Cruise

[Barricade]

Characters: @moonwing
Location: Earth, the open highway
Content Warnings: n/a
Plot Summary: After laying low for so long Barricade becomes restless and takes to the open, empty highways of Earth. Out and about he meets up with someone from the world he left behind; a Decepticon.

[Barricade]

@moonwing

It felt good to be able to push his frame to the speed it was capable of.  This far from all the humans and their constant panic to his presence he didn't have to worry about much.  He had enough fuel to keep him going back and forth across these spreading roads for several weeks provided he didn't have to transform or something.  His frame was fuel efficient, being a hunter model, so that was nothing new.  He revved his engine and picked up speed again, easily eating up the highway and travelling ever onward.  He didn't have a destination, but this made him happy.  He wasn't fighting, which would be the better option, but the speed was something he enjoyed very much.

There hadn't been another vehicle [in disguise or otherwise] on the road for hours, so no need for his sirens and no ignoring the pathetic enforcement humans as they tried to chase him down.  Pft, like he'd ever be caught by their like.  He shook himself mentally.  He had to remind himself frequently that he kept changing his altmode back and forth between one of the police vehicles and a standard make of the same thing.  He didn't have sirens, at the moment.

It was then he caught something at the edge of his scanners, a Decepticon signal.  Now who would be this far out, alone, in a place where there weren't any deposits of energon?  He supposed if they came after his Neutral signal or recognized him somehow, he'd find out.

[Deleted]

Barricade

It wasn’t often that Moonwing got to fly alone, and fly alone at night, but as her training progressed and the conflict with the Autobots increased, it became paramount that she learn all aspects of what it meant to be a seeker and a soldier. Tonight, she was practicing her night flying. This mostly involved relying upon her long and short range sensors, and using her infrared visual scanners if anything came up. She had been sent to a quiet sector where it was unlikely she would get into trouble, which, considering her last patrol had ended with her walking into a live powerline, was perhaps a good thing.

Night flying was quite like day flying, and it wasn’t long before she’d gotten dreadfully bored. Moonwing was obedient, however, and flew her pre-determined flight path, for she did not wish to displease her mentor nor did she wish to draw the ire of Lord Megatron.

That was when the strange, unfamiliar signal edged into her scanning range.

Moonwing had never come across a neutral signal before, nor had she ever been taught what one looked like, so it was unsurprising that she did not recognise it for what it was. Far below and to her starboard side raced a car along a human highway, and her infrared scan revealed that it was Cybertronian based on the heat signature. Perhaps it was a Vehicon whose transponder had broken? But no, Vehicons did not tend to travel alone. An Autobot, maybe?

Common sense would have dictated she keep her distance and report to her superiors, but she was young, and unwise, and curiosity often got the better of her. She banked closer, and pinged the strange signal with an open-frequency comm. <<”Hello? What are you doing down there?”>>

[Barricade]

So she'd called him out.  Fantastic.  A seeker above him wasn't the best news for his day.  As a land-based model, he was at a disadvantage here.  But, given that he hadn't been immediately shot he figured he could manage this situation.  It took his processors a full minute to realize he was being spoken to by a femme.  Young too, if he was any judge.  As young as any of their kind could be, as age was relative when one lived practically forever provided nothing went wrong.  He figured he'd probably best speak now.

<<"Salutations seeker.">>  He paused, mentally saying several sarcastic things to her question of what he was doing down there before being able to answer somewhat amicably.  <<"Driving, what's it look like?">> He wondered if she could hear him venting at her from where she was.  <<"The correct term for what I'm doing, femme, is cruising.  I have no destination in mind, so I'm simply driving forward.  Now, what is a lone seeker doing all the way out here?">>

@moonwing

[Deleted]

Barricade

<<”Cruising?”>> Too naive and inexperienced, Moonwing completely missed the underlying sarcasm in Barricade’s tone. Being also completely lacking any sense of ‘stranger danger’, the curious young seeker edged as close as she could while still technically remaining on her assigned flight route. <<”You mean you’re just driving… for the fun of it?”>>

She’d not flown often for the fun of it. The very concept of doing things because one wanted to and not because one was ordered was almost foreign to her as a Decepticon youngling, for she often got very little choice in things. She wondered what it was like, to be able to choose to go for a drive.

