Chapter 207 – The Long Tuesday: Early Evening
(SePOV)
"No matter the distance she is here," Optimus rumbled quietly, lightly touching his chest-plating to indicate the joint sparks guarded beneath. Sentinel looked at his young friend with a small smile, for all that his mate was a free spirited femme the emperor himself had gained an extra little touch of regality of motion from her.
"Do you mind if I hit my quarters and freshen up?" Mala asked calmly, looking up at him. Sentinel looked down at her with a mildly reluctant expression, he'd only just retrieved her... "Everything I can tell you Sabre most certainly already knows, though you were nicely discreet with your staring today; well done," she added with a small smirk toward the assassin.
Sentinel bristled ever so slightly at the thought of the human staring at his femme.
"With the permission of your guardian I shall escort you, milady," Mirage stated grandly, making an elegant bow in Mala's direction. "Then you can tell me all about your sister."
"And which sister is that?" Mala asked in amusement.
"Why the one you're going to introduce me to of course!" Mirage stated cheerfully, grinning unrepentantly at her. Sentinel rolled his optics, he couldn't help it; Mirage had been trying that line for aeons.
Mala laughed and rose in Sentinel's palm, stepping lightly into the hands of the spy.
"I am made desolate in your absence," Sentinel informed the femme quietly.
"Well you shouldn't be, I expect you to report to my quarters in an hour," Mala informed him sternly.
In an instant Sentinel straightened proudly, saluting his femme as Mirage began carrying her toward her quarters. The room stood in silence for a long moment.
"How long is he gonna stand like that?" A femmeling's voice asked softly. Sentinel jumped, looking around curiously.
"Who said that?" he rumbled suspiciously.
"Said what?" Lena asked curiously.
Sentinel frowned and reviewed his logs.
"Did I glitch and nobot bothered to tell me?" he asked suspiciously.
"No Sentinel, I've just been working on sneaking about properly," Lena stated sweetly, reaching out and lightly tapping his leg as she passed. "So here's what I got so far on the Albanian mob's movements over the past forty-eight hours Sabe, whaddya got in trade?" she asked with a broad grin.
"Oh you've been authorized to make a deal now have you sweet-cheeks?" Sabre asked cheerfully, pulling a memory stick from his breast pocket and idly rubbing his jaw with the end.
"I have," Lena smirked at the man.
"But what point is there in playing coy? By that smirk alone you think you have something juicy," Sabre smirked right back at the technician. "But my gorgeous sweet, is it juicy enough to pay for what I have for you?"
"We'll see by who's dead soonest," Lena replied in a sultry tone, winking her holoform online and using it to idly catch the lightly ejected, matching stick.
"But so fast mon amour?" Sabre stated suavely, lightly catching Lena's hand and swinging her into a dip. "Surely such a beautiful woman as you would have time to... haggle..." he finished, kissing her knuckles.
Lena promptly burst out laughing, the holoform dangling in Sabre's arms.
"Oh come on!" Sabre complained indignantly. "That was my best imitation of - oh by the bullet I'm trying to pick up a lady with Mirage's lines!"
"It might have worked if I weren't already married," Lena giggled, patting Sabre's cheek.
"Really?" Optimus asked curiously.
"Well... maybe," Lena chuckled, trading memory sticks with the assassin.
"Right, well, as of nine hours ago the Brotherhood has one of your rifles, and I still can't believe you decided to leak technology to the world like that, no way Mala could have sneaked a rifle out of this security, it's hard enough just getting one in!" Sabre announced with a laugh, cheerfully tucking his newly gotten gains into an inside pocket.
"Don't introduce a femme to Mirage!" Ratchet bellowed down the corridor.
Sentinel started and looked toward the med-bay to see the medic looking down the corridor with a broad grin on his faceplates. But then-
"What!?" Mirage's voice bellowed in a stunned tone. "No! I would never- Ratchet why would you say such a thing!?"
That mech had his intended. The second he'd begun yelling, Sentinel was already halfway out of the entrance bay door; fully prepared to kill to protect the fragile human femme.
"Mirage-" Ratchet started in a stunned tone.
Down the corridor, the red mech well away from his intended, Mala set her parcels down, raised her fingers to her lips and blew a shattering note into the air. The corridor froze for a moment.
"You." She stated commandingly, pointing at Mirage. "Sit." Mirage knelt down, Sentinel scowled, it was close, but the mech wasn't sitting. "You." his femme pointed at Ratchet sternly. "Why would I not introduce a young man to a lady if it has the potential to bring happiness and prosperity to both?"
"He's unbearable to be around," Ratchet stated musingly beside him, eyeing Mirage carefully. "It is a running joke. I have repeated those words in seventeen languages on thirty-one occasions, and have made numerous comments along those parameters which have always been taken in the jesting manner intended save for this occasion. Mirage I want you in the med-bay-"
"What!? No I-"
"So I can take a look at your processors-" Ratchet continued in an increasingly loud tone, trying to drown Mirage's protests out.
Mala rolled her eyes and whistled again. Sentinel stood dead still, watching awestruck the masterful, graceful way his femme commanded beings so much larger than her tiny frame.
