TITLE:
Elements
SERIES: Imperfection, part 14
AUTHOR: Macx
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: None of the characters belong to me, sadly. They are owned
by
people with a lot more money
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
It was raining. Not just a little bit. It was coming down like
waterfalls. Water
cascaded off buildings and onto sidewalks. People had long since fled
inside
and whoever had to drive was doing so carefully. Canals were flooding.
The sky
was dark and getting darker by the minute. Somewhere in the distance a
storm
was brewing.
Barricade knew it had been a stupid idea to be out and about in this
weather. But
here he was. His tires still found traction where normal Earth vehicles
would
start slipping, but the former Decepticon had to employ more power to
his
navigational skills than he wanted to. He was up to the middle of his
hub caps
in water and it was flowing by him at an amazing speed.
Rolling past locked down shops and parked cars, Barricade decided
patrol was
over. There was no one outside, and any
criminal dumb
enough to try something now would probably drown. Served
him
well.
Cybertron hadn’t had weather. At least not like humans understood it.
There
had been no rain or snow or dry spells. There had been no deserts, no
seas, no
rock and no sand. It had been the same year-round. There had been
differences
in temperature from day to night or from the equator to the poles, but those difference had been negligible.
Sometimes Barricade missed this controlled environment with its
ever-present
metal and glass and plastic. Cybertron had held no surprises for him.
Earth still did.
The first day he had spent on this world he had been overwhelmed by the
very
nature everywhere. Mars had been barren, with just sand and rock. Earth
had
trees and organic life in a wide variety. It was a life that was
everywhere, in
every size and shape and form. It survived extremes of heat and cold.
It
developed and flourished where he would have believed it to die.
Jazz was fascinated by everything new. He was a born explorer.
Barricade had at
first been unnerved, then annoyed, then indifferent as long as nature
didn’t try to kill him.
Thunder rolled through the sky and Barricade felt an echoing rumble in
his
chest. This was just plain bad. Weather was terrible, be it sun that
burned hot
enough to peel the paint off his armor or
sleeting
rain that wanted to freeze his joints. Ceaselessly rained upon was
rating next
to getting stuck in muddy trenches.
Not something he wanted to repeat. Frenzy hadn’t been helpful back then
either. He had been suicidally gleeful.
A wave of water hit him and Barricade growled like a large, dangerous
animal as
the Pontiac Solstice stopped next to him.
“Hey, ‘Cade! Headin’
back?” Jazz called.
Hyper. Happy. Fully in his element.
Barricade wanted to mangle something. He hated weather.
“Yes.”
Jazz accelerated, an impossible task for any Earth vehicle with the
amount of
water on the road, then braked hard and skidded sideways, narrowly
missing a
lamp post, and going over an empty intersection.
“This is like surfin’, dude!” he
laughed.
Barricade would have rolled his eyes if he had adopted any human traits
at all
so far.
“It’s a hostile environment,” he grumbled.
“Go with the flow, Cade. It’s just water!”
One more flippant remark and he would really mangle something.
Barricade rolled
after the Solstice at a safe pace, shaking his head at the antics of
his
companion.
Somewhere in the distance lightning flashed over the now black sky.
Barricade
could feel the energy unload and his skin tingled. The reserves of this
planet
in natural powers were incredible and the humans harnessed so little of
it.
Mud splattered on his windshield and Barricade snarled in annoyance.
Jazz was
fishtailing in front of him -- deliberately.
“Stop that, Autobot!”
“C’mon! A little mud harmed no one before!”
“I will harm you if you don’t stop it!”
“You gotta catch me first, Cade!”
And with that the Solstice accelerated. Barricade felt energon race
through his
systems and the predator peeked out from under the cover of perfect
control. He
followed Jazz, the chase freeing something inside of him he rarely let
out
outside a battle, and he tore after the
°°° °°° °°° °°°
Jazz was in his element. The water-logged streets posed no problem,
though he
had less traction than normal, and the spray of water behind him
doubled as a
visibility shield. He shot out of the town and onto the highway,
keeping an eye
on his pursuer. Barricade was handling himself well and actually
gaining on
him.
The Autobot smirked and accelerated more. He hadn’t reached top speed
yet
and he knew Barricade wouldn’t be able to keep up with him if he did.
Veering off to the right he had to fight the loss of traction that
threatened
to throw him off the road, then he was speeding again.
Barricade followed.
Taking the empty road – the humans had sought shelter from the elements
already – Jazz led the merry chase away from the human settlement and
somewhere more secluded. It didn’t stop the rain, which was just as
merciless out here, but at least there was no danger of colliding with
anyone.
But there was another danger, one he realized too late.
There was a dip in the road as it described a narrow curve, and
suddenly Jazz
found himself diving nose first into water. He gave a cry of alarm as
he lost
traction and was swept off the road and along what looked like a
roaring river.
Flash flood! ran through his mind.
Where there had been only a dried out river bed there was now boiling
water,
foaming, hissing, out of control. Dark with sediment and filled with
debris it
had taken with it along the route, it was a death trap to humans and
dangerous
to one silver Autobot.
