Streak Into Danger
Requested by Prowls little angel- *points* That's where the blame goes! Muhhahahha
HUGE THANK YOU to: Kimmie98, Elita-2, KayleeChiara, mdnytryder (good to see you back!) angelcakes19, guest1, guest2, SEXwho94, AD Axel, Lovely Rain Dancer, StarLitDawn, Starfire201, Aura Black Chan (keep trying!), Osprey2012 (no plans yet but I'll keep you in mind), VaRa129 (good to see you back as well!), Blitz-Krazi-1, Guest3, DitzyMusicLover, Guest4 (Jazz was never a good fortune teller) and Prowls Little Angel
*Hugs to all!*
And I'm sorry ya'll but I have to say no to requests right now. Even having worked on three and having them close to being done, I still have nearly a dozen and I want to work on the ideas people tossed my way. All ideas are important and count, its just I don't have time to write as much as I would like. So I want to get those people caught up first… not to mention I have about 25 ideas of my own that need fleshed out. I'll let ya know when I'm open to ideas again… but its going to be at least until January… muse willing.
ENJOY…
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'Prowl to twins,' Prowl called over the comms.
'Sideswipe here,' the ruby Lamborghini answered immediately. There was a soft growl in the background that was Sunstreaker's offer of affirmation.
'What is your present location?' Prowl asked, his engine open to its fullest extent.
'What's yours?' Sideswipe asked in a sultry manner. He noted the Second's strained voice and wanted to goad him into a potentially perverted conversation.
'No playing, Sideswipe!' Prowl snapped. His voice was harsh as his engine started to red line. 'There is a high pursuit chase in progress and though I have sufficient modifications, I am unable to keep up with the suspect. I am in need of assistance.'
'What is your current location?' Sideswipe asked, grabbing his brother from the auto parts store and dragging him to the parking lot. Before he could finish the sentence, Prowl's location was pinged. 'ETA thirty-one seconds.'
Sunstreaker followed his brother out of the parking lot. Both hit the highway and though Prowl would blow a gasket if he found out, they engaged emergency sirens. The slower traffic immediately pulled over, giving the two Lamborghini's free reign. With the wind rushing through their grill, the duo gained the last of the pursuing patrol cars, disengaging their own sirens for fear of reprisal. Like a mechanical ballet they wove expertly between the slower human vehicles until Prowl's rear bumper caught their attention.
'There is a police intervention set up within the next three miles,' Prowl reported, his engine whining in protest to the extended exertion. 'Get the suspect to that location, but do not engage yourself.'
'Come on, Prowl, we're big bots,' Sideswipe cooed, his engine purring in contentment. He brushed past the patrol car, his EM field offering an affectionate tingle that was answered with an annoyed growl. Sunstreaker followed suit, though he waited until there was ample room and zoomed out in front of the patrol car. He flashed his taillights with a mocking reflection of Prowl's own lights before taking a substantial lead next to his twin.
'Do not pursue the suspect. Just get him to the police line and they will handle it from there,' Prowl warned, watching as the twin Lamborghinis easily outpaced him and raced to the horizon.
'Oh, yummy,' Sideswipe called when he noticed the conveyance of the suspect. 'Human must be smart, evading police with a Ferrari.'
'It's stolen,' Prowl added, dropping his speedometer to a more sedate pace, though he was still cresting the one hundred mark.
'Pity,' Sideswipe said, admiring the curves and angles of the Lamborghini brethren. "Makes it all the more pitiful that its going to have to be messed up.'
'Do not engage the Ferrari!' Prowl snapped, knowing he just sealed so many fates. What was he thinking, bringing the twins into the chase? Other than they were the closest Autobots, their engines were built for such pounding of pavement, and both were more than apt at subduing in both vehicular and root mode. Still, Prowl didn't know what had overcome his senses to make such a rash and now obviously idiotic, decision.
'I don't need to engage it,' Sideswipe crowed over the comms. 'I just want some bumper with no commitment.'
'Gross,' Sunstreaker grunted. The thought of laying a servo on a non-sentient vehicle seemed wrong to the golden warrior. He'd rather have some sass with his interface. Quiet, disinterested, vacant company was not what cranked his pistons.
'Hey, a bot can dream,' Sideswipe added with a laugh, gaining on the red Ferrari.
'Sideswipe, fall back!' Prowl yelled over comms. 'Sunstreaker! Disengage now!'
'We can deal with this Lamborghini wannabe,' Sideswipe answered, accelerating just a bit and inching closer to the other red bumper. He was a full car length away and sending his twin giddy sensations across the bond that Sunstreaker ignored.
