Seekers Come In Threes.
Chapter Four.
A/N: Bold type is databurst speech. Dawnstreaker belongs to KDZeal of the International Nerd Herd (on this site), Runway and Freefall are mine. Thanks to KDZeal for Seeker psychology, needs, and issues.
Ironhide! Drop the force field and let the two Seekers coming out of the Base go! Dawnstreaker sent as she raced after the stumbling figures of Bumblebee and Mikaela. Her trine-mates sent an acknowledgement of her earlier summons, to which she sent an automatic thanks, too busy to be more personal about it.
By the time they got out of the Base, Mikaela and Bumblebee were running on about eighty per cent of inbuilt Seeker programming that humans might call 'instinct." The other twenty per cent was the programming Dawnstreaker had downloaded to them, and the combination of the two meant that when they threw themselves into the air they stayed there hovering, still in robot form, rather than crashing messily to the ground.
Belatedly Dawnstreaker realised she had not taught them how to transform: thankful that her data hookup had automatically logged their comm frequencies, she commed them the information of how to transform from one to the other and back again, and could only hope that at least one of them was coherent enough to upload it. It was Bumblebee who flipped into jet mode first, followed by Mikaela exactly forty-three seconds after, telling Dawnstreaker that Bumblebee had used his trine-bond with Mikaela to provide her with the information only he had detected had been sent. She recalled they would need a location too: although the exact location of the Decepticon base was unknown, she was able to databurst the pair an area of about five kilometers square that the Base was likely to be in.
Less than five seconds later, both jets shot off rapidly in the same direction. As Dawnstreaker watched them shoot off, she saw and sensed her other two Trinemates, Runway and Freefall emerge.
Follow! she ordered. As she was not just the trine leader but was privy to more information on this situation than they were, they followed her lead as she switched to jet form and went after the two.
She databurst a rundown of the situation to them as they set off in pursuit of Bumblebee and Mikaela.
Understood. was their reply. We only intervene if necessity dictates.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Sam was only permitted to stop crawling when he and his captors had reached the centre of the Decepticon Base, which was a big open area of flat and scorched earth that bore witness to many Seeker takeoffs and landings. Ironically, while the Seekers were away, it seemed that this area was to serve as the setting for the kangaroo court Barricade had obviously planned for. A big grey and white tank rolled up and transformed to robot form as Sam watched.
"Uhh, so what now?" Sam asked as Barricade and the others released him and stood in front of him.
"I will be your judge." Barricade told him. "Dropkick and Payload will act as what you humans call a 'jury'. Sam decided not to ask what the tank was, he had a funny feeling that he knew, a feeling confirmed when the tank spoke.
"I am designated Wreckage. I will carry out sentence." Bright pinky-red blades sprang from the tank's wrists. "Energon blades cauterise, but hurt bad." he stated.
If Sam had had any doubt about the likely verdict, Wreckage's pronouncement had dispelled it...
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
Instinct combined with knowledge was more than enough for the two new Seekers, who headed for the area described. They headed towards it with scanners running. At first they ran the same scans, until Bumblebee realised that the energy expenditure was redundant.
Mikaela! Bumblebee said. You keep scanning for energy signatures, I'll scan for a cluster of Sparks, and we'll combine our results to find him.
Mikaela sent the blip they both understood as an affirmative, and both scanning for different things, they headed for the area specified in Dawnstreaker's co-ordinates.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo o
"Okay, so who's speaking in my defence?" Sam asked. "Surely I'm permitted a defence lawyer?"
"Not here, here we practice Cybertronian justice, you must defend yourself," Dropkick stated smugly.
Sam looked at Barricade, trying to hide his fear with a cockiness he did not feel. Surrounded by enemies, in an unfamiliar body he did not know how to use, he felt more vulnerable than he ever had in his life.
"So, if I'm on trial, what are the charges against me?" he asked.
"The murder of Megatron, and the destruction of the AllSpark, which pretty much dooms our race to extinction, so murder and genocide, fleshling, that is what you stand accused of," Barricade said.
Sam began to panic a bit. He had guessed this 'court' might be rigged, but not how valid the charges might be.
"I…I was trying to defend myself. Megatron was trying to kill me and I didn't know that the AllSpark was the only way your kind reproduced, I didn't realise!"
