For the longest time, they slumbered. Far beneath the surface of the Earth. Slowly they awoke, some listened, some watched. Most caused chaos. Who were they exactly? Well... to tell you about them, I'll need to start where I came in. My name is Sam Witwicky, and this is the story of how I met the Autobots.
The day was the same as any other really. Well for me, that is. I wasn't the most popular person in the tenth grade, it wasn't anything so cliche as I was a bully victim or because of how I was gangly and awkward.
Well, maybe the awkwardness had something to do with it. I was very anti-social. Only really having one friend, and that was my cousin. I just didn't really mesh with most of the other people in the school. Too quiet, not exactly interested in a lot of the stuff other people were into. We lived in a small town, so everyone basically knew everybody else. I was just different, and other people tend to avoid things that are different. Part of the reason I was different than others around my age was the camera, I carried around. It was always recording, always on. I saved enough money and bought it from a pawn shop when I was thirteen. It was always out.
Of course, being unpopular in our school didn't mean I was hated. Just generally avoided.
My cousin, William Witwicky, he was popular. Tall, conventionally attractive, the usual stuff. He always tried his hardest to get me invited to the parties. Tonight, seemed to be the night though. So... I guess the day was different than usual, huh? Especially since I was cautiously walking towards a massive building in the middle of nowhere. An abandoned office building was what William had said.
"I know this is a first for you, but just relax and enjoy yourself. If it ever gets to be too much, you can just step out for a little while. Kicker usually throws the best parties." William grinned, "Trust me, this'll be a night you remember forever."
"I can already tell." I muttered.
"Oh, don't be so upset Sammy, I got you outta your room man. Live a little!" William said with a roll of his eyes.
I adjusted my camera and shrugged. Just as we were getting closer to the door, it slammed open, and someone got thrown out. Shortly after that a tall dark-skinned teen walked out. He didn't look very happy.
"Flannery, I told you if you laid another hand on her I'd have you on your ass faster than you could blink. Please say something stupid, give me a reason."
The newly named Flannery pulled himself to his feet and glared, "Go fu-"
He barely finished the sentence before he was back in the dirt. This time he did not get back up. The winner of the altercation looked at our group and smirked.
"Sorry, he was getting handsy. Good to see you, Will." William nodded, he seemed to know exactly what was going on, "And this must be the little Witwicky?"
I nodded. I didn't really know how else to react around him. This was already a lot more intense than I expected.
"Nice to officially meet you, I'm Kicker." He held his hand out to shake mine.
My mouth moved before I could stop myself, "You seemed to do more punching than kicking from where I was standing."
William looked at me with horror on his face as I said probably the dumbest joke I have ever made. The most interesting reaction was Kicker, he blinked in confusion for a second and then burst out laughing.
"Damn, Will. You didn't tell me he was funny." He chuckled and turned back towards the building, "C'mon in. Enjoy yourselves and be respectful or I'll have you removed like I did with Flannery."
I chuckled slightly. But I'll admit, if his intent was to intimidate me, he did a pretty good job. Most of the party was uneventful, at some point William and I got separated and I spent most of the rest of it skirting around the edges. Not really interacting with anyone beyond an awkward hello. One event did stick out to me beyond everything else, I knew people were gonna be uncomfortable with the camera around, and uncomfortable drunk people made dumb decisions.
And sure enough, I just happened to have the camera turned towards a dancing couple for a second too long. The man in relationship, exactly the kind of person you would expect to find at a party like this. A fedora and a popped collar. I bet if he had taken his hat off, he would've had frosted tips too. Genuinely surprised how a dude like this wasn't laughed out of the room as soon as he showed up.
"Are you filming my girlfriend?" He demanded.
"Uh... no, no. I'm just filming the party."
A lot of people around us stopped dancing and backed off. Seemingly trying to distance themselves from the action. Couldn't blame them. I didn't want to be involved with this either. He glared at me and got up in my face, and splashed his drink on me. Some of it got on my camera lens too.
"Bitch."
"Hey, watch it! This was expensive!" I said.
I probably shouldn't have said anything because he was walking away. But when he heard me retaliate, he stopped and quickly reengaged.
"What was that?" He growled, "Wanna say that again, you little shit."
I went silent.
"That's what I fucking thought, fuck off." He then shoved me backwards and left.
The room was closing in. Great. I was having a panic attack. Great. Awesome.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
It wasn't working! I needed to get the fuck out of here. I quickly maneuvered my way through the crowd. All the while focusing on my breathing. I couldn't be in the building anymore. Too many people, too much adrenaline, too much everything. With a glance around the office building, most people were ignoring me, so I slipped outside. I sat on the ground outside of the building, leaning against the wall. That's when the tears came. I started crying and wiped the cheap beer from my camera. I sat there alone for a while. Sniffling. Wiping tears from my face. Eventually I came down, but I still couldn't go inside. Maybe if I just walked home? It would take a couple hours, and it was like one in the morning, but I'd probably be fine.
