Nosferatu News: It's been a while. Life got very busy for a bit, had to focus on all that ish before I could get back to writing stuff. Sorry for the lack of activity.
To make up for my absence, here's a stupid long chapter for y'all to enjoy.
Also, I got a better cover image. It's already been put up. It's a lot more accurate to what happens in "FUBAR", but I'll probably keep trying to get better ones.
Chapter 22: Who I am Pt. 1
Outside the Warehouse
4:50 AM
Derek sighed and put his head against the rock as he readied himself to talk about his past. There was a good bit of bad stuff that he went through in previous times, right now he just hoped he wouldn't be overwhelmed when all the emotions and sensation's inevitably spilled forth into his mind. He was still hesitant to talk about the thing's he kept to himself. He had always kept the more painful stuff hidden as best as he could, making sure it was locked away where nobody would see.
'Just do it man. You can trust her.' he told himself. Maybe it would be better to talk to someone, it had worked in the past with his squadmates after Mission City...however that only happened after they pulled him from the brink. He cleared his throat and sat up a little bit, the courage to talk now being found.
"So uh...I guess I'll start from the beginning, pretty sure the military couldn't tell you about that." The little joke about being stalked and having all the info the military had on him get sifted through by a particular someone seemed to work if the little snicker to his left indicated anything. Initial joke aside, it was time to get on with it.
"I should probably start with how I popped into the world. My parents were both Air Force back in the day, they were both Aircraft Mechanic's and worked in the same shop. My Mom and Dad both grew up in military families, both of their father's were Air Force. My Mom's dad was a crew member on C-130's, he was basically a Loadmaster. I forget how it happened, but he met his wife sometime during the early days of his military service, I think it was while he was stationed in Maine. My Mom's mother was born and raised over in Ireland. Sometime she came over and met my Mom's dad. They eventually got married and had four kid's: My mom, her two sister's, and one brother.
My mom grew up on-base in Hawaii for most of her childhood until her Senior year of High School when her dad got transferred to Texas. Her last year of High School was spent in some small town in West Texas where she basically knew nobody, it was a far cry from the melting pot of life on-base in Hawaii. Honestly I feel for her, that must have blown.
At that a puzzled Barricade piped up, "Wait, why was that so bad? It was just one more year of schooling, and besides, surely she could have made new friends, right?" Derek shook his head, "It ain't that simple Cade'. For one, the military is a very diverse thing. You've got people from across the country and all walks of life grouped up for a common cause. There's a multitude of cultures you come in contact with since everyone brings their own unique look on life with them. You could have some Russian kid who grew up in New York be paired up with a Mexican kid from Southern Texas. Both of them come from completely different background's with the only similar thing being that they're in the same unit. My mom grew up with all kinds of kids from different places in Hawaii, then was plopped down in West Texas where everyone was pretty much the same race and with the same background.
Secondly is the societal aspect of thing's. In a place like a military base on Hawaii, people don't really care about what the color of your skin is, where your're from, what your niche in society is. The friend's my Mom grew up came from all over the place. When she had to move from Texas, she lost all those bond's. On top of that, people were not as open. If you didn't fit in, you were pretty much pushed aside. On top of that, Senior year is arguably the most important year of High School. I mean beside's it being your last year of public schooling, it marks the transfer into adulthood. My mom spent that whole year in a place where she basically knew nobody.
Thirdly, the landscape is drastically different. Hawaii is a group of tropical island's. You've got beaches, forest's, a few cities, basically a drastically different atmosphere to West Texas. Over there, you didn't have all those beaches, all the forest's, you didn't have the same climate. The two places were basically complete opposites."
The giant besides him sighed like he had just lectured her like some kind of boring college professor, "I kind of get it now, but Primus you fleshies are so FRAGGING WEIRD..."
The Pilot responded with, "This coming from the twenty foot tall alien robot from another planet that turns into a police car, right?" An indignant huff of air shot through Barricade's vents before answering, "Just keep talking fleshbag, before I get bored" with an added swat at the air with her right hand. Derek sarcastically responded with, "Sure thing officer, whatever you say..." He ignored the slight snarl his comment elicited, and continued on.
"Alright, so now you know about my Mom's upbringing, now for my Dad. His father was in Ordinance back during his Air Force days. I honestly don't know how he met his wife either, but I know they spent a good bit of time stationed over in Germany during the latter year's of the Cold War. They had three kid's, all boys, my Dad and his two brother's." Derek then looked off somewhere with a nostalgic look in his eye. "We had this thing in my family whenever we could get together as a family, usually during the holiday's. It was basically a tradition of sorts for my Dad and his brother's to tell stories about thing's that happened when they were kids. There was always this one joke someone would always tell. Alright, so my Dad's parent's were both Mexican. I don't know if you're clued in to much to joke's about Mexican mom's, but there's countless jokes about Mexican mom's beating their kids whenever they acted up with this kind of sandal called a Chancla."
Barricade grunted in acknowledgement next to him. "Yeah, I've come across some thing's about this "Chancla" while poking around your internet. I think I came across some attempt's at humor, but none of it made any sense to me."
Derek took that as the sign to keep going and forgo an explanation of what the shoe was. "It's kind of hard to explain. Basically, you'd have to grow up around those sort's of thing's to get it.
Barricade nodded in acknowledgement, "Alright, keep going."
Derek continued on, "So the joke goes that my Grandmother could be in her room on the other side of the house while the kid's are messing around in one of their room's. she'd pick up on them doing something stupid or acting up, and instead of going over there to do something, she'd just pick her sandal up and throw it. Now according to my Dad and his brothers, the thing would go flying to the other side of the house, curve around corners into the room, and whack all three of them squarely on the head before returning back to my Grandma. Nobody knows how it happened, maybe it was telepathy, maybe she was just that good at throwing the thing, who know's. Regardless, nobody questioned how it worked, and it's been a family legend ever since."
The Pilot went silent for a few second's as he continued looking off into the distance somewhere. He snapped out of whatever trance he had momentarily entered and sighed while shooting a quick glance up to his left where he saw four eyes squinting at him. He apologetically waved his left hand toward's the Cybertronian, "Sorry, I guess I got carried away in thought." The larger being just shook her head, "You're good, I'm just...trying to wrap my processor around that story about the shoe." Derek chuckled at how logical the Decepticon was trying to be, "Here's a tip: don't try to understand it, it's just a joke." Barricade squinted at the Pilot again, this time slightly cocking her head, "You humans are so strange..." Derek chuckled again and nodded, "Yeah...I've noticed." He then cleared his throat and continue on.
"So uh, my Dad grew up for the rest of his childhood over in Texas. He was always playing sport's throughout his time in school, mainly football and wrestling. After graduating High School he and his two brother's enlisted in the Air Force. They all pretty much went down the maintenance path, however one of his brother's transferred into the IT and Cybersecurity side of thing's later on. But like I said, he eventually met my Mom. They eventually got married and had me an my sister later on."
Derek then took his canteen off from his belt and took a swig of water to kill off the dry feeling he had in his throat before stowing the canteen and moving on to his own history.
"So now we're on to me. I was originally born in Californian near Sacramento. I don't remember too much from Cali cause of how young I was, but also because we moved to Texas to be closer to my Dad's side of the family a little after I turned three. But yeah, we moved to Texas. Initially we lived at my Grandparent's, my Dad's parents, house until we could get a house of our own. We eventually got our own house and moved in a little after I started Kindergarten."
"Kindergarten...?", Barricade asked in a puzzled tone.
