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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 12, 2008 18:56:06 GMT -5
Just be an ass. Act like I belong, own the world, and if someone confronts me, be an ass. I can do that.
Well, at least this Barricade hopes that he can be enough of an ass to pass muster for his alternate. He isn't exactly in the habit of being a selfish jerk, or of going undercover like this without a character study or something. And since Pee-Dee has never run into his alternate, all she'd been able to suggest was being an ass.
But they can't leave Thundercracker behind. Can. Not.
// Do me a favor, // he transmits privately to his partner tucked safely inside. // If I start being too nice, zap me or something. 'K? //
With one last sigh, Galahad gathers his confidence and his cockiness around him, assumes a glowering scowl, and strolls into the perimeter of the inhabited portions Mordred's now ruined base and city.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 14, 2008 5:44:09 GMT -5
This had probably been a pretty nice little town, once upon a time. Once before the Prime, actually. Destruction is pretty evident everywhere, and that scowl isn't quite as faked now as it had been as Barricade slinks languidly through the shattered streets.
It's the senseless destruction of everything good that Barricade hates the most about the Autobots. That incessant need to dominate everything they touch and shatter everything that cannot be ruled. The deeper into this broken city he penetrates, the angrier he gets.
Perhaps it will not be such a difficult thing to "be an ass" if he is challenged.
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 14, 2008 15:10:29 GMT -5
No matter how great the party was, and how celebratory the victors are, some poor bastard has to patrol the morning after... and several mornings after that. Preferably the low guy on the totem pole that no one cares if he's pissed off. It's a double benefit if said bottom-of-the-pole guy has pissed off the upper ranks himself.
Thus, Duskwing found himself flying over the city streets on patrol as Barricade slunk into the city. Oh look, there's a black and white... something. Looked like a Kalis zombie. Probably one of Wreckage's friends. Maybe I oughta ask Wreckage why all his buddies are zombies.
One of theirs... but nothing in his orders said Duskwing was supposed to give anyone that looked like a Decepticon a free pass. He was supposed to be patrolling, and if he screwed up, Starscream would probably cannon him again. That guy was getting like Dead End said Galvatron was. Hope he sucks a spanner down his turbines.
"Hey, you!" Duskwing snapped as he transformed and dropped gently to the ground behind Barricade. How many times had Scourge demonstrated why you don't challenge an angry robot with wheels from the front?
"Who 'r you, and whaddiya doin' here?" Duskwing snarled, guns half-raised and warm.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 14, 2008 15:19:22 GMT -5
Jet engines overhead warn Barricade that he is about to be no longer alone before Duskwing drops in for a landing. He half turns, not fully around, but enough to glare at the Seeker from over his shoulder, as if he is unconcerned about the purple and blue jet's presence.
Mainly, it's to keep his path clear if this bluff fails and he has to bolt for it.
"Barricade, moron," he growls, pitching his voice lower than normal and revving his engine with irritation. "Or have you forgotten that already? What's it to you?"
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 14, 2008 16:58:21 GMT -5
Duskwing stared blankly at Barricade for a few moments, then scowled. "It's my job! I'm patrolling."
The thought that Duskwing was patrolling instead of recharging like almost everyone else made him scowl even more.
Waitaminute! Did this guy just call him a moron? Duskwing charged his guns up a bit more and pointed them at Barricade's face.
"One a' Wreckage's zombie-face buddies got a lot of nerve callin' me a moron! Ever look in a mirror--lemme guess, dey break when you do!" Duskwing snarled back, surreptitiously pleased to have thought of that witticism1.
This Duskwing may seem more belligerent than the one Barricade-3 knows, but he's every bit as smart.
--- 1 Well, Duskwing thought it was witty.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 14, 2008 17:11:50 GMT -5
Barricade turns a bit more to face Duskwing, placing his cannon arm in better line with the rather... dim-witted Seeker, though he isn't very eager to utilize the weapon. Attracts too much attention, for one thing, and as dumb as Duskwing is, he should still be able to bluff his way past this, for another.
