CWC: Guess who's back! Wow, Canada is so much fun! Thanks a lot for waiting, and boy am I glad to have access to a computer again.
Prowl-muse: Trust me, she is.
CWC: I have so many ideas, I don't know where to start except right here where I left off! And with that, on with the chapter!
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Chapter 8: First Snow
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Teresa's POV
"Wake up, femme. I need answers," Barricade's voice wakes me, back to its normal level of gruffness. Groaning, I sit up, nearly strangling myself on the seatbelt before the seat returns to its usual position.
"Unless you enjoy rolling on four flat tires, you better have a good reason for waking me up," I grumble, scrubbing the sleep out of my eyes and glaring blindly at where it sounds like his holoform is activated in the driver's seat.
"What the frag is this white stuff," Barricade demands, and I ask, "What white stuff," before I open my eyes and gape in shock.
Thick gray clouds cover the sky, dropping huge snowflakes that blow around for a short time before settling heavily on the ground. Already patches of white have begun to take over the earth, and even the roads are starting to get a pale coat. I smile widely at the beauty of it.
"That, my extraterrestrial friend, would be snow, a form of precipitation common in the northern regions of the world during the period when the Earth's axis is tilted away from the sun, called winter," I reply, pressing my nose to the window to get a closer look at the swirling flakes.
"Is it dangerous," Barricade asks, sounding strangely innocent. I shake my head, smearing a small nose print on the window. I pull away when the glass shakes.
"No, snow on its own isn't dangerous to people, but it might give you some trouble. Snow can make bridges icy, causing cars to slide and wreck, or, if a car sits in it for too long, the cold can freeze the water in the car's engine and radiator, sometimes cracking the engine block and doing other damage. The first shouldn't be a problem as long as you drive carefully, and I can put snow chains on your tires at our next stop, and the second can be avoided by adding some anti-freeze to the water in your radiator," I say from memory, still mesmerized by the snow.
"You sound as if you've dealt with this before," Cade remarks as he slows slightly. "I used to live in the north before," I start to say but cut myself off, pressing my lips together and going back to staring out the window.
"Before what," Barricade asks, holoform glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
"Before I moved, duh. Now, I noticed something about your choice in music. You only listen to rock," I respond, quickly changing the subject. Barricade doesn't seem to notice and takes the bait.
"And what's wrong with rock," he asks, sounding almost miffed. I smile at his tone.
"Nothing, just that it must get kind of old after a while," I reply. "Have you ever heard this singer called Rascal Flatts?"
I spend the next couple of hours educating Barricade about the different genres of music; turns out he doesn't care for a lot of pop music, and absolutely refuses to listen to rap after I explained some of the lyrics to him. Cade enjoys some country, though, and even a little classical music. We pull into a Sheetz for a late breakfast with the last strains of Life is a Highway echoing through the cab. After a quick brunch, we drive around the small town for a little bit trying to find the auto parts store. I finally spot it and pull in. Barricade's holoform follows me into the store and stops dead, going slightly pale. I look at him, confused.
"Barry? What's up," I ask, waving a hand in front of his sunglass-covered eyes. He shudders slightly, grabbing my wrist briefly before letting go.
"Let's just hurry and get out of here," he mutters, looking down at his boots, and I look around the store, trying to see what could have him so upset. It strikes me as I peer through a glass panel in one of the walls where customers can observe their car being worked on and catch sight of a gorgeous Corvette with its engine dangling above it, suspended by a crane. I swallow hard as I get it.
This place must look like some kind of gross chop shop to him; it'd be like me walking into an operating theater covered with dead body parts. Shuddering with revulsion, I quickly buy the chains, anti-freeze, and a jack and get out of the store. Pulling into a convenient patch of woods, I grab the stuff out of the trunk and plop it in the ground before approaching Barricade.
"You remember what I said earlier about snow chains, right," I ask, eyeing his grille uncomfortably.
"Yes," he responds evenly.
"Well I'm gonna have to jack you up a little bit to put them on," I explain, gesturing to the equipment. Cade goes quiet for a minute before releasing a mechanical sigh.
"Do what you must," he answers, sounding almost bored, and I nod before retrieving the jack and chains. Barricade doesn't move as I gently slide the jack under him and start lifting. As soon as I get his tires the needed distance off the ground, I approach the tires with a sense of apprehension. I put the chain on quickly, noticing how Cade seems to tighten up when I brush against the inside of his wheel wells, repeating the process with all four tires. I sigh with relief as I finish and throw the jack away, its purpose fulfilled. That done, I grab the bottle of anti-freeze and walk up to the hood of the Mustang.
