Status Report

[reallybadcop]

WHO: Barricade, Blackout
WHERE: Zone 4-ish
WHAT: Barricade feels the need to figure out why Blackout's alive/bring him up to speed on Axiom happenings...at least, from a Tyran Decepticon point of view.

Comments

[houndofmegatron]

This was one part of the city Blackout hadn't explored yet, possibly because he hadn't explored it much at all, honestly. He would say it was because he'd been too busy trying to figure out what was happening and how to get back where he was supposed to be; in fact, he was simply too stubborn for it. It felt like an admission of defeat to make any attempt to familiarize himself with this overwhelming place, a concession that he was going to be stuck here

[houndofmegatron]

Blackout knew precisely what Barricade meant, and it made him scan the other mech anew, as if he expected his condition to have changed significantly with the revelation. "He must have been feeling lenient that day, hmm?"

If Blackout had had a face capable of scowling, he would have been after that. As it was, his mandibles twitched inwards defensively, and one hand curled into a fist. "Forgive me if I don't take your words seriously, given that I seem to stand, alive and functioning, before you."

[reallybadcop]

"He said as much." The interceptor didn't seem inclined to elaborate, other than rubbing his wrist. The repairs were no longer 'fresh', but he still distinctly remembered the energon rush and how much Prime was good at hurting.

"And yes, you stand. But now you understand why I thought you dead. Admittedly, as Megatron seemed able to come back from the dead..."

He shook his head slightly. "Once more, what did you say your last memory was?"

[houndofmegatron]

"If any of us could," Blackout said, straightening up a little, almost (but not quite) coming to attention, "it would be Lord Megatron." And he believed it, too, with all of his spark, which Barricade very likely knew.

"Being ambushed," he said, upright stance relaxing some. "By a unit of fleshlings with those primitive toys of weapons. I was moving in to assist our Lord against Prime." And hadn't it been jarring, to go from the midst of battle to processing and paperwork? It still made his processor glitch, thinking about it.

[reallybadcop]

"Perhaps so. But he - and you - have been dead for nearly two of Earth's solar cycle. The Decepticons lost that battle. The Witwicky boy combined the Allspark cube with Megatron's spark. Both were lost."

He went quiet to let this settle in Blackout's processor.

[houndofmegatron]

At first, Blackout thought that he'd glitched legitimately, some error between audial and core processor rendering Barricade's words into nonsense. Once he'd discerned that everything was operating with acceptable functionality, he might have suspected it was some kind of joke, save that Barricade looked completely serious.

Still, it made no sense. "That's...that's impossible," he said finally, the only words that seemed appropriate.

[reallybadcop]

He'd expected a response like that, and accepted it. "Nonetheless. I can share with you the data files if you require verification." Barricade rather doubted that Blackout would take him up on it, but the offer remained further proof of the truth. "Including what deaths followed as the Autobots formed an alliance with the humans - specifically, the group that harbored the man who killed you - and hunted the Decepticons who came to Earth in the time between then and now."

[houndofmegatron]

Blackout was silent and still for a moment, delicate mechanisms speaking inside him as he thought. Finally, he took a step towards Barricade, lifting one hand, palm out, and unsheathing a dataport in his palm. "I want them," he said simply. He needed to know.

[reallybadcop]

...so much for that doubt. Barricade seemed surprised only for a few moments, before raising his own hand to unsheathe a dataport. "If you insist," he said mildly, taking a step forwards towards the larger mech as well. Perhaps...perhaps he could find out a few things of his own, such as why Blackout was alive. And if he truly didn't know anything because it hadn't happened for him, could those TransTechs have taken him before his death? (If so, did that mean that Barricade himself - that Megatron had never risen again in the first place, that he'd been taken before that? Or...)