"Did you put the cube in Megatron's chest, hoping to destroy him?" Barricade asked.
"Y-yes, Optimus had said he'd sacrifice himself, I didn't want Optimus to die, so I put it in Megatron's chest instead." Sam babbled. "It was self-defence!"
"You admit you did it?" Barricade demanded, then before Sam could answer declared "Well, there you have it, you admitted it from your own processor, plus the other charge, that of being a Seeker, well, there is no way you can deny that!"
"Hey, hey, hey," Sam said, "but…no, no, no, this cannot be happening! If I hadn't done it, Megatron would've killed me, it was self defence!"
"Oh no it wasn't, not from what I heard." Barricade said nastily.
"What…what do you mean?" Sam asked nervously. "He said he'd kill me, I had to defend myself."
"Ah, but earlier he suggested that if you gave him the Cube he would let you live as his pet." Barricade said.
"He…he did, but he said 'might', not 'would.' Sam said weakly.
"He phrased it that way to make it an offer. Had you done so, he would have taken it as acceptance, and he would have kept you well enough, he was a mech of his word," Barricade stated.
"I…I didn't know, just as I did not know that pushing the AllSpark into his chest would stop your kind reproducing, I only found that out later!" Sam protested.
"Ignorance is no defence!" sneered Dropkick.
"So, the jury's verdict on the case? First offence: the murder of Cybertron's Lord High Protector?" Barricade stated.
"Guilty from his own vocal processor." said Dropkick.
"Guilty." echoed Payload.
"Hey! What about my statement in my defence?" Sam asked.
Barricade glared at the pale blue Seeker.
"You have given it already, and condemned yourself with it. Silence, or else by your human standards you will be 'in contempt of court' and you should not be trying to accumulate crimes."
Sam subsided: he had known from the beginning it would be biased, he supposed, so why was he protesting, he wondered?
"Second charge of delayed genocide?" Barricade continued.
"Again, guilty," Dropkick said, echoed by Payload.
"Third charge, becoming one of those arrogant Seekers."
"Even he cannot deny that, the evidence is in front of all our optics!" Payload said.
"Guilty, guilty and guilty again!" Dropkick cried.
"HEY!" Sam said, futile as it was. Barricade turned to glare at him briefly, than looked back at the others.
"So, what should his sentence be?" asked Barricade.
"Death!" stated Dropkick.
"Have him tortured first!" Payload said.
"As it happens, there is something we can do to him that takes in both of those possibilities," Barricade said. Panic began to rise in Sam, and he somehow got to his feet, but he found the joint arrangement awkward: he fell over his own feet as Dropkick and Payload sprang for him, grabbing his arms and holding him on his back on the ground. He felt pain and metal bend as he was forced back, the thin metal...his tailfins? - being pushed against the dirt.
Barricade moved forwards and put hydraulic hands around his ankles, pinioning his lower body to the floor.
"Have you ever heard of 'grounding' Sam, and what it does to Seekers?"
"Uhh…no." Sam said, truthfully enough.
"Grounding is when Seekers are denied the sky. Grounding can be temporary or permanent, and ranges from being tethered or locked up, right through to the wings being destroyed, by being shredded or removed, dismantled or damaged beyond repair. The thing is, Seekers need the sky, to fly, to keep sane: I have witnessed more than one Seeker lose their mind, lose their sanity, lose themselves out of need for the sky. Some permanently grounded seekers, or those grounded temporarily but for too long, kill themselves if they can, or have others kill them. I have heard it said that such a killing is truly a mercy, to kill them rather than force them to live without the air, unable to fly. It is, Sam, a mercy that will not be extended to you: this shall be your punishment."
He looked briefly to the two others. "Hold him, pull his arms taut." Sam felt the strain on his arms as Payload and Dropkick obeyed: he tried to kick but Barricade was holding his legs in a firm grip, he was on his back and helpless, immobilised by the three mechs.
Barricade turned to look and nod at at the tank-mech, which raised its energon blades in acknowledgement.
"Okay, Wreckage, sentence has been passed, you will carry it out." He turned to Sam with a triumphant look on his face before looking at the tank again.
"Do it Wreckage! Take his wings!"
