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Shadows of Tomorrow	By : Breech_Loader Category: Transformers > Transformers: Animated > Het - M/F Views: 1756 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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- 14
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Shadows of Tomorrow

Co-Written by Harley Quinn hyenaholic and Froggy22651

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Harley: Nice to see a new person reviewing. Better still that they like it.

Froggy: Today we continue with the capture. Appropriate with it being chapter thirteen. Don’t worry your heads, we’ve got it all planned out.

~~~

Chapter Thirteen: Capture

It had been another hard day of driving with Barricade. It had also been, Hotwire considered, their first full day as a bonded couple. Despite that though, she hadn't been able to shake off the feeling that they were being followed still. The Autobots weren't the problem, either. Hotwire knew how to handle mechs. All you had to do was crawl and snivel and pretend you really were as weak as they thought you were. Then kill them. The problem was the humans. She kept getting the feeling that the humans were closing in. All this as they arrived in Oklahoma City.

"Relax, Hotwire,” Barricade spoke soothingly, picking up her silent distress effortlessly, "The humans aren't that smart. We're the hunters of humans, not the hunted." It would take some getting used to constantly feeling another's moods, but Barricade was adjusting nicely. He could tell already that not only did this bonding make them closer, but it would make them a much more effective team.

Hotwire neither sounded nor felt convinced, "We're the ones being hunted, Barricade," she said calmly, "You can tell by the way you can't see anybody. I think I'd feel more comfortable if I could see them."

"Maybe we really have lost our pursuit,” Barricade suggested. They hadn't run into trouble for a while, and it would have been more in the humans' favour to keep the pressure on. Still, Hotwire's nervousness and paranoia kept him alert, and he found himself watching his surroundings more carefully.

"Blast! Road works!" Hotwire cursed as they were brought to a halt. There was a pause as she analysed the data, "Wait a minute, road works?"

"Stop right there!" shouted a human voice. Sector Seven agents were appearing from behind various hiding places. And to top it all off, there was an S&R van and a black SUV with them.

"Crud," Hotwire stated quietly.

Barricade snarled angrily, partially at his relaxed attitude. He should have known better than to let his guard down. Well, he wasn't about to let these pathetic meatsacks order him around. Shoving off the pavement, the Decepticon morphed into his bipedal mode, his weapons out and his red optics glaring hatefully at the agents, "Make me!" he snarled in a booming voice, opening fire.

Hotwire transformed even as the Sector Seven agents started firing liquid nitrogen at Barricade, and her icy blue glare locked on Ratchet, "Teaming up with the fleshbags now, are you?" she spat at him, "That’s low, even for you! I’ll take you to pieces!"

Ratchet transformed, "Give yourself up, Hotwire! You have my word you won't be- frag!" He was cut off mid-sentence as the femme, despite being half his size, leapt at him, trying to push her power tools into his face.

Ironhide, transforming and itching for battle, left the matter of Hotwire to Ratchet. His business lay with the Decepticon. Glaring at his enemy firing on the humans, the large robot charged and tackled Barricade, slamming the scout into the nearest building, the walls cracking and crumbling away with the impact.

Ratchet managed to push Hotwire's power tools away from his face, "I only want to help you, Hotwire!" he told the femme.

"If I wanted your help I'd ask!" Hotwire shouted back, her rage washing over Barricade, "Except that I wouldn't! How dare you presume to know what I want?!"

The humans concentrated on the larger Decepticon, and fired cables at Barricade's legs, bringing him down to the ground and immobilising his legs. Then they turned the liquid nitrogen on him. Howling in pain, Barricade was driven on by the agony and the rage reaching him from Hotwire. His eyes burning like a volcano, the Decepticon turned his weapons against the humans trying to freeze him. Some were splattered by the stream of firepower while others wisely took cover. Ironhide reached down to yank his weapons out of the line of fire, but Barricade sat up, grabbing the Autobot roughly and hurling him over his shoulders to smash one of Sector Seven's vehicles. The Decepticon swiftly took advantage of the respite, untangling his legs and snatching up the cable to use as another weapon. He wasn't some weak Autobot that was going to lie down and allow himself to be captured. He'd kill every one of the agents, given the chance.

