Flashback – “The Vent Plan” – Closed

[Deleted]

Arcee was giving him some flak about his plan. Barricade was giving her flak back about not liking his plan. This was pretty normal behavior really, between a pair of law-bots on mission. Professional sarcasm and backhanded insults were a well traded commodity and the social currency of their function class and for team Maverick it wasn't a conversation until someone got their plates in a jam.

It might have just been a question of opposiitional function - between Arcee and her Six that is. Barricade’s design was a technical offshoot for the enforcer cohorts and not a design that had caught on for later generations, but he did was he did very well even if there was not a particular high demand for what he did and what he did… was infiltration. Therein, laid the problem. Barricade did infiltration whereas Arcee did knockdown drag-out beat downs punctuated by scout work and field reconnaissance.

Barricade operated well in the knockdown drag-out beat downs sector of enforcer work (he was deep cover operative in the Kaon criminal underground for frag’s sake) but he preferred to leave that until he’d exhausted his other sneakier options. Arcee was built for sneaky. But she didn’t have a sneaky personality… or at least she didn’t like the vent idea.

It was mostly she didn’t’ like the vent idea.

“Look, there only three points of entry into the complex and all of them involve killing or disabling a guard or taking a thirty kilk round about of hacking that I’m not particularly swift at.” He was drawling. He drawled when he was feeling smug, or annoyed, or amused, or all of those things. “Yeah we can be idiots. Or,” he said loudly, when she glared, “or we can just do the smart thing. You know, where you just open the door for me, instead of the other plan where we beat people up and unnecessarily risk out objective because you turned prissy plate on me and won’t use basic geometry to figure out you won’t get stuck.” Probably.

She still didn’t like the vent idea. He could see it in the way she was thinking about punching him.

[Deleted]

Arcee gritted her denta in irritation. She had wondered why Barricade dragged her along for this operation, now she knew to her dismay. Originally, Arcee intend to say no, not liking the smirk ‘Cade was sending her way one bit, but Barricade’s manipulating remark concerning her bearings forced her to save face in front of the team and agree.

A consist pinging on her personal comm. reminded the two wheeler of reason number two.

Tailgate had been overbearing of late and his repeated attempts to dissuade her from high-risk missions were infuriating. The hoopla he raised about her going off alone with Barricade had sizzle the circuits of the team so much, Tailgate was band from the Maverick barracks for the time being. Since then, ‘Gate was constantly pinging her comm. to check up on her. Arcee hoped being on mission would give her some space, but Tailgate persisted, despite the severe breach of protocol in attempting to contact her while in deep.

Sending a feedback loop, -maybe a ringing audio with get the point across- Arcee clenched a fist tight with her attention towards the other –slaggin’ son of glitch- she wanted so badly to throttle.

“Go smelt yourself, ‘Cade,” Arcee spat, slinging her blade underneath his chin, daring him to widen his smug grin even further, “Just admit it. You want to my aft squirming above you in your precious vent.”

[Deleted]

“Now you’re catching on,” said Barricade utterly unflappably, his infuriating expression serene as a solar day. “Your aft.” He gestured. “Specifically your aft, fits in that fragging tiny as slag vent therefore it’s your aft that needs to get the skragging Pit up there and launch our mission. Before I rust would be the preference but, you know, I understand if vent shimmying is work too risky for you.”

As much fun as it was watching Tailgate birth turbokittens, Barricade had been marginally offended by A: his lack of respect for Arcee’s considerable field combat expertise B: the underlying implication that if they did get into a jam that Barricade was unqualified to get her out of it and C: that Gate clearly thought their loner Six should just suck it up and run the mission solo because it required his partner to go into the field without him. It was taken for granted that Cade ran his ops solo and did so well – the complexity of his doing so was often undervalued and never had it been clearer than that moment when Tailgate said Barricade should have been able to ‘do his job without risking his teammates’.

Obviously, the nano-kilk after he’d said it aloud he realized how far he’d jammed his pede down his intake. Cade had been exploiting Arcee's embarrassment for breems now, speaking of which...

“Primus knows,” drawled the infiltartor, “your aligned would blow circuits if he knew what ‘dangerous’ ‘unnecessarily high risk’ work I have you on.” Cade gave her a perfectly deadpan look, brow ridges arching under the dark alloy of his helm. “I’d like to point out he didn’t spend much processing power wondering how it would be exponentially more dangerous for me doing this solo. Sweetspark that he is so in the spirit of teamwork: get up that vent before I shove you up the vent.”

