I wrote
Transformers from 1995 to 2003 (pen-name was Gryph) and attended three
or four
BotCons, then the muse left me and only returned with a vengeance when
the
movie came out. I couldn’t resist. The Knight Rider Fire&Ice
‘verse is almost as old, but equally the muse went dormant.
Then Barricade happened. Hell, the whole movie happened! *sighs
dramatically*
Couldn’t resist. Just couldn’t.
If you read this, bear in mind that I haven’t been in these particular
‘verses/fandoms for a while. My latest scribblings have been along the
lines of House, CSI, FAKE, Yami no Matsuei, DN Angel, Good Omens and
Stargate
Atlantis.
If you’re interested in the Fire&Ice ‘verse and want to know
more about it, the whole assembly of stories is here: http://home.arcor.de/macx/index.htm
Scroll a bit further down and you can find my TF page, too ;)
TITLE:
Adaptation,
Crossover with the Knight Rider Fire&Ice ‘verse
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the canon characters belong to me, sadly. They are
owned by
people with a lot more money. But Nick's mine :P
WARNING: experimental fic. Wouldn’t let me go. The bunny was too
insistent. Gah!
Author’s Voice of Warning (aka Author’s Note):
English is not my first language; it’s German. This is the best I can
do.
Any mistakes you find in here, collect them and you might win a prize
FEEDBACK: Loved
// is mind-to-mind communication between Karr and Nick, using the neuro
link
More explanations about that follows. If by chance anyone ever read my
AU, you
know what to expect ;)
It had been fast. It had been painful.
It still was. Painful. Very, very much so.
His sensors had come online only spastically, sputtering and fizzing
until Karr
had nearly screamed in rage at his malfunctioning systems.
The whole case had been a stupid idea. He had told his driver as much,
but Nick
hadn’t been inclined to listen to him. He was still dealing with
personal
issues, with things Karr understood, even empathized with, but to lose
himself
on a mission just shortly after such a painful event had been stupid.
Of course, it had to come down to a final confrontation between Nick’s
old controller and mentor, General Jackson Nash, the man who had
created him,
and Nick himself. Nash was dead now and Nick had been nearly killed.
The moment
he had been able to leave the hospital, he had gotten into Karr and
they had
disappeared. He had cut all ties with the Foundation and Michael
Knight. He had
gone off, without a specific aim or target, and Karr had come along.
He would always be there for Nick.
Kitt had tried to contact him several times, but he had told his
younger
brother that they needed time away, that they would be fine, not to
worry. Of
course Kitt would worry. Even after such a long time, he wouldn’t stop
it.
After days of driving, they had ended up in
It had been because Karr had picked up curious radio signals and
reports that
they had stayed instead of passing through. Because of this curiosity
they had
ended up in the middle of a fight of apocalyptic proportions.
Explosions, shape-changing machines, giant robots, the military, people
running
screaming from the scene… and casualties. Too many to count. Karr had
been too busy staying alive, keeping Nick alive, and whatever their
case had
been before, it had paled and disappeared in the light of these
developments.
Whole buildings had been destroyed, people had been buried underneath
falling
debris or killed by stray shots and missiles.
Suddenly the strange readings had made sense. Suddenly the weird
transmissions
and the curious sightings took on form. But it had been too late and
Nick and
Karr had been right in the middle of it. Swerving through debris-laden
streets,
impacts left and right, nearly getting hit by a missile from a
transforming
F-22… and all around them
Their flight had ended when another of the giant robots had blocked
their way
and tossed the Stealth aside with a swipe of massive, clawed hands.
They were
flung through the air and Karr had felt the impact of hitting first a
building,
then the street, coming to rest on his side. The passive restraint
system had
kept Nick from breaking his neck, but his driver and partner had ended
up
unconscious, head bouncing against the side window, and bleeding.
What had happened to them afterwards was still unclear to Karr. He knew
he was
damaged – not even a molecular bonded shield could prevent that when
confronted with alien weaponry -- but he also didn’t feel right. His
whole body, the Stealth, was like a twisted version of himself now. He
was
aware of Nick, both through the implant and his still working inner
sensors,
and his partner was unconscious, though regaining consciousness fast.
Karr tried to scan his surroundings, but again he came up with
contradicting
readings. He was just too damaged.
Time passed. There were sirens, there were people running around, there
was the
sound of military vehicles, but no one found them in the collapsed
building.
Too many injured or dead were on the streets. Karr was keeping all
senses
trained on Nick.
In that time his body seemed to twitch and shift without Karr doing
anything at
all. There were ripples running across his skin and when his scanners
suddenly
went online again, the AI was stumped. More started to work, as if it
had been
miraculously repaired. Karr almost gasped in shock when he did a
complete check
and found his damaged exterior was suddenly smooth and almost perfect
again.
What the hell was going on?
* * *
Reverse engineering.
Nick knew that he might never understand it all, but the few files of
information he and Karr had been able to hack into had been enough to
turn his
world upside down. With the networks still vulnerable to outside
forces, it had
been ridiculously easy to enter the highly restricted areas and nose
around.
The US Defense system would be up and running again soon, but Nick had
what he
wanted anyway.
Reverse engineering.
Project Iceman.
It sounded so ridiculous. An alien robot crashing to Earth, landing in
the ice,
found by the
Wilton Knight must have accessed government files to create the neuro
link, the
implant, even the advanced AIs Karr and Kitt were. So in a way, they
were Earth
relatives to these alien life forms.
//I’m not like them!// Karr growled, shifting a little.
Nick smiled slightly. //No, you’re not// he agreed.
But in so many ways he was. Now more than ever.
Another growl, this time full of annoyance.
Nick gazed at his partner, took in the changes to his shape, and the
smile grew
even more.
The Allspark. Because of some weird alien gizmo Karr had been hit with,
this
had happened. Nick had spent hours in the still rather unprotected
datafiles of
the US Defense system, following leads as to what the Allspark had
been, and it
had been amazing. An energy source that had provided life to a whole
race of
autonomous robotic life forms. Alien life. It was a device of such
magnitude,
of such incredible design, and the government had had it locked under
the
Nothing in the world could have prepared either of them for the changes
the
contact with the Allspark had started. Nick thought he remembered
something
touching them, Karr directly and him indirectly through the link, then
an
explosion just outside had let Karr tumble and crash, followed by the
alien
robot tossing them aside like a toy.
Faint memories from after waking combined with the knowledge gleaned
from the
hacked files and things had unfolded. Alien robots, the Autobots and
the
Decepticons, fighting over a device called Allspark that could give
life to
mechanical things.
Like Karr.
Karr was already a life form, but now…
Nick scrubbed a hand over his tired features. Metal had come to life,
changing,
becoming more.
“How do you feel?” Nick asked softly.
He gazed into a dark face, golden-amber eyes looking back at him.
Karr’s
face was strange but not really unfamiliar. Dark but handsome, Nick
thought,
even from a human point of view. His black color had stayed in robot
form, the
exposed ‘skin’ that peaked out from beneath the black armor
anthracite or dark gray. His size was enormous in Nick’s eyes, though
sixteen feet and three inches wasn’t spectacularly tall for the
Cybertronians they had already seen. There were larger, taller ones.
There were
no obvious weapons, but Karr had demonstrated his familiarity with his
new body
by transforming one forearm into a gun.
“Not like myself,” came the rumble.
Nick chuckled. “You and me both, pal.”
He felt Karr scan him and he knew his partner saw the changes in him,
too. His
only mechanical addition was the neuro link in his skull and whatever
this
Allspark had done, it had affected the implant as well. And whatever it
had
‘sparked’, it was developing. Growing inside his body.
“Your body shows no averse changes. Your biological functions are
normal.”
He could feel that. He knew he was fine, but the apparently growing
device in
his head might change that.
Nick had never been prone to feeling alone. He had always been alone,
aside
from the machine linked to him. Returning home, facing Michael and
Kitt,
wasn’t even an option any more. Not before they had figured out what to
do with this latest development.
Karr transformed and opened his door.
It was time to get on the road again.
* * *
Barricade had lain low. Very low. The first weeks after the battle that
had
destroyed Megatron and so many of his comrades had been spent trying to
repair
damage inflicted on him. It had been slow, energy-consuming, and always
with
the warranted fear that an Autobot might pick up his signal. Or a
fellow
Decepticon who would see a chance at taking out a rival. With
Starscream still
out there, probably waiting to strike back at the humans, the best
Barricade
could do was keep a low profile anyway. His and Starscream’s history
was
rather… bad.
Nothing the like had happened though. Starscream was gone, not to be
heard of
since, and all channels were quiet. No Decepticon activity anywhere.
Low on energy from the extensive repairs, Barricade had cruised around
mostly
at night, blending in. He got his energon from gas stations that closed
at
night and were badly secured, always making sure he wasn’t seen. The
Autobots would be on his trail in no time if he left a path of
destruction,
though Barricade was tempted to leave nothing but debris behind to
teach those
insolent humans a lesson.
Now, two months after the battle, he was in a more or less repaired
state and
he was cruising the streets at daylight, still trying to pick up
signals that
told him of a Cybertronian near-by.
He was greeted by silence.
Calling for Frenzy had been just as unsuccessful. Wherever his partner
was, if
he was even still alive, he couldn’t be found.
So he did his own computer hacking, though a lot less sophisticated
than Frenzy
had been. This had never been his job. Through the net he discovered
that the
humans had tried to keep the existence of alien robots under wraps, had
come up
with rather ingenious cover stories, and Barricade had to give them
credit for
managing something big scale as Megatron’s return and the destruction
of
the Allspark, as well as almost the whole center of Mission City as
they had
done. Many of them had died, but explanations had been found that
didn’t
involve an alien battle.
Barricade patrolled the streets of
He was a strong fighter. He had defeated Barricade, left him at the
scrap yard,
and he had survived the final battle. Resilient bastard.
The Decepticon didn’t want to risk a confrontation. Bumblebee would
have
back-up in form of three other Autobots while Barricade was on his own.
His
survival came first, revenge would have to wait, if executed at all. He
wouldn’t put his existence on the line for petty feelings.
It was outside Tranquility, heading toward the dam that had hidden the
research
facilities of Sector Seven that Barricade caught a blip of something
interesting. It wasn’t Cybertronian, not really, but it echoed of the
touch of the Allspark. Like a faint glow, it surrounded a vehicle he
passed by
on the highway, and he slowed down a little, scanning. He was surprised
to
discover rather advanced technology, driven by a human with even
stranger
readings.
Intrigued, Barricade decided to follow.
Nick had
driven deep into the desert mountains, away from popular or even
remotely
publicly accessible places, and set up camp. It was a rather primitive
set-up,
but it was a necessary one for a while.
They needed to learn what they could and couldn’t do. It was trying, it
was hard, it was sometimes frustrating and painful, but Karr was
learning to
handle the bipedal form that had been forced onto him, and Nick was
learning to
adapt to the shifts he felt through the implant. It was amazing to see
his
partner this way, to touch a mind that now marveled at the novelty,
too.
Hands were new to the AI. As were feet or the fact that he walked and
no longer
drove. Add to that the increased height and the morphing abilities, and
it was
a whole lot to master. It helped that Karr had been linked to Nick for
the past
two decades. Taking his lead from what was instinctive for Nick – walk,
run, grasp things – he learned fast. Transformations were smooth and
his
motor control was increasingly more fluid and fine-tuned, but sometimes
there
were set-backs, mounting frustration, and even spikes of anger.
But there were also the quiet moments, like this evening, when nothing
disturbed what the two had shared for years.
The presence in Nick’s mind was the same he had always felt, silently
keeping him company. He was grateful for it. He couldn’t imagine what
it
would be like to lose this, to have the intimate connection change,
morph into
something different. Whatever the Allspark had done to Karr, it had not
transformed the neuro implant. They had been too close to losing each
other too
many times before. Back then, it had never mattered that much; now it
was a
fear neither wanted to think about too closely.
Nick’s thoughts were echoed. He felt a silky, cool touch to his mind,
and
he smiled. It questioned wordlessly, he answered the same way.
Sometimes, there
was no need for words, just opening his mind, showing his partner what
he
couldn’t say. This was beautiful, this was perfection. No one could
ever
feel it like he did, not even Michael Knight. For him, Kitt was his own
perfection. They were all different, like fire and water, like black
and white,
but they shared something so incredible, that they were the same.
Amber eyes glowed softly in the approaching dark. Karr had opted to
stay
bipedal, sitting with Nick as his driver relaxed in the fading sunlight.
The link couldn’t be perfection; never had been intended that way.
Despite
the beauty is transmitted, it also channeled pain, despair and
everything else
a human mind was capable of -- into the AI linked to it. Like the pain
of a
bullet harming the body of the more vulnerable human part. A long time
ago,
when Nick had been harmed, he hadn’t felt his partner react any more
than
with a brief shifting of his mind. That had gradually changed when Karr
had
found out that his own prime directive of self-preservation was
intimately
linked to the preservation of the life of the human he was bonded to.
Since
then, it had grown from reluctant acceptance to an incredible care.
Almost warmth. Warmth in a way that wasn’t radiating an increased
temperature, but that was defined by presence. Nick reached for the
silky
blackness, felt the tangles of his partner’s outer tendrils wrap
playfully around his hand.
*
After a while in the desert Karr remarked on picking up signals from
something
or other, much like the signals from the alien robots that had caused
all of
this. Nick kept an eye out and discovered a police cruiser in the
distance. It
simply sat there, without anyone ever getting out or in, and now and
then it
drove off. Karr tried to scan it, but those scans were blocked, quickly
followed by the car disappearing.
“Maybe one of them is watching,” Nick murmured.
And waiting. Taunting. Almost wanting them to come closer each time,
only to
disappear. Nick didn’t feel inclined to give in to the chase. If Nick
was
any judge of symbols, this one was what the Army had registered as a
Decepticon, the enemy.
Great. Just great.
They changed locations after that. Frequently. He drove all the way to
The police cruiser followed.
So Nick made the decision to take this back to where it had started.
The
Autobots were still here, on Earth, probably not far from their
original last
stand. Karr was, by and large, one of those Transformers, though he
vehemently
denied it. If he had to face down a Decepticon, he wanted to do so in
the back
yard of the Autobots.
* * *
Human brains were slow. Inadequate when compared to the mind of a
Cybertronian.
Even the lower order robots were faster in computing and executing a
thought
than a highly intelligent human. Barricade, being of a higher order,
looked
down on humanity with disdain and disgust. So far, for the past months,
he had
kept a low profile and not attracted undue attention. He was
outnumbered and
the Autobots were scanning for Decepticon frequencies, looking for
survivors. Devastator,
Blackout, Frenzy and Megatron had been terminated and sunk in the
oceans. Starscream
had fled this planet and Scorponok was nowhere to be heard of.
Barricade
suspected he had buried himself in a safe place, repairing damage
received from
human weapons, waiting.
Barricade himself couldn’t just sit and wait. The distraction of this
new, intriguing signal had been a nice change to routine. Without
Frenzy, part
of his systems felt abandoned and derelict. The little bot had
interfaced with
him whenever he accessed the world wide web of the humans, had
recharged in a
special component inside Barricade, and while he had been a pain in the
electrodes, he had been company.
Following the signals, following the black car that was surrounded by
the
electronic signatures of an Allspark creation, Barricade didn’t notice
the first whispers right away. He was too busy trying to figure out who
this
car was.
Checking the license plate had left him with no clue. Running visual
comparisons with known car models had come equally empty. It had to be
a custom
made car, with no true basic model, and Barricade’s interest grew.
He began to check on the human. What he got after hours of serious
hacking
– something Frenzy would have been able to find for him in a matter of
minutes – had really caught his attention.
DATA RETURN ON SUBJECT: _
SUBJECT NAME: UNKNOWN
CURRENT NAME: Nicholas MacKenzie
GOVERNMENT I.D.: UNKNOWN
CURRENT MILITARY: NONE
SOCIAL SECURITY #: NONE
FIRE ARMS REGISTRATION: NONE
I.R.S. CURRENT: NOT AVAILABLE
Barricade watched the words 'unknown', 'none' or 'not available' fill
the
screen as nothing what he had requested was delivered to him. Still,
there was
no disappointment or anger. It was another clue.
A few days after meeting up with the strange signal, the Decepticon
started to
notice the growing whispers in his system. It was like a background
murmur,
something he couldn’t quite pinpoint, nor understand. With Frenzy,
there
had been chatter when the hacker had been actively linked to his main
systems. In
recharge mode, there had been a hum of static, interspersed with little
buzzing
and fizzing noises.
But not like this. This wasn’t another Cybertronian trying to get into
his systems. This was different, but it originated from the interface
area that
now lay dormant and abandoned until Barricade might acquire a new
partner.
This was a human. The most interesting human Barricade had ever met.
And the
machine he was driving was a hybrid, for lack of a better word, created
by the
Allspark, a first generation Earth Transformer.
Barricade was aware that the human and the car had seen him. He had
counted on
it, taunting them, trying to get a reaction. So far it was a wary
distance, a
watching and waiting, and he wondered if they would ever make the first
step. If
not, if they kept their distance, he might just make those steps for
them. Before
the Autobots got their grubby little do-gooder hands on this intriguing
partnership.
He was a Decepticon. Trying to find the best possible option for
himself was in
his programming.
It was only
too bad that the moment the human attempted this kind of contact
himself,
facing him, that the Autobots caught up on his signal and descended on
them like
hawks.
* * *
Karr
hissed, cornered, aware that if he now raised his gun it would not only
be a
hostile act, it would also provoke the much more massive Autobot to
fire.
//Karr, get out of there!// Nick shouted in his head. //Now! Don’t
engage!//
It had been a mistake to come to this place. It had been an even bigger
mistake
to show themselves so openly. Too many mistakes and now a trigger-happy
Autobot
was trying to turn him into scrap metal.
Well, the idea had been sound. Nick had wanted to confront their silent
shadow,
the police cruiser that never interfered but always watched, but by
leading it
here, he had also alerted the Autobot now trying to terminate him. The
Decepticon had high-tailed it out of there at an incredible speed, but
the
Autobot hadn’t followed. He had taken on the next best target: Karr.
Why
he believed Karr was a Decepticon was beyond Nick, but it seemed a
matter of
proximity to the actual enemy that made others the enemy, too.
//How? By shooting him?// his partner replied sarcastically. He had no
illusions that his current state of armament was inferior to that of
the Autobot.
//I’ll distract them. You go//
//Nick…//
//Go!//
There was an explosion outside and the Autobot turned his head as if
scanning
for the source, which was Karr’s clue to get going. His much more
slender
and lither form enabled him to easily clear the wall behind him and
then he
transformed. Nick was just outside, looking a bit soot-streaked, and
hopped
inside.
Karr shot off, but not without his pursuer behind him. The much heavier
GMC
truck plowed after him with relentless speed. They whisked through the
abandoned warehouses, taking apart walls and windows, scraping along
pillars
and piles of debris. Karr was trying to lose the other robot, but it
wasn’t possible.
"Damnit, he's right behind us!"
"His speed surpasses that of a normal vehicle his size," Karr
answered levelly, trying to increase speed.
Something struck them and Nick winced. Karr gave a hiss of anger and
pain. Laser
couldn't really damage them, but concentrated, high energy lasers could
hurt. Karr
had refused to transform at first to fight back, only changing shape
long
enough to ward off the more massive Autobot, and Nick had accepted it.
They
were a team and had gone through enough missions before Karr had
received a
transformation. They could do this...
Karr spun down the highway, the truck in close pursuit.
"Damn!" Karr suddenly snarled.
The highway was coming to an end, a concrete block ahead.
"Can you break through it?" Nick demanded, voice relaying the stress
he was under.
"Insufficient power."
He swerved to avoid a beam of laser fire. Nick saw only one chance. He
turned
Karr 180 degrees around and floored the accelerator.
"What are you planning to do?"
"Play chicken!"
"Nick, do I have to remind you that we are currently traversing with an
increasing speed of 60 mph toward a several tons heavy, truck? I do not
think
he will 'chicken out'."
Nick smiled grimly. "I know.”
“And he can transform.”
“So can you.”
“I have you inside me.”
Nick laughed wryly. “We can change that.”
Karr growled darkly, but he didn’t try to take control.
Something slammed into him.
Karr screeched in pain and anger as he was pushed off the road and
overturned. The
transformation came without a second thought, almost like an instinct
he had
always had. Nick was safely deposited on the ground, looking stunned
and a bit
worse for wear.
His driver scrambled for safety, getting away from the fight that was
about to
start, and Karr faced the much larger opponent with a furious hiss.
“So you want to play?” the Autobot laughed. “Gladly!”
The hybrid robot turned to face his attacker and blocked a blow, only
to
receive a massive jolt that left his mind scrambling for a hold. Karr
shrieked,
the links to his driver alive with pain as his sensory feelers exploded
into
agony. He knew he was yelling and something was racing through his very
soul,
scorching a path through his mind and back.
Nick echoed his scream of pain and Karr reached out through the link to
grab
the flailing presence. His own pain vanished at the sight.
//Nick!//
Fury coursed through him at the sight of the weak, blue light that
represented
his driver through the connection and he lashed at the Autobot,
surprising him
with his renewed attack. Karr might not have any experience at
hand-to-hand
combat – seeing he had had no hands to begin with just a few months ago
– but desperation was a quick teacher. That and his connection to a
human
that had been trained in lethal combat techniques. For Karr, linking to
Nick
was natural.
What he encountered was a jumble of signals.
//Nick!!//
//…//
Pain. Just pain. All the pain Karr had felt and more. All in Nick’s
mind,
rebounding off his mental walls, making him delirious and disoriented.
They had shared pain before, worse pain than this, but Nick’s implant
had
changed and it was no longer the familiar link between them. Whatever
had
coursed through Karr, it had, without buffer, hit Nick as well.
Nick cried out in agony as his head seemed to explode. Blinding white
lights
flared up in front of his eyes and he grabbed his head, willing the
pain to
subside. But the more he fought against it, the stronger it got. With a
sob he
fell to his knees. Like through layers of thick wool he heard shouts,
then even
that was gone. There was only pain. He was tumbling deeper and deeper
into the
pain and it seemed to be all in his head.
This wasn’t just a reflection of the hit Karr ha taken.
This was more. This was different. It seemed to amplify with every
second,
eating into his very mind.
His body hit the ground and he curled into a ball, still clutching his
head. It
was unbearable and he wished he would just fall into the merciful
blackness of
unconsciousness, but it seemed that something was keeping relief from
him.
//Nick!//
The scream echoed through his mind and the pain increased.
Go away, he yelled, but it was only a faint whisper.
//Nick, no!// the voice cried in agony.
He pushed it away, starting to associate it with the pain.
No!
Karr’s world turned white hot.
Rage.
Anger.
Fury.
Survival.
Karr was running, not caring about the Autobot, heading toward his
driver. Nick
was lying in a crumbled heap, eyes screwed shut, hands clutching his
head, and
a tiny whimper escaped the downed man.
“No!” Karr roared and fell to his knees, scooping the smaller form
into his hands, cradling his driver close.
At the sound of heavy footsteps he looked up and the fury turned into
hatred. He
had no idea how, but he suddenly had a gun in his hand… on his
forearm… and it was pointing at the enemy. He felt the energy collect
in
that specific body part, ready to be released and to destroy the enemy.
“Put down that pea shooter,” the Autobot demanded, two huge canons
pointing at Karr. “I’ll blast you to pieces.”
“Ironhide, no!” a new voice commanded over the sound of the massive
Autobot charging his weapons.
Karr looked up sharply, snarling, growling deeply. Blue eyes burned in
the grim
face of the other robot. Just to the left stood a larger mechanoid, not
as
bulky, colored in blue, silver and blue. He had no gun pointed at him,
but
somehow he didn’t look unarmed either.
He knew their designations. He knew the larger one was the leader,
Optimus
Prime. He knew he was in really serious trouble. He knew he was
outgunned. He
knew he was no match at all.
But he also knew that he had to protect Nick.
//Partner?// he inquired.
//Head… hurts… happened?//
//Backlash. He hit me with something. It went to you, without shields
or
buffers between us//
Nick was twitching faintly, fighting for a semblance of control. Being
a man
always in iron control of his body and mind, the backlash had severely
disrupted his mind. It was a lot worse than anything he had ever gone
through
before an Karr felt the ripples and echoes. The neuro implant was a lot
more
sensitive, a lot more fine-tuned, and whatever was still happening
inside Nick
because of the Allspark, it was handicapping them.
“Who are you?” his thoughts were interrupted by Optimus Prime.
“He’s no Autobot, all right,” Ironhide snapped. “That
only leaves Decepticon scum! He kidnapped a human!”
“Ironhide…” There was a warning there.
Karr still didn’t rise from his crouched position, ready to spring into
action, even with Nick cradled to him. He had no clue how strong the
gun on his
forearm was, but comparing it in size to Ironhide’s weapons, it was
like
a child’s toy. Still, even small calibers might pack a punch.
