Transformers: Light of the Day

I got out of the car with only the trees to witness what I was about to do.

"Okay, I know what you are. There's no one around, so let's talk," I said. Nothing happened. "I can wait all night. There's really nothing going on in my life right now. I'm a refugee. I don't know what or who from. I don't even know what I'll end up being. I actually feel kind of lost. So I'm just going to take it one day at a time. So spending a few days sitting here staring at you won't bother me. We'll go into town for cigarettes and beer occasionally, until you just go crazy."

Still nothing happened. I sat there for about a half hour before I spoke again. "At least tell me who you are. Even if you're hiding because you're afraid of the battles or just want a break from them. You Autobots are supposed to be friendly," I said. Then suddenly it happened. Something I'd said had pissed him off.

"Afraid!" said a deep growling voice that was full of menace. "Autobots! Wrong on both cases flesh bag." Then as he started to transform I saw the Decepticon symbol on his flank and knew that I was probably in trouble.

"I should have killed you the first time we met. You and your stupid mate Witwicky," he said as he morphed to his full height.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "I've never seen you before." I watched in horror as he transformed again. This time he was a Mustang GT again but a Saleen model outfitted as a police car.

"Barricade," I said.

"Exactly," he sneered. I remembered that he was the first Decepticon I ever saw. He scared the shit out of me then and even more so now, but I couldn't let him know that. I still remember the fear we had as he chased Sam and me in Bumblebee that first time.

For a long time neither of us said anything. He just towered over me glaring at me with his LED lights flashing. Then suddenly he just sat down in front of me.

"Aren't you going to kill me?" I asked.

"Aren't you going to run?" he asked in return.

"What for?" I asked. "You'll only catch me and kill me anyway. Why die tired? Besides I can't outrun your guns. Go ahead shoot. No one will care about me anyway. I was only the girl sidekick. Sam was always the hero. He was the one who really wanted to fight and protect people and all of that bullshit. I was only along for the ride. No one ever took me seriously as Mikaela. I was always Sam's girlfriend."

"Exactly," he growled. "Megatron and Starscream never took me seriously either. When I fell in battle it's been up to me to put myself back together just so they can use me again in one of their stupid schemes. Even among the Decepticons unless you're gigantic or a flyer, you're just cannon fodder."

"So you're not going to kill me?" I asked sitting down myself.

"What would be the point?" he asked. "If I don't kill you, the first chance you get you'll tell the Autobots where I am, so I'll have to hide all over again. If I do kill you, when they find out and investigate your termination, they'll really be angry so I'll have to hide even more. Frankly I'm beginning to lack the motivation to terminate all of you insects. You just keep coming back and there are literally billions of you on this planet."

"Well you don't have to worry about the Autobots hearing about you from me," I said. "I'm kind of taking a break from all of that nonsense. I'm just trying to find my way, alone."

"Humph," he growled. "I'm alone too. Lately I've begun to question the wisdom of trying to take over a planet where there are a superfluous amount of resources to be had just by going and getting them. Megatron wants to be in charge and to lead. But what good does it do you to lead when no one will follow you? I just want to be left alone."

For another long time neither of us spoke.

"Barricade," I said.

"What Flesh bag?" he growled.

"If you're not going to kill me, could you take me home?"

He transformed back into the normal Black Mustang GT he'd been when I bought him. The door opened and I got in. Over the next few days we got used to each other. Barricade, unlike Wheelie, was not going to switch sides. He seemed torn. He no longer shared the goals of world domination that the other Decepticons had. He also had nothing good to say about Megatron or Starscream. But on the other hand he had no love or respect for the Autobots either. He considered himself a team of one.

He did ask for several mechanical components to speed his repairs and I bought them. Several times when I left the house and went somewhere he just pulled up next to me and opened his door and took me. "I'm not your fucking car," he growled each time.

"Nope, you're not," I said finally. "But you are my friend."

And we were. The two of us, both disenfranchised, disillusioned and slightly disturbed at the way things were going in the war. We had a lot in common. And everything went well until as you saw in the third movie, The War came to us in Chicago.

