Prowl – "3" ish, Eve of the war

Giggling, Prowl crouched and moved slowly around the couch. Surly there was no way…

"Oh no, where is my sparkling? I can't seem to find him anywhere!" He could hear Charger, alerting him to her position on the other side of the couch. 'Shhh!' Prowl tried to quiet down but try as he might he couldn't stop giggling.

"There he is!" Prowl shrieked, feeling a hand snake out from underneath the couch and grab his ankle before pulling him into Charger's arms. He laughed happily, surrendering himself in Charger's arms.

She laughed as well. With rebel activity growing almost tenfold in just a few decaorns and talk of war on the horizon, she rarely had a whole orn to spend with her little sparkling. Things had intensified within flight operations over security and tactical planning thanks to rising theft and terrorist acts. Granted, she was only a tactical flight planning assistant but her schedule closely mirrored several tacticians – and some of those tacticians rarely went home. She pitted them. They looked as if they were slowly wilting away right there in their offices.

A light brush against her spark brought her out of her musing and back into reality. Knowing it didn't mean anything harmful, she focused on the happy but tired sparkling in her arms.

"Why if I didn't know better, I'd think my Prowl needs a nap!"

"Noo!" Her little Prowl cried, kicking his peds a little, now fully awake. She laughed.

"Okay, okay! How about a snack?"

Seeing his delighted facial expression she gently put him down and Prowl scampered over to the energon dispenser. Charger hung back for a little, enjoying the sight of her little Prowl so relaxed and happy, doorwings practically flapping with each step. It was nice knowing the improvements at home they were working hard for had the effect on her sparkling she hoped for.

After fetching the energon she sat Prowl at the table so he could drink it without making a mess. Prowl wasn't a messy sparkling by nature; however, on the occasion something attracted his attention he'd reach for it completely forgetting about the energon in his hand. Prowl quietly drank his energon, absently kicking his feet. Unlike the other sparklings, he rarely vocalized his thoughts unless prompted and fully engaged into the conversation. Since she could read his body language just fine she never worried. Others worried about her quiet sparkling because they didn't understand, but she understood. Those kicking legs? Meant he was eager to continue playing after feeding. His doorwings were relaxed yet held slightly high, a sign that he was alert but content.

Charger cleaned up the apartment as he drank, pausing as she came across a small puzzle. "Prowl?" She called looking back, "would you like to try the puzzle again when you're finished?"

"Uh huh!"

Placing the puzzle by Prowl, Charger returned to finish up cleaning the apartment. As much as she'd love to help him work on it, she needed to get the apartment clean soon.

She was almost finished when Blacksmoke came home, the soft click and 'whoosh' of the front door sliding open alerting her to his presence. Placing down the dirty energon mixing ware, she walked over and greeted him with a fresh smile.

Blacksmoke stood there, watching Prowl renew his attempts at the puzzle. Charger crossed into his view and he struggled for a few astroseconds before finally shifting gears. "How was having the orn off, love?" It didn't felt right calling his mate a term of endearment but he was trying to be the "loving creator" Charger nag– informed him that his family needed him to be. With recent developments, he was making a conscious effort to meet her at least part way on that along with going easier on Prowl. By no means was he any happier about the situation regarding his sparkling's games and skills, but he knew constantly reminding his creation about it wasn't going to make his home a happier place. So for at least for the next few decaorns he needed to almost short his vocal processor whenever Prowl's activities weren't something he approved of.

"Great!" Charger grinned. "We spent the orn playing, reading, and making energon confetti." Leading him back to the kitchen Charger pulled them out from the cooling unit and placed them on the counter. For some reason Blacksmoke and Prowl preferred cooled energon confetti, which went against the norm, but whatever. 'Clearly there are more important things to life,' Charger thought to herself, smiling softly as she touched her chassis.

Looking at the energon confetti, Blacksmoke saw shapes resembling turbofoxes, toys, and even the sparkling symbol for "love." In fact, that symbol was used several times along with symbols for "family" and "sweetspark." Shifting his gaze so he could ask her – none too nicely – if she'd prefer a femme sparkling instead, he stopped when he saw her touching her chassis. A faint smile crept along his face as he asked, "How's he doing?"

Charger looked up momentarily. "He seems to be fine, but he's one active spark!" Faintly laughing, Charger enjoyed the feeling of knowing that Prowl was about to be a brother. Just one more decaorn and his shell and spark would be ready for the transfer. Blacksmoke and Charger chose to give this sparkling a mech body – well, more like Blacksmoke chose but Charger didn't care about that. Last time Blacksmoke had more say in when it came to naming Prowl and she was determined to have the final say for this sparkling. Except she hadn't actual come up with a name yet.

