Shield Chapter One

Disclaimer: if you recognize it, it probably belongs to someone else. I make no profit from the following.

Mikaela Banes was running for her life. Not that there was anything new about this. Since Sam and the Autobots had entered her life she found herself doing that every couple of months. She was worried this time though, more for her father than herself. The attack had happened at his garage. After The Fallen had been taken care of, Sam had again suggested that she moved to Princeton to be near him and Bumble Bee, for her protection. She'd declined because she knew if she wasn't there her father would end up doing some favors for some of his old friends and end up back in prison.

As she skidded around the corner into an alley she berated herself, now was definitely not the time to be reminiscing about what she should or should not have done earlier in the year. Not, with a twenty foot tall berserk robot after her. Glancing to her left as she ducked into the alley she'd hoped she had beaten Barricade around the corner. No such luck, the Decepticon police car got around the corner just soon enough to spot where she ducked.

"Give it up fleshling!" he bellowed, "You cannot hope to escape me!"

"Yeah, right," Mikaela muttered to herself, at least he wasn't shooting at her yet. Looking down the alley to see if there might be a door or something she could duck into she was surprised to see Cindy Marshall coming the other way. Mikaela knew the other girl from school. It was funny; she never thought that Cindy was the type to be out wandering at one in the morning.

Cindy glanced up and stopped as she saw Mikaela coming down the alley at a full run, her jeans jacket ripped and a small cut bleeding on her forehead. "Run!" Mikaela screamed as Barricade skidded to a stop at the end of the alley.

"Stop!" He ordered, and started into the alley. He noticed the other fleshling, but as it was a smallish female of the species he paid it no mind.

On the other hand she was paying serious attention to him.

"Hey road kill!" The other female called.

Barricade stopped and cocked his head at the human, "Were you addressing me?" He knew what road kill was and he didn't appreciate being compared to it.

"You see any other giant robot chasing after a friend of mine?" Came the sarcastic reply.

"My name is Barricade," he informed the Earthling. "If you don't want me to squash you I suggest you use it."

"Uh, how about you turn and leave and I won't take you apart," Cindy replied while Mikaela was looking at her like she lost her mind.

"How? Stamp your foot at me?" The Decepticon sneered, "Or, maybe you'll hold your breath until you turn blue?"

"Nah, I think putting my foot down works," Cindy smirked. So saying she lifted up her US Army Paratrooper boot clad foot and slammed it down, right onto the edge of a manhole cover. The metal ring underneath popped with a loud bang as the other end of the metal circle flipped up into Cindy's hands. She spun around once, holding onto the edge on the underside. As she came around the second time she released the cover right at Barricade's neck!

Barricade could only stare, convinced that there was something wrong with his photo receptors, because he plainly could not be seeing what they were telling him. A hundred pound human female should not be able to lift a manhole cover, let alone throw it at him! He was still running the diagnostic when the 120 pound object, travelling at almost 500 feet a second slammed into his throat, shattering most of the control runs that ran through his neck. Barricade instantly went into stasis lockdown and collapsed.

Cindy turned to Mikaela and asked, "Is there anymore of them?"

Mikaela silently shook her head. This certainly looked like Cindy from school. The black leather pants and boots were new, but she recognized the white top she was wearing. "I don't think so. How did you…?" She asked as she waved toward Barricade's still form.

"Not right now. We have to get out of here in case there are any more of them." Cindy turned and headed back down the alley. She only stopped long enough to pick up a slightly dented manhole cover from where it had landed after nailing the Decepticon.

Mikaela could only think of two things to explain what she had just seen. One, this Cindy was actually a disguised Cybertronian, and the thing with Barricade was either just for show if she was a Decepticon like Alice had been. Or, she was an Autobot she wasn't familiar with and didn't want to take the time to explain right now. The other was Cindy was actually some kind of demon left over from the LA riots earlier in the year and had just decided to come out of the closet. Coverage after the riots had revealed that there were all kinds of demons living and working in the LA area. A lot of them were friendly, and had a live and let live attitude. There was some discrimination, but it turned out one of the mechanics at her dad's garage was quarter Braken demon and he was the coolest guy there. Mikaela figured she had a fifty-fifty shot of Cindy being some kind of friendly, and unless Starscream or Megatron showed up she'd bet on her and her manhole cover. If it turned out she wasn't friendly… she'd keep her options open.

Cindy in fact was not a Decpticon or a demon. She was a Slayer who had been called the night before Angel had decided to take down Wolfram and Hart. She was also something of a mystery as she had been Chosen without any of the current Slayers dying.

