All the humans were woken up by Ironhide cussing loudly in Cybertronian and all of the Autobots nearly slamming on their breaks. Will was up the quickest, demanding to know what was wrong even as he was sitting up, while Epps and Fig simply groaned, the two muttering a few choice words at their rude awakening. Miles took the longest to get up, Prowl having to blow cold air out onto the teen to help him get out of his groggy state faster.
"There's a Decepticon up ahead and we can not get a hold of Wheeljack or Trailbeaker," Prowl explained. "All of you get out and unload the weapons from Ironhide. Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and I will go up ahead to scope out the area."
The humans quickly scrambled out of the Autobots and unloaded Ironhide as the three other Autobots disappeared off into the trees. As soon as Ironhide was unloaded he too went after the others, though he did wait long enough to make sure there was no immediate threat nearing the organics. The soldiers all collected their favored weapons, loading them carefully. After a minute Miles was given a bat.
"Wait..." Miles looked at the bat, before leveling a glare at Will. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"Sorry, we couldn't get you any flowers." Epps teased.
"Ironhide and Prowl said there was only one Decepticon up ahead," Will told the teen. "That 'con is currently going against Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Prowl, and Ironhide soon as well. I doubt even we'll need the guns; it's better that you just don't worry about one."
Miles groaned, but nodded. He knew better than to put up a fight over it since Will was more experienced and actually knew how to handle the weapons they had brought. The four quickly followed the path that the Autobots had taken, coming to a wide clearing. Off to the side they saw what they figured was an offlined and damaged Wheeljack with Trailbreaker, who was slowly losing the energy to sustain his force field. In the middle of the clearing they could see Ironhide, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe fighting a large Decepticon. They couldn't see Prowl anywhere. Slowly they moved closer until they could see the fight better.
"I know I volunteered for this, but no one told me I'd be signing up for Japanese tentacle porn with giant alien robots," Miles muttered softly, but none of the soldiers commented on it. The teen was staring at the fight with noticeable fear; if joking made him feel better than none of the older men would take that from him.
Ironhide, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker were all fighting one Decepticon, who seemed to have a mass of tentacles coming out from him and was fending them off fairly well. The soldiers watched the ongoing battle closely, each trying their best to see if there was anyway they could help. Miles just stood there, bat held close to his chest as he waited for someone to order him around so he could know what to do. Sideswipe ran over to the group of humans, then, the red Frontliner casting an imposing figure with the swords that none of the organics had laid eyes on before. He kept a close eye on the battle between Ironhide, Sunstreaker, and Soundwave, silently cursing to Primus that of all Decepticons to show up it would be that one. He adopted a defensive stance as he stood over the group of four, not bothering to actually glance at them as he surveyed the area and kept track of the ongoing battle.
"That's the Decepticons communications officer, Soundwave." Sideswipe informed them, the Autobot unusually tense as he waited for anything to come near them. "He's the reason we couldn't get through to either Wheeljack or Trailbreaker, and also because he knocked Wheeljack offline. Prowl got here first because we thought it best to wait for Ironhide and go for the three headed bull rush; we're pretty sure that between Soundwave and the cassetticons he was taken down. That's kitty, two birds, and earthquake. Prowl managed to destroy earthquake, though, so don't worry about losing your footing, but we don't know where kitty and the birds went. We moved Prowl off behind where Wheeljack and Trailbreaker are. We can't tell if he needs medical attention or if Soundwave just managed to K.O. Him."
And with that Sideswipe was gone, appearing next to his twin as they dodged and slashed at Soundwave in unison. Will looked around, making sure that the cassetticons he had talked about really were no where in sight. They couldn't see Rumble's body and they had no interest in finding it, though the Captain and the Sergeant started to debate whether or not they should try making their way to the opposite side of the field where Trailbreaker was.
Fig quickly smacked them both over the head, effectively shutting them up as he pointed at the fight. "¡Vistazo! That's three Autobots against one Decpeticon. Usually those odds pretty much suck for the side with less, but does it look like Soundwave is about to get his aft handed to him? It's like he can read their moves!"
