For Skyfire, the trip up into Washington State was a fairly quick one. In only about half an hour, he began his descent to the area surrounding the dam. And it was easy to see where the Decepticons were causing trouble. Four of the six 'Cons were standing on top of the dam near the end while the other two stalked the ground nearby. Skyfire touched down on the same side of the dam a short distance away from the 'Cons and the 'Bots quickly disembarked and transformed. Optimus was the first to approach the Decepticons, which included Megatron.
The leader of the Decepticons was the first to speak up. "Optimus Prime!" he shouted gleefully as he leapt off the structure of concrete he had been standing on and approached the band of Autobots. "I am surprised to see you all made it here in one piece!"
Optimus silently wondered what Megatron meant by that as he responded out loud, "Megatron, leave this place! You have caused enough trouble for one day."
Megatron just laughed out loud. "You're going to have to make us leave, Prime! But I doubt you can do that without the support of your own troops!"
Behind Optimus, Prowl and Jazz glanced at each other questioningly. "What's ol' Bucket Head talkin' 'bout?" Jazz questioned quietly.
Prowl just shook his head as he glanced around at the other Decepticons, surveying the situation. "I do not know, but right now we need to gain control of the situation."
Jazz nodded and crept to the side and towards a hill nearby. Prowl continued to assess the situation as he stepped up to flank his Prime. Among the Decepticons Prowl spotted Soundwave and Starscream who both stood by Megatron, Thundercracker and Skywarp who still stood on top of the dam looking down on them all, and Blitzwing who stood a bit to the side glaring at the Autobots menacingly. Silently Prowl commed Bluestreak to scale the nearby hill with Jazz and prepare his sniper rifle.
While Bluestreak broke off from the group, Optimus responded to Megatron. "I do not know what you mean," the Prime rumbled with a threatening tone in his voice.
Megatron smirked. "Of course you don't, Optimus. Your ignorance of the fact that your very army is falling apart from underneath you will be your downfall!"
"You're one to talk, Megatron!" Sideswipe suddenly shouted. Prowl shot Sideswipe a warning look, and Megatron turned a scowl onto the red frontliner.
"Fool! You shall all soon see just how more powerful my army is! Decepticons, attack!" With that command, Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream and Blitzwing charged the Autobots while Thundercracker and Skywarp transformed and took to the sky.
Without a prompt, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker gleefully charged towards the 'Cons. The Prime sprinted forward to meet Megatron head on, and Bluestreak, who hadn't made it to the hill yet, quickened his pace to do so. Skyfire transformed and took to the air to counter the seekers while Prowl, Jazz, Cliffjumper, Ironhide and Blaster all prepared for the incoming battle.
Megatron and Optimus clashed on the battlefield and the rest of the troops followed suit. For the first minute or two the battle was a chaotic mess. Soon, however, the Autobots and Decepticons paired off to combat each other. The confusion didn't begin until several seconds later.
Bluestreak had almost made it to the top of the hill where he could provide cover fire for his comrades, but his path was blocked the next moment when with a *VOP* Skywarp suddenly teleported in front of him.
"Boo!" Skywarp shouted gleefully and lunged at the sniper. Startled, Bluestreak jumped back and pulled out what he assumed was his rifle gun, and aimed it at the seeker. He didn't realize what he was actually holding until he pulled the trigger. With a *BOOM* Skywarp was blown back by the blast from the cannon-like weapon that Bluestreak had unwittingly pulled from his subspace.
As Skywarp transformed and flew away like a frightened rabbit, Bluestreak stared at the gun in his hands in bewilderment. This was definitely not his weapon; in fact it looked more like something Cliffjumper would carry. How in the world had he gotten ahold of this?
Back down on the battlefield, several of the 'Bots were having similar experiences as the gunner's. Cliffjumper, who had meant to pull out a large cannon of his and shoot at Blitzwing, instead pulled out a long sniper rifle. Unaware that Bluestreak actually had his own gun, he looked at the rifle in confusion.
"What's this freaking peashooter doing in my subspace?" Cliffjumper shouted angrily.
