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ihateitthankyou · 10 months

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Okay, I saw this ask recently and man talk about brutal. Anyway here goes.

What if the TFA Crew were all stuck in Bayverse and had to somehow survive that reality without getting killed, hunted by that reality's Lockdown?

Sorry if this ask sounds evil but I've been reading a lot of crossovers.

Hey! :)

How dare you make me go back and analyze the Bayverse for this Ask, let alone Age of Extinction?

Like, I think we can all agree that The Last Knight was a bigger mess—but come on, people: the gross subplot with the daughter in AoE is ew.

Seriously, just take a flamethrower to Shane’s character. He doesn’t have to be there, and the script gets a little more palatable if he’s not.

This is not to insult the actor.

It was just a shit role.

Also, note the “a little bit”. There’s a lot wrong, here—a LOT. Stereotypes, misogyny, adult jokes—everything your typical Bay action film starter-kit needs to make you (hopefully) regret the fact that you brought your child to the theatre.

Ugh.

The Bayverse got me into Transformers and the movies can be fun if you turn your brain off (like, all the way off), but there are lots of issues.

Lots.

But hey, this isn’t what we’re here for.

We’re dropping the TFA Crew into this bullshit and basically saying, “hey, better run for it!”.

‘Cause Lockdown’ll hunt them, ‘Cons will hunt them, and even HUMANS will hunt them!

Fun times had by all! 😂

Alright, I’ve had my fun.

Let’s get into it.

…

Age of Extinction.

How dare you get my hopes up by showing me the Dinobots, you sick fuck? Of course, I only have myself to blame.

Right off the bat, the film just starts showing you weird stuff. I mean, Transformers has a history of playing fast and loose with history—but the whole Bayverse series just keeps hitting you.

Megatron crashed thousands of years ago and got frozen. The Allspark crashed before that.

Earth was where the original Primes had their final battle and ended each other’s whole ass careers. This happened 19,000 years ago and Optimus is a descendent, so how old is he???

And where do new Cybertronians in this reality fucking come from? Eggs???!!!

Now, the moon landing was used to investigate a crashed Autobot ship on the moon’s dark side.

Also, the ones who created the Transformers were also the ones who killed the dinosaurs.

I’ve officially given up on trying to figure out how these guys are born, now.

Or “built”, according to Lockdown… even though we see “hatchlings” in-

Y’know what? I quit.

Arthurian legend is real and there were lots of Transformers there, Bumblebee and Hotrod fought in WW2 and possibly dropped a sentient watch to kill Hitler. Also, every famous historical figure you can think of off the top of your head in the next three minutes knew about Transformers.

This is the kind of bullshit I’m talking about.

But right now, we’re in the dinosaur movie.

And despite the weird-ass start, we get another sliver of hope when we first get a pair of human characters: Cade and Lucas. Their dynamic is one we’ve seen a lot of times before, but they have the potential to be really amusing as a duo.

Cade being a struggling inventor and a single dad and widower who wants to provide for, protect, and educate his only daughter to give her a good future makes him pretty endearing. However, he tends to shut down criticism from Lucas and his daughter—Tessa—because he can due to being one’s employer and the other’s father.

Lucas being an employee but also a close family friend who’s known Cade for a long time offers some potential. He’s clearly struggling too, but he loans Cade money and expresses concern over the family’s financial troubles—even going so far as to secretly report Optimus to the government with the hope that the family will be financially compensated—and he also tries to fill a much-needed role in Tessa’s life by trying to take her side and mediate in arguments when it comes to Cade’s overbearing and protective nature.

Cade, Lucas, and Tessa should have been the main human trio of the film. It should have been that dynamic the whole time: Cade getting to be protective when he should be but learning that it can be too much in certain contexts, and Tessa and Lucas being allowed to assert themselves and their opinions to ground Cade’s desperate optimism with the reality of the situation. The whole real/found family shebang with a father, daughter, and beloved adopted uncle.

Unfortunately, the film kills Lucas and brings in Shane—who, instead of being Tessa’s age, has to spend much of his screen-time badly justifying the fact that he’s twenty and dating a seventeen year-old. In short, this guy fucking sucks.

It also completely justifies all of Cade’s protective behavior—which was already explained due to him struggling for years, not just financially but because he had a kid as a teen and then lost his wife so he’s been having a hard go at making sure that his daughter has the best possible start. As protective as he’s been, it clearly wasn’t enough—so, a lot of the film gets dedicated to that, which is seriously unfortunate.

Tessa and Cade have an interesting bit of dialogue where Tessa discusses what will become of her father if she actually manages to get any financial aid for college, and she expresses her frustration that she’s the one who always has to be the adult in their family and that her father will struggle even more once she’s gone and grown up. Cade taught her the things he thought were important, trying to act as both mother and father to give her skills and experiences for the future, but she tries to prioritize both of them by keeping track of health and finances.

They’re a good team, but Tessa pulls the weight with rationality while Cade is more of the the heart of the family. That would have been an interesting dynamic to see, the jaded daughter who grew up too fast and the optimistic father who still has some growing up to do, but Shane’s introduction messes that all up by reducing Tessa’s character to someone who is pretty much always acting immature just to spite her father or “justify” Shane’s existence. It’s not great.

Shane just makes everything a mess and stifles parts of characters that should be growing.

I don’t like this character.

But let’s leave the humans for a moment and talk about the Cybertronians, shall we?

