Chapter Ten
Another Day, Another Try
He was surrounded.
The thick crowd of humans surged around him, parting only to allow him room to past. Barricade felt as though he was in a giant bubble, with the humans on the edge and only sounds permeating the invisible cover. Thick red, blue, and white streamers flowed through the sky around him in a disorienting fashion, and balloons floated in his face. Little pieces of paper the humans called 'confetti' floated down in lazy circles from the buildings on either side of him, decorated in the same three colors as the streamers.
Barricade was tempted to turn around and head for the safety of the countryside, but Starscream would have his hide if he did that and messed their plan up. The jet was finally taking the time to haul his own chassis out of the Nevada desert to help pull off the operation this time. In fact, Starscream was still seething from the previous failure to eliminate the human leader. It forced them to postpone other plans that involved the death of the leader.
Barricade snorted at the memory; the assassination attempt at Mission City would have worked if the dratted Autobot Ironhide hadn't come barreling out of a nearby parking lot and rammed him in the side, throwing him off course from the presidential motorcade. Then Ironhide had decided to continue the chase from earlier that day and tricked Barricade into going onto a roadway the humans called 'Devil's Run'. The chase had ended with more than just a fender bender for Barricade.
Then the media pinned the blame of the incident onto three humans, one male and two females.
Shielded by the heavily tinted windows of the police vehicle, Frenzy watched the passing humans with disinterest. Both Barricade and Starscream had promised him a lot of chaos and destruction in exchange for his cooperation, but so far neither promise had come true. He restlessly moved from the driver's side to the passenger side, as if hoping for a change of scenery. More humans. Frenzy moaned and ducked underneath the dashboard on the passenger side. He was surrounded by the insects… there were so many!
Barricade carefully powered down his electronic signature to creep by the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, who was in his truck form near an elaborately decorated stage. The stage had been set up right in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, and a few humans scurried around it, checking electronics and other small details. Humans swarmed and packed themselves in front of the stage, causing Barricade to wish again that he could flee for the countryside, where the numbers of humans weren't so large.
The next two Autobots to creep by were Ironhide and Ratchet, also in vehicle form. Barricade vaguely recognized the two humans with them, LadiesMan217 and the female that seemed to follow him around. He tried to take small comfort from the fact that all they would see was another LAPD security vehicle, not a disguised Decepticon trying to sneak past.
Barricade finally angled himself towards the stage in the direction of where the humans were setting up the podium. Starscream was somewhere outside the city, timing his arrival so that the Autobots would be sufficiently distracted while Barricade demolished the stage… during the human leader's speech.
"Officer?"
There was a loud rapping sound on the driver's door. Frenzy flinched, and muttered some human profanity while Barricade's hologram flickered into existence. "Yes?" Barricade answered, rolling the window down while trying to regain control of his irritation.
A female peered into the car. She seemed rather peeved that he hadn't automatically responded. "There is a yellow Camaro that banged up my brand-new Ferrari and the driver said it was my fault, and I told him that I was allowed to park there and…" she prattled on and Barricade tuned her out. He had better things to do than worry about a human's precious car. He just hoped the Autobot scout put a good dent in it.
"I think that teenager knows the driver. Talk to him," Barricade said lazily, gesturing to LadiesMan217 near the yellow search-and-rescue vehicle. "Now go away. I'm working." With that, he rolled the window back up again, and he heard the woman mutter something about useless law enforcement before the window snapped shut and the hologram flickered out of view. Frenzy of course was still snickering and mimicking the female's whiny voice, and Barricade mulled over the possibility of throwing his old comrade out of the car itself and leaving Frenzy to fend off the humans. The idea had merit.
"Barricade, what is going on?" Starscream demanded over the secure link. Barricade personally thought Starscream needed to learn a little patience.
"Nothing much. I'm right next to the Autobot medic and weapons specialist, and the humans are still getting on the stage. Oh, and Frenzy is getting bored," Barricade reported, watching as several dressed-up humans got up onto the stage. Thanks to Frenzy's tinkering, Barricade was cut off from the World Wide Web, and so therefore he didn't know what the human leader looked like. He was relying on Starscream's entrance to know when to attack. Timing was everything.
There was a hiss over the link, and then silence. Barricade knew Starscream had signed off, and wondered again why he was in a rush.
Finally, finally, the humans began the ceremony.
After the long introductions of upcoming speakers, through which Barricade scanned the crowd for any potential threats, the first speaker came to the podium and began speaking about something related to Mission City and expected recovery.
How the humans tolerated these speeches was beyond Barricade. Most of them were paying strict attention while others were still snapping photographs with their little devices. Only the young humans displayed signs of boredom. Around the ninth speaker, one of young humans even had the audacity to put sticky, cream-coated fingers on his side, leaving streaks on the door.
Ugh.
A faint whine in the air suddenly caught his attention as another speaker came forward. Using his sensors, he detected Starscream's rapidly approaching energy signature. It was time. He gunned the engine a little, just to be ready. Frenzy eagerly leapt onto the dashboard to watch.
Slag.
He forgot that he was right next to Ironhide, who was rumored to have extra-sensitive audio receptors. Barricade mentally cringed when he heard Ironhide's engine start in response to his.
