Spy on Her

Early the next morning, Prowl had awoken to do some morning training. He got some decaf oil and went to the training room. It was really the old assembly plant room, but the bots saw it as a training room. As he walked through the door he saw Rachael Sparring with Jazz. He hid behind the door watching the two.

Rachael's wings were fluttering rapidly while she kicked at Jazz, going left right, round house, drop kick. Jazz blocked the drop kick, "Come on," Jazz urged, "Put more force in that kick." She went from kick to punch, only to have it parried, "is that all you got techno girl?"

"I have not begun to fight," She turned her fist flat hand, somersaulting forward, crouching on his arm; a punch is launched and landed.

Jazz staggered backwards, holding his cheek. "Nice," he complimented, "Then again you did dent S.P."

"Then I shouldn't have even scratched you Jay," She said. The two continued their sparring session.

Jay, techno girl, Prowl thought solemnly, he turned away leaning on the door way, she never gave me a nickname. He then literally slapped himself, get ahold of yourself prowl, she's an organic, and you're…an obsolete ninja flake. She wouldn't be interested. His thoughts were interrupted by a tap on his shoulder. He looked and saw a smirking Sentinel, "what do you want Sentinel?" He snarled.

"Oh nothing, just wondering what you're up to?" He said in a sing song voice.

"Nothing that concerns you," he walked past Sentinel, who peeked at Jazz and Rachael sitting against the wall laughing. "I see Rachael and Jazz are spending time together again."

Prowl stopped, "What do you mean again?"

"You didn't know? She took him on another tour around Detroit. Even went for a walk down by the dock," He said, "And now they're laughing and exchanging words," Prowl dashed back to the door, pushing Sentinel out of the way, "He saw Jazz holding a large pipe, while Rachael did tricks on it. She hung from it, and Jazz poked her in the stomach. She giggled and let go of the pipe. Prowl saw how much fun they were having, and it made him sad. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were jealous ninja bot."

Prowl grabbed Sentinel and took him in his room. He slammed the blue mech into the wall, "I am not jealous you're over bearing glitch."

"If you aren't, then why are you so upset," Prowl couldn't answer that. He let go of his superior, "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if she actually liked Jazz."

"She doesn't love him," he snarled.

"I never said love prowl," sentinel smirked. Prowl turned a light pink.

"Whatever, either way she doesn't like him in that matter."

"Maybe," Sentinel said, "Let's go back and see." He grabbed prowl and ran back to the training room.

They saw Rachael giving Jazz a brochure, "Will you go with me?"

"Seems like a blast, why not?" she hugged them. They were coming toward Prowl and Sentinel. Prowl used his ninja skills and disguised them as vending machines. "Were those always there?" Jazz asked.

"Bulkhead must have brought them in," Rachael shrugged, "Anyway today is going to cool."

"No doubt, I've always wanted to see earth animals that have been stuffed." They disappeared around the corner, and Prowl and Sentinel came out of hiding.

"Stuffing animals?" Sentinel questioned.

"They're sources of entertainment for proto formic humans," Prowl explained.

"Well since we have nothing better to do, let's go," Sentinel said.

"Go where?"

"We're going to spy on Jazz and Rachael."

"WHAT? WHY?"

"Aren't you the least bit curious as to what they're going to do today," Sentinel tempted.

"They only met yesterday, how friendly could they possibly be to each other?"

"How long did it take for you to become friends with her?"

"For the others a couple days. For me – well we argued for a few months," Prowl assessed.

"Maybe you're right," Prowls eyes went wide, "Maybe she loves you more than Jazz."

"She doesn't love me."

"But you love her," he put a finger on Prowls chest. Prowl slapped away the hand, "Fine Sentinel, we'll do it your way. We'll spy on them, and put this whole love affair conspiracy to rest."

"So why are we going to this a…muse…ment…park?" Jazz strained. Rachael pulled out the brochure, and pointed to a Ferris wheel. "This Ferris wheel has been offline for years," She explained, "Sometime yesterday; this Ferris wheel started working like new. When it was breaking down it would die mid ride, have bolts come off, have a really bad squeak. Yesterday it started working like new – no malfunctions or anything."

