Prowl's optics were wide as he stared at Jazz's visor. The light behind was flickering, the blue very faint; Prowl was astonished to see that he was still functioning. The cop's circuits immediately went to check Jazz's energy fixture and was surprised to find it still there. In Prowl's rage he had completely bypassed the idea of checking for a spark signature; the concept didn't even occur to him. Jazz's visor light flickered feebly and Prowl knew that without immediate help, Jazz would inevitably die. Prowl opened up a comm link to Teletraan and called for immediate assistance.
The cop jolted as something painful slammed into his back. Looking up, he was surprised to see the three Decepticon seekers pointing their weapons at him in a menacing way; he had completely forgotten that he was in a battle. Reacting quickly, he lifted up his cannon arm to point it at the seeker closest to him, but gasped; the giant gun had disappeared and had gone back to a regular arm. He stared at it in bewilderment as the seekers cackled at him.
"What's that stupposed to do?" Thundercracker sneered. "Are you going to point us to death?" The other seekers snickered in a rather taunting manner as Prowl scowled. He had to get Jazz back to the ark, and soon, but he wasn't sure how; he couldn't exactly carry the Porsche by himself and he knew that the seekers would be after him if he tried.
Prowl watched Skywarp, the seeker coming closer to him. He looked around but saw that his only on-board blaster was yards away from him where he had dropped it when Jazz was shot. Unless he could somehow manage to access that cannon in his arm again he was weaponless; he had regretted not letting Ratchet install any other on-board weaponry.
The seeker looked down at Prowl then kneeled to look optic-to-optic with the cop. "What're you doing?" Skywarp asked in a snide tone. Prowl growled at the seeker and hunched down farther over Jazz beneath him. "You know you've lost him, so why protect to form?"
"Hey, Starscream!" Thundercracker piped up from behind Prowl making the cop turn his head toward the seeker. "The Porsche is still alive!" Skywarp raised an optic ridge and looked at Prowl as the cop's body went on full alert. The seeker reached toward Prowl and tried to push him away, but Prowl, growling, wouldn't let himself move. The cop struggled with the seeker for a moment before Skywarp managed to get Prowl away enough.
"He is-!" Skywarp moved back as Starscream quickly replaced him, squatting in front of the cop.
"Get him off," Starscream ordered. "We need to keep him; it wasn't in his plans to be shot."
Prowl felt hands on his side, but he resisted, swinging his fist behind him to try and get the seeker to go away, but Prowl's fist met air and swung harmlessly. The cop looked behind him just in time to see Thindercracker's shoulder slam into his and he was quickly dislodged from Jazz's body and toppled over. Grabbing the seeker's arm Prowl threw his fist at the jet's head, trying desperately to get back to Jazz.
"Stop, Autobot!"
Prowl looked around quickly to Starscream and saw, horror enveloping his circuits, as the seeker pressed his blaster to Jazz's deformed head. "Move and the Porsche will die."
Prowl immediately let go of Thundercracker's arm and the seeker retreated to stand behind Starscream. The cop looked at Jazz, a terrified expression across the part that wasn't blasted away, the blue optical light behind the visor very faint. Prowl shook as he looked up at Starscream from his sitting position upon the ground; surely the jet wouldn't follow through with his plan?
"You wouldn't," Prowl growled at Starscream, almost as if he was hoping that he would do as Prowl said.
"You think I won't?" Starscream pushed the barrel of the blaster against Jazz's circuitry, which sparked slightly. "Try me, move."
Prowl stayed on the ground, his arms shaking. Part of his circuitry told him that the seeker was lying to him, another part told him that the seeker was telling the truth and not to move, and yet another part was screaming at him to rip apart the seekers limb-from-limb. He chose to stay still, his mind deciding that the best course of action to keep the seekers from harming Jazz was to do what they said.
"What do I do, seeker?" Prowl sopke to the ground between his hands, fearing that if he looked at Jazz's injured form any longer he would snap.
Starscream was apparently taken aback by the question, for he didn't answer right away. "Well, I... H'mm... tell you wat," The seeker apparently thought of something and, by his tone, Prowl gagued that he wasn't going to like it. "Let's see how much you care, huh? Shoot yourself and I'll let you and the Porsche live."
Prowl looked up in astonishment. "Shoot... myself?" he asked. "What kind of a test is that?"
Starscream scowled at Prowl and shook Jazz slightly, the Porsche's head lolling. "Shoot yourself, or I shoot the Porsche." The seeker's smirk made Prowl sick, but he didn't think he could stand to see any more pain come to his bondmate.
"I..." The cop thought about it for a moment. "I... don't have a gun." Prowl looked up at Starscream who made a funny little twitching motion of his head in Skywarp's direction, who didn't move. Prowl watched in slight confusion as Starscream made the move again. Skywarp still didn't move.
"Gun..." Starscream said, turning his his head toward Skywarp. "Over there," Skywarp looked at Starscream, apparently just noticing that the jet was speaking to him. "GET IT." Skywarp jumped at Starscream's hissing voice and finally went to retrieve Prowl's blaster, quickly dropping the weapon in front of the cop and backing away.
Prowl picked up the gun and looked at it. He never throught that harm would come to him of his own gun, but he didn't want to see any more pain befall Jazz. The cop glanced up at Starscream; for come reason his common sense had told him that the seeker was telling the truth and would let Jazz go. At least, he hoped.
His hand shook as he brought the gun up to his chest. Pain was about to befall him and the seekers around him were snickering at him. It made him sick that they found pleasure in his pain, but knew, for some reason, that it was the only way to save Jazz. Grimacing in anticipation of the pain, he moved the blaster to his left shoulder and pulled the trigger.
Pain lanced through Prowl's chest as the force from the point-blank shot blew off his shoulder armor and ripped through the joint. His bit down on his glossa to prevent himself from screaming out in pain as the agonizing torture made his left arm go limp and completely useless. His audios were ringing with the sound wave the gun had made right next to his head. The shockwave had made ripples of black lance across his vision, the connections rattling loose slightly.
Prowl scowled and set his features as he looked up at Starscream, and wasn't very surprised when he saw the seeker' laughing.
"You actually shot yourself!" Starscream wheezed, clutching his side. "I can't believe it!" Prowl looked at the other seekers who were laughing too. He felt sick that he had actually done that to satisfy a Decepticon. He growled and was about to say something when a powerful shot ripped over his head and slammed into Starscream. Prowl quickly looked behind him, his body on the alert, but quickly relaxed in astonishment and relief as he saw the help he had called for finally arriving.
"Autobots!" Thundercracker hissed and took up to the sky, Skywarp following suit.
Prowl turned to look at Starscream again, but instead he saw Jazz, his body falling. THe cop reacted quickly, grabbing Jazz and bringing the Porsche's body down to the ground. Looking to the sky, he saw the seekers retreating, and, to Prowl's relief, without their captive. Prowl sighed and looked up as a grey hand descended upon his shoulder. Tracks stood next to him, a faint smile on his face as he looked down upon the two bots.
"You alright?" he asked in a soft tone.