Chapter 54: Chapter 54: The T-1000 

Watching the incredibly ugly, blocky alien robot completely change its appearance and 'steal' a car's skin right in front of him, Luke suddenly realized exactly which character this was. 

'Oh, right! This is the Autobot that gets brutally ripped in half by Megatron in the first movie! Damn, that's rough.' 

Luke shook his head, feeling a moment of profound pity for the robot's tragic, impending doom. 

Jazz stared blankly at the tiny human. For some reason, the human's emotional state had suddenly shifted to deep, solemn pity, and Jazz had absolutely no idea why. 

'If he knew I was mourning his gruesome death, he'd probably be thrilled, right?!' 

"Do you require transport?" Jazz offered cautiously. "I assume, given your... unique nature, you would prefer not to expose your identity to the local authorities by flying." 

'Expose my identity? What, that I'm an interdimensional traveler?' Luke had no idea what Jazz was talking about, but getting to ride inside a real-life Transformer sounded awesome. 

Jazz politely popped open his passenger door. Luke climbed into the driver's seat. He looked around the interior, noticing a few small, mechanical-looking trinkets and decorations sitting on the dashboard. He reached out and gently poked one. 

"Are these little decorations copied from the original car you scanned, or do you just like collecting knick-knacks?" Luke asked as they pulled away from the dealership. 

"Ah, those are my personal preference," Jazz's synthesized voice echoed from the dashboard speakers. "I appreciate things with a bit of... style." 

"Is that why you specifically chose a flashy sports car?" 

"This chassis was displayed in the prime location. It has excellent aesthetics." 

Having quickly analyzed Luke's casual personality, Jazz relaxed significantly and began incorporating more modern Earth slang into his vocabulary. 

"You've got good taste. Put some music on," Luke said, rolling down the window to enjoy the night breeze. Jazz immediately blasted a heavy metal track through his premium sound system. 

"Sounds great." 

"Of course. You can trust my taste in acoustics. I'm not an outdated rust-bucket like Ironhide," Jazz boasted smoothly. 

As the man and machine drove through the city, their conversation flowed easily. Luke actually really liked Jazz's laid-back personality. He mentally decided he would definitely intervene and save the Autobot from getting ripped in half later. 

'Actually, since I'm here, should I take a car back to Marvel with me?' 

'Nah, the Autobots are practically an endangered species, and the ones on Earth are all elite veterans. It'd be kinda messed up to kidnap one of them.' 

'If I want a personal chauffeur, I should just steal one from the Decepticons! Actually, Megatron would be a sick ride! If I just capture their leader and make him my personal jet, that would be incredibly badass!' 

Jazz, blissfully unaware that the friendly human sitting inside him was currently plotting to abduct the terrifying leader of the Decepticons and use him as a personal taxi, continued to drive smoothly. 

As he watched the city lights blur past, Luke mentally reviewed the plot of the first Transformers movie. 

'Basically, Megatron finally tracked down the AllSpark on Earth, but ended up crash-landing in the Arctic and getting frozen solid. Then, his human "friends" from Sector 7 stole the AllSpark and tried to reverse-engineer it. Megatron eventually thawed out, went on a rampage, and nearly wiped out the Autobots before getting the AllSpark shoved into his chest.' 

'But honestly, considering these massive, terrifying alien war machines can be severely damaged or killed by standard human artillery and fighter jets, the power scaling in this universe is actually pretty low.' 

'I haven't even watched the sequels properly. They just seemed like a mess of explosions. The first three movies were the only ones that made any sense.' 

"Hey, Jazz. Do you know Morse code?" Luke suddenly asked. 

"Negative. Our internal communication protocols are vastly more advanced. However, I can easily download and synthesize the cipher. Why do you ask?" 

"I need you to translate a sentence into Morse code for me. I need to send a message to a friend." 

"Do you require assistance transmitting the signal? I can easily access global communication arrays," Jazz offered helpfully. Making friends with a high-energy anomaly was just sound tactical logic, assuming the anomaly wasn't a total recluse. 

"Can your comms reach across dimensions?" Luke asked with a smirk. 

'Other dimensions?! What?! Are parallel universes or string theory actually real?!' 

Jazz remembered that during Cybertron's Golden Age, their top scientists had heavily researched interdimensional travel, but the war had broken out before any conclusive theories could be proven. 

"Negative. I do not possess the technology to transmit signals across dimensional barriers," Jazz replied. 'But wait... why would an ancient, primitive cipher like Morse code work?! Is it some kind of highly classified, multiversal constant?!' 

"Just translate this for me: 'I am trapped in another universe. I need the original spatial coordinates.'" Luke gave him a simple sentence. 

A few seconds later, Jazz provided the exact Morse code sequence. 

Using the energy contract, Luke carefully sent pulses of dark energy to the Ancient One—long bursts for dashes, short bursts for dots. 

Meanwhile, in Kamar-Taj, the Ancient One had finally finished her tea, placed her book down, and laid down to sleep. Barely five minutes later, she sat bolt upright in bed. 

'WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS BOY?! IS HE NEVER GOING TO SLEEP?!' 

The Ancient One furiously expelled the sudden, erratic bursts of dark energy out the window. It proved that no matter how enlightened a Sorcerer Supreme was, getting woken up in the middle of the night would still make them incredibly cranky. 

Luke, completely unaware if the Ancient One had understood his message, decided he would just periodically re-transmit the Morse code signal every few hours so she wouldn't forget about him. 

"Finally finished. Sending that was exhausting," Luke sighed, having spent nearly ten minutes meticulously pulsing the message through the contract. He was incredibly unpracticed, but it really highlighted how tedious primitive communication methods were. 

"Remind me to write that down later. I am definitely not going to remember that entire sequence," Luke muttered. 

Jazz remained silent, but he smoothly merged into the designated rendezvous alleyway. 

As they pulled in, Luke noticed several other vehicles parked in the shadows. Interestingly, each vehicle was being silently monitored by one of the black, floating dark energy spheres he had conjured earlier. 

Jazz had already briefed the other Autobots over their encrypted comms about his encounter with the anomaly. While they were still highly cautious, they knew Luke hadn't displayed any hostile intent. 

Pulling further into the alley, Luke spotted a beaten-up yellow Camaro parked near two highly confused teenagers. 

A massive, custom Peterbilt semi-truck slowly rolled into the alley and came to a stop. 

'Oh, nice! It's Optimus Prime!' Luke's eyes lit up. 

"Are... are all of these cars together?" Sam Witwicky stammered, staring in shock as several seemingly random vehicles perfectly coordinated their arrival in an abandoned alley. Before he could even process the situation, the door of the silver Pontiac opened, and a normal-looking guy stepped out. 

"Hello," Luke waved cheerfully. 

Sam was completely bewildered. "Are... are you with them?" 

Sam remembered seeing the "meteors" crash earlier. If these cars were related to the aliens, how had they already picked up a human passenger? 

Seeing the teenager's utter confusion, Luke decided to have a little fun. He stood up straight and put on his most robotic, emotionless expression. 

"Affirmative. I am a highly advanced, miniaturized infiltration unit. Designation: T-1000. Codename: Shadow." 

To sell the act, Luke channeled his dark energy, seamlessly molding it into various solid shapes over his hand—a metallic blade, a grappling hook, and finally, a sleek handgun. 

"Whoa... cool," Sam gasped, his eyes wide with nerdy excitement. 

CHK-CHK-CLANK-WHIRRR! 

Suddenly, the deafening sound of shifting metal echoed through the alley. The surrounding vehicles rapidly unfolded, towering over the humans as massive, highly advanced mechanical warriors. Unlike their blocky, primitive protoforms from the crash site, they all looked incredibly sleek and formidable after scanning Earth vehicles. 

"I think the kid actually believed you," Jazz's synthesized voice chuckled as he finished transforming. 

Optimus Prime shook his massive head in mild exasperation. While he had confirmed Luke meant no harm, the human's bizarre sense of humor was slightly jarring. 

"Greetings, humans," Optimus spoke, his deep, resonant voice vibrating through the alley. "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. I am their leader, Optimus Prime." 

"You can just call us Autobots," Ratchet added helpfully from the side. 

"What's up, little man?" Jazz struck a highly stylized breakdancing pose before smoothly leaping backward to sit on a rusted-out junk car. "I am really starting to like this planet." 

"My first lieutenant, Jazz," Optimus introduced. 

"How did you learn to speak English like that?" Sam asked blankly. It was highly improbable that aliens spoke perfect American English with street slang. 

"We learned Earth's languages through the World Wide Web," Optimus explained patiently, before gesturing to the massive, heavily armed black truck. "My weapons specialist, Ironhide." 

Ironhide enthusiastically deployed his massive, dual-arm cannons, aiming them around the alley aggressively. "You feeling lucky, punk?" 

'I'd love to see whose destructive output is higher,' Luke smiled faintly, deciding not to shatter the trigger-happy robot's confidence. 

"Our medical officer, Ratchet." 

"The boy's pheromone levels suggest he wants to mate with the female," Ratchet stated bluntly, his optical sensors scanning Sam. He then turned his scanners toward Luke. "However, this entity's physiological data is... completely incomprehensible. Furthermore, he seems entirely unbothered by our existence." 

Sam awkwardly whistled, trying and failing to hide his massive embarrassment. Luke, meanwhile, was completely ignoring Ratchet, currently focused on trying to figure out how to mentally command his floating dark energy spheres to print their stored visual data onto a piece of paper. 

"And you already know your guardian, Bumblebee," Optimus finished. 

Bumblebee, finally getting his moment in the spotlight, aggressively shadow-boxed the air while blasting a heroic hype-track through his radio. 

Sam, feeling the strongest connection to the yellow Autobot, stepped forward. "Bumblebee? You're my guardian?" 

Bumblebee nodded eagerly, a mechanical buzzing sound vibrating from his chest. He really did sound like a giant mechanical bee. 