“I’m no Deception,” he hissed.
“And no Autobot. But you’re like us.”
He glared at Prime. “I’m not like you!”
“If you are neither, who are you?”
The deep voice was soothing, calm, reasonable. Optimus didn’t move from
his position between Karr and Ironhide, making it clear that he was
here to
protect Karr from the trigger-happy other Cybertronian as long as Karr
didn’t turn more hostile than he already was.
“None of you business,” Karr answered coldly.
“It is if you hurt humans!” Ironhide said sharply.
“I did not hurt him. You did.”
The other robot frowned. “What?”
Nick’s hands clenched around Karr’s finger as he fought waves of
echoes, then he slammed a mental shield between the pain and his
hyper-sensitive
implant.
//Nick?//
//Getting there// was the breathy reply. //Shit, that hurt! Set me
down,
okay?//
And Karr did. Reluctantly he released his driver from his grasp.
“Karr, lower your weapon,” Nick said out loud.
//Are you sure?//
//Yes//
//Nick…//
//We’re alone, Karr, no back up. I’m feeling far from fine and my
head’s about to explode. You have no idea about the fighting
capabilities
of your body and that gun isn’t going to help much//
//You trust them?//
//No, but right now, being alive and not shot to pieces, I think
they’re
the better option//
//To what?//
Nick didn’t answer, just looked up the imposing robot called Optimus
Prime. “I think you’re the very person we need to talk to,”
he only said.
“I am?”
“Yes. Because what happened to us happened in
That had their attention. Completely. Nick would have smiled if his
head
wasn’t pounding so badly, if all his joints weren’t aching.
* * *
Captain Will Lennox, leader of a very special team consisting of Army
Rangers,
Airforce and Special Ops – the only team to work side by side with the
Autobots on Earth – looked up from his laptop. Ironhide had contacted
him, telling him that they were coming in with a special package. It
had been
cryptic and the weapons specialist had been unwilling to go into
detail, aside
from mentioning that it concerned them all.
That had been months ago. He hadn’t seen his wife or daughter and
things
were strained between them. Her happiness about his survival of
He pushed those thoughts aside and rose as Optimus Prime drove into the
hangar,
followed by an unfamiliar car, Ironhide bringing up the read.
The black car pulled up in front of the hangar, the finish giving the
impression of sucking up the last rays of the sun as it set slowly on
the
horizon. It was of an unknown brand, a special construction, nothing
you could
buy anywhere. The door opened and a man got out. He had black hair, a
sun-tanned face that didn't reveal his age and his eyes were hidden by
sunglasses. The man was dressed in black jeans, a black jacket and a
white
shirt.
Ironhide transformed, looking rather grumpy – which was nothing new --
followed by Prime, whose expression was hard to read.
“I think it is time for introductions now,” Ironhide growled. “Who
are you?”
The dark-haired man shrugged.
“My name is Nick MacKenzie, this is my partner Karr. And I know who you
are.”
“How?” Will asked, still not relaxing.
“Just because you cover up the arrival of giant, transforming robots
doesn’t mean a few well-placed hacks can’t reveal a thing or
two.”
Ironhide’s optics flashed. “You’re a spy?”
“No. An interested party.”
“We were in
Optimus looked at the black sports car. “He is none of us.”
“No. Neither of you, nor the others. His core unit was constructed on
Earth, his shell designed by me,” MacKenzie explained levelly.
“Everything
else, you added.”
“Holy shit,” he whispered.
“Quite,” was MacKenzie’s reply, smiling wryly.
He had taken off the glasses and Will was looking into ice blue eyes.
There
were deeper lines of pain around those eyes than a mere headache could
create.
“The Allspark,” Optimus only said.
“Yes.”
“You know about it?” Prime wanted to know.
“Like I said, I know my way around the net, and the
Will heard more sarcasm, but he also noticed a shiver running through
the man. Karr
was looking at the human, eyes brightening briefly, and MacKenzie had
to reach
out for the leg again as he swayed a little.
“Are you okay, Mr. MacKenzie?”
“Fine,” came the strained answer.
From the looks of it, this was far from the truth.
“Maybe we should take this somewhere else,”
Nick laughed wryly. “You and me both.”
Optimus nodded and
MacKenzie followed, though he looked wary and alert, confirming for
Optimus and the others took their places as
* * *
Optimus
Prime had felt his own alarms ring when he had first encountered
MacKenzie and
Karr, and those alarms were still there. Like meeting a Decepticon, he
mused.
This small human radiated such danger, he understood Ironhide’s
itchiness. His weapons specialist was so wired, the tension was almost
palpable. Ironhide insisted that Karr was a Decepticon plant, but
nothing Prime
had heard or seen so far suggested that.
Nick’s reluctance to really answer any of their questions didn’t
help, though. The man was tight-lipped and, though not hostile, rather
distant..
So he had employed the help of the world wide web, entering government
files
and poking around. What he had gotten had been chilly and terrible.
Nick’s files read like a Decepticon’s past.
Looking down at the tired man, Optimus knew they had to help. What had
happened
to Nick and Karr was partially their fault. They had brought this war
to Earth.
They had risked the lives at
“I offer you our help,” he told the man, looking into a pair of
cold, blue eyes.
Nick was tired and exhausted and mentally strained to the max. All his
defenses
had crumbled in the last hours. It had started after
So tired.
Karr soothingly touched him, relayed his support, his strength, and his
love.
They would walk this road together as well, wherever it led.
Nick gave him a tired smile.
//Even if it means hiding this from Kitt?//
//As long as it takes him to find out about it//
Nick scrubbed a hand over his face. The headache was not getting
better. The
place where the implant sat was burning.
Optimus’ offer was tantalizing. Maybe it was because of the weakness
that
Nick agreed. There was only so much he could fight.
* * *
Barricade gnashed his teeth, his innate temper flaring brightly. The
Autobots
had taken the human and the changed machine with the designation Karr
into
their possession. Curse their worthless sparks!
The empty space inside him quivered with incoming signals and Barricade
felt a
reaction from deep inside him. It was like a shared pain and he was
confused
over the source. The signals were not Cybertronian. They were strange
and alien
and slightly sickening, but the empty interface was trying to
accommodate,
wanted input.
Sitting outside Autobot radar, keeping a perception filter around him,
he tried
to catch glimpses of the two, but aside from humans coming and going,
all of
them military, and the Autobots there was no sign of Karr or MacKenzie.
Until something skittered across his systems.
Barricade started to twitch a little.
The shivers returned. Turned into wild sparks. Shot fire through his
mind.
And then Barricade felt a single explosion of agony numb his very
spark. His
tired twitched spasmodically, throwing up dust, and with a whine his
engine
came to live, crashing him rear fender first into a wall that promptly
collapsed on top of the police cruiser.
Darkness descended and he cried out in panic as part of him was
suffocated by
alien signals that swamped every single relay and system.
Barricades high-pitched cry didn’t reach the outside world as
everything
failed abruptly, encasing him in a separate world of his own, drawing
him deep
into the unused interface compartment that had been Frenzy’s place to
link with him.
A place now shared by whatever the Allspark had created inside the
human.
* * *
Nick had not gotten any better after Ironhide’s attack on Karr, even
after
They were among the enemy. Not hostile and lethal force enemy, but not
friends
either. Karr knew they were on their own and he was holding back,
keeping
himself in check, but Nick was aware of how tightly strung his partner
was.
The question and answer session had been long and detailed. Nick had
given the
Army Ranger who had introduced himself as a kind of liaison officer to
the
Autobots only as much information as was safe. They could look up
whatever they
wanted and not find all the data they required – and no doubt the
Autobots would. He had seen it from the way Optimus Prime had looked at
him.
Nick was a ghost, a shadow in the system, and not even Karr knew if
there was
even a file on his partner any more. Nash had been his mentor and
trainer, but
who knew where the general had kept all the information on his
‘creations’.
There was a sharp pain running through the implant. It hadn’t been the
first time and each time Karr was more disturbed. Nick and Karr were
left alone
for now, but Karr suspected they were under tight watch. MacKenzie
closed his
eyes, sighing deeply.
//Deep shit// Karr rumbled.
//Very//
And they had no clue how to get out of it. Run and hide, let the
Autobots look
for them until they gave up – which Karr doubted they would – or
stay and reveal more about themselves. No other option. Nick wasn’t
ready
to compromise the safety of Michael and Kitt, or that of anyone
associated with
the Foundation. Kitt’s safety was high on Karr’s priority list as
well. His younger brother had gone through too much to be sacrificed to
alien
curiosity now. It that meant breaking all ties, so be it. Aside from
the
private channel, which always pulsed gently with the existence of the
other AI,
he would cut everything and block it.
A small sacrifice for Kitt alone only.
Nick buried his head in his hands massaged his forehead. Karr scanned
carefully, noting the strong pulses emitting from the implant. To his
eyes it
didn’t look like the original any more than he looked like the original
KARR. The Allspark had changed it as well and by now the changes were
affecting
Nick.
Karr clicked his door open and Nick looked up, smiling tiredly at the
wordless
invitation. He took it, without question, and lay down on the cool
leather seat
as it reclined. Karr darkened the windows and sealed the door shut.
The Autobots be damned. His driver needed to rest.
* * *
Ratchet had been intrigued by the existence of the human-built,
sentient
machine, and what the Allspark had done to Karr. He had scanned him
several
times, noting the annoyance Karr radiated each and every time. And each
and
every time he had seen the silent communication between him and the
human. Nick
had a calming influence on the AI and Karr clearly showed his affection
for the
human in what he did and didn’t do.
How an implant could transmit electrical impulses from a human brain
and make
them comprehensible for an artificially created one, for a CPU, was
beyond him.
The electronic device that had been surgically implanted into Nick’s
mind
wasn’t in the middle of his brain mass. It sat at the brain’s base,
closer to the spine than the brain as such, and it was so old, the
human’s body had already enveloped it with tissue.
Nick had claimed he could even walk into Karr’s CPU, if he chose, and
he
saw Karr as a presence in his own mind. Amazing.
Karr himself had no spark. That was what had Ratchet running in
circles. A fact
that contradicted all he knew and believed in. The Allspark created
life and
gave it the spark, until the life died and the spark returned to its
origin. Karr
had been created by humans and the Allspark had given him the ability
to
transform and some other features. But no spark.
Incredible.
Talking to Nick, with a silent, non-communicative Karr present, was a
new
experience. Ratchet had been in contact with different kinds of humans,
from
military and civilian areas, with positions of command and respect, as
well as
no connection to any kind of military at all. Nick was unique. Either
cold and
distant, close-mouthed and mono-syllabic, or barely answering anything
relevant
about his past the implant. Still, there was a warmth, a human notion,
whenever
he seemed to touch Karr.
The problem was, aside from what Nick had already given them, he wasn’t
ready to reveal more. Optimus had downloaded information from the human
networks and Ratchet planned to work through the files of an
organization
called Foundation for Law and Government where everything must have
started.
The implant as such was primitive to Ratchet’s optics, but the Allspark
had jolted the device into growing into something else. Just what it
was he
didn’t know. It was by now several times the size it had been before
and
at the core still of Earth construction. It showed no power source,
just an
almost passive signal that was echoed by Karr’s systems.
Ratchet was truly fascinated.
When it happened, Nick was busy trying to not get annoyed at Ratchet
for asking
stupid questions that repeated itself. As much as he wanted to know
about his
own changes, he didn’t have to open his life up to prying eyes. The
headache wasn’t helping and it was only growing worse. Even taking pain
pills, of a strong variant, and some hours of rest hadn’t lessened the
pressure and the angry pulses emitting from his brain.
From one moment to the next everything seemed to go up in a bright
explosion of
color, then streamed into darkness.
It was blinding, it was numbing, but it also brought agony with it. He
doubled
over, his head feeling like it would explode any second, his eyes
blinded, his
ears deaf except to the roar in his mind.
Nick didn’t even notice that he fell to the ground.
Karr almost literally fell flat on his face, unable to move. He was
still in
car mode and his attention was on Nick, who was in pain and annoyed.
Never a
good combination. Ratchet was walking a fine line by now, asking
questions
about Nick’s past and the medical side of the implant.
And then the pain hit.
Darkness.
Darkness.
The vagueness of sound came to him.
Voices followed that. Pulses of familiar energy. It felt strange and
alien, but
inside, he smiled, delirious with happiness at the little sensation.
Nick did not move.
He tried to press through Nick's shields and found they had broken.
Shards lay
everywhere, jagged and painful, blackened and paper-thin. The damage
was done.
Whatever had become of the implant, it had attacked the shields with
vicious
relentlessness, trying to forge a path between the two different minds
like
nothing had ever done before.
And it was taking Nick with it, tearing him apart, tearing him to
pieces.
//Nick?// Karr called. Both their shields were down. Both were
vulnerable.
//Nick... don't go. Don't leave me. Fight. Please. We can win this. We
have so
before!//
Karr stared at the unmoving figure. His driver. His partner. The one
chosen for
him. One machine and another. A human assassin, trained and beyond
humanity;
and a machine that had only its self-interest in mind, that would
protect
itself before anyone else, would preserve only its own life. A match
made in
Hell.
A match that had worked, that had prospered, that had changed both
partners. Karr
knew he was a far cry from what he had been two decades before. And
Nick had
found humanity, too. Neither could live without the other, neither
wanted. Now
being able to morph his shape into a bipedal mode hadn’t changed their
relationship one bit.
Nick was so small, but so fragile. Karr was physically stronger, but
Nick had
an inner strength and an iron will that far surpassed Karr’s. They were
perfectly compatible. Wilton Knight had seen it. It had been his dream,
one
that had turned into a nightmare and had to be terminated.
Karr shuddered.
//Nick?// he called weakly. //Nick? Please, please…// He fell quiet,
cupping his hand over Nick's still form. //Not like this. Not because
of some
alien device…//
There was no reply. His partner was fading, felled by whatever was
changing
inside him.
Something, like a wispy darkness, slivered over his mind. Karr gazed at
the
unconscious human. The link was sputtering, trying to do something, but
it
resulted only in faint tendrils of pain. Whatever it was doing, it
hurt. It
transformed, morphed, warped what they had. It was insinuating itself
between
them, breaking Nick under the pressure, and Karr frantically held on to
the
life force he knew so well.
There were suddenly running footsteps. Karr’s attention was on them,
his
mind immediately classifying the approaching Autobots by danger factor.
His
systems came alive with an agonizing fire and his mind was trying to
compensate
random energy signals he received. He had no idea what kind of signals
they
were. All alien, but with a familiar tang. All from Nick, but nothing
like his
driver at all. It all mixed up in a torrent of energy heading his way.
He
gasped loudly as he received an almost physical blow.
Common sense left him.
Defense and protection instincts took over.
His transformation was without actual thought to do so.
And then the neuro link died completely, without a warning, one second
to
another. Karr’s optics flared brightly, the amber turning to flares of
gold, and he stumbled away from Nick, energon pump beating wildly, all
systems
powering up to full defense mode.
//NICK!//
His scream went unanswered as the darkness of the separation fell over
him like
a veil.
//NO!//
But his partner was gone. Instead he felt the alien pulses that weren’t
Nick and he screamed in agony.
He was alone.
And the enemy was about to take him down.
* * *
Karr stood with his back pressed against the wall, his weapon aiming
into the
general direction of Optimus Prime and the others. Karr's hand was
shaking like
under stress and Optimus knew that if he lost a shot, everything would
go up in
chaos.
Ratchet raised his hands, his face a gentle mask, but his eyes full of
anxiety.
"Karr…" he began.
"Stay away from me!" Karr hissed and his voice was shaking. The
optics flickered badly now and he was trembling even more.
“Ratchet, what happened?”
“I’m not sure. I was talking to our guest when he seemed to
overload and collapse. The signals I’m getting from the implant all
over
the place and he’s breaking apart. As for Karr… he's sharing,"
the medic replied. “Whatever happened to MacKenzie, whatever binds them
together, it must have been affected by the collapse. He’s not himself.
His CPU is under immense distress.”
Ratchet took another step toward his friend. "You are sharing," he
said calmly. “Your partner’s health is affecting you.”
Karr clenched his hand tightly around the gun. "Yeah, right,” he
spat. “Liar! What have you done to me? What have you done to Nick?!"
"Karr, this not what it seems to be," Ratchet went on.
But Karr was in no mood to listen. He launched himself forward,
transforming in
one smooth move and shot toward Optimus. Ironhide didn’t hesitate. He
leveled his guns and fired several rounds at the black streak. One
impacted
with Karr’s rear, having him fish-tail to the left and past Prime,
crashing right into the wall - and through it.
The Stealth transformed and rolled onto his back, aiming at the much
larger
Autobot coming at him much faster than anyone would give him credit
for. Optimus
Prime’s hand closed around one black wrist and pushed the gun away.
“Karr, stop it!”
“No! You want to scrap me, right? You want to shut me down again!"
His voice was rising with panic. "I won't ever be shut down again!"
Optimus was aware of Ironhide close by, guns ready, but he didn’t look
away from the madly flickering optics.
“Your partner is sick,” he tried to get through to the insanely
writhing robot. “You’re sharing his sickness. You need to control
yourself!”
Karr screamed like an animal in pain and tried to rear up. Optimus took
the
only way out. He slammed a first into his face, stunning the AI, then
called on
his weapon and shocked the smaller figure with a low-level charge. Karr
gave a
whimper and slumped down.
“You think he’s out?” Ironhide asked, coming closer.
“Yes. He’s only partly like us, but his systems shut down.” Accessing
his com, Optimus called on their medic. “Ratchet? We have him. He’s
unconscious. How’s Nick?”
“Equally out. I need to run a full diagnostic on him. Bring Karr back,
please.”
Optimus rose and picked up the smaller form. Ironhide followed, only
partly
standing down, but there wasn’t even a twitch from Karr.
* * *
Ratchet had
never been so stumped, so puzzled and so fascinated. The strange
mechanoid, a
Cybertronian who wasn’t a Cybertronian at all, came from a culture that
shouldn’t have been able to create artificial life as advanced as this
one was. The transformation abilities had been given to it by the
Allspark, but
the personality had been there to begin with.
Karr.
And he wasn’t a newborn. He was old.
Even thinking reverse engineering couldn’t get humanity something this
advanced. His creator had given birth to an incredible machine. A new
life.
And more fascinating was the human partnered with the machine. Nicholas
MacKenzie
was far from ordinary what Ironhide had told him. The weapons
specialist had
hacked deep into US government files and retrieved some very
interesting data.
The man was as dangerous as he was interesting. Add to that partnership
the
neurological implant, now affected by the Allspark as well, and you had
an
unheard of before combination.
“Whatever the Allspark did to the implant, Optimus, it has
changed,” Ratchet told his leader. “It’s growing, becoming
more part of Nick than anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s like a
cybernetic implant that is affecting every part of his body. It has
split
apart, moving into different body parts.”
“Doing what?” Prime asked.
“I don’t know. So far, the Allspark gave life to only four Earth
machines and all four were incomplete or even when fully able to
transform and
move, mindless. It seems a brief brush of energy only changes the
shape, but
doesn’t bestow a mind.”
“Karr was an AI before that brush of power.”
Ratchet nodded. “Exactly. His core unit, the CPU, was Earth made. He
developed his personality and then changed. He doesn’t even have a
spark
like we do.”
“Which makes him now neither a Cybertronian nor an Earth machine.”
“Yes. As for the implant, it was lifeless, mindless, not an entity. It
hasn’t gained sentiency, but it’s no longer Earth technology.
It’s doing something and if I had to compare it to something, it’s
like an organic virus, reaching out for MacKenzie’s systems, his body,
and interfacing with everything.” The medic looked unhappy. “We
have to wait and see what happens, Prime, as much as it pains me to say
so.”
Optimus shared the dark looks. They had a human on their hands who had
been
hurt by them, like so many before, but this time it wasn’t a simply
physical injury. This was a lot deeper, a lot more complicated, and
they knew
that no hospital in the world could help this man.
“Do you require human medics?” he still asked.
“I’d prefer not to reveal Mr. MacKenzie to anyone in the
government, Prime. We know his file. He’s no ordinary person.”
“Should his condition change for the worse…”
“Then I’ll have Captain Lennox on stand-by. He has been informed
and will be able to assist in finding the correct facilities.”
Prime nodded. “All right. I don’t like risking a life like that,
but I agree that revealing both Karr and MacKenzie to their government
might
hurt more than it would gain us right now.”
Ratchet nodded and walked off. Optimus remained behind, blue eyes
dimmed with
worry.
* * *
For Sam Witwicky, life had changed dramatically ever since his father
had
bought the old, beat-up Camaro as his first car. Who was to know that
the car
was actually an alien life form? Who was to know what would happen
then, right
down to a battle between enemy races over something called the Allspark
right
here?
The old Camaro was long gone. Bumblebee seemed to feel as
self-conscious about
outside appearance as the next person. He had changed his shape when
Mikaela
had remarked about the battered looks. Sam had been annoyed at her at
the time,
but the result had been very cool. He now had the latest model of a
great car
and the envy of many of his fellow male class mates. He also had a
girl-friend
who was even a jock’s dream and he had been the guy who had saved the
world. There had been visits by important people from high up in the
government, lots of hand-shaking, laudations and whatnot, and his
parents had
been stumped to find out their son was a true hero.
Much about the Autobots was kept a state secret. All hush-hush. His
parents
knew, by necessity. His mother had been shocked, his father speechless,
and
when the Secretary of Defense had given them the Top Secret Talk, both
had been
stunned.
After the big shots had left, Sam had found himself cross-examined by
two
worried parents and he had been hard pressed not to just snap at them
to leave
him alone. With an almost saintly patience he had told them everything,
Mikaela
at his side, and when they had met Bumblebee, he had stood back and
waited for
the next barrel of questions. A talking car was one thing. A
transforming one a
completely different one.
“So I bought you an alien robot?” had been his fathers first remark
when Bumblebee had stood before them.
“Dad…!” Sam had groaned, mortified.
“Technically you bought half of me,” Bumblebee had corrected him,
amusement in his voice.
“What happened to the old Camaro?”
“I exchanged my old looks for a better-suited new model.”
“Better suited for who?”
“Your son.”
That had been the moment Sam had really wanted to sink into the ground
because
the look his father had given him had said enough. It had been knowing
and
accompanied by raised eyebrows.
Life had kind of turned back to normal after a while, but underneath
all the
normalcy was the knowledge.
No one else among his few friends knew, though. The Camaro was his car,
nothing
more. Miles was jealous of the sporty car with its gleaming yellow
finish and
the black racing stripes, but he had finally gotten his own car – a
banged up old Beetle.
To Sam, the car was his best friend and a trusted ally. Bumblebee was
still his
guardian. He would always be, the Autobot had told him. His assignment
was a
permanent one and Sam had been stunned.
“You’re gonna get bored.”
“I doubt it.”
Sam was reclining on the warm hood, gazing at the evening sky. “You’re
thousands of years old, you’re a warrior, you’re a spy, you are
good at that. Sitting in a parking lot, waiting for me to finish
classes, it
must be boring. Don’t tell me it’s thrilling.”
Bumblebee chuckled. “My life has had enough thrill already, Sam. I like
boring now and then.”
“What if it gets too boring?”
“With you? Never.”
He sat up and glanced through the windshield into the empty car. A
frown
creased the young man’s features. “What do you mean?”
“You saved us, Sam. You saved your planet. You defied Megatron. You’re
more than meets the eyes,” Bumblebee told him firmly. “With you, I
think there will be more than one adventure.”
Legs crossed underneath him, Sam pondered that. “I’m not some Indy
Jones wannabe, Bee. I liked my life so far and could have done without
spastic
killer robots, bad ass police cars chasing me, and some evil bad guy
trying to
take me out. I don’t even know how I managed to survive.”
“You just did. Your race is very resourceful and resilient. We owe you
everything, Sam.”
“Even losing your only hope to restore your world,” he murmured
morosely.
The next moment Sam was flipped off the hood as Bumblebee transformed.
The
yellow Autobot went down on one knee, gazing intently at him. The blue
optics
were aglow.
“You saved us, Sam Witwicky. I’d rather lose the Allspark than know
it in Megatron’s hands. We all do. Prime was right when he said he owes
you, we owe you, and we can never repay that debt.”
Sam swallowed, then awkwardly dusted off his jeans.
“Yeah, well… we won and it still feels like losing.”
The smile wasn’t visible, but he could still read it in the so familiar
face. “We lost a lot that day, but we won more. I’m proud to be
your guardian, Sam Witwicky.”
Sam felt his throat constrict with emotions, then gave a weak smile.
What could
he say to acknowledge that he felt the same?
Sam still saw a lot of the Autobots. They were hiding out in plain
sight, like
Optimus had said, and their base was an old, abandoned Airforce testing
site
and off limits to the general public. There was a huge hangar that was
connected to underground chambers that could house the robots easily,
and they
had reconstructed it to their needs.
