A/N: Welcome to our fic! Breaking The Fourth Wall is a collaberative piece from LiveJournal, spawned by a bunny at the Transformers Bunny Farm. Several members of the bunny farm get sucked through the fourth wall when Megatron attempts to break it. And everything else? Well, you find out when we post the episode. BE WARNED. THERE WILL BE AT LEAST MENTIONS OF SLASH IN THIS FIC, IF NOT OUTRIGHT. The rating will vary, staying about PG-13 but might delve into R.
There will be 26 'episodes' (chapters) a 'season' (story), with the exception of the first 'episode' which will be three seperate chapters. There will be three to four seasons, each set in a different universe. Each 'episode' will be written by a different author, until all the authors are done, at which point the first author will take over again.
And I can't think of anything else to say. So enjoy! Reviews would be nice, but aren't required. READ ON! ~puffitheinsane
DISCLAIMER: Transformers isn't ours, but all the human visitors belong to themselves.
Breaking the Fourth Wall
Chapter 1: Megatron's Discovery
Written by: AnonFirefly (LiveJournal)
---
Universes and universes away, but closer than anyone could imagine, on a backwater planet, in a backwater part of a spiral galaxy, in the most backwater part of that universe, something NOT backwater was about to happen.
Not that any of the humans (the sentient species who lived in that particular part of the universe) knew what was about to take place. Many humans wished for this extraordinary event to occur. The ones to whom this event would occur are part of those who hoped, but never expected for it to be real. Nor possible.
Reality's rules stated that different universes could exist, but there was no technology powerful enough to tear a hole in the very fabric of the universes and the gray space between them.
Besides, the event was too fantastic to even consider being reality, so why in the multiverse are we writing about it?
Because cosmic irony is a bitch.
That's why.
---
Rumble and Frenzy sat in front of a large monitor, watching the security feeds with lazy optics. They were leaning back in their chairs, their feet propped up on the large console. Monitor duty was the most boring job ever devised by sentient beings (robotic or otherwise) and the Decepticon Twin Terrors hated it.
No one was fragging each other, jacking themselves off, or doing anything else worth its weight in blackmail.
So, yeah, it was a slow boring day.
"I'm bored." Frenzy whined for the thirteenth time in four seconds.
"You're not the only one." Rumble groaned and threw his head back, spinning his chair around.
They continued to sit in silence and lazily watch Megatron beat up Starscream again. The beatings were becoming more and more of a common occurrence in the Decepticon-flagship-turned-underwater-base lovingly christened the Nemesis by a certain purple, one-opticed scientist.
Normally, those two pranksters would have skipped out on monitor duty and run off to cause some chaos to whichever unfortunate mech happened to be the victim of choice for the day. But considering that Soundwave had ordered them to stay put, they had to stay put.
You just don't go against Soundwave. It never ends happily for the mech who does.
So, Rumble and Frenzy were stuck where they were and bored out of their processors.
"I'm bored."
Rumbled sighed exasperatedly, jumped out of his chair, and began to pace around the room. "I'm bored too, Frenzy," Rumble replied, tiredly, "Soundwave knows we hate monitor duty!" Frenzy spun his chair around to face his twin.
"Do you think Soundwave knows about the–?"
Rumble spun around on his heels and pointed threateningly at his twin. "Don't ever mention that." Rumble said in a dangerous tone, optics flashing dangerously behind his visor. "Soundwave doesn't know about it, and I want to keep it that way!!"
Frenzy pouted, worried, disappointed, and bored. This, by the way, is never a good combination in any Decepticon. "But why else would he put us on monitor duty!? He has to know!!" Frenzy said exasperatedly.
Rumble sighed. "Trust me, if Soundwave found out, he'd punish us more severely than just monitor duty." He walked back and sat his in chair, spinning around like his brother. They sat in silence for a while, just thinking and being bored out of their respective processors.
"… I still think that maybe he knows something."
"Will you drop it Frenzy!?" Rumble said angrily. "He doesn't know, he won't ever know, and I won't tell him!" He crossed his arms in a huff and ignored his twin. Frenzy and Rumble relapsed into silence again. They just sat there, watching everything on the monitors, but not really taking it in.
