Chapter 10: Taste of freedom…aand its gone
2 earth weeks later and Mika was fully recovered. She slept on the warlords chest at night and found that it was hard for her to sleep without it. She tried it once, claiming she missed the comfy matrass of her cell but had sneaked back out an hour later. The cell was not even locked anymore.
"I miss shopping, and I miss the shelter" Mika stated seemingly randomly over breakfast. Even though she had sent a text to the shelter so they didn't come looking for her, same with her obsessive parents she did miss her freedom.
"I really… really miss shopping" she murmured again more to herself. The warlord peered down at the femme and scoffed "femmes and their vanity, all the same" he grunted before smirking at Barricade looking for confirmation. But the scout held his face as neutral as possible not wanting to entice the wrath of either of them.
"Fine.. go shopping or whatever you call it, Barricade will take you" he said flippantly waving a servo. The scout nearly choked on his saliva and stuttered. "W-wha.. Lord Megatron surely you are not serious!?". The silver mech settled his red gaze on the scout and frowned "Are you refusing your duties, is it not your job to serve me and my will? Well my will is that you take this fleshling to go shopping so she doesn't turn more insipid then she already is!" he ended with a snarl flaring his plating aggressively.
The scout swallowed audibly before nodding and making a slight bow" Yes my liege, please forgive me". Mika couldn't believer her ears. She could go and shop, sure mister buzzkill was going with her but who cares! "WHOOP!" she bursted out enthusiastically, startling the large mech in front of her.
"Arg you infuriating creature!" Megatron snarled aggressively. Mika frowned, the big guy was never this cranky. She wondered what was going on. "Are you worried that I'll try and escape so you don't have your snuggle toy anymore?" she replied slyly. Barricades optics widened. "Nice knowing you" he thought.
Megatron's smirked "Bah worried for an insect like you, unlikely! But I do like fragging the Prime and without you, that's not going to happen" he snarled. Mika flinched and physically withdrew from the gladiator, the hurt clearly visible in her eyes. "So that's the way it is' she said softly. She knew she should be able to receive if she was dishing out comments like that, but she only meant to tease him, his comment cut her right to the bone. "Well you can -recharge- alone from now on!" she snarled empathizing the word recharge as she usually and quite stubbornly used the word sleeping.
"FINE! Perhaps if you perish in an "accident" the prime will come to me consolidation and the problem will be solved regardless!" he spat and stood up swinging his arms aggressively.
Mika was seething and has no more verbal response ready so she did the only thing that came to mind. She flipped him off. And not a short flip you off, no.. one with feeling. She thrusted her middle finger at him a few times to make sure her point came across.
Barricade buried his helm into his servo's and groaned.
A few hours later and Mika was strolling trough the city carrying multiple bags. Barricade was carrying even more bags and growled in annoyance as he heaved them over his shoulder. The scout had activated his holoform but insisted on wearing his too tight police uniform, ignoring all the strange looks from bystanders.
They walked back towards the deserted part of town where the cruiser was parked. Mika made a comment about having to take a picture of the lingerie bag wearing cop when screeching tires were heard behind her. A black van stopped and side doors opened, two men jumped out with masks who grasped her and dragged her into the van. Mika screamed and kicked but the men were just too powerful and the bags that were flailing about didn't really help.
Barricade blinked stupidly and watched as the black van sped off in a cloud of dust. "Fuck" he muttered and threw the bags into the cruiser before disengaging his holoform and speeding behind the van while hailing Megatron.
"Lord Megatron.. Mika has been.. abducted" he said calmly not really sure how to call it. It was silent for a few beats and he wasn't sure that the message was received. "I am in hot pursuit" he added.
Static graced his communication line, he was about to speak again when he heard his masters ominous voice trough the com. "Lose her, and I will make you beg for deactivation".
Barricade sped up and made sure to stay close to the van as it took off into the desert. His sirens blared, and his processor raced at how he would make the humans pull over. Sure he could force them but he wasn't allowed to transform and he feared he would damage the little femme if he forced the vehicle to stop abruptly. Fucking disaster, if they harmed the femme Megatron would de-plate him alive!
Meanwhile Megatron was boiling with anger. His servo's clenching in anger drawing energon, how dare filthy humans take what is his! "I'll kill them!" he spat raging like a bull as he rand trough the halls of his hangar pressing a digit to the side of his helm "Prime.. Mika has been taken, Barricade is in persuit.. pray to primus that you will get to them first Optimus, because I will make them pay for taking what is OURS!"