"Clever," he intones, boredome written into every line of his posture. "Shouldn't you be off cozying up to Skyfire or something? He likes jets like you."
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 14, 2008 18:45:10 GMT -5
Red optics narrowed. "I don't get cozy with Autobots," Duskwing snarled, voice full of hate.
"And dat one, he's kinda freaky. Not as freaky as that slagging hackjob piece of corroded sump-pit piping Perceptor..." Duskwing fumed, momentarily stifled by the spike of pure hatred choking his vocalizer. He lowered his armguns, too furious at just the memory of Perceptor, and at the sheer unfairness of the Autobots repairing someone he'd so thoroughly slagged.
"But he's freaky. Orderin' the other TC around like he's some kinda pet, and I hear he was lookin' funny at our TC," Duskwing growled, voice still heavy with hate. He remembered the threats that had been made when he was the Autobot's prisoner, about ending up like Thundercracker.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 14, 2008 20:24:48 GMT -5
Well, obviously Perceptor is making himself just as popular here as he had been back "home".
"How much longer is Starscream going to make us put up with those slaggers, anyway?" Barricade growls, motioning with one hand for Duskwing to join him as he turns to continue strolling along.
"Where are those freaks, anyway? I don't trust them out of sight," he adds, and he doesn't have to fake the way his claws flex angrily. "Don't trust any of them, but that Skyfire... I don't trust him to not go looking for another 'pet'."
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 14, 2008 20:38:16 GMT -5
"Like I know?" Duskwing flailed his arms round in emphasis. "I'm just a grunt. Nobody tells me nothin'. Boss is still making nice-nice with the freaky slaggers. Can't even get away with a little 'accident'. Like I can tell one yellow wasp-face from another?"
Duskwing shrugged. "I dunno, I just know they ain't out here." He suddenly halts and gives Barricade a worried look.
"You think maybe I oughta watch my back around him? I been mostly watching out for that ps-psy-- crazy wasp-face and that red piece of crankcase goop. I don't like dem and dey don't like me," Duskwing said, frowning with a look of concern.
"Not my fault dey look just like Autobots," he grumbled.
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 14, 2008 20:49:01 GMT -5
Yellow wasp-face? Ah. Bumblebee. Nasty piece of work, that. Barricade cannot help but feel the tiniest surge of almost pleasure at the implication that perhaps Duskwing has already had an "accident" with the wrong Bumblebee.
Couldn't happen to a nicer mech.
The saleen shrugs. "Your call. From what I hear, though. He's a freak, and he keeps Decepticon Seekers as pets. If I had wings, I'd be keeping my distance from him."
Barricade stops, head tilted to one side as if he was thinking hard. "I can find him, keep an optic on him for you," he offers, twisting his features into a tight scowl. "I don't trust those Autobots, none of them. But that Skyfire..." Barricade shakes his head. "He's already keeping one Thundercracker somehow."
Barricade lets his voice trail off significantly, quirking an optic ridge at Duskwing's distinctive Seeker wings.
"Then you don't have to go near him, and maybe if he slips up, I can take care of the problem for us all. As long as you don't tell anyone. Then maybe that slag-sucker, Perceptor, can have a little... 'accident', too."
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 14, 2008 21:10:45 GMT -5
Duskwing stared at Barricade in uncomfortable silence for several long moments.
"That gray mini-jet said Red did dat, too. Did stuff to TC. Told me dat back when dey captured me, before we were whaddyacall..? Not friends, but fighting the same guys together. Allies, that's the word. See, he was trying to scare me while dat crazy-making Prime and Wasp-face worked me over, but I just got mad. Wasn't mad at mini-jet--him and Slingers did a good fight, yah, dey cut me up some and shot me down, but I got 'em pretty good, too--but dat red-opticked nutjob, he hadda have Wasp-face hold me so he could beat me up."
