Cruise

[Barricade]

"You know how to follow orders, don't you femme?" He barked at her, keeping his gaze on the approaching humans even as he circled around to try and keep Moonwing behind the bulk of his frame. He wasn't taller than she was, but he was broader and could somewhat do that. He was in a battle crouch, blasters in hand and ready to do damage. These humans were stupid, trying to take on two Cybertronians at once, one of them grown. But they'd learn, and see that capturing a Decepticon wasn't as easy as they thought it was going to be.

He flipped one of the blasters so that it was handle first and gave it to the seeker. "Take this, defend yourself." Sharp tones, an order not to be disobeyed. "Stay close to me." That was all he could say to her before the humans opened fire, peppering his frame with stinging bullets that didn't make it all the way through. Their weapons were annoying more than painful, but he had no doubt they'd figure that out quickly and change their tactics. Slag. She had no weapons of her own, and didn't seem to have the training necessary to handle herself.

So he switched from long ranged weapons to his close combat ones, a smirk spreading its way across his features as he unwound the chain that contained the spiked wheel he used most often in melee combat. "You picked the wrong mech to try and take out, fleshlings." Fire at will indeed. He swung the bladed tire out from his person in a wide arch, expertly missing the seeker behind him and plowing through an entire row of the human soldiers.

The first line fell back as screams filled the air. The weapon he used had shredded them, killed most instantly. The ones that hadn't died outright probably wished they had. Cybertanium blades were meant to be used against other Cybertronians, and so cut through human flesh like they were made of paper. Or, the better analogy, cotton balls.

"Is that the best you can do?" He asked them in mocking tones, perfectly emulating their language so that they'd understand him. "I'd suggest pulling back now, forget you ever saw us." His spark was constricting painfully, and he was getting messages as the stress of even a light battle such as this started edging him closer to terminal spark failure. Not that he showed this externally, of course.

@moonwing

[Deleted]

Barricade

At his words, Moonwing gawked at Barricade, her expression perfectly emulating a cyber deer caught in the headlights. Following orders was something she knew how to do, at least, though there were no guarantees as to how well said orders would be carried out, but- she could follow instructions. A blaster was shoved into her hands. It certainly wasn’t the first time she had held one, but sterile practice upon a firing range did not equal true experience upon a battlefield, and everything she remembered about using external weaponry fled from her terrified mind. “I-I-” She stuttered, before she swallowed hard. “-Okay.”

She was so frightened, but she had to trust Barricade. It was no surprise that she stayed close, taking shelter behind his bulk when she could. Her hands shook around the blaster’s handle.

Moonwing was entirely unprepared for the ferocious violence in which Barricade fought back. The chain and spiked wheel elegantly swung through the air and tore through their human attackers as if they were nothing. Screams filled the air, and the seeker watched on in horror as the first wave quite literally fell apart.

From above, the grizzled commander surveyed the ongoing operation. He did not seem all that phased by the fact that a good quarter of his troops had just been destroyed; rather, he seemed only mildly impressed. He studied the situation, how the police car seemed to be attempting to shield and guard the flier - and how there was a blindspot opening up as the cruiser focused upon the human troops.

“What’s left of Alpha team, fall back,” He ordered, “Beta team, move in from behind and stun the flier.”

So focused upon the bedlam before her, Moonwing didn’t notice the team creeping up behind her until it was too late, and something like a cattle prod had been jammed into her ankle joint. Her startled yelp turned into a screech as voltage surged through her frame.

[Barricade]

He wasn't surprised when they started to fall back, after all he'd destroyed them. But his concentration was on the opponents closest to him, and so that gave the humans the chance to sneak up around behind him and get to the femme. Normally he'd have been on top of such an error in his defenses, but his injuries left him in less than fighting condition.

Her shriek earned a snarl of rage to be pulled from the depths of his chassis. The protocol of an enforcer, of someone that was meant to protect those that could not do so for themselves, was in full force. "Alright you have just signed your own death warrants." He told them before plowing shoulder first into Moonwing so that she would be knocked away from the shock.

Which meant he got shocked, systems going haywire as a bold human poked him with the cattle prod like device. He went down hard, striking out with his claws to clear the vermin from his vicinity as he tried to regain his pedes. He was getting warnings again, and fighting through them was getting harder and harder. At this rate he'd deactivate just from the strain he was putting on his damaged spark.

His intakes were working too hard, he realized, and he had to plant his pedes further apart than normal to regain his balance. Bad news. "Can you fly, seeker?"

@moonwing

[Deleted]

Barricade

It had only been a short time ago that poor Moonwing’s frame had been subjected to a similar dose of electrcitiy, when she’d foolishly tripped over a live overhead wire and short-circuited herself to unconsciousness. In her opinion, this was much worse: the voltage was pumped directly into her systems by way of the cattle prod in her exposed ankle joint instead of dispersed across her outer armour, causing her body to stiffen and her claw-tipped fingers to curve. Her screeching abruptly cut off as her vocalizer fritzed.

A shoulder ploughed inter her side, and instantly the circuit of electricity was broken. The young seeker was left stumbling and wheezing, her optics wide and shocked. Something went down heavily against her legs, and to her horror she found it was Barricade, who was panting and thrashing as he attempted to get back to his feet. There was something terribly wrong in the way he held himself, the way his optics flickered, and the way his EM field fluctuated wildly, and it made Moonwing’s spark sink even more.

Moonwing grabbed Barricade’s arm and hauled upward, straining to help him get upright. “I-I think I can,” She spluttered, momentarily confused at the question, before she processed the implication behind his words. Her wings twitched sharply. “I’m not leaving you! They’ll kill you!”

She didn’t know what was wrong with him exactly, but she could tell just by looking at him that it wasn’t good. Her cowardly instincts screamed at her to flee, to take the suggestion and take to the sky before the humans could stick her with the amped-up cattle prod again - but a bigger part of her wanted to stay, and do whatever she could to help him with whatever it was that was making him vent like that.