Bargained Off
Author's Note This is officially its own mini-arc. XD I've got the next chapter written, and I've started on the one after that (with a good portion pre-written). I plan on letting this carry me as it will. (dragging out? Me? never!) The Jazz Arc will not be ended until after this small storyline reaches its conclusion. But that is written and ready, just waiting. :)
For those in the know, yes, I have no self-control.
Warning! Implied rape.
They came online at the same time, shifting as quietly as possible to find each other, and then take in their surroundings. Dim optics focused briefly on Prowl, before sliding past him and to their guard. Prowl gave them only a passing glance, his single working optic taking in their bright eyes and careful movements. His attention, however, was focused with singular intent on the face in the small viewscreen, and the scratchy voice coming over the speakers.
"What you're asking is a ridiculous amount."
The black mech ('A Slingrider,' Prowl decided, seeing the stubby sensor wings and the Wheeljack-like long frame.) shrugged indifferently. "Considering who I have, the price is fair. Of course," the yellow optics flashed, "I could always see how much I can wring from the Autobots."
The silver face sneered. "The Autobots have nothing, and would likely cost you more in a rescue attempt than they could give in ransom." The red optics roved amongst the Neutrals. "I don't think you had to put too much effort into capturing them, you're not very damaged at all. How do I know this isn't some Autobot trick?"
"Truthfully? You don't. I'm willing to leave them in the care of one of your underlings for you to come and fetch at your leisure. As long as we receive payment, it doesn't matter to me."
Prowl could see the calculation running across the Decepticon's face, see him weigh his options, weigh the costs. Prowl narrowed his optics, the deceitful tyrant was being too open for Prowl's comfort. Surely the Neutrals would realize this?
"There must be more to this price than the simple capture and transport. What else are you selling?"
The sensor wings twitched, and the black mech narrowed his optics. "Information you might find useful."
Megatron frowned, unsatisfied with the vague answer. "What kind of information?"
The Slingrider stiffened, but amusement gleamed in his yellow optics. "Information I'm sure you'll be quite interested in. But I can't tell you what it is unless I have payment in hand."
Megatron's frown deepened. "Is that so? Well there's the problem. How can I be certain that the information is worth the price we pay."
The Slingrider chuckled. "I'm certain that you'll consider it worth your credits."
Prowl tuned out the heckling. He knew what they were making a bargain over, and didn't need to know how much the Neutral band was going to make off of Prowl. Sideswipe turned his head to blink at Prowl in confusion. His hands clenched reflexively, and he winced toward his side. Prowl stared at Sideswipe, twitching a doorwing up, asking his own question. Sideswipe waggled his fingers, waving off the tactician's concern. Sunstreaker furrowed his brow ridges, glaring at his brother and then looking away as quickly. Prowl ducked his chevron trying to hide his observations of the twins as their guard turned their gazes on their charges.
Sunstreaker kept shooting quick glances at Sideswipe, who shifted about in what Prowl recognized as a secretive shrug. The twins shifted a lot, and Prowl realized that they were conversing with each other. He stiffened, joints whining, trying to gain Sideswipe's attention. The red mech finally looked his way and Prowl glared. 'Stop,' he told Sideswipe with a precise flick of his doorwings.
Sideswipe tilted his head toward the screen, brightening his optics by a few increments. 'What are they talking about?'
Prowl stared out of his single working optic, pressing his lips together until the color drained from Sideswipe's optics. A curse spat out of Sideswipe's vocalizer.
"No talking from the prisoners." A foot lashed out, slamming into Sideswipe's side. The warrior grunted, glaring up at his captor, as he curled in on himself.
Sunstreaker lunged forward. "You slagger! Don't touch Sideswipe!" He slammed into the guard, knocking the large mech to the ground.
The Neutrals immediately surged forward, bringing their shocksticks to bear. Sunstreaker bellowed in pain and rage.
