Phenomenon
Chapter : One
Summary : When someone thinks that it can't get any worse than this, fate has a funny way of telling you, oh yes it can.
Warnings : Cursing, Mentions of death
Series : AU Bayverse, early in the war...
Beta'd by the wonderful GraceSolo.
The high pitched cry of the sirens echoed in the ship. In the background could be herd fighting as the Autobots desperately tried to prevent the invasion of a Decepticon flag ship's boarding forces. They were protecting the Custodia. This was one of the largest ships the Autobot force possessed and if it fell in enemy hands they would suffer an insurmountable loss. It would be even greater due to the fact that a couple of the most powerful Autobot officers were stationed here in the meantime. Which is why losing wasn't an option.
"Prowl!" Wheeljack rushed in the control room, smoke still emitting from his weapons "They're headed for the engine room! If they get there-"
"Understood" Prowl cut him off, already giving up new orders. The SIC of the Autobots was plugged in the console, allowing him free access to all the cameras and communicate with the soldiers.
Wheeljack nodded and exited the room, joining the battle. As much as Prowl wished to join, what he was doing here was even more important. He berated himself for allowing such a tactical error and letting the enemy on board.
"Squad four, cover Prime. Do not leave him alone. Squads six and seven, back up Wheeljack near the engine room -"
"Prowl!" The SIC winced at the volume of the comm screeching in his audios. "Get me some fraggin' back up down here, slag it!" Ratchet snarled, at the same time giving orders to the tactician. "The slaggin' pit spawned twins are barely holding up down here!" A loud boom, gunshots and a hysteric cry of rage echoed in the back ground.
"Frag it all! Sideswipe is down!" Ratchet yelled and more shots could be herd along with Sunstreaker's yells, "Primus, Prowl! Get us some back up NOW, slag it!" The medic cut the connection.
"Sir! Distress signal coming from squads one, two, and three!" Blaster who was also plugged in the console, reported worriedly. "And we've lost connection with Ironhide's team! Red Alert and Inferno were forced to leave the security room. They are currently alone on the second level, near section Delta and under heavy fire!"
Prowl inwardly cursed. He could not afford to panic now. Every spark onboard was depending on him to salvage this Pit of a battle. He tracked down most of the mini-bots that were still online and ordered them to help Ironhide and the wreckers. Just when he thought they were getting things under control, a loud explosion rocked the ship and half of the monitors went offline.
"Blaster!" Prowl barked.
"On it!" The Communications officer rushed to plug in more jacks, while his optics dimmed in concentration.
There was nowhere for them to hide. None of them wanted to hide. Every single bot onboard was fighting for one thing and one thing only – survival. None of them were afraid to die, and Prowl bitterly mused that if someone cared to listed the gunshots, the cries of rage and pain as well as the cynical laughter was a bitter symphony. A symphony of death and their echoing footsteps were the beat of it.
Just then, a lot of bangs could be heard on the door that separated the hub from the rest of the ship. This time Prowl cursed aloud, gave some last orders on the intercom and logged out, pulling his weapon from subspace and onlining his close-range battle programs.
"Focus on repairing the monitors, Blaster" Prowl ordered while more of his weapons heated up.
The door was blasted open while at the same time the lights went out. Only the sounds of firing could be heard.
If you're like us,
Calling all riders,
Roll up beside us,
No place to hide us,
All freedom fighters,
Let's unite us,
Switch on your nitrous
And let's go
Destination for navigation,
Man up ya stations,
Feel the sensation
Surround invasion with communication,
Move quick, we might avoid contamination
Jasper Evans turned his music up as high as his stereo speakers would go. The 18 year old young man tried to block out the shouts coming from the next room while packing up his things. He was leaving and he didn't give a damn what his parents thought of it. Because they sure as hell didn't care when they ruined his future.
He grunted when he registered he could still hear the angry voices over the loud music. He always did have sensitive hearing, but lately the dark skinned boy was hearing better than ever. He put his backpack on, stopped the music but turned on his iPod on a low setting and exited his room without turning back.
He stepped in to the living room of his parent's small apartment and crossed his arms. They didn't even seem to notice him over all the shouting. He made a coughing sound. Nothing. Jasper slightly growled in frustration. He was usually a very cheery person, always smiling and thinking positive but he had had enough.