Hotwire was being worked down by Ratchet, who was ultimately larger and stronger than she was. Her attention was returned to Barricade as she was pushed face-first against the cement, and she screamed something, clawing at the cement and hitting out at Ratchet again, "Barricade!" she shouted, kicking Ratchet off her and standing up again. That was probably not the best idea, since the cables brought her down too.

Rage surged through Barricade's circuits upon hearing Hotwire's distress, and this time, it was all him. Getting to his feet, the Decepticon ran at Ratchet, leaping at him and trying to wrap the cable around the Autobot medic's neck, attempting to use it to saw the robot's head off, "Get away from her!" he snarled.

Ratchet grabbed the cable that the Decepticon was trying to throttle him with, pushing it back, "If it were my choice, you could keep her!" he growled back at the Decepticon. Ironhide was getting back to his feet and levelling his weapons at Barricade, but he didn't dare shoot for fear of hitting his comrade.

"You better start making it your choice!" the Decepticon growled.

While Barricade and Ratchet were grappling, Hotwire was savagely ripping the cables off her legs, ignoring the scratches in her paint-job. She looked up at Ironhide aiming, "Don't you DARE!" she shouted, and fired a charged shot at him.

"Wha-" was all Ironhide managed to get out before the energy blast struck him full-force, knocking the Autobot backwards. Energy flashed across his circuits and armour plating melted. The weapon specialist cried out in pain, but kept moving, rolling onto his front and getting to his feet as fast as he could, "Wha... what are you doing?" he asked the smaller Cybertronian.

"Fighting you!" Hotwire snapped at him. She attacked him as soon as he was standing again, aiming a kick at his knees, "I don't want to be an Autobot! What do I have to do and say to get that into your CPU?"

Ironhide stumbled backwards, trying to avoid her vicious attack, certain that she had gone mad, "What? You think the Decepticons are better?" he shouted back, trying to draw the fight away from the Sector Seven agents.

"I don't know about the Decepticons, but Barricade is definitely preferable!" Hotwire snapped at Ironhide, attacking the larger Autobot again. Barricade was doing a good job of subduing Ratchet, holding his body in front of him like a shield as he struggled to disable the Autobot entirely, "If you think I'm going back to playing mechano-mouse under your noble regime..."

Ironhide stood his ground, defending himself against the smaller, more nimble robot. This wasn't what he expected at all. He figured she would resist, but to defend Barricade so fervently? "Barricade is a Decepticon!" his voice boomed, "If you side with him, you side with them! He's not who you think he is!"

"Oh?" Hotwire backed away briefly, sneering magnificently as her light energy cannon charged, "And just what do you think I think he is?"

Ironhide fired his own weapons into the ground near Hotwire's feet, knocking her away with the force of the explosion, bits of pavement flung across the street, "You think he's something kinder than he is!" the Autobot replied, "You think he's not the ruthless follower of a selfish cause!"

Hotwire was knocked off her feet and onto her back. She stared up at Ironhide for a few seconds, then started to laugh, "You... you think I'm really some dumb Auto-bitch who thinks there's good in everybody?" she laughed, "Sure, Barricade's ruthless and violent. I can handle him, and he can handle me! Can you?" She threw herself back onto her feet and fired the cannon at Ironhide's head.

Ironhide was so surprised by Hotwire's words that he almost forgot to dodge. At the last second, he turned his head, and the bolt of energy burned an ugly scar of molten steel across the Autobot's face. Ironhide cried out in pain and staggered backwards, clutching the wound.

Hotwire advanced again without the slightest hesitation, "Do you really believe that Megatron's insane plans for universal domination were any more selfish than Prime's willingness to destroy the AllSpark? If so, you've got something wrong with your head, old mech!" She slashed her power tools at his face.

In response, Ironhide stopped taking the defensive stance and swung his arm at the smaller robot, knocking her aside. It hurt, and Barricade felt it. Enraged, the Decepticon knocked the dazed Ratchet aside and charged at Ironhide. The impact sent them both skidding across the ground towards the Sector Seven agents.

Hotwire skidded to a halt, striking her head on a building. The blow knocked her systems offline briefly, putting her out of the fight for a little while. Ratchet approached Barricade from behind, "Give yourself up, Barricade!" he shouted at the Decepticon, "It's three against one! You'll only get yourself damaged more by fighting!" He was clearly counting all the humans as one person.