Derek thought of a way to explain it since he had no idea how the whole education thing works with Cybertronian's. He cracked his knuckles and cast his gaze skyward for a moment before he gave his answer, "Ummm...it's kind of like a pre-actually-starting-school type of thing. They taught us some very basic thing's so we'd be better off once we hit grade school. We learned the alphabet, some very basic grammar stuff, and some basic thing's dealing with math; how to count, some beginner addition and subtraction, that kind of stuff." The Pilot then lightly chuckled to himself when he remembered walking in to the Gym on the first day of Kindergarten all those year's ago. "I still remember how my first day of "School"- (Derek made air quote's with his hands.)-started. I remember walking in to the Gym with I think my Mom, to get dropped off. They had us all kind of lined up in rows as best as they could by alphabetical order I think, I dunno, it's been a while. "
Another curious question rang off, "How long is "a while"? Derek squinted, bit his lip, and scratched his chin while he thought about how long it had been. "Well I just turned twenty-five a few month's ago, and I was like four or five when I started Kindergarten, so...umm about nineteen or twenty years." Barricade flinched and had her optics shoot wide open once she heard Derek's answer. "You were still a sparkling?!" Derek had never in his life heard that term before, "A what...?" Now it was the Cybertronian's turn to do the explaining, "A Sparkling is our equivalent to your infant and early childhood stages of life. Now I've never really studied into how our age's compare, but I think it's safe to say that you'd be considered a Sparkling until you turned twelve human years old." The Pilot nodded in understanding before his natural curiosity took over, "Sooo, like in Cybertronian terms of life, where am I at right now?"
Barricade vented a sigh while covering her face with her hands and shaking her head. Derek was confused by the reaction and asked another question, hoping the answer wouldn't be what he thought it was, "That doesn't mean I'd be considered a little older than a kid, does it...?" Barricade vented another sigh while rearing her head back and almost smacking it against the ground, her annoyed body language made it look like Derek had just asked her if the sky was blue. "An adult, fleshbag, you'd be an adult..." Derek winced a little at how dumb he probably sounded. "Stupid question.", he said apologetically while looking away so he wouldn't catch the glare that was probably boring into him.
"Stupid question from a stupid human...", Barricade sighed with a bit of attitude evident in her voice. "Stupid enough to be an Air Force pilot.", Derek flatly countered with as he turned his head and looked directly into the death-glare he was catching with a hint of amusement on his face from annoying the very thing that turned being annoying into a pastime. Barricade lightly swatted the Pilot in annoyance, "Just keep talking about your insignificant existence, you're boring me." Derek sprang at the the opportunity to turn Barricade's words against her, "Yeah okay bud, I'm POSITIVE talking about my "insignificant existence" will totally do something other than bore you to death even more than me talking about being an Air Force pilot." He then paused before putting on a mock face of surprise for dramatic effect, "Oh wait, talking about my "insignificant existence", means I have to talk about BEING an Air Force pilot!"
Barricade threw her hands over her face and screamed a muffled "PRRRIIIMMUUUSSS!" to the complete delight of the Pilot. Derek snickered evilly before getting back to his little character backstory, "Alright alright, get your panties out of a bunch you big baby...Hey don't give me that face, you started this crap!" Derek caught a snarl before Barricade got settled back in and let him continue.
"Now as I was saying, I walked over to some spot in the Gym and sat down while pretty much everyone else was bawling their eyes out because they had to be on their own now. Personally, I just wanted to know why the heck I was in the place, and what the heck I was supposed to do. Eventually we got split up into classes and found out who our teacher's were. We grouped up and then headed to our rooms to start the whole thing and begin our journey through public schooling. Now other than the beginning of the first day and some small thing's like having to count to one-hundred as a little test of sorts, I don't really remember much else from my time in Kindergarten."
"Pretty soon I found myself starting my first actual day of grade school. The school I went to after Kindergarten was this pretty good sized place near one of the town's parks. The place ranged from first to fifth grade, so basically six year old's to kids who were eleven. There's actually a few things I still remember from my time there: During third grade it felt like we'd be at recess all day even though it was only like an hour and a half or something like that, we pretty much universally despised the music teacher for one reason or another, there was this turntable-looking thing we'd basically have competitions for in regards to who could hang on while being spun the longest, and "Polar Express Day" was probably my favorite day of the school-year..well aside from the last day of school, obviously." Derek then looked over to Barricade since he was about certain there'd be questions asked.
The Decepticon sat up and leaned her right arm atop the rock Derek was sitting against as she got to what she needed clarification on. "So what's this "recess" thing?" 'Ah yes, possibly my most enjoyed part of the day' Derek thought to himself. "Recess was basically a time where we could basically do whatever we wanted as long as we didn't go wandering off or go beating on someone. You could go talk with friends, go swinging on the swing sets and mess around around on the playground equipment, or just chill in the shade of some nearby tree."
"So you didn't actually do anything useful?"
"You're telling me socializing isn't useful?"
"No, I'm just saying you could also be doing something like studying or working on improving your teamwork skills. You could be doing things to help improve society instead of just wasting time on inefficient things like seeing who could hang on to that turn-table thing for the longest."
Derek sighed and thought of how to explain the whole "having fun" thing to Barricade. "Cade', human's aren't always focusing on some necessary task or skill that could be used later on. We like do do thing's just for fun, thing's that get us away from the hectic thing life can turn into. If all we focused on was improving society every second of every day, we'd just be emotionless drones. That's why I listen to music, play video games, heck, that's why I came out here to just look up and take in the universe. Sure we could inadvertently be improving our societal skills, I mean, you kind of have to work as a team whenever you're playing tag with a group of other kids, but it's not entirely about that. It's about having fun, enjoying life, LIVING. I mean yeah I could be doing something useful like cleaning my rifle or something like that, but because I came out here, I got to enjoy this beautiful sight-" Derek motioned to the night sky and the very beginnings of morning light that were on the horizon. "-I mean yeah I learned about the universe, but that was just a result of all the enjoyment I get from just looking up to see everything that's up there. It's just a result of seeing that awesome sight and realizing that really, I'm just a little speck on some rock shooting through the universe at an unfathomable speed. Doing the thing's we enjoy pushes us to improve ourselves and the thing's around us." Derek then motioned over towards Barricade. "I mean take your vehicle-form for example, that's not some ordinary car, even before it was modified even more into a police car. Someone somewhere looked at a Mustang and said to themselves "You know what, I'm gonna make that thing faster, more powerful, handle better, I'm gonna improve the thing JUST BECAUSE of how much I enjoy driving." Maybe we didn't need to do it, maybe we could have spent time and effort on something more useful like investing the energy used to design that car into designing a more efficient light bulb or researching into more efficient nuclear power or something. But that just isn't us, it's not always about moving forwards all day, every day."
Derek looked off into the distance and sighed as he prepared to say the next part. There was another reason for why humans strive to do the things they enjoyed, they were selfish. "Look...I get that you probably see my kind as selfish, and I wouldn't blame you. Hell, the only reason I've been trying so hard to get my Thunderbolt back into an airworthy condition is because of how much I enjoy flying just to fly. Really it's not even my aircraft, it actually belongs to my country's government, I was just lucky enough to be trusted with handling the thing. Even then, it's a weapon of war. The A-10 was designed back in the Cold War for the soul purpose of taking out the Soviet heavy armour that would come pouring into Central Europe once thing's went hot. It's not designed to be something you go around flying just for fun, it's a flying cannon with wing's, engine's and a cockpit thrown on. It was never designed to look pretty or to make you smile, it's designed for one thing: killing. So..well I guess the only thing to say is that we do all the fun thing's for our own enjoyment, for our own selfish desires. I...look I got you roped in to this thing now, and because of my selfishness you almost got, well, killed." Derek almost spat the last word out in disgust. "I should have realized that it's just a plane, I should have just sucked it up and accepted that it was trashed, I should have just let you do your own thing instead of making a big deal out of the A-10 and making you bring your "friend" over." Derek weakly shot a thumb in the direction of the warehouse as his head hung in shame. "I'm sorry Barricade. I wasn't thinking about what COULD happen because I was too busy being blinded by what I WANTED to happen. You don't have to do anything about the jet. Look, you can tell your friend that he doesn't need to waste his time on the thing anymore. And if you want...we can just toss it somewhere out here so you can finish what was started and waste the damn thing." Derek didn't even try to hide his shame as he kept his head down. He couldn't bring himself to look up to face Barricade.