Upon hearing his shout, Prowl looked over at Cliffjumper and spied the weapon he was referring to. "That looks like Bluestreak's," he said, with a hint of suspicion in his voice.
Cliffjumper held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I didn't take anything from the kid," he said.
Prowl raised an optic ridge skeptically, but before he could say anything more, Blitzwing decided to crash their party. The large Decepticon barreled into the two unsuspecting Autobots, and while Prowl had the reflexes to roll out of the way in the nick of time, Cliffjumper wasn't so lucky. He soon found himself flying backwards from a direct hit from Blitzwing. He hit the ground hard and had little time to recover as the 'Con charged towards him. With a gun in hand that was pretty much useless in short-distance combat, he was pretty helpless.
Prowl ran after Blitzwing to help his fellow Autobot, pulling out his own weapon at the same time. But just as Bluestreak and Cliffjumper before him, the weapon he pulled was not at all the one he meant to; in fact it wasn't even his. But with Cliffjumper running out of time, Prowl knew he couldn't waste any wondering at the odd occurrence, so with hardly even a double-take at the weapon, he aimed at the triple-changer and fired.
What came out of the weapon, and the resulting outcome, was quite spectacular. The gun sprayed several bullets towards the Decepticon, all of which imbedded quite painfully in his armor. That was enough to make the 'Con halt with a flinch and turn Prowl's way. But then, only a split second later, each of the bullets exploded, ripping apart the 'Con's armor and throwing small bits of shrapnel everywhere. With a roar of pain and shock, Blitzwing fell to one knee.
Stunned, Prowl took a step back and finally looked at the weapon he was holding. It was only now that he realized that what he was holding in his hands was highly illegal.
Prowl looked back up just in time to see Blitzing getting back to his feet, looking very angry. Prowl was reluctant to use this weapon again, and so he reached into his subspace to find a different one. Although the weapon he pulled still wasn't his, this time at least it was legal, and so he took aim at the now approaching Blitzwing.
From behind the 'Con, Cliffjumper finally managed to gain some control over himself and distracted Blitzwing by firing at him with Bluestreak's rifle. The two kept Blitzwing on his toes for the next minute, until finally help arrived in the form of Ironhide. The large Autobot barged onto the scene and slammed his fist into Blitzwing's chest. Blitzwing, who was losing energon fast from the wounds he'd received earlier, stumbled backward.
"You're going to pay for that, Auto-scum!" Blitzwing snarled.
"Yeah Ahm gonna pay, with mah fist in yer face," Ironhide retorted.
Prowl and Cliffjumper flanked Ironhide and faced Blitzwing. Undaunted, the 'Con cracked his knuckles and grinned maniacally, ready for the fight to come.
Meanwhile...
Blaster and Soundwave were busy with their own battle a little further away. Just like Optimus and Megatron, old grudges always brought these two together whenever they shared a battle field, and today was no different. Blaster braced himself while Soundwave hit him with a blast from his sonic cannon, but managed to recover long enough to dodge the Decepticon's follow up strike.
"Today ain't your day, Sounders! Might as well give up right now!" Blaster shouted.
"Blaster will submit to Soundwave," the other mech monotoned back. "Rumble, Frenzy, eject," he then said as he straightened and opened his chest compartment. The two cassettes flew out of Soundwave's chest and transformed into their root modes, landing in front of the bigger 'Con and faced Blaster.
"Ready to crumble, Auto-butt?!" Rumble sneered.
Blaster smirked. "Have you forgotten that two can play at this game? Or, six rather. Rewind, Eject, come on out!" And with that, the two cassettes Blaster had called for sprang from his own chest compartment and transformed. However, the sight of the two 'Bots was not quite what any of them had been expecting, as they seemed to be completely covered in some kind of white substance. Although everybody else was giving the two odd looks, the Autobot cassettes pretended like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Let's play ball!" Eject shouted gleefully.
"Dudes?!" Blaster said reproachfully. "What's that stuff all over ya?"