Barricade looked around him at the two Autobots and the human agents, and he knew they had a point. Normally, he would make a hasty retreat at that point, but this time he had Hotwire to consider. He would not abandon her to them. The Decepticon sneered at his enemies, "Oh, but you actually care about these miserable meatsacks. That evens the odds,” he said to them before opening fire on the nearby humans.

Ratchet dived at Barricade as more cables were fired at the Decepticon, coupled with liquid nitrogen. It stung him, but it was aimed at Barricade, "You can't win, Barricade!" he shouted as he and Ironhide wrestled the Decepticon to the cement.

"I don't have to win! All I have to do is make you lose!" Barricade shot back, struggling to free himself from the grip of the two Autobots. He was strong, enraged, and determined, and the Autobots were in danger of losing him.

"Yes, deny us our prize, right?" Ironhide said bitterly, "That's what you were doing with Hotwire, wasn't it? Turning her into your little brainwashed slave!"

Barricade jerked his head back, slamming it into Ironhides' face, "Idiot!" was his only angry reply to the accusation as Ironhide clutched his nose.

"I don't know what you have planned for Hotwire," Ratchet replied, pinning Barricade down as Sector Seven advanced with the liquid nitrogen, "But if you really cared about her, you'd do what was good for her, not what was good for you!"

Barricade growled. Those Autobot fools couldn't understand. He didn't bring Hotwire into the war and neither did she. They were the ones endangering her. The agents approached with the liquid nitrogen guns, and Barricade's optics widened, "Get those things away from me!" he shouted.

"Sorry, Barricade," Ironhide said, sounding smug, "This is our deal with the humans. We take in the Autobots, and they take in the Decepticons. Don't worry, Hotwire will be just fine with us."

The Sector Seven agents began to spray Barricade with the nitrogen as Ratchet and Ironhide held him down. Across the street, Hotwire was starting to come around again, sitting up and shaking her head to clear it. She looked across at them, "Barricade!" she shrieked, getting up again, before she was brought back down again by cables.

Barricade cried out in pain, the liquid nitrogen feeling like fire against his armoured plating. "Get out of here, Hotwire!" he shouted between cries of agony, "Leave me!" The Decepticon snarled and continued to struggle against his captors, fighting against his failing, slowing circuits.

Hotwire was struggling with the cables around her legs, but she refused to flee, managing to free one arm and reaching out to him, "I won't leave you behind!" she insisted, kicking at the cement, "I said I wouldn't, and I won't!" Some of the remaining Sector Seven agents turned the nitrogen guns on her, and she screamed in pain and rage.

Barricade shouted in amplified pain as her own agony echoed within him. He reached out and grabbed her hand, holding it tightly. He thought she was being very stupid for insisting on staying... but he appreciated the gesture anyway, "Let her go, you bastards!" he roared, his struggles growing weaker, "I'm the one you want!"

Ratchet and Ironhide both stood up and backed away from Barricade as the agents finished freezing and restraining him, then Ratchet bent down over Hotwire, pulling her to her feet firmly. The cables around her legs made her balance precarious, and struggling or fighting would result in her simply falling over again.

She stared at Barricade, who was being loaded into a large trailer, "Where are they taking him?!" she shouted at the Autobots, "Tell me now!"

Ironhide answered, "Likely to some secret containment base of theirs," the Autobot held one of her arms, angry at her and angry at himself, "His fate is now out of our hands."

"You... you..." Hotwire glared at him, trapped for words, "You jerk!" she shouted at him, "How dare you just... let them... like that!" She tried to pull her arm away from Ironhide, "Let go of me!"

"No,” Ironhide spoke sharply, restraining her firmly, "My orders are clear, and I'm going to take you back with us." He had done what he had come to do. He had followed orders, and that was enough for him. The weapon specialist was filled with bitter disappointment. This didn't end like he hoped it would. She was supposed to be grateful.

"How do you plan to do that, Auto-creep?" Hotwire snarled at him, "I already told you, I don't want to be a member of your little club for idealists! I'll say it to Prime if I have to!"

"Then you'll say it to Prime,” the Autobot snapped, turning away. His part of this was done, and he was looking forward to forgetting all about it.

~~~

Harley: Well, Barricade’s been captured and Hotwire’s being brought in. Could be problematic.
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Shadows of Tomorrow