Chapter 5 – reality TV

PPR-KUT
By Linkin Park/Cheapshot & Jubacca ft. Rasco & Planet Asia

Now it feels like my back's against a wall,
I'm taking the fall,
Whenever I call,
Nobody's responding at all.
But I don't know who to trust,
They screaming my name.

Armageddon's POV

"We were all over at Skullzy's place the other Saturday," I began, gesturing to Skullzy, "we were finishing off a late ASSessment task and we had just finished. Her little brother, Alex, had left the TV on TF: A and had left the scene. I, being the TF lover/guru I am, watched it for a few minutes…"

Flashback

I stood in front of the TV, watching TF: A. The episode was "Megatron rising: Part 2' and everything was going downhill for the Autobots. I had this thing, I hated clichés and loved it when something new happened, like the bad guys finally winning.

I pointed and laughed at the 'Bots' misfortune, clapping my hands in joy as the 'Bots got their afts kicked.

Massacre came up to me and asked what was going on.

"The 'Bots are gonna die!" I laughed, "Go Team Conny!" by witch I meant the Decepticons.

The others heard my cheering and laughing and came in to investigate. When they saw me and the TV, they knew what was happening straight away.

"Oh," Massacre rolled her eyes. She hated TF, "you are so hopeless, Armageddon."

I grinned and nodded enthusiastically. I saw Megatron be blown up by the Allspark and my shoulders dropped. The explosion was pretty, like they usually are when something blows up, but I don't like it when the bad guys die; they die and lose too often.

Blue light filled the room and we backed slowly away from the TV, where the light was originating. It grew so bright that we had to shield our eyes with our arms.

When the light faded, everything was as it was… except that the TV was now off and every TF: A character from the whole series was standing in the room, the TFs themselves all exactly thirty centimetres tall and the humans normal sized.

There was Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, Ratchet, Jazz, Sentinel, Ultra Magnus, Megatron, Blitzwing, Starscream, Lugnut, Lockdown, Shockwave, Soundwave, Sari, Captain Fanzone, Professor Sumdac.

"Holy ca-shizzle," we all muttered in sync.

"Now how did this happen?" I wondered out loud, like it was the most normal thing in the world, trying to hide my excitement.

"Where are we?" Bumblebee asked the others, looking around his suddenly huge surroundings.

"Armageddon, you're in heaven, aren't you?" Fyromaniac elbowed me.

"Oh yeah," I grinned. I figured I should tell them where and when they were. I clapped my hands for their attention, "Ok everyone, I don't know what happened just now, so don't even ask. I'm Armageddon, this is Grim Reaper, Massacre, Fyromaniac and Jumpy," I waved to the respective teens, "Welcome to Canberra, Australia, the year 2008."

"Holy slag," Bulkdead swore after a long moment of silence. Wow, this must be serious if Bulkhead swore.

An evil grin spread across my face, "Naughty naughty, Bulkhead, you mustn't swear." I turned to the others, "Let's wash his mouth out with soap!" I snatched up the toy-sized Autobot and my friends followed as I carried him to the bathroom and locked the door behind us.

Sari was banging on the door, yelling at us not to, but I just ignored her.

Bulkhead was struggling in my arms, but I held firmly onto him, almost crushing him into my chest, as the others filled up the sink with water and get the soap all bubbly. I got the honours and shoved Bulkhead under the water and jammed the soap into his tiny mouth, enjoying watching him struggle and try to fight back. His screams were muffled, but I could still hear them, and they were music to my ears.

I am so evil. Go me.

I took the soap out and poked my finger in his mouth to get the bits which had broken off out. He choked and bit me, but I didn't really register it, even though anyone else would've cried out or something. Little bugger was good at biting, but he sucked at inflicting pain.

I lifted him out of the water and took my finger out, which followed in a long string of curses and insults. I just repeated the process of washing his mouth out, but had to do it again and again since he just wouldn't stop swearing. Of course, I let the others have a go and they had lots of fun too.

The banging and shouting on the other side of the door eventually ceased. After a time, the dunking and stuff got old, so we just shoved a partly squishy chunk of soap in Bulkhead's mouth so he couldn't get it out. Well, it would take a while anyway.

I unlocked the door and opened it, going first as I guessed the 'Bots would attack. As I expected, a stapler made a bruise on my right shin, I got electrocuted, a tint axe lodged itself into my left thigh and a few shuiken cut both my wrists.

I love blood. I'm not a vampire, I just love that sweet, sweet coppery taste. I am a bloodaholic, someone who either has an addiction to or just enjoys blood, like a druggie or alcoholic. So as soon as blood began to ooze from the wounds, I unconsciously dropped Bulkhead and licked hungrily at the crimson liquid.

