Chapter 1 : The Reformatting
All this was happening way too fast for Spike Pickles. One minute, he, Carface, Sasha, and Itchy were sent on a mission to Cybertron. The next minute, they were on some unknown planet. `This is weird. I wonder if the others survived.' Wondered Spike as he looked from behind a statue. A huge wheel crushed a flower. Spike yelped. The robots that were chasing him have found him! "Get away from me! Leave me alone!" Spike yelled as he turned and ran. The robots, Vehicons actually, chased the Greyhound Mix down an alley. Spike then saw his chance. A moving cart was nearby. He just needed to jump into it and he'd be safe. But he was in for a surprise.
`I should be safe in here' thought Spike. He lifted his front paws and climbed in just as the Vehicons zoomed by. The dog felt something soft and familier. A dachshund head poked out and glared up at him. "Hey! This is my hiding spot!" It was Itchy! Spike could hardly believe it. Itchy survived the attack after all! Spike asked, "Itchy?" Itchy's face softened. "Spike?" Spike held out his paw. Itchy took it. They shook hands until a blast was heard. "Jump, Itch!" The two dogs jumped out. Behind them, they heard an explosion. The cart they were in was now just a pile of junk! They were lucky, this time.
Itchy the dachshund looked up at Spike with a worried face. His body shook with fright. "What do we do now, Spike?" The Greyhound Mix looked down at his friend. He didn't have to think to give him an answer. All Spike could say was, "RUN!!!" A Vehicon with huge mechanical shooting legs was upon them! The robot was about to shoot missiles from its legs when a roar sounded out. Spike's eyes widened. So did Itchy. They recognized that voice. Itchy looked up and yelled, "Carface! Is that you?" "It's me." The gray wolf leaped out from behind a building and crashed into the Vehicon. "Leave them alone!" screamed Carface. But the Vehicon grabbed his leg and through him aside.
"Yaaaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Carface landed on top of Spike. Spike struggled to get up, but the wolf's weight was too much. He sulked back down. "Carface," the mutt said, "Will you please get off of me?" Carface looked down. He saw Spike was underneath him and he got up. "Oops, heh heh heh. Sorry." "That's okay. Now let's get out of here!" Spike pointed to a small crevice. Itchy waddled over. He took one look and backed off. "Oh, no. Do you think that I'm . . . um . . . I mean, we are going down there?" the mutt looked at Itchy with a leering face. Spike growled, "We have no choice! We either jump or we end up looking like yesterday's trash!" Itchy yelped and said, "Oh okay. Okay. But don't come crying to me when we're dead." Spike chuckled lightly. The canines looked down the crevice. Then at the robots. They were closing in fast! Everything seemed to happen in a split second for Spike Pickles when he yelled, "Jump, now!" Carface, Spike, and Itchy jumped into the hole. They fell deeper, deeper, and deeper. Everything soon became pitch black.
Just when they thought they'd be dead, they felt something soft and sticky. A huge spider web! Spike climbed to his shaky paws and looked around. The wolf put his sniffer to use and sniffed around. A sound of something snapping came to Itchy's ears. His ears cocked up. Rubbing his paws together, Itchy nervously said, "I think someone else is here with us!" The dachshund couldn't be more right. Through a wet canal came a shadow. It looked like a werewolf! Spike barked, "Leave us alone!" A sweet and gentle voice called out. "Spike? Itchy? Carface? Is that you guys?" Sasha! It was Sasha. The beautiful red and white husky stepped onto the web. She looked at first at Spike, then Carface, and then Itchy. Rolling her eyes, she stated, "If you guys were one of those . . . those, um, robots," Sasha licked her paw and smoothed out her head and sighed, "I wouldn've done a number on ya."
Sasha chuckled. Carface glared at her. "Very funny!" he growled. Spike looked at one of the pipes. There seemed to be light ahead. He rubbed his head. Itchy noticed and waddled up to his friend. "What," Itchy asked politely, "are you doing, Spike?" "Thinking of where to go." Spike didn't take his look away from the tunnel. Reluctantly, he started towards it. Sasha looked up. She asked, "Spike, where are you going?" But he didn't say anything. That is, except, "Follow me." The four canines entered the spooky tunnel. The walls were dripping with slime and everywhere they looked, there was a dead bug. 'Gross!' thought Sasha. But the husky continued to follow the mutt throught the pipe. Itchy threw up several times because of the gruesome slime all around them. Carface was about to quit when he saw some light at the end.