"Mirage. Med-bay. Now." she stated flatly, firmly holding the mech's optics.
"But..."
"If you hold any hope of being introduced to my nieces you can be absolutely certain that I will not introduce them to a defective being. Med-bay. Now." Mala informed the mech firmly.
Silence.
"Yes ma'am," Mirage murmured meekly, rising and fairly skittering to Ratchet. Mala watched the movement for a long moment before catching Sentinel's optics with her own.
"And you," she stated firmly, glancing at her watch before looking directly into his spark. "Have forty-eight minutes."
Then his femme turned, lightly collected her parcels once more and strode into her quarters before he even had the chance to salute his acceptance of those orders.
"Why would you say such a thing!?" Mirage demanded the second the door was closed.
"It was made in jest," Ratchet protested, lightly trying to snag Mirage.
"My processors are fine, she called me a ladykiller!" Mirage stated in a rather upset tone.
"Well a wannabe maybe," Sabre stated with a laugh beside Sentinel's foot.
"I would never-"
"Oh how many times- human phrase Mirage. It means a bloke who'll seduce a bird by his looks alone, and'll just keep on going: never settling down with an honest woman 'cause the ladies just throw themselves at his feet," Sabre grinned. "Which I can certainly, truthfully remind you, you are not. Now let's get the hell out of here, there are bastards to spy on still, and I'd rather not be made twice in a day!"
"Mirage!" Ratchet stated sternly as the mech made to transform.
Mirage promptly turned to the Medic, helm receding as he did.
"Go ahead and scan, my processors are fine, you've had more time to get accustomed to the way these humans express themselves! His mate alone just managed to glitch me out three times in a row!" Mirage stated with a snort, jabbing a thumb in Sentinel's direction.
Sentinel smirked slightly, he couldn't help it: Mirage had designated Mala for his mate.
"Sentinel, you have four breem, I would not leave it longer than that," Optimus rumbled beside him in an amused tone as Ratchet ran a few quick scans on the smaller's processors.
A rapid transformation and the assassin and spy team were making tracks away from headquarters.
"Unka Oppamus is Annie Kae comin' back yet?" a tiny femmeling's voice called out curiously.
Optimus chuckled and turned his helm slightly.
"Who said that?" Sentinel demanded.
"So determined to leave the ground Belle?" he rumbled in an amused tone.
"I've been on the ground my entire life," the femmeling's voice stated gravely.
Sentinel frowned and stepped closer to his young friend, trying to find the little femmeling. Optimus glanced at him and smiled, a temporal bubble flashing out of existence the next moment.
"Why's the forcefield necessary again?" The femmeling asked curiously.
"Because I have stood in Sentinel's place in my own time," Optimus rumbled gently. "I know the processors of a Guardian Prime. Had Mirage acted anywhere near to as amorously toward my Kae as he does to most femmes, when she was human, and at the same juncture which Sentinel and Mala have now reached; I might have destroyed him on the spot without a second thought. I desire you to remain as safe as Cybertronianly possible, little one, and if it were necessary to restrain Sentinel a temporal bubble is our mutual second best option of security."
"What's the first best?" Ratchet asked curiously, reaching up and lightly meeting the femmeling's hands with a careful digit and a smile.
"Hatchling hold!" the little femme sang cheerfully. "Ac'cept I canna see out then!"
Sentinel simply stared at the tiny child tucked securely into his young friend's shoulder.
"Who is this femme? Why do I not recognize her?" Sentinel demanded, looking closely at the girl.
"I'm Anabelle, Colonel Lennox's daughter," Anabelle stated in a confused tone, looking right back at him. Sentinel staggered backwards.
"No... that is impossible, I last saw Anabelle Lennox twenty..." Sentinel trailed off as horror crossed his processors.
"Sentinel?" Optimus asked in a concerned tone.
"Twenty Orn, it has only been twenty orn yet you have aged so rapidly," Sentinel stated in a horrified, grieving tone as he hesitantly reached out to touch the tiny child before restraining himself.
"You catalogued her as a Cybertronian hatchling, didn't you?" Optimus rumbled in a softly worried tone, lightly touching his shoulder.
"Optimus it was only twenty orn!" Sentinel stated in horror, glancing up at the young Prime's optics before looking back at the femme.
∂Humans age rapidly, we have to,∂ came the firm response, rather surprisingly from the little femmeling herself. ∂I was born unable to care for myself, and it's taken until now for me to reach a point of even moderate self-sufficiency. We evolved to survive on this planet, and we can't take it back.∂
"She has advanced so quickly," Sentinel whispered. "Every moment, every nano-click..."
"Go, Sentinel," Optimus rumbled in an equally heavy tone. "See to your femme."
Numbly, Sentinel turned and strode to his quarters, onlining his holoform at his femme's door as he himself fairly collapsed onto his berth, no few processors calculating the growth rate of the Colonel's child over the past twenty orn.
It was a staggering, horrifying realization.
With his holoform, Sentinel knocked on Mala's door and slowly entered the softly lit room.
