The next morning, Prowl and Jazz woke early, though Prowl had a difficult time getting his lover out of the berth. Once they were both up, they headed to the wash racks to clean up before heading to the rec room to get some energon. When they arrived, several of the other officers were already there getting their energon before the meeting, including Blaster. The orange mech looked over to them and narrowed his optics at Prowl. Prowl's only response was to sigh and flick his door-wings in annoyance while Jazz shifted, unsure of how to help breach the gap between his friend and his lover.

Prowl was beginning to get irritated with Blaster's dislike of him. He understood the mech had his reasons and didn't exactly blame him for feeling the way he did, but it was starting to get on his nerves. He had been a thief a long time ago and, while he still utilized his skills, he was no longer a thief. He was also Blaster's superior officer which meant that if Blaster's outright dislike of him became a problem, he would have to punish him for insubordination, but he knew that would only worsen the situation and the bad feelings between them.

Once every officer had finished their energon, they headed as a group towards the conference room where they all sat in their seats, Optimus at the head of the table with Prowl to his right and Jazz to his left. Blaster sat near the far end of the table and Prowl couldn't help but feel slightly relieved at that. It would be much easier to ignore Blaster's looks if he were farther away. Optimus began the meeting, welcoming Blaster into their meeting as an officer, before continuing on with the matters they were all there to discuss.

When the meeting was over, Prowl remained in his seat and Jazz walked around the table to sit in the now-empty chair next to him. Jazz nudged Prowl's arm with a curious look and the black and white merely gave him a small smile and a flutter of his door-wings. Optimus also remained in the room and turned to the pair once everyone else was out of the room.

"Prowl, is there something else you wish to discuss?" asked Optimus.

"Yes, there is," said Prowl simply. "It's about the twins. They're planning something, aren't they?" Optimus chuckled. No one had seen much of the twins since they had returned to the base the day before.

"I'm sure they are. Are you worried?" asked Optimus.

"Not necessarily. I'm sure they're trying to figure out a way to prove that I was a thief," said Prowl.

"I wonder why they don't take ya at your word? You've never lied ta them," said Jazz.

"Come now Jazz, me? A thief? How could that possibly be true?" asked Prowl dryly. Optimus and Jazz chuckled. "If you had met me during the war, would you have ever thought that I had been a thief?"

"Well…no, guess not," said Jazz. "And that's why the twins are tryin' ta prove ya were a thief?" Prowl nodded. "And how would they prove that?"

"I could just break into the Decepticon base and prove it that way," said Prowl with a shrug of his door-wings.

"No, you're not going anywhere near their bases," said Optimus sternly. "I know you're skilled, but you're not infallible. It's too dangerous just to prove something to the twins." Prowl studied Optimus for several moments before nodded.

"You're right," said Prowl. "I still want to, but I won't."

"Why would ya want ta?" asked Jazz incredulously.

"Because…I liked being a thief," said Prowl softly. "Not because of the things I stole or anything like that, but because of the rush. It was exciting and I could use my specialized processors for something other than planning battles in a never-ending war." Jazz made a sympathetic sound and leaned into Prowl's side. The larger mech wrapped his arm around Jazz's waist and pulled him tighter against his side.

"Ya said earlier that ya were gonna prank'em. Any ideas how?" asked Jazz and Prowl smirked. Optimus shuddered at the devious expression on the normally calm and stoic mech's face. He wondered if the twins were going to survive. Prowl noticed the Autobot leader's apprehension and his smirk faded into a smile.

"Don't worry sir, I won't do anything too drastic," said Prowl and Optimus didn't feel any better at the declaration.

"Can I help?" asked Jazz with a mischievous grin.

"Sorry Jazz, not this time. If you assisted me this time, the twins would think you did everything and it would hardly prove my skills. Next time though, I would be happy for you to assist me," said Prowl and Jazz's grin widened if that was at all possible. "In any case, there is much work to be done and I would like to get it done before it gets too late. Jazz, you should get some work done as well."

"Aw," whined Jazz as he pulled away from his lover so the taller mech could stand. "Alright, if ya say so." Prowl smiled and kissed Jazz's audio before nodding to Optimus and leaving the room. The SIC headed to his office and buried himself in his work, intent on finishing all the reports and other such things before evening so he could prepare for the plan he had to prove his skills as a thief to the twins. There was actually quite a bit he wanted to do, but he was unsure which parts of his plan would have the best impact on the red and gold mechs.

