Alexis was starting to believe that her subconscious mind was totally screwed up. After everything she had gone through the day before, she believed she would be unable to sleep. But she did sleep and not only that but soundly and peacefully. No nightmares followed, no recurring memories that of late liked to haunt.
The night had been chilly, but after getting out of her sleeping bag and settling on top of it, she found the day had turned warm. She stretched backwards, feet pushing forward as she wiggled her toes against the silkish outer lining.
Turning her MP3 player on and seeing the time, she hurriedly got dressed. Alexis wanted to have a couple of moments to herself before everyone got up and they continued on their journey.
Unzipping her tent and peering outwards, she got out, standing up as she slowly looked around. Bee was to her right with Sam probably still asleep inside him. Mika's tent was on the other side of the Camaro.
Starscream took over her frontal view. The jet was a good enough distance off, yet still distracting. He was positioned between a bunch of trees and bushes. His metal was illuminated by bars of light that shone down through the branches, darkness pushing back from behind him.
She clipped her Zune on her pants pocket and softly walked behind Bee. Stopping completely, she saw that Mikaela's tent was open. The sleeping bag was ruffled, but missing an occupant.
Movement started at the corner of her eye. Alexis shifted in time to see her friend disappearing past the long grass that was on that side. Puzzled, knowing they weren't supposed to go off on their own; she called out to Mikaela.
There was no response.
Assuring herself that it was okay and that it wasn't far enough away that anything could happen without the others knowing, she started to walk. Alexis caught glimpses of Mika, who was walking quickly away and still not acknowledging her as she called out.
She continued to follow. A feeling came on her that she couldn't quite identify, a premonition of sorts that was making her blood tingle.
Coming to a clearing, she saw Mikaela was only a couple of feet away with her back facing her, head shifting back and forth distractedly as if she was looking for something or someone. That was when Alexis stepped on something soft yet hard. Something...
Bending down and bringing the object upwards, she started to feel completely creeped out. It was her bear, the Ewok that her grandmother had given Alexis for her twelfth birthday, the one she had left behind on her bed before...
Her instincts were screaming by then with everything telling her to get away and to get away quickly. It all became deafening as her friend suddenly shimmered and blinked out of existence.
Alexis didn't have time to scream or react. Objects whizzed through the air as something dug into her shoulder, a sharp pain following. Pulling the small object out of her, she shook her head as she suddenly felt a familiar presence. Crashing down on the ground, things started to swirl. Words left her mouth that were barely a sigh as a figure hovered over her.
"You got to be kidding me."
Barricade had pulled it off perfectly. Following the group, studying them and taking in all their habits, routines, reactionary states and times, he correlated an attack that was not only precise in its delivery, but left the Autobot and Starscream unable to do anything, frozen within their alt modes as he captured his prey.
A part of him wondered what it must have been like for them watching, sensing, taking it all in, knowing something was wrong, then seeing the femme fooled into wandering off right into his trap. He left the other humans alone. There had been a time he had thought of disposing of them, but he knew they would only serve to inhibit the mechs as they were forced to watch over them. Even if they preoccupied them a little, their insignificant existence would serve a purpose.
Setting everything up had been exhilarating. Barricade had been forced to use a little more cunning since after watching the girl through the months, following her and recording her movements and the way she responded, also taking in what was written in her journals, he knew that she could sense Cybertronians.
So he acted when she slept, stunning the protectors and her little human friends. Then he prepared his snare, putting trigger devices in the designated spot where she was going to stop with sedatives placed inside them that would be released at his command. By the time she sensed him, it was too late. When she saw him, she fought against the sedative as she tried to remain conscious. That was easily rectified when he gave her another dose.
Alexis Rivers was out now. A warm bundle of organic flesh rested in his back seat with an arm hanging off the side, limply sliding back and forth as he continued on his course.
It had been a while since he felt so good. Sensations bounced within him as his tires shredded the road while going through one empty street and then another, mile after mile, minutes pushing into hours and then a full day. The girl hardly stirred.
Arriving at his destination, he entered a dim warehouse. Barricade tilted to the side and the girl fell out of him as he transformed. Exhilaration hit him again as he realized what he had accomplished.
Barricade scanned her again, still unsettled and more than a little disturbed by what was there. She should have been dead with all the Energon in her system that flowed inside her that was now merged with her plasma. Leaning down, digit extending its claw, he slowly cut a thin line down her arm. Blood leaked and dripped on him. He brought his digit up to his optic and zoomed in, analyzing it further as he checked for a residual energy signature.
But the only thing he could read was her. Barricade's warning systems suddenly went off, his digits burning as he waved them before him. Scanning once and seeing nothing, he zoomed into the subatomic level. Nanites appeared, the tiny creatures actually going to work on him as they burrowed through his outer protective layer.
Cursing, he manually activated a security protocol, his own nanites going to work as they terminated the ones that tried to invade his system.
Looking back down at the girl, he stared transfixed. Her flesh was already healing and stitching itself back together. Finding it interesting, he stood there watching as the cut healed over in less than seven minutes.
So that was true as well. The girl's body was becoming resilient, even defensive, but that suited him just fine. Alexis Rivers was going to have to be strong if she expected to survive with him.
