Kremzeek!

by Ragey

Megatron is meant to be busy generating electrodes for an energy magnet, but instead he's working on something else, where out of his machinery pops something small, spiky and name-spouting: Kremzeek! Starscream is immediatelyy frightened by the creature, and has more reason to do so when it hops into the communications hub, and by its sheer presence, screws up the whole system. Megatron gets on the creature's good side and seals it in a specialised cage.

Of course, this isn't for show and tell. He knows he's made himself something pretty awesome - no, better than awesome. The ultimate weapon for defeating the Autobots! So, hitching a ride in Thrust, he flies over to Autobot headquarters, drops Kremzeek off at the entrance and scoots back home again, just in time for the cage to bust open and reveal the horrible little blighter.
 

It leaps inside the security camera and goes out the other end, through Teletraan's screen, and leaps through a door where Hoist, Jazz, Sparkplug and Smokescreen are just chillin'. Seeing a pint-sized monster made of electricity isn't exactly normal, so weirdly voiced Jazz tries zapping it, only for it to come right back at it, dive into his head and exit him, rendering him unconscious.

Hoist suffers the same fate, and Sparkplug's attempt to grab hold of it is foiled by electricity being painful. With the knowledge of what the creature is composed of, though, he dashes off with the potential for a solution, and leaves Smokescreen to fight off the creature with a robot-sized wooden table.
 

Kremzeek doesn't stop for inappropriate furniture, and hops right into him, forcing him to drive around, emitting smoke and transforming back into robot mode randomly. This just isn't polite guestroom behaviour, so Ratchet, Beachcomber, Huffer and Jazz again come strolling in complaining about the noise, only for Smokescreen to claim he's not the one doing it. Naturally, Ratchet asks who is causing the ruckus, and has it answered by Kremzeek hopping inside him and making him do a ballerina twirl.

Optimus listens in and fears the worst, only to have Sparkplug spoil the mood by dousing him with a spray, which turns out to be an insulator compound that'll prevent Kremzeek from getting inside them. He tests it out, and indeed, Kremzeek just bounces right off him, but before he can get the the little freak contained, it escapes through another door. They choose not to hunt after it, but to find whatever Autobot hasn't been messed up and get them protected.

Blaster, Bumblebee and Inferno are the only ones left unharmed by the creature, and the four remaining Autobots spread out in their insulator compound coat to find the thing. Inferno and Bee stumble across it in the act of messing up more of their machinery, but before they can catch it, Kremzeek hops on over to Teletraan-1 and begins sending prank calls. Following that, it hops into Teletraan's screen, and using the Sky Spy's viewing technology, gets to what's currently being projected: Japan!

Omega Supreme is summoned to the base to rocket them off to Japan, while Sparkplug stays behind to see if he can get the downed Autobots up and running again.

Meanwhile, Soundwave reports that all signals have ceased emanating from Autobot HQ, so Megatron believes they can now safely use that energy magnet with no threat of being thwarted.

The Autobots arrive on the beach of Japan, where it doesn't take long for Kremzeek to pop out of the sand and attempt entering the four of them. However, stupid Optimus forgot that a fifth had to take them there in the first place, and they didn't even bother getting him a compound coat, so Omega blasts off as quickly as he can, but not even he can escape the wrath of Kremzeek, crashing straight into the beach again.
 

Ever so conveniently for the villain of the day, a train stops nearby (I won't even bother asking why a train is so close to the ocean) and, of course, gets possessed by Kremzeek and sent hurtling forward at ludicrous speeds. Optimus chases after with his comrades holding on, driving faster and faster in an attempt to catch up, only for the train to come to a temporary halt and cause him to crash into the backend. This doesn't really damage either vehicle, so its nothing for the characters to be fussed about.
 

Meanwhile, the energy magnet is operational!

With how nonsensical the episode is, it's a bit hard to tell whether this is dangerous or a simple slice-of-life segment involving typical Decepticon craftsmanship.

