hello, world.

He remembered that accusation to someone amongst the ranks, the medic of the group, the one they called ‘Knock Out’, how nonchalant Knock Out was throughout the ordeal, Starscream seemed to be the only one offended by this particular incident, the others couldn’t care less, as long as it didn’t cause any mishaps to the mission, it wasn’t deemed as necessary as rooting out the autobots.

Well if it bothered Starscream so much, then it was about time that he should investigate this, maybe it could prove some benefit to him while simultaneously making Starscream distraught with frustration.

In a short klik, as a beast, he slithered away from his napping spot, right when he noticed Knock Out slipping through a ground bridge, a loss in scent but none the less, a quick click of a button and locking onto the last set of coordinates, and he managed to follow after Knock Out, but from a distance, the sky was dark, yet his optics glow didn’t reveal his location as the clouds were obscuring him with thick plumes.

The first time out into the world without explicit permission, the defiance to Starscream did feel good to think about, yet confusion still persisted in his chassis, what was he doing here? Among the organics that had received ire that they were ignored? That their systems were too inadequate to even glance at?

That feeling, Predaking landed amongst the large trees when noticing Knock Out was slowing down in his alt mode, and seeing him entering a place, an open place with small weird creatures that were housed inside other alt modes?….

His sensors failed to detect a scent, so it was quick to deduce that they weren’t Autobots, nor any Decepticons, except for Knock Out. His mind failed to understand anything, seeing organics all huddled together, pairs of fleshies sharing weirdly shaped fuel, some seemingly halfway to interfacing, it was all confusing….

Why spare these organic gatherings a glance? Much less actually going so far as to sneak into one….

A mix between an unamused click and a snarl left his facial plating as they moved with dissatisfaction in his discovery, glowing yellow optics dimmed as he prepared to just leave and head back to Darkmount with nothing but an empty discovery, his audio receptors picked up something, his head turned to the large white screen to see something that made him still his wings.

A fleshie with armor, fighting a predacon? Or someone like him, either way, Predaking’s thinned patience suddenly became a renewed sense of curiosity, his wings lowered with the rest of his frame, his eyes widened to take in this form of audio-visual data on display.

————

A furious roar practically erupted from the dragon as the movie went on with the scene, people were in their seats, the protagonist was like any other human in the story being told, a classic really, a knight on a quest to save the fair and graceful princess from the clutches of a ruthless beast that plunged the land into chaos.

And where were you?

Well—

“Hey [Name]! The Ice cream machine needs some more of that dairy base!” Called one of your coworkers while they were manning the battle station that was taking in the orders while you were already refilling the popcorn machine.

“On it!” You said as you were quick enough to get to the fridge to get a fresh container of the dairy base for the ice cream machine, it was like trying to dodge high tech security in a secret spy movie with how your coworkers, teens and adults alike were running around, either to get to work in cooking more hot dogs or burgers, cleaning up spilled grease, or someone accidentally ending up smelling like popcorn butter.

You— you were the one smelling like popcorn butter, that wasn’t noticed by your coworkers since you were rushing to get the ice cream machine up and running, and after the relief of that moment, it was back to being ready for the next task, the next order preparation, and maybe hopefully saving a messed up order as a snack.

But it was also a treat to be in the concession stand, watching the movie when there isn’t a line of hungry people, a huge breathe refresher and then it would be cleaning up around the place if just a little before the next batch of people came by to get some second servings or picking up their order.

It was job that you actually liked, besides the fun banter between you and your coworkers, seeing the new workers absolutely making you cackle with their humor and doing outrageous stuff, plus eating greasy or sweet foods is a good benefit, nothing ever goes wrong in a drive-in theater besides having to chase away someone trying to sneak their car in through the exit.

“Hey [Name], that European guy is back again- get the broom.” Said the teen at the cashier, everyone else just groan, all the while you just sighed and headed out back to get the broom in the back.