"I'M BORED!!" Frenzy shouted to the ceiling. He began to throw a small, but severe tantrum in his chair. Rumble, meanwhile, ground his dental plates at his twin's declaration of his boredom for the umpteenth time.
Frenzy was just asking for a smackdown.
It would probably break the monotony of the monitor room quite nicely.
Frenzy, instead of breaking Rumble's already stretched nerves, slid off his chair, bent down, and crawled underneath the console. Rumble stared at his twin's actions. He also slid off his chair and bent down next to Frenzy's exposed legs.
"What're you doing?" Rumble asked. His only response was a small bang from inside the console and Frenzy's curse. Frenzy's legs kicked in the air as he did whatever he was doing. Rumble, who hated to be ignored especially by his twin, banged on the outside of the console. There was another bang, louder this time, and Frenzy's harsh cursing.
"What did you do that for!?" Frenzy's voice came from inside the console, like his head was just on the other side of Rumble's fist.
"Tell me what you're doing!" Rumble said again. Frenzy's annoyed sigh was his only response. There was the sound of wires, pulleys, and other assorted junk in the console being shifted around. Rumble was going to bang harder on the outside of the console (using his pile drivers, he might add) when Frenzy spoke up.
"If you really want to know: Internet."
"Say what?"
There was the sound of some rather distressing mechanical disembowelment and Frenzy pulled himself out from under the console. He turned to face his twin, a mischievous smile on his face.
"I just rewired this thing," Frenzy rapped the side of the console with his knuckles, "so that we can hook up to the humans' Internet." His grin widened at his twin's stupefied stare. He got to his feet and pulled himself onto his chair and began to type in codes and coordinates into the computer. Rumble pulled himself together and got back into his own chair.
"Why would you want to see the humans' information network?" He said. "Their technology is eons behind our own! And they're stupid and disgusting!" Rumble added as an afterthought. Frenzy shrugged nonchalantly.
"I know humans aren't all that smart or sanitary, but at least they know how to be entertaining!" He exclaimed. On one monitor that had shown Megatron continually berating Starscream, for what neither of the cassettes cared, the image was replaced with the humans' main search engine page.
"Google, huh?" Rumble said. "What can be so entertaining about this thing?"
Frenzy rolled his optics behind his visor. "You use this thing to find information on the Internet. So what do we look up first?" Rumble leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the console.
"Why not type in 'wall?' See what comes up?" He said. Frenzy looked at his twin, confusion evident on his face.
"Why 'wall?'" He asked. Rumble shrugged.
"I don't know, but it's something, isn't it?" Rumble replied. Frenzy considered for a moment then shrugged his shoulders.
"Okay," he said and typed 'wall' into the search box. He typed in another word after 'wall.' Now it was Rumble's turn to look at his twin.
"Why did you type in 'fourth'?" He asked, leaning forward, his tone almost exactly the same as when Frenzy asked him that same question.
"I wanted to," was Frenzy's simple reply. Rumble leaned back in his chair, acquiescing to his twin's wishes.
"Let's see what we get." Frenzy said and he pressed enter.
---
Megatron slammed Starscream into the wall, his clawed hands curled around the seeker's throat. Starscream choked as Megatron's grip tightened.
"Starscream, when will you learn!?" Megatron roared into his face, "You will never become leader of the Decepticons and this pitiful excuse for an assassination attempt is an insult to assassins everywhere!!" Starscream couldn't make a sound. Considering his condition, it wasn't much of a surprise.
Starscream was a mess. His once brilliant plating was now dull, scratched, and dented heavily. His cockpit was smashed in, revealing critical systems to the open air, and his right arm was missing. It lay in a crumpled heap on the other side of the room where Megatron threw it after he finished beating Starscream with it. Energon covered both mechs, all of it Starscream's. Both wings were crumpled and torn, and don't even get me started on the condition of his thrusters. Long story short: Starscream wouldn't be flying anytime soon.