After the events of Dark of the Moon, it’s all gone to Hell. A corporation seeking Cybertronian alloy and technology is paying off a black-ops group meant to hunt down Decepticons to hunt down all Cybertronians, with their main goal being to help the bounty-hunter Lockdown to capture Optimus Prime alive—for which they will be compensated with the Seed, a device which will transform organic elements into Cybertronian metal for this corporation’s use.

All Cybertronians are on the run—because if they are caught and killed, their bodies are sent to the corporation to be melted down.

Most of the Autobots and Decepticons left on Earth have been killed, including Ratchet—and Optimus, while on the run, was injured so severely that he fell comatose in his vehicle mode. When he wakes, he is terrified of humans and holds his weapons at the ready to ward them off.

The sad part is that he doesn’t shoot.

He’s scared and has every reason to be quick on the trigger out of terror or even rage, because his people are being hunted by the species he vowed to protect… but he still doesn’t shoot.

Luckily for him, he’s in Cade’s barn—and while this guy would dissect a dead Transformer to apply their biology to his inventions, he’s quick in his rush to help heal a live one.

Good for him, I guess?

Cade and Optimus actually have an interesting relationship which I wish was explored more.

Cade, being a huge optimist, starts off telling his daughter not to say that “some things should never be invented”—and he doesn’t think much about the consequences of getting involved with Optimus, dead or alive. He hesitates to phone a body in, and he immediately chooses to calm and help a wounded Optimus even after the startled Prime aims his gun at him.

There’s also the scene with Agent Savoy where he’s threatening Tessa, and Cade consistently says that Optimus was in the barn and acts confused even as he and Tessa are about to die. With how it was set-up, Optimus couldn’t have hidden himself—Cade would’ve had to help him. Cade knows where Optimus is, but he never gives the Prime up—he’s frantically insisting that Optimus is gone, trying to have it both ways and protect his daughter and the ‘bot. It doesn’t work, but Optimus sees that effort and I think it really seals Cade as being trustworthy.

Even after his whole life is uprooted and his house is destroyed, Cade never blames Optimus and instead does what he can to try and restore the Prime’s faith in the best of humanity so that Optimus will give them another chance and help them instead of leaving Earth behind.

He even uses the trust that Optimus places in him and him alone and takes the blame for something he didn’t even do to try and sway the Prime—even though he never wanted to turn Optimus in, dead or alive, he tells him that he only helped him to earn a reward to urge the Prime to see the evil but also the good in all people.

Cade also learns to see the darkness in his passion, and he tells the head of the corporation to his face that “some things should never be invented” once he sees the cost of certain creations to people he cares about.

And Optimus? Optimus, traumatized as he is by this point, ends up putting his total faith in this one random human who helped him—and once he does that, he is completely ride-or-die.

Like, Cade’s house is surrounded by people who want him dead AND Lockdown—and Optimus leaves hiding to save Tessa when he hears her crying in fear and Cade screaming. He then does all that he can to protect Cade’s family, and expresses frustration and grief when Lucas dies.

The other Autobots naturally distrust all humans, but Optimus vouches for them and trusts Cade as the inventor strategizes to try and find a way for all of them to be safe—and when the plan goes wrong, he rushes in to save his friend again.

He listens to Cade when he won’t listen to anyone else, and relates to Cade’s struggles as a father—actually name-dropping Bumblebee and giving verbal address to their relationship, which is nice. He also learns more about humanity from Cade while Cade learns more about Cybertronians, as they have a little talk in which Cade equates a spark to a soul—and Optimus remembers.

Optimus notes at one point that he vowed to never kill a human, but he will kill the one who is responsible for the Cybertronian massacres. In spite of this, he doesn’t end up discovering and killing this person or even taking his revenge out on the corporate head—even though he’s in the same building as the both of them once, which would’ve been a good time. No, he spares them even as he’s being verbally degraded.

Optimus Prime kills when he sees a man point a gun at Cade. Doesn’t even hesitate.

Some find this controversial.

I see this as a really fucking bold move to make with this classic character.

Good or bad, it’s different.

Different can be interesting when it’s done with respect, and it’s not like they didn’t give us all very good reasons why the guy should be dead and why Optimus should do it.

This Prime didn’t just show up and decide “murder is an option”. The films actually do show the progression.

He started out being completely adamant against hurting humanity, even if it meant sacrificing everything.

Then, he even died to protect a human—and it’s when he comes back that we see he’s a bit more violent, clearly not about to lose another fight and risk dying again when Earth is at stake. He still values humanity.

Then, humanity starts to take control—and it turns on him and tries to expel him right at the same time as his mentor revealing himself to have been a traitor.

Optimus looks to the devastation wrought by the Decepticons as a lesson to be learned about trusting them, and he nearly dies again and loses an arm before he ends up killing Sentinel and Megatron.

Then, between films, Optimus is being hunted by humans—and he sees humans helping a bounty-hunter to kill his friends, and he’s nearly killed himself.

One human tries to help, and his whole family is nearly murdered for it.

Optimus then sees footage of other Autobots being killed and Ratchet’s body being melted down, and he’s livid.

He’s willing to abandon humanity as a lost cause after one final save.

But when Cade’s in trouble, Optimus raises his gun and shoots—even though it means leaving himself vulnerable to Lockdown.

It’s a moment when he shows that he still cares about humans, but he’s finally made up his mind that some are truly his enemies and that he has to face that reality.

