Okayy, part 1 of Listen to Me! done, I was afraid this would get too long, so I cut it in half, and I felt like I was starting to ignore this story, so I came to a place where I could stop without it sounding completely messed up!
I'm SOO sorry these take so long to post! I am suffering from writer's block as well as too much homework.
In this chapter you get to see how Prowess met Firefly and Silver Angel, see some of her past, and get a hint about what another certain cyber-ninja thinks of one of our main femmes!
Warnings: none
Disclaimer: you ever notice how it takes longer to type, 'I don't own Transformers, Hasbro owns it' than it does to type, 'I own Transformers'? Those dang lawyers really want us to get our exercise!
3 Firefly95
Chapter 5: Listen to Me!
He watched for a moment to make sure they were really gone, then turned and walked briskly to Teletraan-1. He knew he would be in deep trouble if the Decepticons managed to infiltrate the base while he talked to Prowess, so he set the computer to alert him of any disturbances or problems.
More slowly, he walked toward the room Prowess had claimed as hers. Hesitating only a moment he pressed the green button that opened the door. It quietly swished open and he stepped silently stepped inside, surveying his surroundings and looking for shadows in which a sneaky Cyber ninja femme might hide.
Right away he knew that despite the femme's small size, there was absolutely no where to hide in here, and that meant there was only one more place she could be…on the ceiling.
His head snapped up just in time to see a shimmer-like movement on the ceiling overhead. "Chameleon affect, impressive." He thought. Quietly, as not to startle her, he called out, "Please Prowess, I only wish to talk to you."
No answer, well, he sort of expected that, so sitting cross-legged on the floor he said patiently, "Care to explain why you tricked your friends into believing you had left the base? They're very worried you know…" Again, she said nothing.
"I promise, I won't do anything, I just want to talk." He thought for a moment she wouldn't answer, but then a soft reply came. "The last time a mech told me that, I ended up getting hurt, both physically and figuratively."
His optics widened for a moment before he said, "I promise I won't do anything, I just want to talk." Thinking quickly he added, "You don't even have to come out, please, just talk to me."
For a nerve-racking moment, he thought she would refuse and tell him to leave, but she let out a sigh tainted with sorrow and pain and said, "Fine, but if I don't like where this conversation heads, you leave as soon as I say so, no protests."
He nodded; he could deal with those conditions.
"Oh, and one more thing," she said, "For every question you ask, I get to ask one." He quirked an optic ridge, but simply said, "Fair enough."
He took her silence as his cue to ask the first question, "Why did you trick your friends into thinking you left the base?"
He heard her shift slightly, and she answered, "I needed to be alone and I never would have been with Firefly here. I love her like a sister, but she doesn't know when enough is truly enough."
Prowl nodded, he could understand that, but is still didn't justify her actions completely. "You do realize you have frightened them very much with your disappearing act."
"I did not anticipate such a bad reaction from Firefly." She said softly. "I assure you I will apologize to Firefly and Silver Angel as well as the rest of your team as soon as they return."
"I know you will." He said, then hesitantly added, "Your turn to ask a question."
She was silent for a moment and Prowl wondered if she had heard him until she said, "How did you know I was still here?"
He smiled slightly; it was an easy question, "Simple, I was meditating near the only exit-"
Prowess interrupted him, "Not true, there is another exit in your quarters."
Bewildered, Prowl asked "How did you know about that?"
"The door to your quarters was open when you were walking us down the hall." She said bluntly.
Prowl was silent for a moment, she was obviously more attentative to her surroundings than he had anticipated. "Impressive observation, but as I was saying, I was meditating next to the front exit, and I would have easily heard someone trying to sneak past me and I doubted you knew about the second exit, much less the security code that unlocks my door."
"Hmm," She murmured thoughtfully. "your turn."
"Why are you so wary of me?" He asked, it had been a question he had been deeply contemplating during his meditation and hadn't really come up with a logical reason.
He jumped slightly in surprise as she suddenly appeared on the ceiling and flipped down, making her way almost soundlessly over to him. He scrutinized her face in order to get some kind of clue as to what emotions she was feeling, but her visor obstructed his view of her optics and her mouth was fixed in a straight line.
"It's not you specifically, I'm wary of all mechs." She said hesitantly, and then shook her helm, "It's a long story."
"I'm ready to listen." He said leaning back against the wall to get more comfortable.
She seemed undecided and for a nano-klik, he thought she would ask him to get out, but instead she sat down in front of him and for the first time, he realized how beautiful she really was. Her face was somewhat heart-shaped, with round, supple cheeks and full lips. Her face was dark gray and her helm was pale pink with a dark gray stripe running from her forehead to the back of her helm, resembling a motorcycle helmet.
He jerked himself from his admiring when she took a deep breath and said. "Before I tell you this, you must promise to never breathe a word of it to anyone else."
