|Unexpected|
"Talking"
'Thinking'
::Comlink::
-Bondtalk-
|•|Medbay
We had never expected this.
First Aid screamed. Screamed. Throwing himself out of the medbay he flunked himself onto the opposite wall. I had never seen the Protectorbot so... Traumatized. Bluestreak and Mirage were nearly were bowled over as they both peered into the medbay. They took one look and immediately whipped out their weapons. Gazes locked in pure loathe, bewilderment and disgust.
And then I found out why.
The sound of a familiar Riot Cannon whirling at its highest setting filled the audios. My optics settled on something I'd never expected to see.
"C'me ah little closa an' his smart lil processor'll be splattard on da wall!"
My jaw dropped. Optics resetting themselves repeatedly.
"I-Ironhide?!"
The red warrior had his claws wrapped around a barely conscious Wheeljack as he had the engineer pinned against the back wall of the medbay. His other servo had transformed into a cannon which was shoved against Wheeljack's helm. Said bot's peds were mangled beyond recognition. He had his facemask torn off. Energon oozed out from deep claw gorges running from his right optic down his left cheekplate. My tanks churned in disgust as I saw Wheeljack grasping onto the choking servos struggling to get air into his vents. But Ironhide tighten his grip.
Fear curled around my spark as I saw energon flowing from the base of his neck-cables before Wheeljack went limp in the servo of Ironhide.
"Traitor!" My brother screeched and sprang foreword. His optics were dark and furious. With all intent to rip the red warrior apart. Maul. Tear. Kill. I forced my gears into action. With a sharp twist I knocked him over and grabbed his arm.
"Sunny No. Jack'll die. Don't be rash!"
First Aid gave a strangled cry as somebot else came into view.
The sight of Ratchet. Hidden behind Ironhide's silhouette, doubled up on the ground, beaten up, leaking and unconscious was enough to stall my systems. Every inch of my body wanted to lurch foreward to his aid but I was frozen. What horrified me even more was the mech responsible for it. I did a double take.
The sight of Prowl crushing and atop of the broken medic with a simmering blade held right up behind said mech's vulnerable neck cables almost made me crash there and then.
For a moment. A precious moment. There was silence. The freaking tension so thick I was drowning in it. It took a while to actually comprehend what was happening.
Ironhide, Weapon Specialist of the Autobots was about to shoot Wheeljack at point-blank with his cannon.
Prowl. Second-in-Command of the Autobots and Head of the Tactical Department was about to decapitate Ratchet.
Bluestreak spluttered a wordless cry of incredulousness backing away like a scared animal. Mirage had this disbelief, numb and frozen look on his faceplate. He could only stare. My brother clenched his fists, entire form vibrating with livid rage. He would no doubt flew into a crazed fury of limbs to tear that... Traitor a new one. Traitor. That was what all of us were thinking. But I held onto my brother. Both physically and mentally.
-Don't move Sunstreaker. Don't you dare do anything rash now-
-YOU ARE TELLING ME THIS! P-PROWL IS GOING TO KILL HIS SIDES! WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING! Hurtpainangerfury-
Calm. I needed to stay calm. I needed a cool-helm to deal with this since no one else was in the right mind to do so.
Calm.
My ex-vent came put sharply as I place both my servos onto my weapon, slowing raising it up to optic level.
"Prowl." My voice came out hard. The photon shotgun trained onto him.
"Back away from our CMO with your servos in the air where we can see them."
I couldn't believe that I had just uttered those words.
My words echoed in the frighteningly quiet medbay as foreshadowing horror engulfed me. The great SIC raised his helm slowly. Almost in mocking slow-motion. Our optics met and it was then utter, utter terror consumed me.
Prowl's optics were dark. Hollow. Blank. Almost as if he had offlined but came back alive. The cold, icy blue chilled me right into my lazercore. His faceplate was curved into a menacing emotional smirk.
This wasn't Prowl. It wasn't. It couldn't.
I refused to believe that.
But the evidence was right infront of my very optics.
