::...and he won't let anyone in.::

Prowl nodded to himself. ::All right. I will be there in a moment.:: He logged out of his terminal and shut it down, then rose. He made his way down to the Security room, outside of which he saw Optimus, Ratchet, and the two mechs who were supposed to be on monitor duty this shift. The Prime seemed to be holding a rather one-sided conversation with the door.

As he moved closer, he could hear Red Alert's panicked voice ringing from inside the sealed room. "How do I know you're Optimus Prime!? Your vocal harmonics are off by .154%! You could be a Decepticon in disguise!"

"That's ridiculous, Red, and you know it!" Ratchet bellowed at the hidden mech. "Now come on out of there."

"It's not ridiculous! Starscream himself has been disguised as Optimus Prime! You're all Decepticons!"

Prowl cycled his vocaliser to catch the officers' attention. "How long has this been going on?" he asked once he'd been acknowledged.

"At least a couple minutes before shift change, when we got here," Windcharger piped up, indicating himself and Gears, who was grouching to himself. "He's been acting squirrelly for the past couple of days. Well, more than usual. The twins might have something to do with it."

Silver lips thinned and ice blue optics lightened another shade. "I see. Two hours, then. I'm assuming you've tried using your overrides for the lock, Optimus, Ratchet."

"Somehow the slagger has changed my override code," Ratchet snapped. "When we get him out of there, I'm going to reformat him as a vacuum cleaner!"

"I heard that!"

Ratchet made to yell something right back, but Prowl interrupted with a light touch to his arm. "That is not going to help the situation, Ratchet. Let me talk to him."

"Be my guest," the CMO grumped.

Optimus waved him to the door. "I appreciate this, old friend."

"Red Alert," he began in an even tone, "I am going to disarm myself. I have no doubt that you are watching us through the monitors and can therefore verify that I am telling the truth." His launchers hit the deck with a soft thud as he set them down, followed by his acid pellet rifle. Various energon blades were handed to Optimus as they were pulled from subspace pockets and sheaths on his frame. "Now," he continued after he'd stripped himself of everything that could be used as a weapon, "either you are going to open the door yourself or I will hack it, but I am coming in. Alone." He held up a hand to forestall any arguments by the others.

It took several minutes and jacking into the lock to begin the hack, but the door finally slid open a short way. Enough for the end of Red's gun to emerge, pointing steadily at the tactician. "Just you. Anything funny and I will shoot."

"Prowl, you can't be serious!"

He didn't even turn. "I am quite serious, Ratchet. How is he supposed to trust us when we won't trust him?" The black and white Praxian walked forward slowly yet steadily, doorwings set at as relaxed an angle as he could manage while still gathering sensory data properly, and disappeared into the Security room.

-_-_-_-_-

This may expand into something larger, but this is where they stopped talking to me...