It was late afternoon when Prowl finally set down the last datapad. With a sigh and a faint smile, he stood up and headed to the rec room to get some energon. Normally, he would have waited for Jazz to come and bring him energon later, but since he was finished with his work and he had to put his plans into motion, he decided he would make missing having their evening energon together up to Jazz later. When he sat down in a corner of the rec room with his energon, several of the others openly stared at him in surprise. It was rare that he ever went to the rec room, especially if Jazz wasn't with him.

Prowl ignored the stares as he mentally finalized his plans for the evening. He was going to go about this 'plan' just like he would plan a thieving job; silently, quickly, and with no evidence of him being the culprit. Of course, everyone would know he was the perpetrator, but there would be no evidence of it. His smirk faintly grew wider at the thought and he shuttered his optics and looked up when his door-wings picked up movement in front of him. Ratchet was standing in front of him with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.

"Ratchet, what can I do for you?" asked Prowl curiously.

"You can quit smirking like that. The others called me down here because they think there's something wrong with you, so quit smirking like you're plotting something more evil than the twins could ever think of," said Ratchet.

"But I'm a tactician, I'm supposed to plot," protested Prowl.

"Feel free to plot, just don't look like you're about to wreak havoc on all of us," said Ratchet. Prowl leaned back and crossed his arm over his chest with a sigh.

"Fine, but I don't think they should be so worried about my expression while I'm plotting, they should be more worried about what exactly I'm plotting," said Prowl with a devious smirk before he got to his feet and finished his energon. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some things to do." Everyone in the room stared after the black and white mech with wide, shocked optics as he left the room humming a faint tune that Jazz often hummed through the halls of the base.

For the rest of the evening, no one saw Prowl at all. It was like he had vanished. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had been warned of Prowl's plot the moment the mech had left the rec room, but neither of them was too worried. They were, after all, master pranksters and they knew every trick in the book. Ever since they had learned that Prowl had been a thief, they'd been doing research, digging up old files about the thefts that had Prowl's MO. The twins were shocked at the number of thefts and the fact that the black and white had gotten past such extreme security systems without setting them off.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were also placing traps in their room. Both knew Prowl would go after them to prove his skills since they had expressed their doubt, so they were going to be ready for him. There was no way he'd get into their quarters without them knowing. It was late in the evening when Jazz called everyone on the com-links asking if anyone had seen his lover and the twins glanced at each other. That could only mean one thing, Prowl was about to strike. With matching grins, they set up their traps and got ready for recharge. They'd be able to recharge peacefully, no problem.

Prowl grinned as he stood hidden in one of the unused halls of the Ark, just out of range of Red Alert's cameras. He had all the supplies he needed, so now all he had to do was be patient. When Jazz asked everyone for his whereabouts, he felt a little bad about making the silver mech worry, but he would make it up to Jazz later. Prowl was sure Jazz would find his 'plan' very entertaining. He couldn't call Jazz himself or Red Alert would take the opportunity to use his com-link frequency to track him. Red Alert was probably freaking out right now, believing Prowl to have suddenly become a Decepticon or something.

When it was nearly midnight, Prowl began to move. He kept to the darkest shadows and made sure to keep out of the cameras' ranges. Being SIC had some advantages when it came to the security system, though he promised himself that he wouldn't use his override codes tonight for a couple of reasons. One, it could be considered cheating, and two, Red Alert would be able to figure out that he was the one to access the places he was planning on going. No evidence, he kept reminding himself. When he reached his destination, the twin's quarters, he hacked the lock and slipped inside, immediately disabling all the traps they had set up. Once he was safe, he stood up with his hands on his hips with a smirk. 'Amateurs,' thought Prowl.

Silently, Prowl got to work. His 'plan' was somewhat elaborate and it required a lot of preparation and execution, but it would so be worth it in the end. The twins would never be able to live it down. As he worked, he had to be very careful not to wake the twins; he was moving them around in their recharge after all. Luckily, he only wished to move them on their berths, so he didn't have to move them far at all. Finally, when he finished setting things up in their quarters, he slipped out and reset the traps they had set, but made sure to tweak the designs a little. Once their quarters were locked once more, he headed to the wash racks to implement the last part of his 'plan'. All he had to do was switch a few containers and he was done.

