The Forgotten Scout

Author's Note: Finally things are starting to move along nicely. To be honest guys, I know these first couple of chapters are moving knida slow but that's only because i'm trying to cover my base here. I don't want Barricade and Krauss to become friends rights off the bat. Nor do I want them to to be thrown together like most fanfics nowadays. I want a deep coverage of the beginnings of their encounters before anything exciting and dramatic starts happening. If you are frustrated by this method, then all I ask is that you bear with me until Chapter 5. Chapter 5 basically equals their first introduction as partners and all the stupid, funny, nasty stuff they do to get on each others nerves. Well, until then. I hope you enjoy Chapter 3.

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. But I do own the rights to my OC: Natalya Krauss.

'Blah' Cybertronian

'Blah' Russian/Spanish and thinking

' Blah' General talking and narration

Chapter 3: This is my Predicament. My Catch-22.

The last thing the Decepticon Scout Barricade expected to see again, was the vexing fleshie femme he had encountered the previous night. Today had been particularly uneventful so far. He had patrolled the city many times, as well as monitoring the progress of the Autobots, and maintaining the undetectable distress signal that he was sending out to any decepticons approaching the Earth's proximity. So far, his efforts had been in vain, and the boredom was setting in faster than before.

Fortunately by nightfall, these feelings had completely vanished; replaced instead with resentment when he recognized the small human female walking down one of high streets with her hands in her jacket pockets and her head bowed low. The Saleen watched her wander down the road in deep concentration on something clearly bothering her. Barricade briefly considered crushing her for light entertainment; after terrifying her by transforming of course. It wasn't like she didn't deserve it.

But the idea came to a swift end when he noticed her stop abruptly and fumble into her jeans for a black mobile phone, vibrating and beeping wildly. When she answered it by the fourth ring, a strange, crackling, static-charged noise started to fizzling in the Decepticon's CPU.

"Allo?" The familiar heavy Russian accent reverberated through his audio system, making Barricade jolt in surprise. After a few moments of confusion, the 'con groaned irritably when he realized that once again his malfunctioning internal systems were acting up again. It just hadn't been the same since his fight with the Autobrat Bumblebee; and with no Frenzy to fix it, Barricade had been picking up stray radio signals from things like local music stations, at almost any random time. One night he had been in the middle of a recharge, when something called: 'Rock You Like A Hurricane' blasted his audio circuits and rudely awoken him.

Other problems such as his Satellite Navigation System leading him astray; and both his Weapon Control and Energon levels spiraling into disorder, were bad enough. But now that he was picking up phone conversations, was just the icing on top of the cake. 'Slagging Great. Now I have to listen to this Human drivel,' The Saleen grumbled in Cybertronian as he tried to disconnect himself from the mobile's wavelength.

"Preevyet... Dorogaya Sestra," The responding voice, Barricade noted, was male, obviously Russian as well; and came out as a malevolent hiss.

"Vhat do you Vant Yuri?" He heard she sigh wearily, which ruined the commanding tone to her voice.

"Why, merely to check on your progress. I'm sure you've finally settled down with the task at hand," The unknown speaker chuckled in a manner that puzzled the Saleen. Human humour was pretty difficult to grasp at times.

"Chert vozʹmi," Barricade just made out her whispered curse.

"What was that?" The brother's tone darkened with an unspoken warning.

"I did not speak, Brat. I vas joust about too tell yoou, zhat I have found information," Barricade snorted in amusement at her poor mastery of the English Language. He wasn't even a native of this planet, and he had managed to download every human language directly into CPU without even breaking coolant.

"Really? Prey tell Dorogaya Sestra." The reply was cold with contempt.

"I believe zhat zhe attack on Mission City is connected to some sort of Government experiment known as Project: Ice Man." The eavesdropping Decepticon never knew a fleshling could make his energon freeze in his wiring until right now. This child possessed the knowledge that He, Frenzy, and his fellow 'Cons had strived so hard to find? Had Barricade been human, he would have widened his eyes in a horrified manner and attempt to sneak closer towards the conversation. But Barricade was not a flesh creature; so instead, he just stopped trying to disconnect from the phone call; increased the frequency of his connection to the signal; and pulled over on the opposite side of the road.

"What is this 'Project: Ice Man?'" The other Russian sounded intrigued.

"I... Eez-vee-née-tye. I could not decode zhe language of zhe text. It vas vitten in symbols. I am investigating it further Brat." The Saleen considered her statement carefully. 'So, the fleshie femme is collecting information on us. What a fool. She doesn't even understand what she's dealing with,' the Con scoffed in Cybertronian. Despite the ambiguity of the conversation, Barricade was intelligent enough to comprehend that this Russian girl had sent to Mission City in order to uncover the truth hidden from the rest of the world about his kind.

"I see. So the files were encoded? Could you recognize any of the symbols? Even guess what language it could have been?" The irritation was creeping back into the speaker's voice. It would appear that there was a huge amount of tension between these two human siblings.

"Nyet, Starshiĭ Brat. Zhe language didn't... It didn't even look... Human." Her reply faltered at the end as though embarrassed at her answer.

"Don't be ridiculous, it has to be human! Languages were never your forte anyway, Sestra. Just look at the way you speak for God's sake! You must be reading it wrong. Send the data to one of our translators and have them work it out. Chert vozʹmi! Must I do everything myself?" The male voice snapped back. His voice, Barricade observed, now continued high levels of aggression and hatred towards his femme sister, which astonished the Saleen. Back on Cybertron, there could not have been a more powerful bond than between siblings. Well, except perhaps spark-mates. But this was not Cybertron, it was Earth; and clearly its inhabitants were not only different in structure, but mentality as well.