"Finally! I don't have to look at those dead bugs anymore!" Itchy and Sasha ran ahead. Spike looked at Carface. "We have to slow 'em down! Come on, Carface!" The Greyhound Mix and Gray Wolf ran as fast as their paws could carry them and they jumped in front of the two dogs. Sasha huffed. "Hey! Get out of our way!" The dachshund jointed. "Yeah!" Spike stared at them. He told them that they had to be careful. Who know's what is waiting just around the bend. Or in this case, around the tunnel. Suddenly, Spike heard something. Only he didn't hear it. But he heard it in his . . . head? "Beneath the surface . . . beneath the surface . . . beneath the surface to the oracle . . . to the oracle." The voice said. Spike shook his head. "Somethin' wrong?" Itchy asked. Spike said, "No. I, mean . . . this way!"
Spike led them to the end of the tunnel. They gasped. The whole place was as hollow as an old tree. Below them the ground seemed to never come up. As if it weren't really there. Itchy groaned. "All that and nothing." Carface glared at Spike and said, "Now what? Huh?" The mutt closed his eyes and concentrated on what the voice told him. It could have been Anabelle's but her voice wasn't that robotic. She was not even a robot! So who was that voice? The voice had told him something about beneath the surface. Spike looked over the edge. There was a thick string dangling. It was their chance! The string was long enough to take them down. Spike cocked his thin ears and looked at the others. "Come on! We'll climb down." "What?!" Sasha screamed.
"There's a string we can grab onto." Spike gestured the canines to look for themselves. The husky shook her fur and said that she will go first. "Okay, then I will. Then you, Carface. And then Itchy. Agreed?" Spike was returned with 3 yeahs. It was decided. Sasha led them down the string.
Unfortunately, the string wasn't strong as Spike would have excepted. The string snapped near Sasha. "Yaahhhhhhhhhh!!!" The red husky fell down. Soon, the others slipped and fell into a dark cave-like structure. Spike got up and looked around. Water streaks stained the sides. Ahead was fire. Fire? Spike's eyes glowed. He put his paw through the fire. Itchy yelled, "Spike, no!" But when the Greyhound Mix's paw went seemingly through the intense heat, it all disappeared.
"It was only a hologram," Spike assured Itchy, Carface, and Sasha. "Wheew!" Carface was first. That's when something happened. The whole place lit up like a light bulb! Small blue and red sparks shot everywhere. Spike Pickles wasn't about to be frightened off. He walked onto the bridge.
"C'mon!" But there seemed to be something wrong with the others. They were laying down and seemed to be tired. Spike knew that they couldn't survive in this type of atmosphere. "Guys?" Spike whispered. Just then a bright light shown on Spike's chest. In a flash, he was gone. The dog found himself floating in space. Or what seemed like it. Spike could see the planets and the stars. That's when he heard that strange voice again. "Spike, this is the oracle. The starter of all transformers. And that is what you are about to become." The oracle took Spike, fast, to a earth-like planet. "Spike Pickles, prepare to be . . . reformatted."
The dog zipped through all kinds of buildings and houses. Everything was happening so fast! "Remember this," the oracle instructed Spike, "The seeds of the future lie buried in the past. To unleash the warrior within, you must tame the beast without." The spinning was slowing down as Spike was returning to Cybertron. Back with his dying friends. The last thing the oracle said was, "Transform, Spike Pickles. Transform and transet." Then everything glowed radiant white. The weak canines feebly looked up. From out of the white was a figure. Spike. But he looked different. His paws were almost completely mechanicalized. His tail, eyebrows, and ears were now flexible metal. A metal shaft stretched over his snout. Spike has a lot more spots now and small hard pellets covered his hindquarters. Itchy looked with confusion and asked, "What in the name of goluta happened to you?"
Spike looked at his friends. He knew that they would die unless they were reformatted. "If you want to survive," Spike turned to face the oracle, "you must allow the oracle to reformat you." Sasha, Itchy, and Carface looked with confusion. Soon, the whole place was white. The others felt their strength returning. They stepped away from the oracle. That's when they noticed changes within themselves, too! They were cyborgs, just like Spike! Carface looked at his half animal, half machine body. "Slick!" He joyfull said. Itchy looked at his body. He had a lot of green on him. But he still had his cap on. Suddenly, long red legs stuck out. "Huh? What?" Carface and Itchy looked up with surprise. It was Sasha! Her entire body was red, white, and several other colors. Sasha snickered. The dog-cyborgs started to walk off the bridge. Then the oracle disappeared! Itchy looked back and asked, "Hey, where'd the oracle go?" Carface looked. "Weird." Then he heard something.
"Anyone else getting that buzzing?" Spike looked to the end of the bridge.
