"intermezzo - n. A brief entertainment between two acts of a play."
- American Heritage Dictionary
"The year is 2020, and Cybertron is at peace. An uneasy peace, to be
sure, with the black hole formed by Unicron's death hanging sullenly in the
sky overhead. But with Megatron also in that black hole, peace is possible. Earth has nearly recovered from the devastation resulting from the sudden loss of its Energon reserves, and the mighty ComiCon International in San Diego is about to..."
"What are you talking about, Jolt?" Sparkplug demanded from the entryway of the Space Bridge control room. "You're not thinking of going to Earth, are you? We're not supposed to let them know we still exist! They're still pretty bitter over that devastation you mentioned, you know. They're barely back at the level they were at when we first woke up on Earth."
"Oh, come on, Sparkplug. It's ComiCon! I'll pass myself off as a cosplayer, I can even make a hologram to make it look like I'm taking off a helmet, look," Jolt took his head in both hands and lifted it, revealing a smiling human face underneath. "And with my recent upgrades, I'm big enough that it's plausible for this to be a costume. It won't be a repeat of that carnival, I promise."
"And what are you going to use for money? Or ID? And why does that face look familiar?"
Jolt mimed putting his red, pointy "helmet" back on. Aside from size, he was still much the same as he had been in the days right after he'd been wakened on Earth. "In reverse order, then. The face is a computer merging of the faces of Rad, Carlos and Alexis as they were at age 21. I've used our computer hyperlinks to create an identity for myself, much like in the Shawshank Redemption...meet Jay Holt, president of Mini-Con Productions! I've been making a little money here and there helping small local conventions get in touch with business-minded people who can help them not be total financial failures. And selling t-shirts. Not a lot of money, but enough to go to San Diego and buy a lot of neat stuff! Anyway, I have a driver's license, a credit rating, and a lot of friends on Earth who are dying to meet me in person. Pleeeeeease? All my favorite webcomic creators will be there, Sparkplug! Willis, Burns, Burns Junior, Abrams, Vernon, the computer program that replaced Poe..."
"Okay, okay," Sparkplug relented. "We need an on-site scouting mission soon anyway, we'll call this a cultural recon. To see how Earth's bouncing back from the disruption we inadvertantly inflicted on them."
"Wiigii! Want me to bring you back anything?"
"How about absolutely no reports of being outed by the human press?"
"Gotcha," Jolt beamed. He made a mental note to get himself a mouth instead of a faceplate someday, so he could smile.
* * * *
Carefully affixing his badge to his chest with a dab of glue, Jolt walked into the San Diego Convention Center. He'd seen exploding stars, rips n space, dark gods the size of planets...but they were nothing compared to this.
"I'm HOME!" he shouted, holding his arms up in triumph.
"Yeah, yeah. You and ten thousand other fanboys," muttered the security guard, who was eyeing Jolt's rotors a bit nervously. "Think you can check those blades?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'll stow 'em," Jolt replied embarrassedly. The rotor blades folded together, then sank into a recess on his back. He made sure to do it a little more slowly than usual, to maintain the illusion that this was halting and primitive Earth technology.
This seemed to satisfy the guard, and Jolt walked out into the crowded floor, consulting the map he'd downloaded. Here he was, and he still couldn't decide who to see first...well, the Blankspot Tales complex would probably be a good start, so he set out in the direction of the giant inflatable robot gorilla.
"Heh. Robot monkeys. Like that'd ever happen," he chuckled to himself as he passed two men dressed up as Machine Man 2020.
"Hey, where'd you get that symbol?" came a voice off to the side. Jolt turned to see a man dressed in a sort of superhero armor costume...with a Mini-Con Plate as the breastplate of the armor! "The M, I mean. On your side, the bit that looks like it should turn into a cockpit door."
Jolt was stunned for a moment. His sensors told him that the breastplate didn't just look like a Mini-Con Plate, it WAS one! And there was another on the man's back! But...hadn't all the Mini-Cons been waken up to fight Unicron years ago? "Um, huh? Oh...it's the logo for my company, Mini-Con Productions. Trademarked it a few years ago...where did you get yours?"