Rewind and Eject turned to face Blaster. Rewind pulled some of the stuff off of his brother's chassis and felt it between his fingers. "I think its marshmallow crème," he said.
"Wha-? Marshmallow crème? How did that happen? And were you inside my chest like that? Ugh!" he said as he peeked inside his chest compartment for any signs of fluffy white stuff.
"Uh, yeah, about that," Eject said. "We kinda snuck out last night. Got caught in some kind of prank I think. Speaking of which, somebody's gonna have a big clean up job back at the Ark, haha!" he ended with a laugh and nudged Rewind in the arm.
Blaster was flabbergasted. "You 'snuck out?' How do you even do that without waking me up?!"
While Blaster and his cassettes were arguing, Soundwave and his cassettes were having their own conversation a distance away.
"Rumble, Frenzy, attack," Soundwave ordered and pointed towards their adversaries.
"Are you kidding boss?" Frenzy responded. "Look at those two, I don't wanna get anywhere near them!"
"Yeah, looks like they've caught some kind of Earth disease or something," Rumble added with disgust.
"Irrelevant. Rumble, Frenzy, attack," Soundwave repeated firmly.
The two cassette 'Cons looked at each other. As rambunctious as the two were, they were reluctant to disobey a direct order from Soundwave. "I guess we can shoot at 'em," Rumble suggested. Frenzy gave an agreeing shrug.
Back on Blaster's side, the conversation wasn't getting any further. "Did you know that Marshmallow Fluff contains less sugar than jelly or jam?" Rewind informed them all.
At this point Blaster was quite through with the conversation. "You guys, we're in the middle of a battle! Go and attack Rumble and Frenzy!"
The cassette 'Bots looked behind them, and then looked back nonchalantly. "They're not attacking us," Eject said and shrugged.
"Well, they're gonna be soon! So get attacking first!" Blaster commanded.
Eject sighed. "Fine, come on Rewind. Maybe we can crème those two this time. Ha, get it, get it?!"
The two were laughing over the joke when they were suddenly forced to leap to opposite sides as laser fire cut through the air towards them. The battle was back on then, as Blaster charged towards Soundwave and Rewind and Eject pulled out their weapons to take on their Decepticon counterparts.
In the meantime, the fight between Blitzwing and Prowl, Ironhide, and Cliffjumper had been raging on. Even though it was a three-to-one fight, Blitzwing had been able to hold them all off for a while. However, his injuries were beginning to weigh him down and although he was loath to do so, he was going to have to beat a retreat soon if he didn't receive backup soon. Luckily for him, he received that backup just in time, in the form of Thundercracker.
The seeker roared in from the skies, taking a few shots at the Autobots, before transforming and firing off more rounds. His support was enough to force the 'Bots into a minor retreat behind a small grove of trees nearby.
"You've taken heavy damage, Blitzwing. You'd better fall back," Thundercracker told his fellow 'Con.
Blitzwing wasn't very pleased by the suggestion. "I don't have to take orders from you, seeker!" he growled.
"It wasn't an order, it was common sense," Thundercracker shot back. "I don't care what you do, just stay out of my way."
And so the skirmish continued for the next several minutes, now two-to-three with both sides taking pot shots at each other when they could. Pretty soon they were joined once again, this time when Skywarp appeared out of thin air in between the two sides. But the purple seeker wasn't alone, for with him came Sideswipe. The red frontliner, who had been clinging to Skywarp during jet judo at the time the seeker had warped, stumbled a few steps away. Unused to the effects of warping, Sideswipe was feeling very disoriented.
"Woah, dude," he said dizzily.
"Sideswipe, watch out!" Prowl cried as he instantly saw three guns, one from each 'Con nearby, aim at the frontliner. He, Ironhide, and Cliffjumper all leaned out from behind their tree cover to fire back at the Decepticons, while Sideswipe attempted to gain some control over his body and duck for cover. Just in the nick of time, though, his brother roared onto the scene in altmode, transformed, and practically tackled Sideswipe out of the way. Laser fire crisscrossed over their heads as Sunstreaker half dragged his brother over to the trees.
