"Barricade?" Twenty Three spoke, getting his attention.
"What is it?" her mechanical friend asked her.
"I think I should ask my father about what this means," she gestured to her gifts from Starscream.
"Why… Why is that?" he asked her nervously. He didn't want to waste his bosses time.
"I just think I should," she sighed. "He makes things easier for me to understand… Take me to him?"
Her escort obeyed, and walked with her, to Megatron's command center. Twenty Three looked thoughtful, playing with her short, messy black hair. She had her box of goods wrapped protectively in one of her vectors, close to her body.
Barricade entered the room first, announcing her presence. Megatron, who was taking a report from Blackout, turned to greet his daughter.
"And to what do I owe this pleasure?" he asked, neutrally, wondering what the hell was going on. This was the first time his daughter had chosen to seek him out.
"If you're not busy, Lord Megatron, I would like a word with my father…" she spoke nervously. She wasn't quite sure if he would be interested, but she hoped she was doing the right thing. This had been the first time acting on her own accord, and she was frightened. Mortified she would disappoint, she kept her head down.
"Get the frag out," Megatron growled, and her stomach sank. "You too Barricade, I want a moment alone with my daughter. She looked up and realized his first order was directed at Blackout, and not her, and her confidence began to creep back.
They were soon alone, and Megatron just stared at her.
"Well? What did you want?" he asked her, curious despite himself.
"I… received something today that I do not quite understand… I thought I should ask you before confronting Starscream…" she pulled out the box and showed him.
"These are from Starscream?" he asked, putting two and two together.
"Affirmative," she sighed. "But I do not understand why."
"One free flight?" he mused, looking over her gifts. "What is that little worm up to I wonder?"
"Father?" she asked, staring up at him puzzled.
He smirked at her. He felt… proud, hearing that from her.
"What does it mean? The disk has information on human first aid, and cybertronian history… it was very thoughtful. Should I thank him for this? Or is there a meaning I am missing?" she shook her head.
"It's good you came to me with this, child. I believe the coward is just trying to get you on his good side, to protect his own hide, but I want you to update me on everything he does and says to you," he told her, as she nodded. Perhaps this way, he would actually catch his second in command in the act. Primus knows how many times he'd tried to overthrow him in the past…
"Yes, father. Thank you for your input. Once again, you have made things clearer for me," she bowed her head in respect towards him, and he reached down, twining a finger around a vector fondly.
"Come to me any time, my daughter," he smiled. He was beginning to like having a daughter this loyal.
"Come, Barricade, we have to go find Starscream," she smiled at her escort, who looked uncomfortable, like he had something to say, but was refraining.
He simply began to walk to the lab, where Starscream was usually hanging around experimenting on god knows what. Twenty Three watched her friend strangely, but said nothing, not understanding what was going on.
They knocked on the door, Barricade half hoping Starscream would ignore it.
He had no such luck.
Starscream wrenched the door open angry at being disturbed. "What the slag do you want? – Oh," He suddenly saw Twenty Three by Barricade's foot. The black and white bot stepped in front of her protectively.
"Sorry Twenty Three, I didn't see you there…" he looked awkward. "So… uh… What do you want?"
She walked between Barricade's legs to get past, and used her vectors to bring her at eye level. She looked him in the eyes dead serious, and spoke in an even tone, that held little emotion.
"I wanted to thank you for your gifts. They were very thoughtful."
Starscream looked a little taken aback… he was not expecting either an open acknowledgement of them, after his last attempt at apology, and from such an expressionless face left him more confused than anything else.
"About that flight… any idea where you'd like to go?" Starscream tried to make the situation a little more casual.
"I have no plans as of yet, and I must ask permission of Lord Megatron before leaving the premises, I will let you know when I have… made a decision." It sounded strange, even to her own ears. She was not used to situations where she would make decisions. It made life seem a lot more… difficult… scary… but exciting. "Would… Frenzy be able to accompany me?" she asked him nervously, no knowing what he would think of the idea.
Starscream looked a little uncomfortable. He did not get along at all with the excitable pipsqueak, but if he wanted to get on her to like him…
"So long as he behaves himself while in my cockpit, I see no issue with taking the both of you," he looked away. "But I would prefer only one passenger."