"I do like a man who knows how to be punctual," Mala's voice commend with a smile. Sentinel looked around for evidence of his femme and noted the wisps of steam escaping the bathing enclosure, he strode forward and froze upon witnessing the scene before him.
"I treated you particularly unkindly this morning for the benefit of the brotherhood and a man evidently as capable of lying to Cain as aptly as you or I, I should like to make that up to you," Mala informed him in a languid, amused tone, offering him a goblet of red liquid as she lounged unarmored and barely concealed in the water and foam.
Sentinel drank in the sight of the femme, her bearing relaxed, yet the regal tilt to her helm remained. He searched her face for some sign of the rapid aging of her race and wordlessly strode forward, delicately accepting the goblet and setting it aside before pressing his face into her palm.
"What troubles you, my love?" Mala asked him in the rich, regal purr which defined her so completely. "Need I remind you once more to not take my public actions to spark?"
Sentinel looked at the femme and took in a breath to speak as was the custom of the humans. He needed to convince Archangel to build a body for his all too fragile femme, she needed to change… but as he held that breath in preparation of speech he found himself caught in the eyes of the woman and felt his arguments dissolve.
She did not need to change, she was perfect already.
"You just did," he finally managed to eject, closing his holoform's eyes and pressing his face a bit more tightly into the soft, comforting hand.
"Good, now get yourself out of that garb and join me," Mala commanded him in an amused tone. "A tub so large as this simply begs for company."
(MPOV)
::. NEST to Archangel Prime.:: Jolt called out gravely.
::. Archangel receiving.:: I replied patiently.
::. Anabelle wants to know when it's her turn to go flying.:: Jolt stated with a little smile in his tone.
I glanced at my co-ordinates and grinned.
::. Hey Jolt?.:: I sent back cheerfully, nimbly dodging around an inbound airliner. ::. I'm coming in from Milan now, time me will you? Tell Anabelle I'll take her up just as soon as I get there, and add a general notice to the bridge guard that the twins'll be coming in once their paint has dried.::
::. Copy that Prime, the clock has started.:: Jolt sent back with a broad grin.
I cut the transmission and let out a bellow of a warcry, blasting my engines as hard as they would go. Higher, higher, the haziness of the atmosphere faded into the crystal, starry dance as I skimmed through the uppermost reaches of the thermosphere, a breathtaking vista had I any need for breath.
There was no traffic up here, a glorious freedom with naught but the miles and a couple of walls between my mate and I. Walls, because he was standing in communications once more with Anabelle nestled into his shoulder. I smiled at the gentle yearning in my mate's spark, the desire for hatchlings of our own to carry in his hold, to dangle from his shoulders as their inquisitiveness grew with their bodies.
Even as my mate patiently stood, speaking, retrieving and imparting information with the various heads of state: that tiny child brought a little fizz of joy to his spark as she sat trustingly on his shoulder so much higher above the world than was her norm.
It was eternally new, the play by play of my mate's emotions no matter our distance from each other, and eternally amusing to my mate, that the everyday actions he considered alien to not do, spurred a little extra bloom of my love to cross our connection.
An extra processor kept watch of my surroundings, but that was all that I desired for the moment as I chased and gained ground racing against the sun. A perfect moment, screaming through the barely present air high above the world which had borne me with my mate so intrinsically close, our joy shared.
I glanced at my co-ordinates finally and lightly corrected my vectors, diving, circling, then signalling the Skyris to open, preceded by the warnings of the lights and klaxon.
It was ostentatious, but I had to admit, landing directly in the entrance bay was just handy.
"One hour, sixteen minutes and eight point three five seconds," Jolt called out with a broad grin. I laughed and stretched in the broad bay for a moment beneath the late afternoon sunlight streaming through the skyris, careful not to nick anyone or anything with my wings. Chance chose that moment to come pelting into the Entrance Bay, suit on and looking expectant.
"Sorry flyboy, I already have a passenger," I informed the man gravely as my Optimus began to make his way from communications. Chance ran straight past me, eyes on the sky and heedless of my comment. I looked up curiously, I couldn't hear anyone...
::. Bumblebee, will you do me a favour?.:: Ratchet sent over the Primary the next second.
::. Cube of highgrade?.:: Bee sent back hopefully.
::. Done. Go put those optics of yours on Chance, he's in the entrance bay.:: Ratchet sent with a frown.
The next moment my little-brother was jogging lightly toward the entrance bay, my Optimus pausing in his trek to allow the scout into the corridor more quickly. I flicked my sensors to the skyris again for a few moments and lightly fired off the klaxon for a second, startling a couple of humans back to the yellow lines they'd begun to filter past as I'd stood in the sunlight. I lightly stepped into the hangar proper as a lithe little flier femme lined up and landed gracefully on her feet.
"You made it!" Chance shouted excitedly, pelting toward the femme as she knelt down and lightly picked him up in extraordinarily careful hands.
"Of course I made it," the femme laughed, I looked a bit more closely and started in surprise.
"You repainted! How'm I supposed to keep my single tiny processor from shorting out when you just look more beautiful every time I see you?" Chance asked the femme teasingly.
