~2 Decaorns Ago
"And what's this, Almighty Megatron?" Starscream's voice sneered. "Has our Illustrious Leader gone soft, actually following the whims of some scientist?" Thundercracker and Skywarp both knew Starscream was just stalling. None of the flyers liked the idea of entering catacombs destroyed vorns ago. Who's to say the tunnels won't collapse on them when they're deep in? Thundercracker shifted slightly, unnerved at the thought. If he was separated from Skywarp he might be trapped there for a while.
"What's wrong, Starscream? Feeling a little inferior, perhaps, that someone finally managed to have real scientific use for me?" Megatron mocked. "Now let's get moving." Megatron descended into the tunnels with the Constructicons in tow. The three Seekers hung back for a few moments until even the brightly-colored Constructicons began to fade from sight.
Starscreamed snarled. "We're not falling behind those pathetic Constructicons." He marched in, Skywarp and Thundercracker reluctantly right behind him. They were probably only a third of the way through before a loud snap echoed through the corridor. Thundercracker's circuits immediately froze and Skywarp moved ever-so-slightly towards him. Starscream looked ready to transform at any astrosecond and take off. Just as Thundercracker was about to suggest turning around and finding some excuse later, an Autobot tumbled over a fallen wall.
"Hey, it's just a stupid Autogeek," Skywarp commented, trying to mask his relief. Starscream scoffed at the Autobot and roughly jerked him off the downed wall and glaring into the disorientated Autobot's optics. Seeing no visual cues of recognition Starscream sneered in disgust and threw the Autobot down, spilling him all over the floor by his trine mate's feet.
"The fool doesn't even recognize who we are or where he is."
"Yeah," chuckled Skywarp as the Autobot by his peds moaned, "Autobots aren't good for anything anyways except for workin' out some energy." He kicked the Autobot in the face. "Morons."
Thundercracker thought it was rather unfair to beat up a defenseless Autobot but he wasn't about to stop it. "Yeah right, morons. Probably can't even figure why his face hurts."
Starscream snickered in response. "Let's find out." Without any more warning Starscream kicked the injured mech several times, further cracking the Autobot's armor. However, the Autobot only moaned denying Starscream his satisfaction. "Nyuh!" Starscream pulled the Autobot back up and started tearing into his arm.
"Starscream!" Megatron's voice bellowed through the tunnels. Starscream paused. "Get down here now!"
"Keh," Starscream tossed the Autobot aside. "Guess it's his lucky orn."
"Or not. Chances are he'll die soon anyways from energon loss." Skywarp laughed as they followed Starscream. Thundercracker paused, looking back at the Autobot. Thundercracker was never fond of leaving loose ends around but right now that wasn't his problem.
/-/
"So," Megatron announced his presence to the mass of scientists inside the large underground cavern. They all immediately whirled around and stood at attention. "To whom do I owe this please?" A mech in the middle stepped forward.
"Hello, Lord Megatron," he greeted somewhat shakily, "We've been working on preparing the systems and finishing our analysis for you. Its nearly complete but there's still – "
"Save it. Tell me what you know." Megatron's voice already had a dangerously bored tone.
"Yes." The scientist's voice shook a little more but he managed to get a hold of himself. Thundercracker almost pitted the mech; they'd been urgently summoned up from Earth by a request for Megatron and Starscream with additional support for troops specializing in reconstruction. Not that he asked but Thundercracker was pretty certain Skywarp and him were there only to keep Starscream less twitchy after he learned it was underground. If the mech didn't give Megatron anything considered useful then it'd be the Pit for him for dragging them up here. Pity really, watching Megatron kill some mech whose name he didn't even bother knowing.
"An orn ago there was a battle between our forces and the enemy causing a nearby explosion. Apparently the explosion loosened some of the debris in this cavern and knocked one of the systems back online where it connected to one of our servers. There's no record of any systems being placed in these caverns. In fact, records show these tunnels and caverns were originally only storage units."
"And how exactly does some unregistered ancient system interest me?" Megatron drawled.
"We've been down here analyzing the datalogs and systems to figure out what this really is and, well, you must see this for yourself."
They followed the scientist toward the back of the cavern. Thundercracker couldn't help but look around. For an ancient storage room the contents were unusual. Long glass tubes were pushed against the sides of the walls and he was pretty sure there were berths inside. He couldn't really tell because every single one of them showed some debilitating damage from a partial cave-in. Every now and then he could've sworn he saw a limb connected to the scientists' wires.
"As you can see," the scientist called them to a stop, "this wasn't a simple storage room."
