Poor Swindle can't seem to catch a break in this story. First it was Astrotrain picking on him, then it was Soundwave bossing him around, then he had to go on-planet… And now he gets to face off against Barricade, which doesn't go as well for him as it should. In fact, this chapter is almost entirely focused on the Decepticons. The next one will probably be similar, but then they're the main driving force behind the plot at this point in time.
And for anyone who lives in Ohio, I apologize beforehand for any butchering of your state I may commit. The problem is that all I know of Ohio is that it's between Kansas, where I live, and Pennsylvania and Michigan both, where my mother and fathers' families live respectively. Every time we went to a relative's we passed through the great state of Ohio, and I would be either asleep or reading. Thus, despite having technically been to Ohio dozens of times, I am ignorant of its highway systems and basic environment. In short: I've taken some liberties with the scenery in this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own TF. At all. -sigh-
--
Primus leaned back, reclining against the cube as though it were the universe's largest easy chair, and smiled to himself. Things were going wonderfully. Then again, he'd expected as much. The one currently calling all the shots was Soundwave; everything else was everyone's reactions to his actions. And Soundwave was so predictable- he was a firm believer in logic, making it ridiculously easy to guess what he would do next.
Equally as predictable, although for far different reasons, was the mech who was about to join Soundwave as major influences on the playing field. Swindle, probably the most self-centered mech currently in the game, was soon to make the journey to Earth. Once there it would take him a matter of minutes to realize how free he was, with no Astrotrain to torment him and no Soundwave to rule in silent tyranny.
Technically Primus could no sooner foretell Swindle's actions than he could his own demise; he was inarguably a here-and-now being with no powers of foresight whatsoever. But that didn't change the basic nature of the Decepticon. Swindle would do everything in his power to guarantee his continued existence, creating chaos and causing ripples. This was what Primus needed, more than Soundwave's cool control. Chaos was good. Chaos hid the obvious and distracted from the hidden. Chaos would allow him to appropriate the fragment of the cube without breaking any one of his kind's harsh laws.
Now all he needed to do was hope Swindle's network of friends and customers didn't extend beyond even Primus' knowledge. It wouldn't surprise him if it did- he had kept the Cybertronians at a distance, only occasionally checking in to make sure they weren't on the verge of destroying the universe or something. If he showed them any sort of favoritism, his kin would wonder why, and invariably discover the slight slip with the cube.
'Slight slip', of course, meaning he'd let it out of his sight for one moment and it went off and created an entire race.
Unless Swindle had a total reversal of character, he'd do what was best for himself and that would put a wrinkle in Soundwave's nice smooth reality. Since there was no room for intervention without the wrinkles Primus was inclined to help the former Combaticon.
And as an added complication, Jazz had figured him out within record time. This was no real cause for concern, as his name coming up had been inevitable, but he'd been kind of hoping it would take longer than five minutes. Now the Autobots would be, not necessarily prepared, but certainly aware of the prospect of his personal involvement.
They think I'm a god. That I can wave my hand and do anything. Primus snorted at that- he was powerful, certainly, but there was a structure to his power. Manipulation and application, that was his thing. He had rules he had to follow and there was still the ever-present line of what was and wasn't possible. True, his field of control was far broader than the lower races such as Cybertronians, but he was still just one being shuffling along the road of existence. He was bound by natural laws he couldn't begin to alter, forces far too powerful and massive for a race as relatively small as the Cybertronians to even comprehend.
His greatest weapon was the cube, a nameless artifact he'd created by accident in his younger days, an item that contained a staggering amount of his power locked within it. Primus hitched himself onto an elbow and stared at the jagged corner, trying not to think about the omens this presented. The cube would be reassembled soon. Then all would be well.
All he needed to do was wait.
--
Out of spite, Swindle chose yellow.
He'd been on the planet just long enough to take up his new form and found himself needing a color scheme. Because he was still feeling annoyed, he scanned the Internet and picked metallic sunburst yellow, also called 'sweet Primus my optics are burning'. Now he roared down the road, enjoying the feeling of power since he was so much larger than all the other vehicles, and getting stared at because he was too obnoxious to not stare. He supposed Soundwave's thoughts had been that something as big and gaudy and in-your-face as himself would draw less attention from Barricade. The scout was probably expecting Ravage to show up. He was in for a nasty surprise.
