Sparklings 1: Mirage

Chapter Four: A Day With Prowl

Prowl groaned the moment Jazz walked through that door and showed him the happy Mirage. He grimaced as he realized the Sparkling was chewing and sucking on something that he suspected came from Wheeljack.

"Jazz? What is he chewing on?" he asked.

"Huh?" Jazz looked at the Sparkling and the Sparkling just sucked on it in reply. "You know what...? I really don't know. I ran into Perceptor... and then into Wheeljack... and somewhere in between there... he began sucking on that thing. I seriously don't know where he got it from..."

"Maybe you should REMOVE it. He could get sick."

Jazz did. Mirage sneezed, sniffled and smiled. "And he's okay with it! Maybe he didn't like it..."

Jazz set the Sparkling in the pen Ratchet had set up. "Well, he hasn't eaten yet, so you'll have to feed him! Also, he likes to be held. Another thing, TALK to him. He loves it."

Prowl groaned. "He's nothing like Axann was..."

"Prowl, Axann was a danger to society as a Sparkling. Mirage is a harmless spy with a giant torpedo launcher. Axann grew up to be a Robo-Ninja running around with a medic tearing mechs' parts out as he walks by them. Moral of the story?" Jazz stated plainly.

"Femmes are torture?" Prowl guessed, as he looked Mirage who was babbling to the collar around his neck.

"That works..." Jazz agreed. "Well! I'm off to control room duty." He waved at Mirage sweetly before leaving. "See you two when I get off!"

Prowl waved before returning to his paperwork. Mirage waved too, just mimicking, really.. But waved nonetheless. He babbled a little before resulting in sucking his hand briefly and then trying to figure a way out of the pen. When none of that worked, he looked up to see Prowl.

"Eh!" He squeaked, which probably meant something along the lines of, "Hey! You're the jerk that Jazz left me with, right?! Well, get me the hell out of here!"

Prowl looked down to see Mirage attacking the walls of the pen, repeating, "EH! EH! EH!"

"Nice try, Mirage," Prowl replied. Mirage stopped mid attack and his optics blinked. "That pen was specially designed for you. You're going nowhere."

Mirage sat down. His tanks churned a little, and he looked around. He was hungry! Didn't this guy know he was hungry? His tanks churned again, and he began to sniffle.

Prowl looked down again, and remembered that neither of them had eaten anything yet. Deciding to care for Mirage first, he called in Ratchet to look after him briefly while he got some energon. After Ratchet showed up, Prowl left, and headed for the rec room.

After separating the twins, getting Cliffjumper to shut up, and asking Ironhide about the recent reports, he headed back to his office to feed Mirage and relieve Ratchet of his torture.

What he found wasn't something he expected. Ratchet was playing a game with Mirage when he showed up.

"Ratchet?"

Ratchet looked up, and chuckled. "I'm not as spark-less as some mechs and femmes claim me to be, Prowl."

Apparently, Prowl was convinced. "Well... I'll let you get back to the med bay..." Prowl walked up to Mirage, who was excited to see him. He handed the cube to the Sparkling before turning back to the medic.

The medic looked at Prowl with sad optics. "It's upsetting to see him like this, Prowl. Only yesterday, he was that snobbish, rich mech that didn't give a frag about the rest of us. Now, look at him..."

In response, Prowl looked at Mirage, who was happily consuming the energon cube he had been given. Ratchet looked at the Sparkling as well.

"He... remembers me a little," Ratchet admitted. "When I walked in, and you left, he looked at me with a big grin on his face, asking to be picked up. But... I know he doesn't remember me as much as he remembers Jazz. Ironhide came in... and I think it's safe to say he's TERRIFIED of the mech."

Prowl chuckled a little. Mirage finished consuming and then held the empty cube up to Ratchet and Prowl. Ratchet took the cube away and smiled.

"You're a hungry little mech, aren't you?" he playfully said, as he tickled the Sparkling. Mirage squeaked and clicked.

"Do you think it has something to do with the... four week famine he had going on before this all happened?" Prowl suggested, as Ratchet continued playing with the Sparkling.

"Maybe," Ratchet replied, as he picked up Mirage and handed him to Prowl. "I'm off now. Just got a message from First Aid... one word. Twins."

Prowl smirked. "Need help?"

"Nah. First Aid does," Ratchet laughed. He left.

Mirage clicked in confusion as he looked up at Prowl. Prowl looked down and held the Sparkling up high in order to make optic contact with him. "Heh, heh... well, into the pen you go, Sparkling..."

- - - -

"So, he remembers the Hatchet a little, huh?" Jazz concluded that night.

"Yes," Prowl answered, as he set the now snoozing Mirage down on the recharge berth.

Jazz rubbed his hand against his chin like a detective. "I wonder who else he remembers..."

Prowl groaned. "Jazz, if you even TRY to walk around with Mirage and stuffing him in random mechs' faces, you're doomed. Both me AND Ratchet will chase you down. That can be assured."

"Right... never mind."

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Prowl looked at the beeping thing. "Who's calling at this hour?"

As soon as he replied, he was greeted with the face of his daughter, Axaan. She had a bumpy head on the top, a long visor, and little horns on her shoulders. She had rearview mirrors posing as a set of ears as well. She was black with magenta accents. Behind her was that 'medic that tore things out of people'. He was pure white, and resembled a chibi Ratchet.

"Hey, dad...s," Axann stuttered, as she realized Jazz was in the room, too.

"Hello, Axann. We weren't expecting you to call.

"E.R. suggested that you might be able to help us with something. We're chasing down a delinquent that thinks he's funny," Axann explained. Her and E.R. worked in a police sort of department of the AutoBot army. They chased down rogues that gave the army trouble. At times, they could also be asked to help with battles.

Prowl nodded, and took his laptop out of its container as he got ready to aid his daughter. "Name?"

"Uller," replied E.R., as he looked behind him, glaring at someone messing with the controls.

"Alright... Uller search..." Prowl typed in the commands, and instantly saw where the mech had last been spotted. "Uller was last seen just one star system away from us."

"Sweet!" exclaimed one voice around them.

"That means we can visit!" stated a femme that walked right by them carrying a datapad.

Jazz hesitated as he eyed the baby mech on the recharge berth. "Uh... Prowler, stall!"

"What?" Axann seemed a little confused as she turned from E.R. glaring at someone to looking at her father..s.

"We have a little bit of situation going on here, Axann... now may not be a good time..." Prowl looked at Jazz worriedly. "You see... we had a little bit of an accident with a photon cannon... and the result was not instant death, before you ask, E.R.!"

E.R. had flinched and automatically turned to them in shock.

"B-But... A photon cannon..."

"We know!" Jazz stated, as he picked up Mirage and looked at them, making sure they wouldn't see him. "But look at the end result... your daddy and me are stuck raising a much better behaved version of yah, Axann!"

If Axann could blink, she would have... twice, if she wasn't wearing a visor. She looked at Jazz and frowned. "You two have a bonding moment or something?"

E.R. instantly cracked up.

"Axann, that was strictly inappropriate on your part!" Prowl stated, sternly.

Axann shrugged. "So... who was it?"

Jazz moved so that Mirage was in view of the camera. If E.R. and Axann's optics were visible through their respective visors, they would have widened.

"Oh... Primus..."

"Is that... Mirage?"

Prowl and Jazz now knew they had a lot of explaining to do.