Notes: I have no idea where this one came from, but there are other parts to it coming up.
Disclaimer: As much as I'd like to, I don't own Transformers.
"No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical."
– Niels Bohr
Prowl shuttered his optics, and muted the intake of sensory input to concentrate solely on his aching processor. It was dark, quiet, and gave his complete attention to the situation at hand. It was illogical for it to hurt, because it was illogical for him to be feeling anything at the moment, because not only was it unneeded, but because he had an emotional block to keep them at bay. Being emotional would only hinder his performance and logical thinking, which was what was needed at the moment, not the inane emotions that were taking his processor by storm.
Prowl pushed his processor, trying to force the tremulous emotions away, and to allow cool, calm, and most importantly, unfeeling logical thinking to take control.
Once he was sure he was in complete control, he unshuttered his optics, and allowed his sensory input to dial back up to normal levels, letting the chaos of the world around him to rush back.
He missed the blankness already.
"Prowl?" Ratchet demanded, directly in front of Prowl, faceplates angry at the very idea that seemed to be going around that Prowl had shut down, but Prowl waved him aside.
"I'm alright, Ratchet," Prowl answered, his tone flat as he moved to the computer on the other side of the Command Deck. "I was merely trying to think of the most logical way to proceed from what information we have gathered so far." Which honestly wasn't as much as Prowl would have liked.
A small part of the Prowl's processor screamed that nothing about this situation was logical.
Prowl deleted the thought before it could go any further, and continued inputting information into his battle computer, making adjustments as needed, but otherwise completely oblivious to the world. Time had no meaning to him as he tried to find a viable answer, any viable answer.
Because there was no way, no fragging logical way that this could have happened. That-
"Prowl."
Prowl paused to glance back over his shoulder, irritated that he was interrupted (did these mechs not understand that time was of the essence?), but he could not ignore the Prime.
"Will you be alright?" Optimus asked, and Prowl frowned, more than just mildly irritated, but he pushed it back, now was not the time for that.
"Of course, it would be illogical for me to not be," Prowl answered, turning back to his calculations, and Prime sighed through his vents.
"That is not what I meant," Prime began, and Prowl listened with half an audio, because it wouldn't do to ignore his leader, despite that the mech was prattling about useless things. "It is perfectly reasonable for you to need some time to come to terms with what has happened."
"On the contrary, Prime, it is illogical for Prowl to need time to 'come to terms' with what has happened, as, while it is an unfortunate… accident, it has not happened to Prowl personally," Shockwave defended, coming to stand next to Prowl, inputting more data into the terminal Prowl was working at.
Prowl was grateful to his long-time friend, not only for the new data he was providing, but saving Prowl precious time by answering Prime's inane questions.
"But still," Prime began, but Prowl cut him off, because now was not the time.
"With all due respect sir, you are wasting time, right now my attention is needed on the planning, not allowing my… emotions to run free," Prowl explained, not looking up from his work. "Allowing myself to overcome by emotions would only hinder my planning and waste valuable time."
Conversation over, Prowl ignored the rest of the world and concentrated solely on his tactical plans. The only other thing that he allowed to register was Shockwave, who was assisting with Prowl's calculations, helping to identify any holes in them. In Prowl's processor, Shockwave seemed to be the only one on the entire base who understood that now was not the time for emotional outbursts or anything of the sort. Now was the time for planning, to create the best possible solution for the current situation. And they had to work quickly.
There would be time for Prowl to be angry later. Then he would allow his emotions overcome him, and the Decepticons would suffer from his wrath.
He just had to find a logical reason for what had happened, because it was simply illogical that this… situation had happened at all. It didn't make sense, and Prowl would find an answer for it, because Jazz just didn't just randomly get captured on a mission. Jazz was too good at what he did to make mistakes, and the plan for the mission that he had gone on was flawless, so something else had to have gone wrong. But that too was unimportant.
Right now, it was important to find the best possible plan of getting Jazz out of there safely.
With both Prowl and Shockwave planning the rescue attempt, it didn't take them long to come up with a perfectly viable plan that could be used in such a short amount of time. They would be taking advantage of the window of time the Decepticons would undoubtedly feel safe, because Jazz's capture was so recent. Prowl saw a few holes in the plan, but each of the solutions he provided were shot down by Shockwave as an unreliable answer, so Prowl let them be. Soon, they were ready to send a team.
They assembled a small strike force and informed them of the plan, and Shockwave was ready to send them off, when Prowl made a new decision.
"I'll be going as well."
"That is illogical, because you will be unneeded for something like this," Shockwave argued, and Prowl tilted his helm to the side, unruffled, because he knew that Shockwave disliked things not going according to plan as much as Prowl did.
"There are likely to be parts where there will be need of a tactical officer to make changes as needed to our plan, I am the best suited," Prowl explained, completely logical in his reasoning, and meaning behind it.
Shockwave nodded, though it did not look as if he wanted to agree with Prowl's logic, as if he found something wrong with it.
Prowl didn't see anything wrong with him putting himself into the plan.
It was completely logical to Prowl to want to be there to hurt any Decepticon who had dared to hurt Jazz. And to want to be there to assure that the team had the best plan to get Jazz out of there, and safely back to base.
Once Jazz was back at the base, safe with Prowl, uninjured and resting from what he would most likely have gone through while trapped in the Decepticon brig, then Prowl would look for what had gone wrong.
The only logical reason he could come up with at the time was that there was a leak, but that was unimportant. It could wait until Jazz was back.
Then there would be no place in the universe for the leak to hide when Prowl hunted for them, and he would happily rip them limb from limb.
Because, logically, Jazz was his, and anyone who hurt Jazz was an enemy, and would be eliminated.