In the Programming
Who: Optimus, bunch of other people NPC'd kinda
What: canon update, if he gets one
when: at some yet-undecided date that will probably be later this month
Warnings: TFA S3 spoilers?
It’s like he was never gone.
He’s there, on the cliff with the rest of his crew - Prowl, Bulkhead, Ratchet, and Bumblebee, and they’re all staring agape at Sari, who is backing away slowly from her Father. Optimus blinks, and stares down at his hands. Blue, like they’re supposed to be.
He’s back. And even though he spent months in the city, he’s never even left here.
Was it all just a dream? A glitch in his data banks?
And before he can think about it more, life presses on. They need to answer the questions about Sari. They need to rebuild the space bridge, because Teletraan-1 is gone. He needs to protect Sari and Professor Sumdac from Headmasterscream (hey, this is nothing compared to fighting the real Starscream - the red, blue and gray one, not this one).They need to find Bumblebee. They need to keep an upgraded Sari from going haywire. There’s too much to do in too short a period of time, and shortly, those memories fade like a barely-remembered dream.
It’s only after several orbital cycles, in his berth, that Optimus remembers it. Did he imagine that city, being human? He must have. This is reality, this is his life.
Wasp arrives and with him, Sentinel, Jazz and two new bots, Jetfire and Jetstorm (so THIS is jetfire’s long-missed brother! Optimus shakes his head, clearing his processor. He’s never met these bots before). Sentinel antagonizes him, pushes him around, and is, well… Sentinel. Optimus vaguely remembers punching Sentinel right in that giant chin of his, but no. He’d never do that. Couldn’t do that. Shouldn’t do that.
Wasp is strangely familiar too. Something about spies and baths and too much buzzing.
Sentinel works with Lockdown and Optimus feels vindicated. Call HIM self-righteous, huh? When had Sentinel done that? Optimus can’t remember, but he feels vindicated all the same. He says they’ll have it out, and he’s eager for it. He’s sick of Sentinel’s slag, right?
Blackarachnia kidnaps Wasp and he becomes Waspinator (does he still want that stupid couch?), and something niggles Optimus. Sentinel doesn’t know about her - right? Didn’t he already tell Sentinel? Sentinel reacts as expected, and even though what she’s doing is wrong - utterly, utterly wrong, it goes against pretty much all of his programming! - there’s a dim glow of warm dark skin and purple hair that smells like grapes. What are grapes, anyway? Must be a glitch in his software.
He wakes up on Christmas morning and is nearly shocked out of his plating (skin?!) to find that he’s human again. Wait, human. He’s never been human - shouldn’t his hair be blue? They go to the Burger Bot and Optimus doesn’t mind the smell or the taste (tastes good, so does steak and salad and those weird frozen things he can buy on the corner of Broadstreet and 43rd where is that?) or even the bodily functions (although it freaks out Bumblebee and Ratchet well enough) and that moving as a human doesn’t feel unnatural or awkward. Beating Megatron with his own arm feels RIGHT. He should know how to drive this fire truck (and for reasons that AREN’T because he’s a fire truck himself, right?). He should, he should…
Sentinel’s up to his shenanigans again, and calls for his help. He comes (via swindle, wow that was weird), and they manage to fight off the escaped Cons and even capture a few. He SHINES, and he can almost feel Sentinel’s seething envy burning into his back. They’ve really got to work this out some day.
Something.
As time passes, as he lives his life, Optimus slowly forgets about The City, and everything that happened. Megatron prepares for an attack, and the Autobots ready themselves. Ratchet brings the Magnus Hammer back from Cybertron. He’s not ready to use it, he’s not programmed to be a hero (yes I am). Ratchet and Sumdac build him a jetpack and Prime takes to the air (is this what it’s like?) with a joyful whoop. Even being shot down doesn’t completely kill his happiness - it take Megatron to do that.
Megatron clones Omega Supreme using Lugnut, and attacks the city. Optimus and Prowl fly into the battle. Optimus uses the hammer - work with him, please? He tries something crazy (I’ve done crazier). He fights Megatron ,(Megatron. Oh Allspark I’m fighting Megatron one-on-one) and the strangest part is… he’s winning. Megatron calls him a persistent little autobot (My name is Optimus Prime!). Megatron remembers his name (about time, it’s not like this is the fourth time I’ve fought him or anything).
And Prowl…
He wins. He returns to Cybertron, hammer in hand and his friend on a funeral berth. He isn’t sure if he should feel happy or sad or both and Sentinel is seething and who the slag cares, Megatron is in stasis-cuffs and HE’S the one that did it.
He’s a…
“Welcome to the City, Hero.”
Optimus blinks in shock, and looks down at his free servo. Skin. That familiar blue-and-red jacket, jeans… he laughs now. Apparently Soundwave was aware that he’d worn this in this alternate universe. His communicator is still in his pocket, right where he left it. The AI continues to drone on about where he is and what he’s doing there, but Optimus ignores it and walks right out into the clear June morning.
He’s still carrying the Magnus Hammer.
He walks for a while, realizing that yes, he’d missed this. He’d missed Detroit and Cybertron too, but here… he’d missed being here. It all came flooding back now, a tumult of memories that he’d dismissed as half-faded dreams.
Hero. He glanced over at the hammer, and smiled. Maybe he was one after all.
He dismisses the hammer like he would dismiss his axe, and was pleased to find that it obeyed. He then pulled out his communicator, and turned it on, unable to keep the happy smile off of his face. “This is Optimus Prime,” he said, looking straight into the camera. “I’m back.”
