Author's Note: I am not the most informed person about the Transformers universe, but this idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while now, so I had to get it out. I don't know how much of this I'll do, but here we go! I hope that you enjoy!
He woke up disoriented and feeling like his skin was on fire. There is a din all around him, but his ears are ringing too loud for him to be able to put together what it is that's beyond it. He opens bleary eyes, looking around confused. He's in a room. A dorm room? Like a college dorm room? There is two beds and posters on the walls, but there were also boxes littered about, as if someone was in the middle of packing or unpacking. But the boy's befuddled mind can't seem to make sense of what was going on around him. People are walking around talking outside of the room that he's in.
At first it was decently loud, but even the thin walls were enough to bring down the decibels to a manageable level, but the boy startles when the door opens and a girl peaks her head in, giving him a look. The loud din from the hall beyond makes the teen boy's head hurt, and he flinches hard enough to jar something in his shoulder.
"Power out in here too?" She asks, staring at him blankly.
The teen rubs at his forehead, squinting around the room. Nothing electrical appears to be on, so it appeared as though her question has merit. No electricity here. He carefully pushes himself up from where he was sprawled out on the ground between one of the beds and a few boxes. The sky outside the nearby window is fading from a starburst of orange, reds and yellows.
"Yo? Freshie?" She says, pulling his eyes back over to her.
"Wha..?" He rasps, his tongue feeling too big for his mouth. He tries to form a thought, but his head is throbbing. He pushes himself up a bit more, leaning heavily on one shoulder, but his hands are tingling. He feels so... foggy. His skin burns and his mind feels so... dull. As if it was full of cotton.
"You good?" She asks, quirking an eyebrow.
The boy nods, dumbly, not sure he fully understands the question. But she doesn't ask further and just leaves, only mostly closing the door behind him. It's still open enough for the chatter in the hall to be unbearably loud in his pounding head.
He brings numb hands up to his head, rubbing roughly at his temples, trying desperately to clear away the throbbing and the cloud. It's not right. Something is wrong, he recognizes that, but he can't... he can't seem to...
It hurts. It all hurts. His body. His mind.
But he can't stay. He knows that he can't. He has to go. He's not safe here. Not where they could get him. But he doesn't... he doesn't remember where here is. He doesn't remember how he got to here. Or who the "they" are that he's trying to keep away from. Or why he has to get away from them. He just knows that he has to get away before someone or something that wants to hurt him come to find him. Wrong. It's all wrong, everything.
He needs to get... get away to... he needs to get to... he doesn't know. He doesn't know where he needs to get to, just that he needs to get away. But why exactly is he not safe here? That too, he doesn't know. It's all so fuzzy. His mind is cloudy. He needs to... he needs to...
Climbing to his feet is almost impossible. His world tilts, he falls onto the bed and bounces off onto the floor. But he barely feels it. His skin feels numb, disconnected from him aside from the tingling. Like lightning arcing up and down all the cells in his body. It's a horrible feeling.
He needs to... he needs to...
Somehow, he manages to climb onto his feet. Numbly, he moves out into the hall, flinging the door open in his path but doesn't stop, even as the sound of it slamming into the wall behind him is drowned out by all the bodies in the halls, talking so loudly it splits his head. It's hard to push through the crowd, his skin buzzing, his head pounding, and he can barely swallow around his tongue.
Wrong. It's all wrong. He needs to... he needs to...
He pushes onward despite this strange feeling washing over him. It feels like sickness. Like a weakness or fatigue. Something seems to be draining his energy. Like holes stabbed into his aching feet that all his energy just pours out of.
But he pushes on, despite the pain in his body and mind. He follows the silent instruction in his mind. He has to escape. He needs to get away. To get out of here. It's not safe for him.
He needs to... he needs to...
Damn it! If only he could just think! If only he could just... put together what it is exactly that he needed to do.
All he knows is that he needed to get out of there.
