The next orn in the lounge, Jazz was sitting at one of the larger tables with a group of mecha, talking, joking, and trying to be even friendlier and more likable than usual. He still had a lot of work to do to repair his relationships with Midnight's team and their friends.
Murk came up behind him. Jazz had been watching the mech out of the corner of his optic, and he wasn't really surprised, though he had to fight the urge to turn around.
"Hey mech," he said when he judged Murk to be within hearing.
Something hit him from the side, knocking him out of his chair. He was ready, though, and got out of the way before Murk could hit him again.
"Hey!" he said.
"You think you can replace Swallow don't you? You think you can take her spot?"
"Calm down, mech, ya're overcharged," Jazz said.
"It's your fault she's gone. Your fault she's locked up."
"Murk," Jazz said.
Murk attacked him.
Mecha jumped out of the way as they crashed into a table, and the whole room went quiet for a moment, and then exploded as mech realized there was a fight going on. Jazz tried to disengage at first, but gave up on that when one of Murk's blades cut a deep gash in his arm.
Mecha started calling out to them. Almost everyone was encouraging Murk, but Jazz had a few on his side. The two grappled on the floor. Murk was a very good fighter, but he was overcharged and angry. Jazz let instinct take over and in half a breem he was kneeling on the other mech's chassis, and Murk's own knife was stuck halfway into his chest plate, right above his spark chamber.
The room went still.
If Jazz pushed down, it would be over.
Murk lay, staring up at him, venting in deep, pained gasps.
If Jazz didn't kill him, Murk would probably come after him again, and next time Jazz might not be ready.
He leaned forward a little and the knife slid in farther.
"Please," Murk gasped. "Please…"
Jazz hesitated. Murk was proud, and would never beg for his own life, but Jazz could see in his optics that he was asking for Swallow. They were bonded, and she was alone in some cell somewhere. If he offlined…
"Kill him!" someone said.
An echo of a voice whispered in his audios. "Please, please don't kill me…"
Jazz sighed and yanked the knife out. Murk screamed and mecha came forward to help him up as Jazz got up and walked back to his table.
He watched as some mecha dragged Murk to his pedes and supported him out of the room. He'd probably made a few enemies this orn, which was the opposite of what he needed to be doing. Branchbinder wouldn't be happy.
That was too bad for Branchbinder.
That off-cycle, Jazz couldn't recharge. He lay on his berth, visor retracted, looking up at the faint patterns the light his optics made on the ceiling.
He didn't have anything else to do. He'd hacked all of Quantum's database, everything that he could find at least. He still had work to do regaining everyone's trust, but that wasn't something he could do during the off-cycle.
He couldn't leave, because they had a tracker on him. He was pretty sure where it was. Getting it off would be a mess, though, and Branchbinder would probably still catch up to him, even without it. And in any case, he had nowhere to go.
It was easier to stay here for now, keep his helm down, keep killing, keep sinking deeper into the darkness. Really and honestly, that was all he was good for.
But he couldn't recharge and he needed something to occupy himself with. Midnight and Murk and the others would never really forgive him. They couldn't—he'd gotten their friends killed to protect some random bystander. He needed to make that right somehow.
He sat up. He'd been toying with the idea of breaking a rule. He was pretty sure he'd get in trouble for it, but it was the sort of rule that was primarily there because no one could pull it off.
Jazz was certain he could do it, though, and if he was fast enough, Branchbinder wouldn't catch up to him in time to stop him. His visor slid back down and he opened his door and made his way through the building. Plenty of mecha were up at this joor—there weren't quite as many around as there normally were during the on-cycle, but he still ran into a few on his way out of the base.
Outside was the same way. This part of Polyhex got more dangerous in the off-cycle, but only marginally less crowded. Jazz drove since it was faster than walking. His alt mode was standard, normal, difficult to pick out in a crowd. But he knew Branchbinder was probably already after him.
He made it to the detention center that Murk had said they'd taken Swallow and the others to. It was all fences and force fields, down to the lower levels of the city. Getting in was one thing and getting out was one thing, but getting in and then out again without being seen by the guards or the mecha he was trying to rescue… that would be a feat.
Furthermore, he didn't have much time to come up with a plan because if Branchbinder showed up, the game was over.
