AN: Credit goes to Karategal, TheMoonlessNight and Hearts of Eternity for letting me borrow a couple of their ideas. Credit also goes to VioletLight.
Once again, I offer no excuses for the delay-all I can say is that I finally was able to get rid of my cold (everything went in the back of my throat, fun) and then I got sidetracked by some other fic ideas. Then while I was typing this out, Frenzy took over and well...here's the result. I'm personally really not happy with this, but I've went too long without updating this, so here it is.
Crazy
Prowl considered the datapadd in his hands.
"Going on Jazz's theory, there are several other deep-ocean submersibles with handler vessels that Shockwave could acquire."
"Pass that information onto Jazz and Secretary Keller-though I'm afraid we may be too late." Optimus ordered. "Then-" A rumble had him stopping, the lights flickering as the floor shook. "What the…?" Sirens went off, and Red Alert's voice came over the comm system.
Decepticon breach!
Nightfire screeched as she was swung up into her mother's arms, clicking in rage from being rudely awoken. Chromia paid her daughter's temper tantrum no heed, optics scanning the surrounding area.
"Come out you skittering bastard!" She snarled. How dare that piece of Decepticon scrap go near her sparkling?!
"Optimus and the others are on the way." Elita said from behind her, gun out and at the ready. Shifting Nightfire into the crook of her left arm, Chromia summoned her own plasma cannon, aiming it into the room.
"Come and take it like a mech, mini-'Con!" Hidden behind a stack of cleaning supplies, Frenzy hissed at the insult. Had this been a different situation, he would have jumped up-screeching and dispensing whirling electric death on the Autobots. But he couldn't do anything-he needed to contact Barricade to get him-after he got out of the city. The only problem with that was he was trapped in here…with one crazed femmebot after his lugnuts.
"Stupidstupidstupid!" Hissing, the silver 'bot snatched a white cloth and jumped up onto the cleaning supplies, waving it back and forth. "Trucetrucetruce-waaaaahhhhhh!!"
BOOM.
"Time to die!" Chromia roared; her spark singing at the thought of impending anarchy. She fired off another blast-resulting in Frenzy screaming again and making a run for the shower room.
"Trucetrucetruceyoucrazybit-" The insult was cut off as he slammed into a white and blue foot. Screeching in outrage, the silver hacker jumped back up-
And meet the optics of one very angry Mirage.
"…Eek."
"YOU!" The sniper roared.
"Mirage, try to trap him!" Elita bellowed. She took Nightfire from Chromia's arm as the sparkling screamed in rage. Mikaela she'd placed on a nearby shelf for safety-away from the rampaging Chromia. There would be no calming the silver-blue femme down unless Ironhide came,her sparkling was safe, and Frenzy was in thousands of pieces. The latter-considering the fact that they had a Decepticon all but living on base with them-was a bit of a bad idea.
"Aaaahhhh!!"
"Hush little one, it's okay…" The rose-colored femme crooned, stepping back towards the washrack door. Footsteps pounded outside-the door hissing open.
"What the Pit's going on?!" Jazz's voice.
"Frenzy-he got in here and discovered Nightfire!" Hearing her name, the sparkling screamed again not liking the current situation. She'd been recharging comfortably-all nice and warm when she'd been snatched out of her slumber-the screaming and gunfire was too harsh for her little audio receptors-all she wanted was her nice warm spot back.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!"
"Where's Nightfire?!" Ironhide bellowed, tearing into the washracks. His optics darted to Elita-and the wailing bundle of dark-blue wires. "Chromia?!"
"Shower room!"
"Little skittering bastard!" Mirage snarled, reloading his rifle.
"He's gone off my sensors again!" Hound barked from his hiding spot behind one of the showers. "How'd he get in here?!"
"Your guess is as good as mine!"
"diediediediedie!"