"It's not just a jet, Derek."
"But it-" Barricade quickly put a finger against Derek's mouth to silence him. "No, Derek. Do you remember that CAS mission you flew for that squad of Marines that was getting surrounded in the mountains of Afghanistan?"
The Pilot remained silent, but nodded his head. "This comes directly from one of the Marines in that squad: "I can't lie, I thought we were done for. We had to traverse this sketchy looking valley in an are we had just gotten control of a few days prior. We nicknamed the valley "Death Valley" because of how iffy the place looked, we never expected the nickname to turn out to be so accurate. Before we even knew it we had begun to get surrounded. We didn't really know where they were since the fire was so heavy, we just tried to keep our heads down and hit back as best as we could. I heard Lieutenant Richards screaming into the radio a few feet behind me over the gunfire as he desperately tried to get some kind of support to pull us out of the hellstorm we had been plunged in to. In five minutes we had four guys take hit's. We honestly began thinking that the ditch we were taking cover in would be where we took our last breath. Just when i thought all hope was lost, I heard the most uplifting call pour through the radio. Our guardian angels had arrived in the form of two A-10 pilots who came in fully loaded. The two A-10's came screaming overhead before banking away to start the pounding. I swear, seeing those Hog's come screaming in on their runs was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen. We owed our lives to those two pilots, and I swear I'm going to find out who those two were and buy them a drink if it's the last thing I do." Barricade looked over to the pilot after reading the Rifleman's account. "It's not just a jet Derek. You and your wingman were seen as those young warrior's guardian angels. The aircraft you fly is an icon to all those who know about it, even to those who don't know about it. That aircraft struck fear into the sparks of all those within the Decepticon ranks who had to face it, that's why Starscream referred to you as the "Screaming Death", it's the name we started to use when referring to the aircraft you fly. You even said that you've trusted it to bring you back home alive more times than you could count." She continued on with some force to her voice, "Derek look at me." The Pilot looked up, except he didn't look into a four-opticed glare, he looked up to a firm gaze of sincerity. "I'll be very honest with you Derek, maybe your kind is seen as selfish by mine, but I'd be a fragging hypocrite if I thought I wasn't more selfish than you are. I can guarantee that, pit, I'd bet my spark on it. Now I'll get on to why I think that later on. In the mean time, keep telling me about yourself, alright?" Derek nodded and gathered himself, "Yeah, got it."
Derek regained his train of thought and continued on where he had left off. "Alright, so I was talking about my time in grade school, more specifically my time in Elementary School. I think I mentioned "Polar Express Day". I'll have to tell you about that later on since it was something we did in December, so we got a few more months left. I eventually got through Elementary School, and moved on to Junior High. Junior High was grade's six through eighth, so I was there for three years. Junior High was a pretty big change compared to my previous year's of schooling since there was a lot more responsibility put on us as individuals. We didn't go around switching classes as group's anymore, now we were given a schedule with our classes, and had to navigate to each class on our own. You could ask for help if you didn't know where your next class was, but it was up to you to be there and ready when class started. We still studied the same core subjects we had been since we started school: science, english, math, and history. On top of this, we now had access to new thing's like athletics, band, choir, and other extra-curricular stuff. The gist of it was that you needed three years of your core subjects passed, one you in a fine art, so something like band, or art, and I think two years in something PE related, so gym or athletics. I got all my stuff knocked out, but I quickly got pulled in to band during Junior High and stuck with it for the rest of my time in public school."
"Wait, so you made music!?"
Derek chuckled at the sudden curiosity and excitement, "Not exactly, we didn't compose or arrange any music, however we did preform stuff our directors picked out."
"What did you use?"
Derek reached into his right pocket and pulled his phone out while asking, "You know what a Trombone is?" The Decepticon shook her head, "I'm not well versed with what humans use to make music." The Pilot scrolled through the photos he had on the phone before stopping at a particular one. He looked at the picture for a few seconds before selecting the image, turning his phone horizontally so it would look bigger, and lifting the phone up so Barricade could get a good look at what the photo was. There was a group of seven people dressed in the same uniform? Each of the seven wore some kind of garment with gauntlets over what were probably overalls. The clothing was almost entirely black, however there was some purple accenting across the outfit, and the gauntlets seemed to have chrome buttons on them. In front of the group were four pieces of identical-looking headgear. It looked like a hat, however the top of it was raised up and had some feathery, purple ploom coming out of the top. The hat's were black with a silver band above the silver visor. Each of the seven held some weird looking device in their gloved hands: The device was all metal. At the back of the device was a group of bending tubes that at the top led to a flaring horn, and at the bottom led to a U-shaped pipe that extended outwards and past the horn. At the base of the U-shaped pipe was an insert for some kind of outward-flaring device.
"That's a trombone...?"
"Yep, and that's me in the back.", The Pilot pointed to one of the members in the group that looked to be the second tallest. Barricade alternated glances between Derek and the young human he had pointed at, quickly noticing the similarities. The human in the picture looked like a slightly younger version of the Pilot, however he looked a little bit physically weaker, and had fur that bordered his jawline and led up in front of his ears where it connected to the main bunch of hair atop the human's head. The human's hair was in the same general style that Derek's hair was currently in, initially brushed to either side at a point a little right of the center of his forehead, brushed back at the top and sides, and starting to curl a little near the top-middle of the back of his neck. Barricade gave a satisfied grunt and a slight head nod upon finishing her analysis of the two. "Yep, definitely you fleshbag. There's only one human I know that's that ugly", she jokingly commented while crossing her arms and giving Derek a smug look. The Pilot laughed before bringing his phone back own and looking over the picture. "You know, I WAS going to tell you how I got to that point...buuuut since you said that..." He let the comment drift off and faced away from the Decepticon so it would look like her presence no longer interested him.
"Tell me."
"Nope."
"Come on fleshbag."
"Negative Ghostrider."
"Do it."
"November Oscar."
A confused look appeared across Barricade's face as she figured out what that last comment meant. November was a month of the year, and Oscar was a name, but the two combined made no apparent sense. She then considered a different approach. This was probably some military code. She dig through some files on human military codes: "November Oscar" wasn't some kind of brevity code like one's she had heard the Pilot say before over the radio like "Rifle", or "Shack". She then brought up something called the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, that would probably have the answer since it was heavily used by the local military. The two words were the Telephony coded for two letters that, on their own, spelled the word "No."
'Fragging smartaft'
She turned to a different strategy, annoying him usually worked. She began nudging the Pilot repeatedly with the flat of the knuckles on her right hand. "Come onnnnnnnn, tellll meeeeee!", she drawled out the words to add to the rapid nudging that would hopefully begin annoying him. "Derreeeeck!" nothing. She continued nudging him, but the stubborn human wouldn't budge. If anything, he seemed to become slightly amused at how hard she was trying to coax the info out of him. He tried to hold his amusement in, however his resistance could eventually no longer hold. Barricade heard the Pilot make some kind of abrupt, snorting sound. She noticed the Pilot quickly reach up to cover his mouth while the sound was made again. It quickly dawned on her that he was...laughing at her?!
Derek was abruptly shoved backwards and held to the ground after he felt the index finger of her right hand shoot out and wrap around his right shoulder before yanking him back. "There something amusing to you?" The accusation made Derek let out a quick laugh, "Hah! Man you sound like a kid!"
