Because you demanded it! Well, maybe not you personally. "Because a handful of people on a message board expressed an interest in seeing it," just hasn't got the same ring. Anyway, The Story of Wheelie, the Wild Boy of Quintesson. Screenplay by Ron Friedman, written by Sonia Black Woods, illustrated by Earl Norem. This is a Big Looker Storybook published by Marvel Books back in 1986.

By the end of the first page, the body count is at least two. Hard core. You don't get kiddie books like this any more. Or maybe you do. I haven't actually done any research.

We're skipping the cover because it's the same illustration that appears on page 17, just with titles and stuff on. For those of you with slower modems, give the page a minute to load. The artwork's pretty cool, so we didn't want to scale it down too much. As well, we've changed things to Canadian spellings and fixed the bit where Kup is suddenly Sludge. Also, we didn't forget Snarl, he's just not there.

A strange corkscrew-shaped ship plummeted through space. Inside, a young Autobot and his parents were gripped in terror. Their ship was on a doomed course. It had run out of fuel mid-flight. An emergancy landing was impossible. The landing gears were jammed!

The ship fell through space at breakneck speed. The steel ship finally broke through the darkness of deep space and plunged toward an uncharted planet below. The ship exploded when it hit the planet's surface.

Only one lucky passenger was thrown clear - the boy Autobot, Wheelie. His unfortunate parents perished in the fiery crash.

Wheelie was lying on the ground, short circuited and in grave danger. He was on the dangerous planet Quintesson!

The evil Quintessons, the inhabitants of the planet, found Wheelie lying there. They decided he must be an alien spy and they dragged him away and threw him into a Quintesson dungeon.

When Wheelie awoke, he was dazed. Slowly it all came back to him. He remembered the terrible crash. He cried out for his parents, but soon realised they were not near him. Wheelie was sad and frightened.

Wheelie shuddered when two Quintessons walked into the dungeon. These creatures have five-sided heads. Each side has a different expression. The Quintessons stared at Wheelie wearing their frightening angry expressions.

Wheelie hoped it was a bad dream. But it was no dream.

The Quintessons tied Wheelie's arms and marched him out of the dungeon. They led him through dark, winding corridors. The group stopped in front of two large doors.

The lead Quintesson swung around and fixed Wheelie with a frightening stare. He was wearing his death-mask expression!

The Quintesson guard pushed Wheelie through the doors and onto a long platform. Wheelie looked over the edge of the platform and his eyes grew wide. There in the swampy pit were vicious-looking transformers with razor-sharp teeth. They snapped their mighty jaws at Wheelie. They were Sharkticons!

Wheelie realised that he would soon be a meal for these horrible robot-sharks. He jumped hard on the platform and bounced high in the air, somersaulting backwards over the heads of the startled Quintessons.

Wheelie raced through the twisting hallways and out into the jungle. The Quintessons were right behind him.

Wheelie was too fast for them. He raced away into the dark jungle of Quintesson.

The evil Quintessons vowed to recapture the alien Autobot boy. And as time passed, they made many attempts. But Wheelie managed to outsmart his enemies each and every time. He protected himself with a laser knife he carried and a special sling which hurled fire stones. He had found these weapons while sifting through the wreckage at the crash site of his parents' ship.

Wheelie missed his parents an awful lot. He was thankful they had taught him well in the ways of survival. Somehow he felt their spirits watched over him as he roamed the wilds of Quintesson - all alone.

Compared to Wheelie, the boy Autobot Hot Rod had a very carefree life on Earth. He was never lonely because he had a lot of Autobot friends. The wise old Autobot Kup and the girl Autobot Arcee were two of them. Sludge, Slag, Swoop, and Grimlock were his Dinobot friends. Right now they were preparing to go on a special space mission together.

Autobot Bumblebee was posted at the Autobots' space station on the second moon of Cybertron. This was a strategic location for battling Decepticons - the evil enemies of the Autobots.

The Autobots needed supplies. Hot Rod, Kup, Arcee, and the Dinobots volunteered to travel to the space station with the necessary supplies.

Kup kept a watchful eye as the group loaded the supplies onto the waiting ship. After a while, he said to them, "Hold it! I don't think it is wise to load on any more cargo. Too much weight and the ship will be in big trouble!"

Grimlock and Slag ignored Kup's warning. "No want make second trip," Grimlock said to Slag. Unnoticed they piled on additional supplies. Soon everyone climbed on board and the ship zoomed off!

The flight was smooth sailing at first. But as they flew deeper into space, the ship began to rattle and sputter uncontrollably. Arcee grabbed onto Hot Rod. "What's happening!" she asked.

"Don't worry, Arcee," Hot Rod comforted her. "Kup will soon have everything under control."

At the ship's controls, Kup moved about quickly handling one instrument then another. Nothing was working. They were in big trouble!

"What seems to be the problem, Kup?" Hot Rod asked his nervous friend.

SPUTTER! SPUTTER! CHOKE! RATTLE!

The ship was going down!

On to Part Two