Somewhere in the American Southwest*, the Ark is situated in a rather remote place and well hidden.  Sure, there's a road that leads right to it, but the sign that says, "Road closed" seems to be pretty effective at keeping out any human visitors.  Save for the two human guests, Spike and Sparkplug, of course.

Spike is writing in his diary on the side of an exposed slope.  Perfect pickings for a Decepticon spy to transform into an innocent looking micro cassette recorder and hitch a ride into the Autobot Ark undetected.  We're not sure how he found this place, but some flash of inspiration may pop up later.

Prime is in a private meeting with the top ranking members of the Ark team, discussing the Autobots' next move.  One thing is pretty obvious to the rank and file.  Earth is probably going to be home for a long while.  Too good an energon resource to give up, and too risky to return home, leaving the precious planet in the hands of Megatron, even if his ship is completely wrecked.

*(( After spending entirely too much time trying to figure out where the G1 Ark was located, I found out that it was a mish-mash of shrugs.  Though Oregon is the most often chosen state in various TF continuities, and is somewhat close to Mt. St. Helens, the volcano that inspired the location of the Ark, that area looks nothing like the desert that Hound drove Spike around in.  So for this story, let's say they're at the fictional Mt. Hilary, near Monument Valley, AZ.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley.  https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Mount_St._Hilary  ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:29, Sat 01 Aug 2020.

  Turbo Thunder's hazy memories of GI Joe expect a commando in a ski mask to be lurking somewhere around here at the thread title.

  Meanwhile, at In Character Logic land.  Turbo Thunder is helping to examine the purity of the energon converted from the Human's oil rig while the Actually Important autobots have their meeting.  When you spend a narratively convenient indeterminate amount of time abandoned with nothing to do but maintain energon and energon accessories, you tend to pick up a thing of two.

  And after all, while the Decepticons have a lot of practice with smash and grab style collection?  They didn't even have time to gloat this time either, so clearly a rush job for would be conquerors.

Gem is outside gazing at the sky. It's so bright and blue. So pretty. And all the light brown in the surrounding area is brighter and more colorful than the metal greys she was used to on Cybertron. Still, Gem is missing home. She isn't sure she will see it before 10 or even 100 stellar cycles.

Also part of the view is Spike, but he is already heading inside the Ark as well. So she decides to walk beside him. "Spike, your world is quite beautiful. What would you say are some of your favorite things about existence on Earth?"

Even as she says this, she is passing by Turbo Thunder, and looks in his direction curiously, waving at him before looking back at Spike. She smiles and makes a hand motion to try guiding him towards the room Turbo Thunder is in. Turbo's project looks like something she might be able to help with, but she doesn't want to interrupt her conversation with Spike when she just started it.

The energon inside the smushed "cubes" is certainly up to Decepticon standards.  Very pure, concentrated, and volatile.  Having been made from a fossil fuel hasn't diminished it in any way.  There's enough in this haul alone for a return trip to Cybertron, but not so much to make a dent in the deficit once there.

Spike is gladly cooperative and heads into the room as directed.  "Well right now I'd say my favorite thing about Earth is that you're on it!  Tell me more about Cybertron!"

Jumpjet was watching a commercial for Voltron on one of Teletran's screens.  He scoffs then looks over to Gem and the eager human.  "These Earthlings are pretty awesome.  Their weapons are a million times more deadly to them than ours are to us, and yet they still they charge headlong into battle with one another.  This A-Team show I'm watching is intense."

  Turbo Thunder nods to Gem and Spike as they arrive, finishing his very detailed report on the Energon. Which totally isn't just copy/pasting old notes that happen to match the results, that would be crazy.

  "Why don't they just use helicopters more often if that human hates planes so much?"  Turbo COULD say the obvious, but this is a more entertaining way to slowly reveal the concept of fictional entertainment to Jumpjet.

Gem ohs and says, "I'll have to check out this A-Team. Sounds like they live up to their name! But it is certainly consistent with another team I saw listed on Teletran-1 called the Impossible Mission Force."

