Prelude

By

LigerJager

Transformers © Various Creators & Companies

Chapter 3: Stirrings

Sam blinked away the blinding sunlight as he came to. He was sprawled out on the hard, rocky dirt of the Valley floor. He ached all over and was beyond disoriented. Sam was positive that if he tried to stand up he would do a credible impression of a drunk as he staggered about. However even that was a long way off as the teen could barely twitch let alone roll over and sit up. So he did the sensible this and just lay there on the heated desert floor waiting for the world to stop spinning like a rollercoaster ride.

Sam's stomach roiled in protest to the wildly bucking world about him. He tried to roll over and was only partially successful. As soon as he was on his side he heaved his guts out. The bile soon settled. Paradoxically he felt better and the world seemed to slow down.

It seemed like an eternity passed before he felt he could try to twitch. The moment the ground was more or less still (though he wasn't too sure about that) Sam decided to try his admittedly poor luck and stand. It was slow going as he swayed heavily on his knees, his mind still going round and round in like a spinning ride at a fair. But once his balance was less chaotic, the bruised and battered teen managed to stagger to his feet and was more or less upright.

As he stood there, Sam slowly became aware of the heat beating down on him as well as rising from the ground. He shaded his eyes with a hand as he looked around, trying to get his bearings as the world still tilted dangerously around him.

As Sam surveyed the landscape his gaze landed on the long skid mark of torn up earth that ended where he woke up and the impact crater just beyond it. The site of it niggled at the back his mind that he was missing something. But with the way his equilibrium messed with his mind it was hard to think of anything beyond the of kilter view before him.

Without a thought beyond that, Sam stumbled forward, tripping up on the torn up earth and made his way to the edge of the impact crater. With every step and every stumble his world slowly righted itself and he straightened from being hunched over and his nausea faded as well, though it left an acrid taste in his mouth. With a last crunch of the cracked earth, Sam stepped up to the edge of the crater and stared down into it in bewilderment. His mind was so fuzzy and messed up that he didn't know where to begin other than at the indent in the earth.

As he stood there and time ticked by, Sam's mind cleared a little bit more and with it, his memory. Slowly images trickled into his conscious mind and he began to piece together a somewhat decent picture of the events just prior to him waking up.

Sam remembered the desperate mad dash from psycho Decepticon, though there were moment towards the end where it was fuzzy. Like after he entered the junkyard. He somewhat remembered fleeing from Tranquility, though the reason why escaped him. It was a blur that somehow had lights and streaks of color. And he remembered waking in some sort of sphere and then being tossed around like a pinball. Sam had the impression something else happened after, but what was unclear. He was sure he'd been knocked out after that.

He had seen the whole thing though, he was sure of it. And like a sledgehammer, his mind supplied the reason behind the holes in his Swiss cheese like memory.

BlazeBite.

Somehow, someway he knew that that name had significance and it was key to whatever was going on. What was it RazorWing…RazorWind?...said about him? Sam racked his brain trying to drag up the memory. Try as he might, the teen drew a blank. A moment later, though, it didn't matter.

As if summoned by his thoughts, a shadow formed before him though like a mirage on the edge of the crater. It wavered to and fro for a bit before solidifying somewhat into a transparent image that was faded around the edge. The sheer size of the form towered over him. Even more so that Optimus Prime had.

Sam absently noticed that the dust indented where the peds were supposed to be, his gaze travelling upwards before flinching as he looked inadvertently into the sun. He shaded his eye with a hand to block out the sun while blinking out the spots in his sight. It didn't help.

The teen took a few steps backwards to get a better look at the mirage when he tripped over the rut of the skid and landed on his butt with a thump. The sudden pain jarred his already sore body and caused Sam to tear his spot filled gaze away from the gigantic shade and focus on himself.

The college freshman, soon to be sophomore, took a moment to inventory his arms, legs, toes and the various aches and pains. He gingerly shifted and was rewarded with some protesting muscles. Then, without warning, exhaustion set in almost knocked him sideways. He was just so tired. He blinked as another wave of tiredness hit him.

Movement from in front of him though arrested his attention and Sam refocused on it. Nothing about this entire day made any sense to him. Save for the part, oddly enough, of Barricade chasing him. The Decepticon was as nasty as they came, bar Starscream and Megatron. And Sam could reason that he wished for revenge or payback or even just wanted to smear his guts across the pavement. Not that he wanted to, those ideas sent him into a panicked frenzy if he thought on them for too long.

The specter leaned in and the massive head lowered until it was even with the still sitting teen. Sam had the impression that he was looking at it eye-optic. Sam stuffed the odd thought to the back of his mind. He'd look into it later. Right now he had to figure out what was going on because, once again, he was thrown off the deep end into something he knew nothing about. And he needed to know what, because his very survival depended on it.

"What did you do?" The accusatory tone could be missed by no one. Not that it helped with anything as silence was all that answered him. Sam had the impression that the head tilted in inquiry.

"You did something. I don't remember what, but I couldn't have gotten out here alone."

The teen's yell up at the transparent giant echoed in the vastness of the deserted park.

'You and I are one.'

Sam could make zero sense of the reply. And it answered absolutely nothing. However before he could say anything, let alone rant at the shade, the shadow melted into nothing leaving a stranded Sam in the desert. As it faded, he heard the parting words clearly even as he no longer saw the specter.

Everything will change.

::Twins Part IV: To Be Continued::

A/N: Blarg!

…

LJ 6/23/2016, 6/24/2016,7/2/2016