Chapter Text
"Mornin' boys!"
Dorothy peeked out from underneath the Dodge Charger she was working on her gave a mock salute to Chief Mars of the Phoenix Police Station as he walked into the F1 Squadron hangar. He was wearing his usual leather vest with his badge pinned over where his heart was, a pair of blue jeans and a brown pair of leather boots that seemed to always make a pinging noise when he didn't even have any spurs on them. Sometimes the woman would joke about putting a hat on him so he would look like a sheriff, but the old man refused the offer multiple times.
Dorothy, herself, was wearing a onepiece jumpsuit. Not the most stylish thing, but it kept the grease and mud off of her uniform. When she first started fixing her cruiser in the hangar, she immediately asked one of the members of the F1 Squad for one of their old jumpsuit since she didn't want to risk her clothes being ruined by excess car fluids. The side effect of doing that though was that the jumpsuit was way too big for the 5'3" woman. Most of the men on the team were 5'10" to 6'4", meaning that she was the shortest person in the hangar all the time.
But another day, another part to her patrol car she needed to either fix, replace, or recalibrate. Dorothy rolled back under her Charger as the chief go around and say his personal good-mornings to everyone. She grabbed the last of the oil-slicked bots and placed it over the hole that it originally sat in to hold the car's undercarriage. The woman grabbed the wrench laying next to her and tightens in the bolt she was holding.
"What'd you break thing time?" the chief said as he bent down to look under the car's bummer. "Or what this more plating scuffs and dents?"
Dorothy pushed herself out on the creeper she was laying on and sat up when the board was full out from under the Charger. "Blew another gasket." she said simply, reaching for the rag in her back pocket as she stood up. She cleaned her hands of the grease and oil on them and then did the same to her face, which was covered slightly in dust and a few specks of mud.
"This is the sixth time this month." Chief Mars complained, looking at the young woman with a concerned look. "Are you sure it's just a gasket?"
"I've checked it more and three time already, so yeah, I'm pretty sure." the woman answered back, running a hand through her pixie-styled haircut. Her short brunette locks lopped to one side of her head along her part and the woman ruffled it for some volume. "Also my car is only two years old. Had it since I started to force and I'm not getting rid of it."
"Two years is a long time for a police car." the chief explained, leaning against the front Dorothy's car as she moved to the side to pick the cup of coffee on the file toolbox she had placed her tools in. "Especially with your field of work, 'Speedy'."
The petite woman groaned at the nickname. Being the volunteer mechanic of the F-1 team and a full-time highway patrol officer for the Phoenix Police Department earned her the embarrassing nickname of "Speedy" after she broke the record for "Time Taken to Win a Car Chase". The nickname was mostly used by the F1 team members and Chief Mars, but people who knew her around town would call out the name once and awhile.
"I'm not getting rid of my car, Mars." she argued, taking a sip of her coffee before unzipping the top of her jumpsuit to that she could let her upper half breathe in the heat of the hangar. The black tank top luckily didn't show how much she was sweating, but since this year's summer was being overly hot and dry. "End of story."
"Well don't come to me when you break down on the side of the road because of a blown gasket." he joked with her, playing off of the information she had giving him earlier.
"I'm not going to." Dorothy pushed as she walked over to the locker behind her car that had her name bolted on. The name was made out of a bunch of license plate pieces, spelling out "Haven" in all caps across the locker. She opened the door, which didn't have a lock, and pulled out her duffle bag full of her casual clothes. Today was the patrol officer's day off, since most police officers in her department were off on Thursdays, and she had plans to go stay inside and out of the heat.
"Well if you are leaving so soon, I think the boys want to at least say 'Happy Birthday' before you drive off." the chief stated, looking over his shoulder at the group of men standing by the rec table and seemed to be hiding something behind their backs.
Dorothy forgot that her birthday was on a Friday this year, and almost completely forgot about his birthday in general. She never really had a huge party or anything anymore, so she never really kept it in her mind all the time. Most of the time, people at the main station would wish her a quick "Happy Birthday" and then be on their way. But the F1 team always made a big deal out of them to show the woman how thankful they were to have Dorothy fixing their cars and not needing to hire a mechanic instead.
"You lot are a bunch of idiots, you know that right?" she called over at them, smiling and placing her hands on her hip. "I don't need you throwing me a party."
The boys, Michael, Connor, Aaron, and Ethan, let out a collective chuckle at the small woman walked over to the table. Dorothy was unsure what this had in store for her thing year, since last year was met with a cake and a bunch of giftcards to her favorite dine-in movie theatre. It was her first year on the force and her first year helping the F1 with their cars. So the boys decided to through the woman a proper birthday.
"We're not, Dorothy." Aaron spoke up, a smirk covering his face. "We just wanted to give you your present before the Queen of the Highway shows up."
