By: Nina He
Void opened her eyes and saw the frost washing off her purple metal plates that made up her arms. She had arrived at Cybertron, her home planet. But at a huge cost. Void had left her buddies behind. Redstreak. Flame. Trustworthy. Fly. For this planet that she once called home.
Remains of the buildings that used to stand, proud and tall, were scattered all around the area that Void was in. She marched forward, the water from the frost washing off in tiny streams.
She had to find survivors from the war against the Deceptions and bring them back before it was too late. But…The Deceptions had won, so was there a chance that there weren’t any survivors at all?
There has to be…or I left them behind for nothing.
Void would find the other Autobots and together they would rebuild the planet. Void knew she couldn’t go back for her friends. They wouldn’t be there. Stupid Deceptions.
But Void had made a promise. A promise to make Cybertron just as wonderful as she had left it.
…
“They found us!” Trustworthy burst in. “The Deceptions found us!”
Fly, who was attempting to carve out a hole big enough for the five Autobots, immediately stopped. “I thought we cut off all connections to the other Autobots. How did the Deceptions find us?”
“I don’t know.” Trustworthy began herding everyone towards the lake. “Redstreak, get Void to the lake. Fly, Flame’s out there.”
Fly shield mask mechanized into view. “On it.” He ran the other direction.
“Wait, Fly!” Void ran after her brother.
“I’ll be fine!” Fly called back.
Trustworthy, the oldest of the bunch, grabbed Void back. “Hey! My brother’s out there!” Void twisted out of Trustworthy’s grasp.
“No.” Void was surprised about how deep and grave his voice was. She stopped in her tracks. “Void, you must go back to Cybertron. The war there had stopped raging. You must go back and find the survivors. Rebuild our home. Don’t come back here.”
“But—”
“There are no buts!” Trustworthy said sharply. “You must go to Cybertron and save the survivors. Promise me.”
Void couldn’t say anything else but a promise back.
Trustworthy mechanized back into a small truck and disappeared, rumbling, into the forest where the Deceptions were fighting.
“Now come on,” Redstreak turned into his signature car, a red SUV and rolled off into the direction of the lake.
Void followed as she mechanized back into her tiny black micro. She vowed that one day, she would get revenge.
…
“HELLO?!” Void yelled. “ANY SURVIVORS THAT NEED MY HELP OVER HERE?!”
Void could’ve imagined it, but there seemed to be a mumble of a reply. More like a whisper. Something that wanted to be found, but could live without being found. Void followed towards the direction of the whisper.
This better be more than one Autobot.
Void hoped it wasn’t a Deception. She was smaller than Bumblebee, which was a small Autobot she heard stories of. Bumblebee was a survivor of the war, and Optimist Prime (he once had an important role in leading the planet) was alive, so perhaps the other Primes all were! They might not be on Cybertron, but maybe on a different planet.
Void kept walking. After a few minutes, Void called out, “You still there?”
“Here.” A reply somewhere behind Void. She doubled back.
“Are you here?”
“Right under you.” Void looked down and saw a face. She didn’t get spooked. She just kinda looked at him. The rest of his body was buried under piles of rubbish from the war.
“Who are you?”
“I’m a survivor of war, the one and only Firefly!” The voice sounded robotic now.
“How big are you?”
“At least thrice the size of you.”
“Hey! I’m the one saving you!”
“Ever heard the phrase the smaller the merrier? Not.”
“Stop being so mean and I might consider rescuing you.”
“I don’t need your rescuing.”
“Then what are you doing buried eight feet in all this rubbish?”
“Okay.” Firefly winced. “Maybe I need a little rescuing.”
Void spent the rest of the day pulling Firefly out the trash. Firefly was three times the size of Void, about the size of Redstreak, just a little bit bigger. He was bright orange and had two car doors as a shield on his chest.
“What’s your name?” Firefly asked, dusting off his arms and legs.
“No need to know.”
Firefly looked up. “I told you mine.”
“I asked and you answered.”
“I asked too!” Firefly protested.
“And I didn’t answer,” Void said. “Now let’s see if anybody else is alive.”
Firefly and Void went around the planet, looking for any other Autobot. They found a ton of dead ones. Firefly knew two. Wind and Glacier.
“Wind and Glacier were glued together, even in times of battle,” Firefly sighed. “They were twin sisters.”
“Just like me and Fly,” Void mumbled. She took a moment to grief. “But that’s over now. Come on. Chop chop. Cybertron isn’t going to rebuild itself.”
“Wait—what.” Firefly looked shocked.
“We’re rebuilding Cybertron,” Void explained to him, slower this time.
“We can’t. We need more Transformers if we’re going to rebuild all this,” he said, gesturing to the whole planet.
Void blinked. “But I made a promise.”
Firefly snorted. “Well, that promise requires much more than just two Autobots, so let’s find the rest of them.”
“Do you know where they are?” Void asked hopefully.
“Where’d you come from?” Firefly asked.
“Here.”
“No. You must’ve escaped somewhere from the war against the Deceptions,” Firefly corrected. “Where was that place?”
“Oh. That’s Earth. Fly, my brother, Redstreak, Fame, and Trustworthy were there with me. Until they—” Void blinked. “Until—well, you know what happened. Until the bad guys found us and…and…killed the others.”
Firefly didn’t talk.
“Well, they’re dead now,” Firefly said after a moment. “So…let’s find other Autobots.”
“I would if I wanted to, but I don’t know where they are,” Void said.
Firefly traced a circle in the ground. “I might be able to help with that,” he said. “Since we all scattered, then we must’ve gone to planets near here. If we find the other planets, we just might be able to find the other Autobots.”
Void blinked. “Sounds like a horrible plan.”
“I don’t even know your name and I’m already making plans for you,” Firefly said.
“It doesn’t really matter.” Void grinned. “Now let’s save some Autobots.”