a small pod crash-landed in a large clearing in the woods, leaking energon and flaming a bit. as it settled on the now grass-less earth, a ground bridge opened nearby.

"ratchet said the signal came from this area," said an army green cybertronian, looking around.

"looks like that's what gave it off," said another cybertronian, this one being blue and pink. she pointed to the pod in the middle of the clearing.

"proceed with caution. we have no idea whether this pod carries friend..." said a red and blue mech. this one exuded authority.

"...or foe."

  —————————————————————

small yellow optics opened slowly, adjusting to the darkness in the area. it was cramped, and they immediately felt claustrophobic. they looked for a way out, feeling in the dark. finally, they found a hatch. they pressed on it, and it opened up to show four other cybertronians. they immediately got scared and tried to back away from the opening.

"it's a sparkling!" said the army green cybertronian. "what are they doing here?" the blue and pink one asked. the red and blue one spoke up next. "it does not matter. we mustn't let them fall into the enemy's hands." he then extended a servo to the sparkling. "come, little one. we shall keep you safe." the sparkling looked up at them with genuine fear, but felt at ease when the red and blue one said he'd keep them safe. they took his servo, and he helped them out of the pod.

suddenly, another ground bridge opened, this time on the other side of the clearing. the cybertronians immediately took defensive positions, while the sparkling looked on in fear. "well, well, what have we here?" a tall silver cybertronian said. "defeat the autobots and capture the sparkling at once!" he shouted to his troops. said troops quickly advanced on the group of cybertronians that had found the child.

"protect the sparkling!" the red and blue one shouted as he started firing upon the enemies that came through the ground bridge. the others also started to attack them, but the red and blue one stayed next to the sparkling. "i will keep you safe," he reassured the young cybertronian. they only nodded, too afraid to speak.

eventually, all of his troops were defeated, and the tall silver cybertronian had no choice but to retreat. "i'll get you next time, i swear it!" he said as he fled through the ground bridge that had reopened behind him. the cybertronians who had found the sparkling returned to their side.

"you okay?" the blue and pink one asked the sparkling. they nodded shakily, and she sighed in relief. "what is your name, little one?" the red and blue mech asked them. "..." they didn't speak for a long moment. then very quietly, almost inaudibly, they said, "oracle."

"oracle?" the army green one questioned. "that's a strange name..." he was then promptly elbowed by the yellow one. "i think it's a lovely name," the blue and pink one told them. "somehow, i think it suits you."the yellow one assented in a bit of a strange way, with only beeping and buzzing.

they looked panicked at that, did they already know?! no, how could they know, they've only just met...

despite seeing the flicker of panic on oracle's face, the red and blue mech introduced himself to the sparkling. "i am optimus prime, and these are my teammates, bulkhead," he gestured to the army green one. "arcee," the blue and pink one smiled down at them. "and bumblebee." the yellow one made some more beeps, but they understood him perfectly. he said 'it's nice to meet you!'

optimus continued, "we are a small team of autobots, stationed here on earth to recoup in our war against the decepticons.  though there are more in the decepticons' ranks, what we lack in numbers, we make up for in spirit." oracle nodded along, absorbing all the information that optimus was giving them. they didn't quite understand what war he was talking about, but they went along with it for the time being.

optimus then asked someone named 'ratchet' to open a ground bridge. when it appeared, oracle was at first expecting another attack. when nothing came out of the ground bridge, they assumed they were meant to go through it.

"come, oracle. we shall give you a home, one of safety and protection. we will ensure you are cared for." optimus wanted to make sure that oracle felt safe enough to go with him and the team back to their base; when oracle looked up at him and nodded, he knew he had accomplished that.

  —————————————————————

when the team of four had departed for the signal that had been detected, ratchet never expected that they'd return a team of five.

"what on earth is that?!" ratchet exclaimed as the team came through the ground bridge. oracle took to hiding behind optimus. "that is oracle, and they are staying with us," optimus explained calmly.

