Prime Resonance. Ch 1.
[Start.]
The void is cold. Or do I only think it's cold because I believe it should be. There's nothing here, but it feels like there will be. Or should be? Past and Future are confusing within the void.
A flash goes off. It's nothing but pure POWER and the feel of it is incredible. Floating towards it, I can make out two giant beings, mechanical and contrasting each other. One that looks like a demon, the other like a wise man.
Between them is a small (comparative) cube, slowly building itself into something else. Watching the process is incredible, and I can feel myself smile even though there's nothing to smile with.
Taking a risk, I decide to get closer, if only just to keep feeling this way.
The first to see me is the demon looking one, shifting his head to me, almost as if he's too bored to expand the effort to see. What amounts to an eyebrow shifts on his metallic face, going upward at the sight of me.
I can see my reflection in the cube as the wise man turns to me, and all I can see is a floating ball of yellow. Is it a soul?
I can feel the incredible power wafting off the both of these titans, one that feels like it should be evil, the other good. But both of them are helping each other.
Transformers… An old memory comes to the forefront of my mind. The Unicron trilogy.
My "Soul" shifts, looking up at Unicron? And Primus? I'll assume that's them. Despite knowing what they are, I don't feel fear at the sight of them, nor do I feel the disgust I'd assume I would from Unicron.
It's just acceptance, like a balm on my soul.
Primus and Unicron move the hands closest to me, bringing it underneath me. Their hands are joined, and now I remember that these two, despite being enemies, were also family. And cared enough about each other to at least give a reprieve of loneliness by creating new life. At least in this branch of time.
Their arms raise, and I'm brought closer to eye level for them. Despite their size, and likely the lack of their experience of dealing with fragile beings, I do not feel discomfort or pain from the shift. They're perfectly gentle moving to get a closer look at me.
I can see why, even knowing what he is, some people would willingly work with Unicron. Dangerous or not, the both of them know how to be careful when moving small things.
My soul is barely even close to the divet in the tip of their fingers, far too small.
Unicron is the one to break the silence, and I wonder how I can hear him when there's no oxygen for sound to travel.
"A stray sparkling, before we've even built Cybertron. Maybe this wasn't a bad decision after all Primus." His voice is quiet, measured. But there is humor in his voice, nothing like the monotone boredom his first voice actor had.
Primus huffs, a light indignance colouring his own voice. "Of course this was a good idea brother! Bringing in new life is always a worthwhile thing. But still, a sparkling this early, before the transmetal has even formed? This is worrying. We need to give it a shell body before it dissipates."
Unicron's face is clearly amused at his counterpart's words. "Didn't you only want thirteen to guide them Primus? If you're losing count this quickly maybe we should take a break. Wouldn't want to over strain your systems. The lifestains can wait, yes?"
Primus scoffs, and you feel as if the roles have been reversed for once despite their personalities. "Vector Sigma is still developing, and I know that I had wished to create thirteen in the beginning, but these are extenuating circumstances. How can we possibly perceive them, what they're thinking about, without a window into their spark. The possibilities are incredible brother!"
I watch as Unicron smirks at his brother's excitement. It's clear that despite still being the same "world eater" that he was, despite them supposedly still being mortal enemies, that they care. It's honestly quite strange.
"Yes yes brother, just hurry up and cover it in transmetal before it fades. You're far too excitable right now." Unicron jeers at his brother, but as far as I can tell it's all in good fun.
Primus shifts, the surface of Cybertron flowing towards me. The metal surging towards my body should be worrying, but I see a strange rainbow light fill the area, and all I can feel is acceptance. All shall be well.
Faintly, as the metal covers me, I can hear Primus gasp. And even Unicron shifts his body, the vibrations travelling to the hand underneath me. "Th… All… rk!
I quickly lose my sense of hearing as the metal folds over my "Soul". And then my sense of touch is gone. Losing my senses is strange, as on one level I know I should be terrified, or
breaking down.
But just as quickly, they rush back. I can see in Infrared now, and my eyes have a strange night-vision mode.
