Chapter Twenty-Five

Escapade Finale

"I strongly dislike you all," she snapped before turning around to go back to the car. "Ironhide is going to suffer with me," she said, opening the truck door and climbing in. "We should get started; those two could be halfway to Machu Picchu by now." She remained quiet in the driver's seat before remarking, "I really hope they're not going to Machu Picchu… It's such a long way from here to the American – Mexican border and I know for sure I don't have my passport…"

"We'll catch up with them before they get there," Ironhide rumbled, and Ari wondered if he was unfamiliar with the whole sarcasm concept. She decided to keep her mouth shut; she wasn't that familiar with the Autobots as she should be since she more or less worked for just NEST now... thanks to the incident in London.

She pursed her lips, searching in her mind as to where her passport could possibly be. Oh, right. It was still in her carry-on at the bottom of her closet at her nice little house in the suburbs of Boston. There was probably a huge stack of dirty clothes on top of the carry-on too, with her wallet, cell phone and iPod all buried in it somewhere. It was probably a bad idea to have left the cell phone behind; forget about Lennox trying to call her, Tyler was probably going to call with a question about the laundry and where the detergent was located. She always tried to remember to put things back exactly where she found them to make it easier for Tyler to find them, but there were the few occasions where she forgot.

"The twins were here all right," Ironhide observed, his deep voice breaking through her thoughts. They were probably half a mile away from the park, in the busier sections of the city. Ari winced, looking at the parked car nearby, the bumper barely clinging on. A streak of black paint marred the white side of the parked car, announcing that a car with black paint must've scraped alongside it. "Barricade. The twins are either running from me or still trying to catch him," Ironhide rumbled, disapproval evident in his tone.

"Or both. Maybe they're trying to appease your anger by doing the 'brave' thing and catching the Decepticon for you," Ari suggested. "I tried to appease my ninth grade math teacher doing something similar like that… ended up with a week of detention for getting caught red-handed but in my defense, I was framed."

"Detention?" Ironhide asked through the radio as the pair of them entered mainstream traffic. Ari made a point of placing her hands on the wheel and staring ahead to keep the observant officer appeased.

"At my old school, if a high school student misbehaved badly enough, they got detention, where they had to stay after school for an hour or more doing nothing. It's all up to the teacher," Ari replied, leaning over with one hand to dig out her sunglasses from the glove compartment. If she was going to be seen driving a huge truck that looked better with a guy, then she was going to go at it fashionably. After thinking it over for a moment, she added, "It's kinda like when the twins get hauled into the brig at Diego Garcia for pulling pranks that the rest of you guys dislike so much." The grumble from Ironhide reflected his attitude about the memory, and Ari grinned. She leaned forward a bit, trying to pick out the twins' distinctive neon colors against the myriad of blues, reds, greens, yellows, grays, silvers the colors went on and on. "Yeah, I don't think the twins are the most fashionable cars on the block anymore."

"Give them time. Then we'll be getting reports of another bizarre ruckus," Ironhide said darkly as he made a left at the traffic light. "In the meantime, you keep looking and I'll keep scanning."

"Here's a suggestion. I think that this scanning thing is like a beacon for any of your kind looking out for such a signal. Power down and let me handle the driving, it just might work," Ari offered, placing her hands on the wheel for real and resting her foot on the pedal.

"Drive carefully," Ironhide finally growled out warningly before slipping into temporary stasis. Ari gripped the steering wheel and swiftly took over control as Ironhide surrendered it to her. She gritted her teeth, and focused on driving in aimless directions, not really paying real attention to where she was going, all the while keeping an eye out for either the twins or Barricade… or any other problems.

In reality, the twins were nowhere near the busier parts of town; they'd been harassing Sideswipe for the last twenty minutes after escaping the disaster in the park. The silver Audi had just fled for the safety of the highway, and neither twin was inclined to chase the Decepticon; a high-speed chase would drain them of their energy. They both needed the energy to stay one step ahead of NEST. As for Barricade, well, after the cruiser had ditched them in the center of town, the hunter had disappeared completely off the map again.

"Okay, so Sideway's gone. Now do we wait for Barricade to resurface or focus more on putting more miles between Ironhide and us?" Mudflap asked as Skids finally came to a rest in front of his brother after scanning the trees for any more of the pesky tree rodents. The twins were nestled in what the humans called a 'cul-de-sac'.

"Putting more miles between Ironhide and us. That way we can live to try and chase Barricade another day," Skids replied wearily as he shut his engine off. The thick foliage of the surrounding trees would shield them from an aerial attack in the off chance that the Starscream showed up, and hopefully they would pass off as normal cars for any curious humans. "Whaddya say to a thirty-minute rest and then we move on? Assuming of course that we don't get caught before then."

