Chapter 1: Lost and Confused
After several cycles of running down the multiple corridors, I finally decided to stop and catch my breath.
"What... What's happened to me, me, me?" I said to myself. "And why do I sssound weird?"
Suddenly, I heard footsteps from behind the corner in front of me. I looked around and saw a door near where I was standing and dashed into it, closing it once I got through.
I waited in breathless silence for the footsteps to pass and leave, and when they finally did, I decided to think about what to do next.
What happened to me? I thought, looking at my body's new features, and how I felt immensely different. My armor, originally a dull purple, was now bright purple, with lots of green in areas as well.
My arm... My leg... They both grew back! I thought, a mix of surprise and happiness in my mind. And... So did my optic... I noticed once I realized I was looking through both of them, and not just one.
I also noticed I had two more servos attached to my back, each one pincer-looking in appearance. "Did Ssshockwave do thisss?" I asked myself. I then looked at both my arms and saw small spikes sticking out of the side of both of them. Close combat tools, perhaps? My legs also had small jags sticking from the back of them.
I noticed my feet had two prehensile digits on the front of each foot, and one in the back, very different from my original boot-like feet. I also had what felt like two antennae on both sides of my head, and they kept twitching in varying directions.
Once I finished checking myself out, I thought back to how the last thing I remembered was getting caught in an explosion, then waking up in water, then waking up in Shockwave's lab. "Who was that big purple guy there with him, him, him?" I wondered, thinking back to the hulking, one-eyed mech that tried to scrap me.
"How wasss I able to open up that lummox's grip? Am I that ssstrong now, now, now?" I said again.
"Grrr... None of that mattersss" I hissed, trying to get my thoughts set on escaping. I lived on this ship once I thought. ...And if I'm not mistaken, the hangar area should be just a few more rooms down from where I am now...
I opened the door and looked both ways down the hall, and seeing nothing, I decided to emerge from my hiding spot and ran down the correct direction.
After a few more cycles of running, I had to stop again. Looking around a corner, I saw two Vehicons guarding the door to the hangar. Scrap! I yelled in my mind. Now what?
I looked around, but there were no other ways to get in. Well, guess there's no other choice... I thought, angrily, as I put my only available option in motion.
I calmly walked around the corner, toward the door. It took the Vehicons a second, but they soon saw me, and stared. "Hey... Guysss" I began to say, almost awkwardly.
Primus, if you let this work, I'll never ask for anything, ever again! I thought as I continued walking. "Did you two hear about that experiment on the loose, loose, loose?"
They both looked at each other, then back to me. "Who in Primus are you?" One of them asked.
"I'm... Tailssslide" I stammered. "I'm, uh, new here! Here, here..."
I was within arm's distance of them when they both drew their blasters on me.
"You match the description of the experiment!" One of them yelled, accusingly.
I growled, and now with no other options, I lifted my leg and kicked the Vehicon to my right in the chest, sending him smashing into the wall. Before his unconscious mass could even land on the ground, I tripped the other, forcing him to land on his servos and knees.
He groaned as he tried to get back up, but I punted him in the stomach before he even had the chance, sending him flying almost to the ceiling!
He landed back on the ground with a loud, echoing thud, clutching his stomach in agony, coughing up energon like a geyser.
"Ssso... I can kick really hard?" I asked myself. "Good to know, know, know..."
I ran past the two helpless guards and entered the hangar, looking for a way off the ship, but to my disappointment, no vehicles were presently docked in the large area. Just a handful of Vehicons roaming about.
Great. Just great. How am I supposed to get out of here if I can't change form?! I wondered, kicking the wall in anger.
Then a crazy thought came to mind. "Wait... If I regrew my entire body, maybe my T-cog regrew as well!" I nearly screamed in my new, high-pitched voice, attracting the attention of a nearby Vehicon.
"Ah, scrap, scrap, SCRAP!" I shouted, pointing my arm instinctively in the direction of my enemy, expecting a blaster to pop out.
"Wait a minute... If my T-cog isn't working, I DON'T HAVE BLASTERS!" I yelled out, in panic, as a handful of Vehicons pointed their blasters at me.
Then I felt a change happening in my left arm, and as I looked at it, I saw my upper arm and servo transform!