Prowl nodded briskly, but wondered what was such a secret that she made him swear never to tell. She eyed him for a moment longer, her baby blue optics flaring brightly behind her visor.
She seemed to believe him and began her story, "I was conceived by accident, my parents were from different factions. My mother was a neutral and my father was an Autobot. They met at a bar one night and after they talked, danced, and drank high-grade for hours, they both became very overcharged. She went with him back to his residence and, well, I think you can guess what happened there." She said, her cheeks flushing slightly.
She paused for a moment before continuing, "She found out she was with spark (1) seven solar cycles later. She told my father about it and he reacted badly, insisting that it probably wasn't even his, calling her a whore, and he told her he didn't want anything to do with me or her anymore, so whatever happened next was her problem."
Prowl frowned, not only was it not very Autobot-like to tell someone in need that it was their problem and not do a thing to help, in fact, it was just downright cruel.
She continued, "After she gave birth to me, she knew didn't have the credits to support both herself and a sparkling, so she just dropped me off at the front door of the Cyber ninja academy with Master Heron and I never heard from her again."
Prowl felt his spark tearing for the poor femme, she'd had a rough life.
She paused for a while before she went on, "Master Heron became like a surrogate father to me," she said, a touch of affection in her voice, "He took care of me, loved me, and I thrived under his care. He was the closest thing to family I'd ever known. With his guidance I soon rose to the top of my class and became skilled in many forms of circuit-su, as well as archery."
Prowl quirked an optic ridge, "Archery?" He questioned curiously. She looked at him for a moment and Prowl couldn't tell if she was annoyed at being interrupted, or if she was seeing if he was mocking her, or if asking a genuine question.
"Yes, a bow and arrow are my chosen weapons. I have a bow with energon-reinforced string and trick arrows." She noticed his slightly puzzled look and quickly added, "and by 'trick arrows' I mean they all do different things, such as, some are stasis-inducing, some explode, some have grappling hooks attached, and some are just regular arrows." She said
"Fascinating," He said processing and storing all the new information.
She said, "I completed my training two years ahead of my class and it was time for me to graduate." The corners of her lips twitched in a tiny smile, "I was immediately recruited by a member of the Elite Guard, I believe you've met him, his designation is Jazz." She said turning to Prowl.
"Oh, yes, I met him as well as Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime when they paid a visit to us." Prowl answered quickly, "He seemed like he was pretty nice and was the easiest to get along with."
Prowess sighed, "Yes, he is, and he's also very persistent. He's had an infatuation with me ever since he laid optics on me. I don't really know why and it got very annoying very fast. Although, I don't suppose I would have ever met Firefly or Silver Angel, and if I hadn't met them, I never would have had the accident that caused my…mistrust"
Prowl's interest was definitely piqued now for three reasons; one, he was jealous that Jazz had gotten to know Prowess first, two, what did the smooth mech have to do with the three femmes meeting, and three, what did Firefly and Silver Angel have to do with Prowess' mistrust? Had they somehow…caused it?
He didn't have anymore time to ponder over the meaning of her words, as she had already continued her story. "He had insisted on giving me a tour of the whole base. After much pleading on his part, I finally agreed."
She shifted slightly, "We were touring the Rec. Room when I heard two Autobots arguing. We rounded the corner and saw two mechs arguing, one was gold and the other was crimson. They were yelling at one another and everyone in the room were either leaving or trying to ignore it." She paused for a moment and Prowl could hear a faraway tone in her voice, as though she were talking on auto pilot.
Flashback:
Jazz chuckled at the sight before him before turning to his companion. "Sit tight Prowess, I'm gonna call Ultra Magnus ta' come straightin' this out 'kay?"
Prowess watched for a moment longer before turning slowly to meet Jazz's optics and nodded silently. He smiled at her, briefly put his hand on her shoulder then ran off.
The femme turned back to the fighting mechs and saw that the loud arguing had turned into an all-out fistfight. Her optics widened in shock as she watched the two fight and yell obscenities at one another.
"You scratched my paint you fragger!" Yelled the gold one, "I'm gonna kill you for that!"
"Oh no," The crimson one said sarcastically, "I'm SOO scared Sunny."
The golden one, 'Sunny', growled, "You're going down bro!"
The crimson mech smirked, "Bring it on bro!"
Prowess shifted from one foot from another, unsure if she should try to intervene or something. She was gathering her courage when she heard someone snarl, "WOULD YOU TWO SLAGTARDS STOP IT ALREADY!!!!" The two fighting mechs gave shouts of surprise and fell to the floor.
Everyone in the room froze and Prowess turned quickly to see a small, purple and silver femme standing in the doorway. Her sapphire optics blazed with anger, her hands were positioned on her hips, and her doorwings were held high, showing her barely contained temper. Behind her stood a tall, silver femme, who stood quietly behind her companion, silently surveying the now-calm room.