Twenty Three nodded. "Thank you very much. Lord Megatron says you are trying to save your own hide by getting on my good side…" he flinched and stared at her, wondering if she was about to mock him again. "If that was your motive, you have succeeded. So long as you do not slander my father, or harm my friends, I will not hurt you again, and I will not allow you to be hurt if I can help it. But… I wouldn't call you my friend just yet."
She looked over to Barricade, who nodded and held his hand out to her. She used her vectors to climb up, and wrap herself around his shoulder.
"No running this time?" she begged him, and he couldn't hold back a snicker. She held a hand up to Starscream and waved. "I'll see you later Starscream."
"Wait…" the seeker stopped them from leaving. "You're welcome."
She smiled, and allowed Barricade to leave.
Frenzy was as uncomfortable as Barricade about Starscreams presents to his friend.
"You sure Megatron doesn't mind?" Frenzy asked for the fifteenth time. "This is too out of character. Starscream never does anything nice without an ulterior motive."
"Well, we haven't had a female around before, maybe that's why," Barricade pointed out.
"Then there's his ulterior motive right there," Frenzy spat disgustedly. "As if we'd let him get his hands on her!"
Twenty Three tilted her head to the side, watching them bicker.
"He wouldn't be stupid enough to try anything. She is Megatron's daughter," Barricade argued.
"He has no respect for our leader. He'd do her in a second," he growled, then clamped his mouth shut, glancing over at Twenty Three, who seemed not to understand the slang.
"What do you mean 'do' me? Do what to me?" she asked, as Barricade hit his smaller partner in the head.
"You idiot, don't cuss around the lady!"
"I…uh… do nothing, forget I ever said it," he chattered, nervously. He looked somewhat embarrassed, so she decided to let it drop.
"Still, I don't want you to ever be alone with him," Frenzy told her seriously. "If for any reason Barricade can't be with you, I will be."
She smiled at him, loving his over protectiveness. After so long in a room with no contact, it felt good to be cared about. Reaching over, she pulled him into a hug, and leaned against Barricade's foot.
Both robots immediately ceased talking, wanting to treasure the moment. They had begun to grow slightly more comfortable around her when she showed these emotions, and both had secretly longed for more. The only way it could be any better, each mech thought, was to get rid of the other. But she seemed equally as fond of each, so they decided it was likely never to happen.
Barricade reached down, and played absentmindedly with her vectors, which wrapped unconsciously around his fingers. He found himself smiling, leaning his head back against the wall.
Frenzy was in similar bliss. He had begun to enjoy her cuddles, and her flesh seemed a nice texture, now, compared to how he first viewed it, as creepy and weird. He felt himself slipping into stasis as she traced the ridges on his face with her finger.
They were sprung out of their moment by a faint alarm on the main screen.
"Slag it!" Frenzy jumped out of her hold, and ran to the control panel.
School was out, and he had to trace the boy back to his car.
"There!" Barricade jumped up as well, pointing excitedly to the screen.
They watched the boy lug his books back to the car, joined by a young woman.
"That is Sam Witwicky, and Mikaela Banes?" she asked, and they nodded.
"Filthy humans," Frenzy muttered as he watched them kissing, leaning on the autobot. "Can't control their pheramones," Barricade sneered, feeling slightly hypocritical, knowing if he could be that close with this little humanoid, he would. Then again, it was best not to think about that, lest Megatron murder him.
They followed Bumblebee's route, taking note of Mikaela's address, then kept watching as he drove Sam back home.
Nothing interesting seemed to happen until it became dark, and it was almost impossible to see, then Sam seemed to creep out, and get into Bumblebee, who took off silently.
"Change to this camera mode," she pointed to a heat sensing icon. They had done this once, while watching the terrorists she was plotting against.
There seemed to be a red blur on the screen, moving fairly quickly. Frenzy glared at it, and followed the progress with the satellite.
"What does this mean?" Barricade asked her with a growl.
"This senses heat, the hotter the object, the warmer the colors. The autobots won't show up on this, but that is Sam, it's picking up his body heat."
They looked intrigued, and followed them to a cliff look out. They changed camera type back to normal video, and tried to brighten it as much as they could. They watched as their badly pixilated foes sat around talking to each other. They tried to pick up the audio signal, but it was too faint. Barricade used his com link to contact Megatron, who arrived with the other decepticons in less than a minute.
