Once again I want to thank those people have reviewed and added this story to their favourites! Again not much happens in this chapter except for a small surprise and not the kind ya'll be thinking of. Sorry but that event is still a couple of chapters away As usual I've tried to wheedle out the spelling and grammatical errors. Anyway onwards and forwards!
Warnings: slight slash ahead
'Blah' – thoughts
::Blah:: - Radio Communication
:/blah\: - Inter. comm.
::/Blah\\:: Bond communication
"Blah" - Inter-dimmensional speech
Joor - Hour
It had been several weeks since he had been captured by the Autobots and escaped from their so called holding area. During that time he and Frenzy had secured a base where they could carry out any required maintenance or fix any injuries the Mustang had acquired through small skirmishes with the Autobots on his travels, especially a pair of Lamborghini's who made it their personal mission to hunt him down and damage him as much as possible. It was a nigh impossibility to get any where near the Autobot base now since they had upped the security around its perimeter. The appearance of Ravage had taken him by surprise but it was pleasant to know that further Decepticon company would be arriving on Earth shortly.
However none of the aforementioned could compare to currently being ceaselessly rained upon which was rating next to getting stuck in muddy trenches, or his paint nearly blistering and peeling off his armoured plating as a result of the extremely hot weather. Getting stuck in muddy ditches was something he did not want to have to repeat again as the last time it had occurred, he had swerved off the road and into a ditch. It had been nigh impossible for him to get out so he had to resort to transforming into his bipedal mode to escape since Frenzy had offered no help. In fact the little glitch had galloped off to the nearest shelter and refused to move despite the threats of bodily harm. Barricade had taught him a lesson by making the small hacker walk back to the base in the pouring rain for the lack of assistance, since then the small 'con proved somewhat useful when he got himself stuck in sticky situations despite his small size. Thankfully there had been no further incidents like the aforementioned as the shock trooper turned onto the disused dirt track that led to another abandoned air force hangar, the weather had grown in momentum since he started out that morning with lightning flashing across the darkened sky and thunder rumbling threateningly overhead. He was distinctly beginning to hate this planet and its unpredictable weather patterns, he had been caught completely unaware whilst he and Frenzy had been scouting another deserted research facility.
The black and white Mustang pulled up in the entrance of the aircraft hangar and after ejecting Frenzy from his innards to which the smaller Decepticon protested profusely, he transformed and stood just shy of the door rail with arms folded across his broad chest, the smaller silver 'con scuttled about the aircraft hangar looking for anywhere he could plug into to access the humans internet. Ravage looked up from his position in the corner and settled his brightly glowing orange optical sensor upon the shock trooper. H pushed himself up onto his all fours, then padded across the length of the hangar bay to where the black and white frame of the Mustang was stood.
:: . . . . 'Scream to . . . . 'Cade . . . . come in.:: Crackled a voice over his internal communications and the Saleen Mustang pushed himself off the wall and glanced out at the black sky. He felt almost perplexed by receiving a distorted communiqué from the silver flier, he truly had expected Starscream to return to Cybertron and use the information he had gleaned from Frenzy to start his own campaign in order to conquer an otherwise dead planet, and subdue the remaining Autobot resistance there rather than return to this planet.
"Barricade here." He responded, Ravage cocked his spiky head to glance up at the shock trooper whilst his spiny tail waved back and forth. Frenzy swivelled his head round to look at the Mustang and bounded across the hangar and leapt up onto the felinoid's back, Ravage didn't take too kindly in being used as a platform and bucked the small Decepticon off his back. The small silver boom box hit the floor with a loud clang of metal meeting concrete and cussed wildly at the panther like mechanism, Ravage sunk into a offensive stance and growled at his team-mate.
::Status . . port.:: Came the distorted voice of the Raptor again.
"The Autobots have gained five more to their numbers and the one terminated by Megatron has been revived." Barricade began as he glanced over at his shoulder to see Frenzy bouncing around cussing at Ravage whilst the felinoid swished his tail back and forth, the big black cat like creature stalked the smaller con before pouncing upon him. The silver boom box screeched and scuttled out of the way only to throw more profanities at the beast transformer.
:: I was led . . . . believe . . . Allspark . . . destroyed?::Starscream inquired, in the background he could barely hear the raised voices of what appeared to be Thundercracker and Skywarp mocking the silver flier. He groaned inwardly out of all the Decepticons he had to bring those two idiots but then again there were far worse than them two.
"No a single shard remains." The shock trooper responded although he left out the part that said shard was currently inside of said revived Autobot.
:: And pray tell . . . have . . . not procured . . from . . . Autobots?:: The F22 Raptor demanded.
Barricade clenched his clawed hands into fists and gritted his denta, this was the part where Starscream implied he was weak "Frenzy and I have already attempted on a few occasions to gain access to their base . . . ." He was cut off when he heard Skywarp's obnoxious voice over the comm. link.
:: Come . . 'Cade, you're tellin' . . that . . . little shard . . provin' . . hard . . . ya to . . . hold of?:: The purple and black seeker asked.
"Bearing in mind that I am outnumbered ten to one, those odds would have scared you enough into lubricating yourself Skywarp." The Mustang snarled at his off-world team-mate, the purple and black seeker let loose a sting of Cybertronian profanities and damning Barricade's heritage all the way back to the original thirteen transformers. Frenzy began chanting 'Skywarp an idiot' in the background as he bounced around intending to remain out of harms way whilst Ravage paced back and forth, tail swinging as he watched the smaller Decepticon hopped about the warehouse floor, walls and rafters. Barricade seriously wondered whether something was glitched about the silver boom box after his head was reattached, but his CPU told him Frenzy had always been a bundle of spastic movements and thought processes. In the background the shock trooper could hear Blitzwing ribbing Skywarp before there was a dull clang followed by scuffling.
:: Any . . . else . . report on?:: Starscream asked.
