Night blanketed the junkyard in eerie stillness. Crickets chirped in the nearby brush, wind whispered through rusted panels, and power lines hummed with electricity overhead. But none of it masked the strange pulse vibrating through the atmosphere—one Zayden had never felt before.
He sat on a stack of crushed car doors, legs dangling, Omnitrix quietly glowing on his wrist. Arcee stood nearby, unmoving, her optics narrowed toward the sky.
"You feel that too, right?" Zayden asked, glancing at her.
She nodded. "It's not just background radiation. There's a signal out there. A deep-wave Cybertronian code—fragmented, repeating every thirty-one seconds."
Zayden raised his wrist and activated the Omnitrix interface. "Let's see what we're dealing with, NEX."
> "Analyzing signal… Frequency identified. Code compression: Autobot High Command, encrypted. Estimated age: over 9,000 Earth years. Origin point: local radio tower—approx. 2.3 miles northwest."
Arcee's optics sharpened. "That tower's long-abandoned. If a beacon's reactivated there, it could mean one of two things."
"Friendly Autobot tech… or a Decepticon trap," Zayden finished grimly.
She transformed in a flash of whirring metal. "Let's find out."
Zayden gave a nod, tapped the Omnitrix, and shifted into Streakvolt, a speed-based alien form with electric thrusters and hyper-reaction processing. In a blur of neon blue and silver lightning, he launched after her down the highway, the world warping around him in pulses of momentum.
---
The two arrived at the base of the radio tower within minutes.
It loomed tall and skeletal against the stars, its top red light blinking eerily. Ivy and rust coated its legs, and a chain-link fence—bent and broken—encircled its base.
Zayden de-transformed and approached cautiously.
The air tingled.
"Definitely not a normal transmission," he muttered.
Arcee scanned the tower. "There's a drone module wired into the broadcast relay. Very old… pre-war Cybertronian. But it's been tampered with."
Zayden stepped closer and activated the Omnitrix's interface. "NEX, can you patch in?"
> "Establishing link… Decryption underway… Standby."
Lines of glowing green Cybertronian text scrolled across the air in front of Zayden. His eyes scanned the symbols.
Suddenly, a voice echoed from the relay—crackling, glitched, ancient.
> "To the spark-bearer who carries many forms… heed the encoded past. Seek the ones buried in steel. The Archivist remains… awaiting."
The message looped once, then cut off with a static screech.
Zayden frowned. "What the hell was that?"
Arcee stepped forward, her tone cautious. "That wasn't just a warning. That was a memory archive activation—triggered by you. The signal was set to awaken if someone bearing a hybrid Spark-DNA signature got close."
"Hybrid Spark-DNA… you mean me."
Arcee nodded. "Only someone like you could unlock it. That message—it mentioned the Archivist. That's a name tied to the myth of Vector Sigma."
Zayden's eyes widened. "That's the AI core of Cybertron, right? The one that grants Sparks?"
Arcee confirmed with a small hum. "If this is legit… then something, or someone, is trying to guide you."
Before Zayden could respond, the Omnitrix pulsed.
> "Warning: Signal traced. Incoming energy surge detected. Two Decepticon signatures inbound—vector approach 45 degrees southwest."
"Company," Arcee growled, transforming instantly.
Zayden snapped the dial, slamming his palm down—turning into Pyrebash, a flaming reptilian brute whose tail doubled as a molten hammer.
Twin streaks of purple light burst from the treetops—Decepticon seekers, modified with stealth plating and mid-air boosters. They opened fire immediately, plasma bolts screaming through the dark.
Zayden leapt in front of Arcee, absorbing the blasts with a roar, molten scales dispersing the energy like sparks on armor.
Arcee returned fire with two wrist-mounted blasters, nailing one in the engine wing and sending it spiraling.
The second swooped low—but Zayden lunged and slammed his tail into the bot's cockpit, sending it flying into a nearby pile of rusted beams.
It didn't get up.
Arcee stood back-to-back with him, scanning the horizon. "You're getting better."
"Still sweating like crazy," Zayden muttered, panting flames.
> "Signatures offline," NEX confirmed. "Scans indicate Decepticons were reconnaissance drones—not primary soldiers."
Arcee frowned. "Which means they were here to confirm the signal—same as us."
Zayden returned to normal and stared at the ruined drone. "This is escalating fast. The Decepticons knew someone would come."
"But they didn't expect you," Arcee said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
They stood in silence for a moment, the buzz of the tower now eerily absent. The air felt heavier, like the calm before a bigger storm.
Zayden finally spoke. "You think there are more of these signals out there?"
Arcee looked at the sky. "I'm starting to think there's a whole hidden network buried across this planet. Coded messages… maybe from the original Primes. If we can find the next one—"
"We might find the Archivist," Zayden finished. "And maybe even unlock what I'm really meant to be."
The Omnitrix pulsed once more, gently, like a heartbeat.
Somewhere, deep in the frequencies between stars and scrap, more voices waited to be heard.