Feeling more activity swell from the spark, she couldn't help but wince. Forming sparks didn't interact with the carrier's spark, but nearly-formed sparks had enough energy to sometimes brush up against the carrier's. It didn't hurt, but sometimes it had lingering unpleasant effects.

"Blacksmoke, do you think you can keep an optic on Prowl while I lay down for a few breems?"

"Why?" Blacksmoke demanded, instantly alarmed. Carrying a spark wasn't supposed to normally have much of an effect on the carrier unless the spark was either dying or being overactive. Kind of annoying, really, since it could only be one of the two – either the spark was at risk for being extinguished or had an energetic personality. And if it was the former there wasn't much time to prevent it. Blacksmoke may not be the doting sparker but that didn't mean he wasn't any less caring. Just like he felt like it was his duty to protect Prowl by helping him develop into a real mech, it was also his duty to make sure his other sparkling would too.

"He's been at it for a little while and it's starting to wear me down, having this much excess energy bleed over."

"Ah," Blacksmoke sighed in relief, noting that Prowl had abandoned his puzzle to watch them curiously. "Can do."

Charger smiled and muttered her thanks before disappearing into their room. Blacksmoke looked at his sparkling who was looking right back before speaking. "Is there… any… games you want to play?" Like using endearing terms, not suggesting certain games was foreign to him. However, after that orn Charger was almost beside herself when Prowl had taken one of his games exceptionally hard while carrying the spark, Blacksmoke was making a real conscious effort to be the "supportive, understanding" creator. 'It's for the well being of my forming sparkling,' Blacksmoke reminded himself.

Beaming, Prowl jumped up and wriggled down off the chair before running off to his room to search for a particular game. This particular game was important to him because he needed to keep practicing so he could show his brother once he gets here. Most of Prowl's little quests and questions these orns had to do with his younger brother, further perpetrated since he knew his brother was coming soon. When that was he didn't know since he wasn't quite sure where his little brother was –Charger explained to him multiple times that his brother was in her chassis and soon would be with them in his own body, but the concept was a little too abstract for him. Still, Prowl couldn't wait. Soon he'd get to teach his brother things like games, not to eat the energon the older sparklings offered, and show him his favorite crystal tree by the park along with all the exciting items around their home. Like that material on the desk in the far corner. It felt nice between his fingers and was pretty to look at. He could spend breems playing with it and now he'd have someone to enjoy it with.

Ah hah! There it was. His new game was meant to help him with his coordination. He wanted to make sure his little brother would be able to play those games on the playground so other sparklings wouldn't pick on him. Not that Prowl would let them, but it was his responsibility to make sure his little brother wasn't in that position to begin with.

Feeling his excitement swell up at the idea of being an older brother, Prowl ran back to Blacksmoke, eager to play. Not only was he becoming the best older brother ever, but he was getting to play with his sparker without making him upset! It didn't even have to be these kinds of games – several times they played puzzle games. But whenever he played games like the one in his hands his sparker was more involved so Prowl was eager to put aside his puzzles for action.

Stopping just short of Blacksmoke's peds, Prowl looked up radiating with barely-contained energy. Times like these where he'd see his sparkling happy, Blacksmoke almost didn't care what they played. Almost. It was still his duty to make sure his sparkling – sparklings – could defend themselves but right now that didn't matter. Giving him a smile, Blacksmoke looked back at Prowl and said, "Okay, so what game is this?"

/-/

Lying down on his front, Prowl tried to focus on the short story instead of how tired he was. Usually his creators didn't wake him up this early. He didn't know why he was up and he was too sleepy to really care. His creators would tell him soon enough after they finished arguing in the kitchen while Charger prepared his energon.

"Charger, I can't take him. There isn't an orn-care center anywhere even remotely near my work."

"Well there's none by my office either! I have to leave as soon as possible, whereas you don't have to leave for a few more joors."

Blacksmoke groaned, not use to arguing this early in the orn. "And then where do I take him? The training room? Or perhaps the weapons room? I suppose I could leave him with planning where they discuss all those glamorous details of war."

"My office is incredibly busy! He could get stepped on or knocked over!"

"Well I guess we have to decide if we want to risk him getting shot, traumatized, or stepped on. Personally, I'd think he's got a better chance where his biggest threat is someone's ped."

Realizing he was right, Charger felt a little deflated. Plus she'd have a better chance of getting her bosses to allow a sparkling there since she was the one called in so she really should take him in. This wasn't the first time one of them was called in around or during the other's shift but it was the first time neither one of them had available friends.

"Alright, alright. Let me finish getting Prowl ready and then we'll leave."

Blacksmoke grunted before staggering off to their berth as Charger walked over to a lightly-recharging Prowl.

"Prowl? Prowl, sweetspark," Charger quietly cajoled him awake, "drink this fast and then we have to leave. You get to see where I work today." Prowl quickly (well, semi-quickly) snapped awake and rapidly drank his energon. He'd finally get to see where his carrier worked and discover new things!