"L-lord Mega–!!" Starscream choked out. Megatron's claws tightened dug into Starscream's neck wires, effectively stopping any more pleas of forgiveness. It was pitiful. Megatron threw Starscream against the door to the throne room. The seeker hit it with enough force to leave a nice seeker shaped dent in the door. Multiple cracks reverberated around the room and Starscream screamed (no pun intended). His wings could only take so much abuse before they finally broke. They slumped pathetically and flopped every which way when Starscream moved.
Starscream curled in on himself, shaking. He looked at Megatron's form with his one good optic towering over him and tried, and failed, to suppress his terrified whimpers. Megatron growled at the downed form.
"You are a disappointment to the name Decepticon, Starscream," Megatron said scathingly. He turned his back to Starscream and headed for another door on the opposite side of the throne room. "Get out of my sight, Starscream!" He roared at his treacherous Second-In-Command. The Decepticon Air Commander scrambled to his feet, moaning in pain and limped out of the throne room.
He left his arm behind.
Megatron stalked off, leaving the large throne room behind him, and headed for the monitor room. Just because Starscream was damaged and limping around the base didn't mean that the stupid slagger had a back-up plan. Starscream had to be constantly watched, if not by Megatron, then at least by someone on duty. He reached the monitor room and imputed the opening sequence. The door slid open with a neat hiss, and he stepped inside.
He wasn't exactly happy to see Rumble and Frenzy searching through the humans' Internet.
"RUMBLE! FRENZY!! WHAT ARE YOU BOTH DOING!?" He shouted at the cassettes. Both mechs jumped in their chairs, visibly startled and spun around. They huddled close together, shaking in fear.
"L-Lo-ord Megatron!!" Rumble said, just a little too quickly. "Go-Good to see you, sir!" Frenzy didn't say anything and tried to hide behind his brother. Being in different chairs made this a little difficult. Megatron stormed over to them, still angry as the Pit about Starscream, and now finding that the two mechs on monitor duty weren't doing their jobs. Out of curiosity, Megatron took a look at the monitor the Decepticon Twin Terrors were reading.
It was a page from the humans' Internet. More specifically, a page of an online encyclopedia, stupidly called "Wikipedia." He glared at the cassette twins huddled together.
"Now tell me," Megatron said in a falsely polite, dangerous tone, "is there any reason you two were looking at human garbage?"
"W-W-We, ugh… We-!!" Rumble tried to find words that would save his and his brother's skidplates. True, Rumble could have lied, but Megatron can pick up on lies faster than Skywarp could teleport out of Starscream's strangling range. Which is really fast, considering the circumstances.
Megatron ignored the cassettes for now and looked back at the Internet page. The title of this particular entry was 'Fourth Wall.' Megatron narrowed his eyes and began to read entry. Rumble and Frenzy were still trying to find words to save their metal hides. Megatron scrolled down and continued reading the entry, much to Rumble and Frenzy's surprise.
"L-lord Megatron? What are yo-?" Frenzy began. Megatron interrupted him.
"Tell me, you two," Megatron said calmly, his optics still focused on the screen, "what is the Fourth Wall?" Rumble and Frenzy jaws went slack. Whatever they had expected Megatron to say (probably several death threats and tortures), asking about the subject of their reading material obviously wasn't one of them.
"Uh…" Rumble began. "I-it's…"
"A metaphysical wall between actors on a stage and their audience," Frenzy said, with no fear or any form of emotion in his voice. "On a three walled stage, the fourth wall is the unseen wall that divides the audience from the characters on stage. To the characters, it is just another wall, but to the audience it is a window into the character's lives. 'Breaking the Fourth Wall' is a term used when the characters on stage interact with the audience or make statements proving the characters realize they are fictional." Rumble's optics widened at his brother's recital. Well, he wasn't a spy for nothing…
Megatron smirked. "Good," he said in a falsely impressed voice, "very good, Frenzy. Now, do you mind telling me why you both can't pay that much attention to-!?" Frenzy interrupted him. That Con has ball bearings…
"It is also believed by some that there is a fourth wall to every dimension of reality, with a double of everyone present on the other side. This also ties into the theory on alternate timelines and universes-" Megatron's hand shot out and covered Frenzy's mouth. Rumble quivered beside his brother and Frenzy was frozen stiff. Megatron looked thoughtfully at the small cassette.