The train arrives at the station eventually, allowing Kremzeek to leap into a passer-by's walkman and cause the speakers to thump and throb, prompting said passer-by to hurl his music player at the ground, causing it to explode. It then decides to take a visit to a video arcade and ruin some poor sap's racing game.

The Autobots give chase, but yet again the little blighter slips away into the worst possible place: Shibuya Electronics Manufacturing Corporation. Of course, by now Kremzeek has gotten a lot more mundane with its means of confusion and destruction, and has merely resorted to making microwaves explode and manufacturing tools destroy what they build. Soji Ishikawa, chief engineer of the corporation, steps out to have a word with the Autobots, who inform him of the crazy shenanigans that's been going on for the past twelve minutes.

Soji suggests they use radio waves to stop the beast, so Blaster uses the right frequency and blasts away, but although it has an effect, the creature just wades through the waves and gets inside him somehow. With this scenario, he tries frying Kremzeek with his own radio waves, but Soji tells him this is bad thinking, as it will only feed the creature's lust for power. And we know what this means.

DEAR GOD

With that many Kremzeeks, it's no surprise that traffic lights are exploding, billboards are overloading and cars are out of control all over the city, and Yosihkawa is spoken to for any ideas on how to stop this madness. The engineer knows how to stop them, but it's a simple matter of convincing them to do it, and that gives Optimus an idea, prompting him to dash off to the nearest power station.

Meanwhile, the energy magnet is put into use on a couple of military ships, draining the engines' power and storing it in the Decepticons' undersea batteries. How devious!

At the power station, the Autobots wire all the power up to a single scaffolding cage with the intention of attracting the attention of every Kremzeek in the city. And of course, being heroes, they're not wrong in that part of their plan. What they weren't expecting was the Kremzeeks passing through Blaster into the cage and merging into one humongous entity, which immediately drains the entire power station. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Bumblebee thoughtfully adds.

This kaiju Kremzeek, as is the tradition, rampages through Japan and nothing dares stand in its way. Quite clearly grasping at straws, Optimus commands Inferno to blast the beast with all the fire-retardant foam he's got. All this does is make Kremzeek mildly angry and throw it right back at them.

Back at the energy magnet, Megatron calls for yet another long-range test, but Starscream is displeased to keep sitting around doing tests all day, and sets the machine to full power. Immediately, the city is drained of all power, and the Autobots too are too weary to give chase to the rampaging electro-beast. They are enlightened as to what's going on: Kremzeek was made by Megatron to keep them busy while he toyed around with his energy magnet, and although Blaster does manage to trace the signal to 200 miles off-shore, they've got no time to actually try and stop it.

Blaster does suggest that they make Megatron take care of this mess by using the antennae of a tower that has some relation to the energy magnet to zap it back at him. Or... something. It's not very well defined.

Bumblebee lures the weary beast towards their destination, where with a quick flip of a switch, the Kremzeek is zapped inside the tower, and then sent hurtling back to the energy magnet in transmitting format.

As usual, Megatron is gloating over his imminent victory, only for Kremzeek arrive, its sheer energy downright exploding the magnet, and forcing the Decepticons to make a hasty retreat. Ah, quick turnarounds. Don't you love 'em?

The stolen energy is returned to the rightful origin, and using a convenient boat, they head out to the energy magnet and find the Kremzeek revelling in its new home. Yosihkawa confirms that yes, the Kremzeek can be defeated, but not by destruction, as you just can't remove energy altogether, yo; it's dispersed. And at the worst possible moment, Bumblebee asks why they have to defeat the beast. After all, it looks kind of cute, right?

Well, even puppies get put down, so put that opinion on the backburner, Bumblebee.

Having blasted the Kremzeek to kingdom come, they return to Omega Supreme where the chief engineer promises to help them put their buddy and everything back together. However, Blaster admits that he almost misses that little electrified scamp.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Oh NO.

Blaster's voice begins with a metallic flange in this episode, but after a few lines it gives way to the more normal sound.

Gotta love how completely useless Inferno is in this episode. Not that it's different from his other appearances, though.