"His vocal processor was severely damaged in battle," Ratchet explained, shining a medical laser at Bumblebee's throat. "I'm still working on repairing it." 

Optimus knelt down, bringing his massive face closer to the humans to appear less intimidating. "Now, may I ask who you are?" 

Sam opened his mouth to introduce himself, but Luke spoke up from behind him. 

"I'm Luke. Technically, I'm not from this version of Earth. I'm from a completely different universe. I have a few... unique abilities." 

Sam stared at Luke in utter bewilderment. 'Wait, I thought you were a liquid metal Terminator robot?! Now you're an interdimensional traveler?!' 

"What? Never met someone from another universe before? Or did you seriously believe that T-1000 nonsense? Come on, man, my power signature is completely different from theirs," Luke sighed. 'This kid is really not the sharpest tool in the shed.' 

Since he didn't have the brainpower or the patience to physically calculate the complex, microscopic shifting of millions of individual gears and pistons to actually mimic a Transformer, his dark energy constructs definitely looked more like fluid, liquid metal than actual mechanics. 

With a thought, Luke recalled the floating black spheres. He mentally reviewed the surveillance footage they had recorded of the Autobots' descent. He needed to figure out how to set up a live-feed monitor using dark energy later. 

Sam stood frozen in place. Finding out the guy standing next to him was from a different dimension was arguably more shocking than finding out aliens existed! 

Mikaela Banes, who had been watching the entire exchange, sighed and stepped forward. 

"I guess I'll go first. I'm Mikaela. A 100% normal human from this specific Earth." 

Compared to Sam, Mikaela was remarkably calm. She had already witnessed her classmate's car transform into an alien robot and fight a police car; at this point, if God Himself descended from the heavens, she'd probably just shrug. 

"I'm Sam. Also a normal human," Sam finally managed to stutter out. 

Optimus internally sighed in relief. It had taken far too long just to get through basic introductions. 

"Greetings. We have traveled to your world in search of a highly coveted artifact," Optimus began, his tone grave. "It is called the AllSpark. It is vital to our survival, and unfortunately, its presence here will inevitably draw the attention of Megatron." 

"Megatron?" Sam squeaked, instantly realizing things were about to get violently dangerous. 

Optimus activated his holographic projectors, projecting a massive, incredibly realistic 3D visualization of Cybertron's history into the air around them. He narrated the rise of their civilization, the devastating civil war, and the tragic loss of the AllSpark. 

While Optimus gave his dramatic, depressing lore dump, Luke stared at the hyper-realistic holographic projection with shining eyes. 

'Man, playing video games on a 3D projector like that would be absolutely incredible!' 

'Yep. Definitely need to kidnap one of these guys to be my personal gaming rig.' 

When Optimus finished the story, Mikaela asked the most critical question: "So this 'Megatron' is coming to Earth to steal the AllSpark? I really don't want an alien war destroying my life." 

Having clearly understood the difference between the heroic Autobots and the genocidal Decepticons, Mikaela didn't hesitate to pick a side. 

"I'm in," Luke casually raised his hand. "I absolutely despise villains who cause trouble for no reason. Being a lazy couch potato is the peak of existence; why do they insist on ruining a perfectly good Tuesday with world domination?" 

Sam quickly raised his hand as well. "Yeah, I also hate... uh... annoying villains. So, I'm in too." 

"You guys really didn't need to actually raise your hands," Mikaela sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

Optimus ignored the banter, focusing intensely on Sam. "Sam Witwicky. Was your great-grandfather an Arctic explorer?" 

Sam nodded slowly, his eyes widening. Did his great-grandfather somehow meet these giant alien robots?! 

Optimus nodded gravely. "Megatron actually located the AllSpark on Earth long before we did. However, your great-grandfather discovered Megatron first. Megatron had crash-landed and was frozen in the Arctic ice. Your great-grandfather accidentally activated Megatron's navigation system, and the exact coordinates of the AllSpark were burned into his eyeglasses." 

"Wait, how do you know about his glasses?!" Sam asked, shocked. 

"EBay," Optimus replied bluntly. 

Sam cringed, shooting Mikaela a highly embarrassed look. He had literally been trying to sell his grandfather's "haunted" glasses to his classmates just this morning. 

"If the Decepticons find the AllSpark, what happens?" Mikaela asked. 

Ratchet answered grimly. "They will use its power to transform all of Earth's machines into a massive Decepticon army, and they will eradicate humanity." 

"Then we need to find those glasses immediately. Where did you leave them?" Optimus asked, leaning closer to Sam. 

"They're... in my backpack. At my house," Sam mumbled. 

"Perfect. Let's go. Time is money. The sooner we finish this side quest, the sooner my boss can come pick me up and take me home," Luke said confidently, entirely unaware that the Ancient One had completely ignored his Morse code and gone back to sleep. 

The Autobots instantly transformed back into their vehicular modes. Luke hopped into the passenger seat of Optimus Prime's cab. With Bumblebee leading the convoy, the group sped off into the night toward Sam's house.