Author's Note: Wow, this only took a ridiculous amount of time to get posted. Honestly, all of the forces in the Universe have been conspiring against me. My computer was destroyed, raped, then burned, so I had to go and order another one. After installing that, I developed a severe case of Writer's Block and so have postponed both this, and the original novel I'm currently working on. I'm sure everyone is prepared to throw me overboard, so all I can honestly do is beg for a soft landing!

...

Too long, he had awaited this meager payback. Too long, he had had to stand by and recover his strength in the shadows as the Autobot's obliterated his faction. Too long, he was denied a revenge he had been desperate to obtain for month after month. So now that this opportunity to put to rest his need for vengeance was available, he was not very patient when it came to fulfilling his desire.

"Where is Bumblebee, LadiesMan217?"

Actually, Bumblebee was not the main concern, when referring to the mission, anyways. Another small token, obtained by Optimus Prime at the conclusion of the Mission City battle, was the objective set out to fulfill. But that didn't mean Barricade was here primarily for business purposes. After all, if questions weren't answered by the yellow Autobot and his pet meat creature, there were always other links to satisfy the black mech's thirst for information.

Poor Samuel was experiencing firsthand just how impatient a Decepticon could be. Barricade was the definition of intimidating; a single one of his fangs would have been enough to completely mutilate and tear open his sensitive flesh. Even the body of the police interceptor was as pointed as his claws and as black as his heart; that is, if he had a heart. Sam was pretty sure that there wasn't anything beating behind that thick layer of alien armor. But somehow, although Sam's thoughts were as frequent and jagged as his breathing, the boy managed to sputter out a reply.

"I don't know wher--"

Or at least, he tried to, before being rudely interrupted.

"Where is the Allspark fragment? I want an answer!"

Well, frankly, that killed any chance of Sam being able to spew anything further resembling a response. Red optics stared up into his innocent, terrified eyes, and for a moment, neither made any movement. Then Barricade began to reach up with one of those Devil-spawned digits, and Witwicky shook around violently as if the chain holding him would break as easily as his pride had. Of course it didn't, and the construction vehicle's hook that was holding him up over a junkyard car smasher spited his efforts by not budging, as well.

"Answer me," the evil Cybertronian began threateningly, his attitude portraying a clear lack of tolerance, and evident impatience made more obvious by one of the massive knives he called a finger being hovered over the boy's chest, "or your life fluid will be drained--" For effect, the cruel Decepticon added menacingly, "--slowly."

Sam shivered involuntarily and yelled (at a higher pitch then he personally would have preferred), "I don't know about a fragment. You have to believe me!"

The shriek of metal twisting and clamping and fraying in opposite and unnatural directions erupted into the eardrums of LadiesMan. He reactively threw his feet up into the air as if the vehicle demolisher below were set on gobbling him whole. Glass panes shattered and one of the left front tires flew off and bounced into the heaps of garbage surrounding Barricade's tool of torture. The Decepticon retracted his hand from the remote he had activated to start the compactor, and enlightened Witwicky to the reality of death. But even as a cube of metal - what had once been a murky green Toyota - sat below the squirming human to demonstrate his forthcoming fate, Sam said nothing further. He refused speech because he was positive that this was the police cruiser's sick way of requesting silence. Even if he thought this was the next step in the interrogation, and he had the audacity to betray the Autobot's and provide the bullying Saleen with information, he had no legitimate information to give.

A dark, sinister chuckle erupted from the throat of the dastardly police interceptor as he straightened back and glanced at the mangled scrap heap below LadiesMan217. "If you live, I might." He sneered. "Time's up." He raised his claw once more, ready to deliver an indirect blow to his yellow rival by obliterating this bag of meat he had developed such a disgusting connection with. He didn't need a bargaining chip to receive what he wanted, after all.

"Stop!"

Barricade stared up at the defiant boy, who he believed was the one to foolishly declare he take this action. His sharp crest snapped to the side, however, as he heard swift, pounding footsteps approach to his side.

"Ready to go!"