"You're right," Will said as he and Epps returned their attention to the battle, "If we go for Trailbreaker we could distract our 'bots and the 'con would take advantage of that. They're all on top of their game right now, we can't afford that."
"How well does that Decepticon know their moves?" Epps asked, annoyed.
Will and Epps stood next to each other, examining the battle closely. It almost looked like some kind of weird dance, with Sideswipe and Sunstreaker darting in and around Soundwave to attack while Ironhide circled, dodged, and shot. It was Miles who suggested that Soundwave might be able to read their minds, recalling that Ironhide had mentioned something about a mech that could do that during his training sessions with him, the Weapons Specialist saying that his processor was his best weapon. It had been one of the few times Ironhide had told Miles to just start praying.
"So what are we going to do, then?" Epps asked once the teen was done explaining, looking annoyed. "Are we just supposed to stand here like lawn ornaments?"
"Let's just think for a moment," Will said, but his tone made it into an order.
Fig sighed, rolling his eyes upward as Epps went to snap something at their Captain, but that was when he caught sight of one of the vultures Sideswipe had mentioned. He gestured wildly at it, Miles turning to look as well, but Epps and Will were already in a quiet argument about what they should be doing.
"WILL, EPPS, DUCK!" Miles yelled, swinging his bat as hard as he could as both the Captain and the Sergeant did automatically just that.
When the bat came into contact with the metallic armor of the small Decepticon the resounding smack could be heard loud and clear. He could hardly believe it as Buzzsaw shrieked and flew up. The teen dropped the bat, feeling like his very bones were resonating with the force of the hit. Soundwave momentarily faltered as he turned to pay attention what was going on with Buzzsaw; Will noticed quickly with a small amount of dread that the Decepticon was now beginning to force the Autobots over to them. That, and Buzzsaw was shrieking angrily, swooping back around to attack them once more.
"Miles, get to Prowl and the others!" Will ordered, years of military training kicking in as he aimed at Buzzsaw's wing, only to miss when the Decepticon suddenly went into a dive.
Fig and Epps joined the Captain in shooting at the robotic bird just as Laserbeak flew over to help his twin. Miles obeyed Will without question or complaint, grabbing his bat up again and running over to where he could see Wheeljack and Trailbreaker. He had forgotten all about the force field until he ran right into it, the air just suddenly seeming to force him to bounce back. When they had first arrived it had been a somewhat opague thing, only allowing them a cloudy view of the two mechs inside. Since he hadn't seen it anymore he had assumed it was down, but now he rubbed his nose with a hand, reaching out and poking the force field to try and rationalize what he was feeling.
"I am sorry human," Trailbreaker said softly, drawing Miles' attention up to his face. "I can not leave Wheeljack, nor can I bring the shield down for you. Most of my energy has already been used up. Take this to Prowl, he should online soon."
Trailbreaker's servo came toward him, holding a small, clear container. Inside was the Allspark shard. The teen stared in surprise as the mech just dropped it outside of the barrier for him, belatedly diving to catch it.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Miles exclaimed angrily.
The teen was ready to argue with Trailbreaker, but he turned when he heard Ironhide yell. It was just in time for him to see one of Soundwave's tentacles reaching for him, dancing out of the way of it quickly so that it could be blasted with one of Ironhide's cannon. Even while that was going on Soundwave used the distraction to attack Sideswipe, causing the Frontliner to go down hard and forcing his twin to cover him.
Miles turned to see that the soldiers were having a bit more luck. They had managed to take out one of Laserbeak's wings, leaving him to attack from on the ground. Fig faced him, firing as Will and Epps continued to shoot at Buzzsaw. The teen did another turn until he could find Prowl, the Tactician's prone body just a bit behind Wheeljack and Trailbreaker.
Miles ran over to him, clambering onto his chest and looking him over. He opened his mouth to call Prowl's name, but froze when he heard movement in a tree. He shoved the Allspark shard container in his pants, holding the bat as if he was about to swing at a baseball. Glancing back at the others he could guess the 'con that he would be facing and he slipped off of Prowl, tightening his grip on the bat. If he could swing hard enough to hurt one of the robotic birds enough to send it flying away in pain then he could do the same to a stupid robotic kitty.