"Mika..taken wha.. please don't do anything rash Megatron!" he shouted trough the com link but only received static.
Megatron snarled as he transformed in his recently acquired alt form and sped out of the base towards his scouts location, lucky for him they were driving right his way. Revving his engine, the Dodge II muscle car blasted forward fire coming out from his exhaust. Those fraggers wouldn't know what hit them, oh how me missed turning humans into little puddles.
Barricade would have flinched if he could. Megatron was on route himself ooooh he was so slagged.
Meanwhile inside the van Mika was giving the men a hard time. She had managed to punch, bite and kick both of them. Even though she was defending herself valiantly, she was not fairing well. Her nose was bleeding and she was sure that she would have some bruised ribs and a black eye if not worse. Fuck who were these guys.
"Heeeyyya we gonna get some moneeey for this bitch!" one of them hollered. "Shut the fuck up man and help me tie her the fuck down!" came the glutaral shout from the other. The skinny man immediately sobered up and helped restrain the cursing femme and even though she was gagged, it was easy to interpret what she was screaming. When she was successfully hogtied she closed her eyes and tried not to cry. "Aaww girly sad, well not to worry ey, at least you make us both very happy, and rich! Aaaah all the moneeeys" the skinny man was shouting again while making it rain with his imaginary money. The burlier man smirked and glared down at the female at his feet before moving his face closer. "Shouldn't have fraternized with those freaks yo, they get ya ass killed!" he said and opened his mouth again but before he could say another word they heard a panicked yell from the driver. "Ya'll there's a car driving straight towards us.."
"So what, cars drive here ya know" said the bulky guy. "Yeap.. but this one is going real fast.. and driving on the wrong side of the road.. I dun wanna crash ya know" said the hillbilly.
"oh fuck sake" the bulky man hissed and moved to the front to have a look but froze in fear as he saw the incoming car start to break apart. "Fuuuuck" he screamed and took a dive to the floor. The driver tried to break but the van couldn't it, started to swerve and started to tip over.
Mika screamed as she slammed into the ceiling before blissfully falling into the abys of unconsciousness.
Megatron initiated his transformation sequence and snarled as he saw the vehicle starting to tumble. Before the van could even do a full Roly poly he managed to grasp it in his servo and rolled with the movement of the van while completing his transformation.
Barricade slammed on the breaks, smoke arising from his tires as he performed an emergency stop before transforming as well.
Megatron snarled like an animal and set the van down preparing to rip the thing apart when he heard a loud air horn. Looking up he saw Prime arriving with Ratchet in tow, the semi flashing his headlights before transforming and taking the last few strides by foot.
"Megatron, don't" came the warning from Optimus. The gladiator snarled again and tore off the roof off the van, noticing one of the men was clinging to it. Shaking the part off like it was the most disgusting thing he ever touched he snarled once more before putting his pede on the roof not caring that he effectively squished one of those wretched humans, after all..he had two still alive.
Peering inside the van he noticed the unconscious form of Mika, bleeding and looking quite haggard send him into another fit of rage. Optimus didn't intervene but flinched when he saw the human get squashed, his spark always tried to solve things peacefully and by the looks of it Megatron was not having that.
He set the van down and loomed over the two grasping the bulky man. "You DARE touch what is mine?!" the warlord roared bringing the now crying man to his helm. "Yo.. we didn't know she was yours man.. we just trying to get money to pay our bills cus we have no jobs man we're sorry!" he cried.
Megatron didn't particularly care and was about to pull this one limb for limb when he felt a large servo on his shoulder. The prime had moved closer and glared at the human, his optics tinting red at the corners. "Money you say? How could you earn money from doing this?" he asked deceptively calm.
The man thought he was being shown mercy and was all too eager to cooperate. "Yeah.. this group you know, they kinda hate your kind and they found out she's been hanging out with you guys. Their real advanced yeah, with satellites and all!" he explained eagerly. "So they figured they would trap ya by using her as bate see? And…and they would pay us handsomely, make us real rich! We didn't mean ta hurt her but she's real feisty see?" he said showing off a missing tooth.
Megatron would have laughed If he wasn't so pissed off. Mika was feisty indeed and it looked like she gave the men quite a fight before she succumbed. The thought of the men hurting her angered him more and his spark grew with the intensity of it, plating flaring out aggressively.