I didn't register the WTF looks all the TF: A people gave me, but my friends didn't care. They knew of my love of blood and they actually liked it too.

When the slices were clean, I stared in disbelief at what lay beneath the skin.

It was circuitry. There was dark blue circuitry beneath my skin. I muttered out loud, "I didn't know I was a cyborg."

"What?!" my friends exclaimed in unison and grabbed my arms for a better look. The weird thing was that it should hurt someone with cut-up arms to have them grabbed roughly, but it didn't hurt me at all. Nothing hurt me at all, not even that attack, but I did feel it.

Pause

"Hold on a moment," Rachael interrupted, "You're a cyborg?" she looked at me.

I nodded, "Yeah." I showed her the scabs on my arms and a small patch of exposed circuitry on the back of my neck which was rarely ever seen. It had only happened a few weeks ago, so it wasn't healed yet.

"Moving on…" Grim continued.

Play

The TF: As began slowly backing away, but I looked up and saw them.

"Is there something wrong with me being a cyborg?" I asked.

They shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

Massacre changed the subject, "What are we going to do with them? We can't have tiny alien robots running around and people from the future spilling the secret."

"Maybe we could take a few of them and look after them at home," Fyromaniac suggested, "but I'm not sure what we're going to do with the people."

We nodded in agreement.

"Armageddon, you pick who you want first," Jumpy offered.

I thought for a moment. I wanted all of them, I loved all of them, but I guess that would be too much and the 'Bots wouldn't really like me after what I did to Bulkhead, "I don't think the 'Bots really like me now, so I think I'll take Starscream, Megatron, and Blitzwing."

Fluffy spoke, "I reckon I'll take the Elite Guard, so that's Jazz, Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime."

Fyromaniac announced, "I think I'll have… Optimus Prime, Bulkhead and Prowl."

Skullzy offered, "I guess I'll look after Bumblebee, Soundwave, and Shockwave."

Massacre said, "I don't want any robots, so I'll just help out the humans to find their place or something."

Jumpy shrugged, "Then I'll look after the rest: Ratchet, Lugnut, and Lockdown."

"Hey!" Sari snapped, "You can't just take my friends… and enemies, like that!"

"It's just temporary," Fyromaniac assured her, "it's just until we can find a way for you guys to go back to your own time."

Sari glared at us, but saw the sense in it and shut up.

There was a minute of silence. No-one knew what to do next. Then I asked, "How are we going to get them to our places?"

Jumpy responded slowly, "Well… I have to practice my driving…"

"Aren't you supposed to only drive with an adult?" Skullzy reminded.

"Yeah," I put in, "but we got like, seventeen adults, fifteen of which are thousands of years old."

oOo

Jumpy's car was a van, which was very lucky for us. We all crammed in and Jumpy started the van.

"Shouldn't I drive?" Captain Fanzone questioned, slightly nervous.

"No," I snorted, "Jumpy needs her practice and you just came from fifty years in the future, remember? The roads have changed in that amount of time."

Jumpy backed out of the driveway and drove a little too fast and jerkily down the road, headed to my house first which was closest. It was a fun ride, everyone jerking forward violently at every red light as Jumpy slammed the breaks on too hard, getting crushed up against the doors as she turned the corners too quickly and being thrown back as she accelerated at green lights suddenly. Thank God for seatbelts.

She pulled up in front of my house, much to everyone's relief and my disappointment that I had to get out so soon. I gingerly lifted the bag in which I had put my 'Con charges and slung it over my back. I waved goodbye and headed inside, unlocking the door with the house key I had in my pocket.

No-one was home, which was nice. I told Mum that I got home on my own as we finished early, so she didn't worry.

I locked myself in my room and opened the bag and sat down. The 'Cons felt quite at home straight away with all the black and emo stuff.

"This place is nice enough," Starscream commented, but I could tell from his optics that he liked it more than he said, "It'll do for now."

"Zis place needs more Decepticon symbols," Blitswing's cold face suggested, "Zen it'll be more appropriate for us to stay in."

I crossed my arms, but a small smile still tugged at the corner of my lips, "Hey, I like my room. I'm not changing any of it for the sake of you guys. This isn't your base you know."

"No, if we're staying here and the War is still going on, then it is technically our base." Megatron contradicted.

I chuckled at that, "I don't think you guys will be able to fight very much until you get back, freedom fighter."

Everyone seemed to react to that one, like they weren't expecting it.

Just to get a better reaction, I cheered, "Yeah! Go Megatron and the Decepticons!" I began clapping my hands, "Congratulations to you brave mechs for fighting for freedom and justice and all the rest of it. On a completely different note, I'm a TF guru, but I want to learn as much as I can about you all, so start talking."

There was a pause until I suggested, "You know, like where you came and stuff like that."