So, when I see Optimus kill in this scene, I don’t feel like it comes out of nowhere.

It’s just different.

And Cade’s quick to jump in and risk his life in order to protect the Prime in return.

It’s actually an awesome relationship, one in which both characters develop because of each other’s influence—and I love that.

Barn Husbands shippers, I see you-

And honestly? I can see why you like this one, strange as it is—because I think even the writers realized what they had done.

And they fucking panicked, which is honestly the funniest thing about the series.

They forced Cade to have a girlfriend in The Last Knight to try and make audiences forget the accidental chemistry in AoE.

They did not forget. I’ve seen the posts. 😂

But seriously, there are cool things here!

A jaded, traumatized, and angry Optimus Prime who is allowed to express all of his frustrations after years of trying his best to play nice and only getting punished for it.

A world where humans are the biggest threat to Autobots and Decepticons alike because many people can be quick to just point-out scapegoats and turn on friends for profit.

A main character in a franchise targeting younger audiences who is older—a single parent of a near college-age child, a widower, very intelligent, and someone struggling financially—but still a bit of a naive optimist who has to learn during this story.

The rougher side of the “noble” Autobots showing when they’re pushed to breaking.

The problem is that the good parts, the character development and the new things, are constantly being overshadowed by bleh.

Tessa and Shane? Bleh.

Stereotypes and racism? Bleh.

An excess of new lore-dumps four fucking movies into the franchise? Bleh.

Characters acting out-of-character for the sake of “comedy”? Bleh.

New characters being brought in and then poorly utilized by the script? Bleh.

Mindless action? Fun, but bleh.

It sucks that there are really fascinating things and great new concepts in an overall shitty film.

Like Lockdown, he’s stereotypical as a villain but he’s interesting as a Cybertronian with no side. Him working for the “creators” makes him a little more intriguing as well, as this means he has to have met them—he has the answers, and a very “holier than though” mentality regarding those who participated in the war. He thinks that the war was “childish” and needlessly messy, and that Cybertronians shouldn’t get involved with other species—but he’s got a job to do, so he works with the humans while he has to.

He’s interesting!

It’s a shame that he’s mostly used for shock-value, dropping lore, giving humans the metal-bomb, and being the final big baddie who gets killed thanks to two idiots with a tow-truck.

The whole film’s just bad narrative choices and wasted potential with one very well-done relationship sprinkled on top to make you go back and watch it again, suffering for that one bit of good writing that somehow made it through.

It’s fucking diabolical.

…

So… dropping the TFA Crew into AoE.

We’re really doing this?

We’re taking one of my comfort incarnations and dropping them into this Bay-infested nightmare?

Okay, then. Let’s talk about this.

…

I did some research here to get an idea of scaling:

Bayverse!Optimus is 28 feet tall, compared to TFP!Optimus’s 31.17 and TFA!Optimus’s 21 feet. He’s tall, but in the middle.

It’s pretty much the same way for most of the other Transformers. They’re taller than their TFA counterparts, but shorter than TFP.

Lockdown in TFA is the same size as that reality’s Optimus, 21 feet. I couldn’t find a size for Bayverse!Lockdown, but he’s almost as big is Bayverse!Optimus—so, he’s likely bigger than any of the TFA Crew.

Let’s also talk biology:

Let’s face it, Bayverse is in it for the plot convenience and all of this stopped making sense in the second movie.

We don’t know how they’re made. Seriously, are they built or do they hatch?

We don’t know how long they live. We know it’s a while, but Optimus has to be a fair deal less than nineteen-thousand years-old but a bit older than ten-thousand years old as an adult (because he is a descendant of the Primes who died ~17,000 BCE and the Cube crashed on Earth in 10,000 BCE) and Sentinel refers to him as “young”.

Their optics can project their memories and data, carve into objects, and print images.

We know that they have sparks, that they can also make micro-transformations in order to serve situation-specific needs (Optimus actually transformed extra muscles in AoE), and that they need Energon to survive… but apparently, the fuel lasts decades in the tank or maybe even millennia. No rush, then.

They can survive: decapitation, loss of limbs, being shot a few times, damage to the point of falling apart, being frozen for millennia-

They cannot survive: direct head-shots, spark-shots, being torn in half, cosmic rust-

Much like in TFA, the Allspark can just create new Cybertronians—but they’re always going to be Decepticons, for some reason.

The Matrix of Leadership is not a vessel for knowledge but a mighty power source, and it can bring a dead Cybertronian back.

More jagged and detailed designs due to how they split apart and come together during transformation cycles, showing details of the vehicle they turn into.

Humans can build Cybertronians out of their alloy, and these bodies can be taken-over by true Cybertronian minds, but transformations are highly fragmented and humans can’t give their synthetic creations sparks.

Small Cybertronians can disguise themselves as humans.

They can use holoforms.

They can heal themselves from near-death simply by taking on a new alt-mode.

More than in any other incarnations, a new alt-mode alters their ‘bot-mode’s appearance.

They can survive underwater.

Very complicated transformations.

They can survive space, but may get frozen.

Megatron’s chromosomes are bugs???

Bumblebee can just come apart and go back together again in TLK??????

Green or red blood??????????

Slime???!!!

They’re basically eldritch horrors with metal plating. It gets weird very fast.

