*PRIDE: I own my Destiny*
[2007 Movieverse, Barricade x OC]
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS. Cryo, Jason and Alex Sanders belong to me.
"I'm always the Bad Cop. And don't bother asking for the Good Cop. I killed him." Barricade
"Who's the slagging idiot who nearly killed and deafened me with that horn?!" shouted Sam, who was lying against the wall, after he had barely managed to dodge an insanely driving Transformer in the main hallway of the Base. Soon, the roar of that powerful engine faded away.
"Fuck you, damned Decepticop! I took note of your plate number and this time you will hear Optimus, I swear!" threatened the young Witwicky.
"Uhm, Sam?"
"Yes, Alex?"
The blond child gave him a puzzled look.
"Sam, are you sure he was 'Cade?"
"Do you know any other asshole in this place?"
"Mmm... that's strange. He doesn't look like someone who honks the horn while he's driving... I think he just runs you over".
Prelude: Before Crisis
"A drowning sorrow floods the deepest grief,
how long now?
Until the weather change condemns belief,
how long now?
And once was mainly coincidence believe,
What's wrong now?
The saints are coming,
I say no matter how I try,
I realise there's no reply..."
{The Saints Are Coming, U2}
It was a lovely, cloudless summer day. The sun was shining above Los Angeles skyline and the streets were crowed, as always: neither in the night, nor during the day did the city enjoy a single moment of rest.
Celebrating her admission at Berkeley with a trip to Los Angeles with her dad had been a great idea.
A girl examined her own reflection in a spotless shop window: she seriously needed a haircut. She had let her dark red hair grow more than she was accustomed to...
"Cryo, for heaven's sake, please tell me you're not going in this shop too!"
She turned with a smile to face a man in his forties who was staring at his watch, concerned.
"No more excuses, dad! Today you have to come shopping with me, you promised! And, c'mon – she added – don't tell me you're already thinking about your job!"
He nodded. "If I don't, who will? I'm thinking about a new job that LTC. Anderson proposed to me..."
"Why didn't you tell me? What kind of job?"
"Well... It's about training recruits at the Academy... again"
Cryo couldn't help but laugh. "Please, that's ridiculous. You don't like teaching, you just hate being forced to stay at a desk. And you're not so old as to get yourself closed in a classroom... yet again."
Jason Edward Sanders sighed. "Thank you for calling me "not so old", girl, but you know: you'll go to Berkeley soon, and your brother is still a child, I can't leave him at home alone. My settling down at the Academy, here in California, would be the best decision I can take for all of us. I just have to find someone to keep our house clean, maybe once a week...."
The girl raised a hand to stop him. "Shut up. You don't have to take your decision today. I will be here till my classes begin, so stop being concerned!"
"You don't get it, do you? You have to think about your future, now. You shouldn't waste your time acting like a mother, tidying up the house, cooking... Your brother and I can survive without all those attentions. I don't wanna sound rude but... I'd like you to start caring about yourself, Cryo. You don't have to toil every night in that pub and get jaded..."
"Dad, I love that job and I don't feel like asking you for money when I'm in need... Let me work with my friends, please. I just want to enjoy this as long as I can. Life in Berkeley will be hard..." she replied.
"Ok, ok, I surrender – the man laughed – But don't overdo..."
"Dad, if you don't stop worrying, I swear I'll make you shop with me in that huge mall at the corner of the road!"
"W-what? Don't you dare! Those places drive me crazy!"
"So, you promise you'll stop being so overprotective?"
The man folded his arms and smirked. "You always know how to persuade me, don't you?
Cryo smiled. "I've learned the sublime art of negotiation from the best teacher in the world!"
"Tsk, I taught you too well"
They had been walking in silence for some time when Jason dared to ask her: "Why don't you join Alex in Texas?"
She immediately cast a deadly glare on him. "Auntie Jenna and I can't stand each other since I was a child. I don't want to spend the whole summer in stupid quarrels with that slu-... Sorry, I mean, that... that... old bag" she corrected herself.
Her father lifted an eyebrow. "Old bag? I'll never understand why you hate her so much"
"I don't hate her, dad. But I can't accept that your sister has never moved a finger to help you after... after mom went away."