Upon being questioned, her first instinct was to obediently tell the strange grounder exactly what she was doing all the way out here, a knee-jerk reaction to anyone she perceived with more authority than herself. This bot was still unidentified, though, and she had yet to determine if he was friend or foe. Telling a total stranger that she was alone in the middle of nowhere seemed… less advisable. <<”I… I am on patrol with my trine!”>> Moonwing declared, after a moment of fumbling. Her bluff likely didn’t sound convincing in the slightest. <<”-State your designation!”>> She ordered, willing her voice to be stern.

[Barricade]

<<"Affirmative.">> Joy, he sounded suspiciously like someone he did not want to be thinking about right now.  He mentally shook himself and gave a loud rev if his engine, picking up speed so as not to bore the little seeker over his head.  <<"The wide spaces are better for the kind of speed I usually top out at, and I don't have to deal with the fleshlings.">> And his urges to squash them under his tires.

It was her hesitation in answering him that sealed his thoughts on her age.  Youngling.  Maybe no older than Bumblebee, if that.  Seekers aged at odd rates.  Which made her being out here, alone, much more of a concern.  <<"You are a terrible liar, and I have good scanners.  Aside from the point, if you were part of a trine they'd be closer to you than this, even if they didn't show up on my scanners.  Starscream let you off the leash for awhile, femme?">>  Let her digest the fact that he knew who the Air Commander of the Decepticons was, which was common enough knowledge anyway.

But he could certainly give her his designation.  <<"Hunter class, designation Barricade.  Former Decepticon, currently Neutral.">>

@moonwing

[Deleted]

Barricade

Her lie, unsurprisingly, was called out, which was ironic; for a Decepticon, she was rather lacking in skills of deception. Moonwing’s ailerons twitched in embarrassment -- not that he could see from the ground, but as a result she did wobble in the air a bit. She also felt a twinge of fear: unlike the last time she’d followed a vehicle on the highway from above, this was not an Autobot, and she was becoming keenly aware of just how alone she was.

Her embarrassment was quickly replaced by childish indignation in response to his words, though. <<”Starscream didn’t give me permission to go flying, Dreadwing did,”>> She automatically said without thinking, eager to correct his assumption.

He had given her a name, and so it seemed only fair that she do the same. <<”Um, seeker class, and my name is Moonwing,”>> The young seeker shared, cautiously. <<”I guess I’m still in training, so I don’t have my brands yet.”>>

[Barricade]

@moonwing

<<"Dreadwing then.  Interesting.">> Well, that was a flier he did NOT want to be pissing off.  She seemed as if she didn't like that he'd automatically assumed she was under Starscream's command, even though that was the current Air Commander and thus the most likely candidate for being her superior.  Still Dreadwing as an entirely different mech to deal with.  So he'd watch himself.  Tangling with a seeker, as a land model, was hard enough.  Tangling with an irate one over a fledgling of the same make was suicide.  So, no upsetting the femme.

That aside, perhaps he could have a bit of fun with this seeker.  After all, hunters ran fast and seekers were very fast in the air.  Even though he thought they looked kind of ridiculous on the ground, depending on how their bipedal state configured.  <<"Well then, femme, lets see if you can keep up with me.">> He knew she could, but it was best to let the young seeker tell him that.  So he picked up his pace, opening up his engines and feeling the energon in his lines flow rapidly to compensate for the amount of energy he was now putting out.  He gained speed, waving back and forth on the pavement at first to allow his heating tires time to compensate for the gain.

[Deleted]

Barricade

<<”Wh-what?”>> Keep up with him? Keep up with him where? Moonwing did a double take, as much as a jet can do a double take. Having only recently begun mastering the power of flight (and having a particularly strict flight instructor), the young seeker had not had the opportunity to open up the throttle and find out what her maximum speed really was. <<”W-wait, are you sure-...?”>>

The grounder below began to pick up speed, and Moonwing unconsciously matched him, the engines of a jet easily keeping pace with the engines of a charger. Wide spaces and flat terrain would probably be best for a bot like him, now that she thought about it. She wondered how fast he could go at his top speed. Further and further she strayed from her prescribed route, but her -- admittedly short -- attention span had already been caught by the mysterious Barricade who seemed to want to race her.