Hearing is the last to return to me, but my sight is riveted on the shape crawling out of a deposit of transmetal. Prima, the first transformer and prime. He is… Small. His body looks matted and sluggish, rather than the gleaming silver/chrome colour that he was shown as.
The hands move beneath me, and I'm deposited on the surface of Cybertron. Having legs again is weird to get used to, as moving as a "Soul" was just thinking the words "I want to move forward." But I press on, my body moving towards Prima as he slowly picks himself up. I can feel Unicron and Primus' gazes on me, but it's a kind gaze. Like a lazy guard dog or a tired parent.
Prima looks around confusedly, looking up at Primus and Unicron in obvious awe, before his head comes back down and spots me walking towards him. He looks confused for a minute before he perks up and runs over jesus christ he's fast!
I'm thankful that my neck doesn't suddenly extend up when he practically teleports into my personal space bubble, but I do lean back slightly. He's excitedly… chittering? The sounds are there but they're not words yet.
Wait. My ears… audio receptors? Whatever the word is, my ears are tuning themselves, shifting through audio signals until I can… "-And I just pulled myself out, I didn't expect anyone else to be here but you are and that's incredible and it means I'm not alone on this planet and who are the two giant people behind you they look incredible are they our creators I-."
The chattering speech cuts off as I put a hand over his mouth, and his eyes… optics? His optics close and open in an approximation of a blink. "Okay, you talk very fast, and I only just managed to figure out how to understand you. I was a drifting soul or spark or whatever before I found those two building this world. Those two are indeed our creators, They are Primus and Unicron. They built this planet from a giant metal cube. No, I don't know how. Are you going to speak slower now?"
I don't remove my hand from his face until he slowly nods, and "breathe" out a sigh of relief when he doesn't automatically start blabbering again.
Looking around, I find an outcropping of metal and walk over to it, sitting down with a thump on the shape. Not particularly comfortable, but better than nothing. From the look of things, Primus and Unicron are both focusing on something in the core of the planet. Vector Sigma most likely.
Prima is trailing after me with an upbeat smile, with "oohs" and "Aahs" peppered around each time he spots something unique. Though, his shriek when a small lizard robot jumped out was pretty funny. Are Terrorcons a thing yet? Probably not.
Prima starts talking, mostly about the little lizard and wondering where it came from, and I kind of zone out for a bit. When I blink back to awareness, Primus is looking amusedly at me, and I can tell that Unicron is smirking behind me. And checking my internal clock a WHOLE FRAGGING YEAR has somehow gone by.
Oh, and Prima is still talking. He seems to do that.
Wait. Not a year. It's barely been a cybertronian day. I'm counting it by earth hours. Hold on, if on cybertron one earth year is a day, or whatever approximation it is, then that'd mean that the "Billion year war" was in actuality far longer. Just how old are transformers?
Knocking myself out of my head, my audio receptors turn back on to a deluge of excited Prima speak.
"-And they gave me a name brother! I am designated as Prima now! And Primus says that if the rate at which Vector Sigma grows continues then we can expect another like us soon!"
Prima was seriously talking for what amounted to 8765.82 hours, and is still going. I guess the lack of needing to breathe, and excitement, allows him to just keep going on.
Instead of calling him annoying, or a chatterbox, I just huff a bit. "Prima sounds like a nice name. Vector Sigma must grow very slowly, it's been many hours."
Standing up, the imprint I left behind in the metal is evident as chips slowly flake off my body. It's interesting being made of metal and yet still feeling. I don't feel discomfort, but I can still feel what amounts to "skin" on my body. It's an odd thing.
I crack my neck more out of habit then anything, before looking towards Unicron with an eyebrow ridge raised.
The giant demonic looking transformer stares back unimpressed, but quirks a grin down at me. "What? You want a name as well?"
Out of the corner of my optic I can see Prima gesturing at me and trying to do… Something involving a lizardbot? I ignore it, and nod my head at Unicron.
