OBJECTIVES
#10: REMAIN FOCUSED ON DUTIES. SOCIAL INTERACTIONS LIMITED TO MEETINGS.
EGYPT, TROPIC OF CANCER
3: 34 A.M
Blurr and Melissa arrived at the large expanse of sand which made up most of Egypt. It was night here, so nobody would come out. He placed down a screaming and kicking organic.
He had promised to bring her here anytime this happened. Until she had her mind back. It was in low temperatures in this area, the Bot noted. He worried for Melissa's health, but this was the best for her condition, lest she hurt anybody else.
She had started throwing various rocks at his legs. It was scratching his paint but that was the least of his worries. The Autobot had no idea how long this lasted, so he sat cross legged on the sand, knowing that it would be a pest, and waited.
It was a scary spectacle. Even more terrifying for the person who had to experience it. He grew slightly alarmed when she pulled out a gun from her boots. In the brief period of time between her waking up and losing her mind, she had managed to place on foot wear. The bullets bounced harmlessly off him, causing a few dents. She threw down the gun and fell to her knees. She curled up in the fetal position and whimpered. This was probably another reason she had requested Blurr to bring her out here. Such a show of weakness was not applauded in the army, and this was her only job.
Blurr only looked at his organic friend. He understood that she wouldn't appreciate it, but he pitied her. Her entire family was dead, she had this condition, and her friends were giant, alien robots from a dead planet. Great life.
He had shut off his comm. so that there were no interruptions. A pang of sadness went through his spark as he watched her. She did not deserve this. Any of it. She should be living a normal life, with her family, or in a relationship with another organic.
This thought made him cringe. He pulled up short. Why should this bother him? Melissa was his friend; he had no intimate feelings for her.
He was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed that said organic was sitting up, and breathing slowly, a hand on her head. She looked at her robotic companion, a frown on her face.
'Did anyone…' she asked. He shook his head. She sighed.
'Thank god.' Melissa lay down on her back and looked at the dark sky, 'Thank you Blurr.' He didn't reply, just continued watching her. His fast speech would not help her relax.
Eventually, she fell into recharge. He kept a sharp optic on her, making sure that her vitals were always normal.
That she stayed alive.
DIEGO GARCIA
6:04 A.M
Eliza groaned as her eyes opened. Without getting up, she studied her surroundings and realised that she was in Prowl's office. And said mech was currently scanning over a datapad.
She shot upright. Her hair had come out of its ponytail and was now an unruly mess. Prowl barely registered her awakening, only briefly glancing up from the information on anything that Blurr and Melissa had done which might lead them to their location. It did not help that the Autobot Intelligence Officer had to turn off his comm. frequency and shield his spark signal.
'Ugh… what are you looking at?' she asked, while rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Her reading glasses had fallen off during the night, and were currently broken on the floor. Seventy dollars wasted.
'I am trying to formulate an idea of where Blurr and Melissa may have gone. This is information on each of their lives, so as they may have mentioned any locations.' The SIC replied emotionlessly, still reading. Eliza's eyes widened.
'Why did Blurr and Melissa go off?' she was having trouble forming semi correct sentences.
'I believe that Blurr may have taken her.'
'Ok… why did Blurr take her?' she rephrased. Prowl sighed, irritated by the constant interruptions. He wouldn't have been quite as annoyed if his emotions were more restricted.
'I do not know. According to the Autobots and females who saw this, Melissa had woken them up when she screamed, after the first bout of thunder ricocheted around the base. Blurr soon after came and collected her, while the other organic femmes were getting changed. This then resulted in human swear words, coupled with high pitched defense mechanisms you females excel at. He then proceeded to destroy several walls in hiss haste to get out, with Melissa Goodwen in his servos.' Prowl did not leave out a single detail.
Eliza understood immediately why Blurr had taken Melissa. She knew it from the minute Prowl mentioned that she screamed due to the thunder. She also knew that she had promised her friend that she would not say anything. And she wouldn't. The army wouldn't allow somebody with a mental problem in its ranks, and this career meant everything to Melissa. Well who the hell wouldn't? One of the few in the world to be interacting with aliens on an everyday basis. Plus firearms.