It was as if an invisible cloud had hidden their happiness. But it lasted only a few seconds. Jason knew it was all his fault. He had done the "forbidden" question; he had to mend it. "The sun is getting hot, isn't it?"
"Mm? Oh... yes, I guess..." she answered distractedly.
"May I offer you an ice-cream or you're just too old even for this ?"
Cryo looked at her father with a smile. "Maybe I should offer it to you, I invited you in this shopping-mess!"
"Forget it, girl. I have this privilege as your father!" he replied, merrily.
"Ok. But then... I want a mint and chocolate ice-cream, daddy!" she exclaimed and, with a grin, she started running to the small kiosk near the mall.
Fifteen minutes later they were sitting on a bench in one of the nice, small city parks, with their two huge double mint and chocolate ice-creams. It had been a while since father and daughter had enjoyed a similar moment. Jason Edward Sanders, formerly Major Sanders from the U. Rangers, was often abroad due to his grade and qualifications; since she could remember he had never spent more than two weeks at home, except when he had broken his arm and had been temporarily suspended from the Army... but even then he had been obliged to teach at the Academy for his whole convalescence period.
Cryo and Alex were so happy when he had told them he would come home for a few weeks. Sixteen days: that was his permission. Unfortunately his son, Alex, had gone on vacation with his cousins a few days later, but his daughter was at home. "She was so happy when I told her about this holiday, and now, how can I tell her that they already want me back at work?"
His leave had barely lasted a week. Two days before he had received an "emergency" call on his second mobile phone. From the moment he had picked up that phone, he knew that there would be only problems.
…..48 hours before.....
Jason woke up with a start. His mobile phone was ringing, but as he tried to grab it from his night table, he realized that it wasn't the right one. The sound came from the other device, a brand new blackberry he always kept in his military-bag. "Damn it" he thought. That was the "Red 1", a top secret hot line established for national security issues. Only few people were granted access to it. After a few more rings, he finally answered.
"Jason, did I wake you up?"
He immediately recognized the voice of his superior, LTC Mark Anderson.
"No, sir, I was awake" he lied.
"I apologize for bothering you during your holiday leave, but here's a total mess. Have you seen what happened in Qatar?"
"Yes, sir. The news talked about a terrorist attack at our base in Soccent."
"Terrorist attack? I'm no longer sure."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Some of our Rangers survived the attack. We are taking them home while we are talking. But they said... what destroyed most of our best soldiers there was not... human."
"WHAT?" Jason nearly screamed. "Excuse me for shouting, sir, but I don't understand. What do you mean with "not human"?"
"I don't know, my friend. I don't know. All the information are classified, but I received orders from John Keller himself".
Jason gulped. John Keller was the U.S. Secretary of Defense. "This means only one thing: all this mess has become a national security affair. Crap." he cursed mentally.
"The Secretary is now briefing a group of computer-technicians at the Pentagon" explained Anderson.
Major Sanders closed his weary eyes for a moment. "I thought it was a military matter, sir"
"Unfortunately, my friend, it is. The Soccent people who survived twice at the attacks reported that at the base their systems was hacked while something was ravaging everything. And yesterday someone managed to hack again our "hyper-secure" mainframe directly from the Air Force One computers". Anderson's voice was full of concern.
"Jason, Keller issued DEFCON 2. As you can figure out, this means that the situation is critical"
The major stiffened. "What are your orders, sir?"
"Head back to the base as soon as I contact you. I feel they're hiding too many things and the whole nation will soon have to face all this".
"I don't like this mess at all, sir"
"Neither do I, dear friend."
Jason Sanders was still lost in his thoughts when an ear-piercing sound made him jump from the bench. "What the slag...?!"
Boosters. As a soldier, he was trained to recognize the noises caused by aircraft. The man saw a jet, a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, flying recklessly among the skyscrapers of the downtown. "Who's that asshole? It's forbidden to fly so low!"
"Cool down, dad! Probably it's just another drill..."