The Queen of the Highway, or Ms. Mayrin Walker, was the captain of the F1 team and had a one-sided rivalry with Dorothy for some reason. The team hated how the older woman treated the volunteer mechanic most of the time, being how she would kick the female officer out of the hangar for "hovering" over her and also remarking on how the repairs were never done right. It didn't bother Dorothy that much at first, but after hearing her obnoxious ridicules everyday started to make her rethink a lot.
"She takes too long in the morning to show up for roll-call." Dorothy dismissed the team's worried thoughts. "I doubt she'd ever be here this early in the morning."
The boys laughed, knowing what she said was true. "In all seriousness though, we wanted to thank you again for being our mechanic so we don't have to hire one." Connor, one of the older men on the team spoke up. "So we all chipped in and bought you a little something to remember us by."
Michael removed the box out from behind his back and held it out for Dorothy to take. She gasped sarcastically as her tried to act surprised that the boys would do this for her. The box was more wide than tall, but made a rectangle shape. The woman did the usual shake to see if she could guess what gift they bought her this year. The thing inside was solid and not a bunch of pieces, so she crossed giftcards off her mental list.
Dorothy opened the box and froze when she saw her gift. It was a picture of all of them, excluding Ms. Highway Queen, after a charity race they did a few months prior. Dorothy, who was standing in the middle of all of the members of the team, had red, gold and blue war paint across her cheeks and was wearing her oversized jumpsuit. The colors represented Arizona's flag and the upper part of her suit was unzipped, like it was now, and tied around her waist as the boys had pulled her into a group hug after they won the case prize, which went towards cancer research.
"You guys..." Dorothy said, breathlessly. She had a stupid smile plastered on her face as she looked up at them. "You're all idiots. You're gonna make me start to cry. Come here!" The small woman rushed forward and pulled the four drivers into a tight hug and squeezed tighter when they hugged her back.
"You still have my present." Chief Mars finally spoke up as he interrupted the touching moment the F1 team was having with their friend.
"You got me something, too?" Dorothy asked, trying to give the most annoyed face she could without breaking out into smiles. "Would you not spend money on me please?"
"You deserve it, kid." the chief briefly explained. "But you'll have to get it on your actual birthday."
"Ooo, the tense is killing me." the woman exclaimed, pulling out from under the ten arms that were hugging her and moved back to her patrol car. She grabbed her duffle bag, stuffed the framed photo into it and placing it in the back seat when she opened the back left door. She then opened the driver's side door and hopped into her seat. Taking out her keys, she started up the Charger without fail and pulled forwards towards the open hangar door. "See you guys later." she called as she drove out off the hangar and out to the main road.
Dorothy was relieved to finally be out of the hot hangar and in her air-conditioned car and drive home. She couldn't wait to find out what Chief Mars' present would be.
✢✢✢✢✢✢
Two days prior to Thursday...
::Stasis lock iminate in four days. Please seek medical assistance.::
Barricade nearly panicked when he read that, jumping at the message flashed across his HUD. He groaned as he felt another surge of pain rip through his circuits and his intakes hitched for a second as he was trying to register the pain. The police car sat completely still as he let the pain pass, as he had done multiple times in the last few days. He could feel where the plating around his spark chamber was dented in on itself, and winced as he felt another wave of pain hit him.
His neon pink energon was leaking out of tears in his plating, spilling onto the ground around him and creating a puddle. He shifted as gently as he could, trying to find a more comfortable position than which he was currently in. His servos were tied above his helm and chain to the rock wall that he was laying against. His slightly dented helm was slumped forward as he was too exhausted to pick it up.
And all of this was Starscream's doing.
Barricade remembered their brief argument that lead him to be chained up in the Decepticons' makeshift brig and labeled as a traitor. The Mustang was afraid to admit that the F-22 fighter jet had finally lost it. After the fall of Megatron and the Allspark being destroyed, the second lieutenant to his chance to persuade the rest of the Decepticons offworld that he would take command of the faction.
Surprisingly, the mech succeed. Most of the Decepticons were under Starscream's command and listening to his every word was they await the return of the true leader. The only other person that had not been taken in by the jet's lies were Soundwave. Barricade was unsurprised by that fact, being that the communications master never like Starscream in the first place. Of course, Barricade was the one who made the stupid decision to speak out against him publicly.
Thundering footsteps could be heard from the end of the cave as the jet-in-question made his appearance. "My, my, my, Barricade." the flier mused, moving closer to see all the damage that he had inflicted on the mech. "You seem to be in not the best of conditions."
"Go...frag...yourself." the police car hissed at Starscream, struggling to keep his voice box from fizzling out on him.