With the tips of her doorwings twitching in anger, the purple and silver one stalked over to the fighting pair. The two scrambled to their feet and backed away from her quickly as she approached. She stopped abruptly and her face twisted up as she ground out, "GET…OVER…HERE…NOW!" they instantly stopped their backpedaling and hesitantly walked over to the femme, who, even though was only about two-thirds of their sizes, seemed ten times as deadly.
As soon as they were in her reach, she snatched them down to her eye-level, ignoring their complaints of "Oww!" and "You're denting my face!" She smiled a smile that for some reason reminded Prowess of a Robokitty about to eat a turbo-rat. "Did you two know I could hear you all the way from the training area, where Silver Angel and I were?" The two quickly shook their heads as best they could with the vice-like grip the femme had on them. The smile only widened and she said "Well, newsflash, we could and you caused me to nearly lose the sparring match!"
Her grip must have tightened, because the two winced and the crimson one blurted out, "Sorry Firefly! We didn't know!" she scowled, "You better be sorry Sideswipe, and pray to Primus I'm not the one who comes to stop you next time, because then…" She released their faces and they fell to the floor with a light smack, "I might not be as forgiving about it."
"Wow," Prowess murmured to herself.
"That's one way to put it," Prowess turned to find herself looking at who she guessed was Silver Angel. "Although unbelievable would be more accurate." The tall femme was looking at her and giving her a friendly smile.
"I'm going to guess you're Silver Angel and, she's Firefly" Prowess said.
"And you guessed right." She said, her smile widening a little bit.
"Who guessed what right?" Asked a voice behind Prowess, the femme flinched a slightly when she realized that Firefly was behind her and looking at her and Silver Angel questioningly. The fury was gone from her sapphire eyes and all that was left was curiosity.
"Oh, hey Fire." Silver Angel said, glancing briefly at the other femme, "This is Prowess and I meant she was correct in her assumptions of our identities."
"Oh," The small purple and silver femme said before smiling brightly at Prowess and putting out her hand. "Hi!"
Prowess shot a bewildered look at Silver Angel, surprised at Firefly's sudden change in attitude. The femme gave her a bemused smile and mouthed, "She moves on quickly."
Prowess mouthed back "No kidding." Before taking Firefly's outstretched hand and shaking it. "Nice to meet you," She said.
Firefly smiled even bigger, if that were possible, and said, "You too Prowess," Her optics lit up and she said excitedly, "You want to come hang out with me and Angel in the training room then later we can give you a tour or something?"
Prowess paused for a moment, glancing at Angel, who nodded in agreement. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt anything." She answered, feeling a flutter of excitement at having made new friends, then the feeling was squashed when Jazz walked back in with a couple of bots she didn't know. Jazz had already offered to give her a tour, how was she going to tell him she wanted Firefly and Silver Angel to show her around instead?
Jazz looked around confusedly at the now calm scene, most likely looking for the fighting twins. She couldn't help but cringe slightly when his gaze settled on her and his optics lighted up. He jogged over to them and asked, "Weren't Sunny and Sides' jus' in here 'bout ta tear each other apart? He asked tearing his gaze away from Prowess and looking at the other two femmes.
Firefly straightened her back and puffed out her chest, "They were, but I straightened them out!" The purple femme answered proudly.
Jazz smiled at her and patted her helm, "Thanks lil' Fire." He turned to Prowess and said, "Ready ta see th' rest of tha base?" Prowess cringed slightly, something about the way Jazz looked at her made her uneasy. She knew he would never hurt her, but she just couldn't relax around him.
She was about to answer when Firefly tossed an arm around her fellow femme's shoulders and said, "Oh don't worry about it, Jazz! We can show her around the base! Besides, you probably have a ton of work to get back to."
Prowess nodded quickly in agreement and added, "Yes, I hate to keep you from your work any longer. I'll just let Firefly and Silver Angel show me around the rest of the base if that's ok with you."
The femmes nodded in agreement and Prowess tried to ignore the hurt she saw very briefly on Jazz's faceplates before he forced a smile, "Ok, uh, sure, tha' sounds good, I do have los' of work I need ta get done. Have a nice day ladies." He said before walking slowly away.
She felt a small pang of regret, she hadn't meant to hurt him, but the feeling disappeared when Firefly grabbed her arm and began to pull her toward the door. "C'mon! There's a lot of the base left to see!" She said excitedly, only allowing Prowess a quick glance at the rejected looking Jazz, with his head hanging and sluggishly dragging feet.
End Flashback
Prowl listened as she told the story of how she met Jazz, Firefly, and Silver Angel. When she finished, he was bit ashamed to feel a pang of satisfaction at the fact that she didn't have feelings for Jazz, but, what chance did he have of her liking him if she didn't like someone like Jazz?
