Hey guys and gals! I'm starting to get back into a groove with having some time to put this story together a little more! yay! However I had some of it written to a thumb drive and... gulp... I've seemed to have misplaced it... But while I spend my time tearing up my house looking for it, you can enjoy this post!
By the way, the poll that's in my profile will be closed on December 1st, so if you haven't voted, go for it! When it's closed you'll be able to see the results!
Enjoy!
FORD B: I'll try to keep up with writing bits for the Witwicky story, but I kind of just write those as I go along, so they may be few and far between for now, but I'll do my best!
GrimlockX4: Can't say that I'd blame the Autobots for it either ;)
On a side note, Barricade has become my absolute favorite character! Not because of the shows or the movie, but because I have fallen in love in the new mustangs! Have any of you checked out the new Shelby GT500 KR Cobra?? The only Ford (Found On Road Dead) I'd ever buy would be the Shelby. I just want to hear it purr... Like a kitty on Steroids!! (Drools)
--
Barricade had done just as Cat thought he would, and took the first exit from the highway into Boulder City. However, instead of staying within the confines of the city limits, he took a "shortcut" through the desert just south of the city. He hadn't been able to pick up any Autobot signatures for several months, and he couldn't pick up any nearby now, but he was sure that with the appearance of that lunatic human woman, there would be an Autobot near. It was a chance that he was unwilling to take for the time being. The last known presence of another Decepticon was just after Mission City, when Starscream had left the Earth's atmosphere, but not before promising to return. Return for what, Barricade wasn't sure. However he wanted to stick around on this disgusting planet just long enough to find out what Starscream's ultimate plan was to be.
Megatron's downfall was still prominant in Barricade's mind. How that pathetic human, the Witwicky child, was ever able to bring him down was beyond his logic processors understanding. It weighed heavily on him, just the thought of a human being able to perform such acts such as that was a thought best left alone... He was sure that he had just slipped by an untimely death by escaping the human who had taken Starscream's own cranial unit right off of his shoulders and then revived him not but a day later.
But the question still remained... How was that worm of a human still in existance? He was sure that Megatron had killed her just before being taken down by the power of the Allspark... How was it that she was still online?... Was the leader of the Decepticons that unaware that he was not able to destroy her?
"Frag it all to the pit!" Barricade scorned as he stopped in the middle of the desert and transformed back into his bipedal form.
If only he had Frenzy... The little fragger was annoying, but he could find information within the human network like nobody's business. If he had him around, he could probably have found out what that woman was doing still alive and well. He was sure that the Autobots had something to do with it... Autoscum... Vile creations of Primus who fought against the Decepticons for the rightful ownership of the Allspark, which now lies in ruin.
"F-f-frenzy find location of B-b-barricade, Decepticon!"
Barricade turned towards the annoying, yet familiar sound of Frenzy's vocalizer. The small, silver form of the mini-bot was staring up at Barricade, an evil little smirk graced his faceplates.
"But how are you still online?! How is any of this possible?!" Barricade seethed.
Frenzy used his wireless communications to send Barricade files of his latest memories. From the moment he awoke in the cell, to his wandering around the base and running into Sam and Mikaela. When he showed him the images of Cat shooting a large calibur weapon at the small bot, Barricade visibly flinched. He saw the pleased look on her face after she had shot Frenzy, thinking that she had damaged him. Frenzy showed him the images all the way up to the shocked look on Bumblebee's face when he saw the two battle. Barricade thought back to the image of Cat raising to the weapon and remembered the look of that yellow optic... Wait... Just the one yellow optic? He could have sworn that both of the human's optics were yellow...
"Human f-female not the s-s-same!" Frenzy's vocalizer clicked and whirred.
"What are you talking about? Of course it's the same human! I saw what she was capable of myself as she cleaned Starscream's cranial unit off him! She stood upon his shoulder plating just after the deed had been done!" he growled.
Frenzy then showed him the documents of her, including the reports of what had transpired in Mission City and her citizenship papers along with her birth certificate.
"This h-h-human d-different one!" the mini bot clicked again.
Barricade thought carefully and then realized that there was another human similar to the one that he was thinking of, "The other one... That one was weaker... Ah, yes! She was the one that Blackout was able to steal away from the Autoscum during the fight! She seemed easily brought down! Not only that, but if this human has the same abilities to revive a Cybertronian... Megatron may be able to lead us once again!
Frenzy cackled with laughter in agreement.
"So..." Barricade smirked, "That woman lives with the Autoscum..."