"Are you insane?! Sunstreaker ranted once they were in the clear. "You know you can't try that move on Skywarp! He could've warped you to anywhere!"
"Well luckily for us Skywarp is stupid," Sideswipe groaned from the ground where he had been dumped.
"You're stupid," Sunstreaker retorted.
"Boys!" Ironhide interjected in irritation. "Pay attention to the battle!"
Luckily, the twins were smart enough to heed Ironhide's order. Sideswipe scrambled to his feet and the two prepared to reenter the fight. However, they didn't get the chance to do so, as at that moment their battle was joined by yet another dueling pair.
"Heads up!" came a cry over their comm-links, and a second later Jazz came squealing onto the scene in his altmode. He skidded behind their tree cover and transformed, just as Starscream followed close behind and barraged their tree cover with bullets. The trine leader circled back around as tree debris rained down on the Autobots. But instead of attacking the group of 'Bots again, he appeared to shoot at something else a short distance away. In a moment though, the subject of his attention became clear when none other than Bluestreak burst through the brush coming towards them.
"Whoa, watch out!" the young Praxian shouted as he rapidly approached the others. Unable to slow down enough, Bluestreak eventually crashed into the group amid many cries of protest.
"Hey guys," Bluestreak said meekly.
There were now seven Autobots crammed together for cover behind the trees. Overhead, Starscream attempted another pass at the 'Bots, but when he couldn't get the angle right, he opted to transform into root mode and join his fellow 'Cons nearby.
"Come on out, cowards!" Starscream shouted. "Or should we come and get you ourselves?"
While the Decepticons laughed raucously nearby, the 'Bots looked to Prowl for their next move. They all knew they couldn't just charge the 'Cons, they'd get shot at immediately. "So what's th' plan, Prowler?" Jazz asked.
The tactician spent a brief moment sketching out a plan of attack. Once they all knew what their next move was, they agreed and prepared for the assault.
On Prowl's signal, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker transformed and peeled out from behind their cover on opposite sides. The Decepticons started to shoot at them, but were forced to find cover themselves when the others provided cover fire. Once the Decepticons were thoroughly distracted, the rest charged out and they all assaulted the 'Cons.
The fight seemed to be going well for the Autobots, until Bluestreak decided to pull out a certain weapon from his subspace that clearly wasn't his. When Cliffjumper spied the cannon-like gun, he was not amused.
"Hey! That's mine!" he shouted and stormed over to where Bluestreak stood. He snatched the weapon in question out of the gunner's hands and shoved the before-mentioned 'peashooter' back into them. "What were you doing with this? I didn't ever give you permission to have it! You think this is some kind of game?"
Bluestreak clutched his now returned rifle to his chest, staring wide opticed at the raging Cliffjumper in front of him. "I didn't mean to take it! I mean, I didn't even know I had it, it's not like I didn't mean to take it, I never took it! I just found it in my subspace, I don't know how it got there! I swear!" Bluestreak babbled.
"Sure, likely story!" Cliffjumper spat back. "This is some kind of prank, isn't it? Whose side are you on, huh?"
Meanwhile, Prowl noticed the argument going on. He left Ironhide, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Jazz to hold off the Decepticons to try and settle the dispute.
"What's going on here?" he hissed when he reached the two.
"This guy stole my stuff!" Cliffjumper accused as he harshly pointed his finger at Bluestreak.
The grey Praxian looked to Prowl for help. Thankfully for him, the tactician wasn't so convinced of the claim. "How then did you get his gun?" he asked.
"How should I know?" Cliffjumper exclaimed. "He probably swapped my stuff for his!"
Prowl's optics narrowed, but he had no time to deal with this now. "We'll settle this later; right now we are in a battle! So get back out there," he commanded.
"I'm not getting back into that battle until I have all of my stuff back! Look," he shouted and pulled another weapon out of subspace. "This isn't mine!" And he threw the gun onto the ground violently. "Neither is this! Or this! OR THIS!" He continued to shout as he pulled weapons and other random objects out of his subspace and threw them onto the ground in Bluestreak's general direction.