A staticky sound of contempt worked its way out of Duskwing's vocalizer. "Real tough guy, gotta have his droids hold someone down for him. Real tough, dat. So mini-jet tells me I could get worse than permanently offline, I could be like TC, and Boss Nutjob has their Skyfire haul out TC to show me. Didn't look special to me, see, 'cept kinda cringey like a certain Air Commander when Megatron went off on him, and you didn't hear me mention that. Mini-jet said he was dead, but still walking, which made no sense. Guy was still walking, and I hear, flying, and he could talk, so he ain't no offline drone. Dat mini-jet, he's a freaking artist," Duskwing said, his voice twisted with special contempt, "so I figure he's talking artist-type nonsense, see?"
"Skyfire ain't my problem, and if he gets on my case, I got two guns and a case fulla missles. He gots real thin skin, I remember hearin' about dat from when the Autobot Skyfire ran out on the Boss and dey tried to shoot him down. And I shoot better than TC any day of the week, month, whatever. If I'da been dere, he wouldn't have got away." Duskwing flexed his wings proudly. "Anyway, he didn't make a move when Hook was fixin' me up, an' he was there 'cause of Hook fixing him."
"So whatcha really want?" he asked suspiciously. "You ain't doin' me no favors 'cause you like me so much. I ain't dumb. Besides, don't matter how bad an accident dat dere red slag-heap has, Boss Nutjob will fix him," Duskwing growled
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 19, 2008 18:07:05 GMT -5
Barricade snorts indelicately, shaking his head. "He didn't make a move because Hook was there. Hard to cover taking a new pet when there's witnesses, you know. And if he was about to have Hook work on him, he's not about to upset Hook, now is he?" the Saleen reasons. Interesting, that, though. Skyfire had Hook make his repairs rather than Perceptor. Fighting in the ranks, perhaps? Or yet another gamble to gather intelligence?
It's getting easier to slip into the rough edge of anger with every word Duskwing utters about Thundercracker, though. Useful, that, even if it does frighten Barricade more than a little bit.
"Boss nutjob, as you call him, has to have something left to put back together at all," Barricade growls roughly, optics narrowed with a feral smirk. "And maybe all I want is an alibi if Perceptor just happens to come up missing, eh?"
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 19, 2008 20:14:37 GMT -5
Duskwing frowned. "What's a pet, anyway? Besides, Red was a pile of slag, he wasn't repairing nobody." The blue and purple Seeker slouched a bit and muttered, "didn't know dat Prime could fix him so fast."
"Yeah, well, if your alibi is me, forgeddaboutit. I already got cannoned by Screamer for the mix-up with Wasp-face. Red has a ac-ci-dent, dey gonna be lookin' at me again. I'm gettin' tired a gettin' beat up by dem fake Autobots or because of dem. Hope dey all fall in the Pits, but I ain't gettin' caught doin' the pushin', see?"
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Post by Barricade-3 on Aug 19, 2008 20:37:07 GMT -5
Barricade's optics flicker off, then on as he attempts to follow Duskwing's logic-- and fails. Hardly surprising, that.
"Whatever," he growls, waving the Seeker off negligently."I still don't trust them, and I plan on keeping an optic on them. If you're not going to help, then just keep your mouth shut and leave me alone so I can go back to finding them."
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Duskwing
Major
"What the slag happened?"
Posts: 848
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Post by Duskwing on Aug 19, 2008 21:01:31 GMT -5
"Huh?" Duskwing gave Barricade a puzzled scowl. "You fry your NAVAIDS with too much energon last night, or what? They's in the same place they was after the fight. Over where Hook set up, kinda." Duskwing waved one hand vaguely in the direction of a third of the city.
"Huh! Heard you was a jerk. I ain't gonna 'help', I gotta patrol, so slag off." Duskwing grumbled as his thrusters spun up, and he started to lift off the ground.
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