The man pales as he saw the mech getting angrier, this was not what was supposed to happen. "Ey…I did good yeah? I can go now right? Ah promise never to hurt the pretty lady again" he said innocently.
Megatron glared at the man and grimaced as he smelled a sour smell coming from the man and felt wetness on his servo. That insect had released his waste fluids on him..uugh… revolting. Refocusing on the man he gave him an earie smirk and moved him closer to his helm "The only one that can hurt her.. IS ME!" he snarled and with full force he hurled the man to the ground hearing him smack against the tarmac with a satisfying squelch. He knew the human body was not made for such a thing, especially not when added force was brought into the equation. The prime shook his helm and grasped the last man from the truck who seemed to be crying and begging for his life.
"What you did, is unforgivable. Mika has done nothing to you "came the warm baritones from the prime. "However, despite what you did I can not take your life.. it is not my design." He added with a sigh before putting the driver down on the tarmac rather gently.
The man seemed so relieved and he looked at the prime almost in adoration. "oh thank you thank you!" he said and took off running. "Unfortunately.." came the same baritone voice.
"I can not say the same about my brother" the prime added. The man turned around and screamed as he saw a large pede hover above him before it was brought down and the man was no more.
"Disgusting creatures" muttered the gladiator before trying to shake the residue off. Optimus wore his battle mask still so the displeased look on his faceplates was not visible. Even though Megatron only did what he wished he could do, extinguishing a life like that just wasn't in his coding. He turned to his medic to order him to examine the little femme who was still knocked out but when he turned he saw that Ratchets holoform was already working on it. "Some bruising, minor abrasions, a bloody nose though not broken and minor concussion" came the relieved murmur from the medic. "Mika, time to wake up" he spoke nudging her. Megatron leaned closer his spark hammering in his chest, was he genuinely concerned about the little human? The medic said she was fine, why was he worried?
Mika heard someone calling for her and frowned, why was everything feeling so heavy. Opening her eyes slowly she squinted to get used to the light of the desert sun before setting her eyes on a blond haired middle aged man wearing a white labcoat. "Who.." she asked but was interrupted by Ratchet introducing himself properly and explaining what was going on.
Sitting up Mika rubbed her head. "That smarts" she groaned before looking up seeing both Optimus and Megatron tower above her. "Mika.." came the low rumble from the Prime as he took a knee to lower his helm towards he femme. "We thought we lost you, can you tell us what happened?". He asked calmly.
Before Mika could explain she was interrupted by a visibly pissed off warlord. "What happened is that Barricade failed his task! You…" he growled pointing at Mika "Are NEVER leaving base again do you understand!" he snapped.
Mika bristled at this. It wasn't Barricades fault or hers that these psychos decided to kidnap her. Standing up she ignored Ratchets warnings to stay down and pointed a finger back at the warlord.
"What was it again Megatron, you only keep me around so Optimus will fuck you right? And if I perished in an -accident- "she said paraphrasing the word with her fingers, "that would suit you just fine, remember". She spat. "This isn't Barricade's fault, if you wanted me safe then you should have joined me. But you didn't because you don't care do you!" Mika shouted her face turning red in anger.
The silence that occurred next was deafening. Megatron was at a loss of words for once. It was true, in his anger he had told her that, he however didn't anticipate that it would explode in his face.
"Femme.." came the warning growl from the warlord after a few beats. "No Megatron, I'm tired, hurt in more ways then one and done with your incapability of showing you care" Mika shouted ending the sentence with a sob.
Optimus instinctively made a beeping sound meant for soothing upset sparklings before he stopped It and gently stroked Mika's back with a digit. "He does care Mika, he just doesn't know how to express it" the prime explained gently but it was clear the femme wasn't buying it. Venting loudly he turned to Ratchet. "Can you transport Mika back to Megatron's base, you have a stretcher in your alt mode. " Optimus requested but turned to Mika again when she nudged his digit.
"I would like to go to your base Optimus, I really don't want to see Megatron for a little while. "she muttered. Optimus frowned and looked up at his brother who he expected would blow a gasket at hearing this. But the large mech looked more defeated then he had ever seen him. "Take her with you Prime.. your base is better suited for human needs and as the human stated, I don't care anyway. "he huffed before turning around glancing sideways at Mika one more time before transforming in his alt mode and driving off.
"Brother" Optimus murmured regretfully and rubbed his chest plates absentmindedly his spark burning in his chest.