"Jazz? Can
you hear me?"
The sound of a voice was faint to Jazz's audios,
like the speaker was speaking through a mile-long tunnel. Jazz
was weak and disoriented, not sure where he was. His body
felt limp and wouldn't readily respond to him.
His head throbbed
heavily as his circuitry slowly came back online, trying to orient
itself.
"Jazz?" the voice came from a lot closer this time,
actually more like right behind him. He tried to turn his
head, but found only pain as he tried.
He went back to looking
forward, his optics still working on adjusting to the dim light in
the room. "Red?" Jazz muttered, his audios finally recognizing
the faint voice.
"Yeah…" the young security director
mumbled. Jazz noticed that Red Alert's voice sounded
strained, as though he had been recently strangled, the vocal
receptors broken in places. He felt like the they were
tied back-to-back, Red's hands were right where his were. He
felt the wires digging into his wrists and arms as well as his
legs. Looking around him where he could, his optics fully
adjusted to the darkness, he could only still see the silhouettes of
things around him.
"Where are we?" Jazz asked quietly.
He
felt Red Alert's shoulders move up and down. "Not
sure. Everything went offline after we got attacked."
Jazz
thought for a moment, accessing his memory circuits, but the last
thing he remembered was seeing the ark from the outside; everything
after that was black. "Same here," the Porsche replied quietly.
"I remember seeing someone, but I didn't get a good look at
him."
"Are you hurt?" Red Alert's partial medical
programming must have just kicked into life.
Jazz nodded slightly
in the darkness. "Yeah, my neck and right shoulder." he grimaced
as Red moved slightly causing the Porsche's shoulder to spark
angrily. "What about you?"
Red was quiet for a moment before
answering. "My head, neck, and left leg. My comm has
been shorted out. Can you contact Teletraan?"
Trying,
he got a surprise when something sparked behind his visor. "No;
mine is gone too." He sighed; how could this happen? He
had just taken a step outside when he had been ambushed.
A light
suddenly came through the darkness like a plasma blast and Jazz
moaned as the light tore through his throbbing circuitry.
"Autobots,"
a high-pitched voice came from the open door, forms blocking some of
the light. Jazz was left in the dark with this one; he
couldn't turn his head and the door was behind him.
"He wants
an audience with the black one," Starscream was right next to Jazz,
nudging the Porsche's black foot with his own. The
seeker moved to kneel in front of Jazz, a tight smirk across his
lips. He grabbed Jazz's chin roughly, turning the
Porsche's head and sending painful waves through the young mech's
body that caused him to cry out pitifully.
"One of his
hydraulics is broken," Starscream was examining the Autobot's
head and neck. "You fools were supposed to be
careful!"
Someone shifted uneasily behind Jazz. "It's not my
fault he struggled." Skywarp's voice sounded edgy.
The seeker
in front of Jazz focused his optics on his captive's, forcing the
young bot to look straight at him. "Pity that we can't have our
way with him too…" Starscream managed to pull off a mocking pout
as he spoke. "But at least he'll be good for some fun." Jazz
watched with frightened optics as Starscream came forward, the
seeker's lips crashing painfully into his. The Porsche's
optics got wide as he Seeker's glossa tore through Jazz's
tightly-pressed lips and assailed his mouth.
Disgust and revulsion
filled Jazz's every synapse as the seeker pulled back, licking his
lips. Jazz reacted to Starscream's smirk by spitting on
the seeker, but promptly got slapped for it, his head whipping around
painfully.
"Disrespect, Autobot." Starscream's optics were
narrowed at Jazz as he muttered "You will learn…" Jazz watched
Starscream through what he could of what was left of his vision. The
seeker's slap has dislodged some of Jazz's optical connections
and as such his vision was distorted. He cried out when
his arm sparked painfully; someone had grabbed him and forced his
torso forward so that another could get at the wires tying him and
Red Alert together. He was freed from Red Alert, but there
were still more wires dug into his arms, keeping them tied behind his
back. He struggled for a moment, trying to free himself
from the seekers' tight hold, but someone hit the back of his head,
knocking loose more of his connections, his vision now in
black-and-white, words flashing across his vision in warning.
"Quit
struggling, pest!" Thundercracker sounded none-too-happy and Jazz
sure as hell didn't want to get in this seeker's bad side any
more then he already was. Jazz's head throbbed profusely
as he was lifted to his feet. The Porsche's vision was
trying to repair itself, but it was still messed; the right side of
his visor seemed to be cracked slightly.
Jazz felt hands on his
back, which shoved him forward, forcing him to walk. The
only thing Jazz could do from his current position was obey the
seekers' orders, and without any weapons he was positive that if he
tried to fight he would lose. His only onboard weapon was
in his injured arm and he could barely lift it. He obeyed
the pushing hands reluctantly, leaving the room into the long
hall.
The hall was very bright to Jazz's damaged optics after
the darkness of the room they had just left. He squinted
at the light and wished it would go away; his poor head kept
throbbing.
"Where are you taking me?" Jazz was surprised to
detect fear in his voice. The seekers must have noticed it
too because they snickered slightly.
"Afraid, Jazz?"
Starscream cackled at the young mech. "You have a right to be."
he shoved Jazz forward again, forcing him to walk faster. "Don't
worry about where you're going… just the shape you'll be
in after he's finished with you." The seekers cackled slightly
again, and that sent a wave of chilly fear down the Porsche's back;
he now knew that whatever lay ahead of him he was not going to like
it one bit.
"Keep moving!" Jazz got a rough shove from behind,
prompting his feet to keep going. His shoulder didn't
really hurt, but he knew that if he didn't get it repaired soon it
just might fall off. His optics were slowly coming back
online, the color now back in his vision as his spark began to slowly
repair what it could. He was hoping that whatever the
seekers were so thrilled about wasn't going to injure him too much,
but, then again, Decepticons have never been known to be gentle.
The
hall turned up ahead and entered into a small control room. There
were monitors and screens all along the walls as well as a central
control panel with a large-backed chair in front of it. Someone
was sitting in the chair, the bot's metal wings protruding out the
sides of the chair, and whatever was in the chair was giving off an
aura of evil.
"We've brought him," Starscream sounded eager
as he shoved Jazz into the room. "Now where's our pay?!"
Jazz
halted his movements and glared back at the seekers in the
doorway. Thundercracker's left wing was missing and
Skywarp's face had a slightly mangled look to it; they seemed to
have been beaten recently. "What a way to talk to Megatron,
Starscream." Jazz couldn't resist, his haughty attitude had
returned to him.
"It's in the middle room." Jazz turned to
the chair, his previous demeanor now gone as the bot spoke, the voice
incredibly familiar and definitely not belonging to Megatron. The
bot stood up, his silver wings outstretched from his lower back, his
body slim and solid blue.
Jazz's jaw dropped in disbelief and
horror as Tracks turned around, smirking evilly down at the young
Porsche. "Be gone, seekers, and let me have my fun."