He removed these thoughts, and instead brought up the files he spoke of as he prepared for the data transfer. Designations. Causes of death. Everything that he'd found out during his time, aside from his personal experiences with Bumblebee and his ward (though he was prepared to share the fact that he was as hunted as any of the others, that there was a time he'd escaped by the rubber of his tires - only to reiterate the fact that they had been hunted. all of

[houndofmegatron]

Closing the distance between them in one long stride, Blackout lowered his hand to meet Barricade's, connecting them palm to palm and carefully lowering the paranoid subroutines that would keep the transfer from happening. The rest of his mind remained guarded, but not excessively so, something he might have reconsidered, had he known that Barricade sought information of his own.

As it was, he just initiated uplink and waited for Barricade to transfer the files, eager to peruse the information for himself. He wanted to know what had happened, everything that had happened, even though he still wasn't entirely sure he believed it.

[reallybadcop]

And it began.

Macerator. Kickback. Trample, Tread. So many others. All the data Barricade had accumulated on NEST, which wasn't too much - for all of the fact that Cybertronian technology and software was far superior to anything the humans had, it was more along the lines of him not quite knowing where to search; he was used to Frenzy doing such things. He'd found enough to understand the purpose of the group, but not who they were going after, how they were hunting them.

His memory files of Mission City were there as well, though Blackout might easily note that none of it was first hand. He hadn't been there; why, he did not transfer, though there was a distinct sense of regret tinging it. He'd wanted to be there. He'd wanted to fight. Fate - or ill luck - had not allowed him to participate. He would not have minded dying in battle with the rest of them, but as he had survived - he had a duty to continue surviving, and to do whatever he could to seek revenge without getting himself killed in the process

[houndofmegatron]

Blackout was too preoccupied with poring over the incoming information to lock Barricade out of his own processor. He had nothing to hide, anyway; he'd always been straightforward, remarkably so for a Decepticon, and there was no reason to lie about this anyway. So far as he knew, his last memories of the planet Earth were the last things that had happened there, and Scorponok hadn't been awake long enough to give him any idea otherwise.

He was getting one now, though, looking through the files Barricade was giving him. Though it was always a possibility that the files were doctored, or fabricated, there were no glaring inconsistencies or any of the other, more subtle markers that might indicate it.

It seemed he had to believe him.

He really had missed things. He shook his head, not in negation but incredulity. How could this happen? he wondered as he lingered, particularly, on the information from Mission City. The thought was probably clear to Barricade.

[reallybadcop]

Sympathy and pity did not come easily for Barricade - he could fake them, but honest feeling was another story. He did not feel either of those emotions right now...but what he did feel was a sort of comradeship to Blackout for the same thought he had thought many, many times. The Decepticons outnumbered the Autobots, were more powerful there, Megatron was more than a match for the Prime and yet, somehow they had been reduced to hiding on the pathetic waste of a planet.

As Blackout made no attempt to keep him out, Barricade took another, deeper look in - then, finding nothing to answer his question (unless the lack of something did so), he oulled back out. Satisfied? he sent without sarcasm along the data link.

[houndofmegatron]

Blackout had been a Decepticon too long to expect them, and did not note their absence. Just this was enough--the willingness to meet, and to share. Not a few of Megatron's soldiers would have been all too happy to leave a comrade in ignorance, just to see him struggle to find the answers himself. This was far preferable.

Satisfied, he acknowledged, caching the files for further examination later and initiating disconnection of that link. "The Allspark..." he said aloud, the volume of his vocalizer low and the tone pensive. "Does anything remain?"

[reallybadcop]

Blackout was larger and more powerful than him - Barricade approved of his strength, if not his words and actions many times, and he would earn himself nothing by withholding the information. Blackout was far from a friend, but he was a valuable ally to have.

"A single shard," he explained, sending the relevant data file, which...did not have much information to it. The humans - and Autobots - hid its location well. "I do not know where it is," Barricade reiterated, before starting the subroutines to close the connection.

[houndofmegatron]

The information that the Allspark hadn't been wholly eliminated was reassuring, certainly, meager though that information was. He accepted this transfer as well, then confirmed the disconnect and pulled his hand away, curling it into a fist absently.

"Not that there's much we can do to reclaim it even if you did," he muttered. "Not unless they happened to bring it here."