Barricade amplified his visual scanners to study the girl's expressionless face as her brother continued to rant and curse her for a failure that; in the Decepticon's mind; seemed fabricated. Her facial construction did not alter or adjust during this torrent of verbal abuse; she merely stared ahead, unblinkingly with cold stoicism. The brother finally stopped his endless stream of complaints and spat out one last word of 'advice.'

"Remember Sestra, it would be in your best interest to just do your job, and do it right this time." The line went dead, and the Russian girl closed her phone and slipped it back into a pocket out of sight.

"Chto ja sobirajus' delat' teper'?" She muttered bitterly and tugged at a loose grey thread unravelling from her shirt absentmindedly. Barricade couldn't help but watch her confusion as he pondered his own new situation before him. However limited her knowledge of the Cybertronian Race and their secrets appeared to be, it was nonetheless present and currently being used to possibly uncover their existence as a world wide threat, (which it was of course). Thus giving this world a chance to make more of those armour piercing weapons he had heard about from Blackout and Scorponok; that could penetrate even a Decepticon's protective plating, and potentially eliminate any false hopes of future reinforcements to aid him in the war against the Autobots and their Human Allies.

The horrific and full scale reality of his predicament almost caused Barricade's system to crash, but he quickly cooled it down and began to think logically about his dilemma.

The Problem before him was fairly simplistic: A human femme has possession of technological files full of intelligence on his entire race.

The Result: This child had the power to completely jeopardize any plan of attack by the Decepticons upon earth and its inhabitants. Unfortunately, the solution to this scenario were a little more complex.

The easiest thing to do would be to crush the fleshling to death after a torturous interrogation to extract everything she knew about the Cybertronians from her. Then again, there was always the chance that killing this squishy would cause more problems than it solved should her family send others to investigate her sudden disappearance; or perhaps worst of all, killing the brat could ruin his 'Incognito' presence within the City, and arose the suspicions of the Autobots.

His second idea was even less appealing and consisted of just the interrogation that will completely terrify her, but ultimately, she would be allowed to live. However, this would once again endanger him. If the girl was to call someone;

anyone and tell them of her experience, then whose to say that the Autobots wouldn't be tuning in through the phone lines. No doubt they would be very interested in listening to a hysterical teenage girl babbling about 'giant robots' and 'transforming cars.'

So with his best ideas now shot down, Barricade had one last chance left. If he couldn't kill or traumatize the squishy female, then he would have to approach it on peaceful terms. Play the 'Good Cop' so to speak, and lure her into a false sense of security. She obviously wanted information herself. Information and internal knowledge that Barricade could easily give, providing he got something in exchange. It was only fair. One good turn deserves another and all that human rubbish. 'Hmm. It might just work. I'll satisfy her curiosity and tell the fleshie everything she wants to know. Then I'll make her return the favour and hand over that data.' The Saleen mused mentally. 'After we're done, I'll just leave her stranded in some wasteland terrain. She'll die eventually of exposure, far away from any being who might find her.'

Barricade checked the retinal scanners still fixed upon the Russian, who had thankfully remained where she was standing since her phone conversation. She was now leaning heavily on the nearest wall behind her, and seemed to be biting the ends of own fingers; a habit, Barricade recognized, as a human's bizarre way of showing boredom or stress.

With a quick Rev of his engine (the equivalent of a human sigh), the decepticon scout pulled away from the pavement, span himself around in the middle of the road, and approached the distracted child slowly. Barricade had plenty of time to activate his hologram before the fleshling looked up to acknowledge his presence. They stayed like that for a few moments, just watching each other, trying to guess the what the other was thinking. Finally, the decepticon made the first move by winding down his passenger window and extending a gesturing hand towards the girl, beckoning her over to the car. The Russian Teen responded by lifting her body off the wall and sauntering over to lean in through the open window.

"Yoou vant business Cop? Or are yoou vindow shopping? Either way, I'm not for sale," she drawled in throaty low Russian. Barricade quirked an eyebrow at her question and processed it through his system for clarification. 'Hm. She thinks that I think she's a... what do humans call them? ... Ahh, a prostitute.' The thought both amused and revolted him.

"I assure you... Child, that I have no such interest. I only want you to get in the car so that we can talk more privately. Just talk." He added in his most assertive voice; so he was surprised to see her shake her head and take a step backwards.

"No vay. I've seen zhis too many time too fall zhis. Your 'Friends' are probably waiting in zhe alley for us, yes?" Her adrenaline levels were starting to sky rocket in panic despite her cool, scoffing exterior.

"My intentions are strictly professional," Barricade found himself snapping back in disgust at what she was implying.

"Ja. Riiight. Vhy should I trust yoou?" She retorted. "You Militsiya are all zhe same. Hypocrites, and Corrupt. Vhy should yoou be different?" She crossed her arms in open defiance, and waited for an answer.

"You are investigating the recent cover up over the devastation that occurred in Mission City three months ago, correct?" Barricade asked bluntly; tired of her abusive remarks and irritating questions. To his satisfaction, the fleshling visibly paled to an ashen grey.

"How- how did yoou-" she stuttered momentarily and calmed herself down to answer his question. "Da. Yoou are right."

"Well then, now that we have an understanding..." Barricade lazily opened the passenger seat door, and observed the child beside him over his sunglasses. "I suggest you come with me. I have a preposition for you."

********TBC********

Russian Words meaning:

Militsiya - Policeman/cop.

Allo - Hey.

dorogaya sestra - My dear sister

Preevyet - Hello (formal greeting)

chert vozʹmi - damn it

Eez-vee-née-tye - I'm Sorry (Formal)

Brat - Brother

Starshii Brat - Older Brother

Sestra - Sister

Nyet - No

Chto ja sobirajus' delat' teper'? - What am I going to do now?

Next chapter: Barricade and Krauss make a dangerous Pact.