In which Alison plays laser tag


The rest of the weekend was as usual on the base, training, work, and relaxing. I met the rest of Prowl's team, and they were about as I expected. Skids and Mudflap were irreverent, constantly in one spat or another, and didn't know how to be professional to save their lives. I felt a little bad, but I honestly decided to just avoid them if I could. Jolt, on the other hand, was kind and courteous, and always seemed to be smiling slightly about something. Even with that trait, it wasn't a smarmy one, more like he was constantly reminded of an old joke.

I consciously made a better effort to seek out Miles or draw him into the conversation when we were together. I had also explained to Mikaela about our talk, and she agreed it would be good for us to have some best friend time. She made a comment about it giving her time to work on a project, but she refused to reveal what it was, even after pleading and a long make out session.

Tuesday after school, we headed out to the parking lot, where Bee and Barricade were waiting for us. Cade had been a little snappy since we got back to Tranquility, but he had agreed to be Miles and my ride to the arena, while Mikaela and Bee went off for their own thing. However, it seemed his bad mood was starting to get to him, as both his and Bee's doors on the side next to the other were dented.

Mikaela put her hands on her hips on seeing the dents. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Barricade growled.

"He's being prissy and we got into a bit of a fight," Bee said.

"Snitch."

"You're even snappier than normal. You sure you're okay?" I asked.

"I'm fine, not that it's any of your concern."

I frowned. It was so out of character for him, even taking into account he was a naturally grouchy person. Something had obviously happened over the weekend that was eating at him, but he wasn't talking. Maybe some activity could help get that aggression out. I glanced at Miles, who seemed to get what I was thinking, and nodded.

"I'll get that popped out for you, Bee. I'll get yours when you're done being driver, Cade," Mikaela said before kissing my cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow, babe."

"See you tomorrow."

She climbed in Bee while Miles and I got in Cade, and we took off. The trip to the arena was not long, but it was quiet. When we got there, I spoke up before we got out. "Hey, you wanna join us in there? It'll be more fun than just sitting here in the parking lot?"

"I thought this was supposed to be organic bonding time."

"There's always at least two teams, you could be our opponent," Miles said. "Come on, I bet you'll be the top scorer every round."

Cade's engine gave a rumble, then he vented sharply. "Fine." As we climbed out, he materialized his holo in the same outfit he wore when we met with Optimus.

"You're gonna be practically invisible in there," I commented. Miles and I also wore dark colors, but our jeans were still blue and my shirt had white writing across the front.

"Great, it'll be much easier to ambush you then." He headed for the doors, and Miles and I followed.

I paid for our tickets, then we went into the arena. Miles and I joined the red team, while Cade was on the green. The game was "Capture the Flag" and had the basic rules one would expect; try to capture the other team's flag before time ran out. Everyone had a hundred life points, and taking out enemy players would be the way our end round points were calculated, as well as other bonuses based on how you played. Once your points hit zero, you had to return to your team's base until the game ended.

We were sent to our teams' bases, and given two minutes to try and make a strategy for capturing or defending the flag. Once that time was up, the buzzer went off and everyone ran out. Miles and I took up position not to far from the base, hiding behind cut outs on either side of the corridor.

"You think Cade will come this way?" I asked.

"I hope so," Miles said. "We can take him down with our mad skills." He pointed his gun down the corridor and actually took out a green who was coming our way. The guy ducked away, but Miles and I kept watch for him to reappear.

"Mad skills indeed," I said. "Maybe you should have come to Mission City with us, we could have put those to use."

"Nah, I'd probably have cried and freaked and been a load. You and Mikaela are the brave ones, especially you, Miss 'Shove-the-ultra-powerful-alien-artifact-into-my-chest-to-see-what-happens'."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short." I fired at a group of three greens coming towards us, and I know I hit at least one or both of the girls before they returned fire. "You didn't bolt when you found out about Barricade. Most people probably would have."

"Maybe it just means I don't have a self-preservation instinct." He glanced over the barrier, then popped up and fired three shots, ducking down before he could get hit. We heard the whine of a shutting down vest, and then I popped up and fired at the other two, and managed to hit both of them before one got me and I dropped down again. Miles then popped up again and fired twice, and two more shut-down whines were heard. "Good game!" he called to them.

"Damn, we're joining your team next round!" one of the girls called out, then they headed back to their base.

"Wow. You sneaking some practice in on us or something?"

"Or something. Cade's been teaching me."

"Really? When?"

"Usually the nights you have your lessons with Optimus. I'll set up my airsoft range in the backyard and he's been helping me work on my aim and stuff. He even added some weights to it so it's closer to the weight of an actual rifle. He can't mimic the kickback, but it's been a help."

"You do this every time?"

"No, we do other stuff too." I couldn't help a smirk, and he shoulder checked me, though his cheeks flushed a bit. "Not like that. It's mostly movies, occasionally video games, but we'll get loud and Mom will come up to investigate and he'll have to bail before she sees him."