The orders, once Soundwave had deigned to give them, had been long but simple. There were to be no transmissions sent either way. The Internet and GPS locaters were to be used as little as possible. The live feed of Barricade's location was to be accessed only when absolutely necessary, giving rise to the interesting conundrum of his having to track someone down without knowing where to begin looking. once he found them, he was to get them to cooperate without causing permanent damage. It went on from there, but he hadn't really been paying attention. Instead he'd been silently sympathizing with Dead End's eternal fatalism as he pictured his brutal dismemberment at the hands of two overexcited Autobot idiots.
All of the aforementioned precautions were due to Frenzy, of course. The little insect was still doing a pretty good job of holding Soundwave off. He had always been the best hacker on Soundwave's team, and Swindle suspected that their prolonged separation had forced him to learn a good many other tricks as well. For now the communications officer was slowly unscrambling the feed, with Frenzy trying to unconnected the link altogether. Every connection to the Decepticon ship or human satellites could conceivably be picked up by Frenzy, which would blow the whole thing, so Swindle was effectively under communications lockdown.
Soundwave had started taking control of the satellites as soon as it was confirmed that the Autobots knew about them. He'd started with the military, then moved on to commercial. Now he saw and heard everything- cell phones, Internet connections, GPS systems… it was actually kinda scary when Swindle thought of it, but at least the 'con was on his side.
It was through this that Soundwave had picked up on a cell phone call reporting someone from Sector 7- a group that simply never existed, suggesting not only a cover-up but also Autobot assistance in erasing all hints. The human on the phone had reported seeing Barricade near someplace called Dayton. Swindle had landed just south of the coordinates and got himself onto a busy highway heading south.
Barricade's alternate form was a small but powerful car with distinct black-and-white markings resembling that of the law enforcement vehicles. In a race there was no way Swindle would win; he was simply too big to go fast. His best bet was to sneak up as close to the scout as possible and hit him with a debilitating but not lethal blow. This should be easy enough- he had a signal jammer that basically made him invisible to all scanners and sensors. These cute little gadgets were Shockwave originals. Vortex had given Swindle ten of them in exchange for a copy of Soundwave's hacking code, which would implant a virus that instantly off-lined any mech it infected. A useful thing, for Blitzwing was on Shockwave's team, and he made Astrotrain look pacifistic in terms of bullying. Maybe it was residual connection left over from their shared gestalt mind, but when Vortex had asked Swindle for help, he'd let the helo off very lightly.
So now Swindle amused himself by watching the humans alternately gape at him or scramble out of his way. This made his ugly car mode worth it. According to the phone call Barricade was heading south on this highway. Swindle could only hope that Soundwave unscrambled the feed quickly, because there was no way he was going to stumble across the scout on accident.
-Hey, Swindle- Rumble said over the main line. Swindle slowed to a more sedate pace as he responded.
-I thought we weren't supposed to talk on this?-
-Shut up and listen. Soundwave's got a feed from one of the military satellites. It's focused on the planet surface, and it captures images at a quality you wouldn't believe. We're using it to track Barricade. I'm gonna send you the images once every… two Earth minutes. The transfer should be fast and infrequent enough that Frenzy won't be able to sense it, let alone hack it.-
-So you're gonna send me pictures of Barricade from a satellite orbiting the planet?-
-Yep.-
-Well, that's great. If I were a jet I might actually be able to use that. Unfortunately, I'm stuck on the ground, and I can't recognize things from a picture from up in the air!- The last four words were snapped out angrily, and Rumble went silent for a moment.
-Take it or leave it- he said finally. Swindle groaned.
-Better than nothing. I'll take it.-
The line was cut off there and a moment later he received a bird's-eye-view image of Barricade. As he'd suspected, it was of no help. It showed the scout on a multi-lane highway that may or may not be the one Swindle was on. He considered asking, then discarded the thought. It wasn't as though the satellite could pick up Barricade but was blind to Swindle; if he were on the wrong road he was positive that annoying little creep Rumble would find some way to tell him.