Calculations flashed through Prowl's battle computer. Decision made, he shoved himself to his feet and threw himself at the nearest mech. His depth perception skewed by the damaged optic, Prowl flared his doorwings, tuning the sensors high to triangulate his chosen target's position. He shoved the light-weight mech off balance before lashing out with a savage kick. His foot slammed down on the grey mech's throat, metal giving beneath his heel. Sparks and electronic whines bubbled out of the Neutral's mouth as his vocalizer died.
Prowl next went for the one of the mechs piled atop Sunstreaker, one of the ones actively pinning the warrior to the ground. He didn't attack. Instead he ran up the blue mech's back and began to systematically kick at every face in reach of his feet. "Get. Off. Of. Him." Each word came punctuated with a foot in some poor Neutral 's face.
Sunstreaker snarled and shoved his way out of the pile.
Prowl tumbled to the ground, catching himself on his knees. He shoved himself back to his feet, doorwings wavering to balance his ungainly chest.
Sunstreaker's hands came up, suddenly free, and a red and grey mech fell away from him with an energon knife sticking out of his neck. He tackled one of the bounty hunters assaulting Sideswipe, throwing the mech into the wall. He turned, optics blazing white when his brother screamed.
Prowl turned at the pained sound, his own optics burning bright.
One of the Neutral s had crammed their shockstick into Sideswipe's wounded side.
Sunstreaker went dead silent, but his optics flicked over their opponents, centering on the mech hurting his brother.
Prowl took in everything, processor and tactical programs racing for a solution. His gaze flicked between Sunstreaker and the mech holding Sideswipe. They expected Sunstreaker to act.
Doorwings upright in righteous anger, Prowl launched himself at his target, His shoulder impacted with the face of one of the minibots in the group. His doorwing jerked, smashing and shattering the yellow optic band.
Shocksticks cracked across his canopy and windshield, shattering the plastiglass. He couldn't stop; he had to get to Sunstreaker. Hands grabbed at him, sliding over slick armor, snagging at edges and joints. Sunstreaker looked up in surprise when Prowl appeared by his side.
"Run." The tactician swept another of the Neutrals off his feet. He paused when he saw Sunstreaker hadn't moved yet. "Go!"
Sunstreaker whirled suddenly, ripping into the minibot Prowl had just incapacitated. The Convoy suddenly appeared in front of Prowl, hammer-like fists swinging right into the tactician. He slammed into a nearby wall, processor fritzing wiith the force of the impact. Sunstreaker landed next Prowl, but he picked himself up immediately, optics still ablaze.
"What are you do-"
The look—brief as it was—that Sunstreaker turned on him stopped Prowl mid-sentence. He knew, as he should have known before he even considered the plan.
Sunstreaker wasn't going anywhere without Sideswipe.
Frag it! Prowl shoved himself, charging in to keep the attention off Sideswipe. What had he been thinking? Of course one brother wouldn't leave without the other. One of the Neutrals managed to grab hold of his wings, wrenching back with all his might.
"All right everyone, stop right where you are!" the Slingrider roared.
Slag, slag, slag! Prowl snarled, unable to turn and see what made the mech sound so certain of their obedience. But his sensors placed him by Sideswipe. Prowl swung his body about, knocking the hands off his doorwings. Hexagonal nuts! He had to do something to discourage the Neutrals from doing that!
The Slingrider shook his head at the Autobots. "I mean it, do something like that again and you'll be lucky to have any pieces of your bonded to salvage." He pointedly kicked at the gaping hole in Sideswipe's side, sending up sparks. The gun pointed at the warrior's head never wavered for an astrosecond.
Sideswipe cried out again, folding over double in a futile attempt to ward off anymore blows.
Power drained from Prowl's systems, and the tactician glanced to Sunstreaker in alarm.
The golden mech snarled, every system grinding in unfettered rage. Prowl looked toward the Slingrider for a brief moment, and then he lunged for Sunstreaker.
"Let him!" the Neutral shouted at his team.
The golden warrior had already moved, but Prowl changed his course in a single springing step. He tackled the golden warrior, using his momentum to throw the Sunstreaker off his feet.
"Slagger! I'm going to rip him apart!" Golden hands clawed at Prowl chassis, shrieking over the white plating with an urgency born of desperation.