Prowl looked less amused with every object tossed onto the ground. "Cliffjumper!" he hissed as his doorwings rose sharply with irritation. "You are out of line, I order you to stop this!"
"Hey, why aren't you yelling at the kid instead?" Cliffjumper protested. "He's the one that stole all my stuff! Speaking of which, give me back my stuff! Right now, kid, hand it all over!"
Prowl turned to Bluestreak to belay that order, but the gunner was already hastily pulling several weapons from his subspace. "Uh, I have this," he said, and Cliffjumper snatched the offered weapon out of his hand.
"Come on, all of it!" Cliffjumper demanded.
"Bluestreak..." Prowl tried again, but was once again cut off, but this time when Ironhide shouted at them from a distance away.
"Hey, how 'bout ya'll help us over here, instead o' standin' around an' chattin' eht up lahk a bunch o' femme-bots?!" the big mech yelled.
Cliffjumper turned to yell something back, but momentarily forgot that he was still in the middle of snatching a weapon out of Bluestreak's hand. The trigger was accidentally pulled, and shots were fired directly at the battling party nearby. Both Autobots and Decepticons had to duck for cover from the scattering bullets.
Prowl could only hide his face to mask his frustration and growing rage. He already knew who was responsible for this mishap, and he was not happy at all.
A short distance away, Optimus Prime and Megatron were duking it out as per usual. Amid the blows and not-so-friendly banter, Megatron grinned nastily and laughed. During a brief lull in their fight, he swept his arm out towards where the others were battling nearby. "Look, Optimus. Look at your pathetic army! They're falling apart as we speak!"
Wary of a ruse, Optimus kept part of his attention on Megatron, but curiously glanced in the direction his foe had indicated. A bit of the way across the land, the Prime spotted the cluster of Autobots and Decepticons, who should have been battling each other, but who were all instead struggling to avoid the shots being fired from the nearby Cliffjumper. Prowl was obviously attempting (and somewhat failing) to control the situation, while Bluestreak stood nearby, simply watching the entire proceedings unfold in front of him.
Optimus couldn't help but feel a little annoyed by the behavior of his soldiers, but when he turned back to a smirking Megatron, it was with a defiant gleam in his optics. "It looks like your soldiers are just as disoriented as mine are right now, Megatron," he said.
Megatron laughed hoarsely. "What a fool you are Optimus! My army has never been stronger, while yours weakens by the minute! Soon, you shall taste the bitterness of defeat, and feel the true might of the Decepticon cause, as I crush you into tiny, insignificant pieces!" he rounded off his monologue by throwing a few punches towards Optimus.
The Prime parried the blows, and was not impressed by the speech. "I fail to see how your army is strengthening, when your communications officer cannot even control his own cassettes," he said, and briefly jerked his head in the direction of what he meant.
Scowling, Megatron whirled around to see what his adversary was talking about. Indeed, further down along the plain, they could see where Blaster and Soundwave had been battling. But now, instead of fighting, the two were preoccupied with trying to get both of their cassettes back in line. It appeared that Rumble and Frenzy were now running apparently for their lives from Rewind and Eject, who were still covered in fluffy marshmallow crème. It looked more like a game of tag than an actual fight, with the two boom box mechs attempting to gain control of the situation.
From Blaster and Soundwave's perspective, it was all nonsense. "Come on guys, you've got guns, shoot 'em already!" Blaster shouted.
"Rumble, Frenzy, cease!" Soundwave yelled.
Despite their protests, the four cassettes were already out of hearing range. The two mechs watched them run away in dismay.
"Cassettes, man," Blaster griped. For a moment Soundwave didn't respond, his silence almost indicating that he agreed with the sentiment. Then the two looked at each other sharply, suddenly remembering that they were enemies. Soundwave promptly punched Blaster in the face.
Further away, Rewind and Eject were having a great time chasing their two Decepticon counterparts. Rumble and Frenzy, on the other hand, seemed to truly believe that their lives were on the line at the moment.