In less than a breem the two of them were out the door. Charger transformed into a sleek racer, letting Prowl in before taking off.

The two of them reported in a few breems later, Charger holding him to keep Prowl away from all the commotion. She could feel her little sparkling pressing up against her and she looked down to see his doorwings flat against his back but his optics wide and curious. Wasn't surprising, really; this was Prowl's first time around so many fully-upgraded transformers. Maybe even his first time being around this many transformers at all.

"Charger!"

Startled, Charger turned around to see her boss, Boombox, looking displeased. Great – her "favorite" boss with her "favorite" expression on.

"Charger, you can't bring your sparkling here!" Boombox nearly jabbed his finger right in Prowl's face. Prowl jerked his head back and stared at the offending digit as if debating on whether to smack it out of his face or not. Little did Boombox know, that was pretty much exactly what Prowl was thinking. Prowl didn't like anyone getting that close without his approval first.

"Then I can't work," Charger said simply, "since you called me in just before my mate's shift and there isn't anyone available to take him. This was the only option we could come up with."

Boombox huffed, irritated. "Fine," he snapped, "but if he distracts you one astrosecond from your work there'll be repercussions! Now report to Skycracker's office." With that Boombox turned away and yelled at some other transformer.

'Sheesh, now there's a mech in need of a good interface.' Since she was reporting to Skycracker she didn't feel worried about getting in trouble over Prowl, at least this early. Skycracker was a much older mech and didn't take life too seriously.

"Hello, Skycracker," Charger greeted him warmly. The elderly tactician looked up, giving her a spark-felt greeting.

"And who is this darling sparkling?"

"This," Charger lowered Prowl down onto the desk, "is my sweet sparkling. Can you introduce yourself?" The last comment was directed towards Prowl as she gave him an encouraging smile.

Prowl ducked his head down for an astrosecond before looking back at the gentle optics of this strange mech, speaking carefully. "My designation's Prowl. Nice to meet you."

"Prowl? That's a nice name. I bet you can sneak up on anyone, can't you?"A giggle escaped from Prowl before he caught himself. Skycracker merely smiled before continuing on, "My designation's Skycracker. It's nice to meet you too."

Leaning back into his chair Skycracker looked up at Charger. "I'm glad to finally meet your darling sparkling. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Chuckling, Charger gathered Prowl back up before answering. "We don't have anywhere to keep him while Blacksmoke and I work."

"My, my," whistled Skycracker, "that is a problem. And you can't very well run around with a sparkling in your arms with datapads all orn."

Seeing the "out" section on his desk, Charger's good mood evaporated as she realized it was going to be a very busy orn. "No… I don't suppose I can." While Skycracker was laid back regarding certain protocols, most weren't. She didn't know what they'd do since they needed her with all this unusual commotion and activity but that didn't mean they'd cut her any slack. Speaking of the unusual commotion…

"Tell ya what," Skycracker spoke, interrupting her thoughts, "why don't you leave him here for the duration of your shift. I'm sure I can wrangle up or thing or two for his amusement."

"Oh! That'd be lovely!" Relaxing, Charger put Prowl down only to have him immediately attach himself to her leg. Coaxing him off her leg, she couldn't help but inquire about the near chaos going on. "I've been meaning to ask – what's going on? Why is it suddenly so busy and why am I needed?"

"They didn't explain it to you?"

"No, they just told me that 'my presence was mandatory ASAP.'"

Skycraker flashed a dark smile. "That sounds like them. No questions, no answers. Just demands." Shaking his head ruefully he continued on. "One of the AX-IIV transportation shuttles used for energon delivery was attacked."

If it was possible, Charger paled. She knew which one he was talking about. Only one of those shuttles was delivering energon for a small city under a severe shortage. To help out, Praxus sent out a very large amount in that shuttle. And those particular shuttles didn't have much defense against hacking since only delivery servers could be accessed. But if the rebels knew how to use that information then they could intercept other deliveries.

"I better get started." Finally getting Prowl off her leg, Charger grabbed the datapads. "Play nice, okay? I'll be back in a little while."

Pouting, Prowl nodded. Charger left and Prowl looked up uncertain about the older mech. Skycracker smiled at him reassuringly. "Let's see… I do believe I have a 3D puzzle of Cybertron in here… ah yes! Here it is!"

Yes, some of these OC names brought to you by the Decepticons. I'm so original lol

And I thought I was kidding myself at 17 pages in that this was gonna be 34 pages long. It's only 29 – and I've still got one more scene left. Ah hahah. I'm so funny. I tried to divide it up as best as possible without ending things at odd places. There's 3 parts total since I figure no one wants to read a 30 page chapter, but I decided to polish it in parts. I finished the first two together, so I posted them together but I'm still working on the third part.