Barricade gnashed his fangs violently as he recognized the Autobot scum closing in on him. The Decepticon turned, preparing to fight, but was too late to be the first to deliver a blow. He was thrust back with a heated push, stumbling to the ground as he was caught off guard by the quick bug's unusual aggressiveness. Bumblebee was a great protector; but under his own code of honor, he was normally not the one to throw the first punch. Representing opposition to this thought, Barricade collided with the rough earth as the Camaro worriedly shouted the fleshbag's name ("S-Sam!"). Unfortunately, the guardian was not given sufficient time to perform his rescue. The fallen Saleen immediately stood, not a scratch visible on the outer surface of his armor, only dust coated over parts of his body. He was quick to shake the alien particles off and focus his attention on the enemy struggling to free the Earth creature.

Bumblebee was fumbling with Witwicky's chains in an attempt to grab the human and run, but Barricade would not easily allow his prisoner - and its guardian - to escape.

"Rarrrgh!" The Decepticon swept his leg up in an arch as soon as he stormed into a close enough range to attack the pathetic couple. He connected his foot with the midsection of the Autobot, the clash sending the yellow mech flying in the opposite direction from Witwicky. With his rushed reflexes, the Saleen was able to keep his enemy from landing too far as he snapped a gnarled fist into the helm of the airborne foe, watching with delight as a sickening klang rendered the Autobot immobile long enough for him to continue his onslaught. Without a second to waste, Barricade reached down, clasped onto the sides of the worthless scout, and threw him gratuitously into the ground just to obtain cheap satisfaction in watching him squirm.

"This planet has made you weak, Bumblebee." He growled as he persisted in keeping his proximity with the human's guardian, "Our fights used to be somewhat of a challenge."

The black mech easily lifted the smaller, struggling bug and threw him once more, but this time into the hulking clutches of the compactor he had previously planned on using against LadiesMan.

"Your "victory" last meeting was pure luck." Red optics shone threateningly through the dim darkness surrounding the group as these harsh words were spoken.

Bumblebee's head sagged weakly as his systems tried to recuperate from the savage hits he had thus far endured. His abdomen and lower body was scraped and missing in several places due to the tight fit in between the jaws of the junkyard weapon and the less than motherly way the black brute squeezed him into its clutches. Then just for the sake of providing further meaningless discomfort, but also taking precaution against being interrupted again, the Decepticon tightened the hold on his counterpart by using the compactor's controls once more.

Satisfied that Bumblebee was no longer an issue, the ground trooper's body rose to its full, perturbing height and the eyes of the monstrosity automatically locked onto its previous prey.

"Now..."

Sam's bounds had become loosened enough (thanks to his beloved Camaro) for him to have been released from the chains that had once bound him, but he was still in danger. A chill crept up the spine of Witwicky, and he turned to realize what caused the involuntary sensation.

"...Where were we?"

Barricade curled his sharpened digits into fists as he stomped forward towards the boy, the scrap of the junkyard being reduced to worthless sheet metal as the enormous Decepticon flattened a path. Sam scrambled to his feet desperately, and then bolted for safety the moment he was on level ground. Where was his guardian?!

Sam didn't have long to dwell on the abrupt disappearance of Bumblebee. He ran as fast as his feet could humanely allow, and then pushed himself harder to evade the clutches of Barricade. He had been man-handled by the police interceptor before... and he did not want to have to experience that sheer horror again, if he could help it.

For a few, joyous moments, Witwicky stopped to catch his breath and saw that the evil Decepticon was nowhere in sight. Witwicky was unaware of the mist that was slowly, unnoticeably, settling over the area as the damp weather increased. However, a dark, omnipresent growl penetrated the seconds of silence Sam had settled into, and the boy began his terrified sprint once more. Fog lights blinked to life only yards away from where Sam had stopped to rest, outlining a foreboding silhouette of the hulking hunter. His heart raced wildly, adrenaline pushing his body to flee from what was causing the pure, animal instinctive of fear that clouded his mind of all other thought processes.

There was a sadistic twinkle to Barricade's optics as he happily monitored the heart rate of his victim. There was nothing left to do now, as there was no other way he could further terrify the human, so the emotionless Decepticon retracted his dormant gyro flails and released the spiked rim that made up the sharp end of the weapon. With a terrible whrrr, it hissed through the air surreptitiously and flew in a straight path towards Witwicky. If Sam hadn't glanced back to estimate how much distance he had covered, he would have been impaled and instantly lost his life. He ducked instinctively with an "Hnn!", and was lucky to have missed a collision with the weapon as it clinked uselessly over him and swept back obediently towards its owner.