"Do you like it?" Firelight asked hopefully, looking down at her armour demurely.
"I love it, you look spectacular in red; really you just look spectacular no matter what you're wearing," Chance expounded grandly, making a show of eying the femme up and down as she blushed with pleasure.
"Are you free from your duties yet?" Firelight asked hopefully, glancing at the sky and the nanite suit the human was already wearing.
"Free and clear," Chance stated with a broad grin.
"Who'd you kill to manage that?" Firelight asked worriedly.
"Nobody," Chance grinned. "Inventory and paperwork take absolutely no precedence over a beautiful femme and Ratchet knows it."
I glanced down and smiled as my little-brother grinned, leaning against my leg as his optics glued themselves to Chance's chest.
::. Nice spotting Ratchet!.:: Bumblebee sent cheerfully.
::. Chance is linked to Firelight, isn't he.:: Ratchet replied in a resigned tone.
::. Why aren't you happy about it!?.:: Bee demanded in a shocked tone as Firelight gently cupped her hands around Chance, holding him close to her spark as she launched herself back through the skyris and up into the air; laughing as Chance whooped in excitement. ::. It's barely been an orn since we got the femmes out from under Shockwave's claws and Firelight is laughing!.::
::. Because it means that I have another body to build and another spark to risk losing in the casting heat.:: Ratchet stated tiredly. ::. And I can't not build Chance a body, Firelight has gone through enough without finding her intended mate then losing him in less than a vorn to age. Primus only knows how big Chance is going to cast himself...::
"Annie Kae!" Anabelle's voice sang out cheerfully, I turned and smiled at my mate as he grinned with the tiny child reaching for me from his shoulder.
"Have you been behaving yourself?" I asked her with a smile.
"Yes Ma'am!" Anabelle stated sweetly.
"Has Ratchet fitted you with your suit?" I asked with a grin.
"Suit?" Anabelle asked, wide eyed.
"So much for our speedy getaway, this way!" I stated conspiratorially, tugging on my mate's free hand and spinning him with Anabelle whooping in delight. I quickly led my mate into the med-bay, striding to the harness chest and popping open the little hidden chamber containing the as-yet unused harnesses with an idle unlocking signal. I brought my holoform online and grinned, striding toward my mate as he gently collected Anabelle in a few cables, lifting her lightly down into my arms.
"What suit?" Anabelle asked in a hushed, excited tone.
"This suit," I grinned, holding up the harness with it's bulky canister in the palm of my hand.
"That doesn't look very comfortable," Belle stated matter-of-factly.
"I know, but I'm gonna fix it in a tick," I chuckled, lightly shifting the girl on my holoform's hip as I strode to my new desk furniture: a desk, complete with lamp, notebook, pen, wingback chair on wobbly casters and two little straight backed wooden chairs on the other side.
And a name plate. A name plaque really, listing every last one of my titles in order of importance.
Prowl had put it there, I'd caught him just as he'd finished; I also had a magnificent still photo of the extraordinarily guilty look in his optics, one servo still lightly poking the final chair into place.
"Are you so bored you've finally gone to the trouble to frame the twins?" I'd asked him in an amused tone.
"I... I... I..." He began stuttering in shock, whipping around and looking quite ready to glitch. He'd then promptly looked utterly furious with himself, picking up the first chair as though to clear my workbench."You have my sincerest apologies, Lady Prime," Prowl finally began resignedly. Across the Primary I could feel the twins beginning to make their quick, careful getaway from their turn at communications duty. "I might beg that you-" he continued in a contrite tone.
"I require a full investigation as to the identity of the culprit whom has defaced my desk with such formality!" I interrupted him sternly, winking at Prowl as Sunstreaker reached our audio range; the twin mechs walking past the med-bay behind me the next moment.
"What happened now?" Sideswipe asked curiously, the twins predictably making a ninety degree turn and flanking me the next moment.
"There's a desk on your desk," Sunstreaker informed me in a grunt.
"Thank you captain obvious, Prowl I want a full inquiry, is that understood?" I added with a long glance to the still-stunned enforcer, honestly waiting to see what he'd do.
"Yes Ma'am," he'd immediately snapped out, saluting me before turning to look suspiciously at the twins, who promptly began backing away; servos up and protesting their innocence.
Base was still mystified.
Prowl was my new best friend.
And the plaque was in the drawer.
I grinned and lightly stood Anabelle on my desk, running a rapid scan and connecting to the blank nanite canister. The harness began to shift in my palm, modifying itself for the girl's tiny frame. In a matter of moments I disconnected and collected the little harness with my holoform, buckling the Colonel's daughter in the next moment.
"What's this do?" Anabelle asked skeptically, playing with the canister now attached to her chest.
I chuckled, lightly activating the nanites and smiling as the canister dissolved, reaching out to envelope the child in a miniaturized flight suit. In the sightlines of my mate, Will and Sarah strode into the med-bay, looking up worriedly at his empty shoulder.