"All right, then, open up," I say happily, rapping on Barricade's hood with my knuckles.
"No," Cade says, rolling back slightly. I frown.
"Cade, I gotta put this in your cooling system. If I don't, the water inside of you will freeze, and you'll have worse things to deal with than outrunning the Autobots. Besides, you didn't have a problem with me rummaging around under your hood before," I chide him gently.
"That was life or death," he answers, rolling back a little further.
"And this will be if I don't get this anti-freeze into you," I reply firmly, scowling at the Mustang. Grumbling, Barricade rolls back to his previous position before popping his hood slightly. I nod.
"Thank you," I say, hooking my fingers under then rim of his hood and lifting it up. I let out a whistle of appreciation as I look over the mas of gleaming metal that is Cade's engine. Locating the radiator cap, I undo it with a quick twist and pour the fluid in. I smile slightly at Barricade's shudder as the liquid makes its way through his systems.
"Blech," Barricade grumbles like some little kid made to take his medicine. I roll my eyes.
"Oh come on; it wasn't that bad." I step away and Cade slams his hood back shut as soon as I'm clear. Turning, he presents me with his open passenger side door.
"Time to leave," his holoform tells me from the driver's seat. I nod and get in, and we're soon on the road again. The snow keeps falling, and the further north we get the more of it there is. Going moderately fast and taking the back roads instead of the highway, we drive through some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.
"Where are we," I ask, staring in wonder outside where small farmhouses sit quietly on snow-covered hills.
"Pennsylvania," Cade responds. He had been talking less and less, and this was the first time he had spoken since we crossed the Virginia-Pennsylvania border. Turning to him, I cock an eyebrow.
"What's up," I ask, examining his holoform for clues.
"The sky," he responds blankly, making me roll my eyes.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I meant why aren't you talking? Normally by this time you're asking me some weird question about human culture or growling at me for punching you when I see a punch-bug," I say, looking more carefully. There's something… My eyes widen as I see the problem. Barricade's hand wraps around my wrist as I reach for his console and I shiver.
"What the s-slag are you doing," he growls, glaring at me through sunglass-covered eyes.
"Turning on the heat; I'm cold," I lie. Grumbling, Cade lets go and I withdraw my hand as warm air starts to fill the cab. I keep an eye on Barricade, and smirk slightly as his holoform stops shivering and relaxes against the seat. Finding the heat to be quite nice myself, I snuggle deeper into my fuzzy hoody with a small wriggle and go back to staring out the window as country music plays quietly on the radio.
The hours pass quickly, the snow keeps falling, and we keep driving. After a while I reach into my purse, not taking my eyes off the scenery, and take out my IPod.
"What is that," Cade asks, leaning over to examine the black device in my hand.
"It's called an IPod," I explain. "It can play games, music, videos, and hold pictures, depending on what you store on it." That said, I open up subway surfer and start to play. Barry watches me out of the corner of his eye as I dodge the trains and collect coins. I manage to kill almost an hour doing that before sighing with boredom and shoving the piece of tech into my pocket. I go back to gazing out the window and gasp.
"Pull over, pull over," I shout, bringing Barricade to a screeching halt on the side of the road.
"What the Pit, femme," he growls with surprise, his holoform glaring at me. Ignoring him, I get out of the car. I stand there, ankle deep in snow, and stare at the scene before me as Barricade transforms to stand beside me. The sun is setting over the snow-covered hills, painting the white snow with the pinks and oranges of early evening as it slowly drops behind the barely visible trees on the horizon.
"Primus," Barricade begins, but trails off into silence. I nod, understanding what he means. The colors change and shift, turning from orange to pink to purple, and finally to blackness as the sun vanishes and the stars begin to appear. I heave a huge sigh and watch my breath form a cloud before drifting away. I look up to Barricade, and am again awed by his sheer bulk.
"Ready to go," I ask. He looks down at me.
"Yeah," he replies, and transforms back into the Mustang. We're both surprised when I walk around and get into the driver's side. Starting him up, I drive away as Cade makes his holoform appear in the passenger seat.
"What are you doing," he asks, giving me a tired glare and taking off his sunglasses. I can see the bags under his eyes and the exhaustion in every line of his shockingly young face.