The man stepped back, a bit defensive. "Hey, I found these while spelunking, they were all bent up, figured someone had just thrown them away and they'd bounced down into the cave. Don't get all cease-and-desist on me, man."
Jolt spread his hands placatingly. "No, no...not invoking lawyers or anything. Just curious. Kinda weird coincidence, though...I don't suppose you'd sell them to me, after the costume judging I mean?" A card emerged from a slot on his chest, and he held it out. "My card. Jay Holt."
The man took the card a little suspiciously. "I'm Charlie Robinson...or Mightyman in this getup," he grinned weakly. "I'll think about it. I put a lot of work into fixing these things up." He pocketed the card. "Anyway, I gotta meet someone for lunch, I'm sure I'll be able to find you later."
"Or call me. I, ah, have my mobile in here with me," Jolt explained.
Charlie nodded, and started working his way through the crowds again.
Two of Jolt's brothers were playing the part of armor. They must have been too damaged to wake up when the call went out before, but now he HAD to rescue them.
But if Charlie wouldn't sell, what could he do?
* * * *
After several minutes of indecision, Jolt finally gave up and went after Charlie. He could still sense the Mini-Con plates, which gave him a start, anyway. Normally, an inactive plate didn't give off such a strong signature, which worried him a little...what if they both woke up while still strapped to Charlie's back? That could hurt, not to mention the unwanted publicity it might cause.
As he impatiently checked out, he sensed the plates starting to move more quickly, inside the parking structure as far as he could tell. "Terrific, Charlie's eating out off-site..."
He was cut off, and nearly run over, by a car transport truck barreling along at a seriously unsafe speed. It was carrying a number of race cars for the auto show scheduled to take place *after* ComiCon, so what was the hurry? But...the truck was heading towards the parking structure entrance. And so was Charlie.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jolt muttered as he broke into a run, leaving very obvious dents in the pavement. No time to be subtle.
SCREEEEKRUNCH! The vehicles smashed into each other!
Taking a single mighty leap, Jolt landed next to the two mangled vehicles. Charlie's pickup had come out the worse in it, but fortunately had been hit on the empty passenger side.
"Charlie, are you okay?" he asked, but the man was stunned. The chestplate made from Mini-Con plates was in the truck's lockbox, Jolt's sensors told him. They also told him that a fuel cell had sprung. Hydrogen wasn't nearly as dangerous as petroleum had been back in the day, but it could still catch fire or even explode under the right circumstances.
The truck driver was staggering out of his cab. Jolt couldn't tell if the driver was in a chemically altered state of mind, or if it was just the shock of the impact, but the man was in no way a reliable witness. Nor was Charlie, who was unconcious.
Tearing the driver's side door out of its warped frame, Jolt carefully unbuckled Charlie and carried him what he guessed was a safe distance from the wreck, handing him off to one of the members of the small crowd he now saw had started forming. Slag it. At least one of them probably had a camera.
He ran back over to the truck, popping the lockbox open with one hand and scooping out the Plates with the other. And a quick spark from his finger torch to set the escaping gas on fire and make Charlie think the loss had been due to a fire....
The Plates were practically humming, and Jolt could feel them scanning nearby objects for alternate modes. He could keep them from awakening fully, but not for long.
"In for a penny, in for a pound...a pound of pennies, I guess," Jolt said as he leapt into the air, transformed and flew away.
* * * *
Jolt landed in the desert and released the Plates, which burst open in a flare of green-tinged light. The sleeping Mini-Cons held in them finally awakened, their bodies showing signs of the vehicles their storage Plates had scanned minutes before.
"I'm Reverb," the blue Mini-Con who must have scanned Charlie's truck introduced himself. "What's going on? Did the ship crash?" He spoke in the binary tones that made up the Mini-Con language.
"And I'm Six-Speed," the green Mini-Con added, also in Mini-Con tones. He looked like he'd scanned one of the cars on the truck's trailer. "I don't see any wreckage."
