Episode 3 (Pilot) - Happy Anniversary Part 3 

Megatron tackled Orion so hard that he broke through the wall and they both plummeted towards the ground. The Decepticon leader smirked as he kicked his opponent away revealing that he could fly. Ariel was horrified to see her husband falling towards some people who were down below. Without thinking, she held out her hands and created two force fields. One around the people below and one around Orion so that when they two barriers made impact, they bounced off each other, saving everyone. However, the relief was short lived when Megatron swooped down to brawl with him. 

“You’re getting annoying, lady!” Skywarp growled as he grabbed Ariel and lifted her above his head. 

He threw her through the hole which made Orion’s heart stop for a moment, but to everyone’s surprise, Ariel’s wings glowed, and they morphed into feathered wings made of light allowing her to fly. 

“Ok, so you can fly, but WE can fly better!” Skywarp chased her, and both his brothers and sister joined in. 

“ARIEL!!” Orion reached but was punched by Megatron. 

“I’ve waited a long time for this, Optimus!” Megatron growled as he readied his cannon. 

“STOP!! There are people around us!” Orion held up his hands. 

“And?!” he laughed while firing. 

As he did, the people in the streets panicked and ran everywhere. At one point, a teenage boy in a yellow and black shirt fell over. When Megatron missed and hit a lamppost, it was about to fall on the boy who remained paralyzed with fear. Orion jumped in front of the boy, and caught the lamppost, but discovered that it felt quite light as though it weighed no more than a hammer or wrench. The boy thanked Orion by using sign language before running away. 

“That’s it!” Orion grumbled before actively fighting back with his own punches. 

“So you CAN still fight, Optimus!” Megatron mocked him. 

“I wrestle and box in my time off, Megatron!” the scoffed while continuing to have a punch out with him. 

Meanwhile, Ariel was doing her best to avoid getting hurt by three seekers at once. Her barrier would keep her from getting hurt, but she was stumped on how to fight back. Starscream shot at her, but in it the process of missing the rounds nearly hit a curious little girl with two huge ponytails on a balcony. 

“NO!!” Ariel screamed as she reached out and her eyes glowed when suddenly, an object resembling a technological scepter materialized. 

In that moment, she fired some shots of her own in the form of arcs by swinging it that neutralized Thundercracker’s shots. 

“Mommy, look! A robot angel!” the girl pointed to her before her mother grabbed her and dragged her inside. 

Realizing that she now had a means of fighting back, Ariel swung her scepter to create more arc shots which the seekers did their best to avoid. 

“Hey! Watch where you aim that thing!” Skywarp shook his fist. 

“Hit her at the same time from multiple angles!” Slipstream suggested and the three of them complied. 

When Ariel saw them all fire at once, she swung her scepter around while spinning now created ring shaped blasts that knocked the seeker’ rounds back at them and knocking them out of the sky. Ariel then flew back to where her husband was to see that he was struggling with Megatron. 

“Enough games! You die now!” Megatron roared when aiming at Orion while he was out of breath, but Ariel swung her scepter to create a laser ribbon to catch his cannon and lift it up towards the sky “Elita-One! How DARE you ruin my shot!” 

The Deception yanked the laser ribbon, pulling Ariel down towards the concrete in the process and making her drop her scepter which disappeared along with the laser ribbon into thin air.  He then aimed his cannon at her, which made Orion very angry. He ran towards Megatron as his own eyes glowed and lifted his hand up to materialize and axe in it which he swung down onto the cannon, chopping most of it off. 

“Ariel!” he checked on her helping her up as Megatron roared in pain when he suddenly became aware of the axe “Where did I get THIS?” 

Megatron charged at him with his claws bared, but Orion was faster, and he swung his axe again, cutting him across his right eye. Megatron staggered back, holding the wound on his face as Orion winced at what he had done. The Decepticon noticed this and looked at him with his remaining good eye while he covered the other. 

He chuckled humorlessly “You’re not Optimus... Decepticons! Fall back! We’re done here! This mission was a failure no thanks to you, Starscream!” 

“Me?!” the red seeker whined. 

“Let’s just go!” Slipstream pulled her brother’s arm as a ground bridge opened, and they all went through. 