It would be all right, though. Jazz knew how this sort of thing worked, and he already had an idea about how to get in. He had done a little research on the way over, and he knew that some mecha were due to show up for work in a few breems. He hid in the shadows of the nearest building to wait.
Right on cue, a pair of prison guards came driving in for the start of their shift and stopped at the front gate to let themselves in. Jazz left the safety of the building and darted in with them, using their shadows as cover until he could hide in the corner between the ground and the outer guard house. The guard in the little booth exchanged a few words with the two who'd just come in as he checked their ID's and then they left. The gate closed.
One barrier crossed.
Jazz took a deep vent and crept around the bottom edge of the booth. They kept the outside of the detention center very well-lit for obvious reasons. Jazz might need to find a way to turn off some of those lights.
Not now, though. One thing at a time. He made his way to the door of the guard booth and hacked it open. It slid back into the wall and he ducked down again, waiting for the guard to come investigate. Hopefully something as mundane as a faulty door wouldn't prompt him to call for back-up.
Jazz wasn't disappointed. The mech stuck his helm out the door and looked around. Jazz shot him with a stun blast and then caught him before he hit the ground. He supported the unconscious mech back into the booth and propped him up in his chair before closing the door.
"Ok, friend," he said quietly. "Let's what ya got in here."
The guard's subspace procured an ID chip, as well as a few other useful things. The booths' computer system was well-protected and it would probably take Jazz a few breems to hack into anything important. That was time he didn't have, and besides it might not be connected to the central building's computer system.
He had some good camera feeds, though, showing the outside of the building. They'd done a good job setting it up—everything overlapped and there was nothing you couldn't see. If they'd been paying attention, they'd probably seen Jazz sneak in.
And he couldn't figure out how to control the cameras or change their angles. Well then, he'd just have to be really fast. There was one place the cameras didn't cover really well. If he could get there…
He climbed up and magnetized himself to the ceiling of the little guard house. The magnetism wasn't quite strong enough to hold him there, and he had to cling to the ceiling tiles with one hand, but that was all right—he wouldn't be here for long. Using a laser torch, he cut a hole large enough that he could fit through, but didn't climb up to the roof yet.
Instead, he maneuvered himself so he could stick his helm up above the roof just a little bit and look through the sights on the nice energy rifle he'd found in the guard's subspace.
From the top of the guard building, three of the cameras mounted on the walls of the main building would be able to see him. He missed twice, but managed to take them out with only five shots. Then he climbed all the way out onto the roof of the guard building and looked up at the main prison. He made a mental note to get himself some sort of grappling hook. He'd been thinking about it for a while, but now he regretted holding off. He did have a rope but even if he could throw it that far, he wouldn't be able to swing over there without dipping into view of the cameras. Actually… the distance and angle were such that he'd crash into the ground.
Well…
He got out his rope and made a sort of makeshift grapple at the end with materials from his subspace. Then he judged the distance carefully—he only had one shot—and threw. He didn't dare vent as it flew through the atmosphere, over the top of the roof, landed, slid a little, and then caught on something.
He gave it a few experimental tugs to make sure it was stable. Then he pulled it taut and dropped back down with the end of it into the guard booth. He secured it tightly to a sturdy-looking pipe coming out of the wall, and went back up to the roof. He didn't have to swing across if he could climb, but he needed to move quickly. Time was running out. They'd be out to investigate the damaged cameras soon and he had to disappear before that happened.
He climbed up the rope quickly—it was easier since it was at an angle, not vertical—and got to the roof of the main building. The grapple had hooked onto what looked like part of the ventilation system. He checked, but unfortunately the vents were too small for him to fit into.
Oh well, he'd already had another idea about how to get in. He went back to the edge of the roof and started climbing down. About halfway up there were these big floodlights. They lit the ground really well because they were bright. Too bright to stare at directly. Jazz maneuvered over to one and clung to it, holding as still as he could. You could use shadows to hide, but you could also use light.
He didn't have to wait long before the door opened and several guards came out. He watched as they looked around, and discussed the rope that stretched from the top of the guard booth to the top of the main prison. They were probably already sending someone up to investigate the roof.
