The young Special Ops. Agent leaned dangerously close to the edge of the building, peering down at the large battle taking place at the bottom of it. She knew it would be a bad thing if she fell off, even though her seeker wings would fly her back up to where she was perched. It would not only jeopardize her ENTIRE mission, but then the twins would tease her, Chromia would punish her by making her apologize to Inferno a bazillion times, and Optimus would blame her for everything that went wrong in the mission. Wait, strike the last one. Optimus ALWAYS blamed her for everything that went wrong. She turned away from the edge and ran towards the fortress wall, jumping skyward. Within a few nanoseconds, she had (thanks to her wings, which she loved, and her fast speed, which allows her to have higher running jumps than the other Autobots) scaled the entire wall. She smirked. Whatever security systems the Decepticons had put on their outer walls, they weren't fast enough to pick up a fleet-footed Autobot assassin named Lightspeed. She placed her right audio receptor on the floor she was standing on, lightly tapping it with her digit, listening for weak points in the metal. A few nanoclicks later, she found one. Keeping both optics on the weak point, Lightspeed reached down into the sub-space pouch she always carried on her waist, and pulled out Wheeljack's latest invention: the Cloaker. She placed it on the upper part of her armament (or arm for short), and waited for the Cloaker to measure her energon levels, so it could power up. While she waited, she remembered how she had gotten this strange device. – Start of Flashback – "Lightspeed, please report to Wheeljack's lab. He wishes to give you something." Prowl said, looking pitifully at the anxious femme. "What does he want now?! I'm about to go on a rescue mission for the sake of the Pit!" "I'm not sure what he is giving you. All I know is that he thinks that it will help you on your mission. He called it a good luck charm. Now, if you'll excuse me," Prowl said, turning to leave while hiding his smirk, "I have to go prepare to be your backup." She growled, knowing that he had put stress on the word "backup" just to poke at her. She left the strategy room and stomped down to Wheeljack's lab, muttering about what she would do to him if he blew her up right before her mission. She punched in the activation code for the door, which was: "Warning! Anything in this lab could explode at any time! Stay cautious!" Besides Lightspeed's, it was the largest activation code in the entire Autobot army. The door slid open and she walked in, crossing her arms across her surprisingly flat chest plate. She said, "Wheeljack, if the good luck charm is a kiss, then you can forget it. Every 'bot here remembers what happened when the twins tried to kiss me." Wheeljack nodded saying, "I think the punishment you gave them took away most of the crushes bots had on you back then." "Yeah," Lightspeed said, agreeing. "It also earned me Tracks's respect. He said something about how "anyone who can successfully prank the twins without being caught or repranked has got my respect." Now, what did you want to give me?" Wheeljack walked over and handed her a small circular device. "What in the name of Primus's mother is this?" Lightspeed asked, confused. "This little guy is the Phase Shifter. It allows you to absorb the molecules of anything so you can pass right through it. Neat right?" "Yes. Very slice." Lightspeed said. "Could you please try it out on your mission? Please." Wheeljack gave her the biggest puppy optics he had ever given her before. "Let me get this straight. You want me to try out your brand new experiment, which may or may not EXPLODE, on my super important mission to rescue Red Alert. The same mission where if I fail Inferno will keep beating himself up about having Red Alert kidnapped right from their berth?" Lightspeed asked, giving Wheeljack the "Are you fraggin' kidding me" look. "Yes." Wheeljack answered weakly. "Kay. I'll do it, if I get to rename it as the Cloaker." She said, shrugging. "That's a cool sounding name, but really? You'll try it?" "Yeah. I LOVE trying out new experiments on important missions. How does it work?"- End of Flashback The Cloaker beeped, signaling that it was ready to be activated. She took a deep breath, flew up in the air about twenty feet, and activated it. Nothing happened. No explosion, no shock, no systems shut down, nothing. "Huh," she said. "Guess I'll have to tell poor Wheeljack that his new invention is a bust." Then she folded her wings, and dropped down onto the rooftop of the fortress. She passed right through the top of it. "Whoa!" she shouted, unfolding her wings. She stopped falling in mid-air. "Hey! This thing actually works!" Then a thought raced through her processor. She quickly activated her comlink. "Hey Jazz, the prison room is on floor 3 right?" "Yeah it is. Why ya want ta know?" "Oh, I just discovered a new skill that will allow me to get to it without alerting guards or needing Prowl's backup distraction." "Nice. Now get going ya little assassin. Jazz out." "Lightspeed out." Lightspeed quickly flew through the floor, not stopping until she had reached the prison floor. Which was fully lighted. And was swarming with guards. "Stab." She murmured, slinking into the ceiling. "So, wish that Mirage was here. Then we could waltz right through here under the cover of his cloaking device." Suddenly, she realized something so obvious she was surprised she hadn't thought of it earlier. She whispered, "Cloaker, absorb the molecules of the air around me." A few nanoclicks later, she stepped out of the shadows, walked up to a Decepticon guard, and looked him right in the optics. He didn't sound the alarm or even try to grab her. He just looked right through her as if he couldn't see her at all, which she knew he couldn't. She was 100% perfectly invisible. She stalked down the hallway, occasionally walking through guards if she had to. When she finally reached Red Alert's cell, she contacted Prowl, saying, "Prowl, that distraction would be very