“Damn it! This is the second time this week!” You said to yourself, almost exasperated by the guy’s appearance, you didn’t catch the guy’s face, the reason for his title was basically due to the guy driving around a red European automobile. Everytime he came you never seen his face, but he was easily chased off by the broom, probably not wanting his fancy car to be scratched or whatever it was that made a guy skittish about their car’s safety.

Just as you headed to the back, picking out the broom, your eyes landed on something glowing outside, something yellow? Was it a light? Did someone think it was funny to put a random light to mess up the movie screen?

Either way, a new problem to fix, nothing that a human with a smell of buttery popcorn and vanilla ice cream holding their trusty broom couldn’t fix!

You made your way out of the door, taking a flashlight and putting it in your apron’s pocket before unlocking the back door and closing it behind you and locking it. You made your way into the wooded area, trees, empty ground except for a couple of bushes, nothing around that could be harmful unless squirrels and pesky raccoons were involved, you just fish out the flashlight, turned it on, and gone in the direction where you last saw the yellow light, carrying your broom with you.

It was weird, what kind of stupid person goes out of their way to annoy everyone? Probably some messed up sense of humor if you ever saw one…

Your eyes remained peeled as you momentarily turned off your flashlight after a while, confused when you caught a glimpse of that light again, only for it to suddenly blink out of existence, and then it appeared again—

Only it seemed to get closer?….

You only scoffed, probably some dumbass holding one of those ultra bright lights or big flashlights….

“Hey! This is a drive in theater! Not an opera stage! Get outta—…… here?” You said as you squinted your eyes, that light was getting closer to you, no it was two lights, two lights that suddenly started to rise upwards….

What the—

In that moment you bolted, cursing as you dropped the broom and tried to book it back to the drive in theater, you felt something large breathing down your neck, the whir and clicking of large machinery, and the strange feeling of slithering, like this wasn’t just someone— but something larger than any known someone.

Your feet were pounding, your breathing heavy as you turned and hid behind a tree, feeling the rush of air breeze past you, a small momentary victory, yet now your direction was screwed up, there was light, but now it was only from the moon….

Did the movie end early? You didn’t know, all you did know that your ears buzzed from the sound of crickets chirping, yet faint, your breath only deepened, still in shock as you slowly sat on the ground.

As if time was moving fast, one second you were catching your breath, the next you were suddenly hoisted up in the air, claws ensnared your entire body while you were feeling sick when you realized how far above in the air you were.

In that moment you faded out of consciousness, only to find yourself awake and unable to move, your eyes blinded by light while you heard voices, some sounding angry, others bemused, and as your vision cleared and your body somehow released, you were face to face with the glowing yellow optics of the large creature that had been chasing you.

To your horror you instantly froze up, your throat weak and your body aching like you wanted to sit down or fall back into a bed and hope that this was some weird dream.

The large robotic dragon-like creature only lowered its head, even then you were face to face to its jaws, the mandibles clicking and moving, constant sounds of clicks and motors moving, it was like the insides couldn’t stop writhing in order to keep constant movement.

Your eyes only could stare back, it was surreal, but also the sense of fear, like if you were to blink the creature right in front of you would most certainly take a bite out of you- nope, it would swallow you whole and you would be a morsel to the large flying lizard.

Much to your unease, the creature’s mandibles grasped and groped around your body, it was made more worse by the awareness of how close to the mouth you were, the teeth grazing your skin while this seemingly for now curious beast was using his alien mandibles to maneuver you around, the thing’s tongue extruding to prod at your cheek before a huff left it.

Your eyes only remain wide open with horror when your somehow ended up near the creature’s belly, in the middle while his body curled up around you like some oversized cat.

——————

To be honest, you had no clue what was going on, it was only when the large robots came by that you realized your predicament, even the one meant to train the beast that was hoarding you was practically afraid of the giant robot dragon.