"What you thinking techno girl?"

"Well the robo plant assembly line there was an alspark fragment increasing its performance."

"You thinkin that one of those crazy rocks are there?"

"Only lead I got that the Decepticons may still be online. Because I seriously doubt the last one ended up in that plant by accident."

"Let's say there is a fragment there, how do you plan to find out if it's the real deal." Rachael pulled out Sari's key, and it did it usual tracking glow. "Well then Rach let's hit the road while gettin's good." Jazz went into sport car mode, and Rachael jumped in.

"Did you catch that?" Sentinel said looking round the corner.

"Not a word," Prowl said, "At least we Know that it's a mission that they're on."

"A mission she chose to go on with Jazz instead of with you." Sentinel assumed.

"Let's go." Prowl said, ignoring his obnoxious superior. The two were off.

(Think of this amusement park like Disneyland)

The park was filled with people, and for Jazz it was hard for him not to step on one of them. "The key still doing its thing," Jazz asked. Rachael pulled out the key and noticed something strange, "What up?"

"I think the fragment moved;" she pointed the key and it went to - "Now it's pointing downtown."

"What do you want to do then?"

"Let's go to the Ferris wheel, see if any of these carnies saw something." They proceeded to the oversized wheel, oblivious to the two vehicles hiding behind a tree.

"What do you call this place again?" Sentinel asked.

"An amusement park."

"What's so amusing about it?"

"Family and friends come here to spend time with one another. It's sort of like a bonding experience."

"Bonding eh," Sentinel snickered.

"Enough," Prowl snarled, "By the look on Rachael's face this was business."

"Business at a place simply for amusement and bonding," Sentinel said skeptically, "Are you sure you're not jealously living in denial?"

"In order for that to be possible I'd have to be jealous. And in order to be in denial I'd have to be wrong."

Sentinel transformed into bot form, "Then let us continue with the investigation shall we."

Rachael and Jazz saw the control box to the ride; it had a fist drill hole in it. Jazz inspected the hole, while Rachael questioned the middle aged man running the attraction, "Yeah it was weird, I came here –what, two nights ago – I was checking on this ride, seeing if I can tune it up a bit. When I couldn't I went home."

"Did anything happen after that?"

"Yeah, um…I found this weird glowing rock sometime yesterday and I thought why not use it. When I put it in, the wheel was turning like new."

Jazz joined her. Kneeling down he updated her, "The obvious – someone broke into the wheel. The not so obvious – they took a lot of wiring to get at the fragment that might have been here."

"Thanks Jazz," She said, "Sir, how you would know to use it for machine purposes…" Rachael pressed.

"I saw a rock like this a couple days ago, running some dudes car."

"Where?" Jazz asked.

"Up at one of the auto lots, south and about 10 minutes from here."

"Ok, and this glowing rock, where is it now?" Rachael asked.

"See now therein lies the problem," he said wagging his finger, "This giant bot with a hook came and took it, about 30 minutes ago."

"Thank you." She and Jazz walked away.

"Where to next boss lady?" Rachael held up the key, the light pointing south, "Auto lot?"

"Auto lot." She saw a concession stand with necklaces, "But first a souvenir."

It was a small place, about the size of a gas station, millions of different care parts everywhere. There was a broken down Cadillac with the hood torn off. Rachael pulled out the key, the location had changed. "I think someone knows we're coming." Rachael assumed.

"Time to step up our game then."

"Welcome to Bud and Ben's auto shack," Said a portly brunette, joined by Skin hill Billy, "Bud," said the portly man, "And this here is ben. What can we do ya fur?"

Jazz and Rachael exchanged looks of confusion. Jazz went to the busted car, leaving Rachael to questions, "Hi guys, I was wondering if you saw a glowing rock," She pulled out a picture of an alspark fragment, "Looks something like this."

"Yeah we had something like that," Ben recollected, "Put in that there car the tin man's looking at; made that car run like a dream."

"From what I heard you guys got that rock stolen a couple days ago." Rachael questioned.

