AN: Holy crap I am nervous about posting this, so hooray for first published story? This has been an idea that's been floating around in my head for a while and I think I finally got a decent plot down.
This story is a Prime and Bayverse crossover, and may contain minor spoilers for each respective series.
Thank you, and enjoy the first chapter!
Chapter one – The First encounter
Decepticon Barricade drove alone and silent along the long stretch of deserted highway, the moon glistening softly off his black and white paint. Currently he was moving from one city to another, just as he had been for the last few mega-cycles. Barricade was on a recon mission, one he still didn't understand the reasoning behind. He knew that Shockwave had somehow convinced Lord Megatron that the Decepticons would benefit from a human alliance just as the Autobots had. Shockwave was certain that there were humans on earth that, given the right incentive, would gladly serve the Decepticons. Thus Megatron, still wary of the idea, sent Barricade down to earth to gather better information about the humans for as long as he could undetected.
So Barricade came up with a plan that would allow him to gather as much intel as possible before being detected. To keep himself off the Autobot's radar; he would stay in one city for a solar cycle to gather information in secret on the humans as he had been ordered. Once nightfall hit he would leave and go on to the next closest city, unless the city was marked on the Decepticon's database as a known Autobot hotspot.
Barricade vented, right now though he was exhausted–he hadn't had a full recharge in a couple of solar cycles. His initial plan was to travel to the next city to get a complete recharge since it was so close to the previous one. Unfortunately, he had been en-route to the next city when his internal navigation systems alerted him at the last minute that he was approaching that the city had been alight with Autobot activity recently. While frustrating, the easy fix to his predicament was to plot a course to the next large city… Which happened to be several earth miles away. Of course with Barricade's luck, this deviation from course was taking longer than initially anticipated. At the moment he was greatly considering pulling over on the side of the road in order to recharge until morning. Barricade hummed in thought, it would be risky since there were all kinds of things that could find him and jeopardize his mission. Though, if he could find one of the buildings that the humans called "gas stations" he could–
Barricade was suddenly jerked from his thoughts by the wailing of his systems and the message displayed on his HUD.
Warning, object approaching – collision chances – high
Believing he was about to collide with something, Barricade slammed on his brakes in a panic. Only to come to a screeching halt beside a small powder blue Volkswagen Beetle parked on the side of the highway. Realizing that he was only going to pass by the car and not run into it, he growled with frustration. Not only was he about to go into stasis because of low energy, his systems were malfunction too! Barricade vented, that meant once he got back to the Nemesis he would have to go up to the Med Bay to get repaired and that meant he had to interact with that disgraceful excuse for a medic. Just as Barricade was about to speed off into the night the door of the bug opened and a human femme poked her head out. Holding back a growl, Barricade quickly conjured up his holoform in the driver's seat of his alt mode hoping the human was not able to see through his windshield.
The human couldn't apparently because as soon as she laid her eyes on the silver "police" painted on his door her forlorn expression brightened and she exited her vehicle. Barricade's holoform groaned, sometimes he really hated the fact that his ex-enforcer tendencies made him chose a police car of all things for his alt mode. Because that meant on recon missions he had to act like police officer and actually be kind to the humans. Barricade's holoform huffed as the human quickly approached the car and rolled down his passenger side window.
"Ma'am?" Barricade forced a smile, "Is everything alright?"
"Um, well." The human knelt down so her head was level with the robot's window, "My little bug," she gestured to the car, "has been having some problems lately, and I was on my way home from a friend who lives in Greyford and my car started making these… noises." The girl paused, "Like… sputtering noises I guess is what I would call it. So I pulled over to the side of the road just as my car shut off and I haven't been able to get it to start since."
Barricade held back a snort, "Do you not have a mobile phone?"
"Well I do," she waved the device in front of the window as if to prove it, "But I don't get any signal out here." She sighed and looked at the ground for several seconds before looking back up at the officer sitting in the car, "Do you think you could give me a ride? I've driven this way several times before and I know there's a gas station in a couple of miles–"
"Well if you know that there is a gas station up ahead, why haven't you walked to it?"
