The next morning, Orion was in the middle of doing yoga with Ariel when the telephone rang “Hello?” 

“Good morning, is this Orion Pax of Pax’s Custom Picks?” a man asked warmly. 

“Yes. Are you calling to make a commission?” he asked while posing. 

“Am I ever! I saw your work and it is absolutely fabulous. So fabulous that I want to hire you to do a big job. I want you to furnish my up and coming company’s entire office.” he giggled. 

Orion almost fell backwards “You do?!” 

“Yes, I do. The desks, the tables, the chairs and more. I want you on it. However, there’s one little detail. I want you to come and see what I am working with now, and discuss how you can make it better. I warn you that I’m a bit far and my office as is right now is dreadfully generic.” the man informed him. 

“I-I can do that. When would you like to arrange this meeting?” his face lit up. 

“Can you come right now? The sooner we talk, the sooner you can get to work because it is going to be pretty big project.” the man chuckled. 

“I can! I can! Just tell me your address.” Orion took a pen with a pad and wrote it down while nodding his head “I’ll be there in thirty minutes.” 

The man on the other line turned out to be a handsome red and silver Decepticon in a retro style swerving chair “Excellent. We’ll be right here waiting for you, Mr. Pax.” 

Later, Orion was looking for his favourite shirt. 

“Ariel, where’s my lucky shirt?” he went through the closet “I need it to make a good impression for this! It could do wonders for my business!” 

“Here let me help you look for... Oh, you found it.” she commented when she walked in. 

“I did?” he looked in the mirror to see he was wearing his red checkered shirt “... I did... whoa, I guess I was so caught I put it on absent mindedly. Anyway, I’ve got to get going. I’ll let you know how it all went, honey.” 

They kiss and she waves him off “Good luck, dear!” 

Later that day, Ariel was vaccuuming the floor with the TV on while Roller seemed to be the one watching it while salivating when a steakhouse commercial was playing. It was then that it began playing a high fashion commercial and the woman in it was wearing a beautiful cocktail dress. She looked at it sighing. 

“Oh, what I would give to be able to wear Coccinelle dress like that...” she sighed out loud unaware that her outfit changed into the exact same dress. 

Roller bolted up bugging out his eyes. 

“But alas, I guess my usual clothes aren’t so bad...” she hummed as her outfit changed back into her usual one leaving the bulldog stunned. 

She moved onto the master bedroom where opened the closet to vaccuum, but paused upon noticing Orion’s checkered shirt hanging there leaving her confused as she knew for a fact that it was the only one he had, and he just left the house wearing it. Her thoughts were interrupted when the power fluctuated for a moment and Roller began barking. 

“It’s ok, Roller. It was just a power surge.” she called out, but she then heard a harsh hitting soun followed by Roller whimpering loudly and then nothing “Roller?! Roller?!” 

She ran back to the den and screamed at what she saw. In the meantime, Orion went to the address instructed but was confused to see that it was in a bad neighborhood with the building itself being rundown. All the same, he entered to the see unprofessional and scruffy looking doorman with his feet up on his own desk. 

“Excuse me, which floor is KO Industries?” he asked awkwardly. 

“Ah, you’re the guy. Topmost floor which is the sixth.” the doorman pointed upwards while smiling in a way that made Orion a bit uncomfortable. 

When he got up there, he soon discovered that the office area was not just unremarkable. It was empty. There were no furniture whatsoever and it looked like he was the first person to have come there in years judging by all the dust and cobwebs. 

“Is this a joke?!” Orion grumbled out loud when two figures came up behind him, and he felt something sharp pocking at the back of his neck. 

“Your interview begins now, Mr. Pax. Just follow the gentleman in front of you and don’t try anything foolish.” the female purple and teal winged robot instructed as she kept her claw behind his head. 

Orion said nothing and complied by following the gray and blue winged male robot who gestured for him to follow. He took him to a room to a purple and gray male robot who looked bored while leaning against the wall, and a red and silver robot who was reading a car magazine sat in the fancy chair. 