"Momma look! I'm a fighter pilot!" Anabelle squealed the next second, climbing down from my desk to look over the edge of my workbench. I lightly offered her my hand and laughed as the flight suit augmented her movements, letting her jump into my palm without ever reaching a drop speed which could potentially harm her.
She looked adorable with the tiny oversized helmet and chest console.
"You put my daughter in one of the suits!?" Will demanded flatly as I lowered my hand to the ground. I grinned at the colonel, he was obviously struggling to not laugh, or coo at the mini-fighter pilot.
"You have a flight-suit small enough to fit Anabelle?" Sarah demanded with a frown.
"Anabelle, concentrate on your favourite dress," my Optimus commanded with a small smile.
Anabelle obediently squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then squeaked as the suit shifted over her form, becoming a fetching little green dress.
"The suit alters itself to what the wearer needs, or desires," Will informed his wife with a grin.
"It's the best suit ever!" Anabelle squealed in delight, flouncing around and flicking her skirts like a little dancer.
"Keep her safe," Sarah commanded me in no uncertain tones.
"With everything that I am," I nodded firmly.
"What happens if you're attacked in the air?" Will demanded flatly.
"If I can't immediately outrun our attacker?" I asked with a raised brow ridge. "I'll just have to keep Belle in my hatchling hold while I fight them off."
"You do what Auntie Kae says to the letter Belle," Sarah stated firmly. Anabelle laughed and wound her arms around her mother's neck.
"Thank you mommy," she sang sweetly, pecking a kiss to her mother's chin before fairly scrambling into my hand, the nanite suit morphing over her frame into a flight suit again.
"Ready?" I asked with a grin, lightly lifting Belle to my chest.
"Ready!" Anabelle sang, holding onto my finger as I rose, striding to the open skyris as a spare processor began monitoring the air control radio traffic. The skies were clear, the atmosphere brilliantly lit by the setting sun. I launched myself up through the skyris and transformed around Anabelle, buckling her securely into the pilot's seat and surrounding her with a light anti-grav field.
Then I blasted myself to a moderate cruising speed, circling the city with a cheering child tucked securely beside my spark.
(PPOV)
"Enforcer," one of the humans nodded to him. Prowl glanced down and patiently nodded to the smaller being. For the most part, the humans were extremely well behaved hatchlings. That was the easiest way to think of them; it saved glitching if nothing else.
"Enforcer," another human nodded to him patiently. Prowl smiled a little, just a little as he nodded to the man. The humans were extremely well behaved hatchlings that somehow knew both precisely how to get on his good side, and precisely how to make him glitch.
The hatchlings were being good this evening.
"Enforcer," a third human stated calmly, nodding to him patiently.
Or maybe they weren't... Prowl narrowed his optics slightly.
"Enforcer," another human's voice stated behind him.
"I knew it!" Prowl shouted, spinning around and pointing at the Colonel.
"Wow, paranoid much today Prowl?" Colonel Lennox asked him with a broad grin, the soldier's mate standing amused at his shoulder.
"Colonel Lennox," Prowl stated suspiciously. "The soldiers are all greeting me."
"Of course we are, you look a bit distracted; and distracted bots typically mean a high probability of squished humans," the first one who'd greeted him stated cheerfully mid-step.
"My proximity sensors are online and fully functional," Prowl informed the human frostily.
"But if Wheeljack has taught us anything it's to not take a bot's proximity sensors for granted," Colonel Lennox told him in a soothing tone. "Rule number two of staying alive in the Auto-bot base: See and be seen."
Prowl nodded.
"That is logical," Prowl stated, patient again. "What is rule number one?"
"Don't piss off Sunstreaker," the second human piped up with a flippantly cheerful one-handed gesture.
"Also logical," Prowl nodded.
"Don't worry, it's still early in the orn; we'll have you shaking your head again in no time," another human commented with a laugh, leaning into his sight lines on the first level of catwalks.
Prowl rolled his optics and looked at the Colonel.
"You called me?" Prowl prompted the human patiently.
"Yeah, have you heard anything new about Barricade yet?" Colonel Lennox asked him seriously as the respective ambient sounds indicated the ground bridge cycling up, and the Lamborghini styled frontliner twins driving through from their extended sojourn in Italy.
"It has only been five joor, I do not expect Barricade to turn up for another orn or t-" Prowl began, then he glanced behind himself at the sound of another, oddly familiar engine. He turned and strode the final three steps to the entrance bay, just in time to watch Barricade come to a smooth halt. The ex-con popped his boot lid the next moment, ejecting three rather battered looking humans onto the hangar floor.
A quick transformation and the mech stood over his hostages, quickly pulling four rather ancient, timeworn, yet well-maintained caging posts from his subspace and circling the humans with them.
"Barricade! What the slag!?" Prowl bellowed at the mech, comming the Prime whilst quickly striding into the entrance bay proper as the twins rapidly got between the supposed Enforcer and his most likely escape route.
"Unfinished business Prowler, you know how it goes," Barricade drawled, quickly bringing the caging posts online. An unbroken ark promptly leapt from post to post, securing the human strangers in the electrified pen. He straightened, turned and looked at the twins appraisingly for a long moment. "You've matured."