He shifts, stretching over the planet like a cat, casting a shadow as far as anything can see. Prima is quiet for once, possibly realizing just how large Unicron is. He gazes down upon my form, and if the noise of displaced air far behind me is any indication, Primus is tensing himself.
"You wish for a name to match your brother, sparkling? I am Unicron, scourge of the universe and the world eater. I am the antithesis of my brother, Primus, while still being the first in my name, uni as for the word unit, singular. Just as he is Primus, or Prime, for another form of unit. We are both the first. And just as Prima is the first among you, you are the first outlier, and the first to live. I name you Genesis. That is your designation. Do not ask me for anything again, without the proper respect. You may be new to words, but you should still use them on my brother and I! I am tired, not feeble."
Unicron is surprisingly passionate about respect. Then again, considering that up until Galvatron decided to betray him he was considering sparing Cybertron just because Galvs asked, that isn't too surprising.
Still, proper respect. "Thank you for the designation you have chosen for me, Progenitor one. I appreciate it."
It's taking everything I have to not bust a gut at Prima's expression. Robot faces should not be half that expressive, but he looks like something out of one piece. All bug eyes and spluttering face. Speaking of faces, Unicron looks… touched? Strange, I figured he didn't particularly like creating life if his personality in Prime was anything to go by.
Unfortunately the moment is ruined by an unmuffled giggle from behind us, and Unicron's face shifts into annoyance. For the supposed "Big good", Primus sure knows how to kill a happy mood.
Unicron reaches over the planet and slaps his brother upside the head to silence his laughter. And boy, the effects that it has on Cybertron.
The slap itself seemed mostly innocuous, just a quick gibbs slap. But once the shockwave hit the planet, so many things changed. What would be mountain ranges on an earth world suddenly sprung from the ground, canyons of split metal forming everywhere.
Prima and I have to run over to the well of sparks just to avoid falling into something, and it shows a casual kind of power that Unicron has that it was just from a slap. How did him driving his arm into Cybertron in the first movie not rip it in half? Sure it caused a metal storm to fly around the entire planet, but that casual level of devastation is terrifying.
Or was it because he slapped Primus?
The landscape is so different. This canyon stretches very far down. I don't think I can even see the bottom.
Is that the Pit? The place that so many decepticons swear by?
Shaking my head, I look around the shifted area. A lot more of those lizardbots are moving around, as well as robot insects. It's still too early for Predacons, Terrorcons, and Insecticons, but the groundwork is definitely being laid.
Prima's hand is on my shoulder, and I look over to him. "Brother, perhaps we should find a safer area? Our progenitors seem casually destructive, and while they want to watch over us, we need to find an area that we can actually safely be in."
He starts moving, and I'm quick to follow him. We don't actually go too far comparatively, but walking around to the other side of the Well of Sparks still takes the both of us over two earth weeks. I'm surprised that neither of us need to recharge, from what a lot of the tv shows say transformers tend to hemorrhage energon like nothing else.
Or maybe it's the quality of energon? We're the very first so ours is some of the purest?
It doesn't matter. What matters is that neither of us need to recharge, at least yet.
The sea of rust is, surprisingly enough, not absolutely disgusting to look at. It just looks like an ocean made of metal that sways and flows. Maybe it just hasn't become the sea of rust yet. Or maybe it's the sea of mithril.
Maybe it's just its own unique area I haven't seen before
Still, it makes me question just how large the well is if we couldn't see it just from standing on the other side.
Prima shuffles behind me, before standing to my side and gazing over at the metallic ocean. "What do you think, Genesis? What should we do now?"
I sigh… vent? Vent, through what amounts to a nose on my face. "I say maybe we should start figuring out names for all this stuff. We have the well of all sparks, or the well of sparks, or whichever name sticks. We have Vector Sigma and Cybertron. But we don't have names for things like those small mechanical beings."
Prima is quiet, and I cross my arms as I wait for him to speak.
"Well… What do you suggest we call them? I mean if the Progenitors refused to name them, why should we?"
For some reason my eye ridge twitches, and I level a baleful eye on Prima in that moment. "Because you slag headed-! Everything deserves a name. If the world eater is allowed one, then everything is allowed one."