With my mind made up, I stood up and began walking towards the road. Maybe in another timeline I made it further than ten feet, but not this one. A voice called out to me.
"Yo, Witwicky! Where you goin'?"
I stopped and turned and saw someone waving me over. With a grunt, I shouldered my camera strap and made my way over towards the person. It was Kicker. He was obviously drunk, but I was the weird one for being sober at a party. So, I didn't make any comments.
"What's up?" I asked, my voice still hoarse and slightly nasally after crying.
"You good?" He was genuinely concerned.
"Yeah, yeah. Golden thanks." I couldn't help the sarcasm.
He nodded hesitantly, "Me and a bunch of guys found something cool out back. And Will and I thought of you, thought you could come get some footage of it."
"I uh... I don't know if that's a good-"
"Nah, c'mon. It'll be cool."
"Kicker I just-"
"Please? C'mon, trust me it'll be dope."
I sighed and gestured for him to lead the way. He laughed and started taking off towards the back of the building, through the woods. And just kept walking.
"What were you guys doing out here?" I muttered, fighting through the foliage.
"C'mon we're close." He didn't answer my question.
We walked for a few more minutes. I certainly was mentally complaining. But not verbally, it felt... nice to be involved in something even though my involvement was purely practical. They needed the camera, so therefore they needed me. We eventually came to a massive hill. Down the hill was two other figures, Kicker just confidently slid down the hill and I slowly and awkwardly walked down behind him. The two other people were William and a girl I had briefly seen in school, Mikaela Banes. Usually, she preferred to be called Kay. She was pretty, olive skinned and with long dark hair. Short too, probably about five foot three.
I stood there awkwardly as the three of them gathered around this hole in the ground. This was the cool thing? A hole? I could've dug one of those myself. I rolled my eyes and turned to start walking back to the building, when there was a loud staticky sound. Followed by a voice, speaking words in a language I had never heard before. Distinctly alien. I glanced at the other three, and they were also apparently shocked by the voice. They had been talking quietly while I had been contemplating leaving. Kicker grinned and jumped into the hole.
"Kicker!" William yelled, "Shit... Sam gimme some light, we gotta go in there after him."
I nodded and tried to get the light angled into the hole, as him and surprisingly Kay tried to follow Kicker down. I would wait, for them. No use going down there and all of us dying, if I lived at least one of us would be able to report it. Then William slipped, and tumbled down, knicking into Kay which caused her to also tumble with a shriek.
"Guys?" I tried, nothing. "Shit..."
I know I was just preaching survivability, but I couldn't walk away here. I followed after them. Careful of the camera. The further down I got the more I could hear Kay whisper-yelling at William.
"-absolute prick! What if I had gotten hurt?"
Kicker was smirking, "You didn't, though."
She glared at him, "Don't you start."
He held his hands up placatingly. I walked closer to them.
"Shouldn't we leave? Someone is obviously down here." I pleaded.
"Or something." Kicker grinned.
"Some things are better off not knowing, dude." I tried again.
"C'mon Sam," William placed a hand on my shoulder, "live a little."
"I'm trying to live more than a little."
William opened his mouth to retaliate, but the static sound happened again. The voice followed again, this time I could make out what it was saying.
"Is anyone out there? Repeat, this is Ultra Magnus of the 917th Legion's Tau Squad. I have sensitive information on a Decepticon threat and possible Energon supplies in Sector 2814. Optimus Prime and the rest of the unit are in cryostasis. Repeat, sensitive information, reinforcements are requested."
That was... a lot of proper nouns. I didn't even realize I had edged closer to the end of the tunnel than the rest of the group until I was peeking down into the small cave system with my camera. Inside was a massive twenty-foot-tall blue robot. He had a massive hammer on his back and was hastily typing into some small device. I say small because compared to him it was, but it was probably human sized. It was probably the radio he was talking into. Around him was a massive, crashed ship, and sitting there outside of it was eight massive capsules, one was broken open like an egg.
"What the fuck." William said.
"What do you mean what the fuck?" Kicker said as he peeked around us and went still.
And then Kay screamed.
That's when shit went down. Ultra Magnus turned one of his arms into a massive tube with energy collecting at the tip and glanced in our direction. His blue eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Identify yourselves."
A/N: So this is the first chapter of Transformers: Energon. I have recently found myself enraptured with the Transformers franchise as a whole, so I wanted to have my take on it added to the foray. It might be a little rough, but I wanted to at least try. If anyone wants me to continue this please let me know. As always I will answer any questions in next chapters Author's Note. As long as it isn't a spoiler ;). Anyway, I don't really have anything to add. Next chapter, if you guys want me to continue will introduce the rest of the Autobots. As for the Decepticons, you'll have to wait a bit to get the official lineup of them, but you may or may not see them. So long and goodnight!