"No, Sunstreaker!" Prowl used his battered chest plate as leverage against the stronger warrior.
The furious gaze shifted to Prowl, and for a moment the tactician wondered if he'd made a mistake in underestimating Sunstreaker's devotion to his twin. "No?" he growled.
The bounty hunters didn't give the warrior a chance to say anything more. Prowl had given them time to regroup, and they moved in, shoving Prowl away to pin the golden mech to the ground.. They did not spare Prowl either, throwing themselves on top of him. Their hands dented his plating, and bent his doorwings. One grabbed his chevron, yanking hard enough to tear the metal. Spots exploded across his vision, alarms sounding in his processor and flashing across his HUD.
The Slingrider stepped over to Prowl, bending over to glare at the tactician. "I will not tolerate anymore such displays from any of you, the next one to act up is going to end his existence, do you understand?" The yellow optics glanced over to include Sunstreaker in his glare.
"Completely." Prowl spat.
Sunstreaker grunted an affirmative.
"Cuff the yellow one." The mech turned his intense gaze back to Prowl. "And you... I think your tactical computer has given us enough trouble for one bounty, don't you agree? Screwtop, plug in, sever his motor controls and I want that battle computer of his shut down."
They held him down as Screwtop did as the Slingrider commanded. The mech invaded his processors, spreading like a gelatinous liquid. Prowl repressed a shudder at how easily the Neutral managed it. He couldn't, however, repress the sense of violation the action had left clinging to Prowl's processor. His access port was not something he used for casual data relaying, Not something one of his rank would typically do even with the Autobot Commander.
The mech—the team medic more than likely—sent alarms singing through Prowl's systems. He couldn't move! The medic disengaged the link and stepped away. Prowl stared at the floor in front of his working optic, unable to even move his head to look around, much less able to move his optics. Attempting to connect to his battle computer only brought back massive error after error. His vocalizer buzzed at his inquiry, and he allowed himself to relax. He could still talk, even though he'd lost access to his battle computer and his motor functions, at least he could still talk.
The speakers hummed as the Slingrider took the communicator off mute. "I apologize for that disturbance, Megatron. I believe we were about to close this deal."
The tyrant laughed, sending chills up Prowl's spinal relays. "For that show, I agree to your price. I'll let Vertigo in Halifax know you're coming, and that you are to be paid the price we set. I trust that he can determine whether the information is worth what you're asking."
"I'm certain that it will be." Static hissed as the communication was cut off.
Silence then, only disturbed by the hiss of relaxing hydraulics.
"Storm's cleared."
"Then get them in the cages and let's get moving before they cause us anymore trouble. We aren't making money standing here! "
Rough hands lifted Prowl up, and the tactician caught glimpses of the twins being hauled up in a similar manners. But where they were placed on their own two feet, the Convoy threw Prowl over his shoulder, hauling him like a load of spare parts.
Prowl glared at the ground a short distance away, unable to even move his facial features into a grimace. He glared, trying to pull a solution from his memory banks, trying to think his through without the assistance of his battle computer.
He came up with nothing.
Prowl lay in the bottom of his cage, fretting at his inability to do so much as move his optic or get that slagging doorwing of his into a slotting more comfortable position! Prowl dimmed his optic, glad that at least he could still allocate power to his systems; it might have been the only thing keeping him from going completely stir-crazy. He wanted to move! Oh Primus how could anyone sit still for so long without going completely out of their processor. His chronometer ticked away in his HUD, teasing him with each number that flicked over to the next.
He vented harshly, earning a curious glance from the minibot perched on his cage. 'Don't panic,' he told himself.
He turned his attention to the other two cages in the trailer with him, situated that Prowl could see them despite his inability to move. Sunstreaker glared at the minibot pointing a gun at him. Unlike the one watching Prowl, this one knew better than to sit on the cage itself. Sunstreaker's cage sat on its side. After the minibot had taunted him one to many times, the warrior had thrown himself at the side of the cage. Such had been his force that he not only knocked the minibot off the top, but actually rolled the cage. He now sat on the door of the cage, smirking smugly at the minibot now perched on a shelf in the trailer. The fact that his actions had resulted in the cruel application of the minibot's shockstick didn't even seem to faze him.