And so, he will.
It took longer than the boy could articulate to get out of the place that he was. He nearly fell down the stairs at every flight and had to stop once he made it outside. The fresh air, cooling as the sky darkens more and more, hurts his skin more, but he has to keep moving. He can't stop. Not now.
So, he moves.
As the sky continues to darken more, the boy makes his way further and further from the noise. Nothing seems to be powering on around him. People gather in the streets. They are confused. Angry. Annoyed. But he can't stay. He can't listen to them complain. He needs to get away from the place that's not safe. He needs to get to...
Damn it! Why does it hurt? His brain. His body. Why can't he remember..?
Anything. He doesn't remember anything.
It's fine, he knows. He just has to get to -
He falls, barely catching himself on a lamp post, his head throbbing harder as a thin tendril of blue light arcs off of his fingers and up the lamp post, making it flicker to life, then blow out above him. He curls around himself, gasping as fatigue washes over him and blown glass from the light rains down on him. He takes a second to collect himself before shaking a bit to get the glass off of him. Even plucking at the back of his shirt a bit before he pushes away from the light post and keeps walking. Stumbling. Pushing onward at an unsteady pace.
The noise gets quieter and quieter the further he goes. And it must have been a while because his legs ache something horrible and it's pitch black out when he finally looks up from his feet. To the empty streets around him. The darkened-out industrial complex around him. When did he get here? How long has he been here?
He doesn't know. His head hurts. His body hurts. He needs to... he needs to...
He stumbles, moving into a nearby alley, feeling so bad. Something is very wrong with him. He knows it. But he just needs to... just for a moment...
He finds a place in the alley that isn't covered in trash or other questionable things, and lowers onto the ground, knowing that he should keep moving until he's...
But he can't. He's too tired. He feels too... bad. Too something that he can't put into words. Maybe a little bit of rest will help him. Then, once he's rested, he's sure that everything is going to be back to normal. Whatever... that is.
He lowers down to his side and tucks one arm under his head to keep it off the ground before curling up as small as he can make himself. That horrible feeling washes over him, and he knows he's not well. Something is wrong. He just doesn't know what. He can't think. He can't focus. His mind is in a haze. A fog that clogs his ears.
The concrete is blissfully warm from having absorbed so much heat during the day, even as the night cools down just enough to not be unbearably sticky out. Or maybe it's just him. Maybe he's overheating and he hasn't realized it. Either way, he just needs to rest, he thinks, and then everything will be better. Even if only marginally so. A little bit is better than nothing.
But it wasn't. He felt no better when he opened his eyes. It was still dark - maybe even darker than before - but the distant sounds of the city were still present. They were still grating enough on his nerves, on his throbbing head, that he could hardly sit up without gritting his teeth. It hurt, it all did. He can't explain it. Maybe he only closed his eyes and open them again. It sure doesn't feel like he rested at all.
Before he can contemplate lowering his head down to rest again, hoping that his second attempt is better than his first, he feels it. Fast approaching. Encircling him. Closing in on him. Not something that he can see. But a feeling. An impending encounter, but his mind is too befuddled. He can't make sense of this feeling. The rise in his heartrate. The way his hands get clammy. His eyes now wide open and his brain alert - at least, enough that the option of trying to sleep has illuded him.
He can only interpret this growing anticipation as panic, remembering that he had to get away before it was too late. And he could curse himself for not getting far enough before allowing the weakness of his body to force him into a rest that didn't even assist him in the end. He has to move now. Now, before it is too late.
Scrambling to his feet, the disoriented teen stumbles into a nearby dumpster but only manages to save his face by slamming his elbows and forearms into it instead. The loud clank makes his ears ring and his head hurt more.
The incoming feeling, the... them... comes in clearer. They are closing in fast.
His brain registers the roar of a beast. Jump kicking his heartrate even more. He can't stay. It's not safe! He has to run! He needs to get to... he needs to get to...