Suddenly, robots appeared! They have come to destroy Spike and his friends.
Spike mentioned that the oracle said something about transforming.
"Transforming?" Itchy was at the base of the bridge. Watching the robots as they got closer and closer. Spike's face expressed true seriousness. "Yes, and I've heard of only one way to transform." Carface walked over to the newly reformatted cyborg mutt. He asked, "How's that?" The cyborg Greyhound Mix thought for a minute. What was the oracle talking about? Spike thought of one thing to say that may or may not help them transform into something new.
But they didn't know what it was. Yet. Carface looked towards the robots. His face was expresses total fearlessness. "Want to take these new bodies for a test drive?" Sasha joined in. Then Itchy. They looked at Spike, as if he had the answer. He could only think of one thing to say.
"Let's go!" "Yeah!" The cyborg canines ran up to the edge of the bridge.
The Vehicons were closing in. They transformed from car-like robots to large killing machines. Armored with guns and lasers, these guys could chop through anything! The dogs said as loud as they could the only command that came to mind. "Maximals, maximize!!!" Spike closed his eyes, hoping that something would happen. Nothing did. "Huh?" Everyone asked in unison. They didn't get it. Sasha glared at Spike. She wasn't mad. Just disappointed. "After all that," the red husky looked at the robots and then Spike, "and we can't transform?" Spike thought back. What did the oracle mean by 'The seeds of the future lie buried in the past'? He turned to the confused friends. He recalled, "The seeds of the future lie buried in the past." Itchy looked up. His face expressed a face that truly means 'Are you sick or did your nut finally crack?'. Carface shared the same look.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Itchy looked at the approaching robots.
They were only 12 feet in front of them! "I'll tell ya what it means!" Itchy turned and ran. "It means run!!!" The cyborgs ran away. The Vehicons were catching up! They fired several times at the fleeing canines. But missed. Spike saw 3 tunnels up ahead. The robots won't be able to chase them all down. He told them to split up. Carface looked at Spike. "What about you?"
"I'll distract them. Run!!!" They obeyed. Spike stood ground between his friends and his enemies. Sasha took the first tunnel. Carface took the second. And Itchy took the last. Carface ran and ran. He and the others knew that they had to fight with what they've got. Which wasn't a whole lot.
Carface turned on a narrow corner sharply. His luck changed when he saw a dead end ahead. He chuckled and jumped high into the air. Allowing the robot to crash into the wall. The metal wolf walked away victoriously. He stopped and looked back. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!" he growled.
Sasha was having more difficulty. She, despite her longer legs, weren't good enough for speed. She got cornered! Sasha then found out that she had a web-shooting device in her paws. "Fire!" A huge cob wed tangled itself all over the Vehicon. Sasha chuckled and walked away. Itchy was faster now. He couldn't believe it. He was faster than Spike was. The clever dachshund used his agility to confuse the robot. The robot was so busy looking right to left that he didn't watch where he was going. The Vehicon fell down a bottomless pit. Itchy hopped down. In a few minutes, the three canines found eachother.
But where was Spike? He wasn't with them. 'Something's wrong' thought Sasha as she looked at the end of the road-filled pipe. Indeed, something was wrong. Spike wasn't having nearly as much luck as the others. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't drive away the Vehicons.
One Vehicon, Decacon, knocked Spike towards the cliff. The mutt clunged for dear life on the narrow ledge. Decacon walked towards Spike. He raised his long clawed hands and struck down. Spike's eyes widened with fear and he slipped off. "Aaaahhh!!!!" Spike screamed as he fell. Falling to his doom.
Just then, he remembered what the oracle said. 'To unleash the warrior within, you must tame the beast without. Tame the beast without. Tame the beast without. Tame the beast without.' Spike closed his eyes. Finding the balance within himself. Concentrating hard. He suddenly started glowing!" He was transforming! Spike yelled, "I am transformed!" Soon, the cyborg dog was now a robot. He would call the group 'Beast Machines' or BM for short. The newly transformed Spike flew up. He flew higher than Decacon! This shocked Spike's friends, who saw what had happened. Two more Vehicons showed up to fight the robot Spike. They were Hexacon and Pentacon.
At this time, Sasha, Itchy, and Carface were having bad luck. Their good luck had run out. Spike saw them. He had no time to think. "Nuclear Missile!" The robot-dog held out his hand. A missile shot out. Heptacon, the one who attacked them, screamed. Before he could move the missile hit him.