Impatiently, Barricade sent out the gyro flail located on his other arm while all this was occurring. "No!" Sam had stood only to instantly panic and throw his body into the sharp, metal littered ground a second time to avoid a duplicate of the destructive weapon. Blood dripped from open wounds and serious scrapes adorned his forearms as he struggled to pick up his torn and battered body. He slowly rose from the ground, his injuries evidently draining his energy, only to find that Barricade was hovering menacingly over him, not an inch available to retreat from the ugly visage bearing down on him. The missing gyro flail on the Deception's right arm swirled over Sam's head and reconnected effortlessly with where its spot amongst Barricade's weapons lay. The police interceptor had found a position in front of the human's next escape route and placed himself there while the boy had simultaneously been avoiding the fatal rotating rims.

Sam panted, slumped forward with defeat. His (admittedly pathetic) efforts of finding safety were all for nothing; Barricade had been toying with him this entire time. "You're not going anywhere." the spoken of Decepticon chuckled darkly, solidifying the fact that the game of cat and mouse had been just that - a game.

The only regret Sam thought of at that exact moment, when he was staring Death straight in the visage, was that he had never been able to spend that one crazy going-away night with Bumblebee. Even an opportunity to apologize to his friend would have sufficed.

Bumblebee, from his isolated front row view meters away, had been angry before, but was now boiling with rage. The infuriation seeped from his pounding spark into the circuitry connecting with the life provider, pouring over any other emotion struggling to present itself through the thick layer of fury. Sam had fought hard to earn his freedom, and all he received, instead of even an ounce of respect, was a cruel one-sided chase to further exhaust and humiliate him. Even more infuriating was the fact that Barricade was merely taunting his prey - LadiesMan217 - for the sake of angering his yellow rival. And he was doing a hell of a job.

Bumblebee bristled as the Deception's head tilted dangerously low towards his charge, optics concentrated solely on the boy as he bullied a pitiful whimper out of the harmless, innocent, flesh creature. Angry fits of electrical currents flooded his systems as he sought vengeance for the brutality Sam had unnecessarily endured. The Autobot used brute strength to slowly, but surely, spread apart the thick vices of the compactor and bring to conclusion what should have been finished years ago.

Oil pumped furiously to the hydraulics forcing his muscular arms to tear at the grip the car smasher had on his body. With a sudden release of power, Bumblebee ripped apart the imprisoning sides of the tool that had held him snugly in place.

"Keep it tuned here, where the hits keep on comin'!"

The sudden blast of sound from some radio talk show, coupled with the noise generated by his struggle with the junkyard vehicle destroyer, caught Barricade's astute attention as Bumblebee had hoped it would. Focusing on Sam, unlike his surprised Decepticon counterpart, the Autobot lunged and skidded through the various sized piles of junk, passing his shocked rival and catching Sam in his hand. He continued only for a short distance until his momentum slowed and his scratched body came to a halt at the foot of a small hill. Pushing Samuel away, hoping the young boy wouldn't need a command to run, the brightly colored Camaro dragged himself to a standing position with the reluctant help of his tired arms.

"You again!" Barricade barked, running only to a point where he could launch off the ground to throw himself at the annoying Autobot, "Well, let's jus--hnn!"

Bumblebee was fed up with the antics of the Saleen and his talkative ways. Turning with only the agile movements a scout could muster, the vengeful guardian hurled his entire forearm into the mid-air Decepticon, hoping that the landing would be just as painful as the initial impact with his fist was.

The Autobot lurked forward, his right arm mindlessly transforming into the plasma cannon he favored over all other available weapons. Steam rose from the charging gun as he prepared to finish off his long time foe. Barricade was not easily defeated in combat, however.

Red optics gleamed as the police interceptor immediately recognized the whirring sound of a generating cannon.

Blue optics shone strongly as the weapon was raised, level with Barricade's spark for when he unconsciously turned and met his fate. However, the Decepticon was prepared. With the swish of air being the only alarm of the dark mech's intentions, the black soldier turned nimbly and slashed his ready gyro flail straight through the plasma cannon that had been ready to shoot him dead.

Bumblebee let forth an inhumane shriek of agony as the vicious metal tore haphazardly through his armor, and his most precious weapon was obliterated with a flick of his enemy's wrist.