There was the roar of water, the tremble of the ground as the masses
washed
around him, tearing at the sandy walls, the bushes, the rocks. Jazz
transformed
and his four-fingered hands grabbed for something to hold him. For all
his
weight and size, he was nothing but a toy for the raging waters.
Burying his
fingers in the mud, he tried to find purchase for his feet, but the mud
was
slippery and eroded under his hands.
Cursing his stupidity, he kept scrambling for any kind of safety rope
in
whatever form. It came in the shape of a claw closing around his wrist,
clamping down hard not to lose him, and a sudden heave. Jazz fought the
water
that tried to drag him back and a second claw grabbed his chest armor, lifting him up and throwing him over the
edge of the
washed out river bed.
He landed hard, optics and audio receptor ringing, and there was water,
and
mud, in places he didn’t want to contemplate. Looking up he found
himself
meeting a pair of furious optics. Glowing red, set in a black face, the
optics
belonged to a very pissed of Barricade. The black sky was a rather
appropriate
setting and he looked like some hellish avenging demon.
“Are you okay?” he demanded, voice rough.
“Yeah, I guess so. Uh, thanks.”
“I don’t know how you managed to survive so far!” Barricade
hissed furiously. “What in Cybertron’s
name were you thinking?!”
Jazz sighed and sat up, mud falling off his back. “We’re not at
war, Cade. This is the time we have for us, before the next, inevitable
encounter with the Decepticons. It might be decades from now, but I’m
sure Starscream will come back. Just for
vengeance.”
“Well, you won’t be around then,” was the dry remark. “Earth
will kill you first.”
“It was just water,” Jazz grumbled and got up.
Barricade didn’t say anything, just glared, and it was a frightening
sight, backed up by the lightning dancing across the sky. Mud washed
off the
silver armor, streaking in broad rivulets
down to
trickle into exposed muscle cables. Barricade walked over to him and
flicked
more mud off one shoulder. He looked still pissed off.
“Humans say it’s good for the skin,” Jazz remarked with a
small smile.
“You’re not human.”
“You noticed,” came the tease.
Barricade glowered more.
The rain was unrelenting and the raging river next to them reminded
Jazz of his
stupid little game. He gazed at it, then shrugged and smiled slightly
at his
partner.
“Home?” he made a peace offering.
Barricade looked indecisive. He didn’t like to be cooped up among the
Autobots any more than before, but the close call and the weather
gnawed at
him.
“You think you can make it there without losing a limb?” he wanted
to know, sarcasm bleeding into his rough voice.
“I’ll try.”
“How about trying to keep with the speed limit?”
“You take the fun out of my life.”
“At least you live.”
Jazz transformed, shedding more mud in the process. “Spoilsport.”
Barricade followed his example and they returned to the road, the pace
docile.
When both pulled into the dry safety of the hangar, Ratchet looked up
from
whatever project he had been working on, his optics narrowing at the
sight.
“What happened to you?” he demanded.
Jazz transformed, dripping water and mud. “Nothing.
It’s just raining outside, Ratchet, or haven’t you noticed?”
The medic’s sharp gaze felt on the scuff marks over the always smooth
and
otherwise unblemished armor. Jazz ignored
the look.
Barricade stayed back, successfully blending into the background,
watching.
“I just need a good wash,” Jazz declared and walked deeper into the
hangar.
Ratchet’s narrowed optics fell on Barricade, silently prompting him to
say something, but the former Decepticon just followed his silver
partner.
Deep down inside the hangar Jazz descended to the underground level and
headed
for what doubled as private quarters. Jazz took a quick shower and when
he came
out, gleaming and dry, Barricade was leaning against the wall, arms
crossed,
looking dark and foreboding.
“Would you just let it go? I was stupid. It happened. Thanks for saving
me, Cade,” Jazz said, walking up to the other.
“You were stupid,” Barricade agreed. “I’m not your
bodyguard.”
They heard a loud rumble, even down underground, and Jazz tilted his
head a
little. “Still going strong. Want to go
upstairs
and watch?”
“It’s water coming from the sky and
electricity unloading within the atmosphere.”
“And it’s cool to watch.”
Barricade pushed away from the wall, slightly exasperated. “This planet
doesn’t become you, Autobot.”
But he followed Jazz upstairs again.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
It was a rare sight, Ratchet mused as he
looked past
his work station and toward the open entrance of the hangar. Jazz was
sitting
on several metal crates that had contained materials delivered to the
Autobots
a few days ago by the Airforce. He was looking relaxed, like he enjoyed
the
raging storms outside. He was cast into the twilight created from the
darkness
outside and the lights from the base.
Next to him, almost invisible due to his black coloring,
Barricade was leaning against the same crate, arms crossed, looking his
usual
dark self. Red optics glowed next to blue ones, but they didn’t look
dangerous. Actually, the whole picture looked… harmonic.
Ratchet almost shook his head. Those two looked so different, but they
were
also so much alike. At least underneath their façade that they
wore like an armor.
Jazz was saying something, gesturing at the forces of nature outside.
Ratchet
couldn’t hear it, nor could he hear the reply, but he could almost see
Barricade smile.
It had been a year now. An Earth year. Jazz
was back
among them and Barricade had defected from the Decepticons. It had been
an
interesting year and Ratchet knew that the next ones would be even more
interesting.
He was really looking
forward to it.