"DON'T LET 'EM TOUCH YOU! RUN FRENZY RUN!" Rumble shouted.
"WHADYA THINK I'M DOING HERE?!" Frenzy shouted back.
Together, the two cassette 'Cons led their Autobot foes on a merry chase around the battle field. After rounding the trees that the Autobots had before used for cover, they headed straight into the group of battlers. The four cassettes skirted in between the pairs of feet of both Autobot and Decepticon, who had just been getting back into the groove of the fight. The result was a jumbled mess of angry and confused mechs, and marshmallow crème all over the legs of Decepticons and Autobots alike.
After witnessing these events unfold, Megatron glared back at Optimus, unable to stand the fact that his Decepticons had shown the slightest sign of weakness. He pointed at the Prime dramatically. "You think you've won?" he snarled. "You're wrong! We'll be back, and I can't wait to see how much farther your Autobots have fallen by then! DECEPTICONS, RETREAT!"
With that command, the Decepticons promptly took to the air and fled the scene. Rumble and Frenzy scrambled back to Soundwave and hopped into his chest before they were gone. Blitzwing was a little slower than usual thanks to the many wounds that still hindered him. And Starscream just couldn't leave without one last quip: "You Autolosers haven't seen the last of us! One day, when you're army has crumbled from corruption, the Decepticons will -" BLAM BLAM, "AAHH!" Starscream cut his speech short with a screech, however, when Ironhide had had enough of the blabbing and fired his cannon at Starscream's feet. The seeker danced around the shots and finally transformed and took off into the air after his fellow 'Cons.
The Autobots all laughed at Starscream's retreating tailpipe. Well, some weren't in the mood to laugh right now. Blaster, normally a cheery mech, especially after winning a battle, was not pleased with his cassettabots at all. Rewind and Eject, however, were feeling very pleased with themselves as they gave each other high fives and trotted towards their boss-bot. The tape-player 'Bot had his arms crossed and frowned as his symbiotes approached.
"Man, did you see their faces when we charged them!" Eject laughed.
"They looked like they'd just seen a data ghost!" Rewind chuckled back.
"You two!" Blaster interrupted the cassettes' conversation with an irritated bark. When Rewind and Eject's startled optics were on him, he pointed aggressively towards the body of water nearby. "Into the dam, now!"
"What?! Why?" Eject asked.
"Technically, that's a reservoir." Rewind corrected. "Did you know that... "
"No, I don't know, and I don't care what it's called!" Blaster interrupted again. "You little dudes are getting in the water to wash that stuff off of you, pronto!"
"But Blaaaasterrrr!" Eject whined.
Blaster shook his head. "No arguing! You are not getting back in my chest like that! Here's some solvent," he said as he tossed them a bottle. "Go wash up!"
The two cassette 'Bots grumbled as they began to shuffle towards the water. Pretty soon, however, they were racing each other to see who would make it to the reservoir first. Blaster watched them go for a minute, before shaking his head and headed towards the main group of Autobots nearby. Skyfire, who had been circling the battle field during the fight, had just landed nearby as well.
Prowl had been one of the 'Bots who had not been so amused by the end of the battle. He walked over to where Jazz was, fully intending to have a talk with him. But the saboteur beat him to the punch when he spotted Prowl approaching.
"Hey, Prowl!" Jazz said as he pulled out a very distinct weapon, one that Prowl recognized immediately. "So get this, I found your acid pellet gun in my subspace! What's up with that?"
"Really?" Prowl said dryly. "Because I found this in my subspace." And he then pulled out the highly illegal weapon he had found earlier in the battle.
Upon seeing the weapon, Jazz's helm jerked back a little in surprise, but then he whistled in amazement. "Whoa there, Prowler! Whatcha doin' with somethin' like that on ya? Ya know tha's illegal, right?"
"This isn't mine," Prowl said, unamused.
Jazz grinned cheekily. "Come on, man, tha's what they all say!"
