such phenomena because we were only moving through time. This time, however, we are also moving through space, and at quite a large velocity, too. Ipsoftos's essence remains around us until the jump is complete, but the actual atoms which emit the light we see around us are staying behind on Hypsis."

"That was quite an... interesting explanation", said Jenny.

"Don't worry, I am not fully certain of it myself", replied Stargazer.

After a few seconds, Stargazer closed his eyes and sat on what looked like the floor. Then he stood up, opening his eyes, and said:

"I have been in contact with Ipsoftos. He tells us he has completed the jump and we should be back on Earth. He will now dissolve his essence from around us and let us see for ourselves."

The scarlet colour of the 'wall' around the companions became a deep crimson, then a dark red-brown colour, which finally faded into black.

"It is done", said Stargazer.

"If we are on Earth again", said Jenny, "then why is it so dark?"

At first, no one seemed to have an answer. Then finally Stargazer slapped his head (being careful not to hurt Mnyria) and said:

"Oh, silly me! My time machine is powered with electricity, and it consumes so much power that a single activation was enough to drain all the power the California electricity plant has given us the day we left. That rendered the light bulbs inoperative."

"Never fear, your favourite double agent is here!" said Punch, lighting the headlights on his arms. He pointed his arms around, and looked at what the light cones illuminated. He soon recognized the walls he saw as those around Stargazer's secret laboratory.

"It looks we're safely home, folks", said Punch, "now let's find out WHEN we are here."

"You guys stay here for now", said Jenny as she opened the trapdoor that connected the laboratory to the outside world, "I'll come to pick you up later."

Outside, Jenny looked around herself, noting that the place they had arrived in indeed was Oakview, California. She began searching for some indication of the current date. After a while she found a newspaper stand.

"Good afternoon, how may I help you, miss?" asked the newspaper man.

"Umm, I would like a copy of The Times, please", replied Jenny, fingering some loose change in her pocket.

"That'll be $1.50, miss", said the newspaper man, handing the newspaper to her.

"Here", said Jenny, handing him a dollar bill and two quarters.

"Thank you, miss", said the newspaper man, "have a nice day."

"You too", replied Jenny as she walked away from the newspaper stand.

Anxiously, Jenny looked at the date of the newspaper. Tuesday 30th June 2065, said the paper. Jenny let out a small, quiet exclamation of utter joy. She and her Transformer friends were back in their own time again.

Jenny went back to Stargazer's house and opened the trapdoor in the yard.

"You can come out now", she said to Stargazer, Punch and Windchaser.

One by one, the robots climbed out onto the yard. Fortunately, people in this time had grown used to seeing Autobots, and hopefully no one would spot Windchaser was a Decepticon.

"Well, it looks like we've succeeded", said Stargazer, "if I'm correct Unicron will now stay dead and not come to threaten Earth as I originally feared. But we will have to wait until the foreseen deadline until we know for sure."

"When would that be?" asked Jenny.

"Oh, in about two months", replied Stargazer, "if we don't see a hint of Unicron by October, I guess we're all OK."

"But it sure took us a lot of effort to 'kill' him", said Punch, "it might have been easier if your time machine had worked in both directions."

"He's right", said Windchaser, "we can't go meet my mother and some crazy gods every time we decide to go on some mission. It just isn't done."

"Relax, my friends", replied Stargazer, "we won't have to travel through time for a long time, hopefully never again. And besides, we should be glad that we have 'killed' Unicron and brought back a Decepticon, so both factions shall exist once again."

"What do you mean, 'once again'?" asked Windchaser, "We've been here all the time. You just didn't notice us, because we were so few and had to be in hiding."

"Even better", replied Stargazer, "that means we've not made the aesthetic crime of altering the past by bringing back a Decepticon, especially one native to the same time as our own. How many ARE you Decepticons now, exactly?"

"Oh, about 20", replied Windchaser, "but we're in quite a disorganized state. You Autobots are lucky to have Mercator Prime as your leader, but after our great leader Megatron died for the second time, there has been no one to replace him."

"Hmm, that might soon change for the better", said Stargazer.

"What do you mean?" asked Windchaser, confused.

"You'll see", replied Stargazer enigmatically.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation", said Jenny, tapping Stargazer on the foot, "but shouldn't I and Punch be getting back to Finland? After all, Mercator Prime, my parents and mostly everyone else expects us to be there."

"You're right", replied Stargazer, "we will go get you two a flight ticket right away."

Punch drove Jenny to the airport after Stargazer had given him enough money for one human and one Autobot to fly from California to Finland. Stargazer himself stayed behind with Windchaser, planning what he would do with her.

At the airport, Jenny and Punch got their ticket and got on their plane. On the plane, Jenny thought to herself:

"Well, it was quite an adventure. We met Autobots, Decepticons, humans, 'Changers', even gods. I can't wait to tell my parents or Mercator Prime. But whether they'll believe any of it, will be a different matter..."

The End