Sam had felt like living a dream.
That dream had gotten a serious dent when Mikaela had told him that she
felt
they didn’t fit together any more. Maybe it was Sam’s tendency to
spend a lot of his free time with the four Autobots, joining Captain
Will
Lennox and his team as one of the few allies allowed to enter the
hangar. Maybe
it was their differences.
Relationships formed under great duress and stress never lasted. Or so
Sam had
read.
Still, it had hurt. A lot.
Mikaela had been in senior year with him, but aside from friendly
smiles and
the occasional chat, they had gone their own ways. Her father had been
released
from prison and, as promised, their records had been erased. He had
opted to
move and Mikaela hadn’t argued at all. She was in LA now and her father
was looking for a job even up in
To compensate for the loss, Sam had poured even more time into learning
about
Bumblebee and his kind. By now he considered himself quite
knowledgeable about
their home world and their history. It was fun to be around them,
listen to
Ratchet explain to him about how they functioned, what the spark in
their chests
really was, and to have Ironhide lecture him about battle techniques
and
weapons. He was starting to pick up on how to repair damage, to assist
in more
serious stuff, and whatever else was connected to Cybertronian bodies.
Bumblebee
was a willing test subject, though he had once blown the transformation
circuits and Ratchet had given him a stern look.
Well, Bumblebee had taken it with good humor.
If all worked out, Sam would attend
When Sam came over for a visit after finals, he didn’t expect more than
a
few hours of hanging around and trying to explain to Ironhide he didn’t
want to have a go at target practice while the Autobot insisted he had
to know
how to handle a gun in case something happened. Like the Decepticons.
Barricade
was still MIA and while he had kept a very low profile, Optimus
suspected he
was only biding his time. Starscream had been equally absent, but
unlike
Barricade he wasn’t one for staying still. He had either fled Earth or
had been so severely damaged that he hadn’t been able to repair himself.
The news about the Allspark affecting an AI and a human being with an
implant
in his head had Sam’s mind reeling.
“How?” he blurted.
“The Allspark is powerful,” Optimus only said. “The one spurt
of power it released in
Sam blinked. “He’s like you then?”
“In a way,” Ratchet chimed in. “He is self-aware, he exhibits
traits that go beyond mere programmed responses to a situation, and
considering
his age, he is unique in many ways. He has been functioning for almost
twenty
years and developing far beyond his basic programs.”
Sam gaped. “Wow…”
“Apparently there is a second AI like him, a younger version, the model
2.0.” Ratchet looked extremely interested in those discoveries. “We
have accessed files containing data of the two and while some of it was
well
hidden, we broke the protection after a while.”
At that, Ironhide grinned, pleased with what had apparently been his
work.
“Now what?” Sam wanted to know. “Are they okay?”
“Karr has retained his personality and memories throughout the
alterations,” Ratchet told him. “For Mr. MacKenzie things have
turned out less pleasant. The neuro implant in his head absorbed the
Allspark’s energy and started to change. Unlike Karr, the implant
didn’t start to morph abruptly. I suspect it scanned his body, took in
all the information needed, took into account the connection to the AI,
and
then launched the reprogramming and transformation. Right now, Mr.
MacKenzie is
unconscious and that’s for the best. His body is stable and in fair
condition. We want to wait and see.”
“Oh. And Karr?”
“Unresponsive. We have him under guard in a separate area of the
hangar.”
“What will you do now?”
“Wait and see,” was the only answer.
* * *
Barricade’s return to consciousness was slow and like dragging himself
out of a swamp of molten lava. Everything ached, his systems were
sputtering
and backfiring, and visual as well as audio were almost inaccessible.
It took
him long to get self-repair up and running, and even longer to bring
secondary
systems fully on line.
The damage had been caused from the inside, not a fusion canon or other
kind of
weapons fire. Everything was sensitive and aching, and he groaned
softly as the
pain skittered across his circuits.
He was still buried under tons of brick. He was still close to where
the
Autobots had taken Karr and MacKenzie. And the interface link was
burning.
Whispers escaped the altered link, wrapping around his muddled mind,
and he
turned to them, listening. It was all he could do in his confused
state, the
only source of actual input.
After some time, Barricade started to carefully explore the link. It
was
something he had never touched. He had received, but never sent
anything, too
cautious to reveal himself. He didn’t even know if it was a two-way
connection. All it had ever done for him was alleviate the loneliness,
the ache
of losing a connection to another sentient mind, his partner. The
whispers
hadn’t replaced Frenzy, but they had calmed his frenetic mind as he had
looked for some semblance of what had been before. Barricade had never
told
Frenzy that the partnership was appreciated in a way that the
Decepticon
couldn’t express. As much as he had fought the little bot’s uplinks
in the beginning, it had become routine and his circuits had grown used
to the
‘intruder’.
It took him hours to actually feel along the flimsy threads and more
hours
passed as he wove them together into a stronger bond. He could feel
something
at the other end of this growing thread, but he didn't dare close in.
Soon, he was getting better. Barricade allowed himself a brief moment
of pride
when he managed to immediately access the link and move along the now
stronger
line. It was also the first time he actually brushed over the weakly
pulsing
light at the end of his lifeline. A spark of life, MacKenzie's spark.
Barricade identified the influence of the Allspark, saw the damage
done,
discovered the likeness of a Cybertronian nervous system inside the
human, and
he tried to contain his disgust at the limit the flesh gave this new
life. Whatever
the implant was doing it was struggling between two worlds – the
Allspark’s commands to become life and the human body that contained
it. It
was fighting to survive without killing its host, and it was lacking
the
correct input.
The Decepticon was torn. On one side he couldn’t care less that a human
was dying because of Cybertronian technology. On the other the death of
the
human meant loneliness again. This time he would be acutely aware of
the loss,
unlike with Frenzy. The little bot’s demise had been unlucky, but his
circuits hadn’t been open when it had happened. Whatever the Allspark
had
done, it had made Barricade receptive to the new hybrid system about to
develop. Its death would severely damage his own mind.
So he reached out and started to alter what was going wrong.
For his own survival and sanity.
* * *
Karr
hadn’t transformed ever since he had regained consciousness after
Optimus
Prime had knocked him out. He sat in his vehicle mode on the hangar
floor, refusing
to communicate. Optimus had decided to give him the space he so
obviously
craved, while Ironhide argued he was a Decepticon spy and just waiting
to kill
them.
Karr sat silently in a silent world. No noise penetrated from the real
world
into that of his CPU and no noise was audible in the CPU itself.
Normally there
would be a soft, pulsing throb, something warm and... alive. It would
sometimes
fluctuate, reach out, brush near him or even touch him. Not now. Now
there was
nothing but silence. Dark, cold silence.
Nick was gone.
Karr shivered and briefly turned to look at the place where the other
end of
the link usually was. It was like staring down a long tunnel where the
lights
had been knocked out and the emergency lighting was flickering,
dying.....
partly already dead. As he gazed down that tunnel, he became aware of
the wall
between them. Something had separated the link and it had nothing to do
with
Nick being dead. Nick was alive. He had seen him. He had been told so
by
Optimus Prime.
Running a smooth touch over the featureless wall, Karr shivered. The
obstacle
was cold as ice, freezing him as he brushed over it, and it hurt.
Somewhere
behind this was his driver, his partner, the person eternally bound to
him, and
he couldn't reach that special person. It severely disturbed him, the
madness
hanging over him like a Damocles Sword, but it wasn't reaching for him
yet.
Nick was alive. That meant there was something worth living for.
But Nick was not getting better. The implant was changing him, just
like the
Allspark had changed Karr, and it wasn’t a swift and almost painless
change either. It was tearing the human mind apart, and with it Karr.
The Stealth didn’t care about anyone; only about Nick. If he died
because
of the alien device, Karr didn’t know how he would react. Separation
had
happened before and each time he had fallen into a dark, cold abyss. He
had
reverted to the creature he had been before the connection, KARR. This
time,
with the ability to change shape, he suspected the loss of control
would result
in the Autobots having their hands full. He would die. Plain and simple.
Optimus Prime had defeated him because Karr had been uncoordinated,
caught in
Nick’s backwash, but if the human mind shut down completely, forever,
there would be no backwash, no flashbacks. It would be the insanity of
KARR.
It was preferable to surviving but insane, without Nick, and no hope of
ever
regaining what he had lost. Yes, death sounded good, preferable to
becoming
what had instilled terror in many in the far past.
Without Nick MacKenzie he would have ended up forever locked in the
confines of
his cold, hatred-filled mind, searching for new ways to destroy the one
who had
succeeded in becoming what he should have been. He had nearly been
completely
obliterated because of his rage and hatred, but he had found an escape,
thanks
to a single human being. It had been a miracle, one he cherished. That
he had
tried to wipe out the human mind at the other end of the link was a
horrible
part of his past, but it was forgotten, buried and dealt with. Nick was
his
driver, his partner alone, and he fiercely protected him.
Something trickled through the link, like a strange, distorted echo to
Nick’s presence. Karr regarded it with faint detachment, like he would
a
novelty scanner or headlight. He had noticed it before, sometimes far,
far in
the background of Nick’s mind, but it had done nothing to their
frequencies and nothing to the link. Right now, it seemed to pulse with
Nick’s own life and Karr found no menace in its presence.
For now Nick was alive. And so was Karr.
+++++
He swam in a gray sea of nothingness. There was no light, no shadow, no
pain,
no nothing.
Pain.
A faint memory of pain stole itself upon him and he looked down his
body --
only to stop in surprise. He had no body. But the memory of pain
remained.
Pain and the voice of a friend.
Puzzled he tried to drag more of the memories to the surface of this
strange
state of consciousness.
A shadow, passing through a dark tunnel.
Pain.
A shadow and the immediate sense of danger.
Pain. Incredible, unbelievable pain.
The pain sliced through his skull like a hot knife through butter. Nick
couldn't suppress the anguished cry it brought with it. He grabbed his
head in
his hands and squeezed his eyes tightly shut. The shields that had come
with
the resistance against Karr's repeated, past attacks were nothing
against it,
weakening and threatening to break under the onslaught.
Someone called his name.
Then he was lost in darkness for a while.
Light washed over him and he groaned. The pain shot through him,
consumed him,
burned itself unto his waking thoughts.
Someone begged him to hold on. Someone was out there, somewhere in the
grayness, still begging, still calling. The voice changed, became
darker and
more sinister, telling him to fight. With an effort he tried to move
from where
he was and get to the voice. He wanted to know the one who called him,
though
he faintly thought he knew him. But he couldn't move. Every time he
tried the
pain increased. It was like a living barrier between him and the voice.
Weak.
Tired.
Sleep.
The grayness around him was oppressive. He fought against the ever
tightening
walls of gray against gray, but it was a fight he was losing. He was
too weak,
too tired. The pain was omnipresent. He slipped back into nothingness,
his
awareness fading.
Someone shrieked, cursing, yanking at him to stay, but he couldn't hear
the
sound anymore. He just wanted to go, but something held him back. It
was
gentle, warm, covering him in a blanket, and he stayed.
+++++
Sam regarded the unfamiliar car with curiosity and slight wariness.
Bumblebee
was at his side, his ever-watchful guardian, and Sam knew that should
Karr try
anything, Bumblebee wouldn’t hesitate to defend him. It was humbling in
so many ways and it made him incredibly proud to be the Autobot’s
friend,
worthy of his protection. Optimus had told Bumblebee to guard Sam
before the
whole Allspark disaster and his job had ended there, but the friendship
forged
in those few days had turned into something wonderful for the young
man.
Karr made no move, though. He was a black, custom designed sports car,
sitting
in a corner of the hangar, guarded but inactive.
“This is just unbelievable,” Sam murmured. “Someone created
an artificial intelligence, much like you are, and no one ever knew. I
mean, I
wasn’t even born when he came on line, and my computer is just two
years
old, a relic by computer standards, and it can’t think for itself. And
he… wow…”
“His files are amazing,” Bumblebee agreed. “He is the first
of his kind, followed only by a slightly varied version.”
“And it was a guy from my own planet who thought him up.” Sam was
still thunderstruck. “So cool.”
“He was ahead of his time,” the yellow Autobot agreed.
“Karr’s mind might be primitive compared with our systems, but he
is far from primitive himself.”
“And now he can transform, too.”
“Yes.”
Sam wondered about the machine’s past, about his creation, about what
Optimus had mentioned concerning a driver and partner.
“I hope his driver survives.”
“We all do,” Bumblebee said softly. “Because what Ratchet
told me already, Karr will lose control if he does.”
Sam shivered. Bumblebee stepped closer, his leg now right next to the
smaller
human, and Sam absent-mindedly patted it. It was for his own
reassurance
mostly. Bumblebee’s presence had a calming effect on him.
“Let’s get out of here,” he muttered, suddenly more disturbed
by the car than even by Barricade -- and him he had seen transformed
and
looming over him, terrifying and deadly. Barricade had tried to kill
him, Karr
was just being there.
Freaky.
Bumblebee transformed and opened the driver side door. Sam hopped
inside,
trying to shake off the goose bumps. The Camaro’s engine came to life
with a soft rumbling purr, then they rolled out of the base and into
the
desert.
+++++
“He hasn’t so much as blipped,”
Ironhide hadn’t left the hangar ever since the hybrid had been brought
back
and had transformed to sit quietly in the corner.
“If he does, he’s toast,” the weapons specialist growled.
“As I understand it, it would be preferable if he showed some sign of
life.”
Blue optics narrowed at the human.
“I read the file, Ironhide. I know what this thing is, but he’s
also going through hell if you ask me.”
Ironhide huffed. “Connected to a human mind that’s dying.”
Will sighed. “He’s not dead yet.”
“Ratchet’s not happy about his unchanging condition either.”
“I hope MacKenzie survives,” the Captain murmured.
“It’s better than the alternative.”
Ironhide flexed one arm, the weapon mounted there whirring softly. “We
can deal with the fall out easily.”
+++++
Barricade’s status was deteriorating, far enough to be unaware of his
surroundings, his attention only on the weakly pulsing interface
connection. It
was almost painful to be so close to the human mind with its
Cybertronian
additions, but to Barricade the pain was like pleasure. He craved it
because it
gave him this sense of being among his kind. MacKenzie was no
Decepticon, but
the implant was a creation of the Allspark and it called, and Barricade
answered. The other entity bound to MacKenzie by the old version of the
implant, Karr, was unaware of Barricade’s presence, either using a
different frequency or unable to identify the intrusion. Not that
Barricade
cared.
Immersed so deeply in the newly-born hybrid’s cybernetics he didn’t
feel the Autobot’s sensors touch the buried Saleen Mustang that was his
Earth shape. He didn’t react to their scans, nor their presence. Like a
dead shell, he sat silently as they secured him, bound him down, guns
trained
for the slightest twitch.
Nothing registered.
Aside from the growing consciousness of the interface.
++++++
“Found him ten miles from here, in an old yard,” Ironhide reported,
disgust and loathing in his voice, dripping from each word like venom.
“Looks like he crashed into a wall and the whole building came down on
him. Doesn’t explain why he remained there, like a sitting duck.”
Optimus regarded the lifeless seeming Mustang with narrowed eyes.
“It also doesn’t explain his low readings, as well as the pulses I
pick up from his core,” Ratchet added. “If I have to compare it to
anything, I’d say Barricade cut off all outward sensors, built shields
around his innermost unit, and is using an interface link.”
“What for?” Prime wanted to know.
“I have no idea.”
There was no outside damage visible. Barricade was tough. Hard to
damage, even
harder to kill. He had been one of Megatron’s most trusted and valued
shock troopers, but he was also single-minded enough to be even a
danger to
Decepticons who got in his way. His loyalty was only with the strongest
faction, never to a cause. Barricade always came out on top, whatever
side he
worked for.
“He had this little pest with him,” Ironhide threw in.
“Frenzy was terminated,” Optimus reminded them. “He was sunk
with Megatron and the others. Nothing of him remains.”
And with Megatron’s death, Barricade had lost as well. Starscream would
rather terminate the other Decepticon than employ him.
“Nothing but an open interface link he used when joining with
Barricade.” Ratchet regarded the silent Decepticon curiously. “I
wonder what happened to him.”
The whine of a weapon charging had Optimus scowl at Ironhide, who
glowered,
then shrugged sheepishly. “Just making a suggestion as to what could
happen to him.”
“I want to know why he is like he is first,” Optimus decided.
“It might be a virus. If it is, we might be susceptible, too.”
“I’ll run an outside diagnostic,” Ratchet offered.
Prime only nodded, then left. Ironhide and Ratchet remained with the
captain’s team. Bumblebee shot the silent Decepticon a last look, then
followed his leader.
“It’s too much coincidence,” he said when they were out of
earshot.
Prime’s optics narrowed a little. “Barricade being here with Nick
and Karr?”
“Yes.”
“What would Barricade gain from them?”
“Allies.”
“He would never ally himself with a human. Decepticons despise the
inhabitants of this planet.”
“But Karr would seem like a good ally to him, Prime.”
“Karr doesn’t come without Nick.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know that.”
The Autobot leader was silent, thoughts whirring. “It doesn’t
explain his state.”
Bumblebee had no answer to that because frankly, it didn’t explain
Barricade’s state. He was vulnerable, had apparently been unaware of
the
enemy approaching, and if they had wanted to, the Autobots could have
destroyed
him.
So what was going on?
* * *
Nick woke
slowly, as if he had been deeply asleep. He felt slightly strange,
detached
from the world, floating in a vast ocean. His body flowed with the
gentle
waves, almost flying. He tried to recall how he had come to be here,
what had
happened, but there was nothing at all. It didn’t even alarm him that
much. It was a nice feeling to be so at ease, to feel so peaceful.
After a
while he felt someone with him. It was a presence, strong but gentle,
holding
him, guiding him. He felt his lungs expand as he drew a deep breath and
his
eyes opened.
Nick blinked, still not knowing where he was. He lay flat on his back,
looking
up at a gray, metal ceiling. Dimmed artificial light cast over him. The
presence was still there, still strong and gentle, but probing more now.
//Karr?//
He didn’t know where he knew the name from, but with the name memories
came.
//I am here// Karr’s deep voice sounded in his head.
Nick turned sleepily, almost lazily, toward his partner's presence and
was
surprised by the image he saw in his mind. It was as if Karr was
physically
present. He couldn't really grasp the image, but it was there. Nick
felt like
in a virtual reality where his partner had taken shape, where the robot
had
shed its shell and turned into something more... more... warm, real,
just
there. He experimentally reached out and his virtual fingers
encountered a
substance. Soft.... flexible... and then gone.
So weird. Not like their past encounters through the link. Not just an
inky
black mass of cool warmth. Not just a presence without a shape. This
had been
Karr. The new Karr. The altered version.
Someone talked to him, outside the link, and he tried to concentrate on
the
voice. It sounded a little familiar and he blinked, trying to focus.
A huge face loomed over him, but Nick couldn’t muster the energy to be
shocked.
Ratchet.
He knew this one. An Autobot. One of the aliens.
“Nick MacKenzie?” Ratchet tried again.
“Yes?”
“How do you feel?”
“Fine.”
And he did. Strange, but fine. So aware and yet so different. It was as
if his
whole body had been changed, as if he felt every impulse, every
sensation, much
sharper than before.
Ratchet was scanning him and Nick let him. He turned to Karr again.
//What happened to me?//
Karr rumbled uneasily. //The Allspark affected the neuro implant. It
changed
it, expanded it, gave it… life.//
Nick frowned. //Life?//
//It grew//
Now Nick felt the same unease. //Grew how?//
//It possessed your whole body// was the quiet, level answer.
Nick felt the shock settle in despite the former feeling of relaxation.
Something beeped somewhere and Ratchet straightened with what sounded
an
expletive in a foreign language.
“Mr. MacKenzie? Please calm down.”
Nick sat up, feeling slightly dizzy. “What happened to me?” he
demanded.
Those alien blue optics met intense cold blue, human eyes. “I’m
afraid that I’m not sure,” the medic answered. “You and your
partner were touched by the Allspark and while it affected Karr more
directly,
giving him transforming abilities – among other things – your
implant reacted differently.
“How differently?” Nick asked, voice colder now.
“Our metal skin is no ordinary metal, Mr. MacKenzie. It is a molecular
structure not unlike your own skin, able to grow and repair itself from
damage,
even large damage if given time. The Allspark endowed the implant with
this
ability. It’s no longer just metal encased by your flesh. It has grown
along your own nervous system, into your muscles and bones, without
triggering
your natural defense systems. It altered your body.”
Nick felt something cold and hard settle inside him at the words. Panic
and
fear warred with fury and desperation, and finally there was absolute
terror.
He had encountered a lot in his life, early on from his childhood to
now. He
had been raised to be an emotionless killer, he had been bonded to
another cold
mind by the name of KARR, and he had broken through all of it, coming
out more
human than anyone had ever intended. The government assassin had gone
freelance.
But this… this was so much more than his still very human mind could
handle.
“How long was I out?”
“Twenty-four of your hours.”
Nick blinked, taking stock, then stared at Ratchet – hard. “You
want to tell me all that happened in twenty-four hours?”
“Yes.”
Hell…
He felt Karr’s presence increase, surround him like a soothing blanket.
His partner was here. Karr was still there and linked.
//I’d never leave you// the dark voice whispered.
“How am I altered?” Nick heard himself ask.
“I’m not sure. I’m afraid you will find out along the
way.”
Nick’s hands clenched around the edge of the mattress. Yes, he felt
different. More alive. More aware. So much more… everything.
“Where’s Karr?”
“Your partner has parked himself outside in the hangar and hasn’t
moved since,” Ratchet informed him. “You are free to go and see
him, Mr. MacKenzie, after I ran a complete check. You’re not a
prisoner,
only a patient.”
Sometimes there was no difference between those, Nick thought darkly,
but he
slid off the bed. His knees felt like jelly, but he locked them,
refusing to
show weakness. Not that a giant robot equipped with all kinds of
medical
scanners couldn’t tell how bad off he was. Still, years of conditioning
didn’t leave him now.
“Take it easy,” Ratchet advised. “Your body has gone through
a lot.”
He had noticed that too. And it wasn’t new to him either. Nick closed
his
eyes and tried to ignore the headache, the weakness, the general
exhaustion.
//Don’t// Karr’s dark voice could be heard and he looked up.
A black prow had nosed into the med bay area and Ratchet gave it a
scowl.
“I told you to wait outside. Either transform or park your chassis
beyond
those doors.”
Karr didn’t look pleased as he morphed into bipedal mode, but Nick only
smiled. It was good to see his partner.
“Now, if you please…” Ratchet could be heard, an edge to his
normally more gentle voice.
//Let him check you// Karr added.
//Any ideas?//
//No. My medical scans are inferior to his. He is specialized// Karr
didn’t sound too thrilled about that.
//Specialized in not knowing what happened// Nick muttered darkly.
Ratchet gave him a curious look, probably well aware of their
communication,
though not the words. Then he started to run Nick through a complex
program of
scans and requests.
+++++
“Sounds like a cyborg,” Sam remarked when Bumblebee told him about
what Ratchet had found in their guest. “Half man, half machine.”
“Nick is not a machine,” his friend contradicted. “The
implant isn’t mechanical. It’s the electronics that grew, if I
understood Ratchet correctly.”
Sam shrugged. He and Bumblebee had driven to the old look-out, a place
he chose
to come sometimes to spend some time thinking. Mostly right after the
battle.
It was a nice spot, something remote but not too far away, and once in
a while
he had seen a car parked there, probably with a couple making out. That
was
when he had driven past. Today he was alone, but with Bumblebee, as
always.
“What’s it do?” Sam asked.
“No one knows.”
“And Karr?”
“Peaceful so far. He is adapting, like Nick.”
Sam stuffed his hands in his pockets, gazing out over the dusky
landscape
below. “I wonder what it’s like, to have something like Karr
talking to you in your head.”
Bumblebee tilted his head.
“I mean, it sounded horrible when he told you. And now it’s grown
and taken over parts of his body.”
He shivered, thinking back on the moment he had stumbled and crashed to
the
ground with the Allspark bouncing onto the pavement. Sam hadn’t given
it
too much thought, just started to run again, for his life, for
everyone’s
lives.
“Bee? Do you think the Allspark might influence normal people as
well?”
“Like you?” came the gentle tease. “Sam, there is nothing of
the Allspark’s radiation inside you. I checked before.”
“You did?”
“Yes. I’m your guardian. I care for you. You were already covered
in our radiation, a radiation quite harmless for humans, I might add.
You’re in no danger of morphing.”
“Oh. Okay.” Sam felt relief swamp through him. “Thanks, Bee.
For caring.”
“I always cared, Sam.”
It gave him a warm feeling and he smiled at the much larger Autobot.
Bumblebee
had no mouth, but his optics were brightening now and a soft song
trickled
through the radio.