"A Fourth Wall to every dimension?" He said in a calm voice. "Would that include our own?" Frenzy nodded slowly, still terrified. Megatron smirked and took his hand away from Frenzy. The cassette quivered in quiet fear, but sat and watched his leader think. Megatron frowned and looked at the screen again. One could almost see the cogs in Megatron's mind working overtime (in the figurative sense, of course) as he began to formulate another plan. Rumble and Frenzy had the CPU capacity to keep their vocal processors shut.
A smile crossed their leader's face, but it was a smile full of cold malice and devious cunning. He turned back to the two cassettes, both of whom stiffened on reflex.
"Go find Soundwave and tell him to report to meet me in the War Room. I have an idea…" The Decepticon Twin Terrors wasted no time and ran out of the security room. Megatron followed them out at a much slower pace. "And this time, nothing will go wrong."
---
Soundwave stared at his leader for a few moments, trying to process the outlandish idea. Thankfully, his already stoic and logical nature prevented Megatron from noticing anything. They were both standing in the large Decepticon War Room, a large, purple, oval shaped room with a white table with fifty or so chairs around it, situated in the middle of the room. Both officers were standing on either side of the white table. Large monitors took up an entire wall, displaying information ranging from weather patterns to the latest in Autobot activity to human politics (when necessary). The hum of the large machines behind the monitors was the only sound in the room for several astroseconds.
"Lord Megatron," Soundwave said in is monotonous tone, "are you sure this will work?" Normally, Soundwave would not disagree with his leader, but this one demanded further investigation. "Inter-dimensional travel is sketchy–" Megatron interrupted him with a wave of his ebony hand.
"Not inter-dimensional travel, Soundwave," Megatron said. He looked his Third-In-Command dead in the visor. "We are not planning inter-dimensional travel, Soundwave. Besides, inter-dimensional travel has already been established. The Space Bridge does the very same thing, only a much smaller scale and never for very long. No, we're not going anywhere. We're bringing them here."
Soundwave narrowed his optics and looked his leader over, searching for signs of doubt or weakness. The fire in Megatron's optics hadn't diminished and they had a steely shine, full of determination. Soundwave bent his head in acquiescence.
"Very well, Lord Megatron," Soundwave said, "what am I to do?" Megatron smiled his cold smile again.
"Assemble a team. I need you to gather a few… items before we begin." He slid a datapad across the table to Soundwave. Soundwave picked it up and read through it carefully. Several of the items on the list caught his attention.
"Lord Megatron," he began, staring at the datapad, "is there a reason why–?"
"All you need to know, Soundwave, is that everything on that list must be brought here unharmed." Megatron said in a no-nonsense tone. He straightened. "You have your orders, Soundwave. I want everything on that list here by the end of the human week, are we clear?"
Soundwave bowed to Megatron. "As you command, my liege."
"Good." Megatron said. The Decepticon tyrant turned to the monitors. Soundwave gathered up the datapads of older plans, the list in his hand, and headed for the door. He almost reached it when Megatron called out. "And Soundwave," said telepath turned, "be careful when dealing with the last item on the list. It's the most important and the most heavily guarded. Use your wits when thinking up a plan to obtain it." Soundwave bowed his head in acknowledgement and left the War Room behind.
As Soundwave walked down the Nemesis's corridors, he looked at the list again. Hmm… He thought. These first few will be easy enough to obtain. But the last one… It will have to be obtained now. He read through the list one more time and turned in the direction of the Rec Room. There were several mechs who would be quite useful in this venture…
---
On the backwater planet, in the country of the United States of America, a female human was driving home after school. She had fuzzy brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, glasses, and wearing a mostly gray school uniform. The dark blue Honda drove down the highway, a few miles over the speed limit. The radio played the latest alternative rock at a moderate sound level. Her brown eyes roved the highway, looking for the correct exit ramp.
Thanks to her generation's innovative technology and times, multi-tasking came as easily to her as it would to any other teenager living in the year 2009. No, she wasn't texting, or chitchatting on her cell phone, or thinking about winning tickets to the latest concert coming to town. Singing along with the radio seemed a much more intelligent use of her time. It wasn't like she talked to anyone on the way home.