"Frenzy and I have been following up on some leads regarding remnants of Sector Seven who hold small packets of Allspark energy at their research facilities." Barricade reported but added quickly because he knew exactly what the silver flier's next words would be "however they are not in this country and therefore make reaching them impossible."
:: Then I . . . . . send Skywarp . . ahead.::The silver seeker told him and Barricade inwardly cringed, the black and purple seeker could be heard protesting loudly in the background, but he was quickly silenced by Starscream telling him that he was to follow his orders and that he was in command.
"When shall I expect his arrival?" The Mustang inquired as he pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning against and stretched claw tipped hands above his head before folding his arms across his black chest, red optics scanned the dark horizon.
The comm. link fizzled out and Barricade wondered whether he had lost it when he heard Starscream's voice again :: Two . . . . . weeks.::
"Understood." The shock trooper responded.
:: In . . . mean time . . . . . . . . to monitor . . . Autobots . . . locate . . . other . . spark signat . . . . :: The comm. link finally went dead, Barricade turned to his other companions to find Ravage back over in his corner, head resting upon his front legs and his tail curled round one side of his body, Frenzy had also calmed slightly and was connected to an old internet connection at the back of the hangar pouring through Government files that had once been protected by high security barriers and firewalls. It appeared that the humans still hadn't learned that it only took them a few seconds to tear down any defences they had in place no matter how encrypted their files were. He already decided that he would send the felinoid on the reconnaissance mission whilst he and Frenzy followed up on any other leads that the small hacker could find buried deep in the Government's data base. But first the shock trooper proceeded over to another corner and settled into a couch mulling over the fact that he had not alerted Starscream to the existence of the sparkling, not that it was of great significance unless the infant Cybertronian had truly inherited the powers from the Allspark shard lying inside of the silver mech's spark chamber. If he had been told about the sparkling, Starscream might do one of two things; the first being capturing it regardless of the casualties it might cause on either side so he could use the sparkling's powers for his own use. Or the second one; have him terminated so the others couldn't start thinking along the lines that they might be able to bring Megatron back from the dead and usurp the silver flier from his command of the Decepticon forces. He knew the circumstances would have been different if the Decepticon lord was still alive, no-one ever held back vital information from him as they all knew what would happen if they did, where as Starscream would simply sneer and tell you how useless you were.
The shock trooper pushed himself up and off the wall and turned to his smaller comrades, Ravage was still laid in his corner, the tip of his tail now twitching as he watched Frenzy break through more Government barriers on the net whilst the little 'con muttered to himself. Barricade turned his attention to the outside world where the summer storm continued to rage on, he was in two minds whether to sit it out, but he knew where the Autobots wouldn't brave the fierce weather it gave him the opportunity to conduct further scouting without their interference. With that in mind he called Frenzy to him, the small hacker disconnected himself from the internet and scampered over as the Mustang dropped into his alt. mode, his passenger door swung open permitting the silver boom box access and Frenzy clambered inside before Barricade swung his door shut.
:/Get as close to the Autobot base as you possibly can.\:Barricade instructed the felinoid, Ravage gave a simple nod of acknowledgement before the black and white shock trooper peeled out of the hangar and into the raging weather outside.
Space . . . .
The sleek black contours of the Decepticon warship Nemesis stood out against the swirling gases of red, orange and brown, usually its dark colour almost allowed it to blend in with the blackness of space, save for the silver designs that etched their way through the curved contours of the ship. The battleship appeared to be still under going repairs, holes that punctured the formidable armour and scorch marks which spoke of scored hits were being reinforced so they didn't appear as weak points in future combat. The shield array at the back end of the battleship had been removed completely since it was no longer operational, it had been from a lucky single hit that they had managed to get in. The Nemesis' engines were also dark and the distinct sound of them humming was missing and the small, sleek fuchsia coloured femme smiled inwardly from where she was hiding amongst the gas giant's faint planetary rings in her transition mode, a signal dampening field that was usually only unique to special ops kept her hidden from the battleship's sensors.
Her mission was to ascertain the status of the battleship and report back as soon as possible and by the looks of the ongoing repairs, the Decepticon's were at least a few joors behind them which in her books was a good thing as it meant they could break orbit around the other side of the gas giant and continue onto the planet where Optimus Prime's message had broadcast from, it had been a long time since she had seen any of her other comrades and was looking forward to rejoining them. She drifted in slightly closer to the battleship but not too close so the ship's sensors would be alerted to her presence despite the signal dampening field, she logged onto the Nemesis communications hub and immediately her audios were met with the boisterous chatter of those on-board. She carefully skimmed through the communications hub making sure not to delve too deeply as she was not designed to handle that amount of information all at once.
She found nothing new, there were status reports upon the injured and the repairs to the ships and mission reports from before the battle but nothing of interest until she picked up a transmission coming from the ship, she tapped into it making sure not to alert them of her intrusion and listened in. It appeared Starscream was contacting the Decepticon he had abandoned upon this system's third planet, he asked for a status report and through the static garbled transmission she was able to hear that another team had arrived safely upon the planet adding the numbers to a total of ten if not more, since five hadn't always been a necessity after all her team consisted of six members. Then she was surprised to hear that the Allspark had survived through a small shard but what had her confused was to the Autobot that had seemingly died to be brought back.
She cocked her head to the side when she heard Skywarp mocking his comrade about not being able to obtain the shard "Typical Decepticon, least Barricade has more ball bearings than you do." She muttered as she continued to listen in. The fuchsia coloured femme was surprised to hear that small pockets of the Allspark's energy had been obtained and stored in various different research facilities upon the third planet and wandered whether Optimus' team knew about this or was it just privy to Decepticon knowledge? The next part of the transmission had her complete attention.
::Then I shall send Skywarp on ahead.::Came the silver seeker's voice.