Stretching, and hearing a few cracks along his spinal struts, Prowl sighed, glad he finished earlier than he had thought. It was time to head back to his quarters and get some recharge himself. When he got back, Jazz was lying on their berth, curled up in a fitful recharge. Feeling slightly guilty for not being there for his lover, Prowl slid onto their berth behind the silver mech and pulled the smaller mech into his arms.

"Hm? Prowl?" asked Jazz drowsily as his visor lit dully in the darkness.

"Hello love," whispered Prowl, kissing Jazz's audio. "I'm here, recharge now." Jazz hummed quietly before slipping back into recharge, a peaceful recharge this time. Prowl smiled and tightened his grip on the silver mech before slipping into recharge himself.

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe woke to their alarm the next morning. Sunstreaker merely grumbled and rolled over as Sideswipe shut off the alarm with a quiet curse. Neither liked getting up in the morning, but they knew they had to or Prowl would get on their case. At the thought of the black and white mech, Sideswipe sat up with wide optics realizing that their traps hadn't woken them in the middle of the night which meant one of two things; Prowl didn't come to their room that night, or Prowl got past the traps without setting them off.

"Sunny! Sunny, get up! None of our traps went off!" cried Sideswipe. "Wait…what's with our room?" Sunstreaker grumbled, but sat up as well when he heard Sideswipe's query about their room.

"What the slag? Why am I on your side and why are you on my side?" asked Sunstreaker as he glanced around.

"And where are our traps?" Sunstreaker stared at the door and didn't see any of the traps they had set up the night before.

"Slag, Prowl got in, didn't he?"

"I guess." Sideswipe glanced at his brother and yelped in surprise. Sunstreaker turned to his brother with a glare before his optics widened in shock and his jaw dropped.

"Why are you yellow?" cried Sunstreaker.

"Why are you red?" cried Sideswipe. They glanced down at themselves and cried out in shock. "Not cool! He switched our paint jobs!"

"He even moved us while we recharged!" shouted Sunstreaker. "He is so going to pay for this."

"First, I want to be my normal color," said Sideswipe and Sunstreaker nodded his agreement. They both got up and headed for the door only to find that it didn't open. "Hey, what's going on?" Sideswipe pressed the keypad by the door several times, trying to get it to open, but it didn't respond.

"He even messed with our door?" Sunstreaker punched the keypad and it crumbled before falling off the wall. "What? A fake keypad?" Sunstreaker poked the door and realized it wasn't a door, just a hologram of a door. "Our door is gone!"

"What? He trapped us in here?" Sideswipe held the sides of his head as he stared at the door with wide optics. "We won't ever be able to get out! No more video games, no more TV, no more racing! We won't even be able to get to the wash racks to fix our paint!" That last point seemed to freak Sunstreaker out the most.

"No! I can't stay red forever!"

"Hey, what's wrong with being red?" demanded Sideswipe.

"It's not my color Sideswipe, now shut up, we need to figure a way out of here," said Sunstreaker. Sideswipe didn't listen. Instead, he sat on the ground, pulling his knees to his chest and rocked back and forth muttering to himself. Sunstreaker stared at his twin for several moments before awkwardly trying to comfort the red mech. "Um…Sides…we'll find a way out…I hope. Come on…" Sunstreaker looked around for something to distract his twin with and that's when he spotted the door. "Uh, Sides? I think I found a way out." Sideswipe immediately jumped to his feet and looked at his twin hopefully.

"Really?" Sunstreaker merely pointed at the door he just found. Sideswipe looked in the direction the yellow mech was pointing and his jaw dropped. "Prowl put in another door?"

"No you idiot, that's our real door! He completely rearranged our room!"

"No way!"

"And he did it all without waking us up!"

"Slag, he's good."

"Yeah, but I'd never say it to his face," said Sunstreaker and his twin nodded in agreement.

"Well, let's get the slag outta here and fix our paint," said Sideswipe as he stepped towards the door, but his twin grabbed his arm.

