Shifters of Flesh and Metal is a fanfic by Flameal15k. It is a crossover between Transformers: Prime and Animorphs.
When Team Prime finds a group of humans excavating an Energon deposit, they soon encounter a group of humans with the power to morph into animals. With three different powers now vying for Earth, the two groups must align to save their home.
It can be read here
, here, and here.
On March 11, 2024, the next story in the series, Homecoming, was posted.
Shifters of Flesh and Metal contains examples of:
- Badass Family: By the end of the first story, it becomes apparent this applies heavily to the Darbys, the Esquivels, and the Nakadais.
- For the Darbys: Jack and June are Badass Normals that manage to be contributing members of Team Prime, though June is only tangentially involved with them. John Darby (June's husband and, by extension, Jack's dad), meanwhile, is a member of the Federal Bureau of Control and has his own adventures with aliens, specifically the approx and the Mogadorians.
- For the Esquivels: Raf is the human technology expert of Team Prime. His extended family includes Div and Gaz, both of whom are major thorns in the side of Invader Zim, while their father is a renowned scientist who has faced his own weird encounters.
- For the Nakadais: Miko is the most spirited human member of Team Prime, though also a bit reckless. Her father is a JSDF ranger, her brother is revealed to be surviving an unnamed incident and doing quite well, while her sister is apparently a Magical Girl Warrior.
- Continuity Nod: Fowler mentions that Unit: E investigated a supposed UFO crash in a construction site in California, but found no evidence of anything out of the ordinary. It's all but outright stated that this was the site where Elfangor crashed in The Invasion.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: A non-verbal example, but the Animorphs have this reaction to learning about Unit E, as the fact the government hid the existence of shape-shifting robotic aliens for decades implies they could have just told them about the Yeerks instead of trying to wade their guerilla war alone.
- The Dreaded: According to Raf, everyone in his family is scared of his cousin Gaz, with most of them refusing to come within ten feet of her on the view occasions her family comes over.
- Foil: Team Prime to the Animorphs - both are groups containing a mixture of humans and aliens who work from the shadows to defend mankind from an alien invasion. The Animorphs, however, have much more limited resources compared to Team Prime, and have to rely on a lot of trickery to earn the wins they get. Team Prime, meanwhile, has more options for direct fighting, and is directly in contact with the government if they need support.
- In Spite of a Nail: Despite Elfangor being Spared by the Adaptation, Jake is still team leader of the Animorphs.
- Irony: The Animorphs decided not to inform the authorities about the Yeerks (who they have fought for maybe a few months) because they were worried the government had been infiltrated by said aliens. Fowler ends up revealing to them that a government group not controlled by Yeerks kept a different set of aliens hidden on Earth for thirty years. They're understandably miffed about this.
- Mutual Masquerade: Team Prime and the Animorphs didn't know the other group existed until they met while investigating a Yeerk Energon mining operation.
- Outside-Context Problem: The Autobots and Decepticons are this to the Yeerks, Andalites, and Animorphs - the Cybertronians are not only a Superior Species to both races, but have been active on Earth for far longer, and in one instance are in direct contact with an Earth government.
- Shout-Out:
- Miko's parents are revealed to be Itami and Risa. It's also revealed that she has a brother named Sōta, who is friends with a girl named Setsuna.
- Raf has Dib as a cousin, and everyone in his family is scared of Gaz.
- Valuable Imports, Lavish Exports is mentioned during The Pieces Move, apparently being under investigation for corruption and smuggling.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Elfangor is still alive in this story, apparently having escaped due to (implicitly) Unit E arriving to investigate his ship's crash causing enough chaos for him to slip away. Cliffjumper is also still alive, but comatose.
- The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Discussed - the Animorphs and Team Prime both realize that their differing views on how to prosecute their respective wars could cause tension early on - namely, the Animorphs being willing to kill non-human controllers versus Team Prime avoiding casualties among other races. They also note the issue with rescuing any controllers from the quarry afte developing a plan to destroy it - the Yeerks will all die of Kandrona starvation in about three days at most. Fowler sidesteps the issue by pointing out they could force a hostage exchange to deal with the Yeerks non-lethally.
- Wham Episode: The final chapter, Balance Shifted, drops quite a few bombs. Not only do the Animorphs finalize a permanent alliance with the Autobots, but we get to see the upper echelons of Unit E, with their leader being Seymour Simmons from the Transformers Film Series. It's also revealed that Unit E is a part of the Federal Bureau of Control, and that they have several other alien groups being monitored. One of said alien groups, the Loric, are being moved over to Jasper under the supervision of Agent Bobcat, real name John Darby - Jack's dad.
Homecoming contains examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: In Re:creators, Sota has not been working on any creations since at least Yuna's suicide, and is implied to have undergone writer's block for some time before that. When Miko calls him in "Changes", which is set before said suicide, he's working on what's implied to be a Sentai series called the Aura Scale Rangers.
- Dramatic Irony: While making final preparations to head to Jasper, John tells Stanley and Sandor to be on their best behavior so as to keep his wife and son out of the loop regarding aliens. The very next scene has Jack and June working together with the rest of Unit E's "interns" to prepare Outpost Omega for the Animorphs, proving that involving them in the Loric-Mogadorian war really wouldn't be world shattering for them.
- Loophole Abuse: Discussed example - it's noted that the timer for morphing is reset if the morph chosen undergoes a natural metamorphosis. Ratchet then notes that this likely makes cybertronians functionally exempt from the rule, as their ability to change their alt modes gives them an unlimited number of resets, to say nothing about how they are living Transforming Mecha.
- Mutual Masquerade: The prologue confirms that neither the Loric nor the Cybertronians have any idea that the other exists.
- Shout-Out: Continuing the trend established in the previous story, Miko's sister is named Mato, and is friends with a girl named Yomi.
- Our Souls Are Different: Chapter 2, Changes, establishes that human souls and sparks coexist in this universe, with human souls looking like white orbs of light while sparks look similar but are made out of electricity. And as Jack morphing into a cybertronian shows, one can change into another without too much difficulty.
- Tempting Fate: John Darby's last scene in the prologue has him hoping that his charges don't end up dragging his wife and son into the Loric-Mogadorian War, while the next scene has both of them hoping that they don't have to deal with any additional intrusions on the now expanded Autobot-Decepticon-Yeerk-Andalite war.
- Visual Pun: June's Cybertronian form has a helicopter as its alt-mode, making her a literal helicopter mom.
- Wrong Context Magic: Morphing and cybertronian transformation are seperate abilities, one being the result of advanced science and the other being a natural part of cybertronian biology. Acquiring a cybertronian morph has absolutely bizarre effects on the user, as instead of letting them morph into the target cybertronian, the user is converted into a protoform that then transforms into a completely new cybertronian and, in the case of humans, their soul is reformatted into a spark. And again, this is just with humans - the story has yet to explore what would happen if a cybertronian acquired the morphing power.