"Yeah, I'm not sure how you'd explain to your mom why there's an almost-30 year old man in your bedroom."

"Not to mention said man being an alien robot from outer space who tried to kidnap my best friend and her girlfriend." Miles laughed. "I can see it now. Barricade transforms, she watches, and drops into Dad's arms in a faint."

I laughed at the mental image too. I did hope Miles's parents never found out about the 'Bots, both for their sake and Miles. I mean, they could turn out to be like the one fic and be helpful, or they could totally freak and be a danger more than a help. You couldn't be sure with the Lancaster parents.

About then, two reds with shut off vests came our way. "Watch out, we got a freaking army guy headed this way," one warned.

"Army guy?" I asked.

"He's in all black and he moves like he's in a combat zone," the other said.

Miles and I shared a look. "Cade," we said together.

"You know him?"

"He came with us. He's just getting some frustration out," Miles said.

"Well watch it, or he'll take it out on you too." The pair walked past us, and Miles and I got into position again.

It wasn't long before what they warned us of happened. Barricade came down the corridor, stalking like we were his prey, and honestly that probably wasn't too far off. Miles popped up from behind his cover and fired a couple times, but Cade dodged to the side and fired back, nailing Miles right on. He ducked back down and I took his place, actually managing to get him while twisting to avoid being hit back. He ducked behind a wall, and once his lights came on, he fired at me and Miles dead on, taking us both out. He then walked over to us.

"Having fun," I asked.

"Hunting down you squishies? Always." He shot us again when our lights came on, and continued on.

Miles and I followed him, but even as our lights came back on, he shot us again and knocked both of us down to zero. He smirked at my pout and Miles's look of affront. "Shall I escort you to your base?" he asked.

"You're cruel," I said, but we did walk with him. He, of course, used us as human shields as he took out the flag's defenders, then bolted out of there, a couple reds in pursuit. A minute later, the buzzer signalling the end of the match went off, and we knew he had won.

Heading out to the lobby to wait for the next game, we saw the leaderboards and, as Miles predicted, Cade was at the top, with his player tag "ConEnforcer". Miles was "AliensRReal", and I got convinced to go with "LadyLover217" again. I joked about wanting "IFingLoveLadies", but neither of them got it. We played another capture the flag game, then they had a round of "Slaughter", which was the basic eliminate as many players of the other team as possible, and whoever had the most players at the end of the time won. They randomized who was on which team, and the three of us were all put on the green team this time.

Barricade just grunted and started heading into the arena. "Come on, Moptop, Alispark."

I looked to Miles. "He's back to nicknames, I think he's starting to feel better."

"Maybe we can figure out what's wrong with him," Miles said.

"Hopefully." Still, it was in the back of my mind as we went into the arena. Cade took the lead, he probably had the layout memorized by now, and I asked, "So, what's our plan?"

"There's a crossroads with nice sniper's nest above it. We'll go up there and take out any reds who pass us by."

Just before we got to said crossroads, the buzzer went off, and three reds jumped out from the cover ahead of us. Cade immediately pushed me behind him and fired a shot, taking out one of the reds before his lights flashed off. I leaned around him and hit one of the other reds while Miles got the last, and the three scurried away from us before Cade's lights could come back on.

I looked up at Barricade. "Aww, you do care."

He didn't respond verbally, just placing his hand on top of my head and lightly pushing me away from him, before heading up to the little nest.

When we got there, we settled in and started watching the passages below, shooting at any reds who came past. After a few minutes of seeing Cade pick off players left and right I had to comment, "You're really good at this sort of thing."

"Several thousand years of war does that for you," he said. "Plus I was an enforcer before that."

"Really? Did you work with Coppertone or Prowl?"

"Coppertone, not really, she was mainly the Kalis-Perihex beat. I bounced between Iacon, Kaon and Praxis, and Prowl was with me for most of that." He scowled and fired several shots at the red below us, even though one would have been enough to get them out.

"Did something happen between you and Prowl?" Miles asked. "He go at you or something?"

Barricade scoffed. "Trust me, if he had gone at me, I wouldn't be this worked up." He seemed to have an internal debate before he sighed, turning and slumping down against the low wall. "I don't know if the AllSpark told you this, but Prowl is my half-brother."

"Really?" I asked. That was a bit of a surprise. I remember reading some fics where they were brothers, but I hadn't expected it to be true here.

"Yeah, same sire, different carriers all for me, him and Bluestreak, our younger brother. Prowl's older, though it's not by much. And he's always had a stick up his aft, before you ask." He tilted his head back and closed his eyes. "We started clashing as younglings, but we could still work together when required. Then the Malcontents rose up, murdered Petrus, and I got picked for the hunting teams Megatron put together to take them down."

"What are the Malcontents?" Miles asked.