"Whoa!" The green scout ducked as several ninja stars whizzed past the spot where his head had been. "Primus!" Frenzy snarled and aimed his tiny machine guns, firing away at Mirage's hiding place. Then he yelped and made a run for a nearby vent as Chromia came roaring into fray.
"I see you!"
"Waaaaggghhh!" The silver 'bot went flying as a plasma explosion ripped the wall to pieces, landing with all limbs splayed out. Jabbering madly he attempted to get into another vent, but the somewhat-safe haven found its end via another plasma blast from Chromia. Having no choice now, Frenzy darted across the room, barely two steps in front of the gunfire that was being aimed at him.
"Stop running! You'll only die tired!" The silver-blue femme roared. Uttering one last screech of rage, Frenzy divebombed into the one remaining vent-and proceeded to run like Unicron himself was after him-deep into the air circulation system.
"Slag! Red Alert, target is in the environmental systems-I repeat, target is in the environmental systems!" Hound snapped.
Stand down! Came the order from Optimus. Mirage, Hound, report to the control room.
"But we can't just-" Mirage protested.
It's alright, Mirage. Ratchet has a plan to draw him out.
"That fragger is mine, Optimus!" Chromia snarled, optics starting to flicker red. "You hear me? I want his head to display on my wall!" Another snarl escaped her vocalizer as Ironhide came up behind her, grabbing her by the arms. "Let me go!"
"Nightfire's terrified, Chromia!" The black mech snapped. "I want his fragging head too-but you're scaring her!" As if to punctuate this point, Nightfire started to wail again.
"WAAAAHHHHHH!!" This was enough to snap Chromia out of her battle-rage, and breaking free from her mate's grip she hurried outside.
Thundercracker looked at the monitor.
"…It sounds like something he'd do." He finally ventured. "That was one thing about Shockwave-if he needed help, he'd get help-and wouldn't care where he got it from."
"He'll need at least three more of these submarines." Barricade rumbled, tapping on the computer console. "The fleshings have probably alerted the Autobots by now-but naturally it could be too late at this point."
"Not to mention that he'd need them to run the machines…" The Seeker mused. Looking around, he noticed the distinct absence of a certain coffee-sucking jittery hacker. "Where's Frenzy?" Barricade lifted his head, glancing around.
"…Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him for a couple of cycles."
"…Frenzy being quiet?" Thundercracker ventured. He and Barricade looked at each other for several moments, and then the computer console lit up.
BbbaricadeGggetmemeoutoutouthereherehere
"Frenzy!"
Autoautoautobotstryingtokillkillmegetmeoutgetmeout
"Where are you?!" Barricade barked.
AutoautbotCity! There was dead silence for a minute, and then Thundercracker clapped his hands over his audio receptors as Barricade exploded.
"WHAT IN THE PIT ARE YOU DOING THERE?! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FRAGGIN PROCESSOR?! I SHOULD LEAVE YOU DOWN THERE-"
nonononono! The black-and-white bit back a snarl-blast the skittering hacker to the Pit and back!
"Just get out of there-we'll come and pick you up!"
"Whoa wait-" Thundercracker had removed his hands from his audio receptors. "We? How the Pit did I get in this?" Then he stepped back as Barricade shot him a look that promised a long and painful death. "Nevermind."
Frenzy hissed as he disengaged from the terminal port. He'd dropped out of a vent to access a computer console-now all he had to do was get out in one piece and tell Barricade what he'd learned. As he was preparing to jump back up into the ceiling and skitter out-his sensors picked up on a very familiar aroma. Any and all thoughts of escaping, sparklings, even crazy Autobots flew out of Frenzy's processor-
"coffeecoffeecoffee!"
Prowl couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"…You are joking, correct?"
"Nope." Ratchet said cheerfully, watching as Mikaela poured out several cups of the dark liquid. "Sam and Bumblebee's stunt was useful in more ways than one. This'll get the little fragger out of hiding."