Sam laughed.
A drop of water hit him in the face and he looked up, noting the dark
clouds
coming in. The forecast had been for rain and there it was, in thick
clouds
that promised torrential downpours.
“I think we better go,” he sighed.
Bumblebee transformed and he hopped inside. By the time they were back
on the
road it was raining and getting stronger. Sam leaned back and let the
sound of
fat rain drops hitting the car’s skin lull him into a sense of utter
security. The radio came on, soft music playing, and he smiled.
+++++
The headache Nick had woken up with didn’t really abate. It sometimes
grew less, but it was always there, like a bad tooth ache, pulsing. He
blamed
the injuries, but they didn't get better. For twenty-four hours, Nick
fought
against the ever-rising ache, then it had developed into a migraine and
he was
almost completely out for the following hours. Ratchet turned down the
light
that hurt his sensitive eyes and gave him a pain relief that managed to
kick
his thought processes back into order. Still, the headaches came and
went with
almost regular clarity.
Sometime throughout the afternoon the next day it grew better. Another
pain
killer was given and Nick felt muscles relax as he was pain free for
the first
time in days.
Sitting outside, watching the sun set in a murky sky that promised a
torrent of
rain soon, accompanied by heavy winds that were already blowing in a
milder
version over the still hot ground, Nick let his mind drift. He had
found that
relaxation exercises worked best, especially when he let himself fall
away from
everything.
//Am I hurting you?//
//No// Nick answered, smiling at the inky darkness close by. //It’s not
you. But it felt like you… in the beginning of it all//
Karr regarded the origin of the pain and sent confusion.
//I don’t know// Nick confessed. //Maybe the implant has to adjust to
my
awake mind. It’s better now//
Whatever was the trigger, it wasn’t coming in through the normal
channels
of the implant. Then again, the implant had transformed just like Karr
had.
Heavy footsteps let the earth vibrate beneath him and Nick drew himself
out of
his relaxed place, gazing up at the massive form of Optimus Prime. Nick
had a
healthy dose of respect for the giant mechanoid and it wasn’t just
because of their size difference. The few times they had talked, and
they were
truly few, he had looked into the ancient optics, had seen an even
older pain,
and he knew that this being had seen more than Nick could claim he ever
would.
It was like a dark aura around him, weighing him down. He was the
leader of a
desperate race, one at war with another faction of themselves, and he
had no
way back home – a home that was dying, maybe already dead.
“May I sit with you?” the Autobot leader asked.
Nick shrugged, pushing his glasses firmly back up his nose. “It’s a
free country.”
That got him a chuckle and Optimus lowered himself down. “I wanted to
apologize, Nick MacKenzie.”
“What for?”
“The Allspark changed you and your partner. It was never our intention
to
hurt any of the humans, to be the cause of their death, and in your
case,
become a hybrid of Cybertronian technology. Autobots respect sentient
life. We
would have done everything in our power to steer this war and all its
pain away
from your young world.”
Nick smiled wryly. “First of all, you guys saved the whole planet from
destruction, and my race from extinction. Yes, people died. In my
profession, I
accept the loss of human life, even my own, and that of close friends.
I was
Death for a while.”
Blue optics regarded him steadily. “I am aware of that.”
“Good hackers.”
“Your systems are easily broken when the right access is taken.”
Nick smirked. “Tell me about it.” He shrugged. “As for Karr
and me, this is just one more change in our lives. Ask any of my past
associates and they would swear every oath I’ve never been close to
human. Karr was a machine to begin with.”
“We destroyed our own world, Nick,” Optimus told him seriously.
“To see such destruction wrought here, people suffering because of our
foolishness, pains me.”
“Karr and I are still alive and kicking. Aside from the lingering
headache.”
There was a noise that was almost like an electronic sigh. “Your kind
is
very resilient and resourceful, Nick. Sam Witwicky saved my life,
risked is own
to keep the Allspark safe. He is a trusted friend. He is young, even
for your
kind, but he has shown an incredible greatness that I can’t comprehend.
You survive against great odds and you evolve.”
“It’s a knack.”
The blue optics glowed with a brief smile.
“This is not a burden you bear, Prime,” Nick added, meeting those
optics unflinchingly.
“I bear many.”
Yes, he did. Too many. And he always would. Death was a fact of life,
in both
their lives, and they had killed to survive as well. Alien lives were
so
similar to humans, Nick mused darkly.
“May I ask you another question?”
Nick shrugged.
“What do you know of Barricade?”
“Who or what is Barricade?” Nick wanted to know, sending the same
question to Karr.
//From the files we hacked, I take it he means the Decepticon who was
following
us//
//Ah hell//
Optimus slightly tilted his head. “We discovered a Decepticon nearby,
unresponsive, buried under debris from a recent building collapse. His
designation is Barricade. He is one of two Decepticons still believed
on your
planet.”
“And the other?”
“A drone called Scorponok.”
“And you captured this Barricade guy?”
“We found him.”
Nick rose, dusting off his pants. “Show me,” he only said.
Optimus’ features were unreadable, then he nodded, getting to his feet
and the impressive height of twenty-eight feet, and accompanied Nick
inside.
* * *
Nick gazed
at the silent black and white police car, a frown on his pale features.
Karr
was next to him, in his Stealth mode, and the Autobots and the team
around
Captain Lennox were ready to intervene should something happen. It was
the same
one he had seen over and over again in the past weeks and months. He
recognized
the unit number, the quite open but still deceptively hidden faction
symbols,
and in a way he recognized the unique look.
“He’s been following me,” Nick murmured.
“We suspected as much,” Prime rumbled. “The question is why.
Did you ever talk to him?”
“No.”
There was a dull pulse in the back of his mind, something he was
familiar with.
It had begun right after the Allspark incident and it had never faded.
Even now
it was like an echo of something. Nick had thought it to be the change
of the
implant. Now he wasn’t so sure.
//It has been with us since we left
Nick approached the Saleen Mustang, feeling another pulse. There was a
whispering sound, like a very distant voice, a language he didn’t
understand.
Gibberish.
Barricade, he thought. His designation was Barricade. A name translated
into
English from a Cybertronian one that he would probably never be able to
pronounce.
“Nick,” Optimus warned.
More whispers. He had no idea what he was hearing. It was foreign. Like
electronic interference.
“Your language,” Nick said, still looking at the Decepticon.
“It’s unlike anything we speak, right?”
“That is correct.”
“What does it sound like?”
Optimus tilted his head, then a burst of what could only be described
as noise
could be heard. Nick frowned. The echo inside him was almost the same.
“Do Decepticons and Autobots use different… accents?”
“No. Why are you asking, Nick?”
He was silent, approaching the cruiser again. “Karr and I share a link.
A
connection brought on by a chip in my head and his ability to pick up
impulses
from my mind from there. Wilton Knight probably never intended it to
work like
it did with the two of us, but we have developed our own way of
communication.
Not verbal, not just emotional, not just energy bursts. It’s all of
that
and more. We can touch each other through the link, we can slide across
it to
the other mind.”
Ratchet was listening with visible fascination. Ironhide just scowled.
“That the link has now become what Ratchet calls a Cybertronian nervous
system hasn’t changed that. But ever since
“Great Cybertron,” Ratchet whispered, sounding horrified.
“What’s going on?” Sam spoke up. “What’s
wrong?”
“He kept following us. I knew he was there even when I couldn’t see
him,” MacKenzie conitnued, voice so level, controlled and almost cool.
“And now I hear it again. It’s there, underneath everything that is
Karr and me, and it’s… pulsing and humming and… sometimes I
hear sounds like what Optimus just said.”
“Impossible! It can’t be!” Ratchet exclaimed.
“Ratchet?”
“Prime, he can’t be accessing the nervous system! It’s an
impossibility! For that to happen…” The medic fell silent, optics
bright. “Frenzy,” he then said.
“What about the little rat?” Ironhide demanded. “He was
terminated!”
“Yes. And Barricade, like Blackout, has the ability to sustain a
smaller
bot with his systems. He has an interface link and a special
compartment in
each mode. Frenzy was lost to him, but the interface stayed open and
active. He
must have been looking for him and found… another signal.”
“Nick? You think he lodged onto Nick?” Sam blurted.
“In a way, yes.”
“Holy shit,” Sam whispered, looking horrified.
Nick was by now standing next to the chained down Decepticon, head
tilted with
curiosity, gazing at the enemy warrior.
//Nick?//
//It’s like I can sense him, Karr. Not like you. It’s different//
A ripple of jealousy raced through him and Nick smiled, wrapping a part
of
himself around the dark representation of his partner in his mind.
//He took your Cybertronian frequencies as a substitute for what he has
lost//
Karr snarled, not amused. //I don’t like it//
//Neither do I// It was an intrusion and Nick didn’t want to think how
much further Barricade might be able to infiltrate into the system the
Allspark
had created.
“So why’s the bastard all catatonic?” Nick heard Ironhide
demand and he tuned back into the argument that had broken lose.
“He was caught in the backlash,” MacKenzie answered before anyone
else. “The implant blew my mind, almost drove Karr into insanity, and
it
probably hit him, too, if your theory is correct.”
Blue eyes met blue optics. Captain Lennox, who had kept silent, shifted
on his
feet, looking wary.
“So he stays like this then?” he wanted to know.
“My implant is fully back online,” Nick replied with a shrug that
was more casual than he really felt or let on. “He won’t be getting
any negative feedback from there – if he is listening in.”
//He is// Karr sent darkly.
“So he might reboot just the same,” the captain concluded.
“Yes.”
“Well, fuck.”
Ironhide looked mildly amused at the expletive, but he probably echoed
it.
“We should terminate his sorry existence.”
“What if his termination affects Nick?” Bumblebee threw in,
shooting the man in question a look.
Nick kept his eyes locked on the silent car. Karr was with him,
hovering
protectively as his partner explored the other presence so far, far
back in his
mind. He felt no immediate danger, but he recognized the sharp-edged
blades
that were Barricade’s mind. He would be able to strike out and hurt
whatever he touched, not unlike Karr had been so many years ago. But
Barricade
was alien, Nick reminded himself. He wasn’t based on human technology,
human conditioning, human thinking. His reactions might be completely
different
from what he expected them to be.
“It could very well have negative consequences,” Ratchet agreed.
“If Barricade logged the interface circuits onto the Cybertronian
nervous
system inside Nick, his termination would send shocks of his ceased
existence
into Nick. I don’t know what the hybrid system would make of it.”
“Unacceptable,” Prime decided.
Nick could only agree. He wasn’t inclined to get experimented on. Never
again. Wilton Knight had been the last person to ever do that.
“But Prime! He’s a Decepticon!” Ironhide exclaimed. “We
can’t let the scum bag sit here!”
“We do not harm humans,” Optimus said firmly.
Nick felt an echo inside him and for the first time he registered it as
neither
Karr nor a glitch from the implant. It also didn’t communicate in words
or acknowledge him, but it was strong and rather… settled. Barricade
was
here to stay.
And then he discovered the thin stretch of something silvery leading
from his
mind plane to… somewhere else. Coldness raced through him. Another
link,
another bond, finely woven, deceptively luminescent, and… alien.
Karr grabbed his spark and safely drew him away. Nick let him.
//Shit// he whispered.
His partner readily agreed, eyeing the intruder warily. The connection
was
flimsy at best, consisting of a few very thin lines, like life-lines,
attached
to a remote part of the implant. At least it had once been the implant.
Now it
was a hybrid system that no one understood completely just yet.
Then, before Nick could stop him, Karr lashed out at the alien presence.
A shrill wailing sound emitted from Barricade and everyone in the
hangar
flinched, ducked or trained a weapon on the Decepticon. Nick staggered,
hands
coming into contact with the slick metal finish of the black and white
car, and
the shrieking intensified as Karr lashed out once more. Wheels started
to spin
crazily, fighting against the restraints. The acrid smell of burning
rubber
permeated the air and smoke rose in plumes from the rear wheels.
Nick felt himself grabbed by a large hand and lifted away from the
police
cruiser as it desperately spun its wheels. The red and blue lights
began to flash,
the headlights adding an eerie white light to that, then the sirens
wailed.
Optimus Prime stepped back, Nick still in his gentle grasp, and
MacKenzie
looked at the huge robot in slight amazement.
“Are you all right?” Prime asked over the cacophony of sound and
lights.
“Yeah, I think so.”
Barricade was crying, shrieking, wailing, inhuman and frenzied, trying
to get
away. The engine revved painfully, higher and higher, and the whole
frame shook
with the pressure.
Karr shot forward, nearly colliding with Bumblebee, and hissed.
“Stop it!” the AI snarled. “He’s mine. Leave him!
He’s mine!”
“Karr!” Nick managed, gritting his teeth. “Set me
down!” he demanded of Prime.
Optimus did, though reluctantly. Nick noticed out of the corner of his
eyes
that
Then his attention was back on his partner.
The last blow of Karr against the intruder had severed one of the fine
lines of
Barricade to the implant and the yell of the Decepticon had the
Autobots
shiver. It was like a wounded animal, twisting and turning, trying to
get away
from a tormentor, trying to escape torture. Metal crackled and cracked
as
Barricade tried to transform but couldn’t, the security measures
keeping
him immobile.
“He has no right!” Karr hissed furiously. “He linked to you! He
intruded! He. Has. No. Right!”
Another blow and Barricade howled shrilly, his voice box almost
breaking from
the sound. Nick’s eyes flared with an unnatural light, just another
indication that underneath the human skin was more than me the eye,
then
suddenly Karr rocked like he had received a blow himself.
//Stop it! Stop tearing him apart!//
//You are mine!// Karr yelled.
//Yes, I’m yours and you are mine, and nothing he can do will ever
change
that, Karr. Severing the link by brute force might destroy us!//
Karr snarled and growled, still in car mode, rocking on his shocks.
Everyone was watching the display, mouths open in case of the human
side,
various expression on the Autobots’ faces. Barricade had quieted down,
but only as far as the cries were concerned. Soft whines echoed all
around
them, interspersed with fizzing and buzzing noises, as well as tremors
throughout the body shell.
“Karr tried to cut the thin line from my implant to the interface
unit,” Nick explained tiredly.
“His reaction was one of pain, Optimus,” Ratchet remarked.
“His interface unit is fully focused on the human. I know of bots who,
when linked to another unit, began to exhibit mimicry circuitry.
Mimicry
allowed the partner to merge with the main system of the dominant
Cybertronian
without intruding. Frenzy was a lower unit and he perished. I believe
Barricade’s mimicry circuits went haywire and drove him to find a
replacement. Since there are no other Decepticons, he couldn’t find
anyone suitable.”
“So when he found Nick and Karr, he latched onto them?”
“I believe so. Nick’s almost fatal system crash drew him here and
probably threw him into this catatonic state.”
Ironhide snorted. “The mighty hunter slagged by a mere human. Irony.”
Nick rubbed his head. “He’s not slagged. He’s probably
working through the shock of what my mind flooded him with. I don’t
think
he’ll stay like this forever.”
“Neither do I,” Prime concurred, arms folded over a massive chest.
“So we can’t kill him, we can’t keep him, what do we
do?” Ironhide asked darkly.
Barricade was hypersensitive to everything around him. His mind was in
pain,
pulsing in agony, with spikes of fire racing along his nervous system.
Something
had attacked him through the finely woven link running from the
interface unit
to the human mind, and he was still shivering with the echoes. Nothing,
nothing
at all in his past had ever been like this. No battle injury, no
torture, had
ever been this bad, had ever invaded so deep. He doubted that even the
removal
of his spark would ever be that agonizing.
Part of him was aware that he was chained down, surrounded by the
enemy, but a
much larger part was too busy trying to survive the pain. Survival was
always
primary. His own survival, of course.
The human’s presence was still there, but one of the tendrils had been
hacked apart by the hybrid AI, Karr. Barricade snarled at the very
thought of
this attack, but he was too weak to retaliate. It also meant moving
along the
connection, into the hybrid nervous system, confronting the human on
his own
ground. As much as Barricade needed the reassuring pulses of something
at the
other end of the abandoned and aching interface unit, he wasn’t stupid
enough to believe he could win anything.
Not on alien territory. And humans were as alien as they came. Their
thought
processes were chaotic, their behavior erratic, their actions
unpredictable at
time.
It was pathetic. He hated humans with a passion, but he needed this one
because
he had grown too attached to Frenzy.
He cursed.
Decepticons didn’t rely on anyone. Especially the higher level units.
Frenzy
had depended on him, not the other way around. In such partnerships
there was
always an inferior unit. There couldn’t be an equal partnership.
By becoming partner to the smaller ‘bot, Barricade’s circuits had
adapted and now they needed input from the interface. Shutting them
down had
only resulted in him feeling partially deaf and blind. The partnership
with the
little hacker had weakened him through Frenzy’s demise. He had never
thought about it before because Frenzy had given him an advantage or
two. He
had never believed that carrying a drone like Scorponok, whose
intelligence
level was just above the average home computer in Barricade’s eyes, was
actually an advantage over having Frenzy. Blackout had never complained
about
his ‘passenger’.
Now the human was Frenzy’s replacement and it couldn’t have been
worse. Barricade was connected to an alien mind, a human mind! And he
had no
idea how to get out of the situation without harming himself – which
was
not an option. But the decline of his functions also wasn’t one either.
There
was no best possible way out of this, just a kind of manageable
compromise.
Barricade had never been big on compromises. He either killed,
destroyed or
disabled what got in his way. None of that was possible with the human.
He
needed MacKenzie and he hated him. He relied on him for his sanity and
he
despised his mortality and weakness.
Barricade knew he was totally screwed, one way or the other. His neural
network
had already incorporated the new alien input. He knew he would have to
protect
this human, come whatever, because MacKenzie was now part of him. Like
he was
part of Karr.
So utterly screwed, Barricade mused, still shivering. To survive he had
to go
against everything he had ever believed in. He couldn’t independently
continue to exist.
There was no other way out of this situation.
* * *
Nick sat on
Karr’s hood, legs crossed, blue eyes on the Saleen Mustang. A police
cruiser. It was almost laughable. The Decepticon had chosen a vehicle
human
beings trusted in for aid and assistance, but Barricade was far from
helpful.
Nick understood that this disguise gave the mechanoid unlimited access
to all
kinds of areas, that with flashing lights and a siren he could use any
road he
liked, at any speed. Whether he had chosen it consciously or just taken
the
next best form he had deigned useful, Nick had no idea.
According to the Autobots, especially Ironhide, Barricade was good at
subterfuge, hiding, manipulation and terrorizing his victims, so it
looked like
the police disguise had been a conscious choice. How long he had been
on Earth
was anybody’s guess, but probably more than a year before the Autobots
had arrived.
What hadn’t been conscious was his attachment to a human mind.
Barricade had fallen quiet again in the last hours, his energon pulses
so low,
Ratchet feared he was slipping again. Ironhide didn’t mind at all, but
the medic was worried. As much as this was the enemy, he wouldn’t kill
him in cold blood.
//Keep an eye on me, will ya?” Nick requested as he breathed slowly,
going through relaxation exercises.
//Always//
Karr was like a fiercely protective guardian, looming over him, his
presence
sharp and ready to strike should Barricade try something. The severed
tendril
had yet to be reattached and Barricade was fairly quiet in his deep
background
presence.
Nick slowly fell into his mind, something he had done so often, it came
naturally. He slid along the new Cybertronian network, which was still
so very
new to him, and confronted the new addition to his mind. His security
blanket
was Karr and he hoped that if Barricade decided to attack him, Karr
would be a
match.
His partner sent a wave of confidence and reassurance. Then Nick slid
into the
deeper recesses and toward the only point of contact between him and
Barricade.
Barricade’s mind screamed at him, telling him how much he hated
fleshlings, how filthy and despicable they were. How his kind was far
superior.
And another hovered over the connection, projected the need to be with
someone
again, to feel an echo in the emptiness of his mind. He needed this, he
craved
it, and he was hopelessly addicted. He knew he would kill to keep this
one
safe, both of them. He knew he would hunt whoever hurt them. He would
die to
protect this human.
Revulsion mixed with desire and he cried in confusion and need.
Contradicting
impulses raced through him. Old programming collided with knew input
and set
off chain reactions.
Hate. Hate humans. Despise humans. Weak little insects. No comparison.
Primitive… Destroy them!
No, no, no! Part of me. Need. Want. Need! Not alone. Never alone.
Hate, hate, hate!
Barricade whimpered and his mind surrendered to the need, awash with
shame and
embarrassment, memories of his glorious past wiped away. The great
hunter, the
killer, the feared warrior, now submitting to the need for a human mind.
::What do you want?:: the human asked.
Barricade’s systems almost stopped with nausea at the close presence of
this alien mind. He hadn’t even noticed his approach. The Decepticon
stared at the cold blue light, revolted. He still needed the one who
now
regarded him with just as much disdain and wariness.
_Need. Need you. Need the noise_ he projected before he could stop and
think.
Bafflement greeted him.
Death. Ripped apart. Circuits empty. Frenzy. Gone. Need.
::I’m your partner’s replacement?::
_Yes_
::I am what you hate::
_Yes_
Barricade groaned at his ready answer, but he couldn’t hide himself. He
took pride in his past, in what he was, what he could do. He was aware
of the
dark shadow behind the human’s presence, sharp and angry and ready to
strike. He had taken what belonged to another, what was joined
intimately. It
was the Decepticon way. Take what he needed, no matter the consequences
to
others, always come out on top, always survive. Trust no one, not even
a lower
unit dependent on you. Everyone was ready to usurp your place if you
showed
weakness. Sacrifice what was necessary, but never himself.
Still, he would never have this, but he wanted at least a little.
::You want to control the weaker, dominate others:: Nick said
matter-of-factly.
::You destroy what you cannot control. You kill those who oppose you::
Barricade was torn. _Need_, he projected.
The begging made him shiver in disgust. Decepticons didn’t beg. But he
did.
::You cannot stay in a powered own, catatonic state. You also cannot
return to
what you were::
_I’m no Autobot!_ Barricade snarled.
Autobots ranked alongside humans in matters of despicableness and lower
life
forms. Compassionate and good and so magnanimous and… Barricade spat.
Once they had been one race, but the factions were too different now.
The war
had torn a whole world apart, left it dead and derelict, but they would
forever
fight. The symbols on their bodies drove them apart, never to cooperate
unless
it was for the Decepticon cause.
::Neither am I. And I cannot release you:: the human told him levelly.
Barricade twitched a little, indecisive. He could forever remain
chained down,
fully online, feel the human and maybe never see him again until he
went mad.
Or… what? The Autobots would never trust him. They would rather shoot
him
and be done with him. Barricade also wouldn’t give up his weapons
voluntarily or without a fight. It would be like suicide.
Nick pulled back and Barricade keened softly, trying not to follow. He
wasn’t dependent! He was no one’s pet or slave!
Need for survival, in whatever form, coursed through him. Do whatever
it takes
to survive, something whispered. Even beg. Even… even enslave himself
to
the human mind… He howled in anger at himself, at his treacherous mind,
at Frenzy for his manipulation of the interface circuits. And at those
who had
constructed him this way.
MacKenzie stopped. He gazed at Barricade, no emotions coming through,
then slid
smoothly back into his own mind, fiercely protected by Karr.
Barricade curled up close to the interface link, lost in his own
darkness.
+++++
“We can’t release him, Nick,” Optimus said firmly. “He
will kill again. He can’t change who he is.”
“Like a pit-bull on a leash,”
Nick sighed and pinched his nose. “I know, I know. I can feel
what’s connected to me and it’s no fun. Karr was better in his
early years than that guy is now. But there’s also the fact that these
mimicry circuits Ratchet mentioned are overtaxed already. He’s pushing
everything he is into the interface unit, trying to find what he has
lost. What
he encounters is me. He’s desperate and he’s confused.”
“He’s a Decepticon. He would do everything to survive, say whatever
is necessary. If he promises you anything…”
“You can’t lie on that level. I went through the same twenty years
ago. Karr tried to kill me back then. I know what it’s like and I know
Barricade can’t lie.”
“He is not human-built machine.”
“I’m aware of that.”
“You would trust a Decepticon?”
“I would trust what is essentially the very soul of a Cybertronian with
the designation Barricade. I don’t care about his affiliation.”
“You are foolish,” Bumblebee joined in. “He has killed many
of our kind in cold blood, for the symbol they bear! In your terms it
would have
been civilians, like slaughtering your women and children! And he has
injured
your own.”
“I know. My kind’s history is full of such events, too. We had wars
where the innocent suffered even more than the warriors, but a warrior
is
nothing but a drone dominated by a master. A warrior follows orders.
Barricade
wasn’t born a Decepticon. Like you weren’t born an Autobot.”
Ice blue eyes met cool blue optics. “Like I said, he can’t hide
anything.”
“We can’t release him, Nick.”
MacKenzie sighed, feeling headachy. Alongside Karr he now had an alien
life
form bonded to him, the enemy of the very ones who had saved this
planet, and
Barricade was desperate for his presence.
