For Want of a Nail

by Banchoking

Megatron At the Mall

His ears were ringing and everything hurt. He tried to move but something was holding him still. Dust in the air was making it hard to breathe and he could feel the roughness of stone pressing against him. "Where am I?"

He saw a light shining through a hole above him. Around the edges he could see rock or concrete, so he was buried. He began to breathe harder but stopped as the dust burned his lungs and the tight space squeezed his chest. He looked through the hole again and saw something moving so he began to scream, "Help!!! Is anyone out there!? Someone's in here!"

Outside he could see a large, metal hand reaching down towards the rubble. "The Autobots are here!" he exclaimed as tears of relief formed in his eyes. But relief turned to fear when the rubble shifted and he saw who had pulled him free. Megatron, leader of the evil alien robots known as the Decepticons.

The malicious machine lifted his sore, limp body high into the air and smirked. The boy looked around and saw that he was in the ruins of his local shopping mall. The other humans had been herded into the wide open area in the center, surrounded by Decepticons with giant cameras filming their frightened expressions.

"It's time to begin!" Megatron yelled, causing the ringing in the young man's ears to return. Several of the cameras turned to Megatron while the rest stayed focused on the crowd. "To all Autobots! I am aware that you recently came into possession of a large cache of energon. Given how much you claim to love the worthless insects that call this planet home, I propose a trade," he smiled.

"I call them worthless, but I suppose that's not entirely fair. After all, they built my new favorite toy," Megatron lifts his arm cannon to show the camera. "The Null Ray, it violates the laws of thermodynamics and entirely erases any matter and energy caught in its beam."

The leader of the Decepticons pointed the weapon at a region of the mall that the boy prayed to God was empty.

Then he fired the beam. The human had heard of a shade of black so dark that it looked like a hole in reality. If he had to describe the weapon, that sounded about right. A pure black beam. When it hit the wall it created a sphere of the same shade and when that sphere was gone, so was everything that had been inside.

"You have exactly one day to provide us with the energon, or all of these humans will suffer the fate of this one."

The young man began to struggle violently after he heard the giant's words. He began to push and heave against his captor's giant fingers as Megatron pulled back for a throw.

In an instant, he was tumbling through the air not knowing which way was which. For a brief moment, his spinning slowed and he saw Megatron pointing that gun at him. He could see the shot charging in the barrel. As he continued to flip he felt something hit him from behind and everything became black.

Author's Note:

So? What do you think?