It doesn't matter. All he knows for now is that he has to get away. That has to be enough. At least, for now.
He runs out into the darkened street, with only the starlight and the full moon in the sky providing any assistance in seeing anything around him. His head is pounding but he has to ignore it in favor of escape. He can worry about other things later.
He needs to get to... to...
Run. He sprints as fast as his weak legs can move, as far as they can carry him. His world tilts drastically back and forth but he doesn't stop. He can't. Close. They're close. Too close.
The roar.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer.
He stops, legs shaking. And he turns as his vision whites out for a moment before the light dims a bit. He blinks the stars from his vision, squinting as the light dims enough to reveal... a car? Sleek, dark gray in the lack of light. And something decidedly... other about it. He's not sure what. But something about that car isn't... it isn't...
He blinks, moving slowly closer. Despite that feeling of other coming from the car, he felt... something. Anticipation? Worry? Relief? He's not sure. He doesn't know.
The car idles and the teen stops, frowning more. That creeping sense of unease making his head swim as the front driver's side window rolls down and a strange voice comes through the... empty cab. "Sam, thank Primus! We were so worried about you!"
The teen steps around the car a bit more, making sure to keep a wide berth to peek into the cab, unable to believe that there was actually a disembodied voice coming from the car itself. Is he going crazy?
The teen peers inside the open window to the dark cab, squinting into the darkness. He's hoping against hope that he was wrong. That he was just imagining things. But no. His first instinct was correct. The cab was empty. There was no one in there. No one that should be speaking to him, at least.
"Sam..?" The decidedly male voice says, hesitantly. "Are you okay? Oh! I mean, I'm an Autobot, Sam. I should have mentioned that. I know... I mean, well, I know you, but you don't... Sam?"
The teen backs away slowly, eyes flickering about, searching for a quick getaway. He can't run down the street, that's stupid. The car would obviously move faster than he could run, it would catch him. Catch him? Dear God, how horrible a thought is that? A car, catching him?
"Sam..." the disembodied voice says, softly. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm with Bumblebee. And Optimus Prime. I'm Sideswipe. An Autobot."
He doesn't know. He doesn't understand. He has to get out of here. Away from the otherness that is the being before him. Being. How... insane. A car, not a car, but something else. He doesn't understand. He can't... his head hurts. He has to get away. They are still closing it, faster and faster. He can't stay. It's not safe.
"Sam!" The car calls out to him, but the teen races to the alley that he had slept in, utilizing its smaller space to avoid the car being able to follow. "Sam, wait!"
He hears the roar behind him and the sound of wheels screeching against the asphalt from where he was just moments before. He skins his hands running them along the brick wall while he's trying to remain upright while running. He hardly feels it with the throbbing in his head and the radiating pain in his body. He has to go... he has to... he has to...
He comes out the other side of the alley, looking down the way that he thinks the sleek gray car will be coming from, but doesn't wait around for it to come zipping around one of the streets. He races across the street, ignoring the crosswalk about fifteen feet to his left. He goes at an angle in the opposite direction to make it to another back alley, and as he goes, there is an itch in the back of his head. A feeling, like a whisper in a voice that doesn't sound like his own.
"I couldn't convince him I was an Autobot..."
The teen stops, feeling like he's going to pass out. He stumbles but somehow keeps on his feet and rushes as fast as his sluggish legs can carry him. He's basically heading back the way he came - he thinks - but it's getting harder for him to think. Harder than it already was. His mind just can't seem to grasp...
He rounds a corner, hearing the roar behind him before he recognizes the sound of the idle in front of him. He slams hard into the grill of the truck in front of him, bouncing off of it hard enough to fall onto the ground on his stomach, having flailed in his attempt to correct his fall. Pain radiates across the front of his body, further aggravating the pain his body already is in.
