Chapter 1: The Beginning, the End, and the Start
It was a normal afternoon on a Sunday. No time for any rests, it was time enough for $13.56 per hour. Just as I was about to leave the train and thought about Truck-kun giving me a chance in isekai, three hours ago, I had a sudden premonition.
It wasn't like those bad feelings you'd have thoughts about leaving the stove on too long. No, it was different in a way that creeped me out. Just no warning, and I walked my way home, looking around because I was paranoid that some dude was going to give me a surprise shank as I was walking.
This feeling didn't go away long enough and there I was, looking at some crappy fanfiction on my laptop to take my mind out of the gutter to convince myself it was just a bad feeling.
Bad. Feeling. My ASS.
"Fucking hell…" I mutter under my breath as I scrolled around Netflix, taking my mind off the list of childhood, some bangers, some trash films I recognized through the list of shows.
Transformers and Back to the Future. Those are the classics. I thought as I saw the terrified face of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly stepping out of the DeLorean and Bayverse "Give me your face" Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime from the movie trailers.
Those were good movies. I nodded at the two glorious masterpieces.
And I thought, why not. I binge-watched the shit out of those two movies that night, got mentally exhausted from the earlier shift, I made my bed on the couch and definitely paused the movie before getting some shut-eye.
Now, you may have been wondering why I had to specifically call out the fact that I paused the movie before I slept. Well, there are two reasons. The first reason was obvious, because everybody knows don't waste precious electricity for the sake of electricity bills.
The second reason was…
"I definitely did not turn that fucking thing on before I slept." The TV was on. This all reeked of fucking static screen bullshit jumpscare trope. Rather than staying terrified, like a normal person- I yeeted the whole remote control at the TV screen.
It didn't break.
I stood there in front of the possessed TV for a good five seconds before I decided to tip over the Television screen into facing the floor for all eternity. Then I got out of the house.
Why the fuck did I get out of the house-
"FuckingfuckyoufuckingmotherFUCKINGSHIT!" If there was a good time to realize that characters in a horror movie setting had reached certain standards of a death flag, they were totally boned and I had certainly checked all of those standards.
I immediately returned back home and heard the static noise coming from the Television. Getting louder.
And louder.
I pulled out my phone. It was an old iPhone 5, the good ones that were connectable with headphone jacks because fuck over-expensive Air Pods and scrolling through the low battery 17% screen and finally put on the headphones because I couldn't stop SHAKING and I pressed Spotify.
"Fucking playlists and ads- I DON'T WANT FUCKING ADS AND I DON'T WANT TO PAY PREMIUM BECAUSE I'M BROKE AS SHIT- JESUS CHRIST!" I pressed a random playlist and the song blasted over my ears.
+{[Playing: Huey Lewis & The News - The Power Of Love]}+
Instead of the constant static noise, I heard the upbeat pop rock rushing through my eardrums.
I noticed something.
And by god, I wish I didn't notice it otherwise I would feel like I would be pissing my pants.
"The power of love is a curious thing,"
Shit.
"Make a one man weep, make another man sing…"
I looked around the fucking floor. Nothing. THE TV WAS FUCKING MISSING.
"Change a hawk to a little white dove~"
*CLANG*
I looked what was besides my lap. A fucking spoon.
"More than a feeling,"
I looked up.
"-that's the power of love-!"
And screamed.
.
.
.
.
.
"TVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTVTV!" I ran.
I ran over the table to fight it off.
"Tougher than diamonds,"
*STATIC*
"-rich like cream!"
I screamed as I ran.
"Stronger and harder, than a bad girl's dream…!"
I locked the doors. Fortified it with a chair stuck on the nob.
"Make a bad one good,"
*SLAM*
"-make a wrong one right…"
I couldn't get the screams off my mouth. THEY JUST WON'T STOP.
*SLAM*
"Power of love will keep you home at night…"
*CRASH*
I screamed.
It grabbed my throat and threw me to the cupboard.
*STATIC*
"You don't need money!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Don't take fame!"
*STATIC*
"DON'T NEED A CREDIT CARD TO ride this train!"
It threw me over the window, glass shards shattering to the grass.
I continued to scream at the monsternoid-humanoid TV screen with a body MOVING TOWARDS ME.
"It's strong and it's sudden, and it's cruel sometimes!"
"EKGH-"
DEATH.
CHOKING.
*STATIC*
"But it might just save your life…!"
I'M DYING.
[VRRRRR-]
*STATIC*
[SCREEEEECH-]
LIGHT. BRIGHT AF.
"WHAT THE FUC-"
*SLAM*
"That's the power of LOVE!"
The suddenly apparent moving silhouette knocked both of us out to the ground, and as I got a second-good look, I couldn't see JACK.
*CLICK*
*CRUNCH*
*CLENCH*
"That's the power of LOVE!"
My earphones might've been drooping off my ears as I stared at the… the… light in front of me and I couldn't why what the…. I couldn't see shit because the car's… the car's headlights were too fucking bright-
*STATIC*
It took me a second to realize TV was right in front of my face. Why wasn't I dead yet? WHO KNOWS? I couldn't see anything. I was blind in the sea of light. My earphones were knocked off and all I could hear… was…
*STATIC*
"Shut up, you." He spoke and-
-all I heard was something, big. That proceeded to cause crunching sound that… tore something apart, could've been the television… in two.
*STAtic...*
*CLANG*
*CLANG CLANG*
That was probably the sound of the TV's body dying before being ripped… into, y'know. IN HALF.
I gasped out loud. Maybe it was because my dry throat needed air because all of that screaming, I did earlier. Maybe it was because I almost died by a TV transforming maniac. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Maybe it was just a nightmare.
A really, really, painful fucking nightmare-!
*THUD*
Something big. Metallic, something big and heavy and metal was moving…
… right in front me, I'm screwed, aren't I?
Something killed off the lightshow and it took me a moment to adjust my eyesight from the temporary blindness. It fucking hurt, as it would expect by staring too much into the light. My eyesight regained; I saw it.
I didn't see it.
I… knew it.
Two glowing blue eyes.
Weird robot body that'll probably end up dying from a Mortal Kombat fatality move. But robot.
Big-ass robot.
"… by the pits of Kaon… you're a human, aren't you?" He spoke with light surprise.
"Uh…" Was the only thing I could say in front of the first Cybertronian in my face.
"Wha…" Confusion. He's confused for some reason.
"Why are you out here, instead of the Human Labour Camps?"
… the fuck?