Megatron looked at the stasis lock container in front of him. Inside laid a dormant mech whose design he'd never quite seen before. His overall structure and dull grey paint told Megatron he was a frontline warrior. However, it was the green veins that seemed to pulse that held Megatron's attention. They swept across his body and connected at the base of his cranial unit. Additional veins brushed his helm towards his cranial base along with ancient glyph tattoos. "Who is he?"
"Best we've been able to recover is he's part of an old experimental war program where mechs were reformatted into brute force warriors."
"We had those. I fail to see why a secret program was needed," Starscream quickly interjected.
"These particular warriors were meant to handle anything most the Decepticons at the time couldn't deal with. The program was initiated not long after the start of the war when most of our troops weren't, ah, skilled and brave warriors. To bypass all the time and trouble of training, this program was developed to insure dangerous and effective warriors."
Thundercracker recalled the troops in the early days. He hadn't joined the Decepticons yet but the majority of his city had. Most of the Decepticons were low lives trying to make a name for themselves by picking on the weak. When it came to a real fight however, most of them turned either coward or mindless brawler.
"And how does one 'insure dangerous and effective warriors' without giving them any training?" Starscream sardonically asked. The scientist shifted his feet, hesitant to continue on.
"Out with it! What value is some outdated warrior for me?" Megatron growled.
"They implanted several experimental training programs along with a control device," the scientist cried out flustered. "Whoever was running the experiments forcefully uploaded and reconfigured all the mechs into whatever warrior they wanted. As time went on they continually updated and rewrote core codes to meet their demands. During the experiments they imbedded a program capable of completely override an individual mech's CPU for control. The device actually gives the, ah, user different degrees of control. If the user wanted to keep the mech in a frontline warrior state at any given time they can issue the command. Or if they decide to give the mech basic control over his body but leave all upper-level functions to the user's discretion."
"So anything this warrior does is determined by what I want?" An evil glint shined from Megatron's optic.
"Yes. You can determine what 'mode' he's in – warrior, guard, recharge or refuel – and how much control you allow him once he's in that state."
"Why would they go through all that trouble?" Thundercracker blurted out. The ominous feeling ebbing at his spark grew steadily as he watched the scientist's demeanor. Already he could understand the scientist's behavior: finding a perfectly obedient and effective warrior for Megatron would grant his team a better status within the Decepticon army. However, he was giving someone known for his short and explosive fuse a new weapon – one that wasn't affected by distance, time, events, or pleas.
"The programs were highly volatile because they incorporated experimental weapons and armor. In order to keep their warriors from turning on them they developed the control device. Some of the weaponry and armor they developed doesn't exist even to this orn."
"So what you're telling me is this mech is capable of things no Decepticon or Autobot can do and he'll do whatever I want?" The tone in Megatron's voice sent chills deep into even Starscream's spark.
"Uh, Ye-Yes. We're finished all our initial scans on him and his deactivated comrades and we're still working on the datafiles, but we're ready for the next part. We need to extract and repair him. We don't quite understand what these modifications – " the scientist indicated the green veins " – to his armor does."
"Hook, Scrapper," Megatron called. Both Hook and Scrapper stepped forward. "You know what to do."
"Yes, Megatron. Consider it done," Hook boasted arrogantly.
"Good. I want him fully operational in two decaorns. Not an astrosecond longer, Hook. I won't tolerate any delays." Megatron turned and left, leaving the Constructicons behind. Starscream immediately followed although it was more likely because he wanted to leave than actually be next to Megatron. Skywarp followed suit and Thundercracker slowly moved forward, finally seeing the wrecked forms inside the cylinders.
As he left he could hear one of the scientists say to their lead, "You didn't tell him about the program's failure!"
Prowl quietly sneaked into his quarters with his datapads after the first set of shifts started, including Jazz's. After the door closed behind him he slowly relaxed feeling safe and secure. Jazz wouldn't be able to yell at him for another 11 joors.
Before Prowl could get any further into his quarters he was tackled from behind and flipped around, his attacker pinning his back against the wall. His optics met with Jazz's glare. Prowl didn't need to see behind the visor to know when the saboteur was glaring. "Wanna explain what 'came up'?"
"Aren't you on duty?" Prowl asked, forcing himself to keeping up normal pretenses despite being attacked and pinned in his own quarters.
"Yeah, and Bumblebee will be happy when I get back. But I ain't leavin' 'til you tell me what's up!"
Prowl refrained from wiggling his arms. He knew Jazz liked getting Prowl off-balanced and Prowl wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. "I'm fine. There was no need for you to cover your shift."