"They were a so-called revolutionary group that sprang up not long before the War," I explained. "For some reason, they didn't like the Prime-Protector system, so they staged a bunch of terrorist attacks to try and take Sentinel, Petrus, Optimus and Megatron out." Optimus and I had gone over the broad strokes of the "movement" a few weeks before, from the first attack to how they killed Petrus in a bombing, then their decimation by Megatron, though the topic was wrapped up fairly quickly. It seemed even after this time, Optimus greatly missed his sire.

"They were terrorists, plain and simple," Barricade said. "After Petrus died, the whole planet went into mourning, but Megatron's definition of the term was to 'hunt down and murder all mecha potentially connected or responsible for his sire's death'. I had a reputation for being a bit aggressive with my suspects, so I was tapped for teams to take them down."

"I never would have guessed," I drawled, then held my hands up in surrender when he glared at me.

"Anyway, that just divided Prowl and I more, since he's all for that 'by the book, innocent until proven guilty by a jury of peers' shtick, and me, not really. Then, we had a raid in Kalis. Our sire had moved there after he retired from the Enforcers, and we had gotten a tip of Malcontent activity there. We went in and attacked their gathering, but it spilled over into a small riot. And somehow, my sire got caught in the middle. He wasn't a Malcontent. Sure he had his gripes, but if he didn't believe in the system he wouldn't have led Praxis into the Unification to begin with. But he'd gotten pretty badly hurt, and was hospitalized. While I was waiting on news, Prowl showed up with Blue, and started tearing into me. For a mech with a suped-up logic core, he could be an idiot."

He took a deep breath. "We had a huge fight, only stopping because the medic threatened to kick us out for disturbing the patients. We were civil enough to visit Sire together, then I got a call for another raid, and left. That was the last time Prowl and I spoke to each other, even with Blue begging us to make up." He growled. "And then he just rolls up to my garage, and acts like he can just give an apology and we can go back to before."

Miles and I glanced at each other. Damn, this was heavier than I thought. "So that's why you're grouchy."

"Of course I'm grouchy!" He stood up and looked out over the arena, taking a couple shots before shifting behind a post. "I was perfectly fine with how things have been. I don't need him messing with that in some attempt to be noble."

"You don't think he's being sincere?" Miles asked.

"He's had my comm for the whole length of the War. If he wanted to become brothers again, he could have called. He never did."

"Did he try to excuse himself?" I asked.

Barricade stilled. "No. He said there was no excuse for letting us fall out the way he did, and that he knew I wouldn't want to hear any if he did have them. He just apologized, and said I could comm him if I ever wanted to talk."

"Maybe you should take him up on that," Miles said.

Cade snorted. "We wouldn't be able to have a conversation longer than five minutes."

"It's a start," I said. "I knew a girl who had a major fallout with her family, and she didn't talk to anyone but her younger sister for close to five years. When the reason for the fallout was removed from the equation, it still took several years before she and her mom were able to have more than a superficial conversation. Last I talked to her, they were preparing to go dress shopping for her wedding together, but it took a lot of work to get there. Longer time scale, but same principle for you."

Barricade was quiet for a moment, then a red suddenly bursting in and shooting all three of us interrupted anything he might have said.

"Multikill!" the kid crowed, then bolted out of the nest, Barricade glaring after him.

"I need to hunt." He left us with that, following the kid and probably about to unleash hellfire on the red team.

I glanced at Miles. "Think that helped?"

He shrugged. "Hopefully. That's pretty heavy shit to carry, I think he's been wanting to talk about it, but hasn't had the chance to."

"I guess we'll see. Hopefully any fights he and Prowl get into don't trigger his vow negatively."

I could feel the AllSpark roll Her eyes before She stepped forth. "~I am fairly intuitive, you know. They'll be fine,~" She said before retreating.

"That's still so weird to see sometimes," Miles said.

"Weirder on the inside," I said back, before standing. "Well, let's go get some reds."

We didn't catch up with Barricade until after the match ended, and we saw he had made it to the top again, while Miles and I were near the middle bottom. He told us he was going to patrol around, and left before we could object to it. So, we played another match, then stopped for pizza in the arena's cafe before heading back home, where Miles was gonna spend the night. A slightly heavier afternoon than I had expected, but it was a good one.


AN: And voila! Backstory for Prowl and Cade. I've always loved the HC of them being brothers, so this was a perfect place to throw it in. What'd you think of his backstory? What about Miles and Cade hanging out? Anything else catch your eye? Let me know!

EDIT: Apologies for the last sentence cut off, could have sworn I highlighted the whole thing.

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Gerard DuGalle (CH 19): TFP Silas, who else.
Yup, that's right! My sister and I have a Shattered Glass AU where we have Silas as a good guy, and it felt right when time came to give Asami a dad he play the part.

I'll see you all next week, same 'Bot Time, same 'Bot Channel!