…

I imagine that, much as with the case of the Soundwave in the Shadowzone concept drabble, this happens due to an experiment-gone-wrong as Wheeljack’s trying to rig the space-bridge to get himself home. He’s working out the kinks with him multiverse tracking program, and he feels he’s managed to isolate places in the multiverse with Cybertronians but nothing specific.

He’s working too much and he’s tired, but he thinks he’s on the verge of a breakthrough—so, it’s “all hands on deck” to get this running.

Something goes wrong, and it’s a reverse of what happened to get Wheeljack sent to TFA in the first place—he manages to hold on, but the rest of his family is gone: Optimus, Jazz, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Professor Sumdac, and Sari.

So now, it’s a race against time as Wheeljack has to get his tracking program working well-enough to find his family—lost in the multiverse.

…

Wheeljack was locking onto universes with Cybertronian inhabitants and trying to narrow down the specifics.

So, when the TFA Crew is dropped out of the portal, it’s lucky that the seven of them dropped into the presence of a group: the Autobots who are hiding out in the desert and waiting for any sign of Optimus’s return.

It’s the Bayverse’s Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs who see the sky open up and drop five tiny Autobots, a techno-organic, and a human—and understandably, they are startled. It’s likely only thanks to Bay!Bumblebee, who is doing what he can to try and lead at this time, that the TFA Crew doesn’t get attacked.

Meanwhile, TFA Bumblebee is just staring at this version of him who has to speak through a series of hums, radio clips, and body language—and he’s starting to wonder if he’s the only version of himself who never loses his voice.

The Bay ‘Bots are definitely more rough around the edges than the TFA Crew. They don’t trust Professor Sumdac due to him being fully human as well as a scientist, and they’re seriously creeped-out by Sari being a techno-organic.

However, they do let the TFA Crew explain their situation. Crosshairs and Hound laugh while Bay!Bumblebee and Drift are confused.

However, Bay!Bumblebee eventually takes a long look at TFA’s Optimus, Ratchet, and Bumblebee and decides to give them the benefit of the doubt—and hey, he was friends with Bay!Wheeljack, so maybe that makes this mess-up believable.

Bay!Bumblebee tells his friends that they’ll be watching over this group until they can go home. Crosshairs is frustrated, but Drift sees the logic and Hound’s all in to defend the young ‘bots.

Hound and Bay!Bumblebee are the first to warm up to TFA Crew, giving Sari a chance because she’s a child and eventually letting their guard down around Professor Sumdac as well.

Bay!Bumblebee has to fill the TFA Crew in on current events, which he struggles with due to the communication barrier—but his warmth towards them grows when he sees how horrified they are by the situation and become determined to help how they can while they’re there.

Hound strikes me as a sucker for kids. Despite his earlier reservation, the weapons expert is loyal to a fault when it comes to Optimus—even to the point of threatening Crosshairs when the other mech wants to leave Optimus and Tessa behind—and is willing to die to protect the humans he’s befriended during the final battle. The Last Knight kind of gives us little bits of that softness, so this rough-seeming Autobot is the one who comforts Cade about his lack of contact with Tessa, laments that his own parents weren’t as devoted, does what he can to hold off enemy attack and buy the others some time, and even expresses sadness when he can’t say “hi” to a returned Optimus before the final fight. He’s not gonna be happy about it (lie), but he’s definitely gonna be the one who’s gentlest.

Drift is more neutral, being someone who can be critical of others and even enter into physical altercations when provoked but also someone who tries to mediate others in times of conflict. The film does really make him a bit of a walking stereotype, but since I can’t exactly break the fourth wall here… he appears to be the one who seems to find pieces of human culture that he likes and throws himself all in when it comes to learning about it and applying it to his life, and his key interest seems to be ancient Japan. So, when he hears “cyber-ninja”, he’s immediately intrigued by Jazz and finds himself wanting to learn from him—and that’s how he starts warming up.

Crosshairs just doesn’t warm up. He’s highly jaded and slow to trust, and he even seems to be abrasive with his own teammates. He’s willing to leave Bay!Optimus and Tessa to their fates by Lockdown’s hands until Hound threatens him, and he’s all too happy to follow Optimus’s lead to leave Earth behind and gets distance when the Prime decides he’ll be taking Dinobots. This guy is a badass, but he’s a total asshole.

There’s going to be a fascination related to age. TFA Optimus, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead are likely a bit younger than the Bay ‘Bots, but then Ratchet and Jazz are millions of years old—much older. It gives them a taste of what it’s like to be Wheeljack, relatively ancient.

Eventually, after some time out in the desert, a familiar blue and red big-rig shows up with three humans in the cab—and this is TFA Optimus’s first time meeting an alternate of himself. He’s heard the stories of TFP Optimus, but this is an actual alternate version of himself.

Given what Bay!Bumblebee’s told him about the situation in this reality, and just the differences he’s seen between Bay!Bumblebee and his own teammate, he’s a little worried.

Then, the big-rig transforms.

And TFA Optimus is suddenly recalling how Wheeljack would tease about height, because he has to crane his neck and look up.

And what’s the first thing he hears?

“Humans have asked us to play by their rules. Well, the rules have just changed.”

It’s quite the introduction, delivered in that Peter Cullen voice—and yeah, it sets up what you’re going to see: this is an Optimus Prime who is done playing nice with lives at stake.

The TFA Crew does move to protect the humans when Crosshairs and Hound react, but Bayverse!Optimus shuts the hostilities down quickly.

