Time-Quake

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"Time-Quake"
Publisher	HarperCollins Publishers
Imprint	HarperCollins Children's Books
Published in	United Kingdom
First published	May 28, 2009
Written by	Colin Brake
Continuity	Transformers Animated cartoon
ISBN	0007303904 978-0007303908
Page count	128
Price	£4.99
Printed in	Great Britain

Strange time effects plague Detroit, leading you and Bulkhead to discover a time machine.

Synopsis

Temporal anomalies have been causing time to seem to stretch and shrink across Detroit. Some people are even blaming the Autobots for it. On your way home from school, you are almost trampled by a stampede of humans and robots fleeing from something and investigate to discover they were running from a Tyrannosaurus rex. As you start to back away from it, a nearby SWAT vehicle transforms into Bulkhead, who throws a taxi at the beast. As it vanishes, Bulkhead traces the temporal energy to the newly built Lions Tower in the middle of Detroit. You and Bulkhead arrive at the empty building to encounter Bumblebee. Breaking and entering ensues, and on the top floor of the building you find a strange machine. As you lift one of the metal balls from the machine, white mist surrounds you...

You and Bulkhead find yourself in a cemetery and encounter Abraham Lincoln. After you help Abe with the wording of the speech he's about to give, he recognises the ball you're holding, having found a similar one the night before. When he gives you the sphere, another temporal shift occurs...

You find yourself in 1773, on Griffin's Wharf, and spot two men dressed as Native Americans, on their way to the Boston Tea Party. One of them spots Bulkhead and, fearing that he's a metal demon sent by the British, flees. After a short chase, Bulkhead picks the man up, causing him to faint. While he's unconscious, you loot him and discover he's carrying another of the control spheres. Though you're keen to watch the Boston Tea Party, another time shift occurs.

And you're back in the 22nd century at the top of the Lions Tower. While you're looking around for Bumblebee, the diminutive Autobot comes flying through a nearby wall. Stepping through the hole in the wall is Natasha Pyraniac, owner of the time machine, and Blast-X, her Decepticon accomplice. While the two Autobots fight Blast-X, she explains to you that she came back in time for some amusement, but fun time's over, and she leaves with the time machine. Blast-X is distraught at being abandoned, but fights on until the rest of the Autobots arrive and he can be brought down.

Or perhaps the following happened instead:

On your way home from school, you investigate an alarm and spot a building on fire. Outside you encounter Bulkhead, who says that temporal energy is present in the building. A time-displaced Minuteman from the American War of Independence appears, in a state of confusion. After revealing his name is John Hawkins and he's from 1775, he disappears in another temporal disturbance. Bulkhead is able to track the source of the energy, and you accompany him to an old warehouse on the Detroit River where Prowl is already waiting. You break into the warehouse, and in the basement find a strange machine with metal control spheres. As you pick one up, you and Bulkhead are plunged back in time...

You and Bulkhead land up on a hillside, somewhere near Philadelphia. Coincidentally also on the hillside is Benjamin Franklin, who's looking to conduct an experiment to prove that lightning is a form of electricity. He recognises your control sphere, having found an identical one on the hill, and leads you to his home to pick it up. Of course, no sooner do you have both spheres, than you and Bulkhead are sent through time again.

This time you find yourselves on a sidewalk in New York City, in the early 21st century when people were still using fossil fuels as an energy source. The pollution prevents Bulkhead from getting a reading on the second missing control sphere, but a short time later he saves a teenage girl from being run over by a bus. You recognise the girl as Gabriella Constanza, destined to be America's first female president, and discover she's found the control sphere you're after.

Back in the 22nd century, you find Prowl, who says you've been gone for days. The Autobots have discovered the time machine's owner is a chrononaut from the far future, who's being held prisoner by the Decepticon Wavelength in a river-side restaurant. Wavelength's electrical powers are holding the Autobots at bay. Your rubber-soled shoes make you immune, allowing you to sneak in via the fire escape and trip the sprinkler system, which shorts out Wavelength. The time traveler Aron Three Five, thanks you for saving him and uses his time machine to return to the 51th century.

Featured characters

Quotes

"What are you? A speaking mechanical! Is this some British trickery?"

—John Hawkins reacts to Bulkhead.

"Fear not, man of metal, I will take care of the youth."

—Benjamin Franklin

"You didn't say 'please'"
"My name is Blast-X and I don't need to."

—Bumblebee and Blast-X

"Bravo! Best ballet I've seen in ages!"

—Bulkhead watches Bumblebee dodge Blast-X's weapons fire.

Notes

Errors

• The options at the end of section 59 are reversed. If you choose to go with Prowl, you end up going with Bulkhead, and vice versa.
• In the book, fossil fuels are no longer used in the 22nd century. This is contrary to "Blast from the Past", in which fossil fuels are mentioned as being used.

Multipath

• In this story you are school age and learned a lot about American history from school. You once recited the Gettysburg Address at a school assembly.
• The options you get are often things you, as a character, would have no control over, such as whether the character behind the whole scheme is a human or a Decepticon.
• Even more often, whichever choice you take, the next set of choices will be exactly the same. For instance, if you choose to go down in a lift, something will happen to make it go up instead, and you'll end up with the same two choices you'd haven gotten if you had chosen to go up in the first place.
• Alternate endings:
  • Blast-X is responsible for the temporal disturbances on his own. His plan was to use the time machine to discredit the Autobots, and then make himself Detroit's biggest hero by stopping the time quakes himself. After Blast-X is defeated and the time machine destroyed, Optimus makes you an honorary Autobot.
  • The person behind the time quakes is Professor Simion Hawkins, whose time theories were scoffed at ten years ago. He's holed up in a skyscraper downtown, keeping the Autobots away by materialising dinosaurs, but you're able to sneak in and confront the professor. You're able to talk him into giving himself up, and he explains that his intention was to solve world hunger by farming animals from the past, but the experiments had caused holes in the fabric of space/time. Ratchet says restoring the control spheres should fix everything.
• Other variations include an encounter with a Neanderthal instead of a T. rex, or meeting a Confederate soldier instead of John Hawkins.

Trivia

• The author, who has penned a number of Doctor Who books, has inserted a number of sly references to the show. Most of these are in the terms used in relation to time travel, but most glaring is the character of Natasha Pyraniac, who's said to be 403 years old and has run away from a sterile and boring society in order to have fun, a back story almost identical to that of the main character from Doctor Who. Her appearance and demeanor are intended to resemble the character of the Rani from that show, a clue to this being subtly hidden in her last name.
• During the sequence set in the 21st century, you encounter a young girl named Natalie who contributes nothing at all plotwise. We strongly suspect nepotism.
• Despite John Hawkins and Simion Hawkins sharing the last name, the two men do not otherwise appear to be linked.
• Bulkhead is oddly knowledgeable about temporal mechanics, but this might come naturally with being a space bridge technician.