::When . . . I expect . . . arrival?:: Was the shock trooper's inquiry
::Two Earth weeks.::She frowned at that, how long was two earth weeks in regards to their own time measurements?
::Understood.:: The shock trooper responded.
::In the mean time continue to monitor the Autobots and locate any other Allspark signatures.:: Starscream instructed before the line finally went dead, she continued to listen in further to find out when Skywarp would be mobilising, but they no longer appeared to be using their comm. links. That meant that the black and purple seeker could be heading out any time soon since he had not been injured in the last skirmish with them. With that thought in mind, she disengaged from the Nemesis' communications hub and accessed her propulsion system, she sped away from the battleship and back to the small scout ship on the other side of the gas giant with information she knew would be important to the Earth based team when they finally sent their first data stream to them.
Earth - Following morning . . . .
There were only a few things that could ever startle Prowl out of a sound recharge and a stray arm from his lover was one of them, the silver appendage fell limply against his chest plate as Jazz turned over to face him, Prowl scowled drowsily at his mate but the expression went unnoticed as the Solstice continued to recharge. The saboteur had become more restless the further on into the gestation cycle he went especially now that the sparkling was announcing his presence with small flutters of movements, or on the occasion a little kick or punch, then there were the little aches and pains that would infuse his frame and cause him to be far more moodier than he was already. Sideswipe had likened the silver mech to the unmaker himself only to have a plasma round shot into his aft plates, the red front-liner was left to deal with the injury for most of the day until Ratchet could rein in his laughter and treat him.
Jazz's restless movements in recharge often irritated Prowl to the point where he would roll off the berth and retreat to the couch in their living space. The saboteur was not on his left side a few minutes before he murmured something and rolled onto his back, the stray arm that had hit him moved to rest across his chest armour instead. The white and black Dodge Charger watched his bond-mate for a few minutes to see if he would stir again and move but when it appeared he wasn't going to, the tactician shuffled slightly closer to the Solstice before placing one of his own hands upon the silver mech's lower chest armour that was somehow accommodating the growing protoform of their infant. There was a dull vibration from within as the sparkling protested against the invasion of his personal space which earned it a weak groan from Jazz. Prowl didn't have time to contemplate the murmur when the Solstice uttered something incomprehensible before twisting himself back onto his right side, the Charger shook his head in amusement as he sat up, it was going to be one of those times when the saboteur couldn't find an ideal position to lie in. At least he wasn't complaining about the aches and pains he seemed to be experiencing at the moment, in his sleep, nor the hot flashes that usually resulted in the black and white mech being kicked out of the berth until they went away. The tactician swung his legs over the side of the berth and checked his internal chronometer and discovered the time was no later than six hours thirty seven minutes and fifty two seconds, he flexed his door wings before stretching his arms high above his head to work out the kinks in his back. He took one final look at his mate before pushing himself off the berth and made his way out of the room.
Prowl touched the panel next to the door way and the lights flickered on at their usual soft setting before he stepped across the living room and into the wash rack. Ten minutes later he stepped out of the wash area feeling much cleaner and more alert, the tactician made his way across to the desk in the main living space and accessed the console to see if anything important was awaiting his attention in his inbox. After scanning through the files he found nothing of particular importance but none the less downloaded the others onto a data-pad so he could read through them later, he switched off the monitor then moved toward one of the storage cabinets and slid the door open. The Dodge Charger reached inside and removed a long black canister that he knew had become the bane of his bond-mate's existence, he also plucked out a mug and closed the door. He stepped across to the couch and sat down and placed the items upon the table in front of it, he knew with Jazz being this restless at this time in the morning he would be up shortly and no doubt be in his usual bout of moodiness that was just beginning to grate upon Prowl's nerves. The tactician plucked a singular heating pad out of his subspace and placed it down upon the table and set about pouring the glowing green energon into the mug, he twitched his nose at the smell that met his olfactory sensors and understood why the saboteur always looked nauseous after drinking it. The Charger placed the cap back on the canister and set it to one side then reached for the mug and placed it upon the pad which he had turned on to a relatively low setting. He got up from the couch and proceeded across to the desk to grab the small stack of data-pads. He was about to turn round when he heard footsteps and glanced over his shoulder (although he had to flick a door wing out of the way to do so) to see his bond-mate stumble out of their sleeping quarters, he chuckled slightly at the Solstice's slightly dishevelled appearance.
"Morning Jazz." Prowl greeted the saboteur.
The saboteur glanced across to him with dimly lit optics and he scowled at him "What are ya doin' up this early?"
Prowl crossed the room sensing there was something off about his bond-mate "A certain mate of mine was being a little active in his sleep."
"Again?" Jazz asked slightly surprised. The saboteur rarely ever moved in recharge, once he hit the berth he was out like a light and it would take a tremendous effort on Prowl's behalf to move him even an inch.
"Again." The tactician replied as he gently cupped his mate's face and planted a soft kiss upon his lips, he pulled away and smoothed his thumbs over the saboteur's cheeks "we have our appointment with Ratchet this morning."
"I know." The Solstice said as he reached up to clasp the hands resting against his facial plates, he nuzzled one palm lovingly which produced a small smile from his mate. Prowl then gripped his hands and lowered them to waist level before dragging the saboteur over to the couch and pushing him into sitting down. Instantly Jazz's optics settled upon the mug sat upon the table and the green liquid slowly heating up, he gave his bond-mate a disgruntled look.
"Sorry Jazz but you know the drill." The tactician told him as he plucked the mug off the table once it had heated up to a certain temperature and handed it to his mate, the Solstice reluctantly took it from him and eyed it in disgust. He hated the obnoxiously glowing green liquid with a vengeance especially now that he had to take it in more often than not with the sparkling growing its own protoform inside his lower chest. He had found that fact rather unusual, but Ratchet informed him it was not unheard of. The Solstice swirled the green liquid around the mug before he glanced at his bond-mate who raised an optic ridge at him, he grimaced as previous thoughts of drinking down the specially brewed energon popped into his processor, he nearly put the mug down to refuse to take it in. But then again that would only cause an argument to start between the pair of them and Jazz didn't know whether he had the energy to argue against his partner this morning. The saboteur raised the mug to his lip components and swallowed the green liquid quickly before thrusting the offending container toward his mate to take it from him, he felt his tanks give an unsettled churn.