'A WHAT?!'
Derek was pinned to the ground as the brooding Decepticon leaned forwards and hovered over him with clenched teeth. "You calling me a sparkling you little runt?!" The reaction only caused Derek to laugh even more before he got himself a little collected and answered with, "If the boot fits.", with an amused smile plastered on his face. A low growl emanated from the Decepticon above him, "Why I oughta throw you in my trunk you little fragger!" Derek quickly put a hand up in surrender. "Alright Alright! I'm done, promise!" Derek got himself regathered as he ignored another low growl that threatened to put him into another fit of laughter. He took one last deep breath in before looking up with a content smirk on his face. "Thanks, I uh... I needed that, in regards to earlier." Barricade stopped growling at Derek and instead covered him with a mock glare for a few seconds before unpinning him. "You're lucky I tolerate you. If any other fleshling said that to me, I would've punted them across the desert."
"So I'm not any other fleshling?"
"No, you're my fleshbag."
"The difference being...?"
"I don't completely despise you."
"Ah wow, thanks sis. Didn't know I meant that much."
"Just keep talking about your insignificant existence..."
"Say please..." A smug grin was now spread across Derek's face. Barricade squinted at the human below her before grounding out, "Please keep talking about your insignificant existence." Derek picked himself up and fired off a mock salute, "Will do Ma'am." Her response was an indignant sigh and one stuck up middle finger.
"Alright, so I survived Junior High, and got sucked into band. Now instead of trying to explain how to play music, I'll just say this: It's like reading in a different language. If you're really curious enough about it, I might try to scrounge up some old sheet's of music from my days in band if I ever get the chance so I can try to explain some things to you." Barricade grunted in acknowledgement. "Maybe, but right now it doesn't interest me." Derek nodded and continued on, bringing the phone back up. "Alright, so do you want me to explain how playing the trombone works?" Barricade nodded.
"Right." Derek pointed to the outward-flaring device connected to the U-shaped pipe. "This is called the mouthpiece, and as the name suggest's, you gotta bring it up to your mouth. The first step to getting this thing to work is putting your lips to the thing and blowing in a way where your lips will vibrate. That and that air you push through the tubing is what makes the initial sound." He then pointed toward's the U-shaped pipe. "This is called the slide. It's basically where all the action happens. In order to get a certain pitch you'll have to either move the slide in or out, depending on where you are and where you want to go. When playing this thing, pitch change is mostly controlled by literally just adding or taking away the length of tubing in the instrument. Pushing the slide out adds length and lowers the pitch, pulling it in does the opposite. Another factor in how to hit a certain pitch is actually the shape of your mouth and the amount of air you're blowing. Opening your mouth will lower the pitch, and closing it will generally raise it. There's a lot more intricacies to the whole thing, but I don't want to bore you with all that, so I'll just move on to the fun stuff."
"So High School was another step up, more responsibility, more freedom...and a hell of a lot more stress. By this time I had been in band for three years, so I had a pretty good grasp on how things worked. Now band in High School was a whole lot more fun than band in Junior High, we didn't spend the whole school-year sitting down and playing music for concert's, because of one thing: Marching Season."
"Marching Season..."?
"Yeah, this is when we'd get a show figured out and go around to the varsity team football games. They were pretty much always on Friday nights."
Barricade generally knew about what Derek was talking about...well at least in regards to the sport. Why it was called Football made no sense, the only times someone would use their foot to do anything with the ball was on kickoff, or when going for field goal kicks. The other "Football", or as it was known as in the United States where she was currently resided, "Soccer", was a lot more accurate to what happened. Why? Because the whole thing was about kicking a ball around, not throwing it or running with it...dumb humans and their inaccurate naming of sports.
"So, how did "Marching Season" work?", she asked.
"Well, it started during the summer before school officially began. For a few weeks we'd grind a bunch of things and begin to get our show figured out. Before the main camp we had, we had a smaller two day event where we worked on getting refreshed on how to march, the various field commands, and how to play our instruments correctly while also marching. But on to the main camp, the first days were focused on basic field commands, basic marching fundamentals, and getting used to playing as a group. We'd eventually progress to more and more advanced stuff until things became more about he show instead of the basics of marching band. The day would start with a morning workout, then we'd get some basic marching exercises in to get warmed up to all that stuff. We'd then focus on learning our spots for the rest of the morning. In total, we'd spend around three hours outside in the morning before moving inside. Once we were inside, we'd get warmed up on our instrument's, then work on the music we'd play for the show for around two hours in our instrument groups. So everyone playing a brass instrument would go in one room, everyone playing woodwind would go in another, and percussion would to to their own room. After that session, we'd have around an hour and a half to eat lunch, then we'd move on to the second part of the day. We'd start be going into separate rooms as a section to go work on the music we'd play for the show, or for music we'd play while in the stands during football games. That would go on for an hour before we'd all join back together as a band and work on music for two more hours. After that we'd go back outside and basically continue working on putting music to our movements on the field for around two hours before we ended for the day and were let off to go home."
"So then school pretty much started right after our fourth week main camp ended. We got back into the swing of things in regards to school. Same thing's we were used too, even for those new to High School: find your classes, learn how to get to them, get used to your schedule, figure out where you're gonna sit at lunch, survive the day. We always had the first day of school off, in regards to band practice after school. Besides that, here's basically how the schedule went: On Monday's we'd go over to our football stadium and have three hour rehearsals where we got ourselves used to how the show would look on the field, we had Wednesday off, but on Tuesday's and Thursday's we'd have practice in one of the school parking lots that had been marked so it was an accurate representation of the field. On those day's we basically learned new movements and eventually got ourselves playing our show music while marching our spots."
A glimmer of excitement then began to shine in Derek's eyes as he continued, "And then came Friday, Game Day! We'd usually have pep-rallies on Friday's during football season at the end of school, so I'd always look forwards to that and the football game itself at the start of the day. Towards the end of the schoolday they'd usually make an announcement so all the band kids could get out of class and head down to the Band Hall so we could get our stuff and get lined up in the hall. We'd then march down the main hall of the school while Drumline played cadences, then we'd get to the other end of the school and go into the main gym. Once everyone was released and everyone attending the pep rally was in the gym, we'd kick it off by playing the fight song."
"What was it like?"
"The pep rally?", Derek looked up and asked for clarification. Barricade nodded, "Yeah. From what I've gathered, they're supposed to get everyone excited for the football game. Is that how it would go?" The Pilot snorted a sarcastic laugh "Ha! Yeah, maybe if you were some horny guy that only cared about staring at the cheerleader's and dance team as they did their routines." Barricade chuckled and looked out towards the increasing colors that filled the far horizon. "Well I guess you didn't fill that category, huh?" Derek shook his head, "Hell no! I wasn't one of those damn perverts." He then continued on, "Honestly, my school was pretty boring. They never let us have really good pep rallies, it was always the same general layout and crappy, distorted-sounding music. The only times I really enjoyed them is when they let us wear glow in the dark stuff and kill the light's, during one of them that happened towards the end of my time in High School when they started to let the drumline go down and actually show how to get people hyped up with those awesome drum cadences they had."
The Decepticon looked back down at the Pilot with a curious look, "I'm assuming things got better after the pep rally." Derek smiled as he recalled the excitement he always felt once school ended and things shifted towards the upcoming game. "Yeah, the fun started after school ended for the day. We'd all go back to the Band Hall, change into the shirt and shorts we wore under our uniform, throw on our marching shoes, and then we'd go out to the parking lot we practiced in and go run some last sets of the show before we did a mock, full run of the show in preparation for the actual one we did at halftime during the football game later on. After that I'd stay out there and help load the trailer up since I was an equipment manager, and then we'd go inside and eat if it was a home game, or get our stuff and hop on the buses with our dinner if it was an away game."