Blood fills his mouth as a blue arcing light spreads out on the concrete around them, dancing up the space around them. Across the vehicle, making it shutter, and up the buildings around him. He blacks out for a moment, that horrible sensation washing over him again. He opens his eyes to the sound of something whirling as it pulls from his pocket.
He pushes up onto his hands and knees, looking down at his phone as it falls from his pocket down to the concrete, shifting and twirling. The teen scrambles away from both the truck and the twitching device as it morphs from a phone into... something decidedly other. Some kind of being. Something person shaped.
Terror washes over the teen as something nagging pokes at the back of his head. The phone chitters something unnatural, before turning burning crimson eyes towards the teen. It hisses and spits, charging for him before the truck whirls unnaturally and a massive arm unwinds from the chassis of the truck, slamming into the concrete over the phone, crushing it effortlessly.
A deep, grumbling voice comes from within the shifting truck, "You alright, Sam?"
The teen stares up at the growing figure. The truck turning into... a person. A large... robot... person.
The teen shakes at the sight of the scary thing. Something so wholly unnatural about it. He's never seen anything like that before. Well, except for with his phone just a few seconds prior. He can't... his brain... he can't comprehend what he's seeing. This isn't normal. He's never seen anything like this before.
Right?
His instinct was to run. From them? So, then he must have known about them. He must have seen them before. Must have known that they were out there. How else would he have known that he was supposed to get out of there. He knew, then. He knew that these people were out here. He knew this, so he ran. Even as his mind was unable to remember it. Subconsciously.
Away. He has to get away.
Blood is spat from between his lips as he stumbles to his feet, shaken. He feels like he's going to vomit, that horrible feeling washing over him again and again, but he manages to keep it down. The teen wraps his arms around himself as he watches the last joints and panels seal into place on the robot and the being stares down at him, tilting his head.
Scary. It's scary. He has to get away. He's not safe. He's not safe. He's not safe!
"You're injured," the robot says. "Come on. Let's get you to Ratchet."
He's scared. He doesn't understand how he got into this situation. He doesn't know what's going on. He just... he can't do this alone. He needs someone to help him. He needs to get away. To get to somewhere that will allow him just... just a moment to think. A moment to stop being in pain, so he can figure out what's going on. What happened to him. He just... he can't do this. He needs... he needs...
There is a rumble. Hard enough to shake the ground under his feet. It feels like an earthquake. The teen stumbles back, putting more distance between himself and the large robot, who turns, looking at the building next to him, grunting in surprise.
Something bursts through the building, sending bricks and metal and concrete flying in all directions. For a moment, the teen thought a bomb went off, his ears ringing like it did, when something roars unnaturally, throwing itself at the being before him. It's an incomprehensible amalgamation of limbs all twisting and spinning around itself as it grabs onto the smaller being by comparison and just hefts him up off his feet and hurls him into the building across the street, knocking down the wall there.
The teen barely manages to press flush against the building to avoid the worse of the flying debris. He cries out when something slices through his leg but it's more surprise than anything. He can barely feel anything through the surprise, the pain, the cloudiness.
The amalgamation roars, charging for the being, all its flailing limbs like something out of a nightmare. It came from within the building that the teen had been running along through the alley. All that is inside of it now is torn support beams and a huge hole in the concrete that it seemingly ripped itself from.
"Now where in Unicron's wet dream did you come from, Ugly?" The being snarled, one of his hands morphing into a... cannon?
The boy's ears ring as it opens fire on the amalgamation. It screams in pain and something... hurts. A pain in the teen's chest that makes him cry out. The amalgamation roars in rage, grabbing onto the being, lifting him effortlessly despite his flailing and the wild shots, one of which takes off one of his many arms, and hefts him nearly two streets over.
The amalgamation turns to him. It towers above the buildings, its arms rotating around it's body like it's on a wheel. Nearly hidden in the mess of moving limbs, two blazing red eyes peer down at him as it moves closer. A wave of sound emanates from it. Like clicking and beeping, flat tones and a hiss. Steam fires out from between the creases in its plates as it moves closer, slower, as if cautiously.