My engines revved in fury as Prowl yanked the limp white helm up by the chevrons. Soft blue optics shuttered online as Ratchet let out a pained cry. Regardless, the sparkless servo was not merciful. I saw our medic offline his optics as the blade was placed against the front of his neck. His mouth parted vents heaved raggedly and he struggled weakly. But he was too frightened to even vent anymore as the blade dug a shallow depression into the white neck cables. Fresh energon oozed out. My tanks churned in helplessness.
"Negative: Subjects Dangerous. Incapacitation complete. Decapitation imminent."
The hollowness, emptiness of the words had never made me fear so much before.
"Fragging glitch! What are you waiting for! Shoot the fucking bastard! H-he's leaking his life away infront of m-my optics!" Sunstreaker raged. Torn between running foreword to save his favourite medic and friend and ripping the two officers apart. My servo shook in fear but my aim neve wavered as Prowl crouched down to lower his faceplate till it was centimeters from the wounded medic's audio.
But all he knew was that Prowl had done it. I knew my brother knew of the SIC's might and will. Prowl. Prowl the cool-helmed one. The one with the always-professional demure. The perpetually logical one-is going to decapitate their only Chief Medic Officer. My brother couldn't understand. Didn't comprehend the situation that was unfolding infront of him. The riffle vibrating in his servos, set at its highest capacity. Ready to shoot at his commander. Prowl was going to kill Ratchet! And so would Ironhide with Wheeljack.
|•|Meanwhile..
I smirked as Sideswipe struggled to give the commands.
The red warrior had his weapon trained on me as Bluestreak had on Ironhide.
"Prowl, I wouldn't repeat myself! Release him!"
I tightened my hold on my prey and shook my helm slowly, tauntingly.
::Let's see wha' lil 'swipe hve in stall fer us eh Prowl?::
::Indeed. Let'-::
I cut myself off as Mirage disappeared.
I clenched my denta and braced myself for the chaos that was going to happen.
And then it hit me, hard, as Sunstreaker came barrelling towards me.
|•|And then..
The moment Mirage reappeared behind him to kick his knees from under him before disappearing again, I acted. Throwing myself forward with a cry of rage I sprang onto the traitorous SIC. His lost his balance and his grip on Ratchet as I knocked him right onto his back. Our optics met but I was blinded by the rage boiling within.
How. Dare. He!
With a vicious twist, I yanked at a doorwing. It snapped out of position and I heard the satisfactory scream of my commander. Ex-commander. Prowl retaliated. With a swift kick to the chassis, I stumbled backwards. Unbalanced by my volatile emotions. Snarling, it didn't take long for me to find my peds. When I did though, it spelled his downfall.
Daggers snapped onto my forearms. Slamming Prowl onto the ground again with my velocity I slashed at him. Strange enough, he didn't pull his blade out of subspace. All he did was hiss in pain, defending himself in whatever ways he could, as my blades tore at his lower servos, chassis and faceplate. Energon smeared onto my blades, running down my servos. Prowl's energon. But the tactician didn't make an effort to fight back. My apocalyptic anger diminished slightly.
Had he already resided to his fate?
Unknowingly, I had stopped attacking. That was the stupidest thing that I'd done all day. Underestimate the enemy. In a flash, the tables had turned on me. I felt the heavier bulk of a Praxian on me as I was pinned onto the ground. Energon from the abrasions I gave him dripped onto my chasiss as Prowl loomed over me. His optics dark and frightening.
"I calculated a 78.56% chance that you would flounder or freeze up. That was very accurate on my part."
My spark twisted as I realised he was right.
"Frag off!" I spat. Engines revving. I struggled vainly against the iron-light grip that encircled my wirsts. Horror engulfed me as I realised the extent of Prowl's might. I had sparred with him before and always cane out triumphant. So where did all these extra power that the Praxian had now come from? And then it hit me.
Prowl had not been giving it his all during the sessions.
He was actually much, much stronger than that.
His cold, blue optics shone down on me. I couldn't fathom what he was about to do to me. So I shuttered my optics and braced myself for the immense pain that would come...
Only to feel the weight on my wrist disappear.
"On the contrary. That would be illogical." Prowl stood up wiping the energon from his faceplates wincing as he did so. The Praxian nodded at me as I sat there dumfounded.