So he followed the highway, wandering out of Dayton's limits and hitting open plains. The planet's array of organic life was startling- there was something everywhere, tons of plant matter and dozens of animals everywhere he looked. It was amazing to think one little backwater planet in a boringly ordinary solar system could support so much life. Even when the Allspark had been on-planet, Cybertron had never been nearly as populated. The area he was in was a broad expanse of green grass overlaid by a broader deep blue sky. Swindle marveled at this; he'd never been someplace where the ground was so flat and there was so much sky visible. It would be hard as the slagging Pit to maintain any form of stealth, but still.
And so it went, for almost fifty miles. The satellite images actually proved useful when Swindle suddenly recognized an odd-shaped building he was driving past- sure proof he was on the right road. He also realized from the images that Barricade was either going very slowly or had stopped a few times, for Swindle was gaining on him.
By the time he caught up they were obviously moving into another big city, for the number of lanes had grown and there were more on- and off-ramps. For a moment the former Combaticon had worried that Barricade might take a ramp and he would never figure out which one. Then a garbage truck rolled forward and Swindle spotted a black-and-white car with a Decepticon symbol on its right flank.
-Found: one scout- he tossed to Rumble quickly as he eased across the lanes and settled just behind his target.
-Good for you- Rumble answered cheerfully. -Glad to know you're not completely incompetent.-
Swindle snorted to himself and followed Barricade as the scout took an exit straight into the inner city. -We'll discuss that when I get back.-
-No, thanks.-
"Coward," Swindle muttered and ran a red light in order to keep up. By now he didn't care if he was spotted- the sooner Barricade noticed him, the sooner he would react. Then they would be on their way out of here.
--
"It's still there."
This was obvious, but Barricade kept his peace. Snapping at Megatron would accomplish nothing. Besides, he was starting to get worried himself. The neon-yellow Hummer H2 SUT had been on his bumper for a little over ten minutes, since just before they got off the highway. It could be nothing- Cincinnati was a relatively big city, and he'd been following well-traveled roads. And Frenzy's repeated scans had come up with nothing out of the ordinary. Probably it was nothing more menacing than some idiot humans, taunting the police car because he was far from Los Angeles. It certainly wasn't Ravage.
Whatever the case was, it was annoying and Barricade was getting tired of it. He cut sharply across two lanes and turned left on red, swinging through the intersection and missing other cars by a matter of centimeters. The Hummer copied the maneuver with suspicious ease, nearly rear-ending him when he slammed on his brakes. It skidded to a halt and sat there, blocking half the intersection until Barricade moved forward.
"Still nothing?" he asked a frustrated Frenzy. The hacker was worked up into such a fury that words were beyond him; he shook his head and emitted a static-edged shriek. Megatron studied him for a moment, then leaned slightly away from the jerky 'con.
Barricade spotted an access road and dove for it. He was nearly broadsided by a semi, but at least when he tore down the road the truck kept the Hummer from following. The road deposited him in the parking lot for a shipping warehouse. The scout immediately gunned his engine and flew around the building's corner, blocking sight of himself from the road. He followed the wall around to another access road and was about to turn onto it when something loomed up on his left.
He slammed on his brakes and swerved wildly, avoiding the Hummer's attempt to t-bone him and tearing off around a corner and back behind the building. By now Barricade had had enough. He swung himself around, opening one door and ushering his passengers out. They moved away quickly, almost out of sight when the Hummer took the corner on two wheels and screeched to a stop just shy of Barricade's side paneling.
The scout transformed, standing over the obnoxiously yellow vehicle, and pulled out one of his cannons, trying to scare the driver into running away. Unfortunately things went to the Pit with startling speed from there.
"What, gonna shot me?" a silk-smooth voice cajoled him. "Oh no. I'm so scared. Whatever shall I do?" The scout paused, trying to figure out what was happening, and the Hummer did the unexpected: it started to transform.
The newcomer stood easily head and shoulders over Barricade. A dark, unfriendly grin split his faceplates as he considered the scout. He rested his hands on his hips and leaned forward slightly. "Take your best shot, half-circuit, 'cause one shot is all you're getting. If you think I'm staying on this Primus-forsaken mudball for one- hey!"
Frenzy whooped unintelligibly and shot another one of his throwing stars at the back of the newcomer's leg. He moved at the last possible moment; instead of severing a vital connection the little weapon lodged harmlessly in his armor. The yellow 'con turned with a snarl, scooping Frenzy up and dangling him by one foot.