"NAW, you want Walden and Wheezy across the street," Bud pointed across the street. The sign said Walden and Wheezy's Waffles.

"A waffle restaurant?"

"Yeah," Ben exclaimed.

"Are they over there right now?"

"No, they closed down on – it is now Thursday – Tuesday afternoon," Bud remembered. "They had this waffle iron that had made excellent waffles in all of Detroit. It busted about a week ago. On Monday when we went in there it was working like new. They done and showed us the same glowing rock that we had."

"Do you still have it?"

"I'm guessing they don't," Jazz said, "Like that spinning wheel at that park, someone tore at the engine to get something."

"It was that hook bot." Bud exclaimed.

"Hook bot?" jazz and Rachael shouted.

"Yeah," Bud continued, "He stayed here, swapped some words with us, did a quick job on that car and bolted outta here," he looked at his watch, "What do ya know, it's only been five minutes."

Jazz transformed, Rachael hopped in and the two were gone in a blink of an eye. "Was it something we said?"

Jazz was speeding through Detroit. Eventually they made it downtown, the key's glow growing brighter. "Jazz slow down, let's walk from here." She jumped out as jazz changed back. Downtown was full of graffiti, and a few broken down buildings. Rachael looked at her watch, "We've been busy, and it's already 3:00PM."

"Quite a day," Jazz yawned.

Around one of the buildings the spy bots were watching them. "So, are you still going to assume they are on a date Sentinel?"

"I never said they were on a date," Sentinel corrected, "I said Rachael was showing him around town." Prowl glared while blushing, "But in any case, no. Something's up."

A thought occurred to prowl, "You know, when Rachael and I would go out on jobs, if she had a lead on something, she would have me put on the gas and rush around town."

"Okay?"

"Ultra Magnus and Optimus agreed that the alspark fragment we got was the only lead she had," He assessed, "This isn't a tour, she and jazz are looking for more fragments of the alspark."

"A lead to what though?"

"The Decepticons." Sentinel would have laughed, but prowl covered his mouth. He may have knew what Rachael and Jazz were up to, but he still didn't want to give them away.

The key was glowing brighter, "We're getting close." Rachael said. Jazz tried to check his scanners, but nothing came up. Not only that, the town was like a ghost town. Rachael drew dual machine guns from her bracelet; Jazz took that as a sign and got out his ninja chucks.

The keys glow grew brighter, so Rachael put it away. They came to a corner, peeking around it. There they saw him, a hooked bot holding three fragments of the alspark. "You two done hiding?" he called, his voice shallow like the grave. He looked to where Jazz and Rachael were hiding, "I may be old, but I'm not slow." He put the fragments away.

Rachael and Jazz jumped from behind the building, Rachael ready to shoot, and Jazz providing ninja back up. "You must be Lockdown," Rachael assumed.

"You know me," He asked.

"You know him," Jazz questioned.

"Not personally, but we're about to get acquainted." She clicked the guns, "Now why is a bounty hunter gathering shiny rocks?"

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine," He played, "How do you know me?"

"A few friends of mine told me about you." Lockdown cocked an eyebrow and saw the Autobots logo on her glove.

"So I see the Autobots have their own pet," Lockdown laughed.

"I'd be careful, "Jazz warned, "She bites." Lockdown chuckled deeply.

"Now before I do," she said, baring her fangs, "What do you want with the fragments?"

"I got paid a hefty sum to collect these for someone."

"Who paid you?" Jazz pressed him and Rachael moving closer, weapons still at the ready.

"See, here's where the answers stop," lockdown declared, "I'm paid to get these pieces of alspark, not answer questions."

"Yeah, I've been updated on you," Rachael said, "You collect mods right," Lockdown nodded, "What mod are you looking to get? Surely there's no harm in telling me that."

Lockdown thought for a couple seconds, so no harm, "I was offered an EMP. My employer guaranteed it to me for pieces of this rock." A memory came to Rachael, the letters EMP ringing a bell, "By any chance, does it look like a block engine with mini turrets, black and white paint color – inside a weird case?" she assessed.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Lucky guess," she lied, "But here's what I do know: that EMP is a fake."