With Barricade's technology we were able to discern things that the average citizen could never find out. We were even able to pick up and decrypt some of Nest's own coded transmissions. Things were going to get bad around here before they got better.

Barricade received a special signal calling and assembling all Decepticons in the area. We finally knew and understood Megatron's plan. We were even more surprised when we learned that he was being aided by Sentinel Prime, who was not only a former leader of the Autobots but Optimus Prime's teacher.

"Megatron must really be desperate," ranted Barricade. "This is the second time he's had to rely on a turncoat prime to fulfill one of his stupid schemes. Can't he do anything on his own?"

"Aren't you going to report?" I asked.

"No. I'm sitting this one out. Megatron doesn't need my help to fail again," he growled. "Aren't you going to help your friends?"

"They don't seem to need my help either," I said. "I guess the thing that bothered me the most in the reports was hearing that Sam and his girlfriend were in the thick of things as usual. Sam and Bumblebee I was expecting. But I really thought that I was Sam's girlfriend. Hearing that he'd replaced me already did wonders for my lack of self esteem. Though I was curious about whom she was and what she was like, I had no great desire to see her."

"Why do you think he'll fail?" I asked Barricade.

"Because leadership and power are both lofty and singular goals," growled Barricade. "It isn't very often that two power hungry beings can share either one of them. Their alliance is a house of cards. All it'll take is a whisper or a hint to tear them apart and set them at each other's throats. Alliances formed in the dark of the moon rarely survive in the light of the day, Mikaela"

That was the first time he hadn't called me "Girl," or "Human," or the ever popular "Flesh bag."

Finally the battle and the destruction got so bad that it became obvious that we needed to leave. With a ring of Decepticons and military opponents ringing the city, getting out wouldn't be easy.

Barricade decided to scout the city in his Decepticon form since the Decepticons seemed to be winning. The idea was that Barricade would find a safer place to hide out or a way through the city and come back for me. I wasn't sure that he wouldn't either hook up with his Decepticon buddies or simply desert me at the first chance he got. I guess trust was something in short supply to both of us.

After waiting for far longer than the couple of hours I expected. I got a signal on my cell phone from Barricade. He was trapped, damaged and in trouble. He thought I should carefully try making my way out of the city before the trouble got worse. The fighting was very thick now and the Autobots who'd been banished from the planet were back and taking the fight to the Decepticons, but were vastly out-numbered. Their allies were hitting the Decepticons with all types of new weapons and he'd been damaged by a missile strike that hit him and several other Decepticons.

He was perhaps 2 miles to my northwest, freedom was to the south.

I shrugged my shoulders and headed northwest. There were several times when I had to detour or backtrack to avoid conflict. The first thing that popped into my head was how different this was than the way I did things with Sam. Sam always seemed to be plunging headfirst into the thick of things when far bigger, far stronger, far better trained guys waited or hesitated. That was only one of the things that made him so special.

Finally I found Barricade. Luckily he was still in his Decepticon form, so he resembled a police car, albeit a strangely outfitted one. The problem was that several parts including two of his wheels were missing. And he was pretty heavily damaged so he couldn't transform.

I started scavenging. A few yards away I found one of the wheels. I didn't have a lug wrench or any lugs to install it with or a jack. That was pretty stupid of me. I planned on breaking into another car hoping to find them after I located the last wheel. As soon as I got the wheel within range of the rest of Barricade the wheel flew out of my hands and attached itself to the rest of him.

A kid on a bike was rolling the other wheel away from me. I lit out after him and charmed him out of it. As I returned to the area that Barricade was in, an old man stopped me.

"Hey where'd you get that wheel?" he asked me with a funny look on his face. I sensed trouble so I started backing away.

After a few feet I ran into something. The largest Black man I'd ever seen was standing directly behind me.

"You guys shouldn't be here," he said in a gruff voice.

"I was just leaving," I said grabbing the wheel.

"Mikaela, is that you?" I heard a voice ask. I looked up and saw Robert Epps, his smooth cocoa brown skin and bald head gleaming in the sun.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

"She's taking things that don't belong to her," snapped the old man. "That wheel she has came off of a really weird police car that saved us from those things before the missiles hit them."

"Mikaela what's going on," asked Epps.

"I'm helping a friend," I said.