Jazz searched Prowl's face for signs of something wrong. Vorns ago he learned the best way to cut through Prowl's self-preservation façade. So long as he kept Prowl off-balanced the tactician wouldn't recover or hide as quickly. Sometimes it was in his face but more often his doorwings would flicker in certain ways. While his face remained passive his doorwings were faintly twitching. "Uh huh. Still haven't answered my question, Prowler."
Prowl resisted showing any signs of unease with the question; instead he focused on his physical discomfort. "My designation is – once again – Prowl. Prowl, Jazz, Prowl. Please let me go. You're pinching my doorwings against the wall." Jazz immediately released Prowl but he didn't back off.
Fixing his glare on Prowl's optics, Jazz spoke pointedly, "I said I ain't leavin' 'til you tell me what's up so you might as well get it out."
Prowl looked for the datapads he had before Jazz's 'greeting' and found them scattered across the floor. Bending down he gathered them up. Once he had them all again he focused on the one with the update Jazz knew nothing about.
"I…" Prowl paused. He told his best friend more than he'd told anyone else but that didn't mean he told him everything. There were certain things he couldn't open up about – not because he didn't trust Jazz but because he couldn't trust himself to say it. The few times in his life since sparkhood he'd expressed himself about something truly troubling him he'd be caught off guard by the unexpected emotional response. Not only that but each time he'd been met with ridicule and laughter. Just the other orn it repeated again when his emotions slipped through his tightly controlled veil as he tried to address the situation. Of course Jazz wasn't the type to do any of those things but he couldn't shake the discomfort with the unexpected that came with honestly expressing himself. Could he really tell Jazz how he felt about his failures as an officer and the SIC?
"I received further information regarding the possible Seeker and Megatron sighting on Cybertron. Since their information suggested Megatron's plans may be carried out soon I felt it was imperative for me to analyze and prepare for the upcoming battle." There. He was neither lying nor giving away too much. He never could bring himself to lie to Jazz. Prowl never liked lying to begin with but with Jazz it felt completely wrong.
Instead of his answer calming Jazz it just made him more upset. He knew Prowl was omitting something. Prowl was clearly upset – well, clearly to him. His doorwings had started subtly twitching again when he spoke; a dead giveaway Prowl wasn't comfortable with what he was saying. Besides, Prowl thrived on devising battle strategies so there had to be something else. "Yea okay, Prowler. By the way I'm having a sparkling with Sideswipe."
Prowl gaped at him and dropped a couple datapads. "Oh wait, I'm not having a sparkling with Sideswipe. I must've left some key words out just like yer explanation did," Jazz said sarcastically. "Look, Prowler. I know you're upset and I am not leavin' 'til I see you feelin' better! So start fillin' in the blanks!"
Prowl sighed; there wasn't any way for him to completely avoid the subject. Succumbing to the situation he gestured the datapads to Jazz. He moved just enough so Prowl could set the remaining datapads on his desk. Jazz picked up and placed the fallen ones on Prowl's desk, allowing him to effectively block the tactician in. Prowl widened his optics realizing he'd just unwittingly given Jazz more control over the situation. Prowl didn't like that; he hated unfamiliar territory and being pinned between his desk and an angry Jazz wasn't exactly in his comfort zone. In fact he'd never been in a situation where Jazz was this close with no way out (the few exceptions in battle were hardly the same). It bothered him and he realized it was more than just being trapped in. But whatever it was refused to enlighten him.
"The information suggests Megatron obtained what he wanted two decaorns ago. So there's no way to prevent him from carrying out his plans. We can only wait now." 'Wait for my failure to further unravel itself,' Prowl thought morosely.
Jazz scrunched his face in confusion. "Well that sucks, Prowl, but why's it bothering you so much?" He asked as gently as he could. He could see Prowl was stressed so he waited patiently.
"Because…" Prowl tore his gaze away from Jazz and looked at the wall across from Jazz's shoulder. "I was so busy being caught up keeping order in the Ark and finding some measure of relief from the calamity that I completely missed the opportunity to stop it."
"Prowl…" Jazz gently reached out and grasped Prowl's elbow and tugged to bring his attention back to him. "It's okay fer wantin' to feel comfortable in a military base that's effectively yer own home. It's not yer fault they marked it low priority," Jazz murmured quietly. Prowl shifted his gaze back at Jazz's optics.
Prowl shook his head. "I should've done better. I'm the Second-in-Command and I've made such a vital error. I may have endangered our forces because I was busy trying to maintain the Ark and my own sanity and I couldn't even do that right." Prowl caught himself, saying more than he wanted to. He didn't want Jazz to know he was feeling down on himself.