Honestly a miracle that you didn’t starve to death, seemed pretty much like the captor keeping you in his talons was more than aware to keep you alive, an achievement that would have been admired if not for you literally being kept under a claw whenever possible. How you managed to even survived without a myriad of things happening was like an olympic award for not dying when you should have been at least ten feet into the ground.

It was really hard to getting used to the habit of sleeping near something bigger than an entire building, but somehow you done it, someway you started to understand something, not that you didn’t want to empathize with something that took you from your entire life, but you did understand some feeling when you saw the dragon being humiliated, you noticed that he had some form of awareness, how he glared at the silver Decepticon and then came about times where you saw the large predacon using technology.

It was confusing, but like a click of an idea, you realized that this being was definitely sentient enough to know how things around the base he prowled around worked…..

Then came another worrying idea…. If he was becoming more aware, more thinking, what happens to you? You doubt that he would free you, that’s just a daydream, you knew that no Decepticon worth their badge would care for a fleshie if it didn’t meant something useful to them….

————

How else were you supposed to run away? The ground bridge was a gamble, you snuck out when you noticed the Vehicons were entering the portal and you took that chance when the dragon was gone, you ducked out of the way when you got through.

Soft ground was something you could never almost think to miss, your eyes squinted with the light of the day, your body felt weak but you managed to pick yourself up to head out before you get into some sort of conflict.

Running into the clear path was an obvious pick, clear of whatever these giant robots were doing or capable of, running for you was like a rat frantically trying to maneuver around a maze, only the maze was in the form of large robots throwing each other around and doing a huge landscaping job around the area, it was almost disorienting with the dust kicking up, you were at your wits’ end with this uncontrollable mess that you ducked into the closest cave and hoped that they ended their conflict.

The only problem was during that time, an explosion within the cave occurred right as you were clinging to dear life behind the large stones right outside of whatever it was that was writhing within the cavern, all you knew was suddenly another explosion rang out and you were pinning down by rubble.

—————

Predaking’s optics glared when he saw that you were missing, the day he became aware of a self he never knew before, he had only recently sworn fealty to Lord Megatron, yet now a new problem arose when the last one had seemed to just been revolved.

Why would the human princess run from him? Wasn’t he a guardian towards his soon to be conjunxed? Wasn’t his devotion so hard to understand?….

Either way, whether or not it was his inadequate nesting or utilities, this wasn’t no unimportant matter, he had just lost human royalty! Immediately angered by the thought of some scheming “knight” had gone off and taken what was rightfully his, his firm shifted and transformed, reconfigured his shape to his beastly form, a roaring screech bellowed in the halls as the massive form slithered out of The Nemesis the moment he had tasted the residue of your scent amongst the bedding he provided.

It was then that he was sidetracked, his optics wide with horror mixed with fleeting grief that turned into rage when he saw that his brethren had fallen, the perpetrators that had done so had escaped with the frames intact while he now returned to the sight to momentarily take in his grief.

It was then when he realized that a familiar scent was nearby, his brethren may have fallen, but now it had cemented his motivation within you, as he saw you trapped, injured by some of the debris of the now destroyed lab, the massive frame of a now more humanoid figure made you freeze up, his taloned digits carefully lifted up the rumble while his free servos plucked you out with a fervent gentleness.

His yellow optics only focused on the organic in his servos, your scent caught in his olfactory sensors, his face plates shifting slowly to rub soothingly against your more softer frame.

He swear a second fealty that day, not as Megatron’s faithful servant, but as your protector, his treasure, his own delicate conjunx endura to forevermore be bound to him in the remembrance of his fallen brethren, for you were one to witness and bare the burden with him, for you to swear the life of yours to be forged together with his own spark.

For how can a princess like you even survive without a dragon like him to protect you?…..

——————

A/n: Literally the way I cope in writing through any kind of writers block is acting like I’m typing in a type writer in a film noir setting, narrating on some emotionally closed off detective on some case that is given to him by a femme fatale widow.