Barricade shifted into a new sitting position since her joints were getting a little sore and asked Derek another curious question. "So you said you were an "Equipment Manager", what was that?" Derek chugged some more water from his canteen before answering. "It was a leadership position in the band, I and two other's were responsible for making sure the field was set up and torn down for practice, but we were mainly in charge of coordinating the loading and unloading off all the things we put on the trailers. So the podiums for the drum majors who conducted us, the props we had for the show, and any instrument that needed to be put on the trailer. It didn't matter how long it took, we'd stay out there until everything was where it was supposed to be. We were often the last ones to get dinner, and almost always the last ones to leave the school after a football game or parade."
"How much do you think all the equipment you handled cost's?"
"Umm..Well I wouldn't be surprised if it hit a hundred-thousand."
Barricade flinched upon hearing the probable monetary value off all the things the Pilot had handled, "And how old were you?!"
"I was in that position from the ages of sixteen to eighteen", Derek stated matter-of-factly. Barricade's frame flinched again, even harder this time. In fact, she basically seemed to freeze up. "You good bud?" Derek called up to the frozen statue. Nothing. He got up and moved to where he was in the dead-center of the Decepticon's field of vision. He then reached up and tapped on Barricade's chest plate, "Everything good in there Cade'?" Again nothing. The Pilot then began to snap near where he though the Cybertronian's ears were, and clap a few times in front of her four eyes, "Hello, Earth to Barricade, come in Barricade. Come on dingus don't make me get a marker or my rifle..." With one final clap she jolted back to life, and quickly looked around while she blinked her wide optics multiple times. Her focus soon came back to Derek, and she quickly, but gently, wrapped her hands around the Pilot and lifted him to eye level.
Derek shot a surprised "WOAH!" as he got shot up. "THEY...TRUSTED YOU WITH ALL THAT?!", was her surprised and hollered response in a higher-pitched voice.
"Uh yeah, pretty much." Derek remained calm, although he was a little frightened when her hands shot forward and fired him up.
"AS A YOUNGLING?!", her voice almost squeaked at the end of that question.
Derek nervously chucked as he knew she could probably squeeze the life out of him if she got too freaked out, but he answered nonetheless. "Yeah, I mean the directors couldn't be everywhere all the time. That's why they chose some of us to be in leadership positions."
"B-BUT!", she stuttered, "WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENED?! WHAT IF SOMETHING WAS DAMAGED?!" Derek ignored the sensation to squirm and try to break free of her grasp as he knew it probably wouldn't end too well given her current state. He took a deep breath and prayed to both God and Primus that he wouldn't get squished this morning. "Well, it was a good thing that never happened. If it DID though...it was our butts on the firing line, and they WOULD find the money they needed somehow." She blinked once and slowly nodded her head. Derek felt the wall of metal holding him slacken up a little bit. He briefly glanced down towards the ground, then looked back up at Barricade. "Hey uh, you mind putting me down? It's a...little tight in here." Her head flinched slightly and her eyes shot down to where her hands were firmly wrapped around Derek. "Oh! yeah, sure thing." Derek was gently plopped back down before the metal wall holding him retreated away. The Decepticon crossed her arms tightly and seemed to stiffen up after she put him down. Her optics began running across the Pilot's body in what Derek assumed to be some kind a visual check of his status. "I didn't...hurt you, did I?", her voice had changed from the surprised tone it had just had to a small and meek one that sounded unsure.
Derek gave a firm shook of his head and waved a dismissive hand towards the Con'. "I'm all good Cade'. No pain of any sort's, It just feels a little weird to be held by something that's way bigger than you." He then looked up with a slight amount of concern showing, "Besides, I ain't worried about me, I'm concerned about you freezing up just now. Are you okay?" Unbenownced to Derek, some of his usually hidden Southern drawl had come out, especially when he said "ain't". Despite what the majority of those who met him though: You could take Derek out of Texas, but you couldn't take Texas out of Derek.
Her brother's concern for her wasn't lost, but hearing this new side of him forced Barricade to crack an amused smile. "I'm fine Derek, I just glitched because that was all just a lot to process, but YOU," She gently nudged him, "I have never heard you sound like that since I've met you, and I've definitely never heard you say that word before." Derek uttered a confused "Huh?", before he caught on to what Barricade was getting at. "Oh, OOOHHH! Yeah, that..." Derek sheepishly grinned and felt his cheeks heat up slightly in embarrassment. He then nervously crossed his arms and looked in a slightly different direction instead of right at Barricade. "It..happens.." The slightly embarrassed Pilot suddenly himself off as he tried to quickly explain the sudden emergence of his drawl, "I mean it's not like something I regularly do, but like...It just...happens." An amused rumble emminated from Barricade, "You're not embarrassed about it, are you?" Derek's head shot up, "WHAT!? NO!" Barricade gave a slight chuckle and raised an optic ridge. "Derek?", she asked in a slight questioning tone. The Pilot sighed and regained his calmed tone, "Look, it's not something that embarrasses me, really it's not. It's my inner Texas coming out and I don't mind that in the slightest. Heck if you ask me, Texas is the best state in the U.S, but that's not the point. Am I a little embarrassed? Yes, but it's more out of circumstance than anything." The Decepticon inclined her head forwards towards the smaller Human, "I'm listening."
Derek cracked his neck and wrung his slightly sore arms out before getting to the reasoning behind his light embarrassment. "The thing about the drawl is that, unless I'm really angry, or really drunk or something, it's usually something that will only come out when I'm around someone I really know. Now I'm not saying I don't know you at all, obviously that isn't true at this point. It's just that, well no offence to you, but I still don't really know you that well since we've only met like a month ago. Honestly I'm still getting used to the whole "living with an alien that turns into a police car" thing. I'm also not trying to say I don't like knowing you, not in the slightest. I think it's a blessing I can call you my sister." Barricade nodded, "I get it Derek. You're not used to all this and you need to get comfortable with being around me before something like your drawl isn't awkward for you. Honestly I feel the same way. You're really the first human I've actually interacted with for an extended period of time, so you're just as alien to me as I am to you. The thing is that I at least have contact with the other's of my kind who came here, while you're stuck and cutoff from your people because there's nothing that can really reach out here with how isolated it is, and because it'll probably blow my cover. And knowing how your government is, if they found out you were with me...well, I'd rather not think about that in all seriousness." Derek cackled a dark humored laugh, "Ha! Yeah if the spooks found out about me, they'd probably label me as a traitor, hit me with treason charges, and haul my sorry ass off to some CIA blacksite where they could do whatever they wanted to me." Barricade joined in, "Yeah, I'd at least get the decency of having those Autoscum offline me on sight, Primus knows what kind of Pit you'd be living in." At that Derek nervously laughed, although it wasn't in regards to what she said about him. Derek tensed up and scooted himself a little farther away from the Decepticon as the mentioning of who's side he flew for made him feel uneasy about who he was sitting next to.
Barricade picked up on the sudden change in the Pilot's demeanor. He slightly flinched when she looked his way after noticing him moving away. "What?" Derek shifted uneasily as he prepared to say the next sentence. "Barricade, you do realize who I fly for, right?" She quirked an optic ridge up since she wasn't entirely following the Pilot, "Yeah, you're a United State's Air Force Fighter Pilot. You fly the A-10C Thunderbolt II as part of the 253rd Fighter Squadron, under the 118th Fighter Wing of Air Combat Command." Derek grimly shook his head, "That's...not it." Barricade picked up on the hint of dread the Pilot had in his voice, "Derek, what do you mean?"