"I'll be fraggin' glad when I don't hav' ta drink that stuff any more." Jazz told his mate when Prowl made his way back into the main living space after disappearing into the wash rack to clean the mug in the sink. He put both the black canister and mug back into the storage cabinet before turning to face his mate, the Solstice was slouched back in the couch with one hand resting against his armoured chest plate whilst his thumb stroked the the length of metal that split his grill in half.
"Is the sparkling causing you some discomfort again?" The Dodge Charger inquired as he perched upon the arm of the couch, with the sparkling growing much faster than normal, it proved to be draining upon the Solstice's energy reserves, not too mention uncomfortable as it barely gave his systems the time they needed to adjust to his growing form. His mate glanced at him and gave him a small smile.
"No." He replied "I'm just gettin' small flutters of movement." Prowl slid into the couch beside his mate and settled his gaze upon his mate's clawed hand resting upon his armoured chest plates, he was about to shift one of his own hands and rest it upon silver armour when Jazz sighed through his intakes and met his gaze "they've stopped." Prowl's door wings drooped in disappointment, for some of no reason his sparkling had developed the habit of moving when he was either on duty or not taking any notice and when he was around his mate, the infant barely moved at all. The Solstice had already told him that he needed to communicate with their offspring whether through the bond or verbally when he and the silver mech were alone together, but the black and white had yet to work up the courage to do so whether because it seemed illogical to do so, Jazz wasn't sure "come on let's head to the recreation room and grab some energon before we have to see Ratchet." The silver mech pushed himself out of the couch and stood up before offering a hand to his mate who took it and pulled himself up, Jazz flashed him a smile before grabbing one of his hands and tugging Prowl out of their quarters and toward the recreation room.
A few humans were walking the hallways as they went about their own duties, a couple of them greeted them as they made their way to the rec. room whilst others continued on their way. Prowl spotted a couple that were scheduled to be in the control room, he checked to find out which Autobots were on duty in there and discovered it was the twins who would be there until oh nine hundred hours this morning. The pair had been behaving themselves recently but the tactician knew that it wouldn't last for long as no doubt Sideswipe had something spectacular planned and ready to dish out on an unsuspecting Autobot, so he decided a close optic would have to be kept on the red Lamborghini. The pair of them entered the recreation room and found it relatively empty except for a few humans sat in their own corner of the room talking amongst themselves, several of them were watching the large television screen and the news bulletins that were being displayed upon it. Prowl scanned the headlines before he turned his attention back toward his mate and watched as he all but raced toward the dispenser. He shook his head in amusement, the Solstice was a perpetual energy guzzler at the moment and would often prey upon a comrade's mug of energon if he couldn't be bothered to crawl out of his seat and over to the dispenser despite his energy levels reading optimum. He was glad in some respects that the rest of the Autobots had stashed away the small supply of energon goodies so his mate couldn't find them. The small glowing pink bars usually ended up sending Jazz, for a lack of a better word, hyperactive and the Solstice coming down from the energy rush was a complete nightmare simply because he behaved exactly like a petulant youngling.
Jazz returned a few moments later with his mug filled almost to brim whilst Prowl's was three quarters of the way full, he frowned at his mate but Jazz simply smiled at him and sipped his ration contentedly. The tactician noticed there was something new developing in his bond-mate's mood in the few seconds that he watched him and couldn't decide whether it was good or bad. The saboteur had a habit of allowing small factors to decide what kind of mood he was going to be in and that was exactly what appeared to be happening right now. Although as he continued to observe the Solstice whilst sipping upon his own ration, he noticed that his movements were less fluid and graceful but rather nervous instead, he frowned at the saboteur's unusual show of behaviour.
"Jazz?" He inquired, concerned that something might be wrong with his mate.
"I'm fine." The Solstice responded, but Prowl wasn't quite convinced however rather than start an argument he left it at that. But as the time drew closer to the appointment they had with Ratchet that morning, the more he understood why Jazz was feeling so nervous especially once the barely suppressed emotions started filtering through their bond. Prowl gave his mate a small smile and clasped one of the silver mech's clawed hands before pulling him up from the couch and leading him out of the room. The pair of them headed away from the recreation room and made their way toward the repair bay where the two of them would get to see for the first time, a full scale analysis of their sparkling. Prowl was beginning to feel positively nervous about the prospect of seeing their offspring as it could very well mean that any deformity that the sparkling had developed would be picked up on the scan, then they would be faced with the decision whether to terminate it or not should something like that occur. He knew Jazz was feeling the same way as he could feel his mate's nervous apprehension filtering through their bond which only served to heighten his own anxiety. They both paused outside of the med-bay as they tried to quash the nervous energy running through their systems, the pair of them continued to tell themselves that everything would be fine and that they had a perfectly healthy sparkling. Prowl took in a deep breath to calm his nerves, normally he wouldn't allow his emotions to get the better of him, but then again emotional programming wasn't a necessity when it came to drawing up battle plans and special ops missions unlike this situation that called for his logic circuits and battle computer to take a back seat.
"Ready?" He asked as he glanced at his mate, he felt Jazz tighten his hold upon the hand he was clasping before nodding his head, the tactician led his mate into the repair bay and the first thing they heard was Ratchet ranting at someone. The pair of them glanced over in the medic's direction to find him lecturing Wheeljack whose usual white armour was instead coated black in some parts, no doubt the result of an experiment gone wrong. The engineer spotted them and managed to appear sheepish despite his face mask.
