Author's Note

And so chapter one of the collaboration, begins!

Experiment Gone Wrong

It was the beginning of a Saturday morning. The birds were chirping, the sun was out, and the grass was a healthy shade of bright green.

Over at Sunny Flare’s house, all of her friends laid around her room scrolling through websites on their phones absently. There wasn’t any Decepticon activity going on or any form of adventure to be found or occurred. And most of their Autobot friends were out busy with other jobs or activities that the girls couldn’t do. Sunny Flare laid flat on her bed, Sugarcoat took a beanbag chair, Indigo Zap sat in one of the chairs hanging upside down, and Lemon Zest laid on the ground on her chest with her face buried into a pillow.

“So… no calls from the Autobots?” Indigo pulled her head out of the pillow and groaned, looking up at the others.

“Nope.” They all chorused, one after the other.

“No assignments from Optimus Prime or the others?” Sugarcoat asked next.

“Nope,” repeated the girls.

“Ugh…” Lemon Zest groaned and slung her phone against the ground. “Come on girls... Can’t we go to the mall or go for a walk, or, I dunno, ANYTHING?!”

“Maybe we could go to the mall.” Indigo Zap pulled her body up and gazed at Lemon. “What do you say, girls?”

“Too much people. That and I am in no mood to be crushed by angry mobs who try to buy everything off the shelves,” Sunny Flare replied. “Black Friday or not, malls aren’t my favourite place to be most of the time.”

Indigo’s eyes rolled, groaning as she gazed back at her phone. “Hey uh, where’s Sour?”

“Where else would she be?” Sugarcoat asked, pushing her glasses to her face.

“Let me guess…” Sunny Flare scratched her chin. “She’s either cuddling with Smallfoot on the couch, watching an action movie from the 1980s, or going to get more medicine from the pharmacy, if I had to make some guesses.”

The door slammed open revealing a smiling Sour Sweet. “Hey, girls! What’s up?”

“Hey, Sour. I didn’t know you’d be coming over. I thought you had plans with Smallfoot.” Sunny turned her head and gave her a friendly smile. She slipped her phone into her pocket.

“Actually, Smallfoot had plans with Pinkie Pie today.” Lemon Zest shook her head. “She’s going to be hanging out with her all day. Something about transformer kids, I think?”

“Transformer kids?” Indigo raised a brow and turned herself upright. “Why’s that?”

“Uh… You wouldn’t really be interested.” Sour Sweet raised a brow towards Indigo. “Anyways, what’s going on here?”

“There’s nothing to do!” Lemon whined, slapping her hand to her face. “The Autobots are all busy, we can’t decide on what to do, and it’s just plain boring today! Not even my kicking beats are making this day anymore exciting!”

“Oh...” Sour just had to take one glance at the other Shadowbolts to see how bored they were. Their eyes lazily drifted across their screens as they browsed the contents of the web pages on their phones. “It’s one of those days, isn’t it? Believe me, I know how that feels…” She looked down at her shoes and propped herself against the wall.

Eventually, Sugarcoat put her phone away and looked at the other Shadowbolts. “Want to see if Wheeljack’s got a new invention?”

The girls took a brief moment of silence before Indigo Zap finally broke it and shrugged. “Eh. Why not? Better than sitting around doing nothing.”

“Yeah!” Lemon’s face lit up as she jumped to her feet. “Let's see what’s cooking in Wheeljack’s lab!”

“I think the expression is more like what’s being built, Lemon Zest,” said Sugarcoat, as everyone got up and followed Sour out of the bedroom. “Cooking usually refers to food or chemistry. And, as far as I know, Wheeljack’s an inventor. Not a chemist or chef.”

“I shudder to think of Wheeljack as any form of chef,” said Sunny Flare. “Energon might be good food for the Autobots, but I don’t really think it’s our cup of tea.”

Once they were outside, the girls opened a Groundbridge portal. Upon arriving to the other side, they found themselves walking onto the same familiar orange metallic floor that was built into the Autobot base.

“Alright, so… I have no idea where Wheeljack’s lab is.” Lemon looked down the corridors, which all seemed to be identical to each other. She was met with glares from all the others. “Hey! I’m not a scientist! I’ve never been in his lab before.”

“But you have been here before.” Sugarcoat lifted a finger. “Many times as a matter of fact. Teletraan-1 can attest to that. Can’t you, old friend?” Sugarcoat turned to the giant aquamarine supercomputer behind them.