What: canon update, if he gets one
when: at some yet-undecided date that will probably be later this month
Warnings: TFA S3 spoilers?
It’s like he was never gone.
He’s there, on the cliff with the rest of his crew - Prowl, Bulkhead, Ratchet, and Bumblebee, and they’re all staring agape at Sari, who is backing away slowly from her Father. Optimus blinks, and stares down at his hands. Blue, like they’re supposed to be.
He’s back. And even though he spent months in the city, he’s never even left here.
Was it all just a dream? A glitch in his data banks?
And before he can think about it more, life presses on. They need to answer the questions about Sari. They need to rebuild the space bridge, because Teletraan-1 is gone. He needs to protect Sari and Professor Sumdac from Headmasterscream (hey, this is nothing compared to fighting the real Starscream - the red, blue and gray one, not this one).They need to find Bumblebee. They need to keep an upgraded Sari from going haywire. There’s too much to do in too short a period of time, and shortly, those memories fade like a barely-remembered dream.
It’s only after several orbital cycles, in his berth, that Optimus remembers it. Did he imagine that city, being human? He must have. This is reality, this is his life.
Wasp arrives and with him, Sentinel, Jazz and two new bots, Jetfire and Jetstorm (so THIS is jetfire’s long-missed brother! Optimus shakes his head, clearing his processor. He’s never met these bots before). Sentinel antagonizes him, pushes him around, and is, well… Sentinel. Optimus vaguely remembers punching Sentinel right in that giant chin of his, but no. He’d never do that. Couldn’t do that. Shouldn’t do that.
Wasp is strangely familiar too. Something about spies and baths and too much buzzing.
Sentinel works with Lockdown and Optimus feels vindicated. Call HIM self-righteous, huh? When had Sentinel done that? Optimus can’t remember, but he feels vindicated all the same. He says they’ll have it out, and he’s eager for it. He’s sick of Sentinel’s slag, right?
Blackarachnia kidnaps Wasp and he becomes Waspinator (does he still want that stupid couch?), and something niggles Optimus. Sentinel doesn’t know about her - right? Didn’t he already tell Sentinel? Sentinel reacts as expected, and even though what she’s doing is wrong - utterly, utterly wrong, it goes against pretty much all of his programming! - there’s a dim glow of warm dark skin and purple hair that smells like grapes. What are grapes, anyway? Must be a glitch in his software.
He wakes up on Christmas morning and is nearly shocked out of his plating (skin?!) to find that he’s human again. Wait, human. He’s never been human - shouldn’t his hair be blue? They go to the Burger Bot and Optimus doesn’t mind the smell or the taste (tastes good, so does steak and salad and those weird frozen things he can buy on the corner of Broadstreet and 43rd where is that?) or even the bodily functions (although it freaks out Bumblebee and Ratchet well enough) and that moving as a human doesn’t feel unnatural or awkward. Beating Megatron with his own arm feels RIGHT. He should know how to drive this fire truck (and for reasons that AREN’T because he’s a fire truck himself, right?). He should, he should…
Sentinel’s up to his shenanigans again, and calls for his help. He comes (via swindle, wow that was weird), and they manage to fight off the escaped Cons and even capture a few. He SHINES, and he can almost feel Sentinel’s seething envy burning into his back. They’ve really got to work this out some day.
Something.
As time passes, as he lives his life, Optimus slowly forgets about The City, and everything that happened. Megatron prepares for an attack, and the Autobots ready themselves. Ratchet brings the Magnus Hammer back from Cybertron. He’s not ready to use it, he’s not programmed to be a hero (yes I am). Ratchet and Sumdac build him a jetpack and Prime takes to the air (is this what it’s like?) with a joyful whoop. Even being shot down doesn’t completely kill his happiness - it take Megatron to do that.
Megatron clones Omega Supreme using Lugnut, and attacks the city. Optimus and Prowl fly into the battle. Optimus uses the hammer - work with him, please? He tries something crazy (I’ve done crazier). He fights Megatron ,(Megatron. Oh Allspark I’m fighting Megatron one-on-one) and the strangest part is… he’s winning. Megatron calls him a persistent little autobot (My name is Optimus Prime!). Megatron remembers his name (about time, it’s not like this is the fourth time I’ve fought him or anything).
And Prowl…
He wins. He returns to Cybertron, hammer in hand and his friend on a funeral berth. He isn’t sure if he should feel happy or sad or both and Sentinel is seething and who the slag cares, Megatron is in stasis-cuffs and HE’S the one that did it.
He’s a…
“Welcome to the City, Hero.”
Optimus blinks in shock, and looks down at his free servo. Skin. That familiar blue-and-red jacket, jeans… he laughs now. Apparently Soundwave was aware that he’d worn this in this alternate universe. His communicator is still in his pocket, right where he left it. The AI continues to drone on about where he is and what he’s doing there, but Optimus ignores it and walks right out into the clear June morning.
He’s still carrying the Magnus Hammer.
He walks for a while, realizing that yes, he’d missed this. He’d missed Detroit and Cybertron too, but here… he’d missed being here. It all came flooding back now, a tumult of memories that he’d dismissed as half-faded dreams.
Hero. He glanced over at the hammer, and smiled. Maybe he was one after all.
He dismisses the hammer like he would dismiss his axe, and was pleased to find that it obeyed. He then pulled out his communicator, and turned it on, unable to keep the happy smile off of his face. “This is Optimus Prime,” he said, looking straight into the camera. “I’m back.”