Tales of the Intermezzo - Z A Transformers Universe Story copyright 2007 by Dave Van Domelen based on properties owned by Hasbro =========================================================================== "intermezzo - n. A brief entertainment between two acts of a play." - American Heritage Dictionary "Haven't you gotten that stabilizer locked down yet, Twin Twist?" Topspin shouted back, desperately trying to keep the small scout ship from flying apart completely as it careered down what looked for all the world like a tunnel made of warped mirrors. "Look, I'm along on this trip for muscle, not tech support!" the pugnacious Jumpstarter replied, his voice muffled by the fire retardant foam that filled most of the engineering niche. "I'm lucky I ain't fried myself grabbing these things ta keep 'em together! Are we outta th' wormhole yet?" "I think so. Just be glad I spotted it, or that 'Con outrider would've fried you first!" Topspin watched the instruments with a worried eye. The unnamed scout ship wasn't really designed to handle the stresses of wormhole travel, not that anyone deliberately entered the natural spacetime warps unless they were insane or desperate. There was no way to know in advance where you'd get dumped out, or even if you'd survive the trip...most had a good chance of grinding you to submesons along the way. But if they made it out, even a sublight ship could make it back to Cybertron. Eventually. "I'm losin' it!" Twin Twist shouted. "Almost there...keep it together...." Suddenly, the swirling reflections of the ship vanished as they burst out of the wormhole. A blue-green planet filled almost the entire front view. "I've got good news and bad news, 'Twist...." * * * * "...you hear me now?" Topspin groaned and powered up his optics. Someone was talking to him, but it wasn't a voice he recognized. In fact, he could tell that it wasn't even a Cybertronian, as his linguistics matrix was in high gear. He was in some kind of repair bay, but everything looked ludicrously flimsy, as if it were intended for Micromasters. "I am Doctor Kabuto," the voice said. Topspin tried to turn his head to face the speaker, but found he couldn't. "What...?" he mumbled, initiating a diagnostic. His primary motivator was heavily damaged, and someone had performed a primitive but elegant bypass of some sort. But it was still missing a vital component, so he couldn't move. "You were badly damaged in your crash, my giant metal friend," Doctor Kabuto explained. "Your technology is truly astounding, far beyond my own efforts on the Mazinger project. But I was able to cannibalize the incomplete Mazinger to effect repairs. Oh, you will be able to move once I finish, but I felt it important to have you awake and aware before attempting the final connections." "How considerate of you," Topspin sighed. Well, it was better than permanent deactivation. "Where's Twin Twist?" "Your fellow robot? He was more extensively damaged, and I only had enough parts to repair one of you right now. I hoped that once you were functional, you would know more about how your own mechanisms worked, and could help me repair your friend." Topspin sighed. "I'm no medic, but I might at least be able to give some field repair advice. How long have I been shut down?" There was a pause. "I found your craft right after it crashed in 1970, and it is now 1973. So three years, if that means anything to you. One year is approximately 526,000 minutes, and we have been talking for...five minutes now." Topspin did some quick conversions. "Less than a decivorn, then. But if anyone was following us, they would have found us by now. I guess we're it for Cybertronian presence on this world." There was another pause, more awkward. "Ah...that does not seem to be quite true. You see, a very evil man named Doctor Hell has apparently found another ship of your race. This one was much larger, and carried dozens of your...Cybertronians. I have been hoping against hope that once I repaired you, you would be able to defend this world against the mechanical beasts he has turned your fellows into, and possibly free them from his control. If, ah, you are so inclined." "Do you...have any images of these 'mechanical beasts?'" "Certainly. This one in particular, called Devos T8, has been sighted several times now." An image was uploaded directly to Topspin's cortex. It was blurry, and it looked like someone had made some very crude modifications to the giant green and purple robot and permanently fused the individual components, but there was no mistaking