Part 2

Prowl sorted through the last of the dispatches for the day and neatly filed them, his body working on autopilot while his mind pondered the strange lack of developments in the search for the pranksters. A thorough search of the crime scene had revealed nothing of value, as had the investigation into Teletran's mainframe. Jazz was no help either, but thankfully he had recovered quickly.

The door hissed open and Prowl looked up. Wheeljack and Chip entered the cramped office. "Hey Prowl, any progress?" Chip queried.
"Unfortunately not." Prowl grimaced. He bent down and gently picked up the human, wheelchair and all, and placed him on the desk. "Here is the file on the first incident," Prowl began, propping up two data pads so that Chip could see them, "And here is the second."
Chip swallowed a laugh when he saw the magenta jet. "So, any known pranksters who don't have an alibi?" He asked.
"Not one." Prowl grumbled, or as near a grumble as anyone could get from the Datsun. This case was irritating him to no end with its astonishing lack of progress.

Chip leaned forward and scrolled through the data on Jazz's file. "Hey, isn't this glue the same stuff that Ironhide has?" He queried.
"Lemme take a look." Wheeljack said, picking up the data pad. "Yeah, it looks the same to me."
"But Ironhide was in the repair bay until this morning." Prowl pointed out. "He could not be the culprit."
"But it doesn't mean that he didn't have something to do with it." Chip replied. "He could have been the supplier."

"True. But I would prefer to have more evidence before making a move." Prowl said, leaning back in his chair and rubbing the bridge of his nose in annoyance, doorwings twitching slightly. "Perhaps we should just let the twins deal with this. They were quite successful the last time we had a prank war."

Chip laughed. "Yeah, but I think you'd want to keep the culprits all in one piece. Ratchet would have your head if he found out."
"Hmm." Prowl mused. "Though it would dissuade any other closet pranksters, it would be no doubt an unpleasant experience to have one's head separated from one's body."
"Ask Prime, he could give you a dissertation on it." Wheeljack chuckled, 'ears' flickering as he laughed.

"You know what?" Chip said suddenly. "I think we're trying too hard."
"What do you mean?" Wheeljack asked.
"Well, if you want to catch a thief, you don't track them down, you set a trap." Chip explained with a sly smile. "What better way to flush out a prankster than announce that you know who it is, and within earshot of the twins? You already said they were very effective the last time they had competition. If I were the prankster, I'd be running for the hills if I heard the twins were after me."

Prowl and Wheeljack exchanged a glance. "That might just work." Wheeljack mused.
"Indeed." Prowl nodded. "I suggest that we wait until the pranksters strike again before making our move, and that we keep this between the three of us."
"Agreed." Chip and Wheeljack chorused.

0o0o0

They didn't have to wait long before the pranksters struck again.

The day shift had just gotten off duty when there was an audio-splitting yell. Tracks shot past the door to the common room, trailed by a cloud of Monarch butterflies.

"What the frag?" Ratchet blurted, running to the door to get a better look. Sure enough, about a hundred of the orange and black insects were fluttering down the hallway, hot on Tracks' trail.
"Is somebody getting' a recording o' this?" Jazz asked, barely containing his laughter.
"On it." Hound called back, grinning from audio to audio.

Ratchet twisted around to shoot a black glare at the twins, who were sprawled on a couch and too exhausted to bother getting up to take a look.

"It wasn't us!" Sideswipe protested. "We were on patrol all day! I got the dents to prove it!"
"Good idea though." Sunstreaker added. "I wonder how they managed it?"

Perceptor scanned the air. "I believe that the culprits may have coated Tracks in Monarch pheromones." He announced.
"Okay, that's original." Ratchet said, one optic ridge raised in surprise.
"Quite." Prowl deadpanned. He looked at the twins.

"Like I said, not us." Sideswipe said in response to the Datsun's silent inquiry. "We wouldn't know what those phero-whatsits are, much less how to get 'em."
"We could find out who it was though." Sunstreaker offered.
"No thankyou, Ratchet has enough work as it is." Prowl answered.
"Aww, spoil-sport." Sideswipe pouted. "We could have had some fun with these guys." He joked, flexing his fingers.

At least, Prowl hoped he was joking.