“Affirmative.” Teletraan-1 belted out. “Lemon Zest has been here approximately one-hundred and eighty-six times in the past few months. Wheeljack’s laboratory should be ingrained into her matrix by now.”

“I’m still trying to get the hang of this place, alright?!” shouted Lemon. “Feels like it keeps changing every single day.”

“I’m sure that if the other Autobots were here right now, they would have given you a map or something to help you remember,” said Teletraan-1.

“Speaking of which, where is everyone anyway?” Indigo Zap asked, looking around.

“I’m afraid everyone’s busy today. With a lack of activity going on, everyone is taking some time for some much needed peace,” a voice said, walking up to Teletraan-1.

“Good to see you again, Ratchet.” Sunny gave him a bright smile.

“You too, girls.” Ratchet smiled back and gave a nod. “It’s good to seem some human pals in the base every once in awhile.”

“Say. Uh, any word from our own guardians?” Indigo asked.

“I’m afraid not.” Ratchet shook his head. ”Hound, Highbrow, Blaster, and Outback are all busy today.”

“Is Optimus gone too?” Sugarcoat gazed into Ratchet’s eyes. “Or are he and the other Autobots preoccupied?”

“Optimus is busy with Sunset, helping train our new recruits.” Ratchet walked up to Teletraan-1 and brought up a video feed of Sunset and Optimus training the new bots and humans. “Needless to say, I’m still praying for the day that Strongarm and Tracks don’t bicker about something not worth fighting about.”

“I think everyone is praying for that day Ratchet,” Sunny Flare nodded and crossed her arms.

“And what about Wheeljack?” Sugarcoat asked. “He’s the reason we came over here, you see. To find out if we could help him with whatever experiments he’s conducting.”

“Wheeljack is over in the laboratory. But I highly suggest you stay back.” Ratchet took down the video feed and turned to the others. “The amount of things that blow up and get thrown around in there is enough to harm someone. Namely, humans.”

The girls all looked at each other, biting their lips as they shuddered on the spot. They had too many days like that at Crystal Prep as it was.

“Alright. Thank you, dude.” Indigo Zap ran down one of the corridors, but then promptly came back. “Uh, where is it?”

“Back down that corridor, turn right at the end, then it’s the fifth door on your left.” Ratchet pointed to her.

“Thanks, dude.” Indigo turned and walked off with the other Shadowbolts close behind her. “C’mon, girls. Let’s go!”

“Now, let me see if I’ve figured out this algorithm correctly…” Wheeljack stood at a machine, using a little welding device on his shoulder to harden a metal device, while at the same time, punching in some commands on the keyboard beneath it. He was surrounded by lots of other Cybertronian tech of all shapes and sizes. Some big and some small, but all made out of metal and Energon. “A quadruple system rewrite shouldn’t be a problem for an Autobot of my brilliance. But still, it never helps not to be too careful.”

“Wheeljack, dude! What’s up?” Lemon Zest shouted as she slid through the doors.

The sudden arrival of Lemon and the Shadowbolts caused Wheeljack to jump, sending his welder up and across, burning a blue slash of heat across the machine’s chassis. He slid it back into his shoulder and turned to greet the girls.

“Hey, girls,” he smiled behind his mask. “I didn’t expect any visitors today.”

“We’re bored and have nothing to do.” Sugarcoat walked up to the workbench with a smile. “We thought maybe you would want a hand with something.”

“Actually…” He hung his head and put his hand around his mask before snapping it back up to the others. “I’d appreciate the help. I’m working on a new invention.”

“What does it do?” Indigo asked, walking up to the machine with the small bulged gash.

“And for that matter, what’s its purpose and where should I stand if it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do and blows up?” Sour Sweet lifted a finger.

Wheeljack shook his head. “Don’t worry, girls. It's not going to blow up this time. At least, I hope.” He took a look at where his welder had slashed the steel. “Anyways, I’m trying to make a device to help some of the older Bots around here. It’s a molecular re-formatting device capable of taking the rusty, grimy, and out of date Autobots, and making them feel like they just came off the assembly line again. I’m mainly using it to help Trailbreaker, Ironhide, Hound, and a few other oldies on my list.”

“Hey! Hound’s in perfect shape!” Indigo stomped her foot.