--
Sam had awoken, for some odd reason he was having trouble sleeping. Something told him that there was something amiss. He looked over to his alarm clock and saw the bright green numbers shining in the darkness. It was nearly two in the morning. Cat! He realized that she was probably there by now and he rolled out of bed. Maybe he had just heard her walking through the house and, in a light sleep, woke to her footsteps on the hardwood floors.
Sam stepped lightly down the hallways, stepping over the areas in the floorboards that he knew would make loud creaking noises. He walked down the hall to the guest room that Cat normally stayed in and saw that the door was still wide open. That's odd... Whenever she slept here she had the door closed...
He looked into the room and saw nothing but darkness, so he flipped the light switch on, thinking that if he woke Cat he'd apologize and go back to bed.
The room was empty.
"Where the hell is she?" he asked himself... Surely she should have gotten here by now...
The sounds of a rowdy motorcycle engine pulled down the driveway, which sent Sam dashing down the stairs. He opened the back door and heard the engine cut off, but didn't see anything. He looked around and quickly spotted Cat, sitting on her bike, leaning into the handles but unmoving. She wasn't wearing her rider's jacket, which had him confused. Had she already been to the house and left again for something? He only stood and watched for a moment as she still hadn't moved an inch. It was as if she were deep in thought.
Before Sam could say anything, Mojo ran underneath his feet and out into the driveway, beginning to bark enthusiastically at the girl.
"Mojo! Shh!" Sam ran out to the dog and picking him up just a few feet away from Cat.
"Hey..." Sam began.
Cat suddenly jerked out of her thoughts and looked over to Sam with a surprised look.
"Oh, Uh... Hey..." she replied reaching under the bike with her foot and pulling out the kickstand and setting the bike carefully on it's stand. She then took her helmet off and attached it to the locking hook under the secondary seat on the motocycle.
"Something the matter?" he asked, holding the squirming bundle of Mojo.
Cat smiled faintly, making Sam believe that she was putting up her infamous front, "Isn't there always something the matter?"
Sam gave a curt laugh and replied, "What is it this time?"
Cat looked to him and said, "Let's talk about it in the morning... After I've had a few hours to sleep on it..."
"Where's your jacket?" Sam asked as they walked inside the house.
Cat stopped in her tracks.
"Uh, it's... I... I guess I lost it..."
Sam surveyed the girl, his eyes widened, "Your arm is all red!" he reached out and touched her only human arm, "You're freezing!"
Cat gave an empty laugh and replied, "Yeah, driving a hundred and twenty miles an hour down a highway in forty-eight degree weather will do that to a person..."
Sam watched as Cat walked up the stairs and heard the guest room door close behind her gently, so as not to wake anyone else... Bee! Surely he would know what was going on!
Sam ran back outside to the garage where Bumblebee was parked next to his father's porsche. He opened the door and looked over to the high-end Camaro.
"Bee? You awake?" Sam asked.
Bumblebee's hologram suddenly appeared just in front of the teen. His hologram was tall and as muscular as the rest of them were. He was wearing a white muscle tee shirt with loose blue jeans. His hair was a mop of messy blonde, his eyes were (of course) sky blue, and he had a small tattoo of the Autobot insignia on the back of his neck.
"Geez man! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Sam jumped when he saw him appear.
"What are you doing up, Sam? It's a little early for you to be out of your recharge cycle isn't it?" the blond's head cocked in confusion.
"I just woke up a few minutes ago... Thought I'd see if you knew what was going on with Cat," he asked.
Bumblebee's eyes flickered with realization, "She's finally arrived?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, she called a few hours ago and said she'd be late, but she just now got here and she's putting up one of those fronts. She didn't want to say what was wrong, and she didn't have her biker jacket," he explained.
"... I received a transmission from Jazz not too long ago about a sighting of Barricade," Bee began.
Sam didn't say anything, but his eyes widened in shock and terror.
"Apparently, Cat is the one who came into contact with him. However, she claimed that she never battled with him. The others are in Boulder City looking for him right now," Bumblebee explained, a frown on his hologram's face.
"Bee she must have had some sort of run in with him!" Sam pointed out.
Bumblebee sighed, "Optimus ordered her not to even go looking for Barricade after he fled from her..."
Sam crossed his arms and asked, "This is Cat we're talking about, right?"
--
"Any sign of him yet?" Optimus asked through the comminications link.