"Give me a reason," Sunstreaker growled softly, blaster aimed steadily at Barricade's spark.
"Perhaps not much but you have matured," Barricade commented idly. "I'd have already been dead with your blades in my spark in the old days-"
"Barricade, Auto-bots do not harm humans," Optimus rumbled sternly behind him. Prowl stepped deferentially to the side, allowing his Prime full access to the ongoing situation.
"They haven't been harmed... much," Barricade stated with a casual shrug, crossing his servos across his chest and turning to face the Prime. "They are a peace-offering from me to your mate, Lord Prime."
"My mate does not adhere to the Decepticon custom of accepting prisoner or hostage trophies as peace offerings," Optimus rumbled sternly, glaring at the mech.
"Primarily because your mate began as a human, I know. They're not trophies, Prime, they are criminals whom have wronged your mate," Barricade stated with a note of finality in his tone.
"I'll have your head for this!" one of the strangers shouted.
"Silence!" Barricade roared, spinning and glowering at the now cowering stranger humans.
Above, the red lights and klaxon fired off, announcing the imminent arrival of the Lady Prime. Prowl cycled his processors in relief, silently thanking Primus that the Emperor and Lady High Protector were already so deeply interconnected within each other. As free-spirited and strong willed as the femme was, she was still on the scene of action the moment her mate called.
The Skyris opened the next moment, and the lithe flier femme landed gracefully in the clear area.
"What's wrong now?" Archangel Prime asked patiently, back to the stranger humans and looking at her mate worriedly. Optimus silently raised a servo, gesturing to the three humans huddled in Barricade's mobile prison.
Prowl watched the optics of the femme as she turned, the Colonel's tiny femme creation cradled safely over her spark in one servo silently explaining the closeness of her absence.
But he didn't need to see her optics to hear the flat rage that began to hum from her spark. Her optics spoke first of shock as she gazed at the humans, then of tightly, inexorably controlled fury.
"Sunstreaker. Take Anabelle," the femme gritted out. "Keep her safe."
"Safe from what Annie Kae?" the tiny, female voice asked curiously.
"From me," Archangel stated in a voice now frankly terrifying with the proportions of tight control inherent.
In an instant the now rather exquisitely golden predator was reaching for the child, cradling her protectively to his chest plates as he and his twin wheeled rapidly away from the Primes. Optimus had his arms around the femme the next moment, restraining his mate as she reached for the humans with servos suddenly sharpened into claws.
"Let me go!" Archangel Prime commanded her mate flatly.
"No, my mate, you would regret it," Optimus rumbled gently in return.
"Crushing the life from enemies of my father? I'm very certain the regret would wash away along with their blood from my servos." Archangel growled very, very softly, eyeing the humans with murder in her optics. "What is this garbage doing in our entrance bay?"
"Precisely how am I supposed to have been an enemy of your father? You're a robot," the bravest of the three sneered up at her.
Prowl watched in shock as Archangel flicked her holoform online outside of the cage: a diminutive, black haired femme with the same piercing eyes as her optics. The appearance of which sparked no little recognition in the eyes of the men.
"They are here, now, my Lady, because as a servant of Megatron I was rendered unable to properly perform my duty," Barricade announced flatly. "Your Enforcer has retained the evidence-"
"What evidence?" the spokes-human snarled.
"If you're not going to let me just crush them and be done with it-" Archangel growled softly.
"I'm not," Optimus affirmed gently, keeping his arms tightly around the femme.
"Jolt! Call Barry and tell him to get his ass to NEST Washington," Archangel snapped aloud and over the Comm.
::. Yes Prime!.:: Lena immediately snapped back over the Primary.
::. Sorry Lena.:: Archangel's voice stated quietly over the Primary.
::. No it's alright, Jolt's not listening to the Primary anyway.:: Lena stated patiently. ::. Bumblebee already has Barry's ass in gear as well, now chill will you?.::
::. They killed my father.:: Archangel stated flatly.
::. Point stands. Dig up some CIA dirt on them, have them convicted for the 'deadly m's' so they rot a miserable existence in prison for the final ninety orn of their lives and be done with it.:: Lena replied patiently.
::. Deadly m's?.:: Archangel asked with a hint of curiosity creeping into her tone.
::. Murder, molestation and mutilation.:: Lena shrugged. Prowl cringed somewhat at the casual tone in the femme's voice. ::. Put 'em in with the right charges and by the time they shove the needle in their arms you won't be able to tell the difference between their farts and yawns. Crushing them now will just spare them the misery.::
::. Where is he now?.:: Archangel asked in a far more tolerant tone, even as the fury remained in her optics. Prowl relaxed slightly, no doubt the Lady High Protector was simply maintaining a vengeful demeanour in the presence of the prisoners.
::. Route five.:: Bumblebee's voice replied immediately. ::. Eta twenty minutes if Prowl can make it to the bottleneck and clear out the traffic.::
In an instant Prowl was striding past Barricade toward the exit, Barricade smirked and flanked him.