"Ouch what happened there 'Jack?" The Solstice inquired as they made their way over.
"Wrong chemical composition." He mumbled.
"Which could have been avoided if you had detached yourself from your lab and gone to quarters to recharge like the rest of us normal mechs do." Ratchet admonished the Lancia Stratos as he finished wrapping the only serious injury the engineer had obtained; an acid burn upon his left forearm.
"You mean you're normal Ratch?" Jazz asked with a smile, his normal cocky attitude returning.
The Hummer scowled at the Solstice "Get your aft over to that berth and stay there." The silver mech glanced at his bond-mate and was met with a disapproving look from Prowl, but he simply shrugged his shoulders and proceeded across to where said berth was and perched on the edge of it. Ratchet quickly finished up his work and all but kicked Wheeljack out of his med-bay with stern words that he was to proceed to his quarters and get some recharge or he would cart him out of his lab by one of his fins and weld him to his berth. He then turned his attention to the bonded couple. The medic removed a portable scanner from sub-space and prepared the monitor above the saboteur's head to receive visual input before instructing him to lie down upon his back, Jazz gripped his mate's hand tightly as he laid flat on his back and watched as the CMO ran the scanner he had in hand over his chest plate. An image instantly appeared upon the screen showing the sparkling now lying directly below the saboteur's spark chamber although there was something Prowl found odd about his position. He was currently turned upside down and laid in a way that looked rather uncomfortable to the tactician, but he understood why as the infant would be outgrowing the constructed gestation chamber very shortly.
"So how is he Ratch?" Jazz inquired unable to remove his gaze from the tiny life he was nurturing.
"He looks perfectly healthy." The medic replied as he zoomed in on several areas of the sparkling to make sure that everything was developing properly, Prowl watched with increasing fascination as his child curled tiny fingers into fists testing his grip and padding his feet against the side of the chamber he was cocooned in, he wondered whether Jazz was able to feel those small movements at all or where they simply too minuscule for him to feel them? "uh wait what have we got here." The tactician suddenly felt his fuel pump speed up at the Hummer's words hoping that he had not found a deformity that could affect their sparkling's growth, but by the small smile twitching the medic's lip components told him that he need not think the worse.
"What's up Ratch?" The Solstice inquired with a small look of concern upon his facial plates.
"Looks like Sideswipe is going to be running for the hills once he finds out about this little development." The medic replied, he glanced at the bonded pair to see identical confused expressions upon their facial plates, he moved the image round to display the sparkling's back and zoomed in slightly to show the tactician and saboteur the two stubby protrusions growing in-between his shoulders.
"Wait are those . . . . ?" Prowl found himself unable to finish his question when he saw the small two protrusions that would undoubtedly grow into a pair of sensory panels, he was completely unsure what to make of this situation as he knew first hand how difficult sensory panels could be especially to a sparkling. The wings usually set back the sparkling's ability to walk until their immature processors realised that their centre of gravity was much different from other infant Cybertronians, but that didn't stop Prowl from thinking about the days ahead when his creation would experience the hardship of having to deal with the awkwardness. Not too mention the numerous aches and pains that inflicted door winged mechs and femmes.
"You're broodin' Prowler." Jazz told his mate.
"It's nothing." He replied. The Solstice frowned at his bond-mate but knew better than to pursue it, he turned his attention back to the screen where he could see the infant's spark pulsing inside of his spark chamber and his tiny fuel pump beating inside of his chest. A smile twitched the edges of his lip components when he saw the sparkling move one of his curled fists up to his face and promptly stuck his thumb into his mouth, a trait he knew that the infant hadn't gotten from him and wondered whether his bond-mate had been a thumb sucker when he was a sparkling.
"I'll go over these results to make sure I haven't missed anything but other than that you're free to go." Ratchet told the pair as he transferred the information regarding the sparkling over to the terminal in his office and turned off the monitor above the saboteur's head. Jazz pushed himself up into a sitting position and placed a clawed hand upon his chest plate when he felt the slightest movement from the infant but he quickly went still again.
"Ratch don't suppose we could have a copy of the scan?" Jazz asked.
"Yes you can and before you go do you want to hear the sparkling's spark pulse?" The Hummer inquired as he glanced at the bonded pair, the saboteur and the tactician glanced at one another before they both nodded in unison. The chartreuse mech gave them a small smile before reaching for another implement and attached it to the silver mech's chest plates, he touched the top of it. Suddenly the frantic but healthy beating of a fuel pump and rhythmic pulsing of a spark filled the silence in the repair bay and the soon to be parents found themselves wholly captivated by the sound of their child's life-force.
"It's ..." Prowl began, finding his vocaliser refusing to work.
"Beautiful." Jazz finished for him.
"I thought you both might like to hear it." The medic replied as he removed the device "now out I have things to do." The pair quickly made their way out of the repair bay and toward the command centre, the Solstice glanced at his mate several times during their journey there wondering whether to bring up his mate's behaviour from earlier. However commotion from the control room quickly drew his attention away from the matter at hand and the two of them quickened their steps down the corridor. When they entered, they found the humans rushing back and forth between consoles as streams of data scrolled down the main monitoring screen, they found Optimus stood next to Mirage who was sat at the main console, elegant fingers typing in sequences and codes in order to decrypt the files sent to them.
"What's happenin'?" The saboteur inquired as he came to stand on the other side of Mirage.
"We received a communiqué." Prime replied as he glanced at his second and third "it just arrived."
"Another team?" Prowl asked as he scanned the rows of information scrolling down the screen in front of him.
"Looks that way." Sideswipe spoke up from where he was still sat, both he and his twin had yet to be relieved from their duty.
"Any idea who?" Jazz asked as he scrutinised the data as well before it finally dawned upon him and he shook his head in amusement "trust Red to send info on an encrypted bandwidth that'll take us hours to sort out."
