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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 29, 2008 14:47:52 GMT -5
So. Only if someone shows up and tries to hurt him is Thundercracker supposed to call for the treasure hunter. Then Barricade will simply have to be sure to make Thundercracker understand that he isn't going to hurt the Seeker.
He has to duck under cover and out of sight when Skyfire leaves, however....
Skyfire has left. Skyfire has left, leaving Thundercracker unguarded.
And unfettered, save for his commands.
// Skyfire's gone. I'm making entry and making contact, // he bursts off to Singe, trusting the targetmaster to pass the message on. He can't wait for Pee-Dee; she'll catch up with him.
Once Skyfire has vanished from sight and is obviously not planning on coming back, Barricade crosses back to the doorway, sliding the door open.
"Thundercracker."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Aug 29, 2008 15:20:58 GMT -5
When Singe relays Barricade's latest radio message, Pee-Dee stops dead. That idiot! "You know, this is why I don't do partners. Don't relay that."
If there weren't so much at stake here and he wasn't so delicate, she'd leave him out to dry for this. As it is, she's decided that she's ditching him as soon as they've got the jet safe and sound out of from the Autobots' clutches.
As it is, Pee-Dee returns to the important task of making her way quietly and out-of-sight to where Thundercracker is supposed to be.
---
Not on the scene for a round or two.
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Aug 29, 2008 19:53:10 GMT -5
At the sound of the door opening Thundercracker pauses in his tracks and turns. Did Skyfire forget something and return for it? Or did someone see his master leave and decide to take advantage of his absence to harass the Seeker?
The latter, it appears, as a jagged-looking Decepticon appears in the doorway. Out of habit he shrinks back a few steps, but for a moment Thundercracker forgets to be frightened as he stares, straining to recall a name, an identity. That face... he knows that face... but the name attached to it has faded from his memory banks...
"Who are you?" he asks quietly, unable to keep the slightest tremor from his voice. "W-what do you want?"
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 29, 2008 20:27:38 GMT -5
Who is he? Who is he?
Thundercracker doesn't remember him.
But there had been such a brief look of intensity, as if he'd been trying to remember.
"Just to talk," he replies, stepping just inside the doorway and stopping there. "That's it. You're allowed to talk, aren't you?"
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Aug 29, 2008 21:24:38 GMT -5
Skyfire hasn't specifically forbidden him to talk, no... but he did leave a warning, one that still rings in his CPU: Don't let yourself get in a vulnerable position with them; don't let the familiar faces fool you... He wants to trust this mech. He wants desperately to trust another that wears the Decepticon shield. But how to know that this isn't one of the Others...
"I know you," is all he says in reply, and quietly.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Aug 31, 2008 12:50:10 GMT -5
The people on Gillanan know Pee-Dee know she clatters in those silly heeled feet of hers.
The people on Junk knows she doesn't have to if she doesn't want to.
---
Still not on scene yet.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Sept 4, 2008 18:47:30 GMT -5
Hope flares bright and hot within Barricade as he stares intently at Thundercracker.
"Do you?" he asks, still making no move to approach any nearer. "Who am I, then, Thundercracker?" Is it the face the Seeker remembers, if he does, indeed, remember anything? Or is it himself who Thundercracker recalls?
Can he truly be circumventing Perceptor's work?
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Sept 5, 2008 22:00:29 GMT -5
At the intruder's inquiry, Thundercracker looks away as he struggles to remember. So much of his memory has been lost, and while helpful fragments remain, that's all they are -- fragments. Faces without names, names without faces, events that were surely monumental at one time but whose significance has faded...
"Wreckage?" The moment the name escapes his vocalizer he knows it's wrong, but it's too late to recant the guess. "I'm sorry... ever since Perceptor..."
Here he stops, unsure whether to continue or not. Trust me on this; they're not your friends... trust him like you'd trust Gizmo, if you get my drift... If only he knew whether this was one of his Decepticons, or one of the Others... 1
1. Thundercracker is unaware of the different radio frequencies between the 'Cons-1 and the Cons-3.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Sept 7, 2008 16:33:13 GMT -5
Somewhere in the course of sneaking away from Barricade to meet up with the other Barricade, the disappointment that Barricade acted unreliably faded. She was used to working with unreliable people. They pretty much covered her planet.
It wasn't his fault that she'd decided that all Cybertronians were paragons of sense and stability. She shouldn't take it out on him.
Well, maybe a little.
Flamethrower in hand, Pee-Dee sidles up to the doorway. She can hear Barricade and a deep voice talking on the other side of it. Deep voice didn't recognize Barricade.
Barricade's already opened negotiations with the victim, though, so she's not going to throw him off by stepping in. Until and unless he's pretty obviously fumbling this, she'll wait outside.
---
Skippable.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Sept 8, 2008 16:29:04 GMT -5
Barricade hadn't meant to be unreliable. It's just that they've been waiting for a chance to get Thundercracker back for so long, and, well...
Okay, he's a rash idiot most of the time. Frenzy is usually the one to put his brakes on for him when he's about to do something monumentally stupid, like try to challenge Prime to single-handed combat or something. Sometimes Wreckage smacks him with a clue by four, too. Usually, though, he bites off more than he can chew and ends up somehow managing to get out of trouble by the virtue that Good Guys Always Win. Mostly.