It was evident to Jazz that Prowl didn't mean to let that much information out when Prowl's optics light up and he tried to draw back. Biting back his comment about Prowl losing his sanity long ago, Jazz grasped Prowl's elbow more firmly. "Whadda ya mean, Prowl?" Jazz could almost literally see Prowl retreat into himself to distance himself from the situation. 'Don't think so, Prowler.'
He tugged again on Prowl's elbow, this time a little more forceful. He wasn't going to let Prowl hid from him. He hated feeling of Prowl being so distant from him. "Don't you dare. I hate it when you pull away from me. You really think all the little crap goin' on around the Ark is yer fault? Cuz I'm pretty sure it ain't you pullin' those pranks or startin' the fights." Upon seeing Prowl faintly smile, he continued on. "Do you think the troops see you any differently because all the slag goin' on? Everyone knows it's worse cuz the entire crew is stuck together for the first time in a fraggin' while and we ain't use to dealin' with it. Nobody blames you just because things are tense right now."
Prowl merely shrugged in response – or at least what Jazz considered a shrug for Prowl. It was more of his shoulders struts relaxing momentarily than a shrug. Jazz frowned. Why wasn't he getting through to Prowl? The thought of not being able to help his closest friend worried Jazz. Frowning, Jazz realized part of the issue after seeing Prowl become suddenly passive. "You think they don't respect ya or think less of you since Sideswipe's little prank run." It was more of a statement than a question but he let it hang in the open nevertheless.
Prowl doggedly focused his gaze on the same spot on the wall as before. He tried to find the words for Jazz but he couldn't get them out. Jazz must have been tired of trying to get Prowl's attention because he moved his face back into Prowl's view. 'Jazz always finds a way to get what he wants,' Prowl thought wryly. 'Might as well tell him.' Despite his second attempt, however, Prowl still couldn't muster up words that didn't threaten to bring more than he wanted.
Jazz's frowned deepened at the lack of response from Prowl. He could see Prowl's struggle in his optics despite his distant gaze. "They're just surprised to see you show some emotion and they got carried away being stupid with it. Only reason they're fixating on it is to preoccupy themselves with something 'sides the orange walls. Do you really think you can't show any emotions around them? I know they didn't prove themselves very well and a few of them will always behave like sparklings but some of us are real friends." Jazz gave Prowl a concerned look. "Do you feel like you can't trust nobody here? Prowler… you do have friends here. Friends who'd knock those idiots around and who'd listen if you ask. But they can't help you if you don't open up first."
At Prowl's continued silence Jazz couldn't help but ask quietly, almost painfully, "Do you really think you can't open up or show any emotion around me?" It dawned on him while he was talking a moment ago that Prowl didn't often tell him anything too personal. The thought Prowl didn't feel comfortable enough to express himself around Jazz hurt him unexpectedly deep.
"No!" Prowl's gaze snapped fully into Jazz's optics. "I don't think like that about you. You are the only mech I can express almost anything personal without fear. You aren't the only one, but…" Prowl didn't quite know how to finish that sentence. He felt it in his spark but he struggled trying to understand. "I fear being myself the least around you." His own response both surprised and scared him a little. He could feel his battle computer trying to process what that meant. Why was Jazz so different to him than everyone else, including his own brothers?
Meanwhile, Jazz felt himself breathe after he heard Prowl utter those words. Time seemed to slow down for the briefest of moments. Prowl felt the most relaxed with him and him alone? A longing stirred within his own spark at those words and he was suddenly aware how close the two of them were and his hand firmly holding Prowl's arm. "Yeah?" was the only response he could manage. Jazz knew his reply was lame but he couldn't come up with anything intelligent. He didn't even know what he thought of Prowl's response let alone form any real answer.
"… Yes." Prowl knew it was obvious he should feel comfortable with Jazz since they were best friends but he could feel a desire forming to have more than friendship. Prowl's optics lingered on Jazz's face before falling on his lips. Prowl suddenly found himself mesmerized by Jazz's lip components. He could feel his fear and curiosity bubbling. He tried analyzing the feelings but he was at a loss. He didn't understand why things were different for him when he was around Jazz. Sure, it was obvious his best friend should bring him joy but he realized there was something else. Maybe for once in his life he should stop fighting his emotions and give into them.
Prowl tentatively started moving his hand but didn't get far before the warning system for Decepticon activity sounded.
Yay, a real PJ chapter!
Several days ago my Jazz muse told me he was feeling too impatient with the original story plan so he's kindly suggested a couple changes. Stupid (lovable) Jazz.
I can't wait to write Ch E and Ch 4. First thing I ever wrote for this story is in Ch E and an awesome thing for Ch 4 came to last week. Will post them together.
Thanks to Evil Ratchet for beta reading. :)