(no subject)

[camwyn]

APPROXIMATE FIRST DRAFT OF 'RISE OF THE FALLEN' PLOT OUTLINE
THIS IS NOT EVEN ALPHA TESTING YET

PART TWO: OH SLAG

Cut from "Him Shockwave, him coming" to hastily assembled teleconferencing room. Prime to be center of attention here, but Ironhide to be present as well. Have Lennox, Epps, Figueroa in background; Lissar probably as well. Nobody new is to be introduced here, because I hate that Walter Peck character they sent in and think his plotline was painfully extraneous even if it did raise valid questions. Anyway, screens to show one American (a general or the SecDef, haven't decided), someone Japanese (Bee & Hide did go to that Japanese robotics convention at the invitation of the Japanese), maybe 1-2 others. Prime indicates that they've wondered why the Decepticons've been so quiet these past two years...

... which they haven't really been. Soundwave has arrived on Earth (he may look like this, but I haven't decided) and has quietly found a spot to tap into the hardline that they're using for this conference since Autobase security does not allow for talking over wireless comms even though the Big Reveal has already gone through...

... anyway, now the Autobots know. Grimlock intercepted a signal between $DECEPTICON_1 and $DECEPTICON_2 (I don't care who they are, any two will do so long as at least one is impulsive- I would not cry if they were Thundercracker and Skywarp, though). The 'cons are massing under the leadership of a different commander rather than Starscream. Shockwave was Megatron's close assistant, equal in rank to Starscream but less aggressive and potentially infinitely more dangerous. A suitable comparison would be the human warrior Erwin Rommel. Here, Ironhide begins relaying footage of Shockwave's battles on one of the screens while Prime describes Shockwave's style- near-infinite patience, devotion to logic, devotion to Megatron and a tendency to cover as many contingencies as possible. Humans: Sounds like the ideal second. Autobots: And the exact opposite of an ideal enemy.

Make sure the question of what he's looking for comes up. If it were Screamer, it'd be revenge, but this is Shockwave; Ironhide should indicate that Shockwave was a ferocious Megatron loyalist and that he may be looking for a way to resurrect Megatron. A human should at that point mention the Allspark shard and the fleet in the Atlantic. Or somebody should.

Cut to Sam on moving-in day at university. Can throw in some Witwicky parental humor here but the focus is on Sam. His roommate is a Transfan ever since the National Enquirer incident and should gush about Mission City if we can figure out a way to do so. (Suggestion: I honestly thought Sam's roomie was Arabic until the first time he spoke Spanish. Can we make his roomie an American-born Pakistani guy named Aymer?) Sam's response to the gushing: AAGH NORMAL PLZ SHUT UP. Aymer almost offended until Mom does the 'aw my baby!' gushing, at which point Aymer understands why Sam so strung out, makes sympathetic noises towards Sam & offers to help with the moving stuff in. Sam just wishes his parents were the only thing preying on his nerves.

Cut to space. Shockwave SO MANY KINDS OF NOT PLEASED that the jetboys' transmissions were intercepted; Starscream offers to deal out violent punishment for him. Shockwave refuses as it would serve no purpose at this juncture. He will continue to monitor and remember this data point. Fortunately, he had planned on this possible contingency; it's time to start giving the humans hell. All at once. All over their planet. They are not to be given a chance to marshal their forces in any given single location - they must be kept divided. Major population centers for preference, as the Autobots will be getting involved and he wants to see their numbers split and kept off balance too.

Starscream approves of this, since it means humans die and Earth gets softened up, but what's the purpose behind it? Shockwave always has a purpose.

"Come with me, Starscream."

As groups of 'Cons take off & head towards Earth in the background, Shockwave asks Starscream about the birth of their race. Usual story told at Cubefall goes here. Shockwave asks, 'and after that?', which causes a 'buh?' from Starscream. What 'after'? Shockwave then asks what Starscream knows of the Matrix of Leadership; Screamer says it was made and lost and only a legend, one that even Megatron gave up on millennia ago. Shockwave denies this. It is no longer a legend. It survives. It's here- it's on Earth, and it's the key to their future.

Screamer protests that the Allspark is destroyed.

"You know nothing.What was contained in the Cube passed from its housing that day- but that power could not, can not, be destroyed. It will have found another housing. The Firstforged placed a part of their own sparks within the Matrix, and filled the space that would have been the Fallen's with power from the Allspark itself- and power calls to power."

Screamer: Oooh, so if we find the Matrix- Shockwave agrees; it would be logical for the Allspark's power to have returned to the Matrix. Find the Matrix and Cybertron will be reborn. Screamer inquires how they're going to do that, since they've been over every corner of Earth and never got a call from anything but the Allspark itself. Shockwave indicates that the Autobots have a portion of the Allspark, and that while it's largely useless otherwise, it will still resonate with the energies it once held. They can use it to hunt the Matrix down (a cut to Ravage and Lazerbeak in Soundwave's cargo area would not be amiss at this point). And the simplest way to get hold of it is to force the Autobots to hand it over, so find that human boy they put so much stock in and neither he nor they will have any choice.

Screamer agrees and takes off; he likes the idea so much he wants to seize the Matrix himself when the chance arises. Shockwave, however, is Shockwave, and has tagged Screamer with a couple of Insecticons, because I like the Insecticons.

Cut back to Sam. Lecture time at Uni. Introductory physics. NO SEXUAL HARASSMENT BY THE PROFESSOR THANK YOU. Hell, this is a 101 class; it should be a TA. Anyway, somewhere during a joke about relativity, the twin paradox, and time in class moving slower than time outside, Sam asks if he can work some of that out on the board. The instructor lets him. Sam covers the entire board in a bizarre mixture of Cybertronian glyphs and Hindu-Arabic numerals. Comes out at the end with the correct answer, but the glyphs and his overwrought condition prompt the prof to send him to campus health services straightaway. Waiting for a doctor, Sam texts Mikaela, who relays the information to the nearest Autobot. They need a picture; can Sam get them a cameraphone image of some of the glyphs? Sam scribbles a few of them out on the So You Don't Want To Get Syphilis! brochure that campus health services always seem to have, but before anyone can receive or look at the picture, the Decepticon attacks begin. GIANT ROBOT FIGHTY TIME YAY!

Comments

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

You have to wonder what kind of idiot professor would be hitting on Freshmen with the Dean right there in the class. SRSLY.

[camwyn]

That was such a "... what???" moment that all I could think was "Is that Michael Bay playing the professor? Is this the moment of the director getting away with playing an awful person? Because there's no other way to get away with that kind of- seriously, did he just SAY that? This is Clarence Thomas-class harassment!"