Prima shrinks but for a moment, startled most likely, but nods his head at my words. "I can't really fault your logic. But what would we even begin to call them? There are so many things already on this world. It's quite the daunting task."
Running a servo over my face, I find myself exasperated that Prima flip flops from topics. I know he's newly born, but where were the bits of a leader that shined through when the landscape was cracking? "You aren't wrong about that. How about in general we just call the non-sentient ones Mechanimals? And if sentient ones ever show up we'll figure something out at that point."
Prima chuckles, pushing my shoulder lightly. I can't help but smile a bit. "Lazy brother."
I send him a side optic, any anger I still had disappearing. "Like you have any right to talk? You tried to foist the job onto me the first chance you got. I'd say you're the lazy brother in this instance, Prima."
I can see now why he was the leader, aside from being the first. Or one of the first now, since my existence kind of throws that into a bit of a kink. He's actually rather easy to get along with right now, and yet I can still see why Megatronus fell, and why Liege Maximo wanted to be his opposite. He could come off as a bit too self righteous just out of general ignorance.
Still, hopefully with me around, and the matrix of leadership, he'll end up better, and I won't have to try and seal away at least one of my brothers. Or Sister, if I remember right? Solus was probably a femme if my memory is anything to go by.
The sound around me is slowly drowned out as I watch the waves. All of the metal flowing about. Lines of atoms, all converging together, and simulating an ocean.
Prima's voice is gone. So is my sense of touch. I can't even feel Primus, or Unicron. There is just me.
Me, and the wave.
"I was held by strings."
A light flares from inside of me. I can see everything.
"But now I am free."
A servo comes up. When did I move my hand? I'd barely thought about it.
The light flares again. There is power inside. I can see every strand of code. Every atom.
"There are no strings on me."
The ocean stops. Each inch of metal not budging an inch. Everything inside of it, all of the early mechanical fish. Every atom. Everything stops under my will.
Resonance. Vibration. Sound itself.
Vector was time. Solus creation. Quintus life. All of these concepts are fed into a piece of reality.
I am no different, but with my ability, I can exist outside of the laws of the universe. Movement can be halted, But I still move. Time being paused is simply everything stopping. This is incredible! I can-!
Sound rushes back, and I turn sharply to look at Prima as he grabs me by the shoulder, concern on his face. What just…
"Brother? Are you back with us yet? The three of us could barely see anything! What did you do!?" He sounds almost hysterical, and turning around I can see Primus and Unicron both looking down at us, open worry on Primus' face, and disguised concern on Unicron's.
Turning back to Prima, I look at his chest, and see a silvery metal thing on his chest. Or is it orange and silver, with blue inside? Or green maybe? It seems to shift when I look at it. "What… What is that? And what do you mean? I didn't move from my spot."
Prima splutters for a moment, before starting to shake me. "THAT WAS EXACTLY THE ISSUE! NOTHING MOVED WHEN YOU WERE DOING WHATEVER THAT WAS. I HAD TO MANIFEST MY OWN ABILITY TO EVEN SEE YOU! UNICRON AND PRIMUS BOTH HAD TO ASSIST ME TO EVEN KNOCK YOU FROM YOUR TRANCE!"
A huff of air, that I'm realising I probably shouldn't be able to hear, escapes from Unicron, before he and Primus come closer to the planet. "We had to look outside of our current universe to perceive you. You had managed to make it so that nothing in the entire region could even move, just by halting the movement of the atoms that made up the surrounding area. As far as the universe was concerned, for that entire minute you didn't exist. Do not do that again unless you know you're not going to be sucked back into it."
Primus doesn't say anything, but his very presence seems to relax Prima from hysterical down to near hysterical. At least he isn't shaking me anymore.
Figuring they deserve one, I try to give an explanation."Those three sentences. I remember them from when I was that ball of light. A sparkling you called it? And while they're silly, it all just made sense. Everything is made of strings of atoms. Lines of codes in the building blocks of reality. And I was making it clear that there were none on me. A word struck with me when I activated it. Resonance. Like a pattern or pull of something."
