So there was some problem with the last chapter not showing up for a while, but I think that's over. I sure hope it is! It's not fun when the site doesn't work right. Sorry. :/

I have now seen the movie THOR in the theater twice. IT IS GREAT! XD!

This is a really long chapter... :)

Chapter 21

Onwards

Auri came out of recharge feeling drained. She was also in a strange position. She shifted. Oh, she was in a chair. Hm. She remained still and replayed what had happened earlier that morning through her processors. That had been a terrible mistake, a dreadful mess. But Major Lennox was being kind and forgiving.

What if she did that to another person, though? She was very afraid of that. She thought about it for a little while. Then she realized that her fear would balance her actions. She wouldn't do again in all likelihood.

What about her job, though? Such a terrible mistake would surely put a black mark on her record, and Prowl would not tolerate some-bot who recklessly harmed a human. Wait… he had said something about her job. What was it?

She really could only remember crying and crying and not being able to stop because she was so upset about her actions. Her crying had disconcerted Prowl. Poor Prowl… he had been so patient with her all along. She processed a little more, and it came back to her. 'You are still keeping your job.' That is what he'd said. She smiled, but a little concerned frown pushed it way. Did he mean keeping for always? Or, did he just mean keeping it for the rest of the trail-week? She sorted it out; the trial week had only one day left, and he had reminded her that she had a full week. It would be going back on his word to take it away now. Thus he couldn't have been talking about it. So… that could only mean that he was talking about the actually job. She would have the job for keeps. She smiled, content.

Anyway, she would apologize to Major Lennox, and she would apologize to Prowl. Shifting in the chair, she grinned happily and opened her optics. Then she widened them with horror. She was in the office!

She had slipped into recharge in the office after crying too much. Uh-oh! Perhaps it would still be alright. She steadied her emotions and looked around.

She saw Prowl and stared at him. He was face-down on his stack of eternal data-pads. Was he okay? Auri slipped off the chair and went over to him. He was in recharge.

"Commander?" she asked tentatively, "Commander Prowl?"

No response.

"Hmm…" Now she really didn't know what to do. It was a regular recharge, not one induced by a systems crash, so that was a good sign.

She started to reach out to touch his shoulder to see if he would wake, but she decided not to. Nobody ever touched Prowl. It was part of his superiority complex, or so Auri supposed. Prowl was always keep-away, keep-away.

She tiptoed over to the main computer and started working very quietly. She always worked quietly, for Prowl liked it that way, but she was extra careful this time. The pattern in her work soothed her, and her work made her happy when she saw the good results.

She peeked over her shoulder and under her door-wing to see if Prowl was still in recharge. Yes, he was. Poor Prowl…

She had probably added to his stress-load a great deal, she realized. Well, she hoped she would prove to be a greater help than a hindrance. She worked a little faster than usual, well aware that all her dramatics had set her back well over two hours.

The phone rang.

"Uh-oh…." She turned and stared at the phone.

It rang again.

She stared at Prowl. Then she ran over to Prowl.

"Pst! Wake up!" she poked his arm.

The phone rang again, and Prowl didn't wake up.

The phone rang a fourth time.

"Prowl!" Auri had never answered the phone before.

It rang again. What would happen if she did pick it up?

It rang again. She braced herself and picked it up.

"Hello," she said, copying Prowl's extra-formal telephone voice perfectly. "NEST Base, Commander Prowl's office," That was how Prowl answered the phone, "Aurion-Blaze speaking." She added.

"Where's Prowl?" a strange man's voice snapped sharply.

She recoiled but spoke politely. "He is unavailable at the moment." She said, "Can I get your name and contact information, take a message, and/or have him call you back later, sir?" she offered.

"No. I wish to speak with Prowl, now." He ordered. She winced a little. This was not good. She could handle it though.

"I am sorry, sir; he is not available at present." She remained polite, "Do you wish to leave a message and contact information?"

"No, I do not!"

"I do apologize then; I will be unable to help you. Will that be all?"

There was a silence.

"Sir?" Auri asked after a moment. She really wanted him to go away, but she was going to do everything that she should do and could do for him for Prowl's sake.

"Tell him that Agent John Garrison called." The man said begrudgingly. "I need documents…" he went on to read an extensive list. Auri typed his words verbatim on a data-pad with one hand and looked up 'Agent John Garrison' in Prowl's files in the main computer with the other hand. He was quite an important, if not pushy, character. Pleasing him was essential.

"Have you got that all written down?" he questioned once he'd completed his read out.

"Yes, Agent Garrison. Do you wish me to read back to you what I have written?"