Once reunions are done and everyone’s settled a bit, Bay!Optimus turns his gaze on the TFA Crew. And recalling how things went with the others, TFA Optimus suddenly scoops up the Sumdacs and holds them to his chest protectively.

Bay!Optimus apparently owes the humans he’s protected, but what about these humans?

Bay!Optimus watches this, and Hound and Bay!Bumblebee start giving scattered explanations of the situation as the larger Prime approaches his smaller counterpart and looks down at him.

TFA Optimus is wide-opticed but does not move. He’s faced Megatron, he can handle this.

“… You do not have to be afraid, young one,” Bay!Optimus says at last. “I have sworn to never harm a human being.” He holds a servo out. “I promise you, they are safe here. I mean no harm.”

TFA Optimus obviously hesitates to trust this, but Sari doesn’t. She wriggles free and steps onto the servo, and she looks up at this other Optimus.

“Hm.” She frowns. “You look tired, and… sad.”

“Perhaps I am,” Bay!Optimus says softly. “But it has been a long war, and we have been forsaken by our allies. Our friends were… taken from us.”

Sari rests a hand on his thumb.

TFA Optimus sees something in his larger and harsher alternate soften, and he sees that this really is another him… and he wonders what it would take to push him to this point.

The rest of the TFA Crew watches him with sad expressions, clearly wondering the same.

Professor Sumdac is set down in the sand, where he meets Cade, Tessa, and Shane.

I think he would like Cade.

I think Cade would like him.

Professor Sumdac: *perplexed* Wait, how old are those two?

Cade: *frustrated* My daughter’s seventeen. He’s twenty.

Professor Sumdac: … *holds up the alien gun TFP Wheeljack made for him*

Cade: Did we just become best friends?

Yeah…

Also, they’re both inventors—one successful, one struggling—as well as fathers of daughters and optimists who can be a little naïve. Cade also tried to do what Isaac managed and use Cybertronian tech to advance his robotics, though Isaac was again majorly successful until TFA’s Megatron began his manipulations.

They’d have a lot to talk about, and I think that this would be good for Cade—getting advice from someone like him but who has help and practiced better financial habits, as well as a single father who has struggled to protect his daughter from the dangers of the world and may not have always made the right choice.

Shane takes one look at that alien gun and he might just walk out of AoE entirely. In fact, I don’t wanna talk about him anymore, so he does.

He’s gone. “Good luck”.

Bye..~!

Tessa’s toxic relationship with Shane: ended.

Tessa now gets to stop thinking about boys and start getting to enjoy the end of her teens with a good friend like Sari (who teaches her to wield the blade), Cade, and a bunch of space dads, brothers, and uncles. That’s where we are, now.

Now-

Cade hacks the drone and finds the footage of the attacks on Autobots, and it’s horrifying.

It’s even worse when Bay!Ratchet’s death is shown. He’s shot to pieces and has his spark ripped-out by Lockdown, after all.

While the TFA Crew is shocked, the Bay ‘Bots react in rage and Bay!Optimus resigned himself to kill the human responsible for this.

Honestly, no one can blame him—but it’s still a lot to hear from an alternate of Optimus.

‘Bots are being killed, humans are being killed, and something has got to give—even if it’s a solemn promise Bay!Optimus made.

Professor Sumdac and Sari handle the shopping (or shoplifting) to avoid putting the Yeagers at risk. Sari has to wear a hoodie and sunglasses to hide her techno-organic nature, but she manages.

As Optimus and Cade have a little bonding about fatherhood, Isaac and Ratchet can commiserate—but Ratchet notes that they’re a father short.

With the multiverse now in play, the Bay ‘Bots and the Yeagers are curious about what started it—and about this alternate Wheeljack who just dropped in from another universe, and who will hopefully be coming for the TFA Crew soon.

The TFA Crew’s faces light up when they get to talk about their “space-cowboy ninja-scientist”.

They miss him.

It’s decided that the only way for the Yeager family to get their lives back and even help the Autobots is to infiltrate the headquarters of the corporation behind this—KSI, based in Chicago and headed by rich inventor Joshua Joyce—and try to find some intel to be used for blackmail. They need the manhunt to end.

Professor Sumdac elects to help Cade with the planning, and Sari can help. She hacks into KSI, and Isaac uses the intel she gathers to make some more-convincing employee passes. He’s elected to go into the labs with Cade while Tessa stays with Bay!Bumblebee to enable their escape, also accompanied by Jazz—who uses a hologram like Prowl taught him to and overall does a lot better job at passing the inspection.

Sari wants to come along, but everyone else just unanimously agrees that she can’t be discovered. What would KSI do with a techno-organic? So, she monitors the situation remotely with the rest of the Autobots—which is rough.

I mean, imagine being Sari—sitting there with Hound, Crosshairs, Drift, Bay!Optimus, TFA Optimus, TFA Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Ratchet while this is all going down. She can’t even talk to try and and distract herself from the tension, as they need to pay attention. Not fun.

Meanwhile, with Cade and Isaac-

They’re fine! 😅

Isaac is a bit better in this environment. He’s a scientist but also a businessman, and he’s worked with Cybertronian biology in his reality. He just slides into place, and uses some tricks he picked up during his time as a Decepticon prisoner.

Cade is honestly impressed, but that goes out the window when Isaac just freezes at the sight of Bay!Megatron’s severed head. He’s been down this path before—and when he sees Galvatron, Professor Sumdac just knows what’s happening.

