Author's Note: Sorry it took so long for me to update. I contracted a flu-like virus and I have some other troubles in my life that still need resolving. *sigh*
I thank all of you who reviewed already!! I would like to thank: PrancingTiger86, Jessie07, Detective Huckle, and shimmershadow30 for reviewing!
Please review!
Chapter 2
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe watched the battle raging between the Con's and their teammates from the safety of their base. Sam and Mikaela had stopped by earlier to say hello but left after Sideswipe told them they wouldn't be back for some time.
After witnessing, on screen, how ruthlessly Jazz ripped through their enemies one by one…they knew that he was taking out his wrath on imaginary versions of them. This was only proved when Jazz tackled Starscream and shouted "DIE SUNSTREAK'A!!" above the angry roar of battle.
Starscream's snarky voice screeched back as they continued to wrestle with each other.
"You slaggin glitch!! I'm Starscream, you fool! Starscream!!"
Not only was Starscream extremely confused by his foe's random outburst but in for the aft-kicking of his life. Barricade was the next victim…apparently Jazz fantasized that this Con, was Sideswipe and viciously mauled him into a retreat.
The battle was over before it had even begun, the Decepticons fleeing before the crazed Autobot 1st Lt.
He would have chased after them but Ironhide and Ratchet forcefully held him back, until at last they were out of his sight.
"Wow…do you think he is mad at us?"
Sideswipe turned dull optics on his brother and smacked him.
"You really are a dumb-aft, you know that Sunny?"
The twins continued to monitor the base from the command room and the moment they saw the others returning made themselves scarce. They fled down the hallway towards their room, hearing Jazz's murderous sing-song voice drifting from somewhere behind them.
"Come out, come out wherev'a you are!"
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe slid to a stop when they reached their room. Only something was seriously wrong…
"Hurry the frag up Sideswipe!! He's coming!" Sunstreaker began to panic as Jazz's voice grew closer.
"I'm trying! I've punched in our door code but it won't open!!"
"Move over and let me try," Sunstreaker roughly shoved his twin aside and frantically punched in their key code to unlock their door. A red light and a small 'beep-beep-beep' alerted the two troublemaking mechs that they were indeed, locked out.
"SLAG! Someone must have changed our code!"
"What's the matta'? Locked outta' yo' quarters?"
The twins turned around with wide optics.
Jazz stood in front of them with a wicked grin on his face, the rest of his evil expression lost behind his battle visor. He held a huge, mega roll of duct tape in one hand and a coil of rope in the other.
"Who's first?!"
They screamed and ran, splitting up as they usually did when being chased by an angry victim on the receiving end of a prank. Only one of them would get caught…and Sunstreaker be slagged if he let it be him. He figured it was his brother's turn to suffer for once.
He chanced a backwards glance and sighed with relief to see that he was not the one being pursued. Just when he thought it was safe, he rounded a corner and ran straight into his commanding officer.
"Thank Primus…Optimus Sir, please…if you have any mercy, whatsoever!"
Sunstreaker began but was cut off by Optimus's amused chuckle.
"I'm afraid you are on your own. Ratchet thought it might be fair if we evened the playing field."
"So, you had our door code changed?!"
"Of course"
Sunstreaker stared at his commander in total, absolute shock…unwilling to comprehend what was happening here.
"But…b-but…"
This can't be happening…this…this is so…so…this is…I don't even know what this is!
"Perhaps it would be wise if you thought of the consequences before you acted in the future."
With those final words of wisdom, Optimus continued down the corridor, leaving the yellow mech stuttering.
"B-but…but...you…y-you can't do this!!"
His commander didn't appear to have heard him as he disappeared around the corner up ahead, most likely returning to his office.
Sunstreaker screeched when he heard his brother's panicked voice echoing through the base over the loudspeakers, startling at least half a century out of him.
SUNNY!! Jazz is coming for you…RUN!
It took a minute for that to actually process and when it did, Sunstreaker was off like a bullet. He slid to a stop next to one of the wall-com's, about to respond. His brother continued, sounding desperate.
I've already been caught…I'm in a sticky situation here, I could really use some help!!
Wait a minute…his brother NEVER begged to be rescued! His brother's pride was about as massive as Sunstreaker's own ego. And why wasn't he communicating through their internal comlinks?
His hand wavered hesitantly over the com-buttons about to respond, when out of the blue his twin barreled around the corner and tackled him screaming.
"DON'T touch that!"
They slid a few feet down the hall before Sunstreaker was helped back to his feet, looking at his brother with a dazed expression.
"What in the pit is going on?"
Sideswipe held a finger to his lip components, indicating that his brother should shut up immediately. He then pointed up at the ceiling a few yards ahead of them, pushing them both back against a shadowy portion of the wall into a blind spot that the camera could not see.