But when Ravage jumped out of the tree and landed in front of him, all his confidence fled. He had imagined something like a house cat since Sideswipe had said "kitty". The robotic panther in front of him was a huge and unwelcome surprise.
"Good kitty?" Miles tried, but by the way the Decepticon growled he knew this wouldn't be another Barricade.
He quickly turned around and ran as Ravage chased him. He turned just enough to look behind him and stumbled, realizing his mistake as Ravage leaped at him and sent him onto his back. He yelped as he felt the mech start to claw at his pants, knowing he was going for the shard. The cat worked quickly, somehow managing to pull Miles' baggy pants to his knees, ripping large holes into them with his claws. Miles had to push hard to get Ravage off him, quickly scrambling up and facing the Decepticon with his only weapon. He gripped the bat tight, holding a hitter's stance as the cat mech leaped at him again. He swung, the bat connecting hard to Ravage's face. He gave a victory cry as he watched the cat mech land on the ground ungracefully, hissing angrily.
He heard movement behind him, and he turned to find that the Tactician had levered himself on to one elbow strut and was looking at him. He grinned cockily at the mech.
"Welcome back, Prowler." Miles greeted, "Think we got this just about handled."
The teen had no warning outside of Prowl venting sharply, the mech's blue optics darting to something behind him. The next thing he knew he was crashing towards the ground on his stomach, the wind getting knocked out of him as Ravage's heavy weight settled on top of him once more and his face was shoved into the ground. He was barely able to suck in a shocked breath before the cat mech's claws were tearing into his back and arm. The teen let out a pained yelp, but it was muffled in the grass. He felt Ravage's weight suddenly disappear, but he didn't think anything of it as he groaned in pain, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. He had been unbelievably stupid, not bothering to check to make sure that Ravage was actually leaving when he had hit the Decepticon in the head with his bat, but hearing Prowl moving behind him had made him feel safe and he had turned without thinking.
The teen tensed when he heard movement again, but he quickly relaxed when he saw Prowl leaning over him from the corner of his eye. The SIC activated his holoform to look him over, and he hissed in pain at the touches.
"I think I made a mistake. Sorry," Miles apologized, and Prowl made an unintelligible noise as the teen reached into his shredded pants and revealed the shard.
"I think that you could have done something a lot worse," Prowl said after a moment as he helped the teen to stand up, "Like gone and died, or lost the shard altogether."
Across the field Fig could be heard giving a victory whoop as the soldiers finally took Buzzsaw down. Epps kicked the tiny Decepticon in the head as an extra precaution, but all of them jumped when they heard Ironhide cussing angrily in a mixture of languages. Soundwave was taking off into the air, quickly accelerating high into the sky as Laserbeak joined him. Cybertronian, English, Japanese, Spanish, French, and several that sounded as if they came from other planets left his mouth as Ironhide shot at the large Decepticon with his cannon.
Miles was amazed that the battle was over as simply as that. The teen allowed himself to be picked up carefully by Prowl, the Autobot moving them both over to Wheeljack and Trailbreaker. Sunstreaker helped Sideswipe over to them, the red Frontline leaning on his brother heavily, and Ironhide followed behind the twins with the soldiers in his shadow. Trailbreaker let the force field down completely as he finally relaxed, quickly falling into recharge after saying a few short sentences to his fellow 'bots in Cybertronian.
At the Nevada base
While the Allspark mission group battled Soundwave and his cassetticons, the sun shined brightly down on the NEST base in Nevada. Bumblebee relaxed outside in the sun, enjoying the warmth of it on his armor. For all the world it looked like he was merely sunbathing.
Sam walked over to his Guardian with a frown, placing a hand on the hood idly. He might not have thought anything about the Scout's apparent urge to sunbathe if he hadn't been sitting directly outside of the hanger that Barricade had essentially claimed as his own. The teen was about to ask why he was there when an enraged scream left the hangar, making him jump and reach for the door handle out of instinct, figuring the safest place was inside Bumblebee.
At that point Barricade stormed out of his hangar, his metal frame now a very bright pink. Sam let his mouth drop open in shock as he stared at the Decepticon Neutral for a moment. As amusement filled him he quickly covered his mouth with a hand, not wanting the already enraged mech to get angry at him for laughing.