That got them started. They talked and I listened for hours on end, until night came and I got too tired to stay awake anymore.

I yawned and climbed into bed. I looked down at the 'Cons and said, "Hey, where are you guys gonna recharge tonight?"

They shrugged helplessly.

I gazed at my bed. It was slightly larger than normal, even though I was tall for my age. Seriously, half the time when I met someone new, they thought I was eighteen. An idea came to me, an awkward one considering that they were all male. I began with embarrassment, "Well… you could come to bed with me… it's big enough for all of you. We can sort out where you recharge tomorrow night." Damnit, that sounded so bad.

They looked at each other and muttered stuff I couldn't hear. Then one at a time, they each climbed on and found a spot to rest. I lay on my side and curled up slightly. Unlike the others, Starscream must've been feeling a bit braver than usual or something, as he was hesitantly making his way over to my pillow.

I understood what he wanted and gently pushed him closer to me. The only reason I wasn't burned was because I was wearing gloves and a light long-sleeved top. I had taken safety measures seeing as I was looking after a pink guy. He seemed relieved that he didn't have to say anything and embarrass himself or that I rejected him.

"Just so you know, this means nothing," he grumbled.

"Of course not," I smirked.

"Hey, you're warm," he realised out loud and snuggled closer to my chest, luckily not touching my skin. He looked up at me and repeated, "Like I said, this means nothing."

I gently wrapped my arms around his small form almost protectively and mocked, "Just so you know, this means nothing."

He muttered something but didn't pull away, apparently enjoying the extra warmth.

I closed my eyes and tried to drift off to sleep, which sadly always took at least a few hours, but opened them again when I felt something against me.

Turned out that the rest of the 'Cons were brave too. Blitzwing was resting on my thigh, his limbs going every which way and Megatron was leaning against my gut, curled in a ball himself.

I smiled to myself. They looked so cute when they recharged. I closed my eyes again and sleep came much faster that night. I had a nightmare of a memory.

I was playing marco polo with some friends. I was in, so I was blind folded and trying to find them by voice alone. It was year 2.

I heard giggling and approaching footsteps. A cold shiver ran down my spine. I turned to the source of the sounds.

Liquid nitrogen, acid, lava, whatever, something like that spilled over me. At least half of me. My ear-splitting scream echoed around the playground. I fell to the ground, writhing is agony. The breeze was soft, but the air brushing my exposed flesh caused pain beyond anything I had ever known.

I couldn't take it.

oOo

It was black. No temperature, no texture, nothing. The only think for certain was that it was black. I knew this place, it was quite familiar.

'Huh? Where am I?' a guy's voice, an adult, deep baritone.

What? Who are you?

'Uhh... I'll tell you if you tell me.'

Acheron.

'How about Ash?'

Ok then, now who are you?

'You can call me Chatterbox.'

So you talk a lot?

'Yeah. You?'

Not to myself. Seriously, what are you doing here?

'No idea. Where's 'here' anyway?'

A coma.

'Why?'

Some jerk just dumped pink something, maybe paint, all over me.

'... Huh?'

Pinkitus. Ever heard of it?

'Yeah, extremely rare skin condition, right?'

Bingo. Finally, someone who knows what it is.

'Isn't there only one person in the world who has it?'

Yours truly.

'Ouch.'

Yeah, pretty much.

'... this place is boring, this... coma. Isn't this stasis lock?'

What's stasis lock?

'When you black out for a long time.'

Exactly the same as a coma.

I somehow felt the voice— Chatterbox search for something, look me over like a doctor looking at a patient for diseases.

Then he showed me a memory that couldn't possibly be my own.

There were two beings, robots far beyond Earth's capabilities. One was slim and black, a female, the other was tall and white, a male. The white one was tearing the black one's chest apart, splitting it down the middle and sliding the two parts aside. The black one's screams sounded completely unearthly.

Inside was a pristine black orb, glowing strongly with shear blackness, pulsing like a heart. The white one smiled, saying, "Ah, your spark will be perfect. It's large with enough love for many, it's tender and will break easily, and it's strong at the same time, able to withstand much physical damage, but not emotional damage."

The white reached forward, piercing the black orb with its clawed fingers. The pain was so great in the black that it was almost visible. Its screams could've shattered the moon, if it were glass. The orb twisted and writhed, almost as if it were silently screaming as well, and after a few impossibly long moments, the orb stopped moving. It faded to ash grey and remained utterly silent and still as a statue. The screams fell silent and the black one fell still.

It was dead.

oOo

When I woke up, I had nightmares about it for weeks after. Chatterbox had blackmailed me to never tell anyone about it or else something like that would happen to me. I had waking and sleeping nightmares all the time for months after. Chatterbox got worse and worse, but I forced myself to live with it.

I had that nightmare often.