Words are violence, break the silence,
Depeche Mode, go home, you're drunk.
Blurr was groggy when woke, he accessed his chronometer and groaned, a message backlog of not one, but two full cycles had accumulated in his inbox - he still could not believe it had taken him that long to fully defrag. There were inquiries from friends, acquaintances and a 'Recharge tight, don't let the Scraplets bite" note from Moonracer. Blurr blew a raspberry when he read a silly wordplay from Breakdown about Blurr having a breakdown.
Most notably though there was a message from Jazz, asking to come visit as soon as Blurr was out of his defrag.
-"Jazz?" The mech looked more jovial and bouncy than Blurr had seen him in a while. It might have been just Blurr´s company or it might have been related to the drip of transparent fluid attached to his energon line.
-"Hey there sleeping beauty!"
-"You are not even the first one to call me that today."
-"Mech, ya needed it after that stunt ya pulled."
Blurr looked to the side, rubbing his shoulder, he could feel his faceplates heating up. -"That was probably the dumbest thing I´ve done in a long while."
- "That's why ya got caught but not why ya went. Spill the bolts."
The blue racer fidgeted a bit thinking what to say. - "I wanted to brush up on what actually happened on Earth. I mean I have never personally seen the records."
Jazz´s visor brightened slightly and then dimmed, mouth pulling slightly to the side, accompanied by an inquiring tilt of his helm. -"Yeah, but that's history so why the rush?"
There was just no evading the mech now was there? How could Blurr tell Jazz when his motivation was literally sitting in front of him? Instead Blurr broke optic contact and looked at the ceiling, gesturing in exasperation.
-"I know, Shockwave told me they were even public and had I wanted to wait…"
Jazz´s entire plating fluffed out like that of a cybercat. He touched his one palm to the side of his visor while gesturing wildly with the other. -"Wait, wait, since when is Shockwave in the picture?"
Blurr vented slightly, happy that they abandoned their previous train of conversation. Jazz was trained for this and Blurr really did not want to lie to the mech, he cleared his throat.
-"He sort of questioned me after I had been detained."
-"What did he do? I want details, Blurr." Jazz's voice carried a strict edge to it.
-"He. " Blurr felt embarrassed for no evident reason. -"He offered expediting my request for information. And you already know what happens to me when he and I interact too long."
Jazz seemed to be considering this report, probably checking it against his own sources. It was refreshing to see Jazz so active, it looked like he was his old self again. Blurr wouldn't have minded to get into more trouble just to bring back this determination.
-"Don't worry, I'm not hurt and Ratchet scanned me for any insidious or malignant coding."
Jazz canted his helm to the side, small frown on his faceplates. - "I'm surprised he approached you even after all the warnings Ratchet and I gave him."
Blurr´s optics widened and he shot a hand before his mouth. -"You mean you threatened him?"
-"No, we just strongly discouraged him, as for the rest, he is a smart mech." There it was again - the spark of mischief in that visor.
Blurr just imagined Jazz being threatening and non-compromising with the large ´con. -"I wish I had been a scraplet on the wall to hear how that went down."
-"I might still have an internal recording of it somewhere."
-"Oh no you didn't!" Blurr cast him a devious smile - It was outrageous and clever and so Jazz that Blurr could not help himself and but hug the mech and smile radiantly. -"Thank you for doing this. I don't know what I would do without you." The racer murmured into Jazz´s plating.
-"You could start by telling me why you want the intel on the Earth battle so badly."
Blurr´s plating clamped and he swallowed hard. Jazz was a professional, he should never forget that.
-"I…" Blurr pulled back to look Jazz in the visor. -"I can´t tell you just yet because I do not have the evidence but IPromiseIwillOnceIfindOut."
-"Easy, mech. I was there, you can just ask. No need to put yaself in danger."
-"Well.."
Blurr paused putting the palms of his hands together, contemplating if this was a good idea. When he glanced at Jazz, his visor was all intensity and attention. Blurr made a short vent through his mouth and started.
-"I have this theory… It is about, I thought that perhaps…." A pause to gather his thoughts. -"A spark could maybe retain some of the personality traits of the mech it belonged to even when it joined the AllSpark? Given that Prowl did not exactly offline?"
Jazz´s visor dimmed and his shoulder struts hunched, as if all strength had left his body.
