"Privilege? Having a freaky alien living in my CPU? That's not a privilege in my book..."
— Rumble's opinion on Yeerk infestation
Meeting of Minds
is a crossover One-Shot Fic between Animorphs and The Transformers by Kenya Starflight.
The Yeerks have discovered a new species on Earth that has great promise if they can control them. This species is capable of shapeshifting and has technology that, were it in their metaphorical hands, would provide a mighty boon for the expansion of their empire across the cosmos. All they have to do is get one of their kind into the new species' head and they'll be able to infiltrate the base of the Decepticons.
Unfortunately for any potential hopes of commanding two alien invasions at once, the Yeerks probably should have done some more research on Cybertronians before attempting to infest Rumble.
This fanfic contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Time Period: While it's not outright stated when the fic takes place, context clues imply it's the mid-2000s and that the events of both works involved in the crossover (The Transformers and Animorphs) occur later than they do in canon. The Yeerks having minimal knowledge of Cybertronians suggests the latter species hasn't been active on Earth for very long, which doesn't check out with the canon timeframes of either work due to the Decepticons becoming public knowledge years before the first Yeerks arrived on the planet. There's also the matter of Rumble referencing Hannah Montana, which first aired in 2006; per both canons, this would've happened years after the Yeerks were defeated and while the Decepticons were off-planet for an extended amount of time.
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Rumble is squicked out when Ifrit 259 the Yeerk tells him that his name means he's the two hundred and fifty ninth Yeerk from his spawning, saying that spawning sounds gross and over two hundred organic offspring from the same event is far too many.
- Brain in a Jar: Rumble asks Ifrit 259 if he really thought the former keeps his brain in "a little tank or something" after failing to take control of him, as Rumble (and other Cybertronians by extension) uses a CPU to think. Ifrit admits that there are species in the universe that do that.
- Faeries Don't Believe in Humans, Either: Rumble initially thinks he's dreaming when he encounters the Yeerks and their leader Visser Three, as sluglike Puppeteer Parasites and the vaguely deerlike Andalite that the Visser's using as a host are beyond his experience. Likewise, Ifrit 259 the Yeerk is incredulous when Rumble says he's a sentient Mechanical Lifeform because their Empire is convinced that "(n)o robot can think for itself or have a personality".Rumble: Two hours ago, pal, I didn't believe in a lake of brain-parasitic slugs being led by a Disney acid trip, and you didn't believe in giant robotic life forms that could actually think for themselves.
- Fantastic Slurs: Rumble takes offense to Visser Three calling him a robot, citing that it's derogatory to sentient machines. He says that the proper term to refer to him is "Cybertronian", while a more casual yet inoffensive word would be "mech".
- Mechanical Lifeforms: Ifrit 259 is astounded to find out that Rumble is a sentient machine, as the Yeerks believe it impossible for robots to think for themselves and they thought the Decepticons were cyborgs that put their brains into mechanical shells.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: After Ifrit 259 is baffled by Rumble being a sentient machine, the latter asks if he thought he was a cyborg "like General Grievous". Ifrit's response is to ask, "General who?"
- Pretend to Be Brainwashed: The Yeerks capture Rumble with the intention of having one of their kind take over his body. However, the individual Yeerk that makes it into his head, Ifrit 259, fails at making him a Controller because the Yeerks evolved to control organisms by wrapping around their brains and he's a Mechanical Lifeform; whenever he tries to wrap himself around Rumble's CPU, he gets an electrical shock. When Visser Three orders the Yeerk to report his progress, Rumble pretends he's Ifrit controlling his own body and takes the opportunity to walk out of the Yeerk pool for free.
- Psychic Static: After failing to take control of Rumble's body, Ifrit 259 gets stuck within the Decepticon as he heads back to base. Rumble takes advantage of the fact that he and Ifrit can hear each other's thoughts at that close of range to pester him by thinking various songs that are notorious for being Ear Worms.
- Shout-Out:
- Rumble refers to Visser Three's Andalite host as the "unholy spawn of a mutant Smurf and a Fantasia reject" and repeatedly says the Visser looks like something Disney animators would imagine while under the influence.
- Rumble asks Ifrit 259 if he thought the former was a cyborg "like General Grievous". Ifrit doesn't know what he's referring to.
- The songs that Rumble sings telepathically to annoy Ifrit include "The Song that Doesn't End", the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song, and "I Love You" from Barney & Friends. He also spends some time rambling about Charlie the Unicorn and tells Hook that if the Yeerk had been in him for much longer, he would've had to start using Hannah Montana songs against him.
- Telepathy: Thanks to his extended time spent with Soundwave, Rumble's acquired some basic telepathic powers. While not accomplished enough to engage in mind-reading, he can pick up sufficiently loud thoughts from nearby individuals, like the Yeerk inside his head.
- Wetware CPU: The Yeerks approach the possibility of infesting the Decepticons under the impression that they're robots controlled by a Brain in a Jar, as they've encountered similar species before. When a Yeerk finds out they're actually Mechanical Lifeforms with no organic components whatsoever, he's absolutely dumbfounded.