The girl looked down at the ground again, "I- I'm not comfortable walking down the highway alone at night…"
Barricade sighed, "In order to give you a ride somewhere I would have to get permission from my department to do that," Barricade's holoform gritted his teeth, "If you will wait a few minutes I will call them and ask what I can do."
The girl nodded slowly and stood up, "Thank you, officer."
Barricade rolled up his window and his holoform sighed, what was he to do? He could always just speed away now and leave the human, it wasn't his problem the organic didn't know how to fix her own vehicle! However, this was a recon mission and that meant he had to act like an actual police officer. Additionally, since he didn't know were the girl was from hacking into an actually police radio frequency was out of the question. He glanced over at the girl, who had retreated back to her own vehicle and was leaning her back on it, arms crossed and looking at her feet. "Frag…" Barricade sighed and rolled down his passenger window again, "Hey!"
The girl looked up, "Sir?"
"I –" Barricade gritted his teeth, "The department said I could give you a ride to that gas station to get help."
"Oh!" The girl smiled, "Thank you officer! Just let me get my bag!" she ran back to her bug, opened the door, and stuck her front torso inside the backseat. After a few minutes she emerged with a worn backpack and a crowded key chain on a lanyard. She closed the door to her bug, locked it, and promptly walked to the Decepticon's passenger side and got inside.
Barricade held back a shudder, he already hated when frenzy was crawling around in his cab, so he loathed when humans were inside. "So where is this gas station?"
"Oh, just continue down this road its up on the right."
Barricade hummed in acknowledgement, as he revved his engines and sped back onto the highway. Good, he thought to himself, means less time I have to keep her. He glanced over at the human to get a better look at her. She was young, with pale skin and long brown hair that reach down to her lower back. She was dressed in a simple grey T-shirt with some sort of animated character on it and a pair of dark blue jeans. She currently sat with her bag at her feet with an elbow perched on the side of the door frame, her head resting on her hand as she watched the world speed by.
The two were silent for several minutes as Barricade drove down the dark highway until the girl suddenly sat up, "There!" she pointed to a bright light that was up on the right of the road, "That's the gas station!"
Barricade nodded and slowed as he approached the gas station. He turned into the lot and drove past the gas pumps and stopped in front of the small convenience store. "Here you go," now get out.
"Thank you so much, officer…?"
"Uh, Cade."
The girl smiled, "Thank you so much, officer Cade." She reached down to collect her bag and Barricade caught a glimpse of the pendant around her neck.
Barricade's Energon ran cold, "What is that?"
The girl looked up with a confused look, "What?"
Barricade said nothing as he reached over to the girl and snatched up the object around her neck. He was quiet as he inspected the item, it was metal and diamond in shape but that wasn't what caught his attention.
It was the cybertronian runes that covered the object.
Impossible, "Where did you get this?" Barricade almost growled.
The girl's eyes widened, "Uh, um, M- my friend gave it to me. She said she got it at an antique store and she didn't want it so she gave it to me." She looked at Barricade, "Is something wrong, sir?"
"No." Barricade said flatly, dropped the object and forced a smile, "It just looked like something I used to own, there's nothing wrong."
The girl stared at Barricade's holoform for several seconds before nodding, "Oh, okay. Thank you again for taking me here." She grabbed her bag and exited the car.
Barricade sat and watched the girl as she entered the convenience store and conversed with the older woman who was working at the cash register. He observed her for several minutes before revving his engines, speeding out of the parking lot and back on to the highway. He quickly opened his com-link and pinged the Nemesis.
-Barricade to Nemesis, respond.-
Several seconds past by before the fuzz at other end of the com-link turned into Soundwave's melodic voice, -Barricade: this is Nemesis responding. Report.-
-We may have a situation.-