The stupid humans of course thought that Starscream dive-bombing them was just a part of the event, an attraction to alleviate the boredom of listening to speakers drone on and on about something that didn't concern them.
"Barricade, kill the human leader NOW!"
Barricade winced as Starscream's shrill voice cut through the interior. The humans in front of him panicked when it became apparent that Starscream wasn't going to pull out of his dive, and became even more terrified when Barricade revved the engine, aiming for a quick shot to the podium.
The police Decepticon shot forward in a similar fashion to bullet from a gun. People screamed as the car nearly ran a few stragglers over. Barricade heard a grinding of gears behind him as Ironhide transformed behind him, and Starscream let out a shriek as he pulled sharply from the dive because of the cannon that was aimed directly in his face.
Barricade got the chance to see his victim, standing there as if rooted to the spot. Then he plowed into the stage directly underneath the human, wood and brick flying into the air. He felt a rattling sensation as he plowed up the stairs of the City Hall. Nope, stairs wasn't his thing.
The screams seemed to have intensified as Barricade backed up out of the wreckage. Frenzy was going haywire inside, and it hurt Barricade a bit to have something small and metallic rattling around in his interior.
Suddenly Barricade felt himself being lifted from behind, and immediately transformed to escape. He had to twist himself out of Ironhide's grip, and fell to the ground, smashing the entire front of City Hall. Getting a little nervous, Barricade ran a quick assessment of the situation.
The Autobots had transformed as well, and the humans stupid enough to stay and watch were gaping at the spectacle. The Autobot leader was challenging Starscream, who was still swooping down from the sky. Both Ironhide and the scout were attempting to cage him in, and the medic was nowhere to be seen, as well as the humans that accompanied them. Frenzy was also missing.
Snarling, Barricade charged at the scout and managed to shove him towards Ironhide, distracting the weapons specialist. Then he charged the leader just as Starscream decided to do the same thing.
They needed to coordinate a little better.
As if sensing their plan, Optimus Prime had the common sense to get out of the way of both Decepticons. A loud crash echoed for blocks as the two Decepticons collided into each other, and then a second crash was heard as they both fell back onto the ground.
Starscream didn't move from his position on the ground for a few seconds; he was still in his jet form and Barricade guessed that he must have taken the brunt of the attack. To make things worse, some of the human spectators were howling in laughter. They only became quiet when Starscream angrily fired a missile in their direction.
"Retreat." Starscream choked out over the link, and took off for the skies, narrowly missing Ironhide's attack. Barricade winced as he watched his comrade nearly collide with a Goodyear blimp that had arrived to catch the confrontation on camera. Barricade fired at the scout who had attempted to sneak up from behind, but was immediately seized and rendered immobile from behind.
It was the Autobot medic who had arrived at some point. He held Barricade while the other three Autobots surrounded him. Barricade wondered briefly where Frenzy had gone off too; now would be a good time to make himself useful.
"You know Barricade, you had been so quiet for the last couple of months that we thought you had left Earth with Starscream. I had my suspicions when I saw you in Mission City, but the humans were convinced that you were an ordinary police officer," Ironhide remarked, approaching the Decepticon with his cannons drawn. Barricade growled when he saw the smirk on his enemy's faceplates. "Oh well, I guess now is the time to join your leader," Ironhide said, powering up both cannons.
With a high-pitched shriek, Frenzy launched himself from his hiding spot and climbed up the medic's back, tearing out random cables in the process. Caught off guard, the medic let Barricade go, and the giant Decepticon swung a punch at Ironhide, sending the weapons specialist into the building across the street, spraying rubble onto the ground and crowd below. Barricade instantly transformed, and allowed Frenzy to climb in. Then he tore out of the city, tires squealing.
It was slowly getting dark outside. He didn't stop until he arrived to a semi-quiet place the humans called 'Pasadena'. Barricade limped into a darkened alleyway to nurse his physical and pride injuries. Frenzy climbed out, chattering to himself as he checked over the extent of the damage. Barricade was missing two doors, had scraped paint, and bent fenders and bumpers. All in all, Barricade felt as though he had just gone down Devil's Run again.
"B…B… Barricade. Look. Human leader never in city. Human leader back home in… White House" Frenzy chattered, gesturing to the TV screens in a electronics store directly across the street from Barricade. "We got leader's second-in-c…command."
Barricade kept his dark thoughts to himself as he focused his receptors on the TVs, just to catch the story. The anchorwoman's voice flooded his audio receptors, saying:
"…and the vice president was the victim of a terrorist attack just this afternoon. He was checked into the Harrington Memorial Hospital this afternoon and is expected to recover and live. According to official spokesperson for the government, Tom Banachek, the attackers are very same who are responsible for the Mission City attacks a few months prior. There is an alert for a police cruiser with unknown license plates and LAPD identification…"
Megatron would be mightily displeased to learn that his soldiers were incapable of getting the correct target. Again, Barricade was grateful that Megatron would never hear of these… accidents. Barricade liked being in one piece.
He attempted to contact Starscream. All he got was static, which meant that Starscream had invariably found another unlucky slagger to vent his anger out on. Barricade felt sorry for the little slagger… he wouldn't be surprised if it was the nosy female that listened in on the conversation between him and Starscream that one time.
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A/N: This particular incident is mentioned in Chapter 16 of Air Force One, just in not so much detail.