"Badswindle!" Frenzy barked. Unable to twist himself around well enough to bring up his hands, he instead kicked at his captor's hand with his free foot. "Badswindlebadswindle-bad-swindle! Le-le-le-leggo!"
"All right," Swindle replied jauntily, and did as ordered. The hacker realized the problem caused by Swindle's height, which was significantly greater than Barricade's, about half a second before he hit the ground. It took a few moments before he peeled himself off the concrete; once he did he launched into an impressive litany against Swindle.
"How do you tolerate this?" the bigger 'con asked Barricade despairingly. "And I thought Rumble was bad."
-Frenzy, enough- Barricade snapped over their internal line. Briefly he wondered if Swindle could access it, then decided not. He was hacker, sure; Swindle was decent at just about everything, which was useful in his line of work. He wasn't on Frenzy's level, though.
"So I got orders to take you two back to Soundwave's ship." Now Swindle sounded bored.
"I told Soundwave I'd be happy to talk to him when he comes here," Barricade answered stiffly. He hadn't met Swindle before this and knew little of the other 'con's fighting ability, but he did know that they would both rather avoid any extraneous shooting. Megatron was wisely keeping out of sight and Swindle apparently hadn't bothered to run any scans of the area.
"Now that's too bad. See, my orders were to bring you back to the ship, using whichever methods I deemed necessary. At least, I think that's what my orders were." He folded one arm across his chest and tapped his chin with one finger as he directed his gaze skyward. "I wasn't really paying attention, so I'm just guessing here. Sounds about right, though."
-Lines.- Frenzy's voice crackled over the com and Barricade almost glanced towards the hacker.
-What?- he asked.
-Electriclinesbehindbadswindlepushbadswindleback.-
-'Bad' Swindle?- Barricade asked as he studied the situation. Swindle was standing half a step in front of a telephone pole, and he was certainly tall enough to tangle himself in the power lines if something were to give him a slight push.
-Swindlemean. Badswindle.-
-Fine, whatever. As soon as he hits those power lines, you get to Megatron and hide his spark signal. Get someplace where he can't reach and wait for me to contact you.- He lifted his arm and readied himself, the cannon whining in preparation. Swindle looked more annoyed than concerned as he scowled at the scout.
"Oh, don't do this. The sooner I can get you two half-slagged idiots on the ship, the sooner we can leave Autobot territory." He cycled air through his vents, sounding like a frustrated human sigh. "You can't possibly hope to beat me."
The shot hit Swindle on the shoulder- fighting programming kicked in and the yellow 'con turned and ducked in one move, keeping the plasma away from his spark chamber. The force of the blow forced him that one half-step backwards.
The telephone pole suddenly found itself supporting a three-ton mech as electricity surged through Swindle. Understandably the pole gave up the fight quickly and Swindle went down. Barricade paused only long enough to confirm Frenzy was gone, then he darted past the downed 'con.
Somehow, probably through use of various modifications gained throughout his long career, Swindle processed the spare energy with ease. He twisted and seized the pole, swinging it around and sweeping Barricade's feet out from under him. The scout rolled away and transformed, barely dodging a second swing as he lunged away. Cursing and still sparking slightly, Swindle scrambled to his feet and launched himself into vehicle mode. He seemed to be handling the excess electricity still running rampant through his systems well until he tried to take the third turn. Something locked up- Barricade heard the hollow clunk half a black away- and the Hummer slid sideways through a chain-link fence and slammed into an odd metal construct called monkey bars.
The contact with the metal would funnel away the electricity, Barricade knew. Not that it mattered much. He was too far ahead for Swindle's slower car form to catch up even if he wasn't half-electrocuted. He angled himself onto an on-ramp on the highway, pointing towards the inner city. A bright yellow Hummer would have a much harder time blending in amidst the crush of rush-hour traffic. He turned onto a bridge, near the bottom of one of those impressive tangles of roadways, and slammed on his brakes as traffic came to a dead halt in front of him. Lights and sirens would pinpoint his location, so all Barricade could do was sit there and wait for the congestion to clear.
And hope that, by some miracle, they all got out of this mess alive.
--
Swindle was starting to hate this planet.
