Author's Notes: This chapter is short but sweet (I hope)!
With deliberate and steady steps, the leader of the Autobots walked through the halls of the Ark. Optimus Prime was tired; he'd just spend the last several days almost entirely in his office dealing with piles of paperwork and reports. Several incidents had taken place on Cybertron that he had to review, and it didn't help that Ultra Magnus's reports could be quite lengthy and detailed. In addition, a Decepticon raid that had taken place in South America last week hadn't helped lessen the work load for the Prime, as he had been busy negotiating with officials about the incident. It had just been one of those weeks where his work had gotten a little ahead of him and he had had to buckle down and get it done. He'd only left his office during the last week to grab his ration of Energon for the day. But now he was free and he planned on using his brief respite from work to relax for a while.
As Optimus made his way towards the exit that led outside, he couldn't help but get the feeling that there was something different about the Ark today. There was just something in the atmosphere that caught his attention. It was almost 11am, and the crew should all be up and active at this time of the day. Sure, there were plenty of 'bots up and about, talking in the hallways or relaxing in the rec room, and they all greeted him in the usual manner, but it all seemed just a little quiet. Especially since he had been mostly absent over the last few days, Optimus had expected the crew to have gotten a little rowdy.
Optimus was just wondering if he was more tired than he had thought and was simply misreading his soldiers, when he ran into the Ark's third in command.
"O.P. ya've joined th' land o' th' livin' again!" Jazz greeted the Prime with a broad grin.
"Hello Jazz," Optimus returned, glad for the little bit of normality his friend provided.
Jazz quickly fell into step with the Prime. "So, finally dig yo'self outa that big pile o' data pads in yer office? Man it was a doosy this time, I've seen Prowl with less work t' get done!"
"Yes the work is done for now," Optimus confirmed. "By the way, I am grateful for you and Prowl keeping the Ark running smoothly while I was absent."
Jazz gave the Prime a sly grin. "We got yer back, Ops! Hey, so where're ya headin' now?" he asked.
"I was going to take a long walk outside. Would you care to join me?"
"Naw I've got some stuff t' deal with around here," Jazz waved off the offer. "But hey, how 'bout we go this way instead?" he asked as he suddenly changed course and walked down a different hallway a bit and stopped, staring at the Prime expectantly.
Optimus looked a little confused. "What is wrong with our original path?"
"Uh, Slag got inta one o' his rampages and kinda tore up th' place a bit earlier today, ya know how it goes. Don't worry," he said when Optimus looked a little concerned. "Prowl's got Hoist an' Grapple on th' repairs, but fer now it might be best if we steered clear o' that hallway."
After the moment it took for Optimus to process the information, he nodded. "Very well," he said as he followed the saboteur down the new hallway.
The two chatted idly until they reached the Ark's entrance. Jazz stood for a moment to watch as Optimus started on his walk. Once the Prime was out of sight, Jazz activated his comm-unit. "Prowl, papa bear's outa hibernation!"
"...what?" Prowl responded in confusion.
"Optimus is up and about! He's outside now but he'll be back within an hour or so. What's th' plan?"
A moment of silence followed as Prowl considered his options. He then responded, "Optimus need not be burdened with the knowledge of the... current situation that is taking place among the crew," Prowl said.
"Ah, I gotchya. Ol' Prime shouldn't have ta worry his li'l head over such trivial things, huh?"
"That is correct. It is after all our job to maintain peace and order among the ranks."
Jazz snickered. "Right on, man. Oh an' by th' way, I tol' Optimus tha' Slag made a mess outa th' corridor goin' through sector 2B an' Hoist an' Grapple are doin' repairs on it. Ya might wanna maintain that story."
"I understand," Prowl confirmed.
"Cool. Jazz out." As soon as he cut the connection, Jazz turned around and headed back into the Ark. He retraced the steps he had taken with Optimus until he reached the hallway in sector 2B, which he proceeded to enter. Just a little bit down the hall he met up with Hoist and Grapple who were busy setting up some kind of contraption at the base of the wall.
"How's it comin' guys?" Jazz asked as he surveyed the work.
"We're almost done," Hoist said. "But was that Optimus's voice I heard earlier? Is he around?"
