Embers of a Flame

Chapter 1

Willowisp wakes from stasis with a ringing noise in his audios. The cause of it is unknown to him, but by the Primes, is it annoying.

Opening his optics, the mech takes a look around. All he sees is a bunch of smoldering metal and a few broken trees.

Blinking, he takes a second look, at himself this time. What he sees aren't human limbs, or anything human. He's a Cybertronian.

'What the frag? Am I dreaming? This must be a lucid dream or something...'

Taking a few steps, Willowisp nearly falls, only catching himself on one ped and sheer force of will. "Frag" he hisses. "Is walking always this hard in dreams?"

"Huh? Is someone there?"

A voice, a familiar voice, calls out to him, not far from where he stands. With another look around, he spots a frame.

And that frame happens to look a lot like Angel's OC back home. The voice matches too.

Taking a few careful and calculated steps, Willowisp soon reaches who he believes to be his friend. "Angel, is that you? What the heck is this dream?"

"Rose? Dude, you're a Cybertronian! Are we dreaming the same thing?" Angel replies, looking up at him in amazement.

The medic extends a servo to help her up and shrugs. "If so, this is the wackiest dream ever. And I guess I'm called Willowisp then?"

With Angelblade on her peds, they finally get a good look at their surroundings. What they see is nothing short of a disaster zone. Molten and burnt metal, scorched ground and burning trees.

"That's a big yikes. Is this supposed to be our ship? We crashed hard" Angel comments.

"Well, you can't exactly drive now, can you?"

"Shut your fragging intake Wisp."

"Hey! If someone is over there, stop standing around and help me out." Another voice interrupts the two's back and forth teasing. Whoever that voice belongs to, they sound strained.

"Guess we're not by ourselves after all" Wisp says with a hint of curiosity in his tone. "Let's check it out."

Angel and Wisp navigate the rubble and soon come across a third companion, in the black and purple form of their friend Shrek.

The unfortunate mech is trapped beneath a heavy metal plate, which wedges his legs against the ground.

'It probably cuts off Energon flow too, ouch.' Willowisp thinks to himself, his medical protocols instinctively kicking into gear.

He and the femme besides him put their servos to work and manage to lift the panel just enough for Shrek to scramble away from under it. He heaves a vent of relief while rubbing his legs.

"Is this the weirdest group dream of my life or what?" Angel questions with a totally lost expression across her faceplate.

"That sure did not feel like a dream" Shrek replies, hissing at his agony while he does.

Willowisp kneels next to him. "Lemme see" he hums.

"Right, you're a medibot, huh Rose?"

"It's Willowisp in this form, Shrek. I told you that before."

The medic takes a look at his friend's legs and sees it's nothing too serious. "Just a few metal dents" he says. "And they might be a bit stiff and painful while your Energon starts flowing again."

Shrek flashes a goofy grin. "Thanks Doc."

"Don't call me Doc" Wisp replies with a roll of his optics.