"Sounds good to me," Mudflap replied, his chassis sinking down slightly as he shut off the engine with his brother following suit. As they both settled down to recharge, Mudflap switched on two external scanners, still wary of Barricade trying something when they had their backs turned.

Thankfully, he didn't have to wait long. Almost ten minutes later, Barricade came around the corner, weary of the chase as much as the twins were. Mudflap sensed that the real human behind the wheel was doing more of the driving than the Decepticon was. Mudflap hoped Skids could see this without needing an alert; there was nothing Mudflap could do without alerting Barricade also. The cruiser, a line of paint marred on the side where he'd scraped into a white car at Skid's encouragement, finally came to a rest at the entrance of the cul-de-sac, a respectful distance from the twins. Mudflap could hardly believe his good fortune; it was rare that this sort of thing happened. Was Barricade dense, or did he have his guard lowered, or was he baiting them?

"I still don't think you can get me out from federal prison in less than twenty-four hours, have you seen the places with the highest security?" the woman driver snapped as she got out after the engine had died. Mudflap grinned to himself as the image of a young man appeared leaning against the cruiser. Okay, apparently Barricade had completely missed them and was lowering his guard.

"I think that you merely have lost faith in my abilities," Barricade replied innocently as the female officer that Mudflap had flirted with earlier pulled her cap off and ran a gloved hand through her messy ponytail. She seemed to look around, looking anywhere but at the twins. Mudflap could only wonder at the female's apparent ignorance; humans were extremely unobservant.

"I don't feel good," she finally said, turning her back towards the twins. "I feel… sort of sick, if that makes any sense."

"Dehydration. I told you that accepting the water would be a good idea," Barricade said mildly as he continued watching her pace slightly.

"You were the one in a rush!" she shot back, and then wrapped her arms around herself. "They're not going to be gentle," she said finally.

"Mmm," Barricade grunted, his hologram looking back to where the main part of the road was, no doubt looking out for any NEST soldiers. Mudflap was now seriously convinced that the Decepticon had completely missed the twins, leaving himself open for the taking. On the other hand though, the human seemed panicked enough to indicate that she knew they were there.

"That's easy for you to say, you're not the one who will be getting all trussed up," the woman replied before wringing her hands nervously as she too looked down the road.

This was almost too good to pass up. Mudflap checked his brother, and was stunned to find that during the exchange, Skids had managed to scoot around the slight bend in the cul-de-sac so that he was closer to the Decepticon. Mudflap guessed that Barricade had developed an unhealthy infatuation with the female if the Decepticon hunter had completely missed Skids moving closer. Not even Mudflap thought that Skids was that good… or lucky for that matter. Extremely careful not to accidentally turn any electronic signals that would give him away, and careful to be extra quiet, Mudflap slowly inched forward, turning slightly so that he would be in the perfect position to T-bone the oblivious hunter. Once he was perpendicular, Mudflap rested back on his wheels; content to watch Skids inch forward. Their dream of bagging a Decepticon on their own was coming close to completion, and all they had left to do was contact Ironhide and tell the bigger Autobot to take it easy when it came to ambushing the quartet.

Speaking of the black devil…

Mudflap tensed when he sensed the larger Autobot traveling up the street that was parallel with the cul-de-sac off to the right. Time was starting to slip away; if he and Skids were going to return to Diego Garcia as heroes, now was the time to act. Skids seemed to have gotten the same idea; he was now visibly inching toward the Decepticon hunter and the human femme. Mudflap mentally calculated the distance between Skids and Barricade and then between himself and Barricade. If they both leapt at Barricade at the exact same time and transformed mid-air, then maybe they would have enough air to clear the Decepticon and would be able to drive their own weapons into him. That would hopefully maim Barricade to the point where he could be safely taken into NEST custody without a fuss.

Oh wait. Mudflap didn't remember taking prisoners from the Shanghai fiasco. He felt his gut twist; while he was no stranger to killing Decepticons, Barricade was in his own arena of danger. Mudflap hoped that the element of surprise would enable him to dispatch the Decepticon quickly with no casualties.

Ironhide was now at the end of his street and was making a left. Soon he would come to the cul-de-sac street and Barricade would react either violently or stealthily to the Autobot's presence. Mudflap wondered briefly if the older Autobots ever felt this kind of pressure when they were sneaking up on the enemy during those long years of combat on Cybertron. Then the thought was gone as he focused on bringing a certain hunter to justice. Barricade, he noted, had detected Ironhide also; the hologram had raised its head and the femme appeared even more anxious than before.

So he wouldn't see the twins coming.

Perfect.

