Sundown on the
outskirts of the city. The sun was halfway gone already,
its rays just barely reaching the group of mechs standing
quietly. Jazz had always liked Earth's sunsets; he had
never seen such beautiful masterpieces of nature on Cybertron. He
knew that this sunset was beautiful, but he also knew that he would
enjoy it a lot more if he were in Prowl's arms rather than
Starscream's.
The jet had a firm hold on Jazz's arm. The
Porsche's hands were tied behind his back, Energon bonds wrapped
tightly around his wrists and arms. Jazz's head was hung
and his visor dark; he could now barely see at all, the optical
wiring fried and damaged. His right arm still hung in
disrepair at his side, the connections falling apart. He
felt his spark weak and distorted in his chest and felt like he had
just been thrown in a scrapping machine. He was inhaling
large breaths as he desparately tried to keep his mechanisms from
overheating; the lack of flowing energon in his body was creating too
much friction for his internal fans to cool down.
Starscream
roughly shook the Porsche for a second. "Stand up straight!" The
seeker's tone startled Jazz and he was forced to straighten his
shoulders, but kept his head hung; every time he tried to move his
head, the broken hydraulic would spark painfully, and the Porsche
didn't know how much more pain his body could stand.
His mind
kept going back to the torture he had experienced mere hours
before. Tracks and Starscream had had their way with the
Porsche for hours, and he had no idea how long they kept going after
his system had shut down from power overload. When he had
awoke from the shut down he found himself strapped down to a recharge
berth with his spark's housing unit opened; Starscream was busy
draining the energy from Jazz's spark. The one, single
thing that the Porsche couldn't shake from the whole experience was
the utter fear his body put out when Tracks spoke to him while he was
being drained.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" he had asked in a cool
voice. "You want to talk, go right ahead. Tell someone
what happened, but, if you do-" Tracks had reached into Jazz's
housing unit, grabbing a pipe that sent so much pain up Jazz's back
that he immediately began to cry, screaming in pain as the hot tears
stung down his cheeks. Tracks' head was right next to
Jazz's so that the Porsche clearly heard the Firebird's words
through his screaming. "You will be in so much pain for the rest of
your life."
Jazz shivered as Tracks' words passed through his
memory again. He was now more afraid of the Firebird then
he'd ever been before and his words terrified him. He
knew that telling someone about what had happened was the best
option, but after being put through that agonizing torture he sure as
hell didn't want it to happen again.
"There he is!" Skywarp
was keeping a lookout for Prowl and he had apparently spotted him,
the Datsun's police sirens blaring. Jazz's left optic
flitted into life and he looked up at the call, elation cutting
through his circuitry at the sight of the Datsun's red flashing
lights. Jazz stepped forward out of sheer happiness to try
and meet Prowl halfway, but was pulled back, Starscream's crushing
grip still on the Porsche's good arm.
Jazz watched through what
little vision he had as Prowl transformed then skidded to a halt,
stopping feet from the group. The Porsche couldn't make
out Prowl's face, but he heard loathing and anger in the cop's
voice when he spoke.
"I'm here, just like you wanted,
Decepticon!" Prowl's voice shook with anger. "But I have come
to rescue Jazz, not see him die!"
Starscream laughed behind
Jazz, the sound menacing and taunting. "You? Save this
thing?" He shook Jazz again and the Porsche's arm gave out a
painful spark. "He's not worth much, is he? Just
another mech in the Autobot arsenal."
"Why do you want him so
much?" Thundercracker's voice came from Jazz's right and he
felt the unmistakable barrel of the jet's blaster being pressed to
his head. Jazz's body shook with fear and the strain of
just staying conscious as he stared at Prowl. "He can't be that
important."
Prowl's body stiffened as his arm immediately
dropped out a gun, which he caught easily. "He's more than just
another mech, seeker. He's my bondmate, and he will not
die here!"
Jazz's optics widened in surprise. Prowl
had figured out what the notes had meant and had accepted him. The
Porsche's synapses sent pleasure tearing through the walls of fear
and pain and he was happy for the first time in what felt like
ages. He smiled slightly and was about to say something
when Thundercracker's blaster went
off.
Prowl's
jaw dropped as he saw the energy beam rip through Jazz's head, the
mech's black body going rigid in shock. The cop's body
was flooded with surprise and fright at what the seeker had done. He
watched in horror as Jazz's body dropped to its knees then slumped
to the ground in a large dust cloud and lay, face down, limp and
unmoving.
The first-in-command's body was unresponsive to the
commands Prowl had attempted to give. His circuits had
frozen at the sight of his best friend on the ground, the black
mech's head sparking and leaking Energon. He had dropped
the gun he was holding and was shaking in violent waves of despair as
his wide optics stared in disbelief at the limp form of the
second-in-command. Empty pain like he had never
experienced before ripped across his every nerve, tears beginning to
cloud his vision.
"You idiot!" The call
ripped Prowl's optics away from Jazz's lifeless body and to the
seekers. Starscream had been yelling at Thundercracker,
but the cop hadn't been listening until now. He stared
at the jets with his watery vision, just standing there, his feelings
of anger, despair and disbelief flooding his body with numbness until
one of his emotions decided to take over.
His legs began to move
before he really knew what was happening. He was running
at the seekers and screaming, furious anger pounding through his
synapses, hot anger flowing through his legs as they launched him at
Thundercracker. He screamed a murderous cry as his fist
brutally slammed into the jet's head, sending the seeker to the
ground. Barely touching the ground himself, Prowl spun,
his leg broadsiding Starscream, the blow sending the Decepticon into
the air with a cry of indignity. Anger like Prowl had
never experienced pounded like hot lead through his pipes, his body
heating up. Hot sensations tore through his right arm as
it transformed into a massive gun. The weapon surprised
Prowl; he had never seen this weapon before and had never even knew
that it existed in his body, but he intended to use it.
Pointing
it upward, he aimed it at Skywarp, who was floating in the sky, and
felt hot energy burn painfully through through his arm just before he
let loose one of the largest and most powerful energy surges he had
ever seen. The shockwave that the blast created knocked
him over and skewed the aiming; the energy ended up missing Skywarp's
head by mere inches and shot into the sky.
Prowl's surprise
momentarily overrode the anger coarsing through his body as he stared
at the giant blaster protruding from his elbow. He had
never seen this huge thing before and was astounded when he was not
able to recall it ever being installed. The weapon looked
intricate, Ancient Autobot symbols all along the sides and
barrel. His optics were wide as he stared at this
monsterous weapon, but his astonishment was short-lived.
Explosions
began to erupt around him and drew him out of his momentary
lapse. Thundercracker had ascended to the sky and was
firing upon the bots on the ground. Prowl looked over at
Jazz's body on the ground and quickly dove over it. He
knew that the Porsche could no longer feel anything, but he felt the
urge to protect the body, not wanting any more harm to come to
it. He growled as the anger came back to him. Lifting
the giant gun he felt the burning energy surge through his arm before
the energy was released. He held onto the position as the
shockwave came back to him and smirked as the blast surged straight
at Thundercracker and hit him straight on. He spun around,
his body pressing on Jazz's and aimed again at Skywarp, having a
sudden evil surge to want to mutilate every Decepticon he could, but
before he let loose the energy, he felt movement beneath him.
Prowl
looked under him in surprise at Jazz's body. The
Porsche's head lay in a pool of Energon and was blown halfway off,
wires and internal components were fried, his circuitry damaged and
looked to be well beyond repair. Prowl knew that Jazz
should not have been functioning, but the left half of his visor had
a feeble light behind it and, as Prowl watched, the Porsche's black
lips silently mouthed the words "Help me."