<<”There’s no way you can outpace me!”>> She told him, soaring effortlessly above him as he weaved, <<”I’ve never heard of any grounder that was faster than a seeker!”>>

[Barricade]

Although his frame admittedly still needed certain repairs, he could function just fine this way. A spark related injury could take him out if he were to get into a real fight, and he knew this, but playing was something he could do. Playing, leading a little seeker on a fine chase through the desert, pushing his speed and her endurance. It was one of his few true pleasures, being able to just drive. And having a little one along, well that was just a pleasant extra. Not that he'd admit to liking the youth of his kind, but still.



Outpace her? With jet engines probably not, but his top speed and hers were probably about the same, at least while she was still growing into her engines. So he picked up his pace, pushing on more and more as he left behind even the premise of being a normal Earth vehicle. He topped two hundred miles and kept picking up speed, now eating up the long stretch of road. His engine roared and heated in his chassis, and that too pleased him.



<<"Come on then seekerlet, keep up!">> His harsher tones had lightened just slightly, but again he was in a good mood.

@moonwing

[Deleted]

To say that the young seeker was enchanted by these novel turn of events was an understatement: Moonwing never been permitted to discover the upper limits of her speed in the air before, much less been challenged to hone her abilities through play. Indeed, it was a rare thing that play was introduced into her education at all, and she hardly knew what to do now she was faced with it. Luckily for her, she was quick learner, and she was finding that she was fast coming to enjoy this race. Her prior assignment completely forgotten, there was certainly something to be said for just how willing she was to place her total trust in an absolute stranger.

<<”You won’t stay ahead for long!”>> Moonwing (rather boldly) chirped at him, her voice challenging and playful as she obediently followed along. Barricade’s speed picked up and so too did hers, her engines humming in delight of this lighthearted competition as they shot along across (and above) the flat desert landscape.

So focused was she on keeping pace with the grounder below, she did not pick up the fast-approaching unfamiliar signals from the North-East until the convoy of military vehicles and helicopters were nearly on top of them. The young seeker’s delight turned to alarm, and she swerved with a high-pitched shriek to avoid what had to be some sort of missile meant to incapacitate a full-grown Decepticon.

Barricade

[Barricade]

<<"Less talking or I'll leave you in my dust!">> He called back, allowing his engines to hum and warm as he gathered speed, the energon in his systems heating and giving additional speed to his frame. It was a good day, he decided, all thing considered.

He was so focused on signals from his own kind he didn't even think that the natives of this planet would provide an additional danger to his person. Once the seeker overhead was shot at he swerved hard to avoid an oncoming land vehicle and changed direction, changing gears.

"The frag?!" He cursed loudly though without his comms, not wishing to be blamed for a youngling copying his foul language. Of course then they opened fire on his person as well and he had to swerve sharply to avoid being hit. Well, these fleshlings meant business.

Normally he wouldn't be about to do this, but his honor made it so that he couldn't willfully endanger a youngling. So he was out of here. <<"Follow me little seeker! Lets get out of here.">> Calm, stay on task, lead her away then come back and deal with this threat.

He immediately offroaded, glad for once of his lighter model altmode since the heavier enforcer model wouldn't have handled this terrain very well. At least not the bushes he was now plowing over.

@moonwing

[Deleted]

Moonwing had been warned, of course, about this specific group of humans. She had been sternly told to stay away from them, for they had been responsible for Breakdown’s maiming, and if she were ‘stupid enough to get herself caught by them there would be no rescue party sent for her’. The prospect of being left to be dissected and studied frightened her just as much as the act of dissection itself, and thus she’d been very effectively discouraged from trying to make friends.

-Not that these humans wanted to be friends, that much was clear. The young seeker gave another squeal as another missile was fired, and only just narrowly dodged it. <<”They’re gaining on us!”>> she squeaked, her voice tight in fear, but Barricade’s steady voice helped calm her. Obediently, she veered after him, eager to stay close to any bot who might be able to protect her.

Unfortunately for her, third time appeared to be the charm for their attackers, and the next missile hit its mark by clipping her wing. The force of it destabilized her, and Moonwing screamed as she was forced downward to the ground. The rough impact knocked her straight into her root form, and she tumbled aft over helm across the desert ground before sliding to a dusty stop with a pained whimper. <<”Help!”>>

In one of the fast-approaching helicopters, a masked agent spoke into a headset.“The second Cybertronian has been neutralized, sir. It seems like it might be a Decepticon, judging by its masked signature. The target remains active, however. Should we proceed in capturing both specimens?”

