It was around Christmas time, last year. My brothers and I were making our Christmas lists. I ask for a variety of things. A lot less than my brothers did. I asked for things such as Transformer figures, and art supplies. Among that list, was the Transformers: Dark of the Moon game. On Christmas morning, instead of the game, I got the movie instead.
Hoping I would get enough Christmas money to purchase it sometime during the Christmas break, I went on with the day. I had an awesome dinner with all my relatives and family members, and got more than enough money to get that game I wanted. I planned to go pick it up from gamestop on Tuesday.
I was home alone the next day. Everyone had gone to the hobby store. My brother was going there to pick up some RC plane parts for the one he got yesterday, and had already broken it flying it out in the fields at the pond. I was taking this time to do some drawings in the sketch pads I had received. During that, I heard the mail truck’s engine, and grabbed the mailbox key, and went outside and opened up the mailbox.
It was just junk mail. Well, I thought it was all junk mail. When I got inside, I opened up a small envelope containing a CD. It had the words ‘DARK OF THE MOON’ written crudely on it in sharpy. I knew something was up, but I didn’t care. I walked down into my basement, and popped it into the X-Box 360. It took a few tries to get the game working, but it finally started up.
I completely forgot about my drawing, and played for about an hour. I was in a level playing as Ironhide, when I decided to pause it, and run upstairs for some soft pretzels. I came back down holding a plate, to see something extremely weird…
Not only was the game unpaused, Ironhide was lying there. Dead. His spark pulled out, and lying next to him. Both he and his spark had a weird red blood-like fluid all over them. But it wasn’t just Ironhide on the screen. Wheeljack, the little Scientist bot who was killed in the movie was standing there covered in the blood-like fluid. His facial expression was cold and threating. I stared at the screen. He looked like he was staring right back at me. A demented theme played in the background.
I dropped the plate down on the carpet, and it shattered. I was in complete shock from what I saw. I kneeled down and picked up the controller, and began to smash buttons on it. Nothing happened. Neither of them moved. I slowly put the controller down, and moved toward the X-box. I was about to turn the power off, when I heard a voice.
“Don’t you dare touch that button.” A cruel voice sad. I looked up at the screen. Wheeljack was staring with a facial expression full of hatred and malice. “You’ll regret you did.” It was him speaking. The background was turning more crude and distorted. The sky turned red and blood and parts of both humans and robots covered the ground. I think I even saw Ratchet’s arm lying in the background.
The screen violently flashed red and black, and turned to static. I covered my ears, the static was so loud. The static stopped, and the screen went black. Then, I heard such a loud, disturbing screech. The screen violently flashed images of Bumblebee, being violently murdered by Wheeljack, who was a friend of his, by being strangled. I was crying hysterically at this point.
After about 5 minutes, it finally stopped. Wheeljack reappeared on the screen. “I killed them all…You can’t escape me, girl.” He said in a dark, menacing voice. I had enough at that point. I slammed on the power button on the 360, and run upstairs out of the basement, sobbing. I didn’t want to be alone. I went to a friend’s house. I wouldn’t tell her what was wrong, even though she insisted I talk about it, for I would feel better. I’d never feel better after that. Even if I told everyone I knew about it.
Later that night, after hours of gaining courage, I started up the X-Box again. I didn’t let anyone come down with me. I locked the basement door to make sure no one could. Everyone noticed I seemed dark and terrified. Like something had fell dark upon me, and consumed me in darkness.
As soon as turned that game on, I immediately rethought my decision. All that came up was static. But I still sat there with false courage until an image slowly appeared in the static.
It was him again…Wheeljack was sitting on a wooden swing that was his size, strangely. I thought it was very odd how it was wooden. I didn’t think wood could hold up a giant robot. He was seen on a side view. His leg was crossed over his knee, and he was holding his ankle, looking down at the ground. He was gently swinging himself with his other foot pushing on the ground. I could hear a squeak as he pushed himself back and forth. The background was nothing but darkness when that static cleared up.
He slowly turned his head toward the screen. Once again, it looked as if he was staring back at me. I sat completely frozen in fear. He was hyper realistic-looking. Even more realistic than in the movie. Like if I were to touch the screen, I would be able to touch him, and feel his cold metal. I didn’t think an X-box 360 could render such amazing graphics.