'The humans are going to deal with it and you will be caught in the middle!' Prowl yelled, wanting so badly to throttle two bots for not listening to him. Well, he should have known. When either were going over one hundred, their audios shut down. Jazz was guilty of the same flaw as well, but rarely did the Porsche disregard Prowl's direct orders.
'Just tell the humans to move out of the way,' Sunstreaker said, flanking the other speeding Lamborghini. He was so close to Sideswipe, they could feel each other's energy field rippling in excitement.
'They already have,' Sideswipe yelled, noting the road ahead was devoid of black and white barricade. 'I think they're going to let us deal with it.'
'Good,' Sunstreaker said, barely noticing the pattern of scattered law enforcement. Something seemed off. He just didn't know what.
'Brake now!' Prowl screamed, seeing the fast cars meters away from the police cars lining that section of road.
The twins' answers were lost in the ensuing chaos. The Ferrari, being one length ahead of its chasers, was the first to suffer the first pangs of defeat. The twins faired no better as they crossed the unexpected threshold just a second behind the other Italian masterpiece. Loud reports filled the air. Brakes were slammed, rear ends fishtailed to compensate. The smell of boiling rubber and burnt oil filled the air that was punctuated with dual screams of pain.
The twins came to a shuddering halt, their frames shaking so hard it rattled their plating and made it appear as if they were suffering internal earthquakes.
A man staggered from the Ferrari in a daze. Sunstreaker took a mental capture of the man's visage before howling again in torment as he rolled to the berm. He came to a stop with his frame shuddering hard enough to loose the plating.
'Ratchet!' Sideswipe called on all frequencies. Terror and pain was lacing his voice as he made the call. Sunstreaker was glad he didn't make the call. He'd be mortified if he allowed others to hear that tone coming from his vocalizer.
'What?' Ratchet answered, sounding like a scared teenager caught doing something they shouldn't.
'Help!' Sideswipe pleaded, caring less if others listening to the comm. would hear his desperate plea.
'Location?' Ratchet asked, but his question was answered before it was finished being spoken. Prowl sent an emergency call for assistance and the exact coordinates of the downed twins.
'On my way,' Ratchet called, having already gained the entrance to the ARK and transformed. He was joined by Jazz, Hound, and Ironhide. Prime was inside the ARK gathering troops for the second, auxiliary wave.
Ratchet tried to hail the twins but both only answered in simpering whimpers and pained cries. It was enough to wretch the spark right out of the medic's chest. Whatever had befallen the two, it was bad.
When the Autobots pulled up it was find Prowl kneeling beside of Sunstreaker. The humans were keeping well clear of the Autobots, several packing away items in their trunks and looking anywhere but the mechanical aliens. Jazz and Ironhide went to Sideswipe and found the ruby mech unresponsive.
"Just allow me to.." Prowl was saying, but Sunstreaker cut him off.
"No! Don't you dare touch my circuits until Ratchet gets here!" Sunstreaker snapped. The pain in his voice was tangible.
"I am only offering to assist," Prowl stated, looking toward the pounding of pedes along the highway. "Had you obeyed my direct command, all of this could be avoided."
"Shut up you slagging piece of glitched up scrap!" Sunstreaker shouted. Any other verbal bashings he intended toward the SIC were drown out by guttural cries and violent shaking.
"Sunstreaker! What happened?" Ratchet asked, coming to the golden mech's side and shoving Prowl out of his way.
Sunstreaker rattled his plating with the tenacity of pain rippling through his frame. All four tires were blown and his chassis should have been resting on the asphalt due to the mangled rims, but Sunstreaker was hovering over the concrete, his frame shaking with the exertion to keep himself aloft.
"Slag it, you're going into stasis whether you like it or not," Ratchet said, unable to take the heaving whimpers coming from the disabled warrior. He knew Sunstreaker protested to being unconscious but when circumstances were this dire, there was little alternative.
"Prowl, you fragging bastard!" Sunstreaker snarled as Ratchet popped the hood and connected to the downed warrior. "You'll pay for thi…"
Sunstreaker's systems shut down like a power outage. He sagged onto his mangled rims, earning a hideous, grinding squeak as he lowered to the pavement. When he was sure Sunstreaker was in deep stasis, Ratchet grasped one of the mangled wheels and held up a twisted piece of metal that didn't belong to a Lamborghini frame.
"What is this?" Ratchet asked, turning to look at Prowl with a curiously dark expression.