"Wait Red? As in Red Alert?" Sideswipe asked not sure whether he had heard the saboteur right the first time.
"Yup, that's his algorithmic codes he uses when encrypting files, a good one too." The Solstice replied "Mirage an' I can have the whole thin' decrypted in a couple of hours Optimus."
The semi Peter-built truck unfolded his arms and allowed them to hang by his sides as he regarded his special ops commander "Alright, report to me the moment the information is decrypted." The two ops agents nodded their understanding to their commander before delving into the work ahead of them. Prowl glanced at the screen the information was still continuing to scroll down and wondered whether Intel. as to if and when the security director's team would make planet fall was somewhere amidst all of those encryptions, if that was the case their presence on Earth might be sooner than any of them first predicted. This meant that he would have to draw up new plans in regards to expanding the base and upgrading security although no doubt it would get a complete overhaul when Red Alert set foot upon the planet, the Dodge Charger stepped back and turned to head out of the control room but not before he heard Jazz and Mirage arguing over the best way of going about decrypting the files without deleting them from the system. Prowl shook his head, he didn't envy the spy spending the next few hours with his bonded in the slightest.
A couple of days later ….
Since the transmission from Red Alert's team several days ago, the base had been full of excitement and nervous apprehension from the humans stationed there, the Autobots seemed relieved that a few more of their numbers had survived after going their separate ways in order to track down the Allspark. There had been several meetings in regards to expanding the base to accommodate the new arrivals as well as upgrading the security before Red Alert stepped foot on the planet, since they all knew how pedantic he could get if something wasn't up to the right standards. Also since the transmission Sideswipe had made it his personal mission to make sure the team would fit in into Earth's culture straight away and Prowl grimaced at the thought of what the red Lamborghini had planned for their arrival. He had contemplated putting Sideswipe on long range patrol or monitoring duty when the team made planet fall so he couldn't cause a scene.
Prowl finally keyed in the code to his shared quarters and the doors whooshed open, the lights were already on at the usual soft setting which often indicated that his bond-mate was around. He tiredly glanced across to the couch situated in the middle of the room and found Jazz curled up on it on his left side, one of his arms was pillowed beneath his head whilst the other dangled over the edge with a data-pad dangling from clawed fingers. The saboteur's right knee joint was pulled up to hip level whilst his left was straight, the white and black Dodge Charger quietly crept across the room before crouching down beside the couch and settling his fingers from his left hand gently upon his mate's chest armour, wanting to experience the flutters of movement only his mate had been privy too. A startled gasp suddenly drew Prowl out of his thoughts and he glanced in time to see the saboteur drop the data-pad he had been holding so he could remove his lover's hand from his chest plates, he frowned at this action only to hear his mate chuckle at his confused expression.
"Your hand was cold love." Jazz told him as he moved the tactician's fingers he had clasped in his own to his lip components and gently blew on them to warm them up, only when he was satisfied that they were at the right temperature did he place them on his chest again. Prowl traced fingertips across the smooth metal plating only to have his hand pressed flat against the surface, he was about to comment on Jazz's behaviour when the tactile sensors in his fingertips registered a dull vibration from within. Both optic ridges rose in surprise as he continued to feel out the small murmurs and vibrations that his sparkling was making from within his bond-mate, the saboteur smiled as he turned over onto his back and continued to watch the expression upon Prowl's facial plates change from surprise into one of incredulity "cool huh?"
The Dodge Charger met the Solstice's gaze as he felt out all the sparkling's small acrobatics "When did they become more pronounced?" He realised that the murmur from the other day had been an outward display of movement from the sparkling.
"Earlier today." Jazz told him "the first one took me completely by surprise, think I scared Mirage outta his platin'." Suddenly a surprisingly strong kick or punch earned the unborn Cybertronian a pained moan from the saboteur "this is gonna take some gettin' use to."
"It's rather unusual that we appear to be getting all of this now when we didn't before." Prowl said as he pushed himself up to his towering height then sat down upon the lip of the couch, he placed his left hand on the other side of Jazz's thighs whilst he settled his right hand upon his bond-mate's chest this time.
"Well he's bigger now an' in the right position to announce his presence." Jazz replied as he gently grasped the hand resting upon his chest whilst he kept the other pillowed beneath his head, the Dodge Charger gave him a tired smile and his door wings finally sagged from their usual high position on his back "you look tired love." Without the bond at the moment Jazz could tell exhaustion was just beginning to set in through the subtle hints in his mate's body language. The Solstice pushed himself stiffly up into a sitting position as he regarded his black and white counterpart "go to the wash rack love and we'll think about relieving some of that tension ya feelin'." Prowl knew that the relief unfortunately wouldn't be a couple bouts of interfacing as Ratchet absolutely prohibited it whilst the saboteur was with sparkling, so the couple had discovered other ways in helping each other out. The tactician got to his feet and trudged across to their private wash rack in order to clean himself up, his mate was becoming particularly fussy about cleanliness at this particular period of the gestation cycle, the CMO had assured Prowl that it was perfectly normal behaviour and would peter off eventually, but sometimes it played on the Charger's patience.
