Minor Slash warning, Shounen-ai content.
The ark was in chaos as Prowl raced out of
the Medbay, Ratchet staying behind to tend to Ironhide. Autobots
were running here and there as shots were fired, echoing in the large
room. A missile flew past the cop and he dove for cover
back into the Medbay entrance as the explosion rocked the old volcano
from top to bottom. Looking up he saw a Seeker disappear
around the corner toward the entrance to the base, followed by Hound,
a large piece of the Seeker's wing in his grasp.
"Status
report, soldier!" Prowl yelled at the army mech as he came out, his
optics scanning for danger. He noticed that the old base
was damaged, but he saw no more action nor any danger. Looking
toward the base's entrance, he saw no more Decepticons in the base
at all.
"Decepticon Seekers attacked," Hound stated the
obvious as he dropped the piece of Thundercracker's wing that he
still held. "They took some of the others with them; one, maybe
two." Hound didn't appear to be injured, but the old jeep was
heaving, apparently out of breath.
Nodding, Prowl scowled. "I
want a call-off. I want to know who is missing, and I want
to know it now." he looked at Hound, who looked back at him,
unmoving. "MOVE!" he screamed, making the soldier
jump. Prowl glared at Hound's back as the jeep scuttled
away.
The second-in-command watched the other mechs assembling in
the hall, noting that at least four, maybe more, were missing. He
saw that most of the Autobots were in there, but to his horror, as he
scanned the bots, that the third-in-command wasn't among them, but
before he could keep looking for the black head of the Porsche, Hound
came bustling up to the cop in a flurry.
"Three bots are
missing," Hound relayed the information quickly. "Tracks, Jazz,
and Red Alert." Prowl's optics widened and his body was filled
with horror; what could the Decepticons gain from taking
hostages? And Jazz, Prowl's circuitry seemed to stop
working as he thought of the young mech, his best friend, his one
true crush… just when he found out that Jazz liked him back, now
this happens…?
Prowl's horror must have shown on his
face, for the jeep still stood before him looking worried.
"Sir? What are your orders?"
"Orders?" Prowl
had never been in this situation before, never once had an Autobot
been kidnapped by a Decepticon, never once, in all of his years of
service, had he experienced this predicament. Never once,
either, had his best friend been such a high priority to
him.
"Sir! Your orders!" Prowl looked down in
slight surprise. Hound was still standing in front of him
waiting for an answer. "We just gonna stand here while Decepti-crud
make off with our teammates?!"
Prowl shook his head, trying to
rid himself of the nagging images that were currently assailing his
mind. "We need to get a strike force out!" The cop had snapped
back to himself, businesslike and demanding. "Contact all Autobots
out on patrol and tell them to be on the lookout for any and all
Decepticon activity." The ark was in a flurry of movement again as
bots were gearing up to mobilize. "We need to find out exactly
where they've taken our men. I'll stay here to keep an
eye on everything. Form into groups and leave no place
unturned!" He gazed out at the mechs assembled before him and he
felt a twinge of pride at them; he had never actually appreciated
just how much the team respected the one in command. "Autobots,
transform and roll out!"
The bots ran for the base's entrance,
some transformed, others not. The Aerialbots were over by
Teletraan's computers watching the bots leave on one of the
computer's screens. They had elected to stay behind with
Prowl, just in case they were needed at a moment's notice.
Walking
over to Teletraan's computers, Prowl clapped his hands together.
"All right," he mumbled, staring at the screens. "Where have
you taken my friends?"
An
hour into the search and they still hadn't uncovered
anything. Tracks had just called in recently and had
gotten a giant audioful of shouting from the agitated cop about why
he had not called in when prompted, and that left Prowl
restless. His circuits were screaming at him to get out on
the field and find the missing mechs himself, but he knew he had to
stay here, just in case. The cop could feel that his
circuits wanting to shut down from all the strain, but he couldn't
listen to them; not this time.
The Aerialbots seemed to have
caught was Prowl had and were beginning to complain. They
had just checked in with the teams recently, but none of them had
turned up anything. Prowl wondered if Optimus Prime had
ever felt this strained during a mission. The
second-in-command was about to tell off two of the Aerialbots, who
had started wrestling out of boredom, when the call came
in.
"Incoming Decepticon message, Prowl." stated Silverbolt,
the leader of the Aerialbots.
"Patch it through," Prowl tried
not to put too much eagerness in his words as he looked at the screen
where a dark screen had just opened up. The cop could
barely make out the outline of a mech in the darkness, his red eyes
shining menacingly.
"Greetings, Autobot Prowl," The voice
sounded kind of familiar, a slight bit high-pitched, but there was
something new there. Prowl couldn't readily put a name
to it. "I have your comrades here and if you want to see them
functioning again--"
"What the slag have you done,
Starscream?!" Slingshot must have recognized the voice as the
Seeker was speaking. Prowl growled at the dark silhouette
of the Seeker on the screen.
"Oh, slag, Starscream, he knows who
you are!" Thundercracker was heard somewhere off-screen
snickering.
"Shh! Shut up, you fools!" Starscream
hissed at the Seeker, his voice back to its normal pitch. "All fun
and games, Autobot." Starscream addressed the camera again. "We'll
have a little fun with them, then drop them off." More snickering
was heard off-camera and Prowl suddenly felt sick. "No harm done,
right?"
"You lousy, dirty, good-for-nothing-!" Silverbolt
exclaimed, but cut off in a gasp as the picture changed from the
jet's silhouette to the forms of Red Alert and Jazz. The
bots were tied together and appeared to have been severely beaten
about the head and shoulders, the metal there was radically bent and
broken. Jazz's shoulder was sparking and seemed to just
hang limp at his side and Red Alert's leg was leaking Energon from
the knee. Both bots seemed to be in a daze of some
kind.
"What is the meaning if this?!" Prowl exclaimed to the
screen. He felt insanely sick as he looked at the beaten
forms. "What will you gain by taking those men?!"
"Nothing,
really," Starscream didn't seem too interested in the
conversation any longer as the screen switched back to him. "Would
you care to watch, Prowl? Come and see your comrades'
destruction on the outskirts of the city at sundown." the screen
went black.
Prowl stared at the screen for a moment, disgusting
thoughts filling his head involving his best friend and
Starscream. The Aerialbots were staring at Prowl.
"What
do we do?" asked Slingshot, his fists up, ready to fight. "Give
the word and we're out of here!"
Prowl shook his head, his
hand now upon it in an attempt to steady his belaying circuitry.
"Nothing. We do nothing." The Aerialbots looked
stunned. "Call the others back," the cop went on quietly. "I
will go and get the two back at sundown."
"But Prowl-!"
argued Air Raid; he was itching to beat up the Decepticons, but Prowl
wouldn't allow it.
Rounding on Air Raid, Prowl glowered down at
him. "That's an order, soldier!" Air Raid nodded,
slightly frightened under Prowl's evil stare. The cop
turned around and stared at Teletraan's screens again, watching the
place where Jazz's face was not ten seconds ago. 'I'll get you
back,' Prowl thought angrily as he placed a hand on his arm, right
over the spot where the Porsche's hand-written note was under his
armor. 'I swear by my very spark that I will.'