Cindy decided she needed to get to the Slayer safe house, which was about four miles away; Mikaela would slow her down a bit, so she decided to get some help to come to her. She shifted the manhole cover into her left hand and pulled out her flip phone and hit speed dial 1.

"They're jamming cell phones," Mikaela said.

Cindy just looked over her shoulder at the other girl, "NORAD can't jam this phone," Cindy replied smugly. Proving herself right, she said into the phone, "This is Cindy, I'm coming in hot with someone," after listening for a second she replied, "No not vampires or demons, those big robot thingies that showed up last month." Listening again, she started moving off at a jog. Mikaela started following, but found she had to move at almost a dead run to keep up. Cindy said into the phone, "No, the one I took down sounded like a bad guy. Listen, I'll be there in about forty-five minutes, unless you can get a car or a bike to me sooner. You also need to call someone in Scotland; they might want to talk to who I'm bringing in. She was being chased; the bad guys must have a reason for grabbing her." Cindy listened for a couple of seconds then replied, "Okay, I'll keep an eye out for Mindy, tell her to load for dragon and bring something with a moon roof so we can shoot." She then flipped the phone closed and dropped it into a jacket pocket.

"Now that you have that out of the way," Mikaela began, "Can you explain how you managed to take out Barricade with a manhole cover?"

"You remember those riots a couple of months back?"

Mikaela nodded.

"You remember those super girls that showed up and pounded the bad guy demons?"

"You're a Slayer?" Mikaela asked. She remembered Cindy as being something of a klutz in gym class.

"Got Chosen the morning of the riots, I was out patrolling the neighborhood when I cut down the alley," Cindy explained.

Mikaela, starting to puff slowed down and asked , "Can I use your phone? I need to call this in. You'll be reimbursed."

Cindy fished her phone out of her jacket and handed it to Mikaela, "We should keep moving though, we don't want to be a stationary target."

Mikaela started walking as she punched in Sam's number. When he picked up she began, "Sam, I'm alright. The Decipticons attacked my dad's shop. A class mate helped me get away. She took out the Decepticon that was chasing me." She paused for a second and answered, " Barricade," Mikaela took the phone away from her ear, and Cindy didn't need Slayer hearing to hear the 'HOW!' that came from the other end. She was surprised; she didn't think Sam Witwicky had that kind of lung power.

"She threw a manhole cover at it. Almost took his head off." She paused again, then replied, "I really don't think she is a robot Sam. Mostly because I've known her since second grade, plus she says she's a Slayer. Yeah, those hot chicks from the demon riots. You get in touch with Optimus and get some help here in case there are more of them around. Cindy is taking me somewhere safe, as soon as I find out where I'll call." Mikaela flipped the phone closed and handed it back. "If there are any Autobots around they'll cover me. Plus I need to check on my dad, he was at the garage when the attacked started. I told Wheels to get him out, but I'm not sure he managed it," Her tone was much more worried.

"When we get to the safe house I'll see about having someone swing by and check on him," Cindy assured her friend as she turned around and checked her back trail. She was getting a Slayer buzz that was telling her they were being followed, but she couldn't see anything.

Cindy was right they were being followed, but even as a Slayer she could be forgiven for not noticing the Decepticon following her. The robotic being known as Peeps was barely eight inches tall and little thicker than a credit card, except for its optic sensors, which were about the size of grapes. Unlike most Cybertronians these didn't glow, allowing Peeps to operate at night and spy without giving it's position away. Peeps was capable of seeing in anything but absolute total darkness, it could also see electromagnetic emissions from targets throughout the entire spectrum, had both telescopic and microscopic capabilities. Starscream had sent him along with Barricade to keep a record of Mikaela Banes capture, or failure of same. He was about 4 blocks back and on a three story roof. After he saw the ease the human female had dispatched Barricade, he refused to get any closer. He was currently following the two humans to see if they would lead him to their base, allowing a more formidable attack to hit it later if it was desired.

Peeps, unfortunately did not posses super hearing to go with his vision sensors, so he was unable to tell what exactly the two fleshlings were talking about, and since both their backs were to him he couldn't lip read. The one thing that he knew Starscream and Megatron would find interesting was the fact that they had a communication device that was not jammed by the jammer that Soundwave swore would stop all communication devices within its range. He observed the two until and earth vehicle showed up with even more of the human females in it. Peeps noted with interest that the females in the vehicle seemed to be armed with weapons that their body mass would seem to indicate they could not fire without severe consequences from the recoil. Peeps concluded that these must be like the female that had stasis locked Barricade, and he decided that the arrival of more of these voided the rest of his mission. He would return to the retrieval point and wait for pick-up. If Starscream didn't like it, Starscream could risk getting his head taken off by a flying metal disk.