Prowl couldn't make sense of the mech's actions.
Sunstreaker glanced at Sideswipe, hands tucked under his aft. The smug smirk melted into a flash of concern that just as swiftly disappeared. The golden mech shifted, optics sliding toward the tactician. He was trying to tell Prowl something, but what? Prowl couldn't puzzle it out. It was nothing like the method of communication he used with Sideswipe.
What did Sunstreaker intend to do?
Prowl had no way to convey his confusion to the golden mech, but he flickered his optics, hoping Sunstreaker would understand. Sunstreaker frowned back at him, but sighed gustily from his vents and leaned back against the floor of his cage.
He looked to Sideswipe then. He couldn't look long though, it hurt him to see his lover so broken: leaning against the bars of his cage, optics dim, ventilators wheezing unevenly.
Prowl couldn't help but to blame himself for their predicament. He should have insisted they relocated to a more secure location. Though nothing would have kept the bounty hunters from tracking them if they so desired. They apparently recognized the three of them well enough, or at least Prowl, himself.
Just how many times had either of the twins referred to Prowl by name?
Prowl's thoughts kept him distracted from the disturbing sight of Sideswipe spattered in his own energon or the panic at just what kind of damage these slaggers might have wrought on the all-too-still mech. Sideswipe was usually so lively, rarely still and always moving, even if it was just a flash of thought across his face.
Seeing him sitting there, looking for all the world as though the Neutrals had also disabled his motor relays and damaged his major cognitive functions had Prowl's systems surging with fright. And panic. And fury.
'Calm down,' he reminded himself again. 'Sideswipe is their bargaining chip. Correction, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are their bargaining chips with me. They believe we are bonded, they will not permit Sideswipe to deactivate in their custody.' But that did not stop them from leaving him weak and in pain.
Prowl shut off his optics, determined not to look at Sideswipe if it caused such a strong reaction in him. He focused internally, eying the worm that left him unable to move and unable to think. Screwtop knew his business, likely keeping such a thing on hand for problem prisoners like himself. Viral programming like this shouldn't have taken hold so easily, but Prowl could detect the tweaks made to his firewalls that left them defenseless. Worse still, Screwtop had somehow managed to lock Prowl out of the settings. Prowl worked at it, having nothing else to better his time. The going was slow, however, without the aid of his tactical programming, and he felt sluggish going through his own processor.
They slowed and came to a gradual, but complete stop. The halt rattled Prowl against the bars of his cage. Unable to brace himself, he pitched to one side. It relieved him not to see Sideswipe in his horrid condition anymore, but left the minibot in full view.
The small mech stared at the back of the trailer, face vague with internal communications.
"We're here," the one watching Sideswipe stated. He hopped down, shockstick never wavering from the red plating.
"'Bout time."
Prowl's guard said nothing, but shifted his stance a little.
"They won't let you leave alive," Prowl told them softly. His slack jaw slurred his words, but he knew all three had heard him.
The minibot above him jerked, thrusting his shockstick down.
Pain lanced through his frame; his neck blazed with a hot point lodged into the midst of his neck cables. Prowl couldn't even scream. His vision flickered, unable to remain online with pain glitching through his circuits. Static blasted through his audio sensors and he couldn't hear the words the Neutral snapped at him.
Systems locked up in their inability to curl him into a protective ball. The stick jammed deeper into his neck, digging down under his shoulder struts.
Finally Prowl did scream, his voice cracking and breaking as his ventilators whirred uncertainly.
"No talking from the prisoners."
The hot spike of pain twisted then, and Prowl blacked out.
He didn't know for how long, but it had to be several breems.
When he came to his senses he found red optics staring at him through the open door of his cage
He recognized Vertigo from the profiles they kept on the various Decepticon Commanders. The optics narrowed above the red-trimmed mask into an eyesmile. It was nothing like Wheeljack exuberant grin, or Prime's patient smile. Prowl immediately didn't like that look.