He stopped swinging himself, and slowly stood up. He began walking toward the screen. I scooted back in fear he’d walk right out the screen and kill me, like how he killed all his comrades. He stopped when only half his body was visible. He closed his eyes and lowered his head for about a minute.
He quickly opened them up, revealing black eyes, with red pulsating, glowing pupils. He slowly looked back up. He smiled demonically.
“Wanna play with me?” He said playfully. A selection screen came up. The only selections were “YES” and “NO”. I selected ‘NO’, but it wouldn’t allow me. My only selection was ‘YES’. I moved the cursor to the ‘YES’ selection, and hesitated for a moment. I finally selected it after 30 seconds of getting myself mentally prepared.
The screen faded to black, and another selection screen came up. There was a choice between four characters. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide and Dino. Ironhide and Bumblebee’s icons were replaced with red X’s. I tried selecting Ironhide, but a textbox came up that said “You can’t do that.”
I selected Dino to play as. The screen went black, then white letters appeared saying “WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?” Then the level came up. The sky was red, and the background looked like outside of the N.E.S.T base. Severed parts of N.E.S.T agents and Autobots covered the ground. Dino looked horrified. I began to control him, and walk around. He goes inside the base.
It’s completely dark inside. Not a single light inside. Down a hall, Wheeljack stood. His eyes black with red pupils like they were before. I jumped when I saw him, and Dino ran away from the hall. Dino was facing the screen when running. He looked even more terrified after Wheeljack was in that hall. He looked like he was about to cry!
As Dino continued to run, something suddenly grabbed the top of his head, and tore it completely off. His body collapsed from the ground, and behind him, Wheeljack stood laughing to himself, staring at the body at his feet. Dino’s face was forever stuck in an absolutely petrified facial expression.
Wheeljack threw the head to the ground, and looked up at the screen, and grinned sadistically. “Should we play again?” He said playfully. A selection screen popped up again. Egged on to keep going somehow, I selected yes, and I was taken back to a character selection screen. Dino was replaced with a red X.
Only Optimus remained. My last character. Maybe if I beat this, it would return to normal. I selected Optimus, and the screen went black once again. This time, the white letters read “YOU CAN’T WIN.” And the level came up. Optimus’ faceplate was down. He was looking alarmed, yet horrified. A lot less scared than Dino looked.
In this level, it looked like scenery from the last movie, the Air and Space museum. The Hangar, to be exact. All the planes were covered in blood. Optimus began to walk around in an unsure way. Like he knew something was about to go wrong. Where the SR-71 Blackbird was supposed to be, Jetfire was just lying there. Some of his robot limbs missing, and his optics cut out.
Inside of a room, where a space shuttle was, Wheeljack was standing in there. Looking back at Optimus. His eyes were still black with red pupils. Once again, I jumped at the sight of him, and Optimus began running away. As he ran, he looked much more terrified than Dino was, running from Wheeljack.
A hand suddenly shot through his stomach. He actually had a chance to scream. He stumbled forward, holding on to his stomach, then fell down. Wheeljack was standing behind him. It was once again, his doing. He’s murdered yet another, and my last Autobot. I began to sob.
The screen turned to static. It was like that for 5 minutes. Then, it turned to black. And Wheeljack was standing very far from the screen looking down. He began to walk closer and closer to the screen. Tears were streaming down my face at a heavy rate. He was close enough to the screen where not even half his body was visible. He looked up.
He cocked his head slightly, and said “Oh. Don’t you wanna play some more?” He said, almost like he was taunting me. “But there’s so many souls yet to toy with.” He grinned demonically. “Don’t go just yet.”
The screen went to black, and the character selection came back up. Optimus was replaced with a red X as well, and a bunch of Autobots, not even playable in the game, were now in the character selection. I had enough. Enough of watching them meet a horrible demise. They may have been just robots…but I couldn’t bare it any longer. I turned off the system, and took the disk out.
I shipped it out to someone at random the next day, thinking it could be some sort of chain thing. It can be someone else’s problem. I never want to play a Transformers game ever again…