One of its many arms twitches roughly, as if something is wrong with it, before it reaches for him. Too fast, too scary. It'll crush him in its grip.
The teen pulls tight to the building, squeezing his eyes shut in terror as a voice rings out, accompanied by thunderous steps, low and enraged, "Hang on, Sam!"
A roar, down the street. A car comes speeding down it, too fast to avoid hitting the amalgamation. Bright yellow with two black stripes running down it. It doesn't slow down as it approaches the amalgamation. In fact, it speeds up until it's almost right beneath it, before snapping into a transformation, just like the truck had done. Going from being a car, to a yellow being, small enough to climb around through the many arms of the amalgamation, shooting into the mess of limbs with its own arm cannon.
The amalgamation screams in pain and the teen cries out, tears welling up in his eyes. Hurt. They are hurting it.
Then, rounding one of the streets, comes another being, larger than both the black truck and the yellow car, but not quite as large as the amalgamation. He jerks his shoulder in a purposeful motion, a long blade appearing, running along the length of his forearm, glowing a bright, flaming orange.
The amalgamation grabs hold of the smaller yellow being by its leg, throwing it into a nearby building before turning to face the charging blue and red flamed being, screeching in rage and... fear?
Fear. Why...? No, the teen understands. He's afraid too.
It's a flurry of motion. The red and blue flamed being is elegant, hacking away at limbs as they reach for him, while the amalgamation holds off against cannon fire from all angles. The black truck and the yellow car spin around them, trying to get the angle on the amalgamation when the gray car shows up, transforming too into another being that skates to them on two of its wheels. Two blades extend, one from each wrist, and together, with the red and blue flamed being, they just cut down the amalgamations many arms.
It screams in agony, one flailing limp grabbing onto the gray being and tossing him at the red and blue, sending them both hurdling backwards into some rumble of what used to be whatever housed the amalgamation before it became... this.
Became..?
A smaller being shows up, a purplish pink motorcycle that immediately transforms into a being like the rest, startling the teen. The amalgamation roars in rage, grabbing onto the black truck and smashing him into the ground hard enough that the teen falls over, disorient.
"Fragging slag that hurt," the truck groans before rolling out of the way of massive foot coming down onto where it was just moment before, turning the concrete to powder beneath its massive weight.
"Are you alright, Sam?" She asks, her voice unmistakenly feminine, glancing wearily over at the large amalgamation as it rampages behind her. "Please, we need to get you to Ratchet."
The clashing of these titans is no more than twenty feet from him, knocking down buildings and shattering powerlines that don't even spark when toppled over. Just like the place he was in before, there is no power. And certainly, it's quiet enough in the rest of the city that anyone close by can at the very least see and hear the titanic robot death match happening over here.
A horrible wail of agony lances through the teen's chest, sucking the air from his lungs as he looks past the feminine motorcycle at the amalgamation crumbling to one knee, massive body heaving as it's encircled by the beings. A smaller, blue being, spinning electrified whips slips between the truck and the silver car.
A green being appears, eyeing the amalgamation before moving around it towards the teen. The amalgamation tracks him, shuffling a bit on its knee, the metal scraping against the powered remains of the concrete beneath it. It lets out an unholy screeching noise when the green being kneels down in front of the teen, nearly blocking the teen and the amalgamation from one another. The boy flinches, his chest aching at the sound - at the pain and anguish in it.
"Sam."
Its body is in ruins. Many of its numerous arms are in pieces, hardly any are still intact. There is a growing puddle of pink liquid pooling around it, coming from the many wounds on its body and from the open ends of its severed arms. The beings circle it, like birds of prey. Ready, waiting for the right moment to strike.
"Sam."
And when those crimson balls of light peer through the darkness at the teen, he notices a distinct glistening beneath it. When it shifts, the lights that the beings cast catch it just right, revealing... tears.