The clearly unhappy Praxian was about to respond, but was interrupted when Optimus Prime walked up to them. Prowl quickly subspaced the illegal weapon as he came to attention.
"Prowl, Jazz," Optimus said. "We'll discuss what happened later. Right now, let's get back to the Ark." And with that, the Prime turned and walked towards where Skyfire was preparing for takeoff.
The two black-and-whites couldn't help but hear the tone of disappointment in their Prime's voice. Jazz briefly glanced Prowl's way before turning and hustling off after Optimus. In turn, Prowl's doorwings drooped slightly with embarrassment. And yet, on the inside he seethed with anger. Because by now he had figured out what had happened; some of their subspace addresses had somehow been swapped. He didn't know how they had done it, but he did know exactly who was responsible for this, and as soon as he was done dealing with Jazz, he was going to deal with those two.
o~o~o
Back at the Ark, Jazz was busy making his way to Prowl's office. Just a little while ago, he and the other officers had gotten out of a particularly uncomfortable battle debriefing. Although Optimus had somewhat chewed them all out for not having a handle on the situation, he didn't seem to suspect that there was something out of the ordinary going on. Perhaps he believed that they were just a little out of touch, since it had been an unusually long time since their last battle with the 'Cons, Jazz thought. That would explain why Optimus had asked again about that battle simulation he had talked about earlier with Jazz and Prowl. Jazz knew that Prowl was going to be organizing that soon, since Optimus would expect that to happen sooner rather than later.
But for now, Jazz had other things on his mind; other, much more important things. It had become quite clear to him as he had searched through his subspace, that not only had he somehow gotten ahold of Prowl's acid pellet gun, but he had somehow gotten ahold of all of Prowl's possessions. Now it was obvious that someone, more specifically Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, had managed to swap the entire contents of their subspace pockets. Jazz was pretty sure that that was a violation of one of Prowl's rules, but right now he had more pressing matters on his mind.
Jazz finally reached Prowl's office, and entered without even sending a request. As usual, Prowl was busy at his desk, but Jazz wasted no time getting to the point of the matter. "Hey Prowl," he said. "So I was going through your stuff in my subspace, and I have a few questions ta ask!" He then sauntered forward and began unsubspacing items and placing them on the desk.
Prowl merely stared as Jazz placed some very interesting objects in front of him. Among the objects, there were the Cybertronian equivalents of throwing stars, throwing knives, a pair of nunchucks, and even a very narrow sword that strongly resembled a katana. When he was done, Jazz motioned exuberantly at the stuff on the desk, before speaking. "What the heck, man?!" he cried. "What're ya doin' with all this stuff? Why didn't ya ever tell me you were a ninja?!"
"You never asked," was Prowl's dry response.
Jazz made a series of noises that suggested that for a moment, he was speechless. But then he found his words again. "This isn't somethin' you jus' keep from me!"
"You're one to talk," Prowl responded, and then proceeded to pull some items out of his own subspace and placed them on the table as well. The first to hit the tabletop was the illegal gun he had originally pulled during the battle. But after that came an entire array of weapons, some of them guns, some of them knives, some of them weren't even Cybertronian! But it was obvious that all of them were very much illegal.
Prowl had nothing else to say, and merely stared at Jazz expectantly. Jazz was silent for a moment as he looked at the line of weapons on the desk. Finally he sighed. He knew that denying ownership of them would be useless and would get them nowhere. "Come on, are ya really surprised that I've got that stuff?"
"No, frankly I am not," Prowl admitted. "But I am surprised that you never told me about this."
Jazz frowned. He opened his mouth to say something, but then stopped himself and cocked his head a little. Then he smirked slightly. "Ya never asked," was his response.
Prowl's optics only narrowed in disapproval.
"Did ya really think I was gonna tell ya 'bout that stuff?" Jazz then asked.
The tactician's doorwings drooped just a little, as he was forced to give up the disapproving air about him. "No, I didn't," he said.
"Well, if ya're gonna try ta confiscate 'em, I'm gonna have ta override that." Jazz said, now serious. "Come on, Prowl, you know what I do. I'm disappointed you're takin' this matter this far."