"It doesn't require two to clear a path on Dulles," Prowl stated stiffly.
"But double the power means half the effort Prowler," Barricade stated with a grin, following him anyway. A rapid transformation and Prowl was driving out the entrance with the ex-con hot on his bumper. Prowl automatically stopped at the first set of lights, it wasn't far to his normal entryway and he'd have plenty of time to intercept Bumblebee.
::. Primus you've gotten soft.:: Barricade stated with a coarse laugh, speeding past with his lights and siren on full tilt.
::. It makes the humans suspicious when you run out and back with your siren on both ways.:: Prowl sent back irritably.
::. Oh please, it's a wonder they even noticed me driving around without a holoform.:: Barricade laughed.
::. Or 'To Punish and Enslave' painted on your aft.:: Prowl snapped back.
::. I what?.:: Barricade demanded flatly.
::. Five years on this planet and you haven't noticed!?.:: Prowl demanded.
::. Noticed what!?.::
::. You have 'To Punish and Enslave' painted on your rear side panels in place of 'To Serve and Protect,'.:: Prowl informed the mech smugly, turning toward the freeway exit.
::. Slagger.:: Barricade grumbled. ::. Frenzy must have done that. Then again... the little bugger probably saved my tailpipes being singed by Megatron's cannons...::
Prowl patiently turned his own lights on, blipping his siren and watching as a set of pedestrians quickly skipped well out of his way. The light turned green in front of him as the lone car took off at a modest pace, waiting for him to either intercept or pass. He rolled his optics slightly at the blatantly relieved look in the man's face as he and Barricade both quickly passed, speeding down the freeway toward the next exit.
::. He's not hiding the fact that his registration has passed due, not at all.:: Barricade commented lazily.
::. You're worse than Bumblebee.:: Prowl stated flatly.
::. I thought you said nobot was worse than me!.:: Bumblebee replied cheerfully. ::. Three out.::
Prowl patiently turned into the exit, preparing to cross the highway and turn around.
Barricade stayed on the freeway.
::. Didn't you hear the bot? Three out Prowler.:: Barricade called up tauntingly.
::. The congestion of the second overpass outmatches the effectiveness of catching up to Bumblebee, whom is no doubt already speeding.:: Prowl stated irritably.
::. Only a little bit.:: Bumblebee sent back somewhat defensively.
::. How much is a little bit?.:: Barricade shot out with a grin in his voice.
::. Ten over. Why am I telling you this?.:: Bumblebee demanded curiously.
::. Because only ten means I can do this.:: Barricade's voice stated gleefully. High in the air, Prowl zoomed on the freeway slightly to see the mech hopping the meridian and transforming directly behind the car cluster Bumblebee was busily navigating. He rolled his optics, quickly driving down the ramp and getting into the correct lane. Then, he drove slowly, waiting for the pair to reach him.
::. Rematch!.:: Barricade shouted the next second.
::. Car chase!.:: Bumblebee bellowed back with a broad grin. Prowl winced as he noted the traffic flow tightening in front of him and flicked his siren on, taking off at his best pace to safely clear the vehicles in front of him.
Bumblebee was on his tailpipes the next moment, Barricade hot behind them as Prowl navigated the traffic, speedily leading the pair back to headquarters and into the Entrance Bay.
"That was entirely unnecessary," Prowl stated stiffly, transforming and glowering at the pair.
"There are two Prowls now?" Director Matteer asked curiously, looking back and forth between he and Barricade as Bumblebee transformed beside him.
"Oh please, do I look as stodgy as Prowl?" Barricade demanded before he half tackled Bumblebee, rubbing at the cheerfully yellow scout's helm for a few moments in a humanlike 'noogie' motion.
"Barricade," Archangel Prime's voice stated flatly the next moment.
"Ma'am," the mech stated, jerking upright and saluting.
"You stated you have evidence gathered?" the femme stated irritably.
"Yes Ma'am," Barricade barked, bringing a large-scale holo online the next moment, detailing a building with massively over-built doors sitting grandly in the midst of a large, paved courtyard.
A man's voice was screaming for a few moments before silence held.
"Where is she?" another male voice demanded.
Silence.
"Where is she?"
"Like I'd ever tell you," a hoarse voice replied before the screaming began again. Silence.
"It's been two hours Frank," a third male voice stated in a bored tone.
"Somebody's gonna turn up any minute now," A forth stated worriedly.
"Nobody's gonna show up, isn't that right Cal?" the first male voice stated suavely. "Now where. Is. Angel!?"
"I sent her away... somewhere you're never... going to find her," Cal gritted out before the hoarse, strained voice began laughing. "I sent her back to the loving care of her friends, on a base... the location of which... even I don't know. She's taking the orders of a Prime example of manhood now you fuck, good luck getting through him. You're never going to get your filthy hands on my daughter."
"Wrong Cal, we've made it through you," the first man's voice stated in a low, sickening purr. A gunshot rang through the area before four men escaped through the barely opened door. "Shut this place down," the first man's voice snarled out, the man in question climbing into an SUV. "Don't burn it, if we don't attract the cops and fire department he'll rot in that pathetic hole and we'll have Angel before she knows he's dead."