"What's your name?" The mech shifted, leaning to one side. His optics never left Prowl's though, and he knew the Decepticon was testing him.
Prowl remained silent. His gaze straying to a point beyond the base commander.
Metal rang together, stinging across Prowl's cheek. It felt like he'd just been clubbed, but he couldn't even flinch at the smack of the 'Con's pincer-hand. "I asked you a question. What's your name?"
The red optics turned up to the Slingrider, the narrow slits no longer smiling.
A panicked look crossed the mech's face. Then the bounty hunter snarled, grabbing the shockstick off the minibot and jabbing it at the unresponsive tactician. "Answer him, you slagger."
Vertigo grabbed the Slingrider's wrist.
If his battle computer had been up and running, Prowl was certain this would have crashed it.
Vertigo dragged the bounty hunter closer, metal bending under his pincer claws. "We are paying for him to be intact: mind and body. Why doesn't he respond? What have you done to him?"
The Slingrider didn't cower at the Decepticon's withering glare. "We've done nothing more than subdue him. He talked out of turn on the way here; he's just not answering you." The black mech jerked his arm out of the red pincer. "You simply need to give him some proper motivation." The Slingrider reached through the cage and grabbed Prowl's doorwing, dragging him onto his side. Pulling the twins into the view of Prowl's single optic again.
Prowl watched in muted horror as the bounty hunter then approached the closest cage.
Sunstreaker snarled and scrambled away from the bars.
Attempting to access his battle computer was like hitting a titanium wall. He had to do something, anything, to take the attention away from the twins. "Ricochet!"
The two acted as though they hadn't heard the tactician's shout.
Sunstreaker couldn't avoid the stick thrust through the bars of his cage. His engine ground with pain, before he crumpled over, onto his side, vocalizer keening.
The two mechs looked to the tactician. Vertigo's red optics flashed. "I'm sorry what was that?"
"You wanted to know my name? It's Ricochet." Prowl's frozen jaw slurred his words. He modulated his voice, raising it's pitch, trying to make it less his normal tone. What would Bluestreak do? "Please stop hurting him!"
The Slingrider drove stick deeper into Sunstreaker, tearing a scream from the proud warrior's vocalizer.
Anger at the Neutral pulled a growl from Prowl's engine. For that moment, he was glad for the lock on his servomotors. It kept his rage off his face.
Vertigo narrowed his optics into one of his eyesmiles again, leaving nothing pleasant on the Decepticon's face. Prowl suspected that his attempted ruse wasn't exactly working. The red mech turned toward the Slingrider. "You have the Autobot tactician, do you?" The mech's engine rumbled and he tilted his head waiting.
"Tell him!" the Slingrider snapped at Sunstreaker, twisting the shockstick into the seam he'd thrust it. "You both called him Prowl!"
Sunstreaker shook in pain, but he still managed to glare at the Neutral andspit acid into his words. "Frag. You."
The shockstick yanked out of the warrior's torso and flashed it across Sunstreaker's face. Glass cracked under the blow and Sunstreaker toppled onto his side, screaming again.
Prowl's systems spiked with panic. He had to stop this before...
The Slingrider jerked away from Sunstreaker and his footsteps resounded through the enclosed space as he stormed over to the other cage.
Sideswipe didn't move away from the bars he leaned against. He couldn't move away, Prowl realized with another surge of panic, he was simply too injured.
"You touch him, you slagger, and I'll rip out every micrometer of wiring in your body. DO YOU HEAR ME?" Sunstreaker's darkest rage only served to stir up Prowl's own distress. The golden mech struggled to right himself, shoving himself to his knees.
"This wouldn't be necessary if you told the truth, Autobot," Vertigo commented as though he spoke of the weather. "Your model matches, as does your voice, despite your attempts to cloak it. The paint is a dead giveaway."
Sideswipe shrieked.
"There's more than one Enforcer in the Autobot ranks," Prowl replied, trying to control the panic in his tone. "Even among Prime's unit there are three all together. I could be any one of them, or any one of the others assigned to the other units. Please stop this!" The red optics gave Prowl something else to focus on, even though they hovered at the edge of his vision.