Well, shit.
He might be called cold and unemotional, but watching Barricade die
like this
didn’t sit well with him. For Nick, this tasted too much like his own
history with Karr. Barricade was reaching out for help and Nick was the
one who
could provide it.
The problem was, if Barricade ever healed and recovered, he would still
be the
enemy.
//The war is millennia old and on-going// Karr told him with a rumble.
//Changing the Foundation’s image of me would have been easier than
getting the Autobots to accept him//
Not that Karr wanted this acceptance. He was annoyed, sometimes
possessive,
sometimes jealous, and very much inclined to let Barricade rot in hell.
//I’m no Samaritan, Karr// Nick only said, //but I refuse to stand back
and let him perish//
//Might be better for him, and us, in the long run//
//When have I ever gone the way of the least resistance?//
That got him a dark laugh. //You really have a knack for the hopeless
cases//
Nick smiled. //I do, don’t I?//
+
It became something of a routine. Nick would rise early, get himself a
coffee,
walk into the restricted area where Barricade was imprisoned, and spend
the
morning perched on Karr’s hood. He had never needed a lot of sleep, but
it was growing less and less now. It was more like a recharge cycle,
Karr had
remarked. Maybe that was it. His whole body felt strange. More alive,
stronger,
but also like it wasn’t his any more.
In a way it wasn’t. The implant had spread throughout his skeleton and
muscle tissue, had snaked microscopically thin, wire-like tendrils
everywhere,
connecting to nerves and tendons and inner organs. Ratchet was giving
him daily
scans, remarking on the progress, and Nick wondered if it would ever
stop.
It did stop, but not before half his body was no longer his own. What
that
meant for his life expectancy or future was something no one had an
answer to.
Barricade was hesitant to talk out loud throughout those meetings, his
answers
usually only audible for Nick and Karr through the connection they
shared.
Karr was fiercely protective of Nick, showing his distrust and dislike
of the
alien robot openly. Nick didn’t stop him or scold him. He knew how
deadly
Barricade was, but the connection wasn’t even strong enough to let
Barricade actively touch Nick’s mind. It was more of a one-sided
dependency, that of Barricade needing Nick’s mental echo to remain
sane.
And so much of Barricade resonated inside Nick. Despite their
differences in
origin and life, they weren’t so much apart. Maybe this similarity had
helped along with the connection.
Over two decades ago Nick had started a life. Alone. Always alone.
There was no
one but him, no one else to take care of. Never leave a trace of your
existence, he had been taught. He hadn’t existed, there had been no
traceable presence. He had had a name, but still, he hadn’t lived. If
he
had died back then, no one would ever have known about him. He had been
a
ghost, a shadow.
Then Wilton Knight had stepped into his life, offering a way out of
this cold
world where he had to fend for himself, never knowing if the next day
would be
his last. He had grasped the straw offered to him. Still, he had been
alone. He
had been the only one selected, no one came too close to him, no one
trusted
him but the old man. What he had seen, it still eluded him today. He
had been a
human machine, programmed to kill, programmed to obey orders; he hadn’t
known what humanity meant. But in the six months he had spent at the
mansion,
he had learned more than in the ten years of ruthless service and
training. He
had been the best Nash had ever trained, but he had failed the simple
test of being
human. Knight had not taught, but he had still learned.
Then he had been introduced to another machine. His new partner. The
experiment
had failed; he had left. Alone again, but for the first time, not
completely.
Not long after that he had been forced to make compromises, to let
someone else
in, a being that was so much like him it had frightened him at the
time. They
had made arrangements for a co-existence at first, but the process of
acclimatization had started. First there had been grudging respect,
then worry
when the other was in danger, and finally something akin to a
partnership.
Still, he wouldn’t have left any traces if he had left the world
forever.
He didn’t exist.
Nick drew his hand over the smooth finish of the Stealth. A ripple
passed
through his mind and he smiled. An intimacy that had taken him beyond
the
realms of human thinking. It hadn’t always been this way, but now it
was.
The past was buried, though it would always be remembered, and the
future was
wide open for them. He kept up the gentle massage of Karr’s hood,
feeling
the presence in his mind grow, like rising out of a dark ocean. He
embraced it,
smiled as it returned the gesture, and no words were exchanged. Just
images,
feelings, emotional waves.
This was him. Made up out of many parts that had finally fused
together,
forming something new. Something that should always have been. It had
been a
long time in the making. It was like a twisted kind of destiny. They
had been
made for each other, without either knowing the other existed. Both had
been
programmed, both had been alone, and now they formed a unit. And so
much more.
Beyond words, beyond everything.
Now Barricade had intruded into this world. He was an invader,
demanding help,
pleading but still threatening subtly, and Karr was on the defensive.
Nick
didn’t know what to make of the Decepticon, like he didn’t know
what to make of his own changes. Optimus let him continue his daily
routine,
but not without a healthy dose of warning and worry.
Nick understood it all. Barricade was not human. He could never apply
human
terminology to him. Karr had been at least thought up by a human mind.
Closing his eyes, Nick trusted in Karr’s presence to keep him safe as
he
turned to Barricade once more, like every morning.
The reception couldn’t be called enthusiastic, more like a prisoner
glad
to have contact with the outside world. Nick caught on to the image of
the
Decepticon’s former partner.
::I’m not Frenzy:: he told him.
_I know_
::Then why me?::
_It happened_
Nick sighed. Always the same answer. Never more, never less. Barricade
clung to
him like a leech, but without actually taking anything from him.
On top of these new developments and changes they had yet to contact
Michael or
Kitt and tell them what happened. Karr was reluctant to even give Kitt
a vague
idea where they were, aside from that they were okay, and Nick didn’t
look forward to contact either.
Ratchet had locked down Barricade’s transformation circuits and the
Decepticon hadn’t so much as twitched. His only fear at the moment was
the loss of contact to Nick.
::You would kill my kind without hesitation::
Barricade remained silent. Nick had seen his past, like he knew Karr’s.
To touch the alien mind was strange and sometimes terrifying, but
Barricade was
weirdly docile.
::You would have killed me months ago. Without remorse::
_Your kind is weak_
::Yet you persist in this connection::
They were turning in circles and Nick knew it. Getting to know
Barricade was an
impossibility, and aside from what the Autobots had supplied him with,
he knew
no more.
_I need you to survive_
::You survived just fine after Frenzy was terminated::
_There is a difference between existing and living_
He laughed coldly. ::Like there is a difference between domination and
a
partnership::
Barricade was silent, contemplative. _You propose a partnership?_
::Would you accept it?::
This time there was no answer and after a while, Nick just slid a block
into
place. No answer was an answer, too.
* * *
Will
Will had never asked about Ironhide’s past, though he had an inkling as
to what the Autobot had lived through. The amount of time was another
thing
altogether. As a human, the grasp of Ironhide’s, or therefore any of
the
Autobot’s age, was limited. Thousands of years were incredible already,
but more? It boggled the mind and led only to short circuits,
“I’m surprised you came here,” he finally broke the silence.
The massive robot turned his head, blue optics looking at him.
“Why?”
“Barricade.”
Ironhide snorted. “Ratchet locked his weapon and transformation
circuits.
The security measures are enough to hold even Megatron. He’s not going
anywhere.”
“I don’t like his influence on MacKenzie, though.”
“I had the impression it was the other way ‘round.”
“Barricade’s a Decepticon. He’ll try and get Nick to conform
to his ways,” Ironhide rumbled.
“Nick has Karr. I haven’t seen much of the guy, but he’s
protective.”
“He’s no Cybertronian. He has no chance to fight Barricade when the
scum bag recovers.”
Will was silent, watching clouds drift by. “I wouldn’t be so
sure,” he finally said.
Ironhide huffed, flexing his fingers. “I’d rather dispose of him
than keep him around.”
“I’m not feeling too hot about a Decepticon in our base either, but
killing him might kill Nick. We all saw what Nick’s absence does to
Karr.”
Another huff.
“Weren’t you going to see your wife?” the weapons specialist
finally asked.
“Yes.”
“But you’re here.”
“Yes.”
Blue optics narrowed.
“Sarah and I have had some… problems lately. She has taken
Annabelle and gone to her parents for a while.”
Ironhide seemed to contemplate that. “Are females of your species
always
this problematic?”
Will laughed, sitting up. “I don’t know. Sarah understood my job.
She married an Army Ranger. I think she hoped that a baby would change
something. It did. I love her, I love my baby, but I can’t just quit. I
have a new assignment. It’s on my home ground, but it still keeps her
away. Normally soldiers move from base to base with their families, but
she
can’t move here. She’s not happy,” he concluded.
Ironhide regarded him solemnly. “Warriors are not meant to be tied
down.”
“Speaking from experience?”
“We do not have mates like you do.”
“Did you have a female?”
“I had a companion,” was the answer, Ironhide’s voice
softening. “She died in the war.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Our existence is different than yours, Will. Our bonds are different.
We
do not mate to reproduce, but we share feelings.”
“You bond,”
“Yes.”
“For humans, the bond of marriage is filled with obligations and
responsibilities. We vow to love and honor each other, till death do us
part. I
love Sarah, I honor her, but she cannot accept what comes with my life.
We had
long talks about it before Annabelle was born, but I cannot change who
and what
I am.”
“A fellow warrior would understand.”
He looked into the bright blue optics, saw exactly this understanding
there.
Ironhide was an alien robot with an alien mind and alien concepts, but
now and
then there was a common ground, the understanding as it was now. While
he
couldn’t follow the way of human bonding and mating, he had downloaded
enough information on the subject to not outright tell
“Do you give up on her, Captain?” he now challenged.
“No. I can’t. Not just like this. I love her, Ironhide. I just
don’t know how to make it work.”
Will flopped back with a sigh. His country, his duty, his obligation,
his oath
as a Ranger… and his wife, his baby and his oath as a husband. He knew
many of his friends had gone through a lot of bad times. Some had
managed to
find a middle ground. Some had divorced. He had no idea where he would
end up,
but he would give his damned best for his wife and child.
+++++
With nothing much to do throughout the day but to try and hack the Net
and see
what interesting things were going on in the world, Nick had taken to
exploring
the Autobot base. Not that the Net held no interest for him. The
Autobots had
highly sophisticated machinery and access to areas that had taken Nick
days to
crack in the past. But there was only so much of ‘normalcy’ that
could him occupied.
Sometimes he experimented with the implant, tested it like he had
tested the
original way back when… but that only got him so far. Talking to
Barricade was mostly like talking to a brick wall, so explorations it
was.
Ratchet was reluctant to have him leave the base in case there was
another
malfunction and for the first time Nick actually did what the doctor
ordered.
This was far more than a broken bone or a shot wound.
Throughout his explorations Karr was, as usual, sitting parked in the
hangar,
much to the continuing bafflement of the Autobots. The times his
partner was
using his bipedal form were few and far between, though weapons
training and
maneuvers with Ironhide took up a large chunk of that.
“I’m not like them,” Karr argued again and again.
No, he wasn’t, but he now had a new ‘mode’ and he had to learn
how to handle himself.
Nick walked into the depth of the cavernous base, curious as to what
the
military had left their new allies. The hangar was just the surface
structure
of a very imposing complex that had been used for tests in the last
fifty years.
It was in the middle of the desert, miles from any of the smaller towns
and
about one hundred fifty miles from
The Autobots used the hangar as their general area and it was also were
the
military team under Captain Lennox’s command usually had their bunks.
There was a room on the first underground level for that purpose as
well,
mainly because it was too small for the Autobots to use. There were
storage
facilities, holding fuel and generators, food, water, and whatever else
a
military unit needed, even ammunition and special weaponry. The rest of
the
first level was used by the Autobots.
It was because of his explorations that Nick ended up in a room, hewn
out of
the rock, filled with all kinds of machines. Some looked human-built,
but
others had the distinct looks of Cybertronian. Nick had asked Ratchet
about how
they had gotten here and the medic had told him about the
What they had brought along was now in here, in this room, and Nick
browsed
around. At the far end was what looked like… a dead robot shell. He
stopped and looked, part of him wincing in sympathy at the obvious
battle
wounds. Someone, probably Ratchet, had repaired the largest tears. But
the
robot seemed dead.
//He is// Karr whispered. //His name was Jazz//
Nick nodded to himself. Something skittered over his senses, using the
new
implant, and he turned to look at the new-arrival. Bumblebee’s blue
optics glowed faintly in the twilight, his body, despite the yellow
coloring,
almost invisible. Somehow he had sensed him.
“You’re keeping your dead here?” Nick asked.
“The Decepticons were sunk, buried under your oceans. Jazz didn’t
deserve that fate.”
No, he didn’t.
“He lost his life defending your kind against Megatron. Just one of
many.”
“Ratchet put him back together?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
It was like a doctor sewing shut wounds on a dead person. There was no
sense.
“His spark was destroyed when Megatron tore him apart,” Bumblebee
said, voice soft. “Our sparks come from the Allspark and they return to
the Allspark after death.”
“The Allspark was destroyed.”
Again Nick felt something skitter over his senses, like a bad reception
on an
old radio station before it logged into a clear signal. He frowned and
looked
at a storage cabinet.
“Optimus managed to retrieve a shard of the Allspark,” the Autobot
told him. “I don’t know what Ratchet hopes to gain from it.
It’s a tiny, tiny fragment of the whole. There is no power there.”
Nick walked over to the cabinet and looked at something deep inside. It
was
jagged, slightly triangular, and there was something carved into the
fragment.
Like glyphs. It was suspended in some kind of force field, floating,
looking
like junk.
“So that’s the source of it all,” he murmured.
Bumblebee joined him, looming over the smaller human. “Yes. The
Allspark.
At least what’s left of it. It’s what gave us life.”
“Where did it come from?”
“No one knows,” the mechanoid confessed. “Our best scientists
have puzzled over it for as long as we have known about it. The
Allspark
regulated the vast currents beneath our planet. It created us, but it’s
power is so immense, in the wrong hand it could create chaos.”
Nick studied the shard. It seemed to ‘ping’ on his radar. The shard
was probably reacting to the changed implant inside him.
“With its loss, our world lost its power as well,” Bumblebee
continued, voice heavy. “Megatron was Lord High Protector of our
planet.
He abused his power and gathered a large following. They became the
Decepticons. The war brought our planet to its knees, plunging it into
a chaos
far greater than anything before.”
“What happens to the dead sparks now?”
“We don’t know. Our history shows nothing like this ever happened
before. The Allspark was never destroyed. We didn’t think it could be
destroyed.”
“You hope you can restore your friend Jazz?” Nick wanted to know.
The blue optics dimmed a soft noise emerged form the Autobot. It was a
pained
sigh.
“Ratchet and Optimus do. They believe with the absence of a vessel to
contain the spark of life there might be a way to retrieve it.”
“If it hasn’t disappeared.”
Another pained noise. “Yes.”
Nick’s eyes were on the dead body shell. Karr sent a shiver through him
and from the sudden presence, Nick became aware of Karr approaching. In
his
robot mode. Amber eyes glowed, the dark body almost hidden in the
twilight.
Jazz’s fate was too much of a reminder of his own so many years ago.
First deactivation, then near-death because of the final confrontation
between
him and Kitt.
“How do you want to fix something that is dead?” he asked roughly.
Bumblebee looked sadly at him. “There is no way, but Ratchet has
hope.”
“A false hope.”
The small antennae on top of the Autobot’s head rose briefly, then fell
again. “Maybe.”
“If you can find his spark, your enemies might find their leader’s,
too.”
“Megatron’s spark was obliterated.”
“Can you be sure?”
Bumblebee gave him a hard to interpret look. “No,” he finally said
softly with another twitch of the antennae.
Nick pushed his hands into his pockets, gazing up at the fragment. He
felt his
implant twitch, as if trying to log onto something, and deep inside,
Barricade
moved further back. As if he didn’t like what the hybrid systems were
doing.
This could be him, Nick thought. That’s why. He survived the last
battle
and right now he’s at the mercy of the Autobots. He might die. He might
become a dead body shell and his spark torn apart by his enemies.
They walked back outside, Bumblebee as silent as Karr as they
accompanied the
human in their midst. It had grown dark while Nick had explored and he
felt
Karr’s wish to go for a drive, to expend some energy.
“See you,” he told Bumblebee when Karr transformed and opened his
door in an invitation he was sure Nick would take.
They tore through the desert, Karr sending exhilaration through the
link at the
speed and the freedom he felt when racing. Nick let him drive, enjoying
his
partner’s happiness, chasing away the sight of the dead husk. Karr
wasn’t like the Cybertronians. The Allspark had given him
transformation,
but not life. He had been alive before.
And deep inside him, Barricade shared the free spirits, letting himself
get
pulled along.
* * *
Nick didn’t look much different on the outside than before his fateful
encounter with the Allspark’s radiation in
His body and mind had healed, according to Ratchet, and the implant had
shown
no sign of expanding any further. What it could now do, it was a
mystery. His
body wasn’t rejecting the changes. It seemed like whatever the Allspark
had altered, it had made the implant like a natural part of his body.
Ratchet
had no other explanation for it.
Nick leaned against the warm Stealth, eyes hidden behind glasses. He
was gazing
at nothing in particular, probably because there was also nothing
really to see
out here.
He had a decision to make.
Leave or stay.
Leave and continue his life like he had done before. Leave and forget
this ever
really happened. Leave Barricade behind.
Or stay. Karr and him were now hybrids, part of the Cybertronians,
whatever the
faction was. They could learn a lot more. He might discover more about
himself.
And there was Barricade.
As much as the Decepticon was an intruder into the neuro link, he as
also
dependent. He didn’t want to hear it, but Nick knew that without him
around, Barricade would either fall catatonic again or try and find a
way out
of his imprisonment, going after Nick and Karr.
Karr had remained in the back of his partner’s mind, letting Nick
think.
He wasn’t spying on him. It was an unspoken rule.
Feeling the fluctuating emotions he moved forward.
//Nick…//
The presence of his driver shifted. He was still the cool, blue light
when Karr
looked at him through the neuro link, and still so much was different.
There
was more power there, more strength. There were the old pain, the old
scars,
the familiar control and resolution. There was the love between them,
the
trust, the absolute knowledge of the other. And still, the implant was
no
longer of Earth origin. It was now partly Cybertronian and it tasted
wrong in
Nick.
Karr touched the blue light with a tendril of his essence, initiating
the
contact. It rarely happened, but sometimes, like now, it was needed.
Nick
leaned into the touch, closing his eyes, muscles relaxing minutely.
//Is Kitt aware of the situation yet?//
//No. He has been trying to contact me, but I haven’t answered him. He
and Michael Knight know nothing of what happened either here, nor to
us//
But one day the would. Because Kitt and Karr shared a bond and Kitt
would
always hunt for his older brother should Karr shut down the active
connection.
And Nick was sure Michael would do the same when it came to Karr’s
driver, himself. Years of working side by side, years of building a
trust that
Nick had never given anyone else before in his life, had left their
marks.
“How do you handle it?” Nick asked out loud.
“Being able to change my shape hasn’t changed me,” Karr
rumbled. “I still prefer this form, though.”
Nick smiled humorlessly. “At least you had a choice.”
A sliver of pain sparked through their connection and Karr wrapped this
extension of his own mind more firmly around Nick.
//You are not different, Nick//
//I am. I just don’t know what it will do to me in the future. When I
look at things, it’s like there is something lurking at the edge,
waiting
for me to find the right trigger or button//
Karr’s presence swam around his driver, probing gently. Nick smiled
slightly.
“What doesn’t kill us…” he murmured softly.
“Lots has. No one ever succeeded,” came the cool reply.
Karr suddenly shifted his whole shape, transforming, and went down on
one knee.
Nick met the alien optics, set in a strange face, and when the much
larger hand
touched him, he felt no different than always with Karr. It was a warm
contact,
gentle and caring, and he smiled at the quizzical expression in that
face. Karr
had never been expressive. As a car he had no facial features and
through their
shared link he was just a dark, inky mass. Emotions were shared, but he
had
never looked into his partner’s eyes in a physical sense of the word.
Nick felt something inside of him shift and ripple and he clamped down
on it.
Karr tilted his head, curious.
//This is still strange// Nick only murmured.
//Agreed//
He smiled wryly.
Barricade was still a presence inside his mind, passive, never
interfering, and
incommunicado except when spoken to. Nick had no idea how to deal with
that
part of their change. None at all.
+
Ratchet watched as Karr transformed smoothly, going down on one knee to
touch the
man who was closer to him than any human could ever be to a machine.
Gentle
fingers touched Nick MacKenzie, ever so careful, ever so tender.
Whatever Karr
was or had been, he was no more a Decepticon spy or a threat than any
of them.
He cared a lot for this human and he would die for him. That much was
for
certain.
“Will they be okay?”
The medic looked at Optimus, frowning a little. “Physically yes.
It’s hard to determine their psychological state. I have read
Nick’s files and he is an impressive human, but still only human. His
reaction to the alterations to his physical structure were strangely
calm and
composed.”
“It might be his long contact to Karr.”
“Maybe.”
Twenty years bound to an Artificial Intelligence like MacKenzie had
been were a
long time. Not for a Cybertronian, but for a human. Karr hadn’t always
been this friendly around his driver and from what Ratchet understood,
he had
tried to kill the man in the early days. Nick had survived. Both had.
And it
had cemented a partnership no one could ever really come to understand.
“What about Barricade, Optimus?”
“I don’t know, old friend. We cannot release, but we cannot keep
him prisoner here either. For now he is docile, but he will regain his
old
confidence. It’s in his core programming. Before Barricade joined
Megatron he was just as confident and powerful and single-minded. He
was one of
the best. He needs Nick’s mental echoes, but the rest of humanity is
not
protected that way.”
“Taking the ability to transform from him is all I can do. His weapon
systems are off line. But he could still run over a person if we allow
him
mobility. I was hoping for Nick to be able to exert some control over
him,” Ratchet confessed.
“He’ll never submit to a human.”
Ratchet was drawn out of his thoughts by the approach of the two people
he was
thinking about. Karr was still wary around them, rarely talking to
anyone,
aside from Ratchet himself when he asked medical questions, and Nick
looked
extremely guarded, too.
Looking at Optimus Prime, the human’s face gave nothing away.
“What now?” he wanted to know.
“You are free to leave,” Prime answered, understanding the two
worded question perfectly.
“But?”
“Nothing. We offer both of you our help in any way you need it. While
neither of you are of my people, I would like to understand you as our
allies,” Optimus said calmly.
“You do know who we are, right? You didn’t erase that from your
data banks,” Nick asked levelly.
“Yes.” Optimus didn’t even look guilty. “Information
was needed to make decisions.”
“Like whether to keep us alive or not?” Karr growled, eyes
narrowing.
“No. Whether to contact your government on behalf of yourself. You were
affected by our technology. It was our fault.”
Karr snorted. Nick just reached out and rested a hand against one black
leg.
Optimus was still intrigued by the fact that the implant in the human’s
head gave them the ability to communicate the same way Cybertronians
could.
Mind to mind. No barriers. But the neuro link was even deeper, allowing
access
to the other mind, to the other’s emotions. It was a great asset and a
terrible liability.
Now Barricade was connected to this bond as well and it was what gave
Optimus a
headache, figuratively speaking. Ironhide was having daily conniptions
about
the Decepticon remaining in the base, and he argued that Barricade
would try
and take over the human when he felt strong enough.
Optimus wasn’t so sure.
“Then you know who I am,” Nick simply said. “You know my
record. You know my work. And you the baggage I come with, namely
Barricade.”
“We also know about your affiliation with the Foundation for Law and
Government after you contacted Michael Knight.”
“What I did later doesn’t change my programming of before,”
the human said, voice level. “It doesn’t change Barricade.”
Programming. Yes, in a way the man had been programmed. Taken as a
child from
an orphanage and molded to become a soldier for a secret government
branch. Not
unlike Sector Seven, only a lot more deadly, Optimus mused. He had been
selected, hand-picked, by Wilton Knight to be the first partner to Karr
and
while the experiment had failed, it hadn’t been a complete failure.
Both
units had survived and become what Knight had dreamed of – only a lot
later.
“It also doesn’t change what Karr is. You would let us go free, knowing
our past?” There was a hint of sarcasm in the level voice.
“You were never prisoners, Nick;” Optimus replied softly. “We
are not your government’s police force. We only helped.”
Blue eyes as intense as any Cybertronians regarded him. Karr stood
beside his
human, wary, tense, but not showing any tendency to transform a weapon
and
attack.
“What about Barricade? He is part of this deal as well.”
“He is a Decepticon,” Ratchet reminded them.
“And he wove a connection to me, using his interface unit. If we stay,
he’ll be there, too.”
“You think that if you leave we would let him go?” Optimus wanted
to know.
“Sooner or later he would break free,” Nick answered reasonably.
“Could you stop him from harming another human?”