"Bullshits! Do you have the faintest idea of what would happen if that aircraft crashed into a building? He's not respecting any of the safety regulations! I can't believe the Air Force allows newly graduated pilots to fly an ultra-advanced stealth jet without the necessary experience!"
They didn't see a military squad running desperately just a block ahead, nor two vehicles – a latest generation Chevrolet Camaro and a GMC Topkick C6500 – transform and come to life.
The F-22 banked abruptly with a smooth maneuver too perfect for a human pilot, and nosedived to the ground, under thousands of astonished looks.
Sanders screamed at the same time as everyone else just as a rocket treacherously launched by the fighter jet exploded in a building.
She didn't know how much time she had remained unconscious or if she hadn't fainted at all, but when she opened her eyes blinded by dust, she only saw smoke and rubble. Her forehead ached and she felt the blood trickling down her cheek.
Trembling, she looked around. "What's happened?"
The girl barely remembered the Raptor firing at everything. Now she could hear screams and blasts not too far from her.
Her father... Where was her father?
"C-Cryo..."
She turned and cried when she saw the man covered in blood, with half of his body crushed by a fallen wall.
"DAD! NO!!"
She ran to him, desperately attempting to free him, but she couldn't move the concrete slab with her own strength.
"SOMEONE HELP ME!!" she cried, but no one answered.
"Cry...o..."
"If anyone can hear me, please help me!!"
"Cryo, listen to me! - exclaimed the man, striving to keep his voice firm – It's... It's the end for me... I can't feel anything... I... I can't even breathe..."
"Hush, hush... Don't waste your energy...The rescuers will come... Please, stay with me..."
At the same time, the F-22 flew again over their heads, shooting at something in the nearest block. Who, or what was he firing at?
"Cryo, I want... I want you to listen to me... carefully..."
"Don't talk, dad... You have to resist... I'll look for help..."
Sanders closed his eyes and took a deep breath... Maybe his last, he thought. His lungs had collapsed, his pace was slowing down. He felt cold.
"Please, Cryo, stay here... I want you to go away... now ... Run, hide and... stay safe... until everything is over... I don't know what's happening... but I want you to be safe..."
Tears started running down her face. "You can't ask me to leave you here..."
"I'm not asking... You're in danger, you don't know if that thing will come back again..."
Jason gently stroked his daughter's cheek with a shivering hand. "Take care of your brother... and of yourself, little one..."
"Dad..."
His bright blue eyes turned glassy as he exhaled for the last time.
"Dad..."
She could not cry. She could not mourn his death. She could not surrender to pain, because a huge M1 Abrams tank appeared at the corner of the ravaged street; the ground began to quake slightly as the armoured vehicle advanced, flattening everything was getting in his way. She looked up at the panzer with horror in her eyes and stood up quickly, ignoring her aching body. She dashed away as fast as she could.
Cryo barely managed to think about where to escape to, until an explosion threw her to the ground.
"What the..."
In front of her eyes filled with tears, two huge robots had just fallen in the middle of the road, still fighting in what was a deadly battle... Then she saw him. A guy, about her age, was trying to wiggle out of the black bot's claw. He firmly held in his hands a strange, metallic cube full of glyphs.
"I'LL KILL YOU! MINE! ALLSPARK!" shouted the black robot, fury burning in his crimson optics.
"SAM! Put the Cube in my chest! NOW!"
With a last, desperate cry, the guy jumped on his feet and threw the cube right into the chest of the black robot. Immediately, a wave of pure energy propagated from that thing called "Allspark" which, at the same time, had melted with the metal plates of the robot's chest. The light generated by the explosion wrapped everything up. Blinded, the girl felt a sharp pain crossing her right arm, as a red-hot blade had just cut her skin, deepening inside her muscles, her bones...
Her mind screamed, but she felt like the whole universe were mourning with her...
Then, darkness embraced her.
Et voilà! My first chapter is out!
What else shall I say... I hope you will enjoy this story! Forgive me for bad grammar but I'm not English mothertongue so...
Uhm, I need a beta ^_^
Thanks to Daniele (My personal Barricade) for the HUGE help with grammar.
R&R, please!
Kisses,
Cryo*89