"Slagging Autobot!" Barricade growled, glaring at Bumblebee as he sat innocently in his alt form. "You will pay."
The Allspark shard retrieval group
After making sure that Soundwave truly had left, the Autobots set about attending to any and all wounds on each other. Sideswipe needed a temporary repair so he could manage to change into his alt mode; he'd need to stay that way until they got to First Aid or else he'd not manage to change into it a second time. Prowl focused mainly on Wheeljack while Ironhide made sure Trailbreaker refueled and got his energy back up.
Miles sat on the ground in his boxers as Will checked over his back and the back of the arm that had been hurt, complaining about how he needed a new everything after Ravage. The teen had to wait until Prowl returned to his alt mode or stopped doing field repairs on Wheeljack before he could get the clothes he'd bothered to pack and change into them. Epps offered to buy him replacement clothing, surprising both Miles and Fig, although Will just gave his Sergeant a look. The Captain, at least, knew it was only because he had money from the bet he'd won because of the teen's fight with Barricade.
Once Prowl took care of all the medical work he could, the group left for Oklahoma, now accompanied by Wheeljack and Trailbreaker. This time, with Sideswipe and Wheeljack injured, they couldn't abuse Prowl's alt mode as much and took the journey back a lot slower. The soldiers almost unanimously decided to sleep on the way back to the western part of the United States, though they all took turns sleeping several hours at a time to make sure that one of them could be awake in case they were needed to talk to any other humans. Miles slept almost the entire trip away, the adrenaline crash hitting him hard.
When they arrived at the abandoned building that the two living Autobots and the dead Autobots' body were, it was already late at night. They were behind schedule now, and Miles was quickly woken up and ushered inside the building with the soldiers. There were very brief introductions and then all the Cybertronians just left the humans alone with Jazz's body. They did this so First Aid could give them all extensive checks, far better than Prowl would be at it, and so they could get some recharge. None of the humans complained, and not even Prowl complained about missing their deadline this way.
Fig looked at his two comrades, "Well what are we supposed to do while the 'bots are ignoring us?"
"Think they just want us to stay here like good little humans," Will said sarcastically, although there was a touch of bitterness to it.
That they weren't invited into the bigger adjoining room with the Autobots was a bit of a blow to the Captain. He knew it was partially because Inferno and First Aid were not used to humans, the two having been with Jazz's body since they had landed. But it was also because his Guardian was distracted and the twins and Prowl held no true love for a specific organic yet, though the twins seemed to be getting on surprisingly well with Fig. Without Ironhide to play spokesperson then they were left in the dust.
But just because he could understand why didn't mean he liked it. It left him, his men, and the teen stuck to fend by themselves for however long the Autobots decided to leave them alone. Miles had already found a nice corner for himself, the teen careful with how he sat, but the room itself was pretty spare. Outside of Jazz's body there was literally nothing inside of it. He knew that Jazz's body was only in such an odd location because Ratchet had hidden it, even from Optimus initially, so the government could not force them to do one thing or another with it like they had Megatron's. This gave First Aid plenty of time to repair Jazz to what would have been a working state if he'd had a spark.
"Maybe we should try to bring Jazz back?" Miles asked, "I mean, do we really need to wait for Ratch?"
"Well, I do have the shard..." Epps said, taking it out of one of his back pockets. "Pretty sure Prowl meant to get it but forgot. Think all of them are too damn tired."
Epps looked at Will and the Captain raised a hand to gesture that he was thinking. He wasn't sure that it was the best of ideas, but he figured that at the worst the Allspark shard would only work for a Cybertronian. After all, it would make sense.
"It should be safe," Will looked at Jazz's prone form, "Sam handled it in Mission City and even used it to kill Megatron with no backlash. Worst case scenario, and what I think will be likely to happen, is that you just won't be able to get it to work at all."
"Me?" Epps asked, "Why does it have to be me?"
"You're the one with the shard," Miles pointed out, and Will nodded, grinning.
