Chapter 2
It took about a gallon of energon and the combined efforts of Jazz and Trailbreaker to finally get the exhausted medic into his room and onto his recharge berth.
"Man, I really hate seeing the Doc like that." Jazz shook his head slightly as he and Trailbreaker quietly walked away, trying not to disturb the Autobots in the surrounding rooms.
"Yeah." Trailbreaker said. "He's wearing himself out. We've got to do something before he hurts himself."
"No argument from me." Jazz paused at an intersection. "I'll go ask Prowl t' juggle the duties around so that the Ratch-man can get some uninterrupted shut-eye fer a change. Then I'll give Prime the 411 an' tell ol' Wheeljack t' keep his head down fer a bit."
"Sounds like a plan to me. Do you think Prowl will be up?"
Jazz paused to check his internal chronometer. "Yup, his shift starts in 'bout ten. G'nite 'breaker."
"'nite Jazz."
"This is stupid." Ramjet grumbled. "What's the deal about bagging this one Autobot? Why not get 'em all?"
"Because if we take out this one, they all start to fall apart, stupid!" Thrust shot back.
"Hey, at least we get 't maul a couple of 'em first." Frenzy piped up. Ramjet's expression brightened up noticeably. "Yeah, we do, don't we?" he grinned malevolently.
"Pipe down!" Thundercracker hissed. "Do you want the whole country to know that we're here! Now get into your positions."
Grumbling, the other mechs complied and quickly concealed themselves as they prepared to settle down for the long wait.
The common room was filled with the usual commotion as the next shift came in to check out their duties for the day and get a cup or two of energon. Bluestreak, a mug of energon in hand, ran his optics down the duty list to see what he had been assigned. "Aw no! I got monitor duty with Red Alert again!" he moaned.
"Hey Bluestreak, can you check what we're up for?" Sideswipe yelled from where he and his twin were seated.
"Um, says here you've got patrol with Mirage." The gunner called back. "Sunstreaker's still on light duty and no driving, so he's got comm duty with Blaster."
"Lucky you." Sideswipe teased his twin. Sunstreaker muttered something and returned to his drink.
"What patrol route have we got?" Mirage asked, suddenly appearing at Bluestreak's side. The gunner flinched and stifled a yelp. "Route four, through the foothills." He replied when his fuel pump had settled down to its normal rhythm. "Do you mind not creeping up on me like that? It's kinda annoying almost jumping out of your paint about twice a day and I'd hate to…hey, where'd he go?" Bluestreak looked around, but the spy was long gone.
Prowl, looking as calm and collected as ever, was seated before the massive screen of Teletran One, scrutinising the latest sensor data. Behind him, the warriors assigned to patrol and sentry duty chatted as they waited for the OK to go. It was a daily occurrence, the officer on duty checking that each fresh shift would be safe outside the Ark's rock and metal walls before sending them out.
"Hey," Bumblebee tapped one of the tactician's door wings to get his attention, "we clear to go yet?"
"I'm running a final sweep." Prowl replied, drawing his door wings slightly up and out of the minibot's reach with a faintly irritated expression. "There was an anomaly in the north west quadrant."
"Anything we should be worried about?" That question came from Wheeljack, who was peering over the black and white's right shoulder.
"No." Prowl replied, resisting the urge to lean away from the mech invading his personal space. It was rather silly, but there hadn't been any explosions from the inventor's lab in over a month and Prowl knew Wheeljack was doing something with sodium and other very reactive metals, so he had no wish to be in range if Wheeljack spontaneously exploded.
Wheeljack, sensing the other's discomfort, backed off. Prowl was too disciplined to let out a sigh of relief and ran his optics over the readouts displayed on Teletran's screen one more time.
"Well?" Bumblebee prompted.
"All clear." Prowl answered. "Dismissed."
As the Autobots clattered out, Prowl couldn't help but feel a slight, nagging suspicion that something was going to happen today. With a slight frown he shrugged it off and returned to his duties, but not without an occasional flickered glance at the screen looming above him.