"But…that's not…" Prowl protested, his computer trying to make sense of what the CMO was doing.
"Don't Prowl, you'll only give your systems a glitch. Where's Nightfire?" The black-and-white shook his head, seeing that it was best to follow the yellow mech's advice.
"With Chromia and Ironhide. She's still pretty upset over what happened-they've been trying to get her to calm down for a while now."
"Good luck with that." Mikaela noted. "She was screaming something awful when I left-but you really can't blame her…" She stepped back from the coffee setup. "I'd be upset too if something like that happened to me."
"It seems he broke in here-with the intention of seeing if she actually existed or not." The statement had both Mikaela and Ratchet looking at Prowl.
"What?"
"He didn't hack any of our computers-instead, he just happens to show up in the washracks…right next to Nightfire. Doesn't seem like much of a spy job, now does it?"
"Primus…" Ratchet murmured. "While I'm inclined to go with Bluestreak's point of view on the matter in general, that just doesn't sound right."
"You don't think that Decepticon had anything to do with it, do you?" Mikaela asked worriedly.
"It's hard to tell at this point without sufficient data." Prowl said. "I'd like to think so-but it would be better if we had actual confirmation."
"Waaaahhh!! Waaaaahhhhh!!"
"Nightfire, hush…" Chromia crooned, gently bouncing the upset sparkling in her arms. "Please darling, it's alright…"
"AAAHHHHHH!!"
"Here." Ironhide rumbled, wrapping a blanket around his daughter and offering the stuffed cat. "Try this…" Nightfire's response was to click angrily and throw the plushie to the ground, wriggling inside the soft material. "Nightfire-"
"AAAAAHHH!"
"This is my fault." Chromia said, her tone upset. "I fritzed out and scared her-this is all my fault!"
"Don't you start." Ironhide rumbled. "It's over and done with-and Nightfire will settle down soon." He took his daughter from his mate's arms, not flinching as little fists and feet pounded against his chest. "If you ask me, you acted pretty controlled-if I'd been there, there wouldn't have even been anything remaining of the washracks."
"Still…" The silver-blue femme murmured. Nightfire screamed again-and then started to quiet, the soothing sound of Ironhide's pump slowly lulling her into relaxation. Sniffling, she snuggled in as close as she could get to that reassuring beat and spark-pulse, sticking several fingers in her mouthplate and blinking her optics tiredly.
"There." Ironhide whispered. "See? Everything's alright now…you're safe, your mother and I will take care of you. We won't let anything bad happen to you-that mean 'bot's going to get taken care of." No response, save for a tired 'click' from the sparkling. Shuttering her optics she let her frame relax, the higher functions of her CPU gladly shutting down for some much-needed rest.
Several floors up, a sheepish Frenzy was looking up at both Prowl and a smirking Ratchet. The hacker gulped, coffee forgotten as he un-subspaced his white towel and held it up.
"Tttruce?" This resulted in Prowl lifting an optic ridge.
"Truce? This coming from you?" The hacker nodded. "Why, pray tell?""Nonononomorefightfight. Onlywantedtoseesparksparkling." The towel was waved more energetically. "Trucetruce." Prowl shot a look at Ratchet, who stepped forward-gun in hand.
"Hands up."
"Waitwaitwait!" Frenzy jabbered. Dropping the towel, he quickly downed the coffee that was next to him, and then picked back up his towel and looked up at the medic. "Kkkkkk."
"Primus." Prowl muttered. "Did he just-"
"Yes he did. Move it, you." Ratchet ordered.
"Bbbarricade coming."
"We'll handle that. Be grateful you didn't get your head taken off by Chromia."
"Jjjjustwanted to see sparkling!"
AN: Credit goes to JediRose 13 for the 'run' line, and Teletran-1 for the 'whirling electronic death' line. They were just too good to pass up.
Next chapter: Barricade shares what he knows with the Autobots, and Shockwave finally reappears...