He tells Cade this isn’t just about his family or the Autobots, not anymore—this is about the world, the universe even. He’s very, very scared.

So, Cade reasonably gets very, very scared.

He’s been looking around at this, gradually starting to understand the scope of this and that this isn’t what he wants to be. He gets that little conversation with Darcy where he tells her that Transformers are alive and have souls, and that KSI is cannibalizing the bodies of Autobots—the Cybertronians who fought for humanity.

Isaac quietly interjects to tell her that the one they’re looking at had a name: Ratchet.

Eventually, Cade and Isaac are caught. Cade is identified, but no one can figure out Professor Sumdac—he’s just a nameless accomplice to what Joshua view as “corporate espionage”.

Joshua and the mastermind of the black-ops CIA team hunting Cybertronians, Atinger, confront Cade and Isaac. Cade demands a lawyer, while Isaac stays perfectly silent to observe.

Attinger tells Cade that, if he gives Bay!Optimus up, he and Tessa can go home. Isaac snorts.

Attinger then makes it clear that Tessa will die without Cade’s cooperation.

Isaac scoffs. “Do not take us for idiots.” And Attinger looks at him. “… We’ve seen too much. You have no intention of allowing anyone who knows what you have done here to live.” His eyes narrow. “So, why make it easier for you? If you want Optimus Prime, find him yourself.”

Joshua looks back at him. “For someone who had no stakes in this, you’re certainly determined.” He turns around. “My software couldn’t identify you. You don’t even exist. Why get involved?”

“… To protect this world from someone who is repeating my mistakes,” Isaac replies, looking at Joshua knowingly. “Mark my words: he’s not dead. That’s why your prototype is always going to be wrong… It’s not yours. It’s his.” He shakes his head. “You think you can just build a hero in your basement, but all you are creating down there is the end. You’re bringing him back.”

“Him?” Joshua blinks.

Isaac looks him dead in the eyes. “Megatron. And when he returns, hope that he comes for you—because you won’t be able to live with yourself.”

It’s just about then when the Autobots attack.

Tessa and Sari are told to stay behind to stay safe and to ensure that Sari remains a secret, but they won’t leave their fathers—so, in they go.

Cade and Isaac are rescued by Bay!Bumblebee and Drift, and Bay!Optimus leads the charge to destroy KSI’s lab until Joshua confront him.

“They are not your property! They were my friends.”

Joshua gives his little tirade about all of this being in the name of science, that the remains of all Cybertronians are just lifeless bits of metal to be exploited—and since Cybertronians can be built, the Autobots are no longer needed and the rest of humanity won’t care about their loss.

That there is enough to make Sari do what she did to Powell and to Masterson.

No one talks to any Optimus like that.

In a flash, she’s in her armor and her blasters are ready—and Joshua gets thrown across his ruined lab. He’s not seriously hurt, but Sari’s revealed herself in her rage and that’s really bad.

Bay!Optimus doesn’t hesitate to snatch her off the ground while Bay!Bumblebee grabs Cade and Isaac, and the elder Prime orders a retreat.

All they’ve managed is rescuing Brains. In all other ways, this is a colossal failure.

Stinger and Galvatron are sent out to chase the fleeing Autobots, and their cameras pick up a lot—Sari, the strangeness of the TFA ‘Bots.

Attinger reports what he sees to Lockdown, trusting the bounty hunter to know what this is.

Lockdown doesn’t like “species mixing with species”, so that puts a target on Sari.

And if he doesn’t like species mixing in his own reality, what will he think of the multiverse?

The hunt’s on.

Meanwhile, the destructive chase continues and Bay!Optimus ends-up with all of the humans and Sari. Bay!Bumblebee tries to buy time and maybe TFA Bumblebee tries to help him, but they fail while Hound, Crosshairs, Brains, and Drift bail.

That leaves Bay!Optimus, TFA Optimus, Jazz, Ratchet, and Bulkhead with Sari and the humans.

Galvatron arrives.

He’s big, he can dissolve into floating pixels, and his sparkless chest can eat swords. He’s scary!

He’s VERY SCARY to the TFA Cast.

He’s TERRIFYING to Isaac Sumdac, who knows what this is all about and just hates it.

The good news is that Galvatron is fucked.

Ratchet’s got his magnets.

Jazz is a cyber-ninja.

Bulkhead’s got a wrecking-ball for a hand.

Sari’s got her blasters.

Isaac has his alien gun.

And cue Bay!Optimus being shocked by how lethal TFA Optimus is with his axe. Wheeljack taught him how to handle larger and stronger opponents, and he did a good job.

So, Galvatron gets his ass kicked.

Bulkhead focuses on protecting the Yeagers and Professor Sumdac, and everyone else just takes turns beating the snot out of King ‘Con.

Then, a missile hits Bay!Optimus.

Lockdown has arrived, and Galvatron flees while the bounty-hunter approaches.

Ratchet wants to just choose violence because he hates any version of this guy, but he freezes. All he can see is his alternate self getting murdered, and butchered by greedy humans.

Jazz moves back to help Bulkhead defend the humans. After hearing about what happened to Lucas, they can take no risks here.

It’s Sari and TFA Optimus left protecting Bay!Optimus, standing between him and Lockdown.

TFA Optimus deflects a round from Lockdown’s face-rifle with his axe, standing firm while Sari tries to coax Bay!Optimus to get up.