"The humans employ effective means of immobilizing those engaging in reckless driving," Prowl stated, noting the growing darkness across Ratchet's visage.
"What is that thing?" Jazz asked, hiding a shudder at the cruel looking device.
"Humans use two variations of the same tactic," Prowl explained, nodding toward the miniature piece of barbed wire. "That one is called a 'Jack', while the long stretch of metal that was thrown across the highway was called a 'Spike Strip.'" Prowl looked to Jazz's shocked face and added, "It's not what you think."
Jazz took a closer look at the 'jack' held in Ratchet's servo and felt a shiver run through him. It looked like metallic tumbleweed. Who would devise something so heinous? And it was more than scary such things were called 'spike' strips. The thought made another shudder run through the Porsche.
"Humans run over these instruments and it blows their tires, allowing them to slow their vehicle and submit to arrest," Prowl explained, his own engine was having a hard time cooling down from the exertion he put on it. He was going to have Ratchet give him a once over when they got back to base, damage to the twins permitting.
"And the twins ran over these…. These… " Ratchet growled, holding the offending object up between thumb and forefinger in front himself and the SIC.
"They were warned to cease the chase and fall back," Prowl said with indifference as the silent threat was waved so close to his chassis.
"You know those two!" Ratchet thundered, tossing the metallic tumbleweed aside. It bounced across the asphalt where an officer picked it up and added to the patrol cars trunk. "They're idiots! They're like hounds on a scent. You send them after something, especially something that's fast, and they'll run it into the ground or until they demolish it!"
"I had not considered such flaws when I radioed for assistance," Prowl said, now feeling a little guilty. Both mechs were in bad condition due to his oversight. He steeled his resolve and hitched his doorwings in a display of superiority. "I will not make the mistake again."
"You better hope you don't," Ratchet growled, seeing Prime appear in the distance. "Because if you do, I will insert those jacks into every available port I can find and be rest assured I will not be gentle nor biased to their location."
Prowl suppressed a shudder at the thought. He offered a nod of understanding, knowing that even in such circumstances, Ratchet had full medical authority and could override every single mech in the command, including Optimus. He was the true back strut of the Autobot command chain. Who knows where the crew would be if Ratchet wasn't around to fix their self inflicted accidents and crazy schemes. Wheeljack alone could be a museum centerpiece.
Prime pulled up, transformed, and looked between his berated Second and still fuming Medic.
"What happened?" Prime asked, already getting a sinking feeling in his tank.
Ratchet was livid. There was a chance some bot, probably Prowl, wouldn't last the night.
"Jackaft here didn't think and sicced the twins on a Ferrari which resulted in them running over barbs that not only punctured their tires but managed to inflict a lot of damage to their rims," Ratchet reported, giving the two silent hoods a fatherly look before turning his attention back to Prime. "And there is a good chance that the 'Jacks' bounced up into their undercarriage, causing untold damage."
Prime remained quiet, his attention going to Prowl. Prowl flinched with a doorwing but held under the heavy gaze.
"I did not realize the damage that could be inflicted." Prowl said in all honesty. He had seen the police devices used many times with little to no damage done to the errant vehicle, aside from punctured tires.
"Lamborghinis are built for speed, which means their frames are low slung to hug the road," Ratchet growled, throwing a dirty look to Prowl. "They are so low only a sheet of paper can pass under them when they're opening their engines. What were you thinking, sending them toward such devastating devices?"
"It was an oversight that you have my solemn vow, will not happen again," Prowl said, watching as Jazz and Ironhide picked up Sideswipe and carried him toward Prime's awaiting trailer.
Ratchet gave an angered huff and left the guilty Praxian with Optimus. The two exchanged one quick glance before following Ratchet.
"Hold on a minute," Ratchet called to Ironhide and Jazz. "Hold him up so I can get a look at the damage to his undercarriage."
Both bots complied, though with Jazz's shorter nature, they weren't able to hoist the Lamborghini very high. Ratchet's growling exhaust was the answer. He knelt on the pavement, looking at the multiple punctures, leaking hoses, and to his great annoyance, the cruel metal jack embedded deep in Sideswipe's fuel tank. Ratchet rose to his pedes and called attention from the gathered Autobots.
"Sideswipe's fuel tank has been punctured and the jack is still stapled into place," Ratchet nodded to Sunstreaker's inert form as Hound and Trailbreaker offered to lift the unconscious mech for transport. "I'm guessing Sunstreaker is in similar shape. I don't think it's safe to lower them on their undercarriages."
"We can hold them," Ironhide offered.