'Well… maybe they'll come back.' She suggested. Both the Bot and organic had run by her the contingency plan if this ever happened. It was for the safety of many.
'I highly doubt that.' Prowl snapped, and Eliza took a step back. Why was he being so hostile?
She didn't have a chance to confront him on this, as the door opened to reveal Ratchet carrying reports. Prowl put down his datapad and looked at the medic. Well… glared would be the better term.
Ratchet cocked an optic ridge at the less than inviting greeting, but nonetheless gave the tactician his medical notes, on the previous day. Other than an explosion in Wheeljack's lab, resulting in said mech losing a hand. This surprised no one, as it was normal for these things to happen to the inventor. In fact, it was expected. Now, if he wasn't in the daily medical report, you could worry. Or be relieved.
'Thank you Ratchet.' Prowl said coldly as he accepted the datapads. Ratchet grunted and turned to leave, but was stopped as the Lamborghini twins were thrown in, accompanied by Elita-one. The SIC's optic twitched slightly before he fully composed himself.
'What did you do?' he asked. His voice was low and dangerous. The Twins looked at one another. They were silent.
'They blew up building C. Luckily there was no one in there at the time, but a few were injured.' Elita explained, surprisingly calm. Prowl's expression didn't change, but he was processing this in his mind. Eliza backed away.
'We didn't intend for it to happen!' defended Sideswipe. Sunstreaker nodded vigorously.
'It wasn't supposed to be an actual explosion. Just a paint explosion. And it was his idea.' Sunstreaker said, and earned a glare from his brother.
It was quiet… 'WHAT IN THE FRAGGING PIT WERE YOU THINKING?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY COULD HAVE BEEN SEVERELY INJURED OR EVEN KILLED BY YOUR ACTIONS! YOU GLITCH HEADS SHOULD BE MELTED DOWN FOR SCRAP! WHEN I'M THROUGH WITH YOU…' Ratchet trailed off his rant, leaving the threat dangling in the air. Their optics were wide with fear. Not uncommon around the medic.
'Good thing that we're being relocated, already two buildings are slagged.' Muttered Elita. Eliza stopped.
'Where are you being relocated to?' asked the organic to the femme commander.
'Oymyakon. Your sister arranged it last night at the meeting. We will be using the complex that you own as a base.' She finished. Eliza scowled.
'Figured that Terry wouldn't run this by me.' She hissed between clenched teeth. Prowl was still staring calmly at the Twins. To say they were unnerved would be an understatement.
He stood up from behind his desk, 'What possessed you to do this?'
Neither replied. You could literally hear a pin drop.
He slammed a clenched servo down on the desk, a loud bang reverberating around the room. All optics – and eyes – sharpened at this.
'Do you think this is a joke?' he asked, and his voice had risen, 'Do you think that doing this day after day will ever achieve anything? There are still Decepticons out there that we have to fight. We are on this planet due to the fact that our own planet is dead! Dead, due to many vorns of fighting, from both sides. You were reckless there and you are reckless here. The beings that live on this planet are not as strong as we are and can be killed easily. They have been generous enough to allow us to stay here, and how do you repay that courtesy? By destroying their buildings and costing them any number amounts of finances. What you did today, before anybody has even started functioning, was low and pathetic. You may as well be Decepticons from what you did.' That struck point on everyone in the room. They had never seen the SIC this mad.
He paused; doorwings flared, and anger rolling off him. His optics had turned darker, and he just had enough.
'Get out of my office and report to the Prime. If I have to set a punishment it will be your death. Regardless of the consequences. Now. Get. Out.' The Twins immediately ran out the door, while Ratchet and Elita stared at the tactician. He sat back down and picked up the datapad he had been reviewing.
'Please leave.' He said quietly. Ratchet wished to run scans on the mech, but a look from the Primes Sparkmate sent him grudging out. Elita soon followed.
Eliza still stood on the desk, looking at Prowl. The silence continued for a few minutes before she spoke up.
'Prowl-' he cut her off.
'That includes you as well, Agent Jover.' Her eyes widened.
'But… I work with you.' She tried meekly. He shook his helm and placed down the datapad. Prowl hated to do this, but it was expected of him to do his job.