The Autobots had been searching within several miles of Boulder City. A sighting of a Decepticon was no laughing matter to them. No matter who it was, whether it be one as lowly as Barricade, or one who was higher on the totem pole of commands such as Starscream. One little claim of Decepticon activity meant that any number of humans could have been in danger. It was one of the reasons why staying on Earth was such a good idea. If they had decided to go back to searching the galaxy for more Autobots, they would have left the planet in danger of attacks from any Decepticon who was willing to take a little revenge for the fall of their leader.
"I have found traces of Barricade's spark signature, however it abruptly ends just south of the city," Ratchet replied.
"Optimus, I believe that Barricade is using a dampening field to drown out his spark signature. That may be the reason as to why we haven't been able to track him so far," Wheeljack added.
Sunny and Sides were west of the city, Ironhide and Prowl searched north of it, Optimus searched within the city's confines, Jazz and Bluestreak were just east of Boulder, and Ratchet and Wheeljack were just south. They had spread far to cover as much ground as possible, but were all on an open communications link to keep in contact just in case anything was found.
"But why would he use the dampening field to cover his tracks up until now?" Sideswipe asked.
"The better question would be, why would he stay in hiding just to come out and attack a random human?" Prowl suggested.
"Decepticons never usually make any sense..." Ironhide grumbled.
"Perhaps not, Ironhide, but somehow I doubt that Cat's happening to be there was a coincidence," Optimus reminded.
"What about the human that Cat said he attacked?" Jazz asked.
"We don't know anything so far. The emergency unit that came to retrieve the human had already been and gone by the time that we had reached the accident scene," Prowl explained.
"I didn't see a vehicle rolled over either," Sunny griped.
"Humans have wreckers that come out to accident scenes and remove any vehicles involved in an accident in order to detain it as evidence for investigation, and to keep other humans from stealing parts or items that do not belong to them," Ratchet explained.
"Jazz, Bluestreak; I want you to look into where the emergency vehicle took this human and who it is, as well as look into the vehicle that this human was driving," Optimus ordered.
"We're on it!" Jazz replied.
"I believe I know the reason as to why Barricade has been using a dampening field up until now," Wheeljack began.
"Go on," Optimus replied.
"Barricade's been using high levels of the dampening field which blocks all forms of sensors. That would be the reason as to why we haven't been able to track him even with our highest level of scanners. Doing so would also block his own sensors from scanning anything outside of the barrier. If he let down this field barrier, it was so that he could conduct his own sensor readings," the scientist explained.
"I wonder what it was that he was trying to get readings on?" Ironhide thought aloud.
"Good question..." the leader agreed.
"Optimus... I have found something else," Ratchet realized.
--
Cat had closed the door behind her gently and walked straight to her bags, which looked as though had already been brought up to the room for her.
She gave a soft smile and thought, 'They don't have to do that for me...'
She went through the bags and found a sweater and a pair of thick fleece pajamas. She started shiver so badly that unzipping the bags became harder and harder to do. Somehow, though, she managed to grabbed the much needed items and change into them. She laid down in the twin bed and pulled the sheets around herself tightly, still shivering and shaking badly.
It was only a matter of minutes later that she felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped. She reacted so quickly that she was out of the bed and standing up in a defensive position, with a growl and a snarling facial expression.
"Who the-?!" she started before realizing who it was and relaxing a little, "Damn it, Bumblebee..."
"I didn't mean to scare you," he apologized.
Cat sat back down on the bed, still shivering, "What do you want?"
"Sam was concerned about you, and it looks as though he had every right to be," he gave her a concerning look.
"I'm surprised you haven't gotten a message from one of the others yet," she avoided looking at him.
"I did, actually. I was told to stay and wait for your arrival to ensure that you would get here safely," he explained, "Are you all right? Barricade didn't attack you, did he?"
Cat smirked, "No, he ran away from me... He thought I was Five. Guess he thought I was going to take his head off too."
Bumblebee's hologram crossed his arms, "And I suppose we're to believe that you never took pursuit of him even after ordered not to?"
Cat scowled and turned her back to Bumblebee, really not interested in talking to him. However she knew that he wasn't just going to let her play this off.
"I did go to look for him..." she whispered.
Bumblebee sighed and sat down on the bed just inches from Cat's back, "Why?"
"... Because he was getting away, and he's a Decepticon... I thought we fought our enemies?" Cat seethed.
"We don't instigate a battle..." he replied quietly.
Cat swirled around on the bed and looked Bumblebee in the eyes, anger within her own, "He instigated the fight! I was going to finish it!"
"Exactly what would you have gotten from killing Barricade?" Bee asked.