[Deleted]

“You, sure, know how to win a femme over, ‘Cade,” she said casually, quirking an optic ridge, shaking her head in mock pity. “No wonder you end up going solo as often as you do.”

The derogatory exchange of insults and snarks was always a pre-mission tradition (granted this was cutting it close) for them. A tradition she enjoyed extremely as an outlet for stress during the high-risk missions. Yea, it pecked at her pride most of the time and, yes, Barricade almost always won, but that was the way of Maverick. She dealt. She always did. However, Barricade snide remark regarding to her growing relationship with Tailgate made her snap her up and drive her unsheathe blade deeper into the infiltator’s chin.

“A word to the wise, “ Arcee hissed scathingly, the other blade shunted out, slicking the edge of his armor seam over his spark, “Keep that ‘aligned’ scrap to yourself, unless you want me to stick your own ‘wide aft’ in that ‘fragging tiny as slag’ vent myself.”

Arcee withdraw a short distance, calming her nerves, and waltzing over to the complex’s outer wall waiting.

“Well, are you going to toss me up? I’m not a slagging scraplet for fraggin’ crying sakes!”

[Deleted]

“No, but you are a pain in the aft,” said Barricade, generally unfazed by his partner’s murderous inclinations.

When it came to the subject of Tailgate, Arcee’s already tender grasp of civility tended to do straight to the Pits in favor of punching her arm blades through a mech’s face plates. Unlike the other members of Maverick, Barricade didn’t report back to Barracks and he didn’t operate with the team unless the mission took them out of Kaon like it did now. Despite this, Cade immediately picked up on his teammates' growing, if perplexing, attraction. He was somewhat glad for the distraction of the mission. It was rare that the crimes of the high-caste were ever brought under scrutiny by the law cohorts but in this case Maverick had been given executive clearance to operate with impunity… provided they did not get caught.

This also meant if they did, they would be fragged twice over.

That in mind, the dark mechanism stepped lazily into a crouch, one hand offered palm up, and without missing a beat she fit one pede into his out stretched hand, braced on arm against his wheel mount and nodded. With a hum of hydraulics and a lobber’s overhead hurl, Barricade threw the smaller built femme nearly two stories up to the ventilation shaft over head. Arcee’s slim blue frame shot off the zenith of Barricade’s throw directly into the mouth of the massive pipe where stale air and condensation blew from the underground complex, stinking of sterilization.

“Gate 456 Alpha. Get it open for me,” Barricade called up to her.

[Deleted]

Clinging to the shaft lip, Arcee gestured rudely in acknowledgement to the infiltrator two stories down. Fitting her slim frame into the vent, blasts of vapor obscured her vision and screwed her olfactory sensors. Arcee refused to contemplate the moisture’s effect on her circuits and wires later. Embracing servos and pedes on opposite sides, the two-wheeler slowly descended into the underground facilities while consulting with Barricade’s confiscated schematics to determine her exit point.

In her downward climb, Arcee shook with shock when her personal comm. was forced open.

::Hey, Arcee! Answer me! I know you’re receiving me.::

-That fraggin’ son of a glitch outmode…TAILGATE!-

::’Gate, you scraplet! You hacked my comm.! This is suppose to be a secure line!::

::Easy ‘Cee. I know and I’ll leave you alone after this. I just needed to say I’m so-::

The madden femme cut off Tailgate mid-transmission and his attempts to apologize.

::Don’t you ‘Cee’ me, Tailgate! I’ve about had it up to my tailpipe with your ‘overprotectiveness…::

Lost in her tirade, Arcee stopped in her climb and momentarily forgot about her other ‘partner’ waiting for her to open the 456 Alpha Gate on the outside.

[Deleted]

Barricade had been waiting for nearly five kilks now. This concerned him just a little bit as he’d picked this entry point for the purpose of quick access. The security desk should have been one hall to her right and at this time of night Arcee should have had no problem getting in and either disabling the guard if she was feeling feisty or waiting until he left on his rounds if she was feeling sneaky, or merciful. He would have not bet on the latter two normally so he was mildly surprised it was taking her this long. He’d already circled back to one of the specificed service gate, the one whose security cameras and sensor devices Barricade had managed to disable. Arcee would, of course, wipe any security logs from this time frame, but where the frag was she?

::Arcee are you at he security desk yet? If they’s swapped to a two-mech shift then go directly to the maintenance closet around the corner. Manually override it but hurry. I don’t want to be on this side of the building for any longer than I have to.::

[Deleted]

::-so frag off! I’ve got a job to do!::

::I’ll take that as a ‘Yes, dear, I forgive you’, Sweetspark.:: Absolutely deadpan. ::Kick some tailpipe, ‘Cee. It’s what you’re good at.::

A tender smile creased her lip components.