Or else Frenzy jabs him with a well-timed jolt that makes him duck in time. Okay, usually.
"Yeah. Perceptor," Barricade replies, an edge to his voice as the claws of his blaster hand curl into a fist. What he'd do to get just fifteen minutes alone with that guy. Hell, even five minutes.
"Close," he continues, making an effort to relax that claw again. He's usually a better actor than this, but seeing Thundercracker with his own optics, struggling to remember something as simple as a name... Especially after having overheard the Seeker having to call that treasure hunter "Master". It just makes him so slagging mad. "Wreckage is my friend. I'm Barricade. Ring any bells?"
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Sept 9, 2008 8:27:49 GMT -5
Barricade... wasn't there one of the Others called Barricade? Though in the very brief glimpses he's gotten of the Others, he has to admit that the Other Barricade would hardly be talking kindly to him...
Then, unexpectedly, something he hasn't known in a long time wells up in him -- hope. If this is his Barricade... has he brought others of their Decepticons with him? Could it truly be that they've come to rescue him? His gaze moves toward the door, wondering if there are others waiting on the other side -- Barricade's "calvary," so to speak.
Unless this is some sort of cunning test laid by Skyfire, or some attempt by the Others to catch the wayward Seeker in the act of escape, that they might have an excuse to "play" with him...
"Vaguely," he confesses. "I... I remember Wreckage... and I remember a little of you..." Something occurs to him -- another fragment of memory that seems trivial enough, but that he clings to nonetheless. "Don't you have a partner? Frenzy... wasn't it?"
Then he dares speak his hope aloud: "Is Starscream here... our Starscream? Who else is here?"
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Post by Barricade-3 on Sept 10, 2008 5:54:36 GMT -5
The Other Barricade would also hardly call anyone his "friend," either.
More relief, plainly written across his features this time, as he nods. "I do. And, yeah, it is. You remembered right."
// Pee-Dee, what's your 20?1 //
"He isn't," Barricade replies shaking his head. He wishes he could tell Thundercracker everything, how they'd come to be there, who all had come, where everyone was at, but beyond not knowing the exact answers to all of those questions, there's security to think of. He doesn't know what Thundercracker may have been programmed to do just yet.
"Just me and a friend. We've come to get you the slag outta here."
1) 20 - cop speak for location; an abbreviation of the oral brevity 10-code, "10-20" utilized by many law enforcement agencies. 10-codes can vary from agency to agency, but several of them, "10-4" meaning affirmative, and "10-20" meaning location, remain pretty universal.
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Sept 10, 2008 8:42:38 GMT -5
Barricade's relief is mirrored in Thundercracker's own face -- so his memory isn't as unreliable as he first thought.
At the mention of "a friend," his optics once again move to the door. Perhaps Wreckage is here? Or was he referring to Frenzy? Probably not, or he would have referred to the little stereo system by name...
Then Barricade states their intentions, confirming his hopes. And as if that statement triggers something insidious in his programming, Thundercracker's hope is immediately beseiged with outright terror. He can't leave... he can't disobey Skyfire... if he leaves the consequences when Skyfire finally catches up with him will be terrible...
He backs up a step, almost expecting the treasure hunter to burst in behind Barricade. "No... I can't... Skyfire..."
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Spinister-3
Cadet
"I live for the day when no one has to fear."
Posts: 79
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Post by Spinister-3 on Sept 10, 2008 16:21:23 GMT -5
Spinister has a habit of listening in on human cop bands1. Singe shares his mind with Spinister, even across the distance.
The question is for Pee-Dee, but if he talks, he'll give away her position. The Nebulan is in a quandary! So, instead, he plays Secretary to Miss Pee-Dee and answers Barricade quietly, //...outside the door?//
1 It's even canon for Spinister-1.
OOC: Singe is Pee-Dee's gun right now. Skippable.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Sept 12, 2008 12:36:19 GMT -5
Slag! Perceptor's fragging programming! Barricade stifles any outward display of temper, although inwardly, he's seething. To see Thundercracker reduced to a frightened, panicked wreck at the mere mention of "disobediance"... One clean shot. That's all Barricade wants on that sick psycho scientist. Just one. Clean. Shot.
// Just outside? Good. Gonna give you both an opening to make entry. //
"Whoa, it's okay, Thunder. It's okay. Nevermind," he says calmly, holding up his empty hands in a soothing gesture. "It's okay. I won't get you into trouble. I promise. Nevermind, okay?"
Everything about his posture is non-threatening and calming, from the slump of his shoulders to the way he tilts his head a little down and to one side so that he is looking up at Thundercracker from the corners of his optics. For the moment, Barricade is the very picture of calm subservience as he takes a slow, non-threatening step toward Thundercracker.
"We'll just hang out here where Skyfire told you to stay. Okay? How about you and my friend and I all just sit down and talk for a little while?" he asks, shuffling another step then two closer. "Nothing to get you in trouble. Skyfire said it was okay to talk to people as long as you stayed here, right? Then we'll just do that, okay? How does that sound?"
Another slow shuffle forward. "My friend is gonna come on in and we're just gonna sit down and talk for a little while. Skyfire will never even know that we were here. Deal?"
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