"But non-the-less you managed to withhold your emotions before unleashing them and incapacitating me at the right time without endangering anybot else. Goodjob Sunstreaker. You did better than expected."
What?
WHAT!
My jaw worked but nothing audible could be made out. My optics worked frantically as I saw Ironhide trying to scoot away from the gunner's sharp blade resting above his chasiss and rasing his servos up in surrender. Bluestreak dropped his gun and our optics met incredulously.
"Ra-Ratchet? E-energon? Wha? T-this was all just a TEST!" I stammered out. My processors started spinning.
"Yes you little fragging moron. It was all a test." The familiar voice of a CMO was heard as Ratchet's faceplate came into view. He scrubbed the energon off his white-frame before jabbing. A digit into the SIC's chasiss.
"For the record Mr Stoic. I didn't allow you to pull me up by the chervons!" He growled.
"I was that close from yelling at you you fragger!"
"I apologized repeatedly. I will grant you access to pull me by the chevrons if I miss any of your medical sessions again."
I could only stare. And stare. And stare.
Bewilderment.
Confusion.
Illogical.
Actions illogical.
The crash that overtook my systems could put Prowl to shame.
|•|That night
Autobot Prowl: Log #235 Time: 2238
Today was a rather productive day to say as a fact. When I met up with Irohide in the hallways, who was going to the medby to fine-tune his beloved cannons, we came up with a little something to test the dependence and decisiveness the autobot army had. When we stumbled upon an injured Wheeljack whom was already in the medbay, with both his legs shorted out due to a failed experiment, and being shelled at by Ratchet, I decided to use that to our advantage. With much persuation on Ironhide's part to his brother and a little of Wheeljack's briary which I closed one optic upon, Ratchet agreed to help.
He paged for First Aid, The twins and two other random bots to come to the medbay after their shifts. Ratchet was very uncertain about this but nevertheless after making sure that Wheeljack was medically stable and that the energon we splashed on his wasn't actually leaking from his legs the CMO got into position.
It was a well planned out test. I had to say that my acting skills were a 100% then. It was gold seeing Sideswipe's incredulous optics and his twin's barely controlled rage. But I would pat myself in the back later. Going back to the topic, I was actually shocked, in a positive way, by the outcome. Sideswipe had proven to be a strong lead and a fast thinker. How he manged to set up the plan over his comlink to my brother, Mirage and his twin whist holding me at gunpoint still had me feeling incredulously about it. Sunstreaker surprisingly held his ground and chose his actions wisely, probably backed by Sideswipe through their twin bond, was admirable. Mirage and Bluestreak was quick in overpowering Ironhide through my brother's sharp reflexes and Mirage's disappearing and re-appearing act. I was genuinely surprised, when I was sitting on a medical berth getting my doorwing fixed, on hearing Ironhide's part of the story. Somehow, Bluestreak managed to barge straight into him throwing him off his peds. The moment he hit the ground, releasing his grip on Wheeljack, Mirage had re-appeared pinning his wrists down where Bluestreak had a blade pointed at his spark chamber. I never knew my youngest brother was so ferocious in hand-to-hand cobat. I might consider letting him fight instead of staying behind the lines as a sniper. Finally, despite First Aid's initial response of covering in terror (Which was understandable) He still manged to pull himself together to check on Ratchet's and Wheeljack's 'wounds'.
The smack on the helm with Ratchet's wrench was worth is at least. Our CMO wasn't very happy de-fragging Sunstreaker's cranial unit. In retrorespect, it was time for a little payback anyway. However, this incident proved that the Autobots would not be defenceless and be in a state of lost when their commanding officers are absent or anything otherwise. I can safely leave earth with Ironhide, Ratchet and probably another warrior, for extra firepower, to Cybertron in a fortnight without fearing for my fellow Autobot's safety.
I am very, very proud of them. Especially for Sideswipe. Even if I rarely give praise or words of affirmation to them I still hold each and everyone of their contributions to spark.
It's time we Autobots step up our game in this war against the Decepticons.
We will win and when we return back.
We will become even stronger.
End of Log #235
