The sun hadn't even risen when Zayden found himself alone in the desert, standing at the edge of an old missile testing site miles from Tranquility. The sand was coarse beneath his boots, and the wind was still. Too still.
He'd sensed a tremor in the Omnitrix hours earlier—like something deep inside it was tugging, pulling toward this place.
"Why here?" he whispered, glancing at the green device on his wrist.
It didn't respond in words. Instead, it pulsed. Not just glowing—but beating, like a second heart syncing with something… ancient.
Then the ground shook.
At first, it was subtle. Barely noticeable. But within seconds, the sand erupted like a geyser.
And from it rose a long-buried transport pod—Cybertronian in design but fused with human alloys. A relic from an experiment no human should've remembered.
The door creaked open.
And out stumbled a half-formed Decepticon drone, barely functional, its frame scarred and humming with corrupted energy. Its optics flickered violet and red, and its body shimmered with a cloaking field failing to stabilize.
"Oh no," Zayden muttered. "Another of her toys."
The Omnitrix pulsed again.
"Let's do this." He slapped the dial and shouted, "Upgrade!"
His body shifted—molecular chains flowing like liquid metal as he merged into the Nanotech alien. His fingers transformed into tools, wires, and weapon ports. His vision lit up with scanner overlays.
"Scanning target… Cybernetic Deceptoid Prototype. Weak structural integrity. High viral data output."
Zayden narrowed his glowing green eyes. "You're a walking virus."
The drone screeched and charged.
---
The fight was instant chaos.
The Deceptoid leapt with shocking agility, swinging its blade-arm down toward Zayden. But Upgrade-Zayden bent backward, his chest flattening and elongating unnaturally as he avoided the slash and retaliated with a beam of green energy from his forearm.
The hit stunned the drone—but it didn't stop. It howled and split into two, forming a second smaller copy of itself, both rushing him like rabid animals.
Zayden's processors surged. "Self-replication? Great."
He summoned cables from his back, whipping them toward the drones. One caught the clone mid-run, hurling it into a rusted missile shell. The other ducked and tried to sink a needle-like tendril into Zayden's side.
The Omnitrix flared.
Warning: Unknown viral data attempting Omnitrix infiltration.
Zayden growled. "Not today."
He slammed both hands on the ground, unleashing a disruptive pulse that overloaded the drone's processors. Sparks exploded from its head as its systems shorted. He quickly shifted his form again, retreating into human mode.
The second drone tried to flee—but a blue blur streaked across the sand and tackled it into the ground.
"Need a hand?" Arcee asked, landing beside him in her humanoid form, blades drawn and eyes sharp.
Zayden smirked. "You always time your entrances so dramatically?"
"Just trying to look good in front of my new favorite freak of nature," she replied with a grin.
Together, they dismantled the final drone, Arcee slicing through the legs while Zayden overrode its core systems with the Omnitrix's interface. The fight ended in less than a minute.
---
As the dust settled, Zayden exhaled, kneeling beside the main drone's ruined shell.
"This thing… wasn't just here to fight," he said slowly. "It was scanning me. Recording."
"Which means she knows how you fight now," Arcee replied. "She'll adapt."
Zayden clenched his fist. "So I'll evolve faster."
He stood and looked out toward the rising sun. His chest heaved with slow breaths, heart still pounding from the adrenaline. Not because he was scared—but because of what the Omnitrix had let him do.
That was his first real one-on-one battle since arriving here.
And it had only scratched the surface.
"I need more forms," he said. "And I need to train with them. Not just transformations—I need to understand each one like a warrior."
Arcee gave a half-nod. "Then it's time you meet someone."
---
Back at the junkyard, Bumblebee was tuning his engine while Mikaela and Ratchet bickered over blueprints of their newest perimeter defense. Zayden stepped out of Arcee's passenger seat, shirt stained with ash and circuits, hair tousled by the wind.
Mikaela blinked. "What happened to you?"
"Field trip," he said with a tired smirk. "Scored an A."
She gave a half-laugh before noticing the burn across his sleeve. "Zayden…"
"I'm okay. Just first fight jitters."
Ratchet looked up from his scanner. "You engaged a Deceptoid with live viral code alone? Are you insane?"
"Maybe," Zayden replied. "But I'm learning. Fast."
Bee gave an approving chirp.
Arcee transformed and looked toward Ratchet. "We need him trained. Not just in alien combat. He needs a teacher."
Ratchet grumbled. "What do you think I've been trying to be?"
"Not you," Arcee said. "I mean him."
She uploaded coordinates to a remote Autobot storage zone—one Zayden hadn't heard about yet. It wasn't just filled with weapons or relics.
It housed a single Autobot:
Blurr.
The fastest Autobot alive, once a scout, now a recluse after an accident that left him phased partially out of sync with the physical world. If anyone could teach Zayden to master speed, adaptation, and counter-tech combat—it was him.
Zayden raised a brow. "He's still alive?"
"Barely," Arcee said. "But he owes me."
Zayden smirked. "Then let's pay him a visit."
---
As the sun dipped behind the mountains, Zayden looked down at his Omnitrix.
It pulsed again.
A different kind of pulse this time.
Not a warning.
A call.
Like the Omnitrix itself was ready for the next level.
"First shift, first fight," he whispered. "Now… it's time to push further."