"I've told you, I don't know! How many times do I have to say it?!"
Red Alert had somehow managed to make it back to the ark. He was staring angrily at Prowl, who, in turn, was glaring back. They were in the Medbay, Red on a recharge berth with Ratchet in front of him, the medic working on the security director's knee, and Prowl was near a wall, watching Red carefully as if he suspected deception. The cop would have been closer, but Ratchet kept pushing him away. Prowl had no idea how Red could have gotten away, and Red claimed he had no idea how he had suddenly ended up in the middle of the desert.
"One nanoclick I was in front of the ark with Jazz, then there's nothing until the desert." Red Alert winced as Ratchet jolted slightly, making Red's leg spark. The medic stood up and turned, brandishing his energy scalpel at Prowl.
"I'm not going to tell you again, boy," Ratchet sounded angry as he waved the scalpel in front of him. "Shut it or leave; I can not have Red Alert in a huff here."
Prowl glared back at Ratchet for a moment before going back to focusing on the security director.
"I've got to know, Red! What the slag happened?!" He had chosen to ignore Ratchet, which was entirely the wrong thing to do. The medic, who had descended back to Red's knee, stood up again.
"That's it," Ratchet said in a short voice. "Get out, Prowl." The cop scowled and chose not to move, but that got the medic even more angry. He walked up to the cop and, grabbing Prowl's arm, turned him around and forcefully shoved him toward the door.
"Hey-!" Prowl tried to resist Ratchet's pushing, but the medic was stronger; he had an amazing amount of strength when he had to use it.
"OUT!!" Ratchet's voice echoed through the hall as Prowl was shunned out the doors. The medic pulled the doors closed and Prowl heard the doors' locks click into place.
The cop growled at the closed doors. He knew that Red Alert didn't know anything, but Prowl was angry, the frustration from the day's events building slowly and becoming too much for the first-in-command to bear. He glowered as he slowly wandered back to the control room, his mind stuck on his best friend.
It was getting close to sundown, which meant that Prowl would go out and find Jazz then, but he wanted to get the Porsche back now. He knew he had been away from the third-in-command for only a few hours, but for Prowl it felt like it was an eternity. It felt, to the cop, like the Porsche had been gone for months. Anger at the Decepticons had never been this fierce before and it had never meant so much to him that one of his friends was missing. He wanted more than anything to just have his friend back in one piece, but after looking at Red's broken body he didn't really hold up much hope for the Porsche being unharmed. Prowl had resorted to severing the connection between his logic circuits and his imagination as it kept betraying him with horrid images that the cop was quite terrified of.
The ark was quite busy with meets as they went about their daily business. Every so often throughout the day Prowl would walk into the vicinity of a laughing group, but as soon as they spotted him their laughing would cease, as if afraid that they would be told off for having fun. Prowl knew that they were slightly weary of him because of his current attitude, but he couldn't get himself to relax, not with his best friend in the hands of the Decepticons.
His despair must have shown on his face for the leader of the Aerialbot walked up to him.
"Hey, Commander," Silverbolt said briskly. Prowl nodded and smiled slightly at the jet. "You still thinking of Jazz, huh?"
The cop nodded. "I can't seem to stop thinking about him." He didn't want to admit it to anyone, but the Porsche had been on his mind since he had seen the slanted writing on his bedroom wall. He watched Silverbolt with an attempt at happiness, but must have failed because the jet laughed slightly.
"We'll get him back soon; it's almost sun set." Silverbolt said. Prowl's cerebral clock told him the same thing. "And you have a whole squadron of Autobots at your command if you need us."
Prowl nodded. He knew that the the Aerialbot meant well, but for whatever reason, Prowl's circuits had told him that he, and he alone, needed to rescue Jazz, with no help from others. "I appreciate it, Silverbolt, I really do, but this is something I've got to do by myself."
The Aerialbot nodded and put on a smile. "I can respect that," he said quietly. "I'd do anything for my bondmates too."
Prowl's optics widened at the jet's last sentence. "How did you know?" He was positive he hadn't told anyone about his crush on Jazz, unless the Porsche was spreading rumors or something like that, but the Aerialbot smiled at the inquiry.
"It's not really that hard to figure out," Silverbolt shrugged. "You and Jazz are always seen in each other's company; I just kind of pieced everything together to see what I could find. The Aerialbot smiled at what must have been a very surprised expression on Prowl's face, for he continued. "Don't be too embarrassed about it. It's quite comforting having a bond mate, especially during tough times." Prowl smiled at Silverbolt. He had forgotten that the Aerialbot were a Pentabond and didn't think to even ask them about his dilemma with Jazz. "Don't beat yourself up about it, Prowl." Silverbolt continued quietly. "Jazz is a strong bot; he'll pull through." The cop knew that the Aerialbot was trying to make him happy, and he really appreciated the jet's effort, but he couldn't bring himself to really feel any better until he got Jazz back.
"Thanks for that, man," Prowl felt a bit better and a small smile came to his face. "Alright, I'm going to get my bondmate back."