Redeem 18 Petty Freedom

[niyazi-a.livejournal.com]

PG
Bayverse
Barricade
No warnings

18. Petty Freedom.

 USS Dreadnought

 

The night-duty engineer had finally conceded defeat with the stasis cuffs after a cycle, a broken wrench, and an accident that punctured one of Barricade’s wrist tires.  After that last one, and Barricade’s growl, he had been reluctant to continue. So Barricade’s first night in human captivity was spent cramped, injured and pretty much topping off the misery scale.

Don’t expect things to improve, he told himself.  It goes only one place from here, you know.  That place being, well…why do you think they have you over the water? How easy to just drop your offlined frame—or bits of it—over the side?  

Fine.  Starscream’s words floated back to him, and he clung to them, probably because they were Starscream’s.  You can’t choose the time or manner, only how you meet it. Right. How could he meet it? How could he keep himself ready to meet it for cycle after cycle? Warriors could prepare themselves for battle—they could see it coming. Would he?

The door rattled open and one of the guards came in, glaring, pointing a weapon at his face.  Barricade resisted the urge to roll his optics.  After the guard, a smaller human, in coveralls, entered pulling a wheeled cart.  The coveralled human had a small frame and fast, twitchy gestures. Reminded Barricade a bit of Frenzy, really, even to the piercing blue eyes. 

“Hi!” the scrawny one said. “I’m Max.  I’m one of the engineers.” He wiped his hands down his coveralls—the only sign he was nervous. “Dave said he gave up on those cuffs.  Would you mind if I had a look?” 

Barricade narrowed the focus of his optics, but extended his bound wrists to the human.  This Max person couldn’t do a worse job than the one last night, and he would dearly love to be able to move his shoulders. Or transform.  At the very least, another failure would be amusing. Anything better than being stuck alone with the rays of sunshine that were his thoughts.

He watched as Max studied the cuffs, and then turned to his cart and dug to fill his pockets with absurdly tiny tools.  Max.  The name sounded familiar. His curiosity got the better of him. “You knew Starscream.”

Max looked up. “The jet? Yeah.  Oh boy. I got in sooooo much trouble for that.”

“For the leg.” Barricade winced. Probably shouldn’t have let on he knew that much.  Probably shouldn’t have started this conversation in the first place. Fraggin’ blank room was destroying his hold on himself already. 

“Yeah.”  Max’s olive complexion turned dark with a blush. “You know about that, huh?” A bitter laugh. “Guess I’m notorious.” 

Barricade shrugged, awkwardly. “Worse things to be known for.” Like mass murder. Of your own mechs. 

“Yeah,” Max said, ducking his head back over the stasis cuffs. “I was sure surprised when I got the call to do this. Thought I’d be blacklisted forever, you know, repairing toasters and televisions for the rest of my life.” 

Interesting.  Sternburgh’s ‘team’ wasn’t all on the up-and-up. Barricade wasn’t sure what to make of this.  He felt the familiar stir of something he didn’t know, some puzzle he hadn’t figured out, calling to him. 

Max sat back, his weight on Barricade’s talons, unconsciously. “Can you tell me a bit about how these things are supposed to work?”

“The cuffs?  Standard Autobot equipment.” Little dig—surprised you’ve never seen them before. Autobots must try to play themselves all nicey-nice to the humans.  He was rewarded by a frown from Max.   “Variable charge.  You can set them for different levels of stasis—high level and the mech is basically a statue—he has passive receptors only.” Barricade skipped the part about how a mech in full stasis would eventually die.  He was sure the humans were cooking up some pretty creative ways to offline him, and he wasn’t about to hamper their creativity. “On the low end, they just hold the wrists or ankles together.  They’re in the middle right now. I can move, but I can’t do anything strenuous. You know. Like run.  Mad dash from one corner to the other.”  He smiled wryly. Decepticons didn’t use stasis cuffs. Well, not at the low end.

“Ah!” Max said to himself. “So that’s what that was.”  He dove back into the cuffs’ connecting mechanism and prodded around. “Gonna need….”  He pushed back again, pulling at the wavy black hair behind one ear. “Be right back!”  He dashed out of the room, the door swinging only half-shut behind him.

The guard glared at him, hefting his weapon.  Suddenly, Max seemed like much better company.  Barricade settled his gaze on the guard’s eyes, spiralling his optics small.  Just…staring back.  Silence was something he could run for cycles. 

The guard was just beginning to duck his head to break Barricade’s cool gaze when Max burst back in holding a squiggly piece of metal.  “Took me forever to find one, can you believe it?” he chirped. 

“A hanger?” the guard asked.

“A metal one! Everything’s plastic nowadays. Stupid plastic. Nonconductive, non-pliable plastic. Sucks. Nothing like good old metal.”  He bent over the cuffs again, clambering over Barricade’s arm to get a better angle.  He paused, reaching into his coverall pockets for a pair of gloves.  “No good if I electrocute myself doing this.”

“I wouldn’t mind, except for the smell,” Barricade muttered.

Max burst out with a laugh.  “It would ruin my budding career as a mechanical genius, though!”  This Max creature was weird. And really did remind Barricade of Frenzy.  Max reached in with his insulated gloves and fiddled the hanger’s two ends into position.  “And now….” He took a small box from the pile of equipment he’d made on the floor and attached alligator clips to the hanger.  “This may sting a bit.”  Barricade nodded his head—who cares? Get the damn cuffs off.  Max grinned, taking this for approval.  He flipped a switch on his box.  The cuffs popped open, startling all of them with the loud clatter they made falling to the deck. 

Max whooped. “And THAT’s why they hired me!”  He bent down and started dragging the cuffs over to his cart, possessively. Well, Barricade wasn’t going to fight him for them. And, oh look, Autobot technology in the hands of the humans. Optimus Prime would be blowing a coolant seal if he knew.  If he’d thought it through Barricade would never have been cuffed to begin with.  The thought cheered Barricade up considerably. Still causing problems to the enemy, even at my lowest moment.  Maybe I am an unknowing genius.  Maybe…maybe I could take this further.  He felt something stir to life within him.

Meanwhile, he took the opportunity to flex his wrists, wincing at the soreness from the punctured tire, but otherwise enjoying the sudden rush of sensation through his entire frame.  Back at full power. Hurray. For what it was worth. He would find a way to make it worth his while.



Comments

[katsuko]

I just thought that you should know I scared the hell out of my youngest cat when Max entered. I remembered him even before you mentioned in context that he knew Starscream (and dear god, does that sound stalker-fangirly? That I remember a story I read months ago and reread regularly?) and squealed out loud.... and then Boo took off at a dead run to get away from Crazy Mommy. Oh yeah, I fangirl enough to scare my cats.

That said, excellent chapter! I love how Cade's reflecting that even now he's sort-of sabotaging the enemy. Poor, poor Cade. *needs a Starscream/Barricade icon, but the Sixshot/Cliffjumper icon needs a workout*

[wicked3659.livejournal.com]

Nice chapter! I remember Max, I liked him I'm really glad you brought him back :) he's one of my top 5 human characters.

Things seem to be looking up a bit for Barricade here, I have a feeling this group of people dont plan on offlining him at all, cant wait to see what they got in store.