Barricade found this loss utterly amusing as sparks flew from where his rival's armor had once protected him, and where now lay a naked appendage. Taking advantage of Bumblebee's intense distraction, the brutal Decepticon punched the bug across the visage with enough force to knock him helplessly to the ground, and then proceeded to slamming his pointed foot into the chest of the Autobot.

"Ha! You can't talk, but you sure can scream!" The Decepticon mocked as the Camaro released another pained shout, flopping uselessly upon the ground as his enemy chuckled darkly. Stooping down to retrieve a large, purple junkyard vehicle, Barricade now hovered over the yellow mech with a new threat. Under normal circumstances, the Earth car would have proved to be as dangerous as a flick to the foot, but with Bumblebee's defenses properly neutralized from their fight thus far, the crushing force would be enough to either crimple him further, or worse, put him into a stasis lock.

But although his defense mechanisms had been weakened, Bumblebee was not out of the fight yet. His injured arm spitting out sparks from where the initial wound was, the Autobot quickly hefted himself off the ground and spun violently into the Decepticon, parts clicking and gears switching as he transformed into his alternative form. Only squealing forward a couple of meters, the Camaro began to break apart and transform once more as the dazed Saleen started to recuperate from the unforeseen blow.

Barricade stumbled awkwardly to his feet, just in time to straighten up and smash into the bipedal robot mode of the swift Autobot. The yellow soldier hurled himself into his black opponent with all the hate and frustration that could be mustered, mercy pushed aside as he remembered the physical and mental abuse Sam had languished through because of the merciless nature of the Decepticon he was fighting. The pair tackled through the unfinished skeleton of a building that was in the process of being constructed, an entire brick wall crashing down around the couple as they connected.

Amongst the rubble of what had once been a stone structure, the rivals were separated by the chaos that had followed the crash. Bumblebee, depleted of most of his energy from the short but brutal brawl, took several luxurious seconds to regenerate his strength. He sensed the Decepticon moving; at first it was a twitch, but then with an infuriated growl, the monster was beginning to stand. Bumblebee used his destroyed right arm as a crutch as he maneuvered his forearm to help hold him up. Hopefully Barricade was having as much of a difficult time due to the draining impact.

But the Decepticon wasn't. Powerful hydraulics hauled the enormous body of the police interceptor quickly to his feet, only as the Autobot a short distance away was starting to reach a kneeling position. Taking advantage of his slow competitor, Barricade scanned around for another weapon to beat the limp form to a mere pulp. As he started to straighten, his claws dragged a heavy metal bar along with him, what had once been a support beam for the destroyed building surrounding the enemies. Barricade's red optics glowed ominously in the dark shrouding the combatants under its thick, black blanket. The blood red orbs narrowed to slits as the beam was lifted and brought heavily down in the direction of Bumblebee.

The yellow Autobot jumped forward, a defensive set of tires thrown up in front of him as a shield. The metal weaponry clashed heatedly, screeching together while the opposing behemoths struggled against their counterpart as physical strength was relied on to beat the other in the lethal contest. Wasting no time when it became evident that the equals had reached a stalemate, Barricade swung his foot to the side and threw it into the already gentle abdomen of the yellow soldier, forcing a rush of air, "Oof!" out of the surprised Camaro.

Barricade basked in glory as the match was over and victory was reached, the loser quivering on the rough ground of the junkyard while awaiting his end. The Decepticon strode forward, his shoulders hunched back haughtily as Bumblebee was subjected to a battered heap, only able to glare but not manifest the hatred still flowing through his circuitry.

"You're finished!" the police interceptor hissed deridingly, his sharp digits clenched into a tight fist as he approached. He looked down at the visible visage of his long time rival. Their first fight upon Earth, Bumblebee had masked his faceplate during their engagement. Previous struggles had simply been the blows exchanged because of the sides of the battlefield they had occupied, so it had not been important that Barricade see the face of the enemy he was fighting.

But now, Bumblebee had refused to shield his visage from the opponent whom he had grown to despise. On Cybertron, duels were fought in this manner, both because of tradition and because of the hidden meaning behind presenting one's features to their opponent. If one's faceplate were uncovered during a battle, it was either due to boastful pride (in the Decepticon's case), or because the uncovered combatant was expecting the fight to be their last. During a duel of this type, since both contestants' visages were open, the loser's last image whilst among the functioning would be that of their killer.