Sunstreaker looked startled but grinned when he understood. Sideswipe had calculated exactly when the camera would cycle through another portion of the hallway. While he was in the act of tackling his brother, Sideswipe had slapped a thin cylindrical disk onto the floor below the com on the wall. A holographic image of Sunstreaker appeared immediately and replayed the last minute of his twin's actions in a continuous loop, making it look like Sunstreaker had never moved.
"If I timed this right…then hopefully we'll hear something soon."
At that moment, the loudspeakers resumed talking.
Come free me and together we can outsmart him!
"How did you lose him?" Sunstreaker whispered.
"I have my ways," Sideswipe smirked, before his expression turned serious, "Listen, we are unable to use our internal comlinks, I have already tried in order to warn you. Luckily for us, Ratchet hasn't found our homing beacons yet…thank Primus for small favors."
After a minute more of silence, they heard "Sideswipe's" final message.
Please Sunny…I'm beggin' you. Don't leave me all alone!
His brother's pleading voice froze Sunstreaker's spark, even though his brother was standing right next to him. The two glanced at each other as the exact duplication of Sideswipe's voice faded out.
"That was decidedly creepy…" Sideswipe commented before motioning that they continue forward.
"Agreed," Sunstreaker shuddered and followed after him.
"Jazz is going all out this time."
"I wonder how long it will take him to realize that I'm no longer there…"
"Not to worry…by the time he figures it out, it will be too late…"
They darted from corridor to corridor.
"Hey, Sides? Where exactly are we going?"
"If we get to the central control room we can access the security cameras to see exactly where Jazz is…but most importantly, to fix our door code problem."
Sunstreaker satisfied with the answer, continued to follow him although a growing sense of unease leaked into his spark.
That's odd…why do I feel so paranoid when Sideswipe is right here with me? Jazz wasn't kidding, he really wants revenge.
It was only after they had passed the control room that Sunstreaker knew something wasn't right. Instead of continuing to follow Sideswipe, he stealthily fell back and entered the control room, accessing the mainframe. After changing their door code, he searched through different rooms and corridors, pulling the images up on the main screen. At last he found what he was looking for…
"What in the pit?!"
The door whooshed open just then and a shadowy silhouette blocked out the brightness from the hallway, sending rays of light into the darkened room.
"I told you to stay with me!!"
"ARGH, just leave me alone…PSYCHO BOT!!"
Sunstreaker ran for the door, ready to trample the mech standing in the doorway. The moment he got there, he was greeted with the image of Optimus Prime. He did a double take and confusion filled his voice.
"B-but…I thought you were…you sounded just like…"
"You thought I sounded like whom, Sideswipe?"
Sunstreaker heard his own voice this time.
Next thing he knew, an enraged Jazz had tackled him to the floor, sending him down in a heap of misery.
Jazz laughed maniacally as he powered down the holo emitter and voice alteration devices and made his victim a little more…comfortable.
"Argh…I'm gonna need mo' tape…"
TFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTF
A few hours later and the twins were both together again—completely wrapped in duct tape and rope from head to foot. They were hanging upside down from the ceiling, the triple strength adhesive making it impossible for them to escape on their own free will.
Jazz chuckled quite amused and left his captives to return to the control room, now back on shift but not before rubbing his victory in their faces. The other Autobots didn't call him an expert saboteur and undercover agent for nothing.
"I can' believe you fell for tha'…looks like revenge is mine, posers!"
The red and yellow mechs growled back at him just before the door shut.
Sideswipe shook his head with a long suffering sigh.
"Don't worry Sunny…we'll get him back…I swear it."
After another five minutes, the door whooshed open again and the owner of the room looked up startled, completely freezing in his tracks.
"Ironhide, ol' buddy…let us down!"
"We promise not to prank you again…"
"Not for another three earth years at least!"
The twins pleaded with their comrade who just continued to stand there dumbly. Before long, a low rumbling filled the room immediately followed by howling laughter as the weapons specialist bore witness to the troublesome twin's plight.
At last, he was calm enough to reply.
"If it wasn't for the fact that you both look so pathetically hilarious…I'd blow a hole through your afts for trespassing!!" Ironhide twirled his cannons for emphasis.
"Okay, we understand…now get us down!"
"Why should I?" Ironhide crossed his arms and smirked.
The twins blinked dumbfounded.
"Come on, we are all on the same team here!"
"No offense but your room kind of scares me," Sideswipe indicated the hill of weapons and other ordinance piled on top of Ironhide's recharge berth. There were enough guns and explosives in that pile to wipe out an army.
Not to mention all of the war posters and trophies mounted on his walls. And by trophies…usually some random Con's arm or leg Ironhide collected after the biggest and most notorious of battles fought during Cybertron's Great Wars.