Once the SUV from the Slayers arrived, with Mindy and Sharon in it, Sharon armed with a Barret Light Fifty, Mikaela started to feel a little safer. She'd learned enough about weapons to know that the rifle the Slayer was had would not be enough to stop one of the bigger Decepticons, but it should do okay on any of the smaller ones. She figured that if one of the other bigger ones were around they would have already showed themselves.

Just then Cindy's cell phone rang. She popped it open and said, "Hello?" Turning to Mikaela she handed the phone over and said, "It's someone named RC, she'd like to talk to you."

Mikaela grabbed the phone and said, "Arcee? Where are you?" She nodded a couple of times and then said, "It was Barricade that you guys were tracking, and he's down." She nodded a couple of times more, then said, "One of my classmates nearly took his head off with a manhole cover. I think there were some smaller ones around but we haven't seen them," listening some more she finished by saying, "I'll check."

She turned to Cindy and said, "That was Arcee, she's an Autobot scout and she was tracking Barricade, the Decepticon you took out. She'd like to meet; she knows where my dad's garage is. Can we meet her there?"

Cindy looked at Mindy, she was the ranking Slayer here. Well, technically, Cindy was an independent Slayer so she wasn't in Mindy's chain of command, but she knew the girl was pricklish about stuff like this. She was the senior Slayer in the LA area and she took the job seriously, too seriously, if you'd ask Cindy. Mindy thought about it for a couple of seconds then nodded, "Sure, what's the address?" Mikaela provided it and everyone hopped in and the SUV speed off.

Arriving at the garage the Slayers and Mikaela found her dad being helped by a small robot, he had a gash on his forehead and some bruises down one of his arms. "Dad!" Mikaela screamed as she ran toward the older man. Sharon grabbed an EMT grade first aid kit and jogged along after the girl. Mindy grabbed the Barret, and Cindy her manhole cover and they moved to the smashed down gate in the fence that surrounded the garage. About ten minutes later they became aware of a trio of headlights moving silently through the night. Mindy dropped to the ground and popped the bipod legs for the rifle down and began sighting in on the lights. Cindy backed herself into a spot where there was enough room for her to spin. Tomorrow she was calling Cleveland and seeing about expediting that carry permit, she knew she was only 18, but she was a Slayer!

The trio of bikes stopped under the last street light before the garage, they were all sleek road machines, each topped by a female rider in leathers color coded to the bike they rode. "I am Arcee, I'm expected," the lead biker said.

"Mikaela!" Cindy called into the garage, were Sharon had just finished bandaging Mikaela's dad, "I think your friend is here!"

"Is it three motorcycles?"

"Yeah!"

Mikaela jogged down to the remains of the gate and spotting Arcee she waved her in. The two Slayers watched amazed as the three bikes somehow merged into one twelve foot robot, a twelve foot tall female robot. Why do robots need sexes? Cindy wondered to herself.

A hurried explanation later and Arcee tried to call it in, and found that whatever was jamming communications before was still jamming it. She ended up borrowing Cindy's cell to call the report in. Optimus decided he needed to meet with the Slayers so a meeting for the following day was arranged.

Mindy decided it would be safer if everyone went back to Slayer House for the night and even Cindy didn't argue it. Arcee though wanted to find the jamming device, hopefully they could recover it intact and see how it worked so they could come up with a counter for it, or at least make it so people could use their cell and sat phones again. Cindy volunteered to ride shotgun with the Autobot, as she knew the area.

As they pulled out of the car yard of the garage, with Cindy mounted on the lead bike, Arcee asked, "Did you really take down Barricade by throwing a manhole cover at him?"

"It was handy," Cindy explained, somewhat defensively.

"Hey, I wasn't complaining. Barricade was a pig; you did the universe a favor."

"So what does a scout for the Autobots do mostly?"

"This and that," Arcee replied.

Cindy thought, a Slayer and an Autobot could cover a lot of ground and support each other. You know, maybe that call to Cleveland wouldn't be about a gun permit, maybe it would be about a motorcycle license.

AN: For those Transformers purist out there, I know that the original comic Cybertronians would have laughed at getting hit with manhole cover, unless either the Hulk or Thor had thrown it, but this is the movievrse,