Work Text:
Your hands couldn’t stop smoothing the nonexistent creases on your dress as you waited for your date to arrive. You’d made sure that everything was perfect; from the unruly strands you’d brushed neatly into place to the flawless toes of your boots that you barely wore.
This whole thing was your best friend’s idea, who was tired of your lack of relationship gossip and thus took it upon herself to set you up with a guy whom you’d met once through her at a party. A nice guy, positively chill, with an odd sense of humor. You were alive with anticipation, a bit nervy, but you had a good feeling about it.
As a vehicle came up the street, you found yourself awed at the ride pulling up—red, sleek, polished to reflect astounded faces. Your face currently.
He got out to open the passenger door for you. With pinkish cheeks, you slipped in with a modest utterance of thanks.
Inside was a coordinated mix of red and black colorways, meticulously-shaped seats for ease and comfort, cutting-edge speakers with crystalline sounds. What really captured you was how smooth it ran, perfect for going on a quiet cruise at night with a friend or by yourself. You wouldn’t say you were a car enthusiast, not really, but with a car like this—oh yeah, it definitely got your heart pumping.
***
As dusk set in you were pretty tired out, your head was against the headrest and your thoughts drifted with the world outside your window, rewinding back to the events of the day.
“Did you have fun?” he asked, breaking you out of your reverie.
“Mhm,” you smiled. “Hadn’t been out like this in a while, really.”
“We can do this more often. I know some places you might like.” His hand had been sitting on your knee, but then he began sliding it up toward your thigh, hiking up your skirt. You caught on to it quickly and your body tensed up, you didn’t know quite what to do other than casually moving his hand away. You didn’t want to appear rude or anything, maybe he was just an action kind of guy, you know, preferring to express affections through physical touches rather in words. Nonetheless, you found yourself crossing your legs and scooting closer to the door, maintaining an inconspicuous space between you.
“Yeah? Where?” you said.
“Mm…” he pondered for a second, “there’s sand duning if you’re up for the thrill. A planetarium for something more mellow. Or we can chill at my place, I have a theater, an arcade room, all that.”
“Wow. You probably won’t need to come out most of the time.”
“If I don’t, I won't be able to impress you.” He reached for your hand and gave it a squeeze. “I think it’ll be fun having you over. We can have a few drinks—I make mean cocktails, by the way—and hang out in the pool. What d’you think?”
He looked away from the road, expecting your response. It wasn’t like you didn’t want to, you just thought this was moving kind of fast. I mean this was literally your first date with him and he was already inviting you to come over. Maybe you were just a prude or something, but you would have to decline. Besides, you wanted to unwind in the comfort of your own home.
“Maybe some other time,” you said. “We had a long day.”
Suddenly the atmosphere inside the car became colder, and it wasn’t the AC. It wasn’t on. He withdrew his hand from yours and the prickly sensation you felt on your skin bloomed into goosebumps. You began to feel uneasy.
“You thought I took you out today just for a little date?”
Now you were really suspicious. “Excuse me?”
He smirked. “Look, you’re cute. And I think we look kinda good together. I can give you anything you want, take you wherever you want to go—if you stay the night.”
Alarms were going off in your head. Red flags were popping up and slapping you hard in the face. You had to get out of the car.
“C-Can you stop by the nearest drugstore? I have to pick up something.”
To your relief, he complied, soon pulling up to an almost vacant area where the drugstore shared the lot with an auto repair shop which, surprisingly, was still open at this hour.
You wasted no time getting out of the car and making a beeline for the store. Once inside, you stole a glance over your shoulder, watching him get out and head for the shop next door.
You dug into your bag for your phone, only to retrieve a small heart attack instead.
You couldn’t find it.
Rummaging through your things some more and coming up empty, you remembered that you’d had it in your lap earlier and didn’t realize you’d dropped it in the car in your haste to get out.
Mentally punching yourself in the face, you had no choice but to go back, only for something to push you into the passenger seat and then the car came to life with a roar of the engine.
Huh?
You had only a moment to catch the look of pure shock and confusion on his face as he burst out of the shop before the car revved again and left the lot.
Huuuhh??!
You could hear him shout, running after you as you traveled away.
“Stop! STOP!” You were slamming the brakes but the car just kept going. Looking back at the plaza getting farther away, you saw the guy had given up chasing.
“I’m not stealing your car! I’m so sorry! Dude, let me out!”
When yanking on the door handle didn’t work, you tried kicking out the glass.
“Don’t kick me.”
“What?” You raked around the space, examining the back seats for the unexpected speaker. There was no one. Perhaps you were hearing things now or chalk it up to a random broadcast from the radio. Either way, you paid it no mind and continued kicking harder. The radio mumbled something else you couldn’t comprehend before a sudden change in momentum had you rolling off the seat, and folded up in the tiny space on the floor.