Sideswipe shuddered in disgust.
Talk about obsessed…no wonder he's the weapons officer.
"Aren't you having fun?"
"FUN?! YOU CONSIDER THIS FUN?!" Sunstreaker finally shrieked. His paint job was slag by now…he could already imagine how the paint was going to peel off with all of the tape. This had to be the yellow mech's worst nightmare.
Ironhide laughed maniacally and left them hanging there.
TFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTFTF
5 hours later…
The twins were finally free but only because ol' blood and guts wanted to recharge peacefully in his quarters.
They returned to their room and sulked until Sunstreaker remembered something.
"Hey Sides! We forgot all about Hatchet!"
His twin's optics lit up with an eerie glow.
"We should check on him…see how the good ol' doc is doing."
They pulled up a handheld video monitor and accessed the live feed in the medbay from their own personal cameras and speakers hidden within the room.
"Slag…he isn't there."
"Are you sure? Pan a little over to the left…"
"Perfect! He's sorting supplies."
"Should we activate it yet?"
"Give it another minute…"
They waited patiently, biding their time until at last, the perfect opportunity presented itself.
Sunstreaker activated the remote in his hand and they watched with baited breath.
Ratchet was just finishing sorting through a container full of wires. A few tools lay on the countertop. He forgot to put them away after Jazz's maintenance. The second he picked up a screwdriver he whirled towards the door in alarm, expecting to see someone standing there when a voice spoke to him.
"Hey, slag-for-brains…over here!"
Ratchet frowned and walked cautiously out of the medbay and peered down either sides of the hallway. No one was in sight.
He returned and put the screwdriver away but the moment it left his hand, it began to sing obnoxiously.
"99 cubes of energon on the wall! 99 cubes of energon…you take one down pass it around—"
Ratchet snatched the screwdriver back into his hand and it shut up immediately. He peered closer at it and growled.
"What the slag are those fraggers up to now!"
Nothing happened.
He continued to glare daggers at the offending tool and didn't hear another peep.
The CMO shook his head and put it away hastily and picked up the last tool…namely, a wrench.
Ratchet jumped and threw the tool across the room on reflex, when another voice screamed back at him.
"RUN! It's the Hatchet! FLEE FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIIIIIVEEEESSSS!!"
He walked over to the wrench, mumbling obscenities and picked it up.
"PLEASE DON'T THROW ME!!"
The CMO dropped it again in shock. Ratchet frowned and shook the wrench trying to make it shut up as it repeated the same phrase another three times. He shouted back at it, not caring if he was screaming at an inanimate object or not.
"SHUT UP AND GO TO THE PIT!!"
Miraculously…it shut up. Ratchet sighed, believing his torture was over…
"I was scared you were gonna' throw me!"
Ratchet turned to the door after hearing his own voice but then looked down at the tool, his optics widening ever so slightly. The wrench was talking…and it sounded just like him.
"They can't be serious…"
"They have to be if they went this far…the glitches!"
"Wait just a slaggin' minute! Am I actually having a conversation…with my wrench?!"
"Most certainly… You are talking to me after all."
"ARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!"
Ratchet shrieked and threw it across the room again, the same phrase repeating incessantly.
"PLEASE DON'T THROW ME! PLEASE DON'T THROW ME! PLEASE DON'T THROW ME!"
The CMO ran from his medbay. He found Optimus and explained the whole thing.
"Sir, I am telling you…either my wrench is really alive, however unlikely, or the twins are still being a pain in the aft!"
Optimus arrived in the medbay a few minutes later with Ratchet and picked up the wrench.
It was so silent you could hear a needle drop.
"What was the problem again?"
Ratchet took the wrench from Optimus and shook it and threw it across the room expectantly.
Still…nothing happened. Had he imagined it?
"Sir, you have to believe me…it fragging talked to me! Since when have I ever made stuff up?"
Optimus did not know how to respond right away.
"Perhaps all you need is a little R&R. You are constantly overworking yourself. I think it is time you had a break."
Ratchet stared stonily back at him with a frown and narrowed optics.
"I am not glitched in the processor OR in need of recharge."
"Do I have to make this an order?" Optimus insisted.
"No, sir"
"Glad to hear it. If you need anything, just let me know."
Optimus left Ratchet alone and returned to the control room.
After experimentally dropping the wrench a couple of times, the medic deemed that it was safe and began to put it away.
The energon in his lines froze for a second when it talked…again.
"You don't look well."
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe grinned triumphantly as the CMO fritzed out some more.
Sideswipe hi-fived his brother as he held the microphone to his mouth and did his best "Hatchet" impersonation. With the help of a computer program, whatever he said into the microphone transmitted back through the silver micro speaker that was planted on the wrench in the form of Ratchet's voice. It was quite clever…if Sideswipe said so himself.
