Wheeljack didn't notice the alarms until they harmonized into a panicked choir. The prototype was waking up wrong—power surges rattled the lab while numbers sprinted across his console. He grinned.

This was the best part: the moment before consequences chose a direction. With a switch he definitely hadn't cleared for testing, energy spiked. Gravity hiccupped. Reality bent. Footsteps echoed behind him. Someone had arrived just in time.

“Careful where you stand,” he called over the machine's roar. “The floor might stop agreeing with physics any second now.”

The lab shook. Wheeljack's optics gleamed.

“Let's see who survives the results.”