He was dented, his paint scratched, his systems were still trying to process the excess electricity which his transformation had severely not helped. Unnecessary systems, including the conduit that fed energy to his engine, were shut down and refused to restart until everything was stabilized. There were humans nearby, all staring at him and talking. Most were small, the organic version of sparklings, and he ran a quick scan to make sure he hadn't hit any of them. Organic fluids were so hard to wash off. In short he was stuck here, unable to transform or pursue his targets- Primus only knew what hole that little gremlin Frenzy had crawled into, and Barricade was long past gone.
So naturally, it was at that moment that Rumble chose to harass him.
-Nice wipeout- he laughed.
-Shut up- Swindle shot back irritably. -Don't you have something better to do than bother me?-
-Not really. Anyways, Soundwave says that the order for stealth has been rescinded.-
-Oh really?-
-Yeah. He says you can trash the whole city if you want, just so long as you get those two glitches back. He also said that if you attract Autobot attention, you're on your own.-
-Yeah, because before this point he was so concerned for my welfare-
-Ya know, you're being awful whiny-
-I wonder why- the earth-bound 'con snapped. Before he could explain in great detail why he hated them all, a human appeared at his driver's door. It was yelling angrily at him and before he could do anything it wrenched the door open. The angry rant the little creature had been giving cut itself off.
"There's no driver," it said finally to another human nearby. Swindle had a moment's amusement at their confusion. Then the one human actually began climbing in, dropping onto the driver's seat and twisting around to peer into the back. Swindle tensed, wanting desperately to toss the human out on its sorry aft but unable to do anything.
A red light turned green in his CPU and control returned in a rush. He started his engine with malicious glee, already calculating many pieces he could disassemble Barricade to without breaking the 'permanent damage' rule. However, he had other issues to deal with first.
"Jack!" the human outside snapped at the one sitting inside him, which now that he thought about it was enough to make him feel slightly ill. "What are you doing?"
"I didn't do it," the confounded human replied. Swindle took it upon himself to relieve their confusion.
"I did," he growled. "You, human- get out."
"Who's talking?" the human outside asked. The one it called Jack was staring around Swindle's interior.
"I don't know… maybe a radio?"
"There's no radio, it's just me. The car. Get out, fleshling, or I will make you. And I really don't want to do that; organic goo is just so hard to clean out of internals, especially since I'd have to do it myself."
"Yeah, the car is talking to me," the human Jack muttered. It pulled out a small machine and the 'con ran an instant scan, well aware of how much damage even a small explosive could do considering its location. Judging by the signals this was one of the little wonder machine called cell phones- the things that had allowed Soundwave to take over world communications in less than one planetary rotation. "Look, whoever you are, I'm calling the cops. You'd better have a good excuse for nearly killing a bunch of kids."
"Kids?" Swindle spared a glance to the cluster of short humans. "The half-sized ones? You're, what, their guardian?"
"I'm their teacher," the human spat back. Swindle smirked to himself.
"Oh, good. That means you're much more likely to care if I were to do this." And on 'this' he slid a side panel back and his largest gun rotated out. It rolled up his frame and came to a rest on his roof, the gleaming muzzle jutting out in front of his bumper and pointed ominously towards the group of kids.
As it turned out, the small ones had a better sense of self-preservation than the big ones. Upon seeing the gun, most of the kids issued audio-cracking shrieks or screams, but they all proceeded to scatter like petro-bunnies glimpsing a turbo-fox. Swindle ignored this and instead focused his aim on the building beyond. Through the windows scattered along the ugly structure he had spotted a good many more kids than had been out here.
"Now, normally I'm all for negotiating and compromising, but you have caught me on a very bad day. Stay there and I shoot. Get out and maybe I won't."
"They're just kids," the human said softly.
"They'll be vapor if you're not out by three. One."
The human was out before he finished the word. "Oh look, instant cooperation," Swindle muttered to himself. He tucked the gun- cannon, really- back into its port. Since the human was out he wasn't going to even consider shooting the building. He was ruthless enough to be a Decepticon, sure, but he'd never understood the cold-sparked slaughter of other creatures. He was simply too much the consummate merchant- he might need those creatures one day, and even if he didn't, one of his future customers might be put off by his actions. Besides, these things only lived about a vorn. There was no need to shorten their already pitiful lives.