Every couple of minutes as they watched his reactions on screen, Sideswipe twirled his finger in the air to signal Sunstreaker to both mute the microphone and to put the automated response on so he could laugh his aft off.
"I think we really messed up his processor this time."
"Pretty soon he will be as paranoid as Red Alert!"
Ratchet had his back turned to the door and was crouched over his workbench, holding the wrench in one hand. He was pointing one finger at the offending tool, hissing in barely controlled fury.
"Listen here, you pain in the aft…either shut up, shut down, or go to the pit, you hear me?!"
"Only if you promise not to throw me again"
Ratchet growled as he glared holes through the tool.
"YOU don't tell me what to do, you little fragger!!"
Just then, the door slid open and Bumblebee walked in. He froze mid-step when he saw Ratchet crouched over his workbench like some kind of a hunchbacked cave person, pointing at the inanimate object in his hand.
Bumblebee was hesitant…the doc looked just a little crazed.
"Maybe this isn't a good time…I can leave if yo—"
Ratchet turned to glare at the young scout a moment and snapped back at him.
"STAY! SIT DOWN!!"
The medic emphasized his words with a pointed index finger that pointed first at the floor and then across the room at an examining table.
Bumblebee took a seat on one of the exam tables and watched the unusual spectacle unfolding in front of his optics, feeling slightly nervous.
"Every time you throw me…you hurt my feelings!"
"YOU don't HAVE feelings! YOU ARE A WRENCH for Primus's sake!!"
"If you're busy I can just leav—" Bumblebee started to say but Ratchet turned on him again.
"No…just STAY there!"
Ratchet really didn't give a cyber-rat's aft, if anyone was watching him. His wrench needed to be taught a lesson…it was a mouthy little thing.
"PLEASE DON'T THROW ME! PLEASE DON'T THROW ME! PLEASE DON'T THROW ME!"
"MAYBE I SHOULD THROW YOU!!"
Ratchet lifted the wrench into the air about to hurl it across the room when its voice returned.
"Throw me again and I'll kick your aft, you slagging glitch!"
"How DARE you talk back to me you insubordinate, piece of scrap!!"
Ratchet's optic started twitching and he looked back at Bumblebee who was trying to tip-toe out of the door.
"SEE what I have to put up with?! I TOLD you I'm not glitched in the processor! YOU can hear the voice too…can't you?!"
"Of course I can…it sounds just like you," Bumblebee responded nervously.
Ratchet laughed and then handed the younger mech the wrench.
"Talk to it… see if it talks back."
Bumblebee just stared at Ratchet in disbelief but obeyed just the same.
"Uh…hello there, wrenchet…how are you?"
Ratchet blinked a few times.
"Did you just call my wrench, wrenchet?"
"Well…yeah because it's a wrench…but it's your voice. I thought the name fit it perfectly."
Ratchet froze up and his optics dimmed…almost as if he had gone into temporary stasis.
Bumblebee waved his hand in front of Ratchet's face but got no response. The young scout looked back at the wrench and hissed furiously at it.
"What is the matter with you? This has gone a little too far, you guys!"
"What a sparkling…come on Bumblebee…can't you take a little joke? Admit it, this was hilarious!! The Hatchet is never going to throw anything at us ever again!"
Bumblebee replied in a flat voice.
"Don't be so sure…"
Just then, Ratchet's optics came online and he pulled out a mini laser and targeted the hidden microphone on the wrench. His optics dimmed whenever he was in the middle of scanning something.
"Before I offline the two of you…I just want you both to know that this is the LAST time you two slaggers EVER touch ANYTHING in my med bay again!"
With that last and final threat delivered, Ratchet activated the laser melting the micro speaker off.
"I apologize, Bumblebee. If I recall correctly you have a scheduled maintenance exam, correct?"
"Yes, sir"
The two walked back into the med bay together, the wrench now back to normal and the prank momentarily forgotten.
The twins smirked and shook their heads.
"Well…it looks like stage two of 'The Twin's Revenge' has been completed, dear brother."
"Indeed it has."
As they prepared to recharge, Sideswipe looked over at his twin with a mischievous glint in his optics.
"Hey Sunny…do you think Hatchet will be able to find the microchip in his screwdriver?"
Sunstreaker turned his head with a wicked grin.
"Which screwdriver?"
The twins shared a laugh and retired for the night, not worried at all about the impending vengeance that two of their commanding officers had in store for them.
That was two down...and only two more to go. They had to be extremely creative and extra careful with phase three and four. Pranking Ironhide and Optimus was going to take delicate work and sufficient planning. No matter...however long it took...it would be worth it.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Author's Note: It might be a little while before I can update, my life is hectic although reviews may help speed things up so PLEASE REVIEW!!
