Chapter Five
Rae was given free reign of the base, as long as she stayed within sight of the Decepticons. Megatron saw no need to annoy the girl or make her feel like a prisoner. If they treated her the right way, she wouldn't resist when he asked her to work the AllSpark for him. It would be a tradeoff of sorts, or so he thought in his mind. Of course, Starscream said he was being an idiot. It would have been different if they had rescued Rae from danger, but kidnapping her the way they did was not the best way to win her trust. Most of the Decepticons knew it, but Megatron refused to acknowledge it.
Right now, all that was very far from Rae's mind. She was entertaining herself watching the Seekers train. Or whatever passed as training for them. It was nothing like she'd ever seen.
"Come on, Skywarp!" Starscream shouted. "You've got to keep to formation. Otherwise you're a sitting duck for the Autobots!"
Skywarp gave the jet equivalent of a shrug and slid back into place. "Three seconds, Thundercracker." he quipped. "I think that's a record."
"Yeah." the other jet agreed. "It's just getting harder and harder to get anything past him."
"Will you two slaggers shut up and concentrate? Megatron will be coming by any minute."
"And we'll instantly become good little mechs." Skywarp said sourly. "Calm down before you blow a fuse."
"Me blow a fuse? You're wishing, glitch-head!" Despite the sour words, Rae sensed a good-natured fight brewing. Sure enough, Skywarp took the bait, as did Thundercracker. Soon it wouldn't have mattered if Megatron showed up for inspection or not – they wouldn't have cared. They were having fun pretending to beat each other up and throwing insults at each other. Rae's eyes widened as she heard some of the language being thrown around.
"Enjoying the show?" Barricade asked, coming to stand beside Rae. She nodded.
"I think I'm learning more curse words now than I would with Sheol and Greystreak." she commented dryly. "Then again, they've stopped fighting now. Those two could turn the air blue with their language." Barricade laughed.
"Those three can make it black." he joked. Rae chuckled.
"I see I didn't permanently damage Thundercracker's optic." she said dryly. "Pity, that." Barricade almost exploded in laughter as Thundercracker shot her a filthy look. "What? Don't give me that look – you were the one who was trying to kidnap me! I had every right to hit you like that."
"You hit me in the optic with a pinecone." Thundercracker growled.
Skywarp laughed. "She's got slagging good aim too."
"Oh mute it."
"All three of you mute it." Rae hissed suddenly, moving back to stand behind Barricade. "Megatron's coming." Instantly everyone got into position and pretended like the friendly little squabble had never happened. Starscream resumed drilling his brothers, and this time they actually listened to him. The change was amazing.
When Megatron entered the large training area they had set up, he wasn't any the wiser. "Where's the human, Barricade?" he demanded, ignoring the Seekers after a cursory glance in their direction. "I need to speak with her."
"She's only been here a few days, Megatron." Barricade protested. "Give her some time to adjust before you go making demands of her."
"I don't care." Megatron hissed. "She's spent the past three days with you, following you around like a lost pet. Have you gotten fond of the fleshling, Barricade? You should know you can't keep her. I'm going to kill her as soon as I get what I want from her anyway; it's not a good idea to get attached."
Rae stiffened. She had figured that would be the plan, but part of her had hoped that the others would find her before it got this far. It seemed that Megatron was losing patience. Barricade simply shook his head.
"I'm well aware of what your plans are." he said simply. "I still don't know where Rae is. Try with Soundwave; I know he was planning to talk to her." With a curt nod Megatron stalked off. Rae cautiously moved away from Barricade, making sure Megatron was well out of auditory range when she spoke.
"Soundwave wanted me?" she whispered.
Starscream landed next to her and nodded. "Yeah. But we wouldn't let that glitch near you. He's worse than Harbinger, if only because of his mind-reading power. It's not pleasant either. It would probably kill a human." Rae shuddered.
"Actually, I'm surprised that he survived." Skywarp commented. "That Neutral did a number on him."
That got Barricade's attention. "Neutral?"
"Yeah. Some Neutral mech they had with them put a dagger through Soundwave's CPU. It was all the medic could do to keep him alive."
Barricade was stunned. There was only one Neutral that he knew of, and that was Case – his brother. It seemed that more than one dangerous mech had taken a liking to the human-youngling. He looked down at Rae, who was still hiding behind his leg, and let out the equivalent of a sigh. Silently, he opened up communications with Starscream.
"Remember what you said about doing something that would get you killed?" he asked. The Seeker gave him an odd look.
"Yeah. What of it?"
"I think I'm going to have to join you when you finally do it."
/---/
There were three other mechs on the base along with Prime's trusted team – Prowl, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe. With the tension in the air thick enough to cut, considering the attack on the Decepticon base that was coming up, the twins and Jazz decided to have a little – fun, so to speak.
Much to the mingled dismay and amusement of everyone else on the base.
Ironhide was standing just behind Jazz, keeping an eye on him as he checked his weapons. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were next in line; Bumblebee was on the other side of Jazz putting his weapons back where they belonged. No one was expecting the song that started playing from Jazz's speakers, or for the twins to start singing along.
I'm bringing sexy back / them other boys don't know how to act!
Ironhide promptly slapped all three of them in the back of the heads. Bumblebee was outright laughing, and Prowl and Optimus simply shook their heads.
"Well," Prow commented. "At least we know they're all right with everything."
"Indeed." Prime said dryly. "Anytime they can torment Ironhide is a good time for them." With that he rolled his optics and left the room. Prowl chuckled and followed him.
/---/
AN: Obviously, the song is not mine. It is Justin Timberlake's. Oh, and any information you have about Prowl and the twins, please let me know. I could use it here. All I know about them comes from other fanfictions.