"Yes." He growled. That was cold. But, she read the whole list perfectly.

"Good." He said grimly, and then he added, "Don't forget to deliver the message."

"I will not." She replied. Then she smiled and went on, "In fact, I am very efficient. If you will provide me with the correct verification codes and personal passwords, I will send over documents A645, A735, A838, A893, A923, A993, and several others that you want that are available to my access."

"Ah… alright." He liked this, actually. He provided the passwords and codes.

"Very good. You should have the documents in a couple minutes. Is there anything else I can do for you, Agent Garrison?"

"Ah… no. Thank-you."

"You are welcome. Have a nice day, sir."

"Bye. -You, too." He hung up with that.

"Not so bad. I guess…" Auri commented after she'd returned the phone to its place. She sighed, relieved that it was over.

She went and worked on the computer some more. Then she pulled up the schedule for the day. Her optics widened. 'Prowl seriously needs to wake up right now, or he'll be working until one o'clock in the morning with all the stuff that's piled up and the meeting he has to attend!'

"Prowl," she went over to his desk. "Prowl!"

She sighed. "Come on, wake up, Commander." She hesitated and then shook his arm gently. That didn't bring any response.

She twitched her door-wings. Chromia usually gave Ironhide a good kick to wake him up. Dare she do that to Commander Prowl?

Well… she couldn't let him sleep and get behind in his work and miss his meeting and patrols.

"Wake up, Commander…" she said, "I'll start doing drastic things if you don't…" she touched his shoulder cautiously. "Oh, come on." Still nothing. She rubbed his shoulder a little bit. Then she pressed harder with her fingers, hoping the pressure would stir him.

"My, but you are tight and tense in through here… Prowl, you do work too hard." She murmured sympathetically. But then she got aggravated. "But you need to wake up, NOW! Arg, you're just too heavy for me to shake. You're going to be late! LATE!"

She huffed in exasperation and moved to climb on to his desk.

She grunted as she tried to get a toehold on the drawer-pull. "Oof." It wasn't easy climbing up on this desk; it was taller than the couch she slept on. She gasped as she almost slipped. "Arg," she finally pulled herself up and sat on the desk.

She frowned at her sleeping commander.

"Please don't fire me for this…" she asked, and then, bracing herself with her hands on the desk, she gave him a kick in the shoulder.

That really didn't do any good. Prowl still slumbered.

Auri pursed her lips then gave him a strong kick.

"Ngfh!" Prowl grunted and sat up with surly look on his face. He blinked in astonishment at the femme on his desk.

"Sorry," she said, tucking her chin, but keeping optic contact with wide, innocent optics. "It was the only way I could wake you up." She explained, "You have been out for almost an hour since I woke up."

"An hour?" his voice had a little growly note from lack of use.

Auri nodded.

Prowl twitched his door-wings and looked at his schedule.

"I am going to stay extra and help you get caught up." Auri told him solemnly.

"Ironhide will have a fit." Prowl stated grimly, starting to straighten out the data-pads and sort them. "I would not advise that."

"He is off-base right now."

"Oh." Prowl looked up as he suddenly realized something. "That explains your breakdown."

"It… does?" Auri gave him that confused look that he'd grown accustomed to.

"Yes. Sparklings need their creators to be nearby. Their creator-creation bond is very tight, but it gets lost if the parent is too far away. The sparkling cannot feel the bond and that upsets it very much, often to the point of emotional instability."

"Oh…?" She didn't quite get it.

Prowl sighed. "You have a bond with Ironhide, but it is just a new sparkling bond; it is a bit weak. His presence balances you and strengthens you, but when he moved out of range, your spark could not feel it. That is why your emotions went out of balance and you could not stop crying."

Auri raised her optic ridges at him. "Really?"

"I would never lie about something like that. Yes, really."

"Oh. Hm." That was interesting. So, now she knew. Now she could be prepared next time. But she felt like crying again when she thought of Will Lennox.

"Now what?" Prowl asked gently, seeing her facial expression changing.

"I feel terrible about hurting Major Lennox."

"He acted instinctively. You acted instinctively. He suffers only from a few bruises, a sprained wrist and a cracked finger bone… oh, no. Please don't cry! Those very small injuries for a human!"

"Honestly…?"

"Honestly, truly. Here, let us get started on our work, shall we?"

"Yes." She said. She heaved a deep sigh.

"It will all work out. You will learn. He will heal. We will get caught up. Good?"

"Good." She replied, half-smiling at the way he put things.

"Now, get off my desk."

She hopped off. "I must tell the twins that I will not be joining them"

"Go ahead."