it. "Devastator!" he hissed. "He was lost thousands of vorn ago! There's no way I can stop that! I just don't have the power!" "Ah, but I anticipated that. While you are indeed very advanced over the state of technology on Earth...that's this world...I have made a number of breakthroughs while studying you. You will find that your chest now houses a powerful heat ray I call the Breast Fire that should be able to damage Devos T8, and I have installed other weapons as well." "Okay, but I can't do much good lying here. Can we get on with installing the final component of that motivator replacement you built me?" Topspin asked, a little impatiently. "Ah, well. It's not so much a component that can be installed. Well, there are mechanical components involved, but your neural network technology is simply beyond anything on this planet...save for a human brain itself. The final component will be a pilot, who will work under your guidance. My son, Kouji." * * * * "Shhhh, cool it, Nuke! We're almost in!" "Sorry, Boss. I'm just nervous about this," the scrawny teenager mumbled, his nose whistling slightly as he breathed in. "What if the scientists figger out these are just toy guns that Mucha painted to look real?" "Hey, I did a good job on that," Mucha sneered, looking down at the shorter Nuke. "I said cool it!" Boss growled. While shorter than Mucha, he was probably twice as heavy as both of the others put together. And most of it was muscle, although some would point out that some of that muscle was between his ears. "Kouji's been hoggin' the limelight long enuf, wit' dat Topspin Z his dad built 'im. I deserve my own giant robot, and they got one in here that's gonna fit the bill!" * * * * Twin Twist woke up, and immediately knew something was wrong. His body felt misproportioned, and worse yet, he could barely move. To top it off, he could feel something moving around inside his chest! "Gah! I've got vermin!" he shouted, clumsily standing. "Who ya callin' vermin!" a voice shouted from inside his chest. "I'm Boss, yer new pilot! Them scientists rigged it so my brain helps run your body, so you do what I say from now on!" "Oh, SLAG no," Twin Twist snarled. "I'm no Transtector! Either fix me right, or let me go back inta stasis lock!" "Nuh-uh! Yer my ticket ta fame! We're gonna kick Doctor Hell's Decepticons' butts and show everyone Kouji's not the only one who c'n save th' day!" "And *I* said...wait, back up a micron. Doctor Hell's Decepticons? Who's he, and why does he have Decepticons?" "He found a whole ship fulladem, called the Ark, and he's been rebuildin' the nastier ones inta mechanical beasts!" a new voice explained, from the left side of Twin Twist's chest. "Oh great, I have two of you in me?" "Three!" chirped a voice on the right. Twin Twist sighed. "Where's Topspin?" The first voice replied, "Topspin Z? That fancypants robot? He's out flyin' around or sumpin' wit' Kouji. But Boss Twist'll show everyone who's the toughest bot out there!" "Boss. Twist," Twin Twist said, incredulously. "Yep! That's yer new name, and I'm Boss! We even painted it on yer back!" 'Boss Twist' sighed again. Topspin, Z or no Z, was gonna have a LOTTA splainin' ta do.... ============================================================================ Author's Notes: This actually started as a drawing, as part of the AllSpark Art Challenge (http://www.dvandom.com/drawings/jumpstartz.JPG). The idea was to do a crossover between Transformers and Mazinger Z, in the wake of MiLkShAkE's "Super Robot" adaptations of various Transformers. My friend Thandra suggested adapting the Jumpstarters to Super Robots, and I initially decided to do Twin Twist as Boss Borot (design sketch at http://www.dvandom.com/drawings/bosstwistsk.JPG), then adding a Mazinger Z styled Topspin (http://www.dvandom.com/drawings/topspinzsk.JPG). In thinking of the explanation I'd need to do for all of this, I decided that it'd be just as easy to write a short story about it, and here we are. :) The basic premise is that, like the Devil's Due GIJoe vs. TF series, someone nasty found the Ark before the 1984 eruption could wake up those inside it. Doctor Hell, in this case. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazinger_Z has a summary of and links to characters in Mazinger Z, if you have no idea what I'm talking about here. It's also worth noting that Topspin was one of the few G1 TFs I bought when they first came out, although I lost that particular one years ago, replacing it later and also buying Twin Twist (at BotCon 94 or 95, IIRC).