He waited until no one was paying attention, then dropped quietly to the ground and slipped in through the front door.
Now, there would be cameras in the inside of this place too, and he was probably showing up all over them at the moment, but as soon as he could find a way into the computer system, he could fix that. Hopefully no one would get too close of a look at him before then. He dashed down a side hallway and found a closet to hide in. He had paid attention to where the cameras were and he was pretty sure he'd managed to avoid enough of them to keep him hidden for a few breems. He got out a datapad and plugged the booth guard's ID chip into it. Then he used that mech's access code to get a pede in the door—as it were—into the main computer system. He found the camera controls and moved some of them to give him a clear path, then he selected an empty cell and logged himself in as a prisoner under a fake designation.
Then he crept through the halls, hacked the cell door, and locked himself inside. They would be looking for him, but no one would look for him in an occupied, locked prison cell.
Sure, if they did find him here, he'd be in trouble, but he did have some advantages that most prisoners didn't. Weapons, for example.
He sat with his back to the cell door and turned the datapad's screen downward, angling it so neither mecha outside or the camera in the corner of the cell could see it.
And then he started messing with things. First he replaced the hallway camera files that he'd shown up on with empty looped files. If anyone had seen him on them, only their memories would still hold his appearance and that wasn't enough to run any face recognition programs, especially since he had a visor.
He watched remotely as they swept the building, looking for the intruder. They checked closets and rooms and even the ventilation system. They ran diagnostics on the computer system as well, but Jazz's hack was almost completely untraceable and unnoticeable.
He put the datapad in subspace when he heard footsteps down the hall. A guard came past with a datapad of his own, probably checking to make sure all the prisoners were present and accounted for. Jazz leaned against the side wall, turning so the guard wouldn't get a good look at his faceplate. He walked past, and Jazz smiled slightly and shuttered his optics. Now he was in and safe. He just had to wait until they were no longer looking for an intruder, and then he could break Swallow and the others out.
It took a while. In that time, he set everything up, adjusting camera angles, and working his way into every system in the whole building. By the time things had calmed down, he had control of all the doors, lights, and cameras. He plotted a route for Swallow and the others, set everything up, and then broke out of his cell. He got out another, smaller datapad, as he crept to Swallow's cell and left it just outside the door for her to find. It had some simple instructions for her.
Then he set things in motion. He turned some of the lights off, locked guards in hallways, took over the building's comm. network, and shut down security everywhere.
Then he remotely unlocked the cells of all the Quantum mecha.
He watched on the cameras as Swallow stepped out, looking around, and picked up the datapad. He hoped she'd trust it enough to follow the instructions.
She did. She got all the others together and left the building. Jazz followed, making sure the coast was clear, until they sneaked out the back. When they reached the force field, Jazz turned it off so it was safe to climb over the fence. He followed them out over it and waited for them to disappear into the city.
They would make it back all right. He hoped they wouldn't get in trouble for being rescued. They could just claim they'd broken out.
Jazz was probably going to be in trouble, though.
He looked up at the stars. He could run. Maybe he should. He was pretty sure Branchbinder would be back at base waiting to punish him… if the assassin wasn't lurking in the shadows somewhere.
He knew where his tracker was now. He could take it out, and then they'd never be able to follow him. He was pretty sure he'd be able to disappear.
He heard sirens and ducked around a corner. On a whim, he broke into a nearby skyscraper and made his way silently up to the top floor and then out onto the roof.
He locked the roof access door behind himself, and went over to the railing. From there, he could see the detention center He watched the commotion below, pulling out a small knife and playing with it as he did so.
Leaving was a possibility, but a dangerous one. He'd have to be careful about Branchbinder hunting him down, but if Branchbinder tried to kill him at this point, it would almost be an even fight. And Branch would have to find him first. Jazz was good at hiding.
No, the real reason he hadn't left yet was that he actually liked some parts of this. He smiled down at the flashing lights, the enforcers and the prison guards. He'd pulled that off so neatly that they probably still had no idea what had happened. He'd slipped his friends out right under their olfactory sensors.
If he left Quantum, where would he get opportunities to do things like this?
He looked down at his knife. If he cut out his tracker and left, then where would he go?
Branchbinder commed him.