Auri stepped aside for a moment and intercommed with her friends. She looked serious at first, but then she smiled.

Auri turned to Prowl. "It is settled with the twins. I will stay and help you. And they are taking my patrol for me."

Prowl looked a protest.

"It will work out." Auri reassured him, "They will do well for me because they are my friends."

"May it be so." He murmured.

"Anyway," Auri said, "Here is a message for you." she handed him the data-pad. "Some Agent John Garrison called,"

"Ah!" Prowl jerked his head up, his optics wide with horror, showing more expression than he usually allowed them to. "Agent John Garrison called, and you answered the phone?"

"Yes, Commander. I thought it might be terribly important, and you wouldn't wake up."

Prowl sighed and his door-wings drooped. "What happened?" he asked, sounding almost mournful.

Auri told him all that had happened.

"You…" Prowl started to say when she finished. "That is… I know you have a hard time dealing with harsh tones and still feel hurt by the man you dealt with on your first day. I… I am very impressed."

Auri grinned, too happy to say anything; Prowl had said that he was impressed.

"Hmm… here." Prowl said, "You may send him the rest of the documents; I will pull them up for you."

"Thank-you." She said. Inside her innermost being, she was whooping with glee and doing a victory dance.

OoOOooOooOOoO

Later that day, Auri leaned back in an office chair and sipped some Energon. Prowl slowly drained his while typing an email with one hand. He was extremely good at single-handed typing. Auri watched, impressed by this skill. She couldn't type single handedly nearly that well.

Prowl frowned and looked over at her. "I still have grave misgivings about letting the twins take both your patrol and mine."

"Please stop worrying about it." Auri said, "Besides, even if they don't do any good, it is only for one day." She reasoned.

Prowl turned back to his work, but he still disagreed. Auri emptied her Energon cube and returned to the main computer.

"Anyway, I think the twins are trustworthy for the most part." Auri added while the page loaded.

"It that why you wired bat-wings to your guardian's shoulders?"

Auri's face froze. "Mphf…" she had been under the impression that he wasn't going to say anything about that. "Uh, I did not do it alone. And… no comment. I am never going to prank with them again."

"That is reassuring."

"They do act immaturely, and they are often very careless, but when it comes down to the things that really count, they do the right things." She wanted to defend her friends.

She had a point, but Prowl was not inclined to actually verbalize his agreement.

"They do not always process things first, though." he said instead.

Auri nodded, "True…" she murmured. Then the short conversation was over.

They worked in silence. Then the twins burst in happily.

"That was fabulous!" Sides said, laughing with Sunny.

Prowl scowled at them.

"Dude, mech, we didn't anything wrong or bad!" Sunny protested, grinning. "Nobody believed us; it was awesome! It was like legal pranking! 'I'm pulling you over for speeding.' 'You can't do that; you're Sunstreaker, not Prowl.' 'Yeah, well, I'm working for Prowl today, so, bling!, there's your ticket!' HARHARHARHAR! HAHA! The looks on their faces!"

"YEAH-HAHAHAHA!" Sides chortled.

"Calm down." Prowl ordered. "Such an unseemly display will not be tolerated.

"Ahem! I do beg thine pardon." Sunny mocked, but he did calm done.

"Tickets, ticket, tickets." Sides said, placing a data-pad on Prowl's desk. "We catch more people and bots than you do, Prowl, because nobody slows down when they see us." He said smugly.

Prowl took the data-pad and examined its contents.

Sunny and Sides crossed their arms and smiled confidently at each other.

"Good work…" Prowl said. It had become habit with Auri around.

The twins gaped.

Prowl had said…?

Huge grins spread across the twins faces. "Hahaha!" they laughed for pure joy and the humor of their Autobot arch-enemy dropping them a little line of praise.

"Prowl, something is wrong," Auri said, turning from the computer with a slight frown.

Prowl rose and went over, pleased that she had not hesitated to express her concern.

"Con infiltrator!" Prowl said, his defense systems rising to the fore. "Quick, engage program X49kj3*GF… here,"

Sunny and Sides frowned with concern and came over, watching as Prowl worked to lock out the Decepticon hacker. The computer system was very important. If the cons got in, they could do some pretty serious damage. The NEST intranet was incredibly secure, the passwords and codes were constantly changing, not mention they had a firewall that virtually nobody could get by. This had to be bad.

"Blast," Prowl said softly. Auri looked at him is surprise, but, he continued working against the Con hacker. "No." More codes and figures.

"Go there!" Sunny exclaimed, pointing. "If you inject a jamming virus into this area of the system,"

"We do not have a…" Prowl typed quickly. "Virus?"

