badcop: (Ain't got time for this)
Decepticon Barricade ([personal profile] badcop) wrote2014-03-18 11:12 pm

(no subject)

In the months that followed the loss of the Allspark, Barricade did his best to keep moving and stay off the Autobot’s radar. There were a hundred thousand different places on this miserable planet that he could safely hide, but he couldn’t do his job from any of them. At least until Starscream returned from his latest mad quest or Soundwave came back into orbit, he was on his own, watching and waiting. It was too dangerous to follow the Autobots themselves, so he stuck to tracking the humans, both civilian and military, finding their communications much easier to unravel.

Tailing Sector Seven, though, finally got him something solid. The organization had been all over the place since sinking his dead teammates into the ocean, moving both files and artifacts between storage facilities. During one of their transfers, he’d succeeded in hacking through their security, coming up with a delivery manifest. There was nothing particularly damning, unfortunately, but he caught wind of their past attempts to find more Cybertronians over the years. A number of vehicles had been seized with this in mind, though none had proven to be more than anything man made. All but one, he was willing to bet.

The files on a particular plane stood out, but were incomplete, which was really just his luck. The rest of the hard records weren’t digitized, and Sector Seven was facing termination from the higher ups. This was where he needed Frenzy – annoying as he’d been, he could get in and out of places that were closed to Barricade. If there weren’t digital copies, he was going to have a hell of time finding more information on their records of this operation. It was a very slim lead, but it had one saving grace: the name Wilton Knight was stamped onto the corner of the one photo of the plane that was digital. Barricade had gotten quite familiar with that name over the past few months, and that link alone made him decide it was worth looking into.

He didn’t know how or why the government allowed Knight Industries to operate or exist at all, but he wasn’t going to question it. They were a resource waiting to be exploited, and Barricade weathered the badgering he received from Michael Knight with this in mind. It was likely a mutual arrangement – a Decepticon didn’t have humanity’s best interests in mind, and FLAG was all about protecting the innocent. If they could keep tabs on him without tipping off the Autobots, they’d have their own resource to exploit. Assuming their association didn’t get them shut down under charges of treason, which wouldn’t hurt Barricade’s feelings in the least.

If the plane belonged to Knight Industries, they’d want it back. If it turned out to be an old comrade of Barricade’s, then that was all the better. Either way, he could get the human and his pet car to do the work that he couldn’t, and peel back their own security while he was at it. So thinking, he sent the delivery manifest to Kitt, knowing the trumped up calculator could parse out the relevant information. 

secondtry: (srsface)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-19 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
It was a typical night in the SSC. Billy was asleep on the couch beside Kitt, Zoe had gone somewhere, Sarah was in her relaxation pod, and Mike was in the recliner, avoiding both sleep and Sarah by playing XBox games.

At the moment, he was sucking mightily at them, though. He was tired, but that was fast becoming business as usual. Everything about this job was exhausting. No wonder his dad quit.

Booker DeWitt was idling in a house cleared of Columbia police, Elizabeth muttering in the background, while Mike dozed, one hand still holding the controller, the other wrapped around a can of beer. Kitt's chirp in Mike's ear was easy to dismiss the first three times. By the seventh, he was grumbling. By the eleventh, he jerked the recliner up into sitting instead of reclining and growled, "What?"

"I am sorry to wake you," Kitt said, "but I have received a message from Barricade."

Now that was a reason to wake up. "Barricade? He contacted you?"

"Apparently my display of aptitude with Cybertronian has qualified me to be contacted."

"I wouldn't put too much stock in it. So." He yawned. "What's the word?"

"Apparently he has found Wilton Knight's plane."

"Plane?"

"It is being held by Sector Seven."

Mike shook his head, saving his game with a few flicks of the controls. "Go back to the part where you said plane."

"Before my predecessor was created, there are records of Wilton Knight having built a plane along our similar lines, but it was commandeered by the government when he filed for patents."

"...Shit." His brows raised. "So, wait. Barricade is saying he might've found your long-lost brother?"