Leaving the human, yet keeping his scanners on her, Barricade gathered his tools and equipment while making ready to leave. Finished with that task, he stood against the far wall and calculated when she would wake, his impatience growing when the mark was passed.
But then suddenly, she stirred. She groaned as she sat up, eyes opening then dropping and then opening once more before growing wide. Noticing him immediately, she scooted back, thwarted when she bumped into some stacked crates that nearly toppled over.
Stilling, she took to staring. Breathing out of her mouth, her eyes focused and cleared, internal system coming back alive as her heart increased its rhythm.
Barricade stood straighter. Keeping away from the overhead lights, his voice rang through the abandoned building, rising upwards toward the tall ceiling and then echoing back down.
"It is about time that you came back on-line. We have things to discuss Alexis Rivers."
Her tiny eyebrows rose and fell, her hands pressing against her legs as she swallowed hard. The human's body shook a little as she recovered from the sedative, obviously still dazed.
"The others?"
"Alive for now."
"Are they here?"
"They are not."
"Then why am I? Or more importantly why am I even alive?" she paused, voice warbling just a little as it fell. "Are you here to take me back to the Decepticon base?"
He let her live in the fear for a couple of long moments. She shifted and twisted as her arms wrapped around her body. And then he stepped out of the darkness and into the light. Barricade watched as her head tilted, eyelids lowering as she studied him.
"You are here to do as I command. Do as I say, and you shall live. Disobey me, and your punishment will be swift and absolute."
The human was staring at his patched optic, a curious expression washing through her as she sat up straighter, the edge of her mouth curving slightly. "This just can't be happening. I mean, don't you guys even believe in a recovery period? I am just getting over my last encounter, having to go straight into another is just... just... plain wrong!" She narrowed her eyes at him while shaking her head as she murmured incoherently. Finally, she spoke once more, "You want me to repair you?"
"I believe that is obvious."
"And after I do?"
He leaned down, optic burning as he growled. "No more questions, human. We shall leave this place... now."
His change of attitude did not have the results desired. Her shoulders rose sharply, her mouth pushing together tightly as she actually glared.
"I don't believe I will go anywhere with you."
That did it. Everything he had done over the last months, all the tracking and the watching, the planning and the missed opportunities for revenge. Not to forget that she had managed to get him damaged on several occasions, making him go to some lengths just so that he could have the satisfaction of her being forced to repair him. It also didn't help in the least that it had taken two times to capture her. The only thing that even managed to appease him a little was the thought of leaving her lifeless body behind when he was through with her. To be found by Starscream, if he could manage it, for if his observations were correct, and they usually were, the Seeker had affixed himself to the girl in a most unnatural manner.
Barricade's hand swung forward and crashed against a nearby cement pillar; chunks broke off and shot through the air. Smaller pieces collided against the girl when she raised her arms and crossed them in front of her head. She dropped them when it was over, finding his face just inches away from her own, dominating her view in its entirety. The female flinched, screeched and pushed her body back. But there was really nowhere to go.
"You make it sound as if you have a choice. Know that you do not."
To be frozen inside oneself while watching things unfold and then play out; hours upon hours passing, sun shifting overhead, shadows pushing forth and then pulling back, nothing to do but to calculate worse case scenarios, was perhaps a look into what it felt like before one went insane.
Even when his servos and randar cables loosened, his gears winding once more as his internal workings sprang slowly back into action, even then as Starscream was finally standing upright, he still felt some sort of deadlock, it releasing a little as his spark pulse pounced between his audio receivers as he bellowed out in fury.
Barricade.
He took to the air immediately, wings expanding as he shot forward, cries underneath him going unheeded. He had no time for arguing or unneeded discussion. Yet still, he didn't get totally away from it as his communication channel opened.
"He's gone, Starscream," the scout informed him of the obvious.
"I'll find him."
"We need to work together," Bumblebee urged.
"Not this time."
"We'll come with you."
"Not if you value your life and the lives of your humans," Starscream said firmly.
"What do you expect me to do? Just continue on course as if nothing has happened, as if I feel nothing? I can't do that."
"Anyone who allows their emotions to rule them is weak and to be pitied."
"And what exactly is fueling you right now?" the scout blared back.
Starscream decided to ignore that one. He was not in the mood for being baited. "Continue as planned. I will contact you when I find her."
"It should be me going after her, not you. And what will stop you from just taking her and leaving?"
"At the moment, the fact that I need long-term life-support systems for space travel. Other than that, nothing."
"I am tracking you," Bumblebee warned, "make the slightest move that seems suspicious, and I am coming after you."
"If you must. But if you do, know that I shall not be there if you happen to run into opposition."
"Just find Alexis..."
"That is my intention. This conversation is terminated."
Starscream shut down the communication link. Maps emerged, his sensors stretching outwards as he started the search. Calculations flashed through him as he figured out just how far Barricade could have gotten in eighteen hours. But the Con's energy signature had long dissipated. So knowing what direction he had gone in was a guess at best, and even then his own course had to be determined by where Megatron's forces were as he evaded them.
Not that it would stop him. Not that anything at that point would have deterred him in the least. Starscream knew with certainty that Barricade better have planned things out with up most prejudice, for the hunter had just made himself the hunted.
