Transformers Prime: A Sparkling Issue

Chapter 2 - A Little History, Color, and Water

Rafael pushed his glasses up his nose, still staring at his laptop screen. "This particular script talks about a mysterious relic that supposedly dates way back to near the beginning of Cybertron itself. There's other small similar mentions of it throughout other records but this is the closest. It also talks a lot about a certain Cybertronian called Vector Prime and his relation to the relic."

"Wait, you can read that?" Miko asked in surprise, pointing to what her brain made out as gibberish on the monitor.

Rafael gave a sheepish grin. "Not really. I've been trying to learn but Ratchet helped me install a translator into my laptop so I could read through the history files they have."

"So who is this Vector Prime exactly?" Jack asked.

Optimus's blue optics turned downwards to the boy as he began to speak. "One of my predecessors and one of the first 13 original Primes who were created by Primus, the creator of our kind. Each Prime had a specific role to help the expansion of our race. Vector Prime was appointed the guardian of time and space, gifted with the unique ability to be attuned to its flow. Among the strongest of the Primes, he wielded a mighty sword constructed from ethereal properties which only he could control its mighty force. A blade so sharp its edges could slice through the fabric of time itself, opening portals to anywhere at any time in space and even other dimensions. It is rumored he also possessed the power to control the flow of time, being able to turn it back and altar events. With his temporal mechanics analyzer, he was able to observe all that happened in each linear pathway; whether it be in the past, present, or future. His great power allowed him to navigate across the multiverse at mere will, allowing him to track and record events across the countless streams of realities. Millions of timelines where any decision we may have chosen different is a world all its own."

Miko's eyes were wide. "Wow! Now that is one cool dude bot."

Jack looked equally impressed. "So did you know him?"

"I did." Optimus gave a nod of his helm. "Many years ago, during the time when the wars were just beginning on Cybertron. He was a great warrior and a powerful ally – and a good friend. He was also once the carrier of the Matrix of Leadership."

"The same one you have in you?"

Optimus's servos lightly touched at his chest plates. "Yes. Though he left it in the care of the Autobot leaders when he later left Cybertron to guard the space time continuum."

"So what does time-travel Prime have to do with our bot-shrinking doohickey?" Miko asked, hands resting nonchalantly on her hips.

Rafael looked back at his laptop. "This says that when the Cybertronians began to grow as a world, Vector Prime worried about the safety of their race in the future millennia to come should anything happen to him. So he went to Solus Prime, one of the other original 13, and asked for her to create a device that could hold the same power as him. Solus Prime used her great forge to construct a relic of incredible power simply called 'The Key', able to connect to any space bridge where it could the open up portals do any point of time in space or reality."

"And that's this?" Miko pointed up where the relic sat on the platform above her. "So it's like real sci-fi time travel? Just in a metal triangle thingy?" The phraseology could have been better, but technically was still correct. Rafael gave a nod.

"Basically, it's a time displacement device to replicate Vector Prime's power. At least, I think so." The brown eyes flickered up to the large mech at the platform's edge, looking for approving conformation.

Optimus saw and put the boy at ease. "I concur with your conclusion, Raff."

Jack's brow furrowed. "So how did it get here on earth?"