Epps cursed under his breath, looking to Fig for support, but the Spanish man just shrugged his shoulders. With a sigh he quickly accepted his fate, removing the shard from its' container and holding it in his hand. He moved closer to Jazz's body to look at it, then walked around the silver frame, looking for the best way to do what he wanted.
The Sergearnt had just decided to climb his way onto Jazz's chassis when Miles spoke up again.
"Let's just pray that it doesn't do anything freaky to you," Miles said, his tone obviously joking.
But Epps froze, stuck half hoisting himself up onto Jazz's chassis and half wanting to push himself back down. He couldn't stop himself from wondering about just what the shard could do to him. Could it make him into some weird cyborg, join his soul and Jazz's so that they lived on in his body together, or in Jazz's body together? What if it sent it's energy into him and he became like the Cybertronian birthing unit, or if it changed him into a Cybertronian completely? Would it make him into one like the mountain dew dispenser in Mission City, would he be himself anymore? What if it killed him?
"Epps?" Will called, seeing his friend frozen while still in the process of climbing Jazz. "Epps, earth to Epps? Jesus, Miles, I think you broke him!"
"You mean Primus," Epps corrected, only somewhat sarcastic. "And it's nothing. If I don't make it tell everyone I love them. Including Barricade and Mojo."
"Do not be over dramatic, pendejo!" Fig laughed, "Why would the shard do something to a human?"
That made him feel a little better. Epps finished climbing Jazz, looking at the very obviously repaired line where the mech had been welded back together. The Saboteur had died long before any of the soldiers had managed to talk to him well enough to get to know him, but he'd heard stories after arriving at NEST base about how awesome the mech had been.
"Well, what the fuck am I supposed to do?" Epps asked after a moment of staring down at Jazz's body.
"Try putting it in the spark chamber?" Will suggested, his tone falsely sweet. "Since that is where the spark goes, after all."
Epps shot a glare at his Captain before moving closer to the open space in Jazz's chassis. He knelt down, trying to decide what exactly he should do with the shard, but that was when he realized he wouldn't have to put much thought into it. The hand holding the Allspark shard was going oddly numb and he watched in surprise as it seemed to move of it's own accord. He averted his eyes as his entire body jerked forward so that his hand could go inside of the spark chamber; he heard an audible click as an almost painful heat seemed to blast outward from the chamber at him, followed by a bright light.
He threw his hands up to protect his eyes, the Allspark giving him back control of his one arm, but within seconds the bright light faded. He kept his eyes clenched tight just in case until he heard a whirring sound and something sliding shut slowly. Then Jazz was shifting underneath him, Epps opening his eyes to a cannon being pointed directly in his face and a bright blue visor looking at him.
"Aw, come on," he couldn't help but whine, "Ironhide's supposed to be the trigger happy one!"
This seemed to make Jazz falter, the mech deactivating his weapon and looking around. Battle protocols had been some of the first to come online; he had felt something near his open spark chamber and reacted accordingly. Now he was trying to understand where he was and gather any clues about the room he was in, but outside of the organic on him the only other things in the room were three more organics.
Glancing at the human on top of him again once he was sure he wasn't in any immediate danger, he slowly accessed his memory files. The last thing he remembered was arguing with his Prime under the bridge after Bumblebee had been taken away by the people from Sector Seven. He didn't see anyone he could recognize, but the colored human had said Ironhide's name, and he could recognize standard military uniforms.
"We should probably call one of the 'bots in." Will said softly, not wanting to startle Jazz anymore than the mech already seemed to be. "First Aid, maybe."
The newly reactivated Autobot sat up without thinking, knocking Epps off his chest. The Sergeant let out a loud curse, expecting to land roughly on the floor but surprised when he was caught in a large servo instead. He looked up at Jazz again, and while he couldn't read anything on the mech's faceplates, he could only guess that it was a sort of apology for knocking him off and scaring him. That, or he might have thought Ratchet was there as well and considered hurting a fragile organic a bad thing.
"I'm Sergeant Robert Epps," he said as he introduced himself, grinning. "But you can call me Epps, Jazz-man. The other guy who just spoke is Captain William Lennox, or Will. Then there's Technical Officer Jorge Figuora, or just Fig. Little dude is Miles Lancaster, but he's just a civvy."