"As I understand it, yes."

"And this Sector Seven has him?"

"Yes."

The decision was made that simply. "Not for long.Let's see what we can find in our own records."

Hours later, while everyone else was still asleep, Mike was bundled up in Kitt's passenger seat, soundly asleep while his trusted AI drove. He could sleep when it was just the two of them, and they had some leads to follow up - namely the old Knight Industries stomping grounds in Vegas. In '82, it had been converted into a museum of technology, but Mike knew Wilton Knight's mindset too well to believe that was all he found, so he sent the message to Barricade.

If you're curious, meet us here:, he'd sent, followed by the address.
secondtry: (smirky)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-20 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
Mike rolled down his window to look across at Barricade. "Welcome to the party," he said, "and the Wilton Knight Museum of Technology, still under the ownership of Knight Industries. The place used to be the main lab, and some of the space isn't open to the public. Namely, the records area. You want information about the plane? This is the place to find it. All on hard copy. Good thing most of the doors are garage-door sized, right?"

He climbed out of the driver's seat with the ease of long practice, flashlight in hand. "Here's hoping your giant metal hands can handle thirty-year-old printouts."
secondtry: (lost)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-20 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
Mike headed toward the door, coming to the keypad and swiping a card through it, following it with a six-number sequence that had the first door reeling open.

The space inside was nearly the size of a hangar and full of antiquated equipment: computers with tape reels, arrays of mainframes decked with lights that once blinked in ways that were indecipherable without years of training - the way things used to work, all in one big room. "Goddamn," Mike murmured as he flicked the flashlight on. "This is like the island of misfit tech."
secondtry: (srsface)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-20 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Kitt rolled in behind them, his shape changing to his 4x4 mode, headlights on, and lights atop the cab illuminating to assist further. Mike gave him a smile before starting to look more closely at the rows upon rows of filing cabinets. "We're going old school," Mike said, clipping the flashlight onto a beltloop. "Wilton Knight might've been at the head of the tech movement back in the day, but back in the day, people still kept everything in drawers in chronological order, and I'm betting there are more than a few angry rants on paper at about the time the plane would've disappeared. But I will say this..."

He started reading the dates on the little placards on each drawer. "If this ends up in me infiltrating Area 51 again, I am going to be pissed. Hey, supercar, mind closing the door behind you?"

There was no verbal answer. Just the quiet sound of the door reeling shut.
secondtry: (listening)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-21 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes and no," Mike answered, glancing toward Barricade. "Let's just say it's not the first time me and the government have been on opposite sides. Kitt, what do you think, seventy-four sound about right?"

"Timing is uncertain from what digital records exist," Kitt answered, "but as the first iteration of my current platform was built in nineteen eighty-one, the mid- to late seventies would be the correct time span."

"Kind of what I figured. I'll start in seventy four. Come over here, speed reader. Maybe if I flick through it, you'll catch it faster than I could. What code did you give me to get in here, anyway?"

"Your father's." Kitt idled in Mike's direction, Mike turning off his flashlight so he could use both hands to work on the combination lock on the drawer.

"...Seriously? They've not changed the code since he was around?"

"No one has ever used his code."

"Not even him? God, he was such a slacker."
secondtry: (srsface)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-22 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Unintentionally hereditary," Mike answered. "Got in by nepotism that I never knew existed. And technically, he's not an ex-employee. I'm pretty sure you can't retire from this line of work. You just... stop showing up and people act like it's intentional. ...Think I just saw the word 'plane'..."

He hoped that there wouldn't be a mention anywhere in here of tri-helical MBS. That was the last thing they needed, Decepticons getting ahold of that.

"Hm, first records. This isn't going to help us for where they took it."
secondtry: (side-eye)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-22 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
"Things work a little differently around FLAG than they do anywhere else." But Mike didn't hand over the file just yet, flipping through it himself with Kitt reading over his shoulder. Once he saw there weren't any mentions of MBS, he offered the folder up and reached for the next.