“We’re still not done here.” Megatron pointed at the two of them as Knockout picked up the piece of the cannon on the ground, and they went through the portal too. 

Orion helped Ariel up as they awkwardly noticed the people around them cheering and applauding when Teletraan-2 in orb form quickly hovered over them and ground bridged them away from the scene and back to their home where Roller sniffed at them and then ran to Ariel happily. 

“Roller! You’re alright!” she held him and examined him. 

“I healed him for you and don’t worry about your car. It’s in the driveway.” Teletraan-2 indicated while gesturing to the window. 

Orion narrowed his eyes “Were you watching us?” 

“That’s part of my duty, Optimus.” the orb explained but he just continued glaring “Sigh, look, if I could do more, I would have, but I’m not a fighter.” 

“Neither am I or Ariel. She got kidnapped out of our home! Why didn’t you warn us that the Decepticons would do that?!” Orion marched to Teletraan-2 as he backed away against the wall. 

“Orion, please.” Ariel held him back. 

“I swear, I didn’t know he figured out who you were or where you lived. I don’t even know how they did. I’m really sorry that it happened under my watch. I failed you, Optimus.” he drooped down. 

Orion’s face slowly softened and he turned back into a human “Well, you did give us fair warning that we were involved now, so I guess it’s just as much on us. There’s still so much I don’t understand though. And why are you and the Decepticons calling me ‘Optimus’?” 

“Because your robot mode, the way you are now, is that of Optimus Prime and Ariel’s is that of Elita-One. You see, just like Transformers themselves our tools and even artifacts are multiple things at the same time. In the case of the Matrix, it is also the Well of Sparks. It has the essence and data of every single Transformer who has ever lived or is living now. I guess your genetic codes were compatible with Optimus and Elita.” Teletraan-2 explained. 

“Wait a minute... You said the Prime was the previous owner of the Matrix and the leader of the Autobots. So does this mean...?” she tapped her cheek after turning human too. 

“Yes. Right now, Mr. Pax, you are the defacto leader of the Autobots now.” the orb explained further. 

Orion’s face was frozen and he slumped into the chair. 

“I understand that this is a lot to take in, but-” Teletraan-2 was interrupted by the telephone ringing. 

Orion hesitated, but answered all the same “Hello?” 

“Hello, Orion Pax. Also known as Optimus Prime.” Megatron politely greeted him. 

Orion’s eyes widened as he went pale. 

“Relax. I call only to communicate civilly.” Megatron reassured him gently. 

“Big words coming from a guy whow as ready to kill us in cold blood.” Orion scoffed. 

“That was before I was truly aware of all the details. Anyway, I will keep this brief because I too have a very busy day job and other life doesn’t pay bills. Which brings me to my first proposal which is a semi-truce. Starscream’s deed wasn’t just dirty, it was stupid and dangerous for all of us. No thanks to him, for the first time in decades, we ALL got exposed, but only by a creek thank goodness. You see, I have my hands in everything and everywhere, but my grip is weak because while humans are significalty inferior to Decepticons, they significantly outnumber us even more. Also, are infamous for being... xenophobic. If people found out that there were aliens among them, all of us are dead. So let’s make a deal. All of our battles will remain on the battlefield and away from prying eyes. When we are posing as humans, we will stay off of each other’s property and private lives. Fair?” the Decepticon went on. 

Orion sighed “I don’t know who you are.” 

“Oh, trust me. You do. You just don’t know it yet. Onto the second point... You know I want the Matrix shards, don’t you?” Megatron purred. 

“I also know what you want to use the Matrix for and how you intend to take over the world starting with Cybertron and Earth.” Orion grumbled. 

“Correct. I can also tell that you and your lovely wife are lovers not fighters, so why don’t you just stay out of my way? Your chances aren’t good anyway, Mr. Pax.” Megatron proposed. 

He gave it a thought recalling how blatantly the Decepticons did not care for any casualties they could have caused “Like I hell I will. And it’s Optimus Prime to you. Right now.” 

“Excuse me?” he growled. 

“Teletraan-1 told me about you and after seeing for myself that you’re even worse than he described, the last thing I’m going to do is sit back and let you enslave this planet. You only want to take this outside and far away? Fine, but as for your second proposal, you take it and go to hell with it, Megatron!” Orion shouted into the receiver before slamming the telephone down and turning to Ariel “... Ariel... I...” 