"Where am Ah?" Jazz asked, taking another look around and trying to scan for any nearby spark resonances. "When did First Aid get here?"
"We can't tell you when he got here since we don't know, but the rest of the 'bots are in the other room. We had a run in with Soundwave while retrieving the Allspark shard from Wheeljack and Trailbreaker; the scientist, Prowl, and Sideswipe were injured and need to be seen by First Aid." Epps explained.
Will started to speak then, assuming his roll of leader perfectly as he briefed Jazz on everything that had happened. He started all the way back in Mission City, from when Jazz had been torn in half, then the subsequent win of the Autobots and death of Megatron. How the government had allowed the NEST base to be created, how Miles had found Barricade and the mech was now a Decepticon Neutral, and then why they had been going to get the Allspark shard in the first place. He kept it relatively short, but ended the briefing with the battle they'd had with Soundwave. He put more detail into that, letting the Saboteur know just what injuries had occurred specifically.
While Will was filling Jazz in on just about everything, Fig went and got the other Autobots. Epps and Miles waved to them as they filed in, surprised by the odd looks on their face plates. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were looking at Jazz in obvious shock, the rest of the mechs not fairing much better. It was finally Prowl who stepped forward.
"We are happy that Jazz is back, but what in the world gave you idea to do it on your own?" Prowl asked, looking at the humans. "The consequences of contact with the Allspark are unknown to you."
"Sam had prolonged contact with the Allspark when it was whole and even used its' energy to destroy Megatron," Epps pointed out. "If that had no effect on one of us then we didn't think that something as small as this would have one, either."
"Well Ah thank you for thinking to do this, Epps." Jazz practically purred, "It's fragging good to be back."
"We thank you as well," Prowl agreed, though he seemed reluctant to do so. "But now I suggest you organics go do whatever you want to. Sleep, preferably, so that we do not have to worry about you getting into anymore trouble."
Will might have spoken up for that blatant brush off and disrespect if Ironhide hadn't shaken his helm minutely behind the Tactician. The Weapons Specialist was giving Prowl an annoyed look and that was the only thing that actually gave the Captain some comfort; at least not all of the Autobots agreed with Prowl's treatment of them. The Tactician wasn't usually this bad, though, and that was his only saving grace. It seemed that on the mission he had reverted to being as he had when he'd first shown up on the base, thinking that the humans were nothing more than a nuisance that had to be watched over so they wouldn't hurt themselves.
"We might as well listen to them," Will sighed, because all of the Autobots had disappeared back into the other room. "Don't really have any other options. We don't know how far the next town is and we don't have a car, sentient or non."
The other three sighed as well, but decided to listen. They all made their own places to sleep, Epps being the first to fall asleep while using his knapsack as a pillow. Miles noticed this and from his spot on his sleeping bag he grinned, whispering to Fig and Will about how they could mess with the Sergeant. Will might have protested if he didn't think something to amuse the teen was such a good idea, not that he couldn't use a bit of amusement after what a disaster the mission had turned into.
Epps woke up slowly to a sinus headache, unsurprised that his throat was dry and sore after a few days of continuous illness. He couldn't tell what time it was, but from the way the birds were creating a ruckus outside he decided that it was probably too damn early and that he could afford to keep his eyes closed just a little longer. He heard the muffled sounds of movement; ped falls on concrete and the distinct clacking of Will's boots. He heard them pause directly beside where he was laying and he couldn't help but wonder what the hell was going on.
"He's… different, a'ight." Jazz spoke softly. "Do humans usually do this?"
Will spoke up, voice sounding oddly strained. "N-no… We never change like that…"
Epps felt his heart drop into his stomach, that irrational fear that the Allspark shard would do something to him creeping back up.
"Do you think it's because of what he did for me? Ah'd hate that…" Jazz said, trailing off.
"Estimado Dios…" Fig muttered. "Will, we should… Should go tell his family…"
"Y-yeah." Will replied, and Epps could hear them walk towards the door. Heard it open and then close. It felt like his body had seized up with panic, not wanting to open his eyes or alert them that he was awake so that he wouldn't have to face reality.
