The Search for Alpha Trion

by Ragey

Over on Cybertron, a group of female Autobots are on the lookout for energon; Chromia, Firestar and Moonracer. They contact Elita-One to tell her their whereabouts and mission, and don't take long before finding the control panel to the elevator. Down below they find a humongous stockpile of the pink glowy stuff, so Firestar transforms and pile plenty on before Chromia states that's all they'll take, though Moonracer finds that amount to be too low.

As Firestar and Chromia head back to the lift, Moonracer nabs two more cubes and trips a laser wire, alerting security and getting her trapped in an entrapping cube. Chromia tries to blast open the cube as Firestar is told to leave, but Shockwave is alerted and sees what's going on in the energon storage via a screen.
 

Firestar drives past him and out the door, only losing a couple of cubes from Shockwave's fire, though the one-eyed purple guy claims her companions won't be so lucky. He heads down to the storage and opens fire upon Chromia, who simply leaps out of the way and lets the blast hit the cube, freeing Moonracer and allowing her to lob the explosive energon cubes at the Decepticon before escaping.

Moonracer laments on how if she hadn't been so greedy they wouldn't have lost more cubes, but they shut her up in fear of Shockwave following them. A sentinel droid is indeed on their tail, and for that reason Elita-One denies them entry to their secret headquarters, but one blast is enough to send that thing down.
 

Shockwave contacts Megatron to let him know what a total failure he is by not succeeding in any way at all, so the big cheese says he'll send him a team of Decepticons to help out.

After loading the energon down their warp pipe the female Autobots follow it down, getting praise from Elita-One for a job well done, but they inform her that Shockwave may now be aware of where their secret hideout is located. Elita-One claims Alpha Trion is the man with the plan on such matters and prepares to contact him.

Shockwave indeed finds out approximately where the hideout is on the magic screen of his, and Starscream, Astrotrain, Ramjet and Rumble arrive from the space bridge to help him out on his mission.

Elita-One contacts Alpha Trion and gives him the 411, and he suggests they relocate and search the area alone, but also tells her not to use her "special power" under any circumstances at all whatsoever do you hear me.

As she goes out exploring, she hides from the Decepticons as they go looking for the secret entrance. Ramjet ponders whether or not Shockwave made a booboo, but Starscream goes for the easy solution of making Rumble stir up an earthquake and rattle the female Autobots out into the open. Elita-One watches from behind a wall and opens fire...

On a Cybertronian rubbish bin.

Rumble keeps up the pile driving as the others try and stop Elita; Astrotrain just kind of bounces off her, Ramjet's missile is thrown right back at him, but Starscream's null ray is finally what takes her down.

Down below, the pile drivers did wonders for the utter decimation of the base, but all the occupants are A-OK and immediately go about worrying for Elita-One, though since their teleporter is covered in rubble there's not much they can do.

Meanwhile on Earth, Optimus Prime receives a call from none other than Megatron! The Decepticon informs his archenemy that the female Autobots are, in fact, still alive, and made the very silly decision to thief things from their base on Cybertron; Optimus' demand to see proof is answered by seeing Elita-One held captive. Surrender in two hours or Elita gets whacked!
 

After pinpointing where the Decepticon space bridge is and rolling out for it, he flashbacks to four million years ago, before they even knew what Earth was. As Optimus was boarding the Ark for their departure, Elita and the female Autobots rushed out to try and come with them, but he claimed it was too dangerous and would come back for them once they'd found a new place to chill. Then suddenly, missile strike! Elita pulls a very damsel-in-distress pose, and fter the smoke cleared, the females were gone.
 

Back at the Ark, the Autobots assume Prime must be going to Cybertron all by himself and wonder why, but Ironhide isn't a big fan of the whole thinking thing and prefers to just plain find out, prompting him, Inferno and Powerglide to head out to the space bridge.

Meanwhile, Prime heads through the space bridge.

Of course, once he steps through the doors on Cybertron he's trapped in a cube, prompting Elita-One to kick Astrotrain and try to free her chum, but Starscream blasts her down and threatens to destroy her, but Shockwave has a better idea (aka something avoidable).

Back in the ruined base, Moonracer remembers that the energon can be used to blast their way out, as she kept them locked away for safekeeping and they're totally unharmed! They do the job just splendidly, so they all head out to find Elita.

So what was Shockwave's plan?

Dangling Prime above a vat of melting acidic liquid type stuff.

When you do something that drawn out, you just know he's going to get out safely. And the fact Shockwave is to blame for it only proves his absolute stupidity in the cartoon. But regardless, yikes! How'll he get out of this one?!

By Elita-One using her special power during the commercial break, which is the ability to freeze time with a really obscuring effect. She drags Prime down to the floor just before he hits the acid, but in doing so her life force is drained, her last words telling Optimus to take her to Alpha Trion.

As the time stopping wears off, the Decepticons applaud the disintegrating of Optimus Prime but are cut short by the entrance of Ironhide, Powerglide and Inferno, who start the attack after seeing what's supposedly left of their leader. They quite easily overpower the lot of them, working in some kung-fu into the mix, but the Decepticons just retreat through a hole Ironhide melted in the wall.

They take the battle outside, where the tables are turned thanks to some convenient explosions from Starscream, but the female Autobots arrive to help their masculine companions, and the three of them are reunited with their girlfriends. This back-up allows them to easily overpower the Decepticons either with brute force or just letting the collapsing environment do it's work.

Starscream gets his ass out of there, only for Ironhide and Chromia to corner him at a cliff and threaten to blast him, but quite stupidly forget that he can fly so falling off wouldn't exactly mean much to him.

Meanwhile, Optimus Prime finally finds Alpha Trion and asks her to treat Elita-One, as she drained her life force using her special power to save his life. They take her inside for more extensive treatment.

Five seconds after putting her on the operating table, Alpha Trion informs Prime that he's done everything he can for her, but it's Optimus who has to save her now. His design is the only thing that can save her, and that's by linking up his power filter with hers, but Prime asks how he knows; after all, only his creator would know about that. Alpha Trion skirts around the question.

With the additional firepower from the female Autobots helping out Ironhide and company, the Decepticons are cowering against a wall, but Shockwave does the only decent thing ever and blasts the ground the Autobots are on. They all manage to grab onto the ledge, though, so it wasn't even a good victory. Just when it looks like they're snookered, here comes Prime and Elita!

All he has to do is fire a warning shot, and the simple matter of seeing a dead guy alive again is enough to send the Decepticons packing. Except for Shockwave, who's too stupid to retreat and is taken down with one fire of Elita's pistol. With the threat quashed, everyone involved are more than happy to see Prime and Elita back in action.

Alpha Trion gets the female Autobots a new base, allowing them to get catching up with their significant others, missing all their missions together and saying what good partners they are and such lovey-dovey talk.

Optimus Prime and Elita-One say their final words together, stating they should thank Alpha Trion for their victory, prompting Elita to say what a father figure he is to her. "More than you'll ever know," Prime says, because keeping an obvious answer secret is great. As the Autobots leave, Elita-One waves goodbye and asks them not to stay away for too long.

Starscream is portrayed as the only competent Decepticon in this episode, his companions only there to blunder and prove just how awesome he is.

He also looks a hell of a lot like his Transformers Animated version in the acid vat scene. He never smiles that crookedly anywhere else.

Sure, it's nice seeing the Autobots with gal pals, but it's not exactly a happy ending.

ARGGHH

AWOOOGA

Not to mention that with Cybertron being taken over completely by the Decepticons by the time of the movie, the female Autobots were probably wiped out (excluding Arcee).

Inferno and Powerglide turn out fine, though.