'Consider this arrangement terminated.' He said. Her hands turned into fists at her side.
'Why? What did I do? Or are you just having an off day and decided to take it out on somebody who didn't do anything else?' she asked, her tone raised. He could not tell her why, that she was a distraction now, that he could not have a bond with anyone, friend or… other.
He drew in a vent, prepared for the worse, 'I have a job to do, as do you. You offered this help and now I am severing it. I do not require your assistance anymore.'
Her eyes narrowed and she took a step closer to the mech, 'You're gonna just drop me like that? I've been here with you for two and a half months. I'm your friend.'
Prowl wished to kill himself for what he was going to do next, but it was necessary, 'Miss Jover, I do not have friends or intend to make any. You and I are work colleagues in separate ranks. Please leave my office.' The emotionless way in which he said it shocked her. It shocked him as well at how easy it was for him to slide into the mask of neutrality for this situation.
She threw her hands in the air, 'Fine!' she shouted and jumped down from the desk, landing in a crouch. She picked up her broken glasses.
'I'll send you the bill, you fragging jerk!' she shouted once more before leaving Prowl's office. He placed his helm in his servos and groaned. A slow throbbing was there, or as the humans said "Headache".
He un-subspaced his datapad.
OBJECTIVES
#1: ATTEND ALL FUTURE MEETINGS WITH OPTIMUS PRIME.
#2: AVOID RATCHET BY ALL COSTS. - FAILED
#3: REFRAIN FROM ALLOWING BLIND SIGHTED ANGER TO CLOUD JUDGEMENT. CONSEQUENCES MAY BE DIRE. - FAILED
#4: BE AWAKE FOR MORNING REPORTS. NECESSITY – TOP.
#5: DO NOT LISTEN TO THE NEW RECRUIT (ELIZA JOVER) - FAILED
#6: AVOID TWINS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY UNLESS PUNISHING THEM.
#7: HAVE ELIZA RECORD ALL FUTURE INTERACTIONS BETWEEN HER AND OTHER AUTOBOTS.
#8: EDUCATE ELIZA IN CYBERTRONIAN HISTORY.
#9: KEEP CONTROL OVER EMOTIONS
#10: REMAIN FOCUSED ON DUTIES. SOCIAL INTERACTIONS LIMITED TO MEETINGS.
Prime, meanwhile, was with Jazz, trying to locate Blurr's location.
'It don't make sense OP.' Jazz concluded. Ah, Jazz, the only mech who can address the Prime in such an informal manner.
'Agreed Jazz. There is no reasonable explanation for this. Perhaps we should-' he could not finish his suggestion, as the terror Twins ran in. Both mechs looked scared. Their leader and his officer had heard about the… incident that had happened. Neither was amused. Far from it.
'Well? Why're you two here? Shouldn't both o' ya be in the brig?' Jazz asked, hostility in his voice.
Sideswipe answered, 'Prowl sent us here, said that his punishment would be to kill us, so you're going to punish us instead.'
'He beat you to the lecture part though.' Muttered Sunstreaker.
Jazz and Optimus absorbed their words. Somehow, this wasn't unexpected. The shouting of a femme organic outside the Primes office was though.
'That arrogant, emotionless, little glitch head. The fragger! "Miss Jover, I don't have friends."' She mimicked the SIC badly, 'That heartless bastard. I help him all this time and then he basically fires me.' She continued shouting strings of both Cybertronian and human curse words, not noticing the small group of spectators who was watching her.
'What did you expect Eliza? That he was going to be one of the few you could ever trust? Or rely on? Ha! Can't even rely on my sister, let alone an alien from outer space that I met two months ago.' She muttered to herself. She rounded a corner and was blocked from the view of the Bots.
'Hmm. Wow.' Summed up Sideswipe.
'Mech… what did Prowl do?' asked Jazz.
Optimus sighed and looked at the three Autobots who could be so blind. They had never – except Jazz, but he chose to ignore it – and would ever know what it was like.
He turned back into his office.
'He made a mistake.'
Please Review.
Thank you to velociraptor4659, Spirit Kiss, and the two guest readers for reviewing to the newly updated chapters. As well as anyone who favourite or followed the Fic. And thank you as well to anyone who has reviewed previously.