The jet growled and forced his pede down on the mech's leg, making Barricade cried out in pain as the pain he was already was feeling intensified. The police car made a small whimpering noise as he felt his leg go numb with pain and the rest of his frame start to tense. "For someone who's been beaten senseless, you sure do have a lot to say. Maybe I should make you match your yellow rival and silence you forever."
Barricade shivered at the thought of his voice box being ripped out and forced down to the same helplessness as the Autobot scout. He felt Starscream move closer and hover over that mech, supposedly waiting for a snarky reply that never came. The jet grinned widely as he triumphantly seemed to make the young mech keep his mouth shut for once. He moved his servo forward and lift up the mech's helm with one claw. Barricade felt his optics start to focus on the grinning jet and struggled to look away.
"Insubordination is not taken lightly amongst the Decepticons, Barricade." Starscream started to explain whimsically. "Mechs will start to think against me and I don't need you to ruin my parade, as humans would say. To put it simply, I need you out of the way to my plans can succeed."
Barricade chuckled roughly, as he felt his voice box start to fill with static and white noise. "You would know...all about...insubordination...wouldn't you, Starscream?" he spat at the jet, focusing his helm out the jet's grasp.
The silver filer became enraged at that point, pressing harder down on Barricade's leg and slashing his long claws across the side of the police car's helm. Barricade grunted, trying to keep from crying out again, but another small whimper escaped. Starscream couldn't help but laugh at the young bot's weakness and the amount of patheticness he was showing right now.
::Stasis lock iminate in 3 days and 11 hours. Please seek medical assistance.:: the message flashed across his HUD and Barricade wince on how it hadn't even been ten minutes and his life had started to drain faster.
"That seems like a problem." the silver jet mused, seeing the message read out in his scanners. "Maybe if you were more obedient, then I could have sent Hook to do some repairs."
Barricade just growled at the jet, his optics growing hazed again as his processor was trying to deal with the loss of energon. He wanted to yell every curse he knew that the lieutenant, but he couldn't risk being anymore damaged as he was. Starscream could do this all day, but he couldn't. The police car slumped against the cave wall behind him in defeat as he felt more energon dipped down the sides on his frame and now down the side of his face. The sirens on his back were broken, the bio lights shattered from when Starscream had slammed him against the wall. The glass dug into his cabling, scraping rips in his fuel lines and causing him more pain as he moved.
"Nothing left to say?" the jet said, grabbing the mech's helm to make him optic-level with him. The silver mech laughed as Barricade stayed silent and looked down at the pink-brown mud below his frame. "How about this. You pledge your loyalty to me and I won't carry out in desposing you. I'll even let Hook visit and fix some of your broken plating."
With his death clock still counting, the offer was tempting. But in the back of his mind, Barricade couldn't let the jet persuade him into anything. The Decepticons were loyal to Megatron and no one else. The mech brought his optics back up to look at the red, glowing optics in front of him. "Over...my...sparkless...husk." he growled out.
The flier stared at him for a moment before backing away. The cheshire grin was still plastered on his face, but the whole room felt more and more dangerous as the het stood at the face corner of the cave. All that Barricade could do was stare at the mech in confusion before volts of electricity were pumped through him and he screamed out in agony. After a few seconds, the volts stopped, leaving Barricade's frame smoking and slumping forwards.
"He seems aggressive." the black and white Decepticon heard the voice of Thundercracker from behind. Of course Starscream would call his trinemates to help him with a murder. "He would be good in the ranks."
"I don't need young mechs that can't follow my commands in my army, TC." the jet argued., motioning for his other trinemate, Skywarp to shock the mech again. The other jet did and Barricade couldn't help but scream out in pain.
::Stasis lock iminate in 3 days and 10 hours. Please seek medical assistance.::
Starscream started laughing maniacally as Barricade fell forward and was held slightly upward by the chains around his arms and servos. There was so much pain that the black and white mech couldn't think straight and started trying to struggle out of the chains. His already cut servos joints started to burn more as the friction sliced the chains into his plating.
"Well it seems Barricade has come to his last days." Starscream remarked, walking back over to look at the now crippled mech. "Skywarp, teleport the traitor somewhere near California. Let's hope the Autobots take pity on him before his spark extinguishes. Those I know that won't be likely."
Skywrap gave a nod and warped himself and Barricade, chains and all, out of the cave. Unfortunately for Skywarp, the jet warped over a junkyard outside of Scottsdale, Arizona and absent-mindedly dropped the mech into the yard. When Barricade hit the ground, all the pain it caused forced him into recharge and knocked him out completely.
At this point, he didn't even realize the coolant leaking from his optics as they dimmed. He was going to die, surrounded by junk and probably get imprisoned by the Autobots. He was utterly terrified of the situation he was in. The young mech, in reality, wasn't much older than Bumblebee, and accepted the fact that he was going to die with no one to come to his rescue.
Well was he wrong.