The Pilot stood up from where he was sitting and turned around so his right shoulder could be seen. The then pointed to a patch on his right shoulder under a patch of the US Flag while looking down to his front. The patch he pointed to was something Barricade had never really cared to notice. The triangular patch had the NEST logo, a black winged bull skull over a winged sword on fire impaling a Decepticon emblem. This was set against a grey background with a black border running along the perimeter of the patch that separated the emblems from three inscriptions that went along each side of the triangle. Atop the patch was a Latin phrase in black stitching: "Mors Ab Alto", or in English, "Death from above". "253rd Fighter Squadron" was stitched in black along the left side of the triangle, and "N.E.S.T West" was inscribed in black stitching along the right side of the triangle. "I fly for NEST, Barricade. NEST supports the Autobot's. I'm the enemy, I'm YOUR enemy in the eyes of your superiors." Derek sighed as he looked the Decepticon in the eye. "We had our own Civil War during the mid 1800's here in the US. Faction against faction, beliefs against beliefs, family against family. Sibling-", he pointed at Barricade, "-against sibling.", he pointed at himself. "If it came down to it, would you be willing to choose between me and your faction? Seriously.", he questioned, "If your superiors ordered you to KILL me, or INTERROGATE me...could you actually pull the trigger and disobey that order...?"
The young Decepticon was stunned, she already knew he was NEST, but the meaning of what he said struck deep into her spark. She had told Starscream she'd protect him, but was she really willing to die for him? She wasn't entirely too unsure of what his answer would be, but it was her own that troubled her. She had been a Decepticon since she had matured enough for combat. Was she really willing to turn her back on all of that, over all those years, for one individual, for one alien? She closed her optics and let her had droop. "Derek.", she said with a shaky and uncertain voice, "I need to know your answer. Please, what would you do?". She forced her head to stay down and refused to open her optics to look at Derek as she waited for his answer with abated breath. The Pilot remained silent, however she heard him walk closer and felt something warm touch her thigh. "Cade'." His voice was closer now and radiated a comforting warmth that washed over her frame. "Even though you put me through hell," The Femme flinched and uttered a pained whimper at the mentioning of what horrors she put Derek through. "I'd take on the universe for you in a heartbeat." She felt like an immense weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She felt more warmth against her frame and picked up on Derek hauling himself up and moving towards her torso. She suddenly felt something warm come in contact with the plates on her jawline. She pressed into the comforting feeling and almost began to have the parts of her engine start purring from how comforting the touch felt. "Do you remember what I told you before Starscream walked through the ground bridge?" She slowly opened her optics and found the Pilot holding her face. She though back to what happened, and remembered what he said. "You said that we're siblings." Derek smiled, "And what else?" An immense feeling of something almost akin to euphoria shot through Barricade's circuits. "You..said that siblings always look out for each other." Derek's eyes lit up. "Damn straight! Look, I don't care what happens, I'll never give up on you. I'm your big brother, and I'll keep going even after you've given up on yourself." A smirk then began to appear across his face. "So, what's your answer, sis?"
Before he could even register what happened, Derek felt himself get slammed into a hug against the Cybertronian's chest. He uttered a grunt as he was shot forward and impacted the metal after Barricade's arms shot out and her hands wrapped around his back. "I don't give a frag anymore Derek! You're the best thing that's happened to me! I'm not leaving you, ever!" Derek began to chuckle at the sudden display of affection from his new younger sibling. 'Damn, if only you were here to meet the new member of the family, Emily...' he though to himself. Derek squirmed his arms free and returned the embrace with a content sigh. "You know...I never knew how much I needed this..." he said in a quiet voice. Barricade's voice rumbled quietly in his left ear, "Needed what?" Derek looked up and met her gaze. "Family." Her optics blinked in surprise as she quickly got what Derek meant...well both of the meanings to it. She let him go and laid her hands on the ground behind her and near her thigh's. "Can you tell me what happened? I mean, only if it's okay with you." Derek nodded, "Yeah, but uh, can I go refill my canteen first?" She nodded and leaned back so Derek had more room to get off. Barricade tracked him as he walked towards the warehouse and eventually out of sight as he entered through the side door.
Barricade was eagerly waiting for Derek to return so she could learn about his family, and if that dream she had earlier showed an accurate representation of them. Deep in her spark a part of her wished more than anything that she could meet his family, not as a Decepticon, but as a new member to the family. She was tired of war, tired of not being able to trust those around her, tired of all the slag she had gone through over the cycles. She just wanted to experience peace, to know what it felt like to not have to worry about when the next possible attack was, to not have to worry about staying hidden and running in the shadows so she wouldn't be offlined. She wanted to "have fun" as Derek put it, to just go around and enjoy life.
To be honest, Derek had given her that chance. The chance to just relax and not focus on improving, the chance to get her aft handed to her on that one racing game they played, the chance to watch that corny movie where humans controlled giant robots and kick the slag out of monsters. Heck even now, he had given her the chance to watch the beautiful sunrise off in the distance, the light of the local star the human's called the "Sun" now beginning to filter on over the far off mountains.
Barricade sat back and just took the sight in as she waited for her brother to come back, deciding to throw on his music after around ten minutes so she had something to do. She scrolled through the list of music on her HUD and picked Night Witches. Why she seemed to like that particular song wasn't entirely obvious, she DID find herself liking pretty much everything the Pilot listened to. Her preference of the song probably stemmed from it being based on a group of Human seeker femme's who wreaked havoc during humanity's second world war. She had to admit, hearing about what those femme's did made them pretty badaft, even if they were human. She'd have to ask Derek about human femme's, specifically those who chose to be warriors. He HAD to have some interesting stories about that, he was a human after all.
The Decepticon decided that she'd just scoot over and lean her head against the rock Derek was sitting against to watch the sunrise while quietly singing along with the song she had now started and begun to play through her radio. If this was what her fellow Cybertronians would consider being "selfish" as, they could go frag themselves, this was the best thing ever since High Grade in her opinion.
About a minute and a half into the song she heard a faint chuckle from behind her, and then a hollered comment from Derek, "It's a little too early to be going that hard, ain't it?! 'There he goes with that silly accent and word again', Barricade though to herself. She turned her head in the general direction of where she heard the Pilot and respond, "Oh hardy har harr fleshbag, soo funny, and no, it's not! It's five forty-five in the morning!" She then turned back around and started singing again, a little louder now. Derek continued walking over to the rock and noticed where Barricade was sitting. "You stole my spot man." Barricade shot a lazy glance toward the Pilot and shrugged, "Mine now." She then continued singing as she reached her left hand out to grab Derek before plopping him down on her right shoulder, "There, better?" Derek let he feet hang free off the front of his little perch and leaned back against the rock behind them, before letting out a content sigh, "Yeah, this isn't half bad." The two, well one, silently took in the sunrise for a little bit as the music continued on and eventually changed to a new song, this new one being Meteor's Anytime Baby!, a particular favorite of Derek's. As the new song started, Derek looked over and made a comment. "You know, for being a twenty something foot tall alien robot that turns into a police car, your singing ain't too bad." Barricade glanced at the Pilot with her two right optics a little sideways. "If that's an insult, this twenty something foot tall alien robot that turns into a police car, is going to turn into a police car and run you over..." Derek chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, not an insult, mostly a joke, but really it wasn't that bad." Barricade squinted at Derek before raising her left arm up, bringing one of her chain guns up, and lazily pointing it at him in mock intimidation . "You're safe from my wrath fleshbag...this time."
The Pilot swatted the gesture away, "Mine's bigger." At that Barricade deployed the other five with a mischievous smirk, "Oh really?" Derek was unfazed, "Yeah, you may have six individual thirty millimetre cannon's, but those are just M320's that fire at around 625 rounds per minute. I on the other hand, have a seven barreled, thirty millimetre rotary Gatling cannon that fires at 3,900 rounds per minute. So yes, mine's bigger." Barricade just put the guns away and flopped her index finger up to point at him, "Neeeeerrrd." Derek gave an uninterested sigh and moved a little so his hands could hold the back of his helmeted head as he rolled his eyes, "You're just jealous cause' I have the superior ordinance, and cause' my jet can fly faster than you can drive." Barricade flopped her left arm down. "Bite me." Derek waved the comment away, "Alrighty kiddo..."