With a squeal of tires and a growl from the engine, both twins simultaneously accelerated from a standstill and lunged for Barricade, Mudflap getting enough air to execute a perfect transformation in midair without hitting anything. Skids let out a strangled battle cry, smoke billowing from his tires as he shot forward like a neon bullet.

Barricade hadn't been as clueless as the twins originally thought. The hologram whipped to face the oncoming threat while at the same time he not so gently shoved the woman aside. She took the hint and scrambled away as the hologram fizzed from existence and the black police cruiser unfolded itself into the form of the feared Decepticon hunter. Mudflap felt himself scrabbling at air to pull himself up and get out of Barricade's path, but for once the trajectory was perfect for the intended crash landing. The one time the landing could be fatal.

Skids came through for him at the last minute. Barricade was distracted by Mudflap's dive bomb, leaving his flanks vulnerable for a precious few minutes. With a strangled Tarzan-like yell, Skids transformed as he shot up into the air slightly toward Barricade. He collided with Barricade's midsection with a mighty crash, the ground shaking violently as the two giants slammed into the meticulously manicured lawn behind them. When Mudflap landed, he tried to push off the ground to get on top of his twin and add more weight to Barricade, but his attempt backfired and he only dug up even more grass. A few creatures the humans called moles ran in absolute terror from the monstrosities that were ripping up their underground homes.

With a mighty shove, Barricade was freed from the twins. Snarling now, the Decepticon lashed out as Skids tried to come in for another punch, sending the neon twin reeling back as Mudflap jumped in. Perhaps, if they could just keep overwhelming Barricade and keep him from regaining his bearings, Ironhide could arrive in time to cut the Decepticon in half.

But the twins forgot about the pesky human. If NEST humans could deal out enough damage to a Decepticon, it meant that it was true the other way around. The reason the Autobots never thought about it until now was that they hadn't had a reason to suspect that a human displeased with them might be in a position to do something about it.

Skids let out a howl of pain at the gunshot and moved to swipe at the femme who had fired the two-second-long sabot round. At some point, the woman had gotten up back on her feet and had backed away from the fight only to pull out a weapon when both Autobots were distracted. Her eyes widened as she saw Skids coming for her and tried skirting to the side to avoid his swipe but he caught her middle anyway. There was an audible crunch as she slammed into the cheery sunshine yellow garage door.

Mudflap however was finally thrown off to the side as Barricade got his first chance to regain his bearings. Skids changed direction and charged down the Decepticon, but before he could Barricade swiftly moved to avoid a cannon blast from behind Skids. Skids changed direction and slammed into the Decepticon as Ironhide eagerly jumped into the fray.

Wow, remind me not to upset Ironhide! Ari thought warily as she darted over to where the police officer was pulling herself up in a daze. The ground shook violently as Barricade began returning Ironhide's fire with one weapon while trying to fend off the twins with another. Ari knelt by the officer and provided support as the other woman carefully moved into a sitting position. By accident, they made eye contact.

"Ugh, not you again!" they both said in unison as familiarity clicked in their brains. There was a moment of silence before Ari said, "Geez Peyton, you're in trouble big time now! Forget the colonel, Major Lennox wants your hide too!"

"That… could be a problem," Jenna replied through gritted teeth as she leaned back against the garage door.

Ironhide meanwhile, noticed almost immediately that Barricade wasn't in the mood to fight at all. Actually, the Decepticon was making vain attempts to escape by transforming but each time he did either Mudflap or Skids would take advantage of the transformation and jump on top of him only to be viciously thrown off as the Decepticon transformed once more to keep them at bay. Only after about four of these repeated incidents did Barricade stop trying.

Ironhide tensed, and then fired a cannon as Mudflap momentarily captured Barricade's attention. The blast threw Barricade back, narrowly missing the two women and the man's garage. Sparks flew as the entire telephone pole snapped in half, and Ari squealed as the sparks moved dangerously close to them. Even the twins seemed to know to stop and let Ironhide handle this; Barricade could easily knock the still sparking power lines in the direction of the women. Ratchet had warned them that it didn't take much electricity to render a human unconscious or even dead.

Sensing the break, Barricade stood up again, almost lazily. He silently taunted the weapons specialist as he retreated slowly, only to quickly transform and escape, narrowly evading the other NEST vehicles that were arriving. Ironhide realized his surroundings, and then quickly transformed as unfamiliar government vehicles arrived with the two NEST vehicles, the twins close behind him in transformations.

"What the hell…" Lennox said as he got out of one of the cars, Epps right behind him.

"Barricade escaped," Ironhide's hologram announced darkly as he approached the others. The twins had also activated their holograms, just so they could inspect the damage more closely. "The twins were actually productive for once," Ironhide added grudgingly, glaring at them for the briefest of seconds.