He couldn't look. He mustn't look.
If he saw what they were doing—with his emotions laid bare by the silence of his battle computer—he would break, he knew it. He had to stay strong for the sake of all three of them.
Sideswipe's scream tore through him, nearly drew his attention.
Sunstreaker's inarticulate roar overpowered the sound of metal striking metal. Of metal ripping, and shrieking and giving way to a powerful force. Suddenly a golden streak drew a straight line to the Neutral . The warrior slammed into the bounty hunter, not even waiting until they landed before he tore into the mech's chest.
Much to Prowl's surprise, Vertigo threw his head back and brayed with laughter.
The Slingrider's engine gave an unhealthy snarl and he slammed his fist into the golden mech's face. When that got no more reaction than a reciprocating blow, the bounty hunter turned the shockstick on Sunstreaker. Then the minibot standing over Sideswipe's cage leapt down and stuck his stick into the opening between pelvis and thigh. Sunstreaker howled, maddened by the pain, but he didn't let go of the mech who'd hurt his brother.
Vertigo watched it all, optics bright and smiling that nasty eyesmile of his.
Prowl watched the golden mech scream in agony even as he continued to tear into the bounty hunter. He didn't even try to shove either of the shocksticks away, his fury focused on the mech beneath his hands.
The other two minibots leapt off their cages, yellow optics blazing in indignation. Their sticks rapped across Sunstreaker's tough plating, seeking an opening to cram into.
Sideswipe didn't even look toward Prowl, his singular gaze focused on his brother. He couldn't move, didn't seem to speak, yet Prowl knew that he supported Sunstreaker in his own peculiar way. Sometimes Prowl wasn't sure he understood the twins. If that had been Sideswipe, Prowl could not have watched so fastidiously.
Even now, Sunstreaker's pained and angry screams pierced down to Prowl's innermost functions.
He couldn't think. He couldn't come up with a solution, but he had to stop this!
"Prowl! My name is Prowl. Now please stop this."
The Decepticon didn't even turn his head. "Typical Autobot. A little bit of pain and you're quivering messes."
"What can I give you to stop them?" He didn't mean to sound so pleading, but petulance rang in his voice and despair drained the power from his optics.
The green-trimmed-in-red mech turned toward Prowl, his red optics flashing down at the tactician. "I don't believe you're in a position to bargain for anything, Autobot."
That halted Prowl, because he knew, even without his battle computer, the Decepticon was right. "Humor me," he asked the mech. "What would you want in exchange for their safety?"
The Decepticon took a step closer to Prowl's cage his expression inscrutable behind the mask. The tanks engine rumbled in a disturbing manner that left the few systems Prowl could control shivering in alarm. "Oh, I would want a lot in exchange for their safety, but I'm only permitted so many liberties with you until Megatron sends his envoy to retrieve you. They're mine to do with as I please, and, well, as you know those two have damaged a lot of my friends and allies."
"Coward," Prowl said without thinking.
The Decepticon slammed his fist into the cage hard enough to rock it back. His claws slipped through the mesh and bars around the opening and he yanked the whole thing closer to him. "I'd be careful about how you talk to me, Autobot, if you want to bargain for their sakes. They've made themselves unpopular to any Decepticon who takes to the air, and any they meet on the ground. You only make yourself a pain in the commands aft. Any mech on my base would much rather have one of them under their hands than touch you at all."
Sunstreaker's shrieks slowly died down, vocalizer dying like an alarm with its power cut. Prowl briefly turned his attention to the twin. Sunstreaker shivered and shook under the Slingrider pinning him into an uncomfortable position. His optics flickered uncertainly, and then cut off. His whole frame went disturbingly limp outside of the occasional surge tremor.
A glance at Sideswipe showed him no better off; slumped against the bars and mesh of his cage, optics dim and face slack. Prowl doubted that he was very coherent at that moment.
He couldn't stop this. Primus, as long as they were held captive by the Decepticons, he wouldn't be able to stop this. He wouldn't be able to stop the Cons from hurting his soldiers; his lover.