"Slag, he's so different." Jazz said softly. "Ah don't think Ratchet would be able to do anything for 'im."
"How's he going to react?" Miles asked. "He'll be devastated."
And at that it finally seemed like Epps could move as his eyes snapped open and he looked at the ceiling.
"Oh God! Oh Primus! I'm… I'm…" He knew he sounded near hysterics but he couldn't bring himself to care, bringing his hand up to his face to examine it. "I'm… black?"
Epps stared at his completely normal looking hand for a bewildered moment, before the sound of choked laughter reached him and with a flush of anger he realized that he had been duped. He turned his head and saw Will and Fig beside the door, hands over their mouths as their bodies shook with laughter. Miles was further into the room, laughing so hard that he was nearly silent. Jazz even appeared amused, a lot more life showing up on the mech's faceplates compared to the night before.
"Seriously? Fuck you guys!" Epps snapped, sitting up and giving them all the darkest look he could. "I hate all of you."
"Sorry, mah man." Jazz apologized, though he didn't sound the least bit apologetic. "The young one can be very convincing."
"This means war," Epps warned Miles, though the teen didn't seem to be able to stop laughing long enough to care. The Sergeant sulked, "And Jazz is on my team from now on. You already have Fig and Will apparently, slaggin' traitors."
Will just smirked at him, his Captain and Fig starting to tease him about how easily he'd been duped while Miles collected himself and wiped at his eyes. Epps pretended to ignore the both of them, chancing a look at the Saboteur instead. Jazz was looking at them all with amusement and the Sergeant was happy to see that the mech seemed to be enjoying his life, even if it had led to an embarrassing wake up call for him.
Nearly an entire day later and they were almost back to the Nevada base. There were only a few hours left to go, Sideswipe and Wheeljack still ordered to take it slow so that their bodies could have a break. Those hours were planned without any pit stops. The humans had all been fed and allowed to use the restroom a final time so they could finish the trip as quickly as possible. Epps had switched from riding in Sideswipe to riding in Jazz. Neither of the 'bots minded, Jazz liking Epps just a bit more than the other humans because Epps was the one to bring him back and he was taking the time to introduce the mech to some excellent Earth music. Sideswipe minded even less because this made it easier for him and Sunstreaker to have private conversations with just Fig listening in.
Unbeknownst to Prowl, Jazz had dared Miles to annoy the strict 'bot as much as he could. Though he knew some of his other Autobots hadn't picked up on how the humans felt towards Prowl, excluding Ironhide, he saw it and recognize why it was happening. He also knew that if something didn't happen as a sort of catalyst to bring them closer together then things would quickly get rough for both sides, so the Saboteur decided that some good natured pranking wouldn't be amiss. It would ease the organics' feelings for a bit and perhaps make the SIC realize his place better. So far it had been going perfectly with the teen asking pointless question after pointless question, gum, drinks, and a number of other things that had easily set Prowl off. The SIC was about on his last nerve concerning the human, and Jazz couldn't wait to see what he would do when it broke.
Epps and Miles were the only humans still awake. Originally it had been because when they crossed into Nevada they both wanted to annoy all the 'bots until they honked their horns, but now just neither of them could fall asleep. The teen hadn't been able to sleep peacefully since his adrenaline crash, his back too sore and raw from the run in with Ravage. There wasn't much room to actually lay down in Prowl in the first place, much less to do so comfortably on his stomach. The Sergeant just wasn't able to sleep, awake on a mixed cocktail of sinus medicine and strong coffee.
Both humans were surprised when Prowl suddenly announced that he was contacting the base.
"Prowl to base," Prowl said alloud, letting the two humans know that the base was being contacted. "Base come in."
"This is base." Barricade's voice came over the radio, and all of the Autobots on the mission were surprised by it. "Barricade here, with the insect and Prime."
Miles quickly spoke up before Prowl could say anything else, "Barry! I'm never cheating on you with another Cybertronian who has a cop car alt mode again! Prowl won't let me do anything! He's banned me from asking questions, answering questions, drinking anything, and even chewing gum! He's no fun at all!"
