Sabotage: Alternates

Prowl tilts his helm in agreement as he adjusts his grip on the sparkling. "We come bearing gifts." he announces dryly.

Optimus may have his mask up, but there's no concealing his rage. "From Shockwave's lair?"

"Yep. Don't make me confirm what that means."

Prime forces his voice to stay calm. "Take them to the med bay. Ratchet, are we prepared to handle them?"

"Not really, but give me and Gunner some time and we'll fix that." Ratchet says. "In the meantime, I can repair whatever injuries they've sustained just fine."

"The physical ones, at any rate." Mirage says quietly.

Optimus nods. "I'll look into that. Pretty sure Omega Supreme might know someone in our area that can work with them."

Prowl arches an optic ridge. "Omega? Seriously?"

"I can play nice when the occasion calls for it."

"I'm not worried about that. Call me if he starts being a little bitch."

Optimus cracks up laughing while Not-Prowl and Not-Jazz exchange confused looks. "Shut up and get the sparklings taken care of please."

Jazz slides a glance at Prowl. "Ah didn' know ya'll knew Omega," he comments quietly. "Ah've only ever had dealin's with him through Magnus."

Prowl nods as they follow Ratchet to the medbay. "That's why I told Optimus to let me know if Omega got uppity. Omega and Magnus were tight."

Understanding flashes across Jazz's face. "Gotcha." The sparkling in his arms chirps at him, and he glances down. "We're talkin' about grownup stuff, shortstack. Ya'd just be bored." he taps a finger to the sparkling's nose, earning himself an affronted squeak. "My bad." he says with a laugh. "Ah won't do it again."

The sparkling settles back down, her head resting against his chest plate. "Ah don' know how Ratch is gonna get these kids to let go." he says. "Ah'm pretty sure Ah can just let go and she'd still be hangin' on."

Prowl arches an optic ridge. "I think we might be detained for a while." he admits, looking down at the sparkling tucked up under his wing. She's sound asleep now, but that won't last long if he tries to dislodge her. "I wonder if our counterparts could stand in for us?"

Jazz snorts. "They're sparklin's, not stupid."

Prowl chuckles. "Point, point."

The group of them enter the medbay. Ratchet takes a look at the sparklings. He sighs. "Oh boy."

Jazz settles on one of the berths and watches Ratchet putter around the room, gathering tools and scanners. The doors slide open and Wheeljack walks in, headfins flashing a concerned green. "I'd heard there were sparklings," he said, looking at the ops mechs. "I was hoping the rumors were wrong."

"Nope," Jazz says, shifting the sparkling as he settled further back onto the berth so he could lean against the wall. "We found them in Shockwave's lair. We're not sure how old they are or how long they've been there - they can't talk yet."

Wheeljack's gaze flicked to Ratchet's, concern written all over his face and Ratchet nodded at what he saw there. "Primus." he said softly. "Have they let go of you at all?"

That makes Jazz laugh a little. "Not even a little. Ah'm pretty sure we could let go of 'em an' still use our weapons."

Ratchet moved over to Prowl, and held up his handheld scanner. "I'm going to try to get a read on them, and see how how old they are. Hold still for me, okay?"

"No problem, Ratch." Prowl said, trying his best to not interfere with the readings.

Prowl stays silent until Ratchet is done scanning all the sparklings.  "So what's the verdict?"

"They're definitely old enough to be talking." Ratchet says tightly.  "They're only in their first frame. They should be in their third."

Jazz tightens his grip on the sparkling. "And?"

"And I'm picking up signs of severe trauma. I don't know what Shockwave did to them, but it hurt them bad.". Ratchet sighs.  "Do you guys mind sticking around? I need to start repairs, and I'd rather not traumatize them further."

((GUESS WHO'S BACK BITCHES!))

"Ya said they're supposed ta be in their third frame, right?" Jazz asks softly. "I bet actually putting them in the proper frame would be a spectacularly bad idea?"

Ratchet sighs heavily. "It's not something I want to do right away - I don't know what kind of trauma they've endured, and I don't want to add to it. I'll need Bluestreak to translate for me when I do start that process, because it'll be a lot of changes happening all at once."

"We c'n call 'im down here if ya think it'll help." Jazz offers.

"Not right now." Ratchet says, setting his scanner down. The sparkling in Jazz's arms reaches out to grab it, then seems to think better of it and curl back into his arms.

The sight breaks Jazz's spark a little, and he reaches over and grabs the scanner and hands it to her. "'S okay, ya c'n play wit it - if ya press this button here, it'll scan me or Ratchet." he pushes the button to demonstrate, and lets go of it, letting her fiddle with it. She turns the scanner onto Prowl, and points it at his doorwings, clicking and chirping as the scanner beeps.

"She likes yer doorwings, Prowler." Jazz comments, looking over at his partner. "She's got taste."

Prowl snorts, even as the sparkling in his arms chirps at the one Jazz is holding. "You would say that."

(It's lowkey shitty, but it's up!)

Ratchet watches as the other sparklings slowly start to gravitate towards Prowl and Jazz. Four mechs, three femmes. All of them clicking and chirping at each other, all of them technically old enough to be speaking like adults. His fists clench for just a moment.

Seriously. Screw Shockwave.

One of the sparklings pops up over Prowl's shoulder, looking down at his siblings and chirping happily at them. Jazz laughs at the sight.

"Do you guys mind staying here for the night?" Ratchet asks suddenly. "They seem calm and happy right now, and I'd like to keep it that way for a while longer."

Jazz shoots Ratchet a wry smile. "Ah appreciate that ya felt ya had ta ask, but we weren't plannin' on goin' anywhere. We're needed here, that much is obvious."

Ratchet snorts as he turns to his tray of tools, picking up a soft cloth. "I'm going to attempt to clean them off, and get a better idea of what we're dealing with. They might get fussy."

Prowl nodded, and pinged Bluestreak. "Can you come to medbay? Ratchet is going to clean the sparklings off, and it'd help if you were there to tell them that he's not going to hurt them."

"I'll be right there. Sunny and Sides are probably going to be with me, they're worried." Bluestreak replied almost instantly. "I was wondering if Ratchet was going to work on them tonight."

"He won't do anything other than clean them tonight, I don't think," Prowl said, looking down at the sparkling in his lap. "We're trying to keep the trauma to a minimum, so we're doing a little bit at a time."