There was a hiss of hydraulics preceding the inevitable growl Derek knew would happen, not that he cared. He felt Barricade's growl literally vibrate through her frame closer to where her vocal cords would be if she were human. In his peripheral vision he could also see all four of her optics boring into him while her mouth was contorted in a snarling growl.
"You calling me a sparkling you little greaseball?!"
Derek didn't even try to hide his amused chuckle upon hearing the question. He continued looking forward's, but responded nonetheless. "I think you might need your ears checked bud. I'm pretty sure there's something wrong if you can't clearly hear what I said when I'm THIS close to you." The growl got a little more intense, "My audio receptors are working PERFECTLY!" The Pilot sarcastically nodded before deadpanning, "Guess you heard what I said then?"
"I should splatter your fleshy aft!", she said with an angry flinch of her frame towards Derek. The Pilot looked at her with an annoyed sideways look. "Quit bitching! My lord you get your panties in a bunch at the slightest thing..."
"I'm not BITCHING!", she seethed, "And my "panties" are not "In a bunch!" Derek only laughed, which made Barricade even more pissed. "WHAT!?" she thundered. He snickered some more before wiping his eyes and shaking his head. "You're not very good at hiding who's the older one here, like in Earth years."
'AGAIN WITH THE YOUNGLING SLAG!' She wanted to swat him off of her shoulder and go stomp around punching something at the mockery he had made out of her, but she knew that would only give him even more satisfaction. She forced herself to stop shooting him a death stare, killed the growl in her voice box, and deliberately took in multiple deep vents of air while she made her processor focus on the music coming from her radio and the sunrise in the distance. To her surprise, he didn't make another smart comment or laugh at her. Derek went back to his relaxed posture and quietly watched the sunrise while nodding his head to the music. After a few minutes she had gotten herself calmed down. She felt Derek tap her shoulder with the side of a closed fist near his right leg as he too seemed to notice her calmed state. "All better now, huh sis?"
She nodded her head and took in another deep intake of air before calmly venting it out. "Yeah, better." She then looked towards him and curiously raised an optic ridge. "You know, I still don't understand how in the Pit you deal with me?" Derek wrung out his wrist's and stretched his legs out as he answered, "Eh, despite how irritable and temperamental you get, you're not that bad to deal with...well THAT, aaand you do turn into a pretty badass police car..." Derek finished his answer with a slight smirk that Barricade picked up on. "Oh so THAT'S WHY you haven't tried to escape or offline yourself, huh?" The Pilot let out a quick, humorous laugh and answered the question, "Nah that's really only part of it. Seriously though, you're pretty fun to hang around." The Decepticon gave off her own laugh and let a slight smile form across her face plating as she reached her right hand up and behind her to pat Derek on the back. "You're not to bad yourself, for a fleshling." Derek jokingly smiled at the gesture and her comment. "Ah thanks Cade', I'm honored." She nodded and then slowly let a sly smirk spread across her features. Derek picked up on the smirk and got curious. "What are you scheming in there..?" Barricade rumbled a mischievous chuckle before looking over at him with her two right optics, "Ooohh nothing...just thinking about maybe taking you for a drive later..." She shrugged as innocently as she could, "..nothing crazy." Derek nodded, "hmm, yeah, I don't think I'd mind that."
"But before that happens, YOU-" she poked him with her left index finger "-need to finish telling me about your insignificant existence so I can tell you about MY meaningful time in this universe." Derek nodded and took a drink from his canteen. "Where was I at again?"
"You were telling me about what it was like just before a football game happened."
"Ah, yeah, I remember now."
"So" he began, "If it was an away game we'd just hop on the bus and go over there, then unpack the trailer, get our stuff, and join everyone else in the stands. But home games were always better of you ask me. During home games we'd go back to the Band Hall after eating dinner and throw the rest of our uniform on before the whole band got lined up in the hallway with our instruments, and a bag that had the stuff we needed for the game, so music, instrument supplies, and our headware. We'd then go out into the main hall of the school in two lines with drumline and the drum major's out in front. Once given the go-ahead, the drumline lead would begin to tap a beat. We'd then fall into step and walk to the other end of the school, through the parking lot, and down the street to the stadium a few hundred feet away."
"Once we got near the stadium the drumline would begin to play cadences, and let me tell you, people noticed when we entered the stadium. A lot of people lined the stadium entrance to watch us come in, and to usually snap some pictures of us, or get video of our entrance."
"Do you have any videos on your phone of that, Derek?"
He shook his head, "Nah, but I'm sure I could find a video of in on the internet if you want." Barricade nodded her head, "Yeah, I really want to see that stuff. It sounds interesting." Derek threw a thumb's up and continued on.
"So we'd enter the stadium and then get in the stands with usually an hour or so to spare before things kicked off. We had some time to get our stuff set up and to mess around before we'd get warmed up at around fifteen minutes till the game started. At that time I usually began to get pretty excited on the inside since both team's band's and football team's, and fan's would would now be in the stadium. Honestly, you could feel the excitement in the air as we were all eager to start the game."
"Pretty soon the football players would get lined up behind their tunnels over at the left side of the field, and begin to get hyped up. The announcer would then call the teams in with the band's playing their school's fight song as the team ran onto the field. The place would pretty much go into an uproar for a while when that happened since everyone was excited for the start of the game. After the teams got back to their side the bands would play their school's song, and then usually the home team's band would play the National Anthem. Once that was done the game would start. We'd play a bunch of songs to keep everyone hyped up, and drumline would do a cadence that basically everyone would start dancing and get hyped to on every kickoff. Before we knew it, halftime would hit, and we'd leave the stands to go throw down on the field."
"So this is where you'd run the show for real, right?", the Decepticon asked. Derek nodded, "Yep, eight minutes of straight adrenaline, concentration, stress, and determination. I'd pretty much throw down everything I had once I hit the field for halftime. I mean it won't look like we're giving it our all on the video's, and I'm GOING to show you some videos of us at halftime, but trust me, sometimes my body was going on autopilot since I had mentally burnt myself out."
Barricade quirked up an optic ridge in disbelief, "You actually went that hard...?" Derek nodded with a confidently shot off, "Sure did." She chuckled and shook her head, "You're crazy bro." Derek nonchalantly shrugged at the comment. "Eh, kinda have to be to deal with you." The Decepticon playfully shoved her brother with her left hand and growled out, "Smartaft." in mock hostility. Derek returned the gesture and shoved the side of her head, "Ah go suck an egg bolt for brains." Barricade flipped the bird at Derek, saying "Kiss my aft you glitch", while squinting at him. He snickered before he countered with, "Please, there's nothing back there.", while shooting his left thumb over his shoulder. She jabbed Derek with her left index finger, "YOU callin' me a mech you little fragface?!" Derek shrugged casually, "I mean besides being a temperamental bitch, you sure look like a dude and act like one..." Really she couldn't even argue with him on that one, besides manually changing her voice and some of her mannerisms..well and the slight bulge in her chest plates from the sparkling chamber, she basically still seemed to be a "he" in most regards. She gave a light-hearted chuckle and raised a fist up to Derek, "All right fleshbag, fair point...I guess I'll let you win this one..." Derek made a fist with his right hand and brought it over as the two fist-bumped, nonchalantly replying, "Eh, I'll take it."