A shrug. “I don’t know.”
“That is why we can never let our guard down.”
“I’m the one forever linked to him, guys.”
Optimus looked slightly pained. “And I feel responsible, Nick. Without
the Allspark your lives would be normal.”
MacKenzie laughed. “My life never was, never has been, never will be
normal. This is just another notch higher up on the scale of strange
things.
Believe me.”
“Will you stay?”
There was a moment of silence, then Karr suddenly transformed. Nick
shrugged.
“We will. Sooner or later we have to tell Karr’s brother and his
driver, and things will get definitely interesting from there.”
As for Barricade, Optimus thought, things were already interesting.
They would
keep the Decepticon under tight guard, watch the development, see what
was
going to happen. Karr had been a killer machine, too. Nick had tamed
him.
Barricade was not from this planet, was not human made. His mind was
alien and
his motivation, his core programming, influenced by Megatron, but now
he had a
connection to a human and that, Optimus mused, would be highly
interesting to
witness.
* * *
Time
passed. Ironhide, when he wasn’t staring at the silent Barricade with
open hostility or spending a huge amount of time with Captain Lennox,
had taken
to teaching Karr how to handle the weapon systems of his robot form, as
well as
defend himself the Cybertronian way. Nick watched the two robots with
silent
amusement when they butted heads, sometimes joined by either Bumblebee
and Sam.
Karr’s temper was easily matched by Ironhide’s trigger-happy
responses, and the two actually got along quite fine. His partner was
now eager
to learn about his new form, to employ all he could to protect his
human
partner and defend them. The change of mind had been brought on by
Barricade
and his threat to Nick and with it to Karr himself. Nick in turn tried
out the
new implant to log himself into Karr’s evolving CPU.
He felt little impulses come back, felt them tingle along his spine or
nervous
system. It was like learning about himself anew. Actually, he was just
doing
that.
Nick knew that the Autobots would never trust Barricade. Not that he
ever would
be able to either. As far as trust went, he could count on the
Decepticon not
killing him, but that was about it.
Barricade was a cold-blooded killer. A merciless hunter. A creature
only driven
by self-preservation and no regard for other life. Barricade was not
Karr and
had never been, and he was an alien mind with alien concepts.
… which had logged itself onto Nick.
The history between Autobots and Decepticons had been too violent,
filled with
pain and death for Prime to give the thought of Barricade’s freedom
even
a second of his time. That Barricade was now latching onto a human mind
to make
up for the missing interface to Frenzy was puzzling for them, but no
reason to
let their guard down. So while Nick was with them, learning about
himself and
Karr’s new form, he also spent whatever time he had with Barricade
– either in person or in his mind.
Karr was viciously jealous, always hovering, always close, always
making sure
that Barricade understood that one wrong step would have him
terminated.
In a way they were alike, Nick mused, Both dark and angry artificial
intelligences, both ready to kill to survive, both sharp-edged
representations
in his mind. But where Karr had been angry at his successor, and at
Wilton
Knight for terminating him before he even had a chance to live,
Barricade saw
others beneath him. He was convinced of Decepticon superiority. Karr’s
anger had been tamed, though his temper had remained, and the fury had
dissipated enough for him to exist with those he had hated so fiercely.
Hatred
had been revealed as jealously and fear, and Nick’s influence had
quieted
him down.
Barricade… Barricade was…
//Brainwashed// Karr muttered. //By their leader. He needs a
reprogramming//
//He changed his alliance, he thought he was following the stronger of
the two
parties// Nick argued, watching the tiny, silver light at the end of
the still
unrepaired connection. //Now he was defeated, is probably the last of
his
faction on this planet, and while he hates humans, he also needs to
rely on
them//
//On you// Karr sounded rather pissed-off.
Nick still heard the possessive echo of ‘mine!’. Karr growled,
tightening his hold on the link.
//He’s not replacing you// he soothed.
//He never will// was the confident reply.
Nothing could. Karr and Nick were one, made for each other, part of the
same
whole.
//But you won’t cut the connection// the AI added, sounding miffed.
//That would be cruel, Karr//
The AI huffed, loosening his hold, glaring at the silver spark. He
could live
with such cruelty because Barricade was threatening his driver, and
through
Nick Karr. He made that clear to his partner and Nick just smiled.
+
Barricade himself was more or less reluctant to talk. He sometimes
twitched in
his hold when Nick got too close, when something hit home, and Nick
took note
of each and every reaction. He had Ratchet give him whatever the
Autobots had
on the Decepticon, then used the interface connection to link up and
see what else
he could glean from the dark mind.
“This is too dangerous, Nick,” Ratchet worried.
“No more than linking with Karr in the beginning. Now I have the
defenses
and the experience, Ratchet. Your minds are different, granted, but the
implant
has changed and I know how to move on a cyberspace level.”
“Nick, your mind is primitive compared to our brains.”
“Before it might have been. Now I’ve got enhancements.”
“Neither you nor I know what these enhancements allow you to do. They
might make you even more vulnerable. You now have hybrid Cybertronian
technology inside you.”
“Only one way to find out.”
Ratchet looked very unhappy, but he couldn’t stop the human. No one
could. Nick had made it clear that he would work it his way, no one
else’s.
+++++
Barricade didn’t know why he was trying so hard to be on good terms
with
the human. He didn’t understand the need to be connected to the cool,
almost cold mind of a man who should be nothing but an unimportant
insect, a
worm. A man who he should have no problem destroying with a single
thought.
But he didn’t.
He wanted this, he needed this, and his mimicry circuits were burning
with
desire each time the human initiated a contact. He didn’t care about
Karr, about the harsh presence that fiercely guarded what belonged to
the AI:
Barricade needed the soft pulses of the other mind.
Trying to contact the AI had been met with icy silence, barriers,
shields and
blocks. Barricade hadn’t given up and after an eternity in electronic
terms, Karr finally deigned him worthy talking to.
“What do you want?” he asked.
Barricade noted the cold, cruel voice, how inflectionless it was, how
utterly
flat.
“What is it that binds you to the human?” Barricade asked.
Karr rumbled darkly. “None of your business.”
“The human connects us,” the Decepticon added quickly.
“I am not connected to you, Decepticon. You are an intruder.”
“I need him.”
“He is not yours!” Karr hissed furiously.
“I need him,” Barricade repeated.
“And I could remove your presence from him in a moment!”
“That would hurt him,” he pointed out.
The darkness that represented Karr swelled and crackled dangerously.
“You love him,“ Barricade suddenly said.
Karr gave the other entity a sharp look, full of warning.
“But not like a human would love another human,“ Barricade went on.
“I’m not human.“
“But you were constructed by them.“
“It doesn’t make me human.“
Barricade was silent for a moment. “You would die for him.“ He
sounded like this was a new concept.
“He is my driver and partner.“
“There is no honor in dying for a weaker race.”
Karr bristled, hissing. “Nick is not weaker, machine!”
“He is easily killed.”
The AI laughed darkly. “Not so easily.”
Barricade contemplated this. “Still, you would die for someone who is
not
your equal.”
Karr snarled. “And you attached yourself to my driver for the same
reason. You are fixated on what you call inferior and weak!”
Barricade shivered. “I need the echo.”
“You need a human,” the AI taunted.
Silence greeted that statement.
“Nick is mine to protect,” Karr warned. “Keep away from him.
Hurt him and I’ll kill you.”
“I wouldn’t harm him.”
“Your true colors are emblazoned on your skin, Decepticon!”
To punish and enslave. Karr felt a dark hatred rise. As much as there
were
parallels between them, Barricade was an alien mind, not made by
humans, and
his thought processes were dominated by power and destruction. Karr
would do
everything to keep Nick from falling for the trap he knew the
Decepticon was
laying with his neediness.
“No trap,” Barricade rumbled. “I won’t ever hurt him.
He is strong. I need him.”
“Pure self-preservation.”
“Something you know only too well. You didn’t kill him because it
would have killed you,” the Cybertronian snapped.
“He is my partner. We were chosen for one another,” Karr argued.
“And you despised and hated him.”
“Like you do.”
Barricade hissed. “Humans are insects. As a race, they are
inferior.”
“They kicked your asses. They destroyed your leader.”
That got Karr a low rumble. He grinned maliciously.
“They are stronger, some of them, than they appear,” Barricade
finally said.
“Yes.”
At least something they agreed upon.
“I do need him,” the Decepticon went on. “I need the link to
quiet the interface. If I had had a choice, I would not have chosen
him.”
Fleshling. Weak. Despicable. Worm.
Karr bristled again, his presence darkening, a glint of danger around
its
edges.
“You want our cooperation, but you insult my partner,” the AI
growled. “Either you clean up your act and behave with respect or you
cut
those ties and learn to suffer, before I do it for you!”
Barricade growled. Millennia of believes and behavior weren’t easily
shed. “I can’t be who you want. I’m not some trained, docile
pet!”
Karr laughed cruelly. “You’re also the last of your kind on this
planet, dependent on good will and a human being. The Autobots would
have no
trouble killing you.”
“It might hurt the human. They would never risk it.”
“It won’t hurt him, trust me. I’ll make sure of the
separation before your death myself!”
Barricade shivered a little at the thought. Just severing one tendril
had been
excruciatingly painful. It was what he had gotten for interfacing with
a human.
With a fellow Cybertronian separation was a matter of closing down
circuits.
Nick’s mind was a mesh of both organic matter and an implant. The
hybrid
system had made Barricade vulnerable.
“Cooperate,” Karr said coldly. “Interfere and I’ll deal
with you before I let Ironhide terminate your existence.”
“I’m a prisoner. Cooperation only goes so far.”
“What would freedom give you? Run all you want. You can never escape
the
interface. You’re broken, Barricade. You are faulty,” Karr icily
drove his point across. “None of your old buddies will ever accept you
with a human interface. And you can’t cut your ties to Nick, you said
so.”
Barricade fell silent, only too much aware of it. Even if Frenzy or
another
possible candidate for a new link ever came to him, the organic mind
was
forever with him. Smooth and rocky in one, an interface both craved and
despised, and something that had him marvel at the strength of these
humans.
Karr was right. He knew that deep down in his processors. He would
never be
able to return to Cybertron and to the Decepticons as he was, and
Nick’s
death would drive him insane – something he and Karr shared.
He was trapped.
Karr retreated, sliding a shield into place, and Barricade turned to
contemplate his link to MacKenzie.
+++++
Ironhide had insisted on reviewing base security and it had all ended
in a huge
change to Barricade’s little corner of the old hangar. By now the
Decepticon was under such heavy guard, his com channels permanently
scrambled,
wheels clamped down and his chassis more or less bolted to the floor,
that Nick
wondered what Ironhide expected of the shock trooper. Barricade was far
from the
most powerful Decepticon. He was enduring and fast, but not strong
enough to
make it out of this prison, but Ironhide was still paranoid about him
being
here.
Prime’s arguments with his weapons specialist were a daily routine by
now
and Nick listened in, shook his head, and then strolled over to the
enemy in
question.
::We seem to have reached an impasse::
Barricade was silent.
::You are the enemy. You hate them, they hate you. I’m one of those you
hate, but you need me. You won’t be released, you won’t be
destroyed::
Still silence. Nick waited.
_You trust the Autobots_ the cold, cruel voice finally stated.
::No::
_You let them teach you. You let them tell you lies_
::About you? I doubt they made all of this up, Barricade. Your file
reads like
mine:: Nick smirked. ::What do you think would they tell me that could
possibly
change my opinion in any way?::
Barricade snorted, the silver spark shifting a little. _They lie to
protect
their own_
::Like you would::
_You trust them to help you with the changed implant_
::I trust no one. I take what I can get. Things have changed. I need to
know
all there is about what Karr and I have become::
Barricade pulsed softly. _You know nothing about your hybrid nervous
system,
human_
::But you do?::
_Unlike their medic, I am connected to you on a different level. I can
see and
feel the changes_
Karr flowed closer, sending a warning rumble. Barricade gave him an
amused
look.
_Don’t worry, hybrid. I wouldn’t harm him. But he is right that to
survive, one needs to know all his strengths and weaknesses. You know
little
about what you can do_
Nick regarded him warily. ::How would you know more about me?::
_You are part Cybertronian now. That part of you is familiar. The
Allspark gave
you life. The way we talk, it’s like communicating with my own kind.
You
are like us, human. And you are dangerous. You are developing powers
that
aren’t for your kind_ Barricade’s presence was chilling, but it
wasn’t attacking.
Nick drew back, sliding a block into place, and Karr readily pulled him
out of
the connection. Inhaling deeply, MacKenzie reentered the real world,
feeling a
bit shaky. Barricade was growing stronger and each contact was showing
that.
His spark was stabilizing and while Nick knew the Decepticon wouldn’t
kill him, touching the cold mind was freaking him out a little.
//He’s trying to manipulate you// Karr muttered, fury rising. //Stop
touching him like this, Nick//
A sound advice. But Barricade wouldn’t talk to him any other way and
Nick
still refused to just keep the block there forever. Barricade could be
an
advantage as well as a menace to him, but he had to handle both sides.
And to
handle them, he needed exposure.
//Not like this!// Karr insisted.
And maybe he had to get out of here. Maybe he had to turn closeness to
distance. Maybe he had to start facing something he and Karr had
avoided for a
long time now.
Michael and Kitt.
Karr sent reluctance to initiate contact with his younger brother. He
wasn’t ready to reveal what had happened to them.
//I know// Nick murmured. //Neither am I, but we have to one day//
And that day was coming.
* * *
First
contact with Kitt had been as intense as Karr had suspected it. His
younger
brother had flooded him with concern, worry, happiness and a ton of
questions.
He had let the white light that represented Kitt through the private
channel
they shared wash over him, enjoying the softness. Kitt flowed all
around him,
fine tendrils seeking the inky darkness that was a total contrast to
himself.
Finally they locked onto Karr, intent not to let go.
/_What happened to you? his brother asked. /_Why did you go silent? Are
you
okay? Is Nick okay?
Karr smiled at the flood of questions and the accompanying emotions.
/_It is a
long story.
Kitt moved closer, a brilliant spark of life compared to Karr’s
darkness,
but still they were so much the same.
/_Karr? he queried.
The darker AI hesitated. Nick was currently in a small coffee house,
sitting
across from Michael Knight, and the two were talking. Karr sighed and
sent a
burst of data, all the information Kitt would need in one file, and
waited for
his brother’s reaction.
There was stunned silence. Disbelief, Curiosity. Fear… for Karr. And
then
Kitt gave a little whisper of compassion. Karr let it wash over him,
unclear
how to react himself. He had never been too good at dealing with his
younger
brother’s more emotional, a lot more human side. Not even the past
years
of close contact had enabled him to feel more in that regard, or handle
it
better.
/_Michael and I picked up reports on something happening out here in
/_Like alien robots, Karr muttered darkly.
Kitt flowed closer again. /_Are you okay?
Leave it to Kitt to ignore the implications and ask the simple
questions, Karr
mused.
/_As well as we can be like this. Things have changed.
/_You haven’t.
/_Kitt, I’m able to become a sixteen feet robot, Karr said in
exasperation.
/_You’re still yourself.
Stunned, the other AI gazed at the softly glowing light close to him.
/_I’d like to see your other mode one day, Kitt added, sounding curious.
He shifted, uneasy.
/_Karr?
/_One day, he answered evasively.
/_You have no intention to come back?
Karr sighed. /_Not yet, Kitt. There is too much about us we need to
learn
again.
The lighter AI shivered a little and huddled closer. /_I don’t want to
lose you.
/_You won’t. Our connection is still there. I won’t allow it to be
taken away.
Karr needed Kitt’s presence, though never as much as Nick’s. Still,
Kitt was part of him and they had gone through too much to easily lose
this
connection.
/_You’re still the same, Kitt stated softly, repeating an earlier
notion.
/_With a few changes.
/_No. Your soul is still the same.
Karr sat speechless, aware how close the other car was. Kitt had inched
forward, pushing their fenders together. It was an old ritual, one both
took
comfort from. The physical connection had never faltered ever since
that
fateful first time when Karr had tried to reassure a frightened,
terrified and
tortured Kitt that he was safe. That had been so many years ago and so
much had
changed after that moment of complete openness.
/_Don’t shut me out, Kitt requested.
/_I won’t, was the solemn promise.
*
Michael looked at him like Nick had grown a second head. Maybe he had.
At least
something inside of him had grown.
“You are serious,” Knight stated.
“Dead serious.”
Michael shook his head. “Damn.”
Nick smiled. It was brief but appropriate, a reaction he had expected.
“And you expect me, after telling me all of this, to turn around and
drive home, no questions asked?”
“Actually, no. You’d surprise me if you did.”
“So what now?”
“So now you share something few people actually know about. It’s a
secret.”
Michael grimaced. “I’m no longer five, Nick. Secrets or not. This
is Top Secret government stuff, right?”
“Yes.”
“And you work for them again?”
Nick’s face darkened. “No. I’m staying with the Autobots out
of necessity. Karr needs to learn more about his new abilities, as do
I.”
“What about the implant?”
“It’s no longer what it was. It still has the same function, but
with a few extras. I’ve yet to find out what else it might be able to
do.”
Michael regarded him solemnly. “How long?” he only wanted to know.
“I don’t know. Things happened. They are still happening. There are
changes I can’t tell you about right now.”
“So there’s more,” Knight sighed. “Figures.”
Nick smiled slightly. “There’s always more. Optimus Prime has
extended an invitation to you too. They would love to meet Kitt, seeing
he is
version 2.0.”
Michael grimaced.
“Ratchet, their medical officer, is fascinated by the concept of
human-built AIs of such sophistication.” Nick shrugged. “Karr has
given Kitt the coordinates. Should you feel like dropping in, do so.”
“I’m not sure I want to present Kitt on a silver platter to an
advanced robotic race.”
“Neither do I,” Nick told him honestly.
He had always protected them, had gone out of his way to insure their
safety
and survival.
Conversation changed from the latest changes to Foundation matters, to
cases,
to those who supported them. Nick had contacted Bear earlier this month
and
told him that he would be incommunicado for a while; extent of time
unknown.
Michael and Kitt would have Bear’s full support. They also had full
access to Nick’s rather impressive fund. Michael had only once peeked
at
the numbers and he had been floored. He doubted the Foundation had this
much
spending money for Kitt.
“Nick,” Michael stopped him from leaving. “Be careful,
okay?”
“I always am. Give the others my best.”
“Duck will miss Karr,” Knight teased.
Nick laughed. “Yeah. Like a sore thumb.”
The drive back to the Autobot base felt like he was leaving something
very
important behind. It was the first time he felt this way. Michael and
Kitt had
become a huge part of his life, in their lives, and Karr was quiet and
brooding
the whole way.
+++++
Karr kept in contact with Kitt and Nick suspected his partner was
giving them
updates on Nick’s condition and health. Karr was evasive with answers
and
Nick sometimes wanted to strangle him, but part of him was glad.
Michael and
Kitt were friends. The only ones he had and which he trusted.
The implant lay more or less dormant. Having spread far out into his
body it
didn’t so much as blip or misbehave in any way that had Nick alert
toward
any changes. A large part of him doubted that the only alteration of
the
Allspark had been the size and mass of the implant. A very small part
prayed
nothing would come of the changes anymore.
Throughout his time with the Autobots and
By now he was outside the military chain of command. His immediate
superior and
only commanding officer was, aside from the president, of course, the
Secretary
of Defense. Out here, in the desert, with the Autobots,
It was a rather mixed group, but it fit the whole rag-tag group of
Autobots,
civilians, military and one lone Decepticon quasi-prisoner who was
attached to
a hybrid human, who in turn was linked to an artificial intelligence
touched by
the Allspark as well.
It was after his meeting with Michael that Nick made a decision that
was
monumental for him.
+++++
Secretary of Defense John Keller had never met Nick MacKenzie before,
but he
had met the man now calling himself by this name. He recognized the
sharp-cut
features, the pale blue eyes and the dark hair, as well as the tall,
lithe
figure. Back then Keller had been younger, hadn’t been SecDef, and the
presence of the mysterious stranger had unnerved him. That hadn’t
changed. MacKenzie was unnerving.
“I take it it’s not your real name,” Keller said casually as
he looked at the visitor.
MacKenzie smiled humorlessly, standing at ease in front of the heavy
desk.
“Probably not.”
The Stealth had been in Nick’s possession back then, too. It had been
ten
years since then and things had changed. Even Nick had. Keller saw more
in the
cool blue eyes than MacKenzie probably wanted him to know.
“I won’t ask what you did in the last decade,” Keller stated.
“I don’t even want to know what you did in
“Actually, I have no real plans. I never do.”
Keller had been surprised when Optimus Prime had contacted him about
something
that concerned everyone involved in the first contact between Autobots
and
humans. Since Sector Seven no longer existed, Keller had taken over :
Revealing what had truly happened at the Hoover Dam and in
Sector Seven had been disbanded, the Hoover Dam facility had been
locked down,
and all evidence had been removed. Those involved in the fight against
the
alien robots had been sworn to secrecy, and some, like the team of
Captain
Lennox, had been reassigned permanently to the Autobots.
Now there was Nick MacKenzie, another well-kept secret of the
MacKenzie had agreed to make his presence known to Keller, but John had
no idea
why. It was what he asked now.
“Because I think it would be mutually beneficial,” Nick answered.
“You’re the most secretive man I know, Nick.” And he
hadn’t known him for long that time ten years ago. “It’s not
like you to come out in the open, to the government, and tell us what
happened.”
It got him a smile. “Maybe you’re right, John. But things have
changed, even before
Keller refrained from snorting. The man was now a Cybertronian hybrid.
He had
technology in his brain that had been put there by Wilton Knight and
had later
been expanded by contact with the Allspark. His survival of the primary
surgery, the years later, and now of the changes was a miracle.
“I know how everything works, John. I was in the system. Long enough to
know my way around. I can be an asset, I can be a pain in the system.”
Oh yes, he could.
“I know I owe the Autobots and I know that going back to my life before
He wasn’t the type.
“I don’t know what will still happen because of the changes, but I
know whatever it is, the Autobots are my best chance to survive it.”
“So it’s self-preservation?”
“In a way.” MacKenzie shrugged. “I’m linked to not only
an artificial intelligence constructed by using reverse engineering
from an
alien machine, but I’m also connected to such an alien entity.”
Keller had heard about that from Prime, too. It had shocked him, mildly
put.
“How’s that working out?” he wanted to know.
“It’s working.”
He studied the almost inscrutable face. “I have no idea why I trusted
you
back then, Nick. I have no idea why I should trust you now.”
“Even if you don’t trust me, you can’t change what happened.
My connection to Karr is ancient. It has nothing to do with the here
and now.
The accident in
“I understand. Optimus reassured me that everything is under
control.”
“It is.”
It didn’t really sound like it, though.
“What are you now?” Keller asked openly.
“What I always was.”
“A ghost?”
Nick smirked a little. “Yes.”
“Will Captain Lennox have any trouble with you there?”
That got him a laugh. “John, I’m easy maintenance. Let me be and I
let you be. It’s the Autobots’ base. I accept Optimus Prime as its
commander. Karr isn’t an Autobot, but he won’t oppose any of them
either.”
“Good to hear. What about your involvement with the Foundation for Law
and Government?”
Nick’s face was blank.
Keller sighed. “All right. No questions.”
That got him a humorless smile. “You learned.”
“Rumors persist,” Keller joked. “Rest assured, Nick. Whatever
concerns the Autobots and now you, too, it stays with me and the select
few who
know about them.”
“I hope so.”
There was no threat in the words, not even a veiled one. It was a
simple
statement and Keller knew how to take it.
+
Meeting Optimus Prime in person always was fascinating and humbling in
one.
Keller had spoken to the Autobot leader dozens of times before and he
was
always astounded by the calmness, the quiet humor, and the weight of
responsibility this mechanoid showed. He was a true leader and he had
been for
a time span that boggled a human mind. They had had personal talks as
well and
Keller knew about Optimus’ past, where he came from, that he had been a
commander who had ruled Cybertron together with Megatron, who had then
been
Lord Protector of Cybertron. The whole civil war, which had turned into
an
all-out destruction of their home planet, had torn the mechanoid race
apart and
had scattered them throughout the universe. Prime was still hoping for
some of
his kind to find their way here.
Keller was prepared. As was everyone else involved. Even if he wouldn’t
be around any longer should more Autobots arrive, the SecDef had made
preparations. He knew he wasn’t immortal; no one was. Not even the
Autobots.
“I believe he has great potential,” Optimus now said, voice soft
and quiet.
“He always had. Nick is a dangerous man, but he is the best ally you
could wish for.”
Prime nodded. “We appreciate that he will stay.”
“What about Barricade?”
That got him the electronic equivalent of a sigh. “He poses an unknown
factor. His connection to Nick makes him both controllable and
dangerous. We
don’t know if he can influence the implant. Karr is fiercely protective
and he won’t let Barricade touch the human mind, but he is a
Decepticon.