The amalgamation is crying. Frustration and pain and fear, and as it meets the teen's eyes, shame. Bright, burning failure in those crimson orbs.
It has failed the teen. And as a product of its failure, it's going to die. The teen's not sure what it's more afraid of, how it failed the boy, or that now it is going to die for it.
"Sam."
He blinks, vision blurry, as he looks up at the knelt green being, its mimicry of a human face twisted in confusion. "I need to scan you. You're unwell."
"Why..?" He rasps, voice raw as his throat feels like sandpaper.
The being twists its head more, frowning. "Your vitals are all off. You were injured at some point and - "
"Why does it have to die..?" He asks, tears leaking down his cheeks. "Why do you have to kill it..?"
The being jolts, perplexed, before looking over its shoulder at the amalgamation, as if noticing something strange. It shifts a bit on its hunches, studying the amalgamation as it stares at the teen.
"It is enslaved to primal processes," the green being says, but his voice is low, unsure. "There are no higher processes in it. It can't feel anything... or... it shouldn't."
It makes a blast of noise, still looking at the teen and it's horrendous to hear - and not just to the teen. The smaller blue being shivers at the sound while the yellow being moves between the teen and the amalgamation, car doors acting like wings spread wide in an animalistic display of making itself larger. The amalgamation, still much larger by comparison even while down on a knee, crackles and hisses like a feral beast.
"See, Sam?" the being says carefully. "It doesn't have any higher functioning. It is cruel to leave it like this. Without a spark, once the chassis runs out of energy, the bot will offline, and it is a cruel thing to do to it. It will run feral, mad, until it can't function anymore."
No, he doesn't see. Not what the green being is trying to say. It's not feral - it's scared. It didn't ask for this. All it wants is... is...
The teen sobs, heart breaking. The yellow being flinches, looking down at him, a sad whirling sound hurts him more.
"It's my fault," he sobs, hands clenching at his racing, aching chest as he stares at the amalgamation. "I'm sorry," he rasps. "I'm so, so sorry."
"Sam," the green being says, shifting closer. "You need to calm down, Sam. You are not well."
"It's my fault that you're in so much pain," the teen cries, leaning too heavily against one of the last standing buildings around here, his entire body barely able to hang on any longer. He's too weak now. The longer he stares into those crimson eyes, knowing that tears flow from them as well, the more he feels the shame, the pain, the fear, as if it's burrowing deeper into his chest, filling him to brim until he'll simply explode from it.
"Sam," the green being starts again, voice growing wearier before it stiffens as the amalgamation lets out a mournful cry.
It reaches for the teen with its many broken, bleeding arms, begging for him. Just like a child, reaching for a parent. And it sobs, big, shoulder heaving sobs, startling the beings around it. It crackles and hisses and spits out beeps and clicks, but it's all garbled, like a dozen different nonsense sounds all at once. The pink motorcycle flinches at the noise, covering the side of her head where an ear would be had she been human.
"Is it... trying to speak..?" she asks, eyes wide in horror.
It spits static, swaying before falling onto a hip, the trembling is enough to drop the teen to the ground, but he doesn't feel it, the numbness in his body settling in once more. He can't... he can't any longer. He's too weak.
"Ratchet," the blue and red flamed being snaps, tersely, blue eyes like twin flames in the darkness.
A beam of blue light scans over the teens body before a tab pops open on the green being's arm. He studies it, shaking his head. "As I suspected, multiple injuries, possible concussion, low blood pressure, Primus. Very low blood sugar. And..."
"I'm sorry I did this..." the teen slurs to the amalgamation. "I'm sorry I hurt... you..."
The amalgamation cries out mournfully, sliding down onto its side, as if too injured to lift its massive body back up, but still, it reaches for him. A low, agonized cry whistles out of it before its body slumps and the red of its eyes fade to gray.