“I know, I know. I was just using him as an example.” Wheeljack walked back to the machine. “But the point is, this should help some of the old Bots feel young again. I haven’t tested it yet, but I’m hoping it’ll work. I just need a few more pieces. Can you girls hand them to me while I finish coding it?”

“Sure. We can help out.” Indigo’s eyes rolled. “If they don’t weigh as much as a thousand suns like the last time you wanted our help…”

“I promise you, they’re light as feathers.” Wheeljack nodded. “I just need a few more pieces. There should be some on the workbench over in the corner.” He pointed it out. “Can someone hand me the wrench?”

Sour was the first to pass the first tool to him. “Here you are.”

“Thank you, Sour. Now, I just need one more tool to weld this down. Can someone grab the welding nozzle?”

Lemon zipped over to the bench and came back in a rush, passing the tool down to Wheeljack.

“Sweet! Thanks, Lemon.” Wheeljack used both of the tools on his shoulders as his arms continued punching in source code for the machine. “Now I just need to make some final adjustments.”

“Wait. Do you have any test subjects to use it on?” Indigo asked. “Or have you been using it on rotten fruit?”

“Well, Indigo, truth be told, this will be the first time I use this machine.” He said. “Which is why this code needs to be perfect. We don’t want anything turned into ash; especially not you girls.”

“Yeah. It wouldn’t be ideal for us to be charred up like that.” Sunny Flare felt cold just thinking about being turned to dust.

“Well, let's turn it on!” Indigo smiled, beaming from ear to ear.

“Just gotta punch in these last digits…” Wheeljack’s fingers tapped fast on the keys as he finalized the code for the device. “Aaaaand.... Done! We should be in business.” With a final push of the enter key, the beam on the top came to life, arching itself, poised to strike. “Let’s test it out on that rusty old pile of weapons in the corner. I was meaning to repurpose them into more tools, but I figured that this works just as well.” With a few more button prompts, he pointed the device at the crate of damaged and broken weapons.

The machine began to hum and whine gently, building up energy as Energon swirled around the rings of the barrel. A bright light began to build in the end of the barrel as Wheeljack typed in the commands for the weapon to fire. After a brief charge up, the gun opened fire, striking the box directly. But no sooner had it sprung to life when the gunshot so powerfully, that the device moved back a few inches with the incredible power of the blast.

“Whoa!” Indigo and Lemon jumped at the sight of the laser as it wobbled on its’ stand. They looked at the other Shadowbolts and saw the fear in their eyes straight away. “Duck and cover!”

Indigo and Lemon were already on their stomachs, but the other three were hesitant to make their moves. The wide arcs of the laser made it difficult for them to find an opening to get to safety. Everything the beam touched was reverted, either into separate parts, or made even shinier with much less dirt, grime, or oil.

Sour Sweet, Sugarcoat, and Sunny Flare all found an opening at last and ran for it, but as they were about to make it through, the beam slammed straight down into Sour’s chest, pushing her to the ground.

“SOUR!” The Shadowbolts cried out as they watched their friend suffer the punishment of Wheeljack’s new machine.

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no!” Wheeljack hastily programmed the machine to stop firing, almost smashing the enter key once he was done. But the machine wouldn’t stop, and so with immediate action, Wheeljack made a swing at the machine, slicing the pieces in half, destroying into nothing but spare parts.

As the Shadowbolts watched the beam die down at last, they watched as Sour Sweet’s cries of anguish and pain began to dwindle. They watched her body shrink and her clothes change as years of her life shredded away in the blink of an eye. Last of all, they heard her voice get higher and higher pitched as the laser finally stopped.

“What the heck?” Sunny crawled forward towards Sour, still stunned from the aftermath of Wheeljack’s tinkering.

Sour Sweet was now dressed in a tiny pink t-shirt, with her hair hanging low down her head. Her body was now no bigger than the other Shadowbolts’ chests and her fingers and toes were on full display. The last change made was that a white diaper was seen around her butt in place of her trousers.

“Sour Sweet?” Indigo Zap stood up with her legs quivering, hobbling towards what remained of her. “Is that you?”

“O… M… G!” Lemon’s frown quickly melted into a smile as she came over to Sour Sweet as well. “Sour. You’re a baby!”

“Well… I certainly didn’t expect that to happen.” Wheeljack’s mask slid back into his head as he walked up to Sour Sweet as well, watching as she gazed up at the group with wide eyes before sticking her fingers into her mouth.