Transformers: Starcream Ascendant
Disclaimer: I don not own any part of this franchise; not the robots, not the humans, not the towns, the locations nor the government weasels. All I own is a plot... inspired a little by (my reading of) An Cailan Rua's Tricolora series, yes, but only a little and mostly from the second installment. The points drawn on are the presence of a kid and a romantic wossname for Miles (with a bit of Starscream in the mix) but otherwise it's pretty much my own ideas.
Summary: Barricade: bad cop, blunt instrument or babysitter? In Starscream's latest and 'screwiest' scheme, our favourite Saleen Mustang ends up playing all three.
June 18th, 9:30 PM
Evansville, Indiana
1 year and 2 weeks after the Mission City Incident
The sun had already set when the black and white Saleen police cruiser turned onto the side-street in one particular subdivision, a place of well-maintained bungalows, freshly cut lawns and, luckily for the occupant of the car, no inconvenient front yard fences. Driving past the row of houses, the car seemed to slow down slightly in front of each door, as if looking for the right address.
In front of one particular house near the end of the block the vehicle stopped, and anyone watching the scene would have witnessed a young woman in a jean-jacket and a skirt exiting the passenger-side door and walking up to and knocking on the front door.
The door opened to reveal aCaucasian male in his mid-30s, slim, brown hair, but otherwise non-descript. "Yes, may I help you?" He asked the woman... girl, really, who seemed to have recently been in some distress.
"I'll make this short and sweet..." She began, almost angrily. "My name is Edith McPherson., I'm 18 years old, I live in Louisville..." At that moment, a woman appeared behind then man, cradling an infant. "And I would like to have my son back." Edith finished, folding her arms in defiance of whatever might be thrown her way. Something had very obviously pushed this girl into action, but what?
"Are you saying that... you're Alvin's birth-mother?" Asked the woman, apparently Mrs. Schlotter, and Edith noted, with some small glimmer of triumph, that they had used the name she had given her son.
"Yes I am, and considering what happened to the last kid in your care, I think that Alvin would be safer with me." Edith was not normally a girl to be so up-front, but what information she had received had so shocked her that she felt that no time could be wasted on niceties.
Ted Schotter was not a stupid man, but when a reference was made to the existence of another child in his care, he was genuinely dumbfounded. "I'm sorry, but there must be some mistake: we've never had another child."
This time, the answer was calm, as if this had been an expected obstacle. "I was told that you'd say something like that. But I think that in this case I'll have to insist that Alvin come with me."
Ted was now beginning to worry. "Martha, I think you'd better get Alvin to bed while I..." It was then that the engine of the cruiser started up, becoming louder and, to a point, sounding much angrier than the Schlotters thought that any police car had the right to be. To their shock, the car began to turn on to the lawn, driving right up to the door, with each rev of the engine sounding like pure agression in vehicular form. As Edith was forced aside, Mr. Schlotter finally identified the second unusual thing about this car.
No one was driving it.
Suddenly, the quiet, middle-class existence of this family exploded in a flurry of clashing metal plates and the dark, rising form of what had once been a simple car. When questioned later, the last thing that Theodore Schlotter could recall was looking up into a set of glowing red eyes.
If anyone has any criticisms or suggestions, I'd be happy to receive them