Unicron's eyebrow is raised as he thinks this over, Primus looks particularly giddy at my explanation. Primus quickly pretend claps his hands, no soundwaves forming between them aside from the whoosh of air. "It's something new! A new ability we haven't seen!"
Primus moves in close rather quickly, and while Unicron has a more sedated pace, they both still end up near Prima and myself. Even Prima is looking interested at Primus' curiosity. "Genesis, you managed to completely stop all motion in this entire region of space. The only reason we could even see you is because of Unicron and I's nature, and Prima's connection to the both of us. And we couldn't see you until Prima's matrix activated in the first place. This ability you have is incredible, but we've never seen anything like it in all of our existence!"
Wait really? In all the variations of the transformers series they've never seen anything like this? Didn't Megatronus have gravity abilities in the Micheal Bay movies? Or wait, was it just gravity in that one?
I look towards Unicron, who vents out a sigh before nodding his head. I'm stumped for a bit, before finally turning my optics back towards Primus. "So this is new territory entirely? Do you think it developed from my spark being from somewhere else? Could I follow you if either of you went to another universe?"
Unicron and Primus both snap their heads towards me so quickly I'm surprised that their hydraulics don't snap or get caught. "DO NOT EVER TRY AND FOLLOW US GENESIS!"
I take a step back at their outburst, surprise likely evident on my face. Prima is actually the one to ask the question I'm thinking. "Why would it be a bad thing if he did? Would something happen?"
Unicron and Primus look at each other, before venting air again. "In some dimensions." Unicron begins. "There are things that hide outside of the walls of reality. While those things aren't in this dimension, they are in other ones that we go to. And while we can handle them, your ability seems to mostly affect physics, at least right now. Once you can affect metaphysics it might be more safe for you to follow us, but running into something like that is not something you'd ever want."
The Old Ones. I'd forgotten that those things show up in some transformers continuity. That… That would definitely not be something I'd want to see or face.
A splat on my leg has me look down to see a sort've robotic octopus grappling with my leg. What…?
Taking the octopus off my leg, I hold it out at arms length, studying it before looking back up to Unicron and Primus' stupefied faces. Prima is trying his best not to laugh, and failing horribly. "It appears that even in this universe, the tentacled horrors exist. There shall be no escape from their cephalopodic might."
Prima has since lost his battle with holding back his laughter, falling to the ground. Deciding that I am the mature brother, I simply drop the squid on his head. His muffled shriek is music to my ears as I try not to grin at our progenitor's faces.
"Hmm. I think I'll call this species Cablemari. It's cables are like digits that coil around things." Prima finally manages to get it off of his head, throwing it to the ground near the watery metal, where after landing with a wet sounding splat it scuttles back in quickly.
Unicron and Primus manage to gain their composure while the both of us watch the Cablemari scuttle away, back to their normal faces by the time we turn back.
Unicron makes a quick coughing noise before looking towards Primus, who looks confused until realization strikes. "Oh yes, yes! Bots, the next of you has finished forming, and is slowly drawing in transmetal. How about you go see them and help them to gain their bearings."
Well… That was a rather obvious "Please ignore what just happened."
Anyway, time to go meet another sibling. I wonder which one it is?
The walk around the well of sparks still takes another earth year, Prima and I making small talk that somehow manages to last that long, but as we arrive the sparkling is still building their body out of transmetal. Rather slow I guess, or maybe they're just meticulous.
Prima is confused, and looks like he's going to go and try to help. "Prima, they're just taking their time. They don't seem to be in any distress, so don't worry so much, alright?"
Prima shuffles lightly, looking down at the ground. "But what's taking so long? I want to see them now." He's back to acting like a brat again, joy.
I sigh, before moving over to a rock outcropping. Prima sits down next to it, and we simply watch as the sparkling forms its body.
Their primary colours are grey, pinkish purple, and blue. Maybe Vector will be different at this moment, and not connected to his other selves.
[End.]