::Aft:: A fond glyph leaked through the comm…

::Love ya, ‘Cee::

::…’Gate…:: A beastly growl emitted. The cooling temper shot back up to boiling, not completely forgetting his badgering during a mission. ::Dont' think you out of the garbage heap yet! ::

Barricade’s ping interrupted, startling Arcee so bad, she skidded down fast the rest of the way in the vent with a resounding thud. She grimaced.

::Gotta, go, ‘Gate. My OTHER partner waiting for me to open up for him.::

Arcee cut the connection in the middle of Tailgate’s sputtering. She reached down to pry loosen a slated grill, a small scope cam extended from her servo to spy for any patrolling security. In the clear, Arcee twisted and contorted her slim frame through the tight opening with a soft grunt. A minute later, she was dodging around corridors, clinging to ceilings above heads, and avoiding security cams. Stopping at point to cool her overdrive, she flipped open the comm. line again.

::Sorry, ‘cade, got held up. I see the security desk…and two mechs there. The maintenance closet in my view, but I’d have to travel through open space. Give me a klik to swing around to the other end and I’ll have it the gate by you open in a jiff.::

[Deleted]

::No problem,:: said Cade, darting up the nearest wall, claws catching the heavy venting and slats in the sides of the structure,mag-sytems in his pedes magnetizing the alloy in his feet to the walls as he all up ran up the side of structure, just outside the field of the security cameras to swing into the blind spot over the indicated service gate. He hung, claws dug into the vents, waiting with pale blue optics scanning for any other movement… lest someone came around and found the infiltrator hanging off the wall. He pressed two fingers against his audial.

::Cee, I am literally hanging off a wall right now, so if you could…:: The door clicked open and swung inward. He smirked. ::Thank you.::

The infiltrator released the mag clamps in his pedes, swinging into the hallway just inside the service door which he shut behind him, the low green glow from the open latch bright as he darted silently down the hall and took a right, a left, ducked into a dead-end until several techs walked by, one of them addressing a pre-program drone who only nodded in response. Throttle-bot. Cade’s optics brightened in the dark where he crouched. They throttled new-sparks here and used them for basic labor. Controversial but legal. When they were gone Cade took three more halls to the mainframe hall, overrode the lock on the server room and slipped inside.

:: I’m in,:: he said, jacking into the nearest open port and uploading the code their techies had provided them with. ::Stripping the data now. Meet me at the third plate pulse club. Be there in three breems.::

Then he jacked out and was gone the same way he came. Later, this data would be forward to his CO, who would pass it on to the prosecutors and law bots in charge of meting out punishment to business sectors like this one who breached Council law. He estimated seven mechs would be arrested and six of them killed. Barricade did not really care. By the time the data hit the net he was heading into the lower district.

[Deleted]

Arcee punched a hands-on rust-covered mech in the faceplates.

Yup, she was in the correct part of the lower districts.

Getting out was just as easy as getting in. A quick dip in a nearby canal, washed off the vent grit, and wander through the crowds where every other mech, who thought they were somebot, blindsided her with their EMF. Normal enough, they usually backed off after she knocked helms with the second or third glitch.

The pulse club she was searching for came into sight, bright yellow flashing sign hanging above the entry. She slid in close behind two other patrons, discretely making her entrance.

Casting a glance around for the elusive infiltrator, Arcee snatched a seat by the bar. She raised a servo, catching the ‘tender’s attention.


“Give me a high grade with two shot of cesium.”

[Deleted]

“Feeling celebratory?”

The words directly proceeded Barricade himself, who – in the manner of his function class – separated suddenly from the mass of the shifting crowd and leaned against the bar at her elbow, brushing EMF against hers in greeting. He did not flag down one of the live service mechs, but keyed an order and jacked in a transfer of credit direct. The systems’ AI pinged him a salutation and thank you before, moments later, the twelve armed bar tender set his order of electro-spiked high-grade glowing slightly on the counter. The server did so with one of his dorsal-set limbs so he never even looked at Cade during the exchange.

Blue optics flickered sidelong to his teammate, a ghost of a smirk crossing his mouth. “That was a smooth mission. In and out.” He picked up the cube, grip-plastics in the glass catching the edges of his claws as he toasted her in a backhanded manner. “We should do it more often,” he said, the lights from the pulse floor behind them refracting hard off the dark lines of his armor, set in a more relaxed configuration outside of the mission. The smirk again. “Think ‘Gate will unscrew enough to let that happen?”