"I can't stop you," he repeated outloud. "But I want medical supplies so I can keep them functioning. Give me my motor controls back so that I can tend them. Much of my medical protocol is stored in my battle computer, give me access to that I want us in the same cell." He dimmed his optics trying to think his way through his words without thinking too hard about what he was doing. "Their lives. If either one of them die the deal is off."
The bounty hunter stood, kicking at the still shaking frame before he approached Prowl's cage again.
"That's an awful lot to be asking for in your position." Vertigo knelt down next to the opening in the cage. "What the frag do you have that you think I'd want so much?"
He spoke, not allowing himself to think the answer through. He collected his voice and his thoughts and brightened his optics at the Decepticon. Vertigo supported the Decepticon cause, he recalled, but not necessarily their commander. "Megatron gives you scraps and slag, letting you have them when I'm easily in your reach. I am the Second-in-Command of the Autobot army, and Megatron isn't going to pay you half of what I'm worth." He did not need to make any mention of the bounty the Neutrals would not be walking off with. "You're going to let Megatron dictate what you do to your prize?"
"You're running out of time and my patience, Autobot." The tank tilted his head toward the approaching Neutral.
"I will ensure that they do not cause you too much trouble. I'm their officer, I can control them. I have some sensitive information that will be useless if you wait too long." Primus, let this work, let him control that flow of information. If Vertigo planned on simply taking the information from Prowl's processor, this would be a useless gesture. However, Prowl knew how Megatron worked. The tyrant would want that information for himself, and likely he only trusted Vertigo not to take it himself. He wouldn't want his subordinate to have the information.
"You would betray your comrades?" Suspicion understandably colored the Decepticon's tone. Hope flickered through Prowl, and he thought perhaps he had gauged Megatron correctly. He almost giggled with relief, his hold on his emotions faulty.
"I will cooperate with you, to save the lives of the two mechs with me," he flashed his optics and then dimmed them meaningfully, "whatever you require." That made him want to scream and bodily object, but he could only sit there, and he certainly couldn't indulge that scream. Not yet, at least, for this Decepticon would likely be like any other, and the screams would come for wholly different reasons.
Vertigo stared silently at him for another few astroseconds. Without saying a word to Prowl, he stood and turned to the Neutral.
"Are you convinced we are being truthful to you?"
"I am. Now, about that other information you mentioned..."
The black hand lifted, expectantly.
Credits clinked into the waiting hand, but Vertigo seized the bounty hunter's wrist before he could pull it back. "Thet information."
The Neutral's yellow optics flashed at Prowl for a brief second. "He's bonded to them."
Vertigo's gaze turned back to Prowl, and his optics smiled that nasty smile of theirs again. "Both?"
"I've heard that one twin can't bond without the other. Freakish hubs."
The red pincers released the other's wrist guards. "Get those two out of here. I'll meet you outside shortly." The Decepticon's systems noticeably sped up, earning a surprised glance from the Neutral.
The Slingrider wasted no time in getting the twins outside. He hesitated, staring at the revving mech staring at the final prisoner before he seemed to decide that it would be better to wait outside of the trailer.
Vertigo smiled again, optics narrowed into little slits. "You realize that there is nothing to stop me from breaking my half of the deal."
"Then I would have no reason to keep my end." Prowl's systems choked as the mech shifted toward him. "Don't you want to wait?" he asked, panic flashing through his processor.
"Why? Some reason you don't want to start now? Some treachery?"
He didn't dignify that with an answer. "At least give me my motor control back so I can respond."
Static roared in his audio receptors as the Decepticon laughed.
A red pincer hooked under his crumpled bumper. "I'm certain we can work something out."
The screams of mechs dying outside counterpointed the one building in Prowl's vocalizer.
Metal shrieked unpleasantly as the Decepticon dragged Prowl out of the cage.
Author's End Note: It might not be terribly clear, but the reason the Cons killed the bounty hunter team is because the Neutrals knew the whereabouts of the Autobot Second-in-Command. That is information too precious to leave in the hands of those with allegiance to no one but themselves and no scruples against selling the information to the Autobots.