The door swung open on its own and you tumbled out onto the empty lot, tripping on your feet as you went, huffing and puffing and disorientedly terrified.
What is happening? What is this? Some kind of social experiment? A hidden camera show?!
You waited for a camera crew to emerge from the shadows, or a band of pranksters who thought this was funny. Nobody materialized. You now stared dumbfounded at the vehicle, who 100% just attempted abduction. This thing is alive! It had to be the AI that went haywire, o-o-or a malfunction with the autopilot or something! Right?!
The car was high-end. No doubt equipped with the latest, most advanced technology the market had to offer, but clearly something was wrong here!
If it could commit a felony like a walk in the park then perhaps it could drive itself back to its owner. Pointing a shaky finger down the road, you addressed the extravagant car.
“Go!” you wheezed. “Go back now! You hear me?”
“Oh, please.”
The car started to shift, morphing into a at least 20 foot tall robot right before your eyes. Glowing red eyes bore down on you as your legs melded with the cement under your feet. You and it shared a moment in silence, eyes caught in a stare-down.
So...do you call it in? What is this? A secret military weapon? Someone’s award-winning science project? A world-record ginormous size toy broken out from a museum?
Which one didn’t matter, what really mattered was you needed to go. Go as far away from it as your weak bambi legs could carry you. With that thing’s thousand-pound weight, there was no way you wouldn’t become a stain smeared on the ground within a second. You gotta run. Run like you’d just killed something.
Then a colossal foot came crashing down in your path rerouting you to a different direction each time. You could tell you were starting to irritate it by the way it spoke.
“Stop running!”
You fished around in your bag and whipped out your stun gun, jabbing the buzzing end at the creature.
“I don’t care who or what you are, if you so much as lay a finger on me, you’re gonna be sorry! ”
The robot merely rolled its eyes and, with a large metal finger, flicked the gadget out of your hand, skidding it across the cement.
You turned back to it, hissing. “How dare you.”
“You humans,” it said, holding its chin and assessing you as though you were a bizarre lifeform, “often resort to violence first thing toward something you know nothing about. An applaudable trait, but also foolish.”
“Who are you? What do you want?”
Placing both hands on his knees, the thing bent low. “Knock Out.”
You booked it out of there, screaming at the top of your lungs when his big metal hand scooped you off your feet.
“Knock Out’s my name,” he clarified, grasping you tight in his sharp metal claws. “Though, I’m afraid it’d be my first choice of action if you didn’t cooperate.”
You held onto his finger for dear life. “No! Ok ok! I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Good,” he smirked. “Start off, you will say nothing of myself to anybody, unless you want people to die, be my guest. Just imagining you helpless meatbags going pop like an optic-sphere makes me…” he mimicked having a chill, “quiver with excitement.”
You were stumped. No words. You just knew someone didn’t actually lose control of their product, and a feel-good tingle didn’t just run up its spine at the threat of the entire human race going poof.
“If you happen to see more of my kind running about, ignore them. We are pest control, smoking out the dirty infestation in your planet and keeping you safe.”
“...What?”
“Do you know how to buff?”
It took longer than you would’ve liked to grasp what he meant. “Uh yeah… I learned.”
“Excellent. You will take care of my coat and paint whenever needed—and it’s pretty often, telling you now.”
Your mind was spinning. You were still wrapping your head around the fact that a CAR had transformed into a GIANT ROBOT. And now you hung several feet up in the air, agreeing to his terms with a processing capacity of zero. And he just said he was gonna kill people and then turned around, starting talking about pest control and keeping you safe?
You shook your head, swallowing the lump in your throat. “You...you… I don’t even know what you are. Ok? I’m starting to doubt you’re man-made. What are you? Where did you come from?”
Knock Out, as he said his name was, sighed. “You ask so many questions.”
“As I should.” You asserted.
“Alright. I’m Cybertronian,” he said. “Hailed from a planet far far away. An evil faction from my world came here with the intention of taking over yours. So my side is here to fight them off. Do we understand?”
You tried to say something but he was already transforming back into his vehicle mode. You were inside, snug and secured in the passenger seat.
Now that you’d started getting things back on track, you think, the predicament you’d completely forgotten about came rushing back and knocking you cold in the stomach.
“This is all your fault! He thought I hijacked his car! Oh my god, I’m a wanted man.”
Knock Out let out a scoff from the radio, his dashboard coming alive with red accent lights.
“I was never his car. I come and go as I please. Now sit tight, cuz we’re going FAST!”