With this thought boiling in his processor, Barricade smirked hideously as he bent over to deal the final blow. Bumblebee faced his death with an emotionless faceplate, matching his Decepticon rival's stare photon for photon. Barricade raised his fist and prepared to strike through the weak chest armor to remove the spark from the nettlesome bug...

"Hey, rent-a-cop!"

With an inhumane roar and a snap of his helm in the direction of the outburst, Barricade searched for the source of the interruption. Bumblebee recognized the voice, and gazed in wonder as well as a gleaming, silver claw streamed through the crisp, night air and collided into the taken aback Saleen. There was a sickening crack of metal on metal as the hook of a construction car rammed into the upper body of the Decepticon, throwing him back and away from the brave guardian angel.

"Uh-oh." Sam breathed, struggling with the controls of the vehicle as the previously threatening claw now swung lazily upon its chain, "Maybe these things aren't that easy to operate."

Barricade had had enough. He slammed his fists into the ground and heaved himself into a standing position, his intimidating figure looming over Witwicky and his once dangerous weapon. "Give me that!" the Saleen roared, his booming voice vibrating the windows of the tool as he snatched the chain of the useless hook and snapped it from where it had hung. He threw the metal harmlessly to the side and grazed his fangs together as he returned his attention to the flesh creature.

The boy's eyes grew double in size as bright, quad optics blazed at him from the outside of the construction vehicle's front window, and gnarled claws buried themselves into the tread as the Decepticon began to lift the construction vehicle. Witwicky screamed as he tumbled through the cabin, somersaulting out the door and only managing to fling out a hand and catch hold of the sideways stairs.

Barricade lifted the machine up over his head and let LadiesMan dangle helplessly as he barked, "Nice try, insect. Is that the bes--"

Bumblebee threw the hook and chain of the construction vehicle into the side of the Decepticon's cranium, watching as the unbelievable momentum he swung the sharp object with swept Barricade off of his feet and sent his body over the fallen human and clattering into a pile of oil filled drums. The Autobot's arms tensed as he waited for the Decepticon to simply rise and resume the fight, but the sadistic Saleen remained eerily motionless. Only his claws twitched jerkily, reminding the Camaro that he was still online and was henceforth still a danger.

Dropping the construction claw, Bumblebee ran the couple of steps to his charge's side and swept him up in a careful, loving hand.

"Let's boogie." DJ Abdel instructed, the Autobot's eyes watching his boy intensely as he looked over the numerous bruises and cuts adorning his body. Luckily, it didn't seem as if he had sustained irreversible damage from the encounter.

"Thank you." Sam whispered, clutching the index and middle finger of his guardian, worried that they would be separated by mere oxygen, "You'd better call - look out!"

Samuel's last, terrified words spilled into the audio receptors of the yellow mech and made his antennas hitch up to a standing position as his gaze immediately flew to the once immobile Decepticon.

Barricade was standing, his form sagging from the immense blow but his overall stature only more frightening as he hunched forward. Oil dripped from his black body. "That's all you have left? Ha!" the police interceptor yelled, his deep monotone piercing the little space in between the rivals. "You lack a warrior's spark!"

Bumblebee stared directly into the awaiting red optics of the vengeful Saleen, unmoving. Sam watched, mortified, his eyes moving capriciously from yellow to black as he silently awaited a response, or some sort of action.

Finally, Bumblebee's hand tightened around Sam as he lowered him to the ground.

"See... you... s-soon." the Autobot crackled, his tone low but strong as he forced out the spoken statement.

"What do you mean?" Sam cried desperately, pushing his guardian's hand away when it tried to point him in the opposite direction. The fact that the yellow soldier had verbally spoken without the use of radio clips left him unappeased as he panicked with the thought of Bumblebee and that monster's fight continuing. "Come on, you gotta leave! That's gasoline! We have to--"

"Go... friend."

Sam froze. Bumblebee... Bumblebee called him a friend. No sort of emotional attachment had ever been established with words. Sam knew they were friends, they were as close as brothers in fact, but... Bumblebee had never admitted it. The boy always assumed he was too manly - or too alien - to actually acknowledge their friendship or find any true meaning in the connection they had easily established.

Now, at the most inconvenient but special of times, the giant mech said it.