Gem then looks at Turbo Thunder and shrugs. "I'll have to view the A-Team archives for a while to find the answer, but it may have to do with the demands of their missions."

Even though she is an entertainment bot, Gem is as clueless about it being fiction as Jumpjet. Why? Well the player had typed out a reason and then realized it might be more fun to find out over time through RP.

She looks down at Spike and smiles. Such a nice, bright-eyed alien. She asks, "What would you like to know?"

Spike laughs.  And admittedly proud that giant alien robot soldiers consider humanity brave.  "It's a running gag.  You're not supposed to question it.  Those shows are meant to be light-hearted and fun, but they're very tame compared to what really happens in war.  I've got family who fought in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and their war stories are pretty gruesome."

Jumpjet may or may not have believed the A-Team to be real.  He's not telling.  "Teletran.  Show me Impossible Mission Force.  Erm.  Nah.  I'll check that out later.  Show me World War Two."

There's a long list of options that appears on the screen.  Jumpjet opts for a documentary about WWII airplanes.

Spike looks to Gem, "Well for one thing, why do you transform into cars and things?"

  Turbo Thunder thinks it was something about cheapskate Quintessons wanting to overcharge on 'two products in one!' value, but says "Because it's faster than walking all the time".

Gem looks saddened by Spike's description of war. She still doesn't understand why there are battle shows considered lighthearted, but leaves that alone in favor of the much nicer topic.

She'll catch up on the documentary stuff later.

Gem nods to what Turbo said and adds, "And it works for disguise. Some of the Autobots even exchanged their old alt modes for ones that match things from your world." She hopes the Decepticons haven't picked up on using disguises here on Earth, buuuut chances are they have.

"Here's mine, for example."

Gem transforms into her car mode!

Jumpjet shrugs.  "Well yeah.  But don't you suppose that if we couldn't transform, we'd just build vehicles that could do the things our alt modes can?  Like this Ark..."

He flashes back to the mocking suggestions of getting a jet pack that the Seekers teased him with and shuts up.

Spike stares at Gem in wide-eyed amazement.  "Incredible!  What other tricks can you do?"

Mirage smiles and answers, "Try this one, Spike.  Now you see me."

He turns invisible.  "Now you don't!"

"Disappearing!  That's the best disguise of all!"

  Turbo Thunder once heard of an Autobot that got caught in bridge cables for over twenty minutes as soon as they got their jetpack.  Clearly someone with Jumpjet right in their name would be able to handle jumpjets though.  Alas, the Narrator can only give such assurances to the audience.

  "Anyone who nitpicks that invisibility doesn't count as a disguise is probably just jealous, and then could then melt their processor by telling them 'technically I'm disguised as what is behind me!'"

To Turbo Thunder, Gem says, "Sure, Jumpjet! And that's exactly what the humans did! But it sure is convenient to be the vehicle, isn't it?"

Gem's side door opens and she says, "Hop in, Spike. I'm gonna take you for the ride of your life. Belt up and hang on!"

As Gem waits for Spike to do as instructed, Gem adds, "Hey Turbo Thunder, Jumpjet. How about you two take a break and join me for a bit?"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:01, Wed 09 Sept 2020.

Jumpjet sure can't counter Gem's point.  It's so convenient, the squishies fantasize about turning into vehicles.  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fM34jklk18o )

Mirage chuckles and agrees with Turbo Thunder.  "That about sums it up!"

Spike gladly accepts Gem's invitation and buckles in.  Before Jumpjet can object to Gem's suggestion as a waste of energon, (translation: he's a lazy ex-con who doesn't do joy-rides), Ironhide gives a nod and adds, "We could use a perimeter sweep anyway.  May as well have the three of you together for the extra sets of optics and just in case there's trouble."

Jumpjet shrugs, transforms, and follows Gem's lead.

  Turbo Thunder is energy efficient enough to get away with joyriding, oh the wonders of a boring special trait on an alien sportscar that shoots lightning.

  "Good idea Ironhide, we'll stick together. We can do more damage that way." That isn't quite how the ghostbusters quote goes, Turbo.