"You dropped the gum on my floor." Prowl replied calmly, having expected Miles' out burst.
"I sneezed!" Miles defended himself, "It's a natural human thing and you know it!"
"You squirted the liquid all over my dashboard," Prowl pointed out, obviously struggling to keep his voice calm and devoid of annoyance.
"That was all Epps fault!" Miles accused easily, huffing in false anger. "He's the one that mentioned sixty-nining with Jazz! Just to get me to do it, I tell you! It's a conspiracy!"
Prowl let out an annoyed sound, "No talking from now until we get to the base, Miles Lancaster. Since you are a minor we count as your guardians, and society claims that you must abide by our rules."
"What?" Miles sputtered angrily as Epps started laughing his ass off over the radio connection, "You can't ground me!"
"You dropped gum in me, sprayed liquid all over my dashboard, fought with me to get me to honk once we crossed the Nevada state line and then attempted to honk me yourself, kept trying to use the sunglasses and hair dryer whenever we stopped to scare people, and there have been many other offenses. You even managed to trip my glitch and we were just lucky I wasn't driving." Prowl listed off each offense clearly, voice growing more and more annoyed as he even began to raise it. "I believe I have every right to ground you and I may even throw you in the brig when we get back. You are almost as annoying as the twins."
Miles was silent for a moment, and then he grinned. "Are there any rules that I broke in that rule book thing you mention all the time?"
"…No." Prowl admitted reluctantly, "But you are still on silent time unless you wish for me to let Ironhide practice his aim on you."
Miles groaned, while Jazz and Epps laughed. With the teen threatened into silence, Prowl began to tell his Prime about the injuries that had occurred and any loose ends, like Soundwave, that still needed to be taken care of. After awhile Miles started to tap out morse code on his dashboard, hoping that Barricade would recognize it and be able to catch it.
At the Nevada base
Optimus Prime had been waiting for Prowl's call for awhile, knowing the mech to be nothing if not punctual. He had invited Barricade and Bumblebee to join him in wait for it, the Scout and Ratchet already automatically able to join the radio call if they wanted, though it needed to be broadcasted for the Decepticon Neutral as he didn't have access to that particular comm frequency just yet.
Bumblebee and Barricade had joined him, then immediately had done several rounds of what the humans called 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide just who could answer when Prowl finally called. The two had been going back and forth the past several days, getting the closest they possibly could to fighting without actually coming to blows. When the Scout had painted Barricade, Optimus had finally decided to step in and order him to clean it all off. Bumblebee had sulked then, and now after his loss at the human hand game, he was sulking again when Barricade responded confidently as soon as Prowl tried to connect with them. Whatever Prowl was going to say in response was quickly interrupted by Miles, though, and the three Cybertronians listened in silences as the SIC argued with the teen.
The Scout and the Prime were in shock as Prowl actually raised his voice at the teen, but Barricade just allowed himself a small smirk.
"Figures one of you stupid 'bots couldn't put up with what I can put up with on a daily basis," Barricade said smugly.
Neither Optimus or Bumblebee bothered to reply to him. They listened as Prowl filled them in on all the injuries that had occurred during the mission so that Ratchet could be prepared to make sure everything was okay upon their return. Then the Tactician went over just who it was they had battled and just who had been so thoughtful as to bring back Jazz; as he talked they could hear an odd taping sound in the background, but he didn't comment on it and neither did they.
"Jazz is do-" Prowl started to say, before actually growling. "Would you stop that infernal tapping?"
"Sorry." They heard Miles reply a second later, and the tapping stopped.
"As I was saying, Jazz is doing fine." Prowl finished shortly, obviously frazzled by the teen. "That is all the immediate information you need for our arrival, Prowl out."
Optimus and Bumblebee looked at each other in wonderment at Prowl's annoyed behavior. It was then that they both received a comm from Jazz, the Saboteur explaining just what he had been having Miles do, and the two started to laugh.
Barricade was too busy replaying the entire conversation from his memory files to care about why the Scout and Prime were laughing. He'd guessed at why Miles had been making a tapping noise, and sure enough, once he'd played out the entire message, he found a message from the teen.
"I'm sorry," the code translated to. "Over and out."