The two then sat there and took a break from talking while Nickleback's Savin' Me played over Barricade's radio. For some reason she kept finding herself shooting quick glances at her brother as the song went on. He didn't seem to really be affected by the song too much, he just sat back peacefully and quietly sang along with the lyrics. The same couldn't be said for her though, as the song went on she started to wonder how Derek had felt after Mission City. To her, the song seemed to kind of describe how she was imagining what her brother was going through in the aftermath of losing his family.
"Uh..Derek?"
Derek looked over and noticed a slightly melancholic look of Barricade's face while her head was drooped a little downwards. His voice took on a concerned tone upon seeing the sudden change is his sister's demeanor, "Yeah, what's up? You good Cade'?" She sighed and there seemed to be a slight dim to her optics. "It's just...well that song made think about you, well more of what you were going through after you lost your family.." Derek nodded and spoke in a quiet and reserved voice, "Oh...yeah, life got a little dark for a bit if I'm being honest." She nodded slightly before asking, "If you don't mind, could you give me a rundown of your family and then jump ahead and tell me about what happened that day?" Derek cleared his throat and glanced off into the distance as he was faced with the very thing's he didn't want to remember. "Alright!" he clapped his hands together in an animated manner, "Well...um..Fair warning: I don't like talking about that day and the aftermath, it's pretty hard for me to talk about all that. I'll try not to flinch up, but...well I can't exactly make any promises. Righto.." he sighed, "Here goes..."
"Alright, boring stuff out of the way first. After meeting up after their time in the Air Force, my Dad went into the Fire Alarm business and basically became a contractor, my Mom went into retail and worked in hardware stores. There, boring stuff done. Now, onto the interesting stuff. So obviously you know I ha-" he cut himself off before he said the word "had", in regards to Emily, "-no, have a sister." Barricade nodded "Yeah, I uh..I think I saw her, and your parent's in the dream I had last night." Derek was partly surprised, but mostly curious, "What did they look like...and uh, when did this dream take place, like, was it something that you think actually happened?" Barricade scratched an itch she had in one of her frame's lines near her knee and answered, "I'll tell you, and yeah, I think it was something that actually happened." She then told him about the whole dream she had: What happened, where it happened, and what his family looked like.
By the end of her explanation, Derek look completely awestruck. He blinked a few times and shook his head to get himself re-focused so he could answer without completely tripping over himself when he'd speak. "That uh...I don't know how you saw that, but that actually happened. That was the day I got back from my first deployment with the Helldiver's. We had been deployed to Osan Air Base over in South Korea for four months because the North Korean's had been getting a little too frisky with their military at the time. I still remember how good it felt when I stepped out of the cockpit and saw my family at the hangar, It took all my willpower to not instantly bolt over to them once my foot hit the ground." Barricade softly chuckled, "So that WAS little Emily, huh?" Derek smiled with pride at the thought of his little sister, "Yeah, that's her. She was born when I was thirteen. I swear to God she's the most adorable little thing that's ever been put into this universe. After I was released and allowed to go with my family, I showed her all the pictures I had taken while deployed. The entire car ride home we talked about all the thing's I did. She was blown away by my jet, she said it was the "bestest most awesome" thing she'd ever seen. I then showed her some videos of me doing flyby's, or gunruns at the range we would go to, I swear she got instantly hooked on the Warthog after that." Derek laughed and had a huge smile spread across his face as he finished and thought about that car ride. Barricade nudged her brother, "So, she got hooked on the Hog', huh?" Derek laughed and quickly shot out, "Oh God yes, she got hooked after the first picture I sent her while deployed!", then had to take a few moments to eventually compose himself after quickly having a laughing fit when the memories started pouring into his mind. Barricade let Derek recover before asking, "So, there were now two A-10 Pilot's in your family now, I take it?"
"Yeah", Derek sighed with a smile and head nod. "Here, I gotta show you something..." Barricade saw him pull his phone out and scroll or tap on it for a few seconds before looking at something for a few seconds, "After we got home she told me she was going to fly A-10's when she grew up just like her awesome big brother. The kid had instantly caught the bug, and pretty soon her room looked like this.." He turned the phone over so Barricade could see what Derek was looking at.
The picture showed what Emily's room looked like from the entrance looking in: A bed was placed at the back of the room in the left corner with some drawers to it's left and a window along the far wall facing into the room. The bed had the usual arrangement of pillow's and stuffed animals you'd see for a kid Emily's age, however her bedspread was a US Air Force themed bedspread. The bedspread itself was sky blue, in the center of the bedspread was the dark blue US Air Force winged star and sphere in a blue and silver accented color scheme. Below that, "U.S Air Force" was embroidered in white lettering. below was a picture of an Air Superiority Grey A-10 from the 23rd Fighter Group with the iconic shark face nose art in a climbing, right turn towards the the person looking at the image.
A TV and desk sat along the right side of the room with some things strewn about, in the left corner of the room, closest to the entrance, was a cabinet filled with models of various military and civilian aircraft. Each of the walls had poster's of various aircraft from around the world: US F-15's, F-16's, B-1's, F-18's P-51's, B-17's, and of course, and A-10. Joining those were Russian SU-27's, MiG-29's, SU-25's, and an IL-76, along with those were some Eurofighter Typhoon's, and other aircraft like FW-190's, BF-109's, and French Mirage 2000's, and Rafale's.
Barricade looked up after observing the image. "Dang bro, you got that kid hooked." Her brother laughed, "Hah! Oh, that's not even it. I gotta show you her two most prized possessions. He then scrolled to another picture. "Here's the first one." He tilted the phone over to a picture of one of Emily's shirt's. The shirt itself was grey with a design in the middle of the shirt. The design had a white silhouette of an A-10 in a turn with the word's: "My brother's other car is a Warthog." In white above it. Barricade laughed, "Oh Primus that's awesome!" Derek smiled, "Oh dude, that's still not even it." He turned the phone back around and scrolled through a few more pictures before stopping on the next. "She got this for Christmas when she was Eight. There was a guy in my squadron that did models and made this for her when he heard about how much she liked our Hog's." He turned the phone around to a model of an An A-10, complete with a combat loadout of bombs and missiles on the wings...a very specific A-10 with a load out of bombs and missiles on the wings. Barricade studied the photo for a while and compared to the one Derek had showed her of his jet. "Holy slag!" she exclaimed with wide optics, "It's an exact replica of your Thunderbolt!" Derek nodded his head, "Yep! Everything on there is a copy of mine, the decals, the emblems, the tail code and nose number, even the little dude in the cockpit. Pretty cool, huh?" Barricade nodded excitedly, "Yeah! That's awesome!"
The two then sat there in an eerie silence as they reached the inevitable point in Derek's life where the Battle of Mission City happens. Derek gave a shaky sigh, took a another drink from his canteen, and broke the silence, "So...there really isn't too much more I can tell you before things get real, might as well beat around the bush quickly and get onto it." Barricade gave a sorrowful look towards her brother, "Look Derek, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want-", he cut her off with the raise of his right hand. "No, you deserve to hear this. You're family now, you need to hear what happened to your sister and my parents." A bolt of sadness shot through Barricade's spark when Derek referred to Emily as her sister. The kid was no longer just some other human now, she was Derek's little sister, and was therefore her little sister too.
Derek cracked his knuckles and rubbed his hands together.
"Fuck it, might as well embrace the suck and get into the inevitable shitstorm of Mission City."
Nosferatu News: Hey guy's, sorry for the cliffhanger. I planned on getting through all off Derek, and Cade's past's, but last I checked I was at like 14,236 or something in wordcount. I'm deciding to make this a two-part thing since I'm pretty much still not halfway done with the history of these two crazy idiot's, and well...this is a lot of freakin' words we got going on here.
Please don't sling any lead my way...seriously...alright look, who the heck else is going to keep writing this crap if I get killed, huh?!
See y'all in the skies- Your local Nosferatu Pilot.