"Any casualties?" Lennox asked as Ironhide glanced over to where Ari was helping the other woman up.

"Just her," Ironhide said, a scowl forming on his features as he recognized the woman's bio signs. Lennox turned, and sighed when he spotted the woman also, and then began to approach the pair of women.

Jenna's face was an expressionless mask as Ari half-gently half-roughly pulled Jenna's wrists back and handcuffed them together. "You do realize you're in for a very long time, right?" she asked as she forced Jenna to straighten up by placing a hand on the small of Jenna's back and pushing forward. Then, to the other woman's indignation, Ari quickly patted her down in search of any hidden weaponry. The search turned up two small firearms, a cell phone, and a pair of handcuffs.

"Yeah, I've arrested enough people to know that it's going to be a long time," Jenna said, exhaling slightly as Lennox approached her. "Well major, it's been a while. How are you this fine afternoon?" Jenna asked as Ari stifled a snicker behind her back. Almost everyone in NEST knew of the extremely bad blood between the ex-CIA agent and major. They had trodden on each other's toes all through last year, ending in a massive quarrel that left both Lennox and Jenna with wounded pride and small physical injuries.

"I've been better. You could be in for life if they get you for treason," Lennox warned as he approached the pair of them.

"So I heard," Jenna muttered darkly as she glared at the major. Ari wondered if the other woman saw the irony in her fate; it had been Jenna's task to bring back enemies of the state for due justice and now it was her turn to endure the trip.

"Mind telling us where Barricade went off to? We… could have some hand in shortening your sentence if you cooperate," Lennox said, wincing at his words. It was a low tactic, bargaining with her sentence when they both knew there was little chance of it actually happening. But Lennox was desperate to ensnare the hunter once and for all.

"No, he never had any specific destination in mind. He was trying to find a place to recuperate in private from the little gauntlet you guys forked over to him lately, today and last week," Jenna replied calmly, her face still masked by calmness. She said nothing more as two NEST operatives escorted her and placed her into the armored van.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" a shrill voice screamed from Lennox's left.

He whipped around to find that the neighbors, who up to this point had been cowering in their homes, were cautiously coming out of their shelters now that the fighting was over. The speaker apparently was the only one brave enough to venture farther than his lawn. "Ma'am," Lennox began, raising two hands to placate the irate woman.

"What is the big idea here? I was trying to conduct piano lessons here when those monsters came crashing in and here you are acting like it's no big deal!" the woman screeched, a few more brave neighbors nodding their agreement.

"Sorry about that ma'am, we were filming a movie here and the company didn't send a notice to residents here because they wanted genuine reactions," Ari lied cheerfully as she stepped up to stand beside Lennox. "The director and producers just left to get something from the coffee place; they can chat with you as soon as he gets back if you want," she added sweetly.

"What movie is it?" the woman asked suspiciously as the other neighbors' curiosity overcame their fear and they too slowly approached Lennox and Ari.

Lennox wisely remained silent; Ari apparently knew where she was going with this and it was best that she continued uninterrupted. "The movie is science-fiction, futuristic, action-packed, and it is called... Transformers Revenge of the Fallen," Ari said, her voice wavering slightly before announcing the fictitious movie's title.

"We're not sure of the rating, but we think it might be PG-13 or something along the lines of that," Epps added as Ironhide's hologram joined the small group of people that was forming near the blackened ruins of one man's lawn.

"Remember Simmons from the news? He was on for the whole Mission City business, but he'll be in the film too," Ari said eagerly, and Lennox sensed that it was time to put a clamp on Ari's runaway mouth before she dug them all into a hole that was near-impossible to get out of.

"Keep an eye out for trailers in the future, we're still filming," Lennox cut in before Ari could add in more. "You can bill us for the repair work to your yard," he added, scribbling down contact information onto a card for the owner of the destroyed lawn. The company he had written down was a fake, a face for NEST in the corporate world made especially for them in case of incidents like this. That way, NEST could pay for the damage without revealing their true nature. "Again, we apologize for frightening you like this… we're leaving now."

He stepped back and then began walking towards Ironhide, pulling Ari along by her shirt collar. "Should we tell Galloway about this?" he asked.

"Hell no, I actually don't have a death wish. I bet I can hassle my friend in the labs to manipulate enough video to present a fake trailer for our 'movie'. It might require us videotaping a small clip of the transformations though to make it look convincing enough," Ari said, thinking. "It shouldn't be too hard."

"How did you come up with the title?" Lennox asked curiously.

"Well, they obviously saw the transformations, and I was up late last night watching Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. You know, if we actually made a movie like that, we could probably beat the Star Wars movie at the box office," Ari added thoughtfully.

"She's not going to let that one go for a while," Epps said, and Lennox nodded in agreement.