"Who's the friend?" he asked. "Does Sam know you're here?"

"Epps just let me do what I have to do," I said.

I grabbed the wheel and started walking away from them. I really thought that with all that was going on they'd forget about me and just let me go about my business. Seemingly they did just that. I heard a barrage of gunfire a few yards away and knew that they were involved in it.

I got the wheel back to Barricade and it attached itself as the other one had. I spent some time clearing most of the debris from on top of him and around him.

"Let's get out of here," I said.

"You need to go now," he growled. "There are energon readings getting closer and whether they are Autobots or Decepticons neither bode well for you. If they are Autobots they will certainly engage me. You might be injured if caught between us. If they are Decepticons they will attack you and without energon I cannot defend you."

Hearing that Barricade would defend me against Decepticons was a shocker.

"None of that matters 'Cade," I said. "We're getting out of here, together."

"How?" he asked. "I don't have the energon to move, much less to transform or affect repairs."

"Can you convert other forms of energy to what you need?" I asked.

"Yes, possibly it depends on the form of energy," he growled.

"How many car batteries would it take to get us out of here?" I asked.

"Perhaps ten," he growled. "But how can you get that many?"

"More importantly" came a voice behind us. "How can you get them before I blow his lily livered carcass to smithereens?" The last part sounded as if it was cobbled together from snippets of dialog from old John Wayne movies.

I turned to see Epps, a few other soldiers and Bumblebee.

"What the fuck is going on Baby girl?" asked Epps. "That is not one of ours."

"Decepticon," said Bumblebee in a voice from the TV news.

As the men behind Epps moved their weapons into position and Bumblebee readied his guns menacingly, I stepped between them and Barricade.

"Remember last time we did this, when Wheelie made the choice to leave the Decepticons?" I asked.

Before I could go any further a report came over the radio about Shockwave being seen near a building downtown.

"You're saying that this thing wants to change sides?" asked Epps.

"Nope, I'm saying that both he and I have decided not to pick sides, we both just want to live out our lives away from the war for a while, just like you did Epps."

He obviously had to go to help Sam and the Allies with Shockwave. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said. "What should I tell..."

"Don't tell Sam anything," I said. "Not even that you saw me."

"He's kind of busy trying to get his new friend out of danger anyway," he said. "She seems to be the type that needs to be rescued a lot. She doesn't have anywhere near your style baby girl, good luck." He nodded and headed off with his men towards the area where Shockwave was tearing up downtown. Somehow I knew that Sam would be there. It was all I could do to keep from running over there myself. But that wouldn't do either one of us any good. And all of the trouble I'd gone through to get him away from me would have been for nothing.

I gave a silent prayer both for Epps' safety and especially for Sam's.

"And you," I said turning towards Bumblebee. "You owe me one for that time with the tow truck. Now get over here." Bumblebee reluctantly put his guns away.

"He needs energon," I said.

Bumblebee moved over to Barricade and transformed one of his guns into a different type of device. He attached it to Barricade and then energon began flowing between them.

In a few moments Barricade while not as good as new was ready to roll. "Bee, the same thing goes for you. Don't tell Sam that you saw me. It's for the best."

"I am in your debt," growled Barricade. Bumblebee nodded his head in acknowledgement then quickly transformed and rolled out.

As Barricade and I left the city, I saw a group of people headed for the downtown area Sam was running in the front of the crowd as usual the first one to run into trouble. I noticed that she wasn't running with him. Whether from fear or injury or just that she couldn't keep up with him, I couldn't tell.

I was always right beside him. It made me remember something from our time in the desert. "Who else could be your girlfriend, Sam?" I'd asked him. Oh yeah, she was pretty in a weird big lipped, angular headed kind of way, but in the long run she wasn't a replacement for me as much as she was a placeholder. She was only someone to occupy a space in Sam's life until I came back to claim my spot.

"Let's get out of here Barricade," I said smiling. We had places to go and things to do.

"I'm not your fucking car," he growled.

"Nope but you are my friend," I said.

"Yes, Flesh bag, we are that." he growled. "But if you say Transform and roll out, you're walking!"

End of Report

For more on Transformers go see the movie.