"Ah'm leavin'." He stated, "And Ah'm not coming back"
"Not now, Jasper. We're busy" He mother didn't even look at him as the shouting continued. Jasper's frown deepened and the dark haired boy with dread locks exited the apartment, again not looking back. He was sure his parents wouldn't notice his missing presence anytime soon.
He stopped two stories down and knocked a couple of times on a rather old looking door before it opened and revealed an old looking man. He appeared to be in his early 60 with short gray hair, wearing big, round glasses.
"Ahh Jazzy!" He exclaimed and tugged the young man in. "Just the boy I needed!"
"Sorry Gramps, but Ah can't stay. Ah'm leaving..." The grin on his face faltered as he looked at the older man.
"Mmm, I see. Well about time you made up your mind!" He tugged the boy in to his kitchen.
"Come on! Take some! I just made them!" Jasper smiled at the scientist who was handing him some homemade muffins. Many considered him crazy since a lot of his inventions exploded. But things got worse after his wife suddenly disappeared 10 years ago. Jasper could barely remember her.
"Thanks Mr. Brown. But now, Ah really need to go."
"Of course, of course!" The energetic old man tugged his arm again "But please, I need your help with something first! It'll only take a second!" And Mr. Brown led him into his lab. Jasper was always fascinated and although he was right to be wary when he went into the lab. More than once, things have exploded while he was there.
"I just need you to work the controls! It's very simple" He placed the dark skinned boy in front of the controls and stepped in what appeared to be a circle in the huge room.
"Ah'm not so sure..." Jasper trailed off, backing away from the controls.
"Nonsense! I just need you to press those three buttons and pull that switch. And that's it!" The inventor put some sort of helmet on, along with a set of goggles over his glasses.
"I really don't think..."
"Just do it boy! I've worked far too hard to back out now!" Jasper could see the desperation in Mr. Brown's eyes and nodded.
He pushed the three buttons as instructed and a large machine pointed at the elderly man. The dread-locked boy hesitated but at the encouraging nods the inventor was giving him his resolve strengthened.
"Hey...Gramps? Before Ah push this please answer me what happened ta yer wife?" He asked and Mr. Brown smiled.
"She is there where I wish I could follow, but can't. This machine...this space-bridge will take me to her," at hearing this, Jasper removed his hand quickly from the switch.
"Please Jazz. You cannot imagine the favor you are doing to me. I trust only you with my experiments. So please, before you leave do this one last thing for me," Jasper nodded and took a deep breathe, turning on the switch...
…only for it to not even budge.
"What the fu-"
"More strength, boy! Jeez, don't your parents feed you?" The old man crossed his arms.
"Ah swear if this blows up in mah face-" The dark skinned boy struggled with the switch while at the same time still listening to his iPod.
Don't let these spiders
Crawl up beside us,
They want to bite us,
Inject the virus.
Raise up ya lighters,
Praise to the righteous,
Need you to guide us,
GET PREPARED TO GO
"Damn thing..."He muttered using now both hands.
"Oh fine. Let me see what's taking so long" The inventor spoke and just as he headed for Jasper's location in front of the controls a loud clicking sound was herd.
Before the world was no more for Jasper, the last thing he heard was the still playing lyrics of the song on his iPod.
If you like us,
Calling all riders,
Roll up beside is,
No place to hide us,
Afraid to bite us
that's unites us
Put on your nitrous
AND LET'S GO
Prowl ached. That was the only coherent thought he could muster. He had spent barely a meta-cycle as a Decepticon prisoner and was already a mess. He lost tracks of his injuries a couple of orns ago. The most troubling ones where his dislocated left wing, his missing chevron, there was plating missing over his chest that exposed a lot of parts and he lost sensations on his wrists from the shackles after the third orn in captivity, but the worse pain he noted was the one in his processor.
The 'cons had tried multiple times to hack in to his processor, but always failed. He did have Cybertron's most advanced firewalls for a reason. As a last resort, he possessed a kill code, able to delete everything his CPU contained if he felt the firewalls fail.
Right now, he was trying to get as much rest he could, but no matter how much nonessential systems he turned offline, the pain always kept him awake. Prowl knew that the longer he spent here, without giving up any information, the higher the chances the Autobots had of successfully changing the access codes and regrouping. So, here he was, alone, barely conscious.
