Orion was in his home workshop putting together something on his whiteboard, but it was not plans for a piece of furniture he was experimenting with. It was a diagram everything he knew about Megatron who also masqueraded as the human Prof. Maximillion Meridian and how it related to the Autobot mission. He also had several articles opened on his computer regarding information about Meridian which turned out to be a lot. He looked at the diagram with Telly who was perched on his office chair that also happened to be one of his earlier creations. It was then that Ariel walked in with coffee and cookies. 

“Oh. So that is what you needed by sewing kit for.” she looked at the diagram in awe. 

“It all makes sense now. Humanity’s progress rate with technology.” Orion spoke out loud as Telly turned to look at him “Humans have been around for millions of years yet only made scientific progress regarding technology in the last few hundreds of years. And even then... Our biggest jump was in 1984 when Meridian Inc when it was just a startup company, introduced a new kind of technology. And it wasn’t just ONE invention. It was an explosion of electronics. And in just 42 years, we made more technological progress than we did in the hundred years before Meridian Inc was around. And it was founded by Prof. Maximillion Meridian, a genius who was only twenty. And all tech to this very day, can be somehow traced back to him.” 

Telly’s eyes narrowed as his feathers ruffled “Megatron is purposely guiding the Earth to reach the same technological level as Cybertron. Or as close as possible.” 

“How close is he?” Ariel asked. 

“Not even one quarter of the way there.” Telly chuckled “Just to give you an idea, on Cybertron, the Internet was obsolete for generations when Teletraan-1 was just a prototype and well... He is OLD.” 

“What do you... Nevermind, it will probably go over my head anyway. The bigger question is, why did Megatron gift humanity with technology while also actively evolving it when he looks down on it?” Orion took a cookie and bit into it. 

“Maybe because if he intends to enslave us, he wants to know how to use the tools he will assign to us and he wants a proper spaceship to get to Cybertron if he gets the Matrix. On top of that, he doesn’t have you, Telly. He needs to find his own way to detect the shards.” Ariel thought out loud. 

“All of the above theories are valid.” Telly hung his head “Unfortunately, he’s still ahead because he has an army. Up until now, it’s only us AIs. We can’t walk as freely out in the open or do the things a person can do. Hmm.” 

Orion got up “Well, you’ve got us now, so tell us where to look, friend. If you found a shard yet.” 

“I’ve known about a few for a while now actually. Here’s one you can take right now.” Telly turned his head onto the worktable and through the blue beams of his eyes, he projected various holograms though he concentrates on one which he enlarges “This picture that is made up of various pieces of discarded glass, plastic, stone and crystal contains a shard.” 

Orion’s eyes widened “Hey, I know that piece. It’s Wheeler’s! He made it years ago and it’s in his place at the workshop. He’s my friend and coworker.” 

“Do you suppose... He is a Pretender too? If he made this work of art, then he had to have touched the shard.” Ariel then realized while holding her own cup. 

“If he is always around it at least, then that alone counts as making contact with it, so yes. He probably is. In which case, we should enlist him too.” Telly suggested as he blinked his eyes turning the projections off. 

“Telly, maybe we should give him a choice on whether he wants to fight or not.” Orion argued. 

“Orion, I understand you want to keep your friend safe, but like you and Ariel, the moment he found that shard, he became just as much a target as the shard itself. Do you know what the Decepticons have been doing to people who own shards up until I managed to find you two? If they can’t rob them, they KILL them. You two got lucky because you could transform and defend yourselves.” he bluntly informed them. 

Orion put his cup down and rubbed his head “Then... can’t we just give him the ability to transform, so he can protect himself and give him a choice?” 

Telly took a deep breath “Your spark is in the right place, Orion, but you must understand two important things. Number one, if you want to get technical here, EVERYONE should be fighting against the Decepticons because they’re planning to enslave Earth and have already committed murder as well as fraud and plunder. Number two, another technicality states that everyone including you still has a choice on whether to be involved, but sometimes, you can have a choice and one choice can still be wrong.” 

Ariel reached out and took Orion’s hand “Honey, as soon as we realized the seriousness of the situation, we decided together that we were all in. Knowing Wheeljack, he will be the same way. He is as kind-hearted and honorable as he is intelligent. You and I both know he will be on board with joining us, and maybe that’s not a bad thing. Teletraan-1 said that we should seek allies.” 

Orion looked at her, Telly, the board and finally his cup “Can you both come with me?" 

Back at the main building of Meridian Incorporated which was in the middle of the city, Megatron was in his office in robot mode with the blinds down though instead of armor, he was still wearing his suit. He was also bald with several scars on his head and face. When Knockout removed the bandage, his right eye was now black with a scar going through the eyebrow and all the way down to the chin. The rest of the bots like the seeker siblings and Knockout were in their human forms. 

“You’re lucky, Lord Megatron. Had he slashed you a bit closer, Optimus would have chopped right through your skull.” Knockout shivered. 

“Too bad you’re still hideously disfigured.” Starscream whispered snickering to which his brother Skywarp elbowed him. 

Megatron looked in the mirror and chuckled “Honestly, I’m surprised that poser didn’t. Proof that he is NOT Optimus. As for my looks, I have bigger circuits to fry than doting over how pretty I look for the camera. Like finding the rest of the shards. Tell me one of you found one!” 

“I did.” a raspy voice spoke when a raven wearing a flightsuit swooped in and landed on Megatron’s hand before its eyes glowed red and it displayed a holographic projecting images while speaking “While I was on patrol, I identified one lodged into this work of art owned by this man. Also, his domicile is right next to the workshop where Orion Pax also works in the junkyard on the outskirts of the city.” 

“Well done, Laserbeak. Hmm, this junkyard is far from prying eyes, but if it is where Pax works, he may already know this too or find out very soon no thanks to Teletraan-2.” Megatron rubbed his large chin. 

“We’ll get it.” Starscream volunteered. 

“No! You seekers couldn’t even take down that Elita-One poser and she’s a novice!” Megatron growled at them “Knockout, get Breakdown and Barricade on this.” 

“As you command, my Lord.” Knockout bowed. 

A woman in a suit knocked at the door frame “Lord Megatron, your conference begins in five minutes.” 

“I’m on my way, Nightbird. Now get to work!” Megatron stated as he transformed into Meridian though he still had the scar and his right eye was completely white. 

He grabbed the wig from the bust and put it on, fixing it while putting on his friendly face before following Nightbird.