"I AM TRANSFORMED!!"

Again Cheetor made the pronouncement with certainty. And again, nothing happened.

Nearby, Reptron snickered. Cheetor shot him a nasty glare, then crossed his little arms and sat back down on the floor of the playroom.

Now it was Firebot's turn to try. The little white robot stood up, screwed his optics shut, and clenched every servo and piston in his body. But he didn't transform.

Cheetor decided the whole thing was hopeless. As they had come out of the Scanning chamber, each of the 'bots had spent only a few minutes in their new secondary modes before reverting back to robot mode. That was yesterday, and none of them had been able to transform back to their secondary modes since. Roy had kindly suggested they make a game of it: sit in a circle and take turns trying to transform, and see who could do it first.

Cheetor liked Roy a lot, but his game idea was pretty dumb. They'd been playing for fifteen minutes now, and no one had even come close to transforming. Never mind the fact that the first ten minutes had been spent squabbling about the order of the circle and who should go first and "Why do I have to be last?" and so forth.

He turned his attention back to the game, and saw Speedbot sitting back down, saddened. This WAS a dumb game; everyone was getting upset. Cheetor had to do something to take everyone's mind away from not being able to transform. Without hardly thinking, he jumped up -- interrupting Mirage's turn -- and announced, "I bet no one can build a taller Magnablox tower than me!"

The circle dissolved into chaos as everyone leaped up and ran to the corner of the playroom where the Magnablox were stored. A number of the magnetic building blocks were still scattered on the floor from their last use, and a few of the more impatient robots grabbed at these. Meanwhile, Strong-Bot and Gorillabot pulled the large storage bin off its shelf, dragged it out to the center of the room and upended it, spilling Magnablox all over the floor.

Then the contest to see who could build the tallest tower began in earnest.

And no one cared any longer that they couldn't transform.

*     *     *

Mechanicat's tower was coming along wonderfully. The small orange robot had moved his tower-in-progress to the far outside corner of the playroom, away from the rest of the 'bots so he could have more room to work. He first built a modest tower out of the magnetic blocks. Then he built a wide, squat base around the bottom of that. On the top of that, around the first tower he built a second tower, twice as tall. If kept using this method -- building up the base of the existing tower, and building a new tower over it -- Mechanicat figured he could touch the ceiling of the playroom in short order.

The problem, he discovered, while trying to build the third tower over the second, was that he was too short. Standing on the tips of his toes, he placed the last piece he could reach, then ran off to find a chair.

When he came back with the chair, Mechanicat was distressed to see that his tower was starting to sag on one side. That wasn't possible; he had built the base securely! Setting the chair down, he rushed over to the sagging side and knelt down to inspect the tower's base.

What he saw shocked him.

That corner of his tower was covered with tiny nuts, bolts and screws. In fact, the little metal bits looked like they were digging into the actual Magnablox in places. This wasn't right.

Mechanicat stood up and searched the room for Firebot. Firebot spent a lot of his time reading picture-books, and thus was regarded as very smart. Finding his friend, Mechanicat called him over. Firebot looked hesitant to leave his own already-impressive tower, but hurried on over when Mechanicat jumped up and down emphatically.

Firebot inspected the little nuts and bolts on Mechanicat's tower. Mechanicat informed his friend that they appeared to be spreading.

"I've seen these in one of my picture-books before," Firebot said. "I think they're called..." He searched his memory banks -- which didn't take too long, as he was rather young -- and came up with the name. "They're called Scraplets."

Mechanicat's optics lit up in excited curiosity, and he reached out to pick up one of the little bolts that was moving up the tower.

"Don't touch them!" Firebot hollered, knocking the other's hand away. "They'll make you sick!" He turned and tottered to the corner of the playroom. "They must have come from outside," he postulated. Sure enough, when he leaned down to peer at the corner, he saw a small hole on the seam where the floor met the wall. As he was watching, Scraplets began eating away at the opening, enlarging it. Firebot jerked away as more and more Scraplets began pouring in through the hole.

As he backpedaled, he bumped into Mechanicat, and the two of them crashed into Mechanicat's tower -- luckily avoiding contact with any Scraplets.