Jazz hesitated, then answered. "Hey, mech," he said brightly. "Ya're up late. What can I do for ya?"
"Are you coming back here, or do I need to go fetch you?" Branchbinder's voice was low and threatening.
Right. Jazz was in trouble.
"And don't sound so pleased with yourself. You know this means you're going to lose the privilege of leaving headquarters altogether now."
Jazz looked back at the detention center. That reminded him of what Lithium had said to him.
If you test your boundaries, Branchbinder will tighten the leash, little turbo-pup.
He'd been right about that.
"Jazz! I said are you coming back or do I need to bring you back in pieces? I will do it."
"Ok, ok," Jazz said. "Calm the frag down. I'm coming back."
Jazz turned to walk away from the railing, and more of his conversation with Lithium played through his helm. Seems like there ought to be a way out, doesn't there… well there isn't one.
But there was. Jazz could leave right now if he wanted. It wouldn't be any harder than breaking out of that detention center had been…
And he could probably get his friends out too.
He hesitated.
He was pretty sure the twins wanted out. And he knew other mecha as well—mecha he was keeping an optic on, but hadn't wanted to tell Branchbinder about. He could probably list ten or twenty off the top of his helm who would leave this life behind if they ever had a chance.
He could give them that chance.
It would be difficult. He'd have to outsmart Branchbinder—frag, he was the one who was supposed to prevent that sort of thing, so he'd have to outsmart himself.
He smiled as he headed back to the roof access door.
That sounded like a lot of fun.
Branchbinder and two of Hegemony's bodyguards were waiting for him at the back entrance of Quantum headquarters. He didn't resist as the guards put stasis cuffs on him and dragged him through the building to Hegemony's throne room.
They threw him to the ground in front of the mech who currently called himself the leader of Quantum, and Jazz waited for someone to address him, or give the guards orders to start beating him.
Silence stretched out for almost a breem.
And then Hegemony spoke.
"Are you afraid?"
Jazz let himself look up at the dark-colored mech. "Afraid? I… well, I know I broke some rules… that generally leads ta getting hurt, so… yeah, I guess I'm scared. Shouldn't I be?"
"I just wondered," Hegemony said. He looked thoughtful, not angry like Branchbinder. But then again, rumor was Hegemony almost never lost his cool, even when he was furious on the inside.
"Do you know why we have that rule, Jazz? About not trying to rescue mecha from detention centers."
Jazz got to his pedes, which was a little awkward while wearing stasis cuffs. "Cuz… it usually just leads ta more mecha ending up in detention centers?"
"Yes, there's that," Hegemony said. "It's very dangerous. But leaving those mecha there also makes enforcement feel like they're in control—like they have a say in how we operate. Take that away and they stop playing nice with us. If someone really important ends up in prison, we can always barter for their release, but it's good to let them keep a few every once in a while, just so they feel like they have power over us."
Jazz felt cold—maybe he should have tried running. What if they decided to kill him? He might—might—be able to take Branchbinder in a fight, but he couldn't beat all of the mecha in this room all at once.
"However," Hegemony said. "You did manage to break those mecha out. All by yourself too. That's a kind of impressive that we can't ignore. So I don't think I'm going to have you killed."
Jazz vented deeply, relieved.
"In fact, I think Branchbinder has trained you enough."
"What?" Branchbinder said.
Hegemony looked at him.
"I apologize for my tone," Branchbinder said. "But he's still barely more than a mechling…"
"Yes," Hegemony said. "And he's already outgrowing you. Don't worry, I'm not promoting him above you, just moving him to the next stage. Jazz."
"Yes?"
"From now on, you answer directly to me. All of the rules Branchbinder gave you—and more—will apply. And don't think you can talk back to me like you talked back to Branch. He likes it—I don't. If you want to try something like that stunt at the detention center, ask me first. I'm occasionally willing to permit that sort of thing, if you're confident that you'll be successful. But if you fail or disobey me, I will keep trying different consequences until I find one that is effective."
Jazz took a moment to process that. More than one thing was changing this off-cycle.
"You'll still be doing what you did before. I'll leave you on Midnight's team, and I want you to continue looking for traitors. I might have you hack some things for me as well, now and then."