He is dangerous.”
“But you won’t kill him.”
Blue optics regarded him evenly. “No. It’s not what we stand
for.”
“Sometimes decisions are not easy to make, especially in regard to
one’s principles.”
“This isn’t a matter of principles, John. We don’t take a
life in cold blood.”
Keller knew there was no arguing with Prime on that, no matter how
dangerous
the individual in question was. Nick himself hadn’t said much about
Barricade and John knew the man was a survivor. Should Barricade be a
danger,
Nick would deal with him to ensure he would come of this alive.
“Well, good luck on that then.”
Optimus inclined his head. “I suppose we will need it.” Humor swung
in his voice. “Thank you.”
* * *
A few weeks
after his meeting with John Keller, Nick accepted Lennox’s invitation
to
drive into
The topic of Barricade came up, of course. Will was interested and Nick
was
reluctant to talk.
“Ironhide’s blowing a fuse every time I mention him,”
“I’d rather not kill myself,” Nick only remarked.
“No different from Karr, and he was a pain in the ass in the beginning.
Barricade is… distant. He has no influence on me. He can’t hurt me
without going through several shields, and Karr.”
“Good to know.”
Nick smirked. “Yeah.”
#
It was when they walked through the casino toward the exit that Nick
noticed
something zinging through his mind, like a blip on his senses. He
stopped and
tried to chase the signal that had arrived directly in his mind,
without
bothering his eyes or ears when
“Hey, MacKenzie. You okay?”
“Yes, fine,” he replied automatically, puzzling over what had just
happened.
“You zoned. I don’t call that fine. What happened?”
//Karr?//
//I don’t know//
“I don’t know,” Nick said out loud. “It was like…
a contact.”
Will frowned. “Contact? You mean Barricade?”
“No. Him I know. This was… different.”
Nick frowned, not happy with the explanation himself. Barricade’s
contact
was that of an aware mind to his. This one had been… like his mind
logging on to a signal and warning him. The other hadn’t actually
touched
his mind and he hadn’t felt the resonance of a spark.
They were barely out the door when it happened again. This time Nick
didn’t just feel something but was flying. High speed, across the
clouds,
the desert below him. He felt alien emotions crash down on him,
familiar by
sense but not like the ones he had touched before. Anger, fury, hatred
and the
need to kill. Homing in on an easy target. Homing in on…
“Shit!” he whispered, stumbling.
“I can’t explain,” Nick said, voice clipped, “but
something coming here, aiming for us. It’s picking up on Ironhide’s
energy signatures and it’s armed and hostile. We need to get out of
here
before this ends up another
Will’s eyes widened. “What…?”
A deep rumble alerted them to Ironhide pulling up at the curb. “Got a
scrambled signal coming in. Decepticon. Get in. We need to leave.”
Karr had pulled up behind the much larger truck and Nick was already
heading
for him.
“ID on the signal?” he asked instead.
“Decepticon. No further clues. I’ve tried to get through to
Optimus, but we’re being blocked.”
“Well, shit,” Will muttered.
“Quite.”
They shot off the I-15 no five minutes later, faster than anything
built on
Earth should be able to drive. Above them, something flew past, fast
and furious.
“Starscream!” Ironhide hissed.
Trailing dust, Ironhide raced for a safe location, safe to engage their
enemy.
When the first missile exploded next to them, the decision was taken
out of his
hand. He turned in a tight circle, simultaneously opening his door to
eject his
human passenger, and Will rolled head over heels across the desert
floor with a
yell of surprise and pain.
Ironhide would have to apologize later on, but as he now transformed
and
charged his weapons, that apology was far from important.
“Came back, huh?” he growled. “Big mistake.”
Starscream came in for another round and Ironhide raised his gun,
firing away.
Out of the corner of his optics he noticed Karr and part of him
wondered why
the hybrid hadn’t made a run for it. When Karr started firing, Ironhide
added his own fire power.
More missiles exploded left and right, followed by the screech of
Starscream’s pass overhead. One of Ironhide’s volleys hit a wing
and the jet transformed, gun in hand, continuing his assault. Ironhide
was
aware of Will close by, staying behind cover since he hadn’t come to
The Captain grinned wildly and snatched it up, efficiently unsnapped
the safety
lock and started to lay fire onto the approaching figure.
######
Optimus witnessed in horror as Barricade tore himself nearly apart
trying to
get out of the restraints. Metal bent and broke under incredible power.
There
was a high-pitched whine, smoke rising from madly spinning wheels, and
the
shrill cry of a machine in pain echoed around the hangar.
“Great Cybertron, he’s actually breaking free!” Bumblebee
whispered.
Epps and the team were already in position, weapons trained on the
twisting
Decepticon.
And then Barricade tore free, a shower of sparks and metal accompanying
the
violent move. Lubricant and energon spattered over the walls,
indicating deep
wounds. Swerving wildly, Barricade headed for the closed hangar doors.
Epps and his men started to shoot.
Bumblebee raised his own gun.
Barricade didn’t even slow down, though he swerved again, evading one
of
the Army Rangers.
Gunfire erupted.
Bumblebee’s rapid blasts hit the police cruiser and shattered the rear
window.
Barricade crashed into the hangar and took the door with him.
One tire exploded.
Still he kept going.
Bumblebee prepared for another round, but Optimus’ hand stopped him.
“Follow him,” the Autobot leader only said.
“Prime?”
“Something triggered this. He tore himself to pieces to get free. Go
after him.”
The Camaro only nodded and transformed, racing after the Decepticon
fugitive.
Epps looked angry and frustrated.
“What the hell is going on?” he demanded. “I can’t
reach the captain and now this guy’s escaping after wrecking
everything!”
Optimus looked down at the human. He tried to contact Ironhide, but
only got
interference. Swallowing a curse, a dark suspicion rising inside him,
he
transformed.
“Ready your team. We might need you.”
“Oh fuck,” Epps muttered, aware what this meant.
Prime accelerated out of the base.
#####
Starscream swooped down for a new attack, guns blazing, and Ironhide
cursed
under his breath.
Karr was not far away, transformed into his bipedal mode. Starscream
had sent
three blasts his way and two had hit dead center. Ironhide had no clue
as to
how tough the hybrid robot was naturally. Karr was still conscious,
losing
blast after blast at the enemy, but even from his position the Autobot
could
see Karr’s injuries were leaking energon. His driver had taken cover
and
Ironhide was trying to provide cover fire, but things were getting hot.
Starscream was fast, determined and aiming for Nick and Karr, for
whatever
reason. Ironhide felt that his presence was a mere nuisance.
Shots pelted around him and he jumped for cover, hoping Will could hold
his
own. He had the weapons, but he was vulnerable as a human.
Again, Starscream approached, incredibly fast, and transformed, sliding
toward
Karr and firing.
The hybrid went down with a cry of pain.
Nick staggered, dangerously open. There was blood on him, his clothes
dusty,
and he was favoring one arm.
Ironhide tried to get a fix on the rapidly moving Decepticon.
Starscream reached for Karr.
“Now you’re mine,” the Decepticon hissed.
“Dream on!”
The AI twisted around, slamming his feet into the larger robots chest,
and
Starscream staggered. He easily caught his balance and the next blow
sliced
open Karr’s chest and trailed more fluids.
“He’s after Karr!”
“Yeah. Damn. Just what we need!” was Ironhide’s reply.
The Autobot had no idea where the battered, barely car-shaped form came
from,
but it collided with Starscream and brought him down, tripping him over
its
roof.
“You!” Starscream hissed, raising his gun.
“Ah hell, Barricade,” Ironhide muttered and charged both gun to
full power. “I knew we should have slagged him!”
“Man, he looks like caught in a shredder,”
Barricade revved his engine and in front of astounded and rather
shocked eyes
he transformed. Ironhide winced in mirrored pain at the sounds that
came from
the severely damaged Decepticon. How in the name of Primus he had
managed to
circumvent his disabled transformation circuits was only one question
Ironhide
wanted an answer for. The other was what the hell the Decepticon was
doing.
“Leave him,” the shock trooper ground out, standing in front of
Nick and Karr.
“You claim them? I am your leader, Barricade.”
“Megatron leads.”
“Megatron is dead!”
“It doesn’t make you his successor.”
Starscream sneered. “What is it that interests you in this hybrid
fleshling?”
“I could ask you the same. He’s mine. Leave!”
Another cold laugh. “You want to fight me over them? Look at yourself,
Barricade.
How much lower can you fall? You are weak, like the Autobots.
Despicable. I
don’t know what Megatron saw in you, but I will terminate you
existence,
then take the human with me.”
Barricade shifted his weight, red optics glowing fiercely.
“You will not touch him.”
There was the rather tell-tale noise of rupturing fluid pumps and a
loud
screech, then Barricade launched several volleys at Starscream.
Starscream only
laughed and answered the shots.
#
Barricade screamed in agony as the bullets cut a flaming path through
his
systems, though not hitting any of the important ones just yet. But
they did
their share of damage and it hurt! He reacted out of a primal instinct
as he
surged forward, totally surprising Starscream who had thought him
disabled. But
he wasn’t a shock trooper for nothing. He had lived through worse and
had
survived. Whether he would survive this was questionable, but he
wouldn’t
let Nick fall into Starscream’s hands.
The interface unit was burning with an overwhelming pain. Barricade had
a hard
time quieting down and the pain spiraled out of proportion, stoking a
temper
that was feared throughout the ranks of the Decepticons. He channeled
everything he had in his assault, letting the fury take a hold, block
every
rational thought.
Starscream sneered.
“You are such a weak excuse for a Decepticon, Barricade. Megatron was
mad
to ever employ your services!”
The shot cut into his stomach and Barricade hissed in pain as something
else
tore up and energon gushed out of a cut. He went down on one knee, his
optics
dimming with the agony of ruptured circuits, but he managed to morph
his gun
and aimed it at the approaching Decepticon. It was a small gun. All his
other
weapons had been deconstructed by Ratchet. Curse the medic!
Shock troopers were hard to defeat, though enough damage would fell
them.
Coupled with his thirst for battle, the sheer exhilaration to destroy
and maul
and batter, Barricade had survived against even greater odds.
Starscream grinned madly.
Barricade squeezed the trigger, the gun locked on its highest setting
and
hitting his former commander right in the chest at close range.
Barricade used
projectiles, propelled by a burst of high energy, and the bolts went
through
the armor like a hot knife through butter. At least at this distance.
Still, the damage was not enough. Starscream was resilient, second only
to
Megatron, and his fingers closed over Barricade’s gun and tore it out
of
his grasp.
“You are despicably weak,” the larger Decepticon whispered
maliciously. “You served Megatron. You will follow Megatron!”
Something slammed into Starscream’s back and he was thrown over
Barricade, but was back on his feet in a flash. Another blast scorched
a wing
so badly, it nearly tore off. Through fading optics, Barricade saw
Optimus
Prime, gun aimed at the enemy, and he nearly laughed. It was nothing
but a weak
gurgle. Bumblebee was at his side, equally firing at the jet.
Turning away from the battle, the Decepticon looked for the one he had
to
protect. Pain radiated from his torn chest.
Where was the human hybrid?
#
Nick closed his eyes, trying to calm his partner, who was slowly
getting out of
control. Karr was frantic, unable to get to him because of his
injuries, and
Barricade was way too close.
//It's over// he whispered.
Karr whimpered and Nick entwined them in their minds, sinking to his
knees. His
body ached from the debris that had hit him, right before and after he
had been
flung aside by a shock wave from an exploding missile. One hand looked
burned,
but not too badly. He had had worse.
Suddenly he was grabbed -- gently. Large fingers closed around his
body, big
enough to crush him should the large robot choose to do so.
Karr’s cry of helpless anger echoed in his mind.
Nick looked up and into blazing red optics in a terrifying face. Part
of that
face was torn up, scratched, but the red optics were glowing brightly.
Parts of
Barricade were missing, torn of, and he was covered in sand and fluids.
#
Barricade cradled the injured human in sharp-clawed fingers, gazing at
the
pale, dirty face, meeting intense blue eyes. All his instincts screamed
at him
to dump the insect, squash the worm, and run. The Autobots were coming,
he was
badly damaged, completely at a disadvantage, but he was staying.
He could no longer transform, that was a fact. His body was depleted.
What
wasn’t used to shield his spark was just enough to keep him from
falling
flat on his face.
The painful echoes of Nick’s injuries rebounded in his mind, but at
least
he wasn’t dead. He had avoided feeling the loss of the interface again.
“Are you functional?” he asked, voice gravelly and rough.
“What do you care?”
Barricade tilted his head. He was shutting down, close to total
failure, but
all his reserves were now focused on his last moments.
“I don’t know.”
He wanted to dump the human in the dust because of the lubricants
leaking from
his cut skin, because he was filthy, but that reaction was overridden
by the
need to have him safe.
“Set me down,” Nick demanded, trying to push himself up in a
sitting position.
Barricade couldn’t but obey. He remembered his reaction to Frenzy,
knowing that the small, hyper-active machine would now be his partner,
would
share circuits and power, would be able to log into him. He had been
disgusted
and revolted.
The same had been true for Nick.
But he had accepted Frenzy and Nick was a necessity. Keep him safe and
alive
and whole… because he needed him.
Somewhere in his massive frame, Barricade felt something else give and
he tried
to compensate for it. He was already losing energon through the ugly
and deep
wound in his stomach, his exostructure was badly mangled, his vision
was
narrowing down and only keeping on Nick, and there were so many
warnings
flashing past his inner optic, it was dizzying.
“Set me down,” Nick repeated, voice softening, and it sounded
strange.
This human was sometimes as cold and calculating as a machine, but he
had this
gentleness he only showed when talking to Karr. Now it was directed at
him.
“You are breaking down, Barricade.”
“I know.”
“Set me down.”
And he did. Nick staggered a little and almost fell against Barricade’s
hand.
“You are injured.”
“So are you,” Nick remarked, looking at the kneeling Decepticon.
But Nick was safe.
He didn’t care if he died now. He would cease to function and
everything
would be solved.
A gurgling noise emerged from his throat and Barricade felt his knees
give way.
He fell onto the ground, hard, vision swimming. His optics were fixed
on the
bright blue eyes of the human.
After that, there was only static and darkness as stasis lock set in to
preserve his spark.
#
Nick had just enough coordination to fall out of the way as Barricade
had a
total system failure and crashed. The mangled form of the Decepticon
lay on the
desert ground, optics dark and lifeless. Karr was screaming in his mind
and
Nick wanted nothing more than to follow Barricade into unconsciousness,
but he
couldn’t.
Heavy steps announced the arrival of the Autobots and he looked up at
Optimus
Prime and Ironhide.
“Starscream has fled,” Ironhide muttered. He looked like he wanted
to prod Barricade with a foot. “You okay?”
Nick looked over to where Karr lay. “Alive,” he only said.
“Which can’t be said about him,” the weapons specialist
snorted, looking at Barricade.
“He tore himself out of the restraints,” Optimus murmured, amazed.
Bumblebee walked over to Karr and pulled him up. The AI barely managed
to stay
on his feet. Optimus bent down and rather easily picked up the limp
Decepticon.
“We need to leave,” he stated.
Nick closed his eyes, so infinitely tired.
* * *
Barricade’s
optics were flickering weakly and the stomach wound looked terrible. It
was a
miracle he had lived to make it so far. Ratchet stared at the
Decepticon,
shocked by the extent of the injuries. He had Barricade hooked up to a
monitor
and an energon feed, but the repairs would be extensive. So far he had
removed
the body armor to get to the basic structure underneath, and there were
places
almost shredded to pieces even under armor that had shown just moderate
injuries. Using a forced access into Barricade’s core, he placed the
command to revert the body shell to its protoform completely.
It was a painful process, for patient and medic, and only because
Barricade’s voice box had given out did no one hear him scream.
Barricade was a tough ‘bot to take down. His armor was remarkable, as
was
his survival instinct, and he was armed to the teeth. His weapons had
long since
been taken away or locked down. And the unarmored body looked
vulnerable and
weak in comparison.
“He’s in a very bad shape, Optimus,” the medic told his
leader.
Prime nodded. He could see that. He had seen it the moment he had laid
optics
on the motionless form in the desert. Starscream had fled, but now they
knew he
was back on Earth and their vigil was doubled. He must have been come
across
Karr’s signal somehow and it had lured him back.
Ratchet had worked out a shield that would let the Stealth disappear
from
Starscream’s radar, so to speak, but Nick wasn’t so easily made
invisible. Ratchet was reluctant to play surgeon on a human and test
the
implant, and Nick wouldn’t let him anyway.
For now MacKenzie had bigger problems anyway.
Lennox had contacted the
As for Karr, his superficial injuries were repairing themselves slowly.
His
molecularly enhanced skin behaved almost like Cybertronian skin, able
to repair
itself when given enough time and energy. Ratchet had patched up the
worst
parts. Nick had been with him, but now the human stood next to the
repair table
Barricade lay on. His face was pale, a slightly pinched look to it, and
while
his injuries had to be painful, he showed no sign of them. Sometimes
Optimus
wondered about his past once more. He had read enough about the man,
but to see
what a secret branch – one of many the US government apparently had
– had turned a fellow human being into, someone who hid his injuries,
who
functioned even under great duress and pain, who suppressed emotions
and became
cold and unyielding… it was frightening. In many ways, Nick had the
mentality of a Cybertronian warrior like Ironhide or even like
Barricade.
“I have to take him off-line and I’m not sure he has the necessary
will and power to survive,” Ratchet went on. “His spark is
weak.”
“Try,” Prime only said.
He wouldn’t let anyone die, even Barricade. All life was sacred. The
Decepticons were Cybertronians, too. Megatron had been his brother.
Meeting Nick’s cool gaze, he wondered what the human could feel of
Barricade, but he would never ask, knowing he would never get an answer.
Ratchet nodded. He might not like working on a Decepticon, but this one
had
shown sides that were unlike the Barricade that had joined Megatron
millennia
ago and more like the one he had been before the war.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
The pain was somewhere far away and nearly forgotten. Pain was an old
companion. Sometimes he had greeted it as welcome and necessary, to
remind him
he was alive. Instead of the pain there was now a strange sense of
loneliness.
Wherever he was, he was alone. He couldn't see, but he could feel and
he could
hear.
He felt a cool surface.
He heard a voice talking to someone.
The voice blurred. The pain was still far away, but another voice rang
through
the confusion that was still inside of him. It was the familiar voice
again.
The voice told him something. Before he could will his body to respond
to the
voice, it faded. Tiredness washed over him. He felt so fatigued.
He drifted into nothingness again.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
//He’s dying//
//I know// Nick murmured, watching the silver spark flicker.
//We could hold him//
He shot his partner a surprised look. Karr had so far not offered a
single
friendly remark toward Barricade, let alone propose they help the
Decepticon.
//And then? If he survives, he’ll be a prisoner again//
Karr, weakened and exhausted from his injuries and the recovery, sighed
softly.
He was close to shutting down. Nick brushed over the inky darkness that
was his
partner.
//Rest//
They could ponder this later.
//And you?//
//Soon//
Karr sent another sigh, but he curled up and shut down, following
Nick’s
request.
Nick himself sat on the floor, legs pulled up, arms wrapped around his
knees.
His eyes were on the motionless, stripped-down Decepticon. Ratchet was
still
working, up to his elbows in lubricants, energon and other liquids.
Nick felt along the thin link to Barricade, saw the flickers more
pronounced,
noted the deep wounds and old scars.
Did he want to live? And if he survived, would he ever be free?
Closing his eyes, he let his head sink onto his knees. He was tired,
hurt, and
at the end of his emotional rope.
Two minds were bound to him. One by his implant and a trusted partner
of twenty
years. Karr was the closest thing he had. He was the only one who knew
every
dark little corner of his mind and his soul. They were one in so many
ways.
Barricade was an intruder, grasping for a straw, needing Nick to
replace a lost
partner. He was an alien, completely different mind. He despised Nick’s
kind, but still needed this one human.
::I could save you:: Nick sent, facing the weak light without Karr for
protection hovering right behind him. ::The question is, do you want to
be
saved?::
_No difference_ came the garbled reply. _None_
::The Autobots are trying to keep you alive::
_A futile cause_
::No. I might die with you, Barricade. I’m not ready to give up::
There was rough, cold laughter, though it was so faint, Nick barely
picked it
up. _No_
::You connected yourself to me, Decepticon! Cutting these lines will
affect the
implant. I’m going to keep you in this world, no matter what!::
Another dark and throaty chuckle. _You have guts, human. The more we
bond, the
harder it will be for you to be free_
::This is already a badly tangled triangle. I no longer have a ‘get out
of it free’ card:: Nick felt incredibly tired.
Barricade was silent and the silver spark sputtered noiselessly. Nick
watched
it, aware that if Barricade gave up, he would be facing a dark hole
where he
had been.
Not an option.
::Do you want to live?:: he asked again.
There was no answer, just the presence of the dying spark.
Nick scrubbed a hand over his face and lay back on the bunk. With
Barricade
incommunicado and Karr recharging, there was only one option for him,
too.
Closing his eyes, MacKenzie slipped into a mixture of recharge and
human sleep,
the implant shutting down functions he wouldn’t need right now.
* * *
Barricade
was jolted out of his aimless existence by the contact of another mind
with
his. Since the battle against Starscream he had roused himself briefly,
but
then he had slipped into a semi stasis-lock that allowed him to be
conscious
but not to feel or see. He knew his body was in a very bad shape,
probably
terminal, and he didn’t really want to feel it die.
The Autobots were trying to save him, do-gooders that they were. But
for what?
He had broken through their restraints once already to help Nick, so
they would
use even more serious measures this time. He wouldn’t put it past Prime
to have Ratchet disconnect his spark from his body.
Eternally in limbo.
Not something to look forward to.
Death was preferable.
The other mind was cool and blue and controlled, not unlike a
Cybertronian, but
not of his kind at all. It was human and fallible and weak and
primitive.
Still, it was so very attractive to soothe his aches and pains, to
replace what
he had lost. It was the mind he had grown used to in the past months.
Nick MacKenzie.
Now it was close, closer than ever, and it didn’t seem to be adrift
like
him. It was like a resting place in the middle of the sea of pain that
taunted
the Decepticon. He knew that with consciousness, the pain would return.
He and
pain were old friends, but it didn’t mean he relished it.
I might die with you.
Do you want to live?
Nick’s words hit home, his spark jolting a little at the impact of what
the human said and through it offered. Co-exist with him and Karr, an
uneven
triangle of co-dependence. He doubted Nick would suffer much if he was
terminated, but a small, niggling doubt remained. While Barricade still
viewed
humans as a disgusting race of worms, Nick MacKenzie was a vital part
of him.
Slipping under again, he mulled over that thought.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
It was maybe an hour, maybe half a day, maybe too long for him to
understand
later that Barricade returned to conscious levels. Everythign around
him was
peaceful and dark.
Only the representation of Nick’s mind could be seen in the distance,
like a beacon calling for him. He regarded the blue presence with
interest.
Nick was so different from every human he had ever encountered and it
sparked a
child-like curiosity. He carefully reached out and touched the
connection they
shared, even though it had been partially severed. Barricade hadn’t
dared
heal the wound because of Karr’s furious guard.
Nick wasn't cold; far from it. There was a human warmth there that
Barricade
had come to associate with weakness. Humans were so compassionate, so
emotional, just like the Autobots. It was their weakness and he had
exploited
it in the past. Nick was human, of course, but he could be emotionally
so cold
that it came as a surprise that he wasn't when touching him on this
level. He
wondered what Karr saw when he touched Nick.
Barricade felt a sliver of jealously. Karr had what he craved: a
partner. Karr
had had Nick for two decades now and he would have him forever. Their
minds
were so close, so interwoven, and Barricade was the intruder. He would
never
become what Karr was for Nick, and while he craved it, he also felt
disgust at
the thought of such a bond.
He ran a tendril along the fragmented shields, noting the bad shape
they were
in, wondering from what incident these fragments had remained. Those
were old
shields, not new ones. Ancient, even. Protecting scars, he realized.
The recent attack had left Nick exhausted, but he had never shown
weakness and
that Barricade was now so close meant that the exhaustion had taken its
toll.
Karr was probably in repair stasis and Nick was resting.
Barricade shivered as he gazed at the battle scars, old and healed,
signs of
prior fights with another mind. The blue light was marred by them, but
still
beautiful in its own way. Nick's presence shifted. He moved in his
sleep and
Barricade risked a quick touch. The blue light shivered, feeling warm
and soft
to the touch. Suddenly there was a brief spike, then a flash that
vanished so
quickly, Barricade wasn’t sure it had been real. As he tried to move
away, he became aware of where he was. Or wasn’t. He no longer saw the
blue spark in the scarred environment. He stood in the middle of a
deserted
wasteland, sand underneath his feet. Feet? Barricade felt surprise rise
in him,
then his attention was drawn to the debris. Lots of debris. Small
parts, large
parts, scattered and burned. It had once been a car. The K.A.R.R., a
tiny part
of him whispered. He didn’t know why, but he was aware of the fact.
