Chapter Text
If Axel had anything to admit, it would be that he should probably have watched where he was going while walking in the woods.
If he had a counter argument to that regret, it would be the reason he was regretting his ignorance was not at all what he expected, or planned for.
Normally, the problems that arose from wandering blind through the woods would probably be something like tripping over a log, or maybe walking off a cliff and dying. In terms of living things, which Axel was beginning to assume his predicament fell under, one might expect to have problems with wolves or a bear, maybe even a moose. All of those situations wouldn't have been great, but Axel had some idea of what to do about them, even the cliff. Here however, he was stumped.
Axel, through little to no fault of his own, had managed to encounter a giant robot. Well, encounter was putting it lightly, it would be more accurate to say that he managed to walk nose-first into the robot’s ribs, or where the ribs would be on a human at least. This wasn't in itself an issue, he was only walking, and he knew enough about where he was in the woods to keep going home at a sprint if he had to. The problem came from leaving.
From where he was standing, Axel could see most of the robot’s lower body, as well as its arm. Axel didn't have the clearest perspective on it, because he could only see the robot's side, but it was red and light grey, and its forearm was definitely blue, looking almost like a really boxy glove. When he first bumped into it, Axel had tried walking away, he really had, but the robot proceeded to lazily block his path with its hand. Axel had been trying to escape for at least half an hour at this point (probably), but all attempts met with similar results. He wasn't fast, and he was also only as big as half of the robot's forearm, so he was incredibly easy to block. Occasionally, in between the gaps that the robot’s arm made when moving to block him, Axel could see its head. A glowing red eye absent-mindedly glancing at him, some type of mechanism barely visibly moving to follow his escape attempts. If he hadn't already been panicking about being trapped, that sight would have really set Axel off. Even now, it definitely didn't make him feel any better.
~~
Axel had stopped mentally keeping track of the time, but he could tell that the robot had stopped watching him directly, instead staring absently at the passing clouds. Axel felt his legs slow, he was practically gasping for air and felt like if he moved another step his legs might give out. So, he stood for a minute, just to catch his breath.
A chill ran down Axel's spine as the robot began to laugh. It was a shrill chuckle, just as lazy as the rest of the robots actions. If Axel had any doubts that it (he?) was playing with him, they all crumbled away with that sound. It took another minute for Axel to calm himself down enough to think rationally.
He obviously wasn't getting anywhere with the running strategy, especially now that he was sure it knew what it was doing. That being said, he wasn't about to try and climb over the robot's chest, that seemed like a surefire way to get swatted like an overzealous spider. As he calmed down and planned, the robot moved his arm back into a casual resting position, even though Axel was sure that he could still move to block him at a moment's notice. Axel did still try a couple passes, just to check.
Axel quickly concluded that his only option was waiting for the robot to get bored. After deciding that, he settled himself down on the ground and got ready to wait. After a few minutes, Axel noticed that the robot's hand was absent-mindedly drumming on the forest floor. Axel waited a little longer, checking his phone (he already knew he had no signal here,) before attempting another escape. This attempt was quickly stopped, and Axel also ran headfirst into the robot's hand, which was more startling than painful. Axel stumbled back and settled back down, trying to think if there was anything else he could possibly try. Currently, all he was coming up with was to wait for the robot to fall asleep, if robots even slept at all. Circumstances were grim, Axel was starting to think he would be stuck there until he starved to death.
As Axel calmed down farther, he started to take stock of what he had on him. It was a good amount, considering. He had been walking home from school, so he had his backpack on him. And, Axel quickly checked the bags contents to confirm his excitement, he had an unopened box of protein bars! Sure, they were for if he needed emergency lunch, but an emergency was an emergency. That made prospects a whole lot better.
~~
If they were playing a game, then the opponent would probably stop when they got bored. Unfortunately, in the boredom war of attrition, Axel found himself quickly losing. The robot seemed content lying on the ground like a very colorful wall. Axel assumed that keeping him contained was a small distraction to pass the time. The only problem was that he had no clue how much time the robot had to pass. Axel was also currently experiencing an antsy type of bored, he had homework, and telling himself that he shouldn't be bored while being held hostage by a giant robot wasn't helping. Axel resigned himself to lying down as well. The sky was actually really pretty, picturesque, like a background in a children's story.
Axel had to shake himself out of falling asleep, that seemed like a really bad idea in the current circumstances. However, it occurred to him, if he was stuck here he could get some work done to pass the time. Axel sat up and dug through his backpack for homework.
He didn't want to do anything with writing, he didn't have a surface to write on. That, limited him severely. Most of the homework was on paper, of course. And he didn't have the Internet to submit any digital projects either. Axel’s fingers hungrily hung over a purple folder before he grabbed it out with a snap. Maybe, just maybe he could make something out of this situation yet. And it might even help him, people had told him Shakespeare was boring. Axel briefly glanced over at his captive audience.
“so foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
Axel quickly cleared the accent from his throat, he didn't have anyone else to run lines.
“N’ then, Banquo. Yada yada, witches, uh…” he checked the script, “ah, that you are so…”
“speak if you can, what are you?”
~~
Axel had managed to make it to the first scene of act 4 before doing his own cues felt too awkward to continue. He was still working on subconscious memorization, so he had mostly been paying attention to his lines and stage directions instead of the robot. Axel took a small sip of his water bottle and checked the contents of his bag. Maybe he could stack folders on top of each other to write on…
Suddenly, the ground started to shift under Axel. He barely had time to grab his things before he started to fall.
