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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Oct 9, 2008 23:03:15 GMT -5
For once being the type to overthink everything, Thundercracker has fallen out of the habit of thinking for himself. It doesn't take terribly deep thinking to follow commands or follow after Skyfire, after all. So it takes awhile before he's able to come up with a suggestion.
"I'm not too familiar with the area," he confesses. He's been locked in this warehouse since the victory celebration began, after all. "But... we flew over the desert on our way here... and I saw a few canyons that might suit our purposes..."
He hesitates, then takes a step toward the door. Barricade has a point -- the longer they remain here, the better the chances Skyfire will return and catch them...
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Post by Pee-Dee on Oct 11, 2008 12:54:08 GMT -5
"Good!" Pee-Dee claps her hands together. "Let's go make sure we know where they are, all right? And remember, this is hush-hush, need-to-know only."
The Junkion steps out of the door ahead of Thundercracker and scans the street. No signs of anyone. Thank Hollywood for the party last night; no one who was anyone wanted to be out right now.
"Follow me out of town. I know some winding ways."
---
We can has timeskip to canyons?
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Post by Barricade-3 on Oct 12, 2008 19:52:13 GMT -5
"Excellent," Barricade agrees, hands flexing in an unconscious gesture to be back in motion, back in action, once again.
"10-041," he adds, following after Thundercracker. "Follow the yellow brick road, only, let's try to avoid the wizard if we can, yeah?"
He pauses at the door, checking back in the cavernous warehouse to make sure that he is leaving no sign of his visit, not even a definitive track in the dust, before slipping out and securing the door. Like ghosts. Nothing but shadows and phantoms have been here, and these are not the droids you are looking for.
Too much Earth pop culture, apparently, but maybe that will give him an edge in relating to Pee-Dee better. He's not too averse to that possibility at all, nosir.
1 - Law Enforcement ten code speak for "Yes."
ooc - time skip away!
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Oct 13, 2008 23:09:23 GMT -5
Timeskip to the canyons...
It's some time later when Thundercracker leads Barricade and Pee-Dee into one of the canyons. It's a desolate place, wind singing over the lip of the ravine and filling his audials with a lonely howl. There are several canyons splitting the ground in this area, but this is the deepest... thus, the one that Thundercracker judges will be the one that a flier would be least likely to spot anyone hiding here.
He turns to the others. "Will this do? Should we return for Swerve now?"
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Post by Pee-Dee on Oct 16, 2008 12:42:15 GMT -5
Pee-Dee transforms to robot-mode and looks around. This is... way out in the boondocks. The bottom of the canyon was a sharp, ugly mess of broken lava beds. The wind shrilling through the place gave the impression that it hadn't seen life since it had cooled into stone.
Just the kind of place for dumping a body.
"Yeah, this is good." Pee-Dee pats Mr. Singe in what she construes to be a comforting manner. She is about to be a bad, bad person.
"You're not going to like me very much," she tells Thundercracker as she palms a shiv of jagged metal. One step, two steps, three steps, and she's almost on him.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Oct 20, 2008 12:17:42 GMT -5
Desolation.
That's the first word that springs to Barricade's mind when they finally stop in the twisting, turning, jagged pocket of a canyon far from the edges of encampment. The stone teeth jutting up from the ground, the jagged rents torn into the earth, the falls of stone caught frozen in time from some ancient - he hopes - volcanic upheaval all speak of lonely desolation. No thin, unhealthy whisps of vegetation have yet dared to try and scrape out their meager existance here yet, and the howl of the wind through the rough scar torn into the landscape is as baleful as the howl of an Autobot Hunter's engine through a dead-end steel canyon back home. Even the sunlight seems thin and lackluster here, as if even its energy cannot fully dispel the shadows lingering, despite beating down so harshly from the violet-tinged sky above.
In other words, it's perfect. Except that his tires ache upon the hard, biting stone that makes up the excuse for a road path here, curbing the urge to race.
Barricade transforms as he rolls up near where Thundercracker has landed, body swiveling as he takes in the entirety of their surroundings. "Yeah, Thunder, this oughtta be perfect," he replies, nodding.
Perfect for keeping a seeking shuttle-'Bot from seeing his lost "pet" from the sky.
"Good job, Thunder," Barricade adds, reaching up to pat Thundercracker on the back, right between his wings. "This is just the thing we needed."
And then those silver claws close around one upright intake, holding the Seeker in place long enough for Barricade to seize one of Thundercracker's arms, restraining him for Pee-Dee.
She isn't the only bad, bad person here. Barricade cannot help but wonder if Thundercracker will ever be able to trust him again after this, but expediency and necessity sometimes dictate that some actions be taken, however distasteful they may be. At least this time, the energon-shed will be minimal, and Thunder will live to fly again when they are done. It's for the best.
Barricade just hopes that Hook will be able to undo what that freak of an Autobot has done to Thundercracker. Barricade hates being made a liar.
ooc: manhandling of Thundercracker done with permission.
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Oct 20, 2008 13:29:23 GMT -5
Thundercracker just nods as both Pee-Dee and Barricade agree that the canyon will work to conceal Swerve. Then it's time to return for the Velocitronian. It's the least he can do to help his comrades...
Pee-Dee's statement triggers a twinge of unease, however, and he starts to turn to ask her why... only to feel claws clamp down around his intake. He stiffens in alarm, alarm that quickly escalates into panic as Barricade grabs his arm.
It's a trap! he thinks frantically, and struggles briefly to pull free. He's shocked enough that he doesn't think to radio Skyfire yet...