But he still heard a small thud in the isolated brig cell where he was being held. He on-lined his optics, noting that it was too early for a session and looked around the dimly lit space. He sensed no spark signature. Perhaps it was his processor playing tricks on him, so he decided to recharge once again. But this time he heard strange noises as well as more thumping.
On-lining fully, he used what little energy he had to scan the room. The 'con's were unpredictable. This could be their doing. But he soon calmed down, his sensors indication only an organic life form. It wasn't unusual. Sometimes, when the ships docked on different planets, small organic rodents would creep in to the ships. Most Cybertronians didn't pay them any mind as long as they didn't chew up the wires.
Prowl was not surprised that the 'cons would have an infestation of these things. He just hoped whatever organic was creeping in his cell would just leave. He wasn't in the mood to put up with their inevitable droppings.
The SIC warily observed a very small organic, with what appeared to be artificial fur emerge from a small hole in the wall. The organic was extremely fragile, because his sensors even this damaged, were still able to give him a good scan of its body. He couldn't determine what species the said organic belonged to, as he had never seen this kind before and Prowl had traveled many Galaxies and seen many different species.
The small form didn't seem to notice him. Prowl asserted that it must be quite primitive from that fact, alone. It kept emitting small noises to itself. The SIC knew that there was no such thing as sentient organics, their brains far too primitive for higher thought processes. But he observed it since he had nothing better to do, his battle computer offline as a security measure.
"Fuckin' crazy inventor..." Jasper mumbled to himself as he tried to clear the grogginess from his minds. He woke up in a dark place but crawled out of what appeared to be a hole in the wall.
"Ah flew up in a wall! God, Grapms! Ah thought you said this thing was safe!" His iPod was offline since he heard nothing coming from his headphones. He rubbed his head and tried looking around the room. It was then that he noticed that he was no longer in the old man's laboratory. In fact …where the hell was he?
"Hello? Mr. Brown?" He looked around, trying hard not to panic. "What the hell is going on? Hello? Mr. Brown this isn't funny!" He tried to look around, but the light was just to dim. He noticed two dim lights at the far end of the room and headed toward them. They were quite up high. Perhaps they were some sort of window?
Jasper headed toward them, but as got closer, a burst of static noise stopped him dead in his tracks. He slightly shivered but continued his course only this time in a slower pace. But after three more steps a growl that was surrounded by static had him taking a couple of steps back but when the two lights suddenly brightened a little more and allowed him to see that they belonged to a face...he let out one of his loudest screams and ran at the other side of the room.
He slumped against a wall, panting hard. He felt caged even if the room was big. Wait room? Where the hell was he? He looked around panicky and tried to asset the situation. This was no prank. That much was certain. He looked at the...thing that was in front of him, noting that it hadn't moved an inch. It looked like a...giant robot?
Jason blinked and then slapped himself. He had finally lost it.
Prowl observed the small organic. He was strange, that was certain. But when the thing tried to come near him, he let out a small warning with soft noises, but they were rather static-laced due to his damaged vocolizer. When the organic didn't take the hint, he full out growled not in the mood for anything.
He observed the frightened small being as it rushed to the other side of the room. He could clearly note that the organic's pump should not be beating this fast.
Prowl tried to ignore the small thing and returned to his previous thoughts. He was the only one captured. In order for the 'con's to leave the ship intact, he had made himself vulnerable, knowing the enemy wouldn't resist the urge to capture a high ranked 'bot. That stunt was enough for the 'cons to reconsider their main plan and left the Autobot's ship to lick their wounds after taking him prisoner. So here he was, stranded on a Decepticon flag ship, probably scheduled for an execution, with a frightened organic rodent. Not exactly the way he imagined he would offline, but at least he would go with honor.
And this mere organic would be his only witness.
Authors notes :
Vorn = 82 earth years
Deca – cycle = an Earths month
Meta-cycle = an Earths week
Orn = Day
Joor = One hour
Beems = Minutes
Klicks = Seconds
Jasper's speech is in italics since Prowl doesn't understand him (none of his kind will). He doesn't even know that Jasper is a human, let alone a sentient being.
Till next time ^.~