His view shifted as he moved closer to the debris, without actually
thinking
about walking. It wasn’t him, he realized. He was simply seeing this.
He
saw the broken and burned wreckage, the barely recognizable form of a
car. The
person whose eyes he was looking through knelt in front of an array of
microchips and a hand reached out, gently brushing sand from the
surviving CPU.
“Too late again, right?” someone said and Barricade flinched.
Nick?
“Like last time,” Nick’s voice continued, freeing the CPU.
“I should let it end here and now, you know. It would be so much better
for us. Easier. But I can’t. We were made, we are survivors, we have to
live with this, and maybe there is a chance for both of us.”
A dry chuckle could be heard.
“I know you are still there. I know you want to live. So do I. We can
only do it together.”
Hands grabbed the CPU and pulled it from the debris, sand cascading off
the
black, dented case.
“You do not own me!”
The harsh declaration snapped Barricade around and he stared at the
darkness
that now encroached upon him. Black, threatening, cutting into his mind
like
razor blades.
“No one owns me! No human ever did!”
It was Karr’s voice, but so different from now. It hurt to listen to
it,
it was agony to feel his touch, and like a spectator, Barricade saw
Nick
crumble down, yelling in pain.
“If I die, so do you.” The whisper was loud enough to be a scream.
“I’m not dependent on you!”
It was like a declaration of all-out war, but with each stab or slash
Karr took
at the human connected to him, he weakened as well. Barricade didn’t
know
long the battle took, but he saw the scars this had inflicted, he gazed
on in
silent terror as he saw the bleeding tears in Nick’s walls. And he saw
Karr curl up into a dying, black spark, shivering and miserable. He
wanted
nothing more than to be accepted, to have an existence. But he had been
cast
away, shut down and abandoned, and the pain had multiplied over the
years. He
had let it all out, hurting the one who had helped, hurting himself in
turn.
“We cannot live without the other,” Nick whispered, sounding
hoarse. “Wilton Knight connected us, Karr.”
“I don’t want this,” Karr argued weakly.
“But you want to live.”
Silence.
“Then accept what it means.”
The world swirled back into focus and Barricade finally managed to free
himself
from the cluster of memories, shocked. He knew he had seen more than he
should
have. He had had no right, but it had been an accident. He had touched
an area
no one had visited in a long time. He doubted Karr had ever ventured
there and
Nick would lock the experience up.
So many scars. So much pain.
He knew the pain.
And he suddenly understood what linked Karr and Nick. Just as he knew
that he
was going through the same. He was dying and he had to accept that to
survive,
he had to sacrifice part of himself. He could never be an Autobot, but
he no
longer was a Decepticon.
Neither was Karr.
The Autobots wouldn’t accept him, view him with distrust and hate, but
if
he learned to trust Karr and Nick, he might survive, whatever shape it
would
mean for him.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Nick had taken his place in the medical area again, looking at the
motionless heap
of metal. Barricade in his stripped down form. Ratchet had explained to
him
that forcing the Decepticon back into his protoform shape was all he
could do
to keep him from expending too much energy. Repairs had been made and
the
molecular reconstruction of the skin was on its way. There was nothing
more
Ratchet could do.
It was late already. While the Autobots didn’t live the twenty-four
hour
day humans did, they had adjusted lights to dim throughout the night
time hours
to suit the humans living with them. Nick sat in twilight, looking at
the black
protoform. It was more alien than anything else he had ever seen
before. But
still humanoid. The basic shape of a Cybertronian. Nick wondered why
they had a
humanoid form, whether their creators had been bipedal and humanoid.
He had read about Transscanning and protoforms in the files Ratchet had
supplied him with. Cybertronians were a race of chameleons, able to
take on all
kinds of shapes after transscanning them. The basic form was
ultra-dense, able
to draw on energy reserves beyond Nick’s limited understanding to
create
the exo-structure that enabled them to blend in. Forcing a Cybertronian
in such
bad shape as Barricade was to reverse the process was almost torture.
_I want to live._
Nick was jolted out of his thoughts, his mind suddenly overwhelmed by
the
powerful presence of Barricade. He stumbled back on the mind-plane.
Karr was in
a powered done mode, recharging, and Nick carefully felt along the
shield he
had between himself and his partner.
_I have chosen, Nick MacKenzie. I will live_ Barricade’s deep voice
could
be heard. _And so will you_
Silver streaked through his mind and he gasped. With a strength born
from
countless years as a partner to an AI not so much different when it
came to
mind invasions from Barricade, he pushed the silver presence back.
Barricade hovered, smirking almost.
_Still strong_
::Still dominant:: he spat.
The Decepticon regarded him silently.
_You cannot be dominated_
::Damn right::
_Neither will I ever submit_
Nick smiled coldly. ::We’re back to the original question about the
partnership::
Barricade drew back, but not to attack, just to create distance. _You
would
truly accept this? Karr is your partner_
::And he will always be. He and I are equals. He doesn’t want to
control
me. I’m not a lower level unit::
_No_ Barricade said quietly, coming closer again. _You are not. I give
you my
word as a warrior to not overwhelm you, attack you or dominate you in
any form_
Silver tendrils flowed toward him and Nick stood his ground as they
touched his
shields.
_But I will be free_ Barricade added.
Nick gazed at the motionless protoform. Ratchet wasn’t around, Ironhide
and
Without a word he rose and walked past the treatment table and into the
dark
hangar. Amber eyes glowed not far away and Nick smiled as he felt
Karr’s
protective caress. His partner had woken.
//It was stupid to confront him like that//
//I know// Nick smiled, still walking.
Karr joined him and when they were outside, the Stealth transformed,
offering
Nick a ride with an open door. Nick took it and they disappeared into
the
darkness.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Nick wasn’t surprised to discover the disappearance of Barricade when
he
returned from a night away from the base. The Decepticon, weak as he
had been,
had somehow managed to get out of the Autobot base and then into
hiding.
“His protoform is extremely weak,” Ratchet said. “If he
doesn’t find sustenance, he’ll die. As resistant as our protoforms
are to heat and cold and damage, running so low on energon will kill
him,
Prime.”
“No loss there,” Ironhide could be heard, which got him a sharp
look from Optimus.
The Autobot leader’s blue optics were on Nick, who met them with a cool
gaze of his own. “Could you locate him?”
“I’m not a bloodhound and if you think the implant will help, no. I
can only detect him as a faint silver light, a spark so to speak, but I
can’t tell you where he is.”
Ironhide growled softly, gears grinding. “We should have terminated
him.
Let him perish. Now he’s lose and knows our base! I knew it was a
mistake
to leave him under such lax guard!”
Ratchet bristled. “I…”
Optimus raised one hand. “It happened. Barricade has disappeared. I
don’t want to start a senseless hunt for him. We have a bigger problem
in
form of Starscream.”
“He shouldn’t have been able to even move!” Ratchet argued.
“His power levels were almost nil.”
Ironhide gave Nick and Karr a narrow-eyed look. Nick returned it coolly.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know where he is!”
“I’m not telling you anything,” was the level reply.
“And I don’t. I can’t sniff him out. I can only tell you that
he’s alive.”
“Well, too bad.”
Optimus sighed. “We have bigger problems than Barricade. Starscream is
back and somewhere on this planet. More Decepticons might be coming.”
“Barricade might join him,” Ironhide rumbled.
“I doubt it,” Ratchet threw in. “He saved Nick and attacked
Starscream, and we know Barricade was loyal to Megatron, not
Starscream. They
were actually at each other’s throat.”
“So we let Starscream take care of that problem, then we take him
out,” Ironhide concluded. “Easy.”
Nick decided not to point out where the problem lay with that idea. He
left the
Autobots to discuss their new old problems among themselves.
//Any cases?// he asked his partner.
//You want to go back?//
//I want to take my mind off things right now//
Karr chuckled and browsed through his partner’s mail accounts, then
came
up with a few promising jobs.
* * *
SecDef Keller pinched the bridge of his nose, then took a long swallow
from his
Bourbon.
Starscream was back. Barricade was MIA. Nick MacKenzie was alive and
still with
the Autobots. Optimus Prime had informed him of the situation of what
had
happened outside
Optimus had told them they were looking for him and Keller had placed
his own
commands, especially alerting Airbases. He couldn’t outright tell them
he
was looking for an alien robot in the disguise of an F-22, but he could
have
them looking for glitches and anomalies.
And that was hoping Starscream didn’t transscan another aerial machine
and stop off their radar completely…
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Michael had thought long and hard about actually going to the Autobot
base to
meet the extraterrestrial visitors in person. Kitt had been in regular
contact
with Karr and his partner was actually quite looking forward to it.
Michael
wasn’t so sure. And when he drove into the former Airforce Base, a
strange nervousness settled in his stomach. He knew he wouldn’t be here
if Nick had thought it to be dangerous. Still…
Michael inhaled deeply. He couldn’t squelch the feelings.
//I trust Nick. And I trust Karr// Kitt told him. //And he kind of
trusts
them//
//Kind of?// Michael teased.
Kitt chuckled. //You know Karr//
That he did. Karr placed his full trust only in two people: his driver
and
partner Nick, and Kitt.
Passing by abandoned buildings, they rolled slowly over the old
concrete toward
the main hangar that had once housed the Airforce fighters. It was a
construction of concrete and steel, old but not in any state of
disrepair, and
the massive entrance doors were partially closed. The opening was wide
enough
for Kitt to easily pass through.
The welcome committee were two men in military outfit, unarmed, one of
them
smiling, and Nick himself. His friend was casually dressed and looked
relaxed.
Sunglasses perched on his nose and he was smiling at Michael.
Knight got out of the car.
“Hi,” one of the soldiers greeted him. “I’m Captain
Will Lennox. I’m in charge of the human military team here.” He
shook Michael’s hand. “Welcome to the Autobot base. This is my
second, Sergeant Robert Epps.”
The other man nodded once.
Michael looked around the cavernous room. It didn’t look like much. It
was mostly empty from what he could see, but there was another set of
huge
sliding doors that blocked his view into the very back.
Nick was smirking a little. “Don’t judge the outside before looking
in,” he only said.
Michael grimaced. There was a soft rumbling noise, like a powerful
engine, and
Knight warily watched a large Peterbilt drive closer. It was quite
colorful,
red and blue, with flame designs, and the polished chrome glinted in
the little
sunlight filtering through the windows high above.
“Michael, meet Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots.”
What happened next was hard to describe and it involved a great deal of
shifting parts and astonishing changes, but that paled in light of the
gigantic
robot gazing down at him.
Michael knew he was gaping. And he didn’t even feel embarrassed about
it.
The mechanoid knelt down. Michael guessed he had to be over twenty-five
feet
tall, and while the face was alien, it had human characteristics. It
helped, he
thought faintly. But the rest was threatening to short-circuit his mind.
Strangely, Kitt wasn’t all that shocked at all. It was either the fact
that he was a machine as well, or that he had assimilated the
information from
Karr a lot better. He was curious, fascinated, and slightly excited.
“I’m pleased to meet you, Michael Knight.”
“Uh, thanks,” he stuttered. “Likewise.”
Good gawd! Nothing, nothing at all in the world, could have prepared
him for
this.
“I extend my greetings to you, too, Kitt,” Prime added, looking at
the black TransAm.
“Thank you,” Kitt replied calmly. “I was looking forward to
meeting you.”
“As we were interested in getting to know you. These are my men,”
Prime went on, gesturing at the approaching vehicles, which transformed
in
turn.
Michael tried to keep himself from stepping back as he looked at the
assembled
robots. It was mind-numbing. They were all incredibly huge.
“You’ll get used to it,”
Michael grimaced briefly.
The one introduced as Ratchet eyed Kitt curiously. “I read about the
new
model developed by Wilton Knight. I’m pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Kitt answered. “Karr has told me about
you.”
Optimus stepped aside in a clear gesture of an invitation and when Nick
gave
Michael an encouraging and reassuring nod, Knight followed the military
commander deeper into the base. Kitt rolled after him.
//We’ll be fine// he sent, convinced.
Michael hoped so. Because this was clearly out of their league. Out of
anyone’s league.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Kitt had rolled out of the hangar, following Karr, while their drivers
remained
inside. There was too much to talk about for the humans and the
Autobots. While
Ratchet wanted to know more about Kitt, that interview had been
postponed.
Mostly because Karr had intervened.
“He’s nosy,” Karr growled.
“He has the right to be. We are just as curious about them.”
The Stealth stopped and Kitt parked beside him.
“You don’t have to protect me, Karr.”
That got him icy silence.
“I can defend myself,” Kitt went on.
“Not against them. They are a much higher class and order of machine
life. They could invade our minds and delete us, not to mention their
physical
strength.”
Kitt detected a shiver coming through the private channel and he moved
closer
to his older brother.
“They won’t,” he said softly but with conviction.
“They, maybe. But the Decepticons would. If they can’t use us, they
will terminate us.”
“Is Barricade a danger to you and Nick?” the lighter AI queried.
Karr snorted. “No. By hurting Nick or me he would hurt himself. He
won’t endanger himself.”
Silence descended between them and Kitt studied the darker form of his
brother.
Karr wasn’t happy about the Autobots knowing about Kitt, but he had
bowed
to Kitt’s decision.
“Karr?”
“Yes?”
“Show me.”
Karr shifted uneasily. Kitt waited. Finally the Stealth transformed and
Kitt
recorded every second of the morphing process. It looked smooth and
elegant and
the result was amazing. Yellow-amber eyes looked down at the TransAm,
then Karr
lowered himself into a sitting position.
//Incredible// Kitt whispered through the link. //Just incredible//
Karr raised one hand and turned the wrist, looking at it. //You get
used to
it//
Kitt rolled forward, his prow touching the black-armored legs. //You
are still
the same// he said, picking up the tiny slivers of doubt that kept
persisting
in Karr. //Nothing will ever change that//
A barely perceptible smile played over Karr’s human features. //This
only
sets us even more apart//
//No! We are not what we appear on the outside, Karr. We are this…//
And
Kitt flowed closer. //We’re AIs. Our physical shape is of no
consequence//
Karr didn’t reply, just touched the TransAm with one finger, drawing it
gently over the MBS-protected skin.
//This makes a difference. For
//For now// Kitt corrected. //We just have to get used to it.//
Karr transformed and Kitt pushed his fender gently into his brothers.
They sat
silently together, physically as close as possible, in the world of
their CPUs
almost merging.
Things were different now. A lot different. But Kitt believed it was an
obstacle they could work through.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Michael had taken the coffee offered by Epps outside and was watching
the two
black cars not far away. He hadn’t seen Karr in his bipedal mode, but
he
had felt Kitt’s amazement. His partner had sent him an image of what he
had seen and Michael was both impressed and slightly awestruck. Who
wouldn’t be? Karr wasn’t as big as Optimus or Ironhide, but he
was… big.
Nick joined him, carrying his own mug. Michael shot his friend a look.
“You want to stay here,” he stated.
Nick nodded. It was the same he had told Michael weeks ago throughout
their
first meeting.
“Bonnie said to tell you she misses you.”
He smiled. “Thanks. It wasn’t an easy step, Michael, never doubt
that. And I’ll be around. If you and Kitt need anything, let me know.
The
warehouse is yours, the back-up and support is yours.”
“Nick…”
“FLAG never employed me and you are now free agents, too. Nothing binds
you to the Foundation but your own sense of loyalty.”
“I know.”
Michael sipped at his coffee. John Landes had given him the ownership
papers
just two months before Nick had killed Nash. It had been a day to
celebrate and
it had been the best moment of his life. Kitt belonged to him now,
legally, on
paper, and was no longer bound to the Foundation.
“I’m not going to disappear,” Nick said softly, eyes intent.
Michael met the cool blue gaze. “I hope so.”
That got him a little laugh. “Michael, I’m bound to an AI that is
linked to the one that is bound to you. Do you really think it’s
possible
for me to ever leave?”
He didn’t say it, but Michael thought it. If Nick set his mind to
something, he could make it possible. But would he really leave them?
Would he
have Karr cut all ties to his younger brother? He doubted it. Nick had
learned
to be human in the past decades or more.
MacKenzie suddenly smiled. “You corrupted me. You and Kitt. Karr and I
changed because of you.”
“In a good way,” Michael added quietly.
The blue eyes gazed at the horizon. “Yes. I didn’t believe it, but
it was for the better. I wouldn’t be here today and neither would
Karr.”
Michael didn’t say anything. Whatever he wanted to say, it would be
wrong.
“My life was different. Now it has changed again. I can’t go back
to either existence now. I never want to go back to being a ghost of
the
government, but I also can’t go back to working as I have before.”
“I understand. And I hope you know you’ll have friends, Nick.
Always will.”
It got him an uncharacteristically soft smile. “Yes, I know. It took a
while, but that fact has settled.”
“Good. What about Barricade?” Michael wanted to know after a while.
The thought of an alien robot linked to Nick had him slightly freaked.
Especially since that particular robot was also the bad guy.
“He will always have the connection. I can feel he’s alive, but he
won’t harm me.”
“Sure?”
“As sure as I was of the fact that Karr would never harm Kitt through
their private channel.”
Michael rubbed his tired eyes. His view of the world had changed
profoundly and
all the implications hadn’t really settled yet.
“I hope you’re right.”
“I hope so too.”
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Barricade stayed lost. There wasn’t a blip of him and while Nick knew
he
was alive because of the connection he had to him, the Decepticon
didn’t
try to contact him, or even acknowledged his existence. There were no
reports
on a police cruiser endangering anyone or creating havoc somewhere, and
while
Ironhide and Bumblebee actively looked for the fugitive, they couldn’t
pick up a single blip.
Sam started college in
More tests would follow. The medic was in test heaven.
Nick worked a few jobs here or there. Optimus never asked where he went
when he
left, but Nick was convinced Prime knew what he was doing. The cases
helped him
deal with what had happened and they brought some normalcy back into
their
lives.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Nick had left Karr in the side street. He needed to stretch his legs,
let his
thoughts wander. It was best done when aimlessly going through streets,
across
empty lots and through green parks. Nick never got lost, always aware
where he
was walking. So he wasn’t really that surprised to end up in the empty
yard of an abandoned transport company.
And strangely enough he wasn’t even that much surprised to note a
rather
familiar shape between old container boxers and scrap metal. Black and
white,
police written on the doors, lights dark, the Saleen Mustang didn’t
look
any different than the last time he had seen Barricade.
The engine came to life and the Decepticon moved forward, faster than
would
have been recommended at such a short distance, considering braking
distances.
Nick didn’t move.
“You look the same,” he remarked casually.
The black prow with its reinforced bumper was almost touching his shins
when
Barricade stopped and the empty driver’s seat should be unnerving, but
Nick had faced down Karr too often to be freaked at this little tidbit.
There
wasn’t a spec of dirt on the Saleen and the soft rumble of the engine
spoke of tamed power.
“You’re still around them,” Barricade growled. “Already
the good little Autobot?” he taunted.
“I’m human,” Nick answered casually. “You should know
by now.”
“I’m painfully aware of it.”
“What do you want?”
The Mustang rumbled.
“You followed me,” Nick stated.
“I have no reason to.”
“Neither have I a reason to look for you. Still, here you are. I
don’t believe in coincidence.”
“Why are you still with them?” Barricade demanded.
“I have my reasons.”
“They can teach you nothing, human.”
“And you can?”
Barricade laughed darkly. “More than you’d believe.”
Nick gazed at the Saleen. “This doesn’t help me with
Ironhide’s claim that you’ll try to sway me to the Decepticon side
one day. Ironhide’s already convinced you can spy on them through
me.”
The deep chuckle was malicious. “Now wouldn’t that be fun.”
“For the whole second it would take me to sever the link,” Nick
said coldly.
The engine revved again, sounding nervous and angry in one.
“I see you still flash your colors brightly,” MacKenzie remarked.
The Decepticon symbol was hard to miss on the black flanks, as was ‘to
punish and enslave’. Barricade rumbled uneasily.
“Starscream will kill you the next time he sees you. And I doubt any of
your old friends want to be close to a Decepticon who has bonded with a
human.”
Another rumble and the hard metal touched Nick’s shins now, not pushing
but there.
“I will never join the Autobots!”
“I’m not asking you to. You live your life as you see fit. Just
don’t go around getting yourself scrapped because it’s my head
that’s on the line, too,” Nick said levelly. “I don’t
care who you hate and how much. Do whatever you want, but don’t get
killed.”
Chilling laughter could be heard. “I’m not suicidal, human.”
“You were when you logged on to me.”
The engine revved once more. Nick stood his ground.
“Not by choice!” Barricade hissed.
“Then I hope your future choices will consider this link.”
The next moment Barricade transformed. As complicated as the morphing
process
was, it was quick and smooth.
Nick stood transfixed in front of the large Decepticon, staring into
the red
optics. Barricade was massive, a lot broader than Karr, a lot more
threatening
in his bipedal mode. Claw-like fingers with taloned ends reached out
and
carefully touched the much smaller human, one finger tip resting
against
Nick’s chest.
“I will not hurt you,” Barricade said, voice as rough and dark as
always. “Because I need you.”
“I’m not you tool.”
“A tool would be useful.”
Nick smiled coldly. “I’m useful to you.”
Optics flared and the frightening face leaned even closer. “You
are,” came the rough whisper. “And you could be more. There is a
lot inside you, changed and formed by the Allspark. You can feel it,
can’t you? I can, and I’m just peripherally linked to the implant.
The hybrid can feel it, too.”
Nick didn’t flinch, but he felt a shiver race through him. “I
don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The smile was terrible. “Don’t deceive yourself with lies, Nick
MacKenzie. You detected Starscream, felt his presence.”
Nick tried to school his features. He had so far been lucky that the
whole
matter of how he had known to get out of the casino in time had
apparently been
ignored or forgotten.
“The implant is a weapon,” the Decepticon told him. “Your
weapon. It changed you and it will so in the future.”
“What do you know?” Nick asked, voice rough.
Another smile. “Only what I felt. You’re no longer just any
human.”
Nick smirked. “I’m the one you can’t kill.”
That got him dark laughter. “Yes. For now I will lay low, wait and see.
I
might never be able to serve the Decepticons again, but I won’t trust a
single Autobot with my spark either.”
“You already did. Ratchet fixed you.”
“Because he is compassionate and weak.”
Nick chuckled without humor. “Preferable to cold-hearted and
cruel.”
A chilling smile. “It takes a like-minded being to know what that
means,
doesn’t it, Nick MacKenzie?”
Barricade leaned over him, optics bright red. Nick felt Karr almost
suffocating
him through the link. He had told him to stay back, not interfere, and
Karr was
getting more frantic by the second.
“You are a very unique human, Nick. You have my respect and my loyalty,
the only one of your kind.”
With that he straightened and transformed again.
“Keep out of trouble,” Nick only said.
He gazed at the black hood that was in front of him, his knees and
shins
against the fender.
“I’m a Decepticon. I don’t make promises.”
He smiled. Yeah. Right.
Reversing out of the alley, Barricade disappeared around the corner.
Nick
stayed where he was until Karr approached, probing carefully.
“I’m fine,” he answered automatically.
“The guts!” Karr growled, furious.
“Now we know he’s back to normal.”
Karr snorted, clicking his door open for Nick to get in. His driver sat
down on
the leather seats, looking thoughtful.
//Nick?//
//Just thinking// He shrugged.
“He’s a Decepticon. He’s trying to manipulate you,”
Karr insisted. “Nothing is changing for you. And even if there will be
in
the future, you don’t need him.”
He nodded. “I’m not going to look for him, Karr. This isn’t
just about us, partner. Kitt and Michael are in danger should he ever
discover
them.“
Karr rumbled uneasily, protective instincts flaring. Barricade didn’t
have the access to the implant that Karr had, and with it to Nick, and
Karr
would make sure there would be no change in that. His partner would be
safe
from the Decepticon, and so would his brother.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
Not far away, Barricade was watching the human and the hybrid. His mind
was
tracking the reassuring pulses of the human. There was much to Nick
that he yet
didn’t know, but Barricade was nothing if not tenacious.
Things would change. For him, for Nick, for the hybrid machine he was
bonded
to. Barricade had no medical knowledge on humans and Cybertronians; he
was a
warrior. But he knew that Nick MacKenzie was no longer human in many
regards.
Mainly physical. His body had been altered, was still changing, and he
was
realizing powers he still denied.
He smiled to himself.
Their future would be an interesting one.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
All stories must come to an end. Thank you to all who read the fic and
commented, or just read and liked it. :) It was my first venture into
the TF
movie world after not writing TF (as well as the KR AU) for so many
years. I
can't promise a sequel. The Imperfections series is taking up a lot of
time
right now and still going very strong (serious Barricade problem
here... really
serious...)