Prowl looked up and glared at Jazz with an almost defiant gleam in his optics. "I am not going to confiscate them," he said. He pushed one of the guns towards Jazz slightly. "But I do expect you to inform me in the future whenever you acquire some new... weapons."
Jazz cocked a lopsided grin. "Glad ta hear that!" he said as he almost snatched the offered gun off the table. "Now it's your turn! Explain this!" He then indicated the line of ninja gear on the desk.
Prowl flicked his doorwings dismissively. "There is nothing to say. You may leave now."
"Oh, nuh-uh! There's no way you're gettin' off that easy! When did ya get all this stuff? Did ya train on Cybertron? Are ya any good?"
Prowl glanced up at Jazz with only a slight look of irritation. "Do you really expect me to divulge such information now, if I hadn't done so without your questioning yet?"
Jazz put his hands on his hips defiantly. "Uh, after my li'l interrogation? Yeah!"
Looking back down at his monitor screen, Prowl gave another dismissive flick of a doorwing. "Well I am busy, and I don't have time for this. You may leave," he repeated.
The saboteur could see that he was fighting a losing battle. When Prowl was done with a conversation, that conversation was over. "Alright," Jazz said, but he couldn't just leave the argument as it was. As he turned to leave, he gave a nonchalant shrug. "I bet ya don't even know how ta use that stuff," he said.
He was about to walk out the door, when with a *SHING* a throwing star suddenly appeared imbedded in the wall next to his head. Jazz stopped suddenly and glanced back at Prowl. The tactician was busy at work and pretending as if nothing had happened. Jazz grinned. "We're so havin' a sparrin' match th' next chance we get! An' this time, you're not holdin' yourself back!" And with that, Jazz was out the door.
o~o~o
Jazz and Prowl, and Cliffjumper and Bluestreak, weren't the only ones affected by the twins' latest prank. Brawn was quite confused when he found Mirage's betting charts, magazines, and even a few bottles of fancy energon, in his subspace. Ironhide's subspace became absolutely filled with Blaster's music records. But by far the most interesting subspace swap incident came when Hoist and Grapple discovered each other's architectural blueprints in their subspaces, and got into an argument when they accused each other of stealing their ideas.
As indicated earlier, Prowl was not pleased at all with this prank. It wasn't so much that their prank was a clear violation of rule number 4 he had set out for the prank war. The twins always broke his rules for the sole reason to irritate him, and he wasn't going to get worked up over that. It was the fact that the prank had interfered with their battle with the Decepticons. The whole reason for the prank war rules was to avoid this kind of situation, and he couldn't let this prank go unpunished. And so he assigned Sideswipe and Sunstreaker to clean up the marshmallow crème mess that still inhabited one of the Ark's hallways (which had been the twins' prank in the first place). Then the two were sent to the brig for the next several days. The usual threat (Ratchet) prevented Sideswipe and Sunstreaker from refusing the punishment.
In addition, the next day nearly everybody received a message from Prowl:
O================================O
"Battle Simulation" Rules and Regulations:
Amendment to rule 4:
4. Do not tamper with another's personal systems or devices, which include tampering with internal comm-links and other related activities.
4a. This also includes subspace systems.
New Rule:
7. Any prank that interferes with the battle ready status of this army in any way is prohibited.
Refer to Prowl if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.
O================================O
Although the rules of the game were quite literally changing, the game was far from over. The twins were already plotting their revenge in their brig cells, and Jazz could not wait to roll out what was cooking in Wheeljack's lab. And the rest of the Ark was ready and prepared to see what would happen next.
Author's Notes: Come on Jazz, everybody knows that Prowl is a ninja! ;)
Sorry if the ending seems kind of abrupt. This chapter just went on and on and by the time the end came, I had just had to end it. Anyway, like I said earlier, I'm going to try to get some more chapters out before January. I'm gonna try really hard! But even if I don't, just know that I'm not gonna let this story die. Darn it, I know how this thing is going to end, and by gally I'm gonna get there! Eventually!