Prowl quickly washed and dried before stepping out of the wash rack and made his way to the recharge chamber, his audio receivers picked up the faint sound of music coming from inside the room. He poked his head round the doorway to see Jazz sat at the head of their berth with his back to the wall, the Solstice glanced over at him and patted the space on the berth in front of him. The tactician made his way over and settled himself in-between his lover's legs and allowed his helm to rest upon the warm plating of his bonded's abdomen. Prowl made sure his wings were lying flat upon the gel surface of the berth, although he knew that they would protest soon if left in that position for too long. Instantly he felt gentle magnetic pulses upon his shoulders that radiated down his chest and back soothing the tension that was built up there, the silver mech trailed his clawed fingers across the white and black plating of the tactician's door wings in slow soothing caresses. The Charger found himself tracing lazy circles upon the armoured plating of the saboteur's calves and the edges of the rear wheel wells, the somewhat unconscious action prompted a small chuckle out of Jazz as he changed the polarity of his magnetics slightly as he ran his fingertips up from the door wings and along his mate's shoulders. The tactician worked his fingers into his mate's ankle joints and began massaging the tubing and wiring that made up the area, he knew the aching knee and ankle joints were one of the Solstice's recent complaints and he did the best he could to soothe them. Prowl was almost completely relaxed now and Jazz could hear his systems cycling down for recharge and would have continued that way had it not been for the loud clang of someone meeting the wall outside their quarters and raised voices. The tactician groaned and rolled off the berth and his mate, all he wanted to do was wind down and relax with Jazz, but now he had to go and deal with a pair of rambunctious Lamborghinis who had nothing better to do with their time. Prowl decided a word with Optimus regarding their behaviour was in order. Again.
"Go knock some sense into their heads." Jazz said with a smile.
"Lot of good that'll do them, there's nothing in there for me to knock sense into." Prowl replied as he left their quarters and disappeared into the hallway outside. Jazz chuckled at the small joke his mate had made before he slid himself down onto his left side so he was facing the doorway. He pillowed one of his arms beneath his head whilst the other curled up next to his chest, he felt his systems slowly power down for recharge and was about to shut down completely when he felt a brush against his spark. The saboteur surprised by the touch jolted on-line and rolled onto his back, his gaze fell upon the ceiling above him as he felt another brush against his consciousness, he frowned knowing that Prowl knew better than to reach him through their bond at the moment and instead turned his attention to the sparkling resting in his lower chest. He shuttered his optics and directed thoughts of love and devotion to his growing creation and was rewarded with an influx of thoughts and feelings from the little one, a smile twitched the edges of his lip components as the torrent of input from the sparkling refused to cease and he realised there and then his creation was going to be a talker. He laughed inwardly; that would be the last thing Prowl would want; two noisy mechs in his life.
Jazz subconsciously tapped a rhythm upon the metal piece that split his grill in half and the sparkling tapped back in his protective chamber whether using his tiny fists or his feet, the influx of immature thoughts and feelings didn't stop either in fact they intensified. Jazz chuckled at his creations behaviour, it appeared he was clearly excited about the prospect of being in contact with his creator and the Solstice wondered whether it would be possible for Prowl to communicate with their offspring though their bond.
'Easy little one.' Jazz murmured to the infant. Suddenly the excited fluttering and babble that had strangely enough nearly driven Jazz to overload stopped altogether and the sparkling went completely silent, even when Jazz poked at his consciousness. The silver mech jolted on-line fully and sat up debating with himself whether to call Ratchet or not until a soft fluttering drew his attention, he sighed with relief but that quickly dissipated when something rather unusual occurred:
'The evil ones are coming.' Came a voice that he knew was not his sparkling's. Jazz frowned at that wondering whether the evil ones that the voice was referring to was the Decepticons, but they already knew that little fact from the report they received from the next team making their way to Earth. So what he couldn't understand was why it was repeating this bit of information to him 'they will bring back the lord high protector to rain destruction down upon this planet once again.' The voice responded to his question. The lord high protector? Suddenly it struck the Solstice like a bolt of lightning, the voice couldn't possibly mean the other Decepticons would try and bring back Megatron? He had prepared for the eventualities of having to fend off Starscream and his lackeys but not the tyrant himself. The saboteur attempted to reach through the bond to contact Prowl wanting nothing more than his mate's comforting presence and reassurance that the possibilities of bringing Megatron back was unlikely, especially with the tyrant lying at the bottom of the sea floor, but as usual it was a herculean effort to get a response from him. He was about to comm. him instead but no doubt his bond-mate was lecturing the twins at the moment and could not afford to be distracted from the task at hand. So he decided there and then to pay Ratchet a visit before the Lamborghinis were sent in the medic's direction should they require repairs.
Jazz pushed himself off from the berth and made his way out of his shared quarters and headed to the med-bay, the sparkling had gone silent and retreated from the bond he shared with the Solstice leaving the saboteur exhausted to the point he contemplated turning around and going back to quarters. But there was something he needed to find out from the Hummer and the only way he was going to get answers was by going there now. The silver mech reached the repair bay and stepped inside, he glanced around and spotted the medic doing an inventory upon medical supplies which Jazz found was rather peculiar at this time of day.
"Ratch." He called softly, the medic disguised as a search and rescue Hummer looked up from the work he was doing and met his gaze.
"Is everything alright Jazz?" The pale yellow mech inquired as he placed the data-pad and stylus he had been holding onto the table next to the stack of labelled items, then stepped across to where the silver Solstice was stood.
"There's somethin' I need ta ask ya about." The saboteur told him as he made his way toward one of the berths and clambered up onto it.
The medic folded his arms across his chest and rose a single optic ridge "About?"
"You mentioned ta me the other day about talkin' to the sparklin'." Jazz began as he swung his legs back and forth "exactly what kinda communication were ya talkin' about?"
"Thoughts and feelings mainly." Ratchet replied scrutinising the saboteur closely wondering where this was all going, he was beginning to suspected that the Solstice had been spooked by his first mental encounter with his offspring through the bond they shared.
"So nothing verbal?" The silver mech asked as he peered down at the floor.
Both of Ratchet's optic ridges furrowed at the strange inquiry "Jazz the sparkling is far too immature to be showing that kind of intelligence, they normally don't start gaining the coherence of speech until they're at least a vorn old even then its punctuated by the rudimentary code they use." Jazz scrubbed a hand across his facial plates "what's this all about?"
"I'm not sure." The saboteur murmured more to himself than the medic. Ratchet looked completely confused by the silver mech's behaviour then he noted his energy levels were quite low with his on board sensors, he vented a small sigh and realised that maybe what the Solstice thought he heard was a result of being exhausted.