There was a pause, before another voice, deep and gravelly but clearly pleased with the fortuitous impending acquisition of two Cybertronians. “Proceed.”

[Barricade]

"Slag." He muttered as he saw the little seeker hit the ground. Well, there was no avoiding it now. He had no intention of leaving her behind, his honor aside. She was just a youngling, someone that should have been deep in the midst of the flock or whatever it is you called a large group of seekers. He called it a flock, like a bunch of Earth geese. <<"Hang on femme, I'm coming!">> He called back to her and changed directions, hearing his tires slide on the uneven dusty terrain before he was able to make the turn and plow back towards the younger Cybertronian.

If she'd been older, grown, he'd have probably left her to her fate. But she wasn't, and to his thought process that made all the difference. A youngling didn't have the time needed to be able to adequately defend themselves. Before the war, before everything, in some place in time, he'd been a true enforcer. He'd been the protector of those that couldn't protect themselves, and that carried on even after all the time that had passed. A loud roar ripped through his engine, the revving sound piercing the chaos that was this assault.

He got as close as he dared, minding the fliers overhead and the crowd on the ground. When they blocked him from going further in his altmode he transformed, launching his frame off the ground and landing on the other side near Moonwing in his bipedal form. "On your pedes femme! Let's go!" He bit out the words to her, speaking rather than comming since there was no point now in doing anything else. He hauled her up and briefly splayed a clawed hand against her back below her wings to keep her balanced while she gathered herself. "You are going to have to listen to what I tell you. Be brave. Don't hesitate, do as I say without fail. I will get you out of this. I swear it." This particular side of himself he rarely let out, it made him seem more akin to the Autobots when it was more his own personal code. He always kept his word, and he always followed through. She would be safe, he'd see to it.

Barricade's spark was already starting to strain, the injuries therein warning him that he was in no fit state to fight for long. His frame may have seemed well repaired, but his internals were still a mess. First Aid had done what he could, but until he got in with the Autobots anything more would have to wait. He'd think on that more later, for now his focus was on these humans and their audacity to believe they could attack one of his kind without repercussions.

Unlike the Autobots, he had no trouble killing them.

@moonwing

[[Not sure exactly how to have them attack. I'm not very good at fighting scenes.]]

[Deleted]

For all the training she’d been put through, poor Moonwing had never been in such a serious situation before, downed by an enemy missile and most certainly left for dead by her faction. It would not surprise her if Barricade abandoned her as well - and why wouldn’t he? She had been stupid enough to get herself shot out of the sky, and any Decepticon would leave her to her fate. The human vehicles bore down on her, eager to claim their prize (unintended though it may be, for she had not been their intended target at all), but the young seeker remained frozen in place in her fear.

A mech, roughly Vehicon-sized and sturdily-built, suddenly burst into the fray, and Moonwing’s shellshocked gaze shifted from the humans to this strange unfamiliar newcomer. He spoke to her, but in the chaos and the terror around them the seeker only stared dumbly back in incomprehension. Luckily, a clawed hand hooked her scruff and hauled her up onto her feet - and then finally she realized that this stranger was the charger she’d been racing across the desert only moments before.

Barricade was telling her to be brave, and if her wings hadn’t already drooped to their lowest they would have in that moment. “B-But-... I can’t!” She whimpered, her voice taking on a hysterical edge. “I can’t! I’m not brave at all! I don’t even have in-built cannons!”

From his aerial view, the grizzled human commander surveyed his prospects. Clearly the police car - undoubtedly the one they’d been tracking, for he’d not had good enough sense to shield his signature from their sensors - took particular umbrage with the threat against the flier. Come to think of it, the flier did seem unusually small compared to others they’d seen in the past… He hummed thoughtfully. “Gentlemen,” he said into his headset, “We came here for one of these robots, but I won’t turn my nose up at getting two in one go. Fire at will, soldiers.”

The soldiers of MECH obeyed without hesitation, completely oblivious to the fact that they likely had just signed their own death warrants.

Barricade