Jolt shook his head, sparing a moment to mourn the loss of his Jay Holt identity. At least he had a partner who could take over Mini-Con Productions, but he'd have to erase his tracks now that he'd probably been photographed by a dozen people. "It's been a long time, the ship crashed ages ago. Most of us woke up fairly recently, and we thought everyone had been picked up. I think your Plates were just too damaged to respond, but one of the locals somehow repaired the damage by accident while making the Plates look pretty."
"Huh," Reverb looked around. "I don't suppose we could thank him?"
"Who'd want to be local to HERE?" Six-Speed added. "What a dump."
"The whole planet isn't like this, Six-Speed. And I'm afraid we're not even supposed to be recognized by the locals. I blew my cover to save you guys, but we have to get out of here, and back to Optimus Prime."
"Whoa whoa WHOA," Six-Speed waved his hands in a warding gesture. "I took that ride to get away from the Autobots. And Decepticons. Mostly the Decepticons, but I don't really want to be around either side."
Reverb grunted agreement.
"That war's over, guys. Megatron and Unicron are both sharing a cozy black hole, we don't have to worry about being exploited anymore," Jolt explained.
"I don't care," Six-Speed replied. "They all just wanted to use us for power."
"But where can we go?" Reverb pointed out. "If we're not supposed to be seen on this planet, and the Autobots control the way off..."
"Maybe I can help with that," a fourth figure suggested. It was a pale gray Mini-Con who was stepping out of a shimmering gash in spacetime. "My name is Safeguard, and I work with someone who is neither Autobot nor Decepticon."
Jolt would have blinked if he had eyelids. "Excuse me, but is today 'Mini-Cons I don't know drop out of nowhere' Day?"
Safeguard chuckled. "My partner, Vector Prime, keeps an occasional eye on this planet, and he sensed those two emerging from hibernation," he gestured at Reverb and Six-Speed. "Vector Prime left Cybertron while Autobots and Decepticons were just starting to form their cultural identities, I'm afraid he's a bit naive about them. But the point is, he's not like either. He doesn't seek power, he seeks knowledge. So I'm his partner, not his tool. You could work with us."
Six-Speed looked sceptical, but shrugged. "I think I heard about that Vector Prime once. Nothing bad, though. I guess it'll do until something better comes along."
Jolt thought about the trouble waiting for him back on Cybertron, and how the shadow life he'd built for himself here on Earth was pretty much over. Maybe.... "Okay, I'm in."
"Then I'll go too," Reverb nodded. "I don't wanna be all alone here."
Safeguard patted Jolt on the shoulder. "Let's be about it, then! Follow me, and the secrets of the universe await!"
"We'll have an adventure, not unlike the Goonies?" Jolt quipped, drawing confused looks from the other three.
"Anything to get out of this dump," Six-Speed muttered as he followed Safeguard through the rift.
"Is it okay if I hit some of those secrets? With my fist?" Reverb asked as he dove in.
Jolt took one last look around, then transmitted his "Go To Hell" plan to the server in Nebraska that pretended to be Jay Holt's home. And an apology to Sparkplug.
"Goodbye, Earth. See you later, I hope."
And then he was gone too.
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Author's Notes:
As I write this, I have not yet seen the first few episodes of Cybertron, due to Cartoon Network's odd programming decisions (which may include making people buy 'em on DVD if they don't want to wait until the show goes into reruns!). Nor have I downloaded any of the Galaxy Force subs, although there's no guarantee the story won't be seriously altered between the two.
In other words, I'm guessing based on even less information than usual here. :) The online content for the Recon Team indicates that they've been palling around with Vector Prime for a while, and even call the Giant Planet home. On the other hand, Jolt's also Hot Shot's old Mini-Con partner. Could be two different Jolts that turn into helicopters, or it could also be that the first Jolt moved to Giant with Vector Prime at some point and now considers it home. And so, this story.
I also wanted to theorize about some of the apparent inconsistencies between Armada/Energon and Cybertron, regarding Earth. And so I did. :)
Oh, and as seen on Cybertron's early eps as well, orders to not be seen by the locals don't mix well with moral standards and a desire to save lives, eh?