"Look I'm not going to say right off the bat that maybe you were imagining things, but you're energy levels are exceptionally low and they can interfere with normal thought processes." The Hummer told him, Jazz snapped his gaze up from the floor and frowned at the medic.
"So what you're tryin' ta say is I was just earin' things?" The Solstice asked somewhat angrily "then if that's the case how do ya explain the message 'the evil ones are comin' and that 'they will bring back the lord high protector to rain destruction down upon this planet once again' huh?" The silver mech pushed himself off the berth and stormed out of the med-bay leaving Ratchet stood there with a somewhat surprised look upon his facial plates. There was no way an unborn sparkling could be showing that much intelligence before it was even brought into the world not without the interference from the Allspark, Ratchet decided he would have to run a deep scan analysis on the infant Cybertronian to see if the shard was having an impact upon the sparkling's developing CPU. He glanced at the items that required listing but decided that this issue required his attention first, he turned full about and made his way to his office hoping that the answer to this strange situation was buried somewhere in the infant's scans.
The medic sat in his chair and pulled up every scan he had taken of Jazz so far during the gestation cycle, and trawled through the data looking for any abnormality in the sparkling's development. There was nothing there at all that indicated the infant had any form of intelligence, but that didn't mean the Hummer was going to dismiss the Solstice's claims that he had heard something. After all the Allspark could have influenced the sparkling's development in one way or another, but he would have no way of finding out until he had the saboteur under a scanner again. Ratchet sat back in his seat and scrubbed his hands over tired facial plates, he was contemplating recharge when the doors to the med-bay opened, he heard a discernible limp in the footsteps and frowned. The Hummer pushed himself up and out of his chair then made his way out of his office only to stop in his tracks at the sight before him. He had to stifle a laugh that threatened to leave his vocaliser at seeing Optimus peppered in numerous colours, however his mood quickly sobered when he saw the tell tale glow of blue energon running down the side of the Prime's lower right leg.
"Dare I ask what happened?" Ratchet inquired as he folded his arms across his chest and raised a single optic ridge as he scrutinised his leader.
Optimus shifted painfully upon his pedes "Ironhide decided to get a little creative, and acted upon Jazz's initiative."
"Well get your scrawny aft on one of those berths so I can have a look at what damage has been caused." The medic replied, the semi Peter-built limped his way across to one of the berths and pulled himself up onto it. The CMO collected a few tools before making his way across to his commander "dare I ask how this happened?"
A sheepish look appeared upon Optimus' facial plates "Better if you didn't know."
"Hmm." The medic hummed as he glanced away from the red and blue mech as he set to work in repairing the minor wound, he knew Prime wasn't about to tell him that he had been bested by Ironhide in hand to hand combat or a game of paint ball. Ratchet worked quickly and efficiently as he always did when repairing damage once he had cleaned away congealed energon and paint from the wound, whilst Optimus sat quietly studying the chartreuse mech, he could tell something was troubling his CMO.
"You appear to be troubled old friend." The Prime pointed out as he glanced around the room.
The Hummer didn't look up from his work "Something unusual has developed."
"Unusual?" Optimus inquired, a confused frown appeared upon his facial plates as he met Ratchet's gaze, the medic sighed as he placed his tools down "Ratchet what's happened?"
"When you carried Bumblebee, did you . . . did you ever experience hearing voices at all?" The CMO asked.
The frown upon the semi Peter-built's facial plates deepened "Voices?"
"Yes voices." The chartreuse mech replied.
Optimus looked thoughtful for a moment before he glanced away "I did a few times, I often wondered if it was the sparkling communicating with me, but I begun to realise that it couldn't be especially after what I was being told." He met the medic's gaze again "they continued after Bumblebee was born and still do now although not as often."
"What do they tell you?" The Hummer asked.
"To protect Bumblebee, to keep him safe." The large red and blue mech responded "why do you ask?"
Ratchet sighed through his intakes "Because not long ago, Jazz came to me and told me that he was sure he heard his sparkling was 'talking' to him." A look of surprise appeared upon his leader's facial plates at that "I believe it could be a similar situation to what you just told me, except that maybe the Allspark fragment is telling him of what is coming."
"It's a possibility, after all not much was known about the Allspark itself." Optimus said, he winced when the medic inspected his repairs, he was curious about what the infant or Allspark shard said to the saboteur if Jazz was experiencing the same "did he tell you exactly what he heard?"
"He said that he heard from his sparkling that 'the evil ones are coming' and that 'they will bring back the lord high protector to rain destruction down upon this planet once again'." The CMO replied as he wiped his hands upon a cloth, he watched as his leader's frame stiffened at the mention of the Decepticon tyrant's former title. He knew Optimus had barely managed to escape with his life the last time he had battled Megatron, not that his leader was weaker than the Decepticon tyrant, but it was the sheer brutality of the attacks from Megatron that had nearly defeated their Prime. He knew Optimus would be thinking along the same lines as he had, if Megatron returned to the land of the processing, could they possibly protect Prowl and Jazz's unborn offspring and keep it out of harms way with so few of them here on Earth?
"This matter should not be ignored Ratchet, keep me appraised if anything else unusual occurs." The semi Peter-built told his CMO as he slid off the berth and gently applied weight to his newly repaired knee joint.
Ratchet nodded "Yes Prime." He watched as his leader made his way across the room "oh and Prime! If you happen to see Ironhide, tell him to get his rust bucket aft down here." A small smile tugged at the corners of Optimus' lip components before he finally stepped out of the med-bay. The Hummer allowed his good mood to deflate as soon as his leader left, he let out a sigh through his intakes. One thing was for certain; the unborn sparkling's future looked to be rather bleak should Megatron ever rise from his grave.
Looks like a new team is on the way and if anyone is wandering who the femme was, its Arcee