"why are they so..." a small feminine voice started. "small?" another, more masculine voice finished for the other. "because they're a sparkling, a child, basically." arcee answered the questions of the small voices.

"so, they're.. my age?" asked a third small voice, this one a bit quieter than the other two. "yeah, but i think they're a bit younger than you would be if you were an autobot," arcee continued. "they're also pretty shy and don't talk much."

"and you just.. let them in??" ratchet seemed to be in disbelief that optimus would do such a thing. "they are in need of protection and a place to stay. they cannot defend themselves, ratchet. even if they were able to, i am not sure that they would." optimus looked down at the smaller cybertronian with fondness and a bit of concern.

oracle inspected their surroundings carefully. they took in the strange symbol at their feet, the same one on the team that had rescued them. then they looked up and saw three small, strange creatures that had even smaller voices. they seemed to be the small voices they had heard a moment ago. they looked questioningly at them, and pointed to them while looking up at optimus.

he understood, and explained the situation. "these are our human allies, jack," the tallest one waved. "miko," the one in the middle made a strange gesture that oracle didn't understand. "and rafael," the smallest waves as well. "they have been with us for some time now, and have proven to be invaluable to us." oracle nodded, smiling down at the small (at least to them) humans. they smiled back, and miko loudly said, "nice to meet you!" scaring oracle a bit in the process.

ratchet came up to optimus and oracle, bending down to get to oracle's level. "my name is ratchet. i am a medic. would you mind if i examined you?" oracle looked up at optimus, and he nodded at them, which in turn, made oracle nod at ratchet. he stood up and asked them to follow him. they obeyed, but looked back at optimus with a bit of worry. he simply smiled softly at them, reassuring them that everything was okay; that they were safe.

as they were getting examined, they thought about how they had gotten here, but couldn't remember exactly what led up to them being put in the pod. it was frustrating, and it seemed to show, as ratchet asked what was wrong. they just shrugged and pointed to their helm, trying to non-verbally communicate. they didn't trust these people quite yet, so they stuck with servo motions and gestures. he seemed to get the gist of the motion, and asked a question. "can you... not remember how you got here?" they nodded. "hmm... that is most troubling. if we don't know how you got here, we may never know why you're here." ratchet explained.

as he continued their examination, oracle sat patiently and waited for him to finish. at some point, the humans approached them and accidentally scared them out of their wits by simply saying 'hi'. "so, your name's oracle?" the smallest said. they remembered his name was rafael. when they nodded, the tallest, jack, they thought, spoke up. "you don't talk much do you?" they shook their head.

miko, the only feminine voice out of the small creatures, soon bombarded them with questions. "so! do you have any cool weapons or powers? how old are you? why are you so small? are you a wrecker like bulk?!" the questions didn't seem to end, but thankfully ratchet came to their rescue.

"calm down, miko, they're probably still disoriented from their landing. besides, didn't you just see them indicate that they don't talk that much? they probably don't even trust us enough to talk to us properly." ratchet went on a bit of a tirade, and miko sighed and walked away. oracle looked at ratchet gratefully, and he responded with a "yeah, yeah, you're welcome." finally, ratchet finished his examination of oracle, and said, "you look perfectly healthy to me. you're free to go." he patted them on the shoulder. they got up from their sitting position and went back over to optimus. it seemed that he was the one that they were most comfortable with.

optimus was talking to someone, but they didn't seem to be present in the base. they did, however, see a human face on the screen that optimus was in front of. oracle was curious, so they softly nudged him. "yes, oracle?" they pointed to the screen. "...ah. i am speaking with agent fowler, another human. he is with this country's government, and has been one of our greatest supporters." optimus explained to the young cybertronian. he didn't seem to mind that they hadn't actually spoken, perhaps used to unconventional communication because of bumblebee.