The file wasn't anything special. Plans, diagrams, nothing that the military hadn't already adopted (unfortunately, thanks to Wilton Knight's engineers' initial genius) but with plans for an AI so a plane could fly on its own, ethical programming, the whole lot. There were manifest lists for what would be needed to construct the plane, blueprints, exacting measurements - and Mike was already looking for the next file in order.
secondtry: (confused)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-22 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
The code was nothing without the card Mike had swiped, which was comfortably in his pocket and which would be burnt when they left. Mike knew how to cover his bases. Of course, it wouldn't stop Barricade from just tearing his way in, but it'd make it a little obvious just who had made the door go away.

But Mike was shaking his head as he pulled out the next one. "Nothing surprising. Same team from the eighties. All of 'em are dead now. Then we've got..."

He flipped open another folder. "First copies of the patent applications. And proof that at least some people in the eighties had the idea of how not to leak information, thank God. And what did you find in that 'Confiscated' folder?"
secondtry: (not buying it)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-24 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Well," Mike sighed, flopping to sit on the floor. "I could always go to Jennifer and ask if her dad kept a journal. I'm sure that'd go over well. Or it could be that they didn't know. And if they didn't know, then that means there's only one place that would know, and that's the military."

His gaze shifted to Kitt and Kitt, upon seeing it, answered, "I no longer have access to the military satellite network."

"Yeah, and we're not supposed to be talking to Mister Tall, Dark, and Scary With Anger Issues, either, but that's not stopping us."
secondtry: (srsface)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-27 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
Mike looked from Barricade to Kitt and back again, having to evaluate. "Supercar, what do you think?" he asked quietly. "You know what these assholes can do. And it's your brain that would be risked."

His gut was saying no. Nobody else would stand up for Kitt, and Kitt had become the closest thing he had to family. He didn't want to put that on the line. He'd rather see himself dead first. But Kitt knew what he'd need to get this done.

"There is a possibility I could do it alone," Kitt said. "It would be logical to exhaust that possibility before taking on possibly-imprudent risks."

"Then give it a stab. Anything weird starts to happen, you disconnect right then, all right?"

"Understood."
secondtry: (confused)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-27 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
The main issue was that Kitt was, as far as Mike knew, still a part of Project Prometheus - and that was something Barricade really didn't need to get into. Decepticons had already gotten themselves into the defense network far enough. They didn't any possible backdoors that still existed.

Mike could've heard a pin drop with how silent everything seemed to be. He could even hear his own blood rushing in his ears, which really wasn't a pleasant sound. That was the kind of silence that he'd come to dread.

It was just when Mike was about to call it off that Kitt said, "There is an opening. I have not been detected."

"Awesome, now we need to hope those records have been brought up to date instead of all this paperwork."

"The search will take some time. The amount of records is extensive."
secondtry: (smirky)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-03-27 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"Thing is, sure, they might have its current location, but this shit is encoded. Between you and Kitt, I'm pretty damn sure we can break the encoding, but we've got to find the right bit of code to decode first, and you guys might be able to touch-hack servers, but you're not touch-hacking them here and now. And add that to Kitt having to be subtle enough not to be noticed, which is completely unlike your 'hi, I have a hammer' approach, and it equals needing time." He smirked. "And yes, I have seen that video of one of you guys groping a military server to death."
secondtry: (not buying it)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-01 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"Minimal decoding of the surrounding materials has indicated a span of files likely to include the current location of the plane in question," Kitt said. "I am in the process of downloading the files and falsifying the date of last access of the files I had to peruse."

Mike smiled, reaching out to pat Kitt's bumper fondly. "That's my supercar."

"The process will take approximately ninety more seconds."

"So, Anger Issues On Wheels, how good are you at decoding?"
secondtry: (not buying it)

Oh lord, it's glorious.