"He's outside right now. But hey, you gotta spread th' word, but th' Prime can't know about any of this. An' right now he thinks Slag tore up this hallway. Ya dig?"
The two nodded. "Yeah we got it!" Grapple said.
"Awesome! Keep up th' good work!" said Jazz as he left.
o~o~o
When Optimus returned to the Ark, he was feeling much better. Having stretched his legs and vented fresh air, he was ready to take on the rest of the day. Although he had certainly gotten through a large pileup of work, he couldn't afford a day off as he had other duties to attend to.
Once inside his base again, Optimus made a beeline for Teletraan 1. He wanted to check up on the status of the Ark. He made his way through the ship, being sure to avoid the hallway through sector 2B, and once again felt the same odd vibe he had gotten when he first left. He passed by the rec room and casually glanced inside. He saw Tracks and Smokescreen talking and exchanging Energon chips, Air Raid, Fireflight, and Slingshot playing video games together, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe sitting together with the red frontliner showing the other a data pad and pointing at it excitedly, and Ironhide sitting alone, drinking from a cube and watching the twins closely. It was all very innocent, but again Optimus couldn't help but feel suspicious about it. He mulled this over as he approached the communications room, thinking maybe he'd been away from his crew for too long and he was just being paranoid.
Finally the Prime reached the room that held Teletraan 1. He was just about to enter the room as the door slid open for him, when a mech suddenly popped through the doorway and blocked his path. Optimus started back as Wheeljack suddenly stood in his way.
"Optimus, hi! Glad ta see ya up and about!" Wheeljack exclaimed as his head fins flashed. "Um, you can't come in here... right now," he then said as he held his arms out in front of the door.
"Oh," Optimus responded. "Why can't I?"
"Um, well ya see, we're just ah doing some routine tune-ups on Teletraan. Ya know, he was getting a little slow, so some upgrades were in order. Normal stuff, we should be done by this afternoon!"
"Hmm," was all Optimus had to say. Never, in all the time he's worked onboard this ship with Teletraan 1, had the machine needed an upgrade. Before, Optimus hadn't been so sure about whether something suspicious was going on with his crew, but now he was confident that something was up. For now though, he was willing to play along. "Very well," he said. "Please inform me when Teletraan 1 is up and running again."
"Yes sir!" Wheeljack said enthusiastically as the Prime turned to leave.
"Oh," Optimus suddenly said as he stopped and turned back towards the engineer. "I hope that the Dinobots are behaving well today?"
Wheeljack stared at Optimus for a moment, optics wide. He refreshed his optics several times before responding. "Uh, of course... they're just fine!"
That was the exact response Optimus had been expecting. "Good, thank you Wheeljack," he said before finally turning and leaving. He left behind a bemused and slightly flustered engineer.
Optimus may not be the strategist that Prowl was, but he was no fool. It was clear to him now, something had happened while he had been absent in his office and nobody seemed to be willing to tell him what it was.
The Prime decided to make his way back to the rec room. He had just passed the entrance to the 2B hallway when he heard a sudden loud noise, like a bang, and a startled yelp coming from it. Instincts kicking in, Optimus prepared to dash down the hall to make sure everything was okay. But just before he could start, a strange sound reached his audios. It was a repeating sound, like some kind of squeaking, that grew louder each time it repeated. Suddenly a figure appeared out of the hallway. It was Blades, and he didn't look too happy. Each time he put down his left foot it would emit that sound.
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak. Blades slowly moved closer. Optimus just stared in confusion. Something appeared to be attached to the Protectobot's foot. He couldn't figure out what it was, but it was rubbery and yellow, oddly shaped, and it seemed to be the source of the noise.
When he got close enough, Blades finally acknowledged the Prime's presence with a simple and unceremonious grunt.
"Blades," Optimus returned. "Is there something wrong with your foot?"
"Nope." Was all Blades had to say.
"Should you go see Ratchet about that?" Optimus said, trying to come up with a solution to the odd predicament.
"Oh I'll be seeing somebody, that's for sure," Blades growled as he squeaked by.
The Prime just watched the helicopter 'bot go by, and continued to stare until the sounds of the squeaks had disappeared down the hallway. Yup, something strange is definitely going on in the Ark.