they looked up at the screen, where the supposed agent fowler was shown. they then looked back to optimus, and pointed at the screen, then themselves. "you.. wish to say hello?" optimus seemed a bit confused, but was understanding when oracle nodded. "alright. but you are rather small, so i will need to lift you up to the screen. is that alright?" oracle nodded, and optimus took them by their underarms, lifting them up to hold them against his body, similar to how a human parent would hold an infant.

when the human named agent fowler set eyes upon oracle, he was shocked. never before had he seen such a small transformer. he brought this to optimus' attention, and he explained that oracle was just a sparkling, a child. agent fowler understood, and decided to ask oracle a few questions. when they didn't answer any of them, instead simply staring at the screen, he got a bit frustrated.

optimus calmed the human down, and explained that oracle did not use words to communicate. he understood, and decided to ask 'yes or no' questions instead. "do you remember how you got here?" they shook their head. "alright, well how about why you're here? you know that?" another head shake. "well, then, what about your origins? know anything about that?" yet another shake of the head. fowler sighed in frustration. "prime, is there anything this 'sparkling' can tell us? they're non-verbal, don't know how or why they're here, they don't even know where they came from!"

"agent fowler, i must assume that that is because they have gone through some traumatic experiences, and their processor is repressing their memories," ratchet chimed in. he seemed knowledgeable about this, for some reason. maybe because he was a medic?

"well, isn't there some way that we can, i dunno, go into their head and get the info that way?" fowler seemed a bit desperate to know more about oracle. "well, there technically is a way..." ratchet started. optimus gave him a look, seeming to say 'don't do it'.

"what is it?" fowler asked impatiently. he looked between the two older mechs, and ratchet sighed. "there's this device, it's called a cortical psychic patch, and it allows someone to go into the mind of someone else," ratchet explained. fowler looked optimistic at this, but ratchet continued. "it's extremely risky, however, as it could leave you stranded in the mind of someone else, leaving your frame empty of any consciousness. or, as we have experienced before, it could leave someone stranded in your mind."

agent fowler sighed again. "so you're telling me that there's absolutely no way to get information out of this kid?"

"i am afraid not, agent fowler. but, if and when they decide to open up to us and start speaking, we will update you with any information we gain," optimus said to the agent. he nodded and said his goodbyes, and oracle decided to be friendly and wave goodbye to him. optimus went to put oracle down, but they clung to him like a lifeline. he smiled softly and decided to keep holding onto them for the time being.

ratchet sighed a bit when he saw optimus still holding oracle, but didn't say anything about it. instead, he talked to optimus about the examination that he had conducted on oracle earlier. he spoke in slightly hushed tones, meaning he didn't want others, especially oracle, to hear. oracle, being blessed with exceptionally sensitive audials, heard everything the medic said anyway.

"oracle isn't quite what we think they are. their checkup showed.. interesting results." ratchet told optimus. "i found that their brain waves were exceptionally powerful for a cybertronian, let alone a sparkling. they seem to have much going on in their head, despite seeming so.. unresponsive."

"and that is means for concern?" optimus asked. oracle was looking between the two mechs with their bright yellow optics. "well, i'm.. not sure. honestly, without them telling us directly, i don't think we'll ever know exactly what's going on in their head." ratchet explained with a hint of uncertainty in his voice. oracle realized that they'd need to open up a bit, and decided that since these cybertronians had saved them from the attackers, they were trustworthy enough to speak to.

oracle tapped on optimus' chassis to get his attention, and when he looked down at them, they spoke for the second time since they had met. "name.. oracle." ratchet was his usual grumpy self and responded, "yes, we know that."optimus stopped him though, sensing that they had more to say. "oracle.." they pointed to themself, and repeated, "oracle.." then it clicked in optimus' mind.

"i now understand why you are so quiet, oracle. you are burdened with the weight of cybertron's future in your hands, and you cannot bear it," optimus said softly, his voice full of compassion. "wait a minute, you're not saying.." ratchet started. "yes, ratchet," optimus said.

"oracle can see the future."