The Reluctant Protoform

Chapter One: An Unwelcomed Surprise

Disclaimer: I don't own the Transformer franchise and this is nonprofit.

A lovely lady decked in flowers hands me a Pina colada with a smile. I grinned, taking a delicious sip of my fruity drink with glee, as I comfortably stand on the beach watching the waves.

Boom…

I wake up with a start, my eyes still closed and refusing to open.

Boom…

The loud noise vibrates through my body and motivates me into quickly opening my eyes. What the… instead of being safely tucked into my bachelor apartment twin bed, I appeared to be floating in space. What the fuck? Tiny stars twinkle around me; close yet far away.

Boom… boom, thud, and whirl!

Sounds like a big machine… wait a minute! How the hell can I hear sound in space? How the hell am I breathing?

By now I am ready to hyperventilate; this is not computing in the mind of a 20 year old guy who loves science and science fiction.

Boom…

Seriously, where is that sound coming from; if I had a glass of water, I would be in Jurassic Park. Two seconds later, I furiously wished that I didn't see what made that ghastly sound.

To my horror, a humongous robot that looked sort of like Satan was calmly walking towards me with a big menacing smile on its face. The long orange bull-like horns, orange dragonish wings, and white clawed hands powered the light bulb inside my mind: this is Unicron.

Oh… Hell… No…

I didn't pause to think about the fact that a highly fictional character was right in front of me or that the said alien could walk in space like he was on solid ground… I, Nate Pullman simply ran for my life in the opposite direction.

Pumping my legs rapidly and pacing out laborious breaths; two sneakers did the talking for me, screaming the entire way with noisy squeaks. Not turning to look back, the ominous thuds of Unicron's monstrous feet kept my fear fueled run burning brightly.

Looking desperately for a safe haven of any kind, empty space is the only answer. Running for what seemed like hours, I finally ran out of steam. Scared out of my wits, but wanting to see my end, I face Unicron bravely.

"So you have finally stopped running pest. It is good to see that you have accepted your fate."

One clawed hand reaches for me, only to stop and stare in the distance, the great fanged mouth snarls viscously, "No!"

The dark reaches of space become a blinding light in an instant and the weird space floor gives way underneath my feet.

"I am Primus, your pursuit of destruction is over", a new calm voice declared.

"We shall see fool", Unicron sneered.

As the two titans face off in what will surely be an epic battle, I continue to fall blindly through space; my vision blocked by flashing different colors as if I had stared directly at the sun for hours.

There were no sounds of battle or of anything at all, it was like falling down a bottomless pit in a horrible dream. It felt endless and the worst was yet to come. Falling through space had become cold almost to the point of hypothermia. Like a mirror yet to break into 7 pieces, my oxygen began to leave as well. It seemed that the laws of physics were slowly coming into play.

Scared beyond reasonable doubt, I wordlessly scream in panic as the last bit of oxygen is sucked into my dying lungs.

Now the only thing I can see is darkness…

Whirl, click, whimper… "Ugh" I moan in pain; my body feeling like I've just fallen headfirst into an unforgiving sidewalk traveling at the speed of light. Still in pain, but grateful to be alive, I try to take stock of my current situation. Eyes open to see a gray metal floor. The floor looks like it was once shiny, but various types of unidentifiable grime had made it lackluster.

Tired, I wearily raise myself onto my hands and knees looking around cautiously. It appears that my early comment about hitting the sidewalk was spot on; a massive crater gave testament to a hard landing.

How am I still alive?

Trying to stand up, my legs buckle under me; my rump hitting the floor with a thud, thus causing me to look at my legs and feet.

What the heck has happen to my body…and how did I not notice this earlier?

Instead of seeing beautiful healthy organic flesh, an unappreciated view of gray metal robotic legs and feet are burned into my corneas instead. Disturbed beyond measure, a hollowed out metal hole in the center of my torso brings me even closer to a major freak out via temporary loss of sanity. Remembering the faceless protoform bodies from Transformer Beast War, my growing panic transforms into a crazed 'is my face still there' test spree.

Wait… I have eyes; of course I would have a face… right?

One minute later…

Yep, I still have a face; now that's cleared up maybe I can find out where the hades I am.

Hands gripping the edge of the crater firmly, I carefully pull myself up and look over the edge.

The environment is slightly disgusting sight to see; transformers littered the ground by the dozens; pink fluid (energon I think) spilled everywhere. It wasn't really gory to me, spilled pink energon is not the same as blood in my mind; however, the thought that I was looking at dead bodies brings more than enough nausea.

Dirty buildings lay broken as rubbish over the sliver metal ground; various transformer bodies lay in pieces as if torn apart by dogs, others are intact with various holes, and some look as if they had been crushed under some large boot.

The sheer number of bodies mangled on the ground leaves me speechless, but only for a second. The Pullman sense of preservation kicks in, destroying horrified shock as my thoughts begin to run in high gear.

Quickly every detail of the predicament I'm in is noted: transformers check, metal ground check, more than one moon check, various tall buildings in the distance check, and final conclusion is that I have to be on Cybertron.

What to do now?

I guess I'll just wander in one direction and hopefully come upon autobot or something.

Looking at the distant skyscrapers, I set out on my lonely journey, not noticing until later that two red eyes were watching me… and they're definitely not friendly.