"Here," Sides holding a data-chip out to Prowl. "I have the remedy, too, so we can repair what it messes up."

Prowl met the twin's optics.

"I promise, Prowl." Sides vowed solemnly. Prowl took the chip, inserted it, and activated the virus.

"Then we can work back from here," Sunny murmured.

"Secondary firewalls…" Prowl said, "Activated. This is a fast virus."

"Yeah."

Prowl worked quickly. The twins watched the screen, their optics wide and concerned. Blast those cons!

The room filled with apprehensive silence as Prowl battled the online infiltrator. Then Prowl half-smirked.

"Good-bye." He said with more satisfaction than anybody had ever heard him express.

"WOO-HOO!" Sides whooped.

"YEAH! NICE, Prowl!" Sunny cheered. Auri clapped her hands and grinned at the three mechs.

Prowl half-smiled. "Well, thank-you for the use of this virus," he said, an ironic look crossing his face as he held up the data-chip.

"Err…" "Yeah…" the twins traded uncomfortable looks. "Uh, anytime."

Prowl handed the contraband back to the twins.

"Y-you're not confiscating it?" Sides asked, astonished.

Prowl shook his head. "Make me a copy. We may need it again."

The twins nodded, dumbfounded.

"I will require your help in shutting down the virus." Prowl told them.

They nodded again, still dumbfounded.

Prowl turned to Auri, "Aurion, good catch; thank-you for acting so quickly."

Auri smiled and nodded. "Thank-you."

Auri and Prowl watched as the twins locked down the virus and exterminated it. "There you go." Sunny said, gesturing eloquently.

"Good." Prowl said. "Thank-you."

The twins murmured their willingness to help any time.

Prowl shrugged it off.

"Aurion," he said, "See if you can pin-point the Con's access point. Scan the basic system then check the most heavily used areas. There may have been an insecure connection somewhere."

"Yes, Commander." Auri said, resuming her place at the computer. Prowl went back and sat at his desk.

He looked over to the twins, about to tell them to go on and leave, but the looks on their faces made him pause. They looked like they were going to be very sick.

"Are you unwell?" he asked.

"W-we're gonna be…" Sides murmured. Sunny went over and pointed something out to Auri.

"Uh-oh…" Auri said, looking distressed. "You two…"

"It's our fault, Prowl." Sunny said. "We… uh, we saw that some of the Con Seekers had added themselves to Facebook, and… so… so…. Aw…mech…" he groaned and clapped his hands over his optics.

"We hacked their accounts and messed with their settings." Sides went on since his twin couldn't bear to continue. "They got through that connection."

Prowl covered his face in exasperation. "That … that was a trap. How… How. Could. You. Be. So. Stupid!"

"Not processing, I guess." Sunny murmured. "I'm sorry… really, really sorry."

"Same here." Sides said quietly.

Prowl looked up at the twins. He was ready to ban them from using the internet for the next two weeks and confiscate their video-games on top of it for extra punishment. Their faces were solemn and sincere, and their expressions told him that they KNEW they had something coming to them. He could tell that they were genuinely sorry though. And he knew that they were reasonably good Autobots and that they would never intentionally do something to harm the internet security.

Prowl looked down at his small computer. The virus had either damaged or affected a little over 3,700 of the files. That was an awful lot.

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe," he said, looking back up at them again. "You two will spend at least four hours a day helping me with recovering these files until we are done."

They nodded. That was a reasonable start. What else was he going to do to them?

"Today has been rather chaotic, so we will start on them tomorrow. Understood?"

"Y-yes, Commander. Understood." "Understood."

"Very well. Go on."

The twins looked at each other, confused.

"Is there some question?" Prowl asked when they didn't immediately leave.

"Yes. Uh, is that all the punishment we are to expect?" Sunny asked.

Prowl nodded. "That thing with the internet was a mistake, not intentional, and I believe it is a mistake you will not make again."

"No, sir. We will definitely not be making it again!"

"So, then, that is all."

"Thanks, Prowl." "Yes, thank-you."

"Please stay out of trouble for the rest of the day."

"We'll try." The twins said. "We'll take all your patrols, today. That'll keep us busy." They went out the door and shut it behind themselves.

"That was really nice of you, Prowl." Auri said softly from her place at the computer. She knew he was usually inclined to be hard on the twins because they constantly harassed him or broke his rules.

"I surprised myself." Prowl said.

"You really surprised them. I think it might have a good effect on them."

"Your continual optimism never ceases to astonish me." Prowl replied, shaking his head.

Auri smiled over her shoulder. He was being pessimistic again, but she could take what he said as a complement.