"I'm driving for a bit; go ahead and get some recharge," I order. Barry grumbles, though I have a feeling it's mostly for show, and disintegrates his holoform before I feel his presence fade. Smiling, I drive on through the snowy night on a journey to nowhere.
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Barricade's POV
I come online slowly and find myself unexpectedly warm. Turning on my sensors one by one, I find that it's approximately seven in the morning, the outside temperature is near fifteen degrees Fahrenheit, and Teresa is curled up, asleep, in my passenger seat. Smiling mentally, I scan the surroundings.
Teresa had stopped for the night at a rest area at the border of Pennsylvania and New York, on the edge of a parking lot. Emitting the Cybertronian version of a yawn, I shift my idling engine out of park and get onto the highway, glad for the hours of recharge. I was finally back to full power and ready to roll. I run a quick scan over the human in my interior and wince as I get up to speed.
Bruises have formed on her neck, arms, and legs, along with some of the old ones still present from the accident where I was exposed. Venting harshly, I speed up and pass a beat-up red van that looked like it could go to battle against a truck and win. Even in the early morning, the highway is far from deserted.
I feel the girl shiver against my seat, and turn up the heat before she can start waking up. A small smile passes over her face and she wriggles into my seat before falling more deeply asleep. I smile again. Suddenly a gaping squishy in the car next to me reminds me to activate my holoform, making it appear as if 'I' had only been sitting back before scowling at the man and speeding up. Red 'eyes' hidden by dark sunglasses, I weave quickly through the non-sentient machines on the highway.
I'm glad for the relative solitude afforded me by the girl's slumber and take advantage of it to work through some of the emotions clogging my processor. That boy. My engine revs angrily as I think about the one who had touched my squishy. It had taken all my strength not to kill the worm, and even so it was only because it would hurt the femme that I had restrained myself. The sight of the male with a knife to my human's throat would be stuck in my processor for cycles.
That brought me to the strange emotion clouding my judgment. Why had I not left the femme behind when I had the chance? It would be dishonorable, of course, but I had done worse; far worse. I grumble as I pass a slow moving SUV. I wasn't stupid enough to deny feeling protective of the squishy; my actions back at the motel proved that. It wasn't a romantic love, even if, Primus forbid, such a thing was possible. It was almost like…
I shut that thought down before my mind can process it. Revving my engine louder than before, I continue to move through the light traffic on our way north. I push my earlier thoughts away and focus on driving, feeling the new chains on my tires bite pleasantly through the thin layer of ice on the road to grip the pavement beneath. I vent again. I had kind of missed this; just driving and driving until I couldn't drive anymore.
My holoform looks over to the passenger seat as Teresa stirs. She sits up and yawns, stretching her joints. I wince as a loud series of pops echoes from her spinal struts.
"Must you do that," I ask, and smirk as she jumps at my voice. The femme glares at me before smirking back and putting her right fist in the palm of her left hand. I shudder slightly as she cracks her knuckles loudly.
"Slagger," I mutter, but she must hear the amusement in my voice, because she simply smiles. The smile turns into a small laugh as her fuel tank emits a rumbling sound.
"Guess it's about time for breakfast," she remarks, poking at the organ with one finger. Rolling my eyes behind my glasses, I quickly pull off the highway and into the parking lot of one of the human's fast fuel restaurants. As I straighten up in the spot, not bothering to deactivate my holoform, the femme hops out and goes inside. I watch absently through the windows lining the building as the squishy waits in line, gets her fuel, and moves to sit at one of the tables next to a window.
She waves at me and, with a mental eye-roll, I wave back. I'm surprised when she gives me a 'come on' gesture. Confused, I point to myself. She nods emphatically. Really rolling my eyes, I get out of my true body and enter the franchise. The few other customers, a group of giggling light-haired adolescent femmes accompanied by a couple adolescent males and a few adult humans, glance up at the gentle ring of the bell as I walk in. I ignore them and make my way over to my femme's table, stopping beside her.
"Yes," I ask, looking curiously down at her. In response she gestures to the seat in front of her.
"Sit with me," Teresa invites as she starts to unpack her fuel.
"Why," I inquire even as my holoform slides into the booth across from her.
"Can your holoform eat food," she asks, ignoring my question. I nod slowly, still confused.
"Yes; all holoforms are equipped to consume fuel and convert it to energon," I answer. Why did she buy two of everything?
"Have you ever tasted human food before," Teresa questions, looking at me curiously as she arranges the table.
"No. I prefer to get my energon from fossil fuels. Why do you ask," I end on a wary note, glaring suspiciously at the food on the table.