"I remembered black skies, the lighting all around me. I remembered each flash as time began to blur. Like a startling sign that fate had finally found me. And you're voice was all I heard, that I get what I deserve." She sang. She stopped as the radio reached the chorus and just listened for the remainder of the song.
Meanwhile, her mind drifted from one subject to another, from the weather to the idiots on the highway that couldn't drive to save their skid plates. But her mind eventually returned to the one subject it wouldn't forget. It centered on something more mechanical… more robotic… and aliens. Can't forget the aliens.
Transformers.
The best story/continuity/franchise to have ever entered her life. She thought about it almost constantly, but never when her attention was needed elsewhere; pushed to the back of her mind, but never forgotten in favor of another story or situation for longer than a day or two. Even now, driving down the highway at sixty-five miles per hour, she paid a fraction of her attention to Transformers. More specifically the Decepticon faction, the supposed "bad guys" of the story. However, she again pushed it to the back of her mind as another idiot sped down the highway and nearly caused an accident.
She signaled to the right and got off the exit ramp, still at sixty miles per hour, but rapidly slowing for the left turn home. A lover of speed, but having no desire to wind up in some hospital (or with a speeding ticket) she slowed to a moderate thirty miles per hour. A left, a right, another right, and she was home. Or rather, her apartment complex's parking garage.
She quickly parked, killed the engine, and turned off the radio. She sat for a moment, enjoying the silence. She patted the steering wheel fondly. "Thanks for the trip, Endive." She said to the car. In her mind, the dark blue Honda responded.
You're welcome.
She unlocked the door, got her backpack and current art project, and headed for the apartment complex lobby. Over her shoulder, she clicked the car keys twice. There was a semi-shrill beep from the blue Honda, then the garage was silent.
---
She reached her apartment and unlocked the kitchen door. She walked in and shut the door with a light kick, the lock clicking in place. No one was home. Well, that was expected. Neither of her parents' cars were there and her grandparents were living in another country at the moment. So for about an hour, until her mother could pick up her brothers from school, she had the apartment to herself. And she liked it that way.
She quickly headed for her room and entered the rectangular room. Several bookshelves, each shelf filled with books, drawing materials, and random stuff, lined one wall and a closet on the other, with a large desk full to bursting of old school papers, drawings, notebooks, and other assorted junk that had nowhere else to go. She put her backpack down at the leg of the desk and sighed tiredly, stretching taught muscles.
She smiled at the seven Transformers figures standing on her desk: Leader-Class Optimus Prime and Megatron, and Universe Optimus Prime, Blurr, Buzzsaw, Runabout, and Longrack. Just because she wanted to, she quickly transformed them all. Now seven vehicles replaced the seven robot toys.
She walked over to her closet and randomly picked out a plain, solid green t-shirt. She threw said shirt onto her bed and sat down next to it. She quickly took off her heavy school uniform and changed into the green shirt and her school's black gym shorts. She tossed her socks and shoes next to the closet. She never believed in walking around the house with shoes on.
It's either barefoot or someone broke a dish.
She placed her laptop down on the desk and opened it to her DeviantART page. Hmm… she thought absentmindedly. 4 deviations and 3 messages. All the deviations were photographs and the messages were all journals. Stuff she could look at later. She quickly closed her DeviantART page and opened up her Gmail.
No new emails.
Not even an update on .
She huffed in disappointment and closed her Gmail as well. Finally, she headed for LiveJournal, more specifically, the Transformers Bunny Farm (shortened to TF_Bunny_Farm). Several of the imaginary, sharp fanged, supposedly harmless creatures had attacked her sometime during Chemistry that day and had refused to let go. She headed for the main pages and clicked on her Friends Page. A list of recent entries to the various Transformers based communities and her online friends scrolled by.
There were several new entries to the Bunny Farm. She clicked on the newest entry and began to read.
Little did she know, somewhere out in her world, eight other humans, people she barely knew, were about to do the same and their lives would be inevitably intertwined with that of forces outside their homes.
The Universe is a bitch sometimes.