What's this? I wondered as I ducked behind the wall when the Vehicons began shooting and yelling at me. I've never seen a blaster like this before... I thought, as my arm fully transformed into a unique-looking blaster, complete with multiple, small, gatling gun-like barrels leading to one long one on the front of my arm.
I decided to test it out on the Vehicons when I popped back up from my cover, pointing my blaster at the nearest one. As soon as I did so, purple beams of energy began flying out at a rapid speed, akin to a Cybertronian sub-machine gun. The energy beams went in varying directions, most of them not hitting at all, but the sheer quantity of the shots allowed a few to hit three of the Vehicons, instantly deactivating them.
"That's neat, neat, neat!" I said cheerfully as I turned to hide behind the corner again, but I slammed into a large object instead. Dazed, I tried to see what it was, but I felt a servo wrap around my waist before I could even look up.
When I was raised higher, I got a better look at my assailant. It was that big purple mech from before!
"For the future of the Decepticon race, I will destroy you!" He said in a deep, malevolent voice as he raised his other servo in a fist. Before he could punch my lights out, I raised one of my free legs and kicked his chin, sending him off-balance with a groan, clumsily crashing into the nearby wall.
His grip held firm though, and when he got up, he growled and threw me flying across the hanger, eventually sliding onto the ground with a loud screeching of metal, only stopping once I regained my footing and braked with my feet.
"Who in Primus are you? You? You?" I yelled to him. He jumped from his perch and landed a few dozen meters from me with a loud, earthshaking crash, making me almost go off-balance.
"I am Lugnut!" He began. "I am your clone, your better, and, now, your destroyer!"
With that, he charged me, no holding back on momentum, leaving me with a fraction of a nano-klik to dodge. The only option I had was up.
Relying on my powerful legs, I bent on my knees, and jumped with my full strength, soaring past the rampaging Lugnut, and hitting the ceiling.
I latched onto the ceiling like a bug. I let go with one arm and looked down at the frustrated Lugnut. He looked up at me.
I crawled into another position from my perch, activated my sub-machine blaster again with my free arm, and began firing at him with great enthusiasm in my mid.
"Hahahaha! You're too big to dodge my shots!" I laughed insanely. I continued this for a few nano-kliks until I eventually realized, in horror, that all my shots were bouncing off him instead of harming him.
I slowly stopped firing upon this discovery, and the entire room went silent. I looked around, awkwardly, as Lugnut smirked at my failure to harm him.
"Time to die, bug" Lugnut said threateningly, as he reached his servo out toward a nearby Vehicon.
"Hey, what are y-" the Vehicon shouted in a mix of fear and confusion as he was grabbed and picked up by the mech.
"Catch!" Lugnut roared as he threw the screaming Vehicon at me. I was barely able to scramble out of the way as the living missile crashed next to me, then fell back down to the ground where it crashed again.
I seized the opportunity to leap at Lugnut. I jumped from the ceiling as hard as I could, spun my body around, and thrusted my left leg forward, aiming for his head.
The brute had barely any time to react as my foot came hurling into his face, impacting directly on his central optic with great force. I heard a cracking noise, and a cry of anger as Lugnut stumbled back a step. His arms began rising above his head, and hurtled down on my body.
The air was knocked out of my intake as I collided with the ground, making me clutch my stomach in pain.
As I took in a breath, my antennas began pointing upward, drawing my attention, and I saw Lugnut's foot raised in the air, about to step on me. I used what little strength I had to avoid it, rolling backwards, and dodging his attack as it slammed into the ground.
I was able to stand up, and saw the growling Lugnut, now with a good-sized crack in his cyclopean optic, raising his right arm, which began transforming.
I saw it morph into some little, red, pulsating button that he held over his head. "I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do!" He bellowed.
"Run! Get out of here!" A Vehicon began ordering to the others. I turned and saw them try to flee. "He's gonna use the punch!"
I turned back to Lugnut. "What in Primus are you doing? What's going on, on, on?!" I screamed at him.
"Killing you!" He replied, punching his button-fist into the ground.
An explosion sounded and enveloped me, knocking me back. I barely had time to see Lugnut fall into a large, newly-formed gaping hole in the ground, just before I, too, began feeling pulled in by it.
"SCRAP!" was all I was able to scream as I was sucked from the ship, and thrown into the cold night sky.