"Well, we're going to fix that," the femme says with a smile, gesturing to the food. Blinking with surprise, I look down. A regular patty of cow meat between two pieces of cooked grains along with cooked potato slices sits in front of her, and she pushes the organic fuel my way. One of my eyebrows arches above the rim of my sunglasses.
"You expect me to eat this slag," I ask incredulously. Teresa frowns as she unwraps her own food.
"Yup," she responds before taking a large bite. I roll my eyes before following her example and picking up the round meat-bread disk.
"What is this even called, anyway," I ask, looking it over.
"That would be a hamburger, the red stuff is ketchup, the yellow goo is mustard, and if you see any white stuff it's called mayonnaise. Oh, and the potato sticks are called French fries; they're good with ketchup," Teresa explains. I watch carefully as she takes another bite and awkwardly copy her, wrapping my holoform's jaws around the food and biting down. Flavor fills my mouth and I jerk slightly with surprise, thinking of the relative blandness of energon compared with the strange taste of Earth food. Swallowing, I look up at Teresa's giggle and scowl at the smiling girl. She only smiles more widely.
"Good, huh," she comments before she returns to her burger. Grumbling noncommittally, I take another bite, savoring each flavor and trying to identify it. The meat has a certain greasy taste, almost like oil, which is increased by the mayonnaise. Bread has a strange flavor, being both chewy and tough, but also fluffy. The bitterness of the mustard is cut slightly by the sweetness of the ketchup. Putting down the burger, I turn my attention curiously to the fries. I try one plain first, and find I like the squishy food. Then I try it with ketchup and am glad I'm wearing sunglasses to hide my probably wide-eyed expression.
Dang; humans know how to make fuel. I've just discovered that Teresa has gotten me a soda, too, when I'm interrupted by a high pitched giggle. Teresa glares and I look to see that two of the blonde femmes from before are making their way over to our table. I swallow hard as I recognize the hungry look in their organic optics.
"Slag," I mutter, turning to look out the window and hoping that they'll go away. Teresa looks at me curiously as the two adolescents reach us.
"Hey, we thought you might be out of ketchup," the first blonde one, who has brown optics starts, only for the second blonde, whose optics are green, to finish, "So we decided to, like, bring you some." She offers me the ruby bottle and I take it with a sigh.
"Thank you. Now leave," I say, putting the ketchup on the table. The femmes share a look before the green-eyed one says, "No, I don't think we will." "What's your name, anyway? Are you new around here," brown-eyes asks as she perches on the edge of the table, practically shoving her aft in Teresa's face as she leans forward.
"We could show you around," offers green eyes, trying to slide into the booth next to me. "And maybe show you our place afterwards," the brown-eyed femme finishes.
"That's it," I say coldly. Reaching up, I shove the two girls off of the table and bench to land in a pile on the floor. I stand up and cross my arms, glaring down at them. "I am trying to have lunch with my sister. Please leave and do not return," I say, my tone telling them that I'm dead serious.
The two femmes, twins, I realize, scowl at me before hissing, "You're going to regret that," in unison and stalking back to the group of teenagers. Rolling my eyes behind my shades, I sit back down and continue eating my fries, ignoring Teresa's look of shock. Finally Teresa giggles and returns to her own food, only to glance back towards the group.
"Uglies at nine o'clock," she says suddenly, putting her food down. Understanding, I put down my own food before turning to look at the males who are approaching with scowls on their faces. They appear to be twins as well, with wide shoulders and brown hair; one with blue eyes, one with brown. I stand up to meet them, surprised when Teresa stands beside me. Before I can tell her to get back, they're on us.
"Are you the punk that made a move on my sisters," the blue eyed one asks indignantly. "And my girlfriend," adds the brown-eyed jock. I'm about to respond when Teresa covers it for me.
"As if," she snorts. "Those two were making a move on my brother and were insulted when he had enough taste to refuse." The two tense, noticing my companion, and the blue eyed one begins to leer.
"This guy's your brother, sweet cheeks? Does that mean you're available," he asks with an arrogant smirk. Scowling, I step in front of them and take off my sunglasses. The two, who I'm glad to notice are slightly shorter than I am, back off at the sight of my glowing red eyes.
"Nobody makes a move on my…sister," I growl, barely hesitating at using the term. The blue-eyed one regains some of his courage and steps forward, uncrossing his arms.
"Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it," he asks as his friend steps up beside him, mirroring his stance. A smirk grows on my face, causing them to step back.