"WHAT," Jazz and Lockdown shouted.

"That EMP is a model of the one that's been transferred to Tokyo," she informed, "Mr. Powell scammed you." Lockdown's eyes widened. Rachael could have only guessed that, that was his employers name, "so why give him what he wants, when he already sold what you want?"

Lockdown took out the three fragments and tossed them to Jazz and Rachael. He then transformed into vehicle mode and drove off. "We are going after Powell or the bot that just bolted?" Jazz asked.

"Neither," She declared, "Bounty hunters don't like getting ripped off," she picked up the three fragments and handed them to Jazz, "Odds are Lockdown will take of Powell without his knowing," she put her hands on her hips and looked at a broken down studio, "Speaking of knowing things, I know you're hiding prowl. You and Sentinel can come out know now." Prowl came out rubbing his head embarrassingly. Sentinel was reluctant to come out, but prowl yanked him out.

"How long have you known," Prowl asked.

"Unless bulkhead took stealth classes Prowler," she smirked.

Prowler? He thought.

"The vending machines outside the training room were never there."

She gave me a nickname.

"Some cyber ninja you are," Sentinel said. Rachael flew up and once again kicked sentinel in the face. Causing him to crash into one of the buildings. "What was that for?"

"Don't you ever insult him," she snarled, "He happens to be one of the best Cyber ninja's I've ever met. And yes I can say that because I know two of them."

Later that night, back at the plant, Optimus and the others were sitting on the couch, when Rachael and the others walked in. Jazz had three alspark fragments in hand. "Where have you guys been all day?" Optimus asked.

Rachael looked at her watch and turned on the TV; just in time to catch the news. In recent news, newly owned proprietor of Sumdac Systems, Porter C. Powell reports to have had his business vandalized by the Autobots. Captain Fanzone had this to say-

Fanzone – I've known the Autobots for nearly a year now, and none of them have," he held up a baseball bat, and spray paint can, "common household items like these." Powell jumped in on the interview, "I know the Autobots did this, and I can prove it." Fanzone pushed him out of the way, "he cannot, we searched the place and only the place destroyed was his office. If the Autobots were involved, we would have found their weapon imprints on the scene." Rachael turned off the TV, "Same questioned," Optimus pressed. Jazz gave him the alspark fragments, "How did you get these," Optimus grinned.

"Whether cybertronian or human, either way bounty hunters hate it when you deny them payment," Rachael and the three mech's laughed, leaving the others with confused looks, "Speaking of where people are – where's Sari?"

"She cried herself to sleep," Bumblebee said.

"I see," Rachael said, "First I'm not here for three years, I come back and I still can't protect her."

"Not true," Prowl said, He picked up Rachael and took her to the roof. Then her and prowl sat on the edge, "When we first met Sari, she kept talking about you." Rachael didn't respond, "Saying how much she missed you, telling us all these stories. Along with Isaac, you were the world to her. When you came back, her life brightened up."

"Now Isaac's gone," She said crying, "She thinks she's a figment of everyone's imagination, and I can't help her. Bright light – I'm a dark cloud who brings nothing but trouble."

"How can you say that?"

"Starscream was stalking me, remember? I always brought him to you and he would find some way to hurt you. I even allowed him to make me believe you didn't love…protecting me and sari." she fibbed, turning bright red.

Prowl rubbed her back, "I do love protecting you and Sari," He admitted, he tilted her head up, making her look at him, "And you aren't a dark cloud," he reassured, "You're the best that to m….ost of Detroit and Sari," he covered, "Sari is lucky to have someone like you, by her side," he scratched his cheek, "I know I am." A smile broke out across Rachael's face. She took out a necklace with a peace sign. She put it on prowls wrist, surprised it fit. "What's this?"

"It's a peace sign," she explained, "It made me think of you."

"Why me?"

She got on his lap and leaned against his torso, "Cause when I'm with you, I'm at peace." She drifted to sleep. Prowl put a hand on her, I'm at peace with you too.

She still needs proof of decepticon activity. Will she get it in time?

See in the next chapter.