They watched as they talked for the most part of an hour, before Optimus Prime (Frenzy briefly pointed out every autobot, with a brief description for Twenty Three.) pulled out a fairly small sized cube. All the decepticons leaned forward, staring at it in wonder.
"The Allspark," Frenzy hissed. "They do have it!"
"It cannot remain in their possession," Megatron glowered at the screen.
"Then let's just go and take it," Starscream rolled his eyes, earning a glare from his leader.
"Don't try my patience, Starscream," Megatron snarled angrily. "We can't just jump in blindly. We need a strategy."
"The girl didn't have a guardian," Twenty Three pointed out. "Bumblebee and the human dropped her off, but there was no autobot left to guard her."
Megatron looked at her, his eyes gleaming. "Spoken as a true daughter of mine. Do you see, Starscream? This is what brilliance is."
Starscream looked away, insulted, but biting his tongue, remembering what happened last time he spoke back, his knees tingling.
Twenty Three seemed slightly flustered with the praise. She was so unused to it, but it made her chest swell with pride. Frenzy tugged on of her vectors, bringing her attention back to the screen. She stepped a bit closer to Frenzy, and rested her arms on his shoulders.
Megatron narrowed his eyes at the two, and noticed Barricade's fist clenching as well. He decided to remain silent for now, and see how the situation developed.
"Barricade, you will take Twenty Three to the human girl's house. Be silent, and kidnap it, bring it back here alive. It will be our hostage." He looked at his daughter, who was suddenly standing at attention, looking honored to have such an important mission. She saluted, and left with Barricade.
Frenzy looked edgy. Keeping one camera on the autobots, he directed another to the target's address, and waited for the two to arrive.
Arriving at the address, Barricade turned off all his lights, and coasted up to the house silently. Twenty Three jumped out as he hid across the street.
"Stay out of sight," she whispered to him. "She knows what you look like, I will bring her back."
She snuck around the bushes, keeping to the shadows, unaware of the decepticons back at the base trying to follow her movements.
"I can barely see her," Bonecrusher complained, only to be hushed by Starscream, Megatron and Frenzy who were watching avidly. Even Blackout looked intrigued, wondering how their newest recruit, daughter of Megatron would do.
She crept up against the house, using her vectors to lift her up to look into the windows. After a few tries, she found the girls bedroom, with her asleep inside it.
One of her vectors changed into a razor sharp knife, which she used to slide under the window, effectively cutting the lock.
Silently, she opened and entered, leaving the window open behind her.
Creeping up to the bed she used three vectors to clamp over her mouth, arms and legs, waking her immediately. The airtight seal preventing her from screaming, and the other restraints preventing her from defending herself.
She looked down on her coldly, watching her breathing rapidly through her nose. She watched terror fill her eyes, as she lifted her up and climbed silently out of the window again, without making a noise. She crept back to Barricade and climbed in, not loosening her hold on the human in the slightest.
Back at the base, they were all impressed. She had gotten in and out soundlessly with the hostage in less than a minute.
Frenzy started cackling, jumping around in excitement. He looked forward to his friend getting back, so he could congratulate her.
"Listen, human," Twenty Three addressed her captive. "I will uncover your mouth on the one condition you do not scream. I do not wish for such nonsense. Understand, that we wish you alive, as our hostage, and I do not intend to kill you without authorization. However, if you give me trouble, although I wont kill you, I will hurt you very much."
The young woman shakily blinked in acknowledgement, and Twenty Three removed her vice grip over her mouth.
After gasping for air, she looked at the other woman, fear still in her eyes.
"What do you want?" she rasped, still recovering from almost suffocating.
Twenty Three ignored her, and turned look into the front seat of Barricade's cab.
"Did I do my job well, Barricade?" she asked softly.
"I believe so. Wait until we get back, and Megatron will have you report," he told her, gruffly, uncomfortable with his new audience in the car.
"Barricade? Are you angry with me?" she asked curiously, hoping for a negative. "I'm still having trouble reading these emotions…"
"No. Be quiet for now, Twenty Three, I will talk with you more later… alone," he answered pointedly.
She looked at her prisoner, and realized she was the source of his discomfort, and remained silent for the rest of the trip.
Mikaela stared in terrified awe at this seemingly innocent person who had kidnapped her, wondering how the hell she had gotten into this mess.