He squashed the thought and the feelings of sadness that came with it and asked, "What does meeting Firefly and Silver Angel have to do with the accident that caused your mistrust of mechs?"
She gave him a slightly annoyed glance and said, "I was getting to that."
Prowl bowed his head slightly and apologized for interrupting. She turned to him, smiling ever so slightly, "it's alright."
She wrinkled her noseplates a little and muttered, "Now where was I? Oh, I remember now," She said, straightening up. "Sometime after Firefly and Silver Angel made it into the Elite Guard, Firefly became interested in….um, clubbing." She said ducking her head slightly in embarrassment when Prowl gave her a doubtful look.
"Yes, I'm very serious, I know she should have never been able to get in there in the first place, but Angel knew the owners and the two were allowed in." She continued, "Even though I always refused to come, they always asked me if I wanted to join them." The femme shook her head smiling, "I was always afraid they would get caught, but, somehow, they always seemed to come back right before they were missed."
"Anyway, one Cycle, for Angel's creation date, I finally agreed to come," She scowled, "little did I know it would be the biggest mistake of my Life Cycle."
Flashback:
Firefly bounced happily on Prowess's right side, "I'm so glad you finally decided to come with us! You'll have the time of your Life Cycle at this place!"
Prowess smirked at her overly excited friend and said, "I hope so, or all of this polishing you insisted on doing to me will go to waste." She turned the other way to face Silver Angel and said, "Now HOW exactly do you know the club owner?"
Silver Angel paused, rubbing her lower lip with her fingertip while she thought, "Oh! Now I remember! He buys lots of supplies from one of my Father's supply companies." She said.
Prowess rolled her optics, "I guessed as much." Firefly and Angel halted all of a sudden and stared ahead. Confused, Prowess looked at her two companions, who were grinning back at her.
"What?" She asked, raising a hidden optic ridge under her visor.
Firefly's grin widened and she sang "We're here!"
Pausing to look around, Prowess turned back to her younger friend, "Have you blown a circuit? This is a bare alley; there aren't any doors or signs anywhere!" She said, her voice carrying a tiny hint of impatience.
"Well, to just anyone, this IS a bare alley, but to those with connections like me, it is more." Silver Angel said in her smooth, velvety voice.
Prowess mentally kicked herself for forgetting that Angel was an upper class femme, born and raised, although she made it pretty easy to forget, since she didn't have the snobby, I'm-better-than-you attitude most upper class members had. Prowess found it both interesting and amusing that her great wealth had very little effect on her nearly non-existent ego, unlike some of her sisters.
She watched as Silver Angel reached into her subspace and pulled out a silvery-blue key. She walked over to the wall on her right and pushed in one of the metal panels. As it was pushed in, another panel slid open with a small 'swoosh', revealing a small keyhole. Angel inserted the key in and twisted it to the right. A three-toned beep sounded and an entire section of the wall slid to the side and to Prowess's amazement, it was the entrance to the dance club.
"Wow," Prowess mused, "They go to great lengths to make sure the club remains secret."
Re-subspacing the key, Silver Angel smirked, "You don't know the half of it."
Prowess gave the other a slightly mystified look as the tall silver femme and the shorter purple femme brushed past her and entered the club.
Prowess shuttered her optics in surprise as she entered the dance club. Music was blasting from huge speakers set up in the corners and multicolored strobe lights flashed. Mechs and femmes were dancing to the upbeat tunes and laughing drunkenly.
A sickeningly sweet scent wafted into her olfactory sensor and she wrinkled up her faceplates in disgust. "Ugh, what IS that smell?!" She exclaimed, holding a dainty hand over her nose.
Firefly quirked an optic ridge, "High-grade," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the universe, "Haven't you ever smelled it before?"
Prowess rolled her optics under her visor, "Well yes, but it doesn't usually smell like that!"
Silver Angel put her hand on her friend's shoulder, "That's because it's got something in it that gives it an extra 'bang', according to Sideswipe." She said
"Frag," Firefly snorted, "he probably even knows what the stuff is and where you can get it!"
Silver Angel smirked, "Most likely," Her expression turned serious and she turned to Prowess, "but all joking aside Prowess, whatever you do, DON'T drink anything brought to you unless Firefly or I give it to you, understand?"
Prowess frowned, "That's common sense Angel, I'm not stupid." She pointed out.
Silver Angel smiled slightly, although her expression remained stern, "I very well know that, I am just reminding you."
Firefly sighed impatiently from Prowess' other side, "Okay, okay, we have the most important stuff out of the way…NOW LET'S GO HAVE SOME SLAGGIN' FUN!" She exclaimed
Silver Angel chuckled, "Okay Fire' you lead the way."
(1) Cybertronian word for pregnant
Oh noes, there is no way this could possibly end well…
Also, PLEASE review BEFORE you FAVE!!! That's all I have for now…
3 Firefly95