On to a large blue hand.
Axel glanced around, his eyes quickly landing on a large metal face. Two red eyes staring at him like he was a dog that had dragged home a deer skull. Axel backed up a step, desperately shoving things back into his backpack. He started to zip it up when he walked backwards into something. A quick glance behind him showed that the robot had raised one of his thumbs to stop Axel from stumbling to his death. Axel looked around properly. If he was up any higher, he would be able to see over the tops of the trees. The robot, seemingly acknowledging Axel’s realization he had no escape, uncupped his hands slightly so Axel had a clearer view. Axel turned to face him again. He could see the entirety of the robots upper body now, mostly grey with some red parts. He could also now clearly see a set of wings, one of which he could faintly make out a cluster of dusty bootprints on. Axel could feel something welling up in his chest. He didn't want to cry, so he started laughing.
Axel was snapped out of his laughing fit by the robot sitting down on the forest floor. He was still being watched closely, but it seemed like his brief episode of mania had earned a concerned look. Axel bit down the urge to start laughing again. Axel's attempt at calm seemed to have successfully convinced the robot that he was fine, because he raised his hand to his mouth and made a crisp sound that seemed to serve a similar purpose to clearing his throat.
“I assume,” said the robot in a voice that was both shrill and entirely too quiet for his size, “that was some type of rote memorization?”
Axel was stunned. It could talk? He could talk? Why was he talking to him? Was he talking to him? He had to be, there was no one else around, and he had probably only spoken at a whisper for someone of his size.
“What?” gasped Axel, suddenly unable to form coherent thoughts.
“That… performance,” elaborated the giant, using his free hand to emphasize. “It seemed incomplete on its own. I assume you are attempting to remember the words you were speaking aloud?”
“Yes!” Squeaked Axel. “Yes, I'm performing, or I should be performing, so I need to know the words–”
“Hm, primitive, but I would expect nothing less…” the robot less than carefully balanced the hand Axel was standing on on his knee. “You seem young for a performer.”
“It's a school production!” Chirped Axel, tamping down the advertising spiel from when he was handing out fliers, “it’s a production of Macbeth. We are working in collaboration with the English class!”
“Oh, it's educational,” the robot tilted his head back to stare at the clouds again.
Axel quickly started walking down the buzz he had worked up. While he loved talking about theater more than he loved breathing, evidence suggested that his new audience was bored. Axel looked around from his new position, he was still very high up, too high to jump down. Maybe he could try jumping onto one of the trees and climbing down? Axel started to pace, trying to assess the robot's character. He knew he was on metal now, so he could do his writing directly on the robot's hand, which might be comical enough to appeal for his freedom. Actually, now that he knew the robot could talk…
“Hey, uhh…” Axel spoke as loud as he could. “Can I go?”
The robot's eyes were glowing even clearer from the front, Axel wouldn't have been able to see the mechanisms if he didn't know they were there. But, he could see the robot subtly glance at him. The knowledge of that glance gave him chills.
“Human,” the robot sounded slightly annoyed. “I don't know how long I need to wait here, so neither do you! Neither of us will talk about this after we're done”
“That… doesn't sound like a fair deal,” Axel tried to keep his voice steady, easy for a great actor like himself. “Why wouldn't I tell everyone about this?!”
“If you won't keep quiet, I'll make you keep quiet,” the robot twitched his fingers for emphasis, then chuckled when Axel flinched. “... No one would ever believe you anyway.”
“ah…” whimpered Axel
“I know you have activities in your little bag,” the robot pointed for emphasis with his free hand. “Keep yourself entertained, you may even try to escape if you are so inclined, as long as you keep this between us I will let you live.”
Axel stared up into the robot's red eyes. The robot moved his head slightly to better look at him. Axel took a minute to breath.
“Why are you doing this?” Asked Axel
“Why not?” said the robot, “I haven't been given anything better to do.”
Axel opened his mouth to speak, before realizing he had nothing to say. He closed his mouth and hissed air through his teeth.
~~
Axel quickly worked through his history and science homework. History drew no interest, but Axel was allowed to talk through the tree taxonomy he was working on and was offered a couple leaves from the surrounding trees. Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the two of them were working with completely different levels of scientific knowledge, and neither of them were inclined to bridge that gap, so the topic was dropped at the end of the worksheet. Axel assumed math would result in more of the same, but he was good enough at math that he wasn't worried. He tugged out his worksheets, one for this week and last week, and got to work. It was multiplication, so it was extra easy, and Axel was able to let his mind wander as he worked.
“So… you have a name?” Floated Axel, casually. “Mine’s Axel.”
“one of the few sensible names I've heard on this planet…” mumbled the robot before standing, barely accounting for Axel's position, and taking a more dramatic pose. “I am Air Commander Starscream, future leader of the Decepticons.”
That sounded important. Axel wasn't entirely sure what any of those titles meant, but it was his first time meeting someone with titles, and Starscream seemed proud of them. That being said, he had to continue the conversation somehow.
“Oh…” well, he couldn't leave it at that, “nice! Cool!”
“Well, I wouldn't expect you to understand,” Starscream chuckled and settled back into a sitting position. “you don't seem very observant.”
“Yeah, that's fair!” Squeaked Axel. He stared at Starscream for a minute before settling back with his worksheets.