Arriving at the base, Twenty Three walked back towards the communications room, carrying the hostage in her vectors, holding her about half a meter off the ground. Barricade followed behind, keeping a close eye on both of them.
This was the first time he had ever seen her interact with another of her own species, and it intrigued him. She seemed to mean nothing to her. He smirked. Megatron would be pleased with his daughter.
Entering the room, all of the decepticons turned towards her, looking gleeful. Frenzy ran up to her and started poking at the human captive chattering ton the others in cybertronian, and Twenty Three smiled at his antics, then turned towards her father.
"Mission complete, Lord Megatron, would you like my report now?" she saluted him respectfully. Mikaela started to cry, her face crumpling.
"Not necessary," he smirked at his daughter. "We were watching via the satellite. You have done even better than I expected from you. You are truly my daughter." His voice was full of pride, and the other decepticons were watching her with respect as well.
Frenzy grabbed one of her vectors excitedly, and began pulling her towards Megatron. The human was practically bawling, when Megatron shouted.
"Frenzy! Stay away from my daughter!" he attempted to flick him across the room, but Twenty Three was too fast, blocking it with a vector. She then picked Frenzy up and put him behind her, next to Barricade, as she continued her approach alone.
Megatron frowned slightly, but wasn't overly surprised at her actions.
"Put the human down," he ordered, and she gently placed the human on the ground, where she sat, hugging her knees.
"Keep the camera on her house, Bonecrusher, monitor the activity. Let me know when the disappearance has been discovered. Blackout, Devestator, scout the area, and make sure no autobot gets close. Starscream, watch the human. Frenzy, Barricade and Twenty Three, follow me," Megatron commanded, his orders followed immediately.
The group of decepticons followed Megatron back to his command center, and stood silently, waiting to be addressed.
"Lord Megatron?" his daughter queried, after a few minutes silence.
"What is going on between you three?" he demanded, coldly, glaring at the two mechs.
Twenty Three looked between them and her father, confused.
"They are my friends," she answered him, calmly.
"I find it hard to believe that is all," he glared at Frenzy. "Especially with you."
Twenty Three stepped forwards, and stared up at him with wide eyes. "Please believe me, father. I would never lie to you. These two are my friends, and they are precious to me."
Megatron looked at her, hard for a moment, before his expression softened.
He nodded, and changed the subject. "Twenty Three, you know the most about human care, I will leave the hostage with you. Is there anything you need?"
"More food. The human can have my room and my bed. I will watch over her from there," she stood at attention, suddenly all business.
"Definitely not. You will not share your bed with anyone, especially an unworthy human. Frenzy can source a new one," he frowned, trying to think of a way to separate them.
"Frenzy, can you produce a hologram around yourself, to appear human?" she asked him, and he shook his head.
"It would be possible with an upgrade, but we do not have the resources," he answered.
She nodded, then turned back to her father.
"I am the only one who would pass as normal in the human world. I will go and find the things we need. But if I am to buy items, I will need a source of money," she told him, thinking about the best way to handle the situation.
Frenzy made a couple of loud clicking noises, gaining everyone's attention. He held out a visa card, to some confused looking faces.
"When did you make that?" she asked him, impressed.
"When we were talking about jazzing up your room… I thought ahead a bit…" he looked uncomfortable under Megatrons intense gaze.
"And when were you planning this?" he growled, then turned to his daughter. "I was not aware you were unhappy with your sleeping arrangements."
"I'm not unhappy with them," she stared back blankly. "I do not feel either way about them."
"She said they reminded her of her rooms at Sector 7, sir," Barricade interrupted, standing tall, and staring ahead.
Megatron glared at him for a minute, then turned his gaze once again upon Twenty Three. "Is this true."
She nodded, looking at him curiously.
"Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded. "Yet you tell these two idiots."
"I didn't think it was important. I didn't complain, or anything. Barricade brought it up," she explained. "Is it something I should have told you?"
Megatron sighed, and put his palm against his forehead.
"You are my daughter. I want you to be comfortable with your living arrangements. Let me know if anything can be done to make you more comfortable in the future."
She nodded, slowly.
"Very well. Barricade will take you to a neighboring town to get whatever you need. Try to be discreet. Frenzy, you will remain here," he growled.
They nodded, and proceeded with their respective missions.