And Lockdown eyes the two Primes and the techno-organic carefully.

“I feel sorry for you, Prime,” he tells Bay!Optimus with no sympathy in his voice. “Your allegiance to these humans, to so many lost souls… The trouble with loyalty to a cause is that the cause will always betray you.”

“Who sent you here?” Bay!Optimus asks.

“Where do you think you came from?” Lockdown asks. “You think you were born? No, you were built—and your creators want you back.” The bounty-hunter’s ship descends over the fallen Prime. “We all work for someone.”

“You’re not taking him anywhere,” TFA Optimus insists, taking his axe in two servos.

Lockdown regards him, and he sighs. “Yet another mess I have to clean up.”

A smaller ship descends from the larger vessel.

It opens fire and the power of the guns knocks TFA Optimus to the ground even as he deflects the rounds. Sari rushes forward and activates her blades, but Lockdown just blasts the ground to knock her down and picks her up.

Tessa’s eyes widen, and she tries to go out and help her friend—but Cade grabs her arm. He has to let go to stop Isaac, and Tessa runs.

“What an abomination,” Lockdown mutters, and he gestures.

Tessa gets into the car under Bay!Optimus’s head right before the net fires to capture both Primes.

Jazz and Bulkhead want to step in, but TFA Optimus quickly orders them to protect each other and the humans. He doesn’t see that Tessa’s stowing away, he just knows that he doesn’t believe most Bay ‘Bots are reliable.

Bay!Optimus asks Cade to warn his friends anyway, and then the captives are gone.

Except Sari. Lockdown’s still there with her.

He looks at Jazz, Ratchet and Bulkhead, clearly thinking—putting them on a mental list—but he’s accomplished his mission. His personal beliefs can wait until he’s working on his own time.

Besides, he has TFA Optimus and Sari.

At this point, Cade and Isaac are clearly panicking—but what can they do, now?

Only trust in the Autobots.

On the ship, Lockdown has Tessa taken to the trash—and Sari and TFA Optimus experience the multiverse’s most-confusing lore-drop.

Seriously, they thought TFP was weird.

Then, the Primes are locked-up and Lockdown tries to decide what to do with Sari. She quickly stabs his fingers and skates off before he can decide, and she eventually finds Tessa.

Tessa: *mom friend* What do we do?!

Sari: *Wrecker energy* Crash the ship and save our Primes, obviously!

Tessa: *realizing that she finally gets to be the not-adult* Oh, fuck yeah. I’m in!

Hijinks ensued.

Don’t worry, they’re fine.

And they see the handoff with the Seed, so they know they have to move it—and quickly, since Tessa needs oxygen.

Meanwhile Cade, Isaac, the Bay ‘Bots, Jazz, Ratchet, Bulkhead, and TFA Bumblebee storm the ship. No one complains when Hound threatens Crosshair and makes him stay to help with the rescue mission.

Cade and Isaac take TFA Bumblebee and Jazz to go and find the missing girls.

The other six ‘bots go to sabotage the ship and find the missing Primes.

Meanwhile, those two Primes are just hanging upside-down in cells. TFA Optimus is likely the tiniest thing in their block.

So, Bay!Optimus is again surprised when the smaller mech folds himself in half to start tinkering with his restraints.

“What are you doing?” He asks.

TFA Optimus smirks. “My mentor’s a master escape artist. Taught me a few tricks. I’m getting us out of here.”

He gets the restraint on his legs to release, and he starts trying to open his cage.

Bay!Optimus is concerned.

Jazz, TFA Bee, Cade, and Isaac find the weapons’ vault and Cade’s elated to get his own alien gun. Team Human Dads starts blasting their way through the ship with their Autobot escorts, looking for the kids.

Meanwhile, Sari’s skating around with a screaming Tessa to avoid the robo-hyenas. They’re still fine, though—Sari’s having the time of her life, wreaking havoc.

Tessa, Sari, Cade, Isaac, Jazz, and TFA Bumblebee eventually meet up—and the TFA folks convince the Yeagers to meet up with the Autobot rather than trying to climb down.

The Bay ‘Bots and TFA ‘Bots reunite with their Primes-

TFA Optimus: *standing in front of Bay!Optimus’s open cell and trying to get the other Prime down* Calm down!

Bay ‘Bots: ???

Ratchet: Yeah, he’s just… like that.

And they steal a gunship and separate a smaller ship from the rest of the vessel to make their escape.

Crosshairs flies the little gunship with Bumblebee as copilot, and Team Human Dads goes with them. When Crosshairs leaves Bumblebee in-charge, it’s Team Human Dads blasting.

Once everyone has escaped, Bay!Optimus—jaded by everything he’s been through and learned—reveals his intent to leave as soon as the Seed is retrieved. Cade’s not the only one who tries to talk him out of it. Before the flight to Hong Kong, TFA Optimus gives it a shot.

“I know you want to give up on them,” he says quietly. “They can be cruel and unkind, but we can be the same way.”

“They’re not on our planet, dying in droves to protect our people, only for us to turn and hunt them for their science,” Bay!Optimus replies coldly. “How is this fair?”

“… It isn’t,” TFA Optimus says softly. “It isn’t fair. It’s just painful, always is. When I lost one of my teammates, Prowl, it was-…” He shakes his head. “I know I can’t pass any judgement here. I didn’t fight the war, I came after—I’ve lost, but not like-… But I think that, if my mentor was here, he’d tell you that turning your back and running is the worst thing you could do—for yourself, for the memory of your friends. Don’t let all of this mean nothing.”