Jazz gave a reproachful glare. He was as strong as any Autobot, but he didn't have the strength to keep Sideswipe's inert form hovering for too long.
"Prowl, take Jazz's position and assist Ironhide into Prime's trailer for transport," Ratchet ordered, jerking his head toward the stunned Porsche.
Prowl riled with the order but complied. He was closer to Ironhide's height so holding the disabled Lamborghini between them wouldn't be as taxing.
"Carry them inside and sit yourselves down if possible," Ratchet instructed, Hound and Trailbreaker making an excellent impromptu hover-berth. "Try not to let their chassis touch the ground."
Prowl took two steps with his burden before there was a soft tinkling noise followed by intense pain on the bottom of his right pede. He hopped with pain, causing Ironhide to jostle Sideswipe to compensate.
Ratchet marched past, optics focused on getting the twins situated inside the trailer. He offered a caustic, "Suffer with it," as he passed and directed Hound and Trailbreaker in a comfortable position with Sunstreaker's inert form balancing between them.
Prowl winced with every step, the spike now buried in his pede refusing to allow him to put full weight on the cruel edge. He hobbled into the trailer, gratefully took a seat, and adjusted Sideswipe's framework on his knees. The ride back to base was bumpy and painful. Little pieces of Lamborghini would fall off or an errant piece of twisted metal would dislodge from its anchor and clatter to the floor.
It took Ratchet and Wheeljack over eight hours to repair each Lamborghini from the damage done by the spike strips and tire jacks. When Sideswipe came to, it was to find Prowl seated on a berth beside of him, his lap filled with datapads.
"What are you doing here?" Sideswipe asked, his body tender and aching all over.
"I am awaiting medical care," Prowl said without looking up from his work.
"How long have you been waiting?" Sideswipe asked, hearing Ratchet exit his office and storm to greet his two favorite menaces.
"Four days," Prowl answered, shifting on the berth and wincing from the pain along his pede. He had personally removed the barb from his foot, but Ratchet had refused to repair the circuitry and wires.
Sideswipe rolled his head toward Ratchet, who was checking over Sunstreaker's vitals. The golden twin was still unconscious, though the gentle brush of his spark was still sending signals to his brother in a constant motion.
"Four days?" Sideswipe asked as Ratchet joined him by the berth. He knew better than to try to get up. Ratchet would throttle him. Not to mention his body was so sore and stiff, he didn't think he could move without yelping.
"And it will be longer, providing the healing rate for the both of you," Ratchet said, noting the discoloration around the weld marks. The repair nanites were still hard at work.
"Us?" Sideswipe asked, blinking owlishly at Ratchet.
"Prowl's injury is minor and will be healed within a couple of days," Ratchet said, placing a cube of energon by Sideswipe's head and plopping a bendy straw in the liquid. "When the two of you are sufficiently healed, I will see to Prowl's repairs. Until then, he is to suffer along with his victims in the hopes that he will remember this folly and not repeat it in the future."
"Fix him,' Sideswipe said around the straw. When Ratchet's face turned dark, Sideswipe added, "He's learned his lesson, Ratchet. There's no need to be cruel."
"I beg to differ," Ratchet growled.
"Don't punish him for something we did," Sideswipe said, and his voice took on a strange lilt. "It's not Prowl's fault we didn't listen. We hardly ever listen to him, so its own our fault that this happened. Please, Ratchet, just… fix him."
"Didn't know you cared," Ratchet groused, already retracting his digits to expose the tools he would need for the minor repair.
"Had enough of that kind of punishment in the Pit," Sideswipe admitted, startling both mechs with his admission. "It's not right to punish one for another's mistake, least of all, someone we were trying to help."
Prowl felt his tank clench. Now he was feeling twice as guilty. How could Sideswipe DO that? The mech could make you hate and love him at the same time. It was supernatural! And more than just a little annoying.
Ratchet didn't know how to respond. Instead he turned his attention to Prowl and said, "This will take an hour, two at most. Afterwards, you are to keep off this pede for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, have your work brought to your quarters and keep your leg elevated."
Prowl nodded, already comming his request to Jazz, who he knew would add some of his own datapads to Prowl's 'homework.'
"Thank you," Prowl said first to Ratchet, then turned to Sideswipe and repeated, "Thank you."
Sideswipe smiled and captured the straw, drinking his cube in silence. He and Sunstreaker had learned a long time ago that pain is an excellent teacher. And this lesson had been well learned.
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Next posting will be a request but I'm not saying whose. You'll have to tune in and found out.
Reviews are loved and appreciated!
(Good? Bad? Been done to death?)
