"No sign anywhere?" Jazz asked once Mirage was back at the base. The three Stunticons had reported only a blocked connection, and most of command was worried about the lone racecar.
"The Combaticons have taken over the Stunticons' old quarters," Mirage replied. Jazz would have gone himself, but Prowl was close to generating enough protoform for the sparkling to be safely extracted into a frame. No way he was going to miss this event even if it would take about a week for the frame and spark to sync up enough to online. "Wherever he's gone he hasn't left any sign on the Nemesis."
"Dead End says he's online and not damaged enough to leak through the block," Jazz shrugged. "Wildrider thinks he's joined a cult; Breakdown thinks he's escaped and is hiding from Motormaster."
"Like the cult of the redwoods some are claiming caused the current fertility?" Mirage asked calmly drawing a laugh from both. "You know Ratchet isn't going to forgive you for that anytime soon."
"It wouldn't have caught traction if he hadn't sparked up Wheeljack at the same time," Jazz grinned. "Keep an optic out for the punk; he's hiding out there somewhere."
"Ready?" Ratchet kept professional but he was still faintly agitated at the missing frames. It was unlikely the Decepticons had stolen them, but any intrusion in his domain made the chief medic irritable.
"My systems are at optimum levels," Prowl confirmed as Jazz helped him kneel on the berth. Jazz's job was to make certain the carrier didn't collapse onto the frame Ratchet was positioning in front of them.
Once everything was in place Ratchet extended a cable and synced up with Prowl's systems. The medic searched out and triggered the dormant coding. Following the protocols Prowl's chestplates opened and his gestation port spiraled open. Ratchet and Jazz helped him lean forward as the small blob of protoform and spark slipped out and fell into the open chestplate. Ratchet quickly closed the chestplate as Jazz helped Prowl lean back.
"Congratulations, in about a week you'll have another active creation to help drive you up a wall," Ratchet said as he scanned the frame.
"We better call in Bluestreak and Dead End to meet their new sibling," Jazz said softly smiling at the still frame. He swore he could hear systems slowly beginning to activate.
"In a moment," Prowl replied a smile also gracing his face.
Beachcomber crept further into the tunnel few Autobots bothered to use even though it opened up into a large series of three caves. Deep in the back of the last he found Sludge looming over the two missing frames carefully placed on a ledge. "Him Swoop spot twins," Sludge said stroking his finger gently across one of the chestplates before looking up at Beachcomber. "Me Sludge got big frames for big sparks."
"I can't wait to meet them," the minibot smiled as he pressed against Sludge's leg. Soon they'd have their own sparklings to cuddle.