"Harrison," Archangel's voice snarled softly in counterpart to the labels hovering over the holo-faces and holding the identification of it's respective human. Three of the four humans of whom were now sitting on the hangar floor, trapped by Barricade's old Enforcer's caging posts.
Prowl half expected the holo to cut out, but it didn't; first watching the humans closing the doors and departing before the point of view changed, growing closer to the shop.
Barricade transformed, the view of his own servo entering the holo as he lightly shoved the door open.
Prowl snapped around, looking at the Lady Prime worriedly as a soft keen of pain emerged from her, her optics locked on the holo. Prowl looked back at the holo and winced, the human male sitting tied to a chair in the middle of the shop floor was definitively the worse for wear: burnt, bleeding profusely, and most certainly already dead.
The holo jumped slightly then, or rather, Barricade jumped as a soft whistle sounded.
"Oi... space-cop," Cal's voice whispered hoarsely.
"Civilian human," Barricade's voice replied automatically, kneeling down. The holoform of the human raised his head, then, looking directly at Barricade with the same piercing optics the Lady Prime herself boasted.
"You're one of the good guys."
"If your daughter is the human femme whom has taken up with the Auto-bots led by Optimus Prime, then by your standard no, I am not," Barricade's voice replied flatly.
"But you still answered to space-cop without hesitation. You're trying to be a good guy with the wrong badges stuck to your armour. Burn this place, warn her, officer space-cop, don't let Harrison get my baby girl. When you get the chance, tell my daughter I love her." Cal whispered before the light left his optics. The holo cut.
Prowl flinched, and noted Barricade cowering as the Lady High Protector released a feral snarl. Prowl smiled slightly then, he couldn't help it. 'Cade was cowering pointlessly: the Lady Prime was reaching toward the offending humans again, only to be restrained by her mate once more.
"Mikaela, when you became the Lady High Protector you stated that you were not going to execute people," Optimus rumbled sternly to his mate. "Has that now changed?"
Prowl watched in awe as the rage melted from the femme's optics as she turned, burying her faceplates into her mate's chest.
"Your father taught you better than that. Do not dishonour his memory by disregarding his lessons so callously," Optimus murmured gently, holding his mate tightly against his spark.
Barricade promptly prostrated himself in front of the Primes.
::. I wouldn't do that...:: Prowl sent to the bot worriedly.
::. What?.::
::. I wouldn't-.::
"Get off the floor Barricade, you're getting your faceplates dirty," the Lady Prime stated quietly, her face still buried into her mate's chest.
::. What the slag is up with this femme!?.:: Barricade sent to him in in a stunned tone over the private channel. Prowl promptly had to cycle his vocal processors, silencing a laugh.
"You burnt my shop," Archangel Prime stated quietly, her mate looking patiently down at the mech.
"I did," Barricade nodded, opting to keep kneeling. "It was the only way I could think of to obey your sire's command to warn you without risking capture."
"So now you've gone and dug up ancient history to apologize for burning Cal's retirement home down," Director Matteer piped up with a scowl.
"Barry," Archangel stated in a warning tone.
"I'll attend to them, but my point stands," Barry stated in an irritable tone. "You've decimated my blackwork corps, again!"
"These cretins work for you?" Barricade demanded flatly.
"They used to. Killing each other off the range is forbidden and they know it," Barry growled, glowering at the humans. "What I'm more interested in is why."
"Banes knew where Angel was-" the spokes-human started angrily.
"I already know why you lot went after Cal," Barry snapped. "I want to know why Prowl point two over here is bringing it up now!"
"My ability to fulfil my duty as an Enforcer was negated by Megatron's command," Barricade immediately stated neutrally. "The second I was freed from his command, then freed from my confinement beneath Prowl's servo I began hunting. You have my apologies, Director Matteer, for the amount of time between their transgressions and my own actions. It was unavoidable."
"And you didn't just burn down Cal's shop and been done with it because?" Barry demanded, eyeing Barricade warily.
"The human was a father, with a level of patriarchal loyalty I did not expect to bear witness to so far from Cybertron. On the edge of death the sire of the Lady Prime saw through my paints, armour and pretence and issued a command," Barricade stated firmly. "It has taken far too many orn for my liking, but the human's spark shall rest in peace now that his final orders have been carried out."
"You were a Decepticon, what would it matter to you that a mere human, the father of an enemy issued a command?" the Director demanded. Prowl admittedly looked curiously over at his old academy mate.
"Because the human was a father," Barricade stated sternly, glowering down at the Director. "Tortured for over two of your human hours he denied his tormenters the information they sought. The sire of the Lady Prime earned my respect on behalf of his ken the night he refused to give up his creation, he demonstrated more courage than many Cybertronians have beneath my witness. I have not harmed, nor within my ability allowed harm to befall another human since."
Amidst the ensuing silence Prowl strode forward and reached out, clapping a gentle servo on Barricade's shoulder.
"It's nice to have you back Cade," he stated quietly before dragging the mech into a hug.