[Deleted]

“Hardly.” Arcee grunted in response to ‘Cade’s first question from behind her drink not at all startled at the infiltrator’s sudden appearance. She plumped her glass with a loud ‘clink’ on the bar, feeling the energon burned her fuel lines. Arcee threw him a baleful/bored glance as he ordered his own drink.

“That it was,” she echoed in agreement, returning the toast in the air, a little simmering heat lining her field at the mention of their mutual teammate. The glass in her grip whined suddenly from the servos gorging its sides. “At the moment, I don’t really give a fraggin’ flip what Tailgate slaggin’ thinks. Pits, I’d take on Koan’s lowest slime scum right now to blow some steam from ‘Gate hovering around me.”

Arcee gave Barricade a pointed look, “but no scrapping vents.”

[Deleted]

“No vents,” Barricade agreed with no argument in particular. The low light was comfortable for the infiltrator, this sector familiar enough to be a comfort and he couldn’t say whether it was because he was getting used to his cover in Kaon… or if he liked it because this was where he came to meet Arcee for debrief. A bit of both and necessary for his function class. When a mech had a dozen faces to wear and a half dozen places to be, none of them for reasons applicable to his real self, coming back to one solid touchstone was important.

Not, of course, that he told Arcee that. Nor did he bother to suppose if she knew that was what she’d become for him.

“He doesn’t like that we’re similar,” said Barricade quietly. “He thinks I’m a threat to him. He needs to take a strut out of his exhaust and think with his processor like he’s supposed to.” As opposed to his ‘facing panels. He looked at Arcee over the edge of his drink, stopping in the motion of bringing it to his mouth. “Don’t let him stop you coming out here. Maybe he stopped caring about what the hell his Six is doing but I’m depending on you, at least, not to.”

[Deleted]

Arcee snorted with a muffled laugh, sloshing a portion of her drink onto the bar. The bartender reached a miffed servo, using a cloth to wipe up the blue femme’s mess.

“That’s one thing Tailgate’s way off on,” Arcee chortled, the memory file of ‘Gate all huffed up over the issue of her spending significant time with Barricade in the lower Districts. “He eased off a bit, when I told him our meetings were for briefings. Not that it’s the case all the time, but he doesn’t know that.”

The two-wheeler turned in her seat to face the open space of the dive club, leaning and resting her elbows on the counter behind her. The pounding and riveting music rattled through her frame taking off the last edge of tension nervous from a successful mission. Only here could Arcee relax and find an outlet from the rigid policies and prying optics at HQ.

“Tailgate’s as normal as a Maverick gets. It’s easier for him to deal with the other units and superiors.” Arcee tapped a pede in sync with the resonating music, a trace of envy echoed through her field. “That’s why he doesn’t always understand the need to get away.”

Arcee met Barricade’s optics, unwavering stubbornness glimmered in her own. “Like fraggin’ pits I am. Gate’ maybe be my *partner*, but you’re the only one I can shoot the breeze with and say “frag everything else to the inferno”.

[Deleted]

Barricade inclined his head slightly before downing the whole of his drink and setting the glass on the refill plate on the bar. The cube neatly flipped away under the counter then reappeared, fully refreshed while another drink was slotted onto his tab. Cade picked the glass up and glanced at the other Maverick operative, his gaze low-watt and contemplative because he knew the next section of his mission was going to take him deep again, deeper into Kaon sub-city crime networks. He would be gone a long time again, long enough for things to get blurry again, for him to get serious about the rift that was appearing in his processes… ideas from the Pits taking root in the core of his CPU.

“Not that I don’t enjoy our bickering and banter, Arcee, but there is a reason I have you as my contact,” said Barricade, reluctantly cutting through Arcee’s obvious inclination to keep social and non-business. Not, Barricade admitted, that his impulses in this regard were driven 100% by tactics so much a psychology, emotional sub-routines riven deep in him. “Keeping the rest of what I do straight is easier when there is one constant variable. Coming back here, talking to you, report or no, is a constant and keeps things… clear.” He tapped a claw against the edge of his glass. “If that makes sense. So while Tailgate’s insecurities are adorable I’m sure, frankly, I need you to be here more than he does.”

He glared at her, as if daring her to take that the wrong way. “His being possessive could get me killed is what I’m saying. You're a teammate I can trust I need to be able to do that or you need to tell me I can't. One or the other.”

((OOC: We could wrap this with your last tag if you like. :3 Or keep talking it out but her answer here is what Cade's gonna remember most likely.))