"Do I get a raise?" Jazz quipped.
Hegemony stared at him.
Jazz looked down. "Sorry, Sir."
Silence stretched out for a few astroseconds and then Hegemony nodded slightly. "If you want one," he said. "But not until you've proved yourself. I hear you've fallen out of favor with your team. Repair that damage and we can talk about giving you more credit. That's all in the future, though. This off-cycle, you broke several very important rules."
Right. Jazz looked down at his stasis-cuffed hands.
"First, empty his subspace."
One of the guards held him while Branchbinder accessed his subspace and started removing things from it. There were a lot of odds and ends. Empty energon cubes, knives, interesting pieces of gravel, various different electronic devices, games, vials of energon additives, data chips…
"Well," Branchbinder held up his datapad. "I think I confiscated something like this from you once, when I caught you hacking things you weren't supposed to hack."
Oh yeah. There was that too. He hoped they gave it back. It had taken ages to format it the way he wanted it.
Eventually his subspace was empty. They let him go and he backed away from the guards and Branchbinder.
"You can have all of that back in a few orns," Hegemony said. "Once you're out of the dungeon. Mechs."
All four of Hegemony's bodyguards advanced on him. Running or fighting would be useless while he was in stasis cuffs. But even knowing that, it was difficult to hold his ground.
He let them knock him down, shuttering his optics, trying to vent deeply. It was just pain. Nothing unusual.
Jazz came online slowly and then just lay there, optics shuttered, waiting for the agony to recede. It didn't.
Eventually, he tried to shift into a more comfortable position, but that really just made things worse. The stasis-cuffs on his wrists made it difficult, but he eventually managed to sit up. His energon levels were low, and he could feel things shifting around inside of him that he was pretty sure weren't supposed to move. He sat against the wall. Maybe he should just shut himself down again.
He wished they hadn't taken everything from his subspace. He'd had some serious painkillers in there. Stuff you couldn't get at your local energon depot.
He took in a deep vent and started the process of shutting himself down. Not everyone could do it—fighting unconsciousness was a natural instinct, and it took a lot of control to knock yourself out, especially if there was anything to distract you.
It took Jazz a couple of tries, but eventually he managed, and blissful nothingness enveloped him.
The next time he woke, he was a little more alert—enough to spend some time studying his surroundings by the dim light of his optics. He was in a tiny rectangular cell. It had solid walls, and the door was solid as well, with a small barred window up at optic level.
He'd never been here before. Branchbinder had locked him in his room once or twice, but the dungeon was for mecha on normal teams. If you got in trouble with your team leader, they could have you brought here and stuck in a cell for a couple of orns with no energon.
Jazz certainly hoped he wouldn't be here for a couple of orns. He was already wishing he had someone to talk to. He knew there were other cells around them, and some of them must be full. He might be able to start up a conversation with someone else in the dungeon…
But he also needed to come up with a plan.
He had a lot of work to do. He wouldn't have Branchbinder hovering over him anymore, which was nice, but Hegemony would probably be almost as bad. And you did not cross Hegemony.
Jazz needed to be more cautious. And he needed to start building up a network of mecha who could help him. It would be risky to involve other mecha, but he didn't have enough information on his own. He schemed and planned until his energon dropped to critical levels, and then he shut himself down again.
He came online when someone suddenly lifted him to his pedes. He fought weakly for an astrosecond, but that hurt too much so he went limp and let them drag him out of the cell. He wasn't quite strong enough to walk, so he ended up getting mostly pulled along for a while.
Then he collapsed and had to be carried.
He tried to pay attention to where they were going. They stopped eventually, in front of a very familiar door and took the stasis-cuffs off. Jazz gasped as fresh agony shot up his arms. Those cuffs had been on far too long.
The door opened and they tossed him in.
"Hey! I'm fragging closed."
"Then kick him out," the guard said. "But Hegemony won't be happy if he offlines."
Lilac growled. "Go away."
Jazz heard the door shut.
"Do you know what time it is?" Lilac said. "It's fragging forty joors. It's not even the on-cycle yet."
"Sorry," Jazz muttered, trying to get up off the floor.
"You're lucky I like you, mechling." She came over and helped him to his pedes, then guided him over to the berth.