"Aaaaaahhhh!!!!" Itchy, Sasha, and Carface awed and looked up. They walked towards the bridge. Sasha moved her head back and said, "Whoa! You really can teach an old dog new tricks." Spike heard this. He glared at Sasha. "Old dog?!" he cried. "Heh heh heh." Sasha sulked back. Suddenly, Carface yelled,
"Spike! Look out!" The Greyhound Mix turned around. Pentacon had snuck up behind him. Quickly, Spike grabbed the Vehicon's neck and demanded who he was and why he attacked them. Pentacon didn't answer. He struck Spike hard. The robot dog fell down. Before he knew it, he detransformed back into his dog-robot form. "So," Itchy was in front of Spike with a curious face, "what's your secret?" The wolf walked over. Soon, Sasha joined in. The red and white husky smiled. She shook her head and asked, "Yeah, how'd you do it?" Spike thought back for a minute. He had said 'I am transformed!' before he actually did. He also remembered that he found the balance within himself. He looked at his friends. How could he explain how he had transformed? He said, "The seeds of the future lie buried in the past."
He actually understood what it meant! He now knew what it means! Carface was annoyed. "Why do you keep saying that?" Itchy growled, "Yeah, and what does it mean, anyway?" Spike glared back, but his face softened. He turned to look at the wall. The Vehicons were gone, but they'd be back. He had to prepare his friends for the fight. "The first transformers," Spike explained, "had to learn to transform. And we have to, too." He got up and walked towards an empty part of the cave. Where they would be safe from Pentacon, Decacon, and the other robots. "Get ready for training." Carface and Sasha looked at eachother. They followed. Itchy stayed behind for a few seconds. He asked, "Training?" The dachshund ran to catch up with the other cyborgs. A beep beeped. The operator said, "Maximal spark detected. Transform capability still functional." The room was a nightmare. A network of wire seemed to run through the gloomy room like grass blowing on a field in June.
A dark figure turned off the alarm and monitor. "So, Spike and his friends survived after all." The figure took on the shape of a red and blue wolf. It was Wolf! "I have taken over Cybertron," he scratched himself on the chin threateningly, "and those dogs were sent here to prevent it." Wolf got up from his seat and went to his computer of a room. He growled, "Well, they're too late! I can't believe that Pentacon, Heptacon, Hexacon, and Decacon didn't obliterate them." Then, he raised his finger. "I'll send Polycon and Octacon this time. They shouldn't mess up!" Wolf laughed out loud. The coils in the room bussed and sizzled as if they were laughing with him. "I will find them and I will destroy them!" Wolf growled.
Chapter 2 : A Clue From The Past
Spike led his friends to a safe cavern. He seated each of them on a rock. He tried his best to teach them how he had transformed. Sasha yawned. Itchy was getting tireless and Carface seemed bored. "Okay, so 'tutor' us." Carface said, bored even more. Spike cleared his throat. "Free your minds", he instructed. The others closed their eyes. "Let go of old thinking." Itchy hadhis eyes tightly closed shut and was grunting with strain. He was concretrating too hard. "Focus on the transmutation within." The dachshund could stand it no longer. Itchy stood up. "Hey, what's with all the hocus-pocus?" He asked. "Just give us the command code so we can transform already." Spike looked at Itchy.
He shook his head and waved his paw, indicating the meaning 'no'. "It's not that easy, Itchy. The oracle has melted us into a balance of both machine and living tissue." Spike looked to the ground and continued, "Diabolical computers and simple commands are things of the past." Carface grew interested. He was no longer bored. He was confused. "So, what are we? Robots or animals?" The Greyhound Mix looked at the wolf now. "Both, and neither."
Sasha mocked, "Well, THAT sure CLEARS it up!" Spike didn't seem to notice. He was determined. But so far, nothing worked. Now, Spike could only think of one way to show them. He'd have to transform himself. He said, "The key is to find the balance within yourselves. Then and only then can you truly say 'I am transformed'." Spike started to glow again. He once again transformed into his robot form. Carface seemed to understand. He closed his eyes and concretrated. "I am transformed." Suddenly, Carface started to glow red! He growled, "Rrrarrrarrr!!!" during the change. Soon, Carface was in his robot form. His legs were super long and powerful. At the site of this, Carface announced proudly, "Hey! Check me out!" He folded his arms to his side like a wrestler declaring victory over a fallen opponent.
Sasha did the exact same thing Carface did. "I . . . am . . . transformed." She started to glow,too. But instead of red, she was glowing green! In a splint second, she was fully transformed. She, too, had long powerful legs. Her figure was more woman than husky. Carface looked at her. He was very impressed. "Whoa!" he complimented, "Check YOU out!" Sasha openedher eyes and smiled. She loved getting compliments all the time. And I mean all the time.
To Be Continued
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