The tower wasn't quite so lucky. The Magnablox weren't built to take the weight of a Transformer -- even a small one -- and the whole tower went tumbling to the floor with a loud crash.

When the two robots sat up, they found themselves surrounded by an advancing sea of Scraplets.

*     *     *

When Firebot and Mechanicat began yelling for help, Cheetor ran to find Silverbolt. Silverbolt was the quietest of the 'bots (besides Gorillabot -- but that's because he was usually asleep) but he was also the oldest. Cheetor figured he would know what to do.

When he found Silverbolt, Cheetor saw that the older robot had been thinking, and already had a plan formed by the time Cheetor reached him.

"Cheetor, we need to get everybody to bring their towers to the center of the room," he said. "You get everyone on that side of the room, and I'll get everyone on this side. Hurry!"

As the towers were gathered together, Silverbolt ordered any 'bots who weren't busy to throw unused Magnablox at the encroaching Scraplets. This tactic had the desired effect of slowing the Scraplets' advance, but not by much; Firebot and Mechanicat were still in danger.

The towers were pushed together and then tipped. The magnetic pieces of the different towers locked together on contact, shifting the structure and forming one large, thick tower that reached halfway to the ceiling.

Now Silverbolt needed to climb it; but his hands and feet were ill-designed for such things. Quickly, he spotted Gorillabot, who was starting to doze off again.

"Gorillabot!" he yelled. The big blue 'bot snapped out of his daze and lumbered over. "I need you to carry me to the tip-top of this tower," Silverbolt ordered. Gorillabot grinned; he loved to climb things, and the tower was quite tall. He grasped Silverbolt with one oversized hand, and grabbed onto the tower with the other. The densely-packed structure held their weight, and Gorillabot scrambled up to the very top in less than a minute.

"Now throw me at Firebot and Mechanicat!" the older robot commanded. Everyone below heard him and gasped. But Gorillabot, never one to argue, secured his grip on the tower's top spire, and flung Silverbolt with all his might toward the sea of Scraplets.

Spinning through the air, Silverbolt concentrated. He knew his friends had only one chance. He relaxed his body. He pictured his jet plane mode in his mind.

He transformed.

His wings locked into flight position, his thrusters ignited, and he swooped down toward the two trapped 'bots. A cheer went up from the base of the tower.

Silverbolt skimmed over the Scraplet army. When he reached Firebot and Mechanicat, they each grabbed a wing, and he pulled up and away, veering back to the tower. Unable to control his descent, Silverbolt smashed nose-first into the base of the tower, and the entire structure -- with Gorillabot -- came crashing down around him.

*     *     *

As Strong-Bot finished digging Silverbolt out of the Magnablox pile, Roy peeked his head into the playroom. "What's going on in here, guys? What's all the noise for?" Then he saw the massive swarm of Scraplets that by now covered half the room.

"Scraplets?!" he yelped, optics wide in disbelief. "Stand back, kids!"

In a flash, Roy transformed to his fire engine mode. His water cannons swiveled, aimed, and then angrily blasted the Scraplets back with high-pressure streams.

He switched off his cannons and transformed, and when the water settled, all that was left of the Scraplets was a layer of rust flakes floating on the surface of the shallow pool that now filled the far corner of the playroom.

Roy checked to make sure everyone was okay -- which they were. "Looks like lunch will be a little early today," he said, surveying the wrecked playroom. Then he added: "Maybe Charlie will have some leftover energon jigglers from yesterday." That elicited a round of smiles and cheers. Holding the playroom door open, he herded them out into the hall.

"We'll have this place cleaned up by the time lunch is over," he promised.

*     *     *

Lunch was B.L.T. sandwiches, with bearings, lubricant and Teflon. Chef "Chopper" Charlie managed to scrounge up a few leftover jigglers -- one for each of them. This earned him a round of cheers, naturally.

But the real hero of the day was Silverbolt; everyone gathered at his table, wanting to eat with him. Firebot and Mechanicat even gave him their jigglers. For his part, Silverbolt acknowledged the extra attention, graciously accepting the sparkfelt thanks of his friends.

After lunch, he gave his surplus jigglers to Gorillabot, who gobbled them down with glee before curling up for his nap.

THE END