He pulled away from the building and back onto the road he'd left so abruptly. Barricade was, as suspected, vanished. Swindle cycled his vents in agitation, then pointed himself towards the scout's likeliest choice- the busiest road. After a little maneuvering he pulled onto a side street that followed the main road, although had significantly less traffic.
-Hey.-
Rumble was back. Swindle hadn't decided what sort of mood he was in, so he responded with silence.
-So we got the new satellite images. It took us a minute to find Barricade, but…-
-Just send it- Swindle ordered tiredly. Yes, tired. That sounded good.
A few moments later he was scanning an image. Someone- no big contest who it was- had circled an area of the picture and written in bold glyphs 'LOOK AT THE PRETTY BARRICADE!'.
As soon as he got back on that ship, Rumble was getting drop-kicked into the energy core.
Then Swindle took a closer look at the image. The roads were crossed over each other, an interwoven pattern of curved ramps and high-soaring bridges. It was an interesting construct, taking the human's rule of when you can no longer build out, go up and applying it to their roads. From where he sat the 'con could glimpse it between two buildings. He grunted in annoyance and started off in the proper direction, stopping abruptly when he turned a corner and saw the extent of the bridges. They were supported on disconcertingly thin pillars of concrete.
Now this, Swindle could work with.
It took him a few moments to translate the satellite image and identify which bridge Barricade was on. He used this time to better position himself, cutting across yards and lots until he found the ideal spot. His targeting systems picked out the supports to the right bridge and the gun once more emerged. He was almost ready to fire when it suddenly occurred to him that there were cars around Barricade, cars full of humans. He took a moment to compare the sparing of the kids versus the lives he was condemning now.
"Sorry, fleshlings," he said unapologetically. "It sucks, but it's orders."
And then he fired.
--
Barricade onlined slowly, trying to sort through the alarms and warnings and simply figure out what happened. The last thing he'd known, the road under him shuddered and twisted, then tilted, causing all the vehicles to roll backwards for a moment. Only a moment, though, for then the supporting pillar almost directly under him had given out and the last he'd seen was the ground rushing towards him.
Now he was trapped, still in vehicle form, with an immense weight pressing down on him. He ran a few quick scans and found the damage was all minimal- he'd offlined merely because his car mode was less heavily armored and simply couldn't take the same punishment as his mech form.
A stray beam of sunlight was highlighting his hood. It flickered a few times as something moved just outside his prison. There was muttering from a now-familiar voice, a voice with the slickness and confidence he had always associated with politicians, and a slab of concrete was lifted off him.
"Look what I found," Swindle drawled. He seized Barricade's front fender and bodily dragged the scout out. "Fancy seeing you here. Now, let's try this again. We are gonna go get Frenzy and we are getting off this slagging planet. Run one more time and I'm gonna get mad. Got it?"
Barricade glanced towards the pillar, or what was left of it. It was simply gone, a ragged stump in its place. The shot had gone straight through and hit the side of another bridge beyond, leaving half of that road crumbled and falling. The damage suggested a weapon far superior to anything a mid-level grunt like Swindle should possess. In fact, it was similar to the level of firepower carried by the Autobot Ironhide.
Megatron could handle himself, Barricade decided abruptly. There was certainly no reason for the scout to irritate Swindle any more than he already had.
"Got it," he answered shortly. Swindle smiled at him cheerfully and transformed back into his eyesore of a vehicle mode.
-Frenzy- Barricade tried the line to his partner and was surprised to find it operational. For some reason, communications were always the first thing to give out when he was damaged.
-Barricade! Youalive?- Frenzy's startled response did nothing to soothe the scout.
-Yes, I am. Swindle shot out the bridge I was on. We're coming to get you. See if you can find a way to shield Megatron's spark signal and wait for us back where we separated. With any luck we can still make this work.-
Swindle honked and revved his engine, crowding close to Barricade's fender as the first of many emergency vehicles went flying past them. Knowing how well they both stood out, the scout agreed with the former Combaticon's newfound urgency and revved his own engine in response. After a quick check to make sure nothing was going to fall off, he followed the road back down to where he had told Frenzy to meet them.
Luck was all they had, and judging from today's events it was in short supply.