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-03 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
"Okay, Kitt, toss him half," Mike said as he stood, "and let's get out of here. Looks like we've got some info about origins but..." He looked over at the mess Barricade had left behind and made a mental note to leave some kind of apology so nobody thought his dad had actually done this. "stuck in a nice, heavy paper trail we don't have time for. Let's find a direction, my mechanical friends."
secondtry: (not buying it)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-08 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
"Out of all of the delusions I may have, the idea that we're friends is not one of them," Mike answered, climbing into Kitt's cab. "I only have room for so much bad temper in my life and I take up my entire allotment. All right, hot stuff, got anything?"

"Unfortunately yes," Kitt answered. "The plane was housed at Area 51."

"...Goddamn it."

"But it isn't any longer. With the talks of declassification of Area 51, the plane was moved to the Wright-Patterson base in Ohio."

Mike rubbed at his forehead. "Whole different kind of goddamn it. Ohio?"

"Yes, Mike. Ohio."

"Shit."
secondtry: (side-eye)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-08 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
"...Ground transport for a plane," Mike muttered. "Christ, that poor..."

His heart was in his throat just at the thought of it. A sentient thing disassembled and put in trucks to be taken wherever someone else decided.

"So, intercept or just go and stop the bastards?" he asked, forcing himself into a more flippant tone. If he let himself think about it, he'd just get too angry before it was time to use that anger. He wasn't the Hulk, but rage made killing people easier.
secondtry: (doubt)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-08 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
He could see the sense of it, even if the thought left a bad taste in his mouth. Still, he gave Kitt a nod and the door reeled up for both AI and Decepticon to pass through. "Okay," he said, opening a comm line. "Let's pick a good place to wait for these assholes to go past. Then we can rescue an AI."

That's what it was. He wasn't going to fool himself. This was a rescue, a liberation. Period.
secondtry: (srsface)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-08 03:00 am (UTC)(link)
"...I think we might be able to do better than that."

But he turned out onto the street anyway, looking through the info Kitt was feeding him. "If there's one thing I know, it's military manoeuvers. You can change shapes, so can Kitt. If we do it just right, we can infiltrate the convoy and slip away with the plane without anybody realising until it's too late."
secondtry: (not buying it)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-08 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, and Kitt likes his, but luckily enough, he can mimic yours so you can get yours back right after this mission is done." They'd seen the footage of just how Cybertronians scanned for their alt modes. It wouldn't be hard for Kitt to flip into Barricade's current form so he could re-scan. "It's not like it's going to be permanent. But think you could manage a Hummer or is Mustang the biggest you can go?"
secondtry: (srsface)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-08 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
"Mm, depends on what they've got as escorts. It's usually Hummers now, but that's if they go full military. If they go more covert, we might be able to pass as oversize load escorts." His tone was quiet as he thought. "Obviously we'll need to scope this out before we put this plan in action, but I know it's worked before - with a gold transfer, at that, so we should be able to pull this off without much effort.

"They'll have a front door and a back door. It's easier to take out the back door first. Big truck mirrors are easier to fool. So we find out what kind of vehicles they've got for their front and back door, spoof their shapes, take them out - shouldn't be hard, we're both weaponised to hell and it's not like we can't be covert - and once we've got the truck under our cover, thinking we're with them, we can organise an emergency. Take out a tire, yank out the truck driver and I'll take over the truck while you and Kitt escort. Then we're just a normal convoy going down the road, just to our destination instead of theirs."
secondtry: (not buying it)

[personal profile] secondtry 2014-04-12 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Shadowing won't be too hard. They'll only use the interstate for short periods. Less of an audience on the smaller roads, but they'd be less noticeable on the big roads during cities. So we'll plot out a most likely route, keep an eye on the whole thing to see what options they take, and we'll converge when things look likely, notify each other when we spot what leg they're on. We can't make ourselves too noticeable." God, it was the military all over again, an infiltration mission for possible weapons transfer-- He thought he'd been out of all this. With one hand, he rubbed at his forehead while the other kept Kitt on the road - unlike Barricade. "So let's head out into the wild green flatland and dodge tornadoes on the way."