helpful right about now." A click or two later, Prowl dropped out of the vents on the ceiling, shouted, "Try to catch me you lugnuts! You're so slow you couldn't catch a cyber-turtle on its way to the scrapheap!" and ran down the hallway, with all of the Decepticons following him. Lightspeed giggled, saying, "Nice distraction Prowler. Very entertaining." He responded with, "Only Jazz can call me that name. Now where were you? I didn't see you in the vents or with the guards." "Well, you remember how Wheeljack wanted to give me something?" "Yes. Why?" "Well, he gave me a pretty slice device that allows me to absorb the molecules of anything so that I can pass right through it." "That sounds like your kind of fun, Lightspeed." "Yep. Apparently, when you absorb the molecules in air you turn invisible, so I was right in front of Red's cell the whole time." "Amazing. Now, speaking of Red, I don't think I can outrun these cons much longer, so get him out of there so we can go back home to Iacon. Prowl out." "Kay. Lightspeed out." She deactivated the Cloaker and broke the control console on Red Alert's cell. The shield covering the doorway of his cell deactivated. She walked in, and took off the stasis cuffs on Red Alert. She wacked him on the helm with the cuffs and he jolted out of recharge. "Hey." She said. "Hey, you here to rescue me?" "Obviously Mr. I-got-kidnapped-out-of-my-berth-by-Decepticons-aft er-interfacing-with-Inferno-so-now-Inferno-is-beat ing-himslef-up-about-it-so-badly-that-we-had-to-lo ck-him-up-in-the-brig-in-full-frame-stasis-cuffs-t o-keep-him-from-breaking-out-of-the-base-and-going -to-rescue-you-without-a-plan-and-without-the-rest -of-us-as-backup-so-he-also-couldn't-come-with-us- to-rescue-you. A lot of us are pissed at you right now. Inferno has caused us a lot of trouble." "Sorry, Lightspeed, I guess I just have a habit of getting captured by the Decepticons, don't I." "Yep. Now, come on. We need to get you out of here. Ratchet swore that if I ever bring you back from a rescue mission with even just a scratch, he will personally hand us to the twins, with one instruction: torture them." "Ouch." "Yeah, so let's get out of here before those Decepticons get tired of Prowl's distraction." "Fine," Red said, "Just please let me set a bomb. This place is a very unsatisfactory prison. It needs to be taken care of." "Alright, but just because you said please." Lightspeed pulled out a small bomb, and Red tucked it underneath the prison berth in his former cell. Lightspeed said," We have 9 clicks to get out of here before this whole place goes BOOM." Then they exited the cell, ready to leave. As it turned out, by holding Lightspeed's servo, the Cloaker's powers worked on Red Alert too. Within a couple of clicks, they were back on the outside ledge, (Red was on the ledge and Lightspeed was floating above it, because the Cloaker was still activated) looking down at the battle, which was going the Autobot's way. "Alright, here's the rendezvous point, so…" Lightspeed started. "Where's Prowl?" Red Alert finished for her. "Yeah," she said, deactivating the Cloaker and landing. She activated her comlink. "Yo, Prowl. We're at the rendezvous point. Where in the pit are you?!" Suddenly, Red Alert gasped, grabbed Lightspeed's arm and pointed down, saying, "Lightspeed… I think I just found Prowl." Lightspeed looked over the edge of the ledge, and, sure enough, there was a black and white mech. She pulled out her Special Operations Visor from sub-space and put it on. Immediately, her vision was increased so much that she could clearly see Prowl's predicament. His servos were tied behind his back plate, and he was kneeling on the ground facing the now-stopped battle with his helm bowed. Megatron stood behind him, with Starscream on his right and Thundercracker on his left. Both seekers had their weapons raised and were pointing them at the crowd, in case any Autobot attempted to rescue their second in command. Lightspeed debating jumping off of the ledge she was on and rescuing Prowl, since it was obvious that they were not expecting an aerial rescue, but quickly decided against it, remembering that she still had Red with her. Normally she would have done an aerial rescue, but she wasn't going to risk having Red Alert get hurt, or worse, forget she had wings and yell at her to stop, which would alert the seekers and take away the advantage of surprise. Instead, she gagged Red Alert, and ran off the right side of the ledge, dropping like a missile. Red immediately started thrashing around and screaming. Luckily, he was gagged, so the sound was muffled. As for the thrashing, she grabbed one of his neck cables with two digits and lightly squeezed. He went limp in her arms. As soon as they were about to hit the ground, she unfolded her wings, slowing down their approach. After landing, she ungagged Red and woke him up. Then they both turned to watch as Megatron started giving a speech to the soldiers who were frozen in shock. Megatron's speech was about how Autobots are weak blah, blah, blah, Decepticons are strong, blah, blah, blah, compassion is stupid, blah, blah, blah. Finally, he trailed off. Assuming he was done with his speech, Lightspeed and Red Alert slowly started working their way towards the crowd of soldiers. Lightspeed started planning Prowl's rescue in her processor. Her plan was brilliant: she would distract the Decepticons and Jazz would jump up on the ledge to save Prowl. However, as soon as she and Red Alert were on the same ledge as the Decepticons, Megatron said, "Horrible things happen to Autobots who directly insult the Decepticon cause." "Yeah, yeah, whatever Megatron. Do you know who is really an insult to the Decepticon cause? All of your idiotic soldiers!" "Nice one Jazz." Lightspeed sent over her comlink. Megatron growled and then said, "You will pay for that Autobrat! Like I said earlier, horrible things happen to Autobots who directly insult the Decepticon cause." "Huh?" Lightspeed murmured. "Horrible things like losing a bondmate." Megatron finished as he aimed his warming up fusion cannon at Prowl's head.