“And risk what remains of my kind for these humans?” Bay!Optimus demands. “Humans who want to destroy us, experiment on us.”

TFA Optimus sighs. “I’m not the right person to be talking to you about this.”

“Then, who is?”

“Wheeljack,” TFA Optimus says. “… No one knows about Cybertronians, in Wheeljack’s reality—except for government operatives and a few civilians. They don’t get thanked, when they die to protect that world—in fact, there were even these human butchers who learned about them and started to hunt them down to use them for science. ‘Bots were dissected and had organs stolen, and one was even killed with their frame turned into a suit.” Bay!Optimus looks ready to be physically sick. “… Those Autobots, led by another Optimus Prime, still never stopped fighting for humanity—even if it meant their lives, meant giving up ever restoring their world. They kept fighting.”

“How?” Bay!Optimus whispers.

TFA Optimus gives a frail smile. “Honestly, I’m not sure… but one of us did it, Optimus. One of us didn’t quit.” He shakes his head. “I don’t wanna quit.” He looks up at his counterpart. “And somehow, I think that you don’t want to either. Call it a hunch.”

Bay!Optimus gives a weak smile and raises an optic-brow. “A hunch?”

“I guess I have some insider information,” TFA Optimus jokes, and they chuckle.

Cade and Isaac work together to convince Joshua that the Seed is dangerous and that Galvatron will be coming for it.

The Autobots, Sari, and their human allies travel to Hong Kong, where a new battle begins—chaotic and multifaceted.

Hound and Ratchet try to protect their human allies while Bay!Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Sari, Jazz, and TFA Bumblebee try to fight off the armies of synthetic Cybertronians led by Galvatron.

Cade defeats Savoy with Jazz just trying to make sure he doesn’t fall, and the cyber-ninja doesn’t feel too bad when it’s the Cybertronian hunter who takes the fall.

Lockdown returns and hunts for the Optimi—but luckily, Bay!Optimus tames the Autobots while Drift and Crosshair watch, and TFA Optimus just wonders what Wheeljack would think.

The synthetic army is defeated, but Lockdown continues his pursuit.

The Optimi order the humans, Sari, and the Dinobots to go with their teammates and get the Seed out of the city safely while they deal with Lockdown together.

Sari stays anyway, and Cade returns to fight off Attinger. Tessa and Isaac return to help their family, with Bay!Bumblebee and TFA Bumblebee.

Bay!Optimus gets to kill Attinger to save Cade, and just when it starts to look bad again-

SLICE!

Lockdown drops, revealing a visibly-shaking mech holding a sword in two servos.

“… Dad?” TFA Bumblebee asks, stunned.

“Sorry I’m late,” Wheeljack says, his optic twitching. He’s had a long week, and he’s running on enough caffeinated Energon to fuel three Cybertrons. “Had to stop an’ ask for directions.”

TFP Wheeljack: *visibly vibrating and tasting colors* HaVE yoU sEEn mY kiDS???!

Bay ‘Bots: *scream*

Bulkhead & Jazz: !!!

Ratchet: He’s just… like that?

The battle’s over.

Yet another human city is in ruins.

And the TFA Crew has to get home while Wheeljack’s still coherent enough to call Arcee so that she can activate the bridge.

Bay!Optimus says his goodbyes, thanking the TFA Crew for their help and vowing to take the Seed someplace safe before he tracks down his creators to end their schemes. He also frees the Dinobots (Wheeljack’s deliriously waving to his giant children and asking how they got so big), and tells the rest of the of the Bay ‘Bots to defend the Yeagers. Then, he’s gone.

Isaac and Sari bid their farewells to Cade and Tessa, assured that they’ll be alright—and the TFA ‘bots say farewell to the Bay ‘Bots. They’ll mostly miss Bay!Bumblebee and Hound.

Then, the bridge opens and they head home.

…

Once Wheeljack’s had some rest and gets his thoughts together, he worriedly asks if they’re alright.

He didn’t miss all of the obvious carnage upon his arrival in the Bayverse, even though there was a moment when he was sure there were six Optimi.

The TFA Crew doesn’t know what to say.

They witnessed, what they feel, has to be the darkest timeline—even when compared to the Prime!verse.

Cybertron was destroyed. So many Autobots were dying, and those who lived were being hunted by humans and a bounty-hunter. Those humans who tried to help them were killed.

TFA Bumblebee had asked his counterpart about Wheeljack, and he had been horrified to learn that he was dead.

So, in secret, they want to give the Bayverse the ‘the Pit 2.0’ designation.

But they don’t tell Wheeljack that.

They tell him that they’re okay, and they’re going to keep trying to get him home.

This experience does have positives.

Optimus never expected that he would be able to inspire hope in a more ancient and powerful version of himself. That feels nice, and seeing it happen again with TFP Optimus will further validate him.

And Sari? Sari knows that Wheeljack was wrong and her father is—in fact—not “too nice” to point a gun at a fellow human in a fit of paternal rage. She also makes friends with someone in another universe, another girl—which gives her hope for when she’ll meet Miko.

Plus, Isaac got to let loose and show off his badass side through his fast friendship with Cade.

They won’t miss the excessive violence and danger, but… they’ll miss the friends they made.

#tfp wheeljack in tfa #transformers #transformers animated #transformers bayverse

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