"I'm not going to do anything," I answer, and look over my shoulder at the red-faced girl. "Oh Teresa," I say as innocently as I can. The girl looks up at me with enough anger in her eyes to make Megatron flinch. "Is there something you'd like to discuss with these gentlemen," I ask before stepping aside. Teresa, now frighteningly calm, steps forward towards the boys and crosses her arms.
"Did you have an offer for me," she asks innocently.
"Yeah sweet thing; you wanna come over to my place tonight," the blue-eyed boy offers with a leer. Teresa smiles sweetly for a moment before taking a deep breath.
"No, I don't think I would like that. Would you like to know why," she offers still in that innocent voice. She doesn't give them a chance to respond before launching into a tirade. "BECAUSE YOU'RE AN ARROGANT JERK WITH SLAG FOR BRAINS AND AN AFT FOR A HEAD! You're as arrogant a fragger as I've ever met and probably the only thing going on in that empty head of yours is how to find your next girlfriend. Now back off before I sick my brother on you and let him slag you twenty ways to the Pit and back again," she shouts before smiling sweetly again at the shocked male and, grabbing the food in one hand and my arm in the other, drags me out of the restaurant and back to the car.
I offer them a smirk and wave just before we leave and am rewarded by an enraged snarl from both boys. Shoving me towards the driver's seat, Teresa gets in the passenger side and buckles up, glaring angrily at the boys who are still standing, shocked an angry, inside the fast foot place. Chuckling, I put my sunglasses back on and get in, quickly driving off. Teresa fumes silently for almost a minute before exploding again.
"ARGH! People like that just make me sick! They think their God's gift to women…" I smirk as the femme continues to rant about the male gender in general and subtly turn on my radio to drown out her shouting. The country music fills my processor pleasantly as I dodge around an old gun-metal grey Datsun and speed up. The sun moves slowly across the sky as we drive on.
I'm so focused on the music and the road that I jerk when Teresa thumps me on the dashboard. My holoform jumps slightly and the real me swerves on the road.
"What the slag, femme," I respond, glaring at her. She shrugs.
"You weren't answering me," the squishy explains with a shrug. I roll my eyes.
"What did you need," I ask, turning back to the road.
"Do you wanna play a game," she asks, ignoring my holoform and addressing my radio. I use it to respond anyway.
"What kind of game," I ask suspiciously.
"I'll hum a bit of a song, and you'll use your super-fast-connect-to-the-internet-anywhere skills to find the song," she answers, smiling happily at coming up with an idea. The smile is quickly replaced by a frown when I answer.
"No."
"But why not? It won't even be tough, and it'll help to pass the time. Come on, what do you have to lose," she wheedles.
I'm silent for a minute, trying to find a good reason not to play her game, but can't find one. She grins as I sigh and agree. Instantly she hums out a string of notes. Recording them, I run a quick internet search and play the top result.
Teresa grins as "Born to Be Wild" comes through my inner audio systems.
She hums a few more notes, and "Life is a Highway" starts to play.
Another couple of sounds, and "Let There Be Rock" echoes through my cab. My holoform smirks at her.
"Please, give me a challenge," I say, causing Teresa to grin. She suddenly belts out some lyrics, and I scoff slightly as I play the song in response.
"Really, femme; Big Time Rush? That's just cruel," I tease gently as "Windows Down" plays loudly. Ignoring me, Teresa simply continues singing along. Chuckling slightly, I roll my eyes and wait for the next song.
Teresa surprises me with the range of earth music she knows, belting out either the tune or lyrics of every type of song from techno and 80s to classical and pop. Every once in a while she'll throw in a rap song just to throw me off, and laughs when I curse at her in Cybertronian. The game continues, pauses when the femme requests fuel and introduces me to pizza, and starts again as we keep driving. By the time Teresa yawns and declares that she is going into recharge, I know more song lyrics and tunes than I've learned in the past ten lunar cycles. I'm about to ignore the girl and turn my sensors outward when I pick up a last snippet of notes from the girl.
As I tint my windows darker and deactivate my holoform, I sense the girl's smile when I respond by quietly playing the song. We drive on with Owl City's Fireflies playing softly as my squishy falls asleep, leaving me to the quiet and solitude of the night.
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CWC: Coming up next, the story-line picks up a bit and the real challenges begin. Ttyl, babes! All who review will receive a human-sized Prowl!
Prowl-muse: What?!
CWC: Bye kiddies!