Blurr bit his lip.
-"I, I´m sorry, this is why I did not want to tell you, I just upset you now and you do not need any more of that."
Jazz shook his helm -"No, no, I getcha. But that does not explain why I could not hear him anymore."
Blurr lowered his helm, then looked at Jazz again. -"That I don´t know, this is not the kind of science I am familiar with, but I think someone Should know."
Jazz's visor brightened, mouth slightly agape. - "The mecha involved with Vector Sigma…"
Blurr's mouth set in grim determination - the same ones involved with the enforcer project, the same ones who wanted his speed matrix. He had a bargaining chip on his side, one that he had no willingness to give up. Then he glanced at Jazz again, perhaps sometimes what he wanted did not matter all that much when someone else was suffering.
As if reading Blurr's thoughts the mech answered - "Don't ya go doing something reckless again, Blurr. Prowl ain't alive no more." Jazz crumpled a little even as he said it, but he pushed on regardless. -"There's no need to get anyone else hurt over the matter."
Blurr could not counter that but neither could he leave the matter alone. He had a hunch he was on the right track and it had seldom lead him astray back at the spec-ops.
They concluded their conversation with some silly stories from the bar. Jazz was about to enter his scheduled stasis lock and it was about time Blurr returned to his work for the evening opening. He had a small hope that his 2-day blackout would not reflect on his business too badly.
Blurr was stuck on a slow-moving speedway so he took his time by scrolling through the remainder of his messages. There was recent note from Shockwave with For your research in the subject line and a heavy archived file package attached.
Blurr considered deleting the message and hesitated in the last moment. What was in it for Shockwave? The 'con was connviting and a known manipulator…and Blurr was aware of it. He would place any other information as more valid than his report. Which would leave him safe to play around with whatever data the message contained.
Now for the safety precautions, he was not foolish enough to open the data package in his HUD so he distantly uploaded it onto an unused datapad - if it contained malware he'd only end up with a fried piece of hardware and not a wiped processor.
He sped up the ramp to turn left and proceeded reading the remainder of the message.
PS: I am currently in possession of your trinket. You can find it in my office.
Blurr gasped stopped abruptly on the speedway of all things and almost caused a heavy constructicon bot to sweep him off the road completely. Had it not been for Blurrs' quick reflexes he would have found himself pressed into a completely new shape. He quickly transformed and leapt into the air, landing on the hood of the heavy vehicle. Clearly they were not happy.
-"The frag is wrong with you! Git off, ya nutjob!"
Blurr patted the metal beneath his feet apologetically.
-"Stop groping me! Perve!"
Blurr quickly removed his hands, holding them up in the air -"Ah! Sorry, sorry! I did not mean to…!" He did not get to finish apologising as the heavy transformer broke abruptly, sending the smaller bot careening off his hood and back onto the road.
Blurr transformed mid-air and used the momentum to add to his getaway speed just in case the construction mech wanted to pursue him. Lesson learnt - no more multitasking until he reached his bar.
Once safely behind the heavy door, Blurr set to root about his subspace in search of his spade, assuming that was what Shockwave had meant by 'trinket'. He came up empty-handed and then recalled exactly why. Fine, the 'con could keep it if he so wanted, Blurr was not going to set a single molecule of his being in that office.
The blinking datapad drew his attention next. Blurr was pleasantly surprised to see that the device had automatically unarchived the file Shockwave sent him, the data was so heavy it only just fit. The initial message was simple enough - I suggest you compare the contents to the publicly available equivalent. Blurr would have done it anyway.
Curious, he pulled up the public access form and filed an official request for the same data; almost instantly he got slammed into the bureaucratic reality by the long waiting time (a decacycle!). Had Blurr been the tantrum-throwing kind of mech he would have been stomping his foot and screaming his vents out.
Affronted, he turned to the datapad with the file from Shockwave, giving its' contents a cursory glance. Upon inspection was just information - good information, well-catalogued if a bit dry to Blurr's liking; very similar to Longarm's work. He frowned and set the pad down, his thoughts were going to lead him to dark places if he continued now; he would look over that later, when he was prepared.
Blurr the Perve strikes for the first time, unaware of his abilities, he wanders the streets touching unsuspecting construction mecha.