“Ah, lovely. You came. I’ll be sure to leave that in my review of your work ethic.” he said as he got up and bowed “I’m Knockout. We spoke over the phone. This is Skywarp, his brother Thundercracker and his sister Slipstream. Three out of the four Seeker siblings.” 

Orion pursed his lips “You’re Decepticons.” 

“Ah, so you DO know things. How much do you know, Mr. Pax?” Knockout came over. 

“... I know you Decepticons are alien robots from another planet and you’ve been hiding among us by disguising yourselves as people. You’re here because you’re looking for something. The uh... Mattel? Mattrex? Matrix!” Orion recalled. 

“Correct. And do you know why you’re here?” Knockout asked while getting up close. 

“No.” Orion replied stoically. 

“It’s because of two things. Number one, if you know about the Matrix, it means you made contact with Teletraan-2 and according to Steeljaw, he teleported you to the Autobot headquarters. Number two, your lovely wife was seen wearing a Matrix shard.” Knockout’s expression became aggressive even though he was still smiling “I want to know where the headquarters and that shard are.” 

Orion felt his blood go cold “I’m afraid I can’t help you. I may have been teleported there, but I have no idea where it is. I never even went outside. As for the shard, we don’t it anymore.” 

Knockout’s smile faded before he took out his own blade and slashed Orion’s cheek “I do NOT like being lied to.” 

Orion held his cheek wincing “I’m not lying! Look at the position I’m in here, for crying out loud!” 

“Think hard-” Knockout was interrupted when a sound was heard followed by some yells, a red and gray male robot walked in holding Ariel hostage. 

“ARIEL!!” Orion gasped and then bared his teeth “Let her go!” 

“Starscream, what are you doing? This is not part of the plan.” Knockout scolded him. 

“Megatron’s plan won’t get us anywhere. Having a hostage tends to loosen the lips the way oil loosens hinges. Alright, you big fat oaf. TALK!! Or are you prepared to be a widower?” Starscream threatened, but then he was surprised. 

“Hey! He’s bleeding energon!” Thundercracker pointed out. 

“LET HER GO!!” Orion roared while charging towards Starscream and as he did, he transformed into the red and blue robot tackling him and making him throw Ariel up in the air “ARIEL!!” 

“OPTIMUS?!” they all gasped. 

Orion shoved Starscream so hard he hit the wall before running over and catching her bridal style making her look at him smiling “Oh, Orion... Look out!” 

Thudercracker tried to shoot him with a barrage of electricity, but just when it was about to hit them with Orion shielding Ariel, a pink force field enveloped them and protected them. Orion opened his eyes to see that Ariel was in her robotic form too now. 

“Did I do that?” Ariel watched the force field fade. 

“Oh no! Not Elita-One!” Skywarp shuddered. 

“Whose Elita-One? Her?” Ariel pointed to Slipstream. 

“Huhhhhhhhhhhhhh?! I’m Slipstream! You know me!” she hissed, but Ariel just looked at her “... Do you?” 

It was then that a portal opened and gigantic cruel and muscular silver android walked in with a cannon attached to his right arm “Starscream! I heard you ruined the plan and that... Optimus... You ARE here. And so is Elita-One.” 

“We aren’t Optimus and Elita-One.” Orion shook his head pointing to himself. 

“Wait... I recognize him from the pictures... You’re Megatron! The leader of the Decepticons!” Ariel put a hand over her mouth as Optimus stood between her and the others. 

A growl could be heard from Megatron’s throat as his brow lifted “You speak as though you don’t know me... What kind of game are you playing, Optimus? And why is Elita-One of all people in on it with you?” 

“We’re not playing games! We don’t even want to be here! Your henchmen lured me and forced my wife to come here!” Orion shouted then calmed himself “Please, just let us go. We have nothing you want and we don’t even want to be involved with all of this.” 

Megatron bared his fangs growling “How DARE you beg for mercy after everything you did!” 

He charged with his face hideously distorted.