"... I don't know... Look," Cat sighed, "I know that I'm supposed to learn how to be normal, but my training is hardwired into me Bee... And that training has always told me to eliminate enemies and threats to ensure-"
Bumblebee gently grabbed Cat's upper arm, making her stop her ranting. She glanced sharply at his human features, his azure eyes looking directly into her blue and yellow ones. Even through Cat's thick fleece pajama top and a sweater, he could feel her tremble.
"When are you going to stop believing that you're in the middle of a war every day of your life?" he asked.
Cat looked away for a moment. She knew that she should have stopped this paranoia long ago. But she looked back up to him and replied, "The day my past stops coming back to remind me of it, will be the day that I can breathe freely."
--
It was nearly sunrise, and Bumblebee was sitting outside of the garage in his Camaro form when he received an incoming signal.
-Bumblebee, this is Optimus, come in-
"Bee here, go ahead Optimus"
-Has Cat arrived?-
"Yes sir, she's here. She arrived several hours ago. Has there been any other sightings of Barricade?"
-I'm afraid we've lost his signal once again. But at least we know, now, that he's still on the planet.-
"That doesn't make me feel any better about the humans being in danger if he appears again"
-Understood. From what Wheeljack has said, Barricade has been using a high intensity dampening field to flood his spark signature, keeping us from tracking him. And it looks as though he lowered this barrier to take sensor readings for a few moments. On what, we have yet to identify... However, we did identify one thing...-
"What's that, sir?"
-While analyzing the area where Barricade was, Ratchet found tire tracks... Tire tracks of a specialized motorcycle. Apparently they are the same as the ones that are on Cat's own motorcycle.-
"... I'm afraid that I can confirm that, Optimus. Cat has admitted to me that she went beyond your orders and searched for Barricade in Boulder City, without any findings."
-...When I get my hands on that girl I'll-
"Sir, I think we should let this one go... for now."
-Explain, Bumblebee-
"When Cat arrived she seemed very... disturbed about something. When I got that little bit of information from her she told me that her training is responsible for the reason as to why she has the need to hunt down enemies. I believe that she's telling the truth. She wasn't necessarily trying to stand against your orders, so much as she felt as if she had a duty to uphold."
-Yes, however at some point, she is going to need to learn to trust the orders of-
"And she will. But I believe it will take some hard efforts to try and train her otherwise. As you are well aware of from working with some of our distressed soldiers in the past, this is not something that can be fixed easily."
-I suppose you're right... Although if I remember correctly, that kind of problem in some of our past Autobot soldiers led them to their deaths...-
"Let's hope that we can stop this in her before that happens this time, sir."
-Indeed. Even though it was always sad for the loss of an Autobot soldier, there was always more of their model. And in this case, she's the only human on this planet that's anything like her... Keep an eye on her Bumblebee.-
"I will, Optimus."
-Connection terminated-
Bumblebee looked up to the guest room window and stared.
"There really is only one of her..."
--
Chapter Teaser!
Cat had been standing on the back porch of the Witwicky house. The back door was closed so that no one could see or hear her while she stayed away from the family's Christmas party. She knew that she would have to go back at some point, but she also knew that Sam was practically dying to go back to play his new game station, and the others were imersed in conversation with each other. That meant it would be some time before anyone realized that she was missing.
"Hey!" Mikaela's cheerful voice was heard.
... So much for having time before anyone noticed that she was missing...
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" Mikaela asked sweetly, wondering if Cat was still going over the short sighting of Barricade in her mind, "You okay?"
Cat could hear Mikaela step just next to her on the porch, but didn't look away from looking up at the night sky. It was strangely clear on such a cool evening. Even for California it was rather nice. Cat just let a cool breeze sway across her cheek without even so much as a muscle flexing in her jaw due to the cold.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Cat answered.
"Well, what are you doing out here?" she asked again.
"I'm just... Not feeling up to being around so many people right now..." Cat replied quietly.
"You want to talk about it?" Mikaela pulled herself up on the wooden porch railing, seating herself next to Cat, waiting for a story of some sort.
Cat looked over to where Bumblebee was parked. She used the specialized scanner in her left eye to make sure that he was, indeed, deep in recharge. She didn't want to have a discussion in confidence with Mikaela if someone was going to be listening in. She was already sure that he had informed Optimus about her admitting to going after Barricade. Not that she could blame him, she usually found herself unable to lie to him either... at least when she was looking at him straight in the face...
Once she was sure that Bumblebee wouldn't be listening in on what she was about to say, she turned and looked to the awaiting teen.
"Can you keep a secret? I mean from Sam and the Autobots?" Cat asked.
Mikaela looked at her friend with sincere concern, "Yeah, sure. What is it?"