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Post by Pee-Dee on Oct 22, 2008 13:10:32 GMT -5
"Sssh, sssh." Pee-Dee presses her body against the struggling Seeker's, trying to mute his motions with pressure and closeness. Not quite as tall as he is, and her angles are unfamiliar and don't fit in against curvy Seeker shapes, not like they do against another motorcycle. But she's been doing this for years and years.
She grabs him by the chin and jerks his head to the side. "It'll be all right. You keep your eyes over there, tell me what you see."
Even as she's telling him to keep his optics turned away, her makeshift knife bites into the neck joint, carves it open. She shifts her grip on the knife and cuts his radio clean out.
Neat, fast, but unfortunately painful because Pee-Dee keeps forgetting Cybertronians experience that.
---
Removal of radio done with player permission.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Oct 24, 2008 22:11:52 GMT -5
Just because Barricade can do the odd unsavory thing for the betterment of all, doesn't mean that he doesn't still feel like smelting slag for doing it. Feeling like smelting slag isn't going to make him cut Thundercracker loose, though.
"'M sorry, Thunder," he murmurs against the Seeker's unfettered intake. "It's gonna be okay. I swear it. I'll get the D-"
Damn. He should have just knocked Thundercracker out, spared him this. Too late now, and they have some explaining to do anyway, if the Seeker doesn't panic too much to listen to them now.
"Just trust us. We'll fix it."
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Oct 24, 2008 23:42:52 GMT -5
Thundercracker trembles as Pee-Dee presses against him, trapping him between her and Barricade. What are they doing? Perhaps he was wrong all along, and this is his Pee-Dee and the Other Barricade, luring him into a trap so they can toy with him as they please? Stupid for trusting them, Skyfire was right all along, stupid, stupid!
"No," he whimpers as she turns his head to look away from her. "Please, don't... please..." His pleading trails off in a sharp cry as her makeshift blade slices into his neck, carving something out... his radio!
"Please," he hisses desperately, unable to still his shaking. "If you're going to kill me, please make it quick..."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Oct 28, 2008 18:50:57 GMT -5
"I'm not going to kill you," Pee-Dee informs him. "That would be silly after getting you all the way out here."
She slides the knife behind her wrist armor before stepping back from Thundercracker. With one hand, she holds his radio, and with the other she reaches out as if to pat his shoulder. But she can't bring herself to touch the terrified Transformer.
"I'm sorry," she says finally. "But we don't want Skyfire to call you back. As long as he can reach into your head, there's no way you can get fixed."
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Post by Barricade-3 on Nov 12, 2008 15:27:25 GMT -5
"No one's killing you, Thunder," Barricade agrees, though he cannot afford to let the Seeker loose yet. Not until they're sure he isn't going to try flying off on them.
Barricade really does not want to have to blast out Thundercracker's thrusters, in addition to Pee-Dee carving out his radio.
"But now, he can get to you anymore. We're gonna get you fixed up. Fixed up right. I promise, Thunder. I promise."
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Post by Thundercracker-3 on Nov 12, 2008 23:59:32 GMT -5
At first Barricade and Pee-Dee's words don't quite register with Thundercracker. He's too panicked, his frame shaking and his air intakes coming in hysterical wheezes. It takes a long time for him to realize that the expected death blow hasn't come yet, that he's still functioning despite his fears.
They aren't going to kill him. They're going to ensure he's repaired. Fully repaired... no more reprogramming...
At long last, his shaking stills to just a slight tremble. "What... what now?"
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Post by Pee-Dee on Nov 17, 2008 14:02:02 GMT -5
"We sit down and play rummy while Officer Barricade goes to find the Professor and Mary-Anne." Suiting actions to words, Pee-Dee sits cross-legged on the ground then pats the space across from her. "Sit, sit!"
She points at Barricade. "You should go have a look-see around the temple in the woods."
What? It's not like she has a working radio here. Speaking of which, she ought to see if she can bring it online after Barricade leaves.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Nov 17, 2008 18:12:26 GMT -5
Slowly, very slowly, Barricade releases Thundercracker, keeping his blaster arm down, but the transform and firing sequence primed and warmed up, just in case he has to quick-fire out those thrusters, in case Thundercracker spooks again and tries to bolt, overcome by re-programming.
"Uhh... yeah," he replies, nodding in agreement with Pee-Dee. Professor? Mary-Anne? He has some Earth trivia downloaded into his banks, but he's not the TeeVeePhile that Pee-Dee is, and Gilligan's Island is a bit before anything he'd scanned yet.
Especially since it didn't exactly have any cops in it.
// Who's Mary-Anne? // he asks Frenzy privately, hoping that his hacker partner might have snagged the right files to clear up the mystery. Professor is fairly intuitive; Barricade needs to go fetch them a doc capable of fixing Thundercracker up.
"You stay here with Pee-Dee, okay, Thunder?" he orders urgently. "You gotta stay here while I fetch the Doc so we can get you all fixed up. If you skate on us, we can't get you fixed, so you have to stay here, got it?"
"And once the Doc has you all good as new, I'll make sure that neither one of those freaks can ever get their dirty, stinking Autobot hands on you ever again, deal?" he promises, then turns an apologetic and embarassed look upon Pee-Dee. "No offense, ma'am."
The really nice thing about being out here away from all those nasty Autobots and their screwy evil Decepticon counterparts? Barricade doesn't exactly have to use a whole lot of stealth and he turns and transforms to beat tires back to his own Decepticons. No skulking about and hiding to slow him down. Nope. Just hot rubber and dry packed sand and a rooster-tail of dust in his wake as he peels out, radioing for his Hook and his superiors to give them an update as he goes.
ooc: Barricade, unless stopped, is out of thread, scooting back to the 'Cons-3, looking for Hook and company. Will start a new thread for that when Hook-3's player is ready.
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