A Victory

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Arcee crossed the portal back to the Autobot base, their established home on Earth. They saw the group's doctor carefully analyzing the Cybertronian artifact with his homemade equipment, which he had to build himself.

"Welcome back." Jack said, smiling broadly at the victory over the Decepticons.

Bumblebee made his signature Beeb sound, with a happy and energetic tone, because he managed to land some good punches to Knock Out's face., making Raf laugh at his comments.

"I'm proud of you three." Arcee praised, putting her hands on her waist. "That was very brave of you to help us with something so important."

"THAT WAS AWESOME! Let's do it again." Miko shouted, pretending to play imaginary guitar.

"Hahahahahaha!" Bulkhead laughed, caught up in the spirit of his human friend.

Optimus approached Ratchet, who was studying the ancient artifact intently, clearly surprised by his analysis. "So, Ratchet, what do you think?"

"Optimus, the Energon Harvester has indeed activated its safety lock! If the Decepticons were successful in stealing the orb with the lock in place, they would be unable to harness its power without knowledge of the code." Ratchet was surprised and stunned.

"So Lux did help us indirectly, which means he has more information about our race than we thought." Optimus commented, now curious and ready to find Lux and talk to him. "In the possibility that Soundwave stole the orb, it still wouldn't be a serious problem because without the activation code, it would be just a simple spherical artifact and useless in the hands of the Decepticons."

"Does that mean Lux could be an alien in human form? SHOW!!" Miko shouted even more excitedly.

"That can be a topic for another time, now that we have the Energon Harvester, we can gather large amounts of Energon to replenish our bodies and our arsenal." Arcee said excitedly.

Ratchet nodded and handed the orb to his friend Optimus. "I think we can put its power to use soon."

Optimus looked at the artifact; in his mind, he knew it could be used as a weapon, but as a peacemaker, he would use this power only to gather Energon and fairly tip the scales of battle in favor of the Autobots, not to abuse a power to harm or impose upon the Decepticons. "I want to make it very clear that we will only use the artifact's ability to gather Energon on Earth, not as a weapon. Regardless of how it is used, we must be especially careful." The Autobots nodded, all understanding the wise words of their leader.

"I think this is worth a big party!" Miko jumped for joy, infecting the Autobots with her excitement.

While the Autobots enjoyed a victory and the opportunity to change the pace of the battle without Megatron leading the Decepticons, things were a little more hectic on the other side of the board, on the Decepticon ship Nemesis.

***

"HOW DID YOU LOSE THE ENERGON HARVESTER?" Starscream roared in anger, his hands clutching his head as he lost his composure. "YOU IDIOTS, HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID AS TO LET THE AUTOBOTS HAVE ACCESS TO THAT ARTIFACT!"

Starscream berated Knock Out and Breakdown for the failure of their perfect plan. He decided to focus his anger only on them, not wanting to provoke Soundwave's silent rage, knowing that the most loyal Decepticon to Megatron was secretly the second strongest, second only to Megatron himself.

"I EXPECTED THE SIMPLE TASK OF ROBBING A HUMAN MUSEUM TO BE EASY FOR TWO RENOWNED DECEPTICONS, WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!" Starscream continued, wanting to crush their morale in front of the silently watching Decepticons.

"Well... it's not really our fault. We never imagined Optimus Prime would attack us in such a cowardly manner." Knock Out lied, even though he was the one who cowardly attacked the leader of the Autobots.

"Exactly, the Autobots hid like vermin to attack us like the cowards they are." Breakdown continued, supporting Knock Out's lie.

Starscream sighed and gritted his teeth in frustration, feeling as if he had been on a losing streak ever since he encountered Megatron in space with his spark nearly extinguished. Despite his attempt to kill him, Megatron was still clinging to life in his coma, giving the Decepticons hope that he would return.

"Enough! Let's get ready for the Energon harvesting plan I've been planning!" Starscream said, going back to work to distract himself.