She hugged him "I'm with you, honey. We’re not going to let him win.” 

Teletraan-2's eye beamed “I can see why Optimus Prime’s essence was compatible with you, Mr. Pax.” 

“Well... I guess we’re really doing this. We’re really superheroes now. Sort of.” Orion rubbed the back of his head “And, Two, you can call us Orion and Ariel. When we’re like this at least please.” 

“Alright. And you can call me Telly. I need to report back to One and tell him the good news while you two rest up. I’ll be back later.” he said before opening a ground bridge and leaving which prompted Roller to sniff around the area where it closed curiously. 

Meanwhile, Starscream was slapped by his sister Slipstream back at the Decepticon headquarters. 

“You idiot! What were you thinking?! Now everyone’s seen us!” Slipstream scolded him. 

“No one saw me! It’s Megatron fault for losing his temper and literally smashing through a wall into the public eye!” Starscream rubbed his cheek. 

“Megatron only came at all because Knockout had to tell him what you did. Other than that, things were under control. Now, everything gone to hack.” Thundercracker sighed while leaning against the wall. 

“At least no one saw us transform. As far as everyone is saying, this was a freak event. The real proble though is that Megatron lost an eye. How is he going to explain that?” Skywarp scratched his head. 

“I’ll find a way. That’s not the problem. What IS the problem is that some poser who thinks he is Optimus Prime is determined to be every big of a thorn at my side as the REAL Optimus Prime is!” Megatron came in with a bandage over his right eye and Starscream hid behind his siblings “And to make it worse, the AI Teletraan-2 who has the ability to find shards is in HIS grasp. Meaning that right now... we are in a race.” 

“But don’t we already have an edge, Lord Megatron? We already put together half of the Matrix on our own.” Slipstream asked raising a brow. 

“Yes. And it only FORTY PLUS years to do, my dear!” he hissed at her “I may outnumber Pax, but Teletraan-2 is better than anything I have to work with on this planet of cavemen. It took me forever to get them to get up to speed with the INTERNET!! The most archaic digital network imaginable!” 

“Still made us all stinking rich.” Starscream huffed before Megatron ringed his neck. 

“I DON’T WANT TO BE RICH!! I WANT THE MATRIX!!” Megatron roared before dropping him “Being rich is just a means to an end. Now, get back to work! All of you! Find those Matrix shard with what you have or try to find a way to catch Teletraan-2! And this time, don’t be stupid!” 

Once Megatron was away, Starscream frowned “For a bot who doesn’t want to be rich, you sure enjoy being so. You with your martinis, hot tubs and other creature comforts that make you fat and soft, you old fool...” 

His brothers and sister all rolled their eyes in unison. 

Back at the Pax home, Telly had teleported back and was now in owl mode with a serious expression “Orion, Ariel, come and watch the news. Now.” 

They complied as he stared at TV with his big eyes flashing before the TV turned on. The newscaster was talking about the fight that happened earlier with many strange robots in the older parts of the city. As she spoke, a cleanup crew was behind her assessing and addressing the damage. 

“Though there were no casualties, the damage done will be repaired soon thanks to Griffin Rock City’s own billionaire philanthropist and father of modern technology Prof.  Maximillion Meridian.” she said as she walked over to him while he had his back turned. 

Meridian was an older man with black hair that has visible gray streak though when he turned around, it was revealed that he had a bandage over his right eye “Yes?” 

“Any words as someone who was a bystander here earlier?” she asked him. 

He smiled kindly “Just that I am happy to help and happier to be alive.” 

“Sorry about your eye though, Prof. Meridian.” she sympathized. 

“Oh, I’ve been through much worse, my dear. Much worse.” he looked at the camera with a hidden darkness in his eye. 

Roller growled at the TV as Telly turned his head slowly to them “This is news to me too.” 

Ariel’s held Orion’s arm tightly “Prof. Meridian... the founder and owner of Meridian Tech... The richest and most globally influential man alive... is Megatron...” 

Orion got up with a determined expression “Ariel, put on a pot of coffee. We have work to do.” 

“Well, this has definitely an anniversary to remember, but...” Ariel got up taking his hand smiling with determination in her own eyes as well “Let’s do this.”