"One problem, the traps."

"No worries, we'll just disable them." Sunstreaker pointed to the traps and glared at his twin.

"We can't. Prowl messed with them." Sideswipe looked closer and groaned. There was no way there were going to get out of there unscathed.

"Let's just get this over with," grumbled Sideswipe as he stepped towards the door. He was determined to dodge as many of the traps as he could. Sunstreaker followed a step behind. By the time they finally got out of their room, they were covered with all different colors of bright-colored paint mixed with the chemicals that made glow-sticks glow in the dark, strings of bells jingled as they walked, and with every step, a little plastic squeaker that was usually found in dog toys squeaked from somewhere inside their armor.

As they trudged through the halls, the few other mechs that were already up watched them with wide optics before laughing loudly. The twins merely glared at them as they headed for the wash racks to at least get the paint and glowing chemicals off of them before they went to see Ratchet about the bells and the squeakers. The pair stepped into the wash racks and immediately headed to 'their' section before turning on the cleaning solution. Sunstreaker picked up his special soap and began scrubbing at his armor, Sideswipe doing the same with his soap.

After a few moments, Sunstreaker realized that the soap wasn't washing off the paint. He stared in horror as he realized that the soap wasn't soap, but glitter glue and he was now covered in silver glitter. Sideswipe made a sound of horror as he realized the same thing. Glancing at each other, the twins cried out in frustration before turning off the water and leaving the wash racks. Prowl was so going to pay for this. They stalked through the base once again, but this time they headed for Prowl's office. When they arrived, they heard Prowl's calm voice call them to enter.

"Prowl," the twins growled and Prowl looked up. His optics shuttered and his door-wings flicked erratically for a moment before he fought to keep the smile off his lips. Over his com-link, he called Jazz to come to his office.

"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, what can I do for you?" asked Prowl, valiantly trying to fight off his laughter.

"It's more about what you've already done," growled Sunstreaker, the bells hanging from his frame jingling happily as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"But…I haven't done anything…except my reports," said Prowl.

"Oh, don't play dumb," snapped Sideswipe. "We know it was you!" The door opened behind the twins and Jazz stepped into the room. He froze when he spotted them before he burst out laughing. He walked around them and stood next to Prowl as he laughed before he leaned against Prowl for support.

"Primus! What happened ta ya?" asked Jazz between laughs.

"Oh you would know Jazz," snarled Sunstreaker. "Prowl did this." Prowl smirked faintly.

"I have one question for the both of you," said Prowl and they looked faintly curious, especially because of Prowl's devious smirk. "Do you have any proof?" Jazz laughed even harder as the twins stared at Prowl with wide optics and dropped jaws. The black and white had just turned their own words against them since that was the same question they always asked him when he punished them for pulling pranks. "You two might want to get cleaned up. Oh, and Ratchet is busy today, so I wouldn't recommend going to see him."

"Alright mechs, out ya go. I wanna have some time with ma Prowler," said Jazz with a wide grin as he pushed the twins out of Prowl's office and locked the door. The silver mech turned back to Prowl with a predatory look and stalked towards Prowl in his office chair.

"Jazz?" asked Prowl curiously.

"Do ya have any idea how hot ya are when you're bein' all devious?" purred Jazz in Prowl's audio as he sat in the larger mech's lap.

"No, but I'm sure you'll enlighten me," said Prowl in a sultry tone.

In the hallway, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe stared mortified at the door before they rushed away. They did not want to hear that. Both decided it would be best to hide out in their quarters until they could see Ratchet, so they ran through the halls before locking their door behind them.

In the rec room, the few mechs who had seen the twins earlier that morning were telling the others about what they had seen. Most of the others didn't believe them and demanded proof. Around midday, Jazz and Prowl headed to the rec room for some much needed energon and Prowl smirked when he heard the topic of the conversation.

"I have proof," said Prowl and he was instantly the center of attention. "I somehow came into the possession of a video that recorded everything from the twins' awakening to the time they shut themselves in their quarters. If anyone would like a copy, let me know." Instantly, the others all begged for copies and Prowl gave Jazz a small smirk.

"Ya are one devious mech, love," said Jazz.

"Of course, I'm a tactician after all," said Prowl and Jazz laughed.