"Run!" Bumblebee declared urgently as he turned and noticed that the boy was still stalling. Sam looked up with a newfound respect at his friend, then turned and hustled off to a safer area.

Satisfied, even touched by the boy's fond gaze, Bumblebee immediately hardened as he watched Barricade storm forward amidst the spilled puddles of oil and the empty canisters littered around him.

"Spark?" Bumblebee repeated, his voice restrained but emanating power as the Autobot and Decepticon got closer. Facing each other, staring down their opposite, Bumblebee and Barricade waited tensely for the other to make the first move.

"Lack..." Bumblebee lunged forward, knocked away an offending blow and delivering one of his own; "Spark?"

Already weak, Barricade twisted onto his side from the ground he had been knocked to and glared up, but malice slowly trickled into horror as he saw his rival's cannon finish forming. What had once been a savagely broken arm had now regenerated into its original deadly weapon.

"Try... this..."

"No no no--" Barricade pleaded, but Bumblebee went undeterred as he fired.

Sparks ignited around the cannon as it released an intense blast of plasma from its gaping mouth. Heat, only matched by the sun and its daughter stars, shot straight towards the oil drenched Decepticon, taking only a matter of astroseconds before exploding into the arm of the black foe. The last image Barricade carried into his memory banks before he was wrenched backwards, was Bumblebee's harsh optics glaring forward with no remorse, no regret, for his actions.

The world exploded around them, everything varying from an unfortunate junkyard cat to a halfway demolished Dodge truck lighting up and smelting into oblivion. A shockwave rippled through the area, blowing even the heaviest of trash hundreds of yards in random directions. Sam, who had been taking refuge behind a pile of this garbage, was knocked back off his feet and went flailing through the air, rocks and dust pelting him endlessly as he flew. The boy only managed to scream his friend's name before he went diving into the ground and went momentarily unconscious. Rocks, cement, and earth, continued to soar even as the blast's impact began to settle and roaring fires spotted throughout the place dwindled to small embers. Ignitable objects landed on a few of these burning areas, however, and fresh flames leaped up from the ground and stretched their mighty tentacles to the velvet sky above.

Witwicky twitched, shook his head from the black that had previously enveloped his mind, then coughed violently as the smoke surrounding him choked his lungs and constricted his throat. Covering his red, irritable eyes and fighting back wheezing fits, the boy slowly got to his feet and surveyed the damage.

Needless to say, the aftermath of the explosion was impressive.

Large, heavy footsteps approached Sam from behind, and survival instincts automatically kicked in. Soot and grime, and an annoying amount of dust fell from his slim frame as he pounced upright and prepared to run once more. After what his guardian had sacrificed, he wasn't prepared to let Barricade catch him now.

"Hello again."

Witwicky took a single step before a recognizable tune blasted out from behind him. Turning with inexplicable joy, dirt still falling from his tattered clothing, Sam yelled out to the awaiting hunched Autobot: "Alright, 'Bee, you made it!"

"Wouldn't miss this for the world." Bumblebee responded fondly, his once intense stare softening to a sweet glow as he inwardly smiled at his beloved nickname. The pair remained silent as Sam stretched his sore muscles and gave his friend enough time to approach him at a comfortable pace. The boy took note of a faint limp in the Autobot's walk, and knew he would be giving the Camaro a week-long car wash to thank him for all that had occurred this incredible night.

After Bumblebee had finally found the inner strength to force his stature to its usual slumped stance, Sam gazed around at the wreckage and metal splinters around his feet before raising his eyes to the beautiful blue ones above him and asking, "Where's Barricade?"

An icy stare replaced Bumblebee's content look when this inquiry was presented. Turning with careful, measured steps, the Autobot came to stand to face the place where he had ended the battle. He scanned through the destruction he had accidently caused, even though he had already scanned every inch of the junkyard and its outside perimeter. But the same results returned to his vision.

Barricade's body was missing amidst the smoke and detonated machinery.

"Got a burning feeling..." Bumblebee began tragically, refusing to meet the fleeting glance Sam tortured him with.

The gurgle and sputter of an engine sounded in the distance, roaring further away with each second. The Autobot watched through infrared scanners as the recognizable Saleen body disappeared into the black of the hailing night.

"...It ain't the end of us."

THE END